Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/847

 SICILY

775

SICILY

when the Sicilians were weary of the Byzantine mis- government. About 820 the patricus Elpidius, gov- ernor of Sicily, rebelled against the Empress Irene; but he was defeated before the arrival of the Arabs whose aid he had asked, and who in S20 captured Palermo, whence they were afterwards expelled by pirates. In 827, again, the general, Euphemius, in- vited Ziadeth Allah, Prince of Kairowan, to come; the latter captured Girgenti the same year and then pro- ceeded to make a conquest on his own account. The Byzantines made a gallant effort to repel an enemy so much superior to themselves. Messina was taken in 831, Palermo in 832, Syracuse was reduced by famine only in 878, Taormina fell in 902, and it was not uniil 941, after a struggle of one hundred and fourteen years, that the Arabs completed the conquest of the island.

The Arab domination was a benefit to Sicily from the point of view of material piosperity. To a cer- tain extent liberty was enjoyed by the Christian pop- ulation. Only those found in arms were reduced to slavery. This tolerance was, moreover, indeed, good policy on the part of the new masters, who, after the conquest, became independent of the great caliph. Agriculture flourished, new plants were introduced from Africa — the quince and the sugar-cane. Archi- tecture was encouraged by the munificence of the princes (Palermo for instance had three hundred mosques) ; Arabic and Greek poets sang the beauties and the happiness of the island; not a few Arab writers were born there. The Aglabiti, and the fam- ily of Ziadeth were succeeded, in 909, as rulers by the Fatimidi, who were in their turn replaced, in 948, by the Kebbidi. The island was divided into three de- partments {valli): Val Demone in the north-east; Val Mazzara in the north-west; Val di Noto in the south; a division that was maintained later by the Normans. In a census taken at this time there were in the island 1,590,665 Mussulmans, 1,217,033 Chris- tians, making a total of 2,807,698 inhabitants. The Byzantines were naturally desirous of reconquering the island, but the emperors of the West coveted it. Otho II had been negotiating with Venice about seiz- ing it; Henry II, in the Treaty of Bamberg (1020), I)rmised it to the popes. But it was the Normans who obtained it. Discord broke out in the Kebbidi family, and anarchy resulted: every alcalde and petty captain aspired to independence. Encouraged by these conditions, the Emperor Michael IV sent the catapan Leo Opus (1037) with a fleet, which, after varying fortunes, was forced to retire.

In the following year he sent George Maniakis with an army which contained some Normans who had chanced to be at Calabria. Mensiiia and Syracuse were taken, and the Arabs badly d(>feated near Tro- ina. But Maniakis offended the Normans; they re- turned to the peninsula, and then began their con- quests there. The victories of Maniakis continued until 1040, but their fruits were lost when he was re- called. Meanwhile the Normans had formed a state on the peninsula. Roger, brother of Robert Guis- card, crossed the Strait in 1060. In the following year, Becumen, a Saracen noble, asked him for assist- ance. With this aid, the whole Val Demone was con- quered within the year. If progress was not more rapid, it was because Roger had been recalled to Italy. We may mention the siege of Troina (1062), the battle of Cerami (1063), of Misilmeri (1068), the capture of Palermo (1072), which had been attempted previously by the Pisans (1063), the defeat of the Saracens at Mazzara, the capture of Syracuse (1086), Girgenti (1087), and Noto (1091). In thirty years the Normans had conquered the whole island. To en- sure their conquest they had to grant religious liberty to the Mohammedans, whose emigration in a body would have been a great blow to the country. Sicily became subject to Roger, who assumed the title of

"Great Count"; Robert Guiscard, who had aided him in the conquest, reserved certain rights to himself. Palermo continued to be tlie capital. The pros- perity that followed the coming of the Arabs con- tinued under the Normans, and later under the Swa- bians. Roger was succeeded by his son, Roger II, who in 1127 on the death of William II, became master of all the Norman territory and obtained from the a,ntipope Anacletus II (1130) the title of King of Sicily, which title was confirmed by Innocent II.

The government of the island was almost always different from that of the other parts of the kingdom. As Robert Guiscard had recognized the suzerainty of the Holy See over Calabria and Aquileia, paying an annual tribute, so Roger II recognized it over Sicily and paid an annual tribute of 600 schifali. Costanza and Innocent III fixed the tribute for the whole king- dom at 1000 aurei. The official title was "the King- dom of the Two Sicihes", thus marking the distinc- tion between Sicily on the hither side and Sicily be- yond the Faro (the Straits of Messina). The custom of calling the south of Italy Sicily went back to the time of the Byzantine governors, who, while the is- land was under Arab domination continued to be called governors of Sicily. The Normans therefore considered that there were two Sicilies, one held by the Byzantines, and one held by the Arabs. For the Holy See the high sovereignty over that kingdom was necessarily a source of constant trouble and war. (For the history of the kingdom down to the Sicilian Vespers, see Naple.s). The admission of the burgh- ers to the Sicilian Parliament by Frederick II, in 1241, deserves mention here.

Immediately after the first conquest of the island the Normans re-established the dioceses, and in all of them the Latin-Gallican Rite was adopted. The Nor- man kings, moreover, considered ecclesiastical affairs as part of the business of the State, and this caused incessant difficulties with the Holy See, which was forced to make many concessions. Thus, Urban II granted to Roger I the right of putting into execu- tion the orders of the pontifical legates. On the other hand, we must consider as apocryphal the document known as the "Monarchia Sicula", containing all the ecclesiastical rights and privileges presumed and ex- ercised by the King of Sicily, among which, in par- ti(ular, is the legalio sicula, making the king the le- galus natus of the pope in that kingdom, whence it followed that the pope could not have any other le- gates in Sicily. The privilege granted by Urban II (1098) to Roger, confirmed and int(>rpn'ted l)y Pas- chal II (1117), declares that Roger and liis Ihmi-s held the vicem legati (the position of acting in place of a legate), in the sense that what the pope would have done or ordered through a legate (quoe peY lecjatum acturi sumus) was to be carried into effect {exhibcri volumus) by the king's diligence (per vesirnm indus- triam). The pope certainly contemplated the possi- bility of sending legates into Sicily. This was the in- terpretation put by Paschal II on the privilege. The kings, especially the Aragonese, claimed for them- selves full ecclesiastical authority in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, excluding the right of the Holy See to intervene. On the other hand, it is an error to deny the authenticity of the privilege itself as granted by Urban II and Paschal II (Baronius, Orsi, and others). Philip II (1578) sought to have the "Mo- narchia Sicula" confirmed, but did not succeed, not- withstanding which, in 1579, he established the office of the "judex monarchia? siculse", who in the king's name, exercised all the rights derived from the priv- ilege of the Legation, and prohibited appeals to Rome from the decisions of that tribunal.

The disputes with the Holy See became exceedingly grave when Sicily was given to Amadeus of Savoy (1713) . The judex monarchice claimed the right of ab- solving from censures reserved to the pope. Clem-