Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/305

 STATES

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STATES

held the temporal power in the city, and who as pope for the most part thought only of the interests of his family. These urged him to gain the good will of Henry's successor, Conrad II, whom he crowned em- peror at Rome in 1027. The papal dignity sank to a still lower level under the nephew of John XIX, Benedict IX, whose elevation to the papal throne at the age of twenty was secured by his family through simony and violence. When the Romans set up an anti-pope, Sylvester III, in opposition, Benedict wavered for a time in doubt whether he ought not to resign; finally he relinquished the pontificate to his godfather John Gratian for 1000 pounds of silver. The purchaser had had recourse to this measure only to put an end to the abominable practices of the Tusculan. He called himself Gregory VI, and stood in friendly relations with the Cluniac monks. But as John again asserted his claims, and all three popes had evidently secured the dignity only through simony, the party of reform saw no other remedy than to induce the German king, Henry III, to intervene. Henrv- III, through the sjTiods of Sutri and Rome, had iill three popes deposed. Gregory VI in the (■a]i:icity of secretary went into exile to Ciermany with lliUlebrand (later Pope Oregon,- VII). Then, mark- ing the zenith of the German imperial ])Ower at Rome, there followed a number of German popes: Clement II, who crowned Henrj' III emperor in 1046, confer- ring on him also the rank of Patrician, and with it the right of nomination at papal elections; Daraasus II; Saint Leo IX of Alsace, with whom the drift toward ecclesiastical reform finally reached the papal chair; and Victor II.

The reaction soon set in. Under the Burgundian Nicholas II the effort to free the papacy from the commanfling influence of the empire becomes clearly noticeable. At the Easter Sjmod of 1059 the papal election was placed under new regulations, being re- posed essentially in the hands of the cardinals. The German king wm no longer to have the right of desig- nation, bvit at most only that of confirmation. As the German Court was unwilling to yield t he right of desig- nation without a struggle, which, according to its concept, was conferred together with the hereditary rank of Patrician, the first conflicts between empire and papacy began. In opposition to Alexander II, who was elected to succeed Nicholas II, the German Government set up Bishop Cadalus of Parma (Hon- orius II). Soon afterward, under Henrj' IV and Gregory VII, the conflicts broadened out into the con- flict concerning investiture. In this contest the papacy had pressing need of a tempoial power to support it against the German Empire. This sup- port w.as destinefl to be furnished by the Normans, whose state, founded in Lower Italy, became of ever- increasing importance to the papacy.

The relations between the Holy See and the Nor- mans were not always friendly. When these at tlu; time of I^eo IX advanced into the Lombard Duchy of Benevento, the Beneventans sought to defend themselves against them by expelling the reigning prince and electing the pope in 10.51 as their sovereign. Thus was Benevento added to the States of the Church. .Xctually, of course, the popes had posses- sion only of the city of Benever*o with the district immediately under its jurisdiction, and that only since 1077. Through Benevento I>eo IX became in- volved in a quarrel with the Normans and took the field against them, but was defeated and made captive near Civitate in 10.53. The victors, however, did not fail to recognize and to respect in the captive the suc- cessor of Peter, and subsequently, as thi' result of negotiations with Nicholas II, the treaty <if Melfi was made in 10.59, in which the Normans acknowledged them.selves vassals of the Holy See for the conquered territories — Benevento was excepted — and engaged to pay a yearly tribute. They now also took upon

themselves the protection of the papacy and the States of the Church, as well as of the canonical elec- tion of the pope. A Norman army under Robert Guiscard rescued Gregorj^ \'II in the greatest dis- tress, when Henry IV had come to Rome with his anti-pope Clement III, received the imperial crown from the latter, and imprisoned Gregory VII in the Castle of S. Angelo. Before the powerful Norman army Henr>- had to withdraw from Rome in 1084.

A valuable ally of the papacy in its conflict with the empire was the great Countess Matilda of Tuscany, at whose Castle of Canossa King Henry IV appeared in January, 1077, to beg Gregory VII for absolution from the ban of the Church. Matilda had by will bequeathed her freehold estates to the pope, but had also in 1111 made promises to Emperor Henry V, but probably only in such a way that the Roman Church would remain chief owner. The succession to the lands bequeathed by Matilda furnished after her death (1115) a new cause, first for strained relations, then for a quarrel between emperor and pope. This was partly due to the fact that the lands, because of their location, had a high strategic value. Whoever possessed them commanded the passage of the Apen- nines from the plains of the Po into Tuscany. Henry V at once took possession of the lands, and subsequent kings and emperors to Frederick II also occupied or bestowed them in spite of the repeated protests of the Curia. Amid all this we often see pope and emperor working in harmonj-. The anti-pope Anacletus II with his protector. King Roger II of Sicily, was at- tacked by Emperor Lothair, who took up the cause of Innocent II. Frederick I had Arnold of Brescia, who had openly preached against the temporal power of the popes, executed as a heretic and rebel (1155).

The various matters of dispute, which had led under Frederick I to the eighteen years' conflict with Alex- ander III and had been then settled in the Treaty of Venice, were again revived when Henry VI, as hus- band of the Norman heiress Constance, at the death of the childless King William II in 11S9, laid claim to the Norman Kingdom, which embraced Sicily and Lower Italy. The pope as lord paramount wished to have the imrestricted disposal of the Norman king- dom, and first bestowed it on the illegitimate Tancred of Lecce. But Henr\- disregarded this action, and conquered the kingdom after Tancred's death in 1194. He desired to transform Italy and Germany into an hereditary monarchy. He also made old parts of the States of the Church .subject to him, when in 1195 he placed the Margravate of Ancona, the Duchy of Raveima, and the ancient exarchate (the Romagna) under the lord high steward of the realm, Markwald of Anweiler, as his viceroy. But with his death in 1197 all the plans for world dominion collapsed. In Italy a national movement was .started, which the youthful and energetic Innocent III utilized to re- establish and extend the States of the Church. First of all he enforced the papal authority at Rome it.self by exacting an oath of allegiance from tlie senators as well as from the prefect, iireviously appointed by the emperor. After this nearly all the towns and villages of the territory bequeathed by Matilda, in the M.arch of Ancona, and in the Duchy of Spoleto, also Assi.si and Perugia, submitted to him. Innocent thus be- came the restorer of the States of the Church. After the precedent set by Otto IV (Neuss, S June, 1201), the .son of Henry VI, Frederick II, who harl been pro- tected by Innocent III, confirmed .anew the States of the Church in their constituent parts by a golden bull executed in the name of the emi)ire at Kgeron 12 July, 121.3: these parts were the old Patrimony from Ceper- ano to Hadicof.ani, the March of .Vncona, the Duchv of Spoleto, the territories of Matilda, the County of Bertinoro (south of Raverinal, the (■\ar<lKile. and the Pentapolis. .Ml these new ac<|iiisitions ami (he.States of the Church in their entirety were again placed in