Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/520

 HONORIUS

460

HONORIUS

tenth of their revenues for the space of four years. The money thus collected was to be used for waging war against Pedro III with the purpose of conquering Aragoii for Charles of Valois. Honorius IV approved this action of his predecessor. When Edward I of England requested him to use his influence to put an end to the war, he answered that Pedro III deserved to be punished and that Philip III should not l.)e kept from reaping the fruits of a war which he had under- taken in the service and at the instance of the Church. The death of Pedro III on 11 November, 1285, some- what changed the Sicilian situation. His two sons Alfonso and James succeedetl him, the former as King of Aragon, the latter as King of Sicily. Honor- ius IV, of course, acknowletlged neither the one nor the other. On 11 April, 1286, he solemnly excom- municated King James of Sicily and the bishops who had taken part in his coronation at Palermo on 2 February, 1286; but neither the king nor the bishops concerned themselves about the excommunication. The king even sent a hostile fleet to the Roman coast and destroyed the city of Astura by fire. Charles of Salerno, the lawful King of Sicily, who was still held captive by the Sicilians, finally grew tired of his long captivity and signed a contract on 27 February, 1287, in which he renounced his claims to the Kingdom of Sicily in favour of James of Aragon and his heirs. Honorius IV, however, who was asked for his approval, refused to listen to such an unprincipled act, which surrentlered the rights of the Church and of the House of Anjou to refractory rebels. He declared the con- tract invalid and forbade all similar agreements for the future. While Honorius IV was inexorable in the stand he had taken towards Sicily and its self- imposed king, his relations towards .\lfonso of Aragon became less hostile. Through the efforts of King Edward I of England, negotiations for peace were be- gun by Honorius IV and King Alfonso. The pope, however, did not live long enough to complete these negotiations, which finally resulted in a peaceful settle- ment of the Aragonese as well as the Sicilian question.

Rome and the States of the Church enjoyetl a period of tranquillity during the pontificate of Honor- ius IV, the like of which they had not enjoyed for many years. He had the satisfaction of reducing the most powerful and obstinate enemv of papal authority, Count Guido of Montefeltro, who for many years had successfully resisted the papal troops. The authority of the pope was now recognized throughout the papal territory, which then comprised the Exarchate of Ravenna, the March of Ancona, the Duchy of Spoleto, the County of Bertinoro, the Mathildian lands, and the Pentapolis, viz. the cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigaglia, and Ancona. The Romans were greatly elated at the election of Honorius IV, for he was a citizen of Rome and a brother of Pandulf, who had during the preceding summer been elected one of the two annual senators of Rome. The continuous dis- turbances in Rome during the pontificate of Martin V had not allowed that pope to reside in Rome, but now the Romans cordially invited Honorius IV to make Rome his permanent residence. During the first few months of his pontificate he lived in the Vati- can, but in the autumn of 1285 he removed to the magnificent palace which he had just erected on the Aventine. With Northern Italy Honorius IV had few dealings beyond those that were of a purely ecclesias- tical character. On 16 March, 12S6, he removed the interdict which had lieen imprudently placed upon Venice by Martin IV because that city had refused to equip a fleet for the service of Charles of Anjou in his war against Pedro III of Aragon. At Florence and Bergamo he brought about the abolition of some newly-made laws that were hostile to the Church and the clergy.

The relations between Honorius TV and the German King Rudolf of Hapsburg were most cordial. The

negotiations for Rudolf's imperial coronation which had been begun during the pontificate of Adrian V (1276) and continued during that of Nicholas III (1277-1280) were entirely su.spended during the pon- tificate of Martin IV (1281-1285) who had little love for the Germans. Immediately upon the accession of Honorius IV these negotiations were resumed and the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, 2 February, 1287, was determined as the day on which Rudolf should be crowned emperor in the Basilica of St. Peter at Rome. The pope requested the German prelates to contribute a share of their revenues to cover the expenses of his journey to Rome. He even sent Cardinal John of Tusculum, the only one who received the purple during the pontificate of Honorius, as legate to Germany, Sweden, Russia, and the other countries of the north to hasten the king's Italian ex- pedition, but Rudolf's war with Count Eberhard of Wiirtemberg and other dissensions in Germany pre- vented his departure. The same legate presided at the national council of Wiirzbvug, which began its sessions on 16 JIarch, 1287. The decrees which were passed at this council are practically the same as those of the general council of Lyons in 1274.

The two great mendicant orders which at that time exerted great influence, both as pastors of the faithful and as professors at the great seats of learning in Europe, received many new pri\ileges from Honorius IV. He al.so approved the privileges of the Car- melites and the .4ugustinian hermits and permitted the former to exchange their striped habit for a white one. He was especially devoted to the Williamites, an order founded by St. William, Duke of Aqui- taine (d. 1156), and added numerous privileges to those which they had already received from Alexan- der IV and Urban IV. Besides turning over to them some deserted Benedictine monasteries, he presented them with the monastery of St. Paul at Albano, which he himself had founded and richly endowed when he was still cardinal. On 11 March, 1286, he condemned the sect of the Apostolics (see Apostolici) or false apostles, which had been started by a certain Gerard SegareUi at Parma in 1260. At the University of Paris he advocated the erection of chairs for the Oriental languages in order to give an opportunity of studying these languages to those who intended to labour for the conversion of the Mussulmans and the reunion of the schismatic churches in the East.

Prou, Le» RrgistTes d' Honorius IV, recueil des bulles de ce pape. puhlii'es ou analj/si'es d'apris le niavuscrit original dea arrhivea du Vafiran (Paris, 18S7-S9); Pawi.icki, Papst Honorius IV., eine Afono(rraphie (\l\inster, 1896); Redlich, Recjesia Im- perii. Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Rudolph, Adolph, At' brechl, Heinrich VII. 1273-1313 (Innsbruck, 1898).

Michael Ott.

Honorius, Flavius, Roman Emperor, d. 26 August, 423. When his father, the Emperor Theodosius, divided up the government of the empire in the year 395, the western half was allotted to Honorius, while the eastern w-ent to his brother Arcadius. The boundary line was drawn in such a manner that the provinces of Dalmatia, Pannonia, and Nori- cum still belonged to Western Rome. The eleven- year-old Honorius was under the guardianship of the able Vandal general Stilicho whom Theodosius had placed in command of the troops stationed in northern Italy. When the Arian Visigoths revolted under their young King .\laric, of the family of Balthi (i. e. the Bold^ and invaded the W'estern Roman Em- pire, Stilicho first marched against them in northern Greece but was obliged to withdraw his troops from the territory of the Eastern Roman Empire by order of .Arcadius. Not until the Goths overran the Pelo- ponnesus was his help accepted. He surrounded Alaric's hordes with his legions but, when the Byzan- tine rulers sought to come to an understanding with Alaric, he suffered the Goths to retreat into lUyria.