Part 11 (1/2)
Leopold Duke of Austria, Alphonso X. king of Leon, and annulled the decision of the French bishops, who had approved the repudiation of Ingelburg II. the wife of Philip Augustus. It is to be remarked that these anathemas although still formidable, had lost a large portion of their unfortunate efficacy. Philip took a third wife, without any new opposition on the part of Celestine. This pope, for some marcs of silver, acknowledged, as king of Sicily, Frederick II. a child of three years, son of the emperor Henry VI. In 1197, Henry died, and Germany was divided between Philip of Swabia, and Otho of Saxony; the simultaneous election of these two emperors became one of the causes of the aggrandizement of the pontifical power. Divisions in Germany, rivalry between France and England, new governments in almost all the states of Italy, expeditions into Palestine, hostilities of the crusaders against the emperors of the East, the propagation of the false decretals in the West: all concurred to promise the most splendid success to the pontiff, who, uniting boldness to skill, should reign sufficiently long to conduct a great enterprise: and this pontiff was Innocent III.
Velly's Hist, of France, vol. 3, p. 327.
4 Frasche.
5 Ann. eccles. ann. 1191.
6 Ann. d'ltal. ann. 1191.
CHAPTER VI. POWER OF THE POPES OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
INNOCENT III. in one and the same year, bestowed in the plenitude of his power three royal crowns; to Ioanice, that of Walachia7 ; to Premislaus, that of Bohemia8 ; to Peter II., that of Arragon. Peter received his at Rome, and did the pope homage for his states, which became tributary to the Holy See.? But Innocent, the dispenser of kingdoms, and who even gave away that of Armenia, distinguished himself still more frequently by his anathemas. Venice, France, England, the emperor, all the great potentates of Europe, have experienced the force of his spiritual arms.
7 Fleury's Eccles. Hist. 1. 76, n. 14,1. 76, n. 6.
8 Ibid. 1. 76, n 9.
? Ibid. 1. 76, n, 10.
The Venetians, already powerful by their commerce, had a.s.sumed the cross but for the purpose of extending it; they gained lands and riches in meriting indulgences. Alone capable of equipping great fleets, they exacted eighty-five thousand crowns of gold for transporting the Christian army into Palestine; and, with the a.s.sistance of the legions they conveyed, conquered important places in Dalmatia. Innocent, in order to put a stop to their progress, thought of excluding them from the bosom of the Church. But one of the effects of commercial prosperity is, to weaken in people's minds the dread of ecclesiastical censures: the Venetians made themselves masters of the city and territory of Zara: they continued to fortify and aggrandize themselves; the anathema launched against their republic, had no important effect: the pontiff abstained from renewing it.
He treated Philip Augustus more rigorously. This monarch of France received from Innocent an express order to take back the divorced Ingelburg, and send away Agnes or Maria de Meronie, whom he had married after this divorce. The king at first a.s.sumed an att.i.tude sufficiently bold; but the kingdom was under interdict; the divine offices, the sacraments, marriages, had ceased; the permitting the beard to grow enjoined; the use of flesh forbidden; mutual salutation prohibited. It was in vain that Philip humbled himself, he was obliged to ask of the pope a new enquiry into the affair; it even became necessary to prevent the result of this examination, by declaring that he was about to recall Ingelburg. She was indeed allowed the t.i.tles of wife and queen, but it was in the confinement of a castle. Emboldened by this success, Innocent did not hesitate to erect himself into a supreme arbiter between the kings of France and England, then armed one against the other. He commanded them to a.s.semble their bishops, abbots, and n.o.bles of their states, to deliberate on a peace, and to think on the best means of restoring the churches and abbeys which had suffered during the war.
Philip replied that it did not belong to the pope to interfere in the disputes of kings, nor especially to convey to them such ordinances.
Some French lords added, that the order to make peace was but another reason for continuing the war. But Innocent replied, that an unjust war being a crime, and all crimes having for their judge the Holy Church, he fulfilled a pontifical office in disarming them both. On this principle says Fleury the pope is judge of all the wars between Sovereigns: that is, to speak in plain terms, he is the sole Sovereign in the world. However it may be, Philip, after having renewed his course of conquest, thought proper to consent to a truce, and not irritate too far a pontiff determined on the boldest undertakings. He thus deferred, but by no means avoided, the excommunication. An anathema against Philip was one of the last acts of Innocent III., and one of the results of a new war kindled by this pontiff himself, between the king of England and France, whom he had affected to reconcile.
Ego... nottim facio universil ad quos litterae presentes pervenerint, quod ego domino meo Ph. ill.u.s.tri regi Franco rum consului, ut neque pacem neque treugam faciat regi Anglis, per violentiam y el per coactionem domini papae aut alicujus paps. Quod si dominus papa eidam domino regi super hoc aliquam faceret violentiam aut coactionem, concessi domino regi tanquam domino meo ligio et creantavi super omnia qus ab eo teneo, quod ego super hoc ei essem in auxilium de toto posse meo. Acts drawn up in this form in the names of Renaud count of Boulogne, Raoul count of Soissons, and of Odo duke of Burgundy, are to be found in the Chamber of Charters, all under the date of 1202.
Eccles. Hist 76 m. 60; 1. 79, no. 8.
In fact, this very king of Great Britain whom Innocent had appeared, in 1204, to support against the French, became, a few years after, one of the victims of pontifical despotism. The pope having been desirous, in contempt of the canons and the laws, to dispose of the see of Canterbury in favour of cardinal Langton, John opposed himself to it only by fits of rage which exposed his weakness. Innocent, who knew how to use his power with more prudence, employed by degrees, three modes of repressing this intractableness: first, an interdict upon the kingdom; next, the personal excommunication of the monarch; finally, the deposition of a king who had been so fully convicted of obstinacy in his disobedience to the Holy See.
Bofisuet, Defens. eler. Gallie. 1. 3. c..21.
The English, already dissatisfied with their sovereign, were loosed from the oaths which they had taken to him, and the crown of England was decreed to Philip Augustus, who, imprudent enough to accept it, evinced his grat.i.tude, by releasing Ingelburg from the castle of Etampes, and re-calling her to the throne. But while Philip prepared to reap, with arms in his hands, the fruits of the pontiff's liberality, a legate named Pandolph, took advantage in England of the fright of the deposed king, and presented him the means of recovering his sceptre, by accepting it as a pure gift from the hands of the Church. On his knees before Pandolph, John placed his hands between those of this priest, and p.r.o.nounced in the presence of the bishops and lords of Ireland, the following words,
”I, John, by the Grace of G.o.d, king of ”England, and lord of Ireland, for the expiation ”of my sins, of my perfect accord, and by the ”advice of barons, give to the Roman Church, to ”Pope Innocent and his successors, the kingdom of ”England and the kingdom of Ireland, with all the ”rights attached to the one and the other: I hence- ”forward hold them of the Holy See of which I shall ”be the faithful va.s.sal, faithful to G.o.d, to the Church ”of Rome, to the sovereign pontiff, my lord, and to ”his successors lawfully elected. I pledge myself ”to pay every year, a tax of one thousand marks of ”silver; to wit, seven hundred for England, and ”three hundred for Ireland.”
Innoc. 3. Epist. 1. 15. ep. 77.-Rymer Act. pub. vol. 1, p. 67.
This discourse is scarcely ended, when the legate is presented with a part of the tribute promised to St. Peter: Pandolph casts the money on the ground, tramples it under his feet, nevertheless collects it again, satisfied with thus expressing the subjection of temporal treasures as well as temporal powers.4 The sceptre and the crown remain in his hands: he keeps them five days; and when, after he has obtained some additional securities, he finally restores them, he pretends forsooth, that they are received as a perfectly gratuitous favour. He now pa.s.ses immediately into France to announce what he has performed in England.- Philip learns from Pandolph, that John, the va.s.sal of the pope, occupies, under the protection of the Holy See, the throne of Great Britain, and that henceforth every enterprise against this kingdom will be punished by excommunication. Philip replied, that he took up arms at the solicitation of the pope alone, that the preparations for it had cost two millions, that a fleet, recently equipped, is in the road at Boulogne, that it waits the troops destined to land at Dover, and that the time for receding is departed. In the mean time, the rebellion of a va.s.sal compels the French monarch to carry the war into Flanders: to this va.s.sal the king of England, the emperor Otho IV. and almost all the princes of Europe join themselves. But the victory which the French obtain at Bouvines, dissipates the hopes of their enemies: Otho is no longer emperor, save in name; and John would have been already dethroned, if Rome had not obtained for him a truce of five years.
4 Velly's Hist, of France, vol. 3. pa. 472.
It was the English themselves who at this interval p.r.o.nounced, regardless of the menaces of Rome, the dethronement of their monarch; they offered his crown to Louis, son to Philip Augustus. New decrees of Innocent's prohibit both father and son from invading the State of a prince, a feudatory of the Holy See. The father affects to disapprove a conquest which Rome deems sacrilege, but furnishes, nevertheless, all the means for its execution: the son, in fine, embarks; and the sovereign pontiff, who clearly sees that the father and son understand each other, excommunicates them both. Louis was almost in possession of Great Britain, when the death of John gave a different direction to men's thoughts and their affairs.5
5 Velly's Hist, of France, vol. 3. pm 468, 475.
As sovereign of Rome, and as possessing in Italy a very galling preponderance, the Western Emperor was the most exposed to the attempts of Innocent III. To depress the empire, it behoved above all things to re-establish at Rome and in the ecclesiastical domains, the pontifical authority; the pope commenced, therefore, by turning to account the ascendancy which his birth, reputation, and talents, gave him over the Romans; he abolished the consulate, and arrogated to himself the imperial rights, invested a prefect, installed the public officers, and received the oaths of the senators. It was at this moment, says Muratori,6 that the imperial authority at Rome breathed its last sigh.
6 ”Spiro qua l'ultimo fiato l'autorita degli Augusti in Roms.”