Noah Anderson Rise of Papal Administration: Apostolic Authority

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Noah Anderson

Rise of Papal Administration: Apostolic Authority in the Context of

Crusading

Aquila – The FGCU Student Research Journal Volume 2 Issue 1 (2016)

DOI 10.24049/aq.2.1.4

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OPEN ACCESS Aquila - The FGCU Student Research Journal

5LVHRI3DSDO$GPLQLVWUDWLRQ$SRVWROLF$XWKRULW\LQWKH&RQWH[WRI&UXVDGLQJ Noah Anderson: History LQKHUHQWO\VXSHULRUWRWKDWRIVHFXODUSRZHU7KH¿UVW3RSH Scholars generally place the rise of the Papal Monarchy to act the part in the eleventh century was the indirect within the context of a battle between Church and State planner of the First Crusade, Pope Gregory VII, who, (i.e. Investiture Controversy), and within a modernized several times, gave apostolic blessings to the Normans mode of thinking that separates religious, political and conquering Sicily (Roger I of Sicily) and England (William social spheres in Christendom throughout the Middle the Conqueror), albeit to protect his position of power Ages. This paper aims to discuss the issues with this over his contemporary, King Henry IV.1 Watt summarizes common interpretation within the context of Crusading, this theoretically when he states, “The solution neatly and also attempts to examine the relationship between summarized the three postulates of Church-State relations: feudal society and the crusade. Mostly, it will focus on the superiority of the spiritual power, manifested in the how the crusade developed from a chaotic movement privilegium fori, was emphatically maintained with the to a centrally planned one as canon law integrated principle that the lay power should have no part in the with social and political norms. It is no coincidence punishment of clerical criminals… to preserve clerical that the more institutionalized and centralized the autonomy, the cooperation of the powers came into the papacy became, especially after the conclusion of the reckoning when a cleric was incorrigible.”2 In this respect, Investiture Controversy in the early 1100s, crusading, as Watts continues, once spiritual power concluded its too, institutionalized. For convenience, I’ve chosen the proceeds, it could, in theory, hand those deemed applicable simple approach of examining the papacy’s interpretation to the secular arm. In this way, interpreting tension between of power as stated in canon law and papal decretals. John church and state as a power struggle is misleading. Instead, A. Watt’s survey on the subject will be employed. Then, I the relationship was more dualistic with spiritual power will begin with the rise of the reform papacy under Leo IX being superior to the secular arm. This interpretation and Gregory VII, focusing entirely on the latter as he was lay at the forefront of Urban II’s call for Crusade. The the instigator of Leo’s idealistic vision of reform. Then I important thing to note is that apostolic power, coming will discuss how Urban attempted to reconcile the militant directly from Christ, was superior to secular power. QDWXUHRIWKHNQLJKWO\DULVWRFUDF\ZLWK&KULVWLDQSDFL¿VW 3RSH*UHJRU\9,,ZDVWKH¿UVWSRSHWRSXWWKLVWKHRU\ aims. Then, once again, I will continue to focus on the into action when he appointed Papal Legates to travel papacy by following the changing vision of the crusading WKURXJKRXW &KULVWHQGRP GHPDQGLQJ ¿GHOLW\ IURP DOO movement throughout the twelfth century, coming to a secular lords. They resisted, however, as the reform culmination with Innocent III’s reign as Vicar of Christ. movement progressed. The reform movement continued His papacy is one of great importance for the crusading on par with his vigorous attempts to gain political movement as it became an organized institution under control, which he saw as rightfully his, of Christendom. papal authority. Nonetheless, I will also attempt to address The ideal of Christendom thus expanded to all parts of a shift in crusade policy as belief in a crusade to rival the Europe whether they were new converts, like in the case success of the First Crusade slowly waned in Christendom of the Scandinavian countries, or old Christian centers toward the end of Christian occupation in the Holy like Spain, at this point in a constant military battle with Land, namely exploring Gregory IX crusade planning. the Muslims of Al Andalus. The main advancement During the eleventh century, the church was seen made during Gregory’s papacy was the formation and as a corrupt organization in respect to their inherent consolidation of the College of Cardinals, which as it moralizing nature. In turn, a reform movement, eventually still stands today, elects the Pope. By expanding clerical named the Gregorian Reform by historians, took hold of bureaucracy, the Reform movement, in their continued the clergy, protesting against simony, a lack of celibacy battle with what they saw as the sinful enterprise of and other issues concerning the power of the Pope. A VLPRQ\DQGOHFKHU\KDGDQLURQJULSRQSDSDORI¿FHVDQG debate between secular rulers and the Pope erupted over in turn, propagated a policy of moralization to all parts of these issues, especially over simony and lay investiture. Christendom. Then, after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Many historians have examined this debate in the vein and the following call from the Byzantine Empire for of calling it a power struggle between Church and State, assistance, Gregory decided to make a general call to assist seeing it in modern terms; the investiture controversy the Eastern Church led by the Pope himself. According to being ‘fought’ by Gregory VII and Henry IV of the Holy Bisson, this was an active attempt at proving the political Roman Empire. The problem with this interpretation is authority of the Papacy. Bisson refers to Gregory’s that many historians believe it was not religious, seeing claim of leading the crusade and the continual width it only in a similar way as Enlightenment thinkers. But, 1 Thomas N. Bisson, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century: Power, as John A. Watt’s demonstrated, apostolic authority, in the Lordship, and the Origins of European Government (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2009), 206. eyes of early canonists such as Gratian (the compiler of 2 John A. Watt, The Theory of Papal Monarchy in the Thirteenth the Decretum), saw spiritual power, that is the Pope’s, as Century: The Contribution of Canonists (New York: Fordham University Press, 1965), see Chapters 1, 30-33.

29 Anderson DOI 10.24049/aq.2.1.4

of this policy as, “Procedures of synod and consistory by the time it reached Antioch.7 Although feudal tensions FRQWLQXHG WR SURMHFW WKH SRSH LQ H[DOWHG RU VDQFWL¿HG proliferated, the First Crusade ultimately achieved what power often, as before, incompletely differentiated his it set out to do by taking Jerusalem. Hence, the First FODLPVWR¿GHOLWDULDQWHUUHVWULDOORUGVKLS´3 He also refers Crusade’s success underpinned these organizational issues. to Gregory’s “procedures” to show his spiritual and Urban II’s successors proved fruitful in continuing his temporal authority as quasi-feudal lordship. Many kings, policy as many saw the spiritual as well as the material however, from Robert of Guiscard and his descendants EHQH¿WV RI FUXVDGLQJ VSLFHV DQG JROG FRLQDJH ZHUH and Henry IV and even William the Conqueror showed more readily imported into coastal cities in the northern lack of respect for the pope’s temporal powers to comply. Mediterranean. A good example of the growing power Thus, there was a struggle between active power and real of the Church in line with the institutionalization of the power in line with the political mode of the day, but the Papacy can be found in the foundation of the Order of real concern here is that Gregory had set a precedent for the Temple. In 1118-1120, the Order of the Temple was his successors in which they could claim that apostolic founded by a group of layman under the direction of power was of greater importance than the Secular sphere. Hugh of Paynes. By the mid-1120s, the order, under the One of the issues concerning Pope Urban II, then, championship of Bernard of Clairvaux, was accepted FRQVLVWHG RI GH¿QLQJ DSRVWROLF SRZHU DV ZHOO DV WKH under the direction of the papacy. Thus, this new Order, generalized moralization of the church and Christendom as embraced the ideals of monasticism and the Holy War, a whole. Joseph Lynch, in his brief outline of the medieval effectively expanded the mission of the Papal Monarchy church, sees this in direct line with a growing sense of despite being a wholly autonomous cooperation (in respect Christendom, an ideal that touched on the very fabric of WRRWKHUFOHULFDORI¿FHVDQGVHFXODUORUGV DFWLQJLQWKHRU\ the Medieval mind. 4 Much as the modern man looks to for the Papacy to protect pilgrims travelling to the Holy humanity as an ideal to keep the peace, so too did many Sepulchre. According Karl Borchardt, the high degree of Christians in Europe5. Projecting this view, Pope Urban II centralized administration found within the Order of the appealed to the masses by holding the Council of Clermont 7HPSOH VSUHDG WR RWKHU PRQDVWLF RUGHUV DQG LQÀXHQFHG in November of 1095, where he pleaded for peace in all Papal Administration. 8 The Church recognized, to Christian lands among the milite classes to defend the VRPH GHJUHH LQ WKH EHQH¿FLDO QHWZRUN FRPPHUFLDO RU safety of Western, as well as Eastern, Christendom. In otherwise, established by the Temple, that exemption response, Urban hoped to create a lasting bond with the proved fruitful for spiritual institutions. The Templars Eastern Church to reconcile the Schism.6 He promised proved less ascetic as time went by, contributing to the Crusaders protection of property and the remission of all political and military failures of the feudal states in the existing confessed sins in line with typical pilgrims and Holy Land. However this may have caused the downfall individuals undergoing severe penance. In turn, soon-to- of the order, as Borchadt mentions, their methods of be crusaders, in fervent jubilee, sewed red crosses on their organization led to some of the administrative reforms garments. Crusaders saw this as spiritual effort to regain agreed upon at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. the lands lost over the past centuries, and as a potent This brings me to the interesting case of Pope Innocent weapon to defend the abstract concept of Christianity. The III. While his predecessors continued Urban II’s offer of response was one of fervent religious desire in the sake of remission of sins and property protection, they did very a Christian kingdom demarcated into smaller kingdoms. little to expand this policy except in the case of Quantum The movement proved to be unorganized and tensions Praedecessores, which bargained the remission of all sins among the feudal lords complicated matters. Mass forced in return for the service of Knights. Under Innocent III, conversions, (as Albert of Aachen and other leading however, as he expanded the operation of the papacy by clergyman saw it), of Jews occurred, rabbles of laymen sending more letters than any prior pope -- a total of over ÀRFNHGWRWKH+RO\/DQGRQO\WREHPXUGHUHGEHFDXVHRI 100 letters in his register -- having to do with either the overzealous pillaging and attacks on local Muslim towns, crusade or concerning his heirocratic power. In his Post DQG¿QDOO\XQGHUWKHGLUHFWLRQRIWKH)HXGDOORUGVGHEDWHV Miserabile and Multe Noblis Attulit, Innocent III outlined of plunder and land divided the crusaders into two factions his direct stewardship of the Crusade by demanding a supporting two self-proclaimed ‘Generals’ of the Crusade tenth tithe from every church in Christendom. On top of this, Innocent reverts remission of sins to all existing 3 Thomas N. Bisson, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century: Power, Lordship, and the Origins of European Government (New Jersey: penance under a similar vein as Urban II, but the most Princeton University Press, 2009), 93. drastic shift for the institutionalization process occurs ZKHQ KH PHQWLRQV WKDW DOO WKRVH XQDEOH WR ¿JKW FDQ 4 John H. Lynch, The Medieval Church: A Brief History (Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited, 1992), 158-164. claim remission of sin through the payment of coinage 5 Thomas N. Bisson, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century: Power, 7 Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades: A History (London, England: Lordship, and the Origins of European Government (New Jersey: Bloomsbury Group, 2014), 47-63. Princeton University Press, 2009), 14-16 8 Karl Borchadt, The Military-Religious Orders: A Medieval ‘School 6Fulcher of Chartres, The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres, Book I, for Administrators’?, in ‘The Military Orders, Volume 5: Politic and in ‘The First Crusade: The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Power’, eds. Petery Edburdy, Malcolm Barber, Helen J. Nicholson, Source Materials, eds. Edward Peters (Pennsylvania: University of Jonathan Phillips, Denys Pringle, and William Purkis (Vermont: Pennsylvania Press, 1998), 49-55. Ashgate Publishing Company, 2012), 11-15.

30 Aquila - The FGCU Student Research Journal

to support the Crusade9. Furthermore, under his Papacy, who aimed, for pious reasons, to take Egypt and then written letters concerning the practice of taking the Cross eventually take back the Holy Land. Being planned and became standardized; each potential Crusader would organized by the king himself, with the help of Pope undergo a ritual not unlike baptism and the Immixtio Innocent IV, having demanded the Crusade tax of one- Manuum and the swearing of an oath under the Scrip and WHQWK /RXLV ,; VSHQW D PLOOLRQ /LYUHV RQ KLV ¿UVW Staff not unlike an Oath of Fealty before the sewing of crusade to the East13. Although his Crusades failed, both the cross on their shoulder. In this way, the taker of the showed the standardization of the planning of crusades Cross, swore an oath directly to Christ through the deputy as kings and lords took hold of the movement, and how of Christ (in this case through the direction of the Church they made more secularized decisions without the consent and therefore through the wielder of apostolic authority), RI D VSLULWXDO DXWKRULW\ %XW RQFH )UHGHULFN ,,¶V FRQÀLFW and ultimately synthesized feudal and chivalric ideals with the Church ended upon his death, crusade planning with spiritual ideals and the papacy’s political aims10. and organization reverted back to the stewardship of the The papacy, clearly, began to use the Crusade as a tool Pope. This is best found in the papacy of Pope Gregory to not only moralize Christendom but also to promote its X, who used apostolic authority to unite Christendom in own active authority. This is seen directly when reading a last stitch effort to take back the Holy Land. During his VRXUFHV LQ UHODWLRQ WR WKH$OELJHQVLDQ &UXVDGH WKH ¿UVW SDSDF\ WKH FRQÀLFW EHWZHHQ &KXUFK DQG 6WDWH EHFDPH crusade to be fought in Western Christendom. For instance, arbitrary. Having placed paid contingents of soldiers in Bernard of Gui’s Manual For Inquisitors, an active to Garrison Acre, Louis IX started a trend of stationing participant in the Inquisition against the Cathars, laid out paid Crusaders for long periods of time, but under Pope WKHSURSHUSURFHGXUHVIRU¿QGLQJKHUHWLFV,QWKHVRXUFH Gregory X, the use of paid Crusaders standardized as he he emphasizes a Heretic will never come out and say he sent small contingents of them to the Holy land for short is one, therefore an Inquisitor must blend the meaning of periods of time in separate waves known as passagium belief in God and Christ with that of Apostolic authority particulare. Phillip B. Baldwin argues in his Pope Gregory in line with Canon Law.11 Moreover, Innocent III actively X and The Crusades that this use of sending small standardized Crusade preaching during this time, a topic contingents of paid crusaders to the Holy Land, in the discussed to great extent in the Fourth Lateran Council. wake of planning a passagium generale, became standard 12 The important point here is that historians see a shift in for his successors up to and for some time after the Fall crusading from an unorganized movement to one that is of Acre in 1291. Furthermore, his Crusade was heralded strictly organized under the direct authority of the Pope. as the most centralized and largest campaign to the East His precedent continued under his successors as in the Crusade’s long history, though never occurred SODQQLQJD&UXVDGHEHFDPHH[FHHGLQJO\PRUHGLI¿FXOWDV due to his untimely death14. He was able to mitigate the time and again the Crusade to the East failed to deliver GLIIHUHQFHVRI/D\UXOHUVWRFUHDWHDXQL¿HGIURQWZKRDOO positive results. Honorius III, his successor, for example, took the cross at his call. An able politician, he did this in found his power increasingly threatened by Emperor the wake of a declining belief that taking back Jerusalem Frederick II during and after the Fifth Crusade. Multiple was a very real goal, drifting further into the realm of times Honorius III excommunicated the de facto King of ideal. Nonetheless, due to the importance of the holy Jerusalem. And one of his successors, Gregory IX, went city, the Crusade continued to be planned by the papacy, as far as to declare a pseudo-crusade against Frederick. preached by the church and heralded by the aristocratic 7KLV EURXJKW WKH FRQÀLFW EHWZHHQ &KXUFK DQG 6WDWH families with long histories of Crusading. Under this very across the Mediterranean and to the doorstep of Rome, real belief, the power of the Papacy as mediator, according and would put more active power in the hands of the to Baldwin, centralized even further under Pope Gregory, secular lords of Christendom when on crusade, papal citing that the erstwhile Pope demanded one-twentieth legates took a secondary role in political decisions from crusade tax and ordered lay ruler’s to demand in taxation here on out. This is evident in the crusades of Louis IX, one silver penny each year in preparation for the Holy War. To conclude, the Papacy centralized and became more 9 Innocent III, Post Miserabile and Multe Noblis Attulit, in ‘Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent powerful from the Eleventh Century onward. This is seen III to the Fall of Acre, 1187 - 1291’, eds, Jessalynn Bird, Edward Peters in contingent with the Crusades and demonstrates that the and James M. Powell (Pennsylvania: University of Penssylvania, 2013), 28-42. FRQÀLFWEHWZHHQ&KXUFKDQG6WDWHLVPLVOHDGLQJDVPDQ\ 10 The Rites for Recieving the Sign of the Holy Cross for Those rulers, (Frederick II aside), found the ideal to protect Setting Out For Jerusalem, in ‘Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187 Christendom a very rewarding enterprise. The direct - 1291’, eds, Jessalynn Bird, Edward Peters and James M. Powell control of the Papacy, then, further institutionalized the (Pennsylvania: University of Penssylvania, 2013), 43-49. 11 Bernard of Gui, Manual For Inquisitors, in ‘The Crusades: A PRYHPHQW DV VSLULWXDO DQG WHPSRUDO EHQH¿WV LQFUHDVHG Reader’, eds. S. J. Allen and Emilie Amt (Toronto, Ontario: University especially under the papacy of Innocent III, which no of Toronto Press, 2014), 234-239 12 The Fourth Lateran Council, Canon 71, Ad Liberandam , in 13 Louis IX, Financial Accounts, in ‘The Crusades: A Reader’, eds. S.J. ‘Crusade and Christendom: Annotated Documents in Translation Allen and Emilie Amt (Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press, from Innocent III to the Fall of Acre, 1187-1291’, eds, Jessalynn Bird, 2014), 194-197. Edward Peters and James M. Powell (Pennsylvania: University of 14 Philip B. Baldwin, Pope Gregory X and the Crusades (Suffolk, UK: Pensylvania, 2013), 124-129. The Boydell Press, 2014), 3-12.

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doubt found enthusiasm among the lay community. Thus, the theory of Papal Monarchy, founded in Canon Law developed by Gratian and later clergyman, with the belief that papal power had primacy over secular power, acted as mediators in the wake of a disjointed, often chaotic, violent Christendom. Starting with Urban II, the crusading movement helped empower the Church in ways that caused problems in later centuries.