Changing Attitudes to the Authority of the Holy Roman Emperors in the Later Middle Ages (c. 1273 – c. 1519) Ben Christopher Fuller, B. A. (Hons.) This thesis is presented for the degree of Master of Philosophy of the University of Western Australia School of Humanities History 2015 The copyright of this work belongs to the author ii iii Abstract This thesis examines the different and changing ideas about the authority of the Holy Roman Emperors during the later middle ages, with particular reference to the belief that the emperors were the temporal heads of Christendom, constituted by God as the defenders of the universal Church, and rightfully possessing an authority (of some sort) beyond their own territorial borders, over Christendom, or even over the world, as a whole. The thesis argues that ideas of a unique imperial authority continued to be developed and refined throughout the later middle ages: indeed, it was in this period that they found their clearest expositors. Nor were such ideas marginal or lacking in intellectual force: imperialist thought was maintained and defended, often with considerable subtlety, by some of the most important thinkers of their day, such as Dante, Marsilius of Padua, William of Ockham, Petrarch, Nicholas Cusanus, and Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini. This thesis identifies several distinct conceptions of imperial authority, maintained by different groups of people for different purposes. It examines each in detail, and explains how they were related to the political circumstances and events of the time. A close analysis of specific crucial events and theoretical texts is set in a narrative account which provides the historical context. The thesis begins with an account of imperial ideas and institutions from antiquity to the central middle ages, with a particularly close treatment of the Hohenstaufen period (1138-1250), including analysis of the revival of Roman law, the rediscovery of Aristotle, and the development of theories of sovereignty in other states. This analysis begins with the period in which it seemed that the Papacy had completely triumphed over the Empire (c. 1273 – 1303), making particular reference to what might be called the ‘high papalist’ conception of the Empire expressed by Boniface VIII. There follows an examination of the expedition of Henry VII (r. 1308-1313) into Italy to claim his imperial crown. In this examination the De Monarchia (c. 1312) and other imperialist writings of Dante are analysed, as representing a universalist (as well as a distinctively Italian Ghibelline) understanding of the Empire. There is also a close treatment of Henry’s conflict with Robert of Naples, which brought about Pope Clement iv V’s ruling in the bull Pastoralis Cura (1313) that temporal authority is territorial confined. Ludwig IV’s conflict with the papacy is examined as a dispute over the independence both of the Empire and of Germany. In this connection particular reference is made to Ludwig’s irregular coronation in Rome (1328), in which the ‘civic Roman’ conception of Empire is prominent, and, by way of contrast, to treatises by two of Ludwig’s defenders, Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham. In examining the reign of Charles IV (1347-1378), it is argued that a marked divergence then becomes evident between attitudes to the Empire north and south of the Alps. As regards Italy, the career (1347-1354) of the Roman civic revolutionary Cola di Rienzo is discussed as an attempt to create a genuinely ‘Roman’ Empire; and a close examination is made of the writings of the poet Petrarch, whose changing attitudes towards the Empire are taken as representing the beginning of a new ‘humanist’ or ‘Renaissance’ understanding of the Empire and of its continuity (or discontinuity) with antiquity. As regards the territories north of the Alps, the Golden Bull of 1356 is examined as a sign of the Empire’s transformation into a constitutional form for the political organisation of the German states. The thesis then examines the Empire in the fifteenth century, looking closely at the last occasion on which an emperor effectively exercised a special role with respect to the common affairs of Christendom, the intervention of Sigismund in the Council of Constance (1414). Two very different treatises on the Empire, the De Concordantia Catholica (1433-4) of Nicholas Cusanus, and the Epistola de Ortu et Auctoritate Imperii Romani of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (1446), demonstrate the continued potency of the idea of supranational imperial authority. Finally, the reign of the Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519) is discussed, as the time in which the fundamental Germanness of the Empire was officially recognised and affirmed. v Contents Introduction 1 Introduction 1 Literature review 3 The purpose and aims of this thesis 11 The plan of the thesis 12 1 Historical Review 17 Introduction 17 The idea of Empire in pre-Roman times 19 The empire of republican Rome 20 The establishment of emperors 22 The Roman ‘world-state’ 23 Rome and the Christian Church 24 The transfer of the seat of Empire from Rome 29 The lapse of imperial power in the west 30 The endurance of the imperial idea 32 The rise of the Papacy 36 Italy, the Byzantines and the Franks 37 Rome’s breach with Constantinople, and the coronation of Charlemagne 41 The significance of the coronation of Charlemagne 44 The later Carolingians and the division of Charlemagne’s empire 47 The lapse of the imperial title 50 The acquisition of the Imperial office by the German kings 52 Analysis of the constitution of the Empire as established under Otto I 54 The Roman emperorship of Otto III 59 Constitutional developments in the post-Ottonian period 60 The first great quarrel between the Papacy and the Empire, and its consequences 64 Conclusion 72 2 The Idea of Empire under the Hohenstaufens, and the Rise of Political Theories of the Sovereign State 75 Introduction 75 The study of Roman law and its application by the Emperors 76 vi Frederick Barbarossa in Italy 78 Henry VI 88 Frederick II 89 The downfall of the Hohenstaufens and its aftermath 91 The use of Roman law to support the Imperial authority 93 The exemption from Imperial overlordship claimed for France 96 The case of kings ‘who recognise no superior in temporal matters’ 99 The assimilation of the authority of kings to that of the Emperor 100 The effect of Aristotelian ideas on the conception of the Empire 102 The establishment of a theory of the sovereign state 106 French interest in the imperial office, legacy, and lands 108 Changes in the actual power of the German monarch and in the manner of succession at the end of the Hohenstaufen period 113 3 From Rudolf I to Henry VII 117 Rudolf I 117 Alexander of Roes and Jordanus of Osnabrück 118 Adolf of Nassau 121 Albert I and the triumph of the Papacy 122 Ptolemy of Lucca 128 French candidatures for the Emperorship 130 Henry VII 133 Dante’s treatise De Monarchia 138 The coronation of Henry VII and his coronation encyclical 148 The trial of Robert of Naples 149 The bull Pastoralis cura of Clement V 151 Dante and the Empire’s desolation 154 4 The Reign of Ludwig IV 157 The election of Ludwig IV, and the beginnings of his conflict with the Papacy 157 The supporters of Ludwig IV 160 Marsilius of Padua and William of Ockham on the Empire 163 Ludwig’s expedition into Italy 180 Ludwig’s defence of German independence 183 vii 5 The Reign of Charles IV 191 The election of Charles of Bohemia as a rival to Ludwig IV 191 The failure of Ludwig and the success of Charles 196 The ‘Tribunate’ of Cola di Rienzo 196 Petrarch as a supporter of Cola di Rienzo and of the ‘Roman’ idea of Empire 205 Cola di Rienzo’s fall and years in the wilderness 210 Petrarch and the Roman Empire 211 Petrarch and Charles IV 215 The end of Cola di Rienzo 217 Charles IV’s expedition into Italy 219 The beginnings of the reassessment of Empire in Italy 222 The Golden Bull 223 Charles’s reassertion of imperial sovereignty over the Kingdom of Burgundy 229 The beginning of the Papal Schism 231 6 From Wenceslaus to Maximilian I 233 Introduction 233 The humanist reassessment of the Empire 235 The exercise of Imperial authority in convoking the council of Constance 242 The ex ercise of Imperial authority in the course of the council of Constance 247 The Imperial authority in the work of Nicholas Cusanus 253 Frederick III and Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini 262 The Imperial authority in the Epistola de Ortu et Auctoritate Imperii Romani 266 Aeneas as Pope Pius II 274 Maximilian I, Imperator electus of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation 275 Conclusion 279 Bibliography 293 viii ix Acknowledgements I acknowledge with gratitude the generous financial support of an Australian Postgraduate Award and a U.W.A Safety Net Top-Up Scholarship which have made it possible for me to complete this thesis. I also acknowledge gratefully the contribution of my supervisors. Professor Philippa Maddern has shared with me her erudition, experience and enthusiasm, and given me sound criticism and good advice. Professor Sue Broomhall ably filled in when Philippa was not available, and has always been friendly, approachable, and eager to help whenever needed. I acknowledge finally the unfailing support, encouragement, reassurance, and help of my family. x Statement of candidate contribution I am the sole author of this thesis, which is entirely my own work. This thesis does not contain work that has been published, or work that is being prepared for publication. 1 Introduction No institution of the middle ages was as peculiar and perplexing as the Holy Roman Empire.