The Papacy and Crusading in Europe, 1198-1245

289 Pages·2009·1.19 MB·English

by  Rebecca Rist

THE PAPACY AND CRUSADING IN EUROPE, 1198–1245
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The Papacy and Crusading in
Europe, 1198–1245
Rebecca Rist
Continuum UK, The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
Continuum US, 80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038
www.continuumbooks.com
Copyright © Rebecca Rist 2009
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission
from the publishers.
First published 2009
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 44114 016 6
Typeset by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand
Printed and bound by MPG Books Ltd, Cornwall, Great Britain
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements xi
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction 1
Crusades Against Heretics 3
The ‘Political Crusades’ 12
Papal Correspondence as Evidence for Policy 16
The Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Background 19
1 Innocent III: The Early Years of the Albigensian Crusade 45
Controlling the Albigensian Crusade 46
Innocent III and Heresy 54
Innocent III and the Idea of ‘Internal’ Crusade 62
2 Honorius III: The Albigensian Crusade Continues 81
The Legacy of Innocent III 83
Honorius III’s Correspondence: Ideas and Language 84
Controlling the Albigensian Crusade 92
Honorius III and Crusading Against Heretics 97
The Objectives of the Albigensian Crusade 106
3 Gregory IX: The Authorization of Crusades against Heretics in Europe 119
Heretics and the Development of Canon Law 121
Gregory IX and ‘Internal’ Crusades 125
Controlling ‘Internal’ Crusades 134
Gregory IX’s Correspondence: Ideas and Language 140
Gregory IX and ‘Internal’ Enemies 143
The Development of ‘Internal’ Crusades 147
4 Popes and the First ‘Political Crusades’ 171
Crusades Against Political Enemies 175
Papal Correspondence: Ideas and Language 190
The Development of ‘Political Crusades’ 196
Conclusion 219
Appendix A: The Primary Sources 229
Appendix B: The Papacy and ‘Internal’ Crusades: The Current Debate 235
Bibliography 241
Index 263
Preface
This study of papal crusading policy examines the relationship between the
papacy and what I have termed ‘internal’ crusades during the period 1198–1245.
An ‘internal’ crusade is defi ned in this work as a holy war which was authorized
by the popes of the fi rst half of the thirteenth century and which was fought
within Christian Europe against those whom the papacy perceived to be foes of
Christendom, for the recovery of Christian property or in defence of the Church
or Christian people.1 For this holy war, combatants took vows to fi ght and were
granted by the papacy the same plenary indulgence as was also being granted by
popes during the fi rst half of the thirteenth century to those who embarked on a
crusade to the Holy Land. By granting the plenary indulgence for fi ghting, popes
signalled that they regarded the wars which they authorized against heretics and
political enemies as not only meritorious campaigns but as deserving the same
spiritual privileges as crusades to the East. This study is therefore not concerned
with those crusades which popes authorized against Muslim enemies in the East
and Spain, nor with crusades authorized against pagans on the borders of Europe.
Rather it focuses on crusades authorized by the papacy against heretical groups
in Christian Europe and against political enemies whom popes often viewed
as heretics.
Yet, in spite of its undoubted Europe-wide signifi cance and an increasing
recognition that the period 1198–1245 marks the beginning of a crucial change
in papal policy underpinned by canon law, the relationship between popes and
the crusades which they authorized within Christian Europe during these years
has attracted relatively little attention in modern British scholarship. This book
discusses the development of crusades authorized within Europe through-
out the period through analysis of the extensive source material drawn from
enregistered papal letters, placing them fi rmly in the context of ecclesiastical
legislation, canon law, chronicles and other contemporary evidence. It thereby
seeks to contribute to our understanding of the complex politics, theology and
rhetoric that underlay the papacy’s call for European crusades in the fi rst half of
the thirteenth century.
The popes who authorized these ‘internal’ crusades between 1198 and
1245 were Innocent III (1198–1216), Honorius III (1216–1227), Gregory IX
(1227–1241) and Innocent IV (1243–1254). The pontifi cate of Celestine IV
(1241) was extremely short and there are no extant letters concerned with the
viii PREFACE
authorization of such crusades during his brief period as pope. The date 1198
marks the beginning of the pontifi cate of Innocent III, an enthusiast for crusad-
ing who authorized the Albigensian Crusade against Cathars in the south of
France. The year 1245 is where this study ends because the formal deposition of
the emperor Frederick II at the First Council of Lyon, two years after the elec-
tion of Innocent IV, was a signifi cant milestone in the history of papal calls for
crusades against the Hohenstaufen dynasty.
The principal sources for this study of papal policy are the letters of the popes
themselves authorizing and supporting crusades against those they deemed
enemies of the Church. From these letters a picture can be constructed of how
the popes regarded heretics and political opponents and how they viewed these
enemies in the context of their authorization of crusades. The work explores
whether the popes themselves thought that such ‘internal’ enemies should be
treated in the same way as ‘ extra-liminal’ enemies of the Church, in particular
the majority of Muslims who lived outside Christian Europe. It asks whether the
pronouncements of the different popes elected between 1198 and 1245 reveal the
pragmatic policies of individual popes, or an overriding papal vision regarding
the status and treatment of ‘internal’ enemies. It considers whether the papacy
envisaged a theoretical hierarchy of crusades, and in particular the status which
popes afforded crusades against heretics and political enemies compared with
crusades against Muslims in the Holy Land. It analyses the extent to which popes
deliberately branded political enemies as heretics in their correspondence in order
to encourage crusading. It also considers the degree to which popes intimated by
the grant of spiritual and material incentives that the crusades which they author-
ized within Europe were a priority, and examines whether they regarded them as
spiritually less inherently meritorious enterprises than those to the East.
Certain aspects of thirteenth-century papal policy with regard to crusading,
in particular the bestowal of indulgences or the special privileges granted for the
protection of persons and property by the Holy See for the duration of a crusade,
continue to be popular subjects of crusade scholarship. 2 There has been, how-
ever, little recent detailed study of papal letters concerned with crusades within
Europe and of ecclesiastical legislation about heretics and the Church’s political
enemies which papal correspondence both refl ected and helped to engender. A
further aim of this study is therefore to investigate the amount of infl uence and
control the popes of the fi rst half of the thirteenth century were able to exert
over the crusades which they authorized in Europe and to assess whether such
crusades proved an effective vehicle for the pursuit of papal aims. It considers
whether an increasing recognition by popes of the limited effect of crusading as
a means of dealing with heretics was crucial in the development of inquisitorial
processes in the south of France and Germany as an alternative way of coping
with the problem of heresy.
PREFACE ix
Innocent III and Honorius III authorized and promoted the Albigensian
Crusade against heretics in the south of France. Gregory IX was concerned not
only with this but also authorized crusades against groups accused of heresy in
Germany, Hungary and Bosnia. The correspondence of all three popes comprised
both ‘general’ letters addressed to the Christian faithful throughout the whole of
France and other parts of Europe and letters addressed to specifi c kings, legates,
prelates and to crusaders themselves. As well as investigating the formulation
of the crusading indulgence, this study considers the rhetorical language of a
long-established style of papal letter used to authorize crusades, and the use of
metaphors, similes and formulaic phrases to describe heresy and heretics. And
it assesses the correspondence of Innocent III relating to what has often been
described as the fi rst ‘political crusade’, which was directed against his opponent
Markward of Anweiler, former imperial vicar of Sicily during the reign of the
emperor Henry VI. It also examines letters of Gregory IX and Innocent IV which
called for spiritual and military action against another emperor, Frederick II,
as part of an attempt by these popes to weaken his authority and to defend the
papal states. From an examination of their letters conclusions may be drawn
about the use of the crusade by popes as a political weapon at the height of the
medieval papacy’s temporal and political power. The study therefore allows for
fresh insights into the characters and pontifi cates of some of the most infl uential
popes of the High Middle Ages.
In 1235 Gregory IX authorized a crusade to Constantinople against Orthodox
Greek Christians and encouraged those who had not yet taken vows to go on his
proposed crusade to the Holy Land to campaign on behalf of the Latin Empire
instead.3 The Latin Empire comprised a group of extensive territories under
Latin Christian rule which had been created after the conquest of Constantinople
by the Venetians and soldiers of the Fourth Crusade in April 1204.4 Although
it could be argued that, since it was authorized against fellow Christians, this
crusade to Constantinople was also a crusade against ‘internal’ enemies – as
distinct from a crusade against ‘external’ Muslims and pagans – it is not analysed
in this book for the simple reason that Gregory IX did not regard the Orthodox
Greeks against whom the crusade to Constantinople was launched as heretics
but rather as schismatics who had long ago broken away from the authority of
Rome. Furthermore, the crusade to Constantinople was not launched within
Christian Europe, the frontiers of which were an extension of, yet based upon,
those of the Roman Patriarchate. Rather it was authorized to defend those Latin
Christians who lived well outside medieval Europe’s geographical, religious and
psychological boundaries.