Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
History
Church History, Volume 2 (of 3)
Kurtz, J. H. (Johann Heinrich)
Church history
fealty from the higher clergy, without making further claim
to investiture.[277]
§ 96.13. =The Times of Lothair III. and Conrad III.,
A.D. 1125-1152.=--After the death of Henry V. without issue,
the Saxon =Lothair=, A.D. 1125-1137, was elected, and the
Hohenstaufen grandson of Henry IV. descended in the female
line was passed over. =Honorius II.=, A.D. 1124-1130, successor
of Calixtus II., hastened to confer the papal sanction upon
the newly elected emperor, who already upon his election had,
by accepting spiritual investiture before temporal investiture,
and a minimising of the oath of fealty by ecclesiastical
reservations, showed himself ready to support the claims
of the clergy. But neither ban nor the preaching of a crusade
against Count Roger II. of Sicily (§ 95, 1) could prevent him
from building up a powerful kingdom comprehending all Southern
Italy. The next election of the cardinals gives us two popes:
=Innocent II.=, A.D. 1130-1143, and Anacletus II., A.D. 1130-1138.
The latter, although not the pope of the majority, secured a
powerful support in the friendship of Roger II., whom he had
crowned king by his legate at Palermo. Innocent, on the other
hand, fled to France. There the two oracles of the age, the
abbot Peter of Clugny and Bernard of Clairvaux, took his side
and won for him the favour of all Cisalpine Europe. Both popes
fished for Lothair’s favour with the bait of the promise of
imperial coronation. A second edition of the Synod of Sutri
would probably have enabled a more powerful king to attain the
elevation of Henry III. But Lothair was not the man to seize the
opportunity. He decided in favour of the _protégé_ of Bernard,
led him back in A.D. 1133 to the eternal city, had himself
crowned emperor by him in the Lateran and invested with Matilda’s
inheritance, which was declared by the curialists a fief of
the empire. But Lothair’s repeated demands, that what had been
acquired by the Concordat of Worms should be renounced, were
set aside, through the opposition not so much of the pope as
of St. Bernard and St. Norbert (§ 98, 2). At the prayer of the
pope, who immediately after Lothair’s departure had been driven
out by Roger, and moved by the prophetic exhortations of Bernard,
the emperor prepared for a second Roman campaign in A.D. 1136.
Leaving the conquest of Rome to the eloquence of the prophet
of Clairvaux, he advanced from one victory to another until he
brought all Southern Italy under the imperial sway, and died on
his return homeward in an Alpine hut in the Tyrol. Fuming with
rage Roger now crossed over from Sicily and in a short time he
reconquered his southern provinces of Italy. The appointment,
however, of a new pope after the death of Anacletus miscarried,
and Innocent was able at the =Second Œcumenical Lateran Synod=
in A.D. 1139 to declare the schism at an end. The pope then
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account