The Church and the Empire: Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304Medley, D. J. (Dudley Julius)
Religion
The Church and the Empire: Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304
Medley, D. J. (Dudley Julius)
Church history -- Middle Ages, 600-1500
But Charles' brutality had been imitated by his French officials; and
the rising known as the "Sicilian Vespers" in March, 1282, cleared the
French out of Sicily and finally overthrew all Charles' plans. The
fleet prepared for Constantinople had to be turned against the rebel
islanders. The Pope, thinking to play the game of his royal master,
refused to mediate; the Sicilians thereupon declared that from St.
Peter they would turn for aid to another Peter, and offered the crown
to Peter, King of Aragon, the husband of Manfred's daughter,
Constance, who for some years had welcomed Sicilian refugees at his
court and had been ready for the summons. The Pope deprived Peter of
his hereditary dominions and bestowed them on Charles' great nephew
Charles of Valois, a son of Philip III of France; but the Aragonese
fleet under Roger di Loria defeated Charles' fleet and captured his
son and heir Charles the Lame. On January 7, 1285, Charles himself
died, and was followed to the grave very shortly by Pope Martin IV.
The same year saw also the death of Philip III of France and of Peter
of Aragon. Pope Honorius IV followed the policy of his predecessor,
and to him succeeded Nicholas IV. It was during his pontificate that
the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, the result of the First Crusade, was
finally wiped out by the capture of Acre (1291), and the little stir
made by this event affords a measure of the decay of the crusading
spirit.
[Sidenote: Celestine V (1294).]
On the death of Nicholas the division among the Cardinals reflecting
the jealousies of the Roman families of Orsini and Colonna, caused a
vacancy in the papal office for more than two years. Then by a sudden
whim, which in the event of a successful result would have been called
an inspiration, the name of a hermit, Peter, whose austerities in his
cell on Monte Murrone in the Abruzzi had won him great reverence, was
suggested apparently in all sincerity to the wearied and perplexed
Cardinals. He was elected and took the title of Celestine V. In
accordance with the desire of Charles II of Naples, he took up his
abode at Naples. But he was utterly unfit for his high office, and
after a pontificate of less than four months (August to December,
1294) he resigned, thus perpetrating that "great refusal" which won
Dante's immortal phrase of scorn. How far his act was due to the
machinations of Cardinal Gaetani is uncertain. At any rate Gaetani had
evidently obtained Charles' sanction beforehand to his own elevation,
which took place ten days later. But the new Pope did not intend that
anyone should be his master. For the moment he and Charles needed each
other, and it was agreed between them that Sicily should be recovered
for Charles, while Celestine should be given into the keeping of his
successor lest he should become a centre for disaffection.
[Sidenote: Boniface VIII (1294-1303).]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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