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
Roger of Sicily alone had not accepted Innocent; but a foolish attempt
to coerce him ended in the defeat and capture of the Pope. In return
for the acknowledgment of papal suzerainty, which involved oblivion of
the imperial claims, Innocent not only confirmed to Roger and his
successors both his conquests in Southern Italy and the royal title,
but even, by the grant of the legatine power to the King himself,
exempted his kingdom from the visits of papal legates. Roger was
supreme in Church and State. A cruel yet vigorous and able ruler, he
built up a centralised administrative system from which Henry II of
England did not disdain to take lessons. His possession of Sicily
carried him to Malta and thence to the north coast of Africa; and
before his death in 1154 Tunis was added to his dominions. He was thus
one of the greatest among the early Crusaders, and perhaps the most
notable ruler of his time.
[Sidenote: Conrad III.]
Lothair hoped to leave in his son-in-law a successor with irresistible
claims. But the very influence to which Lothair owed his own election
was now to be cast into the scale against the representative of his
family; while the grounds of objection to the succession of Frederick
of Hohenstaufen to Henry V now held good against Henry of Bavaria,
Saxony, and Tuscany. The Pope and the German nobles were equally
afraid of a ruler whose insolent demeanour had already won him the
title of "the Proud." They took as their candidate the lately rejected
Hohenstaufen Conrad, whose behaviour since his submission had gained
him favour in proportion as the conduct of Henry of Bavaria had
alienated the other nobles. Conrad was crowned at Aachen by the papal
legate, and Henry made his submission. But Conrad, like Lothair, felt
himself insecure with so powerful a subject. Accordingly he took away
from him the duchy of Saxony, and gave it to the heir of the old dukes
in the female line. When Henry refused to accept the decision Conrad
put him to the ban of the Empire and deprived him of Bavaria also,
which he proceeded to confer upon a relative of his own. But Conrad's
obvious attempt to advance his own family offended the nobles, and the
death of Henry the Proud in 1139 opened the way for a compromise.
Saxony was made over to Henry's youthful son, known in history as
Henry the Lion, while Bavaria was to be the wedding portion of Henry
the Proud's widow if she married Conrad's relative, who was already
Margrave of Austria.
[Sidenote: Arnold of Brescia.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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