Peter of Capua the Elder

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Peter of Capua (

cardinal-priest of San Marcello al Corso from 1201 until his death. He often worked as a papal legate. He wrote several theological works and was a patron of his hometown of Amalfi
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He is sometimes called "Peter of Capua the Elder" to distinguish him from his nephew, Peter of Capua the Younger (died 1236), who was also educated in Paris and taught there, and later became a cardinal.[2]

Family

Peter belonged to an illustrious family of Lombard descent from Amalfi in the kingdom of Sicily. His earliest known ancestor was Lando de Prata, a relative of the last independent duke of Amalfi, Marinus Sebastus (r. 1097–1100). His father, Landulf (fl. 1161–1176, dead by 1201), was a son of Manso and great-grandson of Lando. His mother's name is unknown, but she belonged to the Vulcano family of Sorrento, whom Peter referred to in 1208 as his "cousins".[1] Peter was one of four brothers. The others were Maurus, John and Manso.[3] The family owned properties in Amalfi, Atrani, Agerola, Maiori and Capri, and had rights over the church of San Sebastiano on the hills above Amalfi.[1]

Education and teaching career

Peter took

Innocent III.[1][3] He taught for a time in Paris and his first writings, Modus tractandi and Summae, date from this period.[1]

Peter joined the

Clement III (r. 1187–1191). His first job in Rome was teaching theology and law. He wrote the encyclopedia Alphabetum de arte sermocinandi during this period. All of his works are written in a conservative scholastic style. All have at some point been misattributed to his nephew, but their attribution to Peter the elder is secure.[1]

Cardinal

Peter had a reputation as a brilliant scholar and preacher when

Celestine III named him cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata in the consistory of 20 February 1193.[1][3] He subscribed a papal bull with this titulus on 5 March.[3] In October 1193, Peter attended the canonization of John Gualbert.[1] Through his subscriptions to papal bulls, he can be traced at the papal court until 1 July 1195.[3]

Legation in Apulia and Calabria

In July 1195, Peter briefly governed

Constance, who had a hereditary right to Sicily. Peter completed his mission in the spring of 1196.[1]

During his south Italian legation, Peter did not travel far, remaining in the north of Apulia and around Benevento.

bishop of Dragonara and the monastery of Santa Maria di Gualdo Mazzocca in their dispute over the church of San Matteo di Sculcola.[1]

Legation in Bohemia and Poland

In the second half of 1196, Celestine dispatched him as legate to Bohemia and Poland to reform their churches. He acted with legatine powers on his journey through Italy and Germany, although they were not within his assigned area. He made a solemn entry into Prague on 12 March 1197, and remained in the city at least through May. He alienated the secular clergy by his demand that all those who had received an uncanonical ordination be re-ordained canonically. An attempt was even made on his life. His demands on the monastic clergy was no less rigorous. He deposed two abbots. He held a synod in Prague that reformed the liturgy and imposed clerical celibacy. He confirmed with his seal and signature the privilege issued by Bishop Jindřich to the monastery of Teplá founded by Count Hroznata.[1] He moved on to Poland in the summer.[1] There he introduced clerical celibacy.[5][3] He also sought to normalize church marriages. He confirmed the act of Bishop Żyrosław II of Wrocław giving the monastery of Saint Vincent to the Premonstratensians.[1]

There is a bust of Peter in the cathedral of Amalfi

While returning to Rome late in 1197, Peter was attacked and robbed by men of Marquis

Innocent III, who had succeeded Celestine, threatened the city with ecclesiastical penalties. Peter arrived in Rome in early 1198 and was named an auditor. In August, he was with the pope at Rieti to witness the exaltation of the relics of Saint Eleutherius.[1] Through his subscriptions to papal bulls, he can be traced at the papal court between 13 March 1198 and 11 November 1200. He took part in the 1198 papal election.[3]

Legation in France and Burgundy

Innocent III sent Peter as legate to France and Burgundy in late 1198. His primary mission was the preach the Fourth Crusade, but preparatory to that he was to arrange a peace or at least a five-year-truce between the warring kings Philip II of France and Richard I of England.[1][6] Innocent had announced Peter's dual mission in a letter of 13 August 1198.[6]

Peter arrived in Paris in December 1198. According to the

John, in October 1199, albeit only for three months.[1]

After Richard's death, Peter visited Fontevraud Abbey to confirm a donation made by Richard's mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine. He then passed through Normandy, dealing with various disputes between York and Canterbury and the disputed election to Cambrai. He sought to convince Philip II to repudiate his second wife, Agnes, and return to his first, Ingeborg. On 6 December 1199, he held a synod in Dijon. The assembled bishops promised one thirtieth of their revenues for the crusade and threatened put France under the interdict if Philip did not return to his lawful wife. A few days later, Peter held a second synod in Vienne. The interdict against France was published on 13 January 1200. Peter was replaced that year as legate by Cardinal Ottaviano of Ostia.[1]

Peter returned to Rome and in March 1201 he was promoted to cardinal-priest of San Marcello.

archdiocese of Amalfi, but Innocent III had other plans.[1]

Legate to the Fourth Crusade and the Holy Land

In April 1202, Innocent III named Peter and Soffredo of Pisa as legates in charge of the crusade. Peter was sent to Venice, where the crusaders were gathering, in order to prevent the Venetians from using the army to attack Zara. When he arrived in Venice in July, however, the Republic of Venice did not accept that his legatine authority extended to them.[1] Peter sought to keep the crusader army together even at the cost of an attack on Zara. He denied the requests of Abbot Martin of Pairis and Bishop Conrad of Halberstadt to be absolved of their vows.[9] He even gave Martin spiritual charge of all German crusaders and told Conrad that the pope himself would overlook wrongdoing by the crusaders to keep the expedition going.[10] In September, Peter returned to Rome with the proposed agreement between the crusaders and Alexios Angelos, whereby the latter would support the crusade with money and troops in return for its help putting him on the Byzantine throne.[11] As a result, Peter was away when the army sacked Zara and Innocent placed it under excommunication.[12]

Peter returned to the army after the fall of Zara in November 1202 in order to lift the excommunication. By the spring of 1203, he had received the requisite oaths of purification, absolved the crusaders and returned to Rome. He did not remain with the army, so as not to take part in an attack on Constantinople. With a small group that included Bishop

Acre. During a stopover in Cyprus, he introduced several ecclesiastical reforms. He landed in Acre on 25 April 1203 or perhaps a few weeks later.[1]

In Acre, following on the work of Soffredo, Peter used his legatine authority to mediate peace between the feuding

Hospitallers. Less successful in Cilicia than Soffredo had been, Peter rejoined his fellow legate in Acre in July 1204.[1]

Constantinople

Although Peter did not take part in the

Ayyubid Egypt, the legates set out for Constantinople in October 1204. Innocent III later reprimanded them, because they had no permission and their departure convinced many other crusaders who had gone to the Holy Land to leave as well, denuding its defences.[1]

In Constantinople, Peter was solemnly welcomed in the

Greek Orthodox clergy to the Roman obedience. In May 1205, Innocent appointed a legate for the Empire of Constantinople, Benedict, and ordered Peter to return to the Holy Land. Peter, however, remained in Constantinople, even offering to absolve those crusaders of their oath to go to the Holy Land who agreed to remain in the empire for one more year in its defence. This was the last straw for Innocent III. Peter had exceeded his instructions and the pope reprimanded him harshly.[1]

Following the death of Baldwin I (April 1205), Peter took a leading role in opposing Venetian dominance in the empire. He cooperated with Benedict after his arrival. He was back in the Holy Land by August 1206, still as legate alongside Patriarch

provision of Antiochen benefices. He returned to Europe later that year, arriving in Gaeta with a small fleet and many returning crusaders.[1]

Later life

19th-century painting by William Linton of the monastery of San Pietro di Canonica, founded by Peter of Capua

In Constantinople, Peter acquired many

Paris and Sorrento.[1] Saint Andrew he brought to Amalfi, where the body was received in a solemn procession on 8 May 1208 in the presence of Peter and Archbishop Matteo Costantini. It was re-buried in the cathedral crypt.[1][3] In 1208, he divided the income from pilgrims coming to see Saint Andrew between the cathedral and a hospital he founded for the poor, Santa Maria della Misericordia. In October 1208, he endowed a "school of liberal arts" for the youth of Amalfi and Atrani. He and his heirs were to have the right to appoint the headmaster (magister scholae).[1] Peter also founded a hospital for the poor in Amalfi.[3] He also provided funds for the expansion of its port.[1]

Early in 1211, Peter was elected

archbishop-elect of Palermo, Parisius, and recommended his deposition. In 1212, he purchased the church of San Pietro di Tozzolo in Amalfi and converted it into the monastery of San Pietro di Canonica [de] for the Canons Regular of the Lateran. He endowed it with property in Eboli and with the chapel of San Pietro al Corto, given to him by King Frederick of Sicily. In March, Frederick met him in Rome and promised to give the church a share of the income of the bailiffate of Tropea.[1]

He stayed in Amalfi in 1212–1213. In 1213, he entrusted Santa Maria della Misericordia to the

monastery of Fossanova. Although Abbot Peter objected, Innocent III's intervention made it happen. In March 1214, San Pietro became a Cistercian priory under Fossanova.[1]

Peter witnessed his last papal bull on 21 April 1214.

cathedral of Sens and the monastery of Fossanova.[1]

A verse biography of Peter was written by Durand of Huesca.[3]

Works

  • Summae (or Summa in libros sententiarum magistri Petri Lombardi), dedicated to Archbishop Walter Ophamil of Palermo (died 1190), a summa based on the Sentences of Peter Lombard and closely related to the works of Peter of Poitiers and Praepositinus. The Summae was widely disseminated in France, Italy and southern Germany in the 13th century, making Peter a widely read author. In it, he outlines his modus tractandi quaestiones theologicas ('way of treating theological questions'), which likens theology to a building. The foundation is auctoritates (authorities), the walls are quaestiones (questions, arguments) and the roof is solutions and reason (tectum solutionum et rationum).[1]
  • Alphabetum in artem sermocinandi, originally written probably towards 1190 and dedicated to the Roman clergy, an alphabetical "moral–exegetic" encyclopedia for preachers, especially for aiding them in constructing allegories. It attained its final form after 1193. Twenty manuscripts of the Alphabetum are known from the 13th century.[1]
  • Commentaria in ius pontificium, a lost commentary about papal law.[1][3]

Notes

  1. ^ His name also appears in Latin as Petrus de Capua, Petrus Capuensis, Petrus de Cappuis or Petrus de Chapes.[1]
  2. ^ "With the legate's help, a treaty on these lines was drafted. Philip's son, Louis, would marry one of Richard's nieces, a daughter of the king of Castile, and Richard would grant them Gisors and 20,000 marks as a dowry. As well as giving up his rights in Tours, Philip would also agree to abandon his ally Philip of Swabia and instead help Richard's nephew, Otto of Brunswick, in his fight to win undisputed possession of the German crown."[8]
  3. ^ This was a fellow Amalfitan named Marino Quatrario, treasurer of Nicosia.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al Kamp 1976.
  2. ^ Bird 2017, p. 98.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Miranda 2018.
  4. ^ Loud 2007, p. 250.
  5. ^ Jasienica 1996.
  6. ^ a b c d Gillingham 1999, pp. 318–320.
  7. ^ Phillips 2004, p. 9.
  8. ^ Gillingham 1999, p. 322.
  9. ^ Queller, Compton & Campbell 1974, p. 449, citing Gunther of Pairis and the Deeds of the Bishops of Halberstadt, respectively.
  10. ^ Queller, Compton & Campbell 1974, p. 449.
  11. ^ Angold 2014, p. 86.
  12. ^ Queller, Compton & Campbell 1974, p. 450.

Bibliography

  • Angold, Michael (2014). The Fourth Crusade: Event and Context. Routledge.
  • Bird, Jessalynn (2017). "Crusade and Reform: The Sermons of Bibliothèque Nationale, MS nouv. acq. lat. 999". In E.J. Mylod; Guy Perry; Thomas W. Smith; Jan Vandeburie (eds.). The Fifth Crusade in Context: The Crusading Movement in the Early Thirteenth Century. Routledge. pp. 92–113.
  • Gillingham, John (1999). Richard I. Yale University Press.
  • ISBN 83-07-02415-3
    .
  • Loud, Graham A.
    (2007). The Latin Church in Norman Italy. Cambridge University Press.
  • Kamp, Norbert (1976). "Capuano, Pietro".
    ISBN 978-8-81200032-6
    .
  • Maleczek, Werner (1997). Pietro Capuano: patrizio amalfitano, cardinale, legato alla quarta crociata, teologo (†1214). Centro di cultura e storia amalfitana.
  • Miranda, Salvador (2018) [1998]. "Pope Celestine III (1191–1198): Consistory of February 20, 1193 (III)". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church: Biographical Dictionary. Florida International University Libraries.
  • Phillips, Jonathan (2004). The Fourth Crusade and the Siege of Constantinople. Viking.
  • Queller, Donald E.; Compton, Thomas K.; Campbell, Donald A. (1974). "The Fourth Crusade: The Neglected Majority".
    JSTOR 2851751
    .
  • Queller, Donald E.; Madden, Thomas F. (1997). The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople (2nd ed.). University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Rouse, Mary A.; Rouse, Richard H. (1996). "The Schools and the Waldensians: A New Work by Durand of Huesca". In Scott L. Waugh; Peter D. Diehl (eds.). Christendom and Its Discontents: Exclusion, Persecution, and Rebellion, 1000–1500. Cambridge University Press. pp. 86–111.
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