Tusculan Papacy
The Tusculan Papacy was a period of papal history from 1012 to 1048 where three successive relatives of the counts of Tusculum were installed as pope.
Background
Count
According to Cushing, "in many ways, increasing respect for papal authority from the mid-tenth century to mid-eleventh centuries can be best viewed through the spectrum of two Roman families: the Crescentians and the Tusculans, whose control of the papacy would have important ramifications for both the control and direction of reform."[1] Both the Crescentii and the Counts of Tusculum were descended from Theophylact I, the former papal vestararius.[1] The Crescentii had cooperated with German empress Theophanu and Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor, who resided in Rome from 999 to 1001.[1]
The Tusculans did not expropriate church property to increase the already substantial holdings of their family; in fact, they appear to have expended their own resources to increase the power of the papacy.[2] According to Luscombe and Riley-Smith, "in contrast to the Crescentians, who had largely relied on the entrenchment of their own dynasty and their supporters in the duchy of Rome as secular magnates and landowners – often at the expense of the temporal power of the Roman church – the Tusculans used their secular power and successes to shore up the standing of the papacy among the Roman nobility. The position of Patrician, so important to Crescentian rule, remained vacant."[3]
Abbot Odilo of Cluny flourished during this period, receiving support from Benedict VII and John XIX for monastic immunity.[2] The power of the Tusculan popes derived both from their assertions of papal supremacy and from their ability to balance power between the competing families of Rome.[4]
The Counts of Tusculum were centered at
History
Benedict VIII
In 1012, Rome saw a violent political upheaval which ended Crescentii domination and elevated Theophylact, the son of Count
Gregory I had been a figure in the court of
Among Benedict VIII's first acts as pope was a military campaign against the strongholds of the Crescentii around Rome.
Benedict VIII was an ally of
Benedict VIII confirmed his privileges at
Just as Henry II was promising the pope this territory, the pope was being deprived of nearly all of his temporal power by the armies of
In 1016, a Pisan and Genoese fleet defeated the Arabs, in a victory which Benedict VIII may have something to do with; he also possibly schemed with the Normans against the Byzantines in southern Italy.[13] Benedict VIII himself led an allied force against Mussetus, who escaped after the battle of Luni.[16] However, in 1018, Melo, the leader of the rebellion against the Greeks was defeated.[13] The Germans honored the Henricianum in 1022 by sending their own army to southern Italy.[13]
In 1022, Benedict VIII held with Henry II a council in Ravenna which issued stringent prohibitions against clerical concubinage.[2]
John XIX
Benedict VIII's brother Romanus succeeded him as Pope John XIX (1024–1032).[2] John XIX did not resign his secular titles ("senatorial dignity") upon his election as pope; documents would refer to him not as "Senator" but as "Count Palatine and Consul".[17] According to Cushing, John XIX was "somewhat less adept" than his brother in cooperating with Henry II's successor, Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor but was "by no means a puppet".[2]
John XIX was open to rapprochement with Byzantine emperor
Benedict IX
Pope Benedict IX (1032–1044, 1045, 1047–1048) was the nephew of Benedict VIII and John XIX.[2] Norwood Young calls Benedict IX the "Nero of the Tusculan Papacy. Absolute power appears to paralyse the brain if applied at an early age."[19] According to Cushing, "the report of [his] crimes and deviance became ever more squalid as the latter reformers grew in power" but was for the first 12 years of his papacy "adequate and credible, if not perhaps immensely pious".[2] Another interpretation of his first twelve years is provided by successor Victor III:
Leading a life so shameful, so foul, so execrable that he shuddered to describe it. He ruled like a captain of banditti, rather than a prelate. Adulteries, homicides perpetrated by his own hand, passed unnoticed, unrevenged; for the patrician of the city, Gregory, was the brother of the Pope; and another brother, Peter, an active partisan ... The oppressed people at length grew weary of his robberies, murders, and abominations. They rose and drove him from the city, and proceeded to the election of John Bishop of Sabina, who took the name Silvester III.[20]
By Autumn 1044, the position of Benedict IX was "seriously threatened" by the creation of
Three days later, in Rome, Benedict IX was excommunicated for simony and Henry III's candidate, Bishop Suidger of Bamberg, was installed as Pope Clement II (1046–1047).[4]
-
Henry III deposed
-
and Gregory VI
-
and installed Clement II.
Aftermath
According to
Legacy
The Tusculan Papacy "shaped other aspects of papal policy far beyond the reigns of the Tusculan popes themselves".
Notes
- ^ a b c Cushing, 2005, p. 61.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cushing, 2005, p. 62.
- ^ a b c d e Luscombe and Riley-Smith, 2004, p. 10.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Cushing, 2005, p. 63.
- ^ a b c d e f Partner, 1972, p. 102.
- ^ a b Milman, 1872, p. 353.
- ^ a b Gregorovius, 1896, p. 16.
- ^ a b Partner, 1972, p. 103.
- ^ Milman, 1872, p. 352.
- ^ a b Gregorovius, 1896, p. 17.
- ^ Gregorovius, 1896, p. 20.
- ^ Milman, 1872, p. 354.
- ^ a b c d Partner, 1972, p. 104.
- ^ Gregorovius, 1896, p. 18.
- ^ a b Gregorovius ,1896, p. 19.
- ^ Gregorovius, 1896, p. 25.
- ^ Gregorovius, 1896, pp. 31-32.
- ^ Gregorovius, 1896, p. 32.
- ^ Young, 1901, p. 180.
- ^ Milman, 1872, pp. 357–358.
- ^ Herbert Edward John Cowdrey. 1998. Pope Gregory VII, 1073-1085. p. 7.
- ^ Luscombe and Riley-Smith, 2004, p. 11.
References
- Cushing, Kathleen G. 2005. Reform and the papacy in the eleventh century: spirituality and social change.
- Luscombe, David and Riley-Smith, Jonathan. 2004. New Cambridge Medieval History: C.1024-c.1198, Volume 4.
- Milman, Henry Hart. 1872. Históry of Latin Christianity including that of the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicholas V.
- Partner, Peter. 1972. The lands of St. Peter: the Papal State in the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance.
- Young, Norwood. 1901. The story of Rome.