Abridged History of Rome - PART II - III - THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY

  - Medieval Rome
  (left to right: Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Pope Innocent III and Pope Sixtus IV)

III - The Investiture Controversy

In this page:
The Papacy in the Hands of Two Families
Reformation Process
The Investiture Controversy
Attempts to Form a Municipal Power in Rome
Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa
Iconography

The Papacy in the Hands of Two Families

Emperor Otto III and Pope Sylvester II's dream of re-establishing a universal empire on the hills of Rome vanished in 1001, when they were forced to flee the Eternal City, due to a rebellion of its citizens led by Gregory, Count of Tuscolo, a town above Frascati. Otto passed away a few months later while he was trying to conquer Rome. Sylvester II managed to return to Rome where he died in May 1003 under mysterious circumstances. He is associated with a gruesome tradition according to which his bones could not rest in peace because he had made an agreement with Evil; the inscription on his tomb was said to sweat when a pope was close to death.

Detail of Casa dei Crescenzi aka as Palazzo di Pilato

Henry II, the new emperor, cousin of Otto III, was too busy trying to consolidate his power in Germany to interfere with Roman affairs. The Crescenzi family were behind the election of the three popes who were appointed after Sylvester II, but in 1012 the Counts of Tuscolo installed their candidate (the son of the ruling count) and for more than thirty years the papal throne was occupied by members of that family: Benedict IX, one of these popes, is remembered because he was pope three times: elected a first time in 1032, he was forced to flee Rome in 1044 and to eventually agree on a sort of abdication; he was installed again as pope in 1045, but he sold his title after just 21 days; he returned to the papal throne in 1047, but in 1048 he had to leave it at the request of Emperor Henry III, who had greatly reduced the power of both the Crescenzi and the Counts of Tuscolo.
A small building of the Crescenzi testifies to a new interest for the heritage of Ancient Rome. It was decorated with marble corbels (perhaps from Basilica di Massenzio) and other ancient reliefs. The well carved inscription (see also a longer one) is rather cryptic, but it is definitely a tribute to the past of the City: ADSUM ROMANIS GRANDIS HONOR POPULIS .. (I am here as a great honour to the Roman people).

S. Giovanni in Laterano: coat of arms of Pope Sergius IV designed by Francesco Borromini

During this period of turmoil an event took place which in the long run had far reaching consequences, in a way still influencing us today, more than one thousand years later.
In 1009 Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah profaned the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The pope at that time was Sergius IV, regarded as a puppet in the hands of the Crescenzi. He is thought to have issued a bull (a papal edict) calling for the liberation of Jerusalem which however fell on deaf ears.
Pope Alexander VII was appointed in 1655 and soon after he commissioned to Francesco Borromini a new tomb for Pope Sergius IV, who had been buried in the floor of S. Giovanni in Laterano. The decision had some political motivations: the Ottomans, after having occupied several towns on the island of Candia (Crete) in 1645-48, were trying to seize its capital: the Pope sent ships and supplies to help the Venetians and he asked the Christian nations to do the same: for this reason he thought it necessary to honour his predecessor who first had called for a united action against the Muslim threat. Pope Sergius IV had very humble origins and at that time very few families had a coat of arms, so Borromini created a crest for him. His family name was Bocca di Porco (pig's mouth), a not very appropriate name for a pope, so he was renamed Boccapecora (sheep's mouth) and a sheep was placed in the upper part of the coat of arms; the lower part was decorated with six stars (a heraldic symbol of Pope Alexander VII, whose six mountains and a star were placed at the sides of the coat of arms).

Reformation Process

In 1049 Emperor Henry III enforced the election of Pope Leo IX, an appointment which was well received by the Romans: at the request of the Emperor, the Pope started a process of reformation of the Church and in particular of the rules to be followed for the papal election, which was completed by his immediate successors. The Emperor wanted to free the papal election from the undue meddling of the most powerful Roman families, but eventually the rules which were established reduced also the influence of the Emperor in the matter.
Pope Nicholas II (1059-61) decreed that the election of the pope should be reserved to the cardinal deacons, whose choice was then submitted for the approval of the other cardinals: the pope was to be considered regularly appointed even though he would not have taken possession of his charge as Bishop of Rome. With relatively minor changes these rules are still followed today (see a page on the papal transition process).
At the death of Pope Nicholas II the imperial court (Emperor Henry IV was still a boy) tried to interfere with the election of the new pope, but the cardinals who had appointed Pope Alexander II, maintained their position and the German clergy supported it. The candidate chosen by the court had to give in.
Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) continued the reformation process started by his predecessors and in 1074 he took a strong stance against married bishops and priests. The celibacy of the clergy was loosely complied with, especially north of the Alps, where many members of the clergy were appointed by the emperor.
By condemning the married priests Gregory automatically interfered with the imperial prerogatives: the investiture controversy had begun. Gregory excommunicated the Emperor who had not stopped appointing new bishops. He sought the help of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany and in January 1077, while staying at her castle of Canossa in the Apennines, he imposed on Henry (who had arrived at the castle walls) three days of penance outside the castle gates, prior to uplifting the excommunication.

S. Pietro: relief in the monument to Matilda of Tuscany designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and executed by Stefano Speranza: Emperor Henry IV kisses the slipper of Pope Gregory VII at Canossa

In 1633 Pope Urban VIII arranged the transporting of the body of Matilda from Mantua to Rome and he commissioned Gian Lorenzo Bernini to design a monument to be placed along one of the minor naves.

The Investiture Controversy

While Gregory and Henry quarrelled about their respective rights, a new power had emerged in southern Italy. The part of the country along the coast was under the often nominal Byzantine rule, e.g. Gaeta. The rulers of the inland towns, e.g. Capua, were vassals of the emperor, but they often fought each other. They recruited as mercenaries some Norman nobles with their troops; towards the year 1045 the Norman leaders established their own small duchy in the inland territories of southern Italy. In 1047 they were joined by what the Byzantines called a robber-band led by Robert d'Hauteville, who eventually was surnamed Robert Guiscard (Cunning), due to the cleverness shown in building his own kingdom in a few years and even threatening to conquer the Byzantine Empire: he died in 1085 on the island of Cefalonia in a village still called Fiscardo after him, while he was preparing to land on the Greek mainland.
Robert, by playing the local rulers one against the other and by switching alliances, achieved a predominant role in southern Italy. In 1059 Pope Nicholas II, who wanted to eradicate the Byzantine influence from that region (in 1054 the Patriarch of Constantinople had split from the Roman Catholic Church), appointed Robert duke of Apulia and Calabria and his brother was appointed duke of Capua; in addition Robert was appointed duke of Sicily, at the time in Arab hands. By 1076 Robert had established his rule on the whole of southern Italy, with the exclusion of Benevento (a fief of the Church) and his brother Roger had conquered most of Sicily, including Palermo.

Arsoli (in the former Papal State) and above it Oricola in the former Kingdom of Naples

. The Normans established a well structured monarchy in Southern Italy and they fixed a border between their possessions in Abruzzo and the territories of the Papal State which lasted until 1871

Henry IV, soon after the 1077 reconciliation with the Pope, was again excommunicated by Gregory for having violated the terms agreed to at Canossa. Gregory supported a rival emperor, but Henry eventually managed to retain his throne and in 1081 he marched towards Rome: the final clash with Gregory was delayed until March 1084 when Henry entered Rome finding no resistance, arranged the appointment of a new pope and was crowned in S. Pietro. Gregory, who was besieged in Castel Sant'Angelo appealed to Robert the Guiscard who in May moved towards Rome with a large army. Henry and his pope abandoned the city. Gregory was reinstated, but he soon discovered that he was now in the hands of Robert and that the Norman influence had just replaced the German one.

The cloister of SS. Quattro Coronati (early XIIIth century)

Robert Guiscard is associated with one of the worst sacks suffered by Rome. The Normans pillaged the city causing the reaction of the population: in the ensuing fights a fire developed which destroyed a vast area between the Lateran and Colosseo: SS. Quattro Coronati, SS. Giovanni e Paolo and S. Clemente were severely damaged: S. Clemente was rebuilt above the old church, while SS. Quattro Coronati was restructured in 1116 with parts of the old Carolingian church being included in an adjoining monastery. The whole complex was turned into a small fortress which could resist attempts to sack the church.
The image used as a background for this page shows a nun in one of the courtyards of SS. Quattro Coronati.

SS. Giovanni e Paolo: older part of the bell tower which was erected by Pope Paschal II

While the Popes faced great difficulties in establishing their rule in Rome, new developments outside Italy favoured them. In 1085 Alfonso VI, King of Castile and Leon, conquered Toledo giving new impulse to the Christian Reconquista of Spain. In 1087 the Arab fleet at Mahdia was destroyed by a joint action of the maritime republics of Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi. In 1088 the election of Urban II, a French pope, ensured he could rely on the support of the French nobility. The occupation of Jerusalem by Seljuk tribes in 1076 led the Pope to convene a council in 1095 at Clermont in Auvergne where he called for a Crusade. The French knights responded enthusiastically to his appeal. In 1099 the First Crusade ended with the conquest of Jerusalem and the foundation of four Christian kingdoms in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine.
Pope Paschal II who succeded Urban II in 1099 recognized the Military Order of the Hospitallers which in the following centuries had a major role in defending the islands of Rhodes and Malta. Similar to Pope Paschal I he promoted the construction or restoration of several churches, including S. Bartolomeo all'Isola Tiberina and S. Lorenzo in Lucina.

Attempts to Form a Municipal Power in Rome

The investiture controversy went on until a formal compromise was reached in 1122 in the German town of Worms (Concordat of Worms). The Emperor was acknowledged the right to invest bishops with secular authority in the territories they governed, but not with sacred authority. The agreement solved the specific quarrel, but not the underlying conflict between the pope and the emperor of who was superior to whom.
The investiture controversy had weakened both the authority of the popes and that of the emperors: very often emperors reacted to papal excommunications by promoting the appointment of a new pope and for almost a century an antipope challenged the authority of the canonically elected pope.
A new political subject took advantage of this double weakness: in northern and central Italy many towns claimed their de facto independence from both the emperor and the pope: according to the contingent situation and often in opposition to other nearby towns they supported the pope (Guelph towns, after the name of Countess Matilda's second husband) or the emperor (Ghibelline towns after Waiblingen, a residence of the German emperors).
In Rome paradoxically, a sort of Ghibelline view prevailed: Emperor Henry IV had been well received by the Romans who later blamed Pope Gregory VII for the sack of the city. The influence of the Normans on the popes was resented and while the German emperor was far away, the Normans were almost at the gates of Rome. The true objective of the main Roman families was to curtail the temporal power of the pope and to establish an independent municipal power.
The other Italian towns were ruled by republican institutions, often manipulated by the richest families: the two most important families in Rome, the Pierleoni (who had houses and towers near the river and who were of Jewish origin) and the Frangipane (who had transformed the Colosseo into their private fortress), while trying to influence the papal nominations, were somewhat united in an attempt to revive the institutions of Republican Rome.

Ponte Cestio: inscription celebrating a restoration of the bridge by Benedetto, Senator of Rome in 1192

In 1143, a Pierleoni, brother of an antipope, proclaimed the Comune di Roma, which was to be ruled by a Senate of members representing the rioni, the districts of the medieval city. The Campidoglio hill was chosen as the symbol of the municipality, hence its main building is called Palazzo Senatorio. The new institution took a very antipapal stance when a priest, Arnold of Brescia, preached for more democratic rights and forced the incumbent pope (Eugene III) to flee Rome. His successor Pope Adrian IV (the first and only English pope) asked Emperor Frederick I to help him reinstate the papal authority over the City of Rome. Frederick marched towards Rome and captured Arnold who was subsequently hanged; his body was burnt and the ashes were thrown in the river. It was the end of the municipal authority of Rome, although attempts to revive it were made in the XIVth century. The popes however understood the lesson and some powers related to the civic administration and in particular the maintenance or restoration of the ancient monuments were entrusted to one or more senators, appointed by the popes, but not belonging to the clergy and the Campidoglio remained a municipal symbol, reserved to some special ceremonies (today it houses the meetings of the City Council). Francesco Cavalletti Rondinini was the last Senatore di Roma; he was appointed in 1865 by Pope Pius IX.

S. Maria in Trastevere: detail of a XIIth century mosaic

Pope Innocent II (1130-43), elected with the support of the Frangipane, had to coexist in Rome with an antipope who represented the interests of the Pierleoni faction: the former resided in the Lateran, the latter in Castel Sant'Angelo. Only in 1138 at the death of the antipope, Innocent II could exert his authority over the whole city.
Innocent II was supported by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a monk of the Cistercian Order, who preached a return to literal observance of the Benedictine Rule. Bernard had a vision at S. Paolo alle Tre Fontane where a church was built to celebrate the event (S. Maria Scala Coeli). Cistercian monasteries were soon built in Italy, e.g. at Fiastra in 1142, and they contributed to the renewal of Italian architecture by introducing patterns which were developed in France.
Pope Innocent II rebuilt S. Maria in Trastevere, the apse of which was decorated with mosaics portraying Jesus and the Virgin Mary together with saints and prophets; in addition to these sacred figures, the mosaics had also a purely decorative intent and were inspired by themes which were typical of ancient Rome (see them on a sarcophagus).

Pope Alexander III and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa

Emperor Frederick wanted to restore the imperial power enjoyed by Charlemagne and Otto III, so his initial good relationship with the Pope soon turned sour. He used to sign his letters Frederick, by the grace of God, emperor, thus claiming his authority issued directly from a divine decision. As a matter of fact he had been elected emperor by the German princely electors in lieu of the six-year-old son of Emperor Conrad III.
In 1158 Frederick, whom the Italians called Barbarossa after his red beard, crossed the Alps to establish his authority over the riotous Italian towns: after a long siege Milan surrendered and its walls were pulled down; but as soon as the Emperor returned to Germany the Italian towns rebelled again. They were supported by the new pope Alexander III who in 1160 excommunicated the Emperor, who in turn arranged the election of an antipope. Frederick returned to Italy several times, but in 1176 the Lombard League, an alliance of Guelph towns supported by the Pope, defeated his army at Legnano: eventually in 1183 Frederick conceded to these towns the right to elect their own magistrates, practically acknowledging their self government. In 1189 he joined the Third Crusade during which he drowned in the Calicadnus River in the Turkish town of Silifke.
Pope Alexander III reigned for 22 years, but he spent only part of them in Rome, where his security could only be assured by the help of the Normans. While he was seen as the champion of municipal liberties in northern Italy to the point that a town Alessandria was founded to celebrate him, he was not prepared to give up the temporal power in Rome. At his death the Romans threw stones on his coffin.

Il Pincio: 1911 Monument to Alberto di Giussano, the legendary leader of the Guelph army

The fight against Frederick Barbarossa was seen during the XIXth century Italian Risorgimento as an anticipation of the fight for national independence against the Austrian Emperor. Alberto da Giussano, the leader of the Italian troops was regarded as a hero. Giuseppe Verdi wrote La Battaglia di Legnano, an opera based on this event, the first performance of which took place at Teatro Argentina in Rome on January 27, 1849 on the eve of the proclamation of the Roman Republic.
In 1911 in the frame of the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the national unity, the City of Milan donated to the City of Rome a bronze statue portraying Alberto da Giussano by Enrico Butti.

Iconography

The following links show works of art portraying characters and events mentioned in this page; they open in another window:
Pope Gregory VII, Countess Matilda and Emperor Henry IV German miniature.
Emperor Henry IV at Canossa by Eduard Schwoiser (1826-1902).
Death of Emperor Frederick I engraving by H. Vogel.

Next page: Part II: Medieval Rome
IV - The Rise and Fall of the Theocratic Power