1111 and Canon Law in Rome

Abstract

1111 and Canon Law in Rome Uta-Renate Blumenthal With the Concordat of Worms of September 1122 the bitter struggle between the reformed papacy and the Empire over investiture of ecclesiastics with ring and crozier came practically to an end.1 To be sure, it was a compromise as Robert Benson phrased it,2 but it endured despite occasional attempts from either the papal or the imperial side to introduce advantageous changes. Ernst Bernheim showed in a detailed textual analysis that the agreements exchanged in 1122 at Worms were based on the records of two earlier attempts to settle the burning issues that destroyed the traditional harmony of regnum and sacerdotium: the negotiations in February and April 1111 in Rome and of 1119 at Mouzon.3 This paper will focus on the first set of these, since [End Page 157] they form an often neglected but illuminating aspect of the background to the Concordat of Worms. In August 1110 King Henry V set out for Rome for his imperial coronation, accompanied by an unusually large army.4 Henry's chancellor, Archbishop Adalbert of Mainz, and lay magnates were sent by the king from Aquapendente as emissaries to Rome. They met in February 1111 with representatives of Paschal II, chief among them Petrus Leonis (Pierleone). The delegations negotiated in the church of Santa Maria in Turri, a part of the complex of the basilica of St. Peter's. The location was not chosen by accident as this paper will show, for nearby were three bronze portals leading into the basilica inscribed with the names of the possessions of St. Peter's, its patrimonium.5 On February 4 the imperial party presented Henry's promise, a document to be exchanged with Paschal during Henry's coronation as emperor, envisioned for February 12. 'Rex scripto refutabit omnem investituram omnium ecclesiarum in manu domni pape … in die coronationis sue … Et postquam domnus papa fecerit de regalibus sicut in alia carta scriptum est …'. read the most significant sentences in the [End Page 158] imperial document,6 supported by oaths there and then, and by an oath on behalf of Henry V on February 9 at Sutri.7 The alia carta is Paschal's promise, as first formulated on his behalf by Petrus Leonis on February 4 at S. Maria, and repeated in similar but briefer form in Paschal's Privilegium primae conventionis intended for Henry's imperial coronation.8 This 'other document' to be granted in exchange for the long wished-for renunciation of investiture by Henry V contained an order to the bishops present at the coronation to return the regalia to the king and to the kingdom, with the famous definition of what constituted the regalia:9 Civitates, ducatus, marchias, comitatus, monetae, teloneum, mercatum advocatias regni, iura centurionum et curtes quae [manifeste] regni errant, cum pertinentiis suis, militiam et castra [regni]. On the day of the planned coronation, February 12, these documents were to be exchanged by the two parties. But what should have been a highpoint of Paschal's reign, Henry's renunciation of investiture, turned into a 'dramatic … fiasco'.10 Violent opposition to Paschal's proposal prevented the coronation, and by nightfall the pope and almost all cardinals—including Cardinal Gregory of S. Grisogono, author of the canonical collection Polycarpus11—were captured and imprisoned by the king and his army.12 After two months of [End Page 159] captivity Paschal II abandoned the fight for the liberty of the church as formulated during the Gregorian reform. At Ponte Mammolo on April 11 he granted Henry V the imperial crown and the customary right of investiture, in a privilege that was known almost immediately as the Pravilegium and could have meant the end of Paschal's pontificate if not calmer voices like that of Ivo of Chartres had prevailed.13 'It is hardly possible to imagine the consequences the planned action [regarding the regalia] would have had for the government and for the economy', concluded Tellenbach.14 Fried emphasized that the regalia that were to be returned, 'Herrschaftsrechte, Gerechtsame und Grundbesitz', constituted the essential parts of the regnum, the kingdom, and stood in contrast to everything that did not pertain to...