Basic HTML Version
idolized by the Nazis of the 1920's
and 1930's.
But Frederick is also the first
modern humanist. He is a politician,
a legislator of the first order, an able
soldier, a scientific investigator, a
humanist and a religious skeptic. He
establishes centers of learning and
culture in southern Italy. At the
same time, he affects the courtly
manners, dress and ideals of the By–
zantine emperor. Frederick is both
courteous and arrogant and "an as–
trologer with the mind of a Renais–
sance rationalist," as one historian is
to call him.
Pope Gregory
IX
(1227-1241) ex–
communicates Frederick
n
and pro–
nounces him a heretic. He even calls
for a crusade _against Frederick.
Frederick is labeled as the person–
ification of Antichrist by Gregory.
"Out of the depths of the sea rises
the beast," shouts Gregory, "filled
with the names of blas–
phemy.... behold the head, the
middle and the end of this beast,
Frederick, the so-called emperor."
Frederick lashes back. He calls
Gregory the Antichrist.
AU this is the culmination of a
great struggle between Frederick
and the papacy. It is a conflict that
began years before, during the reign
of Innocent
III
(1198-1216) who
crowned Frederick emperor.
Innocent had begun to carry out a
papal program to reduce the empire
to a plaything of the pope. During
the disputed election after Henry
Vl's death, Innocent reveals his
thinking: "The settlement of this
matter is the proper province of the
Holy-See, since it was the Holy See
which translated the Empire from
the East to the West, and ultimately,
because that same See confers the
imperial crown."
But the Germans are not the only
ones who must become vassals of
the Church. Almost every European
nation is threatened or cajoled by
lnnocent
III.
"No king can reign
happily," he claims, " unless he de–
voutly serves Christ's vicar ....
Princes reign over the body, but
priests also over the soul." Even the
PLAIN TRUTH March 1974
king of England must "yield up to
our Lord, the Pope Innocent, and
his successors, all our kingdom of
England and all our kingdom of Ire–
land, to be held as a fief of the Holy
Roman Church." Fealty to the Pope
comes from Spain's King Peter
II
of Aragon, from Poland, Hungary,
Galicia, Lodomeria, Serbia, Croatia
and Bulgaria.
Innocent sees himself as the new
priest-king Melchizedek. He is
leader of both Christendom and
empire. The kings of the earth are
merely bis vassals. The Pope claims
to be the God of the emperor -
Papa est Deus imperatoris.
Frederick
has bis answer to the pope's claim of
omnipotency:
imperial messianism.
The empire is a divine institution;
the emperor is appointed directly by
God. Everything that has to do with
the emperor is sacred.
Frederick versus lnnocent is unre–
solvable. Papacy and empire are
locked in mortal struggle. Despite
the theology and philosophy in–
voked, the problems are political
and mundane. The kings of the
earth may be the Pope's vassals, but
the bishop of Rome cannot even be
sure of the loyalty of bis own city.
He looks with fear upon the distinct
possibility of being an imperial
bishop at Rome, a subordinate of an
emperor whose capital may be at
Aachen, or worse yet, at Rome itself.
The Hohenstaufen empire, with
bases in Sicily and Tuscany as well
as in northern Italy, horrifies the cu–
rial politicians. Mix in Frederick's
own grandiose plans , and the
papacy is stirred into a panic. Suc–
cessive popes conclude the Ho–
henstaufens must be annihilated.
Frederick finally dies in 1250, ex–
hausted from war, harassment and
treachery. His son Henry had al–
ready died as a prisoner of his father
in 1242 as a result of his part in the
revolt of the Lombards in 1234. But
Frederick's death alone will not sat–
isfy; the entire Hohenstaufen clan
must be exterminated.
Conrad IV puts up a stiff resis–
tance to the papacy, but dies pre–
maturely in 1254. His infant son,
Conradin, is left as heir to the now
vacant throne.
The French pope, Urban IV
(1261-1264), brings in Charles of
Anjou, brother of Louis IX of
France, to campaign in Sicily
against Frederick's illegitimate son
Manfred. On February 26, 1266,
Charles defeats Manfred at the
battle ofGrandella. Manfred dies in
the fighting.
Now only the 15-year-old Con–
radio, Frederick's grandson, is left.
He marches from Swabia on Rome.
After the fateful battle of Taglia–
cozzo in 1268, he falls captive to
Anjou. His execution is ordered
with at least the tacit approval of
Pope Clement IV, and Conradin
dies at Napies. Europe is shocked.
The whole German Hohenstaufen
dynasty has been extinguished by
the papaéy and the French.
Years 1254-1273: The Great In–
terregnum. For sorne time the ero–
pire has had no central power. Rival
factions arise, throwing the empire
into confusion. Vassal states assert
their independence.
lt
is the
"kai–
ser/ose, schreckliche Zeit"-
the ter–
rible period without an emperor.
A deep pessimism fills thirteenth–
century German theologians and in–
tellectuals. Once again, the Holy
Roman Empire appears doomed.
The arrival of Antichrist is awaited
with
~ar
and trepidation.
After one of its darkest hours, the
Holy Roman Empire will revive
once more. However, its configura–
tion will take on new, distinct fea–
tures. And before its impact is felt in
world affairs, there are yet many
decades of religious confusion, strife
and war.
Years 1273-1438: The Changing
Face of Europe. In 1273, the Aus–
trian Rudolf of Habsburg is elected
king. On October 24, he is crowned
at Aachen. The " terrible time with–
out an emperor" has ended. How–
ever, Rudolf is not crowned as
emperor in Rome. Although he sets
about to restore the imperial
in–
fluence, the empire will not play the
great role it once did until the late
fifteenth century.
25