Download Reading Activity: The Holy Roman Empire and the

Reading Activity:
The Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy
Name:
Scenario: You serve a bishop in France in the early AD 800’s. He controls a number of large estates that were
donated to the church in order to provide income that could cover the costs of religious services at your
cathedral. Charlemagne’s health is failing and his local vassals are trying to exert influence over the church. Some
have threatened to take church lands, others have offered to buy them from your master. Aimery, the local
count, has told him that he would like his cousin made abbot of an influential monastery nearby. All of them
claim that the bishop owes obedience to them because they are the vassals of Charlemagne, the Holy Roman
Emperor. The bishop knows you are wise and learned and needs your advice. As bishop, he does have the power
of excommunication. Should he deny these warrior chiefs or give in to them?
1. Research the political situation of the time by reading the four passages and answering the questions
below.
2. Then decide how the bishop ought to respond to Aimery.
3. Write your recommendation in a Parker paragraph on the back side of this page. Be sure to make
reference to several of the sources in your recommendation.
A. The Donation of
Constantine
What strength does the church take from this document?
What does this document mean to the Frankish rulers of the West?
How might the powerful Byzantines view this document?
C. The Wars of
Charlemagne
B. Annals of Lorsch
What seems to be the motive for Pipin to write to the pope?
What did the Pope want in return for what he “gave” to Pipin?
What argument do you predict will arise later between popes and kings because of this arrangement?
In what ways did Charlemagne prove to a support to the church?
- What did he do in Lombardy that spread the Catholic faith?
- How did Charlemagne help make the pope more politically independent after the Lombard conquest?
How did Charlemagne’s war with the Saxons strengthen the Church? Himself?
D. Pope Leo III and
Charlemagne
What did Pope Leo III get from the crowning of Charlemagne as emperor?
What did Charlemagne gain?
Who would you say got the better deal? Why?
Passage A: Donation of Constantine
Source: Adapted from Catholic Encyclopedia
This is a document created in the 700’s (later proved a forgery) claiming to be from Constantine the Great and
addressed to Pope Sylvester I (314-35), the bishop of Rome (or pope) at the time. It consists of two parts. In the
first part (entitled "Confessio") the emperor relates how he was instructed in the Christian Faith by Sylvester,
makes a full profession of faith, and tells of his baptism in Rome by that pope, and how he was thereby cured of
leprosy. In the second part (the "Donatio") Constantine is made to confer on Sylvester and his successors the
following privileges and possessions:
 The pope, as successor of St. Peter, has authority over the other four major bishops (called Patriarchs) in
Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. He also has authority over all other Christian bishops
in the world.
 The Lateran basilica (palace/church) at Rome, built by Constantine, be considered a sort of capitol building
over other churches in the world. It would become the Pope’s palace until the Vatican was built many
centuries later.
 The churches of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome should be granted land to pay for church services and
renovations.
 Priests, abbots (monastery leaders), deacons, etc in Rome should be given the title of patrician and
Senator, giving them a sort of political independence. These men would later be called “cardinal” clerics.
 Popes will be allowed imperial privileges like wearing an imperial crown, purple cloaks and tunics.
Sylvester refused this so Constantine allowed him to wear a high, white cap called the phrygium. This
gives the pope powers of a political leader.
 Moreover, the emperor donates to the pope and his successors control of the city of Rome and the
provinces, districts, and towns of Italy and all the Western regions. This essentially makes the pope into an
emperor over the western Empire equal in status to Constantine in the East.
 The emperor is moving his capital east because he feels that his earthly imperial government interferes
with the prestige of the pope’s spiritual government.
 Lastly, Constantine condemns any who would deny these rights to the pope and swears he signed the
document personally and placed it at the tomb of St. Peter in Rome.

Though this document was not used until 1054, it does articulate a papal/Germanic claim to control of Italy over the claims o f the Greek emperors
of the time.
Something to consider – How might the Byzantine Emperor, who has lieutenants ruling territories in Italy, feel about the idea
that all of western Europe belongs to the popes of Rome and their defenders (like the Franks)?
Constantine (center) hands Pope Sylvester the papal tiara
http://magnificat.ca/cal/en/saints/dedication_of_the_latera
n_basilica.html
Lateran Basilica
http://magnificat.ca/cal/en/saints/dedication_of_the_lat
eran_basilica.html
Passage B: Annals* of Lorsch - The pope makes the Carolingians kings
of the Franks
Source: Fordham University Online Medieval Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/lorsch1.asp
Background: In 749 the pope consolidated the alliance with the Carolingian family by allowing the transfer of the
royal title from the powerless Merovingian (descendants of Clovis) title holder to Pepin (son of Charles Martel and
father of Charlemagne), the mayor of the palace and actual holder of power in France. The events are described in
the contemporary Annals of Lorsch.
“Anno 749. Burchard, bishop of Wilrzburg, and Fulrad, priest and chaplain, were sent [by Pipin] to pope Zacharias
to ask his advice in regard to the kings who were then ruling in France, who had the title of king but no real royal
authority. The pope replied by these ambassadors that it would be better that he who actually had the power
should be called king.
“750 [751]. In this year Pipin was named king of the Franks with the sanction of the pope, and in the city of
Soissons he was anointed with the holy oil by the hands of Boniface**, archbishop and martyr of blessed memory,
and was raised to the throne after the custom of the Franks. But Childerich (the Merovingian king at the time),
who had the name of king, was shorn of his locks and sent into a monastery.
“753. In this year pope Stephen came to Pipin at Kiersy (Quercy in southern France), to urge him to defend the Roman
church from the attacks of the Lombards (a non-Catholic, Germanic tribe living in northern Italy).
“754. And after pope Stephen had received a promise from king Pipin that he would defend the Roman church, he
anointed the king and his two sons, Karl and Karlmann, with the holy oil. And the pope remained that winter in
France.”
Original source: Oliver J. Thatcher, and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval History, (New York: Scribners, 1905), p. 3738
* Annals are a record of a particular year. This set of annals includes brief, yearly entries for an extended period.
** Boniface was a very well-respected monk who reformed the priesthood in France and spread Catholicism to barbarian Germany.
Something to consider: Why would Pepin want the Church to declare him king if he had the military might to
simply take the crown? What does this do for the prestige of the pope?
St. Boniface crowning Pepin at
Soissons in
http://www.robertsewell.ca/pepin.
html
Division of Italy after Pepin’s
Defeat of the Lombards
http://www.vaticanotours.co
m/papal_states.html
St. Boniface striking down a
tree sacred to German pagans
http://angelsandsaintsandus.blo
gspot.com/2012/06/stboniface.html
Passage C: Einhard – The Wars of Charlemagne, ca. 770-814
Source: Fordham University Online Medieval Sourcebook
http://www.fordham.edu/Halsall/source/einhard-wars1.asp
Davis Introduction: “Most of Charlemagne's reign was consumed with wars in which he was usually victorious. He never had to
confront a first-class enemy in battle, and his martial father and grandfather had transmitted to him the well-trained Frankish
army. He cannot, therefore, be called a distinguished general. His wars, however, were of high importance for history;
especially the conquest of the Saxons and the Lombards implied the bringing of much of Germany and Italy into the circle of
‘The Holy Roman Empire,’ and of medieval civilization.”
“After bringing a war in Aquitania (western France) to an end, he (Charlemagne) was persuaded, by the prayers and
promptings of Hadrian, Bishop of Rome (the pope), to undertake a war against the Lombards (Germans in northern Italy).
Already before him his father [Pepin] had assumed this task, at the asking of Pope Stephen, under great
difficulties, for certain Frankish chiefs of his very council, had opposed the proposal so vehemently as to threaten
to desert their King and go home. Notwithstanding, the war against Astolf, King of the Lombards, had been
undertaken, and promptly brought to an issue (A.D. 773).
“Charles…did not turn back---once war was declared---until he had exhausted King Desidarius by a prolonged
siege; then forced him to surrender unconditionally. He also drove his son Adalgis, the last hope of the Lombards,
not only from his kingdom, but from all Italy. He likewise restored to the Romans (i.e. the pope) all they had lost;
crushed Henodgans, Duke of Friuli, who was scheming revolt; reduced all Italy to his sway, and set his son over it.
The war ended with the subjection of Italy, the banishment of King Desidarius for life, the expulsion of his son
Adalgis from Italy and the restoration to (pope) Hadrian, Primate of the Roman Church, of all the conquests by the
Lombard kings.
“As to the Saxon war, no war ever undertaken by the Franks was waged with such persistence and bitterness, or
cost so much labor, because the Saxons, like almost all Germans, were a ferocious folk, given over to devil-worship,
hostile to our Faith, and they did not consider it dishonorable to transgress and violate all law---be it human or
divine (church law)…Accordingly, war was begun against the Saxons and was waged furiously for thirty-three
consecutive years [772-804 A.D.] on the whole to the disadvantage of the Saxons. Much earlier surely it would
have terminated but for the perfidy of the Saxons. (The war would have ended sooner if the Saxons were not such doublecrossers. According to Einhard, they would seek peace, promising to be loyal and to worship the Christian God instead or their traditional
gods but then would ignore this promise as soon as the Franks left.)
“The King (Charlemagne), however, pressed them with unvarying purpose despite great difficulties and either took
the field against them himself, or sent his
counts against them with a host to wreak
vengeance and exact due satisfaction. The war
that had lasted so many years at last
terminated when the Saxons gave way to the
terms proffered by the King; namely, the
renunciation of their native religious cults and
devil-worship, the acceptance of the Christian
sacraments, and union with the Franks into one
people.”
Something to consider: In what ways did
Charlemagne prove to a support to the church?
Above: Charlemagne observes the
baptism of the vanquished Saxon chief
Widikund (source: AfriPics)
Right: Charlemagne orders the
destruction of the Saxon shrine called
the Irminsul (Source: Wikipedia)
Passage D: Pope Leo III and Charlemagne
Source: adapted from Catholic Encyclopedia Online
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09157b.htm
Date of birth unknown; died 816. Pope Leo III was elected on the very day his predecessor was buried (26
Dec., 795), and consecrated on the following day. The speed of this election may be from a Roman fear that
Charlemagne might try to interfere. Leo was a Roman, the son of Atyuppius and Elizabeth. With the letter
informing Charlemagne that he had been unanimously elected pope, Leo sent him the keys of the confession of
St. Peter, and the standard of the city. This he did to show that he regarded the Frankish king as the protector of
the Holy See (pope’s headquarters). In return he received from Charlemagne letters of congratulation and a great
part of the treasure which the king had captured from the Avars (kind of like Huns). The acquisition of this wealth
was in part the reason Leo could devote so much money to the churches and charitable institutions of Rome.
Prompted by jealousy or ambition, a number of the relatives of Pope Adrian I (the previous pope) formed
a plot to render Leo unfit to hold his sacred office… During a religious procession, and when the pope was making
his way towards the Flaminian Gate, he was suddenly attacked. He was dashed to the ground, and an effort was
made to root out his tongue and tear out his eyes. After he had been left bleeding in the street, he was hurried off
at night to the monastery of St. Erasmus. There, in what seemed quite a miraculous manner, he recovered the full
use of his eyes and tongue. Escaping from the monastery, Leo escaped to Germany where Charlemagne received
him with the greatest honor. The Frankish monarch caused him to be escorted back to Rome, where he was
received with every demonstration of joy by the whole populace, natives and foreigners. The pope's enemies
were then tried by Charlemagne's envoys (messengers) and, being unable to establish either Leo's guilt or their own
innocence, were sent as prisoners to Frankland. In the following year (800) Charlemagne himself came to Rome,
and the pope and his accusers were brought face to face. The assembled bishops declared that the conspirators
were in the wrong. But at Leo’s special request the death sentence which had been passed upon his enemies was
commuted (changed) into a sentence of exile.
A few days later, Leo and Charlemagne again met. It was on Christmas Day in St. Peter's. After the Gospel
had been sung, the pope approached Charlemagne, who was kneeling before the Confession of St. Peter, and
placed a crown upon his head. The assembled multitude at once made the basilica (church) ring with the shout: "To
Charles, the most pious Augustus, crowned by God, to our great and pacific emperor life and victory!" By this act
was revived the Roman Empire in the West. It was understood by the Roman people that the first duty of the
new emperor was to be the protector of the Roman Church and of Christendom against the heathen.
This partnership would continue until Charlemagne’s death. Together they were able to enforce the
pope’s negotiations between other kings and their bishops, build a navy to guard the Italian coast from Muslim
raiders, restore several regions to the control of the papacy, and even nearly united East and West through a
failed marriage arrangement with Irene, the widow of the Byzantine emperor. Charlemagne was able to finally
defeat the Saxon tribes because a Catholic segment of them remained loyal to him during a revolt.
Something to consider: Who got the better deal out of this relationship? The pope or
Charlemagne?
This Frankish coin from the
end of Charlemagne’s life
shows his Latin name
“Carolus” with the Latin
abbreviations for
Imperator (IMP) and
Augustus (AUG). On the
back of the coin is the Latin
term for “Christian Faith”
surrounding a church.
Source:
http://www.coinsweekly.com/
en/Archive/8?&id=158&type=a