Rudolph I

The Second Council of Lyon decided the ending the Interregnum was best done by selecting Rudolph I as King of Germany (and therefore Holy Roman Emperor. The position had been vacant for nearly two decades since there was no individual with sufficient power and backing to rise above other claimants.

Rudolph was born 1 May 1218 to the Hapsburgs, son of Count Albert IV of Habsburg and Hedwig of Kyburg. Albert died when Rudolph was 21, and Rudolph inherited large estates. His power was considered potentially threatening to others around him, and in 1242 Hugh of Tuffenstein antagonized him. Rudolph invaded Hugh's domain, bribed his sentinels, captured Hugh's castle, and killed Hugh.

In 1245, Rudolph married Gertrude of Hohenburg (daughter of the Count of Hohenburg), by whose dowry he received several castles and lands. Over time he received other grants of land from Conrad IV, King of Germany (until 1254).

Rudolph fell afoul of Pope Innocent IV when he invaded the suburbs of Basle and burned down a nunnery in a conflict against the bishop of Basel. Innocent excommunicated him, after which he joined the Prussian Crusade of 1254 with King Ottokar II of Bohemia as penance. (The city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia) was founded at that time in Ottokar's honor.)

Ottokar had been excommunicated by Innocent IV himself prior to this. As a second son, he had originally been intended for an ecclesiastical career, but the death of his older brother Vladislaus made him the heir of his father, Wenceslaus I. He had been persuaded before he was even king to rebel against Wenceslaus, even expelling him from Prague Castle temporarily. Father and son were eventually reconciled, and Ottokar became king at his father's death in 1253.

During the Interregnum, Ottokar continued to exercise ambition and did his best to take over other areas, occupying an area of northwest Bohemia, fighting and defeating Hungarians, and making deals to take over other lands. 

When it came to electing a new King of Germany/Holy Roman Emperor, the Second Council of Lyons considered Ottokar to be too violent and unpredictable, compared to Rudolph. (Another claimant, Alfonso X of Castile, had never set foot in Germany.) The pope also never considered ottar to be a legitimate heir to the throne of Bohemia. So Rudolph got the title, and Ottokat was confined to Bohemia.

Rudolph and Ottokar were on the same page at least once, however, during that Prussian crusade. Why there was a Prussian Crusade will be a topic for tomorrow.

Purgatory

One of the differences in doctrine between the Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches that developed after the start of the East-West Schism was the idea of Purgatory.

When I was much younger, occasionally, when I would complain about the difficulty of a task I was given, I would be told by an adult that, by enduring, "Your time in Purgatory will be short."

From the Latin verb purgo ("to clean, cleanse"), the word "purgatory" starts to be used in the second half of the 12th century to refer to the need for imperfect souls to be cleansed in order to enter Heaven, and gives rise to the idea of a place where this happens. 2 Maccabees 12:46 says "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." This suggests that the souls of the dead need further purification that they did not receive in life.

The Second Council of Lyon in 1274 defined its teaching on Purgatory, though didn't state that it was a place:

Because if they die truly repentant in charity before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for (sins) committed and omitted, their souls are cleansed after death by purgatorical or purifying punishments…. And to relieve punishments of this kind, the offerings of the living faithful are of advantage to these, namely, the sacrifices of Masses, prayers, alms, and other duties of piety, which have customarily been performed by the faithful for the other faithful according to the regulations of the Church. [line 856]

...and just so we cover all the bases about Heaven and Hell:

However, the souls of those who after having received holy baptism have incurred no stain of sin whatever, ... are received immediately into heaven. [line 857]

The souls of those who die in mortal sin or with original sin only, however, immediately descend to hell, yet to be punished with different punishments. [line 858] 

The dogma of Purgatory was re-affirmed in the Councils of Florence (1443) and Trent (1545-63). People can die in a state of grace but their souls still need some cleansing, and their time in Purgatory could be shortened by the prayers of the living.

Dante of course dedicates a third of the Divine Comedy to Purgatorio, in which we find people constantly praying to work their way into Heaven. His Purgatory (and others) is described as a place of purification, not punishment. (There are depictions, however, of Purgatory as a "mini Hell" where fire and torment are the cleansing method.)

The Orthodox Church rejected the notion of a third location where the souls of the dead could go, but the need for purgation is still part of Orthodox theology. In this case, the imperfect soul goes to Hell, but the prayers of the living can help purify them so that they transition to Heaven. (This is the "punchline" to The Great Divorce by C.S.Lewis: anyone can leave the bleakness of Hell and travel to Heaven, but they have to be prepared to change internally and understand their imperfections.)

Now, about the Second Council of Lyon: a lot of events were connected to it, and it has cropped up before in this blog. I want to pull the separate threads together tomorrow.

The Name of the Rose

When Gerard Segarelli was rejected by the Franciscans, he took matters into his own hands and formed the Apostolic Brethren in 1260. The Brethren, active in northern Italy, gained many followers with their life of extreme poverty and their message of repentance.

[Source]

In 1274, at the Second Council of Lyon, Pope Honorius IV prohibited all mendicant orders if they were not sanctioned by the papacy. In 1280, the Bishop of Parma imprisoned Segarelli, and in 1286 banished him from the diocese.

The prohibition against unapproved mendicant orders was renewed in 1290 by Pope Nicholas IV, who also began going after those "orders"; the Brethren were a particular target.

In 1294, four members of the sect were burned at the stake. Segarelli himself was sentenced to life in prison, but on 18 July, 1300, he was burned at the stake in Parma after being made to confess that he had relapsed into heresy. The Apostolic Brethren gained a new leader in the charismatic Fra Dolcino, who is worth his own post someday.

The motto of the Brethren under Segarelli, and later under Fra Dolcino, was Poenitentiam agite [Latin: Make penitence]. This was abbreviated to Penitenziagite! and made known to millions of readers 680 years after Segarelli's execution in Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose.

St. Bonaventure

St. Bonaventure has been mentioned before, writing a biography of Francis of Assisi and disagreeing with Averroes' definition of the soul. He probably deserves his own entry.

He was born in either 1217 or 1221 as Giovanni di Fidanza in Bagnoregio (about 90 kilometers northwest of Rome). In his early 20s he became a Franciscan friar and studied at the University of Paris, quickly developing a reputation as a scholar. He was even made a lecturer on the Four Books of Sentences of Peter Lombard. He took his Masters degree in 1257 in the "same class" as Thomas Aquinas.

Bonaventure wanted to meld all forms of human thought in order to truly comprehend God:

He thought of Christ as the “one true master” who offers humans knowledge that begins in faith, is developed through rational understanding, and is perfected by mystical union with God. [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]

Bonaventure was later declared a "Doctor of the Church" for his erudition and writings, but unlike his classmate Thomas Aquinas  he was called away from the academic life. In 1273 he was made a Cardinal by Pope Gregory X and given the task of reconciling Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox-Byzantine religions. This was to culminate in the Second Council of Lyons, where he died on 15 July 1274.

It is not possible in a brief blog post to do justice to the extent of his learning or the breadth of his career: he was made Minister General of the Franciscans in 1257 to try to overcome the growing disagreement over to what extent the order should embrace poverty. We will likely see more of him in the future.

Gregory X

Today is the anniversary of the death of Pope Gregory X. He has already been mentioned in Daily Medieval, but let's take a closer look at his career.

Pope Gregory X is presented Kublai's letter by the Polos

His election as pope came after a three-year vacancy (1268-1271) in the position. The cardinals were split between French and Italian factions. Charles of Anjou, younger son of King Louis IX of France, had taken over Sicily and started to interfere with Italian politics. The French cardinals were fine with this; the Italian cardinals were not. The cardinals met in the town of Viterbo and vote after vote produced no clear candidate. Finally, the citizens of Viterbo locked them into the room where they met, removed the roof to expose them to the weather, and allowed them nothing but bread and water.

On the third day, they picked a pope.

Cardinal Teobaldo Visconti was Italian, but had lived most of his life in the extreme north and was unaffected by the recent Sicilian difficulties. He was chosen as a compromise candidate.

Visconti was not even aware that he was considered as a candidate; he wasn't there. He was with Edward I of England on the Ninth Crusade as a papal legate. While there, he had been met by the Polos, who had letters from Kublai Khan for the pope.

When word came to him that he was the new pope, his first act was to request aid for the Crusade. He then sailed for Italy and called the Second Council of Lyons to discuss the East-West Schism and corruption in the Church. He also heard from the Polos again, who pressed him (now that he was pope) on Khan's request for 100 priests to come east and explain Christianity. The new pope, who took the name Gregory X, could only offer a few Dominicans (who tarted out on the long journey, but lost heart and turned back).

Gregory did establish relations with the Mongols, however, when the Mongol ruler Abaqa Khan (1234 - 1282) sent a delegation to the Council of Lyons to discus military cooperation between the Mongols and Europe for a Crusade. Plans were made, money was raised, and then Gregory died on 10 January 1276. The project failed.