THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. Lecture 2. The empire 800 - 1100. The Early Middle Ages.

The Holy Roman Empire – 814

Aachen. When Charlemagne died in 814, aged 67, he was buried in Aachen in a church that he had built there some time before.

Modern Germany. His father had built a castle residence there and the town’s attraction was the hot springs. Charlemagne spent most winters in Aachen between 792 and 814 and it was the focus of his court and political centre of the empire. When Charlemagne died in 814, the former Roman Empire still existed in the east as the Byzantine Empire and in a few other isolated parts. The western part was gone, replaced largely by the Franks.

The Remains of the Roman Empire – about 814. Blue: Byzantine Empire. Red: Kingdom of the Franks. All Emperors were crowned King of Germany and often King of Italy before becoming Emperor. Charlemagne’s throne in Aachen was used for these coronations. Until the 15th century the emperor elect was required to be crowned by the Pope before assuming the imperial title.

Charlemagne’s Throne in Aachen. After Charlemagne. Emperor successions hardly ever occurred smoothly. Later the position of emperor evolved into an elected monarchy. When Charlemagne died, his son and nominated successor, Louis I, started by removing his relations as potential rivals by sending them to cloisters. He mortally blinded his nephew for revolt, he broke a sworn treaty with his sons and ignored his wife completely. He was required to

undertake 3 rites of penance. He was known as “Louis the Pious”. When Louis I died, two of his sons joined forces against their half-brother, Lothar, in a three-year civil war. The struggles between the brothers led directly to the break-up of the Frankish empire and laid the foundation for the development of modern France. France evolved from the Kingdom of the Franks as a separate kingdom. The remaining part became known as The Holy Roman Empire. The history of the development of the European continent is often presented as the development of separate nation states. Historians such as Peter Wilson believe that it is more related to the development and changes of the Holy Roman Empire. Monasteries and Convents. Monasteries and convents evolved throughout the Empire from as early as 530. This was when Saint Benedict established a monastery at Subiaco in Italy. This was the first of twelve monasteries that he founded. By the 9th century the Benedictine form of monastic life had become the standard form of monastic life throughout the whole of Western Europe. It became the rule of choice throughout the Carolingian empire. Monastic scriptoria flourished from the 9th century. Sacred scripture was always at the heart of these scriptoria. The Cistercian and Trappist monasteries came later.

Otto the Great – 912-973. After Lothar died in 855 there were 9 emperors before Otto I. Otto was crowned King of Germany in 936. The Ottonian dynasty was the next major dynasty after the Carolingian dynasty.

Like those before him and those after, the coronation of Otto I, as King of Germany, took place in Aachen. (After Otto I until 1531, 31 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned King of Germany.) Otto I continued his father’s work of unifying all German tribes into a single kingdom and greatly expanded the king’s powers at the expense of the aristocracy. He installed members of his family in the kingdom’s most important duchies.

After putting down a brief civil war among the rebellious duchies, Otto defeated the Magyars at the battle of Lechfeld in 953, thus ending the Hungarian invasions of Western Europe. It earned Otto a reputation as a saviour of Christendom and secured his hold over the kingdom.

Hungarian raids across Europe in the 10th Century. The patronage of Otto and his immediate successors facilitated a so-called “Ottonian Renaissance” of architecture and arts.

St. Michael’s Church – Hildesheim – about 1030

Processional Cross – about 1000 In 1100, some 125 years after the death of Otto I, Henry IV was emperor. He was the 6th emperor after Otto I. The Holy Roman Empire spanned central Europe between the kingdom of France to the west and the kingdoms of Hungary and Poland to the east. In the north, it was bounded by the Baltic and North Seas and by the Danish kingdom; in the south, it reached the Alps. At no time in its long history did the empire possess clearly defined boundaries; its people, perhaps fifteen million in 1500,

spoke a variety of languages and dialects although German predominated. The multilingual empire stood at the crossroads of Europe and its emerging national cultures; it also included significant Jewish communities in the south and west.

Europe in 1100. European trade and communication moved along the mighty rivers within the empire – the Rhine, the Main, the Danube and the Elbe.

The Trade Rivers of the Empire. Emperors Seat of Government. The medieval emperors of the Holy Roman Empire did not rule from a capital city. They had to maintain personal contact with their vassals. This was so-called “itinerant kingship”. The emperor would move around the country staying at various places for a time but generally no longer than a few weeks. The residences were not always grand palaces. Some were small castles but in the main they were large manor houses that offered catering and accommodation for the emperor and his many retainers, often running into hundreds of staff, as well as numerous guests and their horses. The residences were generally about 30km apart – a day’s horse ride.

Disputes Between Emperor and Pope Over Responsibilities. During the development of the Holy Roman Empire there were continual disputes between the Emperors and the Papacy concerning their respective areas of responsibility and control. It was generally agreed that the Emperor was responsible for secular matters while the Pope was responsible for spiritual matters. Often the issues involved were not so clear cut. An influential metaphor of two swords was used. The church received the sword of spiritual authority while the state received the secular sword of power to maintain order and provide the physical conditions to enable the church to perform its role. They remained locked in a dance that each struggled to lead, yet neither was prepared to release his partner and go solo. The idea of the secular sword elevated the emperor above other kings.

St. Peter presenting a pallium to Pope Leo III and a flag to Charlemagne. (Mosaic in the Lateran Palace). Succession at all levels of authority was often a time of turmoil. The idea that emperors were sacred rather than merely pious took hold during the 10th century. They stopped short of claiming to be priests but their coronation ritual resembled a bishop’s ordination – including anointing, assuming vestments and receiving objects that symbolised spiritual as well as secular authority. Early medieval emperors remained warriors.

Charlemagne by Albrecht Durer - 1512 The Great East-West Schism of 1054. This was a Schism that led to a break of relations between what are now the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches. The ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes pre-dated the formal rupture that occurred in 1054. Prominent

among these were the issues of the source of the Holy Spirit, whether leavened or unleavened bread should be used in the Eucharist, the Bishop of Rome’s claim to universal jurisdiction and the place of the See of Constantinople in relation to the Pentarchy. As an example of the division consider the furore over what was called The Filioque. This is related to how one understands the Holy Trinity. The Eastern Church claimed that the Holy Spirit proceeds “from the father”, without additions of any kind, whereas the Western Churches spoke of the Holy Spirit proceeding “from the Father and the Son”. In 1054 a papal legate travelled to Constantinople demanding of the Patriarch Cerularius that, among other things, he recognise the Pope’s claim to be head of all the churches. Cerularius refused and was immediately excommunicated by Cardinal Humbert, the head of the legation. In return Cerularius excommunicated Humbert and the other legates. This was the first act in creating the schism. Even after 1054 friendly relations between East and West continued. The disputes remained something of which ordinary Christians in East and West were largely unaware. There was no single event that marked the breakdown. Rather the two churches slid into and out of schism over a period of several centuries, punctuated with temporary reconciliations.

The Investiture Dispute – 1076-1122. Papal authority relied on asserting moral rather than direct administrative leadership. For example, Popes felt they had the right to judge whether candidates chosen by the various Christian kings and nobles were suitable to become bishops or archbishops. The disputes between emperor and pope with regard to investiture came to a head in 1076 and lasted until 1122 in what came to be known as “The Investiture Dispute”. This was a dispute which began between emperor Henry IV and Pope Gregory VII. The trigger was Henry’s investiture of Archbishop Godfrey of Milan.

Gregory’s criticism of this was not based solely on whether Godfrey was suitable for the position, but also on whether there should be any royal involvement at all.

At stake was how the wealth gained from the land obtained from the investiture would be used – how much would be used for military and political obligations and how much for spiritual activities. Henry convened a synod at Worms in January 1076 which renounced obedience to Gregory and demanded that he abdicate. A month later Gregory went further than any previous pope by not merely excommunicating Henry but deposing him. There was growing opposition to Henry in Germany so he decided to appear before Gregory as a penitent. He apologised personally to Gregory and as a penance for his sins he wore a hair shirt and stood barefoot in the in the snow in the middle of winter. Gregory lifted the royal excommunication but the humiliation Henry had suffered meant that the political opposition in Germany carried on regardless. The rebel dukes acted independently of Gregory and argued that they, not the pope, were responsible for the empire’s collective welfare. Their actions ultimately ensured that the empire survived any future defeat of an emperor by the papacy. Concordat of Worms - 1122. When the concordat was arranged, the original contestants, Henry IV and Gregory VII were both dead. The concordat was successful in bringing to an end the first phase of the power struggle between the papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. The outcome of the investiture dispute may rightly be regarded as the turning-point in medieval civilization. It contained the germ of empire based sovereignty. Although their ability to interfere in ecclesiastical affairs were

curtailed, the dukes and princes as a whole would now have some say in secular matters. The greater part of the religious and political system of the high Middle Ages emerged out of the events and ideas of the investiture dispute.