The Two Powers. Brett Edward Whalen
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the Roman pontiff to reach a favorable accommodation. Otherwise, there would be no more delays, no more chances for the Lombards to put him off with “sweet-sounding words” and “false promises.”5
Frederick indicated that a papal notary, Master Peter, who was retained at the imperial court until the end of the deliberations at Mainz, would give the pope this letter and inform him more fully in person about the emperor’s intentions. There is no way of knowing what Peter might have said off the record. Regardless, despite his publicly stated intentions to wage war against the Lombard League, the emperor had still not closed the door to papal mediation. To the contrary, he likely intended his open threats against the Lombards to place pressure on both the league’s rectors and the pope to reach a political solution before a costly, disruptive, and hazardous military campaign became necessary. At the same time, by marshaling his forces and allies north of the Alps and setting a firm Christmas deadline for further negotiations, the emperor sent a clear message to everyone involved that he would no longer tolerate the status quo in Lombardy.6
In response, Gregory turned to his highest-ranking legate in northern Italy, Albert Rezzato, patriarch of Antioch. As discussed previously, Albert had already represented papal and imperial interests in Syria, helping to broker peace in the crusader kingdoms during the Ibelin uprising. Gregory had first sent Albert—bishop of Brescia before his promotion to the patriarchate of Antioch—to Lombardy in March 1235, instructing him to act as a mediator between the warring communes of Bertinorio and Faeza, whose conflict violated the crusade-related truce declared in 1234. In May, Gregory tasked Albert with a “full legation” to Lombardy, the March of Treviso, and Romaniola, deputizing him to “reform the peace” in the conflict-ridden region after years of devastating losses in lives, goods, and properties, which damaged the crusade to free the Holy Land and impeded the church’s effort to wipe out heretics, the “little foxes” in the Lord’s vineyard. After hearing about Frederick’s threats to invade Lombardy, the pope relied upon Albert to ensure that the rectors of the Lombard League would send their fully empowered ambassadors to the papal curia by the first of December, well in advance of the Christmas deadline imposed by the emperor.7 Recognizing the dangerous escalation in the conflict between the league and Frederick, the pope projected a measured but firm tone with both sides. In September, writing to the emperor and Hermann of Salza, who was once again acting as a go-between for the imperial court and the papal curia, Gregory assured them that he was doing everything he could to bring the Lombards to the negotiating table. Around this time, he addressed the letter to Frederick described at the beginning of this chapter, warning him about the liars and sowers of dissension that wanted to drive them apart. Corresponding with Hermann and calling upon him to convince the emperor to extend the deadline for this “arduous business” past Christmas, Gregory stressed the preparations underway for the new crusade that would be imperiled if Frederick broke his word to abide by the pope’s mediation and invaded Lombardy, a move that the church would not bear. Just what actions the pope might take remained unsaid. Communicating with the Lombards, the pope was far more explicit about possible consequences for noncompliance, threatening them with excommunication if their envoys failed to appear on time and assessing a penalty of thirty thousand marks if they failed to show up.8
The fall and winter months, however, proved just how intractable the situation in Lombardy had become. In November, during an assembly in the bishop’s palace at Brescia, the cities of the Lombard League renewed their alliance against the emperor, adding Ferrara to their ranks and securing a promise from the city’s podesta to block the Germans and their allies from using any roads and rivers under Ferrara’s control.9 The following month, disregarding the pope’s threats, the rectors of the league failed to send their envoys to the papal curia installed at Viterbo by the December deadline, prompting Hermann of Salza, who was on hand for the planned negotiations, to leave the city. As Gregory later explained to Frederick and several high-ranking German bishops, the Lombard delegation, having been delayed for legitimate reasons, had arrived just a few days after Hermann left. When the pope tried to recall the master of the Teutonic Order to the curia, he declined to return, citing letters from the emperor demanding his immediate return to the imperial court. Moving forward, the pope tried to pick up the pieces, calling upon all the parties involved to remain committed to future peace talks, stressing the need to observe the general truce declared in advance of the upcoming crusade, and warning everyone about the negative consequences if they violated the church’s mandates.10
Heading into the spring of 1236, Frederick made no secret of his imminent march into Lombardy, rallying his friends and allies and intimidating his enemies. In March, Peter de Vinea and Thaddeus of Suessa, two prominent members of Frederick’s court with a long future ahead of them as imperial representatives, staged a public gathering at Piacenza’s communal palace for just such a purpose, joined by the emperor’s supporters from Verona, Pavia, Cremona, and else-where.11 The choice of Piacenza for this open-air convocation was not a coincidence. Months earlier, the popular party and its captain, William de Andito, had sent the city’s “golden keys” to Frederick as a sign of their submission to the emperor.12 Gregory made his own plans in advance of Frederick’s arrival, seeking as much leverage and advantage as possible. In March, he appointed a new legate to Lombardy—Marcellino, bishop of Ascoli, sent as an “angel of peace” to the war-torn region. Writing to Marcellino to impose limits on his ability to pass sentences of excommunication and interdict against communities without a “special mandate” from the Apostolic See, Gregory specifically placed Verona, Piacenza, and other “disturbers of the peace” outside of that constraint. With those communes, Marcellino was free to employ ecclesiastical censure as he saw fit. In his legatine commission to the bishop of Ascoli, the pope specifically asked him to intervene in Piacenza, informing the soldiers and citizens of the city about his special concern for their community.13 The following month, Frederick declared his intention to hold an imperial council at Piacenza in July, which would deliberate over the eradication of heresy, the reform of the empire, and the effort to free Jerusalem. Once peace was restored to the region, the riches of Lombardy would be at the crusade’s disposal. In his summons for this gathering, the emperor menacingly declared his intention to pay back what he owed to his friends and enemies alike, subduing the rebels against his rule in Italy.14
In June, Gregory sent yet another “angel of peace” to Lombardy: James, cardinal bishop of Palestrina, who was endowed with full legatine powers to work for the abolishment of heresy and the business of the Holy Land for the honor of church and empire. Gregory knew that some parties might object to this choice, telling Frederick not to listen to those who disparaged James or questioned his motives. The emperor had wanted Albert of Antioch sent back as a legate to the region, a request that the pope denied for unclear reasons.15 A native of Piacenza, James quickly intervened in the civil strife disrupting his hometown. The Genoese chronicler Bartholomew records that the Piacenzans “wisely” expelled their podesta at James’s urging. The Ghibelline Annals of Piacenza—always suspicious of the church’s motives—describe how James “under the guise of peace” effectively staged a coup, bringing troops into the city after some of the citizens exiled William de Andito and his sons before electing a new podesta, a Venetian named Rainier Zenum. From that point forward, this chronicler observes, Piacenza stood in a state of rebellion against the emperor.16
Scholars sometimes view Gregory’s appointment of James as his legate to Lombardy as a provocative move, a sign that he was not truly committed to peace with Frederick and perhaps even worked behind the scenes to oppose him. Or, James’s actions might reveal that he and some of the other cardinals decided to act against the emperor for their own reasons, regardless of what the pope wanted.17 Regardless, by this time Frederick had begun to express increased skepticism about the pope’s willingness or ability to broker peace in Lombardy. In a widely circulated letter addressed to the French king Louis IX in June 1236, the emperor revisited all of his past grievances against the Lombards, from their blockading of the Alpine passes before his planned assembly at Cremona in 1226 to their involvement in his son Henry’s conspiracy and their recent failure to appear on time at the papal curia for peace talks. Every time he had placed the matter into the pope’s hands, the results had been more lies and treachery by the Lombards. Frederick emphasized his undiminished commitment to the upcoming