William of ModenaWilliam of Modena, Bishop of Modena in 1221, was frequently appointed a legate, or papal ambassador by the popes Honorius III and Gregory IX, especially in Livonia in the 1220s and in the Prussian questions of the 1240s. Eventually he resigned his see to devote himself to these diplomatic issues.
The bishoprics of Poland question\nEven while William was negotiating in Livonia, the conflicts were bvrewing that would occupy him two decades later. In the division of Poland, so recently Christianized at swordpoint, William of Modena found himself required to mediate between the rival claims and conflicting programs of Christian, the evangelizing first Bishop of Prussia, who, if he had been more successful, would have been sainted, as an "Apostle to the Prussians," and the Knights of the Teutonic Order, to whom Christian and Duke Conrad of Masovia had pledged most of their territorial properties. Before 1227, only Christian's own Cistercian order had assisted Christian in his fortified eastern missions; but with the arrival of the Teutonic Knights, the Dominicans, who were favored by the order and by Pope Gregory IX, took a strong foothold in Prussia, while Christian and his Cistercians were thrown into the background. William of Modena, who had been appointed papal legate for Prussia, disregarded the rights of Christian, who had the misfortune to be captured by the pagan Prussians and held for ransom (1233-39), and proceeded in his absence as if there were no Bishop of Prussia. In 1236 Gregory IX, apparently giving up on Christian empowered William of Modena to divide Prussia into three dioceses. The bishops for these new sees were, in accordance with the wish of the Teutonic Order, to be selected from the Dominican Order, while no provision whatever was made for the imprisoned Bishop Christian. Finally, in the winter of 1239-40, Christian obtained his liberty. He was obliged to give hostages whom he afterwards ransomed for a sum stated as no less than eight hundred marks, which was granted him by Gregory. Immediately upon his liberation, Christian complained to the pope that the Teutonic Order refused baptism to those who desired it and oppressed the newly converted. More concrete charges concerned episcopal rights that they claimed and properties they refused to restore. The confrontation had not been settled when Gregory died (22 August 22, 1241). Christian and the Teutonic Order then agreed that two thirds of the conquered territory in Prussia should belong to the Order, to form a Teutonic Order state, and one-third to the bishop; that, moreover, the bishop should have the right to exercise ecclesiastical functions in the territory belonging to the Order. William of Modena did not give up his plans of dividing Prussia into dioceses instead of empowering a vast territorial knightly order. He finally obtained from Pope Innocent IV permission to make a division, and on July 29, 1243, Prussia was divided into the four dioceses: Culm, Pomerania, Warmia (Ermland), and Sambia (Samland, now Kaliningrad), under the archbishopric of Riga. Christian received for his decades of apostolic labor the privilege to select for himself any one of the four new episcopal sees, a choice he refused.An Embassy to Frederick II\nIn the meantime William had been at Rome. When Celestine IV died after a short reign of sixteen days, the excommunicated Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II, was in possession of the Papal States of the Church around Rome and attempted to intimidate the cardinals into electing a pope to his own liking. The cardinals fled to Anagni and cast their votes for Sinibaldo de' Fieschi, who ascended the papal throne as Innocent IV on 25 June, 1243, after an interregnum of more than a year and a half. Innocent IV had previously been a friend of Frederick II. Immediately after the election the emperor sent messengers with congratulations and overtures of peace, which Innocent refused to receive. Two months later he sent emissaries inmcluding Peter, Archbishop of Rouen, William of Modena, who had resigned his episcopal office, and Abbot William of St. Facundus as legates to the emperor at Melfi with instructions to ask him to release the prelates whom he had captured while on their way to a council that Gregory IX had intended to hold at Rome and challenge the emperor to make satisfaction for the injuries which he had inflicted upon the Church, which had caused Gregory IX to put him under the ban of excommunication. Should the emperor deny that he had done any wrong to the Church, or even assert the injustice of the Church, the legates were to propose that the decision should be left to a council of kings, prelates, and temporal princes. Frederick entered into an agreement with Innocent on March 31, 1244. He promised to yield to the demands of the Curia in all essential points, viz., to restore the States of the Church, to release the prelates, and to grant amnesty to the allies of the pope. His insincerity became apparent when he secretly incited various tumults in Rome and refused to release the imprisoned prelates. Feeling himself hindered in his freedom of action on account of the emperor's military preponderance, and fearing for his personal safety, Innocent decided to flee Sutri in disguise for Civitavecchia and board a fleet provided by the sympathetic Genoese. During the night of 27-28 June he made his escape to Genoa. In October he went to Burgundy, and in December to Lyons, where he remained in exile the following six years. See also Teutonic Order stateExternal links\n*Catholic Encyclopedia:] Christian; Innocent IV; |
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"Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'." - Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) |
