I Vespri Siciliani
Author: Steven Runciman
Publisher: Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli / 1976
Pages: 400
A new pope was chosen, an Italian who had spent most of his life in the Netherlands, Gregory X, who was in the Holy Land at that time.
Four days after his enthronement he called the Church to a General Council to be held within two years with three fundamental themes - reform of the church, union between the church of Constantinople and that of Rome, and a Crusade in the East.
In 1273 Pope Gregory decided to hold the council outside Italy, in Lyon. He arrived at the beginning of November and spent the next months writing to many churchmen inviting them to preliminary meetings where they would discuss the themes of the council and how to make the crusade popular again.
Among those the pope consulted there was Thomas Aquinas who had already written a small book about the mistakes of the Orthodox. In those days Thomas lived in Naples but he did not have good relationships with Charles. When Thomas fell sick in his nephew's castle many suspected he had been poisoned by Charles. Although gravely ill, he did not interrupt his voyage and he died at Fossanova, near Aquino on 7 March 1274. Dante remained convinced Charles was to blame.
After three days of fasting, on 7 May 1274, the pope personally inaugurated the 14th council of the church. Although 13 kings had been invited, all but one turned down the invitation, including the French king who had escorted the pope, and Edward of England who chose to be crowned when the council was in session, thus forcing the principal bishops of England to desert the sittings.
The only king who attended was James of Aragon, a boring old soldier who soon became convinced the council was being managed in a superficial manner and soon returned to his lover's embraces.
The discussion on reform in the church was tedious and many became disappointed. But the pope's greatest diplomatic success was the submission of the Greek church, despite the rising opposition in Constantinople. The clergy was promised they could keep the old rites and there would not be a pope's representative in Constantinople.
The pope would have wanted a joint declaration but, fearing a riot, the Greeks sent a high delegation which travelled on two vessels. One of these two containing gifts for the pope and it crashed on rocks and only one sailor survived.
The depleted delegation brought three letters, one from the emperor, one from his son and one from some important Greek archbishops. On 29 June there was a service partly sung in Greek. The Credo included the controversial phrase "Filioque" sung three times. On 6 July there was the official celebration of reunification with the reading of Latin translations of the three letters. Then the head of the delegation took an oath to end the Schism and the "Te Deum" was sung.
The pope was satisfied with the results of the council even if nothing had been decided as regards the crusade. Meanwhile Charles's war against Genoa was not going well for him and city after city was declaring for Alfonso of Aragon. The Genoese fleet sacked Trapani in Sicily and the island of Gozo.
Meanwhile Charles, encouraged by the pope got himself appointed king of Jerusalem by purchasing the title. The pope's aim was to try and get Charles interested in the crusade and away from more involvement in northern Italy. But the pope died in Arezzo on 10 January 1276.
Quickly the cardinals chose as the new pope a great friend of Charles, Innocent V. This pope managed to make Charles and the Genoese friends again. Then, four days after the signing of peace, the pope died in Rome. A week later the cardinals elected one of Charles's greatest friends, a fanatic Guelph and nephew of pope innocent, Adrian V, who however died in Viterbo before he could be consecrated as a bishop.
Dominated by a cardinal Dean who was against the French, the conclave chose the only cardinal which was neither Italian nor French, a Portuguese, John XXI.
The new pope was not against Charles but did not want to give him more power or land. The union between the churches was not proving so easy as the council of Lyon had hoped. The emperor was in favour but the people and the clergy were very much against.
Only two generations ago the Latins had sacked Constantinople and there were still people who remembered the suffering.
Successive popes did not want to do anything that could anger Charles and turned against the emperor. The latter, on his part, instigated wars against Charles in Greece and Albania. Twice the emperor's troops lost on land but won on the sea. In 1277 Charles's position became more precarious and he determined more and more to attack Constantinople.
The Order of the Templars welcomed Charles and he found himself against the Hospitallers, the historic rivals of the Templars. Charles was proclaimed king of Jerusalem, gaining thus another kingdom, although of meagre proportions. He found himself hemmed in between the expenditure to keep soldiers in Jerusalem and the pope's restrictions on what he wanted to do, such as attack Cyprus.
Then John XXI died - he had erected a new wing in the palace at Viterbo and one night, while he was sleeping there the roof caved in on him.
Meanwhile Charles lay sick in Puglia and so could not influence the conclave. There were only eight cardinals available, four Italians and four French. As usual they could not agree and they spent six months arguing until the people of Viterbo shut them in. They also ordered them to choose an Italian, which they did, choosing Nicholas III, a nobleman and the leader of the anti- French faction. Dante condemned him to hell for his widespread nepotism. He secretly hated Charles. He wanted to push Charles to the south of Italy and restrict him there.
The fourth part will be published on 24 March