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Crusade

Crusade

The Crusades were a series of several military campaigns—usually sanctioned by the Papacy—that took place during the 11th through 13th centuries. Originally, they were Roman Catholic endeavors to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims, but some were directed against other Europeans, such as the Fourth Crusade against Constantinople, the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars of southern France and the Northern Crusades. Beyond the medieval military events, the word "crusade" has evolved to have multiple meanings and connotations. For additional meanings see usage of the term "crusade" and/or the dictionary definition.

Historical background

The origins of the crusades lie in Western developments earlier in the Middle Ages, as well as the deteriorating situation of the Byzantine Empire. The breakdown of the Carolingian Empire in the later 9th century, combined with the relative stabilization of local European borders after the Christianization of the Vikings, Slavs, and Magyars, meant that there was an entire class of warriors who now had very little to do but fight amongst themselves and terrorize the peasant population. The Church tried to stem this violence with the Peace and Truce of God movements, forbidding violence against certain people at certain times of the year. This was somewhat successful, but trained warriors always sought an outlet for their violence. A plea for help from the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I in opposing Muslim attacks thus fell on ready ears. One later outlet was the Reconquista in Spain and Portugal, which at times occupied Iberian knights and some mercenaries from elsewhere in Europe in the fight against the Islamic Moors. In 1063, Pope Alexander II had given papal blessing to Iberian Christians in their wars against the Muslims, granting both a papal standard (the vexillum sancti Petri) and an indulgence to those who were killed in battle. The Crusades were in part an outlet for an intense religious piety which rose up in the late 11th century among the lay public. This was due in part to the Investiture Controversy, which had started around 1075 and was still on-going during the First Crusade. Christendom had been greatly affected by the Investiture Controversy, as both sides tried to marshal public opinion in their favor, people became personally engaged in a dramatic religious controversy. The result was an awakening of intense Christian piety and public interest in religious affairs, which would manifest in the overwhelming popular support for the First Crusade, and the religious vitality of the 12th century. This background in the Christian West must be matched with that in the Muslim East. Muslim presence in the Holy Land goes back to the initial Arab conquest of Palestine in the 7th century. This did not interfere much with pilgrimage to Christian holy sites or the security of monasteries and Christian communities in the Holy Land of Christendom, and western Europeans were not much concerned with the loss of far-away Jerusalem when, in the ensuing decades and centuries, they were themselves faced with invasions by Muslims and other hostile non-Christians such as the Vikings and Magyars. However, the Muslim armies' successes were putting strong pressure on the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire. A turning point in western attitudes towards the east came in the year 1009, when the Fatimid caliph of Cairo, al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem destroyed. His successor permitted the Byzantine Empire to rebuild it under stringent circumstances, and pilgrimage was again permitted, but many stories began to be circulated in the West about the cruelty of Muslims toward Christian pilgrims; these stories then played an important role in the development of the crusades later in the century.

Historical context

:It is necessary to look for the origin of a crusading ideal in the struggle between Christians and Muslims in Spain and consider how the idea of a holy war emerged from this background. — Norman F. Cantor The trigger for the First Crusade was Emperor Alexius I's appeal to Pope Urban II for mercenaries to help him resist Muslim advances into territory of the Byzantine Empire. Although the East-West Schism was brewing between the Catholic Western church and the Greek Orthodox Eastern church, Alexius I expected some help from a fellow Christian. However, the response was much larger, and less helpful, than Alexius I desired, as the Pope called for a large invasion force to not merely defend the Byzantine Empire but also retake Jerusalem. When the First Crusade was preached in 1095, the Christian princes of northern Iberia had been fighting their way out of the mountains of Galicia and Asturias, the Basque Country and Navarre, with increasing success, for about a hundred years. The fall of Moorish Toledo to the Kingdom of León in 1085 was a major victory, but the turning points of the Reconquista still lay in the future. The disunity of the Muslim emirs was an essential factor, and the Christians, whose wives remained safely behind, were hard to beat: they knew nothing except fighting, they had no gardens or libraries to defend, and they worked their way forward through alien territory populated by infidels, where the Christian fighters felt they could afford to wreak havoc. All these factors were soon to be replayed in the fighting grounds of the East. Spanish historians have traditionally seen the Reconquista as the molding force in the Castilian character, with its sense that the highest good was to die fighting for the Christian cause of one's country. While the Reconquista was the most prominent example of Christian war against Muslim conquests, it is not the only such example. The Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard had conquered the "toe of Italy," Calabria, in 1057 and was holding what had traditionally been Byzantine territory against the Muslims of Sicily. The maritime states of Pisa, Genoa and Catalonia were all actively fighting Islamic strongholds in Majorca and Sardinia, freeing the coasts of Italy and Catalonia from Muslim raids. Much earlier, of course, the Christian homelands of Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, and so on had been conquered by Muslim armies. This long history of losing territories to a religious enemy, as well as a powerful pincer movement on all of Western Europe, created a powerful motive to respond to Byzantine emperor Alexius I's call for holy war to defend Christendom, and to recapture the lost lands, starting at the most important one of all, Jerusalem itself. The papacy of Pope Gregory VII had struggled with reservations about the doctrinal validity of a holy war and the shedding of blood for the Lord and had resolved the question in favor of justified violence. More importantly to the Pope, the Christians who made pilgrimages to the Holy Land were being persecuted. Actions against Arians and other heretics offered historical precedents in a society where violence against unbelievers, and indeed against other Christians, was acceptable and common. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Gregory's intellectual model, had justified the use of force in the service of Christ in The City of God, and a Christian "just war" might enhance the wider standing of an aggressively ambitious leader of Europe, as Gregory saw himself. The northerners would be cemented to Rome and their troublesome knights could see the only kind of action that suited them. Previous attempts by the church to stem such violence, such as the concept of the "Peace of God", were not as successful as hoped. To the south of Rome, Normans were showing how such energies might be unleashed against both Arabs (in Sicily) and Byzantines (on the mainland). A Latin hegemony in the Levant would provide leverage in resolving the Papacy's claims of supremacy over the Patriarch of Constantinople, which had resulted in the Great Schism of 1054, a rift that might yet be resolved through the force of Frankish arms. In the Byzantine homelands the Eastern Emperor's weakness was revealed by the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, which reduced the Empire's Asian territory to a region in western Anatolia and around Constantinople. A sure sign of Byzantine desperation was the appeal of Alexius I Comnenus to his enemy the Pope for aid. But Gregory was occupied with the Investiture Controversy and could not call on the German emperor and the crusade never took shape. For Gregory's more moderate successor Pope Urban II, a crusade would serve to reunite Christendom, bolster the Papacy, and perhaps bring the East under his control. The disaffected Germans and the Normans were not to be counted on, but the heart and backbone of a crusade could be found in Urban's own homeland among the northern French. On a popular level, the first crusades unleashed a wave of impassioned, personally felt pious fury that was expressed in the massacres of Jews that accompanied the movement of mobs through Europe, as well as the violent treatment of "schismatic" Orthodox Christians of the east. The violence against the Orthodox Christians culminated in the "sack of Constantinople" in 1204, in which most of the Crusading armies took part. The fact that Western Christians had been mistreated in the past (by Constantinople) has never justified this sack in the eyes of the Church. Indeed, as soon as the Pope learned of the sack of Constantinople, all who took part were immediately excommunicated. In modern times, John Paul II has also apologized for this massacre. The 13th century crusades never expressed such a popular fever, and after Acre fell for the last time in 1291, and after the extermination of the Occitan Cathars in the Albigensian Crusade, the crusading ideal became devalued by Papal justifications of political and territorial aggressions within Catholic Europe. The last crusading order of knights to hold territory were the Knights Hospitaller. After the final fall of Acre they took control of the island of Rhodes, and in the sixteenth century were driven to Malta. These last crusaders were finally unseated by Napoleon in 1798.

The major crusades

A traditional numbering scheme for the crusades gives us nine during the 11th to 13th centuries, as well as other smaller crusades that are mostly contemporaneous and unnumbered. There were frequent "minor" crusades throughout this period, not only in Palestine but also in Spain and central Europe, against not only Muslims, but also Christian heretics and personal enemies of the Papacy or other powerful monarchs. Such "crusades" continued into the 16th century, until the Renaissance and Reformation when the political and religious climate of Europe was significantly different than that of the Middle Ages. The following is a listing of the "major" crusades.

First Crusade

Full article: First Crusade The First Crusade is generally considered to be the only one that significantly rolled back the military progress of Islam. After Byzantine emperor Alexius I called for help against the Muslims, Pope Urban II preached a crusade, which was led by several of Europe's most important people. In 1099 the Crusaders captured Jerusalem.

Fourth Crusade

Full article: Fourth Crusade Jerusalem having fallen back into Muslim hands a decade earlier, the Fourth Crusade was initiated in 1202 by Pope Innocent III, with the intention of invading the Holy Land through Egypt. The Venetians gained control of this crusade and diverted it to Constantinople where they attempted to place a Byzantine exile on the throne. After a series of misunderstandings and outbreaks of violence, the city was sacked in 1204. The popular spirit of the movement was now dead, and the succeeding crusades are to be explained rather as arising from the Papacy's struggle to divert the military energies of the European nations toward Syria.

Albigensian Crusade

Full article: Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the heretical Cathars of southern France. It was a decades-long struggle that had as much to do with the concerns of northern France to extend its control southwards as it did with heresy. In the end, both the Cathars and the independence of southern France were exterminated.

Children's Crusade

Full article: Children's Crusade The Children's Crusade is a possibly fictitious or misinterpreted crusade of 1212. The story is that an outburst of the old popular enthusiasm led a gathering of children in France and Germany, which Pope Innocent III interpreted as a reproof from heaven to their unworthy elders. None of the children actually reached the Holy Land, being sold as slaves or dying of hunger during the journey.

Fifth Crusade

Full article: Fifth Crusade By processions, prayers, and preaching, the Church attempted to set another crusade on foot, and the Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215) formulated a plan for the recovery of the Holy Land. A crusading force from Hungary, Austria, and Bavaria achieved a remarkable feat in the capture of Damietta in Egypt in 1219, but under the urgent insistence of the papal legate, Pelagius, they proceeded to a foolhardy attack on Cairo, and an inundation of the Nile compelled them to choose between surrender and destruction.

Sixth Crusade

Full article: Sixth Crusade In 1228, Emperor Frederick II set sail from Brindisi for Syria, though laden with the papal excommunication. Through diplomacy he achieved unexpected success, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem being delivered to the Crusaders for a period of ten years. This was the first major crusade not initiated by the Papacy, a trend that was to continue for the rest of the century. Bethlehem

Seventh Crusade

Full article: Seventh Crusade The papal interests represented by the Templars brought on a conflict with Egypt in 1243, and in the following year a Khwarezmian force summoned by the latter stormed Jerusalem. Although this provoked no widespread outrage in Europe as the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 had done, Louis IX of France organized a crusade against Egypt from 1248 to 1254, leaving from the newly constructed port of Aigues-Mortes in southern France. It was a failure and Louis spent much of the crusade living at the court of the Crusader kingdom in Acre. In the midst of this crusade was the first Shepherds' Crusade in 1251.

Eighth Crusade

Full article: Eighth Crusade The eighth Crusade was organized by Louis IX in 1270, again sailing from Aigues-Mortes, initially to come to the aid of the remnants of the Crusader states in Syria. However, the crusade was diverted to Tunis, where Louis spent only two months before dying.

Ninth Crusade

Full article: Ninth Crusade The future Edward I of England undertook another expedition in 1271, after having accompanied Louis on the Eighth Crusade. He accomplished very little in Syria and retired the following year after a truce. With the fall of Antioch (1268), Tripoli (1289), and Acre (1291) the last traces of the Christian occupation of Syria disappeared.

Crusades in Baltic and Central Europe

Syria, screenshot from Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky (1938).]] Full article: Northern Crusades The Crusades in the Baltic Sea area and in Central Europe were efforts by (mostly German) Christians to subjugate and convert the peoples of these areas to Christianity. These Crusades ranged from the 12th century, contemporaneous with the Second Crusade, to the 16th century.

Crusade legacy

The Crusades had profound and lasting historical impacts.

Europe

The Crusades had an enormous influence on the European Middle Ages. At times much of the continent was united under a powerful Papacy, but by the 14th century the old concept of Christendom was fragmented, and the development of centralized bureaucracies (the foundation of the modern nation state) was well on its way in France, England, Burgundy, Portugal, Castile, and Aragon partly because of the dominance of the church at the beginning of the crusading era. Although Europe had been exposed to Islamic culture for centuries through contacts in Spain and Sicily, much Islamic thought, such as science, medicine, and architecture, was transferred to the west during the crusades; for example, European castles became massive stone structures, as they were in the east, rather than smaller wooden buildings as they had typically been in the past. The need to raise, transport and supply large armies led to a flourishing of trade throughout Europe. Roads largely unused since the days of Rome saw significant increases in traffic as local merchants began to expand their horizons. This was not only because the Crusades prepared Europe for travel, but rather that many wanted to travel after being reacquainted with the products of the Middle East. This also aided in the beginning of the Renaissance in Italy, as various Italian city-states from the very beginning had important and profitable trading colonies in the crusader states, both in the Holy Land and later in captured Byzantine territory.

Islamic world

The crusades had profound but localized effects upon the Western Islamic world, where the equivalents of "Franks" and "Crusaders" remained expressions of disdain. Muslims traditionally celebrate Saladin, the Kurdish warrior, as a hero against the Crusaders. The Crusades were regarded as cruel and savage onslaughts by European Christians. In the 21st century, some in the Arab world, such as the Arab independence movement and Pan-Islamism movement, continue to call Western involvement in the Middle East a "crusade."

Jewish community

Pan-Islamism The Crusaders' atrocities against Jews in the German and Hungarian towns, later also in those of France and England, and in the massacres of non-combatants in Palestine and Syria have become a part of history of anti-Semitism. They ultimately resulted in excommunication and similar ecclesiastical penalties against their perpetrators, as no Crusade was declared against Jews, and left behind for centuries strong feelings of ill will on both sides. The social position of the Jews in western Europe was distinctly worsened, and legal restrictions increased during and after the Crusades. They prepared the way for anti-Jewish legislation of Pope Innocent III and formed the turning-point in medieval anti-Semitism.

The Caucasus

Many of the Crusaders did not return home to Europe, and instead crossed Asia Minor and settled throughout the Caucasus, where several dozen small Caucasian dialects bear traces of the medieval variants of French, German, Latin and English. Many modern village dwellers count their descent from these Crusaders "gone native", and as late as the early 20th century, relics of armor, weaponry and chain mail were still being used and passed down in such communities.

Usage of the term "crusade"

:For other uses of the term "crusade", see Crusade (disambiguation). The crusades were never referred to as such by their participants. The original crusaders were known by various terms, including fideles Sancti Petri (the faithful of St. Peter) or milites Christi (knights of Christ). They saw themselves as undertaking an iter, a journey, or a peregrinatio, a pilgrimage, though pilgrims were usually forbidden from carrying arms. Like pilgrims, each crusader swore a vow (a votus), to be fulfilled on successfully reaching Jerusalem, and they were granted a cloth cross (crux) to be sewn into their clothes. This "taking of the cross", the crux, eventually became associated with the entire journey; the word "crusade" (coming into English from the French croisade, the Italian crociata, or the Portuguese cruzada) developed from this. Since the 17th century, the term "crusade" has carried a connotation in the West of being a righteous campaign, usually to "root out evil", or to fight for a just cause. In a non-historical common or theological use, "crusade" has come to have a much broader emphatic or religious meaning —substantially removed from 'armed struggle.' In a broader sense, "crusade" can be used, always in a rhetorical and metaphorical sense, to identify as righteous any war that is given a religious justification ("Gott mit uns," "God with us"). Ardent activists may also refer to their causes as "crusades," as in the "Crusade against Adult Illiteracy," or a "Crusade against Littering." In recent years, however, there has been some heightened awareness among Westerners to the historical and political problems with the use of the term "crusade", and where any casual respect for Muslim culture has relevance, the term has largely fallen into disuse. The term may also sarcastically or pejoratively characterize the zealotry of agenda promoters, for example with the monicker "Public Crusader" or the campaigns "Crusade for a women's right to choose," and the "Crusade for prayer in public schools."

Popular reputation

zealotry In Western Europe, the Crusades have traditionally been regarded by laypeople as heroic adventures, though the mass enthusiasm of common people was largely expended in the First Crusade, from which so few of their class returned. Today, the "Saracen" adversary is crystallized in the lone figure of Saladin; his adversary Richard the Lionheart is, in the English-speaking world, the archetypical crusader king, while Frederick Barbarossa (illustration, below left) and Louis IX fill the same symbolic niche in German and French culture. Even in contemporary areas, the crusades and their leaders were romanticized in popular literature; the Chanson d'Antioche was a chanson de geste dealing with the First Crusade, and the Song of Roland, dealing with the era of the similarly romanticized Charlemagne, was directly influenced by the experience of the crusades, going so far as to replace Charlemagne's historic Basque opponents with Muslims. A popular theme for troubadors was the knight winning the love of his lady by going on crusade in the east. troubador In the 14th century, Godfrey of Bouillon was united with the Trojan War and the adventures of Alexander the Great against a backdrop for military and courtly heroics of the Nine Worthies who stood as popular secular culture heroes into the 16th century, when more critical literary tastes ran instead to Torquato Tasso and Rinaldo and Armida, Roger and Angelica. Later, the rise of a more authentic sense of history among literate people brought the Crusades into a new focus for the Romantic generation in the romances of Sir Walter Scott in the early 19th century. Crusading imagery could be found even in the Crimean War, in which the United Kingdom and France were allied with the Muslim Ottoman Empire, and in the First World War, especially Allenby's capture of Jerusalem in 1917 (illustration, below right). Allenby In Spain, the popular reputation of the Crusades is outshone by the particularly Spanish history of the Reconquista. El Cid is the central figure.

Eastern Orthodoxy

Like Muslims, Eastern Orthodox Christians also see the Crusades as attacks by the barbarian West, but centered on the sack of Constantinople in 1204. Many relics and artifacts taken from Constantinople are still in Roman Catholic hands, in the Vatican and elsewhere. Disagreement currently exists between modern Turks and Greeks over the claimant rights to the Greek Horses on the facade of St. Mark's in Venice. The Greeks argue that the frieze is inherently part of Greek culture and identity, similar to the "Elgin" Marbles and the Turks counter that the freize originated from what is now modern-day Istanbul. A picture of Turkish popular history of the Crusades can be assembled by compiling text of official Turkish brochures on Crusader fortifications in the Aegean coast and coastal islands. Countries of Central Europe, despite the fact that formally they also belonged to Western Christianity, were the most skeptical about the idea of Crusades. Many cities in Hungary were sacked by passing bands of Crusaders; one ruler of Poland refused to join a Crusade, allegedly because of the lack of beer in the Holy land. Later on Poland and Hungary were themselves subject to conquest from the Crusaders (see Teutonic Order), and therefore invented the idea that pagans have the right to live in peace and have property rights to their lands (see Pawel Wlodkowic).

See also


- Crusade art
- Crusader States
- Military orders
- Religious Wars
- Shepherds' Crusade
- Tenth Crusade

References and further reading


- Alfred J. Andrea, Encyclopedia of the Crusades. Greenwood Press, 2003.
- Carole Hillenbrand, The Crusades, Islamic Perspectives. New York, 2000.
- P.M. Holt, The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517. New York, 1986.
- Thomas F. Madden, The New Concise History of the Crusades. Lanham, 2005.
- Hans E. Mayer, The Crusades. Oxford, 1965.
- Jonathan Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading. Philadelphia, 1986.
- Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Oxford History of the Crusades. Oxford, 1995.
- Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, 3 vols., Cambridge, 1951-1954.

External links


- Kenneth Setton, ed., A History of the Crusades. Madison, 1969-1989 ([http://libtext.library.wisc.edu/HistCrusades/ e-book online])
- Angeliki E. Laiou, The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, ([http://www.doaks.org/LACR.html e-book online]), includes chapter on Historiography of the crusades.
- E.L. Skip Knox, [http://crusades.boisestate.edu/ The Crusades], a virtual college course through Boise State University.
- Category:Jewish history Category:Jerusalem Category:Islamic history als:Kreuzzug ko:십자군 ja:十字軍 simple:The Crusades th:สงครามครูเสด

Papacy

:This entry is about the Catholic Pontiff. For other uses of the word, see Pope (disambiguation). The pope is the Patriarch of the West and Bishop of Rome, and leader of the Catholic Church. The office of the pope is called the Papacy; his ecclesiastical jurisdiction is called the Holy See (Sancta Sedes). Early bishops of Rome were designated vicar (representative) of Peter; for later popes the more authoritative vicar of Christ was substituted; this designation was first used by the Roman Synod of AD 495 to refer to Pope Gelasius I, an originator of papal supremacy among the patriarchs. The first Patriarch of Rome to bear the title of "Pope" was Pope Boniface III in 607, the first Bishop of Rome to assume the title of "universal Bishop" by decree of Emperor Phocas. Previous Patriarchs of Rome are called "Popes" by courtesy. In addition to his service in this spiritual role, the pope is also head of state of the independent sovereign State of the Vatican City, a city-state and nation entirely enclaved by the city of Rome. Prior to 1870, the pope's temporal authority extended over a large area of central Italy, the territory of the Papal States that was formally known as the "Patrimony of St Peter". Although the document on which the territorial powers of the Pontificate was based — the so-called Donation of Constantine — was proved a forgery in the 15th century, the papacy retained sovereign authority over the Papal States until the Italian Unification of 1870; a final political settlement with the Italian government was not reached until the Lateran Treaties of 1929. The current pope is Benedict XVI (born Joseph Ratzinger), who was elected at the age of 78 on 19 April 2005. He succeeds the late John Paul II, who was elected at the age of 58 in 1978. Pope Benedict XVI is the second non-Italian to be elected to the pontificate since Adrian VI, who was pope briefly in 1522-23 — John Paul II was the first — and is the first German to take the seat since the eleventh century (unless Adrian VI, who lived in Holland but came from German ancestors before Holland was separated from Germany, is counted as German rather than Dutch).

Office and nature

In canon law, the Catholic Pope is referred to as the Roman Pontiff (Pontifex Romanus). He is styled "Your Holiness" (Sanctitas Vestra) and is frequently referred to as the Holy Father. The title "Pope" is an informal one meaning "papa"; the formal title of the pope is "Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God". This full title is rarely used. The pope's signature is usually in the format "NN. PP. x" (e.g., Pope Paul VI signed his name as "Paulus PP. VI"), the "PP." standing for Papa ("Pope") (or, according to unofficial sources, Pater Patrum, "Father of Fathers"), and his name is frequently accompanied in inscriptions by the abbreviation "Pont. Max." or "P.M." (abbreviation of the ancient title Pontifex Maximus, literally "Greatest Bridge-maker", but usually translated "Supreme Pontiff"). The signature of Papal bulls is customarily NN. Episcopus Ecclesia Catholicae ("NN. Bishop of the Catholic Church"), while the heading is NN. Episcopus Servus Servorum Dei ("NN. Bishop and Servant of the Servants of God"), the latter title dating to the time of Pope Gregory I the Great. Other titles used in some official capacity include Summus Pontifex ("Highest Pontiff"), Sanctissimus Pater and Beatissimus Pater ("Most Holy Father" and "Most Blessed Father"), Sanctissimus Dominus Noster ("Our Most Holy Lord"), and, in the Medieval period, Dominus Apostolicus ("Apostolic Lord"). This title, however, was not abandoned altogether: the pope is still refered to as "Dominum Apostolicum" in the Latin version of the Litany of the Saints, a solemn Catholic prayer, and in some translations of it. Medieval period]] The pope's official seat is the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, and his official residence is the Palace of the Vatican. He also possesses a summer palace at Castel Gandolfo (situated on the site of the ancient city-state Alba Longa). Historically the official residence of the pope was the Lateran Palace, donated by the Roman Emperor Constantinus I. The former Papal summer palace, the Quirinal Palace, has subsequently been the official residence of the Kings of Italy and President of the Italian Republic. It is the pope's ecclesiastical jurisdiction (the Holy See) and not his secular jurisdiction (Vatican City) which conducts international relations; for hundreds of years, the pope's court (the Roman Curia) has functioned as the government of the Catholic Church. The name "Holy See" (also "Apostolic See") is in ecclesiastical terminology the ordinary jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome (including the Roman Curia); the pope's various honours, powers, and privileges within the Catholic Church and the international community derive from his Episcopate of Rome in lineal succession from the Apostle St. Peter (see Apostolic Succession). Consequently Rome has traditionally occupied a central position in the Catholic Church, although this is not necessarily so. The pope derives his Pontificate from being Bishop of Rome but is not required to live there; according to the Latin formula ubi Papa, ibi Curia, wherever the pope resides is the central government of the Church, provided that the pope is Bishop of Rome. As such, between 1309 and 1378 the popes lived in Avignon (the Avignon Papacy), a period often called the Babylonian Captivity in allusion to the Biblical exile of Israel. Catholic tradition maintains that the institution of the Pontificate can be found in the Bible, and cites certain key passages in support of this contention. Chief among these passages is Matthew 16: 18 – 19, wherein Jesus Christ says to St. Peter: :"Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Other important passages include Luke 22: 31 – 32, John 1: 42, and John 21: 15 – 17.

Regalia and insignia

John 21: 15 – 17 Main article: Papal regalia and insignia.
- The "triregnum" also called the "tiara" or "triple crown"; recent popes have not, however, worn the triregnum though it remains the symbol of the papacy and has not been abolished. In liturgical ceremonies popes wear an episcopal mitre (an erect cloth hat).
- Staff topped by a crucifix, a custom established before the 13th century.
- The pallium (a circular band of fabric about two inches wide, worn over the chasuble about the neck, breast and shoulders and having two twelve-inch-long pendants hanging down in front and behind, ornamented with six small, black crosses distributed about the breast, back, shoulders, and pendants).
- The "Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven", the image of two keys, one gold and one silver. The silver key symbolises the power to bind and loose on Earth, and the gold key the power to bind and loose in Heaven.
- The Fisherman's Ring, a gold ring decorated with a depiction of St. Peter in a boat casting his net, with the name of the reigning pope around it.
- The umbracullum (better known in the Italian form ombrellino) is a canopy or umbrella (consisting of alternating red and gold stripes).
- One of the most familiar (and now discontinued) trappings of the Papacy was the sedia gestatoria, a mobile throne carried by twelve footmen (palafrenieri) in red uniforms, accompanied by two attendants bearing flabella (fans made of white ostrich-feathers). The use of the sedia gestatoria and of the flabella was discontinued by Pope John Paul II, with the former being replaced by the so-called Popemobile. In heraldry, each pope has his own Papal Coat of Arms. Though unique for each pope, the arms are always surmounted by the aforementioned two keys in saltire (i.e., crossed over one another so as to form an X) behind the escutcheon (one key silver and one key gold, tied with a red cord), and above them a silver triregnum with three gold crowns and red infulae, or the red strips of fabric hanging from the back over the shoulders when worn ("two keys in saltire or and argent, interlacing in the rings or, beneath a tiara argent, crowned or"). The flag most frequently associated with the pope is the yellow and white flag of Vatican City, with the arms of the Holy See ("Gules, two keys in saltire or and argent, interlacing in the rings or, beneath a tiara argent, crowned or") on the right hand side in the white half of the flag. This flag was first adopted in 1808, whereas the previous flag had been red and gold, the traditional colours of the Pontificate.

Status and authority

1808, 2005.]] The status and authority of the pope in the Catholic Church was dogmatically defined by the First Vatican Council in its Dogmatic Constitution of the Church of Christ (July 18, 1870). The first chapter of this document is entitled "On the institution of the apostolic primacy in blessed Peter", and states that (s.1) "according to the Gospel evidence, a primacy of jurisdiction over the whole church of God was immediately and directly promised to the blessed apostle Peter and conferred on him by Christ the Lord" and that (s.6) "if anyone says that blessed Peter the apostle was not appointed by Christ the Lord as prince of all the apostles and visible head of the whole church militant; or that it was a primacy of honour only and not one of true and proper jurisdiction that he directly and immediately received from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself: let him be anathema." The Dogmatic Constitution's second chapter, "On the permanence of the primacy of blessed Peter in the Roman pontiffs", states that (s.1) "that which our Lord Jesus Christ [...] established in the blessed apostle Peter [...] must of necessity remain forever, by Christ's authority, in the church which, founded as it is upon a rock, will stand firm until the end of time," that (s.3) "whoever succeeds to the chair of Peter obtains by the institution of Christ Himself, the primacy of Peter over the whole church", and that (s.5) "if anyone says that it is not by the institution of Christ the Lord Himself (that is to say, by divine law) that blessed Peter should have perpetual successors in the primacy over the whole church; or that the Roman pontiff is not the successor of blessed Peter in this primacy: let him be anathema." The Dogmatic Constitution's third chapter, "On the power and character of the primacy of the Roman pontiff," states that (s.1) "the definition of the ecumenical council of Florence, which must be believed by all faithful Christians, namely that the apostolic see and the Roman pontiff hold a world-wide primacy, and that the Roman pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, true vicar of Christ, head of the whole church and father and teacher of all Christian people," that (s.2) "by divine ordinance, the Roman church possesses a pre-eminence of ordinary power over every other church, and that the jurisdictional power of the Roman pontiff is both episcopal and immediate" and that "clergy and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, both singly and collectively, are bound to submit to this power by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, and this not only in matters concerning faith and morals, but also in those which regard the discipline and government of the church throughout the world." The powers of the pope are defined by the Dogmatic Constitution (ch.3, s.8) such that "he is the supreme judge of the faithful, and that in all cases which fall under ecclesiastical jurisdiction recourse may be had to his judgement" and that "the sentence of the apostolic see (than which there is no higher authority) is not subject to revision by anyone, nor may anyone lawfully pass judgement thereupon" (can. 331 defines the power of the pope as "supreme, full, immediate and universal ordinary power in the Church, and he can always freely exercise this power"). It also dogmatically defined (ch.4, s.9) the doctrine of Papal infallibility, sc. such that :when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra, that is, when in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed His church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the church, irreformable. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that "it is absolutely necessary for the salvation of every creature to be united to the Roman Pontiff" (Pope Boniface VIII). This teaching is often summarized by the phrase "extra Ecclesiam nulla salus" (outside the Church exists no salvation), which has been reaffirmed by many popes throughout the centuries. Blessed John XXIII said: "Into this fold of Jesus Christ no man may enter unless he be led by the Sovereign Pontiff, and only if they be united to him can men be saved." Pope Paul VI also said: "Those outside the Church do not possess the Holy Spirit. The Catholic Church alone is the Body of Christ... and if separated from the Body of Christ he is not one of His members, nor is he fed by His Spirit." However, this dogma has been misinterpreted by both Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Many popes stressed that those who are invincibly ignorant of the Catholic religion can still obtain salvation. Pope Pius IX stated in his encyclical Quanto conficiamur moeror (1868): "We all know that those who are afflicted with invincible ignorance with regard to our holy religion, if they carefully keep the precepts of the natural law that have been written by God in the hearts of all men, if they are prepared to obey God, and if they lead a virtuous and dutiful life, can attain eternal life by the power of divine light and grace." Pope John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Redemptoris Missio: "But it is clear that today, as in the past, many people do not have an opportunity to come to know or accept the Gospel revelation or to enter the Church.... For such people, salvation in Christ is accessible by virtue of a grace which, while having a mysterious relationship to the Church, does not make them formally a part of the Church but enlightens them in a way which is accommodated to their spiritual and material situation. This grace comes from Christ; it is the result of his sacrifice and is communicated by the Holy Spirit. It enables each person to attain salvation through his or her free cooperation." The pope has many powers which he exercises. He can appoint bishops to dioceses, erect and suppress dioceses, appoint prefects to the Roman dicasteries, approve or veto their acts, modify the Liturgy and issue liturgical laws, revise the Code of Canon Law, canonize and beatify individuals, approve and suppress religious orders, impose canonical sanctions, act as a judge and hear cases, issue encyclicals, and issue infallible statements on matters pertaining to faith and morals which, according to the Church, must be believed by all Catholics. Most of these functions are performed by and through the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia, with the pope simply approving their actions prior to becoming official. While approval is generally granted, it is at the pope's discretion. See Donation of Constantine for discussion of the broader authority the papacy has argued the Catholic Church possesses in affairs of state.

Political role

Though the progressive Christianisation of the Roman Empire in the fourth century did not confer upon bishops civil authority within the state, the gradual withdrawal of imperial authority during the 5th century left the pope the senior Imperial civilian official in Rome, as bishops were increasingly directing civil affairs in other cities of the Western Empire. This status as a secular and civil leader was vividly displayed by Pope Leo I's confrontation with Attila in 452 and was substantially increased in 754, when the Frankish ruler Pippin the Younger donated to the pope a strip of territory which formed the core of the so-called Papal States (properly the Patrimony of St. Peter). In 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish ruler Charlemagne as Roman Emperor, a major step toward establishing what later became known as the Holy Roman Empire; from that date it became the pope's prerogative to crown the Emperor or any monarch with affiliations with the church until the crowning of Napoleon. As has been hitherto mentioned, the pope's sovereignty over the Papal States ended in 1870 with their annexation by Italy. In addition to the pope's position as a territorial ruler and foremost prince bishop of Christianity (especially prominent with the Renaissance popes like Pope Alexander VI, an ambitious if spectacularly corrupt politico, and Pope Julius II, a formidable general and statesman) and as the spiritual head of the Holy Roman Empire (especially prominent during periods of contention with the Emperors, such as during the Pontificates of Pope Gregory VII and Pope Alexander III), the pope also possessed a degree of political and temporal authority in his capacity as Supreme Pontiff. Some of the most striking examples of Papal political authority are the Bull Laudabiliter in 1155 (authorising Henry II of England to invade Ireland), the Bull Inter Caeteras in 1493 (leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, which divided the world into areas of Spanish and Portuguese rule) the Bull Regnans in Excelsis in 1570 (excommunicating Elizabeth I of England and purporting to release all her subjects from their allegiance to her), the Bull Inter Gravissimas in 1582 (establishing the Gregorian Calendar).

Death, abdication, and election

Death

The current regulations regarding a papal interregnum — i.e., a sede vacante ("vacant seat") — were promulgated by John Paul II in his 1996 document Universi Dominici Gregis. During the "Reading Festival", the Sacred College of Cardinals, composed of the pope's principal advisors and assistants, is collectively responsible for the government of the Church and of the Vatican itself, under the direction of the Cardinal Chamberlain; however, canon law specifically forbids the Cardinals from introducing any innovation in the government of the Church during the vacancy of the Holy See. Any decision that needs the assent of the pope has to wait until a new pope has been elected and takes office. It has long been claimed that a pope's death is officially determined by the Cardinal Chamberlain by gently tapping the late pope's head thrice with a silver hammer and calling his birth name three times, though this is disputed and has never been confirmed by the Vatican; there is general agreement that even if this procedure ever actually occurred, it was likely not employed upon the death of John Paul II. A doctor may or may not have already determined that the pope had passed away prior to this point. The Cardinal Chamberlain then retrieves the Fisherman's Ring. Usually the ring is on the pope's right hand. But in the case of Paul VI, he had stopped wearing the ring during the last years of his reign. In other cases the ring might have been removed for medical reasons. The Chamberlain cuts the ring in two in the presence of the Cardinals. The deceased pope's seals are defaced, to keep them from ever being used again, and his personal apartment is sealed. The body then lies in state for a number of days before being interred in the crypt of a leading church or cathedral; the popes of the 20th century were all interred in St. Peter's Basilica. A nine-day period of mourning (novem dialis) follows after the interment of the late pope.

Abdication

The Code of Canon Law [http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P16.HTM 332 §2] states, If it happens that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office, it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested but not that it is accepted by anyone. It was widely reported in June and July 2002 that Pope John Paul II firmly refuted the speculation of his resignation using Canon 332, in a letter to the Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. Nevertheless, 332 §2 gave rise to speculation that either:
- Pope John Paul II would have resigned as his health failed, or
- a properly manifested legal instrument had already been drawn up that put into effect his resignation in the event of his incapacity to perform his duties. Pope John Paul II did not resign. He died on 2 April 2005 after suffering from many diseases and was buried on 8 April 2005. [http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Pope+Dead&btnG=Search+News Articles on the death of John Paul II] After his death it was reported that in his last will and testament he had considered abdicating in 2000 as he neared his 80th birthday. However the language of that passage of the will is not clear and others have interpreted it differently.

Election

The pope was originally chosen by those senior clergymen resident in and near Rome. In 1059, the electorate was restricted to the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and the individual votes of all Cardinal Electors were made equal in 1179. Pope Urban VI, elected 1378, was the last pope who was not already a cardinal at the time of his election. Canon law requires that if a layman or non-bishop is elected, he receives episcopal consecration from the Dean of the College of Cardinals before assuming the Pontificate. Under present canon law, the pope is elected by the cardinal electors, comprising those cardinals who are under the age of 80. The Second Council of Lyons was convened on May 7, 1274, to regulate the election of the pope. This Council decreed that the cardinal electors must meet within ten days of the pope's death, and that they must remain in seclusion until a pope has been elected; this was prompted by the three-year Sede Vacante following the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268. By the mid-Sixteenth century, the electoral process had more or less evolved into its present form, allowing for alteration in the time between the death of the pope and the meeting of the cardinal electors. Traditionally the vote was conducted by acclamation, by selection (by committee), or by plenary vote. Acclamation was the simplest procedure, consisting entirely of a voice vote, and was last used in 1621. Pope John Paul II abolished vote by acclamation and by selection by committee, and henceforth all popes will be elected by full vote of the Sacred College of Cardinals by ballot. The election of the pope almost always takes place in the Sistine Chapel, in a meeting called a "conclave" (so called because the cardinal electors are theoretically locked in, cum clavi, until they elect a new pope). Three cardinals are chosen by lot to collect the votes of absent cardinal electors (by reason of illness), three are chosen by lot to count the votes, and three are chosen by lot to review the count of the votes. The ballots are distributed and each cardinal elector writes the name of his choice on it and pledges aloud that he is voting for "one whom under God I think ought to be elected" before folding and depositing his vote on a plate atop a large chalice placed on the altar. The plate is then used to drop the ballot into the chalice, making it difficult for any elector to insert multiple ballots. Before being read, the number of ballots are counted while still folded; if the total number of ballots does not match the number of electors, the ballots are burned unopened and a new vote is held. Assuming the number of ballots matches the number of electors, each ballot is then read aloud by the presiding Cardinal, who pierces the ballot with a needle and thread, stringing all the ballots together and tying the ends of the thread to ensure accuracy and honesty. Balloting continues until a pope is elected by a two-thirds majority (since the promulgation of Universi Dominici Gregis the rules allow for a simple majority after a deadlock of twelve days). conclave following his coronation, a tradition which has now been discontinued.]] One of the most famous aspects of the papal election process is the means by which the results of a ballot are announced to the world. Once the ballots are counted and bound together, they are burned in a special oven erected in the Sistine Chapel, with the smoke escaping through a small chimney visible from St Peter's Square. The ballots from an unsuccessful vote are burned along with a chemical compound in order to produce black smoke, or fumata nera. (Traditionally wet straw was used to help create the black smoke, but a number of "false alarms" in past conclaves have brought about this concession to modern chemistry.) When a vote is successful, the ballots are burned alone, sending white smoke (fumata bianca) through the chimney and announcing to the world the election of a new pope. At the end of the conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, church bells were also rung to signal that a new pope had been chosen. The Dean of the College of Cardinals then asks the successfully elected Cardinal two solemn questions. First he asks, "Do you freely accept your election?" If he replies with the word "Accepto," his reign as pope begins at that instant, not at the coronation ceremony several days afterward. The Dean then asks, "By what name shall you be called?" The new pope then announces the regnal name he has chosen for himself. The new pope is led through the "Door of Tears" to a dressing room in which three sets of white Papal vestments ("immantatio") await: small, medium, and large. Donning the appropriate vestments and re-emerging into the Sistine Chapel, the new pope is given the "Fisherman's Ring" by the Cardinal Camerlengo, whom he either reconfirms or reappoints. The pope then assumes a place of honor as the rest of the Cardinals wait in turn to offer their first "obedience" ("adoratio"), and to receive his blessing. The senior Cardinal Deacon then announces from a balcony over St. Peter's Square the following proclamation: Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum! Habemus Papam! ("I announce to you a great joy! We have a pope!"). He then announces the new pope's Christian name along with the new name he has adopted as his regnal name. Until 1978, the pope's election was followed in a few days by a procession in great pomp and circumstance from the Sistine Chapel to St. Peter's Basilica, with the newly-elected pope borne in the sedia gestatoria. There the pope was crowned with the triregnum and he gave his first blessing as pope, the famous Urbi et Orbi ("to the City [Rome] and to the World"). Another famed part of the coronation was the lighting of a torch which would flare brightly and promptly extinguish, with the admonition Sic transit gloria mundi ("Thus fades worldly glory"). Traditionally, the new pope takes the Papal oath (the so-called "Oath against modernism") at his coronation, but Popes John Paul I, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI have all refused to do so. The Latin term sede vacante ("vacant seat") refers to a papal interregnum, the period between the death of the pope and the election of his successor. From this term is derived the name Sedevacantist, which designates a category of dissident, schismatic Catholics who maintain that there is no canonically and legitimately elected pope, and that there is therefore a Sede Vacante; one of the most common reasons for holding this belief is the idea that the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and especially the replacement of the Tridentine Mass with the Novus Ordo Missae are heretical, and that, per the dogma of Papal infallibility (see above), it is impossible for a valid pope to have done these things.

Objections to the Papacy

The pope's position as Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church is dogmatic and therefore not open to debate or dispute within the Catholic Church; the First Vatican Council anathematised all who dispute the pope's primacy of honour and of jurisdiction (it is lawful to discuss the precise nature of that primacy, provided that such discussion does not violate the terms of the Council's Dogmatic Constitution). However, the pope's authority is not undisputed outside the Catholic Church; these objections differ from denomination to denomination, but can roughly be outlined as (1.) objections to the extent of the primacy of the pope; and (2.) objections to the institution of the Papacy itself. anathema Some non-Catholic Christian communities, such as the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion, accept the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, and therefore accept (to varying extents) the papal claims to primacy of honour. However, these churches generally deny that the pope is the successor to St. Peter in any unique sense not true of any other bishop, or that St. Peter was ever bishop of Rome at all. The primacy is therefore regarded as a consequence of the pope's position as bishop of the original capital city of the Roman Empire, a definition explicitly spelled out in the 28th canon of the Council of Chalcedon. In any event, these churches see no foundation at all to papal claims of universal jurisdiction. Because none of them recognise the First Vatican Council as ecumenical, they regard its definitions concerning jurisdiction and infallibility (and anathematisation of those who do not accept them) as invalid. Other non-Catholic Christian denominations do not accept the doctrine of Apostolic Succession, or do not understand it in hierarchical terms, and therefore do not accept the claim that the pope is heir either to Petrine primacy of honour or to Petrine primacy of jurisdiction or they reject both claims of honor or jurisdiction as unscriptural. The Papacy's complex relationship with the Roman and Byzantine Empires, and other secular states, and the Papacy's territorial claims in Italy, are another focal point of these objections; as is the monarchical character of the office of pope. In Western Christianity, these objections — and the vehement rhetoric they have at times been cast in — both contributed to, and are products of, the Protestant Reformation. These denominations vary from simply not accepting the pope's authority as legitimate and valid, to believing that the pope is the Antichrist or one of the beasts spoken of in the Book of Revelation. These denominations tend to be more heterogeneous amongst themselves than the aforementioned hierarchical churches, and their views regarding the Papacy and its institutional legitimacy (or lack thereof) vary considerably. Some objectors to the papacy use empirical arguments, pointing to the corrupt characters of some of the holders of that office. For instance, some argue that claimed successors to St. Peter, like Alexander VI and Callixtus III from the Borgia family, were so corrupt as to be unfit to wield power to bind and loose on Earth or in Heaven. An omniscient and omnibenevolent God, some argue, would not have given those people the powers claimed for them by the Catholic Church. Defenders of the papacy argue that the Bible shows God as willingly giving privileges even to corrupt men (citing examples like some of the kings of Israel, the apostle Judas Iscariot, and even St. Peter after he denied Jesus). They also argue that not even the worst of the corrupt popes used the office to try to rip the doctrine of the Church from its apostolic roots, and that this is evidence that the office is divinely protected. Some objectors to the papacy occasionally refer to the Catholic Church and its members by the pejorative term papist to point up what they believe to be an inappropriate focus of attention on the office and an improper attribution of certain divine favors ex officio.

Other Popes

An antipope is a person who claims the Pontificate without being canonically and properly elected to it. The existence of an antipope is usually due either to doctrinal controversy within the Church, or to confusion as to who is the legitimate pope at the time (see Papal Schism). "The Black Pope" is a derogatory name given to the Superior General of the Society of Jesus due to the Jesuits' practice of wearing black cassocks (compared to the pope's always wearing white robes), and to the order's specific allegiance to the Roman pontiff. The heads of the Coptic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church of Alexandria are also called "popes" for historical reasons, the former being called "Coptic Pope" or "Pope of Alexandria" and the latter called "Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa"; the parallel construction "Pope of Rome" is frequently used in the Eastern churches. In Islam, the former office of Caliph held similar meaning, as the leader of all Muslims, subordinate only to the prophet Muhammad.

See also


- Chronological list of popes
- Pope Benedict XVI
- List of 10 longest-reigning Popes
- List of 10 shortest-reigning Popes
- List of ages of popes
- Vestment
- Immaculate Conception
- Assumption
- Ecumenical Council
- College of Bishops
- Pontifical University
- Caesaropapism
- History of the Papacy
- Investiture Controversy
- African popes
- List of French popes
- Myths and legends surrounding the Papacy
- Pope Joan
- Prophecy of the popes
- Regnal name
- Papal Slippers
- Papal Coronation
- Papal Inauguration
- List of sexually active popes

External links


- [http://www.vatican.va/ The Holy See]
- [http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/_INDEX.HTM Code of Canon Law] – Vatican site
- [http://www.dailycatholic.org/history/20ecume3.htm The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of Christ], Fourth Session of the First Vatican Council
- [http://web.globalserve.net/~bumblebee/ecclesia/patriarchs.htm Eastern Church Defends Petrine Primacy and the Papacy]
- [http://thepopeblog.blogspot.com/ The Pope Blog] – Unofficial weblog about the pope
- [http://popetribute.com/ Pope Tribute] – A tribute to the pope, present and past
- [http://www.papst-benedikt.be Pope Benedict XVI and other Popes] (germ.)
- [http://www.geocities.com/hashanayobel/papalinfo.htm Papal information] News about ongoing Papal Events
- [http://www.punditguy.com/2005/04/german_pope.html Pope Election News Roundup]
- [http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/benedictxvi/ Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez announcing Habemus Papam (We have a Pope!)] (Windows Media Player Video).
- [http://www.americancatholic.org/news/BenedictXVI/ American Catholic - Pope Benedict XVI Starts His Papacy]
- [http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1452750,00.html Swiss Watchers - article about the Papal Guards in THE GUARDIAN]
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- Category:Ecclesiastical titles als:Papst ko:교황 ms:Paus (Katholik) ja:ローマ教皇 simple:Pope th:พระสันตะปาปา

11th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century was that century which lasted from 1001 to 1100. In the history of European culture, this period is considered the early part of the High Middle Ages.

Overview

Events


- 1000, foundation of the Christian Kingdom of Hungary
- 1001, Mahmud of Ghazni, Muslim leader of Ghazni, begins raids into Northern India; he finishes in 1027.
- Circa 1001, Vikings, led by Leif Eirikson, establish small settlements in and around Vinland in North America
- 1054, the Great Schism, in which the Western (Roman Catholic) and Eastern Orthodox churches separated from each other. Similar schisms in the past had been later repaired, but this one continues after nearly 1000 years.
- 1060, Norman conquest of Sicily
- 1065, independence of the Kingdom of Galicia and Portugal under the rule of Garcia
- 1066, Edward the Confessor dies; Norman conquest of England in the Battle of Hastings
- 1076, Ghana Empire began break-up after capital (Kumbi) sacked
- 1086, compilation of the Domesday Book
- 1094, El Cid, the great Spanish hero, conquers the Moorish city of Valencia
- 1099, First Crusade captures Jerusalem
- King Anawrahta of Myanmar made a pilgrimage to Ceylon, returning to convert his country to Theravada Buddhism.
- The Tuareg migrate to the Aïr region.
- Kanem-Bornu expands southward into modern Nigeria.
- The first of seven Hausa city-states are founded in Nigeria.
- The Hodh region of Mauritania becomes desert.

Significant people


- Canute
- William the Conqueror
- Macbeth
- Alp Arslan
- Pope Saint Gregory VII (Hildebrand)
- Saint Anselm, reputed founder of scholasticism and creator of the ontological argument.
- St Robert, founder of the Cistercians
- Emperor Henry III
- Emperor Henry IV
- Pope Urban II
- Empress Agnes
- Konrad II
- Archbishop Anno II of Cologne
- Stephen I of Hungary

Inventions, discoveries, introductions


- Invention of military rockets by the Chinese
- The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu is one of the first novels in Japanese
- The tittle was created.

Decades and years

Category:11th century Category:Centuries ko:11세기 ja:11世紀 simple:11th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 11

13th century

As a means of recording the passage of time, the 13th century was that century which lasted from 1201 to 1300. In the history of European culture, this period is considered part of the High Middle Ages. High Middle Ages, overran most of Asia, thus creating the world's largest empire to ever exist. They achieved this success in large part due to their amazing horse archers.]]

Events


- Genghis Khan, Temujin by birth is claimed "Khan of Khans" by the Mongol tribes.
- Mongols under Genghis Khan conquer and rule over most of Asia and Eastern Europe by establishing Mongol Empire
- Ogedei Khan establish Mongolian dynasty in China. Some Mongol leaders convert from Tantric Buddhism to Islam.
- 1204 - Fourth Crusade sacks Byzantine Constantinople and creates the Latin Empire.
- Fifth through eighth crusades of western European kingdoms against Islam
- King John of England forced to sign Magna Carta at Runnymede
- Fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors
- Marco Polo and his family reach China
- James I of Aragon takes control of Balearic Islands and Valencia.
- Andrew II of Hungary signs the Golden Bull which afferms the privileges of Hungarian nobility.
- Theravada overtakes Mahayana as the dominant form of Buddhism in Cambodia.
- Persian historian Rashid al-Din records eleven Buddhist texts circulating in Arabic translation.
- The Thai Kingdom of Sukhothai is established, with Theravada Buddhism as the state religion. Later in the century it vassalises significant parts of modern Thailand, Laos, Burma, and Malaysia.
- Norway cedes the Isle of Man to Scotland.
- First European universities founded.
- The Utiguri Bulgar state on the Volga vanishes from history.
- Bantu-speaking peoples arrive in modern Angola, partially displacing the original Khoisan inhabitants.
- The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212 in Spain sees the beginning of a rapid Christian reconquest of the southern half of the Iberian peninsula, with the defeat of Moorish forces.

Significant people


- Genghis Khan, founder of Mongol Empire
- Alexander of Hales, philosopher and theologian
- Albertus Magnus, German philosopher and theologian
- Thomas Aquinas, theologian
- Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order
- Robert Grosseteste, English statesman, teologian, and scientist
- Roger Bacon, Franciscan, philosopher, and scientist
- Bonaventure, Franciscan theologian
- Petrus Peregrinus, scientist
- Louis IX of France, St. Louis, French king and crusader
- Frederick II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
- Dante Alighieri, Italian writer
- Ramon Llull, Majorcan philosopher
- Kublai Khan, Khan ruler, founder of Yuan Dynasty in China
- Alexander Nevsky, Grand Prince of Novgorod and Vladimir
- Snorri Sturluson, historian and saga-writer
- William Wallace, Scottish national leader
- Béla IV of Hungary rebuilder of Hungary after the devastating Mongol invasion

Inventions, discoveries, introductions


- List of 13th century inventions

Decades and years

External links


- [http://www.nd.edu/Departments/Maritain/etext/walsh.htm The Thirteenth: Greatest of Centuries] by James J. Walsh, 1907 Category:13th century Category:Centuries ko:13세기 ja:13世紀 simple:13th century th:คริสต์ศตวรรษที่ 13

Holy Land

The phrase The Holy Land (Arabic الأرض المقدسة, al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah; Hebrew ארץ הקודש: Standard Hebrew Éreẓ haQodeš, Tiberian Hebrew ʾÉreṣ haqQāḏēš; Latin Terra Sancta) generally refers to Palestine or the Land of Israel. Specifically, it focuses on those areas which hold specific, significant religious importance to three monotheistic traditions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These areas include, but are not limited to, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Bethlehem, the Western Wall, and the Dome of the Rock. The Crusades were started on the pretext of recovering the Holy Land. More recently, the region is at the center of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The term is sometimes used when a speaker wishes to use neither "Israel" nor "Palestine" for the region, since either term can be considered as giving a specific religious group (Jews and Muslims, respectively) the right of ownership.

Its meaning in Islam

The term "Holy Land" is used in the Qur'an: :And (remember) when Moses said unto his people: "O my people! Remember Allah's favour unto you, how He placed among you prophets, and He made you kings, and gave you that (which) He gave not to any (other) of (His) creatures. O my people! Go into the holy land which Allah hath ordained for you. Turn not in flight, for surely ye turn back as losers." (Al-Ma'ida 20-21, Pickthall translation) It is described in early Islamic tradition by az-Zujaj as "Damascus, Palestine, and a bit of Jordan", and by Qatada as "the Levant (ash-Sham)" and by Maad ibn Jabal as "the area between al-Arish and the Euphrates", and by Ibn Abbas as "the land of Jericho". It is also sometimes used by Muslims (although not in the Qur'an) in reference to the Hijaz, land of the holy cities Mecca and Medina. The specific term "al-Quds", "the Holy", is the Arabic name of Jerusalem. The "Holy Valley" (الوادي المقدس) refers in the Qur'an to the valley of Tuwa where Moses is believed to have receive a revelation from God ordering him to go to Pharaoh and warn him to repent (Ta-Ha 12, An-Naziat 16.) The term is used in the name of the Islamic charity organization Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

Literature


- Hanan Isachar, Ceremonies in the Holy Land, Melzer 2005 Category:Judaism Category:Hebrew Bible/Tanakh places Category:New Testament places Category:Crusades Category:Islam Category:Levant



Constantinople

:This article details the history of Constantinople before the Turkish Conquest of 1453. For details on the city since 1453, see İstanbul. İstanbul Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις) was the original and best known name of the modern city of İstanbul in Turkey in its role over more than a millennium as capital, first of the Eastern Roman Empire, subsequently of the Byzantine Empire. The last imperial designation reveals the city's even more ancient Greek name: Byzantium. Constantinople was located strategically between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe met Asia, and was highly significant as the successor to ancient Rome and the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages.

Names

The name of Constantinople is an honorific eponym referencing its founder, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine established the Greek city of Byzantium as the second capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, AD 330, naming the city Nova Roma (New Rome). That particular name, however, enjoyed little common use, and it was as the 'City of Constantine' (Constantinopolis) that it lived through the subsequent centuries. A historical Slavic name for the city was Tsargrad. The word is an Old Church Slavonic translation of the Greek, presumably of Βασιλεως Πόλις, "the city of the emperor [king]": combining the Slavonic words tsar for "Caesar" and grad for "city", it stood for "the City of the Emperor [Caesar]". As fashions have changed the term has faded, and the word Tsargrad is now an archaic term in Russian, but is still used occasionally in Bulgarian. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or İstanbul, adopting a usage in Greek "eis tin Poli" (to or at the City). But they still used "Konstantiniyye" ("Constantine's City", or Constantinople) as the official name. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara. Constantinople was officially renamed İstanbul by the Republic of Turkey in 1930.

Byzantium

Constantine's foundation of New Rome on this site reflected its strategic and commercial importance from the earliest times, lying as it does astride both the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black or Euxine Sea to the Mediterranean, whilst also being possessed of an excellent and spacious harbour in the Golden Horn. No doubt for these reasons, a city was first founded on the site in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, when in 667 BC the legendary Byzas established it with a group of citizens from the town of Megara. This city was named Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον), after its founder.

Constantine's Foundation

Byzantium, ca. 1000)]] Constantine had altogether more ambitious plans. Having restored the unity of the empire, now overseeing the progress of major governmental reforms and sponsoring the consolidation of the Christian church, Constantine was well aware that Rome had become an unsatisfactory capital for several reasons. Located in central Italy, Rome lay too far from the eastern imperial frontiers, and hence also from the legions and the Imperial courts.Moreover, Rome offered an undesirable playground for disaffected politicians; it also suffered regularly from flooding and from malaria. It seemed impossible to many that the capital could be moved. Nevertheless, Constantine identified the site of Byzantium as the correct place: a city where an emperor could sit, readily defended, with easy access to the Danube or the Euphrates frontiers, his court supplied from the rich gardens and sophisticated workshops of Roman Asia, his treasuries filled by the wealthiest provinces of the empire. Constantine laid out the expanded city, dividing it into 14 regions, and ornamenting it with great public works worthy of a great imperial city. Yet initially Constantinople did not have all the dignities of Rome, possessing a proconsul, rather than a prefect of the city. Furthermore, it had no praetors, tribunes or quaestors. Although Constantinople did have senators, they held the title clarus, not clarissimus, like those of Rome. Nor did it have the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food-supply, the police, the statues, the temples, the sewers, the aqueducts and other public works. The new program of building was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and removed to the new city. By the same token, however, many of the greatest works of Greek and Roman art were soon to be seen in its squares and streets. The emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica, and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to citizens. At the time the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.

Public buildings

332 Constantinople was a Christian city, lying in the most Christianised part of the Empire. Justinian made the temples of Byzantium into ruins, and erected the splendid Church of the Holy Wisdom, Sancta Sophia (also known as Hagia Sophia in Greek), as the centrepiece of his Christian capital. He oversaw also the building of the Church of the Holy Apostles, and that of St Irene. Constantine laid out anew the square at the centre of old Byzantium, naming it the Augusteum in honour of his mother, Helena. Sancta Sophia lay on the north side of the Augusteum. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of the emperor with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne. Located immediately nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the Baths of Zeuxippus (both originally built in the time of Severus). At the entrance at the western end of the Augusteum was the Milestone, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Empire. From the Augusteum a great street, the Mese, led, lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the Praetorium or law-court. Then it passed through the oval Forum of Constantine where there was a second senate-house, then on and through the Forum of Taurus and then the Forum of Bous, and finally up the Sixth Hill and through to the Golden Gate on the Propontis. The Mese would be seven Roman miles long to the Golden Gate of the Walls of Theodosius. Constantine erected a high column in the centre of the Forum, on the Second Hill, with a statue of himself at the top, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking towards the rising sun.

Constantinople in the Divided Empire

Walls of Theodosius, on a contemporary silver plate (Royal Academy of History, Madrid)]] The first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople was Honoratus, who took office on 11 December 359 and held it until 361. The emperor Valens built the Palace of Hebdomon on the shore of the Propontis near the Golden Gate, probably for use when reviewing troops. All the emperors, up to Zeno and Basiliscus, who were elevated at Constantinople, were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the church of John the Baptist to house a relic of the saint, put up a memorial pillar to himself in the Forum of Taurus, and turned the ruined temple of Aphrodite into a coachhouse for the Praetorian Prefect; Arcadius built a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine. Gradually the importance of the city increased. Following the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 376, when the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Goths within a few days' march of the city, Constantinople looked to its defences, and Theodosius II built in 413-414 the 60-foot tall walls which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University at the Capitolium near the Forum of Taurus,