Monday, June 4, 2012

OMG You Ain't the Emperor

What Up, Nerds?

If you've watched the video "OMG Hussites, Part 1" you'll know that Jan Hus got killed in 1415 by the decree of the Church Council at Constance, Germany.

But Sigismund, Emperor of the Germans and the brother of Hus' king, offered Hus safe passage to and from the council. He promised Hus his safety. And then when Hus showed up, the council tried him for heresy and had him executed. Obviously this was a breach of Sigismund's honor--a betrayal of Sigismund's word.

When they killed Hus it sparked off a movement that would spiral into the Hussite Wars. The Hussite Wars would weaken Sigismund and consume his empire for the rest of his life.

Now Sigismund was no wimp and he was no weakling who you'd expect to be pushed around by councils willy-nilly. He was the Emperor of Germany. He was Emperor of North Italy. He was King of Hungary and King of Croatia. He would be named the King of Bohemia. He was a real big deal.

So why did he let the Church override his word to Hus at the Council of Constance? Why did he let them send his realm spiraling into the Hussite Wars?

Historically, that's a complicated question to answer. But one big part of an answer might be an explanation of how come the church was so powerful compared to Emperors and Kings.

And that means telling the story about how once upon a time a Pope just declared that the Emperor of Germany wasn't the Emperor any more, and Germany listened to the Pope.



It all starts some 350 years before Emperor Sigismund started getting his Papal headaches. In 1056 a six year old boy was crowned Henry Four, Emperor of Germany. His daddy--Henry Three--did not share Sigismund's Papal headaches because he got to appoint his own Popes. There was no College of Cardinals to elect a Pope. The King of Germany got to just pick one.

So what happens when a six year old becomes Emperor of Germany? The Popes decide to declare "that kid don't get to pick the next Pope," that's what. Who with a shred of self respect is going to let some six year old choose the head of Christendom?

And, the Pope figures, why are the Kings of Europe still appointing the bishops and priests too? The Kings ain't spiritual. And really, what gives a King the right to rule in the first place? The church existed by the will of god. Kings existed because they had some soldiers who liked them. The Pope--Gregory Seven--spent the next little while doing his best to appoint bishops and clergymen in places where Kings might have appointed them before.

Then in 1075 he wrote a letter that said Popes were more important than the German Emperor, and that they could appoint and fire Emperors whenever they wanted.


Pretty sure it also says "What Up Nerds? is
the best blog/vlog that God shall ever deign to create."
(Pic from Wiki)


As German Emperor, Henry Four looked at this and asked "Since when the hell did I even agree that Emperors couldn't hire and fire Popes?"

And so Henry responded to Greg's insulting assertion by writing a letter firing the Pope and calling for a new one to be chosen. And then to drive the point home he appointed someone as the bishop of a city that Pope Greg had already appointed a bishop of.

Now it was Greg's turn to be pissed, so he swung back. He officially kicked Henry out of the church and he fired Henry from his job as Emperor.

At this points an enormous chunk of the nobles who served Henry to run the Empire said "well I guess we don't have an Emperor any more. We should probably elect a new one some time." But in the short term they didn't care that much about who was the Emperor. What they wanted was the chance to go looting. And loot they did, grabbing the Emperor's property all over Germany.

Suddenly young King Henry wasn't the Emperor no more.

Henry's in a lot of trouble right now, so he calls together a few soldiers who are still loyal to him and he gets the f*ck outta Dodge. He takes his soldiers out of Germany and straight to northern Italy where the Pope's hanging out. 

It isn't long before the Pope hears young Henry is headed right for him with a bunch of soldiers, and he barricades himself right up in the closest castle. He thinks Henry is goint to straight-up kill him and he's about to sh*t himself when Henry gets there. And then the unexpected happens.

Henry puts on a hair shirt (which is traditional penance-wear), falls to his knees outside of the castle while the snow falls all over him, and spends hours begging Pope Greg to make him Emperor again. After hours of this Greg takes pity on him, and both men agree that they'll both keep their jobs.


Could you say no to that face if he was begging
you to reinstate him as Emperor of the Germans? I didn't think so.
(Pic from Wiki)



Of course the nobles who rebelled and took Emperor Henry's things aren't so happy now. And they don't really care if the Pope said Henry was King again. They like being the new owners of Henry's things. So they just elect themselves a new King in the city of Mainz.

But the German people did care that the Pope said Henry was in charge again. They rose up an attacked. The rebellious Nobles and new king had to flee in a long retreat. Henry put new nobles who were loyal to him in charge of the parts of Germany that had come back to his side, and then promptly re-fired Pope Greg.

He appointed his own Pope. And then he attacked and killed the rebellious nobles and false King. And then he turned his attention to Pope Greg.

He headed back down into Italy and this time he definitely planned to kill poor Greg. In order to save his own skin, Greg invited a bunch of Vikings--who had decided to set up shop in southern Italy--to come defend him. The Vikings successfully held off Henry, but when they came to Rome they decided to loot the city because hey, they liked money.

Rome was unhappy about this, and they quickly formed a mob that ALSO wanted to kill Pope Greg. So then Greg had to flee south with the Vikings. He lived in exile in the south, and he died pretty quick after that.

The German Emperors would keep trying to appoint their own Popes for a while more. And the independent Popes kept stirring up revolt in Germany in response. Eventually the Popes' strategy weakened the German Emperors. People started to agree that the Pope should probably not be appointed by the Emperor, but that the Pope shouldn't appoint the Emperor either.



350 years later a lot of people still thought that the Pope was more important then the Emperor. So when Emperor Sigismund had the church break his promise of safety to Jan Hus, he knew the church could start a rebellion in his back yard any time it wanted to. And that may have been a significant part of why he let the Council of Constance imprison, try, and execute Hus.

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