Rodolfo Gonzaga (1452-1495): News on a Celebrity Murder Case

RODOLFO GONZAGA (1452-1495):
NEWS ON A CELEBRITY MURDER CASE
Gastone Saletnich and Wolfgang P. Müller
In recent years there has been a flurry of publications cataloguing, transcribing,
and translating petitions registered by the fifteenth-century scribes of
the Penitentiary. Full texts relating to requests made by Scandinavians, for example,
are now available in print.1 The Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum,
assembling summaries of German supplications has produced a constant
flow of printed volumes, and a similar project covering English entries from the
beginning ofthe extant penitential registers in 1410 until l503 is meanwhile underway.
2 On the other band, the recorded material from core areas of the late
medieval Latin church, such as the French kingdom, the Iberian peninsula, and,
last but not least, Italy, still await systematic exploration and editing, except for
a few investigations on the local and diocesan level.3 By dedicating this article
to the examination of a single celebrity case involving an important family of
the early Renaissance, we wisb to offer but a glimpse of the rieb information
stored in the archives of the Penitentiary with regard to the history of the Italian
city-states.
The document we will discuss in the following was directed to the papal
court of penance during tbe first pontifical year of lnnocent VIII (August 1484
1 Torstein Jmgensen and Gastone Saletnich, Syndu og Pavemakt. Botsbrev fra Den Norske
Kirkeprovins og Suderoyne til Pavestolen 1438-1531 (Sinners and Papal Power: Penitentiary
Supplications from the Norwegian Church Province and the Hebrides to the Holy See
1438-1531) (Stavanger: Misjonshegskolens forlag, 2004), 125-187 (with translations into
Norwegian); for an introductory survey on the medieval Penitentiary, see K.irsi Salonen,
The Penitentiary as a Well of Grace in the Late Muidle Ages. The Example of the Province
of Uppsala 1448-1527. Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian Toirnituksia – Annales Academiae
Scientiarurn Fennicae 313 (Saarijärvi: Academia Scientiarurn Fennica, 2001), 13-216
(hereafter Salonen, The Penitentiary).
·2 Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum, ed. Ludwig Schmugge et al. (5 vols to date)
(Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1996 ff.). The English and Welsh petitions are being
catalogued by Peter Clarke and Patrick Zutshi.
3 An outstanding example is the commented edition of late medieval petitions from the North
Italian diocese of Corno by Paolo Ostinelli, Penitenzieria Apostolica. Le suppliche alla Sacra
Penitenzieria Apostolica pravenienti dalla diocesi di Corno (1438-1484). Materiali di
storia ecclesiastica lombarda 5 (Milan: Ed. Unicopli, 2003).
145
to August 1485) and it is registered in the Penitentiary registers under the title of
de diversis formis ( on various matters ).
Rodo/fo, from the noble family of the Gonzaga, Jayman of Mantua,
[explains that] he ordered h i s adulteraus wife to be killed, which in
fact turned out to be the case. He thus rendered hirnself incapable
of contracting marriage with another woman. Considering, however,
that he is of an age in which he cannot live in chastity, he petitions
that Your Holiness be mercifo/ly disposed to mandate by
special grace that the petitioner be absolved from this crime of
spousal murder (uxoricidium). Your Holiness befurther disposed to
offer dispensation, to the ef
fect that the petitioner, once he is readmitted
to the church, can contract marriage with another woman,
provided that there is no further canonica/ impediment between
them.
So be it by special grace and express [mandate], F., bishop elect of
Anagni and regen!.
Rome, at Saint Peter ’s, 8 December.4
The document is of great interest for at least three different reasons. First of all,
because it has bitherto been unknown to local and Renaissance historians. N ext,
because it displays a flurry of succinct legal formulas not immediately comprehensible
to modern readers. And finally, because it sheds additional light on an
episode of betrayal, a broken marriage, and murder, long said to have been
committed by a member of one of the most important families of the Early Renaissance:
the Gonzaga of Mantua. Each ofthese aspects will be explored in the
present paper. Prior to undertaking a canonistic analysis of the document, we
would like to trace the identity and circumstances of the principal protagonists
and events mentioned in the text.
Rodolfo di Ganzaga was the fourth cbild of Ludovico lll, second margrave
of Mantua, and bis wife, Barbara of Hohenzollem. Rodolfo was bom in
Mantua in 1452. According to bis father’s plans, he was destined for a career in
anns. From an early age, Rodolfo was sent on official missions representing bis
father’s political interests. Between 1463 and 1470, we find him at Innsbruck, in
the service of Margaret of Wittelsbach, the future wife of Rodolfo’s oldest
brother, Federico. In 1469, Rodolfo was at Ferrara to do bornage on behalf of
the Gonzaga family to Emperor Frederick lU, who in turn elevated him to
knighthood. Later the same year, Rodolfo went to Brussels to offer his services
4 ASV, Penitenzieria Ap, Reg. Matrim. et Div., vol. 34, fol. 127r: Rodu/phus nobilis de Gonzaga
laicus Mantuanensis [exponit quod] ipse olim uxorem suam adulteram inteifeci mandavit
prout inteifecta fuit propter quod reddidit se indignum ad contrahendum cum alia.
Cum autem in tali etate consttui tus quod continenter vivere non possit petit ipsum a reatu
uxoricidii huiusmodi absolvi secumque quod cum alia muliere sibi nullo iure prohibita
contrahere possit introitu ecclesie sibi restituto dispensari misericorditer mandare dignemini
de gratia specai /i. Fiat de speciali et expresso, F. e/ectus Ananiensis regens. Rome
apud sanctum Petrum, vi idus dec. anno primo (December 8, 1484).
146
to Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Ever since be tu.med eighteen in 1470,
Rodolfo served in various capacities as a professional soldier and condottiere,
hired successively by the Holy See, the Florentine Republic, and Venice. Before
long, he became known as one of the most highly paid military captains of his
time. In 1486, Rodolfo went on to fight under the banner of the dukes of Milan,
before eventually enlisting again for Venice in February 1495. Rodolfo died a
few months afterwards during the battle of Fornovo, alongside his nephew,
Francesco, who bad become margrave of Mantua following the death of Rodolfo’s
brother Federico in 1484.5
We know comparatively little about Rodolfo’s adulterous wife, Antonia, a
daughter of Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, the papal vicar of Rimini, and Sigismondo’s
spouse, lsotta. Born in the 1460s, Antonia was wedded to Rodolfo
in 1481, in a marriage that sealed one of the precarious political alliances so
typical of the Renaissance period. Contemporary witnesses assure us that the
wedding ceremony, celebrated at Palazzo Schifanoia in Mantua, was splendid.
Local narrative sources have a good deal to report on Rodolfo’s frrst marriage
and its tragic conclusion, with modern historiography frequently at a loss
to distinguish fact from partisan and even romanticized fiction. Following the
most colorful accounts, Rodolfo, while at Luzzara on Christmas Day of 1483,
was informed by one of bis favorites about rumors, which implicated bis wife in
an adulteraus affair. Ravaged by suspicions, the battle-hardened condottiere appears
to have surprised Antonia in bed with her Iover, the dance master Fernando
Flores Cubillas. Rodolfo, we are told, killed the introder on the spot. Not
content with the bloody vengeance brought upon his rival, Rodolfo then dragged
bis wife Antonia naked into the courtyard. In front of numerous bystanders, he
forced her to implore him for mercy. Her sighs were to no avail. Rodolfo eventually
pulled out a dagger and finished her offwith a single stroke to the head.6
Modem historical accounts have viewed Antonia as a victim of political
conspiracies and intrigues plaguing the court of Mantua during those years.
While the precise circumstances of her end have remained rather obscure, the
bistorical outcome for Rodolfo’s private life is quite certain. Within the span of
a year, by 1485, Rodolfo found hirnself remarried to another women, Caterina,
the daughter ofGian Francesco Pico, the lord ofMirandola.7
s For a convenient summary of the available bibliographical information, see Isabella Lazzarini,
„Gonzaga, Rodolfo“, Dizionario biografico degli italiani 51 (2001), 838-840 (with additional
bibliography) (hereafter Lazzarini, „Gonzaga, Rodolfo“).
6 The earliest narrative of the events by the chronicler Bemardino Zambotti, Diario ferrarese
dall’anno 1476 sino al 1504, ed. Giuseppe Pardi. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, Nova Series,
vol. 2417. (Bologna: N. Zanichelli, 1937), 131, lines 32-36, only mentioned that Rodolfo
bad killed his wife after discovering her adulterous affair with „a dance teacher“; See
also Lazzarini, „Gonzaga, Rodolfo“, 839.
7 Alfonso Morselli, Caterina Pico della Mirandola (Reggio-Emilia: Tip. Modema-U. Costi,
1939), 7, has dated Rodolfo’s second wedding “toward the end“ of 1484.
147
Let us now turn to the specifics of the new1y discovered document in the
archives of the Penitentiary. A careful canonistic ana1ysis of the brief text arguably
provides a fair amount of additional, a1beit less sensational information
on Rodolfo Gonzaga’s marital drama of 1483. As briefly mentioned ear1ier on,
Rodolfo’s petition appears in the records of the Penitentiary under the rubric de
diversis formis.8 As we learn from the narrative, Rodolfo wished to remarry,
which might Iook like a case that rather pertained to the sub-category of petitions
concerning marriage (de matrimonialibus). Curial scribes, however, preferred
to include Rodolfo’s and parallel cases of spousal murder under de diversisformis
instead of de matrimonialibus, side by side with dispensations and absolutions
from other forms ofhomicide.
The procedural and canonistic technicalities implicit in Rodolfo’s request
help convey a better sense of the significance once attached to it. To begin witb,
the absolutions and dispensations from spousal murder recorded by the Penitentiary
suggest that the killing ofmarital partners constituted a case of great rarity.
A comprehensive survey of German petitions submitted and registered during
the pontificate of lnnocent VIll (1484-1492) has yielded numbers amounting to
an average of less than one case per year. Besides their infrequency, the entries
are also consistent in that they always couple absolutions with dispensations.9
The papal penitentiarius maior conceded the 1atter pending ulterior works of
penance, to be imposed on the supplicant by the ordinary bishop back in the
home province.
The registration of petitions re1ated to spousal murder was apparently
only required for those repentant sinners who were at the same time in need of a
dispensation, either because absolutions alone did not call for papal intervention,
or due to the secrecy of the confessed offense. Equipped with such a dispensation
and presuming the successful completion (introitu ecclesie sibi restituto) of
prescribed (and frequently public) acts ofpenance, recipients like Rodo1fo could
again contract canonical marriages. The cancellation of irregularitas, barring
access to the blessings inherent in the sacrament, formed an administrative necessity
ever since the formative period of classica1 canon law (1 140-1234),
when church lawyers bad established that uxoricidium constituted a full-fledged
marriage impediment, an impedimentum criminis.10 In line with the absolute parity
attributed by canon law to busband and wife in terms of marital rights,
8 On the rubrics ofpenitential registers, which became fairly stable in the years after 1450, see
Salonen, The Penitentiary, 20-22.
9 There is a total of just 7 cases in the registers for 1484-1492 (ASV, Penitenzieria Ap., Reg.
Matrim. et Div., vols. 34-41): vol. 36, fol. 167Y; vol. 36, fol. 179v; vol. 36, fol. 185v; vol.
38, fol. 180v; vol. 38, fol. 216v; vol. 41, fol. 15lv; vol. 41, fol. 175v; the count is based on
the material prepared for volume VII of the RPG, ed. Ludwig Schmugge, Alessandra Mosciatti
and Wolfgang P. Müller (to appear).
1° For details, see Josef Preisen, Geschichte des canonischen Eherechts bis zum Veifall der
Glossenliteratur (Paderbom, 1893; reprint: Aalen: Scientia Verlag, 1962), 891-906; Jean
Dauvillier, Le mariage dans Je droit classique de J’Eglise depuis le Decret de Gratien
(JJ40)jusqu’a Ja mort de Clement V (1314) (Paris: Sirey, 1933), 158-159, 201-278.
148
women killing their spouses also bad recourse to tbe remedy. As a result, the
mention of a certain Margareta Knotzinger from the diocese of Salzburg, asking
for dispensation from the murder (mariticidium) of ber first busband in 1488, is
not altogether surprising. 1 1
Tbe rare references to spousal killing from the bands of Germans (and, we
would suppose, non-Germans) al1ows for speculation on wbether Rodolfo’s appearance
in the records was a retlection of his social and political prominence.
Were average Christians prevented from availing themselves of the favor bestowed
by tbe papal administration on a member of the eminent Gonzaga family?
How important were the privileges of birth wben it came to the question of
wbo would receive a dispensation like Rodolfo’s and wbo would not? Given the
small sample of dispensations granted to Germans under Innocent VIII, the
numbers may not offer an accurate reflection of the overall decision-making
process. lt is striking, bowever, that ofthe seven German dispensations recorded
under Innocent VIII, none went to a person of noble origin. Eacb of the recipients
was a commoner.
Our entry in the registers of tbe Penitentiary presents conclusive evidence
to tbe effect tbat Rodolfo bad commissioned someone eise to kill Antonia. He
thereby admitted to the voluntarily nature of the act not only in tbe secrecy of
confession, but also in public, before the ecclesiastical court of Rodolfo’s ordinary,
most likely the bisbop of Mantua. At first sigbt, the cooperation ofthis local
prelate in favor of Rodolfo appears to be a foregone conclusion, considering
that tbe Mantuan bisbop at the time was none other than Rodolfo’s own brother,
Ludovico (in office 1483-151 1).12
It is very probable that Rodolfo’s desire to be formally readmitted to the
cburcb was sparked by the imminence of new wedding plans rather than despair
about his sinful state. Tbis is evident from the chronological proximity between
the signing of Rodolfo’s request for dispensation on December 8, 1484, and the
fulfillment of its purpose by way of bis second marriage to Caterina Pico di
Mirandola just weeks later. We begin to abandon firm ground, bowever, once
we try to understand the procedural tecbnicalities involved in the granting of
dispensations for uxoricidium and mariticidium by the fifteenth-century cburcb
hierarcby. Was it a favor only the pope could bestow, or did local bishops sbare
the same right?13
11
ASV Penitenzieria Ap, Reg. Matrim. et Div. , vol. 38, fol. 180v (November 21, 1488); the
secend entry, vol. 36, fol. 185v (April 27, 1487), re1ates the case ofa widow from Salzburg
diocese, who bad asked for absolution and dispensation from spousal killing in the secrecy
ofthe intema1 forum.
12 Konrad Eubel, ed., Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi sive Summorum Pontificum S.R.E.
Cardinalium, Ecclesiarum Antistitum Series ab anno I 198 usque ad annum 1431 perducta
e documenti s tabularii praesertim vaticani, vol. 2 (Münster: Regensberg, 1914), 185; Raffae1e
Tamalio, „Gonzaga, Ludovico“, Dizionario biografico degli italiani 51 (2001), 801-
803.
13 The registration of homicidium and uxoricidium under the same rubric of de diversis formis
(see note 8) may provide a first important clue; perhaps, cases like Rodolfo’s did not enter
149
Given the paucity of entries in the registers, one might be led to believe
that bisbops, too, were able to issue grants remitting spousal murder, independently
and without need for papal approval. 14 If this was true, recourse to tbe Apostolic
See would not bave occurred unless local ordinaries bad wisbed to submit
a particularly serious incident to Rome, or supplicants bad decided to go
there on their own.
An alternative line of reasoning would depart from the observation that
the papal Penitentiary treated marriage impediments arising from the killing of
husbands and wives on a par with those caused by prohibited degrees of consanguinity
or affinity between spouses, with hundreds of dispensations for the latter
being issued and registered eacb year.15 Parallel to cases of consanguinity and
affinity, spousal bomicide did not merely impede (impedit) perpetrators to remarry
canonically, but also rendered unions already contracted null and void
(dirimit).16 Now, dispensations from consanguinity clearly exceeded episcopal
competence, in what might imply that bishops were likewise disqualified to dispense
from spousal killings. It would, therefore, seem as if the relationship between
Rodolfo and the Mantuan ordinary, Ludovico, bad been less cordial than
their family ties would suggest. ls it possible that the two were not on the best of
terms wben the Penitentiary interceded in December of 1484, at long last overcoming
Bisbop Ludovico’s attempts to stall Rodolfo’s plans for a new marriage
alliance?
Further investigation by local historians and a better knowledge of contemporary
penitential procedures is needed before we can transform this array of
hypothetical situations into a more definitive scenario. Meanwhile, our register
entry addresses at least one point of contention with sufficient certainty. While
Rodolfo did not murder Antonia with bis own bands, he did plead guilty to the
charge of uxoricidium. Finally, attempts by older historiograpby to deny bis re­
sponsibility for the act can be laid to rest.
the rubric of de matrimonialibus because marriage dispensations were a papal prerogative,
whereas dispensations from spousal homicide were not? There was certainly no agreement
on the matter among the (classical) canonists; see the Iiterature given in note 10.
14 As again suggested by the scarcity of registered German petitions for absolution and dispensation
from spousal murder (see note 9), relative to the much higher total of registered
absolutions obtained by German laity for the murder of a priest (presbitericidium): 7 versus
65 during the pontificate of Innocent VIII. Penitential theory did not reserve absolutions
frompresbiterci idium to the papacy alone!
15 Salonen, The Penitentiary, 103-119, provides an overview ofthe incoming requests for dispensation
from impediments of consanguinity and affinity. They formed the bulk of mate16
rial registered annually under the rubric of de matrimonialibus.
Of the seven German entries for dispensation from spousal murder under lnnocent VIII (see
note 9), two applied to existing (iam contractum) instead of future (contrahendum) marriages:
ASV, Penitenzieria Ap .• Reg. Matrim. et Dill., vol. 36, fol. 185v; vol. 38, fol. 180v.
Both unions bad only been contracted in fact (de facto); to turn them into canonical marriages,
dispensation was paramount.
150
The Long Arm ofPapal Authority
Edited by
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein J.ergensen. Kirsi Salonen
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XIV
Gedruckt mit Unterstützung der Kulturabteilung
des Amtes der Niederösterreichischen Landesregierung
nlederösterreicll kuHur
CEU MEDIEV ALIA 8
TheLongArm
of Papal Authority
Late Medieval Christian Peripheries
and Their Communication
with the Holy See
Edited by
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein J0rgensen, K.irsi Salonen
Bergen · Budapest · Krems
2004
Copy Editor: Judith Rasson
Cover lliustration: Pope Pius II, Hartmann Scbedel, World Cbronicle (Nuremberg, 1493), fol. 250
Joint Publlcation by:
Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS)
University of Bergen, P.O.Box 7800, N-5020 Bergen, Norway
Telephone: (+47-55) 58 80 85, Fax: (+47-55) 58 80 90
E-mail: post@cms.uib.no, Website: http://www.uib.no/cms/
ISBN 82-997026-0-7
􀀔
Department of Medleval Studies
Central European University
Nädor u. 9, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary
Telephone: (+36-1) 327-3024, Fax: (+36-1) 327-3055
E-mail: medstud@ceu.hu, Website: http://www.ceu.hu/medstud/
ISSN 1587-6470 CEU MEDlEY ALIA
‚􀆦 􀁝 􀁖CE U PRESS … 􀆥
Central European University Press
An imprint of the Central European University Share Company
Nädor u. 11, H-1 051 Budapest, Hungary
Telephone: (+36-1)327-3138, 327-3000, Fax: (+36-1)327-3183
E-mail: ceupress@ceu.hu, Website: http://www.ceupress.com
and
400 West 591b Street, New York NY 10019, USA
Telephone: (+l-212)547-6932, Fax: (+1-212) 548-4607
E-mail:mgreenwald@sorosny.org
ISBN 9-63 86569 5 6
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
A CIP catalog record for this book is available upon request.
Medium Aevum Quotidianum
Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters
Körnermarkt 13, A-3500 Krems an der Donau, Austria
Telephone: (+43-2732) 847 93-20, Fax: (+43-2732) 847 93-1
E-mail: imareal@oeaw.ac.at , Website: http://www.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/maq/
ISBN 3-90 1094 17 2
© Editors and Contributors 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systerns, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the permission of the Publisher.
Printed in Hungary by Printself(Budapest).
T ABLE OF CONTENTS
Abbreviations related to the collections of the Vatican Secret Archives . . ….. … 7
Preface . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . . . . . 8
Piroska Nagy, Peripheries in Question in Late Medieval Christendom . . ….. .. . 11
Kirsi Salonen, The Penitentiary under Pope Pius TI. The Supplications
and Their Provenance . . . . . . … . . . . . . . .. … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Torstein Jergensen, At the Edge ofthe World: The Supplications
from the Norwegian Province of Nidaros . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . … . … 29
K.irsi Salonen, The Supplications from the Province of Uppsala.
Main Trends and Developments . . . .. . .. . . . . . … . . . . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . .. . . . . 42
Irene Fumeaux, Pre-Reformation Scottish Marriage Cases
in the Archives of the Papal Penitentiary . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Jadranka Neralic, Central Europe and the Late Medieval Papal Chancery . . … 71
Etleva Lala, The Papal Curia and Albania in the Later Middle Ages . …. . . . . . . . 89
Piroska N agy and Kirsi Salonen, East-Central Europe
and the Penitentiary (1458-1484) ……………………………………. 102
Lucie Dolezalova, „But if you marry me“: Reflections
on the Hussite Movement in the Penitentiary (1438-1483) ………….. 113
Ana Marinkovic, Socia1 and Territorial Endogamy
in the R.agusan Republic: Matrimonial Dispenses
during the Pontificates ofPaul li and Sixtus IV (1464-1484) ……….. 126
Gastone Saletnich and Wolfgang Müller, Rodolfo Gonzaga (1452-1495):
News on a Celebrity Murder Case . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . 145
5
Blanka Szegbyovä, Church and Secular Courts in Upper Hungary
(Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 151
Ludwig Schmugge, Penitentiary Documents
from Outside the Penitentiary . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . .. . .. .. . . .. .. : …………… 161
Gerhard Jaritz, Patternsand Levels ofPeriphery? ………………………….. 170
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . 173
6
ABBREVIATIONS RELATED TO TBE COLLECTIONS OF THE
V ATICAN SECRET ARCHIVES
ASV = Archivio Segreto Vaticano
Arm. = Armadio
Congr. Vescovi e Regolari, Visita Ap. = Congrega zione dei Vescovi e Regolari,
Visita Apostolica
Instr. Mise. = Instrumenta Miscellanea
Penitenzieria Ap., Reg. Matrim. et Div. = Penitenzieria Apostolica, Registra
Matrimonialium et Diversorum
Reg. Vat. = Registra Vaticana
Reg. Lat. = Registra Lateranensia
Reg. Suppl. = Registra Supplicationum
Reg. Aven. = Registra Avenionensia
RPG = Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum
7
PREFACE
The present publication contains selected papers from two international
conferences: the first was held at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of
Bergen (Norway), in October, 20031 and the second at the Department of Medieval
Studies, Centrat European University, Budapest (Hungary), in January,
2004.2 The purpose of these meetings was to gather researchers interested in the
history and significance of the papal curia and, in particular, the Apostolic Penitentiary,
in the later Middle Ages. The main emphasis was placed on a comparative
approach and on the role of peripheral areas of Western Christendom in
their communication with the Holy See.
There are various kinds of centre-and-periphery hierarchies.3 There are
geographic, social, economic, and cultural peripheries and centres.“ The generat
textbooks … address materials from the geographical and social peripheries of
privileged cultures only as adjuncts to their central narrative …. The history of
Scandinavia and Eastern Europe become excursus to a central narrative.'“‚
However, conceming the communication of the Holy See with various areas
of Christendom in the Middle Ag es, the irnpact of ‚peripheries‘ has attracted
a new interest in recent years. Since the opening of the archives of the Apostolic
Penitentiary to researchers in 1983 relatively few scholars have exploited the
sources, but recently their number has increased. Most of them have studied the
supplications to the Penitentiary of petitioners from their own home countries
and edited material on a national basis. The German Historical Institute, under
the leadership of Ludwig Schmugge, has already published several volumes of
entries concerning German-speaking territories. Also, the Norwegian and Icelandic
material has recently been released by Torstein Jßi’gensen and Gastone
Saletnich. Sirnilar enterprises are in process in several other countries: Poland,
Denmark, Sweden and Finland, England and Wales. The examination of territo-
1 „The Lote Middle Ages and the Penitentiary Texts: Centre and Periphery in Europe in the
Pre-Refonnation Era.“
2 „Ad Confines. The Papal Curia and the Eastern and Northern Peripheries of Christendom
in the Later Middle Ages(l41h
– 151h c.).“
3 For this and the following, see Teofilo F. Ruiz, „Center and Periphery in the Teaching of
Medieval History,“ in Medieval Cultures in Contact, ed. Richard F. Gyug (New York:
Fordham University Press, 2003), 252.
4 Ibidem, 248.
8
ries on the geographic peripheries in their relation to Rome has been a main focus
in these studies.
The archival material of the Penitentiary and the communication of the
papal curia with the various regions of late medieval Europe should, however,
not be studied only on national Ievels. There is an increasing need for such
studies to be supplemented by comparative searcbes for differences and analogies
in how Christians from different corners of Europc used the papal offices
and were treated by them. It is well known that even though the regulations of
canon law were in theory the same for everyone, regional differences in interpreting
and applying them emerged in the Late Middle Ages. The need to turn to
the papal authority in matters of canon law varied depending on the role of local
bishops and the presence or absence of papal Iegates or collectors, who often
bad the power to deal with similar matters in partibus. Also, people in the
centml territories of Christendom bad different opportunities for turning to the
papal curia with their requests than those living on the peripheries of the
Christian world.
Questions like these played the central role in the discussions of the two
conferences noted above. In this book we will render an overview of the present
status of this new field of research. As an introduction, Piroska Nagy deals with
the question of how to apply centre-periphery models to a comparative analysis
of the sources. Kirsi Salonen uses the Penitentiary registers from the period of
Pope Pius II to analyse the supplications, their provenance, and the role of peripheries.
Two peripheral parts of late medieval Europe and their significance concerning
the communication with the Holy See represent the main part of the
publication: Northem Europe and East Central Europe. Comparative analyses of
Scandinavian and Scottish source material from the Penitentiary Registers are
made by Torstein Jsrgensen, Kirsi Salonen, and lrene Fumeaux. The studies on
East Central Europe are introduced by an inquiry concerning the general importance
of the area for the papal curia (Jadranka Neralic), and an overview of the
communication of the Holy See with Albania (Etleva Lala). Piroska Nagy and
Kirsi Salonen offer a quantitative analysis of East Central Europe and the Penitentiary
(1458-1484), followed by contributions on individual territories, such
as the Czech Iands (Lucie Dolezalova) and Dalmatia (Ana Marinkovic). The
contribution by Gastone Saletnich and Wolfgang Müller indicates that in any
studies of the roJe of peripheries one must not neglect the more central areas.
Blanca Szeghyova and Ludwig Schrnugge show that local archives and their
contents are an indispensable additional source for comparative analyses.
Many friends and colleagues have helped in preparing this book for print.
We are pleased to thank the personnet of the Penitenzieria Apostolica, especially
Padre Ubaldo Todeschini, for reading the manuscript and suggesting useful corrections.
We are also much obliged to the skilled staff of the Sala di Studio in
the Vatican Archives, who patiently brought us volume after volume of the reg-
9
isters and helped with other problems. Judith Rasson from Central European
University deserves our gratitude for copyediting our text.
Finally, we wish to thank the academic institutions which in a more direct
way have promoted this project: the Centre for Medieval Studies at the
University of Bergen, the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central
European University in Budapest, the Institut filr Realienkunde of the Austrian
Academy of Seiences and the Academy of Finland, and the Department of History
at the University ofTampere.
Bergen, Budapest, and Tampere, November 2004
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein Jergensen, Kirsi Salonen
10
The Long Arm ofPapal Authority
Edited by
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein J.ergensen. Kirsi Salonen
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XIV
Gedruckt mit Unterstützung der Kulturabteilung
des Amtes der Niederösterreichischen Landesregierung
nlederösterreicll kuHur
CEU MEDIEV ALIA 8
TheLongArm
of Papal Authority
Late Medieval Christian Peripheries
and Their Communication
with the Holy See
Edited by
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein J0rgensen, K.irsi Salonen
Bergen · Budapest · Krems
2004
Copy Editor: Judith Rasson
Cover lliustration: Pope Pius II, Hartmann Scbedel, World Cbronicle (Nuremberg, 1493), fol. 250
Joint Publlcation by:
Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS)
University of Bergen, P.O.Box 7800, N-5020 Bergen, Norway
Telephone: (+47-55) 58 80 85, Fax: (+47-55) 58 80 90
E-mail: post@cms.uib.no, Website: http://www.uib.no/cms/
ISBN 82-997026-0-7
􀀔
Department of Medleval Studies
Central European University
Nädor u. 9, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary
Telephone: (+36-1) 327-3024, Fax: (+36-1) 327-3055
E-mail: medstud@ceu.hu, Website: http://www.ceu.hu/medstud/
ISSN 1587-6470 CEU MEDlEY ALIA
‚􀆦 􀁝 􀁖CE U PRESS … 􀆥
Central European University Press
An imprint of the Central European University Share Company
Nädor u. 11, H-1 051 Budapest, Hungary
Telephone: (+36-1)327-3138, 327-3000, Fax: (+36-1)327-3183
E-mail: ceupress@ceu.hu, Website: http://www.ceupress.com
and
400 West 591b Street, New York NY 10019, USA
Telephone: (+l-212)547-6932, Fax: (+1-212) 548-4607
E-mail:mgreenwald@sorosny.org
ISBN 9-63 86569 5 6
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
A CIP catalog record for this book is available upon request.
Medium Aevum Quotidianum
Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters
Körnermarkt 13, A-3500 Krems an der Donau, Austria
Telephone: (+43-2732) 847 93-20, Fax: (+43-2732) 847 93-1
E-mail: imareal@oeaw.ac.at , Website: http://www.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/maq/
ISBN 3-90 1094 17 2
© Editors and Contributors 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval systerns, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the permission of the Publisher.
Printed in Hungary by Printself(Budapest).
T ABLE OF CONTENTS
Abbreviations related to the collections of the Vatican Secret Archives . . ….. … 7
Preface . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . . . . . 8
Piroska Nagy, Peripheries in Question in Late Medieval Christendom . . ….. .. . 11
Kirsi Salonen, The Penitentiary under Pope Pius TI. The Supplications
and Their Provenance . . . . . . … . . . . . . . .. … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Torstein Jergensen, At the Edge ofthe World: The Supplications
from the Norwegian Province of Nidaros . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . … . … 29
K.irsi Salonen, The Supplications from the Province of Uppsala.
Main Trends and Developments . . . .. . .. . . . . . … . . . . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . .. . . . . 42
Irene Fumeaux, Pre-Reformation Scottish Marriage Cases
in the Archives of the Papal Penitentiary . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Jadranka Neralic, Central Europe and the Late Medieval Papal Chancery . . … 71
Etleva Lala, The Papal Curia and Albania in the Later Middle Ages . …. . . . . . . . 89
Piroska N agy and Kirsi Salonen, East-Central Europe
and the Penitentiary (1458-1484) ……………………………………. 102
Lucie Dolezalova, „But if you marry me“: Reflections
on the Hussite Movement in the Penitentiary (1438-1483) ………….. 113
Ana Marinkovic, Socia1 and Territorial Endogamy
in the R.agusan Republic: Matrimonial Dispenses
during the Pontificates ofPaul li and Sixtus IV (1464-1484) ……….. 126
Gastone Saletnich and Wolfgang Müller, Rodolfo Gonzaga (1452-1495):
News on a Celebrity Murder Case . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . 145
5
Blanka Szegbyovä, Church and Secular Courts in Upper Hungary
(Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 151
Ludwig Schmugge, Penitentiary Documents
from Outside the Penitentiary . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . .. . .. .. . . .. .. : …………… 161
Gerhard Jaritz, Patternsand Levels ofPeriphery? ………………………….. 170
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . 173
6
ABBREVIATIONS RELATED TO TBE COLLECTIONS OF THE
V ATICAN SECRET ARCHIVES
ASV = Archivio Segreto Vaticano
Arm. = Armadio
Congr. Vescovi e Regolari, Visita Ap. = Congrega zione dei Vescovi e Regolari,
Visita Apostolica
Instr. Mise. = Instrumenta Miscellanea
Penitenzieria Ap., Reg. Matrim. et Div. = Penitenzieria Apostolica, Registra
Matrimonialium et Diversorum
Reg. Vat. = Registra Vaticana
Reg. Lat. = Registra Lateranensia
Reg. Suppl. = Registra Supplicationum
Reg. Aven. = Registra Avenionensia
RPG = Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum
7
PREFACE
The present publication contains selected papers from two international
conferences: the first was held at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of
Bergen (Norway), in October, 20031 and the second at the Department of Medieval
Studies, Centrat European University, Budapest (Hungary), in January,
2004.2 The purpose of these meetings was to gather researchers interested in the
history and significance of the papal curia and, in particular, the Apostolic Penitentiary,
in the later Middle Ages. The main emphasis was placed on a comparative
approach and on the role of peripheral areas of Western Christendom in
their communication with the Holy See.
There are various kinds of centre-and-periphery hierarchies.3 There are
geographic, social, economic, and cultural peripheries and centres.“ The generat
textbooks … address materials from the geographical and social peripheries of
privileged cultures only as adjuncts to their central narrative …. The history of
Scandinavia and Eastern Europe become excursus to a central narrative.'“‚
However, conceming the communication of the Holy See with various areas
of Christendom in the Middle Ag es, the irnpact of ‚peripheries‘ has attracted
a new interest in recent years. Since the opening of the archives of the Apostolic
Penitentiary to researchers in 1983 relatively few scholars have exploited the
sources, but recently their number has increased. Most of them have studied the
supplications to the Penitentiary of petitioners from their own home countries
and edited material on a national basis. The German Historical Institute, under
the leadership of Ludwig Schmugge, has already published several volumes of
entries concerning German-speaking territories. Also, the Norwegian and Icelandic
material has recently been released by Torstein Jßi’gensen and Gastone
Saletnich. Sirnilar enterprises are in process in several other countries: Poland,
Denmark, Sweden and Finland, England and Wales. The examination of territo-
1 „The Lote Middle Ages and the Penitentiary Texts: Centre and Periphery in Europe in the
Pre-Refonnation Era.“
2 „Ad Confines. The Papal Curia and the Eastern and Northern Peripheries of Christendom
in the Later Middle Ages(l41h
– 151h c.).“
3 For this and the following, see Teofilo F. Ruiz, „Center and Periphery in the Teaching of
Medieval History,“ in Medieval Cultures in Contact, ed. Richard F. Gyug (New York:
Fordham University Press, 2003), 252.
4 Ibidem, 248.
8
ries on the geographic peripheries in their relation to Rome has been a main focus
in these studies.
The archival material of the Penitentiary and the communication of the
papal curia with the various regions of late medieval Europe should, however,
not be studied only on national Ievels. There is an increasing need for such
studies to be supplemented by comparative searcbes for differences and analogies
in how Christians from different corners of Europc used the papal offices
and were treated by them. It is well known that even though the regulations of
canon law were in theory the same for everyone, regional differences in interpreting
and applying them emerged in the Late Middle Ages. The need to turn to
the papal authority in matters of canon law varied depending on the role of local
bishops and the presence or absence of papal Iegates or collectors, who often
bad the power to deal with similar matters in partibus. Also, people in the
centml territories of Christendom bad different opportunities for turning to the
papal curia with their requests than those living on the peripheries of the
Christian world.
Questions like these played the central role in the discussions of the two
conferences noted above. In this book we will render an overview of the present
status of this new field of research. As an introduction, Piroska Nagy deals with
the question of how to apply centre-periphery models to a comparative analysis
of the sources. Kirsi Salonen uses the Penitentiary registers from the period of
Pope Pius II to analyse the supplications, their provenance, and the role of peripheries.
Two peripheral parts of late medieval Europe and their significance concerning
the communication with the Holy See represent the main part of the
publication: Northem Europe and East Central Europe. Comparative analyses of
Scandinavian and Scottish source material from the Penitentiary Registers are
made by Torstein Jsrgensen, Kirsi Salonen, and lrene Fumeaux. The studies on
East Central Europe are introduced by an inquiry concerning the general importance
of the area for the papal curia (Jadranka Neralic), and an overview of the
communication of the Holy See with Albania (Etleva Lala). Piroska Nagy and
Kirsi Salonen offer a quantitative analysis of East Central Europe and the Penitentiary
(1458-1484), followed by contributions on individual territories, such
as the Czech Iands (Lucie Dolezalova) and Dalmatia (Ana Marinkovic). The
contribution by Gastone Saletnich and Wolfgang Müller indicates that in any
studies of the roJe of peripheries one must not neglect the more central areas.
Blanca Szeghyova and Ludwig Schrnugge show that local archives and their
contents are an indispensable additional source for comparative analyses.
Many friends and colleagues have helped in preparing this book for print.
We are pleased to thank the personnet of the Penitenzieria Apostolica, especially
Padre Ubaldo Todeschini, for reading the manuscript and suggesting useful corrections.
We are also much obliged to the skilled staff of the Sala di Studio in
the Vatican Archives, who patiently brought us volume after volume of the reg-
9
isters and helped with other problems. Judith Rasson from Central European
University deserves our gratitude for copyediting our text.
Finally, we wish to thank the academic institutions which in a more direct
way have promoted this project: the Centre for Medieval Studies at the
University of Bergen, the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central
European University in Budapest, the Institut filr Realienkunde of the Austrian
Academy of Seiences and the Academy of Finland, and the Department of History
at the University ofTampere.
Bergen, Budapest, and Tampere, November 2004
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein Jergensen, Kirsi Salonen
10