History of Medieval Italy

The Barbarian Invasions and Decline of Rome

At the end of the third century the Roman Empire was in danger of disintegration from the attacks of the barbarians, and under Diocletian (284-305) and Constantine the Great (306-337) it was finally transformed into a bureaucratic monarchy, at least on paper. The empire was politically stabilized in the fourth century.

The death of Theodosius (378-395) was followed by an administrative division of the empire into the Eastern empire, with its seat at Constantinople, and the Western empire, based in Italy. It had been customary to divide it in this fashion since the days of Diocletian, but now the division became permanent, although the political unity of the empire was maintained in theory, but not in practice.

By the late 5th century the empire of the West had largely been occupied by barbarian tribesmen. All that remained of the Western empire was Italy and Dalmatia. Italy had been invaded previously, but not until Odoacer was there a permanent occupation. In 476 Odoacer was proclaimed king of Italy by his soldiers, and although he in theory accepted the rule of the emperor at Constantinople, the year 476 is the date generally designated as the end of the Roman empire in the West.

In 493, Theodoric, leader of the Ostrogoths, under commission from the Eastern emperor, killed Odoacer and was in turn proclaimed king by the Ostrogoths. However, Roman institutions such as the Senate remained intact, and the Italians shared in political administration under both Odoacer and the Ostrogoths, who claimed their kingdom was a continuation of the Roman empire.

Later, Emperor Justinian (527-565) undertook the reconquest of Italy, and by 553 all Italy was ruled in the name of the Roman emperor. But not all Italians supported Justinian and the restoration of imperial rule; some preferred that Italy remain a separate kingdom, as it had been since 476, and had come to view the emperor in Constantinople as a foreigner. The civilian population generally supported the Ostrogoths, while some Italian ecclesiastics and members of the senatorial class supported Justinian. The Ostrogoths and Justinian's generals both sought to win the Italians to their cause, and Italian soldiers fought on both sides.

The Gothic Wars devastated Italy and its effects were felt for the next several centuries. In addition, Italy was soon to be invaded again, this time by the Longobards, whose invasion was to mark the political division of Italy for the next thirteen centuries. The Longobards were a Germanic people who first made their home on the banks of the Elbe River in northern Germany and then migrated to the middle Danube in the latter half of the second century and gradually came down toward Italy.

In 568, three years after the death of Justinian, the Longobards swept down into Italy, following the track of earlier Germanic invaders from the Balkans into northern Italy, and soon occupied the great plain between the Alps and the Apennines. They made no alliance with the empire, as had the Ostrogoths, and they confiscated the estates of the Italians. The old aristocracy was decimated. Roman civilization, though tempered by the previous numerous invasions, had survived them all. Now, however, the continuity of Roman civilization became severely threatened.

For the first time, in those regions conquered by the Longobards, the Italians lost all sovereignty and became subjects of a foreign and hostile people. The Italians were permitted to continue their practice of Roman law, to which they faithfully clang and never abandoned, but they were barred from military service and excluded from the political class for the next few centuries.

By the beginning of the seventh century the Longobards had conquered all of Italy except the territories around Ravenna, Rome, Naples, and the extreme south, which were still ruled by representatives of the Eastern emperor. The Longobard kingdom itself was very loosely united, and there was no longer even a pretense of the unity of Italy. National consciousness was not to be recovered for many centuries.

The Rise of the Franks and the Temporal Power of the Pope

As the emperor lost power and prestige, the papacy gained both. Under Gregory the Great, who ruled as pope from 590 to 604, the Catholic Church increased in spiritual and temporal power. Forced to negotiate with the Longobards, Gregory made himself the actual ruler of Rome and the land around it.

In 725 a serious quarrel arose between state and church when Emperor Leo III the Isaurian (717-741) attempted to increase taxation and forbade the presence of pictures or images (icons) of the saints in the churches. In the resulting iconoclastic controversy, the pope was the champion of both Catholic orthodoxy and Italian independence. The Longobards, not immediately involved in the quarrel, took advantage of the situation to increase their power at the expense of the emperor. Rome itself was saved, in part because the Longobards had gradually been converted to Catholicism.

By this time the Longobards had also adopted Roman titles, spoke vulgar Latin as their mother tongue, and had already called their realm by the name kingdom of Italy, rather than kingdom of the Longobards. Nonetheless the Italians remained disenfranchised and legally distinct from the Longobards.

By 751 Rome was all that remained of imperial Italy, save for the Byzantine-controlled province at the southern tip of the peninsula. The pope still recognized the overlordship of the emperor in secular matters, but he refused to bow on the matter of icons. The popes had appealed to the Franks for support, and finally Pepin, king of the Franks, made two successful expeditions against the Longobards in 754 and 756. On the latter date Pepin forced the Longobards to give the pope the territory extending from Rome to Ravenna, clear across central Italy. Called the Donation of Pepin, this land was to become the nucleus of an independent principality under the rule of the papacy, known as the Papal States.

The Longobards soon succeeded in regaining most of this territory, and in 773 Pope Adrian I called upon Pepin's son and successor, Charles, for help. Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, marched into Italy, defeated the Longobards, in 774 declared himself king of Italy, and renewed the Donation of Pepin. The Franks replaced the Longobard aristocracy in the north, but were unable to assert their control over the southern half of the kingdom of Italy, known as the duchy of Benevento, which became independent in 774.

In 800 Charlemagne was crowned emperor by Pope Leo III. Though the immediate practical effect was negligible, an empire had been proclaimed, an empire that was linked to Rome and the Roman Catholic Church. Within three generations, however, the Carolingian empire had disappeared, broken up into separate kingdoms. In 888 the northern and central part of Italy became an independent Italic kingdom ruled by a line of native-born kings.

Although in Italy the imperial title lingered for a while, during the next century there came about the breakup of political authority and the destruction of almost all economic ties that involved any considerable distance. Society was now in its feudal and manorial age.

The Holy Roman Empire and the Investiture Controversy

Italy, for half a century, was in a state of chaos. An independent kingdom of Italy existed, but unity of the whole peninsula under a single monarch was prevented by powerful nobles, by independent princes (Benevento, Salerno, Capua), by foreign interference, by papal opposition and by the Byzantine occupation of the extreme south. The kings of Italy struggled to maintain control over the Italic kingdom itself due to incessant interference by foreign claimants. Meanwhile, the Saracens had conquered Sicily and were ravaging southern Italy. In 951, Otto I invaded Italy and, in 962, had himself crowned Holy Roman emperor. The kingdom of Italy lost its independence and was joined to the Holy Roman Empire.

The people of medieval Europe had inherited two great traditions from Roman antiquity: that of a universal church and a universal state. The pope ruled the former, and Charlemagne, and now Otto, governed the latter. But the attempt to rule both in Germany and in Italy was ruinous for the kings who attempted it. Although there were other reasons as well, an important cause of the disunity of both Germany and Italy, which lasted till the second half of the 19th century, was that the German rulers would not relinquish their desire to control Italy. They were unable to achieve this, and their efforts to do so prevented them from gaining control of Germany.

For nearly a century, from the coronation of Otto I to the death of Henry III in 1056, the emperors were the dominant members of the papal-imperial partnership, which claimed the right of universal rule over all Christendom. The struggle between the popes and the emperors continued for more than two centuries and ended with the destruction of imperial authority in Italy.

The situation in Italy was further complicated by the invasions of the Normans in southern Italy, beginning with the landing at Salerno of a band of Norman knights on their way home from a pilgrimage. And in 1059 Pope Nicholas II, hard pressed in Rome by a revolt, gave Robert Guiscard title to the lands in the south that he had conquered.

The conflict between church and state was a struggle over spiritual values as well as temporal property. Many churchmen were also wealthy landowners who owed allegiance to the emperor; and it was true, also, that the emperor had in the past meddled in ecclesiastical affairs and papal elections. At the same time the papacy asserted the supremacy of spiritual over temporal power. By the Concordat of Worms (1122) a division of the ceremony was agreed upon. The emperor was to invest bishops and abbots with the insignia of their secular office (that is, their fief), and the pope was to invest them with the ring and staff that symbolized their spiritual authority. In Italy, where the emperor had lost real authority, imperial investiture was to follow consecration.

The Lombard League

In their contest with the imperial power, the popes found allies in the semi-independent cities of Lombardy. Since the middle of the 11th century, the Italian communes had been growing rapidly as the result of a great revival of international trade, and by the middle of the 12th century, the cities of northern Italy were centers of commerce and industry. With the increase in their economic strength, there also grew the demand for political power. The rise of the free Italian communes coincided with the beginning of the rise to prominence of local Italian families and the restoration of political power by the Italians.

After a bitter struggle against the Holy Roman Empire the cities of Lombardy, organized as the Lombard League, won almost complete self-government, expressed in the Peace of Constance (1183). Although the pope did not acquire any extra power, the weakening of the emperor served to enhance the pope's power. The popes, however, soon suffered a severe loss when Emperor Henry VI (1190-1197) won a victory over the Sicilian nobles who had been supported by the pope, who then lost his temporal power over the Papal States, except for the duchy of Rome.

Just as the fortunes of the papacy seemed at their lowest ebb, Innocent III became pope, and his pontificate (1198-1216) marked the highest point of papal power. His temporal power was great, and his assertions of the sovereignty of the papacy over the church and secular government were greater still. He fought with the emperors, twice excommunicated Otto IV (1198-1215) and made an alliance with Frederick II (1211-1250) who, after Innocent's death, fought with both the papacy and the cities of Lombardy. From 1254 to 1273 there was no generally recognized emperor, and the papacy had at last triumphed, at least to the extent of temporarily destroying the empire and of leaving it permanently weakened.

The popes had helped to prevent Italy from being dominated by the emperor. However, Italy was to remain disunited for five centuries longer.