Gerardo Bianchi
Gerardo Bianchi (1220/1225 – March 1, 1302) was an Italian churchman and papal diplomat, an important figure of the War of the Sicilian Vespers.
Life
He was born in Gainago, in the diocese of Parma, studied law at the University of Bologna, and became canon of the cathedral chapter of Parma.
He began his career in the Roman Curia as a Chaplain of Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254) and scriptor in the chancellery (attested in 1245).[1] He is attested as litterarum apostolicarum contradictorum Auditor (Auditor of the Rota) on April 30, 1277.[2]
Pope Nicholas III in the Consistory of March 12, 1278, created nine cardinals, among them Gerardo Bianchi, whom he named Cardinal Priest of SS. XII Apostoli. On July 15, 1278 Pope Nicholas notified King Philip III of France that he was sending Cardinal Gerardo to Toulouse, where he would join with Cardinal Hieronymus Masci, O.Min.[3] and Master General John of Vercelli, OP, in bringing about a peace with King Alfonso of Castile.[4] On August 5 he was granted the right to employ the services of the members of whatever religious order he wished in his Legation to France.[5] On November 29, the Pope revised his instructions to the three Legates, in accordance with the wishes of the two kings, so that they would hold their meetings in Gascony.[6] On June 9, 1279, Pope Nicholas threatened King Alfonso with severe penalties for not cooperating with the peace process.[7]
Pope Nicholas III (Orsini) died on August 22, 1280, and was succeeded by the French cardinal Simon de Brion on February 22, 1281, who took the name Martin IV.[8]
On April 12, 1281, Holy Saturday, Pope Martin IV held a Consistory in which he created seven new cardinals,[9], and promoted Cardinal Gerardo to the Order of Cardinal Bishops and assigned him the suburbicarian see of Sabina.[10]
Legate to the Kingdom of Sicily
The Sicilian Vespers, a revolt against the domination of the Island by King Charles of Anjou, which broke out in Palermo at Easter of 1282, shook the island of Sicily. Thousands of Angevins and other French residents of the island were massacred. The cities which had expelled the foreigners sent representatives to Pope Martin, begging him to take them under his protection and recognize them as free cities directly under the sovereignty of the Church. The Pope, always a supporter of King Charles, who had forced his election upon the College of Cardinals, refused. The cities then turned to King Pedro of Aragon for help.
On June 5, 1282, Cardinal Bianchi was appointed papal legate in Sicily, to pacify the kingdom.[11] In August he was sent into Messina, which was besieged, on behalf of Charles I of Naples, but to no effect.[12] When King Charles and King Alfonso challenged each other to individual combat over their differences in the Autumn of 1282, Pope Martin wrote to King Charles, begging him not to carry out his undertakings.[13]
In 1283, he was sent to Sicily again, to obtain a surrender of the rebellion there after the Sicilian Vespers; but his only success was the surrender of Naples.[14] He was a close advisor to Charles of Salerno, but the sea-power of Roger of Lauria frustrated the campaign.[15]
In March, 1284 he presided over a synod which met in the city of Melfi. The canons of that council were promulgated on March 28, 1284.[16]
On the death of Charles I of Naples in 1285, he shared the regency of the Kingdom of Sicily with Robert II of Artois.[17] In practical terms, however, power was held by Mary of Hungary, Queen of Naples, wife of the imprisoned Charles II of Naples (the former Prince of Salerno).[18]
He was still Legate and Regent under Honorius IV (1285-1287).[19] He continued as Legate in Sicily-South Italy (Trani, Messana), 1288-1289 [20]
France
In 1290, he was in France on a diplomatic mission with Benedetto Gaetani, on behalf of Pope Nicholas IV.[21] At the beginning of October, they arrived in Reims, intending to resolve a conflict between the archbishop and the canons. During the dispute the Canons had withdrawn from participation in liturgical activities in the Cathedral, and had forbidden the use of the organ. The two cardinals suspended the boycott during their visit, and when they issued their decree settling the dispute, they required the Archbishop and Canons to have two statues of the two cardinals made, which would be displayed at the High Altar of the Cathedral during important celebrations.[22]
The following year he and Gaetani were present at signing of the Treaty of Tarascon, negotiated to bring to a conclusion the Aragonese Crusade.[23]
From July 17, 1299 to January 14, 1302, Cardinal Gerardo Bianchi was Legate to the Kingdom of Sicily again.[24]
He was Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals from December 1297. He was also Archpriest of the Lateran Basilica (ca. 1299-1302).
He died in Rome on March 1, 1302.
Bibliography
- S. Sägmüller, Die Thätigkeit und Stellung der Kardinäle bis Papst Bonifaz VIII., historisch und canonistisch untersucht und dargestellt (Freiburg i. B. 1896).
- Bernhard Pawlicki, Papst Honorius IV. Eine Monographie (Münster 1896).
- O. Cartellieri, Peter von Aragon und die sizilianische Vesper (Heidelberg 1904).
- R. Sternfeld, "Das Konklave von 1280 und die Wahl Martins IV. (1281)," Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 21 (1910), pp. 1-53.
- E. H. Rohde, Der Kampf um Sizilien in den Jahren 1291-1302 (Berlin and Leipzig 1913).
- Peter Herde, Colestin V (1294) (Peter vom Morone): Der Engelpapa (Stuttgart, 1981).
- Steven Runciman (1960), The Sicilian Vespers Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
References
- ^ Peter Herde, "Bianchi, Gerardo", Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 10 (1968)
- ^ Conradus Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii aevi I editio altera (Monasterii 1913), p. 10, n. 1.
- ^ By May 16, 1279, Cardinal Hieronymus was back in Rome, and sufficiently ill that he could not attend the General Chapter of the Franciscans: Potthast II, no. 21582.
- ^ Augustus Potthast, Regesta pontifcum Romanorum II (Berlin 1875), no. 21359. Augustinus Theiner (ed.), Caesaris Baronii S.R.E. Cardinalis Annales Ecclesiastici Tomus 22 (Bar-le-Duc 1870), under the year 1278, § 24, p. 424.
- ^ Potthast II, no. 21386.
- ^ Potthast II, no. 21488-21490.
- ^ Potthast II, no. 21598.
- ^ Potthast II, pp. 1754-1756.
- ^ Conradus Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii aevi I editio altera (Monasterii 1913), p. 10.
- ^ Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Rerum Italicae Scriptores Tomus III pars 1 (Milan 1723), p. 609.
- ^ Les Registres de Martin IV (Paris 1901), p. 101, no. 270. Runciman, p. 245.
- ^ Runciman, p. 247–8.
- ^ Augustus Potthast, Regesta pontifcum Romanorum II (Berlin 1875), no. 21955.
- ^ David Sanderson Chambers, Popes, Cardinals and War: the military church in Renaissance and early modern Europe (2006), p. 22; Google Books.
- ^ Runciman, p. 270.
- ^ J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio Vol. 24 (Venice 1780), pp. 569-576. P. Herde, "Die Legation des Kardinalbischofs Gerhard von Sabina während des Krieges der Sizilischen Vesper und die Synode von Melfi (28 März 1284)," Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia, 21(1967), pp. 1-53.
- ^ Augustus Potthast, Regesta pontificum Romanorum II (Berlin 1875) no. 22213 (February 16, 1285). Philip Grierson, Lucia Travaini, Medieval European Coinage: with a catalogue of the coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Volume 14 (1999), p. 217; Google Books.
- ^ Janis Elliott, Cordelia Warr, The Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina: art, iconography, and patronage in fourteenth century Naples (2004), p. 46; Google Books.
- ^ Potthast 22499 (July 15, 1286). Augustinus Theiner (Editor), Caesaris S. R. E. Cardinalis Baronii, Od. Raynaldi et Jac. Laderchii Annales Ecclesiastici Tomus Vigesimus Tertius 1286-1312 (Barri-Ducis: Ludovicus Guerin 1871), under the year 1286, § 15, pp. 5-6.
- ^ E. Langlois, Registres de Nicolas IV, I, no. 406, p. 72; 617-618; 706-707 (March 19, 1289); Potthast 22630 (April 1, 1288).
- ^ W. Vanhamel, Henry of Ghent: proceedings of the international colloquium on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of his death (1293) (1996), p. 386; Google Books.
- ^ Agostino Pallavicini Bagliani, The Pope's Body (Chicago 2000), pp. 222-223.
- ^ Luigi Tosti, (Eugene Joseph Donnelly, translator), History of Pope Boniface VIII and His Times (1911), pp. 54–55; archive.org.
- ^ Conrad Eubel, Hierarchia catholica medii aevi I, editio altera (Monasterii 1913), p. 10 n. 1.