Giovanni da Velletri

Giovanni da Velletri (* around 1180 in Velletri ; † July 14, 1230 in Florence ) was an Italian clergyman and bishop of Florence .

Life

He first appears in 1198 as the prior of San Frediano in Lucca , when he moved from Pandolfo, who lived in Tuscany, to the newly elected Pope Innocent III. was sent to report to him about the establishment of the Tuscan League established between the capitals .

In the years that followed, the papal curia was valued by the task of overseeing both the collection of tithe for the crusade and the reform initiatives of the Tuscan monasteries. He was 1204 by Innocent III. sent as his agent in Florence in the delicate negotiations about the bishopric of Fiesole , which the Florentines wanted to move to their city against the will of the Pope. The Florentines' desire not to tolerate a second episcopal center near their city in full autonomy was strong, but the Pope instructed Giovanni to remain indomitable. So he threatened excommunication and also that the territory of the diocese of Florence would be fragmented and divided among the neighboring bishoprics. Giovanni carried out the mission with great success, carried out the will of Rome and at the same time left such a strong impression on his interlocutors that the Florentines elected him their bishop a few months later.

His beginning as a bishop, elected but not yet consecrated , coincided with the solemn ceremony of the arrival of the relic of the arm of the apostle Philip from the Holy Land in the city at the beginning of 1205 . He was the protagonist of the ceremony, received the relic at the gates of the city and personally carried it under the eyes of the crowd to the cathedral, with the clergy and the Podestà in the wake. In the following years he remained the confidante of Innocent III. in Tuscany . This came to fruition when, after the peace between Florence and Siena in 1208, the ecclesiastical relations of Poggibonsi had to be regulated, which both dioceses claimed for themselves; Innocent transferred the ecclesiastical rights in this area to his confidante Giovanni and thus to the diocese of Florence. When Otto IV of Braunschweig traveled through Tuscany at the end of 1209 after his coronation as emperor, Giovanni welcomed him in that very Poggibonsi in order to accompany him through Tuscany from there. Raveggi thinks it likely that the bishop succeeded on this trip in allaying Otto's distrust of insubordinate Florence. However, when the final break between Otto and the Pope occurred in 1211, Giovanni was instructed from Rome to persuade the Pisans to break with Otto. However, this was unsuccessful, although Pisa's interests in Sardinia were taken into account in the negotiations .

After the death of Innocent III. and after Honorius III. Having become Pope, Giovanni slipped into the role of first adviser to the Pope on Tuscan affairs. This may have been due to the fact that he was unable to lead the city of Florence to Friedrich von Schwaben on the side of Rome . Feeling as if he was set back, Giovanni committed an act of disobedience when he met the real Cardinal Ugolino of Ostia, who later became Pope Gregory IX. , presumed to convene a provincial synod in Florence in March 1217 , in which he submitted the proposal to undertake another crusade to the Holy Land and at the same time tried to show loyalty to the Hohenstaufer. Honorius then accused him of abuse of office, but was so lenient as to impose only an apology to the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and recognition of the suzerainty of the Roman Curia. Giovanni bowed to this, but the relationship between the Florentines and the Pope remained tense. This led to Honorius imposing the interdict on the city, as a provision had been issued there, according to which family assets could no longer be bequeathed to the clergy. Thereupon the Pope decreed in August 1218 that priestly ordinations were no longer allowed in the diocese of Florence as long as that law existed.

Late Roman sarcophagus with floral motifs in the baptistery of the Florentine Cathedral, in which Giovanni da Velletri was buried.

However, the conflict was resolved, and in 1219 Giovanni was given the title of legate pro tempore , which gave him priority over the other bishops of Tuscany. In this capacity he was engaged in April and May 1220 to settle the dispute caused by the Archbishop of Pisa , the chapter there and the undertakings of Ubaldo Visconti (? - 1230), the son of Lamberto Visconti , in Sardinia under Pisas Citizenship had arisen. He also arbitrated in Volterra, where he settled disputes between this parish, the bishop and the parish of San Gimignano with an arbitration award. He took on other difficult tasks in Prato in 1221 and in Pistoia in 1222. In the same year Pisa was defeated by the Guelphs and Ubaldo Visconti was deposed as mayor of Pisa. When the Pisans imprisoned his emissaries, Giovanni responded with excommunication and declared Visconti a heretic in November 1223 .

During the term of office of Gregory IX. his influence seems to have waned, because he was no longer appointed to diplomatic missions and was limited to pastoral work in his diocese.

Giovanni da Velletri died on 14 July 1230 and was in the Baptistery of San Giovanni of the Cathedral of Florence in a late Roman sarcophagus , which because of the in bas-relief is called crafted floral ornaments "flower girls" buried.

literature

• Sergio Raveggi:  Giovanni da Velletri. In: Mario Caravale (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 56:  Giovanni di Crescenzio – Giulietti. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2001.

predecessor	Office	successor
Pietro	Bishop of Florence 1205–1230	Ardingo Foraboschi