Peter I of Grado

Peter I of Grado , later called Pietro (I) Marturio (* 1st half of the 9th century; † 878 in Grado ), was Patriarch of Grado in northeastern Italy from 874 to 878 . The Doge of Venice , Ursus , forced him to accept his right of nomination for future bishops for the six bishoprics belonging to his sphere of influence, the suffragan dioceses of the patriarch. With this, Ursus pushed on the one hand the influence of the Pope , who had supported the Patriarch, and on the other hand that of the local churches, but also the influence of the Patriarch of Aquileia , from whose administrative district the Patriarchate of Grado emerged in the 5th century. He spent most of his tenure outside of Grado, including in Rome and Venice .

Dispute with the Doge about the occupation of the suffragan bishoprics

The most important source on Peter is the Istoria Veneticorum by Johannes Diaconus , which was created around 1000. However, she does not mention the family name. Only the Chronicon Altinate names Giovanni Marturio as the patriarch's father. John the deacon calls Peter a “vir sanctitate precipuus gramatice artis peritus”, who felt himself unworthy of the office after the death of his predecessor Vitalis and his election and fled “ad Italiam”. So he fled to the Italian mainland, probably to Regnum Italiae, knowing that his way of life and his art made him in no way suitable for the administration. From there he returned anyway - "tandem precibus reductus" - and took over office and title.

The refusal to take over the office could also have solid reasons. It could lie in political uncertainty, as demonstrated by the death of Deodato, Bishop of Altino-Torcello in 864, as Gherardo Ortalli assumes. Such a political dimension became all the more likely with the election of Ursus as Doge, a few months before the murder.

The conflict between the Doge and the Patriarch emerged shortly after the election of Peter. At the death of Senator, the successor of Deodato, Dominicus became Bishop of Altino-Torcello, abbot of the Altino monastery, of which John the deacon claims that he had emasculated himself. Peter referred to the requirements of canon law when he excommunicated the newly elected because of this physical defect . With this, however, he went against the "ducis decretum" at the same time, with which he lost the support of Doge Ursus. As a result, he had to flee to Istria , with which he stayed in the territory of the Patriarch of Aquileia.

The reconciliation between the Doge and the Patriarch also failed during Peter's stay on Rialto , which lasted at least a year. During that year he stayed in San Giuliano , which belonged to the patrimony of his family because it was built in 829 at the behest of Giovanni Marturio. The patriarch fled from there to Rome and was heard by Pope John VIII . While Peter was now receiving papal backing, the Doge succeeded in gaining the loyalty of the Grado lagoon and the bishops subordinate to the patriarch. The reason for this may have been the precarious situation of Grado, because the Doge's fleet defended Grado in 875 against the Saracens , who besieged the city for two days, and against the Slavs , who threatened the city in 876.

The letters of John VIII, which he wrote in 876 and 877, allow the phases of the conflict to be examined more closely. The six suffragan bishops Grados were called to Rome to attend a church assembly. This invitation, however, took the form of a letter dated November 24, 876, which was addressed directly to Doge Ursus. The convocation was ignored, although it was repeated, as the Pope complained in a letter dated December 1. This letter was addressed to Dominicus, Bishop of Olivolo, and to Bishop Leo of Caorle . In it he threatens Bishop Felix of Malamocco with excommunication, as well as the Bishops Peter of Equilo and Dominicus of Altino - Torcello , in the event that they would not accept the invitation. In two further letters, this time addressed directly to the bishops of Malamocco and Equilo, and to Dominicus, he repeated this threat. In a final letter to Ursus, Pope Dominicus no longer declares that he is guilty of self-mutilation, but instead mentions an "ambicionis crimen". The circumstances and the motivation for the papal interference remain rather unclear overall.

The four letters of December 876 were handed over to Delto, the Bishop of Rimini , to whom he explained the conflict with the suffragans - which we can otherwise only deduce from John Deacon - by calling Peter “reverentissimus Venetiarum metropoleus antistes, multis suffraganeorum suorum gravatus molestiis et canonice constitutioni in repugnantibus malis oppressus ”explained. He clearly differentiates between the positive role as doge and the oppressive and harassing one towards the suffragans, between his secular role and his behavior towards the highest clergy of his ducat.

John VIII called a synod in Ravenna for the summer of 877. Since the pending conflicts were to be resolved there, the Pope no longer repeated the said threats in the three letters that preceded the Synod, namely between May and July 877. He took on a more conciliatory tone and suggested that the “altercatio” be resolved, but also to “illius statum reformare provincie”. John the deacon confirms that the bishops of Equilo and Caorle, but also those elected in the absence of the patriarch and thus without consecration, were invited to this synod . These were the bishops of Olivolo, Malamocco and Cittanova. The Venetian bishops arrived late in Ravenna, which meant that they were excommunicated. But the Doge Ursus intervened - "duce ​​interpellante" - so that this separation from the church was not carried out.

Johannes Diaconus reports of further relocations of the Patriarch Peter, who remained far away from his official seat. So he went to Bologna , Parma and finally Pavia in the wake of the Pope, who there in September 877 the entry of the Carolingian King Charles III. expected. When the Pope returned to Rome, Peter went to Treviso , where a series of embassies, promoted by Orst Bishop Landolo, ultimately made a decisive contribution to resolving the conflict.

The conditions described by Johannes Diaconus show a compromise that was finally signed by Peter in the Doge's Palace . The position of the Doge was widely recognized. Peter returned to Grado and now consecrated the bishops appointed in his absence. However, the consecration of Dominicus of Altino was declared impracticable as long as Peter lived. But he was allowed to stay at his official seat in Torcello (?) And continue to dispose of his income from the diocese.

Peter died in 878 shortly after his return to Rialto in the church of San Giuliano .

As Antonio Niero stated in 1987, the result of the conflict was not only that a fixed circle of six dioceses was tied to the Patriarchate of Grado, but that it was heavily dependent on the Doge's control. The new system showed its effectiveness in the Doge's sense when Victor, Petrus' successor, consecrated that Dominicus. He had to swear that he would accept any future candidate proposed by the Doge. This fixed the relationship between the ducat and the church in the Venetian territory for a long time.

swell

• Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , II: Secoli IX-X , Padua 1942, pp. 7-14, 16-18.
• Luigi Andrea Berto (Ed.): Giovanni Diacono, Istoria Veneticorum (= Fonti per la Storia dell'Italia medievale. Storici italiani dal Cinquecento al Millecinquecento ad uso delle scuole, 2), Zanichelli, Bologna 1999, pp. 134, 136, 138 , 140 ( text edition based on Berto in the Archivio della Latinità Italiana del Medioevo (ALIM) of the University of Siena).
• Giorgio Fedalto, Luigi Andrea Berto (eds.): Chronicon Altinate , Rome 2003, p. 217.
• Paul Fridolin Kehr : Italia pontificia, sive repertorium privilegiorum et litterarum a Romanis Pontificibus ante annum 1198 Italiae ecclesiis, monasteriis, civitatibus singulisque personis concessorum , VII: Venetia et Histria , 2: Respublica Venetiarum-Provincia Gradensis 1925, Berlin -Histria 1925, S. 44 -48.

literature

• Emanuela Colombi: Pietro Marturio , in: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani 83 (2015) (basis of the performing part).
• Roberto Cessi: La crisi ecclesiastica veneziana al tempo del duca Orso , in: Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, LXXXVII (1928) 815-857, again in Robert Cessi: Le origini del ducato veneziano , Naples 1951, p 53-98.
• Antonio Niero : La sistemazione ecclesiastica del ducato di Venezia , in: Franco Tonon (ed.): Le origini della chiesa di Venezia , Venice 1987, pp. 106, 109 f.
• Daniela Rando: Una chiesa di frontiera. Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche veneziane nei secoli VI-XII , Bologna 1994, pp. 51-54.

Remarks

1. ^ Giorgio Fedalto, Luigi Andrea Berto (eds.): Chronicon Altinate , Rom 2003, p. 217.
2. ↑ Istoria veneticorum , III, 9; Luigi Andrea Berto (Ed.): Giovanni Diacono, Istoria Veneticorum , Bologna 1999, p. 134.
3. ↑ Gherardo Ortalli , Il ducato e la civitas Rivoalti: tra carolingi, bizantini e sassoni , in: Lellia Cracco Ruggini et al. (Ed.): Storia di Venezia dalle origini alla caduta della Serenissima , I: Origini. Età ducale , Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1992, pp. 754 f.
4. ^ Roberto Cessi: La crisi ecclesiastica veneziana al tempo del duca Orso , in: Atti del Reale Istituto Veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti, LXXXVII (1928) 815-857, here: pp. 846-848; Antonio Niero: La sistemazione ecclesiastica del ducato di Venezia , in: Franco Tonon (ed.): Le origini della chiesa di Venezia , Venice 1987.
5. ↑ Istoria Veneticorum, III, 11; Luigi Andrea Berto (Ed.): Giovanni Diacono, Istoria Veneticorum , Bologna 1999, p. 136.
6. ↑ Istoria Veneticorum, III, 14.
7. ↑ Roberto Cessi (Ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , II: Secoli IX-X , Padua 1942, n. 5, p. 7 f .; Synthesis in Kehr, 1925, n. 40-54, pp. 44-48.
8. ↑ Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , II: Secoli IX-X , Padua 1942, n. 6, p. 8 f.
9. ↑ Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , II: Secoli IX-X , Padua 1942, n. 8 and 9, pp. 11-14.
10. ↑ Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , II: Secoli IX-X , Padua 1942, n. 7, p. 10.
11. ^ Daniela Rando: Una chiesa di frontiera. Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche veneziane nei secoli VI-XII , Bologna 1994, p. 50.
12. ↑ Roberto Cessi (ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , II: Secoli IX-X , Padua 1942, n.10 , p. 14.
13. ^ Roberto Cessi (Ed.): Documenti relativi alla storia di Venezia anteriori al Mille , II: Secoli IX-X , Padua 1942, n. 11-13, pp. 16-18.
14. ↑ Istoria Veneticorum, III, 18; Luigi Andrea Berto (Ed.): Giovanni Diacono, Istoria Veneticorum , Bologna 1999, p. 138.
15. ↑ Istoria Veneticorum, III, 20; Luigi Andrea Berto (Ed.): Giovanni Diacono, Istoria Veneticorum , Bologna 1999, p. 140.
16. ↑ Antonio Niero : La sistemazione ecclesiastica del Ducato di Venezia , in: Franco Tonon (ed.): Le origini della Chiesa di Venezia , Venice, 1987, p.110.