Poppo from Aquileia

Frescoes in the "Patriarch's Basilica", on the left at the edge is Poppo with the rectangular nimbus of the donors, greatly reduced. The frescoes were possibly created before 1031.

Poppo of Aquileia or wrongly Wolfgang von Treffen (* before 1004; † September 28, 1042 ) was Patriarch of Aquileia from 1019 to 1042 . He was a close confidante and advisor to Emperor Konrad II and tried to incorporate the Patriarchate of Grado into his territory in two attacks in the fight against Venice . At the same time he was the founder of the Basilica of Aquileia and a nunnery. In addition, he was one of the first princes of the church to receive the privilege of minting his own coins.

origin

According to a controversial tradition, Poppo was a son of Otakar IV., Count in the Carinthian Kroatengau , from the Traungau Otakare family. Poppo, who was also called "Wolfgang" in at least one case, had a brother named Ocinus, who appears as Count of Cordenons in Friuli , but also in Zeidlergau in Bavaria. The brothers therefore belonged to the Treffen family, which had their castle north of Villach. Pio Paschini contradicted this as early as 1913, who assigned Poppo a Bavarian descent. Heinz Dopsch , who considered Poppo to be a scion of the Ottokare von Steyr in Upper Austria, rejected this parentage .

Poppo's father was called Oci, also called Ozi , Otger, Otakar, Otachar. In a document from the year 994 he is called "comes et missus" of King Otto III. called, but also "Waltpotus" ( messenger of violence ) in Carinthia. His mother called herself Irenburg, but also appears as a Glismod. Oci was one of the greats of the empire and owned goods in Bavaria, Styria , Carinthia and Regnum Italiae . This may have contributed to the uncertainty regarding Poppo's geographical origin.

The Ossiach monastery on the eponymous lake played a central role for the family . This was founded by Poppo's ancestors and replaced by Poppo in 1028. From then on, the monastery belonged to the pertinents of the Patriarchate of Aquileia for about two centuries.

patriarch

Poppo was probably the younger son. He was promoted to patriarch in the last months of 1019 after his predecessor John died on June 19th. The uprising of the very young Poppo happened at the request of Emperor Heinrich II., With whom he may have related ties. In 1020 Poppo stayed at the court in Bamberg at Easter with Pope Benedict VIII . On this occasion, Heinrich endowed the patriarch with extensive immunities. So Poppo became the royal missus with corresponding functions in the area that was recently given his responsibility. From 1021 to 1022 Poppo led part of the emperor's army on his Italian campaign . When the emperor died in 1024, he was also supported by his successor, Konrad II .

The best known but also the most controversial event was the sacking of Grado, which also claimed the dignity of a patriarchate. Poppo benefited from the temporary expulsion of the Venetian doge Ottone Orseolo and his brother Orso , the Patriarch of Grado. He took possession of the lagunar metropolitan seat on the pretext of acting as patron. But he is said to have soon forgotten his promises, and churches were looted, relics were kidnapped, monks were murdered and nuns were raped. These descriptions, however, go back to letters from Popes who were hostile to Poppo, namely from John XIX. and from Benedict IX. Poppo was forced to give up Grado in 1024 in December because Venice put him under military pressure. But he did not give up, but took advantage of the presence of Conrad in Italy, who was crowned emperor in Rome, to enforce his rule over Grado at a council convened there in April 1027. In doing so, he appealed to the Council of Mantua , which had recognized Aquileia's suzerainty over Grado exactly two centuries earlier. In the absence of the Patriarch of Grado, John XIX. the decision of December 1024 and subordinated Poppo to the "Gradensis plebs". The title of Grades was to merge with that of Aquileia. But neither Poppo nor his successors managed to subjugate Grado, despite a second raid towards the end of his life in 1042. This second raid is again only a privilege of Pope Benedict IX. named for the Patriarch of Grado.

Coin of one of Poppo's successors from the 12th century

The massive resistance of Venice was not so much in support for an independent patriarchate Grado, but in securing control over its suffragan dioceses in Venice's sphere of interest. Poppo's ambition to subordinate the entire Patriarchate of Grado, including its suffragan bishoprics, sparked the widespread conflict. These dioceses not only included those in the immediate Venetian area, but also those in Istria , where Venice also claimed control, even though it was imperial territory.

Despite this ultimately fruitless struggle, Poppo was quite successful in his office. In 1027 he received confirmation of his legal immunities from the Emperor in Verona , which went back to Charlemagne . However, these had been contested by Adalbero von Eppenstein , Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona. Between September and October 1028, Konrad II gave him the right to mint coins. At the same time, he received the exercise of imperial rights throughout Friuli, but also in the area between Livenza and Isonzo , which threatened Venetian rights. In 1034 Konrad increased this anti-Venetian privilege by granting Poppo corresponding rights between Livenza and Piave . All of this was only possible through the close connection with the imperial family and its imperial policy, which also required corresponding compensatory services or was a consequence thereof. Poppo often traveled between Friuli, the German lands and the Regnum Italiae as well as the rest of the peninsula in order to maintain the relevant alliances and relationships. The exchange of relics also served , such as with Meinwerk von Paderborn, his uncle, but also with the Bavarian monastery Benediktbeuern .

The nave of the Basilica of Aquileia with a view of the apse, photographed in 2007

During his tenure, the Basilica of Aquileia was built. This was restored and consecrated in 1031. In the frescoes in the apse , the patriarch, identified as the founder by a rectangular nimbus, was depicted next to the members of the imperial family. According to a single surviving copy of a coin, the emperor's facial features were also engraved. In order to maintain the liturgical service there was a chapter of 50 canons. All this also served the ideological struggle against the Patriarchate of Grado, but also the care for the spiritual tasks of churches and monasteries. Poppo acted in the run-up to the church reforms of the 11th century. The foundation of the Benedictine monastery of S. Maria di Aquileia, which is reported in a source in 1036, probably also goes back to Poppo.

In the winter of 1037 tensions arose with Konrad II, but these were soon overcome. Poppo had agreed to the flight of the Archbishop of Milan, who had been imprisoned by the Emperor and given the responsibility of the Patriarch and the Duke of Carinthia. Although Poppo received from Konrad's successor Heinrich III. a confirmation of his rights and a further territorial expansion in Carniola (1040), but the relationship remained more distant. Perhaps with Heinrich's consent, the second attack on Grado took place, but the situation turned in his favor after Poppo died on September 28, 1042. In 1044 Grado was again by Benedict IX. endowed with his traditional rights, whereby the Pope drew a gloomy picture of Poppo, 1053 received the city from Pope Leo IX. the title "Nova Aquileia", while the Patriarch of Aquileia was only referred to as "Foroiuliensis antistes". Heinrich pursued a policy of reconciliation with Venice at the expense of Aquileia.

Ideal portrait of the patriarch in the throne room of the Diocesan Museum and the Tiepolo Gallery in Udine with the description of his achievements for the patriarchate and the ruler's support

Poppo was buried in the basilica he founded, where the tomb was preserved, even if only in the form of a later copy. The original epitaph was also redrafted (and expanded), probably in the 16th century.

swell

• August von Jaksch (Ed.): Monumenta historica ducatus Carinthiae , vol. I: 811-1202 , Klagenfurt 1904, n.186 . ( Digitized version )
• Reinhard Härtel : The documents of the Patriarch Poppo of Aquileja for the nunnery S. Maria and for the chapter on Aquileja , in: Römische Historische Mitteilungen XXVI (1984) 107-180.

literature

• Andrea Tilatti:  Poppone. In: Raffaele Romanelli (ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 85:  Ponzone-Quercia. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2016.
• Giuseppe Cuscito: Ottocari (degli) Poppone (? -1042) , in: Dizionario biografico degli Friulani
• Ernst Klebel : On the history of the Patriarchs of Aquileia , in: Carinthia I, CXLIII (1953) 326–352.
• Pio Paschini: Il patriarca Poppo ed il suo assalto contro Grado nel 1024 in un racconto bavarese , in: Memorie storiche forogiuliesi X (1914) 93-95.
• Heinrich Schmidinger : Patriarch and sovereign. The secular rule of the Patriarchs from Aquileja to the end of the Staufer , Graz / Cologne 1954.
• Heinz Dopsch : Salzburg and Aquileia , in: Giuseppe Fornasir (ed.): Il Friuli dagli Ottoni agli Hohenstaufen. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studio, 1984 , Udine 1984, pp. 505-549, here: pp. 529-531, 542 f.
• Otto von Dungern (Ed.): Genealogical Handbook on Bavarian-Austrian History , Graz 1931, p. 63.

Remarks

1. ↑ Umberto Casellato, Luigi Soroldoni: Le indagini scientifiche sugli affreschi del catino absidale della basilica di Aquileia , in: Emmanuele Accornero (ed.): Affreschi absidali nella basilica di Aquileia. Progetto di restauro , Villa Manin di Passariano 1999, pp. 87-107.
2. ↑ Nilo Faldon (ed.): Diocese of Vittorio Veneto , Giunta Regionale del Veneto, 1993, p.61.
3. ↑ Carl Freiherr von Czoernig : Das Land Görz and Gradisca including Aquileia , Vienna 1873, p. 248–260, here: p. 249 note 1. ( digitized version ).
4. ↑ Gerhard Schwartz : The occupation of the dioceses imperial Italy under the Saxon and Salian emperors. With the lists of the bishops 951–1122 , Leipzig / Berlin 1913, ND Spoleto 1993, p. 31 f .; P. Cammarosano: L'alto medioevo: verso la formazione regional , in: Ders. (Ed.): Storia della società friulana. Il medioevo , Tavagnacco 1988, p. 84.
5. ↑ Pio Paschini: Vicende del Friuli durante il dominio della casa imperiale di Franconia , in: Memorie storiche forogiuliesi IX (1913) 14–39, here: p. 14 f.
6. ^ Heinz Dopsch: Il patriarca Poppone di Aquileia (1019-1042). L'origine, la famiglia e la posizione di principe della Chiesa , in: Silvia Blason Scarel, Gruppo Archeologico Aquileiese (ed.): Poppone, l'età d'oro del patriarcato d'Aquileia , exhibition, Aquileia, Museo civico del Patriarcato (1996-1997), Rom 1997, pp. 15-40, here: pp. 16-18.
7. ↑ August von Jaksch (ed.): Monumenta historica ducatus Carinthiae , Vol. I: 811-1202 , Klagenfurt 1904, n.186 .
8. ↑ Ilse Spielvogel-Bodo: The Ossiacher See between yesterday and today. History, art, regional studies , 2nd edition, Kärntner Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Klagenfurt 1998, pp. 17–46.
9. ↑ Sergio Tavano: La basilica di Aquileia dopo il 1906 , in: K. von Lanckoroński: La basilica di Aquileia , Görz 2007, p. 214.
10. ^ Pier Silverio Easy : Il denaro del patriarca Popone d'Aquileia. Note al diploma di Corrado II il Salico al patriarca Poppone (September 11, 1028) , in: Memorie storiche cividalesi I (1905) 50–54 .; Andrea Saccocci: Moneta in Friuli al tempo di Poppone , in: Silvia Blason Scarel, Gruppo Archeologico Aquileiese (ed.): Poppone, l'età d'oro del patriarcato d'Aquileia , exhibition catalog, Aquileia, Museo civico del Patriarcato (1996– 1997), Rome 1997, pp. 71-73.
11. ↑ Reinhard Härtel : I documenti del patriarca Poppone a favore del monastero femminile di S. Maria e del capitolo di Aquileia , in: Il Friuli dagli Ottoni agli Hohenstaufen. Atti del convegno internazionale di studio (Udine, 4-8 December 1983), Udine , Deputazione di storia patria per il Friuli - Comune di Udine, Udine 1984, pp. 43-51.
12. ^ Neumann, Wilhelm, "Jaksch von Wartenhorst, August" in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 10 (1974), p. 324 f. (On-line)

predecessor	Office	successor
John IV	Patriarch of Aquileia 1019-1045	Eberhard