Privilegium Ottonianum

The Privilegium Ottonianum (also Pactum Ottonianum ) is a on February 13, 962 Pope John XII. by Emperor I. Otto granted privilege . It confirmed the Pippi niche donation and the existence of the Papal States , but at the same time put out that henceforth the pope before his ordination to the Emperor a loyalty oath had to be paid.

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In the renewal of the Pippin donations, Otto I first certified the possessions and sovereign rights of the Roman Church, starting with the city and ducat of Rome, plus the city and exarchate of Ravenna , Emilia, Pentapolis and Sabina , possessions in Tuscia , in the Campagna and south of the Line from Luni to Istria , the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento , but also patrimony in Benevento , Naples , Calabria and Sicily . As in the older pacts, the claim area in the Ottonianum, namely in the Byzantine, partly Saracen-occupied southern Italy, went far beyond the possibilities of the Apostolic See at the time. In the papal state so circumscribed, the Pope is guaranteed the permanent rule and protection of the emperor.

However, Otto I did not renew more than the promises of his Carolingian predecessors - as the sometimes literal takeovers from Carolingian preliminary documents make clear . The charter also did not contain any obligations on the part of the emperor to actively win back for the pope the territories that had been lost in the meantime. The existence of the Constantinian donation , claimed by the papal side, was also not confirmed .

A second part regulated the election of the Pope: the Pope was to be canonically (according to canon law) elected by the Roman clergy and people, but only consecrated after an oath of allegiance before an imperial envoy.

In the overall view, the Privilegium Ottonianum can therefore be seen as an attempt by Otto I to secure a greater influence on the papacy.

Otto I was in the same year (February 2, 962) in Rome by Pope John XII. crowned emperor. At the same time he restituted the Roman Empire.

literature

• Theodor Sickel : Otto I's privilege for the Roman Church , Innsbruck 1883.

Web links

• Theodor Sickel (Ed.): Diplomata 12: The documents Konrad I., Heinrich I. and Otto I. (Conradi I., Heinrici I. et Ottonis I. Diplomata). Hanover 1879, pp. 322–327 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
• Facsimile of the Privilegium Ottonianum on the website of the Vatican Secret Archives ( Memento from May 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Gerd Althoff: The Ottonians. Royal rule without a state . 2nd ext. Edition Stuttgart a. a. 2005, p. 115.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Helmut Beumann: The Ottonians. 3rd supplementary edition, Stuttgart 1994, p. 93.
3. ↑ Peter Hilsch: The Middle Ages - the epoch. Konstanz 2006, pp. 94-95.