Eagle Byzantium

"You must really convey my advice to you all! Not long ago, the unfaithful, lewd, greedy, violent, and anti-Christian sinner Henry IV died in the midst of everyone's betrayal and curses. His son (Henry V) will soon come here to whip and lead my horse, request my coronation, and reconcile with the Pope. My child Gawain will realize this mirror-like precedent - the 'City of the Lord' is always here, even if it may be destroyed by swords, but its spirit and authority are eternal and cannot be resisted by anyone." The Pope held the scepter and narrated word by word, as if he wanted to imprint these contents in the minds of this group of people.

Now it seems that the Pope of Rome has won a brilliant victory: Henry IV died in frustration after his own son's rebellion, and the entire Salian region will bend the knee to the Pope again - all the bishops' appointment rights and the property of various churches and monasteries in this region will return to the jurisdiction of Rome; and the crusade initiated by Urban not only completely recovered the Holy City, but also gave birth to some Eastern Catholic countries that obeyed Rome, such as Antioch, Jerusalem, and Tarsus (its situation is a bit complicated).

Therefore, Eugene, in addition to being proud of himself, began to gently warn Gawain: Overall, you are still good, but the reformed friars you set up have been a little out of my control recently. In addition, the construction of parishes in your territory is not on track. No Catholic bishops have been established in major cities, and you have never asked me for the scepter and ring. There is only Patriarch Anselm who is doing a miserable job there. This is a big problem!

In addition, Pope Eugene also made it clear that he also asked Bohemond to stop attacking Antioch and negotiate with his nephew peacefully, and he must not disobey.

After sending off Gawain's envoy, it was already the "first day of fasting" in September. In the palace with the towering Lateran bell tower, in front of the altar covered with "fasting cloth", the Pope convened his "Clergy" according to convention to discuss the matters of this holy war.

The Pope's "Clergy" is what we usually know as the "Cardinal Conference". Its earliest name was presbyterium, which means "elders". Those who can participate in this conference group are certainly not ordinary people. They are all high-ranking clergy at the level of "priest". Gawain's previous canonization was more of an honorary title than real power, and thus he was not subject to the jurisdiction of church rules. At least this group of cardinals must strictly abide by celibacy (except for keeping concubines).

In theory, the "Cardinal Conference" consists of three levels, namely cardinals, parish priests and cardinal deacons.

There are usually only seven cardinals, namely the bishops of the seven dioceses of Rome, namely Ostia, Porto, Albano, Rufera, Sabina, Frascati and Palestrina;

The parish priests come from the 28 (25 in the early days) most important Roman Catholic churches, and only these churches enjoy the title of "titulus" or "special status";

As for the cardinal deacons, in addition to the seven "parish deacons" who are responsible for helping the poor in Rome, there are also 11 "palace deacons" serving in the Papal Palace.

Therefore, the cardinal meeting is composed of seven cardinals, 28 parish priests and 18 cardinal deacons, plus the pope himself, a total of 54 people, and almost all major events of the Catholic Church are judged by them.

But this meeting had two more people, Simon from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and Roger the Younger (later Roger II of Sicily). The two brothers are both princes, born to old Roger (Bohemond's uncle) who is already in poor health, but the three of them are "Papal Envoys" personally appointed and canonized by the city of Rome, so they are fully qualified to participate in the meeting seat of the Lateran Palace.

The identity and power of this "Papal Envoy" is much higher than Gawain's "Canonized Saint".

The reason is this: since the 1950s, the Catholic Church in Rome first broke with Constantinople (the two sides made a "mutual" excommunication order), and then opposed the emperor of Germany (the Holy Roman Emperor). These two enemies were not easy to deal with. The Catholic Church, feeling a little trapped, began to win over the Normans who were raising their flags in southern Italy at the time. The Norman nobles headed by Robert Guiscart soon swore allegiance to the Pope and became "territorial vassals" of Rome, paying vassal taxes every year and swearing to protect the Pope's safety, order and freedom; on the other hand, the Norman nobles thus obtained the "territories" of Capra, Aversa, Apulia, Calabria and Sicily. In other words, their legal right to rule here was granted by the Pope.

Yes, you read it right. At that time, the Pope's territory was not limited to Rome. These places in southern Italy were all within its claimed scope. Not only that, Pope Gregory VII (reigned 1073-1085) once announced that southern Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, Poland, Hungary and Aragon were all "natural territories of St. Peter". In addition, Britain, Denmark, Kiev, Novgorod (the local Russian Orthodox Church said it was shot) and Dalmatia were also his "fiefdoms".

So where did the legal power of Pope St. Peter over these territories come from? Let's leave this question to Gawain to clarify and solve. Let's go back to the level of the "Papal Envoy" of the Prince of Sicily.

In fact, the Pope just gave a blank check to the Normans at that time, "Southern Italy is my fiefdom. As long as you can seize it and drive away the Greeks and Saracens, you will naturally become the secular masters of these areas." "But the power of flag inspiration is also great. For example, after twenty or thirty years of fighting, Old Roger conquered the entire island of Sicily and became the "Grand Count of Sicily." Then Roger expelled the churches of Constantinople in Palermo and other places, and welcomed the ecumenical church to implement judicial power here. The happy city of Rome announced that both he and his legal successors had "papal legates." Identity - can independently appoint local bishops, and can participate in the cardinal meeting in Rome. The power can be said to be extremely great, and it is the same as the patriarch. The church is quite equal - and the prosperity and power of the Roger family in Sicily is of course inseparable from the support and protection of the Pope. It can also hold the dual power of king and patriarch. For example, old Roger did not participate in the Eastern Expedition at all. He also enjoyed doing business with the Crescent Christians in North Africa, but no one dared to impeach him, or it was useless to impeach him if he was dissatisfied.

Now wearing palace robes made of Palermo silk and hanging Saracen-style gold ornaments, the two Sicilian princes conveyed such an extremely important suggestion to the Pope, cardinals and priests:

"Gawain, Bohemond and Baldwin have become powerful and powerful in the east. Therefore, the command of this holy war must not be given to any one of these three."