year: 1246
text: *September 8. Agreement described in the document dated 16 October 1246 (RRR 2551) by which Johannes presbyterus ecclesie s. Trinitatis de Venetiis will hold for the bishop of Castello the church of St Mark in Beirut for 3 years beginning the next 1 May for the rent of 1 marcha sterlingorum payable in Venice each year on the Feast of St Andrew.
*September 8. Agreement described in the document dated 16 October 1246 (RRR 2551) by which Johannes presbyterus ecclesie s. Trinitatis de Venetiis will hold for the bishop of Castello the church of St Mark in Beirut for 3 years beginning the next 1 May for the rent of 1 marcha sterlingorum payable... more
sources: Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden 2:429-30, no. 308; RRH 1146
year: 1246
text: October 1. Lyons. Pope Innocent IV writes to the patriarch of Jerusalem and papal legate (Robert de Nantes) and the archbishops and bishops in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, relating that he has learned that several Genoese, Pisan and Venetian merchants from the areas around Constantinople who sail to the Kingdom of Jerusalem carry on their ships many Greek, Bulgarian, Ruthenian and Vlach Christians, men and women, and offer them for sale to everyone, including Saracens, such that many of them are kept as slaves (servi) by their buyers. Many of these Christians flee to the churches and their prelates declaring themselves free and unjustly reduced to servitude, and they ask to be restored to their pristine liberty. The pope orders the addressees, if it is so, to give a kind hearing to these Christians who are unjustly detained and seek the Church’s protection to avoid servitude, and to have them returned to freedom in their own cities and diocese.
October 1. Lyons. Pope Innocent IV writes to the patriarch of Jerusalem and papal legate (Robert de Nantes) and the archbishops and bishops in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, relating that he has learned that several Genoese, Pisan and Venetian merchants from the areas around Constantinople who sail to... more
sources: ASV, Reg. Vat. 21, ff. 325v-326r, no. 127; Innocent IV, Les registres, 1:316, no. 2122
year: 1246
text: October 16. Rialto. Stephen, the plebanus of the church of St Sophia, promises Bishop Peter of Castello that he guarantees the agreement of 8 September (RRR 2549) by which Johannes presbyterus ecclesie s. Trinitatis de Venetiis, now living overseas will pay 1 marcha sterlingorum, payable in Venice each year on the Feast of St Andrew, for the church of St Mark in Beirut, which belongs to the bishop of Castello. In a new agreement, made on 8 September, Johannes will hold the church of St Mark for 3 years, beginning on the next 1 May. Failure to abide by the agreement will lead to a fine of 20 librae in denarii Venetorum parvi.
October 16. Rialto. Stephen, the plebanus of the church of St Sophia, promises Bishop Peter of Castello that he guarantees the agreement of 8 September (RRR 2549) by which Johannes presbyterus ecclesie s. Trinitatis de Venetiis, now living overseas will pay 1 marcha sterlingorum, payable in Venice... more
sources: Tafel and Thomas, Urkunden 2:429-30, no. 308; RRH 1146
year: 1246
text: November 1-30. Lucera. Frederick II, emperor of the Romans, king of Jerusalem and Sicily, instructs his justiciars and other officials and his vassals in the Kingdom of Sicily to cooperate fully with Louis IX who is preparing to set sail for the Holy Land on 24 June 1247. He is acting in the best interests of Frederick himself and his son Conrad, king-elect of the Romans and heir to the Kingdom of Jerusalem. They should therefore allow him free access to markets to buy horses, weapons, provisions and other necessities for as long as the king is overseas.
November 1-30. Lucera. Frederick II, emperor of the Romans, king of Jerusalem and Sicily, instructs his justiciars and other officials and his vassals in the Kingdom of Sicily to cooperate fully with Louis IX who is preparing to set sail for the Holy Land on 24 June 1247. He is acting in the best... more
sources: Huillard-Bréholles, 6.1, pp. 465-66. English translation: Jackson, The Seventh Crusade, pp. 41-42. See also RRR 2553
year: 1246
text: November 1-30. Lucera. Frederick II, emperor of the Romans, king of Jerusalem and Sicily, announces that he is granting safe-conducts to all merchants accompanying Lois on his journey to the Holy Land and that they may freely purchase provisions for the expedition. The may not, however, use the goods thus acquired for the use or advantage of the people of Acre or anyone else who is opposed to the emperor.
November 1-30. Lucera. Frederick II, emperor of the Romans, king of Jerusalem and Sicily, announces that he is granting safe-conducts to all merchants accompanying Lois on his journey to the Holy Land and that they may freely purchase provisions for the expedition. The may not, however, use the... more
sources: Huillard-Bréholles, 6.1, pp. 466-7. English translation: Jackson, The Seventh Crusade, p. 42. See also RRR 2552
year: 1246
text: December 5. Lyons. Pope Innocent IV grants the citizens of Genoa in transmarinis partibus the faculty of leaving in wills and disposing of their own property.
December 5. Lyons. Pope Innocent IV grants the citizens of Genoa in transmarinis partibus the faculty of leaving in wills and disposing of their own property.
sources: Innocent IV, Les Registres 1:338, no. 2289
year: 1246
text: Late 1246. Tabriz. Raben Atha (the catholicos of Armenia) writes to Frederick II. He had heard several years ago that he had come to fight for the Holy Land but had not completed it and that discord had been the reason. He has now heard from merchants that the pope is against him. He urges him to be reconciled to the pope, in view of what has happened to the Holy City and Christendom and the Holy Sepulchre. Frederick should seek reconciliation with the pope and accept whatever he says about the Holy Land and Christendom. Using the Dominicans, Andrew (of Longjumeau) and his colleague, Raben Atha (Ata) has written to the pope, the patriarch of Jerusalem and other fathers urging reconciliation. He also seeks his clemencia for John our archbishop of Jerusalem and for our eastern Christian brothers in Syria.
Late 1246. Tabriz. Raben Atha (the catholicos of Armenia) writes to Frederick II. He had heard several years ago that he had come to fight for the Holy Land but had not completed it and that discord had been the reason. He has now heard from merchants that the pope is against him. He urges him to... more
sources: Claverie, ‘Deux lettres inédites’, pp. 290-91. See also RRR 2556 & 2557
year: 1246
text: Late 1246. Tabriz. Raben Atha (the catholicos of Armenia) writes to King Louis. He has heard that he has taken the cross and of his zeal for the Holy Land following the destruction of the Holy City. He has heard from Andrew (of Longjumeau) and his colleague how the king was close to death and is now devoting himself to the Holy Land. He also requests that he show good will to John our archbishop of Jerusalem and for our eastern Christian brothers in Syria.
Late 1246. Tabriz. Raben Atha (the catholicos of Armenia) writes to King Louis. He has heard that he has taken the cross and of his zeal for the Holy Land following the destruction of the Holy City. He has heard from Andrew (of Longjumeau) and his colleague how the king was close to death and is... more
sources: Claverie, ‘Deux lettres inédites’, pp. 291-92. See also RRR 2555 & RRR 2557
year: 1247
text: Late 1246/early 1247. Raban Atha (Ara), vicar of the East (the catholicos of Armenia), writes to Pope [Innocent IV], with a long inscriptio (i.e. magnificent pope, father of fathers, intercessor for the Lord’s people, the sun of justice whose light rises over the four regions of the world, the holder of the See of Saint Peter, my lord, the most holy pope of the city of Rome and of all the regions of the world), relating that the pope’s elegant letter reached him (describing at length his joy and admiration). He has heard of the anathema with which the pope has anathematized the emperor and understood that this was done because of his sin and transgression. Yet the pope knows that Christ taught that if your brother sins against you, forgive him, and not just seven times, as Simon Peter asked, but seventy-seven times. This is the foundation of the Church, that one forgives one’s brother his ignorance and forgets his sins. So the [catholicos] asks the pope to forgive the emperor. There are three reasons: because of the slaughter and capture of their Christian brothers, the destruction of the Holy City, and the trial caused by the unprecedented trampling under foot of the Lord's Sepulchre. For these reasons, and his zeal for God and the sorrow in his heart, the [catholicos] petitions the pope, writing these things out of necessity and concern for Christ’s churches. All Christ’s churches, monasteries, and faithful in East and West should wear cilicia (garments of goat’s hair), sit in sorrow, and cry over Jerusalem and the things that have happened in it in their days. These things the [catholicos] has submitted to the pope’s lordship. Now, however, the friars Andreas and his associate, the pope’s special sons, religious and virtuous in all their works, who should be honoured by all men, whom the pope has sent, will tell the pope in person what they saw and heard with the [catholicos], and they will present the [catholicos’] greetings to all fathers, priests, monks, and kings subject to the lordship of the pope’s See as well as to all Christians obedient to the pope’s paternity. The [catholicos] also sends to the pope via the hands of those friars, the pope’s nuncios, a booklet that the [catholicos] brought from the East, from the land of China (Sin), and another booklet on the faith on behalf of the archbishop of the Nestorians (Nesibini), which two other archbishops and three bishops signed. Along with them the [catholicos] asks the pope a second time for archbishop I. of Jerusalem (Ierosolimitanus), who is of the race of the [catholicos], and for their Eastern Christian brothers in Antioch, Tripoli, Acre, and in other lands of the pope, so that the pope recommends them lest anyone offend them, for they are with the pope, as Christ said: ‘Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me.’ The letter closes with good wishes.
Late 1246/early 1247. Raban Atha (Ara), vicar of the East (the catholicos of Armenia), writes to Pope [Innocent IV], with a long inscriptio (i.e. magnificent pope, father of fathers, intercessor for the Lord’s people, the sun of justice whose light rises over the four regions of the world, the... more
sources: Rodenberg, 2:199-200, no. 268; Claverie, ‘Quatre Nouvelles lettres’, pp. 70-71; RRH 1152. See also RRR 2555 & 2556
year: 1247
text: Late 1246 / early 1247. Ignatius, made by the Holy Spirit pastor over the Jacobitae of Syria and all the Orient, writes to Pope Innocent [IV], father of fathers, holder of the See of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, glorified by Christ God, Who gave Saint Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and placed him as the foundation of the Church, the servant of the servants of Christ, relating that he received the pope’s letter from the hand of the wise and virtuous Friar Andreas, expressing his joy at the demand for common peace and charity. As he is obedient to perfect peace, he shall first show the truth of the faith that they confess, as God is his witness: ‘Thus we say that we Oriental Christians called Jacobitae believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one nature, three hypostases, three persons. And since the Father is the principle of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, the generative principle of the Son and the spirative principle of the Holy Spirit. And just as we must [not] confess one hypostasis and one person [simply] because there is one nature of divinity, nor again because there are three hypostases and three perfect persons must we confess that there are three natures, but one nature, one power, one will, one natural act of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And further we confess that God the Word the only begotten of the Father descended from the will of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, and dwelled in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and was born of her by a second birth, since He is born of the Father by an eternal birth. And He was made of her perfect man, animated by a rational intellective soul, similar to us in all things except for sin. And He is perfect God and perfect man, without mixture, without confusion. And He is one God, one Christ, one person, as Athanasius (Anathasius) says, and Cyrillus (Cirillus), that in God the Word the one nature is incarnate. And because of this we confess that Mary is the mother of God in truth, because she gave birth to God incarnate, Who was born for our salvation, and grew in human dimensions, and completed the governance, and suffered, and died according to the flesh, and arose on the third day, and since he fulfilled the divine, He was in truth perfect God and perfect man. And further, when He did human things, He was perfect God and perfect man, one after the union. Thus we have not accepted those who confess a divided duality of unity, nor again those who confess a mixture and confusion, as Eutyches (Eutices) the excommunicate. But we have accepted all those who follow the faith of Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles, and who walk on the path of the Council of Nicaea, no matter who they are of the Holy Church’s doctors, whose truth is known to God on high. Again, we damn and excommunicate everyone who deviates from the faith of Saint Peter and of the Council of Nicaea and who corrupts the righteousness of the Christian faith from the time of Symon Magus until this day, whoever they may be, and they are known to God. This, therefore, is our faith and our confession, and with us the Egyptians (Egyptii), and Armenians (Armeni), and Libyans (Libii), and Ethiopians (Ethiopes). Furthermore we confess that the Holy Roman Church is the mother and head of all churches, and it is in her that the bodies of Saints Peter and Paul were reposed.’ This he has shown the pope briefly and succinctly, to avoid tedium in prolixity and because much is understood in little. When the pope seeks unity and concord, which no one can refuse, [Ignatius] asks the pope the following. First, that when their patriarch dies the archbishops shall gather and choose a successor according to custom and with the Holy Spirit. Second, that the Latin patriarch, archbishops, and bishops in their parts shall not judge over their patriarchs and archbishops, but the pope shall judge over them as over the Latin patriarchs and archbishops, and they shall receive the pope’s sentences and judgments as the Latins do. Third, that the Latin patriarch, archbishops, and bishops shall not receive a census from the churches and monasteries that the [Jacobitae] have in [the Latins’] lands, but rather they shall communicate to them the liberties of the Church, as to sons in honour, and the [Jacobitae] shall always show them reverence and honour. Otherwise, it will not be decent for them to desire against the liberty of the Church what the [Jacobitae] have after much labour. Fourth, that those of the [Jacobitae] people who marry Latins shall not be compelled to a second confirmation, since they have been marked with the baptismal character and confirmed one time. Further, when Latins have come to their parts, the people loved them and did what they could to provide for their needs, as in the liberation of slaves or captives and the like. Thus they now ask the pope to repay them in charity, which above all likens us to God, and to pray for them, as is fitting in their misery. (ASV, Reg. Vat. 21, ff. 431v-432r, no. 120; summary Innocent IV, Les registres, 1:455, no. 3036; Baronius, Raynaldus et al., §§36-38, corrected from the manuscript; Claverie, ‘Quatre nouvelles lettres’, pp. 66-68). [Note: This document and the three that follow
Late 1246 / early 1247. Ignatius, made by the Holy Spirit pastor over the Jacobitae of Syria and all the Orient, writes to Pope Innocent [IV], father of fathers, holder of the See of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, glorified by Christ God, Who gave Saint Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven... more
sources: RRR 2559-61