Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of maps
- List of abbreviations
- Map I Southern Italy: archbishoprics and principal bishoprics
- Map II Southern Italy: abbeys
- Map III The dioceses of Sicily in the late twelfth century
- Map IV The dioceses of the Terra di Bari
- Map V The dioceses of the Terra di Lavoro
- Introduction
- 1 The Church in southern Italy before the Normans
- 2 The Church and the Norman conquest
- 3 The papacy and the rulers of southern Italy
- 4 The papacy and the Church in southern Italy
- 5 The kings of Sicily and the Church
- 6 The Church and military obligation
- 7 The secular Church
- 8 Monasticism
- 9 Latins, Greeks and non-Christians
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of maps
- List of abbreviations
- Map I Southern Italy: archbishoprics and principal bishoprics
- Map II Southern Italy: abbeys
- Map III The dioceses of Sicily in the late twelfth century
- Map IV The dioceses of the Terra di Bari
- Map V The dioceses of the Terra di Lavoro
- Introduction
- 1 The Church in southern Italy before the Normans
- 2 The Church and the Norman conquest
- 3 The papacy and the rulers of southern Italy
- 4 The papacy and the Church in southern Italy
- 5 The kings of Sicily and the Church
- 6 The Church and military obligation
- 7 The secular Church
- 8 Monasticism
- 9 Latins, Greeks and non-Christians
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The kingdom of Sicily was created by the coronation of its first ruler, the former Count Roger II of Sicily, in Palermo cathedral on Christmas Day 1130. The kingdom that was born then lasted, despite many vicissitudes, and even some lengthy periods of division, until the creation of modern Italy in 1860. The papal bull that sanctioned the creation of this new kingdom recorded that this was proper since God had granted Roger ‘greater wisdom and power’ than other princes, and in recognition of the loyal service to the papacy of his parents and himself. The pope, Anacletus II, was obviously seeking justification for his action, and the reasons for such a grant were in fact considerably more complex, and will be discussed in a later part of this book (below, chapter 3). Yet as Roger's own contemporary biographer noted, without mentioning the papal role in the conferment of the new royal title at all, it was appropriate that one who ‘ruled so many provinces, Sicily, Calabria and Apulia and other regions stretching almost to Rome, … ought to be distinguished by the honour of kingship’. After raising a spurious and unhistorical, if attractive, theory that Sicily had once, in ancient times, been a kingdom, he concluded:
now it was right and proper that the crown should be placed on Roger's head and that this kingdom should not only be restored but should be spread wide to include those other regions where he was now recognised as ruler.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Latin Church in Norman Italy , pp. 1 - 9Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007