Making the Holy Roman Empire Holy: Frederick Barbarossa, Saint Charlemagne and the sacrum imperium (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series)

How did the Holy Roman Empire (sacrum imperium) become Holy? In this innovative book, Vedran Sulovsky explores the reign of Frederick Barbarossa (1152–1190), offering a new analysis of the key documents, artworks, and contemporary scholarship used to celebrate and commemorate the imperial regime, especially in the imperial coronation site and Charlemagne's mausoleum, the Marienkirche in Aachen. By dismantling the Kulturkampf-inspired view of the history of the Holy Roman Empire – which was supposedly desacralised in the Investiture Controversy, and then resacralised by Barbarossa and the Reichskanzler Rainald of Dassel – Sulovsky, using new evidence, reveals the personal relations between various courtiers which led to the rise of the new, holy name of the Empire. Annals, chronicles, charters, forgeries, letters, liturgical texts and objects, relics, insignia, seals, architecture and rituals have all been exploited by Sulovsky to piece together a mosaic that shows the true roots of sacrum imperium. Cover 1 Half-title page 3 Series page 4 Title page 5 Copyright page 6 Dedication 7 Contents 9 List of Illustrations 12 List of Tables 13 Acknowledgements 14 List of Abbreviations 16 Introduction 17 I.1 The sacrum imperium Theory 20 I.2 Beyond sacrum imperium 33 1 Sacrum imperium: Lombard Influence and the Sacralisation of the State in the mid-Twelfth Century (1125–1167) 36 1.1 Introduction: Concepts and Categories 36 1.2 Peter the Deacon and Wibald of Stavelot as Intermediaries between the Byzantine Court Style and the German Imperial Chancery 40 1.3 Sacral Terminology in the German Imperial Chancery (1125/1136–1158) 49 1.4 Sacrum imperium and diva res publica at the Imperial Court and in the German Imperial Chancery (April 1155–Autumn 1157) 59 1.5 Sacrum imperium in the Documents of the Imperial Chancery and Legates (1159–1167) 72 1.6 Otto and Acerbo Morena, Judges and Consuls of Lodi, and the Role of Rainald of Dassel 83 2 Sacrum imperium II: The Barometer of Lombard Influence at Court (1167–1190 and Beyond) 93 2.1 The Sacral Terminology of the State in the Imperial Chancery (1167–1180) 93 2.2 The Sacral Terminology of the State in Imperial Documents (1180–1190) and Epilogue 99 2.3 The Poets at the Court of Frederick Barbarossa in the 1180s: Gunther the Poet and Godfrey of Viterbo 114 2.4 Conclusion 123 3 The Cult of Charlemagne from His Death to the Accession of Frederick Barbarossa (814–1152) 134 3.1 Introduction: The Historiography of Saint Charlemagne 135 3.2 Charlemagne’s memoria in General and in Aachen up to 1165 136 3.3 The Karlsdekret: The Codification of Aquensian Tradition 141 3.4 Conclusion 151 4 The Canonisation of Charlemagne in 1165 154 4.1 Frederick Barbarossa and Rainald of Dassel Divide the Spoils of the Italian Wars 155 4.2 The Run-Up to the Canonisation (1164–1165) 169 4.3 The Canonisation of Saint Charlemagne in 1165 as a Stage for Imperial Politics 173 4.4 Aachen, the sedes regni Theutonici 187 4.5 The Political Uses of Holy Kings and Holy Kingship in Twelfth-Century Latin Europe 191 4.6 Visualising Saint Charlemagne: The Brachiary of Saint Charlemagne 198 4.7 Conclusion 206 5 The Barbarossaleuchter: Imperial Monument and Pious Donation 210 5.1 Form and Inscriptions 212 5.2 The Inscriptions in Detail: Dating the Barbarossaleuchter 214 5.3 Frederick and Beatrix as Donators of Religious Artworks 221 5.4 The Inscriptions in Detail: (Possibly) Alcuin’s Inscription Imitated by the Canons 224 5.5 The Engraved Plates: The Christological Cycle and the Beatitudes 229 5.6 The Towers, Their Lost Silver Reliefs and the Iconographic Programme in General 234 5.7 The Barbarossaleuchter and the Carolingian Dome 238 5.8 Liturgical Usage: Lighting the Chandelier 244 5.9 The Symbolic Functions of the Barbarossaleuchter 248 6 The Reliquary Shrine of Saint Charlemagne: The High Point of the Sacrum imperium? 252 6.1 Introduction: The Two Main Interpretations 253 6.2 The Two Narrow Sides: The Marienseite and the Karlsseite 256 6.3 The Gallery of Kings 263 6.4 The Roof Reliefs 280 6.5 The Order of Rulers on the Gallery of Kings 287 6.6 The Reliquary Shrine as a Type: The Frames and the Ornamentation 295 6.7 Dating the Karlsschrein: The Hereditary Monarchy 300 6.8 Conclusion 308 Conclusion 311 Appendix The Decorative Imagery of the Karlsschrein 359 Bibliography 363 Index 388