For the most part, however, Gregory spoke out in support of Frederick’s rights as ruler of Jerusalem. In this case, his change of policy put him at odds with his own legate in Syria, the patriarch Gerold, who had repeated the emperor’s excommunication during his stay in the Holy Land and dogged his every step while on crusade, sending letters back to Europe that denounced Frederick’s vile pact with the infidels. By the summer of 1232, the pope had decided to recall the patriarch to the papal curia, accompanied by the Templar and Hospitaller masters, to give a full accounting of their recent actions in the turbulent crusader principalities. The pope had instructed Gerold to cooperate with the emperor’s representatives and help them to settle the political unrest in the region. News had reached Gregory’s ears that Gerold instead had actively supported the rebels opposing Frederick’s authority. Voices were crying out “openly and publicly” that Gerold worked to disturb the kingdom of Jerusalem, while some—mindful of Gerold’s previous attacks on the emperor’s reputation—blamed the pope for his actions. Proclaiming that the Devil was sowing “discord in place of peace, dissension in place of reform, hatred in place of love,” the pope arranged for Frederick to provide Gerold with letters of safe conduct, enabling him to depart from Syria at the next available passage.56 The pope commissioned Albert Rezzato, patriarch of Antioch, to replace Gerold, who would be stripped of his legatine status if he failed to return immediately to the curia. Albert set to work mediating between the warring factions in the holy places, trying to secure Frederick’s rights along with those of his son Conrad, bringing the rebels back into line, and restoring peace to the area.57
In the summer of 1234, Gregory dispatched a special legate to Syria, Theodoric, archbishop of Ravenna, to enforce the terms of an agreement finally struck by Albert between the emperor and his opponents. Addressing the barons of Jerusalem, the citizens of Acre, the masters and brothers of the military orders, and all of the clergy in the kingdom of Jerusalem, the pope again emphasized the need for peace in the region as part of his developing plans for a campaign to the holy places, which were endangered by the endemic fighting there among Christians. At this point, he took extra steps to ensure cooperation with his legate, enjoining the recipients of his letters “by the remission of sins” to observe inviolably the established truce and informing them about his instructions for Theodoric to secure the full restoration of Frederick’s possessions and rights as they existed before the recent uprising. As was often the case with such fully empowered legates, Gregory authorized the archbishop of Ravenna to compel obedience to his mandates through ecclesiastical censure, confirming in advance any judgment that Theodoric legitimately passed against the rebels.58
Intervening on Frederick’s behalf and anticipating the end of Frederick’s ten-year truce with al-Kamil in 1239, Gregory clearly hoped to advance his plans for a new crusading expedition. His summons for what became known as the “Baron’s Crusade” served as a visual and vocal reminder of the pope’s authority to mobilize Christians—men and women, clergy and laity, the powerful and the humble—for a common purpose. In the widely circulated bull Rachel suum videns, the pope tapped into the emotional and biblical language of past crusade appeals, reminding his audience about Christ’s life and passion in the sacred places of Jerusalem. The loss of the Holy Land was a source of grief and scandal for the entire church. Among other measures, Gregory called for the observation of a “four-year general peace throughout the entire Christian world,” threatening excommunication and interdict for those who violated its terms unless they had suffered injuries that justified violating the peace.59 Through sermons and liturgies, prayers, pious bequests and tithes, the redeeming of vows, and more, Christians from all walks of life could contribute to the crusading cause. To enact these plans in public, the pope relied especially on the mendicant orders, who provided an unparalleled cadre of crusade preachers and fund-raisers. Matthew Paris, always ready to criticize the invasive mendicants, bore witness to the impact of such activities in England, even though he viewed the friars’ preaching, commutation of vows, and other financial exactions as a fraud, since the monies collected for the Holy Land would never reach their goal.60
As will become clear below, Gregory’s plans for the crusade would take some unexpected directions and eventually become a source of renewed tension between him and Frederick. In 1234, however, those problems lay in the future. During its earliest stages, the call for the Baron’s Crusade illustrated the compelling public profile of the Roman pope as the spiritual leader of the universal church and evangelizer of peace working in concert with secular powers to achieve the common good of defending the Holy Land, where Christ had redeemed humanity. Mediating in October of that year between Frederick and the Lombards, who were still at odds over their past grievances and the extent of the emperor’s rights, Gregory reminded them once again of the need for unity among Christians as a precursor to a successful crusade, especially at a time when the pope, moved to action by the “many clamors” reaching him from the Holy Land, sought to bring them expeditious aid. With Christendom at peace, Gregory envisioned, holy war would be exported beyond its borders.61
A Hidden Threat
As Pope Gregory publicized his plans for the upcoming crusade, he identified another threat to the peace in Christendom, a grave menace within the faithful: heresy. Heretics, the pope insisted, teaching their foul doctrines “secretly” and operating in the “shadows,” tricked the simpleminded into questioning bedrock elements of their faith, such as the incarnation of Christ, the efficacy of the sacraments, and the resurrection of the body at the Final Judgment. They also tried to cast doubt on the pope’s “fullness of power” over the church, his power of the keys over sin, and his right to excommunicate and interdict Christians. Eradicating heresy by wielding the spiritual sword against heretics represented one of Gregory’s chief responsibilities as the bishop of Rome and leader of the universal church. Facing this duty, the pope needed a partner to wield the material sword, one who would coerce and, if necessary, execute those judged guilty of heresy: namely, the Christian emperor, among other representatives of the secular arm.
Much like the crusade to recover the holy places, during the years after the Treaty of San Germano the battle against heresy formed a point of convergence for the two powers, allowing the pope and emperor to stress their shared duty to root out and destroy that hidden threat. As observed earlier in this book, the papal effort to combat heresy did not start with Gregory, but his time as pope marked an important—for some, infamous—moment in the history of the medieval church: its “inquisitorial turn,” the intensifying, centralizing, and institutionalizing of anti-heretical measures. In the popular imagination, the Inquisition summons images of dark dungeons, of clergy torturing more-often-than-not innocent victims far from prying eyes. To the contrary, the hunt for heretics in the thirteenth century involved the pope and his representatives in public displays of priestly authority, including acts such as preaching sermons, performing rites of excommunications, reading letters aloud and exhibiting their seals, receiving testimony in civic spaces, and publicizing anti-heretical statutes, among other “technologies” openly deployed against the hidden threat of heresy.62
For Gregory, acting as the bishop of Rome and lord of the Papal States, fighting heresy was in part a local duty that might have reminded him of his time as a cardinal legate in Lombardy years earlier. According to the pope’s biographer, after returning to Rome in 1230 following his reconciliation with Frederick at San Germano, Gregory discovered that “Patarene” heretics had spread like a “contagion” throughout the city during his absence, seeking to cause “public harm” through “hidden means.” After conducting an inquiry into the matter, in February 1231 the pope convoked a meeting of the Roman senate and people before the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he condemned a great number of clergy and lay people, both men and women among the latter, based on the testimony of witnesses or their own confessions. The