The Sardinian Church 201
penetration of the island by Pisa, which the Genoese found unacceptable. This
would lead to continuous warring between the two maritime powers. Things
went so far that in the final decades of the twelfth century, the leaders of the
Pisan commune were made to swear they would do everything possible to en-
sure that their top prelate never lost either the post of archbishop or the title
of papal legate in Sardinia.68
The second half of the twelfth century was marked by the conviction of the
popes of that period—Alexander III (1159–1181) and Lucius III (1181–1188)—
that Sardinia was part of their “dominion and jurisdiction.” This is particularly
surprising, given that their predecessors raised no objection when certain
Sardinian judges declared themselves fideles (vassals) of the prelates of Genoa
and Pisa or of their cities. This conviction of the popes partly aroused from
the behavior of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who had treated Sardinia like
his own property, conferring the title rex Sardinie upon the judge Barisone of
Arborea in 1164 and bestowing Sardinia “and everything that is there and will
be” upon Pisa the following year. Despite this, Alexander III’s protest of 1166
was very measured; he had informed the archbishop and the consuls of Genoa
to beware of imitating their rival city (Pisa)—as Lucius III would openly do in
1183—strongly reminding the two cities that the island belonged to the “do-
minion and jurisdiction of Saint Peter,” and neither the gesture of the Swabian
emperor, with whom the church had other outstanding suits, nor the machi-
nations of the two maritime cities provoked a break with the Apostolic See.
Nevertheless, in 1176, Alexander III not only renewed the archbishop of Pisa’s
position as primate of the province of Torres, but he also reconfirmed his pri-
macy over the island’s two other ecclesiastical provinces. The indecisiveness
of this new political course was be accentuated during the final decade of the
century.69
It was Innocent III (1198–1216) who resolutely embraced a new line, maybe
because he understood that that which allowed the Pisans to slowly take over
Sardinia was a creation of the popes themselves, who made the archbishop of
Pisa papal legate and primate in Sardinia. Consequently, the position of this
archbishop was progressively reduced to a mere honorary title; then from 1204,
the powers of the archbishop of Pisa in Sardinia would be effective only when
he was actually present on the island and only following a specific authoriza-
tion by the pope. At the same time, Innocent III did everything in his power
to also obtain an oath of fealty from the judges recognizing the dominium emi-
nens of the Holy See and promising payment of the respective feudal tax.
68 Natale Caturegli, Regesto della chiesa di Pisa (Rome, 1938), p. 483.
69 Turtas, Storia della Chiesa in Sardegna, pp. 203–223.