Frederick I Barbarossa 275Fraticelli As a result of the severe conflicts over
poverty and authority among the FRANCISCAN ORDERor
Order of Friars Minor in the late 13th and early 14th cen-
turies, a generic, almost misleading term, Fraticelliwas
applied to a wide group of dissidents or heretics primarily
in Italy. Various names were applied to indicate these
“brothers of the poor life,” bizzocchi, or “Beghards.”
These groups were all persecuted in Western Christen-
dom. Inquisitors tended to lump clerical dissenters
together and give a uniform label to a great diversity of
religious experiences and beliefs with few real links. By
the 14th century, the term had become synonymous with
SPIRITUALFRANCISCANS.
See alsoBEGUINES ANDBEGHARDS; OLIVI, PETERJOHN.
Further reading: Decima Langworthy Douie, The
Nature and the Effect of the Heresy of the Fraticelli(Manch-
ester: Manchester University Press, 1932); Gordon Leff.
Heresy in the Later Middle Ages: The Relation of Heterodoxy
to Dissent, c. 1250–1450,2 vols. (Manchester: University
Press, 1967), especially 1.230–255.
Frau Ava (d. 1127)author of a series of four religious
Middle High German poems
Frau Ava’s work was a poetic rendering of the history of
salvation through the life of Christ from John the Baptist
to the ASCENSIONand PENTECOST. She also wrote about
the LASTJUDGMENTand the ANTICHRISTand promoted
the exercise of the VIRTUES. Her poems from about 1120
were the earliest and still extant work of an identifiable
woman who wrote in German. Little has been found
about the author herself apart from autobiographical ref-
erences in her work and from records recording her
death. Her sons were probably clerics who advised her on
interpreting Scripture and other religious sources. The
notice of Ava’s death in a necrology from the Austrian
monastery of Melk marked it in the year 1127 and called
her a religious recluse.
Further reading:Ernst Ralf Hintz, “Frau Eva (fl. first
half of the 12th century)” in John M. Jeep, ed., Medieval
Germany: An Encyclopedia(New York: Garland, 2001),
235–236.
Frederick I Barbarossa(Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman
Emperor)(ca. 1123–1190)king of Italy, Holy Roman
Emperor
The son of Duke FREDERICKII the One Eyed of SWABIA,
Frederick was born about 1123, he was also the nephew
of Emperor Conrad III (r. 1138–52) of the HOHEN-
STAUFENfamily. Frederick’s mother was from a different
faction surrounding Henry the Proud (ca. 1108–39),
duke of SAXONY and BAVARIA, the Welfs or GUELFS.
He was eventually to unite these rival families, whose
feuding had torn GERMANYapart for decades. In his
later years, he wore a long red beard, hence his name of
Barbarossa, or Red Beard.
After Frederick was elected king of Germany on
March 4, 1152, his first task was to negotiate a settlement
with the Welf family, especially his cousin, HENRYthe
Lion, duke of Saxony. By 1156 in an agreement, Frederick
gave Henry a free hand in Saxony, where Henry could
exercise imperial powers and expand freely into the
Slavic lands beyond the Elbe River. Henry was given
almost the same authority in Bavaria, where he was also
made duke.
With the Welfs conciliated, Frederick proceeded to
built up an imperial domain in western Germany along
the Rhine near ancestral holdings, in Swabia giving spe-
cial privileges to the towns, improving the status of the
PEASANTRY, and encouraging a well-structured and disci-
plined FEUDALISMamong the nobility. He also gained con-
trol of the resources of BURGUNDYby marrying its heiress,
Beatrice of Burgundy (d. 1186). Meanwhile Henry the
Lion was behaving similarly in eastern Germany, where
he advanced into Slavic lands, founded towns such as
LÜBECK, cleared the Baltic Sea of Wendish pirates, and
encouraged Flemish and northern German peasants to
settle lands beyond the Elbe. These joint efforts resulted
in Germany’s “catching up” with the progress being
achieved in France and England during this same period.
He had made peace with the papacy and was crowned
king in 1153 by Pope Eugenius III (r. 1145–53) for hang-
ing Arnold of Brescia (d. 1155), who had threatened
papal power in the city of Rome itself.CAMPAIGNS IN ITALY
In 1158, Frederick descended into ITA LY to assert his
authority in LOMBARDY, where he succeeded in imposingCoronation of Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa (lower panel)
with Peter Lombard (upper left panel). Master François (15th
century), Le Miroir Historial de Vincent de Beauvais.III. Ms
722, f. 341r.(Réunion des Musées Nationaux / Art Resource)