Popes and Jews, 1095-1291

(Frankie) #1

The City of Rome 235


THE PAPAL ADVENTUS CEREMonY


During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries popes often promoted ‘adventus’,


which the Church celebrated on a number of occasions: the election of a new


pope, the entrance of a pope into Rome after a period of exile, and various ‘intra-


mural’ occasions, like the annual papal procession on Easter Monday and the


procession to one of the stational churches for a particular liturgy, such as on


Assumption Eve.64 We know of such ceremonies for the emperor Henry V


(1111–1125) organized by Paschal ii in 1111, for Gelasius ii in 1118, for


Eugenius iii in 1145, for Alexander iii in 1165, and for Clement iii in 1187.65


in the twelfth century Jewish participation became a regular part of entry cere-


monials into Rome organized by the curia and performed for both popes and


emperors as a preliminary stage to coronation. The Jewish community acclaimed


Henry V when he entered Rome in 1111,66 Calixtus ii in 1119, Celestine ii in


1143, Alexander iii in 1165, and Clement iii in 1187.67 We also know of Jewish


participation in entry ceremonials elsewhere, such as for Alphonse Vii of Castile


in Toledo in 1139, for the papal General-Vicar for sicily and Calabria in Messina


at some point between 1154 and 1264, for Peter of Aragon in Messina in 1282,


for Hugh iii of Jerusalem and Cyprus in Tyre in 1283, and later for Louis ii of


Anjou in Arles in 1385.68


in the early eleventh century curial liturgists designed the papal procession cere-


monial along the lines of imperial usage as it had evolved since the ninth century


and had been formulated in the mid-eleventh century Salian Ordo. on the second


day of the ceremony, the emperor, who had been consecrated and blessed the pre-


vious day, was crowned by the pope with the ‘Roman crown’ at st Peter’s altar in


the Vatican basilica.69 We know of the coronations of Ludwig ii (872), Henry ii


(1014), and Conrad ii (1027).70 The eleventh-century Libellus de cerimoniis Aule


Imperatoris in the Graphia Aureae Urbis Romae also describe how the emperor


was acclaimed with laudes in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.71 Details of such coron-


ations can be also found in records such as the Salian Ordo, Censius II, and Ordines


XXV/XXVI.72


64 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.100.
for an in-depth study of the changing nature of the papal adventus and its manifestations both ‘extra-
mural’ and ‘intra-mural’, see susan Twyman, Papal Ceremonial at Rome in the Twelfth Century (London,
2002), pp.88–144; pp.145–74; pp.175–217.
65 Amnon Linder, ‘“The Jews too were not Absent... Carrying Moses’ Law on their shoulders”:
The Ritual Encounter of Pope and the Jews from the Middle Ages to Modern Times’, The Jewish
Quarterly Review 99/3 (2009), 331.
66 Berliner, Storia degli Ebrei di Roma, dall’antichità allo smantallamento del ghetto, p.77.
67 Berliner, Storia degli Ebrei di Roma, dall’antichità allo smantallamento del ghetto, p.77.
68 Linder, ‘The Jews too were not Absent... Carrying Moses’ Law on their shoulders’, 331–2.
69 Linder, ‘The Jews too were not Absent... Carrying Moses’ Law on their shoulders’, 352.
70 Linder, ‘The Jews too were not Absent... Carrying Moses’ Law on their shoulders’, 354–5.
71 ‘De processione imperatoris’ in the ‘Graphia Aureae urbis Romae’ in Kaiser, Kőnige und Päpste,
Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, ed. P. E. schramm, Vol. 3 (stuttgart, 1969), p.351.
see Linder, ‘The Jews too were not Absent... Carrying Moses’ Law on their shoulders’, 354.
72 Linder, ‘The Jews too were not Absent... Carrying Moses’ Law on their shoulders’, 355.

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