View source for Pope Gregory IX

==Papacy==
Gregory IX was elevated to the papacy in the [[Papal election, 1227|papal election]] of 1227.<ref name=ott/> He took the name "Gregory" because he formally assumed the papal office at the monastery of Saint Gregory ad Septem Solia.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.saint-mike.org/library/papal_library/gregoryix/biography.html |title=De Montor, Artaud. ''The Lives and Times of the Popes'', The Catholic Publication Society of New York, 1911 |access-date=2014-07-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924095805/http://www.saint-mike.org/library/papal_library/gregoryix/biography.html |archive-date=2015-09-24 |url-status=dead }}</ref> That same year, in one of his earliest acts as pope, he expanded the [[Medieval Inquisition|Inquisition]] powers already assigned to [[Konrad von Marburg]] to encompass the investigation of heresy throughout the whole of Germany.

Gregory's bull ''[[Parens scientiarum]]'' of 1231, after the [[University of Paris strike of 1229]], resolved differences between the unruly [[University of Paris|university scholars of Paris]] and the local authorities. His solution was in the manner of a true follower of Innocent III: he issued what in retrospect has been viewed as the ''magna carta'' of the university, assuming direct control by extending papal patronage: his bull allowed future suspension of lectures over a flexible range of provocations, from "monstrous injury or offense" to squabbles over "the right to assess the rents of lodgings".

In October 1232, after an investigation by legates, Gregory proclaimed a [[Stedinger Crusade|crusade against the Stedinger]] to be preached in northern Germany. In June 1233, he granted a plenary indulgence to those who took part.<ref name=CSJ>Carsten Selch Jensen, "Stedinger Crusades (1233–1234)", in Alan V. Murray (ed.), ''The Crusades: An Encyclopedia'', 4 vols. (ABC-CLIO, 2017), vol. 4, pp. 1121–1122.</ref>

In 1233, Gregory IX established the [[Papal Inquisition]] to regularize the prosecution of [[heresy]].<ref name=Vizzier>[https://books.google.com/books?id=CurSh3Sh_KMC&pg=PA395 Vizzier, Anne, "Gregory IX", ''Dictionary of World Biography'', Vol. 2, Frank Northen Magill, Alison Aves ed., Routledge, 1998] {{ISBN|9781579580414}}</ref> According to [[Thomas F. Madden|Thomas Madden]], a defender of the Inquisition, the Papal Inquisition was intended to bring order to the haphazard episcopal inquisitions which had been established by [[Pope Lucius III|Lucius III]] in 1184. Gregory's aim allegedly was to bring order and legality to the process of dealing with heresy, since there had been tendencies by mobs of townspeople to burn alleged heretics without much of a trial. In 1231 Pope Gregory IX appointed a number of Papal Inquisitors (''Inquisitores haereticae pravitatis''), mostly [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] and [[Franciscan]]s, for the various regions of France, Italy and parts of Germany. Contrary to popular belief, says Madden, the aim was to introduce due process and objective investigation into the beliefs of those accused to the often erratic and unjust persecution of heresy on the part of local ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions.<ref name=Madden>[[Thomas F. Madden|Thomas Madden]], [https://www.nationalreview.com/2004/06/real-inquisition-thomas-f-madden/ "The Real Inquisition"], ''National Review'', June 18, 2004.</ref> However, to [[Walter Ullmann]], "there is hardly one item in the whole Inquisitorial procedure that could be squared with the demands of justice; on the contrary, every one of its items is the denial of justice or a hideous caricature of it [...] its principles are the very denial of the demands made by the most primitive concepts of natural justice [...] This kind of proceeding has no longer any semblance to a judicial trial but is rather its systematic and methodical perversion."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Saraiva |first=António José |title=The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians |publisher=Brill |year=2001 |pages=61–62}}</ref>

[[File:Bologna, gregorio IX, decretales con commento di bernardo da parma, e testi di innocenzo IV e gregorio X, 1290 ca., 02.jpg|thumb|Page from a late 13 c. copy of the ''[[Decretals of Gregory IX]]'', now in the [[Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana]], Florence]]
Gregory was a remarkably skillful and learned lawyer. He caused to be prepared [[Decretals of Gregory IX|''Nova Compilatio decretalium'']], which was promulgated in numerous copies in 1234 (first printed at [[Mainz]] in 1473). This ''New Compilation of Decretals'' was the culmination of a long process of systematising the mass of pronouncements that had accumulated since the [[Early Middle Ages]], a process that had been under way since the first half of the 12th century and had come to fruition in the ''[[Decretum Gratiani|Decretum]]'', compiled and edited by the papally commissioned legist [[Gratian (jurist)|Gratian]] and published in 1140. The supplement completed the work, which provided the foundation for papal legal theory.

In the [[Decretals of Gregory IX|1234 Decretals]], he invested the doctrine of ''[[perpetua servitus iudaeorum]]'' – perpetual servitude of the Jews – with the force of canonical law. According to this, the followers of the [[Talmud]] would have to remain in a condition of political servitude until [[Judgment Day]]. The doctrine then found its way into the doctrine of ''[[servitus camerae imperialis]]'', or servitude immediately subject to the Emperor's authority, promulgated by [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]]. The Jews were thus suppressed from having direct influence over the political process and the life of [[Christianity|Christian]] states into the 19th century and the rise of [[liberalism]].<ref>Dietmar Preissler, ''Frühantisemitismus in der Freien Stadt Frankfurt und im Großherzogtum Hessen (1810 bis 1860)'', p. 30, Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, Heidelberg 1989, {{ISBN|3-533-04129-8}} {{in lang|de}}. The doctrine's Vatican indexing is ''liber extra – c. 13, X, 5.6, De Iudaeis: Iudaeos, quos propria culpa submisit perpetua servituti''; the [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/gregdecretals5.html Decretum online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724181718/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/gregdecretals5.html |date=2008-07-24 }} {{in lang|la}}</ref> In 1234, Gregory issued the papal bull ''[[Rachel suum videns]]'' calling for a new crusade to the Holy Land, leading to the [[Barons' Crusade|Crusade of 1239]].

In 1239, under the influence of [[Nicholas Donin]], a Jewish convert to Christianity, Gregory ordered that all copies of the Jewish Talmud be confiscated. Following a [[Disputation of Paris|public disputation between Christians and Jewish theologians]], this culminated in a mass burning of some 12,000 handwritten Talmudic manuscripts on 12 June 1242, in Paris.

Gregory was a supporter of the mendicant orders which he saw as an excellent means for counteracting by voluntary poverty the love of luxury and splendour which was possessing many ecclesiastics. He was a friend of [[Saint Dominic]] as well as [[Clare of Assisi]]. On 17 January 1235, he approved the [[Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy|Order of Our Lady of Mercy]] for the redemption of captives. He appointed ten cardinals<ref>Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, ''Cardinali di Curia e "Familiae" cardinalizie dal 1227 al 1254'' 2 vols. (series "Italia Sacra", Padua: Antenori) 1972 {{in lang|it}}. A [[prosopography]] that includes Gregory's ten cardinals and their ''familiae'' or official households, both clerical and lay.</ref> and [[canonization|canonized]] Saints [[Elisabeth of Hungary]], [[Saint Dominic|Dominic]], [[Anthony of Padua]], and [[Francis of Assisi]], of whom he had been a personal friend and early patron. He transformed a chapel to Our Lady in the church of [[Santa Maria del Popolo]] in Rome.

Gregory IX endorsed the [[Northern Crusades]] and attempts to bring [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] Russians, particularly in the [[Pskov Republic]] and the [[Novgorod Republic]], under the [[Papacy]]'s fold.{{sfn|Christiansen|1997|pp=112, 128}} In 1229, he declared that ''[[Finland]]ia'' (Finland) had passed under his protection.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kirby |first1=David |title=A Concise History of Finland |date=13 July 2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-83225-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hF-e7dTr_xYC |language=en |page=4}}</ref> In 1232, Gregory IX asked the [[Livonian Brothers of the Sword]] to send troops to protect [[Finland]], whose semi-[[Paganism|pagan]] people were fighting against the Novgorod Republic in the [[Finnish-Novgorodian wars]];<ref>{{cite web|url=http://193.184.161.234/DF/detail.php?id=80|title=Letter by Pope Gregory IX|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814083933/http://193.184.161.234/DF/detail.php?id=80|archive-date=2007-08-14}}. In Latin.</ref> however, there is no known information if any ever arrived to assist. Gregory received news in 1237 that the [[Tavastians]] rejected Christianity and he called on all Christians to join him in a crusade.{{sfn|Christiansen|1997|p=112}}

===Struggle with Frederick II===
[[File:Giorgio Vasari, Scomunica di Federico II da parte di Gregorio IX, 1572-73, 03 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Fanciful 16th c. fresco depicting Gregory excommunicating [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]] in the [[Sala Regia (Vatican)|Sala Regia]], by [[Giorgio Vasari]]. Since few details were provided to the artist, the excommunication scene is given generically. Frederick is shown pointing to a book with the word "Concilium" shown, possibly a reference to the general council that the emperor attempted to call to depose Gregory.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jong |first1=Jan L. de |title=The power and the glorification : papal pretensions and the art of propaganda in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries |date=2012 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park |isbn=9780271062372 |pages=140−141}}</ref>]]
At the coronation of Frederick II in Rome, 22 November 1220, the emperor made a vow to embark for the Holy Land in August 1221. Gregory IX began his pontificate by suspending the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]], for dilatoriness in carrying out the promised [[Sixth Crusade]]. Frederick II appealed to the sovereigns of Europe complaining of his treatment. The suspension was followed by [[excommunication]] and threats of deposition, as deeper rifts appeared. Frederick II went to the [[Holy Land]] and in fact managed to take possession of [[Jerusalem]]. Gregory IX distrusted the emperor, since Rainald, the imperial Governor of Spoleto, had invaded the Pontifical States during the emperor's absence.<ref name=ott/> In June 1229, Frederick II returned from the Holy Land, routed the papal army which Gregory IX had sent to invade Sicily, and made new overtures of peace to the pope. The war of 1228–1230 is known as the [[War of the Keys]].

Gregory IX and Frederick came to a truce, but when Frederick defeated the [[Lombard League]] in 1239, the possibility that he might dominate all of Italy, surrounding the [[Papal States]], became a very real threat. A new outbreak of hostilities led to a fresh excommunication of the emperor in 1239 and to a prolonged war. Gregory denounced Frederick II as a [[Christian heresy|heretic]] and summoned a council at Rome to give point to his [[anathema]]. Frederick responded by [[Battle of Meloria (1241)|trying to capture or sink]] as many ships carrying prelates to the synod as he could. Eberhard II von Truchsees, [[Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg|Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg]], in 1241 at the Council of [[Regensburg]] declared that Gregory IX was "that man of perdition, whom they call Antichrist, who in his extravagant boasting says, 'I am God, I cannot err'."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YTAuAAAAYAAJ The Methodist Review Vol. XLIII], No. 3, p. 305.</ref> He argued that the Pope was the "little horn" of Daniel 7:8:<ref>Daniel {{bibleverse-nb||Daniel|7:8|31}}</ref>

<blockquote>A little horn has grown up with eyes and mouth speaking great things, which is reducing three of these kingdoms – i.e. Sicily, Italy, and Germany – to subserviency, is persecuting the people of Christ and the saints of God with intolerable opposition, is confounding things human and divine, and is attempting things unutterable, execrable.<ref>Article on "Antichrist" from Smith and Fuller, [https://books.google.com/books?id=zM0UAAAAYAAJ ''A Dictionary of the Bible''], 1893, p. 147</ref></blockquote>

The struggle only ended with Gregory IX's death on 22 August 1241.{{sfn|Brooke|2006|p=85}} The pope died before events could reach their climax; it was his successor, [[Pope Innocent IV|Innocent IV]], who in 1245 declared a [[crusade]] that would finish the Hohenstaufen threat.