Albinus (cardinal)

Albinus[1] (died 1197) was an Italian Cardinal of the late twelfth century. A native of Milan, or perhaps of Gaeta,[2] he became an Augustinian regular canon.

Cardinal

Albinus
Cardinal-Bishop
Church Santa Maria Nuova (1182-1185)
Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (1185-1189)
DioceseAlbano (1189-1197)
Orders
Created cardinalDecember 1182
by Pope Lucius III
RankCardinal Deacon, then
Cardinal Priest, then
Cardinal Bishop
Personal details
Born
Milan
Died1197
Rome (?)
NationalityItalian
ResidenceRome, Verona
ParentsCount Bianchino di Prata
Iselgarda di Carrara
Occupationdiplomat, administrator, courtier, papal vicar of Rome
Professionbishop
Educationindividual schooling

Early life

Albinus was orphaned at a young age,[3] and taken in by an uncle, who was a monk, and who acted as both father and mother, instructing him in religious piety, as long as he lived.[4] At some point he became a Canon Regular at Santa Maria de Crescenzago in the diocese of Milan.[5] He then left his homeland, in gente alia.[6] He then passed under the supervision of his brother Richard, at the time as impoverished as he, who much later became bishop of Orvieto (1177–1201),[7] studying the liberal arts.[8] In order to pay his living expenses Albinus had to undertake teaching duties.[9] He then progressed to the study of philosophy,[10] and also canon law, researching material from the Fathers and from Gratian.[11] He gave extensive energy to the study of theology, and was well acquainted with the Sentences of Peter Lombard.[12] In a document of 29 June 1186, Pope Urban III refers to Cardinal Albinus as "Magister".[13]

When he had become a 'vir', he was called to Rome, and in the second year of Pope Lucius he was ordained a deacon in 1182, before 23 December, the date of his earliest signature as cardinal-deacon;[14] and in the fourth year of the same pope, March 1185, he was ordained a priest.[15]

He was created cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria Nuova by Pope Lucius III, in a consistory held at Velletri, during the Ember Days of December 1182. He first signs his name (subscribes) to a papal document on 23 December 1182.[16]

Tusculum

Pope Alexander III died in exile at Cività Castellana on 30 August 1181.[17] As his body was being brought back to Rome for burial, it was stoned by the citizens of Rome, and only with difficulty was permission granted for it to be buried at the Lateran.[18] His successor, Lucius III, was elected on 1 September 1181, but had to be consecrated and enthroned at Velletri, due to the hostility of the Romans.[19] He was only allowed back to Rome at the end of October, but in mid-March 1182, having refused to grant the consuetudines conceded by earlier popes, he was forced to retreat to Velletri.[20] In the meantime, refugees from Tusculum, which had been destroyed earlier in the century by the Roman commune, began to rebuild their fortifications. Annoyed by the challenge, the Roman commune reopened the war. Pope Lucius took the part of the Tusculans, but as the Romans had one success after another, he called for aid from the imperial Vicar in Italy, Archbishop Christian of Mainz. Christian managed to drive the Romans back, but soon died of a fever at Tusculum. The Romans renewed their offensive, devastated the territory of Tusculum in April 1184, and then turned their wrath against Latium. The pope then fled to the Emperor Frederick, who was at Verona, from Veroli to Sora, then to Ancona, Rimini, Faenza, and Modena.[21]

The Romans, in a triumphal demonstration of their anticlericalism and their attitude to the papacy, took twenty-six clerics whom their soldiers had captured in Latium and blinded all but one. Each had a paper mitre fixed on his head and was mounted on an ass. Around the neck of each was fastened a placard, reading (for example), "This is the cardinal of S. Giorgio ad velum aureum." The one who had not been blinded was designated "The Pope", and he was sent to lead the 'cardinals' to Pope Lucius. Some of the real cardinals followed Pope Lucius to Verona, among them Cardinal Albinus of Santa Maria Nova; others, however, whose followers had perpetrated the outrages, remained in the city.[22]

Verona

Albinus was one of the cardinals who travelled north with Pope Lucius III to meet with the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.[23] He was one of ten cardinals who participated, along with the pope, in the consecration of the cathedral of Modena on 14 July 1184.[24] On 27 February 1185, at Verona, he subscribed a bull as cardinal-deacon in favor of the church of S. Maria in Ratisbon.[25] He was with the pope at Verona when he was promoted cardinal-priest with the title of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in 1185, between 15 March 1185 and 19 March 1185.[26] On 11 November 1185, two weeks before the pope's death he and his seventeen colleagues subscribed a bull in favor of the monastery of S. Peter Lobiensis.[27] Lucius died on 25 November 1185, and the election of his successor took place immediately after the funeral on the same day. Cardinal Albinus certainly participated in the election of a new pope, which was brief and unanimous.[28] The successful candidate, was Humbertus Crivelli, the Archbishop of Milan and Cardinal of S. Lorenzo in Damaso, " a violent and unyielding spirit, and a strong opponent of Frederick (Barbarossa)," in the words of Ferdinand Gregorovius. He took the name Urban III.[29]

Urban III continued and intensified the anti-imperial policies of Lucius III. Cardinal Albinus, still in Verona, continued to subscribe documents. On 16 December 1185, his name appeared on a bull confirming the privileges and properties of the priory of S. Peter de Consiaco in the diocese of Soissons, and on another for the Cluniac priory of S. Maria Montisdesiderii in Amiens.[30] On 11 January 1186, at Verona, he subscribed a bull in favor of the monastery of Sancta Trinitas in Lucerna, and, on 20 January, another for the monastery of S. Sixtus in Piacenza. On 27 January, he subscribed for S. Maria de Reno.[31] On 30 August 1186, he is one of eighteen cardinals who signed a bull for the monastery of S. Maria de Sitanstein; on 20 September, he subscribed a privilege for the abbess and nuns of S. Maria in Bergamo.[32] On 24 October 1186, Albinus subscribed his latest known bull for Pope Urban III in Verona.[33] In September 1187, Pope Urban was able to make his escape from the imperial blockade of Verona, and flee to Ferrara, where he died on 20 October 1187.[34]

Rome

Pope Clement III was elected in Pisa, on 19 December 1187.[35] He left Pisa in the last week of January, and reached Rome on 11 February 1188. Teresa Montecchi Palazzi makes the argument that Cardinal Albinus was already in Rome, serving as the papal vicar of the city of Rome, a mark of the pope's confidence in him.[36]

He was an important figure of the papal curia. In the summer of 1188, he and Cardinal Petrus of S. Lorenzo in Damaso were appointed by Pope Clement III as papal legates to King William II of Sicily, with the mission of resolving difficulties between the curia and the king. King William renewed his oath of fealty to the papacy through the cardinals.[37]

He was Bishop of Albano from 1189 to 1197.[38][39]

Pope Celestine III (1191–1198) appointed him, along with Cardinal Gregory Galgano of Santa Maria in Porticu, as auditors (judges) in a controversy over the ordination of canons in the Church of Narni.[40] In politics, he was on good terms with Tancred of Lecce[41] On 7 July 1191, Cardinal Albinus was in Messenia, acting as the vicar of Pope Celestine III; at his request, the King Tancred of Sicily reduced the obligation of the city of Gaeta to send him two galleys for his service, to the obligation to send one.[42]

On 26 May 1196, Cardinal Albinus took part in the consecration of the church of San Lorenzo in Lucina.[43]

His latest subscription to a papal document is dated 9 July 1196, and in March 1198, Pope Innocent III mentioned that he was dead.[44]

He was the author of the Gesta pauperis scolaris, a source of the Liber Censuum.

Notes and references
  1. Albini, Albino.
  2. Blumenthal, pp. 18-20. The earliest source for the Milanese origin, as Blumenthal points out, is Giovanni de Filippi (c. 1480–1535), who had been a monk of S. Maria de Crescenzago.
  3. Blumenthal, p. 11. "...ante meam infantiam paulo minus utriusque cura parentis orbatus essem...".
  4. Montecchi Palazzi, p. 660: "Avunculi tamen mei habitu et religione revera monachi me inspiratione divina pietas recollegit et amborum officia genitorum in me dum vixit indesinenter ostendit."
  5. Blumenthal, p. 19.
  6. "de domo patris longius me iam recedente... ... et magni consilii angelo duce vie <estraneus> in gente alia factus essem." Montecchi Palazzi, p. 631, takes this to mean that he left for a ville universitaire, which she conjectures to have been Paris. It might also mean that he left Lombardy for Bologna. Cf. Blumenthal, p. 14.
  7. Blumenthal, pp. 19-20. Montecchi Palazzi, p. 635.
  8. Montecchi Palazzi, p. 662: "veni inquam in gignasium Ariopagi, factus emulus et adiutus Riccardo, Urbevetano longo tempore post episcopo, pauperrimo tune et uterino eodem 25 pâtre germano. Liber igitur rerum, libros in artibus sine omni libro quia secus non poteram, legebam."
  9. Blumenthal, p. 12.
  10. Montecchi Palazzi, pp. 646-647; 666: "Factus tandem imitator Crisippi sed non in omnibus, de auditis multa collegi, de collectis ab aliis plura posui, quedam de diversis libris assumpsi que nec in scolis facile differuntur, sed hec omnia in scedulis et protocollis quia libros in quibus [cum]a opus erat inquirere non habebam...," Blumenthal, p. 16, takes this Chrysippus to be the fifth-century priest of Jerusalem, not Chrysippus of Soli (3rd cent. B.C.).
  11. Montecchi Palazzi, p. 666: "Adiuncxi quosquam necessarios canones quos de diversis Patrum opusculis non omnibus perviis nec in editione Gratiani redactis cum labore collegi."
  12. Montecchi Palazzi, p. 650.
  13. Blumenthal, pp. 20-21, who points out, "The use of the title 'magister' in the last decades of the twelfth century was stili fluid and varied from place to place. It is therefore difficult to interpret the term correctly, especially when the title 'magister' précédés the name of a cleric."
  14. Blumenthal, p. 25.
  15. Blumenthal, p. 24, citing Albinus own words, "Cum autem factus sum vir, meritis peccatorum vocatus sum ad Romanam ecclesiam, et...a tempore Lucii III qui me indignum diaconum ordinavit anno 11° [September 1, 1182/1183] et sacerdotem quarto anno [September 1, 1184/1185] sui pontificatus."
  16. Kartusch, p. 79. Blumenthal, pp. 24-25.
  17. Jaffé, p. 418.
  18. Gregorovius IV. 2, p. 607. The Continuator of Sigebert Aquicinctinus, quoted in Watterich II, p. 649: "Cuius obitu quidam insipientes Romani audito, ei non ut debuerunt, obviam cum ad Urbem deferretur, venerunt et ei maledicentes, luto etiam et lapidibus lecticam in qua portabatur lapidantes, vix eum in patriarchio Lateranensi sepeliri permiserunt.
  19. Jaffé, p. 432. Gregorovius, p. 609.
  20. Gregorovius, p. 609 with note 2 (from Roger of Hoveden, citing Benedict of Peterborough): "grave dissidium ortum est inter Romanos et Papam Lucium super consuetudinibus quibusdam, quas praedecessores Papae Lucii facere solebant, quas Papa Lucius se nunquam facturum iuravit. Unde Romani indignati sunt it frequenter rapinas et iniquas combustiones facerunt in terra domini Papae. Dominus vero Papa, de loco in locum fugiens, castella sua et munitiones et civitates munitas adiit."
  21. Gregorovius, pp. 609-611. Jaffé, pp. 465-466.
  22. Gregorovius, p. 611. The Continuator of Sigibertus Aquicinctina, cited by Watterich II, p. 656, with note 4.
  23. Blumenthal, p. 13.
  24. Oliviero Iozzi, La tomba di Lucio III in Verona, (Roma: Tipografia Labicana 1907), pp. 29-30.
  25. P. Jaffé and S. Loewenfeld, Regesta pontificum Romanorum second edition, Vol. 2, #15371.
  26. Blumenthal, p. 25.
  27. Jaffé and Loewenfeld, #15471.
  28. Ralph of Diceto, in: J. Watterich, Pontificum Romanorum... Vitae, p. 663. Horace Kinder Mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Volume 10 (London: Kegan Paul 1914), pp. 286-289.
  29. F. Gregorovius, The History of Rome in the Middle Ages Vol. IV, part 2 (London: George Bell 1896), pp. 610-612.
  30. Jaffé II, #15486, 15487. J.P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae Latinae Collectio. Tomus CCII (Paris 1855), pp. 1337, 1341.
  31. Migne, pp. 1351, 1354, 1357.
  32. Migne, pp. 1433, 1442.
  33. Jaffé, p. 506, #15684. Zenker, p. 79.
  34. Jaffé, p. 528. Watterich II, pp. 682-683. Gregorovius IV. 2, p. 614.
  35. Jaffé, p. 536.
  36. Montecchi Palazzi, p. 627, with note 14: "La présence d'Albinus à Rome, juste avant l'arrivée du pape, témoigne de la confiance dont il jouissait auprès de celui-ci." How long he had held this office before the pope's arrival cannot be said, on present evidence.
  37. Kartusch, p. 79 with notes 14 and 15.
  38. Miranda, Salvador. "Suburbicarian Dioceses and Cardinal Patriarchs of Oriental Rite: Albano". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Florida International University. OCLC 53276621.
  39. Miranda, Salvador. "ALBINO, Can. Reg. of S. Maria di Crescenziano (?-ca. 1197)". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Florida International University. OCLC 53276621.
  40. Kartusch, p. 80 with note 21. Julius von Pflugk-Harttung (1886). Acta ponticum romanorum inedita (in Latin and German). Vol. Dritter Band (III). Stuttgart: Kohlhammer. pp. 398, no. 473.
  41. I. S. Robinson, in David Luscombe and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The New Cambridge Medieval History IV , p. 382; Bruno W. Häuptli (2005). "Tankred von Lecce". In Bautz, Traugott (ed.). Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in German). Vol. 25. Nordhausen: Bautz. cols. 1373–1382. ISBN 3-88309-332-7.
  42. Paul Fridolin Kehr, Italia Pontificia Vol. VIII (Berlin: Weidmann 1909), p. 57, no. 230.
  43. Blumenthal, p. 26. Vincenzo Forcella, Iscrizioni delle Chiese e d'altri edificii di Roma Vol. V (Roma: Bencini 1874), p. 119, no. 344.
  44. Blumenthal, p. 26.

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