Rome
Since its edition by Schramm in 1929, the compilation of The Mirabilia Urbis Romae (that is, a kind of guide and description of the city) has also been apÂpreciated for its political meaning.[434] The majesty of the city of Rome, expressed through its still magnificent if ruined buildings, offered the best demonstraÂtion of the power of the popes - power now intended to be shared between the pope and the German emperor.
In 1155, as Rome welcomed the new emperor Frederick Barbarossa, its ambassadors gave him as a gift the latest version of the Mirabilia, written probably shortly after the renovatio Senatus of 1143.[435] In this version, the guide to the monuments was followed by a description of the Byzantine magistrates, whose majesty was, for the pilgrims, as admirable as that of the great ruins of ancient imperial Rome.The appendix to the Mirabilia is called Libellus de cerimoniis aulae, because it describes the magnificence of the Byzantine ceremonies and dignitaries. It ends with a formula for the investiture of the judge, who receives a copy of the Code of Justinian as a symbol of justice. In Rome, the court adjudicates in the Lateran palace, under a statue of the Roman wolf, revealing of the ways in which the renewal of Roman law could be imbricated within symbols of anÂcient magnificence.[436]
The majesty of the city was sometimes invoked to place holds on the politiÂcal will of the emperor. Consider the German partisan who is known to us as Wezel. Just before 1155 but after the election of Frederick, Wezel wrote a letter to the new emperor. Sent from Rome, the letter exalts the city's glorious story, quotes the beginning of the Institutes of Justinian, and affirms the need of an emperor learned in the laws. Sovereignty pertains to the Romans as it does the emperor himself; the Roman senate indeed has the power to create emperors.[437] [438] Wezel referred primarily to the classic Roman senate, the central institution of the ancient Roman Empire, but he wanted also to refer to the new Senate of Rome, which functioned as a civic assembly in his own age.
This is no coinciÂdence. The revival of the Roman senate ranks among the more impressive midÂtwelfth century episodes of renewal, and indeed has been considered as such by many historians, thanks to whom we have now a rich dossier of documents and studies on this topic.[439]The institutional and monumental presence of Rome within the Italian reÂgion and the wider Empire remained profound, regardless of wider political shifts. Its antiquity as well as its perpetuity stood it apart from other cities, as certain aspects of legal and political thought reveal. Shortly after the death of Innocent ιι, in 1143, the venerable assembly was restored by the citizens of medieval Rome in their struggle for independence from papal power. The alluÂsion to the ancient constitution was explicit; so were the pretensions of univerÂsality that characterized the Roman commune as different from every other flourishing Italian city-state in the same years. Even if Rome was ruled by the same political system adopted by all the central and northern Italian cityÂstates, its confrontation with universal powers, the Roman Papacy, and the EmÂpire, which also claimed Roman roots, made Rome atypical, in some sense difÂferent from every other Italian city. However, Rome's intensive use of Roman models had, for sure, an influence on other cities. To be part of Roman history was a powerful argument in defence of the autonomy of important cities such as Pisa, as explored below, as well as Genoa, Florence and Siena. Ancient monÂuments played a role in this search for the authority of the antique. Newfound reverence for physical monuments paralleled the renewal of its ancient instiÂtutions such as the Senate. When the Roman Senate rebuilt the Capitolium, inside and out, care was taken to restore the ruined walls, signing off the works with the glorious inscription SPQR (SenatusPopulusqueRomanus). Coins were reminted to carry the reminder that Roma caput mundi around the same time.
And, for the first time in history, an ancient monument was protected against damage by the Senate's new statute declaring Trajan's column a symbol of the honour of the city, the inappropriate use of which was expressly forbidden.[440] [441] [442] Heritage had become political. This phenomenon was not confined to Rome, however. At the same time, northern Italian cities exalted the symbolic value of their ancient monuments, often considered as evidence of old and perpetuÂal liberty. Ruins of Roman public theatres, existing in many Italian cities, were seen as ancient public parliaments, the arenghi, testaments to the original auÂtonomy of the city.11The exaltation of Rome was sometime anti-pontifical in nature, as for examÂple when the famously heretical preacher, Arnold of Brescia (1090-1155), develÂoped stinging criticisms of papal power before inciting the Roman people to revolt in the name of its ancient dignity?2 Just as easily, however, Rome could be invoked by supporters of the church, indeed often by high officers within the church. The idea of renewing the Senate was probably a consequence of the veneration of antiquity already proposed during the reign of Innocent ιι, between 1130 and 1143. His chancellor was Aymericus, one of the most learned men of his age, and a friend of the Bolognese jurist Bulgarus, the most influenÂtial of the famous four pupils of Irnerius, the so-called Four Doctors.[443] [444] Casting into the past in order to retrieve a reverence for authority, it seemed obvious to turn to the laws of Justinian and the legal institutions of their creation. As a high officer of the church, it was Aymericus who asked Bulgarus to take a surÂvey of the procedure adopted by the Roman law and regulated in the Corpus Iuris of Justinian. This task was then realized by Bulgarus, who compiled one of the first treatises on legal procedure, in fact a list of the different remedies (acÂtiones), to which some attention should now be paid?4 In the substantial bulk of texts on Roman procedure of the twelfth century, the work of Bulgarus has been considered peculiar. By asking Bulgarus to write a short portrait of Roman procedure, Aymericus was in search of a stronger regulation of ecclesiastical procedure, but he also wanted to secure a good relationship between the Holy See and the rise of a new legal culture, which was to be seen in the flourishing of schools of law in many different cities of northern Italy and southern France?6 Pope Innocent II faced a difficult state of affairs in his church, chiefly because of a powerful anÂtipope, Anacletus ii. The authority of ancient Roman law could help the Pope and his chancellor in their struggle. The Pope and his chancellor had only been able to reside in Rome with the protection of imperial troops for only a few months before they were forced to flee by followers of Anacletus. Innocent relocated to Pisa, which was flattered to receive the Pope and his court. A provisional seat was established in the maritime city, and before too long a council, that of 1135, was celebrated in the city. Among its canons was an early version of the well-known canon 9 of the Second Lateran Council of 1139, which forbade clerics from studying Roman law and medicine?7 Considered by some as a manifestation of papal opposition to Roman law, the canon reÂvealed in fact a high regard for the Code of Justinian, with whole passages plainly repeated?8 Roman law, it was declared, was the subject for secular persons to study, whereas the Holy Scripture and theology was the subject for clerics. 2