Heinrich von Biburg (sep 8, 1077 – mar 28, 1084)

Description:

Enrico came from the Bavarian family of Biburg, originally from Abensberg in Bavaria . He was a canon of Augusta, a member of the royal court orchestra and, as such, a confidant of King Henry IV .

He was appointed patriarch on 8 September 1077 by Henry IV. The king ignored the decision of the clergy and the people of Aquileia, who on 12 August 1077, after the death of the patriarch Sigeardo of Beilstein , had elected their patriarch, whose name is not recorded by the sources.

After the synod of 1079 , Pope Gregory VII had sent two emissaries to Henry IV: the cardinal bishop of Albano and the bishop Pietro Udalrich of Padua. Henry, defined by the contemporary chronicler Berthold as intimis unus ex Segno Heinrici , after learning of the messengers from Rome, had immediately informed the emperor and the embassy was held in Aquileia to give the emperor time to organize. The embassy was received in Regensburg only on May 12, 1079, the day of Pentecost .

The negotiations did not make any satisfactory progress and a new meeting was scheduled in Fritzlar. However, already in June 1079, the pope said he was satisfied with how the Patriarch had done his work and granted him the privilege required of the use of the pallium for the days of Sant'Ulderico (July 4) and Sant'Afra (August 7). ), patrons of Augusta , but explicitly extended in your life, non loco tuo (i.e. limited to the life of Henry).

Henry remained in Germany and is first found at the court of the King of Bavaria (in Hirschaid and Regensburg, 19 and 24 October); in January of the following year he participated in the battle of Flarchheim (January 27), supporting Henry against the usurper Rudolf of Rheinfelden . The battle gave neither side a decisive victory, and Henry, threatening the imposition of an anti -pope , offered obedience to the pope on the condition of obtaining an excommunication for Rodolfo. The pope accepted the conditions.

The emperor then convened the Synod of Bressanone , which was attended mainly by the Italian bishops, including Henry with many of his suffragan bishops. The synod decreed the deposed Pope Gregory and on 25 June 1080 appointed Archbishop Guiberto of Ravenna his successor, with the adopted name of Clement III . During this period the patriarch Henry was often, if not continually, at the king's court; he probably accompanied him to Rome and from there to Siena and Lucca (July 1081 ).

For having sworn allegiance to the pope during the investiture struggle , the emperor revoked the margraviati of Istria and Carniola from him . But, after he returned to the service of the Ghibellines ( 1080 ) the emperor, in recognition of his services, granted Henry the diocese of Trieste and that of Parenzo with all the relative spiritual and temporal powers. The emperor then entrusted him with the right to invest and ordain new bishops on the throne. These concessions were repeated and justified on 23 July 1082 in Pavia. Henry then went to Parma in December 1081, where the emperor was also staying. He was still at his side during the march on Rome in February 1082, and remained at Henry's court in Rome throughout 1083.

The last documentary attestations of the patriarch are dated June 15, 1083 , when he is registered as an intercessor for the abbey of Farfa . The patriarch died on March 28, 1084 , a few days before the coronation of Henry IV at the hands of the antipope Clement III, which took place on Easter Sunday (March 31). His successor in the patriarchal chair was Frederick II of Bohemia.

Henry, in the awkward position of a high prelate loyal to an emperor at war against the pope, was often accused of opportunistically soon having the parts now of the pope, now of the emperor: his loyalty to the pope vanished during the Lenten synod of 1079, a new party change took place in the summer of 1079. The fact that shortly before, the emperor, with the opposition of the clergy and the people of Aquileia, and also against the resistance of the pope himself, had made the patriarch withdraw from the Istrian region, which he had granted a few years earlier to his predecessor Sigeardo, as an eternal possession, makes us understand that the king had also interpreted the simple oath of the patriarchs as a betrayal.

While remaining the critical emperor towards the patriarch, the contemporary annalist Berthold describes the religious as intimus of the king even after the Lenten synod of 1079: this suggests the idea that his oath of fidelity to Gregory was justified above all by the desire to obtain recognition of the appointment by the pope himself.

Outward signs of the patriarch's sincere support for the empire can be listed his frequent presence at court, his participation in the Synod of Bressanone, the awarding of the dioceses of Trieste and Parenzo and his participation in the march on Rome.

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