Godfrey / Goffredo Hohenstaufen (31 dez 1182 ano – 8 out 1194 ano)

Descrição:

Exponent of a family of the Swabian high nobility, linked to the Hohenstaufen, G. appears for the first time as abbot of Sesto in February 1176. There is not much news about the years of his abbey, if we exclude the probable commissioning of the Byzantine frescoes of the high chapel dedicated to the archangel Michael, of which some fragments remain to this day. Collaborator of the patriarch Ulrich II of Treffen, participates in the drafting of the statutes of the cathedral chapter, issued in 1181, in order to favor the common life of the canons. The following year, on the death of the prelate from Aquileia, he is called to succeed him, thus sealing the end of a period of strong contrasts between the Church of Aquileia and the monks of Sesto. The violent reaction of the provost Gabriele di Caporiacco, eager to recover the prerogatives that had been taken away from him by the reform of the chapter, immediately put the new patriarch to the test. G., while believing in the validity of the community experience, yields to the pressure of the provost and his powerful family coterie, recognizing their natural life during the ancient rights and rewarding the canons with the incorporation of the parish of Rive d'Arcano. The position taken by the prelate seems to be justified by the desire not to create an internal opposition front, at a time when the western borders of the ecclesiastical principality were beginning to be threatened by new emerging forces within the Treviso area. The monks of Sesto themselves, during the years of G.'s government, had seen part of their property usurped by Ezzelino II da Onara. In 1182, Pope Lucius III, probably on the recommendation of the patriarch himself, intervened in the matter by taking the abbey of S. Maria under his own protection.

In March 1184 the patriarch, reaffirming his attention to Benedictine monasticism, confirmed a sentence of his archdeacon, which recognized the rights of the monastery of S. Maria di Aquileia on the tithes of Isola d'Istria. From October of the same year G. is in the retinue of the emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, first aVerona, where perhaps he participates in the drafting of the decree "Ad abolendam", which provided for a joint action of the Papacy and the Empire against the heretics, and then aVicenzait's atTreviso. The act by which the patriarch grants half of the pack of Gemona as a fief to Henry Count of Tyrol, in order to favor the market in that locality, dates back to this period.

In November 1185 G. is again in Verona, where he consecrates the church of S. Maria Antica. From there he moves to Milan to reach the emperor: theJanuary 27, 1186, in the basilica of S. Ambrogio, the patriarch crowns Barbarossa's son, Henry, king of Italy, although the new pope Urban III was firmly opposed to it: G. is therefore temporarily suspended from divine offices. However, the clash between the prelate and the pope is short-lived. Already in March 1186 Urban III intervened firmly to put a stop to the forced alienation of the assets of the episcopal chairs subject to the metropolis of Aquileia. At the same time the pontiff grants G. the faculty to excommunicate anyone who imposes unjust exactions on the subjects of the ecclesiastical principality.

In March of the following year, the pope confirmed Sesto's dependence on the patriarchate, against the claims of the bishop of Concordia Jonathan. The patriarch's attention to the western borders of his domains emerges again in 1188,In 1189 the Treviso troops damaged the patriarchal possessions in S. Polo and Medate and appropriated most of the assets of the churches of Ceneda and Belluno and Feltre. The patriarch, after having consolidated his positions around Sacile, responds, attacking Mestre and Spinea and moving his troops towards Ceneda. The clashes continue on and off for some years. In the meantime G. is called to resolve a question that arose with his chapter for ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the churches incorporated into the institution: the sentence that follows, while confirming the rights of the chair of Aquileia, turns out to be contradictory: in fact, the patriarch he is forced to pay the income deriving from the exercise of jurisdiction to the provost Gabriele. Subsequently the prelate joins Henry VI, on his way toRometo assume the imperial crown. On April 15, 1191 he is in Rome, where he attends the coronation. June 5 is inNaples. He returns to Aquileia in November of the same year. December 15 is in Portogruaro, where he confirms the provisions of the bishop of Concordia Romolo, relating to the common life of his canons. The support given to the new emperor is not appreciated by Pope Celestine III, who in some circumstances clashes with the prelate from Aquileia, as when in 1192 he forced him to confirm the elected bishop of Trieste Wosalco, although he was not welcome.

The emperor then intervenes to help the patriarch, renewing the granting of the fiefdom of the duchy of Friuli to G. and reconfirming the agreements between his predecessors and the counts of Gorizia regarding the rights of lawyer. Strengthened by imperial support, the patriarch manages to impose a short-term truce on the Treviso people. The last year of G.'s life is marked by a long period of illness and government vacation, during which various ministerials misappropriate the assets of the Aquileian chair.

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