Zusammenfassung / Abstract
The high imperial clergy in the conflict between Emperor Frederick II and Pope Innocent IV. His participation in the First Council of Lyons and in the election of the (counter-)king Henry Raspe” – The participation of the German imperial clergy in the First general Council of Lyons in 1245 was extremely low. This can be seen as a sign that the episcopate was still largely on the side of the emperor, and in any case hardly met the wishes and expectations of the pope in his conflict with Frederick II. After the Hohenstaufen was deposed at the Council, his supporters crumbled. Within a few years, Pope Innocent IV succeeded in winning the bishops over to his side. This essay examines the question of how the Pope managed to bring about a fundamental turnaround in a short time: How did he nevertheless succeed in bringing the imperial episcopate onto a pro-papal course within a few years? How was he able to exploit the territorial interests of many bishops to persuade them to abandon their previous pro-imperial stance? How could he consolidate this political change of course and ultimately ensure that papal authority henceforth determined the political orientation of the imperial episcopate and thus ecclesiastical policy in the German Empire?