A letter from Honorius III, pope (1219, January 29)

Translated letter:

Honorius bishop, servant of the servant of God, to his beloved children the noble man count and the noble woman countess of Flanders, greetings and apostolic blessing. My beloved sons, the provost, the dean and chapter of St. Donatian of Bruge, have informed us in a complaint that you rashly inflict injuries and distresses on them over their tithes, men, and other things against their privileges, indulgences of the church. Since truly it is not fitting that you impose distresses on churches and ecclesiastical things which you ought rather to defend from the harms of others, we ask your nobility, we admonish and exhort intently through apostolic writings charging you to abstain thoroughly from distresses of this kind and other injuries, otherwise since we can not pass over with closed eyes the troubles of churches, we give our venerable brother bishop and beloved sons … the provost of Artois in our letters that they, with those factions brought together, … what they here determined to be proposed and what they decern is just with the appeal removed … what they decreed through ecclesiastical censure to be firmly observed. Dated at the Lateran, 3rd kalends of February, in the third year of our pontificate.

Original letter:

Honorius episcopus servus servorum Dei dilectis filiis nobili viro comiti et nobili mulieri comitisse Flandrensis salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Dilecti filii prepositus, decanus et capitulum sancti Donatiani Brugensis nobis conquerendo monstra[verunt], quod vos super decimis, hominibus et rebus aliis iniurias eis et gravamina irrogatis contra [pri]vilegia ipsorum indulta ecclesie temere veniendo. Quia vero non decet vos gravamen ecclesiis et ecclesiasticis rebus inferre qui eas debetis potius ab aliorum molestiis defensare, nobilitatem vestram rogamus, monemus et exhortamur attente per apostolica vobis scripta mandantes, quatinus ab huiusmodi gravaminibus et injuriis decetero [p]enitus quiescatis, alioquin cum ecclesiarum [molesta] clausis non possimus oculis pertransire, venerabili fratri nostro episcopo et dilectis filiis [...] preposito Attrebatensi nostris damus litteris in mandatis, ut ipsi partibus convocatis [...]t que hinc inde duxerint proponenda et quod iustum fiunt appellatione remota decernant [...]iant quod decreverint per censuram ecclesiasticam firmiter observari. Datum Laterani, III kal. [feb]r., pontificatus nostri anno tertio.

Historical context:

The pope charges the count, who was still imprisoned in France, and the countess to put an end to the abuses of churches and churchmen or have the church take action against them. The text has some lacunae, but this seems to be the gist of the threat.

Printed source:

Johanna van Constantinopel, Gravin van Vlaanderen en Henegouwen ed. Theo Luykx, Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schoone Kunsten van Belgie, Klasse der Letteren, VIII.5 (1946), 539-40, ep.8.

Date:

1219, January 29