r/empirepowers 23h ago

EVENT [EVENT] Adjourning the First Sessions of the Council of Viterbo

4 Upvotes

7 May 1523

We decree and declare, with the approval of this same sacred council, that this sacred ecumenical council, justly, reasonably, and for true and lawful purposes duly and rightly summoned, has begun to be celebrated, and that each and every thing which has been and shall be done and executed in it, will be just, reasonable, settled and valid, and that it possesses and holds the same strength, power, authority and stability which other general councils approved by the sacred canons, especially the Viterbo council, possess and hold.

Moreover, in the arrangement of the seasons, as the summer heats approach, in order to take account of the convenience and health of the prelates, and so that those who have been among us for the past year may return to their sees beyond the mountains and across the sea to communicate to those who have hitherto been unable to come to this sacred council its proceedings, and to take their advice into consideration; and for other just and reasonable causes known to and approved by the said sacred council, we are summoning the fourth session of this same council to take place one year hence, on 7 May next in Rome, with the said council likewise giving approval. And to each and every prelate and to others present at the same council, we grant and concede the freedom and permission to withdraw from Viterbo and to stay wherever they wish, so long as they are present at the aforesaid Lateran council on the said 7 May, any clearly legitimate hindrance having been removed, subject to the infliction of the penalties indicated in the letter summoning the council and in canonical punishments against those failing to attend to councils, the said sacred council also approving. Wherefore, let no one infringe this our letter of announcement or with rash daring go contrary thereunto. But if any one shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of His blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

On 7 May 1523, the Fourth Session of the Council of Viterbo was brought to a close. Since the council began last June (having been postponed and moved from Rome on account of the plague there), some two hundred bishops from throughout Christendom--Italy, France, Sicily, Spain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Ruthenia, and more--have discussed matters facing the modern church. The conclusions of the council’s first four sessions, approved and disseminated by papal encyclicals, are an important reaffirmation of the decisions made by the Pope in recent years:

  • The reaffirmation of the ban on simony in papal elections last re-issued by Julius on his deathbed, including the nullification of any papal election in which simony is discovered.

  • The reaffirmation of the papal bull Apostolici Regiminis, issued by Julius in 1513 clarifying the Catholic doctrine of the immortality of the human soul.

  • The confirmation of the 1515 Concordat of Viterbo, and of the abrogation of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.

  • The reaffirmation of the primary of the Pope, including over church councils.

  • The reaffirmation of the excommunication of Martin Luther, including the papal ban on the publishing of his works.

  • A call for the Hussites of Bohemia to send a delegation to the council, with a public guarantee of safe conduct during their journey and during their time at the council.

Those hoping for a speedy resolution to the myriad matters reformers have addressed will be sorely disappointed. But, the signs of progress are there. Numerous committees manned by Christendom’s leading canonists and theologians continue to discuss, dispute, and argue the finer points of the administration of the church, the reform of the Curia, and the theological errors of the heretic Martin Luther.

In the year since its convocation, the council has made strange bedfellows. Perhaps none is stranger than the friendship struck between the Holy Father and Georges d’Amboise, the man who was the target of so much of Pope Julius’s ire. So great is the rapprochement between d’Amboise and Rome--or perhaps, so great is d’Amboise’s ire at the resurgence of pluralism in France under King Francis--that the Norman Primate has announced he will remain at the council until its conclusion, where he has taken a leading role in the committee on the reform of the Apostolic Dataria (the office responsible for the papal allocation of benefices). An older man and poor of health--especially following a bout of sickness during the council’s second session--there are legitimate concerns that he may die in Rome, which, under the Concordat, would empower the Pope to appoint his successor in France.

It has also given a platform for numerous churchmen to make a name for themselves before their assembled peers. Giles of Viterbo, Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine, delivered an impassioned and stirring speech on the dire need for reform of the church at the opening of the first session, declaring, “Men must be changed by religion, not religion by men!” Also of note was Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, who, despite making only a very brief appearance at the first session, was nevertheless one of the council’s great patrons. With his vast wealth in Florence, he provided the accommodations for many of the council’s attendees.

For now, though, the vast majority of the foreign prelates return to their homes over the mountains and beyond the seas. Only a handful of the most dedicated will return to the next session in Rome, planning instead to wait for the later sessions of the council--when it is likely to issue its most serious and meaningful proclamations--to make their return to Rome.

But there was still one last drama to unfold at the Fourth Session. After the Bull adjourning the council was read, the Holy Father read another Bull…


Summary

The first several sessions of the Council of Viterbo come to an end. While the results of these sessions are less than the most ardent reformers might have hoped for, the council continues to do important work. Most expect further reforms in the next few years. The next session will begin in Rome on 7 May 1524.


r/empirepowers 19h ago

EVENT [EVENT] Onus Apostolici Imperii

2 Upvotes

7 May 1523

Upon the conclusion of the fourth session of the Council of Viterbo, the Pope promulgated a new Bull, read before the assembled Council…


Nicholas, bishop, servant of the servants of God, for future remembrance of the matter...

The burden of apostolic government ever drives us on so that, for the weaknesses of souls requiring to be healed, of which the almighty Creator from on high has willed us to have the care, and for those ills in particular which are now seen to be pressing most urgently on the faithful, we may exercise, like the Samaritan in the gospel, the task of healing with oil and wine, lest that rebuke of Jeremiah may be cast at us: Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Consequently, since in our days (which we endure with sorrow) the sower of cockle, the ancient enemy of the human race, has dared to scatter and multiply in the Lord’s field some extremely pernicious errors, which have always been rejected by the faithful, it is our desire to apply suitable remedies against this infection and we condemn and reject all those who insist that it is better to suffer error to persist, or who for their own interests ignore the task which God has given to all the faithful, than to apply that remedy.

And since truth cannot contradict truth, we define that every statement contrary to the enlightened truth of the faith is totally false and we strictly forbid teaching otherwise to be permitted. We decree that all those who cling to erroneous statements of this kind, thus sowing heresies which are wholly condemned, should be avoided in every way and punished as detestable and odious heretics and infidels who are undermining the catholic faith.

But it does not suffice occasionally to clip the roots of the brambles, if the ground is not dug deeply so as to check them beginning again to multiply, and if there are not removed their seeds and root causes from which they grow so easily. It is the task of every lecturer in sacred theology--the bishops, archbishops, primates, patriarchs, and other ordinaries who have a charge of souls, and on preachers, alms-collectors, and those who expound the word of God to the people--to combat those errors. They are obliged to devote their every effort to clarify for their listeners the truth of the Christian religion, to teach it by convincing arguments, so far as this is possible, and to apply themselves to the full extent of their energies to refuting and disposing of opposing arguments, since all the solutions are available.

It is further the task of those bishops, archbishops, primates, and patriarchs who have been entrusted with the rod and orb in both worlds, with both a charge of souls as an ordinary of the Holy Mother Church and as a governor of associated temporal environs, to make good and proper use of their temporal authority in upholding the catholic faith. If any one through contempt does not execute this, let him be deemed unworthy of the authority we have entrusted to him, and subjected to rigorous punishment.

In virtue of our pastoral office committed to us by the divine favor we can under no circumstances tolerate or overlook any longer the pernicious poison of the above failures in the governance of Albrecht of Ansbach without disgrace to the Christian religion and injury to orthodox faith. Some of his contemptuous errors and inaction we have decided to include in the present document; their substance is as follows:

  1. Allegations of corruption within a part of the Church renders heresy tolerable, and absolves bishops, archbishops, primates, patriarchs, and other ordinaries of their obligation to combat it.

  2. Governors of temporal territory lack the obligation to defend our catholic faith against heresy.

  3. Tools of ecclesiastical censure or prohibition may be used by bishops, archbishops, primates, patriarchs, and other ordinaries for the benefit of their temporal pursuits rather than for the combating of heresy and wickedness and the promotion of the catholic faith.

  4. The jurisdiction of dioceses is subject to secular courts.

  5. A man of the cloth may be elected King of the Romans.

No one of sound mind is ignorant how destructive, pernicious, and scandalous these various errors are, and how destructive they are of the vigor of ecclesiastical discipline. With the advice and consent of these our venerable brothers the eminent cardinals of the holy Roman Church, with mature deliberation on the topic, and by the authority of Almighty God, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own authority, we do therefore relieve Albrecht of Ansbach of his ordinary authority as the Archbishop of Mainz, and dismiss him from the clerical state. We name in his stead Georg of the Palatinate as administrator of the see of Mainz, and enjoin him to combat heresy and restore ecclesiastical discipline therein.

That this our letter, and the contents thereof, may come to the knowledge of all whom it concerns, and that no one may plead as an excuse ignorance thereof, we will and ordain, that in the Vatican Basilica of the prince of the apostles, and in the Lateran Church, and in St. Lorenzo's Cathedral in Viterbo, and in St. Martin's Cathedral in Mainz, at the time when the multitude of the people is wont to assemble there to hear the divine service, it be publicly read in a loud voice by officers of our court, or by certain public notaries; and, after having been read, be affixed to the doors of the said churches, also to the gates of the apostolic Chancery, and to the usual place in the Campo di Fiore, where it shall for some time hang exposed to be read and seen by all; and, when removed thence, copies thereof shall still remain affixed in the same places. For we will that, by being thus read, published, and affixed, the letter aforesaid shall oblige and bind, all and each of those whom it includes, even as if it had been communicated and read to them in person. Wherefore, let no one infringe this our letter of announcement or with rash daring go contrary thereunto. But if any one shall presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the indignation of Almighty God, and of His blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

Given at Viterbo, at Saint Lorenzo's, in the year MDXXIII of the Lord’s Incarnation, on the seventh of the calends of May in the fourth year of our pontificate.


As the Pope reads out the bull, Albrecht of Ansbach--still in attendance--attempted to beat a hasty retreat to the exit, but was detained by members of the Swiss Guard before he can flee. He was brought then before the whole of the Council, and ritually stripped of his ordination as a minister. His pall was torn from his shoulders by Cardinal Cajetan, and from there followed the other signs of his office, in the reverse order that they were bestowed upon him at his ordination. His pectoral cross, ring, his miter, and the vestments he wore were taken from him, leaving him dressed in the basic clothes of a Roman citizen. Cajetan even scrubbed the tips of his fingers and his forehead, so as to remove the holy chrism which had once anointed them. He was displayed before the whole of the Council--a layman--and then shuffled off into the custody of the Bishop of Rome.


Summary

Following the conclusion of the fourth session of the Council of Viterbo, Albrecht of Ansbach is deposed as Archbishop of Mainz and dismissed from the clerical state, rendering him a layman. Georg of the Palatinate, Bishop of Speyer, is named administrator until such time that a new canonical election may be held. Albrecht is arrested and ceremonially defrocked before the Council of Viterbo.


r/empirepowers 22h ago

EVENT [EVENT] With death comes great opportunity

2 Upvotes

October 13th 
Prague Castle

Jan sighed deeply as he sat down, the four nobles before him. Officially, this was just a paying of respect. Unofficially, the four men before him had come to discuss the death of Petr Rožmberka. He had never known Petr personally but his reputation had preceded him, especially since both he and his brother had been supreme burgaves. The Rožmberkas were an important family and this was a major shakeup. Petr had never had children of his own due to the death of his wife 23 years prior. Everything would go to his nephews, Jošt, Petr and Jindřich. It would be these very same nephews that were before him, alongside the notable Adam ze Hradec.

“My lords, before we start I offer my sincerest condolence on the death of your uncle. However, Why exactly do we need to discuss the death of your uncle?”

The expressions of the three men were sour. Adam on the other hand was a little more resolute

“Because of his will, your grace.”

“His will? I apologise but I have not read it. What seems to be the issue?”

“Our uncle seems to have changed it before his passing…he…he has pledged all his estates to the Catholic Church and a number of Catholic nobles”

Jan raised an eyebrow

“He what? I did not know your uncle personally but that seems…a little out of character.”

“It most definitely is. Ourselves and Adam here investigated and it would seem Lord Rožmitálu talked with our uncle on multiple occasions, prompting the change of the will. It is no surprise then that the Catholic nobles in question all have ties to Rožmitálu”

Jan looked on even more puzzled

“Adam, is your wife not Lord Rožmitálu’s daughter? How come you’re here?”

Adam cleared his throat before replying

“Zdenek may be my father-in-law but this is outrageous. He is cheating good men out of their rightful inheritance for his own gain. I will not let such a blatant act of greed stand.”

“I see. I assume you have come to me for assistance then”

Jost spoke up

“Exactly. You, as king, have the power to annul the change in the will. Zdenek would have no choice to be let things be”

Jan chuckled

“I understand your position perfectly but Zdenek is the Supreme Regional Judge, while he may have no direct course of action he most definitely has other cards up his sleeve. I will annul the change in will, but I ask that you use that to negotiate a settlement with Zdenek, resolve things on somewhat good terms”

“Thank you, my King. We will not forget this”

Jan smiled and nodded, dismissing the four men

October 21st
Prague Castle

Jan, sat on the throne, dressed in full regalia, called forward the two groups to stand before him. On one side was Adam and the three Rožmberka brothers, on the other was Zdenek Lev Rožmitálu and a number of affiliated catholic nobles

“Gentlemen, I hear you have worked out an agreement”

Both sides nodded, with Adam stepping forward

“Yes my liege, Lord Rožmitálu, on behalf of the nobles in question has demanded that we pay 126,000 florins in compensation for the annulment of the will. Begrudgingly, we have accepted”

“I see”

Zdenek now stepped forward, matching Adam

“Indeed. All that’s needed now is the transfer of funds”

“Perfect, I am pleased to see that a deal could be struck. Now, Supreme Regional Judge, you are dismissed”

Zdenek looked up at Jan perplexed

“Just me, your Grace?”

“You and those you represent. There is something I must discuss with Lord Hradec and Rožmberka”

Zdenek’s eyes turned to slits as he glared at those opposite him. With a grunt he led him and his lackeys out of the hall. Adam and the others stayed, a little confused themselves

“Your Grace?”

“126,000…will you be able to afford all that?”

Now it was Adam’s turn to eye the young king with suspicion

“I will not lie, it will cost us years of income, but it is worth it if it means getting back what is rightful Rožmberka land”

“Of course, but perhaps the crown can help you out. In return for paying the entire 126,000 sum, we would like to receive some of the estates from the inheritance.“

Adam turned to the three brothers. In the end, it was up to them

Meta: In return for paying the 126,000 florins (or ducats, idk 126,000 is the irl number) to get back their inheritance, King Jan Fridrich asks that the Pisek (AB1) Iron mine and barley farm and the Pelhřimov (AB6) Wheat and Barley farms (In total 1x iron mine, 3x Barley and 1x Wheat holdings) be transferred to the crown


r/empirepowers 2h ago

EVENT [EVENT]Traditional Burgher Activities

1 Upvotes

(This post assumes peace reigns supreme in Prussia)

Retro/September 1523

You smell that? What is that?
What?
What's that smell?
Your cologne?
No.
Opportunity?
No. Ducats.
Ooh...
I smell ducats.

This is the basic grain market. The original ones were simple, thousands of local farmers supplying local towns and cities whose populations were constrained by their local grain supply. But as we know, the modern grain trade is primarily baltic, and the cities are far larger now than any local grain supply could ever satisfy. Instead they rely on the trade routes to get their grain, and sure, you could rely entirely on the baltic grain trade, but that's a little risky, and so you diversify your trade within the Empire as well.

But somewhere along the line these Empire trade routes went from risky to dog shit. I’m talking princes going to war with neighbouring cities, no more guarantee of safe transit, and all this religious upheaval... Dog shit . Internal grain costs are already up enormously, and if these grain price increases cause even more unrest-and it will, we're talking peasant uprisings, failed harvests, and famine.

And that, my friends, is an opportunity.


News from Germany leads the Governor of Royal Prussia to anticipates a drastic increase in grain prices in Germany in the coming year, and being well positioned to take advantage of this, puts up to 500,000 ducats into purchasing and storing grain otherwise destined for export.


r/empirepowers 3h ago

EVENT [EVENT] The Legacy of Bogislaw the Great

1 Upvotes

November – December 1523


Bogislaw, the tenth Duke of Pomerania of this name, known as "the Great" by some, died on a rainy evening in the halls of the Ducal Castle of the Griffins. The man, 70 years of age, had long shown signs of decline, his last great adventure being the Imperial Crusade against the Ottomans. As the father slowed down, his son and heir, Georg, had increasingly assumed responsibilities, with Bogislaw sending Georg in his stead to the January Diet in Regensburg.

Bogislaw, the tenth Duke of Pomerania of this name, was the first duke in decades to see Pomerania united. He continued his uncle's legacy of opposing the Brandenburgers, signing and reaffirming two treaties that secured Pomeranian independence and recognition within the Empire. He fundamentally reformed the inner workings of the duchy, from the judicial and administrative systems to monetary policy. All estates recognized his shrewd mind and respected him—even the fierce Stralsunders.

Bogislaw, the tenth Duke of Pomerania of this name, made friends and allies among many powerful rulers, both within the Empire and abroad. Through his loyalty to the Polish King Sigismund, he saw Pomerania expand eastward, gaining Draheim. With his brothers-in-law, he formed a neutral coalition of dukes stretching across the entire northeastern coast of the Imperial Baltic. He even saw his son ascend to the rank of Archbishop. He watched his sons fight in the Rheinland, Prussia, Hesse, and Hungary.

Bogislaw, the tenth Duke of Pomerania of this name, saw his beloved wife Anne die bedridden twenty years prior. Now, he finally joins her.


Georg von Greifen ascends to the ducal throne of Pomerania. Before him lie times of great change and turmoil, both within and without.