Cuno of Praeneste (died 9 August 1122) was a German Cardinal and papal legate, an influential diplomatic figure of the early 12th century, active in France and Germany. He held numerous synods throughout Europe, and excommunicated the Emperor Henry V numerous times, in the struggle over the issue of lay investiture of ecclesiastical offices. He spent six years promoting the acceptance of Thurstan of York as archbishop by King Henry I of England, without making York subject to Canterbury. He was seriously considered for election to the papacy in 1119, which he refused.
Early life According to Salvador Miranda, he was created cardinal-priest in 1073. This is not in accord with other facts of Cuno's career.This is according to S. Miranda; consistories of the 11th century, which lists him as Cunon. H.W. Klewitz, Reformpapsttum und Kardinalkolleg, Darmstadt 1957, p. 72 and 120, indicates that cardinal-priest Conon of S. Anastasia under Pope Gregory VII and Cardinal Kuno von Urach, bishop of Palestrina from ca. 1108, were two different persons. According to Klewitz, p. 72, Conon of S. Anastasia died soon after May 1082. See Hüls, p. 145, for the earlier Cuno's career.
He was a Canon Regular, and, around 1090, along with Heldemar of Tournai and a layman named Roger, was one of the founders of the abbey of Arrouaise.Robinson, p. 216; Klewitz, p. 120. In a letter of 21 October 1097, Bishop Lambert of Arras granted the priest Cuno and his associate Heldemar the privilege of having to answer only to the bishop.Schoene, p. 83: "Ego Lambertus... gaudens de religiosa conversatione tua, reverendissime frater et compresbiter Cuno...." The little oratory belonging to the members was replaced by a stone church, which was consecrated by Bishop Godfrid of Amiens and Bishop Joannes of Therouanne on 23 September 1106.Schoene, p. 9.
Cuno apparently met Pope Paschal II for the first time at the Council of Troyes in May 1107.Schoene, pp. 110-111.
Cardinal He was bishop of Palestrina, and thus a cardinal, c. 1108.Klewitz, p. 120.
According to the Chronicon of Peter the Deacon of Montecassino, in 1111, at a Council in Jerusalem,Hüls, p. 113. Cuno was appointed legate by Pope Paschal II in October 1110, and he returned to Rome by way of the Balkans; he subscribed a decree at the Lateran Council on 23 March 1112. Schoene, pp. 12-14. Cuno pronounced the Emperor Henry V excommunicated and stripped of his power.Schoene, pp. 13-15. From the previous year, Cuno had been trying to influence papal policy with regard to the emperor, and this hostile move was without the Pope's agreement.I. S. Robinson (1990), The Papacy 1073-1198, p. 157. In the sixth session of the Lateran synod, on 23 March 1112, Cardinal Cuno actually demanded that the pope stand by his legate, and ratify the legate's acts. In embarrassment, the Pope Paschal did so.Ekkhard, "Chronicon", in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum Tomus VI (Hannover: Hahn 1844), p. 251: "Et Dominus Prenestinus consequenter subjunxit, qualiter pro sedis illius legatione Hierosolimis audierit, regem Heinricum post sacramenta, obsides et oscula in ipsa beati Petri aecclesia domnum papam tenuisse captum, indigne tractatum, potiora aecclesiae membra, cardinales videlicet, exutos, tractos et male tractatos, nobiles quoque Romanos occisos et captivos, et populi stragem factam, audiens ingemuerit; et pro huiusmodi facinoribus, aecclesiae Hierosolimitanae consilio, zelo Dei animatus, excommunicationis sententiam in regem dictavit; et eandem in Grecia, Ungaria, Saxonia, Lotharingia, Francia, in quinque conciliis...."
Cuno was at his old monastery of Aroasia (Arrouaise) on 7 May 1112, when he officially presented the institution a collection of relics which he had brought from Rome, including Saints Sebastian, Hippolytus, the Four Crowned Martyrs, Felicissimus, Caecilia, the tomb of Jesus, and the manger of Bethlehem.Schoene, p. 18.
Cardinal Cuno had returned to Italy by the end of the year 1112. He traveled south with Pope Paschal II, and was with the pope at Benevento for his synod in the second week of February 1113. He subscribed bulls for the pope at Benevento on 13 and 15 February.Schoene, p. 19. Jaffé, p. 749.
Legate in France and Germany In 1114 and 1115 he was back in France as papal legate. Pope Paschal had sworn to the emperor that he would not excommunicate him; but a papal legate had such powers and had not sworn an oath not to use them.Schoene, pp. 19-21. Cuno summoned a synod on 6 December 1114 at Beauvais; another at Soissons on 6 January 1115, where he also held talks with King Louis VI of France;Schoene, pp. 28-29. and another at Reims on 28 March 1115.Hüls, p. 113. Schoene, pp. 29-31. At each of these meetings, he again excommunicated Henry V. On 19 April 1115, the Legate held a council at Cologne, where he once again excommunicated the emperor.Hefele, p. 134. Schoene, pp. 31-32. From 6—12 July 1115, Cuno presided over a synod held at Chalons-sur-Marne.Hüls, p. 113. Schoene, p. 33. He also suspended all the bishops and abbots of Normandy, for ignoring his invitation to attend the council at Chalons. In fact, they had been forbidden to do so by King Henry I of England. Ivo of Chartres attempted to calm the legate by pointing out that the Norman prelates were subject to a foreign prince.J. D. Mansi (ed.), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima, Tomus XXI (Venice: A. Zatta 1776), p. 138. The king appealed to Rome, in defense of the tradition that no papal legate except the archbishop of Canterbury might hold power in the king's realms.C. Warren Hollister, Henry I (2001) p. 240. Schoene, p. 23.
The Thurstan Affair Cardinal Cuno first became acquainted with the Thurstan case in 1114, shortly after his election to the see of York. Thurston was a royal chaplain and a subdeacon, but was ordained a deacon by Bishop William of Winchester.William Henry Dixon (1863), Fasti eboracenses. Lives of the archbishops of York Vol. I (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts), pp. 170-210, at pp. 172-174. He was unwilling to be ordained a priest by the new archbishop of Canterbury, Ralph d'Escures, or by one of his suffragans, since the taking of oaths of obedience was involved, and Thurston did not want to create a situation in which Canterbury could claim jurisdiction or authority over him or York. He therefore went to Normandy just before Christmas, and laid his problem before King Henry I, announcing his intention to go to Rome to seek satisfaction. The king consulted the Legate Cuno, who advised that Thurstan should be ordained a priest by any bishop who happened to be at the royal court, and then sent to him; he would send Thurstan on to the papal court, provided with appropriate letters. But Thurstan had returned to York, and nothing was settled by the end of June 1115. The king, therefore, summoned a council of the kingdom's leaders to meet in London at Michaelmas (29 September), at which the king ordered Thurstan to seek consecration from the archbishop of Canterbury. Thurstan appealed to the pope, but the king refused to allow him to go or to send representatives.Hugh (Hugo) the Chanter, "History of Four Archbishops of York," in: Raine, pp. 129-133. When Pope Paschal replied to the formal notice of Thurstan's election by the Chapter of York, he replied, ordering that Thurstan be consecrated by the archbishop of Canterbury, but without any of the controversial oaths. The king, however, insisted on the oaths and threatened to depose Thurstan. Ralph of Canterbury stayed out of his own province in order to avoid carrying out the pope's commands, and was still in Normandy when Pope Paschal died in February 1118. Owing to obstruction by the king and Archbishop Ralph, Thurstan was unable to reach Pope Gelasius during his brief reign, though the pope had ordered both archbishops to present themselves before him.Raine, p. 174-176, 178-180.
The new pope, Calixtus II, summoned the archbishops of England to the council which he intended to hold in Reims in October 1119, and, despite attempted obstruction on the part of Henry I, Thurstan appeared, and was consecrated a bishop on 20 October 1119 by Calixtus himself.Raine, p. 182. For the next six months, as far as the papal visit to Gap, Thurstan was in constant attendance at the papal court.Raine (Hugh the Chanter), p. 182: "Jam enim eo habitatione et dimidii anni commoratione quasi confratres et contubernales esse videbantur."
Subsequently, Cuno worked with Thurstan, Archbishop of York to broker peace between Henry I and Louis VI of France.Hollister, p.269-271.
Pope Gelasius On 13 April 1118, Holy Saturday, Pope Gelasius wrote a letter from Capua to Cardinal Cuno. First, he related everything that had happened since his election in January. He then informed his legate that he and the cardinals had excommunicated the Emperor Henry and his antipope Gregory VIII (Maurice Burdinus) on Palm Sunday, and that Cuno was to inform all the bishops in his legation of the fact; Cuno was to gird himself to revenge the wrongs done to Holy Mother the Church.Schoene, pp. 47-48; 96-97. Chapter 8: Saint James's Catapult On 20—22 May 1118, Cardinal Cuno held a synod at Cologne, where the Emperor Henry V was excommunicated.Hüls, p. 114. Sigeberti Continuator Vallicensis, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum Tomus VII, p. 459. Ekkhard, "Chronicon," p. 254. These excommunications were repeated wherever Cuno held a synod or council.
He then moved to Germany, stirring up opposition to the Emperor. Cuno presided as papal legate at the concilium Fridislariense (Hesse), on 28 July 1118,Hüls, p. 114, with note 50. Mansi (ed.), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Tomus XXI, pp. 177-182. in which the excommunication of the emperor was confirmed, and St Norbert was accused of various irregularities, including preaching while not yet a priest, and wearing a religious habit while not a monk.Premonstratensians. Theodore James Antry, Carol Neel, O. Praem (edd.), Norbert and Early Norbertine Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press 2007), pp. 129-130 [Life of Saint Norbert, ch. 4].
Offered the papacy In March 1118, the newly elected Pope Gelasius II was driven out of Rome by the forces of the emperor Henry V. After staying at his native Gaeta, then Capua, then Pisa, he crossed to France in October. In December, he settled a dispute between Abbot Pontius of Cluny and Bishop Guy of Lescar.Jaffé, p. 779. On 1 January 1119, he held a synod in Vienne, and then travelled by way of Lyon to Mâcon, where he held another synod. During the synod he became seriously ill, suffering from pleurisy according to Pandolfus Pisanus, and asked to be taken to his next stop, the abbey of Cluny.Watterich II, p. 104.