Coins of Bavaria.pdf - numismatas.com

In 1020, the pope visited him at Bamberg and consecrated his new cathedral there. After settling some
controversies with the bishops of Mainz and Würzburg, Benedict VIII convinced him to return to Italy for a
third (and final) campaign to counter the growing power of the Byzantine Empire in the south, where the
Lombard princes had made submission to the Greeks. In 1022, he set out down the Adriatic coast for
southern Italy commanding a large force. He sent Pilgrim, Archbishop of Cologne, ahead with a slightly
smaller army along the Tyrrhenian littoral with the objective of subjugating the Principality of Capua. A third
army, smaller still, under the command of Poppo, Patriarch of Aquileia, went through the Apennines to join
Henry in besieging the Byzantine fortress of Troia. Pilgrim did capture Pandulf IV of Capua and extract
oaths of allegiance from both Capua and Salerno, but all three divisions failed to take Troia. Henry almost
executed the treacherous prince of Capua, but relented at the last moment at Pilgrim's pleading and
instead sent him off to Germany in chains and appointed Pandulf of Teano to replace him as prince.
Though his main objective had been missed, Henry left the south in the knowledge that western imperial
authority still extended that far. On his return journey, he attended a synod at Pavia where he advocated
Church reform.
Henry's most significant contributions as emperor came in the realm of church-state relations and ecclesiastic
administration within the Empire. He supported the bishops against the monastic clergy and aided
them in establishing their temporal rule over broad territories. He strongly enforced clerical celibacy in
order that the public land and offices he granted the chuch would not be passed on to heirs. This ensured
that the bishops remained loyal to him, from whom they received their power, and provided a powerful bulwark
against rebellious nobles and ambitious family members. Henry founded the Diocese of Bamberg,
which quickly became a center of scholarship and art, in 1007.
Henry had been working with the pope to call a church council to confirm his new system of politico-ecclesiastical
control when he died suddenly in 1024, leaving this work unfinished. Henry and his wife,
Cunigunde of Luxemburg, had no children, reportedly because they had taken a mutual vow of chastity.
The Church canonised Henry (1146) and Cunigunde (1200) after their deaths.
Henry is buried in Bamberg Cathedral, which also has the tomb of Pope Clement II. He is the patron saint
of the city of Basel, Switzerland, and of St Henry's Marist Brothers' College in Durban, South Africa.
BAVARIA
Heinrich II.-1002-1024
Denar. Regensburg mint. Mintmaster ECCO
Obv.: Cross, in the angles: Ring, wedge, 3 points, wedge.
Rev.: Letter-church, with mintmaster’s initials ECCO in the middle; roof in 2
stages.
Estimate: EUR 60. Price realized: 200 EUR (approx. 241 U.S. Dollars as of
the auction date)