Il domenicano Arnoldo e la “sentenza di deposizione” di Innocenzo IV

In the letter «to all the faithful to Jesus Christ» – to be dated to 1246, and not to 1248 (as affirmed by its editor E. Winkelmann) –, the Dominican Arnold, close to Friedrich II, formulates twenty-five charges against Innocent IV and announces the imminent trial to the latter, which will culminate in his divine condemnation. The letter is a further testimony of the brief phase in which the emperor, reacting against the deposition judgment issued by the Pope against him at the Council of Lyon (July 1245), addressed the kings and the faithful invoking a general and radical reform of the Church in an evangelical direction. Aiming at Innocent’s deposition and at the replacement of the Roman hierarchy with friars loyal to Friedrich, Arnold’s vision uncovers the broader resistance of certain Dominican sectors vis-à-vis the Pope, and represents a significant historical and doctrinal document on the climate in which the emperor conceived the aborted expedition to Lyon, which is characterized by the proliferation of texts of propaganda replete of prophetical promises and apocalyptical threats.