Bishop (1088-1092) and archbishop of Pisa (1092-1105), leader of the first Pisan crusader fleet, and subsequently Latin patriarch of Jerusalem (1099-1102/1105).
Daibert’s origins are unknown, but he was probably of northern Italian descent. He was ordained as a deacon by the excommunicate pro-imperial Archbishop Wezilo of Mainz (1085/1087), for which he later received much criticism from fundamentalist church reformers. Yet soon after his ordination Daibert himself became a reform cleric in the entourage of Countess Matilda of Canossa, who supported his election as bishop of Pisa (1088). During his episcopate, Daibert promoted peace within Pisa and encouraged its leading classes to support the interests and projects of the Reform Papacy, such as campaigns against Muslim Valencia and Tortosa (1092). In April 1092 Pope Urban II made Pisa into an archbishopric with metropolitan rights over the island of Corsica. As one of the closest associates of the pope, Daibert was often in Rome, and in 1095-1096 he accompanied Urban on the journey through France during which the concept of the crusade was developed.
In 1099 Daibert traveled to the East with a large crusader fleet under Pisan command to provide support for the army of the First Crusade, which was thought to have stalled at Antioch (mod. Antakya, Turkey). Daibert himself had been named legate to replace the deceased Adhemar of Le Puy. However, when the fleet arrived in Syria in late September 1099, the crusade had already captured Jerusalem. The completion of the crusade and news of the death of the pope meant that Daibert lost his powers as legate. In late 1099 he went with Bohemund I of Antioch and Baldwin I of Edessa to complete their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There Daibert presided over a council that deposed the elected Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Arnulf of Chocques, and was himself elected in his place (Christmas 1099).
Daibert immediately consecrated four Latin bishops in the patriarchate of Antioch. He also invested Godfrey of Bouillon as ruler of Jerusalem and Bohemund as prince of Antioch. In return, Godfrey ceded to Daibert all the possessions formerly owned by the deceased Greek patriarch. The princes clearly sought legitimacy for their new principalities in Outremer, but Daibert’s motivation has been a matter of debate, particularly in the case of the former Byzantine city of Antioch, which the eastern emperor clearly expected to be restored to him under the terms of his agreements with the leaders of the crusade. It seems likely that in the absence of instructions from Rome, Dai-bert was trying to imitate Urban II’s model for the relationship between the Reform Papacy and those princes who supported it, such as the Normans of Sicily and Matilda of Canossa. This entailed a formal sovereignty of the papacy in Rome, along with the princes’ obligation to give help and military protection. Daibert’s actions probably derived more from his zeal for reform principles than from any personal ambition to become a theocratic ruler in the Holy Land, as has often been wrongly presumed.
Daibert exploited the presence of the Pisan fleet as well as the support of the Normans in Antioch to pursue his ideals. He secured from Godfrey a quarter of the town of Jaffa (mod. Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel) in February 1100, and at Easter he seems to have obtained a promise of the entire city of Jerusalem once Godfrey conquered two further cities. It is likely that, in his governance of the church, Dai-bert tried to impose the communal life on the clerics of the Holy Sepulchre, meeting with heavy resistance, and that he reorganized the Hospital of St. John. Daibert’s fortunes turned with the fleet’s departure (spring 1100) and the capture of his ally and vassal Bohemund I by the Danishmen-dids. When Godfrey died in July 1100, his successor, Baldwin I of Edessa, refused to recognize any dependency from Daibert, which resulted in a worsening in their relations. A new papal legate, Maurice of Porto, mediated a compromise that led to the coronation of Baldwin as king of Jerusalem by Daibert in Bethlehem on Christmas Day 1100.
Conflict soon arose about the use of alms and donations to the Holy Sepulchre. Baldwin’s desire to use this money for the payment of soldiers to defend the Holy Land clashed with Daibert’s reform principles concerning the freedom of the church and the inalienability of its property. With the help of Arnulf of Chocques, now archdeacon of Jerusalem, Baldwin succeeded in securing a proportion of the alms and then expelled Daibert from Jerusalem. Daibert fled to Antioch but was restored in Jerusalem in October 1102, thanks to the support of the Normans. However, his enemies managed to have him deposed at a synod presided over by another papal legate, Robert of St. Eusebio. The grounds for his removal from office were evidently ill founded, and in the winter of 1104-1105 Daibert sailed to Italy with Bohemund of Antioch to appeal against his removal from office. Pope Paschal II canceled the deposition, but Daibert died at Messina on 15 June 1105 while returning to the Holy Land.
As a close collaborator of Pope Urban II, Daibert was deeply involved in the preparation and realization of the First Crusade. He can therefore be considered a key figure for the understanding of Urban’s idea of crusading. Dai-bert’s loyalty to the principles of reform underlay his successes in Pisa as well as his uneven conflict with Baldwin I of Jerusalem and his ultimate failure in the hostile environment of the Holy Land.
-Michael Matzke
Bibliography
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World History
