ALBERT BEHAIM

Papal legate, anti-imperialist; b. Bavaria, c. 1180; d. probably in Passau, c. 1260. In 1212 Albert received a canonry at Passau, the first of many benefices he accumulated, shortly after entering the papal Curia, where he served under innocent iii and honorius iii. Later, after returning to Germany, he became a violent agitator against the Hohenstaufen dynasty even before the final papal controversy with frederick ii. When gregory ix excommunicated the emperor in 1239, he commissioned Albert to promulgate the sentence in Bavaria and compel obedience, which brought Albert into conflict with almost all the Bavarian clergy. Albert employed so many excommunications and interdicts that Duke Otto expelled him in 1241. He finally found refuge at Lyons in 1244 with innocent iv, whom he advised on German affairs, playing a part in the election of the antikings. Not until 1250, after the emperor's death and the forceful deposition of Albert's chief foe, Bishop Rudiger of Passau, could he return home and recover his prebends. Always aggressive and anxious to promote his own interests, Albert continued to make enemies. His own bishop imprisoned him for some obscure reason, but in 1258 Pope alexander iv intervened to secure his release. Details of his death are not known.

Bibliography: Alberts von Beham Conceptbuch, ed. c. hÖfler (Stuttgart 1847). r. bauerreiss, Kirchengeschichte Bayerns, 5 v. (St. Ottilien, Ger. 1949–55; 2d ed. 1958). a. hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands v. 4. j. oswald, Neue deutsche Biographie 2:1.

[r. h. schmandt]