EN
The writing Grande piaculum by cardinal Rainer of Viterbo from 1248 is an important element in the propaganda war of the Roman Curia against Emperor Frederick II. It reports in legendary manner the martyrdom of Bishop Marcellinus of Arezzo. The Hohenstaufen is thereby conventionalised as agent of the devil and precursor of Antichrist, against whom a crusade should be waged in Italy. This letter is known in three textual attestors, among them one in the Prague manuskript III.G.3, which is subject to a codicological analysis. An appendix is the first critical edition of Grande piaculum.