Of Locustae and Dangerous Men: Peter Damian, the Vallombrosans, and Eleventh-century Reform1
In a letter to the people of Florence in the early part of 1067, the ardent reformer, Peter Damian, denounced a group of monks as locustae. These unnamed monks—whom it has long been accepted were the Vallombrosans—had been waging a campaign against their bishop, Peter Mezzabarba of Florence, whom they accused of obtaining his office by simony. Although Damian, who had been cardinalbishop of Ostia as well as prior of the eremitical community at Fonte Avellana, readily acknowledged that Mezzabarba might have a case to answer at Pope Alexander II's forthcoming council in Rome, he condemned their intrusion into matters of ecclesiastical politics that were none of their business. Yet it was clearly more than a matter of inappropriate activities. For he went on to dismiss in the bitterest of terms the dangerous pretensions of these monks to a superior holiness. Referring to their sanctity as odiosa, Damian concluded by saying that if monks like the Vallombrosans wanted to be holy they should not flaunt a spiritual arrogance in the face of weaker brethren. For Damian, the duty of monks was strictly defined by function: their calling was to weep for sins, not to announce them.
Camaldolesi e Vallombrosani nella Toscana medievale
In the context of the intense religious and social renewal known as “Gregorian Reform”, the Camaldoli Hermitage and the Vallombrosa Abbey, both located in the Tuscan territory, gave rise to two movements of reform inspired by the spirituality of the respective founders, which later became congregations belonging to the benedictine family. Motivated by common instances, the Camaldolese and the Vallombrosan Orders were similar in some of their essential features and in the dynamics of their expansion. This statement has been the starting point of this work, which aims to formulate a comparative overview of the territorial spread of these reforms in Tuscany, by recording the known settlements and making an inventory of the religious communities interested by this phenomenom, in order to gather a broad range of examples of the way these movements interacted with the local situations in the different areas of the region. The text is enriched by a carthographic appendix illustrating the chronology of these congregations’ development in medieval Tuscany.
The Manly Eunuch: Masculinity, Gender Ambiguity, and Christian Ideology in Late Antiquity
This text re-visits the Roman Empire during the 3rd and 5th centuries of the common era to look at the question of masculinity as a part of intellectual life and the development of Christian society in late antiquity. Mathew Kuefler argues that the collapse of the Roman army, an increasing autocratic government and growing restrictions on the traditional rights of men within marriage and sexuality all led to a crisis in masculinity. Men who had traditionally felt themselves to be soldiers and heads of households became, by their own definition, unmanly. The cultural and demographic success of Christianity during this era was due to the ability of its leaders to recognize and respond to this crisis. Drawing on the gender ambiguities of early Christian teachings, Christian writers and thinkers crafted a new masculine ideal that took advantage of the changing social realities in Rome, and helped to solidify Christian ideology by reinstating the masculinity of its adherents.