Abstract
In associating the Cleansing of the Temple with Gregory VII the reference to Hercules’ cleaning the Augean stables is no simple parallel but a matter of pertinent interest. One of Gregory’s early biographers, Paul of Bernreid (d. 1131), described a dream that Gregory (then Hildebrand) had when he filled the post of abbot of San Paulo-fuori-le-Mura in 1059. ℌIt is related that on his arrival at the abbey, the Apostle Paul appeared to him in a dream, standing in the basilica, and busily occupied in displacing and casting forth the dung that lay on the pavement, at the same time inciting the new abbot to follow his example.”2 Villemain, in his Life of Gregory the Seventh, quotes Bernreid and adds «in conforming to this allegorical vision, Hildebrand put in force the ancient rule of the house, and corrected with a high hand all the irregularities of the monks.”3 In the context of the Reform, Gregory’s dream prefaces his career as a New Hercules.
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References
The basic works on Gregory and the Reform are: Abel François Villemain, Life of Grégory the Seventh, (trans. James Baker Brockley ), London, 1874
Élie Voosen, Papauté et Pouvoir civil é l’époque de Grégoire VII, Gembloux, 1927
H.-X. Arquillière, Saint Grégoire VII: essai sur sa conception du pouvoir pontifical, Paris, 1934
James P. Whitney, Hildebrandine Essays, Cambridge, 1932
Augustin Fliche. La Réforme Grégorienne, 3 vols., Louvain, 1924–1937.
Raffaello Morghen, “Ideali religiosi e azione politica nell’ opera di Gregorio VII”, Studi, Vol. III, 1948, pp. 163–172.
Benedetto Bacchini, dell’ Istoria del Monastero di S. Benedetto di Polirone nello stato di Mantova, Mantua, 1694, pp. 63–64.
Luigi Tosti, La Contessa Matilde e i romani pontifici, Rome, 1886, pp. 46–47
The Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. V, p. 10.
Nora Duff, Matilda of Tuscany, London, 1906, p. 46.
The primary source for the biography of Matilda is Donizo’s Vita Mathildis celeberrimae principis Italiae, PL, Vol. 148, cols. 949–1036 MGH SS, Vol. XII, pp. 348–409; RR. II.SS., Vol. V, pt. 2.
Hereafter the edition cited will be RR.II.SS. There is an Italian translation by Francesco Davoli, Giudizi sul poema di Donizone, etc., Turin, 1889.
Modern biographies are: Girolamo Razzi, La Vita della Contessa Matilda, Florence, 1578
Benedetto Luchino, Cronaca della vera origine et attioni della illustrissima et famosissima contessa Matilde, Mantua, 1592
Domenico Mellini, Trattato dell origine, fatti costumi e lodi di Matelda la Gran Contessa d’Italia, Florence, 2nd ed., 1609
Giulio dal Pozzo, Maraviglie heroiche del sesso donnesco memorabili nella duchessa Matilda, Verona 1678
Francesco Fiorentini, Memorie della gran contessa Matilda, Lucca, 1756
Carlo Antonio Erra, Memorie storico-critiche della gran Contessa Matilda, Rome, 1768
Giovanni Orti, Vita della Contessa Matilde di Canossa, Verona, 1834
F. Mozzi De Capitani, Sulla Contessa Matilde, i suoi contemporanei e le usanze nostre d’allora, Venice, 1845
Antonio Bresciani, La Contessa Matilda di Canossae lolandedi Groninga, Milan, 1872
Anton Pannenborg, Studien zur Geschichte der Herzogin Matilde von Canossa, Géttingen, 1872
Luigi Tosti, op. cit., Alfred Overmann, Gräfin Mathilde von Tuscien-Ihre Besitzungen, Geschichte ihres Gutes, etc., Innsbruck, 1895
Nora Duff, op. cit.; Leone Tondelli, Matilde di Canossa, 2nd ed., 1922
Natale Grimaldi, La Contessa Matilde e la sua stirpe feudale, 1928
Renaud de Briey, Mathilde, duchesse de Toscane, une Jeanne d’ Arc italienne, Gembloux, 1934
Gianni Nencioni, Matilda di Canossa, Milan, 1937
Luigi Semeoni, “Il Contributo della Contessa Matilde al Papato nella lotta per le investiture”, Studi, Vol. I, 1947, pp. 353–372
Luigi Tondelli (ed.), Il millenario di Canossa,Reggio Emilia, 1951; Deputazione di storia patria per le antiche provincie modenesi, Atti e memorie, Ser. IX, Vol. 3, 1964.
It is interesting to note that the leaders of the older generation: Beatrice, Leo IX, and Peter Damian sought collaboration between church and empire whenever possible. They were “moderates”. Their successors: Matilda, Gregory VII, Cardinal Humbert were “radicals” opting for church triumph.
See Raffaello Morghen, l’Origine e la formazione del programma della riforma gregoriana, Rome, 1959, pp. 58–74.
Alberto l’Huillier, “Ipriorati cluniacensi in Italia,” Brixia Sacra, Vol. III, 1912, p. 17
Bacchini, op. cit., p. 52.
Cf. P. Guerrini, “Un cardinale gregoriano a Brescia: il vescovo arimanno”, Studi, Vol. II, 1947, pp. 361–385.
For the history of Polirone see Bacchini, op. cit., and Rosalino Bellodi, Il Monastero de S. Benedetto in Polirone, Mantua, 1905.
For a recent evaluation of Polirone in the Reform movement cf. Hansmartin Schwarzmaler, “Das Kloster S. Benedetto di Polirone in seiner cluniastischen Umwelt”, Adel und Kirche, 1968, pp. 280–294.
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© 1973 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Rough, R.H. (1973). Two Historic Personalities. In: The Reformist of Illuminations in the Gospels of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1983-5_4
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