Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T21:27:57.171Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Church, Warfare and Military Obligation in Norman Italy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

G. A. Loud
G. A. Loud*
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One of the most important intellectual problems which the Church faced in the Middle Ages was to reconcile warfare with the Christian message. But the presence of, and the necessity for, war affected not merely the intellectual attitudes and social message of medieval ecclesiastics. The institutional Church faced obvious practical problems when confronted with external warfare or civil disturbance. On the one hand the ruler might well, indeed usually did, require churches with extensive property and wealth to contribute to the burden of defending the community. On the other hand churches might well, especially if the ruler’s authority was weak, face the need to defend themselves against the aggression of their neighbours. Churches therefore needed a military potential, whether or not the state laid this obligation upon them. Even the Church’s attempts to control warfare, the Peace and Truce of God movements, tended to embroil it in military activity, since exhortation and spiritual sanction often needed the backing of force to convince a recalcitrant laity of the virtues of bridling its internal violence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 20: The Church and War , 1983 , pp. 31 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Hoffman, H., Gonesfriede una Traigo Dei (MGH Schiften 20, Stuttgart 1964) pp 104–129.Google Scholar

2 On the personal nature of military service in Lombard south Italy, Cahen, [C], [Le] Régime Féodal [de l’Italie Normande (Paris 1940)] pp 28–30 Google Scholar. The Lombard princes were reluctant to grant exemptions to individuals, even when giving them immunity from other public burdens, e.g. Gallo, A., ‘I Diplomi dei principi langobardi di Benevento, di Capua e di Salerno nella traduzione Cassinese’ BISIMEAM 52 (1937) pp 71–2 no 3.Google Scholar Pandulf I exempted the oxen and carts of Montecassino from carrying services with the host in 961, Gattula, [E.], Accessione! [ad Históriám Ahbatiae Casinenis (Venice 1734)] pp 58–9.Google Scholar

3 Borsari, S., ‘Istituzioni feudali e parafeudali nella puglia bizantina’ A[rchivio] s[torico per le provincie] nap [oletane] 77 (Naples 1959) pp 131–4.Google Scholar

4 Cahen, Régime Féodal pp 41-51.

5 White, [L.T.], Latin Monasticism [in Norman Sicily (Cambridge, Mass. 1938)] pp 62–3.Google Scholar

6 Angelo, Reg[esto di] S. [in Formis, ed. Inguanez, M. (Montecassino 1925)] pp 100–2 no 34 (1099)Google Scholar, a charter of prince Richard II, cf. Cod[ice] Diplomatico Normanno di] Aversa, [ed. A. Gallo (Naples 1927)] pp 399-401 no 53 (1073).

7 Reg. S. Angelo pp. 207-212 no. 73. An English summary is given by [E.M.] Jamison, [’The] Norman Administration [of Apulia and Capua, most especially under Roger II and William I 1127-1166’, Papers of the British School at Rome vi (London 1913)] pp 426-7 no 29.

8 Poupardin, R., Etude sur les institutions politiques et administratives des Princepautés Lombardes de l’Italie meridionale (IX-XI siècles) (Paris 1907) pp 108–10, 113, 115 nos 120, 121, 124, 131, 136Google Scholar. The best text of no 121 (967) is now Chron[icon] Vult[ernense, ed. V. Federici (3 vols. Fonti per la storia d’Italia 58-60, Rome 1924-38)] 2 pp 162-4.

9 Toubert, P., Les Structures du Latium médiéval. Le Latium méridional et la sabine du IXe siècle a la fin du XII siècle (2 vols, Rome 1973) 1 pp 303–368.Google Scholar

10 Toubert, [P.], ‘Pour une histoire [de l’environnement économique et social du Mont- Cassin (IXe—XIIe siècles)‘ Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Let t res (Paris 1976)] p 701.Google Scholar

11 Tosti, L., Storia della Badia di Montecassino (3 vols, Naples 1842) 1 pp 226–8.Google Scholar For Rocca Januła see the pre-1944 photograph [L.] Fabiani, [La] Terra [di S. Benedetto (2 vols, Miscellanea Cassinese 33-4, Montecassino 1968)] 1 facing p 64.

12 Chrorļica Monastero] Cas[inensis, ed. H. Hoffmann, MGH SS 34 (1980)] bk 2 cap 14, pp 194-5. See F. Scandone, ‘Roccasecca. Patria di S. Tommaso d’Aquino’ Archivio storico di Tena di Lavoro i (Caserta 1956) 33 seq.

13 Chron Cas bk 2 caps 16, 20, 37, pp 196, 204, 240.

14 Martin, J- M., ‘Elements preféodaux dans les Princepautés de Bénévent et de Capoue (fin du VIIIe siècle—debut du XIe siècle): modalités de privatisation du pouvoir‘ Structures féodales et feodalisme dans l’Occident méditmanean (Xe-XIIf siècles) (Rome 1980) pp 574–5 Google Scholar.

15 Fabiani, Terra 1 pp 63-83. Toubert, ‘Pour une histoire’ pp 697-700. Chron Vult 1 p 231, 3 pp 78-9, 84. M. del Treppo, ‘La vita economica e sociale in una grande abbazia del Mezzogiorno. S. Vincenzo al Volturno nell’alto medioevo’ ASNap 74 (1956) 101-11.

16 Chron[icon] Casauriense, [Muratori 2(2)] cols 865-6, 880-1, 882 (Abbot Gizo), 885-6.

17 Annales Barenses, MGH SS 5 p 54.

18 Malaterra, Geoffrey, De Rebus Gestis Rogeńi Calabriae et Siciliae Comitis, ed. Pontieri, E., Muratori new edn. (1925-8) bk 1 cap 32, p 22.Google Scholar

19 Monumenta Bambagensia, ed. P. Jaffe (Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum 5, Berlin 1868) pp 442-4 no 259.

20 Cod Dipi A versa pp 51-2 no 31.

21 Loud, G.A., ‘Five unpublished charters of the Norman Princes of Capua’, Benedictina 27 (Rome 1980) pp 173–4 no 3 (1099)Google Scholar. Gattula. Accessions pp 222 (1105), 225 (1106-7), 229 (1112), 239 (1123). G. Tescione, Roberto, Conte normanno di Alile, Caiazzo e S. Agata dei Goti (Caserta 1975) pp 46-7 no 3 (1094-1105), 49 no 5 (1105). A. de Francesco, ‘Origini e sviluppo del feudalismo in Molise’ ASNap 34 (1909) pp 669 n 1, 670 n 1. Cod[ex] Dipl[omaticus] Caiet [anus] (4 vols, Montecassino 1887-1960) 2 pp 178-80 no 282 (1107). All of these were to Montecassino. Chron Casauriense col 1006. [Archivio della badia di S. Trinita di] Cava [dei Tirreni,] Arm. Mag. E. 21 (1111).

22 Lupus Protospatharius, Amales ad. an. 1089, MGH SS 5 p 62. Mansi 20 col 790.

23 Cod Dipi Caiet 2 pp 174-6 no 280.

24 Vita Sanai Berardi, ASB Nov 2 (1894) pp 133-4.

25 [E.M.] Jamison, ‘Additional work [on the Catalogus Baronům’ BISIMEAM 83 (1971)] pp 15-17.

26 Liber Augustalis bk 3 cap 29, ‘De rebus stabilibus non alienandis’, Die Konstitution Friedrichs II von Hohenstaufen für sein Königreich Sizilien, edd. H. Conrad, T. von der Lieck Buyken & W. Wagner (Cologne 1973) pp 284-6. White, Latin Monasticism p 62 dates this simply ‘before 1148’.

27 Kehr, [K.A.], Urkunden, [Die] [der nornannisch-sizilischen Könige (Innsbruck 1902)] pp 348, 424-7 nos 10-11.Google Scholar

28 Clause 4 of the Vatican MS (Cod. Vat. Lat. 8782), and clause 3 of the Cassinese (Cod. Cas.468), F. Brandileone, Il Diretto romano nelle legge normanni e sueve del regno di Sicilia (Turin 1884) pp 97, 120. The Cassinese, the later of these two sets of assizes, must be dated before 1153, [E. M.] Jamison, [’The administration of the County of] Molise [in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries] I’, [EHR 44 (1929)] pp 548-552, 556-7.

29 E.g. [R.] Pirro, [Simla Sacra (2 vols, Palermo 1733)] 2 pp 1021-2 (1144) for the monastery of S. Angelo di Brolo; ibid 2 pp 1046-7 (1145) for S. Maria Annunziata of Mandanici; ibid 1 p 109 (1177), William II to the archbishop of Palermo; ibid 2 p 935 (1209), Frederick II to the Hospitaller priory of Messina. Cf. Fabiani, Terra 2 pp 19-20, 39-41.

30 Annales Casinenses ad. an. 1140, MGH SS 19 p 309.

31 Pirro 1 pp 97-8.

32 Chron Casauriense col 892.

33 Ca[alogus] Bar[onum, ed. E.M. Jamison (Fonti per la storia d’Italia 101, Rome 1972).] Its editor is very insistent, ‘Additional work’ pp 3-7, that it was not ‘a mere register of normal military service’, but a record of the magna expedilio, the extraordinary defensive military levy.

34 Cahen, Régime Féodal p 131.

35 Jamison, ‘Additional work’ pp 18-21.

36 Orsa, Prezza and Raiano, Kehr, Urkunden p 439 no 20 (there wrongly dated to 1170). For the correct date, N. Kamp, Kirche und Monarchie im Staufischen Königreich Sizilien (3 vols, Munich 1973-5) 1 p 61 n 6. Cf. Cat Bar pp 243, 245 arts 1188, 1195 (henceforth cited by article no only).

37 Cat Bar arts 1204-8, 1217, 1221.

38 [F.] Ughelli, [Italia Sacra (2nd ed, 10 vols, Venice 1717-22)] 1 cols 1129-30.

39 Chroń Casauriense cols 1008-9. Cat Bar art 1014.

40 Hence the Abbot of St. Bartholomew, Carpineto, obtained Vicalvi by an exchange with the Bishop of Penne in 1123, Ughelli 1 col 1118, but later ⅓ of this was held by a vassal of a lay tenant-in-chief, Cat Bar art 1196. For another example of a church holding ⅔ of a castrum see Chroń Casauriense col 1007 (1136).

41 Cai Bar art 823.

42 On the augmentům, Cahen, Régime Féodal pp 69-71. Cf. C.W. Hollister, The Military Organization of Norman England (Oxford 1965) pp 75-81.

43 An exception is the monastery of St. John in Lamis, near Foggia, though here an augmentům is recorded, Cat Bar art 376.

44 For the castra see the bull of Alexander III of 1159, PL 200 col 77. For the abbey knights see the Lex Municipals of Pontecorvo (1190), ed Fabiani, Terra 1 pp 427-30. There are elaborate thirteenth-century regulations for service, ibid 2 pp 176-9. In some of these, e.g. those for the castrum of S. Pietro in Fine, there are references to nobles; Montecassino, Archivio dell’abbazia, Registrum II Bernardi (Reg no 6) fol 13v.

45 Cai Bar art 1221.

46 ibid arts 107, 386, 402, 408.

47 ibid art 87.

48 Cava, Arm. Mag. H. 15.

49 ‘P.F. Kehr, ‘Papsturkunden in Salerno, La Cava und Neapel’, Nachrichten der K. Gesellscluift der Wissenschaften zu Gottinga». Phil-hist. Klasse (1900) pp 221-7 nos 2-3 (1102 & 1106). P. F. Kehr, ‘Papsturkunden in Rom. Die romische Bibliotheken III’, ibid (1903) pp 149-150 no 4 (1172).

50 Cat Bar art 402; Ughelli 1 cols 923-4.

51 Corneto (1096 & 1105), half of Asoli Satriano (1098), Orta (1101) and S. Giovanni in Fronte (1105), L.R. Ménager, ‘Les fondations monastiques de Robert Guiscard’, QFIAB 39 (1959) pp 95-101 nos 21, 23-4, 27-8; Cat Bar art 408.

52 White, Latin Monasticism p 57. Most of the supposed royal diplomas for Montecassino are thirteenth-century forgeries, C-R. Brühl, Urkunden und Kanzlei König Rogers U von Sizilien (Cologne 1978) pp 164-172.

53 For Abbot Egidius of Venosa’s influence, La Historia o Liba de Regno Sicilie di Ugo Falcando, ed. G. B. Siragusa (Fonti per la storia d’Italia 22, Rome 1897) p 138. For the tomb of Guiscard, William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum, ed. W. Stubbs (2 vols, RS 1887-9) 2 p 322.

54 Jamison, ‘Molise II’, EHR 45 (1930) pp 22-4, ‘Additional work’ p 14.

55 [P.] Guillaume, Essai [Historique sur l’Abbaye de Cava (Cava dei Tirreni 1877)] pp xvii-xviii appendix E (1100), xxvii-xxviii appendix H (1123). L. von Heinemann, Normannische Herzoļs- und Könilsurkunden aus Unteritalien und Sizilien (Tübingen 1899) pp 19-20 no 10 (1111).

56 Jamison, ‘Additional work’ pp 23-56, especially 29, 46-7, & 58. This may be the case with La Cava, which was much favoured by the Norman kings, not least in that it supplied the monks tor William II’s cherished foundation of Monreale; White, Latin Monasticism pp 134-6. Certainly the royal justiciar William of S. Severino, in a charter of 1187, was very careful to distinguish between land of the monastery within his barony of Cilento and the fiefs of that barony; Cava, Arm. Mag. L. 21.

57 Guillaume, Essai pp xxxv-xxxvi appendix L.Jamison, ‘Molise II’ pp 10-11.

58 Cod Dipi Aversa pp 210-211 no 113 (1181), 233-4 no 125(1184).

59 ibid pp 102-3 no 59.

60 E.g. Regesto di S. Leonardo di Siponto, [ed. F. Camobreco (Rome 1913)] p 5 no 4 (1129), 14 no 21(1144), 15-6 nos 23-4 (1146).

61 Reg S. Angelo pp 137-40 no 49 (1157). Codice Diplomatico Sulmonese, ed. N.F. Faraglia (Lanciano Ш8) pp 51-2 no 40 (1178), 60-1 no 45 (1201). Ughelli 1 cols 1125-7 (1195).

62 Jamison, ‘Additional work’ pp 9-10.

63 Cat Bar arts 1428-42.

64 E.g. Montecalvo, held in 1243 by the abbot of S.Elena, in the Catalogue by a layman, Cat Bar arts 1428, 385; Casale S. Trifone, held 1243 by the abbot of St. John in Piano, in the mid-twelfth century by Count Godfrey of Lesina, ibid arts 1430, 387; Ururi and Ilice, held 1243 by the bishop of Larino, earlier by tenants of the Count of Civitate, ibid arts 1437, 307, 309.

65 ibid art 400. Le Colonie cassinesi in Capitanata IV Troia, ed. T. Leccisotti (Miscellanea Cassinese 29, Montecassino 1958) pp 93-5 no 28. English summary by Jamison, ‘Norman Administration’ pp 432-3 no 37.

66 Cat Bar art 1433. Les Chartes de Troia (1024-1266), ed. J.M. Martin (Codice Dioplomatico Pugliese 21, Bari 1976) pp 239-41 no 75. Collecta is a rather ambiguous term in a twelfth- century context, but it certainly includes the feudal aid, Jamison, ‘Molise II’ pp 8-9, 28-9 doc 5 (1226).

67 Cat Bur art 1440; Cava, Arm. Mag. H.10(1152), I. 11 (1174).

68 Guiscard’s diploma of 1067 is known only from that of Tancred, ed. in T. Leccisotti, Il Monasteńum Tenae Maioris (Montecassino 1942) pp 79-82.

69 Note the reference to quaternions of fiefs in the Molise document of 1226 cited above n 66.

70 Kehr, Urkunden pp 444-5 no 24, cf. White, Latin Monastiäsm pp 63, 98.

71 Fuiano, M., Cillá e Borghi in Publia nel medioevo (Naples 1972) pp 137–47, 170-2 doc no 11Google Scholar. For the constable, Regesto di S. Leonardo di Siponlo pp 86-7 no 138 (1203).

72 Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora, ed. Luard, H.R. (7 vols, RS 1872-84) 3 p 555.Google Scholar