Bonizo of Sutri: Portrait in a Landscape

by John A. Dempsey

Overview

This book provides a groundbreaking reinterpretation of the life and career of the preeminent polemicist of the Bishop Bonizo of Sutri. Through a meticulous analysis of Bonizo’s literary works and contemporary reports about his activities, the author uncovers the populist roots of both the bishop’s reform ideology and his vision of holy war against a heretical emperor, Henry IV of Germany. In establishing the predominance of Bonizo’s personal experience as a member of the populist Lombard reform community, the Pataria, in the formation of his thought, this study shatters the picture of a uniform Gregorian party and greatly strengthens the impression of the papal reform movement as a fragile coalition of multiple regional partners, like the Pataria, which enjoyed a fundamental unity of purpose but whose individual constituencies often diverged in their particular strategic objectives. This investigation, moreover, sets Bonizo’s story within the context of the urban life of his native Lombardy and examines the relationship between popular religious reform and the gradual development of communal government in northern Italy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781793608246
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/11/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	623 KB

About the Author

John A. Dempsey is professor of history at Westfield State University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Broad Historical Landscape

Chapter 2 Bonizo of Sutri: A Biographical Outline to 1085-1086

Chapter 3 The Liber ad amicum: Historical and Literary Contexts

Chapter 4 Back to the Future: The Meaning of the Liber ad amicum

Chapter 5 The Pataria’s Armed Kulturkampf

Chapter 6 Bishop Bonizo of Piacenza

Chapter 7 A Patarene in Winter

Chapter 8 The Liber de vita christiana: Canonical treatise as a Patarene Regula Pastoralis

Chapter 9 The Liber de vita christiana: Canonical Treatise as Ecclesio-Political Polemic

Conclusion

Epilogue

Appendix The Minor Works

Editorial Reviews

The book Bonizo of Sutri: Portrait in Landscape, by John A. Dempsey, is more than what the title said, “a portrait in landscape.” It is also a fine historical analysis of the religious, social, and political problems affecting the central centuries of the Middle Ages. The book revolves around the enigmatic and to some extent pragmatic figure of Bishop Bonizo of Sutri; by studying his life, deeds, literary production, and thoughts, Dempsey takes the reader to a detailed journey into the Italian (and European) religious and political history of the tenth and eleventh centuries... [Dempsey’s] book is a good attempt to write serious historical research without however losing a narrative tone; the author was indeed able to combine fine historical analysis with a witty narrative of facts and events.

Catholic Historical Review