Fulk of Piacenza

ON ST. FULK OF PIACENZA, CONFESSOR, BISHOP OF PIACENZA AND PAVIA IN ITALY,

ABOUT THE YEAR 1229.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Fulk, confessor, bishop of Piacenza and Pavia in Italy. (Bl.)

BY V. D. B.

§ I. The cult of St. Fulk, once slight at Pavia, but greater after the rediscovery of his relics. The origin of his commemoration in the martyrologies. His cult at Piacenza brought about by the efforts of Campi.

The city of Pavia, called Ticinum, and named of old by both names, a most noble city of Italy, [In the fourteenth century St. Fulk was not yet counted among the saints of Pavia.] and the flower of Liguria, and at length the head and chamber or seat of the whole kingdom of the Lombards, was adorned with many privileges; among which those are especially to be recalled by which our Lord and Saviour magnificently exalted it through his servants. This an anonymous exile wrote about his native city around the year 1330 in the book on the Praises of the city of Ticinum, which is called Pavia In Muratori, Scriptores rerum Italicarum, vol. XI, col. 5.; who then briefly went through its several glories. Where these things too are read Ibid. col. 7.: In this city by succession more than fifty pontiffs have sat; of whom eleven have been canonized by the Roman Church and enrolled in the catalogue of the saints. Their names are these: Syrus, Inventius, Ursicinus, Crispinus, Epiphanius, Maximus, Ennodius, Crispinus, Damian and Jerome: whence it is clear that at that time the name of St. Fulk had not yet been inscribed in the Usuardine martyrology of Pavia. Nor again, when he reckons up the bodies of the saints buried in the other cathedral church, of St. Stephen, where St. Fulk too obtained his rest, does he mention the relics of St. Fulk; but the bodies of the holy confessors and bishops Syrus, the first preacher, John, bishop of Nice, and Armentarius, bishop of Pavia; likewise the body of St. Gengulf, martyr, who was a soldier of Pippin, king of the Franks Ibid. col. 8..

[2] [Giacomo Gualla at the beginning of the sixteenth century was the first to celebrate his holiness; whose fame, when on the occasion of the renewal of the cathedral church] Nevertheless, so far was the fame and glory of St. Fulk's holiness from perishing or being obscured, that it grew little by little; so that at the opening of the sixteenth century Giacomo Gualla, a patrician of Pavia, and learned in both laws, and for many years lecturer in pontifical law in the university of his native city, wrote his Life with the greatest diligence and gave it a place in the Sanctuary of Pavia: which came to light in the year 1505, immediately after the author's death, and again, with his Life prefixed, in the year 1587; both of which editions we have before us. In the same century a new honour accrued to the blessed man. Adjoining the church of St. Stephen was the church of St. Mary the Greater; so that in the former, or northern one, the cathedral canons celebrated the divine offices in summer, in the other in winter In Muratori, Scriptores rerum Italicarum, vol. XI, col. 5.. But in the fifteenth century it seemed good to the commune to build, in place of the two churches, a most magnificent basilica designed by Rocchi, an architect of Pavia Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione ecclesiastica, vol. LII, p. 17.; within whose circuit should be enclosed not only their sites but the neighbourhood as well. This work Bishop Ascanio Maria Sforza inaugurated on the 29th day of June in the year 1488, solemnly laying the first stone. Public and private money being contributed, the treasury of indulgences opened, funds erected and other industries employed, the building was for some time not sluggishly advanced Romualdo of St. Mary, Flavia Papia Sacra, vol. I, p. 40 and following; yet the ardour cooled little by little, until Ippolito de' Rossi, or Rubeus, who had returned from the Council of Trent fervent in sacred matters, by exhortations and example drew the citizens on to continue the basilica.

[3] his relics were twice solemnly translated, it was very greatly increased: At this very time, namely in the year 1567, the same prelate, when the chapel of St. Simon, in which St. Fulk had obtained his rest in a marble tomb near the altar, had been destroyed, ordered this coffin to be opened, and willed that the sacred remains, which were found not without a wonderful sweetness, should be laid up in a more fitting place [Ibid. vol. II, p. 159. Compare Campi, Historia ecclesiastica di Piacenza, vol. II, p. 142.]. He had, namely, prepared at the high altar (as I have related elsewhere Acta SS. Auctarium vol. VI of October, p. 26. from Campi Campi, p. 142 and 143., the father of the history of Piacenza) a most beautiful tomb of marble for St. Syrus, patron of the people of Pavia; which he willed to be divided into six parts, so that in each there might be a coffin for its own saint. And this was the partition:

OF ST. RODOBALD, BISHOP OF PAVIA.

OF ST. LITIFRED, BISHOP OF PAVIA.

OF ST. ROMANINUS, P.

THE BODY OF SAINT SYRUS, BISHOP OF PAVIA

OF ST. FULK, BISHOP OF PAVIA.

OF ST. DAMIAN, BISHOP OF PAVIA.

But when in the year 1614 a great part of the new church had been finished and joined with the old, that high altar was translated from the old into that new part; and the sepulchre itself of the five holy bishops of Pavia and of St. Romaninus the priest was, by order of Bishop Giovanni Battista Bigli, translated into the underground oratory which had been built in the new church. The prelate would not have the coffins unsealed, but ordered that the mausoleum be placed in a most worthy spot and adorned with an altar which should shine on every side with images of the same saints. By this twofold solemn translation it could not but be that the memory of the most blessed bishop was renewed.

[4] [In the year 1578 Galesini inscribed his name in the Martyrology, whom Baronius followed five years later.] Although Pietro Galesini, the helper of St. Charles Borromeo in restoring ecclesiastical discipline, seems to have been unaware of the earlier celebration (the other is later), he nevertheless brought the name of St. Fulk, at the present day, into the Martyrology adapted to the use of the Holy Roman Church, which came to light from the Venetian press in the year 1578, in these words: At Pavia, of Saint Fulk, bishop and confessor; relying on the authority of Giacomo Valla or Gualla, as he declares in the notes at the end. Hence in the year 1583, in which the first edition of the Roman Martyrology of Baronius came out, his memory seems to have passed into the present Roman Martyrology, in this form: At Pavia, of Saint Fulk, bishop; which form has persisted in the same Martyrology down to this day. Nevertheless the most illustrious writer, in the edition which came out at Rome in the year 1586 and twice afterwards at Antwerp, added these words in the annotations to the name of St. Fulk: Concerning the same, the tables of the church of Pavia and Giacomo Valla on the bishops of Pavia; by which he seems to indicate that the name of St. Fulk had at that time already been inscribed in the tables or liturgical calendar of Pavia. But did not Galesini alone light the way, who in place of the Sanctuary of Pavia (which is the genuine title of the book of Gualla or Valla) wrote: Giacomo Valla in the book on the bishops of Pavia? so that Baronius, by an uncertain conjecture, laid it down that the feast of St. Fulk was then kept at Pavia: certainly Ferrari, who published the Catalogue of the saints of Italy in the year 1613, mentions no tables of Pavia, but only those of Piacenza; and Romualdo of St. Mary, who in the year 1699 diligently indicated all the books where St. Fulk is spoken of, adduced the ecclesiastical tables of Pavia only on the authority of Baronius Ibid. vol. I, p. 124..

[5] [Campi found by chance that St. Fulk of Pavia had earlier occupied the see of Piacenza, and diligently inquires into his deeds;] Wherefore, if I may attain anything by divining, I judge that it was first at Piacenza that the feast of St. Fulk began to be celebrated with an ecclesiastical office. This matter Pietro Maria Campi, canon of Piacenza, who had a great part in it, has narrated at length. For when about the year 1600 this excellent canon, whom I have already called the father of the history of Piacenza, was much occupied in collecting the lessons of the Proper of Piacenza, to be approved by the authority of the Roman curia, and no one at all at Piacenza knew anything of St. Fulk, it once occurred to him to wonder whether what Umberto Locati said of a certain Fulk, who had first been bishop of Piacenza and then of Pavia, applied to that Fulk who is praised in the Roman Martyrology on the 26th day of October Ibid. vol. II, p. 100 and 101.. Now those words in the Latin edition (for there is also an Italian one) are these [De Placentinae urbis origine, successu et laudibus seriosa narratio, in Graevius and Burmann, Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae, vol. III, part II, at the end, col. 34 and 35.]: In the year 1220 Fulk, a Piacentine by birth (he had been provost of the monastery of St. Euphemia here), Honorius, the third of that name, sitting as supreme pontiff, was ordained bishop of Piacenza, sat some months; then was translated to the bishopric of Pavia. When therefore he had understood that Fulk of Piacenza was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, he searched the archives of the city in order to find somewhat more about his deeds. The labour was not in vain; and, making use of Gualla's Sanctuary, he composed these lessons, which the venerable Cardinal Bellarmine revised and the Sacred Congregation of Rites approved on the 9th day of April of the year 1608 and again on the 23rd day of September of the year 1609, and Claudio Rangoni, bishop of Piacenza, on the ides of August of the year 1610 ordered to be printed for the use of his clergy; except that they seem already to have been approved on the 23rd day of March of the year 1601 and to have come to light shortly after, so that in the year 1608 there was only a new approbation. These lessons the regular canons of St. Euphemia at Piacenza also admitted, and, with the licence of the Holy See granted on the 22nd day of December of the year 1612 Poggiali, Memorie storiche di Piacenza, vol. V, p. 91., the whole congregation of the regular canons of St. Saviour, of which they were a part; and likewise the Lateran congregation. It is pleasing to recite these at the beginning from the Proper Offices of the regular canons of the congregation of St. Saviour, printed at Rome in the year 1613, so that our way afterwards may be the easier: (we have indeed many other copies, both of Piacenza and of the Lateran, but none that is older.)

[6] which in three lessons, Here then is Lesson IV. Fulk of Piacenza , sprung of Scottish stock, was a singular example of integrity and innocence. Since in the utmost want of all things he relaxed nothing of his ardent zeal for letters and piety, the divine goodness did not fail him. He had once gone out to collect alms, as is the custom ; the rather wicked maidservant of a certain merchant offers him a piece of bread, but on the condition that he should never allow a bishopric to be thrust upon him: the good youth draws back his hand, thinking it wrong even in hunger to accept a condition by which, for following God,

whom he had already felt within, the way would not lie open and free. The matter was reported to the master; who, having at once summoned Fulk, and having first sharply rebuked the woman in his presence, kindly and generously promised him his daily food in his house, and that for good.

[7] approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites, Lesson V. After the greatest progress in letters and piety, he is co-opted into the order of the regular canons of St. Euphemia; he is sent to Paris for the study of theology; he turns out to be such a man as his writings attest. When he returns to his native city, the deepest humility of mind and holiness of life shone forth in him. Accordingly, on the death of the provost, he is put in his place, not yet thirty years old. Not only his own brethren but also Grimerio, bishop of Piacenza, admire the man's prudence. Whence it came about too that in very many and very weighty matters of his church he gladly made use of Fulk's labour and counsel. Having proved his faith and integrity, he has him made first a canon of the cathedral church, and then archpriest.

[8] set forth. Lesson VI. In the year of our salvation one thousand two hundred and ten Grimerio dies; Fulk is elected pastor by the whole clergy: he presides for six years with singular prudence and also fidelity. Thence, translated by the will of Honorius III to the church of Pavia, while he daily admits fifteen poor men to his table; while he maintains as many others in the study of letters; while he never lays aside the care of widows, orphans, virgins and all the wretched, he is proclaimed by the one voice of all to be the common parent of all. But since, wholly intent on vigils, prayers, afflictions of the body, and frequent sermons to the people, he spares himself nothing so long as he may profit others, after thirteen years had been spent in this unremitting exercise of the pastoral office and of the virtues, he is called to the rewards of the heavenly life. His holiness was afterwards declared by no doubtful signs and celebrated by much talk among the whole people.

[9] But since it is pleasing at the same time to complete the topic of the cult of St. Fulk, it remains to note that the church of Piacenza celebrated his feast with semidouble rite until the year 1729; but then the bishop who presided over sacred things at Piacenza asked the Roman curia, by a special petition, that it might be permitted to keep it with double rite both in the city and in the diocese: to which petition the Sacred Congregation of Rites assented on the 10th day of December of the same year. The canons of St. Saviour celebrated it by the authority of the Sacred Congregation of Rites with semidouble rite from the year 1612; whether that rite afterwards rose in grade is unknown to me. But the Lateran congregation from the beginning used the double rite. For when in the year 1570 St. Pius V, pope, had given its members the faculty of keeping the feasts of several who were held to be regular canons, the Roman pontiff afterwards added a general faculty of celebrating the feasts of all the other saints too of the said congregation and order, even under a double office; hence in the Propers of this congregation, of which I have before me copies printed some in Italy, some in Belgium, some in Germany, the feast of St. Fulk is seen with double rite. And, as is clear to me from the Breviary of the life of the holy bishops of the church of Ticinum, a very rare book which Giovanni Battista de Gasparis finished in the jubilee year 1650 and published in print the following year, the church of Ticinum then used the double rite in celebrating the feast of St. Fulk; which rite it has retained up to now.

* in Emilia adds Pennotto.

* Solebat Penn.

§ II. The native city and family of St. Fulk; his admission among the regular canons of St. Euphemia; his studies at Paris; his return to Piacenza. His first sermons.

[St. Fulk is said by many to have been a Scot by nation; but most certainly he was born at Piacenza about the year 1164 of the family de' Scotti;] Further, to come to the life of St. Fulk, the first controversy that meets us is about his native country. Gualla makes him sprung from Scotland; which opinion was followed about the year 1570 by Stefano Breventano Historiae Papiae, chap. XVIII, in Campi, vol. II, p. 101., a native of Pavia, and likewise about the year 1597 by Giovanni Maria Spelta Hist. episc. Papiensium, ibid. at the page cited., a native of Pavia; and the same opinion, even after the contrary lessons of Piacenza had been approved at Rome, was retained by Abraham Bzovius Continuatio Annalium Baronii, at the year 1229, num. 7., following in the footsteps of Gualla almost alone, and by Filippo Ferrari, beginning his memorial with these words Catalogus SS. Italiae, p. 674.: Fulk, also called Fulco, a Scot by nation, as a youth, having left his country, coming into Italy, settled at Piacenza; and by Giovanni Battista de Gasparis, who wrote Ticinensis ecclesiae episcoporum vitae, p. 79.: Fulk, called of Piacenza from his long residence in that city, coming from Scotland empty of money, etc. From these, however, Girolamo Bossi dissented, who in the Diptychs of the bishops of Pavia, printed in the year 1640, did not hesitate to write In Campi, vol. II, p. 100.: St. Fulk Scotti, of Piacenza, passed from the bishopric of his native city to that of Ticinum. He had been preceded by the one who in the year 1628 had an image carved with this inscription Ibid. at the page cited.: St. Fulk Scotti, of Piacenza, bishop first of Piacenza, then of Pavia. Nevertheless not all the people of Pavia assented; not even after Pietro Maria Campi, in the year 1651, in which the book of Gaspari also came out, brought to light the Ecclesiastical History of Piacenza, in which he disputed accurately on this subject: certainly Romualdo of St. Mary, whose work was finished in the year 1695 and went to press four years later, thus begins the praises of the blessed man Flavia Papia sacra, vol. II, p. 158.: Fulk, the glorious prelate of the church of Ticinum, is said to have drawn his origin from Scotland. On the contrary Niccolò Coleti Italia sacra, vol. I, col. 1098., in the second edition of Ughelli's Italia sacra, awarded the palm entirely to Campi, bidding farewell to Thomas Dempster, who had enlarged his Scotichronicon with the name of St. Fulk. Poggiali Memorie storiche di Piacenza, vol. V, p. 89. likewise assented to Campi. And indeed Campi's arguments are plainly victorious: for he shows that Gualla's authority is very slight concerning all these deeds of St. Fulk before he came to Pavia; then he brings forward the words of Umberto Locati, written about the year 1550 and recited by us above at number 4, and these others of Fabrizio Marliani of Milan, bishop of Piacenza, who about the year 1490 compiled a catalogue of his predecessors In Campi, vol. II, p. 102.: Fulk, a Piacentine by nation and provost of St. Euphemia, was elected bishop of Piacenza. But what is chief, he demonstrated from authentic monuments and from the testimony of St. Fulk himself that he was born about the year 1164 and was living at Piacenza in the third year of his age; by which Gualla's narrative plainly falls. For in the year 1221 he himself said at Pavia before the apostolic delegates that he knew nothing of the election of Tedaldo (elected bishop of Piacenza in the year 1167), because he was not yet a cleric (but by no means because he had not yet come to Piacenza). Of the election of the Lord Ardizzone (elected in the middle of the year 1192) he said that he was not present, because he was then a youth, or under thirty; which age he had not at all reached even in the year 1194, in which he was bidden to be provost of St. Euphemia. There is no need to set out these several points at greater length, since they will recur below in their places. But that Campi would have him born of some family by the name of Scotti, this rests not on this one foundation alone, that at that time in the neighbouring village of Settima there lived the brothers Guido and Oberto Scotti, and that on that account some credit is due to Gualla, who turned the family name into a native country: but there remains a testimony plainly not to be neglected. For in the Chronicles of the bishops of Piacenza, drawn up by Fabrizio de Marliano, bishop of Tortona and afterwards of Piacenza, in the year of the Lord 1476, but rather written in the year 1388 and continued a whole century later by Marliano (for Boselli Storie piacentine, p. IX and X. saw an old copy ending in the year 1388 with these words: I have not seen further, nor do I know. Amen); in these it is read Muratori, Scriptt. rerum italicarum, vol. XVI, col. 931.: Fulk de' Scotti, a Piacentine by nation and provost of St. Euphemia, is elected to the bishopric of Piacenza about the times 1219 or 20. He sat certain months; then the same is translated to the bishopric of Pavia; so that sure traces of the tradition remain that the name of his family is de' Scotti.

[11] [as a youth he becomes a canon of St. Euphemia; he is sent to the university of Paris, where he preaches to his companions;] Granted, then, that the blessed man was born at Piacenza of the house of the Scotti about the year 1164 of poor parents; that he received his daily food for some time from a rich merchant, as Gualla relates; and that he once foresaw that he would be a bishop: this is certain, that in his youth he was made a regular canon in the chapter of St. Euphemia at Piacenza. About the year 1091, in which, the body of St. Euphemia having been found at Piacenza, her church was rebuilt Locati, in the Thesaurus of Graevius and Burmann, vol. III, part II, col. 22., this chapter seems to have been begun; which was afterwards completed by many gifts, which Campi partly enumerates; until in the year 1490, under Pope Innocent VIII, it was given with the cure of souls to the congregation of the Holy Saviour Lubin, Abbatiae Italiae, p. 300., erected at Bologna under Pope Martin V [Hélyot, in Migne, Dictionnaire des ordres religieux, under St-Sauveur (Chanoines réguliers de).]. Because he was a youth of great promise, he was sent to Paris to complete his literary studies. For the ardour of learning was then fervent among the canons at Piacenza; so much so that the cathedral chapter, with the approval of Pope Urban III in the year 1166, had decreed that the canons, so long as they remained honourably and studiously in the schools, should have for their support a third part of all the revenues which they would receive when present in the church itself, and, one third being left to the brethren, the other part should be applied to common use Campi, vol. II, p. 369.. And when he was at Paris, it was already the custom that clerical scholars should sometimes deliver a sacred sermon to their fellow students: which custom still existed at Louvain at the beginning of the seventeenth century, as is clear from the letter in which Cornelius Jansen asked his friend, the abbot of Saint-Cyran, that, since the Marian sodality of the Louvain Jesuits seemed fit to be pulled down, and for that reason the confraternity of the Holy Rosary of the Friars Preachers was to be promoted, and he had to pronounce an oration in this assembly on the feast of the Blessed Mary taken up into heaven, he should send him a sermon from France. To his companions, then, when he was at Paris (which is the title of the sermon), Blessed Fulk spoke; which oration, numbered XI, together with many others, was still preserved in the middle of the seventeenth century at Piacenza in the library of the convent of the Friars Preachers of St. John in Canali; whence Campi copied this beginning Ibid. vol. II, p. 67.: But I, since I am skilled neither in speech nor in knowledge, can by no means satisfy your capacity; but

nevertheless I ask that you bear with me patiently: for

Often indeed a little light drives away great darkness, And a rivulet often supplies sweet waters.

But although both his holiness and his occupation of two episcopal sees procured distinguished glory for St. Fulk, yet you would search in vain for his name in Du Boulay's History of the University of Paris. St. Fulk must be thought to have devoted himself to theology, which then chiefly flourished in this general university, since in Italy he would easily have found better schools of law. And to how great perils to chastity the blessed youth was exposed there it is easy to guess from the morals of the Paris scholars and the licence of harlots [Compare Du Boulay, Historia universitatis Parisiensis, vol. II, p. 686 and following]; but beyond doubt God, who preserved the Hebrew children in the midst of the furnace of fire, kept the young cleric unharmed from the allurements of the flesh.

[12] [Having returned in the year 1192, and a subdeacon, he preaches to the brethren on obedience: from this sermon it is clear that the canons of St. Euphemia were then regulars;] Thence he had returned to Piacenza by the 13th day of December of the year 1193; on which day Lanfranco Arcelli, provost of St. Euphemia (as Campi learned Hist. eccl. di Piacenza, vol. II, p. 74. from a rogito or instrument of the notary Giovanni de Sant'Agata, preserved in the archive of St. Euphemia), brought forward the blessed man, already a subdeacon, together with other canons, to be present at the investiture of certain fields (which was a form of leasing). Now when he had returned from Paris to his own, he was bidden to make trial of his learning, or to give a specimen to those about to admire it. Hence his sermon, thirteenth in order, with the title Ibid. p. 99.: Among his brethren, when he had returned from the school, a sermon on obedience; of which this is the beginning: Jesus came to Nazareth to his parents and was subject to them. From this sequence of words, brethren and fathers, etc. He then excuses his unskilfulness according to custom: For the Lord has not sent me to teach, since I am weak and rude in morals and doctrine; but to obey all humbly; and he adds these words, by which it is plainly established that the canons of St. Euphemia were regulars and not seculars: And these are those vows which we cloistered ones make when we promise stability of place and obedience to the provost: for these are those vows which my lips have uttered, which I vowed voluntarily with no precept compelling, which I proclaimed with my own mouth, etc. Whence it is clear that stability was there then promised in express words, although elsewhere in many places obedience alone was expressed in the profession of the regular canons [Compare the Constitutions of Murbach of the twelfth century, in Amort, Vetus disciplina canonicorum, p. 403; and others in Martène, Appendix ad antiquos ecclesiae ritus, in the Venice edition of the year 1783, after volume III, p. 313. For other formulas see Lelong, de Ordine canonico, p. 545 and following]; nevertheless the profession of stability, which not St. Benedict alone but also SS. Isidore, Aurelian and Fructuosus among the ancients had commended Examen historicum et canonicum, p. 23., was in use in several chapters, as is clear from the Constitutions of St. Peter de Honestis, approved in the year 1117 by Blessed Paschal II, pope In Amort, Disciplina canonica, p. 548., and from several formulas published by Lelong De Ordine canonico, p. 545 and following. But although the manner of professing was expressed in very different words, yet the religious duties of all regular canons were the same, as has been explained quite often by many.

[13] [about the year 1194 he becomes provost and preaches at his predecessor's trental; two years later he enters into a contract for conducting water;] And the blessed man discharged all these duties with such praise that, when Lanfranco the provost had died about the year 1194, he himself was put in his place by the votes of the brethren. When therefore the trental had to be celebrated for the deceased in such a way that, from the very day of his death until the trental or thirtieth day was ended, no day was ever left out without a Mass being celebrated for him, and daily as much of the victuals of the refectory was given for him to the poor as alms as one living brother would receive Constitutions of Murbach, chap. 138, in Amort, Disciplina canonicorum, p. 426., and the holy provost was doing this for his part, he delivered a sermon, preserved with the rest, in which he lamented his lot, that, since he was not yet of that age at which Christ began his apostolic life, he had to discharge the office of provost Campi, vol. II, p. 103.. Whence it is clear, as we noted above, that he was born about the year 1164.

Two years after he was raised to this dignity, with the assent and in the company of his brethren and of others whom it concerned, he entered under the portico of St. Euphemia into a contract with two citizens of Piacenza; by which contract permission was given to these men, on certain conditions, to conduct common water through his ground by three channels Ibid. p. 78..

[14] [he sells a house in order to build a common dormitory: he preaches often to the clergy;] What follows is a singular specimen of his care for regular discipline. It was a most sacred law, strengthened by the precepts of councils and by experience, that all should sleep together in the dormitory, unless infirmity or old age prevented anyone from doing so, each resting in his own bed Constitutions of Murbach, chap. LIV, in Amort, Disciplina etc. p. 401.; but because there was no common dormitory, or it was in the worst of conditions, the canons of St. Euphemia could not follow this law: wherefore St. Fulk, although he lacked the necessary money, resolved to provide for so necessary a thing. Accordingly, on the 11th day of June of the year 1197, with the consent of his brethren, he sold to Uberto Bracciforte, for thirty pounds of Piacenza to be spent on the new building, a house adjoining the precinct of the church; on condition that neither windows nor doors could be opened from which a view would lie open onto this precinct [Campi, vol. II, p. 80; from the rogito of Alberto Riotti, notary, 1197, indiction XV, the 11th day of June, in the archive of St. Euphemia.]. Each pound of Piacenza weighs 318 grams, or as much as 64 francs; but they had the purchasing power that 440 francs now have. St. Fulk's spiritual ardour did not confine itself within the cloister: for since he was strong in oratorical faculty, he spoke often to the clergy of Piacenza; whence on the parchment codex, which we have said several times was preserved among the Friars Preachers of Piacenza, there was inscribed as title: Here begin the sermons of Fulk, provost of St. Euphemia, to the clergy Campi, vol. II, p. 101..

[15] [he takes part first as a witness, then as an arbiter of the controversy agitated between the bishop and the cathedral chapter of Piacenza;] And how great his fame was and the confidence in his integrity, receive a most splendid testimony. Between Grimerio, bishop of Piacenza, and the cathedral chapter a suit had long been raging about the rights of both; for settling which Pope Innocent III in the year 1201 had designated as apostolic delegates the archpriest and archdeacon of Milan. When both parties betook themselves to that city in the following year, Grimerio took as his companion St. Fulk, provost of St. Euphemia. The judges delivered sentence on the 27th day of October in the archdeacon's house; by which the bishop was ordered to feed the canons and their household at the Nativity of the Lord and at the feast of Easter; to ordain no clerics, consecrate no churches or altars, bless no abbots or abbesses, and confer no churches or prelacies without the counsel and presence of the canons, if they wished to be present; unless the bishop should demonstrate that he had a singular privilege or special right: to alienate no immovable goods of the bishopric or give them in fief without the written consent of the canons: but there were granted to him the alms or oblations made to the bishop outside the cathedral church on the occasion of the consecration of abbots, abbesses, churches and altars. On the other side, it was decreed that the canons could neither alienate nor exchange the goods of the church without the bishop's consent; that the alienations hitherto made by the canons were invalid, but above all the division of the goods of the cathedral church and of St. Justina made among themselves against the bishop's will; but that the common life was to be kept by them, with revenues, table, granary, larder and dormitory in common; and finally that, when they instituted processions to St. Anthony, St. Savinus, St. John and the Holy Sepulchre, the bishop was to be advised by them, if he were in the city, so that (if he wished) he could take part Campi, vol. II, p. 89 and 90.. But neither party assented to this sentence; wherefore, as is established from an instrument of Rogerio Guglielmo de Rotofredi, drawn up on the 7th of the kalends of October of the year 1203, the matter was entrusted to two arbiters, namely St. Fulk and Pietro Caponi, canon of the cathedral, very well versed in the whole controversy. These accordingly emended the Milan sentence somewhat, namely that the bishop could confer minor orders without the consent of the chapter outside the Ember Days and outside the cathedral church; that without the same consent the bishop could confer fiefs renounced, or returning to the bishop, or concessions in emphyteusis made according to law; that no suspension could be made by him in the city or the suburbs without the counsel of the chapter; that the offerings on the occasion of consecrations outside the cathedral church were to be divided in such a way that the treasures or sacred vessels and one of the candles with the wine should go to the bishops, and the canons should have the napkin or tablecloth and the other candle with the bread: which are now offered almost only at the consecrations of bishops: that the revenues of the church would be divided into prebends, the provost being granted the faculty of making, with the counsel of the chapter, deeds, investitures, leases and emphyteuses, yet so much being kept in common as was necessary for the meals of the poor and for alms, for common expenses and for the reception of guests; and that table and dormitory would be common according to the old custom. These things altogether pleased both parties, assembled in the episcopal palace; not without praise of St. Fulk's prudence Ibid. p. 91.. For although on the 6th of the kalends of August of the following year Pope Innocent III disapproved the division of goods, by which the common life would soon perish Ibid. p. 92., yet on the 14th of the kalends of January of the year 1228 Pope Gregory IX confirmed without limit the arbitral sentence of St. Fulk and Caponi Ibid. p. 390.. This besides is remarkable, that all the rights which the chapter claimed for itself had been put forward in the year 1194 by the archdeacon against Bishop Ardizzone, and most of them adjudged to him by arbiters Ibid. p. 373.. But the rights of the several colleges and prelates at Piacenza were more intricate than a labyrinth.

[16] [He is involved in the business of wards and in a suit about a stream; he judges as apostolic delegate; he receives a gift from a consul of Piacenza.] On the whole Grimerio seems to have made very great use of St. Fulk's services; certainly, two days after that arbitral sentence, the blessed man is read to have been present in the episcopal palace at the business of wards Ibid. p. 91.; whose affairs had been entrusted to the episcopal care by the Roman laws. Meanwhile the accounts of the monastery not

did he neglect; for at the same time he took care that, since there was a certain suit between the monks of St. Benedict, or of St. Mark, and the canons of St. Euphemia about a certain stream, he produced testimonies in the very next month of October before a public notary, by which the rights of the monastery might be made certain Ibid. at the page cited.. His wisdom also became known to Pope Innocent III. There was a quarrel between Leonardo Rozo, a citizen of Piacenza, and Guifredo, prior of St. Matthew, commonly St. Maffeo, about the right of patronage of this church and of the hospital of St. Maffeo. The matter was referred to Pope Innocent; who, by letters given in the month of November of the year 1203, committed it to Grimerio, bishop of Piacenza, to Fulk, provost of St. Euphemia, and to Rolando, abbot of St. Savinus. On the 19th day of May of the year 1204, by common consent, Leonardo won; whom on the same day St. Fulk, in the church of St. Maffeo, by the authority of the Roman pontiff invested with the patronage of both places Ibid. p. 91 and 93.. The blessed man was no less pleasing to the civil magistracy, although it was little fair to the clergy; for on the 9th day of July of the same year 1204, in the cloister of St. Mary, Fulco Radino, one of the consuls of Piacenza, ceded to him, in favour of the monastery of St. Euphemia, all the rights he had in the hospice and church of St. James of Madonara Ibid. p. 92..

§ III. The interdict of Piacenza; the exile of St. Fulk; his return; new sermons.

[This consul was the head of the violators of ecclesiastical immunity and of the rebels against Innocent III.] But at this point we run into very grave difficulties. For in that year, as is read in the contemporary Chronicle of Piacenza, brought to light not long ago [Huillard-Bréholles, Chronicum Placentinum et Chronicum de rebus in Italia gestis, p. 28.], there was a sedition between the lord bishop and the clergy of Piacenza and the commune on the occasion of two thousand pounds (an enormous sum for the time, for which the borough of San Donnino and Bargone were then bought); which the consuls themselves demanded of them as a subsidy for paying the debt of the commune; which was then sixteen thousand pounds. These the lord bishop and the clergy of Piacenza refused to give; and on that account they went out of the district of Piacenza, driven out by force Regestum Innocentii III, book IX, letters 166 and 167. and afflicted with losses much greater than two thousand pounds. This tragedy must have begun in the year 1203, since on the nones of October of the year 1206 Pope Innocent III wrote to the podestà, consuls and people of Piacenza Ibid. letter 167.: We have now waited THREE YEARS, if perchance the infatuated fig tree, dunged with manure, might not bring forth fruit of itself; and indeed it is established from letters of the same Innocent, given at Rome on the 9th of the kalends of March of the year 1204 Ibid. book VII, letter 224., that the people of Piacenza had then already for some time been bound by the bond of excommunication on account of the iniquity which they had committed against God and his Church, and were to be avoided until they should come to their senses from their error; that this might happen the sooner, the pontiff granted the bishops of Piacenza and Tortona the faculty of absolving them when they returned to the command of the Church Ibid. letter 225.. Did St. Fulk, then, through excessive love of peace, not observe these things? For my part I judge that at the beginning the way of clemency was tried, and that the bishop and clergy were not expelled immediately; and that meanwhile that gift was granted to St. Fulk by the consul Fulco Radino; but afterwards, when the bishop and clergy steadfastly refused to pay the tax imposed and declared the magistrates excommunicate, they were driven by the magistracy into exile with the loss of all their goods: which exile St. Fulk could not but share. And indeed, in the controversy whether the canons of St. John belonged to the body of the cathedral chapter, one of those canons said In Campi, vol. II, p. 386.: And when Bishop Grimerio went out of Piacenza with the rest of the clergy, he wrote to the archbishop of Genoa on behalf of me and Giovanni Regutii as his brethren and canons of the greater church; and this man (St. Fulk), who has just been elected bishop, wrote those letters with his own hand.

[18] Which disobedience lasted from the year 1203 The firebrand and leader of the discord was that very Fulco Radino, St. Fulk's benefactor, as is established from the letters of Innocent III given on the 4th of the ides of June of the year 1206 to the bishop and clergy of Piacenza: From your letters, he says Regestum Innocentii III, book IX, letter 77., we have learned clearly that the consuls and councillors of Piacenza, acknowledging their own guilt, desire to return humbly and devoutly to the command of the apostolic see… But since the aforesaid consuls are held bound by oath to Fulco Radino not to come to agreement without him, and he is not willing to give them leave, nor to swear, except on such terms that no command be laid on him, or (if it should be laid) that he be not at all bound to observe it, you have urgently asked us to deign to receive his oath in this way; so that a door of escape may be opened to them also and the whole city may not fall into ruin on account of one single man. Not hesitating, the pontiff rejected these conditions, plainly hostile to ecclesiastical authority; declaring besides that the oath sworn to Radino was of no force, and that he was ready to admit the rest without him; but Radino brought it about that they did not consent. When Innocent understood this, fearing lest this example of obstinacy and of violated ecclesiastical immunity should creep further, he resolved to employ a singular severity. Accordingly on the 7th of the kalends of August he wrote to the bishops (as it seems) of Lombardy Ibid. letter 131.: We command your fraternity in virtue of obedience, strictly enjoining by apostolic writings, that you take care to detain the merchandise or any goods whatever of the merchants of Piacenza which come into your power or that of your people, and cause them to be detained by others, until the people of Piacenza render due satisfaction to the Church, their mother, whom they have gravely offended and do not cease to offend, for the losses and injuries inflicted. But not even by these was the obstinacy of the magistracy of Piacenza overcome: wherefore the pontiff on the 7th day of October wrote very grave letters to the consuls and people of Piacenza, again declaring that they had incurred ecclesiastical censures, and adding threats that, unless they came to their senses within a month, he would take away the episcopal see and divide the diocese among the neighbouring bishops; and he sent to them at the same time one who should carry out these threats, namely Gregorio Galgano of Sant'Apostolo, cardinal deacon of the title of St. Mary in Porticu Ibid. book IX, letter 167:, or (if he were absent) the visitors of Lombardy: namely Lotario, bishop of Vercelli; Gerardo Sessi, abbot of Tiglieto; and Blessed Albert, priest of Mantua Ibid. 168 and 169.; which things he willed to be made known to all the bishops of Lombardy Ibid. letter 166..

[19] [until the year 1207, in which the people of Piacenza were loosed from excommunication,] And brought back by these at length to a better mind, the people of Piacenza directed letters to the Roman merchants, signifying that they desired to return humbly and devoutly to the command of the apostolic see Ibid. letter 169.. This counsel the pontiff praised in letters given to the people of Piacenza Ibid. at the letter cited.; and he sent again to them the bishop of Vercelli with his companions. These first of all recalled to Piacenza Bishop Grimerio, who was staying at Venice with some of the chief clerics; but in vain. When, however, the legates found their minds well disposed, they exacted an oath from the consuls and some of the chief citizens and absolved the whole multitude before the cathedral church Boselli, Storie piacentine, p. 133.. Whence in the contemporary chronicle of Piacenza at the year 1206 it is read Huillard-Bréholles, Chronic. Placentinum, p. 29.: In the same year, on Thursday, the XV [I] of the month of November, they swore to stand by the precepts of the Church concerning the discord which they had with the bishop and clergy of Piacenza, through the lord bishop of Vercelli and the priest Albert of Mantua, to whom the case had been delegated by the lord pope. And in the following year (1207), in the month of February, agreement was concluded between the commune of Piacenza and the clergy of Piacenza, the consuls being Rufino de Porta, Carnevario de Fontana, etc. Immediately afterwards the bishop and clerics of Piacenza on the one side, and on the other Uberto Visconti, Giovanni de Malamina and Pietro de Vilimercato, envoys of the commune of Piacenza, took care to plead before Pope Innocent concerning the command to be given to the people of Piacenza, the former imploring justice, the latter mercy Regestum Innocentii, book X, letter 64.. In the month of May of the year 1207 he wrote back to the consuls and people of Piacenza letters conspicuous for paternal gravity and clemency, and the form of the command, which he communicated to those same persons, he sent to the bishops of Vercelli and Ivrea, and also to the abbot of Tiglieto and Albert of Mantua, visitors of Lombardy Ibid. at the letter cited.. This form was as follows Campi, Hist. eccl. di Piacenza, vol. II, p. 380.: This is the precept which we enjoin on you under the obligation of the oath you have sworn, that henceforth, contrary to the tenor of the Lateran council, you do not burden the bishop or the clergy of Piacenza with exactions or collections, and that you restore all the fruits still existing which you took from them or caused to be taken. But concerning the other things taken away we condescend to you in this way, if you are willing to accept this favour gratefully; that at present you return three thousand pounds to them; and for the remainder, as you offer, you bind the commune to them; so that in their name you cause their revenues to be faithfully collected and wholly assigned to them, until full satisfaction has been made them. But if you are not willing to accept this way: because the sin is not forgiven unless what was taken away be restored: since there is no doubt that you can, if you will, find the money either by loan or in some other way; we command under the same constraint that you pay in full within six months the sum of money for the things taken away according to the estimate made. And the possessions which the churches of Piacenza had you shall take care to restore to that state in which they were at the time when the violence was inflicted. But new delays were interposed; wherefore the pontiff on the 5th of the kalends of August of the year 1207 ordered the provost and chapter of Piacenza to come to the city as soon as possible and carry out his precepts [Campi, Hist. eccl. di Piacenza, vol. II, p. 380 and 381. Regestum, book X, letter 222.]. And in this way peace was at last restored.

[20] [and St. Fulk returned with the rest of the expelled clerics and set in order the affairs of the hospice of Madonara.] The bishop and canons, then, at length found the minds docile; and they so settled matters that shortly afterwards all the clerics had returned. Certainly St. Fulk was already living at Piacenza on the 13th day of September of the year 1207; on which day, in the presence of Opizzone Novello, patron and founder, the priest Lanfranco resigned into his hands the administration of the hospice and church of St. James of Madonara, in which certain rights had already been conferred on him by the consul Fulco Radino; then, according to the compacts entered into between Opizzone and the canons of St. Euphemia, Lanfranco elected as minister

and rector a man named Rinaldo, whom the blessed provost confirmed and invested with the church and the hospice; finally Opizzone conferred on the most holy man the fullest faculty of administering the goods of the hospice, chiefly in order that its debt might be paid, certain rights however being reserved to the patron Campi, vol. II, p. 95, from the rogito of Giacomo Aimoni, notary, 13 Sept. 1270.. And thus this testimony, such as it is, shows that St. Fulk was held to be no less industrious an administrator than an excellent herald of the word of God.

[21] [St. Fulk preaches at the diocesan synod, to his brethren and to the clergy: a notable passage on the holiness of priests.] And soon he had again to unfold this oratorical faculty of his. By that four-year disturbance and the dispersal of the clerics, the morals of churchmen had suffered no less than the piety of the people; wherefore at the beginning of the year 1208 Bishop Grimerio resolved to celebrate a synod; and he willed that the provost of St. Euphemia should speak to the assembled clerics. He spoke on these words of chapter IV of Proverbs: Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father; and attend that you may know prudence: may he give you a good gift, etc.; and he showed how holy the life of clerics must be, not only because they are Christians, but because they are set apart from the world and chosen into the lot and portion of the Lord; and so much the more because they are the leaders of others in the path of the virtues [Sermon I of St. Fulk, among the Friars Preachers, at the synod of the Lord Grimerio, in Campi, vol. II, p. 97.]. On the next Sunday, the first of Lent, he spoke twice: a thing which, for that age, was very remarkable: namely once at home to the canons of St. Euphemia, once in the assembly of the clerics of Piacenza, teaching both that innocence of life and the exercise of good works, by doing good, must be joined with fasting Sermons II and III, ibid. at the page cited.. Of the second oration Campi recited this small portion, plainly not bad: Purity of body also (the words are the blessed man's) is necessary: because we ought to take the greatest care that the eyes which see the All-seeing be not inclined to look upon the beauty of a woman; that the tongue which by speaking brings down the Son of God from heaven and on the altar, under the appearance of bread and wine, forms the members of Christ, do not contrive deceits, detractions and lies; that the hands which touch the blood of Christ be not polluted with the blood of sin; that the fingers do not handle anything unclean or forbidden, which frequently handle that which was conceived of clean flesh, born of cleaner, raised again in the cleanest; that the feet which go in to the Lord who gives joy to our youth do not walk along the polluted way of sin. For whoever approaches the altar of God defiled with lust sets up an idol of Venus beside the Son of the Virgin; he who utters the sacred words of that sacrament with an unclean mouth spits in the face of the Saviour; and, when he imprints a kiss on the altar or on the body of Christ, he betrays the Son of man with a kiss like Judas; and when he puts the most holy flesh into his mouth, he throws it as it were into the mud of the streets. Finally the exercise of works is necessary, which consists in two things, namely in abstaining from evil and in doing good; etc.

§ IV. St. Fulk canon and archpriest of the cathedral church; his public teaching; a few other deeds.

In the middle of the year 1208 he becomes canon and archpriest of the cathedral: Since then St. Fulk's praise and authority among the people of Piacenza were so great, it is surely no wonder if Bishop Grimerio and the cathedral canons tried to associate him with their body, and did in fact associate him, electing him first canon, then archpriest: which was there the first dignity after the episcopal. These things were done between the 11th day of May and the 25th of June of the year 1208. For on that day, the 11th of May, he still sat as provost of St. Euphemia under the portico of the church, investing the notary Cristoforo with a neighbouring house, as is established from an instrument of the notary Rogerio Oberto de Presbyteris drawn up on that day Ibid. p. 98.; on the other hand, on the following 25th day of June, he was present as archpriest at the settlement of a suit which was between the cathedral chapter and the clerics of St. Mary of Gariverto over the right of designating the provost of this church; and for the good of peace and concord it was suspended rather than ended: concerning which matter there exists an instrument drawn up on the 25th day of June by the notary Giovanni Carmangiario Ibid. p. 99.. It is therefore likely that the blessed man was created canon about the beginning of the month of June and shortly afterwards archpriest. But by what right these things were done is a more difficult question: concerning which this one thing can be said, that since the blessed man was flourishing at Piacenza with the greatest praise for learning and dexterity, and a prebend was vacant in the cathedral chapter, the canons co-opted him into their college, secular though it was, although he had professed stability among the regular canons; to which election the blessed man assented, either because regular canons, as Innocent III wrote back five years later, serve a laxer rule than monks [De statu monachorum et canonicorum regularium, chapter Quod Dei (book III, title XXXV, chap. 5).]; or because Benedictine stability itself, much more severe, could be forsaken for betterment, as Hildemar says Compare Martène, Commentarius in Regulam S. Benedicti, p. 759.

[23] how these things were done. Why do we not have the acts of this election? There remain, however, sure testimonies by which, even if neither the causes nor the circumstances are declared, the thing itself becomes manifest. For when in the year 1215 a controversy was raging about the canons of St. John, whether they belonged to the body of the cathedral chapter (which controversy we shall explain below), several canons of St. John were brought in, who testified that they had been present at some capitular acts of the cathedral chapter and had had a part in them; or had performed other things which could be done only by cathedral canons. One of these related this Campi, vol. II, p. 386.: And I know that I and the others aforesaid of St. John were present in the chapter of the greater church when this man (St. Fulk), who has just been elected bishop, was elected a simple priest or canon of the greater or cathedral church, and so we received him to the kiss of peace, as brethren and canons of the greater church, and this in the presence of the bishop (Grimerio). And afterwards we were present in the chapter of the greater church with the other canons of the greater church, in the presence of the bishop, as brethren and canons of the greater church, when the same elect (St. Fulk) was promoted and elected archpriest of Piacenza, and so we received him to the kiss of peace, like the other canons of the greater church; and, in our presence, he promised the same bishop that he would observe his week in the celebration of the divine office, or in his turn would celebrate the high Mass of Terce for an entire week, or of Sext if it were a fast, like the other priests, canons of the greater church. This singular promise another canon of St. John, named Giovanni Regutii, a priest, explained somewhat more clearly: And then I know, he says Ibid. p. 387., that the same Bishop Grimerio said to the Lord Fulk, the same now elected bishop: "We wish that you promise us that you will observe your week in the celebration of the divine office, like the other priests, and that you do not give this up on the occasion of the archpriesthood." And he answered: "I promise it well, and I can well do it; and also (if there be need) I will do some of those of the other canons."

[24] St. Fulk teaches publicly at Piacenza. And that other canon had said this above Ibid. p. 386.: And I know that the Lord Fulk, now elect (bishop of Piacenza), when he was archpriest, asked me to sing for him the Mass of Terce in his week; because owing to the impediment of directing the schools he could not sing the Mass himself; and no priest ought to sing this Mass unless he is a canon of the greater church. From which passage it is clear that the holy man taught publicly at Piacenza; for public doctors were said to direct the schools. Now it is agreed among all that a university existed at Piacenza from the year 1248; but Campi demonstrated [Hist. eccl. di Piacenza, vol. II, 187. Compare Tiraboschi, Storia della letteratura italiana, vol. III, book IV, chap. I, §12; chap. VI, §28.] that half a century before most celebrated doctors of law flourished there and held chairs; and he contends too that a diploma was granted by Otto III about the year 996; and indeed Locati, a diligent writer, related this at the year 1009 In Graevius and Burmann, Thesaurus Italiae, vol. III, part II, col. 21.: The academy and study of all the good arts, already obtained from Otto, the third emperor of that name, began to flourish in the city of Piacenza under Rogerio, an excellent interpreter and glossator of the laws. Campi will give more Hist. eccles. di Piacenza, vol. II, p. 187 and following.

[25] He subscribes the decree for reducing the canons of St. Ulric. On the sixth day of August of the year 1208, as is established from an instrument of the notary Carmangiario Ibid. p. 99., Blessed Fulk subscribed the ordinance of Bishop Grimerio by which, owing to the slenderness of its revenues, the secular chapter of St. Ulric was reduced to three priests and two clerics living in common. Grimerio having set out for Rome, St. Fulk the archpriest, with many canons, received on the 26th day of July of the year 1209 the testimony of Arimburga, a Burgundian woman from the diocese of Besançon, that, when she had been entirely blind for seven weeks, having promised two ogleari of wax at the sepulchre of Blessed Raymond, who had died at Piacenza nine years before on the 28th day of July, and having visited the sepulchre, she had received her sight Compare the instrument of Cormangiario, in Campi, vol. II, p. 381.. But the following year was much more notable for the death of Grimerio della Porta, bishop of Piacenza, who died in 1210, on Thursday, the eighth of the month of April, before Palm Sunday, before Compline In Campi, vol. II, p. 100.; a pious and good man, formerly abbot of the monastery of Colomba of the Cistercian order, praised in life and after death, and especially to be mourned by his friend St. Fulk.

§ VI. The election of St. Fulk to the see of Piacenza, never confirmed by the apostolic see.

[From what documents the election of St. Fulk to the see of Piacenza becomes known.] When therefore Grimerio had departed from among the living, Pope Innocent III sent to Piacenza Gerardo Sessi, formerly abbot of Tiglieto, but then bishop-elect of Novara, and not long afterwards cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and bishop of Albano, and one of the three visitors of Lombardy, to preside over the election; since the church of Piacenza depended on the apostolic see with no intermediary. But rights, customs, laws, everything was uncertain at Piacenza; whence it came about that the election of St. Fulk which was then carried out was brought into controversy and was never confirmed by the Roman pontiff. This supreme business of St. Fulk's life, therefore, as far as can be done,

must be declared. That this may be done, there are at hand first of all the letters of the cathedral chapter, given in the year 1213 to those canons who, together with the canons of St. Antoninus, were to request the pontifical confirmation; then the testimonies collected in the year 1215 about the union of the chapter of St. John with the cathedral chapter; thirdly the testimonies subscribed in the years 1219 and 1220 about the customs of the church of Piacenza in electing its bishops: to which is added the often-praised Chronicle of Piacenza, recently published, and a few documents which Campi indicated but did not publish. From these, then, and other monuments we shall try to explain that business.

[27] [Not long before, the people through the magistrates took part in the election of the bishops of Piacenza; and all the clergy:] First of all, up to these times the people of Piacenza had had a part in the elections of bishops through their magistrates. Certainly in the year 1192, when an election was imminent, on the 24th day of June they said to the provost of the greater church and to the archdeacon of Piacenza, in the presence of the provost of St. Antoninus Boselli, Storie piacentine, p. 340 and 341.: You who intend to make the episcopal election, which ought to be made by consent according to law, we, holding the place of the people in this, to all the electors of one and of three persons, on which the episcopal election may depend, both ought and wish to be present at the election of the bishop himself, and we wish all the elections and the episcopal pronouncement to be made with our knowledge and affirmation; and then they interposed a lawful appeal to the Roman pontiff, if these customs were departed from. They were not departed from; and so two days later, when the election was held in the broido * of the monastery of St. Savinus before Pietro Diano, cardinal priest of the title of St. Cecilia and legate of the Roman see, there were present the gonfaloniere, with fourteen consuls of the merchants and six consuls of the commune and many other laymen. And of the clerics there were present O. de Rocha, archdeacon; O., provost of the greater church of Piacenza; Romano, abbot of the monastery of St. Savinus; Aicardo, priest of the same greater church; Alberto, priest; Nicolò Morbio and Dundedeo Galiciano, deacons; Guglielmo Marchio, subdeacon; Pietro Conte, canon; Dom Azzo, prior of this monastery, and Dom Bernardo, monk; Guido, provost of the church of St. Antoninus; Bernardo de Placentino and Ugo Macagnano, canons; the priest Giovanni of the church of St. John and the priest Gerardo; Otto, provost of St. Brigid; the priest Pietro of the same church; Lanfranco, provost of St. Euphemia; Giovanni, archpriest of the chaplains, with a great part of the chaplains. Where the place and the diversity and mixture of the clerics are to be noted. And the legate, at the request of the clergy of Piacenza and of the consuls of Piacenza and of the whole people, to the honour of God and of the Roman Church and of the lord Henry, emperor of the Romans, confirmed for his part the election made in the lord Ardizzone.

[28] the manner of the election of his predecessor. The instrument of the election of Grimerio, who succeeded in the year 1199, does not exist; but from the confirmatory letters of Innocent III In Campi, vol. II, p. 376 and 377. we know that Ugo Vicedomino, master of the greater church, Alberto, canon of St. Antoninus, and Al., prior of St. Savinus, came to the Roman see with letters of the archdeacon, clergy and people of Piacenza; in which letters the clerics of the same city are said to have assembled, and to have held a long deliberation about substituting a pastor, and to have conferred their votes unanimously on Grimerio. Somewhat more explicit things were related in the year 1219 or the following, before the pontifical legates, by St. Fulk himself: And concerning the election of the Lord Grimerio he says (so it is read in the lawful instrument Ibid. p. 382.) that the manner observed was this: that there were at that election electors from the canons of the greater church, from the canons of St. Antoninus, from the monks of St. Savinus and from the clerics of other churches. Asked how he knows, he answered, because he was present in the old chapter-house of the greater church, where those electors were; and he says that he does not remember the names… And he says that he was asked (when the late Grimerio was elected) whom he wanted; and he saw many clerics of the city asked in a similar way. From these and other passages it is clear that not all the canons or clerics were electors, even if they were present; but that some were elected or designated; which custom can be understood from what the same Pope Innocent wrote in the year 1212 about the election at Milan Regest. book XV, letter 112.; ordering inquiry to be made whether by ancient and approved custom all and each, abbots as well as provosts, and also chaplains, had an equal voice in the election with the ordinaries or cathedral canons; and, if neither all nor an equal one, who and how great; namely whether parity was to be regarded not in the individuals of the orders but in the orders of the individuals; or rather whether the right of electing resided with the ordinaries or cathedral canons alone, and the rest were accustomed to be called only for the sake of propriety, by way of precaution, etc. And it is plain from the request of the consuls of Piacenza of the year 1192 that at Piacenza one elector was designated by some and three by others.

[29] [The people being absent, three controversies are settled by the apostolic delegate, so that all rights are drawn to him.] However these things were, when the pontifical legate had gathered the whole clergy into the episcopal palace (nowhere is mention made of the commune or the consuls), the first contention was between the canons of St. John, in whatever way united into one body with the cathedral canons, and the canons of St. Antoninus about precedence or going first: and then the elect of Novara, who was then there as legate for that election, said to both parties: "On account of the election of the bishop we cannot now attend diligently to this contention; but we say thus, that without prejudice those of St. John go before those of St. Anthony. And so they went before Testimonies of the year 1215, in Campi, vol. II, p. 386.. The second controversy Ansaldo de Cario, provost of St. Antoninus, set forth thus in the year 1219 Ibid. p. 382.: Then there was discord between the chapter of the greater church and the archdeacon about making the electors. Whence the Lord Gerardo pronounced the electors himself. But there was also a third controversy, which the Lord Vicedomino Cossadoca, bishop of Piacenza after St. Fulk, declared in these words Ibid. at the page cited.: I was present at the election of the Lord Fulk; and then there was a question between the canons of the greater church, and the canons of St. Antoninus, and the other clergy; namely, because the canons of the greater church said that the election of the bishop belonged to them alone; and those of St. Antoninus and the other clergy said that they ought to be present at the election of the bishop. At length a certain composition was made between them according to what is contained in a certain instrument made thereupon by Pietro Lacheta. Which was on the 28th day of July of the year 1210 Ibid. p. 104.. Asked who made the electors of the said Lord Fulk, he answered: "Since there was discord about making the electors; the Lord Gerardo de Sesso, elect of Novara, by whose counsel, by command of the lord pope, we were to proceed in making the election of the bishop, said that those among whom there was discord should commit the discord itself to him; and so we committed that discord to him: who afterwards said that I (then provost of the cathedral church), and the archdeacon, and also anyone who wished, should give him in writing those whom he believed to be suitable for the election; and that he wished that, from those churches whose clerics said that electors ought to be made from among them, we should give him in writing those whom we believed to be the more useful among them; the things said so far are to be referred to the 28th day of July. Whence I on the following days gave him in writing those whom I believed to be suitable; of whom he made electors; and of them he dismissed, or did not admit, some. Nor is there any doubt that the archdeacon and others likewise suggested the names of some of the electors.

[30] Who designates twelve electors and explores the votes of others, From these the pontifical legate designated twelve electors; whose names are these Testimonies of the year 1215, in Campi, vol. II, p. 381 and 382.:

from the greater church: Master Alberto de Pado, Pietro Caponus, Master Ferrus;

from the chapter of St. Antoninus: Master Giovanni de Otto, the priest Amizo, Master Bertolo, archpriest of the chaplains, for the chaplains;

from the monastery of St. Savinus: Dom Giacomo, afterwards prior, and another;

from St. John's: Dom Niccolò, canon;

from Mediano: Dom Enrico, monk;

from the clergy of the city: the priest Alberto de Carmiano;

from the clergy outside: the priest Otto de Brona.

What was then done on the 2nd day of August Master Giovanni de Otto relates thus Ibid. p. 381.: I was present at the election of the Lord Fulk, namely because I was in the cloister of St. Antoninus; and it was said (I do not know by whom) that I and the priest Amizo and Master Bertolo, then archpriest of the chaplains, had been made electors of the lord bishop for the chaplains. And so, called …, by the will of the chapter of St. Antoninus, by which we were sent, we went before the Lord Gerardo, elect of Novara, in the bishop's palace, in which he was: which Lord Gerardo had sent for us (as I believe)… But besides the electors there were present others of the clergy from inside and outside. The electors having thus been made and gathered, we were in a chamber of the bishop's palace with the aforesaid Lord Gerardo, the elect; and he, at our request, had other canons of the greater church, and of St. Antoninus, and of the other clergy, whom we named, called for us; so that a certain addition of new electors was made. And he explored (because he was the greater, or president, among us) the will of each, saying: "Who seems to you good and suitable for bishop?" And they answered what they wished, and their wishes were written down. The wishes of those whom we wished (namely the new electors) having been inquired into, we (the first twelve electors) were alone in that chamber. And [the legate of the lord pope made the twelve electors swear concerning the bishop to be elected Testimony of St. Fulk, in Campi, vol. II, p. 383.]; and he began to inquire, and inquired into the wishes of all of us separately…

[31] [and at length he alone designates St. Fulk bishop; who is lifted up after the manner of the kings of the Franks.] This done, we began to inquire on whom the greater part had agreed; but we did not finish: because the Lord Gerardo himself, the elect, told us to commit our votes and our place to him, and to let or allow him to act. At length all committed their place to him, except me and Master Amizo; who began to make objection and to say that we would not commit it: whence we appealed. At length we withdrew the appeal and committed our place to him; and he pronounced the Lord Fulk bishop. Hence in one Chronicle of Piacenza In Campi, vol. II, p. 104. it is read: In the same year (1210), on Monday, the second of August, the Lord Fulk, canon and archpriest of the greater church of Piacenza, was elected bishop; and in the other, more recently published Huillard-Bréholles, Chronic. Placentinum, p. 35.: In the same year, on Monday, the second of the month of August, Fulk, archpriest of the greater church, was lifted up as bishop of Piacenza. Which lifting up is a singular rite, which I remember explaining elsewhere Acta SS. vol. IX of October, p. 377.; and which not

only in Gaul, as Martène supposed De antiquis ecclesiae ritibus, book I, chap. VIII, art. X, num. 19., but among all the peoples of Germanic stock (except the English, who followed the Roman rites), and so flourished among the Lombards. Namely, in the same way in which the ancient Franks and the other Germans created their kings, they raised elected bishops from the ground and, lifted on their shoulders, carried them about, showing them to the whole people; and this is the elevation of St. Fulk indicated by the chronicler.

[32] Two embassies are made to Innocent III to obtain confirmation of the election; Immediately afterwards a decree was drawn up and sent to Rome, so that confirmation might be obtained; as is established from the testimonies of Giovanni Regutii, Giovanni Aroldelli and a third canon of St. John, who in the year 1215 deposed in almost the same words In Campi, vol. II, p. 386 and 387.: And so I and the other canons of St. John who were at Piacenza subscribed the decree sent to Rome by Ugo Vicedomino (afterwards bishop) and Alberto de Ceno to ask for the confirmation of the Lord Fulk, elect of Piacenza. But Pope Innocent did not assent; because it seemed that it must first be weighed whether the election had been lawfully made. For Giovanni Belmonte and Master F., both canons of St. Antoninus, opposed it in the name of the chapter of St. Antoninus and of the clergy of Piacenza Ibid. p. 109.. When therefore four years of delay were now being strung together, it seemed that the difficulties were to be overcome by instituting a new embassy, furnished in an unaccustomed manner: of which the following instrument exists Ibid. p. 383.: In the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand two hundred and thirteen, the second indiction, on the eighth day before the kalends of February, at Piacenza in the cloister of St. Antoninus, before Giovanni, priest, cleric of the church of Gragnano, Oberto de Sariano, Rizardo, servant of the archdeacon, witnesses summoned. The archpriest Gerardo Castezii, on the part of the lord elect (St. Fulk) and of the chapter of Piacenza, held out and gave to the Lord Guido, provost of the church of St. Antoninus, in the presence and with the consent of Master Amizo, Master Bertolo, Master Giovanni Otoe *, the archdeacon Giacomo Capoacia, Ugo de Gragnano, Ansaldo de Cario, Ugo de Arcellis, Tomaxio, canons of the said church, such letters, sealed with the seal of the chapter; on which seal was the image of an eagle, and around the seal were the letters: SEAL OF THE CHAPTER OF PIACENZA. Whose tenor is this: "The chapter of Piacenza to its beloved brethren in Christ, Giovanni de Belmonte and Master F., canons of Saint Antoninus, greeting and sincere charity in the Lord. We intimate to your probity by the present letters that we are sending the bearers of these presents, the Lord our provost, and P. Cacia, our brother, and the provost of St. Euphemia, to the apostolic see to ask the supreme pontiff for the confirmation of our elect. Further, we wish it not to escape your discretion that, with the consent and will of the chapter of St. Antoninus, in the place and name of the church of St. Antoninus, we choose you to ask for the same confirmation; so that, if both of you can be present, both of you may be willing to be present: but if both cannot be present, he who shall have been named ought to be present. Wherefore we ask your discretion in the Lord and beseech you that you be willing, in the place and name of your church of St. Antoninus, to associate yourselves with them in asking for the aforesaid confirmation; giving them your counsel and help (as we fully trust in you)." Which letters I, Giovanni Savino, notary, undersigned, saw and read, in which was contained as above; and with the consent and will of the said lord provost and chapter of St. Antoninus I authenticated them and reduced them to public form. I, Savino, notary of the sacred palace, was present at this; and by the command of the aforesaid I authenticated the same letters and wrote two of one tenor.

[33] but the Roman pontiff never consented. A few things seem to need remark: first, although at that time generally in Italy, and so in Lombardy [Art de vérifier les dates, vol. I, dissertation sur les dates, p. X; Nouveau traité de diplomatique, vol. V, p. 584; Fumagalli, Istituzioni diplomatiche, vol. II, p. 59 and 60.], the beginning of the year was reckoned from the 25th day of December, yet at Piacenza the same beginning was three months later, fixed on the 25th day of March, as appears from the Chronicle of Piacenza [Huillard-Bréholles, Chronicum Placentinum at the years 1159, 1185, 1188, 1193, 1194 etc.], ending in the year 1235; where the year everywhere begins from the feast of the Annunciation or Incarnation; and so this instrument was drawn up in the year 1214, which is indicated by the second indiction; then, that two canons of the chapter of St. Antoninus, with the consent of this chapter, are chosen by the cathedral canons to go to Rome with three others, seems a device so that the rights of both parties might be intact: since the cathedral canons contended that the election of the bishop belonged to them alone, and the canons of St. Antoninus opposed an election in which they had no part; thirdly, finally, that all then consented in the petition for confirming the election of St. Fulk: for in the year 1210 the canons of St. John had already given their assent, but now the canons of St. Antoninus also. Nevertheless, although the election, made by a twofold compromise, was lawful, yet not everything was pleasing; above all that the legate, after the votes had been collected but not read, had drawn the faculty of electing to himself; although all, willing or unwilling, had ceded their right. Besides, it is likely that the envoys of the several colleges, among whom there were different opinions about the right of electing, by no means agreed among themselves at Rome; or certainly wished that it should be settled at the same time what the parts of each would be thenceforth in the elections of the bishops of Piacenza. What of the fact that the memory of an elected anti-bishop survives? Namely in the Chronicle of the bishops of Piacenza, whose earlier part we said above was written in the year 1388, these words are read In Muratori, Scriptt. rer. Ital. vol. XVI, col. 631.: A certain Brother Giacomo of the order of Preachers is elected to the bishopric of Piacenza. He did not stay long in the bishopric; for he was elected in the year of the Lord 1215 or thereabouts; he had no revenues; because he had many opposing him: for he was in the greatest conflict. Of whom, however, we find mention nowhere else; and besides, the new institute of St. Dominic was not yet approved at that time. However it is, the controversy among the chapters of Piacenza boiled up very greatly in the year 1218, in which at length it was committed for settlement to three delegated judges Campi, vol. II, p. 116.; who in the following years diligently inquired into the usages and customs of Piacenza and of the neighbouring cities. But by then St. Fulk had already been translated to Pavia two years before, never confirmed by the Roman pontiff in the bishopric of Piacenza; as is manifest from the memorial inscribed in the old calendar of the cathedral church Ibid. p. 112.: On the fifth of the ides of September 1216, indiction IV, the Lord Fulk, archpriest of Piacenza and elected bishop over the same city, since BEFORE CONFIRMATION he had been elected bishop by the people of Pavia and confirmed to them by Pope Honorius, gave to this church of Piacenza etc.

* electionibus?

* episcopalem pronuntiationem

* preau?

* Otto

§ VII. St. Fulk's spiritual and temporal administration of the diocese of Piacenza. The ordering of the hospital of St. Lazarus.

[St. Fulk, though not confirmed, administered the diocese of Piacenza according to the ancient law,] But although St. Fulk was never confirmed in the see of Piacenza, yet he administered the diocese for six years. Campi held that this was done by him because Innocent III had confirmed his election to the extent that he could administer the diocese Ibid. p. 114.; and in fact the Roman pontiffs afterwards quite often appointed elected bishops as administrators, procurators or vicars of dioceses while their election was being examined. But the laws on which these things rest are later than the election of St. Fulk, since Pope Innocent III first decreed in the year 1215 in the Lateran council De electione, chapter Nihil (book I, title VI, chap. 44.) that among elected bishops who belong immediately to the Roman pontiff, only those who are very remote, namely placed beyond Italy, if they have been elected in concord, may by dispensation, on account of the necessities and advantages of the churches, administer in spirituals and temporals; yet in such a way that they alienate nothing whatever of ecclesiastical goods; the rest, placed within Italy, being entirely forbidden all administration. And the chapter Avaritiae Ibid. chapter Avaritiae (in the Sext, book I, title VI, chap. 5.), by which they are forbidden to meddle in temporals or spirituals under the title of procurators or stewards or any other, was enacted in the general council of Lyon of the year 1273; finally the chapter Injunctae Ibid. chapter Injunctae (Extravagantes communes, book I, title III, chap. 1.), by which this decree was made firmer and wider, was introduced by Boniface VIII in the year 1300. In accordance with the former liberty, therefore, St. Fulk, inasmuch as he had been lifted up, or had bodily occupied the see of Piacenza, could administer the diocese both in temporals and in spirituals. But his condition would surely have been different if his election had happened a year and a half later.

[35] [as is clear from the acts for building the church of Borgonovo, for the Cistercian convent of nuns and the monastery of St. Franca] Among the remains, then, which survive from his administration, there comes in the first place an instrument which, in his presence and with his consent, Giovanni Tabernario, public notary, drew up on the 6th day of December of the year 1211, and by which the abbot of the monastery of St. Sixtus, six modii of grain a year being reserved, gave in perpetual emphyteusis to Ugo, archpriest of Olubra, the goods of the destroyed church of Cassanerio or Casarnello, so that from them he might raise a church under the title of Blessed Mary at Borgonovo and a priest might be maintained. A second example is of the 26th of June of the year 1214. A Cistercian convent of nuns was being built at Valera, at St. Gabriel's; in favour of which the provost of the greater church, returned from Rome, invested in perpetuity Sicca, the foundress of that monastery, with certain tithes, an annual rent of one modius of grain being fixed: which transaction was carried out again with the consent of the Lord Fulk, elect of Piacenza and archpriest of the greater church In Campi, vol. II, p. 384 and 385.. At the same time Carenzia, of the house of the Visconti of Piacenza, Garizia de Tuna and other matrons, by the counsel of St. Franca, abbess of St. Syrus, were preparing another convent at Montelona. Approaching which, Carenzia with ten companions, with the counsel and help of the lord abbot de Bajomontis Visconti, and of the monks of Colomba, to whose counsels and rule they had submitted themselves, in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and fourteen unanimously elected as their spiritual mother the lady Franca aforesaid; whom calling abbess also (as she already was) and appointing their rectress, with the consent also of (St. Fulk) the bishop (elect) of Piacenza, she was translated from the monastery of St. Syrus, in which she had already lived for thirty years and more, to the aforesaid place of Montelona, in the same year, in the month of October Acta SS. vol. III of April, p. 387.; whence three years later the convent was transferred to Valera, of which above, and in the year 1218 to Plectoli,

where at length it settled Ibid. at the page cited.; but these last things were done when St. Fulk no longer presided over the church of Piacenza.

[36] and from two acts of investiture. Campi reported two instruments drawn up in the year 1215 concerning temporal matters; from which I shall recite only small portions Campi, vol. II, p. 385.: In the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand two hundred and fifteen, the third indiction, on Friday, the eleventh of the month of April, in the palace of Piacenza, in the presence of the priest Gerardo, canon of St. Euphemia, etc. The Lord Fulk, elect of Piacenza, invested Gerardo, and Rabaldo, and Rainerio, sons of the late Azzo de Strarivo, in them and their heirs only, namely with the twelfth part of the whole district of the town of Strarivo, of the tenure of Giovanni de Gragnano, which was the twelfth… With which district the said lord had invested Lanfranco de Piscina; which Lanfranco, present there, had renounced it… For the investiture the lord acknowledged that he had received from them nine shillings of Piacenza, renouncing the exception of investiture not received. Whence the emphyteutae, for paying the rent or annual census, and for observing all this, bound all their goods to the lord. The other was drawn up in the same year, on a Sunday (which you may wonder at), on the ninth of the kalends of June, in the palace of Piacenza. And on it Ibid. at the page cited., in the presence of three witnesses and a public notary, the Lord Fulk, elect of Piacenza, in the name of the bishopric invested Rolando Pedixino de Prato, in him and his heirs only, namely with the half of the whole lot of land of the Pedixini, which Rolando himself had been accustomed to hold through the bishopric and palace of Piacenza in the territory of Gropallo, at the place which is called Pratum; all of which the lord had had through the division made with Arduino Bagaroto of the district which the lord had had in it. It is therefore clearer than daylight that St. Fulk administered the affairs of the bishopric of Piacenza, both spiritual and temporal; whatever others may once have related.

[37] [St. Fulk preaches at the synod of Novara; he has his canons of Piacenza brought back to the common life.] We subjoin some other acts, foreign to episcopal jurisdiction. Namely, when Gerardo de Sessia, bishop-elect of Novara and in the pontiff's name president of the election at Piacenza, had at that time resolved to celebrate a synod in his diocese, he called St. Fulk to his help; who was also to deliver an oration before the assembled clergy. This oration is the seventeenth in the codex of the writings of St. Fulk preserved at Piacenza; where its title is: At Novara in the council of the Lord of Albano Ibid. p. 106.; for in this very year 1210 Gerardo de Sessia was created cardinal bishop of Albano, without however abdicating his right to the diocese of Novara Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. IV, col. 709.. Shortly afterwards that same Gerardo de Sessia betook himself to Piacenza and, according to the apostolic mandates of Adrian, Lucius and other Roman pontiffs and according to their own praiseworthy ancient custom, recalled the cathedral canons to the common life. This confirmation Guala Muricula, notary of the sacred palace, authenticated in the palace of the bishopric of Novara in the year 1211, indiction XIV, on the 6th day of October. St. Fulk did not allow his solicitude to be wanting; certainly some years later the canons were still using a common table Campi, vol. II, p. 382 and 383; compare p. 106 and 107, col. 2..

[38] He preaches often. But nothing did he hold more commended to him than to nourish the flock committed to him with the pasture of the divine word; which was so much the easier for him the greater the eloquence in which he was strong. And from those sermons above all grew that book of sermons which we have often mentioned and which we shall describe more accurately at the end.

[39] As pontifical delegate he settles the affairs of the hospice of St. Lazarus; There had long been controversies between the master, the lay brothers and the sisters of the hospice of St. Lazarus and the sick, or lepers, both about the government of the house and about the reception and care of the sick and the division of revenues and alms. And after they had been litigating for some time, the sick had had recourse to the Roman pontiff. Innocent III committed the business for settlement to St. Fulk and the abbots of Colomba and St. Savinus; who, having visited the hospice, on the 2nd day of May of the year 1214 so defined each point with no less diligence than care that they composed an excellent Rule for a religious house and hospital. Campi recited it in part p. 383 and 384.; we shall give only the beginning: The Lords Fulk, archpriest of Piacenza and called elect, and Bajamonte, abbot of the monastery of Colomba, and Rolando, abbot of the monastery of St. Savinus, to whom the causes that were in dispute between the sick and the healthy of the house of St. Lazarus had been committed by the lord pope, as is contained in the letters of the same lord pope, and to whom the brethren, healthy as well as sick, who dwell in the house and hospital of St. Lazarus, unanimously committed themselves, the sick themselves first renouncing all the commissions which they had had on the part of the lord pope concerning the aforesaid causes, etc. They declared that it was to be ordered thus and firmly observed. They then declare everything that regards religious vows, the divine offices, clothing, fasts, the separation of the two sexes and other things of the kind; then the affairs of the sick. From these latter it is pleasing to report a passage from which St. Fulk's kindliness may appear. (For there is hardly to be doubted that he had the chief part in these things.) But because, it says, on the sick, especially those who are burdened with an incurable disease, the law or burden of abstinence and fasts, or even of vigils, is not to be imposed (as being those for whom, if they bear it patiently, their own punishment with contrition of heart alone suffices to blot out the evils of their past life); we do not enjoin on them the yoke of a heavier rule, except that they turn aside from evil, both in word and in deed; and that they promise simply to observe firmly the good customs of the house and the statutes which have been made over them.

§ VIII. The suit of St. Fulk with the canons of St. John. A new interdict at Piacenza.

[St. Fulk has a suit with the canons of St. John, who contend that they belong to the body of the cathedral chapter:] St. Fulk himself was not free from lawsuits, especially with the canons of St. John, namely whether they belonged to the body of the cathedral chapter or not. The manner was (the words are those of Aimerico, archdeacon of Piacenza, called in the year 1215 to testify together with others Campi, vol. II, p. 387.), but the manner was that, on account of the possessions of the church of St. John given by Bishop Ardizzone to the greater church, six canons of St. John were to make residence in the greater church and serve there; and the high altar was to be made in honour of Blessed Mary and St. John; and a suffrage was to be made in the greater church for St. John as for St. Mary; and that church of St. John was to be united to the greater church, and not the greater church to it. The cause of that donation and union was (as I have heard) that that church of St. John, on account of the enlargement of the common square and on account of removing the market from the greater church, was to be destroyed (as was said); and because shameful and dishonourable things were done in that church of St. John, because there were many nooks in it. And Ardizzone wished (the words are those of a canon of St. John Ibid. p. 386.) that we canons of the said church of St. John should be brethren and canons of the greater church; and after much negotiation with us, at length, in the presence of the same bishop and of many of the said canons of the same greater church, we were received in the chapter of the said greater church to the kiss of peace as canons and brethren of the said greater church in the year 1194, on the 9th day of October… The archdeacon Oberto and the provost Oberto sent me also to ask the Lord Pope Celestine for the confirmation of this union; and the provost Oberto in my presence sealed the letters with his own hand with the seal of the chapter; which I carried to Rome to ask for that confirmation; and I obtained that confirmation from the same Pope Celestine with the counsel and help of Guido, who was then vicedominus. And to these things the canons of St. John added that they had been present at many capitular acts and had done very many things which could be done only by cathedral canons.

[41] which St. Fulk and the cathedral canons deny, and they win. But St. Fulk and the cathedral canons objected that that union had never been completed. But, says the archdeacon Aimerico, neither did the canons of St. John themselves come to make residence in the greater church; nor was the high altar made, nor the suffrage, as was said; nor did the cause follow, since the church, which from the year 1169 had seemed due for demolition, has not been destroyed; nor has the square, in which the market was held and which on that account was narrower, been enlarged, since in the year 1206 that market had been transferred outside the city behind the church of St. Sixtus; but the church has been prepared and lighted, so that dishonourable and shameful things cannot be done there more than in other churches; and the market has been removed from the church on account of a statute of the city. Another canon, named Master Ugutione Rondana, added that such a donation, with the aforesaid compact and the exclusion of the canons, had been unjust, since it is not lawful for a bishop or an abbot to turn the land of one church to another; another, named Airoldo Rondana, that the church of St. John was large enough; and Gerardo Adriano, that it was a holy place, very much frequented and conspicuous for sacred relics, painted panels and other ornaments; so that there would be great detriment if this sacred building should remain deserted any longer. All of which were collected in an instrument of which this is the beginning: In the year of the Lord's incarnation one thousand two hundred and fifteen, the fourth indiction, on Saturday, the tenth of the month of October, in a chamber of the palace of the bishopric of Piacenza, the Lord Bajamonte, abbot of Clairvaux, to whom, and to the archdeacon of Parma and the abbot of Castiglione, the cause was delegated by the supreme pontiff which is in dispute between the Lord Fulk, procurator of the palace and bishopric of Piacenza, on the one side, and the canons of St. John de Domo on the other; ordered Giovanni Tabernario, notary, to authenticate and reduce to public form all the witnesses and acts produced and done in the said cause. St. Fulk won his cause together with the cathedral canons; whom equity plainly favoured. By pontifical authority, then, the union of the two chapters was dissolved; and the six canons of St. John with their provost were ordered to carry on divine service in their restored church Ibid. p. 111..

[42] [St. Fulk does not seem to have been present at the Lateran council. Interdict at Piacenza,] Some writers of Pavia would have it that St. Fulk set out for Rome immediately afterwards, to be present at the general Lateran council, begun in the middle of the following November; but no certain record of this exists, and perhaps it stands in the way that he was only a bishop-elect. Yet thither the people of Piacenza their envoys

sent, as is established from the contemporary Chronicle which we have already cited quite often. It is pleasing to cite its words, so that it may appear from them in what difficult times St. Fulk occupied the bishopric of Piacenza. And there, says the chronicler Huillard-Bréholles, Chronicum Placentinum, p. 49 and following, namely to the Lateran council, the envoys of the Milanese and of the Piacentines and of all their party, and the ambassadors of the Cremonese and of the Pavians and of all their party, proceeded by command of the lord pope, hoping and believing that the discord which is between the lord Otto, emperor, and Frederick, king of Sicily, ought to be accorded and likewise settled by compact. And on Tuesday, the 4th of the kalends of January, or the 29th of December, the bishop of Parma (the bishop of Reggio too had been sent; but he had halted on the way, hindered), coming from Rome to the city of Piacenza with the envoys of our city, by the will and precept of the supreme pontiff drew the city of Piacenza out of the interdict, after, namely, the citizens had sworn six days before that they would carry out the pontiff's commands, and would do nothing by which they had deserved to be interdicted from sacred things [Rogito of Oberto de Olzola, notary, 1215, 10th of the kalends of January, in Campi, vol. II, p. 111.]. The cause of this interdict was this. Pope Innocent III had preferred Otto IV against Philip of Swabia, brother of the deceased Emperor Henry, in the attainment of the empire, and so had presented him at Rome with the imperial crown, having received his oath that he would protect all the rights and patrimony of the Roman Church. Otto answered his promises badly; he invaded the lands left by Matilda; and, won over by the pontiff neither by blandishments, nor by prayers, nor by threats, he prepared to burst into the kingdom of Sicily with arms.

[43] while St. Fulk was bishop. Nothing remained at the opening of the year 1211 but that the faithless prince and his helpers should be interdicted from ecclesiastical communion: which sentence the cardinal of Albano promulgated through the whole of Upper Italy, and the archbishop of Mainz through Germany. By which the way was paved so that shortly afterwards, in the assembly of Nuremberg, the emperor was deposed by most of the electors of the empire and Frederick Barbarossa, king of Sicily, was elected in his place. Innocent III consented, and the young prince advanced to emperor the following year. Gerardo de Sessia then ordered in the name of the pontiff that all the cities of Lombardy should acknowledge the new emperor. Most obeyed, yet not all, least of all Milan and Piacenza; which in the following years waged almost continual war against the Pavians and the Cremonese. These, in the month of August of the year 1212, had made concord and alliance with the Brescians, Veronese, Ferrarese and Azzo VI, marquis of Este and count of San Bonifacio Muratori, Antichità Estensi, vol. I, p. 400.: which war is nowhere set forth more fully than in the Chronicle of Piacenza, which Huillard-Bréholles first brought to light eight years ago. In the year 1211, at the beginning of the controversy, because the canons of Capua had celebrated the divine office in Otto's presence, the pontiff had laid the city under interdict: the Milanese and the Piacentines, because they would not allow themselves to be torn from the same cause, he afflicted with the same penalty the following year [Campi, vol. II, p. 107; compare Cavitelli, Annales Cremonenses at the year 1212, in Graevius, Thesaurus antiquitatum Italiae, vol. III, part I, col. 1329.]; from which, since universal peace had been established in the Lateran council, they were absolved at the end of the year 1215. But in the year 1216, indiction IV, the cardinals came in the month of May to the city of Piacenza, telling it on the part of the supreme pontiff that they should keep a truce with the Pavians and ought not to attack them: and if they did so, they would interdict them. Then they went to Milan, saying similar words to them. But the Milanese and the Piacentines, not wishing to desist from their purpose, entered the land of the Pavians in hostile fashion; and therefore they placed the city of Piacenza and that of Milan under interdict Huillard-Bréholles, Chronicum Placentinum, p. 50..

§ IX. The election of St. Fulk to the see of Pavia; a gift made to the church of Piacenza; peace established between the Piacentines and the Pavians; the fairs of Pavia; privileges confirmed. Discipline restored in the monastery of Ciel d'Oro.

[St. Fulk is elected bishop of Pavia; a gift made to the cathedral church of Piacenza.] There is no doubt at all that St. Fulk carried out the pontifical commands entirely; which opinion rests not only on the holiness of his life but most of all because at this very time he was elected bishop by the Pavians, the adversaries of the Piacentines and most obedient to Innocent III, and thereafter stood on the side of the Emperor Frederick. Now the election of St. Fulk to the see of Pavia was made before the fifth of the ides of September of the year 1216, as is clear from the small notice whose beginning we gave above at num. 3, and in which on that very day, before his departure, he gave to the church of Piacenza, upon the altar of St. Justina, a chalice of silver gilt, a Penitential book, and another by Master Peter of Capua, cardinal, divided into distinctions (probably his commentaries on pontifical law), and reverently laid a carpet at the foot of the altar. Now the see of Pavia had been vacant since the end of the year 1215, when Rodobaldo Sangregorio, present at the Lateran council, had died; for that Cardinal Gregorio Crescenzi de Caballomarmoreo is said to have been designated bishop and to have died shortly afterwards [Campi, vol. II, p. 113; Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. I, col. 1097 and 1098; Marroni, de Ecclesia et episcopis Papiensibus commentarius, p. 47.] is not very probable, since Gregorio lived until the year 1230 Novaes, Elementi di storia pontificia, vol. III, p. 130.; unless perhaps he retained the new dignity a short time. St. Fulk is related to have been elected in the name of the clergy of Pavia by three cathedral canons, by three provosts, namely of St. Michael, of St. John of the Ladies and of St. Mary in Pertica (whose place in the last case a canon was filling), and by three chaplains of the parish churches of the city Campi, vol. II, p. 113.; which are so precise that they cannot but have been drawn from good documents. Nevertheless, as the ancient customs of Ticinum say In Romualdo of St. Mary, Papia Sacra, vol. I, p. 46., it is also worth knowing that, if a bishop had to be elected, the provost of the cathedral church had greater force and power in the election than anyone else. The election was approved by Honorius III, Roman pontiff from the month of July of the year 1216; to whom the see of Pavia or Ticinum was immediately subject, no less than that of Piacenza; and on the 15th of the kalends of January he gave letters to the chapter of Piacenza that, as soon as they should have been required by the archbishop of Genoa, they should elect for themselves a new prelate in place of St. Fulk In Campi, vol. II, p. 388.; which was done only on the 7th day of June of the year 1217 Huillard-Bréholles, Chronicum Placentinum, p. 56..

[45] Seven days before, or in the year 1216[I], indiction V, He establishes peace between the Pavians and the Piacentines; peace and concord was made and confirmed by oaths between the Milanese and the Piacentines and their party, and the Pavians and their party, except the Cremonese; and this was done in the palace of the same city on Wednesday, the day before the kalends of June Huillard-Bréholles, Chronicum Placentinum, p. 56.. In which matter St. Fulk had the chief parts, than whom no one was a more fit mediator and arbiter between the Piacentines and the Pavians. He, then, for the party of the Pavians, and Lanfranco, a citizen of Brescia and podestà of Piacenza, for the party of the Piacentines, met in a village of the territory of Milan named Campomorto, and on the 10th day of May of the year 1217, before the notary Bernardo de Laurentio, agreed on the conditions; by which all right in the places of Mondonico, San Martino, Olmo and Plebecula * passed to the Piacentines. This peace, however, was by no means firm; since the Pavians could not bear that their former allies the Cremonese should be conquered and oppressed by the Milanese and Piacentines. When therefore the war had broken out afresh and the Piacentines had invaded the lands of the Pavians, they were again excommunicated and interdicted from sacred things; but on the 6th day of November of the year 1217 they were freed from these censures by St. Fulk and Giacomo, bishop-elect of Lodi, pontifical delegates: which was carried out with much solemnity. Summoned by the sound of the bell, Lanfranco the podestà, the consuls of justice, the councillors of the council and the envoys of the people of Piacenza came to the general council; where, before the vicedominus, bishop-elect of Piacenza, and many leading men of the clergy of Piacenza, they swore that they would observe and carry out the commands of the Roman pontiff concerning the Pavian business, on account of which they had been punished with ecclesiastical penalties: all of whom, together with the people of Piacenza, St. Fulk and the elect of Lodi then released from the bonds of excommunication and interdict [Boselli, Storie Piacentine, p. 136, from the municipal archive, in Reg. pic. fol. 279.]. The death of Otto, who departed from among the living on the 19th day of May of the year 1218, brought by far the greatest relief to those discords. For Pope Honorius III ordered all the Lombards who had been sharers in the war to meet together and to conclude treaties of friendship. Accordingly on the 2nd day of December of the year 1218 a most solemn assembly was held in the cathedral church of Lodi; at which assembly St. Fulk was present. Present, namely, were the prelates of Milan, Pavia, Cremona, Parma, Piacenza, Vercelli, Bergamo, Bobbio and Lodi, the podestà and consuls of Piacenza, and envoys of very many cities; in the midst of which circle Ugo de' Conti, also called Ugolino and afterwards Pope Gregory IV, but then bishop of Ostia and Velletri and legate of the apostolic see, under pain of perjury proclaimed a forty-year peace to the Milanese, Piacentines, Pavians, Cremonese, Parmesans and the friends and allies of all, who all in turn stretched out their hands to one another in the church as a sign of concord; commanding that they grant one another mutual security within and outside their lands, give pardon for all injuries, offences and plunderings and every other damage which they had inflicted on one another since the coming of Frederick II, and release all captives from prison: which truce was to last forty years [Ibid. p. 136 and 137. Affò, Storia di Parma, vol. III, p. 99 and 100; he narrates the matter more accurately and has published the instrument itself, in the volume cited, p. 331 and following]. By these and other aids the party of the Emperor Frederick gradually prevailed in the whole of Italy; who in the year 1220, in the month of September, first entered and came into Lombardy, when he was going to Rome to have the crown and receive it from the supreme pontiff In Huillard, p. 64..

[46] he obtains fairs from the Emperor Frederick, whom he approached near Mantua. He does not seem to have passed through Pavia; but St. Fulk went to him, and, for the advantage of the people of Ticinum, as Giovanni Battista de Gasparis says Breviarium SS. epp. Ticinensis ecclesiae, p. 81., St. Fulk obtained from the Emperor Frederick fairs to be held at Pavia on every Tuesday. Corio first related this at the beginning of the sixteenth century in the History of Milan at this year; to which Spelta, the historian of Ticinum, adds also other rights and privileges

were granted by the emperor at the request of St. Fulk. Certainly, when Frederick moved from Germany into Italy (so that on the 13th day of September he was at Novara and on the fifteenth of the kalends of October in the village of San Leone near Mantua Muratori, Annali d'Italia, at the year 1220, vol. VII, p. 162 and 163.), St. Fulk betook himself to him with many other bishops and nobles of Italy; and indeed he was present at the sentence pronounced by Frederick against the sons of the counts Alberto de Casalod and Nerisio, who were occupying the castle of Gonzaga and other places of the land of the Countess Matilda, unwilling to resign them into the hands of the emperor. For F., bishop of Pavia, and Matteo da Correggio, podestà of Pavia, are read among the princes of the empire and the prelates and nobles of Italy in whose presence all these things were done: the instrument itself was given in the camp at San Leone, on the 8th of the kalends of October, and published at Spilamberto, on the day before the kalends of the same month, in the year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and twenty, indiction VIII after the manner of the Greeks [Baluze, Miscellanea, ed. Mansi, vol. III, p. 94 and 95; Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae, Leges, vol. II, p. 239 and 240.]. At the council of many bishops held beforehand, however, St. Fulk was not present.

[47] Honorius III confirms the privileges of the church of Pavia; St. Fulk's industry and labour were no less pleasing to Pope Honorius III; who, in order to reward with some prize the fidelity of the Pavians and the eager zeal of their bishop, confirmed the former privileges of the church of Pavia, a solemn bull being given in the month of May, indiction V, in the year of the Lord's incarnation 1217, and the first year of his pontificate. Since the beginning redounds somewhat to the praise of St. Fulk, here it is [De Gasparis, SS. Ticinensis ecclesiae epp. vitae, p. 84; Romaldo of St. Mary, Papia sacra, vol. I, p. 58; Ughelli, Italia sacra, vol. I, col. 1098.]:

Honorius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to our venerable brother Fulk, bishop of Pavia, and to his successors to be canonically substituted, in perpetuity. Both the very principle of justice and the benignity of the apostolic see demand that we ought to extend the hand of our patronage and advancement more abundantly and more readily to places and persons spiritually adhering to Blessed Peter and the Holy Roman Church, and persisting in devotion and obedience to her. Moved therefore by the debt of this principle, we wish to preserve honour and dignity to the church of Pavia, as to a proper and special daughter of the apostolic see. Wherefore, venerable brother in Christ, Fulk, bishop, whom we love with sincere charity in Christ, imparting a gracious assent to your just requests, after the example of our predecessors of happy memory Callixtus, Innocent, Eugene, Anastasius and Innocent, Roman pontiffs, we fortify with the privilege of the present writing the aforesaid church of Pavia, over which (God being the author) we recognize [you] to preside; and every dignity of that church, granted by the privileges or authentic writings of the same Roman pontiffs, we also nonetheless confirm with the favour of our authority.

Nevertheless Pope Honorius III conferred nothing new; indeed he did not renew the singular privilege of Pope John VIII, by which the archbishops of Milan and Ravenna were ordered to be present with their suffragans at the synods of Ticinum. There is therefore no reason why, on the occasion of St. Fulk, I should call back to the anvil the much-agitated question of the exemption and other honours of the church of Pavia: for the rest, on it see Romualdo of St. Mary Papia sacra, vol. I, p. 56 and following and Capsoni Origine e privilegi della Chiesa Pavese., who spoke for the church of Pavia, Giovanni Villa Fasti della metropoli e del metropolita di Milano, p. 52 and following, who most powerfully vindicated the rights of the see of Milan, and finally Marroni De ecclesia et episcopis Papiensibus, p. 1 and following, who wrote more lightly on the matter and held as it were a middle way. This only I will note, that Giovanni Villa Fasti etc. p. 65. manifestly goes further than is just when he contends that Pavia was subject to Milan until the middle of the thirteenth century: which by no means agrees with the letters of Honorius III; in which, namely, the church of Pavia is called a proper and special daughter of the apostolic see.

[48] [For the sake of discipline he brings regular canons into the monastery of St. Peter in Ciel d'Oro.] As at Piacenza, so at Pavia St. Fulk administered spiritual affairs with the greatest wisdom, so far as it is permitted to gather from the surviving indications. When therefore the monastery of St. Peter in Ciel d'Oro, immediately subject to the holy see and rich in the body of St. Augustine, had so collapsed in spirituals and temporals, and lay in great part ruined, oppressed by a debt of seven thousand pounds of Pavia (an enormous sum!), and recently, in the times of Innocent III, the abbot had been sacrilegiously killed by the monks Thomas of Cantimpré, book 1, chap. 21, num. 4, p. 84, Colvener's edition., Cardinal Hugo, bishop of Ostia, then legate throughout Lombardy, and afterwards pontiff under the name of Gregory IX, went there, and having dispersed the black monks through other monasteries, committed the temporal affairs to provident and good men, and resolved (if this counsel should be approved by Honorius III) to bring in there the regular canons of Mortara, then distinguished by very great praise for holiness. That this might be done, many prelates of Lombardy at once gave suppliant letters to the apostolic see; as Honorius himself relates in a letter given at the Lateran on the ides of June of the year 1222 to Hugo [Pennotto, Generalis ordinis canonicorum historia, vol. I, chap. 62, p. 207, 2nd edition.]. The pontiff gladly communicated his authority to the most holy legate; who, occupied with various business, commanded our venerable brother James, bishop of Turin, that, going in person to the said monastery, he should diligently inquire the will of the bishop St. Fulk, of the clergy and people of Pavia; and, if he saw that it could be done without scandal, he should grant the monastery to the house of Mortara. And the aforesaid bishop of Turin, going in person to the city of Pavia according to the command of the legate himself, and diligently inquiring the will of the bishop, clergy and people concerning the aforesaid business, found all unanimous and in agreement on this; and when at length, after deliberate counsel, they had answered that they very much accepted such a translation (saving, however, the right of the apostolic see, and of the empire, and of the bishop, and of the city of Pavia, and the right and honour of the advocates of the said monastery), the same bishop of Turin, proceeding to the oft-said monastery with the aforesaid bishop of Pavia and a copious multitude of clergy and people, by the authority which he exercised granted that monastery with all its churches, possessions, rights and appurtenances freely and absolutely to the house of Mortara, it being expressed that the monastery itself should henceforth be held the head of the order of Mortara: which we have again taken from the letters of Honorius III given at the Lateran on the following ides of November, by which he specially confirmed these things Ibid. p. 207 and 208.. Giusto Fontanini De corpore S. Augustini, p. 36. somewhat confuses these things; but the apostolic diplomas stand on their own credit well enough.

* Pievette

§ X. The interdict of Pavia; the exile of St. Fulk; legacies and other things of the kind.

[For the violation of ecclesiastical immunity and of St. Fulk's authority the Pavians are punished with interdict and expel St. Fulk with the clergy.] Meanwhile, however, while this stone of stumbling was being removed from the midst, St. Fulk was being involved in far the gravest difficulties. Through continual wars almost all the cities of Upper Italy had not only exhausted their treasury but were oppressed by boundless debt; and besides, it was the common temper of that time that the temporal rights of churches should be diminished, their lordships taken away and their immunities disregarded: about Piacenza we see some things above; but this was the general condition, which Pope Innocent III did indeed break down somewhat, but by no means abolished; for the rest, it was an ancient stain of evil [Compare Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit, vol. V, p. 92 and following; Hauleville, Histoire des communes lombardes, vol. II, p. 313 and following]. When therefore Pavia understood that it was scarcely equal to paying its debt, in the year 1222 it imposed part of the burden on the clergy and exacted it by force Raumer, vol. V, p. 99, from the Registers of Honorius III, year VI, letter 373.: nor did the magistracy stop there; but, in order utterly to break the episcopal authority of St. Fulk, it forbade, under the proposed penalty of exile, that any cleric or layman should bring any complaint to the blessed man Ibid. at the place cited.; and it decreed other things by which the ecclesiastical state would be altogether undermined. This rashness Honorius restrained with ecclesiastical censures; but, as he was mild of temper, he strove to settle the matter as soon as possible. Wherefore, by letters of the 15th of the kalends of February of the year 1223, he commanded Opizzone Fieschi, bishop of Parma, to betake himself to Pavia, to repair the very grave damages and to absolve the Pavians by apostolic authority if they would lay aside their obstinacy of mind Campi, vol. II, p. 128.. Opizzone's labour was vain: for the Pavians through their envoys proposed an entirely different manner of giving satisfaction; which Honorius plainly did not allow to be imposed on himself. Accordingly, on the 3rd of the nones of July of the same year, he gave letters to Guala, cardinal priest of the title of St. Martin, in which he declared why he could not admit the Pavians' condition; and he urged him, proved an excellent mediator in so many other affairs, to betake himself to Pavia and decide the heads of the controversy Campi, vol. II, p. 128.. But Guala's attempts were not more fortunate; and so St. Fulk and all the clergy, because they stood intrepidly for the defence of the rights of the Church, were forced to leave their native soil, despoiled of all their goods. Pitying this penury, the Roman pontiff on the 12th of the kalends of December of the year 1224 wrote to the bishop of Parma that he should take care to provide for the necessities of St. Fulk and his clerics, exiled for ecclesiastical immunity Ibid. p. 129..

[50] A pious widow institutes him as heir, and another as testamentary executor. And while the blessed man was placed in this misery, it could easily happen that some help was supplied to him by the Piacentines, among whom he had excellent supporters and admirers of his virtues. A specimen of this is the testament which a pious widow of Piacenza, about to set out for Compostela to St. James, made on the 9th day of July of the year 1226 in the pieve or parish of Portalbera, in the territory of Pavia, to which she had betaken herself, before the notary Guglielmo de Monteacuto. Receive this document, exceedingly honourable to St. Fulk Ibid. p. 131 and 132.: Because the Lady Emengarda, wife of the late Gerardo de Puteo, desires, divine grace favouring her, to visit the threshold of Blessed James the apostle; fearing lest, from the distance of lands, her will should be seized upon by her friends, she set forth beforehand her last will, saying in this her testament: "I, the above Emengarda, making a testament by nuncupation, or with witnesses called, in the name of Almighty God institute the Lord Fulk, by the grace of God bishop of Pavia, my benefactor, personally as heir to me in all my goods, trusting in the goodness and holiness of that bishop, who from

these goods will dispose better and order them for the salvation and advantage of my soul. For at present, when I shall have died, I give and bequeath to the commune of Piacenza three shillings of Piacenza, and I wish this to be my last testament, etc." Three years before, Bernardo, canon of St. Juventius (which was a hospital house situated in the territory of Pavia), with no less confidence had instituted the same most blessed man testamentary executor of the goods situated in the place of Zacconi, so that from them that desolate hospital house might be renewed; and the holy bishop, when he understood that these did not suffice, interpreting the will of the deceased, had consigned the same into the hands of Beltramo Salimbeni, minister of the hospital house of St. Anthony in the meadow of the Ticino, with the burden imposed that from the revenues as many poor as possible should be fed.

[51] In the year 1227 (St. Fulk has returned to Pavia) and orders some affairs. When Emengarda made her testament in the year 1226, probably the disturbances of Pavia had already been settled and St. Fulk had returned to his see. Certainly he was occupying it in the spring of the year 1227; since on the 3rd day of April of this year, employing the services of Lantelino Ferrario, public notary, he, being at Pavia, made over to the fabric of the cathedral church of Piacenza the goods left by Emengarda and situated partly at Fiorenzuola, partly in the parish of Fontana, chiefly along the road to Parma near the little church and hermitage of Blessed Mary de Gallo Ibid. p. 134.: a splendid example of wisdom, that he gave to the church of Piacenza, and not to that of Pavia, goods left by a Piacentine woman. In the same year 1227, when St. Fulk, bishop of Ticinum, was discharging the office of apostolic delegate at Ticinum, there was brought before his tribunal the cause of a suit of the regular canons of Mortara, who occupied the church of St. Peter in Ciel d'Oro, and of certain men of Castel San Pietro; against whom he is said to have pronounced sentence [Romualdo of St. Mary, Flavia sacra, vol. I, p. 79, from Girolamo Bossi, Chronicon sacrum, where it treats of the church of St. Peter in Ciel d'Oro.]. To the same time probably is to be referred the legacy by which (as is read in the old Calendar) St. Fulk, bishop of Pavia, founded in the church of St. Thomas at Piacenza (in whose neighbourhood he had perhaps been born) an anniversary to be celebrated every year in the month of December Campi, vol. II, p. 103..

§ XI. St. Fulk's book of sermons. The time of his death.

St. Fulk preaches very much Meanwhile the blessed man did not omit the office of preaching, so greatly commended to bishops; indeed he took care to have a book made from which priests and bishops of lesser learning or eloquence might excerpt their sermons, or rather gather their arguments: nor does the saint himself seem to have pronounced them such as they are written. Some passages indeed are ornamented and set out; but everywhere the things to be said are indicated rather than set forth: which is the form and method of almost all books of sermons of that age. Here is a specimen, taken from the sermon delivered in the cemetery of St. Mary of Bethlehem at Piacenza Ibid. p. 142.: Our last things, which we ought to remember (lest we allow ourselves to be led into sin), are chiefly nine: namely horror in the departure; pain in the passage; putrefaction in the perishing of the flesh; dread in the tremendous judgements; shame in the sight of God, of the angels and of men; the worm of conscience in the remembrance of sins; groaning in the obscurity of darkness; anguish in the bitterness of punishments; certain despair of deliverance. These are too brief to be contained in the proposition of an oration; but they were explained to the people in the vernacular tongue, the aids of the affections, of maxims, of images and the other aids of eloquence not being neglected.

[53] and collects and enlarges his sermons for the benefit of others: Now the plan of that book the blessed man himself explained: When formerly, he says Ibid. p. 141 and 142. at the beginning, being placed at Piacenza and occupied at different times with different duties of pastoral care, I had compiled with diligent study certain preachings to the people, pertaining not only to the solemnities of our Lord Jesus Christ and the festivals of the other saints, but also to the Sundays through the circle of the year, from the holy and canonical Scriptures and also from various authorities of the holy doctors of the Church and of other orthodox fathers: at length, being in the bishopric of Pavia, though unworthy, among the other little works which I put together for my own caution concerning certain useful matters, namely on the three orders of those to be saved, on the seal of the soul, and also on its salvation; it came into my mind to compile also certain common and as it were general sermons, with this consideration indeed and necessary utility, since not only on feast days but also on ordinary days, for certain honourable occasions, such as at synods of bishops, at chapters or associations of clerics, at visitations of hospitals, at the relief of the needy, at the obsequies of the dead, and the like, namely when clergy and people gather into one; and, as it befits a preacher at solemnities to set forth those things which pertain to the feast day, so nonetheless it seems worthy and fitting to bring forth from the treasury of his heart on the several days those things which suit the occasion. For these reasons, then, I resolved in my heart to write these and certain other sermons, both on the first things and on the last, into one volume, lest through want of discourses there should be in the land (that is, in the church of the faithful) a famine of hearing or setting forth the word of God; and that the ministers of the word might have some sort of store of things to be said; it is to be known, however, that among the preachings for festivals some are general, which can be set forth on any days, and in these sermons there are some which can be fitted to the festivals of the saints. Receive therefore this little gift also, our dearest brethren, priests of Christ and of God; because they will redound both to the adornment of the Church of God and to the glory and honour of the priestly office, and will profit many, both readers and hearers, for edification and salvation alike, by the gift of the Lord etc.

[54] list of the sermons. Campi gave only a part of the titles Campi, vol. II, p. 142., namely:

At the synod of the Lord Grimerio: one sermon.

To the chapter of the brethren at the beginning of the fast: one sermon.

In the chapter of the clerics at the beginning of the fast: four sermons.

At the beginning of the fast, to the chapter: one sermon.

On the day of the death of Master Romano: one sermon.

In the association of the chaplains: two sermons.

At the thirtieth day of the provost Lanfranco: one sermon.

To his companions, when he was at Paris, on Easter day: one sermon.

Among his brethren, when he had returned from the school, on obedience: one sermon.

At Novara in the council of the Lord of Albano: one sermon.

At the Holy Sepulchre: one sermon.

In Holy Week, to the people: one sermon.

To religious: one sermon.

On the feast of a confessor or martyr: one sermon.

At the hospital of Saint Syrus: one sermon.

In the greater church, for the work on the same: one sermon.

In the cemetery of Bethlehem: one sermon.

A sermon on seeking the Lord: one sermon.

At the hospital of Saint Lazarus: one sermon.

In the cemetery of the hospital of Bethlehem: one sermon.

[55] On what day and year St. Fulk died. In what year Blessed Fulk passed to the better life Giacomo Gualla is silent, nowhere curious about chronology. But de Gasparis Sanctorum Ticinensis etc. p. 81., Bzovius Annales eccles. at the year 1229, num. 7., Ferrari Catalogus SS. Italiae, p. 674., Ughelli Italia sacra, vol. I, col. 1098., Campi Istorie di Piacenza, vol. II, p. 141., Boselli Storie Piacentine, p. 134. and others agree that he died in the year 1229; and only by a slip of the pen does Romualdo of St. Mary depart from them Papia sacra, vol. II, p. 159; compare vol. I, p. 54 and 79.. Which opinion cannot be far from the truth. For, as we have seen, St. Fulk was most certainly among the living in the year 1227; but in the year 1230 St. Rodobald had succeeded him, or certainly in the year 1233 Acta SS. Auctarium to vol. VI of October, p. 22.. The day on which the blessed man died troubles me also; since Gualla does not indicate it, and Gualla alone seems to have lit the way for Galesini, who first assigned the holy man's heavenly birthday to the 26th day of October: yet from then on all, for instance the Roman Martyrology, de Gasparis, Ferrari, Romualdo of St. Mary, Campi, Boselli and others, without any doubt lay it down that St. Fulk departed to heaven on the present day. But why does no one that I know of indicate on what authority this opinion rests? And since on the present day St. Fulk is venerated who died at Saletto in the diocese of Bologna, let no one suspect that St. Fulk of Piacenza or of Pavia was referred to the present day according to the common custom by which the unknown heavenly birthdays of saints are celebrated on the days that are sacred to better-known or more ancient namesakes. It is not so; or rather Ferrari, on account of the community of name, assigned to the 26th day of October, on which our St. Fulk is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, St. Fulk of Bologna, whose feast is kept on the Sunday after the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary [Melloni, Atti o memorie degli uomini illustri in santità di Bologna, cl. II, vol. I, p. 79 and following]. If, then, anything remains concerning the year and day of the death of St. Fulk of Pavia, I commit it all to the industry and sagacity of the people of Piacenza and of Pavia. And indeed, although I have not allowed my diligence to be altogether wanting, I see well enough how much is lacking to this lucubration of mine; which can be supplied only by the people of Piacenza and, above all, of Pavia, whose archives have scarcely ever been, I will not say thoroughly searched, but opened. However these things may be, from what we have gathered from every side it altogether appears that St. Fulk was a truly distinguished man, powerful in word and work, strenuous and undaunted in spirit, both prudent and active, in a word such a bishop as the most wretched condition of Italy now requires.

On St. Fulk, Bishop of Pavia.

From the Sanctuary of Pavia, book V, chap. VI, by Giacomo Gualla, according to the editions of the years 1505 and 1587.

Fulk, confessor, bishop of Piacenza and Pavia in Italy. (Bl.)

[St. Fulk, wrongly said to have sprung from Scotland and instructed in letters at Piacenza,] Fulk, the most blessed prelate of Ticinum, sprung from Scotland ^b, has his venerable relics in the same sacred church ^c. He, rightly considering that God's most abundant fountain of wisdom lies open to all who desire to learn, coming from the Scottish nation, empty of money but full of the ardour of learning, having crossed the Alps, came down into Italy, namely to the city of Piacenza: where at that time the studies of the disciplines were flourishing ^d. And reflecting that he was a man created by God, whose heavenly Parent's likeness he bore (which temple of man indeed is to be adorned not with gold, not with silver, not with corruptible gifts of gems, but with the eternal gifts of the virtues), with skilful mind he began there to give his attention to letters, and above all to seek out heavenly doctrine: that

understanding it to be the more useful for the instruction of souls for living well and blessedly.

[2] in his youth he lives by begging and foresees that he will be a bishop; And while he was devoting himself to studies, he was so poor that he quite often lacked the necessaries of life *, and was quite often compelled to go seeking bread by begging. And it happened once, while he was asking alms at the house of a certain merchant, that a certain woman, mocking the poor Fulk, said: "This morsel of bread I offer you; on condition that you never obtain a bishopric." But at once Fulk drew back the hand which he had already stretched out for the alms; lest against the will of God he should fulfil the crafty speech of the woman: already the Lord had poured out his spirit upon him! The matter having afterwards been reported to the master of the house, he forthwith called Fulk to him; and, vehemently rebuking the impudent little woman in his presence, with pious provision he established that he should be fed once every day in his house.

[3] on account of his excellent gifts he is elected bishop of Piacenza; And as Fulk advanced * from virtue to virtue, whose whole mind was intent on the studies of the good arts (so that he was adorned no less with gravity of morals than with knowledge of letters, and excelled in distinguished religion and learning, and was modest, prudent, grave, continent, clement, most learned in the divine law, no example of religion, piety, humanity and kindness being passed over; because in his countenance, eyes, mouth and bearing nothing but virtue, wisdom and venerable religion shone forth), behold, the bishop of Piacenza dies; and by the voice of the people Fulk is elected pastor ^e. To which election he would never consent, on account of the great familiarity he had contracted in that city ^f.

[4] [then he becomes bishop of Pavia, where he daily feeds fifteen poor men and fifteen scholars.] But afterwards, the bishop of Pavia having died, since the clear fame of Fulk had reached the people of Ticinum, he is exalted to the pontifical see of their city ^g. While he held the pontificate in it, it would be difficult to recount with how great virtues and works of holiness he shone, above all of piety toward orphans, widows, wards and all the wretched. And among his other pious works worthy of record it is related that he sat at table every day at a familiar meal with twice seven and one poor men; and likewise provided the necessaries of life for as many scholars applying themselves to the disciplines, and for their teachers as well. Climbing to heaven by that ladder of piety, Fulk, a most pious pastor, a man wonderful in religion and virtue, clement toward offenders, beneficent toward the poor, kind toward guests, merciful toward the afflicted, a foreigner by native country and Scottish nation, an Italian by great virtue, a man of Ticinum by diffused charity, as he had been dear to all, so after death he is celebrated by all with great proclamation of praises as a saint and an excellent pontiff.

ANNOTATIONS.

* printed indigeretur

* printed proficiscente