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Bonizo of Sutri

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Bonizo of Sutri or Bonitho (c.1045–c.1095) was a Bishop of Sutri and then of Piacenza in central Italy, in the last quarter of the 11th century. He was an adherent of Gregory VII and an advocate of the reforming principles of that pope. He wrote three works of polemical history, including Liber ad amicum, which detailed the struggles between civil and religious authorities. He was driven out of both of his dioceses, once by the emperor and once by opponents of Gregorian-style reform.

Life

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Bonizo was born about 1045, though there is no documentary material referring to the date of his birth, or the place, or of his family.[1] It is argued that he was a native of Milan in Northern Italy.[2] Early in his life he associated himself with the reform group known as the Pataria.

Bonizo took part in several councils held in Rome. He was present in Rome at a synod of Pope Alexander II, probably the one held in February or March 1073.[3]

On 27 November 1074, Pope Gregory wrote a letter to Bishop Dionysius of Piacenza, advising him that he was sending legates (who were carrying the letter) in order to settle several long-running disputes which raged in that diocese, and occasioned accusations in the Papal Court. These disputes included the Bishop, on the one side, and the Abbot of S. Sepulcro; the People of Piacenca; and the subdeacon Bonizo.[4] Bishop Dionysius was the leading opponent in Lombardy of the reforming party of which Gregory VII had just become the head. It is conjectured that the subdeacon was the future Bonizo of Sutri.[5] Bonizo was present at the Roman synod of February 1075, in which Bishop Dionysius was deposed.[6]

He was soon appointed by the Pope to the episcopal see of Sutri. The earliest reference to him as Bishop of Sutri is found in the dedicatory inscription of the church of S. Thomas in Cremona, on 3 October 1078. He was serving as papal legate at the time.[7] He was present in Rome during the discussions about the doctrines concerning the eucharist promoted by Berengar of Tours, just before the Roman synod of November 1078.[8]

In the struggle between Gregory VII and Emperor Henry IV he was on the side of the pope. He was seized by Henry in late April 1082, and entrusted to the custody of the antipope Clement III, Archbishop Wibert of Ravenna. About a year afterwards Bonizo made his escape, and lived for several years under the protection of Countess Matilda of Tuscany.[9]

In 1086 he was present in Mantua at the funeral of his friend Anselm of Lucca, who had died on 18 March 1086.[10] He was, soon after, elected to the see of Piacenza by the Pataria, but owing to strong opposition was unable to take possession of it until the year 1088, when he was strongly supported by Pope Urban II. His enemies, however, contrived to have him blinded and maimed in July 1090.[11] He seems to have died in Cremona in 1094 or 1095.[12]

Writings

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  • The "Paradisus", or extracts from the writings of St. Augustine (still unpublished)[needs update]
  • a short treatise on the sacraments[13]
  • In Hugonem schismaticum, now lost, probably against the schismatic Cardinal Hugo Candidus
  • a description of the various classes of judges in the Roman Empire and in the Roman Church[14]
  • the Liber ad amicum, a polemical work, in which the author relates events of his own times, down to 1085 or 1086.[15]
  • "De Vitâ Christianâ", also called the "Decretum", a work in ten books on ecclesiastical law and moral theology written at the request of a certain priest Gregory. It was written after Liber ad amicum, which it summarizes at the beginning of the treatise.[16]

Notes and references

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  1. ^ Lehmgrübner, p. 129: Die gleichzeitigen Berichte über Bonizo geben von der Zeit seiner Geburt, von seinem Geburtsort, seiner Abstammung oder seiner Familie kein Wort.
  2. ^ Dümmler considers it probable that he was a native of Cremona. E. Dümmler (ed.), "Bonizonis episcopi Sutrini Liber ad amicum," in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica 1 Scriptores. 6 Libelli 01. Libelli de Lite Imperatorum et Pontificum (Hannover: Hahn 1891), p. 568. Lehmgrübner, pp. 130-132, argues the case for Cremona in detail.
  3. ^ Bonizo, Liber ad amicum VI. E. Dümmler, p. 600. Robinson, p. 38.
  4. ^ Kehr, p. 447, no. 22. Philipp Jaffé (1865). Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum (in Latin and German). Vol. Tomus II: Gregoriana. Berlin: Weidmann. pp. 138–139. Porro legatos nostros, praesentium videlicet latores, ob hoc ad vos usque direximus: ut, ad quem finem instans negocium perveniat, aspiciant; et controversiam, quae inter te et abbatem Sancti Sepulchri plebemve Placentinam sive Bonizonem subdiaconum versatur, intentius audiant....
  5. ^ Robinson, p. 37., with note 229. Philipp Jaffé expresses his uncertainty in his edition of Bonizo's ad amicum, in: Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum II, at p. 577, note 1. Berschin (1972), at p. 7, note 20, says that the identification "seems possible".
  6. ^ Lehmgrübner, p. 139. Kehr, p. 447, no. 23-24. Robinson, p. 37.
  7. ^ Robinson, p. 38.
  8. ^ Robinson, p. 38.
  9. ^ Dümmler, pp. 568-569. Robinson, p. 39.
  10. ^ Vita Anselmi episcopi Lucensis chapters 40-42, in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum Tomus XII (Hannover: Hahn 1856), pp. 24-25. Robinson, p. 39.
  11. ^ It is reported by the monk and chronicler Bernoldus of S. Blasius, under the year 1089, that he had his eyes gouged out and his limbs cut off: post multastas captiones, tribulationes et exilia a Placcntinis catholicis pro episcopo recipitur; set a scismaticis eiusdem loci effossis oculis, truncatis omnibus paene membris martirio coronatur. Dümmler, p. 569, note 8. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum Tomus V (Hannover: Hahn 1844), p. 449.
  12. ^ Walter Berschin (1972), p. 18 note 68, argues that Bonizo died in 1094. P. Fournier (1915), p. 270, argued for 1095. Robinson (2004), p. 42, accepts the date of 1094.
  13. ^ Lodovico Antonio Muratori (1740). Antiquitates Italicae medii aevi. Vol. Tomus tertius. typ. Societatis palatinae. pp. 599–606. J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologiae Latinae Tomus CL (Paris 1854), pp. 857-866.
  14. ^ Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1851). Geschichte des römischen Rechts im Mittelalter (in Latin and German). Vol. VII (2nd ed.). Heidelberg: J.C.B. Mohr. pp. 12–15. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptorum Tomus IV[permanent dead link‍]: Leges Langobardorum (Hannover: Hahn 1868), pp. 663-664 (ed. Blühme). Pierre Toubert (1973). Les structures du Latium médiéval: le Latium méridional et la Sabine du IXe siècle à la fin du XIIe siècle (in French). Vol. II. Rome: École française de Rome. pp. 1219 note 4.: "souvent attribuée sans raison déterminante à Bonizon de Sutri".
  15. ^ Robinson, p. 35, 44. E. Dümmler (ed.), "Bonizonis episcopi Sutrini Liber ad amicum," in: Monumenta Germaniae Historica 1 Scriptores. 6 Libelli 01. Libelli de Lite Imperatorum et Pontificum (Hannover: Hahn 1891), pp. 568-620. Philipp Jaffé (1865), Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum (in Latin and German), Tomus II: Gregoriana, pp. 577-689, contains an extensive commentary and notes.
  16. ^ Robinson, p. 43. Ernst Perels (ed.), Bonizo de Sutri, Liber de vita Christiana, foreword by Walter Berschin (Hildesheim 1998). The original version was published in 1930: Bonizo [of Sutri]. Liber de vita christiana. Edited by Ernst Perels. Texte zur Geschichte des römischen und kanonischen Rechts im Mittelalter, Bd. I. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1930. Dümmler, p. 570: Inde a libro VI. scilicet narrat posteris quae ipse aequalis viderat aut compererat. Verum temporem anteriorem nomina et facta saepissime commutat vel confundit. Angelo Mai, ed. (1854). Patrum nova bibliotheca (in Latin). Vol. Tomus VII, pars iii. Roma: typis Sacri Consilii propagando christiano nomini. pp. 1–176.

Bibliography

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 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Bonizo of Sutri". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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