The Sardinian Church 191
Partly as a result of the bidding of Gregory VII, the special relationship be-
tween the Pisan and Sardinian churches continued in this manner for over a
century and was soon reinforced by other developments, such as the transfer
to Pisa of the remains of Sardinian martyrs and their cult;44 the arrival of the
Camaldoleses and Vallumbrosans; the supervision over the entire Sardinian
church by the archbishop of Pisa, who was made papal legate, primate of the
three ecclesiastical provinces, and metropolitan of Civita and Galtellì; and fi-
nally the extraordinary blossoming of Romanesque churches that were built
by Pisan and other architects, foremen, and workers.45
4.4 Urban II Continues the Policy of Gregory VII
Of Gregory VII’s successor, Victor III (1086–1088), nothing is known of his poli-
cies regarding Sardinia. However, a letter long attributed to Victor III, but re-
cently (1960) deemed to be false and probably forged—in the 1600s during the
time of the struggle between the archbishops of Cagliari and Sassari for the
primateship over Sardinia and Corsica—was addressed to James, “Calaritano
archiepiscopo, Sardinie primati.” As a matter of fact, Victor III was the well-
known Desiderius, abbot of Montecassino, and had been responsible for send-
ing the first Cassinese monks to the island. It was in fact Urban II (1088–1099)
who continued the policies of Gregory. Urban’s pontificate almost exactly coin-
cided with the tenure of Daimbert at the see of Pisa, before he left on the First
Crusade (1088–1098). During a sojourn in Pisa in 1092, Urban made Daimbert
metropolitan and sometime before 1098 he conferred him the legateship on
Sardinia, which he carried out on the occasion of the synod of Torres.46 Both
concessions were made out of gratitude by Urban II to the church and the
city of Pisa for the obsequia and labores undertaken in the fight against the
antipope Gibert, and in sympathy with the “manifest” signs of the divine pro-
tection of the city in the form of recent victories over the Arabs, its citizens’
commercial success, and the postulations of Contessa Matilde.
Scano and Giovanni Strinna, eds, Il condaghe di-SanPietro di Silki, con traduzione in ital-
iano (Nuoro, 2013).
44 Two such martyrs were Luxurius, who became Saint Rossore―to whom Bishop Gerardus
(1080–1085) dedicated a monastery of the same name―and Ephisius, from Cagliari.
45 For instance, the basilica of Saint Gavinus in Porto Torres, Saint Mary of the Regnu in
Ardara, and Saint Simplicius in Civita. See Roberto Coroneo, Architettura romanica dalla
metà del mille al primo ‘300 (Nuoro, 1993).
46 Raimondo Turtas, “L’arcivescovo di Pisa, legato pontificio e primate in Sardegna,” in Nel IX
centenario della metropoli ecclesiastica di Pisa, Atti del convegno di studi: Pisa 7–8 maggio
1992 , eds Maria Luisa Ceccarelli Lemut and Stefano Sodi (Pisa, 1995), pp. 183–233; Michael
Metzke, Dagobert von Pisa zwischen Pisa, Papst und ersten Kreuzzug (Sigmaringen, 1998).