Cities of God: The Religion of the Italian Communes 1125-1325

(Darren Dugan) #1

 198 LaCitadeSancta


works to the women, but even a craftsman could serve as physician of the


soul. Pietro Pettinaio, on the way to Florence for combmaking supplies,


stopped at the water fountain at Castellina in Chianti to snack on fresh figs


with some of the locals. The figs’ quality inspired him to give a little sermon


on the sweetness of the God who made them.^115 The men were properly


edified. Gerardo of Cagnoli received consoling messages from God for im-


portant personages, such as Enrico de’ Abbati, the justiciar of the king of


Naples (a promise that he would recover his health), and King Robert of


Sicily (notice that he would succeed in war).^116 But mostly, male saints per-


formed the spiritual work of ‘‘correcting the erring’’ by helping confute her-


esy. Omobono of Cremona regularly unmasked and rebuked heretics who


came to visit him.^117 When messengers from Enzo, the son of Frederick II,


arrived at his cell, attracted by his holy reputation, Giovanni chided them


and their master as excommunicates.^118 They went away offended rather


than reformed. Even the power of sanctity had limits.


The saint worked for peace among neighbors. In 1199 , Pope Innocent III


sent Pietro Parenzo from Rome to Orvieto as podesta. He was to suppress


Catharism and loose living. It appears that the ‘‘Catharism’’ there was the


result of divisions in the city between pro-papal and anti-papal factions,


rather than actual heresy. A conspiracy kidnapped and murdered him that


very year because he punished factional brawling during carnival. After-


ward, the Orvietans remembered Pietro more as civic peacemaker than lay


inquisitor. His cult became popular because he had restored unity to the


commune.^119 Margherita of Cortona not only joined a confraternity dedi-


cated to putting down riots and feuds, she facilitated the process by her


visions. In them, God supplied information for her confessor Fra Giunta


Bevegnati to use in internal peacemaking at Cortona. God told her that it


was his will that Arezzo grant independence to Cortona and that Guglielmo


degli Ubertini ( 1248 – 89 ), bishop of Arezzo, stop aiding the commune’s Aret-


tine enemies.^120 Conflict might be resolved in less dramatic ways. After a


sermon by Ranieri of Pisa, one woman walked off by accident with another’s


mantle. She returned only to meet the other woman in a huff on the way.


The women agreed that God had arranged their meeting as an opportunity


to show the forgiveness praised in Ranieri’s sermon. A possible rift between


neighbors had been averted.^121 Even after the age of the communes, lay


saints continued their work. Peace negotiators credited the prayers of Ge-



  1. Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 4 ,p. 29.

  2. Bartolomeo Albizzi,Legenda Sancti Gerardi, 5. 80 – 90 , pp. 421 – 24.
    117 .Vita Sancti Homoboni, 113 – 14.
    118 .Processus... B. Joannis Boni, 4. 5. 293 ,p. 846.

  3. Giovanni of Orvieto,Vita [S. Petri Parentii], 1. 6 ,p. 88 ; see Lansing,Power and Purity, 23 – 42 ,on
    Pietro’s murder and the rise of his cult.

  4. Menesto`and Rusconi,Umbria, 64 – 65 , 68.

  5. Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 11. 112 ,p. 368.

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