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-
- Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 4 ,p. 29.
- 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. - 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. - Menesto`and Rusconi,Umbria, 64 – 65 , 68.
- Benincasa of Pisa,Vita [S. Raynerii Pisani], 11. 112 ,p. 368.