16 LaCitadeSancta
TheCulticCenter
The city: the church. The church: the bishopric. When the north and central
Italian cities shook off imperial control and established their unique form of
government, the commune, the word they used for city (civitas—citade) said
that the municipality was the seat of a bishop.^4 To have a bishop was to be
complete as a church, complete as a city. The authority of the commune
and its bishop together extended into thecontado,the countryside. The city
fathers of Parma used the wordsepiscopatus(bishopric) andcivitas(city) as
synonyms in their podesta’s oath and in laws and statutes.^5 Strictly speaking,
theepiscopatus,the seat of the bishop, was his cathedral. Therein and -about
unfolded the splendid public ceremonies and rites beloved of the poets.
Great episcopal liturgies made it theEcclesia Matrix,the Mother Church, of
the diocese (fig. 1 ). At Bergamo in 1187 , during an inquest to identify the
city’s true Ecclesia Matrix, Canon Oberto of Mapello from San Vincenzo
explained that in his church ‘‘the bishop is chosen, there the holy chrism is
made, there ordinations take place, there the scrutinies are performed, and
there public penances are given.’’ His friend the sacristan, Don Lanfranco
of Monasterolo, added that San Vincenzo was also the place for baptisms
and, more ominously, for excommunications.^6 Baptism made lay Christians,
ordination made the clergy. Both orders of people, clergy and laity, were
born at the Mother Church, the womb of their city. Over these rites presided
the bishop, the pastor of the city church.
The cathedral provided the model for the rest of the diocese. One could
tell a Sienese church, however far out in the countryside, because it modeled
its ceremonies and worship on those at the cathedral of the Glorious Virgin.
The clergy of Piacenza agreed; Piacentine rites identified a Piacentine
church.^7 Conformity to the ritual customs of the cathedral was an ancient
rule, enshrined in canon law.^8 Did the village of San Cesario belong to Bolo-
gna or to Modena? One need only check the liturgical books of the parish:
the feast of Saint Petronio of Bologna outranked that of Saint Giminiano of
Modena. The place was Bolognese.^9 Liturgy more than geography mapped
the countryside.
- On the bishop’s presence in the cities, see Maureen C. Miller,The Bishop’s Palace: Architecture and
Authority in Medieval Italy(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000 ), and Carlrichard Bru ̈hl, ‘‘Il ‘Palazzo’
nelle cittaitaliane,’’La coscienza cittadina nei comuni italiani nel duecento, 265 – 66 ; on city and bishopric, see Pini,Citta, comuni e corporazioni, 16 – 17 , and C. D. Fonseca, ‘‘ ‘Ecclesia Matrix’ e ‘conventus civium’: L’ideo-
logia della cattedrale nell’etacomunale,’’La pace di Costanza, 1183 : Un difficile equilibrio di poteri fra societa
italiana ed impero(Bologna: Cappelli, 1984 ), 135 – 49. - E.g., Parma Stat.i( 1250 ), 1 , pp. 3 and 59.
- ‘‘Instrumentum Litis de Matricitate,’’ ed. Giangiuseppina Valsecchi (September 1187 ), 2. 13 (Ob-
erto) and 2. 18 (Lanfranco), Giangiuseppina Valsecchi,‘‘Interrogatus... Respondit’’: Storia di un processo del xii
secolo(Bergamo: Biblioteca Civica, 1989 ), 148 and 152. - Piacenza Stat. Cler. ( 1298 ), pp. 530 , 538.
8 .Ordo Senensis, 2. 106 ,p. 514 , quoting theDecretum Gratiani,D. 12 c. 13. - On the vagueness of diocesan boundaries, see A. Benati, ‘‘Confine ecclesiastico e problemi circos-
crizionali e patrimoniali tra Ferrara e Bologna nell’alto Medioevo,’’AMDSPPR, 3 d ser., 27 ( 1980 ): 29 – 80.