TheMotherChurch 45
There, Bishop Arduino ( 1121 – 47 ) continued to use the imperial title of count
until 1136 and even exercised some of his old prerogatives after the appear-
ance of ‘‘consuls’’ heading a communal government. The transition was
peaceful; bishop and commune maintained good relations and supported
each other. Conflict arose later, under Arduino’s successor, Giovanni ( 1147 –
55 ).^181 In contrast, at Vicenza, Bishop Ezzelino ( 1080 – 1104 ) sided with Henry
IV against the commune; his equally imperialist successors, Giovanni
Cacciafronte ( 1179 – 84 ) and Pistore ( 1184 – 1203 ) both paid with their lives for
their opposition to the commune. By the thirteenth century such conflicts
were mostly over. Later communal bishops were generally willing to bend
the rules and cooperate with city governments, as, for example, at Parma,
where in 1236 Bishop Grazio obligingly defrocked a cleric, murderer of one
Gerardo dei Nauli, so the city could execute him. They boiled him in a pot
on the Piazza Comunale.^182 Conversely, the cities returned such favors and
enacted severe punishments for those who dared to molest or harm their
prelates.^183
Whether absentee, careerist, or imperialist, the bishop remained the spiri-
tual head of the Mother Church and, as such, the representative and de-
fender of the city. The model of a good bishop in the communal period
included a role as protector of city independence. When Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa attacked Gubbio, the city’s saintly bishop Ubaldo went out, con-
fronted the emperor, and gave him a stern lecture. Barbarossa asked his
blessing and departed.^184 In a tiny diocese like Gubbio, the bishop lived as
close to his flock as the rector of many a pieve. At least ritually, the bishop
had to show his paternal care for his people and their needs. Saintly Bishop
Lanfranco of Pavia set a model for later bishops bypersonallyfeeding twelve
of the city poor at his table every day.^185 The good bishop was one who used
his station for the welfare of his people and guided them wisely. After his
death, Lanfranco appeared to his fellow citizens in dreams and visions to
give them direction or rebuke, always clad in the full pontificals of his of-
fice.^186 Now that was a true spiritual father!
Charity like Lanfranco’s befitted all prelates: the council of Ravenna later
ordered that all bishops of the province feed the poor at their tables daily
and that they and their chapters feed twelve paupers in memory of deceased
- See Simona Rossi, ‘‘Piacenza dal governo vescovile a quello consolare: L’episcopato di Arduino
( 1121 – 1147 ),’’Aevum 68 ( 1994 ): 323 – 38.
182 .Chronicon Parmense( 1236 ), 11. Cities also enforced episcopal rent collection; see, e.g., Siena Stat.i
( 1262 ), 4. 23 ,p. 410. - E.g., Florence Stat.ii( 1325 ) 3. 113 ,p. 268.
- Giordano of Citta
di Castello,Vita Beati Ubaldi Eugubini Episcopi,ed. Franc ̧ois Bolbeau, 15. 1 – 4 ,in ‘‘La vita di sant’Ubaldo, vescovo di Gubbio, attribuita a Giordano di Cittadi Castello,’’Bollettino della
Deputazione di storia patria per l’Umbria 74 ( 1977 ): 102. - Bernardo Balbi,Vita [S. Lanfranci Episcopi Papiensis], 1. 4 ,AS 25 (Jun.v), 534.
- Ibid., 3 – 4 , pp. 537 – 40.