The Sardinian Church 195
fearsome than that of its archbishop: the commune of Pisa, the progress of
which would mark the ineluctable decline of Marseille and other maritime
players, albeit after a protracted resistance. Pisa wanted to pass from trade he-
gemony to a political one and refused to give discounts to anyone. The dona-
tions that the Victorines received in the realm of Gallura from the judge and the
local bishop were far more modest, as confirmed by Urban II in 1095, during the
investiture controversy: during the new century they were absorbed by Pisans.
5.3 Foundations of the Camaldoleses and Vallumbrosans
The Camaldolese order was founded in Camaldoli around 1023 and the
Vallumbrosian in Vallombrosa in 1036; both were eremitic-cenobitic move-
ments, vehemently pro-reform. They spread not only in their home region of
central Italy (with various settlements further north by the Vallumbrosans),
but also to Sardinia. This was largely because of the two congregations’ suc-
cess in Pisa, where they went so far as to accuse Bishop Daimbert of simonia-
cal connivance. As mentioned above, Urban II himself intervened, appointing
Daimbert as his man in central Italy, newly conferring upon him the ecclesi-
astical orders that had been challenged, and personally ordaining him bishop.
This forced the Camaldolese and Vallumbrosan communities and their friends
in Pisan circles to cease their hostility. It is presumable that for as long as
Daimbert remained in Pisa, the Camaldoleses and Vallumbrosans would not
have made headway in Sardinia. In effect, their situation was eased only after
Daimbert’s death in 1105. Shortly after, the Camaldoleses started construction
on the church of Scanu, of the abbey of Saccargia near Sassari (completed
by 1112), and the priory of Saint Nicholas of Trullas, as well as a dozen other
churches. The success of the Vallumbrosans came later (1127) and was less
striking: they held the abbeys of Saint Michael of Salvènnor (of which remains
a Castilian version of the condaghe from the twelfth to thirteenth centuries),
less than a kilometer from that of Saccargia and Saint Michael of Plaiano, not
far from Sassari; in all about ten churches.55
At the beginning of the twelfth century, the realm of Arborea also received its
monks. They did not apply to Camaldoli, but to the monastery of Saint Zeno of
Pisa (confirmed to Camaldoli by Innocent II in 1136) to which the Arborensian
priory of Saint Mary of Bonàrcado was affiliated from its very foundation, along
with 15 other churches. On the advice of Archbishop Omodeus, the founding
55 Vedovato, Camaldoli e la sua congregazione, pp. 188–189; 194–196; 211–214; 260–264; 272–
273; 275–276; Ginevra Zanetti, I Camaldolesi in Sardegna (Cagliari, 1974). Mauro Sanna, “La
presenza camaldolese in Sardegna” eds. Cecilia Caby and Pierluigi Lucciardello. (Cesena:
2014), pp. 183–198.