180 LaCitadeSancta
from imperial tyranny. In Lombardy, Giovanni Cacciaforte ( 1125 – 83 ), first
prior of San Vittore at Cremona, then abbot of San Lorenzo, and finally
bishop of Mantua and Vicenza, rallied Cremona to the aid of the Lombard
communes in their struggle with Frederick Barbarossa. Through his ser-
mons, he supported Cremona’s own struggle for communal independence,
an activity for which he paid with his life. He was also famous for his protec-
tion of citizens against the magnates of the countryside. His cleric Enrico
explained that the holy bishop’s murder happened because he refused to
abandon a poor man while Enrico went off to buy the pauper a cloak.^4
During Giovanni Cacciaforte’s canonization investigation by Bishop Omo-
bono Medalberti of Cremona, citizens of Cremona and Vicenza testified to
the holiness of their spiritual father, not only as a defender of the Mother
Church but also as a pastor who took his greatest delight in celebrating the
liturgy for his people.^5 More important, the good bishop saint brought inter-
nal reconciliation to his city. During one feud, Bishop Ubaldo walked out
into the piazza where the factions stood ready to do battle. He lay down
between the two groups as the swordplay began. The men stopped fighting,
in panic that someone had struck the bishop down. This allowed the women
to pour into the square, assaulting their hotheaded men and crying to high
heaven for help. Ubaldo got up and slowly walked away. Contrite, factions
swore to patch up the quarrel.^6 Lanfranco of Pavia (d. 1194 ), a member of
the Beccaria family of Grupella, a village near Pavia, promoted peace be-
tween his city and its neighbors.^7 He retired to a Vallombrosan monastery
soon before his death, just as an independent lay government was replacing
the early communal union of city and bishop. He continued working recon-
ciliations after death. When Pavia was to hang a delinquent, Alberto of No-
vara, the man prayed aloud to Saint Lanfranco for a pardon. The bishop
did what the city would not. Three attempts to hang the malefactor, includ-
ing one in which strong men yanked his feet, failed to kill him. So the hang-
men let Alberto go, and all sang the praises of the merciful Lanfranco, the
new patron of Pavia.^8
Early communal holiness combined identification with one’s city, pious
orthodoxy, forgiveness, and neighborliness, virtues accessible to any devout
Christian. One did not have to be a bishop to manifest these qualities. Char-
acteristically, holiness was found among one’s neighbors. The communal
4 .Inquisitio Facta Cremonae per d. Homobonum Episcopum Cremonensem de Vita et Moribus b. Joannis Cazefronte
Abbatis Sancti Laurentii de Cremona postea Episcopi Vicentini,ed. Alessandro Schiavo,Della vita e dei tempi del b.
Giovanni Cacciafronte cremonese, vescovo di Mantova poi di Vicenza(Vicenza: Paroni, 1866 ), 245.
5. Ibid., 239 – 43.
6. Giordano of Citta`di Castello,Vita Beati Ubaldi Eugubini Episcopi, 13. 3 ,p. 100.
7. For his life, see Bernardo Balbi,Vita [S. Lanfranci],pp. 533 – 42. For a bibliography of modern
scholarship, see Alban Butler,Lives of the Saints,complete ed., ed. Herbert Thurston and Donald Attwater
(Westminister, Md.: Christian Classics, 1991 ), 2 : 622 – 23.
8. Bernardo Balbi,Vita [S. Lanfranci], 4. 42 ,p. 540.