Symony Declensions of a Lemma. The Florentine Case

Abstract: This paper aims to examine how diferent forms of the accusation of simony evolved within a specifc context, namely Florence, during the eleventh century, which witnessed a violent clash between the followers of Giovanni Gualberto, a monk, and Bishop Pietro Mezzabarba, who was accused of simony. The papacy became involved in the confict, with Pier Damiani acting as a legate, albeit unofcially, of the Petrine See. In Florence, during this period there were at least three key actors who had very diferent interpretations of simony coexisted during this period: Pier Damiani, the epis- copate, and the Gualbertian monks. For each of these actors, the paper attempts not only to reconstruct the use and evolution of the term simony within the contempo- rary context and after the confict (particularly through the biographies of Giovanni Gualberto, the so called „Vitae“) but also to explore the relational networks that in- fuenced these uses and evolutions of the term. The monks viewed simony as a form of real heresy, following the point of view of Umberto di Silva Candida, which they believed afected the faithful and required purifcation through Settimo’s „ordeal“ by fre. In contrast, the episcopate found it difcult to rely solely on the term simony and sought alternative interpretations. Two clerics associated with the Marquis, who were close to Mezzabarba, proposed a unique interpretation of simony, which involved the separation of ofcium (ecclesiastical ofce) and benefcium (church benefce), allowing the exchange of money for the purchase of benefces. Pier Damiani’s intervention in Florence attempted to bridge these two perspectives. On the one hand, he sought to align the bishop’s judgement with Roman norms, and on the other, he communicated his interpretation of simony, which, although condemned, did not necessarily imply the inability to administer Grace. The fnal part of the paper analyses the later develop- ments in this story, in particular by examining the three „Vitae“ of Giovanni Gualberto composed between 1090 and 1113. In these „Vitae“, the use of the term simony by those responsible for preserving Gualbert’s memory becomes problematic. The radical inter- pretation of the term caused a certain discomfort, and in the „Vitae“ we witness a loss of the disruptive meaning that the word had acquired during the Mezzabarba accusation.