Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of maps
- List of abbreviations
- Map I Southern Italy: archbishoprics and principal bishoprics
- Map II Southern Italy: abbeys
- Map III The dioceses of Sicily in the late twelfth century
- Map IV The dioceses of the Terra di Bari
- Map V The dioceses of the Terra di Lavoro
- Introduction
- 1 The Church in southern Italy before the Normans
- 2 The Church and the Norman conquest
- 3 The papacy and the rulers of southern Italy
- 4 The papacy and the Church in southern Italy
- 5 The kings of Sicily and the Church
- 6 The Church and military obligation
- 7 The secular Church
- 8 Monasticism
- 9 Latins, Greeks and non-Christians
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - The Church in southern Italy before the Normans
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- List of maps
- List of abbreviations
- Map I Southern Italy: archbishoprics and principal bishoprics
- Map II Southern Italy: abbeys
- Map III The dioceses of Sicily in the late twelfth century
- Map IV The dioceses of the Terra di Bari
- Map V The dioceses of the Terra di Lavoro
- Introduction
- 1 The Church in southern Italy before the Normans
- 2 The Church and the Norman conquest
- 3 The papacy and the rulers of southern Italy
- 4 The papacy and the Church in southern Italy
- 5 The kings of Sicily and the Church
- 6 The Church and military obligation
- 7 The secular Church
- 8 Monasticism
- 9 Latins, Greeks and non-Christians
- Conclusion
- Appendices
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Shortly before the year 980 a Greek monk called Nilos, a celebrated holy man from Calabria, who was the abbot of a monastery near Rossano, on the northern side of the Sila mountains, tired – so we are told – of the pressures of his renown and his would-be disciples, and worried about the danger of a Muslim attack, decided to abandon the abbey that he had founded, and leave for pastures new. Despite his considerable age – for he was then already about seventy – he travelled northwards into the Campania, the area on the western, or Tyrrhenian, coast of the peninsula, which was ruled not, as was Calabria, by the Byzantine Empire, but by the various petty native princelings who still described themselves as ‘Lombards’, but whom we may consider as, by this time, indigenous Italians. According to his biographer:
Fleeing from the honour in which he was held among them [the Greeks], he preferred to dwell among the Latins, since he was unknown to them and not held in respect among them. He did indeed take great care to avoid honours, but by doing so he became more famous and distinguished in the sight of Heaven, and he was received by all as if he was one of the Apostles, and equal reverence was shown to him.
Not surprisingly, his merits soon became clear to his hosts, and the Prince of Capua, Pandulf, sought to make him a bishop, or so the biographer claimed.
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- Information
- The Latin Church in Norman Italy , pp. 10 - 59Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007