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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Unlike his better known homonym of about a century earlier, the Lanfranc of Pavia who died in 1194 was a theologian who never went to Bec or to Canterbury but who instead became bishop in his home town, Alexander III having named him to that see in 1159. According to his Vita et Miracula by his immediate successor, the jurist Bernard of Pavia (BHL 4723-4724), he was charitable to the poor, a protector of widows and orphans, assiduous and effective in recovering church property that had been alienated, a prudent defender of the faith, and a scourge of heretics. His enemies thought him proud and cruel. He fought continuously with with Pavia's communal government over ecclesiastical property and ecclesiastical rights, was exiled, and took refuge in the Vallombrosan monastery of San Sepolcro just outside the city. Later, having fled to Rome, he was restored though the diplomacy of Clement III. When later still a new government renewed its struggle with the bishop, demanding that he cede to it part of the bishop's palace, Lanfranc attempted to resign. He withdrew from the palace to San Sepolcro but died before he could fulfil his intention of becoming a Vallombrosan monk. Miracles followed his burial at San Sepolcro and a cult arose. When shortly after Lanfranc's death a malefactor who had been sentenced by the city to be hanged prayed aloud to Lanfranc for a pardon; when three attempts to hang him proved unsuccessful he was let go, with popular acclaim going to Pavia's new protector, the merciful Lanfranc. In the first half of the thirteenth century the monks of San Sepolcro built a new church utilizing some of the previous structure. This was dedicated to Lanfranc and was consecrated by Pavia's bishop Rodobaldus in 1236. Today is Lanfranc's _dies natalis_ and his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology. Some period-pertinent images of Lanfranc of Pavia: a) as depicted (at right, flanking Christ in majesty; at left, the BVM with a bishop [?Rodobaldus]) in an earlier thirteenth-century fresco in the nave of Pavia's chiesa di San Lanfranco: http://tinyurl.com/hett92v Detail view (Lanfranc): http://tinyurl.com/zuhfcy6 b) as portrayed in relief on the sarcophagus of his multi-tiered late fifteenth- to early sixteenth-century tomb (commissioned in 1498, completed after February 1508) by Giovanni Antonio Amadeo in Pavia's chiesa di San Lanfranco: http://tinyurl.com/jv6f6e8 http://tinyurl.com/jfrr3bt http://tinyurl.com/hzjnxqs Detail view: Lanfranc (at right) receiving the city's new consuls: http://tinyurl.com/h57cffs c) as depicted (enthroned, between St. John the Baptist and St. Liberius) by Giovanni Battista Cima (a.k.a. Cima da Conegliano) in an early sixteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1515-1516) in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge: http://tinyurl.com/28oux3h http://webapps.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/explorer/index.php?oid=211 Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/medieval-religion