LIVING THE MIDDLE LIFE: SECULAR PRIESTS AND THEIR COMMUNITIES IN THIRTEENTH-CENTURY GENOA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY John Benjamin Yousey-Hindes May 2010 © 2010 by John Benjamin Yousey-Hindes. All Rights Reserved. Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/vr947wb5953 ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Kathryn Miller, Primary Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Philippe Buc I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Paula Findlen Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies. Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in University Archives. iii ABSTRACT Secular priests occupied a central place within thirteenth-century European society. They not only carried out important duties within the institutional Church, but also participated in the community life of both city and countryside. Yet the relatively few detailed studies of priests that exist often rely on sources written by people with vested interests in the clergy. Can one find less polemical evidence that would allow one to reach a more nuanced and historically accurate understanding of the clergy? The private registers of public notaries in the port city of Genoa are one example of such dispassionate sources. Exploring these notaries’ acts, we discover that Genoese priests entered into economic, spiritual, and social transactions with a wide range of people. In doing so, they built complex and durable relationships that provided ample opportunities for the exchange of ideas and values with the women, men, and other clerics with whom they shared their lives. And the influences ran the other direction as well, as these local communities and their institutional and social structures shaped the lives of the priests who were their colleagues and sons. If a major trend in scholarship on the Middle Ages over the past seventy years has been to emphasize the religiosity of lay people’s everyday world, then this dissertation looks the other direction, to explore the so-called secularity of religious institutions and their priests. Ultimately, the notarial registers prove that Genoa’s priests were not mere facilitators of lay religiosity or agents of ecclesiastical power; rather they played a multivalent role in the intermediary space between “lay” and “religious” communities. This dissertation is divided into an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion. Chapter One provides an overview of Genoa’s ecclesiastical structure and demonstrates iv how private notarial registers can provide useful perspectives on secular priests’ positions within the city. Chapter Two investigates how priests’ participation in the real estate and credit markets helped weave them into the fabric of Genoese life. Chapter Three uses the notarial registers to show priests carrying out their core professional duties: tending to the health of souls in their communities. Chapter Four demonstrates priests’ important intermediary position by examining their service as executors, agents, arbiters, and judges. Chapter Five explores how secular priests embodied the Genoese Church overseas in Genoa’s network of trading settlements around the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Finally, the Conclusion considers the broader contours of priests’ social networks, identifying trends that cut across the heuristic boundaries that structure earlier chapters. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii List of Tables x List of Figures xi Abbreviations xii Note on Citations, Names, and Money xv Introduction: Tam spiritualia quam temporalia 1 Chapter One: Institutional Frameworks and Clerical Movement 28 Chapter Two: Priests’ Involvement in Real Estate and Credit 66 Chapter Three: Pro Anima: Genoese Priests and the Care of Souls 100 Chapter Four: Sacred Trust: Priests as Agents and Arbiters 132 Chapter Five: Genoese Priests in transmarinis partibus 165 Conclusion: Secular Priests and Their Communities 200 Appendix A: Selected Churches in 13th-century Genoa 228 Appendix B: Maps 231 Works Cited 235 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation has taken shape in stages over many years, and I am sincerely thankful to the people and institutions that have helped make it possible. Before all others, I would like to express my gratitude to Jeff Miner, my friend and colleague. Working alongside Jeff, both literally and figuratively, has made me a better thinker, writer, and teacher. It was random chance that we both ended up studying medieval Genoa, but I cannot overstate what a blessing this has been. Jeff’s prodigious intelligence, good humor, and boundless curiosity are representative of the culture I found throughout the Department of History at Stanford. I want to give special thanks to my advisors, Kathryn Miller and Philippe Buc, who have been my mentors and my guides from the moment I met them (in the Kasbah of the Udayas). Their insightful and diligent readings of the drafts of this dissertation are but the most recent examples of their support and assistance. Paula Findlen not only provided important aid and counsel about Italian historiography early on, but offered thoughtful and spirited comments upon my antepenultimate draft. Maureen Miller, of the University of California-Berkeley, read my prospectus and provided timely encouragement and advice. I would also like to recognize Sean Hanretta, the staff of Stanford University Libraries (particularly John Rawlings, Mary-Louise Munill, and John Mustain), and History Department staff members Linda Huynh and Art Palmon. Despite the hard work of so many people on my behalf, there are mistakes in this study, and I alone am responsible for them. I completed the majority of this project while living in New Haven, Connecticut, and I am deeply grateful to the faculty, staff, and graduate students of Yale University. They stubbornly ignored my lack of official status and embraced me as a full-fledged member of their community. The marvelous libraries, the visiting speakers, the conferences, and the weekly camaraderie of “Medieval Lunch” provided as rich an intellectual environment as a medievalist could hope for. Marcia Colish, Roberta Frank, Paul Freedman, Walter Goffart, Laura Saetveit Miles, Sarah Novacich, Sue Roberts, and Mike Widener each contributed to my work and made me feel welcome in their own way. While here I had the good fortune of meeting Hussein Fancy, himself far from his home vii institution. He has been a friend and a role model ever since; it is hard to imagine how I would have completed this project without his reliable advice. A grant from the Friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Library allowed me to spend a month working with the University’s wonderful collection of materials on medieval Genoa, including photostatic reproductions of several volumes of Genoese notarial acts. The Department of Special Collections was an excellent place to work, thanks in large part to the friendly and accommodating staff. Eric Goddard provided congenial companionship and invaluable research assistance. Robert Reynolds, though he died nearly forty years before I started this project, deserves a special mention because reading his correspondence in the University Archives assured me that even scholars who had worked on the Genoese notaries for years still struggled to understand their vocabulary and handwriting. Madison also provided the chance setting for the first of several conversations with Dan Smail, whose rigorous scholarship and infectious enthusiasm have been a regular source of inspiration. Funding from Stanford University’s Graduate Research Opportunities Fund and the Department of History allowed me to take a crucial trip to Genoa, where I was able survey and photograph vast quantities of archival material, and stand in many of the very same churches as the protagonists in this dissertation. The Archivio di Stato di Genova was a researcher’s dream, with comfortable facilities, a liberal photography policy, and a patient and good-natured staff. I extend a special thanks to Giustina Olgiati for granting me access to material that would otherwise have been unavailable. I would also like to express my gratitude to Paolo Fontana at the Archivio Storica Diocesano, who kindly discussed my project with me and directed me to many particularly useful archival resources. Davide Debernardi and his colleagues unlocked (both literally and figuratively) the wonderful collection of secondary sources at the library of the Società Ligure di Storia Patria. Tim Standring of the Denver Art Museum not only made some helpful introductions, but also a delicious penne arribiata. Alessandra Cominetti,