CHAPTER ONE

FROM A CELL TO A MONASTIC GIANT

The Sabina comprised the northeastern section of ancient Latium. Lying in its southern quadrant on the right bank of the river Farfa at its confluence with the Tiber, the monastery was only about fifty miles from Rome.1 Before its name became identified with the river in the tenth century, Farfa was known simply as Santa Maria, or "in fundo Acutiano," referring to its location on the slopes of Mount Acutiano. Possibly built on the ruins of an old temple, its legendary origins arise out of the mists of the life of Lawrence of Syria, in the fourth or fifth century according to Gregory of Catino, but more probably in the sixth according to modern estimates. By the ninth century its only rival in size and eminence in Italy was Nonantola, and by the mid-eleventh, Montecassino. By then it constituted a vir• tual princedom with possessions spread throughout Italy. But its progression was not ever upward. Destroyed during the period of invasions at the end of the Roman Empire, it was rebuilt in the late seventh century by Thomas of Maurienne, who had arrived on the site of the ruins from the Savoy. It was at this point that a Lombard connection was established that would distinguish Farfa from institutions that functioned under Roman law. Faroaldus II, duke of the Lombard Duchy of Spoleto, took an interest in the new structure that Thomas and his cohorts had built. He requested rights of patron• age over Farfa from John VII, who granted his request in 705 in return for papal rights of consecration. This sharing of authority be• tween the papacy and secular powers would become Farfa's hallmark. Pepin the Short, Charlemagne's father, defeated the Lombards in 756. In fulfillment of a promise he had made to Stephen II in return for his own coronation, he handed over most of the former Byzantine Exarchate to the pope. This "Donation of Pepin" was the genesis of claims to a Terra or Patrimonium Sancti Petri, which by the thirteenth

1 In the preface to the Liber Fbriger, pp. 3-44, Gregory of Catino recounts Farfa's remote origins. Chron. 1, pp. 121-132, and n. 1, pp. 121-124 for the preface to the Liber Fbriger, transcribed before the publication of the edition; McGlendon, The Impérial Abbey of Farfa, pp. 5-16, ns. 35, 36, p. 147. 18 CHAPTER ONE century would become the Papal State.2 The Lombard kings did not recognize this change of sovereignty, but when Charlemagne defeated King Desiderius in 774, the central part of his kingdom fell, and came under Frankish rule. Although the papacy retained possession of the Donation of Pepin, the Franks maintained political and admin• istrative supervision. During these upheavals the Lombards reached an agreement with Hadrian I allowing Farfa to be subjugated to the papacy, but Charle• magne restored the monastery to the empire.3 In 775 he singled it out as the first Italian abbey to be treated like a Frankish royal abbey.4 Like the Frankish abbeys he granted it immunities, prescribing that it be exempt from civil and episcopal jurisdiction and from taxation.5 In keeping with his policy of using the Benedictines as a unifying force, he stated that the monks should elect their abbots according to the Benedictine Rule without outside interference.6 Five days later he issued a decree informing all concerned of Farfa's rights.7

2 Toubert says that one cannot speak of a papal state until the thirteenth cen• tury, but that before that time the papacy made vague claims to a terra sancti Petri, roughly coinciding with Latium. Les Structures 2, p. 937. 3 liber Fbriger, pp. 14—16; Kehr, Italia Pontificia 2 Latium, p. 9; see also p. 57. 4 MGH Diplomata Karolinorum 1:141-142 at p. 141; May 24, 775: ".. . missa petitione claementiae regni nostri dixit suggerendo, ut pro mercedis nostrae augmento talker ei vel ipsi monasterio concedere deberemus, qualiter ipsa casa dei sub tali privilegio esse deberet sicut caetera monasteria Lirinensium, Agaunensium et Luxo- viensium . . . sed ipsa casa dei, sicut suprascripta monasteria, quae infra regna nostra sunt, sub eo privilegio et norma patrum consistât." Gregory of Catino quotes exten• sively from this diploma. Liber Floriger, p. 15. 5 Ibid., 141-142: "Praecipientes ergo iubemus, ut nullus episcopus abbas dux castaldius vel quislibet de fidelibus nostris seu iuniores aut successores vestri praedictum abbatem nee monachos suos vel agentes ipsius aecclesiae de rebus prefati monasterii, quae ibidem ex munificentia regum aut reginarum vel de collatis populi seu pontificum vel quae ad ipsum monasterium pervenerunt aut inantea deo adiuvante largitae fuerint tarn per venditionis quam et donationis cessionis vel reliqua instrumenta cartarum, inquietare aut contra rationis ordinem vel quoquo tempore [calumniam] generare presumatis, sed sub nostro privilegio quieto oreüne resideant. Et ut haec preceptio nostris et futuris temporibus firmior habeatur vel per tempora melius conservetur, manu nostra propria subter firmavimus vel de anulo nostro sigillare iussimus." Chron. 1, pp. 161-162; Regesto 2, #128, pp. 108-109. 6 Ibid., "Et si quandoquidem abbas ipsius monasterii de hac luce migraverit, inter se ipsi monachi, quern digniorem invenerint, secundum regulam sancti Benedicti et sicut eorum ordo edocet et rectum est, vel eis in unum consentientibus, quern unanimiter elegerint, licentiam habeant eligendi abbatem; et neque a nobis neque a successoribus regibus ea, quae pro mercede nostra indulsimus, irruptum aut confractum aliquando sit, sed de proprio valeant semper gaudere patrono, quatinus melius delectet ipsam congregationem sanctae Mariae pro nobis vel stabilitate regni nostri domini misericordiam attendus deprecare." Liber Fbriger, pp. 15-16, & n. 39 for sources. 7 Ibid., 142-143, May 29, 775: "Karolus gratia dei rex Francorum et Langobar-