Arnold of Brescia, (c. 1090–1155), also known as Arnaldus (Italian: Arnaldo da Brescia), was a monk from Italy who called on the Church to renounce ownership of the property, participated in the Commune of Rome, and was hanged by the Church.
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Life
Born in Brescia, Arnold became an Augustinian canon and then prior of a monastery in Brescia. He became very critical of the temporal powers of Catholic Church that involved it in a land struggle in Brescia against the count-bishop of Brescia. He called on the Church to renounce ownership of the property and return it to the city government, so as not to be tainted by possession, one aspect of a renunciation of worldliness that he preached. He was condemned at the Second Lateran Council, in 1139, and forced from Italy.
Life in France
According to the chronicler Otto of Freising, he studied in Paris under the tutelage of the reformer and philosopher Pierre Abélard. He took to Abélard's philosophy of reform ways. The issue came before the Synod of Sens in 1140 and both Arnold and Abélard's positions were overruled by Bernard of Clairvaux. Arnold stood alone against the church's decision after Abélard's capitulation; he returned to Paris, where he continued to teach and preach against Bernard. He was then commanded to silence and exiled by Pope Innocent II as a consequence. His writings were also condemned to be burned as a further measure (though there is no evidence that he had actually written anything). Arnold continued to preach his radical ideas concerning apostolic poverty.
Life and death in Rome
In 1145, Pope Eugene III then ordered him to submit himself to the mercy of the Church in Rome (CE). When he arrived, he found that Giordano Pierleoni's followers had asserted the ancient rights of the commune of Rome taken control of the city from papal forces and founded a republic, the Commune of Rome. Arnold sided with the people immediately and, upon Pierleoni's deposition, soon rose to the intellectual leadership of this radical new group, calling for liberties and democratic rights. A Donatist, Arnold taught that clergy while owning property had no power to perform the Sacraments. He succeeded in driving Pope Eugene into exile in 1146, for which he was excommunicated, 15 July 1148. When Pope Eugene returned to the city in 1148, Arnold continued to lead the blossoming republic despite his excommunication. After Eugene's death, Pope Adrian IV swiftly took steps to regain control of Rome, inviting Frederick Barbarossa, who took Rome by force in 1155, after a Holy Week interdict, forced Arnold again into exile. He was seized by Imperial forces and was finally tried by the Roman Curia as a rebel. Importantly, he was never accused of heresy. As a result of his conviction for rebellion, he was hanged and his body burnt. He remained a hero to large sections of the Roman people and the minor clergy, so his ashes were cast into the Tiber, to prevent his burial place becoming venerated as the shrine of a martyr.
References
- Catholic Encyclopedia: "Arnold of Brescia"
- (Bookrags) "Arnold of Brescia"
- Romedio Schmitz-Esser, Arnold von Brescia im Spiegel von acht Jahrhunderten Rezeption. Ein Beispiel für Europas Umgang mit der mittelalterlichen Geschichte vom Humanismus bis heute, Vienna-Berlin-Münster 2007.
- Romedio Schmitz-Esser, Arnold of Brescia in Exile: April 1139 to December 1143 – His Role as a Reformer, Reviewed, in: Exile in the Middle Ages. Selected Proceedings from the International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 8-11 July 2002, ed. by Laura Napran and Elisabeth van Houts, Turnhout 2004, p. 213-231.
- Grado Giovanni Merlo, La storia e la memoria di Arnaldo da Brescia, in: Studi Storici 32/4 (1991) p. 943-952.
- Maurizio Pegrari (ed.), Arnaldo da Brescia e il suo tempo, Brescia 1991.
- George William Greenaway, Arnold of Brescia, 1931.
- Pasquale Villari, Mediaeval Italy from Charlemagne to Henry VII, 1910.
- Ferdinand A. Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages 6th ed. 1953-1957.
