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The interdict on San Gimignano, c. 1289–93: a clerical ‘strike’ and its consequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

Peter D. Clarke
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Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 67 , November 1999 , pp. 281 - 301
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Copyright © British School at Rome 1999

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References

1 No recent monograph exists on interdicts in the Middle Ages and the older studies are outdated and unsatisfactory. The only one in English, Krebhiel, E.B., The Interdict: its History and Operation with Especial Attention to the Time of Innocent III (Washington, 1909)Google Scholar, was rightly criticized by C.R. Cheney as ‘ill-digested and hard to use’, while the most systematic and detailed study in print remains Kober, F., ‘Das Interdict’, Archiv für Katholisches Kirchenrecht 21 (1869), 3–15, 291–341Google Scholar; 22 (1869), 3–53. Trexler, R., The Spiritual Power: Republican Florence under Interdict (Leiden, 1974)Google Scholar is a detailed case-study, good on the political and economic context and consequences, but says little about interdicts in general. Two excellent recent monographs on excommunication, Logan, F.D., Excommunication and the Secular Arm in Medieval England (Toronto, 1968)Google Scholar and Vodola, E., Excommunication in the Middle Ages (Berkeley, 1986)Google Scholar, give little attention to interdicts. I plan to remedy this neglect by writing a book based on my Ph.D. thesis, The Theory and Practice of the Ecclesiastical Interdict in the Age of the Decretalists (University of Manchester, 1995)Google Scholar.

2 Hyman, R., Strikes (second edition) (Glasgow 1977), 17Google Scholar, where this definition of a strike is quoted.

3 Closer to a strike in this respect was the cessatio a divinis, a suspension of the liturgy declared by a chapter in a collegiate or cathedral church: Clarke, Interdict (above, n. 1), 109–13.

4 Waley, D., The Italian City-Republics (second edition) (London, 1978), 45Google Scholar.

5 The only political history of San Gimignano is still Pecori, L., Storia della Terra di San Gimignano (Florence, 1853)Google Scholar, recently supplemented by Waley, D., ‘Guelfs and Ghibellines at San Gimignano, c.1260–c.1320: a political experiment’, Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 72 (1990), 199–212CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I am indebted to Prof.ssa Maria Ginatempo of Siena University for advice on further reading and local archives.

6 For an outline of the town's medieval development see Luzzati, M., ‘Un comune di poche miglia quadrate: San Gimignano’, in Galasso, G. (ed.), Storia d'ltalia VII.i (Turin, 1987), 601–3Google Scholar.

7 Pecori, Storia (above, n. 5), 51, 86, 103–8.

8 VI 5.11.1. VI = Liber Sextus, ed. Friedberg, E., Corpus Iuris Canonici (Leipzig, 1881), 2. 933–1124Google Scholar.

9 See Davidsohn, R., Forschungen zur Geschichte von Florenz II: Aus den Stadtbüchern und Urkunden von San Gimignano (13. und 14. Jahrh.) (Berlin, 1900)Google Scholar, no. 1753: ‘… dom. Octavanti jud. de Flor. eo quod pro com. consuluit, quid facere haberemus super sententia excommunicationis contra nos lata’. In this book, Davidsohn calendered the surviving registers of the commune of San Gimignano, then as now divided between the Archivio di Stato di Firenze (ASF) and Archivio Communale di San Gimignano (ACSG). I have checked and added to Davidsohn's entries in both places. The holdings of the ACSG have just been recatalogued with new call numbers, indicated here in brackets after the old ones given by Davidsohn. I am grateful to the librarians of the Biblioteca Communale di San Gimignano for granting me access to the ACSG and to Andrew and Mary Stainthorpe for kindly accompanying me on a research trip there.

10 Appendix 1. Cf. Waley, D., Siena and the Sienese in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1991), 131CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘The [Sienese] bishop's occasional protest that certain statutes were ‘against ecclesiastical liberty’ is so generic that it is sometimes difficult to know what was at stake’.

11 Langlois, E. (ed.), Les Registres de Nicolas IV (Rome/Paris, 1887–1893)Google Scholar, no. 3581.

12 ACSG, N.N.I7 (N.0069), fol. 50r.

13 Davidsohn, Forschungen, no. 1755; ACSG, N.N.17 (N.0069), fol. 48r.

14 Pecori, Storia (above, n. 5), 115; Coppi, G.V., Annali memorie ed huomini illustri di San Gimignano (Florence, 1695), 152Google Scholar.

15 Davidsohn, Forschungen, no. 1762; ACSG, N.N.17 (N.0069), fol. 71v.

16 ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fol. lv. The bishop of Volterra lamented that the Sangimignanesi had erred onto pathways of avarice and aimed to recall their souls from the death of the greedy, but these references are too allusive as evidence that the commune's canonical wrong was to tax the clergy (see Appendix 1).

17 As n. 11.

18 Waley, City-Republics (above, n. 4), 44; Boniface's ban was issued in his famous constitution ‘Clericis laicos’, subsequently included in his new compilation of canon law, the Liber Sextus (published 1298), at VI 3.23.3.

19 Volpe, G., Volterra: storia di Vescovi signori, di istituti comunali, di rapporti tra Stato e Chiesa nelle città nei secoli XI–XV (Florence, 1923), 181, 183–4Google Scholar.

20 Ridolfi, A., ‘Ricordo di Scolaio Ardinghelli nel Palazzo Comunale di S. Gimignano’, Miscellanea Storica della Valdelsa 36 (1928), 98–102, esp. pp. 98–9Google Scholar. Pecori, Storia (above, n. 5), 122, only alluded to these events, observing that the Cistercians of San Galgano were involved in a dispute over this estate, and that the commune, in 1276 not 1287, had to defend the monks against the violence of the people of Villacastello and San Lorenzo.

21 Olivier-Martin, F. et al. (eds), Les Registres de Martin IV (Rome/Paris, 1901–1935)Google Scholar, no. 280.

22 As n. 11.

23 ACSG, N.N.16 (N0070), fol. 25v (31 October); N.N.17 (N.0069), fols 49v–50r (24 January). In January, the council had actually approved the pacific advice not to re-cover the altars or attempt to reclaim what had been taken from them but to allow an inquiry to be made to the bishop of Volterra (see p. 283).

24 I am grateful to Donal Cooper and Cordelia Warr for this observation.

25 Larner, J., Italy in the Age of Dante and Petrarch 1216–1380 (London, 1980), 250Google Scholar; Jones, P., The Italian City-State 500–1300 (Oxford, 1997), 438Google Scholar.

26 Pecori, Storia (above, n. 5), 122.

27 X 4.1.11; X = Liber Extra, ed. Friedberg, E., Corpus Iuris Canonici (Leipzig, 1881), 2.1–928Google Scholar.

28 ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fol. 11r (29 April); N.N.16 (N0070), fol. 38r (2 October); ASF, Carte di San Gimignano, no. 177 (unfoliated), entry dated 30 November.

29 ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fols 2r (20 March), 7r (19 March), 10v (this account for 29 April records that one Nellus was paid 6s for loaning the bed etc. over the past month and a half, Lapus was paid £3 for fifteen days' service to the commune, and ‘cuidam presbytero’ 17s 8d for seven days' service ‘sine clerico’). On the hiring of priests during the earlier interdict, see Pecori, Storia (above, n. 5), 104.

30 ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fols 3v (17, 19 April), 11v (payment for notary, ‘di Florentia’, on 29 April).

31 As n. 11.

32 ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fols 12r (29 April: ‘s. iii — Ture et socio pro x solmis aque apporta<ndis> causa mittendi in fontibus pro baptismo faciendo. s. vii d. iiii — Becho Fodini pro uno cero unius libre et dimidie ab eo empto pro communi et operato die sabbati santi in faciendo baptismo et dato Ser Lapo presbytero communis.’), 2v (23 and 25 March), lv (4 March).

33 ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fol. 8r (26 March).

34 ASF, Carte di San Gimignano, no. 177 (unfoliated), entries for 8, 17 and 26 December 1290; ACSG, N.N.16 (N.0070), fols 8r (30 July 1290), 40v, 41 v, 42r (21 December 1290), 44v (29 December 1290); ASF, Carte di San Gimignano, no.187 (unfoliated), accounts for January and March 1292.

35 ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fols 8r (26 March), 9v (6 April 1290), 10v (29 April 1290); ASF, Carte di San Gimignano, no. 187, entries for 23 (‘tempore rumoris’) and 26 January 1292; and no. 177, entry for 2 November 1290: ‘Item quod eligatur unus qui pulset horas cum campanis campanilis plebis et ad pulsandum pro mortuis et ad accedendum lampanas et ad faciendum ea que opporte fieri in dicta plebe pro dicto communi’.

36 ACSG, N.N.17 (N.0069), fols 55 (9 February 1290), 63v (16 March), 77r (27 May; Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1766): ‘… quod nullus masculus vel femina a xii annis supra cantet aliquam cantionem de presbyteris seu clericis seu aliquam eis iniuriam vel rumorem faciant sub pena xx s. canenti et v s. facienti rumorem aliquem …’.

37 Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1763; ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fol. 4r.

38 ACSG, N.N.17 (N.0069), fols 47r, 48r (12, 13 January), 77r (27 May); P.77 (N.0068), fol. 3v (April 17).

39 ACSG, P.77 (N.0068), fols 11r, 12r (29 April); N.N.17 (N.0069), fol. 77r (27 May).

40 ASF, Carte di San Gimignano, no. 179 (detailed assessment for a ‘datium quingentarum librarum impositum hominibus et personis Curie et districti Sancti Geminiani’); ACSG, N.16 (N.0070), fols 23 (meetings in late October which approved expending of 100, 300 and 200 gold florins at the Curia), 20r, 21r, 27r, 28r, 34r, 35v (various payments to messengers and notaries), 28v (payment to scribe for ‘liber’ on 31 October).

41 Pope's letter as n. 11; bishop's in Appendix 1. ‘Recently’ (nuper) was perhaps a stock formula.

42 Cf. Berger, E. (ed.), Les Registres de Innocent IV (Rome/Paris, 1884–1921)Google Scholar, no. 201 (20 October 1243), which claims that clergy who had observed the interdict on Aix were denied social intercourse by the city's justiciars, and traders who sold food to such clerks were violently assaulted as a consequence.

43 ACSG, P.7 7 (N.0068), fol. 11v (29 April); N.N.1 6 (N.0070), fol. 25v (31 October; this payment is followed by that to the notary who recorded the podestà's proceedings about the ‘theft’ of the paintings).

44 ACSG, N.N.16 (N.0070), fol. 34r (2 October 1290): ‘Item c s. causa exspendendi pro communi in pane et vino et piscibus et aliis rebus victualibus causa presentandi ex parte communis fratri Caro inquisitori hereticorum’; ASF, Carte di San Gimignano, no. 177 (unfoliated) records other such ‘gifts’ to the inquisitor and his ‘familiares’ on 29 November (Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1780), 16 and 17 December.

45 ACSG, N.N.16 (N.0070), fol. 38v (3 December), 39r (subsequent meeting of 5 December approving payment of 200 gold florins and mortgaging all commune's property to raise another 500 to meet expenses of the commune's syndic, the podestà's proctor and the Eight in going to the Curia; Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no.1781), 40v, 41v, 44 (expenses at the Curia paid on 21 and 29 December), 42r, 46r (expenses at Pistoia paid on these dates); ASF, Carte di San Gimignano, no. 177 (unfoliated), further expenses at the Curia paid on 29 November and 5, 6 (Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1782), 7, 8, 13, 17, 26, 29 and 30 December 1290.

46 ACSG, Libro Bianco, fol. 125v (23 March 1292; Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1800), 123r (clergy's acceptance of Ardinghelli, 7 March 1292), 121v (commune's acceptance of him, 28 March 1292), 122 (terms of arbitration as summarized in fresco inscription (see Appendix 2); Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1801). I wish to acknowledge that the cost of reproducing Fig. 1 was kindly met by a grant of the Scouloudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research.

47 ASF, Carte di San Gimignano, no. 187 (unfoliated), accounts for March, April and June recording payments to Million; those for May record payments to emissaries sent to the bishop of Volterra ‘occasione concordie(!) facte inter commune sancti Geminiani et clero …’ (Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1832; misdated as May 1293); no. 185 (unfoliated), council meeting of 12 July (Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1804).

48 ACSG, N.N.21 (N.0074), fol. 31r (11 April 1293; Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1829); Libro Bianco, fol. 151r (signed by 22 Sangimignanese clergy on 23 June 1293; Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 1833).

49 Appendix 3.

50 Jordan, E. (ed.), Les Registres de Clément IV (Rome/Paris, 1893–1945)Google Scholar, no. 348 (dated 23 July 1266). On this interdict, see the introduction to Appendix 2.

51 See: Logan, Excommunication (above, n. 1); Trexler, Spiritual Power (above, n. 1); Clarke, Interdict (above, n. 1), 193–200.

52 VI 5.11.24.

53 On this earlier interdict: Casanova, E., ‘Trattative del comune di San Gimignano con Clemente IV dopo Benevento’, Miscellanea Storica della Valdelsa 4 (1896)Google Scholar; Davidsohn, Forschungen (above, n. 9), no. 908.

54 Carli, E. and Imberciadori, J.V., San Gimignano (Electa Guide Artistiche) (Milan, 1987), 62Google Scholar on Azzo; Bologna, F., I pittore alla corte angioina di Napoli, 1266–1314 (Rome, 1969)Google Scholar, 72 on Memmo.

55 An edition of the documents in this later part of the Libro Bianco is probably in preparation as a successor to Imberciadori, J.V. and Ciampoli, D. (eds), Il ‘Libro Bianco’ di San Gimignano (Siena, 1996)Google Scholar, which only includes documents up to the year 1281.