Sacras res ecclesiarum nullatenus in militia saeculari expendendas: l’uso politico dei beni ecclesiastici nella Tuscia Romana nell’XI secolo

Abstract

The article defines the way in which Gregory VII tried to impose his supremacy over a series of landed estates located in southern Tuscia. Properties that, between the 9th and 10th centuries, had ended up outside the political sphere of the popes. On the one hand, by imposing people he trusted at the head of monastic institutions that until then had been inextricably linked to the Roman aristocracy (SS Cosmas and Damian, S. Gregory al Celio, S. Maria in Trastevere) and were depositories of important assets in uscia; on the other hand, by issuing an important privilege in favour of the monastery of S. Paul (where Ildebrando remained rector), the true cornerstone of Gregorian's project to restore papal political control over the Roman region. All this was done in an antiFarfense function, in order to counter the attempt of the Sabine monastery to consolidate its positions beyond the right bank of the Tiber and from there to the Tyrrhenian Sea.