Arnold of Brescia

Arnold of Brescia

▪ Italian religious reformer
Italian  Arnaldo da Brescia 
born c. 1100, Brescia, Republic of Venice
died c. June 1155, Civita Castellana or Monterotondo, Papal States

      radical religious reformer noted for his outspoken criticism of clerical wealth and corruption and for his strenuous opposition to the temporal power of the popes. He was prior of the monastery at Brescia, where in 1137 he participated in a popular revolt against the government of Bishop Manfred. His proposals for reforming the clergy and for ending the church's temporal powers caused him to be condemned as a schismatic by Pope Innocent II in 1139.

      Banished from Italy, Arnold went to France, where he became a supporter of the renowned theologian and philosopher Peter Abelard (Abelard, Peter). Both were condemned as heretics at the Council of Sens, France, in 1141, through the influence of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. Though Abelard submitted, Arnold defiantly continued teaching in Paris until, through the insistence of Bernard, he was exiled by King Louis VII the Young of France in 1141. Arnold fled first to Zürich, then to Passau, Ger., where he was protected by Cardinal Guido, through whose mediation he was reconciled with Pope Eugenius III at Viterbo, Papal States, in September 1145.

      Two years earlier the renovatio senatus (“renewal of the Senate”), seeking independence from ecclesiastical control, had expelled Innocent and the cardinals, revived the ancient senate, and proclaimed Rome a republic. Eugenius sent Arnold to Rome on a penitential pilgrimage. He soon allied himself with the insurgents and resumed his preaching against the Pope and cardinals. He was excommunicated in July 1148. Arnold's agitation for ecclesiastical reform vitalized the revolt against the Pope as temporal ruler, and he soon controlled the Romans. He also worked to consolidate the citizens' newly won independence.

      Pope Adrian IV placed Rome under interdict in 1155 and asked the citizens to surrender Arnold. The Senate submitted, the republic collapsed, and the papal government was restored. Arnold, who had fled, was captured by the forces of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, then visiting Rome for his imperial coronation. Arnold was tried by an ecclesiastical tribunal, condemned for heresy, and transferred to the Emperor for execution. He was hanged, his body burned, and his ashes cast into the Tiber River.

      Arnold's character was austere and his mode of life ascetic. His followers, known as Arnoldists, postulated an incompatibility between spiritual power and material possessions and rejected any temporal powers of the church. They were condemned in 1184 at the Synod of Verona, Republic of Venice. Arnold's personality has been distorted through modern poets and dramatists and Italian politicians. He was foremost a religious reformer, constrained by circumstances to become a political revolutionary.

Additional Reading
George William Greenaway, Arnold of Brescia (1931, reprinted 1978).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Arnold von Brescia — Arnold von Brescia, Büste von G. Marini (1871) Arnold von Brescia (* um 1090 in Brescia; † 1155) war ein italienischer Regularkanoniker und Prediger. Im Hinblick auf eine Kirchenreform vertrat er die Auffassung, auch der Säkularklerus …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Arnold of Brescia — • Born at Brescia towards the end of the eleventh century, date of death uncertain Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Arnold of Brescia     Arnold of Brescia      …   Catholic encyclopedia

  • Arnold of Brescia — Arnold of Brescia, (c. 1090 ndash;1155), also known as Arnaldus ( it. Arnaldo da Brescia), was a monk from Italy who called on the Church to renounce ownership of property, participated in the Commune of Rome, and was hanged by the Church. Though …   Wikipedia

  • Arnold von Brescia — Arnold von Brescia, der kühnste und talkräftigste Gegner der Hierarchie im 12. Jahrh., geboren um 1100, gest. 1155, war ein Schüler Abälards und Geistlicher in seiner Vaterstadt Brescia. Als die Quelle des Verderbens in der Kirche erkannte er die …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Arnold von Brescia —   [ breʃʃa], Augustinerchorherr, * Brescia um 1100, ✝ Rom um 1155; Schüler von Abaelardus in Paris, predigte in Brescia gegen die Verweltlichung der Geistlichkeit und für die apostolische Armut der Kirche, später in Rom gegen die weltliche… …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Arnold von Brescia — Arnold von Brescia, Schüler Abälards, wurde Mönch und führte ein ascetisches Leben. Damals war ganz Italien in Gährung, die Lombardei aber in offenem Kampfe für ihren republik. Städtebund gegen Kaiser Friedrich I. A. gab sich dem Zeitgeiste hin,… …   Herders Conversations-Lexikon

  • Arnold of Brescia — (c. 1100–55)    Heretic.    Little is known of Arnold’s early life. He is thought to have been born in Brescia and to have been a student of Peter abelard at the University of Paris. He then joined the Canons Regular. He achieved notoriety by… …   Who’s Who in Christianity

  • ARNOLD OF BRESCIA —    an Italian monk, and disciple of Abelard; declaimed against the temporal power of the Pope, the corruptions of the Church, and the avarice of the clergy; headed an insurrection against the Pope in Rome, which collapsed under the Pope s… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Arnold of Brescia — noun Italian theologian who censured the worldly possessions of monks and the temporal power of bishops and was condemned for dogmatic errors by the Second Lateran Council (early 12th century) • Instance Hypernyms: ↑theologian, ↑theologist,… …   Useful english dictionary

  • Brescia — Brescia …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”