Liber Gratissimus

The Liber Gratissimus (Most Gratuitous Book) is a treatise by Peter Damian on simony. Written in 1052, it has been described as "one of the finest theological works of the century."

Background and publication history

Simony was extensively debated at the first synod of Pope Leo IX,^[1] with the pope contemplating annulling all ordinations that were a result of simony.^[2] At the urging of his contemporaries,^[1] Peter Damian wrote his first treatise on simony and sacramental theology in the summer of 1052.^[3][4][5] It was dedicated to Henry, the archbishop of Ravenna, about whom next to nothing is known.^[6] The title of the work, Liber Gratissimus or Most Gratuitous Book,^[7][8] "because it was written about those who had been ordained gratis by simonists",^[9] is given by Damian himself in one of his subsequent letters.^[9]

Content

Peter Damian distinguishes between someone who is "institutionally" holy on the basis of his religious office and someone who is "personally" holy on the basis of his deeds.^[10] Echoing Augustine in his Commentary on John,^[11][12] he argues that although simony is a sin worse than adultery and murder,^[13] the religious acts of simoniacal bishops are still valid, since the validity of sacraments such as baptism and ordination does not come from the bishop, but from the Holy Spirit.^[14] He cites the example of Rainaldus, the simoniacal bishop of Fiesole through whom God nonetheless worked miracles.^[7] Damian also refers to the Church Fathers; Jerome, for instance, had claimed that "God's blessing is attached to the dignity of the office and not to the value of the man."^[15]

Damian also adopts a more liberal definition of simony in several chapters of the Liber Gratissimus. For example, he considers the money changers outside the Second Temple (as depicted in the "Cleansing of the Temple" gospel narrative) to be simoniacs, simply because they represent the "intrusion of worldly values into the affairs of the Church."^[16]

Legacy

According to David Rollo, the Liber Gratissimus is one of the two works that Peter Damian is best known for (the other being the Liber Gomorrhianus).^[17] Colin Morris called the Liber Gratissimus "one of the finest theological works of the century."^[18]

References

Citations

1. Ranft 2012, p. 114.
2. Naismith 2023, p. 327.
3. Robinson 1978, p. 127.
4. Cushing 2018, p. 185.
5. Ranft 2013, p. 150.
6. Damian 1990, p. 112.
7. Elliott 2010, p. 103.
8. McLaughlin 2010, p. 71.
9. Damian 1990, p. 111.
10. Cushing 2005, p. 753.
11. Elliott 2017, p. 1031.
12. Hamilton 2005, p. 245.
13. Cushing 2020, p. 119–120.
14. de Filippis 2019, p. 16.
15. Ranft 2012, p. 116.
16. Rough 2012, p. 23.
17. Rollo 2022, p. 15.
18. Morris 1991, p. 90.

Works cited

• Cushing, Kathleen G. (2005). "Of Locustae and Dangerous Men: Peter Damian, the Vallombrosans, and Eleventh-century Reform". Church History. 74 (4): 740–757. doi:10.1017/S0009640700100873. S2CID 153381852.
• Cushing, Kathleen G. (2018). "Law and Disputation in Eleventh-Century Libelli de lite". In Melodie H. Eichbauer; Danica Summerlin (eds.). The Use of Canon Law in Ecclesiastical Administration, 1000–1234. Brill. ISBN 9789004387249.
• Cushing, Kathleen G. (2020). Reform and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century: Spirituality and Social Change. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526148315.
• Damian, Peter (1990). The Letters of Peter Damian: 31–60. Translated by Blum, Owen J. Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 9780813207070.
• de Filippis, Renato (2019). "The Letters of the young Peter Damian: Rhetoric and Reform in the 11th Century". Schola Salernitana. 24: 7–23. doi:10.6092/1590-7937/6228.
• Elliott, Dyan (2010). Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in the Middle Ages. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 9780812200737.
• Elliott, Dyan (2017). "Violence against the Dead: The Negative Translation and damnatio memoriae in the Middle Ages". Speculum. 92 (4): 1020−1055. doi:10.1086/693377. JSTOR 26583618. S2CID 166163938.
• Hamilton, Louis (2005). "Sexual Purity, "The Faithful" and Religious Reform in Eleventh Century Italy: Donatism Revisited". In John Doody; Kevin Hughes; Kim Paffenroth (eds.). Augustine and Politics. Oxford University Press. pp. 237–260. ISBN 9780739152164.
• McLaughlin, Megan (2010). Sex, Gender, and Episcopal Authority in an Age of Reform, 1000–1122. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521870054.
• Morris, Colin (1991). "The Papal Reform 1046–1073". The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191600708.
• Naismith, Rory (2023). Making Money in the Early Middle Ages. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691177403.
• Ranft, Patricia (2012). Theology of Peter Damian. Catholic University of America Press. ISBN 9780813219974.
• Ranft, Patricia (2013). How the Doctrine of the Incarnation Shaped Western Culture. Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739174326.
• Robinson, Ian S. (1978). Authority and Resistance in the Investiture Contest: The Polemical Literature of the Late Eleventh Century. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9780719007057.
• Rollo, David (2022). "Peter Damian: Life". Medieval Writings on Sex between Men: Peter Damian's The Book of Gomorrah and Alain de Lille's The Plaint of Nature. Brill. pp. 15–71. ISBN 9789004507326.
• Rough, R.H. (2012). The Reformist of Illuminations in the Gospels of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany: A Study in the Art of the Age of Gregory VII. Springer Netherlands. ISBN 9789401019835.