Article: Of locustae and dangerous men: Peter Damian, the Vallombrosans, and eleventh-century reform (1).

In a letter to the people of Florence in the early part of 1067, the ardent reformer, Peter Damian, denounced a group of monks as locustae. (2) These unnamed monks--whom it has long been accepted were the Vallombrosans--had been waging a campaign against their bishop, Peter Mezzabarba of Florence, whom they accused of obtaining his office by simony. Although Damian, who had been cardinal-bishop of Ostia as well as prior of the eremitical community at Fonte Avellana, readily acknowledged that Mezzabarba might have a case to answer at Pope Alexander II's forthcoming council in Rome, (3) he condemned their intrusion into matters of ecclesiastical politics that were none of ...

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