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Odiosa sanctitas: St Peter Damián, Simony, and Reform. By William D. McCready. [Studies and Texts, 177; Mediaeval Law and Theology, 4.] (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. 2011. Pp xii, 321. $85.00. ISBN 978-0-88844-177-5.)
St. Peter Damián has long been acknowledged as an ardent champion both of monastic and clerical reform in the eleventh century but also as a man who struggled to balance the demands of his conflicting roles as cardinal-bishop of Ostia in the service of the reform papacy and as prior of the eremitical community of Fonte Avellana. This new volume by William McCready looks to re-examine Damián 's life and thought by focusing on a key controversy- that of Pietro Mezzabarba, bishop of Florence, who was accused of simony and was finally deposed after a trial by fire at Settimo in 1068 proved his guilt.The case of Mezzbarba brought into confrontation a range of protagonists: Pope Alexander n,Vallombrosan monks, and Damián himself, all of whose different reform principles and methods...