Patrons and Defenders: The Saints in the Italian City State (International Library of Historical Studies)

The cult of the saints played a vital role in the political life of Italian city states in the Middle Ages. The saints were a unifying force for a city, and brought prestige and power to its rulers, therefore the cult of the saints was bound up with the civic agenda, and worship was politically charged. Laymen - able men of affairs, orthodox and ""kirchentreu"", increasingly assumed responsibility for ensuring that ""celestial guarantees"" were obtained for a city's well-being, despite the traditionally powerful influence of the church. This book is therefore not a hagiography, but an intensely political study of an age in which religious experience was seen as part of everyday life, and in which it seemed natural to medieval politicians to involve the saints in politics. Among the most interesting of civic saints' cults must be reckoned those of the city-states of Italy. From the moment in the twelfth century when, in many cities, an association of important citizens supplanted the bishop as the principal governing authority, through the period of self-governing communes, to the emergence by the end of the fourteenth century of despots, the patron saint played an important symbolic role in all phases of urban history. The city's rulers required demonstrations of obedience both from the inhabitants of the city itself and from the subject communities of the countryside, rendered annually at the patron's alter on his or her major feast-day; to make this demand was an indispensable part of the procedure of registering subject status, even if the new subject were itself a city of some size and standing. Other cults, however, clustered around the central cult of the patron. The urban 'pantheon' was, for example, frequently enlarged by the institution of the celebration of a saint on whose feast-day a military victory or deliverance had occurred, or a coup had been successfully achieved or averted. Whatever new cults, of political or dynastic significance, might be introduced, rulers tended to maintain devotion due to the ancient patron. This book attempts to give a reader a picture of this intriguing aspect of urban civilization, which has long fascinated readers of medieval history. It draws on a rich variety of source-material, hagiographical, historiographical and archival. Among the most interesting of civic saints' cults must be reckoned those of the city-states of Italy. From the moment in the twelfth century when, in many cities, an association of important citizens supplanted the bishop as the principal governing authority, through the period of self-governing communes, to the emergence by the end of the fourteenth century of despots, the patron saint played an important symbolic role in all phases of urban history. The city's rulers required demonstrations of obedience both from the inhabitants of the city itself and from the subject communities of the countryside, rendered annually at the patron's altar on his or her major feast-day; to make this demand was an indispensable part of the procedure of registering subject status, even if the new subject were itself a city of some size and standing. Other cults, however, clustered around the central cult of the patron. The urban 'pantheon' was, for example, frequently enlarged by the institution of the celebration of a saint on whose feast-day a military victory or deliverance had occurred, or a coup had been successfully achieved or averted. Whatever new cults, of political or dynastic significance, might be introduced, rulers tended to maintain devotion due to the ancient patron. This book attempts to give a reader a picture of this intriguing aspect of urban civilization, which has long fascinated readers of medieval history. It draws on a rich variety of source-material, hagiographical, historiographical and archival The cult of the saints played a vital role in Italian political life in the Middle Ages. The saints were a unifying force for a city, and brought prestige and power to its rulers. This book is an intensely political study of an age in which religious experience was seen as part of everyday life.