Arnolfo, Bishop of Lisieux (ARNOLFO, VESCOVO DI LISIEUX) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 25

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ARNOLFO, bishop of LISIEUX. — Born probably toward the end of the 11th century or at the beginning of the 12th, he died at Lisieux in 1184. He spent his youth at Séez, where he received a good literary education, and held the office of archdeacon. In Rome, in 1130, he became involved in the confused circumstances of the double papal election, and wrote a strongly polemical pamphlet against the antipope Anacletus II. In 1141 he was elected bishop of Lisieux, but his appointment was vigorously opposed by the local lord, the count of Anjou. When the schism broke out again in 1159, A. became a highly active supporter of Alexander III, winning bishops and princes in France and England to his cause. At the Synod of Tours in 1163, convened against the antipope Victor IV and Frederick Barbarossa, he delivered three solemn sermons in which he exalted the supremacy of the Apostolic See. In view of this prestige, and of the favor he enjoyed with Henry II of England, he exerted influence over the ecclesiastical life of that country and of France; he nevertheless encountered strong opposition, and his attempt at

Article illustration — ARNOLFO di CAMBIO — Rear façade of the baldachin of the Basilica of S. Paolo — Rome.

mediation between the English king and the archbishop of Canterbury, s. Tommaso Becket, was particularly unsuccessful. Accused of embezzlement, he was deposed by his chapter and, despite the Pope’s vindication of him, withdrew to a monastery, where he died.

BIBL.: Tractatus de schismate orto post Honorii II mortem, whose best edition is found in the MGH, Libelli de lite, III, pp. 85–105; it is also found in PL. 201, which likewise contains A.’s other writings, namely 131 letters (others were published in subsequent collections; a recent edition is that of Frank Barlow in the Camden Third Series collection, 61, London 1939), 4 sermons, and 16 «carmina». — No monograph on A. exists; information may be found in general works, such as R. Ceillier, Histoire des auteurs sacrés ecel., XIV, 2nd ed., Paris 1863, pp. 751–59; A. Noyon, s. V. in DHG, IV, cols. 600–11; cf. also H. Reuter, Geschichte Alex. III u. der Kirche seiner Zeit, Leipzig 1860–64; E. Mühlbacher, Die streitige Papstwahl des Jahres 1730, Innsbruck 1876 (part 1: Kritik der Quellen); I. Dieterich, preface to the ed. of the Tractatus, in MGH, loc. cit.; P. F. Palumbo, La scisma del MCXXX, Rome 1942. Michele Maccarrone