Benzone, Bishop of Alba

BENZONE, Bishop of Alba. - Probably a native of southern Italy, born at the beginning of the 11th century, he was already a bishop in 1059, since he appears among the subscribers of the Roman Council of that year. Nothing is known of his youth or of his intellectual and moral formation. It seems that before his episcopal appointment he had been in Germany, since he knew German well and had a profound knowledge of the directions of imperial policy. During the pontificate of Nicholas II (1059-61) he revealed himself as the Italian prelate most devoted to the German empire. He in fact had an important role at the death of Nicholas when, after Alexander II had been elected by the cardinals, the empress regent Agnes opposed to him the bishop of Parma Cadalus under the name of Honorius II. In the autumn of 1061, in fact, B. was sent to Rome, where he knew how to win almost the whole city to the cause of the antipope, whom he went to meet at Sutri in order to introduce him into the city, forcing Alexander to flee. But once Cadalus had been expelled through the intervention of Godfrey of Lorraine, B. saw all his plans defeated. Despite the recognition of Alexander by Germany, which took place in 1062 at the Council of Augsburg, B. attempted once again to have Rome occupied by Cadalus. Having gone to Germany to urge Henry IV to a expedition against the Normans, he returned to Italy, where he carried on a great activity against Alexander and in favor of Henry. Driven out of his diocese toward the spring of 1077, he was forced by privations and illnesses to change the orientation of his activity. Under the pontificate of Gregory VII (1073-1085), in fact, during the investiture struggle, he openly sided with the empire, composing a series of writings harshly polemical against the papacy. When in 1081 Henry IV came to Italy, B. was at his side, hoping for better days and believing in the success of imperial policy. The last years of his life are unknown; he certainly died before Henry's second expedition of 1090, but no precise date can be established.

Involved in the political and religious events of his time, B. has left us a curious work concerning them, important for the history of his century, the Liber ad Heinricum. It is not a homogeneous work, but a collection of passages more or less long, in prose and in verse, dedicated to different persons and linked together only by the dominant idea for which B. never ceased to fight throughout his life. The work probably took its definitive form shortly after the death of Gregory VII, between 1085-86. In it B. displays the most abject servility toward Henry and the empire, asking for the reward due to him. In theory he advocates the Christian Roman empire under the supreme guidance of the emperor, to whom the Pope and the bishops must be subject, venting all his hatred against Gregory VII and the Pataria, which constituted the greatest obstacle to the realization of his theories. Because of the sectarian spirit that pervades the whole work, the testimony of B., although contemporary with the events, cannot be accepted except with much caution and discernment.

Agostino Amore