GUITMONDO di AVERSA. — Benedictine theologian, born in France at the beginning of the 11th century, died ca. 1095. The documents concerning the details of his life are scarce and uncertain. A disciple of Lanfranco di Bec, he became a monk in the abbey of La-Croix-Saint-Leoufroy, then probably went to England, invited there by Guglielmo il Conquistatore, who perhaps proposed him as bishop for some see on the island and then for the metropolitan see of Rouen. Having gone to Rome, he became a fervent supporter of Gregorio VII, by whom he was perhaps created cardinal; he took part in the election of Vittore III and under Urbano II was certainly bishop of Aversa.
He wrote: Confessio de sancta Trinitate, Christi humanitate Corporisque ac Sanguinis Domini nostri veritate (PL 149, 1495-1502): a clear and concise exposition of the three Mysteries; Epistola ad Erfastum (ibid., 1501-58): here he treats of the Trinitarian Mystery, illustrated by the comparison of the solar globe, which diffuses light and heat. These two writings, as internal criticism demonstrates, precede the important work to which G.’s name is attached: De corporis et sanguinis Domini veritate libri tres, which follows, in its main lines, the development of Berengario di Tours’s De sacra coena (v.), against which it is directed. The first book opens with valuable information on the origin and ramifications of the Berengarian heresy and responds to the questions raised by the interlocutor. Indeed, the entire work takes the form of a dialogue between the author and Rogerio, who was perhaps the future abbot of Montebourg. The second book resolves Berengario’s difficulties; the third adduces the positive proofs of the Catholic thesis, in opposition to the two Berengarian sects of the umbratici and the impanatores. The doctrine of this treatise is complete and, apart from certain uncertainties concerning the fate of the species consumed by fire or gnawed by mice, clear and precise; the argument proceeds confidently, constantly relying on Revelation and on the universal consensus of the Church. These qualities explain the fame which G. has always enjoyed: while still alive he was better known than s. Anselmo di Aosta himself (Epistolorum lib. I, ep. 16: PL 158, 1082: «fama Lanfranci et Guittmundi plus mea per orbem volat»); Pietro il Venerabile judged his treatise inferior Algero di Liegi (v.), but superior (melius, perfectius) to Lanfranco’s book (Adversus Pretrobrusianus: PL 189, 788); Guglielmo di Malmesbury called him «nostri temporis eloquentissimus» (Gesta regum Anglorum, III: PL 179, 1257). In the 16th century Erasmo prepared the first edition of De corporis... veritate (Antwerp 1530), in order to set it, together with Algero’s work, against the innovations of the Sacramentarians (Zuinglio, Carlostadio, Ecolampadio); with the same aim it was reprinted by Giovanni Ullmer (Louvain 1561). Subsequently included in the great patristic collections of Paris and Lyon, it passed into Migne (PL 149, 1427-94) and Hurter (Sanctorum Patrum opuscula selecta, XXVIII, Innsbruck 1879).
Confused with Witmondò di St-Evroul and with Cristiano Drutmaro (perhaps because he also bore the name Christianus), G. was credited with the works of these authors. Orderico Vitale makes him the author of an'Oratio ad Guillelmm I Anglorum regem cum recusaret episcopatum (PL 149, 1509-12), which is certainly a creation of the historian, who imitates Livy.