GUITMONDO OF AVERSA. - Benedictine theologian, b. in France at the beginning of the 11th century, d. ca. 1095. On the particulars of his life the documents are scanty and uncertain. A disciple of Lanfranc of Bec, he became a monk in the abbey of La-Croix-Saint-Leoufroy, then probably went to England, invited there by William the Conqueror, who perhaps proposed him as bishop for some see of the island and then for the metropolitan see of Rouen. Having gone to Rome, he became a fervent supporter of Gregory VII, by whom he was perhaps created cardinal; he took part in the election of Victor III and under Urban 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 succinct exposition of the three Mysteries; Epistola ad Erfastum (ibid., 1501-58): in it he treats of the Trinitarian Mystery illustrated with the comparison of the solar globe, which diffuses light and heat. These two writings are earlier, as appears from internal criticism, than the important work to which G.'s name is linked: De corporis et sanguinis Domini veritate libri tres, which follows, in its broad outlines, the development of the De sacra coena of Berengar of Tours (v.), against whom it is directed. The first book opens with valuable information on the origin and the ramifications of the Berengarian heresy and answers the questions raised by the interlocutor. The whole work in fact unfolds in the form of a dialogue between the author and Rogerius, who is perhaps the future abbot of Montebourg. The second book resolves the difficulties of Berengar; 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 about the fate of the species consumed by fire or gnawed by mice, is clear and precise; the demonstration proceeds surely, constantly relying on Revelation and on the universal consent of the Church. These qualities explain the fame which G. has always enjoyed: while still living he was better known than St. Anselm of Aosta himself (Epistolorum lib. I, ep. 16: PL 158, 1082: «fama Lanfranci et Guittmundi plus mea per orbem volat»); Peter the Venerable judged his treatise inferior to that of Alger of Liège (v.), but superior (melius, perfectius) to the book of Lanfranc (Adversus Pretrobrusianus: PL 189, 788); William of Malmesbury calls him «nostri temporis eloquentissimus» (Gesta regum Anglorum, III: PL 179, 1257). In the 16th century Erasmus prepared the first edition of the De corporis... veritate (Antwerp 1530) in order to oppose it, together with the work of Alger, to the innovations of the Sacramentarians (Zwingli, Karlstadt, Oecolampadius), and with the same intent it was reprinted by Johann Ullmer (Louvain 1561). Then received into the great patristic collections of Paris and Lyon, it passed into Migne (PL 149, 1427-94) and into Hurter (Sanctorum Patrum opuscula selecta, XXVIII, Innsbruck 1879).
Confused with Witmond of St-Evroul and with Christian Druthmar (perhaps because he also bore the name Christianus), the works of these authors were attributed to G. Orderic Vitalis 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.
Bibliography17 works
Antonio Piolanti