SALERNO, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese of Campania. It has a population of 276,950 inhabitants, all Catholics; it has 164 parishes, served by 229 diocesan priests and 103 regulars; it has 24 male religious communities and 65 female ones (Ann. Pont. 1952, p. 347).
HISTORY
Until the 7th century, that is, until 646 when S. was torn from Byzantium by the Lombards, the city had passed from the Romans to the various conquerors without distinction. During the Roman occupation a community of Jews had established itself in S., and this may have favored the introduction of Christianity in the first centuries of the Empire, as attested by some sepulchral inscriptions datable to before the 5th century (CIL, X, I, nos. 664-74). The establishment of the episcopal see may have occurred in the 4th century as well as earlier, but the sources are lacking. There is likewise no testimony concerning the first bishops, although they are not only considered as such, but venerated as protectors of the city. Bonosus (Acta SS. Maii, III, p. 373), Gramatius (ibid., Octobris, V, p. 671), Verus (ibid., IX, p. 47), Eusterius (ibid., VIII, 436) and Valentine or Valentinian (ibid., Novembris, I, p. 657) are remembered. Other authors vary the order and shift the time of their governance, but without foundation: all remain shrouded in obscurity, like two other holy prelates, "Cyrinus" and "Quingesius" or "Quingesius," notwithstanding that in favor of the latter, if three letters of Gelasius I are truly to be considered addressed to him, three letters remain (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 743, 654, 712).
The first historically certain one is the sixth of the series, that Gaudentius (499) who participated in the Roman Council of Pope Symmachus. The successor Asterius (536 and 555-60) intervened as legate of the Holy See at the Council of Constantinople (Mansi, VIII, pp. 877-1141; Jaffé-Wattenbach, 958); in the following century Luminosus, at the Roman Council of Martin I (649) and John, at that of Pope Agatho (680). Of the prelates of the 8th century many names are known, but no testimony, with the exception of Leo (named in 761). From the following century the series of bishops is nearly continuous, perhaps also because, S. having become in 839 the capital of an independent Lombard state, as a consequence of the new prestige and the ever greater development of the city, the chronicles become less arid and the historical testimonies more numerous. It is thus known that Bishop Peter (834) built the church of St. John the Baptist; that under Bishop Landemarius (872) the church of St. Maximus was built and that Bernard (909) erected among other things the bell tower of the church of St. John. Another prelate of the same name transferred in 954 from Porto to S. the relics of St. Matthew, patron of the city.
The last of the series of bishops and first of that of the archbishops was Amatus (981), under whom in 984 Benedict VII elevated S. to a metropolitan see with jurisdiction first over Acerno and Campagna, then over Satriano, Capaccio, Pesto and then over the others of the present day. The successor Dauferius (991) witnessed the devastation of the monastery of St. Benedict at the hands of the Saracens; Grimoald (993) obtained from John XVI the tutelage and protection of the Holy See; Benedict (1016) the privilege of the pallium. Already from these first archbishops begins that feudal power of the Church of Salerno which, favored rather than harmed by the Norman conquest at the hands of Robert Guiscard (1075), becomes in the 13th century effectively the greatest fief of southern Italy, second only to Palermo. In 1058 the great Alfanus ascended the chair of S., an excellent poet (RIS, VI, p. 34) and most noble prelate, who obtained from the Pontiff the faculty of nominating and consecrating eleven suffragan bishops, intervened at the Roman Council of Nicholas II (1059) and at that of Benevento, saw the cathedral erected by Robert Guiscard (1079) and welcomed the exiled Gregory VII who rests in the beautiful tomb erected for him by the Norman duke. To the successor Alfanus II fell the task of welcoming in 1093 Urban II, the Pope who six years later granted to S. the primacy over Conza and Acerenza, confirmed in 1100 by Paschal II. Romuald, nominated in 1121, was cardinal of St. Mary in Via Lata and assisted at the coronation of Roger I; of him the mosaic pavement of the Cathedral is remembered. Another beneficent prelate was Romuald Guarna (1153), the famous chronicler of the era who negotiated the peace between Adrian IV and William I, hosted Alexander III (1165) and had a leading role in the peace negotiations between the Pontiff and Frederick Barbarossa. At the death of Nicholas of Apello (1221), who with his brother had suffered imprisonment in Germany at the hands of Henry VI and with him had been freed by Philip of Swabia through the prayers of Celestine III and Innocent III, Pope Honorius III, disregarding the rights of the Chapter, directly nominated Cesarius of Alagno of Amalfi, to whom the Salernitan clergy had previously denied the canonry. But Frederick II did not recognize this election and let it be known that he would prevent his entry into the diocese. For five years, because of this dispute, the see was vacant; and when the new elect could enter the diocese he is said to have exclaimed: Quem nobiisti in fratrem, habetis in pastorem. This was the most serious episode that broke the ancient traditions in the nomination of prelates, so that when in 1263 Matthew of the Porta was elected, the friend of St. Thomas Aquinas, the opposition of Manfred forced the postponement of the consecration.
This state of affairs induced Boniface VIII to abolish capitular election, reserving the right to the Holy See. Indeed, after the death of Philip Capuana (1208), he nominated as archbishop the Provençal William of Godorio who inaugurates the series of French prelates who sat on the Salernitan chair. An attempt by the Chapter to regain the lost privilege did not find the necessary agreement and Clement V was still able to make use of the new prerogative. Thus, with the disappearance of that custom, the Church of Salerno suddenly lost its high prestige and began a slow decline interrupted only by the golden age of the Sanseverino. Not a few nevertheless were the illustrious men, among them certain cardinals, who adorned the Salernitan see. Only John of Aragon, prince of the house of Spain (1472), and Card. Marco d'Ostos, a Spaniard (1692), reformer of the clergy and restorer of numerous city buildings, are remembered.
In 1818 Pius VII with the bull De utiliteri dominicae limited to suffragans of S. only the dioceses of Capaccio, Policastro, Marsico Nuovo, Nocera dei Pagani and Nusco, and at the same time nominated the archbishop of S. perpetual administrator of the cathedral of Acerno.
For the conciliar region, v. LUCANIA.
MONUMENTS
The Cathedral, erected by Robert Guiscard (1079-84) and dedicated to St. Mary of the Angels, was consecrated by Pope Gregory VII. Built on the site of the ancient Cathedral, it was completely transformed by the eighteenth-century restorations of Archbishop Bonaventura Poerio and Paolo de Vilhana Perlas; then partially restored during the great works carried out in the first thirty years of the century. It consists of an atrium, the upper church and the crypt. The atrium, beside which stands the little church of S. Lazzaro, once the hall of the famous medical school, preserves the fine portal with two lions seated at the foot of the jambs. The architrave, commissioned by Abbot Desiderius of Montecassino, bears the inscription commemorating the peace concluded between Robert and Jordan of Capua. Inside, 28 classical columns support the slender arches of the portico, at the center of which there once stood the great monolithic basin that today adorns a fountain in the Villa nazionale of Naples. Beneath the portico are arranged various Roman and Christian sarcophagi, some reused for the burial of illustrious men. To the right of the entrance there still remains the chapel of S. Bernardino, the hall in which St. Thomas Aquinas taught philosophy and theology.
From the atrium one enters the church through three portals. The middle one, original, has richly ornamented jambs and architrave; the lunette with chromatic effects of black and white preserves a Christ blessing from the school of Montecassino (11th century). The bronze doors, cast in Constantinople (1099) on commission from the couple Gisana and Landolfo Butromile "protosebaston", have 54 panels, once covered with silver. The interior of the Cathedral has lost much of its ancient splendor; hidden in the recent masonry are some of the 22 granite monoliths, taken from here and there from the demolition of Early Christian buildings; likewise vanished is the mosaic of Archbishop Alfano that adorned the transept. The church is one of the most interesting Norman constructions; asymmetrical in its ground plan, it has the presbytery oblique to the central axis, while the irregular floor rises from the entrance toward the transept. On the inner side of the facade there remains a fine mosaic of the Cassinese school depicting St. Matthew; near the presbytery are the magnificent candelabrum for the paschal candle and the two splendid ambos of the 12th century (the right one the gift of the d'Aiello brothers, respectively archbishop and chancellor of the Kingdom of Apulia and Sicily; the other from Archbishop Romualdo II Guarna). Siculo-Roman art created a masterpiece in the d'Aiello ambo. Twelve columns of red and gray granite support the light structure, entirely inlaid; the lectern is supported by an eagle clutching in its talons a sinner bitten by a serpent and resting on a lion devouring a bull. The pulpit on the left, by contrast, slender and elegant on its four columns, adheres more closely to the canons of the Roman school; the capitals and the symbols of the evangelists in the pendentives of the front and the right side are of fine quality. Another mosaic decoration with large marble panels adorns the iconostasis of Matteo d'Aiello; the floor of the presbytery, due to Cardinal Romualdo I Guarna, is also in mosaic. Of great interest are the sixteenth-century wooden choir, the 15th-century organ and the Baroque cantoria. At the end of the apse the cathedra of Gregory VII has come to light again, together with remains of ancient mosaics with figures of apostles.
(Int. Enit)
The right apse, formerly the chapel of the crusades or of Gregory VII, preserves the tomb of the exiled Pontiff who died there in 1085. The mosaics of the conch, with figures of saints on a golden background, commissioned by Giovanni da Procida (c. 1260), show clear influences of the mosaicists of Palermo, Cefalù and Monreale. The walls are also frescoed (on the left The Granting of the Cardinalitial Cappa Magna to the Chapter of Salerno, on the right The Coming of Gregory VII to S.). Worthy of note: the tomb of Cardinal Carafa (1668), with at its base the fine Greek bas-relief of the Rape of Proserpina, that of Archbishop Paglia in neoclassical style (1854); a modern throne; the seventeenth-century pulpit on four twisted columns and the Baroque monument of Archbishop Sanchez de Luna (1771). In the other apse is preserved, in part, a mosaic of the 11th century depicting the Baptism of Jesus; and, on the walls, two frescoes perhaps by Solimena. There are numerous funerary monuments, some of fine quality, in the transept and the side aisles, besides a large canvas by Luca Giordano (Madonna and Child, Sts. Anthony and Lawrence) and a Virgin Assumed. Beneath the church, the spacious crypt with three naves, richly adorned with polychrome marbles by Domenico Fontana and his son (early 17th century), preserves the body of the evangelist St. Matthew, brought here in 954 by Gisulf I. The middle apse houses a twisted column on which, according to legend, the three Salernitan martyrs Caius, Antes and Fortunatus were beheaded.
Finally, worthy of note is the Museum attached to the Cathedral, which preserves a precious treasure of relics, liturgical vestments and precious objects. Mentioned among others are the well-known "Exultet", a marvelous ivory antependium of the 12th century with 54 bas-reliefs depicting scenes from the Old and New Testament, and various illuminated codices of the same period.
Other medieval constructions are the churches of the S. Crocifisso (c. 10th century) and that of S. Domenico with the splendid cloister of Arab inspiration, like the cathedral of Amalfi.