Ugo of Farfa
Born into a noble family of the Marsica region around 972, he died on 25 December 1038. He became abbot of Farfa in December 997.
Although he had obtained this dignity through simony, as he himself confessed, he vigorously introduced the Cluniac reform into his monastery, following the advice of Odilo of Cluny and William of Dijon. He reorganized the monastery’s patrimony, which had been scattered and usurped during the crisis following the devastation perpetrated by the Saracens in 898, even resorting to arms for this purpose. He involved himself in the struggles between the Crescentii and the counts of Tusculum; he maintained relations with Otto III, Henry II, and Conrad II, from whom he obtained favors and whom he defied in hostility.
His spiritual and administrative activity was accompanied by a notable literary output: the *Destructio Farfensis* recounts the painful events of the monastery between 898 and 998; the *Diminutio monasterii* sets forth the struggles waged to recover the lands of the Sabina, while the *Constitutiones* document the reforming activity of the energetic abbot; the *Quaerimonium* was presented to Conrad II to claim possession of certain castles; the *Brevo de rebus perditis* returns to the painful issue of the dispersal of the abbey’s patrimony. All these are brief but vigorous and vivid writings that reveal his considerable literary and historiographical talent.
---
Hugh of Fleury
Little is known of the life of this monk, who became famous for his vast learning. He died after 1118.
A Benedictine of Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire (whence his surname), Hugh left several works marked by precise style and reliable erudition. In the *Tractatus de regia potestate et sacerdotali dignitate* (MGH, *Libelli de lite*, II, pp. 465ff.; PL 163, 930–76), he sought to calm the disputes then dividing the two powers. In his *Chronicon*, which extends from Abraham to Charles the Bald, he avoided mere compilation and attempted a synthesis. In the *Vita s. Sacerdotis* (PL 163, 979–1004), he painted a notable portrait of the life of the bishop of Limoges. He also left a dedicatory *Epistola* to Empress Matilda, intended to introduce a history from Louis the Pious to Louis the Fat (840–1108). Duchesne attributes to him *Le livre des Miracles de st Benoît* and a *Francorum historia brevis et succincta* from 842 to 1108 (MGH, *Scriptores*, IX, pp. 376–95).
---
Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble, Saint
Born at Châteaufort-en-Isère around 1053, he became a canon of Valence and an adviser to Hugh, archbishop of Lyon and papal legate. He was elected bishop of Grenoble in 1080 and consecrated in Rome by Gregory VII.
Upon arriving in his diocese, he found it in such a state of disorder that he immediately set about reforming II. Finding no support, he withdrew to La Chaise-Dieu, where he took the habit of St Benedict (1082). By order of the Pope he returned to Grenoble, where, after some time, he finally succeeded in bringing his clergy into regular observance. He nevertheless encountered bitter resistance in recovering the goods of his Church from lay hands. He also contributed to the foundation of the great Carthusian monastery in his city (1084). He died on 1 April 1132 and was canonized on 12 April 1134. He left the *Chartularium sancti Hugonis*, a most precious source for the history of the Church of Grenoble.
---
Hugh, King of Italy
Crowned in April 927, he held power until 947. Born between 888 and 889 to Count Theobald and Bertha, daughter of Lothar II of Lorraine, he became count of Vienne in 899 and governed the Kingdom of Provence when the emperor Louis, blinded and discredited after the disastrous Italian campaign of 905, returned there.
In 912 he launched an expedition into Italy on his own account but without success; he renewed the attempt with better fortune in 927, relying on the support of his uterine half-brother, Margrave Hugh of Tuscany, and the backing of Pope John X, who hoped to find in him an ally against the turbulent Roman nobility. He landed at Pisa in April 927 and from there reached Pavia, where he was crowned King of Italy. His understanding with John X, which seemed to herald joint action in Rome and the Papal State and Hugh’s imperial coronation, provoked a breach with the house of Tuscany and an alliance between that house and Marozia (v.). Marozia reached an agreement with Guido of Tuscany and married him, but when Guido died she executed a shrewd political maneuver and, to maintain her family’s predominance, offered Hugh the imperial crown and her hand. A riot instigated by Alberic (v.), Marozia’s son, forced Hugh to flee Rome, yet his desire for revenge shaped all his politics in the years that followed.
There were conspiracies at home and attacks from abroad, which he prevented or contained with vigor until 945, Ivrea (v.), having taken refuge in Germany, returned at the head of an army and, having entered Milan, received the homage of the great nobles. Hugh momentarily relinquished power while his son Lothar, who