A letter from Urban II, pope ()

Translated letter:

Urban, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to illustrious Matilda, unique daughter of St. Peter, greetings and apostolic blessing. Our son, abbot of the monastery of St. Benedict, has complained to us about a certain church of St. Florian established in the possession/estate of that monastery by your father B[oniface] of blessed memory, and ceded again to that monastery by your religion. Which the monastery held peacefully and had it run and administered by its chaplains as its own, without harm or controversy. Then there was an exchange between the bishop of Mantova and the monastery, to the episcopate from monasteries and to the abbacy from churches, as your prudence well knows, but when that was destroyed, on both sides, the bishop retained this contested church alone for himself and would not give it back to the monastery. When that monastery was given, with your concession, to the church of St. Peter over which, though unworthy, we preside, the chaplain of the abbot governed the people of that land, celebrated baptism, and did whatever pertained to the care of souls with the permission of the bishops of Mantova. We want, therefore, and order that our monastery, which was yours, receive whatever it held by right completely; that it suffer no diminution of the things it held in any way. It is fitting therefore that in the presence of the bishop of Reggio and other prudent men, you summon the bishop of Mantua and order him to restore what belonged to the monastery and permit it to possess other things in peace.

Original letter:

URBANUS episcopus, servus servorum Dei, inclytae MATHILDI, unicae beati Petri filiae, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Conquestus est filius noster coenobii Sancti Benedicti abbas super quadam ecclesia Sancti Floriani a beatae memoriae patre tuo B. in praedio ejusdem monasterii fundata, et a religione tua jam dicto coenobio postea reddita. Quam cum monasterium illud quiete tenuisset et a capellanis suis eam regi, utpote quod suum erat, sine molestia et alicujus controversia administrari fecisset facta commutatione inter Mantuanum episcopum, et monasterium, de monasteriis episcopatus, et de ecclesiis abbatiae, sicut bene novit prudentia tua, cumque postea id destructum fuisset, utrisque partibus, quod proprium erat, recipientibus, hanc solam ecclesiam, de qua fit querimonia, episcopus sibi retinuit, eamque monasterio reddere noluit. Quando etiam monasterium illud Ecclesiae Sancti Petri, cui, licet indigni, praesidemus, concessione tua traditum est; abbatis capellanus populum illius terrae regebat, baptisma celebrabat, et quidquid ad animarum curam pertinet, permissione Mantuanorum episcoporum ibi regebat. Volumus itaque et praecipimus ut monasterium nostrum, quod suum erat, quodque jure tenebat, ex integro recipiat; nullamque bonorum suorum diminutionem ullomodo de his quae tenebat patiatur. Oportet igitur ut in praesentia Regiensis episcopi, et aliorum prudentium virorum, Mantuanum episcopum conveniens eique praecipias ut ea quae monasterii fuerunt sibi restituat et alia in pace ipsum possidere permittat.

Historical context:

Urban conveys his decision in a dispute between a monastery and a bishop and tells Matilda to enforce it. Urban II wrote to Hugh archbishop of Lyons that he had entered Rome peacefully, thanks to countess Matilda (1096, after the council of Clermont), and celebrated the Lateran synod there (1097), ep.216, PL 151 c.489, cited by D.B. Zema, “The Houses of Tuscany and of Pierleone in the Crisis of Rome in the Eleventh Century,” Traditio 2 (1944), 169 n.48.

Printed source:

PL151 c527-28, ep.267