Theology, Rhetoric, and Politics in the Eucharistic Controversy, 1078-1079: Alberic of Monte Cassino Against Berengar of Tours

The late Harold Berman, one of the premier American legal historians of the 20th century, wrote in his book "Law and Revolution" that the medieval papacy of Gregory VII (1073-1085), and what Berman called the Papal Revolution, greatly contributed to the emergence of the western legal tradition. Gregory succeeded, in large measure, in establishing the authority of the Church as against the secular power of the Holy Roman Empire and its Emperor, the German Henry IV. The conflict between the two men is today known as the "Investiture Controversy," since what was at issue, at least on the surface, was the power of the secular ruler to "invest" the bishops and other clergy of the Church with the insignia of their offices. Below this seemingly mundane act lay the more fundamental questions of the loyalty and discipline of the clergy after election and investiture. These issues were of fundamental political importance; since the Empire and its constituent kingdoms were largely administered by the clergy (the only men who possessed the education necessary for so great a task), they affected the very nature of both ecclesiastical and secular authority. In addition, the Investiture Controversy raised anew the vexing question as to which of the "two swords," the political or the religious, was the supreme authority. Did the Pope command the Emperor, or was it the other way around? As is well known, Gregory ultimately excommunicated the Emperor Henry, and forced the latter's capitulation, signaling for a time the supremacy of papal authority. But the papal victory ultimately proved short-lived and illusory. The slim volume being reviewed provides additional insight into the nature of the Investiture Controversy, as well as the internal squabbling within the Church itself. In this case, the prime actor was the French monk and scholar, Berengar of Tours. Berengar proposed a formulation of the Eucharist, the offering of bread and wine in the Mass, arguing their substance survived the sacramental consecration at the altar. The Church's Lenten Council in 1079 formally repudiated Berengar's teachings and stripped him of his authority to teach. Sometime during the intervening years until his death in 1088, Berengar wrote a document identifying the Italian rhetorician Alberic of Monte Cassino ("not monastic but DEMONastic") as being his principal betrayer. But until now, scholars have not been able to identify any writings from Alberic that oppose Berengar's teachings. As a result, most of the scholarly works that deal with this controversy ignore Berengar's complaint, and downplay Alberic's role in the decision of the Lenten Council. This book fills that void. The authors believe they have identified Alberic's manuscript, an anonymous document known as Aberdeen 106, in the holdings of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. They discuss at length the reasons for their hypothesis, and perform an extended comparison between this manuscript and other k