The

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

Guitmund (died c. 1090–1095), Bishop of Aversa, was a

Benedictine monk The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict ( la, Ordo Sancti Benedicti, abbreviated as OSB), are a Christian monasticism, monastic Religious order (Catholic), religious order of the Catholic Church following the Rule of Saint Benedic ...

who was an opponent of the teachings of

Berengar of Tours Berengar of Tours (died 6 January 1088), in Latin Berengarius Turonensis, was an 11th-century French Christian theologian and archdeacon of Angers, a scholar whose leadership of the cathedral school at Chartres set an example of intellectual in ...

. In his youth Guitmund entered the monastery of La-Croix-Saint-Leufroy in the Diocese of Évreux. By 1060 he was studying theology at the

Abbey of Bec An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nuns ...

, where he had Lanfranc as teacher and Anselm as a fellow-student, each of them later Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1070

William the Conqueror William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...

called him to take up a diocese in England, to which the monk responded with his ''Oratio ad Guillelmum'', denouncing the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

. In his native Normandy, Guitmund defended the doctrine of

transubstantiation Transubstantiation (Latin: ''transubstantiatio''; Greek: μετουσίωσις '' metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of ...

against Berengar of Tours. During the 1070s he wrote a treatise on the Holy

Eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

, entitled ''De corporis et sanguinis Jesu Christi veritate in Eucharistia'' ("On the body and blood of Jesus Christ truly in the Eucharist"), which takes the familiar literary form of a dialogue between himself and a fellow monk, Roger, to present the doctrine of the

real presence The real presence of Christ in the Eucharist is the Christian doctrine that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, not merely symbolically or metaphorically, but in a true, real and substantial way. There are a number of Christian denomin ...

of Christ in the

. He attributes the perceived decay of the

reserved sacrament During the Mass of the Faithful, the second part of the Mass, the elements of bread and wine are considered to have been changed into the veritable Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. The manner in which this occurs is referred to by the term transu ...

, not as an

accident An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researche ...

of its essential substance (the orthodox view), but merely as a deception of our senses. The first printed edition of Guitmund's ''De corporis et sanguinis'' was edited by

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; ; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus;''Erasmus'' was his baptismal name, given after St. Erasmus of Formiae. ''Desiderius'' was an adopted additional name, which he used from 1496. The ''Roterodamus'' w ...

(Freiburg, 1530). Shortly after Guitmund had published his

treatise A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions." Tre ...

against Berengar, he obtained permission from his

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

, Odilo, to make a pilgrimage to Rome, where he lived for a time in a Roman monastery under the pseudonym of Christianus, which afforded him obscurity. Pope Urban II, formerly a monk at the

Abbey of Cluny Cluny Abbey (; , formerly also ''Cluni'' or ''Clugny''; ) is a former Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Saône-et-Loire, France. It was dedicated to Saint Peter. The abbey was constructed in the Romanesque architectural style, with three churche ...

, appointed Guitmund as Bishop of Aversa in 1088. Ordericus Vitalis (in his ''Historiae Ecclesiasticae'', Book IV) states that Guitmund left his monastery, with permission, and went to Pope Gregory VII, who made him a cardinal. August Prévost, Ordericus' editor, states however: "Guitmond n'a jamais été élevé au cardinalat." Paul Fridolin Kehr, too, denies the cardinalate.Paul Fridolin Kehr (1925), ''Italia pontificia'' Vol. VIII (Berlin: Weidmann 1925), p. 282: "fabulose narrat Guimundum a Gregorio VII cardinalem s. Rom. ecclesiae creatum et ab Urbano II iam probatum in multis metropolitanum Adversis urbis sollemniter ordinatum esse." Marjorie Chibnall (ed.), ''The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis: Volume II: Books III & IV'' (Oxford: Clarendon 1990), p. 280, note 1: "Guitmund was never a cardinal. The confusion may have arisen because in 1077 he went to Germany with the legates of Gregory VII, Cardinal-deacon Bernard and Bernard, abbot of St. Victor, Marseille."

Notes and references

Bibliography

* Dell'Omo, M. (1993)
"Per la storia dei monaci-vescovi nell'Italia normanna del secolo XI: ricerche biografiche su Guitmondo di La Croix-Saint-Leufroy, vescovo di Aversa"
in: ''Benedictina'' 40 (1993), pp. 9–34. *Kamp, Norbert (2000). "Le fonti per una biografia di Guitmondo d’Aversa," in: ''Guitmondo di Aversa, la cultura europea e la riforma gregoriana nel mezzogiorno''..., vol. I, pp. 137 ff. *Orabona, L. (ed.) (2000). ''Guitmondo di Aversa, la cultura europea e la riforma gregoriana nel mezzogiorno. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi, Cassino-Aversa, 13-14-15 novembre 1997''. 2 vols. Napoli-Roma 2000. *Shaughnessy, P. (1939). ''The Eucharistic Doctrine of Guitmund of Aversa''. Roma 1939.

{{authority control 11th-century births 1090s deaths 11th-century Normans French Benedictines Italo-Norman Benedictines 11th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops Bishops of Aversa Benedictine theologians Benedictine bishops 11th-century French Catholic theologians Year of birth unknown 11th-century Latin writers