The Medieval Abbey of Farfa: Target of Papal and Imperial Ambitions

A study of the medieval imperial abbey of Farfa, which played a key role in the period of ecclesiastical reform, beginning in the mid-11th century. The author depicts the competition between the empire and the papacy, and charts Farfa’s losing struggle to maintain Benedictine standards and its independence from an expansive papacy. The main sources used are the Register and Chronicle, compiled by Gregory of Catino, a partisan monk.