1062-1100: Un conflitto tra due papi? Riflessioni metodologiche sulla storia ecclesiastica del secolo XI

The essay intends to return to an issue dear to Italian studies on ecclesiastical reforms of the 11th century, namely, the debated meaning of “gregorian reform” with which the historiography of the Frankish area often identifies unitarily the complex set of reforming ideas and drives of those years. Analyzing the clash between popes and anti-popes through the analytical category of conflict, this study emphasizes the need to approach the topic of reform without limiting the prominence of “reforming” popes. Thus, the conflict of ideas is analyzed, through the libelli de lite, the conflict of powers, through the use of damnatio memoriae, and finally the armed conflict, taking as an example the clashes that occurred for the control of Rome, the seat of the papal throne.