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Thanks to his public career and prolific correspondence, Cardinal Peter Damian ought to be one of the best known characters of the eleventh century. But the old hermit who claimed that if Christ were to return to earth he would find neither law nor justice at the papal court was no predictable team player. Investigations of his sometimes stormy relationships with other reformers can shed light on the early stages of the Gregorian Reform. William McCready's Odiosa sanctitas investigates the Pietro Mezzobarba affair, the trial by unauthorized ordeal of an allegedly simoniacal bishop of Florence, a case that ultimately involved the whole Roman reform party. This is an enjoyable book for readers interested in the political and ecclesiastical turmoil of the eleventh century. McCready systematically assembles and skillfully wrestles with (sometimes obscure) sources to reveal conflicts of values and personalities as Peter and other reformers attempt to promote justice in a world they cannot control. - John M. Howe, Texas Tech University

Thanks to his public career and prolific correspondence, Cardinal Peter Damian ought to be one of the best known characters of the eleventh century. But the old hermit who claimed that if Christ were to return to earth he would find neither law nor justice at the papal court was no predictable team player. Investigations of his sometimes stormy relationships with other reformers can shed light on the early stages of the Gregorian Reform. William McCready's Odiosa sanctitas investigates the Pietro Mezzobarba affair, the trial by unauthorized ordeal of an allegedly simoniacal bishop of Florence, a case that ultimately involved the whole Roman reform party. This is an enjoyable book for readers interested in the political and ecclesiastical turmoil of the eleventh century. McCready systematically assembles and skillfully wrestles with (sometimes obscure) sources to reveal conflicts of values and personalities as Peter and other reformers attempt to promote justice in a world they cannot

Thanks to his public career and prolific correspondence, Cardinal Peter Damian ought to be one of the best known characters of the eleventh century. But the old hermit who claimed that if Christ were to return to earth he would find neither law nor justice at the papal court was no predictable team player. Investigations of his sometimes stormy relationships with other reformers can shed light on the early stages of the Gregorian Reform. William McCready's Odiosa sanctitas investigates the Pietro Mezzobarba affair, the trial by unauthorized ordeal of an allegedly simoniacal bishop of Florence, a case that ultimately involved the whole Roman reform party. This is an enjoyable book for readers interested in the political and ecclesiastical turmoil of the eleventh century. McCready systematically assembles and skillfully wrestles with (sometimes obscure) sources to reveal conflicts of values and personalities as Peter and other reformers attempt to promote justice in a world they cannot control. John M. Howe, Texas Tech University

Author Information

William (Bill) McCready is an Emeritus Professor of History at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He joined the Department of History as a lecturer in 1969, and apart from a brief period in academic administration, first as an Associate Dean and then as Dean of Arts and Science, spent his entire career there, until his retirement in 2003. In 1976 he married Valerie, a home-town girl from Guelph, Ontario. Both are now enjoying retirement in a new home north of Kingston. Bill's enduring interest over the years has been medieval intellectual history, various aspects of which, from late antiquity to the later Middle Ages, are represented in his published work. Major publications include three previous books published by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies: The Theory of Papal Monarchy in the Fourteenth Century (1982); Signs of Sanctity: Miracles in the Thought of Gregory the Great (1989); and Miracles and the Venerable Bede (1994).

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