Roland came from the upper ranks of the clergy of Parma. In a charter of 1073, Bertha, abbess of San Paolo in Parma, donated property she owned in Berceto to her convent. The act was witnessed by Roland, described as deacon, provost and scholaster (diaconus et praepositus et magister scholarum). He signed immediately after the bishop, Everard, and the archpriest, Gezzo, indicating his position in the ecclesiastical hierarchy of Parma at that time.[1]
Roland probably became bishop around 1077. His predecessor as bishop, Accelinus, is last attested on 2 January 1073.[2] Roland was appointed bishop of Treviso by the King Henry IV sometime between 1073 and 1078.[1] Both Bonizo of Sutri in his Liber ad amicum and Donizo in his Vita Mathildis refer to him simply as "the cleric Roland", Rolandus clericus, when discussing the episode of 1076.[2][3]
In February 1076, Roland delivered the decisions of the Germancouncil of Worms and the Italiancouncil of Piacenza—demanding the pope's abdication—to Pope Gregory VII in Rome.[4] Although Roland had not attended Worms,[1] he was present at Piacenza.[5] He travelled with one of the king's servants, unnamed in contemporary accounts.[5] Roland arrived in Rome just before the Lenten synod (14–22 February), and Gregory had the letter from Henry IV read out at the first session.[6] According to the account of Bonizo, Roland so enraged the assembly that Gregory had to intervene to save his life and end the session.[7] The empress dowager Agnes of Poitou, in a letter to Bishop Altmann of Passau, described the scene as an eyewitness: "the envoys of my son the king came into the synod and, in the presence of all, they told the pope, on my son's behalf, that he should rise and renounce the apostolic see, which he had acquired not canonically but by robbery. They were at once seized by the Romans."[8]
The official record of the Lenten synod of 1078, held from 27 February until 3 March, says that Roland, "who to acquire the honor of a bishop became a crafty ambassador, did not recoil from making a schism between the kingdom and the priesthood", and records his excommunication and deposition.[9][5] The Lenten synods of 1079 and 1080 repeated the decree of excommunication.[2] Roland is still attested as a canon of the cathedral of Parma in charge of the school in 1080, but by 1081 he had been replaced in this position by Ingo.[10]
On 25 June 1080, Roland signed the decree of the council of Brixen against Gregory VII, adding beside his name the word libentissime, "freely".[2][11] He is attested as an intervener for Aquileia in a charter of 1081. He attended the synod held by the anti-pope Clement III in Ravenna in 1086. His last appearance is in the record of a placitum held in Treviso on 13 October 1089 by Duke Liutold of Carinthia, who was also Margrave of Verona. His successor as bishop, Gumpold, is mentioned for the first time in the latter half of 1096.[2]
Cowdrey, H. E. J. (1998). Pope Gregory VII, 1073–1085. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Dempsey, John Andrew (2006). Bonizo of Sutri: Life and Work (PhD dissertation). Boston University. ProQuest3214924
Golinelli, Paolo, ed. (2008). Donizone: Vita di Matilde di Canossa. Milan: Jaca Book.
Lasagni, Roberto, ed. (1999). "Rolando". Dizionario biografico dei Parmigiani. Vol. IV: Porta–Zurti. Parma: PPS. Archived from the original on 2014-05-29.
Robinson, I. S. (1999). Henry IV of Germany, 1056–1106. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sacchelli, Abramo (1977). "Donizone e Parma e il "Rolandus Parmensis clericus" della Vita Mathildis (l. 1297–1316): rilievi all'Affò". Aurea Parma. 61: 205–219.
Sartoretto, Antonio (1969). Cronotassi dei vescovi di Treviso (569–1564). Treviso: Crivellari.
Matilda of Tuscany, was a member of the House of Canossa and one of the most powerful nobles in Italy in the second half of the 11th century.
Pope Gregory VI, born John Gratian in Rome, was bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 1 May 1045 until his abdication at the Council of Sutri on 20 December 1046.
Pope Gregory VII, born Hildebrand of Sovana, was pope from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Honorius II, born Pietro Cadalo, was an antipope from 1061 to 1072. He was born at Verona and became bishop of Parma in 1046. He died at Parma in 1072.
Guibert or Wibert of Ravenna was an Italian prelate, archbishop of Ravenna, who was elected pope in 1080 in opposition to Pope Gregory VII and took the name Clement III. Gregory was the leader of the movement in the church which opposed the traditional claim of European monarchs to control ecclesiastical appointments, and this was opposed by supporters of monarchical rights led by the Holy Roman Emperor. This led to the conflict known as the Investiture Controversy. Gregory was felt by many to have gone too far when he excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and supported a rival claimant as emperor, and in 1080 the pro-imperial Synod of Brixen pronounced that Gregory was deposed and replaced as pope by Guibert.
Bonizo of Sutri or Bonitho was a Bishop of Sutri and then of Piacenza in Central Italy, in the last quarter of the 11th century. He was an adherent of Gregory VII and an advocate of the reforming principles of that pope. He wrote three works of polemical history, detailing the struggles between civil and religious authorities. He was driven out of both of his dioceses, once by the emperor and once by opponents of Gregorian-style reform.
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The Diocese of Grosseto is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Italy, a suffragan of the archdiocese of Siena-Colle di Val d'Elsa-Montalcino, in Tuscany. Its current bishop is Rodolfo Cetoloni.
Bertha of Savoy, also called Bertha of Turin, a member of the Burgundian House of Savoy, was Queen consort of Germany from 1066 and Empress consort of the Holy Roman Empire from 1084 until 1087 as the first wife of the Salian emperor Henry IV.
The Italian Catholic Diocese of Parma has properly been called Diocese of Parma-Fontevivo since 1892. The bishop's seat is in Parma Cathedral. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Modena-Nonantola.
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The Italian Catholic Diocese of Treviso is in the Veneto. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Venice.
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tuscanella was a Latin residential bishopric, in existence by the 7th century. Even at the time of the Lombard invasions, it belonged to the Duchy of Rome and was immediately subject to the Holy See (Papacy). The seat of the bishop was originally in the church of S. Maria, then in the church of S. Pietro, and after 1592 in the church of S. Giacomo.
The 1073 papal election saw the election of Hildebrand of Sovana as successor to Pope Alexander II.
Landulf was the bishop of Pisa from the spring of 1077 until his death. His election marked a return to canon law in Pisa and he was consecrated by Pope Gregory VII. His election was also supported by Marchioness Matilda of Tuscany, who made a large donation to the canons of the cathedral during his episcopate.
Donizo of Canossa, was an Italian monk and author in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. His work is an important source on Matilda of Tuscany and her dynasty, and also on Gregorian Reform and the Investiture Controversy more generally.
Theoderic, or Thierry, was a royalist bishop of Verdun from 1047 to 1089.
Tedald was archbishop of Milan from 1075 to 1085.
The Synod of Brixen was a church council held on 15 June 1080 in the episcopal city of Brixen. It was convoked by King Henry IV of Germany at the height of the Investiture Controversy to pass judgement on Pope Gregory VII. The synod issued a decree condemning the pope, demanding his abdication and authorizing his deposition if he refused. The synod also elected his successor, Wibert of Ravenna.
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