Pope Stephen IX was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 August 1057 to his death in 29 March 1058. He was a member of the Ardenne-Verdun family, who ruled the Duchy of Lorraine, and started his ecclesiastical career as a canon in Liège. He was invited to Rome by Pope Leo IX, who made him chancellor in 1051 and one of three legates to Constantinople in 1054. The failure of their negotiations with Patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople and Archbishop Leo of Ohrid led to the permanent East-West Schism. He continued as chancellor to the next pope, Victor II, and was elected abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Montecassino.
Pope Victor III, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 24 May 1086 to his death. He was the successor of Pope Gregory VII, yet his pontificate is far less notable than his time as Desiderius, the great abbot of Montecassino.
Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about 130 kilometres (80 mi) southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, 2 kilometres west of Cassino and at an elevation of 520 m (1,710 ft). Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first house of the Benedictine Order, having been established by Benedict of Nursia himself around 529. It was for the community of Monte Cassino that the Rule of Saint Benedict was composed.
Year 1137 (MCXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar.
Fulk, also known as Fulk the Younger, was the count of Anjou from 1109 to 1129 and the king of Jerusalem with his wife from 1131 to his death. During their reign, the Kingdom of Jerusalem reached its largest territorial extent.
The County of Edessa was a 12th-century Crusader state in Upper Mesopotamia. Its seat was the city of Edessa.
Leo I, also Levon I or Leon I, was the fifth lord of Armenian Cilicia (1129/1130-1137).
Jocelyn is a surname and first name. It is a unisex (male/female) name. Variants include Jocelin, Joceline, Jocelyne, Jocelynn, Jocelynne, Joscelin, Josceline, Joscelyn, Joscelynn, Joscelynne, Joseline, Joselyn, Joselyne, Joslin, Joslyn, Josselin, Joslynn,Josselyn, and Josslyn. The name may derive from Josselin, a locality in Brittany, France, and have been introduced to England after the Norman Conquest. It derives from the Germanic name Gauzlin.
Joscelin, Goslin, or Gauzlin, Bishop of Paris and defender of the city against the Northmen (885), was, according to some authorities, the son of Rorgon I, count of Maine, according to others the natural son of the emperor Louis I.
Amatus of Montecassino, was a Benedictine monk of the Abbey of Montecassino who is best known for his historical chronicles of his era. His History of the Normans, is one of three principle primary sources for the Norman Conquest of southern Italy--the other two being the histories of William of Apulia and Geoffrey Malaterra. Amatus describes the Normans from the perspective of his abbey, one of the most important religious and cultural centers in Italy at the time. His history is the earliest extant account of the Norman sieges of Bari and Salerno, their conquest of Sicily, and the careers of both Robert Guiscard and Richard Drengot, as well as the Gregorian Reforms seen from the papal point of view.
Bruno di Segni was an Italian Roman Catholic prelate and professed member from the Order of Saint Benedict who served as the Bishop of Segni and the Abbot of Montecassino. He studied under the Benedictines in Bologna before being appointed a canon of the cathedral chapter of Siena. He was invited to Rome where he became a bishop and counselled four consecutive popes. He served as an abbot in Montecassino but his chastising Pope Paschal II on the Concordat of Ponte Mammolo in 1111 prompted the pope to relieve him of his duties as abbot and order Bruno to return to his diocese, where he died just over a decade later. Bruno's canonization was celebrated on 5 September 1181 under Pope Lucius III who presided over the celebration in the late bishop's diocese.
Richard III, also known as Richard of Caleno, was the Norman count of Carinola and last quasi-independent Duke of Gaeta, ruling from 1121 to his death. From 1113, he was regent of Gaeta for his cousin or nephew, Duke Jonathan; in 1121 he succeeded him. As duke he was a nominal vassal of the Princes of Capua, to whom he was related.
Richard of San Germano was a notary in San Germano in the Latin Valley not far from the monastery of Monte Cassino between February 1186 and March 1232. He wrote a chronicle of the Mezzogiorno from the death of William II of Sicily in 1189 to 1243. It is the fullest source of information on the Hohenstaufen in Italy.
The Terra Sancti Benedicti was the secular territory, or seignory, of the powerful Abbey of Montecassino, the chief monastery of the Mezzogiorno and one of the first Western monasteries: founded by Benedict of Nursia himself, hence the name of its possessions. It lasted from the 8th to the 19th century.
Guarin was the chaplain and chancellor of Roger II of Sicily from about 1130 to his death, during the first decade of the Norman kingdom of Sicily. According to Alexander of Telese, the contemporary chronicler, he was "erudite ... and most prudent in negotiations ... a cleric well-versed in letters, skillful in matters of the world, and possessed of a tenacious and cautious mind."
Jocelyn was an Italo-Norman officer serving Roger II of Sicily.
Oderisio di Sangro was an Italian Benedictine monk and cardinal, the son of Count Rinaldo of the family of the conti di Sangro in the Marsi.
Atenulf was the Abbot of Montecassino from 1011 until his death. He was a cousin of Prince Pandulf II of Capua, a younger son of Prince Pandulf III and brother of Prince Pandulf IV.
John XI bar Mawdyono, also known as Yuhanna Modyana, was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1130 until his death in 1137.
Athanasius VII bar Qatra was the Patriarch of Antioch, and head of the Syriac Orthodox Church from 1139 until his death in 1166.
