The diocese of Nepi-Sutri was a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in central Italy, created in 1435 by unifying the diocese of Nepi and the diocese of Sutri under a single bishop. It existed until 1986, when it was united into the current diocese of Cività Castellana."Diocese of Nepi e Sutri" Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved February 29, 2016"Titular Episcopal See of Nepi" GCatholic.org. Gabriel Chow. Retrieved March 9, 2016
History
The traditional tale of the Church of Nepi states that it was first Christianized by Ptolemaeus, who, it is claimed, was a disciple of the Apostles. This narrative was endorsed by Pope Paul III in a papal bull of 8 January 1542.Cappelletti VI, p. 242. This town has an ancient Christian cemetery. In it was found the remains of Romanus of Caesarea, who is the patron of the city; the cathedral possesses a statue of him by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The names of the pair from Nepi are found in no martyrology; they are Roman martyrs.Lanzoni, pp. 531-532: "Una Passione, non di molto anteriore all' xi secolo, pone al 24 agosto un Tolomeo vescovo « Pentapolis et Tusciae » (?) e un Romano, vescovo di Nepi, suo discepolo, sotto Claudio.... Questi due santi nepesini però sono ignoti a tutte le antiche fonti martirologiche." Among the martyrs of Sutri is St. Felix (about 275).
In 419, Eulalius,J.N.D. Kelly & M.J. Walsh, Oxford Dictionary of Popes, second edition (Oxford: OUP 2010), p. 36. a competitor of Pope Boniface I for the papacy, was made Bishop of Nepi. The first bishop of known date was Eusebius (465).
Bishop Paulus of Nepi was sent as Visitator to Naples by Pope Gregory I, from 591 to 593.. Lanzoni, p. 532.
Lombard, Carolingian, Ottonian In the Gothic War, Nepi was one of the last strongholds of the Goths. The town was sacked by the Lombards in 569. In the eighth century, however, it became the seat of Toto (Theodore), who had been invested dux Nepsinae civitatis by the Lombard king Desiderius (756–774). In 767, he plotted the murder of Pope Paul I but was dissuaded. When Paul died on 28 June 767, though, Toto had his brother Constantine acclaimed as pope. A counter-revolution against the brothers on 30 July 768 resulted in the death of Tuto and the deposition, imprisonment, and mutilation of Constantine.J.N.D. Kelly & M.J. Walsh, Oxford Dictionary of Popes, pp. 91-92. Tomassetti, pp. pp. 594-595.
In 817, in the Pactum Hludowicianum between the Emperor Louis the Pious and Pope Paschal I, the towns of Nepi and Sutri are specifically mentioned as being part of the old Duchy of Rome, and are acknowledged as being the property of the Church.August Theiner, Codex Diplomaticus Dominii Temporalis S. Sedis, , Vol. 1 (Rome: Imprimerie du Vatican 1861), pp. 2-4. Thomas F.X. Noble, The Republic of Peter (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1984)), p. 160: "...the city of Rome together with its duchy and suburbs... suburbicarian, Tuscany... for example Bieda, Sutri, Nepi, Castrum Gallese, Orte, and Bomarzo...." That privilegium, granted by Louis the Pious, was confirmed in exactly the same terms by the Emperor Otto I on 13 February 962.THeiner, Codex diplomaticus, pp. 4-6.
Bishop Stephanus of Nepi, Bishop Donatus of Ostia, and the deacon Marinus, in 868, were named papal legates and presidents of the Council of Constantinople, in the matter of the alleged heresy of Photios I of Constantinople. The first session of the Council took place on 5 October 869. The legation finally returned to Rome in 871. Cappelletti VI, p. 210. Charles Joseph Hefele, Histoire des conciles (tr. H. Leclercq) , Vol. 4 part 1 (Paris: Letouzey 1911), pp. 486-489. Francis Dvornik, The Photian Schism: History and Legend (Cambridge: CUP 1948), pp. 219-220.
In 993, Bishop Joannes of Nepi was serving as bibliothecarius S.R.E. in the papal court of Pope John XV (985–996), and served as datary.Kehr II, p. 77, no. 8.
Bishop Martinus of Nepi and Bishop Joannes of Sutri both attended the Third Lateran Council of Pope Alexander III in March 1179.J.D. Mansi, Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima, , Vol. 22 (Venice: A. Zatta 1778), p. 459.
Guelfs and Ghibbelines In the struggle between the emperors and the popes, Nepi was imperialist during the reigns of Pope Alexander II, Pope Nicholas II, Pope Gregory VII, and Pope Innocent II. In the schism which began in 1130, Nepi supported Pope Anacletus II (1130–1138) against the imperially supported Innocent II, who had been driven out of Rome. An inscription of 1131 in the cathedral at Nepi confirms the determination of the citizens to go to war if necessary to defend their choice.Cappelletti, p. 214 On the other hand, in 1160, it fought against the commune of Rome, and in 1244, was besieged by Emperor Frederick II. A feudal possession, first of the prefects of Vico, and then of the Orsinis, of the Colonnas, and of Cesare Borgia, from 1537 to 1545, it was erected into a duchy in favour of Pier Luigi Farnese;Cappelletti VI, p. 241. and when the latter was transferred to Parma, Nepi returned to immediate dependence on the Holy See. In 1798 the French set fire to the cathedral and to the episcopal palace, and archives were lost.
Sutri is placed on the Cassian Way.Tomassetti, pp. 590-592. The cathedral is of the thirteenth century, modernized by frequent alterations. Santa Maria della Grotta is an interesting church. The history of Sutri in antiquity resembles that of Nepi. In 537, the imperial general Belisarius "...ordered Bessas to take over Narni, a very strong city in Tuscany.... Bessas took Narni not at all against the will of the inhabitants, and Konstantinos won over Spoleto and Perugia and some other towns without trouble.... But while Bessas was making his dispositions in Narni in a more leisurely manner, it so happened that, as the enemy {Goths] were passing that way, the plains in the outskirts of the city were filled with Goths. These were an advance guard preceding the rest of the army. Bessas engaged with them and unexpectedly routed those whom he encountered and killed many. But then, as he was pushed back by their superior numbers, he retired to Narni."Procopius, History of the wars, Book V, ch. 16-17 (tr. H.B. Dewing). for Sutri also was taken by the Lombards in 569, but was retaken by the exarch Romanus; Liutprand likewise took the town in 726, but in the following year restored it to "St. Peter". As the city is on the Cassian Way not far from Rome, it was, as a rule, the last halting-place of the German emperors on their way to the city, and sometimes they received there the papal legate.
Other bishops were Martinus, or Marinus, who was sent as ambassador to Otho I in 963; Benedictus, who, in 975, became Pope Benedict VII; Bishop Bonitho (Bonizo), historian of the Gregorian epoch, who was driven from his diocese by the anti-papal faction and later was made Bishop of Piacenza.
The Synod of Sutri The Synod of Sutri was held on 20 December 1046, by the Emperor Henry III. The major purpose of his journey through Sutri was to visit Rome, where he expected to be crowned emperor by the pope. His principal problem was that there were three claimants to the papal office, and charges of simony were rife. Benedict IX was the brother of the Count of Tusculum, and had certainly been made pope through simony;Kelly & Walsh, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (2010), p. 143. he was driven out by the Romans in 1044, but never formally deposed. His replacement, John of Sabina, called Silvester III, was an adherent of the Theophylact party, and was at least accused of simony, and was excommunicated by Boniface IX.Kelly & Walsh, p. 144. Then, on 1 May 1045, Benedict wrote out a deed of abdication in favor of his godfather, John Gratian, who became Gregory VI in what may have been a simoniacal transaction; a form of election was later carried out in Rome. But at the synod in Sutri, Gregory admitted his culpability, and is even said to have deposed himself: "I, Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God, do hereby adjudge myself to be removed from the pontificate of the Holy Roman Church, because of the enormous error which by simoniacal impurity has crept into and vitiated my election." (quoted by Schaff)Kelly & Walsh, p. 144-145.M.W.G.A. Schmidt, "And on this Rock I Will Build My Church" A new edition of Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church, (Hamburg: Disserta Verlag 2017), pp. 566-567. Horace K. Mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, vol. 5 (London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner 1910 ), pp. 258-262. Reginald Lane Poole, "Benedict IX and Gregory VI," in: Studies in Chronology and History (Oxford: Clarendon 1934), p. 185-222. Jacques van Wijnendaele, "Silences et mensonges autour d'un concile. Le concile de Sutri (1046) en son temps," , in: Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire Vol. 83 (2005), pp. 315-353.
Another synod was held in Sutri in January 1059. Pope Nicholas II, who had just been elected pope in Siena, was on his way to Rome. In Sutri, he and numerous bishops from Lombardy and Tuscany deposed the current pope, Benedict X, on charges of perjury and schism.Bonizo of Sutri, "Liber ad amicum" Book VI, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Libelli de lite. Vol. 1 , p. 593: "Hic idem prefatum Guibertum Italici regni cancellarium ex 10 parte beati Pétri et per veram obedientiam invitavit ad synodum et cum eo magnificum virum Gotefridum et non solum Tusciae, sed et Longobardiae episcopos, ut venientes Sutrium de periuro et invasore tractarent consilium. Quos ubi Sutrium adventantes audivit prefatus Benedictus, conscientia accusante sedem, quam invaserat, deseruit et ad propriam domum se contulit...." P. Palazzini, Dizionario dei Concili, , Vol. 4 (Rome: Città Nuova Editrice 1963), p. 225.
In August 1110, the German Emperor Henry V crossed the Alps with 30,000 troops, intending to reassert his authority over his Italian vassals who had drifted away; he then intended to settle matters with the pope and have himself crowned in Rome. The city of Novara in Piedmont resisted his demands for submission, and he destroyed it. Arezzo also resisted, and was sacked. Countess Matilda of Tuscany submitted and acknowledged his sovereignty. At Sutri, on 4 February 1111, he met the delegates of Pope Paschal II, led by Petrus Leoni. Leoni's brief was to persuade the emperor to renounce his rights to lay investiture of clerics. Henry was not going to Rome to surrender, but he was open to compromise. An agreement was reached and published by the pope on 12 February, after oaths had been sworn on both sides. The emperor agreed to abandon the practice of lay investiture, and the pope agreed to get the bishops to hand back the regalian lands to the emperor. The ceremony of Henry's coronation was aborted, however, when disorders arose from the bishops who were being dispossessed of a substantial part of their lands, income, and power.C.J. Hefele, L' histoire des conciles (tr. Leclercq) Vol. 5 part 1 (Paris: Letouzey 1912), pp. 510-515. P. Palazzini, Dizionario dei Concili, , Vol. 4 (Rome: Città Nuova Editrice 1963), p. 225. Uta-Renate Blumenthal, The Investiture Controversy (Philadelphia: U Penn Press 1988), pp. 168-170. Leidulf Melve, Inventing the Public Sphere: The public debate during the Investiture Contest (Leiden-Boston: E.J. Brill 2007), pp. 621-624.
Union of dioceses Due to the limited financial resources of both dioceses, the diocese of Sutri was united to Nepi by Pope Eugenius IV, aeque personaliter, under Bishop Luca de Tartaris, in the Bull "Romana Ecclesia" of 12 December 1435. One bishop wa to be the bishop of Nepi and of Sutri at the same time; their diocesan structure was unchanged. The bishop was to perform ordinations alternately in Nepi and in Sutri, he was to consecrate the holy oils alternately, and when a vacancy occurred, the two cathedral Chapters were to meet together alternately in Sutri and Nepi.Cappelletti VI, pp. 236-239.