Hermits, Reform and Preaching

Abstract

Even without a Peter Damian, hermit and cardinal, to proclaim it, it would be hard to miss the connection between the eremitical and the papal reform movement. For hermits and Gregorians alike the church was to be purified, set free from corrupting institutions to return to the ways and customs of the early church. This much is clear from both papal and eremitical sources but it remains to be seen whether the movements overlapped in practice as well as in theory; the source of inspiration may have been the same but were the hermits in fact interested in issues, other than the monastic and canonical which directly affected them, that concerned Rome?