Bruno of Segni

BRUNO OF SEGNI: Bishop of Segni (28 m. s.e. of Rome); b. at Solero (6 m. w. of Alessandria), Lombardy, between 1045 and 1049; d. at Segni July 18, 1123. He was educated in a monastery near his birthplace and at Bologna, became a canon at Sienna, and came to Rome in 1079. Here he came in contact with the leaders of the Church, and must have soon attracted the attention of Gregory VII., if it is true that it was at his request that he disputed with Berengar on the Eucharist. In any case he accomplished his task so well that the pope made him bishop of Segni in the Campagna the same year. He was even more closely connected with Urban II., whom be accompanied to France in 1095. In 1099 he entered the monastery of Monte Cassino, but without resigning his see or severing his relations with the outside world. He undertook an important mission to France for Paschal II. in 1106, and remained with the pope for some time after his return, finally going back to his cloister, where he was elected abbot in 1107. Paschal made no objection to this pluralism until in the conflicts of 1111 Bruno took the part of the antipope Maginulf (Sylvester IV.), and was forced to resign his abbacy and return to Segni. Lucius III. canonized him in 1181. His works (in MPL, clxiv., clxv.) are principally exegetical. His Libellus de symoniacis, written before 1109, is important for its discussion of the meaning of simony, and especially for its attitude on the sacraments of a simoniacal priest.

Carl Mirbt.

Bibliography: Sources for a life are the Chronicon Cassinense, book iv., chaps. 31–42, ed. W. Wattenbach, in MGH, Script., vii. 776–783, Hanover, 1846, and an anonymous Vita in ASB, 18 July, iv. 478–488. The fullest and best modern treatment is by B. Gigalski, Bruno, Bischof von Segni, . . . sein Leben und seine Schriften, Münster, 1898. Consult also Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. v.; C. Mirbt, Die Publizistik im Zeitalter Gregors VII., pp. 384–385, 423–424, 522–523, Leipsic,1894; Meyer von Knonau, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Heinrich IV., pp. 92 sqq., ib. 1904.