Peter Damian, one of the greatest churchmen of the eleventh century, was born in Ravenna. After studying and teaching the liberal arts in several Italian cities, he joined a community of hermits at Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio, in Umbria (c. 1035), and became prior about 1040. He was soon called from the monastic life, however, to become an active leader in the growing movement of ecclesiastical reform. He became cardinal bishop of Ostia in 1057 and was sent on papal missions to Milan (1059), France and Florence (1063), Germany (1069), and Ravenna (1072). He died at Faenza.

Damian's attitude toward the humanistic culture of his time was ambiguous. Although he was a fine Latin stylist in both prose and verse, and a master of argument, he nevertheless belittled both grammar and dialectic. He argued, for example, that the study of grammar had begun badly when the devil taught Adam and Eve...