succeeded by his disciple Paul, then came Cyril, then Bartholomew of Rossanum († 1065), who wrote his Life. Meanwhile the monks had begun to build their monastery and church at the place where their founder died. The church was consecrated by Pope John XIX (1024-1033) in 1024. Benedict IX (1033-1048) confirmed the possessions of the monastery, made it exempt from diocesan jurisdiction, and placed it under the immediate protection of the Holy See.
At this time there was the wildest disorder at Rome and continual strife between the party of the Counts of Tusculum, the people, and the Emperor. Benedict IX himself was made Pope by his father, Alberich, Count of Tusculum, at the age of twelve years. Bartholomew of Grottaferrata persuaded him to resign the Papacy; so that he then came as a simple monk to Grottaferrata, ended his days there, and is there buried. From now the monastery plays an important part in the history of the Papal states. Robert Wiscard and his Normans camped under its walls in 1084. Then it acquired vast territories, and so came into conflict with the Count and Bishop of Tusculum. William I of Sicily (the Bad, 1154-1166), making war on Pope Adrian IV (1154-1159), sacked Grottaferrata. Innocent III (1198-1216) and Gregory IX (1227–1241) protected and enriched it; Frederick II (1215-1250) came and sacked it. It was again besieged and sacked during the Western Schism by the soldiers of the Avignon Pope. In the fifteenth century the Orsini and the Caetani made it a fortress, from which they went out to fight. The King of Naples, Ladislaus (1400-1414), occupied it with his soldiers when he invaded the Papal states in 1408. Martin V (1417-1431) made efforts to repair the damages done by so many wars. Pius II (1458–1464) was a constant visitor at Grottaferrata. It was with the idea of restoring its former prosperity that he applied to Grottaferrata the system of giving monasteries in commendam, making Cardinal Bessarion († 1472) its first Commendatory Archimandrite. Bessarion did much for Grottaferrata; he
The Life of the saint by his disciple and successor, St Bartholomew of Rossanum, is a characteristic example of Greek hagiography of that period, interesting, edifying, and full of incidental information about the Italo-Greek monasteries of Calabria. Unfortunately want of space makes it impossible to quote more of it here. It is printed in P.G., cxx, 16-165; in an Italian version by A. Rocchi, "Vita di San Nilo Abate" (Rome, 1904). St Bartholomew's own Life was written by Luke I, the seventh Archimandrite (c. 1085); it is in P.G., cxxvii, 476-497.
