Directly dependent on the Holy See, has its seat at Amalfi, not
far from Naples Amalfi, the Archdiocese of, directly dependent
on the Holy See, has its seat at Amalfi, not far from Naples.
This was a populous city between the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. An independent republic from the seventh century
until 1075, it rivalled Pisa and Genoa in its domestic
prosperity and maritime importance. A prey to the Normans who
encamped in the south of Italy, it became one of their principal
posts. The Emperor Lothair, fighting in favor of Pope Innocent
II against King Roger of Sicily, who sided with the Antipope
Anacletus, took him prisoner in 1133, assisted by forty-six
Pisan ships. The city was sacked, and Lothair claimed as part of
the booty a copy of the Pandects of Justinian which was found
there. But the early beginnings of Amalfi are very obscure; it
is not known when it was founded, or when Christianity reached
it. That it was early is a reasonable conjecture, considering
the facilities for communicatio