Alfanus II

Who is Alfanus II?

Alfanus II or Alfano II was the Archbishop of Salerno from 1086/7 until his death, succeeding Alfanus I. Like his predecessor and his successor, Romuald I, he was a Lombard.

Before he was archbishop, Alfanus was a custos of the church of Saint Maximus. He was appointed to the see of Salerno by Roger Borsa, Duke of Apulia, with whom he was generally on good terms. His appointment received the denunciation of Archbishop Hugh of Lyon, who wrote to Marchioness Matilda of Tuscany that "Alfanus is guilty of overbearing ambition". He opposed Roger's attempt to remove a cleric from the church of Santa Maria de Domno in 1092, receiving support from Pope Urban II.

On 21 September 1089, Urban II issued a bull confirming his predecessor's grant of privileges to the Abbey of Cava, placing it directly under papal authority and conceding it the right to elect its own abbots and build a baptismal church on its land. In 1098, Alfanus II complained that these privileges harmed the church of Salerno, and the next year Urban II rescinded them. Later, Pope Pascal II re-privileged the abbey, but left the right of consecrating the abbots and their altars to the archbishop. a merely ceremonial privilege.