16th century AD

Matilda's equestrian portrait with its inscription declaring her noble origins and wealth ("Stirpe, opibus") was commissioned by the monastery undoubtedly to reinforce its own seigneurial status. [64] As reiterated so often during this period, Polirone's prestige and prosperity derived from its benefactress. The importance of this relationship is clear in a fifteenth-century summary of Polirone's ascent, subsequent decline, and Renaissance renewal:

The body of the glorious countess Matilda lies in the monastery of S. Benedetto di Polirone in the Mantuan diocese. And the said monastery was exalted with great possessions so that it owned thirty castra.... [But] temporal lords usurped [usurparent] these and other possessions ... [and] the monastery was practically falling to pieces.... Working through the grace of God and with the care of the monks ... there are now enormous buildings and beautiful properties. The monastery which formerly had been truly ruined, was, with God's blessing, made so beautiful that it is renowned from sea to sea. [65]

The date of this description, recorded at Polirone in the third quarter of the fifteenth century, coincides with the compilation of several cartularies of documents at the monastery. [66] These records of bequests and privileges began with the Canossan era, with special reference to Matilda. [67] They served to legitimize and, if necessary, to reclaim the abbey's "usurped" rights and properties.

In the last quarter of the fifteenth century, Polirone's indentured peasants had nearly tripled and, by 1505, the monastery controlled more than 650 families. [68] In the sixteenth century, the German Augustinian friar Martin Luther as well as a secretary of the papal court, Angelo Massarelli (1510-1566), were both stunned by Polirone's wealth. Even Massarelli, on his way to Trent in 1545, condemned the affluence and arrogance of the monks: "[Polirone is] clearly very powerful, so that various ills and inconveniences arise from its power and overflowing income. The monks loosely govern over the entire region nearby so that they go about like lords or rather, I would say, tyrants." [69]

The monastery's vested interest in their "singular donatrix," however, transcended lands and titles. The monks, who fostered the cult of Matilda and the veneration of her remains, promoted their saintly patron as a surrogate "patron saint." [70] A fifteenth-century diurnal from the monastery contains a short description of Polirone that opens and closes with an invocation of Matilda. [71] The conflation of Polirone's monastic and Canossan identities became more explicit with Benedetto Luchino's publication of a "tree" (albero) of Matilda in 1588, [72] followed by his 1592 chronicle of the monastery entitled Chronicle of the True Origin and Deeds of the Most Illustrious and Famous Countess Matilda. Not only is this history of Polirone named after Matilda, it also opens with her ancestry and biography--just as the history of a church might begin with the hagiography of its patron saint. [73]