visited the monastery at Montecassino from 30 November 1057 to 10 February 1058. He was still its abbot, and remained so until his death. There he immediately began a program of reform, by every means at his disposal, persuading, exhorting and haranguing the monks to rid themselves of the lax practices that had crept in over the years. He even banned the use of Ambrosian chant, mandating the sole use of the Gregorian chant. In December 1057, he was so ill with "the Roman fever" that he believed he was going to die. In regional politics, Stephen ordered the bishops of England not to seek consecration from Archbishop Stigand of Canterbury, who was excommunicated and usurping the archbishopric. Secular politics Stephen was planning for the expulsion of the Normans from southern Italy. At some point in 1057 or 1058, he held a synod in which the citizens of Capua, the capital of the Norman principality, and a cleric named Lando were excommunicated. In order to advance his aims in the south, he decided, at the beginning of 1058, to send a delegation to the new Byzantine Emperor Isaac I Komnenos (1057-1059). The legates were Cardinal Stephen, the Benedictine abbot of the monastery of Ss. Andrea e Gregorio in Rome; Cardinal Mainard, a Benedictine monk of Montecassino; and Desiderius, the Benedictine abbot-elect of Montecassino. These papal delegates departed from Rome, but when they reached Byzantine-held Bari, news came that Stephen IX has died, and the mission was abandoned. After his recovery from his fever, Pope Stephen returned to Rome, and on 8 March 1058, consecrated Bishop Alfanus I of Salerno. In mid-March, he ordered the provost of Montecassino to collect all of the gold and silver of his church and secretly send it immediately to Rome; the pope promised that he would soon return it, with interest. Despite their deep distress, the monks complied, sending their gold and silver to the pope. The provost was on his way back to the monastery, having obeyed the pope's commands, when he received a message to return to the pope, who returned Montecassino's treasures to him. Pope Stephen, however was relieved, by force on the part of the Romans, of the treasure which he had brought to Rome from Constantinople. The pope was planning the elevation of his brother to the imperial throne. For this purpose, and, if the Roman annals are to be