Kathleen G. Cushing
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207245
- eISBN:
- 9780191677571
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207245.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History, History of Religion
This book explores the role of canon law in the ecclesiastical reform movement of the eleventh century, commonly known as the Gregorian Refom movement. Focusing on the ...
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This book explores the role of canon law in the ecclesiastical reform movement of the eleventh century, commonly known as the Gregorian Refom movement. Focusing on the Collectio canonum of Bishop Anselm of Lucca — hitherto largely unexplored in English — it is concerned with the symbiotic relationship between canon law and reform, and seeks to explore the ways in which Anselm’s writing can be seen in the context of the reformer’s need to devise and articulate strategies for the renovation of the Church and Christian society. Its principal contention is that Anselm’s collection cannot be seen merely as a catalogue of canon law, but also functioned to articulate, define, and propagate reformist doctrine in a time of great social and religious upheaval.Less
This book explores the role of canon law in the ecclesiastical reform movement of the eleventh century, commonly known as the Gregorian Refom movement. Focusing on the Collectio canonum of Bishop Anselm of Lucca — hitherto largely unexplored in English — it is concerned with the symbiotic relationship between canon law and reform, and seeks to explore the ways in which Anselm’s writing can be seen in the context of the reformer’s need to devise and articulate strategies for the renovation of the Church and Christian society. Its principal contention is that Anselm’s collection cannot be seen merely as a catalogue of canon law, but also functioned to articulate, define, and propagate reformist doctrine in a time of great social and religious upheaval.
Gary Macy
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195189704
- eISBN:
- 9780199868575
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195189704.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The concluding chapter speculates on some of the reasons why the definition of ordination changed in the 11th and 12th centuries, and, more importantly, why women were no longer considered either ...
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The concluding chapter speculates on some of the reasons why the definition of ordination changed in the 11th and 12th centuries, and, more importantly, why women were no longer considered either ordained or able to be ordained. Four factors contributed to the change. The Gregorian Reform Movement with its insistence on celibacy introduced a new and more virulent form of misogyny into Western Christianity. Roman law was read selectively to enforce the idea that women were incapable of leadership roles in the church. The biology and politics of Aristotle, newly introduced in the West, asserted that women were biologically and intellectually inferior to men. Theologians read scripture as supporting the assumptions of Roman law and Aristotle concerning the inferiority women and Eve in particular become the scapegoat for the Fall. No one cause seemed determinative in relegating women to an inferior status, but rather a concatenation of several mutually reinforcing factors.Less
The concluding chapter speculates on some of the reasons why the definition of ordination changed in the 11th and 12th centuries, and, more importantly, why women were no longer considered either ordained or able to be ordained. Four factors contributed to the change. The Gregorian Reform Movement with its insistence on celibacy introduced a new and more virulent form of misogyny into Western Christianity. Roman law was read selectively to enforce the idea that women were incapable of leadership roles in the church. The biology and politics of Aristotle, newly introduced in the West, asserted that women were biologically and intellectually inferior to men. Theologians read scripture as supporting the assumptions of Roman law and Aristotle concerning the inferiority women and Eve in particular become the scapegoat for the Fall. No one cause seemed determinative in relegating women to an inferior status, but rather a concatenation of several mutually reinforcing factors.
William M. Reddy
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226706269
- eISBN:
- 9780226706283
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226706283.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, World Medieval History
This chapter presents evidence in support of a novel explanation of the origins of courtly love. It discusses three features of twelfth-century social life that combined to shape the courtly love ...
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This chapter presents evidence in support of a novel explanation of the origins of courtly love. It discusses three features of twelfth-century social life that combined to shape the courtly love ideal: a specific form of aristocratic speech; a related approach to kinship reckoning, gender identities, and “sexual” relationships; and the impact of the Gregorian Reform.Less
This chapter presents evidence in support of a novel explanation of the origins of courtly love. It discusses three features of twelfth-century social life that combined to shape the courtly love ideal: a specific form of aristocratic speech; a related approach to kinship reckoning, gender identities, and “sexual” relationships; and the impact of the Gregorian Reform.
John Howe
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452895
- eISBN:
- 9781501703713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452895.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This book explores ecclesiastical history and the history of Western civilization more generally by focusing on the tenth-and early eleventh-century Latin Church, or more precisely the millennial ...
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This book explores ecclesiastical history and the history of Western civilization more generally by focusing on the tenth-and early eleventh-century Latin Church, or more precisely the millennial Church. It challenges the narrative linking ecclesiastical revival to the Gregorian Reform and argues that the rise of the West began well before the mid-eleventh century. It presents ecclesiastical reform as a central part of the post-Carolingian, postinvasion revival and suggests that the Church embodied and defined a rising Europe. It shows that the achievements associated with Gregorian Reform in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries rested on earlier ones. The book offers insights into the Christendom that was inherited by the mid-eleventh-century Latin reformers and puts the millennial Church as well as the resurgence of the Latin West in their appropriate contexts.Less
This book explores ecclesiastical history and the history of Western civilization more generally by focusing on the tenth-and early eleventh-century Latin Church, or more precisely the millennial Church. It challenges the narrative linking ecclesiastical revival to the Gregorian Reform and argues that the rise of the West began well before the mid-eleventh century. It presents ecclesiastical reform as a central part of the post-Carolingian, postinvasion revival and suggests that the Church embodied and defined a rising Europe. It shows that the achievements associated with Gregorian Reform in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries rested on earlier ones. The book offers insights into the Christendom that was inherited by the mid-eleventh-century Latin reformers and puts the millennial Church as well as the resurgence of the Latin West in their appropriate contexts.
John Howe
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452895
- eISBN:
- 9781501703713
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452895.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Historians typically single out the hundred-year period from about 1050 to 1150 as the pivotal moment in the history of the Latin Church, for it was then that the Gregorian Reform movement ...
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Historians typically single out the hundred-year period from about 1050 to 1150 as the pivotal moment in the history of the Latin Church, for it was then that the Gregorian Reform movement established the ecclesiastical structure that would ensure Rome's dominance throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. This book challenges this familiar narrative by examining earlier, “pre-Gregorian” reform efforts within the Church. It finds that they were more extensive and widespread than previously thought and that they actually established a foundation for the subsequent Gregorian Reform movement. The low point in the history of Christendom came in the late ninth and early tenth centuries—a period when much of Europe was overwhelmed by barbarian raids and widespread civil disorder, which left the Church in a state of disarray. As the book shows, however, the destruction gave rise to creativity. Aristocrats and churchmen rebuilt churches and constructed new ones, competing against each other so that church building, like castle building, acquired its own momentum. Patrons strove to improve ecclesiastical furnishings, liturgy, and spirituality. Schools were constructed to staff the new churches. Moreover, the book shows that these reform efforts paralleled broader economic, social, and cultural trends in Western Europe including the revival of long-distance trade, the rise of technology, and the emergence of feudal lordship. The result was that by the mid-eleventh century a wealthy, unified, better-organized, better-educated, more spiritually sensitive Latin Church was assuming a leading place in the broader Christian world.Less
Historians typically single out the hundred-year period from about 1050 to 1150 as the pivotal moment in the history of the Latin Church, for it was then that the Gregorian Reform movement established the ecclesiastical structure that would ensure Rome's dominance throughout the Middle Ages and beyond. This book challenges this familiar narrative by examining earlier, “pre-Gregorian” reform efforts within the Church. It finds that they were more extensive and widespread than previously thought and that they actually established a foundation for the subsequent Gregorian Reform movement. The low point in the history of Christendom came in the late ninth and early tenth centuries—a period when much of Europe was overwhelmed by barbarian raids and widespread civil disorder, which left the Church in a state of disarray. As the book shows, however, the destruction gave rise to creativity. Aristocrats and churchmen rebuilt churches and constructed new ones, competing against each other so that church building, like castle building, acquired its own momentum. Patrons strove to improve ecclesiastical furnishings, liturgy, and spirituality. Schools were constructed to staff the new churches. Moreover, the book shows that these reform efforts paralleled broader economic, social, and cultural trends in Western Europe including the revival of long-distance trade, the rise of technology, and the emergence of feudal lordship. The result was that by the mid-eleventh century a wealthy, unified, better-organized, better-educated, more spiritually sensitive Latin Church was assuming a leading place in the broader Christian world.
David d'Avray
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198208211
- eISBN:
- 9780191716690
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208211.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This study shows how marriage symbolism emerged from the world of texts to become a social force affecting ordinary people. The book covers the whole medieval period but identifies the decades around ...
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This study shows how marriage symbolism emerged from the world of texts to become a social force affecting ordinary people. The book covers the whole medieval period but identifies the decades around 1200 as decisive. New arguments for regarding preaching as a real mass medium in the period c.1200 onwards are presented, building on the author's Medieval Marriage Sermons (Oxford, 2001). In marriage sermons symbolism was crucial, but it also became a social force through law, and lay behind the combination of monogamy with indissolubility, which made the medieval Church's marriage system a unique development in world history. Symbolism is not presented as an explanation on its own: it interacted with other causal factors, notably the 11th-cenury Gregorian Reform's drive for celibacy, which made the higher clergy into a sort of ‘third gender’ and less sympathetic to patriarchal polygamous tendencies. Sexual intercourse as a symbol of Christ's union with the Church became central not just in mysticism but in society as structured by Canon Law. Marriage symbolism also explains some apparently bizarre rules such as the exemption from capital punishment of clerics in Minor Orders even if they were married — provided that they married a virgin not a widow, and that they did not remarry if their wife died. The rules about blessing second marriages are also connected with this nexus of thought. The book is based on a wide range of manuscript sources: sermons, canon law commentaries, Registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary, papal bulls, a Gaol Delivery roll, and pastoral handbooks.Less
This study shows how marriage symbolism emerged from the world of texts to become a social force affecting ordinary people. The book covers the whole medieval period but identifies the decades around 1200 as decisive. New arguments for regarding preaching as a real mass medium in the period c.1200 onwards are presented, building on the author's Medieval Marriage Sermons (Oxford, 2001). In marriage sermons symbolism was crucial, but it also became a social force through law, and lay behind the combination of monogamy with indissolubility, which made the medieval Church's marriage system a unique development in world history. Symbolism is not presented as an explanation on its own: it interacted with other causal factors, notably the 11th-cenury Gregorian Reform's drive for celibacy, which made the higher clergy into a sort of ‘third gender’ and less sympathetic to patriarchal polygamous tendencies. Sexual intercourse as a symbol of Christ's union with the Church became central not just in mysticism but in society as structured by Canon Law. Marriage symbolism also explains some apparently bizarre rules such as the exemption from capital punishment of clerics in Minor Orders even if they were married — provided that they married a virgin not a widow, and that they did not remarry if their wife died. The rules about blessing second marriages are also connected with this nexus of thought. The book is based on a wide range of manuscript sources: sermons, canon law commentaries, Registers of the Apostolic Penitentiary, papal bulls, a Gaol Delivery roll, and pastoral handbooks.
D. L. d'Avray
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198208211
- eISBN:
- 9780191716690
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208211.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
An apparently unique feature of the later medieval Church's marriage system in a world-historical comparative perspective is that it permitted neither divorce nor polygamy. This system was rooted in ...
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An apparently unique feature of the later medieval Church's marriage system in a world-historical comparative perspective is that it permitted neither divorce nor polygamy. This system was rooted in marriage symbolism, and especially in ideas synthesized out of biblical elements by Augustine of Hippo, whose thought on the matter was a time-bomb which did not go off until the central medieval period. The key idea was that the union of man and woman should be not less inseparable than the union of Christ and the Church. While the idea was accepted by churchmen in theory, it was largely ignored in practice in the early medieval period. From the Carolingian period on it began to have an impact on lay society, but powerful laymen could still easily get out of a marriage. The Gregorian Reform started a wind of change. Previously, it had been common even for senior churchmen to have wives or partners, but when celibacy began to become a reality in the higher echelons of Church government, sympathy for the ‘needs’ of patriarchal males could no longer be assumed or expected. It was however Innocent III who really turned indissolubility into a social reality, by an intransigent attitude and changes in Canon Law that closed the loopholes that had allowed easy annulments.Less
An apparently unique feature of the later medieval Church's marriage system in a world-historical comparative perspective is that it permitted neither divorce nor polygamy. This system was rooted in marriage symbolism, and especially in ideas synthesized out of biblical elements by Augustine of Hippo, whose thought on the matter was a time-bomb which did not go off until the central medieval period. The key idea was that the union of man and woman should be not less inseparable than the union of Christ and the Church. While the idea was accepted by churchmen in theory, it was largely ignored in practice in the early medieval period. From the Carolingian period on it began to have an impact on lay society, but powerful laymen could still easily get out of a marriage. The Gregorian Reform started a wind of change. Previously, it had been common even for senior churchmen to have wives or partners, but when celibacy began to become a reality in the higher echelons of Church government, sympathy for the ‘needs’ of patriarchal males could no longer be assumed or expected. It was however Innocent III who really turned indissolubility into a social reality, by an intransigent attitude and changes in Canon Law that closed the loopholes that had allowed easy annulments.
John Howe
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452895
- eISBN:
- 9781501703713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452895.003.0011
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This epilogue explains the connection between Pope Leo IX's last days and the history of ecclesiastical revival. Leo was captured by the Normans of southern Italy in the Battle of Civitate that took ...
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This epilogue explains the connection between Pope Leo IX's last days and the history of ecclesiastical revival. Leo was captured by the Normans of southern Italy in the Battle of Civitate that took place on June 18, 1053. He was freed in March 1054 and died a month later. According to the traditional narrative, Leo was a transitional figure, ruling at the end of imperial reform and at the beginning of the real Gregorian Reform that would free the Latin Church from its feudal ties and pave the way for the canon-law-centered, Rome-centered Church of the High Middle Ages. This chapter uses Leo's captivity as a vantage point to trace the progress that the Latin Church had made since the chaotic decades of the late ninth and early tenth centuries. It argues that, long before the high drama of papal and imperial conflict over investitures, a renewed, powerful, and self-confident Latin Church was already occupying center stage.Less
This epilogue explains the connection between Pope Leo IX's last days and the history of ecclesiastical revival. Leo was captured by the Normans of southern Italy in the Battle of Civitate that took place on June 18, 1053. He was freed in March 1054 and died a month later. According to the traditional narrative, Leo was a transitional figure, ruling at the end of imperial reform and at the beginning of the real Gregorian Reform that would free the Latin Church from its feudal ties and pave the way for the canon-law-centered, Rome-centered Church of the High Middle Ages. This chapter uses Leo's captivity as a vantage point to trace the progress that the Latin Church had made since the chaotic decades of the late ninth and early tenth centuries. It argues that, long before the high drama of papal and imperial conflict over investitures, a renewed, powerful, and self-confident Latin Church was already occupying center stage.
A. Edward Siecienski
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190245252
- eISBN:
- 9780190245276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190245252.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
This chapter details changes engendered in the eleventh century by the pontificates of Popes Leo IX (1048–54) and Gregory VII (1073–85), when papal reformers argued that the papacy’s divine mandate ...
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This chapter details changes engendered in the eleventh century by the pontificates of Popes Leo IX (1048–54) and Gregory VII (1073–85), when papal reformers argued that the papacy’s divine mandate required recognition of the pope’s complete authority over all ecclesial and secular powers. Yet even after the excommunications of 1054 the debate was not about the primacy itself, except to ask how the pope could maintain that position while embracing “heretical” teachings (e.g., the filioque and use of azymes). It was not until the crusades that this changed and a series of Byzantine authors brought forward the arguments against the primacy that would characterize Orthodox polemics for the next several centuries. For this reason this period marks, perhaps better than the definitions of 1870, the real “point of no return” vis-à-vis the East’s attitude toward the papacy, when diverse understandings of the Roman primacy truly became ecclesiologically incompatible.Less
This chapter details changes engendered in the eleventh century by the pontificates of Popes Leo IX (1048–54) and Gregory VII (1073–85), when papal reformers argued that the papacy’s divine mandate required recognition of the pope’s complete authority over all ecclesial and secular powers. Yet even after the excommunications of 1054 the debate was not about the primacy itself, except to ask how the pope could maintain that position while embracing “heretical” teachings (e.g., the filioque and use of azymes). It was not until the crusades that this changed and a series of Byzantine authors brought forward the arguments against the primacy that would characterize Orthodox polemics for the next several centuries. For this reason this period marks, perhaps better than the definitions of 1870, the real “point of no return” vis-à-vis the East’s attitude toward the papacy, when diverse understandings of the Roman primacy truly became ecclesiologically incompatible.
Robert E. Alvis
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780823271702
- eISBN:
- 9780823271757
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823271702.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Wracked by nearly two centuries of political chaos, the Kingdom of Poland managed to survive into the fourteenth century. The Catholic Church served as an important source of stability and autonomy ...
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Wracked by nearly two centuries of political chaos, the Kingdom of Poland managed to survive into the fourteenth century. The Catholic Church served as an important source of stability and autonomy in this difficult period. The Metropolitanate of Gniezno reinforced the kingdom’s territorial footprint. Church personnel and institutions helped maintain order and systems of governance. In keeping with the agenda of the Gregorian Reform, Catholic officials took advantage of Piast divisions to strengthen their own privileges and autonomy. Diocesan hierarchies grew more elaborate, and bishops managed to exert more control over clergy and laity in their jurisdictions. Christianity set down deeper roots in the hearts and minds of the faithful.Less
Wracked by nearly two centuries of political chaos, the Kingdom of Poland managed to survive into the fourteenth century. The Catholic Church served as an important source of stability and autonomy in this difficult period. The Metropolitanate of Gniezno reinforced the kingdom’s territorial footprint. Church personnel and institutions helped maintain order and systems of governance. In keeping with the agenda of the Gregorian Reform, Catholic officials took advantage of Piast divisions to strengthen their own privileges and autonomy. Diocesan hierarchies grew more elaborate, and bishops managed to exert more control over clergy and laity in their jurisdictions. Christianity set down deeper roots in the hearts and minds of the faithful.
