Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life and Culture

Dear Colleagues,

The medieval period from the fifth to the fourteenth century was one of enormous paradigm shifts regarding religious life in Europe and beyond. If we take this period to begin after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and end with the Reformation, we have myriad events, wars, doctrinal discussions and power struggles in between. Such a period might well be looked upon as the most intense in terms of loyalties, persecutions, assertions of authority, heresy, subversion and movements of renewal, many of which still resonant in our religious and secular lives in the twenty-first century and have contributed to shape our way of living as we know it. The study of this period poses interesting questions and points of discussion about definitions of events, identifications of driving forces, assessments of significance and interpretations of meaning. The liveliness of contemporary scholarly debates on these issues bears witness to the lasting importance of these centuries in terms of not only ecclesiastical but secular history.

This Special Issue will consider the developments during this time with regard to the power and authority of the Churches, both in the West and East. It will look at how these developments redefined identities both clerical and lay. The articles will examine expressions of these changes within religious life and culture in terms of the arts, architecture, Church structures, power dynamics and theological understanding. In addition, it will discuss the impact of changes in perceptions towards ordinary people, women and society in general, and those who lived on the fringes or beyond the boundaries of Christendom such as heretics, Jews and Muslims.

Dr. Jack Cunningham
Dr. Angelo M. Silvestri
Guest Editors

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• church
• authority
• community
• dissent
• culture
• clergy

Title: Blurred Boundaries and Contested Authorities in Two Archenfield Parishes in the Later Middle Ages

Abstract: Archenfield, the land between the Wye and the Monnow in what became known as the Welsh Marches, had its origins in Roman Ariconium and the small British kingdom of Ergyng. Mercian and then Norman expansion into the area led to a complex pattern of jurisdictions, languages and cultures that is not easily reducible to the concept of a “border”, a layered complexity that persisted into Tudor times. The present study focusses on how a small group of fifteenth-century manuscripts from Pencoyd, one of the Archenfield villages, whose contents, together with other records from nearby parishes such as Garway, witness to that persistence and show how episcopal authority was a contestable item in an area that resisted tidy boundaries, how the multi-layered nature of ecclesiastical authority itself gave parishioners even in a very rural area the possibility of resisting authority, and how authority and good standing needed to be and could be won by good practice. This local picture adds nuance and texture to our understanding of the church, clergy and authority in the area of the Welsh Marches, and challenges some the terminologies and analyses we may impose on them if such detail is not considered.

Title: Authority and Resistance in the Vita Mathildis (Vat. Lat. 4922)

Abstract: From the late eleventh to the early twelfth century, Matilda of Canossa (1046-1115) defied Emperor Henry IV (1050-1106), decrying him as a tyrannical ruler who far exceeded his authority and disregarded his obligations to the papacy. Though her role in the Investiture Controversy is typically minimized in favor of the larger narrative of a papal/imperial power struggle, it was Matilda’s direct and consistent military opposition to the crown which made her an important player in the rise of a revived papal authority which stemmed from the eleventh-century reforms. Matilda’s role in this development has previously been ascribed to acts of extreme piety and fealty to the church and has not been rigorously interrogated as an act of agency. However, when viewed through Alfred Gell’s theory of agency, Matilda’s support of the papacy was often oriented towards the production of the social consequences; that is, deliberate and purposeful demonstrations of her position within and in relation to the power conflict which meant to induce a response in others. Thus, Matilda’s support for the papacy can and should be interpreted as an act of individual agency. It is through this lens that this paper will examine the countess’ biography, the Vita Mathildis (Vat. Lat. 4922), commissioned in the last years of her life and which documents the legacy of both her and her family. Constituting a rare glimpse into the countess’ mode of self-fashioning, this paper will examine both the text and the illuminations within the manuscript for evidence of her complicated relationship to the nodes of power within the larger Investiture Controversy, noting not just Matilda’s support for the papacy and church, but also the anti-imperial motifs which appear throughout the text and images.