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The attempt to both define and understand reform in the later tenth and eleventh centuries is the chief ambition of this book. The book explores ecclesiastical reform as a religious idea and a movement against the backdrop of social and religious change in later tenth- and eleventh-century Europe. In so doing, it seeks, on the one hand, to place the relationship between reform and the papacy in the context of the debate about 'transformation' in its many and varied forms. At the same time, although recognizing that the reform movement had its origins as much in individuals and events far away from Rome and royal courts, it has looked to act as something of a corrective to the recent tendency among historians of emphasizing reform developments in other localities at the expense of those being undertaken in Rome. The book addresses 'the religious revolution of the eleventh century' by exploring how reform and the papacy developed in the eleventh century, and how these changes affected the rules by which medieval society functioned. Particular attention is paid to the question of whether the 'peace of God' movement was a social revolution that progressively blurred into and merged with the papal-sponsored movement for reform, which was gathering pace from the middle of the century, or whether these forces were deliberately compacted by the reformers in their efforts to promote their vision for Christian society.
This book has explored ecclesiastical reform as a religious idea and a movement against the backdrop of social and religious change in later tenth- and eleventh-century Europe. In so doing, it has sought, on the one hand, to place the relationship between reform and the papacy in the context of the debate about ‘transformation’ in its many and varied forms. At the same time, although recognizing that the reform movement had its origins as much in individuals and events far away from Rome and royal courts, it has looked to act as something of a corrective to the
MPs with heresy charges of just the sort that had silenced opposition to the clergy in the past.23 For once, however, the laypeople of England refused to be intimidated by a prelate, and it is only at this point, according to Hall, that outraged MPs turned to their king for assistance in their pursuit of ecclesiastical reform. Calling his fellow members ‘the wysest men of all the Sheres, Cities, and boroughes within the realme of England’, the Speaker, Thomas Audley, complained to the king that Fisher had all but branded them ‘Infidelles and no Christians’. Henry
‘unworthy’ pope, in practice he bolstered the papacy’s position by denying any such right to an emperor. Although attempts by rulers to appoint and depose popes would by no means end after Sutri, doing so would become increasingly difficult and would entail a very high price. The transformation of the papacy The elevation of Bishop Bruno of Toul as Pope Leo IX on 12 February 1049 has long been seen as the decisive moment in the fortunes of both the papacy and the movement for ecclesiastical reform. Although the German popes, Clement II (December 1046–October 1047) and
This book aims to revisit the county study as a way into understanding the dynamics of the English civil war during the 1640s. It explores gentry culture and the extent to which early Stuart Cheshire could be said to be a ‘county community’. It investigates the responses of the county’s governing elite and puritan religious establishment to highly polarising interventions by the central government and Laudian ecclesiastical authorities during Charles I’s Personal Rule. The second half of the book provides a rich and detailed analysis of the petitioning movements and side-taking in Cheshire during 1641-42. This important contribution to understanding the local origins and outbreak of civil war in England will be of interest to all students and scholars studying the English Revolution.
, Gerald of Ostia, Bruno of Segni and William of Hirsau – does not give us a full understanding of the complexities of the reform movement, even if the actions of these men, and especially their polemic on the nature of power and on what sort of man ought to exercise authority were critical factors in the eleventh-century revolution. The chief problem of much earlier scholarly work perhaps lies in the linear and evolutionary attitude with which historians have approached ecclesiastical reform in the eleventh century. The prevailing image is one of inexorable progress
the broad range of positions taken by episcopalians on the question of ecclesiastical reform. It is no longer tenable to regard the king’s supporters as simply the conservative guardians of ‘Anglicanism’ in these decades, assiduously preserving the rites and forms of the pre-war Church of England until they could be reinstituted with the return of Charles II. For one thing, as Anthony Milton has
’s place in society. 2 Although the equation of Church and society can by and large be used to describe the condition of earlier medieval Europe as well, it is the argument of this book that during the course of the eleventh century the symbiosis of Church and society became more pronounced. This, of course, was a consequence of the movement for ecclesiastical reform. Indeed, as it will be argued, the attempt to improve standards in religious life had a revolutionary impact on eleventh-century European society. Although these efforts emerged initially at local levels
this element of the office that preachers and theologians devoted most attention when they discussed episcopacy, and it was also the aspect that the Council of Trent discussed with the greatest degree of success. It is well known that the Council’s entire programme of ecclesiastical reform was founded on the assumption that diocesan bishops were the key hierarchical figures for ensuring religious discipline and order.23 To this end, they were equipped with powers of government and discipline over both clergy and laity, and a system of close supervision was proposed
Ireland, not that of the Cistercians. Flanagan is also anxious to emphasise how much of the groundwork of ecclesiastical reform was accomplished by lay rulers such as Muirchertach Ua Briain, king of Munster, who may have been instrumental in securing the position of papal legate for Bishop Gillebertus of Limerick, who held this position until 1139. The synod of Kells in 1152 would give formal papal endorsement to the new diocesan structures which had been put in place some forty years earlier at Ráith Bressail – however, this came after Malachy had already travelled