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IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 620: Local Bishops in Conflict

Tuesday 10 July 2012, 11.15-12.45

Moderator/Chair:Bertil Nilsson, Institutionen för litteratur, idéhistoria och religion, Göteborgs Universitet
Paper 620-aChapter and Bishop in Southern Norway: A Story of Conflict and Co-Operation
(Language: English)
Hilde Inntjore, Institutt for religion, filosofi og historie, Universitetet i Agder / Senter for middelalderstudier, Universitetet i Bergen
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History
Paper 620-bCastellan and Episcopal Relations in the 12th-Century Cambrésis
(Language: English)
Kathryn E. Salzer, Department of History, Pennsylvania State University
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Monasticism, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 620-c'Biskup kvaðst fé tekið hafa eftir grænlenskum lögum': Law and Identity in Norse Greenland
(Language: English)
Rosalind Bonté, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Anthropology, Language and Literature - Scandinavian, Law
Abstract

Paper -a:
The relationship between the two institutions forming the See is what I would like to address. In the late 13th century major conflicts emerged between the bishop and his chapter in two dioceses at the Norwegian mainland. These conflicts formed the further relationship between the two partakers. In my paper I will deal with the chapter's own rights, how it collaborated with the bishop through giving its advice and consent, and show that even if the chapter was involved in a number of matters, still its functions in them were similar.

Paper -b:
Vaucelles Abbey was established in the diocese of Cambrai in 1131. Its foundation was one aspect of the ongoing political struggle between Burchard, bishop of Cambrai (r. 1115-1131), and Hugh II d'Oisy (d. 1135), castellan of Cambrai and head of a seigneurial family with holdings stretching from Oisy to Crèvecoeur. Both the bishop and the castellan spent the early 12th century consolidating their power and fighting each other. In the 1120s Hugh constructed new fortifications at Crèvecoeur, and in 1131 he offered land specifically for the foundation of Vaucelles. This paper will address the political motivations for Hugh's fortifications and the new abbey.

Paper -c:
Grœnlendinga þáttr, although written in Iceland, is often considered unique in the saga corpus for its decidedly Greenlandic perspective. Central to the text, detailing a conflict between a recaltricant bishop, his followers, and several aggrieved Norwegian merchants, is the insistence of the Greenlanders that they act eftir grœnlenskum lögum (‘according to Greenlandic law')— a symbolic move that establishes an independent Greenlandic identity in the face of Norwegian threats. Taking Grœnlendinga þáttr as its starting point, this paper will explore the connections between law and cultural identity in Norse Greenland, examining both how the law was employed, and its later literary embodiment.