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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 1110: Texts and Identities, II: Early Medieval Episcopal Self-Fashioning

Wednesday 3 July 2013, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Utrecht / Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Organisers:E. T. Dailey, School of History, University of Leeds
Gerda Heydemann, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien
Moderator/Chair:Mayke de Jong, Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht
Paper 1110-aEpiscopal Identity in 6th-Century Letter Collections
(Language: English)
Hope Williard, University of Leeds / School of History & Heritage, University of Lincoln
Index terms: Administration, Ecclesiastical History, Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1110-b'Shining as the brightest star among stars': Contemporary Witnesses, Fellow Saints, and Hagiographical Fashioning in the Carolingian Life of St Ambrose (De vita et meritis sancti Ambrosii, BHL 377d)
(Language: English)
Giorgia Vocino, Onderzoekinstituut voor Geschiedenis en Cultuur (OGC), Universiteit Utrecht
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Hagiography, Mentalities
Paper 1110-cA Carolingian Bishop's Duty towards the King
(Language: English)
Margaret McCarthy, St John's College, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Administration, Ecclesiastical History, Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

This session analyses the dynamic process through which the bishops of the Early Middle Ages established the identity of the episcopate and solidified its prominent place within society. Hope Williard examines the ways in which bishops styled their identity and the vocabulary they used to describe themselves in their epistolary correspondence - a hitherto underutilised source of information on the Early Middle Ages. Giorgia Vocino examines the 9th-century Life of Ambrose, identifying the extent to which the north Italian compiler of the vita borrowed from older Frankish and Italian hagiographies in order to create a portrait of Ambrose, patron saint of Milan, as the embodiment of the ideal Carolingian bishop. Margaret McCarthy investigates the manner in which Carolingian bishops conceptualised, communicated, and fulfilled their duties to the king and royal administration (while negotiating various hazards along the way).