| Abstract | Paper -a:
While the 6th-century Regula Benedicti required unquestioning obedience of monks to their leaders, the reality of everyday monastic life during the late Middle Ages presents a more complex view. Evidence from late medieval England abounds with examples of internal monastic power struggles, organized revolts, and smear campaigns directed at abbots and abbesses to discredit them before the only people could order their removal - bishops. This paper analyses patterns of monastic promotion and demotion as recorded in a corpus of episcopal visitation records from 15th- and 16th-century Lincoln and Norwich between 1420-1530.
Paper -b:
The monastic college at Ashridge, England quite self-consciously titled themselves Boni Homines, or Good Men. Scholars have debated the purpose of this foundation, suggesting that it was simply another Augustinian house, or that it was established as an Eigenkirche, a private chapel, of their founder Edmund, earl of Cornwall. My research of the Ashridge library remnants and records from the Diocese of Lincoln, under which authority Ashridge resided, shows that the function of the Boni Homines was essentially academic, and must therefore be considered within the context of the rise of the universities - and in particular of Oxford, a mere thirty or so miles away. I suggest in my paper that Ashridge was a medieval equivalent of a modern-day seminary, concerned with turning out priests, rather than just housing monks.
Paper -c:
Until the 11th-century church reform was developed, the Church always grew up under the wing of royal power. This is evident in the names of Constantine or Theodosius in the east and Clovis or Charlemagne in the west. They were in some way or another 'Defender Ecclesiae'. The secular power of kings always defend and promote Christian values : this pact was sealed when kings and emperors were crowned by the popes in majestic ceremonies held in the most famous cathedrals of all Europe.
But from the 11th century, things changed and the struggle between the secular and spiritual power became more intense. The Church complained that the decline of their clergy often came from the carnal relations with the world. Simony, Nicolaism and other heresies were the result of decreased of spiritual life. Basically, what was discussed here was the predominance of one power over the other and moreover, the nature of power itself. To achieve this there must be a reform within the Church but also out of it.
The Investiture Controversy, developed into what we know as Gregorian Reform, occupies a central place in all this conflict and involved philosophers of that time to support the Pope or the Emperor.
All this stage will reach its zenith with Pope Innocent III, who was the Pope with more secular power in the Middle Ages.
In this paper I will analyze the writings of two authors who favored centralization of papal authority: The Liber contra Wolfelmum of Manegold von Lautenbach and the Policraticus of John of Salisbury. They extracted vital consequences for the development of political thought in the late Middle Ages.
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