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IMC 2015: Sessions

Session 1515: Reformist Discourses in the Context of the 'Gregorian' Reforms, I

Thursday 9 July 2015, 09.00-10.30

Moderator/Chair:John S. Ott, Department of History, Portland State University, Oregon
Paper 1515-aThe Clunisian Monastic Ideals Reflected in the Reform of Pope Gregory VII
(Language: English)
Gabriel Pandele, Faculty of History, Philosophy & Theology, Universitatea 'Dunarea de Jos', Galati
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Monasticism
Paper 1515-bThe Norwegian Provincial Statute of 1280: Reform or Renewal?
(Language: English)
Eldbjørg Haug, Department of Archaeology, Culture, History & Religion, Universitetet i Bergen
Index terms: Canon Law, Charters and Diplomatics, Ecclesiastical History
Paper 1515-cThe Materiality of Reform in the Investiture Contest: The Role of Ekkehard of Aura Reconsidered
(Language: English)
T. J. H. McCarthy, Division of Social Sciences, New College of Florida
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Historiography - Medieval, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Monasticism
Abstract

Paper -a
Starting from a series of key concepts of the monastic spirituality of Ordo Cluniacensis, like fidelitas ecclesiae, libertas, mundus diaboli, rusticus , exemptus, etc., Gregory VII has developed and implemented the reform of the Church throughout all of Europe with irreversible consequences at all levels: religious, political, social, etc. My document aims to highlight the evolution of the pope's thinking from the perspective of political and eclesiastical spirituality of Cluny through the texts issued by the abbots of Cluny in the 11th century.

Paper -b
Archbishop Jon’s Statute for the Norwegian church was issued at the provincial council in Bergen in the summer 1280. The context was the coronation of the minor king. In his coronation oath he had solemnly sworn to keep the Concordat of Tønsberg (1277) which his late father had entered into only three years earlier. But after Eirik's coronation his government of guardians issued a large anticlerical ordinance which has been considered as a negligence of the Concordat. The Provincial Statute has been considered as an answer to the guardians and a defence of the Concordat.

By a close-up reading of the Statute I have come to doubt the traditional interpretation. In my paper I will show that the church protected its privileged position, but also went beyond its achievements as obtained in the Concordat of Tønsberg. The Statute is an example of the ideas that circulated in the 13th century, but the line can be drawn back to the Gregorian Reform which in Norway is evident after the foundation of the church province in 1152 – 1153.

Paper -c
Ekkehard of Aura (d. 1126) is best known as the continuator of Frutolf of Michelsberg's Chronicle. Research carried out by Franz-Josef Schmale and Irene Schmale-Ott attributed four distinct continuations of Frutolf's Chronicle to Ekkehard: these four 'recensions', the Schmales argued, recast Frutolf's pro-imperial chronicle as a distinctly pro-reform work.

This paper questions the Schmale's theories on textual, palaeographical, and historical grounds. It argues that Ekkehard’s role as a continuator of Frutolf’s Chronicle is considerably more restricted than they believed and questions whether or not he was responsible for many of the supposedly 'Gregorian' features of the continuations. An underlying theme of this paper is the relevance of textual collation and manuscript study to the discourse of reform