IMC 2015: Sessions

The second half of the 11th century was remarkable in terms of the governance of the Church. Under Leo IX (1049-54), the papacy began to develop as a diplomatic and administrative force through the delegation of responsibility. A sequence of rigorous, single-minded German, French and Italian reformers occupied the papal throne, heavily influenced by monastic values. Collectively, they established the foundation on which, by the end of the century, the Church was able to conduct negotiations with the empire from a position of authority. Pastoral and sacramental roles came to be combined with administrative duties, as bishops and cardinals were dispatched by the papacy to ensure its decrees were enacted on the ground, to the letter, by the episcopate. There were extraordinary interventions, all aimed at strengthening the integrity of the Church: a bishop and a cardinal were sent as legates to pacify a divisive urban riot in Italy; a network of legates worked to reform the liturgy in Spain through church councils and visual strategies; an authenticated set of newly-fashioned customs circulated by the pope was adopted across Europe by regular canons; and, a group of reform-minded cardinals demonstrated in words and actions a self-awareness of the role they should play within the papacy. The Church hierarchy had begun to cohere as a pan-European political entity, with the pope as its head of state.