IMC 2016: Sessions
Session 811: Mastering Knowledge and Power, IV: Episcopal Culture in Action, 10th-11th Centuries
Tuesday 5 July 2016, 16.30-18.00
| Organisers: | Giacomo Vignodelli, Dipartimento di Storia Culture Civiltà, Università di Bologna Giorgia Vocino, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Stuart Airlie, School of Humanities (History), University of Glasgow |
| Paper 811-a | Fulk the Venerable and the Widonids: Political Ties and Intellectual Exchanges between Reims and Lombardy, Late 9th-Early 10th Centuries (Language: English) Index terms: Education, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Manuscripts and Palaeography, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 811-b | Strangers in Rome: Foreign Popes and the Impact of their Episcopal Culture on the Papacy in the Ottonian and Salian periods (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Education, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 811-c | Bishop Bruno of Toul to Pope Leo IX: Lessons Learned from 20 Years as a Bishop (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Education, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Abstract | The fourth and last session of this strand will focus on the relationship between episcopal culture and political action in a crucial time of transition, that is the long 11th century. Paper -a will investigate the cultural and political connections between two crucial areas of post-Carolingian Europe: the archibishopric of Reims and the kingdom of Italy. The family and political ties between Fulk, archbischop of Reims (883-900) and Guy of Spoleto and his son, Lambert, are well known. Yet, the study of some scholarly manuscripts (Paris, BnF, MS lat. 7900A and Paris, BnF, MS lat. 7972 among others) brings to light important exchanges between the schools of Lombardy and those of north-eastern Francia in Fulk's days. This paper will focus on the connection between the political ties and cultural network that particularly connected the Milanese area and the ecclesiastical province of Reims. Paper -b will focus on the culture, models, and ideas brought to Rome and implemented by foreign bishops elected popes in the Ottonian and Salian periods. Strangers to the city and the local mores, these popes developed a 'non-Roman' idea of the papacy and the ensuing conflicts with the Romans led them to neglect local traditions and to focus instead on the universal dimension of the papal office. The question will be raised whether it was the political and cultural episcopal background of these foreign popes - who had not been educated to become popes - that enabled them to develop a radically different understanding of the papal ministerium. Paper -c will provide a case study within the framework sketched by paper -b. Leo IX was Bruno bishop of Toul for over 20 years before he became pope in 1049. These two careers have so far not been considered together and studied comparatively. This paper will argue that Bruno's practical experience as a bishop, and his life before that at Conrad II's court, gave him a portfolio of transferable knowledge and skills which he could use to implement a new style of papacy. The reading of sources such as his biography and Wipo's Life of Conrad will demonstrate that the skill set and experience required to be the bishop of Rome, and a pope on a broader scale, were not fundamentally different from those needed as the bishop of Toul. |