IMC 2021: Sessions

Session 817: Auctoritas after Rome: New Approaches to 'Authority' in the Early Middle Ages, II: Between the Court and Bishop's Throne

Tuesday 6 July 2021, 16.30-18.00

Sponsor:	Medieval Studies Program, Cornell University
Organisers:	Samuel James Barber, Medieval Studies Program, Cornell University Mateusz Fafinski, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Moderator/Chair:	Samuel James Barber, Medieval Studies Program, Cornell University
Paper 817-a	Synods as Venues of Royal Authority in the Late 9th Century: Mainz in 888 and Tribur in 895 (Language: English) Jonathan Dell Isola, Department of History, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 817-b	The Invisible Retinue of Gregory of Tours (Language: English) Patrick Morris O'Connor, Independent Scholar, London Index terms: Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy, Religious Life, Rhetoric
Paper 817-c	Scripting Cultural Contact in Early English Treaties (Language: English) Abigail Sprenkle, Department of Medieval Studies, Cornell University Index terms: Law, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract	The boundaries of ecclesiastical and secular authority in the Early Middle Ages were fluid and frequently hard to define. This session proposes a renewed look at the interface of these two spheres through novel readings of their interaction. Considering in turn attitudes towards royal power articulated in ecclesiastical councils, the establishment of the 'borders' of royal and Christian authority by early English rulers, and the shadowy presence of armed retinues in Gregory of Tours' Histories, these papers will further our understanding of reciprocity, commonality, and conflict between secular and ecclesiastical authority.