IMC 2022: Sessions

This session will explore the many ways that medieval bishops responded to local, regional, and institutional influences in order to create effective, individualized identities. While the office of the medieval bishop outlines certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities, how one managed those rights, privileges, and responsibilities varies greatly. At times, this variation was in response to local needs, conflicts, or traditions, but in other cases, the actions of a bishop seemed to point towards ambition, piety, or some other notable characteristic of a historical individual. By examining how a bishop defined himself within and beyond the office, we gain a better understanding of which aspects of a historical bishop are defined by the legacy of the apostolic office and which might be unique to the men who occupied it.

'Being a Bishop at the Edges of Latin Christianity: Liturgy and War in the Unknown High Medieval Pontifical from Wrocław'
The paper examines a newly discovered pontifical of the 12th century. The codex of Central European origin, hitherto unknown to the academic community, was found in February 2020 in one of the ecclesiastical archives in southern Poland. The book contains prayers for occasional needs and benedictions of various objects, including the sword, the sandals, and the staff. Since some of the manuscript's elements include the liturgies of war, this posits a link between the codex and the military campaigns against the non-Christians conducted by the Piast ruling dynasty in the High Middle Ages. This paper argues that the manuscript aptly fits the context of crusades emerging on the Baltic rim in the 12th century.

'Law and Liturgy after the Investiture Contest: Episcopal Responsibilities in Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek Clm 3909'
This paper will look at a manuscript containing canon-legal and liturgical texts compiled at Augsburg cathedral in the mid-12th century, for or by a bishop, in the aftermath of a long dispute between Bishop Hermann II (1096-1133) and the canons of the cathedral chapter. It will situate the compilation against the background of the dispute, and amongst other books produced or annotated at Augsburg in the same period.

'Acting Their Parts: The Iconographies of Episcopal Authority modeled through the Vercelli Rotolus'
This paper will analyze iconographies of episcopal authority on the Vercelli Rotolus (ACV 5) as well as hypothesize connections between imagery (now lost) and context (now forgotten) that may have expanded this iconography. The Rotolus is a 13th-century object that purports to preserve 11th-century wall painting from the Cathedral in Vercelli. The images of Acts preserved by the drawing are believed to have been accompanied by frescoes of constellations, the Life of San Eusebius, and portraits of the bishops of Vercelli. We cannot be sure the drawing was once painted, or that the other frescoes existed, but we can imagine how these programs celebrated the authority of the bishop, linked his good works to the apostles, and bolstered the episcopate of Vercelli.