Bonds of wool : the Pallium and papal power in the Middle Ages / Steven A. Schoenig, SJ.

Author
Schoenig, Steven A., 1967- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, [2016]
Description
xiii, 545 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

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    Summary note
    In the pallium the medieval papacy created a mechanism of control over the far-flung bishops of the Latin church, a prerogative by which the popes shared honor and power with local prelates--and simultaneously wielded power over them. Contributing to the sway and oversight of the Roman church, this vestment became part of the machinery of centralization that helped produce the high medieval papal monarchy. The pallium was effective because it was a gift with strings attached. This band of white wool encircling the shoulders had been a papal insigne and liturgical vestment since late antiquity. It grew in prominence when the popes began to bestow it regularly on other bishops as a mark of distinction and a sign of their bond to the Roman church. Bonds of Wool analyzes how, through adroit manipulation, this gift came to function as an instrument of papal influence. It explores an abundant array of evidence from diverse genres--including chronicles and letters, saints' lives and canonical collections, polemical treatises and liturgical commentaries, and hundreds of papal privileges--stretching from the eighth century to the thirteenth and representing nearly every region of Western Europe. These sources reveal that the papal conferral of the pallium was an occasion for intervening in local churches throughout the West and a means of examining, approving, and even disciplining key bishops, who were eventually required to request the pallium from Rome. The history of the pallium provides an enlightening window on medieval culture. Through it one can perceive how medieval society expressed beliefs and relationships through artifacts and customs, and one can retrieve the aims and attitudes underlying medieval rituals and symbols. Following the story of this simple material object sheds light on some of the ways medieval people structured their society, exercised authority, and communicated ideas and values.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 489-516) and indexes.
    Contents
    • Part 1. Weaving the Pattern (741-882) :
    • 1. Obtaining the pallium
    • 2. Bestowing the pallium
    • 3. Using the pallium
    • 4. Interpreting the pallium
    • Part 2. A Well-worn Garment (882-1046) :
    • 5. Carelessness
    • 6. Creativity
    • Part 3. The Reformer's Badge (1046-1119) :
    • 7. A tool of the reform : the ends
    • 8. A tool of the reform : the means
    • 9. New meanings for a new age
    • Epilogue : The pallium in classical medieval jurisprudence (ca. 1140-ca. 1271) :
    • 1. Decretum and decretists
    • 2. Decretals and decretalists.
    ISBN
    • 9780813229225 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
    • 0813229227 ((cloth ; : alk. paper))
    • 9780813233703 ((paperback ; : alk. paper))
    • 0813233704 ((paperback ; : alk. paper))
    LCCN
    2016036433
    OCLC
    951645426
    Other standard number
    • 13033312
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