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Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life...
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Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life and Culture

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 5578

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jack Cunningham

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Theology Department, Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln, UK
Interests: anima mundi; robert grosseteste; chartres; education; ecclesiology
Dr. Angelo M. Silvestri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Modern Languages, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AS, UK
Interests: medieval religion; impact of religion on society in the middle ages; medieval bishops; robert grosseteste; art and architecture of medieval churches

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The medieval period from the fifth to the fourteenth century was one of enormous paradigm shifts regarding religious life in Europe and beyond. If we take this period to begin after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and end with the Reformation, we have myriad events, wars, doctrinal discussions and power struggles in between. Such a period might well be looked upon as the most intense in terms of loyalties, persecutions, assertions of authority, heresy, subversion and movements of renewal, many of which still resonant in our religious and secular lives in the twenty-first century and have contributed to shape our way of living as we know it. The study of this period poses interesting questions and points of discussion about definitions of events, identifications of driving forces, assessments of significance and interpretations of meaning. The liveliness of contemporary scholarly debates on these issues bears witness to the lasting importance of these centuries in terms of not only ecclesiastical but secular history.

This Special Issue will consider the developments during this time with regard to the power and authority of the Churches, both in the West and East. It will look at how these developments redefined identities both clerical and lay. The articles will examine expressions of these changes within religious life and culture in terms of the arts, architecture, Church structures, power dynamics and theological understanding. In addition, it will discuss the impact of changes in perceptions towards ordinary people, women and society in general, and those who lived on the fringes or beyond the boundaries of Christendom such as heretics, Jews and Muslims.

Dr. Jack Cunningham
Dr. Angelo M. Silvestri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • church
  • authority
  • community
  • dissent
  • culture
  • clergy

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 16382 KiB  
Article
Authority and Resistance in the Vita Mathildis (Vat. Lat. 4922)
by Blair Apgar
Religions 2025, 16(3), 301; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16030301 - 27 Feb 2025
Viewed by 408
Abstract
The popular perception of Matilda of Canossa (1046–1115) is one which is typically filtered through the events of the Investiture Controversy and the famed 1077 meeting at Canossa and is thus prismatically reflected through the legacy of two men, Emperor Henry IV (1050–1106) [...] Read more.
The popular perception of Matilda of Canossa (1046–1115) is one which is typically filtered through the events of the Investiture Controversy and the famed 1077 meeting at Canossa and is thus prismatically reflected through the legacy of two men, Emperor Henry IV (1050–1106) and Pope Gregory VII (1020–1085). Though not an atypical journey through time for any female figure of history, it is a historiographical transformation which has altogether subverted studies of Matilda’s agency and authority. This has obfuscated studies of Matilda’s own agency and authority, where her oft contentious attitude toward and relationship to the regnum has typically been classified as a side effect of her extreme devotion to the papacy, rather than its own effort. This paper will begin to unwind the evidence of Matilda’s personal rebellion from the king by examining the biography produced at the end of her lifetime, the Vita Mathildis (Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, MS. Vat. Lat. 4922). The examination of both the text and illuminations of the manuscript makes clear that Matilda’s rejection of the regnum was not merely a side effect of lifelong loyalty to the papacy but was also part of a conscious rejection of imperial authority, evidence of which can be found through vigorous textual and visual analyses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life and Culture)
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24 pages, 5501 KiB  
Article
Blurred Boundaries and Contested Authorities in Two Archenfield Parishes in the Later Middle Ages
by David Thomson
Religions 2024, 15(10), 1191; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15101191 - 30 Sep 2024
Viewed by 923
Abstract
This article’s primary aim is to present a highly localised body of evidence from two neighbouring small communities, Garway and Pencoyd, in the Archenfield area of the Welsh March. In Garway’s case, two documents from either end of the long fifteenth century show [...] Read more.
This article’s primary aim is to present a highly localised body of evidence from two neighbouring small communities, Garway and Pencoyd, in the Archenfield area of the Welsh March. In Garway’s case, two documents from either end of the long fifteenth century show the local community condemning its parish priest, siding first with one authority and then another, and stressing its Welsh lineage. In Pencoyd, the remarkable survival of the local priest’s manuscripts shows him to have been a diligent pastor and teacher, in tune with diocesan expectations and connected to networks of learning on both sides of the border. Such a local study illuminates evidence of great interest in its own right, but also helps open up the possibility of a wider narrative that attends more fully to local experience in its variety and to the agency of local people. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life and Culture)
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17 pages, 266 KiB  
Article
“I Discovered Such a Lay Force That I Could Not Remove Them”: Sacred and Secular Space and Ecclesiastical and Secular Authority in the Parish in the Fourteenth-Century Diocese of York
by Philippa Hoskin
Religions 2024, 15(9), 1097; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091097 - 10 Sep 2024
Viewed by 935
Abstract
In 1309, the parish church of Harewood in Yorkshire, England, was invaded by a group of armed parishioners opposing the decisions of the church courts. The story of this invasion and the ways in which Church and State attempted and failed to remove [...] Read more.
In 1309, the parish church of Harewood in Yorkshire, England, was invaded by a group of armed parishioners opposing the decisions of the church courts. The story of this invasion and the ways in which Church and State attempted and failed to remove it demonstrate how an apparently local quarrel could be part of national political events and of the intertwining of the laws of Church and State. It also demonstrates, importantly, a largely overlooked aspect of the relationship between the laity at a local level and the Church as an institution. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life and Culture)
16 pages, 1842 KiB  
Article
Building Episcopal Authority in Medieval Castile: The Bishops of the Diocese of Burgos (11th–13th Centuries)
by Susana Guijarro
Religions 2024, 15(9), 1074; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15091074 - 5 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1118
Abstract
This article aims to show how episcopal authority was built in the eastern part of the Kingdom of León (county of Castile), where a new kingdom and a vast diocese emerged in the mid-11th century. The monarchs of Castile empowered the strategic pre-urban [...] Read more.
This article aims to show how episcopal authority was built in the eastern part of the Kingdom of León (county of Castile), where a new kingdom and a vast diocese emerged in the mid-11th century. The monarchs of Castile empowered the strategic pre-urban town of Burgos in the northern Iberian Plateau as a single episcopal see, rather than the four that had existed in the area until then. The bishops were the agents that the monarchs needed in the long process that, from the destabilisation of the Visigothic diocese organisation caused by the Islamic invasion of the Iberian peninsula in the 8th century, led to the consolidation of episcopal power in the mid-13th century. The function and actions of the Burgalese bishops have been analysed in the three dimensions of their ecclesiastic authority and social significance: the patrimonial dimension (the bishop as the lord and owner of properties individually), the jurisdictional dimension and the pastoral dimension. This analysis has been able to establish three periods in the struggle of the Burgalese prelates: to define the territorial frame of their authority (the delimitation of the diocese boundaries), to recover the churches and jurisdictional rights (episcopal third and other ecclesiastic taxes) that were in the hands of the powerful Benedictine monasteries and lay people, and to affirm their hierarchical superiority over other diocese potestates. The study has identified the main strategies used by the bishops to reach those objectives: the signing of agreements to resolve disputes, the addition of abbots of collegial churches to the cathedral chapter to control key areas in the diocese, and the acquisition of properties in those areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life and Culture)
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17 pages, 334 KiB  
Article
Ratio aut auctores? Reason, Authority and the Anagogic Ascent in the Twelfth Century
by Jack Cunningham
Religions 2024, 15(7), 830; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070830 - 9 Jul 2024
Viewed by 1265
Abstract
In the twelfth century, certain thinkers in the north of Europe were exalting human reason in a manner that had not been seen since the time of the ancient philosophers. Adelard of Bath, William of Conches, Thierry of Chartres and Peter Abelard all [...] Read more.
In the twelfth century, certain thinkers in the north of Europe were exalting human reason in a manner that had not been seen since the time of the ancient philosophers. Adelard of Bath, William of Conches, Thierry of Chartres and Peter Abelard all championed ratio in a way that seemed to challenge the hegemony of learning that rested securely with the authority of scripture, the testament of the Fathers and the canons of the established councils. In so doing, it represented a significantly different approach from the firmly established ‘authors’ (auctores) as certain scholars pursued their learning, and indeed even divine ascent, via other avenues. Even the visionary Hildegard von Bingen set enormous stock in rationality. This paper will discuss the use of reason for the anagogic ascent to the divine in order to trace its roots to a Platonic understanding of the universe in tandem with a highly positive anthropology that allowed for a bold reassessment of human capabilities, as well as a new appreciation of nature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life and Culture)
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