Bishops and Their Towns: Aspects of Episcopal Influence within Urban Environments

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Episcopus: Society for the Study of Bishops and Secular Clergy in the Middle Ages

Organizer Name

Kathryn E. Salzer

Organizer Affiliation

Pennsylvania State Univ.

Presider Name

Kathryn E. Salzer

Paper Title 1

The Bishop as Judge and Litigant in the Towns of Early Medieval Italy

Presenter 1 Name

Michael Heil

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Hendrix College

Paper Title 2

Urban Danger, Urban Sanctity: Ecclesiastical Reform and the City in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries

Presenter 2 Name

Theo Riches

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Exzellenzcluster "Religion und Politik," Westfälische Wilhelms-Univ. Münster

Paper Title 3

Civic Advice from an Archbishop: Jacopo da Varagine's History of Genoa

Presenter 3 Name

Carrie E. Beneš

Presenter 3 Affiliation

New College of Florida

Start Date

15-5-2015 1:30 PM

Session Location

Bernhard 106

Description

This session of the International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies in 2015 focuses on bishops and secular clergy in their urban environments. Medieval bishops were very active in both their episcopal cities and the other towns in their dioceses. Bishops supported urban monasteries and leper houses, created (and disbanded) communes, built episcopal palaces, oversaw the development of parishes, and managed—with varying success—their cathedral canons. The papers here take diverse approaches in assessing episcopal roles in medieval cities, from judging and litigating disputes, to evaluating cities' history, to examining the effects of urban environments on ecclesiastical reform.

Kathryn Salzer and John S. Ott