This book is a study of the transformation of the role of the pope in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Published in 1998, these essays focus on Rome and the curia in the 11th and 12th centuries. Several relate to Cardinal Deusdedit and his canonical collection (1087) and to the pontificate of Paschal II (1099-1118). Both personalities and their ideas are presented within the larger setting of contemporary problems, highlighting divergent currents among ecclesiastical reformers at a time of the investiture controversies. A third common theme is formed by discussions of the organization and archival practices of the curia, which were of fundamental importance for the growth and codification of canon law, not to mention papal control of the Church.

This book is a concise and balanced biography of Innocent III. While giving the student and general reader a good sense of this pope and the medieval papacy, it can also provide insights for scholars well-versed in his pontificate.

Entirely original in its methodology, this study offers a fresh approach to the study of Romanesque fa?e sculpture. Declining to revisit questions of artistic personalities, artistic style and connoisseurship, Dorothy F. Glass delves instead into the historical and historiographical context for a group of significant monuments erected in Italy between the last decade of the eleventh century and the first third of the twelfth century. In her reading, local culture takes precedence over names, context over connoisseurship; she argues that it was the cultural, intellectual and religious life of the abbeys of San Benedetto Po and Nonantola that provided the framework for the Reformist ethos of much of the sculpture adorning the cathedral of Modena. Glass argues that the monuments are deeply rooted in the concerns of the reform of the church, more commonly known as the Gregorian Reform, that these reform ideas and ideals were first fomented in monastic communities and then adopted by the new cathedrals built in cities that, freed of submission to imperial German rule, had recently rejoined the papal fold. The Sculpture of Reform in North Italy, ca 1095-1130: History and Patronage of Romanesque Fa?es moves scholarship beyond continuously reiterated opinions concerning style, attribution, chronology, origins and influence, instead opening new and fruitful lines of inquiry into the patronage and historical significance of these extraordinary monuments.

During the Middle Ages, the popes of Rome claimed both spiritual authority and worldly powers, vying with emperors for supremacy, ruling over the Papal States, and legislating the norms of Christian society. They also faced profound challenges to their proclaimed primacy over Christendom. The Medieval Papacy explores the unique role that the Roman Church and its papal leadership played in the historical development of medieval Europe. Brett Edward Whalen pays special attention to the religious, intellectual and political significance of the papacy from the first century through to the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Ideal for students, scholars and general readers alike, this approachable survey helps us to understand the origins of an idea and institution that continue to shape our modern world.

The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade brings together a rich and diverse range of medieval sources to examine key aspects of the growth of heresy and dissent in southern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the Church’s response to that threat through the subsequent authorisation of the Albigensian crusade. Aimed at students and scholars alike, the documents it discusses – papal letters, troubadour songs, contemporary chronicles in Latin and the vernacular, and inquisitorial documents – reflect a deeper perception of medieval heresy and the social, political and religious implications of crusading than has hitherto been possible. The reader is introduced to themes which are crucial to our understanding of the medieval world: ideologies of crusading and holy war, the complex nature of Catharism, the Church’s implementation of diverse strategies to counter heresy, the growth of papal inquisition, southern French counter-strategies of resistance and rebellion, and the uses of Latin and the vernacular to express regional and cultural identity. This timely and highly original collection not only brings together previously unexplored and in some cases unedited material, but provides a nuanced and multi-layered view of the religious, social and political dimensions of one of the most infamous conflicts of the High Middle Ages. This book is a valuable resource for all students, teachers and researchers of medieval history and the crusades.