The Proprietary Church in the Medieval WestAlthough there have been many regional studies of the proprietary church or particular aspects of it, this is the first extensive study of it covering most of western Europe, from the end of the Roman Empire in the West to about 1200. The book aims at a broad survey in varying degrees of intensity and with a shifting geographical focus; and it asks questions that are as much social and religious as legal or administrative.The book vindicates, for village and estate churches, Ulrich Stutz's basic concept of a church with its possessions, revenues, and priestly office as an object of what we can reasonably call property. But it largely rejects his and his followers' application of this to great churches, and sees the position of intermediate churches (such as small or middling monasteries) as various, changeable, and ambivalent. Above all it turns away from Stutz's view of the property relationship as a distinctinstitution or system of 'Germanic church law', presenting it rather as a fluid set of assumptions and practices taking shape as customary law.The book considers also the changing background of ideas and the bearing on it of important polemical writings (with some questioning of their established interpretations). Finally the book discusses how property in churches was imperfectly superseded by the new canon-law patronage, in the increasingly bureaucratic post-Gregorian Church. |
Contents
Prologue | 1 |
PART I BEGINNINGS | 7 |
PART II LORDSHIP OVER HIGHER CHURCHES NINTH TO ELEVENTH CENTURY | 245 |
PART III LOWER CHURCHES AS PROPERTY NINTH TO TWELFTH CENTURY | 435 |
PART IV IDEAS OPINION CHANGE | 727 |
| 934 | |
| 981 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
abbacy abbess abbey abbot acquired alienation allowed already altar appointed authority belonged bishop brothers built burial called canons century charter church claim clergy clerk Cluny common confirmed consent count daughter defence dependent described dispose donation donors earlier early election endowment episcopal established evidence father foundation founded founders gave gift given giving grant hands heirs held hold ibid implied inheritance Italy keep kind king king’s land Languedoc late later laymen leases least leave less live lord lordship matter mean monastery monastic monks named normally offerings original parish perhaps possession potestas practice priest privilege probably proprietary record remain restored royal rule secular secure seems seen serving share sometimes sons successors suggests tenants things tithes usually whole wife