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2 results

  • 3 - Papal Documents, c. 400–c. 1150

  • D. L. d'Avray, University College London
  • Book:
    The Power of Protocol
    Published online:
    20 July 2023
    Print publication:
    10 August 2023, pp 38-76

  • Summary

    While Late Antique decretals were being transmitted to new generations, popes corresponded with kings and emperors, by the mid-to-late eighth century at times in surprisingly faulty Latin, and a new genre of papal document appeared alongside them, solemn privileges, written on papyrus, two or three meters long, mostly for monasteries. Not much thought was required to compose them, as beneficiaries brought drafts of the substantive part and a formulary supplied the top and the tail. What exactly these privileges granted is a matter of debate. They were written in a script descended from late Roman cursive and hard to read. This was probably an advantage. The archaic script concealed bad Latin. And the appearance would have inspired awe. In the eleventh century the late Roman script and the long papyrus format were abandoned, to be replaced by new devices to make the document impressive. What exactly they were granting to monasteries became clearer in the twelfth century.

The Power of Protocol
  • Diplomatics and the Dynamics of Papal Government, c. 400 – c.1600
  • D. L. d'Avray
  • Published online:
    20 July 2023
    Print publication:
    10 August 2023
  • How did the papacy govern European religious life without a proper bureaucracy and the normal resources of a state? From late Antiquity, papal responses were in demand. The 'apostolic see' took over from Roman emperors the discourse and demeanour of a religious ruler of the Latin world. Over the centuries, it acquired governmental authority analogous to that of a secular state – except that it lacked powers of physical enforcement, a solid financial base (aside from short periods) and a bureaucracy as defined by Max Weber. Through the discipline of Applied Diplomatics, which investigates the structures and settings of documents to solve substantive historical problems, The Power of Protocol explores how such a demand for papal services was met. It is about the genesis and structure of papal documents – a key to papal history generally – from the Roman empire to after the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century, and is the only book of its kind.