Bishops and the Politics of Patronage in Merovingian Gaul / Gregory I. Halfond.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Halfond, Gregory I., Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

France--Politics and government--To 987.

France.

Episcopacy--History.

Episcopacy.

Merovingians.

Church and state--Gaul.

Church and state.

Bishops--Political activity--Gaul.

Bishops.

Bishops--Gaul--Temporal power.

France--Church history--To 987.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (220 pages)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Following the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, local Christian leaders were confronted with the problem of how to conceptualize and administer their regional churches. As Gregory Halfond shows, the bishops of post-Roman Gaul oversaw a transformation in the relationship between church and state. He shows that by constituting themselves as a corporate body, the Gallic episcopate was able to wield significant political influence on local, regional, and kingdom-wide scales.Gallo-Frankish bishops were conscious of their corporate membership in an exclusive order, the rights and responsibilities of which were consistently being redefined and subsequently expressed through liturgy, dress, physical space, preaching, and association with cults of sanctity. But as Halfond demonstrates, individual bishops, motivated by the promise of royal patronage to provide various forms of service to the court, often struggled, sometimes unsuccessfully, to balance their competing loyalties. However, even the resulting conflicts between individual bishops did not, he shows, fundamentally undermine the Gallo-Frankish episcopate's corporate identity or integrity. Ultimately, Halfond provides a far more subtle and sophisticated understanding of church-state relations across the early medieval period.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Map

Introduction

1. Episcopal Service to the Court

2. Royal Patronage and Its Benefits

3. Unity in Disunity: The Limits of Corporate Solidarity

4. Disunity in Unity: Territorial Integration and Its Effects

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

Other Format:

Online version: Halfond, Gregory I., author. Bishops and the politics of patronage in Merovingian Gaul

ISBN:

1-5017-3932-8

OCLC:

1073896205