Per omnia ecclesiastica officia promotus. A normative perspective on the career of Bishops in the Church Province of Reims (888-1049)
Jelle Lisson
When early medieval sources recorded the appointment of a new bishop, authors occasionally provided extra information on social, geographical, educational and ecclesiastical background appointee. Those details were not randomly chosen, since they reflected ideas that emerged in previous centuries culminated disparate corpus texts commonly referred to as ‘canon law’. In this article, I shall take closer look at bishops church province Rheims ‘long’ 10th century (between 888 1049). particular, will zoom one feature episcopal profile frequently surfaces narrative, diplomatic epistolary sources: pre-episcopal career. After brief discussion canonical prescriptions career, explore functions exercised before their promotion see, secular clergy, monastic milieux or royal court. Despite traditional emphasis 10th-century ‘Church hands laity’, analysis demonstrates canon law requirements for candidates was necessarily disregarded. The representing career studied first foremost paint picture continuity: deeply rooted Late Antique, Merovingian Carolingian developments, yet steadily transforming, pressed by local circumstances.
Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique