Bonds of Wool

The late medieval papal monarchy is generally seen as emerging in the long twelfth century—born in the period of Gregorian Reform, consolidated by the lawyer popes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries (notably Innocent III) and consummated in the administrative papacy of Avignon. Its genesis, however, is elusive: the pre-Gregorian papacy is marked by notable individuals, but rarely evinces a clear theoretical and practical stance whose continuity can be said to lead inexorably to the later papalist hierocracy. Steven Schoenig’s major monograph claims to locate that missing thread woven into the pallium, the woollen vestment (little more than a scarf) which popes, from the sixth century onwards, granted (at first not exclusively) to metropolitans and archbishops, accompanied by exhortations to, and demands for, obedience and loyalty to the Apostolic See. Extensive excavation of relevant sources underpins a strong and compelling case, one which certainly merits serious attention and will need to be integrated into future analyses of the papacy’s rise to, and exercise of, pre-eminence in the medieval western church

Ancient history · Loyalty · Middle Ages · Monarchy · Obedience · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Theology · Classics · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Law · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity