This volume contributes to a deeper understanding of the different forms of ecclesiastical articulation in early medieval Spain. While traditional studies have focused on higher instances of ecclesiastical power, this work offers a bottom-up perspective centred on the local churches and the bonds they established with monasteries and bishops. This approach engages in a reflection on the nature of the diocese in the Early Middle Ages, as well as furthering our knowledge of early medieval local societies and their social dynamics.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Local Churches
- Historiographical framework: Perspectives and contributions
- A range of social initiatives
- The churches of the local elites
- The churches and monasteries of the aristocracy
- The materiality of churches
- Religious functions
- Churches and rural communities
- Local churches between individual control and their collective role
- Bibliography
- 2 Monasteries and Ecclesiastical Organisation
- The monasteries
- Donations to monastic communities
- The establishment of ecclesiastical networks around monasteries
- Bishops and the monastic world in the early Middle Ages
- The consequences of transferring churches to monastic communities
- Bibliography
- 3 Bishops and the Origins of the Diocese
- The bishops and the diocese
- The bases of episcopal power in the early Middle Ages
- Church donations, social relationships and patronage
- Ecclesiastical reform and the advance on local churches
- Ecclesiastical revenues and episcopal thirds
- Control over local clergy
- The organisation of the diocese
- Church management and the development of diocesan clergy
- The establishment of diocesan boundaries and the insertion of the diocese into metropolitan structures
- The consecration of the new church of León: The sign of a new era
- The construction of the diocese: The beginning of a conflictive process
- Bibliography
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index