13) Bishops and Cathedrals in an Age of Ambition – Ideals and Reality

The traditional narrative was that the long 12th century saw a great struggle, led by the papacy and right-thinking elements in the clergy, to free the church from the secular world. 3 great battles bulk large in this narrative: the struggle against Simony, the struggle against Nicolaitism, and the struggle against lay lordship over the Church, as expressed in the ritual of investiture.

• Simony was the sale of ecclesiastical offices.
• Nicolaitism revolved around clerical marriage.
• Lay lordship over the Church revolved around investiture which was the ritual where a lord proclaimed his role in making an appointment by giving the bishop or abbot elect the object that most overtly signified his office, his staff. The lordship over the Church that this represented was the problem.

According to the traditional narrative, the struggle to end these abuses was taken up by the papacy in the 1050s. At this point, the Roman Church was taken over by a party of clerics that was committed to the cause of reform. The group is usually labelled the 'Papal Reform Movement' or the 'Gregorian Reform Movement'. The papacy that this group created emerged in the early 13th century as the head of an independent hierarchy of ecclesiastical institutions populated by a largely celibate clergy.

It's been long recognised that this narrative is full of problems:

• It grossly misrepresents what happened. This period emphasised, not 'transformation', but the 'restoration' of things from before the lapse.
• The Church gained much freedom in this period which was very important as it was a relatively modest adjustment in the structures of lordship. The problem was the question of who the bishops and abbots owed their service to and who they should turn to for protection between the king and the pope.
• It assumes the clergy were driving these changes, but it was much more complex than this. For example, it was the laity not the clergy who wanted a celibate clergy. It was also the laity who feared God would reject the prayers made by impure priests. They worried that God would subtract his grace from the masses that these priests performed.

The papacy began to legislate for a celibate clergy in 1059 and the opposition was strongest among the clergy. Many propaganda pamphlets were written in defence of clerical marriage, and those promoting the cause were often met by violence from the clergy and their supporters.

The timing of the rise of the reform, and the reason the Church adopted a set of policies many were against needs to be expained. These types of reforms had been tried before but had usually been ignored. The central issue was the tension between the economic resources of the Church and the status-driven competition among the leading bishops of the kingdom. For example, Meinwerk, bishop of Paderborn, and Archbishop Adalbert of Hamburg-Breman.

Meinwerk is a classic example of a successful renovator, a bishop who renewed his diocese without arousing hostility or controversy. He promoted the cause of monastic reform at Corvey and other churches in his diocese, but was mainly a great builder of churches.

His foundation of houses of both monks and secular canons relects a desire to cater to all the established types and styles of religious observance. For example, the Abdinghof monastery provided for those who wanted to be monks, or for the families who wanted to give a son to a monastery.

Meinwerk also attempted to use his buildings to re-fashion Paderborn as a sacred city. The newly-rebuilt cathedral was at the centre of the city, and important monasteries were situated on the eastern and western limits, including the Abdinghof monastery, and on the northern and southern reaches of the city, all to symbolise the cross. The effect of this great campaign of architectural activity was to transform the appearance of the city in ways that put its ecclesiastical functions in the foreground.

Adalbert was responsible for a far more aggressive programme of renovatio which antagonised his clergy and people. In some ways, his activities were similar to Meinwerk's, except he was attempting to operate on a much greater scale. For example, he attempted to greatly multiply the number of collegiate churches, canonries and monasteries owned by the see, multiplying its patronage resouces and its capacity for worship and prayer. According to Adam of Breman though, Adalbert was a megalomaniac who wanted to make himself equal to the archbishops of Cologne and Mainz, the greatest and wealthiest bishops of the kingdom.

But, Hamburg-Breman was the smallest and least prosperous of the 6 archdioceses in Eastern Frankia. Adalbert attempted to increase the resources of his see through royal service. He tried to become Henry III's closest supporter hoping to be rewarded with further honours and offices. He did succeed in obtaining some useful grants, but Adam believed these were meagre in contrast to the costly investment.

Adam complained that the effect of all of these efforts was just to impoverish the church of Hamburg-Bremen and to increase Adalbert's megalomania. These criticisms are exaggerated but they still provide an insight into the values and ideals of canons like Adam.

There was a festering tension between Adalbert and the canons of the cathedral, and it is this that made both sides resort to the rhetoric of purity associated with the more radical sorts of reform. But the demand that the clergy should be pure cut both ways.

The economic situation of the church and the kingdom was making it harder for bishops and abbots to find the resources required to make their grand designs. The establishment of parish churches meant money was now being diverted away from bishops and their colleges and canons to parish priests and especially the owners of parish churches. These monatery problems were driving bishops to seek more radical solutions to their problems.

But, it was the grand schemes of the bishops that were the main cause of the problems. By pursuing these projects, the bishops were driving those forced to serve them into poverty and utter exhaustion. Many bishops were trying to get more done by pushing their people to work harder.

It was the tensions created by these political and economic conflicts between prelates and their clergy that were turning clerics towards the rhetoric of purity. But this was a dangerous move because almost all churchmen were vulnerable to accusations of this sort. Most churchmen and clergymen were contaminated with simony. The vast majority of their canons and parish priests felt responsible for their wives and children. Most hoped to leave their offices to their sons and find good marriages for their daughters. The cohesion of the clergy and their sense of shared identity and interests was being torn apart by the ambitions of the bishops.