The Bishop-Elect. A Study in Medieval Ecclesiastical Office.

Aus dem Nachlass von Michael Richter. Mit Namensstempel auf Vorsatz. Umschlag berieben, Schnitt leicht angeschmutzt. - What were the constitutive acts in the making of a medieval bishop, and what was their significance? To answer these questions Professor Benson has gathered new material from unedited canonistic manuscripts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. In his examination of the theories and procedures by which bishops received their authority, he provides the first systematic analysis of the medieval episcopate as an office of far-reaching governing powers, both ecclesiastical and secular. He traces the development of the Church's constitutional doctrine and administrative practices from the Early Middle Ages, which stressed the sacramental character of the office, to the thirteenth century, when ecclesiastical office, like monarchy, was conceived primarily in terms of jurisdictional prerogatives. Election and consecration were no longer the critical moments in the creation of a prelate, but gave way to the new requirement of electoral confirmation. In the course of his careful reconstruction of medieval theories of office, the author shows that the changing position of the bishop-elect was part of a vast process which remade the Church, and which had its parallel in forces at work upon the secular monarchies. The "vital and often uneasy relations between Church and monarchy, particularly the tensions resulting from the bishop's role in two governing hierarchies, emerge in new perspective. (Verlagstext).