Patterns and Levels of Periphery?

PATTERNS AND LEVELS OF ‚PERIPHERY‘ ?
Gerhard Jaritz
„There is an important researcb field to formulate the social, cultural, political
and econornical role of areas called marginal, peripheries and other such
problematic designations.“1 This Statement was recently given by the Swedish
archeologist Hans Andersson. It can also be supported by bistorians who concentrate
their researcb on any kind of communication, like that of the Holy See
with various areas and regions of late medieval Christendom.
The com.munication of the medieval papal curia with whole of the Christian
world took place in a variety of elaborate forms? “The divergent needs and
receptivity of clergy and laity on the one band, and the geograpbical scattering
of the Christian audience on the other, encouraged the development of a sophisticated
com.munication system. „3 This seems to have been particularly true for
territories that, at least in the geographical sense, may have been seen as peripheral
areas of Cbristendom. Piroska Nagy has shown that one may well use tbis
component of ‚periphery,‘ at least as an (auxiliary) criterium for the comparative
analysis ofthe com.munication ofCbristians with the Holy See and vice versa.
Concerning the communication of the papal curia with medieval ‚peripheries‘
and the roles of the latter, some important research has been done recently.
4 Systematic research in tbis direction, however, is still at its beginnings.
1 Hans Andersson, „Outland, Centre, Periphery and World Sytem Theories,“ in Wider das
„finstere Mittelalter. “ Festschrift for Wemer Meyer zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. M. Letizia
Heyer-Boscardin, Schweizer Beiträge zur Kultugeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters
29 (Basel: Schweizerischer Burgenverein, 2002), 30.
2 For such forms see, from a general point ofview, Willern Frijhoff, „Communication et vie
quotidienne a Ia fin du Moyen Age et a l’epoque moderne: reflexions de theorie et
methode,“ in Kommunilcation und Alltag in Spätmittelalter undfrüher Neuzeit, ed. Helmut
Hundsbichler, Sitzungsberichte der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-
historische Klasse 596 (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
1992), 37: „Lorsqu’on parle de communication en histoire, il faut bien distinguer
entre Ia communication comme processus technique et Ia communication comme action
signifiante (instrumentale, communicative ou strategique) . … En tant qu’action signifiante,
Ia communication est avant tout un fait culturel impliquant pratiques sociales, repre­
sentations et codes symboliques … . “
3 Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei. Communication in the Middle Ages (Oxford: Ox.ford University
Press, 1990), 51 (hereafter Menache, The Vox De1).
4 See, in particular, Ludwig Schmugge, „Centro e periferia attraverso le dispense pontificie
nel secolo XV,“ in Vita religiosa e idenlila politiche. Universalita e particolarismi ne/1′
170
Tbis book is also an exploratory volume, based on comparative approaches,
trying to show possibilities for future systematic and broader studies. It is
mainly meant to encourage further analyses into the role that ‚peripheries‘
played in late medieval papal policy, and into the comparability of such ‚peripheries.‘
In no way, is it able or intends to present something definitive. It should
be seen as an intermediary stage to facilitate a continuation of work at a ’site
under construction.‘
The papers in the present proceedings have proved that the communication
was influenced by a variety of regional or local phenomena. Sometimes
they led to important differences in regard to the numbers as well as the contents
of communicative acts between the papal curia and people in the respective areas.
This is nicely shown by the contributions ofirene Furneaux and Ana Marinkovic
concerning the predominance of matrimony supplications from Scotland
and Dalmatia in the Penitentiary Registers, which, however, occurred for dif­
ferent reasons. Lucie Doleialova has ascertained significant influences of the
Hussite movement on the types and numbers of supplications to the Penitentiary
coming from the Czech Iands.
For any communication with the Holy See, the papal Iegates, that is, „the
prolonged arms of the papacy,“5 played an important role. For Sweden and Finland,
Kirsi Salonen has been able to document the differences in the number of
supplications to the Penitentiary dependent on the presence or absence of Iegates
in the respective territories.
Beside these local differences, analogue accomplishments also seemingly
existed in the communication ofthe Holy See with the ‚peripheries‘ of Christendom.
Kirsi Salonen, Torstein Jergensen, and Piroska Nagy have found Northem
European and East Central European patterns, for East Centrat Europe, for instance,
conceming the leading type of De diversis fonnis-petitions to the Penitentiary
from the territories of Hungary, the Czech Iands, Poland-Lithuania and
the Baltic region. But only accurate and detailed analyses comparing such results
with those from less peripheral neighbouring dioceses and areas, and with
other ‚peripheries,‘ will make it possible to trace whether it is really possible to
see such pattems as more generat ‚peripbery models‘ or if they were also significant
for other, less peripheral, areas.
Some of the most valuable results of the contributions in this volume are,
in my opinion, tbe direct or indirect hints towards existing contexts, whicb have
Europa del tardo Medio Evo, Atti del VI Convegno di Studi sulla CiviltA del Tardo Medioevo.
S. Miniato, ottobre 1996, ed. Sergio Gensini, Centro di Studi sulla CiviltA del Tardo
Medioevo, San Miniato. Collana di studi e ricercbe 7 (Ospedaletto: Pacini Editore, 1998),
33-58; Rolf H. Bremmer Jr., Kees Decker, and David F. Jobnson, ed., Rome and the North.
The Early Reception of Gregory the Great in Germanie Europe, Mediaevalia Groningana,
New Series 4 (Paris: Peeters, 2001). See also the contributions ofPiroska Nagy, Kirsi Salonen,
Torstein Jergensen, and Ludwig Schmugge in this volume and tbeir bibliograpbical references.
5 See Menacbe, The Vox Dei, 5 1 .
1 7 1
to be taken into account when doing systematic comparative, qualitative, and
quantitative analysis of source corpora like the Penitentiary Registers. It is the
context with all the other phenomena of communication that determined the
connections of the papal curia with peripheral regions of Christendom. This is
well shown in the contributions of Jadranka Neralic and Etleva Lala. The possible
context with the incidents in more central areas also have to be taken in consideration
(see the contribution by Gastone Saletnich and Wolfgang Müller).
The context to the activities and functions of local ecclesiastical and secular
courts in the different areas has been well shown in the case study by Blanka
Szeghyovä. Ludwig Schmugge has impressively demonstrated that also other
source material kept in various local archives has to be consulted and utilised for
any further context-dependent and comparative studies. Thus, the contributions
of the present volume offer a multiplicity of references, motivations and further
research possibilities which have to be considered in any future analyses.
It does not really matter whether future research, at the end, will Iead to
the outcome that the concept and designatioo of ‚periphery‘ has proved important
or advantageaus for the comparative analysis of the varieties of papal communication
with different areas and Ievels of Christendom, or not. This should
be considered all the more as one also might only acknowledge different Ievels
and hierarchies of ‚periphery,‘ and their relations to one centre that was clearly
Rome and the popes themselves. However, as long as further context-bound
comparative approaches yield new results and significant pattems and Ievels of
communication that may be seen as an effect of social practices, representations
and symbolic code sets,6 one may be generally satisfied, independent on the role
of ‚peripheries‘ in the research process.
Comparative analyses of that ilk can only be fruitful if accomplished
within the framework of international cooperation. The first moves in this direction
have already been made; the volume at band is a result of such an attempt.
But there is still a long way to go, a way that will be enthralling and, hopefully,
effective.
6 Seenote 2.
172
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Lucie DOLEZALOV A
Department ofMedieval Studies
Central European University
Nädor utca 9
H-1 05 1 Budapest
Hungary
Irene FURNEAUX
School ofHistory, Divinity and Philosophy
University of Aberdeen
Meston Walk, King’s College
GB-Aberdeen AB24 3FX
Scotland, UK
Gerhard JARITZ
Department ofMedieval Studies
Central European University
Nädor utca 9
H-1 051 Budapest
Hungary
and
Institut fi1r Realienkunde
Austri an Academy of Seiences
Körnermarkt 1 3
A-3500 Krems
Austria
Torstein J0RGENSEN
Centre for Medieval Studies
University ofBergen
P.O. Box 7800
N-5020 Bergen
Norway
173
Etleva LALA
Department ofMedieval Studies
Central European University
Nador utca 9
H-1 05 1 Budapest
Hungary
Ana MARINKOVIC
Department ofMedieval Studies
Centrat European University
Nador utca 9
H-1 05 1 Budapest
Hungary
Wolfgang P. MÜLLER
Department of History
Fordham University
Bronx, NY 10458-9993
USA
Piroska NAGY
Universite de Rouen
UFR de Lettres et Seiences Humaines
Departement d’Histoire
F-76821 Monz Saint Aignan cedex
France
Jadranka NERALIC
Hrvatski institut za povijest
Opaticka 1 0
HR-1 0000 Zagreh
Croatia
Gastone SALETNICH
Archivio Segreto Vaticano
Vatican City
ltaly
174
Kirsi SALONEN
Department ofHistory
University ofTampere
FIN-33014 Tampere
Finland
Ludwig SCHMUGGE
Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rom
Via Aurelia Antica 391
1-00165 Rome
Italy
Blanka SZEGHUOV A
Historical Institute
Slovak Academy of Seiences
Klemensova 19
SK-813 64 Bratislava
Slovakia
175
The Long Arm ofPapal Authority
Edited by
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein J.ergensen. Kirsi Salonen
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XIV
Gedruckt mit Unterstützung der Kulturabteilung
des Amtes der Niederösterreichischen Landesregierung
nlederösterreicll kuHur
CEU MEDIEV ALIA 8
TheLongArm
of Papal Authority
Late Medieval Christian Peripheries
and Their Communication
with the Holy See
Edited by
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein J0rgensen, K.irsi Salonen
Bergen · Budapest · Krems
2004
Copy Editor: Judith Rasson
Cover lliustration: Pope Pius II, Hartmann Scbedel, World Cbronicle (Nuremberg, 1493), fol. 250
Joint Publlcation by:
Centre for Medieval Studies (CMS)
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Telephone: (+47-55) 58 80 85, Fax: (+47-55) 58 80 90
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ISBN 82-997026-0-7
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ISSN 1587-6470 CEU MEDlEY ALIA
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T ABLE OF CONTENTS
Abbreviations related to the collections of the Vatican Secret Archives . . ….. … 7
Preface . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . . . . . 8
Piroska Nagy, Peripheries in Question in Late Medieval Christendom . . ….. .. . 11
Kirsi Salonen, The Penitentiary under Pope Pius TI. The Supplications
and Their Provenance . . . . . . … . . . . . . . .. … . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Torstein Jergensen, At the Edge ofthe World: The Supplications
from the Norwegian Province of Nidaros . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …. . . … . … 29
K.irsi Salonen, The Supplications from the Province of Uppsala.
Main Trends and Developments . . . .. . .. . . . . . … . . . . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . .. . . . . 42
Irene Fumeaux, Pre-Reformation Scottish Marriage Cases
in the Archives of the Papal Penitentiary . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Jadranka Neralic, Central Europe and the Late Medieval Papal Chancery . . … 71
Etleva Lala, The Papal Curia and Albania in the Later Middle Ages . …. . . . . . . . 89
Piroska N agy and Kirsi Salonen, East-Central Europe
and the Penitentiary (1458-1484) ……………………………………. 102
Lucie Dolezalova, „But if you marry me“: Reflections
on the Hussite Movement in the Penitentiary (1438-1483) ………….. 113
Ana Marinkovic, Socia1 and Territorial Endogamy
in the R.agusan Republic: Matrimonial Dispenses
during the Pontificates ofPaul li and Sixtus IV (1464-1484) ……….. 126
Gastone Saletnich and Wolfgang Müller, Rodolfo Gonzaga (1452-1495):
News on a Celebrity Murder Case . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . 145
5
Blanka Szegbyovä, Church and Secular Courts in Upper Hungary
(Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 151
Ludwig Schmugge, Penitentiary Documents
from Outside the Penitentiary . . . . . . . . . . … . . . . . . .. . .. .. . . .. .. : …………… 161
Gerhard Jaritz, Patternsand Levels ofPeriphery? ………………………….. 170
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. .. . . . . . . 173
6
ABBREVIATIONS RELATED TO TBE COLLECTIONS OF THE
V ATICAN SECRET ARCHIVES
ASV = Archivio Segreto Vaticano
Arm. = Armadio
Congr. Vescovi e Regolari, Visita Ap. = Congrega zione dei Vescovi e Regolari,
Visita Apostolica
Instr. Mise. = Instrumenta Miscellanea
Penitenzieria Ap., Reg. Matrim. et Div. = Penitenzieria Apostolica, Registra
Matrimonialium et Diversorum
Reg. Vat. = Registra Vaticana
Reg. Lat. = Registra Lateranensia
Reg. Suppl. = Registra Supplicationum
Reg. Aven. = Registra Avenionensia
RPG = Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum
7
PREFACE
The present publication contains selected papers from two international
conferences: the first was held at the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of
Bergen (Norway), in October, 20031 and the second at the Department of Medieval
Studies, Centrat European University, Budapest (Hungary), in January,
2004.2 The purpose of these meetings was to gather researchers interested in the
history and significance of the papal curia and, in particular, the Apostolic Penitentiary,
in the later Middle Ages. The main emphasis was placed on a comparative
approach and on the role of peripheral areas of Western Christendom in
their communication with the Holy See.
There are various kinds of centre-and-periphery hierarchies.3 There are
geographic, social, economic, and cultural peripheries and centres.“ The generat
textbooks … address materials from the geographical and social peripheries of
privileged cultures only as adjuncts to their central narrative …. The history of
Scandinavia and Eastern Europe become excursus to a central narrative.'“‚
However, conceming the communication of the Holy See with various areas
of Christendom in the Middle Ag es, the irnpact of ‚peripheries‘ has attracted
a new interest in recent years. Since the opening of the archives of the Apostolic
Penitentiary to researchers in 1983 relatively few scholars have exploited the
sources, but recently their number has increased. Most of them have studied the
supplications to the Penitentiary of petitioners from their own home countries
and edited material on a national basis. The German Historical Institute, under
the leadership of Ludwig Schmugge, has already published several volumes of
entries concerning German-speaking territories. Also, the Norwegian and Icelandic
material has recently been released by Torstein Jßi’gensen and Gastone
Saletnich. Sirnilar enterprises are in process in several other countries: Poland,
Denmark, Sweden and Finland, England and Wales. The examination of territo-
1 „The Lote Middle Ages and the Penitentiary Texts: Centre and Periphery in Europe in the
Pre-Refonnation Era.“
2 „Ad Confines. The Papal Curia and the Eastern and Northern Peripheries of Christendom
in the Later Middle Ages(l41h
– 151h c.).“
3 For this and the following, see Teofilo F. Ruiz, „Center and Periphery in the Teaching of
Medieval History,“ in Medieval Cultures in Contact, ed. Richard F. Gyug (New York:
Fordham University Press, 2003), 252.
4 Ibidem, 248.
8
ries on the geographic peripheries in their relation to Rome has been a main focus
in these studies.
The archival material of the Penitentiary and the communication of the
papal curia with the various regions of late medieval Europe should, however,
not be studied only on national Ievels. There is an increasing need for such
studies to be supplemented by comparative searcbes for differences and analogies
in how Christians from different corners of Europc used the papal offices
and were treated by them. It is well known that even though the regulations of
canon law were in theory the same for everyone, regional differences in interpreting
and applying them emerged in the Late Middle Ages. The need to turn to
the papal authority in matters of canon law varied depending on the role of local
bishops and the presence or absence of papal Iegates or collectors, who often
bad the power to deal with similar matters in partibus. Also, people in the
centml territories of Christendom bad different opportunities for turning to the
papal curia with their requests than those living on the peripheries of the
Christian world.
Questions like these played the central role in the discussions of the two
conferences noted above. In this book we will render an overview of the present
status of this new field of research. As an introduction, Piroska Nagy deals with
the question of how to apply centre-periphery models to a comparative analysis
of the sources. Kirsi Salonen uses the Penitentiary registers from the period of
Pope Pius II to analyse the supplications, their provenance, and the role of peripheries.
Two peripheral parts of late medieval Europe and their significance concerning
the communication with the Holy See represent the main part of the
publication: Northem Europe and East Central Europe. Comparative analyses of
Scandinavian and Scottish source material from the Penitentiary Registers are
made by Torstein Jsrgensen, Kirsi Salonen, and lrene Fumeaux. The studies on
East Central Europe are introduced by an inquiry concerning the general importance
of the area for the papal curia (Jadranka Neralic), and an overview of the
communication of the Holy See with Albania (Etleva Lala). Piroska Nagy and
Kirsi Salonen offer a quantitative analysis of East Central Europe and the Penitentiary
(1458-1484), followed by contributions on individual territories, such
as the Czech Iands (Lucie Dolezalova) and Dalmatia (Ana Marinkovic). The
contribution by Gastone Saletnich and Wolfgang Müller indicates that in any
studies of the roJe of peripheries one must not neglect the more central areas.
Blanca Szeghyova and Ludwig Schrnugge show that local archives and their
contents are an indispensable additional source for comparative analyses.
Many friends and colleagues have helped in preparing this book for print.
We are pleased to thank the personnet of the Penitenzieria Apostolica, especially
Padre Ubaldo Todeschini, for reading the manuscript and suggesting useful corrections.
We are also much obliged to the skilled staff of the Sala di Studio in
the Vatican Archives, who patiently brought us volume after volume of the reg-
9
isters and helped with other problems. Judith Rasson from Central European
University deserves our gratitude for copyediting our text.
Finally, we wish to thank the academic institutions which in a more direct
way have promoted this project: the Centre for Medieval Studies at the
University of Bergen, the Department of Medieval Studies at the Central
European University in Budapest, the Institut filr Realienkunde of the Austrian
Academy of Seiences and the Academy of Finland, and the Department of History
at the University ofTampere.
Bergen, Budapest, and Tampere, November 2004
Gerhard Jaritz, Torstein Jergensen, Kirsi Salonen
10