A prosopographical study of bishops' careers in northern Europe

在现代社会，我们经常说一个人“人脉很广”，无论是由于家庭、学校、商业关系还是各种因素的结合。这个项目将考察中世纪英国和斯堪的纳维亚半岛的主教们的关系有多好。实际上，我们会问你需要认识谁才能成为主教，以及他们一生中获得的联系如何影响他们作为主教在教区内和更广泛的国际舞台上的活动。为什么这很重要？主教不仅仅是宗教领袖；他们是重要人物，为国王和其他大领主服务，担任顾问甚至外交官。他们控制着大片领土，拥有可观的收入和人民。成为一名主教就是一名领袖，他可以为国王加冕，也可以煽动叛乱。他们也在日益国际化的舞台上扮演着角色：从1250年到宗教改革时期，见证了教会在教皇统治下的集中。从14世纪早期开始，主教候选人通常必须前往罗马或阿维尼翁才能被任命。然而，与此同时，国家或国家结构变得越来越重要，国王想要控制谁成为主教。国际教会的性质决定了这些人要到本国以外的地方去旅行和建立联系。这与大学教育相结合，意味着主教是思想传递的关键渠道。该项目试图回答的关键问题是，北欧主教的国际化程度如何。为了解决这个问题，我们将对以下教区的主教进行神职研究：Sodor， Dunkeld, Galloway, York, Orkney, Faroes， Skalholt和Holar在冰岛，Greenland，卑尔根，Stavanger， Uppsala和Jämtland的总执事。我们将研究家庭，社会起源和联系的主教和总执事。为了让我们考虑到国家和教皇机构的压力，我们选择了四个教会省的教区——约克、苏格兰、尼达罗斯和乌普萨拉——它们位于英格兰、苏格兰、挪威和瑞典四个王国之内。这种选择意味着我们可以研究同一教会省内的核心和外围教区，跨教会省和跨越国界。分析将试图回答一些问题，其中包括：主教是否有类似的社会起源，这意味着他们有正确的关系来游说教区的赞助人或分会为他们的晋升？我们还将评估我们的主教上过大学的证据，如果有，他们在哪里获得学位，是否获得学位，以及这意味着什么。有没有哪个教区的大学出勤率更高？我们能找到直接或间接的国际接触的证据吗？然后，该项目将评估主教一旦被任命，是否能够在他们的教区引入新的想法和改革。他们参加了国际教会会议，会议通过了主教们在自己教区推行的政策。我们将调查他们是否能够执行神职人员独身和缴纳什一税等规定。这些教区可能被认为远离罗马和基督教世界的中心，但它们并不一定与所谓的“核心”思想隔绝。PI和CoI是研究斯堪的纳维亚半岛和英国北部教会历史的主要专家。PI将调查苏格兰、英格兰和挪威的主教，而CoI将研究瑞典的主教和总执事。这位博士生将研究挪威和北大西洋的主教。该项目将提供研究中世纪主教及其跨越国家和教会界限的行为的新方法。对主教的研究将有助于我们了解中世纪后期北欧的教会和社会。

In the modern world, we often talk about a person being 'well-connected', whether it be as a result of family, schooling, business contacts or a combination of factors. This project will examine how well-connected medieval bishops in Britain and Scandinavia were. Effectively, we shall be asking who you needed to know to become a bishop and how the connections gained throughout their lives impacted on their activities as bishops both within their diocese and on the wider international stage. Why did this matter? Bishops were not just religious leaders; they were important men who served kings and other great lords as advisers and even diplomats. They controlled large territories and had significant incomes and people at their command. To be a bishop was to be a leader who might crown kings or foment rebellion. They were also players on an increasingly international stage: the period of study, from 1250 to the Reformation, saw the centralisation of the Church under the Papacy. From the early fourteenth century, candidates for bishoprics usually had to travel to Rome or Avignon in order to be appointed. Yet, at the same time, national or state structures were increasingly important with kings wanting to control who became bishops. The very nature of the international Church meant that such men travelled and had connections well beyond their home countries. That, combined with university education, meant that bishops were key conduits for the transfer of ideas. The key question the project seeks to answer is how internationalised were the bishops in northern Europe. In order to address this, we will undertake a prosopographical study of the bishops in the following dioceses: Sodor, Dunkeld, Galloway, York, Orkney, the Faroes, Skalholt and Holar in Iceland, Greenland, Bergen, Stavanger, Uppsala and the archdeacons of Jämtland. We will examine the familial, social origins and connections of the bishops and archdeacons. To allow us to consider the pressures of national and papal institutions, we have selected dioceses in four Church provinces - York, Scotland, Nidaros and Uppsala - which lay within the four kingdoms of England, Scotland, Norway and Sweden. This selection means we can study core and peripheral dioceses within the same Church province, across Church provinces and across national boundaries. The analysis will seek to answer a number of questions which include: did the bishops have similar social origins which meant they had the right connections to lobby the diocesan patrons or chapter for their promotion? We shall also assess the evidence for our bishops having attended university, and if so, where and whether they achieved a degree and the implications of this. Were there particular dioceses with higher levels of university attendance? Can we find evidence of either direct or indirect international contact as a result of university attendance?The project will then assess whether the bishops, once appointed, were able to introduce new ideas and reforms in their dioceses. They attended international Church councils which agreed policies that the bishops were then expected to introduce in their own dioceses. We will examine whether they were able to enforce rules like clerical celibacy and the payment of tithes. The dioceses in question might be seen as remote from Rome and the centres of Christendom, but they were not necessarily isolated from ideas developed at the supposed 'core'. The PI and CoI are leading specialists in the history of the Church in Scandinavia and northern Britain. The PI will examine bishops in Scotland, England and Norway whilst the CoI will study bishops and archdeacons in Sweden. The PhD student will examine bishops in Norway and the North Atlantic. The project will present new ways of studying medieval bishops and their actions across national and ecclesiastical boundaries. This study of bishops will help us to understand the Church and society in later medieval northern Europe.