Ecclesiastical and Emerging Power Structures of the Nobility in the European Middle Ages

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Enno Bünz
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: Funded in 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 421933166

The book presents the results of a conference organized by the Konstanzer Arbeitskreis für mittelalterliche Geschichte 2015 IX 29 - X 2 (lsle of Reichenau), planned by Kurt Andermann (University of Freiburg i. Br.) and Enno Bünz (University of Leipzig). The „advocatia" / advocacy is a multifaceted phenomenon strongly connected to the emerging power of princes and nobility in the Middle Ages. 14 studies in total (including introduction and summary) are focusing on the phenomenon of ecclesiastical advocacy in a new perspective. Traditional research of medieval and regional history in Germany focused intensely on the ecclesiastical advocacy, but interest dwindled in the last decades, leading to quite a low attention regarding these problems. Former generations of historians considered the advocacy mainly as a problem of constitutional history and history of law, but they gave few regards to the regional differences of this topic. The contributions in this book present a new attempt on advocacy, focusing on the regional development in the Holy Roman Empire in comparison to the European neighborhood (France, ltaly, Bohemia). By this perspective it becomes clear, that the fully evolved church advocacy is a phenomenon of medieval Middle Europe. Classical topics such as the dominion of church property or the emerging power of the nobility are combined with new aspects, for example the roots of advocacy in Roman law, conflict management and resolution or gender history (the role of women as advocates).

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants