Papal communication is in vogue. A special issue of the Journal of Medieval History (2018), curated by guest editors Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, William Kynan-Wilson, Gesine Oppitz-Trotman, and Emil Lauge Christensen, focused on the papacy and communication in the central Middle Ages. A few years later, in 2023, Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, Lars Kjær, and William Kynan-Wilson curated another special issue in the same journal addressing “In Dialogue: Responses to Papal Communication.” This is ample evidence that papal historiography has shed its dust, and the cultural turn has come full circle.
Amid this recent surge of interest in the papacy and its modes of communication, what does the present volume contribute? The editors, Ozawa, Smith, and Strack, focus the volume on the communication of papal authority within a broad timeframe from the early to late Middle Ages and across a geographic range that extends from Western Europe to Asia, even bringing the Far East into consideration. In addition, seven of the twelve contributors are Japanese scholars specializing in medieval Europe, including Byzantium, offering Western scholars a unique opportunity to engage with Japanese historiography on medieval Europe. As stated in the introduction: “[...] the essays presented here bridge Japanese and European scholarly approaches to ecclesiastical history to provide new insights into how the papacy conceptualized its authority and attempted to realize and communicate that authority in ecclesiastical and secular spheres across Christendom” (2).
The various essays in this book address how popes conceptualized their authority and the means they used to legitimize it, organized around three themes: representations of papal authority, structural restrictions and challenges to papal authority, and papal authority on the edges of Christendom. The volume concludes with a short index. While the lack of a general bibliography on the topic is regrettable, the detailed footnotes accompanying each essay facilitate deeper engagement with each subject.
From the outset, the volume questions the hierocratic conception of the papacy, examining the authority popes could claim, especially in the light of challenges they faced. It appears, reading the collection, that the communication of papal authority relied primarily on traditional media centered around “words,” whether spoken, written, or visual, either by the popes themselves or communicated by others.
Part I, “Representations of Papal Authority,” begins with Shigeto Kikuchi’s essay, “Authority at a Distance: Popes, their Media, and their Presence Felt in the Frankish Kingdom.” Kikuchi challenges the assumption that early medieval popes were reactive rather than proactive in legitimizing their authority. He explores the means popes used to reinforce their authority, such as sending letters, legates, and gifts, including relics; granting pallia; creating inscriptions; issuing papal privileges (such as anathemas); and granting diplomas--all evidence of papal initiative.
In the next essay, Georg Strack’s “Imitatio Christi in Papal Synodal Sermons, 1095-1274,” the author argues that synodal sermons from the time of Urban II and Calixtus II employed the concept of imitatio Christi to further objectives of war, peace, and reform. This approach continued under Innocent III and Gregory X but faced challenges under Innocent IV, whose intentions were seen by some as hypocritical.
Yuichi Akae follows with a focus on “John XXII as a Wavering Preacher: The Pope’s Sermons and the Norms of Preaching in the Beatific Vision Controversy.” John XXII controversially argued against the immediate vision of God after death, asserting instead that it would occur only after Judgment Day. This stance sparked disputes, with Dominicans opposing and Franciscans supporting the pope. Akae’s close reading of John’s sermons I and II suggests that John not only shocked contemporaries with the content of his speeches but also with their form.
The section concludes with Alessandro Simbeni’s “Franciscan Identity and Iconography in the Assisi Tapestry Commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV.” Simbeni argues that the tapestry served as propaganda, showcasing Franciscan unity during a period of uncertainty for the Order. This essay is particularly valuable for highlighting non-verbal means of legitimizing the papacy. I made a similar argument in my book on the schism, examining Angers’ tapestry of the Apocalypse.[1] Additionally, students of the Schism will find it intriguing that a tapestry used for propaganda a few generations after the Schism includes a depiction of the Pisan Pope Alexander V (a Franciscan) alongside Pope Sixtus, implying his legitimacy. If the author pursues further research on genealogical trees, I recommend consulting Christiane Klapisch-Zuber’s L’ombre des ancêtres: Essai sur l’imaginaire médiéval de la parenté (Paris: Fayard, 2000).
Part II, “Structural Restrictions and Challenges to Papal Authority,” begins with Harald Müller’s essay, “Crisis and Antagonism: Contending Popes as a Challenge to Papal Authority.” Müller’s examples span the early to late Middle Ages and offer a methodological reading of “anti-pope” without judgmental connotations. He examines the definitions and numbers of medieval antipopes, the antagonistic aspects of anti-papacy, and the strategies used to counter them. He then reviews how antipopes were treated over time, ultimately questioning whether their existence initiated crises within the Church. Müller wisely reminds us that “antipopes are by and large the result of, or have even been created by, the language used to describe the crises themselves” (93). Furthermore, he aptly observes that “antipopes were usually the result of a disagreement among the electors” (94).
The sixth chapter, authored by Thomas W. Smith, “Papal Communication and the Fifth Crusade, 1217-1221,” focuses on the flow of information--mainly correspondence--between East and West. This essay can be seen as a microhistorical study of communication during this brief period. Smith concludes, somewhat ironically, that the abundance of information ultimately doomed the Fifth Crusade, as participants were waiting for Frederick II to initiate action following the capture of Damietta. They were essentially over- (and perhaps mis-) informed about Frederick’s intentions.
Jessika Nowak’s essay, “‘Having one Little Wolf at the Papal Court is not Enough’: The Limits of Papal Authority in Milanese Affairs in the Mid-Fifteenth Century,” delves into the world of espionage and ciphered correspondence. Nowak examines the role of cardinals as, in effect, spies for their respective “nations” at the papal court, with a focus on Milan, and explores the challenges a “nation” faced when it lacked a cardinal representative at the curia. She considers how the Duke of Milan could influence papal decisions, such as appointments, without a proctor in place. Relying on ambassadors (the “dogs” to the cardinals’ “wolves”), the duke used codes and ciphers. This essay offers a fresh perspective on epistolary exchanges.
The final part, “Papal Authority on the Edges of Christendom,” explores the pope’s interactions with Christianity’s frontiers. Minoru Ozawa begins the section with “Why Did a Viking King Meet a Pope? Cnut’s Imperial Politics, Scandinavian Commercial Networks, and the Journey to Rome in 1027.” As a leader with control over England and territories in Scandinavia, Cnut asserted his legitimacy by associating with the greats of his era, including the emperor and the pope. Ozawa concludes that Cnut’s journey to Rome was an act of faith, demonstrating Christian piety through generous almsgiving along his route. This pilgrimage also reinforced his legitimacy as a Christian king and facilitated negotiations to support his commercial interests, particularly connecting the North Sea with Italy.
Mamoru Fujisaki transports us to the outermost frontiers of Christianity with “Papal Contact with the Mongols: Means of Communication in the Thirteenth Century.” Fujisaki examines the Christian “othering” of non-Christian religions and their followers, with a focus on mendicants’ role in missionary activities, as well as issues related to language and translation. Eastern emissaries traditionally corresponded with Westerners in Latin or French, rarely using Arabic and almost never Mongolian or other Eastern languages. The curia had few, if any, specialists in these languages, leading to significant distortions in communication. While Christians aimed to convert the Mongols, the latter viewed Christianity as merely one of several tolerated religions within the Khanate.
Koji Murata brings us closer to the West with “Dei et Ecclesia Inimicus: A Correspondence between Pope Gregory IX and John III Batatzes.” Batatzes, the exiled Byzantine emperor of Nicaea, opposed John of Brienne, the Latin emperor of Constantinople after the Fourth Crusade. When Batatzes allied with the Bulgarian tsar, Gregory IX offered support to the Latin Empire, which was under threat of recapture. Murata analyzes the surviving correspondence, focusing on papal rhetoric and recontextualizing it within the broader scope of papal-Byzantine relations. Through an examination of titles and terms, Murata demonstrates how Gregory’s language escalated from labeling Batatzes as anexcommunicatus to Dei et ecclesiae inimicus, aiming to rally enthusiasm in the West for a crusade that ultimately never materialized, though the rhetoric endured.
Hisatsugu Kusabu’s essay, “Medieval Heretics in the East: A Heresiological Label for Bosnian Bogomils/Patarenes in the Thirteenth Century,” also considers the Christian “othering” of alternative beliefs, focusing on so-called heretical groups. Kusabu compares Byzantine and Latin authors’ labels, suggesting that these terms were often applied to popular but anti-papal groups. In the case of Bosnia, distance from central papal authority led to these groups being labeled as heretics despite not being doctrinally divergent. Labeling became a strategic tool of papal expansionism, and arguably, I would add, imperialism.
The volume concludes with Takahiro Narikawa’s essay, “The Papacy and Crusading in the Far North? A Forgotten Religious Frontier of Medieval Christendom,” which examines relations between Finland’s Pagan Sámi (in today’s term) and Scandinavian Christian monarchs. While the latter engaged in crusades and Christianization efforts, their evangelical zeal for converting the Finns was limited. Narikawa argues that Christians and Finns coexisted for as long as Christians could exploit the Finns’ natural resources. Political shifts in Scandinavia in the early fourteenth century increased tensions, as crusading ideology entered the region, though tolerance persisted until the Reformation.
I would like to return now to the premise of the volume, an investigation of the means deployed to legitimize papal authority and an introduction to Japanese historiography. To the former, the volume somewhat overemphasizes traditional written modes. Legitimacy is defined textually in most papers. To the latter, reading the volume’s introduction, I was eager to discover what Japanese historiography could add to the study of papal history. In other words, “othering” Western historiography allows us a fresh perspective, with the cultural distance between Western Europe and Japan offering new insights into longstanding historical questions and methodologies.
However, I am disappointed. Where I anticipated novelty, variety, and perhaps some contrast with Japanese institutional history or Japanese modes of communication, I found instead traditional Western historiography. This is not a criticism of the essays themselves, but rather a caution about what not to expect. The Japanese scholars in this volume largely adhere to Western European historiography and scholarship. Indeed, they seem to favor engaging with the “frontiers” of Christianity, and modes of “othering,” but their research is grounded in western methodology. They neither define a distinct Japanese historiographical approach to papal communication nor differentiate their methodologies from those of Western historiography. In general, the book will interest those studying the papacy and a micro-historical approach to papal phenomena.
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[1] See Joëlle Rollo-Koster, The Great Western Schism, 1378-1417: Performing Legitimacy, Performing Unity. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University Press, 2022. 137-144.