In this study the term “reception” is applied in three ways. First, in the narrow sense of the adventus ceremony, the ceremonial reception of papal legates in the host country; second, in a political sense, referring to the welcome given to the papal envoy; and third, reception refers to the perception and expression of these two aspects in historiography. Christensen thus develops his theme in a threefold communicative orientation. It ranges from the mechanics of symbolic communication upon the legate's arrival and during his journey through the country to the political climate that determined the relationship between the Anglo-Norman kingdom and the Papacy, whose representatives were in particular the legati a latere and, finally, to the historically and individually shaped manifestation of these parameters by four English historiographers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. This experimental arrangement deliberately and intentionally leads away from a narrow understanding of the adventus as a mere ceremony toward a fundamental flexibility of the events, both in terms of actions and description. The adventus ceremony oscillates between the respectful duty of homage on the one hand and the more or less clearly articulated criticism of the ruling power on the other. The adventus can thus be interpreted as an indicator of the authority that was accorded to the legate in England.
The first part of the study focuses on the legate as a high-ranking form of papal envoy or, rather, representative, since cardinal legates functioned in the High Middle Ages as the embodiment, the mobilealter ego, of the Roman bishop. This is evident in the legal provisions as well as in the identifying marks and, finally, in the ceremonial requirements for the adventus. Normative sources, or rather ceremonial regulations for the specific situation, are very rare, so Christensen relies heavily on reception ceremonies in related contexts, in particular on an instruction by archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury (1070-89). It is as model-like in its wording as it is distant from the events of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Together with similar ceremonial regulations of the Cistercians and Gilbertines, however, a conceptual bridge can be built to the second part: one receives a high-ranking person whose appearance and actions are likely to challenge existing hierarchies. Conversely, the way in which such reception situations are organized reveals divisions within the receiving community. With this model, the papal legates' journeys to England become a touchstone for the homogeneity of English church policy.
The second part of the book contains the adventus reports penned by the four following authors: Roger Howden, Gervase of Canterbury, Roger Wendover, and Matthew Paris. Christensen develops a chronologically extended panorama of the interaction between the legates, the kings, and the English Church, which varies according to the situation and juxtaposes the specific approaches of the authors. In this way, it is possible to trace how conditional the acceptance of the papal legates in England was, that they were met with openness but also reserve, that their presence was used for sovereign purposes, or that their freedom of movement was severely restricted. Christensen demonstrates as well how the role of the papacy changed after England was assigned to the Holy See as a fief. The legates of Rome were viewed differently, culminating in the incomprehension of Matthew Paris, who clearly criticizes Henry III for inviting Cardinal Legate Otto to England, thereby offering the distant feudal lord the opportunity to symbolically take possession of the country; the king as a “subservient fool” (214). It is not only here that it becomes evident that the way in which legates were received and treated can be a seismographic indicator of the homogeneity within the country's elites.
In addition to an index, two appendices are included with the study. In the first (225-227), considerable effort is expended to argue that a passage in the clothing regulations for clerics issued by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 (c. 5) referred to the wearing of golden spurs; this was later also applied to the expense of legates’ clothing. Appendix two (228-230) draws parallels between the instructions for the adventus among the Cistercians and Gilbertines and highlights constitutionally based differences between the two.
This book is a welcome clarification and differentiation of how reports on the reception and accompaniment of legates were handled. It teaches us to refrain from generalizations and to keep in mind the respective political circumstances as well as the single authors’ attitudes toward the events, to the king, and to Rome. To achieve this, the author is working carefully and sensitively with the sources. His conclusions are based on a solid knowledge of the literature, even if (due to the reviewer’s background) a few German-speaking contributions are missing, in particular Achim Thomas Hack’s dissertation on the reception ceremony at medieval papal-imperial meetings (Cologne 1999), in which many basic elements of the adventus were carefully treated. This hardly detracts from the great benefit to be gained from reading the study and the satisfaction of noting that the long-prevailing perspective of Roman dominance and comprehensive control of relations with the regions has now been relativized, even dissolved, in many detailed studies. Universal papal authority was a claim. In order to enforce it, the acceptance and willingness to cooperate of the Church and the world beyond the Curia were required.