The Reception of Papal Legates in England, 1170-1250

Considers the reception of legatine missions to England during a significant period in the development of Anglo-Papal relations.

Papal legates, as the most powerful representatives of the pope, wielded significant influence in establishing and upholding papal authority throughout Christendom. The adventus - the elaborate ceremony of lordship on their arrival - provided a reception to mark their status. While the ceremony was ostensibly a straightforward display of power, communicating the lordship and authority of the papal legate, and a tool for establishing, negotiating, and gauging the relationship between the pope and other European powers, it was also susceptible to manipulation and distortion.

This book investigates how four chroniclers - Roger of Howden, Gervase of Canterbury, Roger of Wendover, and Matthew Paris - observed and interpreted such legatine adventus ceremonies in England in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These writers, aware of the curia's view that the reception of a papal legate signified acquiescence to papal authority and hegemony, offer a range of responses, from ridicule to praise. Drawing on chronicles, customaries, decretals, and other sources, it sheds new light on the intricate interplay between the expectations of both the papacy and the legates, and the diverse viewpoints found in the response of English writers.