Parergon

Abstract:

This article examines the local effects of papal centralisation of ecclesiastical administration in the first half of the fourteenth century. It traces as a case study the impact on English monastic communities of papal privileges and exemptions, papal attempts to regulate religious observance, the expansion of the papal judicial system, and the growth of papal appointments of heads of houses. It concludes that the reality differed from the high theory of papalist claims to immediate and universal jurisdiction. Papal power ultimately depended on the consent of local actors and an increasingly assertive Crown, and burgeoning administrative activity at the papal curia did not translate into increased power and influence.