Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Dangers of Invention: The Sack of Canterbury, 1011, and the ‘theft’ of Dunstan's Relics
- 2 Remembering Communities Past: Exeter Cathedral in the Eleventh Century
- 3 Communities, Conflict and Episcopal Policy in the Diocese of Lichfield, 1050–1150
- 4 The Acta archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium and Urban Ecclesiastical Rivalry in Eleventh-Century Rouen
- 5 Cathedrals and the Cult of Saints in Eleventh-and twelfth-Century Wales
- 6 A Bishop and His Conflicts: Philip of Bayeux (1142–63)
- 7 Ecclesiastical Responses to War in king Stephen's Reign: The Communities of Selby Abbey, Pontefract Priory and York Cathedral
- 8 Secular Cathedrals and the Anglo-Norman Aristocracy
- 9 The Lives of Thomas Becket and the Church of Canterbury
- 10 Caught in the Cross-Fire: Patronage and Institutional Politics in Late twelfth-Century Canterbury
- 11 Crown, Cathedral and Conflict: King John and Canterbury
- 12 The English Monasteries and their French Possessions
- Index of People and Places
- Other Volumes in Studies in the History of Medieval Religion
4 - The Acta archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium and Urban Ecclesiastical Rivalry in Eleventh-Century Rouen
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 The Dangers of Invention: The Sack of Canterbury, 1011, and the ‘theft’ of Dunstan's Relics
- 2 Remembering Communities Past: Exeter Cathedral in the Eleventh Century
- 3 Communities, Conflict and Episcopal Policy in the Diocese of Lichfield, 1050–1150
- 4 The Acta archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium and Urban Ecclesiastical Rivalry in Eleventh-Century Rouen
- 5 Cathedrals and the Cult of Saints in Eleventh-and twelfth-Century Wales
- 6 A Bishop and His Conflicts: Philip of Bayeux (1142–63)
- 7 Ecclesiastical Responses to War in king Stephen's Reign: The Communities of Selby Abbey, Pontefract Priory and York Cathedral
- 8 Secular Cathedrals and the Anglo-Norman Aristocracy
- 9 The Lives of Thomas Becket and the Church of Canterbury
- 10 Caught in the Cross-Fire: Patronage and Institutional Politics in Late twelfth-Century Canterbury
- 11 Crown, Cathedral and Conflict: King John and Canterbury
- 12 The English Monasteries and their French Possessions
- Index of People and Places
- Other Volumes in Studies in the History of Medieval Religion
Summary
As one of the few surviving texts to have been produced by a Norman cathedral chapter during the eleventh century, the Acta archiepiscoporum Rotomagensium has long held the attention of scholars. Classified as a gesta episcoporum, the text was first edited towards the end of the seventeenth century, though was only studied for the first time in any real detail towards the end of the nineteenth. In recent years it has become one of the key focal points for scholars studying the rivalry that is believed to have existed between the cathedral of Rouen and its neighbouring abbey of St-Ouen de Rouen, which erupted most noticeably in the city during the last quarter of the eleventh century. This rivalry was played out on many levels, and the two institutions competed with each other for the restitution of land and other benefices from the duke and his leading magnates, as well as for the acquisition of relics and the subsequent attraction of pilgrims. Their rivalry also included the production of literary works, especially hagiographical texts. The abbey and cathedral are also believed to have competed with each other architecturally. Evidence for this is severely lacking, however, since little remains of the Romanesque structure at either site. Fortunately, detailed excavations have been carried out at the cathedral, which have revealed its eleventh century form, but the abbey has never been the subject of a survey in the modern era.
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- Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011