Emotions, gender, and authority at the curia of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216)

Project Information

PapalEmotions

Grant agreement ID: 838982

DOI

10.3030/838982

Project closed

EC signature date 10 April 2019

Start date 2 September 2019

End date 1 September 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 207 312,00

EU contribution

€ 207 312,00

Coordinated by

AALBORG UNIVERSITET
Denmark

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PapalEmotions (Emotions, gender, and authority at the curia of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216))

Reporting period: 2019-09-02 to 2021-09-01

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The Marie Skłodowska Curie Action (MSCA) ‘Emotions, Gender, and Authority at the Curia of Pope Innocent III (1198-1216)’ examined how one of the most prominent popes of the Middle Ages, Innocent III, and his curia used emotive language to assert authority at times during which it was challenged, and how they used emotional signification to convey an exclusively male form of authority. The research questions the status of the papal office as an ‘agender’ institution and develops the study of emotions in papal writing as a previously untapped resource for the examination of papal authority.

These areas of research are important for society because they provide an insight into the deep history of the male monopoly over highly professionalised and powerful societal roles; contribute to our understanding of how men’s emotions are policed and read; and of the socio-political uses of emotion by prominent rulers.

The objectives of this MSCA were to make two critical inventions in the existing literature. 1) to demonstrate the centrality of emotions to the communication of papal authority in the writings of Innocent and his curia. 2) to show that a gendered approach to emotions enables us to understand how gendered discourse shaped the communication of authority. Both are critically important for understanding how emotions have been leveraged as political tools. Innocent’s pontificate was a watershed moment in the development of papal authority and provides an excellent case study for how emotions were employed rhetorically and narratively in curial texts in times of crisis, reform, and renewal.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Work was conducted via 5 work packages (WPs). WPs 1–3 comprised qualitative analysis of papal letters, sermons, and biography that yielded 3 conference publications, one research seminar presentation, two articles which have been submitted for review, one article in progress written collaboratively with the research supervisor, and a series of international workshops. WP4 involved activities designed to aid the researcher’s career development and disciplinary professionalisation; achieved via conference attendance, the development of career-planning and time-management skills with the guidance of the supervisor, applying for a fellowship, and the honing of the researcher’s skills in reading papal documents, Latin, and palaeography. The intention of WP5 was to disseminate results to the project’s stakeholders and the wider public. This included presentations to relevant research groups at the home institution (Aalborg University) and a series of outreach activities such as the development of a project website and workshops delivered to a local high school.

Results of this MSCA are reported in 1) three conference presentations and one seminar presentation 2) two journal articles under review and one article in progress.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The MSCA has developed the field of medieval masculinity, gender studies, and the history of the papacy in a number of ways. The series of international workshops brought together leading experts and early-career researchers in the fields of Gender History, Women’s History, and Masculinity Studies to re-orient questions on the construction of medieval masculinities in considerations of gendered inequalities in power and the monopolisation of professional offices by men in the Middle Ages. The researcher is seeking to edit a special issue of a journal and will invite the participants in this workshop to publish their contributions. The articles have paved the way forward for the application of methodologies and conceptual approaches drawn from the History of Emotions to papal documents in order to trace how medieval popes used emotions to communicate (an exclusively masculine) authority, and to make visible gendered inequalities that are often difficult to trace in official writing. The articles and conference presentations in particular have, more broadly, demonstrated the value and importance of treating the papacy as a gendered office, a line of enquiry which has thus far been absent in medieval masculinity studies.

Impacts anticipated from the MSCA are: a more widespread understanding of the importance of the deep history of gendered relations, emotions in political communication, and of how men’s emotions are policed, performed, and read; enhanced public and academic perception of medieval history as a field which can make important contributions to the understanding of gendered inequalities; and sustained dialogues between early-career and established historians interested in masculine hegemony.

704549-billede-papal-2.jpg