Sub beati petri et nostra protectione suscipimus: re-framing the relations between rome and the kingdoms of portugal and aragon (eleventh-thirteenth centuries)
My research project will examine and compare the relations of the Papacy with Portugal and Aragon from the pontificate of Alexander II (1061-1073) to that of Innocent III (1198-1216). Portugal and Aragon have been chosen because were the only political realities in the Iberian Peninsula to enjoy the protection of St Peter in these centuries. These relationships have been interpreted as a feudal bond, but recent studies have started to challenge this image. This analysis will fit into and expand recent discussions of the relations between centre (Rome) and periphery, focusing on an ecclesiological perspective. To whom was the Apostolic See writing? And who was writing to Rome? Why? Did the letters concern practical or theoretical matters? What language and images were adopted by Rome to assert its primacy over Portugal and Aragon and what ecclesiological ideas? Was there ever a feudal bond between these political institutions and Rome? Or was the papacy only reacting to events, claiming a role that it could not play? Was there a particular style in use when writing to the pope? Did ecclesiastics and lay powers adopt similar or distinct formulas when writing to the Apostolic See? These are some of the questions the project aims to answer. Letters issued by the papal chancery are the main source for this kind of analysis because they always entailed the official view of the Roman church on a specific matter, showing the communication strategies and the ecclesiological ideas adopted by the Apostolic See to assert Roman primacy. Missives sent to the popes also played a decisive role in the creation of papal images. This project will shed light not only on the papacy and on the strategies adopted to support its claims of primacy, but also on views of the Roman church from a frontier of Christianity, which may (or may not) have been shared by the papacy itself.