Exekutoren

The collation of ecclesiastical benefices by the pope cannot be understood as an arbitrary instrument of papal centralism or an expression of a claim of universal control. It was the local interest in the papal rescripts of provision which was decisive for the degree of papal intervention. A crucial phase in the development of this practice was the early 14th century, when papal intervention in local church organization obtained its characteristic legal and procedural features. Kerstin Hitzbleck examines the executors of the papal rescripts as the local representatives of the papal curia, who had to enforce the claim established by the papal letter. The thorough analysis of the contemporary papal legislation, the canonistic commentaries and the diplomatic sources of executorial procedure is complemented by a prosopographic study of the actual choice of the executors. The author provides a new picture of the different types of papal benefices in various regions as well as of the pragmatic adaptation of the canonistic norm to everyday practice.