The Simony Crisis of the Eleventh Century and the ‘Letter of Guido’

The Epistola Widonis, or ‘Letter of Guido’, is a key source for the simony debates of the eleventh century, since it is usually considered the first major text to cast doubt on the validity of simoniacal ordinations. After examining the grounds for the letter's conventional dating to c. 1031 an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of ecclesiastical history
Main Author: West, Charles (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge Univ. Press 2021
In: The journal of ecclesiastical history
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Simony / Letter / Authorship / Dating / Geschichte 1060
IxTheo Classification:KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages
RB Church office; congregation
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Description
Summary:The Epistola Widonis, or ‘Letter of Guido’, is a key source for the simony debates of the eleventh century, since it is usually considered the first major text to cast doubt on the validity of simoniacal ordinations. After examining the grounds for the letter's conventional dating to c. 1031 and attribution to Guido of Arezzo, this article makes the case for instead locating the letter's origins in the 1060s, and explores the implications of a re-dating for the dynamics of the eleventh-century ‘moral panic’ about simony.
ISSN:1469-7637
Contains:Enthalten in: The journal of ecclesiastical history
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1017/S0022046921000063