Tension between bishop and count in 12th century + existence of "chaplains"

[rosesnake]

Hello everyone,

I'm not so much looking for answers to a question here as advice and suggestions (hope that's ok).

My situation is this :

Comments

[syntinen_laulu]

I second all that sollersuk and irreparable have said.

Plus: even a minor noble, let alone a near-independent minor monarch of the status you describe, would certainly have his own chaplain to say mass in his household daily and confess him as necessary; it simply was no part of a bishop's job to trail around after secular persons tending to their individual spiritual needs. This would be a personal appointment in which the bishop had no say; the cleric chosen might well originally come from outside the diocese, and would not come under the bishop's authority purely by reason of his job. It would not be at all unusual for the chapels in a 12th-century ruler's own castles to be exempt from diocesan control, as medieval monarchs were acutely aware of the need not to be beholden to their bishops (in England such a royal chapel goes by the rather quaint term 'Royal Peculiar'). Monastic foundations also often were exempt from diocesan control, and other churches might be if they could prove that they had historically been subject only to the Pope. Plus, within the county there might be 'islands' of territory that for historical reasons belonged to another diocese. So there would normally be no expectation, let alone compulsion, for your count to make his confession to the bishop; nor could the bishop interfere with the religious component of the count's own household, or forbid the saying of Mass or anything like that.

If you really want there to be a stand-off over the count not wanting to confess to the bishop, you could hand-wave some purely local tradition whereby the count (like his father and grandfather before him) annually took the Sacrament at the hands of the bishop on a given church feast day. However, while it might cause a bit of a hoo-ha if one year the count simply refused to do it, this would only be a breach of custom and a snub rather than an act of irreligiosity, as the count would presumably just have his chaplain confess him instead.

By the way, I do suggest you cross-post this to the Oltra Mar community, where there are several people with a keen interest in this kind of stuff.