Chronology of papal bullae

Suggested period: MEDIEVAL

Papal bullae are the seals from papal documents; there are currently (March 2019) just over 500 on the PAS database. Some will have been attached to land grants, but many will be from indulgences. The doctrinal history of indulgences is well understood, but their actual use within popular religion has been hard to study. Recent small-scale research (Gilchrist and Sloane 2005) has concluded that most papal bullae in England date from the mid to late 14th century, coinciding with the Black Death. We now need a bigger study to establish the relationship between the deposition of papal bullae and the details of both institutional and popular religion? In common with many other medieval topics, this is highly interdisciplinary, with links to theology and history.

Audit data

Created by: Helen Geake
Created: 13 years ago
Updated by: Helen Geake
Updated: 5 years ago