The Medieval Clergy and Violence: An Historiographical Introduction

TL;DRAbstract

It is a commonplace that the Middle Ages were violent. Life then was demonstrably ‘nasty, brutish and short’. In medieval society war was a frequent event, and violence, or the threat of it, was often used to resolve disputes. The period was allegedly violent from its inception. Violence accompanied the transition from ancient to medieval society, as barbarians invaded the declining Western Roman Empire. Violence also arguably played a key role in the social and political formation of the medieval West. In the central Middle Ages weak central power and untrammeled violence arguably forced the vulnerable to seek protection from and accept subjection to an emerging military aristocracy. The social dominance of this warrior elite was bolstered, according to Marc Bloch, by the violence of external aggressors, the Arab, Magyar and Viking raiders who began attacking Europe in the ninth century. In the tripartite model of medieval society this noble class or ordo were indeed the ‘bellatores’,

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