Proprietary churches, episcopal authority and social relationships in the diocese of León (eleventh-twelfth centuries)

Abstract

This article analyzes the subordination of proprietary churches to the bishopric of León in the eleventh and twelfth centuries from a social perspective that considers the consolidation of episcopal authority in relation to the social dynamics operating at the local level. The transfer of proprietary churches to ecclesiastical authority was usually accomplished through donations that were part of a wider process of gift-giving and social bonding that in turn allowed the proprietors to obtain certain concessions. However, from the mid-eleventh century the emergence of a newly defined episcopal authority, in the context of the Gregorian Reform, gave new meaning to these practices and gave way to more coercive modalities of episcopal imposition over proprietary churches.