In dialogue: responses to papal communication

ABSTRACT This essay examines responses to papal communication in Latin Christendom principally between the years 1100 and 1400. It introduces seven multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary articles in a special issue of the Journal of Medieval History on this topic, while also exploring further examples that reveal the range of responses to papal communication and the significance of these responses. It emphasises the ways in which papal communication was tied to papal authority, the importance of examining the wider context and life cycle of papal communication, and it considers some of the methodological challenges that this topic poses.