Popes and coins: The ceremonial distribution of money by the papacy during the Middle Ages.
Item
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Title
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Popes and coins: The ceremonial distribution of money by the papacy during the Middle Ages.
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Identifier
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AAI9521280
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identifier
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9521280
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Creator
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Ingoglia, Robert Thomas.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Howard L. Adelson
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Date
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1995
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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History, Medieval | Religion, Clergy | History, Ancient
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Abstract
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Medieval popes -- either personally or by proxy -- bestowed coins on several occasions. These distributions took two forms, the presbyterium and the jactus. The former was always a grant, usually bestowed personally by the pontiff, to individual clerical and lay recipients. The jactus, conversely, was a casting of coins to a crowd and was usually performed by proxy.;This study describes the who, where, when, and to whom of the presbyterium and the jactus. This necessitated relying, to a large degree, on the liturgical prescriptions written or compiled for the occasions which included these bestowals. The chronology of each distribution, as well as the connection between its ritual and other rituals will be clarified.;To describe, however, is not to explain. Certain puzzling aspects of the involved rituals have heretofore remained unexplored. The distribution of presbyterium, for instance, involved a peculiar use of the miter as well as the gesture of kissing the pope's knee. The casting of coins entailed the pontiff's recitation of a biblical passage (Acts 3:6) whose meaning is at odds with the bestowal of material wealth. The medieval explanation for the coin toss performed during a papal procession is inadequate. In these instances (and others), non-liturgical sources, as well as a detailed examination of the context of the bestowals, provided important clues to understanding ritual and significance.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
