The Structure of the Church, 1024–1073

This chapter discusses the structure of the Latin church during the mid-eleventh century, and deals with the secular church, the church of popes, bishops, lesser clergy and laity. It focuses on the structure of the mid-eleventh century church through evidence which is characteristic of the period. The structure is illustrated by examples from the liturgy and from the older canon law. The Litany that it contained began by invoking Christ himself, as saviour of the world. In the south, the organisation and structure of the church were even less settled, largely on account of political factors such as the vicissitudes of the Lombard principalities, the Norman incursions and settlement, and the existence until the fall of Bari in 1071 of a Byzantine catapanate. The diocesan and provincial structure of the French church in general followed the organisation of Roman Gaul. All over Latin Christendom, leading sees were vying to claim their place in the ecclesiastical structure.