The Investiture Contest in the margins: popes and peace in a manuscript from Augsburg cathedral

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article is an analysis of a dispute between the canons of Augsburg cathedral chapter and their bishop, Hermann II (1096–1133). It concentrates on a series of short texts collected in the margins of an older patristic manuscript and argues that most of these texts can be said to form a kind of dossier, likely assembled by the canons in the aftermath of a cancelled personal visit by Pope Paschal II (1099–1118) to Augsburg in 1107. In the conclusion, the case is situated in the broader context of papal communication at the time of the Investiture Contest.