Disabled Clerics in the Late Middle Ages: Un/suitable for Divine Service? (Premodern Health, Disease, and Disability)

The petitions received and the letters sent by the Papal Chancery during the Late Middle Ages attest to the recognition of disability at the highest levels of the medieval Church. These documents acknowledge the existence of physical and/or mental impairments, with the papacy issuing dispensations allowing some supplicants to adapt their clerical missions according to their abilities. A disease, impairment, or old age could prevent both secular and regular clerics from fulfilling the duties of their divine office. Such conditions can, thus, be understood as forms of disability. In these cases, the Papal Chancery bore the responsibility for determining if disabled people were suitable to serve as clerics, with all the rights and duties of divine services. Whilst some petitioners were allowed to enter the clergy, or – in the case of currently serving churchmen – to stay more or less active in their work, others were compelled to resign their position and leave the clergy entirely. Petitions and papal letters lie at intersection of authorized, institutional policy and practical sources chronicling the lived experiences of disabled people in the Middle Ages. As such, they constitute an excellent analytical laboratory in which to study medieval disability in its relation to the papacy as an institution, alongside the impact of official ecclesiastical judgments on disabled lives. "The petitions received and the letters sent by the Papal Chancery during the late Middle Ages attest to the recognition of disability at the highest levels of the Church. Disease, impairment, or old age could prevent clerics from fulfilling the duties of their divine office and can thus be understood as forms of disability. The Papal Chancery bore the responsibility for determining if disabled people were suitable to serve as clerics ; whilst some petitioners were allowed to enter the clergy, or remain active in the clergy, others were compelled to resign their position and leave the clergy entirely. Petitions and papal letters lie at intersection of authorized, institutional policy and practical sources chronicling the lived experiences of disabled people in the Middle Ages. They thus constitute an excellent analytical laboratory in which to study medieval disability in its relation to the papacy as an institution, alongside the impact of official ecclesiastical judgments on disabled lives."--taken from back cover Table of Contents 5 List of Figures 7 Preface 9 Introduction: A Formal Dialogue 11 1 Legal Origins of the Prohibition on Clerical Disability 59 2 Aetiologies of Impairment: Congenital, Geriatric, and Acquired Conditions 99 3 Joining the Clergy 137 4 Staying in the Clergy 193 5 Leaving the Clergy 239 Conclusion 275 Index 289