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This book deals with public debate during the Investiture Contest (ca. 1040-1122). During this revolutionary struggle between the secular and the religious powers, polemical writers contributed to the arguably first 'public debate' in medieval Europe. A close reading of a selection of these polemics offers new views on the functioning of the medieval public sphere as well as how the public framework circumscribing the writers led to argumentative innovations. These include an increasing concern with interpretation and contextualisation, resulting in a more critical and probing intellectual community. Public debate during the Contest taught intellectuals how to argue in public and in that respect transferred a lasting legacy to the later Middle Ages and beyond.

Church history. --- Debates and debating --- Debates and debating. --- Intellectual life --- Intellectual life. --- Investiture. --- Investituurstrijd. --- Polemieken. --- Publieke opinie. --- History. --- Europa (geografie). --- Bishops --- Church and state --- Church polity --- Consecration of bishops --- Intellectual history --- Argumentation --- Speaking --- Elocution --- Forensics (Public speaking) --- Public speaking --- Rhetoric --- Discussion --- Oratory --- Christianity --- Ecclesiastical history --- History, Church --- History, Ecclesiastical --- History --- Europa (geografie) --- Investitures, Querelle des --- Débats et controverses -- Europe --- Histoire religieuse -- Europe --- Vie intellectuelle -- Europe --- Débats et controverses --- Église --- Vie intellectuelle

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Ever since its introduction in the 1970s, Ruth Finnegan’s notion of the oral-written, or the oral-literate, continuum has served as one of the most effective means of dispelling the dichotomous understanding of the two principal media of communication in the Middle Ages. However, while often casually invoked, the concept has never been made a focus of study in its own right. The present volume is an attempt to place the oral-written continuum at the heart of discussion as an object of a head-on theoretical investigation, as a backdrop to distinct processes of acquisition of literacy in different European regions, and, indeed, as a tool for navigating the rugged landscape of verbal forms, exploring the complexity of oral-literary interrelationships that they manifest. The articles probe the concept with a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, span diverse texts and genres, and involve a range of European cultural contexts, with special emphasis on Scandinavia and Northern Europe, but also reaching out to various other corners of the continent: from France, the Netherlands and England in the West, over Germany, Bohemia and Poland in the central region, to Serbia and Bosnia in the Southeast.

Scandinavian literature --- Literary rhetorics --- anno 500-1499 --- Literacy --- Written communication --- Oral tradition --- Rhetoric, Medieval --- Old Norse literature --- History --- History and criticism --- History and criticism. --- Alphabétisation --- Communication écrite --- Tradition orale --- Rhétorique médiévale --- Littérature vieux norroise --- Histoire --- Histoire et critique --- Europe --- To 1500 --- Rhetoric [Medieval ] --- Literacy - Europe - History - To 1500 --- Written communication - History - Europe - Written communication - History - To 1500 --- Oral tradition - Europe - History - To 1500 --- Rhetoric, Medieval - Europe --- Old Norse literature - History and criticism --- Tradition, Oral --- Oral communication --- Folklore --- Oral history --- Illiteracy --- Education --- General education