Early mechanisms of abbatial succession: the case of Iona (563–704)
Authors
Publication Date
2022-02Journal Title
Early Medieval Europe
ISSN
0963-9462
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
30
Issue
1
Pages
73-100
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AO
VoR
Metadata
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McAlary, P. (2022). Early mechanisms of abbatial succession: the case of Iona (563–704). Early Medieval Europe, 30 (1), 73-100. https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12517
Abstract
Comments about succession to the Iona abbacy rarely go beyond the observation that most of the early abbots – but not all – belonged to the Cenél Conaill, the kindred of Iona’s founder, Saint Columba. This point privileges the role of eligibility criteria in the succession process at the expense of agency. This paper concerns itself with the specific mechanism that mediated the Iona abbacy: the central question is not ‘who’ could succeed, but rather ‘how’ they succeeded. It will be suggested that abbatial authority was passed from one abbot to the next via designations, whereby the reigning abbot appointed his own successor.
Keywords
Original Article, Original Articles
Sponsorship
Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/L002515/1)
Identifiers
emed12517, eme-2020-007.r3
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/emed.12517
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/333233
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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