Italian Church and Social Mobility (1200-1500)

The role played by the ecclesiastical world in defining and changing social belonging has thus been a central theme in research into medieval social mobility. My article mainly dwell on the variety and breadth of the theme. In the first part I talk about nepotism and, above all, about how research has often found significant limitations to the hypothetical role attributed to the Church as a channel of social mobility. In the second part I discuss some problems related to the ecclesiastical world’s vastness and its many regional differences, and in a final section I illustrate some of the main perceivable chronological changes in the relationship between Church and social transformation in Italy.