The research network, coordinated by Dr. Juergen Dendorfer (LMU Muenchen) and Dr. Ralf Luetzelschwab (FU Berlin), consists of twelve members – young researchers and established professors from Europe and the United States – and will meet twice a year alternately in Munich and Berlin for workshops. Their aim will be the pooling of current interdisciplinary research concerning the medieval cardinalate resulting in the “Handbook of the medieval cardinalate”.

Cardinals are the highest Catholic dignitaries after the pope. What is commonly assumed to be known about them is not necessarily what is really known about them. In the 11^th century parts of the Roman clergy alongside papacy obtained power and importance reaching far beyond Rome. Since then as cardinals they advised and supported the pope with his control of the church. Outside Rome they were seen as the church’s representatives. Subsequently, the cardinals conceived themselves as council and asserted their claim to participation in papal rule. As a result, the monarchy of the pope rather seemed to be an oligarchy of the cardinals.

For the lack of comparative studies that reach across time, the current state of research does not allow statements about the significance of the council of cardinals. Despite its central role in the History of papacy and the church the significance of this institution in the first centuries of its existence is a matter of conjecture. The first outcome of this network project of the German Research Foundation will be an anthology that gives a comprehensive overview of the state of research and points out areas of future research. Based on this overview, the project will work on new questions for research whose results will be presented to a large international research community on a conference.