Includes bibliographical references (p. [661]-735) and indexes.

Preliminary Materials / L. Melve -- Introduction / L. Melve -- Chapter one. Structural Changes in the Public Sphere During the Investiture Contest / L. Melve -- Chapter two. The Early-Period Polemics and Public-Sphere Formation: The De Ordinando Pontifice / L. Melve -- Chapter three. Polemical Warfare in the Papal and Royal Chanceries (1073–1082) / L. Melve -- Chapter four. Gebhard, Wenrich, Manegold, and Guido Debating the Papal Letter to Hermann of Metz / L. Melve -- Chapter five. Peter Crassus and the Legal Renaissance of the Eleventh Century (C. 1080 –1084) / L. Melve -- Chapter six. The ‘Right Order of the World’ According to the Liber de Unitate Ecclesiae Conservanda / L. Melve -- Chapter seven. The Political-Theoretical Orientation of the Late Period: De Investitura Episcoporum (1109) / L. Melve -- Chapter eight. The Public Debate on the Investiture Question (1058–1122) / L. Melve -- Conclusion / L. Melve -- Bibliography / L. Melve -- Index / L. Melve.

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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.