Dear Mr Darron: I should think that the basic "popular opposition" to
clerical privilege can be found in the teaching of all the so-called
heresies, ranging from the Cathars to the Waldensians. They are often
neglected because of the desire to see a unified Christian society under
the Roman church in the middle ages. But at the time ..... The
"governmental opposition" is to be found in the hostility of secular
princes and town governments to aspects of the privilegium fori and to
clerical exemption from taxes. Other than suggesting that you read the
magnificent Gabrial Le Bras, I think that Prof. Brundage at Kansas is the
best one to give you a lot of information on that point. Besides, secular
governments, whether princely and urban republican, often insisted with
some success on appointing clergy, which constitutes a related problem.
There the scholarly literature is vast ("also vast", I really should say),
and includes such wonderful studies as those of Geoffrey Barraclough on
Papal Provisions of 1935 and Dietrich Kurze on Pfarrerwahlen im
Mittelalter of 1966. Yours, John Mundy
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