for pilgrimages (Southern, 1970: 94–100). In these respects it was like Mecca,
which never did develop any “papal” authority.
Between 1050 and 1130 Rome began to experience a rapid growth in
litigation coming from the monasteries, asking for autonomy vis-à-vis local
bishops, confirmation of their property rights, and special insignia of religious
rank. R. W. Southern (1970: 113) calls it “a scramble for honours, dignities
and exemptions.” The growth of the new monastic orders was riding on a
competitively expanding market for symbolic goods. Around 1130–1150 this
monastic litigation was joined by other ecclesiastical as well as secular claim-
ants. The pope was asked to settle disputes over property appointments among
rival jurisdictions, and to confer exemptions and benefits. By the early 1300s,
the volume of papal correspondence had grown a hundredfold since 1130
(Southern, 1970: 109). Rome became full of lawyers, and the papacy grew
FIGURE 9.2. PROLIFERATION OF CISTERCIAN MONASTERIES,
1098–1500 (Source: Southern, 1970: 254)Academic Expansion: Medieval Christendom^ •^457