What was the job of the bishops during the middle ages?

Answer 1

Bishops were the leaders of the church. The leader of the bishops, of course, was the pope. Bishops were often very wealthy. They dressed lavishly, wearing many of the same clothes as a feudal lord. Of course, they had their own religious garments to wear also. Bishops often had their own castles from which to conduct buisness. In this way, they were firmly entrenched in the feudal society. They were accepted in royal courts and dallied in politics. They also had many duties. They levied taxes and settled on issues such as annulments of marriages.

Answer 2

A bishop is in charge of an area called a diocese. He cares for the spiritual needs of the faithful with the help of priests in parish churches. From the end of Roman government until the establishment of new states (as in Gaul in the 5th and 6th centuries, for example), bishops exercised the only effective government. This was due to the lack of any effective civil government.

Answer 3

A bishop fulfilled various different roles at different times in the Medieval era. They served as both the head of a diocese (and so officially controlled the religious establishments within their respective ecclesiastical territories) and also a magnate to their suzerain (Feudal overlord), which was usually a monarch. As such, they were required to fulfill the typical roles of other magnates such as a collector of taxes or a raiser of armies on behalf of their suzerain. Following the papal decree Ad abolendumin 1184 they also acted (to varying degrees of success) as those responsible for dealing with local heresy. They often became responsible for adjudicating Medieval ordeals.

They were more often than not members of noble families (usually the younger sons after the late 10th century development of primogeniture) prior to the Gregorian reform movement of the mid-late 11th century. Though the higher ecclesiastical titles like Bishop and Archbishop were largely dominated by the nobility even after these attempted reforms.

That is a very brief overview but hope that helps!

Answer 4

The bishop was the head of a diocese, which was a territory with a number of churches in it. He was a priest, but in addition to the duties of priest, he performed certain ceremonies priests could not do, including such things as ordaining priests. A bishop, though usually three of them did this together, could consecrate a new bishop. The bishop had a great deal of authority over the priests of his diocese.