Conclusion

Abstract

Excommunication was the medieval church’s most severe sanction, used against people at all levels of society. It was a spiritual, social, and legal penalty. Bringing into dialogue a wide range of source material allows ‘effectiveness’ to be judged within a broader context. The complexity of political communication and action are revealed through public, conflicting, accepted, and rejected excommunications. Excommunication was a means by which political events were communicated down the social strata of medieval society.