ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the legal extent and restrictions of the authority of three different 'types' of peacemakers: the 'judge' the 'arbitrator' and the 'mediator'. It demonstrates that analysing conflicts according to distinctive types of peacemakers sheds light on the authority, behaviour, procedure and self-perception of peace-brokers with reference to the role of the early modern papacy as a peacemaking force. The medieval papacy claimed 'spiritual jurisdiction over all Christian rulers, ratione peccati' - that is, when they failed in their duties as good Christians. In such cases, popes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries felt entitled to act as the supreme judges of the world and 'to enforce the validity of their judicial decisions in purely political conflicts between temporal authorities'. Simon Roberts's anthropological observations offer a useful starting point for historical research on peacemakers and peacemaking.
