Ecclesiastical History Archive
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Projecting Power in Sixth-Century Rome: The church of Santi Cosma e Damiano in the late antique Forum Romanum
Posted on December 4, 2013 | No CommentsIn the year 526 CE, the bishop of Rome, Pope Felix IV, petitioned the Ostrogoth king Theoderic for permission to convert a small complex in the Forum Romanum into a place of worship dedicated to the Saints Cosmas and Damian...This paper critiques traditional interpretations of this church—its physical location and its apse mosaic—in light of new research that nuances our understanding of the historical context in which it was commissioned. -
Mundane Uses of Sacred Places in the Central and Later Middle Ages, with a Focus on Chartres Cathedral
Posted on December 2, 2013 | No CommentsAlthough technically reserved for worship, church buildings were put to numerous non-devotional uses in the Middle Ages, raising the question just how set apart from daily life medieval churches were. -
The Council of Trent (1545–63) and Michelangelo’s Last Judgment (1541)
Posted on November 20, 2013 | No CommentsMichelangelo’s Last Judgment is one of the world’s most famous paintings, located in one of the world’s most famous rooms, the Sistine Chapel. -
Simoniaca Heresis
Posted on November 20, 2013 | No CommentsWith Gregory the Great (pope, 590–604) the expression simoniaca heresis becomes a frequently used phrase. -
Judging Female Judges: Sir John Fortescue’s Vision of Women as Judges in De Natura Legis Naturae
Posted on November 14, 2013 | No CommentsJudging Female Judges: Sir John Fortescue’s Vision of Women as Judges in De Natura Legis Naturae Emma Hawkes Limina, Volume 8, (2002) Abstract The fifteenth-century English legal commentary, De Natura Legis... -
How did Christians view the Rise of Islam?
Posted on November 3, 2013 | No CommentsWhen Muslim armies came out of Arabia in the 630s and 640s, Christian writers of the time saw it a sign that the Apocalypse had come. -
The Medieval Papacy, by Brett Whalen
Posted on October 30, 2013 | No CommentsThe Medieval Papacy explores the unique role that the Roman Church and its papal leadership played in the historical development of medieval Europe. -
The Italian Giant Bibles, Lay Patronage, and Professional Workmanship
Posted on October 27, 2013 | No CommentsEleventh-century Umbro-Roman Giant Bibles were commissioned by varied church and lay patrons (and not only by Roman reform- party adherents) and crafted by ad hoc assemblies of paid craftsmen using methods of carefully calibrated, synchronous copying to reduce production time for the single commission. -
New book examines the controversy over clerical marriage in the Middle Ages
Posted on September 30, 2013 | No CommentsAround the year 1100 the Papacy set about to end the practice of priests and bishops being able to marry. The church hoped to impose the same standards of celibacy that were followed by monks. A new book examines how ecclesiastical figures within the Catholic church dealt with the change. -
The City and the Cross: the image of Constantinople and the Latin empire in thirteenth-century papal crusading rhetoric
Posted on September 25, 2013 | No CommentsThis paper examines the way papal rhetoric made use of the image and reputation of the city of Constantinople in order to legitimise and incite support for its crusading calls for the defence of the Latin empire after 1204. -
Frankish involvement in the Gregorian mission to Kent
Posted on September 13, 2013 | No CommentsThis article re-examines the primary documents relating to the sixth century Gregorian Mission to Kent in light of the modern historiographical tradition which claims Frankish hegemony existed over the Kentish Kingdom under Aethelberht’s rule. -
The Clerical Wife: Medieval Perceptions of Women During the Eleventh‐ and Twelfth‐Century Church Reforms
Posted on August 25, 2013 | No CommentsTo those who promoted the agendas of the eleventh and twelfth century church reforms the cleric’s wife embodied those things which inhibited the process of man reaching the holy: lust, defilement, worldliness, and temptation. -
Church Reunification: Pope Urban II’s Papal Policy Towards the Christian East and Its Demise
Posted on August 18, 2013 | No CommentsWhat separates this brief work from that of previous historians is that it focuses on the formation and changes of papal policy in regards to the Eastern Orthodox Church during the First Crusade, exclusively. -
The Pagans and the Other: Varying Presentations in the Early Middle Ages
Posted on August 6, 2013 | No CommentsThe Pagans and the Other: Varying Presentations in the Early Middle Ages Ian Wood Networks and Neighbours, Volume One, Number One (2013) Abstract This paper discusses the position of the... -
Worse than buggery? Incest discourses in the 12th and 13th centuries
Posted on August 2, 2013 | No CommentsIn my paper today, I will not attempt the question why it was possible that the law developed in such an extreme way as to exclude such an excessive number of people as potential marriage partners, although my opinions on some recent approaches to this problem may become transparent in the course of this talk. Instead, my interest is focussed on what I call the incest discourses in the twelfth and thirteenth century. -
The Legend of the Female Pope in the Reformation
Posted on August 2, 2013 | No CommentsThough no one believed she reigned with divine approval, for the reformers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the female pope was indeed a godsend. -
A Comparison of Interrogation in Two Inquisitorial Courts of the Fourteenth Century
Posted on July 27, 2013 | No CommentsThe spread of the Cathar heresy in Western Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was perceived as a real challenge to orthodoxy. The Catholic Church soon employed all means possible in a reaction against this dualistic religion, which was especially widespread in the south of France and in central and northern Italy. -
The Christianisation of Bohemia and Moravia
Posted on July 27, 2013 | No CommentsThe territory of what is now Czech Republic consists of essentially two lands, Bohemia and Moravia. -
The Sorcery Trial of Alice Kyteler
Posted on July 26, 2013 | No CommentsIn 1324, Richard Ledrede, bishop of Ossory, declared that his diocese was a hotbed of devil worshippers. The central figure in this affair was Alice Kyteler, a wealthy Kilkenny woman who stood accused of witchcraft by her stepchildren. -
Were there heretics in medieval Ireland?
Posted on July 26, 2013 | No CommentsIn her article, 'Heresy in Ireland in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries', Bernadette Williams uncovers some cases where people were accused and convicted of heresy, including insulting the Virgin Mary and denying the Jesus was the son of God. -
The attempted trial of Boniface VIII for heresy
Posted on July 26, 2013 | No CommentsHow do you accuse a sitting Pope of being a heretic? -
Absoluimus uos uice beati petri apostolorum principis. Episcopal authority and the reconciliation of excommunicants in England and Frankia c. 900-c.1050
Posted on July 19, 2013 | No CommentsNo mention is made of any rite being followed by Bishop Wulfstan on this occasion, but services for the reconciliation of excommunication are first recorded in the tenth and eleventh centuries. -
Inquiring into Adultery and Other Wicked Deeds: Episcopal Justice in Tenth- and Early Eleventh-Century Italy
Posted on July 18, 2013 | No CommentsThis article suggests that Italian bishops often had recourse to spiritual penalties to exercise their coercive authority over serious offences during the tenth and early eleventh centuries. -
Lay Religion and Pastoral Care in Thirteenth Century England: the Evidence of a Group of Short Confession Manuals
Posted on July 18, 2013 | No CommentsThis poses a question: where did these engaged laypeople come from, and when? There is some evidence that suggests they should be pushed back to the thirteenth century. -
The Greek Church of Cyprus under Latin Rule
Posted on July 7, 2013 | No CommentsWhen Western Europeans took over the island of Cyprus in 1191, did it lead to religious turmoil between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches?
