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The Pope Who Quit
Posted on December 15, 2012 | No CommentsWhat led him to make that decision and what happened afterward would be shrouded in mystery for centuries. -
A Single Leaf: Tolkien’s Visual Art and Fantasy
Posted on December 10, 2012 | No CommentsWith such a model in mind, then, we have entered into a discussion of art, myth‐making, and the Primary World from a combined academic and artistic perspective. -
Columban Christian influence in Northumbria, before and after Whitby
Posted on December 7, 2012 | No CommentsThe Synod of Whitby of 664 has traditionally been regarded as the great 'set-piece' debate between the so-called 'Celtic' and Roman churches in Britain, and as the turning-point for Irish - and more specifically Columban - ecclesiastical domination in Northumbria (and beyond). -
The Consuetudines canonice of Lund
Posted on December 4, 2012 | No CommentsIn this paper we shall deal with the customs in Lund, the so-called Consuetudines canonice. -
The Origins of the Great Schism
Posted on November 29, 2012 | No CommentsOne of the more profound of such differences—and one which would shape the course of religious development in the eastern and western worlds—is the nature of the Latin and Greek languages. -
Origins and Consequences of Canossa: the Evolution of Imperial-Papal Relations through the 11th century
Posted on November 28, 2012 | No CommentsThe relationship between the German monarchs and the Roman papacy in the Middle Ages was an accepted partnership of mutual interests. The theme and scope of this essay is to explore the historical processes that fashioned such interdependence. -
Imperial Ideology: The Idea of the Universal Christian Empire in Late Antiquity
Posted on November 28, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper examines the evolution of Christian universalist ideologies from the year 300 AD to about 800 AD, with a focus on their development in the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. -
The Church in Fourteenth-Century Iceland: Ecclesiastical Administration, Literacy, and the Formation of an Elite Clerical Identity
Posted on November 28, 2012 | No CommentsIn what follows, therefore, I provide a detailed study of Icelandic clergy and the institutions of the Icelandic Church in the period from 1300 to 1404. -
The Schism that never was: Old Norse views on Byzantium and Russia
Posted on November 23, 2012 | No CommentsIt is my contention that, in the general view of Icelanders, the Christian world was united, ’catholic’ in the original meaning of the word. Christianity in the East was thought to have similar roots to Christianity in Iceland and differences between the religions of Nordic and Eastern people were considered insignificant. -
Exploring the Connections between Metaphysics and Political Thought in the Age of Wyclif and Gerson
Posted on November 22, 2012 | No CommentsRussell focuses on how important late medieval thinkers such as John Wyclif (c. 1320 – 1384) and Jean Gerson (1363–1429) understood metaphysics and how this had an instrumental effect on their political thought. -
Tracing the Tradition of Medieval Parochial Peace-Making
Posted on November 21, 2012 | No Comments'If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee; Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift.' -
An 11th-Century Scandal
Posted on November 18, 2012 | No CommentsComplaints from Damian about the church’s unwillingness to confront the sexual behavior of the clergy, however, met with inaction. In 1049 Damian wrote to Pope Leo IX (1048-54) about the cancer of sexual abuse that was spreading through the church: boys and adolescents were being forced and seduced into performing acts of sodomy by priests and bishops; there were problems with sexual harassment among higher clergy; and many members of the clergy were keeping concubines. -
Gargano Comes to Rome: A Revision of Castel Sant’Angelo’s Historical Origins
Posted on November 14, 2012 | No CommentsThis article explores the early medieval transformation of a pagan Roman monument, Hadrian’s tomb, into a Christian fortress consecrated to St Michael. -
Excusing the Inexcusable: Abbots Who Diminish the Patrimony, and the Monks Who Love Them Anyway
Posted on November 7, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper was part of the fantastic SESSION IV: Abbots between Ideals and Institutions, 10th–12th Centuries. This paper focused on the writing about abbots during the tumultuous period of Stephen's reign. -
The Papacy and the Imperial Court in the Aftermath of the Acacian Schism
Posted on November 6, 2012 | No CommentsViezure's paper examines how the Papacy portrayed their efforts to end the Acacian Schism, in what she describes as 'an attempt to paint the image of a powerful Pope.' -
Abbot Majolus of Cluny, Ambassador to the Dead
Posted on November 6, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper was part of a intriguing session on monasticism entitled: SESSION IV: Abbots between Ideals and Institutions, 10th–12th Centuries. Here, we meet the unsung hero of Cluny's early history, Abbot Majolus. -
Christian Living Explained: Alcuin’s De virtutibus et vitiis liber in a Carolingian Instructional Manual
Posted on November 3, 2012 | No CommentsAnother paper from the yesterday's SESSION I: Lived Religion in the Middle Ages. This paper focused on Alcuin of York's contribution to the standardisation of Carolingian Christian texts for pastoral instruction. -
Ruthless Oppressors? Unraveling the Myth About the Spanish Inquisition
Posted on October 29, 2012 | No CommentsFrom its inception to the present, critics of the Spanish Inquisition has characterized the institution as omnipotent and oppressive and highlighted its role in the expulsion, forced conversion, and execution of supposed heretics. -
God’s Warriors from the Czech Kingdom – the Terror of Central and Eastern Europe in the First Half of the 15th Century
Posted on October 28, 2012 | No CommentsThe aim of this study is to point out a distinct phenomenon in the history of Central And Eastern Europe wherein part of the population of a fairly small kingdom in Central Europe invoked justified fear throughout the majority of Europe. Czech history is not all that popular a theme of study within the framework of European history. One of the few exceptions is the period of the first half of the 15th century in particular. -
Cathedral Schools: The Institutional Development of Twelfth-Century Education
Posted on October 24, 2012 | No CommentsA student of the generation around 1100, who sought learning beyond the ordinary and was desirous of hearing the best masters, would have to travel from school to school. -
The Friar and the Sultan: Francis of Assisi’s Mission to Egypt
Posted on October 24, 2012 | No CommentsIn September, 1219, Francis of Assisi went to Egypt to preach to Sultan al-Malik al-Kâmil. -
Managing tithes in the late middle ages
Posted on October 23, 2012 | No CommentsTithe represented a diversion to religious uses of around one-tenth of England’s agricultural wealth. -
The Punishment of Bigamy in Late-medieval Troyes
Posted on October 20, 2012 | No CommentsThe ecclesiastical judges of Troyes perceived the crime of bigamy as an attack on the very nature of sacramental marriage. The punishment for bigamy resembled that of heresy, or an offence on the level of a priest who committed homicide. -
Early Religious Practice in Norse Greenland
Posted on October 17, 2012 | No CommentsHow many Icelanders were Christian at the time of Greenland’s settlement? Were there any pagans? Did Greenland ever officially convert to Christianity and, if so, when? -
The Church and Slavery in Anglo-Saxon England
Posted on October 11, 2012 | No CommentsSlaves and slavery were an accepted part of everyday Anglo-Saxon life. This paper examines a range of original sources that reveal the ways in which the teachings and practices of Christianity and Christians were part of that acceptance.