This article looks at the question of the formation of territorial principalities in western Europe through the issue of ecclesiastical advocacy.
Advocating change: monasteries, territories and justice between East and West Francia, 11th-12th centuries
February 1, 2014 By
What if the Arians had won? A Reformation historian reconsiders the Medieval Western Church
January 30, 2014 By
Diarmaid MacCulloch speculates on what Western Christianity would have been like in the perfectly plausible event of an Arian outcome to its emergence from the disappearance of the Western Roman Empire.
Under the aegis of the saints. Hagiography and power in early Carolingian northern Italy
January 22, 2014 By
This article gives an overview of the features, choices, tastes and models of sanctity characteristic of Italian hagiography, against the background of local contexts and political competition.
Promiscuous Priests and Vicarage Children: Clerical Sexuality and Masculinity in Late Medieval England
January 10, 2014 By
Historians continue to debate the the full extent to which priests had relationships with women, but unchaste clergy on the European Continent have been more forthrightly acknowledged and studied than those in England.
The First Jubilee
January 1, 2014 By
How did this tradition of Papal Jubilees start in the Middle Ages?
Pope Gregory VII: A Church Reformer
December 27, 2013 By
By the time that Hildebrand was appointed Pope Gregory VII, the Church was in dire need of change and direction.
Did St. Peter Damian Die in 1073? A New Perspective on His Final Days
December 19, 2013 By
The historical narrative of Peter Damian’s final years has been shaped by the belief that he died in early 1072. His chronic ill health, scholars assume, must have gotten worse as he reached his mid sixties.
Gay Reformers? Why the Medieval Church Banned Priests from Marrying
December 17, 2013 By
Among the issues that the current-day Roman Catholic Church is debating are whether or not priests should marry, and how accepting they should be of homosexuals. Interestingly, about nine hundred years ago both of these issues intertwined in the Anglo-Norman world.
The Holy Foreskin
December 9, 2013 By
When I first heard about the Sanctum Praeputium I actually thought it was a joke thought up by some medievalist. Apparently some medieval people thought so too!
Projecting Power in Sixth-Century Rome: The church of Santi Cosma e Damiano in the late antique Forum Romanum
December 4, 2013 By
In 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
December 2, 2013 By
Although 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)
November 20, 2013 By
Michelangelo’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
November 20, 2013 By
With 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
November 14, 2013 By
Judging 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 Naturae, is probably the most obscure of Sir John Fortescue’s renowned writings. Fortescue’s text examines female authority more explicitly than his other writings, there has, […]
How did Christians view the Rise of Islam?
November 3, 2013 By
When 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
October 30, 2013 By
The 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
October 27, 2013 By
Eleventh-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
September 30, 2013 By
Around 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
September 25, 2013 By
This 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
September 13, 2013 By
This 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
August 25, 2013 By
To 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
August 18, 2013 By
What 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
August 6, 2013 By
The 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 pagan ‘Other’ in medieval thought, arguing that although Paganism was alien to the Christian, churchmen wanted above all to bring the pagans into the Christian […]
Worse than buggery? Incest discourses in the 12th and 13th centuries
August 2, 2013 By
In 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
August 2, 2013 By
Though no one believed she reigned with divine approval, for the reformers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the female pope was indeed a godsend.
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