The literature of the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, a miscellany of fourteenth-century poetry and prose penned before, during, and after the insurrection, often stresses the importance of literacy to the nonaristocratic population of England.
‘Falseness Reigns in Every Flock’: Literacy and Eschatological Discourse in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
November 30, 2014 By
Nourishment for the Soul – Nourishment for the Body: Animal Remains in Early Medieval Pomeranian Cemeteries
November 25, 2014 By
Late medieval sources clearly refer to souls, which in traditional folk beliefs were periodically returning to feed and warm themselves by the fires made by the living. This kind of conception can be merged with Slavic eschatology. There is multiple evidence to confirm that belief some form of spirit or soul was spreading amongst the people, who in the early medieval period, bordered directly with Pomerania.
Bede’s Temple as History
October 28, 2014 By
Another IHR paper, this time, a talk given about Bede’s writing and his interest in the image of the Temple and its relation to Christianity. This paper also examined how Bede’s views shifted over time. How did Bede view Judaism? Was he truly ambivalent?
Jewish Shock-Troops of the Apocalypse
May 13, 2014 By
It would not be difficult to dismiss the legend of the Antichrist in its medieval manifestations as pure fantasy—analogous to such entertaining motifs as fire-breathing dragons, unicorns, enchantments and the like.
Death and Retribution: Medieval Visions of the End of Judas the Traitor
September 23, 2013 By
Although being described in the Book of Job as “the land of gloom and chaos” (“terra ubi umbra mortis et nullus ordo” Iob 10:22), Hell for Christian tradition was not a region of disorder and chaos, but a realm of well ordered justice.
The Final Countdown: A Historiographical Analysis on Language in the Year 1000 A.D.
August 15, 2013 By
We must now begin to ask ourselves what led to this increase in millenarian belief that the world would end between either 1000-1033 A.D.; 1033 being the 1000th year anniversary of the death of Christ. From the evidence provided in the first hand accounts of religious figures in the early eleventh century, it can be argued that this millenarian idea was not uncommon throughout Europe.
Why All the Fuss about the Body? A Medievalist’s Perspective
May 4, 2012 By
erhaps some help is to be found in the usual scholarly move of sur- veying the literature. What does the phrase mean in the rapidly increas- ing number of books with the body in the title-an increase only too apparent to anyone who walks these days into a bookstore?
Jerusalem in Medieval Christian Thought
April 29, 2012 By
In the prophetic tradition, the dwelling of God is understood as a spiritual one. Yet, in spite of the expressed manner in which Jerusalem was called The Holy City, an element of imperfection remained.
Sin, Penance and Purgatory in the Anglo‐Norman Realm: The Evidence of Visions and Ghost Stories
April 23, 2012 By
Historians have tended to explore these two changes of the ‘long twelfth century’ — the reinvention of penance and the rise of purgatory — in isolation from each other. Here I intend to focus on the relationship between the two, and to look in particular at one aspect of it: the implications of theological change for perceptions of the fate of the dead.
Painful Restoration: Transformations of Life and Death in Medieval Visions of the Other World
March 12, 2012 By
Bearing in mind this distinction, we must be aware of the fact that, in the context of the Christian religion, we are dealing with the fundamental concept of a double life—the life of the body and the life of the soul; and consequently with a double death—the death of the body and the death of the soul.
The Concept of Purgatory in England
February 26, 2012 By
The notion of purgatory or a third place had great and direct impact on the way people thought because this third place was the immediate destination of the soul after death in the minds of most Christians. People imagined at death that this would be the next form of being.
“Neither Mine Nor Thine”: Communist Experiments in Hussite Bohemia
February 20, 2012 By
Because of such circumstances the intoxicating influence of idealism and utopia continued to be pressed forward. One pervasive ideal was communism.
The Urbanization of Hell in Medieval Infernal Literature: “WhenTungdali met Lucyfer”
February 19, 2012 By
Hell was considered a grim reality accessible in special circumstances to a chosen few, through various forms of journeys.
Kingdoms and Beasts: The Early Prophecies of Hildegard of Bingen
September 3, 2011 By
Kingdoms and Beasts: The Early Prophecies of Hildegard of Bingen Czarski, Charles M. JOURNAL OF MILLENNIAL STUDIES, VOLUME I, ISSUE 2, Winter (1998) Abstract The twelfth-century Benedictine author Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) has long been famous for her first major work known as the Scivias, a description of her visions and her commentaries on them which she […]
Wulfstan’s Eschatology and its Sources
August 7, 2011 By
Wulfstan’s Eschatology and its Sources By Hans Bork Published Online (2010) Introduction: There is no shortage of scholarly works that study the eschatology of Medieval Christianity, as the topic has the rare combination of genuine historical relevance and broad popular appeal, and within this field works that treat the so-called ‘Millennial Panic’ of the year […]
Joachimite apocalypticism, Cistercian mysticism and the sense of disintegration in Perlesvaus and The queste del saint Graal
May 22, 2011 By
Joachimite apocalypticism, Cistercian mysticism and the sense of disintegration inPerlesvaus and The queste del saint Graal O’Hagan, Michael PhD Thesis, University of British Columbia (1983) Abstract The two early thirteenth-century romances Perlesvaus and the Queste del saint Graal are strongly influenced by particular theological doctrines. The primary influence on Perlesvaus is apocalyptic: not only does […]
Encounters with Monsters at the End of Time: Some Early Medieval Visualizations of Apocalyptic Eschatology
May 22, 2011 By
Encounters with Monsters at the End of Time: Some Early Medieval Visualizations ofApocalyptic Eschatology Lewis, Suzanne Different Visions: A Journal of New Perspectives on Medieval Art, Issue 2, June (2010) Abstract In our long history of interpreting apocalyptic images in medieval manuscripts, we have tended to resist the idea of eschatological expectation as a major creative force. […]
Madonna of the Sun and the Moon — Virgin Mary as an Apocalyptic Woman and the Representations of the Picture Type in Finland
January 15, 2011 By
Madonna of the Sun and the Moon — Virgin Mary as an Apocalyptic Woman and theRepresentations of the Picture Type in Finland Vuorela, Anu (University of Turku) Masters Thesis, MIRATOR LOKAKUU/OKTOBER/OCTOBER (2002) Abstract The topic of this article is a special type of picture of Virgin Mary, an apocalyptic Madonna. Even though there are all in […]
Holy Shit: Bosch’s Bluebird and the Junction of the Scatological and the Eschatological in Late Medieval Art
January 13, 2011 By
Holy Shit: Bosch’s Bluebird and the Junction of the Scatological and the Eschatological in Late Medieval Art Mandabach, Marisa (Harvard University) Marginalia, Vol. 11, October (2010) Abstract In the Hell panel of the Garden of Earthly Delights (ca. 1500), a devil with the head of a bird and a humanoid body with glowing blue skin […]
Imperfect Apocalypse: Thomas of Erceldoune’s Reply to the Countess of Dunbar in MS Harley 2253
January 13, 2011 By
Imperfect Apocalypse: Thomas of Erceldoune’s Reply to the Countess of Dunbar in MS Harley 2253 Flood, Victoria (University of Swansea) Marginalia, Vol. 11, (2010) Abstract The reply of ‘Thomas de Essedoune’ to the Countess of Dunbar in Harley 2253 is the earliest recorded prophecy ascribed to the Scottish prophet Thomas of Erceldoune, known elsewhere as […]
The Apocalypse and Religious Propaganda: Illustrations by Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach The Elder
January 13, 2011 By
The Apocalypse and Religious Propaganda: Illustrations by Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach The Elder Hartmann, Denise Alexandra (University of Toronto) Marginalia, Vol. 11, (October 2010) Abstract Apocalypse imagery was highly sought after in Germany during the 14th and 15th centuries, attributable to the millenialist belief that the world was coming to an end in the […]
ANGELS IN ISLAM
January 9, 2011 By
ANGELS IN ISLAM Burge, S. R. (The University of Edinburgh) Phd thesis, University of Edinburgh (2009) Abstract This thesis presents a commentary with selected translations of Jalāl al-Dīn cAbd al- Raḥmān al-Suyūṭī’s Al-Ḥabā’ik fī akhbār al-malā’ik (The Arrangement of the Traditions about Angels). The work is a collection of around 750 ḥadīth about angels, followed […]
Measure and classify the usual time: the dogged work of medieval jurists
January 7, 2011 By
Measure and classify the usual time: the dogged work of medieval jurists Miceli, Paola Mirabilia 11,Tiempo y Eternidad en la Edad Media, Jun-Dez (2010) Abstract The custom has been linked in the juridical classic tradition and in the medieval one to the problem of the time. Nevertheless the conception of the temporality that was operating in each […]
Medieval Traditions about the Site of Judgment
December 20, 2009 By
Medieval Traditions about the Site of Judgment Hall, Thomas N. Essays in Medieval Studies, vol. 10 (1993) Abstract In his cryptic answer to a disciple’s question “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the consummation of the world?” Christ issues the ominous remark that “of that day and hour no one knoweth, […]
How you can Follow Us!