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Franciscan Archive
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Reality and Truth in Thomas of York: Study and Text
Posted on March 10, 2013 | No CommentsThe investigation is conducted through a study of opposites into which being is divided. These opposites are principally the one and the many, potency and act, truth and falsity. -
Love and Saint Francis of Assisi: A Performer in the Middle Ages
Posted on December 2, 2012 | No CommentsIn “spending most of his life out of doors, in all seasons” Francis defies the basis of what we call civilized existence; if history is about progress in terms of making human life secure from nature’s vagaries, Francis rejects such a conception of history, along with its false sense of security, in order to situate human life in and as the natural world. -
“The Eucharist and the Negotiation of Orthodoxy in the High Middle Ages”
Posted on November 15, 2012 | No CommentsThis paper is part of Adam Hoose's dissertation. It examined the differences between Waldensians and Franciscans in their treatment of the Eucharist. It also explored why the Waldensians were unsuccessful in their bid to become a legitimate religious order and were eventually marginalized as heretics. -
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. -
Richard III and the Lost World of Greyfriars
Posted on October 2, 2012 | No CommentsWhy has Richard rested there? Clearly the last Plantagenet ruler did not designate Greyfriars of Leicester for this honor. -
The Life and Miracles of St. Margaret of Cortona (1247 – 1297)
Posted on September 26, 2012 | No CommentsMargaret’s extraordinary career brings the historian closer to the early development of the Franciscans and the Order of Penance; it tells us much about how women saints were described, and about how civic cults of saints emerged. -
The Evolution of Natural Rights Tradition, 1100-1400
Posted on August 9, 2012 | No CommentsAs early as the late Middle Ages, both civil and canon lawyers put increasing emphasis on the rights and responsibilities of the individual. -
The Meanings of Nudity in Medieval Art: An Introduction
Posted on June 10, 2012 | No CommentsThis simplification is frankly astonishing when one considers the complex, multivalent and inventive iconographic contexts in which full or partial nakedness appears in medieval art. -
The Idea of Natural Rights – Origins and Persistence
Posted on June 10, 2012 | No CommentsBefore turning to this early history there is one more aspect of the contemporary situation that I need to mention. Even in the Western world, the original homeland of natural rights thinking, there is no consensus—and sometimes overt skepticism—about the existence and grounding of such rights. -
Faith and reason: charting the medieval concept of the infinite
Posted on April 23, 2012 | No CommentsI would like to start with some assumptions. First, I take it for granted that the apposition of negative terms to the Almighty God became quite early an accepted practice in Christianity, which caused in turn that the infinite, as an opposite term to something easily convenient to positive delineation, was admitted in the repertoire of God’s adverbial description. -
William of Ockham’s Early Theory of Property Rights: Sources, Texts, and Contexts
Posted on April 22, 2012 | No CommentsThis thesis is nominally about William of Ockham, a theologian who did not care to read potentially damning papal constitutions until tapped to do so by a superior (superiore mandate). Following a suggestion of R. G. Collingwood, a proper first question we should ask, is what was this supposedly unwilling theologian trying to do by composing the longest defense of Franciscan poverty ever written? -
VAGANTES: The Case of a Married Female Saint: Rutebeuf’s Saint Elizabeth of Hungary
Posted on April 6, 2012 | No CommentsRutebeuf suggests that Elizabeth converts her husband, in contrast with the documented reality of a pious crusading man. I will argue that Rutebeuf portrays and exaggerates marital tension in this text, both to create an interesting narrative and to enhance Elizabeth’s model as a saint. This work thus illustrates a fascinating intersection of faith and literature in thirteenth century France. -
Convents, Courts and Colleges: The Prioress and the Second Nun
Posted on March 22, 2012 | No CommentsPilgrimage, after Whitby, and before Vatican II, was a secular activity, a performance of piety by the laity, not by the clergy; although there were a few exceptions.7 Chaucer's Monk, Friar, Prioress, Nun, Priest, Summoner, Pardoner and Parson ought not to be here. Their presence is outrageous comedy. Inns were forbidden to the cloistered clergy who, if they had to travel, were enjoined to stay in other monastic establishments along their route. -
“The Letter Kills, But the Spirit Gives Life”: The Rise of Learning in the Franciscan Order, 1210-1310
Posted on March 14, 2012 | No CommentsThe twelfth century was marked by a general enthusiasm for two phenomena: scholastic learning and voluntary poverty. The division of society into clergy and laymen maintained itself in response to these two enthusiasms. -
Retroactive Heresy: The influence of early Christian heresies on the identification and reaction to heretical sects
Posted on February 20, 2012 | No CommentsThe medieval Church viewed itself as Defender of the Faith, the destroyer of the unbelievers, the wrong believers. These heretics were to be reviled and feared as perverters of God’s word. The perverters of orthodoxy were, ultimately, not to be distinguished from one another, but rather known by catchphrases. -
The monastic response to Papal reform: Summi Magistri and it reception
Posted on December 4, 2011 | No CommentsThis is a question which has dogged the history of the interaction between Rome and the Black monks, and it brings a second question in its wake - what were the medieval Popes trying to do with monasticism? -
The Medieval Friaries of London
Posted on November 14, 2011 | No CommentsThe five friaries under review are the houses that lasted up to the Dissolution in 1538: the Dominican Black Friars, the Franciscan Grey Friars, Carmelite White Friars, Augustinian Austin Friars and the house of Crossed or Crutched Friars -
The Friar of Carcassonne
Posted on October 15, 2011 | No CommentsThe Friar of Carcassonne: Revolt against the Inquisition in the Last Days of the Cathars By Stephen O’Shea Douglas and McIntyre, 2011 ISBN 978-1-55365-551-0 Publisher’s Synopsis: The dramatic story of... -
Christianity in Mongolian China and mission of Odoric of Pordenone
Posted on September 18, 2011 | No CommentsChristianity in Mongolian China and mission of Odoric of Pordenone Liščák, Vladimír (Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague) Archiv orientální / Oriental Archive Vol. 77, No.1 (2009) Abstract Odoric of Pordenone (c.... -
Getty Museum acquires 13th century Bible
Posted on September 7, 2011 | No CommentsThe J. Paul Getty Museum has acquired the Abbey Bible, a 13th-century Italian book that is considered to be an important example of Gothic era illuminated manuscripts. The medieval Bible... -
Adelard of Bath and Roger Bacon: early English natural philosophers and scientists
Posted on September 5, 2011 | No CommentsAdelard of Bath and Roger Bacon: early English natural philosophers and scientists Hackett, Jeremiah M. Endeavour, Vol. 26(2) 2002 Abstract The image of Roger Bacon as a ‘modern’ experimental scientist was propagated... -
Sisters Between Gender and the Medieval Beguines
Posted on September 3, 2011 | No CommentsSisters Between Gender and the Medieval Beguines Stoner, Abby Ex Post Facto: Journal of the History Students at San Francisco State University, Vol.5:2 (1995) Abstract The Beguines of northern Europe have... -
“Neoplatonic Influence in the Writings of Robert Grosseteste”
Posted on August 21, 2011 | No Comments“Neoplatonic Influence in the Writings of Robert Grosseteste” Hendrix, John Shannon (Roger Williams University) School of Architecture, Art, and Historic Preservation Faculty Papers (2008) Abstract Robert Grosseteste was appointed the first chancellor... -
Conversion Anxieties in the Crown of Aragón in the Later Middle Ages
Posted on August 1, 2011 | No CommentsConversion Anxieties in the Crown of Aragón in the Later Middle Ages RODRIGUEZ, JARBEL Al-Masa ̄q, Vol. 22, No. 3, December (2010) Abstract The conversion of Christians to Islam caused significant... -
The Letters of Eljigidei, Hülegü, and Abaqa: Mongol Overtures or Christian Ventriloquism?
Posted on July 27, 2011 | No CommentsThe Letters of Eljigidei, Hülegü, and Abaqa: Mongol Overtures or Christian Ventriloquism? Aigle, Denise (French Institute for the Middle East – Damascus) Inner Asia 7 (2005) Abstract This paper deals...