The rich literature associated with the Desert Fathers provides convincing evidence of the important role played by charismatic figures in the transformation of Late Antiquity.
A British legion stationed near Orléans c. 530?
September 2, 2014 By
Several recent books lead the reader to believe that Vita sancti Dalmatii, written in c. 800, records a legio Britannica (a British army) stationed near Orléans in c. 530. As this paper demonstrates, the only correct detail of this purported record is the word legio, and this may well have a non-military connotation.
Merovingian Diplomacy: Practice and purpose in the sixth century
April 6, 2014 By
The practise of diplomacy has not been much studied in Merovingian Gaul, although there are numerous works that deal with its political dealings with its neighbours and with the administration and culture of Gaul at this time.
A Revival of Female Spirituality: Adaptations of Nuns’ Rules during the Hiberno-Frankish Monastic Movement
August 12, 2013 By
Before Columbanus, Irish abbots demonstrated little interest in producing monastic rules as we know them from the traditions of Benedict of Nursia and Caesarius of Arles. Preferring instruction by example to any documented tenets, Irish monasticism emphasized the conduct of the founding or ruling abbot or abbess as a model to imitate.
The Liber Historiae Francorum – a Model for a New Frankish Self-confidence
August 7, 2013 By
The Liber Historiae Francorum – a Model for a New Frankish Self-confidence Philipp Dörler Networks and Neighbours, Volume One, Number One (2013) The Liber historiae Francorum was influenced by different historiographic traditions. In this paper, I pursue two arguments. First, I believe that the author of the Liber historiae Francorum juxtaposes and slightly transforms these […]
Barbarians to the Balkans
March 17, 2013 By
In the High Middle Ages, in a now clearly articulated opposition between the West and the East, Europe and the Balkans began to emerge and be fixed as distinct and hostile entities. In Crusading chronicles, the Balkan lands lay on the way from Europe to the Holy Land. In the late twelfth and in the thirteenth centuries, the conventional separation line between the civilized and barbarian world, identical with the river Danube, began to break down and the barbarians came to be located in the Balkans.
The ‘Prehistory’ of Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of Books I-IV of Gregory’s Histories
February 11, 2013 By
In northern Gaul in the second half of the sixth century, a bishop of Tours, Georgius Florentius Gregorius, known to posterity as Gregory of Tours, composed eight books of hagiography and ten books of history. These testaments survive as evidence of the politics, society and theology of this post-imperial world.
Scissors or Sword? The Symbolism of a Medieval Haircut
October 6, 2012 By
Simon Coates explores the symbolic meanings attached to hair in the early medieval West, and how it served to denote differences in age, sex, ethnicity and status.
The Gallic Aristocracy and the Roman Imperial government in the fifth century A.D.
September 23, 2012 By
The recovery, however, proved to be too superficial for the continuing prosperity of either Gaul or the Western Roman Empire. The problems of the imperial government continued with little relief. The government still had to drive out and keep out the barbarians…
Constantius and the Visigothic Settlement in Gaul
September 21, 2012 By
The emperor Honorius made an attempt during his reign to calm the turbulent region of Gaul by assigning one of his generals to the area and appointing him as the head of the regions armies.
Episcopal Liberty and the Council of Paris (556/73)
November 4, 2011 By
Halfond takes a look at the reign of Charibert I, the Merovigian ruler of the Kingdom of Paris from 561-567, and his early relations with the church.
The role of the nobility in the creation of Gallo-Frankish society in the late fifth and sixth centuries AD
October 9, 2011 By
The role of the nobility in the creation of Gallo-Frankish society in the late fifth and sixth centuries AD Wood, Catrin Mair Lewis PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham (2002) Abstract The aim of this dissertation is to explore the contribution made by the nobility, both Gallo-Roman and Frankish, to the creation of a new society after […]
A Gregorian manuscript in the Ian Potter Museum of Art
August 21, 2011 By
A Gregorian manuscript in the Ian Potter Museum of Art Martyn, John R.C. University of Melbourne Collections, Issue 6, June (2010) Abstract In about 1000 a very interesting illuminated manuscript that probably held copies of all of the letters of Pope Gregory the Great was created. Five centuries later, 41 of these letters, from books two, […]
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