In order to further disentangle the reality and fiction of this view of culture versus barbarity and of reform versus wickedness, I shall analyse twelfth-century Irish vitae.
Irish Hagiographical Lives in the Twelfth Century: Church Reform before the Anglo-Norman Invasion
September 7, 2014 By
Women’s Devotional Bequests of Textiles in the Late Medieval English Parish Church, c.1350-1550
August 18, 2014 By
My investigation is set within the context of the current high level of interest in the workings of the late medieval parish.
Royal and Magnate Bastards in the Later Middle Ages: The View from Scotland
June 15, 2014 By
Theory and Practice in Scotland and Elsewhere Medieval Scotland’s law on bastardy is set out in the lawbook Regiam Majestatem (c.1320)…In England things were different, as Michael Hicks has demonstrated. Admittedly, English heraldic practice eventually followed the French, and the formula ‘X bastard of Y’ is occasionally found for magnates’ bastards.
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.
Inquiring into Adultery and Other Wicked Deeds: Episcopal Justice in Tenth- and Early Eleventh-Century Italy
July 18, 2013 By
This article suggests that Italian bishops often had recourse to spiritual penalties to exercise their coercive authority over serious offences during the tenth and early eleventh centuries.
The Consuetudines canonice of Lund
December 4, 2012 By
In this paper we shall deal with the customs in Lund, the so-called Consuetudines canonice.
Temptation and Redemption: A Monastic Life in Stone
March 23, 2012 By
The monks who wrote the legend of Eugenia and those of the other transvestite women/monks were explicitly including a female in an all male monastic milieu. Women, as a rule, were not allowed in male monastic enclosures; the Rule at Cluny strictly forbade any women to enter the grounds.
Retroactive Heresy: The influence of early Christian heresies on the identification and reaction to heretical sects
February 20, 2012 By
The 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
December 4, 2011 By
This 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?
Why God Became Man: Saint Anselm, Cur Deus Homo, and a Religious Challenge in Anglo-Norman England
September 22, 2011 By
Anselm’s great contributions to the history of ideas have been the province of philosophers and theologians, while historians have concentrated on his actions as monk, abbot, and Archbishop of Canterbury during the Gregorian Reform.
Was there a Gregorian Reform Movement in the Eleventh Century?
September 11, 2011 By
Was there a Gregorian Reform Movement in the Eleventh Century? Gilchrist, John CCHA Study Sessions, 37(1970) Abstract If movements were simply a matter of counting heads, then the Gregorian Reform Movement would emerge unscathed. I simply draw your attention to the existenceoftheseries known as the Studi Gregoriani 7 vols.(1947-1960).Under the editorship of the late G. B. […]
Making and Using the Law in the North, c. 900-1350
October 18, 2008 By
It is clear that medieval Nordic law was transmitted orally long before it was written down. The Icelandic Free State law-book known as the Grágás, for example, specifically addresses its audience, reminding them that “tomorrow we go to the law mountain” Various other stylistic traits indicate previous oral transmission.
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