Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gives us a sympathetic Headsman in Reformation Austria, in the ‘Shadow of the Sword (The Headsman)’.
Love and Marriage on the Medieval English Stage: Using the English Cycle Plays as Sources for Social History
December 3, 2014 By
Much scholarship concerning the concept of “companionate” marriage traces its origins to the early modern period as clergymen, especially Protestant ones, began to publish “guides” to the relationships and respective duties of husbands and wives in the 1500s and 1600s.
King’s sister, queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her evangelical network
November 7, 2014 By
This study reconstructs the previously unknown history of the most important dissident group within France before the French Reformed Church formed during the 1550s.
Does a Reformation End?: Rethinking Religious Simulation in Sixteenth-Century Italy
October 21, 2014 By
A paper examining the Italian Reformation.
10 Things to See at Southwark Cathedral
September 24, 2014 By
My 10 favourite things about Southwark Cathedral.
ARTICLES: The Deflation of the Medieval in Joyce’s Ulysses
September 23, 2014 By
For James Joyce, Irish nationalism, with its appeal to patriotic emotionality and promotion of interest in the archaic and medieval Irish past, was suspect.
Boundaries in the making – Historiography and the isolation of late medieval Bohemia
July 27, 2014 By
This paper deals with an episode of early 15th century Bohemian history. During the so-called Hussite wars, a coalition of Catholic powers tried to establish a far-reaching blockade on trade and commerce against the kingdom of Bohemia, which then was considered to be a hotbed of heresy, and to be rebellious against its legitimate ruler and the papal church.
John of Gaunt and John Wyclif
June 14, 2014 By
Historians have always been somewhat puzzled at the alliance of two such men as John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster and third son of Edward III, and John Wyclif, controversialist and reformer.
BOOK REVIEWS: “The Chalice” by Nancy Bilyeau
April 8, 2014 By
My book review of Nancy Bilyeau’s, “The Chalice”.
Bernard of Clairvaux’s Writings on Violence and the Sacred
March 18, 2014 By
Monk, exegete, political actor and reformer, Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) was not just a man of his times; he was a man who shaped his times.
BOOKS:Medieval Celebrities!
March 3, 2014 By
They may not have won any Oscars, but they were definitely medieval celebrities! Here are some great reads about some of the most famous faces of the Middle Ages
Legal Centralization and the Birth of the Secular State
February 6, 2014 By
This paper investigates the relationship between the historical process of legal centralization and increased religious toleration by the state. We develop a model in which legal centralization leads to the criminalization of the religious beliefs of a large proportion of the population.
Lay Preaching and the Lollards of Norwich Diocese, 1428-1431
January 25, 2014 By
The following case-study of Lollards in Norwich diocese is in two parts. The basis for the study is a collection of records of heresy trials in the diocese of Norwich from 2 1428 to 1431.
St. Augustine’s Tower – Hackney, London
November 19, 2013 By
My trip to St. Augustine’s Tower in Hackney, London.
The Dragon and the Storm The Saracen anti-knight in Orlando furioso and Gerusalemme liberata
August 2, 2013 By
The Dragon and the Storm The Saracen anti-knight in Orlando furioso and Gerusalemme liberata Cam Lindley Cross University of Chicago, March 8 (2011) Abstract When Peter the Venerable commissioned Robert of Ketton to translate the Qur’an in 1142 CE, under the title Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete, it was with done for the express purpose of refuting Islamic doctrine […]
Blood beliefs in early modern Europe
June 29, 2013 By
This thesis focuses on the significance of blood and the perception of the body in both learned and popular culture in order to investigate problems of identity and social exclusion in early modern Europe.
Animals on Trial
February 24, 2013 By
The history of animals in the legal system sketched by Evans is rich and resonant; it provokes profound questions about the evolution of jurisprudential procedure, social and religious organization and notions of culpability and punishment, and funda-mental philosophical questions regarding the place of man within the natural order.
Understanding terrorism and radicalisation: a network approach
February 5, 2013 By
Our most recent work with this model has concentrated on the suppression of a network in the case of the Inquisition and the Cathar heresy in France in the 13th century; and on the spreading of a network in the case of the conversion to Protestantism of England in the mid-16th century.
The Doctrine of Active Resistance in the Sixteenth Century
November 18, 2012 By
This article will explore the late medieval sources and the sixteenth century context of Continental Reformation theologians’ response to that agony of conscience.
The Holy Roman Empire, the Schmalkald League, and the Idea of Confessional Nation-Building
October 12, 2012 By
Recent research on nationalism draws a fundamental heuristic distinc- tion between political and cultural nationalism. Scholars define the his- torian’s task as the analysis of political and cultural nationalism in each historic context.
“Partners in the same”: Monastic Devotional Culture in Late Medieval English Literature
September 9, 2012 By
To understand this apparent incongruity, it is, I argue, necessary to interrogate more carefully the continuation of monastic literary culture and its gradual diffusion beyond the walls of the cloister.
Religious Orders and Growth through Cultural Change in Pre-Industrial England
July 17, 2012 By
The central hypothesis advanced in the present study is that the cultural virtues emphasized by Weber had a pre-Reformation origin in the religious Order of the Cistercians, a Catholic order which spread across Europe as of the 11th century, and that this monastic order served to stimulate growth during the second millennium by encouraging cultural change in local populations.
German Hercules: The Impact of Scatology on the Definition of Martin Luther as a Man 1483-1546
June 6, 2012 By
Martin Luther’s employment of vulgarity, and specifically scatological vulgarity, in his writings and speech has drawn criticism, embarrassment, and accusations of psychological instability.
The legacy of the 13th Apostle: origins of the East Christian conceptions of church and state relation
April 26, 2012 By
In this article I wish to query the notion that there is a single Eastern Christian religious political theory, such a one that could be stood in opposition to Catholic medieval or early modern Protestant theories of church-state relations…
Lollard Theology: A Soteriological Analysis of the English Wycliffite Sermon Cycle
April 17, 2012 By
Prototestant ideas are evident throughout Wyclif’s later works and the flood of Wycliffite tracts and writings
which were published in the late 1370′s and 80′s; but they are most clearly and systematically communicated in the collection of English Wycliffite sermons which were compiled, one sermon for each of the services in the church calendar year, sometime near, or soon after, the end of Wyclif’s life.
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