Why did science and natural philosophy suffer such disparate fates in the two great civilizations of Christendom and Islam?
The End of the Ancient Other World: Death and Afterlife between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
October 29, 2015 By
Peter Brown gives lectures on ‘Gloriosus Obitus: Death and Afterlife 400-700 AD’ and ‘The Decline of the Empire of God: From Amnesty to Purgatory’
The Western Calendar – ‘Intolerabilis, Horribilis, et Derisbilis’ – Four Centuries of Discontent
October 4, 2015 By
We, with our cut and dried view of time-keeping, we who gather together to celebrate events four hundred tropical years after they have occurred, are all to easily incline to overlook the real reason for all the fuss in the Middle Ages about calendar reform.
Neither Cursed Nor Possessed: Mental Abnormality in the Late Middle Ages
September 24, 2015 By
I plan to address the more formal ecclesiastical proscriptions regarding mental abnormality.
Embracing Death, Celebrating Life: Reflections on the Concept of Martyrdom in the Order of the Knights Templar
July 15, 2015 By
Although research on the concept of martyrdom during the era of the Crusades has gained considerable prominence, it has rarely been applied to the Knights Templar. This is surprising, as the Templars were the first military order and paved the way for a new monastic development; they were devoted to warfare only; and they, together with the other military orders, but unlike most Crusaders, established a permanent presence in the hostile environment of the Holy Land, consequently facing the threat of death both regularly and frequently.
Could Christ Have Been Born a Woman? A Medieval Debate
July 7, 2015 By
There appears to have been continuing interest in questions about the sex of God, for in the 1150s Peter Lombard raised the issue in a new form, asking in book three of the Sentences whether God could have assumed humanity in the female sex.
‘Such a great multitude’: Biblical numerology as a literary device in Nauigatio Sancti Brendani
June 5, 2015 By
This presentation will begin by briefly summarizing the text, presenting evidence for its intended audience and purpose, defining Biblical numerology and outlining its role in Jewish and Christian textual traditions up to the early medieval period. Then the presentation will provide a handful of examples in the use of Biblical numerology in Nauigatio.
The Host in the late Middle Ages: superstitions, faith, miracles and magic
May 23, 2015 By
The problem of taking and metabolizing Christ had been a major concern in Medieval times.
God is Great, God is Good: Medieval Conceptions of Divine Goodness and the Problem of Hell
December 26, 2014 By
The medieval notions of goodness and hell seem to make God more a sadistic torturer than a caring parent.
Angels on Christmas trees and medieval ideas of hierarchy
December 19, 2014 By
In the fifth century, the medieval theologian Pseudo-Dionysius wrote the definitive work on angelic hierarchies, during which he asserted that there were nine orders of hierarchy, ranging from the most humble messenger angels to the most elevated archangels.
The Sincere Body: The Performance of Weeping and Emotion in Late Medieval Italian Sermons
November 30, 2014 By
In 1493 the well-known and controversial Franciscan preacher Bernardino of Feltre gave a series of Lenten sermons to the people of Pavia. On March 11 he dedicated an entire sermon to the necessity of contrition—or perfect sorrow over sin—in the rite of confession.
Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance
November 23, 2014 By
This study opens with a historical account of Corbie from its foundation until the reign of Charles the Simple, which clarifies the political importance of the abbey and its relations with rulers and bishops.
Flee the loathsome shadow: Marsilio Ficino (1433-99) and the Medici in Florence
November 9, 2014 By
This article examines the changing political landscape of Medicean Florence, from Cosimo de’ Medici (1389-1464) to his grandson Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-1492), through the letters of the celebrated neo-Platonist philosopher Marsilio Ficino (1433-99).
Does a Reformation End?: Rethinking Religious Simulation in Sixteenth-Century Italy
October 21, 2014 By
A paper examining the Italian Reformation.
The influence of conflicting medieval church and social discourses on individual consciousness : dissociation in the visions of Hadewijch of Brabant
October 10, 2014 By
This article examines the influence of the conflicting dis- courses in the medieval church and its social context on the subconscious experiences of Hadewijch of Brabant, a 13th century Flemish visionary, mystical author, vernacular theologian and Beguine leader
The Power of Word: Preachers in Medieval Dubrovnik
September 28, 2014 By
In the pastoral of the Franciscan and Dominican orders preaching became the principal task of their mission. Preaching manuals represented the basis of the new art. The preachers also used sermon collections, Bible concordances and exempla collections.
The Friars Preachers: The First Hundred Years of the Dominican Order
September 7, 2014 By
When Dominic of Caleruega began preaching in southern France in the early 1200s, he would have had no idea of the far reaching influence that the band of men he would attract would leave such a broad and enduring influence on medieval history.
Did Purchasing Power Parity Hold in Medieval Europe?
August 4, 2014 By
This paper employs a unique, hand-collected dataset of exchange rates for five major currencies (the lira of Barcelona, the pound sterling of England, the pond groot of Flanders, the florin of Florence and the livre tournois of France) to consider whether the law of one price and purchasing power parity held in Europe during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries.
The Medieval Understandings of Participation
July 17, 2014 By
Richard Cross, Stephen Gersh and Douglas Hedley speaking at the University of Notre Dame
Two Rabbinic Views of Christianity in the Middle Ages
June 15, 2014 By
In the sessions of our section over the past decade, I introduced a significant distinction between two rabbinic attitudes in the Mediterranean countries during the Middle Ages of 12th and 13th centuries as to their view of Christianity.
Like Father Like Son? Henry III’s Tomb at Westminster Abbey as a Case Study in Late Thirteenth-Century English Kingship
June 7, 2014 By
Who was this king, and who made this grand monument to him? An inscription around the edge of the upper tomb chest identifies its occupant as Henry III, the English king who died in 1272 after a reign of fifty-six years.
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.
Approaches to paganism and uses of the pre-Christian past in Geoffrey of Monmouth and Snorri Sturluson
May 5, 2014 By
The dissertation is a comparative analysis of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s and Snorri Sturlusson’s descriptions of paganism and uses of pre-Christian history. What was the function of these pre-Christian narratives, and what apporaches were used by the two authors to construct a complete image of the past, acceptable to their contemporary societies?
‘Just War’ and ‘Holy War’ in the Middle Ages
April 28, 2014 By
The current paper examines the issue of medieval war ethics from the perspective of the Byzantine case-study.
Least of the laity: the minimum requirements for a medieval Christian
April 20, 2014 By
This article investigates the minimum level of religious observance expected of lay Christians by church authorities, and the degree to which legislation and procedures attempted to enforce these standards.
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