Walking in the Shadows of the Past: The Jewish Experience of Rome in the Twelfth Century
During this pivotal century and within the special microcosm of Rome, Jews and Christians experienced unusually robust cultural and social interactions, especially as the Jews increasingly aligned themselves with the protective power of the papacy.
Writing the Order: Religious-Political Discourses in Late Anglo-Saxon England
The issue of how authority was created, maintained and defined in religious terms by the written word is therefore the main concern throughout this study.
The Danube Floods and Their Human Response and Perception (14th to 17th C)
This study will examine in particular the reactions of the people living close to the Danube River and its catchment area in “Austria” between the 14th and 17th centuries.
Olaf Haraldsson’s Relics – an Example of ‘Hagiocracy’ in Scandinavia
The model of “the suffering leader” was quite a common model of saint-hood in the medieval North. Throughout the Middle Ages, the majority of the saints venerated in the West (especially in non-Mediterranean countries), were kings and princes.
The Paradox of Evil: a Study of Elevation Through Oppression
For medieval mystical women, the ability to maintain two opposite concepts simultaneously seems to be requisite for spiritual development. Not only were women asked to comprehend humanity’s otherness from God, as women, they were assumed subservient to men and, paradoxically, as able to receive redemption as their male counterparts; women understood their nature as both inferior and worthy, lesser than and equal to.
Byzantine Pilgrimage Art
Who were these pilgrims? Literally, they were hoi polloi; they came from every stratum of society, from all vocations (including the indigent and sick), and from every corner of the Christian world.
Writing a Catastrophe. Describing and Constructing Disaster Perception in Narrative Sources from the Late Middle Ages
In the following, three forms of linguistic constructions of catastrophes will be presented and analyzed: firstly, the close imitation of biblical motifs wherein the event is stylized as apocalyptic or as a plague visited upon mankind by God, regardless of how severe the damage actually was; secondly, the establishment of a “canon” of motifs that late medieval chroniclers use when describing severe floods; and thirdly, the educated and literary exaggeration of relatively ordinary natural events as catastrophic.
Maccabees on the Baltic: the Biblical apologia of the Teutonic Order
The Teutonic Order, came into being as the third and last of the great medieval crusading orders. The Order began its existence as a temporary hospital for German speaking crusaders during the siege of Acre in 1190.
HAPPY ST.PATRICK’S DAY: Books on all things Irish! Sláinte!
Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with these great reads and some green beer!
Painful Restoration: Transformations of Life and Death in Medieval Visions of the Other World
Bearing in mind this distinction, we must be aware of the fact that, in the context of the Christian religion, we are dealing with the fundamental concept of a double life—the life of the body and the life of the soul; and consequently with a double death—the death of the body and the death of the soul.
The Lebor Gabála Érenn at a Glance: an Overview of the 11th Century Irish Book of Invasions
This document is intended as an orientation for students of the Lebor Gabála Érenn (LGE), a refresher for those who have read it in the
past, and a rapid reference in relation to the genealogy of persons mentioned in the LGE.
The art of medicine: Midwives and obstetric catastrophe: retrieving the past
For the historian, however, and for any healer with an eye for the human dimensions of medicine, the story has just begun. For Floreta is, in fact, the first known European midwife to be put on trial for the death of a mother in childbirth. Indeed, she is charged not with simple medical negligence, but with premeditated murder.
Magic and the Christian Image
My paper attempts to explore this medieval distinction between the magical and the Christian use of images.
Knowledge for Its Own Sake? A Practical Humanist in the Carolingian Age
Although recent studies have shed important light on the broader political and social context in which Lupus worked, this interesting figure’s literary activities continue to merit further examination within the cultural milieu of his own day
Sources of Spirituality in the Writings of Archbishop Hincmar of Reims
Archbishop Hincmar of Reims (845–882) was perhaps one of the most influential authors in Carolingian history. He donned the humble cloth of a monk only to transcend that humble destiny in his mission to bring spiritual perfection to an errant temporal sphere.
Tradition and Transformation in the Cult of St. Guthlac in Early Medieval England
Do the variations reflect changes in purpose, patronage, doctrine, liturgy, or intended audience? Are they due to differences in authorship, geographical origin, or regional preferences? Analysis of the variations introduced into the corpus of materials, both narrative and visual, for a given saint over the course of the Middle Ages in England can elucidate the social, cultural, and historical significance of these changes.
Boniface’s Booklife: How the Ragyndrudis Codex Came to be a Vita Bonifatii
The most recent addition to the family of literary genres may be the booklife. Finding its origin in Roland Barthes’s Roland Barthes and now taught in English departments, the booklife proposes a union of sorts of writing and living. Whether the genre will be long-lived is an open question, that it can be fruitful is not in doubt. But medievalists already knew that the dividing line between book and life is always thin, especially if that life has been lived in and among books.
Miracle Stories and the Primary Purpose of Adomnán’s Vita Columbae
Adomnán, the author of the VC, was Columba’s ninth successor to the abbacy at Iona. 1 A great deal about his career, concerns and life can be found in contemporary literary evidence.
Relics, Religious Authority, and the Sanctification of Domestic Space in the Home Gregory of Tours: An Analysis of the Glory of the Confessors 20
With the rival clerics out of the way, Gregory still needed to solidify his new and publicly contested position with local elites and other powerful members of his new congregation. Thus, much of what Gregory did early in his episcopacy was intended to convince the community at Tours that he was their right man.
Tutoring the Affections: Liturgy and Christian Formation in the Early Church
During Easter week in the early 390s Saint Ambrose preached a series of sermons to the newly baptized. Known by the title On the Mysteries, these sermons have often been studied for what one can learn about early Christian worship and sacramental theology
The legal status of religious minorities in the medieval Mediterranean world: a comparative study
From Baghdad to Barcelona, Jews, Christians and Muslims rubbed shoulders in streets and in marketplaces, shared meals, undertook joint economic ventures, traveled together, etc.
The Concept of Purgatory in England
The notion of purgatory or a third place had great and direct impact on the way people thought because this third place was the immediate destination of the soul after death in the minds of most Christians. People imagined at death that this would be the next form of being.
The medieval crossbow as surgical instrument: an illustrated case history
The crossbow could be carried loaded,required little training or strength,and propelled its quarrel or bolt with frightening accuracy and force for eighty yards on direct aim and double or triple that on extreme range.
Jaunts, Jottings, and Jetsam in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts
In British Library, MS Egerton 1993, a collection of Middle English saints’ lives, a late hand has entered in ink a memorable drawing that proudly displays its own rubric: “this is man” (fig. 1). Precisely what manner of beast man was occupied the attention of a number of doodlers who laid hands on Anglo-Saxon manuscripts.