Top 10 Antipopes
A list of men who ultimately failed to become Pope.
King’s sister, queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her evangelical network
This study reconstructs the previously unknown history of the most important dissident group within France before the French Reformed Church formed during the 1550s.
Conflicting expectations: Parish priests in late medieval Germany
The study investigates the expectations various groups in late medieval German society held of their parish priests and how these expectations were mediated through specific relationships.
Bede’s Temple as History
Another IHR paper, this time, a talk given about Bede’s writing and his interest in the image of the Temple and its relation to Christianity. This paper also examined how Bede’s views shifted over time. How did Bede view Judaism? Was he truly ambivalent?
Instructions for a Medieval Parish Priest
Myrc was a clergyman writing in England in the early fifteenth century, and his long poem was created to help priests who were not particularly learned remember all the most important parts of their work.
10 Terrifying Reads for Halloween!
Here are some spooky medieval books for you to celebrate with over Halloween!
The Episcopal Body and Sexuality in Late Medieval England
How was long-term celibacy thought to affect the health of religious men? How could medical knowledge help clerics to achieve bodily purity?
Gender and Matrimonial Litigation in the Church Courts in the Later Middle Ages: The Evidence of the Court of York
If some later medieval males thought the courts were biased, what might the female perspective have been?
The Floating State: Trade Embargoes and the Rise of a New Venetian State
This paper was given by Georg Christ and examined embargoes and state formation in the late medieval and early modern period in Venice.
Latin Patrons, Greek Fathers: St Bartholomew of Simeri and Byzantine Monastic Reform in Norman Italy, 11th-12th Centuries
St Bartholomew of Simeri (ca. 1050-1130), a Greek monastic founder and reformer from Calabria, saw the effective end of Byzantine imperial power in southern Italy in 1071, the conquest of Muslim Palermo by Robert Guiscard the following year, and the rise of the Norman kingdom of Roger II at the end of his life.
Aberdeen Breviary goes online
A copy of the Aberdeen Breviary, one of the first printed books in Scotland, has been purchased by the National Library of Scotland and is now available to read online.
10 Things to See at Southwark Cathedral
My 10 favourite things about Southwark Cathedral.
Fast and Feast – Christianization through the Regulation of Everyday Life
This article will illustrate that an important part of rulers’ wish to create a Christian society was the introduction of Christian legislation.
Europe and the beginning of Scottish sovereignty
Scotland’s story may have been distinctive, but its experience was not.
Objections to Episcopal Elections in England, 1216-1272
Objections to Episcopal Elections in England, 1216-1272 Katherine Harvey Nottingham Medieval Studies: 55 (2011), pp. 125-48 Abstract In August 1228, following the death…
Women’s Devotional Bequests of Textiles in the Late Medieval English Parish Church, c.1350-1550
My investigation is set within the context of the current high level of interest in the workings of the late medieval parish.
Amending the Ascetic: Community and Character in the Old English Life of St. Mary of Egypt
Among the most eligible saints for such treatment, Mary of Egypt deserves particular consideration: her popularity is evidenced by over a hundred extant Greek manuscripts of her Life and her uniquely prominent position in the Lenten liturgical cycle in the Eastern Church.
Redating the East-West Schism: An Examination of the Impact of the Sack of Constantinople in 1204
Although 1054 is indeed the date most often found on timelines and in textbooks—and therefore the date most often memorized by students of the medieval period—the majority of modern scholars recognize that the East-West Schism was in fact, as Timothy Ware writes, “something that came about gradually, as the result of a long and complicated process.”
The Myth of Pope Joan
The legend of Pope Joan is a myth whose origins can be traced to papal politics in the thirteenth century.
Norse Influences in the Organisation of the Medieval Church in the Western Isles
In its definitive form of a system of local churches serving identifiable districts, usually known as parishes, grouped together under a diocesan bishop, the medieval church cannot be said to have existed in the general area of Scotland until the twelfth century. At this time, and for some three centuries previously, the islands to the north and west, with parts of the adjacent mainland, were under Norse control.
Saints’ Cults in Medieval Livonia
Saints’ cults played a crucial role in medieval society. Although we know very little about the beliefs and rituals of the indigenous peoples of Livonia, either before or after the thirteenth-century conquest, we may assume that the process of Christianization must have caused major changes in their religious practices.
Pope vs State: The Medieval Catholic Church as an International Governmental Organization
The object of this thesis is to understand the nature of these power struggles and to demonstrate that the medieval Church functioned in many ways like a prototype IGO.
Royal and Magnate Bastards in the Later Middle Ages: The View from Scotland
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.
John of Gaunt and John Wyclif
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.