In A Diabolical Voice , Justine L. Trombley traces the
afterlife of the Mirror of Simple Souls , which circulated
anonymously for two centuries in four languages, though not without
controversy or ...condemnation. Widely recognized as one of the most
unusual and important mystical treatises of the late Middle Ages,
the Mirror was condemned in Paris in 1310 as a heretical
work, and its author, Marguerite Porete, was burned at the stake.
Trombley identifies alongside the work's increasing positive
reception a parallel trend of opposition and condemnation centered
specifically around its Latin translation. She's discovered
fourteenth- and fifteenth-century theologians, canon lawyers,
inquisitors, and other churchmen who were entirely ignorant of the
Mirror's author and its condemnation and saw in the work dangerous
heresies that demanded refutation and condemnation of their
own.
Using new evidence from the Mirror 's largely overlooked
Latin manuscript tradition, A Diabolical Voice charts the
range of negative reactions to the Mirror, from confiscations and
physical destruction to academic refutations and vicious
denunciations of its supposedly fiendish doctrines. This parallel
story of opposition shows how heresy remained an integral part of
the Mirror 's history well beyond the events of 1310,
revealing how seriously churchmen took Marguerite Porete's ideas on
their own terms, in contexts entirely removed from Marguerite's
identity and her fate. Emphasizing the complexity of the Mirror
of Simple Souls and its reception, Trombley makes clear that
this influential book continues to yield new perspectives and
understandings.
Unrivalled Influenceexplores the exceptional roles that women played in the vibrant cultural and political life of medieval Byzantium. Written by one of the world's foremost historians of the ...Byzantine millennium, this landmark book evokes the complex and exotic world of Byzantium's women, from empresses and saints to uneducated rural widows. Drawing on a diverse range of sources, Judith Herrin sheds light on the importance of marriage in imperial statecraft, the tense coexistence of empresses in the imperial court, and the critical relationships of mothers and daughters. She looks at women's interactions with eunuchs, the in-between gender in Byzantine society, and shows how women defended their rights to hold land. Herrin describes how they controlled their inheritances, participated in urban crowds demanding the dismissal of corrupt officials, followed the processions of holy icons and relics, and marked religious feasts with liturgical celebrations, market activity, and holiday pleasures. The vivid portraits that emerge here reveal how women exerted an unrivalled influence on the patriarchal society of Byzantium, and remained active participants in the many changes that occurred throughout the empire's millennial history.
Unrivalled Influencebrings together Herrin's finest essays on women and gender written throughout the long span of her esteemed career. This volume includes three new essays published here for the very first time and a new general introduction by Herrin. She also provides a concise introduction to each essay that describes how it came to be written and how it fits into her broader views about women and Byzantium.
Her name is undoubtedly less familiar than that of her grandmother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, or that of her famous conqueror son, Fernando III, yet during her lifetime, Berenguela of Castile (1180-1246) ...was one of the most powerful women in Europe. As queen-consort of Alfonso IX of León, she acquired the troubled boundary lands between the kingdoms of Castile and León and forged alliances with powerful nobles on both sides. Even after her marriage was dissolved, she continued to strengthen these connections as a member of her father's court. On her brother's death, she inherited the Castilian throne outright-and then, remarkably, elevated her son to kingship at the same time. Using her assiduously cultivated alliances, Berenguela ruled alongside Fernando and set into motion the strategy that in 1230 would result in his acquisition of the crown of León-and the permanent union of Castile and León.
InThe Queen's Hand, Janna Bianchini explores Berenguela's extraordinary lifelong partnership with her son and examines the means through which she was able to build and exercise power. Bianchini contends that recognition of Berenguela as a powerful reigning queen by nobles, bishops, ambassadors, and popes shows the key participation of royal women in the western Iberian monarchy. Demonstrating how royal women could wield enormous authority both within and outside their kingdoms, Bianchini reclaims Berenguela's place as one of the most important figures of the Iberian Middle Ages.
Medieval theology, in all its diversity, was radically theo-centric, Trinitarian, Scriptural and sacramental. It also operated with a profound view of human understanding (in terms of intellectus ...rather than mere ratio). In a post-modern climate, in which the modern views on 'autonomous reason' are increasingly being questioned, it may prove fruitful to re-engage with pre-modern thinkers who, obviously, did not share our modern and post-modern presuppositions. Their different perspective does not antiquate their thought, as some of the 'cultured despisers' of medieval thought might imagine. On the contrary, rather than rendering their views obsolete it makes them profoundly challenging and enriching for theology today. This book is more than a survey of key medieval thinkers (from Augustine to the late-medieval period); it is an invitation to think along with major theologians and explore how their thought can deeply challenge some of today's modern and post-modern key assumptions.
The Observant reform of the religious orders remains one of the most important yet understudied religious movements of the later Middle Ages. This volume provides scholars with a current, synthetic ...introduction to the field, and suggests new avenues for future scholarship.
In 1322, a Jewish doctor named Abner entered a synagogue in the Castilian city of Burgos and began to weep in prayer. Falling asleep, he dreamed of a "great man" who urged him to awaken from his ...slumber. Shortly thereafter, he converted to Christianity and wrote a number of works attacking his old faith. Abner tells the story in fantastic detail in the opening to his Hebrew-language but anti-Jewish polemical treatise,Teacher of Righteousness. In the religiously plural context of the medieval Western Mediterranean, religious conversion played an important role as a marker of social boundaries and individual identity. The writers of medieval religious polemics such asTeacher of Righteousnessoften began by giving a brief, first-person account of the rejection of their old faith and their embrace of the new. In such accounts, Ryan Szpiech argues, the narrative form plays an important role in dramatizing the transition from infidelity to faith. Szpiech draws on a wide body of sources from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim polemics to investigate the place of narrative in the representation of conversion. Making a firm distinction between stories told about conversion and the experience of religious change, his book is not a history of conversion itself but a comparative study of how and why it was presented in narrative form within the context of religious disputation. He argues that between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, conversion narratives were needed to represent communal notions of history and authority in allegorical, dramatic terms. After considering the late antique paradigms on which medieval Christian conversion narratives were based, Szpiech juxtaposes Christian stories with contemporary accounts of conversion to Islam and Judaism. He emphasizes that polemical conflict between Abrahamic religions in the medieval Mediterranean centered on competing visions of history and salvation. By seeing conversion not as an individual experience but as a public narrative,Conversion and Narrativeprovides a new, interdisciplinary perspective on medieval writing about religious disputes.
In England in Europe, Elizabeth Tyler focuses on two histories: the Encomium Emmae Reginae, written for Emma the wife of the Æthelred II and Cnut, and The Life of King Edward, written for Edith the ...wife of Edward the Confessor.Tyler offers a bold literary and historical analysis of both texts and reveals how the two queens actively engaged in the patronage of history-writing and poetry to exercise their royal authority. Tyler’s innovative combination of attention to intertextuality and regard for social networks emphasizes the role of women at the centre of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman court literature. In doing so, she argues that both Emma and Edith’s negotiation of conquests and factionalism created powerful models of queenly patronage that were subsequently adopted by individuals such as Queen Margaret of Scotland, Countess Adela of Blois, Queen Edith/Matilda, and Queen Adeliza.
Measuring the Middle Ages Walker, James T.; Lee, John S.; Broadberry, Stephen
Significance (Oxford, England),
August 2022, 2022-08-01, 20220801, Volume:
19, Issue:
4
Journal Article
James Walker, John Lee and Stephen Broadberry synthesise and analyse ancient sources to address three fascinating questions: What can Domesday Book tell us about medieval England and Wales? How can ...we estimate medieval populations? What was the size of the medieval economy?
The doctrine of papal infallibility is a central tenet of Roman Catholicism, and yet it is frequently misunderstood by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Much of the present-day theological ...discussion points to the definition of papal infallibility made at Vatican I in 1870, but the origins of the debate are much older than that. InCertain Sainthood, Donald S. Prudlo traces this history back to the Middle Ages, to a time when Rome was struggling to extend the limits of papal authority over Western Christendom. Indeed, as he shows, the very notion of papal infallibility grew out of debates over the pope's authority to canonize saints.
Prudlo's story begins in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when Rome was increasingly focused on the fight against heresy. Toward this end the papacy enlisted the support of the young mendicant orders, specifically the Dominicans and Franciscans. As Prudlo shows, a key theme in the papacy's battle with heresy was control of canonization: heretical groups not only objected to the canonizing of specific saints, they challenged the concept of sainthood in general. In so doing they attacked the roots of papal authority. Eventually, with mendicant support, the very act of challenging a papally created saint was deemed heresy.
Certain Sainthooddraws on the insights of a new generation of scholarship that integrates both lived religion and intellectual history into the study of theology and canon law. The result is a work that will fascinate scholars and students of church history as well as a wider public interested in the evolution of one of the world's most important religious institutions.
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