Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Spirituality History Middle Ages'
To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Spirituality History Middle Ages.
Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles
Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Spirituality History Middle Ages.'
Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.
You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.
Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.
1
FitzGerald, Brian D. "The medieval 'vates' : prophecy, history, and the shaping of sacred authority, 1120-1320." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a45bc6f3-8adf-4b5c-b5d4-7d7f23dbb9b0.
Full textAbstract:
Belief in prophetic inspiration and the possibility of discerning the future was a cornerstone of medieval conceptions of history and of God’s workings within that history. But prophecy’s significance for the Middle Ages is due as much to the multiplicity of its meanings as to its role as an engine of history. Prophetia was described in terms ranging from prediction and historiography to singing and teaching. This thesis examines the attempts of medieval thinkers to wrestle with these ambiguities. The nature and implications of prophetic inspiration were a crucial area of contention during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as scholastic theologians, with their particular techniques and standards of rationality, attempted to make systematic sense of inspired speech and knowledge. These attempts reveal a great deal about medieval structures of knowledge, and about theological reflections on the Church’s place in history. The stakes were high: ‘prophecy’ not only was the subject of Old Testament exegesis, but also, in its various forms, was often the basis of authority for exegetes and theologians themselves, as well as for preachers, visionaries, saints, and even writers of secular works. Those who claimed the mantle of the prophet came just as easily from inside the institutional structures as from outside. Theologians began legitimating a moderate form of inspiration that justified their own work through ordinary activities such as teaching and preaching, while trying to keep at bay perceived threats from powerful assertions of prophetic authority, such as Islam, female visionaries, and schismatic and apocalyptic Franciscans. This study argues that, as theologians sought to determine the limits of prophetic privilege, and to shape prophecy for their own purposes, they actually opened space for claims of divine insight to proliferate in those ordinary activities, and in a way that went beyond their control.
2
Field, Carol Hammond. "Lay Spirituality in Fourteenth-Century England." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1991. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc504289/.
Full textAbstract:
In fourteenth-century England, a form of lay spirituality emerged, influenced by the writings and example of the famous mystics, both English and continental, of that period, but much affected by other developments as well. Against the background of socio-economic and political change, the emergence of lay spirituality is examined, with particular emphasis upon continuity and change within the church, the religious instruction of the age, and the spirituality of the English mystics. Finally, the sole surviving written record of lay spirituality of the period, The Book of Margery Kempe, is investigated, along with its author, Margery Kempe - pilgrim, visionary, and aspiring mystic.
3
Muir, Autumn M. "The Psalter Mappaemundi: Medieval Maps Enabling Ascension of the Soul within Christian Devotional Practices." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1300733958.
Full text
4
Pearson, Hilary E. "Teresa de Cartagena : a late medieval woman's theological approach to disability." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:c416992a-09f6-4516-b7cc-59bd88ff4717.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis studies, through a literary and theological analysis of her writings and an examination of her background, how a fifteenth century Spanish nun called Teresa de Cartagena dealt spiritually with disability. She was physically disabled, having become deaf as an adult but also having endured many illnesses. Her first book, Arboleda de los enfermos, was written to pass on to other sufferers the spiritual lessons she had learned from her own suffering; that suffering was good because it had saved her from sin and had brought her to God. Her second work, Admiraçión operum Dey, was written to answer those who had criticised her for the act of writing because of her gender, at that time a disability for any woman wishing to write or teach. She justified her writing as a special work of God, but did not claim mystical direct divine inspiration. Teresa was a member of a prominent family of Jewish Christians (conversos). At the time she was writing, the second half of the fifteenth century, anti-converso prejudice and violence were growing in Spain. This culminated in the introduction of the Inquisition in order to deal with the so-called 'judaising conversos'. In these circumstances her conversa status was a distinct social disability, but there is no express mention of this in her writings. However, there are traces in her writings of converso concerns, and of a specifically converso theology. Although there have been many studies of Teresa de Cartagena from the viewpoints of medieval Spanish literature, disability studies, feminist history and her use of rhetorical techniques, there has been no in depth study of her theology and spirituality. This thesis demonstrates that, although in general these were orthodox and unoriginal, they were unusual for a woman of her time and background.
5
Lewis, Kevin James. "Rule and identity in a diverse Mediterranean society : aspects of the county of Tripoli during the twelfth century." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:4c3eef19-7dcf-450c-97dc-7c9b2780a916.
Full textAbstract:
The county of Tripoli (Lebanon) was one of four “crusader states” established in the Levant after the First Crusade (1095-99). Compared to the other states, the county of Tripoli has suffered from a disproportionate level of historiographical neglect. What has been produced has taken an institutional and Eurocentric approach to the subject and its sources. The present thesis jettisons this in favour of a post-institutional methodology, approaching the county from the perspectives of geography and demographics, which together ensure that it is treated within its proper Syro-Lebanese context. Chapter one looks at the role of local geography in shaping the political frontiers of the county of Tripoli and its neighbours, arguing that topography was more important than the agency of the European settlers. Chapter two continues to challenge traditional assumptions regarding European influence, arguing that the specifically southern French origins of many of the county’s settlers were of little significance. Chapter three analyses the use of Arabic by the Frankish government of the county, informed by an awareness of diglossia. It argues that the Franks were more likely to know spoken Arabic than written, but remained reliant upon local intermediaries when ruling over Arabophones. Chapter four looks at popular religion, arguing that the cross-fertilisation of religious beliefs and practices was widespread but poorly understood by the contemporary intelligentsia, upon whose sources historians rely. As a whole, the thesis argues that the county’s inhabitants lacked a distinctive culture, identity, religion or language. The sole justification for viewing the county as an integrated unit is geographical.
6
Norris, Laura Sharon. "Love of God and Love of Neighbor: Thomistic Virtue of Charity in Catherine of Siena's Dialogue." University of Dayton / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=dayton1413228274.
Full text
7
Ogden, Jenna Noelle. "The Leprous Christ and the Christ-like Leper: The Leprous Body as an Intermediary to the Body of Christ in Late Medieval Art and Society." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1305075738.
Full text
8
Curtis, Florence Sally Haines. "The intellectual scope of the 'mester de clerecía'." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2014. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:ac9a4eb0-567f-4668-983e-897dce15bfff.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis investigates the first poetry written in Castilian by intellectuals, the 'mester de clerecía', ‘craft of clerics’. Exploring the unique circumstances of Iberia in the Middle Ages as a hub for the intellectual vanguard and a holy territory for encounters with saints, pilgrimage and Reconquest, I examine the canonical texts of an alleged thirteenth-century poetic school as the Castilian bedrock of a wider Iberian and European literary movement. Notably including analysis of the fourteenth-century "Libro de buen amor", a canonical work in its own right thought to parody the earlier poems, I also reassess the significance of the verse form 'cuaderna vía' for the 'mester de clerecía', in which the thirteenth-century poems are exclusively written. Over an introduction and four chapters, I combine close reading of the "Libro de Alexandre" (Chapter 1), Berceo’s Vidas of Millán, Domingo and Oria (Chapter 2), the "Libro de Apolonio" and "Poema de Fernán González" (Chapter 3), and the "Libro de buen amor" (Chapter 4), with research into intellectual, pedagogical, and religious contexts. Notably, I have found the poems analyzed to be especially concerned with the landscape of the reading mind. The result is an expanded view of the 'mester de clerecía' as theological and philosophical poems that offer ways of understanding and approaching the life of the mind as well as that of the body that are thought-provoking and informative to this day. Concluding that the thirteenth-century, canonical poems are the witnesses of a 'textual community' of authors rather than a poetic school, I advocate an inclusive definition of the 'mester de clerecía'. The 'mester de clerecía' are of extremely rich intellectual scope and are of potential interest to scholars of all European literatures, and literary, intellectual, and social history, as well as theology and philosophy.
9
Rogozhina, Anna. "'And from his side came blood and milk' : the martyrdom of St Philotheus of Antioch in Coptic Egypt." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:35b8fd5c-5c85-4b5f-81c8-77e0b66a165d.
Full textAbstract:
My thesis examines the function and development of the cult of saints in Coptic Egypt. For this purpose I focus primarily on the material provided by the texts forming the Coptic hagiographical tradition of the early Christian martyr Philotheus of Antioch, and more specifically - the Martyrdom of St Philotheus of Antioch (Pierpont Morgan M583). This Martyrdom is a reflection of a once flourishing cult which is attested in Egypt by rich textual and material evidence. This text enjoyed great popularity not only in Egypt, but also in other countries of the Christian East, since his dossier includes texts in Coptic, Georgian, Ethiopic, and Arabic. This thesis examines the literary and historical background of the Martyrdom of Philotheus and similar hagiographical texts. It also explores the goals and concerns of the authors and editors of Coptic martyr passions and their intended audience. I am arguing that these texts were produced in order to perform multiple functions: to justify and promote the cult of a particular saint, as an educational tool, and as an important structural element of liturgical celebrations in honour of the saint. Another aim of this work is to stress the entertainment value of such texts. I explore the sources used by Coptic hagiographers for creating such entertaining stories, as well as the methods they used to re-work certain theological concepts and make them more accessible to the audience. The thesis begins with description of the manuscript tradition of Philotheus and a brief outline and comparison of its main versions. The second chapter discusses the place of the Martyrdom of Philotheus in Coptic hagiography and its connection to the so-called cycles. The next two chapters explore the motifs and topoi characteristic of Coptic martyr passions, especially the legend of Diocletian the Persecutor and the image of Antioch as the Holy City in Coptic hagiography, as these two motifs appear in one way or another in the majority of the martyr passions. Chapter 5 is dedicated to one of the focal points in the Martyrdom - the miracle of resurrection and the tour of hell – and its literary and theological background. Chapter 6 discusses representations of magic and paganism in Coptic hagiography and some of the concerns of Coptic hagiographers. In the last chapter I explore the geography of the cult, its iconographic and hymnographic dimensions and the transformation of the perception of the saint; the second part of this chapter discusses the questions of performance, authorship and audience.
10
Levine, Adam. "The image of Christ in Late Antiquity : a case study in religious interaction." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bf630377-9f51-4e53-bb6f-d60d750745d3.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation focuses on images of Christ that date from the first half of Late Antiquity, defined as the three centuries between AD 200 and 500. The cultural dynamics of this period left a distinct impression on Christian art, and this dissertation traces that impact. Unlike other studies that attempt to resolve ambiguity within the corpus of Christ images, the argument here maintains that ambiguity was a key component in the creation and subsequent interpretation of the Late Antique Christian iconography. The dissertation proceeds in three parts, each comprising two chapters. In the first section, the history and historiography of the image of Christ is explored, and a methodology capable of accommodating the diverse meanings assigned to the Christ’s discrepant and ambiguous iconographies is developed. In order to better understand the socio-religious environment in which the first images of Christ were produced and interpreted, the second section of the dissertation moves away from material culture and towards method and theory. The notion that interpretation is a group level phenomenon is critiqued, and a model explaining how individuals in Late Antiquity could have made sense of ambiguous images of Christ is advanced. The final section turns back to the material culture and applies the framework developed in the second section to two artworks: (1) the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus and (2) the floor mosaic from the Hinton St. Mary Roman Villa now in the British Museum. By complementing the standard analyses of Christian art with interpretations grounded in the diverse interactions viewers had with artworks, new perspectives will emerge that provide a fuller picture of Late Antique Christianity and the iconography of its godhead alike.
11
Schwartzman, Lauren J. "Contest and community : wonder-working in Christian popular literature from the second to the fifth centuries CE." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:a3de02f7-18a9-4363-8bbf-cea5a73eb223.
Full textAbstract:
In this thesis, I hope to demonstrate that what I call the magic contest tradition, that is the episodes of competitive wonder-working that appear in a wide variety of apocryphal and non-canonical Christian texts, made an important contribution to the development of Christian thought during the second to the fifth centuries CE. This contribution was to articulate ‘the way’ to be a Christian in a world which was not isolated from the secular, and not insulated from the reality of the Roman empire. First, I demonstrate that a tradition of texts which feature magic contests exists within the broader scope of non-canonical Christian literature (looking at this literature across communities, regions and time periods). Second, I identify what the major features of the traditions are, e.g. what form the narratives take, what the form for a magic contest is, and what the principles used to build the magic contests are, and how these principles feature in the texts. The principles I identify are power, authority, ritual, and conversion, as well as their use as historical exempla. Third, I discuss what the texts did in the context of the time period, and for the communities that produced and read them: in other words, how did the this tradition work? I show that they served multiple purposes: as tests of faith, religious truth and ways to proclaim such; as constructors and markers of group identity (and the perilous task of identifying the insiders and those who should be outsiders); as calls to unity within the overarching diversity of the times and places, and a unified front for the ‘battle’ against evil. I suggest that the texts present a model for how one could decide what the ‘true faith’ was and how one could practice it in the turbulent environment that early Christians faced both before and after Constantine.
12
Loseby, Simon Thomas. "Marseille in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.356966.
Full text
13
Rigolio, Alberto. "Beyond schools and monasteries : literate education in Late Roman Syria (350-450 AD)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:85ff7460-1425-418e-8718-652473a371e6.
Full textAbstract:
The subject of the present work is the provision of higher literate education in late Roman Syria (c. 350 - c. 450). The difference that Christianity made to literate education has always been in danger of being explained with the introduction and the development of a new kind of instruction provided in monasteries. A rigid dichotomy between secular schools and Christian monasteries, however, finds limited validation in our sources for literate education. While early Christian literature often presented monasteries as providers of education, documentary evidence offers a more blurred picture. On the one hand, studentsʼ papyri show the penetration of Christianity into schools, and, on the other, secular instructional texts have been found in the excavations of early monasteries in Egypt. This thesis presents a neglected corpus of Christian instructional texts that call into question an oppositional understanding of scholastic and monastic education in the Syrian region during late Antiquity. The corpus consists of the Syriac translations of six literary pieces by (or attributed to) Plutarch, Lucian, and Themistius that bring together features of rhetorical education with an interest in Christian asceticism (ch. 2). While the contents and the transmission of the Syriac translations reveal the link to Christianity and Christian ascetic practice (ch. 3), the textual form and the choice of the texts unearths the underlying connection to traditional literate education (ch. 4). These documents, which will be put in relation to instructional literature composed in Greek, Latin, and Syriac in the same period, challenge the existence of a neat line dividing scholastic and monastic education in the Syrian region during late Antiquity. A fresh analysis that is not constrained by a preconceived model of monastic instruction better accounts for the involvement of early Christian leaders in higher education and prompts a new investigation of their conduct on the social scene. Their agency now appears much closer to that of their non-Christian counterparts, sophists in primis, and raises the broader question of the extent to which they owed their considerable success to the implementation of strategies ultimately derived from the world of professional paideia.
14
Sinclair, Alexandra Frances Jane. "The Beauchamp earls of Warwick in the Later Middle Ages." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.282304.
Full textAbstract:
Ensconced as sheriffs of Worcestershire since Norman times, the Beauchamps owed their earidom to a particularly fortunate marriage in the thirteenth century. Thereafter, they, like other magnate families, owed their increasing prosperity to marriage alliance and to royal service, found wanting only when the Crown itself exhibited weakness. Though virtually all the Beauchamp earls belonged to the later middle ages, the chance survival of their records and other factors have dictated that emphasis be laid on their history after 1369 and that, within that period, a personal bias be given to the life of the fifth earl. The balance has been redressed, however, by the discussion of other aspects not confined to the years 1401-39. The fourth earl's disgrace in 1397 marked the nadir of Beauchamp fortunes, a situation reversed by the advent of Henry IV. The beginning of the Lancastrian regime practically coincided with the majority of Earl Richard, who oversaw the recovery and expansion of the family's wealth and influence and prepared the way for their short-lived dukedom. This was extinguished, along with their earldom, on the failure of the male line in 1446. Detailed attention is given to the estate administration and finances of the fourth and fifth earls, who took an interest in such matters. As a result, they probably enjoyed a fairly steady income from land (political loss aside) in the period 1395-1423, and its expenditure reflected their current preoccupations: lawsuits, the purchase of property, the war, and patronage. The Beauchamps dispensed largesse to a numerous following, the subject of a final chapter dealing with the cost and nature of their patronage, the composition and stability of the affinity, and the interaction of the war and peace-time retinues.
15
Maroney, Fr Simon Mary of the Cross M. Carm. "Mary, Summa Contemplatrix in Denis the Carthusian." IMRI - Marian Library / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=udmarian1620301036422259.
Full text
16
Wines, Andrew Roberts. "The London Charterhouse in the later Middle Ages : an institutional history." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1998. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/251655.
Full text
17
Bobrycki, Shane. "The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages, c. 500 – c. 1000." Thesis, Harvard University, 2016. http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493291.
Full textAbstract:
Early medieval Europe is not well known for its crowds, unlike Antiquity or the later Middle Ages. After sixth-century demographic and urban decline, crowds were smaller, less spontaneous, and easier to control than in other periods of European history. This study, the first comprehensive analysis of collective behaviors and representations in Europe from c. 500 to c. 1000, argues that crowd-scarce early medieval societies nevertheless organized their institutions around the behavior of crowds. Assemblies, festivals, fairs, and the church’s invisible multitude of saints ensured that collective behavior remained central to early medieval public life. Under the impact of Christian values and new physical realities, elites abandoned old prejudices against mobs and rabbles while embracing the crowd’s legitimacy, with enduring results for later medieval political and religious life.
In chapter 1, archaeological and demographic evidence reveal how early medieval gatherings co-opted seasonal agglomerations such as markets, harvests, and festivals. Early medieval gatherings depended on the temporary accumulation of populations, and so became less spontaneous than their Roman antecedents. Chapter 2 draws on the sociology of crowds and on written and archaeological sources to trace the decline of late antique crowd spaces (the old circuses, theaters, baths, and colonnades of Roman cities). It shows why and where early medieval elites developed new, medieval gatherings, such as royal and church assemblies, hunts, armies and war-bands, and political ceremonies.
In chapter 3, the semantic history of collectivity in early medieval Latin and vernacular writings demonstrates how technical and connotative distinctions in ancient words for crowds became attenuated in the face of new concepts. The same word that had meant “a dangerous rabble” in the first century could be used to describe a sacred gathering of monks in the ninth century. Chapter 4 studies patterns to which crowds conformed in the imaginations revealed by written sources: clichés and type-scenes which repeated themselves in saints’ lives, histories, liturgy, and poems. Many of these literary devices reinforced links between crowds and legitimacy. Nevertheless, the chapter ends with counter-examples, in which elites expressed anxieties about crowds using new, gendered polemics.
Chapter 5 investigates rituals and their representations, like royal assemblies and liturgical rites, which arose at the intersection of early medieval material horizons for physical assembly and early medieval mentalities. It argues that the role of crowds in early medieval ritual gatherings, and their representation in visual media, endured in subsequent medieval political, religious, and legal institutions. It concludes by showing how eleventh-century demographic and urban expansion sparked a new crowd regime, which departed but also arose from the concepts and practices shaped in the first half-millennium of the Middle Ages.History
18
Dick, Bryan. "Framing 'Piracy' : restitution at sea in the later Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2010. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2244/.
Full textAbstract:
The focus of the thesis is the diplomatic and legal implications of the capture of ships at sea in the later Middle Ages. It challenges key assumptions in much secondary literature concerning the definition of piracy, seeking to explore several major themes relating to the legal status of shipping in periods of war or diplomatic tension in this period. The thesis draws primarily on diplomatic, legal and administrative records, largely those of English royal government, but also makes use of material relating to France, Holland and Zealand, Flanders and the Hanse. The majority of studies on this subject stress the importance of developments which occurred in the fifteenth century, yet I have found it necessary to follow the development of the law of prize, diplomatic provisions for the keeping of the sea and the use of devolved sea-keeping fleets back to the start of the thirteenth century. This thesis questions the tendency of historians to attach the term ‘piracy’, with its modern legal connotations, to a variety of actions at sea in the later Middle Ages. In the absence of a clear legislative or semantic framework a close examination of the complexity of practice surrounding the judgement of prize, the provision of restitution to injured parties, and diplomatic mechanisms designed to prevent disorder at sea, enables a more rounded picture to emerge. A detailed examination of individual cases is set within the broader conceptual framework of international, commercial and maritime law. Chapter 1 provides a study of the wartime role of devolved flees by means of a case study of Henry III’s Poitou campaigns of 1242-3. It demonstrates that private commissioned ships undertook a variety of naval roles including the transport of troops, patrolling the coast and enforcing blockades. Further, it argues that it is anachronistic to criticise private shipowners for seeking profit through attacks on enemy shipping as booty was an integral incentive in all forms of medieval warfare. Chapter 2 provides a detailed examination of the application of letters of marque, one of the principal means of obtaining redress for injuries suffered at the hands of the subject of a foreign sovereign. It demonstrates that far from being a justification for ‘piracy’ letters of marque were highly regulated legal instruments applied in the context of an internationally accepted body of customs. Chapter 3 examines the concept of neutrality and the relationship between warfare and commerce through a study of Anglo-Flemish relations during the Anglo-Scottish wars between 1305 and 1323. It argues that universal standards of neutrality did not exist in this period and that decisions on prize took place within the context of an ever-changing diplomatic background. Chapter 4 focuses on the provision of restitution once judgement had been made through an examination of a complex dispute between English merchants and the count of Hainault, Holland and Zeeland spanning the opening decades of the fourteenth century. It emphasises the ad hoc nature of restitution with a variety of means devised to compensate the injured parties and the difficult and often inconclusive process undergone by litigants against a backdrop of competing interests, both local and national. The thesis concludes that the legal process surrounding the capture of shipping was civil rather than criminal in nature. The plaintiff’s need to obtain restitution was the driving force behind such actions rather than the state’s desire to monopolise the use of violence at sea. The reliance of the English crown on devolved shipping made such a policy fiscally impractical.
19
Paxton, Catherine. "The nunneries of London and its environs in the later Middle ages." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.357382.
Full text
20
Gorski, Richard. "The fourteenth-century sheriff : English local administration in the late Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Hull, 1999. http://hydra.hull.ac.uk/resources/hull:4442.
Full textAbstract:
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the sheriffs appointed in fourteenth-century England, the period identified by both Stubbs and Maitland as having witnessed the shrievalty's final emasculation. This thesis is not a continuation of Morris' work on the sheriff, and neither is it directly concerned with the shrievalty's role in English constitutional history. Morris was a historian of administration rather than administrators. He excelled at unravelling the minutiae of procedure and the day-today routine of shire affairs. It is, of course, impossible to divorce officials from their work. Sheriffs appointed during the fourteenth century were a direct reflection of what the office entailed and its perceived place in the framework of shire administration: thus, Maitland's 'decline and fall of the sheriff' left the office in the hands of Cam's 'country squire'. However, the emphasis of this thesis is on the sheriff rather than the shrievalty. Sheriffs were a numerically select group, but who were they? Why were they appointed? What qualities, if any, set these men apart from their peers? Prosopography, rather than procedural history, holds the key to these problems and in terms of its methodology this study owes far more to McFarlane than it does to Morris.
21
Beiting, Christopher. "The development of the idea of limbo in the Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1997. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:669bc6d5-edbb-4642-88e6-426600e6ed27.
Full textAbstract:
The medieval period witnessed many attempts at organization, of both the mundane and sacred spheres. The otherworldy realms of heaven and hell are familiar to the modern reader, as is purgatory, but it was during the middle ages that the existence of another realm, limbo, was posited. This realm had its beginnings in questions of Christology and the extent to which Christian salvation could or could not be extended to non-Christian peoples. Its development was also shaped by questions of infant baptism, and the fate of those infants who died lacking this baptism. By the thirteenth century, it becomes more proper to speak of "the limbos", as the idea of limbo is split into two realms: the limbo of the Fathers (limbus patrum), wherein were placed the notable figures of the Old Testament, and the limbo of children (limbus puerorum). wherein were placed unbaptized infants of the Christian era. This thesis examines the development of the idea of limbo, concentrating primarily on works of speculative theology. It begins with the roots of the idea of limbo to be found in the writings of Augustine of Hippo and in the apocryphal Christian work, the Gospel of Nicodemus. From there, the questions of original sin, divine redemption, and baptism which shape the development of the idea of limbo are examined in the writings of several influential twelfth-century authors, including Anselm of Canterbury, Peter Abelard, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Peter Lombard. The earliest uses of the term "limbo" are examined in the works of William of Auvergne and William of Auxerre, and the full theology of limbo is considered in the works of the high scholastic writers Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure. Finally, the thesis concludes with a fusion of theology and art in an examination of the unique depiction of limbo in Dante's Divine Comedy.
22
Nevell, Richard. "The archaeology of castle slighting in the Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/33181.
Full textAbstract:
Medieval castle slighting is the phenomenon in which a high-status fortification is demolished in a time of conflict. At its heart are issues about symbolism, the role of castles in medieval society, and the politics of power. Although examples can be found throughout the Middle Ages (1066–1500) in England, Wales and Scotland there has been no systematic study of the archaeology of castle slighting. Understanding castle slighting enhances our view of medieval society and how it responded to power struggles. This study interrogates the archaeological record to establish the nature of castle slighting: establishing how prevalent it was chronologically and geographically; which parts of castles were most likely to be slighted and why this is significant; the effects on the immediate landscape; and the wider role of destruction in medieval society. The contribution of archaeology is especially important as contemporary records give little information about this phenomenon. Using information recovered from excavation and survey allows this thesis to challenge existing narratives about slighting, especially with reference to the civil war between Stephen and Matilda (1139–1154) and the view that slighting was primarily to prevent an enemy from using a fortification. The thesis proposes a new framework for understanding how slighting is represented in the archaeological record and how it might be recognised in the future. Using this methodology, a total of 60 sites were identified. Slighting often coincides with periods of civil war, illustrating the importance of slighting as a tool of social control and the re-assertion of authority in the face of rebellion. Slighting did not necessarily encompass an entire site some parts of the castle – halls and chapels – were typically deliberately excluded from the destruction. There are also examples which fit the old narrative that slighting was used to prevent a fortification falling into enemy hands, but these cases are in the minority and are typically restricted to Scotland during the Scottish Wars of Independence. Given the castle’s role in shaping the landscape – acting as a focus for seigneurial power and precipitating the creation and growth of towns – it is important to understand how slighting effected nearby associated settlements. The evidence suggests that larger towns were able to prosper despite the disruption of slighting while smaller settlements were more likely to decline into obscurity. Importantly towns themselves were very rarely included in the destruction of slighting.
23
Fletcher, David Thomas. "The death of Stilicho a study of interpretations /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3171587.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2004.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Dec. 8, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-04, Section: A, page: 1460. Chair: Leah Shopkow.
24
Maxson, Brian Jeffrey. "Book Review of Merchant Writers: Florentine memoirs from the Middle Ages and Renaissance." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2016. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/2681.
Full text
25
Peterson, Janine Larmon. "Contested sanctity disputed saints, inquisitors, and communal identity in northern Italy, 1250--1400 /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2006. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3232576.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of History, 2006."Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 9, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-08, Section: A, page: 3118. Adviser: Dyan Elliott.
26
Kendall, Keith H. Pennington Kenneth. "Sermons of Pope Innocent III: the moral theology of a pastor and pope." Related Electronic Resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2003. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/syr/main.
Full text
27
Neufeld, Christine Marie. "Xanthippe's sisters : orality and femininity in the later Middle Ages." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=38251.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation contributes to medieval feminist scholarship by forging new insights into the relationship between gender theory and developing notions of orality and textuality in late medieval Europe. I examine three conventional satirical depictions of women as deviant speakers in medieval literature---as loquacious gossips, scolding shrews and cursing witches---to reveal how medieval perceptions of oral and textual discursive modes influenced literary representations of women. The dissertation demonstrates that our comprehension of the literary battle between the sexes requires a recognition and understanding of how discursive modes were gendered in a culture increasingly defining itself in terms of textuality. My work pursues the juxtaposition of the rational, literate male and the irrational, oral female across a wide range of texts, from Dunbar and Chaucer's courtly literature, to more socially diffused works, such as carols, sermon exempla and the Deluge mystery plays, as well as texts, like Margery Kempe's autobiography and witchcraft documents, that pertain to historical women. I demonstrate the social impact of this convention by anchoring these literary texts in their socio-historical context. The significance of my identification of this nexus of orality and femininity is that I am able to delineate an ideology profoundly affecting the way women's speech and writings have been received and perceived for centuries. This notion of gendered discourse can also redefine how we perceive medieval literature. Mikhail Bakhtin's discursive principles---ideas that stem from his application of the dynamics of oral communication and performance to the literary text---help to liberate new meanings from old texts by allowing us to read against the grain of convention. Both Bakhtin's theory of dialogism and Walter Ong's summary of the psychodynamics of orality suggest that orally influenced discourse is less interested in monolithic truth than in the art of tellin
28
Shaw, David Gary. "Urban society and culture in the Late Middle Ages : the city of Wells, 1300-1500." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1990. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.305919.
Full text
29
King, Anya H. "The musk trade and the Near East in the early medieval period." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3253639.
Full textAbstract:
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Eurasian Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, 2007.Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 19, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-02, Section: A, page: 0695. Adviser: Christopher I. Beckwith.
30
Maniura, Robert John. "Image and pilgrimage : the cult of the Virgin of Czestochowa in the Late Middle Ages." Thesis, Courtauld Institute of Art (University of London), 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.263264.
Full text
31
Bonfiglio, Emilio. "John Chrysostom's discourses on his first exile : Prolegomena to a Critical Edition of the Sermo antequam iret in exsilium and of the Sermo cum iret in exsilium." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:df828fcd-dc2a-47b9-8bb1-c957c9199fb1.
Full textAbstract:
The Sermo antequam iret in exilium and the Sermo cum iret in exsilium are two homilies allegedly pronounced by John Chrysostom in Constantinople at the end of summer 403, some time between the verdict of the Synod of the Oak and the day he left the city for his first exile. The aim of the thesis is to demonstrate that a new critical edition of these texts is needed before any study of their literary and historical value can be conducted. Chapter one sketches the historical background to which the text of the homilies refers and a concise survey about previous scholarship on the homilies on the first exile, from the time of Montfaucon’s edition until our days. The problem of the authenticity occupies the last part of the chapter. Chapter two investigates the history of the texts and takes into account both the direct and indirect traditions. It discusses the existence of double recensions hitherto unknown and provides the prefatory material for the new critical edition of recensio α of Sermo antequam iret in exilium and of the Sermo cum iret in exsilium. Chapter three comprises the Greek editions of the two homilies, as well as a provisional edition of the Latin version of the Sermo antequam iret in exilium. Chapter four is divided into two parts, each presenting a philological commentary on the text of the new editions. Systematic analysis of all the most important variant readings is offered. The final chapter summarizes the new findings and assesses the validity of previous criteria used for discerning the authenticity of the homilies on the exile.
32
Murray, Frances. "The representation of weeping rulers in the early Middle Ages." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/15646.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis examines the representation of weeping rulers in early medieval sources, focusing on the Carolingian empire between 790 and 888. The meanings applied to tears are culturally specific: thus, exploring how, why, when and where rulers cried can illuminate the dynamics of power and ideals of kingship in this period. This thesis provides a survey of a poorly understood phenomenon. It also challenges several assumptions about the nature of early medieval power. Rulers wept not only over their own sins (a well-recognised phenomenon), but also over the sins of others and out of a desire for heavenly glory. Thus, they wept in a ‘monastic' or ‘priestly' way. This was something associated more with certain rulers than others. As such, tears can be used as a lens through which developments in ideas about the relationship between secular rulers and the ecclesiastical hierarchy can be traced. The thesis is divided into six sections. The historiographical importance of this topic is discussed in the introduction. Chapter one assesses the understanding of tears in biblical, Roman and Merovingian sources. Chapter two focuses on the representation of tears in texts associated with the court of Charlemagne (d. 814). Chapter three explores how authors loyal to Louis the Pious (d. 840) used tears to respond to criticisms of him and his wife, the Empress Judith (d. 843). Chapter four turns to exegetical material written between 820 and 860 and examines how biblical rulers were represented weeping. In particular, the reception of these previously unrecognised images in royal courts and their influence on narrative sources will be considered. Chapter five explores sources from the later ninth century, focusing particularly on the writings of Hincmar of Reims (d. 882) and Notker of St Gall (d. 912). Chapter six considers tears in three case studies drawn from post=Carolingian sources. Finally the concluding section outlines the significance of this thesis for our understanding of Carolingian and post Carolingian political culture and the history of weeping in the middle ages.
33
Wolf, Johannes. "The art of arts : theorising pastoral power in the English Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/278517.
Full textAbstract:
Gregory the Great described the government of souls as ‘the art of arts,’ a sentiment that the Fourth Lateran Council would echo in 1215. This thesis takes as its fundamental proposition that this ‘art’ can be understood as a ‘craft’, one that is responsible for producing and maintaining a Christian subjectivity marked by introspection, inwardness, and a strong distrust of externalities. Using a theoretical framework influenced by Michel Foucault I suggest a tradition of administering and producing these subjects through ‘pastoral power.’ Charting the trajectory of these ideas from the ascetics of the early church through to fifteenth-century Middle English texts, I explore the dynamics produced by texts invested in producing this specific form of subjectivity as they expand their reach from a specialised audience of monks to an increasingly laicised vernacular sphere. This investigation is broken into two halves. The thesis begins with a re-reading of Michel Foucault’s theories of power and subjection. Here I suggest that there are important conceptual connections between Foucault’s concept of ‘discipline’ and medieval approaches to the care of the soul. The first half of the thesis stresses the longue durée development of pastoral power, focussing on two particular historical moments. The first of these chapters engages with the pastoral and monastic thinkers of the early church, who developed two overlapping regimes – that of body and spirit. The second turns to the Ancrene Wisse, arguing that the it responds to the developments of twelfth-century spirituality by suggesting a form of spiritual engagement that is increasingly imbricated in the mundane world. The second half of the thesis focuses on a number of texts produced in Middle English during the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Two chapters focus on a collection of pastoral texts produced in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The first focuses on the hermeneutic dynamics of these texts whilst second chapter assesses the use of documentary imagery and theories of legal accountability in the same texts. The final chapter suggests that certain proto-autobiographical texts, represented by the work of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, are conditioned by the concerns and dynamics of pastoral power, which also affects the practices modern readers bring to bear on them.
34
Church, Rebecca Ellen. "Crossing the Pyrenees: paths of cultural interaction and transmission in the central Middle Ages." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2195.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation plots the myriad connections between Southern France and the multicultural Iberian Peninsula during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, the people to people contacts which effectively connected Southern France with the Islamic world. The example of courtly culture demonstrates the pattern of informal cultural absorption that resulted from these contacts, as aspects of Andalusian courtly culture were adopted and adapted to Occitan court settings, fitting within a pattern of Pan-Mediterranean courtly culture. This courtly culture absorption was a result of the long-term and broad-based people to people connections and acculturation between Occcitania and the multi-cultural Iberian world.
First, using charter evidence, the interaction between the two Iberias, one Islamic and Arabic, the other Christian and Latin, is traced through the people, institutions, and infrastructure that passed from one Iberia to the other. By the early twelfth century, major Islamic medinas with large Arabic-speaking populations had been incorporated into the Christian kingdoms. In the close confines of these medina/urbs,day-to-day life brought different religious and ethnic groups together. Properties bought, sold, and exchanged involved people of different faiths and backgrounds. Women, like the nuns at Sigena outside Huesca, or the Islamic and Jewish brides of French settlers, often had a unique role to play intercultural interaction.
On the other side of the Pyrenees, several types of cross border relationships occurred: family ties through marriages and alliances, institutional ties through monastic and church affiliation, and travel ties through legates, bishop and abbot appointments, and pilgrimage. Roads to the Spanish shrine of Saint-James of Compostela blanketed southern France, bringing pilgrims to stops along the way at Sainte-Foy de Conques, Saint-Sernin de Toulouse, the Cathedral of Bayonne, and La-Sauve-Majeure. The archival and published charters of these towns and monasteries of Occitania show how these relationships created the means for acculturation, interaction and communication between Occitan and Iberia. As a consequence of these trans-Pyrenean relationships, people with Iberian, Arabic-language origins, interacted with Occitan peoples bringing greater awareness of the intellectual and material culture of Iberia with its cosmopolitan sensibilities.
My dissertation demonstrates the cultural reverberations resulting from cross-cultural contact. While most agree that there was some Arabic influence on medieval Europe, it is generally limited to instances where there is a clear paper trail, such as translated scientific, medical and philosophical texts. There is still significant scholarly resistance to the idea of a more generalized cultural influence due to the theory that connections between Arabic-speaking populations and Europeans were limited and inhibited by language and cultural barriers. we accept that people absorb cultural influence in many ways, including orally, visually, and in what are termed 'low culture' registers, often imperfectly understanding what they scavenge, contact and communication become key to understanding acculaturation. My methodology, using names, ethnicity, and information on captured in charters to identify cross-cultural interaction and evidence of cultural influence, focuses on the pathway from the Arabophone world to Occitania. Since charter evidence shows that cross-cultural interaction was long-term, rapidly increasing over the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and broad-based, involving many areas of Occitania and many types of people. acculturation would be the expected outcome.
35
Eby, John C. "The petrification of heresy : concepts of heterodoxy in the early middle ages /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/10467.
Full text
36
Perry, Guy J. M. "The career and significance of John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem, emperor of Constantinople." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2011. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6efad77d-921d-499a-8fa6-eccabcb0c608.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis is a biographical study of John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem and later Latin emperor of Constantinople (d. 1237). John’s extraordinary career is touched on by many commentators concerned with the crusades and the Latin East in the early thirteenth century, but it has not been properly re-assessed for more than seventy years. A comprehensive re-examination opens up new angles on the political structures and social landscapes that produced it. John’s career illustrates some residual strengths of the Jerusalemite monarchy just before the start of the Hohenstaufen epoch. It also sheds light on a period in the history of the Latin empire all too easily regarded as largely a void. But within the biographical context, the thesis’s focus is more on the complex interplay between the Latin West and East in the early thirteenth century. A principal theme in this regard is the mobility, in geographical and politico-hierarchical terms, of a specific echelon of the high aristocracy in early thirteenth-century Europe, building on Bartlett’s conception of the contemporaneous western European ‘aristocratic diaspora’. Aristocrats who are ‘not quite first rank’ can be discerned on the make in regions, both west and east, distant from their original homelands. Much of the significance of that lies in the context, the variety of opportunities, and also the limitations on such figures. Whilst this thesis dwells on John’s experience of patronage and dependency, it also identifies grounds for tensions in his ‘new’ environments, as well as highlighting the opportunities and pitfalls presented by ‘dynastic interstices’. In this way, the thesis unpacks many of the ‘more normal’ features of the aristocratic diaspora out of John’s exceptional career. The thesis links together the thematic material to focus, in particular, on the interactions between various Western great powers and John as a client figure.
37
Byng, Gabriel Thomas Gustav. "Planning and paying for parish church construction in the later Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708063.
Full text
38
Rassi, Salam. "Justifying Christianity in the Islamic middle ages : the apologetic theology of ʻAbdīshōʻ bar Brīkhā (d. 1318)." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fd4d5621-24a8-4432-acea-9b5e58a9074a.
Full textAbstract:
The subject of this thesis is the theology of the late 13th- early 14th century churchman 'Abdisho' bar Brikha. Better known by modern scholars for his poetry and canon law, he is far less recognised as a religious controversialist who composed works in Arabic as well as Syriac to answer Muslim criticisms. My overall argument contends that 'Abdisho''s hitherto neglected theological works are critical to our understanding of how anti-Muslim apologetics had by his time become central to his Church's articulation of a distinct Christian identity in a largely non-Christian environment. 'Abdisho' wrote his apologetic theology at a time when Christians experienced increasing hardship under the rule of the Mongol Ilkhans, who had officially converted to Islam in 1295. While the gradual hardening of attitudes towards Christians may well have informed 'Abdisho''s defensive stance, this thesis also demonstrates that his theology is built on a genre of apologetics that emerged as early as the mid-8th century. Our author compiles and systematises earlier debates and authorities from this tradition while updating them for a current authorship. In doing so, he contributes to the formation of a theological canon that would remain authoritative for centuries to come. My analysis of 'Abdisho''s oeuvre extends to three doctrinal themes: the Trinity, the Incarnation, and devotional practices (viz. the veneration of the Cross and the striking of the church clapper). I situate his discussion of these topics in a period when Syriac Christian scholarship was marked by a familiarity with Arabo-Islamic theological and philosophical models. While our author does not engage with these models as closely as his better-known Syriac Christian contemporary Bar Hebraeus (d. 1286), he nevertheless appeals to a literary and theological idiom common to both Muslims and Christians in order to convince his coreligionists of their faith's reasonableness against centuries-long polemical attacks.
39
Freeburn, Ryan P. "The work and thought of Hugh of Amiens (c. 1085-1164)." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/13618.
Full textAbstract:
Throughout the course a long life in which he served as a cleric, a Cluniac monk, and an archbishop, Hugh of Amiens (c. 1085-1164) wrote a number of works including poems, biblical exegesis, anti-heretical polemics, and one of the early collections of systematic theology. This dissertation aims to provide an intellectual biography of Hugh which grants a better understanding not only of his motivations and ideals, but also some of those of the wider clerical and monastic world of the twelfth century. It examines each of Hugh's theological and literary compositions with their manuscript distribution, chronology, and contemporary setting, giving an in-depth exegesis of the texts including their concerns, sources of material, and their meaning within the context of their day. So too does it compare him with contemporaries who were writing similar works, from the compilers of sentences to biblical versifiers. Many themes surface in this work. One of these is the influence that both the scholastic and the monastic worlds had on Hugh. His writings show that he, along with many of his contemporaries, was secure in drawing inspiration from the contemplative spirit of the cloister as well as the methodical and disputatious endeavours of the schools. Another key theme is the extensive influence of St. Augustine, not just upon Hugh's thought, but also upon the thought of most of Hugh's contemporaries. The role of Hugh's works in the origin of systematic theology also emerges, as does their relation to events in the larger religious, social, and political scene, such as the rise of popular heresies and new religious movements, the condemnation of Gilbert de la Porree (c. 1076-1154), and the schism under Pope Alexander III (c. 1100-81). It concludes that Hugh was not only an intriguing individual, but also a representative of many of the important and widespread trends of his day.
40
MacGregor, James Bruce. "Salue Martir Spes Anglorum: English Devotion to Saint George in the Middle Ages." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2002. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1014136452.
Full text
41
Sear, Joanne Elizabeth. "Consumption and trade in East Anglian market towns and their hinterlands in the late Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.709037.
Full text
42
Levitt, Emma. "The construction of high status masculinity through the tournament and martial activity in the later Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Huddersfield, 2016. http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/31747/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis employs a gendered reading of contemporary accounts in order to explore how men’s expert performances in tournaments enabled them to achieve high status manhood during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century when England witnessed a resurgence of chivalry. In applying medieval concepts of masculinity to ideals of both kingship and nobility in the early modern period, it argues for continuity across a period of history that has often been treated as two distinct stages. The aim is to shed light on how tournaments were a fundamental aspect of Edward IV, Henry VII and Henry VIII’s kingship and masculinity, but also on other nobles and gentry men at these courts who also took this martial display seriously. By examining how men’s performances in the joust were used as a means to evaluate their suitability for royal matches, service in warfare and attendance in the privy chamber, I uncover how those few men who dominated the tiltyard were able to achieve an unrivalled masculine status and close friendship with Edward IV and Henry VIII. The emphasis on a chivalrous version of masculinity as a prevalent model for men of high status during the late medieval and early modern period has brought to the forefront of this study a new group of courtiers, who have largely been missing from the historiography.
43
Metzler, Irina. "Disability in medieval Europe : theoretical approaches to physical impairment during the high Middle Ages, c. 1100 - c. 1400." Thesis, University of Reading, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.366048.
Full text
44
Hanna, Elizabeth H. "Arthur and the Scots : narratives, nations, and sovereignty in the later Middle Ages." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/9750.
Full text
45
Illston, James Michael. "‘An Entirely Masculine Activity’?Women and War in the High and Late Middle Ages Reconsidered." Thesis, University of Canterbury. School of Humanities, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/2915.
Full textAbstract:
The field of medieval gender studies is a growing one, and nowhere is this expansion more evident than the recent increase in studies which address the roles of medieval women in times of war. While this change in research has been invaluable in helping to reveal the many important wartime roles performed by medieval women, previous studies have been too narrowly focused. Scholars have examined particular aspects of women’s military activities without analysing the full extent and significance of their involvement, and their studies have focused geographically either on women in Western Europe or on women in the crusade movement without considering the relationship between these two areas.
This thesis bridges the geographic and analytical gap by looking longitudinally at the female military experience from the late-eleventh to the early-fifteenth century in Western European society (predominantly France and England), on crusade, and in the Holy Land. An examination of medieval legal, philosophical, and political debates and discussions provides theoretical understanding of contemporary attitudes toward women and their perceived roles in war. Subsequent chapters focus on how women functioned as military leaders, supporters of military activity, and victims of wartime violence. Perceptions of these women in the writings of contemporary chroniclers are also evaluated. The disparity between theoretical attitudes toward women in war and the realities of medieval women’s military experiences is revealed through discussion of their extensive, though largely unstudied, participation in wars of the period. It is argued that historians must adopt a broader understanding and awareness of not only women’s ‘involvement’ in war, but also the importance of their contributions to medieval military history.
46
Kaznakov, Vladimir. "Treatment of the "special" dead in the early Middle Ages : Anglo-Saxon and Slavic perspectives." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2013. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4368/.
Full textAbstract:
This work deals with "special" burials among the Anglo-Saxon and Slavs in the early medieval period. The individuals in these graves are frequently labelled as "deviant", "criminals", as "socially other". This dissertation aims to focus more on the possible danger which "special" individuals represented for their communities after their death and on the possibility that the “special” burials were those of potential revenants or vampires. The introduction begins with a brief sketch of the evolution of approaches to burial by archaeologists and historians writing in English. It goes on to argue that “deviant burial” is not a self-explanatory category, but can be applied to a variety of very different inhumations. It suggests it might be better termed “special’ burial or the burial of the “special’ dead and formed part of regular inhumation practice; and it argues that the best way to understand these practices is an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural framework. In particular, it discusses the possible insights offered by the development of the cognitive study of religion and belief, with particular reference to death and burial practices and introduces a “theoretical alternative model” for accessing how the deceased was treated from corpse to the grave. Chapter 1 examines Anglo-Saxon "special" burials, focusing on selected cemeteries where we can observe multiple occurrences of "special" burials or the employment of several "special" practices in one locality. These will first be analyzed with regard to the location of deposition and secondly compared within the wider framework of Anglo-Saxon "special" burial practices. Comparison with "special" funerary rites recorded elsewhere in the world by anthropologists will lead to the proposal of an alternative approach to some of recent and current interpretations of these practices. Chapter 2 focuses on Slavic archaeological material represented by the "special" graves excavated in Slovakia and the Czech Republic: both burials from cemeteries and also a group of individuals deposited in a range of objects found during excavation of Slavic settlements - in grain silos, wells or pits. As with Anglo-Saxon graves, the Slavic "special" burials are analyzed from the point of view of location and then in more global context of Slavic society. The possible interpretations of these findings are discussed. Chapter 3 focuses on the primary sources and their descriptions of "pagan" funerary rituals. It charts shifts in ideas and attitudes towards "special" funeral practices ranging from descriptions of these "pagan" practices, through efforts to delimit and penalize them in the law codes, to narratives of revenant sightings and descriptions of how to recognize and destroy them. This chapter will indicate some of the theories and new approaches proposed in the thesis. The concluding chapter brings these strands together. In particular, it discusses the possible insights offered by the development of the cognitive study of religion and belief, with particular reference to death and burial practices. It examines the changing patterns of religion - from traditional or "pagan" to Christianity – and the ways in which this change influenced both "special" burial practices and perceptions of vampires and revenants, with particular reference to the Christian doctrine of Purgatory. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the theories proposed on the basis of the material collected in this work and reference to corresponding interpretative shifts in present day archaeology and history.
47
Frotscher, Antje G. "The war of the words : a history of flyting from antiquity to the Later Middle Ages." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.401258.
Full text
48
Kretschme, Marek Thue. "Rewriting Roman history in the Middle Ages : the 'Historia Romana' and the Manuscript Bamberg, Hist. 3 /." Leiden : Brill, 2007. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb411011516.
Full text
49
Mowbray, Donald Crawford. "The development of ideas about pain and suffering in the works of thirteenth-century masters of theology at Paris, c.1230-c.1300." Thesis, University of Bristol, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/fde4cad9-3a19-418c-8d19-3c2008ef7834.
Full text
50
Abdalla, Laila. "Man, woman or monster : some themes of female masculinity and transvestism in the Middle Ages and Renaissance." Thesis, McGill University, 1996. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=41958.
Full textAbstract:
This dissertation discusses medieval and Renaissance clerical and cultural constructions of femininity and female masculinity, and it analyses the complex relationship between such conceptions and the literary representation of the transvestite woman. Medieval theology legitimated female masculinity as transcendence of temporal sexuality. A woman who contained her affective femininity and replaced it with rational and ascetic behaviour was frequently lauded for having become male in all but body. In the middle of the first millennium, hagiographic legends abounded in which women appear to have embodied the patristic equation between spiritual rationality and masculinity. This dissertation proposes a radically different interpretation: the saint exchanges a sexualised form of femininity--ironically imposed upon her by a male society--for a non sexual but nevertheless feminine self valuation.Early modern culture perceived transvestism in a multiform manner. It signifies monstrosity in the polemical pamphlet, serves to indicate an estimable apex of humanity in Shakespearean comedy, and represents women in roles that range from monstrous disrupter to adept uniter in the works of such other playwrights as Ben Jonson and Thomas Middleton. While the pamphlet's social commentary argues that masculinity rendered a woman monstrously unfeminine, the literature finds ways of interrogating definitions of the sex-gender system in a world which was constantly and fundamentally mutating. The drama employs elements such as inversion, monstrosity and transgressions of class to negotiate a society in flux.