The Chinon chart

The trial of the Templars between 1307 and 1312 was marked by a battle of political wills between King Philip IV on the one hand and Pope Clement V on the other. After the French Templars had been taken into royal custody in October 1307, Clement quickly realised that he could have no influence on the outcome until he could gain access to the Templars themselves, especially the leaders. In June 1308, at Poitiers, after a long struggle, he finally achieved his goal, hearing the confessions of 72 selected Templars, whom he then absolved. However, the king still retained the leaders, holding them at Chinon castle rather than allowing them to appear before the papal Curia. Eventually, in late August 1308, a papal commission did hear the leaders, although until now the evidence for this was indirect, contained in a letter preserved in the French Chancery. The recent discovery of the papal documents containing the record of these hearings, which culminated in the absolution of the leaders, places them in a completely new light and suggests that the views of Clement V and other principals in the trial need to be radically reappraised.     

Two notaries and their records in England, 1282–1307

Evidence concerning notaries public in England before 1300 has been limited to indirect contemporary references, some scattered original public instruments, and several truncated copies and summaries of their documents (in episcopal registers, for instance). Even with inferences based upon the foregoing — and John of Bologna's guidebook for fledgling English notaries — since none of their notebooks, registers or rough drafts have survived, next to nothing is known about their practical documentary methodologies and daily routines (certainly in comparison with the continental notariate). However, during 1307 a papal commission sitting in London examined and recorded some of the papers and registers belonging to two notaries who had lived and worked in England from at least 1280 to about 1300: John de Beccles and Hildebrand of Siena. The record of that examination, Vatican MS. Cod. Lat. 4016, provides the earliest detailed look at the thirteenth-century notariate in England that has yet come to light.     

Anchoring Pontifical Authority: A Reconsideration of the Papal Employment of the Title Pontifex Maximus

It is a common assumption that the title of supreme priesthood or pontifex maximus is included in the official papal titulature, and it has been supposed that the Roman bishop adopted it from the Roman emperor in late antiquity. In fact, however, it was probably not until the fifteenth century that the designation was first used by the papacy, and it has continued to be part of papal representation ever since. The title was deeply rooted in the Roman imperial past. At several stages in papal history the papal agency felt the need to draw back (again) on this ancient, traditional title and managed to successfully (re‐)introduce the title by anchoring it in the cultural biography of the papacy.     

From Sacred Mystery to Divine Deception: Robert Holkot, John Wyclif and the Transformation of Fourteenth-Century Eucharistic Discourse

In his extremely popular preaching handbook the Summa praedicantium , in a chapter devoted to the Eucharist, the fourteenth-century Dominican John Bromyard relates an exemplum about a certain holy man. This man's "faith towards the sacrament was so great," Bromyard writes, that it was often said that were Christ himself to enter "the church during the elevation of the host, the man would not go to look at him, and in so doing lose sight of the host." ¹ While it lacks the spectacular firepower that characterizes so many Eucharistic miracle stories, that characterize so many of Bromyard's own stories — like the one about the bees who construct a honeycomb tabernacle and buzz chants to honour a hive-hidden host — in many ways it does more than most to move us to the very centre of the medieval Eucharistic experience. ² It is, when all is said and done, a story about belief and about the miracle of the Eucharist. This unnamed holy man does not need to get up, does not need to hurry over to greet Christ at the door. He does not need to do any of these things because he already sees Christ right there in the upraised hands of the priest, in the consecrated host.     

The legacy of Charles Schmidt to the study of Christian dualism

Charles Schmidt's Histoire et doctrine de la secte des Cathares was published 150 years ago and marked the beginning of the modern scholarly study of Catharism. This article examines, with special reference to recent publications, how well Schmidt's work has stood the test of time. The topic is dealt with under the five broad headings which Schmidt himself used: Cathar origins; The spread of Catharism in Western Europe; The decline of Catharism and the reasons for it; Cathar beliefs; The persecution of Catharism and the papal Inquisition. The article concludes with a brief survey of the mythological approach to Catharism, which has developed since Schmidt wrote.     

The Neoconservatives and the Pope: Misreading John Paul II in George Weigel's Biographies

With the recent release of his autobiographical narrative of the composition of the papal biography, Witness to Hope, prominent Catholic neoconservative George Weigel has invited a reexamination of the presentation of John Paul II to the world by Catholic neoconservatives. In his biographies, George Weigel crafts an often misleading portrait of Pope John Paul II as the pope of American liberalism and neoconservativism. Ironically, at the same time, the story of Weigel's biographies contains the story of the rise and fall of the Catholic neoconservative movement in America.     

Framing papal communication in the central Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the production and consumption of papal communication in the central Middle Ages. It outlines the development of the papacy, which formed the historical and political framework for papal communication, and discusses the processes, themes and meanings behind various types of communication relating to the papacy in Latin Christendom principally between the years 1100 and 1300. Particular emphasis is placed upon the plurality of responses to papal communication and on the relationship between papal communication and authority, and papal self-identity and perceptions. The essay introduces seven diverse and interdisciplinary articles in a special issue of the Journal of Medieval History on the papacy and communication in the central Middle Ages.     

Social relations on stage: Witnesses in classical Athens

The study of witness testimony raises questions which are fundamental for the student of other cultures, whether past or contemporary. What are the standards expected of a reliable informant and how is reliability to be recognised? How is reliable knowledge about the past established?

The aim of this paper is to analyse the use of witnesses in classical Athenian lawcourts both for its epistemological implications — what does it tell us about Athenian ideas of ‘expert witnesses’, of reliability, of truthfulness and bias — and for the information it gives us about Athenian society and court practice. What kind of men did Athenian litigants select to act as witnesses for them, and what effect did they hope their witnesses’ testimonies would have on the jury?

If we start out from the assumption of modern courts that witnesses are called to ‘establish the facts of the case’ we shall misunderstand the Athenian data. What witnesses actually testified often was not very important: their testimonies might be insignificant, irrelevant or repetitive. To understand their role it is necessary to see them as minor characters in a drama, whose presence provides the backdrop against which the litigant wishes his own actions and character to be seen. Respectable witnesses — officials, members of the ‘professions’, reputable politicians — establish his own respectability. The support of neighbours, associates and kin shows that those who know the milieu in which the dispute arose are on the litigant's side. Denigration Of the opponent's witnesses, kin and associates presents him as a vicious and unreliable character. In the construction of a character‐portrait in court witnesses had an important role to play.     

The Story of Jimmy: the Practice of History on North Pentecost,Vanuatu1

The Story of Jimmy is a frequently told oral‐historical account of ‘first contact’ from North Pentecost, Vanuatu. It describes the adventures of a group of ni‐Vanuatu plantation labourers who escape from Fiji by hijacking a ship and navigate a return to their home islands in Vanuatu. Central to the story is a young white man, known simply as Jimmy. Unwittingly forced to make the journey with them, and before they are all finally shipwrecked on the east coast of North Pentecost, Jimmy witnesses the murder and cannibalisation of his father by the starving hijackers. Yet upon departing for home some four years later he bestows a new name upon the Island: Uretabe, the ‘world of love/gifts’. This story, with its dual‐inverted narrative of abduction, transformation, escape and return, presents a remarkable account at a unique moment of historical rupture and cross‐cultural exchange. In doing so it also expresses idiomatic themes of mobility, place and identity as they relate to the politics of both the colonial past and postcolonial present in North Pentecost. This paper explores those themes and narratives while considering their relevance to my own experiences as a researcher in the area.     

New evidence of noble and gentry piety in fifteenth-century England and Wales

There has been much recent examination of late medieval lay piety in order to understand the background to Henry VIII's reformation, notably Colin Richmond's studies of the ‘privatised’ religion of the English gentry. Such work has largely over-looked papal sources and the associated issue of relations between English and Welsh society and the papacy. This article seeks to remedy this neglect by presenting new evidence from the registers of the papal penitentiary. In the late middle ages the papal penitentiary was the highest office in the western Church concerned with matters of conscience and the principal source of papal absolutions, dispensations and licences. Petitions seeking such favours were copied in its registers, and this article especially concerns petitions from English and Welsh gentry seeking licences to have a portable altar or to appoint a personal confessor (littere confessionales). It also examines their requests for various other favours that illustrate their piety, notably regarding fasting, chastity and pilgrimage. The article contests Richmond's notion of ‘privatised’ gentry religion and similar distinctions between elite and popular or personal and collective religion. It appends translations of three significant documents from the penitentiary registers and a statistical table concerning requests for littere confessionales.     

Yhwh est-il un menteur? Une lecture narrative de 1 R 22,1-40

ABSTRACT: The portrayal of Yhwh that emerges from 1 Kings 22,1-40 is at first sight that of a malicious and immoral god who uses a lie to involve the king of Israel in a war that costs him his life. Deception, betrayal, dishonesty, etc., are terms used by some commentators to describe Yhwh’s behavior in this story. How can one understand such an act from a god often presented as faithful (Deut 7,9; 32,4), and whose word is truth (2 Sam 7,28)? In addition, how can we understand the death of Ahab whereas Yhwh just declared at the end of chap. 21 that the punishment of the ruler is postponed to the next generation? Some commentators attempt to justify the “deceit” of Yhwh by minimizing his responsibility in the matter or by citing extenuating circumstances of socio-historical order.

Through a narrative analysis of the story, this article asserts that the god in the story of Ahab’s death and in the previous episodes of his life is rather a patient and benevolent god, who gives the son of Omri opportunities to turn away from his sins and live.     

Citizenship,the Nation and the Race: China and the International Opium System, 1912–1931

This article analyzes China’s attempts to participate in and use the negotiations about reforming the international opium control system in the interwar period. China had a contentious relationship with the international opium control system from its creation in the International Opium Convention of 1912 through the League of Nations opium control system of the 1920s and 1930s. The Chinese government wanted to gain acceptance for China as a modern state no longer in need of tutelage from the international community. They also wanted to portray the Chinese people as a modern race as a way of undermining colonial opium monopolies, which made a disproportionate amount of their profits from sales to Overseas Chinese. While they were not fully successful in either of these efforts, China did manage to win some support, drawing the United States into closer agreement with China’s positions. Engagement with the international system also had a considerable impact on China’s domestic opium politics and its broader diplomatic relationship with the major powers.     

Ritual,what else? Papal letters,sermons and the making of crusaders

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the importance of papal letters and crusade sermons for the process of recruiting crusaders and analyses different communicative aspects which were at play during events recruiting for the crusade. It argues that both papal letters and sermons were vital elements for effective crusade propaganda but that they fulfilled distinct functions. While letters emanating from the papal curia set the strategic, organisational and legal goalposts for crusade propaganda, crusade sermons were central to the successful recruitment of crusaders. The article highlights the performative aspects of crusade preaching by Pope Urban II at Clermont in 1095 and Abbot Martin of Pairis at Basel in 1200 and shows that ritualised communication played an important role during recruitment events.     

Charles of Anjou,Pope Gregory X and the crown of Jerusalem

This article seeks to dispel the popular myth that Pope Gregory X (1271–6) wanted to change the government of the kingdom of Jerusalem by putting Charles of Anjou on its throne through the purchase of the claim of Maria of Antioch. A study of the Angevin chancery records – little used by crusade historians – demonstrates that Charles had an interest and influence in the kingdom before Gregory became pope. An examination of Gregory's papal registers shows that he consistently treated Hugh of Lusignan as king of Jerusalem and that the pope had no desire for anything to disrupt the peace in Christendom that he deemed necessary for his crusade.     

Innocent III and the world of symbols of the papacy

ABSTRACT

This essay explores some of the papal symbols which assumed particular prominence during the pontificate of Pope Innocent III (1198–1216). These symbols belong to different modes of expression: metaphoric speech and writing (vicarius Christi, the pope’s body); clothing (pallium, tiara); objects (the Golden Rose); and visual art (the mosaic in Old St Peter’s). It is argued that the pope – and his curia – employed these symbols to represent the special position of authority which the pope held within the Church and society at large, and that several of them played a role in ritual enactments of papal authority. It is furthermore argued that they should be seen as part of a coherent system of symbols and that many of them serve to emphasise the relationship between the pope and Christ, and thus represent Pope Innocent III’s ecclesiological programme in which the pope as God’s representative on earth plays a pivotal role.     

Papal Power and Protection in the Shebet Yehudah

The sixteenth‐century Shebet Yehudah is an account of the persecutions of Jews in various countries and epochs, including their expulsion from Spain in the fifteenth century. It is not a medieval text and was written long after many of the events it describes. Yet although it cannot give us a contemporary medieval standpoint, it provides important insights into how later Jewish writers perceived Jewish–papal relations in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. Although the extent to which Jewish communities came into contact either with the papacy as an institution or the actions of individual popes varied immensely, it is through analysis of Hebrew works such as the Shebet Yehudah that we are able to piece together a certain understanding of Jewish ideas about the medieval papacy as an institution and the policies of individual popes. This article argues that Jews knew only too well that papal protection was not unlimited, but always carefully circumscribed in accordance with Christian theology. It is hoped that it will be a scholarly contribution to our growing understanding of Jewish ideas about the papacy's spiritual and temporal power and authority in the Later Middle Ages and how this impacted on Jewish communities throughout medieval Europe.     

Restitution over coffee: truth,reconciliation, and environmental violence in East Timor

Truth commissions have become an almost obligatory component of the process by which national societies attempt to reconstruct themselves in the aftermath of, and recover from, periods of violent, authoritarian rule, and/or war, especially of the civil variety. Proponents of truth commissions see them as indispensable to promoting reconciliation between former adversaries as well as a transition to a more just, democratic, and peaceful political order, while serving as an important component in nation-state-(re)building. This paper analyzes and critiques the boundaries that typically define the tasks of truth commissions with a focus on East Timor’s. It contends that commissions achieve less than they might in terms of their goal of facilitating a justice-infused notion of reconciliation between conflicting parties because of their tendency to focus on individual acts or events of violence, while giving relatively little weight to systemic or structural forms of violence. To substantiate this argument, the paper analyzes the relationship of coffee—East Timor’s primary export commodity—to the violence and terror that the country’s truth commission addresses. In doing so, the paper illustrates the dynamic links between violence and the environment and how said environment comes to embody that violence and to reproduce it in various forms. It also demonstrates the limits of truth commissions as conventionally defined as they relate to matters of social justice. In doing so, it potentially points the way toward more ambitious, and more successful, truth-telling and reconciliation processes—if we assume the goal is to promote a just and peaceful coexistence between former adversaries. The framework employed is one of a Third World political ecology of violence, one that understands violence not only in terms of direct acts of physical brutality, but also in terms of indirect acts and social structures that cause injury.