Between two kings: Pope Honorius III and the seizure of the kingdom of Jerusalem by Frederick II in 1225

The consensus on Pope Honorius III (1216–27) is that he was a conciliatory politician who lacked the harder edge possessed by Innocent III, his immediate predecessor, and Gregory IX, his successor. Yet, using overlooked evidence regarding the role of Honorius in Frederick II's seizure of the kingdom of Jerusalem from John of Brienne in 1225, this article reveals that he was capable of acting in a ruthlessly pragmatic manner. It provides a rare case study of the duplicitous uses that could be made of the papal chancery by an early thirteenth-century pope while navigating a difficult diplomatic path between two kings.     

Scandal: Olivia Pope,Pope Francis,and Catholic Social Thought

Millions of viewers tune in to watch ABC's Scandal where political corruption, sexual infidelity, secret lives, and hidden crimes abound. What is it that makes something scandalous? In popular culture, scandal involves something morally or legally wrong coupled with public outrage. In contrast, as a theological category scandal is that which impedes the community's relationship with God. Pope Francis identifies poverty as just such a scandal damaging our relationship with God and each other. Examining scandal in popular culture and the media along with Catholic social thought, this article identifies three types of scandal: hypocrisy, impurity, and dehumanization. Ultimately, the theology of scandal can direct us away from the salacious towards addressing scandals of dehumanization.     

《侯子钦墓志》释考

本文对侯子钦墓志原录文提出文字上的修改意见。考证侯子钦的家世及入周以前的任官,猜测侯子钦为北齐高氏亲信。考察侯子钦降周时的具体情形,认为齐军救援之不至,晋州“公私扰乱”的局面,周齐战略态势的强弱易势及其北齐朝政的昏乱是促使侯子钦降周的远近原因。而侯子钦的出降直接导致了晋州的陷落,对于周灭北齐而言,这是势关全局的转折点。侯子钦降周后所受的待遇印证了北周政权对北齐降人的政策：在灭齐战争中,优渥北齐降人;灭齐后,转而疑惧北齐降人。     

Liberalism in the Cold War: Norberto Bobbio and the dialogue with the PCI

In this article I study the theoretical impact of Cold War ideology on Italian democracy through the dialogue between Norberto Bobbio and the leaders of the Italian Communist Party in the mid-1950s, in particular the philosopher Galvano della Volpe and the General Secretary Palmiro Togliatti. I claim that Bobbio's choice of dialogue with the 'enemies' of the western model of democracy was in itself a criticism of the Cold War logic and its Manichean theology of good and evil. What I call Bobbio's politics of dialogue has been roundly criticized in Italy, particularly since 1989, when revisionist scholars accused the non-Communist intellectuals of previous generations of not understanding Communist totalitarianism. I take the revisionists' challenges as my point of departure for an analysis of Bobbio's politics of dialogue and its underlying theoretical implications. Bobbio challenged the Communists on three related topics: the theory of the state, the philosophical character of Marxism, and the theory of liberty. Keeping the door open to illiberals did not imply relativism or passive acceptance of any opinion: failure to understand this basic fact led late revisionists to misinterpret Bobbio's dialogue with the PCI as a sign of weakness rather than strength. The dialogue strengthened Bobbio's conviction that it was crucial to link the defense of individual liberty to the defense of democracy, and thus avoid the dualism between negative and positive liberty, liberalism and democracy, a trait peculiar to Cold War liberalism as well as its leftist antagonists.     

Scinditur in partes populus: Pope Damasus and the Martyrs of Rome

Pope Damasus (366–384) was the impresario of the late antique cult of the martyrs at Rome. Damasus celebrated the martyrs with epigrams written in Virgilian hexameters which he had engraved in exquisite lettering on their tombs. This article investigates the specifically Roman context of these activities as a means of shedding new light on Damasus' purposes. The enhancement of the cult of the Roman martyrs was more than a stage in the process of christianisation, creating Christian but still distinctively Roman holy patrons for the urbs. It was also directed against rival Christian traditions, including Nicene splinter groups such as the Ursinians and Luciferians who contested Damasus' election. The epi grams allowed Damasus to inscribe very specific and carefully shaped meanings on strategic and often contested sites within the Christian topography of Rome. By placing the Damasan epigrams in the context of a bloody ecclesiastical factionalism in Rome, this paper argues that these very public celebrations of the martyrs were used to promote concord and consensus within the Catholic community in Rome.     

唐《韩秀实墓志》及其他

韩择木是唐代四大隶书家之一,他教子有方,子秀实、秀弼、秀荣并有书名。近年出土的其长子韩秀实的墓志,唐建中四年(783年)制。墓志对研究唐代的进仕路径、寻找韩择木家族莹地、了解中唐政局、纠正补充文献的讹误和缺失皆有帮助。作为韩择木季子韩秀荣的唯一传世书法作品,该墓志尤其为我们研究唐代最富盛名的隶书世家韩择木家族的书法,提供了珍贵的资料。     

Infallibilists in the curia of Pope John XXII

In 1324 the idea of papal infallibility was saved from condemnation at the hands of Pope John XXII through the influence of a small group of infallibilists in John's curia. Founded about 1314 by Peter de la Palu, this group developed the idea of the absolute infallibility of the local Roman church first to defend the privileges of the mendicant orders, then to defend the whole church against heresy. Its members included Guido Terreni, who from 1318 seems to have taken the lead in the development of the idea, and John Regina of Naples, whose argument in 1324 that infallibility was an “ancient teaching of the church” appears to have been decisive in averting Pope John's condemnation. The existence of this group of ‘curial infallibilists’ before 1324 revises the suggestion of recent research that the Franciscan, anti-papal conception of papal infallibility which surfaced in the early 1320's served as the inspiration for the development of a curial, pro-papal conception in the late 1320's. The curial conception was not a response to the Franciscan conception, but an independent, parallel development. Peter de la Palu and Guido Terreni in 1318 were not even aware that Peter Olivi, the formulator of the Franciscan conception, had taught a theory of infallibility. In fact, they condemned him for not doing so. If Olivi's theory had any influence on Palu's initial conception, it was through the very simplified version of an intermediary.     

Pope Clement V and the crusades of 1309–10

There were three crusading expeditions in 1309– 1310: against the Muslims in the eastern Mediterranean, the Moors in Granada, and the Venetian soldiers occupying the papal city of Ferrara. The campaigns illustrate the continuing vitality of the crusading movement despite the setbacks of the previous decades; but they also reveal the consequences of extending the crusade to various ‘fronts’, both outside and within the frontiers of Christendom. For Clement V's original intention of concentrating the crusading energy of the West on his project for a Hospitaller passagium particulare was frustrated first by insistent Aragonese and Castilian demands for crusade privileges and taxes for the Granada campaign, and later by the draining-off of papal funds to the Ferrara war. It was the crusade against Venice which proved most successful, and the lesson was clear to the papal court: in a period of soaring military costs and growing suspicion about the real motives of crusading kings and princes, the papacy could best promote the cause of Christ by concentrating on the ‘home front’, the policy pursued by Clement's successor, John XXII.     

契丹小字《耶律副部署墓志铭》考释

契丹小字<耶律副部署墓志铭>(以下简称<署志>)1996年9月出土于内蒙古自治区阿鲁科尔沁旗罕苏木朝克图山的耶律祺家族墓地二号墓.墓志现藏于内蒙古文物考古研究所.志盖,正面的斜面刻十二生肖像,中央台面没有刻字(图一).背面刻契丹小字27行(图二).志石刻契丹小字21行(图三).二石共刻契丹小字51行.出土情况已有报导1.现对墓志作一考释.如有不妥之处,尚希诸家博雅不吝赐教.     

法门寺《清乔公墓志铭》探析

2008年3月15日,佛教圣地法门寺附近出土了一方《清乔公墓志》。本文通过对其基志文本身和参考其他相关史料的研究,梳理了志主乔公家族的传承脉络;解读了乔公家族为杞国第一国君“东楼公”的余脉分支的渊源关系;获取了明末农民起义对当地的影响巨大等相关历史信息。更为重要的是法门寺在唐代曾为皇家寺院。此墓志的出土位置正处于法门寺二十四院遗址区内,这为研究唐以后法门寺的规模、历史变迁等提供了新的资料。     

Infallibilists in the curia of Pope John XXII

In 1324 the idea of papal infallibility was saved from condemnation at the hands of Pope John XXII through the influence of a small group of infallibilists in John's curia. Founded about 1314 by Peter de la Palu, this group developed the idea of the absolute infallibility of the local Roman church first to defend the privileges of the mendicant orders, then to defend the whole church against heresy. Its members included Guido Terreni, who from 1318 seems to have taken the lead in the development of the idea, and John Regina of Naples, whose argument in 1324 that infallibility was an “ancient teaching of the church” appears to have been decisive in averting Pope John's condemnation. The existence of this group of ‘curial infallibilists’ before 1324 revises the suggestion of recent research that the Franciscan, anti-papal conception of papal infallibility which surfaced in the early 1320's served as the inspiration for the development of a curial, pro-papal conception in the late 1320's. The curial conception was not a response to the Franciscan conception, but an independent, parallel development. Peter de la Palu and Guido Terreni in 1318 were not even aware that Peter Olivi, the formulator of the Franciscan conception, had taught a theory of infallibility. In fact, they condemned him for not doing so. If Olivi's theory had any influence on Palu's initial conception, it was through the very simplified version of an intermediary.     

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.