Faith in war: the religious experience of Scottish soldiery,c.1100–c.1500

This paper examines the comparatively patchy evidence for the pastoral provision and personal faith of late medieval Scottish combatants below the rank of knight. By examining such sources as papal supplications, royal financial accounts, parliamentary rolls, chronicles, poetry and the cartularies of Scottish monastic houses and burgh collegiate churches, it is possible to identify elite and parish provision of churchmen serving the needs of Scottish troops as they mustered, trained and prepared for battle. In addition, this evidence also highlights a number of cults and relics popular with the social ranks of the ordinary Scottish soldiery, including those of SS Ninian, Leonard, Thomas Becket, Columba, the Blessed Virgin Mary and — often cast as the nemesis of Scottish troops — Cuthbert. However, this survey also points to some tensions between the spiritual interests of Scottish servicemen and their ruling elites.     

Burial Practices in the Northern Danelaw,c.650–1100

Abstract

The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 formed a watershed in the pastoral care of Western Europe. Aiming to transform nominal faith into a more active and personal religious experience, the Lateran IV decrees instigated an internal mission. In the decades immediately following the Council, its reforms were disseminated across Europe through diocesan legislation, where bishops adapted the decrees to fit local circumstances. This paper attempts to follow both the transmission and implementation of the 1215 decrees in the Northern Province, analysing both the reforming climate of northern England and the actual effects of the legislation in the approximate century and a quarter immediately following the Fourth Lateran Council.     

The Marketing of Norwich Stuffs,c. 1660–1730

Abstract

This essay examines late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century handcrafted Irish lace as material object related to both its conditions of production and its consumption with an emphasis placed upon the consumption of what was consistently referred to in the contemporary press as 'real lace'. Why, for example, would a woman specifically choose handmade Irish lace for her elegant court gown or bridal costume? What might have influenced a consumer to select Irish lace rather than imported lace? Did the wearing of 'real' Irish lace have any symbolic or social meaning beyond adornment? Might the relationship between patrons and workers be viewed through the lens of today's fair trade movement, thereby expanding the consumers' intentions and complicating the workers' conditions?     

St Mary’s,Southwell, and the archbishops of York,c. 1100–15401

Although there may have been contacts between Southwell and York from the seventh century onwards, it was a royal grant to Archbishop Oscytel in 956 AD that formalised the relationship and led to the creation within the archbishopric of the Peculiar of Southwell. This centred on an impressive minster church, described by A. Hamilton Thompson as ‘the greatest of all the medieval collegiate foundations of England’. This paper considers aspects of its institutional organisation, its place in the archdiocese of York and its long enduring relationship with the archbishops, for several of whom Southwell was a favoured place of residence and burial. It particularly concentrates on the period from c. 1100 to the Reformation, exploiting the Minster's recently published main medieval cartulcary, The White Book of Southwell, to follow developments. It pays particular attention to the Chapter and its personnel, whose careers are set in a wider context by comparison with the experience of canons and prebendaries elsewhere, particularly at Beverley and Ripon, the other two major Minsters of the archdiocese.