Thirty-Second Annual Meeting,Evesham, 1875

Abstract

This paper considers the sculpted capitals in Wells cathedral. Although integral to the early Gothic fabric, they have hitherto eluded close examination as either a component of the building or as an important cycle of ecclesiastical imagery in their own right. Consideration of the archaeological evidence suggests that the capitals were introduced mid-way through the building campaigns and were likely the products of the cathedral's masons rather than part of an original scheme for the cathedral as a whole. Possible sources for the images are considered. The distribution of the capitals in lay and clerical spaces of the cathedral leads to discussion of how the imagery might have been meaningful to different audiences on either side of the choir screen.     

‘As Poor as Church Mice’: Bishops,Finances, Posts,and Civil Duties in the Duchy of Warsaw, 1807–13

Abstract

Relations between the Catholic Church and the secular authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw were characterized by the one’s efforts to maintain its old privileges, and the other’s modernization of the law in a Josephist spirit. Cooperation and compromise between Church and state were possible, but their relations were full of tension, which sometimes erupted into open confl ict. This article presents a wider range of problems than has hitherto been noted in the historiography. From the beginning of 1807, the Catholic clergy was expected to fulfi l new duties, because of the shortage of administrative staff. Confl icts arose over the duties of patrons, payments for the clergy, their taxes, the government’s prohibition on plural holding of benefi ces cum cura animarum, and over ecclesiastical organization in general. The place of the Church was more clearly outlined in the Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807), but the concept of the ’state religion’ was seen by some clergymen as an opportunity to spread the Church’s infl uence. Further changes opened the higher ecclesiastical ranks to commoners. The civil government and the episcopate also differed on the role of religious orders, with the former looking to employ nuns and monks in social welfare and education. Bishops complained of ministers and offi cials who did not pay priests’ salaries punctually, if at all, but some episcopal interventions led to the authorities releasing the orders from fi nancial obligations and taxes. The Civil Code, introduced in 1808, assigned the duties of registrars to priests. Insofar as divorces and civil marriages were concerned, this role could place priests in contravention of canon law, although in practice almost no such cases occurred. Despite the work undertaken by representatives of the clergy and the civil authorities, no concordat, which would have resolved these issues, was agreed with the Holy See. As a result, the period of the Duchy brought the Catholic clergy great insecurity, alongside their hopes for the Polish nation.     

Peasant Categories in the Tenth and eleventh centuries

Abstract

The need for the state to protect its fiscal revenues is presented in the tenth-century legislation as a significant factor underlying the efforts made by the imperial administration to check the growing power of its provincial magnates and to make it more difficult for them to extend their properties at the expense of weaker peasants. In practice the most effective way for the state to maintain its revenues was to ensure through the regular activities of its fiscal officials that peasants who owed tax-payments to the state were not brought under the control of powerful lay and ecclesiastical landowners.     

Crimson,Scarlet, Murrey and Carnation: Red at the Court of Henry VIII

Abstract

Red, in all its various shades, was a colour with many associations at the court of Henry VIII. This article presents a thematic analysis of the key circumstances when red clothing was worn at Henry VIII's court, namely the robes worn at sessions of parliament by the nobility and secular clergy, the livery issued at coronations, as well as livery given to members of the king's household and his army in 1544. In addition, the king wore red for key days in the liturgical year as his medieval predecessors had, while it also formed part of his everyday wardrobe. Red was also significant for others at the Henrician court, including the secular and ecclesiastical élite. As such, it was a colour that was associated with wealth, status and parliamentary authority.     

LEASE DEFAULTS AND THE EFFICIENT MITIGATION OF DAMAGES*

ABSTRACT The traditional law of leases imposed no duty on landlords to mitigate damages in the event of tenant breach, whereas the modern law of leases does. An economic model of leases, in which absentee tenants may or may not intend to breach, shows that the traditional rule promotes tenant investment in the property by discouraging landlord entry. In contrast, the modern rule prevents the property from being left idle by encouraging landlords to enter and re‐let abandoned property. The model reflects the historic use of the traditional rule for agricultural leases, where absentee use was valuable, and the emergence of the modern rule for residential leases, where the primary use entails continuous occupation.     

Pilgrimage and tourism: Cathedral visiting in contemporary England

Abstract

This paper examines the role of cathedral visiting in contemporary England. It highlights the importance of cathedrals to the tourism economy and also considers the issue of the commercialisation of heritage within cathedrals and the difficulties posed for cathedral authorities in contrasting perceptions of visitors as tourists and pilgrims. The issue of pilgrimage is examined through the results of a survey of the experiences and attitudes of eight hundred visitors to four English cathedrals. It is suggested that the tension between tourism and pilgrimage is not as great as might be expected and that experience of visiting a cathedral can engender a sense of pilgrimage in the tourist     

Receiving Royals in Later Medieval York: Civic Ceremony and the Municipal Elite, 1478–1503

Abstract

This article examines the later medieval royal entry ceremony in York from the perspective of the social groups that designed and produced the spectacle. Deliberations of York's civic council comprise the main body of evidence for this study. It is argued that a mercantile oligarchy controlled the production of ceremony at every level. York's merchants dominated the design of civic receptions by excluding other secular and ecclesiastical groups native to the city from the decision-making process, and by resisting external interference by groups such as the nobility. The civic council made use of the topography of the city to reinforce the mercantile dimensions of the ceremony and to create a ceremonial space where they could communicate with the royal visitor. The merchant élite also adapted the form and content of the city's nuanced Corpus Christi celebrations to the royal entry. By these means they displayed and consolidated their position at the pinnacle of urban society at a time when their dominance over the city's economic, social and political structures was weakening.     

EPISCOPAL ECONOMICS

It has been common to view the Icelandic economy either from the perspective of the individual farm in terms of its productivity or at the national scale in terms of trade and the role of imports/exports. Given the fact that the economy was largely a tenant-based system with a small number of landowners, there is an important middle ground between the household economics of individual farms and the state-sanctioned trade structures that needs to be explored. The objective of this paper is to examine this middle ground and the way the economy was structured in relation to property ownership and tenancy using the case study of the bishopric of Skálholt during the 17th and 18th centuries. Adopting a modified system of provision approach, three scales of analysis are adopted: the settlement itself, the immediate environs and finally the wider regional property network. Tracing the connections outward at successive scales reveals the complex nature of the economic infrastructure behind one of the largest landowners in Iceland at this time.     

Reading Kafka Visually: Gothic Ornament and the Motion of Writing in Kafka’s Der Process

Through close examination of the chapter ‘Im Dom’ in Kafka’s novel Der Process, this articles explores how a particular visual mode can shape the writing of a text. The mode analysed here inheres in the setting of Kafka’s chapter: the architecture of the Gothic cathedral, which the art historian Wilhelm Worringer, a contemporary of Kafka’s, saw embodied in the figure of ornament. This encounter between literary language and Gothic space as two phenomena mutually engendering each other opens a perspective onto the ‘motion of writing’ within the text, and onto its visuality and resonance with space. A dynamic and complex current; a chaotic tangle of lines; expression prevailing over meaning; an absent centre; vertigo and pathos — these are the principles shared by Worringer’s Gothic and Kafka’s writing.     

Le groupe cathédral dans le paysage urbain en Italie (XIII–XVe siècles)

Reflecting on the alleged differences between the medieval town, based on its cathedral church, and the Renaissance town, supposedly grouped round its prince's palace, the author embarked on an examination of the role of the duomo and its precinct in the Italian town of the later middle ages. Apart from its central importance in religious functions, especially preaching and processions, and the conscious effort to ensure that the town's greatness was matched by the splendour of its cathedral, the author shows that the duomo served as the venue for recieving distinguished visitors, for public declarations, for miracle plays, for funerals, and even for some purely secular activities. The role of the duomo was thus at once religious and social and political.     

The public relevance of the church and Catholicism in Italy

Abstract

This article highlights the particular situation of the Catholic religion in Italy which distinguishes itself for its systematic organization, active association-forming and cultural vitality, unrivalled in any other European country either Protestant or Catholic. On the one hand the church in Italy still disposes of such a wealth of clergy and religious figures, dioceses and parishes, educational and social institutions, ecclesiastical groups and associations, and so on, that it can maintain a diffuse presence scattered over the national territory; it deploys numerous forces and resources which form an integral part of normal social relationships that animate civil society. On the other hand, the church and Italian Catholicism today are particularly active at a cultural level, with their contribution of ideas and experience on vital questions arising in social coexistence (ranging from the family to bioethics, from religious freedom to the secular State, from national identity to the multiethnic presence, and so on).     

Le groupe cathédral dans le paysage urbain en Italie (XIII–XVe siècles)

Reflecting on the alleged differences between the medieval town, based on its cathedral church, and the Renaissance town, supposedly grouped round its prince's palace, the author embarked on an examination of the role of the duomo and its precinct in the Italian town of the later middle ages. Apart from its central importance in religious functions, especially preaching and processions, and the conscious effort to ensure that the town's greatness was matched by the splendour of its cathedral, the author shows that the duomo served as the venue for recieving distinguished visitors, for public declarations, for miracle plays, for funerals, and even for some purely secular activities. The role of the duomo was thus at once religious and social and political.     

Remarks on an Enamelled Tablet,Preserved in the Museum at Mans,and Supposed to Represent the Effigy of Geoffrey Plantagenet

Abstract

One of the most intriguing problems in the study of Gothic architecture in the Latin East concerns the network of interrelationships between the major architectural centres in the eastern Mediterranean, especially the Crusader states of the Levant, the kingdom of Cyprus and Hospitaller Rhodes. Although scholars have been aware of the artistic links between these areas for decades, the Cyprus-Rhodes connection remains to this day largely unexplored, despite the obvious interest it presents for the development of ecclesiastical architecture in the region. This article examines the architecture of the Carmelite church in Famagusta and its formal affinities with Rhodes cathedral, in order to identify the conditions and modes of transmission of architectural designs from Cyprus to Rhodes in the second quarter of the 14th century. It will also attempt to demonstrate that the same basic design had been employed for two buildings of radically different status and function, in a reflection of the circumstances, financial or ideological, surrounding their creation.     

Troubling Confessions: Roman Catholicism and ‘The Homosexual Question’

Abstract

Current scholarship on human rights and torture largely ignores places and scenes where extra-judicial violence is routinely practiced. That is, framed within a secular discourse, the agency of religious bodies in the systemic infringement of ‘rights’ is never considered. This paper explores one question with two parts: What are the conditions in church governance (Christian) in which systematic violation of human ‘rights’ is the norm, and in which the production of behaviors very much like torture is made possible, even necessary? Why do such behaviors go unnoticed, or, when they are observed, are they discounted? Using the crisis of homosexual presence within contemporary Roman Catholicism I shall argue that pressure for ‘confessional’ purity produces behaviors and activities within lines of authority that mimic torture. The essay examines documented policies, ecclesiastical directives and procedures concerning the management and treatment of persons (mostly homosexuals and women) during the second half of the papacy of John Paul II (1986-2001).     

Troubled Encounters: Payments for Ecosystem Services in Chiapas,Mexico

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is a well-established conservation policy approach worldwide. Where forests are owned and managed by rural and indigenous communities, PES initiatives often aim to incentivize the joint adoption of forest protection and sustainable management practices. However, not all communities might have the will or capacity to maintain such practices over the long term. This article examines a PES programme in a rural community of Chiapas, Mexico. It shows that while a majority of the community's landowners have engaged in PES through two distinct working groups, a large share of the community forests remain outside the PES programme, and many landowners resist the extension of PES rules to non-targeted forests. The authors argue that this incipient form of fragmented collective action on forest management results from challenged leaderships, and from PES accommodating a history of increasing individuation of the commons. This accommodation, however, has ignited social conflict, reified tenure inequalities, and failed to strengthen local institutions to enable them to legitimately deal with the contested interests that underpin the fate of community forests. This article shows the limits of PES when parachuted into a context of uneven land tenure, weak collective action and contested leaderships.     

Norman crusaders in the Catalan reconquest: Robert Burdet and the principality of Tarragona, 1129-55

A Norman adventurer, Robert Burdet, while participating in the Reconquista, established a short-lived crusader principality at Tarragona. This Norman gained fame after 1114, first serving Alfonso I el Batallador (‘The Warrior’) of Aragón in the wars against the Banu Hūd of Zaragoza; thereafter he was contracted by Archbishop Oleguer Bonestruga of Tarragona, the primate of northeastern Spain after 1118 and a papal legate after 1123, to assume in 1129 the secular lordship of Tarragona which had been constituted by the comital house of Barcelona as a papal fief and ecclesiastical principality. After this prelate's death in 1137, the Norman held this frontier and attempted to found an autonomous crusader state, but in 1146 the new archbishop, Bernard Tort, began to re-impose ecclesiastical control over Tarragona. At the same time, the house of Barcelona inherited the royal title from Aragón, thus forming the crown of Aragón by merging the former kingdom with the Catalan counties and reviving the crusade against Muslim Lérida and Tortosa which fell in 1148 and 1149. The archbishop and count moved against the Normans to integrate their principality into the new Aragó-Catalan federation. Prince Robert lost much of his power before his death in 1155, and his heirs were reduced to vassalage to Barcelona and subservience to their ecclesiastical lord, the archbishop of Tarragona. Civil war broke out after 1155 and the expulsion of the Normans by 1177 brought their principality to an end.     

A Note on Medieval Peasant Demography

Abstract

The deed and mortgage registries of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provide a revealing glimpse into the property and power relations of a community. Who owned what? Who was in a position to broker land deals or liens against property? Who accumulated land, and from whom did they acquire it? Consequently, property records are essential elements for understanding the spatial and relational aspects of property holding, especially in rural areas where other sources, such as city directories or fire insurance maps, are not available. Drawing upon her research of African American landowners in Georgia, the author discusses the basics of deeds and mortgages. She describes likely findings in land records and defines common terms and practices. She argucs that the practice of identifying the race of a grantor or grantee, using (col) or less frequently C. P. to denote skin color, varied over time and by locality. Reasons for this practice are discussed and some interpretive rules are offered that may help identify the deeds and mortgages of African Americans when skin color is not noted.     

Nemo militans Deo implicat se saecularia negotia: Carolingian interpretations of II Timothy II.4

In II Timothy II.4, the apostle Paul forbids the servant of God to involve himself in saecularia negotia. While traditionally understood as a reference to commercial activities, for Carolingian thinkers the verse became a way to reflect on the political engagement of prelates and the relationship between religious and secular duties carried out by ecclesiastical office-holders. This article traces the changing significance of II Timothy II.4 in the first half of the ninth century, as councils and exegetes grappled with the question of whether there was a ‘neutral’ secular beyond the saecularia negotia prohibited by Paul?     

Norman crusaders in the Catalan reconquest: Robert Burdet and the principality of Tarragona, 1129-55

A Norman adventurer, Robert Burdet, while participating in the Reconquista, established a short-lived crusader principality at Tarragona. This Norman gained fame after 1114, first serving Alfonso I el Batallador (‘The Warrior’) of Aragón in the wars against the Banu Hūd of Zaragoza; thereafter he was contracted by Archbishop Oleguer Bonestruga of Tarragona, the primate of northeastern Spain after 1118 and a papal legate after 1123, to assume in 1129 the secular lordship of Tarragona which had been constituted by the comital house of Barcelona as a papal fief and ecclesiastical principality. After this prelate's death in 1137, the Norman held this frontier and attempted to found an autonomous crusader state, but in 1146 the new archbishop, Bernard Tort, began to re-impose ecclesiastical control over Tarragona. At the same time, the house of Barcelona inherited the royal title from Aragón, thus forming the crown of Aragón by merging the former kingdom with the Catalan counties and reviving the crusade against Muslim Lérida and Tortosa which fell in 1148 and 1149. The archbishop and count moved against the Normans to integrate their principality into the new Aragó-Catalan federation. Prince Robert lost much of his power before his death in 1155, and his heirs were reduced to vassalage to Barcelona and subservience to their ecclesiastical lord, the archbishop of Tarragona. Civil war broke out after 1155 and the expulsion of the Normans by 1177 brought their principality to an end.