We Know Not God's Designs in Permitting a Separation: Women Religious,the Consolidation Controversies,and the Nineteenth-Century American Catholic Church*

This article bridges the fields of Catholic history, Women's history, and American religious history to propose a new perspective for studying the development of the American Catholic Church, termed by me as the consolidation controversies. Previous historians have focused on the development of the local parishes and the dioceses, focusing on the power conflicts between the lay trustees and the local bishops that accompanied this institutional growth. However, an often-forgotten aspect of Catholic history is the simultaneous rise of religious congregations and orders. As these communities developed, their leaders clashed with the local bishops over questions of property and authority over members of the communities. Often at the centre of these power struggles were the women religious. Rather than allowing themselves to be manipulated, women religioudemonstrated their own autonomy, navigating larger institutional politics. Should these women fail, they faced losing their place in the diocese as well as their position and vocation as women religious.     

Changes and survival: the territory of Lleida (Catalonia) after the twelfth-century conquest

The city of Lleida and its surrounding territory were conquered by the counts of Barcelona and Urgell in late 1149, ending over four centuries of Muslim rule. This territory formed the western frontier of Catalonia with Aragon and Lleida, and would be one of the major cities of what was known as ‘New Catalonia’, the lands conquered to the south and west of the Carolingian ‘Spanish March’ during the twelfth century. The article describes how patterns of settlement, agriculture and fortification changed after the conquest to conform to the needs of a feudal society. It describes continuities such as the importance of irrigation canals, as well as the reorganisation of the population with Christian settlement and transfers and expulsions of the Islamic population and a greater concentration of the population into fortified spaces.     

Patterns in the Survival of Catholic National Parishes, 1940-1980

National parishes represent the primary institutional response of the Catholic Church to its ethnic diversity in the United States. The national parish differs from the more common territorial parish in the definition of its membership, which comprises all Catholics in an area sharing a specific ethnic or national background. This study examines patterns in the survival of German, Italian and Polish national parishes between 1940 and 1980. Factors related to characteristics of a parish's institutional environment and of the ethnic community it serves have strongly influenced parish survival. These factors include the parish's ethnic affiliation, the size of the ethnic community it serves, the diversity of national parishes present at the local and diocesan level and the process of parish consolidation in places where an ethnic group has formed more than one parish. Through the effects of these factors, national parishes have declined at a much faster rate in the Middle West than in the Northeast, regions in which the vast majority of national parishes were originally established. Catholic ethnic diversity should thus continue to contribute most significantly to American cultural pluralism within the latter region.     

Terriers and the historical geographer

Terriers were surveys of the sources, chiefly land or `gleeb', owned by each ecclesiastical parish in England and Wales. Their purpose was to prevent theft. They were first ordered in 1604, though earlier examples survive. Thereafter bishops commonly called for the presentation of a terrier on the occasion of their visitation of the parishes of their dioceses. Most dioceses thus have ‘sets’ of terriers, each relating to a particular visitation.Sets survive from the early seventeenth century to the eighteenth. Thereafter their compilation was more random. Despite loss and damage, they present a very detailed picture of rural and tenurial conditions. They also contain data on crops and field systems, as well as of parsonages (vernacular architecture), place-names and the personal names of parishioners. There are some urban terriers, but in the absence of agricultural land, they are very much less informative.An Appendix presents a guide to the present location of surviving terriers.     

Episcopal lordship in the diocese of Florence and the origins of the commune of San Casciano Val di Pesa, 1230–1247

The relationship between town and country (contado) and the origin of the rural commune in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Tuscany are two problems that have long intrigued historians of medieval Italy. An analysis of the nature of the lordship of one of the most powerful rural lords (the bishops of Florence) in the diocese of Florence can offer important insights into both these issues. Focusing on a region in the upper Pesa river valley that was part of the episcopal estate (mensa), a close examination of the social, economic, and political changes in the area between 1150 to 1250 reveals that resistance to episcopal lordship by former episcopal vassals (fideles) and officials led directly to the formation of the commune of San Casciano Val di Pesa. In the early thirteenth century the bishops commuted traditional dues on their lands (work obligations or rents in money or kind) to grain payments and appointed feudal officials to enforce those rent payments in order to achieve two goals: to end earlier forms of rural resistance to episcopal lordship and to monopolize the local grain market. Instead of ending that resistance, this two-fold folicy intensified it. Choosing not to support San Casciano Val di Pesa in its struggle to free itself from the feudal jurisdiction of the bishop, the commune of Florence actively aided the episcopate to preserve its power in the area. Concerned at both the possible loss of a guaranteed supply of grain during a war with Siena and the potential withdrawal of a community from the Florentine sphere of influence in a strategically important region on the Sienese frontier, the Florentines engineered a compromise between the two conflicting parties which granted to San Casciano a measure of autonomy that did not threaten episcopal hegemony. Since the episcopate did not pose a threat to Florentine interests in the city or countryside, it actually acted as a surrogate for Florentine power that maintained order and stability in the upper Pesa valley until Florence imposed direct control over the area in the second half of the thirteenth century.     

Alien coins and foreign exchange banking in a medieval commune: Thirteenth-century Lucca

The tithing returns sent to Rome in 1296 from the dioceses of Tuscany reveal a variety of coins, foreign to each particular episcopate, included in the mix. This article deals with the presence, and presumably prior circulation, of coins of foreign provenence in thirteenth-century Lucca as indicated in the Lucchese notarial materials of the period. The results are analyzed and then compared with the representation of the types of coins included in Lucca's 1296 tithe, and explanations set forth as to why certain coins, e.g. the gros tournois, should be conspicuously under-represented in comparison with other Tuscan dioceses while the Venetian groat was over-represented. It is further argued that the determining factor for the lack or abundance of certain alien coins in Lucca turns on the availability or absence of routine mechanisms for the transfer of obligations abroad through foreign exchange banking which obviated the need for significant shipments of physical specie or bullion.     

The West March on the Anglo-Scottish Border in the Twelfth Century,and the Origins of the Western Debatable Land

Abstract

'The West March on the Anglo-Scottish Border in the twelfth century and the origins of the Western Debatable Land'. Although there was a frontier zone between medieval England and Scotland where March Law applied, within that zone there was, at any rate in time of peace between the Crowns, an ascertainable frontier line. Two conflicting views on the location of this line west of the Cheviot are reviewed and a third proposal advanced. From William II's conquest of Cumberland in 1092 up to 1552, the line lay along the River Esk and Liddel Water, except when the Scots possessed Cumberland and Westmorland in 1136–1157 and 1216–1217. After 1136, David I granted to the lords of the English barony of Liddel additional land comprising the parishes of Kirkandrews-on-Esk and Canonbie, north of the Esk. From 1157, the barony remained a cross-Border holding until the Scots dispossessed the English lords of Kirkandrews and Canonbie between 1300 and 1318. The English lords continued to claim that land, however, and their claim was assigned to the English Crown after 1349. At that point, what had been a claim to private rights started to become confused with national sovereignty. In 1552, arbitrators partitioned what had become known as the Western Debatable Land, a no-man's-land, and the Border then assumed its present line.     

The martyr, the matrona and the bishop: the matron Lucina and the politics of martyr cult in fifth- and sixth-century Rome

The present study attempts to build on the achievement of Pietri and Llewellyn in assessing the peculiarities and limitations of the gesta martyrum as a source for late ancient and early medieval Rome, while shifting interpretative stress away from the lay—clerical binary which has dominated recent treatments of the cult of the saints, and toward an emphasis on factional conflict among lay—clerical coalitions. Central is an analysis of the literary motif, which recurs across the gesta of Lucina, the aristocratic matrona or widow who sees to the burial of the martyr on her own lands. Though the stereotypical figure of Lucina warns us of the limitations of the gesta as a source for the patronage activity of the lay aristocracy, it is argued, her appearance in crucial texts such as the Passio Sebastiani can nonetheless help us to trace the role which the memory of the martyrs played in texts such as the gesta martyrum, the Symmachan Forgeries, or the Liber Pontificalis, as well as the role which martyr shrines such as the Vatican basilica and the memoria apostolorum on the Via Appia played in the contestation and consolidation of Roman episcopal authority.     

A West African ‘Fashoda’: Expanding Trade,Colonial Rivalries and Insurrection in the Côte d'Ivoire/Gold Coast Borderlands: The Assikasso Crisis of 1897–98

The story of the ‘Scramble for Africa’ goes deeper than the mere arbitration of boundaries and the partition of colonies and territories. Less well understood are the complex ways in which Atlantic-based commercial capitalism and imperialism generated new sources of African wealth at regional and district levels and yet simultaneously aggravated intra-ethnic trade rivalries and personal aggrandizement by warlords, which led in turn to both African inter-state violence and armed anti-colonial insurrections on the Côte d'Ivoire/Gold Coast frontier that frustrated European territorial conquest and efforts towards political stabilization.     

Continuity and change in Norman Italy: the Campania during the eleventh and twelfth centuries

The Campania was a fertile area, with a growing population during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and was economically more advanced than most of the rest of southern Italy. This essay examines the impact of the Norman conquest of the south upon this region, with special reference to the settlement pattern and the aristocracy. It concludes that the role of incastellamento in changing the pattern of settlement was relatively limited, and the extensive incastellamento of the Montecassino lands (a product of Norman pressure upon the abbey) cannot be taken as typical. Furthermore, while the Norman conquest led to colonisation by French aristocrats, this did not entirely displace existing Lombard families, and widespread intermarriage led to a blurring of the distinction between Lombards and Normans. The impact of political crises during the twelfth century was also more limited than might be supposed, and continuity rather than change characterised the nobility of the Norman period.     

Conquests,family traditions and the First Crusade

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the family backgrounds of aristocratic participants in the First Crusade. Through an examination of these it explores the ways in which their decision to join the crusade was influenced by the examples of the previous generation of conquerors, the participants in the invasion of Sicily in 1061, the expeditions to England in 1066 and the conflicts on the Iberian peninsula. In this way it opens a discussion about the motives and expectation of the First Crusaders. It argues that dreams of conquest and the desire to match an older generation’s martial and political achievements may have been as important a factor in motivating crusaders as religious ideals.     

Angli cum multis aliis alienigenis: crusade settlers in Tortosa (second half of the twelfth century)

In the spring of 1147 Anglo-Norman and Flemish crusaders set out from Dartmouth in the direction of the Holy Land to take part in the Second Crusade. On their way they participated in the siege of Lisbon (October 1147) and the campaign against Tortosa which finished with the surrender of the city on the last day of 1148. A significant number of crusaders from the British Isles settled in Tortosa and its environs after the successful campaign, appearing in the documents as Angli, Anglici and Angles. The article describes the archival information for the role of these Anglo-Norman crusaders in the settlement of the region. They received grants from Count Ramon Berenguer IV, transferred real property, entered into credit and loan agreements, and established patrimonies. Many of the English settlers became part of the ruling oligarchy in the early years of feudal Tortosa, entering into transactions with the leading ecclesiastical and lay powers.     

Land selection for irrigation in Al-Andalus,Spain (8th century a.d.)

Abstract

The Andalusi hydraulic systems of the Iberian Peninsula, constructed by Arabs and Berbers between a.d. 711 and the feudal conquest of Al-Andalus (11–15th centuries a.d.), are today among the most productive agricultural areas in Europe. Their current extension is the result of several enlargements made to the original Andalusi design, irrigating lands initially rejected by the first builders. Understanding the reasons that led Arabs and Berbers to select or reject lands for irrigation is essential for documenting the formation processes of these agricultural areas. Here the topic is approached using the hydraulic system of Ricote (Murcia, Spain) as a case study. Through hydraulic archaeology, excavations, and GIS, it is shown that deep, flat, well-insolated (i.e., exposed to sunlight), slightly saline, colluvial soils were preferred for irrigation while slopes, shady areas, floodplains, and highly saline soils were rejected. Optimizing the water supply for irrigation was not a top priority. The results highlight the need to consider topographical features when studying how past agrarian societies introduced irrigated agriculture to new environments.     

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).     

The Iron Age in Western Spain (800 BC–AD 50): An Overview

Vettonia was one of the most important Celtic regions in Iberia which emerged in the Iron Age. It corresponds largely to western Spain, between the Duero and Tagus valleys. The archaeological evidence indicates that the formation of this ethnic group lay in an historical process whose roots went back to the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age, when we begin to find a regular association between the first fortified sites and stable populations. These groups did not consolidate before the second half of the first millennium BC, in parallel with the development of other peoples of the interior of the Iberian Peninsula. This period can be recognized in particular through the spread of the ritual of cremation, ironworking, the adoption of the potter's wheel and the expansion of some settlements oppida which were ultimately to disappear with the Roman conquest. This paper sets out to examine the evolution of the area from an indigenous perspective, examining the process of change before and after the evidence referred to by Greek and Roman writers.     

Property and ‘publicness’: bishops and lay‐founded churches in post‐Roman Hispania

Accounts of how the church fits into broader narratives of socio‐economic change have been confused by two different issues: an unsystematic application of the terms ‘public’ and ‘private’ to various phenomena, and a separate tendency to elide the ‘public’ with the state. Visigothic thought on lay‐founded churches shows that the legal regime around ecclesiastical properties did not aim at simply enhancing episcopal power. Laypeople had important responsibilities and powers, especially in resisting bishops’ capacities for ‘private’ appropriation of donated property. There existed a sense of communal concern for church property, which was thought of as ‘public’ without reference to the state.     

UNDER DIVINE WINGS: FORMS OF IDEOLOGICAL AND TERRITORIAL DOMINATION DURING THE IBERIAN IRON AGE

This article explores the ways in which the Iberian communities of the Iron Age developed a model of extension and legitimization for their social hierarchies. By analysing the testimonies of the ideational realm and the territorial occupation of the Iberian populations, it is argued that the representation of a winged goddess was used by certain families to legitimize the control and possession of natural resources. Thus, the contextual analysis of this goddess can explain a territorial domination established in the southern sub‐plateau of the Iberian Peninsula. A Mediterranean model of the goddess is transformed by combining traditional and foreign elements to create a unique synthesis. What draws our attention, though, is how this new being was eventually integrated into the changes that took place in local populations, which established new constructions of space and new relationships of patronage. New practices appear, such as the persistence of ancient forms of pottery and a symbolic opposition to imported objects. In the following pages, I will identify the underlying process as a territorial division conducted by certain settlements as they explored a broader spatial control. I will explore one of these territories and the ideology employed to implement this form of domination.     

Methods of Palaeodemography: The Case of the Iberian Oppida and Roman Cities in North‐East Spain

Ancient demography is a recurrent topic in archaeology, thanks to new methods and evidence from different surveys and excavations. However, different cultures or periods are studied on their own, without any comparison being made between them and of their population dynamics. The present paper seeks to advance the situation by defining methodologies to allow diachronic comparisons between two different periods and cultures. After setting out a methodological approach, the paper goes on to apply the same to a case study: namely the Roman conquest of north‐east Spain, comparing the demography of the ancient Iberian communities (fourth‐second centuries BCE) to the Roman colonization (first century BCE to first century CE). Roman urbanism is generally supposed to increase the population in a particular territory, but our present evidence refutes this point: a decrease in population is visible in urban or proto‐urban sites from the Iberian to Roman periods, though there is an increase in the rural densities.     

Civilisation and Colonisation: Enlightenment Theories in the Debate between Diderot and Raynal

The Enlightened theory of civilisation was expressed through the formula of ‘doux commerce’, a form of commerce which acknowledged the need for the European conquest of non-European lands and nations, and the opportunity to bring European civilisation to other peoples without violence. Montesquieu was the first to express this idea, condemning the Spanish conquest and empire. In the Histoire des deux Indes, this idea was dramatically discussed: Raynal wanted to defend it; Diderot dismantled this project showing that civilisation was but the mask of violent conquest. In this way the latter offered an extraordinary refutation of both Enlightened ideology and its strategy of civilisation.