Preaching the Cross: Liturgy and Crusade Propaganda

Abstract

This article is an exploration of preaching on the cross very broadly from the time of Ambrose of Milan and Augustine of Hippo onwards. After a brief examination of some early medieval examples, the discussion focuses on Rabanus Maurus and a sermon attributed to Odilo of Cluny. The discussion then centres on the High Middle Ages: sermons by Bernard of Clairvaux, Alan of Lille, an anonymous Cistercian abbot, the vita of Marie d'Oignies, Alexander of Ashby, and model sermons by Humbert of Romans. Before concluding, it explores opposition to the cross, as expressed in inquisitorial documents. The essay also includes crusade preaching, as well as liturgical preaching on the cross or involving the cross, and sermons on the cross that could serve for more than one purpose.     

The Chronology of the Last Scandinavian Kings of York,AD 937–954

Abstract

The Cistercian Abbey of Holm Cultram was a twelfth-century royal foundation of Prince Henry, son of King David I when this part of northern England was under Scottish control. The abbey developed a successful network of benefactors spanning both sides of the Border. It was also effective in developing positive relationships with key ecclesiastical figures including Bishop Christian of Whithorn and bishops of Glasgow. The economic strength of the abbey was derived from wool, salt and fish production. In 1193, a daughter house named Grey Abbey was founded in Ulster. The benefits of the frontier location were cut short with the onset of the wars in the 1290s. Holm Cultram Abbey found itself on the path of the marching armies and had to provide supplies and lodgings. When the estates of the abbey and the precinct were attacked by the Scots on several occasions in the fourteenth century, the community turned to the English kings for compensation. On other occasions the abbots did not hesitate to pay ransom to prevent damages to the abbey. Not only the economic difficulties brought by the war, but also loss of contact with the mother house of Melrose and Scottish benefactors more generally, altered the character of Holm Cultram, which became a much more English institution when the cross-Border networks were cut off.     

Expectation and unrest among Cistercian lay brothers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

This paper seeks to reposition the scholarly debate over the rebelliousness of Cistercian lay brothers by assessing a broad array of narrative, legislative, and contractual documents. For Cistercian writers, lay brothers embodied monastic principles of simplicity and dutifulness. Authors also portrayed disobedient or ambitious conversi to illustrate the dangers of inflated pride. At the same time, however, Cistercian literature presents numerous conversi who do not fit the stereotypes dear to the moralists. Contractual and legal sources confirm that lay brothers were not only simple labourers or insubordinate underlings. They also had directorial functions in their monasteries and were sometimes charged with important political missions. These activities brought them enhanced social status as well as a sense of privilege. Lay brothers rebelled not, as some scholars assert, because they were unscrupulous, or, as others claim, because they were systematically oppressed. They resisted when the expectation of reward generated by their successful management of monastic affairs was frustrated by the directives of their superiors.     

On some Anomalies Observable in the Earlier Styles of English Architecture

Excavations in the south range of the cloister of Bordesley Abbey have produced an unusual sequence. The construction scheme of the buildings to the south of the cloister arcade—centring on the refectory and kitchen—was piecemeal and took over two hundred years, from the later twelfth to early sixteenth centuries. At an early stage the range included timber (which may have been part of the original temporary structures) and stone buildings. In the fifteenth century there was a major change of use: the refectory became a workshop and dumping area while the kitchen was used for non-ferrous metalworking: these activities probably continued to the Dissolution. The implications of the excavations are considered in the context of the development of the cloister and then the precinct. The important evidence for adaptation and innovation is discussed in the light of work elsewhere in order to argue that the results have a relevance for other Cistercian houses and monasteries in general.     

Crusading and crusade memory in Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus miraculorum

This article is a preliminary investigation into the way the Cistercians of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries conceptualised and contextualised the history of the crusading movement, with a specific focus on the way in which they integrated their involvement in crusading into the Order's sense of institutional memory and corporate identity. The article presents a study of Caesarius of Heisterbach's Dialogus miraculorum, a collection of exempla that was composed for the edification of Cistercian novices in the first quarter of the thirteenth century. Although the text is well known to medievalists (and particularly to scholars of medieval Cisterciana), it has yet to be subjected to a close reading by historians of the crusades. By examining the way in which Caesarius used and described the crusades in the Dialogus, the article demonstrates the potential of using non-narrative texts to explore medieval understandings of the crusading past and, more generally, illustrates further the importance of warfare in the shaping of medieval monastic culture.     

Accounting for Research: a Critical Assessment of English Heritage's Research Strategy and Agenda 2005–2010

Abstract

Social scientists and anthropologists have recently critiqued the proliferation of accountability practices, such as auditing and the creation of strategic documents, in a variety of working contexts across the globe. While practitioners in archaeology and the historic environment sector more broadly have been involved for some time in generating and implementing such documents and practices, there has been little direct discussion of why these came about or what roles they actually perform. This article addresses this omission by forefronting the recent English Heritage research strategy and Agenda 2005–2010 as objects for critical review. As well as assessing these documents in detail, it provides a broader consideration of the role of strategic practices such as these in archaeological research. While the documents under consideration are essentially English in scope, many of the points that are raised in relation to them have resonance at a wider, global scale.     

A graph-based analysis for generating geographical context from a historical cadastre in Spain (17th and 18th centuries)

Abstract

The cabreves are notarial documents prepared between the 13th and 19th centuries in the Catalan and Valencian regions of Spain. These historical records were published before the first cadastral maps and contain geographical information that could help spatially reconstruct historical landscapes. However, these documents have not been used to their full potential mainly because of their semi-structured and complex nature. In this article, we propose a new graph-based interactive methodology for partially reconstructing historical landscapes. We have successfully applied this methodology for reconstructing the historical landscape of the Barony of Sella in the 18th century and the methodology has also helped us locate “El Poblet,” a previously unknown archeological site abandoned after the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609.     

Rousseau's Discarded Children: The Panoply of Excuses and the Question of Hypocrisy

Summary

Although Rousseau's treatment of his children has provoked much controversy, sustained and scholarly discussions are rare. This study is the first to present the evidence comprehensively and systematically. It engages each of Rousseau's contentions about his children in order to carefully discern the significance of this episode for his life and work. It offers an analytical table of each rationale—nineteen different ones, of five major types. It discusses documents of 1751 and 1778 which strongly defend the actions, the ambiguous arguments in the Second Part of the Confessions (1769–1770), the oscillations in the period surrounding the Confessions (1764–1770), and finally the development of unqualified remorse in the middle period of Emile (1757–1762). It concludes by advancing a middle position between those who ultimately see his behaviour and associated excuses as demonstrating his unchecked individualism and subjectivism, and those who ultimately absolve this episode in order to find him a moralist in good standing.     

On the Horn-shaped Head-Dresses of the 13th, 14th,and 15th Centuries

Abstract

The excavation of the only Cistercian abbey firmly established on the Isle of Man produced clear evidence of its church plan, its various modifications and its modest architectural pretensions. The burials contained some grave goods and displayed early methods of burial. An unexpected feature was a chapel attached to the east end of the north transept north chapel.     

The ‘creative township’ in the post-apartheid: globalisation,nation building or gentrification?

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the ambiguities of post-Apartheid public cultural policies in South Africa by focusing on the case of the Red Location Museum and Cultural precinct (RLMCP), a multisectoral project for socio-economic development, based on tourism, art, culture, heritagisation and urban regeneration, implemented in Red Location, one of the oldest townships of Port Elizabeth. In the post-Apartheid period, cultural policies have been employed as catch-all policies that could lead to urban renewal, desegregation and development. The case of the RLMCP drives home how efforts to use art and culture as leverages to transform townships into the core of the creative city and into the prototype of a new form of neighbourhood led to exclusionary representations and patterns; moreover, it is an example of how cultural policies enforce gentrification dynamics at the local level, in the name of restructuring urban governance and rescaling the city to the global dimension.     

Monks and Local Communities: The Late-medieval Landscape of Troed y Rhiw,Caron Uwch Clawdd,Ceredigion

Abstract

In a zone of improved upland pasture some 2 km east of the Cistercian monastery of Strata Florida (Ystrad Fflur), Ceredigion, are the earthwork remains of a 'sheepcote' and four abandoned medieval farms, one probably originating as a monastic sheep-handling station. Documentary evidence and field observation suggest that these farms have preserved their late-medieval forms in a relatively unmodified state. Three were apparently situated along a contemporary ffridd boundary (head dyke) that separated a zone of pasture and perhaps arable land from mountain pasture. We cannot establish the relationship between the 'sheepcote' and the 'farms' through field observation alone, nor do we know the absolute age of the ffridd boundary. Our paper describes and briefly discusses the character and local context of the area defined by the latter. The pattern of land-use is comparable to that in Swaledale (North Yorkshire), an area that has been discussed on the one hand in terms of patterns of townships (hamlets) and their land-use zones, and on the other in terms of monastic enterprise and the identification of 'vaccaries'. In the study of 'monastic landscapes', we risk becoming preoccupied with estate economies and the identification of 'tool-kits', at the expense of dealing with the complexity of relationships between monasteries and local communities.     

Of burning monks,unidentified churches and the last Cistercian foundation in the East: Our Lady of Camina in the principality of Achaia

The existence of the monastic church of Camina in Frankish Morea has long been noted by historians of Frankish Greece, but its history has never been thoroughly investigated and its location remains unknown. Moreover, some of the documents pertaining to this church have not been published while others have been published in faulty editions that have obscured their full significance. In the present study the surviving documents are edited and the church's history is reconstructed and its location identified. It is suggested that some of the original Benedictine inhabitants of Camina were the only Latin religious to have been burnt at the stake for heresy in medieval Greece. It is also argued that Camina was the last Cistercian abbey to be founded in the Latin East, and that it may be identified as the present monastery of Our Lady of Blachernae near Glarenza (Killini).     

A Ritual Spindle Whorl Deposit from the Late Classic Maya Site of E1 Pilar,Belize

Abstract

Excavations near the ceremonial precinct of El Pilar, an important Maya center in Belize, exposed a Late Classic period concentration of almost 200 broken limestone spindle whorls. A program of experimentation demonstrated that the whorls were purposely destroyed, possibly as part of a ritual event or events. Such rituals may have been part of a strategy to enhance the status of spinners by honoring deities associated with spinning.     

A Technical Note on the ‘Gloucester Candlestick’

Abstract

The Association is pleased to acknowledge the generous support of Manx National Heritage towards this publication.

The excavation of the only Cistercian abbey firmly established on the Isle of Man produced evidence for an east range of only three rooms, apparently dated to a single constructional period. After the Dissolution this range was gradually robbed and then the area was used as a farm-yard, receiving rubbish deposited from the neighbouring mansion. It was partly excavated in 1914 and turned into an aviary and later into a rose garden. The rere-dorter was not found nor was there any evidence of the main drain adjoining this range.     

The Cyprus question, 1949-1952: British attitude,American reactions and Greek dilemmas

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to construe the position of Britain and the US as well as Greek reactions with regard to the Cyprus question at a stage which preceded its internationalisation and the concurrent deterioration of Anglo-Greek and Greek-Turkish relations. There is a voluminous bibliography on the problem, which has developed into one of the major international entanglements of our time. Most works on the Cyprus question, in the form of either general scholarly works or memoirs, devote very little space to the 1949-1952 period – when they do not overlook it entirely. A notable exception is Angelos Vlachos' Deka hronia Kypriako (Ten Years of Cyprus Question) which mainly examines the attitude of the Greek government and the Greek-Cypriot Ethnarchy towards the question of Enosis. Francois Crouzet's Le Conflict de Chypre, 1946-1959, on the other hand, published in 1973, offers a rather limited insight of the question at its early stage given the absence of relevant primary sources at that time. The present paper, however, is primarily based on British and American diplomatic records. Whereas, though, the relevant British Cabinet and Foreign Office documents are in their vast majority open to research, a great number of US State Department documents on Cyprus remained classified in early 1987, when this research was conducted. To be specific, for 1950, one classified document corresponded to two declassified, while for the following year the ratio increased to three against two, with an even number of classified and declassified papers for 1952. Yet, the author believes that a fairly precise picture of British and American attitudes on the question can be drawn on the basis of the material available. Greek reactions are also examined and interpreted to the extent that British and American diplomatic records as well as Greek secondary sources permit.     

An accidental Bangkok theme park

ABSTRACT

Bangkok's Nana precinct began as an Indian real estate venture in the 1920s and 1930s, then emerged as an R&R destination for American servicemen in the Vietnam War era. In the present time, it has become the main focus for Middle-Eastern tourism to Bangkok. It continues as an Indian commercial community in the remnants of an American recall, catering to an un-(anti-)American Middle-Eastern clientele in a milieu of frantic consumption, bright-light spectacle, un-Islamic music and surreptitious, forbidden pleasures. This extraordinary intersection of the incongruous is approached here through four perspectives which, it is suggested, are extendible to accidental urban theme parks generally: (1) as spectacle; (2) as cultural destabilization when spectacle is interrogated in a framework of multi-cultural, multi-voiced cacophony; then (3) when interrogated in a political economy context, as deconstructive of held assumptions attaching to both consumer society and global geopolitics; thence (4) at least potentially as globally transformative – the tourist as metamorphic agent in a dialectic of assemblage and ecosystem.     

Medieval Floor and Roof Tiles from Melrose Abbey,Scottish Borders,and the ‘Westminster Tilers’

Abstract

AN ASSEMBLAGE OF more than 2500 fragments of tile was recovered from within the precinct of Melrose Abbey during excavations in 2009. The collection includes a large group of decorated floor tiles, the designs of which have links with the ‘Westminster School’, and which are unlike any other previously excavated at the abbey. This paper places the group in context and considers the implications of the find.