Cyprian and his collegae: Patronage and the episcopal synod of 252

The Roman patron–client relationship has been useful for understanding early Christian bishops and their relationships with their own communities. In this paper the question is asked whether that relationship could shed light on the relationships among bishops themselves. Taking the third–century Saint Cyprian of Carthage as the example, his interactions with other North African bishops at the synod of 252 are examined. The author accepts that Cyprian's Epp. 59 and 64 refer to that synod. Whatever else was discussed, we know that the bishops in synod resolved questions about the status of a former presbyter and the timing of infant baptism. In Ep. 59 Cyprian made reference to the college of bishops ( sacerdotum collegium ). The heart of the paper examines Cyprian's understanding of other bishops as collegae and whether he treated them as clients. The evidence that is available suggests that he accepted bishops who all shared in the same office as being responsible to God alone for their communities, but that his ability to exercise some degree of patron–age over them, through his greater prestige and financial base, was a control mechanism by which he sought to keep unity among the African Christian communities.     

Patronage revisited: The dynamics of information and reputation

Recent revelations of corruption in Italy have encouraged speculation about its social foundations. This article addresses the specific issue of the relations between patronage and corruption, drawing attention to their common basis in control over the circulation of information. Examination of patronage from this perspective suggests some weaknesses in the conventional accounts of its distribution, organization and consequences. Since bureaucracies are the principal modern agencies for the collection and storage of information, changes in the relations between and within bureaucracies, political and administrative, can be expected to provoke changes in the structure and stability of patronage networks. That dynamic of patronage, shifting its basis from status to contract, is illustrated in the context of Italian politics in the 1980s.     

泰山岱庙馆藏水陆画初探

水陆画是佛教举行水陆法会时专门悬挂在佛室四周墙壁上的画像。五代以后,佛教水陆法会由印度传人中国,成为佛教最盛大的佛事活动之一,至元明时流传日趋广泛。在其流传的过程中则不断融入了中国本土宗教文化的色彩。活动自身渗入了道教和儒教的元素,表现形式也逐渐为传统道教和其他民间宗教所接受,两种文化出现了相互融合的现象。这些现象在水陆画中也得到很好的印证：一是水陆画成为天上、人间、地府等三界组成的全像图,儒释道内容皆备;     

The Consorts of King Wu and King Wen in the Bronze Inscriptions of Early Chou

Abstract

Daodejing is an essential text in Chinese culture. The number of its English translations exceeds a total of 112 editions. The first one was produced by John Chalmers, who was a Scottish missionary from London Missionary Society stationed in Hong Kong and Canton for a long period of time. Chalmers's close missionary colleague, James Legge, who was subsequently the first Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford, produced another translation. This paper aims at revealing the socio-cultural and intellectual processes behind the making of these two translations. In so doing, it discusses the differences in the two texts and explores the reasons for their differences.

Christian missionaries in China were the agents for the cultural interactions between China and the West. Not only did they bring the Christian message to China, but they also introduced the Chinese ideas through their translations and writings to their Western audience. This should be a fruitful and important topic for serious scholarship in both the studies in Sinology and in the history of translation.     

The Promise of Patronage: Adapting and Adopting Neoliberal Development

Abstract:  Much of the literature on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and development suggests that a top-down process is underway which leads to the dispersal of neoliberal ideals. Drawing on 2 years of ethnographic research in Rajasthan, India, this paper examines how a poverty alleviation project "fits" into competitive  and  co-operative socio-economic relations already operating on the ground. It argues that in contradiction to neoliberal notions of empowerment espoused by project policies, both NGOs and their constituents have an interest in establishing and maintaining patronage networks that stabilize relationships of dependency. The paper concludes that neoliberal development projects serve to enable patron–client relationships between NGOs and villagers, and enroll the state in the continuing provision of benefits beyond those planned by the project.     

The Queen and the City: Royal Female Intervention and Patronage in Hellenistic Civic Communities

In 196 bce , Queen Laodike III issued a decree (I.Iasos 4, I) to Iasos in Caria, Asia Minor, announcing that she was giving the Iasians a ten‐year supply of grain to alleviate their penury after her husband's conquest of their city, and she specified that the grain ought to be sold and the income used to provide dowries for the daughters of poor citizens. This and other donations were part of rebuilding efforts in the wake of military violence by Laodike's husband Antiochos III. For her beneficence, Laodike was honoured by cities with foundations of festivals, priestesses and sacred areas dedicated to preserving her cult. This reciprocity of goodwill was gendered, not only in the establishment of priestesses, but in the nature of the honours given; for example Iasos celebrated Laodike III's birthday with a procession of a maiden priestess and couples who were about to wed (I.Iasos 4, II), and the people of Teos dedicated a fountain in their city centre to Laodike and required that all brides should draw from it the water for their baths (SEG 41, 1003). Laodike's patronage and the cities’ responses to her bring to light the role of female citizens within the structures, perpetuation and ceremonial of the civic body. At the heart of honours given Laodike and her own self‐promotion was the identity of sister and mother, roles shaping her own queenship and the civic participation and power of the women she assisted.     

Class,Power, and Patronage: Landowners and Politics in Punjab

In the century following their conquest of the province, the British in Punjab erected an administrative apparatus that, like those of precolonial regimes, relied heavily upon the support of the province's landed class. The relationship between the landed class and the colonial state was one of mutual benefit, with the latter using the former to ensure the maintenance of order and collection of revenue in exchange for state patronage. In this paper, it is argued that this administrative framework gave rise to a path-dependent process of institutional development in Punjab, allowing for the different fractions of the province's landowning class to increasingly entrench themselves within the political order in the postcolonial epoch. This paper outlines the mechanisms underlying this process of institutional development, focusing, in particular, on the strategies adopted by the landowning class to reproduce its power. This paper also considers the potentialities for institutional change in Punjab, allowing for the creation of a more democratic and participatory politics in the province.     

King John and St Wulfstan

In accordance with the terms of his will, King John was buried near to the shrine of St Wulfstan in Worcester cathedral despite his apparent intention earlier in the reign to be buried in a Cistercian house. When and why John might have developed his particular interest in Wulfstan, the last Anglo-Saxon bishop, are considered and attention is drawn to the relevance of a famous legend linking Wulfstan and Edward the Confessor to King John's dispute with Innocent III over the king's authority in the appointment of bishops. The revival of Wulfstan's cult, which led to his formal canonisation in 1203, is seen as part of a general interest in indigenous saints, both Anglo-Saxon and contemporary, in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The suggestion is made that this concern with national saints provides the context for John's devotion to St Wulfstan and for the significant choice of his place of burial.