Henry II,Richard I and the order of Grandmont

Many late twelfth-century writers including John of Salisbury, Gerald of Wales and leaders of the order of Grandmont attest to the interest of Henry II and Richard I in this highly ascetic group of monks. Henry in particular was known as a patron of religious of high spiritual renown, although politics was a major consideration in his monastic patronage.To trace the manifestation of these connections, in the creation of dependent cells and granting of pensions and privileges, is rendered complex because most surviving twelfth-century Grandmontine documents are forgeries. Their original Rule forbade title deeds in order to prevent secular entanglements, but it was relaxed in the thirteenth century and many charters were produced then. Cells the kings had created claimed valuable additional privileges, while others invented Plantagenet foundation to gain protection and aid from the French crown.Some original charters do, however, exist and many forgeries are amplifications of originals. By seeing where they diverge from standard chancery formulae and using historical evidence it is possible to trace in outline the donations made. This process indicates that although the Plantagenets founded some cells and aided the mother-house considerably, their generosity was greatest in grants of privileges and pensions.     

Of reaflac and rapina: accusations of violence in two Old English lawsuits and the Libellus Æthelwoldi

This article examines the meaning and function of the Old English noun reaflac in two tenth-century lawsuit documents, Sawyer 877 and Sawyer 1211. It suggests that reaflac was the vernacular counterpart to the Latin terms violentia and rapina. Such connected terminology suggests that a collection of now lost tenth-century Old English charters, like S 877 and S 1211 in form, was the original source for the twelfth-century Ely house chronicle, the Libellus Æthelwoldi. Charter draftsmen purposefully selected a language of violence in order to delegitimize a rival party’s claim to an estate, regardless of whether any acts of violence had taken place. Reaflac formed part of this narrative strategy in early English lawsuit documents because of its association with contemporary discourses on moralized wrongdoing.     

Remarks on the Church of St. Mary the Virgin,Oxford

Traces of light graffiti recovered from the twelfth-century west wall and nave-piers of Rochester Cathedral represent the remaining evidence for an extensive programme of early medieval wall-paintings, although little of the original scheme can be reconstructed.     

Orderic Vitalis and Rober of Bellême

The Norman monastic chronicler Orderic Vitalis's treatment of Robert of Bellême, the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman magnate and overmighty subject of the English kings, William II and Henry I, is discussed and compared with evidence from other sources. A contrast is drawn between Orderic's eagerness to portray Robert as a villain and his apparent acceptance of the misdemeanors of Henry I, who is presented favourably because of the period of relative peace following Henry's deposition in 1106 of his brother, the Norman duke, Robert Curthose. Orderic downplays the work of Henry's predecessors, Robert Curthose and William II, and in Robert of Bellême creates a counterweight to his picture of the just king Henry I. His negative assessment of all Robert's actions therefore needs to be adjusted and it is suggested that other modern interpretations based on his work may need similar re-examination and revision.     

William Rufus: myth and reality

The commonly accepted view of the reign of William II (1087–1100) is a political myth, primarily the work of Eadmer, who depicted the king as the villain against whom St Anselm strove to impose the revolutionary Gregorian reform programme in England. Henry I, moreover, denigrated his brother's regime as a cover for furthering William's harsh but constructive policies. Eadmer's writings were quarried by subsequent twelfth-century writers in the mainstream of the English monastic historical tradition, who added their own literary embellishments. Nineteenth-century historians uncritically accepted these accounts and Henry I's gloss on the reign. They then contributed moral judgements of their own, which passed without qualification into modern secondary works.This paper re-evaluates William II's political and governmental achievements, and his ecclesiastical policy. His character is considered in the light of recent work on twelfth-century intellectual and psychological attitudes, and the accounts of more favourable chroniclers. It is concluded that the king developed his father's strong policies in every direction with considerable success, making possible the more publicized but essentially imitative work of Henry I. William's expansion and consolidation of national frontiers, his legal and financial developments, and his maintenance of royal control over the Church are revealed under the distortions of ecclesiastical and Henrician historiography.     

Rewriting the founder: Werden on the Ruhr and the uses of hagiography

The rich hagiographical corpus, charters and privileges of the monastery of Werden on the Ruhr allow unparalleled access to its ninth-century history. This article focuses upon three ninth-century vitae of its founding saint which delineate both the transformations which Werden underwent in the course of the century and the ways in which the monastery attempted to respond and adapt to these changes. In so doing, it illuminates the role that saintly relics and hagiography could play in the formation of Christian communities both within and beyond cloister walls.     

St Anselm and the English investiture controversy reconsidered

The Investiture Controversy in England has generally been viewed as a two-sided contest between king and pope. But in reality the struggle was between three parties — king, pope, and primate. St Anselm, devoted to his duties as God's steward of his office and its privileges, worked against both King Henry I and Pope Paschal II to bring into reality his idea of the proper status of the primate of all Britain. Anselm had a vision of a political model which he conceived as God's ‘right order’ in England, and all his efforts were directed toward fulfilling this vision.The Investiture Contest may be divided into two parts. The first phase began when Anselm was thwarted by Henry I's duplicity in the archbishop's attempt to force the king to accept the decrees of Rome at the height of a political crisis. Anselm may have seen these decrees as beneficial to the Canterbury primacy. From 1101 to 1103, Anselm wavered between supporting either party completely, meanwhile securing from Paschal all the most important privileges for the primacy of Canterbury. Each time Paschal refused to grant a dispensation for Henry, as Anselm requested, he granted Anselm a privilege for the primacy. Thus Anselm's vision of the primate as almost a patriarch of another world, nearly independent of the pope, was fulfilled by 1103.At this point, Anselm abandoned his vacillation between king and pope, and worked seemingly on behalf of Paschal, but in reality on behalf of the Canterbury primacy. During this second phase, Anselm's political adroitness becomes clear by a correlation, never before made, between the church-state controversy and Henry's campaign to conquer Normandy. By careful maneuvering and skilful propaganda, Anselm forced Henry to choose between submitting to the investiture decree or failing in his attempt to conquer Normandy. At the settlement, a compromise was worked out, Henry conceding on investitures, and Paschal conceding on homage. But investiture was only secondary to Anselm. He ended the dispute not when Henry submitted on investitures, but only when he had gained from Henry concessions which made the primate almost a co-ruler with the king, as his political vision demanded. Only after a public reconcilliation with his archbishop did Henry feel free to complete the Norman campaign.Thus the Investiture Controversy was a three-way struggle. Both king and pope compromised, each giving up some of their goals. But Anselm emerged from the contest having won nearly all his political objectives.     

St Anselm and the English investiture controversy reconsidered

The Investiture Controversy in England has generally been viewed as a two-sided contest between king and pope. But in reality the struggle was between three parties — king, pope, and primate. St Anselm, devoted to his duties as God's steward of his office and its privileges, worked against both King Henry I and Pope Paschal II to bring into reality his idea of the proper status of the primate of all Britain. Anselm had a vision of a political model which he conceived as God's ‘right order’ in England, and all his efforts were directed toward fulfilling this vision.The Investiture Contest may be divided into two parts. The first phase began when Anselm was thwarted by Henry I's duplicity in the archbishop's attempt to force the king to accept the decrees of Rome at the height of a political crisis. Anselm may have seen these decrees as beneficial to the Canterbury primacy. From 1101 to 1103, Anselm wavered between supporting either party completely, meanwhile securing from Paschal all the most important privileges for the primacy of Canterbury. Each time Paschal refused to grant a dispensation for Henry, as Anselm requested, he granted Anselm a privilege for the primacy. Thus Anselm's vision of the primate as almost a patriarch of another world, nearly independent of the pope, was fulfilled by 1103.At this point, Anselm abandoned his vacillation between king and pope, and worked seemingly on behalf of Paschal, but in reality on behalf of the Canterbury primacy. During this second phase, Anselm's political adroitness becomes clear by a correlation, never before made, between the church-state controversy and Henry's campaign to conquer Normandy. By careful maneuvering and skilful propaganda, Anselm forced Henry to choose between submitting to the investiture decree or failing in his attempt to conquer Normandy. At the settlement, a compromise was worked out, Henry conceding on investitures, and Paschal conceding on homage. But investiture was only secondary to Anselm. He ended the dispute not when Henry submitted on investitures, but only when he had gained from Henry concessions which made the primate almost a co-ruler with the king, as his political vision demanded. Only after a public reconcilliation with his archbishop did Henry feel free to complete the Norman campaign.Thus the Investiture Controversy was a three-way struggle. Both king and pope compromised, each giving up some of their goals. But Anselm emerged from the contest having won nearly all his political objectives.     

Lexicographic and syntactic explorations of doubt in twelfth-century Latin texts

What follows is a preliminary sortie into the largely untouched field of doubt in twelfth-century Europe. That the word ‘doubt’ in English is ambiguous soon became clear when I had to keep explaining that my study was not intended simply as a chapter in the history of philosophical scepticism or as an investigation of medieval atheism, but was to encompass uncertainty in all its forms. Obviously if there were problems about the meaning of doubt in English, identifying doubt in twelfth-century Latin texts would not be straightforward. This paper tests the correspondence between our current ideas on doubt and their expression in English, and doubt in twelfth-century contexts. Examination of the lexicography and syntax of doubt found in a variety of twelfth-century Latin writings not only enabled me to identify a rich array of doubt-words but to suggest an explanation for their underlying ambiguity and to determine the methods by which it was countered. Analysis of the words and images expressing doubt in these passages also provides a preliminary indication of medieval attitudes towards doubt.     

Æthelstan,Wulfstan and a revised history of tithes in England

The law-text known as I Æthelstan is commonly accepted as the earliest evidence of a legal obligation to pay tithes in England. As it turns out, it might not be. The extant Old English version of I Æthelstan does indeed legislate for tithe payments. However, this version is an eleventh-century revision of the original text, probably penned by Archbishop Wulfstan of York (d. 1023). As I will argue in this article, the original version, which survives only as contained in a twelfth-century translation into Latin, appears to be a call for a one-off charitable alms payment.     

A Coherent Measure

Abstract

According to many contemporary scholars, an originalist reading of the Fourteenth Amendment is difficult, if not impossible, because the Amendment did not have a coherent original meaning. Its provisions, it is argued, were ambiguous and vague--and deliberately so. But as will be set forth in this article, a review of the commentary from the drafting and ratification of the Amendment provides substantial evidence that proponents of the Amendment held a coherent understanding of Section 1. Further this evidence indicates that the major interpretive disagreements arose not among supporters but between supporters and opponents, and even these were generally limited to disputes on only two (albeit major) interpretive issues: (1) whether the “privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States” included intermarriage and political rights, (2) whether these “privileges and immunities” would be subject to congressional redefinition.     

‘The revolt of the medievalists’. Directions in recent research on the twelfth-century renaissance

This historiographical article contains two basic parts. First, it discusses recent approaches to the twelfth-century renaissance in the last two decades by focusing on some selected themes. These themes basically derive from Charles Homer Haskins' notion of the renaissance and include individualism, rationality, secularisation, and the question of the emergence of a ‘critical mentality.’ From this point of departure, the article addresses the question of thematic innovation with regard to the twelfth-century renaissance. The second part of the article discusses the effect of the so-called linguistic turn on renaissance studies in general and on the twelfth-century renaissance in particular. In conclusion, some suggestions for further research are singled out.     

UNOFFICIAL COINAGE IN THE THIRD CENTURY ad IN THE GALLO‐ROMAN WORLD: CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL ANALYSES FOR DETERMINING THE LOCALIZATION OF THE WORKSHOP*

The third century ad was a complex period of crisis in the Roman world. In this paper, official and unofficial antoniniani, and double sestercii and sestercii, were analysed by fast neutron activation analysis (FNAA) to determine the alloys used by the craftsmen for producing forgeries. Moreover, at Châteaubleau, archaeologists discovered antoniniani and bronze forgeries from Postumus. Similar materials have been found in other hoards. They are believed to have been produced by a workshop called ‘atelier II’ by numismatists. The question was whether it is possible to differentiate the Châteaubleau production from the atelier II production.     

THERMOLUMINESCENCE AND STYLE IN THE AUTHENTICATION OF CERAMIC SCULPTURE FROM OAXACA,MEXICO

Oaxacan urns, the most characteristic esthetic expression of Zapotec culture in ancient Mesoamerica, are an important potential source of information for archaeologists and art historians, but relatively few exist with specific archaeological context and many are suspect as forgeries. This paper reports the thermoluminescent authenticity determinations of over one hundred Oaxacan urns as a first step toward confirmining a sequence previously determined by stylistic analysis. We tested a collection of 117 urns on loan to the St Louis Art Museum, mostly acquired after 1960, and another group of 6 from the Peabody Museum, Harvard, acquired before 1930. Our hypothesis that more recent collections would contain fewer forgeries was confirmed and a number of stylistic criteria for determining authenticity are critically examined in the light of the results.     

William of Malmesbury's Carolingian sources

In his great history of England, the Gesta regum Anglorum, completed in 1125, William of Malmesbury included digressions on continental affairs. One of these, on the Merovingian and Carolingian monarchs, provides an interesting study of William's historical method. His Frankish sources are difficult to identify, but we are helped by the survival of the late twelfth-century English MS. Oxford, Bodleian Library Lat. class d.39. This book contains, inter alia, a collection of chronicles and short pieces on Frankish history. We attempt to show that it was copied from a MS. made by or for William, and that his own notes were recopied into its margins. Moreover, it seems probable that he himself compiled the collection of chronicles in it. This discovery enables us to identify most of William's Frankish materials, to draw important conclusions about his manipulation of them, and so advance our knowledge of twelfth-century historiography generally.     

丁韪良《万国公法》翻译蓝本及意图新探

<万国公法>是美国长老会传教士丁韪良翻译、清政府资助刊印的第一部完整的西方国际法著作.本文根据惠顿英文版原书的多种版本及相关原始资料进行详细考证,认为<万国公法>的翻译蓝本是惠顿<国际法原理>1855年美国波士顿出版的英文第六版,而不是1836年第一版或1846年第三版;他的翻译基本上是忠于原著的,翻译本中涉及到的有关中国的内容出自于惠顿原书,并完全符合历史事实;有学者认为丁韪良在<万国公法>中以自己的口吻,增加了原书中"纯属子虚乌有"的内容,来为其政治目的服务,这是在没有核对原书的情况下,根据传统思维及主观猜测而得出的错误结论,应予澄清.本文还论述了丁韪良翻译此书的目的,首先是为自己今后在中国长期生存和发展创造更好的条件,更有利于他的传教事业及基督教在中国的发展,同时他也希望中国人了解国际法,以便对外交事务有所帮助.     

钱大昕的史籍辨伪

作为清代乾嘉学派的代表人物,作为著名的史学家,钱大昕十分重视辨伪工作,并以开阔的视域、渊博的学识和精密的方法,对《竹书纪年》、《十六国春秋》、《金人南迁录》等史籍的真伪进行了认真考辨,语多精谛,颇为学术界所认同。钱氏还对古人作伪的规律有一定的认识,其中不乏积极的学术启发意义。     

William of Malmesbury's Carolingian sources

In his great history of England, the Gesta regum Anglorum, completed in 1125, William of Malmesbury included digressions on continental affairs. One of these, on the Merovingian and Carolingian monarchs, provides an interesting study of William's historical method. His Frankish sources are difficult to identify, but we are helped by the survival of the late twelfth-century English MS. Oxford, Bodleian Library Lat. class d.39. This book contains, inter alia, a collection of chronicles and short pieces on Frankish history. We attempt to show that it was copied from a MS. made by or for William, and that his own notes were recopied into its margins. Moreover, it seems probable that he himself compiled the collection of chronicles in it. This discovery enables us to identify most of William's Frankish materials, to draw important conclusions about his manipulation of them, and so advance our knowledge of twelfth-century historiography generally.