The hidden apocalypse: Richard of Saint-Vanne and the otherworld

At the centre of this article stands a letter written by Abbot Richard of Saint-Vanne sometime during the first quarter of the eleventh century. The letter describes two voyages to the otherworld taken by two monks at the abbey of Saint-Vaast in Arras in 1011 and 1012. A careful reading of the letter reveals that behind what appears to be a standard text, belonging to the very popular genre of otherworld journeys, hides an apocalyptic message of urgent warning that the world is about to reach its end. The letter thus serves as a prooftext for the existence of apocalyptic tension in the period between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1033, and as such contributes to the ongoing debate regarding the ‘terrors of the year 1000’.     

Disorder,debts and excommunication: Pope John XXII and the reform of the order of Grandmont

In the early fourteenth century, the order of Grandmont was crippled by internal conflict, violence and debts, causing Pope John XXII to intervene in 1317. This article examines the two stages of his reform project: a programme of constitutional reorganisation, aiming to make the order conform to standard monastic practices, and the longer process of financial reorganisation during which the pope attempted to clear the order’s debts by negotiating loans and using excommunication as a sanction for non-payment. John’s dealings with the order are characterised by a mixture of decisive constitutional change and painstaking financial consolidation, and an examination of the pope’s actions provides insights both into his pontificate and into a neglected phase in the history of the order of Grandmont.     

Responsibility Ethics and Postliberalism: Rereading H. Richard Niebuhr's The Meaning of Revelation

Abstract

Postliberals have hailed H. Richard Niebuhr's The Meaning of Revelation as a harbinger of narrative theology. A careful reading of Niebuhr's argument, however, suggests a theological ethic that is at once attentive to the narrative formation of agency and yet distinct from postliberalism because of its attention to the divine object of Christians' stories. Niebuhr's theocentrism yields a view of narrative as opened from the inside because it requires appropriation of what he calls "external" narratives in order to do justice to the sovereignty of God. The result is a theological ethic which is sharply critical of modern conceptions of agency and yet continually sifted by contemporary insights and experience.     

Ancestral neologisms in Richard fitz Nigel's Dialogue of the Exchequer

Although Richard fitz Nigel's Dialogus de scaccario (Dialogue of the Exchequer) has received extensive critical attention as a source for fiscal and governmental history, its importance in relation to twelfth-century perceptions of vernacularity has been largely overlooked. Richard's work incorporates a novel and sophisticated treatment of the interaction between Latin and the vernacular languages which is integral to the success of his historical project. The source of Richard's linguistic innovation is paradoxically located in a valorisation of patrimonial heritage: in using language history to trace, shape and reify the distinguished past achievements of his own family, Richard constructs Latin etymologies which simultaneously explore the development of the vernaculars, particularly French. This presentation of etymology as genealogy enables the supple and subjective qualities of philology to be exploited both as a witness to the past and to the glory of the Norman present.     

Crossman and Beyond: House of Commons Select Committees in the 1960s

Assessments of the work and impact of house of commons investigatory select committees during the 1960s usually centre on the success or otherwise of the new ‘specialist’ committees established in the second half of the decade. This article uses both quantitative and qualitative evidence to give a more rounded picture, including both new and existing committees. It concludes that 1960s select committees were more popular, active and influential than has previously been appreciated. It also argues that there has been an overvaluation of the role of the Labour cabinet minister, Richard Crossman, in promoting and establishing these committees, and that support for committee work on both front benches and back benches was rather more widespread and substantial than has been assumed. In particular, the article contends that Harold Wilson's role in advancing the work of select committees has been underestimated.     

Reinhold Niebuhr and Richard John Neuhaus on Religion and Democracy in the United States

Abstract

Richard John Neuhaus, like Reinhold Niebuhr before him, understood the vital civic role that religion plays in democratic society. As pastors and public intellectuals, both men were committed to public or civil forms of religion that, at their best, could inform, inspire, or chasten American political thought and action. There are crucial differences, nevertheless–between Niebhur’s and Neuhaus’s historical contexts, theological outlooks, political positions, and attitudes toward the American project–that help to explain their distinctive legacies and different receptions within the academy. However much Neuhaus admired Niebuhr, these differences suggest why Neuhaus was not the Reinhold Niebuhr of his day.     

The religious politics of prophecy: Or, Richard Brothers's Revealed Knowledge confuted

The messianic messages delivered to Londoners by the self-styled prophet, Richard Brothers, were regarded by many sceptical observers and pamphleteers as eccentric or, worse still, the embarrassing utterances of someone wishing to reprise the political turmoil of a by-gone era marred by religious ‘fanaticism’. This article shows the extent to which Brothers's messages, as set down in his Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times (1794–1795), were absolutely central to the religious politics and culture of the 1790s—or what one contemporary critic mockingly referred to as the ‘age of prophecy’. Brothers's prophecies came to the attention of the British government, which culminated in his arrest for treasonable practices in March 1795 when he became a cause célèbre, before being confined to an asylum for eleven years. He was deemed a criminal lunatic but, as this article seeks to demonstrate, his ‘prophetic imagination’ arose out of the same rich theological, political and cultural context that spurred ‘radicals’ like Tom Paine, whilst inspiring poets and artists such as William Blake. If the content of his prophecies were regarded by contemporary sceptics for having no validity, it remains true to say that Richard Brothers, as an educated gentleman and naval officer, dramatically altered 18th-century expectations and perceptions of what prophets were and the nature of prophecy itself.     

New Britain,new heritage: The consumption of a heritage culture

Abstract

Each month in Britain marks a further, official, distancing from the past and its memorials, as we move closer to the selected Millennium marker. Heritage has a particularly low profile at present with policies for destruction of the House of Lords encouraging increasing ridicule aimed at legacies from the past. In terms of media coverage, at least, the heritage bubble has burst, as indeed it had to. As soon as modest, individual or community, breaths were marshalled into corporate puff, the sheer size of the national preservation and presentation enterprise hinted at its own demise. Nicholas Howard, he of Castle Howard, provided an appropriate caution in 1993, when he noted:     

‘Leger est aprendre mes fort est arendre’: wool,debt, and the dispersal of Pipewell Abbey (1280-1330)

It has long been known that English Cistercian monasteries often sold their wool in advance to foreign merchants in the late thirteenth century. The abbey of Pipewell in Northamptonshire features in a number of such contracts with Cahorsin merchants. This paper looks again at these contracts in the context of over 200 other such agreements found in the governmental records. Why did Pipewell descend into penury over this fifty year period? This case study demonstrates that the promise of ready cash for their most valuable commodity led such abbots to make ambitious agreements – taking on yet more debt to service existing creditors – that would lead to their eventual bankruptcy.     

The Pepys Apocalypse (Cambridge,Magdalene College,MS Pepys 1803) and the readership of religious women

In 1405 Richard Scrope, archbishop of York, rebelled against Henry IV and was executed. He has been seen by historians as being easily led into rebelling against the king by other rebels and also as rather a fool. Although it survives in no contemporary copy, a Manifesto containing 10 charges against Henry's government was attributed to the archbishop by contemporaries. Contemporary chroniclers and historians alike have disparaged this document as having little to do with political reality and as such reflects the simple-mindedness of its author; Archbishop Scrope. This article discusses six of the charges (grouped in pairs) contained in various versions of the Manifesto that centre on Henry IV's alleged abuses of government, specifically: 1 and 2) that the king had oppressively taxed both his lay and clerical subjects; 3 and 4) that the king had replaced experienced government officials with new men who had lined their pockets and that the king had subverted the appointment to the office of sheriff; finally 5 and 6) that he subverted the selection process for knights of the shire and subverted their rights to ‘act freely’ in parliament. The article demonstrates that the archbishop's charges were not ‘naïve nonsense’ but reflected political reality and resonated with those who read them.     

‘Grace for the rebels’: the role of the royal pardon in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381

This article focuses on the Peasants' Revolt of 1381 as a means of examining some of the late medieval assumptions about the nature of royal mercy. Rather than adding to the weight of scholarship on the causes and characteristics of the Revolt, this article discusses the views on mercy (‘grace for the rebels’)¹ that were reportedly expressed by all parties during the course of the rebellion. The first section analyses the chronicles and their references to discussion of pardon and mercy during the revolt itself. The second section examines the role of the royal pardon in the subsequent judicial proceedings in the Home Counties — who were the first recipients of pardon, and how were they able to secure royal grace? The final section then discusses the formulation of the pardon in the autumn parliament, and the debate surrounding the course of government policy in the wake of revolt on an unprecedented scale. This article seeks to demonstrate that the Crown and commons shared a common language of pardon, and understood that by framing their discussion in terms of royal grace, they were alluding to a particular kind of idealised relationship between the king and his subjects.     

The Original Placement of the Hereford Mappa Mundi

Although antiquarians, historians of cartography, palaeographers and art historians have written about the Hereford mappa mundi for more than three hundred years, we know little about its original placement or use. This paper relies on new masonry and dendrochronological evidence and the system of medieval ecclesiastical preferments to argue that this monumental world map was originally exhibited in 1287 next to the first shrine of St Thomas Cantilupe in Hereford Cathedral's north transept. It did not function as an altarpiece, therefore, but as part of what I call the Cantilupe pilgrimage complex, a conglomeration of items and images which was for a time one of England's most popular pilgrimage destinations. In this location, the map would have added to the complex's attractive power and served as a multi‐media pedagogical tool.

Bien que les amateurs d'antiquités, les historiens de la cartographie, les paléographes et les historiens de l'art aient écrit depuis plus de trois cents ans sur la mappemonde de Hereford, on connaît peu de choses à propos de son emplacement primitif ou de son utilisation. Cet article s'appuie sur des preuves tirées de la nouvelle maçonnerie et de la dendrochronologie pour affirmer que cette monumentale carte du monde était présentée à l'origine près du premier tombeau de Saint Thomas Cantilupe, dans le transept nord de la cathédrale de Hereford. Elle n'était donc pas utilisée comme un retable, mais comme un élément de ce que j'appelle le ‘système du pèlerinage de Cantilupe’, un ensemble d'objets et d'images qui constitua un temps l'une des destinations de pèlerinage parmi les plus populaires d'Angleterre. A son emplacement, la carte aurait ajouté au pouvoir d'attraction du système et servi d'outil pédagogique multimédia.

Obwohl Historiker, Kartographiehistoriker, Palaeographen und Kunsthistoriker seit über dreihundert Jahren über die Mappa Mundi von Hereford geschrieben haben, wissen wir wenig über ihren originalen Aufstellungsort und ihre Verwendung. Die Argumentation in diesem Beitrag basiert auf neuen Untersuchungen der Steinmetzarbeiten, der Dendrochronologie und des Systems der Beförderung in der mittelalterlichen Kirchenhierarchie, die nahelegen, dass diese monumentale Weltkarte 1287 ihren ersten Aufstellungsplatz neben dem ersten Schrein des Heiligen Thomas Cantilupe im nördlichen Querschiff der Kathedrale von Hereford erhielt. Sie diente dementsprechend nicht als Altarbild, sondern bildete einen Teil dessen, was der Autor den ‘Cantilupe pilgrimage complex’ nennt. Dabei handelt es sich um eine Gruppe von Bildern und Gegenständen, die für einige Zeit zum populärsten Pilgerziel Englands avancierten. An diesem Platz hätte die Karte die Attraktivität dieses Komplexes gesteigert und als ein multimediales pädagogisches Instrument gedient.

Aunque anticuarios, historiadores de la cartografía, paleógrafos e historiadores del arte han escrito sobre el mappa mundi de Hereford durante más de 300 años, conocemos poco acerca de su emplazamiento original o uso. Este artículo trata de la obra de la nueva sillería de la catedral, de evidencias dendrocronológicas y del sistema de preeminencias eclesiásticas medievales, para argumentar que este monumental mapa del mundo fue originalmente exhibido en 1287 cerca del primer sepulcro de Santo Thomas Cantilupe, en el crucero norte de la catedral de Hereford, y que no funcionó como retablo, sino como parte de lo que el autor denomina ‘el complejo de peregrinaciones Cantilupe’, un conglomerado de aditamentos e imágenes que fue en aquel tiempo uno de los mas populares destinos de peregrinación en Inglaterra. En este emplazamiento, el mapa podría haber añadido atractivo al complejo y servido como un instrumento de pedagogía multimedia.     

A Florida Fiddler: The Life and Times of Richard Seaman

In A Florida Fiddler, Gregory Hansen has done a masterful jobof bringing to life a portrait of a traditional artist, placinghim in the context of his geography, time, and community. Throughthe use of interviews, transcribed public performances, andobservation, the author lets Richard Seaman speak for himself,in his own voice, to tell his own     

The Armada Paintings in the New Palace of Westminster

In June 2008 a team of artists began the gargantuan task of creating the series of Armada mural paintings for the house of lords. They were embarking on a two-year project, which would bring to completion the original decorative scheme planned for the prince's chamber by the Royal Commission on Fine Arts ¹ during the 1840s. This, in turn, would reconnect the original historical association, which the Armada tapestries had held with the house of lords since the mid 17th century until their destruction by fire in 1834. This article places these Armada mural paintings within the historical context of this project at the Palace of Westminster and documents some of the methodology behind the programme of work to re-create this celebrated series for the walls of the house of lords.     

Surveying the surveyors: Richard Thornton and his publishers

Richard Thornton produced two outstanding large-scale plans of Manchester as the pinnacle of his work as a map surveyor. Yet, like the vast majority of nineteenth-century surveyors, little is known about him. This reflects the fact that most private surveyors were held in very low esteem, although the quality of Thornton’s work should have exempted him from any such scorn. His two plans, published in 1832 and 1851, are shown to be valuable and accurate depictions of the rapidly expanding town as it flourished as the groundbreaker of industrialization. Some new evidence about Thornton’s life and work has been unearthed, yet even the most assiduous searches have produced relatively little to flesh out his skeletal details. What is clear, however, is that the impact of Thornton’s two plans owes much to the respective support of Thomas Bancks - a local bookseller - and Joseph Adshead - estate agent, social campaigner and local politician - both of whom took the risk of publishing and promoting Thornton’s surveys in the very uncertain market for commercial maps.