Abbots and Aristocrats: Patronage,Art and Architecture at Hailes Abbey in the Late Middle Ages

This article focuses on the art and architecture of the Cistercian abbey of Hailes, home of a famous relic of the Holy Blood, in the two centuries before the Suppression. It is intended to be a contribution to evolving literature on late medieval monasticism, showing the enduring spiritual vitality and relevance of Hailes between the 14th and early 16th centuries. The article discusses the planning and architecture of the late medieval monastery, the extent of and motives for the internal and external patronage and the relationship of the monastery with its sister Cistercian houses, especially those in northern England.     

Riforma e Rinascimento,Protestantism and Catholicism in Antonio Gramsci's writings on Italian history, 1926 – 35

Abstract

This article readdresses Gramsci's use of Italian history, focusing on his judgement that the Italian Renaissance marked the start of a specifically Italian course of historical failure because it led directly to the Counter-Reformation, the Risorgimento and Fascism. It shows that Gramsci's political strategy after 1923 – on the need for a mass socialist movement – informed his historical opinions. His view of a regressive Renaissance contrasted the dominant historiographical consensus that saw it as the start of European modernity. Gramsci conceptualized modern European history according to a Reformation–Renaissance dichotomy that also determined his general sense of culture. By contrasting Catholic Italy (whose Renaissance had failed to lead to a Reformation) with the Protestant north (whose general Renaissance had formed a harmonious couplet with the Reformation), Gramsci reveals that his single greatest debt as a historian was to Weber rather than Marx or Croce.     

The Bruce dynasty,Becket and Scottish pilgrimage to Canterbury,c.1178-c.1404

In 1187 Alfonso VIII of Castile and his queen, Leonor of England, founded a Cistercian nunnery, Santa Maria Regalis de Las Huelgas, on the outskirts of Burgos. Despite the clear allegiance of the foundation to the Cistercians from the outset, the idea that the abbey was inspired by and even modelled on the nunnery of Fontevraud in Anjou is an encroaching commonplace in accounts of medieval Spanish history and art history around 1200. This study re-evaluates the arguments for that perception and puts forward a different reading of the early years of Las Huelgas, not as a foreign importation but as a peculiarly Iberian, even Castilian, institution.     

Noticeboard

Recent years have seen a marked growth of interest in Jewish medieval history. It is no longer considered tenable to study the history of the Latin West without taking some account of the place of the Jews in medieval Europe. This article explores different trends in recent research on medieval Jewish-Christian coexistence by examining a number of books and editions of texts which have been published in this field since 1990.     

The End of Asceticism

Abstract

In this article the author explores the process by which asceticism lost its central place in (Protestant) Christian tradition in early modernity by comparing the ascetic teaching of fifteenth-century Carthusian writer Nikolaus Kempf with the views of Martin Luther and Immanuel Kant. The article identifies a number of philosophical and theological changes that took place that made it impossible for modern thinkers to understand asceticism in its traditional sense, and instead led to interpretations of asceticism as “works righteousness” and superstition. These changes included a new emphasis on the freedom of the individual, which corresponded to a mistrust of moral authority, a new understanding of morality that de-emphasized moral education, and a new understanding of knowledge that disconnected knowledge and virtue.     

Excavations on Brightstone and Bowcombe Downs,Isle of Weight,Made in August 1854

Abstract

Not a single English Romanesque great cloister arcade survives in situ. Despite this, the existence of a number of 11th- and 12th-century rear walls, and the discovery of quantities of stonework likely to have originated in cloister arcades, make it possible to recover something of the likely appearance and character of the cloister in Anglo-Norman England. The following paper considers that evidence, and assesses how our understanding of the underlying topography and archaeology of Anglo-Norman cloisters might enable us to reconstruct their lost walks. It concludes with an appraisal of the chronology of English cloister building.     

上海市天钥桥路清代墓葬发掘简报

天钥桥两座清代墓葬出土的苦像、念珠、佩饰、圣名帽饰等为天主教特有的随葬品,为上海地区中西文化交流提供了新颖的资料。     

The disillusionment of Robert Dell: the intellectual journey of a Catholic socialist

ABSTRACT

This article considers attempts in the late nineteenth century to bring about a confluence of Catholicism and Socialism in Britain by examining the writing and correspondence of one man, the art critic and Fabian socialist Robert Dell. Beginning with Dell’s involvement as a young man in London-based radical politics, the article examines his efforts to bring his socialist politics and Catholic faith together. Dell attempted this through stressing a narrative of Catholic collectivism, under the aegis of a benevolent Church, contrasted with a post-Reformation Protestant individualism leading to the inequities of capitalism. The appeal of Catholicism in a Victorian Britain undergoing a collective crisis of faith is addressed. The second part of the article documents the failure of these attempts and Dell’s disillusionment with the Catholic hierarchy that by 1908 had led to a complete break on Dell’s part with the Catholic establishment. The catalyst for this break was the brutal treatment of Catholic Modernists such as George Tyrrell, Maude Petre and St George Mivart by the Vatican and the English Catholic leadership. Dell’s final rejection of organised Catholicism is charted through pamphlets, newspaper articles and personal correspondence. Ultimately, the article considers how Dell’s early political and theological career reflects on the relative positions of Catholicism and socialism at the turn of the twentieth century, and more broadly the dynamics of personal belief and political allegiances.     

清末民初陕北天主教传播过程时空特征分析

清末民初是天主教在陕北地区发展的重要阶段。在当时陕北23个县中有天主教传入的占19个,广大农村是传教士传教的主要地区,清光绪二十七年至宣统三年即1901至1911年是陕北天主教发展的高潮期。陕北地区在今内蒙古伊克昭盟与山西之间的37·5°N~38·5°N间呈东宽西窄的横楔形区域内,形成了一个天主教堂分布的相对集中区,其中又以西部靖边、怀远(今横山)和定边三县为天主教势力集中的重心所在。县域内天主教堂的空间分布也具有一定的规律。本文主要依据相关地方史志,简要说明清末民初天主教在陕北地区的传播过程并初步探讨其时空分布特征。     

Hermits and hairshirts: the social meanings of saintly clothing in the vitae of Godric of Finchale and Wulfric of Haselbury

Solitary ascetics in the twelfth century were renowned for their ascetic practices, among them the wearing of hairshirts and loricae. These were not merely items of neutral ascetic value but could contain social symbolism. The varying possible social meanings of ascetic clothing are here explored particularly through a comparison of the Vitae of the two well known English holy men Wulfric of Haselbury and Godric of Finchale. The hagiographers of these holy solitaries used their ascetic clothing as one means of highlighting their subjects’ social roles throughout their lives, but it is also argued that the solitaries’ ascetic clothing was perceived during their own lives as marking their distinctive relationships with the world around them, and that these relationships were remembered through miracle stories.     

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.     

Saddam Hussein,Islam, and Just War Theory: The Case for a Pre-emptive Strike

Abstract

America and its allies face a world that has become more and more dangerous with its weapons of mass destruction and a shadowy world of terrorists more than willing to use them. The wisdom of the past does not have the prescience or universal insight to deal with this new threat. America and its allies must change direction if they wish to respond to the challenge in an effective manner, even if it means employing policies that seemed dubious in the past. The state is called to protect its citizens in a Machiavellian world, filled with depravity and compromise. The church is called to submit to the superior wisdom of those who have the special intelligence, experience and expertise to handle the current crisis.     

西班牙天主教语境下的宗教政策--16-18世纪菲律宾华侨皈依天主教研究

西班牙是欧洲最早向海外扩张的殖民国家之一,15世纪末地理大发现后其海外扩张的主要动机是攫取东方财富和传播天主教,企图在亚洲建立"东方天主教帝国",这使得它在海外殖民的过程中所实施的政策与其它殖民国家显著不同,即注重从宗教文化上对殖民地人民进行同化.本文探讨了西班牙在天主教语境下对菲律宾华侨的宗教政策和华侨的反应,以及这种政策所产生的结果.     

Sacred Geography,Antiquarianism and Visual Erudition: Benito Arias Montano and the Maps in the Antwerp Polyglot Bible

The final volume of the Polyglot Bible, edited by Benito Arias Montano and printed in Antwerp by Christophe Plantin, was published in 1571–1572. Forming part of the Bible's Apparatus, the volume contains a number of essays, illustrations and maps by Montano relating to questions raised by the biblical text. Montano's maps were a product of his philological training in Oriental languages and exegesis, his profound interest in antiquarianism and geography and his practice of visualizing and tabulating knowledge. He designed his maps both as study aids and as devotional‐meditative devices. Moreover, the maps reflect his wider philosophical outlook, according to which Holy Scripture contains the foundations of all natural philosophy. Montano's case encourages us to re‐examine early modern Geographia sacra in the light of the broader scholarly trends of the period.     

中世纪天主教的信仰与危机:1000-1500年

在1000-1500年间,天主教欧洲见证了信仰事务上的多次危机,它们的性质、规模、影响以及重要性各不相同。在此期间,"信仰"伴随着"危机";但信仰没有受到严重的威胁。大多数危机是地方性或区域性的,持续时间也不长,从未达到真正的临界点。它们是可以用这种或那种方法来化解的,并总是能够得到化解,天主教对中世纪整个西欧的掌控因而从未受到严重的威胁,直到宗教改革改变一切。     

信仰危机与托马斯主义

托马斯主义的独特价值在于,每当天主教遭遇信仰危机时,教会当局就会隆重推出托马斯主义,在近现代,托马斯主义就经历了两次复兴。托马斯主义是一个调和理性与信仰的综合体系,当信仰尚能涵盖理性的张力时,这个体系就能够发挥一定的作用。但是,在现代世界科学理性主义大肆张扬的时代,信仰已被压缩到私人的范围,它已经很难涵盖理性提出的问题。因而,托马斯主义也就走到了尽头。