浅论高昌国时期的民寺寺主

高昌王国存在大量由私人舍宅舍田建立的民寺 ,其寺主极其频繁的各类世俗经济活动格外引人注目。本文拟从任命方式、职能范围等方面 ,对高昌王国民寺寺主的性质作一初步探讨。指出这一现象与高昌王国佛教超阶段性的世俗化程度有着密切关系 ,正是对物质利益的追求 ,促成了民寺的大量建立 ,而民寺寺主实际上是建寺檀越实现建寺初衷的工具和手段     

A psycho-historical source: the Memoirs of Abbot Guibert of Nogent

Medievalists turn to Guibert of Nogent's Memoirs (1116) for the account of the Laon uprising they contain. And yet this account is poor history. It is didactic and self-righteous in tone; one senses that the writer consistently sacrificed historical truth to the moral point he was trying to make. Scratch this twelfth- century ‘historian’ and you will find underneath a guilt-ridden cleric, haunted by vivid sexual reminiscences of his mother and by the terrible chastening reality of the Virgin Mary. A sensitive reading of the confessional sections of the Memoirs may yield up crucial unconscious impulses in a medieval man's psyche: his ‘masculine’ ambitions for glory, his need to prove his manhood, and yet also his ‘feminine’ desire for selfless submission to God, and his need to achieve a kind of passive holiness and innocence. These opposing impulses may account for the ‘demon’ that tortured Guibert of Nogent.After isolating certain psychological themes in the Memoirs it is possible to relate these themes to various nuances in the psychological ‘milieu’ of twelfth-century France. It is also possible to relate some of these themes to a ‘milieu’ not altogether different from that of twelfth-century France — twentieth-century southern Italy. For in southern Italy, we find that the psychological relationship between masculinity and femininity and (perhaps as a result of this relationship) the prominence of the Virgin Mary in the lives of the people corresponds closely to the situation in twelfth- century France. But this cross-cultural analysis is meant only to illuminate some of the possibilities of psychohistory. At the very least, a psychohistorical consideration of a text such as Guibert of Nogent's Memoirs should reveal some useful correlations between the single psychological current and the larger tides of cultural history.     

The Smiling Abbot: Rediscovering a Unique Medieval Effigial Slab

The article reports on a newly re-discovered fragment of a recumbent effigial slab commemorating Abbot Hywel (‘Howel’), most likely an abbot of the Cistercian house of Valle Crucis, near Llangollen (Denbighs.). The slab was probably carved very early in the fourteenth century, and could have covered the abbot’s burial place. The stone was dislocated and fragmented at an unknown point in the abbey’s history, and most likely removed from the site during the nineteenth-century clearance of the abbey ruins. It was briefly reported on in 1895 and has been lost to scholarship subsequently.

If indeed from Valle Crucis, the stone is the only known effigial slab commemorating a Cistercian abbot from Wales, and a rare example from Britain. Given that few similar Cistercian abbatial monuments have been identified from elsewhere, the ‘Smiling Abbot’, although only a fragment, is a significant addition to the known corpus of later medieval mortuary monuments. The article discusses the provenance, dating, identification and significance of the monument, including the abbot’s distinctive smile. The stone sheds new light on mortuary and commemorative practice at Valle Crucis Abbey in the early fourteenth century.     

A psycho-historical source: the Memoirs of Abbot Guibert of Nogent

Medievalists turn to Guibert of Nogent's Memoirs (1116) for the account of the Laon uprising they contain. And yet this account is poor history. It is didactic and self-righteous in tone; one senses that the writer consistently sacrificed historical truth to the moral point he was trying to make. Scratch this twelfth- century ‘historian’ and you will find underneath a guilt-ridden cleric, haunted by vivid sexual reminiscences of his mother and by the terrible chastening reality of the Virgin Mary. A sensitive reading of the confessional sections of the Memoirs may yield up crucial unconscious impulses in a medieval man's psyche: his ‘masculine’ ambitions for glory, his need to prove his manhood, and yet also his ‘feminine’ desire for selfless submission to God, and his need to achieve a kind of passive holiness and innocence. These opposing impulses may account for the ‘demon’ that tortured Guibert of Nogent.After isolating certain psychological themes in the Memoirs it is possible to relate these themes to various nuances in the psychological ‘milieu’ of twelfth-century France. It is also possible to relate some of these themes to a ‘milieu’ not altogether different from that of twelfth-century France — twentieth-century southern Italy. For in southern Italy, we find that the psychological relationship between masculinity and femininity and (perhaps as a result of this relationship) the prominence of the Virgin Mary in the lives of the people corresponds closely to the situation in twelfth- century France. But this cross-cultural analysis is meant only to illuminate some of the possibilities of psychohistory. At the very least, a psychohistorical consideration of a text such as Guibert of Nogent's Memoirs should reveal some useful correlations between the single psychological current and the larger tides of cultural history.     

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.     

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.