论中世纪晚期英国议会政治

在学术界,似乎有一个不证自明的定论,即：作为近代资本主义政治制度核心构件的议会政治是与中世纪封建社会无缘的。但事实上,在特定历史条件下,两也完全有可能联系在一起。英国由于在早期历史中形成了政治协商传统和初步成型的议会协商机制以及相应的社会化理念,从而为中世纪晚期出现议会政治奠定了必要的历史基础;但历史基础仅仅提供了议会政治早产的可能性,而将这种可能变为现实的决定性力量则是当时各种具体的特殊原因和个人因素构成的偶然机缘。换言之,中世纪晚期英国议会政治的早产是一种历史偶然现象。由此可见,偶然因素也是一种应当给予充分重视的历史决定性力量。     

中世纪和近代早期英国关税性质的演变

中世纪和近代早期,英国关税性质发生了根本性变化,从一种国王特权税,逐渐演变为处于议会严格控制下的议会间接税。中世纪和1625年前的近代早期,关税主要是国王的一种特权税。1625-1660年间,随着议会和王权斗争的高涨,以及议会的暂时胜利,关税一度转变为处于议会直接控制下的间接税。复辟时期,关税的最终课征批准权继续掌握在议会手中,但因缺少日常操控权,其关税权残缺不全。光荣革命后,因议会在与王权的斗争中取得了决定性胜利,关税演变为完全由议会严格控制的间接税。     

中世纪盛期西方理性主义的盛行及其意义

在信仰至上的西方中世纪时代 ,理性主义不仅一直存在 ,而且从弱到强 ,并最终导致普遍理性在中世纪盛期的确立与盛行。同时 ,一股追求个体的自主的理性的潜流也逐渐萌生。而 1 3— 1 4世纪的拉丁阿维罗伊主义、新奥古斯丁主义以及经验科学精神作为一股日益强大的思想潮流不仅导致理性与信仰的分离 ,为某种程度的思想自由和个体的自主的理性发展打开了一条通道 ,而且还使重视观察、实验和数学的近代科学精神得以孕育 ,从而为文艺复兴和宗教改革提供了思想来源。     

Gender and Sanctity in the Middle Ages

This review essay examines recent trends and developments in the study of medieval sanctity and gender, looking at the range of approaches which have been and are being taken by both historians and literary scholars to a wide variety of hagiographic texts. Two recent studies of medieval hagiography are reviewed, John Kitchen, Saints' Lives and the Rhetoric of Gender: Male and Female in Merovingian Hagiography and the collection Gendered Voices: Medieval Saints and Their Interpreters edited by Catherine Mooney. These works are representative of differing approaches to the issue of male authors' representations of female sanctity and concomitant issues of gender ideology.     

论中世纪和近代早期英国中央财政管理机构的沿革

中世纪时,国库、财政署和私室是英国最主要的中央财政管理机构,三个机构的命运漂浮不定,主要原因是国王及其王室才是财政管理的中心所在。都铎时期,国王们为加强对财政的个人控制,建立了私室财政体制。斯图亚特王朝建立初期,中央财政管理一仍旧惯,但1612年的管理革新实践却奠定了后来国库复兴的基础。综观这一时期的财政管理机构的沿革可知,连续性、渐进性、经验性和灵活性是它的主要特点。     

Recovering the histories of women religious in England in the central Middle Ages: Wilton Abbey and Goscelin of Saint-Bertin

Building upon the efforts made by scholars over the past 20 years to enrich our understanding of the vibrancy and sophistication of the literary cultures fostered within English communities of women religious during the central Middle Ages, this article shows that these women kept their communities' histories and preserved their saints' cults through their own writing. The evidence for this is uncovered through comparative analysis of the two extant versions of the post-mortem miracles of the late Anglo-Saxon saint Edith of Wilton (c.961–c.984): the Vita et translatio Edithe, composed c.1080 by the Flemish hagiographer Goscelin of Saint-Bertin (c.1040–d. after 1107), and the early fifteenth-century Middle English Wilton Chronicle. This analysis reveals that the writer of the Chronicle depended on a collection of Edith's and other Wilton saints' miracles that was maintained by their consorors throughout the late tenth and eleventh centuries, independently of Goscelin's account.