King Stephen,the English church,and a female mystic: Christina of Markyate's Vita as a neglected source for the council of Winchester (August 1139) and its aftermath

One of the central reasons for the disintegration of royal authority (sometimes called ‘the Anarchy’) during the reign of King Stephen of England is generally thought to have been his troubled relationship with the English church. The king was summoned to appear before the legate in England, Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester (who was also Stephen's brother), at a church council called for Winchester on 29 August 1139, in order to show cause for his conduct in arresting several prominent bishops and in confiscating their property. Several major chroniclers discuss the events leading up to and occurring at the council of Winchester, especially William of Malmesbury in his Historia novella and the anonymous Gesta Stephani. The versions of events contained in these sources are not entirely consistent. The present paper examines yet another recounting of the events of the council, seldom appreciated by historians of twelfth-century England, presented in the Vita of Christina of Markyate (c.1096/98–c.1155/66), composed by an anonymous monk of St Albans between 1140 and 1146. Christina was close to the abbot of St Albans, Geoffrey de Gorham, who was probably the patron of the Vita and who quite likely attended the Winchester council and apparently became involved in its aftermath. These events are recorded in some detail in the Vita, presenting us with a vivid recounting of the council and the immediate consequences thereof. The narrative of the Vita contains a somewhat different picture of the personalities and occurrences surrounding the Winchester council than we encounter in the chronicles. The current essay compares the Vita to the standard accounts. We argue that the Vita may be the earliest and possibly most reliable source for the events of the council. Moreover, if we privilege the report of the Vita, the council becomes an especially significant moment in the breakdown of relations between Stephen and the English church.     

Republicans,Unionists and Jacobites: The 1st Marquess of Tweeddale and the Restoration of the British Parliament

Although John Hay, 1st marquess of Tweeddale, contributed significantly to both the ruthless overthrow of Charles I, and the establishment of the first British parliament in the 1650s, most of his political career was concerned with attempting to re-establish this parliament after it was dissolved at the restoration of Charles II. His first attempt ended in defeat at the hands of the king and the duke of Lauderdale in 1670, but following the overthrow of James VII and II in 1688, Tweeddale tried to persuade the prince of Orange to unite Scotland and England. The prince, however, showed much more interest in securing the crown of Scotland than uniting the two kingdoms. Tweeddale, as lord high commissioner to the Scottish parliament in 1695, responded by passing legislation designed to provoke the English parliament into accepting union. He was also engaged in a jacobite intrigue to restore King James. Tweeddale intended that the restored monarch would be little more than a puppet, who could be used to legitimise what was effectively a republican regime in all but name. By this means the restored parliament would avoid the unpopularity which brought down the first British parliament in 1660. Tweeddale's scheme came to nought, but the technique he employed to manipulate the English parliament, and exploit the jacobite threat, contributed to the restoration of the British parliament ten years after his death.     

楚王(今頁)探讨

一楚系铜器中,有关楚王(今頁)的讨论曾是学界的一个热点问题。楚王(今頁)先前仅见于楚王(今頁)钟。此钟为钮钟,螺形枚,篆间与钮上饰斜角对夔纹,鼓部饰象鼻对夔纹。正面证间、     

Democratic Civility and the Dangers of Niceness

Contemporary debates about the virtue of civility oscillate between anxious calls for more of it in contemporary politics, as a panacea for all manner of religious-political conflict, and wholesale debunkings of civility talk, as an ideological fog intended to induce conformity to the terms of unjust social arrangements. I argue that this oscillation should come as no surprise, given the term's fraught theological and political associations in the history of modern ethical thought. This history left civility with an ambivalent legacy, one associated with democratic respect on the one hand, and hypocrisy and deception, on the other. Through a reading of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” I try to rescue civility from this oscillation, by explicating it as an ancillary virtue: the part of justice that disposes citizens to confront unjust relationships in ways that leave open the possibility of relational repair. When explicated with due care and set in an interactive context of other virtues – including courage, prudence and toleration – civility can be distinguished from its semblance, niceness. This distinction helps us understand civility, properly understood, as neither a cure-all for democratic conflict nor an ideological device of conflict suppression, but rather as an ancillary, but important, excellence of character helping to sustain democratic relationships of mutual recognition.     

曾公(田求)编钟铭文初步释读

2019年,随州枣树林曾国贵族墓地M190出土的曾公(田求)编钟与同墓地出土曾侯與编钟、嬭加编钟铭文可以互相印证,内容非常重要。本文对该编钟铭文进行释读和初步的注释,考订出编钟年代在公元前646年。文章指出曾国的爵称为侯,但是因为曾公(田求)重新得到了周王室的册命,取得了"公"的爵命。文章还利用铭文资料重新探讨了曾国疆域等问题。     

罗振玉藏“元年铍”铭文所见地名“广望”考

通过对罗振玉旧藏“元年铍”中未知地名“ ”新的考释,可以将该地名隶定为“ ”,读为“广望”,即见于《汉书·地理志》的西汉广望。以往战国时“广望”多被划入燕国境内,从“元年铍”应为战国时赵国兵器可知,“广望”在战国时一度属赵国。结合铭文内容与史料,铍铭中的“元年”应为赵悼襄王元年,广望属赵时间上限应该不会早于赵孝成王元年,下限则为赵王迁八年。     

《容成氏》“文王服九邦”考辨——兼论《容成氏》的主体思想及其学派归属

《容成氏》所述"文王服九邦"一事,存在着作者根据其主观立场,对史实进行增饰和改造的现象。作者之所以改造"文王服九邦"故事,并将其置于《容成氏》的"革命"之说中,主要是为了反衬"武王伐纣"的残酷性,从而凸显"禅让"优于"革命"。《容成氏》凸显"汤武革命"的暴力特征,是其不纯属于墨家或儒家学派的一个标志。《容成氏》的叙事风格及其思想,也受到了战国纵横家一定程度的影响。因此,《容成氏》可谓一部糅合了儒家、墨家、纵横家思想的具有"杂家"特色的作品。《容成氏》的这一特色,反映了战国时期楚地学术思想走向融合的趋势。     

唐嗣虢王李邕墓发掘简报

唐嗣虢王李邕墓位于陕西省富平县杜村镇北吕村西北,唐献陵陪葬墓区东北方,北临石川河南岸,西南距李凤墓250米;东南距北吕村300米。2004年3月遭盗掘,陕西省考古研究所组队对该墓进行了抢救性考古发掘。该墓为长斜坡墓道、五天井、三过洞、前后甬道、前后墓室、六个壁龛之大型砖券墓葬。因盗掘严重,随葬品大部分佚失,残余壁画亦损坏较甚。本文从墓葬形制、出土器物、装饰壁画三方面简述了考古发掘概况,阐述了发掘与整理中的认识与研究。