scholarly journals Uses of the Past in Twelfth-Century Germany: The Case of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-38
Author(s):  
Mark Chinca ◽  
Christopher Young
Keyword(s):  
Original Composition ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Geoffrey Of Monmouth ◽  
Middle High German ◽  
Vernacular Literature ◽  
Salvation History ◽  
The Past ◽  
Multiple Contexts ◽  
High Middle Ages

AbstractDespite its broad transmission and its influence on vernacular chronicle writing in the German Middle Ages, the Kaiserchronik has not received the attention from historians that it deserves. This article describes some of the ideological, historical, and literary contexts that shaped the original composition of the chronicle in the middle of the twelfth century: Christian salvation history, the revival of interest in the Roman past, the consolidation of a vernacular literature of knowledge, and the emergence of a practice of writing history as “serious entertainment” by authors such as Geoffrey of Monmouth and Godfrey of Viterbo. Placed in these multiple contexts, which have a European as well as a specifically German dimension, the Kaiserchronik emerges as an important document of the uses of the past in fostering a sense of German identity among secular and ecclesiastical elites in the high Middle Ages.

Clothing and Female Reclusion in The Life of Mary of Egypt and The Life of Christina of Markyate

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-31
Author(s):  
Anna McKay
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Feminist Scholarship ◽  
Literary Representation ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Holy Women ◽  
Experiences Of Women ◽  
Mary Of Egypt ◽  
The Middle Ages

Over the past two decades, medieval feminist scholarship has increasingly turned to the literary representation of textiles as a means of exploring the oftensilenced experiences of women in the Middle Ages. This article uses fabric as a lens through which to consider the world of the female recluse, exploring the ways in which clothing operates as a tether to patriarchal, secular values in Paul the Deacon’s eighthcentury Life of Mary of Egypt and the twelfth-century Life of Christina of Markyate. In rejecting worldly garb as recluses, these holy women seek out and achieve lives of spiritual autonomy and independence.

Jesus as Mother and Abbot as Mother: Some Themes in Twelfth-Century Cistercian Writing

1977 ◽  
Vol 70 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 257-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Walker Bynum
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Spiritual Growth ◽  
Image Of God ◽  
Erotic Love ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
The Image Of God ◽  
Idea Of God

A number of scholars in this century have noticed the image of God or Jesus as mother in the spiritual writings of the high Middle Ages. The image has in general been seen as part of a “feminine” or “affective” spirituality, and neither of these adjectives is incorrect. The idea of God as mother is part of a widespread use, in twelfth-century spiritual writing, of woman, mother, characteristics agreed to be “feminine,”and the sexual union of male and female as images to express spiritual truths; the most familiar manifestation of this interest in the “female” is the new emphasis on the Virgin in doctrinal discussions and especially spirituality. And the frequency of references to “mother Jesus” is also part of a new tendency in twelfth-century writing to use human relationships (friendship, fatherhood or motherhood, erotic love) in addition to metaphysical or psychological entities to explain doctrinal positions or exhort to spiritual growth.

The Military Orders

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-263
Author(s):  
Jochen Burgtorf
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Church Reform ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Military Orders ◽  
The Military ◽  
Order State

The chapter discusses the two major international military orders of the high Middle Ages, the Templars and the Hospitallers. It outlines their origins in the twelfth-century Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, as well as the factors that contributed to their emergence, such as pilgrimage, the eleventh-century Church reform, knighthood and chivalry, the Crusades, and the role of the papacy. It then considers the comparative historiography of Templars and Hospitallers, including the scholarly debate on the Templars’ suppression and the Hospitallers’ survival. The chapter goes on to address the question of the military orders’ identity by examining the extent of the Templars’ charity and hospitality, the question of the Hospitallers’ militarization, and the genesis of the concept of an ‘order state’. It concludes with suggestions for future research.

scholarly journals I Second That Emotion: Modelling the Anxious Experiences of Thirteenth-Century Episcopal Office

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Philippa Byrne
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Institutional Authority ◽  
Emotional Language ◽  
Christian Service ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
The Church

Abstract The episcopacy in the High Middle Ages (c.1100–1300) can be understood through the idea of a shared emotional language, as seen in two treatises written to advise new bishops. In them, episcopal office was largely defined by the emotions it provoked: it was a cause for sorrow, a burden akin to back-breaking agricultural service. The ideas most associated with episcopal office were anxiety, labour and endurance. Ideas about Christian service as painful labour became particularly important in the twelfth century, alongside the development of the institutional authority of the Church. As episcopal power began to look more threatening and less humble, this emotional register provided one means of distinguishing episcopal power from secular lordly power: both were authorities, but bishops were distinguished by sorrowing over office and ‘enduring’, not enjoying it.

Prelacy, Pastoral Care and the Instruction of Subordinates in Late Twelfth-Century England

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. 114-128
Author(s):  
Rebecca Springer
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Lay People ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Religious Services ◽  
Eternal Salvation ◽  
Parish Priests ◽  
The Middle Ages

Historians of the Middle Ages usually associate the phrase ‘pastoral care’ with the sacraments and religious services performed by parish priests on behalf of lay people. But late twelfth-century writers primarily attributed pastoral care to prelates. Closely following the tradition of Pope Gregory I's Pastoral Rule, they held that prelates bore the responsibility to govern, guide and (perhaps most importantly) instruct their subordinate clergy or religious. Prelates did this by preaching, and they were supposed to validate their words with the example of their own righteous lives. But although commentators assumed that prelates would be reasonably well educated, late twelfth-century writers did not attribute good preaching to intellectual aptitude, or to the availability of preaching treatises or model sermon collections, as historians often assume. In an age of intellectual vibrancy and flourishing schools, ensuring that prelates instructed their subordinates remained firmly a moral, rather than an educational, question for the English church. Only by instructing subordinates could a prelate ensure their, and by extension his own, eternal salvation: neglect of preaching was tantamount to murder. This article uses the little-studied writings of Alexander of Ashby, Bartholomew of Exeter and Thomas Agnellus to uncover new links between ideas about prelacy, pastoral care and the instruction of subordinates in the high Middle Ages.

Disputing Privileges

2019 ◽  
pp. 136-169
Author(s):  
Jennifer C. Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
High Middle Ages

Chapter 4 examines disputes between the abbess of Sainte-Croix, canons of Sainte-Radegonde, and the bishop of Poitiers over jurisdiction and privileges between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. Poitiers’ spatial, administrative, and mental orientation had shifted to give greater power to the Count and bishop, enhance Sainte-Radegonde’s canons’ status, and place new pressures on the nuns. When the canons resisted the abbess’s claims, she appealed to the papacy to defend their privileges. The pope supported Sainte-Croix’s abbesses’ authority, despite the supposed misogyny of the eleventh- and twelfth-century reform, and encouraged the bishop to intervene on the abbesses’ behalf. Poitiers’ bishop was also a rival to the abbess, however, complicating his response. Chapter 4 demonstrates that the gendering of authority in the high Middle Ages was complicated for both men and women, and that Sainte-Croix’s abbesses constantly sought ways to muster support from allies who were eager to demonstrate power.

Hereford and Lincoln Cathedral Libraries during the High Middle Ages

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 502-526
Author(s):  
MARK J. CLARK
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
High Middle Ages

In this study evidence is brought forth from large treasuries of scholastic manuscripts at Hereford and Lincoln that challenges R. M. Thomson's assessment of the importance of those collections during the High Middle Ages. As it turns out, as early as the twelfth century those libraries contained copies of the most important works in the developing Parisian theological curriculum, and the earliest copies of those works may reside in these and other English cathedral libraries. Manuscripts preserving early versions of the Sentences are especially interesting, since they make it possible to study the evolution of Peter Lombard's thought during his lifetime.

The thirteenth-century runic revival in Denmark and Iceland

2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-129
Author(s):  
Tarrin Wills
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
Cultural Revival ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
Textual Production ◽  
Literary Forms ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Revival Movement

While in the High Middle Ages runic literacy appears to have been very much alive in urban centres such as Bergen, interest in runes appears to have been of a different nature in learned circles and in other parts of the Scandinavian world which had adopted widespread textual production of the Latin alphabet. This paper examines a number of runic phenomenon from the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries in Denmark and Iceland to argue that they belong to a cultural revival movement rather than forming part of a continuous runic tradition stretching back into the early Middle Ages. Some of these runic texts show some connection with the Danish royal court, and should rather be seen as forming part of the changes in literary culture emanating from continental Europe from the late twelfth century and onwards: they all show a combined interest in Latin learning and vernacular literary forms.

Monks, Canons, and the City: A Barren Relationship?

2002 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 667-688 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludo J. R. Milis
Keyword(s):  
Urban Communities ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
The Status ◽  
Culture Centered ◽  
Urban Institutions ◽  
The City

A close reading of selected texts that reflect routine life in monasteries during the early and high Middle Ages suggests that monastic culture, centered around stability and obedience, long rejected or ignored the urban communities that emerged in northwestern Europe. This monastic attitude persisted until the late twelfth century, when urban institutions began to wield sufficient authority to maintain order in their areas and thus contribute to the preservation of the status quo. Even so, monks continued to perceive cities in an essentially feudal guise, as fortified spaces.

PETER LOMBARD, STEPHEN LANGTON, AND THE SCHOOL OF PARIS THE MAKING OF THE TWELFTH-CENTURY SCHOLASTIC BIBLICAL TRADITION

Traditio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 72 ◽  
pp. 171-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARK J. CLARK
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Logical Theory ◽  
The Bible ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
The Middle Ages

This study documents the discovery of Peter Lombard's long-thought-to-be-lost lectures on the Old Testament, which were hidden in plain view in the Old Testament lectures of Stephen Langton, who lectured on the Lombard's lectures. The presence in the Lombard's lectures on Genesis of the logical theory of supposition, the single greatest advance in logical theory during the High Middle Ages, means that those lectures not only postdate the Sentences but also represent the beginning of a radical advance in speculative theology that would continue to develop through the end of the High Middle Ages. This means in turn that lectures on the Bible from the 1150s to 1200, and in particular those of the School of Paris, headed by Peter Lombard, play a central role in one of the greatest speculative developments — logical, philosophical, and theological — of the Middle Ages.

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