Briton and Scythian: Tudor representations of Irish origins

1993 ◽  
Vol 28 (112) ◽  
pp. 390-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Hadfield
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Tudor England ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Medieval Chronicles ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Origin Myths ◽  
Origin Myth ◽  
John Leland

It is a commonplace of recent British historiography that in the early modern period a sophisticated and sceptical concept of writing history began to develop which involved, among other things, historians becoming significantly less credulous in their use of sources. Often the crucial break with medieval ‘chronicles’ is seen to have been brought about by the triumph of the exiled Italian humanist, Polydore Vergil, over the fervently nationalistic band of British historians and antiquarians led by John Leland, establishing that the Arthurian legends were no more than an origin myth. Jack Scarisbrick, for example, has argued that ‘early Tudor England did not produce a sudden renewal of Arthurianism … As the sixteenth century wore on, Geoffrey of Monmouth’s patriotic fantasies received increasingly short shrift from reputable historians.’ However, this comforting narrative of increasingly thorough and careful scholarship ignores the fact that there was a form of history writing in which the reliance upon origin myths such as the Arthurian legends and the ‘matter of Britain’ actually increased dramatically after the Reformation, namely English histories of Ireland.

Monastic Burials of Non-Patronal Lay Benefactors

1996 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 620-637 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Postles
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
Lay Persons ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
The Middle Ages

Choice of place of burial in the Middle Ages was perhaps the most poignant indicator of belief in the efficacy of different sorts of religious intercession. Ariès concluded that the pre-modern response to death was public and communitarian, becoming only latterly private and individualistic. Most recent reconsiderations of notions of death and burial have concentrated on the early modern period. For this period, the distinction made by Ariès between modern, private, individualistic burial practices and earlier public, communitarian rites, has been revised, both in the sense that this change occurred earlier than Ariès would allow and that other influences were at work, in particular the formative consequences of the Reformation. Research into death and burial in the later Middle Ages has tended to confirm the communitarian nature of the rites surrounding death and burial. Burial in the high Middle Ages has been reviewed from a much more pragmatic rather than theoretical perspective, as a consequence of which the wholly communitarian picture depicted by Ariès has hardly been challenged. Presented here, however, is some modification to the Ariès thesis, supported by some very particular evidence, burials of lay persons who were not of patronal status, in religious houses, within the wider context of burial practices in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in England.

Thomas Müntzer and John Knox: Radical and Magisterial Reformers?

2017 ◽  
Vol 68 (3) ◽  
pp. 529-545
Author(s):  
PETER MATHESON
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Political Realm

A distinction is often made between magisterial and radical reformers in the early modern period, Luther and Thomas Müntzer being frequently taken as representatives of two quite different reformations, especially in regard to the understanding of Scripture and of the political realm. It can, however, be argued that the Reformation as a whole was radical, and that it is misleading to characterise one aspect of it as mainstream, another peripheral. The comparison between Müntzer and the Scottish reformer, John Knox, appears to support the contention that the chasm between the two camps is not unbridgeable.

Religious Reformation and the Crisis of Providentialism in Cyril Tourneur’s The Atheist’s Tragedy (1611): A Cultural Materialist Reading

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Shahab Entezareghaem
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Jacobean Drama ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Cast Doubt ◽  
Cyril Tourneur ◽  
Philosophical Debates

The early modern period in England is characterised by philosophical and moral debates over the meaning and pertinence of Christian beliefs and teachings. One of the most controversial topics in this epoch is God’s providence and its supposed impacts on man’s daily life. In the wake of the Reformation and emerging philosophical schools, particularly in the second half of the sixteenth century, Providentialism was seriously put into question and the meaning and influences of God’s providence were, therefore, investigated. Epicureans and Calvinists were two prominent groups of religious reformists who cast doubt upon the validity and pertinence of Christian Providentialism as it was taught during the medieval period. These intellectual and philosophical debates were reflected in the literary productions of the age in general, and in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama in particular. Cyril Tourneur is one of the early modern English playwrights who inquired into the meaning and relevance of Providentialism in his last play, The Atheist’s Tragedy (1611). Adhering to a cultural materialist mode of criticism, I will show in this paper that Tourneur is a dissident dramatist who separates the realm of God’s divinity from man’s rational capacity in his tragedy and anticipates, hence, the emergence and development of new religious and philosophical visions in the Renaissance.

scholarly journals Understanding Research Methodology: Social History and the Reformation Period in Europe

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 370
Author(s):  
Laura Kathryn Jurgens
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Social History ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
Life Work

This article provides an overview of the social-historical methodology, highlights relevant scholarship on this approach, and offers specific examples of studies on the Reformation period in Europe that use the social-historical method. I begin by explaining how the social-historical methodology, otherwise known as new social history, originated from the historical method. While highlighting key scholarship on this approach, I outline how the social-historical method differs from the historical method. I also present two essential methodological features of social history, including using sources in new, more analytical ways. I conclude by presenting specific examples of how historians of the early modern period, such as Kirsi Stjerna and Merry Wiesner-Hanks, apply the social-historical method in their own studies. This last section focuses on works that explore women’s history, family life, work, and witchcraft, primarily during the Reformation period in Europe. My goal is to provide a resource for emerging young scholars, such as undergraduate students and newly admitted graduate students, who are interested in strengthening their own work by better understanding the social-historical research method and how it is used in the study of history and religion.

scholarly journals The Athos Bulgarian history writing of the 18th century between the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

2019 ◽  
pp. 14-19
Author(s):  
Dmitriy Polyvyannyy
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
History Writing ◽  
National History ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Bulgarian Population ◽  
The One

The article is dedicated to three Bulgarian historical works created at Athos in the second half of the 18th c. – "Slavo-Bulgarian History" by Saint Paisius of Hilendar, anonymous "Zograf History" and "Brief History of the Bulgarian Slav People" by monk-priest Spyridon of Gabrovo. By the author’s opinion, these works, on the one hand, were born in the atmosphere of rivalry between the monasteries of Athos and their Greek, Bulgarian and Serbian clergy, and on the other, were actualised by the strengthening contacts of Hilandar and Zograf with Bulgarian lands. If the first affected the contents of the mentioned works, the second lead to sufficient enlargement of their audience, which, in its turn, became a precondition of the growing interest to the national history among the Bulgarian population of Rumelia in the first half of the 19th c.

Approaches to Coptic History after 641

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 483-485
Author(s):  
Febe Armanios
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Gender Studies ◽  
Art History ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Egyptian History

The study of Coptic history usually brings to mind gnostic texts, remote monastic enclaves, archeological ruins, conflicts with Byzantium, or a long-forgotten language. Until recently, a disproportionate focus on early Christianity has bound Copts to an ancient and seemingly timeless heritage, which explains the dearth of critical examinations on Coptic life from the Islamic conquests to the early modern period. In general, Coptic experiences after 641 have been overshadowed by other themes in Egyptian history writing, in particular political and military changes. Although the latter are as relevant for a better understanding of the Coptic past, they have been predominately examined from the perspective of the Muslim majority, exclusive of Coptic concerns, perspectives, and beliefs. Only in recent years has scholarship on Copts begun to expand. Scholars have drawn from fields such as papyrology, gender studies, art history, and law in pursuit of a more comprehensive historical narrative. We are increasingly encouraged to evaluate the Coptic experience not only as a missing cog in Egyptian historiography but also as one that complicates canonical studies of postconquest Egypt and enriches our understanding of Middle Eastern history in general.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 164-166
Author(s):  
John-Mark Philo
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
English Civil War ◽  
The Political ◽  
Tudor England ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Early Modern Era ◽  
Modern Era

The conclusion draws together the main themes and concerns of the book: namely how the translation and application of Livy in Tudor England was intricately connected to the most pressing political and cultural concerns of the day. So too it reflects on Livy’s impact on the vernacular literatures of the period, including William Painter’s novellas and Shakespeare’s poetry and prose. It also underlines the fact that, rather than a diminishing interest in Livy, the seventeenth century saw the historian at the heart of the constitutional debates underpinning the English Civil War. The translation of Livy in the early-modern period, as the conclusion underlines, functioned not only as a reflection of the political concerns of the moment, but also as an active attempt to reshape, refashion, and urge forward those concerns. Though Livy’s part in the Classical Reception of the early-modern era is sometimes underplayed, it would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of Livy’s contribution to the culture and politics of sixteenth-, and indeed seventeenth-, century England.

A Latin Renaissance in Reformation Scotland? Print Trends in Scottish Latin Literature, c. 1480–1700

2016 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven J. Reid
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Academic Language ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Latin Literature ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Latin Culture ◽  
First Editions ◽  
First Time

The full extent of the large body of Latin literature produced by Scots in the early modern period has long eluded scholars. However, thanks to a growing range of research in this field, and particularly to the appearance of several major new bibliographic and electronic resources, it is possible for the first time to map out one aspect of its broad contours. This article uses a database comprising all currently known published first editions of Latin texts by Scots between 1480 and 1700 to examine the extent of Scottish Latin culture in print in the early modern period; how this related to the rise of printed texts in Scots and English; and the major genre types in which Scottish Latin authors published. The database reveals several major trends: firstly, that the publication of Scottish Latin texts reached its zenith in the reign of James VI and I, bolstered by the arrival of a domestic print market but also in part by an increased focus on literacy and education after the reformation; secondly, that by far the largest genres of printed Scottish Latin were poetry and academic theses, and not religious or political texts as might perhaps be expected; and thirdly, that the use of Latin as a literary and academic language in Scotland declined rapidly and irrevocably in the second quarter of the seventeenth century. The article concludes that the production of Latin literature by Scots was unique as an aspect of renaissance culture in Scotland because it had no strongly-defined presence before the reformation of 1560 and only became fully manifest in King James's later reign. It offers potential reasons as to why this may have been the case, and examines some implications the data has for understanding Scotland's developing intellectual and linguistic relationship with England after the union of the crowns. However, the article acknowledges the limited picture provided by print evidence alone and ends by calling for further research to assess how far this trend applies to all Latin literature produced by Scots, particularly the surviving corpus of Latin manuscripts.

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