ENTRUSTING WESTERN EUROPE TO THE CHURCH, 400–750

2013 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 37-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Wood
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Classical World ◽  
Economic Basis ◽  
Major Break ◽  
Simple Change ◽  
The Church

ABSTRACTAlthough there had been substantial donations to the church in the course of the last two centuries of the Roman Empire, the amount of property transferred to the episcopal church and to monasteries in the following two and a half centuries would seem to have been immense. Probably rather more than 30 per cent of the Frankish kingdom was given to ecclesiastical institutions; although the Anglo-Saxon church was only established after 597, it also acquired huge amounts of land, as did the churches of Spain and Italy, although the extent conveyed in the two peninsulas is harder to estimate. The scale of endowments helps explain the occasional criticisms of the extent of church property, and also the secularisations and reallocation of church land, and indeed suggest that the transfer of property out of the control of the church in Francia and England in the eighth century may have been greater than is often assumed. The transfer of land should probably also be seen as something other than a simple change of ownership. Church property provided the economic basis for cult, for the maintenance of clergy, who were unquestionably numerous, and for the poor. In social and economic, as well as religious terms, this marked a major break with the Classical World.

The Maaseik embroideries

1984 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 65-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mildred Budny ◽  
Dominic Tweddle
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Form Part ◽  
The Church ◽  
Made In ◽  
The Middle Ages

Among the relics in the treasury of the church of St Catherine at Maaseik in Limburg, Belgium, there are some luxurious embroideries which form part of the so-called casula (probably ‘chasuble’) of Sts Harlindis and Relindis (pls. I–VI). It was preserved throughout the Middle Ages at the abbey church of Aldeneik (which these sister-saints founded in the early eighth century) and was moved to nearby Maaseik in 1571. Although traditionally regarded as the handiwork of Harlindis and Relindis themselves, the embroideries cannot date from as early as their time, and they must have been made in Anglo-Saxon England. Indeed, they represent the earliest surviving examples of the highly prized English art of embroidery which became famous later in the Middle Ages as opus anglicanum.

Slavery in Europe during Antiquity and the First Millennium

2021 ◽  
pp. 31-69
Author(s):  
Stefan Brink
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
First Millennium

In this chapter I give an overview of research on slavery (for some parts) of Western Europe in the first Millennium: The Roman Empire, Francia, Anglo-Saxon England, Ireland and Visigothic Spain. The difficulties of properly defining the legal status—whether free or unfree—for terms such as coloni, villani, bordari, cottari, famulus, servus etc. are discussed, and it is shown that in some areas and during some periods the legal status can differ. This is to serve as a background for our discussion of a Scandinavian slavery.

Il conflitto fra Leone III Isaurico e il papato fra il 725 e il 733, e il ‘definitivo’ inizio del medioevo a Roma: un'ipotesi in discussione

1991 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 231-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federico Marazzi
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
The West ◽  
Considerable Part ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Italian History ◽  
Economic Ties

THE CONFLICT BETWEEN LEO III ISAURICO AND THE PAPACY BETWEEN 725 AND 733 AND THE ‘DEFINITIVE’ BEGINNING OF THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD IN ROME: A HYPOTHESIS UNDER DISCUSSIONThis paper aims to bring to the fore an aspect of Italian history between the end of the sixth century and the first half of the eighth century which has been considered rarely to date: that is, the continuity of the strong economic ties between Rome and some regions of the Mezzogiorno, in particular Sicily and, to a lesser extent, Calabria. Thanks to the large papal estates in these regions, Rome continued throughout these centuries to secure for herself a considerable part of her own food supply through long distance provisioning, as she had done before the end of the Roman Empire in the West. In the context of extremely marked contractions of exchange and commerce, which were affecting all of western Europe at that time, this system appears to be an anomalous anachronism. However, it continued to function until external factors intervened (fiscal measures adopted by the Emperor of Byzantium, Leo III, between 724 and 733). The laborious reorganisation of the papal economic interests was probably one of the reasons why the popes were compelled to think of the idea of creating a regional political seigniory.

scholarly journals To the history of the Russian vagrancy XVII–XIX centuries

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-292
Author(s):  
Aleksei Shliakov
Keyword(s):  
Social Exclusion ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Gradual Transition ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Article Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Church ◽  
Historical Periods ◽  
The Needy

In the following article analysis of vagabondism in Russia is being made, based on sources from literature, journalism and the Holy Father. The particular qualities of the Church, temporal powers, and common society members’ attitudes towards vagabondism are being viewed. The periods of the romanticizing of vagabondism in the history of Russia are being described as well as periods when vagabondism was subjected to social exclusion. A gradual transition of the perception of vagabondism from the field of Christian traditional humility and mercy to a social field which inflicts responsibility for one’s behavior on the subject of vagabondism is explored. Methods and manners of charity for vagabonds and the poor are being viewed as well as the imperative measures and sanctions of the struggle against mendicity and vagabondism in various historical periods. The classifications of vagabonds, offered by Russian thinkers, are being researched since they allow us to distinguish between the needy and those who use the image of a vagabond for their own profit and who speculate on Christian feelings. Generally, the authors come to a conclusion that unlike Western Europe, where vagabondism was banned and where vagabonds were punished severely, the attitude towards vagabonds in pre-revolutionary Russia was based on the orthodox values and included humanity and mercifulness.

The Early Medieval Textiles at Maaseik, Belgium

1985 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 353-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mildred Budny ◽  
Dominic Tweddle
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
The West ◽  
Missing Link ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western European ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

This article offers an account of the components, the structure and the history of the so-calledcasulaandvelaminaof Sts Harlindis and Relindis preserved at the Church of St Catherine at Maaseik in Belgium as relics of the two sisters who founded the nearby abbey of Aldeneik (where the textiles were kept throughout the Middle Ages). The compositecasulaof Sts Harlindis and Relindis includes the earliest surviving group of Anglo-Saxon embroideries, dating to the late eighth century or the early ninth. Probably similarly Anglo-Saxon, a set of silk tablet-woven braids brocaded with gold associated with the embroideries offers a missing link in the surviving corpus of Anglo-Saxon braids. The ‘David silk’ with its Latin inscription and distinctly western European design dating from the eighth century or the early ninth offers a rare witness to the art of silk-weaving in the West at so early a date. Thevelamenof St Harlindis, more or less intact, represents a remarkable early medieval vestment, garment or cloth made up of two types of woven silk cloths, tablet-woven braids brocaded with gold, gilded copper bosses, pearls and beads. Thevelamenof St Relindis, in contrast, represents the stripped remains—reduced to the lining and the fringed ends—of another composite textile. Originally it was probably luxurious, so as to match the two other composite early medieval textile relics from Aldeneik. As a whole, the group contributes greatly to knowledge of early medieval textiles of various kinds.

scholarly journals Christen Gemeinde, Bürgergemeinden, Migranten, Aktiengesellschaften, Finanzmärkte …

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-79
Author(s):  
David Field
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
African Migrants ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Theological Politics ◽  
The Church

The thesis of this article is that the arrival and non-arrival of African migrants fractures the pseudo innocence of Western Europe exposing its colonial entanglements hence challenging the church to develop a decolonial theological politics. The article develops such a politics by re-examining and reconfiguring elements of Barth’s theological politics. It draws on his understanding of the “lordless powers” and of God taking the side of the poor and rereads them in the light of a counter imperial reading of the New Testament. This forms the basis for a reconfiguring of themes from his Christian Community and Civil Community.

Peter's Throne and Augustine's Chair: Rome and Canterbury from Baldwin (1184–90) to Robert Winchelsey (1297–1313)

2000 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 249-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
JANE SAYERS
Keyword(s):  
Eighth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Gregory The Great ◽  
Christ Church ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Church

The arrival of St Augustine in England from Rome in 597 was an event of profound significance, for it marked the beginnings of relations between Rome and Canterbury. To later generations this came to mean relations between the papacy in its universal role, hence the throne of St Peter, and the metropolitical see of Canterbury and the cathedral priory of Christ Church, for the chair of St Augustine was the seat of both a metropolitan and an abbot. The archiepiscopal see and the cathedral priory were inextricably bound in a unique way.Relations with Rome had always been particularly close, both between the archbishops and the pope and between the convent and the pope. The cathedral church of Canterbury was dedicated to the Saviour (Christ Church) as was the papal cathedral of the Lateran. Gregory had sent the pallium to Augustine in sign of his metropolitan rank. There had been correspondence with Rome from the first. In Eadmer's account of the old Anglo-Saxon church, it was built in the Roman fashion, as Bede testifies, imitating the church of the blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, in which the most sacred relics in the whole world are venerated. Even more precisely, the confessio of St Peter was copied at Canterbury. As Eadmer says, ‘From the choir of the singers one went up to the two altars (of Christ and of St Wilfrid) by some steps, since there was a crypt underneath, what the Romans call a confessio, built like the confessio of St Peter.’ (Eadmer had both visited Rome in 1099 and witnessed the fire that destroyed the old cathedral some thirty years before in 1067.) And there, in the confessio, Eadmer goes on to say, Alfege had put the head of St Swithun and there were many other relics. The confessio in St Peter's had been constructed by Pope Gregory the Great and contained the body of the prince of the Apostles and it was in a niche here that the pallia were put before the ceremony of the vesting, close to the body of St Peter. There may be, too, another influence from Rome and old St Peter's on the cathedral at Canterbury. The spiral columns in St Anselm's crypt at Canterbury, which survived the later fire of 1174, and are still standing, were possibly modelled on those that supported St Peter's shrine. These twisted columns were believed to have been brought to Rome from the Temple of Solomon. At the end of the sixth century, possibly due to Gregory the Great, they were arranged to form an iconostasis-like screen before the apostle's shrine. Pope Gregory III in the eighth century had added an outer screen of six similar columns, the present of the Byzantine Exarch, of which five still survive. They are practically the only relics of the old basilica to have been preserved in the new Renaissance St Peter's.

scholarly journals Relationship of church and state in Anglo-Saxon England in the first half of the 8th century: The case of the King Eadberht (737/738-758) and the archbishop of Ecgbert (735-766)

2019 ◽  
pp. 411-421
Author(s):  
Ivica Cairovic
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
British Isles ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Eadberht was the king of Northumbria from 737/738 until 758, and his reign was understood and interpreted through the centuries as a return to the imperial desires and hints that the Nortambrian rulers had in the 7th century. On the other hand, the economic development of the northern part of the British Isles was obvious in this period. Although Eadberht had major internal political problems, as several candidates for the position of the ruler were a permanent danger, he confirmed his status in several battles in which he defeated the rivals for the throne and continued to rule independently. 421 In the year of 758, Eadberht abdicated for the benefit of his son and settled down in York, where his brother Ecgbert was Archbishop. This act shows that the prodigious relationship between these two rulers was one of the strongest links in an unbroken chain of close relations between state and Church in the first half of the 8th century. Archbishop Ecgbert died in 766 and was buried in the Cathedral Church in York. During his archbishop service, Ecgbert was seen as a church reformer, but the same continued after his death, as indicated by the creators of the canons and disciplinary provisions for the Anglo-Saxon clergy and the laity who attributed their writings to Ecgbert. It is concluded that Ecgbert was serving the Church in the canonical, dogmatic, pastoral, and exegetical fields. On the other hand, concerning the state, the authorities and Anglo-Saxon society, in general, had the help of his brother, King Eadberht. It was this family relationship that paved the way for the relationship between the Church and the state in Anglo-Saxon England. Thus, a very close relationship between the Archbishop and the King in the later period of the British Isles is proof of the tradition that started in the first half of the 8th century in Northumbria and York. On the other hand, the relationship between Church and state property was established in the earlier period, and in the period when Ecgbert and Eadberht ruled, it is only directed to the family of the ruling house deciding on the property of the Church and the state. One of the best examples for this is family monasteries, headed by a hegumen from the ruling family, who worked with a relative who ruled the areas in which the monastery was. This paper analyzes available historical sources to determine the relationship between clergymenand rulers in Anglo-Saxon England in the first half of the 8th century. The historical methodology in this study will describe the relationship between Church and State in Anglo-Saxon England, on the example of Eadberht, King Northumbria (737/738-758), and his brother Ecgbert, the first Archbishop of York (735-766). An example of the symphony of church and state in Anglo-Saxon England in the first half of the 8th century is the example of Ecgbert and Eadberht, that can serve to understand later historical phenomena in the history of the Church and the state of Western Europe, especially when analyzing the phenomenon of investiture. Thus, the proposed research with its conclusion hypotheses can serve as a first step in the process of analyzing the phenomenon of investiture and its eventual conclusion in the late Middle Ages in Western Europe.

scholarly journals The Language of Baptism in Early Anglo-Saxon England: The Case for Old English

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 39-50
Author(s):  
Miriam Adan Jones
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Standard Language ◽  
Old Saxon ◽  
Faith Commitment ◽  
Correct Pronunciation ◽  
The Church

This article explores the possibility that the vernacular (Old English) may have been used in the baptismal rite in Anglo-Saxon England before the middle of the eighth century. Statements made by Bede (d. 735) and Boniface (d. 754), provisions in the Canons of the Council ofClofesho(747) and the probable existence of a lost Old English exemplar for the ‘Old Saxon’ or ‘Utrecht’ baptismal promise (Palatinus latinus 755, fols 6v–7r), all suggest that it was. The use of the vernacular was most attractive in a context of ongoing Christianization, where the faith commitment of the baptizand was foregrounded and his or her understanding of the rite correspondingly highly valued. Later, the shift of focus towards the correct pronunciation of the Trinitarian formula and the increase of general knowledge about the baptismal rite reduced the impetus for translation, and Latin became the standard language of baptism. The translation and non-translation of the baptismal rite reflect broader concerns about the place of the Church of the English and its ethnic and cultural particularity within the universal Church, and particularly its relationship with Rome.

The production ofde luxemanuscripts and the patronage of King Cnut and Queen Emma

1990 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 151-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. A. Heslop
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Modern Art ◽  
Book Production ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Illustrated Manuscripts ◽  
General Terms ◽  
Luxury Item ◽  
The Church ◽  
Made In

The illustrated manuscripts of later Anglo-Saxon England are justly famed for their beauty. The expense lavished on the most elaborate of them is paralleled in Western Europe at the time only in late-tenth- and eleventh-century Germany. Neither France, Spain nor Italy can offer anything that is comparable to this sustained luxury production. Modern art-historical scholarship on the Anglo-Saxon material has not really attempted to explain this phenomenal industry beyond implying that the vast majority of these books were made in monastic scriptoria and for the use of the church. If this implication is correct, it begs the questions, ‘where did the money come from?’ and ‘whence the desire to spend it in this way?’ Perhaps the questions are not asked because the answers in general terms seem rather obvious. Expenditure on any particular luxury item is usually in part a question of fashion, and fashion in certain circumstances becomes a priority which determines that surplus money is directed towards its indulgence. Doubtless a response along these lines could be fleshed out by a discussion of the sources of income of the Anglo-Saxon church and of its aspirations to conspicuous display. But any exploration of monastic wealth and rivalry for prestige which attempts to explain book production at this period would be based on the assumption, and it is no more than an assumption, that the phenomenon is to be accounted for by ecclesiastical patronage. The arguments brought forward in this paper will be directed towards a different end: that many of the most famous English illuminated books of this period owe their creation to royal money, and that they were produced, sometimes without a particular recipient in mind, to be given as presents which would help cement allegiance to the crown and serve as an indication of the donor's piety. But what is the evidence for this upturn in the production ofde luxemanuscripts?

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