Royal Justice, Freedom, and Comital Courts in Ottonian Germany

Author(s):  
David S. Bachrach

AbstractThe free population of the early medieval German kingdom largely has disappeared from the historiographical tradition due to the influence of the New Constitutional History and its contemporary intellectual successors. One important result of this writing out of history of the free has been a thorough distortion of the roles and purposes of the royal government, and the relationship between the ruler and his free subjects. This essay seeks to redress this imbalance by identifying the king’s obligations to his free subjects, particularly in the areas of law and justice. The focus of the study is on the role played by counts, as royal officials, in providing a forum for the free to adjudicate their legal disputes and to obtain justice for injuries that they had sustained. A thorough investigation of the Ottonian period reveals that comital courts continued to function throughout the tenth and early eleventh century as venues for royal justice in a manner thoroughly consistent with the institutions of Carolingian East Francia.

Zograf ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 51-75
Author(s):  
Valentina Babic

The paper discusses the structure and carved decoration of the restored marble sanctuary screen from the island of Kolocep near Dubrovnik. Based on the early medieval history of present-day southern Dalmatia and the fragmentary inscription commemorating a queen as the donor of the screen, it may be concluded that she was one of the Serbian Doclean (Duklja) queens from the second half of the eleventh century. The inscription is the only evidence that the kings of Dioclea ruled over the Elaphite islands. The carved decoration is typical of the Middle Byzantine period (9th-12th century), with some regional traits. The only exceptions are the figures of putti. They can be associated with Romanesque architectural sculpture in southern Italy created in the late eleventh century, after the Norman conquest of this region. The author puts forward the hypothesis that the donor was Queen Jaquinta, wife of King Bodin (1081-1101), who was a Norman woman from Bari.


2008 ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
I.O. Kravchenko

A number of scholars in the history of medieval Iceland have emphasized the exceptional importance of law and justice for Icelandic society. According to American researcher J. Bajok, the focus of Iceland's culture was law, and the relationship between Godi and his heirs was also based on law. The nature of Iceland's socio-political institutions reveals the circumstances in which Icelanders' attitudes towards the law were shaped. The royal power in the country during the Commonwealth period did not arise, and the system of chiefs or Godords became specifically the Icelandic institute of government. It is traditionally believed that the country was divided into 4 quarters, consisting of 36 (later 39) Godords, headed by leaders (mn. Goarar). The year 930 is considered the date of Altinga's founding. National Assembly of Iceland. Each year, a three-year lawmaker in Altinga had to promulgate a third of the country's laws. The lawmaker selected those who were to sit on the Rock of Law and designate the place where the Courts of the Quarters, which had pending lawsuits, were to be held. The most important institution of Altinga was the Legislative Council, which dealt with legal issues. The council members were 48 leaders or heads. The representatives of the highest level of the religious hierarchy - the bishops of dioceses on the Chamber Hill (Skullholt) and the Hills (Holar) - were also members of the Legislative Council. The bishops participated in three important events for the country: the drafting and adoption of the Law of Tithes in 1096/97, the codification of secular laws in 1117 - 1118, and the record of about 1123 of the Christian Law, which was included in the Gray Law Code. Goose ", probably recorded in the XIII century.


Author(s):  
BORIS MILINKOVIĆ

The Dictatus Papae is a key primary source for research into the history of Church reforms in the eleventh century, the leading figure of which was Pope Gregory VII Hildebrand. The document consists of twenty-seven statements defining the prerogatives of papal authority in other ecclesiastical and spiritual areas as well as in relationship to secular rulers under the pope’s spiritual authority. This paper will examine some of these statements giving the pope religious and secular prerogatives regarding his authority over secular rulers. A detailed analysis of some of these statements and of historical literature related to the document will provide clear insight into how current historical scholarship views the document and will also showcase the document’s concepts from a completely new perspective. Thus additional space will be opened up for a detailed analysis of the influence of this document on the development of the relationship between Church and state from the time it was written until the present day.


1980 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 213-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy M. Horgan

The purpose of this article is to analyse the different categories of the lexical and syntactic variation which is common to two unpublished manuscripts of King Alfred's translation of Gregory's Cura Pastoralis, Cambridge, Trinity College R. 5. 22 (717), fols. 72–158, and Cambridge, University Library, Ii. 2. 4, referred to henceforth as T and U respectively. These manuscripts are an obvious choice for the following reasons: the relationship of the tenth- (or early-eleventh-)century T to the eleventh-century U (almost certainly written at Exeter) can be at least tentatively established as far as the history of the transmission of the test is concerned; the work has the status of royal origin and one can therefore expect it to have been treated with due respect by later copyists; and the work is of considerable length. My study is based on a complete collation of both manuscripts, since, in any analysis of this kind, numerical weight of evidence lends conviction to the conclusions, but the material, because of its quantity, cannot be presented here in its entirety. What I have attempted to do is to demonstrate, with selected examples as evidence, the clear pattern of variation that emerges. It is hoped that as a result some light is thrown upon linguistic developments within West Saxon and upon the scribal practices involved in the copying and recopying of earlier texts in late Old English times.


2020 ◽  
pp. 24-57
Author(s):  
Kristen B. Neuschel

This chapter discusses the relationship between swords and oral culture in the early Middle Ages. It sketches the history of the manufacture of early medieval swords, then looks at evidence of those swords' symbolic lives revealed by archaeological finds, namely grave goods and the reconstruction of rituals that accompanied their deposit. The chapter then considers written evidence of swords, particularly in early wills that record both the bequeathing but also the prior circulation of a sword among allies and kin. Finally, it turns to literature, to Beowulf and its near-contemporary, The Battle of Maldon, to explore the roles those poems ascribe to warriors' (and monsters') swords. Early medieval literature is filled with references to the aesthetic qualities and the mysterious origin of swords and their constituent parts, as well as to their power to strike fear, to wound, and to kill.


Paleobiology ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 146-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
William A. Oliver

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic coral Order Scleractinia has been suggested to have originated or evolved (1) by direct descent from the Paleozoic Order Rugosa or (2) by the development of a skeleton in members of one of the anemone groups that probably have existed throughout Phanerozoic time. In spite of much work on the subject, advocates of the direct descent hypothesis have failed to find convincing evidence of this relationship. Critical points are:(1) Rugosan septal insertion is serial; Scleractinian insertion is cyclic; no intermediate stages have been demonstrated. Apparent intermediates are Scleractinia having bilateral cyclic insertion or teratological Rugosa.(2) There is convincing evidence that the skeletons of many Rugosa were calcitic and none are known to be or to have been aragonitic. In contrast, the skeletons of all living Scleractinia are aragonitic and there is evidence that fossil Scleractinia were aragonitic also. The mineralogic difference is almost certainly due to intrinsic biologic factors.(3) No early Triassic corals of either group are known. This fact is not compelling (by itself) but is important in connection with points 1 and 2, because, given direct descent, both changes took place during this only stage in the history of the two groups in which there are no known corals.


Crisis ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 265-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meshan Lehmann ◽  
Matthew R. Hilimire ◽  
Lawrence H. Yang ◽  
Bruce G. Link ◽  
Jordan E. DeVylder

Abstract. Background: Self-esteem is a major contributor to risk for repeated suicide attempts. Prior research has shown that awareness of stigma is associated with reduced self-esteem among people with mental illness. No prior studies have examined the association between self-esteem and stereotype awareness among individuals with past suicide attempts. Aims: To understand the relationship between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among young adults who have and have not attempted suicide. Method: Computerized surveys were administered to college students (N = 637). Linear regression analyses were used to test associations between self-esteem and stereotype awareness, attempt history, and their interaction. Results: There was a significant stereotype awareness by attempt interaction (β = –.74, p = .006) in the regression analysis. The interaction was explained by a stronger negative association between stereotype awareness and self-esteem among individuals with past suicide attempts (β = –.50, p = .013) compared with those without attempts (β = –.09, p = .037). Conclusion: Stigma is associated with lower self-esteem within this high-functioning sample of young adults with histories of suicide attempts. Alleviating the impact of stigma at the individual (clinical) or community (public health) levels may improve self-esteem among this high-risk population, which could potentially influence subsequent suicide risk.


Author(s):  
Jesse Schotter

The first chapter of Hieroglyphic Modernisms exposes the complex history of Western misconceptions of Egyptian writing from antiquity to the present. Hieroglyphs bridge the gap between modern technologies and the ancient past, looking forward to the rise of new media and backward to the dispersal of languages in the mythical moment of the Tower of Babel. The contradictory ways in which hieroglyphs were interpreted in the West come to shape the differing ways that modernist writers and filmmakers understood the relationship between writing, film, and other new media. On the one hand, poets like Ezra Pound and film theorists like Vachel Lindsay and Sergei Eisenstein use the visual languages of China and of Egypt as a more primal or direct alternative to written words. But Freud, Proust, and the later Eisenstein conversely emphasize the phonetic qualities of Egyptian writing, its similarity to alphabetical scripts. The chapter concludes by arguing that even avant-garde invocations of hieroglyphics depend on narrative form through an examination of Hollis Frampton’s experimental film Zorns Lemma.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document