Early Medieval Missionary Activity: A Comparative Study of Eastern and Western Methods

1954 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard E. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Related Problem ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Religion ◽  
Ideas And Institutions

One of the more fascinating problems connected with the history of the early Middle Ages is the persistence of similarities and the emergence of differences in the ideas and institutions of the eastern and western remnants of the Roman Empire. Equally intriguing is the related problem of the origins and the nature of the differences which characterize the Slavic and Germanic groups that fell under the influence of the Greeks and the Latins during the early Middle Ages. This paper will attempt to throw some light, on these problems by examining the field of missionary history. It will try to compare the methods employed by the eastern and western missionaries to convert the Slavic and Germanic groups living on the borders of Christendom in the period from about A.D. 600 to 900. Such a comparison might be revealing. It will permit one to see wherein the Greeks and the Latins acted alike or differently as each attacked the same problem. It will also allow one to detect some of the formative forces implanted in the Slavic and Germanic worlds as each underwent the fundamental experience of adopting a new religion.

Poet of the Medieval Modern

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
Catholic History ◽  
In Parenthesis ◽  
Stone Sculpture

The early Middle Ages provided twentieth-century poets with the material to reimagine and rework local, religious, and national identities in their writing. Poet of the Medieval Modern focuses on a key figure within this tradition, the Anglo-Welsh poet and artist David Jones (1895–1974), and represents the first extended study of the influence of early medieval culture and history from England on Jones and his novel-length late modernist poem The Anathemata (1952). The Anathemata, the second major poetic project after In Parenthesis (1937), fuses Jones’s visual and verbal arts to write a Catholic history of Britain as told through the history of man-as-artist. Drawing on unpublished archival material including manuscripts, sketches, correspondence, and, most significantly, the marginalia from David Jones’s Library, Poet of the Medieval Modern reads with Jones in order to trouble the distinction we make between poetry and scholarship. Placing this underappreciated figure firmly at the centre of new developments in modernist and medieval studies, Poet of the Medieval Modern brings the two fields into dialogue and argues that Jones uses the textual and material culture of the early Middle Ages—including Old English prose and poetry, Anglo-Latin hagiography, early medieval stone sculpture, manuscripts, and historiography—to re-envision British Catholic identity in the twentieth-century long poem. In The Anathemata Jones returned to the English record to seek out those moments where the histories of the Welsh had been elided or erased. At a time when the Middle Ages are increasingly weaponized in far-right and nationalist political discourse, the book offers a timely discussion of how the early medieval past has been resourced to both shore up and challenge English hegemonies across modern British culture.

The Comparative Study of “Scholasticism” in Late Antique Mesopotamia: Rabbis and East Syrians

AJS Review ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam H. Becker
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Great Distance ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Rabbinic Judaism ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Transmission Of Knowledge ◽  
History Of

Now is an appropriate time to reconsider the historiographical benefit that a comparative study of the East Syrian (“Nestorian”) schools and the Babylonian rabbinic academies may offer. This is attributable both to the recent, rapid increase in scholarship on Jewish–Christian relations in the Roman Empire and late antiquity more broadly, and to the return by some scholars of rabbinic Judaism to the issues of a scholarly exchange of the late 1970s and early 1980s about the nature of rabbinic academic institutionalization. Furthermore, over the past twenty years, scholars of classics, Greek and Roman history, and late antiquity have significantly added to the bibliography on the transmission of knowledge—in lay person's terms, education—in the Greco-Roman and early Christian worlds. Schools continue to be an intense topic of conversation, and my own recent work on the School of Nisibis and the East Syrian schools in general suggests that the transformations and innovations of late antiquity also occurred in the Sasanian Empire, at a great distance from the centers of classical learning, such as Athens, Alexandria, and Antioch. The recently reexamined East Syrian sources may help push the conversation about rabbinic academic institutionalization forward. However, the significance of this issue is not simply attributable to its bearing on the social and institutional history of rabbinic institutions. Such inquiry may also reflect on how we understand the Babylonian Talmud and on the difficult redaction history of its constituent parts. Furthermore, I hope that the discussion offered herein will contribute to the ongoing analysis of the late antique creation and formalization of cultures of learning, which were transmitted, in turn, into the Eastern (i.e., Islamic and “Oriental” Christian and Jewish) and Western Middle Ages within their corresponding communities.

The diaconiae of Early Medieval Rome: From “Greek” to “Roman”, from “Private” to “Papal”?

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-132
Author(s):  
Philipp Winterhager
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Charitable Foundations ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City ◽  
Secular State

Abstract Traditionally, scholarship has seen the history of the diaconiae, charitable foundations in the city of Rome, in line with the alleged general trends in Roman history in the early Middle Ages, i.e. the gradual “Romanization” of formerly “Greek” elements of Byzantine origin, and the “papalization” of secular (state and private) initiatives, both taking place primarily in the mid-8th century. Although the diaconiae had come under papal control as late as the 9th and eventually the 10th centuries, this paper argues that this development took place not as an abandonment of private forms of endowments prominent in Byzantine Rome, but namely through the appropriation of “post-Byzantine” aristocratic endowment practice by the popes around the turn of the 9th century.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-34
Author(s):  
Francesca Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Modernism ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
Century Poetry ◽  
Changing Attitudes

The Introduction situates David Jones’s work as a poet–artist within the broader currents of high and late modernism, particularly within the context of a tradition of medievalism in twentieth-century poetry. It draws on Alexander Nagel’s conception of the medieval modern to show how Jones approaches the culture and history of the early Middle Ages as a form of live material open to play and adaptation. The Introduction also reframes our understanding of David Jones’s perception of himself as Anglo-Welsh in relation to changing attitudes to early medieval Welsh (Celtic) and English (Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic) history over the course of his lifetime. This discussion introduces the monograph’s central argument: as a poet of the medieval modern, Jones plays with and reworks early medieval English histories, narratives, and artefacts in order to challenge the singularity and exceptionalism of an ‘Anglo-Saxon’ canon.

The Church and the Law in the Early Middle Ages

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 7-35
Author(s):  
Rosamond McKitterick
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Procedural Knowledge ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval Manuscript ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Function

Two case studies from eighth-century Rome, recorded in the early medieval history of the popes known as the Liber pontificalis, serve to introduce both the problems of the relations between secular or public and ecclesiastical or canon law in early medieval Rome and the development of early medieval canon law more generally. The Synod of Rome in 769 was convened by Pope Stephen III some months after his election in order to justify the deposition of his immediate predecessor, Pope Constantine II (767–8). Stephen's successor, Pope Hadrian, subsequently presided over a murder investigation involving Stephen's supporters. The murders and the legal process they precipitated form the bulk of the discussion. The article explores the immediate implications of both the murders and the convening of the Synod of Rome, together with the references to law-making and decree-giving by the pope embedded in the historical narrative of the Liber pontificalis, as well as the possible role of the Liber pontificalis itself in bolstering the imaginative and historical understanding of papal and synodal authority. The wider legal or procedural knowledge invoked and the development of both canon law and papal authority in the early Middle Ages are addressed. The general categories within which most scholars have been working hitherto mask the questions about the complicated and still insufficiently understood status and function of early medieval manuscript compilations of secular and canon law, and about the authority and applicability of the texts they contain.

CHRONICLING THE MEROVINGIANS IN HEBREW: THE EARLY MEDIEVAL CHAPTERS OF YOSEF HA-KOHEN'S DIVREI HAYAMIM

Traditio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 423-447
Author(s):  
YANIV FOX
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Italian Physician ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Chain

Yosef Ha-Kohen (1496–ca. 1575) was a Jewish Italian physician and intellectual who in 1554 published a chronicle in Hebrew titled Sefer Divrei Hayamim lemalkei Tzarfat ulemalkei Beit Otoman haTogar, or The Book of Histories of the Kings of France and of the Kings of Ottoman Turkey. It was, as its name suggests, a history told from the perspective of two nations, the French and the Turks. Ha-Kohen begins his narrative with a discussion of the legendary origins of the Franks and the history of their first royal dynasty, the Merovingians. This composition is unique among late medieval and early modern Jewish works of historiography for its universal scope, and even more so for its treatment of early medieval history. For this part of the work, Ha-Kohen relied extensively on non-Jewish works, which themselves relied on still earlier chronicles composed throughout the early Middle Ages. Ha-Kohen thus became a unique link in a long chain of chroniclers who worked and adopted Merovingian material to suit their authorial agendas. This article considers how the telling of Merovingian history was transformed in the process, especially as it was adapted for a sixteenth-century Jewish audience.

scholarly journals Exploring Linear Earthworks across Time and Space – Introducing the ‘Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain’ Project

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 129
Author(s):  
Nicky Garland ◽  
Barney Harris ◽  
Tom Moore ◽  
Andrew Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
First Year ◽  
Medieval Period ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Early Medieval Period ◽  
Landscape Research

Linear earthworks of a monumental character are an enigmatic part of the British landscape. Research in Britain suggests that such features range in date from the early 1st millennium BC to the Early Middle Ages. While the  roles of these monuments in past societies cannot be understated, they remain a relatively under-researched phenomenon. This article introduces the Leverhulme Trust-funded ‘Monumentality and Landscape: Linear Earthworks in Britain’ project, which aims to provide a comparative study of linear earthworks focusing on those dating to the Iron Age and early medieval period. This contribution reviews our approach and shares preliminary results from the project’s first year, identifying wider implications for the study of linear earthworks.

The Otherness of Non-Christians in the Early Middle Ages

2015 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 33-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
James T. Palmer
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
Shared Practice ◽  
History Of ◽  
Religious Others ◽  
False Prophets ◽  
Definition Of

Non-Christian ‘others’ were crucial to the definition of early medieval Christendom. Many groups certainly found it important to generate a sense of belonging through shared practice, history and ideals. But the history of Christianity was a story of conflict, which from the very beginning saw a community of believers struggling against Jews and ‘pagan’ Romans. At the end, too, Christ warned there would be ‘false prophets’ and tribulations, and John of Patmos saw the ravages of Gog and Magog against the faithful. When many early medieval Christians looked at ‘religious others’, they saw not so much ‘members of religions’, as they did people defined by typologies and narratives designed to express the nature and trajectory of Christendom itself. This has been a recurring theme in scholarship which has sought to understand Christian views of pagans, Muslims and Jews in the period, but the effect and purpose of such rhetoric is not always fully appreciated.

The Transformation into the Early Middle Ages (Fourth to Eighth Centuries)

2015 ◽  
pp. 490-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert Fehr
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
River Rhine ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Rural Settlements ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Roman Provinces ◽  
Roman Germany ◽  
Medieval Archaeology

This chapter focuses on the transformation of Roman Germany into the early Middle Ages (fourth to eighth centuries). The final collapse of Roman rule in northern Gaul in the middle of the fifth century signalled the de facto end of the three Late Roman provinces: Germania Prima, Germania Secunda, and Maxima Sequanorum. The territories along the western bank of the River Rhine experienced quite different political destinies between the middle of the fifth and the middle of the sixth century. The chapter first looks at how migrations of peoples from Barbaricum into the Roman Empire caused the end of a Roman-style society and economy in former Roman Germany. It then discusses early medieval archaeology in Germany, with particular emphasis on cemeteries and churches. Finally, it analyses methodological developments in late antique and early medieval archaeology, along with the transformation of towns and landscape/rural settlements.

scholarly journals Petroglyphes of the Early Medieval Age in the Territory of Mongolia: the Main Stages And Results of Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-161
Author(s):  
Mukhareva A. N.,. A. ◽  
◽  
Seregin N. ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Basic Research ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scientific Project ◽  
The Great Migration ◽  
The 19Th Century

the territory of Mongolia. The process of accumulation and diverse interpretation of information about rock paintings, as well as images on “memorial” objects dating back to the second half of the 1st millennium AD is characterized. The analysis of the main results of the study of the petroglyphs of the early medieval nomads of the region allowed the authors to identify several key stages in the history of their study. The first stage, within which the initial formation of the source base took place, is associated with the discovery and fixation at the end of the 19th century of stylized images of goats, carried out as a rule in the study of epigraphic sites. The beginning of the second stage coincides with the large-scale archaeological research that took place in Mongolia in the middle of the 20th century. The third stage, which began in the mid-1970s, marked the expansion of scientists’ ideas about the rock art of the population of Mongolia in the second half of the 1st millennium AD, as well as the identification of various pictorial layers in it. Within the framework of the modern period (since the mid-1990s), approaches to the study of early medieval petroglyphs are being improved, new sites are being discovered, as well as a more detailed study of already known complexes. The article contains images recorded during the field research of the authors as part of the Buyant Russian-Mongolian archaeological expedition. Keywords: Mongolia, petroglyphs, early Middle Ages, history of research, periodization Acknowledgements: The research was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Ministry of Culture, Education, Science and Sports of Mongolia in the framework of the scientific project No. 19–59–44013 “Historical, Cultural and Ethnogenetic Processes in Mongolia during the Great Migration and the Early Middle Ages: an Interdisciplinary Analysis of Archaeological and Written Sources”.

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