scholarly journals Doctrinal and Physical Marginality in Christian Death: The Burial of Unbaptized Infants in Medieval Italy

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 678
Author(s):  
Madison Crow ◽  
Colleen Zori ◽  
Davide Zori
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Parental Concern ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Institutional Church ◽  
Unbaptized Infants ◽  
Eternal Salvation ◽  
The Church

The burial of unbaptized fetuses and infants, as seen through texts and archaeology, exposes friction between the institutional Church and medieval Italy’s laity. The Church’s theology of Original Sin, baptism, and salvation left the youngest children especially vulnerable to dying unbaptized and subsequently being denied a Christian burial in consecrated grounds. We here present textual and archaeological evidence from medieval Italy regarding the tensions between canon law and parental concern for the eternal salvation of their infants’ souls. We begin with an analysis of medieval texts from Italy. These reveal that, in addition to utilizing orthodox measures of appealing for divine help through the saints, laypeople of the Middle Ages turned to folk religion and midwifery practices such as “life testing” of unresponsive infants using water or other liquids. Although emergency baptism was promoted by the Church, the laity may have occasionally violated canon law by performing emergency baptism on stillborn infants. Textual documents also record medieval people struggling with where to bury their deceased infants, as per their ambiguous baptismal status within the Church community. We then present archaeological evidence from medieval sites in central and northern Italy, confirming that familial concern for the inclusion of infants in Christian cemeteries sometimes clashed with ecclesiastical burial regulations. As a result, the remains of unbaptized fetuses and infants have been discovered in consecrated ground. The textual and archaeological records of fetal and infant burial in medieval Italy serve as a material legacy of how laypeople interpreted and sometimes contravened the Church’s marginalizing theology and efforts to regulate the baptism and burial of the very young.

Byzantine Religious Law in Medieval Italy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Religious Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Church

This book is a historical study of these manuscripts, exploring how and why the Greek Christians of medieval southern Italy persisted in using them so long after the end of Byzantine rule. Southern Italy was conquered by the Norman Hauteville dynasty in the late eleventh century after over 500 years of continuous Byzantine rule. At a stroke, the region’s Greek Christian inhabitants were cut off from their Orthodox compatriots in Byzantium and became subject to the spiritual and legal jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic popes. Nonetheless, they continued to follow the religious laws of the Byzantine church; out of thirty-six surviving manuscripts of Byzantine canon law produced between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, the majority date to the centuries after the Norman conquest. Part I provides an overview of the source material and the history of Italo-Greek Christianity. Part II examines the development of Italo-Greek canon law manuscripts from the last century of Byzantine rule to the late twelfth century, arguing that the Normans’ opposition to papal authority created a laissez faire atmosphere in which Greek Christians could continue to follow Byzantine religious law unchallenged. Finally, Part III analyses the papacy’s successful efforts to assert its jurisdiction over southern Italy in the later Middle Ages. While this brought about the end of Byzantine canon law as an effective legal system in the region, the Italo-Greeks still drew on their legal heritage to explain and justify their distinctive religious rites to their Latin neighbours.

scholarly journals The Water-Supply of Rome from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 165-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Coats-Stephens
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Ground Water ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Scaling Down ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

The article collates the textual and archaeological evidence for Rome’s water-supply in the period c.300-1000. Whilst there is now sufficient archaeological evidence for the rebuilding of the city’s aqueducts after the Gothic Wars, it is clear that the uses to which the water was put in the middle ages were very different from those of Late Antiquity. There was a massive scaling-down of the overall system, with the thermae falling immediately out of use, to be replaced to a certain extent by church baths for the clergy and poor. The Janiculum mills were maintained, and smaller watermills continued to function off the aqueducts, as well as from the Tiber. Baptisteries used both aqueduct and non-aqueduct-supplied water. There was an extensive network of wells and subterranean conduits utilizing ground-water. The system as a whole was organized centrally, by the Church – although the extent of private patronage (wells, smallscale mills and domestic baths) should not be overlooked.

scholarly journals Świętowanie niedzieli przez udział w Eucharystii (panorama historyczna)

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Jarosław Superson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Code Of Canon Law ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Saturday Evening ◽  
Sunday Mass ◽  
The Masses ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Church

Analyzing the heritage of Christianity, we see that since the very beginning, Sunday, the first day of the week, has always been the day of common Church gathering to celebrate the Eucharist. In the very beginning, as pointed by Tertullian, the celebration took place at night because of the precessions. Night or dawn gave more privacy and security. After the Edict of Milan it became a custom that a Mass should be celebrated after three o’clock, or at night, if they fell around so-called Quattro Tempora. In the middle ages it was believed that any time of the day is good to celebrate the Eucharist, but missa conventualis et sollemnis in hora Tertia. After the Council of Trent the time of the main Sunday Eucharist – summa – was determined by the bishop and in Poland, it was at 10.00 AM. Often before this Mass was a Mass primaria celebrated. In the beginning of XX century, the Code of Canon Law of 1917 stated that it was not allowed to celebrate a private Mass earlier than an hour before dawn or an hour after noon. For the solemnities that had its own vigil, the celebrations of the Eucharist took place in the evening. The purpose of that practice was to prepare for the celebration of the solemnity of the next day. Along with industrialization, an introduction of different work shifts, persecution of the Church and other specific circumstances, it was allowed to celebrate Mass in the evening. This rule was especially visible during the Second World War and shortly after when the Sunday evening Mass was celebrated for the prisoners of war, those who were detained and foreigners. After the Church adapted the rule that the canonical hour for the Vespers would be called Vespers I, a discussion on the celebration of the Mass on Saturday evening started among the moral theologians. Participation in the Saturday evening Mass was supposed to satisfy the obligation of participation in the Sunday Mass and the holy days de praecepto. The Church recognized that there was a large group of the faithful who practiced sports and hunted on Sundays and that there was also an insufficient number of priests in some parishes. Therefore, so-called pre-holy day Mass was introduced to enable more participation in the Masses. The document Eucharisticum Mysterium of 1967 definitely recognized that the participation in Saturday vigil Mass satisfied the obligation of Sunday Mass participation. It was reconfirmed again by the Code of Canon Law in 1983 and by Dies Domini of John Paul II and the II Council of the Church of Poland.

scholarly journals Świętowanie niedzieli przez udział w Eucharystii (panorama historyczna)

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Jarosław A. Superson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Code Of Canon Law ◽  
Privacy And Security ◽  
Saturday Evening ◽  
Sunday Mass ◽  
The Masses ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Church

Analyzing the heritage of Christianity, we see that since the very beginning, Sunday, the first day of the week, has always been the day of common Church gathering to celebrate the Eucharist. In the very beginning, as pointed by Tertullian, the celebration took place at night because of the precessions. Night or dawn gave more privacy and security. After the Edict of Milan it became a custom that a Mass should be celebrated after three o’clock, or at night, if they fell around so-called Quattro Tempora. In the middle ages it was believed that any time of the day is good to celebrate the Eucharist, but missa conventualis et sollemnis in hora Tertia. After the Council of Trent the time of the main Sunday Eucharist – summa – was determined by the bishop and in Poland it was at 10.00 AM. Often before this Mass was a Mass primaria celebrated. In the beginning of XX century the Code of Canon Law of 1917 stated that it was not allowed to celebrate a private Mass earlier than an hour before dawn or an hour after noon. For the solemnities that had its own vigil, the celebrations of the Eucharist took place in the evening. The purpose of that practice was to prepare for the celebration of the solemnity of the next day. Along with industrialization, introduction of different work shifts, persecution of the Church and other specific circumstances, it was allowed to celebrate Mass in the evening. This rule was especially visible during the Second World War and shortly after when the Sunday evening Mass was celebrated for the prisoners of war, those who were detained and foreigners. After the Church adapted the rule that the canonical hour for the Vespers would be called Vespers I, a discussion on the celebration of the Mass on Saturday evening started among the moral theologians. Participation in the Saturday evening Mass was supposed to satisfy the obligation of participation in the Sunday Mass and the holy days de praecepto. The Church recognized that there was a large group of the faithful who practiced sports and hunted on Sundays and that there was also an insufficient number of priests in some parishes. Therefore, so-called pre-holyday Mass was introduced to enable more participation in the Masses. The document Eucharisticum Mysterium of 1967 definitely recognized that the participation in Saturday vigil Mass satisfied the obligation of Sunday Mass participation. It was reconfirmed again by the Code of Canon Law in 1983 and by Dies Domini of John Paul II and the II Council of the Church of Poland.

Il giuramento di innocenza nel processo canonico medievale

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Fiori
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
Criminal Offence ◽  
Legal Procedure ◽  
Canonical Theory ◽  
History Of ◽  
Short Space ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Middle Ages

The oath of innocence, or purgation, constituted a part of canon law for almost a millennium. It has nevertheless been largely neglected by studies on medieval canonical procedure. This book seeks to reconstruct the history of the oath of purgation specifically from the perspective of canon law. Over the centuries, the function of the so-called "purgatio canonica" never changed: priests of the Church were required to swear their innocence when charged with any criminal offence for which evidence of guilt was lacking. It is while dealing with the canonical purgation that the canonists also developed the notion of infamia facti, a concept of social disrepute with real legal significance. Within a short space of time this inspired the most significant innovations in medieval legal procedure: the introduction of the inquisitorial process alongside the accusatorial model, the elaboration of a canonical theory of legal presumptions, and the justification of judicial torture. The history of the oath of purgation thus provides a unique perspective from which to observe the transformations which occurred in canon law procedure and wider legal culture throughout the course of the Middle Ages.

scholarly journals VII.—Lessing's Religious Development with Special Reference to His Nathan the Wise

PMLA ◽  
1893 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-379
Author(s):  
Sylvester Primer
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Religious Development ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Church Hierarchy ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church

The primitive purity of the early Church soon yielded to a Church hierarchy. In those early times, before the New Testament was admitted to equal canonical authority with the Old, the Church became the supreme authority and the Bible was subordinate. After the incorporation of the New Testament into the Bible, the Scriptures and the Church appear to be coördinate authority in the patristic writings of that period. During the Middle Ages the Church grew rapidly in political power and the influence of the Scriptures waned accordingly, so that Dante complains of the way in which not merely creeds and fathers but canon law and the decretals were studied instead of the gospels.

Dubius in fide fidelis est? Doubt and Assurance in Late Medieval Catholicism

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 186-202
Author(s):  
Robert N. Swanson
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Role ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Definitive Statement ◽  
The Church

The canon law dictum that ‘dubius in fide infidelis est’ offers a seemingly definitive statement on the place of doubt and uncertainty in medieval Catholicism. Yet where Catholic teaching was open to question, doubt was inseparable from faith, not merely as its obverse but as part of the process of achieving faithfulness – the trajectory outlined by Abelard in the twelfth century. The challenge for the Church was not that doubters lacked faith, but that having tested their doubts they might end up with the wrong faith: doubt preceded assurance, one way or the other. That problem is addressed in this essay by a broad examination of the ties between faith and doubt across the late Middle Ages (from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries), arguing that uncertainty and doubt were almost unavoidable in medieval Catholicism. As the starting points in a process which could lead to heresy and despair, they also had a positive role in developing and securing orthodox faith.

scholarly journals The Crusade Against Frederick II: A Neglected Piece of Evidence

2016 ◽  
Vol 67 (4) ◽  
pp. 721-740
Author(s):  
GIANLUCA RACCAGNI
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
Uncritical Acceptance ◽  
The Church

This study argues that contemporary historical works are an unparalleled source for charting the neglected subject of the implementation and impact in northern Italy of the crusade that was launched against Frederick II in 1240; and that a mostly uncritical acceptance of that crusade became a topos in works by laymen as well as clerics across the region. Above all, those works reveal that, while pro-papal factions are a fixture of scholarship on the Italian cities during the central and late Middle Ages, adherence to the Church actually became an explicit and distinguishing feature of Lombard factions only when the crusade was launched against Frederick II.

William Lyndwood and the Provinciale: Canon Law in an Undivided Western Church

1997 ◽  
Vol 4 (20) ◽  
pp. 615-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. E. Ferme
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Short Distance ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Church

Anyone coming across the fourteenth-century church of St Cornelius in Lyndewode, now Linwood, a short distance from the Lincolnshire town of Market Rasen, is struck by its stark isolation—it virtually stands alone in fields. Anyone entering the church will most likely be struck by two interesting objects which have some bearing on this lecture. The first, at the west end of the north aisle, are two fine excellently preserved brasses, both of wool men. They had clearly prospered in the economic development of Lincolnshire in the later middle ages. One of these brasses is of John Lyndwood, who died in 1419, with his wife, four sons and three daughters under smaller canopies. The other represents another John Lyndwood, the son of the former, who died in 1421.

als etlich kristen lüt … mit dien Juden getantzet hant

Aschkenas ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus J. Wenninger
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Main Part ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
High Middle Ages ◽  
Provincial Councils ◽  
Anti Jewish ◽  
The Church

AbstractBased on the debate about the murals in the Jewish house »Zum Brunnenhof« in Zurich this essay discusses whether or not Christian participation in Jewish festivals was unusual and prohibited or normal in the Middle Ages. Following an outline of the relevant legal aspects – there were, up to the High Middle Ages, only occasional decrees from provincial councils that banned Christians from eating and celebrating with Jews; only from the twelfth century onwards were such bans included in the general canon law, while they were never part of secular legislation – the main part of this investigation focuses on actual reports of Christians attending Jewish festivals. These were mainly weddings, but there are also reports of Christians participating in Purim or other celebrations. Most relevant descriptions come from Germany, one from England, where the Bishop of Hereford 1286 took exception to the participation of Christians in a Jewish wedding, threatening with excommunication in an attempt to stop such behaviour. In Germany it was mostly a matter of municipal authorities punishing the dancing of Christians on days of fasting or religious holidays for moral reasons. But even in the increasingly anti-Jewish late Middle Ages, and in spite of the restrictions imposed by the church, nobody really minded the participation of Christians in Jewish festivals as such. In conclusion, various questions are being discussed which arise for the historian in connection with the participation of Christians in Jewish festivals and vice versa.

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