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  3. Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series

The series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought was inaugurated by G. G. Coulton in 1921; Professor John H. Arnold now acts as General Editor of the Fourth Series, with Dr Christopher Briggs, Dr Helen Gittos, Professor Adam J. Kosto, and Dr Magnus Ryan as Advisory Editors. The series brings together outstanding work by medieval scholars over a wide range of human endeavour extending from political economy to the history of ideas.

  • General Editors: John H. Arnold, University of Cambridge
  • Advisory Editors: Christopher Briggs, University of Cambridge, Helen Gittos, University of Oxford, Adam J. Kosto, Columbia University, New York, Magnus Ryan, University of Cambridge

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111 results in Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series

Page 2 of 6

Conquest and Christianization
  • Saxony and the Carolingian World, 772–888
  • Ingrid Rembold
  • Published online:
    01 December 2017
    Print publication:
    21 December 2017
  • Following its violent conquest by Charlemagne (772–804), Saxony became both a Christian and a Carolingian region. This book sets out to re-evaluate the political integration and Christianization of Saxony and to show how the success of this transformation has important implications for how we view governance, the institutional church, and Christian communities in the early Middle Ages. A burgeoning array of Carolingian regional studies are pulled together to offer a new synthesis of the history of Saxony in the Carolingian Empire and to undercut the narrative of top-down Christianization with a more grassroots model that highlights the potential for diversity within Carolingian Christianity. This book is a comprehensive and accessible account which will provide students with a fresh view of the incorporation of Saxony into the Carolingian world.

Church Building and Society in the Later Middle Ages
  • Gabriel Byng
  • Published online:
    01 December 2017
    Print publication:
    14 December 2017
  • The construction of a church was undoubtedly one of the most demanding events to take place in the life of a medieval parish. It required a huge outlay of time, money and labour, and often a new organisational structure to oversee design and management. Who took control and who provided the financing was deeply shaped by local patterns in wealth, authority and institutional development - from small villages with little formal government to settlements with highly unequal populations. This all took place during a period of great economic and social change as communities managed the impact of the Black Death, the end of serfdom and the slump of the mid-fifteenth century. This original and authoritative study provides an account of how economic change, local politics and architecture combined in late-medieval England. It will be of interest to researchers of medieval, socio-economic and art history.

Conciliarism and Heresy in Fifteenth-Century England
  • Collective Authority in the Age of the General Councils
  • Alexander Russell
  • Published online:
    13 July 2017
    Print publication:
    10 July 2017
  • The general councils of the fifteenth century constituted a remarkable political experiment, which used collective decision-making to tackle important problems facing the church. Such problems had hitherto received rigid top-down management from Rome. However, at Constance and Basle, they were debated by delegates of different ranks from across Europe and resolved through majority voting. Fusing the history of political thought with the study of institutional practices, this innovative study relates the procedural innovations of the general councils and their anti-heretical activities to wider trends in corporate politics, intellectual culture and pastoral reform. Alexander Russell argues that the acceptance of collective decision-making at the councils was predicated upon the prevalence of group participation and deliberation in small-scale corporate culture. Conciliarism and Heresy in Fifteenth-Century England offers a fundamental reassessment of England's relationship with the general councils, revealing how political thought, heresy, and collective politics were connected.

Law and Authority in the Early Middle Ages
  • The Frankish leges in the Carolingian Period
  • Thomas Faulkner
  • Published online:
    05 February 2016
    Print publication:
    15 February 2016
  • The barbarian law codes, compiled between the sixth and eighth centuries, were copied remarkably frequently in the Carolingian ninth century. They provide crucial evidence for early medieval society, including the settlement of disputes, the nature of political authority, literacy, and the construction of ethnic identities. Yet it has proved extremely difficult to establish why the codes were copied in the ninth century, how they were read, and how their rich evidence should be used. Thomas Faulkner tackles these questions more systematically than ever before, proposing new understandings of the relationship between the making of law and royal power, and the reading of law and the maintenance of ethnic identities. Faulkner suggests major reinterpretations of central texts, including the Carolingian law codes, the capitularies adding to the laws, and Carolingian revisions of earlier barbarian and Roman laws. He also provides detailed analysis of legal manuscripts, especially those associated with the leges-scriptorium.

Bishops, Authority and Community in Northwestern Europe, c.1050–1150
  • John S. Ott
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    01 December 2015
  • This important study of episcopal office and clerical identity in a socially and culturally dynamic region of medieval Europe examines the construction and representation of episcopal power and authority in the archdiocese of Reims during the sometimes turbulent century between 1050 and 1150. Drawing on a wide range of diplomatic, hagiographical, epistolary and other narrative sources, John S. Ott considers how bishops conceived of, and projected, their authority collectively and individually. In examining episcopal professional identities and notions of office, he explores how prelates used textual production and their physical landscapes to craft historical narratives and consolidate local and regional memories around ideals that established themselves as not only religious authorities but also cultural arbiters. This study reveals that, far from being reactive and hostile to cultural and religious change, bishops regularly grappled with and sought to affect, positively and to their advantage, new and emerging cultural and religious norms.

The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie
  • Manresa in the Later Middle Ages, 1250–1500
  • Jeff Fynn-Paul
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    05 November 2015
  • The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie is one of the first long-term studies in English of an Iberian town during the late medieval crisis. Focusing on the Catalonian city of Manresa, Jeff Fynn-Paul expertly integrates Iberian historiography with European narratives to place the city's social, political and economic development within the broader context of late medieval urban decline. Drawing from extensive archival research, including legal and administrative records, royal letters, and a cadastral survey of more than 640 households entitled the 1408 Liber Manifesti, the author surveys the economic strategies of both elites and non-elites to a level previously unknown for any medieval town outside of Tuscany and Ghent. In a major contribution to the series, The Rise and Decline of an Iberian Bourgeoisie reveals how a combination of the Black Death, royal policy, and a new public debt system challenged, and finally undermined urban resilience in Catalonia.

History, Frankish Identity and the Framing of Western Ethnicity, 550–850
  • Helmut Reimitz
  • Published online:
    05 August 2015
    Print publication:
    06 August 2015
  • This pioneering study explores early medieval Frankish identity as a window into the formation of a distinct Western conception of ethnicity. Focusing on the turbulent and varied history of Frankish identity in Merovingian and Carolingian historiography, it offers a new basis for comparing the history of collective and ethnic identity in the Christian West with other contexts, especially the Islamic and Byzantine worlds. The tremendous political success of the Frankish kingdoms provided the medieval West with fundamental political, religious and social structures, including a change from the Roman perspective on ethnicity as the quality of the 'Other' to the Carolingian perception that a variety of Christian peoples were chosen by God to reign over the former Roman provinces. Interpreting identity as an open-ended process, Helmut Reimitz explores the role of Frankish identity in the multiple efforts through which societies tried to find order in the rapidly changing post-Roman world.

Dreams and Visions in the Early Middle Ages
  • The Reception and Use of Patristic Ideas, 400–900
  • Jesse Keskiaho
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    19 February 2015
  • Dreams and visions played important roles in the Christian cultures of the early Middle Ages. But not only did tradition and authoritative texts teach that some dreams were divine: some also pointed out that this was not always the case. Exploring a broad range of narrative sources and manuscripts, Jesse Keskiaho investigates how the teachings of Augustine of Hippo and Pope Gregory the Great on dreams and visions were read and used in different contexts. Keskiaho argues that the early medieval processes of reception in a sense created patristic opinion about dreams and visions, resulting in a set of authoritative ideas that could be used both to defend and to question reports of individual visionary experiences. This book is a major contribution to discussions about the intellectual place of dreams and visions in the early Middle Ages, and underlines the creative nature of early medieval engagement with authoritative texts.

The Making of Liturgy in the Ottonian Church
  • Books, Music and Ritual in Mainz, 950–1050
  • Henry Parkes
  • Published online:
    05 January 2015
    Print publication:
    15 January 2015
  • This highly original study examines the history and religious life of the Ottonian Church through its ritual books. With forensic attention to the writing and design of four important manuscripts from the city of Mainz - a musician's troper, a priest's ritual handbook, a bishop's pontifical and a copy of the enigmatic compilation now known as the 'Romano-German Pontifical' - Henry Parkes transforms liturgical sources into eloquent witnesses to the ecclesiastical history of early medieval Germany. He also presents the first comprehensive revision of Michel Andrieu's influential 'Romano-German Pontifical' theory, from the dual perspective of Mainz's cathedral of St Martin and its Benedictine monastery of St Alban. Challenging long-held assumptions about the geographies of Ottonian power, in particular the central role of Mainz and its archbishops, the book opens up important new ways of understanding how religious ritual was organised, transmitted and perceived.

Power and Religion in Merovingian Gaul
  • Columbanian Monasticism and the Frankish Elites
  • Yaniv Fox
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    18 September 2014
  • This study is the first to attempt a thorough investigation of the activities of the Columbanian congregation, which played a significant role in the development of Western monasticism. This was a new form of rural monasticism, which suited the needs and aspirations of a Christian elite eager to express its power and prestige in religious terms. Contrary to earlier studies, which viewed Columbanus and his disciples primarily as religious innovators, this book focuses on the political, economic, and familial implications of monastic patronage and on the benefits elite patrons stood to reap. While founding families were in a privileged position to court royal favour, monastic patronage also exposed them to violent reprisals from competing factions. Columbanian monasteries were not serene havens of contemplation, but rather active foci of power and wealth, and quickly became integral elements of early medieval statecraft.

Scholarly Community at the Early University of Paris
  • Theologians, Education and Society, 1215–1248
  • Spencer E. Young
  • Published online:
    05 June 2014
    Print publication:
    24 April 2014
  • This book explores the ways in which theologians at the early University of Paris promoted the development of this new centre of education into a prominent institution within late medieval society. Drawing upon a range of evidence, including many theological texts available only in manuscripts, Spencer E. Young uncovers a vibrant intellectual community engaged in debates on such issues as the viability of Aristotle's natural philosophy for Christian theology, the implications of the popular framework of the seven deadly sins for spiritual and academic life, the social and religious obligations of educated masters, and poor relief. Integrating the intellectual and institutional histories of the Faculty of Theology, Young demonstrates the historical significance of these discussions for both the university and the thirteenth-century church. He also reveals the critical role played by many of the early university's lesser-known members in one of the most transformative periods in the history of higher education.

Violence and the State in Languedoc, 1250–1400
  • Justine Firnhaber-Baker
  • Published online:
    05 May 2014
    Print publication:
    24 April 2014
  • Although it is often assumed that resurgent royal government eliminated so-called 'private warfare', the French judicial archives reveal nearly one hundred such wars waged in Languedoc and the Auvergne between the mid-thirteenth and the end of the fourteenth century. Royal administrators often intervened in these wars, but not always in order to suppress 'private violence' in favour of 'public justice'. They frequently recognised elites' own power and legitimate prerogatives, and elites were often fully complicit with royal intervention. Much of the engagement between royal officers and local elites came through informal processes of negotiation and settlement, rather than through the imposition of official justice. The expansion of royal authority was due as much to local cooperation as to conflict, a fact that ensured its survival during the fourteenth-century crises. This book thus provides a narrative of the rise of the French state and a fresh perspective on aristocratic violence.

The Social Life of Hagiography in the Merovingian Kingdom
  • Jamie Kreiner
  • Published online:
    05 April 2014
    Print publication:
    03 April 2014
  • This book charts the influence of Christian ideas about social responsibility on the legal, fiscal and operational policies of the Merovingian government, which consistently depended upon the collaboration of kings and elites to succeed, and it shows how a set of stories transformed the political playing field in early medieval Gaul. Contemporary thinkers encouraged this development by writing political arguments in the form of hagiography, more to redefine the rules and resources of elite culture than to promote saints' cults. Jamie Kreiner explores how hagiographers were able to do this effectively, by layering their arguments with different rhetorical and cognitive strategies while keeping the surface narratives entertaining. The result was a subtle and captivating literature that gives us new ways of thinking about how ideas and institutions can change, and how the vibrancy of Merovingian culture inspired subsequent Carolingian developments.

Nobility and Kingship in Medieval England
  • The Earls and Edward I, 1272–1307
  • Andrew M. Spencer
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    31 October 2013
  • Nobility and Kingship in Medieval England is a major new account of the relationship between Edward I and his earls, and of the role of the English nobility in thirteenth-century governance. Re-evaluating crown-noble relations of the period, Spencer challenges traditional interpretations of Edward's reign, showing that his reputed masterfulness has been overplayed and that his kingship was far subtler, and therefore more effective, than this stereotype would suggest. Drawing from key earldoms such as Lincoln, Lancaster, Cornwall and Warenne, the book reveals how nobles created local followings and exercised power at a local level as well as surveying the political, governmental, social and military lives of the earls, prompting us to rethink our perception of their position in thirteenth-century politics. Adopting a powerful revisionist perspective, Spencer presents a major new statement about thirteenth-century England; one which will transform our understanding of politics and kingship in the period.

English Identity and Political Culture in the Fourteenth Century
  • Andrea Ruddick
  • Published online:
    05 November 2013
    Print publication:
    21 November 2013
  • This broad-ranging study explores the nature of national sentiment in fourteenth-century England and sets it in its political and constitutional context for the first time. Andrea Ruddick reveals that despite the problematic relationship between nationality and subjecthood in the king of England's domains, a sense of English identity was deeply embedded in the mindset of a significant section of political society. Using previously neglected official records as well as familiar literary sources, the book reassesses the role of the English language in fourteenth-century national sentiment and questions the traditional reliance on the English vernacular as an index of national feeling. Positioning national identity as central to our understanding of late medieval society, culture, religion and politics, the book represents a significant contribution not only to the political history of late medieval England, but also to the growing debate on the nature and origins of states, nations and nationalism in Europe.

Kingship and Consent in Anglo-Saxon England, 871–978
  • Assemblies and the State in the Early Middle Ages
  • Levi Roach
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    17 October 2013
  • This engaging study focuses on the role of assemblies in later Anglo-Saxon politics, challenging and nuancing existing models of the late Anglo-Saxon state. Its ten chapters investigate both traditional constitutional aspects of assemblies - who attended these events, where and when they met, and what business they conducted - and the symbolic and representational nature of these gatherings. Levi Roach takes into account important recent work on continental rulership, and argues that assemblies were not a check on kingship in these years, but rather an essential feature of it. In particular, the author highlights the role of symbolic communication at assemblies, arguing that ritual and demonstration were as important in English politics as they were elsewhere in Europe. Far from being exceptional, the methods of rulership employed by English kings look very much like those witnessed elsewhere on the continent, where assemblies and ritual formed an essential part of the political order.

Richard II and the Rebel Earl
  • A. K. Gundy
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • The reign of Richard II and the circumstances of his deposition have long been subject to intense debate. This new interpretation of the politics of the late-fourteenth century offers an in-depth survey of Richard's reign from the perspective of one of the leading nobles who came to oppose him, Thomas Beauchamp, the Appellant Earl of Warwick. This is the first full-length study of one of Richard II's opponents to explore not only why the Earl rebelled against the King, but also why Richard lost his throne. Rather than offering the traditional explanation of a subject grown too mighty, A. K. Gundy sets Warwick's rule in the context of the political and constitutional framework of the period. The interplay of local and national events helps to reveal Warwick's motives as a long-serving member of the nobility faced with a king determined to rule in a manner contradictory to contemporary political structures.

Reframing the Feudal Revolution
  • Political and Social Transformation between Marne and Moselle, c.800–c.1100
  • Charles West
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    16 May 2013
  • The profound changes that took place between 800 and 1100 in the transition from Carolingian to post-Carolingian Europe have long been the subject of vigorous historical controversy. Looking beyond the notion of a 'Feudal Revolution', this book reveals that a radical shift in the patterns of social organisation did occur in this period, but as a continuation of processes unleashed by Carolingian reform, rather than Carolingian political failure. Focusing on the Frankish lands between the rivers Marne and Moselle, Charles West explores the full range of available evidence, including letters, chronicles, estate documents, archaeological excavations and liturgical treatises, to track documentary and social change. He shows how Carolingian reforms worked to formalise interaction across the entire social spectrum, and that the new political and social formations apparent from the later eleventh century should be seen as long-term consequence of this process.

Edward I and the Governance of England, 1272–1307
  • Caroline Burt
  • Published online:
    05 December 2012
    Print publication:
    29 November 2012
  • This important exploration of the reign of Edward I – one of England's most lionised, feared and successful monarchs – presents his kingship in a radical new light. Through detailed case studies of Shropshire, Warwickshire and Kent, Caroline Burt examines how Edward's governance at a national level was reflected in different localities. She employs novel methodology to measure levels of disorder and the effects of government action, and uncovers a remarkably sophisticated approach to governance. This study combines an empirical examination of government with an understanding of developing political ideas and ideological motivation, and contributes towards a greater understanding of the development of local government and politics in England in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Edward emerges as a king with a coherent set of ideas about the governance of his realm, both intellectually and practically, whose achievements were even more remarkable than has previously been recognised.

Politics and Tradition Between Rome, Ravenna and Constantinople
  • A Study of Cassiodorus and the Variae, 527–554
  • M. Shane Bjornlie
  • Published online:
    05 December 2012
    Print publication:
    22 November 2012
  • The Variae of Cassiodorus have long been valued as an epistolary collection offering a window into political and cultural life in a so-called barbarian successor state in sixth-century Italy. However, this study is the first to treat them as more than an assemblage of individual case studies and to analyse the collection's wider historical context. M. Shane Bjornlie highlights the insights the Variae provide into early medieval political, ecclesiastical, fiscal and legal affairs and the influence of the political and military turbulence of Justinian's reconquest of Italy and of political and cultural exchanges between Italy and Constantinople. The book also explores how Cassiodorus revised, updated and assembled the Variae for publication and what this reveals about his motives for publishing an epistolary record and for his own political life at a crucial period of transformation for the Roman world.

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