Books in the Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series series

John Wyclif was the fourteenth-century English thinker responsible for the first English Bible, and for the Lollard movement. In contrast with most other commentaries, this book argues that Wyclif's political programme was based on a coherent philosophical vision ultimately consistent with his earlier reformative ideas.

This book explores the full range of social, economic, religious and cultural contacts between England and the German city of Cologne during the central Middle Ages. From beguines to English sterling, pilgrims to emigrants, crusaders and merchants to teachers, there existed a complex world of Anglo-German associations.

This lively study of Muslims living under Christian rule in medieval Spain confronts questions of community relations, politics, trade and government, through a study of the common people of the era. It focuses on the evolution of an independent Islamic society into one living under Christian political domination.

This is the first full-length analysis of the machinery and men of government under Henry I, which looks in much greater detail than is possible for other contemporary states at the way government worked and at the careers of royal servants.

This book studies the problem of Christianisation in southern France during the early sixth century AD, and of the transformation of the pagan Roman empire, from the perspective of the career and writings of Bishop Caesarius of Arles (470-542).

This major study deals with the collapse of the pan-European Carolingian empire in 888, as seen through the reign of its last ruler Charles the Fat. It argues against traditionally pessimistic views of this important period, offering alternative interpretations of early medieval kingship.

Drawing on an extensive range of original sources, this study examines the nature and role of the aristocracy in twelfth-century Spain.

This is the first full analysis of papal involvement in late medieval Britain, using local sources in conjunction with material from the Vatican archives. It deals with the Avignon papacy's relations with Scotland and northern England during a period in which papal involvement at the local level was unusually wide-ranging, but still was generally accepted.

Based on extensive research this study examines the early growth of Barcelona in an effort to understand the causes of the European economic take-off. The rise, function and family structure of the city's patriciate is also examined. Many traditional assumptions about the nature of Mediterranean towns are challenged.

This is a detailed study of Jewish settlement and of seven different Jewish communities in England between 1262 and 1290, offering in addition a new consideration of the prelude to Edward I's expulsion of the Jews in 1290.

The first study of the lives of the 'runaway religious', the monks, canons and friars who fled their monasteries and returned to a life in the world only to be pursued by the Church authorities.

This book is a study of imperialism and its consequences in the early Middle Ages. Focusing on the development of Brittany as a Carolingian principality, this book offers interpretations of the largest western empire of the medieval period.

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.

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.

This book examines the making of the March of Wales and the crucial role its lords played in the politics of medieval Britain between the Norman conquest of England of 1066 and the English conquest of Wales in 1283. Max Lieberman argues that the Welsh borders of Shropshire, which were first, from c.1165, referred to as Marchia Wallie, provide a paradigm for the creation of the March. He reassesses the role of William the Conqueror's tenurial settlement in the making of the March and sheds new light on the ways in which seigneurial administrations worked in a cross-cultural context. Finally, he explains why, from c.1300, the March of Wales included the conquest territories in south Wales as well as the highly autonomous border lordships. This book makes a significant and original contribution to frontier studies, investigating both the creation and the changing perception of a medieval borderland.

With their active apostolate of preaching and teaching, Dominican friars were important promoters of Latin Christianity in the borderlands of medieval Spain and North Africa. Historians have long assumed that their efforts to convert or persecute non-Christian populations played a major role in worsening relations between Christians, Muslims and Jews in the era of crusade and reconquista. This study sheds light on the topic by setting Dominican participation in celebrated but short-lived projects such as Arabic language studia or anti-Jewish theological disputations alongside day-to-day realities of mendicant life in the medieval Crown of Aragon. From old Catalan centers like Barcelona to newly conquered Valencia and Islamic North Africa, the author shows that Dominican friars were on the whole conservative educators and disciplinarians rather than innovative missionaries - ever concerned to protect the spiritual well-being of the faithful by means of preaching, censorship and maintenance of existing barriers to interfaith communications.

This book is a study of the politics of episcopal elections in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Normandy and Greater Anjou. This was a crucial period in the development of canon law and Jorg Peltzer offers the first analysis to bring together legal theory and practice, local custom, and politics. He explores the development of electoral theories and examines each election in context, offering insights into the varying balance of royal, papal and regional baronial power and the various career paths leading to an episcopal see. He shows how different systems of patronage worked, to what extent they were vehicles of social mobility, and how aristocratic families were structured. By comparing electoral practices in Normandy and Greater Anjou before and after the Capetian conquest the book significantly enhances our understanding of the theory and practice of canon law, local politics in Normandy and Anjou, and the high politics at the Capetian and Angevin courts.

Silence and Sign Language in Medieval Monasticism explores the rationales for religious silence in early medieval abbeys and the use of nonverbal forms of communication among monks when rules of silence forbade them from speaking. After examining the spiritual benefits of personal silence as a form of protection against the perils of sinful discourse in early monastic thought, this work shows how the monks of the Abbey of Cluny (founded in 910 in Burgundy) were the first to employ a silent language of meaning-specific hand signs that allowed them to convey precise information without recourse to spoken words. Scott Bruce discusses the linguistic character of the Cluniac sign language, its central role in the training of novices, the precautions taken to prevent its abuse, and the widespread adoption of this custom in other abbeys throughout Europe, which resulted in the creation of regionally specific idioms of this silent language.

This book is a comprehensive study of political thought at the court of King Alfred the Great (871-99). It explains the extraordinary burst of royal learned activity focused on inventive translations from Latin into Old English attributed to Alfred's own authorship. A full exploration of context establishes these texts as part of a single discourse which placed Alfred himself at the heart of all rightful power and authority. A major theme is the relevance of Frankish and other European experiences, as sources of expertise and shared concerns, and for important contrasts with Alfredian thought and behaviour. Part I assesses Alfred's rule against West Saxon structures, showing the centrality of the royal household in the operation of power. Part II offers an intimate analysis of the royal texts, developing far-reaching implications for Alfredian kingship, communication and court culture. Comparative in approach, the book places Alfred's reign at the forefront of wider European trends in aristocratic life.

The period from the fifth century to the eighth century witnessed massive political, social and religious change in Europe. Geographical and historical thought, long rooted to Roman ideologies, had to adopt the new perspectives of late antiquity. In the light of expanding Christianity and the evolution of successor kingdoms in the West, new historical discourses emerged which were seminal in the development of medieval historiography. Taking their lead from Orosius in the early fifth century, Latin historians turned increasingly to geographical description, as well as historical narrative, to examine the world around them. This book explores the interdependence of geographical and historical modes of expression in four of the most important writers of the period: Orosius, Jordanes, Isidore of Seville and the Venerable Bede. It offers important readings of each by arguing that the long geographical passages with which they were introduced were central to their authors' historical assumptions and arguments.

This book is a study of two important and related pieces of thirteenth-century English legislation - the Provisions of Westminster of 1259 and the Statute of Marlborough of 1267 - and is the first on any of the statutes of this period of major legislative change. The Provisions of Westminster were the first major legislation enacted in England after Magna Carta, when Henry III surrendered control of government to a baronial council with an agenda of institutional reform. The Provisions were revised and reissued by the king in 1263, and a further revision in 1267 produced the Statute of Marlborough. Exceptionally good surviving documentation is used to follow the evolution of the individual clauses from initial suggestions for reform, through a series of drafts, to the various versions of the final texts.

This book offers perspectives on the legal and intellectual developments of the twelfth century. Gratian's collection of Church law, the Decretum, was a key text in these developments. Compiled in around 1140, it remained a fundamental work throughout and beyond the Middle Ages. Until now, the many mysteries surrounding the creation of the Decretum have remained unsolved, thereby hampering exploration of the jurisprudential renaissance of the twelfth century. Professor Winroth has now discovered the original version of the Decretum, which has long lain unnoticed among medieval manuscripts, in a version about half as long as the final text. It is also different from the final version in many respects - for example, with regard to the use of of Roman law sources - enabling a reconsideration of the resurgence of law in the twelfth century.

Jonathan Rubin explores the intellectual activities and intercultural exchanges that occurred in the city of Acre during the Crusades, drawing on the complete body of evidence from the city. The result is an unprecedentedly rich portrait of a hitherto neglected intellectual centre on the Eastern shores of the medieval Mediterranean.

A theory of the margin has long featured in the work of medieval historians. Marginal regions are taken to be those of poor soil or geographical remoteness, where farmers experienced particular difficulties in grain production. It is argued that such regions were cultivated only when demographic pressure intensified in the thirteenth century.

This book stresses the many ways in which one rite in medieval liturgy - baptism - was understood over a period of about one thousand years. It argues that lay persons could understanding the liturgy, and, moreover, doing so was the central act by which they perceived the world around them.

This volume surveys Iberian international trade from the tenth to the fifteenth century, with particular emphasis on commerce in the Muslim period and on changes brought by Christian conquest of much of Muslim Spain in the thirteenth century.

Marshall's study of warfare in the Latin East from the end of the Third Crusade to the final demise of the Latin Kingdom in 1291 differentiates between methods of military activity, offering a unique dissemination of the precise weaknesses of the crusader states in the thirteenth century.

This book offers a wide-ranging study of the court of Guelders in the Low Countries, offering an excellent vantage point for the study of late medieval court culture. Poised between French and German spheres of influence, it shows how Guelders can be taken as representative of Europe's many medium-sized courts.

This is the first systematic interpretation of William Durant's remarkable project to transfer supreme legislative authority from the papacy to general councils. It suggests that the conciliar theory has a more ambivalent complexion than is sometimes recognized.

This history of the English royal manor of Havering, Essex, illustrates life at one extreme of the spectrum of personal and collective freedom during the later Middle Ages, revealing the kinds of patterns which could emerge when medieval people were placed in a setting of unusual independence.