Mayr-Harting Henry
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263952
- eISBN:
- 9780191734083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263952.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This chapter examines the study of ecclesiastical history in Great Britain. It explains that the various departments of ecclesiastical history have tended to be under the umbrella of Theology rather ...
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This chapter examines the study of ecclesiastical history in Great Britain. It explains that the various departments of ecclesiastical history have tended to be under the umbrella of Theology rather than of History and that in Anglican terms the subject has tended to mean Early Church, Reformation and Nineteenth Century. Medieval ecclesiastical history, therefore, has no established position. Some of the most notable British works on medieval ecclesiastical history include Medieval Political Theory in the West by A.J. Carlyle and Westminster Abbey and Its Estates in the Middle Ages by Barbara Harvey.Less
This chapter examines the study of ecclesiastical history in Great Britain. It explains that the various departments of ecclesiastical history have tended to be under the umbrella of Theology rather than of History and that in Anglican terms the subject has tended to mean Early Church, Reformation and Nineteenth Century. Medieval ecclesiastical history, therefore, has no established position. Some of the most notable British works on medieval ecclesiastical history include Medieval Political Theory in the West by A.J. Carlyle and Westminster Abbey and Its Estates in the Middle Ages by Barbara Harvey.
B. W. Young
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199256228
- eISBN:
- 9780191719660
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199256228.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter uses the response of a prominent Christian reader of Gibbon, John Henry Newman, to explore how 18th-century unbelief was worried over, and occasionally accommodated within the available ...
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This chapter uses the response of a prominent Christian reader of Gibbon, John Henry Newman, to explore how 18th-century unbelief was worried over, and occasionally accommodated within the available framework of religious apologetic in 19th-century Britain. The example of the liberal Anglican historian Henry Hart Milman, Oxford's Professor of Poetry when Newman was a young fellow of Oriel, similarly demonstrates that Gibbon's contribution to ecclesiastical history was capable of being accommodated within a variety of liberal Anglican theology strongly influenced by those developments in German historical thought of which Newman remained willfully ignorant.Less
This chapter uses the response of a prominent Christian reader of Gibbon, John Henry Newman, to explore how 18th-century unbelief was worried over, and occasionally accommodated within the available framework of religious apologetic in 19th-century Britain. The example of the liberal Anglican historian Henry Hart Milman, Oxford's Professor of Poetry when Newman was a young fellow of Oriel, similarly demonstrates that Gibbon's contribution to ecclesiastical history was capable of being accommodated within a variety of liberal Anglican theology strongly influenced by those developments in German historical thought of which Newman remained willfully ignorant.
Robert Mighall
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199262182
- eISBN:
- 9780191698835
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199262182.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This book is a full-length study of Victorian Gothic fiction. Combining original readings of familiar texts with historical sources, this book is a historicist survey of 19th-century Gothic ...
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This book is a full-length study of Victorian Gothic fiction. Combining original readings of familiar texts with historical sources, this book is a historicist survey of 19th-century Gothic writing—from Dickens to Stoker, Wilkie Collins to Conan Doyle, through European travelogues, sexological textbooks, ecclesiastic histories and pamphlets on the perils of self-abuse. Critics have thus far tended to concentrate on specific angles of Gothic writing (gender or race), or the belief that the Gothic ‘returned’ at the so-called fin de siècle. By contrast, this book demonstrates how the Gothic mode was active throughout the Victorian period, and provides historical explanations for its development from the late 18th century, through the ‘Urban Gothic’ fictions of the mid-Victorian period, the ‘Suburban Gothic’ of the Sensation vogue, through to the somatic horrors of Stevenson, Machen, Stoker, and Doyle at the century' close. The book challenges the psychological approach to Gothic fiction that currently prevails, demonstrating the importance of geographical, historical, and discursive factors that have been largely neglected by critics, and employing a variety of original sources to demonstrate the contexts of Gothic fiction and explain its development in the Victorian period.Less
This book is a full-length study of Victorian Gothic fiction. Combining original readings of familiar texts with historical sources, this book is a historicist survey of 19th-century Gothic writing—from Dickens to Stoker, Wilkie Collins to Conan Doyle, through European travelogues, sexological textbooks, ecclesiastic histories and pamphlets on the perils of self-abuse. Critics have thus far tended to concentrate on specific angles of Gothic writing (gender or race), or the belief that the Gothic ‘returned’ at the so-called fin de siècle. By contrast, this book demonstrates how the Gothic mode was active throughout the Victorian period, and provides historical explanations for its development from the late 18th century, through the ‘Urban Gothic’ fictions of the mid-Victorian period, the ‘Suburban Gothic’ of the Sensation vogue, through to the somatic horrors of Stevenson, Machen, Stoker, and Doyle at the century' close. The book challenges the psychological approach to Gothic fiction that currently prevails, demonstrating the importance of geographical, historical, and discursive factors that have been largely neglected by critics, and employing a variety of original sources to demonstrate the contexts of Gothic fiction and explain its development in the Victorian period.
Michael Ledger-Lomas
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780197265871
- eISBN:
- 9780191772030
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265871.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
E. A. Freeman’s distaste for Erastianism, his contempt for Whigs, and his equivocal interventions in debates on disestablishment and disendowment are well-attested. Yet the career of Arthur Penrhyn ...
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E. A. Freeman’s distaste for Erastianism, his contempt for Whigs, and his equivocal interventions in debates on disestablishment and disendowment are well-attested. Yet the career of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–81) reveals that Whig liberalism remained a historiographical force in Freeman’s time. Although Stanley was dismissed by Freeman as a slapdash historian, as dean of Westminster Abbey (1864–81) Stanley developed a vision of historical scholarship that could support an Erastian defence of established churches. Stanley curated the Abbey to show how the established church had been interwoven with the national past. There and elsewhere in Britain, he sought to pacify Nonconformist advocates of disestablishment by remembering their heroes as national not sectarian figures. This essay surveys Stanley’s energetic involvement in controversies over disestablishment and contrasts it with Freeman’s scholarly detachment, concluding that despite the differences between them, neither historian made much impact on Nonconformist minds.Less
E. A. Freeman’s distaste for Erastianism, his contempt for Whigs, and his equivocal interventions in debates on disestablishment and disendowment are well-attested. Yet the career of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815–81) reveals that Whig liberalism remained a historiographical force in Freeman’s time. Although Stanley was dismissed by Freeman as a slapdash historian, as dean of Westminster Abbey (1864–81) Stanley developed a vision of historical scholarship that could support an Erastian defence of established churches. Stanley curated the Abbey to show how the established church had been interwoven with the national past. There and elsewhere in Britain, he sought to pacify Nonconformist advocates of disestablishment by remembering their heroes as national not sectarian figures. This essay surveys Stanley’s energetic involvement in controversies over disestablishment and contrasts it with Freeman’s scholarly detachment, concluding that despite the differences between them, neither historian made much impact on Nonconformist minds.
Anthony Grafton
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780691190754
- eISBN:
- 9780691194165
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691190754.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion
This chapter examines the centrality of early modern ecclesiastical history, written by Catholics as well as Protestants, in the refinement of research techniques and practices anticipatory of modern ...
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This chapter examines the centrality of early modern ecclesiastical history, written by Catholics as well as Protestants, in the refinement of research techniques and practices anticipatory of modern scholarship. To Christians of all varieties, getting the Church's early history right mattered. Eusebius's fourth-century history of the Church opened a royal road into the subject, but he made mistakes, and it was important to be able to ferret them out. Saint Augustine was recognized as a sure-footed guide to the truth about the Church's original and bedrock beliefs, but some of the Saint's writings were spurious, and it was important to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. To distinguish true belief from false, teams of religious scholars gathered documents; the documents in turn were subjected to skeptical scrutiny and philological critique; and sources were compared and cited. The practices of humanistic scholarship, it turns out, came from within the Catholic Church itself as it examined its own past.Less
This chapter examines the centrality of early modern ecclesiastical history, written by Catholics as well as Protestants, in the refinement of research techniques and practices anticipatory of modern scholarship. To Christians of all varieties, getting the Church's early history right mattered. Eusebius's fourth-century history of the Church opened a royal road into the subject, but he made mistakes, and it was important to be able to ferret them out. Saint Augustine was recognized as a sure-footed guide to the truth about the Church's original and bedrock beliefs, but some of the Saint's writings were spurious, and it was important to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. To distinguish true belief from false, teams of religious scholars gathered documents; the documents in turn were subjected to skeptical scrutiny and philological critique; and sources were compared and cited. The practices of humanistic scholarship, it turns out, came from within the Catholic Church itself as it examined its own past.
Philip Wood
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199588497
- eISBN:
- 9780191595424
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588497.003.0002
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter examines fifth‐century ecclesiastical historians as evidence for the Christianisation of Roman politicatl ideas. These historians used heresiology as an extension of classical ...
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This chapter examines fifth‐century ecclesiastical historians as evidence for the Christianisation of Roman politicatl ideas. These historians used heresiology as an extension of classical ethnography. For them, heretics, like barbarians, were irrational and divided. These ideas changed the rules for inclusion and exclusion in the empire: now that being orthodox was equated to being Roman; ‘provincial peoples’ could claim civilised virtues, such as self‐control, that had formerly been the preserve ofan educated elite.Less
This chapter examines fifth‐century ecclesiastical historians as evidence for the Christianisation of Roman politicatl ideas. These historians used heresiology as an extension of classical ethnography. For them, heretics, like barbarians, were irrational and divided. These ideas changed the rules for inclusion and exclusion in the empire: now that being orthodox was equated to being Roman; ‘provincial peoples’ could claim civilised virtues, such as self‐control, that had formerly been the preserve ofan educated elite.
Alan Cameron
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199747276
- eISBN:
- 9780199866212
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199747276.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History (402/3 CE) gives a vivid account of the confrontation between the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius and the Western usurper Eugenius. To many, the defeat of Eugenius ...
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Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History (402/3 CE) gives a vivid account of the confrontation between the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius and the Western usurper Eugenius. To many, the defeat of Eugenius and his pagan followers along the Frigidus River in 394 was the last gasp of a vigorous pagan revolt in the late 4th century, one spearheaded by the Roman aristocracy. This elaborate campaign to derail Christianity, as the story goes, consisted of identifiable pagan literary circles, pagan patronage of the classics, and pagan propaganda in art and literature. Recently, however, scholars have shown this picture to be wanting in accuracy and nuance. This book replaces this view with a detailed portrait of pagan society during the pivotal 4th and early 5th centuries. The subject of the book is the duration, nature, and consequences of the survival of the last pagans. It is widely believed that pagan aristocrats remained in the majority till at least the 380s, and continued to be a powerful force well into the 5th century. On this basis the main focus of much modern scholarship has been on their supposed stubborn resistance to Christianity. Rather surprisingly, these aristocrats have been transformed from the arrogant, philistine land-grabbers most of them were into fearless champions of senatorial privilege, literature lovers, and aficionados of classical (especially Greek) culture. The dismantling of this romantic myth is one of the main goals of this book. If a pagan aristocracy did not mount a defiant political and cultural rearguard action, what did they do? If elite culture at this time was not starkly divided between pagan and Christian, what did it look like? By sifting through the abundant textual evidence the book concludes that the many activities and artifacts previously identified as hallmarks of a pagan revival were in fact just as important to the life of cultivated Christians. Far from being a subversive pagan activity designed to rally pagans, the promotion of classical literature, learning, and art—and its acceptance by many elite Christians—may actually have helped the last reluctant pagans to finally abandon the old cults and adopt Christianity.Less
Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History (402/3 CE) gives a vivid account of the confrontation between the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius and the Western usurper Eugenius. To many, the defeat of Eugenius and his pagan followers along the Frigidus River in 394 was the last gasp of a vigorous pagan revolt in the late 4th century, one spearheaded by the Roman aristocracy. This elaborate campaign to derail Christianity, as the story goes, consisted of identifiable pagan literary circles, pagan patronage of the classics, and pagan propaganda in art and literature. Recently, however, scholars have shown this picture to be wanting in accuracy and nuance. This book replaces this view with a detailed portrait of pagan society during the pivotal 4th and early 5th centuries. The subject of the book is the duration, nature, and consequences of the survival of the last pagans. It is widely believed that pagan aristocrats remained in the majority till at least the 380s, and continued to be a powerful force well into the 5th century. On this basis the main focus of much modern scholarship has been on their supposed stubborn resistance to Christianity. Rather surprisingly, these aristocrats have been transformed from the arrogant, philistine land-grabbers most of them were into fearless champions of senatorial privilege, literature lovers, and aficionados of classical (especially Greek) culture. The dismantling of this romantic myth is one of the main goals of this book. If a pagan aristocracy did not mount a defiant political and cultural rearguard action, what did they do? If elite culture at this time was not starkly divided between pagan and Christian, what did it look like? By sifting through the abundant textual evidence the book concludes that the many activities and artifacts previously identified as hallmarks of a pagan revival were in fact just as important to the life of cultivated Christians. Far from being a subversive pagan activity designed to rally pagans, the promotion of classical literature, learning, and art—and its acceptance by many elite Christians—may actually have helped the last reluctant pagans to finally abandon the old cults and adopt Christianity.
Theodore Zeldin
- Published in print:
- 1977
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198221258
- eISBN:
- 9780191678424
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198221258.003.0020
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
The anxieties from which people suffered during the period cannot be attributed to the decline of religious belief. First because it is by no means certain that religious belief did decline; secondly ...
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The anxieties from which people suffered during the period cannot be attributed to the decline of religious belief. First because it is by no means certain that religious belief did decline; secondly because religion now came to offer new consolations; and thirdly because the Church was itself torn by anxieties of its own. What the ecclesiastical history of this century shows above all is a crisis of communication: churchmen and free-thinkers were so carried away by the bitterness of their disagreements that they became incapable of understanding each other, and hopelessly confused as to what their quarrels were about. The country split into two, but that split concealed a whole plurality of beliefs and temperaments which it cut across in a most misleading way. The dispute about religion was a genuine dispute of fundamental importance but, at the same time as it created new attitudes to life, it also became a major obstacle to self-knowledge and to the perception of the complexities of human motivation.Less
The anxieties from which people suffered during the period cannot be attributed to the decline of religious belief. First because it is by no means certain that religious belief did decline; secondly because religion now came to offer new consolations; and thirdly because the Church was itself torn by anxieties of its own. What the ecclesiastical history of this century shows above all is a crisis of communication: churchmen and free-thinkers were so carried away by the bitterness of their disagreements that they became incapable of understanding each other, and hopelessly confused as to what their quarrels were about. The country split into two, but that split concealed a whole plurality of beliefs and temperaments which it cut across in a most misleading way. The dispute about religion was a genuine dispute of fundamental importance but, at the same time as it created new attitudes to life, it also became a major obstacle to self-knowledge and to the perception of the complexities of human motivation.
Philip Wood
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199670673
- eISBN:
- 9780191760709
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199670673.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, Church History
This chapter and the next examine the massive expansion in the historical awareness of the Church of the East of c.580, including the incorporation of large amounts of Roman ecclesiastical history, ...
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This chapter and the next examine the massive expansion in the historical awareness of the Church of the East of c.580, including the incorporation of large amounts of Roman ecclesiastical history, which provided an assurance of the ‘orthodoxy’ of the East through the celebration of a Western canon of patristic thinkers. One feature of this borrowed history is its treatment of Nestorius and the council of Chalcedon, which was a major waypoint in the orthodox self-definition of the Roman world. Several fifth-century accounts seem ignorant of the condemnation of Nestorius at Chalcedon, while others have more accurate information and are more reluctant to accept the orthodoxy of the Chalcedonian churches of the West. This separation between the Church of the East and the Dyophysites of the West becomes increasingly marked by the seventh century, with the elevation of Nestorius’ theology under the leadership of Babai the Great.Less
This chapter and the next examine the massive expansion in the historical awareness of the Church of the East of c.580, including the incorporation of large amounts of Roman ecclesiastical history, which provided an assurance of the ‘orthodoxy’ of the East through the celebration of a Western canon of patristic thinkers. One feature of this borrowed history is its treatment of Nestorius and the council of Chalcedon, which was a major waypoint in the orthodox self-definition of the Roman world. Several fifth-century accounts seem ignorant of the condemnation of Nestorius at Chalcedon, while others have more accurate information and are more reluctant to accept the orthodoxy of the Chalcedonian churches of the West. This separation between the Church of the East and the Dyophysites of the West becomes increasingly marked by the seventh century, with the elevation of Nestorius’ theology under the leadership of Babai the Great.
Alan Deyermond
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263952
- eISBN:
- 9780191734083
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263952.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about twentieth-century British scholarship on the European Middle Ages. This book covers English and European history, ...
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This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about twentieth-century British scholarship on the European Middle Ages. This book covers English and European history, scholarship in particular geographical or cultural areas that is neither mainly historical nor exclusively literary, and other disciplines of crucial importance to medieval studies including archaeology, numismatics and science. The specific topics examined include British research and publications on ecclesiastical history, Slavonic studies and Celtic studies.Less
This introductory chapter explains the coverage of this book, which is about twentieth-century British scholarship on the European Middle Ages. This book covers English and European history, scholarship in particular geographical or cultural areas that is neither mainly historical nor exclusively literary, and other disciplines of crucial importance to medieval studies including archaeology, numismatics and science. The specific topics examined include British research and publications on ecclesiastical history, Slavonic studies and Celtic studies.
Huw Pryce
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198203629
- eISBN:
- 9780191675904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198203629.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, History of Religion
This book explores the relationship between native secular law and the Catholic Church in Wales during the medieval period. It examines legal texts containing cyfraith Hywel or the law of Hywel, the ...
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This book explores the relationship between native secular law and the Catholic Church in Wales during the medieval period. It examines legal texts containing cyfraith Hywel or the law of Hywel, the customary law of Wales which by the 13th century was attributed to Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good), the Welsh king who died in 949 or 950. However, although primarily intended as a contribution to the legal history of medieval Wales, this book is also concerned with ecclesiastical history. In interpreting the legal evidence, two complementary approaches are used. The first is dictated by the complex structure and varied content of the lawbooks, and consists of textual criticism of the different versions of relevant tractates or rules contained in them. Secondly, the legal material is compared with other evidence from medieval Wales. Topics covered by the book include the sacred dimension to legal processes, marriage and inheritance, testamentary disposition, the legal status of clerics, ecclesiastical sanctuary, land and lordship, and church and state.Less
This book explores the relationship between native secular law and the Catholic Church in Wales during the medieval period. It examines legal texts containing cyfraith Hywel or the law of Hywel, the customary law of Wales which by the 13th century was attributed to Hywel Dda (Hywel the Good), the Welsh king who died in 949 or 950. However, although primarily intended as a contribution to the legal history of medieval Wales, this book is also concerned with ecclesiastical history. In interpreting the legal evidence, two complementary approaches are used. The first is dictated by the complex structure and varied content of the lawbooks, and consists of textual criticism of the different versions of relevant tractates or rules contained in them. Secondly, the legal material is compared with other evidence from medieval Wales. Topics covered by the book include the sacred dimension to legal processes, marriage and inheritance, testamentary disposition, the legal status of clerics, ecclesiastical sanctuary, land and lordship, and church and state.
Katherine Van Liere, Simon Ditchfield, and Howard Louthan (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199594795
- eISBN:
- 9780191741494
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594795.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Religion and Literature
This book surveys early modern ‘sacred history’, i.e. the historiography of the Christian Church, its leaders and saints, and its institutional and doctrinal developments, in the two centuries ...
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This book surveys early modern ‘sacred history’, i.e. the historiography of the Christian Church, its leaders and saints, and its institutional and doctrinal developments, in the two centuries c.1450–1650. Thirteen thematic chapters examine the influence of Renaissance humanism, religious reform, and other political, intellectual, and social developments of these two centuries on the writing of ecclesiastical history in its various forms. These diverse genres of historical writing, inherited from medieval culture, included saints’ lives, diocesan histories, national chronicles, and travel accounts. Early chapters examine Catholic and Protestant traditions of sacred historiography in Western Europe, especially Italy and Switzerland. Subsequent chapters examine particular instances of sacred historiography in Germany, Central Europe, Spain, England, Ireland, France, and Portuguese India and developments in Christian art historiography and Holy Land antiquarianism. With deep medieval roots, ecclesiastical history was generally a conservative enterprise, often serving to reinforce confessional, national, regional, dynastic, or local identities. But writers of sacred history innovated in research methods and in techniques of scholarly production, especially after the advent of print. The demand for sacred history was particularly acute in the various movements for religious reform, in both Catholic and Protestant traditions. After the Renaissance, many writers sought to apply humanist critical principles to writing about the Church, but the sceptical thrust of humanist historiography threatened to undermine many ecclesiastical traditions, and religious historians often had to wrestle with tensions between criticism and piety.Less
This book surveys early modern ‘sacred history’, i.e. the historiography of the Christian Church, its leaders and saints, and its institutional and doctrinal developments, in the two centuries c.1450–1650. Thirteen thematic chapters examine the influence of Renaissance humanism, religious reform, and other political, intellectual, and social developments of these two centuries on the writing of ecclesiastical history in its various forms. These diverse genres of historical writing, inherited from medieval culture, included saints’ lives, diocesan histories, national chronicles, and travel accounts. Early chapters examine Catholic and Protestant traditions of sacred historiography in Western Europe, especially Italy and Switzerland. Subsequent chapters examine particular instances of sacred historiography in Germany, Central Europe, Spain, England, Ireland, France, and Portuguese India and developments in Christian art historiography and Holy Land antiquarianism. With deep medieval roots, ecclesiastical history was generally a conservative enterprise, often serving to reinforce confessional, national, regional, dynastic, or local identities. But writers of sacred history innovated in research methods and in techniques of scholarly production, especially after the advent of print. The demand for sacred history was particularly acute in the various movements for religious reform, in both Catholic and Protestant traditions. After the Renaissance, many writers sought to apply humanist critical principles to writing about the Church, but the sceptical thrust of humanist historiography threatened to undermine many ecclesiastical traditions, and religious historians often had to wrestle with tensions between criticism and piety.
James Graham-Campbell and Michael Ryan (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264508
- eISBN:
- 9780191734120
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264508.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Although there has been much recent interest in the interaction of England and Ireland in the Viking Age, the links between the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish in the period before 800 have been much less ...
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Although there has been much recent interest in the interaction of England and Ireland in the Viking Age, the links between the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish in the period before 800 have been much less studied. This book provides an interdisciplinary assessment of these connections. The chapters range widely in their scope. Seven chapters look at issues of language and literature, legal traditions, and ecclesiastical history; a further ten consider the evidence of material culture, through art history and archaeology. This overview of the field of Anglo-Saxon/Irish relations will be of use to people interested in early medieval studies.Less
Although there has been much recent interest in the interaction of England and Ireland in the Viking Age, the links between the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish in the period before 800 have been much less studied. This book provides an interdisciplinary assessment of these connections. The chapters range widely in their scope. Seven chapters look at issues of language and literature, legal traditions, and ecclesiastical history; a further ten consider the evidence of material culture, through art history and archaeology. This overview of the field of Anglo-Saxon/Irish relations will be of use to people interested in early medieval studies.
Alexandra Walsham
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199243556
- eISBN:
- 9780191725081
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243556.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter considers how the landscape was implicated in Roman Catholicism’s struggle to resist the attempts of the Tudor and Stuart state to eradicate it. It describes how the Counter-Reformation ...
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This chapter considers how the landscape was implicated in Roman Catholicism’s struggle to resist the attempts of the Tudor and Stuart state to eradicate it. It describes how the Counter-Reformation on the Continent was accompanied by a spirited revival of pilgrimage and sacred places and shows how these developments found parallels in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain and Ireland despite the challenges of persecution and proscription. It also examines how British and Irish Catholics creatively appropriated the landscape as a site for worship and devotion after they were expelled from churches and how they revived holy sites attacked by Protestant iconoclasts and the historical narratives about the Christian past and the lives of the saints with which they were linked. A further theme is the emergence of a new geography of sacred locations associated with priests and laypeople who became martyrs to the Catholic faith.Less
This chapter considers how the landscape was implicated in Roman Catholicism’s struggle to resist the attempts of the Tudor and Stuart state to eradicate it. It describes how the Counter-Reformation on the Continent was accompanied by a spirited revival of pilgrimage and sacred places and shows how these developments found parallels in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Britain and Ireland despite the challenges of persecution and proscription. It also examines how British and Irish Catholics creatively appropriated the landscape as a site for worship and devotion after they were expelled from churches and how they revived holy sites attacked by Protestant iconoclasts and the historical narratives about the Christian past and the lives of the saints with which they were linked. A further theme is the emergence of a new geography of sacred locations associated with priests and laypeople who became martyrs to the Catholic faith.
Salvador Ryan
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199594795
- eISBN:
- 9780191741494
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199594795.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Religion and Literature
This chapter examines the efforts made by Irish Catholic writers of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to reconstruct the history of the Irish Christian past. This was undertaken both to ...
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This chapter examines the efforts made by Irish Catholic writers of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to reconstruct the history of the Irish Christian past. This was undertaken both to counteract the claims of some reformers that early Irish Christianity was proto-Protestant in character and also to construct a workable Irish Catholic identity for the seventeenth century that would incorporate the historical narratives of both Old English and Gaelic Irish communities who now sought common cause against increasing waves of mostly Protestant settlers. In charting their way through a changing political and cultural landscape, Irish Catholic writers, both at home and on the Continent, would attempt to bring to bear on their polemical works the standards of Renaissance humanist scholarship to forge such an identity. In doing so, they also fully participated in the renewal of ecclesiastical history that was a feature of Reformation Europe.Less
This chapter examines the efforts made by Irish Catholic writers of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to reconstruct the history of the Irish Christian past. This was undertaken both to counteract the claims of some reformers that early Irish Christianity was proto-Protestant in character and also to construct a workable Irish Catholic identity for the seventeenth century that would incorporate the historical narratives of both Old English and Gaelic Irish communities who now sought common cause against increasing waves of mostly Protestant settlers. In charting their way through a changing political and cultural landscape, Irish Catholic writers, both at home and on the Continent, would attempt to bring to bear on their polemical works the standards of Renaissance humanist scholarship to forge such an identity. In doing so, they also fully participated in the renewal of ecclesiastical history that was a feature of Reformation Europe.
Jessica Fay
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198816201
- eISBN:
- 9780191853555
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198816201.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822) is an attempt to promote national ecclesiastical unity at a time when Wordsworth considered the Anglican Establishment to be threatened by the prospect of Catholic ...
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Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822) is an attempt to promote national ecclesiastical unity at a time when Wordsworth considered the Anglican Establishment to be threatened by the prospect of Catholic Emancipation. In preparation for this sonnet series, Wordsworth engaged closely with the work of the Anglo-Saxon scholar, St Bede. This chapter explores the importance of Bede’s eighth-century Ecclesiastical History of the English People as both a model for Wordsworth’s sonnets and as a channel through which he became particularly aware of his heritage as a descendent of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria. In this light, the chapter argues for an expanded view of what constitutes Wordsworth’s ‘local’ region, noting that Grasmere was once part of a powerful Kingdom that stretched across the breadth of England. In order to balance his local attachments and appreciation for monasticism with his political opinions, Wordsworth shifts the sonnet form towards the loco-descriptive inscription.Less
Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822) is an attempt to promote national ecclesiastical unity at a time when Wordsworth considered the Anglican Establishment to be threatened by the prospect of Catholic Emancipation. In preparation for this sonnet series, Wordsworth engaged closely with the work of the Anglo-Saxon scholar, St Bede. This chapter explores the importance of Bede’s eighth-century Ecclesiastical History of the English People as both a model for Wordsworth’s sonnets and as a channel through which he became particularly aware of his heritage as a descendent of the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria. In this light, the chapter argues for an expanded view of what constitutes Wordsworth’s ‘local’ region, noting that Grasmere was once part of a powerful Kingdom that stretched across the breadth of England. In order to balance his local attachments and appreciation for monasticism with his political opinions, Wordsworth shifts the sonnet form towards the loco-descriptive inscription.
John Howe
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801452895
- eISBN:
- 9781501703713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801452895.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This book explores ecclesiastical history and the history of Western civilization more generally by focusing on the tenth-and early eleventh-century Latin Church, or more precisely the millennial ...
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This book explores ecclesiastical history and the history of Western civilization more generally by focusing on the tenth-and early eleventh-century Latin Church, or more precisely the millennial Church. It challenges the narrative linking ecclesiastical revival to the Gregorian Reform and argues that the rise of the West began well before the mid-eleventh century. It presents ecclesiastical reform as a central part of the post-Carolingian, postinvasion revival and suggests that the Church embodied and defined a rising Europe. It shows that the achievements associated with Gregorian Reform in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries rested on earlier ones. The book offers insights into the Christendom that was inherited by the mid-eleventh-century Latin reformers and puts the millennial Church as well as the resurgence of the Latin West in their appropriate contexts.Less
This book explores ecclesiastical history and the history of Western civilization more generally by focusing on the tenth-and early eleventh-century Latin Church, or more precisely the millennial Church. It challenges the narrative linking ecclesiastical revival to the Gregorian Reform and argues that the rise of the West began well before the mid-eleventh century. It presents ecclesiastical reform as a central part of the post-Carolingian, postinvasion revival and suggests that the Church embodied and defined a rising Europe. It shows that the achievements associated with Gregorian Reform in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries rested on earlier ones. The book offers insights into the Christendom that was inherited by the mid-eleventh-century Latin reformers and puts the millennial Church as well as the resurgence of the Latin West in their appropriate contexts.
Thomas Roebuck
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198767114
- eISBN:
- 9780191821301
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198767114.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter provides an account of Thomas Smith’s pioneering account of the archaeology of the ancient Near Eastern church, his Survey of the Seven Churches of Asia, first published in Latin in ...
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This chapter provides an account of Thomas Smith’s pioneering account of the archaeology of the ancient Near Eastern church, his Survey of the Seven Churches of Asia, first published in Latin in 1672. The book remained a huge influence on travellers to Asia Minor well into the nineteenth century, as clergymen and amateur archaeologists retraced Smith’s steps, with his book as guide. Drawing upon the vast archive of Smith’s letters and manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, the chapter places the book firmly in its original context, unpicking the complex interweaving of patronage, religion, and international scholarship which shaped the work. In the end, Smith’s book looks backwards and forwards: back to the traditions of seventeenth-century English confessionalized scholarship and orientalism, and forwards to later eighteenth- and nineteenth-century archaeological traditions. As such, this study sheds light on a pivotal moment in Western European approaches to the ancient Near East.Less
This chapter provides an account of Thomas Smith’s pioneering account of the archaeology of the ancient Near Eastern church, his Survey of the Seven Churches of Asia, first published in Latin in 1672. The book remained a huge influence on travellers to Asia Minor well into the nineteenth century, as clergymen and amateur archaeologists retraced Smith’s steps, with his book as guide. Drawing upon the vast archive of Smith’s letters and manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, the chapter places the book firmly in its original context, unpicking the complex interweaving of patronage, religion, and international scholarship which shaped the work. In the end, Smith’s book looks backwards and forwards: back to the traditions of seventeenth-century English confessionalized scholarship and orientalism, and forwards to later eighteenth- and nineteenth-century archaeological traditions. As such, this study sheds light on a pivotal moment in Western European approaches to the ancient Near East.
Jill Harries
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780859892728
- eISBN:
- 9781781380796
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9780859892728.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter examines how bishop Eusebius of Caesarea influenced Sozomen in writing Ecclesiastical History. It states that Sozomen dedicated this particular work to the Eastern Roman Emperor ...
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This chapter examines how bishop Eusebius of Caesarea influenced Sozomen in writing Ecclesiastical History. It states that Sozomen dedicated this particular work to the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. The Ecclesiastical History attempted to cover the time of the third consulship of the Caesars Crispus and Constantine up to the seventeenth year of reign of Theodosius II. This chapter argues that Sozomen used methods established by Eusebius, such as his research method of recording conversations with eye-witnesses of events, as well as following Eusebius' practice in making summaries of historical documents.Less
This chapter examines how bishop Eusebius of Caesarea influenced Sozomen in writing Ecclesiastical History. It states that Sozomen dedicated this particular work to the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II. The Ecclesiastical History attempted to cover the time of the third consulship of the Caesars Crispus and Constantine up to the seventeenth year of reign of Theodosius II. This chapter argues that Sozomen used methods established by Eusebius, such as his research method of recording conversations with eye-witnesses of events, as well as following Eusebius' practice in making summaries of historical documents.
Nicole Reinhardt
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198703686
- eISBN:
- 9780191772856
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198703686.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, History of Religion
The trilogy on the models for confessors concludes with an analysis of a treatise of advice dedicated in 1686 to the Spanish royal confessor Tomás Carbonell following his disgrace due to factional ...
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The trilogy on the models for confessors concludes with an analysis of a treatise of advice dedicated in 1686 to the Spanish royal confessor Tomás Carbonell following his disgrace due to factional struggles. Probably written by the Aragonese Carmelite José Capero, it moves the discussion from prophecy to the lessons to be drawn from ecclesiastical history. An in-depth examination of the treatise reveals the author’s engagement with the revived interest in the sources of ancient and medieval ecclesiastical history and a rejection of scholasticism and probabilism as foundations of truthful counsel. The new focus insists on the essentially antagonistic relationship between secular and spiritual power, profoundly transforming the confessor’s role from a counsellor of conscience to a defender of ecclesiastical liberty, privileging clerical authority over moral theological expertise. The treatise moreover suggests a still enigmatic circulation in Spain of prime examples of contemporary positive theology of French provenance.Less
The trilogy on the models for confessors concludes with an analysis of a treatise of advice dedicated in 1686 to the Spanish royal confessor Tomás Carbonell following his disgrace due to factional struggles. Probably written by the Aragonese Carmelite José Capero, it moves the discussion from prophecy to the lessons to be drawn from ecclesiastical history. An in-depth examination of the treatise reveals the author’s engagement with the revived interest in the sources of ancient and medieval ecclesiastical history and a rejection of scholasticism and probabilism as foundations of truthful counsel. The new focus insists on the essentially antagonistic relationship between secular and spiritual power, profoundly transforming the confessor’s role from a counsellor of conscience to a defender of ecclesiastical liberty, privileging clerical authority over moral theological expertise. The treatise moreover suggests a still enigmatic circulation in Spain of prime examples of contemporary positive theology of French provenance.