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16 results in Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Third Series

Papal Government and England during the Pontificate of Honorius III (1216–1227)
  • Jane E. Sayers
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    22 November 1984
  • This study of the administrative 'revolution' of the thirteenth-century papacy investigates the background and career of Honorius III, who was deeply involved in the developing administration of Chamber and Chancery from the late twelfth century, and reveals a picture of evolution rather than revolution in the papal offices of state. Honorius's Chancery is subjected to a vigorous examination. Valuable appendices list all the known papal scribes and provide diplomatic commentaries. Tables indicate details about the registers and the registrative system. The central machinery is shown in action, particularly in dealing with English affairs and petitioners and Honorius's place in the development of canon law is discussed in relation to the English background and experience.

Mortmain Legislation and the English Church 1279–1500
  • Sandra Raban
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    19 August 1982
  • This is a comprehensive survey of medieval English mortmain legislation from both the point of view of the crown and that of the Church. It examines methods of enforcement and evaluates their success. It traces the emergence of licensing policies and the increasing exploitation of licences for fiscal purposes, while at the same time establishing that this was not their original purpose. The extent to which the Church was acquiring land on a threatening scale by the later thirteenth century is questioned, and the effects of the legislation on subsequent acquisition are assessed against the background of new fashions in ecclesiastical patronage and a more hostile economic climate. The statutes of 1279 and 1391 are well known. What this study shows is how much variation lay behind the apparently straightforward system of licensing and how closely the issue of mortmain tenure was related to wider social, political and economic considerations.

Politics, Finance and the Church in the Reign of Edward II
  • Mark Buck
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    12 May 1983
  • Walter Stapeldon, fifteenth bishop of Exeter, was the founder of Exeter College, Oxford, and the greatest of Edward II's treasurers of the Exchequer. As Edward's regime crumbled in 1326, he paid the price of his master's rapacious policies, of which he was the chief instrument. This study shows how the Plantagenet revolution in government, the most massive overhaul of the Exchequer ever undertaken in medieval England, was shaped with a clear financial purpose. On the basis of his extensive research in the Exchequer archives, Dr Buck reveals for the first time the extent and severity of the government's action on the levying of debts to the Crown, which, although initiated earlier, was exacerbated in the early 1320s when parliament and the clergy were refusing the king supply. Placing the policies of Stapeldon's treasurership in their political and parliamentary context, he argues that the Exchequer was Edward's most powerful weapon against the aristocratic opposition and in the process reassesses the accepted interpretation of these years of turmoil.

Aristotelian Aporetic Ontology in Islamic and Christian Thinkers
  • Edward Booth
  • Published online:
    05 November 2011
    Print publication:
    01 December 1983
  • This is a ground-breaking study of the consequences of a central problem in Aristotle's Metaphysics in the interpretation given to it by Islamic and Christian Aristotelian philosophers: the relationship between individuals as individuals, and individuals as instances of a universal. Father Booth begins from an examination of the factors causing the aporia in the centre of Aristotle's ontology, going on to elaborate the way in which it occurred sometimes with confused reactions among the Greek, Syrian and Arab commentators, and to note in particular the modifications to the weighting of elements in Aristotle's ontological figures (differing in detail, but in tendency the same) when his ontology was brought into the union with Platonist and other thought conventionally known as `Neoplatonism'. The discussion culminates in two chapters on the different reconciliations of the radical Aristotelian and the Neoplatonist traditions, proposed by Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, in which the factors in the aporia have a key importance.

The Staffords, Earls of Stafford and Dukes of Buckingham
  • 1394–1521
  • Carole Rawcliffe
  • Published online:
    07 October 2011
    Print publication:
    12 January 1978
  • As one of the richest and most powerful land-owning families in later medieval England, the Staffords played their leading part in the politics of their time. This book traces the often complex relations between the three Stafford Dukes of Buckingham and the Crown. In doing so it casts light upon the attitude of successive English kings towards the nobility as a whole, and reassessed the political and military strength of the ruling class. The Staffords derived most of their influence from the ownership of land. Because of the survival of a widely scattered but unique family archive, Dr Rawcliffe has been able to study in unusually close detail the management of their estates and the deployment of their finances, as well as the reorganization of their household, which changed over the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries from a large peripatetic body to a smaller resident establishment where the third Duke of Buckingham could indulge his taste for cultural pursuits.

The Two Italies
  • Economic Relations Between the Norman Kingdom of Sicily and the Northern Communes
  • David Abulafia
  • Published online:
    02 February 2010
    Print publication:
    10 March 1977
  • This book is a study of the economic development of different areas of twelfth-century Italy whose commercial interests were closely inter related: the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, famed for the wealth of its rulers, and the maritime ports of Genoa, Pisa and Venice, which were actively extending their trading interests throughout the Mediterranean. On the basis of largely untapped sources in Genoa and other north Italian archives, this book seeks to explain how the north Italian merchants attempted to extend and to protect their interests in the kingdom of Sicily, by agreements with the Norman rulers or with those in Germany and Byzantium who aimed at the conquest of Sicily and southern Italy. Dr Abulafia argues that the kingdom was a major exporter of wheat and raw cotton, and that in the twelfth century the northern merchants gained a substantial hold over these exports. The Norman kings profited greatly from the opportunity to sell the produce of their realm, and in particular of their own estates, to an assured market; the lack of intensive industry in the kingdom left the northerners free to produce textiles out of southern fibres. Thus signs emerge of two Italies, an agrarian and pastoral south, against a north with incipient industrial activity, based partly on the commercial exploitation of the south.

The Church and the Two Nations in Medieval Ireland
  • J. A. Watt
  • Published online:
    28 October 2009
    Print publication:
    02 November 1970
  • This book examines the way in which the central English government dealt with Irish ecclesiastical matters from the time of the invasion and partial conquest of Ireland by Henry II in 1171 up to the Statute of Kilkenny. The struggle involved the king, the clergy in Ireland, both Irish and English, and the pope. Using manuscript material and printed sources, which have not been previously used for this purpose, Dr Watt shows how an attempt was made to 'colonize' Ireland by ecclesiastical means, and traces the changing fates and fortunes of the 'two nations' in their relations with one another. Dr Watt also deals very fully with the rôle played in the struggle by the religious orders, particularly the Cistercians and the friars, and with the effect which the English common law had on the Irish clergy.

Universities, Academics and the Great Schism
  • R. N. Swanson
  • Published online:
    27 October 2009
    Print publication:
    03 May 1979
  • The election of both Urban VI and Clement VII to the papacy in 1378, by the same body of cardinals, presented the church with an apparently insoluble constitutional difficulty. Dr Swanson examines the reaction to this situation from a hitherto unconsidered perspective: that of the universities to whom Europe turned to formulate the theories which would solve the problem. He examines the attempts by the academics to gain support for their various schemes and shows how these produced conflict at various levels: locally, between factions within individual universities; nationally, between rival universities, and between universities and their ecclesiastical and secular superiors; and internationally, as the universities adopted mutually exclusive attitudes and sometimnes clashed with their own popes. The concluding chapters show how the academics finally devised the conciliarist formula which led to the convocation of the Council of Pisa in 1409.

From the Circle of Alcuin to the School of Auxerre
  • Logic, Theology and Philosophy in the Early Middle Ages
  • John Marenbon
  • Published online:
    24 October 2009
    Print publication:
    14 May 1981
  • This study is the first modern account of the development of philosophy during the Carolingian Renaissance. In the late eighth century, Dr Marenbon argues, theologians were led by their enthusiasm for logic to pose themselves truly philosophical questions. The central themes of ninth-century philosophy - essence, the Aristotelian Categories, the problem of Universals - were to preoccupy thinkers throughout the Middle Ages. The earliest period of medieval philosophy was thus a formative one. This work is based on a fresh study of the manuscript sources. The thoughts of scholars such as Alcuin, Candidus, Fredegisus, Ratramnus of Corbie, John Scottus Eriugena and Heiric of Auxerre is examined in detail and compared with their sources; and a wide variety of evidence is used to throw light on the milieu in which these thinkers flourished. Full critical editions of an important body of early medieval philosophical material, much of it never before published, are included.

Church/Politcs:Adam Orleton
  • Roy Martin Haines
  • Published online:
    24 October 2009
    Print publication:
    30 March 1978
  • In recent years Edward II's reign has attracted the attention of a number of scholars whose work has considerably modified the traditional picture. As a result, there has been a move away from the emphasis on constitutional and administrative theory and practice to a consideration of the personalities involved, notably Edward himself and the earls of Pembroke and Lancaster. Although medieval biography is difficult, such an approach has been highly successful - the actions of individuals are seen to be crucial in any analysis of events. However, since Kathleen Edwards's pioneer article in the mid-1940s, the Church's contribution has been largely neglected. In her view, after Archbishop Winchelsey's death the bishops cut sorry figures indeed. The time has come for a more sympathetic appraisal, in particular of the role played by Adam Orleton, promoted successively bishop of Hereford, Worcester and Winchester by a pope who paid no attention to the expostulations of the government at home.

The Diplomas of King Aethlred 'the Unready' 978–1016
  • S. Keynes
  • Published online:
    19 October 2009
    Print publication:
    31 July 1980
  • The reign of Æthelred 'the Unready' (978–1016) is known to us mainly from a series of annals in the Anglo-Saxon Chrolicle, written at or after its close and accordingly conveying an impression of gathering doom as Viking armies ravaged the country and eventually, under the leadership of Swein Forkbeard and Cnut, brought about its conquest. Dr Keynes is here concerned to establish what light the royal diplomas issued in King Æthelred's name throw on this unhappy and notorious period. He first considers the general issues that bear directly on the value of royal diplomas as historical evidence for all periods of Anglo-Saxon history, discussing the circumstances under which these documents have been preserved, the techniques available for their criticism, and the arrangements that existed for their production. He then demonstrates how a detailed analysis of Æthelred's diplomas can transform our understanding of this troubled reign. On a practical level they provide invaluable evidence on the operation of royal government, and on a personal level they afford a remarkable insight into the relations between the king and his councillors, suggesting a picture of political manoeuvring and court intrigue which compensates for the chronicler's emphasis on the struggle against the marauding Vikings. By placing the familiar account of incessant warfare in the context of these domestic affairs it becomes possible for the first time to see the reign in its true perspective.

The Political Thought of William Ockham
  • Arthur Stephen McGrade
  • Published online:
    16 October 2009
    Print publication:
    13 June 1974
  • The English Franciscan, William of Ockham (c. 1285–1349), was one of the most important thinkers of the later middle ages. Summoned to Avignon in 1324 to answer charges of heresy, Ockham became convinced that Pope John XXII was himself a heretic in denying the complete poverty of Christ and the apostles and a tyrant in claiming supremacy over the Roman empire. Ockham's political writings were a result of these personal convictions, but also include systematic discourses on the basis and functions of spiritual and secular power as well as exhaustive discussions of Franciscan poverty and the general problem of papal heresy. Ockham emerges in this study as a man deeply committed to natural and Christian human rights, who found these fundamental values so seriously menaced in his time that their survival could be assured only by radical, even revolutionary, personal action and by a basic reworking of traditional political thought.

Durham Priory 1400–1450
  • R. B. Dobson
  • Published online:
    14 October 2009
    Print publication:
    26 July 1973
  • In the course of this work, Dr Dobson is able to throw new light on the universal aspirations and pre occupations of medieval monasticism. He reconstructs life in Durham in the century before its final dissolution and concludes that it was an example of 'comparatively successful conservatism' during a period in English history characterized by institutional resistance to social and intellectual change.

The Law of Treason and Treason Trials in Later Medieval France
  • S. H. Cuttler
  • Published online:
    13 October 2009
    Print publication:
    21 January 1982
  • This book presents a balanced account not only of the theoretical framework and legal complexities of the law of treason in later medieval France, but also of the extent and political context of that law's enforcement. By shedding some light on a larger issue - the interplay of law and politics, authority and power - the book contributes to our understanding of the French monarchy's efforts in the crucial fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to protect, extend and enforce its authority. The crown needed virtually all its judicial resources to cope with treason. Summary judgement and judgement by notoriety had largely given way by the fifteenth century to institutionalized procedures; special mention is made of trial by commission and the trial of peers. In the last five chapters the prosecution of treason is treated narratively to illuminate the policies of individual kings. Throughout the book comparisons are made with the English law.

Robert Winchelsey and the Crown 1294–1313
  • A Study in the Defence of Ecclesiastical Liberty
  • Jeffrey H. Denton
  • Published online:
    07 October 2009
    Print publication:
    27 November 1980
  • This is the first detailed study of the career of one of the most important medieval archbishops of Canterbury. Robert Winchelsey sought to defend ecclesiastical rights and liberties at a time when the English Church was under constant pressure from the king and his government, and he suffered suspension from office as a result of his opposition to Edward I. The theme of the book is the relationship of this learned and saintly archbishop with the Crown during the last troubled years of Edward I's reign and the first equally troubled years of Edward II's reign.

Community, Class and Careers
  • Michael J. Bennett
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    03 February 1983
  • This study of Cheshire and Lancashire society in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries is a unique attempt to reconstruct the social life of an English region in the later Middle Ages. Drawing on the voluminous archives of the two palatinates and the extensive muniment collections of local families, it offers an unusually rich and wide-ranging analysis of a dynamic regional society at a dramatic stage in its history.