Medieval History Commons^™

Strange Bedfellows : The Rise Of The Military Religious Orders In The Twelfth Century, Sarah E. Hayes

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

Most people would not describe Christian monks as militaristic. However, there are instances in history when Christians have strayed from their basic pacifist beliefs in the name of defending their religion. The most famous example of this would be the Military Orders of the medieval Crusades, when full scale war was encouraged by the Catholic Church in order to protect the Holy Land. These militant monks formed a new breed of religious organization where brothers were soldiers willing die defending Christianity against the infidel. Although the Order of the Temple, or the Templars, was the most infamous of the Orders, …

Chivalric Schism : The Man Who Occupies The Masculine And The Feminine 2014, Timothy C. Morris

Master's Theses

Designated male and female gender roles have created a certain set of expectations that shape the lives of men and women. Although there are benefits and drawbacks for each of the sexes as a result of these sets of rules, males have unquestionably seen themselves the beneficiaries throughout the course of history far more often than their female counterparts. I would argue, however, that chivalric codes, behaviors ascribed to men of the knightly class in the Middle Ages, are confusing and even contradictory for their subjects, thus negating some of the advantage typically granted by virtue of being a male. …

Tundale’S Vision: Socialization In 12th Century Ireland, Michael W. Deike

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this project is to explore the historical image of Hell in Medieval Europe as an agent of socialization for illiterate Christian communities. The project focuses on a literary work, Tundale’s Vision, written in 1149 C.E in Cashel, Ireland. Tundale’s Vision came from a genre of vision literature derived from popular oracular folk tradition surrounding the image of Hell that served the purpose of socializing Christian communities to certain social norms and stigmas presented by the author. Vision literature would be used by preachers in vernacular sermons throughout the Medieval period in order to reinforce moral and social …

The Idea Of ‘Holy Islamic Empire’ As A Catalyst To Muslims’ Response To The Second Crusade, Emeel S. Lamey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The oral traditions in the Islamic world presented only the moral benefits of Jihad. Yet, the fact is that, though the moral benefits continued to exist before and after the First Crusade, though the interest seemed to have been present and the necessary intellectual theories continued on, Muslims did not advance the practical Jihad. Nonetheless, the disastrous Second Crusade struck a powerful chord among Muslims. It forced Muslims to battle for their very survival, and to do so they would have to adapt, but equally they could only survive by drawing on their imperial inheritance built up over centuries. A …

Language As A Tool: The Use Of Arabic In Spain Under Islamic Rule, Madeline B. Hauenstein

Young Historians Conference

Beginning in 755 the Islamic rulers of Spain attempted to establish a culture of coexistence between the Jews, Christians and Muslims where the oppositional religions were able to unify for socio-economic benefit. The Arabic language proved to be the most significant factor in creating this unity as it was used to monitor trade, developments in the sciences and the preservation of philosophical developments from Greco-Roman antiquity.

The Contributions Of St. Cyprian: Perspectives On Epidemiology And Early Christianity, Iris M. Smith

Young Historians Conference

The Plague of 251 was nicknamed the Plague of Cyprian because of St. Cyprian of Carthage’s recordings of the epidemic. In Cyprian’s treatise ‘On Mortality’ he depicts the symptoms of the disease and offers advice to Christians on how to proceed. Cyprian offers valuable insights to the students of history by depicting a reliable account of the plague so as to build accounts of epidemiology, and as an abstract concept, Cyprian illustrates the moral battles surrounding fatality of early Christians. Records of the Plague of 251 are helpful to epidemiologists, and Cyprian's consolation tactics explain the emotions of early Christians …

Romance And Reason: Contextualizing The Arthurian Romances Of Chrétien De Troyes, Alexandra Borkowski

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

The twelfth century saw the birth of the romance in literature, as well as the intellectual and social developments of humanism. The romance often involved the adventures of the knight, focusing on the behavior of the knight using the ideals of courtly love and chivalry. Chrétien de Troyes (c.1135-c.1183) contributed to the discussion of chivalry and courtliness by writing narrative poetry involving the Arthurian legends. He focused on the consequences of his knightly characters’ choices in order to show examples of how a proper knight should behave. This emphasis on the choices of each knight conveys a humanistic perspective, which …

Quantitative Literacy And The Humanities, Rachel Chrastil

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Pieces Of A Mosaic: Revised Identities Of The Almoravid Dynasty And Almohad Caliphate And Al-Bayan Al-Mugrib, Rolando J. Gutierrez

CMC Senior Theses

This study seeks to clarify the identities of the Almoravid and Almohad Berber movements in the larger Crusade narrative. The two North African Islamic groups are often carelessly placed within the group identified as “Islam” in discussions about the series of military campaigns that took place not only in the traditional Holy Land but also throughout regions of the Mediterranean such as Spain; this generalized identifier of “Islam” is placed against a much more complex group of generally Christian parties, all of them seen as separate, unique groups under the umbrella identifier of Christianity. This foray into a late 13 …

Situating Digital Archives, Michelle R. Warren

Dartmouth Scholarship

This essay is the introduction to an essay collection about the Middle English Prose Brut manuscript purchased by Dartmouth College in 2006. I consider how the competing pressures of access and preservation condition scholarship in medieval studies. I suggest several analogies between the digital humanities in general, digital philology in medieval studies, and the historical practices of medieval writers: hacking, dark archive, and prosthesis.

Politicized Historiography And The Zionist-Crusader Analogy, Emma Kellman

Scripps Senior Theses

This study offers a look at the ways in which discourse shaped by the contemporary Israel-Palestine conflict serves as a framework for modern historiography on Palestine. It focuses specifically on the variety of historical narratives proffered as to the “truth” of the Crusade period in Palestine, roughly the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, and their mobilization in political agendas through the Zionist-Crusader analogy. This comparison, a historical analogy likening Zionists to Frankish Crusaders or the State of Israel to the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, appears frequently in contemporary dialogue on the Israel-Palestine conflict; it comes from a diverse range of …

Girl Power: The Episcopate And Female Agency In The Central Middle Ages, Jackie Brooks

Anthós

In 1076, Henry IV, King of Germany (1056-1106), convened a synod of bishops with the intention of denouncing and deposing Pope Gregory VII (1073-85) in response to the latter’s actions after the Lenten Synod of 1075. A majority of the German bishops present, allied with Henry, produced a letter to Gregory in which they renounced the method of his ascension to the papacy, as well as the methods he employed to achieve the reform he sought. In one passage, they particularly renounced Gregory’s well-known close relationships with several powerful women. The complaints of the bishops revolve around the belief that …

The Chimerae Of Their Age:Twelfth Century Cistercian Engagement Beyond Monastic Walls, Daniel J. Martin

Pomona Senior Theses

One of the great paradoxes of the medieval period is the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1225), in which monks of the Cistercian Order took an active and violent role in campaigning against the heretics of the Languedoc. Why, and how, did this order officially devoted to prayer and contemplation become one of the prime orchestrators of one of medieval Europe’s most gruesome affairs? This thesis seeks to answer that question, not by looking at the crusading Cistercians themselves, but at their predecessor Bernard of Clairvaux, who—I will argue—made the Albigensian Crusade possible by making it permissible for monks to intervene in the …

Expensive Errors Or Rational Choices: The Pioneer Fringe In Late Viking Age Iceland, Orri Vesteinsson, Mike Church, Andrew Dugmore, Thomas Mcgovern, Anthony Newton

Publications and Research

Just as the colonies established on the North Atlantic islands in the Viking Age were peripheral to Europe, so these islands had their own peripheral areas. In Iceland the highland margins have long been a focus of archaeological research and the prevailing view has been that highland settlement failed because people had made unrealistic assessments of carrying capacity. This paper presents a case study of the northern highland valley of Krókdalur and argues that the dating and pattern of settlement in that valley indicates that its settlers were keenly aware of its limitations. It also suggests explanatory frameworks that can …

Heterogeneous Immunological Landscapes And Medieval Plague : An Invitation To A New Dialogue Between Historians And Immunologists., Fabian Crespo, Matthew B. Lawrenz

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Efforts to understand the differential mortality caused by plague must account for many factors, including human immune responses. In this essay we are particularly interested in those people who were exposed to the Yersinia pestis pathogen during the Black Death, but who had differing fates—survival or death—that could depend on which individuals (once infected) were able to mount an appropriate immune response as a result of biological, environmental, and social factors. The proposed model suggests that historians of the medieval world could make a significant contribution to the study of human health, and especially the role of human immunology in …

The Dartmouth Brut: Conservation, Authenticity, Dissemination, Deborah Howe, Michelle R. Warren

Dartmouth Scholarship

This essay describes the conservation process of the Dartmouth Brut manuscript: Dartmouth College, Rauner Special Collections Library, MS 003183. The format alternates between the observations and descriptions of the conservator, Deborah Howe, and those of medievalists Michelle Warren. The essay includes photos of Deborah's process in making a fragile fifteenth-century manuscript useable in the twenty-first century.

Appendix A To Feeling Like Saints: Lollard Writings After Wyclif, Fiona Somerset

Supplementary Material for Published Books

Appendix A: Brief Descriptions of Frequently Cited Manuscripts

These descriptions provide a list of contents for selected manuscripts frequently cited in Feeling Like Saints: Lollard Writings after Wyclif (Cornell U. P., 2014). I have worked extensively with each of these manuscripts, but I also rely on previous descriptions as cited within. Abbreviations used are those listed in the table of abbreviations in the published book.

Appendix B To Feeling Like Saints: Lollard Writings After Wyclif, Fiona Somerset

Supplementary Material for Published Books

Appendix B: The Pastoral Syllabus of SS74 and a Detailed Summary of the Sermons

This appendix summarizes the contents of each sermon in the sermon cycle that occupies the bulk of Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College MS 74. Details are given of the epistle lection, the sermon from the English Wycliffite Sermons included as a protheme, the content of the epistle sermon, and the pastoral teaching provided. Abbreviations used are those in the table of abbreviations in Feeling Like Saints: Lollard Writings after Wyclif (Cornell, 2014).

Par Fiance Bien Tenir: Medieval Same-Sex Kinship And Sworn Brotherhood In Le Roman De Thèbes, Elizabeth Hubble

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

Par fiance bien tenir: Medieval Same-Sex Kinship and Sworn Brotherhood in Le Roman de Thèbes This article adds to the growing archive on medieval same-sex unions by examining an overlooked scene in an often overlooked early medieval French romance, the mid-twelfth-century Roman de Thèbes. An Old French rewriting of Statius’ Latin epic, The Thebaid, Thèbes features a formal ceremony of sworn brotherhood between two of the main characters, the knights Polynices and Tydeus. In contrast to the slightly later Roman d’Enéas, Thèbes does not counter such same-sex bonds with a heterosexual love relationship. Rather, Thèbes posits competing constructions of masculinity …

Gender And The Fate Of Julian’S Short Text, Rebecca June

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

Gender and the Fate of Julian’s Short Text Most studies of Julian of Norwich’s Showings juxtapose her Short and Long texts, with a marked lack of enthusiasm for the Short Text in contrast to its longer, revised form thought to be textually and theologically superior. This essay asks what is at stake in the rigorous defense of Julian’s Long Text and argues that the issue of gender is central both to its revisions and to its favorable reception. The most noted revision related to gender in the Long Text is the addition of its maternal Jesus, characterized as redemptive of …