Early medieval ecclesiastical history, Crusades

Highly Commended in the British Records Association Janette Harley Prize 2018.

The pontificate of Honorius III (1216–27) ranks among the most important papal reigns of the thirteenth century: the pope organised two large-scale crusades to recover the Holy Land, the second of which recovered Jerusalem for the first time since 1187; he presided over a ‘golden summer’ of papal-imperial relations with the medieval stupor mundi, Frederick II, emperor of the Romans and king of Sicily; he developed an original theological conception of his office; and he laid the foundations for a centralised papal financial machine. Yet, despite his significant impact on early thirteenth-century Christendom, Honorius has often languished in the shadow of his famous predecessor, Innocent III – a balance that the present book redresses.

Grounded in extensive original research into the manuscripts of Honorius’s letter registers, this study develops a revisionist interpretation of how the curia marshalled the crusading movement to recover the Holy Land. Questioning the utility of the historiographical construct of ‘papal policy’, this book provides new insights into crusade diplomacy, papal theology, the roles of legates, and the effectiveness of crusade taxation. It also includes a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the papal chancery and its documents, which will be of particular use to students and those approaching the medieval papacy for the first time.

There is no evidence that the constructed figure that we call Hildegard of Bingen wrote any of the 77 songs in her name, or wrote them for her nuns to sing at daily service. This music, too, appears capricious and uncontrolled, especially in its word setting. Unsettling, too, is the failure of various Hildegard biographers to place the abbess in a clear ecclesiastical or political context. This papers questions the modern cult for Hildegard in the context of recordings by nine ensembles of 'her' work.

There are many questions surrounding the historiography around the martyrdoms of St Julius, St Aaron and St Alban. Whilst Saint Alban is associated with the town of that name, Matthew Parisin his account leaves tantalising clues about what really happened to the saint. A continental rescension of the identity of his executioner argues against the identity of Diocletian as the executioner. Most compelling, is that while it seems Alban was a priest at Verulamium, Bede's geographical description of the topology of the town, does not bear any resemblance to that town, although fits neatly to Caerleon. The chroniclesgive us extra information, which may not be in my final paper, but have been left in for the present, as they do present more information than we have at present about the two Caerleon saints. Birley shows us that while Julius was a common name, Julius Julianus, who had been serving in the middle east, was appointed as legate to the Second Augustans at the same time as Severus visited Caerleon as depicted in his itineraries.It is up to us to scrutinise, but I am attempting to build a more comprehensive picture of the martyrdoms, since there are places connected with all three saints at Caerleon.