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The history of medieval Germany is still rarely studied in the English-speaking world. This collection of essays by distinguished German historians examines one of most important themes of German medieval history, the development of the local principalities. These became the dominant governmental institutions of the late medieval Reich, whose nominal monarchs needed to work with the princes if they were to possess any effective authority. Previous scholarship in English has tended to look at medieval Germany primarily in terms of the struggles and eventual decline of monarchical authority during the Salian and Staufen eras – in other words, at the "failure" of a centralised monarchy. Today...
On 13 June 1525, Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, a former nun, in a private ceremony officiated by city preacher Johann Bugenhagen. Whilst Luther was not the first former monk or Reformer to marry, his marriage immediately became one of the iconic episodes of the Protestant Reformation. From that point on, the marital status of clergy would be a pivotal dividing line between the Catholic and Protestant churches. Tackling the early stages of this divide, this book provides a fresh assessment of clerical marriage in the first half of the sixteenth century, when the debates were undecided and the intellectual and institutional situation remained fluid and changeable. It investigates t...
Whilst much recent scholarly work has sought to place early modern British and Irish history within a broader continental context, most of this has focused on western or northern Europe. In order to redress the balance, this new study by David Worthington explores the connections linking writers and expatriates from the later Tudor and Stuart kingdoms with the two major dynastic conglomerates east of the Rhine, the Austrian Habsburg lands and Poland-Lithuania. Drawing on a variety of sources, including journals, diaries, letters and travel accounts, the book not only shows the high level of scholarly interest evidenced within contemporary English language works about the region, but how many...
The Carmelites' role as one of the four great mendicant orders was not unchallenged. Originating as an association of hermits on Mount Carmel, the order experienced a dramatic transformation in the thirteenth century while its name was a reminder to origins which were obscure and its first form of religious life was diametrically opposed to the mendicant ministry. In addition the 'White Friars' were unable to find legitimization in a charismatic founder figure, unlike the Franciscans and the Dominicans. These factors led the Carmelites to create an identity finding their roots with the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who appear in texts and were represented in altar pieces and other works of art...
This lively overview of the papal justice system reaches a transatlantic readership and makes available the fruit of Fosi's decades-long research in unpublished archives in Rome and the Vatican.
Historians have traditionally studied late medieval education backward – through the eyes of religious and political reformers critical of that which preceded them. This has led to significant distortions. Histories written from this perspective, tend to overemphasize the novelty of early modern educational reforms at the expense of evident continuities, and focus on conflict between ecclesiastical and lay authorities rather than cooperation. This book focuses instead, on the medieval experience of education through a detailed reconstruction of the educational landscape of late medieval Regensburg. The resulting picture provides new insights into the relationship between civic authorities and ecclesiastical institutions, the role of education in social and economic mobility, and the connections between local communities and broader European educational structures.
English In Eine wahrhaft königliche Stadt, Daniela Kah describes how contemporary residents and visitors were able to experience and perceive the presence of the Holy Roman Empire (or its representatives, e.g., the king) in three late medieval cities -- Augsburg, Nürnberg and Lübeck. After receiving privileges from the king, these cities initiated large construction projects designed to assert their imperial status. These projects had a major impact on everyday life and made the Empire visible and graspable within the city. However, in the 13th century the cities increasingly deployed symbols and signs to represent their self-understanding as 'imperial'. ‘Being immediate to the Empireâ€...
The study of medieval clothing and textiles reveals much about the history of our material culture, as well as social, economic and cultural history as a whole.
The Anticimenon of Anselm of Havelberg is both the outstanding medieval work on ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox and one of the period's most important explorations of the theology of history. This text's author was a bishop on Christianity's eastern frontier and companion to Norbert of Xanten, saint-founder of the Order of Pramontra. Anselm grounded both his zeal for the union of the churches and his Vision of the Holy Spirit's role in secular events in the renewal and purification advocated by the twelfth-century reformation. The present volume, the first English translation of Anselm's Anticimenon, sets his work in the context of the early Premonstratensian (Norbertine) thought integ...
This book tells the story of German cities' metamorphoses from walled to defortified places between 1689 and 1866. Using a wealth of original sources, the book discusses one of the most significant moments in the emergence of the modern city: the dramatic and often traumatic demolition of the city's centuries-old fortifications and the creation of the open city.