Abstract: Venn and Victorian bishops abroad : the missionary policies of Henry Venn and their repercussions upon the Anglican episcopate of the colonial period 1841-1872

Abstract: The Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize Essay for 1975 (American Society of Church History)

Abstract: R ECENT historians have drawn attention to the influence of women in later lollardy, and it may also be that in parts of England as soon as lollardy moved out from the university some women immediately adopted its tenets, their involvement being largely hidden by the inadequacies of the contemporary sources. The attractions of lollardy for lay people in general and women in particular are not hard to understand. After a millennium during which a priestly caste had more and more been distancing itself from the laity certain discontented lay people, excluded from the mysteries of the church and especially from direct access to the scriptures, could scarcely have failed to respond to novel doctrines which stated that a lay man predestined to life stood equal in the eyes of God to any priest. These revolutionary ideas first propagated by Wyclif continued to be disseminated by some heretical clergy throughout the fifteenth century. One such priest, John Whitehorne, parson of the parish of Coombe Bisset in Wiltshire, in 1499 confessed to having taught, in addition to much else, that ‘when Christ should ascend into heaven, he left his power with his apostles and from them the same power remaineth with every good true Christian man and woman living virtuously, as the apostles did, so that priests and bishops have no more authority than another layman that followeth the teaching and good conversation of the apostles’.

Abstract: Episcopal historiography and family model in the Latin West in the ninth century The episcopal list, found in the gesta episcoporum (Metz, Naples, Ravenna, Le Mans, Auxerre, and Verdun) fulfills the same functions as does the genealogy in family histories : it establishes an episcopal pseudolineage which begins with Christ's apostles. The initial capital of saintliness is transmitted, from bishop to bishop, up to the one whose term of office is contemporary with the writing of the gesta; and often it is this person who commissioned the work. The libellus of the bishops of Metz even presents the unusual feature of grafting a true genealogy, that of the Carolingian kings, onto the episcopal list. In this way the saintliness of the episcopal pseudo-lineage is transmitted to the true royal lineage, thus legitimizing its accession to the throne. Further, the gesta establish the famlia for he fulfills a certain number of paternal functions : foster-father, builder, and parent, the bishop-father is above all the administrator of a patrimony. The family model plays a decisive twofold role in the ninth century, on the one hand, in the process of the structuration of the social group constituted by the episcopal church, and, on the other hand, in the defense of its patrimony.

Abstract: subject is vast in scope, complex in its development, controversial in its meaning, and relevant to other societies. Mexicans them selves have been debating the conflict for five decades with the passion and partisanship that characterizes the true believer. Politically, the government's interpretation of events—that the Mexican Revolution defended itself against a reactionary clergy allied with prerevolutionary elites, both of which were trying to block progress and justice and were willing to invoke foreign intervention—has assumed greater importance as the Revolution became institutionalized and less revolutionary.1 The scholars who have stepped into the fray have not escaped the effects of this heated debate. It is the purpose of this article to examine the nature of the scholarly argument and to suggest possible effects of nationality upon the perception of historical reality. The advent of the Mexican Revolution in 1910 decisively

Abstract: tury, and beginning a study of the colonial origins of communal strife in formerly British ruled areas. Elizabethan England was a community with the deep belief that a well-ordered hierarchy was the proper form for society (Tillyard, n.d.). At the apex stood the Queen, supreme governor of state and church. Beneath her were the lords temporal and spiritual who were to aid her in governing the remainder of the body politic. The bishops of the English church, whose family pattern is the concern of this essay, were the spiritual lords. The prelates, overseers of a hierachically organized church, were in theory the social equals of the nobility. In fact, the bishops’ position was not as strong as it had been in the past , for the power of the episcopate had been undermined by the Reformation which subjugated the church to the power of the state to an unprecedented degree. Among the handicaps faced by the Elizabethan diocesans were the hostility of

Abstract: A significant aspect of the religious scene in the early Stuart period was the survival of vibrant religious nonconformity in spite of Bancroft's “reconstruction of the English Church.” Historians have recently concentrated on the periods of excited religious politics under Elizabeth and the latter part of Charles I's reign and have tended to accept Hacket's Restoration apology that there was no serious opposition to official religious policy in the intervening years. But attempts to explain the phoenix-like rise of Puritanism in Caroline England by reference to socio-economic disequilibrium are not fully satisfactory.Decades ago, Roland G. Usher, who did much to highlight Bancroft's reconstruction, explained the origins of the resurgent Puritanism of the Laudian period by pointing to the mid-Jacobean period. W. H. Clark concurred: lax ecclesiastical administration under Abbot made it possible for Puritans to re-group, starting from about 1614. Both men assumed that there had been effective enforcement of the new Canons of 1604, and of the official policy enunciated at the Hampton Court Conference, until Abbot came on the scene. Analysis of the Church court records indicates that this was simply not so. The number of Puritans continued to rise while vigorous enforcement was spasmodic.Ironically, the years to which Usher and Clark attributed the origins of Caroline Puritanism were in fact the period when enforcement was possible. First, the Pamphlet War aroused by the new settlement had died down. Second, only two bishops, John King and George Mountain, held the See of London between 1611 and 1628.

Abstract: For Lord Macaulay the defiance offered by the seven bishops to James II marked a turning-point in English history. It was the story of men who would not stand by as a ‘harsh and inexorable prince’ destroyed constitutional liberties, established a military despotism, and imposed Catholicism by force. The great whig historian was not much given to praise of the clergy in general or bishops in particular, but even he could not withhold his admiration from an archbishop of Canterbury ‘who was ready to wear fetters and lay his aged limbs on bare stones rather than betray the interests of the Protestant religion and set the prerogative above the laws.’ Macaulay’s account of the seven bishops is, however, closely bound up with his view of James II as one of the great villains of English history, and recent historians, while enjoying the rich texture of Macaulay’s prose, find it difficult to accept the version of classical whig historiography. In their work James appears as not so much a tyrant as a peculiarly maladroit politician, not so much an absolutist with wide-ranging ambitions as an obstinate man of narrow religious perspectives. His little army was quite incapable of imposing Catholicism by force on a fiercely protestant nation. James’s aim was as simple as it was injudicious: to achieve civil emancipation for the small minority of his catholic co-religionists by a process of political manoeuvre and manipulation. Now, if this re-interpretation be correct, it is time to extend the process into ecclesiastical history and look afresh at the motives and policies of the seven bishops. I would suggest that what emerges is something quite different from the traditional heroic version but nonetheless an instructive study in the clerical mind of the late seventeenth century.

Abstract: The Teutonic Knights were a major power in the Baltic from the 13th to the 16th c. They maintained this status despite small numbers, the relative poverty of their lands, and the strength of their combined enemies because they made skillful use of the advantages inherent in their organization. First and foremost, as a crusading order, they had superior discipline and military training, did not suffer the agonies of divided inheritances, family feuds, or waiting for a minor ruler to come of age, and they did not have to play the complicated game of marital politics. Secondly, they were able to centralize their government and tax their subjects in a manner that was the envy of their many crusading guests. And lastly, they had ties to the Holy Roman Empire and the Church that permitted them to call upon the Emperor and the Pope for aid. This latter connection, that of the Teutonic Order to the popes, was of great importance to Baltic history because the crusade could not have been sustained over the centuries without papal approval and assistance; and this assistance was obtained only because the Teutonic Knights had a diplomatic service which was superior to that of all its enemies combined. The investigation of the diplomatic service of the Teutonic Order takes us back to the very origins of modern diplomacy. Historians are practically unanimous in declaring Renaissance Italy the birthplace of the resident ambassador; and it is with the resident ambassador that most of the ideas and customs associated with diplomacy came into being.1 The diplomat representing the Teutonic Order who followed the papal curia was present long before the Italian states sent their first ambassador, and he remained with the court permanently while the representatives of other religious orders came and went. Therefore, the Teutonic Orderacting out of its concern to protect its interests in Baltic politics against complaints from Poland, Denmark, Sweden, the cities and estates under its governance, the Hanseatic League, the Archbishop of Riga, the Bishops

Abstract: Despite all the attention lavished on the mid-eighteenth-century parliament, the House of Lords has been largely ignored by historians. The Whig historians of the nineteenth century were concerned with tracing the development of the House of Commons as the principal vehicle of constitutional progress, and in this century Namierites and neo-Whigs have alternately challenged and defended the Whig position, basing their arguments almost entirely on their views of proceedings in the lower chamber.1 The House of Lords was easy to neglect, one suspects, because most historians assumed that the upper House could be conveniently explained away as an appendage of the crown where an institutionalized majority of bishops, Scottish representative peers, placeholders, and newly-created peers could easily maintain a ministry.2 This, in turn, has led to a tendency to explain events in the House of Lords at any point in the century in terms of a static political structure, largely without regard to current issues or changes in the "structure of politics" at the national level.3

Abstract: REB 36 1978 France p. 233-260 ; Ch. Walter, Biographical scenes of the Three Hierarchs. — The author presents the known examples, some hitherto unpublished or unidentified, of biographical scenes for Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea and John Chrysostom. These scenes, which vary widely in each case, do not provide evidence for the existence of a structured biographical cycle for saintly Byzantine bishops. Either the scenes are pecular to the life of each bishop, or they belong to the general repertoire of the biographical cycle. Only consecration occurs fairly regularly in episcopal biography. In fact, Byzantine artists were more concerned to present the function of a bishop than the events of his life : particularly teaching, charitable action and celebration of the liturgy.

Abstract: Francisco de Vitoria, one of the key figures in the Theology of the sixteenth century, was the principal influence on those Spanish bishops who participated decisively in the Council of Trent and who contributed to the shaping of its canons De Reformatione with the principals of doctrine and discipline which would affect the life and office of bishops. As is well known, in his lectures given at the University of Salamanca, Francisco de Vitoria has left us a treasure of doctrinal riches, which would serve as a source to enrich all of those disciples of his, who afterwards would take their places as the great bishops and teachers of their times. From his commentaries to the Secunda-secundae of Saint Thomas, and from his Relectiones Theologicae on the Church, one can establish what would constitute his own thinking on the Church, and more to the point, on the office of bishop. One discovers in his lectures a dogmatic consideration on the bishop-Pastor which lays the basis of their concrete responsabilities (moral, ascetic and pastoral) in the dioceses where they govern, that is to say, their responsabilities to the souls given over to their pastoral care. Following the Angelic Doctor, who lays the basis of ecclesiastical power in Christ, the Head of the Church, Vitoria, in turn, derives the power of the bishop from that of Christ himself, and, as a result, he considers each bishop to be the Vicar of Christ in his Church and head of his own particular Church. Making use of another biblical image, Vitoria looks upon the bishops as the spouse of his Church, in imitation of Christ. He should care for it, as a husband should care for his wife who merits all of his attention and concern; he cannot abandon her, because between them there exists a binding force tamquam perpetuum which obligates him to remain faithful. From this doctrinal basis of the episcopal office Vitoria derives some practical demands which assure the faithlul carrying-out of the pastoral mission: the responsability to reside in the diocese, near his sheep; the responsability of trying to supply ideal priest; the responsability of attempting to achieve through serious effort his own sanctification. A particular church will be a faithful reflection of what its bishop is. And the bishop responds to the holiness of his flock through two principal means: to see to it that in his diocese sound doctrine is preached, and to correct with fortitude; he should also come to know the faithful personally and attend to the material needs of those most in need, as befits a true pater pauperum. The figure of the bishop which we can outline in Vitoria's theology does not appear as an "ideal" image, but rather as the "true" image of the bishop who is consequent with the ontological reality of his episcopal consecration and of his office: the responsability of the bishop in his diocese is born of the ontological reality which is given him by means of the Sacrament (the special identity with Christ as Head) and through the reception of the concrete office (a special relation to his particular Church and with its souls). The doctrine of Vitoria concerning the episcopal office constitutes an important milestone in the history of theology. The affirmation of the divine institution of the episcopal order led him to the conclusion which would later be declared by the Magistery of the Church at the end of the nineteenth century, and afterwards, by the second Vatican Council.

Abstract: 1621). His starting point was the notion that Christ would undoubtedly have provided his Church with the best and most suitable form of government available since it was within his power to do so. His next step was to examine the available forms of government: monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, with a view to determining which of these was the best and the most suitable. The conclusion he arrived at was that the best form of government available is a combination of all three. His concept of a monarchy tempered with elements of aristocracy and democracy requires some clarification. It envisages a society in which the supreme rule is in the hands of one man who is superior to all and subject to none. However, the individual parts or provinces of the society are not ruled by vicars of the supreme ruler, but by true princes who are subject to the supreme ruler yet rule their provinces as their own. In this way a society can be truly said to be ruled by a monarchy and an aristocracy. Further, if in this society the supreme ruler and the lesser princes do not acquire their dignity by hereditary succession, but are chosen on merit from the body of the people, then, as a society, it can be truly said to contain an element of democracy. In all this, of course, Bellarmine was describing the Church as he saw it.1 The monarchy, aristocracy and democracy being, respectively, the pope, the bishops and the faithful, and he went on to prove that in fact the Church founded by Christ was of precisely this nature, namely a composite of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. The Catholic view of the Church, as presented by Bellarmine, saw the Church as essentially a visible society in which all the conditions of membership can be verified externally. ' Nostra autem sententia est, Ecclesiam unam tantum esse,

Abstract: Because the York Corpus Christi cycle drew so much of its dramatic power from the life of the medieval community, it presents formidable problems to modern producers. One obvious difficulty stems from the anachronistic dramatization of scriptural history. How can one convey to a twentieth-century audience the contemporaneity of a play in which Pilate holds a Parliament with his ‘bishops’ and Christ enters Jerusalem like a king passing in royal procession through the gates of a medieval walled city? The forty-seven separate pageants in which the York cycle treats the story of man from the Creation to the Last Judgment were mounted by the craft guilds of the city under the supervision of the municipal authorities. By what process are these pageants to be produced today without the social and economic structure of the towns that gave to cycle plays the character of a truly civic drama? Finally, what performing style is to be used by modern actors? Even if the modern productions were to employ a historically accurate style (supposing that one could be reconstructed from surviving evidence), this style would only very partially convey to a modern audience the devotional, didactic, and ceremonial purposes of the medieval cycle.