Penitential

Abstract: The cult of relics the saints and their relics the pursuit of the miraculous the medicine of the sick origins and ideals the penitential pilgrimage the great age of pilgrimage the legacy of the Crusades the growth of a cult the journey the sanctuary Rome the later Middle Ages I - "light-minded and inquisitive persons" the later Middle Ages II - "base-born men" medieval Christianity.

Abstract: The issue of authority in the church" what constitutes authority, and who has it" has been one of the foremost issues throughout church history, including the modern church.The practice of the early church and the writings of the New Testament are of primary importance for understanding the problem of authority. We can enhance our understanding further by taking into consideration the sociological phenomena surrounding any emergent social group that traverses a path from charismatic leadership to formal governing structures.Von Campenhausen s masterful blending of historical assessment with sociological analysis makes this work a fundamental resource for the study of the development of the early church and the writings of the New Testament."This is a fine book which demonstrates the author's deep learning and his grasp of the whole complex history of the Church in the first three centuries. . . . Within the limits he has set for himself, however, the author has written a work of great value and significance. A wealth of topics, including the development of the Church's penitential discipline and the power of the Keys as a factor in arousing the self-awareness of the clergy, receive the stamp of his erudition. In days when authority remains one of the divisive elements in Christendom, theologians of all traditions will find this work indispensable."" W. H. C. Frend, "Journal of Ecclesiastical History"

Abstract: Pre-Conquest attitudes towards the dying and the dead have major implications for every aspect of culture, society and religion of the Anglo-Saxon period; but death-bed and funerary practices have been comparatively and unjustly neglected by historical scholarship In her wide-ranging analysis, Dr Thompson examines such practices in the context of confessional and penitential literature, wills, poetry, chronicles and homilies, to show that complex and ambiguous ideas about death were current at all levels of Anglo-Saxon society Her study also takes in grave monuments, showing in particular how the Anglo-Scandinavian sculpture of the ninth to the eleventh centuries may indicate not only the status, but also the religious and cultural alignment of those who commissioned and made them Victoria Thompson undertook her postgraduate work in English and Medieval Studies at the University of York and currently lectures in medieval history for New York University's London Program

Abstract: Anglo-Saxonists have often referred to a ‘penitential tradition’ in Old English literature, the poetry in particular, without establishing a connection between that tradition and the administrative sources on which it rested. Especially in the later Anglo-Saxon period, the time of AElfric and Wulfstan, the literature pertaining to penance was extensive. It included handbooks of penance or ‘penitentials’, homilies about penitential practice and liturgical texts of various kinds, among them instructions for confessors, prayers for penitents and rites of public penance. Whether this material should be called ‘literature’ is an open question, but certainly its relevance to penitential themes in Old English poetry needs to be examined. Before we can grasp the significance of the ‘penitential tradition’ for either the literary or the social history of Anglo-Saxon England, it would seem necessary to understand better than we now do the sources and affiliations of the legislative texts, the penitentials in particular, which governed the practice of penance.