Reforming Galway. Civic society, religious change and St Nicholas’s collegiate church, 1550–1750. By Raymond Gillespie. (Maynooth Historical Studies.) Pp. 221 incl. 10 ills. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2024. £45. 978 1 80151 128 5

Book Review: <i>Reforming Galway: Civic society, Religious Change and St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church, 1550–1750</i> by Gráinne McPolin and Louise Ryan Gráinne McPolin, Louise Ryan, Reforming Galway: Civic society, Religious Change and St Nicholas’s Collegiate Church, 1550–1750 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2024, 221 pp., €50 hardback)

Colmán N. Ó Clabaigh, O.S.B. The Franciscans in Ireland, 1400–1534: From Reform to Reformation. (Maynooth Historical Studies.) Portland, Oreg.: Four Courts Press. 2002. Pp. 208. $50.00 Get access Clabaigh Colmán N. Ó, O.S.B. The Franciscans in Ireland, 1400–1534: From Reform to Reformation. (Maynooth Historical Studies.) Portland, Oreg.: Four Courts Press. 2002. Pp. 208. $50.00. Francis J. Cotter, O.F.M. Francis J. Cotter, O.F.M. Dun Mhuire Killiney, Ireland Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 109, Issue 1, February 2004, Pages 240–241, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/109.1.240-a Published: 01 February 2004

Under the combined effects of the Protestant and Catholic Reformations within and pressure from the Ottoman Empire without, early modern Europe became a site in which an unprecedented number of people were confronted by new beliefs, and collective and individual religious identities were broken down and reconfigured. Conversions: gender and religious change in early modern Europe is the first collection to explicitly address the intersections between sexed identity and religious change in the two centuries following the Reformation. The varied and wide-ranging chapters in this collection bring the Renaissance 'turn of the soul' into productive conversation with the three most influential ‘turns’ of recent literary, historical, and art historical study: the ‘turn to religion’, the ‘material turn’, and the ‘gender turn’. Contributors consider masculine as well as feminine identity, and consider the impact of travel, printing, and the built environment alongside questions of genre, race and economics. Of interest to scholars of early modern history, literature, and architectural history, this collection will appeal to anyone interested in the vexed history of religious change, and the transformations of gendered selfhood. Bringing together leading scholars from across the disciplines of literary study, history and art history, Conversions: gender and religious change offers novel insights into the varied experiences of, and responses to, conversion across and beyond Europe. A lively Afterword by Professor Matthew Dimmock (University of Sussex) drives home the contemporary urgency of these themes, and the lasting legacies of the Reformations.

Mystical Traditions Are Political

The Sexual Shame of the Chaste: ‘Abortion Miracles’ in Early Medieval Saints’ Lives

reference to many original sources and the contemporary anecdotal accounts are valuable and bring the texts to life. Specialist articles on sister physicians including their medical training curricula (Barbra Mann Wall), together with new perspectives on religious in Ireland through the lens of translations from French by Catholic women religious in nineteenth century Ireland (Michèle Milan), will be of interest to scholars of these topics. An historical article on the Presentation Sisters (Catherine Nowlan-Roebuck) deals with what will be familiar to many concerning the founding and early days of the congregation but also informs us of the involvement of the bishops in regulating affairs, sometimes with a heavy hand. For the non-expert, like this reviewer, the overseas involvement in religious education in countries which today are rich first-world countries, makes the book particularly interesting. One gets an historical insight from contemporary sources of how new countries were dealing with their problems of integration and education and which factors eased or contributed to the difficulties encountered. Áilín Doyle has practised as a solicitor and lectured in moral theology at the Milltown Institute in Dublin. Saint Brigid of Kildare: Life, Legend and Cult, Noel Kissane (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2017), 357 pages. This is a comprehensive account of St Brigid, the Mary of the Gael. It is the fruit of a life time of research. The author became academically involved with St Brigid when he completed a doctoral dissertation under the supervision of the distinguished Austrian medieval scholar Ludwig Bieler. Subsequently, in 1977, he edited and published the Metrical Life of St Brigid, which had been written in Latin by an Irish bishop in Italy in the ninth century. Since then he has been pursuing the elusive St Brigid. At the outset Kissane describes the Ireland of St Brigid’s time, its culture and its identity. Then he surveys the extensive literature on the saint. He begins with seven extant early lives, dating from the seventh to the twelfth century.The first of these, by Cogitosus, is the most important, because it is the closest to Brigid’s life-span. Kissane urges caution in assessing it, however. He highlights the fact that Cogitosus, a cleric resident at Kildare, was keen by his account to enhance Brigid’s reputation as a means of promoting the status Studies • volume 107 • number 426 248 Summer 2018: Book Reviews of Kildare, at a time when it was in competition with Armagh for precedence in the Irish church. All the extant lives represented an oral tradition and were primarily concerned with Brigid’s way of life rather than her life as such, and focused on her saintliness and the alleged miracles that testified to this. Kissane points out that for some scholars, including Pádraig Ó Riain, the foremost authority on the early Irish saints, St Brigid was not a real person. He rehearses the arguments for and against her historicity. In the end he states that, ‘while here is no conclusive evidence that Brigid actually existed, taking everything into account, the balance of probability suggests that Brigid was a real person, albeit of uncertain origins and manifesting many of the attributes of her namesake, the pagan goddess Brigit’. Acknowledging that hagiography is not history and is generally not given much credence in historical studies, Kissane claims that the contemporary or near-contemporary lives of early Irish saints contain a stratum of biographical information, some of which may be generally accurate. On that basis he sets out his putative biography of St Brigid. He fixes her life cycle at c. 450–530. Her father was Dubthach, a member of the Fothairt, a tribe who acted as mercenaries for the Uí Fhailge dynasty. He resided close to Croghan Hill in present-day County Offaly, hence this would seem to have been Brigid’s birthplace. She was born of an illicit union of Dubthach and his slave Broicsech. She grew up in her father’s household and was engaged in caring for farm animals. A Christian from an early age, she was later a leading figure in the Irish church and was involved in the establishment of convents, churches and monasteries while being mainly associated...

534 Reviews that science by itsnature makes progress, whereas there can be no proof that literary criticism is now superior to criticism of the past, and he argues that some writing in semiotics is in fact amere tautologous display of itsown axioms. Against all this he sets the shining remainder-the element of vital transcendence in a literarywork which resists all explanation. These arguments are put forward in a lively and coherent manner, and carry a good deal of conviction. One may wonder whether the views criticized are really as much of an orthodoxy as the author claims, in view of the quite large number of distinguished critics he isable to cite inhis support. One may also regret thathe does not consider whether the 'scientific'methods, while not providing a total account of awork of literature,might form a basis forcritical thought, as Larizza himself notes thatLanson used positivistic history as a basis forperceptive judgement. One might also regret that the statement that the literarywork isperhaps above all the expres sion of an individuality is simply asserted, and not treated as amatter of degree; it certainly seems arguable thatwhat can be 'scientifically' studied is precisely those aspects which express a community or culture. The second part of thebook isentitled 'Prescription'. This is less satisfactory than the negative comments in the firstsection. The main proposal is that the criticism should be amimesis of the original work, or a prolongation of it. If thismeans that thecritic's task is toassist readers in theirappreciation of awork, the ideawill be wel comed bymany people. But what should this assistance consist of?Larizza mentions historical context, explanation, and elucidation (though elsewhere he implies that the work isessentially inexplicable); and he asserts that thework of criticism itselfshould be creative. He adds a 'methodological' appendix: the inverted commas are justified, since his whole argument would seem to suggest thatno method ispossible. And in facthis recommendations here seem obvious: avoid obviously false interpretations, remember the historic context, study influences and models, consider the author's framework of ideas; use your own sensibility; and seek to demonstrate the origina lityof thework studied. That these things need to be said in France will strike the English-speaking reader as a demonstration of Larizza's comment that in criticism, as inother things, there is an 'exception francaise'; ifEnglish-language criticism has its limitations, theyare very different limitations from these. UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER, COLERAINE R. A. YORK Italian Culture: Interactions, Transpositions, Translations. Ed. by CORMAC 0 CUIL LEANAIN,CORINNA SALVADORI, and JOHN SCATTERGOOD. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2oo6. 264 PP. E50. ISBN 978-I-84682-025-0. This collection of essays is theoutcome of a seminar held atTrinity College, Dublin, in 2002 tomark the retirementofCorinna Salvadori after a long career during which she has made an outstanding contribution to Italian studies at theCollege as scho lar, teacher, and friendof generations of students. The title indicates the very varied nature of the subject-matter, where 'translation' is interpreted in the broad sense of 'the interaction of Italian literaryculture with other cultures and with itself' (p. 9). This was a happy decision of theeditors in that itallowed the fifteencontributors, all closely associated with Trinity, to exploit theirown specialist research interests,and at the same time to show thedirection that Italian scholarship has taken at theCollege over the past fifty years. The volume serves, therefore,not only tohonour Professor Salvadori Lonergan but also tomark the 230 years of Italian studies atTrinity, which the recipient herself traces in a historical survey. She shows how Italian inDublin, as elsewhere, has not always had an easy passage but how the difficulties seem to MLR, I02.2, 2007 535 have strengthened the resolve of successive members of the department tomaintain a strong presence of Italian culture in theCollege. Trinity has a tradition of producing work in translation from Italian since at least the time of Harry McWilliam and Tom O'Neill and up to the present day, with Professor Lonergan and her colleague Cormac 0 Cuillean'ain actively engaged in the process. The latter's study ofMcWilliam' sversion of theDecameron is fullof interest ing insights, as one would expect froma formerwinner of theFlorio Prize. Rosangela Barone, a Director of...

Reviewed by: The Cathedral 'Open and Free': Dean Bennett of Chester Robert W. Prichard The Cathedral 'Open and Free': Dean Bennett of Chester. By Alex Bruce. [Liverpool Historical Studies, no. 16.] (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. Distributed in the United States by ISBS, Portland, Oregon. 2000. Pp. xiv, 286. $19.95 paperback.) Alex Bruce has produced a detailed study of the role of Frank Selwyn Macauly Bennett in adjusting the character of Anglican cathedrals to the changed circumstances of post-World War I England. Bennett served as dean of the cathedral in Chester, England from 1920 to 1937, wrote numerous short works on the place of the cathedral in the life of the church, and served on a Church of England Commission that made recommendations about cathedrals, collegiate churches, and chapters (1924-1927). Bruce demonstrated that soon [End Page 988] after assuming office at Chester, Bennett turned Chester Cathedral into a model for cathedrals elsewhere in England. Bruce, a retired headmaster and local historian, detailed a series of specific changes introduced by Bennett at Chester Cathedral. Bennett extended the hours in which the cathedral was open; increased the rota worships services to include daily celebrations of the Eucharist, Matins, Evensong, and Compline; eliminated entrance fees, arranged to have clergy available around the clock for counseling; and oversaw changes to the physical plant that included installation of electricity, the creation of a "great Hall" in which community events could be held, and the designation of a parlor in which canons could relax and smoke their pipes. Bruce had a good command of the details of the story that he has related. He traced Bennett's family origins and his early history in two parishes in Chester (Portwood and Christ Church) and one in the diocese of St. Asaph in Wales (Hawarden). Bruce patiently explained the sometimes-perplexing contingencies of the Anglican Church. He noted, for example, the difference between cathedrals of ancient foundation and those of modern foundation; explained the complicated debate around the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church of Wales, investigated the origin of the entrance fees that Bennett so opposed (perhaps an outgrowth of tips given to the vergers and sextons who conducted tours) and the claims that others preceded Bennett in their elimination (true only in qualified ways—i.e. for limited periods of time or for limited portions of the church building); and speculated on the behind-the-scenes developments by which Bennett received his various appointments. The book can be a gold mine of information for those seeking to understand the workings of the early twentieth-century Church of England. Bruce had much less to say about the relationship of developments in the Church England to those in churches of other denominations or to those in churches other parts of the Anglican Communion. He did, however, provide some interesting hints. He explained, for example, that there was no evidence that the re-established Roman Catholic cathedrals of nineteenth-century England charged admission. He also noted that Bennett traveled to the United States in 1926 to share his vision of the role of a cathedral with American Episcopalians. Others will have to follow up on such leads in telling the broader story of the modernization of the cathedral. An editor's note at the beginning of the book explained that Alex Bruce died while the book was in press. Robert W. Prichard Virginia Theological Seminary Copyright © 2007 The Catholic University of America Press

Colum Hourihane, ed., Irish Art Historical Studies in Honour of Peter Harbison. (Index of Christian Art, Occasional Papers, 7.) Princeton, N.J.: Index of Christian Art, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, in association with Four Courts Press, 2004. Pp. xxiv, 310; black-and-white frontispiece portrait, many black-and-white figures, black-and-white and color plates, and tables. $65. Distributed by ISBS, 920 NE

Irish art historical studies in honour of Peter Harbison. Edited by Colum Hourihane. Pp 336, illus. Dublin: Four Courts Press. 2004. €55.

Toby Barnard. Four Courts Press, 2005. 128 pp plus 16 page plate section. €19.95/£14.95/$24.95 paperback. ISBN 1–85182–822–2. €45/£40/$45 hardback. ISBN 1–85182–951–2. Irish culture is often regarded as pre-eminently literary, verbal and musical. The study of Irish visual culture has been relegated to a subordinate place in Irish studies. Everyday objects and the handcrafted artefacts and mass produced designs used by Irish people in the past have just as much significance as in countries with a stronger tradition of awareness of material culture. This pioneering guide to the sources and scholarship of Irish material culture by the leading historian in the field opens up the case for material culture studies in the wider context of Irish historical studies. The focus throughout the guide reflects Dr Barnard's own areas of interest in seventeenth- and eighteenth- century Ireland. Therefore the emphasis is on the period before even limited small-scale mass-production of goods was possible. This book gives an overview of the current state of Irish material culture studies, surveys recent research in the areas of design history, handcraft and the decorative arts generally, and outlines the current concerns of scholars working in this area and related fields. The definition of material culture is broad but its main focus reflects research already undertaken in particular areas such as the vernacular tradition of country furniture, significant new research on Irish glass, ceramics, silver, bookbinding, plasterwork, interior architecture and cabinet-making. There are fewer references to dress and clothing, textiles, jewellery history and mass-produced objects.

This chapter attempts to show some important implications of the relational theory of religion set forth in Chap. 3. The first implication is that the theory offers a new perspective on the historical differentiation of religion and state. The second implication is that central historical religious changes and developments can be analysed in a different light when religions are regarded as embedded in a relational field consisting of but not limited to other significant religions. The third implication of the theoretical outline is the suggestion that state religious policies have played a crucial role in countries other than Denmark, suggesting this is a general phenomenon. As an example, the historical study by Jonathan Israel is used to show that tolerant religious policies of William of Orange during and after the Glorious Revolution was also informed to a significant extent by state reason and defence considerations. On the basis of these examples as well as the following case study, the book suggests that the relational approach to the study of religion set forth in Chap. 3 can solve some of the inherent problems in secularization theory in particular and sociology in general.

This book analyzes Confucian ideology as culture and culture as history by exploring the interplay between popular ritual performance of the opera Mulian and gentrified mercantile lineages in late imperial Huizhou. Mulian, originally a Buddhist tale featuring the monk Mulian's journey through the underworld to save his mother, underwent a Confucian transformation in the sixteenth century against a backdrop of vast socioeconomic, intellectual, cultural, and religious changes. The author shows how local elites appropriated the performance of Mulian, turning it into a powerful medium for conveying orthodox values and religious precepts and for negotiating local social and gender issues altered by the rising money economy. The sociocultural approach of this historical study lifts Mulian out of the exorcistic-dramatic-ethnographic milieu to which it is usually consigned. This new approach enables the author to develop an alternative interpretation of Chinese popular culture and the Confucian tradition, which in turn sheds significant new light upon the social history of late imperial China.

This chapter examines how a distinctive historical consciousness informed how awakened Protestants understood their religious beliefs and activities. An intrinsic problem that is common to the historical study of all strongly partisan movements in the history of Protestantism is understanding the mentality, or worldview, of those who desired to see religious changes. To understand the Awakening movement, there is a need to understand what the Protestant activists wanted to awaken. This chapter answers this question by considering two competing interpretations of the history of modern Protestantism that appeared within the Protestant churches of Germany before and during the Awakening. The former of these narratives perceived changes in faith and theology as signs that Christianity was progressively advancing through the providential enlightenment of the church. The latter regarded these same changes as a falling away from the forms of faith and theology that were taught by the Bible.

The field of Global Christianity emerged from colonial historical sources and methodologies, but it also diverged from some scholarship on colonialism in key ways. Nineteenth and early-twentieth century histories of modern Christian expansion outside Europe and North America centered Western missionaries as the heroic protagonists. However, starting in the early-mid twentieth century, historians of Global Christianity began expanding their scope of historical inquiry. Importantly, by the beginning of the 1980s, the field of Global Christianity, writing against a general trend in social scientific scholarship at the time, insisted upon the importance of the “religious” as a distinct category of life that could not be reducible to other explanatory factors. While this move made an important contribution to understanding Christianity, colonialism, and religious change, it also had an effect of isolating the study of Global Christianity from the study of politics, economics, and geography. This chapter briefly introduces various sources used in the historical study of Global Christianity, as well as practical tips for working in archives.