French Monk Research Articles

Debates about belief in the western Muslim area, the exemple of Al Baji's exchange with the christian monk

Praise is due to Allah, The Unique, The One who is not in need of anything or any creature, Whom no one is God except Him, Whom is exalted and beyond having a son. Everything bears witness that He is Unique. May God raise the rank of Prophet Muhammad, whose coming was foretold in the Torah and the Evangel. May Allah elevate the status of our beloved Prophet's kin and noble companions. There has been controversies and debates between Western Islamic scholars and others throughout the ages. The ways of their debates and their writings varied. Their fatwas are based on the multiplicity of people of desires, sects, and beliefs. Some of them responded to the Christians, some of them to the Jews, and some of them provided arguments against the people of the whims such as the anthropomorphic, the Shiite, the Zahiri, the Mu’tazila, the Bakriyah, the philosophers, and others who disagreed with the Sunnah and others who deviated from the sunni tradition and consensus. Abu al-Walid al-Baji is considered one of the most prominent theologians of the Almoravid era. During my exploration of his work titled "Theological Discourse in the Almoravid Period: Characteristics and Manifestations, with a Realization of Some Examples," I was struck by his theological debates with his adversaries and his strong responses to them, including his rebuttal of the French monk and others.

Athletic Mobile Manipulator System for Robotic Wheelchair Tennis

Athletics are a quintessential and universal expression of humanity. From French monks who in the <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$12{\text{th}}$</tex-math></inline-formula> century invented <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">jeu de paume</i> , the precursor to modern lawn tennis, back to the <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">K'iche'</i> people who played the Maya Ballgame as a form of religious expression over three thousand years ago, humans have sought to train their minds and bodies to excel in sporting contests. Advances in robotics are opening up the possibility of robots in sports. Yet, key challenges remain, as most prior works in robotics for sports are limited to pristine sensing environments, do not require significant force generation, or are on miniaturized scales unsuited for joint human-robot play. In this letter, we propose the first open-source, autonomous robot for playing regulation wheelchair tennis. We demonstrate the performance of our full-stack system in executing <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ground strokes</i> and evaluate each of the system's hardware and software components. The goal of this letter is to (1) inspire more research in human-scale robot athletics and (2) establish the first baseline for a reproducible wheelchair tennis robot for regulation singles play. Our paper contributes to the science of systems design and poses a set of key challenges for the robotics community to address in striving towards robots that can match human capabilities in sports.

Countering Islamophobia in the Early Eighteenth Century

This article looks at a certain number of writers in the early 18th Century, mainly British and French, who reacted against the dominant hostility to Islam and the Muslim world and tried to provide a more accurate presentation of them. After surveying different ideological uses of more positive representations of Islam and the Ottoman Empire, as well as the work of some scholars of Arabic who were concerned with greater accuracy, I concentrate on two authors about whom we know very little; they both spent time in and wrote about the North African state of Algeria and tried openly to counter European prejudices against Muslims. A brief discussion of the only work written by the French diplomat Jean-Philippe Laugier de Tassy (a history of Algiers) is followed by a longer section on Joseph Morgan, who published several works. Both his History of Algiers and his annotated translations of a poem on Islam written by a Spanish Moor and of a work on North Africa by French monks who went there to ransom captives show an excellent knowledge of the region, its people and their language. While far from being totally positive about the state which lived by piracy, he makes a vigorous case against disinformation concerning Islam and Muslims and encourages his readers to understand others and to judge them by the same standards we apply to ourselves.

The transfer of accounting technologies within a religious order: the case of the Monastery of Silos (Spain) in the nineteenth century

ABSTRACT After a long period of abandonment due to the confiscation of its ecclesiastical properties in 1835, life at the Monastery of Silos recommenced in 1880, with the arrival of a group of Benedictine monks from France. This study focuses on the accounting system that the French monks brought with them to illustrate how accounting technology was transferred between two monasteries of the same religious order located in two different countries. The archives of the Monastery of Silos shed light on the differences between the accounting practices implemented at the end of the nineteenth century compared with those that had existed up until 1835. Our findings suggest that the French monks acted as agents for the transfer of technology by importing the accounting practices used at the Monastery of Ligugé (France) to the Monastery of Silos (Spain). The accounting approach used in Ligugé was notably less sophisticated than the one used for centuries at Silos. However, these new accounting practices fitted well with the needs of the Monastery of Silos at a time of scant economic resources, primarily focused on the reconstruction of the monastery’s buildings, activity which extended from the end of 1880 up until January 1883.

Care of God as Care of the Self: Foucault, Gnosis, and Curation of the Divine Mirror in John of Morigny’s Ninth Vision

Abstract This article draws on Foucault’s understanding of “thought” as “freedom” and his description of “care of the self,” connecting these concepts with the account of a vision of Christ recorded by the fourteenth-century French monk, John of Morigny (fl 1300–1315). I argue that John’s account reflects “thought” as “freedom” very much in the Foucaldian sense, even as it defers to Christ as the authority to whom the monk vows obedience. In the first part of the article I outline ways in which Foucault’s thought both is and is not “theological.” Since Foucault draws on Christian models, and John’s visionary practice involves repentance and confession, it might seem to be almost a too-perfect prototype of the self-care Foucault was interested in; yet the results of the analysis are unexpected. The vision, is induced by John’s own unorthodox prayer practice, begins with Christ appearing in penitential garb and asking to confess his own sin to John of Morigny. I demonstrate that it is only possible to make sense of this vision by looking at the ways Christ acts as an intimate mirror of John’s self, reflecting the stance and penitential practice John must follow to reconcile himself with God.

Refeeding Syndrome in Historical Perspective: Its First Description by Rodulfus Glaber (1033)

The refeeding syndrome refers to a potentially fatal situation hallmarked by sudden death and cardiac decompensation that can occur when a malnourished person is refeeded. Electrolyte disturbances are currently considered to play a role in its pathophysiology. In the absence of laboratory measurements, clinical descriptions of the refeeding syndrome so far date back to the early post world war II period, including anecdotal evidence from victims of the nazi concentration camps. Here we want to draw attention to a medieval description that fulfils the clinical description of the refeeding syndrome by the French monk, Rodolfus Glaber. He writes about people suffering from the Burgundy famine (1033) that “even when they received food, they became distended and died immediately” (fourth book, chapter 4, 13). With this reference to medieval famine, we wish to pay tribute to those who suffered from the holocaust 75 years after their liberation.

Rabbits and the Specious Origins of Domestication

Rabbits are commonly thought to have been domesticated in ∼AD600 by French monks. Using historical and archaeological records, and genetic methods, we demonstrate that this is a misconception and the general inability to date domestication stems from both methodological biases and the lack of appreciation of domestication as a continuum.

Claire Fanger, Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk. (Magic in History.) University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015. Pp. xv, 215; 6 black-and-white figures. $79.95. ISBN: 978-0-271-06650-9.

Previous articleNext article No AccessReviewsClaire Fanger, Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk. (Magic in History.) University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2015. Pp. xv, 215; 6 black-and-white figures. $79.95. ISBN: 978-0-271-06650-9.Fabrizio ContiFabrizio ContiJohn Cabot University Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Speculum Volume 92, Number 3July 2017 The journal of the Medieval Academy of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/692815 Views: 53Total views on this site Copyright 2017 by the Medieval Academy of America. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Review of 'Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk'

Review of 'Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk'

10-13세기 프랑스 수도승들의 질병 치료와 기적 치유

10세기경 고대 그리스식 의학과 아랍식 치료법이 더해진 중세 의학서의 등장과 의학 전문 교육의 발전으로 서양 중세 의학은 새로운 변화를 맞이하게 되었다. 그러나 중세 의학은 여전히 생리학적 이해와 의학적 지식에 기반을 둔 치료보다는 풍부함 경험과 전통에 의거하여 약 처방과 간호를 선호했다. 12세기 중세 대학과 과학적 지식의 증폭에 대한 위기감과 연이은 공의회에서 시행된 성직자와 수도승들의 의료 행위 금지를 포함한 여러 규제들은 중세 교회와 수도승들을 중세 의학적 지식의 상용화로부터 더욱 멀어지게 했다. 본고에서는 그레고리우스 개혁과 중세 대학의 발전이 두드러지게 나타나는 10-13세기 프랑스를 중심으로 수도승들의 질병 치료와 기적 치유에 관하여 살펴보고자 한다. 환자와 질병 치료에 관한 수도승들의 기본적인 입장은 그리스도교적 해석과 성 베네딕투스의 계율과 정신에서 출발하고 있다. 질병 치료의 방법으로는 수도승 의사, 의무실 입원, 음식물이나 목욕 그리고 사혈 등이 시행되고 있다. 동시에 성인 유골이나 성인과의 접촉으로 질병이나 육체적·정신적 고통에서 벗어나게 되는 기적 치유 역시 중요한 역할을 담당하고 있다. 의학적 치료이든 기적 치유이든 중세 수도승들에게 질병을 치료 혹은 치유한다는 것은 죄의 보속과 회개를 통한 영혼의 정화 과정을 의미하였다. 즉, 질병을 극복한다는 것은 그리스도교적 생활방식과 틀을 유지하는 범위 내에서 육체적·정신적 회복과 재생을 뜻하는 것이었다.

The Deeds of Bohemond: Reform, Propaganda, and the History of the First Crusade

In the first years of the twelfth century, three French monks simultaneously rewrote the same chronicle of the First Crusade, the Gesta Francorum. Despite recent skepticism expressed by some historians, the best explanation for this coincidence is that all of them had been exposed directly or indirectly to the 1106 preaching campaign of Bohemond of Taranto, who was raising armies for a new crusade. The monastic writers were all struggling at that time either to gain ecclesiastical promotion or to regain offices that they had lost. The production of a crusade chronicle would have advanced their cause. Bohemond of Taranto was aiming through his crusade to make himself emperor of Byzantium. These chronicles, which celebrated his achievements, would have promoted this goal as well. Finally, the papacy wished to ensure its claim to have been the inventor of the crusade movement-a point which the three monastic historians make explicitly.

Terrorism and visibility in Algeria’s ‘black decade’: Des hommes et des dieux (2010)

This article addresses the audio-visual representation of the victims of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism in Algeria in the 1990s, drawing on both historical and testimonial sources before examining Xavier Beauvois’s Des hommes et des dieux (2010). Based on a true story – the abduction and murder of a group of ex-colonial French monks– it offers a useful platform on which to interrogate the interactions of the representational and the political in relation to terrorism. Critical accounts of contemporary terrorism suggest that there has been a shift in focus from governments and terrorist organisations to an apprehension of the individual victim. However, examinations of the audio-visual can inform terrorism studies, pointing towards representational and socio-political occlusions by illuminating an implicit hierarchy of visibility. Certain lives, generally Western and Christian, are visible and mourned publicly when lost, while others, in this case Algerian, remain without an image.

Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk by Claire Fanger

Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk by Claire Fanger

Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk by Claire Fanger

Rewriting Magic: An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of a Fourteenth-Century French Monk by Claire Fanger

Claire Fanger, Rewriting Magic. An Exegesis of the Visionary Autobiography of A Fourteenth-Century French Monk

Claire Fanger, specialiste de la magie rituelle et de la spiritualite medievale, livre ici une analyse tres fine du Liber florum celestis doctrine, davantage connu jusqu’alors dans l’historiographie sous le titre de Liber apparicionum et visionum beate et intemerate et sacratissime Virginis Marie (ou Liber visionum), que le moine benedictin Jean de Morigny (pres d’Etampes) a progressivement redige dans les toutes premieres annees du XIVe siecle. Cette etude extremement bien redigee, qui s’int...

Religious Networks in Action: The European Expansion of the Cult of St Thomas of Canterbury

‘Wonder not at our coming here, for unto you, Englishmen, God gave such a wondrous martyr, that he filleth nearly all the world with miracles.’ This admiring assertion, attributed to an archbishop and primate from the Nigros Monies – possibly Stephen, archbishop of Tarsus, which lies at the foot of. the Taurus Mountains in Armenia – provides a good introduction to the theme of this book, for it links Iceland, Canterbury and the eastern Mediterranean in a remarkable manner. The quotation comes from a lost life of St Thomas written in Latin by Robert of Cricklade, prior of St Frideswide in Oxford, who died in 1174; but it is known only from its transmission through one of the longest texts in Old Norse, the Thomas Saga Erkibyskups, compiled in Iceland through the thirteenth century from English Latin sources. This Anglo-Icelandic example, however, is only one part of an extraordinary phenomenon which saw the cult of the ‘wondrous martyr’ established, and not only at the official level, across the whole of the West, from Norway to Sicily and from Portugal to Poland, before the end of the twelfth century. The English martyr was probably depicted among the array of saints on the West front of Trondheim cathedral; his mosaic image stands next to that of St Silvester in the apse behind the high altar in Monreale; the headquarters of the Portuguese Templars at Tomar had a chapel with a reliquary containing fragments of his brains and blood; and French monks from Morimond brought the cult to Sulejów in the diocese of Gneisno in 1177.

Minimal Religion, Deism and Socinianism: On Grotius’s Motives for Writing De Veritate

This article goes into the intentions and motives behind De veritate (1627), famous apologetic work by the Dutch humanist and jurisconsult Hugo Grotius (1583-1645). De veritate will be compared with two other seminal works written by Grotius, De iure belli ac pacis (1625) and the Annotationes in Novum Testamentum (1641-1650). The focus will be on one particular aspect that comes to the fore in all three works: the way Grotius reduced the Christian faith to a minimal religion by singling out the essential tenets this faith had in common with other religions. The core of Grotius’s argumentation consists in the idea that believers and, in particular, civil authorities have to distinguish between a few essential religious tenets that could be made rationally acceptable, and a set of supernatural dogmas, derived from divine revelation, that did not pass a certain, albeit very high degree of probability. As far as the second category was concerned, civil tolerance was called for. As becomes clear from contemporary correspondences, Grotius did not develop these rather controversial ideas in an intellectual vacuum. During his exile in Paris, he fostered contacts with members of the circle that formed around the French monk Marin Mersenne (1588-1648). This circle functioned as a kind of hothouse for the development of a minimal Christian creed. Members of this group saw promotion of a minimal creed as a solution to current religious controversies and the ensuing political turmoil and (civil) war, which were abhorred for their detrimental effects on the advancement of learning in the first place. On the other hand, it is also apparent that overt adherence to such an ideal was considered to be dangerous, because it would at least evoke the embarrassing and even repressive attention of the authorities in Church and government. An additional problem was that by defending such a religious stance, members of Mersenne’s circle laid themselves open to accusations of endorsing ‘rational beliefs’ like Socinianism, generally considered to be the worst heresy among all Christian denominations.

The Anglo-Latin elegy of Herbert and Wulfgar

AbstractA poem by a French monk named Herbert petitions Wulfgar Abbot of Abingdon for a gift of warm clothing. The poem, a mock epic employing alliteration and hermeneutic vocabulary, presents the seasons as warring deities. Using similar technique in the final eight lines of the poem, Wulfgar denies Herbert with a humourous response. This article contains an edition, translation, and analysis of the poem, along with brief biographies of the two authors. Another work by Herbert, a prosimetric letter requesting an allowance of fish, is edited and translated in an appendix.

Liturgical Renewal in Two Eleventh-Century Royal Spanish Prayerbooks

In recent decades, transformations in medieval Christian liturgical practices have been explored for what they can tell scholars about cultural change. Shifts in ritual can indicate changing values and beliefs as well as mark the power of external influences. One relatively momentous shift in liturgical practice was the decision of Alfonso VI, king of Castilla-León at Burgos in 1076, after years of pressure from Pope Gregory VII, to begin the transition from the use of the Old Spanish liturgy (also called the Mozarabic, Visigothic, or Hispanic rite) within his domain in favor of the Roman liturgy used in the rest of Latin Christendom. This innovation is viewed as but one manifestation of a much broader “Europeanization” of medieval Spain that took place in the eleventh century, a movement that began in other Iberian Christian kingdoms, but reached its culmination in the reign of Alfonso VI, with his French brides, Cluniac monks, and receptivity to papal influence.

ENTERING AND EXITING BLACKNESS: A COLOR CONTROVERSY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY SPAIN

In the first half of the eighteenth century, historians and essayists in Spain were debating the natural and metaphysical (or divine) causes of blackness in humans. They implicitly rejected the opi...