Papal Letters Research Articles

Kurienuniversität und stadtrömische Universität von ca. 1300 bis 1471 by Brigide Schwarz (review)

Kurienuniversitat und stadtromische Universitat von ca. 1300 bis 1471. By Brigide Schwarz. [Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Vol. 46.] (Boston: Brill. 2013. Pp. xxii, 923. euro226,00. ISBN 978-90-04-23589-2.).This weighty volume stands in the grand tradition of German scholarship regarding late-medieval papal institutions. Brigide Schwarz explains in her preface that she started research in the Vatican Archives in the 1960s, not only for her thesis but also on behalf of the Repertorium Germanicum, for which she was allocated two years of the pontificate of Eugenius IV. Her Roman researches, drawing in particular upon the underused registers of supplications, have continued ever since; and she has many other publications, notably about minor functionaries of the papal curia (abbreviators and correctors of papal letters, couriers, and so forth). Over the years, she has collected an enormous amount of data about the development and personnel (professors, students, and others) of the two confusingly parallel bodies named in the title of the present book. The Urbis has received much attention in recent years, and Schwarz has contributed and clarified a great deal more about it, but above all she has advanced knowledge about the so-called of the Roman Curia. She nevertheless claims only to have opened up pathways and that much more can be discovered. She warmly acknowledges the help of many scholars-above all, of her mentor, Hermann Diener (whose vast collection of notes she has used), and of a colleague who contributed a prosopographical appendix. This reviewer is grateful for generous citations of his long-superseded article about the Urbis and its funding, written more than forty years ago, and also for a humorous correction (p. 197).The book is divided into two main parts. Following a rather personal foreword, the introduction explains some of the problems involved, the methodology employed, the principal sources, and the previous literature. What follows is, first, a historical outline divided into two periods: 1303-1417 and 1417-71. It is not altogether clear why the survey ends in 1471, coinciding with the death of Paul II, except that this was a high point for the Urbis, but it would be churlish to expect an even longer time span; the end of the Great Schism makes a good hiatus, although one of Schwarz s revelations is that a University of the Roman Curia still operated during the Council of Constance (and indeed, most suggestively, in the 1430s during the Councils of Basel, Ferrara, and Florence). A second section analyzes organization: first of the Urbis (statutes, administration, professors, locations, funding, and so forth), then of the University of the Curia. A third section probes more closely problems about the refounding enactments of Boniface VIII (1303) and Eugenius IV (1431-34) as well as about the teaching of theology, in which the studio, in Rome of the mendicant orders were also involved. There is a long summary of all this (pp. 421-50) in English.Schwarz affirms that these were never wholly two separate institutions. Both were ultimately under papal authority; formulaic references are found naming the almae Urbis sive Curiae or the Romanae Curie et aime Urbis Studium (significantly in the nominative singular). Apparently Boniface VIII, even before his surviving decretal of 1303, had wanted to extend teaching beyond the papal curia itself and to strengthen the cultural prestige of the city of Rome by the provision for a wider student public of further lectures and disputations, mainly in theology and canon law but also in civil law. …

Rotuli Parisienses: Supplications to the Pope from the University of Paris, Vol. III : 1378–1394 ed. by William J. Courtenay, Eric D. Goddard (review)

Reviewed by: Rotuli Parisienses: Supplications to the Pope from the University of Paris, Vol. III: 1378–1394 ed. by William J. Courtenay, Eric D. Goddard Thierry Kouamé Rotuli Parisienses: Supplications to the Pope from the University of Paris, Vol. III: 1378–1394. Edited by William J. Courtenay and Eric D. Goddard. 2 vols. [Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Vols. 44/1 and 44/2.] (Boston: Brill. 2013. Pp. xiv, 502 (vol. 44/1); 503–1152 (vol. 44/2). $346.00. ISBN 978-90-04-23378-2.) William Courtenay is one of the finest scholars who specialize in the prosopography of the Parisian academics in the Middle Ages. In 2002 and 2004 he edited the first two volumes of the rotuli that the University of Paris sent to the Avignon papacy between 1316 and 1378. The third volume, published in two parts and coedited by Eric Goddard, is completely devoted to the pontificate of Clement VII (1378–94), the first antipope of the Great Schism. The rotuli were made up of collective supplications to the Curia from princes, prelates, and certain institutions requesting papal benefices or promises thereof for their dependants or their staff. We are already familiar with a number of rotuli emanating from the University of Paris, which have been preserved in the Vatican Archives. These lists of supplicants were drawn up by the entire university, one faculty, one nation, one college, or a group of graduates. Heinrich Denifle and Émile Chatelain edited more than fifty examples from between 1342 and 1403 in volumes II to IV of their Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis (Paris, 1891–97). However, apart from the fact that these two scholars saw fit to publish mainly extracts, their research was limited by the very nature of their sources as the archive series of supplications begins only in 1342. For the earlier period we only have the registers of papal letters, which recorded the papal favors accorded in response to supplications received by the Curia. Courtenay’s important contribution has been to show that the earliest Parisian rotuli do not date from 1342 but go back as far as the pontificate of the Avignonese pope, John XXII (1316–34). From a close examination of the papal letters, he was able to identify groups of apostolic favors with exactly the same date that were dispensed to members of the University of Paris and that were probably from the same rotulus, a rotulus that was not registered, as there was no specific register for that purpose. Pushing his research beyond 1342, Courtenay has been able not only to reconstitute these lost rotuli but also to fill in the gaps in the supplications from the period when they were in fact preserved. Indeed, the papal letters contain more biographical details than the registered supplications. The third volume of the Rotuli Parisienses thus contains thirty-nine rotuli, sixteen more than those published by Denifle and Chatelain for the same period. Furthermore, Courtenay and Goddard have edited the complete content of the supplications in an abbreviated form and have analyzed the papal letters written in reply to them, when these could be found. This is a considerable advance on the previous incomplete versions of the Chartularium. There is also an appendix containing a large [End Page 337] number of individual supplications from the Parisian academics. This work is more than a work of pure scholarship—it is also one of great historical interest because of the specific context of the pontificate of Clement VII. The crisis of the Great Schism was responsible for an increase in the number and size of the rotuli, and the Avignonese pope, who wished to remain in the good graces of the powerful University of Paris, was eager to grant its requests whenever possible. This is why the third volume of Rotuli Parisienses is almost as long as the first two volumes combined and contains the supplications of almost 3000 scholars who provide us with information on their origins, their studies, and their ecclesiastical careers and benefits. It is easy to see that this publication, which is further enriched with a detailed index, constitutes an essential contribution to the prosopography of the University...

How to justify a crusade? The conquest of Livonia and new crusade rhetoric in the early thirteenth century

This article addresses the issue of how it was possible to justify a crusade to a region, such as the eastern shore of the Baltic, where there were no sacred shrines to protect or Christian lands to reconquer. Adopting a pluralist perspective of crusades, it argues that the Livonian crusade of the early thirteenth century offers some interesting clues to the new developments of crusading ideology. Conceiving of the conquest and conversion of Livonia as a crusade, albeit not quite equal to the liberation of Jerusalem, its initiators and apologists employed legal and rhetorical devices to justify the occupation of a region under the auspices of a crusade. This article examines these strategies through the medium of contemporary chronicles and papal letters.

I. The Interpolated Hispana and the Origins of Pseudo-Isidore

This article aims to resolve persistent questions about the date and early manuscript tradition of Pseudo-Isidore by investigating the relationship between the Pseudo-Isidorian collection and its most important formal source, long known to scholarship as the Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis, or the Autun Hispana. This investigation reveals that the Pseudo-Isidorian forgeries were assembled from a pre-existing collection of components - including the Autun Hispana and an early dossier of papal letter forgeries - on two occasions, by two distinct teams. At least some of these components were developed by Louis the Pious's opponents at Corbie, as Klaus Zechiel- Eckes has argued. Paschasius Radbertus was almost certainly involved at this early stage, which likely extended from the early to the later 830s. A series of distractions and setbacks, however - including Wala's exile to Bobbio after the failed coup in 834; Louis the Pious's own death in 840; and the subsequent Carolingian civil war from 840 to 843 - prevented any widespread use or circulation of the forgeries. lt was left to a later generation of scholars and legal theorists to blend the papal letter forgeries with the Autun Hispana, and, finally, to realize the full Pseudo- Isidorian collection. This was done by two distinct and largely independent assembly teams, working from a common pool of components, most probably during the pontificate of Nicholas I (858-867). The unusually diverse early manuscript tradition of the forgeries reflects these two separate efforts to put the full collection of Pseudo-Isidore into circulation. One assembly team, responsible for the A/B recension of the Pseudo-lsidorian forgeries, appears to have worked at Corbie. The location of their counterparts, responsible for the A 1 recension, is impossible to determine, though two key early manuscripts have been associated with diocesan centers.

A testimony of Carolingian rule? The Codex epistolaris carolinus, its historical context, and the meaning of imperium

In the preface to the Carolingian collection of papal letters, known as the Codex epistolaris carolinus, the word imperium is used in the context of describing what is in the collection. In this article, I shall argue that a reinterpretation of the preface's statement about what imperium refers to will shed a different light on the CC as a collection in its entirety. What imperium refers to exactly can be debated, yet studying the Codex carolinus as a Carolingian product of its time, in combination with a reappraisal of its preface, may help to understand the source's historical context and its value to the Carolingian court. As I hope to demonstrate, the CC was an essentially purposeful collection, which underlined the shared history of the Carolingian family and the papacy in Rome.

Papal Legates Against the Albigensians: The Debts of the Church of Valence (1215–1250)

In 1232 Pope Gregory IX (r. 1227–41) imposed a tenth of episcopal revenues on prelates of Occitania to subsidize the church of Valence, which owed 10,000 pounds tournois to various bankers of Vienne, Rome, Lyons, and Siena. In 1865 B. Haureau first noted the event when he edited one of the main documents in the Gallia christiana volume concerning the ecclesiastical province of Vienne. With the publication of Gregory IX's register from 1890–1908 most of the facts of the tax were more widely available. In 1910 Ulysse Chevalier briefly mentioned the tax in his monograph on the long tenure of John of Bernin, archbishop of Vienne (r. 1218–66). In 1913, Heinrich Zimmermann cited Haureau's text in a note in his detailed treatment of early thirteenth-century papal legations. Recently Alain Marchandisse reviewed eight of the eleven papal letters pertaining to the tax in his study of William of Savoy (d. 1239) as bishop-elect of Liege. These scholars provided no reason for the debt or why the papacy would take such measures to ensure payment. Perhaps they did not study this tax further because a church indebted to moneylenders is not in itself surprising. It appears that the church of Valence acquired the debt, very large compared to the church's income, when bishop-elect William of Savoy (r. 1225–39) waged war against Adhemar II of Poitiers-Valentinois, count of the Valentinois (r. 1189–1239). Struggles between bishops and the local nobility occurred on a regular basis throughout the Middle Ages, so what in this unimportant Rhone-valley diocese interested the pope enough to impose taxes on prelates of Occitania over twenty years to ensure payment of this debt? Adhemar II faithfully supported Raymond VI (r. 1194–1222) and Raymond VII (r. 1222–49) of Saint-Gilles, counts of Toulouse, throughout their struggle with the papacy during and following the Albigensian crusades. Adhemar II was also their vassal for the Diois, which borders the Valentinois on the southeast and comprised the northern portion of the marquisate of Provence. These lands had been reserved for the church in the Treaty of Meaux-Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian crusades. Thus William of Savoy as bishop-elect of Valence defended the papacy's claims on the marquisate of Provence, which the papacy deemed part of the larger struggle between the Roman church and the counts of Toulouse. The facts on the nature of the debts and the steps the papacy took to aid the diocese show that the local struggle between the bishop of Valence and the count of the Valentinois embodied a part of the larger struggle between the papacy and the counts of Toulouse over the marquisate of Provence, which began as early as 1215.

Papal Legates against the Albigensians: The Debts of the Church of Valence (1215–1250)

In 1232 Pope Gregory IX (r. 1227–41) imposed a tenth of episcopal revenues on prelates of Occitania to subsidize the church of Valence, which owed 10,000 poundstournoisto various bankers of Vienne, Rome, Lyons, and Siena. In 1865 B. Hauréau first noted the event when he edited one of the main documents in theGallia christianavolume concerning the ecclesiastical province of Vienne. With the publication of Gregory IX's register from 1890–1908 most of the facts of the tax were more widely available. In 1910 Ulysse Chevalier briefly mentioned the tax in his monograph on the long tenure of John of Bernin, archbishop of Vienne (r. 1218–66). In 1913, Heinrich Zimmermann cited Hauréau's text in a note in his detailed treatment of early thirteenth-century papal legations. Recently Alain Marchandisse reviewed eight of the eleven papal letters pertaining to the tax in his study of William of Savoy (d. 1239) as bishop-elect of Liège. These scholars provided no reason for the debt or why the papacy would take such measures to ensure payment. Perhaps they did not study this tax further because a church indebted to moneylenders is not in itself surprising. It appears that the church of Valence acquired the debt, very large compared to the church's income, when bishop-elect William of Savoy (r. 1225–39) waged war against Adhémar II of Poitiers-Valentinois, count of the Valentinois (r. 1189–1239). Struggles between bishops and the local nobility occurred on a regular basis throughout the Middle Ages, so what in this unimportant Rhone-valley diocese interested the pope enough to impose taxes on prelates of Occitania over twenty years to ensure payment of this debt? Adhémar II faithfully supported Raymond VI (r. 1194–1222) and Raymond VII (r. 1222–49) of Saint-Gilles, counts of Toulouse, throughout their struggle with the papacy during and following the Albigensian crusades. Adhémar II was also their vassal for the Diois, which borders the Valentinois on the southeast and comprised the northern portion of the marquisate of Provence. These lands had been reserved for the church in the Treaty of Meaux-Paris (1229), which ended the Albigensian crusades. Thus William of Savoy as bishop-elect of Valence defended the papacy's claims on the marquisate of Provence, which the papacy deemed part of the larger struggle between the Roman church and the counts of Toulouse. The facts on the nature of the debts and the steps the papacy took to aid the diocese show that the local struggle between the bishop of Valence and the count of the Valentinois embodied a part of the larger struggle between the papacy and the counts of Toulouse over the marquisate of Provence, which began as early as 1215.

Innocent I's Letter to Lawrence: Photinians, Bonosians, and the Defensores Ecclesiae

Innocent I’s Epistula 41 to Bishop Lawrence advises him about how to remove Photinians from his diocese. Interestingly, Dionysius Exiguus, who preserved this letter at the end of the sixth century in his collection of papal letters and synodal canons, attached a heading indicating that the letter dealt with Bonosians. This essay considers the possibility of connections between these two heretical groups in the early years of the fifth century. Innocent’s advice was to use the agency of the newly established defensores ecclesiae. However, unlike Caroline Humfress, who thinks Innocent offered to loan the Roman defensores to Lawrence, it is argued here that Innocent was suggesting merely that Lawrence appropriate the successful procedure used by the Roman church by having the application of that ruling extended. Finally, this essay examines the possible dioceses over which Lawrence presided, as presented by manuscript variation, and suggests that Siena in Tuscany remains the favourite candidate, despite recent scholarly opinion to the contrary.

The Ridale Papal Letters and Royal Charter: A Twelfth-Century Anglo-Scottish Baronial Family, the Papacy, the Law and Charter Diplomatic

THREE original papal letters issued between 1156 and 1176 for the Ridale family concerning lands in Scotland and the North Riding of Yorkshire survive among the manuscripts of their descendants, the Riddells of Whitefield, Hepple, Northumberland.1 The letters were well-known in the nineteenth century but they have been little studied since despite being among the earliest extant papal letters for a twelfth-century baronial family (indeed, the only Scottish examples) and, as a set of such documents, extraordinarily rare.2 As late as the 1820s, the Riddells also still held a King David I of Scotland charter granting Walter de Ridale land in Lilliesleaf and elsewhere in Teviotdale, Roxburghshire (1145×1153).3 It is now lost, but its text contains the earliest Scottish royal warrandice clause and one of the earliest Scottish references to tenure for a specified amount of knight service.4 Pope Adrian IV issued the first papal letter in 1156 for Walter’s brother Ansketill, confirming his possessions and especially Walter’s bequest to him by his testamentum of the Scottish estates. Such a bequest of land held by knight service to a secular beneficiary is another rarity.5 Ansketill was also given the right to appeal to the papacy if his property was disturbed. Pope Alexander III confirmed Adrian IV’s letter in 1165, incorporating additionally land in Brawby in the North Riding of Yorkshire, and confirming an early example of a judicial settlement negotiated before a Scottish king, Malcolm IV, between Ansketill and Uchtred the priest of Lilliesleaf (itself now lost, but apparently extant c.1705).6 Between 1166 and 1176, Alexander III confirmed the same estates to ‘W’. de Ridale, Ansketill’s son, noted that Brawby was held from Hexham priory, and added an estate in Berwickshire.7

Die Papsturkunden des Hauptstaatsarchivs Dresden, Erster Band: Originale Überlieferung, Teil I: 1104–1303 (review)

Die Papsturkunden des Hauptstaatsarchivs Dresden, Erster Band: Originale Uberlieferung, Teil I: 1104-1303. Edited by Tom Graber. [Codex Diplomaticus Saxoniae, Dritter Hauptteil: Papsturkunden, Band L] (Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung. 2009. Pp. Ivi, 379. euro88,00. ISBN 9783-775-21903-7.) After a hiatus of more than fifty years in the series Codex diplomaticus Saxoniae, Tom Graber published in 2006 the diplomas of the Cistercian monastery of Altzelle (reviewed by Charles Hilkin, ante, 94 [2008], 557-58). In quick succession a further volume of the Codex is now available, also edited by Graber. It is the first of a new subseries of the Codex diplomaticus Saxoniae that will be devoted to the edition of the originals of all papal records extant in the archives of Saxony and elsewhere (except for the Vatican) if they relate to Saxony. Most of these records are found at Dresden. Eventually the new subseries will comprise nine volumes, including- in addition to papal records (six volumes)- the edition of primary sources found in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano regarding the history of Saxony (vol. 7) as well as general ecclesiastical records pertaining to Saxony (vol. 8) and, finally as vol. 9, calendars in chronological sequence for the entire subseries (p. viii).The present volume edits in an exemplary manner 157 papal diplomas and letters preserved in the Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden (Bestand Originalurkunden) from 1104 to 1303.It includes three forgeries, relies in two instances (nos. 154 and 155) on early-modern copies, and reconstitutes on the basis of formularies nine items that were destroyed during World War II. Strictly speaking, these final items cannot be considered originals, but the author is careful to single them out, and the historian is grateful for the additional insights they provide not only concerning the history of Saxon dioceses in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries but especially for what they reveal regarding the diplomatic usages at the papal curia that evolved with dizzying rapidity in this period. The detailed knowledge of these usages is absolutely essential for determining whether records- all of them derived from Empfaengerueberlieferung- are authentic or not. The extremely careful analysis and illustration of the evolution of papal diplomatics stretching over two centuries is perhaps one of the most remarkable achievements of this publication. The large variation in the number of papal letters and privileges preserved by the recipients and now deposited in the Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden is noteworthy. The reign of Pope Innocent IV (1243-54) stands out in this respect. The earliest item, a supposed privilege for the monastery of Pegau dating from the pontificate of Paschal ? …

Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters (review)

Reviewed by: Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters Lucy Wooding Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, Vol. XX: 1513–1521, Leo X, Lateran Registers, Part 1. Edited by Anne P. Fuller [Calendar of Papal Registers.] (Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission. 2005. Pp. lxxix, 852. ISBN 978-1-874-28078-1.) The years of Leo X’s pontificate are of crucial importance for those seeking to understand the condition of the late-medieval Church and the origins of Reformation. They saw, for example, the reforming attempts of the Fifth Lateran Council, the publication of Erasmus’s Novum Instrumentum, and the posting of Luther’s Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis Indulgentiarum, otherwise known as the “Ninety-five Theses.” At the more local level, but of equal importance, they saw the steady functioning of the Church, the provision of bishops, the granting of dispensations, the resolving of disputes, and the arbitration of monastic conflicts all taking place alongside diplomatic negotiations between Rome and individual rulers. The series to which this volume makes an important addition seeks to make available all entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland, and it is a rich and remarkably varied historical collection. This particular volume deals with the first eighty-one Lateran registers of Leo X; the remaining registers will be covered in volume XXI of the series. It provides significant insight into the relationship between the papacy and the Church in Britain and Ireland, tacitly illustrating that the more dramatic events in ecclesiastical history need to be firmly rooted in an understanding of the day-to-day business of a Church deeply integrated within society and involved with countless different aspects of religious life. [End Page 352] Within this calendar of entries, we see affairs of state reflected: Cardinal Thomas Wolsey’s burgeoning career; the network of people operating around King Henry VIII; evidence of Katherine of Aragon’s piety, which was to have such momentous consequences. We encounter humanists such as Colet, Linacre, and Tunstall, and see intimations of Catholic reform in the establishment of the new feast of the Name of Jesus and the recent foundation of the Savoy hospital in London. But we also see a wealth of ordinary business taking place: provision of prayers and Masses for the departed, payment of tithes, merging of parishes, and arbitration “to avoid the tortuosity of suits” or to settle disputed elections. In the process, a wealth of fascinating detail is revealed that would otherwise be unknown to us: communities delineated, with their leading members, their contentious souls, their farmsteads and churches; and monastic communities described, with their property, their disputes, their role within society. This accumulation of evidence suggests that historians are mistaken who argue that the papacy had only peripheral importance for the English Church. The inclusion of Scottish, Irish, and English affairs side by side also illustrates the usefulness of comparative study, rather than looking at each in isolation. This volume is an invaluable resource for anyone studying any number of aspects of late-medieval and early-modern church and society. It includes an excellent index of persons and places, which in itself is the fruit of immense labor required to decipher and identify the individuals and locations involved. It also contains a list of the “lost letters” of Leo X, of which only an anonymous, undated index survives; this has here been decoded and reassembled to make it intelligible to the researcher. An enormous amount of painstaking scholarly work has been required to produce this volume, as well as Anglo-Irish cooperation at the institutional level. It is a truly impressive achievement. Lucy Wooding King’s College London Copyright © 2010 The Catholic University of America Press

The Red Flag and the Ring: The Dances Surrounding Sino‐Vatican Ties

This article examines the possibilities of re‐established diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Vatican, or the Holy See. It presents this diplomatic dance in historical context and discusses the potential benefits and trade‐offs as seen from both sides. The complex relations between multiple Catholic communities within China, especially the “registered” and the “unregistered” church communities, as well as the contentious positions of clerical leadership in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, are discussed. Special attention is given to recent events during the pontificate of Benedict XVI, including the Papal Letter to Chinese Catholics of 2007. Both major actors, the Roman Catholic Church and the People's Republic of China, are treated as dominantly political players attempting to strengthen their hand in a rapidly changing political, social, and economic climate.

“Reject Aeneas, Accept Pius”: Selected Letters of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) (review)

Reviewed by: “Reject Aeneas, Accept Pius”: Selected Letters of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II) Keith Sidwell “Reject Aeneas, Accept Pius”: Selected Letters of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II). Introduced and translated by Thomas M. IzbickiGerald ChristiansonPhilip Krey. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press. 2006. Pp. xvi, 435. $79.95. ISBN 978-0-813-21442-4.) One of the most mysterious and meteoric religious conversions of the early Renaissance is that of Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, author of a famous and scurrilous story of adulterous love (The Two Lovers), father of (at least) two illegitimate children, bishop, cardinal, and pope. Equally enigmatic were his political shifts from committed conciliarist at Basel and neutrality with Emperor Frederick III to reconciliation with the pope whom Basel had tried to dethrone and fervent opposition to conciliar authority over the papacy. This selection from Aeneas’s Latin correspondence runs chronologically from 1432 and ends with two papal letters from 1459 and 1463. Each letter has a brief contextual note and short but helpful footnotes that resolve basic issues such as identities, dates, and historical and textual cruces. The excellent introduction provides a clear and well-documented account of Aeneas’s life and career. Historians without a command of Latin should be grateful to the translators for this primary material with its context so well articulated. There are, however, some drawbacks. First, the translations are difficult to comprehend, perhaps because the translators stick so closely to Aeneas’s Latin idiom. This often leads to obscurity, as in letter 6 (p. 76), where quantum cum [End Page 147] Deo fieri poterit is rendered “as far as could be done with God” (the meaning may perhaps be “as far as theological considerations will permit” or simply “as far as God wills us to do”). In letter 27 (p. 155), Nam quid prodest se ipsum affligere is presented as “For what is useful in afflicting oneself?” (a high-style version might be “For what is the profit in self-punishment?” versus a low-style rendition of “Why beat yourself up?”). Second, some serious errors exist, such as in letter 23. At p.138 tune an ego insaniam, ut Terentii verbis utamur is translated “(that you might see) whether I am insane, as we use the words of Terence.” The correct version should be “(that you might see) whether it is you or I who is raving, to use Terence’s words.” At p. 141 cum Christi verbo beatus Petrus ad ecclesiam remissus fuerit, tamquam ad superiorem atque ultimum tribunal is rendered “blessed Peter was told by Christ to tell the church as if it were a superior and final tribunal.” A more accurate rendering is “St. Peter on Christ’s command was referred back to the church as though to a superior [institution] and the ultimate court of appeal.” In letter 27 (p. 155), something has gone seriously awry with the first sentence of paragraph 4. Not only is duntaxat (“only”) translated as though it meant “while” (dum), but a whole clause has been omitted, resulting in the nonsensical “which I commend to you and your faith, as if my own life and my dear heart.” In letter 35 (p. 170), the editors adopt from Wolkan’s apparatus criticus the ms. reading rem concilii (see n. 414). They fail to see that Wolkan rejected this in favor of his own emendation concilium because the clause as transmitted has two objects and at least one subject is required. The reader will be misled by the quite impossible “so that this man . . . may promote the interest of the council,” when the more likely meaning (with Wolkan’s emendation) is “that the council may promote this man.” In letter 51 (p. 204), the translator has omitted a negative in the clause rendered “so that Tuscany should be without such splendour.” There are also misprints that might mislead. Letter 75 (p. 300) has “Powerful was powerful” instead of “Larissa was powerful”); at p. 313 is “conversed with me” instead of “conversed with men”; and at p. 314 is the startling “the land flowing with milk and money.” This book could have been improved by the participation of classical philologists, who...

Amor a la verdad y justicia global: Comentario a la encíclica Caritas in Veritate.

The Pope Benedict XVI, in his fifth year of pontificate, in the saint Peter festivity has introduced us the third encyclical of his pontifcate and the first social doctrine: Caritas in Veritate. “Love in the truth, as the main propeller force for the real integral development and a supported progress before the new challenges of the globalization. There are several themes that are explained in this social encyclical, they are like a mental map of the theological and moral anthropology. The purpose of this article is to appoint and comment some points of the Papal letter about: The charity and the truth. The integral development, the supported progress and the new challenges of the globalization since the perspective of the moral theology.

Von den Kreuzfahrerstaaten in das Königreich Georgien

[From the Crusader Towns among Georgian Empire]. Since the V/VIth century Georgians were present in Antioch on Orontes. In its environment, especially in the Black Mountains, Georgian Monastries and Hermitages were founded, some of these communities lived and worked until 1268 the Mamluks conquered Antioch. Those Georgian monastries must have been the link between the Crusader States and the Georgian Kingdom. There are valid indications that the rise of the Georgian Kingdom and the expansion of the Crusader States were mutualy noticed. In context with the First Crusade, King David the Builder profited from the Islamic power's weakness, caused by the exploits of the Crusaders. On the other side, the newly established Crusader States took advantage of Georgia's growing strength. Ansellus, the Chapter's Cantor of Holy Sepulchre and William of Tyrus praised the Georgian Kingdom as a forward bastion of Christianity in Near East. There must have been even some sort of collaboration between the Kingdom of Georgia and the Crusader States. This is clearly shown in the Crusader's fights against Ilgazi of Mardin. In 1121 King David engaged a great Islamic alliance, commanded by I.Igazi in the valley of Didgori, near Tbilisi. A detailled description of this battle is handed down by the Latin chronicle of Walter the chancellor. Due to its author and the Armenian historian Matthew of Edessa, some hundred Frankish knigths had reinforced the Georgian levies. The Latin chronicler assures, that some participants of the battle had told him about its progress. We can conclude that these eyewitnesses were from Antioch. In the late XIIth century Prince Bohemund III aimed to confirm the relations between the principality of Antioch and the Georgian Kingdom by a project of marriage. According to Latin documents only, in the early XIIth century the Georgian kings planned a crusade for liberating the Holy Land. The Papacy and the Franks in the Crusader States had heard about this plan and they hoped for an alliance against the Aiyubides in Syria and Egypt during the fifth (1217-1221) and sixth crusade (1228-1229). Papal letters to the king of Georgia were first brought to Antioch and from there, probably with the help of Georgian monks, deliverd to the Caucasus. Antioch's role as a link to the Georgian kingdom ended with the Mongol invasions. But this dramatic situation also opened new geographical and political horizons. News from the Caucasian world, up to then transmitted via Antioch and Cyprus to the Latin West, came now directly to the Occident.

Lay Religiosity, Piety, and Devotion in Scotland c. 1300 to c. 1450

In recent Scottish historical research on issues of ecclesiastical renewal and reform, the chief academic focus has rested on three strands: the radical restructuring of the twelfth century, popular devotion in the immediate pre-Reformation period, and the dramatic events of the sixteenth-century Reformation. This does not mean that other aspects of medieval Church history have been neglected, for there has been much new research into its institutions, personnel, and properties. Access to papal records, published as the Calendars of Papal Letters and the Calendars of Scottish Supplications to Rome, has not only shed light on issues of papal provision to benefices, clerical celibacy, illegitimacy and education, and the continuing role and nature of lay patronage and benefaction of the secular and regular Church but has transformed scholarly understanding of the operation of the secular Church in Scotland, the organization and functioning of its governmental structures, and the exercise of canon law, and has given fresh insight into the influence which the clergy wielded over the lives of the lay population. Research founded on these and earlier papal record sources has borne much fruit in the last twenty years, with major studies of Scoto-papal relations and the government of the Scottish Church by, for example, Paul Ferguson for the pre-1286 period, Andrew Barrell for the mid-fourteenth century, and Donald Watt for the period down to 1472 stimulating a general reassessment of interactions between the Scottish clergy and the papal curia and offering insights into the development and functioning of the legal and judicial structures and mechanisms which characterized the later medieval Church in Scotland. More recently, both Irene Furneaux’s and Jennifer McDonald’s doctoral research into the Scottish material in the records of the Sacred Penitentiary has begun to be published. The full impact of their research is yet to be felt, but the evidence which they present for the level of ecclesiastical influence on routine aspects of the daily lives of both clerical and lay populations in the period after 1470, the volume of communication between Scotland and the Sacred Penitentiary, and fundamental elements of religious practice and belief will undoubtedly trigger a radical reassessment of sacred and profane behaviour and belief among the lay population and the composition, character, and quality of the clergy.

:Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, Vol. 10, 1513-1521, Leo X, Lateran Registers, Part 1

:<i>Calendar of Entries in the Papal Registers Relating to Great Britain and Ireland: Papal Letters, Vol. 10, 1513-1521, Leo X, Lateran Registers, Part 1</i>

Fiat A: the Earliest Known Roll of Petitions Signed by the Pope (1307)

The vast majority of papal letters in the Middle Ages were issued not on the initiative of the pope or his government but in response to petitions addressed to him from all over Latin Christendon. They were submitted either individually or in groups, the latter category being called rolls (rotuli). Original petitions, written on strips of parchment or paper or in the form of rolls, rarely survive, but they are of particular interest since they show the precise format and phraseology of the petition and in most cases various additions made following submission, notably the signature of the pope. The present Note discusses and prints an original roll of petitions in the Archivo Historico Nacional, Madrid, surviving among the archives of the convent of Ucles, which was the headquarters of the Order of Santiago. It contains nine petitions submitted by the Order to Pope Clement V. Three of the petitions received the pope's approval with the word Fiat followed by the initial A. (what the A. stands for is unclear); four more received the same response but with stipulations which to a greater or lesser extent modified the favours requested; and two received no response at all, meaning that they were rejected. The Madrid rotulus contains the earliest petitions signed by the pope with Fiat followed by an initial, a method of approving petitions which can be shown to have been introduced by Clement V and was to endure for centuries.

Opactwo Solesmes – pierwszy ośrodek ruchu liturgicznego

The nineteenth century liturgical movement was the work of the Benedictines. It was beginning from the monastery of Solesmes, where lived and worked the first abbot Prosper Guéranger (1805-1875). Monks of the Order of Saint Benedict rediscovered the significance of the mass liturgy as a source of renewal of the life and teaching of the Church. Guéranger was determined to create a new Christian institution for the time. On 11 July 1833 he started living the Benedictine life with six other monks. The papal letter of 1837 clearly stated that Solesmes was “to revive pure traditions of worship”. So Guéranger initiated liturgical renewal. He determined that the role of Solesmes would not be direct intervention in parishes but perfection of the rites and intellectual formation of the monks. They did it for all history of the abbey to give to the Christian people an example by perfect liturgical celebration, theological reflection, historical research and publications (the most famous Guéranger’s publications were Institutions liturgiques and Liturgical Year). Special place in this work was discussion over restoration of Gregorian chant.

Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal letters,XX: 1513–1521. Leo X. Lateran registers, part one. Edited by Anne P. Fuller. Pp. lxxix+852 incl. frontispiece. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2005. €80 (£55). 1 874 280 789

<i>Calendar of entries in the papal registers relating to Great Britain and Ireland. Papal letters,</i>XX:<i> 1513–1521. Leo X. Lateran registers, part one</i>. Edited by Anne P. Fuller. Pp. lxxix+852 incl. frontispiece. Dublin: Irish Manuscripts Commission, 2005. €80 (£55). 1 874 280 789