Yes and No: Late Medieval Dispensations from Canonical Bigamy in Theory and Practice

Traditio ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 281-305
Author(s):  
Wolfgang P. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Late Medieval

Communes and Despots: The City State In Late-Medieval Italy

1965 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 71-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Political History ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
City States ◽  
City State ◽  
The City

It is a commonplace of political history that in the later Middle Ages the city states of north and central Italy were the scene of a conflict in the theory and practice of government between two contrasted systems: republican and despotic (or in contemporary terminology, government ‘a comune’, ‘in liberta’ etc., and government ‘a tiranno’, signoria or principato). The conflict began about the mid-thirteenth century, and in most places, sooner or later, was settled in favour of despotism.

Citizenship and Citizens

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian D. Liddy
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Economic History ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Urban Citizenship ◽  
Detailed Statistical Analysis ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
Urban Demography ◽  
Point Of Departure

This chapter explores the theory and practice of urban citizenship between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. Citizenship, although one of the most ubiquitous modes of social and political organization in medieval towns, is not well understood in late medieval England. The lists of freemen entering the franchise have been subject to detailed, statistical analysis, by scholars working in the fields of urban demography and financial and economic history. This chapter asks instead: what did it mean to be a citizen in late medieval English towns? There was no single answer to this question. The point of departure is the oath sworn by the new entrant to the civic franchise.

The coniuncta in Polish Sources: Late Medieval Theory and Practice

2004 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-268
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Witkowska-Zaremba
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Late Medieval

Mapping Plus Ultra: Cartography, Space, and Hispanic Modernity

2002 ◽  
Vol 79 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Padróón
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Early Modern Period ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Hispanic Culture ◽  
History Of Cartography ◽  
Modern Period ◽  
History Of

THE HISTORY OF CARTOGRAPHY in the early modern period has been tied in particular ways to the emergence of both imperialism and modernity. At the center of this argument lie the gridded scale maps that Europeans learned to make in the wake of their rediscovery of Ptolemy's Geography. These new maps supported the emergence of abstract space as a centerpiece of a new spatiality - a spatiality that in turn supported, in both theory and practice, the reterritorialization of the extra-European world for European ends. My paper interrogates this argument by examining Spanish attempts to map the Americas during the years 1492 to 1580. It identifies a cartographic culture steeped in late medieval figures of space, one that suggests continuity rather than rupture between the Middle Ages and the origins of European imperialism. Many Spanish mapmakers were engaged with some of the most sophisticated problems posed by the new, Ptolemaic cartography.These specialists, however, represented only a small minority of Spanish mapmakers. Although the abstract spatiality that informed their practice proved to be the emerging cultural trend, this spatiality was not hegemonic in early modern Spanish culture as a whole. Both philological and cartographic evidence drawn from outside the circle of specialists suggests that an alternative spatiality was also at play, one that was rooted in the itineraries of travel rather than the planar extensions of geometry.This linear spatiality had its roots in late medieval travel narrative and so-called way-finding maps. It is this spatiality that is most common in Spanish attempts to figure the wider world. This argument should not be understood as an essay in Hispanic particularity. Spain functions as a test-case here, and no claim is made that its linear spatiality is unique to Hispanic culture. What may be unique to Spain is the persistence of this spatiality beyond the year 1580, when the cartographic revolution took root much more deeply in northern than in southern Europe. Nonetheless, its near-ubiquity in the first ninety years of Spanish Americana suggests that the association we have made among abstract spatiality, modernity, and imperialism has been misplaced. Although it may be genuine, it must be understood as an attempt to rationalize empire after the fact, not as a cultural prop of an original imperial impulse.

Yes and No: Late Medieval Dispensations from Canonical Bigamy in Theory and Practice

Traditio ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 70 ◽  
pp. 281-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang P. Müller
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Administrative Records

Canonical bigamy posed a barrier for late medieval men who were or had been married to a widow or unfaithful wife and wanted to retain or be appointed to clerical rank. Western church norms from the twelfth century onward permitted only the papacy to dispense from the obstacle for promotion or readmission to the sacred orders of sub-deacon, deacon, and priest. And yet, papal administrative records from the period indicate that actual dispensations were hardly ever granted to “bigamous” recipients. What accounts for this discrepancy between theoretical freedom and practical restraint? The article discusses the historical evidence and suggests that besides theological reservations the risk of political conflict with lay jurisdictions may have persuaded most of the popes not to make use of their dispensatory power in cases ofbigamia.

William Swinderby and the Wycliffite Attitude to Excommunication

2009 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 246-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
IAN FORREST
Keyword(s):  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

The early Wycliffite William Swinderby expressed some strong criticisms of excommunication. He was alarmed that churchman thought that it was their power, rather than God's power, that consigned a soul to hell. The rhetoric of sentences of excommunication in this period was indeed intended to frighten offenders into compliance with ecclesiastical judgements, but the theory and practice of excommunication was in fact far less simple that the Wycliffite criticism of it allowed. This article examines Swinderby's attitude towards ecclesiastical sanctions in light of Wyclif's own ideas, and the theory and practice of excommunication in the late medieval Church. Swinderby's links with early Wycliffism are elucidated and the relationship between Wycliffism and the Church is looked at in a new light.

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