Was Benedictine Monasticism Conservative? Evidence from the Sermon Collection of Jacques de Furnes, Abbot of Saint-Bertin (1230-1237)

2017 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-248
Author(s):  
Johan Belaen
Keyword(s):  
Benedictine Monasticism

Martyrdom in East and West: The Saga of St George of Nobatia and England

1993 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 47-56
Author(s):  
William H. C. Frend
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Nile Valley ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Christian Religion ◽  
The Past ◽  
Complete Rejection ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Military ◽  
Benedictine Monasticism

Martyrs were the heroes of the Early Church. For a long period after the reign of Constantine until Benedictine monasticism took over their mantle, their lives and exploits provided a focus for the idealism of Christians in Western Europe. They represented the victory of human steadfastness and loyalty in defence of the faith triumphing over irreligious tyranny and the powers of evil. In the East, however, where Constantine had emphasized as early as 324 his complete rejection of the persecutions of his pagan predecessors, it was not long before memories of the past were transformed to meet other pressing needs of the day. Threatened first by Germanic and Slav invaders and then by the armies of Islam, Byzantine cities sought the protection of martyrs and the heavenly hierarchy that led from them through the Archangel Michael to the Virgin herself. In Nobatia, the northernmost of the three Nubian kingdoms that straddled the Nile valley between Aswan and a point south of Khartoum, the military martyrs, George, Mercurius, Theodore, and Demetrius seconded the endeavours of Michael and the Virgin to preserve the kingdoms and their Christian religion.

St. Oswald and the Tenth Century Reformation

1958 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric John
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Study ◽  
Tenth Century ◽  
Sharp Distinction ◽  
Classical Study ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Wide Acceptance ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Many ◽  
Benedictine Monasticism

St. Oswald's part in the English revival of Benedictine monasticism usually known as the tenth century reformation was the subject of a classical study by the late Dr. Armitage Robinson, whose conclusions have gained very wide acceptance. Dr. Robinson was mainly interested in the part St. Oswald played in the conversion of Worcester cathedral into a fully Benedictine community. He drew a sharp distinction between the conduct of St. Æthelwold at Winchester and that of Oswald at Worcester.Accepting the usual opinion that Æthelwold expelled clerks from Winchester by violence and replaced them with monks, he argued that Oswald on the contrary was a gentle man who preferred to convert the Worcester community to monasticism gradually and made no expulsions. In his argument Dr. Robinson found himself greatly handicapped by the paucity of information in the few narrative sources relevant to the tenth century which were reasonably contemporary. He found himself forced to take into consideration post-Conquest hagiography and to discriminate within the conflicting details of late traditions. In spite of the poor character of the narrative evidence he thought, and he has carried most later scholars with him in this, that he could supply the defects of his narrative sources by what was mainly a statistical study of the witness-lists to the many charters issued in Oswald's name during his pontificate. It is upon his calculations that Dr. Robinson's theory in the end rests. It will be argued in this paper that the late traditions are of little value and that the witnesslists of Oswald's charters do not quite bear the weight Dr. Robinson put upon them. A rather different view of Oswald's pontificate will be suggested and by taking into account some allegedly contemporary evidence which Dr. Robinson, on reasonable grounds, ignored, some wider considerations relating to the establishment of the monks will be offered.

A Benedictine Conspirator: Henry Joseph Johnston (c. 1656–1723)

1990 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Scott
Keyword(s):  
First Generation ◽  
Benedictine Monasticism ◽  
The Revolution

To examine Jacobitism only as a post-1688 phenomenon leads to an inevitable neglect of formative influences which help explain why antipathy to the Revolution was so strident in the first generation of Jacobites. Henry Joseph Johnston’s career demonstrates the strength of these influences. He was the seventh son of a Yorkshire Anglican clergyman, and the brother of the antiquary and Non-Juror Dr. Nathaniel Johnston, ‘the prince of Yorkshire collectors’. Henry Johnston had been converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism sometime between 1671 and 1674, and, taking the name Joseph in religion, was to be professed as a monk in 1675 at the English Benedictine priory at Dieulouard in Lorraine. Benedictine monasticism not only had an immediate attraction for a convert antiquarian but it was also to provide Johnston entrance into court circles.

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