Bha Naomh Moire Òigh fìor chudromach ann an cràbhachd Eòrpach nam meadhan-aoisean anmoch. Tha e na amas aig an tràchdas seo faighinn a-mach a bheil an aon rud fìor airson Gàidhealtachd na h-Alba. Thathar a’ caoidh nach eil tùsan gu leòr ann a tha ceadachadh dhuinn mòran ionnsachadh mu chràbhachd nan Gàidheal aig an àm. Ach thèid cur air adhart an seo nach eil sin buileach ceart. Chithear gum faod sgrùdadh air ainmean, clachan-snaighte, clàraidhean eachdraidheil is eile a bhith torrach ma bhios sinn airson sealladh fhaighinn air cràbhachd do Mhoire. Ach thèid sealltainn cuideachd gur e sgrùdadh air litreachas an dòigh as fheàrr tuilleadh ionnsachadh mu chràbhachd do Mhoire. Chithear gum faod sgrùdadh mar sin ionnsachadh dhuinn mu chleachdaidhean cràbhaidh agus an dòigh a bhathar a’ tuigsinn àite na h-Òighe anns an diadhachd. ’S e a’ bhàrdachd chlasaigeach chràbhaidh a gheibhear anns an làmh-sgrìobhainn Leabhar Deadhan Lios Mòir (1512-1542) prìomh thùs an tràchdais seo. Thèid coimhead air nòsan na bàrdachd seo a bha ga dèanamh ann an Èirinn agus Alba agus thèid ceistean a thogail mu amasan, diadhachd agus tùsan nan dàn agus gu dè an ìre a tha iad a’ toirt dhuinn fianais airson creideamh a bha àraid do na Gàidheil. Gheibhear clàr agus sgrùdadh airson na bàrdachd chràbhaidh air fad a gheibhear ann an Leabhar an Deadhain. Tha còig dàin air Moire ann an Leabhar an Deadhain agus ’s iad sin: ‘Éistidh riomsa, a Mhuire mhór’, ‘Fuigheall beannacht brú Mhuire’, ‘Binn labhras leabhar Muire’, ‘Iomdha sgéal maith ar Mhuire’, agus ‘Ná léig mo mhealladh, a Mhuire’. Seallaidh sgrùdadh mionaideach air na còig dàin sin gun robh iomadh feart aig Moire do na Gàidheil, mar a bha air feadh na h-Eòrpa.

This thesis examines the evidence for the involvement in warfare of clerks and religious in England between the beginning of the tenth century and the end of the twelfth. It focuses on bishops and abbots, whose military activities were recorded more frequently than lesser clergy, though these too are considered where appropriate. From the era of Christian conversion until long after the close of the middle ages, clergy were involved in the prosecution of warfare. In this period, they built fortresses and organised communities of warriors in time of peace and war. Some were slain in battle, while others were given promotion or lands for their martial exploits. A series of canonical pronouncements aimed to forbid or restrict the involvement of Christian clergy in organised bloodshed, and some writers branded militant clergy as corrupted by the lure of earthly power or even as having surrendered their sacerdotal status. This study therefore approaches the military practices of clergy alongside the legal and narrative treatments, and treats the latter as reactions to, not the background of, the former. This requires consideration of a wide range of narrative, diplomatic and legal source material. A broad approach shows that clerics’ military activities cannot be separated from their spiritual powers, that canonical treatment was more fragmented and less influential than has been assumed, and that the condemnations of some authors existed alongside others’ praise for clerics’ valour, loyalty, or commitment to defending their flocks. In consequence, the extended study of clerical participation in warfare is shown to have significant consequences for our conception of the bounds of military history, the construction of the licit and the illicit, and the nature of clerical identity itself.

The thesis explores how far enclosure was pivotal in shaping the female Franciscan spirituality in thirteenth-century Umbria as cloistered and contemplative. It focuses on how enclosure influenced the development of representations of female urban sainthood, with particular reference to three Umbrian saints; Clare of Assisi, Clare of Montefalco and Angela of Foligno. The issue of enclosure came to the fore because of the success of the Franciscan movement in promoting the apostolic life, which emphasised the itinerant life, evangelisation and participation within the urban community. However, women who aspired to follow these values were instead directed towards introspective, contemplative seclusion. The claustration of Clare of Assisi exemplified this type of response. Using a combination of a wide range of sources, the nature of enclosure and the processes by which claustration was consistently articulated and promoted are reconstructed. My research reveals that the creation of the cloistered ideal was a negotiated process. The first, chapter, Challenging the stabilitas loci, examines the significance of hagiographic sources, in the form of vitae and canonisation proceedings, in revealing the nature of enclosure for religious women, and, by utilising a wide number of saintly examples, shows how often enclosure was in reality broken by women. The following two chapters concentrate on the construction of male textual authority and the importance they placed on the seclusion for religious women. Chapter 2, The regularisation of chastity: between doctrine practice, examines the theological arguments that were put forward in the development of monastic rules for women and how they reflected a trend that assumed that professed religious women ought to remain within the cloister. In doing so, the regularisation of the cloister emphasised the preservation of the chastity of nuns, through their affiliation to established orders, their supervision and material provision.

British religious revivalism in the mid nineteenth century is an undeniably neglected area of study; despite the widespread incidence of revivals, and the vast numbers of men, women and children embraced by evangelical churches, there exists no comprehensive analysis of revivals in these years. Similarly neglected - yet widely recognised as influential in the development of that revivalism - is the impact on the British evangelical community of American revivalistic ideas and practices. By examining the latter, and in particular the British itinerancies of American revivalists, this thesis offers an insight into the extent and organisation of British revivals in a generation when attitudes to conversion and revivals were undergoing fundamental changes. In the 1820s the majority of evangelicals were extremely reluctant to use anything other than the most traditional of 'means' to encourage revivals. By the time of the revival of 1859 a much more 'instrumentalist', calculated and promotional approach to conversion and church recruitment had taken hold. American example transmitted through publications, private letters and the work of visiting Anericans played a significant part in this transition. The main sources used for this study - especially biographies and autobiographies of major evangelical figures, revival sermons and addresses, and the great quarry of material in evangelical periodicals - have made it possible sympathetically, if not uncritically, to examine the evangelical world from within. They have suggested the need to recognise that there existed a world of conversion and revivals with a life of its own. The evangelical was always a member of a wider secular society as well as of his church; but for the most aggressively evangelistic the regeneration of himself and others was his primary object. Once this is understood, simple secular explanations of the outbreak of revivals - economic decline, or the onset of cholera - are seen to be inadequate} the causation of revivals was complex, but the evangelical's search for conversions and his constant expectation of widespread revival were always fundamental ingredients. Chapter one examines the origins of the more 'engineered', new measures revivalism in the United States in the early nineteenth century. It argues that the revival movement originating in upstate New York under the aegis of Charles Grandison Finney has been given too prominent a place in explaining the introduction of this new style revivalism, and that equally important was the stimulus provided by the fast-growing hyper-evangelistic Methodist churches. Moreover, much of this thrust came from urban centres and not, as has been generally assumed, from the frontier and western areas alone. The urban modifications in the methods and style of revivals (betterorganised agencies of conversion, growing refinement and decorum in worship, for instance) are examined, as are the problems of city churches facing a more heterogeneous population than in Protestant small-town America. The chapter concludes with a summary of the incidence of revivals in the generation up to 1857, noting the peaks of the late 1820s and early 1830s, the late 1830s and early 1840s, and the late 1850s; and asserting the everbroadening hold of the new measures during the period.

This thesis examines the relationship between denominational affiliation, class and gender in the city of Edinburgh between 1850 and 1905. The period was chosen because socially it was a time of transition from a semi-rural economy to one of rapid population growth, urbanisation and economic diversification. Account has also been taken of the political context, as ministers and elders, especially from dissenting congregations, played a leading role in the movements for social and political reform, both locally and nationally. In ecclesiastical terms, the Established Church of Scotland was recovering from the effects of the Disruption of 1843, which had broken up the unity of the Church and led to intense inter-denominational strife. Towards the end of the period, the first steps leading to Presbyterian reunion were under way, culminating in the union of the United Presbyterian and Free Churches in 1900. This was also a time of religious revivals, first from 1858-60, then with Moody and Sankey, especially their first campaign in 1873-74. The so-called ‘Welsh’ revival of 1905 also impacted on some Edinburgh churches. The thesis also brings out the close links between these revival movements and social welfare concern among church members. Although Presbyterianism was the dominant form of church government in Scotland, other denominations also played their part in the religious life of the city. In the social analysis of congregations, special attention is given to a comparison of contrasting pairs of churches. St. Stephen’s Church of Scotland in the northern New Town is compared with Free St. George’s at the West End. Two Congregational churches, Augustine and Brighton Street, while near neighbours, had a different ethos, with the latter being more aggressively evangelical. Finally, two Baptist churches are examined. Bristo Place, the original Scotch Baptist church, had a plurality of elders or lay pastors, while Charlotte Chapel was founded on ‘English’ lines with one full-time minister. The memberships of these six churches are analysed to ascertain whether particular denominations appealed to different social groups. An important part of my thesis is the position of the poor, who have often been regarded as lacking interest in religion. I will show that, contrary to this perception, many indeed were Christian but preferred to worship in their own environment, attending mission halls rather than the fashionable city churches. These missions were usually operated as evangelical outreach from large charges, with some later becoming independent from the mother church, and calling their own minister. However, they remained firmly based in their own localities. In this way class divisions, which were such a hallmark of Edinburgh, were preserved. Two missions operated on a non-denominational basis, drawing practical and financial support from many different churches. Carrubber’s Close Mission in the High Street worked in the poorest district, while the Edinburgh City Mission operated across the city. These missions were examples of Christianity in action as they sought to improve the social and moral conditions of the poor.

Previous studies of the seven extant manuscripts of the seventeenth century Londoner, Nehemiah Wallington, have focused on the psychological effects of Puritan theology as the cause for his deep spiritual crisis and for his uncontrollable urge to document his inner mental and emotional experiences in a diary or journal. This thesis takes a somewhat different approach, starting from a prominent and recurrent theme in Wallington’s manuscripts: his thoughts of and experiences with death. From an early age, Wallington lost close family members to illness. Four of his five children died in early childhood. He lived through outbreaks of plague, and recorded into his manuscripts casualties wrought by civil war and inexplicable accidents that took place around him in the City of London. Evidence from what Wallington wrote about these events in his manuscripts indicates that he responded to his frequent encounters with human mortality through his understanding and practice of Puritan theology and piety. Responding to death through religious belief and observance was not an innovation: some have argued that the late medieval Catholic Church in England provided, through the Mass and the doctrine of purgatory, ways to respond to death that brought comfort and inspired fresh engagement with the world. Yet scholars have tended to see Wallington’s recourse to Puritan religion as something that made him want to throw his life away in suicidal despair, rather than as a means to ease his sorrows and encourage him to engage with society again (in other words, as a means to come to terms with death which in some ways paralleled the momentum of older Catholic devotion, but in a new and distinctively Reformed context). Studies of Wallington’s despair have focused only on a particular youthful episode. However, this thesis will look at the theme of death over Wallington’s lifelong pursuit of Puritan theology and piety. From an examination of his seven extant manuscripts, it will show not only how Wallington turned to Puritan theology and piety in the face of death, but also how his understanding and approach changed over time. His response developed from a compulsive emotional reaction to a clear strategy that involved reflecting on death in his own experiences of loss, as well as in the Bible and other printed materials, all of which he recorded in his manuscripts for others to read. Wallington’s decision to write down his reflections led him out of despair and the temptation to abandon his life, to express in his later manuscripts an active desire to engage with the world around him out of faith and trust in the vivifying power of Christ. The thesis starts with an introduction to Nehemiah Wallington and his context, and to the theme of death in his extant manuscripts (chapter one). Next, it explores how Wallington responded to his encounters with death by taking up writing, an activity that developed from an urgent need to keep a personal daybook of his sins to a more deliberate attempt to write for others (chapter two). After this, the thesis considers how Wallington’s early response to death inspired his attempt to construct a ‘self’ through his understanding of the Christian doctrine of mortification (chapter three). Then it provides a fresh account of Wallington’s suicide attempts: how his attempt to construct a ‘self’ through mortification initially led him to despair and to the temptation to negate his ‘self’ and his life in the world (chapter four). Following this, the thesis goes beyond the account of despair to argue that Wallington overcame his temptation to commit suicide and resolved to engage with the world around him, by meditating on and studying death (chapter five). Finally, the thesis shows how the evidence presented in earlier chapters gives a fresh perspective on Wallington, and suggests how this might contribute to a better understanding of continuity and change in the piety of seventeenth century Reformed Christianity (chapter six).

This thesis examines the work of the missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and the rise of a Protestant community in Ottoman Syria, from the commencement of the missionary station at Beirut in 1823, to the dissolution of the community in 1860. The primary goals of this thesis are to investigate the history of this missionary encounter and the culture of the new community. This analysis is guided by the theoretical framework of Practice Theory and employs gender as a lens to explore the development of the Protestant identity. It argues that the Protestant community in Ottoman Syria emerged within the expanding port-city of Beirut and was situated within both the American and Ottoman historical contexts. The social structures that defined this community reflect the centrality of the ABCFM missionaries within the community and reveals a latent hierarchy based upon racial difference. However, tensions within the community and subversions to the missionaries’ definition of Protestantism persisted throughout the period under review, which eventually led to the fragmentation of the community in 1860. The contribution of this thesis lies in its investigation onto the activities of women and their delineation of Protestant womanhood and motherhood, as an important manifestation of Protestant culture. This work demonstrates the centrality of women to the development of the Protestant community in Ottoman Syria and reveals the complex interpersonal relationships that defined this missionary encounter.

The traditional view of historians is that Scottish female religious establishments were not worthy of study due to the ?scanty? sources available for these women, by these women or their convents. This study will challenge this preconceived notion that Scottish female religious were unimportant to the overall study of monasticism in Scotland. It demonstrates that by using a wide range of sources, Scottish female religious in Scotland were successful both economically and locally and had varying connections to the outside world.The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between Scottish convents, their inhabitants and Scottish families, kin-groups and locality. Firstly, will be a discussion of how the outside world and their connections to convents began by looking at the grants and further patronage of these religious communities. Further contacts between the two were varied ranging from the foundation and granting of gifts to these religious communities, the challenging of conventual rights and privileges, external conflict like warfare or the suppression of a convent. Secondly, an assessment has been carried out of the origins of Scottish nuns and the identifying of female religious: the outcome of this has been the construction of a database of all known Scottish female religious. Prosopographical analysis has been applied to show their links to local families, former patrons or founders and their relations to one another. The next part of this study discusses the organization and governance of Scottish convents by examining the role of Scottish prioresses in their religious and secular communities. The office of the prioress has yet to be fully evaluated as an important role in the monastery or in her local community and this section will highlight her many-faceted roles. In addition, how prioresses succeeded to office prioress and monastic elections will be discussed further.

This thesis looks at the role and function of the dragon in the saint's encounter with the monster in hagiographic texts, written primarily in the vernacular, between 1200 and 1500. Those connotations accrued by the dragon which are relevant to this thesis are traced from their earliest beginnings. Although by the middle ages the multi-valency of the dragon is reduced to one primary symbolic valency, that of evil and significantly, the evil of paganism, the dragon never loses completely its ancient associations and they help to colour its function within the narrative. The symbolic use of the dragon in vernacular saints' lives is generally consistent, although allowing for different didactic emphases. However, the two legends on which this thesis concentrates are those of St George from Caxton's Golden Legend and St Margaret from the Katherine Group. Each reveals tensions within the text when the dragon's role departs from the familiar hagiographic topos. Firstly, the role of the hagiographic dragon is identified by a comparison with that of the dragon in romance. Allowing for cross-fertilization, this thesis focuses on the significance of the hero's dragon-fight and the saint's dragon encounter to differentiate between the ethos of the romance and hagiographic genres respectively. Tensions are created in the hagiographic text when the romance topos of the dragon-fight is used in conjunction with the hagiographic dragon encounter, as in the legend of St George. Finally, in the legend of St Margaret, the dragon's appearance unbalances and unsettles the perspective of the narrative when its role and function are deployed in the promulgation of virginity.

This study concerns two women who were religiously active either side of the Great Schism (1378–1417), a period of intensification of the excesses of personal pride and political ambition that divided the western Church and caused distress to devoted, thoughtful laity and clerics alike. Devout laity sought new expressions of piety in these stressful times and through examining the written legacies of two non-enclosed religious women, Caterina Benincasa and Margery Kempe, I explore not only the contemplative/devotional practices that characterise them, but also the clerics upon whom they relied for protection, support and guidance in male-dominated, strife-ridden medieval Europe. The two women, a northern Italian lifelong virgin for Christ and an East Anglian mother of fourteen children, prima facie, appear to have little in common except claimed illiteracy, a diversity of influences and acknowledging Bridget of Sweden as a fundamental inspirational source. However, both of their personal and literary management teams included members of several religious orders and their written productions were mostly dictated to and edited by men. They both negotiated their ecclesiastical acceptance from the position of institutionally inferior women through the exclusively female rôles of mother/sister/daughter in exerting influence over their father/brother/son managers through confronting them with their male self-images. Although the management practices applied in each case were very different in terms of structure and hierarchical level, the women‘s negotiations with the men followed similar lines, albeit through different written media. Caterina‘s negotiating techniques are found in the immediate medium of her letters and they involve persuasion and instruction as she tries to create situations that she can control in furtherance of her objectives. The study includes a selection of twelve letters that I have translated in full and analysed from the perspective of the register of the dialogues, the style and the imagery contained therein. Evidence of Margery Kempe‘s influence over her managers, including her husband, comes solely from the medium of the retrospective narrative of her Book in which she chooses the events that illustrate how she reacts to and manipulates people and situations to her advantage. The clerical managers were responsible for keeping their head-strong charges compliant with ever-changing contemporary views of orthodoxy within parameters negotiated between the women and the institutional church. Although there are clear, identifiable parallels between the managers in their styles and techniques, there are also differences rooted in the managers‘ perceptions of the two women‘s respective contributions to the furtherance of institutional aims. Caterina‘s situation was that of a woman whose institutional support was considered necessary at the highest levels of the Church‘s management structure. In Margery Kempe‘s case the management seemed to use her to develop aspects of their local inter-institutional competition for status and alms in Lynn. Despite this difference in influential level there is the strong probability of personal contact and shared theological academic backgrounds among the clerics that draws the teams together. This study concentrates primarily on comparing and contrasting the subtleties of the negotiations between each woman and her managers, negotiations which are often influenced by the women‘s introduction of the transcendental force of God‘s will as revealed only to them, and secondarily on the possible connections between the managers that link England to Italy, Lynn to Siena and Margery to Caterina. The management techniques revealed are independent of any connections between the managers and there is little by way of common techniques apart from the complexities of reciprocal management and the women‘s exploitation of male conceptions of what is appropriate to themselves (the managers) and to women in the Church.