Lo studio ricostruisce i sette anni di presidenza di Carlo Maria Martini al Consiglio delle Conferenze episcopali d’Europa (CCEE) dal 1986 al 1993, attraverso la documentazione conservata presso l’archivio Martini, depositato all’Archivio diocesano di Milano, e l’Archivio del CCEE, conservato a San Gallo. La ricerca mette in luce alcuni argomenti: la consistenza del dialogo ecumenico in Europa; il tema della collegialità all’interno della Chiesa cattolica; la discussione sul significato di “nuova evangelizzazione” europea; l’unificazione dell’Europa e la ripresa dei rapporti tra vescovi cattolici occidentali e orientali. La ricerca dunque si focalizza su questi quattro temi nel tentativo di inserirli nell’ampia cornice del dibattito cattolico tra anni Ottanta e Novanta. / The research focuses on the presidency of Carlo Maria Martini of the Council of Bishops’ Conferences of Europe (CCEE) from 1986 to 1993. The documents are stored in the diocesan archive of Milan, and in the CCEE’s archive in St. Gallen. The research highlights four topics. The first one is the ecumenical dialogue in Europe in the 80s. The second one is the collegiality in the catholic church during the John Paul II’s pontificate. The Third one is the debate on the significance of “new evangelization” for the Catholic Church. The fourth one is the role of the Catholic Church in the unification process of Europe after the collapse of the soviet system after 1989.

The subject of this thesis is Jewish conversion to Christianity in medieval England. The majority of the material covered dates between 1066 and c.1290. The overall argument of the thesis contends that converts to Christianity in England remained essentially Jews. Following a discussion of the relevant secondary literature, which examines the existing discussion of converts and conversion, the principal arguments contained in the chapters of the thesis include the assertion that the increasing restrictiveness of the laws and rules regulating the Jewish community in England created a push factor towards conversion, and that converts to Christianity inhabited a legal grey area, neither under the jurisdiction of the Exchequer of the Jews, nor completely outside of it. Numerous questions are asked (and answered) about the variety of convert experience, in order to argue that there was a distinction between leaving Judaism and joining Christianity. Two convert biographies are presented. The first shows how the liminality that was a part of the conversion process affected the post-conversion life of a convert, and the second shows how a convert might successfully integrate into Christian society. The analysis of converts and conversion focusses on answering a number of questions. These relate to, among other things, pre-conversion relationships with royal family members, the reaction to corrody requests for converts, motives for conversion, forced or coerced conversions, the idea that a convert could be neither Christian nor Jew, converts re-joining Judaism, converts who carried the names of royal functionaries, the domus conversorum, convert instruction, and converting minors. The appendix to the thesis contains a complete catalogue of Jewish converts in medieval England. Among other things noted therein are inter-convert relationships, and extant source material. Each convert also has a biography.

This thesis questions whether it is possible to locate a boundary between gift and bribe that can survive comparison across cultures and history. This question is addressed in a multidisciplinary way, engaging the literature on the current use and the history of the language of bribery, studies of gifting and reciprocity, and the anthropological and philosophical literature on relativism. The approach is non-linear—like a hound on a chase, stopping in medieval England, ancient Athens and various societies in the modern world. It is concluded that if there is a universal gift/bribe boundary, it is likely based on a norm of reciprocity rather than on a foundation of assumptions that incorporate modern capitalism and Weberian bureaucracy. This implies that global anti-bribery initiatives, as presently conceived, are ill founded. An alternative account, founded on reciprocity and conventionalism, is postulated as a more secure foundation for locating a gift/bribe boundary.