Torre Abbey was a rural Premonstratensian monastery in south-east Devon. Although in many ways atypical of its order, not least in the quality and quantity of its surviving source material, Torre provides an excellent case study of how a medium-sized medieval monastery interacted with the world around it, and how the abbey itself was affected by that interaction. Divided into three broad sections, this thesis first examines the role of local landowners and others as patrons of the house in the most obvious sense, that of the bestowal of lands or other assets upon the house. Torre was relatively successful in this regard, and an examination of the architectural and archaeological record indicates a continuation of that relationship after the thirteenth century. The second section notes areas of conflict with the laity. Disputes could and did arise over both temporal and spiritual affairs, as well as through the involvement of a number of lay figures in the administration and patronage of the house. In both respects, notable incidents in the mid-fourteenth century highlight the complexities of the canons’ relationships with the secular world. These are further explored in an analysis of the abbey’s role during the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of the Roses, two conflicts which greatly affected the locality, but required vastly differing approaches by the canons. Finally, the effect of society on the canons themselves is considered. It is possible to recover some picture of their origins, both social and geographic, as well as some idea of the size of the community in the fifteenth century, and discuss the repercussions for an understanding of monastic recruitment. Finally, the dynamic of the community over the entire history of the abbey is considered in terms of the scattered source material, utilising both architectural and documentary evidence.

This thesis investigates the emergence of Medina in the Ḥijāz as a widely-venerated holy city over the first three Islamic centuries (seventh to ninth centuries CE) within the appropriate historical context, with special attention paid to the town’s ḥaram. It focuses in particular upon the roles played by the Prophet Muḥammad, Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs, and early Islamic legal scholars in this development. It shows that Medina’s emergence as a widely-venerated holy city alongside Mecca was a gradual and contested process, and one that was intimately linked with several important developments concerning legitimate political, religious, and legal authority in the Islamic world. The most important sources for this study have been Medina’s local histories, and Chapter One investigates the development of a tradition of local history-writing there. The Prophet Muḥammad first created a form of sacred space, a ḥaram, at Medina, and Chapter Two seeks to provide the context for this by investigating some forms of sacred and protected space found in the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula. Chapter Three then examines a rare early document preserved in the later Islamic sources, which deals in part with Muḥammad’s creation of Medina’s ḥaram, the so-called “Constitution of Medina”, and investigates why and how Muḥammad created that particular form of sacred space at Medina. The remaining two chapters deal with the history of Muḥammad’s ḥaram at Medina after his death as its original raison d’être disappeared. Chapter Four analyses some aspects of Muslim legal scholars’ discussions concerning Medina’s ḥaram, and demonstrates that certain groups disputed its existence. Chapter Five then seeks to understand why caliphs and other scholars invested so heavily in actively promoting its widespread veneration and Medina’s status as a holy city. It concludes that caliphs from the late first/early eighth century patronised Medina to associate themselves with legitimate political authority inherited from Muḥammad, and that from the late second/eighth century certain legal scholars argued for the continued existence of Medina’s ḥaram because of its association with the Prophet and his Companions who had come to be for them the ultimate source of legal authority.

Despite the political disunity of early Irish society, theories and expressions of national identity abounded in the work of the learned classes of clerics, genealogists, poets and lawyers. This thesis examines texts from two crucial periods in the evolution of these theories. Focusing initially on the seventh and eighth centuries, the first part of the thesis argues that Irish national identity was created as part of a campaign to assert the joint authority of the Uí Néill kings of Tara and their ecclesiastical allies in Armagh. Drawing inspiration from biblical and patristic sources, and possibly also from contemporary developments elsewhere in Europe, these ecclesiastico-political allies asserted the national unity of the Irish in linguistic, genetic and territorial terms in pursuit of their own particular objectives. The influence of biblical and patristic beliefs on many of these early expressions of Irish identity highlights the outward-looking nature of the Irish scholarly tradition. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, this international dimension intensified as the histories and identities of foreign peoples became subjects of study in Ireland, and new source materials filtered into the country from overseas. With reference to two texts composed during this period, the Irish Sex Aetates Mundi and a poem on national characteristics beginning Cumtach na nIudaide n-ard – the second part of this thesis discusses the influence of newly acquired sources on contemporary Irish scholarship. It also examines how the information contained in these sources was adapted and rationalised to conform to the basic assumptions of Irish society.

Is language a tool of empire or is empire a tool of language? This thesis examines the cultivation of Carolingian hegemony on a pan-European scale; one defined by a renewed interest in the study of language and its relationship to Carolingian eagerness for moral and spiritual authority. Intended to complement previous work on Carolingian cultural politics, this thesis reiterates the emergence of active philosophical speculation during the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Prior research has ignored the centrality of linguistic hermeneutics in the Carolingian literate programme. This thesis addresses this lacuna, demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between spirituality, language, and politics within the Carolingian world. The work appropriates prior investigations into the connection of semiotics and Christian philosophy and proposes the development of a renewed interest into ontology and epistemology by Carolingian scholars, notably Alcuin of York and Theodulf of Orléans. The correlation between linguistic philosophy and spiritual authority is confirmed by the 794 Synod of Frankfurt, at which accusations towards both the Adoptionist movement of northern Spain and the repeal of Byzantine Iconoclasm were based on the dangers of linguistic misinterpretation. The thesis also explores the manifestation of this emergent philosophy of language within the manuscript evidence, witnessed by the biblical pandects produced by Alcuin and Theodulf. Desire for the emendation of texts, not to mention the formation of a uniform script (Caroline Minuscule), abetted the larger goal of both infusing a text with authority (both secular and divine) and allowing for broader spiritual and intellectual understanding of a text. Increasing engagement with classical philosophy and rhetoric, the nature of Carolingian biblical revision, and the cultural politics as seen at the Synod of Frankfurt depict the primacy of language to the Carolingians, not only as a tool of imperialism, but the axis of their intellectual and spiritual world.

The period from c.718 to c.1000 oversaw the reconquest of a significant part of the Iberian Peninsula by the Kingdom of Asturias (718–910) and its successor in León (910–1037); the study of this process of Reconquista has in recent years focused on two broader social changes: the increasing exploitation of the peasantry, and the eclipse of public power. In the Introduction, I argue that it is necessary to integrate the study of peasant societies with analyses of royal and aristocratic power; reframing the subject in this way, we are able to appreciate the diversity of social experience which characterized both peasant and aristocratic life across the two case studies here examined, Southern Galicia, and the Liébana. I argue that the tenth century must be seen on its own terms, and without the benefit of hindsight, if we are to characterize it fairly. Chapter Two discusses the source material I have used in the elaboration of this thesis, highlighting its uses and problems from a critical perspective. In Chapter Three I show that fluid social structures allowed a family to rise to power from amongst the village inhabitants of the Liébana. Public officials such as counts were not able to impose themselves frequently upon this society. In Chapter Four, I show how a rich and aristocratic family of lay magnates, based in southern Galicia, were major political operators from the ninth century, but only came to exercise significant social influence amongst local society after the construction of the monastery of Celanova in 936. My Conclusion contextualizes these changes; it also argues that more nuanced and less schematic approaches to social relations demonstrate that peasants retained considerable autonomy in this period, and that factional politics influenced the stability of kingship far more than the supposed eclipse of public power.

This thesis seeks to understand the changing place of angels in the religious culture of Anglo-Saxon England between AD 700 and 1000. From images carved in stone to reports of prophetic apparitions, angels are a remarkably ubiquitous presence in the art, literature and theology of early medieval England. That very ubiquity has, however, meant that their significance in Anglo-Saxon thought has largely been overlooked, dismissed as a commonplace of fanciful monkish imaginations. But angels were always bound up with constantly evolving ideas about human nature, devotional practice and the workings of the world. By examining the changing ways that Anglo-Saxon Christians thought about the unseen beings which shared their world, it is possible to detect broader changes in religious thought and expression in one part of the early medieval West. The six chapters of this thesis each investigate a different strand from this complex of ideas. Chapters One and Two begin with Anglo-Saxon beliefs at their most theological and speculative, exploring ideas about the early history of the angels and the nature of their society – ideas which were used to express and promote changing ideals about religious practice in early England. Chapters Three and Four turn to the ways that angels were believed to interact more directly in earthly affairs, as guardians of the living and escorts of the dead, showing how even apparently traditional beliefs reveal changing ideas about intercession, moral achievement and the supernatural. Lastly, Chapters Five and Six investigate the complicated ways that these ideas informed two central aspects of Anglo-Saxon religion: the cult of saints, and devotional prayer. A final Conclusion considers the cumulative trajectory of these otherwise distinct aspects of Anglo-Saxon thought, and asks how we might best explain the changing importance of angels in early medieval England.

This thesis examines urban political conflict in the late Middle Ages (c. 1370-1440) in Europe’s most heavily urbanised regions, Italy and the Southern Low Countries. Conflicts have frequently been viewed in the context of an emerging state-controlled political order, and have been interpreted either as forms of disruptive disorder, or as affirmations of political processes shaped by states. This thesis suggests that urban conflict should be studied not in the context of a state-controlled political order, but within the political framework provided by the numerous semi-autonomous jurisdictional institutions inside and outside cities (such as guilds, parishes or contending outside powers). This pluralistic order of politics gave rise to a form of political order sui generis which expressed itself in two ways. According to a general logic of conflict (Part One), particular rationales for justifying conflict (Chapter One) and specific political practices ranging from concealed protest to urban warfare (Chapter Two) were embedded in this multi-faceted and shifting political framework. Action groups could be negotiated and renegotiated around the resources provided by the city’s multiple legitimating institutions (Chapter Three). At the same time, such political institutions were configured differently in different cities, and this also generated a particular logic which lay at the basis of different systems of conflict (Part Two). Levels of conflict could, in fact, vary greatly between Bologna and Liège (Chapter Four), Florence and Tournai (Chapter Five), and Lille and Verona (Chapter Six), where, on the basis of different underlying political institutions, diverse practices of conflict and forms of association prevailed. The pluralistic order of politics itself was, therefore, a form of political organisation which crystallised around conflict. It gave rise to a logic which put conflict at the centre of the political order of late medieval cities.

- 5 - Abstract: The diploma thesis "Coronation of Byzantine Emperors in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages" deals with gradual changes of the ceremonies associated with the imperial accessions. Using narative, legal, artistic and numismatic evidence, it attempts to identify crucial components of each coronation ceremony, analyses gradual transformation these components underwent and points out new developments that helped each emperor to estabilish his right to the throne. The thesis also deal with the imperial insignia used both during coronation ceremonies and during other court rites.

Pas de résumé français / Pas de résumé anglais

Scholarship on late antique cities has largely conceptualized them as singular entities, either decaying or transitioning as Roman imperial power and economic structures shifted. Improved archaeological data from urban sites, accompanied by a number of broad synthetic studies, now allow for fresh exploration of the details of urbanism in this transformative era. This study examines the ways that a select group of public buildings were used and reused in the Mediterranean West between 300 and 600 CE. This examination is primarily carried out through the collection of a broad catalogue of archaeological evidence (supplemented with epigraphic and literary testimony) for the constructions, work projects, abandonments and reuses of key public monuments across the Western Mediterranean region—principally Italy, southern Gaul, Spain, and North Africa west of Cyrenaica. This broad survey is augmented with case studies on select cities. Such an analysis of the late antique histories of baths, aqueducts, and spectacle buildings (theaters, amphitheaters, and circuses) shows that each of the building types had a distinct history and that public monuments were not a unitary group. It also reveals unexpectedly few regional trends, suggesting that these histories were broadly common across the West. Further, this study shows that each building type was reused differently, both in terms of purposes and chronology. Finally, by considering economic, technological, cultural and legal factors affecting patterns of use, abandonment and reuse, this study establishes that the primary cause for the transformations to public building was largely a change in euergetistic practices in late antiquity. Cities with access to imperial or other governmental patronage used and maintained their public monuments longer than those without. Together these observations demonstrate the complexities of urban change in this period and prove that the idea of a single pattern of decline in late antique cities is no longer tenable.