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This thesis is an examination of the most important Scottish saints’ cults and pilgrimage centres in the period c.1349-1560. Specifically, this project locates the role of this group within the wider devotional practices of the late medieval kingdom. Through analysis of liturgical calendars, ecclesiastical dedications, contemporary literature and naming and pilgrimage patterns, it identifies and explains the distinctive features of the veneration of national saints in late medieval Scotland in the two centuries from the first appearance of the Black Death in 1349 to the Reformation in 1560. The key theme of this thesis is the consideration of the manner in which external factors, such as general Western European social and religious developments, and distinctly local phenomena such as the intermittent warfare with England and the varied agendas of interest groups like shrine custodians, the national church and the crown, impacted upon the saintly landscape of the late medieval kingdom and the popular piety of its people. The medieval cult of the saints is a subject of considerable value for historians because it was a movement in a constant state of flux. It adapted to the socio-religious context of the societies in which it operated. Although never neglected as an area of study, the cult of the saints in Scotland has received further attention in recent years through the influence of the Survey of Dedications to Saints in Medieval Scotland project carried out at the University of Edinburgh from 2004-7. However, studies on the role and function of national and local saints, those believed by contemporaries to have had a Scottish provenance or a hagiographical connection to the medieval kingdom, have tended to focus on two specific periods. These were the so called ‘age of the saints’, the period between the fourth and eighth centuries in which the majority of these men and women were thought to have been active, or the twelfth and thirteenth centuries from when the main Latin hagiographical sources originate. The role and function of this group in the later middle ages has been either neglected or subject to the pervasive influence of a 1968 article by David McRoberts which argued that church- and crown- sponsored patriotism was the main factor in shaping popular piety in this period. This thesis will question this premise and provide the first indepth study of the cults of St Andrew, Columba of Iona/Dunkeld, Kentigern of Glasgow and Ninian of Whithorn in a late medieval Scottish context, as well as the lesser known northern saint, Duthac of Tain.

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In the last few years research on medieval sermons has entered a new phase, and the thesis needs to be placed in the context of recent work in Prance, Germany, and Italy; a few years ago there would have been little point in attempting to write on the subject I have chosen. The work of a German scholar has provided us with systematic guides to the authors, incipits, and manuscripts of medieval sermons, so that it is now possible to make efficient use of the manuscript sources; monographs on vernacular preaching have cleared the way for a study of the Latin 'popular' sermons and their international circulation; moreover work of a small group of scholars, based in different parts of Europe, has reached a stage at which an attempt to write a synthesis is desirable A general survey of the subject would be premature: instead I have tried to outline an interpretation of the main turning point in the history of high medieval preaching. The decisive change was the revival of preaching to the laity, which had ceased to play a major part in religious life between the fall of the Roman empire and the rise of the medieval towns. In the first two sub sections of the thesis (pp.1-22) I give a brief selective narrative of the external history of this transformation of preaching, but the greater part of the thesis is devoted to the less obvious changes which lay behind the revival. The remaining sub-sections of part I deal with the pocket books of sermons which itinerant preachers used (p.22 seqq.), the diffusion of stereotyped material - 'preaching aids' - to help the busy or inexperienced (p.36seqq.), the emergence of an educated lay 'sermon hearing public' (p.58 seqq.), and the training of preachers, especially the friars (p.73 seqq.). Parts II and III are on the form and content of sermons respectively The theme of part II (p.92 seqq.) is the new sermon form which came to maturity in the thirteenth century, and its relation to the revival of popular preaching. Here I state and attempt to explain the paradox that a form which was closely associated with academic milieux was alco used with success in the vast majority of sermons to the laity. Part III (p.134 seqq.) reaches a somewhat similar conclusion by a different route. I try to show how far the content of preaching was adapted to the new urban public, and here I discuss in detail a genre of preaching aid designed to provide ready made sermons specially adapted to different sorts and conditions of men. However, I go on to argue that, apart from this genre, the content of sermons was less affected by the auditory than might have been expected: popular sermons do not differ greatly from academic sermons. I conclude by trying to show why the' same sort of sermon could have been effective with both university and lay congregations. The fourth part of the thesis (p.212 seqq.) is a case study of a sermon collection, variously called Legifer and the 'Collectiones fratrum', whose history seems to be an exceptionally clear illustration of a theme which deserves special emphasis. For although I try to give an idea of the variety of different aspects of the preaching revival, I also argue a thesis in the older sense of the term. It seems to me that the close relation between the academic world and popular preaching is a theme which deserves special attention, and that the University of Paris contributed to the revival of preaching in two distinct ways. Firstly, Paris was a centre for the diffusion of model sermon collections. Popular preachers all over Europe preached from ready made model sermons written and/or copied at Paris. Secondly, Paris provided a training for the preachers themselves. Biblical lectures imparted preachable doctrine but in addition to this the system of university sermons ensured that theology students had a training of a more practice! kind. Bachelors and auditores could be called upon to preach before the University, and thir ordeal must have been a major hurdle - demanding careful preparation - for the more junior students. The evidence suggests that students would normally be asked to give a sermon after mid-day - a collatio - rather than a morning sermon. They were normally held in the houses of the Franciscans or Dominicans. The student friars, most of whom were destined to become 'professional' preachers, must have found the training especially valuable. It is the more significant in that it was the only direct and practical preparation for preaching that a friar was given. This argument presupposes the general similarity between academic and popular preaching which is discussed in Parts II and III. The Legifer collection has been singled out for special attention because it seema almost an 'ideal-type' of the link between the two types of preaching. It is a handbook of model sermons for popular preachers which appears to have been based on collations given at the houses of the friars, probably at Paris. Since it was diffused by the pecia system of the university stationers it also represents the other contribution of Paris to popular preaching. After outlining the evidence for Legifer's unusual history (p.212 seqq.) I make it the basis for a brief analysis of the theological culture which a section of the laity was beginning to share with educated clerics (p.225 seqq.). The thesis concludes with a selection of illustrative texts and an appendix. The documents are transcriptions, not editions, and thoir purpose is to illustrate points made in the main body of the thesis. The first two texts are examples of the old and the new sermon forms respectively. The third text is included to illustrate the use of the new 'scholastic' form in a sermon to a lay congregation. It is also an example of a sermon in which the content is specifically orientated to one kind of lay audience. The fourth, fifth, and sixth sermons show the other side of the coin. Text IV is a 'popular' sermon which could easily be mistaken for an academic one; texts V and VI are a university sermon and a model sermon for popular preachers respectively: they have the same theme, and when they are read together the general similarity of form and content is more striking than the differences. The last text is followed by an appendix, on franciscan preachers' pocket hooks, which gives some of the evidence too detailed to be included in the section (Part I,3, p.22 seqq.) on 'Preachers' books'.

This thesis is a biographical study of John of Brienne, king of Jerusalem and later Latin emperor of Constantinople (d. 1237). John’s extraordinary career is touched on by many commentators concerned with the crusades and the Latin East in the early thirteenth century, but it has not been properly re-assessed for more than seventy years. A comprehensive re-examination opens up new angles on the political structures and social landscapes that produced it. John’s career illustrates some residual strengths of the Jerusalemite monarchy just before the start of the Hohenstaufen epoch. It also sheds light on a period in the history of the Latin empire all too easily regarded as largely a void. But within the biographical context, the thesis’s focus is more on the complex interplay between the Latin West and East in the early thirteenth century. A principal theme in this regard is the mobility, in geographical and politico-hierarchical terms, of a specific echelon of the high aristocracy in early thirteenth-century Europe, building on Bartlett’s conception of the contemporaneous western European ‘aristocratic diaspora’. Aristocrats who are ‘not quite first rank’ can be discerned on the make in regions, both west and east, distant from their original homelands. Much of the significance of that lies in the context, the variety of opportunities, and also the limitations on such figures. Whilst this thesis dwells on John’s experience of patronage and dependency, it also identifies grounds for tensions in his ‘new’ environments, as well as highlighting the opportunities and pitfalls presented by ‘dynastic interstices’. In this way, the thesis unpacks many of the ‘more normal’ features of the aristocratic diaspora out of John’s exceptional career. The thesis links together the thematic material to focus, in particular, on the interactions between various Western great powers and John as a client figure.

Studies on mythological themes have largely ignored the Spanish Middle Ages, and critical works on literature of this period have neglected the mythological aspect. This is, therefore, not only a vast, but on the whole a new, subject, and my thesis cannot be definitive. I explore some of its possibilities in the hope that this will inspire further study. Having examined various mythologies I conclude that classical mythology is the principal one to receive treatment in medieval Spain. In my introduction I consider the works through which the writers of the Spanish Middle Ages received their knowledge of mythology and the ways in which they adapted it to suit a medieval reader. In chapters II-IV, I study a selection of medieval works, both prose and verse and from different genres. In each work I examine the writer's treatment of the mythology he found in his sources and the ways in which he introduced his own original mythological details and the purpose they serve. In chapter V, I consider the development of the use of two mythological characters through the period and chapter VI draws the thesis to a conclusion. I compare the use of mythology in the early and late Middle Ages and show that the passing of time increases interest in, and knowledge of, mythology. The didactic use that" the early writers made of mythology develops into the aesthetic use made of it by the fifteenth-century writers. A detailed analysis of the use a fifteenth century work makes of a thirteenth-century one proves that works from the earlier century must have had a much greater influence on the later ones than has been generally acknowledged; it also throws into doubt the conception of the fifteenth century as pre-Renaissance.

In southwest France starting in the early thirteenth century, an estimated 500 to 700 new towns were created over the course of about 150 years. These new towns, or "bastides," were most often created on unoccupied lands and took the form of a geometric grid plan that was designed around a central market square ringed with arcades, or couverts. Created for economic trade and settlement purposes, the bastides represent one of the first forays into urban planning on a grid system since late Roman times, especially on such a large scale, and they coincide with new economic and political rights and grants of land laid out in the town charters to attract inhabitants to move to the new communities. Many of the bastides were founded by the kings of France and England, as well as local lords including Count Raymond VII of Toulouse, and were made in cooperation with local landowners who were often Cistercian monasteries or minor nobility. While many studies thus far have focused on the economic and political implications for these charters, which included sales and property taxes that replaced traditional tithing, other scholarship has focused on their geographic placement and their geometric planning. However, few have addressed larger issues of identity formation, the social production of space, visual relationships such as between the market hall and the church, or the impact of the Cathar heresy in the region on the relationship between bastides and ecclesiastic authorities. This dissertation addresses these issues of social context, town design, and architectural form. The Cathar heresy was initially put down by a crusade called by Innocent III and resulted in the wholesale destruction of many cities in southwest France. The bastides were created partly as a consequence of the devastation in order to fulfill the need for new settlements. Because of this history of heresy, many bastides were built on former Cathar lands and utilized a strong stamp of authority through naming practice and the development of over-large church clocher-porches that dominate the town squares. Other bastides reflect identity and ambition through the appropriation of European city names, most of them Spanish or Italian, many of which were developing new economic and political rights of their own that were allowing them to thrive. These included the Fueros de Valencia and the Liber Paradisus of Bologna, which targeted the merchant class at the expense of the nobility, and the latter did so through the rhetoric of biblical metaphor. Many of the names used by the bastides were Italian communes, which had a tradition of written odes that described the ideal city in language that included the visual description of compact, state homes on organized, broad streets. These reflect the wide straight streets of the bastides and not the narrow, overbuilt urban tangle that was more common in medieval cities. Though the underlying geometry of bastides is somewhat tenuous, the massive size of some of their squares stands as a marker of their founders' ambition. Metrological investigation shows that they were designed in proportion with the market halls, are often oriented with the cardinal directions, and appear to use mainly the Roman or royal foot length in whole numbers that could be subdivided into an even number of house lots. The churches of the bastides display more pronounced geometry and were also proportional to the town lots; however, they seem divided between those that aligned themselves with the new town grid and those that were built against the grid in order to maintain a strict east-west alignment or to maintain a direct sightline into the square. These churches also display a plain Cistercian-like simplicity in form, a reflection not only of that monastic order but the presence of the mendicants and the latent belief system of the Cathars that rejected materiality. They also use hallmarks of military and ecclesiastic architecture in common with the region's cathedrals. However, many of these elements were not functional, suggesting they were an aesthetic choice. Some, in fact, were added artificially during the nineteenth century in order to celebrate the medieval heritage of France. I also address how bastides became bearers of meaning, addressing the issue of loose ties to Roman sources and the writings of Vitruvius. I also suggest possible ties to the Heavenly City of Jerusalem through churches that replicate the Holy Sepulchre and the similarity of their form and geometry to Beatus manuscripts depicting the Heavenly Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation. One such manuscript was made for the English monarchy the same decade that the English began founding bastides. However, the bastides also acquired meaning through ceremony, including the ritualistic raising of the pau staff bearing the arms of the founder and another reference to the local bishop riding into the bastide on a white mule. Through this examination of the bastides through their formal, ritualistic, and social context, we get a more holistic understanding of the production of space and meaning, and how such urban spaces were created and used over time.

This dissertation explores the activities of the Friars Minor relating to penance, seeking to identify the distinctive characteristics of their penitential ideals and practices and understand how they affected the penitential lives of those around them. The first three chapters draw from sources dating to the thirteenth and occasionally early fourteenth centuries from all over Western Christendom, while the last two chapters use sources mainly from thirteenth-century Northern Italy. In the Franciscan Summae confessorum, handbooks for confessors, three distinctive Franciscan penitential ideals emerge: a willingness to undermine the established order of the Church in order to gain more influence in the penitential forum; a desire for more lenient interrogation methods and imposition of penances; and a conception of indulgences as a normal part of the penitential process rather than as extraordinary privileges. These ideals influenced the way Franciscans directed penitential policy when they became prominent under the Franciscan pope Nicholas IV. Absolution and dispensation were made more available through delegation, bishops were left out of the process, and indulgences were granted in larger numbers. Franciscan penitential ideals also spread to the laity through preaching. Franciscans’ emphasis on lenient penances was paired with sermons that urged the laity to do lifelong penance and exalted their spiritual status. Franciscan spiritual advice also moved holy women such as Angela of Foligno and Margaret of Cortona to moderate their excessive penitential practices, seek out indulgences, and criticize prelates. But many lay people resisted Franciscan influence, such as the confraternities of Florence who rejected Franciscan guidance. In general, there was a relationship of mutual influence between the friars and laity in which the friars aimed to control penitential practice to some extent, but also left room for and encouraged lay autonomy, which can be seen in testaments from Bologna.