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My Lord Bishop – Chronicles and the Construction of Medieval Episcopal Identity

My Lord Bishop: Chronicles and the Construction of Episcopal Identity in Late Medieval England

ABSTRACT:

The article compares and contrasts late medieval models of episcopal identity in ‘local’ and ‘national’ chronicles. In the ‘national’ chronicles of Henry Knighton and Thomas Walsingham, bishops were constructed as models (both good and bad) of the exercise of sacral power as martyr saints, martial figures, and learned combatants of heresy. By contrast in the York Minster chronicle the model is much more based on the twelfth century “deeds of the bishop” tradition and is focussed on the relationship between the bishop and his mother church, so that the specifically ecclesiastical good lordship of the bishop looms large. However, both kinds of chronicle saw bishops as both peacemakers and defenders of the rights of the church.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Patricia H. Cullum is head of  Department of History and Politics at Huddersfield University since 2003. She is primarily interested in female lay piety, but have more recently been working on masculinity and especially secular clerical masculinity in the later middle ages.

SOURCE:

My Lord Bishop: Chronicles and the Construction of Episcopal Identity in Late Medieval England
By Patricia H. Cullum
In: International Journal of Regional and Local History, Volume 8, Number 1, May 2013 , pp. 40-53(14)
Publisher: Maney Publishing
DOI: http://dx.doi.org.ep.fjernadgang.kb.dk/10.1179/2051453013Z.0000000005

Medieval Manuscripts and Printed Books from China and Europe ca. 581–1840

NEW RESEARCH: Knowledge Formation and the Great Divergence between China and Europe: Manuscripts and Printed Books, ca. 581–1840

ABSTRACT:
Literature dealing with the history of Chinese printed books and printing is voluminous. Yet studies of how knowledge in general and utilitarian forms of knowledge in particular were generated, accumulated and circulated by printed books and their relationship with the long-term socio-economic transformation of China are rare. This paper aims to open up the subject by examining the long-term trends in the production of manuscripts and books and focusing on the connections between the generation and dissemination of useful knowledge in China and the production and circulation of printed books over the centuries and dynasties from circa 581 to 1840 compared to Europe. It connects trends in this indicator for knowledge formation and diffusion to economic growth, urbanization, changes in higher forms of education, the rise of literacy, the development of printing technologies, and changes in perceptions of the natural world. It concludes that human capital formation in China probably proceeded at a slower rate because of centralised censorship. This is relevant for narratives of the “divergence” between China and Europe. Also as it unfolds today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ting Xu, School of Law , Queen’s University , Belfast , Northern Ireland
Ting Xu joined Queen’s Law School as a lecturer in December 2012. Before joining Queen’s, she had been a research fellow at the London School of Economics, working on an interdisciplinary and collaborative European Research Council funded project. She was also a postdoctoral research fellow at the Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics. Her main research interests are in the fields of law, governance and development, property law, socio-legal studies, Chinese law, comparative law, and global economic history. Her work has an interdisciplinary flavour. She is also a research affiliate of Queen’s University Centre for Economic History

SOURCE:
Knowledge Formation and the Great Divergence between China and Europe: Manuscripts and Printed Books, ca. 581–1840
By Ting Xu
In: Journal of Comparative Asian Development: Published online: 30 May 2013
DOI:10.1080/15339114.2013.792455