Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Grey-zone Saints in Late Antiquity and early Middle Ages The Cult of Saints is a major five-year research project, based at the University of Oxford, which is investigating the origins and development of the cult of saints in all cultural zones of ancient Christianity up to around AD 700. At the forthcoming Medieval Congress in Leeds (3-6 July 2017) the project-team is organising a strand on grey-zone, or marginal, saints in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. A limited number of Christian heroes, mostly New Testament figures and martyrs, were renowned across Christendom. Many more struggled hard to gain a wider prominence, or even local recognition, and often remained saints only in the eyes of single partisans or restricted groups. Their sainthood was suggested but not fully accepted, or promoted but contested; their cults almost succeeded, but finally failed. Sometimes their very existence was put into question. Those interested in presenting papers on such saints and their cults, particularly if focused on the period before c.900, are requested to send title and short abstract (c. 100 words) to Bryan Ward-Perkins (bryan.ward-perkins@history.ox.ac.uk bryan.ward-perkins@history.ox.ac.uk>) or Robert Wiśniewski (r.wisniewski@uw.edu.pl r.wisniewski@uw.edu.pl>) by 20 September. Please, note that, sadly, the project is unable to fund speakers’ expenses. Clerical Income and Property in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages At the forthcoming Medieval Congress in Leeds (3-6 July 2017) the team of the ‘Presbyters in the Late Antique West’ Project, based at the University of Warsaw, organises a strand on the income and property of clergy. In most literary and normative sources we usually see clerics entirely dependent on diverse types of subsidies related to their ecclesiastical office. But some casual remarks and documentary evidence show that the reality was more complicated. The actual sources of income of clerics were diverse. This session will seek to answer the following questions: · How much did the clerics rely on church property and revenues? · What were other sources of their income, either those linked with the religious expertise or unconnected with ecclesiastical activity? · How the frontiers were fixed between the private property and revenues of clerics and those of the church, but also between the resources of diverse groups of clerics? Those interested in presenting papers on such topics, particularly if focused on the period before c. 900, are requested to send the title and a short abstract (c. 100 words) to Robert Wiśniewski (r.wisniewski@uw.edu.pl r.wisniewski@uw.edu.pl>) by 20 September. Please, note that unfortunately the project is unable to fund speakers’ expenses.

No comments: