Abstract This study examines the phenomenon of priestly concubinage in the Prague archdiocese in the pre-Hussite period (ca. 1360–1415). While the legal and administrative sources on this topic have already received scholarly attention, synodal sermons, which were delivered before the clergy of the diocese and shaped the discourse on how priests should view cohabitation with women, have been overlooked in this context. Therefore, the study aims to summarize the information about priests and their partners that can be gleaned from the administrative sources and to complement it with the image of these women and their cohabitation with priests as portrayed by synodal preachers. Based on the mentioned sources, it can be observed that proclaimed efforts to suppress concubinage intensified at the beginning of the 15th century, when reformist preacher Jan Hus and his similarly-minded contemporaries preached at synods, potentially being the initiators of this intensified effort to combat concubinage.
Abstract This article examines the encounter between the Armenian Apostolic Church and Protestant missionary movements in the mid-nineteenth century within the Ottoman and Russian Empires. It focuses particularly on the leadership of Patriarch and later Catholicos Matt’eos and the institutional strategies employed to counter the spread of Protestantism among Armenian communities. Drawing primarily on ecclesiastical archival sources, including encyclical letters, decrees, and ecclesiastical correspondence, the study reconstructs the evolving response of the Armenian Church to Protestant expansion. The article demonstrates that although American, British, and Basel missionaries introduced comparable educational and evangelical strategies, the trajectories of Protestant development diverged significantly due to differing imperial frameworks. While Protestant missions in the Ottoman Empire benefited from legal recognition and diplomatic protection, their counterparts in the Russian Empire faced increasing restrictions and eventual prohibition. Within these contrasting political environments, the Armenian Apostolic Church adopted a range of measures—educational efforts, clerical mobilization, pastoral exhortation, and disciplinary sanctions—to preserve doctrinal authority and communal cohesion. The study argues that opposition to Protestantism extended beyond the ecclesiastical hierarchy and included broader segments of Armenian society, who perceived the movement as a challenge to religious unity and national identity. Ultimately, the study shows that Protestantism became part of broader nineteenth-century transformations within Armenian society rather than remaining merely an external missionary phenomenon.
Abstract In this essay, I examine how the sixteenth-century vernacular discourse in England regarding the Münster Rebellion used supernatural explanations. Utilizing the Text-Creation Partnership of the Early English Books Online database, I ask: how did these writers and translators portray the interplay of supernatural and natural causes, specifically in relation to possible demonic actions? I conclude that these sources primarily relied on naturalistic explanations when recounting the news coming out of Westphalia. When they did employ supernatural explanations, they were mostly conservative, only making a vague connection between heresy and demons. I also expose both the way Johann Sleidanus’ chronicle set the baseline for the English-language interpretations of Münster and how religious leaders were the ones who ascribed demons more definitive roles in the story.
This article examines the encounter between the Armenian Apostolic Church and Protestant missionary movements in the mid-nineteenth century within the Ottoman and Russian Empires. It focuses particularly on the leadership of Patriarch and later Catholicos Matt'eos and the institutional strategies employed to counter the spread of Protestantism among Armenian communities. Drawing primarily on ecclesiastical archival sources, including encyclical letters, decrees, and ecclesiastical correspondence, the study reconstructs the evolving response of the Armenian Church to Protestant expansion. The article demonstrates that although American, British, and Basel missionaries introduced comparable educational and evangelical strategies, the trajectories of Protestant development diverged significantly due to differing imperial frameworks. While Protestant missions in the Ottoman Empire benefited from legal recognition and diplomatic protection, their counterparts in the Russian Empire faced increasing restrictions and eventual prohibition. Within these contrasting political environments, the Armenian Apostolic Church adopted a range of measures educational efforts, clerical mobilization, pastoral exhortation, and disciplinary sanctions to pre-serve doctrinal authority and communal cohesion. The study argues that opposition to Protestantism extended beyond the ecclesiastical hierarchy and included broader seg-ments of Armenian society, who perceived the movement as a challenge to religious unity and national identity. Ultimately, the study shows that Protestantism became part of broader nineteenth-century transformations within Armenian society rather than remaining merely an external missionary phenomenon.
In this essay, I examine how the sixteenth-century vernacular discourse in England regarding the Munster Rebellion used supernatural explanations. Utilizing the TextCreation Partnership of the Early English Books Online database, I ask: how did these writers and translators portray the interplay of supernatural and natural causes, specifically in relation to possible demonic actions? I conclude that these sources primarily relied on naturalistic explanations when recounting the news coming out of Westphalia. When they did employ supernatural explanations, they were mostly conservative, only making a vague connection between heresy and demons. I also expose both the way Johann Sleidanus' chronicle set the baseline for the English-language interpretations of Munster and how religious leaders were the ones who ascribed demons more definitive roles in the story.
This study examines the phenomenon of priestly concubinage in the Prague archdiocese in the pre-Hussite period (ca. 1360-1415). While the legal and administrative sources on this topic have already received scholarly attention, synodal sermons, which were delivered before the clergy of the diocese and shaped the discourse on how priests should view cohabitation with women, have been overlooked in this context. Therefore, the study aims to summarize the information about priests and their partners that can be gleaned from the administrative sources and to complement it with the image of these women and their cohabitation with priests as portrayed by synodal preachers. Based on the mentioned sources, it can be observed that proclaimed efforts to suppress concubinage intensified at the beginning of the 15th century, when reformist preacher Jan Hus and his similarly-minded contemporaries preached at synods, potentially being the initiators of this intensified effort to combat concubinage.
One of the most significant elements of the soundscape of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is the announcement of religious services. Because this historic church is shared among several Christian denominations, liturgies occur in various locations throughout the building. More importantly, three communities Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Armenians maintain their own acoustic summons. This study examines how these groups have signalled their services across the centuries, drawing on written sources and material culture. While all employ church bells, the Greek Orthodox and Armenians also use the semantron, the traditional instrument of the Eastern Churches. As a result, the religious soundscape of the Holy Sepulchre constitutes a complex, multilayered aural experience. The second part of the article analyses the bells of the Greek Orthodox and Catholic communities, artefacts that have remained largely under-researched and were examined in 2021.
The Museum of Aveiro/Santa Joana, in Aveiro, northern Portugal, has, among the liturgical books that once belonged to the Dominican Convent of Jesus in that city, a fifteenth-century antiphonary whose binding was replaced in the early seventeenth century and decorated with what I argue is a representation of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Although the presence of such a theme on the cover of a Dominican liturgical book would be striking, since the Dominicans were opposed to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, an analysis of the liturgical texts of the convent and other elements of material culture that testify to the religious practice of this community show that, despite the controversy surrounding the immaculist doctrine among the Dominicans, devotion to the Immaculate Conception was deeply rooted in the history of Jesus of Aveiro, and local traditions could sometimes prevail over the doctrine of the order, even in Observant communities.
This article moves from outlining the intellectual history of the Scottish Reformed Theologian John Sharp and his theological output during his time at the Reformed Seminary in Die, France. It argues that Sharp’s exile contributed to his being inoculated from developments in the controversies among the Reformed, and that his work is best understood as continuing a Reformed Polemic against Catholic Theology.
