Abstract Based on the examination of liturgical and hagiographical manuscripts, this study lays the foundations for a history of medieval devotion to the relics of the three major saints of the Abbey of Fontenelle: Wandrille, Ansbert, and Vulfran. The findings highlight a remarkable example of a “mobile” cult, whose forms nevertheless endured with striking continuity until the end of the Middle Ages.
Abstract This study analyses the spread of religious congregations in Catalonia throughout the 19 th century and up to 1936 by analysing the rhythm, chronology, geography, intensity and the size of the orders founded in Catalonia, in the rest of Spain, abroad and those of the contemplative life. Data is provided on the number of nuns per ten thousand inhabitants and is related to the intensity of the phenomenon in Spain and other European countries. The geographical implantation of some of these orders and the density of convents in Catalonia are analysed.
Abstract How does a family of modest origins manage to durably establish itself at the head of both ecclesiastical and secular powers in Italian society at the end of the Middle Ages, a society reputed to be quite rigid? It was relatively common in the Quattrocento for a family to gain ecclesiastical power by placing one of its members on the throne of Saint Peter’s, due to the authority of the pontiff. Nevertheless, the Della Rovere succeeded where other lineages failed: they managed to transform a religious power into a secular one and to establish themselves over time at the head of hereditary positions on the Italian peninsula. Sixtus IV (1471–1484) and Julius II (1503–1513) took care to foster parallel ecclesiastical and secular careers within each branch of their lineage. However, in this process of social and political mobility, the church alone was not sufficient: it could only provide the initial impetus for their rise. The Della Rovere family therefore developed strategies to anchor their power in other sources of legitimacy. They associated their names and arms with powerful lineages, through matrimonial alliances, and developed military partnerships with these families, ensuring they would not be left defenceless upon the death of the popes who were from their family.
Abstract Within the expanding knowledge of the pagan reaction to Scripture, the Homilies of Philagathos of Cerami (12 th century) have recently emerged as a significant repository of objections to Scripture posed by late antique pagan philosophers. The quotation of arguments formulated by the emperor Julian in the Contra Galilaeos is particularly significant since it transmitted previously unknown passages from Julian’s lost work. It has also been demonstrated that Philagathos’s Homilies incorporate various pagan arguments from Makarios Magnes’s Monogenes . Building on these findings and the burgeoning research on the pagan critique of Christianity, the present essay unveils other genuine anonymous pagan objections in Philagathos’s Homilies , for the most part undocumented within the entire range of fragments and allusions attributed to the pagan antagonists (i.e., Celsus, Hierocles, Porphyry, and Julian). At the same time, relying on the Julianic material preserved in the Syriac transmission of Cyril’s Contra Iulianum , it will be shown that Philagathos’s Homilies transmit another objection from Julian’s Contra Galilaeos yet without ascribed authorship. In this context, it will be suggested that the lost Christian rebuttal of Julian’s Contra Galilaeos , which stands behind Theophylact of Ochrid’s and Philagathos’s quotations from the Contra Galilaeos , may potentially explain additional similarities between their exegeses and shed light on the origins of Philagathos’s anonymous pagan objections.
