Centered on a study of the early archives of the Venerabile Collegio Inglese in Rome, this book attempts to place in its political, commercial and religious setting the English community that was in Rome between 1362, when the first English hospice for poor people and pilgrims was founded, and 1420. The book also uncovers a notable, although unsuccessful, attempt to forward English participation in commerce with Rome before 1420, revealing important links between the English laity in Rome and the city of London.

This is a study of the way in which the Franciscan and Dominican orders became involved in preaching the Cross and an examination of their contribution to the crusading movement of the 13th century. The papacy used large numbers of trained preachers from these orders in order to provide the Crusades with a well-organized and efficient propaganda back-up throughout Europe. The book explains how the propaganda campaigns were organized and how the recruitment of crusaders took place. It also challenges the traditional pacifist view of the founder saints of the two orders by showing them to be...

This is a study of the economic, social, legal and religious position of three minorities within the medieval Christian kingdom of Hungary. The book demonstrates that the status of such minorities depended not simply on Christian religious tenets, but on a larger framework--including the legal and social system, economic possibilities, and conflicts between kings and the clergy. It also investigates the situation "at the gate of Christendom"--the frontier with the nomad world--and the way this affected both Christian and non-Christian interaction and Christian ideology.

This book examines the role of written agreements in eleventh- and twelfth-century Catalonia, and how they determined the social and political order. In addition to offering insights into subjects as diverse as the power of counts and bishops and the organization of rural societies, it addresses several current debates in medieval studies: the question of feudalism, the "transformation of the year 1000," medieval literacy, and the nature of Mediterranean societies. It is thus a local study that has wide implications for the history of medieval Europe.

This book offers a new approach to the problem of Slavic ethnicity in southeastern Europe between c. 500 and c. 700. The author shows how Byzantine authors "invented" the Slavs, in order to make sense of political and military developments taking place in the Balkans. Making extensive use of archaeology to show that such developments resulted in the rise of powerful leaders, responsible for creating group identities and mobilizing warriors for successful raids across the frontier. The author rejects the idea of Slavic migration, and shows that "the Slavs" were the product of the frontier.

Using a history written by a monk in the late tenth century as a point of departure for an exploration of the culture of tenth-century France, this book focuses mainly on the ways that he and his contemporaries engaged in and reacted to contemporary political events. In particular, it demonstrates that the writing of history for these men was a form of participation in the larger political events of their day and a political act itself.