This is the first large scale study on the link between the concepts of intellect and grace in the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo. Its five chapters deal with Augustine's writings on grace as they focus on questions concerning epistemology and hermeneutics. Already non-Christian ancient philosophers identified intellectual perfection with salvation as caused by divine grace. Under their influence (I) Augustine developed also his biblical thought (II). The culmination of his concept of intellectus gratiae, however, came in the later works on sacraments (III), hermeneutics (IV) and...

Was there a discernible set of changes in the techniques of arable farming, animal husbandry and their associated technologies at the end of antiquity which marked a clear break with an established 'ancient world economy' and ushered in the 'new agricultures' of the early middle ages? Were such changes not already visible in antiquity? And what was the impact of political, economic, social and environmental change in these processes? The 6 papers in this volume reject simple evolutionary models charting progress from "protohistory" to the "Roman period" to the "Dark Ages" to the "Middle Ages"...

The history of education within the Franciscan order during the medieval period is presented here in a new light. This comprehensive volume offers a new synthesis of Franciscan education, showing the dynamic development of the Franciscan school network, between the early thirteenth and the early sixteenth century. The organisation of study houses throughout the many Franciscan order provinces are discussed, as well as the relationship between these Franciscan study houses and the medieval universities and the various study programs offered to Franciscan students. Separate chapters are devoted...

This illustrated book continues themes in Central European cultural history treated elsewhere with the intention of presenting an interdisciplinary study of early medieval socio-cultural developments.
A continuation of the preceding books, this volume examines the archeological evidence of the groups who settled Central Europe. It aims to amplify the information recorded during the late Roman Empire about societies, social dynamics and ethnological contexts by examining their material culture. The language of significant objects complements the literature of significant texts.
The three...

In the research on "The transformation of the Roman world" relatively little attention has been paid to the transformation of early medieval peoples and the development of their communities into kingdoms, and we lack a comparative study on this subject. The aim of this volume is, therefore, to examine the relationship between gens and regnum by systematically comparing the "Germanic" and non-Germanic successor states of the Roman Empire, a question that leads to important results about the role of ethnic processes and of political developments in the formation of the new kingdoms. By trying...