Papers by Catherine Cubitt
Plainsong & Medieval Music, Oct 1, 2017
Studies in church history, May 23, 2024
This article examines the use of the concepts of hypocrisy and the hypocrite in the writings of P... more This article examines the use of the concepts of hypocrisy and the hypocrite in the writings of Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) and Archbishop Wulfstan of York (1002-23). Although separated by many centuries, these two treatments are connected through Wulfstan's debt to Gregory's ideas on the evil of hypocrisy, and particularly in his depiction of Antichrist as the chief of all hypocrites. Both use the idea of hypocrisy to critique their contemporary situation: for Gregory, the pride of the Patriarch John IV of Constantinople in adopting the title 'Ecumenical Patriarch'; and for Wulfstan, the court politics in the turbulent final years of the reign of AEthelred the Unready.
Verwandtschaft, Name und soziale Ordnung (300-1000), ed. S. Patzold and K. Ubl, 2014
In a seminal essay on personal names published in 1924, Sir Frank Stenton wrote: At the present t... more In a seminal essay on personal names published in 1924, Sir Frank Stenton wrote: At the present time it is difficult to say anything in general terms about the history of English personal nomenclature. It is a history with an obscure beginning and a fragmentary end. Its middle phase-the period between the seventh and eleventh centuries-is well understood, and the significance of its principal feature, the introduction of an overwhelming Scandinavian element into northern and eastern England, has always been appreciated. The beginning and end of the history are no less important. The study of the oldest English personal names will establish new points of contact between the nomenclatures of England and continental Germany, and may be expected to produce fresh evidence as to the distribution of heroic legend. 1
Brepols Publishers eBooks, 2003
The role of the court in early medieval polities has long been recognised as an essential force i... more The role of the court in early medieval polities has long been recognised as an essential force in the running of the kingdom. The court was not only an organ of central government but a sociological community with its own ideology and culture, and a place where royal power was both displayed and negotiated. The studies within this volume reflect the diversity of modern court studies, considering the court as a social body and considering its educative and ideological activities. The contributors to this volume bring together historical, archaeological, art historical and literary approaches to the topic as they consider aspects of court life in England, Francia, Rome and Byzantium from the eighth to the tenth centuries. The volume therefore looks at court life in the round, emphasizes and invites connections between early medieval courts, and opens new perspectives for the understanding of early medieval courts.
Pastoral Care in Medieval England, 2019
The English Historical Review, 2005
The English Historical Review, 2009
... The Old English Legend of the Seven Sleepers belongs in a late Anglo-Saxon environment of ...... more ... The Old English Legend of the Seven Sleepers belongs in a late Anglo-Saxon environment of ... His own language offered a ready and nuanced range of vocabulary for urban life, for the ... His additions were made to give his story a certain sort of contemporary reality, not to add ...
Gender <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&amp;"/> History, 2000
The position of women in late Anglo-Saxon England has become the subject of some controversy: the... more The position of women in late Anglo-Saxon England has become the subject of some controversy: the traditional view of pre-Conquest England as a golden era for women, when they enjoyed greater privileges and independence than later in the Middle Ages, has recently been challenged by Pauline Stafford and others, who stress the essentially patriarchal social and familial structures of tenth-and eleventhcentury England and who argue for continuity between pre-and post-Conquest England. 1 This study is a contribution to this debate: it examines issues of sexuality and gender in late Saxon England in relation to the ideology of the Benedictine reforms which transformed so much of Anglo-Saxon religious and political life. What effect did the new monasticism have upon the position of women? 2 Certain reform ideas may have had beneficial effects on the position of women; for example, the Church's increased emphasis on the importance of marriage seems to have led to Anglo-Saxon legislation protecting girls and widows from being forced to wed. 3 Moreover, the reform movement's greatest patron was not King Edgar but a woman, the Virgin Mary, who is depicted crowned in the service book of the reform's chief architect, Bishop AEthelwold. It has been argued that this image also enhanced the queenship of the earthly queen, AElfthryth. 4 In the Regularis Concordia, AElfthryth is given responsibility for religious houses of women, and this text also refers to the presence of abbesses as well as abbots at the great council at which it was published. 5 But this evidence for the reform's promotion of women
Early Medieval Europe, 2003
The cults of the murdered and martyred royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England have been interpreted ... more The cults of the murdered and martyred royal saints of Anglo-Saxon England have been interpreted as political in origin and this view has received widespread acceptance. This article, which discusses the cults of the kings, Oswald, Oswiu and Edwin of Northumbria, and Edward the Martyr and those of the princes, Kenelm of Mercia and áthelred and áthelberht of Kent, puts forward a new interpretation, suggesting that their cults originated in lay and none Âlite devotion to the innocent victims of unjust and violent death, before being taken up for political and other purposes. It addresses the problem of popular religion in Anglo-Saxon England and seeks to show how these cults may be used to shed light on the beliefs of the ordinary Anglo-Saxon laity. Anglo-Saxon England has earned a certain scholarly renown for its crowd of royal saints. These included princess-abbesses such as áthelthryth of Ely, kings like Oswald of Northumbria and Edmund of East Anglia who were killed by pagans (and are generally referred to as royal martyrs) and royal victims of political violence, best exempli®ed by Edward the Martyr. The phenomenon of royal sanctity has attracted a considerable body of analysis and criticism in recent years with distinguished articles and monographs by David Rollason, Susan Ridyard and Alan Thacker. 1 The interpretations of these authors have produced a remarkable consensus in favour of the view that many of these cults, particularly those of murdered kings and princes, originated in royal sponsorship and were promoted for political reasons. Rollason, Ridyard and Thacker have been
Recht und Gericht in Kirche und Welt um 900, 2007
The late ninth and early tenth centuries are not fruitful periods for the student of English chur... more The late ninth and early tenth centuries are not fruitful periods for the student of English church councils. After 850, the great ecclesiastical synods held under the presidency of the Archbishop of Canterbury which are so marked a feature of the late eighth and early ninth Mercian Supremacy disappear. Did such synods cease to take place? Or is it that they no longer produced documentary evidence? The interpretation of silences in the sources, while hardly an unfamiliar problem for the early medieval historian, is particularly difficult. This paper attempts to shed a little light on the problem of what happened to synods in the late ninth and tenth centuries and in doing so, inevitably, throws up more questions for future research than answers. It addresses the problem by focusing on the evidence in lawcodes and charters for the intersection between ecclesiastical and secular law, with particular reference to the issue of excommunication.
A Companion to Ælfric
AElfric himself 'served' a number of thegns in his lifetime: from the great aristocrats a... more AElfric himself 'served' a number of thegns in his lifetime: from the great aristocrats and ealdormen, AEthelweard and AEthelmaer, to the lesser thegns, the local gentry, Sigeweard of Asthall, Wulfgea. The sources which historians often use to assess lay status and actions-charters, wills, and historical writings-are less forthcoming for these two men, partly because their names are relatively common and it is hard to identify them definitively in the documentary record. Both AEthelweard and AEthelmaer must have possessed great landed wealth not only through inheritance and personal acquisition but also by virtue of their office as ealdormen. The conflicting tensions of aristocratic life and the teachings of the church over issues such as sexuality and warfare could place a well-nigh intolerable strain upon pious laymen. The new thegnly churches were now providing essential pastoral services such as burial, Eucharistic and penitential provision. Keywords: AElfric; AEthelmaer; AEthelweard; thegnly churches
Narrative and History in the Early Medieval West, 2006
... Breton material, see B. Merdrignac, 'Folklore and Hagiog-raphy: A Semiotic Approach to t... more ... Breton material, see B. Merdrignac, 'Folklore and Hagiog-raphy: A Semiotic Approach to the Legend of the Immortals of Landevennec', Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies, 13 (1987), 7386, and see also J. Smith, 'Oral and Written: Saints, Miracles and Relics in Brittany, c. 850 ...
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Papers by Catherine Cubitt