The Dream-Vision in Medieval English Literature
The authors writing with the dream-vision device follow a predictable pattern: a solitary male narrator, searching for answers falls asleep and is taken on...
Chaucer and the Scientific Method
The Middle Ages are traditionally considered to be a time of intellectual stagnation, especially in regard to developments in science. Many thinkers in the...
Controversy Over National Trust Reenactment Policy
I was somewhat surprised when visiting the National Trust Derbyshire property, Calke Abbey, in August 2011 to be greeted in the entrance hall by...
Etheldreda – A Medieval Woman, Founder of Ely Cathedral
The magnificent Ely Cathedral stands on the site of a monastery established in Saxon times by the popular Anglo-Saxon Saint Etheldreda (also known as...
The Invention that Changed Europe
Europe in the early Middle Ages was a place as Thomas Hobbes once said, where the lives of people were “nasty, brutish and short.”...
Love and Passion in the Christian World: Peter Abélard
When Abélard met Héloise, more or less in 1117, he was at the summit of his career as both a philosopher and a teacher....
Preparations for a Pilgrimage in Medieval Times
A medieval pilgrim, whether travelling overseas or within his own country, was aware that the pilgrimage may cost him his life. Travel in medieval...
Religious Terrorism: Killing in the Name of God
Terrorism is broadly defined as the use of violent and often deadly force aimed at innocent civilians in order to create fear, resulting in...
What’s in a Name? A Lesson from the French Kings
Most of the French Kings throughout history were awarded an epithet which emphasized a physical characteristic, a personal characteristic or an interesting accident of...
The Medieval Book of Hours: A Devotional Text in the Middle Ages
Each Book of Hours, because it was created individually, was unique. A simple Book of Hours, for example, belonging to a monk or nun...