Giles Constable – författare

The Libellus de Diversis Ordinibus was written in the 1130s or 1140s, probably in the diocese of Liège, a recognized centre of religious and intellectual activity at the time. It is a description of the similarities and differences among the various orders of monks, canons, and hermits, and, though clearly a contribution to a contemporary debate, is more analytical than polemical. Its unknown author, 'R', perhaps a regular canon, builds his case by demonstrating how each order and profession corresponds to a group mentioned in the Old Testament: thus prefigured and performing their proper functions they all fill a legitimate place within the unity of the Church. It is an invaluable source for religious life in the twelfth century, offering detailed insights into contemporary assumptions and practice.

Crusading in the twelfth century was less a series of discrete events than a manifestation of an endemic phenomenon that touched almost every aspect of life at that time. The defense of Christendom and the recovery of the Holy Land were widely-shared objectives. Thousands of men, and not a few women, participated in the crusades, including not only those who took the cross but many others who shared the costs and losses, as well as the triumphs of the crusaders. This volume contains not a narrative account of the crusades in the twelfth century, but a group of studies illustrating many aspects of crusading that are often passed over in narrative histories, including the courses and historiography of the crusades, their background, ideology, and finances, and how they were seen in Europe. Included are revised and updated versions of Giles Constable's classic essays on medieval crusading, along with two major new studies on the cross of the crusaders and the Fourth Crusade, and two excursuses on the terminology of crusading and the numbering of the crusades. They provide an opportunity to meet some individual crusaders, such as Odo Arpinus, whose remarkable career carried him from France to the east and back again, and whose legendary exploits in the Holy Land were recorded in the Old French crusade cycle. Other studies take the reader to the boundaries of Christendom in Spain and Portugal and in eastern Germany, where the campaigns against the Wends formed part of the wider crusading movement. Together they show the range and depth of crusading at that time and its influence on the broader history of the period.

Collected Studies CS1064This collection of Giles Constable's key articles on medieval monastic and ecclesiastical history provides nothing less than a comprehensive overview of research in the field. The book provides an insight into monastic life in the Middle Ages - from Germany to Normandy and from England to Sicily.

Collected Studies CS1065We assume that we have a clear understanding of how people in the Middle Ages thought and which attitudes they struck but in reality this is a subject of enormous complexity of which conclusions can only be drawn via painstaking archival research and decades of study. Giles Constable has spent a career analysing these forces and impulses and this new collection draws together his major findings on a host of topics including frontiers, metaphors, religious life and spirituality, and concepts of political theory.

Collected Studies CS1064This collection of Giles Constable's key articles on medieval monastic and ecclesiastical history provides nothing less than a comprehensive overview of research in the field. The book provides an insight into monastic life in the Middle Ages - from Germany to Normandy and from England to Sicily.

No tax in Europe can compare with tithes in its duration, the extent of its application and the economic burden it imposed. In this study Professor Constable considers the tithes paid to and by monks in the Middle Ages. In particular he examines why, by the twelfth century, most monks received tithes and many of them were freed from payment, in spite of earlier theory and practice by which monks, as distinct from the clergy, were usually forbidden to receive tithes and required to pay them. In the early Middle Ages monastic tithes were a matter not only of economics, but of doctrine, canon law and monastic theory. Their history lies in the borderland between theory and practice and Professor Constable studies them against a background of changes in property relationships, in the theory of tithing and in the nature of the monastic order.

This volume concentrates on the changes in religious thought and institutions in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and includes not only monks and nuns but also less organised types of life such as hermits, recluses, crusaders, and penitents. It is complimentary to Professor Constable's subsequent book, The Reformation of the Twelfth Century (now also published as a paperback), but is dissimilar to it in examining three themes over a long period, from late Antiquity to the seventeenth century, in order to show how they changed over time.

This book is concerned with the changes in religious thought and institutions from the late eleventh century to the third quarter of the twelfth. It concentrates on monks and nuns, but also takes into consideration hermits, recluses, wandering preachers, crusaders, penitents, and other less organised forms of religious life. In particular it studies the variety of reform movements, the relation of the reformers to each other and the outside world, and their spirituality and motivation as reflected in their writings and activities. The work stands in close relation to the author's Three Studies in Medieval Religious and Social Thought (1995), which took what may be called a horizontal approach, studying three topics over the entire Middle Ages. The present work takes a vertical approach, looking at many aspects of reform during a comparatively short period. Together the two works show the relatively rapid change in religious life and sentiments in the twelfth century.

This volume concentrates on the changes in religious thought and institutions in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and includes not only monks and nuns but also less organised types of life such as hermits, recluses, crusaders, and penitents. It is complimentary to Professor Constable's subsequent book, The Reformation of the Twelfth Century (now also published as a paperback), but is dissimilar to it in examining three themes over a long period, from late Antiquity to the seventeenth century, in order to show how they changed over time.

Crusading in the twelfth century was less a series of discrete events than a manifestation of an endemic phenomenon that touched almost every aspect of life at that time. The defense of Christendom and the recovery of the Holy Land were widely-shared objectives. Thousands of men, and not a few women, participated in the crusades, including not only those who took the cross but many others who shared the costs and losses, as well as the triumphs of the crusaders. This volume contains not a narrative account of the crusades in the twelfth century, but a group of studies illustrating many aspects of crusading that are often passed over in narrative histories, including the courses and historiography of the crusades, their background, ideology, and finances, and how they were seen in Europe. Included are revised and updated versions of Giles Constable's classic essays on medieval crusading, along with two major new studies on the cross of the crusaders and the Fourth Crusade, and two excursuses on the terminology of crusading and the numbering of the crusades. They provide an opportunity to meet some individual crusaders, such as Odo Arpinus, whose remarkable career carried him from France to the east and back again, and whose legendary exploits in the Holy Land were recorded in the Old French crusade cycle. Other studies take the reader to the boundaries of Christendom in Spain and Portugal and in eastern Germany, where the campaigns against the Wends formed part of the wider crusading movement. Together they show the range and depth of crusading at that time and its influence on the broader history of the period.

Medieval Monasticism is a bibliography meant as a guide to medieval monasticism, giving direction to the most important works in the subject and is prepared by an expert in the field, Dr. Constable. The bibliography has three aims: it meant to aid students who are relatively new to the area of study, to guide more advanced readers in a subject where they have had little formal training, and to assist new libraries in forming a basic collection in the subject presented.

The studies in the present selection of Giles Constable's work concentrate on culture and spirituality in the 11th and 12th centuries, though they also touch on the early and late Middle Ages. The cultural articles are concerned respectively with perceptions of time and the past, forgery (seen as a reflection of social and religious concerns), entry to religious life, preaching, and letters and letter-writing. The articles on spirituality deal with the themes of suffering and attitudes towards the self, especially the growing concentration on the individual in the religious life of the 12th century.

The articles in this volume deal with the history of the abbey of Cluny, both its relations with the outside world and its internal organisation and spirituality, from its foundation in 910 until the end of the twelfth century. After an opening article on the early history of Cluny, relating it to previous monasticism and the monastic world of the tenth century, there are a group of articles on how monks were admitted to Cluny, how they were organised, what they did, and on the monastery’s privileges. Two articles are concerned with Cluny’s relations with the abbey of Baume and another with Cluny and the First Crusade. Finally there are a group of articles on Cluny in the twelfth century. One deals with the relations between the abbots and the increasingly assertive townsmen of Cluny and another with the confused period following the death of Peter the Venerable, when there were a series of relatively short-term abbots, and one apparent anti-abbot.

Collected Studies CS1065We assume that we have a clear understanding of how people in the Middle Ages thought and which attitudes they struck but in reality this is a subject of enormous complexity of which conclusions can only be drawn via painstaking archival research and decades of study. Giles Constable has spent a career analysing these forces and impulses and this new collection draws together his major findings on a host of topics including frontiers, metaphors, religious life and spirituality, and concepts of political theory.