Robert E. Lerner – författare

The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages has been widely recognized as the standard work on the subject in any language. Robert E. Lerner examines this fourteenth-century European heresy as it appeared in its own age. He concludes that the Free-Spirit movement was not a tightly organized sect of anarchistic deviants, but rather a spectrum of belief that emphasized voluntary poverty and quietist mysticism.

The Heresy of the Free Spirit in the Later Middle Ages has been widely recognized as the standard work on the subject in any language. Robert E. Lerner examines this fourteenth-century European heresy as it appeared in its own age. He concludes that the Free-Spirit movement was not a tightly organized sect of anarchistic deviants, but rather a spectrum of belief that emphasized voluntary poverty and quietist mysticism.

The Powers of Prophecy is an original attempt to investigate the subject of medieval eschatological prophecies: how and in what circumstances they were written; how they circulated; what they told people about the future; and how they were received. Although scholars have studied the ideas of a few outstanding medieval prophetic thinkers or the role of prophecies in heretical movements and popular insurrections, up to now there has been no attempt to study the most commonplace medieval prophetic ideas as they were communicated in the most frequently copied and widely read anonymous prophetic texts.Dedicated to pursuing the typical, Lerner's book traces the fortunes of an eschatological prophecy that was first written around 1240 and thereafter circulated throughout Western Europe for more than four centuries. Originally composed as a response to the Mongol onslaught, the prophecy was resurrected and reconceived to apply to other crises such as the fall of the Holy Land, the Black Death, and the Protestant Reformation. Although it was supposed to have descended form on high, allegedly being a message written by a disembodied moving hand over an altar during mass, countless scribes felt no qualms about recirculating the text with substantial changes. Among the many who took note of the prophecy in one or another of its numerous guises were the scholastic theological John of Paris; the Infante Peter, a prince of the house of Aragon; John Clyn, an Irish monk who entered it into his chronicle shortly before dying of the bubonic plague; and Martin Luther.

Robert E. Lerner uncovers a strain of medieval millennial thought that conceived of a peaceful place for Jews at the end of time. Its proponents maintained that "the candelabra of the Church would return to the Synagogue" and that the millennial Church would celebrate the feasts of "Saint Abraham" and "Saint David." Rejecting the common assumption that all millenarians were of necessity anti-Jewish, Lerner reveals a Christian prophetic tradition that foresaw a world in which Jews and Gentiles would come together to mutual benefit.As imagined by the twelfth century Calabrian Abbot Joachim of Fiore, God's plan, entailed a march of progress from Abraham until the wondrous transformation of human life upon the defeat of Antichrist. While the march of progress transpired on earth, a spiritual movement impelled God's chosen ones to heaven in phases, on a stairway to paradise. The divine plan had first entrusted the Jews with adherence to the letter of the Old Testament; then it had entrusted the Gentiles with the more spiritual New Testament. At the culmination of history, God would endow both Jews and Gentiles with a full understanding of both testaments. The word of God would return to the people from whence it came, and the Jews would be converted peacefully instead of damned.

Radiances gathers previously unpublished essays by one of the greatest historians of the twentieth century. Although best known for The King's Two Bodies (1957), Ernst Kantorowicz's scholarly expertise ranged from classical antiquity to early modernity and from political pageantry to numismatics. These essays traverse the breadth of his expertise, exploring "radiations" of the themes that were central to his published work: sovereignty, theology, law, and iconography. The radiations in these engaging essays include the imagery of throne-sharing from the Hellenistic era and Pharaonic Egypt to early Christianity, coronation ceremonies in Byzantium and the West, the Carolingian and Burgundian Renaissances, the relationship between Rome and Christianity, the importance of history as a humanistic pursuit, and the significance of postage stamps in political myth-building. Robert E. Lerner discusses each essay's composition, themes, and place in Kantorowicz's oeuvre. Combining vast knowledge with intellectual delight, Radiances teems with the profound historical insights that distinguished Kantorowicz's scholarship.

Radiances gathers previously unpublished essays by one of the greatest historians of the twentieth century. Although best known for The King's Two Bodies (1957), Ernst Kantorowicz's scholarly expertise ranged from classical antiquity to early modernity and from political pageantry to numismatics. These essays traverse the breadth of his expertise, exploring "radiations" of the themes that were central to his published work: sovereignty, theology, law, and iconography. The radiations in these engaging essays include the imagery of throne-sharing from the Hellenistic era and Pharaonic Egypt to early Christianity, coronation ceremonies in Byzantium and the West, the Carolingian and Burgundian Renaissances, the relationship between Rome and Christianity, the importance of history as a humanistic pursuit, and the significance of postage stamps in political myth-building. Robert E. Lerner discusses each essay's composition, themes, and place in Kantorowicz's oeuvre. Combining vast knowledge with intellectual delight, Radiances teems with the profound historical insights that distinguished Kantorowicz's scholarship.