GENERAL INDEX
Volume XCIV
(2008)
Compiled by
Elizabeth Foxwell, M.A.
Abbreviations
biog.: biography
b.n.: brief note

men: mentioned
rev.: review

Aageson, James W.
Paul, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Early
Church, rev., 761–62
Abou-El-Haj, Barbara
Rev. of M.W. Cothren, 337–38
Academy of American Franciscan History
Conference on the role of music in the
California missions,April 2008, 195–96
Accademia di San Carlo, Biblioteca Ambrosiana
of Milan
Dies academicus,“L’Inquisizione in età
moderna e il caso milanese,” 627
Publishes papers on “Milano Borromaica
atelier culturale della Controriforma,”
628–29
Adkin, Neil
Rev. of M. H.Williams, 322–23
Adloff, Frank
Rev. of A. Liedhegener, 123–25
Ælred of Rievaulx, Saint
Aelred of Rievaulx: The Lives of the
Northern Saints, rev., 333–34
Albala, Ken
The Banquet: Dining in the Great Courts of
Late Renaissance Europe, rev., 573–74
Albani, Benedetta
Rev. of S. S. Menchi and D. Quaflioni, eds.,
364–66
Alberigo, Giuseppe, et al., eds.
Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
Generaliumque Decreta. Editio critica.
Vol. 1: The Oecumenical Councils from
Nicaea I to Nicaea II (325–787), rev.,
321–22
Albert of Aachen, and S. Edgington, ed. and
trans.
Historia Ierosolimitana. History of the
Journey to Jerusalem, rev., 787–88
Almeida, Linda Dowling
Rev. of J. M. Zeitz, 858–59
American Catholic Historical Association
Announcement of the Eighty-Ninth Annual
Meeting, 410

Appointments to the Committee on the John
Gilmary Shea Prize and Committee on the
John Tracy Ellis Dissertation Award, 622
Reports of the Eighty-Eighth Annual Meeting:
of the Chairman of the Committee on
Program, 283–91
of the Committee on Nominations, 291
of the Committee on the Howard R. Marraro
Prize, 293–94
of the Committee on the John Shea Gilmary
Prize, 292–93
of the Committee on the John Tracy Ellis
Dissertation Award, 294–95
of the Editor, The Catholic Historical
Review, 303–06
of the Secretary and Treasurer, 295–303
on the Peter Guilday Prize, 304–06
Submission details for papers and sessions
for the Ninetieth Annual Meeting, 622
American Cusanus Society
Eleventh biennial conference, October 2008,
196
Meeting in Chicago,April 2008, 412
Sessions sponsored at the International
Congress on Medieval Studies, May 2008,
196, 414
Amsterdam, University of
Conference on the history of the
humanities, 626–27
Andrews, Frances
The Other Friars: The Carmelite,
Augustinian, Sack, and Pied Friars in
the Middle Ages, rev., 561–62
Angela, Mother, C.S.C. (Eliza Gillespie)
men., 695–716
Angenendt,Arnold
Toleranz und Gewalt. Das Christentum
zwischen Bibel und Schwert, rev., 308–10
Anselm of Canterbury, Saint
“Saint Anselm of Canterbury and His
Legacy” conference, 627
“Antipopery:The Transatlantic Experience, c.
1530–1850,” conference papers, 881

iv

GENERAL INDEX

Apartheid in South Africa
men., 500–21
Archaeology
men., at Fort St. Joseph (Niles, Michigan),
476–99
men., in St. Mary’s City, Maryland, 193–94
“L’architettura milanese e Federico Borromeo”
conference, November 2007, 195
Archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith
Conference on tenth anniversary of
opening, 410–11
Armstrong, Megan
Rev. of B. Restif, 376–77
Artigas, Mariano,Thomas F. Glick, and Rafael
Martínez
Negotiating Darwin: The Vatican Confronts
Evolution, 1877–1902, rev., 118–20
Ashley, Kathleen
Rev. of C. Sanok, 572–73
Astarita,Tommaso
Rev. of J.A. Davis, 388–89
Rev. of A. De Spirito and A.Amarante, eds.,
370–71
Atherton, John, Bishop
men., 834–35
Atumanos, Simon, Bishop
men., 812–14
Aufgebauer, Peter, and Christine van den Hevel,
eds.
Herrschaftspraxis und soziale Ordnungen
im Mittelalter und in der frühen
Neuzeit. Ernst Schubert zum Gedenken,
rev., 117–18
Augustine of Hippo, Saint
men., 587–90
Augustinians
Augustinians celebrate 750th anniversary of
the Great Union of their Order, 197–98
La Ciudad de Dios publishes articles on
Augustinian martyrs, 416–17
men., 561–62
Austin,Alvyn
China’s Millions: The China Inland Mission
and Late Qing Society, 1832–1905, rev.,
408–09
Auzépy, Marie-France
L’histoire des iconoclastes, rev., 776–77
Bachrach, David S.
Rev. of J. Flori, 785–87
Bailey, Michael D.
Rev. of M.Tavuzzi, 821–22
Barber, Malcolm
The Trial of the Templars, rev., 338–39
Bargellini, Clara
Rev. of K. Donahue-Wallace, 865–66
Barlava, Desirée, ed.
Die Lebensbeschreibungen Bischof
Burchards von Würzburg:Vita
Antiquior—Vita Posterior—Vita
Metrica, rev., 134–35
Barmann, Lawrence
Rev. of D. P. Scotti, 398–400

v

Barnard College, Columbia University
Twenty-First Medieval and Renaissance
Conference, December 2008, 415
Bauer, Stefan
The Censorship and Fortuna of Platina’s
Lives of the Popes in the Sixteenth
Century, rev., 366–67
Baumgart, Peter
Universitäten im konfessionellen Zeitalter:
Gesammelte Beiträge, rev., 362–64
Bay Area Council of Laymen
men., 219–44
Beach,Alison I., ed.
Manuscripts and Monastic Culture: Reform
and Renewal in Twelfth-Century
Germany, rev., 555–57
Beauduin, Lambert, Dom
men., 841–42
Becket,Thomas,Archbishop and Saint
men., 797–98
Beckett, Lucy
In the Light of Christ:Writings in the
Western Tradition, rev., 307–08
Bede, the Venerable
men., 783–84
Benedict XV, Pope
men., 22–44
Benedict XVI, Pope
The Regensburg Lecture, rev., 753–55
Berkenbrock,Albertina
Beatified, 194
Berman, Constance H.
Rev. of C.Wissenberg, 798–99
Bertrand, Régis, ed.
La Nativité et le temps de Noël, XVII e–XX e
Siècle, rev., 147–49
Bird, David
Rev. of M. Reath, 744–45
Bireley, Robert, S.J.
Rev. of A.Angenendt, 308–10
Birnbaum, Lucia Chiavola
b.n. of M. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, 874
Black, Christopher, and Pamela Gravestock, eds.
Early Modern Confraternities in Europe
and the Americas: International and
Interdisciplinary Perspectives, rev., 358–59
Blackwell, Richard J.
Behind the Scenes at Galileo’s Trial:
Including the First English Translation
of Melchior Inchofer’s Tractatus
syllepticus, rev., 582–83
Blaine, James Gillespie
men., 695–716
Bland, Joan, S.N.D. de N.
Obituary, 885–87
Blantz,Thomas E., C.S.C.
James Gillespie Blaine, His Family, and
“Romanism,” 695–716
Bliss, Frederick M., S.M.
Catholic and Ecumenical: History and
Hope, Why the Catholic Church Is
Ecumenical and What She Is Doing
about It, rev., 743–44

vi

GENERAL INDEX

Blumhardt, Johann Christophe
2005 symposium papers published, 198
Blumhofer, Edith L.
Her Heart Can See: The Life and Hymns of
Fanny J. Crosby, rev., 403–04
Bodeen, Frances
men., 219–44
Bodo, Murray
Mystics, b.n., 877
Boer,Wietse de
Rev. of F. Borromeo, 150–51
Bohémond of Antioch
men., 785–87
Bölling, Jörg
Das Papstzeremoniell der Renaissance
Texte-Musik-Performanz, rev., 149–50
Bonifacio, Francesco Giovanni
Beatified, 880
Borromeo, Federico, with Francesco di Ciaccia,
ed.
Paralella cosmographica de sede et
apparitionibus dæmonum. Liber unus,
rev., 150–51
Bosco, John, Saint
men., 594–95
Bourdua, Louise, and Anne Dunlop, eds.
Art and the Augustinian Order in Early
Renaissance Italy, rev., 818–19
Bowersock, G.W.
Rev. of G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, 126–27
Boyd, Carolyn P., ed.
Religión y política en la España
contemporánea, rev., 595–97
Boynton, Susan
Shaping a Monastic Identity: Liturgy and
History at the Imperial Abbey of Farfa,
1000–1125, rev., 548–51
Bradshaw, Paul
Rev. of P. L. Gavrilyuk, 537–38
Brady,Thomas A., Jr.
Honored with a Festschrift, 200
Brandão, José António, and Michael Shakir
Nassaney
Suffering for Jesus: Penitential Practices at
Fort St. Joseph (Niles, Michigan) during
the French Regime, 476–99
Brassloff,Audrey
Rev. of C. P. Boyd, 595–97
Braun, Léopold L. S.,A.A., with G. M. Hamburg,
ed.
In Lubianka’s Shadow: The Memoirs of an
American Priest in Stalin’s Moscow,
1934–1945, rev., 394–96
Bray,Alan, with Mark Jordan, ed.
The Friend, rev., 312–13
Brekus, Catherine A., ed.
The Religious History of American Women:
Reimagining the Past, rev., 173–74
Bremer, Kai
Religionsstreitigkeiten:Volksprachliche
Kontroversen zwischen altgläubigen
und evangelischen Theologen im 16.
Jahrhundert, rev., 829–30

Brent,Allen
Ignatius of Antioch: A Martyr Bishop and
the Origin of Episcopacy, rev., 542–43
Brett, Edward T.
Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas and the
Struggle for Social Justice in El Salvador,
717–39
Brewer, John D.
Rev. of M. Power, 601–02
Bristol, Joan Cameron
Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches:
Afro-Mexican Ritual Practice in the
Seventeenth Century, rev., 868–69
Brockey, Liam Matthew
Journey to the East: The Jesuit Mission to
China, 1579–1724, rev., 620–21
Rev. of R. Po-chia Hsia, ed., 188–89
Brook,Timothy
Rev. of L. M. Brockey, 620–21
Brooke, Rosalind B.
The Image of St. Francis: Responses to
Sainthood in the Thirteenth Century,
rev., 799–800
Brown, Michelle P.
The World of the Luttrell Psalter, rev., 353
Brown,William Francis, Bishop
men., 22–44
Brubaker, Leslie, and Chris Wickham
Rev. of D. M. Deliyannis, 330–31
Brundage, James A.
Rev. of A. Bray, 312–13
Rev. of P. Lehmann, 340
Bruschi, Caterina, ed.
Salvo Burci. Liber Suprastella, rev.,
140–42
Bruscoli, Francesco Guidi
Papal Banking in Renaissance Rome:
Benvenuto Olivieri and Paul III,
1534–1549, rev., 823–24
Bruté, Simon Gabriel, Bishop
men., 45–74
Bullard, Melissa Meriam
Rev. of F. G. Bruscoli, 823–24
Bulletin de la Sociétè de l’histoire du
Protestantisme Français
Publishes issue on “La mesure du fait
religieux: L’approche méthodologique
des registres consistoriaux dans l’espace
calvinien XIV e–XVIII e siècles,” 628
Publishes issue on “Protestantisme et cinéma
français,” 885
Burges,William
The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork:
William Burges in Ireland, rev.,
400–01
Burkhimer, Michael
Lincoln’s Christianity, rev., 605–07
Burns, Robert I., S.J.
The Naughty Canon of Catalonia and the
Sack Friars:The Dynamics of “Passage”
from Monk to Mendicant, 245–59
Burr, David
Rev. of C. Jostmann, 336–37

GENERAL INDEX

Burrus,Virginia
The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of
Ancient Hagiography and Saving
Shame: Martyrs, Saints, and Other
Abject Subjects, rev., 764–66
Butler,Anne M.
Rev. of A. Dieker, O.S.B., 856–58
Butler, Rex D.
The New Prophesy & “New Visions”:
Evidence of Montanism in The Passion
of Perpetua and Felicitas, rev., 320–22
Bynum, Caroline Walker
Wonderful Blood: Theology and Practice in
Late Medieval Northern Germany and
Beyond, rev., 563–65
Calaf, Ferrer de,Abbot
men., 245–59
California Mission Studies Association
Conference on the role of music in the
California missions,April 2008, 195–96
Callahan, Christopher
Rev. of K. Krause and A. Stones, eds., 570–72
Calvin, John
men., 883
Camara, Helder Pessoa,Archbishop, with José
de Broucker, trans.
Lettres conciliaires 1962–1965, rev., 75–101
Canadian Catholic Historical Association
English Section papers published in
Historical Studies, 199, 884
Seventy-Fourth Annual Meeting, June 2008,
196, 623
Capgrave, John
men., 814–15
Caraman, Philip, S.J., biog., 842–44
Cárcel Ortí, Ma Milagros
Visitas Pastorales y Relaciones Ad Limina.
Fuentes para la Geografía Eclesiástica,
rev., 583–84
Carino of Balsamo, Blessed
men., 1–21
Carmelites
men., 561–62
Carper, James C., and Thomas C. Hunt
The Dissenting Tradition in American
Education, rev., 861–63
Carroll, John,Archbishop, S.J.
men., 45–74
Carroll, Michael P.
American Catholics in the Protestant
Imagination: Rethinking the Academic
Study of Religion, rev., 848–49
Casa di Mantegna
Holds exhibition on Countess Matilda of
Canossa, 623
Casino, Joseph J.
Rev. of R. N. Juliani, 404–07
Castelli, Elizabeth A.
Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian
Culture Making, rev., 771–73
Castro, Daniel
Another Face of Empire: Bartolomé de Las
Casas, Indigenous Rights, and
Ecclesiastical Imperialism, rev., 616–17

vii

Catholic Education
men., 45–74, 176, 414, 500–21, 593–94,
612–14
Catholic Historical Review, The
Preliminarily assigned “A” ranking in religious
studies/theology journals and “B” ranking
in history journals by the European
Science Foundation, 878
Catholic Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
Publishes fall 2007 issue of Potomac
Catholic Heritage, 199
Sponsors lecture, April 2008, 414
Catholic University of Eichstätt–Ingolstadt
Interdisciplinary conference “The Culture of
Catholicism in the United States” scheduled, 882
Catholic Women’s Suffrage Society
men., 22–44
Center for Early Modern History, University of
Minnesota
Sponsors lectures,April 2008, 412
Sponsors paper, May 2008, 414
Centre for the Study of Christianity in China
Becomes part of Kings College, London, 410
Chadwick, Owen
Rev. of P. Levillain and J.-M.Ticchi, eds.,
161–62
Charbonnier, Jean-Pierre, and Maurice N. L.
Couve de Murville, trans.
Christians in China: A.D. 600 to 2000, rev.,
869–70
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (King Charles I
of Spain)
men., 653–70
Chávez, Luis,Archbishop
men., 717–39
Chazan, Robert
The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom,
1000–1500, rev., 554–55
Chicago History Museum
Exhibit on influence of Catholicism in
Chicago, 410
Chinnici, Joseph P., O.F.M.
An Historian’s Creed and the Emergence of
Postconciliar Culture Wars, 219–44
Chludzinska, Celina
Beatified, 194
Chowning, Margaret
Rev. of P. Foz y Foz, O.D.N.,A.Artajo, O.D.N.,
and E.Abad, O.D.N., 758–59
Christitch,Annie
men., 22–44
Chryssavgis, John
Rev. of R. M. Parrinello, ed. and trans., 133–34
Ciappara, Frans
The Parish Community in EighteenthCentury Malta, 671–94
Ciernick, Helen
Rev. of L. Miller-Bernal and S. L. Poulson, eds.,
612–14
Clark, Elaine
Catholic Men in Support of the Women’s
Suffrage Movement in England, 22–44

viii

GENERAL INDEX

Clark, Emily
Masterless Mistresses: The New Orleans
Ursulines and the Development of a New
World Society, 1727–1834, rev., 855–56
Clark, James G.
Rev. of J.Taylor,W. R. Childs, and L.Watkiss,
eds., 802–04
Clarke, Peter D.
The Interdict in the Thirteenth Century: A
Question of Collective Guilt, rev., 800–02
Clement VII, Pope
men., 579–81
Clifford, Charles H.
men., 219–44
Clyn, John, Friar
men., 562–63
Coblin,W. South
Francisco Varo’s Glossary of the Mandarin
Language, 2 vols., rev., 187–88
Cohen, Jeremy
Christ Killers: The Jews and the Passion
from the Bible to the Big Screen, rev.,
525–26
Colish, Marcia
Rev. of A. Collins, 795–97
College Theology Society
men., 610–11
Colli,Vincenzo, and Emanuele Conte, eds.
Iuris Historia: Liber Amicorum Gero
Dolezalek, rev., 750–51
Collins,Ann
Teacher in Faith and Virtue: Lanfranc of
Bec’s Commentary on Saint Paul, rev.,
795–97
Collins, Raymond F.
Rev. of B. Montagnes, O.P., 839–40
Collinson, Patrick
From Cranmer to Sancroft: Essays on
English Religion in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries, rev., 832–33
Colombo, Emanuele
Convertire i musulmani: L’esperienza di un
gesuita spagnolo del Seicento, b.n., 875
Columba, Saint,Abbot of Iona (Colum Cille)
men., 780–82
Comerford, Kathleen M.
Reforming Priests and Parishes: Tuscan
Dioceses in the First Century of
Seminary Education, rev., 367–68
Commission Internationale d’Histoire et
d’Études du Christianisme
Sponsors international colloquium “Pilgrims
and Politics,” 626
Congrégation de Notre-Dame
men., 614–15
Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences
Holds meeting, May–June 2008, 414–15
Connaughton, Brian F., with Mark Alan Healey,
trans.
Clerical Ideology in a Revolutionary Age:
The Guadalajara Church and the Idea
of the Mexican Nation (1788–1853),
rev., 184–85

Connolly, Mary Beth Fraser
Rev. of J. Nolan, 757–58
Constantine the Great, Roman Emperor
men., 773–75
Conway, John
Rev. of P. Henry, 597–98
Rev. of K.-J. Hummel and C. Kösters, 844–46
Conway, Martin
Rev. of L. H. van Voss, P. Pasture, and J. De
Maeyer, eds., 837–39
Cooney-Robinson, Mary Kathryn
Rev. of R. Godding, B. Joassart, X. Lequeux, F.
de Vriendt, and J. van der Straeten,
751–52
Coppa, Frank J.
Rev. of M.Vergottini, ed., 317–18
Corbin,Alain, ed., with Nicole LeMaitre,
Françoise Thelamon, and Catherine Vincent
Histoire du Christianisme: Pour mieux
comprendre notre temps, rev., 522–23
Cormack, Margaret, ed.
Saints and Their Cults in the Atlantic
World, rev., 528–29
Costigan, Richard F., S.J.
Rev. of R. Regoli, 389–90
Cothren, Michael W.
Picturing the Celestial City: The Medieval
Stained Glass of Beauvais Cathedral,
rev., 337–38
Covington, Sarah
Rev. of P. Collinson, 832–33
Cracco, Giorgio, et al., eds.
Europa in costruzione. La forza delle
identità, la ricerca di unità (secoli
IX–XIII), rev., 138–40
Cranmer,Thomas,Archbishop
men., 832–33
Crislip,Andrew
Rev. of C.T. Schroeder, 768–70
Croke, Brian
Rev. of W. Goffart, 131–32
Crosby, Fanny J.
men., 403–04
Cummings, Kathleen
Presents Catholic University of America
lecture on “‘The Wageless Work of
Paradise’: Catholic Sisters in Parochial
Schools,” 414
Curran, Robert Emmett
Rev. of D. J. Slawson, 177–79
Curta, Florin
Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages,
500–1250, rev., 326–27
Cushing, Kathleen G.
Pueri, Iuvenes, and Viri:Age and Utility in
the Gregorian Reform, 435–49
Cushwa Center for the Study of American
Catholicism, University of Notre Dame
“Catholicism in the American Century”
conference, 196
Dalton, Margaret Stieg
Catholicism, Popular Culture, and the Arts
in Germany, 1880–1993, rev., 164–65

GENERAL INDEX

Damberg,Wilhelm, and Antonius Liedhegener,
eds.
Katholiken in den USA und Deutschland:
Kirche, Gesellschaft und Politik, rev.,
122–23
Damiani, Bruno M.
b.n. of M. Bodo, 877
Dandelet,Thomas
Rev. of B. Dooley, 827–28
Daniel,Wallace L.
The Orthodox Church and Civil Society in
Russia, rev., 170–71
Daronch,Adilio
Beatified, 194
Davis, John A.
Naples and Napoleon: Southern Italy and
the European Revolutions, 1780–1860,
rev., 388–89
Davis, Philip M.
Rev. of T. Larsen, 397–98
Day,Arthur, S.J.
men., 22–44
Day, Henry, S.J.
men., 22–44
Debby, Nirit Ben-Aryeh
The Renaissance Pulpit: Art and Preaching
in Tuscany, 1400–1550, rev., 817–18
De Fraja,Valeria
Oltre Citeaux: Gioacchino da Fiore e
l’Ordine florense, rev., 558–60
Dekoninck, Ralph,Agnès Guiderdoni-Bruslé, and
Marc van Vaeck
Emblemata Sacra: Emblem Books from the
Maurits Sabbe Library, Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven [Exhibited in the]
Francis A. Drexel Library, Saint Joseph’s
University, rev., 154–55
DelFattore, Joan
Rev. of J. C. Carper and T. C. Hunt, 861–63
Deliyannis, Deborah Mauskopf, ed.
Agnelli Ravennatis: Liber Pontificalis
Ecclesiae Ravennatis, rev., 330–31
Delpero, Pietro
I Volpini, una famiglia di scultori tra
Lombardia e Baviera (secoli
XVII–XVIII), rev., 377–78
Delph, Ronald K.
Rev. of K. Gouwens and S. E. Reiss, eds., 579–81
Demacopoulos, George E.
Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the
Early Church, rev., 538–40
de Mottoni, Barbara Faes
Figure e motivi della contemplazione nelle
teologie medievali, rev., 811–12
Dening, Greg
Beach Crossings:Voyaging across Times,
Cultures, and Self, rev., 872–73
De Spirito,Angelomichele, and Alfonso
Amarante, eds.
Gerardo Maiella: La sua storia e il nostro
tempo.Atti del convegno di studi per il
250o anniversario della morte del
Santo e per il Centenario della

ix

Canonizzazione. Materdomini 21–23
giugno 2005, rev. 370–71
de Veuster, Damien
Beatification authorized by Pope Benedict
XVI, 880
de Vogüé,Adalbert, O.S.B.
Histoire littéraire du mouvement
monastique dans l’antiquité, Première
partie: Le monachisme latin, Tome XI:
La Gaule franque et l’Espagne wisigothique (VI e–VII e siècle), rev., 540–42
Dickson, John
Rev. of A. J. Lenti, 594–95
Dieker,Alberta, O.S.B.
A Tree Rooted in Faith: A History of Queen
of Angels Monastery, rev., 856–58
Ditchfield, Simon
Rev. of S. Bauer, 366–67
Domenico, Roy
Rev. of A.Tornielli, 752–53
Donahue-Wallace, Kelly
Art and Architecture of Viceregal Latin
America, 1521–1821, rev., 865–66
Donnelly, John Patrick, ed. and trans.
Jesuit Writings of the Early Modern Period,
1540–1640, rev., 578–79
Dooley, Brendan
Morandi’s Last Prophecy and the End of
Renaissance Politics, rev., 827–28
Doran, Susan
Mary Queen of Scots: An Illustrated Life,
rev., 590–93
Dorthe, Lionel
Le berger et son troupeau. Prieurs et curés
d’Ayent en conflit (diocèse de Sion,
15ème siècle), rev., 569–70
Drake, Richard
Catholics and the Italian Revolutionary Left
of the 1960s, 450–75
Dries,Angelyn, O.S.F.
Rev. of M. Cormack, 528–29
Driscoll, Michael S.
Rev. of R. Loonbeek and J. Mortiau, 841–42
Rev. of B. R.Walters,V. Corrigan, and P.T.
Ricketts, 806–07
Dubois, John, Bishop
men., 45–74
DuBourg, Louis William, Bishop
men., 45–74
Dudink,Ad
Rev. of J.-P. Charbonnier and M. N. L. Couve
de Murville, trans., 869–70
Duggan, Lawrence G.
Rev. of R. N. Swanson, 143–45
Duncan, Jason K.
Citizens or Papists? The Politics of AntiCatholicism in New York, 1685–1821,
rev., 174–76
Dunn, Marilyn
Rev. of Q. Mazzonis, 576–77
Dutton, Marsha L., ed.
Aelred of Rievaulx: The Lives of the
Northern Saints, rev., 333–34

x

GENERAL INDEX

Dziwisz, Stanislaw
Świadectwo w rozmowie z Gian Franco
Svidercoschim, rev., 531–34
Edwards, Mark J.
Rev. of E. J.Watts, 324–25
Egan, Keith J.
Rev. of F.Andrews, 561–62
Ehlers, Benjamin
Between Christians and Moriscos: Juan de
Ribera and Religious Reform in
Valencia, 1568–1614, rev., 102–07
Rev. of John of Avila, with J. F. Gormley,
trans., 371–72
Ekonomou,Andrew J.
Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes:
Eastern Influences on Rome and the
Papacy from Gregory the Great to
Zacharias, A.D. 590–752, rev., 779–80
Elukin, Jonathan
Rev. of R. Chazan, 554–55
Rev. of I. J.Yuval, 130–31
Enochs, Ross
Rev. of K. M. Kreis, ed., with C. Dally-Starna,
609
EPISCOPUS (Society for the Study of Episcopal
Power and Culture)
Announces new Web site, 879
Estudios de Frontera
VII Congreso Internacional, November 2008,
197
Evans, G. R.
Breaking the Bounds: An Inaugural
Lecture Given in the University of
Cambridge, 16 February 2004, b.n., 190
John Wyclif: Myth and Reality, rev., 344–45
Rev. of I. C. Levy, 345–46
Evans, Jean N., R.S.M., see Higgs and Evans
Eze, Emmanuel Chukwudi
Rev. of C. Kidd, 313–15
Fabri, Johann
men., 653–70
Faggioli, Massimo
Il vescovo et il concilio. Modello episcopale e
aggiornamento al Vaticano II, rev., 75–101
Falk, Gerhard
The Restoration of Israel: Christian
Zionism in Religion, Literature and
Politics, rev., 748–49
Farge, James K., ed.
Students and Teachers at the University of
Paris: The Generation of 1500.A Critical
Edition of Bibliothèque de l’Université
de Paris (Sorbonne), Archives, Registres
89 and 90, rev., 373–74
Faull, Katherine
Rev. of A. S. Fogleman, 854–55
Fedalto, Giorgio
(ed.), La chiesa Latina in oriente, vol. 2:
Hierarchia latina orientis, rev., 529–30
Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series
Episcoporum Ecclesiarum
Christianarum Orientalium, III:
Supplementum, rev., 746–47

Simone Atumano: Monaco di Studio,
arcivescovo latino di Tebe. Secolo XIV,
rev., 812–14
Feiss, Hugh, O.S.B.
Rev. of B. Faes de Mottoni, 811–12
Rev. of C. Muessig and A. Putter, eds., 790–91
Fels,Wolfgang
Venantius Fortunatus, Gelegentlich
Gedichte: Das lyrische Werk, Die Vita des
hl. Martin, rev., 325–26
Fenwick, Benedict J., Bishop, S.J.
men., 45–74
Fenwick, Edward, Bishop, O.P.
men., 45–74
Ferdinand,Archduke
men., 653–70
Ferme, Brian
Rev. of P. Gasnault and N. Gotteri, eds.,
348–49
Ferreyrolles, Gérard, ed.
Bossuet. Le Verbe et l’Histoire (1704–2004).
Actes du colloque international de Paris
et Meaux, pour le troisième centenaire
de la mort de Bossuet, rev., 152–54
Fincham, Kenneth, and Peter Lake, eds.
Religious Politics in Post-Reformation
England: Essays in Honour of Nicholas
Tyacke, rev., 387–88
Fingernagel,Andreas
Rev. of S. McKendrick and K. Doyle,
747–48
Finocchiaro, Maurice A.
The Church and Galileo, rev. article,
260–82
Finucane, Ronald C.
Rev. of M. E. Goodich, 793–94
Firey,Abigail
Rev. of G. Schmitz, 135–38
Fisher, Eugene J.
Rev. of J. Cohen, 525–26
Rev. of R. Michael, 525–26
Rev. of K. P. Spicer, C.S.C., ed., 846–47
Fisher, Kirsten
Presents paper on biblical violence and
Christian doctrine in early America, 411
Flanagin, David Zachariah
Rev. of Y. Mazour-Matusevich, 567–68
Flori, Jean
Bohémond d’Antioche: Chevalier
d’Aventure, rev., 785–87
Fogleman,Aaron Spencer
Jesus Is Female: Moravians and the
Challenge of Radical Religion in Early
America, rev., 854–55
Foley, Edward, O.F.M. Cap.
Rev. of C. R. Stapert, 536–37
Foley, Mary Anne, C.N.D.
Rev. of C. Gray, 614–15
Foley, Patrick
Receives knighthood in the Order of Civil
Merit in the rank of Encomienda, 200
Foley,Theodore
Cause for beatification officially opened, 623

GENERAL INDEX

Folger Institute
Colloquium on “Forms of Religious
Experience in the 17th-Century British
Atlantic World,” 410, 623
Follett,Westley
Céli Dé in Ireland: Monastic Writing and
Identity in the Early Middle Ages, rev.,
782–83
Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni
XXIII
Holds conference “La figura e l’opera
storiografica di Giuseppe Alberigo,” 880
Foot, Sarah
Monastic Life in Anglo-Saxon England, c.
600–900, rev., 329–30
Ford, John T.
Obituary, George H.Tavard, 200–01
Rev. of G. H.Tavard, 162–63
Rev. of R.Wheeler, 600–01
Fornieri, Joseph R.
Rev. of M. Burkhimer, 605–07
Forrestal,Alison
Rev. of J. Lalouette, ed., 311–12
Fowler,Will
Rev. of B. Connaughton with M.A. Healey,
trans., 184–85
Foz y Foz, Pilar, O.D.N., with the collaboration
of Asunción Artajo, O.D.N., and Eugenia
Abad, O.D.N.
Fuentes primarias para la historia de la
educación de la mujer en Europa y
América.Archivos Históricos Compañía
de María Nuestra Señora,1921–1936,
rev., 758–59
Francis and Ann Curran Center for American
Catholic Studies, Fordham University
Sponsors bicentennial lecture series, 623
Franciscans
men., 604–05, 609
Francis of Assisi, Saint
men., 799–800
Frasca, Ralph
Receives Weddle Award, 629
Frassetto, Michael, ed.
Heresy and the Persecuting Society in the
Middle Ages, rev., 545–46
Frazier,Alison
Rev. of A. Rigon and A.Vauchez, eds., 346–48
Freedman, Jeffrey
A Poisoned Chalice, rev., 157–59
Freedman, Joseph
Rev. of P. Baumgart, 362–64
Friars of the Sack (Friars of Penitence of Jesus
Christ)
men., 245–59, 561–62
Friedman,Yvonne
Rev. of J. Rodriguez, 808–09
Frisius, Mark A.
b.n. of B. Quash and M.Ward, eds., 191–92
Fuchs, Lorelei F., S.A.
Rev. of F. M. Bliss, S.M., 743–44
Galilei, Galileo
men., 260–82, 582–83

xi

Galvin, John P.
Rev. of R. Peddicord, O.P., 840–41
Garbellotti, Marina
Le risorse dei poveri: Carità e tutela della
salute nel principato vescovile di Trento
in età moderna, rev., 581–82
Garneau, James F.
Rev. of Y.-H. Nouailhat, 407–08
Garnett, George
Marsilius of Padua and “The Truth of
History,” rev., 342–43
Garrigou-Lagrange, Réginald, O.P.
men., 840–41
Gasnault, Pierre, and Nicole Gotteri, eds.
Innocent VI (1352–1362): Lettres Secrètes
et Curiales, publiées d’après les
Registres des Archives Vaticanes, rev.,
348–49
Gaustad, Edwin S.
Rev. of T. S. Kidd, 853–54
Gautier de Coinci
men., 570–72
Gavrilyuk, Paul L., with Françoise Lhoest, Nina
Mojaïsky, and Anne-Marie Gueit, trans.
Histoire du catéchumenat dans l’église
ancienne, rev., 537–38
Gerson, Jean
men., 567–68
Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus
Catholicorum e.V.
Annual meeting, October 2007, 194
Gesta
Publishes papers from “Facing the Middle
Ages” symposium, 883
Ghosh, Kantik
Rev. of G. R. Evans, 344–45
Gignac, Francis T., S.J.
b.n. of S. McKendrick, 875–76
Gillespie, Eliza, see Angela, Mother, C.S.C.
Gillespie, Neal, C.S.C.
men., 695–716
Gitlitz, David
Rev. of C. Herz, 849–51
Gleason, Philip
From an Indefinite Homogeneity: Catholic
Colleges in Antebellum America, 45–74
Rev. of J. B. Stranges, 176
Godding, Robert, Bernard Joassart, Xavier
Lequeux, François de Vriendt, and Joseph
van der Straeten
Bollandistes saints et légendes: Quatre
siècles de recherche, rev., 751–52
Goehring, James E., and Janet Timbie, eds.
The World of Early Egyptian Christianity:
Language, Literature, and Social
Context. Essays in Honor of David W.
Johnson, rev., 767–68
Goffart,Walter
Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and
the Later Roman Empire, rev., 131–32
Golden, Richard M., ed.
Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western
Tradition, rev., 760–61

xii

GENERAL INDEX

Gómez González, Manuel
Beatified, 194
Gonzaga, Ercole, Cardinal
men., 826–27
Goodare, Julian
Rev. of S. Doran, 590–93
Rev. of K. P.Walton, 590–93
Goodich, Michael E.
Miracles and Wonders: The Development of
the Concept of Miracle, 1150–1350, rev.,
793–94
Obituary, 630
Gould, Graham
Rev. of F.Vecoli, 128–29
Gould, Kevin
Catholic Activism in South-West France,
1540–1570, rev., 374–75
Gouwens, Kenneth, and Sheryl E. Reiss, eds.
The Pontificate of Clement VII: History,
Politics, Culture, rev., 579–81
Graber,Tom, ed.
Urkundenbuch des Zisterzienserklosters
Altzelle: Erster Teil: 1162–1249, rev., 557–58
Gray, Colleen
The Congrégation de Notre-Dame,
Superiors, and the Paradox of Power,
1693–1796, rev., 614–15
Greengrass, Mark
Rev. of K. Gould, 374–75
Gregory of Nyssa
men., 770–71
Gregory VII, Pope
men., 435–49
Grendler, Paul F.
Renaissance Education between Religion
and Politics, rev., 361–62
Rev. of E. Muir, 574–76
Rev. of A. Raz-Krakotzkin, and J. Feldman,
trans., 825–26
Gres-Gayer, Jacques
Rev. of G. Ferreyrolles, 152–54
Rev. of A.-E. Spica, 152–54
Gribble, Richard, C.S.C.
An Archbishop for the People: The Life of
Edward J. Hanna, rev., 179–81
Griffiths, Fiona
Rev. of A. I. Beach, 555–57
Gruber, Hubert
Katholische Kirche und Nationalsozialismus, 1930–1945: Ein Bericht in
Quellen, rev., 166–68
Gvosdev, Nikolas K.
Rev. of W. L. Daniel, 170–71
Haddad,Yaaqoub [Jacob], O.F.M. Cap.
Beatified, 880
Hanna, Edward J.,Archbishop, biog., 179–81
Harder Horst, René D.
The Stroessner Regime and Indigenous
Resistance in Paraguay, rev., 618–20
Harris,A. Katie
From Muslim to Christian Granada:
Inventing a City’s Past in Early Modern
Spain, rev., 102–07

Harvey, Leonard Patrick
Muslims in Spain, 1500 to 1614, rev., 102–07
Harvey, Margaret
Lay Religious Life in Late Medieval
Durham, rev., 354–55
Harvey, Paul
Rev. of M. Hulsether, 863–64
Hayes, Mary, S.N.D. de N.
Obituary of Joan Bland, S.N.D. de N., 885–87
Haynes, Clare
Pictures and Popery: Art and Religion in
England, 1660–1760, rev., 384–85
Hellmann,Wayne, O.F.M.
Rev. of R. B. Brooke, 799–800
Helmholz, R. H.
Rev. of P. D. Clarke, 800–02
Henkel,Willi, O.M.I.
Rev. of A. Pazos and D. Piccardo, 185–86
Henry, Patrick
We Only Know Men: The Rescue of Jews in
France during the Holocaust, rev.,
597–98
Herrick, Samantha Kahn
Imagining the Sacred Past: Hagiography
and Power in Early Normandy, rev.,
551–52
Herz, Cary
New Mexico’s Crypto-Jews: Image and
Memory, rev., 849–51
Hetnal,Adam A.
Rev. of S. Dziwisz, 531–34
Hewitt,Warren E.
Rev. of K. P. Serbin, 182–84
Hibbard, Caroline M.
Named a fellow at the Folger Shakespeare
Library, 629
Higgs, Catherine, and Jean N. Evans, R.S.M.
Embracing Activism in Apartheid South
Africa: The Sisters of Mercy in
Bophuthatswana, 1974–94, 500–21
Hiley, David
Rev. of S. Boynton, 548–51
Hilken, Charles, F.S.C.
Rev. of T. Graber, ed., 557–58
Hill, Harvey
Rev. of T.A. Howard, 392–93
Historical Studies
Papers published from the Canadian
Catholic Historical Association’s English
Section and the Société canadienne
d’histoire de l’Église catholique, 884–85
Hitchcock, James
Rev. of J. H. Hutson, 847–48
Hochhuths, Rolf
men., 598–600
Hogge,Alice
God’s Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth’s
Forbidden Priests and the Hatching of
the Gunpowder Plot, rev., 830–32
Holmes, Michael W.
Rev. of C. N. Jefford, 318–20
The Holocaust
men., 171–73, 525–26, 597–98, 846–47

GENERAL INDEX

“Holy Blood” cult
men., 563–65
Hossain, Kimberly Lynn
Rev. of E.A. Lehfeldt, 835–36
Howard,Thomas Albert
Protestant Theology and the Making of the
Modern German University, rev., 392–93
Howlett, David
Muirchú Moccu Macthéni’s “Vita Sancti
Patricii,” Life of St. Patrick, rev., 546–48
Hryn, Halyna, ed.
Ukrainian Church History, rev., 530–31
Hsia, Ronnie Po-chia
(ed.), Noble Patronage and Jesuit Missions:
Maria Theresia von Fugger-Wellenburg
(1690–1762) and Jesuit Missionaries in
China and Vietnam, rev., 188–89
Rev. of P.Aufgebauer and C. van den Hevel,
eds., 117–18
Hudon,William V.
Rev. of P.V. Murphy, 826–27
Hudson,Anne
Rev. of K.A.Winstead, 814–15
Hughes, John Jay
Rev. of W. Damberg and A. Liedhegener, eds.,
122–23
Rev. of J.V. Schall, 753–55
Hulsether, Mark
Religion, Culture, and Politics in the
Twentieth-Century United States, rev.,
863–64
Humfress, Caroline
Orthodoxy and the Courts in Late
Antiquity, rev., 775–76
Hummel, Karl-Joseph, and Christoph Kösters, eds.
Kirchen im Krieg. Europa 1939–1945, rev.,
844–46
Hummer, Hans J.
Politics and Power in Early Medieval
Europe: Alsace and the Frankish Realm,
600–1000, rev., 328–29
Hunt, E. D.
Rev. of R.Van Dam, 773–75
Hutson, James H.
Church and State in America: The First Two
Centuries, rev., 847–48
Ibsen, Kristine
Rev. of S. L. Kirk, 617–18
Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop
men., 542–43
Incontro di Studiosi dell’Antichità Cristiana
Schedules conference on the diaconate in
relation to the Church, 882
Ingleson, John
Rev. of K. Steenbrink, 870–72
Innocent VI, Pope
men., 348–49
Irigoyen,Antonio
Rev. of M. M. Cárcel Ortí, 583–84
Izbicki,Thomas M.
The Germans and the Papal Penitentiary:
Repertorium Poenitentiariae
Germanicum, rev. essay, 108–14

xiii

Jahn,Wolfgang
Rev. of P. Delpero, 377–78
Jamroziak, Emilia, and Janet Burton, eds.
Religious and Laity in Western Europe,
1000–1400: Interaction, Negotiation,
and Power, rev., 332–33
Jefford, Clayton N.
The Apostolic Fathers and the New
Testament, rev., 318–20
Jeffreys, Elizabeth, ed.
Byzantine Style, Religion and Civilization:
In Honour of Sir Steven Runciman, rev.,
543–45
Jenkins, Gary W.
John Jewel and the English National
Church: The Dilemmas of an Erastian
Reformer, rev., 382–83
Jerome, Saint
men., 322–23
Jewel, John, Bishop
men., 382–83
John a Lasco
men., 586–87
John of Avila, with J. F. Gormley, trans.
John of Avila: Audi, filia—Listen, O
Daughter, rev., 371–72
John Paul II, Pope
men., 531–34
John XXIII, Pope
men., 75–101
Jones,Anna Trumbore
Rev. of E. Jamroziak and J. Burton, eds.,
332–33
Jones, Chris
Eclipse of Empire? Perceptions of the
Western Empire and Its Rulers in LateMedieval France, rev., 565–67
Jordan,William Chester
Rev. of M. Barber, 338–39
Rev. of C. Jones, 565–67
Jostmann, Christian
Sibilla Erithea Babilonica: Papsttum und
Prophetie im 13. Jahrhundert, rev.,
336–37
Journal of Medieval History
Publishes theme issue “Conversing with the
Minority: Relations among Christian,
Jewish, and Muslim Women in the High
Middle Ages,” 883–84
Judas
men., 534–36
Juliani, Richard N.
Priest, Parish, and People: Saving the Faith
in Philadelphia’s “Little Italy,” rev.,
404–07
Jürgensmeier, Friedhelm, and Regina Elisabeth
Schwerdtfeger, eds.
Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von
Reformation und katholischer Reform
1500–1700, Band 2, rev., 360–61
Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von
Reformation und katholischer Reform
1500–1700, Band 3, rev., 815–16

xiv

GENERAL INDEX

Kaegi,Walter E.
Rev. of E. Jeffreys, ed., 543–45
Karn, Nicholas
Rev. of William of Malmesbury, ed. M.
Winterbottom, 553–54
Kaufman, Peter Iver
Incorrectly Political: Augustine and Thomas
More, rev., 587–90
Keen, Ralph
Rev. of K. Bremer, 829–30
Ker, Ian
b.n. of J.H. Newman and J.Tolhurst, ed., 876
Kerby-Fulton, Kathryn
Books under Suspicion: Censorship and
Tolerance of Revelatory Writing in Late
Medieval England, rev., 356–58
Kidd, Colin
The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture
in the Protestant Atlantic World,
1600–2000, rev., 313–15
Kidd,Thomas S.
The Great Awakening: The Roots of
Evangelical Christianity in Colonial
America, rev., 853–54
Kieckhefer, Richard
Rev. of R. M. Golden, 760–61
Rev. of M. G. Pegg, 142–43
King, Edmund
Rev. of M. Staunton, 797–98
King, Pamela M.
The York Mystery Cycle and the Worship of
the City, rev., 355–56
Kirk, Stephanie L.
Convent Life in Colonial Mexico: A Tale of
Two Communities, rev., 617–18
Klingshirn,William E., and Linda Safran, eds.
The Early Christian Book, rev., 763–64
Klauber, Martin I.
Rev. of W. R.Ward, 315–17
Knust, Jennifer Wright
Rev. of V. Burrus, 764–66
Knysh, George
Rev. of T. Shogimen, 809–11
Koch,Viktor, C.P.
Passionist Heritage Newsletter publishes
article on Koch, 417
Koch,Walter, and Franz-Albrecht Bornschlegel
Literaturbericht zur mittelalterlichen und
neuzeitlichen Epigraphik (1998–2002),
rev., 778–79
Koehlinger,Amy L.
The New Nuns: Racial Justice and
Religious Reform in the 1960s, rev.,
611–12
Kohlmann,Anthony, S.J.
men., 45–74
Kolar, Bogdan
Rev. of I.A. Murzaku, 168–70
Koschorke, Klaus, Frieder Ludwig, and Mariano
Delgado, eds.
A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa,
and Latin America, 1450–1990: A
Documentary Sourcebook, rev., 741–43

Krause, Kathy, and Alison Stones, eds.
Gautier de Coinci: Miracles, Music, and
Manuscripts, rev., 570–72
Kreis, Karl Markus, ed., with Corinna DallyStarna, trans.
Lakotas, Black Robes, and Holy Women:
German Reports from the Indian
Missions in South Dakota, 1886–1900,
rev., 609
Kulikowski, Michael
Rev. of J. Limmer, 127–28
Kupfer, Marcia
Rev. of E. Saxon, 331–32
La Bella, Gianni, ed.
Pedro Arrupe: Un uomo per gli altri, rev.,
755–56
Labor Movements, Christian
men., 837–39, 859–61
Lagrange, Marie-Joseph, Father, biog., 839–40
Lalouette, Jacqueline, ed.
L’Hôpital entre religions et laïcité du
Moyen Âge à nos jours, 311–12
Lamm, Julia A.
Rev. of L. Beckett, 307–08
Lanfranc,Archbishop of Canterbury
men., 795–97
Laracy, Hugh
Rev. of G. Dening, 872–73
Larsen,Timothy
Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England, rev., 397–98
Las Casas, Bartolomé de
men., 616–17
Lavrin,Asunción
Rev. of M. Ramos Medina, 867–68
Rev. of R. Millar Carvacho and H.Aránguiz
Donoso, eds., 867–68
Lawrence, David, and Ann Wilson
The Cathedral of Saint Fin Barre at Cork:
William Burges in Ireland, rev., 400–01
Lawson,Tom
The Church of England and the Holocaust:
Christianity, Memory and Nazism, rev.,
171–73
Lehfeldt, Elizabeth A.
Religious Women in Golden Age Spain: The
Permeable Cloister, rev., 835–36
Lehmann, Prisca
La répression des délits sexuels dans les
États Savoyards: Châtellenies des
diocèses d’Aoste, Sion et Turin, fin
XIII e–XV e siècle, rev., 340
Lenaghan, James A.
Rev. of P. Marshall, 834–35
Lenti,Arthur J., with Aldo Giraudo, ed.
Don Bosco: History and Spirit, vol. 1: John
Bosco’s Formative Years in Historical
Context, rev., 594–95
Leonard, Bill J.
Rev. of H. McLeod, ed., 120–22
Levillain, Philippe, and Jean-Marc Ticchi, eds.
Le Pontificat de Léon XIII: Renaissances du
Saint-Siège?, rev., 161–62

GENERAL INDEX

Levy, Ian Christopher, ed.
A Companion to John Wyclif, Late Medieval
Theologian, rev., 345–46
Lewis, James
Paths of Exile: Narratives of St. Columba
and the Praxis of Iona, rev., 780–82
Lewis, Mark A., S.J.
Rev. of K. M. Comerford, 367–68
Liedhegener,Antonius
Macht, Moral und Mehrheiten. Der
politische Katholizismus in der
Bundesrepublik Deutschland und den
USA seit 1960, rev., 123–25
Lierheimer, Linda
Rev. of E. Clark, 855–56
Lifshitz, Felice
Rev. of S. K. Herrick, 551–52
Limmer, Josef
Konzilien und Synoden im spätantiken
Gallien von 314 bis 696 nach Christi
Geburt, 2 Parts, rev., 127–28
Linck, Joseph C.
Dies, 885
Lincoln,Abraham
men., 605–07
Linehan, Peter
Spain, 1157–1300.A Partible Inheritance,
rev., 807–08
Lodwick, Kathleen L.
Rev. of A.Austin, 408–09
Loewe,Andreas
Rev. of G.W. Jenkins, 382–83
Loewenstein, David, and John Marshall, eds.
Heresy, Literature, and Politics in Early
Modern English Culture, rev.,
159–61
London, Louise
Rev. of T. Lawson, 171–73
Loonbeek, Raymond, and Jacques Mortiau
Un pionnier, dom Lambert Beauduin
(1873–1960): Liturgie et Unité des
chrétiens, rev., 841–42
Lopez-Lazaro, Fabio
Recent Works on the Early Modern History
of Spanish Muslims, rev. essay,
102–07
Lotta continua
men., 450–75
Louth,Andrew
Rev. of A. J. Ekonomou, 779–80
Macaulay,Ambrose
Patrick McAlister: Bishop of Down and
Connor, 1886–95, rev., 401–02
MacCormack, Sabine
Receives two prizes from the American
Historical Association, 417
MacCulloch, Diarmaid
Rev. of D. Loewenstein and J. Marshall, eds.,
159–61
Rev. of M. S. Springer, 586–87
MacLean, Katie
Rev. of B. Mendia, O.F.M., and A. M.Artola
Arbiza, C.P., 151–52

xv

Magocsi, Robert Paul
The People from Nowhere: An Illustrated
History of Carpatho-Rusyns, b.n.,
191
Maher, Michael W., S.J.
Rev. of M. Spedicato, ed., 368–70
Maier, Christoph T.
Rev. of J. M. Powell, 784–85
Marchadour,Alain,A.A., and David Neuhaus, S.J.
The Land, the Bible, and History: Toward
the Land That I Will Show You, rev.,
526–28
Margaret of Scotland, Saint
men., 794–95
Marini, Stephen A.
Rev. of E. L. Blumhofer, 403–04
Maritain, Jacques
Papers from colloquium published, 416
Marotti,Arthur F.
Rev. of S. B. Monta, 380–82
Marshall, Peter
Mother Leakey and the Bishop: A Ghost
Story, rev., 834–35
Marsilius of Padua
men., 341–43
Martin,A. Lynn
Rev. of K.Albala, 573–74
Martin, Dennis D.
Rev. of F. Jürgensmeier and R. E.
Schwerdtfeger, eds., 360–61, 815–16
Martin, Louis, and Marie Zelie Gueri Martin
Beatification authorized by Pope Benedict
XVI, 880
Mary of Oignies
Rev. of Mary of Oignies: Mother of
Salvation, ed.A. B. Mulder-Bakker, 560–61
Mary, Queen of Scots
men., 590–93
Mazour-Matusevich,Yelena
Le siècle d’or de la mystique française: un
autre regard. Étude de la littérature
spirituelle de Jean Gerson (1363–1429)
à Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (1450?–
1537), rev., 567–68
Mazzonis, Querciolo
Spirituality, Gender, and the Self in
Renaissance Italy: Angela Merici and
the Company of St. Ursula (1474–
1540), rev., 576–77
McAlister, Patrick, Bishop, biog., 401–02
McGinn, Bernard
Rev. of M. Rainini, 334–36
McKendrick, Scot
In a Monastery Library: Preserving Codex
Sinaiticus and the Greek Written
Heritage, b.n., 875–76
McKendrick, Scot, and Kathleen Doyle
Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes
and Scripture, rev., 747–48
McKevitt, Gerald
Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the
American West, 1848–1919, rev.,
607–08

xvi

GENERAL INDEX

McLeod, Hugh
(ed.) The Cambridge History of
Christianity, Vol. 9: World Christianities
c. 1914–2000, rev., 120–22
Rev. of K. D. M. Snell, 396–97
McMullin, Ernan
The Church and Galileo, rev., 260–82
Mélanges de l’École française de Rome
Publishes issue on “Les comptabilités
pontificales,” 628
Meléndez,A. Gabriel
Rev. of Will de Chaparro, 602–04
Menchi, Silvana Seidel, and Diego Quaflioni,
eds.
I tribunali del matrimonio (secoli
XV–XVIII), rev., 364–66
Mendia, Benito, O.F.M.†, and Antonio M.Artola
Arbiza, C.P.
La Venerable M. María de Jesús de Ágreda y
La Inmaculada Concepción: El proceso
eclesiástico a la “Mística Ciudad de
Dios,” rev., 151–52
Mergiali-Sahas, Sophia, and Daniel J. Sahas
Rev. of M.-F.Auzépy, 776–77
Merici,Angela, Saint
men., 576–77
Merz, Johannes
Gives presentation on “Julius Echter von
Mespelbrunn als Typus der
Gegenreformation,” 880
Meyer, Marvin
Judas: The Definitive Collection of Gospels
and Legends about the Infamous
Apostle of Jesus, rev., 534–36
Meynell,Alice
men., 22–44
Michael, Robert
Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism,
and the Holocaust, rev., 525–26
Milani, Don Lorenzo
men., 450–75
Millar Cavacho, René, and Horacio Aránguiz
Donoso, eds.
Los franciscanos en Chile: Una historia de
450 años, rev., 867–68
Miller-Bernal, Leslie, and Susan L. Poulson, eds.
Challenged by Coeducation:Women’s
Colleges since the 1960s, rev., 612–14
Miller, David W.
Rev. of A. Macaulay, 401–02
Minnich, Nelson H.
Report of the Editor of The Catholic
Historical Review, 303–04
Rev. of G. Fedalto, ed., 529–30
Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische
Geschichtsforschung
Publishes articles on European hospitals in
the Middle Ages and early modern
period, 416
Mize, Sandra Yocum
Joining the Revolution in Theology: The
College Theology Society, 1954–2004,
rev., 610–11

The Modern Schoolman
Publishes issue on “David Hume and Edward
Gibbon: Philosophical Historians/
Historical Philosophers,” 628
Modestin, Clémence Thévenaz
Un mariage contesté: “L’union de la Cité et
de la ville inférieure de Lausanne”
(1481), rev., 350–51
Moenius, Georg
Hitler’s Bavarian Antagonist: Georg
Moenius and the Allgemeine Rundschau
of Munich, 1929–1933, rev.,
165–67
Monastery of Santa Maria de l’Estany
men., 245–59
Monfasani, John
Rev of G. Fedalto, 812–14
Rev. of C. Smith and J. F. O’Connor,
819–20
Montagnes, Bernard, O.P.
The Story of Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange:
Founder of Modern Catholic Biblical
Study, rev., 839–40
Monta, Susannah Brietz
Martyrdom and Literature in Early
Modern England, rev., 380–82
Morandi, Orazio,Abbot
men., 827–28
Moranta, Ramon de
men., 245–59
More,Thomas, Saint
men., 587–90
Moreana
Publishes issue on “Exile,” 628
Moreno-Riaño, Gerson, ed.
The World of Marsilius of Padua, rev.,
341–42
Morozowich, Mark
b.n. of R. P. Magocsi, 191
Morrow, Diane Batts
Rev. of A. L. Koehlinger, 611–12
Mueller,Wolfgang
Rev. of V. Colli and Emanuele Conte, eds.,
750–51
Muessig, Carolyn
Rev. of A. B. Mulder-Bakker, ed., 560–61
Muessig, Carolyn, and Ad Putter, eds.
Envisaging Heaven in the Middle Ages, rev.,
790–91
Muir, Edward
The Culture Wars of the Late Renaissance:
Skeptics, Libertines, and Opera, rev.,
574–76
Muirchú Moccu Macthéni
men., 546–48
Mulder-Bakker,Anneke B., ed., with Margot H.
King and Hugh Feiss, trans.
Mary of Oignies: Mother of Salvation, rev.,
560–61
“El mundo de los conquistadores. La
península Ibérica en la Edad Media y su
proyección en la conquista de América”
conference, 624

GENERAL INDEX

Munro, Gregory
Hitler’s Bavarian Antagonist: Georg
Moenius and the Allgemeine Rundschau
of Munich, 1929–1933, rev., 165–67
Murphy, Paul V.
Rev. of P. F. Grendler, 361–62
Ruling Peacefully: Cardinal Ercole
Gonzaga and Patrician Reform in
Sixteenth-Century Italy, rev., 826–27
Murzaku, Ines A.
Catholicism, Culture, Conversion: The
History of the Jesuits in Albania
(1841–1946), rev., 168–70
Museo del Corso
Holds exhibition,“Rome in the 1400s,”
622–23
Museum of the City of New York
Holds exhibition,“Catholics in New York,
1808–1964,” 623
Music, Liturgical
men., 195–96, 403–04, 536–37, 548–51,
570–72
Musto, Ronald G.
Rev. of V. De Fraja, 558–60
Namuncurá, Ceferino
Beatified, 194
Nassaney, Michael Shakir, see Brandão and
Nassaney
Nederman, Cary J.
Rev. of M. Frassetto, ed., 545–46
Rev. of G. Garnett, 342–43
Newman, Barbara
Rev. of K. Kerby-Fulton, 356–58
Newman, John Henry, Cardinal, and James
Tolhurst, ed.
Sermons Preached on Various Occasions,
b.n., 876
Ninian, Saint
Ælred of Rievaulx: The Lives of the
Northern Saints, rev., 333–34
Noble,Thomas F. X.
Rev. of D. Barlava, 134–35
Nolan, Janet
Servants of the Poor: Teachers and Mobility
in Ireland and Irish America, rev., 757–58
Norman, Edward
The Roman Catholic Church: An Illustrated
History, rev., 740–41
Nouailhat,Yves-Henri
Truman: Un Chrétien à la Maison Blanche,
rev., 407–08
O’Callaghan, Joseph F.
Electing Our Bishops: How the Catholic
Church Should Choose Its Leaders, rev.,
523–24
Ocker, Christopher
Church Robbers and Reformers in
Germany, 1525–1547: Confiscation and
Religious Purpose in the Holy Roman
Empire, rev., 585–86
O’Connell, Patricia
The Irish College at Santiago de
Compostela, 1605–1769, rev., 593–94

xvii

O’Connell,William, Cardinal, biog., 177–79
O’Donoghue, Fergus, S.J.
Rev. of P. O’Connell, 593–94
O’Leary, Don
Rev. of M.Artigas,T. F. Glick, and R. Martínez,
118–20
Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, Mal/gorzata
The Black Madonna in Latin America and
Europe: Tradition and Transformation,
b.n., 874
Oliveira, Lindalva Justo de
Beatified, 194
O’Malley, John W., S.J.
b.n. of E. Colombo, 875
Rev. of G. La Bella, ed., 755–56
Oram, Richard D.
Rev. of R. Rushforth, 794–95
Order of St. John
men., 671–94
Organization of American Historians
Annual Meeting, March 2009, 197
Orique, David T.
Rev. of D. Castro, 616–17
Ousterhout, Robert
Rev. of D. Pringle, 788–90
Palmer,William, biog., 600–01
Paolino, Marco
Rev. of M.Valente, ed., 393–94
Parents for Orthodoxy in Parochial Education
(POPE)
men., 219–44
Parrinello, Rosa Maria, ed. and trans.
Giovanni Climaco: La Scala del Paradiso,
rev., 133–34
Passionists
men., 417, 623
Patterson,W. B.
Rev. of A. Hogge, 830–32
Paul III, Pope
men., 823–24
Paul VI, Pope
men., 75–101, 317–18
Paul, Saint
men., 761–62, 795–97
Pazos,Antón, and Diego Piccardo
El Concilio Plenario de América Latina:
Roma 1899, rev., 185–86
Pearson, Birger A.
Rev. of M. Meyer, 534–36
Peddicord, Richard, O.P.
The Sacred Monster of Thomism: An
Introduction to the Life and Legacy of
Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., rev.,
840–41
Pédeflous, Olivier
Rev. of J. K. Farge, ed., 373–74
Peerbolte, Bert Jan Lietaert
Rev. of G. L. Potestà and M. Rizzi, eds., 125–26
Pegg, Mark Gregory
The Corruption of Angels: The Great
Inquisition of 1245–1246, rev., 142–43
Penance
men., 476–99

xviii

GENERAL INDEX

Peng, Xiaoyu
To hold fellowship at the Jesuit School of
Theology, 885
Peter of Verona, Saint (Saint Peter Martyr)
men., 1–21
Philips, Gérard, Monsignor
men., 75–101
Pianzola, Francesco
Beatified, 880
Pied Friars
men., 561–62
Pius XII, Pope
Biog., 752–53
Conference scheduled to mark fiftieth
anniversary of Pius XII’s death, 881–82
“Pius XII:The Man and the Pontificate”
photographic exhibition scheduled, 879
Pointon, Marcia
Rev. of C. Haynes, 384–85
Poloni,Vincenza Maria, Sister
Beatification ceremony announced, 880
Poos, L. R.
b.n. of G. R. Evans, 190
Portier, Michael, Bishop
men., 45–74
Posset, Franz
The Front-Runner of the Catholic
Reformation: The Life and Works of
Johann von Staupitz, rev., 145–47
Potestà, Gian Luca, and Marco Rizzi, eds.
L’Anticristo, Vol. 1: Il nemico dei tempi
finali: Testi dal II al IV secolo, rev.,
125–26
Poudret, Jean-François
Rev. of C.T. Modestin, 350–51
Rev. of L. Dorthe, 569–70
Powell, James M.
The Crusades, the Kingdom of Sicily, and
the Mediterranean, rev., 784–85
Power, Maria
From Ecumenism to Community Relations:
Inter-Church Relationships in Northern
Ireland, 1980–2005, rev., 601–02
Pringle, Denys
The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of
Jerusalem: A Corpus.Vol. 3: The City of
Jerusalem, rev., 788–90
Prucha, Francis Paul, S.J.
Rev. of G. McKevitt, 607–08
Prudlo, Donald S.
The Assassin-Saint:The Life and Cult of
Carino of Balsamo, 1–21
Pugliese, Stanislao G.
Rev. of M. Sarfatti, with J. and A. C.Tedeschi,
trans., 391–92
Quash, Ben, and Michael Ward, eds.
Heresies and How to Avoid Them:Why It
Matters What Christians Believe, b.n.,
191–92
Raccagni, Gianluca
Rev. of Cracco et al., eds., 138–40
Raguin,Virginia Chieffo
Rev. of D. Lawrence and A.Wilson, 400–01

Rainini, Marco
Disegni dei tempi. Il “Liber Figurarum” e la
teologia figurativa di Gioacchino da
Fiore, rev., 334–36
Ramos Medina, Manuel
El Carmelo Novohispano, rev., 867–68
Rastall, Richard
Rev. of P. M. King, 355–56
Raz-Krakotzkin,Amnon, and Jackie Feldman,
trans.
The Censor, the Editor, and the Text: The
Catholic Church and the Shaping of the
Jewish Canon in the Sixteenth Century,
rev., 825–26
Reath, Mary
Rome and Canterbury: The Elusive Search
for Unity, rev., 744–45
Reber,Vera Blinn
Rev. of R. D. Harder Horst, 618–20
Regnum Dei, Collectanea Theatina
Proceedings of 2003 conference on “I Teatini
nella Storia della Sicilia,” 197
Regoli, Roberto
Ercole Consalvi. Le Scelte per la Chiesa,
rev., 389–90
Reilly, Bernard F.
Rev. of P. Linehan, 807–08
Reinhardt, Steven
Rev. of R. Bertrand, ed., 147–49
Reinhardt,Volker
Rev. of J. Bölling, 149–50
“Religion and Violence in Early America”
Conference held,April 2008, 412
Restif, Bruno
La Révolution des paroisses: Culture
paroissiale et Réforme Catholique en
Haute-Bretagne aux XVI e et XVII e siècles, rev., 376–77
Revista Agustiniana
Augustinians celebrate 750th anniversary
of the Great Union of their Order,
197–98
Rex, Richard
Rev. of P. I. Kaufman, 587–90
Rey,Terry
Rev. of J. R.Young, 851–52
Richter, Michael
Rev. of J. Lewis, 780–82
Rigon,Antonio, and André Vauchez, eds.
San Rocco. Genesi e prima espansione di
un culto. Incontro di studio—Padova,
12–13 febbraio 2004, rev., 346–48
Riley-Smith, Jonathan
Rev. of Albert of Aachen and S. Edgington,
ed., 787–88
Ritzer, Nadine
Alles nur Theater? Zur Rezeption von Rolf
Hochhuths „Der Stellvertreter“ in der
Schweiz, 1963/1964, rev., 598–600
Rivera Damas,Arturo,Archbishop
men., 717–39
Roach,Andrew P.
Rev. of C. Bruschi, ed., 140–42

GENERAL INDEX

Roberson, Ronald G., C.S.P.
Rev. of G. Fedalto, 746–47
Roberts, Michael
Rev. of W. Fels, 325–26
Rockett, June
A Gentle Jesuit: The Life of Philip Caraman,
S.J., 1911–1998, rev., 842–44
Rodes, Robert E., Jr.
Rev. of J.Witte, Jr., 115–16
Rodriguez, Jarbel
Captives and Their Saviors in the Medieval
Crown of Aragon, rev., 808–09
Roeber,A.G.
Rev. of F. van Lieburg, ed., 378–80
Rollason, David
Rev. of M. L. Dutton, 333–34
Rev. of S. Foot, 329–30
Romero Galdamez, Oscar,Archbishop
men., 717–39
Rooney, David
Rev. of J. Rockett, 842–44
“De Rosweyde aux Acta Sanctorum” international colloquium, October 5, 2007, 194
Rousseau, Philip
Rev. of A. de Vogüé, O.S.B., 540–42
Ruether, Rosemary Radford
Rev. of C.A. Brekus, ed., 173–74
Ruff, Mark E.
Rev. of H. Gruber, 166–68
Rev. of N. Ritzer, 598–600
Rumsey, Patricia M.
Rev. of W. Follett, 782–83
Rushforth, Rebecca
St Margaret’s Gospel-book: The Favourite
Book of an Eleventh-Century Queen of
Scots, rev., 794–95
Ryan, Martin
Rev. of P.Wormald and S. Baxter, ed., 783–84
Saak, Eric L.
Rev. of L. Bourdua and A. Dunlop, eds., 818–19
Saints
Holy See agrees to advance beatification
process for 250 Spaniards who died from
1934–39, 879–80
Sancroft,William,Archbishop
men., 832–33
Sandler, Lucy Freeman
Rev. of M. P. Brown, 353
San Francisco,Archdiocese of
men., 219–44
Sanok, Catherine
Her Life Historical: Exemplarity and
Female Saints’ Lives in Late Medieval
England, rev., 572–73
Santa Maria Alvares Pereira, Nuno de
Beatification authorized by Pope Benedict
XVI, 880
Il Santo
Papers published in vol. XLVII, 2007, 197
Sarfatti, Michele, with John and Anne C.
Tedeschi, trans.
The Jews in Mussolini’s Italy: From
Equality to Persecution, rev., 391–92

xix

Saunders,Alison
Rev. of R. Dekoninck,A. Guiderdoni-Bruslé,
and M. van Vaeck, 154–55
Saxon, Elizabeth
The Eucharist in Romanesque France:
Iconography and Theology, rev., 331–32
Scafi,Alessandro
Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on
Earth, rev., 791–93
Schall, James V., S.J.
The Regensburg Lecture, rev., 753–55
Schelkens, Karim, ed.
Carnets conciliaires de Mgr Gérard Philips,
secrétaire adjoint de la Commission
doctrinale. Texte néerlandais avec traduction française et commentaires, rev.,
75–101
Schmitz, Gerhard, ed.
De presbiteris criminosis: Ein Memorandum Erzbischof Hinkmars von Reims
über straffällige Kleriker, rev., 135–38
Schmugge, Ludwig, and Wolfgang Müller, eds.
Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern
der Pönitentiarie Calikts III.vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte
des Deutschen Reiches 1455–1458, rev.,
108–14
Schmugge, Ludwig, ed., with Krystyna
Bukowska and Alessandra Mosciatti
Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern
der Pönitentiarie Nikolaus’s V. vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte
des Deutschen Reiches 1447–1455, rev.,
108–14
Schmugge, Ludwig, ed., with Paolo Ostinelli and
Hans Braun
Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern
der Pönitentiarie Eugens IV. vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte
des Deutschen Reiches 1431–1447, rev.,
108–14
Schmugge, Ludwig, Michael Marsch, and
Wolfgang Müller, eds.
Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern
der Pönitentiarie Sixtus’ IV. vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte
des Deutschen Reiches 1464–1471, rev.,
108–14
Schmugge, Ludwig, Patrick Herperger, and
Béatrice Wiggenhauser, eds.
Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern
der Pönitentiarie Pius’ II. vorkommenden
Personen, Kirchen und Orte des
Deutschen Reiches 1458–1464, rev.,
108–14
Schmugge, Ludwig, Peter Clarke,Alessandra
Mosciatti, Hildegard Schneider-Schmugge,
and Wolfgang Müller, eds.
Verzeichnis der in den Supplikenregistern
der Pönitentiarie Pauls II. vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte
des Deutschen Reiches 1464–1471, rev.,
108–14

xx

GENERAL INDEX

Schroeder, Caroline T.
Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation
in Shenoute of Atripe, rev., 768–70
Rev. of J. E. Goehring and J.Timbie, eds.,
767–68
Schroeder, Susan, and Stafford Poole, eds.
Religion in New Spain, rev., 864–65
Schultze, George E., S.J.
Strangers in a Foreign Land: The
Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the
United States, rev., 859–61
Schwaller, John F.
Rev. of S. Schroeder and S. Poole, eds., 864–65
Scott, Tom
Rev. of C. Ocker, 585–86
Scotti, Dom Paschal
Out of Due Time:Wilfrid Ward and the
Dublin Review, rev., 398–400
Scottish Church History Society
Lectures, February and March 2008, 195
Scotus, John Duns
Conferences held or scheduled, July 2008,
March 2009, November 2009, 196
Secker, Philip J., ed.
The Sacred Scriptures and the Lutheran
Confessions. Selected Writings of Arthur
Carl Piepkorn, vol. 2, rev., 181–82
Seiling, Jonathan R.
The Political and Polemical Motives of
Johann Fabri’s Moscouitarum Religio
(1525–26), 653–70
Senkewicz, Robert M.
Rev. of R. K. Skowronek, with E.Thompson,
604–05
Senyk, Sophia
Rev. of H. Hryn, ed., 530–31
Serbin, Kenneth P.
Needs of the Heart: A Social and Cultural
History of Brazil’s Clergy and
Seminaries, rev., 182–84
Sessa, Kristina
Rev. of E.A. Castelli, 771–73
Sewanee Medieval Colloquium
Thirty-fifth annual, 196, 412–14
Thirty-sixth annual, 882–83
Shaw, Christine M.
Rev. of I. F.Verstegen, ed., 822–23
Rev. of J.Vicens Vives, 351–53
Shaw, Jane
Miracles in Enlightenment England, rev.,
385–86
Shea,William M.
Rev. of M. P. Carroll, 848–49
Shea,William R.
Rev. of R. J. Blackwell, 582–83
Shelley,Thomas
Rev. of J. K. Duncan, 174–76
Shepard, Jonathan
Rev. of F. Curta, 326–27
Sherman,Thomas, S.J.
men., 695–716
Sherman,William Tecumseh, General
men., 695–716

Shogimen,Takashi
Ockham and Political Discourse in the
Late Middle Ages, rev., 809–11
Silvas,Anna M.
Gregory of Nyssa: The Letters. Introduction,
Translation, and Commentary, rev.,
770–71
Sisters of Mercy, Johannesburg
men., 500–21
Sizer, Stephen
Rev. of G. Falk, 748–49
Skowronek, Russell K., with Elizabeth
Thompson
Situating Mission Santa Clara de Asís:
1776–1851, Documentary and Material
Evidence of Life on the Alta California
Frontier: A Timeline, rev., 604–05
Sladky, Joseph
Assists in establishing Chelsea Academy,
Front Royal,VA, 885
Slavery
men., 851–52
Program scheduled,“Lincoln’s Era:The Role
of Religion in the Underground Railroad,”
882
Slawson, Douglas J.
Ambition and Arrogance: Cardinal William
O’Connell of Boston and the American
Catholic Church, rev., 177–79
Rev. of R. Gribble, C.S.C., 179–81
Sloyan, Gerard S.
Rev. of A. Marchadour,A.A., and D. Neuhaus,
S.J., 526–28
Smith, Brendan
Rev. of B.Williams, ed., 562–63
Smith, Christine, and Joseph F. O’Connor
Building the Kingdom: Giannozzo Manetti
on the Material and Spiritual Edifice,
rev., 819–20
Sneider, Matthew Thomas
Rev. of C. Black and P. Gravestock, eds.,
358–59
Snell, K. D. M.
Parish and Belonging: Community, Identity
and Welfare in England and Wales,
1700–1950, rev., 396–97
Société canadienne d’histoire de l’Église
catholique
Publishes papers in Historical Studies, 885
Seventy-fifth annual congress, 415
Sponsors lecture on Jesus and MarxismLeninism in Quebec, 412
Society of Jesus
“Les Jésuites dans l’Europe savante”
conference papers published, 198, 416
men., 476–99, 578–79, 593–94, 607–09,
620–21, 755–56, 842–44
Soergel, Philip M.
Rev. of C.W. Bynum, 563–65
Sommerville, Johann
Rev. of K. Fincham and P. Lake, eds., 387–88
Sopocko, Michael
Beatified, 880

GENERAL INDEX

Sorin, Edward F., C.S.C.
men., 45–74
South Africa
men., 500–21
Spedicato, Mario, ed.
“…nelle Indie di quaggiù”: San Francesco
de Geronimo e i processi di evangelizzazione nel Mezzogiorno moderno: Atti
del Convegno di Studio, rev., 368–70
Sperling, Christine
Rev. of W. Koch and F.-A. Bornschlegel, 778–79
Spica,Anne-Élisabeth, ed.
Bossuet à Metz (1652–1659). Les années
de formation et leurs prolongements.
Actes du Colloque international de Metz
(21–22 mai 2004), rev., 152–54
Spicer, Kevin P., C.S.C.
(ed.) Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence,
and the Holocaust, rev., 846–47
Rev. of G. Munro, 165–67
Springer, Michael S.
Restoring Christ’s Church: John a Lasco
and the Forma ac ratio, rev., 586–87
Stanley, Brian
Rev. of K. Koschorke, F. Ludwig, and M.
Delgado, 741–43
Stansbury, Mark
Rev. of D. Howlett, 546–48
Stapert, Calvin R.
A New Song for an Old World: Musical
Thought in the Early Church, rev.,
536–37
Staunton, Michael
Thomas Becket and His Biographers, rev.,
797–98
Ste. Croix, G. E. M. de, with Michael Whitby and
Joseph Streeter, eds.
Christian Persecution, Martyrdom, and
Orthodoxy, rev., 126–27
Steenbrink, Karel
Catholics in Indonesia 1808–1942. A
Documented History.Vol. 1: A Modest
Recovery, 1808–1903, rev., 870–72
Sterk,Andrea
Rev. of G. E. Demacopoulos, 538–40
Stjerna, Kirsi I.
Rev. of F. Posset, 145–47
St. Mary’s City, MD, seventeenth-century chapel
reconstructed, 193–94
“La storia della chiesa nella storia: bilancio e
prospettive,” XII convegno internazionale,
195
Stranges, John B.
The Rainbow Never Fades: Niagara
University, 1856–2006, rev., 176
Stroessner,Alfredo
men., 618–20
Stuart, Kathy
Rev. of Jeffrey Freedman, 157–59
Sudmann, Stefan
Das Basler Konzil. Synodale Praxis
zwischen Routine und Revolution, rev.,
349–50

xxi

Sullivan, Francis A., S.J.
Rev. of J. F. O’Callaghan, 523–24
Sullivan, Patrick J., C.S.C.
Rev. of G. E. Schultze, S.J., 859–61
Sumney, Jerry L.
Rev. of J.W.Aageson, 761–62
Sun, Raymond C.
Rev. of M. S. Dalton, 164–65
Swanson, R. N.
(ed.), Promissory Notes on the Treasury of
Merits: Indulgences in Late Medieval
Europe, rev., 143–45
Rev. of M. Harvey, 354–55
Tavard, George H.
Obituary, 200–01
Rev. of Secker, ed., 181–82
Vatican II and the Ecumenical Way, rev.,
162–63
Tavuzzi, Michael
Renaissance Inquisitors: Dominican
Inquisitors and Inquisitorial Districts
in Northern Italy, 1474–1527, rev.,
821–22
Taylor, John,Wendy R. Childs, and Leslie
Watkiss, eds.
The St.Albans Chronicle: The Chronica
Maiora of Thomas Walsingham. Vol. 1:
1376–1394, rev., 802–04
Tewes, Götz-Rüdiger
Rev. of S. Sudmann, 349–50
Texas Catholic Historical Society
Meeting, March 2008, 411–12
Thornton, John K.
Rev. of J. C. Bristol, 868–69
Tierney, Brian
Rev. of G. Moreno-Riaño, ed., 341–42
Tilley, Maureen A.
Rev. of R. D. Butler, 320–22
Tolomei, Bernardo, Don
Beatification authorized by Pope Benedict
XVI, 880
Tornielli,Andrea
Pio XII: Eugenio Pacelli. Un uomo sul
trono di Pietro, rev., 752–53
Torres, Camilo
men., 450–75
Tracy, James D.
The Low Countries in the Sixteenth
Century: Erasmus, Religion and Politics,
Trade and Finance, rev., 156–57
Trevett, Christine
Rev. of A. Brent, 542–43
Truman, Harry S.
men., 407–08
Turbanti, Giovanni
Un concilio per il mondo moderno. La
redazione della costituzione pastorale
“Gaudium et spes” del Vaticano II, rev.,
75–101
Uhalde, Kevin
Rev. of C. Humfress, 775–76
Ursulines
men., 576–77, 855–56

xxii

GENERAL INDEX

U.S. Catholic Historian
“American Catholics and the Social
Sciences” issue published, 417
“Catholics in the Colony of Maryland and
the Early Republic” issue published, 884
“Editors and Their Newspapers” issue
published, 198–99
“Women and Social Reform” issue published,
629
Valente, Massimiliano, ed.
Santa Sede e Russia da Leone XIII a Pio
XI: Atti del secondo Simposio organizzato dal Pontificio Comitato di Scienze
Storiche e dall’Istituto di Storia Universale dell’Accademia Russa delle Scienze,
Vienna,25–30 aprile 2001, rev., 393–94
Van Allen, Rodger
Rev. of S.Y. Mize, 610–11
Van Dam, Raymond
Rev. of A. M. Silvas, 770–71
The Roman Revolution of Constantine,
rev., 773–75
van Lieburg, Fred, ed.
Confessionalism and Pietism: Religious
Reform in Early Modern Europe, rev.,
378–80
Van Nierop, Henk
Rev. of J. D.Tracy, 156–57
van Voss, Lex Heerma, Patrick Pasture, and Jan
De Maeyer, eds.
Between Cross and Class. Comparative
Histories of Christian Labour in Europe
1840–2000, rev., 837–39
Vatican Library
Vatican Library,Vatican Philatelic Museum,
and Research Tools, 193
Renovated Web site for the Vatican Library,
879
Vatican II
“Il Concilio in mostra: Il racconto del
Vaticano II nei filmati delle Teche RAI
(1959–1965)” exhibition opens, 879
Cristianesimo nella storia publishes
articles on Vatican II, 417
men., 75–101, 162–63
Vecoli, Fabrizio
Lo Spirito soffia nel deserto: Carismi, dis
cernimento e autorità nel monachesimo egiziano antico, rev., 128–29
Vergottini, Marco, ed.
Paolo VI “Nel Cono di Luce del Concilio.”
Discorsi e documenti (1965–1978), rev.,
317–18
Verstegen, Ian F., ed.
Patronage and Dynasty: The Rise of the
della Rovere in Renaissance Italy, rev.,
822–23
Vester, Matthew
Rev. of M. Garbellotti, 581–82
Viator
Publishes articles on the “Theory and
Practice of Friendship in the Middle
Ages,” 415–16

Vicens Vives, Jaime
Historia crítica de la vida y reinado de
Fernando II de Aragón, rev., 351–53
Vidmar, John, O.P.
Rev. of A. Corbin, ed., 522–23
Rev. of E. Norman, 740–41
Vincent, Catherine
Fiat Lux: Lumière et luminaires dans la vie
religieuse en Occident du XIII e au
début du XVI e siècle, rev., 804–05
Vivens Homo
Publishes papers from “Eucaristia ed
Escatologia” conference, 415
von Thüringen, Elisabeth
Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte devotes
issue to von Thüringen, 627
Walsham,Alexandra
Rev. of J. Shaw, 385–86
Walshe,Thomas Joseph
Clark, Elaine, Catholic Men in Support of the
Women’s Suffrage Movement in England,
22–44
Walsingham,Thomas
men., 802–04
Walters, Barbara R.,Vincent Corrigan, and Peter
T. Ricketts
The Feast of Corpus Christi, rev., 806–07
Walton, Kristen P.
Catholic Queen, Protestant Patriarchy:
Mary Queen of Scots and the Politics of
Gender and Religion, rev., 590–93
Ward,Wilfrid
men., 398–400
Ward,W. R.
Early Evangelicalism: A Global Intellectual
History, 1670–1789, rev., 315–17
Washburn, Christian D.
Accepts new position at St.Thomas
University, 885
Watts, Edward J.
City and School in Late Antique Athens
and Alexandria, rev., 324–25
Wessel, Susan
Rev. of G.Alberigo et al., eds., 321–22
Wheeler, Robin
Palmer’s Pilgrimage: The Life of William
Palmer of Magdalen, rev., 600–01
Wicks, Jared, S.J.
More Light on Vatican Council II, rev. article,
75–101
Will de Chaparro, Martina
Death and Dying in New Mexico, rev.,
602–04
William and Mary Quarterly
Publishes “Forum: Salem Repossessed,” 884
William of Malmesbury, with M.Winterbottom,
ed. and trans., with the assistance of R. M.
Thomson
Gesta Pontificum Anglorum: The History of
the English Bishops, vol. 1: Text and
Translation, rev., 553–54
William of Ockham
men., 809–11

GENERAL INDEX

Williams, Bernadette, ed.
The Annals of Ireland by Friar John Clyn,
rev., 562–63
Williams, Megan Hale
The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the
Making of Christian Scholarship, rev.,
322–23
Rev. of W. E. Klingshirn and L. Safran, eds.,
763–64
Winstead, Karen A.
John Capgrave’s Fifteenth Century, rev.,
814–15
Wissenberg, Christophe
Entre Champagne et Bourgogne:
Beaumont, ancienne grange de l’abbaye
cistercienne de Clairvaux, rev., 798–99
Witczak, Michael G.
Rev. of C.Vincent, 804–05
Witek, John W., S.J.
Rev. of W. S. Coblin, 187–88
Witte, John, Jr.
God’s Joust, God’s Justice: Law and
Religion in the Western Tradition, rev.,
115–16
Women’s Suffrage, British
men., 22–44
Wood, Ian
Rev. of H. J. Hummer, 328–29
Woodworth, Cherie
Rev. of A. Scafi, 791–93

xxiii

World War II
men., 171–73, 391–92, 394–96, 525–26,
597–98, 844–47
Wormald, Patrick, and Stephen Baxter, ed.
The Times of Bede: Studies in Early English
Christian Society and Its Historian, rev.,
783–84
Wright, Jonathan
Rev. of J. P. Donnelly, 578–79
Wyclif, John
men., 344–46
Young, Jason R.
Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic
Religion in Kongo and the Lowcountry
South in the Era of Slavery, rev., 851–52
Yuval, Israel Jacob
Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of
Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity
and the Middle Ages, rev., 130–31
Zeitz, Joshua M.
White Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics,
and the Shaping of Postwar Politics,
rev., 858–59
Zugger, Christopher L.
Rev. of L. L. S. Braun,A.A., with G. M.
Hamburg, ed., 394–96
Zuraw, Shelley E.
Rev. of N. B.-A. Debby, 817–18

The Catholic Historical
Review
VOL. XCIV

OCTOBER, 2008

No. 4

THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF
JOHANN FABRI’S
MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO (1525–26)
BY

JONATHAN R. SEILING*
Given the difficulty in determining certain details about religious
life in medieval Russia using the available sources, conflicting
accounts from foreign descriptions of Moscow need to be carefully
scrutinized. A report, which Johann Fabri wrote in 1525 and published the following year, explains at least as much about Fabri’s
interests—and those of Archduke Ferdinand whom he served—as it
does about religion in Muscovy. The strong degree of affinity that
Fabri sought to demonstrate between the “religion of the Muscovites”
and Catholic faith and practice attests to the political and polemical
motivations that arose out of his immediate context.
Negant Rutheni sanctum Petrum vere papam, et verum Romanae
sedis antistitem et ecclesiae militantis caput unicum fuisse, nec
accepisse plenitudinem auctoritatis a Christo, quod et de quolibet
Romano pontifice successore eius tenent, et communem eum cum
aliis pontificibus esse dicunt . . . Negant Ecclesiam Romanam caput
esse Ecclesiarum omnium, principem rectricem et magistram . . .
*Dr. Seiling received his doctoral degree from the University of St. Michael’s College
in the University of Toronto. He wishes to express gratitude to Dr.T. Allan Smith, his doctoral supervisor, for helpful feedback and critique of an earlier version of this paper and
for continual encouragement in his study of ecclesiastical history. He thanks also the
anonymous referees of The Catholic Historical Review for their comments and suggestions. The full title of Fabri’s work, published in January 1526, reads: Ad
Serenissimum Principem Ferdinandum Archiducem Austriae, Moscouitarum iuxta
mare glaciale religio.

653

654

THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

Dicunt omnes obedientes Romanae ecclesiae veros christianos non
esse, neque salvandos, eo quod ab ecclesia primitiva discrepant . . .
Immo dominum papam cum ecclesia romana dicunt hereticum esse
de heresi ariana et catholicos omnes arianistas vocant et anatematizant ipsum tempore cene domini cum suo Clero. Dicuntque non
habere plenam potestatem ligandi et solvendi.
— Jan Laski to Fifth Lateran Council Fathers,April 5, 15141
Pontificem Ro. ut Christi uicarium et successorem Petri agnoscunt …
haec religio, illa pietas, Serenissime princeps, quae in uniuersam
inclyta tua in rebus diuinis procurandis sedulitas ignorare omnino
noluit, ideoque iussu tuo haec certe illorum hominum perquisita
sunt…nihil tamen minus quam sacrosanctam illam fidem in
Christum . . . pro genuine hactenus pietate sui sint amplexi omnem
impietatem et in deos et in parentes maioreque, et in patriam.
— Johann Fabri to Archduke Ferdinand, September 18, 15252

It is remarkable that the above excerpts from two of the earliest
Western reports on religion in Muscovy were both produced by highranking Roman Catholic clerics within eleven years of each other.The
two reports are in no way related to each other except for their obvious contribution to the Catholic Church’s knowledge about religion
and life in Muscovy. Clearly the authors differ in their aim and audience, due largely to their respective national perspectives and the
1
The text of Laski’s report is printed in Caesar Baronius, Annales Ecclesiastici,Tomus
31, 1513–1526 (Guerin, 1864–83), nn. 68–86.This volume of the Annales also contains
an abridged version of Fabri’s report.
2
O. F. Kudriavtsev, Rossiia v Pervoi Polovine XVI v: Vzgliad iz Evropy (Moscow,
1997), pp. 143–67, here pp. 167–68. I will be using this edition of Fabri’s report due to
its completeness and will also refer to folio pages of the original.A reprint of the report
is found in the microtext collection Flugschriften der Frühen 16n. Jahrhundert, ed.
H. J. Köhler, H. Hebenstreit, and C.Weisman, Fiche 1196, Flugschrift 3008.The first partial
translation of the report is found in William Palmer, Dissertations on Subjects Relating
to the “Orthodox” or “Eastern-Catholic” Communion (London, 1853). In Palmer’s
abridged edition the contents differ somewhat from that of Baronius, but both are consistent in generally omitting the political and military information contained therein,
especially those references to Tatars and Turks. Baronius’s edition excludes important
information, but provides a general, albeit brief, context for the report by including an
initial editorial remark at the introduction. He explains clearly that the papacy desired
information about Muscovy “ut foedere juncti Christiani omnes fidem et religionem
contra Mahumeticam tyrannidem tuerentur.” See nn. 67–68.An abridged German edition
is found in Franz Bernhard von Bucholtz, Geschichte der Regierung Ferdinand des
Ersten 1831–1838, repr. (Graz, 1968), 2:468–99; there is also an earlier abridged translation into French, “La Religion des Moscovites en 1525 par Jean Faber,” Bibliothèque
Russe Nouvelle Série (Paris, 1860), 3:1–29.

BY JONATHAN R. SEILING

655

attenuating political factors that motivated the composition of their
reports, as will be demonstrated in the following study. It is in light of
a critical contextual analysis of Fabri’s report that the contrasting
views offered in these two reports can be better understood in relation to the actual subject they are discussing. When contrasted with
the perspective found in Laski’s report, Fabri clearly demonstrates the
underlying political aims of what at first glance may appear to be
“interconfessional dialogue” between the Catholic Church and the
Orthodox Church in Muscovy.
In 1514, Jan Laski, a Polish representative at the Fifth Lateran
Council, used the basic contents of an already available report on
Christianity as practiced by the Ruthenians, the inhabitants of eastern
Slavic lands, and added his own introduction to frame the report.
Another report on religion of the eastern Slavs appears in 1525 in
Tübingen, written by an equally prominent cleric, Dr. Johann Fabri,
confessor to Archduke Ferdinand. Fabri’s report was based on his interview with two Russian diplomatic emissaries.
Taken at face value, these reports could be used as documentary
sources on religion as it was practiced in Muscovy in the early sixteenth century.The problem with using either report is that their data
are contradictory at numerous points.The task of this study is not to
compare the two reports to discern which facts are correct and which
are false;3 it is concerned primarily with the background and underlying motivations that can explain why Fabri’s depiction of religion in
Muscovy was so different from that of Laski and others. Further, this
contextual understanding of the report should heighten the critical
approach that other studies might take when using the information
found in such sources, Fabri’s report in particular.
3
For a list of various travel reports to Russia, see Friedrich von Adelung, KritischeLiterarische Übersicht der Reisenden in Russland bis 1700 (Amsterdam, 1960);
Reiseberichte von Deutschen über Russland und von Russen über Deutschland, ed.
Friedhelm Berthold Kaiser and Bernhard Stasiewski (Vienna, 1980); Walter Leitsch,
Berichte über den Moskauer Staat in italienischer Sprache aus dem 16.
Jahrhundert (Vienna, 1993). See the detailed bibliography of scholarship engaging the
various reports, especially that of Baron Herberstein, in Frank Kämpfer’s Das
Russlandbuch Sigismund von Herberstein Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii,
1549–1999 (Hamburg, 1999), pp. 131–40; Marshall Poe, Foreign Descriptions of
Muscovy: An Analytic Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources (Columbus,
OH, 1995); Andreas Kappeler, Ivan Groznyj im Spiegel der ausländischen
Druckschriften seiner Zeit: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des westlichen
Russlandbildes (Bern, 1972), pp. 253–71.

656

THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

The other remarkable feature of both reports is that they contain
key information about the political nature and military capabilities of
the eastern Slavs.4 As will be shown presently, these data qualify the
information on religion found in the reports and the data provide a
noteworthy insight into why the reports were composed. Most
notably, Fabri’s report propagates a highly positive view of Muscovites
and their religion, while the report by Laski, presented only eleven
years earlier, gave a wholly negative impression.
Although Fabri did not agree with Laski on many points concerning
the general character of the Muscovite people or their religion, these
two men shared some surprising similarities. Despite their different
nationalities, their relative position to their respective heads of state
was quite similar. They were considered humanists, and they both corresponded with Erasmus, although neither shared his degree of political irenicism, due perhaps to their strong political attachments and
personal ambitions for higher ecclesiastical posts. From the letters of
Erasmus, it appears that he disliked Fabri’s intolerance as seen in the
persecution of the Anabaptists (Ep. 1926), although he still commends
him highly a few years after the Diet of Speyer (Ep. 2750).5 Erasmus
also showed great respect for Laski,6 which was unrequited despite
Erasmus’s several efforts to soften the anti-Habsburg sentiments of the
Polish patriot.7 It is also pertinent to note that both were fierce opponents of the Protestant Reformers.
Also important is the similarity of their relationship, as authors, to
their subject matter. Neither had the privilege of being present in
Muscovy and could thereby provide a firsthand account, as Baron
Sigismund von Herberstein would later accomplish at Archduke
Ferdinand’s and Emperor Charles’s request.8 Rather, these two authors
4
For a recent analysis of the available source data, see Donald Ostrowski, “Troop
Mobilization by the Muscovite Grand Princes (1313–1533),” in The Military and Society
in Russia: 1450–1917, ed. Marshall Poe and Eric Lohr (Boston, 2002), pp. 19–40.
5
Denis R. Janz, “Johann Fabri,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical
Register of the Renaissance and Reformation, ed. Peter G. Bietenholz (Toronto,
1985–87), 2:5–8.
6
Ep.1593, 1805, also in his dedication to Laski of his edition of Ambrose in 1527.
7
Maria Cytowska,“Jan (I) Laski,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus, 2:296–97.
8
Sigismund von Herberstein, Notes upon Russia, trans. and introd. R. H. Major, vol. 1
(London, 1851); Herberstein, Description of Moscow and Muscovy 1557, trans. J. B. C.
Grundy (London, 1969). For critical views of these works, see Žiga Herberstein
1486–1566: Potomec znamenitega rodu iz slovenske Karantanije, vojš č ak, drž avnik,
diplomat in mirotvorec: V “Moskovskih zapiskih” odkril Rosijo Evropi, ed. Just Rugel

BY JONATHAN R. SEILING

657

obtained information from other sources: Fabri, by interviewing two
diplomatic visitors from Muscovy; Laski, by using written information
from those who had probably encountered certain eastern Slavic peoples, either through direct contact or other written sources. Since their
respective sources provided different information, this reason will
serve initially to account for the significant discrepancies between the
contents of the two reports, but it should not be considered the sole
determinant that would explain the differences.Whereas other studies
of Fabri’s report have focused primarily on the religious content of his
report,9 the critical edition by Kudriavtsev provides helpful comments
concerning the other significant parts of the report.
The geographic situation of Muscovy in relation to Poland and
Austria to the west as well as the Tatars and Turks to the south is of key
importance for Muscovy’s rise to nationhood under Ivan III (r.
1462–1505). Its independence in military and political matters
extended to the ecclesial realm when it refused the rapprochement
with the West, which many of the Greek Church hierarchs had been
supporting. Since the signing of the Union at Florence in 1439, which,
despite initial settlements between Rome and the Eastern hierarchs,
ultimately failed to unite the Eastern Orthodox communions with
Rome, the importance of ecclesial re-union faded somewhat on the
papal agenda.10 When the Florentine Council ended, until the siege in
1453 that won Constantinople to the Turks, the Western powers failed
to deliver the military aid sought by their eastern co-religionists, thus
dashing the hopes of an enduring ecclesiastical union in Rome’s
favor.11 Decades later, when the Turkish advances became a greater
threat to Western Europe, the same powers that might have spared
Orthodox lands their political capitulation under the Ottomans turned
(Moscow, 2000); Frank Kämpfer, Das Russlandbuch Sigismund von Herberstein Rerum
Moscoviticarum Commentarii, 1549–1999 (Hamburg, 1999); I. G. Gross.“The Tangled
Tradition: Custine, Herberstein, Karamzin, and the Critique of Russia,” Slavic Review, 50
(1991), 989–98.The most recent edition, with commentary, is found in V. L. Ianin, et al.,
Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii: Zapiski o Moskovii (Moscow, 1988).
9
The details concerning Muscovite religions are found in A2 through B2, composed
of 11 folio sheets; cf. Kudriavtsev, pp. 143–51.
10
The Byzantine emperor John VIII (1425–48) eagerly sought union between the
Roman pontiff and Eastern patriarchate, largely due to political expediency in view of
military aid against the advances of the Turks. See Koncevičius, pp. 111, 155–77.
11
Steven Runciman notes that many of the Greek exiles studying in the West, especially those in Venice, fostered loyalty toward Charles V, whom they saw as the leader
who had the potential to relieve their homeland of the Turkish occupation; see The
Great Church in Captivity (Cambridge, UK, 1968), pp. 228–29.

658

THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

to the aid of Europe’s eastern neighbors.The Muscovite Grand Prince,
Ivan III,“the Great,” already had enjoyed an amicable rapport with Holy
Roman Emperor Maximilian in the late fifteenth century.12 When
Charles V succeeded his grandfather to the imperial throne in 1519,
securing the Habsburg domination of the greater part of Western
European lands, Vasily III had already, in 1505, claimed his father Ivan
the Great’s title as sole Grand Prince of Muscovy, thus continuing the
Rurikid dynasty.13 The Habsburgs viewed the ongoing battles
between the united kingdom of Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy as lost
military potential in the larger perspective of the security of Europe.
Ferdinand was constantly aware of the imminent probability of further
westward advances of the Turkish armies. Based in Vienna, the Eastern
Bloc of the Holy Roman Empire would require the support of the
Western troops and neighboring states to repel the Ottoman incursions, which had seized Belgrade by 1521, defeated Hungary in 1526,
and would lay siege to Vienna in 1529.
In the early 1520s, it was already clear in the West that theological
issues arising both in the university scene and among the peasants
might perilously influence political powers in Germany in opposition to both the papacy and the Empire. To understand the significance of the potential alliance that Ferdinand sought with Muscovy,
it is important to note how Charles and Ferdinand differed in their
approaches to religious-political unity. Unfortunately for Ferdinand,
Western European interests generally dominated the interests of his
brother, more after the spirit of Madrid than of Vienna.14 The attention of the Spain-based Charles V became drawn almost entirely to
12
Already in 1485 the Habsburgs sought an alliance with Muscovy partly as a means
to obstruct the Polish-Lithuanian goals of regional domination. Negotiations resulted in
a treaty in March 1491 between the Holy Roman Empire and the Muscovite princes.
Although the aims of both the Habsburgs and Muscovites directly concerned PolandLithuania, Emperor Maximilian sought support in the following year for an alliance of
Austria, Bohemia, Poland, Lithuania, and Muscovy against the Ottoman Turks. See the
appendix by Berthold Picard in his edition of Herberstein’s report that details the diplomatic background of various intra-European political developments in Description of
Moscow and Muscovy 1557, trans. J. B. C. Grundy (London, 1969).
13
Technically,Vasily III had shared the role of grand prince with Ivan III since 1502,
replacing his half-brother, Dmitrii; after his father’s death in 1505, he became the sole
grand prince. On the rather tumultuous events and circumstances at the turn of the century, which led to the continuation of the Rurikhid dynasty, see John L. I. Fennell, Ivan
the Great of Moscow (London, 1963);Aleksandr A. Zimin, Rossiia na poroge novogo vremeni: Ocherki politicheskoi istorii Rossii pervoi treti XVI v. (Moscow, 1972).
14
Robert A. Kann, A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526–1918 (London, 1974),
p. 34.

BY JONATHAN R. SEILING

659

Western Europe and its ecclesiastical upheavals and attenuating
social-political revolutions. Although Charles and Ferdinand were
consistent in their allegiance to the Catholic faith, their deferral to
papal authority wavered; in matters of toleration toward antipapal
dissenters, Charles was more prepared to suppress with fire and
sword, while Ferdinand in the East sought to discover compromises
between Christian groups of different stripes to allow for political
expediency and to maintain loyalty to the imperial order.15 Clearly
Ferdinand was less concerned with religious dissent within
Christendom than the approaching threat of the Ottomans, and here
we must recognize what appear to be the political motives behind
Ferdinand’s relative toleration of the ritual nonconformity of this
Christian group at such a time when Reformation-era disputes
heightened the need for conformity in the Empire.
In 1517, an envoy from Maximilian had successfully negotiated a
peace treaty between Muscovy and Poland-Lithuania. Baron
Herberstein’s first diplomatic mission to Muscovy in 1517 already
anticipated the use of religious unity for the purpose of political peace
between nations, thus creating a more secure, centralized, and hegemonic power in Europe. In his speech to the Muscovites, who were
still at war with Poland-Lithuania to the northwest, Herberstein clearly
displayed the Empire’s attempt to create religious unity for political
and military purposes.16
The explanation that Fabri sought to create a desirable image of the
Muscovites is further corroborated by the report’s effect on
15
As Kann describes, “where Charles obviously subordinated his political strategy
largely to his religious convictions, Ferdinand followed on the whole an opposite course.
Not less devout but less intolerant a Catholic than his older brother, he was ready to
compromise with the Protestants even on such dogmatic questions as celibacy for
priests or the cup for the laity. Ferdinand’s resistance to the foremost threat against his
rule, the Ottoman Turks, was to a greater extent based on needs for domestic tranquility
than Charles’ in his fight across western Europe.” Ibid., p. 36.
16
Herberstein is recorded as saying,“The whole universe knows that for many years
Christian rulers have quarrelled bitterly among themselves, displayed rancour, and shed
much Christian blood. Their actions have not benefited the cause of Christianity. . . .
Emperor Maximilian has . . . fought many wars not from ambition, but to bring the whole
world to Christ. God has blessed his efforts. The pope and all Italy are presently on
friendly terms with him. . . . Wherever one looks in the world today, east and west, or
north and south, one sees that all the Christian rulers are related to his Imperial majesty,
on terms of fraternity, or at peace with him. . . . peace best serves the interests of the
Almighty Creator, His Immaculate Mother, and all Christians.” S. M. Soloviev, History of
Russia, 9:65–66.

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THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

Ferdinand’s ability to arouse Charles’s interests in Muscovy. In the correspondence between Charles and Ferdinand during the early 1520s
we also find that Ferdinand was extremely eager to convince his
brother to pay greater attention to the Ottoman military threat and to
seek support from potential allies in Central and Eastern Europe. It had
become increasingly vital to the Habsburgs’ long-range political security to forge a peace treaty between Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy.17
However, the report that Laski, the primate of Poland as well as a canon
lawyer, had presented to the Fifth Lateran Council in 1514 entirely denigrated the Ruthenian people and their religion, and sought to provide
a basis for Poland’s increasing latinization and political expansion further east.18 This report begins with a description of military forces
lying in the East that are obviously inflated.19 Decades later, the selfproclaimed hegemony of Muscovy’s ecclesiastical position as the
“Third Rome” would eventually become a “means to buttress the position of the Moscow Patriarchate within the Eastern Orthodox world.”20
17
Sigismund I, the King of Poland (r. 1506–48), and the Grand Prince of Muscovy,
Vasily III (r. 1505–33).
18
Maria Cytowska,“Jan (I) Laski,” in Contemporaries of Erasmus, 2:296–97. See also
Petro B.T. Bilaniuk, The Fifth Lateran Council (1512–1517) and the Eastern Churches
(Toronto, 1975), pp. 134–47. The report, Ruthenorum nations cum erroribus eorundem in Concilio Lateranensi per Reverendum in Christo patrem dominum Joannem
de Lasco, borrows much from a report by Johannes Sacranus (Jan z Oświe˛cima) published in 1500, titled Elucidarius errorum ritus Ruthenici.
19
Fol. 54; See Bilaniuk, p. 90. Bilaniuk considers these to be “pure fiction.” See also
ibid., p. 141, n. 37.
20
Daniel B. Rowland, “Moscow—The Third Rome of the New Israel?” The Russian
Review, 55 (October, 1996), 595.As a recent revisionist put it,“one finds no basis to draw
the conclusion that whoever wrote [the letters in which Moscow was first declared the
Third Rome, traditionally attributed to a monk Filofei of Pskov] was formulating an imperial ideology for the Muscovite ruler or for expansion of the Muscovite state. Instead, one
finds a very different intent, that is, a delineation of the power and authority of the ruler
and reminders to the ruler to perform his duty specifically in regard to the Church.”
Donald Ostrowski, Muscovy and the Mongols: Cross-Cultural Influences on the Steppe
Frontier, 1304–1589 (New York, 1998), p. 225. For an overview of how the idea of “Third
Rome” initially arose and then developed until the last decades of historiography,“doubtless one of the most familiar and misunderstood episodes in all of Russian history”(413),
see Marshall Poe,“Moscow, the Third Rome:The Origins and Transformations of a ‘Pivotal
Moment,’” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 49 (2001), 412–29, here p. 413.
Nicolas Zernov was not entirely mistaken in Moscow, the Third Rome, 2nd ed. (New
York, 1944), in which he dealt with the notion of Russia’s self-perceived destiny as the
headship of the true Church, which, having passed from Rome to Constantinople under
Emperor Constantine I, was passed on to Moscow after the fall of Constantinople.
Zernov does link the Third Rome notion with the ecclesiastical sense that the Moscovy
was the sole remaining Orthodox nation in Europe that enjoyed Christian rule.

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661

Beginning in 1522, Ferdinand’s letters to Charles provide constant
updates on the Turkish military advances and include several pleas for
assistance on the Eastern Front. The combined religious and political
motives are clear from the start.21 In the same month Ferdinand writes
encouraging Charles to achieve a peace or truce with France so that
Emperor Charles, as the “chief of our holy Christian religion, with the
other Christian princes could turn your powers toward the Turks, the
enemies of our faith.”22 Ferdinand’s letter from Vienna of October 14,
1524, pleads with Charles to treat the Muscovites well, with honor, and
to send advance greeters to receive them in the manner of the
Muscovite custom.23 Shortly after, Ferdinand warns Charles of the
Polish-French alliance negotiations, thus necessitating more urgent
diplomacy with Poland, precipitating the need to send another diplomatic mission24 to end the Polish-Muscovite battles and gain the military and political support of the Muscovite Grand Prince.25 Ferdinand
was certainly aware of the religious divide between the Roman West
and the Muscovites.26 An appeal for religious unity would thus greatly
21
Ferdinand wrote, “aultrement il est à craindre, que ce soit faict de tous noz pays
d’Austrice, dont il doit avoir regret non seullement pour la perte, que nous et toute la
chrestienté y aurons, mais pour ce que c’est la maison, dont il est parti et porte son nom
et ses armes.” Veröffentilichungen der Kommission für Neuere Geschichte Österreichs:
Die Korrespondenz Ferdinands I. Familienkorrespondenz bis 1526, ed.Wilhelm Bauer
(Liechtenstein, 1970), p. 26.
22
The text reads,“monsr comme chief de nostre saincte religion christienne avec les
altres princes christiens puisse[z] convertir voz puissances à l’encontre du Turcq ennemi
de nostre foi.” Ibid., pp. 31–32.
23
The diplomatic envoys were Prince Ivan Zasekin Yaroslavskii (
), clerk Simeon Borisovich Trofimov (
),
and interpreter Vlas Ignat’ev (
).
24
Charles would again send Baron Herberstein, who would use many of his observations to write his famous work Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii. V. A. Janin hails
Herberstein’s work as a masterpiece of literature of the age of humanism, conscientious
and tolerant, and a forerunner of the idea of a united Europe, in “Zapiski Herbersteina in
prihodnost Rusije in Evrope” (also parallel Russian translation) in Žiga Herberstein—
Vojš č ak, Drž avnik, Diplomat in Mirotvorec, ed. Just Rugel (Moscow, 2000), pp. 9–10.
Frank Kämpfer calls Herberstein “eine erstrangige Quelle für die Kirchengeschichtsschreibung” in his article “Siegmund von Herbersteins ‘Rerum Moscoviticarum
Commentarii’ als religionsgeschichtliche Quelle” in Siegmund von Herberstein, ed.
Gerhard Pferschy (Graz, 1989), p. 160.
25
Letter to Charles dated November 1, 1524. Bauer, pp. 230–32.
26
Charles wrote to Ferdinand in mid-December assuring him that he had received the
diplomats from Muscovy and that they were being treated honorably. See ibid., p.
246–47. In a long letter dated June 25, 1525, Charles mentions to Ferdinand that he has
sent the diplomats back to Muscovy, adding that Leonard Nogaroli, who was the count
of Padua, and Baron Sigismund von Herberstein would accompany them on their return

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THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

serve to strengthen the Habsburg-Muscovite alliance at this juncture.
Here is where Fabri’s report sought to influence his readership by
depicting Muscovy as a viable, reliable, and loyal ally of the Church and
Empire.The report seems to have had the effect of prompting an imperial envoy to Muscovy to once again encourage a treaty with Poland
and enlist its support against the Turks.
Various biographic accounts of Johann Fabri (1478–1541)27 provide
a fairly clear picture of his life of devotion to the Catholic Church.28 He
is known for two main reasons, namely his relationship and devoted
service to Ferdinand of Austria, and his attacks on various Reformers,
especially Luther, that quickly earned him the title “Malleus in
Haeresim Lutheranum.” Born in Leutkirch, Schwabia, he studied theology and law at the University of Tübingen and later at Freiburg, earning a doctorate in canon and civil law by 1510.29 He was also ordained
as a parish priest and rose to the position of vicar-general of Constance
by 1518.30 Fabri was appointed adviser to Archduke Ferdinand starting
in 1521, confessor in 1524, and later bishop of Vienna in 1530.
Initially sympathetic to Luther’s reforming agenda, Fabri turned
sharply critical of his antipapalism and rejection of canon law in 1519
at the Leipzig disputation.31 When we see how Luther had appealed to
and that they should first visit Ferdinand to receive fuller instructions; ibid., pp. 305–11.
By December 4 of the same year,Ferdinand confirms to Charles that he gave them instruction and hurried them off to Muscovy; ibid., pp. 351.The exact written instructions from
Ferdinand to Herberstein have not been retained in any records. See also ibid., p. 358, and
Hans Uebersberger, Österreich und Russland seit dem Ende des 15 Jahrhunderts
(Vienna, 1906), pp. 190–93. Charles responds in mid-January affirming the instruction that
Ferdinand gave to Herberstein, namely to effect a peace treaty between Poland-Lithuania
and Muscovy and create a common pan-European alliance against the Ottomans.
27
Also written as Johannes Faber, or in German, Johann Heigerlin.
28
The most comprehensive account of Fabri’s early career (1518–22) can be read in the
biography by P. R. Staub, O.S.B., Dr.Johann Fabri, Generalvikar von Konstanz (Einsiedeln,
1911). See also L. Helbing, Dr Johann Fabri: Generalvikar von Konstanz und Bischof von
Wien, 1478–1541 (Münster, 1941) and Christoph Dittrich, Die vortridentinische katholische Kontroverstheologie und die Täufer (New York, 1991), esp. pp. 208–20.
29
Fabri also studied classical languages, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, specializing in
Hebrew exegesis. See the biographical article in Theologische Realenzyklopädie (New
York, 1987), 10: 784–88.
30
Although some biographic sources repeat that he was a Dominican, there was
another Dominican, named Johann Fabri, who lived in Augsburg (1475–1530).
31
Fabri became known as “Hammer of the Heretics” due to his vehement attacks
against Luther and other Reformers. See a collection of his writings against Luther in
Malleus in haeresim Lutheranam (1524), ed. Anton Naegele, [Corpus Catholicorum.
23/24–25/26], (Münster in Westfalen, 1941–52).

BY JONATHAN R. SEILING

663

the so-called orientis ecclesias in these disputations to back up his
antipapalism, we need not look far for the reason why Fabri sought to
counter such claims and demonstrate the affinity of Muscovite
Christianity to that of the Catholic Church.
In the early disputations between the Reformers and the Catholic
defenders, information concerning the “Greek Church” was used as
cannon fodder to disable the arguments of either side. Luther’s use of
the term Greek Church in his early polemics was an especially effective tactic because in so buttressing his arguments, he could deny the
ubiquity and universality of Roman jurisdiction and authority. Thus,
Luther was able to show that various groups of Christians were in fact
not subject to the pope, yet the Roman Church still recognized them
as legitimate Christians.32 However, such a disposition toward the
“Greek Church”33 would not appear in Luther’s later writings or motivate him to seek support for his theological position from these “nonRoman: ecclesiastical bodies.”34
Concerning utraquism, Luther defended the doctrine of the
Bohemians, noting further that “Greeks”—i.e., non-Latin Christians,
who were neither heretics nor schismatics—also received the Lord’s
Supper in both kinds.35 Luther argued similarly concerning the doctrine of purgatory: that even though he held it to be true, the Greeks
did not, and therefore such doctrines may not be enforced for the
32
Starting in 1518 and ending in 1523, there are various references in Luther’s writings to the “Greek Church.” In the “Letter from Luther to Spalatin Concerning the Leipzig
Debate” (1519), Luther reports that during the disputation he used the argument that
Greek Christians were not under the authority of the Roman pontiff; therefore, submission to the pope was not necessary for all Christians. Luther’s Works (hereafter LW)
(Philadelphia, 1960), 31:322.
33
By the term Greek Church, it appears that Luther was referring to all Christians
who were never historically subject to the bishop of Rome but were under other patriarchal sees. Sometimes he used the term Oriental for the same.
34
Luther’s early statements certainly provided the justification if not the impetus for
Melanchthon (beginning in 1559) and others following him (1573 to 1581), who sought
to achieve recognition of the Augsburg Confession from the patriarch of Constantinople,
Jeremias II. See Ernst Benz, Wittenberg und Byzanz—Zur Begegnung und Auseinandersetzung der Reformation und der östlich-orthodoxen Kirche (Munich, 1971).
35
After Leo X issued the bull Exsurge Domine in 1520, condemning forty-one of
Luther’s theses, Luther took up the pen, producing his “Defense and Explanation of All
the Articles”(1521), LW, 32: 5–99. He complains that one cannot equate being a Christian
with being bound to the pope and Rome, since there is a long legitimate tradition of
Christians in the Orient and Africa, equating their autonomy with that of the Greeks and
the Bohemians. Ibid., pp. 68–69.

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THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

whole Church, even in the Roman Church.36 In his early commentaries on the Psalms, Luther stated that he did not condemn the
hegemony of the Roman Church, only its extortion of hegemony by
“force and fury.”37
Also in the “Babylonian Captivity of the Church” (1520) and “The
Misuse of the Mass” (1521), Luther argued again in the name of the
Bohemians and Greeks, who “take their stand on the Gospels”38 without inventions or additions.39 Also in 1521, Luther wrote about “me and
my Greeks” in his “Answer to the Hyper-Christian Book,”40 noting that
Roman canon law need not be followed by all Christians, just as the
“Orientals and Greeks” did not follow it,“even though it annoys Esmer
and the pope’s sects.”41 After this early period of public debate, there
is scarcely a reference in Luther’s writings to the Greek or Oriental
Church as such.
In the early 1520s, Fabri responded to Luther’s writings with several
refutations of such an appeal to the “Greeks” and in particular the
appeal to the Bohemians who, Fabri notes, were condemned by a
council, not the pope.42 Fabri’s statement concerning the variations in
Muscovites’ and Greeks’ belief in purgatory clearly contradicts Luther’s
earlier statement about what the “Greek Church”believed. Fabri wrote,
“But though there are among the Greeks very many who deny
Purgatory, and others who attempt to prove Purgatory from the
Scriptures, they say that they would not easily endure that there should
be a division on this account, but could come to hold firmly the same
doctrine with the Roman Church.”43
36

Ibid., pp. 95–96.
Luther writes:“Arrogantiam damno, rem [the papacy] commendo: Aurum non est
malum, sed avaricia, Caro non est mala, sed libido carnis, quanquam etiam his satis resistit vigilanter Christus, quod nunquam orientis Ecclesias huic subiici passus est.”
Weimarer Ausgabe, 5:57; cf. p. 62. Emphasis added.
38
LW, 36:25.
39
Ibid., p. 167.
40
LW, 39:150.
41
Ibid., p. 171.
42
Fabri, Malleus, 2:Tract. V, text. 19, pp. 84–85. Other references to the eastern
Churches are found on pp. 63, 79–83, 239, 242.
43
Palmer, p. 44.“Quanquam uero sint apud Graecos plerique qui purgatorium negent,
et alij qui purgatorium scriptures probare contentur. In hoc tamen se non facile scissuram pati affirmant, quin idipsum firmiter cum Romana ecclesia teneant.” Kudriavtsev,
p. 166. See also the report by Paulus Iovius with a similar attestation in 1525 concerning
purgatory, reproduced in Kudriavtsev, p. 247.
37

BY JONATHAN R. SEILING

665

Fabri’s meeting with the Muscovite diplomats in 1525 provided a
convenient source to exploit in his ongoing refutations against Luther.
After the peasant uprisings of 1524–26, Fabri further hardened his
position on theological and anticlerical dissent, especially pertaining
to the Anabaptists against whom he preached fiery sermons at the
1529 Diet of Speyer.44 Ferdinand’s preoccupation with internal dissent
especially within German territories he administered and external
threats from the Ottoman Turks became thoroughly religious concerns
for Fabri, who sought both to consolidate the Catholic faith within
Habsburg lands and to unify the military resources of Europe against
the approaching Turks.The threat from the Turks was seen to be religious as much as political. In the late 1520s and through the 1530s,
Fabri became more actively engaged in the defense of the eastern
border of the Empire, and some of the sermons he preached give evidence that his efforts were primarily devoted to unifying Europe in a
military effort.45 Diplomatic missions on Ferdinand’s behalf soon
brought him to England and Spain (1527–28), and his legacy may be
properly understood as one of seeking a unified faith and political allegiance throughout the whole of the Holy Roman Empire and its neighboring co-religionists.
***
In the late summer of 1525, two diplomats from Muscovy were traveling with a translator through Tübingen on their way to pay homage
to Emperor Charles V.46 Fabri interviewed the diplomats and wrote a
report addressed to Ferdinand and Charles, detailing the information
he had gathered about Russian politics, society, and religion. The
report, which bore the short title Moscouitarum Religio, was in Latin
and printed on thirty-five quarto pages at Basel in January 1526.
44
See Etlich Sermon von den acht Seligkeiten: geprediget in der hohen Stifft zü
Speyr auf dem Reichstag / durch Doctor Johann Fabri. Wien in Österreich (Vienna,
1528).
45
Fabri’s sermons against the Turks were as follows: Oratio de Origine, Potentia ac
Tyrannide Turcorum ad Henricum Angliae Regem (Vienna, 1528); Sermones consolatorii reverendiss. In Christo Patris, ac Domini, Domini Ioannis Fabri Epi. Vienen.
Habiti ad plebem eius, ac Christi milites, sper immanissimi Turcorum Tyranni altera
imminenti obsidione Inclytae urbis Viennensis (1532); Sermo Ioannis Fabri Episcopi
Vienen. profoelici victoria aduersus infideleis, habitus in sancta ecclesia
Metropolitana Pragen (1537), see Carl Göllner, TVRCICA, Die europäischen
Türkendrücke des XVI Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1961), 1:158–59, 219, 285–86.
46
The Muscovite diplomats arrived in Tübingen in August or early September of 1525.
See fn. 6 of the Russian translation of Fabri’s report in Kudriavtsev, p. 205.

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THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

It is uncertain how much Fabri knew about Muscovy prior to his
interview with the diplomats; however, he does refer in his other writings to some of the practices in Muscovy, such as the marriage of
priests.47 Upon receiving the Muscovites, Ferdinand and Fabri saw the
potential for Muscovy to join the war effort against the Turks.
Ferdinand highly commended them to his brother the emperor and,
with the help of Fabri, sought to achieve a religious union between
those of the “Ruthenian rite”48 and Western Christians that would
enable political stability between Poland-Lithuania and Muscovy so
that a pan-European military effort could assail the Turks.
Fabri’s report is motivated throughout to achieve a sympathetic
regard in the West for the Muscovites people, seeking to convince his
readership that Muscovites can be trusted, in fact more so than the
masses of dissenters within the borders of both the Empire and
Church, especially those in German lands.Although he does point out
several minor doctrinal differences between the Catholic Church and
the Muscovites, overall he highly commends their piety and diligence in
the faith. Fabri forcefully and repeatedly emphasizes the degree to
which Muscovites are stricter and more observant and obedient than
Christians in German lands. Some key issues he compares include the
competence of those who hold ecclesiastical office, monastic vows and
abstention from meat, the illegality and rarity of concubinage, the
unbending regulations of remarriage (impermissible for clergy), their
abhorrence of adultery, the priests’ sexual abstention the night preceding and following the performance of the sacred offices, their diligent
practice of confession and penance, frequency of prayer and fasting,
reverence for sacred images and absence of their abuse as idols, their
scrupulous use of indulgences, and so forth. At some points it would
appear that Fabri misunderstood his interlocutors, or he decided to
hide the differences, such as in his description of confirmation.49
Fabri depicts the faith and practice of the Muscovites as a Catholic
counter-reformer’s dream come true; the Muscovites serve as the ideal
example that he wishes for all Catholics, but especially for Germans
who by 1525 have been swept into the trends of the Reformation.The
backdrop of Müntzerite uprisings enacted in the name of Luther’s
47

Johann Fabri, Malleus in Haeresim Lutheranum, 1:Tract. IV, text 18, p. 281.
This term does not refer to so-called “Eastern Catholics” as they are known today,
but rather to the official Christianity of medieval Russia.
49
See footnote in Palmer, p. 33, where he notes that if the Muscovites reported this
to Fabri, they likely did not understood the technical meaning of confirmatio.
48

BY JONATHAN R. SEILING

667

gospel of Christian freedom served to heighten this counter-reformer’s
fear of any dissidents against the Catholic Church and the political rule
of the Habsburgs.
Fabri was certainly aware that his report would not be taken in
earnest if he totally ignored what distinguishes Muscovite Christianity,
so he included a few topics that demonstrate differences between
Muscovite Christian belief and practice, which he presents more as
curiosities than as barriers to political unity. Fabri also presents the
Muscovite subjects in a wholly favorable light. The Muscovite diplomats, for their part, seem to have been very willing sources of the information that Fabri sought. He made the following statement to assure
his reader of the favorable disposition of the diplomats toward the
Catholic Church:“Our Masses they attend most willingly; and say that
nothing gives them more pain than to find themselves shunned by
some as if they were aliens from the faith, whereas they observe zealously nearly all our religious customs.”50 Fabri noted that the
Muscovites’ order of service differs from the Latin rite and mentioned
that they do not include the use of salt in the baptism ritual or the use
of mud.51 Fabri also noted that they do not use organs during the
liturgy and a few other minor variances in ritual practice. He also qualified the major differences, stating,“They differ from us in their manner
of Consecrating the Sacrament a little, and in their manner of Breaking
the Bread. They maintain with the Greeks that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father only, and not also from the Son.” 52
Probably the most contentious issue that Fabri treated was the
Muscovites’ view of papal primacy. Near the start of the section on religious practice, Fabri wrote about the jurisdiction of the archbishop of
Muscovy and noted that all the bishops within his jurisdiction acknowledged the patriarch of Constantinople as the archbishop’s superior. For
the Muscovites,“before [the patriarch] again the Roman Pontiff, as successor of Peter, has ever and of right held precedence,” adding that even
the “Emperor of the Russians . . . is still very attentive in keeping up the
same pious respect.”53 Fabri seemed convinced that their allegiance to
50

Palmer, p. 44.
“Sal vero quod a nostris adhibetur, et lutum ex saliva et puluere, non admodum
receptum est Moscouitis.”
52
Palmer, p. 44. “Dissentiunt a nobis in sacramenti consecratione aliquantulum, ac
fractione panis. Spiritum sanctum a solo patre, nec a filio procedere perinde atque
Graeci tuertur.” Kudriavtsev, p. 166.
53
Ibid., p. 152.
51

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THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

the Greek patriarch should not preclude their acceptance of the bishop
of Rome’s Petrine succession.54 Near the end of the report, Fabri
repeated this basic assertion, stating, “they acknowledge the Roman
Pontiff as the vicar of Christ and the successor of Peter.”55 It is somewhat
doubtful that the Muscovites actually stated anything to this effect.
Fabri’s aim,of course,was to prove that they were not “schismatic”in the
basic sense of refusing unity with the Catholic Church or denying the
Roman papacy’s claim as the authoritative heir to the keys of St. Peter.
Fabri, however, acknowledged the historical breadth of the issue of
disunity between the “Greek” Christians and the Catholic Church,
noting that several attempts had been made to persuade them to
return to the Catholic Church, but that certain causes prevented success. He indicated that the causes of the disunity were politically motivated.56 Eventually Fabri did mention certain key “nonapprovable”
errors near the end of his glowing report: “Only one thing there is
which we certainly cannot approve, and which is most contrary to our
customs, namely, that they give the Sacrament of the Eucharist to children even under the age of three years; and that they Consecrate in
leavened bread; and administer from a spoon the bread mashed in the
wine as the Body and Blood of Christ to the laity.”57 Here his tone
seems somewhat more antithetical compared to the rest of the report.
That Fabri should severely regard the Muscovite practice that permits
children under the age of three to receive the Eucharist is surprising
when compared with the various other issues that a canon lawyer
would find worthy of condemnation. Perhaps his strongly stated disapproval was meant facetiously to point out the puerile nature of
squabbling over minute ritual differences such that ritual differences
might obstruct political unity in an hour when a military coalition is
desperately needed. But this seems almost irreconcilable with what we
know about Fabri as the “Hammer of the Heretics.”58 This tension in
54

Ibid., p. 152.
“Pontificem Ro. ut Christi uicarum et successorem Petri agnoscunt.” Ibid., p. 166.
56
Fabri writes concerning the problem of disunity,“quae tamen fuerint quae infelicius homini frustrata sint, forte plus profuerit obticere quam commendorando … uel
odium quorundam in me contrahere.” Fol. D4; Kudriavtsev, p. 166.
57
Palmer, p. 45.The original reads,“Vnicum est quod a nobis sane probari non potest,
et a nostris institutes alienissmum,quod pueres uix dum tres annos natis eucharistiae sacramentum praebunt, quodque in pane fermentato conficiunt, et ex cocleari panem uino
intritum pro corpore et sanguine populo ministrant.” Fol. D5, no. 33; Kudriavtsev, p. 167.
58
Throughout the 1520s, Johann Fabri staunchly opposed various other reformers
including Zwingli, Hubmaier,Tauber, Schwenckfeld, et al., with tractates countering their
teachings.
55

BY JONATHAN R. SEILING

669

Fabri’s depiction may point to the very reason why he was so eager to
find commonality with Muscovites. He would be more eager to
enforce ritual conformity within the Empire than beyond; dissent
within the Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire spelled internal chaos and needed to be squelched.Those external to his politicalecclesiastical realm could be affirmed and tolerated in their religious
or doctrinal difference so long as they sought to build political ties that
held promises of military support. On the other hand, his heightened
sensitivity may have been due to the Eucharistic controversies already
begun in the 1520s.
During the Eucharistic controversies between the Reformers and
the defenders of the traditional definitions, Fabri may have sought to
demonstrate that those of the Ruthenian rite had even more in
common with the Catholic Church than with the unruly Reformers
and sacramentarians in Western Europe.The other two doctrinal issues
he highlighted as significant—the Eastern Church’s insistence on leavened bread59 and utraquism—confirmed the eastern position on the
Eucharist, most certainly held universally throughout the Ruthenian
rite. Here Fabri dealt in earnest with the obvious doctrinal issues that
divided the West from the East. He did note other differences, but in
general, he found ways to portray the matters in a rather positive light,
showing only slightly more than curious fascination toward the apparent, minor differences that lay between the Ruthenian rite and the
Catholic Church.
As a key indication of the main purpose for which he wrote the
report, Fabri also included political-military information at the beginning to highlight the potential and desirable military alliance being
proposed with Muscovy and the Empire. He emphasizes the unconditional servitude of the Muscovite people toward the princes and the
loyalty of the princes to the Grand Prince.They are battle-ready with
30,000 available cavalry; the Tatars and Turks are their enemies as well.
Fabri exalted the loyalty and servitude of the entire Muscovite people
extending throughout the political and ecclesiastical realms. Such
information would be exactly what Ferdinand wanted to hear and
would make a very good case in his appeal to his brother Charles the
emperor for greater support in fortifying the Eastern Front. As hind59
However, according to J. B. Koncevičius, Russia’s Attitude towards Union with
Rome: 9th–16th Centuries (Washington, DC, 1927), p. 114, the 1439 agreement between
Rome and the Eastern delegates, as pronounced by Pope Eugene in the bull Laetantur
Coeli, explained that the use of leavened or unleavened bread is allowed.

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THE POLITICAL AND POLEMICAL MOTIVES OF MOSCOUITARUM RELIGIO

sight makes clear, the Muscovite princes, under the direction of Vasily
III, were far more disposed to amicable commercial and diplomatic
relations with the Turkish Sultan than Fabri would have wished.60
Such an analysis of the political motivations that influenced Fabri’s
report on religion in Muscovy provides insight into the conditions he
faced when he wrote the report. In the mid-1520s, during an era when
Western Europe was becoming increasingly conscious of the importance of both their potential friends and foes to the east, there was a
marked effort to better understand the customs, mores, politics, religions, and especially the military potential of these peoples. In the
background of his polemics against Luther and others, the data he
received concerning religion in Muscovy proved to be useful as a
model for what he wished for Christians in German lands to emulate.
The image of pious and politically obedient Muscovite Christians certainly contrasted with the dissenting masses in parts of Germany.The
report thus demonstrates the clearest sense in which the Muscovites
and neighboring peoples were held up as potential allies of the Holy
Roman Empire and distant ecclesiastical cousins of the Catholic
Church. Fabri’s appeal to Archduke Ferdinand and, by proxy, to
Emperor Charles may seem to be a distant voice from troubled times
when Turkish invasions were a real and present threat to the Holy
Roman Empire.

60
There is much evidence of strong trading relations with various Ruthenian cities
and their Turkish and Tatar neighbors throughout the late medieval period. See S. M.
Soloviev, History of Russia, trans. George S. Pahomov (Gulf Breeze, FL, 2001), 6:115–16.
Soloviev includes correspondence sent from Ivan III, 1492, in which he pleads with the
sultan, Bayazet, to provide greater protection for the Muscovite traders who enter
Turkish lands; see Soloviev 7:105–08. He also suggested that Turkey and Muscovy
exchange diplomatic envoys, as had been promised by the previous sultan. For more
recent studies of commercial relations of this period of Muscovite history, see A. M.
Kolyzin, Torgovlia drevnei Moskvy: XII—seredina XV v. (Moscow, 2001); Il’ia Zaitsev,
Mezhdu Moskvoi i Stambulom: Dzhuchidskie gosudarstva, Moskva i Osmanskaia
imperiia: nachalo XV—pervaia polovina XVI vv. (Moscow, 2004).

THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA
BY

FRANS CIAPPARA*
Making use of a wealth of primary sources, the author provides
numerous insights into the role of the Maltese community in the life
of the eighteenth-century Church across the liturgical year, exploring
social, cultural, and gender differences that separated the different sectors of society in the residents’ religious behavior. The author emphasizes the democratic responsibility of the wardens in administering
the parish, the participation and patronage of lay parishioners, and
the all-important cult of Mary and the saints. As the parish church
was considered the centerpiece of the community, residents contributed materially to its erection, embellishment, and upkeep.
Historians working in Great Britain and North America have offered
detailed insights into English parish life. The faithful, we have been
told, considered the parish church as their own to the point that they
paid the incumbent for his liturgical services with their personal
funds.1 However, the history of the parish is a subject that has attracted
interest across Europe. Marc R. Forster demonstrated this openness of
parochial organization to the ordinary people in Southwest Germany.2
*Dr. Ciappara is a senior lecturer in the Department of History at the University of
Malta. The author would like to thank Prof. Katherine L. French (State University of New
York, New Paltz) and Dr. Beat Kümin (Warwick University, UK) for their generous comments on this essay.
1
See the following two fine collections of studies: S. J. Wright, ed., Parish, Church,
and People: Local Studies in Lay Religion 1350–1750 (London, 1988) and Katherine L.
French, Gary G. Gibbs, and Beat A. Kümin, eds., The Parish in English Life, 1400–1600
(Manchester, UK, 1997). See also Beat Kümin, The Shaping of a Community: The Rise
and Reformation of the English Parish c. 1400–1560 (Aldershot, UK, 1996) and
Katherine L. French, The People of the Parish: Community Life in a Late Medieval
English Diocese (Philadelphia, 2001).
2
Marc R. Forster, Catholic Revival in the Age of the Baroque: Religious Identity in
Southwest Germany, 1550–1750 (Cambridge, UK, 2001). See also the same author’s The
Counter-Reformation in the Villages: Religion and Reform in the Bishopric of Speyer,
1560–1720 (London, 1992), pp. 20–21.

671

672

THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

Henry Kamen confirmed such popular control of the local church in
Catalonia,3 while among French historians,Alain Lottin has shown that
at Lille, the parish offered the people a platform for the exercise of an
unusual degree of responsibility and political power.4 This essay analyzes the Maltese experience in the eighteenth century, using the fine
run of 117 volumes of churchwardens’ reports (conti) at the bishop’s
archives.
1.
When the Knights Hospitallers came to Malta in 1530, they took
firm control of the governing of the islands.The consiglio popolare, or
the local self-government, remained in existence only in name.5 A
handful of inhabitants did succeed in reaching positions of authority
within the government—the judiciary was recruited invariably from
Maltese lawyers, for example6—but the majority of the people had no
place in it.
Yet, if the central government seemed remote and unapproachable,
the Maltese parish was central to the lives of the people and emphatically belonged to them. However, the parish was not a socially homogeneous entity. On the contrary, it was a heavily stratified society, as
was evidenced by the precedence taken by procedures of processions
and the disputes that arose on such public occasions.7 As an attentive
author has put it, there always lurked “the destabilizing fault lines of
continuous social tensions.”8 The community consisted of men and
3
Henry Kamen, The Phoenix and the Flame. Catalonia and the Counter
Reformation (New Haven, 1993), p. 158.
4
Alain Lottin, Lille: Citadelle de la Contre-Réforme? 1598–1668 (Dunkirk, 1984), pp.
59–73. For churchwardens in France, see Philippe Goujard, “Les Fonds de Fabriques
Paroissiales: Une Source d’Histoire Religieuse Méconnue,” Revue d’Histoire de l’Église
de France, 73 (1982), 99–110.
5
Charles Dalli,“Medieval Communal Organisation in an Insular Context:Approaching
the Maltese Universitas,” in The Making and Unmaking of the Maltese Universitas, ed.
J. Manduca (Malta, 1993), pp. 1–12.
6
John Montalto, The Nobles of Malta (Malta, 1979), pp. 101–31.
7
For the order in which parishes were to proceed on the feast of St. Gregory, see
Archiepiscopal Archives, Malta (AAM), Edicta Labini, 12 (1780–1807), fols. 55v–56r. For
England, see Mervyn James, “Ritual, Drama and the Social Body,” Past and Present, 98
(1983), 5. For the arrangement of mourners in funeral processions, see Sharon T.
Strocchia, Death and Ritual in Renaissance Florence (London, 1992), pp. 7–17.
8
Edward Muir,“The 2001 Josephine Waters Bennett Lecture:The Idea of Community
in Renaissance Italy,” Renaissance Quarterly, 55, no. 1 (Spring, 2002), 3–6. The author
thanks Beat Kümin for suggesting this reference

BY FRANS CIAPPARA

673

women from every social class, and these social and sexual distinctions
were reflected in the parish church itself.The parishioners, as recorded
in Thomas More’s Utopia,9 were seated in different places: the nave
was reserved for the women while the men sat in the transepts.10 The
sexes were differentiated not only in their seating11 but also at their
deaths. At Città Pinto, three peals (mote) were sounded for men but
only two for women.12 Since death was an occasion for stressing one’s
status in the community, at Zabbar, the major bell “distinguished a
person of the first order from another of an inferior condition.”13 If
most of the people were buried in common graves, the privileged few
had their own burial sites if not their chapels.14
The church fostered social distinctions in other ways and mirrored the formal social structure of the community. Attendance at
church was a social occasion, so that those who did not have the
“proper apparel”15 heard the “morrow Mass” purposely said at dawn
for their convenience.16 Others, like Veronica ta’ l-Ghawdxija (the
Gozitan woman’s daughter), went to a filial instead of the parochial
church for want of decent clothing.17 Preaching also was tinged with
status consciousness.The elite heard sermons in Italian in the mornings, but the rest of the population were catechized in Maltese in the
afternoons.18 Confraternities further serve to underline a graded
society. With their nominal entrance fees, they were open to all but
in exceptional cases, they were restricted as much by barriers of
status as by differences in occupation.19 The confraternity of St.
9
“As they enter the church the men turn to the right and the women to the left,”
Thomas More, Utopia (London, 1987), p. 126.
10
Archives of the Inquisition, Malta (AIM),Atti Civili (AC) 510, fols. 150r–v.
11
For pews as devices for creating and sustaining social exclusivity, see Callum G.
Brown,“The Costs of Pew-Renting: Church Management, Church-Going and Social Class
in 19th-Century Glasgow,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 38, no. 3 (1987), 347–61.
12
AAM, Registrum Supplicatiorum (RS) 10, fol. 506v.
13
AIM,AC 545 (ii), fol. 295r.
14
AAM, RS 7, fols. 856r–v.
15
For nonattendance at church in eighteenth-century Lancashire owing to “want of
proper Apparel,” see M. F. Snape, The Church of England in Industrialising Society: The
Lancashire Parish of Whalley in the 18th Century (Woodbridge, UK, 2003), p. 25.
16
“. . . ut pauperes, qui vel congruis carent vestimentis, vel ad rus profecturi sunt, eam
audire si posint,” Synodus Dioecesana, 1703 (Malta, 1842), p. 54.
17
AIM, Proceedings of the Inquisition (Proc.) 135B, fols. 602r–03v.
18
National Library, Malta (NLM), Library (Libr.) 13, p. 223.
19
For socially exclusive confraternities, see David Garrioch, “Lay-Religious
Associations, Urban Identities, and Urban Space in Eighteenth-Century Milan,” Journal
of Religious History, 28, no. 1 (2004), 35–49.

674

THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

Aloysius Gonzaga at the church of the Carmine at Valletta is a case in
point; members could not be of low extraction, working in positions
such as artisans and shopkeepers.20
There was, however, much solidarity among the parishioners. This
social integration had its prime source in the Eucharist, since the
people could partake of the body of Christ only if they had been reconciled with their enemies.21 This Christian brotherhood or “social
miracle,” as John Bossy calls it,22 was rooted and identified in the
Christian ideal of charity.Thus, the poor were frequently entertained at
the expense of the rich on feast days, when fruit and wine were distributed.23 Well-to-do testators assigned cash,24 bread,25 and grain26 for
the destitute and the sick while they also dowered orphan girls.27
However, the communal dimension of the parish could be best
understood in the context of the people’s devotion to their town or
village (pajjizek). Despite their close contiguity in a crowded island,
Maltese parishioners strove to retain their separate identities.28 They
were reluctant to admit new people to whom they were often hostile.29 Immigrants were never really accepted and integrated into the
life of the village or town; their accents30 and their loyalty to their
patron saint probably never allowed them to shake off their association with their original home.They were made to feel that they did not
20

AAM, RS 12, fol. 481r.
For enmity as a cause for not receiving the Lord’s Supper in Lutheran villages, see
Bruce Tolley, Pastors & Parishioners in Württemberg during the Late Reformation
1581–1621 (Stanford, CA, 1995), pp. 78–79.
22
John Bossy, Peace in the Post-Reformation (Cambridge, UK, 1998) and Christianity
and the West 1400–1700 (Oxford, 1985), pp. 57–75. See also Eamon Duffy, The Stripping
of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400–1580 (London, 1992), pp. 91–95.
23
Joseph Cassar-Pullicino,“Malta in 1575. Social Aspects of an Apostolic Visit,” Melita
Historica [MH], 2, no. 1 (1956), 41.
24
AIM, RF [Reverenda Fabbrica ] 274, fol. 37v.
25
AAM, RS 10, fol. 741v.
26
AIM, RF 258 (ii), fol. 519r.
27
AAM, RS 11, fol. 207r.AIM, RF 264 (i), fols. 72r–78r.
28
For regional variation, see Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe
(London, 1978), pp. 50–52.
29
For village solidarity and prejudice against outsiders, see David E. Vassberg, The
Village and the Outside World in Golden Age Castille: Mobility and Migration in
Everyday Rural Life (Cambridge, UK, 1996), esp. chap. 2.
30
M.A.Vassalli recognized five such dialects in late eighteenth-century Malta; see Ktyb
yl Klym Malti mfisser byl-Latin u byt-Taljan sive Lexicon Melitense-Latino-Italum
(Rome, 1796), p. xvi.
21

BY FRANS CIAPPARA

675

belong to their place of adoption and remained outsiders, which their
nicknames reinforced. One Giuseppe who resided at Siggiewi was still
il-Mosti (the man from Mosta) in the eyes of the inhabitants.31
This concern for the parish owed its origin primarily to the fact that
it would have been the parishioners themselves who had asked for its
establishment. The Maltese parochial network was created in the
Middle Ages (see figure 1). By 1436, when Bishop de Mello published
a list of twelve cappellanie, the rise of the parish was well underway,
as Birchircara was already a parish in 1402.32 The process continued in
the sixteenth century after the visit of the apostolic delegate Pietro
Duzina in 157533 and intensified in the seventeenth century with the
creation of fourteen new parishes.34 The council of Trent had mandated the founding of new parishes, but this decree reinforced the
people’s wish to have their own priest and control their own affairs,
believing that a community should have its own parish church.35
This sense of identification is further reinforced when one considers that existing chapels generally gained parochial status in the face
of great opposition.36 “Mother Churches” were powerful enough to
resist, if not to prevent, the division of their territory, because granting a chapel its independence meant diminishing the rector’s
income.37 Indeed, opposition could be so harsh that in some
31

AAM, Supplicationes 17 (1758–1777), no. 46, fol. 4v.
Anthony T. Luttrell,“The Cappella of Birchircara: 1402,”MH, 8, no. 2 (1981), 156–60.
Stanley Fiorini, “The Clergy of Malta, 1244 to 1460,” MH, 13, no. 2 (2001), 165–68. G.
Wettinger, Il-Grajja Bikrija tal-Knisja Matrici t’Ghawdex, 1435–1551 (Malta, 1975),
pp. 2, 5.
33
For this visit, see G. Aquilina and Stanley Fiorini, eds., Documentary Sources of
Maltese History iv. Documents at the Vatican. No. 1 Archivio Segreto Vaticano,
Congregazione Vescovi e Regolari, Malta:Visita Apostolica, no. 51 Mgr Petrus Dusina,
1575 (Malta, 2001).
34
G. F. Abela, Della Descrittione di Malta Isola nel Mare Siciliano con le sue
Antichità, ed altre Notizie (Malta, 1647), pp. 358–87. See also Brian Blouet, The Story of
Malta (London, 1967), pp. 93–122 and A. Bonnici, Il-Matrici Kolleggjata ta’ l-Assunta u
l-Ewwel Parrocci ta’ Ghawdex (Malta, 1975).
35
On how settlements gained full parochial status, see Andrew D. Brown, Popular
Piety in Late Medieval England: The Diocese of Salisbury 1250–1550 (Oxford, 2002),
pp. 67–77.
36
On this point, see Christopher F. Black, “Confraternities and the Parish in the
Context of Italian Catholic Reform,” in Confraternities and Catholic Reform in Italy,
France and Spain, ed. John P. Donnelly and Michael W. Maher (Kirksville, MO, 1999),
pp. 3–5.
37
For the difficulties faced by St. Gregory’s in 1598, see PA (Parish Archives) Gargur,
Dismembrazione Casali Gregorii.
32

676

THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

FIGURE 1.The Maltese parishes in the eighteenth century. Reproduced by permission from Frans Ciappara, Marriage in Malta in the Late Eighteenth
Century (Malta, 1988), 6.

instances, mother churches continued to demand various forms of
allegiance from their daughter churches, even long after these had
attained parochial status. In Gozo, they showed their subjection to the
matrice by a yearly contribution of candles to the archpriest on
Assumption day during High Mass.38
After establishing their parish, the inhabitants claimed control over
it, which reinforced communal solidarity. Churchwardens were not
always chosen by popular vote;39 the bishop could appoint them
during pastoral visitations,40 or the canons of collegiate churches
could appoint them, as was the case at Birchircara (St. Helen’s).41 But
even in the latter cases, the parishioners could not object to the lack
38

AIM,AC 546, fols. 88r–95v.
AIM, Registrum Actorum Civilium (RAC) C3, fol. 318v.
40
AAM, PV (Pastoral Visitations) 33, fols. 77r–v.
41
AAM, PV 35, fols. 119r–v.
39

BY FRANS CIAPPARA

677

of a general parish democracy because wardens still had to give a
public account of their finances. At his installation, the parish priest
was given the church keys, symbolizing his ownership of the edifice,
and put on the ring of his marriage with his “bride,” the church.42 In
actuality, however, it was the people who possessed the fabric, and
they never recognized the priest’s claim over it. The incumbent was
indispensable for saying Mass, preaching, and administering the sacraments. He read the gospel over the heads of the sick,43 and his presence could also be sought in witchcraft rituals.44 But for these services, the people paid him handsomely, with the tithe or Easter
collection as the major portion of the funds that supported him.45
They also provided him with a house close to the church.46 In other
words, although they did not choose him themselves, they were the
paymasters who controlled his income.47
2.
The concern of the people for their parish was twofold. It was religious since the parishioners funded most of the liturgical services
themselves. But the community was also responsible to adequately
maintain the church fabric.
As has already been proved, the parishioners paid for most of the
Masses, especially Masses for the dead.48 But they initiated much of the
remaining Catholic practice as well, and because Catholicism is essentially a religion of rituals,49 the people paid for a dense liturgical year.
42
Don Clearado Mamo, parish priest of Ghaxaq, died at Valletta on February 6, 1774,
but he was buried in the church (“sua sponsa”) of his former parish; see PA (Porto
Salvo), Liber Defunctorum (Lib. Def.) VI, fol. 3r. For these symbolic rituals, see Frans
Ciappara, Mill-Qighan ta’ L-Istorja. Il-Kappillani fis-Seklu Tmintax (Malta, 1987), p. 12.
43
David F.Allen,“New Light on Malta during the Peace of Amiens, 1801–1803,” British
Library Journal, 20, no. 2 (Autumn, 1994), 180.
44
For the presence of a priest on these occasions, see Frans Ciappara, Society and the
Inquisition in Early Modern Malta (Malta, 2001), p. 267.
45
Frans Ciappara, “The Financial Condition of Parish Priests in Late EighteenthCentury Malta,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 53, no. 1 (January, 2002), 97–98.
46
AIM, RS 6, fols. 561v–63v.
47
Frans Ciappara, “Parish Priest and Community in 18th-Century Malta: Patterns of
Conflict,” Journal of Early Modern History, 9, nos. 3–4 (2005), 329–47.
48
Frans Ciappara,“Una Messa in Perpetuum: Perpetual Mass Bequests in Traditional
Malta, 1750–1797,” The Catholic Historical Review, 91 (2005), 278–99.
49
For a masterful explanation of the liturgical year, consult the seminal work by
Charles Phythian-Adams, Local History and Folklore: A New Framework (London,
1975).

678

THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

According to one author, this meant the “integration of personal devotional gestures into the seasonal pattern of the liturgy.”50
The first half of the church’s calendar stretched from Advent until
June and enacted the life of Jesus.Testators, like a “devout person”at the
Greek Catholic church at Valletta, financed both the novena (a nine-day
period of preparation for the birth of Jesus) as well as the service on
Nativity day.51 Others drafting wills assigned bequests for the solemnity
of the Epiphany, which brought the Christmas season to an end.52
Ash Wednesday, when men and women knelt before a priest to
receive the imposition of ashes, ushered in the season of Lent. In 1752,
in preparation for this central feast of the liturgical year, the members
of the sodality of the Anime Purganti of St. Savior’s (Lija) started
donating 2 tarì53 each to the clergy to recite the vespere dei defonti.54
Other benefactors left money for a weeklong course of spiritual exercises or to pay visiting confessors to help out at this busy time.55 The
devotion of the Via Sagra (Via Crucis) was most appropriate to this
time of year. By means of fourteen stations or paintings, the faithful
were helped to make a pilgrimage in spirit to the chief scenes of
Christ’s sufferings and death. The installation of these stations was a
community effort and is recorded at Naxxar (1776),56 città Rohan
(1777), and Balzan (1784).57
Holy Week, initiated by Palm Sunday, was characterized by performances that dramatized its principal liturgical events. On Maundy
Thursday it was the custom in some parishes to mount a costumed
procession of Christ’s death through the streets of the village or
town.58 In 1784, Giuseppe Ellul of St. Andrew’s (Luqa) bequeathed
50
Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars, p. 40. See also Edward Muir, Ritual in Early
Modern Europe (Cambridge, UK, 2000), pp. 55–80.
51
AAM, RS 7, fols. 915r, 939v–40r.
52
AAM, RS 9, fol. 1153v.
53
It may be useful to the reader to provide a primer on eighteenth-century Maltese
currency and its modern equivalents. In eighteenth-century Maltese coinage, 1 scudo =
12 tarì and 1 tarì = 20 grani. €1 = 5.15 scudi = US$1.57.
54
AAM, RS 6, fol. 605v.
55
AAM, RS 10, fols. 578r–v, 663v.
56
AIM, RF 276, fol. 261r.
57
AAM, RS 10, fols. 34v–35r, 694r–v.
58
For this traditional Maltese pageant, see G. Aquilina, Il-Gimgha l-Kbira tal-Belt
(Malta, 1986).At Qormi, the procession took place on Palm Sunday in the afternoon; see
AAM, Informationes 6, misc., no. 71.

BY FRANS CIAPPARA

679

part of his property for the pageant.59 The Good Friday penitential rituals started with a three-hour-long sermon at noon. At Vittoriosa,
Saverio Galea sponsored this moving ceremony in 1794 and stipulated
that the stabat mater was to be intoned between each meditation.60
Parishioners combined to pay the choristers to sing the psalm miserere, which brought the service to a close.61 Pentecost (Whitsun)
brought the narrative of Christ’s life to an end.To celebrate this feast
of the descent of the Holy Ghost on the apostles Aloisio Deceli of
Naxxar in 1757 left 500 scudi so that with their interest, a High Mass
would be sung at the high altar in front of the exposed sacrament.62
This last condition underlies the devotion of the Maltese for the
“sacrament,” a key element of the Counter-Reformation.The Eucharist
had been instituted “to be received” as much as “to be adored,”63 and
Catholics reserved their greatest devotion to the tabernacle. At St.
Mary’s (Ghaxaq) this receptacle for consecrated hosts was made of
silver, the gift of Carlo Mamo.64 Generally it was made of marble or
wood, even if in the latter case, it was lined with red satin on the
inside and gilded on the outside.65 The one at Tarxien was an imposing one, adorned by a number of wooden statues.66 At Luqa, a picture
of Christ embracing the cross was painted on its door, a gift of
Ludovico Imbroll.67
The care and expenditure lavished on the high altar also revealed
reverence to the host. In the eighteenth century, these stone structures
began to be replaced with marble ones. At St. Paul’s (Rabat), such an
altar cost 400 scudi in 1747 and was composed of fine and different
types of marble: verde d’Egitto, rustico d’Egitto, dispro di Trapani,
pietra venturina, savarezza bianca.68 In 1760, the Sant sisters
defrayed expenses for the high altar at Qormi,69 while at St. Philip’s
59

AAM, RS 12, fol. 464v.
AAM, RS 11, fols. 413v–16r.
61
AIM, RF 274, fol. 343r.
62
AAM, RS 7, fols. 958v–60r.
63
Virginia Reinburg,“Liturgy and the Laity in Late Medieval and Reformation France,”
Sixteenth-Century Journal, 23, no. 3 (1992), 526–47.
64
PA (Ghaxaq), Lib. Bapt. iv, unnumbered.
65
ACM, Misc. 188, fol. 219r.
66
AAM, PV 15, fols. 160v–161r.AAM, PV 25, fol. 213r.
67
AAM, PV 22, fol. 329v.AAM, PV 24, fol. 337r.AAM, PV 32, fol. 381r.
68
G.Azzopardi,“Opri fl-Irham: L-Artal Maggur tal-Lum u ta’ Qabel,” Il-Festi Taghna, no.
13 (1988), 17–19.
69
PA (Qormi), Lib. Bapt. 1731–1772, note by parish priest Vella on the cover.
60

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THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

(Zebbug), Maria Dimech donated the huge sum of 1000 scudi for such
a structure.70 Retables (scanello), or the ledge at the back, were still
generally made of wood, but at Balzan in 1749, the accounts record
expenses for their gilding.71
The lamp burning all day and night in the middle of the church further symbolized the importance of sacramental worship in people’s
lives. Daily benedictions in the evenings enhanced this devotion,
funded so lavishly by parishioners such as Paolo Sciberras and
Vincenzo Agius of Birchircara.72 At Città Pinto, the apothecary Stanislao
Gatt established this observance in 1788, “with the playing of the
organ and the burning of candles and incense.”73
Devotion to the host was also exemplified by the quarant’ore, a
forty-hour-long adoration spread over three days.74 Parishioners
sponsored such exposition of the host on some particularly devout
feast—for example, Christmas or Pentecost.75 It was also occasioned
by some specific purpose, such as to pray for rain,76 the souls in purgatory,77 and the safety of sailors at sea,78 or to placate God’s wrath
during carnival time, believed to be an occasion for sin.79 The adorazione perpetua (perpetual adoration) developed out of the forty
hours’ devotion. In 1769, Maria Vella of Siggiewi donated 364 scudi to
the arch-confraternity of her village partly to fund a sermon every
fifth Sunday about the Eucharist. In the second part of the sermon,
the holy sacrament was exposed to the singing of the pange
lingua.80
70
S. Ciappara, Storia del Zebbug e Sua Parrocchia (Malta, 1882), p. 36. At St. Mary’s
(Ghaxaq), Carlo Mamo in 1757 spent less, 750 scudi; see PA (Ghaxaq), Lib. Bapt. iv,
unnumbered.
71
AAM, Conti 4A (Balzan), p. 37.
72
AAM, Conti 10 (B’Kara), no. 97, p. 87. See also AAM, RS 7, fol. 711r.
73
AAM, RS 11, fol. 194r.
74
In 1762, the confraternity of the purification of Our Lady at Senglea attempted to
spread the devotion over four days, from Christmas morning until the Feast of the Holy
Innocents but the master of ceremonies overruled them; see RS 8, fols. 91r–92v.
75
AAM, RS 11, fols. 236v–37v, fols. 303r–v.
76
AAM, RS 10, fols. 374v–75v.
77
AAM, RS 12, fols. 515r–v.
78
AAM, RS 10, fol. 429r.
79
AAM, RS 12, fols. 462v–63r. Bernard Dompnier, “Un Aspect de la Dévotion
Eucharistique dans la France du XVIIe Siècle: Les Prières des Quarante-Heures,”Revue
d’Histoire de l’Église de France, 67 (1981), 5–31.
80
AAM, RS 9, fols. 891r–93v.

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681

Devotion to the host developed in the people the desire to render
the sight spectacular. This wish was expressed particularly through
processions when the host was borne round the parish, accompanied
by all the clergy, the confraternities, and the people.This rite necessitated specific equipment and in 1779, the parishioners of Attard spent
85 scudi on a canopy.81 At Zurrieq, a richly decorated monstrance was
manufactured around 1744; it cost more than 466 scudi, most of which
was donated by Maria Farrugia, while Giovanni Abela and Arcangelo
Zammit paid 50 scudi each.82 At Rabat in 1754, the churchwardens
spent 211 scudi, 8 tarì, and 10 grani on such a sfera, while another 56
scudi and 9 tarì went for its gilding.83
One such occasion for the parading of the host was the terza, taking
place on every third Sunday of the month.84 But the host was especially
commemorated on Corpus Christi.85 This feast fell on the Thursday after
Trinity Sunday and completed the sequence of celebrations that started
with Advent.86 On the first Friday following the octave of Corpus was
celebrated the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.87 Established as an official feast day by Pope Clement XIII in 1765,88 this devotion, however,
had been celebrated at St. Paul’s (Valletta) since 1743.89 At Cospicua in
1769, the feast featured a High Mass, the burning of twelve candles, and
first and second vespers.90 At Ghaxaq,Angelo Zammit not only bore in
1773 the expenses for the feast but also “for the great affection he professes towards the Divine Heart of Jesus and to propagate this devotion
in the heart of the people,” he paid for a painting representing Jesus
holding the heart in his hand.91
81

AAM, Conti 4A (Balzan), no. 86.
A. Mangion, “Il-Kappillan Dun Carmine Delicata 1738–1765,”Programm tal-Festi
Santa Katarina Zurrieq (1990), 10.
83
G. Azzopardi, “Xi Opri tal-Fidda fil-Kollegjata ta’ San Pawl, Rabat,” Il-Festi Taghna,
no.18 (1993), 33.
84
AAM, RS 9, fol. 733r. F. Mallia, Il-Fratellanza tas-SS.Mu Sagrament fil-Parrocca ta’
S.M. tal-Portu Salvu fil-Belt 1575–1975 (Malta, 1975), pp. 196–99.
85
Ibid., pp. 157–83. For this feast, see Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in
Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge, UK, 1997).
86
AAM, RS 9, fol. 684v.AIM,AC 508, fol. 143r.
87
AIM, RF 274, fol. 38r.
88
Keith P. Luria, “The Counter-Reformation and Popular Spirituality,” in Christian
Spirituality: Post-Reformation and Modern, ed. Louis Dupré and Don E. Saliers (New
York, 1989), pp. 117–18.
89
AAM, RS 6, fols. 606v–08v.
90
AIM, RF 278, fol. 1r.
91
AAM, RS 9, fol. 960r.
82

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THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

3.
If the liturgical year was firmly embedded in Christ, the ecclesiastical calendar also emphasized the importance of saints in the life of
the church. Saints were models on which Christians fashioned their
lives but also powerful helpers and healers in time of need as well.92
Ss. Roche and Sebastian were invoked in times of plague, St.Anthony
of Padua recovered lost objects, and St. Barbara protected people
from lightning.
In return, clients funded saints’ cults abundantly. They sang hymns
to them, held processions on their feast days, and embarked on pilgrimages to their shrines. Relics were a prominent part of this manifestation of popular devotion. Costly silver reliquaries in which they
were housed demonstrate the confidence people had in them.93 But
early modern devotion in Malta was mainly focused on images and
paintings. However, if all the great saints of the church were venerated
in Malta as in all Christendom, the cult of the Virgin Mary was the most
popular.94 Of the thirty-five parishes in Malta in the eighteenth century, sixteen were dedicated to her.The shrines of Our Lady of Pity (tal
Henena) at Qrendi95 and that of Our Lady of the Nativity at ta Hasajet
at Birchircara96 were visited daily by devotees. But the Marian shrine at
Mellieha was the most beloved. It was popularly believed to have been
depicted by St. Luke when he was shipwrecked at Malta with St. Paul
in 60 AD.97 Pilgrims were so numerous98 that in 1776, the churchwardens invested 1124 scudi and 6 tarì in the bank of the massa frumentaria (grain department) that they had collected as alms.99
The Virgin’s four major celebrations were her purification (February
2), Annunciation (March 25), Assumption (August 15), and nativity
(September 8), but parishioners sponsored her various other attributes
as well. In 1796, Anna Cusin left 1400 scudi to the churchwardens of
the seven parishes of Gargur, Lija, Attard, Siggiewi, Mqabba, Ghaxaq,
92
For saints in general, consult Stephen Wilson, ed., Saints and Their Cults: Studies
in Religious Sociology, Folklore, and History (Cambridge, UK, 1983).
93
AAM, RS 10, fol. 195v.
94
Vincent Borg, ed., Marian Devotions in the Islands of Saint Paul, 1600–1800
(Malta, 1983).
95
AAM, RS 8, fol. 207v.
96
Ibid., fols. 573v–74r.AAM, RS 9, fol. 677r.
97
For this event,Acts 27–28.
98
For one such reference, see AAM, Dicta 24, no. 28.
99
AAM, RS 10, fols. 5v–6r.

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683

and Floriana to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Carmel with vespers,
High Mass, and a sermon.100 At St. Helen’s, a testator willed money for
the feast of the sacred heart of Mary. Since “it [was] not sanctioned by
the Church,” his brother petitioned the bishop in 1781 to celebrate the
feast of Our Lady of Charity instead.101 The Immaculate Conception
would be proclaimed a dogma only in 1854,102 but still it was celebrated much earlier in all the parishes, for example at Cospicua where
it was the patronal feast.103 At the nearby parish of St. Lawrence’s
(Vittoriosa), Giovanni Rizzo made a bequest of 100 scudi so that a High
Mass would be sung. He specified that an organ, oboe, two violins, and
a violincello would be played, and mortars fired.104 Our Lady of
Gennezzano or of Good Counsel was specially loved. In 1760, the
Austin friars at their convent of St. Mark’s at Rabat introduced her cult
in Malta when they set up a pia unione.105 The devotion soon spread
to other localities such as Zebbug106 and Mqabba, where, in addition to
the feast day on April 27, a sermon in her honor was delivered on the
second Sunday of every month.107
The cult of the Virgin was complemented by the cult of the saints.
The “angelic youth” St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a chief saint of the CounterReformation, was particularly popular.108 His feast was celebrated not
only at the Jesuit church and college at Valletta but also in several
towns and villages, including Vittoriosa,Tarxien, Ghaxaq, Cospicua, and
Mosta.109 As the feast of this “prodigious saint,”June 21, generally fell on
a working day, the parishioners of Siggiewi in 1763 petitioned the
bishop to hold it on a Sunday, preferably the second Sunday of July or
the first Sunday of September.110
100

AAM, RS 12, fol. 506v.
AAM, RS 10, fol. 464r.
102
Nancy Mayberry,“The Controversy over the Immaculate Conception in Medieval
and Renaissance Art, Literature, and Society,” Journal of Medieval and Renaissance
Studies, 21, no. 2 (1991), 207–24. For the antiquity of the devotion, see Barbara Sella,
“Northern Italian Confraternities and the Immaculate Conception in the Fourteenth
Century,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 49, no. 4 (1998), 599–619.
103
Ciappara, Society and the Inquisition, pp. 84–85.
104
AAM, RS 9, fols. 1064r–v.
105
For the story of how the painting was transferred by angels from Scutari to
Gennezzano in Italy, see AAM, RS 7, fols. 1221v–22v.
106
Ibid., fol. 1190v.AAM, RS 9, fol. 722v.
107
AAM, RS 10, fols. 398v–99v.
108
AAM, RS 8, fols. 404r–v.
109
AAM, RS 9, fols. 1182r–v, 1130r–v.
110
AAM, RS 8, fol. 133r.AAM, RS 7, fols. 1105r–v.
101

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THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

The people funded a vast array of other saints’ feasts: the Guardian
Angel, Ignatius Loyola, Francis of Paula, Vincent de Paul, Vincent Ferrer,
John Evangelist, John the Baptist, Francis of Assisi, Francis Xavier, John of
God, Catherine,Anne, and Joseph.The latter was particularly venerated as
the patron saint of the dying.111 At Vittoriosa, his feast on March 19 was
preceded by a novena.112 At Cospicua in 1781, the inhabitants collected
250 scudi so that the procuratori of his altar could pay for a triduo, or a
High Mass, and a sermon on the three days preceding the feast.113 In
1753, they had paid 34 scudi to Michelangelo Galdes for a new pedestal
on which to carry the statue round the city on its feast day.114
Offerings to images were a prominent part of the manifestation of
popular devotion. Oblations were both monetary115 and in kind, such
as gifts of cotton,116 although some parishioners preferred to offer
golden rings,117 silver crowns,118 and bracelets.119 In 1770, several
devotees at Birchircara offered golden buttons and rings to be recast
into two earrings with jewels to adorn the image of Our Lady of Good
Counsel.120 At St. Philip’s, so many silver items had been given to a picture of Baby Jesus that they were sold and a lamp worth 300 scudi
ordered instead.121 In 1782, Silvestro Cutajar left 200 scudi to Our Lady
of Light at the Valletta marina so that eight Minims sang first and
second vespers for 1 scudo and 4 tarì. He also donated ten lustrini to
hang around the image on her feast day, two of which had the words
Sic Luceat written on them.122
Endowing lights was another conventional form of piety.123 In 1748,
Andrea Vella of Gudja donated 1 scudo to finance the lantern in the
111
Jean Delumeau, Rassurer et Protéger. Le Sentiment de Sécurité dans l’Occident
d’autrefois (Paris, 1989), pp. 340–51. Michael W. Maher, Devotion, the Society of Jesus,
and the Idea of St. Joseph (Philadelphia, 2000), p. 21.
112
AIM, RF 274, fol. 357v.
113
AAM, RS 10, fols. 468r–v.
114
AAM, Conti 15 (Cospicua), Sodalità S. Giuseppe (1751–55), no. 94.AAM, RS 10, fols.
673r–v.
115
AIM, RF 258 (ii), fol. 519r. In 1748, the wardens at Balzan registered 1 scudo, 8 tarì,
and 4 grani for Our Lady of Light; see AAM, Conti 4A (Balzan), no. 69A, p. 36.
116
AAM, RS 8, fols. 602v–03v.
117
AAM, Dicta 24, no. 55.
118
AAM, Conti 1 (Attard), no. 40, p. 38.AAM, Conti 65 (Siggiewi), no. 6, p. 59.
119
AAM, Conti 10 (B’Kara), no. 104, p. 21.
120
AAM, Conti 66 (Siggiewi), no. 13, p. 3.
121
AAM, RS 8, fols. 345r–46v.
122
AIM, RF 260 (i), fols. 40v–50v.
123
David A. Postles, “Lamps, Lights, and Layfolk: ‘Popular’ Devotion before the Black
Death,” Journal of Medieval History, 25 (1999), 97–114. Barbara A. Hanawalt,“Keepers

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685

chapel of the Holy Rosary.124 Domenico Grech made bequests in 1739
to pay for lights at the statue of Our Lady of the Visitation at Gharb.125
In 1780, the churchwardens of Attard received 4 tarì to maintain lights
before an image of St. Joseph and another 2 tarì to maintain lights
before an image of St. Francis of Assisi.126 At Cospicua, the lights designated for St. Dimitri were endowed in 1740 when the wardens
received 1 scudo and 6 tarì.127 As a supplement to these oil lamps, candles illuminated these images. Wardens retrieved the droppings that
they resold to the chandler,128 but money was largely raised from
parishioners’ contributions.129
4.
The people’s concern for their parishes was not simply sacred; it
was also secular and concentrated on the church fabric. 130
Foreigners were impressed with the magnificence of Maltese
churches and the excellent order in which they were maintained.
When in 1664, Philip Skippon, an Englishman on the Grand Tour,
went to Qormi, he described the church of St. George’s as “very neat,
and the altars curiously carved and adorned with statues and
wrought out of the Malta stone.”131 Patrick Brydone echoed
Skippon’s impressions in 1770: “Every little village has a noble
church, elegantly finished and adorned with statues of marble, rich
tapestry, and a large quantity of silver plate. They are by much the
handsomest country churches I have ever seen.”132
The parish church was not just a place where the people prayed
and received the sacraments. As the only building that could accomof the Lights: Late Medieval English Parish Guilds,” Journal of Medieval and
Renaissance Studies, 14, no. 1 (1981), 28–29.
124
AAM, Conti 38 (Gudja), no. 20, p. 27.
125
AAM, RS 7, fols. 1205r–06v.
126
AAM, Conti 2 (Attard), no. 55, pp. 84–85.
127
AAM, Conti 13A (Cospicua), no. 78, p. 82.
128
On October 8, 1752, the churchwardens of Cospicua sold 25 scudi and 1 tarì’s
worth of bits of candles to Cristoforo Grech; see AAM, Conti 15 (Cospicua), 95.
129
AAM, Conti 38 (Gudja), no. 20, p. 31.
130
On this topic, see J. H. Bettey, Church & Community: The Parish Church in
English Life (Bradford-on-Avon, UK, 1979) and Church and Parish: An Introduction for
Local Historians (London, 1987).
131
Philip Skippon, An Account of a Journey Made thro’ Part of the Low-Countries,
Germany, Italy, and France, ed.Annsham Churchill (London, 1732), p. 622.
132
Patrick Brydone, A Tour through Sicily and Malta (London, 1773), letter 15, Malta,
June 5, 1770, p. 313.

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THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

modate a large gathering, it fulfilled an important social role by providing a forum for community gatherings. On March 14, 1751, the
members of the five confraternities at St. Philip’s, 285 strong, gathered
together in the sacristy after vespers under the guidance of the
bishop’s representative to discuss their disputes with the clergy.133 The
forty poor Gargur families who received 1 scudo each were selected
by lot in their own parish church.134 In addition, it was in the parochial
church that the people of Birchircara in 1762 chose by secret ballot
which poor girl was to receive a marriage legacy.135
The church was a convenient place to communicate news of a
wholly secular nature. Acting as the state’s functionaries, incumbents
read messages from the central government—for example, inviting the
people to invest at 4 percent with the Order of St. John.136 The church
was also an art gallery where the paintings of local and foreign artists
were displayed for the edification of all, a medium of religious propaganda. Furthermore, it served as a theater where the congregation
heard the music of the best Maltese composers. The splendor and
beauty of this elaborate ritual contrasted with the drab life of every
day, and the liturgy’s message of hope replaced the gloom that surrounded the people. Finally, it was in church that parishioners were
buried so that the living could feel themselves in intimate connection
with their dead relatives, friends, and neighbors.
In other words, the church, as the largest and the most impressive
building in the parish, was a unique place, demonstrated by its location. At Rabat (Gozo), so the legend relates, the stones moved themselves from Gelmus hill to the site where the cathedral now stands.137
A similar tradition is recorded at the village of Nadur. A saintly local
man, Girgor Buttigieg, loaded his female donkey with stone and set it
loose.When it arrived at the place where the parish church was later
built, it stopped and would not move.138
The seventeenth century saw a wave of parish church construction.
Former architects such as Tommaso Dingli had worked within “an iso133

AAM, RS 7, fol. 655r.
AAM, RS 11, fol. 343v.
135
AAM, RS 8, fols. 135v–36v.
136
AAM, RS 10, fol. 741v.
137
A. Gauci, Gozo: A Historical and Tourist Guide to the Island (Gozo, 1969), p. 34.
138
Agius de Soldanis, Ghawdex bil-Grajja Tieghu, trans. G. Farrugia (Malta, 1999),
2:153.
134

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687

lated parochial environment.” Now their simple style gave way to
baroque architecture with its exuberant vitality.139 A few parishes were
spared much financial worry because they benefited from the generosity of patrons. At Rabat, Cosmana Navarra covered all the
expenses,140 and at Zejtun, Girgor Bonnici provided the site on which
the church was built.141 Most parishes, however, were not as fortunate
and had to launch their own money-raising effort. In Malta, unlike
England,142 entertainments such as revels, ales, and plays were not used
as fundraising activities.The church helped itself by selling unwanted
items such as clocks,143 old doors, and ladders,144 or agricultural products such as carobs145 and olives.146 In 1759, the wardens at Cospicua
sold several unwanted gold and silver articles.147 Other churches
leased vestments such as the cope and the tunicle to other parishes.148
They also sold their services. Cross bearing during processions, for
instance, must have been a coveted role since crucifers paid for it.149 It
was also a common custom for churchwardens to buy chickens, which
they then distributed among the people to be sold later.150
To reduce expenses in the building of the church, parishioners gave
their labor mostly free of charge on Sundays and other feast days—a
pint of wine might have served as payment.151 At Mqabba, the builders’
fare was meat, pasta, bread, cheese, and olives, while child laborers
were given two mondelli of nuts, at the cost of 2 tarì and 4 grani in
1729.The church symbolized parish identity and therefore it was only
for the specialized work that parishioners looked to outsiders. One
case comes from St. Catherine’s (Zurrieq), which hired a carver,
Petruzzo Callus, from Zebbug.152
139

Conrad Thake, Baroque Churches in Malta (Malta, 1995).
J. Azzopardi,“Cosmana Navarra Fondatrici u Benefattrici, ” Il-Festi Taghna, no. 19
(1994), 7–13.
141
J.Abela, 300 Sena Ilu.Tifkira tat-Tqeghid ta’ l-Ewwel Gebla tal-Knisja Parrokkjali
taz-Zejtun, 1692–1992 (Malta, 1992), pp. 18–28.
142
For such activities, see French, The People of the Parish, pp. 130–36.
143
AAM, Conti 2 (Attard), no. 55, p. 83.
144
AAM, Conti 1 (Attard), no. 40, p. 24.
145
AAM, Conti 17 (Qrendi), no. 16, p. 42.
146
AAM, Conti 38 (Gudja), p. 38.
147
AAM, RS 7, fol. 1151v.
148
AAM, Conti 4A (Balzan), no. 80, p. 55.AAM, Conti 47 (Mqabba), no. 1, p. 39.
149
AAM, Conti 1 (Attard), no. 40, p. 25.
150
AAM, Conti 47 (Mqabba), no. 13, p. 4.
151
Vincent Borg, Il-Knisja Parrokkjali ta’ Hal-Tarxien (Malta, 1973), p. 24.
152
A. Mangion, “Bini mill-Gdid tal-Faccata tal-Knisja taz-Zurrieq, 1753–1758,”
Programm tal-Festa (1992), 19.
140

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THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

Wardens’ accounts do not suggest that rates were levied, and
parishes relied mainly on voluntary collections. This activity involved
most of the faithful, including the poor widow who gave only a mite.
Possibly there were some parishioners who refused to contribute
when the collectors arrived, but those who did not support their
church must have been few. In 1726, a collection was made at Safi; of
forty-one families, only nine gave nothing.153
Several of these individual gifts arrived at the time of death in the
form of mortuary benefactions. Few testators could afford to be as generous as Vincenzo Delicata and his wife, Maria, who left their belongings
to the church of St. Publius—a field, a room, and 875 scudi.154 More typical were Alberto Farrugia of Luqa,who,in 1635,left 10 scudi,and notary
Mario Briffa, whose contribution in 1641 amounted to 50 scudi.155
Collections were made during Mass as well as in the interval
between the first and second part of sermons or even after processions. Offering boxes were placed in churches156 and carried from
door to door.As the sums involved were enormous, several collections
were held. At St. Savior’s, there were collections between the years
1694 and 1709, by which time the sum of 762 scudi, 5 tarì, and 8 grani
had been collected.
The building of the parish church involved a large financial investment, but the commitment of the people did not stop with the completion of the church fabric.Architectural alterations were made over
time. The parish church at Zebbug was ready by 1632, but by about
1650, it had two new altars, dedicated to Our Lady of Carmel and St.
Joseph respectively.Ten years later, the church was enlarged along its
eastern axis, remodeling the choir space through a spaciously proportioned apse. The people contributed lavishly, especially every New
Year’s Day between 1660 and 1664.157 The alterations occurred for various reasons, but often because of sheer local pride, as parishes vied
with each other in beautifying their churches.158 At Gargur, Zabbar, and
153

J. Micallef, L-Istorja ta’ Hal-Safi (Malta, 1980), p. 43.
AAM, RS 10, fols. 232r–34v.
155
PA (Luqa), Lib. Def. 1, pp. 2, 6.
156
At the parish of Attard between May 20, 1685, and February 3, 1687, collections in
church amounted to 55 scudi, 36 tarì, and 20 grani.
157
Salv Caruana, “The Apse of the Choir in the Church of St. Philip of Aggira at
Zebbug,” MH, 11, no. 3 (1994), 275–80.
158
Between June 1, 1733, and October 20, 1739, the parishioners of Mqabba collected
the sum of 208 scudi, 3 tarì, and 10 grani to gild the titular altar of the Assumption; see
AAM, Conti 46 (Mqabba), no. 13.
154

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Zurrieq, for example, the old façade was removed and replaced by a
new one.159 Changes also could be due to the commitment of the
members to their brotherhood, or the popularity of new devotions,
essentially Counter-Reformation ones.The altar dedicated to St. Julian
at St. Andrew’s is a case in point. It had been one of the first altars to
be set up in the new church. But when in 1717, it was taken over by
the sodalità degli agonizzanti, it was built anew in the baroque style,
and the painting was replaced by a scene of the Crucifixion.160
The erection and maintenance of these altars underlies the parishioners’ control of their church and the active role they played in the
liturgical life of their communities.161 An example of the allegiance of
the people to these altars can be taken from the devotion to Our Lady
of the Rosary at the parish of St. Savior’s. Between 1702 and 1706, the
painter Alessio Erardi162 was paid 150 scudi for depicting the mysteries
of the rosary. Work then started on sculpturing and gilding the altar’s
façade. Two benefactors partially financed it with 60 scudi, half the
sum the master gilder Gelfo received between October 1716 and
August 1717. Another gilder, Maruzzo Bremon, gilded the candlesticks,
the confraternity’s crucifix, and, in 1712, the altar’s retable. Lastly, the
banner of white damask cost 135 scudi, 10 tarì, and 5 grani.163
After construction, churches had to be furnished. Bells were housed
in towers so that they could be heard across the countryside164—signaling the hours of the day; calling the faithful to prayer; providing notice
of national emergencies (such as the insurrection against the French in
159
F. Pace, Il-Gargur. In-Nies u l-Knejjes Tieghu (Malta, 2000), pp. 103–04. K. Bonavia,
“Il-Faccata tas-Santwarju, 1738–1750,” Lehen is-Santwarju (1986), 5–12. Mangion,“Bini
mill-Gdid tal-Faccata,” pp. 13–45.
160
G. Micallef, Hal-Luqa. Niesha u Grajjietha, 114–16 (Malta, 1975), pp. 114–16.
161
A. Vella, “L-Istorja Ekklezjastika ta’ Hal-Ghaxaq,” in Hal-Ghaxaq u Nieshu, ed. H.
Vella (Malta, 2006), pp. 41–110. K. Bonavia, L-Artali fil-Knisja. Xhieda tal-Hajja
Religjuza wara s-Seklu 16 (Malta, 2004). For churches in Paris, see Anne le Pas de
Sécheval,“Le mécénat laïc dans les églises de Paris au XVIIe siècle: quelques réflexions,”
in L’édifice religieux: lieu de pouvoir, pouvoir du lieu, ed. Pascal Julien (Aix-enProvence, 2000), pp. 57–68.
162
C. Bonavia,“Stefano and Alessio Erardi,” Sunday Times [Malta], December 19, 1992.
M. Buhagiar, “Francesco Vincenzo Zahra (1710–1773). A Critical Appreciation,” in
Francesco Zahra 1710–1773, ed. John Azzopardi (Malta, 1986), p. 48.
163
Vincent Borg, ed., Il-Knisja Parrokkjali ta’ Hal-Lija: Storja, Arkitettura, Pittura
(Malta, 1982), pp. 32–36.
164
For a general description of bells in Malta, see John Debono, Art and Artisans in
St John’s and Other Churches in the Maltese Islands ca. 1650–1800: Stone Carving,
Marble, Bells, Clocks and Organs (Malta, 2005), pp. 185–319.

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THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

September 1798);and,according to the inscription on a bell at the cathedral church at Gozo, driving away devils as well as warding off violent
storms and thunder (daemones expello tempestatesque sereno).165 The
parishioners paid willingly for this social convenience, even if it cost
them a great financial sum. In 1726–28, the inhabitants of Siggiewi contributed more than 1235 scudi for the recasting of the “great bell.”166 This
financial burden also could be seen at Lija. A new bell was ordered in
1740, but it was only in 1751 that the last payment of 26 scudi and 3 tarì
was made.167 At St.Philip’s,however,Baron Michele Azzopardi personally
financed a bell in 1734; and at Luqa in 1795, Giuseppe Casha disbursed
1732 scudi for two bells.168 At St. Leonard’s (Kirkop) in 1750, the brothers Aloisio and Pietro Dalli donated a newly cast bell weighing about 2
quintali to their parish church.169
Bells were linked with the parish clock.170 This simple mechanism,
consisting of interacting cogwheels, nonetheless had a considerable
cost. Gio. Domenico Portelli, who donated 200 scudi, largely financed
the one at Gargur in 1756.171 At Balzan in 1738, Grazio Mifsud
bequeathed a piece of land for the purpose,172 while at Cospicua, the
project, costing 619 scudi and 4 tarì, engaged the energy of many
people in 1791.173
The parishioners issued an impressively high proportion of their
revenues on other furnishings: the confessionals,174 the choir stalls,175
the cascarizzi (chest of drawers for the vestry),176 and the baptismal177
and holy water fonts.178 In 1738, Flaminio Galea donated a walnut
pulpit to the parish church at Lija.179 The Attard parish accounts
165
For England, see M. D. Anderson, History and Imagery in British Churches
(Edinburgh, 1971), pp. 236–37.
166
AAM, Conti 65 (Siggiewi), no. 4.
167
Borg, Il-Knisja Parrokkjali ta’ Hal-Lija, p. 68.
168
AAM, PV 45, fol. 72v.
169
Notarial Archives,Valletta (NAV), Notary F.Alfano, 18/526, fol. 107r,April 4, 1750.
170
Debono, Art and Artisans, pp. 323–78.
171
Pace, op. cit., p. 93.
172
Dimech, Hal-Balzan, pp. 72–73.
173
AAM, RS 11, fols. 359r–v.
174
AAM, Conti 47 (Mqabba), no. 1, p. 43.
175
Ciappara, Storia del Zebbug, p. 36.
176
AAM, RS 8, fol. 108r.
177
At Lija in 1747, it cost 74 scudi, 2 tarì, and 6 grani; see AAM, Conti 45, no. 4, p. 69.
178
In 1760, two such fonts cost the people of Zurrieq 70 scudi and 9 tarì; see PA
(Zurrieq), Libro Vda. Lampade, 1745–1791, fol. 161v.
179
AAM, PV 36, fol. 539v.AAM, PV 33, pp. 276–77.

BY FRANS CIAPPARA

691

recorded payment of 135 scudi and 8 tarì for one in 1723,180 while at
St. Paul’s (Safi), Maria and her sister contributed 50 scudi between
them in 1773.181 As without the accompaniment of an organ the priest
must have found the task of intoning the liturgy extremely difficult,
most churches were furnished with organs.182 These instruments not
only lent splendor to the church but also, as one parish priest put it,
they “stirred the people to take part in the sacred functions with more
devotion.”The price of an organ in the eighteenth century was around
400 scudi, as was the case at Rabat183 and Mqabba,184 but the one at
Zurrieq, built by Donato del Piano, a leading manufacturer of organs in
Italy, cost the parishioners 75 scudi more.185
On feast days, the bare walls of the church were draped with hangings or tapezzeria. Expenses for the making of such damask fabric feature in most surviving churchwardens’ accounts so that at Siggiewi,
842 scudi, 7 tarì, and 16 grani are recorded to have been collected.186
At St. Savior’s, the material, 36 canne in all, was brought from Valencia
for a cost of 253 scudi, 3 tarì, and 10 grani. Six benefactors donated 89
scudi and 6 tarì with the rest of the sum collected from the people.187
At Zebbug in 1766, a benefactor donated 200 scudi188 for the project,
but the confraternities agreed to contribute their share as well.189
Indeed, some parishes could not afford to have such expensive hangings of their own and hired them for special occasions, like the
patronal feast.190
Catholic ritual demanded the consumption of wine and hosts, the
latter particularly as only the clergy consumed wine. For this purpose,
180

AAM, Conti 1 (Attard), pp. 37–40.
NAV, Notary Michel’Angelo Farrugia, 6/817, fol. 214r, March 3, 1773.
182
Debono, Art and Artisans, pp. 381–449. H. Agius Muscat and L. Buono, eds., Old
Organs in Malta and Gozo.A Collection of Studies (Malta, 1998).
183
G.Azzopardi,“Muzika u Muzicisti fil-Kollegjata ta’ San Pawl, Rabat,” Il-Festi Taghna,
no. 14 (1989), 7–8.
184
Part of the expenses were paid by the parishioners, and the rest, 150 scudi in all,
were donated by the confraternities; altars and the filial church of St. Catherine; see AAM,
Conti 47 (Mqabba), no. 4.
185
AAM,AC 93 (1731–32), fols. 248v–49v.The organ at Naxxar was the work of Pietro
Santucci, for which he received 420 scudi c. 1775. See P. Catania, In-Naxxar.Titwiliet flIstorja (Malta, 1999), pp. 64–65.
186
AAM, Conti 65 (Siggiewi), no. 4, pp. 80–94.
187
Borg, Il-Knisja Parrokkhjali ta’ Hal-Lija, pp. 65–66.AAM, Conti 45, no. 4, pp. 6, 65.
188
AAM, RS 9, fols. 941r–v.
189
AAM, RS 8, fols. 384v–86r.
190
AAM, Conti 4A (Balzan), p. 55.AAM, Dicta 27, no. 46.
181

692

THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

Baroness Rosa Maria Galea of St. Paul’s (Valletta) founded a legacy of 6
scudi a year in 1769.191 At Mqabba, the Baldacchino brothers and sisters donated 50 scudi, but these benefactors mentioned “other ingredients” as well.192 They must have meant, for instance, charcoal and
frankincense, so much a part of the Catholic liturgical spectacle.These
two ingredients could not have been a heavy financial burden on the
community.At Cospicua, a rotolo of incense, costing only 1 scudo, supplied the church throughout 1748, and the wardens’ account for Attard
registers a mere 5 tarì to pay for the charcoal for the entire year.193
Books, utensils, and vestments required for the performance of
divine service were other forms of benefaction.A parish church had
to be well supplied with liturgical books, and parishioners must
have taken this responsibility seriously. The martyrology, willed by
Cosmana Navarra to St. Paul’s in 1673, was bound in leather and
bore her heraldic arms on the cover as a mark of personal patronage.194 On September 17, 1689, Caterinuzza Azzopardi of St. Philip’s
donated 25 scudi for three books of canto fermo printed in
Venice.195 On November 30, 1750, Cospicua parish paid 6 scudi and
6 tarì for two Roman missals.196 Tarxien churchwardens noted a payment of 7 tarì and 10 grani for the purchase of a new ritual on
October 6, 1701.The accounts at the same parish on September 23,
1702, record 2 tarì for a quire, or additional folio to the missal, for
the feast of the “new saints.”197
Churchwardens’ accounts rarely mention plate.198 The reason may
have been that once acquired, silver articles had to be replaced only
infrequently. One of these sporadic references mentions Giovanni
Giorgion, who donated a silver ciborium to St. Margaret’s (Gozo) in
1698.199 In 1723, the procuratori at Qrendi spent 4 tarì and 4 grani on
191

AAM, RS 9, fol. 967v.
AAM, RS 11, fol. 359v.
193
AAM, Conti 2 (Attard), no. 41, p. 39.
194
G. Azzopardi,“Cosmana Navarra Fondatrici u Benefattrici,” Il-Festi Taghna, no. 19
(1994), p. 13.
195
This was plain or Gregorian chant as opposed to canto figurato or polyphonic
music. See Stanley Fiorini,“Church Music and Musicians in Late Medieval Malta,” MH, 10,
no. 1 (1988), 2.
196
AAM, Conti 15 (Cospicua), no. 89, p. 128.
197
AAM, Conti 67 (Tarxien), no. 8, pp. 25–26.
198
On this subject, see the two-volume work by Jimmy Farrugia, Antique Maltese
Ecclesiastical Silver (Malta, 2001).
199
AAM, PV (1698), fol. 544v.
192

BY FRANS CIAPPARA

693

a dozen cruets and the following year 1 scudo, 1 tarì, and 10 grani for
a sprinkler.200 At Zebbug, six silver candlesticks for the high altar cost
9640 scudi. The benefactors included Dr. Agius and some “pious persons,” while Michele Cilia lent 600 scudi to the churchwardens to be
repaid in two years’ time.The processional cross at Lija came from the
generosity of the sisters Eugenia and Teresa Vella in 1737;201 at St. Paul’s
(Rabat), it was the gift of Giacomo Filippo Gauci in 1713.202
All churches were well endowed with religious vestments. There
are references in the Cospicua parish accounts that 3 scudi, 3 tarì, and
10 grani were paid in 1744 to the tailor Giuseppe Caruana (Mazzarello)
for making two tunicles and a chasuble.203 In 1753 at the same parish,
500 scudi—the bequest of Vittorio Grech—were spent on the purchase of a cope, a chasuble, and two tunicles.204 In some instances, testators specified the fabric and decoration to be supplied, such as
French brocade embroidered with golden thread or black tunicles
adorned with silver lace.205 Wardens’ accounts do not always specify
whether these vestments were made within the parish. It is simply registered at Tarxien in 1701 that 3 scudi and 10 grani were spent on 2
canne and 1 palmo of camlet (ciammellotto) and 1 onza of silk for a
new chasuble. The fabric was then given to the tailor Domenico
Grima, who was paid 8 tarì.206
In addition, churches needed to be cleaned, whitewashed, and kept
in good condition.207 Bells were a constant demand on parish
resources, requiring much care. They not infrequently broke,208 and
their clappers suffered damage through incessant ringing and so
required replacing, recasting, or mending.209 Regular expenses were
the leather thong that attached the clapper to the bell and the ropes.210
200

AAM, Conti 18 (1723–1741), no. 1, 33, 35.
Borg, Il-KnisjaParrokkjali ta’ Hal-Lija, pp. 29–30.
202
G.Azzopardi,“Xi Opri tal-Fidda fil-Kollegjata ta’ San Pawl, Rabat,”Il-Festi Taghna, no.
18 (1993), 34.
203
AAM, Conti 15 (Cospicua), no. 84, p. 100.
204
AAM, RS 7, fol. 719v.
205
AAM, RS 9, fols. 1018r–v.AAM, Conti 4A (Balzan), p. 58.
206
AAM, Conti 67 (Tarxien), no. 8, p. 24.
207
The accounts at Mqabba for 1745 record the payment of 15 scudi and 4 tarì for
this purpose; see AAM, Conti 47 (Mqabba), no. 1, p. 52.
208
At casal Caccia (Gozo), the major bell broke on March 24, 1740, while the sacristan
was ringing for vespers; see AAM, RS 11, fols. 249r–v. For the case at Zebbug, see NLM,
Libr. 13, p. 286.
209
AAM, Conti 15 (Cospicua), no. 88, p. 129.
210
AAM, Conti 4A (Balzan), p. 56.
201

694

THE PARISH COMMUNITY IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MALTA

Roofs were repaired,211 doors strengthened with linseed oil,212 paintings restored,213 and tabernacles renewed and adorned periodically.214
Windowpanes broke,215 and books and vestments were subject to
damage through persistent use.216 Organs were retuned and their bellows, especially liable to leak, repaired.217
This essay has attempted to convey how the laity shaped and participated in Maltese church life in the early modern era. The array of
data presented makes a powerful case for the parish as central to the
lives of the people. As a unit of local church government, the parish
was a single entity but as a heterogeneous social body, it was extremely
nonegalitarian, composed of widely different social types. However,
despite its hierarchical composition and its social inequality, the
parish, in striking contrast to the central government, upheld communal ideals of participation.
At the local level, the inhabitants held the parish firmly in their
hands by investing a great deal in their churches.They “paid”the clergy
for what Robert Whiting termed “dependent activities,” or the key rites
of the church such as administering the sacraments. But they also dug
deep into their pockets to build, furnish, and maintain churches as well
as to supply various liturgical items.All these activities demonstrate the
centrality of religion in people’s lives, but they also offered the parishioners opportunities to act collectively and feel members of the community.Above all, they justified the parishioners’ claim that they were
the masters and the church was theirs.

211
On December 29, 1747, Cospicua parish disbursed 2 scudi, 5 tarì, and 15 grani for
such work; see AAM, Conti 15 (Cospicua), no. 88, p. 113.
212
AAM, Conti 65A (Senglea), no. 20, p. 3.
213
AAM, RS 8, fols. 501r–02v, 553v.
214
Ibid., fol. 93r.
215
AAM, Conti 66 (Siggiewi), no. 16, p. 79.
216
AAM, Conti 18 (Qrendi), no. 18, p. 33.AAM, Conti 38 (Gudja), no. 20, p. 38.
217
AAM, Conti 2 (Attard), no. 41, p. 40.AAM, RS 10, fol. 7v.

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,
AND “ROMANISM”
BY

THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.*

In the presidential campaign of 1884, a supporter of Republican
nominee James G. Blaine, in Blaine’s presence, referred to the
Democratic Party as the party of “Rum, Romanism, and
Rebellion”—that is, the party of drunkards, Catholics, and rebels.
Blaine may not have heard the remark—he publicly repudiated it
three days later—but by then the damage had been done. Angry at
the infamous association with drunkards and rebels, many
Catholics may have switched their allegiance to Democrat Grover
Cleveland that fall, thus swinging the election against Blaine. There
is strong evidence, however, that Blaine had been baptized a
Catholic and, although never practicing, was thus the first baptized
Catholic nominated for the presidency, forty-four years before Al
Smith in 1928.
At approximately ten o’clock on the morning of Wednesday,
October 29, 1884, Republican presidential nominee James G. Blaine,
accompanied by his wife and several of his children, left his suite in
New York’s Fifth Avenue Hotel to descend into the lobby where a
group of churchmen had assembled to greet him.1 Rev. Samuel D.
*Fr. Blantz, C.S.C., is professor of history at the University of Notre Dame and is grateful to Allison Clements and Mary Gallagher for their research assistance in the preparation of this article.
1
This meeting of Blaine with the New York clergy is recounted in almost every study
of the election of 1884. See, for example, Sean Dennis Cashman, America in the Gilded
Age (New York, 1984), p. 233; John A. Garraty, The New Commonwealth (New York,
1968), pp. 285–86; Louis M. Hacker and Benjamin B. Kendrick, The United States since
1865 (New York, 1949), p. 70; Mark D. Hirsch,“Election of 1884,” in History of American
Presidential Elections, 1789–1968, ed. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and Fred L. Israel (New
York, 1985), 4:1577–81; Matthew Josephson, The Politicos, 1865–1896 (New York,
1938), pp. 368–69; Frank W. Mack,“‘Rum, Romanism and Rebellion,’ How James G. Blaine
Was Defeated by a Phrase,” Harper’s Weekly, XLVIII (July 23, 1904), 1140–42; Robert D.
Marcus, Grand Old Party: Political Structure in the Gilded Age, 1880–1896 (New York,
1971), pp. 98–99; H.Wayne Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley: National Party Politics,

695

696

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

Burchard, pastor of Murray Hill Presbyterian Church, had been selected
to deliver their official welcome.
Each day that fall had brought Blaine closer to what he hoped
would be the pinnacle of his career (see figure 1). Born in West
Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in 1830, he had graduated from nearby
Washington College at the early age of seventeen, taught school for a
short time, and then moved to Augusta, Maine, in 1854 to edit the
Kennebec Journal. After a brief stint in the Maine state assembly, he
was sent to Washington, D.C., as a member of the House of
Representatives in 1862, serving as Speaker from 1869 to 1875. He
moved to the Senate in 1876; served as President James Garfield’s secretary of state in 1881; and, after failing to receive his party’s presidential nomination in 1876 and 1880, had finally secured that prize in the
summer of 1884.2
The political differences between Blaine and his Democratic
opponent that year, New York governor Grover Cleveland, were not
great, and the two party platforms remained moderate and vague.3
Both candidates seemed to favor Civil Service reform, taxes and tariffs
only for needed government revenue, sound money, public lands
chiefly for homesteads and small holders, and opportunities for
decent livelihood for all laborers.4 With few policy differences
between the two candidates, the campaign had degenerated into scurrilous attacks on the candidates’ characters. Blaine was accused of
unsavory dealings in railroad bonds and perhaps complicity in the celebrated Credit Mobilier scandal during his years as Speaker of the
House. Cleveland’s reputation in public life had been unchallenged
but there was a private scandal: he had apparently fathered an illegitimate child a few years before and had accepted responsibility.These
1877–1896 (Syracuse, NY, 1969), pp. 226–29; Ellis Paxon Oberholtzer, A History of the
United States since the Civil War (New York, 1931), 4:205–06; James Ford Rhodes,
History of the United States from Hayes to McKinley, 1877–1896 (New York, 1919), p.
225; Eugene H. Roseboom, A History of Presidential Elections (New York, 1964), p. 272;
and Harrison Cook Thomas, The Return of the Democratic Party to Power in 1884
(New York, 1919), pp. 222–23.
2
Edward P. Crapol, James G. Blaine: Architect of Empire (Wilmington, DE, 2000);
David Saville Muzzey, James G. Blaine: A Political Idol of Other Days (New York, 1935);
Gail Hamilton [Mary Abigail Dodge], Biography of James G. Blaine (Norwich, CT, 1895);
and Willis Fletcher Johnson, Life of James G. Blaine (Philadelphia, 1893).
3
The best biography of Cleveland is Allen Nevins, Grover Cleveland: A Study in
Courage (New York, 1933).
4
The party platforms are printed in Hirsch,“Election of 1884,” pp. 1583–91.

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

697

FIGURE 1. Presidential candidate James G. Blaine, photographed between 1885
and 1893. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, reproduction
number LC-USZ61-451.

differences in their public and private lives led reformer George W.
Curtis to remark5:
We are told that Mr. Blaine has been delinquent in office, but blameless in
private life, while Mr. Cleveland has been a model of official integrity but
culpable in his personal relations.We should therefore elect Mr. Cleveland
to the public office which he is so well qualified to fill and remand Mr.
Blaine to the private station which he is so admirably fitted to adorn.

On that fateful day, it was only by chance that Rev. Burchard was
called upon to welcome candidate Blaine.6 The scheduled speaker, Dr.
Thomas Armitage of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, had been delayed
in Philadelphia that morning, and Burchard was a last-minute replace5

Quoted in Cashman, America in the Gilded Age, p. 233.
This was not the only embarrassment for Blaine that day. Later that evening he was
guest of honor at a sumptuous dinner at Delmonico’s Restaurant, attended by more than
two hundred Republicans—many of them millionaires and some with unsavory reputations—and Blaine’s attendance at such an ostentatiously opulent affair at a time of some
financial stringency alienated many.
6

698

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

ment. Mounting the lower steps to stand next to Blaine, he faced the
assembled clergymen and offered his official greeting in their name:7
We are very happy to welcome you to this circle.You see here a representation of all the denominations of this city. You see the large number that
are represented. We are your friends, Mr. Blaine. Notwithstanding all the
calumnies that have been waged in the papers against you, we stand by
your side.We expect to vote for you next Tuesday.We have a higher expectation, which is that you will be President of the United States, and that you
will do honor to your name, to the United States, and to the high office you
will occupy.We are Republicans, and don’t propose to leave our party and
identify ourselves with the party whose antecedents have been Rum,
Romanism, and Rebellion.We are loyal to our flag, we are loyal to you.

Linking Catholicism (“Romanism”) with heavy drinkers and antiunion secessionists was a serious and gratuitous insult to the New York
Irish and to Catholics across the country. It was not a new expression—Garfield had phrased it “rebellion, Catholicism, and whiskey” in
an 1876 letter8—but Blaine did nothing to distance himself from it.
Perhaps he had been distracted and did not hear it; perhaps he was collecting his thoughts for his own reply to the assembled clergymen; or
perhaps he thought, and hoped, that the words would travel no further
than the hotel lobby. If he did, it was in vain; Democratic strategists
pounced immediately, and copies of Burchard’s remarks, at times even
attributed to Blaine himself, were sent to Catholic papers and parishes
across the land.9 As soon as Blaine realized the blow he was taking, he
addressed the incident directly:10
My answer is, first, that the unfortunate and ill-considered expression of
another man was falsely attributed to me; and in the next place, it gives me
an opportunity to say at the close of the national campaign that in the
public speeches which I have made I have refrained carefully and instinctively from any disrespectful allusion to the Democratic Party. . . . I am the
last man in the United States who would make a disrespectful allusion to
another man’s religion . . . and though a Protestant by conviction myself and
connected with a Protestant church, I should esteem myself most degraded
if . . . I could in any presence make a disrespectful allusion to that ancient
faith in which my mother lived and died.
7
Burchard’s remarks are most conveniently available in Hirsch,“Election of 1884,”
p. 1578.
8
Quoted in Robert Granville Caldwell, James A. Garfield (New York, 1931), p. 251.
9
See n. 1.
10
Quoted in Muzzey, James G. Blaine, p. 317, and Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley,
p. 228.

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

699

This disclaimer on November 1 may have been sincere, but it was
too late.The words of Burchard had already been given wide publicity,
and the election was a mere three days away. Blaine was defeated by a
narrow 23,000 votes out of nearly 10 million cast. He lost New York by
less than 1,150 votes, and, had he carried New York, he would have carried the election.11
Commentators have long debated the impact of Burchard’s illchosen remarks on the election. Blaine himself seemed to think they
were crucial. “I should have carried New York by 10,000 if the
weather had been clear on election day, and Dr. Burchard had been
doing missionary work in Asia Minor or Cochin China,” he remarked.12
He later referred to Burchard as “an Ass in the shape of a Preacher.”13
Many later writers seemed to agree.Willis Fletcher Johnson suggested
that “had the election been held before Dr. Burchard’s speech was
made there is no doubt but that he [Blaine] would have been handsomely elected.”14 According to Matthew Josephson,“the mood of the
Irish and other Catholic people in New England and New York, previously cool to Cleveland, quickly veered to a frenzy of anger against the
Republican leader—at a moment, five days before the election, when
it was too late to repair the mischief.”15 Eugene Roseboom believed
that “enough Irish votes were probably lost to change the result in
New York.”16 Robert Marcus agreed:“the effect of this incident, which
all agreed was considerable, cost more votes than the Republicans
could afford.”17 A hundred years after the election, Mark Hirsch wrote,
“thousands of Catholic votes were probably lost for Blaine. Many
Irishmen deserted him with heavy hearts for he had been their
favorite, but such a remark could not be allowed to pass unnoticed or
unchallenged.”18 The title of Richard Harlan’s article,“The Phrase That
Beat Blaine,” and the subtitle of Frank W. Mack’s,“How James G. Blaine
Was Defeated by a Phrase,” convey the assessment of Burchard’s
words on the Blaine campaign.19
11
A good summary of the election results is in Hirsch,“Election of 1884,” pp. 1579–81
and 1611.
12
Quoted in Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley, p. 232.
13
Quoted in Rhodes, History, p. 231.
14
Johnson, Life of Blaine, p. 447.
15
Josephson, The Politicos, p. 369.
16
Roseboom, History of Presidential Elections, p. 272.
17
Marcus, Grand Old Party, p. 98.
18
Hirsch,“Election of 1884,” p. 1578.
19
Mack,“Rum, Romanism and Rebellion,” p. 1140, and Richard D. Harlan,“The Phrase
That Beat Blaine,” The Outlook, CXXVI (December 8, 1920), 649.

700

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

Other commentators believed the Burchard welcome has been
given too much weight. Sean Cashman suggested that the
Republicans’ snub of the Prohibition Party leaders’ overtures and
Blaine’s presence at the opulent Delmonico restaurant dinner that
same evening probably cost him more votes.20 Ellis Oberholtzer also
noted the defection of the Prohibitionists, the lack of support from
Roscoe Conkling and his followers, and the defection of the independent Republicans or Mugwumps.21 In discussing the Burchard
incident, Harrison Thomas stated that “although it probably did influence some votes, the importance of the incident can easily be overestimated because of its dramatic qualities.”22 John Garraty noted that
“the Burchard Incident seems less significant than it did at the time
because Blaine ran very well in the Irish-American wards of New York
City and Boston.”23
If it is not clear how significant the ill-chosen words of Burchard
were in deciding the election of 1884, Blaine’s personal attitude
toward Catholicism is equally uncertain.
In his public life, his participation in the school funding debate in
1875–76 and his introduction of the so-called Blaine Amendment certainly had anti-Catholic overtones, but these were primarily political
maneuvers.24 The American school system had suffered seriously in
the economic depression following the Panic of 1873—enrollment
had declined, teachers’ salaries had been reduced, and some schools
were abandoned.25 The situation was sufficiently severe to cause
President Charles Eliot of Harvard, writing in the Atlantic Monthly, to
urge that government cost-cutting not occur at the expense of the
schools.“No retrenchment which injures the schools is true economy,”
he wrote.26

20

Cashman, America in the Gilded Age, p. 233.
Oberholtzer, History of the United States, p. 210.
22
Thomas, Return of the Democratic Party, p. 223.
23
Garraty, The New Commonwealth, p. 286.
24
Two of the best studies of the Blaine Amendment are Sister Marie Carolyn
Klinkhamer,“The Blaine Amendment of 1875: Private Motives for Political Action,” The
Catholic Historical Review, XLII (April,1956), 15–49; and Steven K. Green,“The Blaine
Amendment Reconsidered,” The American Journal of Legal History, XXXVI (January,
1992), 38–69.
25
William B. Hasseltine, Ulysses S. Grant: Politician (New York, 1935), p. 390.
26
Charles W. Eliot,“Wise and Unwise Economy in Schools,” Atlantic Monthly, XXXV
(June, 1875), 712–20.The quotation is from p. 713.
21

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

701

In his lengthy annual message to Congress on December 7, 1875,
after discussing foreign affairs, Treasury needs, problems in the western territories, and the overall economy, President Ulysses S. Grant
turned to education, urging that “the States . . . be required to afford the
opportunity of a good common-school education to every child within
her limits!” but also recommending that “no sectarian tenets . . . ever be
taught in any school supported in whole or in part by the State, nation,
or by the proceeds of any tax levied upon the community.”27 Acting
upon the president’s initiative and recommendation, Blaine introduced
the following joint resolution on December 14 to assure that no newly
appropriated state monies would go to religious or sectarian schools:28
Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives, that the following be proposed to the several States of the Union as an amendment to the
Constitution:
Article XVI
No State shall make any law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and no money raised by taxation in any
State for the support of public schools, or derived from any public fund
therefor[e], nor any public lands devoted thereto, shall ever be under the
control of any religious sect, nor shall any money so raised or lands so
devoted be divided between religious sects or denominations.

As a college graduate and former schoolteacher, Blaine had a high
regard for education, but introducing this amendment was also a
shrewd political move of a shrewd political leader.The heated presidential campaign of 1876 had already begun, Grant and Blaine had
thrust the school issue into the middle of it, and it seemed that it
could only aid the Republican Party.The issue would be unpopular in
the South, since most states there probably lacked sufficient funds to
provide free schools for all, but the Republican Party was not
expected to carry the South in any case. Since free public schooling
was popular in the North where Republicans were strongest, the
issue might entice more of them to the polls, and very few would
favor their tax dollars flowing to sectarian schools. Non-Catholic
27
“Annual Message,” The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, ed. John Y. Simon (Carbondale, IL,
2003), 26:416–17. Grant had presented his educational views in somewhat more detail
in a speech to the Society of the Army of the Tennessee in Des Moines, Iowa, on
September 30 of that year. See The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, pp. 342–44, and the New
York Times, October 1, 1875. See also “The President’s Speech at Des Moines,” The
Catholic World, XXII (January, 1876), 433–43.
28
Congressional Record, 44th Congress, 1st Session, IV1, 205, December 14, 1875.

702

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

Democrats in the North could favor free public schooling and might
be induced to vote Republican. There were an estimated 250,000
schoolteachers across the country who would certainly find the proposal attractive, whatever their party. Blaine was in favor of free public
schools for personal and political reasons; the only obstacle was the
money question for religious schools, which explains his amendment.
Both Grant and Blaine certainly realized that Catholics would be alienated by the proposal, but the issue was political and they were willing to sacrifice the smaller Catholic vote for the larger majorities they
hoped the proposal would attract.29 As a joint resolution, the proposal
required a two-thirds majority in each house, and it narrowly failed in
the Senate, but the debate throughout 1876 may still have swung
some November votes.
Beyond his public life, Blaine interacted frequently with Catholics
and Catholicism. As he mentioned in his belated repudiation of
Burchard’s remarks, his mother, Maria Louise Gillespie, was a staunch
Roman Catholic, as were her ancestors. Her grandfather, an émigré
from Catholic Ireland toward the close of the Revolutionary War,
bought a piece of land in 1787 called “Indian Hill” in West Brownsville
in western Pennsylvania and eventually built a stone double house on
it for his children. On that piece of property that her father had inherited, Maria was married to Ephraim Blaine, a Presbyterian, in 1820, in a
Catholic ceremony presided over by a Reverend C. B. Maguire from
Pittsburgh. Ephraim and Maria lived in Sewickly, near Pittsburgh, for
nine years.Their first child lived only one year and was buried in the
local Catholic cemetery.30 Three other children were born to them
there—Neal in 1822, Ephraim in 1826, and Elizabeth in 1828.31 Maria
brought a wide network of Catholic relatives into the Blaine family
orbit, and the Blaine family, including James, kept contact with many of
these throughout their lives (see figure 2).
In 1821, Maria’s brother, John Purcell Gillespie, married Mary
Madeline Miers and moved into one wing of the stone double-house.
29
Jean Edward Smith, Grant (New York, 2001), pp. 568–71; Green,“Blaine Amendment
Reconsidered,” pp. 47–54; Hasseltine, Ulysses S. Grant, pp. 390–91; and Klinkhamer,“The
Blaine Amendment,” pp. 19–25.
30
Muzzey, James G. Blaine, p. 46; Hamilton, Biography of Blaine, pp. 53–60; and
Johnson, Life of Blaine, pp. 23–29.
31
An untitled Genealogical Table, and also John G. Ewing to John B. Gillespie,April 22,
1918, both in Box E 4.8, Mother M.Angela Collection, Sisters of the Holy Cross Archives,
Saint Mary’s, Indiana, hereafter abbreviated MAC, CSCA.

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

703

FIGURE 2. Blaine-Ewing-Gillespie-Sherman Genealogy. Chart courtesy of the
author.

It was there that John and Mary’s five children were born, three of
whom reached adulthood—Eliza Maria in 1822, Mary Rebecca in 1828,
and Neal Henry in 1831. Maria and Ephraim returned in 1829 to live in
the double-house’s other wing, and James Gillespie Blaine was born
there in late January 1830.32
From 1829 to 1838, the Blaine and Gillespie families thus lived side
by side on “Indian Hill.” Elizabeth Blaine and Eliza Gillespie played
together almost daily, often with their respective younger brothers
James Blaine and Neal Gillespie in tow. Their friendship continued
through the years, and when Elizabeth married in 1845, she asked Eliza
to be her bridesmaid.33
As Blaine rose to prominence in public life, two of his Gillespie
cousins attained some prominence in another area. Neal, the youngest,
entered the University of Notre Dame in 1845—only three years after
the school’s founding—was a member of its first graduation class in
1849, was ordained a priest in the Congregation of Holy Cross that had
founded the university,and served for a time as the university’s vice pres32

Muzzey, James G. Blaine, p. 6.
Hamilton, Biography of Blaine, pp. 57–61; Muzzey, James G. Blaine, p. 6; Anna
Shannon McAllister, Flame in the Wilderness (Notre Dame, 1944), pp. 3, 37–38;“Copy of
Book 1st,” memoirs of a youthful companion of Mother Angela (Eliza Gillespie), Box E
4.8, MAC, CSCA; and Blaine to “My dear Sister,” October 7 (between 1860 and 1868), Box
2, Folder 7, Ewing Family papers, University of Notre Dame Archives, hereafter abbreviated B.-, F.-, CEWI.
33

704

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

ident and director of studies (see figure 3).34 Eliza, after teaching school
for a short time in Maryland, became a Holy Cross Sister and later religious superior of the sisters at Notre Dame, supervised nursing in several Union hospitals during the Civil War, and is often considered the
founder of the present Saint Mary’s College near South Bend, Indiana.35
John and Mary’s other child, Mary Rebecca, married Philemon
Ewing, connecting the Gillespies and Blaines with that distinguished
family. Its patriarch,Thomas Ewing, Sr., a Catholic only on his deathbed,
was an early graduate of Ohio University in 1815, studied law in the
offices of Philemon Beecher, served as a two-time senator from Ohio,
and served as secretary of the treasury under President William Henry
Harrison in 1841 and as first secretary of the interior when that department was established by President Zachary Taylor in 1849. He married
Mary Boyle, a Catholic, in 1820. His children were raised Catholic, two
of whom, Hugh and Charles, attained the rank of general in the Civil
War.36 In 1850, one daughter, Ellen, married William Tecumseh
Sherman, the well-known Union general, and brother of John Sherman,
senator from Ohio and secretary of the treasury under President
Rutherford B. Hayes.37 Thus the Blaines had close relations through
marriage with the Gillespie, Ewing, and Sherman families, although
Ellen and her children were the only Shermans who were Catholic.
In 1839, John Gillespie died, and his widow took her three children—Eliza, Mary, and Neal—back to Lancaster, Ohio, where she had
34
Marvin O’Connell, Edward Sorin (Notre Dame, 2001), p. 332;Arthur J. Hope, C.S.C.,
Notre Dame: One Hundred Years (Notre Dame, 1943), p. 79; McAllister, Flame in the
Wilderness, pp. 6–133; and Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the University of
Notre Dame, 1856–57 (Chicago, 1857), p. 2.
35
McAllister’s Flame in the Wilderness is the only full-length biography of Sister Mary
of St. Angela, who hereafter will be referred to, as she was through most of her life, as
Mother Angela. She also figures prominently in other works: Sister M. Eleanore, On the
King’s Highway (New York, 1931); O’Connell, Edward Sorin, pp. 336–87: and Sister
Mary Immaculate Creek, C.S.C., A Panorama: 1844–1977: Saint Mary’s College, Notre
Dame, Indiana (Notre Dame, 1977), pp. 16–43.
36
The most complete studies of Thomas Ewing are Paul Ingersoll Miller, “Thomas
Ewing, Last of the Whigs” (PhD dissertation, Ohio State University, 1933), and Silvia
Tammisto Zsoldos, “The Political Career of Thomas Ewing, Sr.,” (PhD dissertation,
University of Delaware, 1977).
37
Of the numerous studies of General Sherman, the most useful may be James M.
Merrill, William Tecumseh Sherman (Chicago, 1971); John E. Marszalek, Sherman: A
Soldier’s Passion for Order (New York, 1993); and Sherman’s own Memoirs of General
W. T. Sherman (New York, 1900). The most complete study of Ellen Ewing Sherman is
Anna Shannon McAllister, Ellen Ewing:Wife of General Sherman (New York, 1936).

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

705

FIGURE 3. Neal Gillespie, C.S.C., ca. 1870. Photograph courtesy of the
University of Notre Dame Archives. Reproduced by permission.

been raised.That was also the home of the Ewings, where both General
Sherman and the nine-year-old James Blaine lived for a time. In a letter
from Europe years later, Blaine recalled that happy period:38
Aside from my own immediate family, my deepest love goes out to my
Ewing cousins. Even if this were not so from my own impulse, and from my
own heart, it would flow out naturally from the great love my dear Mother
bore to all of you, and the love you bore to her.
Those early days when we were all young together (in a circle of kinship that was inspired by the most unselfish love), come back to me freshly
and vividly in this foreign land and blind my eyes with tears as I write. God
bless you all and sustain you all.
38
Quoted in Hamilton, Biography of Blaine, pp. 82–83; see also p. 66. See also
McAllister, Flame in the Wilderness, pp. 18–19 and 25–27, and her Ellen Ewing, pp.
21–22. Sherman himself recalled those days later:“Jim Blaine and Tom Ewing, two boys,
cousins, as bright and handsome as ever were two thoroughbred colts in a blue grass
pasture in Kentucky,” quoted in Hamilton, Biography of Blaine, p. 78. Hugh Craig, in his
The Biography and Public Services of Hon. James G. Blaine (New York, 1884), p. 26,
dates this visit to the Ewings as 1841.

706

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

Over time, the families moved apart. Mary Gillespie remarried, and
with her new husband, William Phelan, divided her time between
Lancaster and the Notre Dame/Saint Mary’s campuses where her children, Eliza (now Holy Cross Sister Mother Angela), and Neal were
assigned (see figure 4).39 Her third child, Mary Rebecca, and her husband, Philemon Ewing, made their home in Lancaster also. James
Blaine, after his stint of teaching in Kentucky and marriage there,
returned briefly to Pennsylvania, then moved to Augusta, Maine, to edit
the Kennebec Journal. His mother moved to Elizabeth, Pennsylvania,
about thirty miles from Brownsville, and the other Blaine children
eventually spread out to Illinois, Montana, and Washington, D.C. Ellen
and General Sherman moved frequently among army bases in
California, Louisiana, Washington, and Missouri, although Ellen always
hoped they would make Ohio their permanent home.40
As Blaine’s career prospered, his Catholic relatives occasionally
turned to him for favors.When an uncle seemed in danger of losing his
position in a government hospital, Father Neal Gillespie wrote his
mother:“Uncle requested me to ask you to write to Jimmy Blaine and
induce him to use his influence to keep him in the position he has in
the Marine Hospital. Many of the physicians of Detroit are doing their
utmost to get him out and themselves in. . . .”41 The doctor himself
acknowledged to another nephew:“At your suggestions I wrote immediately to Speaker Blaine and General Emory with regard to my situation at the Marine Hospital. . . .”42
In 1881, a niece wrote to Mary Madeline to ask her to use any influence she “has with Mr. Blaine in order to procure a clerkship or any
position in his power” for a relative.43 As secretary of state, Blaine that
same year had appointed one of the younger Ewings to a position in
the State Department, but correspondence indicates that the position
39
Phelan eventually made a large donation of land to Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., the
founder of the University of Notre Dame, on condition that the community there provide for him and his wife thereafter. See McAllister, Flame in the Wilderness, pp. 122–23;
O’Connell, Edward Sorin, pp. 343–51; Hope, Notre Dame, pp. 95, 110–11; and Sorin, The
Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac (Notre Dame, 1992), pp. 143–44, 180.
40
McAllister, Flame in the Wilderness, pp. 9–23 and 45–46; Muzzey, James G. Blaine,
pp. 17–23; and Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 81 and passim.
41
Neal Gillespie to Mrs. Phelan, January 25, 1869, B3, F2, CEWI.
42
John M. Bigelow to “Dear Friend” (apparently Philemon B. Ewing), April 19, 1869,
B4, F9, CEWI.
43
Cecil to Mrs. Phelan, April 26, 1881, B2, F7, and C. Basler to “My dear Cousin,” May
9, 1881, B5, F1, CEWI.

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

707

FIGURE 4. Mother Mary of St.Angela, C.S.C. (Mother Angela), photograph of a
painting, n.d. Photograph courtesy of the University of Notre Dame Archives.
Reproduced by permission.

was soon in jeopardy with the assassination of President Garfield and
the accession of Chester Arthur.44 About that same time, Blaine was
arranging secretly and confidentially a leave of absence for a government employee acquaintance of Ellen Sherman.45
The families also exchanged letters of condolence and support in
times of tragedy.When Garfield was shot in the summer of 1881, Ellen
Sherman wrote to Harriet Blaine, James’s wife: “I think of you constantly and of your anxiety about the President and as to the effect of
such a continued strain upon your husband [the secretary of state].”46
When one of Blaine’s sisters died in 1869, Mother Angela wrote to
his mother:47
44
T. Jay Ewing to Philemon B. Ewing (his father), October 17, 1881, and February 15,
1882, B5, F1, CEWI.
45
James G. Blaine to “Mrs. Gen. Sherman,” July 21, 1881, Reel I, Folder 771, Sherman
Family Papers, University of Notre Dame Archives, hereafter abbreviated R-, F-, SFP.
46
Mrs.William T.Sherman to Mrs. James G.Blaine,July 26,1881,Reel 5,Container 7,Blaine
Family Papers, Microfilm Edition, Library of Congress, hereafter abbreviated R-, C-, BFP.
47
Mother Angela to Maria Blaine,August 1, 1869, R2, C3, BFP.

708

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

I have just heard of the death of our dear Darling Maggie. May her precious
soul rest in peace. As yet I am ignorant of all the details, but of this I feel
assured, that her death, as her life, was that of the Just, and that her life
henceforth through eternity is among the Saints in the glory of Heaven.

When Ellen Sherman died, Blaine wrote the general:48
I am deeply distressed by Cousin Ellen’s death. I have known her from my
earliest childhood and always with affection and with profound respect.
God comfort you all in the affliction!—affliction to you, her husband and
children, but relief and rest and peace and Joy to her!

In 1887, Mother Angela notified Blaine of her mother’s impending
death: “The aunt who loves you so well may live a few days, but no
hope. She sends ‘My love and blessing to my beloved nephew, his dear
wife and children for whom I pray.’”49
When informed of Mother Angela’s death by a Ewing cousin, Blaine
responded:“Your message is a sad one to me. Communicate my deepest sympathy to Aunt Mary [Mother Angela’s mother] and to your
Mother [Mother Angela’s sister, Mary Rebecca].”50
When Blaine happened to be in the vicinity of any of his Gillespie
or Ewing cousins, they occasionally visited, or at least attempted to do
so.Their correspondence indicates that Thomas Ewing, Jr., was invited
to tea at the Blaine residence in 1870 and paid Blaine a visit in 1874;
that Blaine invited Mother Angela to visit one afternoon when she was
in Washington, D.C., and, if she was too occupied, he would visit her
later that day; and that another Ewing dined with Blaine on Blaine’s
visit to South Bend in 1890.51
The cousins seemed to support Blaine in his presidential bids.When
he lost the nomination to Hayes in 1876, Ellen Sherman sent her “dis48
James G. Blaine to Gen.William T. Sherman (no date), R15, F124, SFP. For other correspondence, see Blaine to Sherman, November 28, 1888, R15, F121, SFP; Mrs. James G.
Blaine to Sherman, November 28, 1888, R15, F123, SFP; and Margaret Blaine (Blaine’s
daughter) to Rachel Sherman (Sherman’s daughter), November 28, 1888, R15, F126, SFP.
49
Draft to telegram, Mother Angela to James G. Blaine, (no date), Box E 4.6, MAC,
CSCA.
50
Printed in A Tribute of Affection and Gratitude to the Memory of Mother Mary of
St.Angela (Notre Dame, 1887), p. 85.
51
Thomas Ewing to Ellen Sherman, April 3 (1870), CSHR 9/18, SFP; Blaine to Mother
Angela (no date), Box E 4.6, MAC, CSCA;Thomas Ewing to Philemon Ewing, January 26,
1874, B4, F12, CEWI, and John Ewing to Philemon Ewing, November 3, 1890, B6, F2, CEWI.

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

709

appointment” to Harriet Blaine and reminded her that “four years will
soon go by.”52 When Blaine finally received the nomination in 1884,
Ellen strongly supported him and hoped that Republicans in her native
Ohio would get out the vote for him.53 That June, Mother Angela playfully told General Sherman that she intended to tell Blaine that he
received the nomination only because Ellen enticed her husband not
to try.54 In a letter to Father Edward Sorin, the founder of Notre Dame,
she acknowledged that several acquaintances, formerly Cleveland supporters, now promised to vote for Blaine. She added: “Now by your
prayers help him to become a fervent Catholic before he leaves the
White House, provided he gets into it.”55 When a scandalous accusation
arose that Blaine’s first child had been born only ten weeks after his
Pennsylvania marriage in 1851, ignoring the fact that he had been married in Kentucky twelve months earlier, Mother Angela wrote a very
touching letter to Harriet Blaine:56
In days long ago when we were all young, I learned that Miss Harriet
Stanwood was the wife of my dear cousin. I loved you for his sake.When I
formed your acquaintance I loved you for your own noble self, but when
the breathe [sic] of foul slander assailed you both, then my heart went out
to you with a stronger, deeper love and sympathy that I had ever in my life
felt for anyone.The visions came back so vividly. Dear Cousin Jim, so young
in years, so manly in heart, going out from the mother he loved so well, sharing that love with you, and you only, the early marriage, the early struggles,
his brave great-hearted devotedness as son, brother, husband, father, and
through all his name honored among the most noble in the land, and in
every phase of his grand career, you dearest cousin, his aid, his consolation
and his happiness, and now that base calumny tries to black your names.

Mother Angela’s brother-in-law, Philemon Ewing, helped arrange
loans for Blaine’s campaign, and the funds were all repaid within six
months of the election defeat.57
52
Ellen Sherman to Mrs. James G. Blaine, June 17, 1876, R5, C7, BFP. See also McAllister,
Ellen Ewing, p. 344.
53
Ellen Sherman to Philemon Ewing, October 1884, B2, F6, CEWI.
54
Mother Angela to Gen.William T. Sherman, June 7, 1884, R1, F797, SFP.
55
Mother Angela to Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., (no date), Box E 4.4, MAC, CSCA.
56
Mother Angela to Mrs. James G. Blaine, September 1, 1884, R4, C5, BFP. For details of
this accusation, see Albert T.Volwiler, The Correspondence between Benjamin Harrison
and James G. Blaine, 1882–1893 (Philadelphia, 1940), pp. 6–7, and Crapol, Blaine:
Architect of Empire, p. 98.
57
Henry Miller to Philemon Ewing, December 11, 1884; John Ewing to Philemon
Ewing, December 12, 1884; and James G. Blaine to Philemon Ewing, February 7, 1885, all
in B5, F3, CEWI.

710

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

Although Blaine always acknowledged that his mother was a devout
Catholic and interacted frequently with his Catholic Ewing, Gillespie,
and Sherman cousins, he rarely spoke of the religion of his siblings, his
children, or his own baptism. It seems a significant lacuna.
As noted earlier, his parents’ first child had been born in Pittsburgh
in 1821, lived only a year, and was buried in the local Catholic cemetery, certainly implying that he had been baptized a Catholic.58
Blaine’s oldest sister, Elizabeth, the close youthful friend of Mother
Angela and later married to a Robert Walker, died a Catholic in
Baltimore in 1885 and Archbishop James Gibbons presided at her
funeral. Her body was then returned to Pennsylvania and buried beside
those of her parents in the Catholic cemetery in Brownsville.59
Another sister, Margaret, had been baptized a Catholic in
Brownsville, had attended Saint Mary’s College for a time where
Mother Angela was prominent, and died a Catholic in 1869, her pastor
notifying a relative that she had been “fortified by all the great helps of
our holy religion.”60
A younger brother of Blaine, Robert, had been a student for a time
at the University of Notre Dame, held various government positions
throughout his life, and was buried from Saint Patrick’s Catholic
Church in Washington, D.C., in 1897.61
Another brother, John, had also been baptized in Brownsville, and
when he died in Hot Springs,Arkansas, in 1887, his body was returned
to Notre Dame, where his son had been a student, and he was given a
Catholic burial with a Solemn High Mass presided over by Father William
Corby, C.S.C., legendary chaplain of the Irish Brigade in the Civil War.62
58

See n. 30.
New York Times, March 4, 1885; Blaine gives a very favorable description of her
Catholic death in Hamilton, Biography of Blaine, pp. 219–21.
60
Baptismal Record for Margaret Isabella Blaine, January 6, 1838, St. Peter Church,
Brownsville, Pennsylvania; list of entering students (1856) in the Archives of Saint Mary’s
College, Notre Dame, Indiana; and Rev.W. L. Hayes to Mrs. Mary Phelan, July 26, 1869, B1,
F7, CEWI.
61
Washington Post, March 10 and 13, 1897; Catalogue of the Officers and Students
of the University of Notre Dame, 1856–1857, p. 9; and Notre Dame Scholastic, X (May
12, 1877), 569, and XV (March 11, 1882), 398.
62
Baptismal Record for John Blaine, May 2, 1840, St. Peter Church, Brownsville,
Pennsylvania, and Notre Dame Scholastic, XX (April 30, 1887), 541-42, and XX (May 14,
1887), 577.
59

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

711

In a letter to a nephew in 1866, Blaine’s mother lamented “the want
of true faith” in her sons Neal and James, and her concern for Neal continued throughout her life.63 He had been baptized at St. Patrick’s
Church in Pittsburgh at five months and had apparently been raised in
his mother’s Catholic religion, since he confessed to a cousin in 1860,
“how I have erred thru life, how I have sinned against light and knowledge, how I have departed from the early pious training of the very
best of mothers.”64 His mother in 1867 feared that he may have contracted a sinful marriage, suggesting she still considered him bound by
the marriage regulations of the Catholic Church.65
Another brother, Ephraim, apparently received the Sacrament of
Confirmation, which would only be administered if he had previously
been baptized a Catholic.66
Blaine’s other two siblings, Mary and Francis, died at ages two and
four and little is known of them, but the six who lived to maturity, and
the eldest buried in the Catholic cemetery in Pittsburgh,all seem to have
been baptized Catholic. In an 1882 letter, Blaine acknowledged that his
“own loved mother and father already lie in a Catholic grave yard in
Brownsville,” implying that even his father had also died a Catholic.67
Blaine’s attitude toward Catholicism can be further seen as it
touched the lives of his own children. His daughter Margaret was sent
to France in late 1882 to study French in a Catholic convent. When
concern was expressed that she might be converted to Catholicism
there, she replied in a letter to her mother:“I had seen so little possibility of that, that I had not even thought of your making objections for
that reason.”68 After a few weeks, she acknowledged that her feelings
had become ambivalent:“I went to the [Retreat] sermons in the mornings and the evenings, and what do you think I heard—the morning on
63

Maria Blaine to Rev. Neal Gillespie,“13” (sic), 1866, B3, F4, CEWI.
Baptismal record for Nigellas Gillespy Blaine (sic), September 23, 1823, St. Patrick’s
Church, Pittsburgh, Diocese of Pittsburgh Archives and Records Center, and Neal G.
Blaine to Philemon B. Ewing, December 13, 1860, B1, F12, CEWI.
65
Maria Blaine to Mrs. Mary Phelan, January 22, 1867, B1, F16, CEWI.
66
Klinkhamer, “The Blaine Amendment,” p. 31; Maria Blaine to Mrs. Mary Phelan,
March 17, 1864, B1, F15, CEWI; and untitled Genealogical Table and John G. Ewing to
John B. Gillespie,April 22, 1918, both in Box E 4.8, MAC, CSCA.
67
Copy of letter of James G. Blaine to Philemon B. Ewing, October 19, 1882, B6, F1,
CEWI.This seemed confirmed in a letter of Mother Angela to Blaine, undated but apparently 1884, quoted in Klinkhamer,“The Blaine Amendment,” p. 31.
68
Margaret Blaine to Mrs. James G. Blaine, November 1, 1882. R3, C4, BFP.
64

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JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

death, the evening on hell, the real old-fashioned hell, where one burns
eternally. It was a Jesuit, and I assure you he depicted with a horror
which made it rather too vivid, and produced a depressing effect,” yet
she was attracted to the liturgical ceremonies and admired the sisters’
personal faith.69 Apparently her father decided to withdraw her from
that environment, although she was allowed to return again within a
week or two. She admitted that Catholicism had its attractions and that
her younger and more impressionable sister should probably be kept
away, but she added that just because she found some aspects of
Catholicism agreeable,“it is no sign that I acknowledge a certain individual in Rome as the representative of St. Peter, or accept his opinions
as infallible, or confess my thoughts to any old priest who comes
along.”70 But she added:“In fact, it did not seem to me that you would
have any extraordinary objections to my going back to the religion of
my grand mother if it so pleased me to do so, but your cable changes
the face of affairs.”71 She happily returned to the convent and wrote
her father reassuringly:“I know that, if it were not for the danger of my
becoming a Catholic, danger which I think, indeed which I know is
over, you would approve of the convent in every way. Any Protestant
will tell you that the nuns are lovely and it was really worth while
going away.They are all so nice to me now.”72
That same year, Margaret’s sister, Alice, was preparing to marry a
Catholic, and Margaret expressed some surprise that “Father would go
so far as to allow that.”73 Alice did become a Catholic, but lived only
seven years as the wife of Col. John Coppinger and was buried from
St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Washington, D.C., with Father Thomas
Sherman, S.J., the son of General Sherman, presiding (see figure 5), and
with the final blessing given by then-Cardinal James Gibbons. On her
death, Blaine wrote to a friend:“She had with great devotion and piety
connected herself with the Catholic Church, and left behind two
interesting boys who, according to her wishes, shall be brought up in
their mother’s faith.”74
69

Margaret Blaine to Mrs. James G. Blaine, January 28, 1883, R4 C5, BFP.
Margaret Blaine to James G. Blaine, January 30, 1883, R4, C5, BFP.
71
Ibid.
72
Margaret Blaine to James G. Blaine, February 4, 1883, R4, C5, BFP.
73
Margaret Blaine to Mrs. James G. Blaine, February 11, 1883, R4, C5, BFP. See also
Washington Post, September 19, 1886; New York Times, February 6, 1883, and February
5, 1890.
74
James G. Blaine to Patrick Ford, September 23, 1890, quoted in Hamilton, Biography
of Blaine, pp. 715–16.
70

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

713

FIGURE 5. Father Thomas Sherman, S.J., chaplain during the Spanish American
War, 1898. Photograph courtesy of the University of Notre Dame Archives.
Reproduced by permission.

Blaine’s youngest son, James, Jr. also married a Catholic, and this was
a source of bitter controversy. James was not quite eighteen and had
married without his parents’ knowledge. Archbishop Michael Corrigan
of New York apparently granted a dispensation for the marriage personally since James was not a Catholic, and the marriage took place in Saint
Leo’s Catholic Church that same day.75 The senior Blaine later expressed
sharp criticism of the haste with which the Catholic Church permitted
the marriage.76 The controversy continued with each side publicly criticizing the other, and there were reports that Harriet Blaine attempted to
keep the young couple apart and hoped to see the marriage terminated,
perhaps because her daughter-in-law insisted on having their baby baptized a Catholic.The marriage eventually did end in divorce,young Blaine
married a second time, and that marriage ended in divorce as well.77
75
New York Times, September 15, 1886; Washington Post, September 14, 1886;
Boston Daily Globe, September 15, 1886; Julia Walker Fisk to Mrs. Mary Phelan,
September 21, 1886, B2, F19, CEWI.
76
Blaine’s letter was printed in the New York Times, February 9, 1892.
77
New York Times, September 30, 1889; March 1, 2, 4, and 5, 1892; Boston Daily
Globe, February 21, 1892; and Washington Post, October 26, 1888, and December 24,
1906.

714

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

Of Blaine’s religion, respected historian David Saville Muzzey has
written:78
Bigoted Protestants, led by Bishop Haven of the Methodist Church, charged
him with being a “crypto-Catholic,” and bigoted Catholics branded him as
an “apostate.” The Baltimore Catholic Mirror, for example, in an editorial
of January 29, 1876, when Blaine was the most prominent candidate for the
approaching presidential nomination, declared that “Squire (Ephraim Lyon)
Blaine became a convert to the religious faith of his wife and lived and died
a firm believer in it”; that “all the children were raised as Catholics;” that
James G. Blaine “emigrated from his family home shortly after his majority”
to attend Washington College,“where his religion was not popular and he
changed it . . . for the sake of politic preferment and an evanescent popularity.” Every phrase of this statement is false, except the bare fact that
Blaine went to Washington College.

Writing of Blaine’s parents, Willis Fletcher Johnson has stated, “Each
respected the conscientious convictions of the other, and to the end of
their lives he was a Presbyterian, she a Catholic. By her consent, indeed
by her wish, however, their children were instructed in the
Presbyterian faith.”79
In her biography of Blaine, Gail Hamilton, Blaine’s cousin, describes
Blaine’s participation in Congregational Church services in Augusta,
and the Kennebec Journal of that city confirmed it: “Mr. Blaine has
been for nearly twenty years a consistent member of the Orthodox
Congregational Church in this city, the city of his home. Orthodox
Congregationalism in Maine is precisely the same creed as
Presbyterianism in Pennsylvania.”80
Blaine himself always insisted that he was a Protestant and a
Presbyterian. His most quoted statement on the subject of religion is
the one he issued in 1876:81
My ancestors on my father’s side were, as you know, always identified with
the Presbyterian church, and they were prominent and honored in the old
colony of Pennsylvania. But I will never consent to make any public declaration upon the subject, and for two reasons: first, because I abhor the introduction of anything that looks like a religious test or qualification for office
78

Muzzey, James G. Blaine, pp. 5–6.
Johnson, Life of Blaine, p. 28.
80
Hamilton, Biography of Blaine, pp. 119–20, and Henry Davenport Northrop, Life
and Public Services of Hon. James G. Blaine (Philadelphia, 1893), pp. 21–22.
81
Northrop, Life and Public Services, p. 21.
79

BY THOMAS E. BLANTZ, C.S.C.

715

in a republic where perfect freedom of conscience is the birthright of
every citizen; and second, because my mother was a devoted Catholic. I
would not for a thousand Presidencies speak a disrespectful word of my
mother’s religion, and no pressure will draw me into any avowel [sic] of
hostility or unfriendliness to Catholics, though I have never received, and
do not expect, any political support from them.

In his response three days after the Burchard incident, Blaine had
stated that he was “Protestant by conviction myself, and connected
with a Protestant church.”82 Surprisingly, Blaine apparently never mentions the time or place of his baptism, evidence that would have settled the issue once and for all.
Evidence available today paints a more complicated but perhaps
clearer picture of Blaine’s religious background. He was certainly familiar with Catholicism: he witnessed his mother’s devoted practice of
Catholicism and probably his siblings’ as well, and most of his maternal
kin was Catholic, with whom his relations were cordial if infrequent.
He always insisted that he was not a Catholic and apparently opposed
any of his minor children becoming Catholic. He did not object to his
daughter Alice becoming a Catholic through her marriage and, at her
death, stated that her two young sons would be raised Catholic as she
wished. He certainly did not approve of his son James’s wedding to the
Catholic Marie Nevins but that may have been primarily because of
James’s youth and the haste with which the marriage had taken place.
Although Blaine always insisted that he was a Protestant and lived as
a member of a Protestant church, the evidence suggests that he was
probably baptized a Catholic. Many early baptismal records have not
been preserved, but it seems that his siblings were all baptized
Catholics: they were married in a Catholic ceremony or buried in a
Catholic cemetery, with Neal as the aberration, as he apparently
departed from his mother’s training. It would be strange if James, a
middle child, were the only one not baptized a Catholic. When Blaine
lay dying in 1893, Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore was called to his
side, perhaps to offer the Church’s Last Sacraments and reconciliation.
Blaine was grateful but declined.83 The cardinal may have presumed
that Blaine had been baptized a Catholic and was thus eligible for the
Church’s Last Rites. Blaine’s cousin, Mother Angela, certainly considered
him a baptized Catholic. In a letter to Blaine apparently after his 1884
82

Morgan, From Hayes to McKinley, p. 228.
Hamilton, Biography of Blaine, p. 721, and John Tracy Ellis, The Life of James
Cardinal Gibbons (Milwaukee, 1952), 11:503.
83

716

JAMES GILLESPIE BLAINE, HIS FAMILY,AND “ROMANISM”

defeat, she stated:“In His Church He gives all that is needed for time, for
preparation for eternity.Thank God it is the Church of your Baptism.”84
She later wrote of Blaine: “His father permitted all his children to be
baptized in infancy, selected non-Catholic schools for his boys’ education because he thought them best, and said,‘when they are old enough
let these boys select their own religion.’”85
Blaine’s situation may have been similar to that of his cousin by marriage, General Sherman. After his father’s early death, Sherman was
raised in the Catholic Ewing family and, according to his wife, he was
baptized, with his mother’s approval, by Father Dominic Young on one
of his periodic missionary visits to Lancaster and to the Ewing home.86
Sherman never practiced Catholicism and never considered himself
Catholic, but his children were raised Catholic, and one of them,
Thomas, became a Jesuit priest and arrived from England in time to
give his father a Catholic burial.87
Blaine certainly never practiced the Catholic religion; he attended
Protestant churches throughout his life, and he could honestly insist,
like Sherman, that he was not a Catholic. He also was a shrewd and
practical politician. Had knowledge of a Catholic baptism ever become
public, any chance of a presidential nomination or election would have
vanished. Catholics, from his cousins to Cardinal Gibbons, might consider him a Catholic since that was almost certainly the religion of his
baptism, but Blaine could insist that he was not, that he was a
respected and practicing Protestant all his life, and thus remain viable
in every presidential election.
84
Mother Angela to James G. Blaine, quoted in Klinkhamer,“The Blaine Amendment,”
p. 31.
85
Mother Angela to Rev. Louis A. Lambert, quoted in Klinkhamer, “The Blaine
Amendment,” p. 31. Also Hugh Craig, Biography and Public Services, p. 15, affirms of
Blaine’s mother:“Her children were all baptized in the Catholic Church.”
86
“Recollections for my children,” by Ellen Ewing Sherman, CSHR 4/65, SFP; Jack J.
Detzler, “The Religion of William Tecumseh Sherman,” Ohio History, LXXV (Winter,
1966), 28; McAllister, Ellen Ewing, pp. 9–10; Lloyd Lewis, Sherman: Fighting Prophet
(New York, 1932), p. 34; Merrill, William Tecumseh Sherman, p. 20; and Marszalek,
Sherman, pp. 9–10. For Fr. Nicholas Dominic Young, Dominican priest and missionary
throughout Ohio and Kentucky in the early nineteenth century, see Victor O’Daniel, O.P.,
The Dominican Province of Saint Joseph (Somerset, OH, 1942), pp. 95–97; Anthony
Lisska, “Rev. Nicholas Dominic Young, O.P., Early Dominican Missionary in Ohio,”
Barquilla de la Santa Maria: Bulletin of the Catholic Record Society–Diocese of
Columbus, XIII (December, 1988), 95–101; and John Vidmar, O.P., Fr. Fenwick’s “Little
American Province” (Providence, 2005), pp. 1–30.
87
Marszalek, Sherman, pp. 492–98, and Lewis, Fighting Prophet, pp. 651–53.

ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS
AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
IN EL SALVADOR
BY

EDWARD T. BRETT*

Many religious progressives use the word disappointing when evaluating Archbishop Arturo Rivera Damas’s leadership of the
Archdiocese of San Salvador from 1980 to 1994. As the only
Salvadoran bishop to support Archbishop Oscar Romero (1977–80)
in the latter’s attempt to be the “voice of the voiceless,” Rivera was
expected to follow in his charismatic predecessor’s footsteps.
This study attempts to demonstrate that although Romero’s
“prophetic” approach was a highly effective method of leadership
during his three-year tenure of office, his assassination changed the
climate dramatically, requiring a different approach from Rivera.
Rejecting the “prophetic” method of Romero, he pursued a low-key,
“pragmatic” path in his attempt to end the Salvadoran civil war and
bring justice to the poor masses. Throughout the 1980s, Rivera
labored to create peace negotiations between the Salvadoran power
structure and the FMLN-FDR opposition. Previously, as an auxiliary
bishop, he was the driving force behind the efforts of Archbishop
Luis Chávez to incorporate the social justice concepts of Vatican II
and the Latin American Bishops’ Conference at Medellín into
Salvadoran society. Thus, he alone among the Salvadoran prelates
played an important role in the institutional church’s fight for justice in El Salvador between the 1960s and the 1990s.
Bishop Rivera and Archbishop Chávez
On November 26, 1994,Arturo Rivera Damas, the seventy-one-yearold archbishop of San Salvador, died following a second massive heart
attack. Recognized by many North Americans as a close friend and supporter of Archbishop Oscar Romero and as his episcopal successor,
*Dr. Brett is chair of the Department of History and Political Science at La Roche
College in Pittsburgh.

717

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ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Rivera was, in truth, a far more complex protagonist who for three
decades played a major role in his country’s history, both as an advocate of social justice and an indefatigable peacemaker. For this reason,
his life and accomplishments deserve to be better known.1
Rivera was born on September 30, 1923, in the small town of San
Esteban Catarina, in central El Salvador’s department of San Vicente. He
was ordained a Salesian priest on September 19, 1953, just before his
thirtieth birthday. After receiving his doctorate in canon law from the
Pontificio Ateneo Salesiano in Turin, Italy, he was consecrated auxiliary
bishop of San Salvador on October 23, 1960, less than eight years after
his ordination. Profoundly moved by aggiornamento when he
attended the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), he was also present at
the 1968 Latin American Bishops’ Conference at Medellín, Colombia,
where he and his episcopal colleagues attempted to apply the principles of Vatican II to the Latin American situation by announcing their
now famous resolution to commit their Church without reservation to
the liberation of the poor and oppressed.
Rivera’s dedication to the progressive pronouncements of Vatican II
and Medellín was shared by his immediate superior, Archbishop Luis
Chávez y González, and the two soon joined forces to create an impressive reform program.2 They received little support, however, from the
other Salvadoran bishops: Pedro Aparicio y Quintanilla of San Vincente,
José Alvarez Ramirez of San Miguel, Benjamin Barrera y Reyes of Santa
Ana, and Francisco José Castro y Ramirez of Santiago de María, and
after the latter’s death in 1974, his successor, Oscar Romero Galdamez.
They were also opposed by the wealthy elite class, which tightly controlled every facet of Salvadoran life and equated their policies with
communism. Indeed, according to political scientist Tommie Sue
Montgomery, the oligarchy especially directed its wrath at Rivera.
When Chávez began issuing progressive pastoral letters, some of its
leaders accused the auxiliary bishop of ghost writing them and attributed the archbishop’s shift to the left to Rivera.3
1
The first few pages of this article were published in an abbreviated form and without footnotes following Rivera’s death: see Edward T. Brett,“Arturo Rivera Damas:Another
Salvadoran Hero,” America (March 11, 1995), 13–16.
2
For a brief study of Archbishop Chávez y González, see Rosa Carmelita Samos Stibbs,
Sobre el Magisterio de Mons. Luis Chávez y González: Estudio teologico de sus Cartas
pastorales (Guatemala City, 1986), esp. pp. 99–119.
3
Tommie Sue Montgomery, “The Church in the Salvadoran Revolution,” Latin
American Perspectives (1982), 62–87, here 76.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

719

Chávez and Rivera realized that an activist clergy was essential if
their reforms were to bear fruit.Thus, they worked cooperatively with
the Jesuit faculty of the country’s major seminary, San José de la
Montaña, in revolutionizing priestly training. Seminary instruction was
no longer to be limited to classroom lectures in theology. Henceforth,
all seminarians were required to minister to the poor in shantytowns
and learn firsthand about the hardships of poverty. When they
returned to the classroom, they were expected to discuss their barrio
experiences with their teachers and fellow students in light of the
Scriptures and Catholic social teachings. Moreover, they were permitted to leave the seminary grounds to take philosophy courses at the
Central American University. Such innovations scandalized the more
conservative Salvadoran bishops, who finally terminated the new
agenda in 1972, when they voted to oust the Jesuits from the seminary,
even though the order had run the institution since 1915.4
Nevertheless, the innovative program had been operative long enough
to create a significant number of young native clergy committed to
future reform.
One of the most dramatic events in Rivera’s commitment to social
justice resulted from the January 1970 kidnapping of Father José
Inocencio Alas, a pastor in Suchitoto known for his work with the rural
poor in their struggle for land reform. Archbishop Chávez had called
on Alas to address the National Assembly on the peasants’ need for
land. A few hours after his presentation, the fiery priest was kidnapped. Rivera then drove with Monseñor Ricardo Urioste to the
office of Defense Minister Fidel Torres. When Torres insisted that the
security forces knew nothing about Alas’s abduction, the two clergymen refused to leave the building. They vowed to continue their “sitin” until Alas was freed. Throughout the incident, the archdiocesan
radio station YSAX provided constant updates on the situation. Finally,
Rivera and Urioste ended their protest when Alas was released and
found naked and badly beaten. According to Montgomery, the RiveraUrioste protest “was very likely the first such confrontation in
Salvadoran history”;5 it also possibly saved Alas’s life.
4
Minutes of Conferencia Episcopal de El Salvador, February 5, 1973. Cited by James
R. Brockman, Romero: A Life (Maryknoll, 1989), pp. 51–52.
5
Author’s interview with Monseñor Ricardo Urioste, San Salvador, April 29, 2008.
Tommie Sue Montgomery, “The Church in the Salvadoran Revolution,” 65. See also
Montgomery, Revolution in El Salvador: From Civil Strife to Civil Peace (Boulder,
1995), pp. 81–82. Montgomery bases her account on interviews with Rivera, Urioste,
and Alas.

720

ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Father Nicolas Rodríguez of Chalatenango was not so fortunate. On
November 28, 1970, he became the first Salvadoran priest to be murdered by rightist forces. The outraged Rivera took the lead in condemning the atrocity, calling it “a political crime aimed at intimidating
the entire clergy” so that it would abandon its progressive ministry.6
In June 1970 Romero was appointed auxiliary bishop of San
Salvador.The archdiocese now had two auxiliaries, Rivera the progressive and Romero the conservative, and tensions between the two
developed immediately.
The first clash came just after Romero’s episcopal consecration,
when, beginning on June 22, the archdiocese hosted a National
Pastoral Week that was attended by the three archdiocesan bishops,
along with 123 priests, religious, and lay leaders. Organized by Rivera,
the event was designed to better incorporate Medellín concepts into
pastoral ministry. Participants criticized traditional pastoral methods
and discussed such matters as the democratization of church structures, the formation of Christian base communities (CEBs), the training
of delegates of the word and lay catechists, and the development of
methods aimed at combating unjust structures. Although Rivera and
Chávez were enthusiastic about the conference’s accomplishments,
Romero joined nonparticipating bishops Pedro Aparicio y Quintanilla
of San Vicente and José Alvarez Ramirez of San Miguel in criticizing it
as too radical. They further demanded that its conclusions be drastically modified before publication. Since the conservative bishops outnumbered the progressives, the former won out and the pastoral
week’s conclusions were toned down. Nevertheless, as political scientist Jorge Caceres Prendes notes, the National Pastoral Week “marked
the appearance of a new model for the Church,”7 a model that met the
needs of the Pastoral Reflection Group—composed of forty mostly
diocesan, progressive priests—that had been created in late 1969 in
anticipation of the National Pastoral Week.
6
Estudios Centroamericanos (ECA), (October–November, 1977), 8; Jorge Caceres
Prendes, “Political Radicalization and Popular Pastoral Practices in El Salvador,
1969–1985,” in The Progressive Church in Latin America, ed. Scott Mainwaring and
Alexander Wilde (Notre Dame, 1989), p. 113.
7
Letter from Msgr. Ricardo Urioste to author, May 20, 2008. Caceres Prendes,“Political
Radicalization,” p. 112; see also Phillip Berryman, The Religious Roots of Rebellion:
Christians in Central American Revolutions (Maryknoll, 1984), pp. 104–06; and
Brockman, Romero, pp. 44–46. Brockman’s discussion of the pastoral week is based on
his interviews with Bishop Rivera and Father (later Bishop) Gregorio Rosa Chávez.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

721

On May 27, 1973, Romero caused Chávez and Rivera public embarrassment when he attacked the Jesuit high school, Externado San José,
in an editorial in the archdiocesan newspaper Orientación.8 With the
support and cooperation of Rivera and Chávez, the prestigious boarding school had introduced post-Medellín reforms into its curriculum.
Romero, however, accused the Jesuit faculty in his editorial of using
Marxist literature and “false liberating education” through such methods as requiring sociology classes to take field trips to the barrios of
the poor. Romero’s editorial was manna from heaven for the conservative secular media. Newspapers, as well as television and radio programs, accused the Jesuits of teaching Marxism to high school students, citing and reprinting Romero’s editorial as proof.9 The
Salvadoran attorney general launched an investigation of the school,
causing Chávez to do the same and to exonerate the Jesuits. Rivera
attempted to defend the Jesuits in an interview in El Diario de Hoy,
but the damage was already done.10 Romero’s intemperate words
caused a furor among members of the wealthy class and lent credibility to their false charge that Rivera and the Jesuits had duped Chávez
and were turning the church in a Marxist direction.11
Friction may have decreased somewhat when Romero became
bishop of Santiago de María in December 1974, but it reappeared in
October 1975, when, as a consultant for a Pontifical Commission on
Latin America, he criticized the Salvadoran church for its radicalism
before Roman authorities at the Vatican. According to Romero, the
Jesuits of San Salvador were a “national scandal” and had a Marxist orientation; Justicia y Paz, the publication of the Inter-Diocesan Social
Secretariat, continuously criticized the government and capitalists; and
the church-sponsored rural development centers were unduly radicalizing peasants.12 Since Rivera was a staunch advocate of all that
Romero condemned, the latter’s harsh words must certainly have damaged Rivera’s credibility with Vatican officials. The fact that Romero’s
critique was preceded by countless similar complaints sent to Rome
by the papal nuncio, government officials, and all but one of the country’s bishops did not help Rivera’s cause.

8

Orientación, May 27, 1973.
El Mundo, June 25, 1973; La Prensa Gráfica, June 25, 1973.
10
El Diario de Hoy, June 28, 1973.
11
Letter from Urioste to author, May 20, 2008. See Brockman, Romero, pp. 48–49 for
a more extensive account based on his interviews with the involved Jesuits.
12
Brockman, Romero, pp. 56–57.
9

722

ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

In light of the steady stream of complaints against Rivera and the
Jesuits he supported, it is not surprising that when Chávez decided to
retire as archbishop and recommended that Rivera succeed him, the
Vatican ignored the request and instead, on February 3, 1977, chose
Romero. Lest the point be lost, a month before the installation of the
new archbishop, Rivera, who was in Rome, was bluntly told by a cardinal involved in the selection process that he was passed over
because of his inability to be nonconfrontational when dealing with
the government.13
The relationship between Rivera and Romero in the years prior to
the latter’s installation as archbishop of San Salvador is summed up
well by James Brockman, the biographer of Romero:“The two did not
get along.” Romero felt that Rivera was “infected with dangerous ideas”
and “unduly critical of authority,” while Rivera thought “Romero never
trusted” him.14
Bishop Rivera and Archbishop Romero
The story of Archbishop Romero is well known and need not be
repeated here in detail. In his three years as bishop of Santiago de
María, he started to realize that widespread social oppression existed
in El Salvador. He began to chide the coffee oligarchy in his column
in El Apóstil, the diocesan weekly, for failing to pay just wages to
workers. He also allowed seasonal coffee laborers to use church
buildings for shelter and provided them with food. When government authorities expelled foreign priests from the diocese, he publicly denounced their action.15 A pivotal step in his transformation
occurred, however, in March 1977, shortly after his installation as
archbishop, when he traveled to Aguilares to celebrate the funeral
Mass of his longtime friend, the Jesuit Rutilio Grande, who had been
working with poor sugar cane workers since September 1972.
Grande’s Jesuit team had set up CEBs in Aguilares and backed peas13
Urioste states that Rivera told him that when he was in Rome, Vatican officials
informed him that “they needed an archbishop less critical of the government than he
was.” Letter from Urioste to author, May 20, 2008. Montgomery, Revolution in El
Salvador, p. 93. Brockman, Romero, p. 127.
14
Brockman, Romero, p. 49.
15
Zacarías Diez and Juan Macho, “En Santiago de María me topé con la miseria”:
dos años en la vida de Mons. Romero (1975–1976) (San José, 1994), pp. 67–81,
182–89, and Andrew J. Stein,“El Salvador,” in Religious Freedom and Evangelization in
Latin America: The Challenge of Religious Pluralism, ed. Paul E. Sigmund (Maryknoll,
1999), pp. 117–18.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

723

ants who were striking against the local sugar refinery. Chávez and
Rivera had supported the team.16 Romero, however, had felt that the
Jesuits were too political and were fanning the flames of discord and
had said so in Rome when he served as a consultant for the Pontifical
Commission on Latin America.17
Informed that Father Grande had been assassinated along with an
old man and young boy from the area, Romero went out to the countryside. He viewed the bloodied bodies and saw the grief of the peasants.This moving experience ended the new archbishop’s “process of
growth.” From that time until his death, he would never again hesitate
in his commitment to the oppressed masses of El Salvador.18 Soon he
was being called the champion of the poor and the “voice of the voiceless.” But the institutional Church would pay dearly for his prophetic
leadership. During his three-year tenure as archbishop, five diocesan
priests, in addition to Grande, would be murdered.19 Large numbers of
foreign priests would be expelled from the country, and others, who
had left, would be refused reentry. Clergy would be kidnapped, tortured, beaten, or imprisoned. Scores would receive death threats.
Romero’s fellow Salvadoran bishops and Emanuele Gerada, the papal
nuncio, would blame the outspokenness of the archbishop for the
church’s suffering and turn against him with the same intensity they
had previously reserved for Rivera and the Jesuits. Until his assassination on March 24, 1980, Romero had only one supporter among the
Salvadoran hierarchy, the bishop that he had criticized so often: Rivera.
On the Sunday following Grande’s death, Romero, with the support
of nearly all his priests and religious, decided to cancel all Masses
throughout the archdiocese, except the one he would say at the cathedral.This action was meant to cause his countrymen to reflect on the
tragic murders that had just taken place and on the violence that was
16

Berryman, Religious Roots, pp. 115, 119.
Brockman, Romero, p. 57.
18
Salvador Carranza,“Aguilares, Una experiencia de evangelización rural parróquial,”
Estudios Centroamericanos (ECA), (October–November, 1977), 832–62; Rodolfo
Cardenal, Historia de una esperanza: Vida de Rutilio Grande (San Salvador, 1985;
William J. O’Malley, The Voice of Blood: Five Christian Martyrs of Our Time (Maryknoll,
1980), pp. 1–63.
19
Fathers Alfonso Navarro (May 11, 1977), Ernesto Barrera (November 28, 1978),
Octavio Ortiz (January 20, 1979), Rafael Palacios (June 20, 1979), and Alirio Napoleón
Macías (August, 1979). For further details, see Anna L. Peterson, Martyrdom and the
Politics of Religion: Progressive Catholicism in El Salvador’s Civil War (Albany, 1997),
pp. 63–65.
17

724

ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

spreading through the nation.The nuncio opposed Romero’s decision,
however, and had his secretary inform the archbishop that such a
move was contrary to canon law. Romero next turned to Rivera, who
declared that the cancellation was valid. Since Rivera was a canon
lawyer, his expertise on this matter went far in justifying Romero’s
decision to proceed with the cancellations of all but the cathedral
Mass, despite the nuncio’s opposition.20
In late 1977, following a storm of complaints concerning the conduct of Romero and Rivera from the other Salvadoran bishops and the
papal nuncio, Archbishop Gerada, the Vatican transferred Rivera from
San Salvador, naming him bishop of Santiago de María in Usulután.
Then, in early 1978, Rome appointed Marco Revelo Contreras archdiocesan auxiliary, with the suggestion, says Brockman, that he “rein in
[Romero].”21 With the conservative Revelo replacing the progressive
Rivera as archdiocesan auxiliary, the anti-Romero prelates were now in
a stronger position to attempt to minimize Romero’s influence.
Rivera’s transfer, however, did not impede his ability to support
Romero and the post-Medellín reform movement. In some ways, it
even enhanced it. In June 1978, the archbishop received a letter from
Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio, prefect of the Sacred Congregation for
Bishops, asking him to come to the Vatican to discuss his conduct.
Realizing the gravity of his situation, Romero brought Rivera and
Monseñor Urioste with him. When Baggio chided Romero for his
aggressive confrontational behavior and informed him that the other
Salvadoran bishops had asked that he be removed from his see, the
archbishop pointed out that he was not standing alone against the
bishops’ conference, since Rivera supported him. Meanwhile, Rivera
met with Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the Vatican secretary of state, and
others, speaking in defense of Romero.22 Throughout the rest of his
episcopal tenure, whenever Romero was informed of new charges
against him by church or state officials, he would meet with Rivera to
develop a defense strategy.
On August 16, 1978, shortly after Romero and Rivera’s return from
Rome, the bishops’ conference met with the support of the nuncio to
20

Cardenal, Historia de una esperanza, pp. 585–90; and Brockman, Romero, p. 17.
Brockman, Romero, p. 129. Bishop Revelo had harshly criticized Romero and Rivera
at a bishops’ synod in Rome in October 1977.
22
Author’s interview with Monseñor Ricardo Urioste, San Salvador, April 29, 2008.
Brockman, Romero, pp. 126–33.
21

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

725

discuss issuing a statement concerning popular organizations and
more specifically, the two major peasant organizations, FECCAS
(Christian Federation of Salvadoran Peasants) and UTC (Farm
Workers’ Union). Romero and Rivera had been working for several
months, with the help of scholars at the Central American University,
on a pastoral letter on the relationship of the church to the popular
organizations. Some priests had been encouraging peasants to
become members of these groups, and many CEB leaders had done
so. Other priests, however, felt that the church should publicly declare
at least some of these organizations anathema and forbid Catholic participation.The Romero-Rivera letter was intended to clear up any confusion by giving Church approval to the popular groups as well as
specifying the groups’ proper relationship to the Church.All members
of the bishops’ conference were invited to sign the letter, but the four
conservatives refused. Instead, they decided to convene the August 16
meeting where they voted over the objections of Romero and Rivera
to issue a joint statement in the name of the bishops’ conference that
condemned the peasant unions. Bishop Aparicio was then chosen to
draft the statement.
Romero and Rivera, however, refused to accept defeat. Two days
before the new pastoral letter was to be issued, they issued their own
letter,“The Church and the Popular Political Organizations,” along with
discussion questions that were to be used by lay study groups throughout the country. It was Romero’s third pastoral letter and Rivera’s first.
In it, they emphatically stated that the poor had the right to form their
own political organizations and the church had a responsibility to
encourage and support them in their quest for justice. Quoting the
Second Vatican Council, they declared that the popular organizations
were “authentic signs of God’s presence and purpose.” The pastoral
next cited the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris; the Medellín
Conference; and even article 160 of the Salvadoran Constitution to
support the rights of the people to form trade unions, rural organizations, and political parties, even if they voice dissent from the government.The pastoral letter, without mentioning FECCAS and UTC specifically, noted that peasant unions had a right to participate in regulating
the economic, social, political, and cultural life of the nation. It then
addressed the question of the relationship among the Christian base
communities, the Church, and secular popular organizations. The
Church, stated Romero and Rivera, had a right to help organize CEBs
and to raise the consciousness of their members so that some might

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ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

realize they have political vocations and consequently join popular
organizations.The Church should support and encourage the popular
groups, noted Romero and Rivera, but it must not play a specific role
in their activities. Faith and politics should be united in a Christian
who has a political vocation. But faith must only inspire political
action; it can never be specifically identified with it.
The four conservative bishops followed the Romero-Rivera pastoral
letter with their own much shorter one in which they condemned the
peasants’ unions and accused them of Marxism, but their letter was too
little, too late.The conservatives had attempted to co-opt Romero and
Rivera, but instead, Romero and Rivera had co-opted them.23
Apostolic Administrator Rivera
Following Romero’s assassination, on April 11, 1980, Rivera was
named apostolic administrator of San Salvador by Rome. He would
remain in this interim status for three years, a time when supporters
and enemies alike knew that the Vatican was closely monitoring him.
During this period he tried to be evenhanded in his dealings with both
sides in the civil war, evidently reasoning that such an approach might
eventually lead to a dialogue aimed at ending armed conflict. For those
progressives who expected him to follow in the footsteps of his predecessor, however, his leadership was disappointing and sometimes
even exasperating. He irritated them by condemning in an evenhanded
way the violence perpetrated by both the government and the FMLN
(Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional) guerrilla forces,
when the former was responsible for over 85 percent of all atrocities.
He demonstrated special affinity for José Napoleón Duarte and the
Christian Democrats (PDC) while showing little empathy for the popular organizations and the FDR (Frente Democrático Revolucionario).24
Indeed, when in early 1982, the Salvadoran government announced its
intention to hold an election for a Constituent Assembly that would
choose a provisional president and draw up a new constitution, Rivera,
together with his fellow bishops, lauded the move, thereby granting it
23
See La voz de los sin voz: La palabra viva de Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero
(San Salvador, 1980). See also ECA (September, 1978), 774–75 for the letter of the bishops’ conference.
24
The FDR was founded in April 1980 by several dissident PDC members who had
resigned from the Salvadoran government in protest of its unwillingness or inability to
curb military and paramilitary violence. Allied with the FMLN, it acted throughout the
1980s as a sort of legal arm on the revolutionary front.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

727

“legitimacy.” Critics claimed that the election was meant to create a
façade for the Reagan administration, which was embarrassed by the
violence perpetrated by Salvadoran security forces and thereby put in
a difficult position in its attempt to get congressional and popular support and massive military aid for its Salvadoran policy. Rivera disappointed these critics further when, commenting on the large election
turnout, he declared the election a “vote in favor of peace, democracy,
and justice.”25
Like Romero, Rivera continued to list and condemn in his Sunday
homilies military and paramilitary atrocities. He also spoke out against
U.S. aid to the Salvadoran military and influenced the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops to do likewise,26 but he annoyed the left by always
coupling this with a condemnation of Cuban and Nicaraguan arms
supplies to the guerrillas. When the FMLN launched its first major
offensive in January 1981, he criticized it in no uncertain terms, charging that it was not supported by the Salvadoran people and did not fit
the church’s criteria for a just war.27
On the other hand, in 1982, when Bishop Pedro Aparicio
denounced thirty priests who he claimed had joined the guerrillas,28
Rivera defended the clerics. People in FMLN-controlled regions need
pastoral care, he argued, adding that rebel forces have just as much a
right to chaplains as do government security forces.29
When in September 1981 the episcopal conference criticized an
August declaration by Mexico and France that recognized the FMLN as
a “representative political force,” Rivera dissented. The other bishops
accused Mexico and France of interfering in El Salvador’s internal
affairs, adding that the FMLN lacked legitimacy in that it was a terrorist organization bent on imposing a communist dictatorship on the
Salvadoran people against their will. Rivera, however, reasoned that the
declaration was made to help create a condition suitable for dialogue
25
Christopher Dickey,“Salvadoran Prelate Warns of Return to Violence,” Washington
Post, April 5, 1982, A27; Hugh Boyle, El Salvador’s Civil War: A Study of Revolution
(Boulder, 1996), p. 91.
26
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), “Statement on Central America,”
November 19, 1981.
27
Phillip Berryman, Stubborn Hope: Religion, Politics, and Revolution in Central
America (Maryknoll, 1994), p. 68.
28
Centro Regional de Información Ecuménica (CRIE), no. 109 (October 19, 1982).
29
Berryman, Stubborn Hope, p. 72.

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ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

between the government and guerrillas and therefore the bishops had
no reason to “rend [their] garments.”30
Indeed, throughout his three years as apostolic administrator and
after, Rivera’s primary focus was on the creation of a dialogue between
governmental and guerrilla forces. Inspired by his efforts, the U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops in November 1981 issued a “Statement
on Central America,” noting emphatically: “we endorse and support
Bishop Rivera y Damas’ call for a broad-based political solution in El
Salvador.” It then called on the U.S. government to do likewise.31
Rivera had his first success at home, albeit a modest one, when in
July 1982, the episcopal conference finally went on record in favor of
peace talks.This was followed in August by Pope John Paul II’s letter to
the Salvadoran bishops exhorting them to make reconciliation
through dialogue a top priority.32 Up until this time, Bishop Aparicio
spoke for the majority of the bishops when he contended that it was
impossible to hold dialogue with murderers like the guerrillas,33 but
now episcopal opposition to peace talks was certainly subdued as a
result of this new Vatican pressure. For its part, the FMLN-FDR
responded positively to the conference’s call, delivering to the
Salvadoran government through Rivera its first proposal for dialogue.34
Even though the government rejected the proposal, equating such
talks with high treason, it was nevertheless a significant breakthrough,
a first step that would eventually bear fruit many years later.
Rivera’s progressive critics were at least partially correct in their
assertion that he had downplayed Romero’s prophetic cry for justice
for the poor, while preferring instead to emphasize a more conciliatory policy toward the Salvadoran elite. Some attributed this to his ties
to the conservative Salesian religious congregation or his predilection
for the PDC, and still others to a possible fear of assassination. But in
truth, Rivera’s less aggressive actions during his tenure as interim
head of the church in San Salvador were no doubt dictated at least in
part by the changed circumstances in which he found himself and his
30
El Día (Mexico), August 29, 1981; El Día, September 6, 1981; Uno Más Uno
(Mexico), September 7, 1981; Estudios Centroamericanos (ECA), (September, 1981),
919–20.
31
USCCB,“Statement on Central America,” November, 1981.
32
Uno Más Uno, July 19, 1981; CRIE, no. 105,August 17, 1982.
33
Caceres,“Political Radicalization,” n. 70, p. 147.
34
ECA, no. 409 (November, 1982), 1049–50.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

729

archdiocese. Rivera was in no position to fully follow the prophetic
role of his predecessor. If he were to have any success in the struggle
for justice in his nation, he would have to follow a somewhat different path. There are several factors that, when taken into consideration, make this apparent. First, by refusing to make him archbishop
but instead naming him to the temporary position of apostolic administrator, the Vatican had made it clear that it would not approve
another outspoken archbishop like Romero. If he pursued the policies of his predecessor, another bishop would be chosen as archbishop and most probably that prelate would be a conservative who
was more favorable to the oligarchy.
Second, unlike Romero, who had the episcopal backing of Rivera,
Rivera had little support from his fellow bishops until the appointment
of Gregorio Rosa Chávez as auxiliary in February 1982. Indeed,
throughout his tenure as apostolic administrator, the episcopal conference attempted to marginalize Rivera and dictate the direction of
Church policy on its own, dealing directly with the Vatican through a
papal nuncio who had little sympathy for Romero-like churchmen.
Third, the Salvadoran church could not afford to lose any more of
its clergy. Seven priests had been killed before Romero’s death, and in
the next nine months alone, four priests, one deacon, and four U.S.
churchwomen were murdered by Salvadoran military or paramilitary
forces.35 Scores of lay catechists were also killed. Furthermore, about
forty priests were expelled from the country, while many others left on
their own accord, fearing death if they remained. By early 1982, the
number of priests and religious in the archdiocese had been reduced
by 35 percent, and 40 percent of the rural parishes had no resident
priest.36 If the Church was to be effective in ministering to the poor, it
simply could not afford to keep losing priests and religious to assassination, arrest, and exile, and Rivera reasoned that a less confrontational
approach on his part might prevent further attrition.
Finally, Ronald Reagan had replaced Jimmy Carter as U.S. president
in 1981, and unlike his predecessor, he was an indefatigable supporter
of the Salvadoran government and military. To speak out as the “voice
35
Father Cosme Spezzotto (June 14, 1980); seminarian José Othmaro Caceres (July
25); Fathers Manuel Reyes Monico (October 6), Ernesto Abrego (November 23), and
Marcial Serrano (November 28); and Sisters Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, and Dorothy Kazel, as
well as lay missionary Jean Donovan (all on December 2).
36
Caceres,“Political Radicalization,” pp. 133–34; Berryman, Stubborn Hope, p. 71.

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ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

of the voiceless” as Romero had done would not have mitigated
Reagan’s callousness to human rights abuses in El Salvador nor his
commitment to the government and military.
Archbishop Rivera
Rivera’s discreet approach during his interim period as apostolic
administrator proved at least in one sense to have been wise policy, for
on February 28, 1983, Pope John Paul II, just before his March trip to
Central America, finally named the sixty-year-old Rivera archbishop of
San Salvador. Moreover, the pope in his one-day stay in El Salvador
made it clear to all that Rivera’s policies now had the full support of
Rome. Just after his arrival, John Paul II proceeded directly to the
cathedral where he prayed before Romero’s tomb for several minutes.
This was no doubt a carefully calculated gesture meant to inform all
Salvadoran factions that Romero was not considered persona non
grata at the Vatican. Later, as if to emphasize the point, the pontiff
praised the pastoral work of the martyred archbishop as well as his
defense of human rights at an outdoor Mass attended by 30,000
Salvadorans, including government and military officials, members of
the oligarchy, U.S. embassy personnel, and church leaders. He then
spoke at length on the need to establish a peace dialogue, a point that
Rivera had been making for three years. Montgomery remarks that the
pope’s visit “resurrected Romero” and marked the end of a period of
caution for the Church that had begun with the martyred archbishop’s
death.37 It also resurrected Rivera, for the pontiff’s conduct clearly
placed Rome behind the moderate wing of the progressive faction of
the church and certainly strengthened Rivera’s authority vis à vis that
of the conservative bishops’ conference.
Armed with his new title of archbishop, Rivera could now be
more aggressive and outspoken in pursuing his religious and political agenda. He did so in two important ways. First, he created Tutela
Legal (Legal Defense), the archdiocesan legal aid office. Second, he
worked unceasingly for a peace dialogue in the face of strong opposition from the Salvadoran military, the Reagan administration, and
the oligarchy, and with lukewarm support from all but one of his
fellow Salvadoran bishops.
Rivera created Tutela Legal in 1983 to replace the earlier Socorro
Jurídico (Legal Aid), which had for years served the archdiocese under
37

Montgomery, Revolution in El Salvador, p. 175.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

731

Romero. Under intense pressure from the U.S. embassy, the Salvadoran
government, and the other bishops, all of whom claimed that Socorro
Jurídico was biased toward the FMLN-FDR, Rivera had been forced to
sever archdiocesan ties with this organization in 1982. But bolstered
by his newfound Vatican support, Rivera now felt secure enough to
create Tutela Legal and appoint María Julia Hernández as its director.
Under her gifted leadership the new human rights office would rapidly surpass its predecessor in effectiveness. As historian Jeffrey
Klaiber states, it would soon become for El Salvador what the Vicariate
of Solidarity was for Chile.38 Initially a three-person operation, Tutela
Legal grew rapidly until in 1994 it had a staff of twenty-two lawyers,
social workers, and secretaries.39 It meticulously investigated and documented arrests, murders, disappearances, and other forms of violence. Although the Reagan and Bush administrations often criticized
its reports, it nevertheless developed a global reputation for fairness
and professionalism. So respected was its work that its files soon
became a major resource for such international organizations as
Amnesty International and Americas Watch, as well as for the U.S. congressional delegation that produced the important Moakley
Commission Report.The UN team that investigated Salvadoran human
rights violations following the end of the civil war also relied heavily
on the files of Tutela Legal.
As noted previously, in July 1982 the episcopal conference had gone
on record for the first time in favor of peace talks. In the following
October, the FMLN-FDR had sent a letter to Rivera stating its willingness to enter into dialogue with the government. Nothing came of it,
however, since the government along with the Reagan administration
felt a military solution to the civil war was possible and therefore
preferable. Undeterred, Rivera maintained close ties with the Christian
Democrats and attempted to win their support for a negotiated peace.
Consequently, when PDC leader José Napoleón Duarte was elected
president in 1984, he announced, to the shock of perhaps everyone
but the archbishop, that he was willing to open a dialogue with the
opposition. On October 15, both sides met for the first time in the local
38
Jeffrey L. Klaiber, The Church, Dictatorships, and Democracy in Latin America
(Maryknoll, 1998), p. 177. Tutela Legal was modeled after the Commission of Peace and
Justice, which was formed in 1972 by Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns of São Paulo, Brazil,
and the Vicariate of Solidarity, founded in 1976 by Cardinal Raul Silva Henríquez of
Santiago, Chile. All three were highly successful in the struggle of the Catholic Church
for democracy and social justice in Latin America.
39
Klaiber, The Church, Dictatorships, and Democracy, p. 177.

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ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Catholic church at La Palma, Chalatenango, with Rivera serving as
intermediary. After several hours of discussion the meeting closed
with both parties agreeing to convene again the following month at
Ayagualo, near the capital.40
With Rivera serving again as intermediary, the Ayagualo talks were
highlighted by an FMLN-FDR proposal for peace. It consisted of three
demands: first, U.S. military aid should be terminated. Next, arrangements must be made for the opposition to be incorporated peacefully
into civilian life with the right to safely participate in political activities. Finally, military and security forces must be purged of their most
notorious human rights abusers, and the guerrillas would have to be
assimilated into the army.41 Although no definitive agreement was
reached, the Ayagualo meeting was nevertheless significant in that it
marked the first time a concrete proposal for peace was produced.42
Following the second dialogue, Rivera took advantage of negotiations and brokered a prisoner exchange.43 Hope for a third meeting
was dashed, however, when a faction of the FMLN killed four off-duty
U.S. marine advisers to the Salvadoran military.
What happened next resulted from an unexpected event. On
September 10, 1985, FMLN operatives kidnapped Duarte’s thirty-fiveyear-old daughter, Ines, along with another woman, and her desperate
father begged Rivera for help.As Duarte notes in his memoirs:“I asked
Archbishop Rivera Damas to take upon himself the responsibility for
finding a solution to our plight” since he had “contacts with the guerrillas.”44 Thus, in this crisis, Rivera served as more than a go-between
for the two opposing sides. Duarte trusted him enough to give him primary responsibility to offer proposals in these negotiations.
The archbishop, however, was astute enough to realize that the
guerrillas controlled the situation and he therefore needed the assistance of Ignacio Ellacuría, the Jesuit rector of the Central American
University (UCA). Ellacuría was not close to the archbishop and was
40
ECA (October–November, 1984), 840–47. For Duarte’s take on La Palma and
Ayagualo, see José Napoleón Duarte with Diana Page, Duarte: My Story (New York,
1986), pp. 208–28.
41
ECA (December, 1984), 944–46.
42
Klaiber, The Church, Dictatorships, and Democracy, p. 180.
43
Carta a las Iglesias (December 16–31, 1984), pp. 13–14.
44
Duarte, Duarte, p. 260.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

733

despised by Duarte, the Salvadoran military, and U.S. embassy officials.
He was well respected by FMLN leaders, however, and was a personal
friend of several of their FDR allies, who had formerly been UCA professors. With Ellacuría’s help, Rivera set up a meeting with FMLN representatives in Guazapa, north of the capital. It soon seemed that the
archbishop and rector had worked out an agreement whereby the two
women would be released in exchange for twenty-two FMLN prisoners, and some captive PDC mayors would be traded for wounded guerrillas. But when the FMLN reneged on the deal and demanded further
terms, the talks broke down. Rivera, however, convinced both sides to
return to the bargaining table, and the dialogue resumed in Panama.
When negotiations bogged down again and the frustrated government
representatives decided to return to San Salvador, Rivera convinced
them to stay.45 He called on Ellacuría to play a more active role, and an
agreement was finally reached after forty days of negotiations.The two
women were exchanged for twenty-two prisoners, and twenty-five
mayors were traded for 101 injured guerrillas. It was further agreed
that in the future, the families of government and military officials
would be off-limits to the FMLN.46 Klaiber’s analysis of this episode is
worth repeating: “In spite of the violence of the war, a civilized and
human action had taken place.This was due in large part to the mediation of Rivera y Damas and his policy of ‘humanizing the war.’”47
The negotiations in this incident shed much light on Rivera’s character. First, the archbishop, realizing that he was not in a strong position to mediate the release of Duarte’s daughter, did not hesitate to ask
Ellacuría for help, even though he personally did not care for the views
of the Jesuit priest, whom he saw as too radical and too close to the
opposition. Second, when it seemed that the talks were not progressing, he gave Ellacuría more responsibility in the mediation process.
45

Duarte, Duarte, pp. 263–64.
Tomas R. Campos, “Lectura política de los secuestros,” ECA (September–October,
1985), 684–700; Duarte, Duarte, pp. 241–67. It is interesting that in his recollections of
this episode, Duarte credits Rivera and Rosa Chávez for whatever success was achieved
while hardly mentioning Ellacuría.This apparent oversight can probably be attributed to
his dislike of the UCA rector. Phillip Berryman seems to be more on the mark when he
notes:“Although Rivera’s presence was essential for the negotiations, when the complex
negotiations threatened to break down, it was Ellacuría who skillfully proposed alternatives and deserved a good deal of the credit for the eventual solution.” See Berryman,
Stubborn Hope, p. 82. For the writings of Ellacuría on the peace negotiations, see Ignacio
Ellacuría, Veinte años de historia in El Salvador (1969–1989): Escritos políticos (San
Salvador, 1993), 3:1235–1483.
47
Klaiber, The Church, Dictatorships, and Democracy, p. 182.
46

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ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

Indeed, as a result of the Inez Duarte affair, Rivera came to see Ellacuría
as a skilled ally, and in the future the archbishop would rely on him
more and more in the struggle for peace.
In 1986 the UCA Jesuits began a series of articles in their journal
Estudios Centroamericanos (ECA), in which, following the lead of
Rivera, they called for a “humanization” of the war. From then on, the
Ellacuría-edited ECA would play a most important role in the peace
process, allowing protagonists from both sides to use its pages to
express their opinions on peace.48
Following Inez Duarte’s release, Rivera was free to give more attention to a resettlement plan that had been in the preparatory stage since
1984. In the early 1980s, villagers in both the Guazapa and
Chalatenango regions had been forced to flee their homes due to largescale land and air attacks by the Salvadoran military. Aimed at rooting
out FMLN guerrilla insurgents entrenched in these areas, the attacks
had proven catastrophic to local civilians. Many were killed, and thousands were forced to flee their homes. Most had no alternative but to
move to refugee camps run by the archdiocese, while the places they
left behind turned into virtual ghost towns. One such place was
Tenancingo. This was the locale that FMLN leaders chose for their
release of Inez Duarte.When Rivera arrived to serve as a witness to the
transactions, he found an empty town full of roofless, decaying
houses.49 Tenancingo was also the town that archdiocesan officials
picked for the launching of their resettlement project.
In January 1986, after Rivera had both secured the services of an
agency for the overseeing of rebuilding efforts and extracted promises
from the military and guerrillas to refrain from using the Tenancingo
area as a base of operations, the first fifty-six refugee families, all former
residents of Tenancingo, were relocated there.The criteria that Rivera
required for resettlement reveal much about his methods for pursuing
social justice. A well-prepared reconstruction plan had to be in place
before refugees would be permitted to resettle. Ideology should not be
a factor in whether or not refugees are allowed to return home.Those
48
Berryman, Stubborn Hope, pp. 83–84. Berryman correctly points out in another
work that throughout the 1970s and 1980s ECA “published the best and most relevant
social science in El Salvador as well as a running commentary on successive political
situations.” Phillip Berryman, “Ignacio Ellacuría: An Appreciation,” America (July 7,
1990), 12.
49
Duarte, Duarte, pp. 264–65.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

735

who supported the government as well as those who favored the guerrillas should be welcome.The local parish priest should play a role in
resettlement and involve himself in efforts aimed at reconciling opposing ideological groups.50 As can be seen from this blueprint, Rivera was
a peacemaker who made reconciliation his top priority.
Although in the long run the Tenancingo project proved to be less
than totally successful, it nevertheless served as a model for other relocation projects that worked well. As Berryman notes, soon refugee
camps that had been crowded for years began to empty.51 Thanks to
archdiocesan efforts, thousands were able to return to their towns and
villages where the church helped them to reclaim their lives.
Throughout 1986 and into 1987, Rivera continued to work unceasingly to renew dialogue between the government and the FMLN,
acting as a courier, delivering proposals and counterproposals, but at
first with little success. Finally, the 1987 signing of the Arias Peace Plan
in Esquipulas, Guatemala, by the five Central American presidents created a new opportunity. He arranged a third meeting in October 1987
that was held at the residence of Francesco de Nittis, the new papal
nuncio, in San Salvador.After ten hours of negotiations mediated by the
archbishop with the assistance of Bishop Rosa Chávez, the opposing
sides agreed to form two joint committees.The task of the first was to
work out terms for a cease-fire, while the second was to find ways to
comply with the other points of the Arias Plan. Rivera agreed to serve
as president of both committees.52 But the peace process was derailed
again when the FMLN-FDR cut off dialogue with the government three
weeks after the conclusion of the San Salvador meeting, to protest the
October 26 murder of Herbert Anaya Sanabria, the director of the nongovernmental Commission of Human Rights.
Tired of the recalcitrant behavior of both sides in the peace dialogues, Rivera decided to go directly to the Salvadoran people. In June
1988, he announced his plan to hold a “National Debate for Peace.”This
plan was inspired in part by the Chilean church’s “National Accord for
the Transition to Full Democracy,” the brainchild of Santiago’s Cardinal
Juan Francisco Fresno that played a major role in ending the Pinochet
dictatorship. But whereas the Chilean accord involved only opposition
political parties, Rivera’s “National Debate” included a much wider seg50

Berryman, Stubborn Hope, p. 85.
Ibid., p. 86.
52
ECA (October, 1987), 727–50.

51

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ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

ment of Salvadoran society. Rivera had a questionnaire created and
presented to Salvadoran business and professional associations, religious and political groups, and labor and peasant organizations. The
groups were asked to articulate their thoughts on essential aspects for
the building of peace. Sixty-three groups responded, but right-wing
political parties and most business organizations refused to participate. Eighty-two percent of participants condemned the civil war as a
solution to the nation’s problems and stated that they did not believe
that elections alone would guarantee democracy. Only 39 percent
agreed that the FMLN should be recognized as a legitimate revolutionary movement. Church officials next collated the results into a series
of 180 propositions that were then returned to the various organizations.They were to be studied in preparation for a Church-sponsored
meeting to be held at Holy Family School on September 3 and 4. Rivera
presided, assisted by Rosa Chávez. Representatives of sixty of the
groups attended the debate, where they voted on and adopted 164 of
the propositions. These included a call for an immediate cease-fire to
be followed by a dialogue aimed at a peace settlement, requests for
government-initiated legislation aimed at correcting long-standing
injustices toward the poor, an end to foreign military involvement in
Salvadoran affairs, and the termination of guerrilla disruptions of transportation and public utility services.53
Through the “National Debate,” Rivera and the Church had succeeded in creating a grassroots consensus demanding that the powers
that be, both governmental and revolutionary, take peace negotiations
more seriously. Many groups involved were collaborating with one
another for the first time. Sociologist Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, writing at
the time for America magazine, sums up the importance of the archbishop’s initiative:
[T]he National Debate . . . has created a powerful grassroots pressure that
could be effective in moving the Government and the guerrillas towards a
cease-fire and a negotiated peace. . . . [I]n their weariness and desperation,
the people, under the leadership of the Archbishop, are making their voice
heard as it has not been heard before. If this continues, in the long run it
may be decisive.54

Writing a decade later, Klaiber adds:
53

ECA (August–September, 1988).The whole issue deals with the National Debate.
Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, “The Church’s Great Initiative for Peace in El Salvador,”
America (October 8, 1988), 213.
54

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

737

For the first time during the war an independent public forum—which represented important sectors of society, minus the extreme right—had conducted its own dialogue on the problems of the country, including the war.
The debate constituted a sort of national mandate for both the government
and the guerrillas to get back to the conference table. Furthermore, the final
document, along with the survey, constituted the basis for a new national
consensus. In this sense, the church had effectively applied pressure on the
government and the FMLN to respond to a new agenda no longer established by them alone.55

On June 1, 1989, the new Salvadoran president, Alfredo Cristiani,
announced that he would meet the FMLN-FDR in dialogue. His ARENA
(Alianza Republicana Nacionalista) party, however, preferred a more
conservative bishop as mediator, so Rivera was not chosen to serve in
this capacity.56 Meetings were held in Mexico and Costa Rica in
September and October, with representatives from the United Nations
and the Organization of American States present for the first time at
the October meeting.The FMLN-FDR, however, cancelled the third dialogue when the headquarters of the National Federation of Salvadoran
Workers was bombed, killing ten union leaders. On November 11 the
FMLN launched a major offensive, and five days later, the Salvadoran
military executed Ellacuría and five other UCA Jesuits along with their
cook and her daughter.57 So hated was Rivera by the armed forces that
after the UCA murders, soldiers drove around his office, announcing
over a loudspeaker:“Ignacio Ellacuría and Martín-Baró have fallen. We
will continue killing communists. . . . We are the soldiers of the First
Brigade.”58 Rivera, however, was not intimidated; he stated publicly on
November 19: “The assassins are from the armed forces or close to
them.” 59 When the FBI brutalized Lucía Cerna, the sole witness to the
killings, forcing her to change her story, Rivera denounced its conduct,
terming it “brainwashing and psychological torture.”60 His words
caused much embarrassment to the U.S. State Department.
55

Klaiber, The Church, Dictatorships, and Democracy, p. 185.
Ibid., p. 186.
57
For the Jesuit murders, see Teresa Whitfield, Paying the Price: Ignacio Ellacuría
and the Murdered Jesuits of El Salvador (Philadelphia, 1995); and Martha Doggett,
Death Foretold: The Jesuit Murders in El Salvador (Washington, D.C., 1993).
58
Uno Más Uno (November 17, 1989);Whitfield, Paying the Price, p. 81; Instituto de
Estudios Centroamericanos and El Rescate, The Jesuit Assassinations: The Writings of
Ellacuría, Martín Baró and Segundo Montes, with a Chronology of the Investigation
(Kansas City, 1990), p. 33.
59
Jesuit Assassinations, p. 36.
60
Ibid., p. 42. Lindsey Gruson,“Dispute in Salvador on Witness in Jesuit Case,” New
York Times (December 11, 1989), A10; Lee Hockstader, “U.S. Accused of Impugning
56

738

ARCHBISHOP ARTURO RIVERA DAMAS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

The violent deaths of the Jesuits brought international condemnation, causing the government to negotiate in a more serious way. A
peace accord was finally agreed to in September 1991 and signed on
January 1, 1992.The same month, Rivera was elected president of the
episcopal conference for the first time, a surprise since the conference
was still dominated by conservatives who seldom agreed with his policies.61 Perhaps his election was an indirect admission that he had been
correct in the path he chose to follow in his pursuit of peace.
Conclusion
After Rivera’s death, the Vatican chose Fernando Sáenz Lacalle, a
conservative Opus Dei member, as his successor, and the right-wing
ARENA party controls the presidency and a plurality in the National
Assembly to this day.The church is still divided in El Salvador, and the
poor are still oppressed. Nevertheless, death-squad killings have virtually disappeared. Honest elections have taken place, and reformist candidates have fared relatively well. If justice ever does take hold in this
country, it will be due in no small part to the unrelenting efforts of
Archbishop Rivera.
Was Rivera’s pragmatic strategy more successful than Romero’s
prophetic approach when it came to concrete results? Rather than
analyzing the work of the two archbishops separately, it might be more
useful to address as a single historical era the time period from the
early 1970s, when Chávez was archbishop, until 1994, when Rivera
died. In this analysis, Romero and Rivera’s success was constructed on
the achievements of their respective predecessors. It was Chávez who
first planted the roots of Vatican II and Medellín in the Salvadoran
church. Under Romero, these roots bore fruit, and the “voice of the
voiceless” touched the hearts of the poor like no other person in
Salvadoran history; at the same time, he made the world aware of the
reality of blatant injustice in El Salvador. Similarly, the success of
Archbishop Rivera as a peacemaker can only be seen as building on
Salvadoran,” Washington Post (December 11, 1989), A23; Joe Feuerherd, “Officials
Disagree on Coercion of Salvadoran Witness,” National Catholic Reporter (December
22, 1989), 6; for a detailed discussion of this case, see Whitefield, Paying the Price, pp.
85–90.
61
Although the conference was still dominated by conservatives, most of the bishops
who had been appointed in the late 1980s were moderate conservatives who had not
impeded Rivera’s peace overtures. Likewise, unlike his predecessor, the papal nuncio
assigned to El Salvador in the mid-1980s worked with Rivera rather than against him.

BY EDWARD T. BRETT

739

and growing out of the charismatic legacy of Romero. All three complemented each other. No single archbishop could have been as successful alone.
What makes Rivera unique, however, is the fact that, unlike his two
predecessors, he was a major player in the Salvadoran church’s postMedellín struggle for justice from its beginning to its end. Following
Medellín, Chávez created a progressive church with a progressive
clergy. But he could not have done so without the help of the younger
Rivera, who was truly a driving force. Romero did not play much of a
positive role at this time. Romero also needed episcopal support during
his tenure as leader of the Salvadoran church, especially since he was
opposed at virtually every turn by the bishops’ conference and the
nuncio. He found it in Rivera. The prophetic life and violent death of
Romero created sympathy and even a mythology that greatly enhanced
Rivera’s chance of succeeding in his efforts to diminish violence and
bring peace to El Salvador. Each archbishop—Chávez, Romero, and
Rivera—rose to greatness during his episcopal tenure, and together,
they have given their nation the chance for a peaceful future.

BOOK REVIEWS
_______
General and Miscellaneous
The Roman Catholic Church: An Illustrated History. By Edward Norman.
(Berkeley: University of California Press. 2007. Pp. 192. $29.95. ISBN 978-0520-25251-6.)
This has all of the appearances of a coffee-table book, on the order of
Eamon Duffy’s Saints and Sinners: it is oversized, is called “an Illustrated
History,” has lots of images, and features a beautiful cover. But it is not a coffeetable book at all.The text is something quite different—complicated, written
in a difficult English full of semicolons and parenthetical phrases, unconventional, and very interesting. I began by disliking this book and finished it thinking it was brilliant—perhaps not accessible to the average reader, but certainly
a statement about the Catholic Church’s history that needs to be heard.
The illustrations are well chosen and support the text, and often add interesting notes not found in the text, but they are not the main show.The text is
what this book is all about, and that is why it is so conflicted.A picture book
should be about the pictures, and this book is far more interesting for its text.
Edward Norman, the author, was Margaret Thatcher’s unofficial “historian,”
now an emeritus professor at Peterhouse College in Cambridge, and a longtime Anglican long interested in the Roman Catholic Church. He has written
several books on the Roman Church in Ireland and in England, and it is no surprise that he has recently converted to the Roman Catholic Church. His text
belies his devotion to the authority of the papacy and its inherent continuity
and integrity.
The book attempts to show the tension between the secular authority and
religious authority, as exhibited through the societies of the various ages of the
Church. Norman follows an intelligent division of the Church’s history, based
on the six ages first proposed by Christopher Dawson. The Church always
comes across better than modern secular historians would like, and Norman is
quick to point out the differences. In fact, this is what his book is best at doing:
highlighting the past as opposed to the present. In mentioning the Crusades
and the Knights Hospitallers, Norman notices that Hospitallers “employed
nursing sisters in their enormous Jerusalem hospital a thousand years before
Florence Nightingale” (p. 62). In describing Moorish Spain, Norman observes,
“All those placid courtyards and sparkling fountains, that poetry and art, rested
upon the existence of one of the largest slave populations the world has ever
seen” (p. 67). We tend to dote on the beauty and regret its passing in Muslim
Spain, but conveniently forget how it got there. Norman also draws provoca740

BOOK REVIEWS

741

tive connections between eras, claiming that the Spanish Inquisition was “a
Moorish legacy”(p. 68), and that the crusading spirit ran to the conquest of the
Americas. Ponce de León, after all, was a commander at the Fall of Grenada.
Unlike many commentators on the history of the Church, Norman gives the
French Revolution and its aftermath a lot of attention. (Roland Bainton, in his
two-volume history of the Church, did not even mention the French
Revolution.) But Norman recognizes it, and its ideological roots in the
Enlightenment, as key to the next two hundred years. He is not so concerned
with details—he does not spend much time on the details of the interaction
between Nazi Germany and the Vatican—but he delves into the ideological
issues at length. He is insistent that there is an admirable theological consistency running from popes Pius IX to Benedict XVI—namely, a defense of universal truth in the face of relativism or the tyranny of reason—and sees that
new crises are nothing more than old crises revisited under different rubrics.
Norman seems glad that there is a Church out there, with a long history of
fighting those battles.
There are a few blips. Norman says that American Catholics did not really participate in the American Revolution. Besides the diplomatic work (and courage)
of Charles Carroll, who defied the governor of Maryland and was the only
Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, there were several Catholic
military units who fought as such on the colonial side. In the anti-Catholic riots
in Louisville, Kentucky, it is more probable that twenty Catholics (Irish, of
course) lost their lives, rather than the one hundred claimed by Norman. Of
those popes after the French Revolution who were interested in reversing its
effects, he mentions Gregory XII instead of Gregory XVI (p. 142), and horore
should be honore (p. 144), but these are obviously typographical errors and,
although grist for the reviewer’s mill, do not detract from this thought-provoking
text. My favorite mistake, however, is a photo of Cardinal Suenens meeting Pope
Paul VI (p. 181). It is not Pope Paul VI; it is another cardinal.
Nonetheless, this is a text worth reading, even for the seasoned scholar.
Norman’s comments on anything are worth the read, be it the Crusades or the
Inquisition, modernism or liberation theology. But I am not sure I would place
it on my coffee table.
Providence College

JOHN VIDMAR, O.P.

A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450–1990: A
Documentary Sourcebook. Edited by Klaus Koschorke, Frieder Ludwig,
and Mariano Delgado, in cooperation with Roland Spliesgart. (Grand
Rapids, MI:William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. 2007. Pp. xxxiv, 426.
$35.00 paperback. ISBN 978-0-802-82889-7.)
Syllabuses in ecclesiastical history are making slow progress toward the
incorporation of the Christian histories of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

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BOOK REVIEWS

Documentary sources for the church history of these continents have, however, remained comparatively inaccessible to students. The English edition of
this excellent sourcebook, which was first published in German by
Neukirchener Verlag in 2004, will therefore be welcomed by many university
and seminary teachers.
The editors are to be congratulated on the range of the extracts selected.
Each document or cluster of documents is prefaced by a brief contextual
introduction and followed by bibliographical information and suggestions for
further reading.The extracts vary in length from a few lines (such as the first
document, which records the Italian Nicolò Conti’s impressions of the
“Nestorian” Christians of Malabar in the early-fifteenth century) to three
pages (for example, Bernadino de Sahagún’s account of the religious dialogue
in 1524 between the twelve Franciscans of the Mexico mission and Aztec
priests and noblemen). Inevitably, the reader wishes that some documents
could be reproduced at greater length: as is the case of the brief extract from
the Kairos document of 1985, which is so heavily punctuated with elisions
that students will find it difficult to grasp the argument of these radical critics of apartheid. The sequence of documents is, however, frequently illuminating. Students of the genesis of liberation theology, for example, will be led
from Camilo Torres to Populorum progressio, on to Medellín 1968, and then
to Gutiérrez and Câmara.
A challenge confronting the editors was how to compensate for the overwhelming preponderance of male over female sources, especially in the earlier
centuries. In this respect the selection is a little disappointing. The index of
individuals includes only four female entries (excluding the Virgin of
Guadalupe): Queen Isabella of Castile; Juana Inés de La Cruz, the seventeenthcentury Mexican poet and defender of women’s learning; Ranavalona I, queen
of Madagascar and defender of Malagasy tradition against missionaries in the
1830s; and Gabriela Mistral, Chilean supporter of social Christianity in the
1920s.There is no room for Kimpa Vita (Beatrice), a controversial figure in the
Bakongo Antonian movement in the first decade of the eighteenth century, nor
for Alice Lenshina Mulenga, founder of the Lumpa Church among the Bemba
in the 1950s.The terminal date of 1990 chosen for the volume largely, but not
wholly, explains the nonappearance of African or Asian feminist theologians.
The selection of documents maintains an admirable ecumenical breadth,
with the exception of the coverage of Pentecostalism in Latin America, which
is allocated only two extracts (on Guatemala and Honduras) and introduced
by a manifestly unsympathetic commentary, giving the reader the impression
that Pentecostalism is of no significance for the liberation of the Latin
American poor.
There are a number of mistakes. It is not the case that the East India
Company before 1813 refused to allow all missionary activity in its territories
(p. 56). Daniel Wilson,Anglican bishop of Calcutta, is referred to as “Henry” (p.

BOOK REVIEWS

743

63). Walter Medhurst was not American but English (p. 83). Henry Morton
Stanley was not American but Welsh (p. 195). The Phelps Stokes Fund has
become the Phelps-Stoke Institute, and A. G. Fraser has become Frazer (pp.
232–33). Gandhi’s first name was Mohandas, not “Mahatma” (pp. 109, 425).
There are occasional problems with cross-referencing and indexing: thus the
index and the cross-references to Simon Kimbangu refer readers to the wrong
documents. It is hoped that these and other errors can be corrected in a future
edition, for this book deserves to have a long and useful life.
St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge

BRIAN STANLEY

Catholic and Ecumenical: History and Hope, Why the Catholic Church Is
Ecumenical and What She Is Doing about It. Second edition. By Frederick
M. Bliss, S.M. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield [A Sheed & Ward Book].
2007. Pp. xx, 185. $72.00 clothbound, ISBN 978-0-742-55256-2; $24.95
paperback, 978-0-742-55257-9.)
Frederick M. Bliss’s Catholic and Ecumenical is a welcome addition to the
theological library.This revised edition of an earlier work (1999) serves a variety of readers. For the new student of theology it is a textbook of the aidemémoire of ecumenism. For the Catholic in the pew, it is a handbook about
his or her Church’s involvement in Christian unity. For the seasoned ecumenist
it is a reference guide for research.Whoever, the reader is quickly introduced
to the heart of the matter: ecclesiology, vis-à-vis the first words of the book’s
title. Midway in the title, the words history and hope reflect a hermeneutic
and methodology by which the author anchors his portrayal of the Catholic
Church as a church “catholic” and “ecumenical.”What emerges is a triad of history, theology, and pastorality. History situates the theological narrative from
the God-given gift of the unity of the Church, through the human sin of disunity and division, to the converting call to seek unity anew. History frames the
pastoral praxis that engenders the hope that the Catholic Church has herself
reformed, emerging from catholic isolation to ecumenical integration. For
Father Bliss, the Catholic Church and all churches are each called to claim a
self-understanding that identifies them as part of the one Church of Christ.
Let the reader, however, not be caught off-guard by the accessible writing
style of the author, a veteran theologian and professor of ecumenical theology.
Catholic and Ecumenical is no light reading. Its content is dense and its
process intricate.At times the text offers a challenging wrestling match to the
reader, especially when the author shifts from a diachronic account to a synchronic update. For example, chapter 6,“Reformation in England,” opens with
a review of ecclesial models of unity, a twentieth-century concept (pp.
123–25). Apart from one model, typos/typoi that describes Anglican-Roman
Catholic relations, this has little to do with the English Reformation.This also
is the case with what follows, i.e., an explanation of the notion of “hierarchy of
truths” from the Second Vatican Council (pp. 125–27). Furthering the discon-

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BOOK REVIEWS

nection is the reference to “conciliar teaching” without identifying the council
(p. 125). Why confuse the ecumenical reader, who encounters council and
conciliar in relation to church councils and conciliar ecumenism? This introduction ends with mention of Trent, Lutheranism,Anglicanism, and Orthodoxy
as “background” (p. 127) for consideration of the English Reform. Even a seasoned ecumenist finds difficulty making connections. Perhaps the problem is
the chapter’s title. Of its thirty-two pages of text, less than one-third of them
discuss the English Reform per se.
Other glitches and lacunae of times, events, sources, peoples, places, and so
forth also make Catholic and Ecumenical a challenging read. Dates are sometimes incorrect (p. 33 has 1926 as the year of Jan Willebrands’s death; he died
in 2006), or missing (Raymond Brown, pp. 3, 36; his dates are 1928–98), or do
not appear with the first citation (p. 39 first mentions Azusa Street Revival; p.
150 gives its date, 1906). Entries in the index have errors of page references
(“Pentecostal” does not appear on p. 126). Some may be typographical, unfortunately missed in proofreading. However, the book has glitches of a more serious nature. For example, p. 145 bears a subtitle,“Methodist Signing of the Joint
Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.”The section and its question are
misleading.The World Methodist Conference signed an association document
on the doctrine; it did not sign the Joint Declaration.
Only because this volume is such an important contribution to ecumenical
study in general that specific criticism is given. Its breadth of scope in treatment of Catholicism and other Christian traditions with which it relates serves
a readership wider than most books on the ecumenical shelf.
The Interchurch Center, New York

LORELEI F. FUCHS, S.A.

Rome and Canterbury: The Elusive Search for Unity. By Mary Reath.
(Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2007. Pp. xviii, 158. $19.95. ISBN 9780-742-55278-4.)
This is an excellent contemporary overview of Anglican-Roman relations,
particularly strong on developments since Vatican Council I. Reath exhibits a
generous understanding of the complex issues, providing an informative and
thought-provoking text for ecumenical dialogue groups. Above all, she places
theological and ecclesiological developments in their historical context, outlining the cultural and political forces bearing upon the respective churches.
The narrative is both hopeful and cautious. Anglicans will be encouraged
when Reath cites Benedict XVI’s judgment before his election:“As far as the
doctrine of primacy is concerned, Rome must not require more of the East
than was formulated and living during the first millennium” (p. 67). Yet she
warns of understandable Catholic fears that the Anglican Communion could
become little more than a loose confederation of separate churches instead of

BOOK REVIEWS

745

a worldwide group identified, among other things, by a common prayer book;
the dominical sacraments; the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds; interlocking
authority structures involving all orders, lay and ordained; and clear teaching
on discipline.
Reath discusses such issues in the United States as the consecration of
Gene Robinson, an openly gay bishop in a long-term, same-sex relationship; the
election of a female presiding bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori; and the unwelcome incursion of “Anglican missions” into the United States by four African
primates offering alternative jurisdictions from that of the Episcopal Church,
thereby raising questions about the nature of koinonia within the Anglican
Communion itself.
The section on infallibility is a must read.The author cites Cardinal Kasper’s
assertion that such movements as the Enlightenment, the French Revolution,
the absolutism of modern states, Gallicanism, and Episcopalianism were
among the extreme and exceptional circumstances, which led the council
fathers of Vatican Council I to affirm papal infallibility. Yet she reminds us of
the intentionally rare use of this gift. Pastor Aeternus, she reminds us, asserts
that infallibility is to be exercised only after every means possible has been
taken to determine the already existing mind of the Church; only then can an
explicit and authoritative pronouncement be made. She has obvious affection
for indefectibility, itself an aspect of infallibility, citing John Macquarrie’s
description of “infallibility” as “a persistence toward truth” (p. 57).
Benedict XVI’s familiarity with ecumenical dialogue and the large number
of ecumenical agreements approved during his leadership of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith are signs of hope. Likewise, Reath sees Archbishop
Williams as making plain “that neither Western, liberal thinkers who sometimes
believe that society sets the agenda, and the Church must respond, nor the socalled global south, which asserts that it is the Bible that sets the agenda, represent classical Anglicanism” (p. 80).
Reath’s writing is clear and concise; her numerous quotations from both
primary and secondary sources are judiciously selected and so woven into
the narrative that they enhance the flow of the text.There are occasional editorial glitches to be corrected for the inevitable next edition. In a table on
page 5, Catherine of Aragon is listed as first Henry VII’s wife and then as Henry
VIII’s wife. Rather, she was Henry VII’s daughter-in-law: first as wife of Prince
Arthur and then of Henry VIII, the latter almost two months after Henry VII’s
death. On page 80, there is a reference to the “Apostle’s” Creed. None of this
detracts from the admirable breadth of detail and brevity of expression in
Reath’s narrative.
Trinity Cathedral
San Jose, California

DAVID BIRD

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BOOK REVIEWS

Hierarchia Ecclesiastica Orientalis: Series Episcoporum Ecclesiarum
Christianarum Orientalium III: Supplementum. By Giorgio Fedalto.
(Padova: Edizioni Messaggero. 2006. Pp. 557. €110,00 paperback. ISBN 9788-825-01393-1.)
Various attempts have been made over the years to bring a sense of order
to the complex and sometimes chaotic histories of the eastern churches. One
aspect of this effort has been to publish lists of bishops of individual dioceses
to show the historical continuity of the church in a particular place. The
French Dominican theologian and historian Michel Le Quien (1661–1733) was
the first to do this in a systematic way in his Oriens christianus in quatuor
patriarchatus digestus, in quo exhibentur Ecclesiae patriarchae caeterique
praesules totius Orientis, published posthumously in three volumes in Paris in
1740. Taking an exclusively topographical approach, Le Quien produced
exhaustive lists with biographical notes of bishops of dioceses within the territory of the four ancient eastern Patriarchates (Constantinople, Alexandria,
Antioch, and Jerusalem) as well as dioceses in outlying areas reaching out into
Africa and into Asia as far as India. Le Quien’s opus remained the standard work
in the field for centuries. But as it grew more and more outdated, there were
increasing calls for a new Oriens Christianus; the eastern Church specialist
Adrian Fortescue called for such an effort in 1907.
Eighty-one more years would pass before an updated and revised edition of
Le Quien’s work would appear, under the direction of the prolific church historian Giorgio Fedalto of the University of Padua. His two-volume Hierarchia
Ecclesiastica Orientalis drew on the vast historical research in the area that
took place after Le Quien’s death, correcting, improving, and updating the
eighteenth-century work.The present volume is a supplement to the 1988 edition. It incorporates the results of the most recent research and updates the
entries as needed up to the year 2000. For the first time, the supplement also
includes an appendix that covers the many dioceses of eastern churches that
have been established in other parts of the world in the modern era, mostly in
Western Europe, the Americas, and Australia.
In his introduction, Fedalto presents this supplement as part of a difficult
work in progress, still to be perfected, with gaps to be filled and corrections to
be made. A number of these might be noted, some minor typos and spelling
errors, but others are more serious. For example, some dioceses are misidentified as Greek Catholic when in fact they are Latin, such as Vitebsk, Belarus; and
Scutari,Albania.The footnote on page 10 giving my classification of churches
omits the Oriental Orthodox. The list of Orthodox archbishops of Athens on
page 172 mistakenly adds an Archbishop Seraphim after Christodoulos, who
took office in 1998 and lived until 2008. The list of bishops of the Apostolic
Exarchate for Greece and Turkey (p. 173) mistakenly includes Latin Archbishop
Foscolos of Athens (it should be Gad, 1958–75; Printesis, 1975–2008).The list
of Catholic archbishops of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (p. 232), leaves out Paulos
Cardinal Tzadua, 1977–98. The text of the note on page 430 labeled Old

BOOK REVIEWS

747

Believers is really about the noncanonical Orthodox groups in Ukraine. The
Slovak Catholic and Ukrainian Catholic eparchies of Toronto (p. 440) are conflated into a single jurisdiction.The list of Armenian archbishops of Los Angeles
(Catholicossate of Cilicia, p. 449) is confused (it should be Yeprem Tabakian,
1977–85; Datev Sarkissian, 1985–95; and Moushegh Mardirossian, 1995 to the
present). The list of Greek Orthodox archbishops of America (New York, p.
450) is also confused (it should be Iakovos, 1959–96; Spyridon 1996–99; and
Demetrios, from 1999).
Any attempt to classify the eastern churches has its weaknesses.The more
common approach today is to consider the churches according to communions, grouping the eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches together, as well
as the Eastern Catholics and the Assyrian Church of the East. Using this structure in a work like Fedalto’s would allow the researcher to see more clearly the
historical development of a single church in various areas. But the topographical approach also has its merits, providing a vision of the leadership of the various churches of different traditions in a particular place over the course of the
centuries. As such, although the details merit checking, Fedalto’s work is an
indispensible research tool.
St. Paul’s College

RONALD G. ROBERSON, C.S.P.

Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture. By Scot McKendrick
and Kathleen Doyle. (London: The British Library; Chicago: University of
Chicago Press. 2007. Pp. 160. $35.00. ISBN 978-0-712-34922-2.)
In Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture, Scot
McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle present a thematic catalogue of a collection,
which contains more than 130 manuscripts presented on 142 color plates.The
book highlights masterpieces of the British Library such as the Codex
Sinaiticus, the Cotton Genesis, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Vespasian Psalter,
the Harley Golden Gospels, the Moutier-Grandval Bible, the Lothar Psalter, the
Ramsey Psalter, the Harley Psalter, the Tiberius Psalter, the Silos Apocalypse, the
Stavelot Bible, the Rochester Bible, the Winchester Psalter, the Siegburg
Lectionary, the Psalter of Henry the Lion, the Floreffe Bible, the Worms Bible,
the Arnstein Bible, the Abingdon Apocalypse, the Holkhalm Bible Picture Book,
the Queen Mary Psalter, and the Egerton Genesis.
The manuscripts, which date from the second to the sixteenth century and
are mostly “classical” parchment codices, belong mainly to the Latin medieval
world; only a few examples are from Asia Minor and the Middle East and written in languages other than Latin.The manuscripts are arranged in chronological order. In general, each manuscript—most selected because of their outstanding quality in decoration—is represented by one or two full-page
illustrations. The single color plates are accompanied by short captions that
identify the text and the subject of illumination, the language in which it is

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written, the place of origin and the date, and the measurements and the shelfnumber of the British Library. Certain aspects of the manuscripts are
explained: decoration, content, the type of manuscript, the circumstance of its
creation, and the origin or provenance. This approach allows the general
reader to use the publication as a picture book; however, such a method of
organization will disappoint the reader looking for textual coherency. The
introduction (pp. 7–11) partly addresses this issue, but gives only some references to the manuscripts that follow; in general, the connection to the descriptions remains loose.The introduction includes a map (pp. 8–9) that shows the
places of origin (called “Centres of Christianity”) of the manuscripts and gives
an idea of the geographical main topics that lie in southern England, northwestern Europe, and Italy.
At the end of the book, a further reading section; an index of biblical citations; an index of manuscripts; and a general index of cited places, individuals,
types of manuscripts, and iconographic terms provide further assistance to the
reader.
In summary, this is a very fine book, especially for the general reader who
will appreciate the scholarly and instructive captions.
Austrian National Library

ANDREAS FINGERNAGEL

The Restoration of Israel: Christian Zionism in Religion, Literature and
Politics.By Gerhard Falk. [American University Studies, Series VII:Theology
and Religion, Vol. 257.] (New York: Peter Lang. 2006. Pp. xii, 224. $70.95.
ISBN 978-0-820-48862-2.)
Gerhard Falk is a professor of sociology at Buffalo State University, New
York, and the author of fifteen other books on a diverse range of subjects
including deviant nurses, football, grandparents, stigma, fraud, ageism, and
murder. In this particular book, he traces the influence of the Hebrew Bible in
history and civilization and explores how Christians helped nurture and facilitate the return of Jewish people to Palestine, also called Restorationism.
Further chapters evaluate Jewish support and Muslim resistance to the return.
At times Falk’s use of rather awkward terminology suggests he is either
unfamiliar with Christianity, English, or both. For example, two final chapters
deal with what Falk describes as “Displacement” and “Two-Covenant” theology.
The former is more usually referred to as “Replacement” theology. He also
claims,“It is surely no exaggeration to say that the growth of Christianity as a
world religion depended as much on the satanization of the Jews as any other
contributing factor” (p. 8).
He reinforces this assertion by claiming the Roman Catholic Church also
“taught its billion followers to regard all Jews as ‘Christ killers’ with the con-

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sequence that Jews living at any time anywhere became the targets of revenge
murders, finally resulting in the Holocaust. All this has been described in an
avalanche of literature in every European language, far too voluminous to be
reviewed here” (p. 158).
Besides sweeping generalizations, simple factual errors abound. In the preface Falk refers to Tyndale, but it appears on the back cover as Tindale. Similarly,
John Wycliffe is given two different sets of dates: “(1320–1384)” on page vii
and “(1325–1384)” on page 3.
As someone who has also written extensively on the subject of Christian
Zionism, I examined his index and was initially gratified to find my name listed
numerous times. However, on checking the references I discovered that without offering a single attributable quote, Falk falsely labels me as the “leading
Jew baiter in England” (p. 195), as well as states that I defamed Judaism (p.
196), that I “hop[e] for the elimination of Israel” (p. 195), that I blame the Jews
for the destruction of the World Trade Center (p. 195), and that I repeat all the
anti-Jewish polemics possible (p. 196). I must also deny his equally unfounded
allegation that I am “the most influential Anglican preacher in England today”
(p. 93). Suddenly, remaining objective in writing this book review became a
rather difficult task.
I therefore wrote to Falk and invited him to substantiate any of his allegations. I subsequently received a reply from Heidi Burns, senior editor at Peter
Lang, the publisher of Falk’s book. It contained an errata sheet that Lang
intended to add to the remaining stock of the book. It listed the seven references to me and after each added, “I erroneously refer to the Rev. Stephen
Sizer. . . .This is not the case. It is an error.” The concluding sentence stated,“In
short, the author apologizes for mentioning these matters and believes that all
references to the Rev. Sizer are not supported by the evidence.” In a subsequent letter, probably designed to dissuade me from initiating a libel action,
Falk confessed,“I must say that I am astonished that anyone would be interested in reviewing my book since it has been my experience that my writings
have a tiny audience and have little impact on the events of this world.”
Given that the author has received an award for “Excellence in Research,
Scholarship, and Creativity,” I can only deduce that Falk has, on this occasion,
to put it charitably, relied too heavily on secondary sources or his imagination.
These errata comments, although welcome, do not instill much confidence
regarding the reliability of other sources quoted, as I am unable to substantiate
these. Other Jewish academics—notably, Dan Cohen-Sherbok and Gershom
Gorenberg, together with Timothy Weber and Victoria Clark—provide a more
reliable assessment of Christian Zionism than Falk. I recommend, therefore,
that he stick to sociology and avoid writing on theology in the future.
Christ Church Vicarage, Virginia Water, UK

STEPHEN SIZER

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Iuris Historia: Liber Amicorum Gero Dolezalek. Edited by Vincenzo Colli and
Emanuele Conte [Studies in Comparative Legal History.] (Berkeley: Robbins
Collection. 2008. Pp. xxiv, 431. $50.00. ISBN 978-1-882-23918-4.)
This Festschrift in honor of the legal historian Gero Dolezalek (now at the
University of Aberdeen) is congenial to his many talents and scholarly predilections. It starts with an introduction to his peripatetic career (pp. ix–xi) and a
list of publications from 1966 to 2005 (pp. xiii–xxiv).The twenty-seven articles
that follow are written in Spanish, Italian, English, German, and French by
authors who know Dolezalek as an outstanding lecturer in their native tongue
and from sojourns at his workplace from 1968–89, the Max-Planck Institute for
European Legal History in Frankfurt am Main. Most of the contributions faithfully reflect Dolezalek’s interests by concentrating on cataloguing, literary
format, individual authorship, and editing of works written by medieval jurists.
The articles are arranged chronologically and begin with essays by Annalisa
Belloni (pp. 1–16) and Antonio Ciaralli (pp. 17–35) on the early medieval
preservation of the Codex Florentinus, the most famous among surviving
Digest manuscripts.They end with a comment by Michaela Reinckenhof (pp.
423–31) on the Roman law background of a liability provision in the German
Civil Code. In between, there are, under the rubric of cataloguing, a survey by
Martin Bertram and Paola Maffei (61–72) of medieval manuscripts at the
Chapter of La Seu d’Urgell; Anders Winroth’s description (pp. 141–44) of a
twelfth-century fragment of Gratian’s Decretum at Stockholm; a description of
ms. Leipzig, UB Hänel 14, by André Gouron (pp. 131–39); and another of ms.
Pesaro, Bibl. Oliveriana 26, by Carmen Tort-Martorell (pp. 37–60).
Literary genres are surveyed by Mario Ascheri (pp. 73–87) in his treatment
of “peace” in Tuscan communal legislation; by Manlio Bellomo (pp. 249–65),
who focuses on university statutes; by Vincenzo Colli (pp. 213–47) in the comprehensive overview of autographs and author’s copies among medieval legal
manuscripts, arguably the most ambitious piece of scholarship in the volume;
and by Charles Donahue, Jr. (pp. 345–53) in a progress report on modern editions of ecclesiastical court records. In addition, Steffen Wunderlich (pp.
387–403) has treated legal consilia tied to litigation in the imperial courts of
the early 1500s, and Douglas Osler (pp. 405–22) has covered Roman law literature from the early modern Netherlands.
Several contributors have analyzed individual texts, such as Diego
Quaglioni (pp. 89–104), who tracks medieval references to Frederick
Barbarossa’s constitution, Omnis iurisdictio;Tammo Wallinga (pp. 105–19) in
his study of a casus Codicis by Wilhelmus de Cabriano; Gisela Drossbach (pp.
145–59) in her presentation of the anonymous decretal collection known as
Collectio Francofurtana; and Linda Fowler-Magerl (pp. 267–80) in her remarks
on a procedural ordo by the decretalist Bonus Iohannes, bishop of Lodi from
1252. Along similar lines, Antonio Padoa Schioppa (pp. 281–92) examines the
procedural Formularium of Martinus Fanensis, Gerard Giordanengo (pp.

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323–44) analyzes the Dictionarium iuris of the Dominican John of Erfurt, and
Ennio Cortese (pp. 369–85) covers the works of Bartolus edited by Thomas
Diplovatatius.
Three authors edit Latin texts. Questiones by Henricus Anglicus and
Henricus de Scotia are introduced and transcribed by Orazio Condorelli (pp.
293–13), Domenico Maffei (pp. 315–21) publishes several questiones by
Osbertus Cremonensis, and Julius Kirshner (pp. 355–68) offers a consilium of
Torello de Torellis. Barely outside the celebrant’s focus are the articles by Peter
Landau (pp. 121–30) on the existence of a distinct law school at Mantua
around 1160 and several studies dedicated to the history of doctrine, including Laurent Mayali’s (pp. 161–75) on the nature of conjugal union according
to the biblical formula,“duo erunt in carne una”; Chris Coppens’s (pp. 177–91)
on how French decretists invoked Roman leges against Church law and in support of local custom; and Emanuele Conte’s (pp. 193–212) on twelfth-century
jurists who cited imperial Roman law in favor of municipal autonomy, yet
against the emperor of their own day.The book is successful in taking readers
to Dolezalek’s world of Western legal manuscripts before 1600.
Fordham University

WOLFGANG MUELLER

Bollandistes saints et légendes: Quatre siècles de recherche. By Robert
Godding, Bernard Joassart, Xavier Lequeux, François de Vriendt, and Joseph
van der Straeten. (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes. 2007. Pp. iv, 179.
€49,00. ISBN 978-2-873-65020-9.)
Four hundred years ago, the Belgian Jesuit Heribert Rosweyde undertook
one of the greatest feats of theological and historical scholarship since the
Middle Ages. He planned a systematic investigation of the saints to provide the
definitive account of their lives. His work would not merely be insipid
hagiographies of clichéd supernatural feats and divine interventions, complete
with angels’ arias and golden, dinner-plate aureolae. Rather, he would research
each saint in the manuscript collections of monastic libraries and provide a
thorough account of the saint’s life, deeds—both documented and legendary—feast-day celebrations, iconography, and controversies.At the time of
his death, he had published little, but his idea did not die with him. Another
Jesuit, Jean Bolland, assumed work on the project and founded the Bollandists,
who would dedicate themselves to fulfilling Rosweyde’s goal and serve as
members of the oldest scientific society in Belgium. This album, written in
honor of the 400th anniversary of Rosweyde’s initial undertaking, commemorates the contributions of the Jesuit founders and their successors to history
and the historiography of the saints.
In the wake of the Reformation, the Tridentine Church sought to answer
the criticisms of Protestants who accused Catholics of excess and idolatry in
their devotion to the saints. Rosweyde and later Bolland wanted to defend the

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saints by demonstrating that documentary evidence and tradition supported
the cults of these exemplary men and women. As members of the new priestly
order dedicated to intellectual rigor, they applied historical methodology and
critical analysis to their work, collecting manuscripts, deciphering differing
accounts, and dealing at times with a lack of information, even about revered
saints. In the process, the Bollandists traveled throughout Europe collecting
data and corresponding with the members of other orders, their fellow ecclesiastics, and the laity.
This book provides not just the history of the Bollandists and their work
but also some description of the interference and controversies that accompanied this project. From the beginning it had its critics. Because of the
intensely personal devotion that some saints inspired, an academic analysis of
their lives might not be welcomed.There also were the external events—such
as the Napoleonic occupation of the Low Countries and the two world wars—
that interrupted their work, but despite these events, a small number of individuals (only between two and five at any given period) continued the work
of Rosweyde and Bolland, making the society one of the most prestigious
scholarly organizations within the Church.
This quadricentennial book briefly recounts the history of the Bollandists
and also addresses the history of devotion to the saints in general. It highlights
some of the chief accomplishments of this group of scholars and reproduces
images from the Bollandists’ extensive manuscript collection. Although this
may not be the definitive work on the Bollandists or even the most academic,
it provides a serviceable general overview and basic bibliography of the subject. As an illustrated commemorative volume, it succeeds in presenting a
memorial and a history of the historians of the saints.
Lourdes College
Sylvania, Ohio

MARY KATHRYN COONEY-ROBINSON

Pio XII: Eugenio Pacelli. Un uomo sul trono di Pietro. By Andrea Tornielli.
(Milan:Arnoldo Mondadori. 2007. Pp. 661. €24,00. ISBN 978-8-804-57010-3.)
“Who was Eugenio Pacelli…?” Thus Andrea Tornielli launches his biography
of Pope Pius XII. A “vaticanologist” and contributor to the Italian newspaper Il
Giornale,Tornielli attempts to rescue Pacelli from many of what he considers
unfair judgments; that the pope was a “centralizer”; that he was “isolated and
aloof”; that he was “cold, unfeeling, detached, cowardly, obsessed with the
Communist danger”; and that he was either weak in the face of the Nazi dictatorship or that he was devious in his dealings with it. Using both published
works and newly released documents and depositions taken from his beatification process, particularly interesting letters between Eugenio and his
brother, Francesco,Tornielli develops a sympathetic case. Pacelli emerges as a
real and reasonable person who must deal as best he can with the world

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around him.To add to his political concerns, for example, in 1926 Pacelli confided to Francesco his fears of stomach cancer. That is the strength of
Tornielli’s book. This is, after all, a biography that has claims to a readership
much broader than the scholarly community. Unfortunately, Francesco died in
1935, or on page 253, and Tornielli loses a good source. He supports much of
the rest of the work on his strength as a polemicist. In this the author takes
sides in the ongoing debate over Pius’s conduct in World War II and casts his
lot with the “defenders.” This attempt to redress the balance, however, has its
limits, and his lively and provocative arguments push Pio XII past the boundaries of conventional scholarly treatment. At one point he even reveals a frustration in the contrasting and stereotyped images of “Pacelli ‘cattivo’” and “Ratti
‘buono’” (p. 175); emphasizing that Pius XI acknowledged to the French
ambassador his agreement with Hitler’s anti-Bolshevik stance. Tornielli, furthermore, vehemently denies the accusations of a “certa pubblicista” that
Pacelli “sold” the German Center Party to the Nazis as part of the deal over the
1933 Concordat.
Tornielli has already published extensively on Pacelli and the Holocaust
and, in this biography, stresses that tensions surfaced early between the pontiff
and the National Socialists. Caught in Weimar’s ideological cauldron, for
instance, Pacelli’s suspicions distinguish an early, 1923 letter to Cardinal
Gasparri that lamented Nazi attacks on the Catholic clergy.Tornielli recounts
how, after the Lateran Pacts, Pacelli returned to Rome as secretary of state and
found new battles with Italian fascism and, later, Hitler’s regime. The author
devotes a chapter to the “seventy useless protests” delivered by the Holy See
to Berlin between 1933 and 1937. Many of these complaints, however, dealt
with holding Nazi rallies on Sundays or with details on religious education.
More profound is Pius’s anguish over Nazi brutality and murder during World
War II. Here Tornielli’s attention to the personal tells a more convincing story.
After 1945 the cold war enabled Pius to focus on the Communist threat.
Tornielli, however, is careful not to overplay Pius’s anti-Communism, which he
locates “probably . . . at the root of the ‘black legend’ of his inexistent philonazism” (p. 481). Such passages, again, call into question the author’s scholarly
detachment and lead the student to investigate other sources on Pius’s life.
Philippe Chenaux’s recent and less polemical Pie XII, in particular, will be
translated from French into Italian but, to this reviewer’s knowledge, awaits an
English treatment. A comparison between Tornielli’s and Chenaux’s books
may favor the latter.
The University of Scranton

ROY DOMENICO

The Regensburg Lecture. By James V. Schall, S.J. (South Bend, IN: St.Augustine’s
Press. 2007. Pp. vi, 174. $20.00. ISBN 978-1-587-31695-1.)
Was it prudent for Pope Benedict XVI to include in his lecture at the
University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006, the quotation from a

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Byzantine emperor challenging his Persian interlocutor in 1391 to show him
anything Mohammed brought that was new save “things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”? The
answer to this question depends on how one defines prudence.The Scripture
scholar John L. McKenzie, who died in 1991, said that for many Catholics “prudence has long been, not the virtue by which one discerns the Christian thing
to do, but the virtue by which one finds sound reason for evading the Christian
thing to do. I have never read of any martyr who, if he or she had the course
in Christian prudence which I had in the seminary, could not have evaded martyrdom with a good conscience.”1
The English historian and journalist Paul Johnson, whose radar screen has
yet to register prudence, wrote shortly after the lecture was delivered:
. . .The Muslim fundamentalists who came out on the streets foaming at the
mouth, shouting and screaming abuse, and who in Africa murdered a harmless and innocent nun, did not read the lecture or have the faintest idea
what it was all about. Nor did Western journalist critics who joined in the
abuse. In fact, the lecture is a cool, calm, well-documented and penetrating
presentation of the case for reason occupying the center of religious life,
which argues that its absence, as in Islam, is a fatal weakness. No educated
and sensible person who reads it could possibly complain that it is polemical, bigoted, or emotionally hostile to Islam. Indeed, the murder of the poor
nun exactly proves the Pope’s point about what is wrong with Islam.2
Whether Benedict would be grateful for this robust defense one cannot say.
His secretary, Msgr. Georg Gänzwein, said over a year later that the hostile reaction in the Muslim world surprised the pope.“We only heard of the crude reactions after we’d gotten back to Rome.” Gänzwein ascribed them to “newspaper
reports which took one quote out of context and presented it as the Pope’s
personal opinion.”3 In a footnote to the published version of the lecture,
included by Schall in this book, Benedict expresses his “hope that the reader
of my text can see immediately that [the disputed quotation] does not express
my personal view of the Qur’an, for which I have the respect due to the holy
book of a great religion” (p. 147, n. 3).
Much of Schall’s analysis of the lecture will be heavy going for nonphilosophers. But the book contains much for which one can only be grateful.“Something was said here that no one else had been saying. . . . This lecture is one of the fundamental tractates of our time. It is almost the first that
1
Qtd. in Emmanuel James McCarthy,“In Appreciation of a Catholic Scholar,” America
(May 18, 1991), 534–35, at 535.
2
“Thank God for a Wise, Truth-telling Pope,” The Spectator (April 14, 2007),
<http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/cartoons/29014/part_3/thank-god-for-awise-truthtelling-pope.thtml>.
3
Qtd. in Zenit, July 27, 2007.

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really understands the fuller dimensions of what our time is intellectually
about.” The pope’s defense of reason was courageous, Schall writes, in a day
when university lectures “about the truth of Christianity and what it holds,
even in Catholic universities, are greeted with claims that they violate ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘toleration’ or ‘freedom’. . . . As the Pope’s first encyclical might
be called ‘Deus est agape,’ so this lecture is ‘Deus est logos’” (p. 123).
Without the offending quotation, the lecture “might have quietly disappeared in spite of its penetrating analysis of Western intellectual culture” (p.
23). One is grateful to Schall, finally, for rescuing from oblivion Hilaire Belloc’s
prediction in 1938 “that should Islam ever again acquire the power, it would
continue on its earlier conquests”—words that Schall finds “in retrospect
rather prophetic” (p. 74).
Archdiocese of St. Louis

JOHN JAY HUGHES

Pedro Arrupe: Un uomo per gli altri. Edited by Gianni La Bella. [Santa Sede e
politica nel Novecento, 5.] (Bologna: Società Editrice Il Mulino. 2007. Pp.
1084. €55,00. ISBN 978-8-815-11506-5)
The year 2007 marked the centenary of the birth of Pedro Arrupe, superior general of the Society of Jesus from 1965 until 1983, the year in which,
severely impaired by a stroke, he resigned. His years as general immediately
after the Second Vatican Council were tumultuous for the Church and for the
Jesuits. Arrupe, caught in the middle of them, met with distrust from the
Holy See and with fierce resistance from a small but influential number of
Jesuits. The result was that in 1981 Pope John Paul II directly intervened into
the procedures of the Society by appointing his own delegate to run the
order until an appropriate time could be found to restore the ordinary government of the Society.
Most Jesuits, however, enthusiastically supported Arrupe during his generalate and developed a deep affection for him because of his winning personality and his obviously deep spirituality. Support for him surged in 1981 at the
time of the papal intervention. Since his death in 1991 esteem for him on the
part of both Jesuits and others has grown to veneration, and one hears individuals expressing hope for his canonization. The centenary year was
observed with conferences and other commemorative events around the
globe, which included the production by Georgetown University of an excellent documentary film on his life (available on DVD from the Institute of
Jesuit Sources, St. Louis).
The present, massive volume edited by Gianni La Bella, professor of
Contemporary History at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, is probably the most lasting contribution to the centenary. I approached it with prejudice, fearing that as a centenary volume, it would be an uncritical encomium.

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I felt my fears confirmed when I saw that some of the contributors to the
volume had been collaborators with Arrupe in the government of the order.
The fears were misplaced.The volume is certainly appreciative of Arrupe and
not innocent of a few pious asides. In the main, however, it is a remarkably
thorough and honest account of a career important not only for the Society of
Jesus but particularly as illuminating the broader picture of Catholicism in the
immediate postconciliar era.
The volume consists of twenty-seven contributions, ranging in length from
the 124 pages of Urbano Valero’s account of the Thirty-First General
Congregation of the Jesuits, 1965–66, at which Arrupe was elected, to the ten
pages by Michael Campbell-Johnston on the Jesuit Refugee Service, which
Arrupe founded. After Valero’s, the next longest contribution is by Alfonso
Álvarez Bolado on the Thirty-Second General Congregation, 1974–75, called by
Arrupe in part as an occasion to assess the direction he was giving the Society.
The congregations deserve the space allotted to them.Ten contributions deal
with Arrupe’s relationship to different parts of the world—Africa, Latin
America, Central America, and so forth. A few of the remaining contributions
are strictly biographical, such as his years as a missionary in Japan and his final
years in the Jesuit infirmary, but most of them deal with general themes, such
as his style of governing, his commitment to social justice, and his way of dealing with the problem of the large number of Jesuits leaving the Society.
In such a comprehensive volume the quality of the contributions is bound
to vary, but La Bella has maintained a high standard. As to be expected, the
more incisive pieces are those by trained scholars, such as Jean-Yves Calvez on
“Cultura, Vangelo, e dialogo.” The top prize goes to La Bella himself—for his
introduction, which is a brisk and judicious review of events and issues, and
then for his long contribution on Arrupe and the “severe crisis” of the Society,
that is, the growing tensions and misunderstandings during the 1970s between
the Holy See and the Jesuits’ central government under Arrupe. La Bella, it is
worth noting, had access to the minutes of the meetings of Arrupe with his
“Assistants” during these years.
It is sad that this important but very long volume, entirely in Italian, is
unlikely to appear in an English-language translation. It is also too bad that its
usefulness to scholars is made more difficult by one of those almost useless,
computer-generated indexes—I count, for instance, about 115 page references
for Paul VI without subheadings. There is, moreover, no understanding
Arrupe’s leadership without taking into account the brilliant Assistants who
worked with him—men like Calvez, Vincent O’Keefe, Horacio de la Costa,
Cecil McGarry, and Parmananda Divarkar. Unfortunately, the sources do not
readily yield evidence about their crucial role, and for that reason, I assume, the
volume does not develop the theme. My final word, however, to Gianni La Bella
and his contributors is a resounding bravo for a difficult job well done.
Georgetown University

JOHN W. O’MALLEY, S.J.

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Servants of the Poor:Teachers and Mobility in Ireland and Irish America. By
Janet Nolan. (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 2004. Pp. xv,
191. $45.00 clothbound, ISBN 978-0-268-03659-7; $18.00 paperback, ISBN
978-0-268-03660-9.)
Janet Nolan, in Servants of the Poor:Teachers and Mobility in Ireland and
Irish America, examines the role single women played in the education and
upward mobility of women in Ireland and the United States. In particular,
Nolan focuses on public education and the critical part female teachers played
in advancement of the Irish immigrant population in cities such as Boston,
Chicago, and San Francisco.
Nolan’s own family history in part inspired this study. Her parents were
educators in Massachusetts and elsewhere, and their stress of the importance
of education propelled the author to her own career in higher education. It
also inspired Nolan to consider similar sentiments among generations of
female immigrants from Ireland. Her family was not unique. Her study is also
transatlantic. She traces the development of the national education system in
Ireland throughout the nineteenth century, including the struggles for equal
employment opportunities for female teachers. In the perilous economic and
political conditions in Ireland, girls profited from continuing their education.
Those who entered the teaching profession provided the means of support for
themselves and their extended families.
Opportunity motivated single women to leave Ireland and migrate to the
United States. The immigration of single Irish women alone to the United
States is not new territory for historians. Scholars have shown how daughters
migrated for economic reasons to support families.What makes Nolan’s study
unique is that she builds on these elements of family support to show that
female education benefited the larger Irish immigrant community. The thousands of young women who graduated from the Irish school system and the
Normal Schools in the United States became teachers in public schools in
cities such as Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago. Once in these roles, women
instructed future generations of immigrants and Irish Americans. Nolan shows
that in these cities, Irish teachers taught in public school where larger numbers of Irish American children attended.The American Catholic church by the
second half of the nineteenth century, however, stressed the parish school
over public education. While this is true in many cities, Nolan’s focus on
Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago highlights the manner in which Irish
female teachers staffed public schools. Equally important, they occupied crucial seats on school boards as in the case of Julia Harrington Duff in Boston.
They fought sexism and anti-Irish sentiments in hiring practices in Chicago
and in San Francisco, and worked for all teachers as they championed the
cause of teachers’ unions. Nolan credits this activism to the same respect for
education that motivated female teachers to fight sexism in Ireland.
Furthermore, Nolan argues that the upward mobility of Irish immigrants and
their Irish American children into the middle class in the United States had as

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much to do with female teachers in public schools as it had to do with the success of Irish men in business and politics. Although not always successful in
their efforts to advance the position of Irish in America as teachers, on school
boards, or within the larger American society, education, Nolan argues, invariably proved an asset.
Nolan’s last chapter deals with the legacy of teaching, passed from one generation to the next, including mothers to sons.At this point, the author returns
to her own family’s history. She began her study by informing her readers of her
own family’s generational dedication to the profession of teaching. Nolan examines,among others,her father’s effort throughout the Great Depression to obtain
an education, ultimately graduating from Salem Teachers’ College in 1935, and
support his family as a teacher.One might construe Nolan’s personal connection
to her subject as a liability. Her frank treatment of her family’s place within the
larger history, however, allays any concerns the reader might have regarding her
biases. By connecting the larger history to the reality of her own family’s experiences, enhanced by photographs from her personal collection, Nolan brings
the history to life. Nolan’s Servants of the Poor consequently would make an
excellent addition to any women’s or immigrant history course.
Purdue University North Central

MARY BETH FRASER CONNOLLY

Fuentes primarias para la historia de la educación de la mujer en Europa
y América. Archivos Históricos Compañía de María Nuestra Señora,
1921–1936. By Pilar Foz y Foz, O.D.N., with the collaboration of Asunción
Artajo, O.D.N., and Eugenia Abad, O.D.N. Vol. 2. (Vatican City: Tipografía
Poliglota Vaticana. 2006. Pp. xlvi, 1174. ISBN 978-8-492-15747-1.)
This weighty volume, a history of the Order of the Company of Mary (the
first religious order dedicated to female education) from 1921 to 1936 and a
catalogue of its archives for the same period, was nineteen years in preparation. It follows volume 1, published in 1989, which covered the years from
1606 to 1921.The organizational and, no doubt, political challenges faced by
its primary author/compiler, M. Pilar Foz y Foz, herself a sister in the
Company as well as its archivist, were formidable; but the result is a rich,
valuable resource not just for historians of women, education, and monasticism but also for historians of the Church and its relations with civil society
and government.
The first 400 pages of the volume, which give historical context to the
archival descriptions that follow, constitute a book inside a book. At first
glance these pages appear to be a standard chronicle of the order from the
early-twentieth century to just before World War II. But on closer examination
they are much more than that.The order expanded in the nineteenth century
as education for women took on new importance.The order’s founder, Juana
de Lestonnac, had envisioned a centralized order similar to that of the Jesuits,

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but the pope’s authorization for the order set its houses under the authority of
the bishops.Various attempts were made over the centuries to centralize, but
they were resisted for one reason or another. From 1900, however, a schism
involving the forces for centralization versus those for autonomy posed great
complications for the order.
The perceived need for centralization grew stronger and finally, in 1921, the
founder’s centralizing vision came to fruition, with sixty-four houses joining
the new union versus thirty-one that chose to remain autonomous. Tensions
did not cease with the Decreto de Unión of 1921—and nine houses later left
the union to become autonomous—as resistance to centralization and the
effects of war, depression, and persecution manifested themselves.The effects
of 1921, then, continued to reverberate for well over a decade, as M. Foz y Foz’s
textured narrative makes clear.The author is politic but unflinching in laying
out the difficulties that the order faced during this period, when arguments for
either autonomous houses or a centralized “union” were made as the most
effective instrument for surviving political attacks, severe budget cuts, and
national crises.
Presentation of the complications and changes of nomenclature of this
period is quite a challenge, but the author’s choices are clear and if not quite
self-explanatory, then easy to comprehend once the history of the period is
understood. Part 2 catalogues the archives of the autonomous houses. The
amount of material varies quite considerably from house to house, but some
are very rich, especially Bogotá (Colombia),Vergara, Santander, and Valladolid.
Part 3 catalogues the archive of the “Casa Generalicia,” the main house.A very
short part 4 concerns the special case of the house in Bordeaux. Part 5 deals
with the archives of the “provinces” and “vice-provinces” that were created in
the centralization process. During this period there were two French
provinces, two Spanish provinces, and vice-provinces in Mexico (also including Cuba and the United States), Argentina-Chile (also including Brazil), and
Italy.The archives are classified according to a uniform organizational scheme,
which makes them mutually intelligible. Most have significant material concerning the governance of the houses (dealings with municipal officials, correspondence with other houses, elections, and so forth) and their day-to-day
operations, including their teaching responsibilities (petitions from parents,
notes on individual students, and so on). There are excellent indices and
appendices with various charts and lists.
For many scholars, this would be a life’s work. Pilar Foz y Foz, who died less
than a year after the publication of this volume, was a noted historian of the
Order of Mary in New Spain and the author of several scholarly books and
numerous articles even before she undertook this monumental two-volume
project, so it cannot be said that this single volume was her crowning glory.
But it is certainly a fitting epitaph for a fine historian.
University of California, Berkeley

MARGARET CHOWNING

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Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition. Edited by Richard M.
Golden. Four volumes. (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. 2006. Pp. xxxvi, 1238;
index 35. $485.00. ISBN 978-1-576-07243-6.)
Publication of this ambitious reference work represents a significant contribution to the study of European witchcraft.There are, to be sure, precedents:
reference works by Rossell Hope Robbins (1959), Venetia Newall (1974),
Rosemary Guiley (1989), and Michael Bailey (2003). None of these is so extensive as Golden’s project, and none draws so lavishly on the expertise of the
international scholarly community, giving summary expression to the last quarter-century of historical research.
The articles on particular historical topics are on the whole exceptionally
good: for example, Edward Peters on Agobard of Lyons, Nicolas Eymeric (unfortunately Claudia Heimann’s 2001 monograph is not mentioned), and John of
Salisbury; Martine Ostorero on Hans Fründ and the diocese of Lausanne; Rolf
Schulte on Jean Gerson (but with perhaps too little sense of Gerson’s particular interest in clerical necromancy); Christa Tuczay on Johann Hartlieb and
Johannes Trithemius; and Michael Bailey on John XXII and Johannes Nider.
Particularly magisterial are Wolfgang Behringer’s lengthy articles on the
Malleus maleficarum and on the Vaudois, the latter surveying the link
between witchcraft and heresy. A few might have benefited from further
work: the article on Joan of Arc does leave an imprecise impression of the role
that witchcraft played in the proceedings and conviction, and the treatment of
Alice Kyteler might have a clearer sense of context if Maeve Callan’s dissertation on Irish trials for witchcraft and magic (unpublished yet accessible) had
been consulted.
Articles on the basic categories and methods for the study of witchcraft
stand out as particularly worth consulting. Edward Bever’s long article on
“magic and religion,” a challenging topic, gives quite a good account not only
of the ways magic has related to religion in the history of Judaism and
Christianity but also (drawing heavily on Graham Cunningham) the schools of
modern thought regarding this classic distinction. Robin Briggs gives a reasonable summary of the “acculturation thesis” and a reasoned critique of
Robert Muchembled’s use of that thesis to explain the rise of witch-hunting.
Any reader wanting deeper understanding of the witch trials should seek out
the contributions by William Monter: his article on “acquittals” distinguishes
five categories of outcome other than conviction and indicates the circumstances in which each was likely to occur; and his discussion of “sources for
witchcraft trials” not only surveys the published and archival sources but also
shows how different types of documents yield important results.While useful
in the context of this encyclopedia, these articles provide new syntheses and
might just as well have been published independently.
A few of the articles deal with broad themes that do not lend themselves
easily to clear delineation. The writers of these pieces were perhaps given

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impossible assignments, destined to lead them into vague collections of
random observations and strung together with an unspecific past tense that
points to no particular historical period. The article on cats gathers what seem
to be random manifestations of cat phobia, oddly missing William Baldwin’s
Beware the Cat and English material in general.The discussion of love magic
makes only cursory citation of historical contexts at the end.The same issues
arise in the discussion of natural magic, where formative writers such as
William of Auvergne are neglected. The discussion of “popular beliefs in
witches” again appears largely random, with much emphasis on the need for
further research.
There is some duplication and overlapping of material. An article on
“courts, inquisitorial” is followed by entries on “inquisition.” There are separate
articles on “bewitchment,” “maleficium,” and “sorcery”—terms that, as used
here, mean largely the same thing. Bailey’s article on the origins of the witch
hunts, valuable in itself, might have been merged with Brial Levack’s equally
excellent survey of the chronology of witchcraft trials; both give not only
periodization but also a differentiated set of causal factors for distinct periods.
To some extent the same could be said of the articles on “invocations,”“learned
magic” (which gives rather short shrift to the twelfth century),“necromancy,”
and “ritual magic.”
It may seem surprising to find significant omissions in a four-volume compilation, but there are. Perhaps most surprisingly, canon law is underrepresented. Catherine Rider’s recent book on magically induced impotence studies
the interactions of canon law, theology, and medicine, but there is little focused
attention to any of these disciplines in this encyclopedia.Tellingly, the volumes
consistently make the common but odd mistake of changing “the canon
Episcopi” into “the Canon Episcopi,” which is like citing “the Novel War and
Peace.”A minor error, perhaps, but one that would not be made if that canon
were viewed in its proper context, with respect for the relevant conventions.
Still, this encyclopedia is a major publishing achievement.
RICHARD KIECKHEFER

Northwestern University
Ancient

Paul, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Early Church. By James W. Aageson.
[Library of Pauline Studies.] (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers. 2008.
Pp. xvi, 235. $24.95 paperback. ISBN 978-1-598-56041-1.)
James Aageson’s engaging book examines the ways various groups within
the early Church developed and utilized differing images of Paul. Rejecting the
notion that only Gnostics and others on the fringe of the developing Church
accepted Paul as an authority, he shows how various early Christian writers
used both their image of Paul and Paul’s letters as sources for their theological
positions. Aageson’s method is to compare the patterns and structures of the

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thought and theology of individual writings, rather than identifying features of
the tradition and comparing each text to that synthetic structure.
Using this method,Aageson concludes that 2 Timothy was either written by
someone other than the author of 1Timothy and Titus or that the situation it
addressed was so different that it required a significant reorientation of
thought. He also finds diverse patterns of thought in the manners in which
Ignatius, Polycarp, Clement of Rome, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and
Origen develop their images of Paul and use Pauline texts. Aageson’s analysis
of how the Acts of Paul constructs and uses its image of Paul undermines the
notion that this work simply opposes the line of tradition the Pastorals represent by showing that in some ways, it stands close to the image of Paul in
2 Timothy, while in others, it opposes the outlook of 1Timothy and Titus.
Aageson demonstrates clearly that the church fathers did not belong to a
monolithic tradition of developing orthodoxy that demanded conformity;
rather, they drew on a range of developing trends, trends that sometimes stood
in tension with one another. Christians such as those who wrote the Acts of
Paul drew on some of the same trajectories, even as they interpreted them differently and used their image of Paul to advocate alternative views. Still, most
recognized Paul as an authority and by the third century drew on his writings
as authoritative.
The complexity Aageson uncovers shows that no simple model of conflict
or separate trajectories sufficiently accounts for what we find in early Christian
writings. Neither can models that assume movement from orthodoxy to heresy,
or the reverse, explain the differences and commonalities in the theological
structures and thought of these works. Aageson suggests a “multiplex”approach
that recognizes commonality and tension within a shared tradition that contains competing elements and makes competing uses of common materials.
Readers will disagree with some specifics of Aageson’s interpretation of
individual texts, but such disagreements do not undermine his comparisons or
his method of comparison. One might also ask for a larger and more diverse
comparative base, but the series in which the book appears limits its length,
as well as its explicit exchange with the scholarly literature on the works it
does treat.These quibbles do not, however, significantly weaken Aageson’s convincing case for acknowledging the complexity of the development of the
Church’s theology, ecclesiology, and ethic through the third century and the
resultant need to move beyond the oppositional models that many still use to
interpret the theological differences present in the early Church.
Lexington Theological Seminary

JERRY L. SUMNEY

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The Early Christian Book. Edited by William E. Klingshirn and Linda Safran.
[CUA Studies in Early Christianity] (Washington, DC: The Catholic
University of America Press. 2007. Pp. xiv, 314; 28 plates. $39.95. ISBN 9780-813-21486-3.)
This volume collects twelve papers delivered at a conference held in June
2002 at The Catholic University of America.The revised papers, divided into six
pairs dealing with topics ranging from the physical form of books to literary
theory, are preceded by a helpful introduction by Philip Rousseau.The papers
deal with a still underdeveloped area of inquiry: the physical form and cultural
implications of the book as created, used, and imagined by early Christians,
from the third to the seventh centuries of our era.The topic is both timely and
genuinely important. Over the last few decades, scholars in a variety of fields
have produced a substantial literature on the history of reading and the book.
Relatively little work has been done, however, on books and reading in early
Christianity—for all that the new faith was, as the preface to this volume notes,
“quintessentially a religion of books” (p. ix).
The Early Christian Book comprises papers written from a dazzling array
of perspectives, by scholars with varying disciplinary affiliations and at all
stages of their careers, including several who were still completing the doctoral degree at the time of writing. Unsurprisingly—as in the case of so many
collections of conference papers—the quality of the contributions varies.The
end result, therefore, is more suggestive than definitive: the book’s influence
will follow more from the questions it raises than from the answers it gives.
Some of the less successful contributions share common weaknesses.
Constant reference to a limited canon of secondary works produced within
the field of early Christian studies sometimes gives the volume a hermetic
quality. Correspondingly, the rich body of relevant literature produced by historians and critics working on other periods is at times neglected (but see the
article by Mark Vessey, p. 250, n.25, for a summary of key references). Reliance
on a narrow evidence base also makes some of the same papers less convincing. Finally, the balance between papers dealing with the book as material
object and those addressing primarily literary issues perhaps falls too heavily
toward the latter.
Many of the articles, however, make substantial contributions—too many
even to list here. Particularly impressive are John Lowden on the early
Christian codex, specifically on book covers and their liturgical function;
Claudia Rapp on books as holy objects, placing “Holy Scripture,”and potentially
also hagiography, alongside the “Holy Man” at the center of late-antique
Christianity; and Mark Vessey’s rather oracular concluding essay “Theory, or the
Dream of the Book (Mallarmé to Blanchot).” This last is a new departure, in
that it reads formative moments in modern literary history and in the history
of modern literary theory through the lens of patristic texts, rather than the
other way around.

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Both the volume’s editors and the individual contributors are to be commended for taking on a vast, fascinating, and relatively unexplored area of
research and for pioneering a range of different approaches to what will surely
become a major focus of investigation for scholars of early Christianity.
Although the individual articles are of somewhat uneven quality, the volume as
a whole—unlike so many in its genre—is a resounding success.
San Francisco State University

MEGAN HALE WILLIAMS

The Sex Lives of Saints: An Erotics of Ancient Hagiography. By Virginia
Burrus. [Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion.] (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press. 2004. Pp. vi, 216. $22.50 paperback. ISBN
978-0-812-22020-9.)
Saving Shame: Martyrs, Saints, and Other Abject Subjects. By Virginia Burrus.
[Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion.] (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press. 2007. Pp. xii, 195. $45.00. ISBN 978-0-812-24044-3.)
With Saving Shame (2007) and Sex Lives of Saints (2004),Virginia Burrus
has added two fascinating studies of early Christian literature to an already
remarkable repertoire. Refusing the ascetic strictures of positivistic historiography, Burrus pursues the pleasure of texts and encourages readers to do the
same. Drawing on psychoanalytic, literary, feminist, queer, and/or postcolonial
theory, her newest monographs find in ancient Christianity rich sources for
reflection on desire and shame. In Sex Lives, Burrus points to the lavishly
erotic character of Christian ascetic writings: these linger over honey-dipped
youths, plunging swords, glowing brides, caressed feet, and bejeweled harlots,
resisting desire, as she argues, only by repeatedly and ecstatically pursuing it.
“Seduction,” in her estimation, is “the very wager of all theology,” as saints
romance God, and God romances the saint in return (p. 159). In Saving
Shame, Burrus reconsiders the productive potentialities of shame, chief
among them the “possibility of love” (p. xii). Never simply destructive, Burrus
argues, shame provides opportunities for resistance, opening, vulnerability,
and encounter, which lead ultimately to God. Recognizing the redemptive
potential of shame, early Christians sought divine grace by courting disgrace:
flaunting their marked, exposed, and feminized bodies, reveling in broken,
torn, and penetrated flesh, and displaying their abject corporeality. Rather
than refusing either desire or shame, Burrus avers, Christians enthusiastically
embraced both.
Burrus’s already highly acclaimed Sex Lives of Saints begins with a reflection on Michel Foucault’s description of “so-called Christian morality.”
Simultaneously undermining and reproducing a phallic subjectivity already in
place, Foucault argued that late-antique Christians set the stage for modern
sexuality by transforming sex into discourse. Desire, it would seem, must be
confessed. It is this ambiguity that Burrus sets out to explore in Sex Lives. As
she explains, her interest lies neither in the Christian sacralization of

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monogamy nor in its heterosexist focus on reproduction as the telos of sex,
but rather in the erotics of the ascetic Christian pursuit of desire.This pursuit,
she explains, destabilizes gender, queers genre, and disrupts difference, all in
surprising ways.
Jerome’s hagiographical writings serve as Burrus’s starting point.
Rereading the Life of Paul, the Letter to Eustochius, and the Life of Hilarion,
she observes that the scholar-monk offers “queer bait” to his audience. In her
account, Hieronymian sublimation, when viewed from the perspective of
Freudian sublimation (as reinterpreted by Leo Bersani), reveals not a rejection
of desire, but a homoerotic disruption of fixed subjectivity that challenges the
very notion of a bounded self.The next chapter turns to writings about female
saints, observing that the male authors of these Lives regularly begin from the
vantage point of death: the women “live” in these lives only by dying.Yet even
here the fundamental inversion of gender remains a key theme—the limp
swords of executioners fail to penetrate without the guiding hand of a
woman, Macrina is described by her brother as a “man,” and Monica refuses to
be dominated, even by her famous son.The third chapter revisits the homoerotics of hagiography, a topic first raised in chapter 1, this time by presenting a postcolonial reconsideration of the Life of Martin of Tours. In Burrus’s
reading, the “native” saint of Gaul—unkempt, unruly, and yet fully in control—
serves as an erotically charged figure who troubles both gender and the totalizing desires of empire. Martin’s hypermasculinity finds its counterpart in the
hyperfemininity of the holy harlots, the topic of the final chapter. Here Burrus
challenges the view that prostitute saints were inevitably or exclusively symbols of an innately female depravity. Just as the soldier-saint exceeds mere
masculinity, the holy harlot exceeds fixed femininity, masquerading as a man
by becoming more of a woman. Drawing on the work of Luce Irigaray and
Jean Baudrillard, Burrus finds in these saints examples of the triumph of “sublime seduction.” As such, they reveal the enticing spectacle of a harlot/God
who will not be contained.
After recuperating desire as a central metaphor of late-ancient Christian
theology, Burrus turns in Saving Shame to the “outing” of shame as a fundamental ethical and theological resource. Beginning with an introduction to
psychoanalytic definitions of shame, she encourages scholars of antiquity to
move beyond anthropological models, which have described shame as a feature of an ancient Mediterranean honor-shame culture, gradually overtaken by
a newly Christian culture of guilt. This model is overly simplistic, Burrus
argues, projecting modern guilt sensibilities onto ancient Christians, while also
failing to account for pre-Christian transformations within what was an already
heterogeneous Roman culture. Moreover, if shame arises out of the relation of
the self to itself, as psychoanalysts have argued, then shame is a fact of human
existence rather than a cultural characteristic that can, or should, be relinquished. Shame must be taken seriously, Burrus insists, including the shame
courted by ancient Christians.

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Early Christian shamelessness—a posture that at once resists and pursues
shame—is demonstrated first by a rereading of the literature of martyrdom.
Christian martyrologists, Burrus suggsts, recognized what Julia Kristeva and
Eve Sedgwick would note some two thousand years later: identity is at the
heart of shame. Shown tortured in the arena simply because they claimed the
identity Christian, martyrs worked to shame those who would shame them,
thereby rendering their identity visible. Shame, however, is a theological as
well as performative category, as Burrus shows in the next chapter. Reveling
in the fleshy abjection of Christ, early Christian theologians exposed the
humiliating immensity of human need by playing on both the shame of carnality and the lure of transcendence. The Word, it would seem, is always
shamelessly becoming flesh.Adopting Emmanuel Levinas’s association of selfhood, bodily existence, and shame in the next chapter, Burrus goes on to
examine the Christian celebration of physical decay.The “very fact of having
a body” serves for Levinas and for Christian ascetics as an occasion for profound reflections on the humiliating corporality and inherent interdependence of human lives.
The final chapter returns once again to Foucault’s discussion of Christian
confession, the topic with which Sex Lives began. For Foucault, the Christian
requirement that the truth about the self be told involves not only a narration
of desire but also the mandatory confession of shame: one is obliged, he
observed, to bear witness against oneself. Augustine’s Confessions supplies the
paradigmatic example of this phenomenon, although Burrus discusses later
confessional literature as well. The necessity of giving an account of oneself,
she concludes, offers the opportunity to acknowledge shared human vulnerability. Drawing on the insights of Judith Butler, she notes that, when speaking
the truth of the self, the very notion of “self” is rendered unstable, disclosing a
shameful failure of a mastery that cannot and will not be achieved.
Unapologetically eclectic and philosophically astute, The Sex Lives of
Saints and Saving Shame present stimulating and creative readings of ancient
Christian writings. Initially, Tertullian, Jerome, Athanasius, and the like may
appear to be strange bedfellows for those interested in eroticism, queer
theory, or feminist retrievals of shame. Burrus, however, has demonstrated that
an avowedly revisionist and deliberately provocative approach to patristic
writings can be fruitful, especially for theologians, historians, and theorists
seeking new ways to read old, beloved texts.
Boston University

JENNIFER WRIGHT KNUST

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The World of Early Egyptian Christianity: Language, Literature, and Social
Context. Essays in Honor of David W. Johnson. Edited by James E.
Goehring and Janet A. Timbie. [Catholic University of America Studies in
Early Christianity.] (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America
Press. 2007. Pp. xx, 226. $39.95. ISBN 978-0-813-21480-1.)
The world of scholarship on early Egyptian Christianity has been transformed since the beginning of the career of David W. Johnson, S.J., to whom
this volume is dedicated.The contributions to the book underscore the importance of Father Johnson’s work for the increasing significance of Egypt (especially documents from Egypt that survive in Coptic, Arabic, and Syriac languages) to our larger understanding of late-antique religion.
The volume is divided into two sections. Part 1,“Language and Literature,”
contains essays by Tito Orlandi on Coptic ecclesiastical history, Mark Sheridan
on rhetoric in Coptic sermons, Monica Blanchard on terms used by Cassian
and Jerome to deride certain monks, Janet Timbie on the text of one of
Shenoute’s writings, and Leo Depuydt on the application of Boole’s laws of
logic to Coptic grammar. Coptic specialists will appreciate the pieces in this
section.
Part 2,“Social Context,” contains the essays of greatest interest to nonspecialists.The renowned scholar of early Judaism, Daniel Boyarin, contributes the
essay “Philo, Origen, and the Rabbis on Divine Speech and Interpretation.” He
lucidly explores the hermeneutical principles behind Origen’s and the Rabbis’
interpretations of the Song of Songs. Using Philo and Paul as pivot points,
Boyarin argues that for Origen, the Logos’ incarnation into human flesh in the
form of Jesus “provides . . . the guarantee of Christian allegorical access to
truth” (p. 123).Thus, for Origen,“the very process of allegorical interpretation
constitutes in itself and already a transcendence of the flesh” (p. 124, emphasis in original). The “carnal” and “spiritual” meanings of the divine kiss in the
Song of Songs “are actually opposed to each other, as the body is opposed to
the soul” (p. 124).This stands in contrast both to Philo, for whom the “fleshly”
and “allegorical” meanings operate hand-in-hand, and to Rabbinic midrash, in
which “it is that very body, the actual mouth, that experiences God’s kiss” at
concrete moments in history, such as the crossing of the Red Sea (pp. 125–27).
Arguing against previous scholarship, which has asserted that Origen and the
Rabbis differ not in hermeneutical theory but in the endpoints of allegorical
interpretation, Boyarin insists that differences in interpretation point to differences in theories of language:“In the allegory the metaphors of the language
are considered the signs of invisible entities. . . , while in the midrash they are
actually spoken love poetry of an erotic encounter” (p. 127). James Goehring
provides another chapter in his ongoing work on the memory of the waning
days of the Coptic orthodox Pachomian monasteries as transmitted in texts
relating to Abraham of Farshut (the last anti-Chalcedonian archimandrite of the
Pachomian community at Pbow). In “Keeping the Monastery Clean: A
Cleansing Episode from an Excerpt on Abraham of Farshut and Shenoute’s

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Discourse on Purity,” Goehring examines an account of Abraham purifying a
meeting place from the pollution that resulted from a visit of the Emperor
Justinian’s representatives. He argues that the text adapts Shenoute’s concepts
on physical and spiritual purity into its anti-Chalcedonian polemic, and he concludes that “the inclusion of the cleansing episode . . . creates a framework
whereby the ultimate loss of Pbow to the Chalcedonian party corresponds to
the spread of pollution through the institution” (p. 175).Textually, the episode
“quarantine[s]”the anti-Chalcedonian Pachomian monastery and “reaffirms the
dangers of Chalcedon, reinforcing in the process the boundaries of its own
orthodoxy” (p. 175). David Frankfurter’s piece, “Illuminating the Cult of
Kothos:The Panegyric on Macarius and Local Religion in Fifth-Century Egypt,”
will interest anyone working on the encounters between Christianity and traditional polytheistic religions (whether in Egypt or elsewhere). Frankfurter
uses the Panegyric as an opportunity to explore how texts in which “legendary” features or “hagiographical conventions” overwhelm historical information may nonetheless narrate “many authentic aspects and dynamics of
local cults” (p. 177). In particular, accounts of villagers’ hostility to monks who
intrude on their religious piety “to purge the village of heathen images” (p.
187) record genuine tensions in the period in which the text was written. In
addition, the rhetoric of the text, which associates traditional religion with
child sacrifice, provides evidence for an ongoing religious discourse that dehumanizes the pagan “Other.” Part 2 also includes essays by Birger A. Pearson on
Egyptian Christianity’s roots in Alexandrian Judaism and Gnosticism, Philip
Rousseau on philosophical and methodological parallels between the “exegetical strategies” of Pachomian monastic writings and the arrangement of material in the Nag Hammadi codices, and Robin Darling Young on Evagrius’s Letter
55 about a monk’s interactions with his family.
This volume will be most useful to scholars of late-antique Christianity,
including those interested not just in Egypt but also in the intellectual heritage
shared between Egypt and the wider Mediterranean and in the interactions
between Christians and non-Christians (as well as between different varieties
of Christianity).
University of the Pacific

CAROLINE T. SCHROEDER

Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe. By Caroline
T. Schroeder. [Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion.] (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press. 2007. Pp. viii, 237. $79.95.) ISBN 978-0812-23990-4.
In Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe, a revision of her 2002 Duke University dissertation, Caroline T. Schroeder untangles
a number of “bodies” at play in the writings of Shenoute of Atripe (ca.
346/347–465), leader of several monastic congregations near the modern
Egyptian city of Sohag. These bodies include Shenoute’s discursive construc-

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tion of the individual bodies of his fellow monks, their interrelation with the
“social body”of his congregation, the interplay of these two bodies with a third
body—Shenoute’s newly constructed church, and Shenoute’s theology of
bodily resurrection.
Schroeder examines “the problems and potentials of embodiment” in four
chapters by arguing that Shenoute promoted “an ideology of the monastic life
centered on the discipline of the body,” and “that this ideology lies at the heart
of Shenoute’s theology, his asceticism, and his style of monastic leadership” (p.
3). In case this seems tautological, Schroeder works on the basis of Michel
Foucault’s expansive formulation of askesis: “the training of the self by the
self” (p. 3). Here as elsewhere, Foucault is treated as authoritative.
After an introduction (pp. 1–23), Schroeder presents Shenoute’s rise to
prominence in his community through a close reading of the two fragmentarily preserved letters in Shenoute’s Canon 1 (pp. 24–53). Schroeder argues that
Shenoute conceives of sin as a polluting agent communicable from person to
person.Thus the moral purity of the community is at stake in the bodily discipline of every individual. Her reading effectively shows how such an ideology
of the polluting nature of sin could have helped Shenoute justify his rise to
power and deposition of the congregation’s previous leader. The chapter
would have benefited by the inclusion of a translation of the as yet untranslated letters (or choice selections) as an appendix.
In chapter 2 (pp. 54–89) Schroeder looks at select ritual practices reflected
in several of Shenoute’s Canons. Of special importance to Schroeder is that
Shenoute’s disciplinary language of purity and pollution distinguishes him from
other contemporary Egyptian writers. In fact, Schroeder argues,“[T]hey articulate a monastic subjectivity particular to the Shenoutean community” (p. 67).
Given the differences in genre and preservation among Shenoute’s Canons and
the Rules of Pachomius, and the occasional parallels in purity/pollution language between them (p. 70), a quantitative analysis, controlling for the genre
and size of the corpora, would have made Schroeder’s impressionistic analysis
more convincing.Schroeder ends the chapter by effectively demonstrating how
Shenoute links his own illness (described in Canon 9) with the spiritual pestilence plaguing his community (which could be further explored by examining
Shenoute’s more extensive reflections in Canons 6 and 8).
In chapter 3 (pp. 90–125) Schroeder examines the construction of a third
monastic body, again connected with the bodies of the individual monks and
the “social body”of the congregation: Shenoute’s church, built under the supervision of Shenoute himself and still standing at Deir Anba Shenouda’s
monastery near Sohag. Here as in chapter 1, Schroeder shows how Shenoute
employs Pauline metaphor (here the body as a temple of God) to enforce
monastic discipline in his community. She also compares Shenoute’s theological elaboration of the building with parallels in the Pachomian Paralipomena
and Paulinus of Nola.

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In chapter 4 (pp. 126–57) Schroeder turns to the body of Christ and the resurrection body of believers. As in other chapters, Schroeder shows that
Shenoute was no intellectually isolated provincial, but was actively engaged in
the theological controversies of the day, here adhering to Alexandrian orthodoxy. Schroeder makes much of Shenoute’s conflation of the categories
pagans, heretics, and Jews. This could have benefited from comparison with
Shenoute’s contemporaries. So Epiphanius of Salamis (365–403) includes
Jewish sects,“barbarians,” and pagan philosophies alongside Christian heresies
in his Panarion.
Monastic Bodies should be of interest to scholars of late antiquity, especially given the relative unfamiliarity of Shenoute’s literary corpus. Given that
many of the texts on which Schroeder draws are not yet readily available to
nonspecialists in modern-language translations, the volume may be of most use
at present to those with a scholarly familiarity with the literature and historiography of late-antique Egypt.
University of Hawai’i

ANDREW CRISLIP

Gregory of Nyssa: The Letters. Introduction, Translation, and Commentary.
By Anna M. Silvas. [Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae, 83.] (Leiden and
Boston: Brill. 2007. Pp. xx, 283. $159.00. ISBN 978-9-004-15290-8.)
The career of Gregory of Nyssa finally flourished only after the death of his
brother, Basil, the illustrious bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. He inherited
some of his brother’s theological projects; he attended the ecumenical council at Constantinople in 381, after which the emperor Theodosius named him
as an arbiter of orthodoxy in the eastern provinces; and he was invited to consult on ecclesiastical affairs at Constantinople again, in central Asia Minor, at
Antioch, and even as far south as Jerusalem and Arabia. During the 380s he published most of his important theological treatises and sermons. But even
though Gregory was now probably the most famous and the best connected
churchman in the East, regrettably few of his letters have survived.
The sources for the lives and theology of the three great Cappadocian
Fathers—Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus—
include about 640 letters. More than 95 percent of these letters were written
by or attributed to Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus, while the standard collection of the letters of Gregory of Nyssa includes only thirty letters. Giorgio
Pasquali and Pierre Maraval have each published a superb critical edition of
Gregory’s letters, and there are outstanding translations into French by Maraval
and into German by Dörte Teske. In this book Anna Silvas has now provided an
excellent English translation of the entire collection.
Silvas’s book will be very important for the study of Gregory of Nyssa, for
several reasons. First, her translation is accurate and readable. Gregory’s longer

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letters are especially interesting. In one, he described his prickly rivalry with
Helladius, the successor to Basil as the new metropolitan bishop of Caesarea.
In another, he explained his hesitations about the importance of pilgrimage to
the Holy Land. In two letters to the great sophist Libanius, he respectfully
noted his own skill in rhetoric. In a letter to the clergy of Nicomedia, he catalogued the virtues required in a new bishop.Another letter was a supplement
to his Life of his sister Macrina, a celebrated ascetic. In other letters, he
described a friend’s fabulously extravagant country estate and his own plans
to construct a shrine for a martyr. Gregory was inclined to wear his emotions
on his sleeve. While Basil tended to be a bit constipated in his letters and
Gregory of Nazianzus rather oblique, Gregory of Nyssa was quite fulsome and
often very revealing about his personal concerns.
Second, Silvas includes translations of the letters of Basil and Gregory of
Nazianzus that are addressed to or mention Gregory of Nyssa. Both senior
churchmen were frequently a bit perturbed by Gregory’s wayward behavior.
Basil’s comments were often disparaging of his brother’s talents, while
Gregory of Nazianzus once tried to convince him to renounce his career as a
local teacher. In addition, Silvas discusses and translates several additional letters that are not included in Pasquali’s and Maraval’s editions, but that might
be attributed to the authorship of Gregory of Nyssa.
The final attributes are Silvas’s extended introduction and the annotations
to the translations. In the notes she often follows the lead of Maraval, the best
scholar of Gregory of Nyssa in our time. The introduction provides an
extended biography that emphasizes in particular Gregory’s intermittent association with the monastic settlements of Basil and Macrina in Pontus. Silvas
agrees that Gregory had once been married, and she speculates that his wife
had died young:“This man has suffered” (p. 23).As his letters make clear, however, thereafter Gregory’s new commitment was to his family’s involvement in
promoting asceticism and a distinctive theological orthodoxy.
University of Michigan

RAYMOND VAN DAM

Martyrdom and Memory: Early Christian Culture Making. By Elizabeth A.
Castelli. [Gender, Theory, and Religion.] (New York: Columbia University
Press. 2004. Pp. xx, 335. $25.50 paperback. ISBN 978-0-231-12987-9.)
What is perhaps most gratifying about Elizabeth Castelli’s rich study of martyrdom is the attention she pays not only to the parallels among constructions
of the martyr in early Christian narratives but also to the ambivalences, to the
places where Christians disagreed (sometimes even with themselves) over
precisely what martyrdom meant and how the martyr should be remembered.
Like many scholars who have embraced the cultural turn, Castelli explores this
hoary topic not as a set of historical events or figures, but as a dynamic and
sometimes paradoxical process of what she calls “memory making.” Building

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on theories of collective memory associated primarily with Maurice
Halbwachs, Castelli argues that Christian authors between the second and fifth
centuries contributed to the ethical and gendered constitution of early
Christian culture through their representations of martyrs and martyrdoms.
Martyrdom, she suggests, provided early Christians with a “useable past,”which
they (re)shaped into powerful discourses of authority. Through them,
Christians not only contested hegemonic (Roman) structures and ideals but
also asserted their own privileged status as members of the authoritative religion.Yet Castelli’s study reaches beyond the chronological boundaries of late
antiquity; she is fascinated by the enduring significance of martyrdom in contemporary society, although her fascination is tempered by a stated discomfort
with the tendency of many modern Americans to (still) associate violence with
truth. Discussing the depiction of Columbine victim Cassie Bernall as a martyr
and American responses to September 11, 2001, Castelli suggests in the final
chapter and epilogue that martyrdom and memory making remain ongoing
cultural projects.
Although Castelli explores some visual representations of martyrdom, the
book primarily deals with literary constructions, with special attention given
to ante-pacem texts. Following a lucid introductory chapter outlining collective memory as a theoretical model for the study of early Christian martyrdom, Castelli dedicates the next four chapters to rhetorical analyses of
narratives, explaining how their authors variously appropriated past experiences of martyrdom for the purposes of defining Christian self-sacrifice,
spectacle, and society. In chapter 2, for example, she shows how the writers
of the pre-Decian martyr acta discursively exploited the fluid nature of the
Roman legal system, while chapter 3 explores how three historical martyrs
fashioned their own public personae as transformed athletes of Christ.
Chapter 4 examines Christian responses to the arena and spectacle, with
special attention given to gender (a major theme of the book). Chapter 5
looks at the commemorative reproduction of martyrdom through the lens of
a single martyr:Thecla. Here Castelli explores the multiple “layers” of Thecla’s
life and martyrdom through a comparative discussion of the textual and
visual representations of Thecla produced in the East between the second
and seventh centuries.
For scholars familiar with more positivist approaches to early Christian martyrdom, Castelli’s study may seem jarring at first, since she expressly brackets
questions regarding “what really happened.”Although her rhetorical approach
offers a fresh and innovative perspective on what is a seminal subject,she could
perhaps have engaged more substantively with the historical communities that
mediated these enduring discourses. Why, for example, was the fifth-century
author of the Life of Thecla concerned to distinguish Thecla’s miracles from
magic? Why did many Egyptian artifacts bearing Thecla’s image telescope her
identity as a female martyr, eliding other facets of her history? Surely historical,
geographical, and social location influenced the production of collective mem-

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ories of early Christian (and modern American) martyrdom. Such criticism,
however, hardly negates this book’s considerable achievements.
The Ohio State University

KRISTINA SESSA

The Roman Revolution of Constantine. By Raymond Van Dam. (New York:
Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xvi, 441. $85.00. ISBN 978-0-52188209-5.)
Appropriately, given its title, this latest book on Constantine begins and
ends with the emperor Julian, who was to accuse his uncle of being an “innovator and disturber of ancient laws and custom” (Amm.Marc. 21.10.8).The title
pays explicit homage to Sir Ronald Syme on Augustus and to the significance
of Syme’s model of Realpolitik for proper historical scrutiny of the
Constantinian “agenda.”Van Dam’s introduction also invokes the other leading
twentieth-century interpreter of Augustus, Paul Zanker, whose focus on the
emperor’s self-representation points to valuable ways of understanding the historical Constantine.Van Dam rejects the hindsight that sees Christianity alone
as “the defining characteristic of his long reign” (p. 10), reflected in the titles
of numerous modern books on Constantine; instead, he promises other perspectives that view Christianity as incidental and/or secondary for a ruler who
was, first and foremost, a Roman emperor in the long line from Augustus.
This book is by no means (nor does it set out to be) a comprehensive
study of Constantine. It is not a biography, nor is it organized in strictly
chronological fashion; neither is it confined solely to the period of
Constantine. It presents several overlapping themes significant for placing
Constantine in the wider context of a late Roman world evolving from the era
of the Tetrarchs to the end of the fourth century.The themes are grouped into
three sections and take a key ancient text as their starting point (the first two
sections in particular amount to an extended historical commentary on the
text in question). Section 1 (“A Roman Empire without Rome”) focuses on
Constantine’s famous rescript to the Italian city of Hispellum on the matter of
local ceremonies in honor of the imperial family, which Van Dam reads against
the background of the empire’s center of gravity receding from Rome and
central Italy to Gaul, the Balkans, and “new Rome” in the East (he raises the
interesting possibility, pp. 53–57, that the petition from Hispellum may have
been in hopes of Constantine returning to Italy to celebrate his tricennalia
in 335–36, and passing close by on the Via Flaminia en route to Rome).Van
Dam also emphasizes Constantine’s single-minded promotion of his second
Flavian dynasty as an imperial monopoly (hence his permission for the construction of a new “Flavian” temple at Hispellum: “dynastic succession
trumped religion” [p. 126]).
Section 2 (“A Greek Roman Empire”) is based on another civic inscription, the record of Constantine’s grant of city status to the community of

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Orcistus in central Asia Minor. Van Dam helpfully clarifies (pp. 152–55) that
what modern books on Constantine tend to conflate into a single text was
actually a dossier of several separate documents pointedly arranged on a
single pillar to highlight the emperor’s generosity.Two main themes for discussion arise from Constantine’s “dialogue” with Orcistus. On the significance of religious affiliation in determining imperial decisions, Van Dam is
concerned to show (pp. 176–83) that Constantine’s statement that “all are
said to reside there as supporters of the most holy religion” was not necessarily an exclusive claim to Christianity on the part of the petitioners
(although Van Dam’s reading of these words as a “description of themselves”
[emphasis added] overlooks the fact that the phrase is actually Constantine’s
own, drawn from his letter to the undeniably Christian prefect Ablabius).
More important to the success of the petition than religion, in Van Dam’s
view, was that the citizens of Greek-speaking Orcistus chose to address
Constantine in Latin, a fact that leads him to reflect on the cultural implications of a Roman imperial administration now implanted in the midst of the
Greek East.
Section 3 (“Emperor and God”) again begins from an inscription, a dedication in the apse of the Constantinian basilica of St. Peter in Rome, which
praised “the virtues of father and son,” and made mysterious use of the terms
auctor and genitor. The disputed interpretation of this text—does the language allude simply to the partnership of Constantine and his son(s) in the
construction of the church, or is it invoking Christian debate about the nature
of God?—leads Van Dam into extended exploration of the overlap between
theology and political ideology. Diocletian’s Tetrarchy had already established
the use of (pagan) divine terminology to articulate the nature of the imperial
college, and soon Christian theologians began to argue about the divine relationship of Father and Son: both strands would contribute to the process of
defining and interpreting the new phenomenon of a Christian emperor.
Focusing on Eusebius as the principal agent of this process, Van Dam returns
to a view (first propounded by G. H. Williams in 1951) that it was the Arian,
“subordinationist” version of Christ’s relationship to the Father that especially
lent itself to Constantinian political ideology (“Eusebius presented an emperor
who made sense only in terms of Arian theology”[p. 325]); and he sees the evolution of understanding about the nature of the Christian ruler in subsequent
generations, beginning from Athanasius’s Life of Antony, as the rejection of the
Eusebian Constantine in favor of a “Nicene” alternative. This is in danger of
becoming too one-sided and monochromatic a picture. For all Eusebius’s lofty
emphasis on Constantine as the earthly counterpart of Christ, the “logos” of
God, the emperor of the Life of Constantine—and of Constantine’s own documents—remains at the same time the deferential servant of the Church and
its bishops (for Van Dam a feature only of later remodeling). Nor should the
Life of Antony be taken as a necessarily more definitive picture of Christian
imperial rule than, say, Athanasius’s works of political apology that might be
seen to strike a more “Eusebian” note. As Van Dam’s first two sections make

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clear, the representation of a Roman ruler, Christian or otherwise, was always
a multifaceted phenomenon.
University of Durham

E. D. HUNT

Orthodoxy and the Courts in Late Antiquity. By Caroline Humfress. (New
York: Oxford University Press. 2007. Pp. xiv, 344. $150.00. ISBN 978-0-19820841-9.)
Some scholars have suggested freeing late-antique church history from its
orbit around Constantine and his reign. That is easier said than done, when
Constantine still enjoys credit for ending the persecutions, summoning the
first ecumenical council, and giving bishops legal authority over their own
courts. Caroline Humfress, however, shows brilliantly how such a liberated
history might appear, by focusing on the practical, mundane ways that religion, law, and politics interacted. Her book is one of the best among recent
studies in late Roman law, which will not surprise those who have read her
previous essays. It also is of critical and timely importance to the study of
bishops—especially the nature of their authority and their place in late
Roman society.
In a lucid and solidly constructed argument, Humfress demonstrates how
legal practitioners, including Christian churchmen, affected the scope and content of imperial law and how imperial law then gave Christianity its hard
boundaries between orthodoxy and heresy.The most consequential turn for the
fourth-century church, she argues, was from philosophical to forensic debate, a
turn Constantine demonstrated when he branded Arius with infamy in 325 after
previously inviting him to a polite exchange of views. But Constantine was in
some ways a latecomer to this forensic turn and certainly not the final word.
Humfress spends the first two parts of the book explaining what and whom
forensics involved; she shows that its teachers and practitioners were active
into the fifth century and beyond; she presents illuminating examples of the
influence of forensic experts on lawmakers; and she makes clear how much
church officials and procedures owed to forensic training.
The exposition is clear, but the material is complex. Students of church history unfamiliar with Roman law may want more help understanding formulary
procedure, for example, than Humfress can provide here. Students of legal history unfamiliar with theology have it easier, even in the third and final section
on how forensics affected theology. Humfress is interested in the way churchmen and lawmakers categorized doctrine and subsequent application of those
categories, but not in the details of doctrine. Indeed, Humfress has left plenty
of work to be done, whether in further tracing the imprint of forensic training
in doctrinal texts themselves, or in documenting more cases of influence
among forensic experts, churchmen, and lawmakers. Her own success here
should encourage such future studies.

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If the argumentative focus of the book is acute, the breadth of its learning
is vast. Humfress is equally masterful in handling scholarly debates from a century ago as she is bold in pushing recent advances further, especially with
respect to rhetoric and legal studies. As for the primary sources, Augustine is
the single-most important author, especially for the later chapters. But the
book balances the evidence well across time and space, with particularly good
and careful use of the law codes and papyri. One exception is how Humfress
handles Roman bishops: in a text that places British-style quotation marks
around such seemingly innocent words as law, legal, Christian, Roman, knowing, and facts, it is surprising to find papacy and the Pope unremarked;
whereas Humfress is careful to differentiate between emperors and the actual
authors of their edicts, the “Roman papacy [has] intent” and acts “self-consciously” (pp. 179, 211); and the evidence for Roman bishops keeping a “‘central archive’” (p. 170) is actually thin. But the evidence from Rome would lend
itself well to the same, methodical treatment Humfress applies to the North
African evidence. Minor typographical errors crop up mainly in notes and the
bibliography, where scholarship is sometimes misattributed (e.g., Gager for
Gagos, Michel for Millar).
Ohio University

KEVIN UHALDE

L’histoire des iconoclastes. By Marie-France Auzépy. [Bilans de recherché, 2.]
(Paris:Association des Amis du Centre d’Histoire et Civilization de Byzance.
2007. Pp. xvi, 386. €40,00 paperback. ISBN 978-2-916-71607-7.)
The iconoclastic era (730–843) is one of conviction, passion, ideology, and
“faith propaganda.” As an “iconoclast” Auzépy could not have remained unaffected.The single thread that ties all her studies is her ideological conviction
that the Isaurians and the iconoclasts were “the victims of a shouting historical injustice” (p. v).Thus a harvest of nineteen articles and a book chapter put
into a single collection constitutes an ultimate effort at reinstating the
Isaurian emperors and their fellow iconoclasts and at reshaping the face of
the “grands perdants de l’histoire du viiie siècle” (p. 314) from the distortions
of the iconophile sources.The brief Avant-propos makes a quick reference to
the “dark ages,” a period that Jonathan Shepard, editor of the Cambridge
History of the Byzantine Empire (2008), has titled “State of Emergency,”
which Auzépy used in 2005 to write a masterful chapter on the iconoclastic
period.This chapter (“État d’urgence”) now composes the introductory chapter of the collection.
The thematic arrangement of the articles revolves around three axes: 1.
“The Foundations of Orthodoxy:The Council of Nicaea II and the Patriarchate
of Constantinople,” 2.“The Reconstruction of the Past,” and 3.“The Isaurians:
A History en creux.” In the first section, the author is attempting to track the
iconophile urge to write the history of their opponents.To them, the iconoclasts were not even Christians but Jews or Saracens; not human but beasts,

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lions, and dragons. Most of the section’s six articles reference the Acts of
Nicaea II (787), with one article citing the Adversus Constantinum
Caballinum.The articles in the second section refer to the institutionalization
of the “history of the iconoclasts” and the consequences of such a distorted
“history.” An analysis of the Vita Stephani the Young shows, according to
Auzépy, a saint who died not because of his veneration of icons but because
of his participation in a plot against the emperor.Thus, this is a hagiological
work aiming at transforming a political person into a martyr in defense of the
icons.The destruction of the icon of Christ at the Chalke gate that this writing presents as the causal event that brought about the eruption of iconoclasm is, again according to Auzépy, a later invention of the early-ninth century as it contains elements from the reign of empress Irene (797–802).
Auzépy also challenges the attachment of John of Damascus to Mar Sabas as
an invention of Sabaitic hagiography on the premise that the Damascene was
a monk not of the Judean lavra of Mar Sabbas but of the Monastery of the
Resurrection in Jerusalem. The third section contains articles in which
Auzépy, taking greater risks, has sought to touch the faint footprints of the
iconoclasts. In her opinion, iconoclasm configured the imperial response to
the threat that the New Israel may be wiped out for insulting God by its idolatrous practices. Here, the relations between the Isaurians and the
Carolingians gain distinction.The vacuum posed by Byzantine sources is filled
by Western ones from the Carolingian and the papal court.The vitality of the
Isaurian foreign policy is evident here, which served as a model for the
Carolingians.The Libri Carolini, where the theologians of Charles the Great
refuted the theology of the icons of Nicaea II, reveals a close relationship
between Carolingians and Isaurians. In her work to restore the history and
the image of the iconoclasts Auzépy uses the lives of saints who were considered iconoclasts.Through them, a sanctity expressed in the world through
good deeds emerges, different from the monastic model of sanctity that is
based on spiritual exercise and the miraculous. Another aspect of the iconoclasts was their opposition to the veneration of holy relics.
As she has immersed herself into what she calls the pleasant opportunities
for imagination offered by the obscurities of iconoclasm (p. v),Auzépy has, literally, absorbed the sources and the secondary material on the subject.
However, the reader may question whether iconoclasm actually existed, since
the entire time span (150 years) seems to have been consumed by machinations and intrigues of the iconophiles against the iconoclasts. A lack of understanding of, or even a slight prejudice toward, Byzantium and Eastern Christian
theology and spirituality often allows the author to walk an unbalanced historico-theological and interpretive tightrope. Notwithstanding these remarks,
plowing through the collected labor (1981–2005) of a prominent “iconoclastic” academic is by no means a waste of time.
Ionian University
University of Waterloo (Emeritus)

SOPHIA MERGIALI-SAHAS
DANIEL J. SAHAS

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Medieval
Literaturbericht zur mittelalterlichen und neuzeitlichen Epigraphik
(1998–2002). By Walter Koch and Franz-Albrecht Bornschlegel.
[Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Hilfmittel 22] (Hannover: Hahnsche
Buchhandlung. 2005. Pp. 519. €40,00. ISBN 978-3-775-21129-1.)
The field of epigraphy embraces a broad range of subjects, since inscriptions can be studied for their historical content, appearance, language, and
development, to name but a few. As a result, this bibliography of recent scholarship on epigraphy from the medieval through the Renaissance periods will
be a valuable resource for scholars in many areas of cultural history. The fourth
such overview presented by the famed institute Monumenta Germaniae
Historica includes essays by leading German scholars in the field and at least
4,000 bibliographical entries, many of them annotated. Although the institute
is devoted to the study of German history, the material presented here is
broader in scope: entries principally cover German language regions, but also
include much French, English, and Italian material, reflecting a European spectrum.The inscriptions studied are limited to those using the Latin alphabet.
The contents are arranged in eight sections with a preface by Walter Koch,
who initiated this series of bibliographic reviews with the first volume in
1987, which spanned the years 1976 through 1984. He also oversaw subsequent volumes that covered the years 1985–91 (1994) and 1992–97 (2000). He
coedited the third and fourth volumes with Franz-Albrecht Bornschlegel of the
Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich.
In the first two sections, Koch discusses articles, papers, congress proceedings, handbooks, and abstracts on epigraphy, as well as series sponsored by
national institutes dedicated to the study of epigraphy. In the third section,
Bornschlegel, with the assistance of Maria Glaser, lists articles, chapters, and
entire volumes on inscriptions in Germany as well as in other European countries. For the fourth section, Bornschlegel discusses various projects throughout Europe that address practical issues related to the epigraphic studies, such
as terminology, transcription, and reproduction. For the fifth section, Koch
turns to the study of the paleography of inscriptions—that is, the letter forms
with their distinctive characteristics and development. Next, Bornschlegel, in
section 6, presents examinations of epigraphic texts as historic writings with
regard to their orthography, formulaic constructions, abbreviations, and meter,
together with their social and historic connotations.The next section, which
at 132 pages is the lengthiest in the book, addresses individual monuments and
groups of monuments.The citations are themselves arranged under headings
that proceed from general (“Geschichte allgemein” [sic] and
“Kunstgeschichte”) to the more specific (“Glocken” and “Grabmäler”). The
final section presents citations of articles, books, and collections of essays in
the history of art and epigraphy and addresses issues associated with the
reconstruction of incomplete or lost inscriptions.

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There is much here to excite researchers and compel them to consult their
favorite database.To organize such a wealth of material is a daunting task, and
the rationale for a citation’s placement seems illogical and inconsistent at
times. Fortunately, this work concludes with three indices, organized by
author, location, and person and object. A scholar would benefit from spending some time in a favorite armchair browsing through this rich bibliographic
collection.
Bloomsburg University

CHRISTINE SPERLING

Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern Influences on Rome and the
Papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590–752. By Andrew J.
Ekonomou. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. 2007. Pp. x, 347. $70.00.
ISBN 978-0-739-11977-8.)
The title is misleading, suggesting a book on the Greek popes—that is, the
popes from Agatho (678–81) to Zacharias (741–52), all of whom, with the
exception of Gregory II, were native Greek speakers. In fact, it is not until page
200 that the Greek popes arrive, and only the last chapter and the epilogue (on
Zacharias) really discuss them.The book is, in fact, about a broader theme, as
the subtitle indicates: an exploration of the links between Rome and the Greek
East from the end of the sixth to the middle of the eighth century. Ekonomou
begins with Gregory the Great, who spent time as a papal apocrisiarius in
Constantinople but never apparently achieved any facility in Greek and was
defensive against seeming attempts by the patriarch of Constantinople to
encroach on the privileges of Rome. Despite this, the author shows how
deeply interested Gregory was in the Greek East, especially its ascetic traditions.The impact of the incursion into the Eastern Empire of Slavs and Avars,
Persians and Arabs, led to the flight of many, especially monks, to Rome, which
sets the scene for the rest of the book: the effect of the presence of Greeks in
Rome.There emerged a tension between the papacy and the emperor, when
the latter attempted to heal the divisions, which were part of the Chalcedonian
heritage in the East, by the compromise doctrines of monenergism and
monothelitism. Spurred on by Maximos the Confessor and other Greek monks,
Pope Martin made a stand for Chalcedonian orthodoxy by calling what was
regarded as an ecumenical synod at the Lateran in 649, thereby usurping what
had become, and was to remain, an imperial privilege. Imperial revenge was
savage: Martin died in the Crimea in 655, broken by his abandonment by a
pliant Roman Church, while Maximos died in Lazica in 662, after a prolonged
attempt to break his resolve.The author then turns to the Emperor Constans’s
visit to Rome and his murder in Sicily in 662, before addressing the Greek
popes. He discusses the impact of the Greek popes in the realm of church
music, with the abundant evidence of the adoption of Greek music and even
Greek texts, and church architecture and religious art. He ends with a brief discussion of Zacharias, who translated Pope Gregory the Great’s Dialogues into
Greek, thereby making Gregory one of the few Latin Fathers well known in the

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East—as ho Dialogos.The author traces Greek influence far beyond Rome to
England, through the appointment of the Greek monk Theodore of Tarsus as
archbishop of Canterbury. In the course of his account, the author takes the
opportunity to correct commonly held opinions: e.g., that Constans intended
to abandon Constantinople and establish his capital in the West, and Bede’s
suspicion that Hadrian was sent, along with Theodore as a minder, to prevent
his introduction of Greek customs.
From information tucked at the end of the book (there is no introduction),
it would appear that the book is based on a thesis submitted in 2000, although
it is much better written than the general run of theses.This explains why no
account is taken of Pauline Allen and Bronwen Neil’s edition (1999, 2002) of
the dossier of contemporary materials concerned with Maximos’s life and
trials, although even in 2000 it was well known that much of the material in
the Greek vita of the saint is purely legendary; Neil’s Seventh-Century Popes
and Martyrs (2006) clearly appeared too late. Ekonomou’s account of the
widespread destruction that accompanied the fall of Jerusalem in 614 seems
to ignore Flusin’s more sober account in his study of St. Athanasius the Persian
(in the bibliography), and the impression given of the complete demise of the
famous monastery of St. Sabas is something of an exaggeration. Later on, the
author’s claims for extensive influence of the Greek popes on religious art in
Rome suffers from the lack of any sense of what a distinctively “Western” art
would look like at this stage, or even whether it makes sense to think in these
terms. Nevertheless, there is a great deal to learn from this new take on an
important phase in the history of the papacy.
University of Durham

ANDREW LOUTH

Paths of Exile: Narratives of St. Columba and the Praxis of Iona. By James
Lewis. (South Bend, IN: Cloverdale Books. 2007. Pp. xii, 204. $19.95 paperback. ISBN 978-1-929-56924-3.)
Voluntary lifelong exile (Hiberno-Latin peregrinatio) is one of the outstanding ascetic and penitential practices among early Irish Christians. Its first
representative is Columbanus, exile from ca. 590 to his death in Bobbio in 615,
who has left records of this phenomenon and whose near-contemporary biographer Jonas provides the locus classicus concerning this institution.The concepts inherent in this institution were discussed first in 1976 by Thomas
Charles-Edwards and are the point of departure for all scholarship in this field
over the past three decades (referred to in note 38 on p. 72 but not listed in
the bibliography). Charles-Edwards showed that the Christian concept was
rooted in Irish secular law, hence the specific Irish dimension. As a matter of
fact, not all that many Irish peregrini are known from the early Middle Ages.
The aim of this study is to investigate Colum Cille’s “legacy and example
throughout Ireland, what we call Scotland, Anglo-Saxon England and large

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areas of barbarian Europe in the following centuries” (p. x). A study of this
nature has not been available to date. Colum Cille, abbot of Iona, died in 597.
Unfortunately, not a single word of his has survived, so the scholar encounters
Colum Cille at a remove, which is a substantial handicap.The principal sources
here prominently exploited are the Latin Life of Columba by Adomnán, also
abbot of Iona, which was completed ca. 697; the Old Irish poem Amra
Choluimb Chille, allegedly composed by Dallán Forgaill shortly before 600
(note that the Irish language was not yet written at this time); and two Irish
lives, written in the twelfth and fifteenth centuries respectively. Any study of
the subject requires sound historical as well as philological training.The Latin
work, superbly edited first in 1854 by William Reeves, was last edited in 1961
(twice reprinted with minor corrections), whereas the best edition of the
eulogy remains that of 1899 by Whitley Stokes in the Revue Celtique (not
listed in the bibliography); this work remains largely unconsulted by historians.The author quotes the Latin Life in the original but the eulogy only in an
uncommented translation of 1995. His use of Irish terms and names is not uniform throughout (his Aipgitir Chrábaid is spelled Apgitir in the 1995 book
and abgitir in the authoritative dictionary of the Irish language; Áed mac
Ainmirech occurs in three different spellings). Thus the philological foundations of the study are somewhat shaky (Canones Hibernensis should read
Collectio Canonum Hibernensis, p. 152 [cf. potioris peregrinatio, p. 52; peregrinari pro Dei, p. 79; and pro amore Deo, p. 152]).
The key term in this study is exile, or its Latin equivalent, peregrinus/peregrinatio. Although this term can be traced directly in the works of
Columbanus to ca. 600, this can be done for Colum Cille only in Adomnán, thus
almost a century later. Its applicability is not investigated here (see, however,
“the real, or at least narrated, life experience” [p. 3, emphasis in original]). In
the decisive sentence of Adomnán quoted in note 37 on p. 145, the crucial
verb peregrinari is left out.The author’s fundamental disagreement with the
reviewer’s position (see esp. p. 42) shows a lack of appreciation for fundamental historical criteria.
The most substantial chapter 6 (pp. 29–77) is devoted to a discussion of the
evidence provided by Adomnán, and chapter 9, the second longest chapter in
the book,examines the ambivalent evidence provided by Bede (the author does
not understand the reviewer’s critical evaluation of Bede, p. 118). His presentation therein of Aidán of Iona in Northumbria as a peregrinus (see esp. 124, 126)
cannot be substantiated in Bede’s narrative. In fact,Aidán was sent to work as a
missionary, an activity that for the other peregrini cannot be maintained.
The production of the book in general leaves much to be desired. In chapter 8, notes 48–52 are not provided. In the bibliography there are works listed,
including three by the reviewer, which do not figure in the text at all.
States the author,“I have endeavoured to show that Confession / Penitence,
peregrinatio and mission form an unbreakable nexus such that whenever one

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appears in the action of Columban monks the others are or can be assumed to
be present also” (p. 162). On the basis of the historical sources, such an
assumption cannot be sustained.
University of Constance

MICHAEL RICHTER

Céli Dé in Ireland: Monastic Writing and Identity in the Early Middle Ages.
By Westley Follett. [Studies in Celtic History, XXIII.] (Rochester, NY: The
Boydell Press. 2006. Pp. xii, 253. $85.00. ISBN 978-1-843-83276-8.)
The last major study of the Céli Dé was that of Peter O’Dwyer in 1977,
which he revised with additions in 1981.This has been the standard work on
the subject ever since, and many subsequent writers have adopted O’Dwyer’s
views unchallenged. Academic scholarship has waited thirty years for a reappraisal, and subsequently two major reassessments of this so-called “reform
movement”in early medieval Ireland have appeared, including Westley Follett’s
work.
O’Dwyer’s work has had its critics, and writers such as Nora Chadwick and
more recently, Colmán Etchingham, have questioned the categorization of the
Céli Dé as a “reform,” but their objections have been peripheral to the main
thrust of their respective studies. Follett’s work concentrates fully on reassessing the Céli Dé and is original in that it centers on the manuscript history of
the various texts that have traditionally been associated with the Céli Dé
monks. With painstaking thoroughness, Follett shows that the writings hitherto ascribed to the movement (if, as he says, it can be deemed a movement)
are actually much fewer in number than O’Dwyer and other earlier commentators believed. Although this investigation of manuscript history forms the
major part of the book, Follett also, in his long and detailed second chapter,
explores Irish asceticism before the Céli Dé to put these monks in context. His
carefully detailed study goes a long way to providing an up-to-date and much
needed successor to John Ryan’s now extremely dated Irish Monasticism.
Etchingham argues that Irish monastic asceticism showed no sign of declining in the mid- to late-eighth century, and Brian Lambkin views Céli Dé as
members of God’s personal retinue who saw themselves accordingly as a kind
of “religious elite.” In his conclusions, Follett substantiates these premises of
Etchingham and Lambkin, and it is, perhaps, the only disappointing element in
his work that he takes these conclusions no further. However, it is in his
methodology that he shows his originality. Whereas Lambkin based his suggestion mainly on the evidence provided by the poems of Blathmac and the
Félire Óengusso, Follett examines and critiques all the texts that have been
associated with the movement. He draws the conclusion that “céli Dé, at least
in their eighth- and ninth-century manifestation, were more of a local phenomenon than a regional or general one, as has often been supposed” (218).

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This is an important book both for the study of insular monasticism and
for research into the history of early Irish texts. In the meticulousness of its
scholarship it provides a model for the latter. It enters the current debate
regarding the exact identity of the Céli Dé when this question is coming to
the forefront of academic research and develops that debate in new and original ways by its examination of the manuscript history of crucial texts, showing how a more precise assessment of the authorship of these texts can assist
in understanding Céli Dé identity. Although not everyone will agree with
Follett’s conclusions, by refining and narrowing the early medieval “database”
of texts connected with the Céli Dé, he provides an important service to current and future scholarship.
University of Wales, Lampeter

PATRICIA M. RUMSEY

The Times of Bede: Studies in Early English Christian Society and Its
Historian. By Patrick Wormald. Edited by Stephen Baxter. (Malden, MA:
Blackwell. 2006. Pp. xviii, 290. $83.95. ISBN 978-0-631-16655-9.)
This collection of nine previously published essays was assembled by
Patrick Wormald before his untimely death in 2004 and subsequently finalized
and prepared for publication by Stephen Baxter. Although divided into two
sections—“An Early Christian Culture and its Critic” and “The Impact of Bede’s
Critique”—there is in practice considerable overlap between the two and the
chronological focus of both is the eighth and early-ninth centuries.The themes
and issues of the papers are very much those that Wormald made his own: the
aristocratic mores of the English Church, the emergence of a sense of cultural
unity among the Anglo-Saxons, and Bede’s relationship to his own times.The
odd man out is the first essay of the second section, “Æthelwold and his
Continental Counterparts: Contact, Comparison, Contrast,” which, although
demonstrating Æthelwold’s debt to the writings of Bede, nevertheless feels out
of place in a volume that has a fairly narrow focus in both chronology and
theme. Most of the essays have additional notes (explicitly retractationes, not
retractions) and more recent bibliography, although the lack of the detailed
introduction that Wormald planned is sorely felt.
The 1984 Jarrow Lecture “Bede and the Conversion of England: the Charter
Evidence” forms chapter 4 and is in many ways the standout piece of this collection. The complex and often daunting subjects of diplomatic and AngloSaxon land tenure are introduced gently and eruditely and, as always with
Wormald, with an eye to the Continent.That this essay remains the best introduction to these subjects despite a near-revolution in charter studies over the
past two decades is an indication of the learning and insight that Wormald
brought.“Bede, Beowulf and the Conversion of the Anglo-Saxon Aristocracy”
likewise continues to occupy a central place on many reading lists, and
Wormald’s basic thesis that Beowulf is a product of pre-Alfredian England and
reflects the cultural environment of the secularized monasteries condemned

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by Bede remains persuasive, although not totally compelling. Recent work, in
particular Mary Garrison’s reconsideration of Alcuin’s famous phrase “Quid
Hinieldus cum Christo?,” is likely to necessitate further nuancing of Wormald’s
ideas, and late-daters of Beowulf will no doubt remain unconvinced, but, again,
this piece still has important things to say.
Other essays in the collection have unfortunately weathered less well.The
opening chapter,“Bede and Benedict Biscop,” originally published in 1976, sets
out the Continental context for Wearmouth-Jarrow and the various influences
operating upon Bede.Yet the cloistered, otherworldly Bede who emerges from
this study is precisely the one who did not survive his encounter with Walter
Goffart, and the additional notes at the end of the chapter are insufficient to
take full account of the seismic shift initiated by The Narrators of Barbarian
History (Princeton, 1988). The two essays that focus on the creation of a sense
of English identity and unity, chapters 3 and 6, likewise engage with debates
that have moved on considerably since the essays were first published,
although here it is precisely because Wormald’s interventions had such effect.
This collection is, then, something of a mixed bag. Some essays remain relevant to ongoing debates; others have predominantly historiographical interest. On display throughout, however, is Wormald’s considerable intellect and
erudition and in the earlier essays in particular an enviable familiarity with
Continental scholarship. There are also occasional flashes of the theater that
was a Wormald lecture. If there is one overriding impression, however, it is of
a work unfinished and loose ends left untied. Baxter has done an admirable job
of bringing this work to publication, but at the end the reader is left only with
a sense of what might have been.
University of Manchester

MARTIN RYAN

The Crusades, the Kingdom of Sicily, and the Mediterranean. By James M.
Powell. [Variorum Collected Studies Series, CS871.] (Burlington,VT:Ashgate
Publishing Company. 2007. Pp. x, 300. $114.95. ISBN 978-0-754-65917-4.)
This volume of collected studies brings together seventeen articles written
between 1962 and 2003 by James M. Powell, a leading American historian of
the crusades and the medieval Mediterranean period. Sixteen of these are previously published pieces.The text of an inaugural lecture delivered at the Malta
Study Centre, Saint John’s University, in 1999 (“Crusading: 1099–1999”) is
printed here for the first time.All but one of the articles is written in English
(“Franceso d’Assisi e la Quinta Crociata. Una missione di pace”).The majority
of the contributions treat some aspect either of the crusades or the Kingdom
of Sicily under the Hohenstaufen rulers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. A focal point in these groups of articles concerns the relationship
between Christians and Muslims throughout the countries bordering the
Mediterranean during this key period of intensified intercultural and interreli-

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785

gious conflict.The topics span a wide range: from the royal crusade projects
of the Hohenstaufen, the contribution of women to the crusade movement,
and Matthew Paris’s comments on Muhammad to the trade relations of
medieval Sicily. Quite a number of Powell’s articles mark the departure of new
avenues of investigation. For example, his 1977 article on Honorius III’s crusade politics first confirmed the important role this pope played in implementing the strategies of his famous predecessor Innocent III. By the same
token, Powell’s 1992 article on the vow redemptions of a group of Genoese
women and their contribution toward financing the crusade highlighted for
the first time the important nexus between crusade propaganda, women, and
finance in the thirteenth century. As exemplified by these articles, Powell’s
work has always been marked by an uncompromising approach that places
reading, rereading, and freshly interpreting sources first.A master in searching
for new evidence and in teasing out details of meaning, Powell has always
insisted on an interpretation of history that closely follows the evidence.This
explains why the publishers did not restrict this collection to Powell’s more
recent publications, but include articles written some thirty or forty years ago
that have stood the test of time and still are essential reading for researchers
in these fields. But Powell’s articles should not only be read for his efforts to
introduce and interpret new evidence. Throughout, his work is driven by an
eagerness to understand medieval history from a modern perspective. For
Powell, understanding the medieval crusade and the relation between
Christians and Muslims in these past centuries always includes “lessons to be
learned” (p. 13). He is far from drawing crude parallels or proposing simplistic
solutions to today’s problems from a past that was and always will be different. But reading through the closing pages of Powell’s lecture at the Malta
Study Centre, in which he comments that the study of the medieval crusade
can help put the modern conflicts in the Balkans into perspective, gives readers an idea of just how much Powell’s voice as a medieval historian is guided
by and speaking toward the present. Researchers working in the fields covered
by this collection will be ignoring Powell’s work at their own risk. This collection will help to ensure that they do not.
University of Zurich

CHRISTOPH T. MAIER

Bohémond d’Antioche: Chevalier d’Aventure. By Jean Flori. [Biographie
Payot.] (Paris: Payot & Rivages. 2007. Pp. 380. €25,00 paperback. ISBN 9782-228-90226-7.)
Bohémond of Antioch (c. 1058–1111) enjoyed enormous attention from his
contemporaries, as well as from modern scholars, for his role in the First
Crusade as well as his two efforts to conquer the Byzantine empire (1080–85,
1107–08). Nevertheless, there had not been a scholarly biography of this man
since R. B.Yewdale’s study in 1924. Jean Flori, director of research at the Centre
d’études supérieures de civilisation médiévale in Poitiers, has essayed to

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redress this lacuna with a biography that has at its central focus Bohémond’s
career as a “knightly adventurer” (chevalier d’aventure).
Flori, who is perhaps best known for his voluminous studies on medieval
chivalry and knighthood, identifies four major reasons for writing this biography.As a scholar, who sees himself in the annaliste tradition, Flori insists that
it is crucial to demonstrate that biography can be consistent with an annaliste
focus on the long durée through an emphasis on individuals, such as
Bohémond, who were catalysts for change. Flori contends that to do otherwise
is to leave biography in the hands of amateurs, who have neither the skills nor
the desire to provide a clear and realistic picture of the past. Flori’s second
stimulus is to demonstrate that Bohémond is a paradigmatic figure of the lateeleventh century incorporating the values, desires, and behaviors of the
knightly aristocracy who ruled Europe. Third, Flori sees Bohemond’s life and
career as a valuable prism through which to evaluate the parti pris of the
numerous narrative sources that provide information about the First Crusade.
It is Flori’s contention that scholars have failed to pay adequate attention to
the biases of and audiences for these works. Finally, Flori insists that Bohémond
is simply a fascinating figure whose story should be told.
The work is divided into twenty-four chapters with a prologue and epilogue. The biography has three major sections. Chapters 1–4 provide a brief
introduction to Norman settlement in southern Italy; the career of
Bohémond’s father, Robert Guiscard; and Bohémond’s early career in southern
Italy, including the first invasion of the Byzantine empire under his father’s
overall command. Chapters 5–15 treat the First Crusade from Bohémond’s perspective. Chapters 16–24 deal with Bohémond’s effort to establish, maintain,
and expand the principality of Antioch. The bibliography is extensive with
regard to both French and English language scholarship, but includes only a
very small number of German works. Flori provides an extensive scholarly
apparatus with citations to both sources and scholarly works.
There is much to praise in this study. Flori’s detailed discussion of
Bohémond’s career, which is based on a close reading of documentary as well
as narrative sources, provides valuable insights into the Norman’s decision
making as well as his personality. Flori’s analysis of the biases of contemporary
authors and the audiences for their works is also fruitful. For example, it has
long puzzled scholars how the crusader army could continue to hold Peter the
Hermit in high esteem if he had attempted to desert during the siege of
Antioch, as claimed by the anonymous author of the Gesta Francorum and the
authors of seven other contemporary works. Flori demonstrates that the Gesta
is the only source for this claim, as the other works depend on this text for the
story about Peter. Flori then shows that the text of the Gesta was changed
while the anonymous author and Bohémond were at the court of King Philip
I of France, because the story of desertion originally had been about Guy the
Red.When Bohémond arrived at the French court to seek aid for his planned

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787

invasion of the Byzantine empire, Guy held the post of royal seneschal, and
thus it was ill-advised to remind such a man of his earlier cowardice (p. 268).
Unfortunately, however, Flori’s critical analysis of source bias does not
extend into the realm of military affairs.The many scholars who have criticized
Flori for his romantic views of knightly chivalry will find much to dispute in
this biography as well. Accepting as plain text the biases of his sources, Flori
devotes enormous attention to the central role played by “knights”(chevaliers)
in eleventh-century warfare. In particular, he focuses on the putatively crucial
tactic of the massed charge of heavily armored knights thundering across the
field with couched lances (p. 23).This almost myopic focus on knights is particularly jarring given Flori’s own discussion of the dozens of sieges, including
Amalfi, Durazzo, Nicaea, and Antioch that dominated Bohémond’s military campaigns. Serious scholars can no longer continue to employ shibboleths about
chivalry, knighthood, and warrior aristocracies when discussing the reality of
medieval warfare, which was dominated by foot soldiers of low social origins
engaged in the defense and capture of fortifications.
In sum, this is a worthy addition to scholarship on Norman Italy, the First
Crusade and Crusader States, source criticism, and especially the career of
Bohémond.This book will be of considerable value to graduate students and
professional scholars alike.
University of New Hampshire

DAVID S. BACHRACH

Historia Ierosolimitana. History of the Journey to Jerusalem. By Albert of
Aachen. Edited and translated by Susan B. Edgington. [Oxford Medieval
Texts.] (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007. Pp. lxii, 949. $302.50. ISBN
978-0-199-20486-1.)
The author of this history of the First Crusade and the early years of the
Latin settlements in the East, who goes by the name of Albert of Aachen, wrote
that he had been thwarted in joining the expedition. He was not, therefore, an
eyewitness of the events he described and there are inconsistencies and
chronological inaccuracies in his account. At the same time no one can deny
that he has left a simply wonderful text. It is also the main source for subjects
such as the crusade of 1101 and the county of Edessa, and it is full of details
that are not found elsewhere, such as reports on the entourage of Godfrey of
Bouillon, the first Latin ruler of Jerusalem, and on the early years of the settlements. The reaction of most historians, however, has been extraordinarily
ambivalent. Few have dared to question the apparently late date of a text that
everyone thought could not have been composed long before 1128 or to challenge Heinrich von Sybel’s destructive criticism of its reliability in the 1840s,
but at the same time its inestimable value as an independent source has made
historians reluctant to dismiss it. Instead, they have seized on the supposed
existence of a lost Lorrainer chronicle that, they claim, was the basis of Albert’s

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account and the primitive version of the Chanson d’Antioche. This assertion
ignores the fact that it is quite impossible to identify the contents of any original redaction of the Chanson. In recent years, however, a few, including
myself, and also those brave individuals who have somewhat vainly tried to
rehabilitate the role of Peter the Hermit in the crusade, have chosen to ignore
the problems and have treated Albert as almost as good a source as the eyewitness accounts.
Edgington’s edition cannot be praised highly enough, and its value to future
historians is almost beyond estimation, because she has resolved many of the
issues. She provides the badly needed definitive edition—a major achievement, because the text is long and quite complex. She also suggests very convincingly that it was written in two stages. The first half (books i–vi) is composed of what Albert originally intended to be a free-standing account of the
crusade and was completed soon after 1102. He then began again and wrote
an account in books vii–xii of the early years of the Latin settlements, which
ends abruptly in mid-course in 1119.The two halves had been pasted together
by the late 1120s, but the account of the First Crusade already may have been
in circulation. This would explain why later in the century William of Tyre
made extensive use of it in his Chronicon, but did not reference books vii–xii,
which would have been of great value to him.Thus, although Albert may not
have been an eyewitness, his narrative of the crusade was a very early one, and
his sources of information seem more solid. Questions, of course, remain, and
some of Heinrich von Sybel’s remarks are still useful correctives, but Albert has
been rehabilitated, and a first-class edition of his history now exists.
Emmanuel College, Cambridge

JONATHAN RILEY-SMITH

The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus. Vol. 3: The
City of Jerusalem. By Denys Pringle. (New York: Cambridge University
Press. 2007. Pp. xxvi, 506; plates 212, figures 81, maps 5. $195.00. ISBN 9780-521-39038-5.)
The long-anticipated third volume of Denys Pringle’s magisterial Corpus
will undoubtedly be the most consulted as it is devoted to the churches of
Jerusalem, the capital of the Crusader Kingdom from 1099 to 1187. The
volume appears nine years after the second and fourteen years after the first
and, it would appear, twenty-eight years after the project was initiated.
Although this was projected to be the final volume of the Corpus, the quantity
of material proved to be too substantial, and we must now await a fourth
volume to complete the series, containing the churches of Acre and Tyre, as
well as the addenda and corrigenda.
The Corpus is effectively redefining how crusader architecture is studied,
for it is significantly expanding the parameters of inquiry. Prior to its publication, scholars relied on Camille Enlart’s Les monuments de croisés dans le roy-

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aume de Jérusalem (Paris, 1925–28) as the most thorough treatment of the
subject, although it discussed only about sixty buildings. Much additional
research has been done since Enlart’s time, but the sites are often difficult to
access and the publications equally difficult to locate. Volume 3 adds eightyseven churches to the total, raising the ante to 370.With the final volume, the
total should approach 500. In addition to well-preserved buildings, Pringle
includes those known only from archaeology or the textual record, and several
that remain unidentified.
Well researched and well organized, the Corpus is a model of orderly and
authoritative documentation. The present volume assimilates all publications
up to around 2004 and combines them with field surveys of the surviving
buildings and standing remains.The entries provide topographical coordinates
to relate the buildings to the maps included at the end of the volume. Each
entry begins with a discussion of the history and (if necessary) identification
of the site, as well as with a survey of the sources and historical literature.
Buildings are described in detail and illustrated with current and historical
photographs—the latter critical for altered or lost buildings. Plans, elevations,
and reconstruction drawings have been redone from existing drawings, modified where necessary, or produced anew based on Pringle’s fieldwork. The
result is a visual consistency rarely achieved in publications of this sort.Verbal
descriptions include, where appropriate, architectural decorations, furnishings, associated buildings, epigraphy, frescoes, mosaics, and masons’ marks.
Each major entry concludes with a balanced assessment of the scholarship on
the subject.
In the final analysis, Pringle is more concerned with the documentation
than with the interpretation, which he is content to leave to others. Rarely
does he launch into speculation of an art-historical nature, and most often the
conclusions are guarded. I am not quite ready to abandon the association of
the eleventh-century Holy Sepulchre with Constantine IX Monomachos, as
Pringle does, following Martin Biddle (pp. 11–12). Nor am I convinced by his
restoration of the Church of the Ascension, with its awkward vaulting system
(pp. 78 ff.); indeed, it is unclear from his plan (figure 9) what survives and what
he proposes. Still, this section represents the clearest analysis in print of a very
difficult building.The same holds true for St. Mary on Mount Sion: although the
analysis is clear, the reconstruction remains unconvincing.The analysis of the
monuments in the area of the Muristan area is also noteworthy.
Quibbles are minor. I would have liked more attention to the construction
techniques, or at least a better indication of what sort of evidence Pringle is
relying upon to make chronological distinctions or as evidence for reconstruction. In general, masonry techniques are poorly illustrated in the plates
and unrepresented in the drawings. In terms of presentation, the system of parenthetical notes adopted in the earlier volumes becomes unmanageable with
the major monuments of Jerusalem, for which there are simply too many citations to accommodate without losing the narrative flow of the text. Finally,

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survey technology and methods of site documentation have also changed in
the last ten years. Plan figure 7, for example, of the Holy Sepulchre complex is
the most comprehensible I have seen published, but it is nevertheless simplified and regularized. For a monument as important as this (and for many
others), more accuracy and more detail would be most welcome.
University of Pennsylvania

ROBERT OUSTERHOUT

Envisaging Heaven in the Middle Ages. Edited by Carolyn Muessig and Ad
Putter with the assistance of Gareth Griffith and Judith Jefferson.
[Routledge Studies in Medieval Religion and Culture, 6.] (New York:
Routledge. 2007. Pp. xiv, 257. $140.00. ISBN 978-0-203-96621-1.)
The excellent papers in this well-focused anthology were delivered at a
research program at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Bristol
in 2002–04.The editors’ introductory survey of recent scholarship also introduces the other fifteen essays in the book, which allocates them to four parts.
Part 2 contains two magisterial surveys of medieval theology. Bernard
McGinn traces the developing and conflicting ways in which theology and
mysticism envisaged the vision of God. Peter Dronke surveys the notion of
apocatastasis (the salvation of all humanity).The other two essays in this section are more specific. Beverly Kienzle studies, in Hildegard of Bingen’s
Expositiones on the Gospel, the role of the virtues and the Holy Spirit in the
Christian’s effort rebuild the lost paradise, and the contours of the heavenly
Jerusalem. Carolyn Muessig presents the heavenly empyrean, visionary experiences of it on this earth, and angelology in the sermons of Jacques de Vitry (c.
1160–1240).
Several articles in the book refer to the observations of Peter Dinzelbacher
and Bernard McGinn that in the twelfth century most visions of heaven were
one-time, otherworld journeys by men, whereas in the thirteenth century
women often had recurring experiences of the afterlife that offered specific
prophetic information. Part 3 offers four studies of such visionary experiences.
Robert Easting surveys the literature of such visions of heaven and finds the
accounts reticent on what the seers actually saw and heard.The other articles
in this section are more narrowly focused. Mary Suydam investigates beguine
experiences of heaven, which enhanced the status of the seers while bringing
other people information about the status of souls. Steven Rozenski, Jr., shows
the tension between heavenly apparitions and apophaticism in Henry Suso’s
works.A. C. Spearing finds that Marguerite Porete’s Mirror for Simple Souls dissolved the orthodox boundary between heaven and earth and suggests that
Porete’s self-understanding was elitist and disturbingly masochistic.
Part 4 includes studies of how heaven was presented in medieval drama
(Peter Meredith), the lyrics and performance of four of Hildegard’s songs

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(Stephen D’Evelyn); canto 28 of Dante’s Paradiso (Robin Kirkpatrick); and the
intricate poetry of the Pearl, the Marienleich of Heinrich von Meissen (d.
1318), and Dante’s Paradiso (Barbara Newman). These last three articles are
models of close, insightful literary analysis. Part 5,“Vernacular appropriations,”
opens with a very interesting study of how Irish traditions of hospitality and
banqueting blended with devotional currents from the continent to form a
particularly Irish vision of the heavenly banquet, open to all who would enter,
where the wine-blood of Christ was both requisite and reward.The final two
articles discuss how romantic love was described in heavenly terms in
Chaucer’s works (Elizabeth Archibald) and how the fairy world of medieval
romances incorporated the descriptions of the heavenly Jerusalem in the Book
of Revelation and New Testament apocrypha (Ad Putter).
It is a tribute to the editors and authors that they are able to enter into a
world so different from our own.The titles of two books suggest just how different: Jeffrey Burton Russell, Paradise Mislaid: How We Lost Heaven—and
How We Can Regain It (Oxford, 2006), and Robert Wuthnow, After Heaven:
Spirituality in America since the 1950s (Berkeley, 1998). Wuthnow believes
that in our mobile society we are “seekers” rather than “dwellers.” The
medieval thinkers and artists discussed in this book were seekers also, but
most of them sought a lasting dwelling place that they envisaged as heaven.
Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, Idaho

HUGH FEISS, O.S.B.

Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth. By Alessandro Scafi.
(London:The British Library; Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2006. Pp.
398. $55.00. ISBN 978-0-226-73559-7.)
Why were medieval maps so inaccurate and fanciful, even on well-traveled
routes where sailors, traders, or pilgrims knew better? Perhaps early world
maps are accurate and insightful descriptions of something, but of what?
This is the question Alessandro Scafi so engagingly addresses in his erudite,
thorough, and beautiful volume, specifically addressing the place of the
Garden of Eden, the biblical paradise, on mappae mundi. More than a thousand of these maps survive and their descendants in the modern era are
legion. His answer: these mappae mundi are conceptual representations, neither serving the same purpose as today’s maps nor ever envisioned so.Their
evolution depicts the theological centrality and rational evolution of the concept of perfected Paradise, the beginning and end of time, and man’s journey
through this cosmography.
Scafi begins with the two interpretations of Eden in early Christian theology: the allegorical and the literal. In the Platonic view of Eden set out by the
Judeo-Hellenic philosopher Philo, the garden was the rational human soul, its
trees representing virtues and wisdom. The four rivers of Eden represented

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Prudence, Courage, Self-Mastery, and Justice. Adam was the divine archetype,
and the story of the Fall was one of moral struggle to return to divine perfection. Origen in Alexandria continued in this allegorical tradition: Eve, the heart,
was married to Adam, the spirit, and as the heart succumbs to corporeal pleasures, the spirit is drawn away from divine perfection.The Garden of Eden was
the perfected Church and the Tree of Life an allusion to Christ.
At the same time, however, John Chrysostom of Constantinople argued that
Eden was a literal, physical place, and the story of the Fall happened in literal
history. Augustine not only united these two trends but also gave Eden the theological and metaphorical power that made it a focus of attention for centuries: “The geography of Eden, initially a marginal aspect of Augustine’s version of history, became an issue that snowballed through the Middle Ages and
bequeathed to the modern period a conundrum which . . . has continued to
haunt Western thought to the present day” (p. 47). The Paradise of medieval
maps thus differed critically from depictions of other fantastical lands.
Paradise was both the beginning of time (the Eden of Genesis) and the end
of time (the Heavenly City of Revelation). For this reason, Eden is depicted in
many maps not as a green garden but as a walled city. A world map that did
not include the Edenic Paradise left out not only central truths of salvation but
also of the world as it was.
That is the big picture. The book’s cornucopia of charms, however, lie in
the details.Why did medieval and Renaissance thinkers locate the Garden of
Eden in India, Ceylon, China,Armenia, Syria, Persia,Arabia,Africa, Palestine, the
Alps, the Caspian, the South Pole, America, underground, or on the moon?
Each had its implications for theology and history, and each had its geographical and theological justifications.What happened to the cherubim and
the flaming sword set to guard Paradise? Were the fragrant spice branches
found floating down the Nile really broken from trees in Eden? Did Alexander
the Great and Ulysses succeed in their attempts to sail to Paradise? Why did
Dante put Paradise on a mountain peak in the southern hemisphere? If northoriented maps and east-oriented maps coexisted for centuries, why did the
north-oriented maps eventually become standard, and what were the theological implications of this shift?
By the fourteenth century, the “honeymoon” of philosophy and theology
had ended, and by 1500 it was already apparent to scholars, theologians, and
geographers that no credible earthly location for the Edenic Paradise had been
found.The allegorical reading revived with the ascendance of neo-Platonism,
but literalists too found new explanations. Numerous Renaissance humanists
now argued that Eden had been the whole earth, which had been transformed
in toto by the Fall. Luther preached that Eden “was utterly destroyed and annihilated by the Flood” (qtd. on p. 267). Calvin, in his Commentary on Genesis
(1553), put Eden in real space in Mesopotamia, but argued that its nature as
Paradise had been transformed and lost. Calvin’s argument, both rational and

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theological, carries through to Bible-based mapmakers today, thus explaining
the appearance of “Eden” on maps throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth, and
twentieth centuries, showing what literally had existed in a historical time and
place (usually somewhere in the Euphrates-Tigris delta of modern Iraq), but
was now gone.That paradise is not only inaccessible but also, at least until the
end of the world, unrecoverable. Paradise is thus ever present but always lost.
Scafi’s discussion is always accessible and clear, and the illustrations are
abundant and fascinating. Scafi deserves praise also for his simplified diagrams
that complement detailed maps otherwise difficult to read. The list of maps
from published and manuscript sources and the bibliography of literature in
many languages and across several centuries are both superb.
Fairfield University

CHERIE WOODWORTH

Miracles and Wonders: The Development of the Concept of Miracle,
1150–1350. By Michael E. Goodich. [Church, Faith and Culture in the
Medieval West.] (Burlington,VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2007. Pp. xii,
148. $99.95. ISBN 978-0-754-65875-7.)
As Gary Dickson notes in his “Appreciating Michael Goodich,” which introduces this book, the late Goodich produced more than forty articles and ten
books, including this one. The theme of most of this corpus was medieval
saints, their miracles, and their hagiography. It is fitting, then, that Miracles and
Wonders presents us with an overview of many of Goodich’s earlier ideas and
writings. Following an introduction, Goodich takes up the problem of the theology of miracle, tracing the development of the concept within a Christian
context from the early patristic writings to the fully articulated scholasticism
of Aquinas, Albertus Magnus, and Engelbert of Admont (d. 1331), who is perhaps a less familiar figure whose work Goodich helpfully explores. A chapter
on miracles in medieval sermons emphasizes the polarities between a stress
on the moral virtues of a saint and her or his wonder-working charisma;
Goodich maintains that the “official” Church, supporting the first approach,
found itself tugging against the preference for thaumaturgical fireworks preferred by what he calls “believers.” Chapter 4 deals with skepticism within a
“popular” milieu, in which Goodich calls attention to a continuing opposition
to beliefs about miracles throughout the Middle Ages. He emphasizes the use
of wonder-stories as propaganda against skeptics, including heretics, pagans,
Muslims, and Jews.The chapter refers to punishment for blasphemy against the
saints, political reasons for opposition to particular saints’ cults, and the negative effects of what Goodich terms “clerical greed”in supporting cults. Chapter
5, on the theory and policy of dealing with miracles as presented in canonization records, analyzes the bureaucratic treatment of the causes of Elizabeth of
Thuringia, Philip of Bourges, Louis IX, Celestine V, and Thomas of Hereford.
Chapter 6,“Canonization and the Hagiographical Text,” continues the study of
procedures introduced in the previous chapter. Here the new thirteenth-

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century legal standards required before accepting a miracle are examined,
again—as is typical in Goodich’s writings—with extensive examples. The
penultimate chapter, on dream and vision in miracle reports, includes the interesting suggestion that perhaps some or many canonizations were inspired by
papal visions. In his conclusion, Goodich emphasizes his contention that much
of the Church’s concern to develop a “rational” mode of miracle investigation
evolved as a response to a need to defend the concept, and Christianity itself,
against “its chief polemical opponent, Judaism and its new enemies, the
heretics.”The useful bibliography includes a list of primary sources in manuscript and print. Interestingly, there seems to be no reference to the works of
Goeffrey di Trani (d. 1245) or Johannes Andreae (d. 1348), canonists whose
analyses of miracle-proofs came be repeated at least into the sixteenth century.
The list of secondary sources might have included the older but still useful
works of Eric Kemp, Benedicta Ward, and Aviad Kleinberg. The specialist in
medieval hagiography will find this a handy overview that includes some comments that might—as in any good study—evoke disagreement and the need
for further investigation; but the book will be even more useful to those new
to the field, fresh recruits to what Goodich called “the increasing army of
scholars” attacking the problems of medieval hagiography.
Oakland University

RONALD C. FINUCANE

St Margaret’s Gospel-book: The Favourite Book of an Eleventh-Century
Queen of Scots. By Rebecca Rushforth. [Treasures from the Bodleian
Library.] (Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2007. Pp. 114; 60 color illustrations. $45.00. ISBN 978-1-851-24370-9.)
In this slim, beautifully illustrated volume, Rebecca Rushforth presents the
biography of a very precious historical witness to a defining era for the
medieval kingdom of Scotland. Although set into the context of the life and
career of Margaret (c.1046–93), second wife of King Malcolm III, the queen is
not the primary focus here; it is her personal gospel-book that is the central
character. Pre-twelfth-century manuscripts with Scottish connections are rare:
pre-twelfth-century manuscripts possessing firm associations with a major
figure in Scotland’s history rarer still. The survival of this unique treasure—
even more remarkable given its accidental loss in a river during Margaret’s
own lifetime, an event recorded by the queen’s biographer and confirmed by
a Latin poem inserted at the beginning of the gospel-book—provides a rare
glimpse into the private thoughts and personal beliefs of a woman who had
an immediate and profound influence on the shaping and directing of the spiritual, cultural, and political life of her husband’s kingdom.
Although provided with full academic apparatus, the text is aimed at an
informed lay readership. The historical context in which Margaret is set, the
political relationships around her, and the complex kinship connections at the
heart of which she and her husband stood are presented in a straightforward

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narrative that flags up areas of contention and debate without becoming
bogged down in detail. Likewise, the posthumous reputation of Margaret, the
queen and saint, and the uses to which she was put as “the perfect princess”
and a symbol of union and amity, are offered only in summary. It is in the third
chapter that the text comes alive in an expanded discussion of the format of
the book, the materials used, and how it was physically assembled, written, and
illustrated.The context of its production highlights the level of elite female literacy in late Anglo-Saxon England and underscores the importance of nunneries like Romsey or Wilton as refuges for high-status women and preservers of
native English culture in the immediate post-Conquest period.The discussion
of the gospel-book’s contents is cautious, raising the suggestion that the selection was personal to Margaret, but admitting that this cannot be proven.There
is some limited analysis of the texts, their contents, and liturgical associations.
Here, more consideration of the significance of the material chosen would
have been helpful, perhaps offering clearer insight into its compiler’s aims for
the gospel-book.
Given the intended readership of the volume, there are few legitimate criticisms that can be made. It could be said that the historical narrative that
underpins the discussion is oversimplified. For example, some more details of
her childhood in the spiritual hothouse of mid-eleventh-century Hungary and
the influence that her exposure there to the missionary zeal and reforming
energy of the recently formed national church would, perhaps, have helped to
set Margaret’s personal faith firmly into context.That, possibly, might have permitted greater insight into the personal meanings for her that the gospelbook’s content held or were intended to have by its maker. But a more detailed
historical analysis would have changed the balance of the text and shifted the
focus from the gospel-book to its owner. Instead, if we wish to know more
about context, Rushforth points us in the direction of the main authorities.The
book’s one flaw is a copyediting error: the numbering of the illustrations does
not correspond with the in-text references. But that is more of an irritation
than a failure and does not detract from what is otherwise a splendid introduction to one of the Bodleian Library’s lesser-known gems.
University of Stirling

RICHARD D. ORAM

Teacher in Faith and Virtue: Lanfranc of Bec’s Commentary on Saint Paul.
By Ann Collins. [Commentaria. Sacred Texts and Their Commentaries:
Jewish, Christian and Islamic,Vol. 1.] (Boston: Brill. 2007. Pp. x, 219. $129.00.
ISBN 978-9-004-16347-8.)
Following the revamped dissertation tradition, Collins acknowledges previous scholars, here Margaret Gibson and H. E. J. Cowdrey, before launching her
own maiden voyage. Ports of call include Bec, the manuscripts of Lanfranc’s
Pauline glosses, his use of the artes, the theology extracted from the text, and

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his treatment of patristic authorities. Her venture yields fresh and valuable discoveries. But her revisionist stance is not always vindicated.
Most significant is Collins’s analysis of the manuscripts. She adds one, first
noted by Wilfried Hartmann, to Gibson’s list, agreeing that the fullest and best
is the earliest, Canterbury Cathedral Archives Add. MS. 172. It should serve as
the base text for a new critical edition. And evaluations of Lanfranc’s Pauline
exegesis should be confined to it, since later manuscripts amplify or condense
Lanfranc’s comments or convert his glosses into a continuous commentary.
Collins also illustrates and clearly explicates several types of Lanfranc’s marginal glosses.
Other proposals of hers are less convincing. Collins treats the Vita
Lanfranci, written by Milo Crispin, prior of Bec in the mid-twelfth century, as
largely reliable, although Gibson and Cowdrey show, by cross-checking with
other sources, that Crispin retrojects into the eleventh century the kind of Bec,
and the kind of Lanfranc, he wants. In the absence of evidence, and despite
countervailing evidence, Collins dates Lanfranc’s Pauline glosses to the 1040s,
just after he arrived at Bec, although the work required the library he began to
assemble only after becoming prior in 1045. Lanfranc’s earliest documentable
work, his debate with Berengar of Tours, dates to the late 1050s. Gibson’s and
Cowdrey’s dating of the Pauline glosses to ca. 1055–60 remains persuasive.
Collins accepts the VL’s claim that Lanfranc, in embracing monastic life,
exchanged the artes for sacred literature. She estimates that he applies them
to Paul only to explicate the apostle’s own use of them. This assertion, however, depends on which passages of Lanfranc one cites. Both Gibson and
Cowdrey show that he sometimes reformulates as logical syllogisms arguments not framed that way by Paul. Collins also narrows Lanfranc’s audience
and his Pauline theology, in comparison with these predecessors. Her citations
focus on fundamental doctrine, as taught only to monks; Gibson and Cowdrey
note Lanfranc’s interest as well in church reform and practical ethics relevant
to a broad Christian public. Even ignoring the evidence identifying many of
Lanfranc’s extern students as secular clerics destined to interact with lay
people, this wider theological program is visible within Lanfranc’s text.
Collins repeatedly describes Lanfranc as an exegetical neophyte, who yet
improves in moving from Romans to Paul’s other epistles. Increasingly surefooted, he also gives increasing support to the anti-Pelagian Augustine—via the
florilegium of Florus of Lyons—in relation to Ambrosiaster, his other major
patristic authority. Here, Collins overlooks one of her own most original findings as an interpretive strategy. She argues that Lanfranc seeks to understand
each Pauline epistle in its historical context, attentive to the situation and composition of the apostle’s local audience. If, indeed, Lanfranc could make these
discriminations, it is likely that he could also discriminate among the patristic
insights that he thought would apply, selectively, to Paul’s message in each
case. This interpretation is just as plausible, on Collins’s own reading of

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Lanfranc, as her own developmental and increasingly late-Augustinian view of
him. Collins’s innovative presentation of Lanfranc the historical critic of the
Pauline epistles, coupled with a Lanfranc lacking analogous discernment in
handling his authorities, signals the highs and lows of her contribution.
Yale University

MARCIA L. COLISH

Thomas Becket and His Biographers. By Michael Staunton. [Studies in the
History of Medieval Religion, Vol. XXVIII.] (Rochester, NY: Boydell Press.
2006. Pp. viii, 246. $95.00. ISBN 978-1-843-83271-3.)
The materials for the life of Thomas Becket are substantial. In the Rolls
series published between 1875 and 1885, they fill seven sturdy volumes.These
contain correspondence relating to the archbishop’s career and biographies
written after his death, an event that shocked Western Christendom and provided a new perspective on his life.The correspondence has been re-edited—
that of John of Salisbury by W. J. Millor, H. E. Butler, and Christopher Brooke in
1955 and 1979; that of Thomas Becket by Anne Duggan in 2004—in the
Oxford Medieval Texts series. Becket’s life and death as seen by his biographers
have received more limited critical attention, and Staunton’s clearly structured
monograph meets a real need.
There are two main sections to this work. The first examines the chroniclers, the second the main themes of Becket’s life: conversion, conflict, trial,
exile, and martyrdom.Ten biographies are given extended treatment, of which
two are anonymous. Three of the authors had been Becket’s clerks: John of
Salisbury,William fitz Stephen, and Herbert of Bosham (whose long biography
is sensitively examined here). Three others—Edward Grim, Benedict of
Peterborough, and William of Canterbury—were eyewitnesses to the murder
and write vividly about it. Guernes, the only author writing in the vernacular,
and Alan of Tewkesbury obtained their information secondhand.The chapters
dealing with these authors pay particular attention to the modern literature.
Where there is disagreement, as on the dating of the Vita et Passio by John of
Salisbury (p. 26), Staunton tends to note this rather than advance his own
opinion.
The chapter on conversion sets out to answer the question,“How do we
explain the change from Thomas the worldly chancellor and friend of the king
to Thomas the archbishop, champion of the Church?” (p. 75). It demonstrates
how the literature on conversion was used to argue for the underlying consistency of Becket’s actions.The theme does not appear in the letters, but it was
a particular concern of Becket’s biographers.
Two useful chapters deal with the disputes that preceded Becket’s exile.
Staunton is surprised that only two biographies mention Becket’s resignation
as chancellor after his appointment as archbishop and states that this combi-

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nation of offices “was not unusual in twelfth-century Europe” (p. 98).This may
have been the case elsewhere, but the English custom was that the position
had to be relinquished. At a time when the customs of the king’s ancestors,
codified in the Constitutions of Clarendon, were the subject of debate, the king
was unlikely to have objected.The importance of the office of chancellor may
have been inflated because it was held by a future saint.
Becket spent the greater part of his short episcopate in exile, from October
1164 until a month before his martyrdom, and these years are covered in the
most original chapter in the book. In going into exile, Becket was turning his
back on many of his responsibilities, but his subsequent martyrdom, the subject of the final chapter, provided the defense for his action and changed the
nature of the discussion.The exile could be seen quite plausibly as a stage in
his conversion and a part of his journey toward martyrdom (p. 168).
This is an exemplary monograph. Staunton writes with clear, stylish detachment that never masks the importance of the issues raised by an iconic event
of twelfth-century European history.
University of Sheffield

EDMUND KING

Entre Champagne et Bourgogne: Beaumont, ancienne grange de l’abbaye
cistercienne de Clairvaux. By Christophe Wissenberg. (Paris: Picard. 2007.
Pp. 149. €29,00. ISBN 978-2-708-40787-9.)
This is a beautiful book about a Cistercian grange created in the twelfth
century that straddles the boundaries of three parishes, the divide between
two river valleys, and the boundaries of medieval Champagne and Burgundy.
Beaumont is among those granges for which an impressive barn still stands,
and the beautiful photographs of the interior and exterior both before and
after recent restoration, along with the reproductions of surviving early
modern maps and plans of the site make the publication well worthwhile. Its
findings about an early grange of a crucial house of the Cistercian Order are
clear.The Beaumont grange was located on land that had been cultivated earlier, but its tenants had disappeared and were replaced by Cistercian laybrother laborers. The grange practiced a polyculture of cereal production and
animal husbandry that drew on the resources of the nearby forest and wastelands, and it had access to the growing markets of the region—including provisioning towns holding the famous international fairs of Champagne.
A noteworthy finding is that the grange practiced a triennial rotation of
spring and winter crops with fallow, which is indicated both in documents and
later maps of the site.The description of how in the triennial rotation animals
were fed not only on the lands designated as fallow for that year but also on
the rest of the fields after harvest is masterly. Moreover, Clairvaux was such a
large abbey that its twelfth-century granges like Beaumont actually had sub-

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granges managed not from Clairvaux but from Beaumont, whose granger or
grangemaster was superior to those in charge of subgranges. Finally, the popularity of Clairvaux and its influential abbot Bernard meant that during his lifetime the abbey acquired almost every property needed to complete compact
holdings by seeking donations, whereas elsewhere Cistercian abbeys purchased land with cash.
I must quibble about the author’s assertion that the monks of Clairvaux, in
promising a perpetual annual rent or lifetime annuity to a former landowner
in their occasional land transactions, thus engaged in time purchases. I also dispute that such purchases were infractions of Cistercian ideals. Similarly, in discussing the grange of Morins in the context of Clairvaux’s other granges,
Wissenberg has missed the impact of a dispute between the abbey of SaintBenigne of Dijon and the priory of Morins.The abbey complained that in the
1170s its monks at Morins had allied themselves, their priory, and their lands
with Clairvaux, entering that community as converts to the stricter religious
life. In addition, there is some confusion about the distinction between meadows (Latin pratum/a) and pasture rights for animals, and the author seems to
have missed the point that meadows were the most valuable landholdings in
the medieval economy because they produced the hay used to feed animals
over the winter. Still, this is, overall, an impressive and beautiful book, and the
reader only wishes that more Cistercian granges should receive such loving
attention.
University of Iowa, Iowa City

CONSTANCE H. BERMAN

The Image of St. Francis: Responses to Sainthood in the Thirteenth Century.
By Rosalind B. Brooke. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2006. Pp.
xvi, 524. $135.00. ISBN 978-0-521-78291-3.)
The volume is massive. Brooke offers an overwhelming wealth of historical
information, and she covers multiple and varied areas of medieval study that in
one way or another connect the reader to St. Francis of Assisi. Although an
introductory brief statement identifies the book as “an important new study of
the way in which St. Francis’s image was recorded in literature, documents,
architecture and art” (n.p.), the notion of “image” is loosely utilized throughout
the book.
The notion of image serves more as a device to connect the multiple historical, literary, and artistic interests of the author. These interests consist of
Francis’s own writings, the earliest literature after Francis’s death (Thomas of
Celano’s Life of St. Francis, etc.), the construction of the Basilica of St. Francis,
the Expositions of the Rule, further hagiographical texts on Francis through
the 1240s, emergence of new altar panels presenting the image of Francis,
sermons and the Legenda Maior by St. Bonaventure as well as subsequent

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later Leonine writings, and the decoration of the lower and upper churches of
the Basilica, with special attention given to the St. Francis Cycle of the upper
church. Finally, near the end of the volume there is a chapter on the nineteenth-century rediscovery of Francis’s body and then a final chapter on
Blessed Angela of Foligno’s image of St. Francis. Unfortunately, St. Clare’s image
of St. Francis never appears.
The eleven chapters of the book more closely resemble a collection of fascinating encyclopedia articles on very interesting topics. In a footnote at the
beginning of chapter 7, the author acknowledges that the chapter is based on
lectures delivered in Cambridge in the late 1970s and 1980s.This confirms the
impression that substantial parts of some of the chapters represent research
done earlier in the author’s long and distinguished academic career. Several
repetitions in different chapters, especially dealing with Joachim of Fiore, also
pointed in this direction.
Once the reader forgets about the title of the book, there is easy entry into
the study and library of Rosalind Brooke, where abundant knowledge can be
harvested of thirteenth-century (mostly Italian) culture, art, and papal politics,
all of which contribute to the context for understanding St. Francis and some
aspects of literary and artistic origins of the Franciscan tradition. This is the
strength of the volume. It makes more historical information on Francis of
Assisi and on the efforts to promote his memory and his cult available in one
volume than exists in several volumes.
Much comes together for the completion of the frescos of the upper
church with the election of the first Franciscan pope, Nicholas IV (Jerome of
Ascoli) in 1288, especially when he collaborates with his friend and successor
as minister general, Matthew of Aquasparta. Brooke offers a wealth of information that lies behind the completion of the frescos. However, when it comes to
her interpretation of the three tiers of frescos in the nave of the upper church,
the shadows of Ubertino of Casale, Sabbatier, and Moorman linger. Ironically,
she overlooks the mystical, biblical, and theological vision of St. Bonaventure
that inspired the frescos and appeals to St.Thomas of Aquinas to substantiate
her “historical and literal” reading of the frescos. In doing this, the rich theology and symbols behind the texts and frescos that are emphasized in recent
studies are missed.
Saint Louis University

WAYNE HELLMANN, O.F.M. CONV.

The Interdict in the Thirteenth Century: A Question of Collective Guilt. By
Peter D. Clarke. (New York: Oxford University Press. 2007. Pp. x, 300.
$117.00. ISBN 978-0-199-20860-9.)
Bishop Stubbs once described the interdict as the medieval Church’s most
suicidal weapon (p. 171)—suicidal because it all but invited the laity to turn

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its back on the Church. An interdict was a penal sanction in the medieval
canon law barring everyone subjected to it from participation in most of the
Church’s sacraments. It could be imposed on an individual, but more typically
it fell upon a locality, even (as in the famous case of the English King John)
upon an entire kingdom. Its design was to put pressure on a person responsible for an offense against the Church by depriving those who were connected
with that person of access to the services of the Church.This book is a useful
study of the subject, although it is a limited one. Its author sticks resolutely to
evidence from the thirteenth century.The curious reader will probably want
to know more about the origins of the interdict, its relation to the Roman law
interdict, and its history in later centuries.
The book deals with the subject in two parts.The first is the interdict’s place
in the canon law of the thirteenth century.The initial task of the jurists was classification: fixing the different forms of the sanction, distinguishing it from
excommunication, clarifying its consequences, and listing the exceptions that
were being carved out to soften its effect. For example, crusaders, charitable
workers, and noblemen were often given freedom to hear religious offices in
interdicted locations (pp. 136–38). The subsequent task of bringing interdicts
within principles of divine and natural law proved harder. Interdicts touched
the innocent, thus violating the established rule that punishment should be
reserved for the guilty, and they were often imposed by aggrieved parties, thus
posing a conflict in acting as judge in their own cause that was contrary to principles of natural law. Could any reason but practical advance of the Church’s
material interests be given for allowing interdicts? Yes, as it turns out, reasons
were found. Biblical example and exploration of the nature of collective guilt
provided answers of a sort. Indeed, interdicts led the canonists into some fruitful discussions of the right relation between kings and their subjects.
The book’s second part consists of an examination of the interdict in
action. Those placed on San Gemignano, Dax, and Béziers are examined in
detail. Others are noted more briefly. Countermeasures taken by secular rulers
are explored, and reactions common within the laity are discussed. There is
enough evidence to show that the laity resented the imposition of these interdicts.Why should they continue to pay tithes to a clergy that had gone out on
strike? Why should a mortuary payment be due when burial in consecrated
ground was forbidden? All the ingenuity of the canonists fell short of providing convincing answers to such questions, although they certainly tried. It
must have been at least in part the result of such resentment that territorial
interdicts were imposed less frequently as time went on.The thirteenth century seems to have been the high watermark.
The question remains: Did the interdict work? The book faces it squarely
and gives a qualified but affirmative answer. Medieval men thought the interdict “worth being free from” (p. 218).They were willing to give up their own
interests in favor of those of the Church to escape it. It thus turned out to be
less than suicidal in practice. Longer term results are harder to assess, and

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Clarke wisely avoids speculating about them.The result is a balanced presentation of a controversial subject.
University of Chicago

R. H. HELMHOLZ

The St. Albans Chronicle: The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham. Vol.
1: 1376–1394. Edited by John Taylor, Wendy R. Childs, and Leslie Watkiss.
[Oxford Medieval Texts.] (New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. Pp.
cxxi, 1030. $403.50. ISBN 978-0-198-20471-8.)
The Benedictine monks of St. Albans Abbey were the most prolific of all
English medieval chroniclers.There may have been those of superior scholarship (William of Malmesbury) and those that captured a wider audience
(Ranulf Higden), but none that could match either the scale or the remarkable
continuity of their historical enterprise, which encompassed a succession of
(sometimes synoptic) chronicles compiled between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries. The significance of their achievement and the historical,
political, and public value of their work were recognized by the first generation of English antiquarians who did much to recover their manuscripts in the
wake of the Dissolution and to present their version of history to a new readership.The new English histories of Hall and Holinshed even ensured that the
St.Albans stories of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V became embedded in the
Shakespearean history cycle. Their early assimilation into the national narrative, however, led to long centuries of neglect, and it was only after the inception of the Rolls series (1857) that a systematic attempt was made to recover
each chronicle from the extant manuscripts. These editions reflected many
weaknesses of the Rolls project as a whole, such as the arbitrary selection of
manuscripts for transcription and the imposition of titles and textual subdivisions of the editors’ own invention. Yet modern scholars have been notably
slow to re-examine them in spite of their singular mistreatment. There have
been a handful of interpretative studies, but the core texts themselves remain
untouched. An Arts and Humanities Research Council project to re-edit
Matthew Paris’s Chronica maiora remains stalled after more than a decade,
and his, and the later medieval narratives, are among the diminishing number
of English medieval authorities still routinely cited from the nineteenth-century transcriptions.The groundwork for a revision of the Rolls series editions
was laid seventy years ago by V. H. Galbraith, whose pioneering research
included the recovery of a fifteenth-century St. Albans recension omitted from
the original Rolls sequence. Fittingly, it is a former pupil of Galbraith, John
Taylor, together with his Leeds colleague Wendy Childs and Latinist Leslie
Watkiss, who now aim to continue the work and to complete a new edition of
the chronicle commonly attributed to Thomas Walsingham (c. 1340–c. 1422).
Taylor has immersed himself in the histories of fourteenth-century England for
the past fifty years, and his knowledge of the development and descent of the
principal narratives, from St. Albans and from other houses, remains unrivaled.

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Walsingham’s Chronica was the largest of the late-medieval chronicles
compiled by a single author at St.Albans, and its coverage, some forty-six years
or so, is comparable to Paris’s own Herculean labors. Walsingham has always
suffered by comparison with his thirteenth-century predecessor. His manuscripts lack Matthew’s lavish illustrations, and the quality of his writing has
been disparaged in the same way as much of the monastic literature of the
later Middle Ages; indeed, although almost nothing of Walsingham’s own life
and character can be recovered from the sources, as Taylor and Childs aver, he
is often characterized in almost Chaucerian terms as another self-interested
monk whose writing suffered from clerical chauvinism and a signal inability to
engage sympathetically with the world beyond the precinct walls.As the editors assert in their one-hundred-page introduction, however, Walsingham was
an exceptionally well-informed witness to a remarkable period of almost revolutionary change.There is no contemporary narrative to compare to his coverage, successively, of the Good Parliament (1376), the Peasants’ revolt (1381),
and the rising of the Appellants (1387), which all appear in this volume.
Walsingham was susceptible to gossip and hearsay, as well as to a certain selectivity in his reporting, but, as the editors elaborate here, his historical method
was not measurably different from his high medieval models. His reportage
reflected a close and critical reading of the contemporary documents and
newsletters to which St. Albans continued to have privileged access—thirtynine of which the editors identify here—and as wide a range of high-profile
personal informants as that cultivated by his predecessors. Nor was
Walsingham’s narrative afflicted by the narrow localism with which monastic
chronicles of the later period are commonly characterized.A most striking feature of the fourteenth-century section of his Chronica edited here is the
extent to which English affairs are set in a European context and the fortunes
of her near neighbors (Flanders, France) and the former great powers (Empire,
Roman Papacy) are treated as narratives in their own right. In these respects
Walsingham’s work serves as a reminder that in the greater abbeys and priories of the period there remained a degree of interest and insight beyond the
instinctive and increasingly defensive focus on the fortunes of house, order,
and ecclesiastical hierarchy.
Taylor and Child’s Latin text marks a significant advance on the corresponding Rolls series volumes completed between 1862 and 1874. By contrast with
Paris’s chronicle, Walsingham’s narrative survives in a succession of manuscript fragments close in date to the original composition but of which only
one may be confidently connected with Walsingham himself.Taylor and Childs
have steered a steady course through these codicological complexities
although there is a certain disappointment in their conclusions, which do not
diverge significantly from the 1937 verdict of Galbraith. Like their distinguished predecessor, the structure of the narrative and its objective historical
value are of greater interest to the editors than its literary qualities, or its evident connections to the intellectual culture of the monastic community at St.
Albans.The discussion of Walsingham’s literary archetypes is limited, and the

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relationship of the Chronica maiora to his other works on ancient history and
classical literature receives only cursory treatment.
The conservatism of the editors is reflected in the critical apparatus that
accompanies the text, which is more reminiscent of early Oxford medieval
texts (and their predecessor, Nelson’s medieval texts) than of recent volumes.
The explanatory notes are short, sporadic, and insufficient to highlight the significance and originality of Walsingham’s treatment for newcomers, either to
the text or the period. References to the representation of the text in the key
early manuscripts also appear only sparingly in spite of the significant differences, appearing by turns as Chronica maiora, a Polychronicon continuation,
and a discrete Historia regis Ricardi secundi. The index is sometimes scant
support for readers seeking to navigate nearly 1000 pages of narrative and contains a number of niggling omissions. It is hoped these shortcomings will be
addressed in the second volume.
After an extended shelf life of almost 140 years, it is inevitable that this edition will supersede the equivalent Rolls series volumes. The translation is
fluent and faithful for the most part.The editors are remarkably reticent on the
questions raised by the text, its manuscript tradition, and the cultural context
of its author and audience.These are matters that the reader would want to be
addressed in the subsequent, second volume, but for now, the interested reader
must turn elsewhere.
University of Bristol

JAMES G. CLARK

Fiat Lux: Lumière et luminaires dans la vie religieuse en Occident du XIIIe
au début du XVIe siècle. By Catherine Vincent. [Histoire religeuse de la
France, 24.]. (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf. 2004. Pp. 693. €44,00 paperback.
ISBN 978-2-204-07304-2.)
Catherine Vincent is a professor of medieval history and director of the
Department of History at the University of Paris X–Nanterre, who specializes
in religious and social history of the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. In this
ample study, she explores both manufactured sources of light (oil lamps and
especially wax candles) and the theme of light in religious life in the late
Middle Ages.
Vincent divides the book into three parts. Part 1 studies the ministerium
lucernarum. After a preliminary chapter exploring the patristic background,
Vincent devotes three chapters to the practicalities of light. Although required
for worship, candles and lamps are secondary elements.Vincent describes the
manufacture of lights that involves oil, wax, lamps, and candlesticks; their distribution within the church building; and their maintenance by various groups.
She ends with the economics of lighting churches.

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Part 2 considers the sign value of the flamme ardente. Light is a sign of
honor: of persons, times, seasons, and especially of the Eucharist. Light is a sign
of the presence of the divine: symbolized in the Paschal Candle and in the kingdom of light (the dwelling of God, Mary, and the saints), and contrasted to the
kingdom of darkness. Light is a sign of communion: candles mark the sacramental celebration of unity or reconciliation of the Christian community.
Part 3 presents those who “share in the light.” Various groups shared the
responsibilities for providing and maintaining light. Candles are important in
individual piety, although sometimes used in superstitious or diabolical practices. Candles function in the ceremonies involving funerals and burials.
The conclusion considers the impact of the Reformation on the use of light
in Christian worship and the rejection of externals such as candles by some
Reformers. Modern lighting technology and Vatican II reforms enter into
Vincent’s final reflections.
The final material includes six medieval supporting documents and a list of
sources. Three indices (organized by places, names, and themes) and lists of
tables and documents round out the book.
This is an exhaustive and at times exhausting work. Vincent states several
times that the use of lamps and candles is of secondary importance in
Christian life and worship, although her lengthy chapters sometimes belie this
fact. By using a variety of sources, Vincent presents a fascinating overview of
the religious, political, and economic factors in late-medieval Europe, especially France. It is social history of a detailed and comprehensive sort. Despite
the seeming narrowness of the initial focus,Vincent paints a picture of the life
and times of medieval Europe that contributes to the growing body of literature on the social history of Christian worship and liturgy.
Vincent’s comments on contemporary worship are less helpful. After judicious summaries and conclusions based on painstaking research, Vincent is
glib in characterizing contemporary use of candles in Catholic churches with
several unsubstantiated anecdotes. A single article stands for current reflection on the role of light in liturgy. The same rigor in supporting the conclusions as in the overall narrative would have increased their value.
This reservation aside, Vincent has provided an important contribution to
the growing body of social history of medieval liturgy and life.
The Catholic University of America

MICHAEL G.WITCZAK

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The Feast of Corpus Christi. By Barbara R.Walters,Vincent Corrigan, and Peter
T. Ricketts. (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. 2006. Pp.
xviii, 562. $70.00. ISBN 978-0-271-02924-5.)
In the twentieth century six names are associated with the historical and
liturgical study of the feast of Corpus Christi, namely Peter Browe (1928),
Cyrille Lambot (1942), L. M. J. Delaissé (1950), Pierre-Marie Gy (1980), Ronald
Zawilla (1985), and Miri Rubin (1991). To this impressive list of scholars we
now must add three more names: Barbara Walters,Vincent Corrigan, and Peter
Ricketts.The present volume represents a collaboration of perhaps what will
remain the definitive work on the subject dealing with multiple dimensions
of the feast, treating the multiple versions of the original Latin liturgy, complete transcriptions of the music associated with the feast, and a set of poems
in Old French with English translations. In part 1, Walters provides a wellresearched historical essay starting with the hagiographic vitae of Juliana of
Mont Cornillon, the thirteenth-century religious leader of Liège whose vision
of the moon missing a quarter of its form led to the invention of the feast—
first in the Lowlands and later in the universal Latin Church. The historical
chapter moves beyond the legendary to give an honest and scholarly
appraisal of Juliana’s role in Flemish society and the Church of her day. The
feast of Corpus Christi owes its origins to the Fourth Lateran Council (1215),
which established the doctrine of transubstantiation in its attempts to resolve
the eucharistic disputes of the late-twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries.Yet
the feast was not added to the universal calendar of the Church until 1264
after an interesting period of reception. The most striking alterations happened after 1261 when St. Thomas Aquinas turned to shaping the liturgical
Office and the Mass for the feast, including the composition of several
eucharistic hymns. Part 2 consists of an introductory essay to the musical
component and critical editions of seven late-thirteenth and early-fourteenthcentury manuscripts from the period of 1269 to 1320.Vincent Corrigan, using
the critical tools of musicology, traces the transmission of three major offices
associated with the feast: Animarum cibus (the original office associated
directly with Juliana), Sapiencia edificavit (found in a manuscript preserved
in Prague at the Abbey of Strahov), and Sacerdos in aeternum (attributed to
Aquinas and the basis for the contemporary liturgical books). Although the
team has uncovered additional manuscripts since the appearance of the
book, the critical edition of the seven manuscripts represents state-of-the-art
musicological research, classifying each musical item by genre, manuscript,
incipit, mode identification, identification of concordances between manuscripts, and liturgical usage for each item. Part 3 consists of an introductory
essay dealing with vernacular poetry and a critical edition of twenty Old
French poems of Mosan Psalters that are associated with the feast of Corpus
Christi and that are in a dialect associated with Liège. Ricketts studied thirteen manuscripts dating roughly from 1230 to 1330 that contain poems
intended largely as metric psalms for lay breviaries and as prayers to be
recited at Mass like a lay missal.The origins for such vernacular settings aimed

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at the béguines who in their vernacular fashion imitated the Divine Office
that was recited in Latin by clerics and in monastic communities. The inclusion of Corpus Christi material in such vernacular poems attests to the growing popularity of the feast and the desire of the Church that this feast be
received and disseminated at a popular level. Beyond the content of this book
that is stellar, this volume distinguishes itself as a monument to collaborative
research and a must-have for any serious scholar of the liturgy.
University of Notre Dame

MICHAEL S. DRISCOLL

Spain, 1157–1300. A Partible Inheritance. By Peter Linehan. (Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing. 2008. Pp. xviii, 284. $99.95. ISBN 978-0-631-17284-0.)
This volume, according to its publishers, is the latest and the tenth in a
series on the whole of Spanish history from prehistoric times to the present
day. It spans a period of roughly 150 years in 234 pages of text. In the preface
the author notes the publisher’s “ration of words”—as well he might.The overarching difficulty is that there was no such thing as Spain, as we would conceptualize it, during that time period.There were, instead, five different kingdoms in Christian Iberia; Castile, León, Portugal, Navarra, and Aragón-Catalonia
that collectively then boasted no fewer than twenty-nine kings. Muslim Iberia
during those years participated in the decay of one African empire, the
Almoravid, and the meteoric rise, followed by the more leisurely collapse, of
another African empire, the Almohad, this latter resulting in the emergence of
a host of splinter, or taifa, kingdoms, shortly to be conquered from the
Christian north. Hence, perhaps, this volume’s laconic subtitle.
Given the series’ limitations of space, only an approach tightly organized
along defined thematic lines (such as demography, town resettlement and
organization, political institutional development, and cultural elaboration) and
devoted exclusively to Christian or Muslim Iberia could have succeeded.The
traditional narrative of political, court, military, and diplomatic events could
only produce a concatenation of factual materials bewildering for the interested amateur historian and relatively profitless for the scholar.
The author takes to task the Latin chroniclers of thirteenth-century Castile
for neglecting the richness of the full Iberian historical development by their
construction of an account centered upon that kingdom with only asides and
occasional excursions to the other political entities of the peninsula. This
charge is not novel; indeed, it is a central issue in Iberian historiography. The
diverse panorama presented by the period and the peninsula defies orderly
presentation, and regrettably, Linehan’s approach is not ideal. He resorts frequently to courtiers’, troubadors’, and travelers’ accounts to frame, relieve, and
enliven otherwise trying stretches of packed, political detail. Unfortunately, that
technique often presents difficulties in the subjectivity of accounts such as the
Welsh chronicler who asserts that some 3,000 Muslim women were slaugh-

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tered at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. In addition, Linehan’s highly charged language virtually convicts the queen-regent, Berenguela, of assassinating the
young Enrique I, her brother, in 1217 in an effort to favor her son, the future
Fernando III. However, the available evidence does not support this conclusion.
There are, however, more serious deficiencies in this volume. The uninitiated could depart it virtually unaware that the kings in Iberia during this
period put a term to Muslim dominance in the peninsula.The author treats the
actions of rulers in Portugal, Castile, León, Navarra, and Aragón-Catalonia and
the flourishing literary and scientific scholarship in the region in an episodic
and intermittent fashion that obscures their cohesion and importance as major
historical phenomena. Such an approach makes it difficult to determine the
audience for which this book was designed.
Villanova University (Emeritus)

BERNARD F. REILLY

Captives and Their Saviors in the Medieval Crown of Aragon. By Jarbel
Rodriguez. (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press.
2007. Pp. xxiv, 225. $64.95. ISBN 978-0-813-21475-7.)
Jarbel Rodriguez’s book is a welcome addition to the renewed interest in
captivity and ransom in medieval societies, a hitherto somewhat neglected
topic in the military-social historiography of the period. Roughly divided into
two parts, the division between the vicissitudes of the captives and their saviors makes for a useful organizational principle. The epilogue examines the captives’ rehabilitation and reintegration into their societies following their release.
Chapter 1, “Falling into Captivity,” attributes this phenomenon in the
Aragonese arena mostly to raids or piracy. Friars and other religious functionaries, including members of the ransoming orders, were also exposed. In
its description of the gruesome conditions of captivity, the second chapter,
“Life in Captivity,” adds little of note.The universality of descriptions of chains,
shackles, hard work, and undernourishment and their incorporation into a literary genre are well known (pp. 62–64). Rodriguez’s attempt to use every
scrap of information at his disposal leads to some mistaken attributions; for
example, his identification of the chained and shackled Christian captives visited by Franciscans as Iberians (p. 44 n. 26) fails to take into account that c.
1320 most captives in Egypt would probably still have been prisoners of war
from the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.
The book’s second part turns to the liberation of captives. Here the author
attributes to the crown of Aragon the development of one of the most elaborate ransoming systems in Christian Europe by the fourteenth century, with
private ransomers (family), crown and ecclesiastical officials, merchants, sea
captains, and ransoming orders working in conjunction. The party acting on
behalf of the captive usually made an advance payment, ordinarily about half

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the sum, and the ransom agreement included stipulations as to how and when
the rest of the money would be paid. A captive could spend years, even
decades, however, awaiting the next ransoming expedition. Rodriguez’s treatment of the technical aspects of ransom, such as prices, negotiations, and the
safety of return, is meticulous and puts the Spanish archives to good use.
The concluding chapter switches from historical narrative to anthropological description. Relying on Victor Turner and Arnold Van Gennep, it portrays
the return from captivity as a liminal phenomenon, shedding light on the ceremonies of thanksgiving as well as the public rituals that served to reincorporate the captives into the Christendom from which they had been absent for
so long.The rites defined the transition from the status of one who had been
away to that of one who has returned. Marching together under the crosses,
Marian images, and the royal pennons gave coherence to a varied group that
included monarchs, nobles, clerics, common soldiers, and captives, culminating
in a public Mass—symbolizing incorporation into Christianity.
The book focuses on Aragonese society as a “society organized for ransoming.” Its claim that the diverse ransomers—the captive’s family, the crown, the
ransoming orders, the municipal officers, and the Church—all worked in a
complementary fashion to help captives gain their freedom is perhaps oversimplified. It contrasts with crusader society in the Latin East where these sectors were usually mutually exclusive and a development from private to institutional responsibility can be traced. In the epilogue Rodriguez shows that this
harmonious Aragonese communal effort often broke down into petty rivalries.
Another noteworthy feature of the book is how Rodriguez draws the
reader’s interest by starting each chapter with a story or rather a snapshot of
a situation. Especially effective in the opening chapter, for the next two chapters the repetitive, schematic structure becomes a little tiresome. In the second
part, from chapter 4 onward, the author varies the pattern.When he returns to
this technique in the epilogue, it serves him well as a tool for the analysis of a
fourteenth-century ritual to facilitate the captives’ reintegration into society.
Overall, Rodriguez’s useful analysis of captivity and ransom in Aragon adds
another significant piece to the portrayal of these processes in medieval
Christian societies.
Bar-Ilan University, Israel

YVONNE FRIEDMAN

Ockham and Political Discourse in the Late Middle Ages. By Takashi
Shogimen. [Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, Fourth Series,
Vol. 69.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xiv, 301. $99.00.
ISBN 978-0-521-84581-6.)
This latest monograph on Ockham’s political thought is close in spirit to
much earlier publications, especially to Arthur Stephen McGrade’s The

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Political Thought of William of Ockham (1974), which it frequently cites and
debates, sometimes with approval, sometimes not. Except for sporadic textcritical utilizations, Shogimen’s volume ignores the British Academy’s ongoing
edition of Ockham’s Dialogus (1995–) with its useful introductions and
analyses.
Shogimen rejects “anything like a ‘unity’ or a ‘system’ in Ockham’s polemic
activities” (pp. 32–33). Nevertheless, he then asserts that he will be presenting
Ockham’s views as a series of “consistent responses from a constant perspective to a variety of changing issues.” Such ambiguous self-contradictions
abound in Shogimen’s book, in comments on Ockham no less than on scholarly assessments of his positions. He clarifies his fundamental conclusion in
two main contexts (pp.34–35, pp. 261–62), suggesting that Ockham was not a
destructive critic of medieval ecclesiastical institutions, a traditionalist conservative opposing papal innovations, a Franciscan ideologue, nor a constitutional
liberal, but rather an “‘ecclesiastical republican’, a republican in the medieval
ecclesiological context” (p. 258), who “restored the language of morality in late
mediaeval political discourse” (p. 262) by exhorting his fellows “to fulfill their
public duties in the Christian community” (p. 261).
The challenge of an accurate political labeling of Ockham cannot be
resolved save through painstaking analysis of his tracts, especially the
Dialogus. Convincing scholarship requires a sound method of interpretation
and a correct reading of the text. Shogimen’s monograph is sometimes weak
in both respects. He has no discernible approach toward textual identities
other than “agreeing with Kilcullen and Knysh” (p. 76, n. 1).This seems impressionistic and arbitrary. No one in agreement with Political Ockhamism’s pp.
237–42 could, for instance, claim that Ockham thought the true faith might
temporarily reside in the mind of an infant (pp. 104, 238). Even more serious
are Shogimen’s lapses as to proper textual reporting. One example suffices,
although more could be adduced. Crucial to Shogimen’s thesis that Ockham
was an “ecclesiastical republican” is the contention that he accepted the possibility of drastic constitutional change in the Church (e.g., aristocratic government), due to his alleged rejection of “papal”(as contrasted to “Petrine”) primacy (pp. 175–231). Copiously citing 3 Dialogus 1 in evidence, Shogimen fails
to inform his readers that in 3 Dialogus 1.2.25 Ockham categorically ruled out
the “aristocratic” scenario as contravening Christ’s ordination and took his
stand firmly on traditional Catholicism. Nor did Ockham play modernistic
games with papal primacy. There are multiple texts in 3 Dialogus 1 (the best
are in 3 Dial. 1.1.16 and 17, both left unmentioned by Shogimen) where
Ockham clearly stated that primacy was granted by Christ to Peter “et successoribus suis.” Equally devastating for the theory of a “republican” Ockham is
his ad nauseam repetition in the Dialogus that his communitas christianorum was strictly regulated on the basis of status et gradus, a view that does
not correlate at all with Shogimen’s anachronistic presentation of an equalitarian Christian fellowship founded on cognitive criteria (p. 259).

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The failure of an author’s fundamental idea does not condemn his enterprise to residual insignificance. Georges de Lagarde is a case in point.
Shogimen’s monograph is not as constructively creative as McGrade’s, as comprehensively truth-building as Jürgen Miethke’s, or as delightfully provocative
and insightful as Brian Tierney’s Ockham chapters and articles. Despite the
weaknesses noted, Shogimen offers interesting contributions to our understanding of the politics of the Venerabilis Inceptor. His constant comparisons
of Ockham to his contemporaries in their treatment of common theoretical
issues are original and informative, and his frequent attempts to relate
Ockham’s technical philosophy to his polemic output are enlightening. For
this, and for some other microanalyses, Shogimen’s volume may be deemed a
worthwhile addition to recent res ockhamisticae.
University of Manitoba

GEORGE KNYSH

Figure e motivi della contemplazione nelle teologie medievali. By Barbara
Faes de Mottoni. [Micrologus Library, 18.] (Florence: SISMEL, Edizioni del
Galuzzo. 2007. Pp. 181. €37,00 paperback. ISBN 978-888-450215-5.)
This volume collects six articles, two hitherto unpublished, about the writings of thirteenth-century theologians on contemplation. The author, a specialist in medieval theology, is as analytically skillful as are the writings she
studies.The footnotes reproduce the Latin texts analyzed, making it easier to
follow and evaluate her expositions.Access to the varied articles is facilitated
by a helpful introduction; summary conclusions at the end of each one; general indices of names, biblical passages, and manuscripts cited; and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. In my discussion that follows, I have
translated the article titles from Italian.
The article “Moses and Paul: Examples of Contemplation and of Rapture in
the Theology of the Thirteenth Century” examines various perspectives on
mystical visions. Some medieval authors—Alexander of Hales, Albert the
Great, and St. Bonaventure—influenced by Pseudo-Dionysius, assert that the
mystical experiences of Moses (Exod. 19:18; 33:11–23) were not as lofty as
Paul’s when he was snatched (raptus) to the third heaven (2 Cor. 12: 2–4).
Others—Thomas Aquinas (who distinguishes several levels of contemplation
in the biblical statements about Moses) and Matthew of Aquasparta—drawing
on Augustine, identify Moses as the lawgiver of the Old Testament and Paul as
the apostle of the Gentiles, and think it therefore fitting that the two seers had
equivalent contemplative experiences. Matthew of Aquasparta adds the argument that for our consolation God gave both the lawgiver and the apostle a
taste of the beatific vision to which their teaching and commands are meant
to lead us.
The article “Active Life and Contemplative Life in William of Auxerre and
Roland of Cremona” asserts the superiority of the contemplative life, with

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some qualifications. Roland argues against William on several points and adds
the argument that the higher reason, which is the power involved in contemplation, also governs the work of the lower reason, which is concerned with
the active life.
The article “Et audivit arcana verba quae non licet homini loqui. Arcana,
Secrets, and Mysteries in Theology at the Beginning of the Thirteenth Century:
Robert Grosseteste,William of Auxerre, and Roland of Cremona”focuses on the
arcana seen by Paul.The author begins with a helpful survey of the meaning
of the three terms in the title, then expounds the various thirteenth-century
interpretations according to which the arcana were totally incommunicable,
incommunicable only to the more advanced, or communicable in a mode
other than the one in which they were seen.
The article “Pleasure and Sorrow in Contemplation” considers pleasure and
sorrow in Albert the Great’s question on Paul’s rapture and Thomas Aquinas’s
on pleasure in contemplation (Sum.Theo. 2–2, 10, 1.7), but concentrates on St.
Bonaventure’s richer treatment, especially in the Itinerarium.
The article “Auditory Events and Mystical Experience in Some Theological
Itineraries of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages” contrasts the strictly allegorical interpretation of the sound of the trumpets connected with Moses’ meeting with God in Gregory of Nyssa and Pseudo-Dionysius and his medieval commentators, with the role of bells and other sounds and sensations in visionary
experiences of Margaret of Cortona and Gertrude of Helfta.
The article “Aspects of the Doctrine of Contemplation in Hugh of Balma”
studies the writings of a Carthusian strongly influenced by Pseudo-Dionysius’s
Mystical Theology as interpreted by Thomas Gallus of Vercelli, who gave it an
affective emphasis, which Hugh accentuates. Hugh contrasts his understanding of contemplation with those of Augustine and Richard of St.Victor.
The book impresses the reader with the deep interest of the scholastics (and
of Faes de Mottoni) in contemplation and the states of consciousness associated
with it, and their subtle analysis of Scripture and the varied sources—
Augustinian, Pseudo-Dionysian, and Aristotelian—on which they drew.
Monastery of the Ascension, Jerome, Idaho

HUGH FEISS, O.S.B.

Simone Atumano: Monaco di Studio, arcivescovo latino di Tebe. Secolo XIV.
Seconda edizione riveduta e aumentata. By Giorgio Fedalto [Storia del cristianesimo, 2.] (Brescia: Paideia Editrice. 2007. Pp. 205. €22,00. ISBN 978-8839-40741-2.)
Officially first published in 1968 (although the publisher’s Web site gives
the date as 1969), Fedalto’s book has long been the best study available of this

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most interesting and, in some ways, still mysterious fourteenth-century churchman. Despite the omission of the photographs and map that appeared in the
first edition, the new edition is, as its subtitle advertises, a substantially revised
and enlarged version of the original book.
Most Anglophones know of Simon Atumanos from Kenneth Setton’s discussion in “The Byzantine Background to the Italian Renaissance,” Proceedings
of the American Philosophical Society, 100.1 (1956). But, in fact, Atumanos’s
significance extends far beyond his modest connection to the Italian
Renaissance. Born between 1310 and 1318 in a family of Turkish extraction
(his father’s or his family’s name was Othman), Simon took his monastic name
(his baptismal name is unknown, although Byzantine monastic practice makes
it virtually certain that it started with “S”) when at an uncertain date he
entered the famous monastery “of the Studion” in Constantinople dedicated to
St. John the Baptist. Since in 1348 Simon succeeded the celebrated antiHesychast Barlaam of Calabria as the bishop of Gerace in Calabria, Fedalto reasonably supposes that both met in Constantinople. On the basis of the phrase
“litterarum scientia praeditum” in the papal appointment document, Fedalto
also supposes that Simon knew Latin by the time he became bishop of Gerace.
In 1359–62, Simon was back in Constantinople, where he had an interview
with Emperor John V, to which the great Demetrius Cydones referred in 1364
in the first of his three letters to Simon.Two years later, when Simon was probably in the papal Curia in Avignon, Pope Urban V transferred him from Gerace
to the Latin bishopric of Thebes (to be distinguished from the Greek Orthodox
bishopric of the same locale). Simon took up residence in Thebes and
remained there until 1380, apart from a mission to the West in 1372 and
another to Constantinople in 1374–75.The last years of his life in exile from
Thebes are murky. About 1381 he was in Rome, where he taught Greek to the
Dutch ecclesiastic Radulph de Rivo.There also survives a papal safe-conduct of
May 1383 for him to go “ad partes Constantinopolitanas.” Given that the pope
appointed a new bishop of Thebes in 1387, Simon must have died that year or
the year before.
As Mercati demonstrated in 1916, Simon himself was responsible for the
Greek translation from the Hebrew found in the fragment of a trilingual Bible
in MS Marc. 7 (= 377) (Fedalto fails to supply the required collocazione
number). Simon also made a translation into Latin of Plutarch’s De Cohibenda
Ira that attracted the attention of the important humanist Coluccio Salutati.We
do not know as to where, when, and how Simon learned Hebrew and Latin,
but when these linguistic skills are combined with his religious and diplomatic
endeavors at the highest levels, Simon clearly emerges as one of the more interesting and intriguing figures of the fourteenth century. It is regrettable that so
little information about him has survived.
Fedalto, a most distinguished historian of the Greek and Latin Churches in
the East, has filled in the blank spots as best he could. In the process, we learn
a good deal from a master about the sees of Gerace and Thebes, Barlaam of

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Calabria and the Hesychast controversy, and the political-ecclesiastical politics
of the fourteenth century. In the appendices Fedalto also supplies the best list
available today of the Latin bishops of Thebes, a collection of documents relevant for Simon, and a detailed analysis of Demetrius Cydones’s three letters to
Simon.
University at Albany, State University of New York

JOHN MONFASANI

John Capgrave’s Fifteenth Century. By Karen A. Winstead. [The Middle Ages
Series.] (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2007. Pp. xiv, 233.
$55.00. ISBN 978-0-812-23977-5.)
Karen Winstead’s title is a teasing one, but it is also potentially somewhat
misleading.Anyone who expects that the book will be demonstrate either that
John Capgrave had a special insight into the historical affairs of his time or that
his outlook on those affairs was typical of the age will find that Winstead has
a rather different objective. Her primary interest, as her previous work on
Capgrave foreshadows, is in Capgrave as a hagiographer, although she endeavors to demonstrate that his bias in that task was not the conventional one. Far
from typifying the fifteenth century or its attitudes,Winstead aims to establish
Capgrave’s individuality, even eccentricity.
Capgrave was an Augustinian friar, born in 1393 at King’s Lynn. He studied
in Cambridge, became prior provincial of his order in the 1450s, and died in
1464. Most notably, he was confessor to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, for several years until the latter’s sudden death in 1447. He authored a number of vernacular saints’ lives, in prose and in verse; two histories of his own country, one
in Latin, the other in English; an English guide to the churches of Rome; and
various scriptural commentaries in Latin, not all of which survive. Despite earlier hostile criticism, both for his literary skills and for his apparently lukewarm
political loyalties, recent work has attempted to rehabilitate Capgrave’s reputation. Peter Lucas, who could have been cited more often here, has been concerned with Capgrave’s involvement with the production of books.Winstead’s
primary focus is on the content and outlook of some of the saints’ lives, such
as Katherine, a version of which she edited in 1999. Given the inclusion of fifteenth century in the book’s title, the reader may be surprised that Capgrave’s
Abbreuiacion of Chronicles does not feature more prominently, even though
its narrative ends in 1417.
Winstead’s aim appears to be to demonstrate from this handful of saints’
lives that Capgrave, living in a time of political difficulty and ecclesiastical
stringency, was an independent thinker who “did not care deeply whether
York or Lancaster governed but cared that England be governed well; he was
orthodox but not Arundelian; he sympathized with the aspirations and frustrations of women but did not favor radical social change”(p. 163). Such a view
is an interesting one, but it is one that is not altogether easy to demonstrate

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from the texts. Capgrave is very reticent, as Winstead admits; consequently,
much of the case has to be made from silences or subtle allusions—omissions
from source texts, minor modifications of wording, a rare comment that is
entirely independent and hardly ever outspoken.The problem is compounded
by the fact that there are difficulties about those source texts: the precise
source has not been identified for the life of Katherine, and others are not
always easy to access. But sometimes more generous quotation of those
sources might help.The Liber de illustribus Henriciis is described (p.159) as
“a diabolically subversive text,” a provocative comment that requires further
evidence. Comparisons with other fifteenth-century orthodox writers could
also be extended: orthodoxy, like heresy, came in various shades. All in all, the
book opens a variety of questions. Capgrave may not become a widely popular author, but the details here can contribute to a wider picture of latemedieval outlooks.
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

ANNE HUDSON

Early Modern European
Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von Reformation und katholischer Reform,
1500–1700, Band 3. Edited by Friedhelm Jürgensmeier and Regina
Elisabeth Schwerdtfeger. [Katholisches Leben und Kirchenreform im
Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung, Heft 67.] (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag.
2007. Pp. 240. €22,80. ISBN 978-3-402-11085-0.)
This final volume of a well-conceived and skillfully executed overview of
religious orders within German lands during the Reformation era covers the
Praemonstratensians (men and women), Augustinian Canons, Augustinian
Canonesses, Williamite Hermits, Celestines, Antonite Hospitalers, Conventual
Franciscans, Observant Franciscans, and Capuchins. Sadly, an article on
Dominican nuns failed to materialize (Dominican friars were covered in
volume 2). Volume 1 was reviewed in ante, XCII (July 2006), 315–17, and
volume 2 in XCIV (January 2008), 216–17.
The longest chapters are given over to the Franciscan Observants and
Capuchins. The former represent the only order that came out of the
Reformation period larger and more widespread than it was in 1500 (c. 163
houses in 1500, c. 132 in 1555, c. 201 in 1648, and c. 260 in 1700).The chapter on the Observants underscores the strength of their role in resisting the
attacks on monasticism in the 1520s and resisting Protestantism in general (p.
188ff.), whereas many other orders saw wholesale defections.The Capuchins,
founded in the 1520s and 1530s in Italy, also experienced remarkable growth
in German-speaking regions from the later sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Strikingly, the Observant upswing especially gained momentum late in
the Thirty Years’ War as the Observants moved into areas retaken by the
Catholic armies, most significantly in the Saxon province (pp. 200–01).

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The editors’ foreword looks back over the three volumes and draws a balance sheet: in 1500, approximately 2550 houses of men and women religious
existed in the German regions. By the mid-1600s, c. 1350 houses remained, to
which may be added ninety-three Protestant women’s houses (Damenstifte).
In other words, about 1200 houses were dissolved during the Reformation era
(a few of these were victims of the Turkish advance in the East and other vicissitudes). The valuable maps, one after the other, illustrate graphically the primary source of the losses, as in map after map, white space replaces a landscape once dotted with monastic establishments in the heartland of the
Protestant movement in the area from Saxony north to the Baltic and in the
northern Netherlands, contrasting with the ongoing, thickly populated religious-order landscape along the Rhine Valley and in Westphalia and the more
mixed picture in Bavaria, Austria, Bohemia, the Main River basin, and
Switzerland.The “clean sweep” phenomenon is seen most clearly in the maps
of the Cistercian nuns (vol. 1), the Augustinian Canons, and the Augustinian
Canonesses (including Windesheim Congregation, vol. 3).
But the story told in these volumes does not deal merely with losses.
Approximately 700–800 new foundations were made in the Catholic regions
of the Empire from the mid-1500s to about 1700. Here the new orders
(Ursulines, vol. 1; Congregatio Jesu or Mary Ward Sisters, vol. 2; Jesuits, vol. 2;
Discalced Carmelites, vol. 2; Poor Clares, vol. 2; Capuchins, vol. 3) are most
prominent but also appearing are Franciscan Observants (vol. 3), which had an
“astonishing development” (p. 8).The Capuchins made so many new foundations that a separate map was required to chart them all.
Surprisingly, as the editors note, a survey of the valuable bibliographies
appended to each chapter throughout the three volumes indicates that the
relationship of the religious orders to the Council of Trent remains inadequately studied. Not every chapter follows the set roster of topics more characteristic of the earlier volumes, but nonetheless, most chapters contain some
information about spirituality and educational levels alongside the external fortunes of the various orders.The very interesting Williamites were given space
disproportionate to the order’s minuscule size. Human interest tidbits abound,
such as the early-seventeenth-century Praemonstratensian abbot who was a
“theologian, mathematician, organ-builder, and technician” (p. 12). The book
concludes with an alphabetical listing of the chapters of all three volumes and
their authors.
Students of the Catholic and Protestant Reformations need to have this
three-volume work available for reference, and a thorough reading of it will
more than repay them for the time invested.
Loyola University Chicago

DENNIS MARTIN

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817

The Renaissance Pulpit: Art and Preaching in Tuscany, 1400–1550. By Nirit
Ben-Aryeh Debby. [Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 6] (Turnhout:
Brepols Publishers. 2007. Pp. xviii, 294, $116.00; €80,00. ISBN 978-2-50351342-3.)
With this volume, Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby sets out to right a wrong: to bring
the art historical information on sculpted pulpits together with the literature
about the sermons spoken from these pulpits and the preachers who gave
them.The book focuses on the Quattrocento in Florence, but includes valuable
discussions of the earlier tradition and of the sixteenth-century developments,
both of which are more expansive geographically as well as chronologically.
The author aims, to use her own words, “to explore the interrelationships
between works of art and sermons, by analysing the manner in which the
nature and content of religious preaching shaped the Renaissance pulpit.”
Debby concentrates on a handful of pulpits produced by Florentine sculptors: Brunelleschi and Buggiano’s pulpit for Santa Maria Novella, Benedetto da
Maiano’s for Santa Croce; Mino da Fiesole,Antonio Rossellino, and Pasquino da
Montepulciano’s interior pulpit at Santa Stefano in Prato; the exterior pulpit for
the same church by Donatello and Michelozzo; and, finally, Donatello’s two
pulpits for San Lorenzo.These six pulpits have vastly different bibliographies,
qualitatively as well as quantitatively. Needless to say, the most complex literature is linked to the pulpits by Donatello, especially the two for San Lorenzo.
For each pulpit, Debby reviews much of the recent literature, but these summaries do not seem to expand or enhance the existing arguments. In the particular case of Benedetto da Maiano’s pulpit, it is worth noting that Doris Carl’s
two-volume monograph Benedetto da Maiano: A Florentine Sculptor at the
Threshold of the High Renaissance (Turnhout, 2006) is not cited, although it
provides significant factual material applicable to Debby’s argument. Overall,
Carl’s approach to the Santa Croce pulpit is far more balanced and thorough.
The organizing principle of the book reflects the author’s primary interest in
the pulpits, with chapters on patronage, location, form, and content. More care,
however, could have been taken with regard both to the facts and to citations
to the secondary literature on sculpture. Debby’s introductory remarks on
methodology identify Charles Seymour’s text Sculpture in Italy, 1400–1500,
as published in 1996 (p. 8, fn. 14). Any survey of the development of scholarship that sees this book’s contributions as coming thirty years after its actual
date of publication must be edited more carefully. There is also a certain
amount of overlap and repetition that might have been avoided with a different organization.
The parts of the book that deal directly with sermons and the pulpit’s role
in this activity are highly informative. The connections with preaching or
preachers are addressed in different fashions, depending on the pulpit at issue.
Sometimes the discussions of sermons relate to the iconography of the work,
other times to the history of the church that houses the pulpit, or the family
that commissioned it. Based on Debby’s discussion, it will no longer be possi-

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ble to see pulpits are merely mute church furniture. Even the style and composition of the reliefs, traditionally considered in formal terms only, now
appears to have specific links with the goals and activities of preachers.
Readers, forewarned to read more widely on the pulpits themselves, will find
much that is interesting and useful in this book.
University of Georgia

SHELLEY E. ZURAW

Art and the Augustinian Order in Early Renaissance Italy. Edited by Louise
Bourdua and Anne Dunlop. [Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval
West.] (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. 2007. Pp. xvi, 231.
$99.95. ISBN 978-0-754-65655-5.)
This is an important book. The Order of Hermits of St. Augustine (OESA)
has been overshadowed by the Franciscan and Dominican Orders in the
scholarship devoted to the religious, intellectual, and cultural history of the
later Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation, with the exception of the
relationship between the Augustinian friars and Martin Luther. Recent scholarship, however, has begun to address this gap, and Bourdua and Dunlop have
made a significant contribution.As Dunlop notes in her introductory chapter,
the OESA “has received little attention from art historians, and yet it has a
unique import for any rethinking of art and religious institutions in the premodern period” (p. 2). Following in the wake of Joseph C. Schnaubelt and
Frederick Van Fleteren’s edited volume, Augustine in Iconography: History
and Legend (New York, 1999), and Meredith Gill’s Augustine in the Italian
Renaissance: Art and Philosophy from Petrarch to Michelangelo
(Cambridge, 2005), Bourdua and Dunlop’s work proposes to focus on the
OESA “to examine the ‘mendicant thesis’” (p. 2), which argues that the mendicant orders effected “the first artistic shifts of the Renaissance” (p. 2). Simply
by posing the question, the editors have given new prominence to the OESA,
which the historical evidence so amply documents only to have been ignored
in the historiography.
In addition to Dunlop’s introductory chapter, the work consists of ten case
studies, from the origins of the order’s habit and Augustine’s tomb in Pavia
(1362) to the fifteenth-century portrayals of Augustine’s vision of the Trinity
and the artistic representations of the Augustinian St. Nicholas of Tolentino.The
contributions are detailed and erudite, yet the reader is proverbially always left
wanting more.There is no concluding chapter summing up the findings, and
the reader does not possess a clear sense of the volume’s contribution to the
“mendicant thesis” as such, its stated goal, even if the individual chapters give
ample evidence of the OESA’s influence, perhaps most notably in Cathleen
Hoeniger’s chapter on “Simone Martini’s Panel of the Blessed Agostino Novello:
the Creation of a Local Saint” (pp. 51–78). Donal Cooper’s chapter on
Augustine’s vision of the Trinity dates it to the 1360s and the Venetian artist
Nicoletto Semitecolo, whereas earlier depictions of the motif can be found in

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the Erfurt stained-glass cycle dated to 1324 and in Jordan of Quedlinburg’s
Metrum pro depingenda vita Sancti Augustini of 1341. It is also perhaps surprising that the works of Hans Belting are never cited, when the overall thrust
of the volume is to analyze the “image and its public.” Even though such
“Kleinigkeiten” can easily be multiplied, Bourdua and Dunlop have contributed substantially to our understanding of OESA’s impact in the
Renaissance and consequently to our understanding of the reception, understanding, influence, and impact of Augustine in the fourteenth to the later fifteenth centuries. If “art imitates nature,” Bourdua and Dunlop have provided
precious insights into the nature of the late-medieval and Renaissance
Augustine and his true sons, as Europe was ceasing to be “medieval” and
becoming “early modern.”
Indiana University–Purdue University, Indianapolis

ERIC L. SAAK

Building the Kingdom: Giannozzo Manetti on the Material and Spiritual
Edifice. By Christine Smith and Joseph F. O’Connor. [Medieval and
Renaissance Texts and Studies,Vol. 317; Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance,Vol. 20.] (Tempe:ACMRS [Arizona Center for Medieval
and Renaissance Studies], in collaboration with Brepols. 2007. Pp. xviii, 518.
$69.00; €48,00. ISBN 978-0-866-98362-4)
As the authors point out in their preface, Pope Nicholas V (1447–55) was
the first pope “to reside permanently at the Vatican rather than at Rome’s
cathedral, St. John Lateran.” This book is a study of Nicholas V’s grand building
projects as explained by his biographer, the humanist Giannozzo Manetti
(1396–1459).The title, however, does not quite reveal what the book contains.
To be complete, it should have included the names not only of Nicholas V, the
central actor in the enterprise, but also of the great humanist architectural theoretician Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72), who, while seemingly always lurking
in the background, puts in numerous overt appearances as the authors make
him a counterpoint to Manetti’s architectural language and Manetti’s and
Nicholas’s vision and goals. (I cannot say how often the authors refer to Alberti
because one of the defects of the book is its lack of an index.)
To be sure, Manetti predominates.The last third of the volume consists of
an edition with English translation and extensive commentary of three of his
works: De Secularibus et Pontificalibus Pompis (a description of Pope
Eugenius IV’s dedication of the cathedral of Florence on March 25, 1436), Liber
Secundus de Vita ac Gestis Nicolai Quinti (book 2 of Manetti’s Life of Pope
Nicholas V, describing the pope’s revolutionary building program in Rome),
and an excerpt from Nicholas V’s testament as found in book 3 of De Vita ac
Gestis dealing with the building program. Furthermore, Manetti is the sole
focus or an important element of the nine chapters that constitute the first 300
pages. In these chapters as well as in the translations and the commentaries,
the authors make a major contribution to our understanding of Manetti’s archi-

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tectural vocabulary (e.g., demonstrating that Manetti used solum to mean a
leveled platform for building). I also agree with their general analysis of
Manetti’s Weltanschauung, though I think they were I to apply to Manetti the
self-serving comparison of Poggio Bracciolini and Lorenzo Valla of a modern
Vallalatorist, Salvatore Camporeale (p. 14). Since Anna Modigliani’s critical edition of Manetti’s biography of Nicholas V came out in 2005, their Latin text was
superseded even before it appeared.The largest defect of their edition is the
failure to take into account MS Pal. Lat. 868 of the Vatican Library, probably corrected by Manetti himself.The damage, fortunately, is limited in that one of the
Florentine manuscripts used (Plut. 66, 23 of the Biblioteca Laurenziana) is itself
authoritative.
Smith and O’Connor are quite convincing in demonstrating that Nicholas
V’s overarching concern was security and that in his mind “[t]he Vatican Palace
was not, in other words, a miniature city but the fortress of a tyrant” (p. 165).
They are excellent as a corrective to the misinterpretations of Carroll William
Westfall’s “In This Most Perfect Paradise” (Baltimore, 1973). They also bring
out well the biblical inspiration of many of the details of Nicholas’s building
campaign (“Nicholas’s authority is King Solomon as architect/patron,” p. 219)
and in showing that “[t]he most fundamental decision Nicholas made was to
establish the level of the crest of the Mons Saccorum [an eastern spur of the
Vatican Hill] as the ‘building platform’ of the Vatican Palace” (p. 189). Their
richly annotated chapter on Nicholas’s library would seem at first blush to be
a bit far afield, but it fits well within their analysis of Manetti and Nicholas,
although their lack of expertise sometimes is evident, such as their assertion
that Niccolò Perotti obtained codices in Trebizond (p. 92) or their supposition
that Nicholas’s commissioning of Latin translation was “a partial response” to
Lorenzo Valla (pp. 95–96).
I am not competent to adjudicate Smith’s and O’Connor’s contrasting of
Leon Battista Alberti’s ideas with Manetti’s, but I can say that I found stimulating and persuasive their argument that “Manetti’s version of the building program argues for one side of a largely forgotten controversy. Alberti was the
most vocal opponent of the building projects; his criticisms illuminate
Manetti’s defense” (p. 191). One must attend here not only to their narrative
chapters (specifically, cChapter 7), but also to their section-by-section commentary on the Vita to follow the details of the argument.
All in all, this is a most valuable book, a little hard to use at times (that lack
of an index again), but eminently useful on a range of important artistic, intellectual, historical, and religious issues.
University at Albany, State University of New York

JOHN MONFASANI

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Renaissance Inquisitors: Dominican Inquisitors and Inquisitorial Districts
in Northern Italy, 1474–1527. By Michael Tavuzzi. [Studies in the History
of Christian Traditions, Vol. 134.] (Boston: Brill. 2007. Pp. xiv, 286. $129.00.
ISBN 978-9-004-16094-1.)
Inquisitions per se tend to garner less scholarly attention than the individuals and practices they investigated. Oppressed and subversive, heretics appeal
more than their prosecutors. Moreover, work on inquisitions tends to focus
more on general inquisitorial theories and systems than on the men who put
them into practice. Michael Tavuzzi reacts against this tendency, focusing
squarely on individual inquisitors in the northern Italian Dominican provinces
of St. Dominic and St. Peter Martyr, and in the observant (reformed)
Congregation of Lombardy. He has identified ninety-four out of a likely one
hundred inquisitors who operated here between 1474 and 1527. An appendix
provides entries on these men (pp. 213–52), and several are treated at length
in the body of the book.
Studying these men, Tavuzzi reveals that most enjoyed long tenures in
office, and most were appointed fairly late in life, after extensive preparatory
work.Thus, rather than zealous firebrands, inquisitors were more likely to be
“sedate geriatrics”(p. 39). In addition, most performed a variety of duties, never
focusing exclusively or even primarily on inquisitorial activity.The impression,
then, is that inquisitions tended to be relatively sedate affairs, with inquisitors
often appearing “indolent” or “unenthusiastic” about their tasks (p. 149).
Observant Dominicans were typically more energetic than conventuals, but
this does not dramatically change Tavuzzi’s overall impression of inquisitorial
activity. Aside from occasional “freethinking” intellectuals at universities and a
few Waldensians in the Alps, heresy was not a major threat in Renaissance Italy.
Inquisitors were rather more active against witchcraft, but here Tavuzzi
notes that they generally did not instigate witch trials, instead responding to
local calls for the prosecution of perceived harmful magic. The crucial question, then, is why inquisitors became inclined to see satanic conspiracies in
charges of simple sorcery. Many historians (myself included) have explored the
notion of a stereotype of diabolical witchcraft developing among certain
“elites,” which was then imposed on more general ideas of harmful magic.
Tavuzzi, however, notes that inquisitors generally did not develop an interest
in witchcraft in the abstract, but only after experiencing directly or receiving
firsthand reports of witch trials mainly in Alpine regions.
So what was going on in the Alps? Tavuzzi suggests there may really have
been witches—not flying in great numbers to demonic sabbaths, but perhaps
consisting of a “very loose, informal movement of people who shared common
beliefs” (p. 205).These people may have performed sorcery with a subversive,
anti-ecclesiastical edge. Noting the centrality of charges of Host-profanation in
many witchcraft accusations, he surmises that the “sect of witches was fundamentally an anti-Eucharist conspiracy” (p. 207)—not an organized diabolical

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cult, but a group of like-minded people reacting against the increased importance of the Eucharist in late-medieval piety. As corroborating evidence, he
notes that accusations of Host-profanation against Jews also rose at this time
(p. 207).
The contention here is not that inquisitors, regarding the Host as increasingly important, perceived increasing Host-profanation around them, but that
certain people (witches and, it seems, Jews) were actually profaning the Host
more often. This assertion begs an array of questions. What about witchcraft
accusations in which Host-profanation does not figure prominently (there are
some)? What about charges of magic or superstition that involved irreverent
treatment of Hosts but never escalated into charges of witchcraft? Why would
Host-profanation have been particularly severe in Alpine valleys, where the earliest witch trials occurred? Witchcraft is not the central focus of Tavuzzi’s book,
but it is where he makes his most spectacular claims.Although intriguing, they
are far from convincing.
Iowa State University

MICHAEL D. BAILEY

Patronage and Dynasty: The Rise of the della Rovere in Renaissance Italy.
Edited by Ian F.Verstegen. [Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies Series, 77.]
(Kirksville, MO:Truman State University Press. 2007. Pp. xxviii, 210. $54.95.
ISBN 978-1-931-11260-4.)
This wide-ranging survey of the artistic patronage of members of the della
Rovere family—including popes, cardinals, dukes of Urbino, and two women—
covers the period from the pontificate of the pope who may be regarded as
the founder of the dynasty, Sixtus IV (although he had no direct descendants),
to the reign of the last della Rovere, duke of Urbino in the early-seventeenth
century.
Andrew C. Blume stresses Sixtus’s identification with the Church and the
papacy, and not just his family, in relation to the iconography of the Vatican
Sistine Chapel. Most of Jill Elizabeth Blondin’s survey of the commissions of
Sixtus for the Franciscan basilica and monastery at Assisi is concerned with a
little-known, curiously old-fashioned statue of the pope placed on the buttress
he had built to prop up the infirmary. Henry Dietrich Fernández examines the
palaces of the bishop and the pope at Avignon that Julius II renovated while
he was cardinal legate there, as well as the palace he had built in his home
town in Savona, for architectural ideas that would be brought to the work on
the Vatican Palace during his pontificate.
Other della Rovere cardinals as well as the two popes commissioned works
for Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome: Lisa Passaglia Bauman argues they were coopting the magnificence and glory of classical Rome to enhance the claims of
their family to an exalted social and political position. Ian Verstegen contributes

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an essay on the patronage of Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, the second son of
Duke Francesco Maria I, arguing that his family name with its associations of
nepotism was a liability in his efforts to be considered papabile. As Verstegen
points out, however, Giulio owed his cardinalate to his brother Guidobaldo’s
marriage to the granddaughter (Verstegen calls her the niece) of Paul III,Vittoria
Farnese, and his conversion from a worldly to a reform-minded cleric followed
the marriage of his niece to Federico Borromeo, nephew of Pius IV.
Caroline Murphy argues that the purchase by Felice della Rovere, Julius II’s
daughter, of the coastal fortress of Palo strengthened her position within the
Orsini family into which she had married and helped win the favor of Leo X,
who used Palo as a hunting lodge. By contrast, Isabella della Rovere, daughter
of Duke Guidobaldo II, was a major patron of the Jesuits: Maria Ann Conelli
considers that the church furniture given by patronesses in the sixteenth century necessitates revision of notions of the austerity of the interior of early
Jesuit churches.
In a second contribution,Verstegen writes of Francesco Maria I’s interest in
designing fortifications and his employment of the architect Girolamo Genga
from Rome, while looking to Venice, particularly Titian, in his patronage of
painting. Jeffrey Fontana also emphasizes the dukes’ artistic links to Venice in
his article on Guidobaldo II’s interest in Titian; he argues Federico Barocci
modeled himself on Titian to try to attract the duke’s patronage. In the best
essay in the collection, Stuart Lingo examines the unusual pattern of Francesco
Maria II’s patronage of Barocci, who produced gifts for other rulers that
enhanced the image of the duchy.
For a volume focused on a dynasty, there are a disconcerting number of
errors in information about members of the family and their relatives. Several
contributors tend to confuse speculation with demonstration and to attribute
motives and thoughts, without any documentary support, to the patrons they
are discussing. Nevertheless, there is much of value and interest in this volume.
Cambridge University

CHRISTINE M. SHAW

Papal Banking in Renaissance Rome: Benvenuto Olivieri and Paul III,
1534–1549. By Francesco Guidi Bruscoli. [Studies in Banking and Financial
History.] (Burlington,VT:Ashgate Publishing Company. 2007. Pp. xxviii, 313.
$99.95. ISBN 978-0-754-60732-8.)
In the Renaissance papal banking was big business. Given tight money supplies, limited credit, and the papacy’s constant need for funds, popes had regular recourse to private financiers to advance cash and credit, for which they
pledged future ecclesiastical revenues and taxes from the Papal States and
Rome to secure and reimburse their loans. By obligating future incomes, popes
bound themselves inextricably to their financiers. In the fifteenth century the

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Medici bank of Florence had made much of its fortune from financial dealings
with the papacy. The Florentines, along with bankers from Siena and Genoa,
joined together in financing the popes, using their impressive capital reserves
and ability to access international financial markets. Banks used bills of
exchange, which had an imbedded element of risk, to skirt prohibitions against
usury and to float short-term loans. By the sixteenth century the papacy had,
in effect,“outsourced” the administration of its finances and tax collections to
private banking firms, which bid against but also cooperated with one another
in managing the papal fisc. Beginning in 1513 with Leo X, the Medici, now
popes and no longer active bankers, relied heavily on other Florentine
bankers, notably Filippo Strozzi, to provide capital and management services.
By 1529, when Benvenuto Olivieri, the subject of this study, became Strozzi’s
junior partner and a comanager of the Strozzi bank in Rome, he had already
spent nearly fifteen years learning the intricacies of papal banking, starting as
a clerk and employee of Bindo Altoviti, another Florentine financier and associate of Strozzi. Olivieri’s active career until his death in 1549 thus spanned the
waning years of Clement VII’s papacy and that of Paul III Farnese.
The value of the present study (translated from the original Italian edition
published in 2000) emerges from its detailed rendering of papal finances as
viewed from inside the Olivieri company. The author puzzled through an
extensive series of account books located in the Galli Tassi collection in the
Archivio di Stato, Florence. Part 1 consists of a clear summary of papal banking
practices and of Olivieri’s rise to junior partner in Strozzi’s bank and then as
financial front for the capital investments of Strozzi’s son Roberto. Finally in
1545, when Strozzi capital was withdrawn, Olivieri became senior partner in
his own, much smaller operation.The meat of the book comes in part 2, which
takes the reader chapter by chapter through the various types of ecclesiastical
revenues, offices, and tax farms Olivieri managed for the Strozzi, including the
Depository General and farms of direct and indirect taxes. The appendix of
contracts and documents provides helpful illustrations. Unfortunately, the surviving accounts do not include complete balance sheets.Thus the attempt to
estimate the returns and level of activity of Olivieri’s company in 1543, at its
height and before Strozzi capital was removed, remains inconclusive. As business history, the account-book view misses the human drama of contemporary
events, the Sack of Rome, the troubled pontificate of Clement VII, and Paul III’s
nepotism and struggle to reform the Church in the face of a rising tide of
Protestantism, all of which seriously affected papal finances. The banking
records cannot give us a sense of Olivieri the man, although we know from
other sources that he remained a loyal friend to Filippo Strozzi even after the
latter’s presumed suicide in prison following his failed attempt to unseat Duke
Cosimo de’ Medici in Florence.The author concludes that Olivieri’s rise from
modest circumstances to papal banker made him “one of many, and as such an
exemplary case” (p. 213).
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

MELISSA MERIAM BULLARD

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The Censor, the Editor, and the Text:The Catholic Church and the Shaping of the
Jewish Canon in the Sixteenth Century. By Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin.Translated
by Jackie Feldman. [Jewish Culture and Contexts.] (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press. 2007. Pp. viii, 314. $69.95. ISBN 978-0-812-24011-5.)
This is a study of Catholic Church censorship and expurgation of Hebrew
literature in sixteenth-century Italy. It is the English translation of a book first
published in Hebrew in Jerusalem in 2005, and it appears under the auspices
of the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania.
The book examines the burning of the Talmud in 1553, the development of
Catholic ideas of censorship of Hebrew books as expressed in the various
indexes of prohibited books, the Council of Trent, and debates in Roman congregations. Raz-Krakotzkin then discusses the structure of Hebrew book
expurgation, pointing out that it involved Christians, Jewish converts to
Christianity, and Jews working together in Hebrew printing establishments. He
argues convincingly that a major goal of expurgation was to safeguard Hebrew
books for Christian readers.The author has read very widely and well in the literature of sixteenth-century printing and Catholic censorship generally, and he
avoids polemics. He sometimes gives the papacy and the Church the benefit
of the doubt by noting additional, less objectionable explanations for some
brutal anti-Jewish actions. Raz-Krakotzkin also points out that Hebrew printing
involved both editing and censorship, with sometimes blurred lines between
them. A key term was zikkuk (to refine) often found in the colophons of
Hebrew books: it meant both correcting and censoring texts.
Chapter 5 is the most important. Raz-Krakotzkin lists and analyzes the principles of expurgation for Hebrew books based on a document probably
drafted by a convert who became a censor.The goal was to prepare texts that
could be used by Christians and Jews alike, a notion of a common heritage.
Although the author does not emphasize it, those who have studied Catholic
censorship will notice that the approach and some of the principles of
Hebrew censorship were the same as the expurgation rules used to eliminate
anti-Catholic words and ideas from books written by Protestants that were
otherwise acceptable. Censorship’s heaviest impact fell on Hebrew biblical
commentary, as the expurgators eliminated or rewrote anti-Christian passages
found in the biblical commentaries of such famous medieval scholars as Rashi
and David Kimchi. On the other hand, expurgation of Hebrew books of codification (halakha), i.e., texts that explained and interpreted the laws that governed Jewish life, was light.The irony is that although the Talmud was not permitted, the books that contained the commandments and interpretations of
the Talmud were. The effect, in the view of Raz-Krakotzkin, was to affirm
Jewish autonomous life, that is,“explicit recognition of the Jews’ right to maintain their separateness from Gentiles in the basic areas of life” (p. 161).
The book is based on a wealth of secondary literature on censorship and
the examination of numerous copies of censored Hebrew books. One merit of

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the book for readers (like this reviewer) who do not read Hebrew is to summarize a great deal of recent Hebrew scholarship on these issues. On the other
hand, the author is enamored of Foucault, reception theory, and the notion of
negotiation. Hence, like almost all scholarship written under this ideological
sky this book has excess verbiage that wanders around the topic (especially in
the long introduction and conclusion) plus repeated buzzwords. It exhibits a
sometimes slippery chronology, and it substitutes the politically correct but
chronologically vague “early modern” for the historical “Renaissance,” thus
leading to misleading expressions as “early modern Hebraism.” It employs the
first person singular and often omits the pagination of articles in collective volumes in the bibliography. The English reads smoothly, although a few Italian
names have been mangled. Despite these faults, the central five chapters offer
a balanced and quite intelligent examination of the expurgation of Hebrew
books along with thoughtful suggestions about the consequences for Jewish
life.The book is welcome.
University of Toronto (Emeritus) and Chapel Hill, NC

PAUL F. GRENDLER

Ruling Peacefully: Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga and Patrician Reform in
Sixteenth-Century Italy. By Paul V. Murphy. (Washington, DC:The Catholic
University of America Press. 2007. Pp. xxi, 290. $79.95. ISBN 978-0-81321478-8).
Those—like me—who have read and enjoyed Paul V. Murphy’s essays in the
Sixteenth Century Journal, in several edited volumes, and in this journal now
have just what they hoped for: Murphy’s thorough analysis covering the whole
life of Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga (1505–63). He has made a first-class contribution to the history of sixteenth-century Italy.
In six chapters here, Murphy traces the background and career of Gonzaga,
placing both fully in context. A handsome, powerful Renaissance patrician,
Gonzaga was fluent in the humanist culture prized by his social class. After
studies in Bologna, entry into the circle of Reginald Pole, plus further studies
in Mantua and Venice, he became the episcopal administrator of Mantua in
1521 and cardinal at the age of 22. He built an enormous library of humanist
works, including texts on theology, patristics, canon law, and apologetics, the
latter in both Protestant and Catholic voices. Murphy described him as a lifelong learner, for in addition to this book collecting—and presumably, reading—the prelate regularly sought out tutors. Present at the beginnings of what
Hubert Jedin and others called “Catholic Reform,” Gonzaga worked inconsistently to actualize diocesan reform. One reality that spurred such inconsistency in him and in others like him was personal pursuit of thoroughly unreformed behavior. Since he amassed an awesome portfolio of benefices
delivering some 35,000 ducats annually, Gonzaga’s reacting badly to nepotism
under Paul III was rather like the pot calling the kettle black. Still, his modest
reform initiatives in Mantua between 1533 and 1561 gained the good will of

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prelates such as Gasparo Contarini and Gian Pietro Carafa. Gonzaga focused
his diocesan reform on monastic life and on the improvement of local clergy,
and he turned out to be fully capable of showing both severity and pragmatism in handling the failings of his human charges. When considering
Gonzaga’s connection with the contemporary so-called spirituali, Murphy
finds it difficult to pin his subject down. Gonzaga exhibited the theological
and religious influence of the group, but not consistently. He disapproved
open preaching of Protestant doctrine on grace, but he was slow to discipline
those who did. It was in artistic commissions and in work as a regent—beginning in 1540 for Francesco, the seven-year-old son of Federico of Mantua—that
Gonzaga’s patrician credentials were most apparent.There, Murphy explains,
he understood his role perfectly: to maintain the status of his family as a clan
of great lords. In his final years, Gonzaga served with Girolamo Seripando as
legate to the Council of Trent. Murphy challenges the view of Jedin, arguing
that the legates were not the source of problems encountered in the last phase
of the council, but skillful diplomats facing an impossible balancing act. For
Murphy, here at Trent the patrician and the reformer came together. Gonzaga
sought, for instance, a limit on papal authority over the Council without any
reduction in divinely instituted papal power. He and Seripando tried, Murphy
insists, to preserve conciliar confidence in papal commitment to comprehensive reform.
If all this sounds a little familiar, there is good reason. Intrepid scholars such
as Giuseppe Alberigo, Eric Cochrane, Paul Grendler, and Adriano Prosperi
began dramatic reconsideration of characters like Gonzaga long ago. Quite an
edifice has been built upon their foundations by the rest of us fellow travelers,
including Murphy. His work is another substantial brick in the wall. Prelates
like Gonzaga worked amid competing commitments. The interrelationships
they established were varied, multifaceted, and rather fluid.The positions they
took and tactics they used were anything but uniform. Individual lives, groups
of friends, political entities, and long-lasting institutions filled with contradictions defying customary historical models are the stuff of revision.A powerful,
persuasive contribution to necessary revision lies here.
Bloomsburg University

WILLIAM V. HUDON

Morandi’s Last Prophecy and the End of Renaissance Politics. By Brendan
Dooley. (Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2002. Pp. xiv, 238. $55.00.
ISBN 978-0-691-04864-2.)
In this engaging book, Brendan Dooley brings to life the revealing story of
the abbot of the Roman monastery of Santa Prassede, Orazio Morandi. A bibliophile who began collecting books while a university student in Rome in the
late-sixteenth century and continued the habit during two decades as a monk
in Florence, Morandi had acquired 550 texts by the time he returned to Rome
as abbot of Santa Prassede in 1613. With wide-ranging interests in theology,

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ancient literature, and astrology, Morandi and the monastery library became
the informal center—a salon of sorts—for a notable group of artists and intellectuals in the Rome of Paul V and Urban VIII. The famous, like Bernini and
Galileo, came to borrow books from the library, as did well-heeled noblewomen such as Donna Anna Colonna, the wife of Urban VIII’s nephew. The
abbot and his library subsequently constituted an important, if little-known,
corner of the vibrant intellectual world of early-seventeenth-century Rome.
Unfortunately for Morandi, his interests in prophecy and astrology went
beyond academic interests, and when he was found to have predicted the
death of Urban VIII in a chart he cast in 1630, he was arrested and jailed for
what was considered a politically provocative and dangerous act and put on
trial. He died in jail under mysterious circumstances a few months after his
arrest. Poison, naturally, was suspected by contemporaries. With this rich and
explosive brew of politics, prophecy, and the intellectual turmoil that marked
Rome in the age of Urban VIII and Galileo, Dooley draws on the huge trial
record of some 2800 folios as the primary archival foundation for his work.The
resulting book is a compelling micro-history hybrid that sheds light on the
interwoven worlds of astrology, papal politics, the world of the book, crime
and punishment, and the intellectual habits of early modern Rome.
Dooley frames the central body of his text with two largely descriptive
chapters on the imprisonment, trial, and interrogation of Morandi. The intervening sixteen chapters—all short, almost self-contained, essays—follow a
rough chronology of Morandi’s life from the time he was a student and young
monk in Florence under the patronage of the Medici through his tenure as
abbot of the monastery from 1613–30. Chapter 4, “The Astrologer’s Books,”
presents one of the most important aspects of the work, since it provides a
detailed picture of the library and its users, thanks to a catalogue and borrower’s list preserved in the archives.This is a jewel for students of the book,
reading habits, and the history of astrology and science. Similarly, chapters 9,
10, and 11,“The Harmony of the Universe,”“Charting the Firmament,” and “The
Science of the Stars,” are particularly valuable as they demonstrate with good
detail how Morandi used his texts, cast charts, and read the heavens. Because
of this kind of analysis with such excellent evidence, intellectual historians and
especially historians of science and astrology will find this book of much use
and importance as an addition to their growing field.
This is not necessarily the case for political historians of Rome, and it is
curious that the title of the book gives such prominence to politics. In short,
what the text adds to the political history of Rome under Urban VIII is far less
compelling and original than the other material, and why and how this episode
represents the end of Renaissance politics is far from clear. This criticism
notwithstanding, the book nonetheless constitutes a valuable addition to our
understanding of the intellectual worlds of early-seventeenth-century Rome.
University of California, Berkeley

THOMAS DANDELET

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Religionsstreitigkeiten:Volksprachliche Kontroversen zwischen altgläubigen
und evangelischen Theologen im 16. Jahrhundert. By Kai Bremer. [Frühe
Neuzeit, Band 104.] (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2005. Pp. x, 329.
€88,00. ISBN 978-3-484-36604-6)
Historians of Reformation thought have long recognized the role that vernacular texts played in the dissemination of evangelical doctrines. Less widely
acknowledged has been the contribution of vernacular writing to the Catholic
response during the early decades of Protestantism. Because of the asymmetry
of Protestant and Catholic constructions of lay and clerical status, close
scrutiny of vernacular writings by Catholic controversialists has proven particularly revealing. Conventional views that vernacular polemics are dominated by scurrilous vituperation were supported by texts by Hieronymus
Emser and Thomas Murner that became known through Luther’s equally
vociferous counterattacks. It is now recognized that these works by early
Catholic polemicists are no more representative of the Romanist response
than pamphlets by the Reformers are of their larger theological programs. In
this monograph Kai Bremer elucidates the relation of Latin and vernacular
writings by identifying some of the specific roles for which the native language was used.
Firmly grounded in the methods of Germanistic philology, Bremer rightly
understands the importance of the choice of language. Identifying the genre
of vernacular Streitschrift as a component of the Romanists’ larger polemical
strategy, Bremer offers precise criteria for determining this class of writing and
relating it to broader categories of religious polemic. Bremer’s attention to
rhetorical analysis of polemical texts yields welcome results, notably his focus
on the relation of persuasion to demonstration, or in his terms, conversion to
conviction (p. 56). Using Georg Eder’s 1580 example, in which the Golden
Fleece is an image of the unity of Christianity from the apostolic era onward,
Bremer argues cogently that appeals to the coherence and extension of
Catholicism compose a distinct category apart from the denunciations and
refutations usually associated with the Streitschrift. Moreover, this genre is one
in which authors offer commentaries on texts in the harsher style. Bremer’s
intensive analysis allows him to locate, among these persuasive expositions,
criticisms of the use of German for aggressive polemics. Hence we find intraconfessional differences over the use of German for disputes concerning the
finer points of doctrine.
For historians of religious controversy, one great merit of Bremer’s exposition is the contrast he draws between mild and harsh styles of argumentation,
or, in his terms, between pastoral care and the battlefield (p. 129). As his exposition demonstrates, the irenicists and polemicists not only had their own
styles but also some Catholic authors practiced both, an indication that they
were aware of sympathetic and hostile factions among their intended readers.
If, as Bremer suggests, highly charged, controversial positions occasionally

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appeared in conciliatory guise, researchers in this specialty will have to use the
categories irenic and polemical with far greater care than in the past.
The close scrutiny of selected texts comes at the unavoidable cost of not
knowing exactly how typical or unique these examples are. To be sure,
Catholic controversialists sought to present a unified front as a contrast to
their depictions of a hopelessly fragmented Protestantism, but the internal friction exemplified by Eder’s critique indicates a less harmonious movement
than they wished to display. The surviving literature is vast and scattered
through myriad libraries, and selectivity is necessary for such close literary
analysis as Bremer offers.Thus we may hope that more studies of the same caliber will follow.
Originally a 2002 Göttingen dissertation and displaying the detailed thoroughness of the genre, Bremer’s monograph covers an unusually broad spectrum of textual material and in so doing both clears new paths for further
investigation and provides helpful new terms for interpreting Catholic controversial literature.
University of Iowa

RALPH KEEN

God’s Secret Agents: Queen Elizabeth’s Forbidden Priests and the Hatching
of the Gunpowder Plot. By Alice Hogge. (New York: HarperCollins. 2005.
Pp. xiv, 445. $27.95. ISBN 978-0-060-54227-6.)
This account of the English mission undertaken by English priests to
restore their country to the Catholic faith, following the accession of Queen
Elizabeth I, makes for exciting reading.Alice Hogge is particularly effective in
capturing the idealism, enthusiasm, and heroism of what she calls “Rome’s
army of arguers, burning with the force of their rhetoric and the certainty of
their beliefs” (p. 395). Many were Oxford-educated young men who left their
native land to receive a Catholic theological education abroad. Returning to
England as ordained priests, they undertook to nurture the faith of those called
recusants—from their refusal to accept the provisions of the Elizabethan
ecclesiastical legislation.The English authorities viewed the priests as agents of
a foreign power. In all too many cases, they were harassed, imprisoned, tortured, and executed by barbarous methods. Hogge skillfully describes the complexities and ambiguities of their mission, including the ironic situation where
the priests, to carry out their pastoral work, had to act like the secret agents
they were accused of being. Furthermore, they became dependent on lay
Catholics who were, in at least a few cases, militantly opposed to the English
government. This provides the link to the daringly apocalyptic Gunpowder
Plot of 1605, aimed at destroying King James I and the royal family, the Privy
Council, the leading judges, and the members of both houses of Parliament. If
the plot had been successful, it would have created chaos throughout the

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country. At least two Jesuit priests knew about the plot and failed to stop it,
although they seem to have tried to dissuade the plotters.
Hogge shows that the plot instilled a long-lasting fear and suspicion of
Roman Catholicism in many ordinary English men and women. The treatment of Father Henry Garnet revealed a vindictiveness and savagery in the
king’s officials that was very much at variance with the tolerant attitude
toward Catholics that the king had expressed on his accession to the English
throne a few years before. Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury and the king’s leading minister, is depicted here as determined to destroy the Jesuit organization in England. But Hogge does not offer support for the theory that Cecil
instigated the Gunpowder Plot to expose and ruin the Catholics. The plotters, Hogge suggests, feared the impending peace with Spain, since it would
deprive them of assistance from abroad, and they seem to have acted out of
a desperate ambition to topple the English Protestant government once and
for all, an objective that the long war between Spain and England had failed
to accomplish.
The author describes her work as “a popular history book” (p. 395), but it
is based on a wide reading of sources, both primary and secondary, and she
provides extensive footnotes. Unfortunately, her footnotes often come at the
end of several sentences or even a paragraph, and they typically list several
sources.Thus the sources of the quotations often are unclear. She apparently
did not use the works of some important historians who are now investigating
aspects of the history of early modern English Catholicism. These historians
include Peter Marshall, Michael Questier, Ethan Shagan, Alison Shell, Alexandra
Walsham, and Lucy Wooding; she also neglects some of the work of the late
Francis Edwards, whose book on the Gunpowder Plot will soon be published.
There are flaws in the book. Hogge refers to the widespread relief among
English people that the Spanish armada had failed by the comment,“how lucky
it was that God should be an Anglican” (p. 10). She also uses the term Anglican
regularly to refer to the Elizabethan Church of England.The term is anachronistic and misleading, as she seems to admit in a note (p. 10).Adherents of the
established Church referred to themselves as Protestants. She also uses the
term Puritan in an anachronistic way, referring to a religious point of view in
1560 as Puritan when the word and the point of view had not yet appeared.
Her description of the communion service in the 1559 Book of Common
Prayer as “a careful amalgam of phrases from successive earlier prayer books”
is careless and inaccurate (p. 35). Its contents were almost entirely from the
more reformed of the two prayer books that had appeared, namely, that of
1552. Her phrase is only applicable to the words of administration of the consecrated elements in the Elizabethan prayer book, not to the whole communion service. Despite an excellent brief treatment of the establishment of the
English College at Douai and its subsequent move to Reims, she neglects the
secular or seminary priests who were a considerable part of the English mission, focusing instead on the Jesuit priests who were mainly educated at the
English College at Rome.

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Although a popular book, this is also a serious work of interpretation.
Hogge shows in considerable detail the contribution of Nicholas Owen to the
English mission as designer of many “hides”—places where priests were
hidden from the government investigators or pursuivants who searched
Catholic homes for Catholic priests and materials for celebrating Mass. She
describes aptly the network of lay Catholics who protected the Catholic
priests and sent them to safe houses across England. She exposes the government’s harsh techniques, many of doubtful legality, to find and identify priests
and politically activist Catholic laity and to attempt to extract information from
them. Some of the most interesting pages of the book come at the end and deal
with the somewhat parallel events of the early-twenty-first century. Terrorist
political actions partly inspired by religion and harsh measures of doubtful
legality undertaken to interrogate suspects are still very much a part of our
world. Hogge forces readers to consider contemporary issues that they might
prefer to ignore.
University of the South
Sewanee, Tennessee

W. B. PATTERSON

From Cranmer to Sancroft: Essays on English Religion in the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries. By Patrick Collinson. (New York: Hambledon
Continuum. 2006. Pp. xvi, 276. $72.00 clothbound, ISBN 978-1-852-85118-7;
$24.95 paperback, ISBN 978-1-852-85504-8.)
In Patrick Collinson’s From Cranmer to Sancroft, two archbishops stand as
the stern-faced alpha and omega for a collection of essays written by the preeminent historian of early modern religion in England.Those clerical bookends
are apt, for Collinson is interested in trajectories—in beginnings and perhaps,
in the case of English Christianity, ends. John Bossy once famously wrote of
Elizabethan Catholicism that it was “a progress from inertia to inertia in three
generations,” and Collinson, in homage, states that Protestant dissent in early
modern East Anglia “travels full circle from minority enthusiasm to minority
enthusiasm in five or six generations” (p. 26); this volume, for its part, could be
said to move from complex if weak archbishop to complex if weak archbishop, with a rich reserve of dissenters, separatists, and international
Calvinists residing in between.
Collinson is interested in the metaphor of the cord, in this case as it applies
to contradictory perceptions of the early modern English church as composed
of one strand—the national and encompassing body of the faithful—woven in
with a second strand, the “godly remnant or holy huddle” (pp. 26, 172).These
threads nevertheless held together for a time, as dissent was also conjoined
with the conservative church, particularly in regions such as Suffolk, where
“the paradigmatic alliance of godly magistracy and ministry . . . gave the cord
the strength to take the strain” (pp. 36, 40). The fraying and breaking of that
cord, however, would occur when separatists, for example,“pull[ed] out of the

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cord one of its two strands” (p. 28), with many of them acting on their decision by emigrating to New England; the events of the 1640s and 1650s, of
course, also unloosened the rope, even if continuities remained between lateseventeenth-century dissenters and elements of the grassroots Puritanism that
existed before.
The much-debated group known as the Puritans is further explored in most
of the book’s essays, particularly in Collinson’s assertion that the movement
did not represent an opposition to the Elizabethan and Jacobean settlements
but the most “vigorous” strain within it. Still, Puritans evade easy categorizations—assured, despairing, hypocritical, Calvinist, non-Calvinist, conservative,
radical; indeed,“[the] coherence of our concept of Puritanism depends upon
knowing as little about particular Puritans as possible” (p. 105). In their acute
predicament of entanglement in the cord—between belief in the godly minority and the larger English church from which they did not wish to separate—
Puritans, for Collinson, chose integration “rather than sectarian disintegration,”
as outward conformity was balanced with attendance of semi-separatist conventicles, despite increasing pessimism about the larger church (p. 135). By the
late-seventeenth century, and in the wake of the mid-century upheavals, the
church had “contracted to the limits of the conventicle” alone (p. 168); as
Collinson puts it, if the Puritan mainstream had once been “a great glacier
advancing to engulf the whole landscape,” it then “surpris[ed] itself by disintegrating and calving icebergs into a chilly sea” (p. 168).
Although Collinson emphasizes contingency and circumstance behind religious developments, From Cranmer to Sancroft describes a series of failures
that take on the inevitability of a larger tragic drama based on characters (or
in this case groups) that aspired to “impossible dreams” (p. 81). Archbishops
Thomas Cranmer and William Sancroft, who are analyzed in separate essays, are
appropriate embodiments of the book’s tone of ultimate decline. Although
Cranmer’s theological inconsistencies and recantations are explained with
incisiveness and sympathy, the archbishop nevertheless left behind a legacy of
ambivalence and division. Sancroft, for all his humanism and tenacity in holding office, also acted unheroically and sealed his fate in the aftermath of
James’s deposition in 1688; in refusing the loyalty oath to William III, Sancroft
chose not to stay within the system, for example, to accommodate moderate
dissenters and others—which “had profound consequences not only for the
Church of England but for English Christianity more generally” (p. 192).Thus
do these essays, perhaps unwittingly, convey faith, in Matthew Arnold’s words,
as a “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” from England, although explained
more historically and less roaringly; the tensions inherent within one church
could not help but eventually break it apart and fray the cord, leading in part
to the English “post-Christian” (or rather, in England, post-Anglican) world of
today.
Queens College, City University of New York

SARAH COVINGTON

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Mother Leakey and the Bishop: A Ghost Story. By Peter Marshall. (Oxford:
Oxford University Press. 2007. Pp.xxvi, 323. $25.00. ISBN 978-0-19927371-3.)
In October 1634 the matriarch of a once-prosperous Somerset merchant
family died.Yet the death of Susan Leakey did not mark the end of her story.
Less than two months later her daughter-in-law Elizabeth claimed that Susan
again began to make her presence felt in the family’s home: first through
unexplained noises, and then in March 1636, by appearing in physical form.
Ultimately these fleeting visions culminated in an exchange in November of
that year in which the ghost of Susan Leakey gave Elizabeth a set of instructions. These included a confidential message for Susan’s daughter, Joan
Atherton, the wife of the Crown’s newly appointed bishop of Waterford and
Lismore in Ireland. A victim of his politics as much as his passions, John
Atherton was soon at the center of his own storm of controversy: in 1640 he
was convicted and hanged for sodomy. But before the bishop’s unfortunate
demise, Peter Marshall suggests that perhaps this spectral communication
caused some at the court of Charles I to suspect a more sinister political
game afoot.
As in the case of his mother-in law, the story of the execution of Bishop
Atherton also took on a life of its own after his death. Up to the present, the
stories of Mother Leakey and Bishop Atherton continue to appear in various
forms, oftentimes with new meanings attached as the narratives have been
refashioned to fit changing political and cultural contexts. It is the great staying power of these two intertwined stories of sex and spirits in the early-seventeenth century that attracted Marshall’s attention. These stories provided
him with an an opportunity to explore among other questions: the nature of
Hiberno-English political relations on the eve of the English Civil War;“how
the ‘British dimension’ might influence our understanding, both of political
culture as a whole, and of individual life experiences” (p. ix); and the impact
of the supernatural on political events at the time during which society’s
perception of the nature of the universe was radically changing.
Furthermore, because these stories have been frequently retold and republished during the course of the last four centuries, Marshall contends that
they offer “a rare insight into the process of historical memory as a dynamic
entity . . . how oral tradition and written history are created and recreated
over time” (p. x).
Marshall’s analysis of the surviving material convinced him that it was possible to tell these stories in “a fresh and exciting way” (p. x). In a frank and welcome acknowledgment Marshall recognized that his narrative was itself a creative act: it was “his story” of the story of Mother Leakey and the bishop. Even
scrupulously taking accounts of the facts, nevertheless,“usually leaves a huge
degree of artistic latitude in the historian’s hands” (p. xi). This recognition
drives the presentation of the material. Organized into eight chapters along
with a prologue, a “cast of characters,” interlude, and epilogue, the book has the

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feel of a work of fiction. In another unexpected departure from the standard
academic approach Marshall incorporates into the text the story of his own
research into the Leakey and Atherton affairs. In these sections he unveils the
thoughts of a historian—along with the trials and tribulations of archival
research—as he plies his craft. I found these sections to be the most fascinating
parts of the text.
While the book is well written and engaging, there are a few minor issues
that give pause for consideration. It is unclear whom Marshall intends as the
book’s primary audience.Will its popular literary style appeal to an academic
readership? Conversely, will the level of detail and complex presentation of
information appeal to the majority of readers of popular history? Also the final
chapter falls flat. In a mere twenty-seven pages Marshall surveys the appearances of the stories of Mother Leakey and the bishop over roughly the last
three hundred years.The result is that this chapter seems a bit too compressed
and does not do justice to Marshall’s intriguing study of these events and his
innovative presentation of the material.These concerns aside, Mother Leakey
and the Bishop: A Ghost Story is a spirited work that in a disarming fashion
raises serious questions about the challenges faced by the present-day writers
of narrative history.
The Ohio State University

JAMES A. LENAGHAN

Religious Women in Golden Age Spain: The Permeable Cloister. By Elizabeth
A. Lehfeldt. [Women and Gender in the Early Modern World.] (Burlington,
VT:Ashgate. 2005. Pp. x, 241. $99.95. ISBN 978-0-754-65023-2.)
In her engaging study, Elizabeth Lehfeldt has systematically argued for the
permeability of the early modern cloister. Even as she carefully charts change
over time—in patronage, monastic rules, and the regulation of claustration—
she persuasively demonstrates the persistence of interactions between cloistered nuns and the world outside the convent walls. She locates convents—
and the cloistered nuns who inhabited them—in the fabric of civic life.
Charting medieval networks of patronage and models of reform, she provides a framework to assess change over time. Her study encompasses not only
widely recognized periods of reform—those spurred by Ferdinand and
Isabella and by the Council of Trent—but also the complicated political and
religious landscape of the earlier fifteenth century.Thus, she remedies the frequent tendency to break such studies into excessively tidy categories.
Moreover, she examines nuns as simultaneous actors in religious, political,
civic, and economic spheres.
Still, Lehfeldt reassesses the lives of women religious with systematic organization and clear prose. Her chapter titles—among them “Habits of Reform:
Religious Women before Trent”—are evidence of such careful structure. Not

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just employing a nice turn of phrase, she plays on the multiple valences of that
language throughout the chapter. As she explores fifteenth-century templates
for reform, she also treats the importance of monastic attire. Her analysis of
one religious community’s decisions about reform indicates her ability to connect such material to a wider assessment of monastic reform: “Their habits
were a source of identity and gave them flexibility in choosing their direction
in an era of tumultuous monastic reform” (p. 153).
In such fashion, her six chapters cohere internally and build upon each
other, both thematically and chronologically. She analyzes convent patronage,
economic management, litigation of numerous kinds, and religious reform,
focusing on the mid-fifteenth through the mid-seventeenth centuries. She
examines both the spiritual bounds of the convent and its physical spaces.
Through numerous lenses, she argues for the permeability of the cloister, even
in an era in which much religious reform centered on the cloistering of female
religious communities: she carefully demonstrates that the business of life
occurred inside the cloister and not simply around it.
She employs a wide array of sources, even as she centers her study on the
important city of Valladolid, treating a range of religious communities in that
city. She approaches her material with sophistication, attending to the constraints of rhetoric and form. She analyzes the writings of a host of reformers:
male authorities and women who gained reputations for holiness among their
contemporaries. She attends not only to print and the language of prescriptive
treatises but also to deeds, lawsuits, and other records of economic activities
that allow her to approach the “lived experience” of these religious women.
She charts their negotiations of identities and regulations, their resistance to
authorities, and their exercise of spiritual authority. Above all, she gives a palpable sense of the importance of convents to early modern communities.
Lehfeldt distills these arguments in her closing lines:“ And just as they did
in the late medieval and early modern eras, their lives continue to customarily
and necessarily intersect with the temporal world, rendering the cloister quite
permeable” (p. 220).Thus, she contends that any assessment of these religious
women must be approached with broad chronological range and deep rooting
in their economic, social, and cultural contexts. She consistently implies a
dynamism in the relationship between civic order and religious foundation.
Inherent in Lehfeldt’s notion of permeability is an emphasis on living,
vibrancy, and the potential for action even within the cloistered life.
Western Washington University

KIMBERLY LYNN HOSSAIN

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Late Modern European
Between Cross and Class. Comparative Histories of Christian Labour in
Europe 1840–2000. Edited by Lex Heerma van Voss, Patrick Pasture, and Jan
De Maeyer. [International and Comparative Social History, Vol. 8.] (New
York: Peter Lang. 2005. Pp. 399. $100.95. ISBN 978-0-820-46274-5.)
Written by a distinguished team of European and North American collaborators, this collection aims to provide the first transnational account of the
development of Catholic labor organizations in Europe from the nineteenth
century onward. In doing so, its editors are intent upon remedying what they
perceive to be the neglect and condescension with which historians, and more
especially labor historians, have viewed Christian trade unionism. Like many
such justifications, this starting point is perhaps a little superannuated. Quite
who this monstrous regiment of secular-minded historians might be is never
stated, and whether there is really anybody who still believes that Christian
labor organizations were the manifestations of a false consciousness imposed
by priests and factory owners on workers who lacked the means to perceive
their true (Socialist) class interest seems a rather dubious assumption. No
matter: in the case of this volume, it leads to the much more substantial and
interesting problem of mapping and interpreting why Christian labor organizations developed so strongly across large areas of western and central Europe
from the final decades of the nineteenth century to roughly the 1960s. Some
may turn to this volume for its information about less familiar areas of
Christian trade unionism, notably the necessarily tentative contribution by
Irina Novichenko on Russia and its western neighbors and the substantial and
highly informative article by Pieter van Duin and Zuzana Poláckova on the
bitter conflicts between Catholic and Socialist trade unions in Austria and
Czechoslovakia in the years immediately following World War I. Its principal
value, however, lies in the way its more synthetic essays, especially those by
Patrick Pasture,William Patch, Paul Misner, and Carl Strikwerda provide much
material for reflection on the origins, development, and subsequent transformations of Christian labor organizations.
In the beginning, as Pasture emphasizes in his substantial introduction,
there was the Catholic Church: it was the resolve with which the papacy and
national ecclesiastical hierarchies set about creating “milieu associations” for
industrial workers and thereby saving them from the twin evils of secularization and socialism, which provided the essential impetus for the Catholic
social organizations, youth leagues, and trade unions that spread over the territories of the Low Countries, northern France, and western Germany in the
latter nineteenth century. The fertile soil they found also owed much, as
Strikwerda rightly underscores, to the attitudes of the Socialist unions. By
adopting a militant anticlericalism, Socialist unions in countries such as
Belgium and Austria alienated those workers for whom abandonment of their
religious identities or the opprobrium they would receive from their peers

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was too high a price to pay for membership in a trade union. Conversely
where, as in Great Britain, trade unions did not adopt an anticlerical secularism, Christian trade unionism could, as Hugh McLeod shows in his essay,
remain within the broader church of mainstream trade unionism. However, the
development of Christian and more especially Catholic labor organizations
owed much to the organizational efforts of the committed cadre of priests and
lay activists who by the early decades of the twentieth century emerged as the
leaders of the various working-class organizations. Christian trade unions, as
Misner points out, never stood alone: they were merely one component of a
much broader range of spiritual and social associations that provided the
milieu within which the trade unions developed.
Whether the workers themselves played much part in creating the organizations that claimed to speak in their name is less clear. An overly theoretical
essay by Jan De Maeyer on working-class Catholic culture is the one substantial disappointment in the volume; and, as Strikwerda suggests, it would be
wrong to draw too straight a line between religious practice and membership
in Christian labor organizations. Christian (and secular) workers behaved pragmatically for the most part, joining those organizations, be they Christian or
secular, which seemed best able to protect their interests. It is this pragmatism
that provides perhaps the most interesting means of analyzing their subsequent development. Christian labor organizations were most successful when
and where they could act as effective agents for the defense of the interests of
their members. Thus, the strong development of Christian trade unionism in
Germany and the Low Countries, and its more patchy growth in Italy and
France, owed less to patterns of religious belief, or indeed clerical patronage,
than it did to the way in which these organizations adapted to the reality of
the industrial landscape.The model of Christian trade unionism that had developed in much of Europe by the middle of the twentieth century was on the
whole a successful one: although originally focused on a number of key industries, notably coal mining and textiles, they proved able to reach out to new
sectors of workers, notably those in public sectors (such as the ubiquitous railroad workers), white-collar employees, women, and the young. Moreover, their
pragmatic ethos and cross-class composition made them better equipped than
their Socialist and Communist rivals to combine timely strike action with participation in those forms of corporatist negotiation with employers and the
state that appeared to offer the prospect of concrete rewards. Thus, as Patch
demonstrates, Christian trade unions were far from immune to the corporatist
temptations of the 1930s in Austria or even more briefly Nazi Germany; but in
the democratic systems of the Weimar Republic, the French Third Republic, or
the democracies of post-1945 Western Europe, they were also effective lobbyists, ensuring that their interests were well represented within the Catholic
and Christian Democrat parties of the era.
This pragmatic attitude also helps to explain the evolution of Christian
labor organizations over recent decades. As Misner rightly emphasizes, the

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fusions of specifically confessional organizations within larger secular tradeunion federations that have occurred in many western European states at different points since 1945 owed much to the fundamental shift away from hierarchical structures of control within European Catholic ranks that took place
both before and after the Second Vatican Council. But they can also be seen as
a further stage in the development of the Christian model of trade unionism,
which recognized the advantages that they could derive from working with
their erstwhile Socialist rivals. In doing so, they might have abandoned their
specifically Christian identity; but, as Strikwerda points out in his concluding
essay, they also converted their Socialist colleagues to their model of flexible
and pragmatic labor organization.
Balliol College, Oxford

MARTIN CONWAY

The Story of Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange: Founder of Modern Catholic
Biblical Study. By Bernard Montagnes, O.P. Translation and Foreword by
Benedict Viviano, O.P. (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. 2006. Pp. xviii, 214. $22.95
paperback. ISBN 978-0-809-14333-7.)
The story of Père Lagrange (1855–1938) is a chronicle in cameo of the birth
pangs of modern Catholic biblical scholarship. Divino Afflante Spiritu and Dei
Verbum have provided the ecclesiastical freedom and encouragement that
contemporary Catholic biblical scholars enjoy. Marie-Joseph Lagrange suffered
the travail and restriction that preceded recognition of Catholic biblical scholarship as a legitimate enterprise.
Lagrange’s espousal of the historical-critical method, whose primacy in biblical studies is acknowledged in the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s The
Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (Vatican City, 1993), was frowned
upon and often rejected by Roman authorities who failed to appreciate what
he was doing and why he was doing it. Caution and sometimes brakes were
applied to his work by his religious superiors who feared for the reputation
and standing of the Order of Preachers. Supported by the friendship of some
members of the Company of Jesus, he fell victim to the vitriol and plots of men
such as Belgian Jesuit Alfonse Delattre and German Jesuit Leopold Fonck.
Notwithstanding this opposition and the climate of suspicion created by the
“modernist” crisis, Lagrange’s legacy to biblical scholarship is enormous. His
publications number almost 2000. He founded the Biblical School in Jerusalem;
the École biblique; the Revue biblique; and the Études bibliques, a scholarly
series of biblical commentaries and monographs. No small part of his legacy is
the work of his students such as Félix-Marie Abel, François-Marie Braun, Paul
Dhorme, Eugène Tisserant, and Hughes Vincent, who have left their own mark
on the history of biblical scholarship. What remains regrettable is that
Lagrange’s most cherished work, a commentary on the Book of Genesis, has not
yet been published, so powerful has been the censorship imposed upon it.

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Bernard Montagnes is a Dominican from Lagrange’s home province of
Toulouse. Prior to writing this book, he had published forty essays on
Lagrange. What distinguishes this work from previous biographies of Père
Lagrange is the author’s abundant use of archival material and Lagrange’s correspondence. What emerges is a portrait of Lagrange that almost seems to
come from the man himself.
The reader experiences the trauma of opposition and misunderstanding
that Lagrange suffered. In Lagrange, there was a passion for the truth with a
conviction that the historical-critical method is necessary to the attainment of
that truth. His love for the Church, espousal of the Dominican way of life and
fidelity to Thomas Aquinas, and loyalty to the Holy See provided constraints
sometimes as powerful as those imposed from outside. In Lagrange, there was
a lifelong and deep-seated desire to allow the Word of God to be understood
and appreciated by the people in the world in which we life.The memory and
challenge of his passion and desire may well be Lagrange’s most important
legacy.
Brown University

RAYMOND F. COLLINS

The Sacred Monster of Thomism: An Introduction to the Life and Legacy of
Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. By Richard Peddicord, O.P. (South Bend,
IN: St.Augustine’s Press. 2005. Pp. xii, 250. $25.00. ISBN 978-1-587-31752-1.)
After studies at Bordeaux, Flavigny, and Paris and after teaching philosophy
and dogmatic theology for four years at Le Saulchoir, his order’s school of theology, the French Dominican theologian Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange
(1877–1964) taught dogmatic and spiritual theology at the Angelicum in Rome
from 1909 to 1959. Garrigou-Lagrange, strongly impressed by his teacher
Ambroise Gardeil, O.P., was a strident proponent of a strict neo-Thomist theology, a prolific author of neo-Scholastic textbooks on dogmatic and spiritual
theology, and an influential consultant to the Holy Office. He was a prominent
early opponent of the nouvelle théologie (cf.“La nouvelle théologie: où va-telle?,” Angelicum 23 [1946] 126–45) propounded in the mid-twentieth century by such theologians as Yves Congar, O.P., and Henri de Lubac, S.J., and he
influenced the strong criticism of this thought in Pope Pius XII’s important
encyclical Humani Generis (1950). Garrigou-Lagrange also directed numerous
doctoral dissertations, including those of M.-D. Chenu, O.P., and Karol Wotjy/la.
Hostile to the anticlerical Third Republic and absent from France during most
of World War II, he supported Marshal Petain’s Vichy government and is
reported by Jacques Maritain to have admonished Maritain, at one time a personal friend, that his support of General Charles de Gaulle’s Resistance during
the war was a mortal sin. Due to advanced age and declining health, GarrigouLagrange participated little in the preparatory work for the Second Vatican
Council and not at all at the Council itself.

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In The Sacred Monster of Thomism (a title derived from a remark of
François Mauriac), Richard Peddicord, O.P., currently president of the Aquinas
Institute of Theology in St. Louis, provides the first book-length treatment of
a once influential confrère whose extensive writings have been neglected in
recent decades. From a perspective almost invariably sympathetic to
Garrigou-Lagrange’s theology and spirituality, although not to his political
judgments, Peddicord outlines Garrigou-Lagrange’s life and recounts his controversies with such adversaries as Henri Bergson, Maurice Blondel, Chenu,
and Maritain. Apart from compact accounts of Garrigou-Lagrange’s conception of revelation and the nature of theology, Peddicord devotes surprisingly
little space to presentation and analysis of Garrigou-Lagrange’s extensive theological publications and even less to clear and objective accounts, based on
the primary sources, of the positions Garrigou-Lagrange opposed; even the
influential attack on the nouvelle théologie is examined only cursorily. The
occasional polemical critiques of such contemporary American authors as
Roger Haight, Monika Hellwig, and Elizabeth Johnson are out of place.
Nonetheless, although not all will agree with the positions defended by
Garrigou-Lagrange and Peddicord, the historical information included in this
volume will be of interest even to readers who do not share Peddicord’s
optimistic assessment of the value of his fellow Dominican’s contribution to
the future development of Catholic theology.
Some corrections on details: Nazi Germany annexed only part of
Czechoslovakia in 1938 (p. 96). On p. 139, n. 13, in the citation from GarrigouLagrange, read “la véritable doctrine thomiste” for “la extrêmes doctrine
Thomiste.” Spot checks of the index indicate that all page references to Patrick
Granfield, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Komonchak, Karl Rahner, Friedrich
Schleiermacher, Paul Tillich, and Herbert Vorgrimler are inaccurate.
The Catholic University of America

JOHN P. GALVIN

Un pionnier, dom Lambert Beauduin (1873–1960): Liturgie et Unité des
chrétiens. By Raymond Loonbeek and Jacques Mortiau. 2 volumes.
[Université Catholique de Louvain: Recueil de Travaux d’Histoire et de
Philologie, 7 Série, Fascicules 12-13] (Louvain-la-Neuve: Collège Érasme et
Éditions de Chevetogne.2001.Pp.xxx,916;iv,917–1612. €47.10 paperback.)
Dom Lambert Beauduin is recognized both as a liturgical reformer and an
ecumenist. Since his death in 1960, biographies have been written by L. Bouyer,
O. Rousseau, R.Aubert, M. Cappuyns, and A. Haquin. But these two volumes represent the exhaustive efforts of two priest-professors, Raymond Loonbeek and
Jacques Mortiau, of the diocese of Malines-Brussels to document the life of this
great pioneer, through his writings; extensive interviews with his contemporaries; research in archives such as the archdiocese of Malines, the Pro Russia
Commission, and the Congregation for Oriental Churches in Rome; and his
papers, which include the rich years when he gave spiritual retreats and taught

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university-level courses at San Anselmo in Rome and the Institut Supérieur de
Liturgie in Paris. Beauduin was a prolific writer of some two hundred journal
articles and several thousand letters. One drawback, however, is the absence of
papers from the monastery of Mont César in Louvain, where Dom Beauduin
began his monastic life; Dom Bernard Capelle ordered the papers’ destruction.
The work is made up of ten sections in two thick volumes, which include more
than 1500 pages of text and an extensive list of sources.
Beauduin began his religious life as a seminarian at Liège (1893–97), years
marked by Pope Leo XIII’s social encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891). Drawn
to the Société des Aumôniers du Travail, he was ordained to the diocesan clergy
but the monastic life appealed to him. In 1906, he took up residence as a
Benedictine monk at Mont César and prepared to teach dogmatic theology
(ecclesiology). It was here that he dreamed about a renewed liturgy both in
parishes and monasteries that would renew the Church. In 1909, he attended
the general chapter of the Benedictines in Beuron that would lead him to the
Congress of Catholic Works in Malines, which he declared was the official
beginning for his work in liturgical reform and ecumenism. But it was during
Beauduin’s years in Rome (1921–25) while preparing his lectures on ecclesiology that he became acutely aware of the problem of Christian unity through
his contacts with Anglicanism and the Christian East.These years nourished his
ecumenical outlook that led to the foundation of the Monastery of Unity in
1925 (later transferred to Chevetogne).Wanting the monastery to be free from
proselytism, dependence on charitable giving, and ideological imperialism,
Beauduin established a new approach toward separated Christians that was
founded on respect and love rather than one based on the desire to proselytize. It consisted in listening to an individual to know and understand him or
her but still remaining true to one’s own convictions. But Beauduin’s refusal to
proselytize doomed him to exile in a monastery in the south of France (En
Calcat) where he remained until 1951. He returned to his home monastery at
the age of seventy-eight.Yet the years in exile, intended to silence this charismatic visionary, only established his credentials as a great figure in ecumenical
circles as well as liturgical studies. This two-volume work is highly recommended for the serious historian.
University of Notre Dame

MICHAEL S. DRISCOLL

A Gentle Jesuit:The Life of Philip Caraman, S.J., 1911–1998. By June Rockett.
(Leominster, UK: Gracewing Ltd. 2004. Pp. xii, 356. £20.00. ISBN 978-0-85244593-8.)
To someone who knows Philip Caraman primarily as the historian who
brought to life the exploits of Elizabethan Jesuits, or as the chronicler of the
travels and travails of Jesuit missionaries in exotic lands, the supposition that a
biography of Caraman himself would provide as compelling a story line might
seem far-fetched. But it is nevertheless true, and June Rockett, who is an astute

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observer of modern ecclesiastical history, has distilled much archival material
into a lively account of a man who was at the center of the Catholic literary
revival in its later stages and who was a high-profile casualty of the turbulent
times that brought that revival to its end.
Caraman was of Catholic Armenian heritage, but impeccably British.
Educated at Stonyhurst, he entered the Society of Jesus in 1930 and was eventually chosen to pursue historical studies at Oxford at Campion Hall during the
tenure of Martin D’Arcy, who was to become his mentor and friend until
D’Arcy’s death in 1976. Soon after D’Arcy’s elevation to the post of provincial,
he appointed the recently ordained Caraman to the editorship of The Month,
the prestigious journal that had once been the vehicle for Herbert Thurston,
but had lost much of its panache by the 1940s. Caraman enlivened its pages
with contributions by Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Robert Speaight,Thomas
Merton, and other prominent writers. More than once, articles by Waugh and
Greene in particular brought controversy to Caraman’s door, but he was earning plaudits for his groundbreaking translations and annotations of the hitherto overlooked memoirs of the Elizabethan Jesuit priests John Gerard (1951)
and William Weston (1955). These were followed in 1957 by a biography of
another English Jesuit, Henry Morse; a compilation of source materials that
appeared in 1960 as The Other Face: Catholic Life Under Elizabeth I; and a
biography, commissioned by the Ursulines, of St. Angela Merici in 1963. At the
same time he was serving as vice postulator of the cause for the canonization
of forty English martyrs, maintaining his editorial duties, editing three volumes
of sermons by Ronald Knox, and cultivating high-profile converts such as
Dame Edith Sitwell and Alec Guinness, while continuing to socialize with the
Waughs and Herberts.
By then, however, the Jesuit administration had changed. The shift in personnel and priorities has already been covered in the excellent 1997 biography of D’Arcy by H. J. A. Sire. Caraman was summarily fired as editor of The
Month in 1963 and banished from the Farm Street “writers’ house,” ostensibly
for excessive favoritism shown toward Evelyn Waugh’s daughter, Margaret
FitzHerbert, a staffer working on the martyrs’ cause. (It is interesting to note
that Martin Stannard, in his multivolume study of Evelyn Waugh published in
the early 1990s, adopted the perspective of Caraman’s detractors in this
episode without critical examination, to the annoyance of the octogenarian
priest who could have offered a different perspective on the jealousies and
infighting that permeated the office and the Society at the time.)
The demotion, however, did not prevent Caraman from completing his
most lasting contribution to recusant history, his definitive biography Henry
Garnet and the Gunpowder Plot, 1551–1606. His friendship with a
Norwegian Cistercian, John Willem Gran, led to his move to Norway after Gran
was appointed bishop of Oslo in the mid-1960s. Here Caraman finished his relatively short biographical study of C. C. Martindale, the brilliant convert and
prolific writer who had died in 1963.

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With Norway as his base and freed from the strictures of the Farm Street
overseers, Caraman could satisfy his desire to explore the remoter regions of
the globe as background for his histories of Jesuit missionaries. He visited
Ethiopia in 1967 and the hinterlands of Paraguay in 1971. The latter visit
informs his highly successful book The Lost Paradise (1975), and the former
contributed to The Lost Empire: The Story of the Jesuits in Ethiopia,
1555–1634, which was published in 1985. In Norway he also assumed for the
first time the duties of a parish priest for small flocks in several posts.
In 1982, he returned to England and became parish priest at Dulverton,
near the homes of the newer generation of Waughs and Herberts, but also ministering to parishioners unaware of his past connections to the literary set. It
is a testament to his rigorous Jesuit training and self-discipline that he
remained active as a pastor until his mid-eighties.A final historical work, Tibet:
The Jesuit Century, was published in 1998, the year of his death, and for once
was based solely on sources from the archives in Rome rather than on firsthand reconnaissance. Although it did not receive great reviews, the book is
undeniably fascinating and an overdue corrective of the jingoistic view that
the explorer and religious enthusiast Sir Francis Younghusband was the first
notable westerner to penetrate the remote lands north of India.
Rockett has depicted Caraman as what Waugh once called him—“a dear
gentle Jesuit”—as well as an inveterate traveler, an indefatigable student of
Jesuit history, and an unassuming and constant friend to many people.The several minor typographical errors do not detract from this most welcome addition to the historiography of English Catholicism in the twentieth century.
Hofstra University

DAVID ROONEY

Kirchen im Krieg. Europa 1939–1945. Edited by Karl-Joseph Hummel and
Christoph Kösters. (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh. 2007. Pp. 614. €48,00.
ISBN 978-3-506-75688-6.)
These collected essays, edited by two notable German Catholic scholars,
are the product of a 2004 conference and complement the 2005 volume
Kirchliches Leben im Zweiten Weltkrieg, edited by two Protestant scholars.
While the latter’s compass is restricted to Germany, the book under review has
a more ambitious goal of covering Europe as a whole. It also contains contributions with a wider, ecumenical, and international perspective. Both volumes
are indications of a new interest in the affairs of Europe’s churches during the
traumatic years of World War II.
Such collections are helpful in providing up-to-date summaries of previous detailed research (valuably listed in the numerous footnotes), as is the
case with the initial and interesting essays on the position of the Vatican and
of the Protestant World Council of Churches. On the other hand, some of

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these contributions are rather too narrowly focused. But that is par for the
course.
Part 1 surveys aspects of church life in different European regions, such as
excellent accounts of the Protestant churches in Scandinavia or the Catholic
churches in France and the Low Countries. Most interesting, because less well
known, is the survey of Catholic life in east-central Europe from Czechia and
Slovakia—where the pro-Nazi state president was a Catholic priest—to
Hungary and Poland. The fate of the Church in this last country, as described
by Emilia Hrabovec, was particularly grim. Nazi occupation policy was implemented by the most radical anticlerical and antisemitic SS troops, determined
to destroy Poland’s national identity. Hundreds of clergy were murdered or
sent to concentration camps.The result was that Polish Catholic life was driven
to depend on the laity and to attempt to uphold the ideal of Polish nationalism
at the local popular level.
These essays give an excellent picture of the diversity of wartime church
circumstances.The Nazi occupation and control was exercised in markedly different ways in different countries.The churches’ reactions also differed widely,
due to their own varieties of theological and historical traditions, varying from
open resistance to accommodating compromise. But there was rarely any
common Christian stance, or indeed even ecumenical collaboration among the
major churches.
Parts 2 and 3 return to Germany and provide detailed essays on various
aspects of the churches’ experience under the Nazi dictatorship. When war
broke out, the leaders of both major churches adhered to traditional Christian
views on the issue of war and military engagement, and justified their participation in defense of their people and nation. Despite the evidence of the
Nazis’ increasing radicalization and brutalization in the conduct of the war,
especially in the east, the majority of churchmen, even after their defeat, still
refused to admit that their theology was irrelevant and their guilt pervasive.
Instead, churchmen concentrated on survival and emphasized their own sufferings rather than those of the Nazis’ victims. Overall, the German churches
put up no resistance to Nazi crimes, since loyalty to nation prevailed.
Similarly, the evidence is clear that only a tiny handful of compassionate
church people were prepared to take the risks of assisting the Jewish victims,
while the prevalent antisemitism was shared by both Catholics and
Protestants without demur.
On the other hand, the Nazi attempts to achieve totalitarian control and
influence over the churches failed, prevented by the strongly conservative theological views held by both Protestants and Catholics.These ambivalences and
tensions between the churches and the regime can best be described as
“antagonistic cooperation,” which may serve as a comprehensive verdict on
this tortuous relationship.

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The essays in part 4 concern the role of the few churchmen in the resistance movement. Were they Christian martyrs or political traitors? Were they
motivated more by religious or political factors? And what is to be said about
those who had earlier supported Nazism? Such questions are examined here
with skepticism and placed in their historiographical context. In fact, the
debates still continue.This German past is not yet finished. It is not even past.
These valuable contributions show the reader why.
University of British Columbia

JOHN CONWAY

Antisemitism, Christian Ambivalence, and the Holocaust. Edited by Kevin P.
Spicer, C.S.C. (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
2007. Pp. xxiv, 329. $29.95. ISBN 978-0-253-34873-9.)
This excellent collection was published in association with the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and contains thirteen essays presented at a conference held at the museum in the summer of 2004.The volume
is helpfully divided into four major sections: “Theological Antisemitism,”
“Christian Clergy and the Extreme Right Wing,” “Postwar Jewish-Christian
Encounters,” and “Viewing Each Other.”
In the first section,Thorsten Wagner discusses the Lutheran Church and the
Jews during the war,Ana Lysiak studies the writings of Polish Catholic theologians on Judaism between the two world wars, Robert Krieg narrates German
Catholic views of Jesus and Judaism from World War I through World War II,
and Donald Dietrich analyzes the response of Catholic theology to Nazism
during and since the Shoah.
In the second section, the editor himself presents his study of a Catholic
priest “working for the Führer,” Beth A. Griech-Polelle writes on the impact of
the Spanish civil war on Roman Catholic clergy in Nazi Germany, and Paul A.
Shapiro of the USHMM staff discusses the Iron Guard and the Romanian
Catholic Church.
In the third section on postwar Christian reflections and encounters,
Matthew Hockenos presents Protestant European views and Elias H.
Fullenbach presents Catholic reflections on the Shoah.This latter essay will be
of great interest to historians seeking to reconstruct and understand the views
and movements that paved the way for the Second Vatican Council’s historic
document Nostra Aetate.
In the final section, Gershon Greenberg presents the encounter with
Christianity during the Shoah from the viewpoint of Jewish Orthodoxy, which
reveals a range of Jewish views that will likely surprise some readers of this
journal. Suzanne Brown-Fleming epitomizes the Catholic-Jewish encounter
regarding antisemitism in the life and work of Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein, who
was adviser on Jewish affairs to the American troops during the war.

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Finally, the paper given by Richard Steigmann-Gall, “Old Wine in New
Wineskins? Religion and Race in Nazi Anti-Semitism,” supposedly wraps up
the conference papers. Here, as in the editor’s preface, is where I have some
real difficulties. Steigmann-Gall wants to debunk “earlier assumptions that religious antisemitism played no part in the formation of its racialist counterpart”
in Nazi antisemitism” (p. 289) primarily by citing Nazi writings in which the
Nazis themselves claim to be in continuity with Christian teachings. My first
difficulty is that Nazi propaganda is not likely to be one’s best source of information on an exceedingly complex history. Second, I know of few people in
the field who have made such a claim. Rather, most people in the field
acknowledge that although there is a distinction to be made between the
Christian teaching of contempt and racial antisemitism, the former established the mindset in European Christians, or in Pope John Paul II’s words, so
“lulled (their) consciences” that they were all too easy prey for Nazi propaganda about the Jews. Steigmann-Gall, it seems, has set up a straw man and
knocked him down with an exceedingly odd weapon. His conclusion seems
to be that there is no difference at all between Nazi racial antisemitism and
centuries-old Christian teaching.
This, of course, is only one essay in an otherwise excellent volume, which
normally would not exercise me too much. But the dust jacket unfortunately
turns this one-person view, a view shared so far as I can tell by none of the
other twelve contributors, into a conclusion all the scholars supposedly share:
“They [the essays] dismantle the claim of a distinction between Christian antiJudaism and neo-pagan anti-Judaism.”Again, in the book, helpful and proper distinctions are made for the most part, in different ways, of course, by the different scholars. Fortunately, one cannot really judge a book by its cover.
Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs
(Associate Director Emeritus)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops

EUGENE J. FISHER

American
Church and State in America: The First Two Centuries. By James H. Hutson.
[Cambridge Essential Histories.] (New York: Cambridge University Press.
2008. Pp. xiv, 207. $21.99 paperback. ISBN 978-0-521-68343-2.)
James H. Hutson, chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of
Congress, has done as much as anyone in recent years to recover the authentic understanding of the Founding Fathers’ views on church and state, in his
books Religion and the Founding of America (Washington, DC, 1990) and
Forgotten Features of the Founding (Lanham, MD, 2003). In a sense this latest
book sums up his earlier work.
The story is a fairly simple one. No one among the founders believed in
absolute separation of church and state in the sense that the modern Supreme

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Court erroneously attributes to them. It was taken for granted that there would
be religious liberty and that there would not be an established national
church.The principal dispute was over direct tax support of the churches, an
issue that brought forth a variety of responses. But no one at the time doubted
that religion in general was to be encouraged and that it was essential to the
moral fiber of the nation.
The book’s title is misleading, in that the period after the founding gets only
a few pages, which requires leaving out some important issues, such as the sabbatarian laws and various court decisions. (Remarkably, the 1947 Everson case,
which began the modern era of church-state jurisprudence, did not have a
single precedent to back it up.)
The book is part of a semi-popular series and as such has no footnotes or
other references, thereby handicapping readers who may want to make use of
it in ongoing political discussions. Hutson’s account is completely reliable, but
his claims would have to be proven by recourse to other works. There is a
brief bibliography.
There is an issue that goes unaddressed. Hutson characterizes some of the
founders as politiques, because they had no firm principles about church and
state, but took particular stands mainly to forestall social conflict.To the degree
that this is true, it seems to support the modern separationists’ otherwise
dubious claim that the founders’ fear of “divisiveness” was at the root of everything else.
Hutson’s works have been invaluable contributions to the debunking of the
modern myth of church-state relations, along with Philip Hamburger’s
Separation of Church and State (Cambridge, MA, 2002) and, if I may say so,
my own The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life (Princeton,
2004).At the scholarly level the myth is no longer sustainable, but at an intermediate level—that of editorial writers, for example—it appears to be indeed
set in concrete.
Saint Louis University

JAMES HITCHCOCK

American Catholics in the Protestant Imagination: Rethinking the Academic
Study of Religion. By Michael P. Carroll. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press. 2007. Pp. xx, 219. $49.95. ISBN 978-0-801-88683-6.)
This volume presents not a narrative but an argument. Michael P. Carroll,
known for his series of studies of Catholic practice published by the Johns
Hopkins University Press, has a case to make about the way Catholicism is handled by sociologists, psychologists, and historians. He thinks that the starting
point of many academic colleagues is a taken-for-granted set of assumptions
about the nature of true and mature religion and the sort of relationship one
should have with God. With these unquestioned assumptions in place, the

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scholar goes to work on the empirical evidence in his or her field and constructs
an answer to the problem at hand that originates in assumptions rather than
explaining the data. Consequently the scholar notices some data and does not
notice others. He or she formulates theory and reaches conclusions deducible
from the assumptions rather than acts of genuine understanding arising from
encounters with the data. Questions are skewed and so distortion ensues.Why
are the assumptions not criticized and eliminated in the normal course of
research and review? Because the assumptions are so widespread and deeply set
in the mind and culture of the scholars that they constitute a group bias. Such a
formal analysis is not uncommon in the literature of scholarly debate.
The book is clear in its aims and organization. From the introduction to the
epilogue and in the individual chapters, Carroll again and again tells the reader
his methods and approach. He spends two chapters telling the reader how
some Irish became Protestants in America and how others became good
Catholics, correcting the “standard story.”He follows with three more chapters,
each devoted to a common scholarly perception or story of an ethnic enclave
of Catholics, and then shows how the evidence does not support the common
story and suggests a revision. In chapter 6 he follows the trail of the invidious
assumptions of historians, sociologists, and psychologists (that is, “the
Academic Study of American Religion”) back to their origins in certain (liberal)
Protestant doctrines that function as markers, resources, and lenses for the
interpretation of religion in general and Catholicism in particular.
Carroll, on the theoretic side of his case, follows in the line of David Tracy
and Andrew Greeley (among others) who have, over the last thirty years and
with precious little effect on the academic interpreters of religion apart from
Catholics, engaged upon an ambitious program of hermeneutics crucial to
which is the contrast between the analogical (Catholic) and the dialectical
(Protestant) imagination.Their work is grounded in the cognitional theory of
Bernard Lonergan, S.J., whom Carroll does not mention. The point of all this
theory is to explain why scholars miss the mark on Catholicism and how they
can then correct themselves or be corrected.
The book has many virtues, among which are brevity, clarity, conciseness,
deft use of illustrative material from American religious history, and a prose
style that is engaging and not at all complicated by the deep thinking it conveys. It is a fine book that deserves a wide readership in the profession.
College of the Holy Cross

WILLIAM M. SHEA

New Mexico’s Crypto-Jews: Image and Memory. By Cary Herz. Introduction by
Ori Z. Soltes. Afterword by Mona Hernández. (Albuquerque: University of
New Mexico Press. 2007. Pp. xxii, 154. $39.95. ISBN 978-0-826-34289-8.)
In the last two decades a number of Americans of Hispanic descent in the
Southwest have identified themselves in one way or another as Jews.

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Fragmentary clues—a grandparent’s strident anticlericalism, family dietary customs, candles lit surreptitiously on Friday night, supposedly Jewish iconography on church carvings or gravestones, Hebraic first names, family names supposedly indicating Jewishness—are deemed to constitute a strong
circumstantial case for their descent from Spanish or Portuguese Jewish converts from Judaism who made their way to the northern frontiers of the colonial Hispanic world.
As a photographer, Cary Herz has an accomplished eye (analyzed cogently
by Ori Soltes in his introduction), and the biographical vignettes that accompany each photo prove he has an ear for anecdote as well. His book is exactly
what it purports to be,“a photographic diary of the people I have met . . . [not]
a history of the descendants of the crypto-Jews” (p. x). As a chronicle of
recorded memories the book makes an important contribution, both visually
and as a fascinating compendium of this group’s touchstones of identity. Many
of the stories that contextualize the images have deeper roots in folklore than
in what historians might consider history.
Soltes alludes to the scholarly debate over the claims that this community
indeed preserves a crypto-Jewish identity from colonial times, but he does not
give any details. Questions unasked in this book, and therefore unanswered,
include:Why the six-pointed star so prevalent on New Mexican churches and
gravestones must be indicative of Judaism when there is no evidence of its use
as a Jewish marker in medieval Iberia or in colonial America? Why leaving pebbles on gravestones is considered a colonial crypto-Jewish custom when the
inquisitors—who, by and large, were skilled trackers of “heretics”—never
alluded to them? Why were certain family names held to indicate Jewishness
when the Inquisition did not consider them so? Why certain Hebraic first
names, which are so prevalent in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries not only in the American Southwest but also in Latin America (and for
that matter in New England), indicate Jewish roots? Why is the four-sided top,
similar to the central-European Ashkenazi dreidel, considered Jewish when, as
Judith Neulander persuasively argues,4 it appears in so many other cultures
around the world but is not documented in colonial America? There are credible alternative explanations for each of these phenomena, but this book does
not allude to them.5
Beyond this, the book is marred by several imprecisions and assumptions
of questionable credibility. Two examples: Herz defines conversos as “those
forced to convert to the Catholic faith during the Spanish and Portuguese
4
Judith S, Neulander, “The New Mexican Crypto-Jewish Canon: Choosing to be
‘Chosen’ in Millennial Tradition,” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, 18, nos. 1–2
(1996), 19–58
5
Neulander, “The New Mexican Crypto-Jewish Canon.” David Gitlitz, “Nexos entre
Criptojudíos coloniales y contemporáneos,” Revista de Humanidades: Tecnológico de
Monterrey (Mexico), 5 (1998), 187–209.

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Inquisitions” (p. ix). In fact, most conversions occurred between 1391 and the
summer of 1492, after which no unconverted Jews legally remained in Spain
(and the Inquisition in Spain lasted from 1478 to 1834).The book also asserts
that the hidden Jews “came to the New World looking for freedom and survival” (Herz, p. x) and fled to the northwest “where a degree of religious safety
might be hoped for” (Soltes, p. 5), yet most of the documentary evidence suggests that conversos came to the New World and dispersed from Mexico City
and Lima principally for economic reasons.
Yet perhaps these quibbles do not matter very much in the face of depth
of commitment of New Mexico’s self-identified crypto-Jews. As Herz writes,
these people are serious about their Jewish identity, and “their commitment to
their hidden roots should not be taken lightly” (p. x). More interesting than the
question of the historical validity of those claims are questions like these: How
does this mantle of Jewish identity function for these individuals, and how
does it relate to the Hispanic Catholic culture from which they emerge? Why
has much of the American Jewish community so uncritically embraced these
claims, while doing very little to welcome these crypto-Jews into the congregations of mainstream Judaism? For that matter, what determines Jewishness:
Beliefs? Practices? Genetics? Self-concept? How should Judaism deal with
these demands for membership? And how does what is happening in the
American Southwest parallel, or differ from, similar emerging crypto-Jewish
movements in Mexico, Central America, the Andean nations and Brazil, and the
Iberian Peninsula itself?
University of Rhode Island

DAVID GITLITZ

Rituals of Resistance: African Atlantic Religion in Kongo and the
Lowcountry South in the Era of Slavery. By Jason R.Young. (Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press. 2007. Pp. xiv, 258. $40.00. ISBN 978-0-80713279-1.)
An expertly researched and fascinating historical study of “cultural recuperation”and “cultural generation”(p. 18), Rituals of Resistance is a major contribution to our understanding of African Atlantic religion. Carefully discussing
the Kongo kingdom as it was fracturing under the violence of the transatlantic
slave trade and craftily mining a wide range of primary sources in numerous
languages, Jason Young paints a compelling portrait of Kongolese “traditional”
religion and the various Kongolese receptions of Catholicism beginning at the
end of the fifteenth century, which provided thousands of enslaved West
Central Africans with “a certain vocabulary of ritual expression.” Young persuasively argues that this vocabulary was a taproot of slave culture in the
Lowcountry (eastern South Carolina and eastern Georgia) during the slave era,
the antebellum period, and beyond, as it provided the means by which African
American religion there took shape on its own terms and represented “a central form of resistance not only against the system of slavery but also against

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the very ideological underpinnings that supported slavery in the first place”
(p. 11).
Following an introduction that situates Young in an impressive lineage of
classical and contemporary scholars of African Atlantic culture (e.g., Melville
J. Herskovits, Sterling Stuckey [Young’s mentor], Sidney Mintz, Richard Price,
James H. Sweet, et al.), and a chapter effectively contextualizing the presence
of Kongolese slaves in the American South, the body of this book consists of
three chapter-length case studies that illustrate the “recuperation” and “generation” of Kongolese religion in the Lowcountry.The first case study is preceded by a splendid depiction of religion in the Kongo Kingdom from the
late-fifteenth to the early-eighteenth century, the period in which Catholicism
was adopted by many Kongolese. Here Young asserts that John Thornton’s earlier claims about the “authenticity” of Kongolese Catholicism are overstated;
that Catholicism in Kongo took “at least five different forms” (p. 44), some of
which were marginal at best. In this case study,Young explains the nature and
function of Kongolese water spirits (simbi, bisimbi pl.) and of the powerful
appeal of the Catholic sacrament of baptism to the Kongolese not as a means
of salvation in the Catholic soteriological sense but “as a means of protection
from evil spirits” (p. 53). How their simbi spirituality and prior appropriated/indigenized notions of Catholic baptism in Kongo deeply informed the
perception of thousands of enslaved Africans of baptism in the Protestant
experience in America is discussed masterfully in the second half of this long
chapter.
The other two case studies follow transatlantic suit in demonstrating the
influence of Kongolese minkisi (“ritual object[s] invested with otherworldly
power” [p. 110]) on conjure culture among African Americans in the
Lowcountry and, respectively, the influence of Kongolese burial traditions and
ancestral spirituality on black funerary traditions and perceptions of death,
dying, and rebirth among African descended peoples in antebellum America.
These case studies are, too, very effectively developed and supportively woven
into Young’s thesis about resistance in the “African Atlantic Religious
Complex.”
Although some readers might regret that certain key terms such as conversion, ritual, performance, religion, and Western do not receive anything
like the careful and sophisticated treatment that Young devotes to culture, I
found myself transfixed by the powerful and amazing stories that Young has
assembled in demonstrating that “(o)n both sides of the Atlantic the faithful
proved adept at resolving and amending Christian doctrine and dogma in line
with their own cosmological conceptions and with the immediacy of their
own condition” (p. 44). In doing so, the faithful made an indelible contribution
to resistance against white supremacy.
Temple University

TERRY REY

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853

The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial
America. By Thomas S. Kidd. (New Haven:Yale University Press. 2007. Pp.
xx, 392. $35.00. ISBN 978-0-300-11887-2.)
Not another book on the Great Awakening in American history! No.This is
a book to end all books on the Great Awakening, substituting a powerful new
force in American Christianity: evangelicalism. We will be able to discard the
old terminology of the First and Second Great Awakening as outmoded and
irrelevant.The “First” never ended, and the “Second” is merely subsumed under
the larger label of the evangelical movement. If all this requires some rethinking and reordering of priorities,Thomas Kidd’s probing and persuasive book
provides the justification.
Over fifty pages of detailed endnotes demonstrate that this new structure
has not been arrived at quickly nor without the widest reading.The author has
read everything, both the older classics and the freshest interpretations, and he
has brought keen insight and careful integration to the whole. With a lively
style, Kidd runs the risk of giving “monographic research”a good name. He also
demonstrates that this kind of careful reflection and analysis still has its rightful place of highest priority in historical writing.
Roughly the first half of the book treats material that one would expect to
find in a book carrying the main title of “The Great Awakening.” But the treatment bristles with new insights and unexpected sources. One insight is that
the Awakening did not arrive suddenly and then depart in a similar manner.
The revivalist excitement may have caught many by surprise in its intensity
and seeming spontaneity, but it did not come to an abrupt halt—and perhaps
to no halt at all. The author speaks of the first outbreak as “a long Great
Awakening,” and it is that longevity that permanently reshapes the character of
Protestantism in America. Although Kidd does not neglect the impact of
English Puritanism, Scotch-Irish Presbyterianism, and Continental Pietism, he
acknowledges that “once the American revivals began in earnest, around 1740,”
the internal dynamics of the American side take over (p. xiv).
The author does such a good job with these “dynamics” (a nice word for
contention, controversy, and mutual recrimination) that the wonder is that
evangelicalism attained the status of a movement at all. Just as participants in
the eighteenth century found much to argue about, so modern-day survivors
in the twenty-first century will not all agree on where evangelical Christianity
has come from or exactly where it is going. But all this just testifies to the vitality and significance of the subject.
In the second half of the book, Kidd narrows his focus a bit to give special
attention to the Separatist movement, to Native Americans and African
Americans, to the “interior parts” of early America, to the flashy growth of
Baptists and then Methodists, and to the role of religion (especially millennialism) in the American Revolution. If on occasion, the reader feels that the

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author is getting carried away, then careful attention to the endnotes affirms
that the solid ground of history has not been traded in for the sinking sand of
thesis joyriding.Throughout this fine book, the reader has not been cheated in
any way, only richly rewarded.
University of California, Riverside (Emeritus)

EDWIN S. GAUSTAD

Jesus Is Female: Moravians and the Challenge of Radical Religion in Early
America. By Aaron Spencer Fogleman. [Early American Studies.]
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2007. Pp. x, 330. $49.95.
ISBN 978-0-812-23992-8. )
Radical pietism is rapidly becoming a fertile field of inquiry in the area of
church history. With the appearance of W. R. Ward’s Early Evangelicalism: A
Global Intellectual History, 1670–1789 (Cambridge, 2006) and Thomas Kidd’s
The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial
America (New Haven, 2007), Aaron Fogleman’s foray into radical religion in
early America is in good critical company. However, whereas Ward invites the
reader to consider the significant role of Kabbalah, alchemy, and mysticism in
the development of an alternative expression of faith in the long eighteenth
century, and Kidd examines the broader historical and social context of evangelical Christianity in the North American colonies, Fogleman chooses instead
to focus narrowly on the eighteenth-century polemic against the Protestant
sect of the Moravians.
Fogleman organizes his work into three parts:“Religion and Gender,”“The
Moravian Challenge,” and “Religious Violence and the Defense of Order.”
While the first two sections focus quite narrowly on an interpretation of
Moravian theology, drawing on printed and manuscript sources, the final part
attempts to provide an explanation for isolated incidents of orthodox
Lutheran violence and judicial censure that Fogleman argues constitute a
response to the theory and practice of Moravian theology in the American
colonies. Given that this tripartite structure relies heavily on the accurate
interpretation and presentation of Moravian thought and practice, it is unfortunate that the author falls short on the former, thus compromising the latter.
For example, Fogleman makes the startling claim that for the Moravians of
the first half of the eighteenth century, “[Jesus] became female by giving
birth through the sidewound, which in portraiture, speech and hymnology
became a womb” (p. 80).This is a quite erroneous reading of Moravian theology and iconography, which rests on the author’s insistence on a rigid isomorphism between cultural artifacts and lived practice of the eighteenthcentury Moravian church. In so doing, Fogelman claims that depictions in
private devotionals of domestic scenes framed within the red margins of a
vulna/vulva must represent a lived reality of a female Christ, thereby
excluding any notion of Christ’s maleness.

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Fogleman cites as an example of the radical isomorphism of the early eighteenth-century Moravian church the practices of the Single Brothers Choir,
where in Herrnhaag in 1748, the brothers were all “accepted and declared as
single sisters” (p. 89). However, whereas Fogleman reads this declaration as a
“gender transformation” (p. 89), it is far more in keeping with the mysticism
that Ward points to that such practices and liturgies allowed men within the
Moravian communities of the early-eighteenth century to continue in a tradition of “vulnerable masculinity” that had long been available as a gender role
within spiritual communities, in which a model of vulnerable masculinity
could be found in the image of the wounded Christ. For eighteenth-century
Moravians, this was a Christ who retained a dominant appearance of masculinity, but with what one could call feminine marks.And this gender confusion is central to an understanding of the eighteenth-century Moravian Christ,
just as it is for the medieval mystics.
In this work, Fogleman is correct in identifying the mode of representing
Jesus with female characteristics as a sign of a site of cultural struggle, but the
crucial fact remains that this Moravian Jesus was not female but eternally male,
eternally vulnerable and male, and signifying a cultural struggle not only
between “radical pietism” and orthodox Lutheranism but also encompassing
an important moment of crisis and transition in the history of masculinity.
Bucknell University

KATHERINE FAULL

Masterless Mistresses: The New Orleans Ursulines and the Development of a
New World Society, 1727–1834. By Emily Clark. (Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press. 2007. Pp. xvi, 287. $59.95 clothbound, ISBN 978-0807-83122-9; $22.50 paperback, ISBN 978-0-807-85822-6.)
In 1727, a group of Ursuline nuns arrived in New Orleans. Like their sisters
back home in France, the mission of these women was to educate women and
girls and spread the Catholic faith. Their ideals and the community that they
founded would survive not only the long voyage from France but also the
city’s passage from French to Spanish colonial rule and finally its integration
into the new, primarily Protestant, American Republic. Emily Clark’s book tells
the story of how this remarkable community of women adapted to these
changes and in the process helped shape American history.
From the outset, the nuns were forced to compromise and adapt to meet the
needs of their new environment.The leaders of New Orleans originally sought
nurses to run the public hospital, but a nursing shortage led them to turn to the
Ursulines, a teaching order.The contract signed by the nuns specified that their
work was to center primarily on the hospital, although they were permitted to
conduct some educational work on the side. But once they arrived, the nuns
managed to delay taking on the hospital work for seven years until their new
convent, adjacent to the hospital, was completed and were thus able to focus

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on their educational mission.The success of that mission is evidenced by the
unusually high level of female literacy in eighteenth-century New Orleans.
The nuns brought with them a “spiritual universalism” and an activist
female piety that were rooted in the Catholic Counter-Reformation.Their mission was inclusive of all the women of New Orleans, and their students came
from diverse social and racial backgrounds.With the arrival of Spanish rule in
the 1760s, the nuns had to adapt to a more rigidly hierarchical racial code by,
for example, segregating white students from students of color. Even more
challenging was the adjustment to the emerging slave society of the American
Republic.While the nuns were not opposed to slavery—and were themselves
slave owners—their efforts to evangelize African slaves encouraged the emergence of a “distinctly feminine” multiracial Church in New Orleans.
Clark’s gendered reading of Louisiana’s transition from colony to statehood
shows how competing ideals of femininity were at the heart of struggles over
political and religious authority in the years after the Louisiana Purchase. If the
“transformation of Louisiana’s inhabitants from colonial subjects to republican
citizens” (p. 229) was based on the exclusion of nonwhites and women, the
convent offered a site of resistance to the construction of the white male citizen. Clark argues that the convent as an institution was fundamentally incompatible with republican ideals of womanhood in that it offered women a space
independent of home and family, thus challenging the ideal of domesticity
upon which the new Republic rested.While Clark’s portrayal of Protestantism
as inherently more restrictive of women than Catholicism is a bit over-simple,
she is right that Protestantism was more easily incorporated into the republican patriarchal model of the early Republic, and her argument helps us to
understand the violent attacks on convents in nineteenth-century America as
more than just expressions of nativism.
This meticulously researched and engaging book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the intertwined histories of race, gender, and
religion in American history. Clark’s mastery of both European and American
sources, and her deep understanding of the European religious culture that
shaped the New Orleans Ursulines, make this a model of transatlantic history.
Drawing on Old World traditions, these “masterless mistresses” left a legacy of
female community that provided a vital alternative to the dominant ideologies
of race and gender in early America.
Hawai’i Pacific University

LINDA LIERHEIMER

A Tree Rooted in Faith: A History of Queen of Angels Monastery. By Alberta
Dieker, O.S.B. (Eugene, OR:Wipf and Stock. 2007. Pp. xii, 208. $24.00 paperback. ISBN 978-1-556-35460-1.)
A Tree Rooted in Faith explores the narrative of the Queen of Angels
Benedictine Monastery in Oregon.The author, Alberta Dieker, O.S.B., seeks to

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show that out of contested, uncertain, and turbulent circumstances
Benedictine women crafted a viable and enduring community of professed
religious in the American West. The account ranges from the mid-nineteenthcentury formation of the Maria Rickenbach Benedictine convent in
Switzerland to the present ministry of the community at Mt. Angel, Oregon.
This is an important publication for three reasons.
First, this book joins a current trend that relies on critical analysis to
examine the role of religious women in building American Catholicism.
Once only seen through a haze of glossy piety, nuns and sisters are at last
presented as independent and perceptive women, acting through personal
agency for the benefit of their religious order and their Church. As Dieker
shows, nuns who left European monasteries for American convents did not
allow an array of obstacles to deter them from their congregational and
faith-grounded goals. Hazardous travel, illness and death, language barriers,
anti-Catholic activists, excessive poverty, as well as misunderstandings
between and among colleagues may have threatened but did not defeat the
many sisters who dedicated themselves to the mission fields. Their diverse
labors, complex decisions, and bold vision significantly strengthened the
early American Church, which encountered a number of challenges specific
to the United States. That these Benedictine women persevered against
forceful opposition—not the least of which came from abbots and bishops—helps to explain the flowering of a robust Roman Catholic faith on
American soil.
Second, the author places Catholic missionaries within the larger context
of the western epic, demonstrating how they meshed with the general migration patterns of the nineteenth century. Fueled by common immigrant
impulses, such as the desire to escape disagreeable companions, to claim
promising new lands, or to carve out fresh venues of power, these Oregon
Benedictines understood and seized the opportunities of the West. Through
their initiatives to build schools, convents, hospitals, and chapels, the sisters
dramatically increased the visibility of the institutional church in the West,
even as they wrestled with definitions of a Benedictine identity cast upon an
American stage. Thus, the pioneer travel and settlement of the Benedictine
women duplicated the lives of their lay counterparts but also embraced issues
particular to a monastic environment.
Third, A Tree Rooted in Faith depicts men and women religious and secular as real people. Drawing on a rich collection of archival records, Dieker
teases out the personalities and their controversies with an even hand, suggesting reasonable explanations for many opaque conflicts.As a result, this is a
work notable for its direct and measured tone, one that illuminates the humanity and the spirituality of those who have been part of the Queen of Angels
Monastery. A Tree Rooted in Faith, graced by engaging photographs, although
lacking maps and an index, reminds the reader that the histories of religious

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women are central to understanding Catholicism in the American West and the
nation at large.
Utah State University (Emerita)

ANNE M. BUTLER

White Ethnic New York: Jews, Catholics, and the Shaping of Postwar Politics.
By Joshua M. Zeitz. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
2007. Pp. xvi, 278. $65.00 clothbound, $24.95 paperback.)
Joshua M. Zeitz examines the impact of religious and ethnic tenets on the
political alliances that were forged and broken in New York City in the middle
of the twentieth century. Focusing on Jews and white ethnic Catholics, Zeitz
considers how the teachings and ideology absorbed in the churches and synagogues of the five boroughs influenced the evolution of ethnic politics
between the New Deal and the social unrest of the 1960s. At the center of his
argument is the observation that religiously based attitudes toward authority
and dissent were primary in the political sensibility and strategies employed
by the white ethnics who moved on from the alliances forged by Franklin
Delano Roosevelt into the fractious postwar world of New York City.
To lay the foundation of his argument, Zeitz considers not just the catechism and Torah of both faiths but also a strong array of primary sources
including oral histories, significant rabbinical speeches, sermons, and religious
publications to demonstrate the inherent radical and conservative tendencies
of Jews and Catholics respectively. He begins with the early history of firstgeneration Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants from the turn of the twentieth
century and their experience in finding a voice in the political, social, and
labor communities of New York. His points are provocative, and his evidence
compelling, but it is sometimes selectively applied to make his points. He
seems more comfortable and thorough in his discussion of Jewish religious
and political positions. However, his examination of exactly how the religious
influence and culture of a group seeps into the other elements of their lives
offers great examples for scholars to consider seriously how the messages
delivered at the kitchen table or within houses of worship translate to the
campus and ballot box.This argument is not new, but his argument is so specific and detailed that it is quite fresh.
One of his more interesting anecdotes demonstrates his detail, but also the
need to read his work within a broader context. Mark Rudd was the Columbia
University student who led the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)
takeover of the Ivy League campus in 1968. Zeitz suggests that Rudd’s radicalism was not simply a generational dispute with his parents’ way of life, as much
of 1960s protest is typically explained. The author argues that Rudd actually
embraced the culture of dissent that his middle-class Jewish background
encouraged.To prove his point, Zeitz presents the testimony of Rudd’s parents
and other parents of protesters, most of whom were Jewish, who supported

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the students and felt the administration was wrong to stifle student protest. In
contrast, Zeitz points out that the Columbia students who opposed Rudd and
the SDS summarized their differences simply: “We’re Staten Island; they’re
Scarsdale.” Zeitz points to the statement as a coded reference to the ethnic and
religious divide between the groups: European Catholic versus Jewish, but it
also highlights their socioeconomic differences. Staten Island is clearly working class and Scarsdale distinctly middle to upper-middle class and privileged.
How much of that entitlement figures into the student protests on campuses
like Columbia? The influence of economics is also absent from Zeitz’s interpretation of the impact of the Second Vatican Council on Catholics and
Catholic youths in particular. He suggests that loosened stricture encouraged
challenge and individual thought, but how much did affluence and a degree
open the door to a more lax adherence to church law and the pastor’s word
as well as popular acceptance of Vatican II?
It is difficult to deny the power of religious thought and tradition on immigrant and ethnic groups. But they do not function in isolation. Zeitz’s work
raises as many questions as it answers. His is a valuable contribution to the
study of the ethnic and religious experience in New York. It offers solid evidence for the very real differences between the ethnic groups who ran the city
in the middle of the century and how their religious identities shaped their
politics even as the communities matured.
New York University

LINDA DOWLING ALMEIDA

Strangers in a Foreign Land: The Organizing of Catholic Latinos in the
United States. By George E. Schultze, S.J. (Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2007. Pp. xii, 175. $52.95 clothbound, ISBN 978-0-739-11745-3;
$24.94 paperback, 978-0-739-11746-0.)
George Schultze, S.J., has made a timely contribution to contemporary writings on the Catholic Church, Latino workers, and U.S. labor movement.
Chapter 2,“Catholicism and Worklife,” provides a very readable and substantive
overview of scriptural, patristic, medieval, and post-Reformation reflection on
Christian and Catholic teaching on work. Much of it could be useful to
Protestant and Catholic organizers as well as labor activists and secularists.
Chapter 3, “U.S. Labor History and Catholic Participation,” introduces the
continuing tension between a more focused economic-political tactic of
skilled trade unionism and a wider communal-societal tactic of unskilled service unionism.This tension between two types of unionization manifested itself
in AFL-Samuel Gompers’ rejection of Fr. Peter Dietz’s attempt to create a formal
relationship between the AFL and the American Federation of Catholic
Societies so that joint positions on strikes, industrial education, social services,
and other concerns could be formulated. Schultze said it well: “[The] labor
movement valued the support of sympathetic Catholic clergy, but it did not

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want to lose its autonomy or cause sectarian divisions within its ranks” (p. 64).
The record of “the support of sympathetic Catholic Clergy” about the U.S.
bishops’ 1919 letter on social reconstruction and Msgr. John A. Ryan’s relationship to “Progressives” and “Social Gospelers” is a striking rebuke to authors
alleging that later Catholic involvement in labor-management issues was more
an anticommunistic crusade than a sincere dedication to the improvement of
workers’ livelihood, especially by effective and unimpeded unionization.
Chapter 5,“U.S. Labor 1940 to 2000,” documents some of that sincere and
effective dedication of labor priests and labor schools. The section “Farm
Workers” is a comprehensive, insightful, and honest account of the monumental achievements of Cesar Chavez, head of United Farm Workers (UFW).
No punches are pulled about some failings of labor leaders and even
Chavez. It is pleasant to see long-overdue credit given to other labor priests
and California and Texas bishops. However, more would have been welcome
about Sister Mary Beth Larkin and other women religious who worked often
with little or no recognition. Jesuits should be very proud of Fr. James Vizzard,
S.J., legislative director for the National Catholic Rural Life Conference, and of
Chavez, for their significant work in the passage of much federal legislation so
beneficial to farm workers. Schultze lays out the significant role of community
organizations in Chavez’s crusade and their significant potential to assist the
labor movement in support of Latino workers throughout the nation.
In chapter 6, “A Swing to the Cultural Left Leaves the Catholic on the
Sidelines,” and chapter 7,“A Need for Change,” Schultze criticizes some service unions supporting abortion and gay marriages, opposing school vouchers,
yet attempting to attract devout Catholic Hispanic workers to their ranks.
Apparently, he is unaware or unappreciative of the resolute practice of labor
priests not to attack unions publicly on issues crucial to the Church, often
after private conversations had occurred. Examples include the behind-thescenes efforts of Bishop Francis Haas to offset the split of the CIO from the
AFL in the 1930s and Msgr. George Higgins’s attempt to have the AFL-CIO
Executive Council withdraw support for abortion, despite the pressure of
some international unions to do otherwise. Can the reader assume that
Schultze has been in private discussions with some of the service unions he
has criticized?
As a friend of the labor movement, Schultze wants it to grow, to succeed in
organizing Hispanic and other workers, to see the passage of the Employee Free
Choice Act, to educate a wide audience about past glories of the labor movement and its relationships with the Catholic Church, and to honestly critique
failures of the labor movement. He also wants to stem the erosion of union
democracy, to heal the rift between the AFL-CIO and the “Change to Win”forces,
and to warn the labor movement of the dangers of espousing values at odds
with Latino and other Catholics. Schultze is also concerned about Catholic
labor leaders and Catholic activists succumbing to the secular camp and about

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silence of the theologians and ecclesiastics on the drift of the Church to the left
and/or secularism. However, does that concern mean Catholic activists may not
assist those criticized unions in other campaigns? Are the U.S. labor unions that
serve a pluralistic membership to be dragged into the same vortex as U.S. politics? What could be said about any mediating effort to undo the rift between
the AFL-CIO and the “Change to Win” supporters?
There are important omissions, however. Granted, the impact of Jesuits was
outstanding, but so was that of many non-Jesuits, especially those so crucial to
the labor priests and labor schools. Schultze could have given more credit to
George Meany for ousting criminal and gangster elements; for playing a crucial
role in passing national civil rights legislation, as recognized by Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr.; and for putting strong pressure on the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters to end its obstruction of the UFW. Schultze gives too
little attention to the continued unwillingness of U.S. employers, even in
Catholic institutions, to recognize the validity of the U.S. labor movement’s
right to exist and to the impact of burgeoning international trade agreements.
He could have been more cognizant of the Association of Catholic Trade
Unionists’ significant contribution.
In conclusion, Schultze’s book has enriched minds and hearts. More is now
known about the social teachings of the Catholic Church, the history of the
U.S. labor movement, the years of collaboration between U.S. Catholics and the
U.S. labor movement, and the perils to that relationship because of the tense
challenges over values. Hopefully, more may be done to relieve that tension, so
that greater improvement may be achieved for the economic, political, social,
and spiritual life of all workers.
King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA

PATRICK J. SULLIVAN, C.S.C.

The Dissenting Tradition in American Education. By James C. Carper and
Thomas C. Hunt. (New York: Peter Lang. 2007. Pp. xii, 286. $32.95 paperback. ISBN 978-0-820-47920-0.)
The central premise of The Dissenting Tradition in American Education
is uncompromisingly stated in its introduction: “[T]he public school is the
functional equivalent of an established church, buttressed with religious language, expected to embrace all people, legitimating and transmitting an
orthodoxy or worldview, and underwritten by compulsory taxation” (p. 4).
Beginning with Catholic opposition to the use of the King James Bible in
nineteenth-century public schools and continuing through protests against
the secularism of contemporary public education, The Dissenting Tradition
examines not only challenges to specific viewpoint(s) promoted by publicly
funded schools but also opposition to the very notion of state involvement
in education.

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The authors identify themselves as an evangelical Protestant (Carper) and a
Catholic (Hunt).“Despite our differing theological traditions and educational
experiences,” they write,“we believe that . . . the current structure of public
education is incompatible with America’s confessional pluralism (citizens
embrace different answers to ‘first order’ questions, such as ‘What is the nature
of the cosmos?’) and our sacred commitment to universal liberty of conscience in matters of education and religion” (p. 5). Through a series of case
studies, they demonstrate how America’s secularist public-school system arose
out of religious differences between Protestants and Catholics in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Faced with the likelihood that a significant proportion of public funding for religious schools would go toward the
support of Catholic education, policymakers preferred to allocate tax funding
only to state-run secular schools. Moreover, strong popular advocacy of public
education as a means of promoting patriotism—most notably by
“Americanizing” immigrant children—resulted in restrictions on alternative
forms of education, such as parochial schools and home schooling. In recent
years, however, attitudes and policies have changed, leading Carper and Hunt
to suggest that the time may be ripe for what they describe as “the ‘disestablishment’ of public education” (p. 9).
At the heart of The Dissenting Tradition lies the fundamental question of
the state’s proper role in education. Four models are discussed: the state supports only secular schools under its own control; the state runs secular schools
while funding other schools, which may be religious; the state runs no schools
but provides funds for religious or secular schools of the parents’ choice; or the
state plays no role in either funding or regulating the education of children,
leaving that matter entirely in the hands of parents and religious communities.
The case studies through which these alternatives are explored are compellingly presented, intertwining summaries of political and philosophical
arguments with accounts of real people to whom they represent not abstract
ideas, but a worldview on which the very meaning of life depends.
As a history of Catholic and Protestant efforts to challenge the ideas promoted by public schools and to advance alternative forms of education, The
Dissenting Tradition is highly effective. Its weak point is that even as it
describes this long-running conflict clearly and cogently, it assumes that the
existence of the controversy is, in itself, sufficient justification for “disestablishing” public education in some manner that includes the funding of alternative schooling, including religious education, but is otherwise unspecified.
The book does not refute—or even acknowledge—the main points likely to
be raised on the other side of the debate; in particular, it scarcely mentions
either the political implications of “disestablishing” the public school system
or the constitutional issues involved in state funding of religious education.
To be sure, supporters of public education may be viewed as self-interested
and wrongheaded, and Supreme Court decisions interpreting the First and
Fourteenth Amendments may be deemed faulty. Nevertheless, arguing for a

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dramatic change in the existing structure of the public-school system almost
exclusively on the basis of longstanding religious opposition to it is unlikely
to persuade anyone who was not already predisposed to agree with that
premise.The book presents a compelling history of dissent and a ringing justification thereof, but its explanation of the remedy it recommends leaves the
reader with more questions than answers.
University of Delaware

JOAN DELFATTORE

Religion, Culture, and Politics in the Twentieth-Century United States. By
Mark Hulsether. [Columbia Series in Religion and Politics.] (New York:
Columbia University Press. 2007. Pp. vi, 249. $24.50. ISBN 978-0-23114403-2.)
Hulsether has succeeded admirably in his goal, to provide a textbook tour
guide to the broad contours as well as to some specific case studies of religion,
culture, and politics in recent U.S. history.Throughout the text, Hulsether uses
the concept of mapping and touring as student-friendly ways to suggest how
to think about religion in more complexly textured ways than students usually
bring to the subject.
The work begins with some reflections on religion, culture, and hegemony,
which he defines here as achieving consent without coercion, and establishing a “common sense” for a culture such that socially produced norms and
structures come to be seen as natural and inevitable. In this fashion, Hulsether
gently guides readers, including undergraduates, into considering thicker
descriptions and deeper analyses of religious belief and practice than normally
come into the classroom. After a relatively lengthy introductory chapter providing a quick overview of religion in America to the twentieth century,
Hulsether provides parallel chapters on “religion and social conflict” and “cultural aspects of religion” first for the earlier twentieth century and then for the
later twentieth century.The conclusion considers “consensus” models for religion in America (largely conservative normative visions of a Christian America)
and pluralist models obviously favored by liberals. Implicitly rejecting both,
Hulsether proposes his own model: to “analyze cases where religion, culture,
and politics come together in terms of the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic
goals that are in play” (p. 238).Again, the scary academic words there immediately come in view with concrete cases and thoughtful questions:“Would it be
better—especially for minorities but also for majorities—to live in a land
where a live-and-let-live approach is hegemonic? Conversely, does a society
that valorizes postmodern pluralism reflect the hegemony of consumerism
and dog-eat-dog corporate values?” (p. 238). Rather than beginning with “building consensus or celebrating diversity,” Hulsether suggests that his own model
fosters the task of learning to “think wisely—in concrete cases—about both
harmonious pluralism and intractable conflict, both diversity and power imbalance” (p. 240).

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Hulsether also provides clear-headed analyses of numerous particular subjects. For example, Hulsether provides a nice summary of William Jennings
Bryan’s role in the Scopes episode, showing how he worried more about how
“evolutionary theory eroded democracy . . . strengthened militarism and Social
Darwinism” than he did about defending the stories of Genesis; as well, he also
“saw himself upholding the rights of local communities to set their own educational goals” (p. 135). Again, this story has become familiar to scholars
through the works of Edward Larson and others, but these understandings
scarcely have reached a broader or student audience. In another useful section, Hulsether shows how Reinhold Niebuhrian thought in practice “carried
forward the tradition of religious support for U.S. foreign policy, as well as optimism about the U.S. as the standard-bearer for progress in the world” (p. 105),
effectively puncturing those who would deify the Protestant theoretician of
power. Finally, Hulsether nicely parses the overly hyped numbers of religious
immigration, showing that the pluralist reveries of some recent commentators
exaggerate the numerical impact of non-Christian immigrant religions, which
collectively number about the percentage of the population that Jews did a
century ago.
Scholars of U.S. religion will find this book a most useful and engaging
survey text for their field and one eminently adoptable for the classroom.
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

PAUL HARVEY

Latin American
Religion in New Spain. Edited by Susan Schroeder and Stafford Poole
(Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007. Pp. x, 368. $39.95.
ISBN 978-0-826-33978-2.)
This collection of sixteen essays is a significant contribution to the history
of the Church in colonial Mexico. It grew out of a conference at Tulane
University in 2000 to celebrate the career of Richard Greenleaf. Many of these
studies break new ground in analyzing not just the actions of the missionaries
but the response of the natives as well.
The book is organized in seven parts. The first part looks at native
responses to Christianity. Chapter 1, by Kevin Terraciano, studies native
responses to Christianity in early colonial Oaxaca. Lisa Sousa focuses her essay
on the sacrament of marriage among the Nahua people in the early colonial
period. In chapter 3, David Tavárez analyzes ambivalent acceptance of
Christianity among the Zapotec and the ensuing efforts to extirpate idolatry in
that region.The second part explores issues of native sexual morality and the
effects of Christianity on them. In chapter 4, Sonya Lipsett-Rivera examines the
body and the language of the body as a means to understand religious thought
and syncretism. John Chuchiak presents a well-researched study of solicitation

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in the confessional in colonial Yucatan. The third part looks at miracles, with
Martha Few studying miraculous healings among children. In chapter 7,
Jeanette Favrot Peterson analyzes the development of the cult of the Virgin of
Guadalupe in the seventeenth century. Part 4 looks at the role of nuns in colonial New Spain.Asuncion Lavrin discusses female visionaries and their spirituality, and Mónica Díaz analyzes the indigenous nuns in the convent of Corpus
Christi. The fifth part looks at the Inquisition. In chapter 10, María Elena
Martínez examines racial categories and purity of blood as evidenced in
Inquisition testimony. Stanley Hordes focuses on the relationship between the
Inquisition and crypto-Jews on the northern frontier. Javier Villa-Flores discusses the Inquisition’s handling of the intersection of blasphemy and gambling. In part 6, the works center on music and martyrs. Kristen Dutcher Mann
presents a study of music among the Franciscan and Jesuit missions in the
north. Maureen Ahern discusses ritual warfare in the early missionary frontier
of the northwest. The last part is more general, containing two essays. James
Riley studies priests within the social order of Tlaxcala in the mid to late colonial period, while Michael Polushin looks at elites and reform efforts in late
colonial Chiapas.
The essays are well written by scholars of great note, each in his or her specialty. Because the work covers such a broad range of topics, it is sure to be of
interest to many who study nearly any aspect of colonial Mexican history.
Some of the major themes running through the book are the issues related to
the missionary effort. The interface between missionary and the natives is of
critical importance. Unlike works of forty years ago, these studies grant far
more agency to the natives in their efforts to process the import of Christianity
within their own cultural framework.Another important topic deals with the
notions of the miraculous and the mundane. In the study of Guadalupe, music,
and the martyrs of the northern frontier, there are glimpses into a mentality
that was unique and very important to the seventeenth century. As a group,
the essays on the Inquisition are extremely helpful, looking at the Holy Office
in several different contexts, including two frontier areas. This book is an
important contribution to the literature. Each essay both fits within the larger
topic of the work as a whole and stands on its own merits.
State University of New York at Potsdam

JOHN F. SCHWALLER

Art and Architecture of Viceregal Latin America, 1521–1821. By Kelly
Donahue-Wallace. [Diálogos.] (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press. 2008. Pp. xxviii, 276, 32 color plates. $29.95 paperback. ISBN 978-0826-33459-6.)
This is a good and useful overview of the art and architecture of the
Spanish viceroyalties of what we now call Latin America. The task is not a
simple one.The geography of the area is immense and its history complex, and
we are still far from having a corpus of works that is close to complete and

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available for study, except for a few localized instances. Kelly Donahue-Wallace
manages to include much information into her text, however, and presents it
within a structure guided basically by chronology, medium, and genre, illustrated by relatively few well-chosen examples.The book is written for U.S. university-level students with little previous knowledge of the topic, and it can
also serve a more general audience.
Although Donahue-Wallace says little about historiography, she is well
versed in it. Only very few truly major authors are missing from her bibliography. She also includes excerpts from primary sources in sidebars throughout
the text, and her notes are admirable for their range, including one archival
gem (p. 153), which is rare in books of this nature. Some mistakes, however,
are evident. For example,“miserere” chapels (p. 28) also occur in Mexico, and
Xoxoteco is not an open chapel (p. 41).
Presumably because of the book’s intended audience, Donahue-Wallace
stays with her choice of examples, which is sensible, and limits the topics of
her discussion, which is more problematic. Although her text is full of
detailed descriptions, she omits any general treatment of forms and styles
from her discussion.Aside from the understandable yet “uneasy relationship
with period labels” (p. xvi), as she puts it, her decision to concentrate on
iconography in dealing with painting, for example, is more limiting than liberating. Predictably, she cannot avoid dealing with form and often does it
very well. However, the specter of the European canon is honored in its
negation, rather than exorcised in a refashioning to suit not only viceregal
material but also art history in general. Indeed, period labels have never been
fixed entities.Witness the term mannerism, which appears in this text without qualifications.
Other problems are less extensive but should be mentioned. The editing
could have been more careful in its checking of constructions and vocabulary:
for example,“pearlescent” (p. 155) is not English,“albañileros” (p. 102) is not
Spanish, and “Sevilla” appears throughout rather than “Seville.” Also, the
author’s knowledge of Catholic culture seems a bit thin at times. For example,
the Jesuits are not a monastic order; they do not live in “conventos,” and their
fourth vow is to undertake any work that the pope enjoins on them, not to perform mission work. Finally, although the color plates are good, even excellent
in some cases, the black-and-white illustrations are disappointing.
Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas,
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

CLARA BARGELLINI

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El Carmelo Novohispano. By Manuel Ramos Medina. (Mexico: Centro de
Estudios de Historia de Mexico Carso. 2008. Pp. 393. MXN $200. Paperback.
ISBN 968-6-81530-9.).
Los franciscanos en Chile: Una historia de 450 años. Edited by René Millar
Carvacho and Horacio Aránguiz Donoso. (Santiago de Chile: Academia
Chilena de la Historia. 2005. Pp. 349. CLP $10,000. Paperback. ISBN 978-9567-56305-5.).
Despite the fact that the Carmelite Order has been present in Mexico since
the sixteenth century, it has not elicited the interest of many historians. For the
colonial period, only the works of Father Dionisio Victoria, published between
1966 and 1991, precede the works of Manuel Ramos Medina, who has previously written two books on the female branch of the order. In El Carmelo
Novohispano, Ramos surveys the Carmelites between 1586, the date of foundation of the first convent in Mexico City, and 1821, when Mexico gained its
independence. Unlike other mendicants, the Carmelites were not missionaries,
and despite Philip II’s wishes to have them engage in proselytizing, a latesixteenth-century reform defined them as mendicants, favoring a mixture of
spirituality and active advocacy of the faith, except among the indigenous.
They remained an urban- and Spanish-oriented order.
This work does not pretend to be an exhaustive history of the Carmelites.
As the author points out, there are still many themes in their history open to
future historians. However, this effort to reawaken interest in the order is commendable. Ramos examines the convents’ establishment and related topics
such as hacienda ownership and administration, the construction of models of
exemplar spiritual behavior, personal transgressions, and devotional practices,
represented by the activities of confraternities and the public celebration of
Carmelite-based religious festivities. He also lists the members of the order
between the years 1586 and 1811. Archival and printed sources furnish sometimes colorful data on the personalities of some members of the order. The
information on devotional practices is of particular interest to historians in
religious studies.A new analytical trend sees these practices as mirrors of the
popular perception and interpretation of the Church’s teachings. Since the
richest sources of information are from the seventeenth century, this book provides a key to understanding the so-called “baroque mentality” of mid-colonial
Mexican religiosity.
As true missionaries, the Franciscans were far more popular in their time
than the Carmelites. Even so, the editors of Los franciscanos en Chile claim
that the history of the order in that country remains largely unknown to the
majority of the population, despite the wealth of its archival sources.This work
gathers eighteen essays covering the colonial and republican periods, with
special emphasis placed on narrating the Franciscans’ missionary activity.
Close attention is given to southern Chile, an often neglected area in church
historiography. The contact with the indigenous in evangelizing areas is presented from the order’s viewpoint, and, although valuable data is provided, the

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format is traditional rather than innovative. It is worth noting that the
Franciscans were still engaged in missionary work in the nineteenth century
owing to the ineffective results of earlier attempts. Of special interest are
editor René Millar’s essay on popular religion and the model of sanctity, Karin
Pereira’s article on the education of the indigenous, and Juan G. Muñoz’s essay
on the benefactors who established the chantries of the convent of San
Antonio in Malloa, a rural area in central Chile.
These two works blend traditional approaches, such as the history of foundations and the financial bases of the orders, with more modern trends, such
as the representation of holiness as a proselytizing device and a projection of
the regulars’ desire to build an official memory of their own.They also suggest
that in the future, the history of religious orders should broaden its parameters
by understanding religion as part of a period’s cultural paradigm, as well as
analyzing the goals and beliefs of those who professed in them and those who
interacted with them as objects of their endeavors.
Arizona State University (Emerita)

ASUNCIÓN LAVRIN

Christians, Blasphemers, and Witches: Afro-Mexican Ritual Practice in the
Seventeenth Century. By Joan Cameron Bristol. [Diálogos.] (Albuquerque:
University of New Mexico Press. 2007. Pp. xiv, 283; 3 maps, 14 illustrations.
$24.95. ISBN 978-0-826-33799-3.)
For all its horrors and brutalities, the Spanish Inquisition and its colonial
branches produced a vast fund of documents about popular religion as well as
community life, sexual practices, and other issues that occur in no other type
of sources. Joan Bristol joins Gonzalo Aguirre Beltrán, Colin Palmer, Solange
Alberro, and other scholars who have tapped this resource in her finely tuned
study of religious life among Africans and their descendents in seventeenthcentury Mexico. In this book, Bristol explores Spanish attitudes about race, religion, and gender as well as strictly religious phenomena.
Her first chapter seeks to elaborate Spanish ideas of superiority, and of
African inferiority, illustrated by life of Juana Esperanza de San Alberto, unusual
because, in spite of her African descent, she was allowed to become a
Carmelite nun on her deathbed and was greatly honored for her piety. The
extraordinary nature of her case reveals both the possibilities and the limitations that people of African heritage had in becoming full members of the
Mexican religious hierarchy whatever their level of piety and discipline.
Bristol’s second chapter takes on the important question of the impact of
African Christianity, typified by the many thousands of slaves in Mexico from
Kongo and Angola, Catholic areas in Africa. Africans from these regions made
up the majority of Afro-Mexicans, but Bristol also examines the African religious background of other areas. Later, in chapter 5, Bristol returns to African

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roots to consider specifically healing practices revealed in her texts and complements the African portions of her analysis.
From this background, Bristol moves on to consider Afro-Mexican devotion, particularly through membership in lay confraternities, as well as the
possession of religiously significant objects. Chapter 6 also deals with devotion, although on a more unofficial level and often that practiced by mixed
race or thoroughly ladino (Creolized) people. In her fourth chapter, Bristol
adds nuance to the question of renunciation of God, a crime that was part of
the Inquisition’s portfolio, and which, as Colin Palmer has already broached,
was also a strategy for improving individual slaves’ lives by forcing a change
of masters.
Bristol’s work is vital in that it is more attentive than earlier works have
been to the African background of a population that was largely born in Africa,
especially in focusing, using recent Africanist scholarship, on the appropriate
areas of Africa. It is also important in that it pays full attention to the specific
character of the seventeenth-century African cohort in Mexico that hailed
from Christian Angola.
Although the primary focus of her book is on religion, Bristol’s most important subtext is that religious devotion provided Afro-Mexicans opportunities to
maneuver in the struggle for power or autonomy in an otherwise oppressive
environment of slave life in colonial Mexico.At times, this struggle for power
becomes her primary analytical tool and thus presents most ideas through the
prism of the struggle for power, rather than as having roots in theological or
devotional feelings. In a more minor consideration, Bristol draws examples
from all over colonial Mexico without always taking into consideration
regional diversity, urban versus rural settings, or the ratio of Spanish to indigenous people and thus to Africans, even though these considerations might be
important in shaping both Spanish-African relations and the pattern of religious life.
JOHN K.THORNTON

Boston University

Far East
Christians in China: A.D. 600 to 2000. By Jean-Pierre Charbonnier; translated
by Maurice N. L. Couve de Murville. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press. 2007. Pp.
605. $24.95 paperback. ISBN 978-0-898-70916-2.)
This is a translation of Histoire des Chrétiens de Chine (Paris, 2002), which
was an updated reprint (Tournai, 1992; Paris, 1992). Charbonnier’s encounter
with, and interest in, Chinese Christians started in Singapore, where he worked
as a priest (M.E.P.) from 1959 until 1993. Dissatisfied with the books Chine et
christianisme authored by René Laurentin (Paris, 1977) and Jacques Gernet

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(Paris, 1982), he wrote a history of China’s Christians that is not one of “missed
opportunities” and does not give the impression “that there were two cultures
in watertight compartments that just could not communicate” (p. 10).
Moreover, because he did not want to identify Christianity merely with the
West, he endeavored “to describe the main lines of Christianity in China [. . .
and] to tell the stories of actual Chinese Christians at every period” (p. 13).
Although the book is not a real history, the stories are arranged chronologically in thirty chapters covering five periods:“Relics from China’s Past:Traces
of Christianity from the 7th to the 14th Century” (chap. 1–6, pp. 19–120);“The
Friendship of Wise Men:The Meeting of Catholicism and Confucianism in the
16th and 17th Centuries” (chap. 7–12, pp. 121–212); “Witnesses on the Run:
The Gospel Is Preached to Poor Peasants in the 18th and 19th Centuries”
(chap. 13–18, pp. 213–315); “The Colonial Period, Ambivalent Expansion:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Foreign Protection, 1840–1949” (chap.
19–24, pp. 317–421); and “Death and Resurrection: Communism and the
Attempt to Destroy Religion, 1949–2002” (chap. 25–30, pp. 423–539).
Although the eastern (or Nestorian) Church (chap. 1-4) and Protestantism
(esp. chap. 21) are not absent (nor even Islam, chap. 6), the book mainly deals
with Roman Catholics in China, including Hong Kong (chap. 27);Taiwan (chap.
28); and the Chinese diaspora in Singapore, the Philippines, North America, and
Europe (chap. 26,“Chinese Missionaries”). Charbonnier’s well-written book is
a passionate testimony for the existence of a Chinese Christianity. It seems well
documented for the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries; for the earlier
periods, there are occasional flaws, such as calling the anti-Christian Yang
Guangxian (1597–1669) a eunuch and Muslim convert (pp. 183, 231), which
are both erroneous statements. For these earlier periods, the translator,
Maurice Couve de Murville (1929–2007), the late archbishop of Birmingham,
added new material, with the approval of the author, in chapters 1–4, 10, 14,
15, 19, and 23) “for the better understanding of the narrative and of the cultures treated” (p. 15).These additions are indicated at the end of the affected
chapters. In short, Charbonnier’s book is an enthusiastic, alternative introduction to (Catholic) Christianity in China. At the end of the book there are useful
bibliographies of publications in English (pp. 572–80), French (pp. 580–87),
other Western languages (pp. 587–88), and Chinese (pp. 589–94).
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

AD DUDINK

Catholics in Indonesia 1808–1942. A Documented History. Vol. 1: A Modest
Recovery, 1808–1903. By Karel Steenbrink. [Verhandelingen van het
Koninklijk Iinstituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 196.] Leiden: KITLV
Press. Distr. University of Washington Press. 2003. Pp. xviii, 528. $47.50. ISBN
978-9-067-18141-9.)
This is the first of two volumes on Catholics in Indonesia. It is noteworthy
that Steenbrink titles it Catholics in Indonesia, rather than the Catholic

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Church in Indonesia. Although there is much about the institution, the focus
is on the efforts of individual missionary priests in the nineteenth century to
minister to Europeans and Eurasians in the major cities and to convert the
natives in both Java and the eastern islands of the colony.
The book is in two parts: first, a well-written and insightful analysis and
second, a selection of well-chosen documents that help the reader better
understand the minds of the missionaries, their noble ideals, and their not so
noble personal (and sometimes very public) failings; their frequent despair at
the crassness of Dutch colonial society; and, most of all, their determination to
plant their faith in the colony. Histories of missions and churches can be unexciting, but Steenbrink writes with a light touch and a keen eye for the very
human characteristics of the missionary priests.
Catholics in Indonesia is located in the broader conversion narrative and
the wider literature on missionary endeavor. Right at the beginning Steenbrink
poses the central question for an historian of comparative religion: “Is the
process towards a general acceptance of world religions the common thread
and the choice of a specific religion only a matter of individual and regional
preference or even chance?” This is no “Church triumphant” history; rather, it
is a sophisticated attempt to understand the spread of one of the major world
religions within the context of European colonialism and the conversion histories of other world religions.
Understandably the emphasis is on the European priests, but as the story of
missionary endeavor unfolds, the reader is provided with fascinating portraits
of Indonesians, both those who converted and those who resisted conversion.
The interaction between local rulers in eastern Indonesia and the nineteenthcentury Catholic priests is fascinating reading, providing much insight into
what local rulers believed they were doing when they either converted or
rejected conversion.As in so much missionary endeavor, most of the spectacular success stories revolve around missionaries with large charismatic personalities. For most missionary priests, however, the nineteenth century was
pretty much fallow ground: try as they might, they found it difficult to build up
congregations of any size, and many expressed their frustrations that they
were unable to extinguish “heathen” beliefs even among converts.
The conversions in the nineteenth century were not as thorough as desired
by most of the priests and their superiors. Steenbrink’s analysis of the conversion process is nuanced, empathetically discussing the frustrations of priests
who felt they were failures and subtle in his understanding of the continuities
of belief systems. Despite the efforts of many, the Catholic community was still
very small at the end of the nineteenth century, yet much was achieved.The
Bible was translated into many languages, small communities of believers were
scattered throughout the archipelago, and the basis was laid for the enormous
expansion in the last forty years of colonial rule.

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Through both Steenbrink’s history and the complementary documents, the
reader sees a colonial government more concerned with maintaining “rust en
orde” than in promoting the Christian faith. Of course, the Protestant-Catholic
divide had to be managed. Christian missionary work was only possible in the
colony because of the support of the colonial government. Yet the alliance
between church and state was often an uneasy one. For the Catholic Church
and its missionary priests, their work was complicated by a colonial government determined to restrict Catholic proselytizing to avoid conflict with
Islamic adherents and largely Protestant local officials. The clashes between
priests and secular officials at both the local and central levels illuminate the
differences in goals, priorities, motives, and ambitions.
With the inauguration of the Ethical Policy at the beginning of the twentieth century came a new emphasis on Western education for native peoples.
The Catholic Church became a major player in the expansion of Western education. It paid huge dividends for the Church, with considerable growth in the
last forty years of colonial rule, complemented by a steady movement toward
the indigenization of the Church.The story of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century awaits the publication of the second volume in Steenbrink’s history, which will be welcomed by both the historian of religion as well as the
historian of Indonesia.
University of Western Sydney, Australia

JOHN INGLESON

Beach Crossings:Voyaging across Times, Cultures, and Self. By Greg Dening.
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2004. Pp. x, 376. $45.00.
ISBN 978-0-812-23849-5.)
This is a handsomely made book. It is a delight to hold and to behold. Sadly,
however, on consideration of the text it evokes echoes of Hans Christian
Andersen’s fable of The Emperor’s New Clothes. It has style, but substance is
more notional, and subjectivity and relativity outweigh content and objectivity.The late Greg Dening (1931–2008) produced a number of distinctively reinterpretive works relating to the Pacific, most notably one on Captain William
Bligh and the Bounty (Cambridge, UK, 1992), but nothing as indulgently selfreferential as Beach Crossings.
The primary geographical focus of Dening’s scholarly expertise is the
Marquesas Islands, in association with other Polynesian groups. So it is here,
too, but the prevailing subject of discussion is a topographical feature invoked
as a metaphor of protean application for the significant shifts of bearing that
can occur amid the uncertainties and ambiguities of the human condition; that
is,“the beach.”This is the site at or through which a person putatively crosses
from one world or from one state of being to another.The result of Dening’s
musings is an extended literary essay, rather than a work that fits within any
other genre.

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Dening’s archetypal “beach crossers” are two European seamen and a missionary who came ashore in the Marquesas around 1800 and who adapted to
life there until they returned to their own societies, profoundly influenced by
their experiences. Later, he discusses Herman Melville, who had similar adventures, and the indigenous people of the islands. The Polynesians, the ethnocultural group to which the Marquesans belong, were so labeled in 1832 by
the navigator-ethnographer Dumont d’Urville. For Dening, tracing their movements from an Asian homeland, they become the “Sea People of the West” who
settled on widely scattered islands in the great ocean where they also become
people of the land; or, in the case of the Marquesans, as Dening styles them,
“Enata Fenua.”Their voyaging is presented as a series of “crossings,” and one of
them, Tupaia from Tahiti, who visited England with Captain James Cook, is
offered admiringly as an example of an indigenous “beach crosser.” The
Europeans are generally less favorably represented.
Indeed, despite the vast amount of existing critical research that qualifies
traditional romantic stereotypes of the South Seas, Dening tends to present the
islanders as noble savages, as occupants of an oceanic paradise. In addition, his
avuncular storytelling style of literary escapism is jarring, especially in referring to New Zealand through the silly poetic neologism Aotearoa.
Dening, an ex-Jesuit, also writes extensively, but not in sharp detail, about
his own life and his intellectual and emotional engagement with the subject of
his research and writing, so that the book emerges primarily as a personal
memoir. He has much to say about his own “beach crossings,” but skimmingly,
with little depth or substance. He presents his life as an integral part of a continually unfolding historical drama, in which the author is one of the actors.
All in all, then, this is a work that philosophically smacks more of Heraclitus
and Berkeley than of Aristotle and Aquinas. It is a wondrously sustained exercise in literary creativity, but is deficient in scholarly gravitas.
University of Auckland

HUGH LARACY

BRIEF NOTICES
_______
Oleszkiewicz-Peralba, Ma/lgorzata. The Black Madonna in Latin America and
Europe: Tradition and Transformation. (Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press. 2007. Pp. xx, 226. $34.95 clothbound. ISBN 978-0-82634102-0.)
The icon of the black madonna may be a significant metaphor for our time.
In an era of rapid transition, the ancient African “dark mother” is manifested in
dark-woman divinities of the earth, notably the black madonna.To those confronting potential environmental disaster, the dissolution of institutions, and
war, the black madonna offers hope, as the values of compassionate justice,
equality, and nonviolent transformation are associated with her image.
The Black Madonna in Latin America and Europe: Tradition and
Transformation is an impressive study by Ma/lgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba.
The author grew up in Poland, home of the wondrous black madonna of
Czestochowa. Her childhood gave her a firsthand knowledge of the many
black madonnas in eastern and central Europe. In recent years, OleszkiewiczPeralba has taught in the southwestern United States, where the black
madonna Guadalupe is venerated as the madrina of Latin America, particularly in Aztlán.
The author brings the enthusiasm for her subject from her childhood, coupled with a serious scholar’s methodologies, to this study of popular religion
and transformation. She describes the ways in which the black madonna’s
image weaves together popular Catholicism, Amerindian traditions, African
orisa worship, and eastern and central European and Iberian cultures, as well
as the emergence of the “great mother” figure in Latin America. She also discusses how, like Joan of Arc, the black madonna has served as a nationalist
symbol, a figure of resistance against tyranny, and a representation of empowerment for women.
More than 150 illustrations enhance the book, emphasizing the black
madonna’s ubiquity from the artworks of high culture to the corn dollies of
the Slavic tradition. This pathbreaking study ranges from the caduceus and
voodoo altars crowned by serpents and Yoruba rituals to Tanit of Carthage, the
black-woman divinity; to the tree of life; and to the black madonna portrayed
in trees. LUCIA CHIAVOLA BIRNBAUM (California Institute of Integral Studies )

874

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875

Colombo, Emanuele. Convertire i musulmani: L’esperienza di un gesuita
spagnolo del Seicento. (Milan: Bruno Mondadori. 2007. Pp. xi, 175. €14,00.
ISBN 978-8-861-59072-4.)
Tirso González de Santalla, the thirteenth superior general of the Society of
Jesus, is best known for his repudiation of the Jesuits’ traditional probabilism.
Elected on the third ballot with a majority of only one vote, he prevailed over
the other candidates only because Pope Innocent XI, unsympathetic to probabilism, indicated that he wanted him as general. Otherwise González, who had
never held a position of authority in the Society until that time, would not have
been considered.Although he had taught theology at Salamanca, his previous
career had been principally preaching at popular missions in Spanish cities
and towns, where he achieved exceptional success. One aspect of that career
is the fascinating subject of Colombo’s book—González’s attempts at converting Muslim slaves resident in Spain.
In seventeenth-century Spain, especially in Madrid and Andalusia, there was
a small Muslim minority, most of which was of foreign origin—captured in the
corsair wars, for instance, or from raids in North Africa. González made this
population almost his specialty and just before his election as general published Manuductio ad conversionem Mahumetanorum, his instruction for
preachers who wanted to do the same.The book was reprinted several times
and as late as 1937 commended to Jesuits by W/lodimir Ledóchowski, the superior general. Although it uses traditional polemics and apologetics, it differs
from other treatments of the subject in that Gonzalez grounds the book in his
own experience.
Besides dealing with a subject relevant for Christian-Muslim dialogue today,
this impressive book is emblematic of two related trends. The first is the
increasing crescendo of historical interest in the Jesuits, especially during the
past decade.The second is the lead now taken by a generation of young, welltrained Italian scholars such as Colombo in that phenomenon. JOHN W.
O’MALLEY, S.J. (Georgetown University)
McKendrick, Scot. In a Monastery Library: Preserving Codex Sinaiticus and
the Greek Written Heritage. (London: British Library. Distr. the University of
Chicago Press. 2007. Pp. 48. $13.00 paperback. ISBN 978-0-712-34940-6.)
This beautiful work describes the Codex Sinaiticus in considerable detail
and demonstrates not only its unique value in the history of the Bible but also
its significance as a landmark in the history of the book. It contains twentythree plates and photographs of the Codex Sinaiticus and other manuscripts
as well as of St. Catherine’s Monastery and of events associated with the
preservation of the Codex.
It illustrates the Codex’s appearance and distinctive features and indicates
where its leaves are presently held (British Library, University Library in

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Leipzig, National Library of Russia, and St. Catherine’s Monastery). It compares
its significance to the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Alexandrinus, and earlier
fragmentary parchment codices and papyri, as well as to Byzantine manuscripts. It describes how it was produced technologically, the different hands
of a fourth-century team of scribes observable in it, the wave of corrections
introduced in the following three centuries, and its eventual discovery by
Constantine Tischendorf in 1844 and its subsequent travels to St. Petersburg
and London.
It concludes by announcing the international project that plans to make
the whole surviving Codex accessible to a global audience for the first time
and to produce a new facsimile of the Codex and a digital Web-based copy that
reunites in virtual form all four surviving parts of the Codex.The first images
were posted online on July 24, 2008, at http://www.codex-sinaiticus.net.
The work concludes with a description by Nicholas Pickwoad of the conservation project established to preserve the Greek written heritage of all the
manuscripts in the library of St. Catherine’s Monastery. FRANCIS T. GIGNAC, S.J.
(The Catholic University of America)
Newman, John Henry. Sermons Preached on Various Occasions. Edited by
James Tolhurst. [The Works of Cardinal John Henry Newman: Birmingham
Oratory, Millennium Edition,Vol. IX.] Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame
Press. 2007. Pp xlii, vi, 399. $40.00. ISBN 978-0-268-03662-1.)
This volume is the latest addition to the Birmingham Oratory Millennium
edition of the works of Cardinal John Henry Newman. Not intended to provide
critical editions, the series contains attractively produced reprints with introductions and notes.
There is an unfortunate error at the beginning of the introduction (p. xii),
where The Idea of a University is identified as the “series of lectures on the
subject of education” that Newman was asked to give by Archbishop Paul
Cullen to inaugurate the new Catholic University of Ireland. In fact, these
Discourses on University Education, originally published as a book, constitute
only the first half of The Idea of a University; the second half is Lectures and
Essays on University Subjects, also originally published as a book (p. 132).The
somewhat technical discussion of habitual and actual grace (p. xxiv) seems a
bit out of place in an edition intended for general readers. To say that “the
Catholic liturgy does not have the solemnity of Cranmer’s majestic prose” (p.
xlii) is considerably understating the contrast if the reference were to the current banal English translation, but since editor James Tolhurst must be referring
to the Tridentine liturgy of Newman’s day, the assertion seems highly questionable. In an introduction of only thirty-odd pages, there is one missing footnote (p. xxi) and two sentences that do not make sense (pp. xxi, xxvii). IAN KER
(University of Oxford)

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877

Bodo, Murray. Mystics. (Cincinnati, OH: St. Anthony Messenger Press. 2007.
Pp. viii, 224. $16.95. ISBN 978-0-867-16746-7.)
As the distinguished Hispanist Bernard Gicovate once noted, mystic experience, the communion of the mind with any divinity in which it believes, has
been and continues to be part of the varied possibilities of man’s imagination.
Through the ages Christianity has articulated in poetry and prose the human
intimacy with God, from the writings of Genesis and Exodus to medieval and
Renaissance canticles, epistolary notes, and essays to late-twentieth-century
contemplative diaries on man’s relationship to his creator. Focusing on this
broad journey of the mystical experience, Murray Bodo, O.F.M., provides
lucidly penetrating insights into the life and works of some of the most fervent
exponents of this mysterious transcendental love.
Following a brief introduction describing the multifaceted manners in
which the mystics show us the ways of God, Bodo provides ten chapters filled
with profound thoughtfulness into the nature, significance, importance, and
relevance of the extraordinary men and women who have experienced the
ultimate intimacy with the creator. In an engaging, fluid, and inspiring prose,
Bodo leads us through this itinerarium of faith and experience from a reflection on the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus and the spiritual model of mystics,
to a graphic portrayal of that consummate exponent of the pious and sacred
life, St. Francis of Assisi, who embraced the poor, crucified Christ as the model
of his own existence. Bodo goes on to examine the captivating narrative of
another medieval figure, Julian of Norwich, whose sixteen graphically
described mystical visions transformed her life and served as an inspiration to
countless faithful through the centuries. Bodo provides some pointed observations on the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi, often referred to as the “Poet of
the Madness of Love,”and the intrepid St. Catherine of Siena who took the mystical experience to a new level of discourse, to the world of the body, “the
world of birthing and nourishing, the world of the beloved and the lover, of the
betrothal and mystical marriage.”
It is precisely the idea of the mystical marriage that inspired St. John of the
Cross to create some of the most sophisticated verses dealing with mystical
experience, and the author cogently analyzes those verses and reviews the
exquisite prose of another mystic who saw Christ as the bridegroom, St.
Thérèse of Lisieux.The last few chapters of Bodo’s book deal with other significant exponents of the mystical life, such as Gerald Manley Hopkins, Simone
Weil, and Robert Lax, concluding with an afterword of personal reflections and
critical opinions on the traditions, meanings, and teachings of the sublime
experience that is mysticism. BRUNO M. DAMIANI (The Catholic University of
America)

NOTES AND COMMENTS
_______
Journal News
The European Science Foundation has assigned The Catholic Historical
Review an “A” ranking in its initial listing of the scholarly journals in the area of
religion, which puts the review in the top 10 to 25 percent of religious studies and theology journals.The “A” designation is given to “high-ranking international publications with a very strong reputation among researchers of the
field in different countries, regularly cited all over the world,” according to the
foundation. In its initial listing of journals in the area of history, the foundation
has assigned it a “B” ranking. Journals in the “B” category are defined as “standard international publications with a good reputation among researchers of
the field in different countries.” Few journals dedicated to religious history
were given an “A” ranking.These rankings were assigned to the journal because
of its international stature based on its cohort of contributors and readership,
consistently high-quality scholarly content, and the broad consensus of scholars who affirm the journal’s international status and visibility.
Panels of European scholars operating under the foundation’s European
Reference Index for the Humanities categorized and ranked hundreds of scholarly journals addressing fifteen different disciplines of the humanities.The project “aims initially to identify and gain more visibility for top-quality European
humanities research published in academic journals,” states the foundation.
“[It] will help to identify excellence in humanities scholarship and should
prove useful for the aggregate benchmarking of national research systems, for
example, in determining the international standing of the research activity carried out in a given field in a particular country.”
“The distinction between the categories A, B and C is not primarily qualitative,” says the foundation.“Rather, the categorization also factors in issues such
as [each journal’s] scope and audience.” Editors of listed journals can address
their journal’s ranking with the ESF before the foundation publishes an update
of the journal listings in late 2008.
The Catholic Historical Review is one of the journals available electroniin April, the redesign, reorganization, and reengineering of the Project MUSE
Web site will allow a pdf of a full-text article to be displayed. Another feature
will eventually allow one to search for other studies by the same author, utilizing the databases of MUSE and CrossRef.

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879

Vatican Library
Monsignor Cesare Pasini, prefect of the Apostolic Vatican Library, has
announced a renovated library Web site (http://www.vaticanlibrary.va). The
Web site presents the library’s services, history, and activities (initiatives,
choices, decisions, and events). The library’s ongoing renovation involves the
manuscript stacks, the Numismatic Department, the restoration and photographic laboratories, and the stacks for periodicals. As a result of the library’s
temporary closure, the prefect has reported a great increase in the number of
orders for reproductions. In conjunction with the library’s scheduled reopening in 2010, there will be a conference on the library as a research site and its
various services for researchers.A seven-volume history of the library also will
be published. The first volume, dealing with the years from Nicholas V to
Clement VII, is scheduled for publication in 2010.
New Scholarly Society
EPISCOPUS, the Society for the Study of Episcopal Power and Culture in the
Middle Ages, has a new Web site (http://www.episcopus.org) that contains a
directory of its members, a list of their publications, announcements of conferences, and a selection of texts in translation. The society collects no dues
and exists primarily as a network for scholars who work on any aspect of
medieval bishops. It also sponsors panels at conferences in Leeds and
Kalamazoo and at meetings of the Medieval Academy of America.
Exhibitions
On July 24, 2008, the exhibition “Il Concilio in mostra: Il racconto del
Vaticano II nei filmati delle Teche RAI (1959–1965)” opened in the Palazzo
Incontro, Via dei Prefetti 22, Rome under the sponsorship of the Presidente
della Repubblica and La Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII.
For more information, contact eventi@fscire.it.
From October 21, 2008, through January 6, 2009, the photographic exhibition “Pius XII: The Man and the Pontificate” will be presented in the
Charlemagne Wing of St. Peter’s Square. It will trace his life from his boyhood
to his death, using photographs, documents, gifts, and personal objects. The
exhibition will also feature his contribution to the founding of the modern art
collection of the Vatican Museums.
Causes of Saints
On June 13, 2008, the Holy See agreed to advance the beatification process
for 250 Spaniards who died in Valencia and other areas during the religious
persecutions of 1934–39. They include 183 priests, six male religious, four
female religious, and fifty-seven laypersons. The latter include a fifteen-year old

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altar boy who tried to defend sacred images and a pregnant woman who asked
to allow her child to be born before her execution so that she could baptize
it, a request that was denied.
On June 23, 2008, in Beirut’s main square in the presence of the president,
prime minister, and speaker of the parliament, the Lebanese Capuchin Yaaqoub
(Jacob) Haddad (1875–1954) was beatified. Haddad was famous for his humility; his role as the builder of hospitals, schools, and other social institutions; and
his service as the founder of the Sisters of the Cross.
On July 3, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the beatification of five individuals. Father Damien de Veuster (1840–89) was a Belgian priest of the
Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary who ministered to the
leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Don Bernardo Tolomei
(1272–1348) was the Italian founder of the Olivetan Congregation of the
Benedictine order. Nuno de Santa Maria Alvares Pereira (1360–1431) was a
Portuguese professed layman of the Order of Friars of the Blessed Virgin Mary
of Mount Carmel. The French layman Louis Martin (1823–94) and his wife,
Marie Zelie Guerin Martin (1831–77), were the parents of St.Thérèse of Lisieux
(1873–97). The latter’s beatification ceremony will be held in Lisieux on
October 19, 2008.
On August 19, 2008, the Vatican announced four other beatification ceremonies. Sister Vincenza Maria Poloni, founder of the Institute of the Sisters of
Mercy in Italy, was scheduled for beatification in Verona on September 21,
2008. Father Michael Sopocko, founder of the Sisters of the Merciful Jesus and
spiritual director of St. Faustina Kowalska, was beatified on September 28,
2008, in Bialystok, Poland. Father Francesco Pianzola, founder of the Missionary
Sisters of the Immaculate Queen of Peace, was beatified on October 4, 2008,
in Vigevano, Italy. Father Francesco Giovanni Bonifacio, martyred by Yugoslav
Communists, was beatified in Trieste on October 4, 2008.
Lectures and Conferences
On June 16, 2008, a conference was held at the Fondazione per le scienze
religiose Giovanni XXIII in Bologna, Italy, on the theme “La figura e l’opera storiografica di Giuseppe Alberigo.” Among the papers given were “Il profile
biografico” by Alberto Melloni, “I rapporti con Dassetti e Jedin” by Giuseppe
Ruggieri, “Il maestro Cantimori” by Giovanni Miccoli, “Attorno a Trento” by
Adriano Prosperi, “Le istituzioni nella chiesa” by Klaus Ganzer,
“L’interpretazione di Roncalli” by Enrico Galavotti,“La storia del Vaticano II” by
Mathijs Lamberigts, and “La bibliografia” by Massimo Faggioli.
On September 20, 2008, at the annual meeting of the Gesellschaft zur
Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum at the Julius-Maximilians-Universität
Würzburg, Johannes Merz of the same university gave a talk on the theme
“Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn als Typus der Gegenreformation.”

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On September 18–20, 2008, a conference was held in Philadelphia on the
theme “Antipopery: The Transatlantic Experience, c. 1530–1850.” Following a
keynote address on “Prejudice, Principle, or Polemic: Interpreting Early
Modern Antipopery” by Anthony Milton, the papers were organized under the
following eight themes:
1. Foundations. “Freeborn (Puritan) Englishmen and Slavish Subjection:
Popish Tyranny and Puritan Constitutionalism, c. 1570–1606” by Michael P.
Winship;“Anti-Catholicism in the Lower Case: Challenging Peace and Unity
in Reformation England” by Karl Gunther; and “Antichrist in Ireland” by Alan
Ford.
2. Imperial Dimensions. “Popish Jews and Muslims in the Early British
Empire” by William J. Bulman; “Protestant Colonies, Crypto-Catholics, and
the Pope’s Spanish Weapon: Early New England and the Chesapeake
Colonies Reconsidered” by Cynthia Van Zandt; and “‘Naked Indians’ and
‘Popish Plots’: Anti-Catholicism and the Conquest of the Southern
Backcountry, 1673–1697” by James D. Rice.
3. Continental Influences. “Antipopery and the Waldensian Crisis: The
Contradictory Terrain of International Stances in the 1650s” by Philippe
Rosenberg; “Antagonism and Coexistence: Protestants and Catholics in
German and North American Communities, 1555–1820”by Mark Häberlein;
and “The Idolatrous and Tyrannical Church of Rome: Huguenot Sermons
and Antipopery in Colonial New York and Massachusetts” by Pauline
Wheeler Carlo.
4. Ambiguities.“Opposition to Antipopery in Early Modern England” by Scott
Sowerby; “The Popish Iceberg” by Victor L. Stater; and “‘JesuiticoQuakerism’: Counter-Reformation and Scottish Antipapist Polemic in Early
Enlightenment European Context” by Paul Jenkins.
5. Loyal Subjects? “‘Disaffected to Our Present Happy Establishment’: Empire
and Antipopery on the Anglo-Atlantic Borderland, 1740–1800” by Allan
Dwyer; “His Britannick Majesty’s New Subjects: Antipopery and
Subjecthood in Grenada and Quebec”by Hanna K. R.Weiss; and “Antipopery
and the Gordon Riots in the Revolutionary Atlantic World,” by Brad Jones.
6. Nationalism. “For God, Queen, and Open Bible: Antipopery and National
Identity in Early Industrial Lancashire” by Brian Lewis; “Antipopery, Print,
and Public Controversy in the New American Republic” by Martin J. Burke;
and “Arts of Seduction: Gender, Authority, and Antipopery in the New
Nation” by Monica Najar.
7. Representation. “The Secularization of Antipopery: The Evolving Myth of
‘Bloody Mary’” by Thomas S. Freeman;“Anti-Catholicism and Art in Britain”
by Clare Haynes; and “The Virgin Mary and Violated Mothers in British AntiCatholicism” by Laura M. Stevens.
8. Reactions.This panel discussion involved Brendan McConville,Tim Harris,
Willem Frijhoff, and John M. Murrin.
On November 6–8, 2008, at the Pontifical Gregorian and Lateran
Universities in Rome, a conference will be held to mark the fiftieth anniversary

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of the death of Pope Pius XII. The conference will focus on the pope’s
Magisterium: his promotion of doctrine (e.g., biblical studies, evangelization,
religious freedom, Church-State relations, ecclesiology, liturgy, Mariology
[dogma of the Assumption], censorship of error (Humani generis and the
condemnation of theological relativism), and his social and moral teachings
(medical questions, social communications media, relations between the
Church and world, and canon law).The conference will show the pope’s influence on the Second Vatican Council.
On November 6–8, 2008, in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Seventh Annual National
Conference on the Underground Railroad will sponsor the program “Lincoln’s
Era:The Role of Religion in the Underground Railroad.” For further details, see
http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-AmRel&month=
0806&week=a&msg=puJ2qV04ZnzxihLj6LGUfA&user= &pw=.
On March 26–28, 2009, the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt will
present the interdisciplinary conference “The Culture of Catholicism in the
United States,” which will investigate the historical and contemporary dimensions of U.S. Catholicism. It will address four themes: (1) The Role of
Catholicism in American History, (2) The Position of the Church in a
Multiethnic and Multicultural Society, (3) Profiles and Concepts of Catholic
Schools and Universities, and (4) Catholicism in Art, Literature, and the Media.
Paper proposals should include the title of the paper, the author’s name and
institutional address, a 200-word abstract, and a short curriculum vitae. Please
send this information by October 15, 2008, to Prof. Dr. Hermann Josef
Schnackertz (hermann.schnackertz@eichstaett.de).
On May 7–9, 2009, the XXXVIII Incontro di Studiosi dell’Antichità Cristiana
at the Augustinianum in Rome will be devoted to the theme “⌬␫␣␬␱␯␫␣, diaconiae, diaconato: semantica e storia.”The conference will discuss the significance of the diaconate in relation to the Church, tracing its origins and development, its place in the sequence of ordination and the first deaconesses, its
role within and outside the liturgy, and its function as “ears and eyes” of the
bishops. The three areas of research are (1) philological (literary texts, epigraphical materials interpreted semantically and linguistically), (2) archaeological (monuments studied iconographically and iconologically), and (3) religious (the ritual roles and liturgical functions of deacons and deaconesses).
Those who wish to deliver a twenty-minute paper should send its title and an
abstract of a maximum of ten lines by November 30, 2008, to Segreteria
Incontri Augustinianum,Via Paolo VI, 25 – 00193 Roma, Italia; fax 39-066-8006298; email incontri@patristicum.org.The proposals will be evaluated in early
January 2009.
On April 3–4, 2009, the Thirty-sixth Annual Sewanee Medieval Colloquium
will be held at the University of the South, Sewanee,Tennessee, on the theme
“The City in Medieval Life and Culture.”Those who wish to present a twentyminute paper on any aspect of the conference theme should submit an

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883

abstract of approximately 250 words and a brief curriculum vitae by October
1, 2008, to sridyard@sewanee.edu. For more information, visit http://www.
sewanee.edu/Medieval/main.html.
On May 28–30, 2009, the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference will be
held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Geneva, Switzerland, to mark the 500th
anniversary of John Calvin’s birth. Proposals for papers should include the presenter’s name and contact information, paper title, and a 200-word abstract
and be submitted by November 7, 2008, at http://www.sixteenthcentury.
org/conf_proposals.shtml. For more information, contact Jeffrey R. Watt at
hswatt@olemiss.edu. Prior to the conference, the Institut d’Histoire de la
Réformation and other institutions in Geneva will sponsor an international
conference on “John Calvin and His Influence, 1509–2009.” For more information, visit http://www.unige.ch/ihr/calvin2009-e.html.
Publications
On October 14–15, 2006, the Metropolitan Museum of Art conducted the
symposium “Facing the Middle Ages” in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary
of the International Center of Medieval Art.The following papers from the symposium have been published in vol. 46, no. 2 (2007) of Gesta, the center’s journal: Charles T. Little and Clark Maines,“Introduction: Contemporary Encounters
with the `Medieval Face’” (pp. 83–99); Richard Brilliant, “Faces Demanding
Attention” (pp. 91–99); Thomas Dale, “Romanesque Sculpted Portraits:
Convention, Vision, and Real Presence” (pp. 101–19); Julian Gardner, “Stone
Saints: Commemoration and Likeness in Thirteenth-Century Italy, France, and
Spain”(pp. 121–34); Stephen Perkinson,“Rethinking the Origins of Portraiture”
(pp. 135–57); Annemarie Weyl Carr, “The Face Relics of John the Baptist in
Byzantium and the West” (pp. 159–77); Xavier Dectot,“A en perdre la tête: Les
statues-colonnes de Saint Denis et le problème du vandalisme pré-révolutionnaire au XVIIIe siècle” (pp. 179–91); and Jonathan Alexander,“Facing the Middle
Ages: Concluding Remarks” (pp. 193–97).
Volume 34, no. 2 (June, 2008) of the Journal of Medieval History is devoted
to the theme “Conversing with the Minority: Relations among Christian,
Jewish, and Muslim Women in the High Middle Ages”; its guest editor, Monica
H. Green, wrote the introductory essay with the same title (pp. 105–18).The
other articles are “The Bonds that Bind: Money Lending between Anglo-Jewish
and Christian Women in the Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews,
1218–1280” by Victoria Hoyle (pp. 118–29); “A Thirteenth-Century AngloJewish Woman Crossing Boundaries: Visible and Invisible” by Charlotte
Newman Goldy (pp. 130–45); “The Care of Women’s Health and Beauty: An
Experience Shared by Medieval Jewish and Christian Women” by Carmen
Caballero-Navas (pp. 146–63);“Conscripting the Breast: Lactation, Slavery and
Salvation in the Realms of Aragon and the Kingdom of Majorca, c. 1250–1300”
by Rebecca Lynn Winer (pp. 164–84);“The Trial of Floreta d’Ays (1403): Jews,

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Christians, and Obstetrics in Later Medieval Marseille” by Monica H. Green and
Daniel Lord Smail (pp. 185–211); and “‘A separate people’? Some Directions for
Comparative Research on Medieval Women” by Elisheva Baumgarten (pp.
212–28).
“Catholics in the Colony of Maryland and the Early Republic” is the theme
of the issue of U.S. Catholic Historian for spring 2008 (vol. 26, no. 2), which
contains the following articles: Joseph S. Rossi, S.J.,“Jesuits, Slaves and Scholars
at ‘Old Bohemia,’ 1704–1756, as Found in the Woodstock Letters” (pp. 1–15);
Tricia T. Pyne, “Ritual and Practice in the Maryland Catholic Community,
1634–1776” (pp. 17–46); Ronald A. Binzley,“Ganganelli’s Disaffected Children:
The Ex-Jesuits and the Shaping of Early American Catholicism, 1773–1790”(pp.
47–77); Michael S. Carter, “‘What shall we say to this liberal age?’: CatholicProtestant Controversy in the Early National Capital” (pp. 79–95); Robert
Emmett Curran, “Ambrose Maréchal, the Jesuits, and the Demise of Ecclesial
Republicanism in Maryland, 1818–1838” (pp. 97–110); and Joseph Mannard,
“Widows in Convents of the Early Republic: The Archdiocese of Baltimore,
1790–1860” (pp. 111–32).
Nine articles in the July 2008 issue of the William and Mary Quarterly
(3rd ser., vol. LXV, no. 3) constitute a “Forum: Salem Repossessed.” Following
an introduction by Jane Kamensky,“Salem Obsessed: Or, Plus Ça Change” (pp.
391–400), the articles are: Margo Burns and Bernard Rosenthal,“Examination
of the Records of the Salem Witch Trials” (pp. 401–22); Richard Latner,“Salem
Witchcraft, Factionalism, and Social Change Reconsidered: Were Salem’s
Witch-Hunters Modernization’s Failures?” (pp. 423–48); Benjamin C. Ray,“The
Geography of Witchcraft Accusations in 1692 Salem Village” (pp. 449–78);
John Demos, “What Goes Around Comes Around” (pp. 479–82); Mary Beth
Norton, “Essex County Witchcraft” (pp. 483–88); Carol F. Karlsen, “Salem
Revisited” (pp. 489–94); Sarah Rivett,“Our Salem, Our Selves” (pp. 495–502);
and Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, “Salem Possessed in Retrospect”
(pp. 503–34).
Four papers presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the English Section
of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association, which was held at the
University of Saskatchewan, have been published in volume 74 (2008) of
Historical Studies: Patricia E. Roy, “‘The Pirates of the Penitentiary’: Religion
and Politics in Late 19th Century British Columbia”(pp. 6–27); Peter E. Baltutis,
“‘To Enlarge Our Hearts and to Widen Our Horizon’: Archbishop Neil McNeil
and the Origins of Social Catholicism in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Toronto, 1912–1934” (pp. 29–50); Robert H. Dennis,“Beginning to Restructure
the Institutional Church: Canadian Social Catholics and the CCF [Cooperative
Commonwealth Federation], 1931–1944” (pp. 51–71); and Adrian Ciani, “An
Imperialist Irishman: Bishop Michael Fallon, the Diocese of London and the
Great War” (pp. 73–94). The issue concludes with the usual “Current
Bibliography of Canadian Religious History—Bibliographie récente d’histoire
religieuse du Canada” (pp. B1–B34).

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The second half of the volume consists of Études d’histoire religieuse, the
review of the Société canadienne d’histoire de l’Église catholique.The following articles are included: Patrick Dionne,“Éclaircissements sur les prétendues
mauvaises fréquentations littéraires de Lionel Groulx: le cas de Charles
Maurras et de l’Action française de Paris” (pp. 7–27); Suzanne Boutin, “Le
Chemin des sanctuaires: un phénomène entre tradition et modernité” (pp.
29–43); Arnaud Bessière, “Les domestiques des communautés religieuses au
Canada au XVIIe siècle” (pp. 45–69); Dominique Laperle,“Une œuvre purement
musicale? Analyse de la spiritualité des Sœurs des Saints Noms de Jésus et de
Marie à partir de l’exemple de l’École de musique Vincent-d’Indy” (pp. 71–92);
Denise Robillard, “L’Ordre de Jacques Cartier et les droits des Francocatholiques en Ontario, 1926–1931” (pp. 93–111); and Gwénael Lamarque en
collaboration avec le père Maurice Alfred Leger,“L’Église catholique, acteur de
la francophonie en Amérique du Nord. L’exemple de la culture acadienne du
Traité de Paris (1763) à nos jours” (pp. 113–26).
Ten articles in the issue of the Bulletin de la Société de l’Histoire du
Protestantisme Français for April, May, and June, 2008 (vol. 154, no. 2, pp.
157–286) deal with the theme “Protestantisme et cinéma français.” André
Encrevé has supplied an introduction and a conclusion.
Personals
The Reverend Joseph C. Linck, a priest of the diocese of Bridgeport,
Connecticut, died on August 29, 2008, at Rosary Hill Nursing Home in
Hawthorne, New York. An obituary will be forthcoming in The Catholic
Historical Review.
Xiaoyu Peng of Peking University will hold a fellowship in spring 2009 at
the Jesuit School of Theology, Berkeley, California, to work on Catholic Worker
founder Dorothy Day.
Joseph Sladky, who since 2002 assisted in digitizing the church history
source collections Ad Fontes and the Digital Library of the Catholic
Reformation (845 titles by 277 authors) of the Alexander Street Press, will be
helping to establish the Chelsea Academy in Front Royal,Virginia.
Christian D. Washburn has left his position at St. Charles Borromeo
Seminary in Philadelphia to assume a post in the Theology Department of the
St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, St.Thomas University, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Obituary
Joan Bland, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, died on June 29, 2008, at St.
Vincent’s Care Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland, a day short of her ninety-first
birthday. A memorial service to celebrate her life was held in Notre Dame

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Chapel at Trinity (Washington) University on August 3, 2008. Because she had
donated her body to science there was neither wake nor burial.
During an active professional life of more than sixty years, Sister Joan
seemed always to be a decade ahead of her contemporaries, anticipating
emerging trends in Church and society before others recognized them.These
pioneering instincts were evident during her years as a faculty member at
Trinity College (now Trinity University), as a national and international leader
in the renewal of religious life of women’s congregations, and as the founder
and first director of Education for Parish Service (EPS).
Sister Joan earned her BA from Trinity in 1938, her MA in European history
from Villanova University in 1945, and her PhD in U.S. history from The
Catholic University of America in 1951. Joining Trinity’s History Department in
1948, she became chair in 1951, broadened the curriculum to include courses
in Asian history and Latin American studies, and increased faculty hiring to
meet the needs of these new programs. Her students remember her as an intellectually engaging teacher who fostered a love for learning, introduced them
to the discipline of scholarship, and encouraged them to study the strategic
languages of the time, particularly Russian and Chinese. Although Sister Joan
would never consider herself a feminist, she empowered Trinity history majors
to seek professional careers in areas that still raised barriers against the full
inclusion of women. Her majors joined the foreign service, graduated from
medical school, and earned law degrees, as well as advanced degrees in area
studies and history; at least fifteen of her students, who graduated between
1955 and 1963, earned PhDs, including two from Harvard in the early 1960s
and one from Yale, also in the early 1960s, and one, Nancy Pelosi (who
attended the memorial service), became the first female Speaker of the U.S.
House of Representatives.
Sister Joan’s scholarship focused on the history of Catholicism in the
United States; her frequently cited dissertation, Hibernian Crusade: The Story
of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America (Washington, DC, 1951),
reflected her interest in the cultural context of religious history and led in the
1960s to her scholarly work on the history of ecumenism. She consistently
explained that she approached ecumenism as an historian, not as a theologian;
her research and writing thus explored the historical context for ecumenical
dialogue in the United States. In the 1960s she served on the Sub-Committee
on Education for Ecumenism of the Bishops’ Ecumenical Commission and was
one of the first two Roman Catholics invited to membership in the Working
Group on Christian Education and Ecumenism of the National Council of
Churches. Her participation in these groups provided a national forum for her
lectures and publications, almost all of which advocated education as a preparation for ecumenical dialogue.
Through her advocacy on behalf of ecumenism, Sister Joan became acutely
aware of the need for adult education within the Church and devoted herself

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to this cause for the next four decades. In 1963, she obtained a leave of
absence from Trinity to establish a cooperative center for the education of
teaching sisters from nine congregations; in 1964 she became editor of the
Sister Formation Bulletin, a newsletter read by the superiors of U.S. convents
as well as by those responsible for the academic and spiritual education of
young sisters.
Sister Joan’s work in “Sister Formation” culminated in her participation in
the renewal chapters of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and her election
to the General Council of the Congregation, on which she served from 1969
to 1975. From the congregation’s headquarters in Rome she visited the Notre
Dame communities in Europe, Africa, Japan, Brazil, and the United States. She
also found time during these years in to establish an international program in
Rome to educate sisters in Scripture and theology.
The obituaries and press releases reporting her death emphasized her
national and international leadership as the founder and first director of EPS.
In EPS, Sister Joan realized her vision of an educated Catholic laity; the EPS
strove to foster lay leadership within the Church and in so doing to provide
the laity with the theological and pastoral education essential to assuming
this leadership. As the first director of EPS (1978–93), she created programs
that became the model for the education of adult Catholics in theology,
Scripture, and church history. By 2008, EPS had graduated more than 2700
adult lay Catholics prepared to serve in their parishes and in other ministries
of the Church.
Sister Joan joined the American Catholic Historical Association in 1952 and
remained a member until 2000. She served on the Executive Council from
1955 to 1957, the Program Committee in 1969, chaired the Program
Committee in 1976, and was second vice president in 1978. Over the span of
these forty-eight years she contributed at least sixteen reviews to The Catholic
Historical Review.Those she wrote before 1980 focused on the social context
for religious history; those after 1980 studied facets of the renewal of religious
life in the United States. The Catholic Historical Review also published her
study on the impact of government on English Catholic education. In addition
to these publications, she also contributed nine articles to the first edition of
The New Catholic Encyclopedia, chapters to three edited works, and pieces to
Commonweal and The Way. She also edited the three-volume The Pastoral
Vision of John Paul II (Washington, DC, 1982).
Her legacy can best be summarized by one former student who wrote,
“[W]e had a sense of having been changed in profound ways by her wisdom,
her dedication, her zeal for learning and for teaching.” Colleagues remember
her “formidable intellectual acumen,” a person who “maintained a delightful
mix of knowledge, astuteness, and humor.”
Trinity (Washington) University

MARY HAYES, SND DE N

PERIODICAL LITERATURE
_______
General and Miscellaneous
Why We Need Christopher Dawson. Glenn Olsen. Communio, XXXV (Spring,
2008), 115–44.
Historiographical issues related to the writing of contemporary history of
Christianity. G.A. Duncan. Verbum et Ecclesia, 28 (1, 2007), 127–49.
The Church of the East & Its Theology: History of Studies. Nikolai N. Seleznyov.
Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 74 (1, 2008), 115–31.
Erinnerung und Erinnerungskultur im deutschen Protestantismus. FrankMichael Kuhlemann. Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 119 (1, 2008),
30–44.
Hegel’s Ghost: Europe, the Reformation, and the Middle Ages. Constantin
Fasolt. Viator, 39 (1, 2008), 345–86.
L’affaire du “Motu proprio” du 24 janvier 1964. Robert Cabié. Bulletin de
Littérature Ecclésiastique, CIX (Jan.–Mar., 2008), 41–52.
The Law That Never Was: The Motu Proprio Administrativae Potestatis on
Administrative Procedures. Kurt Martens. The Jurist, 68 (1, 2008), 178–222.
A Shilling for Queen Elizabeth: The Era of State Regulation of Church
Attendance in England, 1552–1969. Clive D. Field. Journal of Church and
State, 50 (Spring, 2008), 213–53.
‘Imperium in Imperio’: Irish Episcopal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century.
Colin Barr. English Historical Review, CXXIII (June, 2008), 611–50.
Albacina: L’eremo di Santa Maria dell’Acquarella e i cappuccini (con Appendice
di Nanni Monelli). Giuseppe Avarucci, O.F.M. Cap. Collectanea Franciscana,
78 (1–2, 2008), 119–70.
Ancient
Zur Verbrennung der sogenanten Chrestiani (Tac. Ann. 15,44). Allan A. Lund.
Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, 60 (3, 2008), 253–61.
The Reception of Communion in Early Christianity. Paul F. Bradshaw. Studia
Liturgica, 37 (2, 2007), 164–80.
From Cybele to Christ: Christianity and the transformation of late Roman religious culture.Timothy Pettipiece. Studies in Religion, 37 (1, 2008), 41–61.
888

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Le noir, l’Ethiopien, l’Egyptien dans la littérature chrétienne des premiers siècles. Paul André Jacob. Studia Monastica, 49 (1, 2007), 7–28.
Le Passioni latine di S. Lussorio, martire in Sardegna. Classificazione e edizione
dei testi. Sabina Tuzzo. Analecta Bollandiana, 126 (June, 2008), 5–29.
Entre Constantin et Théodose. L’image incertaine des empereurs chrétiens
chez leurs co-religionnaires des IVe et Ve siècles. Jean Bouffartigue. Les
Études Classiques, 75 (1–2, 2007), 53–66.
Paschal Politics: Deploying the Temple’s Destruction against Fourth-Century
Judaizers. Christine Shepardson. Vigiliae Christianae, LXII (3, 2008),
233–60.
Primacy and Collegiality in the Fourth Century:A Note on Apostolic Canon 34.
Brian E. Daley, S.J. The Jurist, 68 (1, 2008), 5–21.
The Life and Times of St John Chrysostom. Bernard Green, O.S.B. Ampleforth
Journal, 112 (Autumn, 2007), 10–26.
Dos casos de comunidades cristianas en el exilio: Tipasa, Durostorum y el
traslato de sus reliquias. Margarita Vallejo Girvés. Vetera Christianorum, 44
(2, 2007), 323–41.
De prohibitione carnis. Meat Abstention and the Priscillianists. Alberto
Ferreiro. Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum, 11 (3, 2007), 464–78.
Social Class in Saint Benedict’s Monastery. John R. Fortin. Cistercian Studies
Quarterly, 43 (3, 2008), 199–215.
Gregory’s Life of Benedict: Its Historico-Literary Field. Michaela Zelzer.
Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 43 (3, 2008), 327–38.
Medieval
The Body, Death, and Resurrection: Perspectives of an Early Irish Theologian.
Marina Smyth. Speculum, 83 (July, 2008), 531–71.
Des peintures pré-iconoclastes en Terre d’Otrante: Les fresques de l’église S.
Pietro à Crepacore et leur dédicace. Michel Berger and André Jacob.
Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, 119 (1, 2007), 25–42.
Literatura hagiográfica latina en torno a los mártires Vicente, Sabina y Cristeta
de Ávila (siglos VII–XI). Félix A. Ferrer García. Hispania Sacra, LX
(Jan.–June, 2008), 9–46.
Der lange Schatten des Bonifatius. Die Responsa Stephens II. aus dem Jahr 754
und das fränkische Kirchenrecht. Karl Ubl. Deutsches Archiv für
Erforschung des Mittelalters, 63 (2, 2007), 403–49.
La Vita di s. Simeone stilita nell’Inghilterra anglosassone. Lorenzo Lozzi Gallo.
Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, 119 (1, 2007), 43–56.
Eupraxia of Olympus. An Unknown Transvestite Saint. Sergey A. Ivanov and
Anna Pichkhadze. Analecta Bollandiana, 126 (June, 2008), 31–47.

890

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

L’itinéraire de Candide Wizo: un élément de datation des œuvres anti-adoptianistes d’Alcuin? Note sur les lettres 41 et 204 de la correspondance
d’Alcuin. Florence Close. Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 103 (Jan.–Mar.,
2008), 5–26.
Karl der Große und die Einsetzung der Bischöfe im Frankenreich. Rudolf
Schieffer. Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 63 (2, 2007),
451–67.
Karolingische Kapitularien und ihre bischöfliche Vermittlung. Unbekannte
Texte aus dem Vaticanus latinus 7701. Herbert Schneider. Deutsches Archiv
für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 63 (2, 2007), 469–96.
Aachen 816. Zu Überlieferung und Edition der Kanonikergesetzebung Ludwigs
des Frommen. Gerhard Schmitz. Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des
Mittelalters, 63 (2, 2007), 497–544.
Der St. Galler Klosterplan als Konzept eines weltoffenen Mönchtums – Ist
Walahfrid Strabo der Verfasser? Hanns-Christoph Picker. Zeitschrift für
Kirchengeschichte, 119 (1, 2008), 1–29.
The ‘Life of Muhammad’ in Eulogius of Córdoba: some evidence for the transmission of Greek polemic to the Latin west. Janna Wasilewski. Early
Medieval Europe, 16 (Aug., 2008), 333–53.
Les premières collégiales des comtes de Flandre, leurs reliques et les conséquences des invasions normandes (IXe–Xe siècles). Brigitte Meijns. Revue
Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 85 (3–4, 2007), 539–75.
The Foundation of Primatial Claims in the Western Church (Eleventh–
Thirteenth Centuries). Fabrice Delivré. Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 59
(July, 2008), 383–406.
Hildesheimer Bischofskataloge des 11. bis16. Jahrhunderts. Martina Giese.
Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, 63 (2, 2007), 569–602.
The Prohibition of Clerical Marriage in the Eleventh Century. Uta-Renate
Blumenthal. The Jurist, 68 (1, 2008), 22–37.
Christen und Juden im Disput. Mittelalterliche Religionsgespräche im „spatial
turn“. Michael Borgolte. Historische Zeitschrift, 286 (Apr., 2008), 359–402.
Der Wandel im Verständnis der Lateiner von Schismen und von deren Überwindung. Ernst Christoph Suttner. Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 74 (1,
2008), 5–26.
Saints in Shining Armor: Martial Asceticism and Masculine Models of Sanctity,
ca. 1050–1250. Katherine Allen Smith. Speculum, 83 (July, 2008), 572–602.
No Peace for the Wicked: Conflicting Visions of Peacemaking in an EleventhCentury Monastic Narrative. Jehangir Y. Malegam. Viator, 39 (1, 2008),
23–49.
A Controversial Church/Temple Inscription in Central India. George
Nedungatt, S.J. Orientalia Christiana Periodica, 74 (1, 2008), 133–64.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

891

The Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani: Litigation and History at St.
Albans. Mark Hagger. Historical Research, LXXI (Aug., 2008), 373–98.
Hugh of Die and the Legatine Office under Gregory VII: On the Effects of a
Waning Administration. Kriston R. Rennie. Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique,
103 (Jan.–Mar., 2008), 27–48.
A Convert of 1096: Guillaume, Monk of Flaix, Converted from the Jew. Jessie
Sherwood. Viator, 39 (1, 2008), 1–22.
Ein wappendatiertes Relikt der alten Johanniterkirche und das einstige
„Deutschordens-Haus“ in Jerusalem. Ein Beitrag zu Heraldik und Geschichte
der Pilgerfahrt zum Heiligen Grab. Franz-Heinz von Hye. Mitteilungen des
Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, 116 (1–2, 2008), 10–33.
Entre gueule d’enfer et masque d’Océan: les origines antiques d’un motif peint
dans l’église de Saint-Cher-en-Dauphiné. Barbara Franzé. Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, 51 (Apr.–June, 2008), 157–71.
A Miracle of Jonatus in 1127.The Translatio sancti Jonati in Villa Saliacensi
(BHL 4449) as Political Enterprise and Failed Hagiographical Project. Steven
Vanderputten. Analecta Bollandiana, 126 (June, 2008), 55–92.
Une curieuse Vie de saint. La Vie de Grégoire VII de Paul de Bernried. Jacques
van Wijnendaele. Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 85 (3–4, 2007),
639–62.
The Death of Ælred of Rievaulx: Between Theory and Reality. Ryzard Groń.
Cistercian Studies Quarterly, 43 (2, 2008), 131–45.
Criteri di identificazione del primo movimento valdese: per la storia di una
razionalità minoritaria (1173–1280). Andrea Sossi. Studi Medievali, XLIX
(June, 2008), 87–118.
Prophezeiungen in der englischen Historiographie des 12. Jahrhunderts.
Alheydis Plassmann. Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 90 (1, 2008), 19–49.
Die Beginen—Martha und Maria sein. Eine Geschichte von Aufbruch und
Unterdrückung der Frauen (Teil II). Helga Unger. Geist und Leben, 81
(July–Aug., 2008), 280–98.
Prime note sulla proprietà fondiaria del monastero Milanese di S. Maria del
Lentasio nel secolo XIII. Timothy Salemme. Nuova Rivista Storica, XCII
(Jan.–Apr., 2008), 93–114.
Die Vogelpredigt des hl. Franziskus von Assisi. Überlieferung und Kommentar.
Oktavian Schmucki, O.F.M. Cap. Wissenschaft und Weisheit, 71 (1, 2008),
3–34.
La vida cotidiana en la primitiva experiencia franciscana. La perspectiva de la
2Celano. Fernando Uribe. Carthaginensia, XXIV (Jan.–June, 2008), 1–23.
Francis’ Letter to all the Brothers (Letter to the Entire Order): Title, Theme,
Structure and Language. Jan Hoeberichts. Collectanea Franciscana, 78
(1–2, 2008), 5–85.

892

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

Elisabeth von Thüringen und die frühe franziskanische Bewegung. Johannes
Schlageter, O.F.M. Wissenschaft und Weisheit, 71 (1, 2008), 81–114.
Processo e canonizzazione di sant’Elisabetta d’Ungheria secondo i documenti
ufficiali. Oronzo Casto. Collectanea Franciscana, 78 (1–2, 2008), 213–60.
„Pax et bonum—Pace e bene.“ Ein franziskanischer Gruß, der nicht von
Franziskus stammt. Niklaus Kuster, O.F.M. Cap. Wissenschaft und Weisheit,
71 (1, 2008), 60–80.
La Cura Monialium en los monasterios de monjas dominicas de la Castilla del
siglo XIII: un análisis comparativo entre dos comunidades. Rita Ríos de la
Llave. Hispania Sacra, LX (Jan.–June, 2008), 47–65.
Las versiones medievales de la leyenda de Montserrat. Concepción Alarcón
Román. Studia Monastica, 49 (1, 2007), 29–73.
Le théologien Nicéphore Blemmydès (1197–v.1269), figure de contradiction
entre Orthodoxes et Latinophrones. Michel Stavrou. Orientalia Christiana
Periodica, 74 (1, 2008), 165–79.
Una rilettura del Testamento di Chiara d’Assisi. Maurizio Erasmi, O.F.M. Conv.
Miscellanea Francescana, 108 (I–II, 2008), 227–59.
The Politics of Mysticism: Elizabeth of Spalbeek in Context. Jesse Njus. Church
History, 77 (June, 2008), 285–317.
Datation et analyse du contexte de rédaction du Polyptyque dit de 1280 de la
cathédrale Saint-Lambert de Liège. Alexis Wilkin. Bulletin de la Commission royale d’Histoire, 173 (2007), 15–45.
“Oh! What Treasure Is In This Book?”Writing, Reading, and Community at the
Monastery of Helfta.Anna Harrison. Viator, 39 (1, 2008), 75–106.
La présence des franciscains à Beyrouth sous la domination des Mamelouks
(1291–1516) d’après les récits de pèlerinage. Pierre Moukarzel. Revue
d’histoire ecclésiastique, 103 (Jan.–Mar., 2008), 50–83.
Competing Spectacles in the Venetian Feste delle Marie. Thomas Devaney.
Viator, 39 (1, 2008), 107–25.
Il ruolo del battistero e di Marte a cavallo nella Nuova Cronica del Villani e
nelle immagini del codice Chigiano I VIII 296 della Biblioteca Vaticana.
Chiara Frugoni. Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, 119
(1, 2007), 57–92.
La fondazione dello “Studium Urbis” della Sapienza. Ludovico Gatto. Studi
Romani, LIV (Jan.–June, 2006), 136–60.
Tradittore o traduttore? La peinture de Giotto et la question de l’estrangement
entre Orient byzantin et Occident latin.Antoine Lévy. Istina, LII (Oct.–Dec.,
2007), 479–502.
Publication et publicité des procès à l’époque de Jean XXII (1316–1334): l’exemple des seigneurs gibelins italiens et de Louis de Bavière. Sylvain Parent.
Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, 119 (1, 2007), 93–134.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

893

Les successions en faveur des frères mineurs et la science juridique pendant la
papauté d’Avignon. Andrea Bartocci. Mélanges de l’École Française de
Rome, Moyen Âge, 119 (1, 2007), 135–50.
Scrittori politici all’inizio dell’Età moderna: Marsilio da Padova. Gioacchino
Volpe. Nuova Rivista Storica, XCII (Jan.–Apr., 2008), 45–62.
Comptabilité et gestion sur les chantiers apostoliques: Les Bernardins de Paris
1339–1342: le Palais Neuf d’Avignon 1344–1345. Philippe Dautrey.
Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome, Moyen Âge, 119 (1, 2007),
189–220.
The Tears of Nicholas: Simony and Perjury by a Parisian Master of Theology in
the Fourteenth Century. William J. Courtenay and Karl B. Shoemaker.
Speculum, 83 (July, 2008), 603–28.
Place, print and miracle: Forlì’s Madonna of the Fire as functional site. Lisa
Pon. Art History, 31 (June, 2008), 303–21.
Marriage and Consent in Pre-Tridentine Venice: Between Lay Conception and
Ecclesiastical Conception, 1420–1545. Cecilia Cristellon. Sixteenth Century
Journal, XXXIX (Summer, 2008), 389–418.
Multiple Options:The World of the Fifteenth-Century Church. John Van Engen.
Church History, 77 (June, 2008), 257–84.
Attributing Influence: The Problem of Female Patronage in Fifteenth-Century
Florence. Stefanie Solum. Art Bulletin, XC (Mar., 2008), 76–100.
Albergati’s diplomacy. Communication of friendship between Pope Eugene IV
and the Council of Basel. Michiel Decaluwe. Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 103 (Jan.–Mar., 2008), 85–117.
Een opmerkelijke biografie van een moderne devote: de Vita et conversacio
Salome priorisse in Diepenven. Lieve De Mey and Katrien Heene. Bulletin
de la Commission royale d’Histoire, 173 (2007), 189–228.
Perspicere Deum: Nicholas of Cusa and European Art of the Fifteenth Century.
Cesare Catà. Viator, 39 (1, 2008), 285–306.
Antigüedad, costumbre y exenciones frente a innovación en una institución
medieval: el conflicto entre el maestrescuela y el Cabildo de la Catedral de
Burgos (1456–1472). Susana Guijarro González. Hispania Sacra, LX
(Jan.–June, 2008), 67–94.
Iglesia y poder en el marquesado de Villena. Los orígenes de la Colegiata de
Belmonte. Carlos Ayllón Gutiérrez. Hispania Sacra, LX (Jan.–June, 2008),
95–130.
«Pro reformatione dicte ecclesie»: visites pastorales vénitiennes à la fin du
Moyen Âge. Pascal Vuillemin. Mélanges de l’École Française de Rome,
Moyen Âge, 119 (1, 2007), 221–51.
Le Florarium sanctorum de Nicolaus Clopper Jr et le martyrologe brabançon
de Pierre de Thimo. Deux martyrologes perdus, deux hagiographes bra-

894

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

bançons méconnus. Valerie Vermassen. Analecta Bollandiana, 126 (June,
2008), 119–50.
Sixteenth Century
Funktion, Form und Themen der „Chronica Fratris Nicolai Glassberger Ordinis
Minorum Observantium“. Jens Bredenbals. Wissenschaft und Weisheit, 71
(1, 2008), 115–42.
The ‘Radical’ Revisions of the Commentary on the Seven Penitential Psalms:
Luther and His ‘Enemies’ (1517–1525). Jonathan R. Seiling. Reformation &
Renaissance Review, 8 (Apr., 2006), 28–47.
Thomas More and the Louvain Humanists. Robert Keane. Moreana, 45 (June,
2008), 117–30.
Laurentius Corvinus and the Epicurean Luther. Grantley McDonald. Lutheran
Quarterly, XXII (Summer, 2008), 161–76.
The Holy War Trajectory among the Reformed: From Zurich to England. Mark
Larson. Reformation & Renaissance Review, 8 (Apr., 2006), 7–27.
John Knox, Reformation History and National Self-Fashioning. Crawford
Gribben. Reformation & Renaissance Review, 8 (Apr., 2006), 48–66.
Confessing the Faith: The Starting Point for Zwingli and Bullinger. W. Peter
Stephens. Reformation & Renaissance Review, 8 (Apr., 2006), 67–82.
“Synne and Sedition”: Peter Martyr Vermigli’s “Sermon concernynge the tyme
of rebellion” in the Parker Library. Torrance Kirby. Sixteenth Century
Journal, XXXIX (Summer, 2008), 419–40.
La Compañía de Jesús y la defensa de la monarquía hispánica. Javier Burrieza
Sánchez. Hispania Sacra, LX (Jan.–June, 2008), 181–229.
El Gobierno de la Universidad de Alcalá en el reinado de Felipe II. Estudio y
Colección documental. José García Oro and Mª José Portela Silva. Archivo
Ibero-Americano, LXVII (Jan.–Aug., 2008), 33–355.
Al pío lector de este libro. Sobre el preámbulo de Bartolomé Carranza a su
Catecismo de 1558. Ignacio Jericó Bermejo. Studium, XLVIII (1, 2008),
101–31.
Un’antica forma di carità nel territorio della diocesi di Milano: I legati del pane.
Fabrizio Pagani. Nuova Rivista Storica, XCII (Jan.–Apr., 2008), 115–38.
Le «piazze o alunnati elvetici» nei seminari dell’Archidiocesi di Milano. Claudio
Tallone. Nuova Rivista Storica, XCII (Jan.–Apr., 2008), 139–54.
En torno a la Biblioteca del Licenciado Castellanos, canónigo de San Isidoro de
León (†1592). Ana Suárez González. Archivo Ibero-Americano, LXVII
(Jan.–Aug., 2008), 357–91.
La vida intelectual en los monasterios cistercienses navarros. La escuela de
gramática y biblioteca del monasterio de Iranzu en el s. XVI. Ma Isabel
Ostolaza Elizondo. Hispania Sacra, LX (Jan.–June, 2008), 143–71.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

895

The Economics of Marriage: Dotal Strategies in Bologna in the Age of Catholic
Reform. Mauro Carboni. Sixteenth Century Journal, XXXIX (Summer,
2008), 371–87.
Caught between King, Religion, and Social Ambition: Marc-Antoine Marreau de
Boisguérin and His Family (ca. 1560–1680). Edwin Bessina. Sixteenth
Century Journal, XXXIX (Summer, 2008), 331–56.
Actas de los Capítulos Generales de la Congregación de San Benito de
Valladolid. V. 1589–1598. Ernesto Zaragoza Pascual. Studia Monastica, 49
(1, 2007), 107–201.
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
«Admiranda historia seraphica». Ilustraciones de la vida de Francisco de Asís,
escrita por san Buenaventura, en una edición hagiográfica del seiscientos.
Sergio Ramírez González. Collectanea Franciscana, 78 (1–2, 2008), 87–117.
The University of Louvain under the Constant Threat of Visitations, 1617–1702.
Toon Quaghebeur. Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 85 (3–4, 2007),
685–719.
The Causes of the Thirty Years War 1618–48. Peter H.Wilson. English Historical
Review, CXXIII (June, 2008), 554–86.
Predestination and Parochial Dispute in the 1630s: The Case of the Norwich
Lectureships. Matthew Reynolds. Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 59 (July,
2008), 407–25.
John Bramhall’s other island: a Laudian solution to an Irish problem. Jack P.
Cunningham. Irish Historical Studies, XXXVI (May, 2008), 1–15.
Le Saint-Sacrement et le chaudron: les missions antiprotestantes en Provence
au XVIIe siècle. Céline Borello. Annales du Midi, 120 (Jan.–Mar., 2008),
33–57.
Irish bishops and clergy in exile in mid-seventeenth-century France. René
d’Ambrières and Éamon Ó Ciosáin. Irish Historical Studies, XXXVI (May,
2008), 16–37.
Das deutsche Quäkertum in der Frühen Neuzeit. Ein grundsätzlicher Beitrag
zur Pietismusforschung. Claus Bernet. Zeitschrift für Religions- und
Geistesgeschichte, 60 (3, 2008), 213–34.
The State of Christendom: history, political thought and the Essex circle.
Alexandra Gajda. Historical Research, LXXI (Aug., 2008), 423–46.
Fragmentum annuarium Collegii Societatis Iesu Claudiopolitani: The
Account of a Jesuit Mission in Transylvania, 1659–1662. Paul Shore.
Reformation & Renaissance Review, 8 (Apr., 2006), 83–106.
Varieties of Gallicanism: Four Sorbonne Doctors on Diriment Impediments to
Matrimony (1674–1691). Jacques M. Gres-Gayer. The Jurist, 68 (1, 2008),
38–52.

896

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

The Dawn of the Age of Toleration: Samuel Pufendorf and the Road not Taken.
Nicholas P. Miller. Journal of Church and State, 50 (Spring, 2008), 255–75.
Religious Toleration in the Wake of Revolution: Scotland on the Eve of
Enlightenment (1688–1710s). Ryan K. Frace. History, 93 (July, 2008),
355–75.
L’histoire providentialiste de Bossuet au miroir de l’historiographie contemporaine. Patricia Touboul. XVIIe Siècle, 239 (Apr.–June, 2008), 243–59.
Het decreet van 7 november 1695 van gouverneur Maximiliaan Emmanuel van
Beieren aan de Raad van Brabant tegen de recursus naar de seculiere rechtbanken door clerici.Toon Quaghebeur. Bulletin de la Commission royale
d’Histoire, 173 (2007), 231–56.
Religion and the Age of “Patriot” Reform. Dale K.Van Kley. Journal of Modern
History, 80 (June, 2008), 252–95.
Eighteenth-Century Quakerism and the Rehabilitation of James Nayler,
Seventeenth-Century Radical. Erin Bell. Journal of Ecclesiastical History,
59 (July, 2008), 426–46.
Le lys et la bure. La nécessaire francisation des capucins d’Alsace au XVIIIème
siècle. Claude Muller. Collectanea Franciscana, 78 (1-2, 2008), 171–86.
Empire, Religious Freedom, and the Legal Regulation of “Mixed” Marriages in
Russia. Paul W.Werth. Journal of Modern History, 80 (June, 2008), 296–331.
La minute du miracle. Engagement janséniste et appartenance sociale des
notaires parisiens au XVIIIe siècle. Nicolas Lyon-Caen. Revue Historique,
131 (Jan., 2008), 61–83.
Interpreting the Dutch Great Awakening (1749–1755). Fred van Lieburg.
Church History, 77 (June, 2008), 318–36.
La Constantinople chrétienne, de Voltaire à Chateaubriand. Mémoire d’un
silence. Guy Bedouelle. Istina, LII (Oct.–Dec., 2007), 435–48.
Le missioni popolari di Nicola Molinari da Lagonegro (1707–1792). Stefania
Nanni. Laurentianum, 49 (1, 2008), 139–53.
La correspondence de dom Nicolas Spirlet, dernier abbé de Saint-Hubert, avec
Patrice-François de Neny, chef-président du Conseil privé des Pays-Bas
autrichiens (1760–1782). Olivier Vanderhaeghen. Bulletin de la
Commission royale d’Histoire, 172 (2006), 5–221.
Beccaria all’Indice. Giuseppe Orlandi, C.SS.R. Spicilegium Historicum C.SS.R.,
LVI (1, 2008), 179–218.
Religion et politique à la fin de l’Ancien Régime: les confréries de la
Rédemption des captifs dans le comté de Hainaut (1771–1786). Philippe
Desmette. Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 85 (3–4, 2007), 721–33.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

897

Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Une communauté réformée disséminée. Protestants et protestantisme en haute
Saintonge, des Articles organiques aux lendemains de la Séparation
(1802–1914). Nicolas Champ.Annales du Midi, 120 (Jan.–Mar., 2008), 59–90.
Plan de reform de la iglesia española impulsado por Napoleón Bonaparte. Luis
Barbastro Gil. Hispania Sacra, LX (Jan.–June, 2008), 267–95.
La recomposición religiosa en la modernidad: un marco conceptual para comprender el enfrentamiento entre laicidad y confesionalidad en la España
contemporánea. Joseba Louzao Villar. Hispania Sacra, LX (Jan.–June, 2008),
331–54.
From Tongan meeting house to Samoan chapel: a recent Tongan origin for the
–
Samoan Fale A folau. Shawn S. Barnes and Roger C. Green. Journal of
Pacific History, XLIII (June, 2008), 23–49.
Aus dem Leben der Pfarrgemeinde St. Blasius Zähringen nach der Pfarrchronik
von 1838 bis 1947. Hans-Josef Wollasch. Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv, 127
(2007), 157–98.
The Partnering of Church and School in Nineteenth-Century Sweden. Todd
Green. Journal of Church and State, 50 (Spring, 2008), 331–49.
‘My Dear Nephew’: letters to a student priest. Lisa Curry. Innes Review, 59
(Spring, 2008), 49–76.
The Second Sex and the First Estate: The Sisters of St-André between the
Bishop of Tournai and Rome, 1850–1886. Vincent Viaene. Journal of
Ecclesiastical History, 59 (July, 2008), 447–74.
Defending the Faith through Education: The Catholic Case for Parental and
Civil Rights in Victorian Britain. Eric G. Tenbus. History of Education
Quarterly, 48 (Aug., 2008), 432–51.
Sotanas, Escaños y sufragios. Práctica política y soportes sociales del neo-catolicismo en las provincias castellano-manchegas (1854–1868). Juan Antonio
Inarejos Muñoz. Hispania Sacra, LX (Jan.–June, 2008), 297–329.
Liberaal-katholiek en antimaçon. Het discourse van Amand Neut (1812–1884)
tegen de Belgische vrijmetselarij in de schaduw van de Katholieke
Congressen. Jimmy Koppen. Revue Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire, 85
(3–4, 2007), 805–34.
Franz Xaver Kraus et Victor de Buck. Correspondance. Bernard Joassart.
Analecta Bollandiana, 126 (June, 2008), 155–77.
Die Kapuziner in Ehrenbreitstein vom Beginn des Kulturkampfes bis zum Ende
des Ersten Weltkrieges. Hermann-Josef Scheidgen and Martin Schlemmer.
Collectanea Franciscana, 78 (1–2, 2008), 187–212.
Catholic realities and pastoral strategies: another look at the historiography of
Scottish Catholicism, 1878–1920. Bernard Aspinwall. Innes Review, 59
(Spring, 2008), 77–112.

898

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

The Origin and Characteristics of Evangelical Protestantism in Korea at the
Turn of the Twentieth Century. Dae Young Ryu. Church History, 77 (June,
2008), 371–98.
“A Community of Communities”—Catholic Communitarianism and Societal
Crises in Ireland, 1890s–1950s. Sean L’Estrange. Journal of Historical
Sociology, 20 (Dec., 2007), 555–78.
La Ciudad de Dios ante el 2.° Centenario de la Guerra de la Independencia.
Teófilo Viñas Román. La Ciudad de Dios, CCXXI (May–Aug., 2008), 375–407.
Volksmissionen der polnischen Redemptoristen in Sibirien im Jahr 1908.
Edward Nocuń, C.SS.R. Spicilegium Historicum C.SS.R., LVI (1, 2008),
161–78.
Die Kirchen in der Weimarer Republik. Klaus Fitschen. Theologische
Rundschau, 73 (May, 2008), 119–49.
Die Wurzeln des Widerstandes.Theodor Haecker in der politischen Landschaft
des frühen 20. Jahrhunderts—eine Spurensuche.Winfrid Halder. Freiburger
Diözesan-Archiv, 127 (2007), 105–34.
Die Haltung des Freiburger Pastoraltheologen Linus Bopp (1887–1971) zum
und im Nationalsozialismus. Philipp Müller. Freiburger Diözesan-Archiv,
127 (2007), 135–55.
«Il Fascismo manda l’Italia in rovina». Le note inedite di monsignor Domenico
Tardini (23 settembre–13 dicembre 1935). Lucia Ceci. Rivista Storica
Italiana, CXX (Apr., 2008), 294–346.
The Catholic Church in Catalonia. From Cataclysm in the Civil War to the
“Euphoria” of the 1950s. Andrew Dowling. Catalan Review, XX (2006),
83–100.
Der Militärseelsorgevertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und
der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland. Martin Greschat. Zeitschrift für
Kirchengeschichte, 119 (1, 2008), 63–79.
Lady Chatterley and the Monk:Anglican Radicals and the Lady Chatterley Trial
of 1960. Mark Roodhouse. Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 59 (July, 2008),
475–500.
Church, State, and Society in Ireland since 1960. Brian Girvin. Éire-Ireland, 43
(Spring–Summer, 2008), 74–98.
The Catholic Church and the Nationalist Community in Northern Ireland since
1960. Oliver P. Rafferty, S.J. Éire-Ireland, 43 (Spring–Summer, 2008), 99–125.
The Official Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox
Church: 1973–1992. Frans Bouwen, MAfr. One in Christ, 42 (Summer,
2008), 75–98.
Le 30 septembre 1997: L’Église de France demande pardon aux juifs. Impulsion
du cardinal Lustiger et réception de l’événement. Thérèse Hebbelinck.
Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique, 103 (Jan.–Mar., 2008), 119–60.

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

899

American
The Carroll Family of Maryland. Ronald Hoffman. Proceedings of the American
Antiquarian Society, 117 (Oct., 2007), 331–50.
“Mr. Secretary”: John Lewgar, St. John’s Freehold, and Early Maryland. Arthur
Pierce Middleton and Henry M. Miller. Maryland Historical Magazine, 103
(Summer, 2008), 132–65.
A Scandalous Minister in a Divided Community: Ulster County in Leisler’s
Rebellion, 1689–1691. Evan Haefeli. New York History, 88 (Fall, 2007),
357–90.
How to Go to Heaven, or How Heaven Goes? Natural Science and
Interpretation in Cotton Mather’s “Biblia Americana” (1693–1728). Reiner
Smolinski. New England Quarterly, LXXXI (June, 2008), 278–329.
John Fletcher’s Reflections on the Spirit of Religious Controversy and John
Carroll: Apologists Both. Thomas Jodziewicz. American Catholic Studies,
119 (Summer, 2008), 71–90.
Deist Monster: On Religious Common Sense in the Wake of the American
Revolution. Christopher Grasso. Journal of American History, 95 (June,
2008), 43–68.
“Though Their Skin Remains Brown, I Hope Their Souls Will Soon Be White”:
Slavery, French Missionaries, and the Roman Catholic Priesthood in the
American South, 1789–1865. Michael Pasquier. Church History, 77 (June,
2008), 337–70.
The Problem of Moral Progress: The Slavery Debates and the Development of
Liberal Protestantism in the United States. Molly Oshatz. Modern
Intellectual History, 5 (Aug., 2008), 225–50.
The Prophet in His Own Words: Nat Turner’s Biblical Construction. Anthony
Santoro. Virginia Magazine, 116 (2, 2008), 114–49.
Missouri Synod Chicagoland Churches and Home Missions: Part One. Scott J.
Meyer. Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, 80 (Winter, 2007), 10–34.
Georg Landgraf: A Pioneer Nineteenth Century Midwestern Lutheran Pastor:
Part Two. Gary Lee Beard. Concordia Historical Institute Quarterly, 80
(Winter, 2007), 35–60.
Serious Seekers, by a False Road: Nineteenth-Century Protestant Missionaries’
Perceptions of the Penitente Brotherhood. Juan Francisco Martínez. New
Mexico Historical Review, 83 (Summer, 2008), 353–70.
“You can’t mix wheat and potatoes in the same bin”:Anti-Catholicism in Early
Dakota. Jon Lauck. South Dakota History, 38 (Spring, 2008), 1–46.
Clashing Covenanters.The East End Controversy in the Reformed Prebyterian
Church. Richard L. Lindberg. Western Pennsylvania History, 91 (Summer,
2008), 34–43.

900

PERIODICAL LITERATURE

An Extracanonical Institution: The Annual Meetings of the American Archbishops, 1890–1919. Robert Trisco. The Jurist, 68 (1, 2008), 53–91.
Life at Sant’Anselmo: European Letters of Fr. Peter Mizera, 1920–24. James
Flint, O.S.B. American Benedictine Review, 59 (June, 2008), 167–83.
“The Most Memorable Labor Dispute in the History of U.S. Church-Related
Institutions”: The 1949 Calvary Cemetery Workers’ Strike against the
Catholic Archdiocese of New York. Arnold Sparr. American Catholic
Studies, 119 (Summer, 2008), 1–33.
Faith and Foreign Policy: An Exploration into the Mind of Harry Truman.
Richard S. Kirkendall. Missouri Historical Review, 102 (July, 2008), 214–24.
The History and Reception of the Divine Office in Sacrosanctum Concilium
among the Laity in the United States. Daniel Shanahan. Cistercian Studies
Quarterly, 43 (3, 2008), 161–75.
The Chalcedon Problem: Rousas John Rushdoony and the Origins of Christian
Reconstructionism. Molly Worthen. Church History, 77 (June, 2008),
399–437.
Episcopal Authority and Theological Dissent: Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., and
Humanae Vitae. Samuel J. Thomas. American Catholic Studies, 119
(Summer, 2008), 35–69.
Latin American
El Viejo Archivo de San Francisco de Caracas. Lino Gómez Canedo. Archivo
Ibero-Americano, LXVII (Jan.–Aug., 2008), 5–31.
Exploring Parish Registers in Colonial Minas Gerais, Brazil: Ethnicity in São José
do Rio das Mortes, 1780–1810. Douglas Libby and Zephyr Frank. Colonial
Latin American Historical Review, 14 (Summer, 2005), 213–44.
Bishop Martínez Compañón’s Practical Utopia in Enlightment Peru. Emily
Berquist. The Americas, 64 (Jan., 2008), 377–408.
Infortunios de Don José Celestino Mutis. Luis Carlos Mantilla R., O.F.M. Boletín
de Historia y Antigüedades, XCV (Jan.–Mar., 2008), 141–65.
Frei Francisco do Monte Averne: Plano de Reforma para a Provincia
Franciscana da Imaculada Conceição do Brasil. Sandro Roberto da Costa.
Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira, Fasc. 270 (Apr., 2008), 326–49.
In the Absence of Priests: Young Women as Apostles to the Poor, Chile
1922–1932. Gertrude M.Yeager. The Americas, 64 (Oct., 2007), 207–42.

OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED
_______
Brown, Camille. African Saints, African Stories: 40 Holy Men and Women.
(Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press. 2008. Pp. xiv, 146. $14.95 paperback.)
Gallo, Patrick J. (Ed.). Pius XII, the Holocaust and the Revisionists: Essays.
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. 2006. Pp. vii, 218. $39.95 paperback.)
Gottsmann,Andreas. (Ed.). Karl I. (IV.), der Erste Weltkrieg und das Ende der
Donaumonarchie. [Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Historisches Institut beim Osterreichischen Kulturforum In Rom.
Abhandlungen 14. Band.] (Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der
Wissenschaften. 2007. Pp. 306. Paperback.) One of the eighteen articles
published in this large-format volume is “Die Wiener Nuntiatur und Kaiser
Karl” by Andreas Gottsmann (pp. 93–118).
Kärkkäinen, Pekka (Ed.). Trinitarian Theology in the Medieval West. (Helsinki:
Luther-Agricola-Society. 2007. Pp. 298. Paperback.)
Katabi, Basil. A Christological Papacy: A Challenge of the Holiest Conclave.
(New York:Vantage Press. 2005. Pp. xxvi, 46. $9.95 paperback.)
Kavanaugh, Kieran, O.C.D. (Trans.). The Collected Letters of St.Teresa of Avila.
(Washington, DC: ICS Publications. 2007. Pp. 661. $14.95 paperback.)
Lochran, John. The Miracle of Lourdes: A Message of Healing and Hope.
(Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press. 2008. Pp. iv, 134. $12.95 paperback.)
McCall, Richard D. Do This: Liturgy as Performance. (Notre Dame: University
of Notre Dame Press. 2007. Pp. 8, 195. $28.00 paperback.)
McNamer, Elizabeth, and Bargil Pixner. Jesus and First-Century Christianity in
Jerusalem. (New York and Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. 2008. Pp. x, 100.
$19.95 paperback.)
Miethke, Jürgen. Politiktheorie im Mittelalter von Thomas von Aquin bis
Wilhelm von Ockham. Durchgesehene und korrigierte Studienausgabe.
(Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. 2008. Pp. xiv, 350. 24,90 paperback.) The original edition was published in 2000 under the title De potestate papae – Die
päpstliche Amtskompetenz im Widerstreit der politischen Theorie von
Thomas von Aquin bis Wilhelm von Ockham in the series Spätmittelalter
und Reformation, New Reihe, No. 16, and was reviewed by John R. Eastman
ante, LXXXVII (July, 2001), 500–02.
901

902

OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED

Moyer, Ginny Kubitz. Mary and Me: Catholic Women Reflect on the Mother of
God. (Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press. 2008. Pp. viii, 120. $13.95
paperback.)
Muto, Susan. Where Lovers Meet: Inside the Interior Castle. (Washington, DC:
ICS Publications. 2008. Pp. 107. $13.95 paperback.)
Nalle, Sara T. God in La Mancha: Religious Reform and the People of Cuenca,
1500–1650. [The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and
Political Science, 110th Series, Number 2.]. (Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins
University Press. 2008. Pp. xviii, 306. $30.00 paperback.) First published in
1992 and reviewed by Alain Saint-Saëns ante, LXXX (January, 1994), 151–52.
Pivonka, Dave,T.O. R. Spiritual Freedom: God’s Life-Changing Gift. Foreword
by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P. (Cincinnati: Servant Books, an
imprint of St. Anthony Messenger Press. 2008. Pp. xii, 146. $12.99 paperback.)
Riley-Smith, Jonathan. The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam. (New York:
Columbia University Press. 2008. Pp. 115. $24.50.)
Rodriguez, Janel. Meet John Paul II: The People’s Pope. (Cincinnati: Servant
Books, an imprint of St. Anthony Messenger Press. 2008. Pp. xvi, 156. $12.99
paperback.)
Rohr, Richard. Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality.(Cincinnati: St.Anthony
Messenger Press. 2008. Pp. viii, 238. $19.95 paperback.)
Rusconi, Gian Enrico. Lo Stato secolarizzato nell’età post-secolare. [Annali
dell’Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento Quaderni, 73.] (Bologna:
Società editrice il Mulino. 2008. Pp. 337. €24,00 paperback.)
Smiga, George M. The Gospel of John Set Free: Preaching without AntiJudaism. (New York and Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. 2008. Pp. xiv, 180.
$14.95 paperback.)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Sing to the Lord: Music in
Divine Worship. [Pastoral Liturgy Series, 4.] (Washington, DC: United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops. 2008. Pp. xii, 80. $9.95 paperback.)