David S. Bachrach

Conforming with the Rhetorical Tradition of Plausibility: Clerical Representation of Battlefield Orations against Muslims, 1080–1170

Notwithstanding warrior inured to fear by his lust for violence and booty that still prevails in parts of the academy, medieval soldiers were just as frightened as modern soldiers of mutilation, death, and damnation.1 One of the most difficult problems common to the medieval and the modern commander is ensuring the high morale of his troops as they go into battle. Whatever the comparative size or equipment of the opposing forces, the willingness of the men to fight hard and to die usually decided the fate of the medieval army. Morale could be ensured in a number of ways: through high pay, good food, and alcohol.2 Numerous accounts written by contemporary observers tell us, however, that one of the most common techniques employed was the public oration immediately before battle. John Bliese, who has made an extensive study of these types of orations during the Anglo-Norman military campaigns, identifies two dozen themes, including the justness of the cause for which the soldiers are fighting, the fact that they are defending their homes, and that divine support will be forthcoming to men fighting on the just side.3 Such orations, represented or purportedly quoted in a wide

The organisation of military religion in the armies of King Edward I of England (1272–1307)

King Edward I of England (1272–1307) was an exceptionally capable leader both on the battlefield and in the organisation of the bureaucratic institutions necessary for the successful pursuit of his military objectives. The military history of Edward’s reign has benefited from extensive scholarly attention, particularly with regard to matters such as military recruitment, battlefield strategy, and logistics. However, one major lacuna has been an examination of the pastoral care made available to soldiers serving the king in both peace and war. This study considers the means by which both professional fighting men and militia forces serving in the armies of Edward I were provided with the opportunity to obtain pastoral care. It considers in turn, soldiers attached to the royal household, the troops of the royal garrisons, militia forces drawn from the shires, and finally the contingents provided by men who held land from the king through military tenure.

Military Logistics during the Reign of Edward I of England, 1272-1307:

Logistics, the administrative systems by which military forces are supplied, played a crucial role in the conduct of medieval warfare. This was certainly true of the royal armies dispatched by King Edward I of England (r. 1272-1307) to fight campaigns in Gascony, Flanders, Wales, and Scotland. This study focuses on the administrative and bureaucratic systems developed by the English royal government to keep tens of thousands of soldiers supplied with food, wine, and other necessities during Edward I’s wars of conquest within Britain, in Wales and Scotland.

Milites and Warfare in Pre-Crusade Germany

Despite considerable scholarly attention to the issue, there remains considerable controversy regarding the meaning of the term miles in pre-Crusade Europe, with many historians asserting that milites were knights, who dominated warfare through the practice of equestrian combat. This study seeks to examine the ways in which the main narrative sources for the German kingdom in the second half of the eleventh century use the term miles (plural milites). The two goals of this study are to determine the meaning that authors assign to the term, and the role that these authors attribute to milites in the conduct of war during this half-century.

Continuity of written administration in the Late Carolingian East c. 887–911 The Royal Fisc

Introduction, p. 109. – Written Administration in Francia occidentalis and Francia media, p. 109. – Written Administration in the Late Carolingian East, p. 112. – The Fisc in the German Historiographical Tradition, p. 113. – Capitulary de villis and the Scale of Written Administration, p. 117. – Royal Beneficia, p. 124. – Arnulf, Zwentibold, and Louis the Child. Sources of Information, p. 130. – Records of the Royal Fisc, p. 133. – Archiving Fiscal Records, p. 138. – The Confiscation of Beneficia, p. 141. – Regranting Beneficia, p. 143. – Maintaining Government Records, p. 144. – Conclusion, p. 145.

A Warrior Bishop of the Twelfth Century: The Deeds of Albero of Trier, by Balderich (review)

unequal proportion of questions devoted to miracles and the candidates’ fama and vita, and the presence or absence of articles of interrogation.These differences, however, have nothing to do with the norms of procedure and cannot tell us anything about the intentions of the inquisitors. Golinelli discusses the witness lists, seeing a trend in how the inquisitors selected witnesses. For important personalities such as St. Dominic and Peter of Morrone, the inquisitors chose clergy. For “popular cults” they tended to choose laypersons.What Golinelli does not understand is that the rules governing the gathering of evidence dictated the people whom the inquisitors would choose. They needed and sought people who could give them information. Bengt Ankarloo makes the most egregious blunder of interpretation of the norms of procedure in the last essay of the volume. First he asserts that the procedural norm de plano, sine strepitu et figura meant that the ordo iudiciarius could “proceed without unnecessary circumspection” (p. 369). The phrase, however, only meant that nonessential, but not the central elements of the ordo, could be eliminated. He then states that when judges dealt with “crimina excepta” (heresy, witchcraft, and treason) that they would accept “even the flimsiest evidence and force the culprit to confess” (p. 369). Crimina excepta did not change the rules governing the use of torture or the rules of evidence. Persons who committed crimina excepta were normally exempted from torture but could be subjected to it if they committed these crimes and if the evidence against them reached the standard of proof that permitted the judge to render them to the torture chamber. However, the strict norms that governed the use of torture were not relaxed.

Lay Confession to Priests in Light of Wartime Practice (1097-1180)

Canon 21 of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) has engendered an enormous scholarly debate regarding the purpose of issuing a requirement that each lay adult confess his or her sins once a year before Easter to his or her own parish priest. For many scholars, the decision by Pope Innocent III and his fellow bishops to issue this requirement is prima facie evidence that confession by laypeople to priests was very rare up to this point. Other scholars, pointing to synodal statutes dating back to the early ninth century, argue that regular confession to priests was a central element of lay religious practice for centuries before 1215. This scholarly dispute has centered on the interpretation of synodal statutes that required lay confession to priests, either as reflecting the reality of lay religious practice or as reflecting the desires of a church hierarchy that was divorced from the religious impulses and practices of the majority of the lay population. This study seeks to break this impasse by drawing att...