Joseph F. O'Callaghan

Ransoming captives in crusader Spain : the Order of Merced on the Christian-Islamic frontier

This volume examines a thirteenth-century order of friars that specialized in the ransoming of Christians captured in the wars and raids of the medieval Spanish reconquest.

The Cortes and Royal Taxation during the Reign of Alfonso X of Castile

Consent to taxation traditionally has been regarded as one of the essential functions of representative assemblies. The distinguished historian of medieval Spanish institutions, Claudio Sanchez Albornoz, has indeed argued that representatives of the towns originally were summoned to the cortes of Leon-Castile to give their consent to extraordinary taxes. As yet, however, students of the medieval cortes have not carried out detailed investigations of the problem. Evidence to illustrate the taxing role of the cortes during the formative years from 1188 to 1252 is scanty, but it is considerably fuller during the reign of Alfonso X (1252-1284). Inasmuch as he incurred exceptional expenses and frequently summoned the cortes, an inquiry into the role of the cortes in assisting him through taxation should broaden our understanding of the functioning of government in the second half of the thirteenth century. The purpose of this paper then will be to determine when, to what extent, and for what purposes the cortes authorized the king to levy extraordinary taxes.

San Giacomo: Il guerriero e il pellegrino. II culto iacobeo tra la Spagna e l'Esarcato (secc. XI–XV) (review)

The cult of St. James and the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela are principal elements in the popular religious life of the High Middle Ages. This volume, divided into two parts, focuses initially on the cult in Spain and Europe generally,and then on its development in the ancient Exarchate of Ravenna.The author attempts to sort out the various persons known as St. James and notes the tendency to assimilate them into one.They were James,the son of Zebedee, one of the Twelve,called the Great,martyred around 41–44 A.D.; James, the son of Alphaeus, also one of the Twelve, known as the Less; and James the Just, reputed brother of the Lord and first bishop of Jerusalem,martyred around 62–63 A.D. Later Spanish tradition held that James the Great, after preaching in Spain, returned to the East where he met his death. His remains, however, reportedly were interred in Galicia, where they were miraculously discovered in the campus stellarum early in the ninth century.From the eleventh century onward the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela attracted the devout from all over western Europe.

Petrus Alfonsi and His Medieval Readers by John Tolan (review)

degenerates to an anti-Western and a pro-Turkish propaganda. It may very well express the personal opinion and the highly biased views of its author, but it has nothing to offer to the scholar, the historian, the educated average reader, the undergraduate, or the graduate student. Spiridonakis has failed to take advantage of authoritative modern scholarly works; he has carried out no original research ofhis own; he has not even consulted the primary sources; and he is guilty of making factual errors. The less said about this pamphlet, the better.

‘Difiniciones’ of the Order of Calatrava Enacted by Abbot William II of Morimond, April 2, 1468

The medieval sources for the study of the organization and customs of the Spanish military Order of Calatrava have never been published. For information on this matter scholars have relied upon the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century difiniciones enacted by the general chapters of the Order. With the hope of stimulating interest in a subject which has long awaited analysis, the difiniciones or statutes of Abbot William II of Morimond, given in 1468, are printed here. This is the first in a series of projected editions of all the texts pertinent to the organization and customs of the Order in the Middle Ages. Abbot Williams difiniciones, like those of his predecessors, issued during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, contain useful details concerning the monastic practices of the knights of Calatrava.