The Mediaeval Journal

A tradition of medieval scholarship has slowly been building resistance to the once-held consensus that exemplarity implies authority and thus an author’s always being in control of his or her text, which teaches an ostensible moral. Such new scholarship focuses largely on fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Middle English literature, but I would argue that the phenomenon of problematic exemplarity was well underway in the Latin literature of the twelfth century, as is evident in Abelard’s Historia calamitatum. This essay argues that Abelard foregrounds his life as exemplary and uses exempla and auctores to do so, but he fails on several fronts that involve conflicting authorities; his own ego, which obviates successful exemplarity; his problematic voicing of Heloise in her dissuasio nuptiarum; his vexed relationship with sympathy, a hallmark of exemplary figures; and his failure to live up to models to which he aspires. The essay finally considers audience reception of the Historia and our frustrated moral reading in the inscribed figures of the hypothetical friend to whom the Historia is addressed, in Heloise herself, and in ourselves as readers.

The Index of Printed Middle English Prose made a substantial contribution on its appearance thirty-five years ago. It brought together, for the first time, a listing of the known Middle English canon. The volume was instrumental in stimulating further research, primarily through The Index of Middle English Prose, a series describing the contents of library collections and constantly unearthing items heretofore unnoticed, but through editions of previously unedited items as well. The essay seeks to respond to this scholarly explosion. It offers a partial checklist of items published since the original Index, as well as filling in some gaps in the original coverage.

This article considers evidence of mental distress in relation to childbirth in late medieval Europe between the twelfth and early sixteenth centuries. It examines diverse sources written by physicians, clergy, and the laity in which women appear to suffer emotional instability in proximity to parturition. In lieu of arguing for antecedents of a modern recognized malady, the article retrieves the array of meanings attributed to incidents of postpartum mental instability in the pre-modern sources. It examines the relationship between physical pain and mental distress, the role of ritual in treatment, and the management of time in relation to postpartum mental anguish. It also contributes to a broader understanding of the dynamics between materiality and emotionality and the female body.

This article explores how the gentry perceived disease and illness in the fifteenth century. It examines the private letter collections of the Paston, Stonor and Plumpton families. The first section analyses both chronological and seasonal patterns of disease to assess the level of awareness demonstrated by these families with regards to the transmission of contagion. The second section analyses the notion of risk and susceptibility. Emphasis is placed upon individual family members and the factors which could affect how strongly their relatives perceived the threat of disease, such as age, gender and lifestyle. Ultimately this article demonstrates the complexity and sophistication connected with the gentry experience of disease and sheds light on an under-explored aspect of the medieval consciousness.

In April 2016, Nick Griffin, former leader of the far-right British National Party, visited Prague, where he was filmed wearing the robes of a Knight Templar. He had joined the Knights Templar International, a far-right organisation that purports to emulate the medieval Templars. The Templars were the first military order, religious fraternities of soldier-monks which fought in the crusades. Because of their warfare against Muslims, the military orders have attracted much attention from the far-right. Three groups similar to the Knights Templar International have been established in the past few years, all of them far-right organisations modelled upon the military orders.

This paper examines how these imitation orders use the memory of their medieval predecessors and what attracts them to this history and that of the Templars in particular. It discusses the ways in which these groups use the memory of the military orders, and how these appropriations in turn fuel Islamist discourses about fighting against modern-day crusaders. In both cases, it will be shown that the history was more complex than the one these groups construct. It also argues that representation of the Templars in pop culture has created a view of them as noble, pious knights - a view that, by association, is used to fuel violence on the far-right.