Franciscan Poverty and Franciscan Economic Thought (1209-1348)


Book Description

When Francis of Assisi started to use his family’s resources for religious purposes, his father took him to court. It was there that Francis dispossessed himself of everything and began a new life that soon inspired others to follow. Within a century, members of this Order of Friars Minor were among the first to dedicate complete treatises to discussions of buying, selling, and the whole of human exchange that is known as economics. The natural question to ask—and the one proposed here—is whether there might be a connection between the two, between Franciscan poverty and Franciscan economic thought?




Medieval Mount Athos between Wealth and Poverty


Book Description

These collected studies dedicated to the Orthodox monastic center of Mount Athos during the Middle Ages paint a compelling picture of the Holy Mountain’s monastic communities as economic actors. Mount Athos’ rich archival holdings allow both for the minute scrutiny of economic activity and the tracing of long-term trends. Not only were Hagiorite monasteries major players on a local level, but they were also embedded within trans-Mediterranean networks of patronage. The unique status of Mount Athos as a semi-autonomous monastic polity also influenced attitudes towards landholding as well as wealth and poverty more generally. Contributors are Tinatin Chronz, Zachary Chitwood, Stefan Eichert , Martina Filosa, Mihai-D. Grigore, Michel Kaplan, Vladimer Kekelia, Kirill A. Maksimovič, Zisis Melissakis, Nicholas Melvani, Vanessa R. de Obaldía, Daniel Oltean, Nina Richards, Kostis Smyrlis, Apolon Tabuashvili, and Alexander Watzinger.




Pauline Economy in the Middle Ages


Book Description

In Pauline Economy in the Middle Ages, “''The Spiritual Cannot Be Maintained Without The Temporal...” Beatrix F. Romhányi examines the estate management of the Pauline order, and argues it was a transitory system between monastic and mendicant economy.




A Companion to Medieval Genoa


Book Description

A Companion to Medieval Genoa introduces non-specialists to recent scholarship on the vibrant and source-rich medieval history of Genoa. Focusing mostly on the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, the volume positions the city of Genoa and the Genoese within the broader history of the Italian peninsula and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. Thematic contributions highlight the interdependence of local, regional, and international concerns, and serve as a helpful corrective to the traditional overemphasis of Florence and Venice in the English-language historiography of medieval Italy. The volume thus offers a fresh perspective on the history of medieval Italy—as well as a handy introduction to the riches of the Genoese archives—to undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars in related fields. Contributors are Ross Balzaretti, Carrie E. Beneš, Denise Bezzina, Roberta Braccia, Luca Filangieri, George L. Gorse, Paola Guglielmotti, Thomas Kirk, Sandra Macchiavello, Merav Mack, Jeffrey Miner, Rebecca Müller, Antonio Musarra, Sandra Origone, Giovanna Petti Balbi, Valeria Polonio, Gervase Rosser, Antonella Rovere, Stefan Stantchev, and Carlo Taviani.




Documents on the Papal Plenary Indulgences 1300-1517 Preached in the Regnum Teutonicum


Book Description

Catholics and Protestants have disputed the validity and legitimacy of papal plenary indulgences for 500 years without a unitary corpus of the relevant texts documenting the indulgence campaigns which so exercised Luther and his contemporaries. This volume prints for the first time in a modern edition the full text of all available papal bulls and brevia between 1300 and 1517 which granted plenary indulgences (i.e. those which cancelled all previously accrued temporal punishment due to sin), the instructions to the commissioners on how to preach (and defend) the indulgences and conduct the campaigns, and finally the extensions of indulgence campaigns. The Regnum Teutonicum provides the geographical framework, since it includes all the areas where the Reformation initially broke out.




Churchmen and Urban Government in Late Medieval Italy, c.1200-c.1450


Book Description

Major new study of secular-religious boundaries and the role of the clergy in the administration of Italy's late medieval city-states.




Youcat English


Book Description

Introduces young readers to Catholic beliefs as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.




A Rice Village Saga


Book Description

The rice belt of Laguna Province, Philippines (popularly known as the heartland of the Green Revolution for its early adoption of modern rice varieties), has experienced dramatic economic and social changes in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Besides the major advances in new rice technology, four major forces have prompted change: increasing population pressure on limited land; implementation of land reform programs; developments in infrastructure such as irrigation and roads; and penetration of urban economic activities. A unique data set generated from many surveys during the period 1966-97 in a typical village in Laguna, as put together in this book, illustrates a pattern of socio-economic change shared by many irrigated rice areas in the Philippines as well as in other Asian economies.




The Pursuit of the Millennium


Book Description

The end of the millennium has always held the world in fear of earthquakes, plague, and the catastrophic destruction of the world. At the dawn of the 21st millennium the world is still experiencing these anxieties, as seen by the onslaught of fantasies of renewal, doomsday predictions, and New Age prophecies. This fascinating book explores the millenarianism that flourished in western Europe between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries. Covering the full range of revolutionary and anarchic sects and movements in medieval Europe, Cohn demonstrates how prophecies of a final struggle between the hosts of Christ and Antichrist melded with the rootless poor's desire to improve their own material conditions, resulting in a flourishing of millenarian fantasies. The only overall study of medieval millenarian movements, The Pursuit of the Millennium offers an excellent interpretation of how, again and again, in situations of anxiety and unrest, traditional beliefs come to serve as vehicles for social aspirations and animosities.




A New World in a Small Place


Book Description

00 Distinguished historian Robert Brentano provides an entirely new perspective on the character of the church, religion, and society in the medieval Italian diocese of Rieti from 1188 to 1378. Combing through a cache of previously ignored documents stored in a tower of the cathedral, he uses wills, litigation proceedings, fiscal accounts, and other records to reconstruct the daily life of the diocese. Distinguished historian Robert Brentano provides an entirely new perspective on the character of the church, religion, and society in the medieval Italian diocese of Rieti from 1188 to 1378. Combing through a cache of previously ignored documents stored in a tower of the cathedral, he uses wills, litigation proceedings, fiscal accounts, and other records to reconstruct the daily life of the diocese.