Daily Medieval

The pull of a religious and contemplative life drew many men and women to it from many spheres. Maximus (c.580 - 662), for instance, was a c...

John Scotus Eriugena (c.815 - c.877) was a philosopher, theologian, poet, and master of the palace school of Aachen under the Carolingians....

Alcuin of York is celebrated as a learned man and the head of the palace school of Aachen under Charlemagne, but one of his successors at Aa...

When Charles the Bald visited the abbey of New Corvey in 843, he said he would like to have the Eucharist explained to him. In response, th...

About 831CE, a Carolingian monk at the monastery of New Corvey in Westphalia wrote De Corpore et Sanguine Domini , "On the Body and Blo...

After Berengar of Tours avoided what he assumed was a council to condemn him further (he had already been excommunicated for his denial of ...

A controversial figure who was widely respected by some and strongly denounced by others, Berengar was born in the early 11th century, proba...

I'm going to start with a quotation from a website about transubstantiation and Paul to the Corinthians: Evidently Paul believed that th...

Peter of Bruys is known to us because of the writings of two of his enemies. He was born in southeastern France and became a Roman Catholic ...

After being slapped down at the Council of Pisa in 1135, Henry of Lausanne refused an invitation to join St. Bernard at Clairvaux, opting ...

When Bishop Hildebert returned to Le Mans after his visit to Rome (to ask the pope to let him resign from his position), he faced a situati...

He didn't want the titles he got, he didn't write the things people said he wrote, he wasn't the saint that some said he was, he...

In the past few days we've been looking at some early history of Poland. Although there are other chronicles, the person recognized as P...

I wanted to offer more detail—some of it quite grisly—on yesterday's mention of the blinding of Zbigniew of Poland by his younger broth...

Zbigniew of Poland was the first-born son of Władysław I Herman, Duke of Poland, but because he was born out of wedlock he was not considere...

Władysław I Herman (c.1044 - June 1102) had a problem known to many nobles: he needed an heir who could succeed him as Duke of Poland. He ha...

Yesterday's post on the Zbruch Idol mentioned that one interpretation of it is that it represents Triglav, the three-headed god of the ...

A drought in August 1848 in a village in the Austrian Empire (now part of Ukraine) exposed the bottom of the Zbruch River. The villagers spo...

In the early days of Christianity, legend has it that the Apostles dispersed across the known world to spread the words of Jesus. (We mentio...

After King Ferdinand I of Aragon annexed Sicily and dismissed Blanche as its regent, she returned to Navarre, where Ferdinand arranged her ...

After the death of her sister Joan in 1413, Blanche (6 July 1387 - 1 April 1441), the second surviving daughter of King Carlos II and Eleano...

After the embarrassment of returning to Navarre from Castile with her daughters to find the palace filled with her husband's concubines...

Lanzarot* was an illegitimate son of King Carlos III of Navarre, whose wife Eleanor of Castile only bore him daughters.  He was born 15 Apr...

I mentioned yesterday how King Carlos III of Navarre brought in midwives from Toledo to help his wife. The reality is, of course, that want...

Although discussions of midwifery recently emphasized how they were considered lower in status than licensed medical professionals, they we...

As mentioned yesterday , midwifery was one of the few professions that was not considered worthy of a guild early on. That may be partially ...