bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Opening Address by the President: The Nature and History of Actuarial Work as exemplifying the Mode of Development and the Methods of Science
Authors: Young T. E.
Published: August 2016

In pursuing the traditional practice of introducing myself officially by an Inaugural Address, I desire unaffectedly to state that any conventionality, which this course may have acquired from custom, is merged and lost in a deep feeling of grateful recognition of your generous confidence and goodwill.
An Investigation of some of the Methods for deducing the Rates of Mortality, and of Withdrawal, in Years of Duration; with the Application of such Methods to the computation of the Rates experienced, and the Special Benefits granted, by Clerks' Associations (Continued)
Authors: Ackland Thomas G.
Published: August 2016

This subject may be conveniently considered under two headings; (1) as to the actual or assumed age at entry (2) as to the distribution of entrants and emergents over the year of duration current at entry and exit.
On some Legal Points arising in Life Assurance Practice
Authors: Barrand Arthur Rhys
Published: August 2016

The subject I have chosen for my paper may seem to call for some apology, on the ground that it is more suitable for discussion at a legal institute than by a body of Actuaries. There would doubtless be some force in such a criticism, and yet I venture to think that in many respects the subject is not an unsuitable one to be brought before this Institute. The time has gone by, if indeed it ever existed, when the ordinary legal incidents arising in connection with life assurance business were submitted to the company's solicitors for advice and direction. In a large life assurance institution it would be impossible, in practice, to submit every question as to title, in the case of claims and surrenders, to a solicitor, on account of the expense and delay thereby occasioned, if for no other reasons, and at least as great practical difficulties would arise if, in order to get over the difficulty of the expense of such a reference, it were sought to saddle the applicant with such legal expenses as might be incurred. Questions of title, unless they be of a peculiarly complicated nature, are therefore usually settled by an official of the company, and since amongst the officials the Actuary will, as a rule, stand almost alone as having, of necessity, some legal knowledge, the ultimate decision on such points will, in most cases, devolve upon him.
On the Mortality among Government Officials on the West Coast of Africa
Authors: Hart J. R.
Published: August 2016

A few statistics relating to this subject recently came into my hands, and although the results obtained from them cannot be considered to be of great weight, a short communication may be of interest. In the hope that useful information might be forthcoming, I made enquiry as to whether any record is kept of the dates of departure, death, or retirement of persons who go out in the employment of African merchants to the West Coast; and ascertained that it was unlikely that data could be supplied from that source. But I thought it worth while to make similar enquiry at the Colonial Office; and although the West African department could not officially furnish me with information, as they had none here of which they could vouch for the accuracy, I obtained, through the courtesy of one of the officials, the particulars given below. These were contained in a list of all the Europeans employed by the Governments of the four West African Colonies—the Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, and Lagos—during the ten years, 1 January 1881 to 31 December 1890, showing when their service began, and, if ended before 31 December 1890, when and why it ended.
On Lost Policies, Certified Copy Policies, Certificates of Title, Possession of a Policy, Notice, Bankruptcy, and some other practical Considerations with regard to the titles to Policies
Authors: Sprague T. B.
Published: August 2016

The subject of lost policies is one that is constantly coming before Life Insurance Companies in different ways, and it is one regarding which it seems very desirable that they should all act on the same principles. At present, however, I believe there is a good deal of diversity of practice; and I think it may therefore be useful if I submit to my professional brethren the conclusions to which I have been led by my business experience and careful consideration of the various points involved.
Mortality Experience of Assured Lives and Annuitants in France
Authors: Hardy G. F.
Published: August 2016

The publication of the tables of mortality based upon the experience, collected by the Committee representing the four principal insurance companies of France, puts us in possession of an extensive and valuable body of statistics bearing upon the mortality of assured lives and annuitants in that country, and at the same time places the Actuarial profession under a considerable obligation to the Committee of French Actuaries to whom we are indebted for the collection and publication of the data and the resulting monetary tables. As in this country, the life assurance companies on the Continent had for a long time, necessarily, to depend upon statistics of mortality based upon observations of the population generally, which, whatever the skill with which they were prepared, were not only affected by the uncertainty attaching to all such statistics, but were not in any case specially suited to represent the probable mortality, either of assured lives or annuitants. The earliest of these tables, to which any value could be attached, are those of Deparcieux and Duvillard, corresponding in point of date, approximately, to the Northampton and Carlisle Tables in England, and it was not until 1860 that the three companies, the Compagnie d'Assurances Generales, Union, and Nationale, published their annuity experience, nor until 1874 that the first of these companies published a table representing the mortality experience of their assurants.
A Comparison of Mortality and Sickness in Relation to Geographical and Socio-Economic Factors
Authors: Daw R. H.
Published: August 2016

‘Suppose a man becomes ill, gets worse and dies. His death is instantaneous but the cause of his death—deterioration of health—may have been progressing for some time. Death takes place because his health has deteriorated beyond a certain limit.’ So wrote C. D. Rich (1940) in introducing his ‘General theory of mortality’ which can also be regarded as a theory of sickness, although Rich does not develop this aspect of it. The point in the gradual deterioration of health at which death takes place is unmistakable but the point at which sickness begins is hazy and ill defined, as also is the point at which recovery from sickness takes place when health is improving. As Stocks (1949) says ‘The distinction between the living and the dead is clear cut, but no such frontier line between sickness and health can be said to exist except in the case of acute illness caused immediately and directly by an external agent. There is a zone between the two states in which the decision whether the subject is sick or not depends on definitions or standards of good health and also on who decides.’
Modern Developments in the Methods of Industrial Assurance Valuations
Authors: Kenchington Charles William
Published: August 2016

The Valuation of the policy liabilities of Industrial Life Assurance Companies presents a number of problems which do not arise in the valuation of the contracts of Ordinary Assurance Offices, and as the President indicated in his recent Presidential Address that they are of interest even to those Members of the Institute who are not directly connected with the business of Industrial Assurance, the present paper is submitted in the hope that it may provide the basis for the discussion of some of these special problems.
Notes on the treatment of extra risk
Authors: Elderton W. Palin
Published: August 2016

The arithmetical method adopted in these notes is to assume that the level premium to cover a certain under-average life is known; to work out some of the different rates of mortality that might lead to it and then see what consequences follow. The numerical work, in connection with which I have to thank Mr. Sidney J. Perry, F.I.A., for help, will be confined to an unloaded level premium on a 4 per-cent basis of ·01914 for a life entering at age 30. This premium might result from the rates of mortality set out in Table I.
Notes concerning some practical points that arise in the valuation of Widows' Funds
Authors: Simmonds R. C.
Published: August 2016

The points to be considered in these notes arose in connection with the first valuation of two new Widows' and Orphans' Funds both of which were investigated practically concurrently. In view of the recent establishment of the Funds, it was impossible to obtain any satisfactory experience as regards rates of marriage, mortality, &c., and therefore it was realized at the outset that the valuations would have to be made, at least mainly, upon the basis of data derived from other sources. At the same time, bearing in mind the fact that if the Collective Method of valuation were employed, it would be possible to obtain from the data representing the existing membership certain information that might be of service, it was resolved to approach the problem from that point of view rather than merely to fall back upon the use of extraneous tables. As the work progressed, a number of matters arose that appeared to be of general interest rather than of purely immediate importance, and these notes have been prepared in order to describe and to discuss the chief points that called for consideration.
Notes on the New National Life Tables (1921 Census)
Authors: Laing J. Murray
Published: August 2016

The Registrar-General's Decennial Supplement 1921—England and Wales—Part I, recently published, is of more than usual interest. It embodies the Report of the Government Actuary, Sir Alfred Watson, who was invited to undertake the task of preparing National Life Tables in connection with the Census of 1921.

In addition to the preparation of English Life Tables No. 9 for Males and Females separately, the only other tables prepared with similar completeness were those relating to Greater London, being the area comprised within the radius of about fifteen miles measured from Charing Cross. On the other hand, the mortality experience of no fewer than twenty-six sections of the country, differentiated by geographical position and density of population, was examined in considerable detail—a feature which, together with others referred to later, distinguishes this investigation from its predecessors.
Japanese Experience Life Tables 1912–27. Supplements.
Authors: C. W. K.
Published: August 2016

Two volumes relating to the Japanese Experience Life Tables 1912-27 have already been reviewed in the Journal*. These volumes contained (i) the data and graduated Mortality Tables, and (ii) the monetary tablesbased thereon.
An Investigation into the Mortality of Diabetics
Authors: Hayward R. E. , Lucena B. C.
Published: August 2016

Previous investigation

A previous investigation into the mortality of diabetics was made by A. J. Steeds following the analysis of data based upon a large London clinic. The present paper is based on data derived more recently from the experience of the patients attending a large Birmingham clinic.

Diabetes mellitus

2. Diabetes mellitus is a very ancient disease which may be described as a disturbance of the normal insulin mechanism of the body. The pancreas is a gland which secretes insulin for the purpose of converting sugar and starches into the energy forms required by the body (the metabolism of carbohydrates) and disturbance in this metabolism is accompanied by an abnormality in the breakdown of fats. Apart from physical damage to the pancreas the causes of diabetes are various and obscure (although they are thought to include heredity, overweight and, in females, a high level of childbearing). It is generally accepted that diabetes in young lives is a more severe form associated with insulin deficiency, whereas in older lives the disease is of a milder type, but there are many exceptions to this broad division.
The Evaluation of Ordinary Shares Using a Computer
Authors: Weaver D. , Hall M. G.
Published: August 2016

In many respects, this paper may be regarded as a logical sequel to an earlier one presented to the Institute nearly seven years ago. In that paper the assessment of industrial ordinary shares was discussed in considerable detail and methods were suggested which could be used both to make projections of future dividends and earnings for different companies and to utilize these estimates in making investment decisions. Much of the discussion on the earlier paper centred on the latter problem and the present paper is concerned entirely with this aspect of share assessment. The making of future projections will not be considered again; suffice it to say that our methods have remained largely unchanged. The principle on which the technique that we have now developed rests is closely linked with the previous concept of a ‘capitalization rate’ but in passing we would mention that we have made a brief experiment with what we term ‘growth yields’, i.e. the compound interest return to be expected from a particular share at a given price on the basis of the forecast future dividends. Our results utilizing this method were in fact significantly better than those obtained using the more familiar concept of relative yields (see §8) but, as the figures presented later in this paper show, they were not as good as those obtained using the method which forms the basis of this paper.
Some Probability Results for Mortality Rates based on Insurance Data
Authors: Walsh John E.
Published: August 2016

It is not usual in mortality investigations of insurance data to associate exactly one unit with each life. It is easier to use policies or sums assured or some variation of policies and sums assured. But a proper statistical test of graduated rates of mortality derived from such an investigation cannot be made unless the effect of the variable number of units associated with each life is known. Beard and Perks (1949, J.I.A. lxxv, 75) gave, for four different sampling processes, formulae for the variance of the distribution of deaths for a mortality study based on policies, and Daw (1951, J.I.A. lxxvii, 261) illustrated the formulae by numerical examples on various hypotheses. In particular, he showed that the sampling process employed had little effect on the numerical results, but that the frequency distribution of the number of policies held was very important. The formulae derived by Beard and Perks assumed that the frequency distribution of the universe of number of policies held was known.
Some Statistical Aspects of Mortality from Degenerative Heart Disease
Authors: Daw R. H.
Published: August 2016

Medical and social progress over the past 50 years has resulted in a large increase in the expectation of life, and this, together with a declining birthrate, has caused an increase in the proportion of old persons in the population. In 1901 less than 5% of the population of England and Wales was aged 65 and over; by 1949 the estimated percentage had increased to 11% and must inevitably increase still further in the future. A result of this is that more and more attention is being given to diseases of old age and in fact a new specialized branch of medicine, geriatrics, seems to have arisen. Heart diseases form by far the largest group of causes of death in old age and in 1949 were the certified cause of death in 37% of the deaths in England and Wales at ages 65 and over (Table 1). Even in the age-group 55-59 heart disease was responsible for 24% of all deaths in 1949.
A Basic Curve of Deaths
Authors: Phillips William
Published: August 2016

The two-fold purpose of this paper is:

(i) To hypothesize the existence of a Basic Curve of Deaths, a curve to which it is suggested all curves of deaths are, as it were, striving to attain—the ‘idea’ of a curve of deaths, almost in a Platonic sense, a curve applicable not only to humanity, but equally to all forms of life.

(ii) To seek a representation of that curve by a function containing as few parameters as possible, on the principle that while there are other functions which fit the observations more exactly, we here prefer a simple function which fits them well enough.
Movement and activity patterns of the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, in an oceanic Marine Protected Area of the South-western Atlantic
Authors: Garla Ricardo Clapis , Gadig Otto Bismarck Fazzano , Garrone-Neto Domingos
Published: August 2016

The movement and activity patterns of the nurse shark, Ginglymostoma cirratum, a vulnerable species off Brazil, were investigated using mark-recapture and acoustic telemetry at an oceanic insular Marine Protected Area, the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, Brazil. A total of 93 sharks were captured and tagged, ranging from 82 to 265 cm of total length (TL). Nurse sharks were captured throughout the year, and all life-stages used the insular shelf. Fifteen sharks (16% of the total) were recaptured after periods at liberty ranging from 3.5 h to 705 days, and the distances between tag and recapture locations ranged from 0.07 to 3.5 km. Site fidelity and movements of 10 sharks ranging from 107 to 265 cm TL were investigated for 18 months with an array of automated telemetry receivers. The mean period of detection of the monitored sharks was 66 days, ranging from 13 to 119 days. One individual 158 cm TL was monitored with active tracking for 17 days, with distances between daily locations ranging from 0.84 to 3.32 km, exhibiting movements similar to those of sharks monitored by automated telemetry. Despite remaining motionless or exhibiting short range movements for several hours or days, nurse sharks can be relatively wide-ranging, and protected areas alone cannot be the only conservation measure used to protect this species, which requires a set of protective measures, including fisheries management.
Algazel on the Soul: A Critical Edition
Authors: Clair Eva St.
Published: August 2016

Modern scholars of medieval philosophy have had access to the work of Abū Ḥâmid Muhammad al-Ghāzalī (1058–1111) since 1933, when Joseph T. Muckle published an edition of the great Muslim theologian'sMaqāsid al-falāsifa(“The Opinions of the Philosophers”). In this work, al-Ghāzalī (known to the West as Algazel) summarized ideas proposed by Avicenna (940–1036) in hisDanesh Nameh.Algazel'sMaqāsid al-falāsifawas composed of three parts, theMetaphysics, Physics, andLogic; medieval authors read and referred to Algazel's work accordingly, as three separate works.
Chaucer, the “corones tweyne,” and the Eve of Saint Agnes
Authors: Morey James H.
Published: August 2016

John Keats was one of the last English poets to lyricize a venerable tradition when, in his “The Eve of Saint Agnes,” the narrator describes

… one Lady there,

Whose heart had brooded, all that wintry day,

On love, and winged St. Agnes' saintly care,

As she had heard old dames full many times declare.

They told her how, upon St. Agnes' Eve,

Young virgins might have visions of delight,

And soft adorings from their loves receive

Upon the honey'd middle of the night,

If ceremonies due they did aright.

(42–50)
The Middle EnglishLife of Saint Dorothyin Trinity College, Dublin MS 319: Origins, Parallels, and Its Relationship to Osbern Bokenham'sLegendys of Hooly Wummen
Authors: Tracy Larissa
Published: August 2016

During the Middle Ages, collections of hagiography were among the most widely circulated texts, serving as both inspirational and instructional stories. The legends of virgin martyrs were some of the most popular. These young women were venerated for their ability to withstand torture in defiance of tyranny and served as models for medieval piety. One of these accounts, the legend of Saint Dorothy, is extant in at least three different Middle English versions, including select manuscripts of the 1438Gilte Legendeand Osbern Bokenham's 1447Legendys of Hooly Wummen.The earlier history of the legend of Saint Dorothy, unknown in Greek tradition and venerated in the West since the seventh century, has been well described by Kirsten Wolf in her edition of the Icelandic redaction. Despite its relationship to many of the other fictitious hagiographical legends that came into existence in the fourth and fifth centuries based on the various calendars and martyrologies, and its development as a virgin martyr legend, Jacobus de Voragine (ca. 1230–1298) did not include the legend of Saint Dorothy in hisLegenda aurea, compiled between 1252 and 1260.
Los sentidos internos en la prosa medieval castellana (a propósito de Alfonso el Sabio y Juan de Mena)
Authors: Tubau Xavier
Published: August 2016

El sistema de facultades internas elaborado por la medicina y la filosofía medievales proporcionó una explicación de los más variados procesos fisiológicos y psicológicos del hombre que resultaba especialmente atractiva para poetas y escritores, pues ofrecía una serie de conceptos y descripciones que permitían enriquecer considerablemente el tratamiento de asuntos tan fundamentales como, por ejemplo, las sucesivas etapas del amor. La presencia de este bagaje conceptual propio de la filosofía natural no se redujo, de todos modos, a la literatura. Textos religiosos, políticos, didácticos o de crítica o teoría sobre las artes incorporaban, con diferentes objetivos, referencias puntuales o exposiciones pormenorizadas de estas facultades psicológicas.
Liturgical Renewal in Two Eleventh-Century Royal Spanish Prayerbooks
Authors: Pick Lucy K.
Published: August 2016

In recent decades, transformations in medieval Christian liturgical practices have been explored for what they can tell scholars about cultural change. Shifts in ritual can indicate changing values and beliefs as well as mark the power of external influences. One relatively momentous shift in liturgical practice was the decision of Alfonso VI, king of Castilla-León at Burgos in 1076, after years of pressure from Pope Gregory VII, to begin the transition from the use of the Old Spanish liturgy (also called the Mozarabic, Visigothic, or Hispanic rite) within his domain in favor of the Roman liturgy used in the rest of Latin Christendom. This innovation is viewed as but one manifestation of a much broader “Europeanization” of medieval Spain that took place in the eleventh century, a movement that began in other Iberian Christian kingdoms, but reached its culmination in the reign of Alfonso VI, with his French brides, Cluniac monks, and receptivity to papal influence.
Jesus and the Birds in Medieval Abrahamic Traditions
Authors: Dzon Mary
Published: August 2016

As is well known, the three “Peoples of the Book” have in common versions of the tale of Abraham: the “Father of Faith,” who, in return for his willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac, was promised descendants as numerous as the stars (Exod. 32:13; cf. Qur'an 2:131–33).1It is less well known that, in the Middle Ages, the three religions shared versions of a legend about Jesus dating from late antiquity: the tale that Jesus once brought clay birds to life.2Thelocus classicusfor this legend, which is not found in the New Testament, is theInfancy Gospel of Thomas(hereafter IGT), an apocryphal text that focuses on the childhood of Christ, particularly his amazing deeds and words. This text is believed to have been composed in Greek in the second century, though it circulated in many languages and was variously appropriated in the late-antique and medieval periods.3An examination of the motif of Jesus bringing clay birds to life reveals the complex transmission history of the IGT and its derivatives, in both East and West, over the course of many centuries.4More broadly, this story about the legendary Christ Child (an adult in the Jewish version, actually) and his command over the animal kingdom specifically shows the different faiths' understanding of the source and extent of Jesus's power and suggests a reaction to one or both of the other groups. The appropriation of the legend in each case tells us something about each faith's convictions about the way God's power could work in Jesus, and something about how each group viewed Jesus's childhood.
Boethius'sConsolation of Philosophyand the Greco-Roman Consolatory Tradition
Authors: Donato Antonio
Published: August 2016

The scholarship on the literary genre of Boethius'sConsolation of Philosophy(henceforthConsolatio) proposes a surprising interpretation: theConsolatiois not a consolation in spite of its title and overt goal. Typically, scholars of the consolatory genre simply note that theConsolatioshould not be considered together with ancient and medieval consolations. Scholars of theConsolatio, however, offer specific reasons as to why Boethius's text is not a consolation. One is stylistic: some interpreters (Curley, Dronke, Marenbon, Pabst, Payne, Relihan) argue that the prosimetric style in which theConsolatiois written is typical of a “Menippean satire” and does not befit a consolation. The content of theConsolatiois also considered to be at odds with the consolatory genre: Boethius's text is interpreted as promising a consolation that either is not delivered (Payne, Relihan) or is only partially achieved (Marenbon). Finally, some scholars (O'Daly, Gruber, Rand, Reiss, Shanzer) hold that because theConsolatiopresents features that are typical of several literary genres (i.e., Menippean satire, philosophical dialogue, exhortation to philosophy, etc.) it is impossible to classify Boethius's last work as belonging exclusively to one genre or another — the text should, thus, be regarded as an “eclectic” work.
Achard of St. Victor (d. 1171) and the Eclipse of the Arithmetic Model of the Trinity
Authors: Albertson David
Published: August 2016

In the first book ofDe doctrina Christiana, Augustine of Hippo famously teaches that only the Trinity is to be enjoyed; all other things and even people are to be used toward this singular end. The brevity of Augustine's passing remarks on the Trinity gives no hint that he will later devote many pages to the topic. He writes:

These three have the same eternal nature, the same unchangeableness, the same majesty, the same power. In the Father there is unity, in the Son equality, and in the Holy Spirit a harmony of unity and equality. And the three are all one because of the Father, all equal because of the Son, and all in harmony because of the Holy Spirit.
The Irish Eschatological TaleThe Two Deathsand Its Sources
Authors: Ritari Katja
Published: August 2016

It is right to know, indeed, that everyone should prepare for the certain meeting and the uncertain meeting which is before him — namely, the meeting with death. For its coming is certain; it is uncertain, however, at what hour or what time one will go. Everyone should prepare for the two companies which come to meet every soul, namely, the company of God with beauty and magnificence and brightness, and the company of the devil with its darkness and with its baseness and its evil counsel. (The Two Deaths, 1)
Algazel Latinus: The Audience of the Summa theoricae philosophiae, 1150–1600
Authors: Minnema Anthony H.
Published: August 2016

The Latin translation of al-Ghazali's Maqās˙id al-falāsifa was one of the works through which scholastic authors became familiar with the Arabic tradition of Aristotelian philosophy after its translation in the middle of the twelfth century. However, while historians have examined in great detail the impact of Avicenna and Averroes on the Latin intellectual tradition, the place of this translation of al-Ghazali, known commonly as the Summa theoricae philosophiae, remains unclear. This study enumerates and describes the Latin audience of al-Ghazali by building on Manuel Alonso's research with a new bibliography of the known readers of the Summa theoricae philosophiae. It also treats Latin scholars' perception of the figure of al-Ghazali, or Algazel in Latin, since their understanding in no way resembles the Ash'arite jurist, Sufi mystic, and circumspect philosopher known in the Muslim world. Latin scholars most commonly viewed him only as an uncritical follower of Avicenna and Aristotle, but they also described him in other ways during the Middle Ages. In addition to tracing the rise, decline, and recovery of Algazel and the Summa theoricae philosophiae in Latin Christendom over a period of four centuries, this study examines the development of Algazel's identity as he shifts from a useful Arab to a dangerous heretic in the minds of Latin scholars.
A Monastic Death Ritual from the Imperial Abbey of Farfa
Authors: Boynton Susan
Published: August 2016

Lengthy and complex rituals surrounding illness and death were an important part of the collective experience of medieval monastic communities. In manuscripts from as early as the eighth century, the texts for Christian death rituals consist of prayers, readings, and chants for the visitation of the sick, unction, communion, the funeral mass, and burial. Even though many of the early medieval formularies were copied in monastic scriptoria, the texts could be performed in secular or monastic settings. The earliest death rituals that are explicitly written for monastic communities and contain extensive prescriptions for the actions that accompanied a monk from his final hours of life to his grave are transmitted in monastic customaries of the eleventh century.
Absolutions and Acts of Disobedience: Excommunication and Society in Fourteenth-Century Armagh
Authors: Gundacker Jay
Published: August 2016

In the Bull of Promulgation of his 1234 Compilation of Decretals (commonly known as theLiber extra), Pope Gregory IX declared the goal of written law to be that “the human race is instructed that it should live honorably, should not injure another, and should accord to each person his own rights.” Yet despite the proliferation of canon laws and ecclesiastical legal procedures, Archbishop Milo Sweteman, metropolitan of the Irish province of Armagh from 1361 to 1380, could still complain about the futility of the church's ultimate legal measure, excommunication, against the many crimes of local malefactors. In 1366, he wrote to one of his officials:

Very many times I have proceeded legally against Malachy O'Hanlon king of Oirthir as a destroyer of the clergy and people of the church, by excommunicating him and his henchmen in the proper form as despoilers, plunderers, and usurpers of church goods; and by placing an ecclesiastical interdict on the land to which they had fled in diverse moments. Nevertheless, because Malachy and some of his accomplices endured repeated correction, promised to make restitution, and even offered sworn oaths, in this way they obtained absolution and relaxations of the sentences of excommunication and interdict. And then they committed worse acts against the people and clergy of the church at Armagh than ever before.
Gratian and the School of Laon
Authors: Wei John
Published: August 2016

Gratian, the “Father of the Science of Canon Law,” had at least a passing familiarity with the scholastic theology of the early twelfth century. His Concordia discordantium canonum or Decretum displays a knowledge of many doctrines debated and discussed in the schools of northern France and also employs the dialectical method for reconciling contradictory authorities pioneered by the scholastics. How did Gratian become acquainted with these methods, doctrines, and ideas? What written sources, if any, introduced him to early scholastic theology?
The Internal Forum and the Literature of Penance and Confession
Authors: Goering Joseph
Published: August 2016

When Dante ascended to the Sphere of the Sun, he was directed by St. Thomas Aquinas to consider a circle of shining lights. One of the lights, St. Thomas tells him, is Gratian, “who served the one and the other court so well that it gives pleasure in Paradise” (che l'uno e l'altro foro/aiutò sì che piace in paradiso[Paradiso10:104–5]). The allusion to two “courts” (fora) would have puzzled Gratian, but to both Thomas and Dante it would have had a clear reference to the two broad arenas in which the Church's canon law was operative: the external forum of ecclesiastical courts (sometimes known as the “contentious forum”) andthe internal forum of conscience andof penance. This new way of describing the Church's legal competence had been invented in the decades immediately following the publication of Gratian's magisterial textbook (ca. 1140), and it would have important consequences for the history of medieval canon law in the years to come.
Nicolaus Cusanus and Ramon Lull: A Comparison of Three Texts on Human Knowledge
Authors: Lohr Charles H.
Published: August 2016

Although the rich collection of Lull's works in the library of Nicholas of Kues testifies eloquently to the debt the German cardinal owed to the Catalan polymath, Ramon Lull, the extent of the cardinal's indebtedness was not properly appreciated until the study of Eusebio Colomer in Nikolaus von Kues und Raimund Llull (Berlin, 1961). The depth of Cusanus's engagement with Lull manifests itself especially in the excerpts from Lull's works made by him (now preserved in MS Cus. 83, fol. 93r–102r of the cardinal's library, and edited by Colomer, Nikolaus von Kues, 125–86). These excerpts have recently been reedited by Ulrich Roth and the original texts of most of the works of Lull that were excerpted by Cusanus published in the series, Raimundi Lulli opera latina (28 vols., Palma de Mallorca-Turnhout, 1957–2003).
The Politics of Consuming Worldly Goods: Negotiating Christian Discipline and Feudal Power inPiers Plowman
Authors: Kim Margaret
Published: August 2016

In passus 15 of the C-text ofPiers Plowman, Will meets a doctor of divinity at a feast and is outraged by his simultaneous learning and consumption. The doctor mouths a doctrinally “unobjectionable” definition of Dowel, but Will accuses him of being uncharitable to the poor anyway (15.113–16, 76a). What conspicuously gives away the emptiness of his religious discourse, to Will and to us modern readers as well, is the enormous appetite of this man for the “manye sondry metes, mortrewes and poddynges, / Brawen and bloed of gees, bacon and colhoppes” (15.66–67).
A Lost Mozarabic Liturgical Manuscript Rediscovered: New York, Hispanic Society of America, B2916, Olim Toledo, Biblioteca Capitular, 33.2
Authors: Boynton Susan
Published: August 2016

The manuscript sources of the Mozarabic or Old Hispanic liturgy have been thoroughly described and analyzed, with the exception of an early-eleventh-century book of saints' offices that has been considered missing since the late nineteenth century from the Cathedral Archive of Toledo. In October 2001, I identified this lost book as manuscript B2916 in the library of the Hispanic Society of America in New York, where it has been since its acquisition by the Society's founder, Archer Huntington. HSA MS B2916 is the only codex of the Old Hispanic liturgy preserved outside Europe. This manuscript is a curious book, comprising the offices for the feasts of Saint Martin (November 11), Saint Emilianus or Millán (November 12), and the Assumption of the Virgin (August 15). The matins lessons of the first two offices consist of the entirety of, respectively, theVitaeof Martin by Sulpicius Severus and of San Millán by Braulio of Saragossa. Because the manuscript was in a private collection and has remained uncatalogued, it has gone unnoticed for the last century, a period that saw the maturation of modern study of the Mozarabic rite. The contents of the book were not unknown during this time, however, because some specialists have consulted the copy (today in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid) made in 1752 by the polymath Jesuit Andrés Marcos Burriel. Indeed, it was Clyde Brockett's remarkably accurate handmade copy of the Burriel copy that made the identification of the manuscript possible, even at two removes. While the Burriel copy is useful, many important aspects of the original manuscript deserve notice.
Bonaventure's Theory of Resemblance
Authors: Reynolds Philip L.
Published: August 2016

In what ways can two different things be alike? One way, which is perhaps the easiest to explain, involves the sharing of a common nature, or tertium quid, such that two different things are the same in a certain respect. For example, Socrates and Plato are alike in being human, cats and dogs are alike in being animals, and swans and snow are alike in being white. Scholastic theologians believed that no creature could be like God in this way, whether in this life or in the next. In a strict sense, in their view, God and creatures have nothing in common, for God has no accidental qualities to share and does not belong to any genus.
Latin Manuscript Books before 1600 Part II: A Tentative List of Unpublished Inventories of Imperfectly Catalogued Extant Collections
Authors: Kristeller Paul Oskar
Published: August 2016

The following list is a logical sequel to the bibliography of printed catalogues published some years ago (Traditio VI [1948] 227-317), and it serves the same purpose, namely to facilitate the study of Latin manuscript books, which is important to classical and patristic scholars as well as to historians of the Middle Ages and of the Renaissance. A continuing exploration of the extant collections still leads to the discovery of unpublished writings, brings to light copies of known texts that are of special interest, or at least gives statistical evidence for the diffusion of certain well known works at the time when the manuscript book was the predecessor or rival of the printed book. Information on the general importance and content of the various manuscript collections proved essential both for the project of ‘Medieval and Renaissance Latin Translations and Commentaries,’ which has been undertaken by a group of scholars under the auspices of several learned societies, and for a summary list of philosophical and literary manuscripts of the Renaissance which I am preparing for the Warburg Institute in London. The present list is an outgrowth of these two undertakings, and it was first compiled in a less elaborate fashion for the former project and issued in mimeographed form under its auspices in 1951.
Internal Migration in Early Aragon: The Settlers from Ena and Baón
Authors: Nelson Lynn H.
Published: August 2016

The Spanish reconquest was a complex process, consisting of at least two aspects, the military seizure of Muslim territory and the occupation of that land. Although many historians prefer to regard only the military actions as constituting the Reconquista proper, it is possible that the process of resettlement exerted the greater long-term effect on Spanish society. From this point of view the reconquest can be seen as a centuries-long process of internal migration, in which the Christians continually pressed into the depopulated zones that the Muslims vainly attempted to maintain along their frontiers. Military successes or reversals could temporarily accelerate or arrest the process, but the constant tendency of at least some elements of Christian society to seek their fortune along the frontier was a force which the Muslims were unable in the long run to resist.
Between Mount Moriah and the Holy Sepulchre: The Changing Traditions of the Temple Mount in the Central Middle Ages
Authors: Schein Sylvia
Published: August 2016

One of the most surprising but least known results of the Crusaders' conquest of Jerusalem in 1099 was a sudden change of the place assigned to the Temple Mount in the ‘holy geography’ of Jerusalem. The Mount became almost overnight, because of the number of holy traditions concentrated there, one of the most important centres of sanctity in Jerusalem, and therefore one of the most conspicuous holy places on the path of the pilgrims in the Crusader capital.
The Military Orders and the Spanish Reconquest in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries
Authors: Forey A. J.
Published: August 2016

In recent years renewed interest has been shown in the history of the military orders in the Iberian peninsula, and a considerable number of studies have been published both in Spain and elsewhere. Yet most of the works that are concerned with the medieval period treat of a single order, and little attempt has been made to provide general surveys. Obviously much detailed research still needs to be undertaken before definitive conclusions can be formulated, and the nature of the evidence makes the discussion of some topics more difficult than that of others. The surviving sources supply more direct information about rights and privileges than about the orders' role in the struggle against Islam. But, as the function of the military orders was to fight against the infidel, their contribution to the reconquista is a subject that merits investigation, despite the limitations of the evidence.
The Meaning of ‘carruca’ in the ‘Leges Barbarorum’
Authors: Rivers Theodore John
Published: August 2016

The term carruca (or carruga), like many other terms in medieval Latin, acquired a new and different meaning in the Middle Ages in place of its original classical meaning. There is no confusion over the meaning of carruca in Roman historical and literary sources: it clearly means a four-wheeled wagon or carriage. However, its original meaning was modified during the medieval period so that by the early ninth century carruca denoted a wheeled plow. Although the medieval plow is often called a carruca (whereas the Roman plow is called an aratrum), one should not infer that all references to carruca in medieval sources signify a plow, particularly if these sources are datable to that transitional period during which the classical meaning of the word was beginning to be transformed into its medieval one. Characteristic of the sources which fall within this period are the Germanic tribal laws (leges barbarorum), and of these, three individual laws in particular are of interest: the Pactus legis Salicae 38.1, Lex Ribuaria 47.2, and Lex Alamannorum 93.2.
Zu einem unbeachteten Maximuszitat in Periphyseon des Johannes Scottus Eriugena
Authors: Heinzer Felix
Published: August 2016

Die Bedeutung der Schriften Maximus des Bekenners für das Denken von Johannes Scottus Eriugena ist mehrfach und aus verschiedener Blickrichtung hervorgehoben worden. Zunächst und vor allem als übersetzer von Maximus, der für den Ihren hauptsächlich als Kommentator der areopagitischen Schriften ins Blickfeld rückte, dann aber auch durch das Viele, was aus dem Gedankengut des griechischen Kirchenvaters in sein eigenes œuvre einfloß, wurde Johannes Scottus zu einem Vermittler der Geistigkeit und des Denkens von Maximus an das lateinische Mittelalter.

Die nachstehenden Ausführungen beschränken sich auf ein Detail im Verhältnis Maximus–Johannes Scottus: ein Zitat aus den Quaestiones ad Thalassium im zweiten Buch von Periphyseon.
Astrology and Pagan Gods in Carolingian ‘Vitae’ of St. Lambert
Authors: Babcock Robert G.
Published: August 2016

A passing reference to pagan gods in the preface to the MerovingianVita Landibertiinspired a number of poetic elaborations in the reworkings of theLifeof St. Lambert during the late Carolingian period. These include the opening chapters of theCarmen de Sancto Landberto, which deal exclusively with pagan myths; theVersus in Laude Beati Landberti; and passages in theVita Landbertiof Stephen, Bishop of Liege (901–920). This paper is concerned primarily with the first two of these reworkings, which contain the more elaborate treatments of pagan mythology. The inspiration for the inclusion of these passages, as well as the sources for their information about the pagan gods, form a curious chapter in the survival and transformation of the pagan gods in medieval Latin literature.
The Sources and Theology of Alcuin's ‘De fide sanctae et individuae Trinitatis’
Authors: Cavadini John
Published: August 2016

While it is true for most literature, theological and otherwise, that an informed awareness regarding antecedents provides valuable perspective toward its interpretation, this is especially true for the theology of the Carolingian period. The Carolingians often used their source material in verbatim citations which remained unacknowledged. One has the impression of a kind of homemade theology, constructed out of bits and pieces of materials that were chosen partly because they were convenient or familiar. The result at its best had an appeal not unlike the patchwork quilt which has a unity and charism all its own even though it is cut predominantly from pieces which were not themselves the work of those designing the quilt. In order to appreciate the final effect achieved by such literature, it is crucial then to be able to identify not only the authors upon whom the writer is relying, but the precise patches of material which have been cut from each, so that we may observe the final effect as the result of a complex of decisions to select, combine, juxtapose, add to, adjust, comment upon, and otherwise utilize a large body of literary fragments.
Dante, Ovid, and the Transformation of Metamorphosis
Authors: Ginsberg Warren
Published: August 2016

In the seventh bolgia of the Inferno, Dante encounters the thieves, who are punished by undergoing an horrific series of Ovid-like metamorphoses in which men are changed into snakes or unidentifiable amalgams of matter. Since theft violates particular justice, which is a dynamic process that coordinates relations, I will argue that Dante properly makes metamorphosis and the lack of relation it creates between the forms that are changed the fitting punishment for thieves. Ovidian metamorphosis, however, can only image the mutations they experience because Dante's sinners have undergone a transformation even before they are changed into snakes. For particular justice, as Aristotle says, is only part of a more general kind of justice which is complete excellence. In the Inferno, this global justice is the final cause of Hell (‘Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore,’ Inf. 3, 4), and the principle of retribution that establishes the balance between the punishment and crime of those in it. This general justice, I shall argue, also effects a metamorphosis in the damned prior to their particular punishments, a metamorphosis of unbecoming which makes each of them a perverse parody of what God had originally made them. Every sinner in Hell is undergoing a deformation, a disordering movement away from form which unbalances the vital relationship between body and soul that had made him or her human. More precisely, even though we learn from Statius in the Purgatorio that the damned retain the rational soul, it no longer functions as the form of the body, for it has ceased to be that determining element which allows us to understand the one it is in is a member of the species man. Indeed, as the particular transformations of Agnello and Buoso will make clear, the substantial form of all the damned has become less the intellectual soul than the shape of their matter, from which the intellect can no longer abstract any intelligible form. And as their increasing corporeality suggests, the sinners throughout Hell are being transformed into creatures of ever greater density, who lack inner depth, creatures devoid of an animating essence whose powers persist despite outer change.
The Missing Link: An Edition of the Middle English ‘Ypotis’ from York Minster MS XVI.L.12
Authors: Gardiner-Scott Tanya
Published: August 2016

The Middle English Ypotis, a ‘wise child’ dialogue poem deriving from the third century A.D. Latin Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Epicteti philosophi via the French L'Enfant sage versions, exists in fifteen texts. Fourteen of these are edited in scattered collections published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the fifteenth, from the York Minster MS XVI.L.12 fols. 58r–69v (Yk), is the only one hitherto unavailable. Surprisingly enough, it has never been the subject of a full critical edition.