This unit provides an introduction to the use of medieval manuscript evidence, drawing upon opportunities for manuscript study provided by the collections of manuscripts at the Cambridge colleges, the University Library and elsewhere.

Modern editions are an incomplete and sometimes misleading lens through which to examine the texts that were composed, copied, handled, read and heard during the Middle Ages. First-hand analysis of medieval manuscripts brings us closer to the ways in which their contents were encountered and absorbed by medieval audiences, and contributes to our understanding of both the significance of those texts to those by whom and for whom they were produced as well as the practical means by which literature, knowledge and ideas were transmitted.

The unit will provide instruction in the analysis of the physical structure of manuscripts, the identification of their contents and the forms of evidence for their place of origin and history of ownership and use, and the scholarly conventions of manuscript description. The manuscripts studied will range in date from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries but there will be a particular focus upon those containing texts that record or were used to mark the passage of time: from chronicles and historical narratives to saints’ lives, sermon collections and liturgical calendars.

What pastoral care meant in theory and in practice in the high middle ages has been the subject of extensive research and debate. Historians have been repeatedly drawn to an area which starts in the High Politics of the Medieval Church but ends in the ordinary streets and houses. The reform movement often called the Gregorian Reform, in its late twelfth and thirteenth century forms, helped to shape and to express ideas in medieval thought and belief in the Middle Ages for both the clergy and the laity. This module looks at the ways in which this was made manifest in the realm of ideas (legislation and theology), and in the lived experience of men and women, to whom the theory meant very little. The area is thus a case study in how ideas and concepts were transmuted into social and cultural practice. The first half of the module focuses on the theory and legislation of the movement (particularly the Paris Schools and the legislation it produced at international, national and regional level). The second half of the module considers the practical results and compromises, using the test case of England, which has rich records for the study of lived religion in particular localities. Each session will consider a particular issue and its influence, via a set of relevant records, asking how the lives of ordinary men and women were (or were not) affected. There will be an opportunity to consider the standard forms and constructions (the diplomatic) of the documents and how a knowledge of these allows us to a better understanding of what is happening in the records. Several sessions will also make use of original medieval manuscripts held in the Parker Library, Corpus Christi College.

The primary aim of this module is to encourage students to think about the issues involved in using legal records to explore medieval social practices, structures, beliefs and norms. It also engages with the concept of ‘legal culture’ as used by medievalists, by exploring expectations of the law held by those who used and shaped it. A particular focus involves tracing the development and character of ‘legal culture’ among non-elites. The category ‘legal records’ is defined fairly broadly but the classes focus primarily on law codes, legislation, records of trials, and litigation. In the module we will consider some well-known attempts by previous social and cultural historians to ‘read’ this kind of material, and also debate the techniques and challenges involved via encounters with the primary sources themselves. The classes do not aim to give a comprehensive introduction to medieval law and legal records, and the consideration of legal technicalities is relevant only in so far as it helps elucidate the bigger themes of the module. Nor can the classes consider every area of society subject to legal control in the medieval period. Instead the focus is on problematizing the simple notion of employing legal evidence as a ‘window’ onto practices and mentalities. In doing so students will have an opportunity to look at material from a variety of courts and jurisdictions, and to range widely across time and space.

Once thought of as the ‘Age of Faith’, recent work on the middle ages has demonstrated how complex and variegated belief could be. The exploration of the intersection of ‘religion’ – being bound by the law of faith – and power highlights crucial aspects of medieval society. This 8-week course will explore a number of conjunctions of religion and power, spanning from the highest to the lowest in medieval society. The terrain covered will fall mainly within the central and later middle ages, and will focus mostly on Catholic Europe, whilst also including Christian relations with and understandings of Judaism and Islam. The primary aim of this module is to encourage students to explore the different ways in which medieval religion intersected with aspects of social, political and cultural power in the period. Through these explorations, we will engage with the fundamental nature of ‘religion’ in the medieval past - its boundaries, its core functions, its claims upon groups and individuals – and the various different ways in which medievalists have approached, practically and conceptually, medieval Christendom and its discontents. There will be a deliberate bias toward ‘religion’ as experienced by the laity rather than only the ecclesiastical or spiritual elite.

Each week will focus on a particular area of analysis, using this to explore both interpretive arguments and different bodies of primary source material. The module as a whole does not (and could not) aim to cover ‘all’ of medieval religion: the point rather is to focus on particular areas that will illuminate wider issues methodologically, and which introduce students to a variety of perspectives and types of sources.