This book is a collection of papers on Frankish historiography in the Merovingian and early Carolingian periods, from the late sixth to early ninth centuries, and studies numerous individual texts, evaluating their witness to the events they describe. It also includes hitherto unpublished items on the so-called Chronicle of Fredegar, in both its original and eighth-century versions, and also an entirely new article on the Merovingian dynastic crisis of 613, along with a general introductio...

Roger Collins deals here with the history of Spain, specifically Christian Spain, in the period from the 6th to the 10th century - from the Visigoths, through the time of the Arab conquests, up to the end of the era of Carolingian dominance across the Pyrenees. Particular emphasis, indeed, is placed upon the importance of this Pyrenean region, in the lands now known as France as well as those in Spain, with the author also calling into question the received notion of an Aquitanian identity...

Bill Tilghman, as a Wild West lawman, was the most underrated in history but not by his peers. Bat Masterson said, “Of all of us, he was the best.” Bat included Wyatt Earp, himself, and other famous lawmen. From the long-lasting TV show, Gunsmoke, Matt Dillon was the personification of Tilghman, the Dodge City marshal. After appointed US marshal, he was mainly responsible for the demise of the notorious original Wild Bunch (not the hole-in-the-wall gang later): Bill Doolin, Billy Dalton, B...

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731 AD) is Bede's most famous work. As well as providing the authoritative Colgrave translation of the Ecclesiastical History, this edition includes a new translation of the Greater Chronicle, in which Bede examines the Roman Empire and contemporary Europe. His Letter to Egbert gives his final reflections on the English Church just before his death, and all three texts here are further illuminated by a de...

The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731 AD) is Bede's most famous work. As well as providing the authoritative Colgrave translation of the Ecclesiastical History, this edition includes a new translation of the Greater Chronicle, in which Bede examines the Roman Empire and contemporary Europe. His Letter to Egbert gives his final reflections on the English Church just before his death, and all three texts here are further illuminated by a de...

One of the most enduring and influential of all human institutions, the papacy has also been amongst the most controversial. No one who seeks to make sense of modern issues within Christendom -- or, indeed, world history -- can neglect the vital shaping role of the popes.In Keepers of the Keys of Heaven, eminent religion scholar Roger Collins offers a masterful account of the entire arc of papal history -- from the separation of the Greek and Latin churches to the contempo...

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.The Reformation was a long struggle of ideas between the established Catholic Church and the questioning of faith brought about by the Renaissance in Western Europe. Started by Martin Luther in 1517, religious dissidence spread across Europe throughout the sixteenth century, causing wars, migration and disunity. By 1648 Henry VIII’s desire for divorce led him to break with the Catholic Church in Rome and form the Church of Engla...

In the 10th century, being head of the Catholic Church didnt stop Pope John XII from allegedly committing incest with his sisters, calling on pagan gods and goddesses, being an alcoholic and putting his mistress in charge of his brothel. Of course, being pope didnt make popes popular either: in 896AD, Pope Formosus died, but that was no obstacle to Lambert of Spoleto, who bore something of a grudge, in exhuming the pontiff and putting him on trial. Formosus was found guilty of being unwort...

Jesus taught his followers that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Yet by the fall of Rome, the church was becoming rich beyond measure. Through the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual and social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire, written by the world's foremost scholar of late antiquity.Peter Brown examines the rise of the church through the len...

NOW UPDATED FOR POPE FRANCISFor at least five centuries scholars have puzzled over a document known as The Papal Prophecies that were ascribed to St Malachy, an Irish cleric who died in 1148. The Prophecies clearly state that both Rome and the Papacy will be destroyed at some date in the early 21st century. Given that this date is now upon us, it is worth taking a closer look at the Papal Prophecies to decide what it is that they mean, what they can tell us and what - if anything -...

The great war on heresy obsessed medieval Europe in the centuries after the first millennium. R. I. Moore's vivid narrative focuses on the motives and anxieties of those who declared and conducted the war: what were the beliefs and practices they saw as heretical? How might such beliefs have arisen? And why were they such a threat?In western Europe at AD 1000 heresy had barely been heard of. Yet within a few generations accusations had become commonplace and institutions were being set up ...

THE placing by Leo III. of the Imperial crown upon the head of Charlemagne in St. Peter's on Christmas Day of the year 800 marked the commencement of a new era in the history of the world. But the Empire of the West, initiated at that moment in its dual character--political and religious--contained within itself the germs of infinite discords and calamities. As Roman and Christian it should have symbolised the union of nations; but meanwhile the Empire of the East, heir to Rome, continued ...