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The Middle Ages are often viewed as a repository of tradition, yet what we think of as traditional marriage was far from the only available alternative to the single state in medieval Europe. Many people lived together in long-term, quasimarital heterosexual relationships, unable to marry if one was in holy orders or if the partners were of different religions. Social norms militated against the marriage of master to slave or between individuals of very different classes, or when the couple was so poor that they could not establish an independent household. Such unions, where the protections that medieval law furnished to wives (and their children) were absent, were fraught with danger for women in particular, but they also provided a degree of flexibility and demonstrate the adaptability of social customs in the face of slowly changing religious doctrine.Unmarriagesdraws on a wide range of sources from across Europe and the entire medieval millennium in order to investigate structures and relations that medieval authors and record keepers did not address directly, either in order to minimize them or because they were so common as not to be worth mentioning. Author Ruth Mazo Karras pays particular attention to the ways women and men experienced forms of opposite-sex union differently and to the implications for power relations between the genders. She treats legal and theological discussions that applied to all of Europe and presents a vivid series of case studies of how unions operated in specific circumstances to illustrate concretely what we can conclude, how far we can speculate, and what we can never know.

Christian Law: Contemporary Principles offers a detailed comparison of the laws of churches across ten distinct Christian traditions worldwide: Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, Reformed, Presbyterian, United, Congregational and Baptist. From this comparison, Professor Doe proposes that all denominations of the faith share common principles in spite of their doctrinal divisions; and that these principles reveal a concept of 'Christian law' and contribute to a theological understanding of global Christian identity. Adopting a unique interdisciplinary approach, the book provides comprehensive coverage on the sources and purposes of church law, the faithful (lay and ordained), the institutions of church governance, discipline and dispute resolution, doctrine and worship, the rites of passage, ecumenism, property and finance, as well as church, State and society. This is an invaluable resource for lawyers and theologians who are engaged in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, showing how dogmas may divide but laws link Christians across traditions.

The institution of marriage is commonly thought to have fallen into crisis in late medieval northern France. While prior scholarship has identified the pervasiveness of clandestine marriage as the cause, Sara McDougall contends that the pressure came overwhelmingly from the prevalence of remarriage in violation of the Christian ban on divorce, a practice we might call \"bigamy.\" Throughout the fifteenth century in Christian Europe, husbands and wives married to absent or distant spouses found new spouses to wed. In the church courts of northern France, many of the individuals so married were criminally prosecuted.In Bigamy and Christian Identity in Late Medieval Champagne, McDougall traces the history of this conflict in the diocese of Troyes and places it in the larger context of Christian theology and culture. Multiple marriage was both inevitable and repugnant in a Christian world that forbade divorce and associated bigamy with the unchristian practices of Islam or Judaism. The prevalence of bigamy might seem to suggest a failure of Christianization in late medieval northern France, but careful study of the sources shows otherwise: Clergy and laity alike valued marriage highly. Indeed, some members of the laity placed such a high value on the institution that they were willing to risk criminal punishment by entering into illegal remarriage. The risk was great: the Bishop of Troyes's judicial court prosecuted bigamy with unprecedented severity, although this prosecution broke down along gender lines. The court treated male bigamy, and only male bigamy, as a grave crime, while female bigamy was almost completely excluded from harsh punishment. As this suggests, the Church was primarily concerned with imposing a high standard on men as heads of Christian households, responsible for their own behavior and also that of their wives.

This book reconstructs the scholastic arguments about marital indissolubility and papal power that lay behind John XXII's 1322 constitution Antique Concertationi. It illustrates the dynamic relationship between canon law and theology, and the tensions between papal authority and academic expertise, that animated a controversial pontificate.

The Fozu tongji 佛祖統紀 (Comprehensive Records of the Buddha and Patriarchs), compiled by the Tiantai monk Zhipan 志磐 during the Song dynasty, is a seminal work in the history of historiography. This article focuses on its inclusion process during the Ming dynasty, revealing the interplay between textual transmission and political power. Through primary source analysis and textual criticism, this article examines how the Fozu tongji became included in Ming court editions of the Buddhist Canon. Two main conclusions emerge: First, the Fozu tongji—a text documenting the history of the Tiantai school—was formally included through advocacy by Puqia 溥洽 of the seng lu si 僧錄司 (Buddhist Registry Office), signifying the imperial rulers’ recognition of the Tiantai school. Second, to align with state ideology, all prophecy-related content was systematically eliminated from the original text. This case study provides a window into practices of religious governance in the early Ming Dynasty. Furthermore, it enriches the scholarly understanding of the dissemination history of the Fozu tongji and also provides broader insights on the inclusion of Buddhist texts. While inclusion in the canon elevated the Fozu tongji’s influence, the text was altered under the ideological “purification” imposed by the state.

In the Chinese Buddhist tradition, copying and printing sacred texts is considered a form of merit-making, or virtuous activity. One reason for the printing and circulation of books in the Buddhist tradition is the belief that one can gain merits. From the introduction of Buddhism into China, devotees copied, printed and disseminated sūtras to generate merit, a kind of spiritual goodness, which accumulates with each positive act. The author has gathered a large amount of data from libraries, museums and temples around the world that demonstrates how the imperial family members, concubines, court ladies, eunuchs, Buddhist monks and lay devotees supported the construction of the Buddhist canon. They believed that the printing of the Buddhist scriptures would grant them all kinds of merit, such as those who seek happiness in life now and happiness in the next life, or those who encounter disasters and difficulties in the present world. As this paper deeply delves into the sources of the editions of the Chinese Buddhist canon, we may further analyze the practice of merit-making hierarchically and horizontally.

Traditional studies on Chinese Buddhism have largely relied on printed canons from the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Goryeo dynasties. However, recent discoveries of Dunhuang and Turfan manuscripts, along with growing recognition of Nihon kosha issaikyō (Japanese Ancient Manuscript Canons), have expanded the scope of Buddhist textual research. Despite their significance, Japanese manuscript Buddhist canons remain underexplored, particularly in relation to their textual lineages and connections to Tang-dynasty texts. This study examines Nihon kosha issaikyō through a philological analysis of the Shisong lü (Ten Recitation Vinaya), assessing textual variants, structural patterns, and transmission histories. By situating Nihon kosha issaikyō within the broader East Asian Buddhist tradition, this research clarifies their role in preserving alternative textual lineages beyond standardized printed canons. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of Buddhist textual transmission, canon formation, and the interplay between manuscript and printed traditions in China, Korea, and Japan. This study highlights the historical processes that shaped East Asian Buddhist canons and offers new insights into their adaptation and preservation across different cultural contexts.

While the Spanish Inquisition has laid the greatest claim to both scholarly attention and the popular imagination, the Roman Inquisition, established in 1542 and a key instrument of papal authority, was more powerful, important, and long-lived. Founded by Paul III and originally aimed to eradicate Protestant heresy, it followed medieval antecedents but went beyond them by becoming a highly articulated centralized organ directly dependent on the pope. By the late sixteenth century the Roman Inquisition had developed its own distinctive procedures, legal process, and personnel, the congregation of cardinals and a professional staff. Its legal process grew out of the technique of inquisitio formulated by Innocent III in the early thirteenth century, it became the most precocious papal bureaucracy on the road to the first \"absolutist\" state.As Thomas F. Mayer demonstrates, the Inquisition underwent constant modification as it expanded. The new institution modeled its case management and other procedures on those of another medieval ancestor, the Roman supreme court, the Rota. With unparalleled attention to archival sources and detail, Mayer portrays a highly articulated corporate bureaucracy with the pope at its head. He profiles the Cardinal Inquisitors, including those who would play a major role in Galileo's trials, and details their social and geographical origins, their education, economic status, earlier careers in the Church, and networks of patronage. At the point this study ends, circa 1640, Pope Urban VIII had made the Roman Inquisition his personal instrument and dominated it to a degree none of his predecessors had approached.

From the moment of its founding in 1542, the Roman Inquisition acted as a political machine. Although inquisitors in earlier centuries had operated somewhat independently of papal authority, the gradual bureaucratization of the Roman Inquisition permitted the popes increasing license to establish and exercise direct control over local tribunals, though with varying degrees of success. In particular, Pope Urban VIII's aggressive drive to establish papal control through the agency of the Inquisition played out differently among the Italian states, whose local inquisitions varied in number and secular power. Rome's efforts to bring the Venetians to heel largely failed in spite of the interdict of 1606, and Venice maintained lay control of most religious matters. Although Florence and Naples resisted papal intrusions into their jurisdictions, on the other hand, they were eventually brought to answer directly to Rome-due in no small part to Urban VIII's subversions of the law. Thomas F. Mayer provides a richly detailed account of the ways the Roman Inquisition operated to serve the papacy's long-standing political aims in Naples, Venice, and Florence. Drawing on the Inquisition's own records, diplomatic correspondence, local documents, newsletters, and other sources, Mayer sheds new light on papal interdicts and high-profile court cases that signaled significant shifts in inquisitorial authority for each Italian state. Alongside his earlier volume,The Roman Inquisition: A Papal Bureaucracy and Its Laws in the Age of Galileo, this masterful study extends and develops our understanding of the Inquisition as a political and legal institution.