William J. Courtenay

Bio: William J. Courtenay is an academic researcher from University of Wisconsin-Madison. The author has contributed to research in topics: Nominalism & Intellectual history. The author has an hindex of 17, co-authored 72 publications receiving 1007 citations. Previous affiliations of William J. Courtenay include American Society of Church History.

Schools & scholars in fourteenth-century England

Abstract: William Courtenay provides a comprehensive account of educational structure and intellectual life in fourteenth-century England. Arguing that the two decades between 1320 and 1340 merit recognition as a golden age of English scholasticism, he examines the achievements of this period, their origins, and their adoption throughout continental Europe. He depicts an institutional setting, centered on Oxford but including cathedral and mendicant schools elsewhere, that rewarded not slavish obedience to school traditions but innovations in logic, mathematics, physics, and theology. He then analyzes the second half of the century, when thinkers like Wyclif moved toward more evangelical writing, when law outstripped theology in popularity at Oxford, and when courtly society replaced the schools as the major influence on English culture.Anticipating aspects of the sixteenth century, England after 1360 experienced an increase in lay literacy and a wider audience for biblical study, sermons, devotional treatises, and vernacular literature. The scope of Professor Courtenay's study of this transition from the world of Ockham to the world of Chaucer makes it of interest not only as a contribution to late medieval intellectual history but also as background for the study of Middle English literature.

Covenant and Causality in Pierre d'Ailly

Abstract: FEW problems are as central to the philosophy and theology of the late Middle Ages as the problem of causality. The acceptance of a causal connection between certain phenomena, where the presence of one follows immediately and invariably upon the presence of another, lies at the heart of the mediaeval understanding of physics and metaphysics, salvation and sacrament. Whether the cause was considered external, according to the Aristotelian principle that omne quod movetur ab alio movetur, or was thought to be internal in the sense of selfmotion, it was assumed that every movement from non-being to being, from potency to act, required a cause which could, with varying degrees of accuracy, be ascertained. Without such a causal connection it seemed impossible to talk about physical laws which regulated the universe upon which man depended, impossible to describe how man comes to know external reality, impossible to construct proofs for the existence of God, and impossible to teach that merit brings reward or that the sacraments produce grace. Both the economy of the natural universe and the economy of salvation depended for their normal explanation on the idea of cause and effect. It is because of the fundamental importance of the principle of causality in mediaeval thought that fourteenth-century discussions of causality, which appeared to alter or abolish efficient causation, seemed so devastating and irresponsible to historians of mediaeval thought. Nominalism in general and William of Ockham and Nicholas of Autrecourt in particular have been credited with an attack on the principle of causality, similar to that later undertaken by Hume, which defined it as nothing more than habit-formed expectation. In spite of some notable scholarly opinion to the contrary, this evaluation has remained and is one of the major judgments according to which Nominalism is considered skeptical and fideistic.1 The history of the critique on causality in the fourteenth century is an enormous topic that has yet to be adequately investigated and is, in any case, far beyond the bounds of a single article.2 The inquiry here will limit itself to one

Intellectuals in the Middle Ages

Abstract: The 12th century - the birth of the intellectuals the 13th century from academic to humanist

The Bible in the Fourteenth Century: Some Observations

Abstract: One of the most pressing needs in the field of medieval biblical studies is for an adequate historical overview of developments in the late Middle Ages. One of the pioneers, the late Beryl Smalley, never fully achieved the intended sequel to her magisterial Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, although her English Friars and Antiquity was an excellent beginning, particularly for the early fourteenth-century English group.' Other surveys end with Nicholas of Lyra, skip from the thirteenth century to the Reformation, or give only the most cursory attention to the late medieval period.2 And yet the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were rich in biblical commentaries, and scholars have long considered a more precise understanding of developments in that period to be essential for an adequate appreciation of the character and significance of biblical commentaries in the early sixteenth century. Studies of individual commentators are not lacking. Wyclif's contributions have long been known and studied. More recently there have been monographs on Henry of Langenstein, Nicholas of Dinkelsbiihl, and others, and it will be works of this kind that eventually will provide the solid foundation on which a history of the Bible in the late Middle Ages can be written.3 By way of a supplement to what we know and as a plea for what can and ought to be done, the following remarks are an attempt to correct some misunderstand-

Inquiry and Inquisition: Academic Freedom in Medieval Universities

Abstract: The year 1988 marks not only the centennial of the American Society of Church History, it is also the anniversary of two important works dealing with the theme of religious toleration and freedom of ideas. One is the fiftieth anniversary of G. G. Coulton's Inquisition and Liberty. The other is Henry Charles Lea's History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, published in three volumes early in 1888. Coulton's work became a model for many that followed: a highly readable, consciously engaging narrative outlining the main features of one of the darker chapters of medieval church history. It covered the development of religious nonconformity, the church's response, especially through the creation and operation of the Inquistion, and the principal victims of the Inquisition: the Albigensians, Waldensians, Spiritual Franciscans, and those accused of witchcraft. Lea's earlier treatment covered those themes in a far more extensive way, and he also included, unlike Coulton, a final chapter on the problem of religious orthodoxy in the schools as viewed from the standpoint of the Inquisition. Lea, in fact, is one of the few authors writing on heresy and inquisition who attempted to place the cases of questioned orthodoxy and freedom of thought in medieval schools and universities in this larger context. Although he did not pursue the topic in any depth, Lea was aware that the character of theological study and the proper training of an educated priesthood were linked to the issue of religious orthodoxy in the schools and the threat of heresy among those charged with the preservation and dissemination of truth.

A Complete Bibliography of Publications in Isis, 2000{2009

Abstract: accademiche [38]. Ada [45]. Adrian [45]. African [56]. Age [39, 49, 61]. Al [23]. Al-Rawi [23]. Aldous [68]. Alex [15]. Allure [46]. America [60, 66]. American [49, 69, 61, 52]. ancienne [25]. Andreas [28]. Angela [42]. Animals [16]. Ann [26]. Anna [19, 47]. Annotated [46]. Annotations [28]. Anti [37]. Anti-Copernican [37]. Antibiotic [64]. Anxiety [51]. Apocalyptic [61]. Archaeology [26]. Ark [36]. Artisan [32]. Asylum [48]. Atri [54]. Audra [65]. Australia [41]. Authorship [15]. Axelle [29].

The Theft of History

Abstract: Introduction Part I: 1. Who stole what? Time and space 2. Antiquity: no markets, but did they invent politics, freedom and the alphabet? 3. Feudalism: transition to capitalism or the collapse of Europe and the domination of Asia 4. Asiatic despots, in Turkey and elsewhere? Part II: 5. Science and civilization in Renaissance Europe 6. The theft of 'civilization': Elias and Absolutist Europe 7. The theft of 'capitalism': Braudel and global comparison Part III: 8. The theft of institutions, towns and universities 9. The appropriation of values: humanism, democracy and individualism 10. Stolen love: European claims to the emotions 11. Last words Bibliography.

Banishing Usury: The Expulsion of Foreign Moneylenders in Medieval Europe, 1200-1450

Abstract: Starting in the mid-thirteenth century, kings, bishops, and local rulers throughout western Europe repeatedly ordered the banishment of foreigners who were lending at interest. The expulsion of these foreigners, mostly Christians hailing from northern Italy, took place against a backdrop of rising anxieties over the social and spiritual implications of a rapidly expanding credit economy. Moreover, from 1274 onward, such expulsions were backed by the weight of canon law, as the church hierarchy—inspired by secular precedents—commanded rulers everywhere to expel foreign moneylenders from their lands. Standing threats of expulsion were duly entered into statute-books from Salzburg to northern Spain. This dissertation explores the emergence and spread of the idea of expelling foreign usurers across the intellectual and legal landscape of late medieval Europe. Building on a wide array of evidence gathered from seventy archives and libraries, the dissertation examines how the idea of expulsion expressed itself in practice, how its targets came to be defined, and how the resulting expulsion orders were enforced—or not. It shows how administrative procedures, intellectual categories and linguistic habits circulated and evolved to shape the banishment not only of foreign usurers, but of other targets as well, most notably the Jews. By reconstructing these expulsions and their accompanying legal and theological debates, this dissertation weaves together broad themes ranging from the circulation of merchants and manuscripts to conflicting overlaps in political jurisdictions and commercial practices; from the resilience of Biblical exegesis to the flexibility of legal hermeneutics; and from shifts in political

Epigram, Art, and Devotion in Later Byzantium

Abstract: This book explores the nexus of art, personal piety, and self-representation in the last centuries of Byzantium. Spanning the period from around 1100 to around 1450, it focuses upon the evidence of verse inscriptions, or epigrams, on works of art. Epigrammatic poetry, Professor Drpic argues, constitutes a critical - if largely neglected - source for reconstructing aesthetic and socio-cultural discourses that informed the making, use, and perception of art in the Byzantine world. Bringing together art-historical and literary modes of analysis, the book examines epigrams and other related texts alongside an array of objects, including icons, reliquaries, ecclesiastical textiles, mosaics, and entire church buildings. By attending to such diverse topics as devotional self-fashioning, the aesthetics of adornment, sacred giving, and the erotics of the icon, this study offers a penetrating and highly original account of Byzantine art and its place in Byzantine society and religious life.

From Maker to Composer: Improvisation and Musical Authorship in the Low Countries, 1450-1500

Abstract: The second half of the fifteenth century saw profound changes in the understanding and valuation of the concepts of "composer" and "composition." This article explores those changes, especially as they evolved in urban musical culture in the Low Countries in 1450-1500. Attention is given to oral traditions of popular and professional polyphony, the status of writing in musical instruction and practice, the emergence of a perceived opposition between "composition" and "improvisation," the technical and conceptual ramifications of that perception, the relative social and professional status implied in designations such as "singer," "composer," "musicus," and "tenorist," and, finally, the new understanding and valuation of musical authorship, around 1500, involving notions of personal style, artistic freedom, authorial intention, creative property, historical awareness, and professional organization, protection, and secrecy.