Portrays the power struggles among medieval rulers, sacred and profane

"This is the story of how the church sought to establish norms for slave ownership on the part of ecclesiastical institutions and personnel and for others' behavior towards such slaves. The story begins in the New Testament era, when the earliest Christian norms were established and continues through the Late Roman Empire, the Germanic kingdoms, and the Carolingian empire, to the thirteenth-century establishment of a body of ecclesiastical regulations (canon law) that would persist into the twentieth century. Along with an analysis of the various policies and statutes, chronicles, letters, and other documents from each of the various historical periods provide insight into the situations of these unfree ecclesiastical dependents. The book stops in the thirteenth century, which was a time of great changes, not only in the history of the legal profession, but also in the history of slavery as Europeans began to reach out into the Atlantic. Although this book is a serious scholarly monograph about the history of church law, it has been written in such a way that no specialist knowledge is required of the reader, whether a scholar in another field or a general reader interested in church history or the history of slavery. Historical background is provided and there is a short Latin lexicon"--

A comprehensive introduction to conciliarism, decision-making and conflict-resolution in the history of the Christian church.

"Ntroduction Steven J. Katz; 1. Social, political and economic life in the land of Israel, 70-c.235 Seth Schwartz; 2. The Diaspora from 66-c.235: (a) The Jews in Egypt and Cyrenaica, 66-c.235 Allen Kerkeslager; (b) Jews in Carthage and western north Africa, 70-c.235 Claudia Setzer; (c) The Jews in Asia Minor, 70-c.235 Paul Trebilco; (d) The Jews in Babylonia, 70-c.235 David Goldblatt; 3. The uprising in the Jewish Diaspora, 115-117 Miriam Pucci Ben Zeev; 4. The Bar Kochba Revolt, 132-135 Hanan Eshel; 5. The legal status of Jews in the Roman empire Amnon Linder; 6. Jewish art and architecture in the land of Israel, 70-c.235 Eric M. Meyers; 7. The destruction of the Jerusalem temple: its meaning and its consequences Robert Goldenberg; 8. The origins and development of the rabbinic movement in the land of Israel Hayim Lapin; 9. The canonical process James A. Sanders; 10. The beginnings of Christian anti-Judaism, 70-c.235 Peter Richardson; 11. The rabbinic response to Christianity Steven T. Katz; 12. The Mishnah David Kraemer; 13. The Tosefta Paul Mandel; 14. Midrash Halachah Jay M. Harris; 15. Mishnaic Hebrew Moshe Bar-Asher; 16. The political and social history of the Jewish community in the land of Israel, c.235-638 David Goldblatt; 17. The material realities of Jewish life in the land of Israel, 235-c.638 Joshua J. Schwartz; 18. Aramaic in late antiquity Yochanan Breuer; 19. The Diaspora c.235-638: (a) The Jews of Italy, c.235-638 Leonard Victor Rutgers; (b) The Jews of Spain, c.235-638 Scott Bradbury; 20. Jewish archaeology in late antiquity: art, architecture and inscriptions Lee Levine; 21. Jewish festivals in late antiquity Joseph Tabory; 22. Rabbinic prayer in late antiquity Reuven Kimelman; 23. Rabbinic views on marriage, sexuality and the family Michael L. Satlow; 24. Women in Jewish life and law Tal Ilan; 25. Gentiles in rabbinic thought David Novak; 26. The formation and character of the Jerusalem Talmud Leib Moscovitz; 27. Late Midrashic Paytanic and Targumic literature Avigdor Shinan; 28. Jewish magic in late antiquity Michael D. Swartz; 29. Jewish folk literature in late antiquity Eli Yassif; 30. Early forms of Jewish mysticism Rachel Elior; 31. The political, social and economic history of Babylonian Jewry, c.235-638 Isaiah M. Gafni; 32. The history of Babylonian academics David Goldblatt; 33. The formation and character of the Babylonian Talmud Richard Kalmin; 34. Talmudic law: a jurisprudential perspective Hanina Ben Menahem; 35. Torah in rabbinic thought: the theology of learning Marc Hirshman; 36. Man, sin and redemption in rabbinic thought Steven T. Katz; 37. The rabbinic theology of the physical: blessings, body and soul, resurrection, covenant and election Reuven Kimelman; 38. Christian anti-Judaism: polemics and politics Paula Fredriksen and Oded Irshai; 39. Jews in Byzantium Steven Bowman; Appendix A: Justinian and the revision of Jewish legal status Alfredo Mordechai Rabello; 40. Messianism and apocalypticism in rabbinic texts Lawrence H. Schiffma.

This volume revisits issues of empire from the perspective of Jews, Christians, and other Romans in the third to sixth centuries. Through case studies, the contributors bring Jewish perspectives to bear on longstanding debates concerning Romanization, Christianization, and late antiquity.

Following the dissolution of the Western Roman Empire, local Christian leaders were confronted with the problem of how to conceptualize and administer their regional churches. As Gregory Halfond shows, the bishops of post-Roman Gaul oversaw a transformation in the relationship between church and state. He shows that by constituting themselves as a corporate body, the Gallic episcopate was able to wield significant political influence on local, regional, and kingdom-wide scales. Gallo-Frankish bishops were conscious of their corporate membership in an exclusive order, the rights and responsibilities of which were consistently being redefined and subsequently expressed through liturgy, dress, physical space, preaching, and association with cults of sanctity. But as Halfond demonstrates, individual bishops, motivated by the promise of royal patronage to provide various forms of service to the court, often struggled, sometimes unsuccessfully, to balance their competing loyalties. However, even the resulting conflicts between individual bishops did not, he shows, fundamentally undermine the Gallo-Frankish episcopate's corporate identity or integrity. Ultimately, Halfond provides a far more subtle and sophisticated understanding of church-state relations across the early medieval period.

First full-length study of attitudes to abortion in the early medieval west.