WELCOMING FOREIGN SAINTS TO THE CHURCH OF ANTIOCH

There was a large number of indigenous saints and martyrs buried and venerated in Antioch and it surrounding regions.  Chief among these were Babylas, Barlaha/Barlaam, Drosis/Drosina, the Macchabees, Pelagia and Romanus  However, there was also a considerable number of non-Antiochene saints and martyrs whose remains and cults were warmly welcomed at Antioch, thus giving the city more saints than any church except that of Rome. While the reception of some of these, like Stephen the protomartyr, Thecla (whose cult eclipsed that of Mary for centuries), or the phenomenally popular Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, was natural and mirrored in other parts of the eastern empire, the acceptance of others is less easy to explain.  Based for the most part on the homilies of John Chrysostom and Severus of Antioch, this paper will address how and why some these strangers were welcomed and indeed fêted by congregations in Antioch from the late fourth to the early sixth centuries.

FROM SCYTHIANS TO SARACENS: WELCOMING THE BARBARIAN IN LATE ANTIQUE GREECE

From its very origins, ancient Greek literature abounds in stories of strangers, visitors and invaders. But while fellow Greeks may be welcomed warmly or confronted in battle, outsiders are widely characterized as savage and rapacious barbarians fit only to be resisted and repelled. But what about the barbarians who were welcomed? In Late Antiquity a wide range of literary sources condemn the entrance of Scythians, Saracens and occasionally more specific barbarians into Greece and record local and imperial efforts to eradicate or expel them, almost always in highly classicizing poetry and prose. Yet in passing these texts also describe many instances of welcome, co-existence and integration and some of these can even be located in the archaeological record. The rhetoric of texts and range of evidence was long minimized by archaeologists, however, who perpetuate narratives of barbarian destruction at practically every ancient site in Greece. Thus this paper first examines how the stereotype of the barbarian invader was employed by Late Antique authors in regards to Greece, and then our range of evidence for how outsiders were greeted by the Greeks when they actually arrived there.

LEGISLATING FOR THE STRANGER: ARCHBISHOP WULFSTAN AND KING CNUT

Archbishop Wulfstan of York stands out in early eleventh-century England as a lawmaker, homilist and one of the few stable political figures in a period of invasions and great social upheaval. From the time of Æthelred, Wulfstan's laws and homiletic works show that he was developing a theoretical basis for the ideal Christian society, but it was under the invader Cnut that he found the stability to begin shaping that society. The manuscript Cotton Nero A.i, compiled under Wulfstan's direction, provided both a sourcebook for Wulfstan as he worked on the great Cnut Codes of 1018, and the resources he needed to hand in order to instruct Cnut and his court about the laws and traditions of Christian England. This paper will examine the relationship between Wulfstan and the stranger on the English throne and the process by which Wulfstan cast the invader in the role of Christian king over the English, with particular reference to the texts in Cotton Nero A.i.

THE GOSPELS OF ST AUGUSTINE (CAMBRIDGE CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE MS 286): THE LAYOUT OF FOLIO 129V, THE ST LUKE PORTRAIT PAGE

The St Luke Portrait page is a very well-known image from this famous sixth-century codex, which is part of the history of Christianity in the British Isles. The small codex, much reduced from its original state, now contains only two illustrations, those for Luke: the 'New Testament Scenes' on folio 125r and the 'Portrait Page of St Luke' on folio 129v.  Both contain narrative scenes. There are also offsets of colour where there were once were illustrations, probably for the other evangelists. Recent analysis of the St Luke Portrait Page image has demonstrated its unexpected and interesting structure, a structure which may also have implications for understanding the composition of the now-lost illustrations, as well as the layouts of the text pages.

GEOFFREY D DUNN
Australian Catholic University, McAuley Campus

WELCOMING BACK AN EXCOMMUNICATED CHURCH: RELATIONS BETWEEN ROME AND ANTIOCH IN THE EARLY FIFTH CENTURY

The second exile of John Chrysostom in 404 led to breaking off of relations between the church of Rome and the churches of Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch. After John's death in 407 his supporters demanded the restoration of his name to the diptychs of those major eastern churches, i.e., the welcoming back of the estranged and excommunicated bishop's memory into those churches. After 412, with the death of Porphyrius, Alexander became the new bishop of Antioch. Not only did he resolve the long-standing Meletian schism in the Antiochene church, but he was prepared to restore John's name to the Antiochene diptychs. This paper will examine some of the correspondence between Alexander of Antioch and Innocent I of Rome to see how Alexander's actions resulted in the welcoming back of the Antiochene church into communion with the Roman church.

EXPECTATIONS OF VIRTUE: TRAVELLING ARTISTS, MISBEHAVING MONKS AND THE PRODUCTION OF SACRED ART

The medieval artist is a mythical figure: in contrast to the famed artists of later periods, the artist of the middle ages is usually considered to be a cloistered monk, working anonymously for the sake of God, under the sole authority of the church. A closer look at surviving objects and textual sources, however, suggests a different story. Artists were both monks and laymen, often working side by side. Both travelled between towns and monasteries to work for abbots, bishops and the aristocracy.

This paper will examine how monasteries negotiated the spiritual compromises arising from the need to hire and host non-monastic, artistic labor. Stories of lay artists misbehaving in the monastery, or monastic artists succumbing to pride, greed or wanderlust, suggest that monasteries were continuously balancing their need for artists with the moral risks of hosting them. Monastic expectations for the behavior of artists reveal the economic and spiritual values at stake in the production of sacred art. These problems are particularly evident in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, as monastic workshops had to compete with the increasing numbers of lay craftsmen working in the cities and expensive, labor-intensive art objects were criticised by ascetic monks as excessive luxuries. This paper will focus on artist anecdotes and objects from this period, looking especially at the cities and monasteries of northern Germany and Belgium, a region known for its production of precious, sacred art.

THE EMPEROR DOMITIAN AND THE OBEDIENCE OF CHRISTIANITY TO THE LATE-ROMAN STATE

This paper examines the Christian Church as a stranger in the Roman state from the second to fourth centuries. It explores the hitherto under-examined tradition of a persecution of Christians by the emperor Domitian (81-96), as encountered in texts from the second century onwards. Domitian's persecution comes across in many Christian sources as a nebulous and half-hearted follow-up to the Neronian, but this paper argues for a more precise understanding of accounts of Domitian's persecution, an understanding which gains cohesion from the idea of strangers in the Roman world. 

This paper will examine the narratives of Domitian's acts offered by early Christian writers, including Melito of Sardis, Tertullian, Clement of Rome, Malalas and Eusebius as they interpreted and embellished this tradition. These texts indicate that the propagation of the tradition of persecution served specific ends for the Early Church and this paper argues against viewing these stories simply as hagiography. Instead the portrayal of Domitian in Christian sources relates to the evolution of the Church in relation to Roman civil authorities. 

Study of this persecution reveals that members of the Early Church showed their willingness to obey civil authorities. Bishops such as Melito and Clement used Domitian as an example of a 'bad' emperor to show their concomitant obedience to a 'good' emperor who did not persecute Christians. Domitian's reputation was crucial to this strand of thought, as these writers reveal Christians as a stranger community making themselves seem less strange and more obedient to the Roman state. 

THE SARACEN QUEEN AND THE VICTORY OF GUILLAUME D'ORANGE: THE ROLE OF GUIBORC IN LA PRISE D’ORANGE, ALISCANS AND WOLFRAM'S WILLEHALM

The twelfth-century Old French chansons de geste, La Prise d'Orange and Aliscans, tell the story of how the legendary hero Guillaume d'Orange wins a city and its queen and defends them against Saracen invaders. The role of his new wife, Guiborc, has often been reduced to that of a secondary character, despite the assistance she affords the hero in capturing her city. When Wolfram von Eschenbach composed Willehalm in Middle High German from this chanson de geste material, his rendering of the Saracen Queen, Gyburg, combined her significance from Prise d'Orange and her strength from Aliscans to form a pivotal character in the victory over the Saracens who try to recapture Orange from the Christian Narbonnais.

One of Wolfram's original innovations to the chanson de geste material is the insertion of a war council before the second battle of Aliscans, at which Gyburg delivers a speech to the assembled reinforcements. Although much debate surrounds her speech and its implications regarding religious views, consensus has not strayed far from those critics' opinions of Guiborc's role in the chansons de geste, diminishing understanding of the significance with which Wolfram imbued this character. However, investigating this speech according to Gyburg's motivations, already established in Wolfram's sources, taking into account the meticulously constructed setting in Wolfram's narrative, a strong and deliberate queen is revealed who both achieves the defence of her city and serves as the quintessential Narbonnaise liege-lady. Far from the fragile woman dismissed as emotional and vulnerable, Gyburg shines as a strong and intelligent Saracen queen, capable of holding her husband and her city, carrying out her role in the Christian victory with conscious precision.

TRAVEL AND HOSPITALITY IN THE TIME OF SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS

The writings of Sidonius Apollinaris have long been held as controversial by many historians.  Some feel that, since Sidonius edited and published his poems and letters himself, his works should be considered more literary than historical, while others argue that Sidonius provides an invaluable insight into a slice of life in the fifth century.  

My paper begins with a brief examination of these arguments against a background of recent scholarship centered on Late Antique 'survivals' of towns and villas which serves to establish Sidonius Apollinaris as a bona fide historical source. I then proceed to discuss the most important aspect of Sidonius' works:  what does he tell us about his times, specifically about travel and hospitality of the fifth century. My paper concentrates on several of Sidonius' letters which focus on various aspects of hospitality, including Sidonius' expectations of hospitality as well as the hospitality he received in private dwellings and rented accommodations. I further look at how we can best categorize and use the information we glean from Sidonius, as well as his contemporaries, as scholars of Late Antique and Early Medieval history.

Sidonius Apollinaris lived in a pivotal time. Through him we can see the beginnings of the transition from a Roman to a Medieval society, changes which are readily apparent in social customs such as hospitality. In many ways Sidonius establishes a benchmark for this social norm from which we are able to gauge both continuity and change throughout the Early Medieval period.

ABDUL NASSER KAADAN
Aleppo University

JOINT DISEASES IN ASIA DURING THE MEDIEVAL AGES

The concept that medicine is exclusively the product of western minds remains unquestioned by most individuals. A review of any of the standard texts or encyclopedias regarding the history of medicine would support this view. Most texts give little or no mention of the advancements made by ancient Indian, Chinese or, particularly, Asian medieval physicians. Asian physicians, during the Middle Ages, have played a considerable role in the field of medicine development in general and joint diseases in particular.

Rhazes (al-Razi) was a famous physician and writer whose medical writings greatly influenced the Asian world as well as Western Europe. Al-Razi is considered the first who described what is called now Baker's cyst, which is attributed to the English surgeon William Baker (1839-1896) who described it in 1877. Avicenna (ibn-Sina) is considered one of the most celebrated physicians during the Middle Ages. Al-Qanunn Fit-tib (or Code of Laws in Medicine) represents the most important work of Avicenna and, as William Osler described it, the most famous medical textbook ever written. Avicenna has talked in details about the predisposing factors, causes and treatment of gout and sciatica. The aim of this paper is to shed light on some joint diseases in Asian Medicine during the Medieval Ages, to reveal the accomplishment and contribution of Asian physicians in this field of medicine.

PEREGRINATIO ANIMI AND THE PEREGRINUS IMAGE IN THE LETTERS OF AUGUSTINE

In his provocative and insightful article entitled 'Peregrinatio animae: Zur Frage der Einheit der augustinischen Konfessiones' some fifty years ago, Georg Nicolaus Knauer attempted to show that, running through the Confessions written around 400 and the years immediately preceding Augustine's later works, there was the consistent thread of the soul's wandering or journeying away from and back to God. Knauer has rightly persuaded that the Confessions begins with the restless yearning of the human heart for God and it ends with the evocation of its final rest in God's eternity. Yet, a total reliance on human power in the accomplishing of the progressive ascent came to be replaced by the decisive stress laid on God's initiative in grace. Augustine would unfold the deep awareness of the human condition consequent on Adam's fall, which does not allow for the achievement of human striving for final repose. Thus, although the idea of the ladder of ascent has disappeared, Augustine never stopped seeing human life as earthly pilgrimage towards the heavenly patria, in which all human longing for wholeness and fulfilment would be satisfied. This paper, focusing on Augustine's letters, will investigate how Augustine deals with the extent and nature of the peregrinatio animae theme and how different or similar his treatment is from that of other works such as the Confessions and the City of God.

JESUS' LIFE IN THE CANTERBURY BIBLE

This talk will be based on 24 'strip-cartoon' pictures of Jesus' life from the Canterbury Bible, that was brought over to England in 601 by Abbot Mellitus and several monks from Rome, to help convert the Britons who were still heathen. Small enough to be carried around easily by monks, this manuscript will show Pompeii-like pictures of twelve scenes from Christ's passion and twelve pairs of pictures showing Christ's miracles and parables, all taken from St Mark's gospel.  The Roman portrait of St Mark will be discussed and the poem by Sedulius above it.

Some of the Latin text will be looked at, which seems to have been divided into very short sections for easier comprehension by Britons who knew little or no Latin.  The large uncials suggest a very early date and, again, its letters were easy to read.  When Pope Gregory told Bishop Eulogius of Alexandria (in letter 8.29) that over 10,000 English had been converted by these monks, it suggests that these young monks had been extremely busy with their Bibles and antiphonaries, giving the locals an exciting new religion to replace their animistic cults.

The Pope's change in policy on the destruction of local shrines will be noted, as will his smart answer to the problem of Roman monks talking to the locals in their own language.  Few would have been familiar with spoken Latin, so young British prisoners of war were trained as monks in the Pope's old monastery in Rome, ready for the mission to England.

ALU AND HALE

'Be thou hale'’ is a traditional form of greeting in both Old Norse and Old English. Hale itself, though, is usually held to be a key member of the Old Germanic religious vocabulary - it has traditionally been considered to be related, for example, to both Modern English holy and Old Norse heill (n.) 'omen, auspice, talisman'. Yet cognates to hale are surprisingly rare in the earliest Germanic sources - hale and its congeners are relatively marginal terms in both in runic epigraphy and in the Gothic Bible. In Gothic, hale (in its religious sense) seems to have been usurped by weihs 'holy' (cf. German Weihnachten 'Christmas', literally 'the holy nights'), whereas runic inscriptions more commonly feature other magico-religious terms such as the etymologically controversial 'charm word' alu. This paper examines the use of these various descriptions for 'blessed', 'lucky' or 'holy' in the earliest Germanic sources and proposes a structural explanation for their distribution in light of recent findings in runic studies.

PLANNING TO WELCOME THE PILGRIMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES

In the early Middle Ages the cathedral was the height of human achievement; it embodied the whole of Christian knowledge and attempted to mimic the divine. It was the ritual, spiritual and economic as well as the physical centre of the city. These vast edifices welcomed pilgrims and strangers; they arose from the ground and seemingly reached to the heavens. As the cathedrals grew larger and larger because of the demand of the pilgrims and strangers there was a need for better building planning to cater for this demand. Yet little is know of the planning of these massive buildings. Formal plans, sections and elevations did not really develop until the sixteenth century. It is know that the Father of Architecture Vitruvius was discussed in at the court of Charlemagne. Copies of his ten books of architecture survived throughout the libraries of Europe in the Middle Ages. However, Vitruvius is very vague on how the architect or master builder conveys his plans to his masters and labourers. Few formal plans have survived intact from the Early Middle Ages. The so-called Plan of St Gall from the ninth century survives but it is disputed if this really is a plan of a real building at all. This paper considers the plans and planning of architecture of the Early Middle Ages.

ONCE A LAWYER, ALWAYS A LAWYER?  LEGAL OVERTONES IN ADOMNÁN'S VITA COLUMBAE

Adomnán, ninth abbot of Iona, is best known for his Life of St Columba, sometimes known as Colum Cille, first abbot of Iona. Adomnán is also the author of Cáin Adomnáin, known in Latin as Lex Innocentium, the Law of Innocents. It is probable that both acts of authorship took place around the same time, the 697centenary of Columba's death. This paper will use a close reading of certain sections of Vita Columbae to explore the extent to which Adomnán's identity as a law-maker influenced the vita. The paper will consider surviving early Irish legal and wisdom texts to assess Adomnán's sophisticated understanding of contemporary law and its application to the situations he describes in the vita. I will argue that in writing the vita, Adomnán was careful to emphasise Columba's role as an upholder of the law in both ecclesiastical and secular spheres.

THE IRREVERENT REFUGEE: EXODUS AND IDENTITY IN LATE ANTIQUE SYRIA

"We all hear the news that everywhere is full of the bodies of the dead - fields, roads, hills, ridges, caves, hilltops, groves and gullies - some a feast for birds and beasts, others borne by the river down to the sea. At such tidings, I am at times shocked, at other times am full of reproof for the sufferers and feel that they have just got what they deserve in these consequences of their flight." (Libanius, Or. 23.1-2; Loeb trans.)

In his chastisement of those who fled Antioch in fear of imperial reprisals, following the 'Riots of the Statues' (387CE), the fourth-century orator Libanius is less than sympathetic towards the women, children and men who died as a result of their exodus. For Libanius, the mixed reception that refugees received from those in the rural areas to which they fled was to be expected, for people would not readily consort with those not of their acquaintance, let alone allow them to stay in their houses (Or. 23.5). Hence the refugees' subsequent vulnerability to the environment, hunger, illness and the violence of brigandage was an obvious, though unfortunate, consequence. This paper will examine Libanius' portrayal of those who fled Antioch in his Oration 23, "Against the Refugees", utilising modern sociological theories on identity to consider, in particular, how status and gender played a role in their exodus, reception and often tragic ends.