An unrealized cult? Hagiography and Norman ducal genealogy in twelfth‐century England
This article traces the adoption and ideological uses of the image of the pious Norman dukes in four consecutive hagiographical texts written in twelfth-century England. While this is a well-known topos of the earlier Norman tradition, its reception in England has been neglected in the existing scholarship. The article also examines further evidence of an interest in pious Norman dukes under Henry II, focusing on the translation of the remains of Richard I and Richard II at Fecamp in Normandy in 1162 and discussing whether the dukes' official cult could have been established. The conclusion situates the material in the general context of the development of the cults of lay rulers in twelfth-century Europe and sheds light on the interplay between hagiography, historical memory and politics at the time.
Historical writing in twelfth‐ and thirteenth‐century Scotland: the Dunfermline compilation
This article examines the first three items in a manuscript housed in the Royal Library in Madrid but written at the Benedictine abbey of Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland during the reign of James III (1460–88). It argues that the three items were originally put together during the reign of Alexander III (1249–86) and together formed a compilation which should be viewed as the earliest extant history of the twelfth- and thirteenth-century kings of Scots. Interestingly, the Dunfermline compilation did not stress the Irish ancestry of the kings of Scots, as might be assumed, but instead set its subjects against the backdrop of their Anglo-Saxon descent from the house of Cerdic. The article then considers the relationship of the Dunfermline compilation to Turgot's Vita Sancte Margarete and Aelred of Rievaulx's Genealogia Regum Anglorum and argues that the use of these sources in the compilation suggest that it was put together for a particular political purpose, a purpose for which the Anglo-Saxon ancestry of the kings of Scots had particular relevance.
THE RELIGIOUS SITES DURING THE CHINESE CULTURAL REVOLUTION, 1966-1976
This study presents a thought-provoking picture of statistical data regarding the growth patterns of the religious sites for five main Chinese religions during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. Applying comparative and quantitative lenses, this paper addresses the diE™erent growth rates of religious sites during the four diE™erent periods from 1949 to 2004 to test the relative growth pace of religious sites during the Cultural Revolution. To understand the patterns of growing religious sites from 1966 to 1976, this study also compares the diE™erent growth rates of religious sites between the first phase (1966 to 1970) and the second phase (1971-1976) of the Cultural Revolution. Furthermore, it provides detailed information concerning the year of building new religious sites for all five major religions that hold more than 2,500 new religious sites during the Cultural Revolution. In addition, the study shows the top five provinces which built the most new religious sites while denoting their respective rural and urban locations in an eE™ort to demonstrate their geographical expansion during the period. Finally, this study addresses the growth rates of the national population and per capita GDP as compared to the growth of the religious sites during the period of national disaster (1966-1976).