The Unfinished Chapel at Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, and Ecclesiastical Politics in The Early Eleventh Century
An examination of the decorative elements on the structure of the Anglo-Saxon chapel of St Laurence at Bradford on Avon, Wilts., has suggested that the total decorative scheme, comprising different elements, was abandoned before completion. This hypothesis arises from an examination of the carved moulding on some of the internal and external pilasters, the external blind arcading, and the ‘unfinished’ rood on the eastern wall of the nave. A historical context for this is suggested in the abandonment of the nearly completed building on the death of King Æthelred, the sponsor of the construction of the chapel as a cult centre for Edward the Martyr from AD 1001. While his successor King Cnut would probably have been supportive of the continuation of the cult at Shaftesbury, the chapel was arguably soon abandoned because the underlying religious and political rationale for its construction no longer obtained in the circumstances of the new king's regime.
Sites and sanctity: revisiting the cult of murdered and martyred Anglo‐Saxon royal saints
The cults of the murdered and martyred royal saints of Anglo‐Saxon England have been interpreted as political in origin and this view has received widespread acceptance. This article, which discusses the cults of the kings, Oswald, Oswiu and Edwin of Northumbria, and Edward the Martyr and those of the princes, Kenelm of Mercia and Æthelred and Æthelberht of Kent, puts forward a new interpretation, suggesting that their cults originated in lay and non‐élite devotion to the innocent victims of unjust and violent death, before being taken up for political and other purposes. It addresses the problem of popular religion in Anglo‐Saxon England and seeks to show how these cults may be used to shed light on the beliefs of the ordinary Anglo‐Saxon laity.
PLEASURE, POWER, AND THE PURSUIT OF COMMUNISM: SOVIET YOUTH AND STATE-SPONSORED POPULAR CULTURE DURING THE EARLY COLD WAR, 1945-1968
art, with certain students accused of “showing political immaturity, failing to understand the Party’s positions on art.” This episode constituted part of a broader crackdown on abstract art by the Khrushchev administration from late 1962, precipitated the the Soviet leader’s derision of such art forms in December 1962 at the Manege exhibit. Such instances demonstrate the limitations of the top-level promotion of youth grassroots initiative, as the Khrushchev leadership reigned in youth autonomy when it threatened to go beyond the boundaries of the permissible. The dates cited above have particular resonance, since both 1957-58 and 1962-63 represent two periods when those at the top of the Party hierarchy moved away from pursuing a more pluralistic, tolerant policy course, due to anxiety inspired by both sharpening Cold War hostilities and domestic developments. In these periods, official rhetoric censured what it labeled as 639 TsAOPIM, f. 635, op. 13, d. 546, ll. 56-57. This is likely related to criticism of the Party associated with the fallout from the Secret Speech and the Hungary invasion. For more, see Polly Jones, “From the Secret Speech to the Burial of Stalin: Real and Ideal Responses to De-Stalinization,” in Jones ed., The Dilemmas, 41-63. 640 TsAOPIM, f. 6083, op. 1, d. 52, ll. 166-67. 641 Susan E. Reid, “In the Name of the People: The Manege Affair Revisited,” Kritika 6.4 (Fall 2005): 673716. 642 On these anxieties, see Dobson, Khrushchev’s Cold Summer, 156-88.