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The early Middle Ages is not a period traditionally associated with
free speech. It is still widely held that free speech declined
towards the end of Antiquity, disappearing completely at the
beginning of the Middle Ages, and only re-emerging in the
Renaissance, when people finally learned to think and speak for
themselves again. Challenging this tenacious image, Irene van
Renswoude reveals that there was room for political criticism and
dissent in this period, as long as critics employed the right
rhetoric and adhered to scripted roles. This study of the rhetoric
of free speech from c.200 to c.900 AD explores the cultural rules
and rhetorical performances that shaped practices of delivering
criticism from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, examining the
rhetorical strategies of letters and narratives in the late antique
and early medieval men, and a few women, who ventured to speak the
truth to the powerful.
Trust is the basis of all social relations. A society in which
trust - be it in one's fellow men or in political order - is not
assured, will not, in the end, endure. In the Middle Ages - as,
indeed, in any other period in human history - trust presupposes
the concordance between word and deed, for instance, that future
human action may be predicted. In this way trust creates the
security necessary in the life of individuals. Rather than an
emotion, trust is an attitude based on experience. It is not
created spontaneously, but requires a process of observation and
socialization. This implies that the preconditions for trust are
culturally determined and subject to change. Trust is expressed
through communication. The following questions are addressed in the
contributions to this volume: Are some contents more trustworthy
than others? Does writing as a medium engender trust irrespective
of the contents of the written text? Was trust in writing dependent
on trust in an authority? Was it perhaps exclusively dependent on
that authority? Are there suggestions that the written form of the
text was meant to confer trust on its contents? Did rituals take
place (before or during the writing down of the text, or during its
handing over to its recipient) that were meant to enhance the
text's trustworthiness? Can changes be observed in the strategies
of engendering trust? Was trust food for reflection in written
texts? What was considered to constitute a breach of trust?
The early Middle Ages is not a period traditionally associated with
free speech. It is still widely held that free speech declined
towards the end of Antiquity, disappearing completely at the
beginning of the Middle Ages, and only re-emerging in the
Renaissance, when people finally learned to think and speak for
themselves again. Challenging this tenacious image, Irene van
Renswoude reveals that there was room for political criticism and
dissent in this period, as long as critics employed the right
rhetoric and adhered to scripted roles. This study of the rhetoric
of free speech from c.200 to c.900 AD explores the cultural rules
and rhetorical performances that shaped practices of delivering
criticism from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, examining the
rhetorical strategies of letters and narratives in the late antique
and early medieval men, and a few women, who ventured to speak the
truth to the powerful.
This volume in honour of Mayke De Jong offers twenty-five essays
focused upon the importance of religion to Frankish politics, a
discourse to which De Jong herself has contributed greatly in her
academic career. The prominent and internationally renowned
contributors offer fresh perspectives on various themes such as the
nature of royal authority, the definition of polity, unity and
dissent, ideas of correction and discipline, the power of rhetoric
and the rhetoric of power, and the diverse ways in which power was
institutionalised and employed by lay and ecclesiastical
authorities. As such, this volume offers a uniquely comprehensive
and valuable contribution to the field of medieval history, in
particular the study of the Frankish world in the eighth and ninth
centuries. -- .
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