New from Cornell University Press:
The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish: Vengeance and Heresy in Medieval Ireland (Dec. 2014), by
Maeve Brigid Callan (Simpson College). A description from the Press:
The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish, Maeve
Brigid Callan analyzes Ireland's medieval heresy trials, which all
occurred in the volatile fourteenth century. These include the
celebrated case of Alice Kyteler and her associates, prosecuted by
Richard de Ledrede, bishop of Ossory, in 1324. This trial marks the dawn
of the “devil-worshipping witch” in European prosecutions, with Ireland
an unexpected birthplace.
Early medieval Ireland is remembered as the "Land of Saints and
Scholars," due to the distinctive devotion to Christian faith and
learning that permeated its culture. As early as the seventh century,
however, questions were raised about Irish orthodoxy, primarily
concerning Easter observances. Yet heresy trials did not occur in
Ireland until significantly later, long after allegations of Irish
apostasy from Christianity had sanctioned the English invasion of
Ireland. In
Callan divides Ireland’s heresy
trials into three categories. In the first stand those of the Templars
and Philip de Braybrook, whose trial derived from the Templars’, brought
by their inquisitor against an old rival. Ledrede’s prosecutions,
against Kyteler and other prominent Anglo-Irish colonists, constitute
the second category. The trials of native Irishmen who fell victim to
the sort of propaganda that justified the twelfth-century invasion and
subsequent colonization of Ireland make up the third. Callan contends
that Ireland’s trials resulted more from feuds than doctrinal deviance
and reveal the range of relations between the English, the Irish, and
the Anglo-Irish, and the church’s role in these relations; tensions
within ecclesiastical hierarchy and between secular and spiritual
authority; Ireland’s position within its broader European context; and
political, cultural, ethnic, and gender concerns in the colony.
A few blurbs:
"The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish
is a brilliant and accessible case study of witchcraft and heresy,
based on Celtic sources. Exploring the competing forces of gender,
politics, colonialism, religion and theology in a unique and limited
period in Irish cultural history, this book also offers distinctive
insights into our understanding of the factors involved in contemporary
violence carried out under religious and/or political auspices."—Mary
Condren
"In The Templars, the Witch, and the Wild Irish, Maeve Brigid
Callan presents in detail material important for understanding both
fourteen-century Ireland and the development of witchcraft trials in
western Europe. She looks at the subject as a whole, showing the
relationship between the various accusations of heresy and witchcraft
during the first half of the fourteenth century and putting these events
into their wider context."—Helen Nicholson
More information, including an excerpt, is available here.
