The Complex Nature of Late-Colonial Christian Ecumenicalism

Ben Ashbridge is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, who was a bursary holder for the 2019 EHS summer conference. His research explores evangelical faith mission networks during decolonization across the globe. Christian ecumenicalism as a concept invokes images of ecclesiastical concord, with denominational divisions put aside for the purpose of presenting, and indeed…

A Religious Experience at Nuremburg: The Inspiration and Institutions of National Socialism

Dan D. Cruickshank is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, researching perceptions of the Third Reich in the Church of England. In the 1930s a slow but steady trickle of visitors made their way from Britain to witness the great spectacle of National Socialism which took place each year in early September in…

The Historical Dilemma of Framing Bishop Charles Ridley Duppuy’s Life 1881-1944

Tim Yung is a PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong whose research focuses on the South China Anglican Church in the early twentieth century. His reflection on the life of Bishop Duppuy stems from his participation in an ongoing book series by the Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui about the bishops of Hong Kong. Before…

Inspiration and Institution, Durham 2019: Conference Report

Rhiannon Teather is a final year PhD student at the University of Bristol. She recently submitted her thesis, which focuses on Catholic martyrdom in global comparative context: England, Japan, Paraguay and New France, c. 1580-1650. She was awarded an EHS postgraduate bursary to present her work on missionary martyrdom accounts from japan and New France at the…

In Praise of Maligned Sources: The Evidence of the Royal Commission into Ecclesiastical Discipline

Dan D. Cruickshank is a PhD student at the University of Glasgow, researching perceptions of the Third Reich in the Church of England. Previously he wrote his masters thesis on the the doctrinal theology and ecclesiology behind the Prayer Book Crisis of 1927-28, which is in press with Palgrave Macmillan. I first heard about the…

Doing justice to God in the early middle ages

Revd Dr Robert Evans is the incoming chaplain at Christ’s College Cambridge. It is a tremendous honour to have won the President’s Prize for 2019 and I am delighted to have an opportunity to share some of the thoughts that lay behind my paper. When thinking about the Church and the law, it is important to…

Why Inspiration and Institution?

Alec Ryrie is Professor of the History of Christianity in the Department of Theology and Religion at the Durham University. Like many graduate students and early-career scholars in the history of Christianity, I spent years at conferences playing the EHS theme game: if my turn ever came to pick a theme, what would it be?…

Conduct Books and Women’s Social Bodies: Gentlewomen’s Dress in late sixteenth-and early-seventeenth century England

Joséphine Le Men just completed her Master’s degree in Early Modern British History at the University of Rouen (English Studies Department). Her dissertation focused on the way conduct books influenced gentlewomen’s social and material bodies during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century in England. Affiliations: MA student, ERIAC research group, Rouen University (Normandy).   The…

Blasphemy: a very modern crime

By Eloise Davies, second year PhD student at Peterhouse, Cambridge. She was a bursary holder at the 2018 EHS summer conference, presenting on seventeenth-century blasphemy.   Last October, the Republic of Ireland voted to remove the offence of blasphemy from its constitution.[1] Ireland became the latest in a series of European countries to abolish the…

The Problems of Privilege: Being Exempt in 13th Century England

Ross Kennedy is a Ph.D. candidate in the History Department at the University of Glasgow. He is supervised by Dr Jochen Schenk and Dr Stephen Marritt. At the Ecclesiastical History Society’s 2018 summer conference, I had the welcome opportunity of presenting on the topic of Templar Attorneys, a group of Templar brethren who were routinely…

The English Bishops, the Deposition of Edward II, and the ‘Articles of Accusation’

The deposition of Edward II was a watershed moment in the constitutional, political, and legal history of later medieval England. Previous kings might have had their difficulties – Stephen had fought a Civil War with Matilda and her son, Henry, which saw England descend into chaos; John’s relations with his baronage were so poor that…

Pity the poor prelate? The case of Thomas Bourchier

Des Atkinson is a PhD candidate in medieval history at the University of Exeter. One churchman whose reputation can only be described as dented is Thomas Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury from 1454 until his death in 1486. Bourchier (born around 1411) came from a family with royal and aristocratic connections. As a consequence, he gained…