History

I have worked on medieval marriage, on preaching,  on attitudes to kingship and death, and on rationalities. I am currently working on royal annulments and papal dispensations, instrumental ethics in the Middle Ages, and ‘longue durée’ structures of papal history, from the 4th century decretal legislation Conregatio Concilii after Trent.

Areas of Research Supervision: topics in medieval and counter-reformation religious, intellectual, social, and legal history.

Theses Currently Supervised:

 -The cult of the Virgin Mary and the papal curia from the Council of Constance to the Council of Trent

 -Medieval origins of accountability: theory and practice in England, 1000-1300

 -The papal response to the thirteenth century 'plurality of forms' debate

 -Early Episcopal Registration and the Diocese of London c.1244-1338

Selection of Theses Previously Supervised:

 -Magic and Impotence in the Middle Ages

 -The King's blood: royal genealogies, dynastic rivalries and historical culture in the Hundred Years War. A case study of 'A tous nobles qui aiment beaux faits et bonnes histoires'

 -Kinship in Thirteenth-Century England: the Canon Law in the Common Law

 -The Religious Dimensions of English Cistercian Priviledges

Select publications:

- Medieval Marriage; Symbolism and Society, (Oxford, OUP, 2005)
'Authentication of Marital Status: a thirteenth century English Royal Annulment Process and Late Medieval Cases from the Papal Penitentiary', English Historical Review, 120 (2005) pp. 987 - 1013 (OUP,2001)
- Medieval Religious Rationalities: a Weberian Analysis (Cambridge, 2010)
-Rationalities in History: a Weberian Essay in Comparison (Cambridge, 2010)

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