Gone But Not Forgotten
The Dissolution of the Monasteries is a well-worn tale. Are we getting the whole story?
Religion
Confess Your Sins
In 17th-century Tuscany and Malta some women were able to hold their abusers, members of the clergy, to account.
No Grand Plan
The dissolution of the monasteries as a series of decisions and indecisions.
Bad with the Good
The history of England’s Jewish community in a period of revolution.
The Nandi Bull
Two Hindu gods discover an abandoned child while following the wind’s path.
The Theology of Chocolate
The introduction of chocolate to the Catholic world caused a dilemma: could it be eaten? Should it be given up for Lent?
Jerusalem Burning
When Roman forces burned the Temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, the Flavian dynasty thought it had defeated the Jewish god in the name of Jupiter. It was mistaken.
Playing Saints
Unmasking an audacious saintly fraud in early modern Naples.
Devadatta in Hell
One of Buddhism’s most reviled villains was crucified in the Buddhist underworld. When French Christians arrived in Siam in the 17th century, venerating images of Christ on the cross, dialogue between the two religions reached an impasse.
Take me to the Church
The medieval parish church was the meeting point of many different things, both sacred and secular.