'tis but a scratch: fact and fiction about the Middle Ages

Richard Abels

Talking about popular conceptions of the Middle Ages and their historical realities. Join Richard Abels to learn about Vikings, knights and chivalry, movies set in the Middle Ages, and much more about the medieval world.

  1. 12/29/2025

    A Florentine Pilgrimage to Bethlehem and Jerusalem in 1384

    Send us a text This is an addendum to my previous episode with Peter Konieczny. One of my listeners sent me an email asking why we never covered Frescobaldi's, Gucci's, and Sigoli's accounts of their experiences in Jerusalem. As she pointed out, when asked by the Sultan's representative in Alexandria the purpose of their trip, they said that it was to visit the Holy Sepulcher. And she is absolutely right. We ought to have talked about the culmination of the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Given that we are three days into the twelve days of Christmas, I decided that I should also talk about their visit to Bethlehem.  I wanted to get this out quickly, so it is a solo effort. It is also one of my shorter episodes. I would suggest that you listen first to Peter and my more general discussion of the three pilgrimage accounts and consider this to be a continuation.  May you have joy and peace for the remaining nine days of the Christmas season!  Quotations are from Frescobaldi, Gucci, and Sigoli, Visit to the Holy Places of Egypt, Sinai, Palestine and Syria in 1384, trans Theophilus Bellorini and Eugene Hoade (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1948), posted online at https://fada.birzeit.edu/handle/20.500.11889/9200 This episodes includes musical snippets from Stella splendens (anonymous late 14th century pilgrim’s song), Free Choral Music, edited by Monique Rio  https://test.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Stella_splendens_in_monte_(Anonymous) De Profundis. Ofertorio (Modo II) Coro De Monjes Del Monasterio De SilosCantos Gregorianos (Vol. 2), posted by De Profundis-Gregorian Chant, Catholic Songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwTO6oYDdZs Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    21 min

  2. 12/23/2025

    Three Accounts of A Pilgrimage To Egypt and the Holy Land in 1384-5

    Send us a text In the year 1384 a company of six wealthy merchants from Florence, each accompanied by a servant, went on a ten-month long pilgrimage to Mameluke Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. Upon returning to Florence, three of them--Leonardo Frescobaldi, Giorgio Gucci, and Simone Sigoli--wrote narratives of the journey. Although there are hundreds of accounts of pilgrimages to the East during the Middle Ages, this is the only pilgrimage that produced three independent narratives. What makes these narratives fascinating is that they are as much travelogues as itineraries of visits to churches and holy places.  They are a treasure trove of information about the material culture and customs of the Mameluke east as viewed and interpreted by travelers from Italy. They also present the historian with a Rashomon-like puzzle: how do we reconcile three eye-witness accounts when they differ? Peter Koniezcny, the owner of the website "medievalists.net" and a veteran of this podcast, returns to talk about this unique source. I hope that you will join us. The passages quoted are from: Frescobaldi, Gucci, and Sigoli, Visit to the Holy Places of Egypt, Sinai, Palestine and Syria in 1384, trans Theophilus Bellorini and Eugene Hoade (Jerusalem: Franciscan Press, 1948), posted online at https://fada.birzeit.edu/handle/20.500.11889/9200 Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 6m

  3. 10/31/2025

    Halloween special: Three Medieval Ghost Stories and My One Encounter with a Ghost

    Send us a text To celebrate my birthday—yes I was a Halloween baby—I decided to do a short episode recounting my one up-close and personal experience with a ghost. No, it was not a ghost of some one who died in the Middle Ages. In fact, I don’t know who it was.  But since ‘Tis But A Scratch” is a medieval podcast, I  start with three ghost stories from the Middle Ages.  It probably comes as no surprise that medieval people believed in ghosts, and ghost stories are scattered through medieval monastic chronicles, hagiographies, preaching manuals, and medieval literature. Ghost stories in medieval England, France, and Germany are mostly about apparitions of the sinful dead to living relatives. These began proliferating in the eleventh century, at the same time that the Catholic Church was developing its theology of Purgatory. Monks and preachers used these stories to emphasize the need to purge one’s sins, even after death. When the Church introduced the idea that the living could lessen the suffering of the dead in Purgatory by doing good deeds or contributing lands and money to monasteries and churches in return for prayers, these stories were used by preachers as fund raisers. The tradition in medieval Scandinavia was different. There the ghosts are not spirits but revenants, reanimated corpses.  I’ve chosen examples illustrating each genre. Two of them were written down around the year 1400. The first is from an Icelandic Saga, Grettir’s Saga. The second is from a collection of twelve ghost stories written by a monk of Byland Abbey, in Yorkshire. Both are about revenants, reanimated corpses, but of very different sorts.  Rounding things out is a ghost story from an earlier source, the autobiography of an early twelfth-century French Benedictine abbot, Guibert of Nogent.  I’m afraid that you might find my personal ghost story a bit dull in comparison, but I can assure you that it was anything but dull when I lived it. And just in case you are wondering: NO! I DO NOT BELIEVE IN GHOSTS!. Happy Halloween! I used the following English translations in this podcast (each of which I emended slightly): Grettir’s Saga, trans. G. H. Hight (1914): https://www.sagadb.org/grettis_saga.en2 “Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories,” trans. A.J. Grant, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 27 (1924): 362-379, posted on the “Medieval Histories” website: https://www.medieval.eu/medieval-histories-time-travelling-to-the-middle-ages/ C.C. Swinton Bland of , The Autobiography of Guibert, Abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy, trans. C.C. Swinton Bland (London: George Routledge: New York: E.P. Dutton, 1925), which I revised somewhat following Paul J. Archambault, trans., A Monk’s Confession: The Memoirs of Guibert of Nogent (Penn State U. Press, 2004). Bland’s translation is in the public domain and posted in its entirety at  https://sourcebooks.web.fordham.edu/basis/guibert-vita.asp This episode includes a short snippet from "The Unknown," a track from KeMi's album "Shadowscapes." https://artlist.io/royalty-free-music/album/shadowscapes/13040 Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    43 min

  4. 10/27/2025

    From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy: Pope Innocent III, Crusade, Church Reform, and the Apex of the Medieval Papacy

    Send us a text Yes, we have finally come to the end of our series "From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy." In this episode, Ellen and I talk about the pontificate of Innocent III, which historians see as the apex of the papal monarchy. Among the topics we cover are Innocent III's ideology of Caesaropapism, his contribution to the crusading movement, his combat against heresy, his defense of the papal states, and his dedication to Church Reform. Innocent III was the most powerful and effective pope of the Middle Ages.  His control over the Roman Catholic episcopate was uncontested, as evidenced by the Fourth Lateran Council. But his Caesaropapism, his assertion of papal supremacy over both the clergy and the laity, including Christian rulers, was more theoretical than real. He claimed to be the supreme judge over the rulers of Christendom, and was successful in doing so in a number of high profile cases, but his successes were contingent upon the need of those kings either to have papal support or, at the very least, not to be opposed by the papacy. Similarly, he could launch crusades against the Church’s domestic and foreign enemies, but once a crusade was ongoing, he had little power to direct it—even when the crusaders were disobeying his direct orders, as happened twice during the Fourth Crusade. When examined closely, papal supremacy over Christendom was always contingent, even during the apex of the papal monarchy.  This episode includes musical snippets from  Nunc Scio Vere (Introitus) Catholic Missa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSpBhfE7ljA Dies Irae, Tu es Petrus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OBB5-bP6qs Medieval music: Cantiga de santa maria n. 383 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZEzmTQlmBU) [Steve Tyler: Hurdy Gurdy, Cittern Marco Cannavo: Hurdy Gurdy Ricardo De Noronha: Percussion] Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 37m

  5. 10/20/2025

    From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy: the Rise of the Papal Monarchy

    Send us a text In this, the fourth--and penultimate--episode of our continuing series on the medieval papacy, my wife Ellen and I examine the establishment of the papal monarchy in the twelfth century. We discuss how the Investiture Controversy transformed the papacy and the Church; how the growth of papal governance and business along with its need for increased revenues made it a target for the same Church reformers who had formerly been its most fervent supporters; and how those developments brought the papacy into conflict with the Holy Roman Emperors Frederick I Barbarossa and his son Henry VI. I hope you will join us for this and the final episode of the series, on the pontificate of Innocent III, the apex of the papal monarchy. This episode includes musical snippets from Musician Ernst Stolz playing the pilgrims' song,  "O Roma nobilis" on tenor vielle, recorder and gemshorn. From his YouTube channel "My Years with Early Music: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf3_3065gmU) Nunc Scio Vere (Introitus) Catholic Missa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSpBhfE7ljA Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 12m

  6. 10/07/2025

    "1066 and All That": The Significance of the Norman Conquest, Part 1 (with Dr. Jennifer Paxton)

    Send us a text About eight months ago, Jenny and I released a couple of episodes dealing with the historical context of the Norman Conquest. I am delighted to have Jenny back to talk with me about the significance of the Norman Conquest and the Norman Settlement in English history. In this, the first of two episodes, Jenny and I look at the events following the Battle of Hastings and examine how the Norman Conquest has been interpreted over the centuries.  I hope you will join us.  Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 1m

  7. 09/28/2025

    From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy: Pope Gregory VII and the Investiture Controversy

    Send us a text The subject of today’s episode, the pontificate of Pope Gregory VII and the Investiture Controversy, is a staple of undergraduate medieval surveys. The first episode I posted after our summer hiatus was actually one that I wrote for a different podcast, “BEEF With Bridget Todd.” It told of the feud between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip the Fair of France that culminated in that pope’s humiliation at the hands of agents of the king. The so-called Outrage of Anagni in 1302 marked the effective end to the medieval papacy’s claims to supremacy over Christendom’s secular rulers. And if you haven’t already done so, you might want to give it a listen.  In this episode, we will see the first time that a pope, Gregory VII, advanced such a claim, and, although it resulted in his personal humiliation, how it laid the foundation for the Papal Monarchy.          My cohost once again is my partner for life and inspiration for all things medieval, my wife Ellen. I hope you will join us in this fourth and penultimate episode of our series “From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy.”   Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 5m

  8. 09/23/2025

    From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy: Pope Leo IX and the Gregorian Reform

    Send us a text After a summer hiatus, we are finally back with a new episode, the third in our series on the medieval papacy, “From Bishop of Rome to the Papal Monarchy.” The previous covered the tenth-century nadir of the papacy, when it was dominated by powerful Roman families and used to enhance their power and control over the city and the papal states. In this episode, my favorite co-host Ellen Harrison Abels and I explain how the foundations of the papal monarchy were laid in the mid eleventh century by a super pious German king, Henry III, in his capacity as Holy Roman Emperor working hand in glove with his hand-picked German pope (and cousin) Pope Leo IX. The engine of change was the so-called Gregorian Reform (after Pope Gregory VII, whom we will discuss in the next episode). This was the eleventh- and twelfth-century papacy's attack on the clerical abuses of simony, the practice of purchasing spiritual offices/church positions and clerical unchastity. By 1050 both were regarded by monastic reformers as serious abuses among the secular clergy (i.e. the priesthood). Reformers, influenced by the rise of a commercial economy, interpreted as simony the traditional practice of bishops thanking with gifts the kings and princes who had appointed them to their sees. The older view was that it was simply good manners (the reciprocity of gift-giving).   With the backing of Emperor Henry III, Pope Leo IX not only claimed but exerted papal authority over the other bishops of western Christendom in his zeal to cleanse the Church of simony and clerical unchastity. But the death of Henry III and the succession of a child to the throne of Germany, threatened to return the papacy into the hands of the Roman nobility. This led to Pope Nicholas II issuing a papal election decree in 1059, the papacy's declaration of independence, not only from the Roman nobility but (in less certain terms) from the Holy Roman Emperor himself. In this episode Ellen and I also discuss the origins of the Great Schism between the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Church, and how that explains why Roman Catholic priests are required to be celibate but Greek Orthodox priests can marry. This episode includes snippets from Gregorian chants sung by  the Institute of Christ The King Sovereign Priest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvT2siwqZCI);  the Schola du Séminaire Saint-Curé-d'Ars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7I7vXcZR0A); and the Schola of the Vienna Hofburgkapelle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjrsqJaLDOg).  Listen on Podurama https://podurama.com Intro and exit music are by Alexander Nakarada If you have questions, feel free to contact me at richard.abels54@gmail.com

    1h 14m
See All (68)

4.9
out of 5
36 Ratings

About

Talking about popular conceptions of the Middle Ages and their historical realities. Join Richard Abels to learn about Vikings, knights and chivalry, movies set in the Middle Ages, and much more about the medieval world.

Information

You Might Also Like