This handsomely produced collection of twenty essays written by former students, colleagues, and collaborators of Fr. F. X. Martin, formerly professor of medieval history at University College Dublin, honors his contribution to historical scholarship over the period 1947–2001. Martin's passionate interest in medieval Dublin is reflected in four essays. In his lavishly illustrated contribution, Patrick F. Wallace provides an authoritative, critical study of reconstruction drawings of Hiberno-Norse Dublin. Howard Clarke assiduously negotiates the limitations of surviving evidence to present the reader with a highly evocative account of street life in medieval Dublin. In an essay that broadens the perspective on Dublin's historical development, John Bradley traces the shifting dynamics in relations between Dublin, Chester, and Bristol during the Norman period, highlighting very effectively the connection between Bristol's rise to supremacy and the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. These three contributions are complemented by Anngret Simms's comparative analysis of the medieval core of small and medium-sized towns in central Europe and in Ireland. Focusing specifically on the relative location of parish churches, churchyards, marketplaces, and town halls so as to trace patterns and processes in the early formation of towns, Simms stresses that the “full appreciation of the history of our towns depends on an understanding of processes in space as well as in time” (232).
Four essays on the church in medieval Ireland highlight this second dimension of Martin's scholarship. In a thoughtful contribution, Adrian Empey aims to introduce new perspectives into the debate concerning the remote origins of pastoral organization in pre-Anglo-Norman Ireland. He questions the existence of a long-established nonmonastic pastoral system in the pre-Anglo-Norman era but cautions that if the monastic nature of the preconquest church in Ireland is to be “consigned to oblivion, we should at very least be wary of substituting models with equally insubstantial foundations in its place” (47). Marie Therese Flanagan's engaging contribution focuses on Archbishop John Cummins's celebration of a “clamor” at Dublin in 1197 and the ritual humiliation of the revered crucifix of the Holy Trinity Cathedral. She interprets both as indicative of the prelate's awareness of the importance of public symbolic gestures and of his harnessing the “spiritual arsenal” (79) of the church in quarrels between church and state. The campaign of Archbishop Richard FitzRalph of Armagh against the friars’ pastoral activity and privileges in the 1350s, for which he gained notoriety, is the subject of Michael Haren's essay. In his erudite analysis of the episode, Haren draws upon previously unknown sources to qualify Katherine Walsh's assessment of FitzRalph and also stresses the formative influence of Bishop Grandisson of Exeter in shaping FitzRalph's antimendicant views. Haren's contribution is complimented by T. P. Dolan's essay, which features a clear exposition of the evolution and quality of FitzRalph's arguments for attacking the friars as articulated in his Defensio curatorum (1357).
Martin had a reputation for initiating research projects, and Paul Brand's essay on the appointment of English royal justices in Ireland circa 1300 similarly “makes a start” (128) on exploring this phenomenon by focusing on the careers of five justices. He examines their qualifications, patronage networks, and contacts, their integration into Anglo-Irish society and their continuing ties with England, and their career aspirations, presenting a template for scholars in the future to use in constructing a comprehensive profile of this coterie of influential royal officials.
Martin's interest in connections and parallels between Ireland and the Continent in the medieval era is represented in two essays. In a short article on the Áes Dána, Michael Richter claims that their structures are not so unique as has been maintained, citing several similarities in structures of organized learning in continental Europe and early Ireland. Evelyn Mullally examines two Arthurian romances for evidence of Irish topography, unveiling the extent and nature of thirteenth-century French writers’ knowledge of Ireland and exploring some of the reasons behind their hostile depictions.
The three areas in which Martin had particular expertise—Scholasticism, humanist writing, and the medieval genre of “the mirror of the prince”—are featured in essays in this volume. In his substantial and scholarly contribution, Jeremiah Hackett presents a detailed critical discussion of the role of princes as articulated in the genre of the mirror of the prince. He concentrates specifically on two influential works, Giles of Rome's well-known De regimine principum, circa 1280, and Secret of Secrets, a “neglected text” that Hackett regards as “the major work on the education of the prince from the medieval Islamic world” (105). In a short, speculative contribution on the representation of a monarch, Seymour Phillips offers tentative suggestions concerning the origins of the portrait of Charles V, king of France (1364–80) at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire. Peter Gallagher's essay on the influence of the celebrated humanist scholar Francesco Petrarch (d. 1374) on one of his students, the Florentine Augustinian Luigi Marsili (d. 1394), contends that it was Marsili's apparent fusion of Christian beliefs and his interest in classical antiquity that made him so influential in the late fourteenth century and beyond.
Martin's interest in the Reformations is reflected in four essays. Kevin Down draws upon substantial archival evidence to show that parish clergy in the archdeaconry of Worcester diocese suffered little from the permanent absence of its Italian bishops on the eve of the Reformation. Shifting focus to the Continent, Katherine Walsh presents a very engaging discussion of Maria of Hungary's initially enthusiastic engagement with Lutheranism and examines the reasons behind the queen's reluctance to make any public comment on the religious question after the Diet of Augsburg (1530). In an important essay, Joseph Bergin situates his assessment of the regulars’ changing role in the episcopate of ancien régime France within a wider European context. He shows how the episcopate in France under Louis XIV and his successors, by contrast with the trend in Spain, Italy, and Ireland, became more dominated by the nobles, thus diminishing the opportunities open to regulars. Declan Downey highlights the Castilian and regalist character of the early Counter-Reformation in Ireland and the importance of the Irish colleges in preserving Spanish interests in northern Europe. Moving forward to the mid-nineteenth century, Dermot Fenlon's analysis of Edward Caswell's diary offers insights into Marian devotion in Ireland and the background to John Henry Newman's Letter to Pusey (1865), showing that Catholics in mid-nineteenth-century Ireland were experiencing a “‘long’ Catholic Reformation” (323). Michael Laffan's short essay provides a thoughtful assessment of Martin's role in “transforming the historiography of the [1916] Rising and the Irish Revolution” (325). The volume concludes with a comprehensive list of Martin's publications, compiled by Clare O’Reilly.
Martin's prominent role in fostering an appreciation for Irish history and heritage beyond the confines of the university might have been afforded more comprehensive coverage in this volume to convey more fully the extent of his contribution to historical scholarship, which is otherwise appropriately honored in this impressive volume.
