Dear ANZAMEMS members, Nicola Wright (based at The University of Auckland) has shared the following news of her research with us. Nicola has recently completed her Masters thesis on the topic of early medieval Europe studies. An abstract of her research is included below:

Congratulations Nicola!

Thesis title: Palms of Blood: Christianity, Violence and Identity in Late Antiquity.

My thesis examines attitudes toward religious violence in Western Europe between c.400 and c.700 CE, with a focus on Italy and Gaul. Violence was, at one and the same time, something used to punish sinners yet also to mark out the faithful. Suffering and pain were inescapable features of life in the late antique world, but not only heathens were expected to suffer. Some Christians mortified their flesh as a safe-guard against sin, others chose the long martyrdom of asceticism, and many more still participated in ritual reenactments of the suffering and deaths of the martyrs; seeking the ‘palms of blood’ which inspired the title of my work. Sinners were disciplined with a religiously sanctioned violence and festivial celebrations were, at times, accompanied by outbursts of mob violence and rioting. Though Christianity was imbued with attitudes toward violence which are sometimes surprising to the modern mind, these attitudes and the mentalities behind them are fundamental to any consideration of the religious culture of the post-Roman world.