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Orbis Britanniae: A Dark Age Alphabet
Agilbert (d. 675) was bishop successively of Dorchester-on-Thames and Paris. A Frank who’d studied in Ireland, he left the West Saxon...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Apr 9, 20207 min read


The St Mark Ivories: The Grado Chair That Never Was
Fig.1 - The Annunciation, Museo del Castello Sforzesco, Milan. In 1899 a group of ivory carvings (figs. 1-5 provide a sample) was...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Apr 4, 20207 min read


Vortigern: The British Scapegoat
Vortigern was the most dominant figure in what remained of the Roman administration after the departure of the Roman legions. His...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Mar 28, 20207 min read


The Battle for the Venetian Soul: Byzantium vs. Francia
From the appearance of the Lombards in Venetia[1] in AD 568/9, Venice had to play a clever game to enforce any sort of autonomy in the...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Mar 26, 20204 min read


Whence St Demetrios?: The Spanish Patron Saint of Thessaloniki
There is a disturbing lack of early evidence for the cult of St Demetrios at Thessalonica. In light of this the majority of modern...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Mar 21, 20204 min read


Balkan Christianity: The Early Years
House of Dionysios, Archaeological Museum of Delos Whenever the clash of paganism and Christianity is discussed, minds jump to the easy...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Mar 19, 20207 min read


Did Byzantine Heraldry Exist?
Was there an equivalent use of distinctive motifs employed as ornament by the Byzantine nobility (to convey the same messages of...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Mar 12, 20205 min read


Christian Worship: The Early Years
At the beginning of the second century, Christian ritual was loosely organised. The congregation would assemble at sunrise on Sunday for...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Mar 7, 20204 min read


The Development of Christian Jerusalem
If Rome evolved a stational liturgy in order to connect scattered cemeteries and tituli (which were by the third century accorded...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Mar 5, 20205 min read


Neoplatonic Christianity: An Alternative Theological Model or Dead-End?
“Only a few things in the Platonic books need to be altered to make their authors Christian.”[1] St Augustine “Oneself is not the subject...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Feb 27, 202013 min read


The Walls of Ravenna
Ancient Ravenna lay much closer to the coast than it does today, the sea now having receded approximately six miles. Our earliest...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Feb 21, 20205 min read


A Byzantine In England: A Glimpse Into The Life Of Theodore Of Tarsus
In AD 669 Theodore, a Byzantine monk from Tarsus, arrived in England having been appointed Archbishop of Canterbury two years previously....

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Feb 13, 20205 min read


Universal Salvation or Perpetual Hell? Apokatastasis: The Ultimate Reunion
Referring to restoration, reintegration and reconstitution, Apokatastasis is the restoration of all creation to its proper place in...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Feb 8, 20204 min read


A Florentine Cul-De-Sac: The Union That Divided
“My son, of course we know very well that the infidel dread the day we come to an agreement and unite with the Franks; for, they believe...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Feb 6, 20208 min read


The Biblical Account of Demonology
I was recently struck by a paper penned by C. Mango, which asserted that: “The gospel does not contain a coherent theory of demonology…...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Feb 1, 20205 min read


Ecclesiastical Hegemony: The Causes of the Divorce between Constantinople & Moscow
“Do not accept the teachings of the Latins, whose instruction is vicious.”[1] Russian Primary Chronicle The Russians historically...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Jan 30, 20204 min read


1431-1449: The Final Ecumenical Council - Two Churches, One Tradition
Western theology tends to be identified with post fifteenth-century Thomism. This may marginalise trends such as Scotism, Ockhamism,...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Jan 23, 20205 min read


Three’s a Crowd: How the Papacy Sought a Germanic Godfather
Charles Martel’s martial help was sought by Pope Gregory III, who in AD 739 sent an embassy to the ruler bearing many precious gifts...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Jan 18, 20205 min read


The Development of Music in the Medieval West
The Romans adopted Greek theory and practice as far as both vocal and instrumental music were concerned. Later Roman writers on music...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Jan 16, 20205 min read


Stabbed in the Front: How Romans Facilitated Their Own Colonisation
In the fifth century, several barbarian peoples were accorded settlements on the provincial soil of the empire. The details are worth...

Henry Hopwood-Phillips
Jan 12, 20203 min read
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