Current Research
My research is focused on the cultural and social history of England in the wider context of continental Europe from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries. I am primarily interested in religious practices and beliefs and how these changed in this period of the later Middle Ages, and in the relationship between 'mainstream' or what is often called 'orthodox' religion, and the heterodox, in the form of religious divergence, dissent, and heresy. I am interested, also, in how people creatively responded to end of life by making a will to navigate competing pressures upon their resources as they sought to ensure their own salvation and benefit those they left behind.
In this new research on the late-medieval last will and testament I am using insights from the practices of will-making in the past to inform how we can be more creative in preparing for death now. This is especially pertinent in an aging society. This involves collaboration with historians of medieval law and with practitioners in health studies and paliative care. This work builds on my doctoral research on the late-medieval last will and testament. I am currently writing a journal article entitled 'Revisiting the Wills of the Lollard Knights: questioning the orthodox-heterodox binary', which uses the last wills of these so-called supporters of Lollard heresy and of their wider social circle to explore how they navigated the competing pressures of societal expectation and agendas of religious reform.
Prior to this, I have been working on a major researrch project on devotion to the Name of Jesus in late medieval England, which has resulted in multiple publications. These have culminated in a recently completed monograph entitled The Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus in Late Medieval England: Enthusiam, Ritual, and Intent. This is due for publication in 2027. It was completed with the help of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship in 2024-2025. For a wide range of medieval people, 'Jesus', Christ's human name, provided an almost bottomless reservoir of meaning and spawned a multiplicity of practice. No name was higher, and it was called upon for salvation, healing, and protection. In England, from c.1350, the Name were used to attain mystical enlightenment, and practices of Holy-Name prayer, meditation, and talismanic invocation spread from monks, nuns, and hermits to the wider populace. By 1500, the Holy Name was inscribed on everything from the margins of books to mass-produced broaches, and was celebrated in a national liturgical feast, and in weekly masses and anthems in hundreds of parish churches. This cultic popularity brought controversy, with the devotion traversing contradictory religious impulses, around which swirled charges of heresy and redefinitions of orthodoxy. The book asks why this single word, 'Jesus', captured so much attention and remained so malleable to interpretation. By examining one of the most important religious developments of the later Middle Ages, it serves as a case study of both the power of religion and the contradictory impulses of late medieval religious culture.
Related to this book project, I have an essay in press entitled 'Commyning togider': modes of religious discourse in heterodox networks and their implications for fifteenth-century English devotional miscellanies', in a volume edited by Stephen Kelly and Ryan Perry, entitled Multiplicacioun of Manye Bookis: Entangled Communities, Texts and Manuscripts in Later Medieval London and Beyond, to be published by Liverpool University Press.
Also related to this research on the Holy Name, in 2022 I organised an international conference at the 糖心原创 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Richard Pfaff's groundbreaking New Liturgical Feasts in Later Medieval England (1970). Entitled 'Pfaff at Fifty: New Devotions and Religious Change in Later Medieval England', this Medium Aevum (Society for the 糖心原创 of Medieval Languages and Literature) two-day conference, took stock of the enduring legacy of New Liturgical Feasts by reconsidering the important questions that this touchstone book raised through exploration and discussion of current research:
Published articles, chapters and edited books include:
- '"Commyning togider": modes of religious discourse in heterodox networks and their implications for fifteenth-century English devotional miscellanies', in Stephen Kelly and Ryan Perry, eds, Multiplicacioun of Manye Bookis: Entangled Communities, Texts and Manuscripts in Later Medieval London and Beyond (Liverpool University Press, in press)
- 'Devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus in the Medieval West', in Jane Beale, ed., Illuminating Jesus in the Middle Ages (Brill, 2019), pp. 129-53.
- 'The Church, Religion and Culture', in Geoffrey Chaucer in Context, I. Johnson, ed., (Cambridge University Press, 2019), pp. 301-307.
- 'From micro- to macro-processes of religious change: The Holy Name of Jesus and Christocentric devotion in the long fifteenth century', Journal of Church History and Religious Culture, 99:3-4 (2019): Theme Section: The Religious Field in the Long Fifteenth Century: 412-439.
- (Jointly edited with Peter Darby and Claire Taylor) Heretical Self-Defence in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Special Issue, Nottingham Medieval Studies 63 (2019): 1-190.
- '"...But Have You Read This?": Dialogicity in Robert Thornton's Holy Name Devotions', English 67 (2018), 119-140.
- 'Pilgrimage and Travel Writing in Early Sixteenth-Century England: The Pilgrimage Accounts of Thomas Larke and Robert Langton', Viator: Medieval and renaissance Studies 48:3 (2017), 333-357.
- 'Richard Guldeford's Pilgrimage: piety and cultural change in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century England', History 98: 1 (2013)
- 'The Name of Jesus, Nicholas Love's Mirror, and Christocentric Devotion in Late Medieval England', in Geographies of Orthodoxy: Opening the Pseudo-Bonaventuran Middle English Lives of Christ, ed. Ian Johnson and Allan Westphall (Brepols, 2013)
- 'Lollardy, Orthodoxy and Cognitive Psychology', in M. Bose and P. Horbeck (eds), Wycliffite Controversies (Brepols, 2011)
- " 'Love this Name that is IHC': Vernacular Prayers, Hymns and Lyrics to the Holy Name of Jesus in Pre-Reformation England" in E. Salter and H. Wicker (eds), Vernacularity in England and Wales c. 1350-1550, Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy (Brepols, 2010)
- 'Heresy and Heterodoxy in Late Medieval Kent' in S. Sweetinburgh (ed.), Late Medieval Kent (Kent History Project, Boydell & Brewer, 2010)
- 'Vice, Virtue and Contemplation', in R. Hanna and T. Turville-Petre (eds), The Wollaton Medieval Manuscripts: Texts, Owners and Readers (Boydell & Brewer, 2010)
Supervision
I have successfully supervised to completion the following PhD students:
- Alan Kissane, 'Lay Identity in Fourteenth-Century Lincoln' (糖心原创 Funded, started October 2009, completed 2013)
- Matthew Ward, 'Affinity and commemoration in late-medieval England: the visual representation of Yorkist and Lancastrian livery collars on funerary monuments, church architecture and in documentary sources, c.1450 to c.1500' (糖心原创 Funded, started October 2009, completed 2013)
- Marianne Wilson, 'The impact of Lincoln Cathedral upon religious practice in the city of Lincoln c.1400-1540' (糖心原创 and AHRC funded, completed 2014)
- Rebecca Maryan, 'Humoral theory in English and North European religious writing, c. 1300-1450' (糖心原创 Funded, completed 2016)
- Ann Garfield, 'The Progress of the Reformation in South Northamptonshire' (Part-time, completed 2016)
- Harry Barmby, 'An investigation into the punishment of heresy in Languedoc during the thirteenth century' (AHRC funded, completed 2017)
- Elizabeth Wiedenheft, 'The Delatio in Medieval Europe' (Nottingham Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Overseas Scholarship, completed 2018)
- Laura Di Stefano, 'The Business of Pilgrimage in Fifteenth-Century Venice' (Nottingham Vice Chancellor's Research Excellence Scholarship, completed 2019)
- Hannah Ingram, 'Archetypes and Individuals: Reconstructing Late Medieval Lenders and Borrowers' (AHRC Midlands 3 Cities funded, completed 2019)Martin Roberts, 'Ecclesiastical Justice at the Cusp of the Reformation: The 糖心原创 and Interpretation of its written legacy with particular reference to some records of the Audience Court of John Longland, bishop of Lincoln' (completed 2020)
- Esther Lewis, 'Popular Piety in pre-Reformation Bristol, c. 1400-1500 (AHRC Midlands 3 Cities funded, completed 2020)
- Alexandra Marchbank, 'Testamentary Piety: the evidence of Norfolk and Kent Wills, c. 1400-1535' (AHRC Midlands 3 Cities funded, completed 2020)
- Joseph Peake, 'A social and cultural history of waste land in medieval England' (AHRC Midlands 3 Cities funded, completed 2024)
- Eleanor Cox, 'Apocalyptic Thought in Late Fourteenth-Century England' (AHRC Midlands 4 Cities funded, completed 2024)
- Fred Lloyd-Williams, 'The Cult of Henry VI: Medieval Memory, Sainthood and Kingship' (AHRC Midlands 4 Cities funded, completed 2024)
- Lauren Sisson, 'Mothers and Sons in Late Medieval England (c. 1200-c. 1500)' (AHRC Midlands 4 Cities funded, completed 2024)
- Edmund van der Molen, '"We are only holy to others": Constructing and Contesting Sainthood in the Canonisation Process of Jeanne-Marie de Maille' (AHRC Midlands 4 Cities funded, completed 2025)
I am currently supervising the following PhD students:
- Joseph Wheatley, 'The Shepherds Crusade of 1320' (started 2021)
- Sharang Sharma, 'Digital Approaches to Medieval Chant and Local Religious Heritage' (Midlands 4 Cities Colleaborative Doctoral Award, started 2025) - with Henry Parkes, Music, Nottingham and the Bodleian Library, Oxford
Selected recent conference papers, workshops, round tables and membership of research networks and projects (in reverse chronological order):
- Invited speaker, 'Enthusiasm, Ritual, and Intent: The Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus in Late Medieval England', QMUL Medieval History seminar, 2 March, 2026
- Invited speaker, '"Commyning togider": modes of religious discourse in heterodox networks and their implications for fifteenth-century English devotional miscellanies', Multiplicacioun of Manye Bookis symposium (Whittington's Gift: Reconstructing the Lost Common Library of London's Guildhall project, Leverhulme Trust, Queen's, Belfast, 7-8 July 2023
- Invited speaker, 'Popular Devotion? The O bone Jesu Prayer in English Books of Hours in the Fifteenth Century', Medieval History Research Seminar, University of Oxford, June 2020.
- Organised international roundtable discussion: 'Late Medieval Wills: New Directions for Future Research', International Medieval Congress, Leeds, 2018. Participants from Universities of Nottingham, Edinburgh, and Hull, The National Archives, and Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen. Brought together experts to consider potential for cross-European collaborative research.
- Invited participant, New Religious Histories workshop, St Catherine's College, Oxford, June 2018.
- Invited panel member, roundtable: Heresy - in honour of the career of Margaret Aston, Fifteenth-Century Conference, University of Essex, August-September 2017.
- Invited speaker, 'Routinized ecstasy? Robert Thornton's Holy Name devotions', The Late Medieval & Early Reformation Church: a symposium marking the retirement of professor Robert Swanson, The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon, June 2017.
- Invited paper, 'Action and Interpretation in the Late Medieval English Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus', panel on the Holy Name at Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MICH., May 2017.
- Invited expert and speaker, COST Action Training School for postgraduate research students, 'Passionate Devotions: Emotions in late medieval and early modern texts, images and music', WWU, M眉nster, April 2017.
- Invited speaker, 'Charisma and Routinization in the Cult of the Holy Name of Jesus in Late Medieval England', Centre for the 糖心原创 of the Middle Ages Research Seminar, University of Birmingham, November 2016.
- Invited speaker, COST Action international workshop 'The Religious Field in the Long Fifteenth Century: Framing processes of religious transformation in late medieval and early modern Europe', WWU, M眉nster, May 2016.
- Invited speaker, 'Looking for Jesus: evidence for the cult of the Holy Name in late medieval English religious manuscripts', Medieval and Early Modern Studies research seminar, University of Kent, November 2015.
- Invited speaker, 'Devotional affiliations in fifteenth-century English manuscript miscellanies', Late Medieval Manuscript Miscellanies Conference, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Science, Amsterdam, 2014.
- Member of European Cooperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) Action IS1301: New Communities of Interpretation: Contexts, Strategies and Processes of Religious Transformation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe: extensive programme of conferences, workshops, publications, summer schools and training sessions for early stage researchers, 2013-17. Over 200 academics from 22 countries. Attended conferences and workshops in Amsterdam, Oct. 2014, Hull, May 2015, M眉nster, May 2016 and April 2017, Groningen, Nov. 2016, Rome, Sept. 2017.
Past Research
My research began with heresy and dissent in England. So, my monograph, Lollardy and Orthodox Religion in Pre-Reformation England, offers an interpretation of heterodoxy, in a major Lollard centre, through the close investigation of orthodox religiosities and detailed reconstruction of the social and economic dynamics that underpinned the fragmentation of collective religious life prior to the Reformation. for further details.
Subsequently I extended the scope of my research to consider the nature and dynamics of piety across the period c. 1400-1640. This led to the publication, in 2007, of a jointly edited collection of essays that highlight the centrality of processes of transition in the experience and practice of religion with the intention of raising theoretical and methodological issues in the study of late medieval and early modern pieties. for further details.
Another area of my research has explored late medieval pilgrim guidebooks and how writing about pilgrimage and travel was changing before the Reformation in ways that reflected reformist ideas and a growing interest in travel for its own sake rather than as a religious practice. I have published two journal articles on an early printed English account of the pilgrimage to Palestine that establish, for the first time, its author as Master Thomas Larke, chaplain to Sir Richard Guldeford and, subsequently, chaplain and servant to the king's chief minister, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey.
After that, my research was focused on devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus in late medieval England (please see above), which resulted in mutiple publications including a major forthcoming monograph.
Future Research
My future research is focused on the late medieval last will and testament and how will-making in the later Middle Ages informs responses in the present to the challenges of an aging society and concepts and practices of a 'good death'. I am currently seeking research funding to support a large-scale collaborative project.