My primary area of professional expertise is the history of Europe in the Middle Ages. Within that period, I have a special interest in the history of Christianity and the church, and especially in matters relating to the cult of saints— their lives, relics, and veneration. My publications have dealt with the distribution of saints’ relics in the transition from Antiquity to the Middle Ages, martyrologies (lists of saints arranged according to the dates of their festivals) between the eighth and twelfth centuries, and the origins of the myth that Jews commit the ritual murder of Christian children. My current research involves the life and miracles of St. William of Norwich, the first purported victim of a ritual murder, and the role of English kings in promoting the cults of individual saints from the tenth to the thirteenth century.

I am presently enrolled in K-State’s phased retirement program, so I am teaching only in the fall semesters. My instructional activity is now concentrated in upper-level undergraduate courses. These include HIST 567 Europe in the Middle Ages, HIST 579 Britain to 1603, HIST 585 Medieval Religion and Politics, and HIST 597 Topics in Medieval Saints. In practice, I offer HIST 567 every fall and rotate the other courses.

Select Publications

Rabani Mauri Martyrologium, critical edition with introduction, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio mediaevalis 44 (Turnhout, 1979)

“The Cult of Relics in the Letters and ‘Dialogues’ of Pope Gregory the Great: A Lexicographical Survey,” Traditio 32 (1976), 145-184.

“From Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Continuity and Change in Papal Relic Policy from the 6th to the 8th Century,” in Pietas: Festschrift für Bernhard Kötting, ed. E. Dassman and K. S. Frank, Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum, Ergänzungsband 8 (1980), 313-324.

“Herman the Lame’s Martyrology Through Four Centuries of Scholarship,” Analecta Bollandiana 104 (1986), 349-370.

“Jewish Ritual Murder: William of Norwich, Thomas of Monmouth, and the Early Dissemination of the Myth,” Speculum 72 (1997), 698-740.

“The ‘Pseudo-Bede of Cologne’: A Martyrology of the ‘Gorzean’ Reform,” in Forschungen zur Reichs-, Papst- und Landesgeschichte Peter Herde zum 65. Geburtstag von Freunden, Schülern und Kollegen dargebracht, 2 vol. (Stuttgart, 1998), 1:81-99.

“Unofficial Elements in the Cult of St. William of Norwich,” Hagiographica 13 (2006), 163-204.

Courses

HIST 567 Europe in the Middle Ages
HIST 579 Britain to 1603
HIST 585 Medieval Religion and Politics
HIST 597 Topics in Medieval Saints