John Merrington

Research Topic

Restraint and Reform: the Five Senses in Thought and Practice in Latin Europe, c. 500-900 (Granted Leave to Supplicate, 23/08/24)

My DPhil considered the morality of the five senses in early medieval western Europe. Christian preachers presented the senses as apertures through which spiritual corruption could pass. In these terms, the senses were often likened to 'gateways' or 'windows' which, if left unguarded, would endanger the purity of the heart. This ideology of sensory restraint was translated into a set of practices designed to manage the sinful potential of the senses. Prayerbooks, for example, record prophylactic and confessional prayers relating to the five senses, whilst hagiographical and liturgical sources demonstrate that the senses were sometimes anointed as a form of medicinal or therapeutic care. These regulatory practices were rooted ultimately in the conviction that the senses, whilst compromised, could be reformed to the state of perfection that they had held at the time of Creation.

I discuss my doctoral research further in a podcast recorded by OxPods. I have also written for the TLS and Engelsberg Ideas.

I am interested in early medieval historiography. My article, 'Bede and Gregory of Tours: a Reconsideration' appeared in English Historical Review in autumn 2024. My article on the sixth-century Gallo-Roman historian Gregory of Tours was awarded the First Publication Prize for 2022 by the journal Early Medieval Europe. I have a third article forthcoming in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, which addresses the Carolingian 'Martinelli', a family of manuscripts containing texts related to St Martin of Tours.

In 2025, my doctoral monograph was provisionally accepted for publication by OUP. Its title is Windows of the Soul: Morality and the Five Senses in Early Medieval Europe.