Walter P. Simons
Professor
Appointments
Professor of History Emeritus
Area of Expertise
Medieval history,
religious and cultural history of medieval Europe,
female religious communities,
beguines and beghards,
mendicant orders,
mysticism,
history of the Low Countries and France,
urban history,
historical methodology
Biography
Growing up in Bruges, one of the most beautiful medieval cities in Europe, Walter Simons never had any doubt in his mind that he wanted to be a medievalist. He was trained as a historian in Belgium and at the Center for Medieval Studies in Poitiers, France, before receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Ghent, Bruges' arch-rival from the Middle Ages. A very medieval academic peregrination brought him from his native Flanders to the United States, which he finds not very medieval but all the more fascinating. His research is devoted to the social environment of religious movements in the high and late Middle Ages, gender, mysticism, urban history, history of the Low Countries, and historical methodology; additional interests are popular culture, art, and the two world wars of the twentieth century. His publications include Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200-1565 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001, paperback 2003), A Cultural History of Peace in the Medieval Age (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), and The Cambridge History of Christianity, vol. IV: Christianity in Western Europe, c.1100-c.1500, co-edited with Miri Rubin (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2009) . He retired in 2023 and is currently writing a book on a thirteenth-century woman, Elizabeth of Spalbeek.
Education
M. A. History, University of Ghent, Belgium
Diplôme d'Études Approfondies de Civilisation Médiévale, Centre d'Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale, University of Poitiers, France
Ph.D. History, University of Ghent, Belgium
Publications
"Persecuted by the Unknowing: The Swesteren and Lollards of the Low Countries and Lower Rhine, c. 1290 – c. 1350. Part One: The Clementine Decretals Against Lay Religious." Oliviana: Mouvements et dissidences spirituels XIIIe – XIVe siècles, 7 (2023) [online, URL: http://journals.openedition.org/oliviana/1548].
"Persecuted by the Unknowing: The Swesteren and Lollards of the Low Countries and Lower Rhine, c. 1290 – c. 1350. Part Two: The Ecclesiastical Campaign Against the Swesteren and Lollards." Oliviana: Mouvements et dissidences spirituels XIIIe – XIVe siècles, 7 (2023) [online, URL: http://journals.openedition.org/oliviana/1563].
"Persecuted by the Unknowing: The Swesteren and Lollards of the Low Countries and Lower Rhine, c. 1290 – c. 1350. Part Three: The Doctrine of the Swesteren and Lollards, and the Relationship to Meister Eckhart's Thought." Oliviana: Mouvements et dissidences spirituels XIIIe – XIVe siècles, 7 (2023) [online, URL: http://journals.openedition.org/oliviana/1568].
"Persecuted by the Unknowing: The Swesteren and Lollards of the Low Countries and Lower Rhine, c. 1290 – c. 1350. Part Four: Catalogue of Houses (Swesteren, Lollards, Beghards)." Oliviana: Mouvements et dissidences spirituels XIIIe – XIVe siècles, 7 (2023) [online, URL: http://journals.openedition.org/oliviana/1573].
(editor) A Cultural History of Peace in the Medieval Age. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020.
"Worlds Apart? Beguine Communities of Nivelles and the Abbey of St Gertrude, from Marie d'Oignies (d. 1213) to the Liber Ordinarius (c. 1300)." In The Liber Ordinarius of Nivelles (Houghton Library, MS Lat 422): Liturgy as Interdisciplinary Intersection, 97–131. Edited by Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Eva Schlotheuber. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020.
"Wrestling with the Angel: Huizinga, Herfsttij, and Religion." In Rereading Huizinga: Autumn of the Middle Ages, A Century Later, 41–64. Edited by Peter Arnade, Martha Howell and Anton van der Lem. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press, 2019.
(with Sean Field) "A Prophecy Fulfilled? An Annotated Translation of the Sources on the Death of Crown Prince Louis of France (1276) and the Interrogations of Elizabeth of Spalbeek (1276-1278)." The Medieval Low Countries 5 (2018), 35–91.
"Beginnings: Naming Beguines in the Southern Low Countries, 1200–1250." In Labels and Libels: Naming Beguines in Northern Medieval Europe, 9–52. Edited by Letha Böhringer, Jennifer Kolpacoff Deane, and Hildo van Engen. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2014
(editor, with Miri Rubin). The Cambridge History of Christianity , vol. IV: Christianity in Western Europe, 1100-1500. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
(with John W. Baldwin) "The Consequences of Bouvines." French Historical Studies 37, 2 (2014): 243–69. Also published in French as "Bouvines, un tournant européen (1214–1314)," in Revue historique (Paris) 138, CCCXVI/3, no. 671 (Juillet 2014): 499–526.
Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200-1565. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001; paperback 2003.
Stad en apostolaat: De vestiging van de bedelorden in het graafschap Vlaanderen, 1225-1350. Brussels: Paleis der Academiën, 1987.
Bedelordekloosters in het graafschap Vlaanderen. Bruges: Abdij Steenbrugge & Stichting Jan Cobbaut, 1987.
Works in Progress
Manual labor, begging, and religious ideals in medieval Europe.
Contact