Zoroastrians in the Great Game
In the early 1900s the small but influential Zoroastrian community in India contemplated establishing a colony in Iran. Could the Parsis rely on British support?
Religion
Get Out: Excommunicated in Medieval England
In 13th-century England excommunication was akin to spiritual leprosy. How did it work?
The Church of England’s Great Ejection
On 24 August 1662 those clergy who refused to accept the Book of Common Prayer were to be ejected from the Church of England. How many paid the price for their non-conformity?
The Hunt for Martin Marprelate
Who was Martin Marprelate, seditious pamphleteer and enemy of the Elizabethan Church and state? And, more importantly, how could he be stopped?
What’s in a Pope’s Name?
Pope Leo XIV’s choice of name reveals much about the direction of the Church.
The Great Destroyer: Cyrus, Babylon, and Jerusalem
The ancient world found him to have achieved greatness and thrust it upon his name, but was the destruction of Babylon Cyrus’ divinely ordained destiny?
Hunting Heretics: Inside the Medieval Inquisition
More than 5,000 people were interviewed during the Great Inquisition of medieval Toulouse. What did this mean for those ordinary people called to give evidence?
‘Saudi Arabia: A Modern History’ by David Commins review
How did a Gulf backwater become a global powerbroker? Saudi Arabia: A Modern History by David Commins explores the uneasy alliance between oil, autocracy, and Wahhabism.
Artificial Inspiration
Poets across the ages have sought help with their writing – but AI bears no comparison with the divine.
Gods at the Margins: How European Paganism Survived
By the 14th century Christianity had swept many of Europe’s indigenous religions aside, but not all. At the continent’s peripheries paganism survived and, in some cases, thrived.