DOCSLIB.ORG

Exemplarity and Its Limits in the Hagiographical Corpus of Thomas of Cantimpré

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Exemplarity and Its Limits in the Hagiographical Corpus of Thomas of Cantimpré Exemplarity and its Limits in the Hagiographical Corpus of Thomas of Cantimpré The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Smith, Rachel. 2012. Exemplarity and its Limits in the Hagiographical Corpus of Thomas of Cantimpré. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:9385642 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA © Rachel Smith 2012 Prof. Amy Hollywood Rachel Smith Exemplarity and its Limits in Thomas of Cantimpré’s Hagiographical Corpus Abstract This dissertation examines the hagiographical corpus of the Dominican preacher Thomas of Cantimpré (c. 1201–1270), a critical early respondent to the burgeoning women’s religious movement in the Southern Low Countries. Writing at a time when both lay and religious spirituality were being radically refigured in light of new organizational structures and devotional practices, Thomas’s hagiographical corpus reflects the diversity of vocational possibilities available for women and men in this period at a time of great religious experimentation and innovation. Using historical, literary, and theological methods, the dissertation examines the ways in which Thomas’s vitae struggle with the question of how lay and religious, male and female readers might, in Thomas’s words, “take up” the different kinds of figures Thomas offers as models for practice and objects of devotion. Each of the vitae offer unique solutions to this question even as they represent different sorts of persons as exemplary. An important assumption governing the dissertation is that hagiography is a vital part of the spiritual and theological tradition of Christianity. Thomas’s vitae, I argue, attempt to articulate a theology of exemplarity in order to address the issue of what constitutes sanctity, who can become a saint, and by what means sanctity is attained. For Thomas, exemplarity is animated by theological notions of incarnation and scriptural revelation. Christ, as manifest in his life and in the words of scripture, is the great exemplum for embodied lives. For each of Thomas’s saints, Christ is both the singular figure who saves and the one in whom the saint participates, raising the question of how iii the individual human being embodies and exemplifies Christ’s singularity. Thomas’s Lives will be shown, in the course of their narratives, to illumine the tension between the singularity of Christ and its repetition in the saintly figures represented in the vitae and the readers of those vitae. Exploration of this tension reveals great richness in Thomas’s works, showing that Thomas’s narrative voice often speaks doubly within a single vita, thematizing the limits and possibilities of exemplarity and its hagiographical representation. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgements vii Chapter One Introduction I. Example and Incarnation 1 II. Thomas of Cantimpré: A Summary of his Life and Literary Activity 4 III. The Economic and Pastoral Context of Thomas’s Ministry 26 IV. The Medieval Exemplum 47 Chapter Two Wondrous Horror and the Didactic Exemplar I. Exemplary Unlikeness in the Vita Christinae Mirabilis 58 II. Dissimilar Similarities 72 III. Dissimilar Similarity and Sanctity 74 IV. Miracle as Mirror: Two readings of Dissimilar Image 90 V. Modeling the Impossible: Exemplarity, Astonishment and the Singular 104 VI. Gendering Particularity: A Comparison with The Life of Abbot John of Cantimpré 108 VII. Conclusion 121 Chapter Three A Question of Proof: Augustine and the Reading of Hagiography I. Introduction: Example, Relic, Text 126 II. Audience and Proof 138 III. The Crisis of Credulity in the Prologue to the Life of Lutgard of Aywières 141 v IV. Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana 151 V. Desire, Interpretation, and Proof 169 VI. Conclusion 179 Chapter Four Language, Literacy, and the Saintly Body I. Introduction 181 II. Litteratus-illiteratus and the topos of the illiterate holy woman in the Middle Ages 191 III. “That what we read may be performed in us”: Reading in a Monastic Milieu 200 IV. William of Saint-Thierry and the Three States of Prayer 210 V. Plotting the VLA: Thomas of Cantimpré and the Monastic Model of Reading 220 VI. Illiteracy in the VLA 226 VII. Literacy in the VLA 235 VIII. Conclusion 241 Chapter Five The Uses of Astonishment: Apophasis, Exemplarity, and the Writing of Mystical Hagiography I. From Inexpressibility to Ineffability: The Wondrous and the Apophatic in the Life of Lutgard of Aywières 244 II. Thomas and the Male Search for Visionary Experience 268 III. Apophasis and Exemplarity 273 IV. Conclusion 279 Bibliography 282 vi Acknowledgements A number of people deserve special acknowledgement for assistance provided during the research and writing of this dissertation. Amy Hollywood offered expert advising, inexhaustible encouragement, and generous editorial help throughout the long process. Nicholas Watson read many early drafts and provided inspiring conversation throughout my time at Harvard. Kevin Madigan’s unflagging support, kindness, and intelligence were essential at every step of my doctoral work. Renata Kalnin’s research assistance was invaluable for this project. Thanks also to Fr. Maximos, Beverley Kienzle, Mark Jordan, Stephanie Paulsell, Natalie Polzer, Abbott Conway, and Kathleen Skerrett for being such wonderful teachers and readers of the pre-modern world. The community of friends and scholars at Harvard has been a great joy during my years in Cambridge. Thanks especially to Amelia Perkins, Natasha Bershadsky, Tamsin Jones, Charles Stang, Sarabinh Levy-Brightman, Mara Willard, Niki Clements, Maria Aguilar, Philip Francis, Jen De La Guardia, Bob Davis, Chip Lockwood, Mikael Haxby, Josh Schapiro, Bronwyn Roantree, Piotr Malysz, Margaret Healy-Varley, Brenna Moore, Mark McInroy, and to friends at home, Krista Muir, Jonathan Hayes, Jane Motz-Hayes, Heidi Willms, Sarah Fulford and Stephen Marche. My family—Sheila and Glen, Duff, Peter and Jen, and Sondra, grandma Dorothy and grandpa Arthur, Brenda and Malcolm—gave love, interest, and good humor throughout this process. Brett and Georgia made everything worthwhile. vii Introduction Incarnation and Example What does it mean to be a saint? Who can become one? By what means is sanctity attained? These questions were central to laypersons and religious leaders in the thirteenth-century Southern Low Countries who lived at a time of great religious innovation and experimentation. This dissertation will examine the ways in which key questions about the holy life—what constitutes it, how it should be represented, and how different audiences might act in light of the example of the saints—are addressed in the hagiographical corpus of the thirteenth-century Augustinian canon-turned-Dominican, Thomas of Cantimpré (c. 1200-c.1270). Thomas’s vitae, I argue, attempt to articulate a theology of exemplarity as an answer. Exemplarity is a quality of “being fit to serve as a model or pattern for imitation” or a “warning about what not to do.”1 For Thomas, exemplarity is animated by theological notions of incarnation and scriptural revelation. Christ, as manifest in his life and in the words of scripture, is the great exemplum for embodied lives. For each of Thomas’s saints, Christ is both the singular figure who saves and the one in whom the saint participates, raising the question of how the individual human being embodies and exemplifies Christ’s singularity. Thomas’s Lives will be shown, in the course of their narratives, to illumine the tension between the singularity of Christ and its repetition in the saintly figures represented in the vitae and in the readers of those vitae. Exploration of this tension reveals great richness in Thomas’s works, showing how Thomas’s narrative voice often speaks doubly within a single vita, 1 OED, vol. 5, p. 525, “exemplarity.” 1 thematizing the limits and possibilities of exemplarity and its representation within a hagiography. In Chapter two, I consider this tension as Thomas represents the body of Christina the Astonishing, whose imitation of Christ is so literal it encroaches on the dogmatically declared singularity of Christ, thereby making her a monstrous horror to spectators who are left uncertain about how to respond—an uncertainty that the narrative dramatizes and probes. In Chapter three, I again explore the problem of credibility, here asking how Thomas understands the status of hagiographical texts that portray the saint so assimilated to God that she becomes impossible to believe, even as her incredible deeds prove her sanctity. As a solution to this rhetorical conundrum, I argue that Thomas, employing a hermeneutical strategy derived from Augustine’s De Doctrina Christiana, asks readers to approach Lutgard’s vita as they would scriptural revelation. In Chapter four, I examine the devotional mode of reading the saint’s life articulated by Thomas as the means by which the reader might become the saint who has, already, become scripture. In Chapter five, I argue that Thomas treats his writing of the life of an ecstatic saint as a means of enabling his own ecstatic encounter with God. In each chapter, I will show the ways in which Thomas problematizes acts of mimesis, thematizing the limits and possibilities of the saint’s, reader’s, and author’s capacity to imitate the divine life, whether in word or deed. Thomas’s theology does not proceed by way of abstract questions and answers but adapts and reconstitutes older theological traditions of Augustine, Cassian, Bernard of Clairvaux, and William of Saint-Thierry within the particular historical narratives of contemporary lives. The saintly example embodies and recapitulates Christ’s example. The vitae, in turn, solicit the imitation (or, in the case of the exemplar-as-warning, a 2 change of behavior) of readers who are asked to respond by means of not only an intellectual assent but also an affective and bodily participation in the saint’s story.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Pulpits and the Damned
    THE PULPITS AND THE DAMNED WITCHCRAFT IN GERMAN POSTILS, 1520-1615 _______________________________________ A Thesis presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri-Columbia _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts _____________________________________________________ by TANNER H. DEEDS Dr. John M. Frymire, Thesis Advisor DECEMBER 2018 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled THE PULPITS AND THE DAMNED: WITCHCRAFT IN GERMAN POSTILS, 1520- 1615 presented by Tanner H. Deeds a candidate for the degree of Master of Arts, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor John M. Frymire Professor Kristy Wilson-Bowers Professor Rabia Gregory I owe an enormous debt to my entire family; but my greatest debt is to my maternal grandmother Jacqueline Williams. Her love and teachings were instrumental in making me who I am today. Unfortunately, she passed away during the early stages of this project and is unable to share in the joys of its completion. My only hope is that whatever I become and whatever I accomplish is worthy of the time, treasure, and kindness she gave me. It is with the utmost joy and the most painful sorrow that I dedicate this work to her. ACKNOWLEGEMENTS At both the institutional and individual level, I have incurred more debts than I can ever hope to repay. Above all I must thank my advisor Dr. John Frymire. Dr. Frymire has been an exemplar advisor from my first day at the University of Missouri. Both in and out of the classroom, he has taught me more than I could have ever hoped when I began this journey.
    [Show full text]
  • Medieval Saints and Modern Screens
    KNOWLEDGE COMMUNITIES Spencer-Hall Medieval Saints and Modern Screens Modern and Saints Medieval Alicia Spencer-Hall Medieval Saints and Modern Screens Divine Visions as Cinematic Experience Medieval Saints and Modern Screens Knowledge Communities This series focuses on innovative scholarship in the areas of intellectual history and the history of ideas, particularly as they relate to the communication of knowledge within and among diverse scholarly, literary, religious, and social communities across Western Europe. Interdisciplinary in nature, the series especially encourages new methodological outlooks that draw on the disciplines of philosophy, theology, musicology, anthropology, paleography, and codicology. Knowledge Communities addresses the myriad ways in which knowledge was expressed and inculcated, not only focusing upon scholarly texts from the period but also emphasizing the importance of emotions, ritual, performance, images, and gestures as modalities that communicate and acculturate ideas. The series publishes cutting-edge work that explores the nexus between ideas, communities and individuals in medieval and early modern Europe. Series Editor Clare Monagle, Macquarie University Editorial Board Mette Bruun, University of Copenhagen Babette Hellemans, University of Groningen Severin Kitanov, Salem State University Alex Novikofff, Fordham University Willemien Otten, University of Chicago Divinity School Medieval Saints and Modern Screens Divine Visions as Cinematic Experience Alicia Spencer-Hall Amsterdam University Press Cover illustration: Untitled digital collage, by James Kerr (2017) Source work: ‘The Adoration of the Magi’, by Justus of Ghent (c. 1465). Distemper on canvas. 43 x 63 in. (109.2 x 160 cm). Currently held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); accession number 41.190.21; artwork in the public domain.
    [Show full text]
  • Three Women Saints in the Thirteenth Century: Mentalities and Roles
    Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 4-1990 Three Women Saints in the Thirteenth Century: Mentalities and Roles Ulrike Strasser Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Medieval Studies Commons Recommended Citation Strasser, Ulrike, "Three Women Saints in the Thirteenth Century: Mentalities and Roles" (1990). Master's Theses. 1072. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/1072 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THREE WOMEN SAINTS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY: MENTALITIES AND ROLES by Ulrike Strasser A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The Medieval Institute Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan April 1990 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THREE WOMEN SAINTS IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY: MENTALITIES AND ROLES Ulrike Strasser, M.A. Western Michigan University, 1990 This case study analyzes the lives of three thirteenth-century female saints, Lutgard of Aywiferes, Margaret of Ypres, and Christina Mirabilis, and places them against the broader theoretical frame of quantitative studies on the subject sainthood. The focus of the study is the pursuit of holiness as well as the perception of holiness. Both, pursuit and perception, serve as the point of departure for a discussion of the mentalities and the social realities which the women’s sainthood reflects.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae
    CURRICULUM VITAE Barbara J. Newman Professor of English; affiliated with Classics, History, and Religious Studies John Evans Professor of Latin Language and Literature Department of English Phone: 847-491-5679 University Hall 215 Fax: 847-467-1545 Northwestern University Email: [email protected] Evanston, IL 60208-2240 Education Ph.D. 1981, Yale University, Department of Medieval Studies M.A.Div. 1976, University of Chicago Divinity School B.A. 1975, Oberlin College, summa cum laude in English and Religion Employment John Evans Professor of Latin, Northwestern University, 2003-; Professor of English and Religion, 1992- ; Associate Professor, 1987-92; Assistant Professor, 1981-87. Books The Permeable Self: Five Medieval Relationships. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, forthcoming fall 2021. The Works of Richard Methley. Translation, with introduction by Laura Saetveit Miles. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press / Cistercian Publications, Jan. 2021. Paper and digital. Mechthild of Hackeborn and the Nuns of Helfta, The Book of Special Grace. Translation with introduction. New York: Paulist Press (Classics of Western Spirituality), 2017. Cloth and digital. Making Love in the Twelfth Century: Letters of Two Lovers in Context. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. Cloth and digital; paperback, 2020. Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. Paper. The Life of Juliana of Cornillon: introduction, chronology, translation, and notes. In Living Saints of the Thirteenth Century: The Lives of Yvette, Anchoress of Huy; Juliana of Cornillon, Author of the Corpus Christi Feast; and Margaret the Lame, Anchoress of Magdeburg, ed. Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker, 143-302. Turnhout: Brepols, 2011. Cloth. 2 Thomas of Cantimpré, The Collected Saints’ Lives: Abbot John of Cantimpré, Christina the Astonishing, Margaret of Ypres, and Lutgard of Aywières, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Reformers on Sorcery and Superstition Michael D
    History Publications History 2015 Reformers on Sorcery and Superstition Michael D. Bailey Iowa State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/history_pubs Part of the Cultural History Commons, European History Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, and the Medieval History Commons The ompc lete bibliographic information for this item can be found at http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ history_pubs/86. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the History at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Reformers on Sorcery and Superstition Abstract The Observant Movement was a widespread effort to reform religious life across Europe. It took root around 1400, and for a century and more thereafter it inspired or shaped much that became central to European religion and culture. The Observants produced many of the leading religious figures of the later Middle Ages—Catherine of Siena, Bernardino of Siena and Savonarola in Italy, Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros in Spain, and in Germany Martin Luther himself. This volume provides scholars with a current, synthetic introduction to the Observant Movement. Its essays also seek collectively to expand the horizons of our study of Observant reform, and to open new avenues for future scholarship. Disciplines Cultural History | European History | History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Medieval History Comments This book chapter is published as “Reformers on Sorcery and Superstition,” in A Companion to Observant Reform in the Late Middle Ages and Beyond, ed.
    [Show full text]
  • Clerical Conceptions of Magic and the Stereotype of the Female Witch
    Clerical Conceptions of Magic and the Stereotype of the Female Witch Matthew Alexander Moebius, author Dr. Kimberly Rivers, History, faculty adviser Matthew Alexander Moebius graduated from UW Oshkosh in May 2011 with a degree in history. His interest in medieval Europe as a primary field of study emerged from a longstanding interest in European folklore and mythology, and was developed under the guidance of Dr. Kimberly Rivers. His research focus in the field of medieval magic and occultism began to take shape during his work for the European History Seminar in spring 2011. Dr. Kimberly Rivers is an associate professor and the department chair of history at UW Oshkosh. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1995, and her research interests are in late-medieval intellectual history, and memory and mnemonics in late-medieval preaching and religious devotion. Abstract Working from the foundation laid by leading historians of medieval witchcraft — most notably Richard Kieckhefer, Norman Cohn, Michael Bailey, and Hans Peter Broedel — this study examines the conceptual development of a predominantly feminine witchcraft stereotype as understood within the perceptions of the educated clerical elite. The theories of these historians, each approaching the study of witchcraft in different ways and addressing mostly separate aspects of the phenomenon, are reconciled with one another and tied together in hitherto unarticulated ways to form a single, cohesive narrative of the emergence of the idea of the exclusively female witch. The gradual evolution of clerical conceptions of magic shifted in the later Middle Ages from a masculine conception to a more gender-neutral one, opening the door to feminization.
    [Show full text]
  • The Malleus Maleficarum: Rationalism Vs
    Cultural and Religious Studies, November 2020, Vol. 8, No. 11, 618-627 doi: 10.17265/2328-2177/2020.11.004 D DAVID PUBLISHING The Malleus Maleficarum: Rationalism vs. Superstition? Alexandra W. Albertini University of Corsica, Corte, France The Malleus Maleficarum (1486) by Henry Institoris and Jacques Sprenger was written in order to help inquisitors identify, persecute, and prosecute witches. The book is well-known but not studied as much as one could think, and is sometimes confused with another treatise written in 1669, which includes works by demonologists, such as Jean Nider, Bernard Basin, and Bartolomeo de Spina. This can be explained by the fact that several successive editions were published, which changed the essence of the first essay, until the 17th century. My argument is that the first edition was paradoxical and not as strict as one could imagine. The book was a “bible” for the inquisition about the subjugation of witches, but in the same way, the book seemed to be far too rationalistic when confronted with satanism and superstition. Indeed, we believe that the thesis of the Malleus Maleficarum was also a new way of conceiving of knowledge, fighting against superstition by using the tools of early rationalism at the end of the 15th century. The witches’ knowledge that is investigated in the book is confronted with theology, as well as with reason. There is significant evidence of the writers’ rationalistic view about occultism and belief. Keywords: rationalism, superstition, witch, inquisition, religion What is the Malleus Maleficarum? This book is known as a treatise on demonology written in Latin by two German inquisitors, Henry Institoris (Krämer) and Jacques Sprenger in 1486, in order to identify, persecute, and prosecute witches.
    [Show full text]
  • Univerzita Karlova
    UNIVERZITA KARLOVA FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA Ústav světových dějin Diplomová práca Bc. Dominika Šalamonová Žena a zasvätený život vo vrcholnom stredoveku: príspevok k ideálom a spiritualite Woman and Votarist Life in High Middle Ages: Ideals and Spirituality Praha 2020 Vedúci práce: PhDr. ThLic. Drahomír Suchánek, Th.D., Ph.D Poďakovanie V prvom rade by som chcela poďakovať mojim rodičom Zuzke a Radkovi, snúbencovi Jaroslavovi, celej rodine a priateľom, za ich neúnavnú podporu a pozitívnu energiu, ktorú mi dávali pri písaní tejto práce. Taktiež by som sa rada poďakovala svojmu vedúcemu práce PhDr. ThLic. Drahomírovi Suchánkovi, Ph.D., Th.D. za jeho odborné vedenie, ústretový prístup, všetky rady a pripomienky a obzvlášť za všetok jeho čas, ktorý strávil nad mojou prácou. Prehlásenie Prehlasujem, že som svoju diplomovú prácu vypracovala samostatne, že som riadne citovala všetky použité pramene a literatúru a že práca nebola využitá v rámci iného vysokoškolského štúdia či k získaniu iného alebo rovnakého titulu. V Prahe dňa 15.08.2020 Bc. Dominika Šalamonová Abstrakt Práca sa zaoberá premenami ženského zasväteného života vo vrcholnom stredoveku s ohľadom na kľúčové aspekty dobovej religiozity. Zasvätené ženy sú skúmané v ich spojitosti a interakcii s mužským svetom autorít a duchovných sprievodcov. Diachrónnym prístupom sú skúmané so zameraním na ideály a spiritualitu troch odlišných druhov skupín zasvätených žien; a to tradičné mníšske skupiny žijúce podľa Benediktovej reguly, menovite benediktínky a cisterciánky, ďalej mendikantské skupiny, ktoré zahŕňajú klarisky, dominikánky a terciárky oboch rádov, a napokon skupiny nonkonformných zasvätených žien, ku ktorým patria beguínky, anachorétky a reklúzy. Práca predstavuje sondu do proklamovaných ideálov týchto skupín v pohľade mužských autorít, a poukazuje na tendencie v spiritualite konkrétnych zasvätených žien.
    [Show full text]
  • The Malleus Maleficarum
    broedel.cov 12/8/03 9:23 am Page 1 ‘Broedel has provided an excellent study, not only of the Malleus and its authors, and the construction of witchcraft The Malleus Maleficarum but just as importantly, of the intellectual context in which the Malleus must be set and the theological and folk traditions to which it is, in many ways, an heir.’ and the construction of witchcraft PETER MAXWELL-STUART, ST ANDREWS UNIVERSITY Theology and popular belief HAT WAS WITCHCRAFT? Were witches real? How should witches The HANS PETER BROEDEL be identified? How should they be judged? Towards the end of the middle ages these were serious and important questions – and completely W Malleus Maleficarum new ones. Between 1430 and 1500, a number of learned ‘witch-theorists’ attempted to answer such questions, and of these perhaps the most famous are the Dominican inquisitors Heinrich Institoris and Jacob Sprenger, the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum, or The Hammer of Witches. The Malleus is an important text and is frequently quoted by authors across a wide range of scholarly disciplines.Yet it also presents serious difficulties: it is difficult to understand out of context, and is not generally representative of late medieval learned thinking. This, the first book-length study of the original text in English, provides students and scholars with an introduction to this controversial work and to the conceptual world of its authors. Like all witch-theorists, Institoris and Sprenger constructed their witch out of a constellation of pre-existing popular beliefs and learned traditions. BROEDEL Therefore, to understand the Malleus, one must also understand the contemporary and subsequent debates over the reality and nature of witches.
    [Show full text]
  • Female Spaces, Female Communities
    FEMALE SPACES, FEMALE COMMUNITIES ‘TO PROMOTE GOD’S PRAISE AND HER NEIGHBOUR’S SALVATION’. STRATEGIES OF AUTHORSHIP AND READERSHIP AMONG MYSTIC WOMEN IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES Madeleine Jeay and Kathleen Garay He read to her many a good book of high contemplation, and other books, such as the Bible with doctors’ commentaries on it, St Bride’s book, Hilton’s book, Bonaventura’s Stimulus Amoris, Incendium Amoris and other similar [. .] Afterwards he read of a woman called Mary of Oignies, and of her manner of life, of the wonderful sweetness that she had in hearing the word of God. [. .]1 Referring to herself in her autobiography in the third person, the fi f- teenth-century mystic Margery Kempe (ca.1373–ca.1478) explains how she obtained inspiration and reassurance in her own spiritual journey through the examples of other women who had undergone similar mystical crises and had recorded their experiences. Margery was an almost illiterate married woman, the mother of fourteen children, who discovered a vocation for spirituality and acquired a signifi cant knowledge of theology thanks to the sermons she attended and her sometimes confrontational conversations with the clerics and prelates she consulted for spiritual guidance.2 Among the books which were read to her by a priest over a period of seven or eight years, two in the quotation above refer to works by or about mystic women. There 1 The Book of Margery Kempe, trans. B.A. Windeatt (London: 1994) 182, 191. Walter Hilton’s spiritual writings, especially the Scale of Perfection, were very infl uential in fi fteenth-century England; wrongly attributed to Saint Bonaventure, the thirteenth- century Stimulus amoris (The Prick of Love) was probably written by the Franciscan James of Milan; the Incendium amoris (The Fire of Love) by the hermit Richard Rolle is an account of his mystical experiences.
    [Show full text]
  • JOHANNES NIDER, Sermones De Tempore and Sermones De Sanctis in Latin, Decorated Manuscript on Paper Western Germany, C
    JOHANNES NIDER, Sermones de tempore and Sermones de sanctis In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper Western Germany, c. 1445-1450? i + 453 folios on paper (with watermarks similar to Briquet no. 15201, “Tête de Bœuf”: Eekloo, 1431, Silly, 1433, Holland, 1435, Orléans, 1437, Oberlahnstein, 1443; Briquet no. 4639, “Couronne”: Düsseldorf, 1438; Briquet no. 4640, “Couronne”: Colmar, 1441; Briquet no. 3857, “Deux clefs”: Braunschweig, 1440), contemporary foliation in brown ink in Arabic numerals, upper outer rectos, 3-448 (foliation of ff. 1 and 2 likely faded or cropped), with five unfoliated leaves between ff. 304 and 305, modern pagination in pencil beginning on f. 2, upper outer rectos and versos, 1-908, complete (collation i-ix12 x12 [+7 and 8; inserted bifolium ff. 114-115] xi-xxv12 xxvi10 [-6; canceled with no loss of text] xxvii10 xxviii-xxxviii12), quire numeration 1-38 still visible on first rectos, lower inner corner, of quires i-xv, xxi-xxii, xxv- xxxviii, horizontal catchwords, lower inner corners, visible on quires i-xi, xvi, xviii-xx, xxii-xxiii, xxvii-xxx, xxxiii- xxxvii (many highlighted with red), parchment reinforcements pasted in the innermost bifolia, parchment reinforcements pasted along the outer bifolia of quires i-ii, vi, x, xv, xxi, xxv, xxx, xxxvii-xxxviii and linking the outer bifolia of quires xv-xvi and xvi-xvii, ruled in brown ink with full-length vertical and horizontal bounding lines, some prickings visible in upper, outer, and lower margins (justification, 146-152 x 90-92 mm.), written in dark brown ink in four hands: (1) ff. 2-139, 274-304v, in Gothic hybrida on thirty to thirty-two long lines, (2) ff.
    [Show full text]
  • The Dominicans by Benedict M. Ashley, O. P. Contents Foreword 1
    The Dominicans by Benedict M. Ashley, O. P. Contents Foreword 6. Debaters (1600s) 1. Founder's Spirit 7. Survivors (1700s) 2. Professor's (1200s) 8. Compromise (1800s) 3. Mystics (1300s) 9. Ecumenists (1900s) 4. Humanists (1400s) 10. The Future 5. Reformers (1500s) Bibliography Download a self-extracting, zipped, text version of the book, in MSWord .doc files, by clicking on this filename: ashdom.exe. Save to your computer and extract by clicking on the filename. Foreword In our pluralistic age we recognize many traditions have special gifts to make to a rich, well-balanced spirituality for our time. My own life has shown me the spiritual tradition stemming from St. Dominic, like that from his contemporary St. Francis, provides ever fresh insights. No tradition, however, can be understood merely by looking at its origins. We must see it unfold historically in those who have been formed by that tradition in many times and situations and have furthered its development. To know its essential strength, we need to see it tested, undergoing deformations yet recovering and growing. Therefore, I have tried to survey its eight centuries to give some sense of its chronology and its individual personalities, and of the inclusive Dominican Family. I have aimed only to provide a sketch to encourage readers to use the bibliography to explore further, but with regret I have omitted all documentation except to indicate the source of quotations. Translated 1 quotations are mine. I thank Sister Susan Noffke, O.P., Fr. Thomas Donlan, O.P., for encouraging this project and my Provincial, Fr.
    [Show full text]