Envisaging Heaven in the Middle Ages Envisaging Heaven in the Middle Ages considers medieval notions of heaven in theological and mystical writings, in visions of the otherworld and in medieval arts such as drama, poetry, music and vernacular literature. The volume considers the influence of images and visions of heaven on the secular literature by some of the greatest writers of the period, such as Chrétien de Troyes and Chaucer. The coherence and beauty of these notions make heaven one of the most impressive medieval cathedrals of the mind. The book shows that the idea of heaven in the Middle Ages was as varied as those who wrote about it, and reveals the extent to which the Christian afterlife was (as it is today) a projection of human hopes and fears. Because ‘the reality’ of heaven was one based on speculation, as well as fancy, medieval heavens were products both of ingenious thought and of creative, wishful imagination. With contributions from such experts as Peter Dronke, Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Robin Kirkpatrick, Bernard McGinn, Peter Meredith, Barbara Newman and A.C. Spearing, this collection will be essential reading for all those inter- ested in medieval religion and culture. Carolyn Muessig is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Theology at the University of Bristol. She is the author of Sermon, Preacher and Audience in the Middle Ages, Medieval Monastic Education and The Faces of Women in the Sermons of Jacques de Vitry: most recently, she co-edited Hildegard of Bingen’s ‘Exposi- tiones euangeliorum’. Ad Putter is Reader in English Literature at the Univer- sity of Bristol. He is the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and French Arthurian Romance and An Introduction to the Gawain-Poet, and co-edited The Spirit of Medieval Popular Romance. Routledge studies in medieval religion and culture Edited by George Ferzoco University of Leicester and Carolyn Muessig University of Bristol This series aims to present developments and debates within the field of medieval religion and culture. It will provide a broad range of case studies and theoretical perspectives, covering a variety of topics, theories and issues. 1 Gender and Holiness Men, women and saints in late medieval Europe Edited by Samantha J.E. Riches and Sarah Salih 2 The Invention of Saintliness Edited by Anneke B. Mulder-Bakker 3 Tolkien the Medievalist Edited by Jane Chance 4 Julian of Norwich Mystic or visionary? Kevin J. Magill 5 Disability in Medieval Europe Thinking about physical impairment in the high Middle Ages, c.1100–c.1400 Irina Metzler 6 Envisaging Heaven in the Middle Ages Edited by Carolyn Muessig and Ad Putter Envisaging Heaven in the Middle Ages Edited by Carolyn Muessig and Ad Putter With the assistance of Gareth Griffith and Judith Jefferson First published 2007 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2007 Carolyn Muessig and Ad Putter for selection and editorial matter; individual contributors, their contributions. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN10: 0-415-38383-8 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-203-96621-X (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-38383-7 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-96621-1 (ebk) Contents List of plates viii List of contributors ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xii List of abbreviations xiii PART I Introduction 1 1 Envisaging heaven: an introduction 3 CAROLYN MUESSIG AND AD PUTTER PART II The theology of heaven 13 2 Visio dei: seeing God in medieval theology and mysticism 15 BERNARD McGINN 3 Constructing heaven in Hildegard of Bingen’s Expositiones euangeliorum 34 BEVERLY MAYNE KIENZLE 4 The completeness of heaven 44 PETER DRONKE 5 Heaven, earth and the angels: preaching paradise in the sermons of Jacques de Vitry 57 CAROLYN MUESSIG vi Contents PART III Mystical and visionary traditions 73 6 Access to heaven in medieval visions of the otherworld 75 ROBERT EASTING 7 Bringing heaven down to earth: beguine constructions of heaven 91 MARY SUYDAM 8 Von Aller Bilden Bildlosekeit: the trouble with images of heaven in the works of Henry Suso 108 STEVEN ROZENSKI, JR 9 Marguerite Porete: courtliness and transcendence in The Mirror of Simple Souls 120 A.C. SPEARING PART IV The art of heaven 137 10 ‘Some high place’: actualizing heaven in the Middle Ages 139 PETER MEREDITH 11 Heaven as performance and participation in the Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum of Hildegard of Bingen 155 STEPHEN D’EVELYN 12 Afterlives now: a study of Paradiso canto 28 166 ROBIN KIRKPATRICK 13 The artifice of eternity: speaking of heaven in three medieval poems 185 BARBARA NEWMAN Contents vii PART V Vernacular appropriations 207 14 Exchanging blood for wine: envisaging heaven in Irish bardic poetry 209 SALVADOR RYAN 15 Chaucer’s lovers in metaphorical heaven 222 ELIZABETH ARCHIBALD 16 The influence of visions of the otherworld on some medieval romances 237 AD PUTTER Index 252 Plates 10.1 Meg Twycross’s reconstruction of the York Mercers’ pageant wagon, Petergate, York, 1988 (photo: David Mills). 145 10.2 The top of the Weinmarkt in Lucerne showing the position of heaven on the Haus zur Sonne. (Part of the lay-out for the play in 1583, redrawn from the original sketch-plan in the Zentralbibliothek, Luzern.) 148 Contributors Elizabeth Archibald is Reader in Medieval Studies at the University of Bristol. She has published studies of the Apollonius of Tyre romance and of the incest theme in medieval literature, and co-edited a collection of essays on Malory. She is currently working on medieval baths and bathing. Peter Dronke is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Latin Literature at the Univer- sity of Cambridge. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Correspond- ing Fellow of the Real Academia de Buenas Letras, the Royal Dutch Academy and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His books include Medieval Latin and the Rise of the European Love-Lyric (2nd edn 1968), The Medieval Lyric (3rd edn 1996), Fabula (1974), Women Writers of the Middle Ages (1984), Dante and Medieval Latin Traditions (1986) and editions of Bernardus Silvestris’ Cosmographia (1978) and Hildegard of Bingen’s Liber diuinorum operum (with Albert Derolez, 1996). Robert Easting, MA, DPhil (Oxon), has taught medieval (and later) English Language and Literature at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, since 1973. His research has focused on medieval Latin and vernacular visions of the otherworld. Stephen D’Evelyn is Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame. He is presently finishing a commentary on Hilde- gard of Bingen’s Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum and writing a study of ancient and medieval poetry of gift-giving. Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Professor at Harvard Divinity School, is completing a study of Hildegard of Bingen’s Expositiones euangeliorum. Other publica- tions include The Sermon. Typologie des sources du moyen âge occidental, fasc. 81–3 (2000) and Cistercians, Heresy and Crusade (1145–1229): Preaching in the Lord’s Vineyard (2001). Robin Kirkpatrick is Professor of Italian and English Literatures at University of Cambridge and Fellow of Robinson College. He has published widely on Dante and the relations between English and Italian literature and is currently finishing a verse translation of Dante’s Commedia for Penguin Classics. x Contributors Bernard McGinn is the Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. His major interests are in the history of apocalypticism and in Christian mystical traditions. Peter Meredith is Emeritus Professor of Medieval Drama at the University of Leeds. He was a founder editor with Meg Twycross of the journal Medieval English Theatre and one of the team which set up the Records of Early English Drama in Toronto. His major work has been in editing and the prac- tical study of drama. Carolyn Muessig is Senior Lecturer in Medieval Theology at the University of Bristol. Her interests include the sermons of Jacques de Vitry and female reli- gious education. Most recently, she has co-edited (with Beverly Mayne Kienzle) Hildegard of Bingen’s Expositiones euangeliorum. Barbara Newman is Professor of English, Religion, and Classics at Northwest- ern University, where she holds the John Evans Chair in Latin. Her most recent book is God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages (2003). Ad Putter is Reader in English Literature at the University of Bristol. He is the author of two books on the Gawain-Poet and co-editor (with Jane Gilbert) of The Spirit of Medieval Popular Romance (2000). He is currently working on alliterative metre. Steven Rozenski is an Assistant Language Teacher for the Tome-shi Board of Education in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. He was a 2003–2004 Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cologne, Germany; his work focuses on the theo- logical implications of the turn towards the vernacular in fourteenth-century German and English religious texts. Salvador Ryan teaches Church History at St Patrick’s College, Thurles, County Tipperary, Ireland.