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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN DENMARK THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOM AS AN IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM ACCORDING TO ST. BIRGITTA OF SWEDEN A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF HUMANITIES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY, CULTURE AND CIVILISATION CENTRE FOR MEDIEVAL STUDIES BY EMILIA ŻOCHOWSKA ODENSE FEBRUARY 2010 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In my work, I had the privilege to be guided by three distinguished scholars: Professor Jacek Salij in Warsaw, and Professors Tore Nyberg and Kurt Villads Jensen in Odense. It is a pleasure to admit that this study would never been completed without the generous instruction and guidance of my masters. Professor Salij introduced me to the world of ancient and medieval theology and taught me the rules of scholarly work. Finally, he encouraged me to search for a new research environment where I could develop my skills. I found this environment in Odense, where Professor Nyberg kindly accepted me as his student and shared his vast knowledge with me. Studying with Professor Nyberg has been a great intellectual adventure and a pleasure. Moreover, I never would have been able to work at the University of Southern Denmark if not for my main supervisor, Kurt Villads Jensen, who trusted me and decided to give me the opportunity to study under his kind tutorial, for which I am exceedingly grateful. The trust and inspiration I received from him encouraged me to work and in fact made this study possible. Karen Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary of the Centre of Medieval Studies, had been the good spirit behind my work. It has been a pleasure to benefit from her competence and helpfulness. This thesis is dedicated to my husband, Wojtek, my “perfect reader,” whose open- mindedness and spontaneous love of knowledge inspired my work. Emilia Żochowska Odense, February 2010 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 7 1.1. THESIS AND AIM OF THIS STUDY 7 1.2. SOURCES AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH 9 1.2.1. The Text of Revelationes and Its Contributors 9 1.2.2. Medieval Commentaries on Revelationes and Various Responses to the Book 19 1.2.3. Contemporary Research 24 1.3. RESEARCH METHOD 33 1.3.1. Interpretation of a Source according to the Theological and the Historical Method 33 1.3.2. Consequences of the Complex Authorship of Revelationes 41 1.3.3. Contextualization 43 1.4. THE SYMBOLIC IMAGERY OF REVELATIONES CELESTES 48 1.4.1. Cognitive Process and Prophetic Visions in Late Medieval Scholastics 49 1.4.2. The Nature of Birgitta’s Visionary Experience according to Alfonso 52 1.4.3. Birgitta’s Symbolic Imagery and Its Possible Interpretation according to Epistola solitarii 60 1.4.4. Birgitta’s Symbolic Imagery and Its Possible Interpretation according to Revelationes celestes 63 1.4.5. The Four Ways of Understanding the Word of God 69 1.5. THE STRUCTURE OF THIS STUDY AS INSPIRED BY THE “FOUR SENSES” 71 1.6. REFERENCES AND QUOTATIONS 73 CHAPTER TWO: POLITICS AND HISTORY IN THE EYES OF A MYSTIC 75 2.1. ST. BIRGITTA’S REFLECTIONS ON HISTORY AND TIME 76 2.1.1. The History of Salvation as a Hermeneutical Instrument 77 2.1.2. In Principio 82 2.1.3. Historia Magistra Vitae 97 2.1.4. History Understood Allegorically 110 2.1.5. The Point of View of Eternity 114 2.1.6. The Epochs of World History 119 2.1.7. St. Birgitta’s Concept of History 133 2.2. THE FOUR CITIES 135 2.2.1. The Friends of God (amici Dei) as a Distinctive Group 140 2.2.2. The Society of God’s Friends 149 2.3. STRUCTURES OF THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOM 158 2.3.1. Various Divisions of Society 158 2.3.2. Clerics and Laymen 167 2.3.3. The New Vineyard 171 4 2.3.4. Vera Militia 180 2.3.5. Principles of Royal Power 198 CHAPTER THREE: A MIRROR OF CHRISTIAN SOCIETY 220 3.1. KING AND QUEEN 223 3.1.1. Via Regia 224 3.1.2. The New Son of the Virgin Mary 230 3.1.3. Tyrant or “Shadow King”? 232 3.1.4. The Queen 254 3.2. THE LAITY 269 3.2.1. Knights 269 3.2.2. Communitas Regni 278 3.3. CLERGY 282 3.3.1. The Way of the Good Shepherd 282 3.3.2. Priests 288 3.3.3. The Pope and the Importance of Rome 293 CHAPTER FOUR: “ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN” 299 4.1. COMMUNITY WITH THE HEAVENLY KINGDOM 301 4.2. IMITATIO CHRISTI 307 4.3. IMITATIO OF THE REIGN OF CHRIST 318 4.3.1. “Dux Qui Reget Populum Meum Israhel” 319 4.3.2. Hereditas Christi 325 4.3.4. The Kingdom of Mary 346 CHAPTER FIVE: THE LAST DAYS AND THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOM 356 5.1. ST. BIRGITTA AS THE PROPHET OF THE LAST DAYS 357 5.1.1. Announcing the Apocalypse 358 5.1.2. The Signs of Christ’s Second Coming 370 5.1.3. Making History Present 383 5.2. THE GREAT WAR BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL 385 5.3. THE INDIVIDUAL JUDGMENT AND THE FINAL JUDGMENT 398 5.4. “CIVITAS GLORIAE”: THE ULTIMATE AIM OF THE CHRISTIAN SOCIETY 409 RESUMÉ 418 STRESZCZENIE 421 ABBREVIATIONS 424 BIBLIOGRAPHY 426 1. St. Birgitta’s Works 426 5 2. Other Medieval and Ancient Sources 427 3. Contemporary Literature 432 6 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION “Habent tamen corpora omnia ad invisibilia bona similitudinem aliquam.” – Richard of St. Victor, Benjamin major II, 121 1.1. Thesis and Aim of this Study In his recent book on Scandinavian crusading history, Dick Harrison wrote of St. Birgitta: “According to the future saint, kingdoms, duchies and counties were insignificant in God’s eyes, only Christendom itself was significant.”2 Birgitta’s ideas of politics and patriotism undoubtedly were much different from ours, but were political structures altogether insignificant for her? And what did she actually say about the relation of these structures to Christendom as a whole? This study is an attempt to discuss these questions as Birgitta describes them in her Revelationes celestes. The thesis of this study is that the idea of Christian community is an important subject of St. Birgitta’s Revelationes celestes, especially in relation to structures of political power on the one hand and to the heavenly community of saints on the other. Birgitta was an advisor to King Magnus Eriksson for many years, until she left Sweden. Later, she became active supporter of the pope’s return to Rome and gave her prophetic advice to a number of Christian rulers. 1 PL 196, 90. Benjamin major, also known as De Arca mystica, has not yet been critically edited. 2 ”In det blivande helgonets ögon var riken, hertigdömen och grevskap oväsentliga i Guds ögon; det enda väsentliga var kristenheten som sådan.” Dick Harrison, Gud vill det! Nordiska korsfarare under medeltiden (Stockholm: Ordfront förlag, 2005), 475. 7 Despite this great activity, she is not considered a political thinker, nor is she granted a prominent place in the history of medieval political theory. This is because of the very specific character of Birgitta’s revelations, which indeed are difficult to classify as political thought. In my opinion, Birgitta never attempted to be a theorist; on the contrary, she acted as a prophetess, addressing the Christian rulers in the name of God. The thesis of this study is that her task was to start a great work of reform in the church, beginning with the personal conversion of the individuals responsible for the wellbeing of the community and gradually involving all Christians. She intended this reform to prepare society for the second coming of Christ. Another element of my thesis is that, despite this highly practical task, Birgitta had a general conceptual view of Christian society as well as its origin, history, and final destination. She also was deeply interested in the relationship between the religious and the political performance of Christian rulers, bishops, and nobles: specifically, the pragmatic exterior and spiritual interior of their activities. Therefore, even if we do not regard Birgitta as a political thinker, we must admit that she is a descendant of a certain political tradition. This tradition has specific Scandinavian marks, but it is also a part of general Christian political theology. Revelationes celestes is among the priceless sources that can aid an exploration of this tradition. The aim of this dissertation is to contribute to the study of St. Birgitta’s texts (Revelationes and other parts of the Corpus Birgittianum) concerning the Christian kingdom and its relation to the kingdom of heaven. I have set out to achieve a better understanding of the texts at hand, carefully following the thought of the authors, identifying notions and concepts characteristic to the text, and identifying the structure of the authors’ thought. I am of the opinion that knowledge of the surrounding historical and ideological context contributes to a better understanding of a 8 source text. If a theological work is concerned, then, theological analysis is the proper tool for examining this context. Therefore, I have made theological study a part of my research procedure. 1.2. Sources and Previous Research This study does not aspire to be a complete presentation of the subject concerned. Rather, it is a synthesis of what has been already done by the scholars who have previously worked with the Birgittine texts. The originality of this dissertation lies mainly in its research method, described in a separate section of this introduction. I will begin by sketching a short “genealogy” of this dissertation, starting from the medieval interpretations of St.