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INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMl films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMl a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMl directly to order. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMl NOTE TO USERS This reproduction is the best copy available. UMl PREACHING BEFORE THE FRIARS: THE SERMONS OF RALPH ARDENT (c.ll30-c.l215): DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Ronald J. Stansbury, M.Div., M.A. * * * 3^ The Ohio State University 2001 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Joseph H. Lynch Professor Barbara Hanawalt aI Professor Eve Levin Adviser Department of History UMl Number 3011145 UMl' UMl Microform 3011145 Copyright 2001 by Beil & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Copyright© by Ronald J. Stansbury 2001 ABSTRACT Preaching was an important cultural and religious event in medieval Europe because it connected lay and clerical audiences with the theological, moral, and even political views of the religious elite. The cultural, political and religious revival which is often called the "Renaissance of the Twelfth Century" caused a revolution in the method and content of preaching. New tools for preparing sermons and a new emphasis on moral theology and ethics contributed to a rise in the sheer volume of preaching, a trend that reached a highpoint in the preaching of the thirteenth-century friars. How were these new moral reforms communicated to a largely non-literate society? The answer is through preaching. The sermons of Ralph Ardent represent an important example of popular or pastoral preaching in late twelfth-century France. Trained in Paris, which was the leading center for theological education in Europe, Ralph Ardent embodied this new emphasis in moral and pastoral theology. His works include 202 Latin sermons which survive in manuscripts and several early printed editions. A study of these sermons will shed important light on 11 the history of the sermon as a vehicle for cultural and religious change in the middle ages. The first four chapters cover 1) the history of medieval preaching up to and including the preaching of the friars, 2) the historiography and biography of Ralph Ardent, 3) a detailed description of the manuscripts and early printed editions of his sermon book, and 4) a study of the function, audience, structure and style of his sermons. Chapters five and six look closely at two im portant topoi found in these sermons: preaching against heresy and penitential preaching. Finally 1 offer a working edition of the preface to this collection, as well as three Church Dedication sermons which were not included in the sixteenth-century printed editions. The argument of this dissertation is that the preaching of Ralph Ardent represents a significant step in the evolution of the sermon from a scholastic tool which was delivered primarily to university audiences, to the popular, pastoral sermons of the thirteenth-century Dominican and Franciscan friars. I l l ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank Joseph Lynch, Frank Coulson, Nick Howe, Barbara Hanawalt and Eve Levin of The Ohio State University, who read and commented on all or part of this dissertation. I owe a special thanks to Professor Lynch not only for introducing me to this project and guiding me through to its completion but also for the way in which he has counseled, encouraged and assisted me through my years in graduate school. I am also grateful to the Department of History, the Graduate School, and the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at The Ohio State University for financial support which allowed me to make several trips to England and France in order to conduct manuscript research. I also wish to thank the staff and librarians from the following institutions who assisted me during my research trips abroad: in France, the Bibliothèque Nationale and the Bibliothèque St. Geneviève; in England, the Bodleian Library, the Cambridge University Library; the Salisbury Cathedral Library and the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester. My research would have been impossible without the assistance from the staff and interlibrary loan office of the William Oxley Thompson Library, Ohio State University and especially from Predrag Matejic, Director of the Hilandar Research Library and the Resource Center for Medieval Slavic IV Studies, Ohio State University. Dr. Matejic and his staff were gracious in allowing this Western medievalist to invade their Slavic library, use their computers, copiers and microfilm readers. Last, but not least, I wish to thank my family, especially my wife Wendy, without whose constant support this project would have been impossible to complete. I dedicate this dissertation to her. VITA 3 September 1964 ...................................... Bom - Hagerstown, Maryland 1991...............................................................B.A., Cedarville University 1994................................................................M.Div. Westminster Theological Seminary 199 6 ...............................................................M.A. History The Ohio State University 1995-1998.................................................... Graduate Assistant, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, The Ohio State University 1997 - 2001 ................................................. Graduate Teaching Associate Department of History, The Ohio State University HELDS OF STUDY Major Field: History VI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .....................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................v Vita............................................................................................................................ vii List of Tables ........................................................................................................... ix Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 Chapters: 1. Preaching and the Evolution of the Sermon in the Middle Ages 17 1.1. Preaching in Merovingian and Carolingian Gaul........................20 1.2. Benedictine Preaching after the Collapse of the Carolingian Empire.................................................................33 1.3. Preaching Before the Friars: The Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries............................................. 38 1.3.1. Cistercian Preaching: The 'Golden Mouth' of Bernard of Clairvaux........................ 39 1.3.2. Preaching and The Emergence of Scholasticism..................... 45 1.3.3. Theologia Moralis ......................................................................... 62 1.4. The Thirteenth Century and the Rise of the Mendicant Friars........................................................................... 69 1.5. Fulk de Neuilly, the Ideal Master-Preacher ...................................75 1.6. Conclusion ............................................................................................ 78 2. Historiographic Tradition and Biography.................................................81 3. Manuscripts and Early Printed Editions....................................................119 3.1. Manuscript Descriptions.....................................................................121 3.2. Early Printed Editions..........................................................................146 4. Ralph Ardent and the Model Sermon Collection.....................................164 vii 4.1. Occasion and Function of the Sermons...........................................166 4.2. A udience.................................................................................................177 4.3. Content of the Serm ons..................................................................... 191 4.4. Structure and Style of the Sermons..................................................197 4.5. C onclusion.............................................................................................217

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