Mary between God and the devil: Jurisprudence, theology and satire in Bartolo of Sassoferrato's "Processus Sathane" Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Taylor, Scott Lynn Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 07/10/2021 09:34:16 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282895 MARY BETWEEN GOD AND THE DEVIL; JURISPRUDENCE, THEOLOGY AND SATIRE IN BARTOLO OF SASSOFERRATO'S PROCESSUS SATHANE by Scott Lynn Taylor Copyright @ Scott Lynn Taylor 2005 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2005 UMI Number: 3177535 Copyright 2005 by Taylor, Scott Lynn All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS 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 bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send 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. UMI UMI Microform 3177535 Copyright 2005 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 9 The University of Arizona w Graduate College As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by SR.OTT T.YNN TAYT.OR entitled MARY BETWEEN GOD AND THE DEVIL: JURISPRUDENCE, THEOLOGY AND SATIRE IN BARTOLO OF SASSOFERRATO'S "PROCESSUS SATHANE" and recomniend that it be accepted as fulfilHng the dissertation requirement for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 21 Marrh ?nnS date 21 March 2005 Richard A. Cosgrove f date 21 March 2005 K^net:h Pt^nvTT^tnn J date ^21_March_20X)5- Frank K; Romer date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement. 21 March 2005 Dissertation Director: 'Alan E. Bernstein date 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial flilfillment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accurate acknowledgment of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED; 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Portions of Chapter One of this dissertation were delivered at the Twentieth Annual Fordham Medieval Studies Conference, New York City, March 24-25, 2000, as "Reason, Rhetoric, and Redemption: The Teaching of Law and the Planctus Mariae in the Late Middle Ages," and appear in the proceedings of that conference, Medieval Education, Eds. Ronald B. Begley and Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., Fordham Series in Medieval Studies, No. 4 (New York, 2005). Portions of Chapter Five of this dissertation appear in my unpublished paper, "Lawyers on the Margins: Gendered Images of the Legal Vocation in Medieval France," delivered at the Seventy-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America, Austin, Texas, April 13-15, 2000. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION CHAPTER ONE: REASON, RHETORIC AND REDEMPTION: THE PROCESSUS SATHANE, THE PLANCTUS MARIAE AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR MEDIEVAL LEGAL EDUCATION CHAPTER TWO: HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS FOR THE PROCESSUS SATHANE CHAPTER THREE: A BARTOLIST INTERPRETATION OF CHRISTIAN LIBERTY CHAPTER FOUR: PROCESSUS REDACTUS CHAPTER FIVE: HUMOR, RHETORICAL ECLECTICISM AND THE WESTERN LITERARY TRADITION CHAPTER SIX: THE IMAGE DISCARDED? REFERENCES 6 ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes the manuscripts and incunabula of the Processus Sathane, a fourteenth-century text frequently attributed to the famed Italian jurist, Bartolo of Sassoferrato, which portrays Mary as humanity's advocate before the court of Christ, defending humankind against Satan's lawsuit to recover possession of the human species. It concludes that the Urtext is not the version most popular in the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but an older version, which dates to the first half of the fourteenth century and was itself translated into low-Norman verse in the mid-fourteenth century; and that the text usually attributed to Bartolo is a fifteenth-century redaction. This work then examines why the original Processus Sathane may have been revised, examining both precursors and progeny of the text to demonstrate how its imagery is part of a larger tendency for metaphor to reify, by charting the transposition of this trope from theological type to legal examplar to popular exempla. In particular, this dissertation reviews the theological background pertinent to the use of Satan's suit as a vehicle for discussing divine justice and mercy in the redemption, and discusses two direct predecessors of the Processus Sathane. It then provides an extended precis of the Processus Sathane itself, analyzing how the image of Satan's suit, reappropriated by the legal profession, serves the classroom as a sample of courtroom technique; but concludes that the Processus, to make legal sense, necessarily presupposes that humanity is sui juris and the possession neither of Satan nor Christ. It proceeds to locate the text in the history of European drama and comic literature, advancing reasons for the popularity outside theological and legal circles of the text and Mary's breast-baring forensic antics. The 7 dissertation concludes with a discussion of why the Processus and its progeny ultimately lost popularity or were suppressed; and why the vivid imagery was discarded, though like metaphor generally, it survived through reappropriation in new guises. 8 INTRODUCTION The following work began as an analysis of a long-known but under-considered fourteenth-century medieval text, the Processus Sathane, literally, "Satan's Suit", purported to be the work of the eminent jurist, Bartolo of Sassoferrato. Although standing in mid-century as the culmination of the so-called "Commentators", Bartolo permed a number of short tracts as well as questiones and questiones disputatae used for teaching, a practice developed a century before. These pedagogical devices could address questions of substantive law, elucidate procedure or demonstrate rhetorical technique. In fact, some of the questiones disputatae resemble the modern moot court in their effort to combine all three of these aspects in a single exemplar, just as the student will ultimately encounter them when he first enters the courtroom. The master typically formulated a casus, the factual basis of the hypothetical suit, and a questio, the issue at controversy in light of the casus. Students, acting as or on behalf of the actor, or plaintiff, and the reus, or defendant, would then argue the case, the argument consisting largely of allegationes, or references to the sources. Although usually denominated a tract, the skeleton of the Processus Sathane appears to be just such a questio disputata, which has been dramatically elaborated. The issue presented for argument is whether Satan should be entitled to recover possession of humanity, either on grounds that Christ disturbed him in his peaceful possession of his property, or, alternatively, because as a magistrate, Christ should see that justice is done and humanity's crime does not go unpunished. Mary is admitted as counsel for humanity, and the suit progresses according to the conventions of the day, replete with arguments 9 on the applicabihty of the substantive and procedural laws cited in the text. Unfortunately, the framework of the text is occasionally marred by subsequent revision or abridgement, and, as will be discussed in more detail in Chapter One, the scholarly discussion of the tract has been frequently confounded by the fact that it appears in three distinct genera or textual traditions. For the convenience of the reader, I choose to outline these at the outset: Type 1 [Processus]: This version, which in Chapter One I argue to be the Urtext, or closest to the original form of the Processus, though variously titled, always is characterized by the incipit; "Nostis fratres karissimi. ." While the explicits vary, and the immediately preceding texts are unpredictable in the early printed editions, the manuscripts will always conclude in the ultimate or penultimate sentence preceding the explicit, . cum renunciatur." At least four manuscripts of this type are known to exist. The present work relies largely on the two fourteenth-century manuscripts: Biblioteca Apostolica, Vaticana, lat. 2625 (174v-177v), and Bibliotheque nationale,