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IMC 2006: Sessions

Session 1211: Lacrimae: Tears in Scholastic Thought, Popular Preaching, and Law

Wednesday 12 July 2006, 14.15-15.45

Organiser:Karl Shoemaker, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Moderator/Chair:Karl Shoemaker, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Paper 1211-aTears as Interpreted by 12th-Century Schoolmen
(Language: English)
Susan R. Kramer, Department of History, Sarah Lawerence College, New York
Index terms: Philosophy, Theology
Paper 1211-bHow the Devil Was Undone at Law by a Weeping Woman
(Language: English)
Karl Shoemaker, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Index terms: Canon Law, Law
Abstract

This panel will examine the phenomenon of tears and weeping in several discrete medieval contexts. Susan Kramer will examine the various ways in which 12th-century scholastics understood tears. Karl Shoemaker will examine a 15th-century manuscript tradition which imagined a litigious devil suing to gain possession of Christian souls only to be defeated by the tears of Mary. This panel will contribute to the emotion and gesture strand of this conference, and will contribute to an emergent body of scholarship that looks at the meanings of tears in the medieval world.