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IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 216: Religion and Public Life in Late Medieval Italy

Monday 12 July 2010, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:AHRC Project 'Religion and Public Life in Late Medieval Italy'
Organiser:Frances Andrews, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Moderator/Chair:Brenda M. Bolton, University of London
Paper 216-a‘Qui omnes sint et esse debeant Guelfi?’: Men of Religion between Government Office and Regular Life
(Language: English)
Frances Andrews, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 216-b'God's greatest gift, the power of Speech' Corrupted? The Use of Sermons for Secular Purpose in 15th-Century Italy
(Language: English)
Stefan Visnjevac, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 216-cThe Employment of Religious by the Italian Communes: Verona and Bologna, a Comparison of Two Important Cases
(Language: English)
Agata Pincelli, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching
Abstract

Paper -a:
This session marks the end of a three-year AHRC funded project on Religion and public life in late medieval Italy. This paper will therefore introduce the project and some of its general conclusions, focusing in particular on the nature of the political and religious contexts which prompted the use of men of religion in public offices in the thirteenth-century and its decline and/or disappearance over the following two hundred years.

Paper -b:
The eminent turn-of-the-century preacher Giovanni Dominici warned that oratory and rhetoric should not be exploited in order to attain political ends, such as support for a certain person or policy. This paper intends to explore the use made of sermons – Dominici’s own mode of oratory – and of the mendicant preachers who delivered them, by the secular authorities of north and central Italian towns subsequent to Dominici’s admonition. It will also suggest reasons as to why Dominici’s fellow preachers should choose to submit their ostensibly moralistic and spiritual message to more worldly purposes. Specific reference will be made to preaching in the towns of Ferrara, Bologna, and Udine.

Paper -c:
The comparison of the employment of religious in two communes of such importance in medieval Italy as Bologna and Verona reveals significant affinities, despite the diversity of political and institutional histories. Although the extant archive documentation is incomplete, an examination of the statutes issued over the years by the political authorities in the two cities shows that legislators oscillated between acceptance of and resistance to such attribution of administrative responsibilities to religious and occasionally also yields some surprises.