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IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 716: Multiple Meanings of Exile

Tuesday 13 July 2010, 14.15-15.45

Moderator/Chair:Angela Zielinski Kinney, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Paper 716-aSeccessio causa timor domini: The Evocativeness of Exile in Ambrose of Milan
(Language: English)
David Natal Villazala, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de León
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Politics and Diplomacy, Rhetoric, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 716-bMarie de France and the Ethics of Exile
(Language: English)
Sean Murphy, Institut d'Études Avancées, Nantes
Index terms: Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Mentalities
Paper 716-cThe Mystery of Soul: Doubts and Answers in St Patrick's Purgatory
(Language: English)
Borbála Lovas, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
Index terms: Lay Piety, Religious Life
Abstract

Paper -a:
Since the times of Constantine, exile was one of the instruments used by the Church and the State for dealing with defiant bishops. Even its menace worked as an effective disciplinary action. Nonetheless, its use during the doctrinal struggles of the 4th century – with significant interventions of the secular power – provoked that exile acquired new meanings in Episcopal literature, becoming a symbol of doctrinal purity and resistance to an oppressive Empire comparable to martyrdom. Thus, as Ambrose of Milan (among other contemporary colleagues) showed, exile could be a desirable circumstance and even an alibi for tactical detachments from the office. In this respect, the present paper shall try to analyse how this double meaning of exile worked in the bishop's writings.

Paper -b:
Marie de France, in her collection of lais, discloses a largely coherent ethics of exile. The best possible erotic relationships are shaped by experiences of exile that prove the worth and equality of the lovers. Failed lovers fail at home; their physical stasis is both cause and symptom of their erotic/moral stasis. The exile of ideal lovers, on the other hand, is almost always permanent; an ideal relationship, rather than a native place, becomes their place of settlement. The intriguing exception to this pattern is found in the transformation of an erotic relationship into a religious one: the religious exile, much like the pilgrim of Marie's Purgatory of St Patrick, is transformed and then, unlike the erotic exile, brought home to live in a new way.

Paper -c:
In the Middle Ages the most memorable pilgrimages had special locations for penitence, e.g. the cave named St Patrick's Purgatory in Ireland. Two Hungarian knights also went there on a penitential journey. The first was named György, son of Krizsafán, who intended to escape from the rage of the king. The other Hungarian knight, Laurentius Tar in 1411 had a more interesting reason. He had doubts about what the soul is. He said that in St Patrick's Purgatory he gained the true answer by the grace of God. But what is the answer?