| Paper 219-c | A Priest between the Worlds of Learning, Sermon, and Courtly Luxury
(Language: English)
Andrea Bottanova, Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, Universität Wien
Index terms: Lay Piety, Sermons and Preaching, Social History, Women's Studies |
|---|
| Abstract | Paper -a:
John of Salisbury developed a trope of avarice which he employed as a normative standard against which to criticise the machinations of the court and to laud the spiritual life in his works. His trope was developed from Roman sources, which were Christianised in an original fashion to form a synthesis applicable to medieval society. This paper will assess the content and application of this trope; allowing us to learn more about John's sources, his method of argument, and the contrast between perceived avarice and its counterpart, spiritual frugality, in the 12th century.
Paper -b:
Descriptions of French kings in a number of Norman texts from the 11th and 12th centuries are notable for the hostility of their representations. Norman authors often emphasise the moral poverty of these regal figures (especially those engaged in conflict with Norman dukes) and use a startling wealth of emotional vocabulary to impress this lamentable condition upon their readers. Shame, anger and grief, often expressed in vivid physical terms, reflect the perceived depravity of certain French monarchs. I shall examine a range of texts with reference to recent historiography on medieval emotions, as part of my project on the nature of 'emotional kingship' in the Anglo-Norman period.
Paper -c:
Thomas Peuntner (c. 1390-1437) a priest, former student of the University of Vienna and a pupil to Nicolaus von Dinkelsbuehl, comes in the late 1420s to the Viennese court of the Austrian Duke Albrecht V. and gets a job as a confessor of his wife Elisabeth (c. 1409-1442), daughter of the Roman Emperor Sigismund, to whom he dedicates his most popular works, nowadays spread in many transcriptions throughout Europe, written exceptionally (for that time) in German: specifically the Book of the love for God and the Book of confession. In these he not only advises his penitent how to avoid the mortal sins, the earthly temptations and keep her chastity but also criticizes the (in his opinion) sinful courtly life, full of luxury, greed, pride and envy.
|
|---|
