IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 312: Franciscans, Inquisitors, and Problems of Wealth and Poverty

Monday 11 July 2011, 16.30-18.00

Moderator/Chair:	Melanie Brunner, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Paper 312-a	Poverty, Piety, and Heresy Confiscations: Temptation and the Medieval Italian Inquisition (Language: English) Jill Moore, Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Religious Life
Paper 312-b	Saints and Richness in Franciscan Order: The Case of the Sermons on St Anthony of Lisboa (Language: English) Eleonora Lombardo, Instituto de Estudos Medievais, Universidade Nova de Lisboa Index terms: Hagiography, Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching
Abstract	Paper -a: Medieval Italian inquisitors from the Franciscan and Dominican orders were sworn to personal poverty and austerity, but in the course of their work handled large sums of money in confiscations from convicted heretics. Some well-known scandals resulted in Florence and the Veneto. Using unpublished sources, this paper explores how inquisitors in Italy in the late 13th and early 14th centuries reconciled the challenges of their conflicting obligations and handled the temptation of riches. Paper -b: Biographies and chronicles speaking about Francis of Assisi and other members of Franciscan order stress their choice of poverty and richness. Earlier sermons, however, are cautious in presenting it. An interest case of study to understand how Franciscan choice of poverty was used to mark the devotion to the new saints is that of some sermons for the feast of Saint Anthony of Lisboa. This paper focuses on sermons presenting either the conversion of Anthony either his miracles to analyse the way the dichotomy poor - rich in this saint's life was adapted to a more general speech about usury and money.