IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 1010: Texts and Identities, I: Governing the Body - Governing the Soul: Christianity and Society in the Carolingian Period

Wednesday 3 July 2013, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Utrecht Centre for Medieval Studies, Universiteit Utrecht / Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Organisers:E. T. Dailey, School of History, University of Leeds
Gerda Heydemann, Institut für Mittelalterforschung, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien / Institut für Geschichte, Universität Wien
Moderator/Chair:Rob Meens, Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht
Paper 1010-aDissecting the Inner Man: Carolingian Advisory Literature and Medicine
(Language: English)
Meg Leja, Department of History, Princeton University
Index terms: Lay Piety, Medicine, Social History, Teaching the Middle Ages
Paper 1010-bPrepare for Pastoral Care: The Education of Local Priests - Some Manuscript Evidence
(Language: English)
Carine van Rhijn, Departement Geschiedenis en Kunstgeschiedenis, Universiteit Utrecht
Index terms: Education, Sermons and Preaching, Social History, Teaching the Middle Ages
Paper 1010-cThe Stellinga and Popular Christianity in Post-Conquest Saxony
(Language: English)
Ingrid Rembold, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Index terms: Lay Piety, Mentalities, Sermons and Preaching, Social History
Abstract

This session focuses on the impact of Christian discourses and practices within Carolingian society. It examines both the formation and self-definition of a Christian elite, as well as the diffusion of Christian knowledge on a local and non-elite level. Meg Leja examines the many lay specula produced for aristocratic consumption, calling attention to the similarities between these texts and the newly emergent genre of medical treatises, especially their shared preoccupation with governing the body in order to achieve harmony of the soul. Carine van Rhijin investigates the training of priests, whose knowledge and religious formation are often assumed but rarely examined, by looking at manuscripts used for their instruction. Ingrid Rembold approaches the issues surrounding the Stellinga revolt, arguing that there is insufficient evidence to classify the Stellinga rebels as pagan, and pushes for a reappraisal of popular Christianity in post-conquest Saxony.