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IMC 2013: Sessions

Session 625: Dominicans in Action

Tuesday 2 July 2013, 11.15-12.45

Moderator/Chair:Melanie Brunner, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Paper 625-aThe Pleasure of Seeing God: A Dominican Dispute
(Language: English)
Stephen Gaetano, Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame, Indiana
Index terms: Philosophy, Theology
Paper 625-bVices and Virtues in Late Medieval Florence: The Dominicans of Santa Maria Novella, 1280-1300
(Language: English)
Nicolò Maldina, Centre for Dante Studies, University of Leeds
Index terms: Monasticism
Paper 625-cCastidad, Pobreza y Obediencia: Los Votos Religiosos entre los Dominicos de la Reforma, 1450-1520
(Language: Español)
Guillermo Nieva Ocampo, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Religious Life
Abstract

Paper -a:
For his departure from the views of his fellow Dominican Thomas Aquinas, Durandus of Saint Pourçain (†1334) met with opposition from members of the Order of Preachers for centuries to come. One element of his theology that encountered such opposition was his teaching that pleasure and the theological virtue of hope share the same proximate object, viz., created beatitude, not God in himself. This particular topic makes for an especially interesting study as the beatific vision was a matter of significant controversy in Durandus' lifetime. It had already come to play a part in the divisions between East and West, it was mentioned by the Council of Vienne in its denunciation of Beghard and Beguine errors, and it was the subject of Pope John XXII's infamous sermons. Indeed, Durandus was at one point the Master of the Sacred Palace in Pope John XXII's court and was later in life closely involved in the imbroglio over his alleged errors on the beatific vision.

Paper -b:
The paper will consider both the circulation of treatises and summae on vices and virtues within the convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence over the last two decades of the 13th century and the production of new texts about this topic by the Florentine Dominican friars that were there at that time. To do so, the paper will take into account manuscripts of works such as Gregory the Great's Moralia in Iob and Peraldus' Summa produced or housed in the library of Santa Maria Novella at the end of the 13th century, together with their glossae and miniatures, the production of new 'florilegia de vitiis et virtutibus' and sources such as the Summa by Servasanto da Faenza and the sermons by Remigio de' Girolami. The aim is to reconstruct the specificity of the Dominican attitude towards the representation of vices and virtues within the late medieval theological context in Italy and, in particular, in Tuscany in the late Middle Ages.

Paper -c:
Bajo el impulso del retorno a los orígenes y en el contexto de una sociedad temerosa del pecado y de la consecuente condena eterna, el movimiento reformista desarrolló entre los dominicos un proceso de autoconciencia y categorización que dio como resultado la configuración de un modelo de vida regular en buena medida inédito e incluso, a veces, contradictorio con las formulaciones originales del siglo XIII, sobre todo en la observancia de los votos de castidad, pobreza y obediencia. A partir del estudio de la legislación emanada de las autoridades generales y provinciales, de la literatura producida por los frailes para sus hermanos de religión, así como de la información aportada por las crónicas (generales, provinciales y conventuales) y por una amplia variedad de documentación epistolar y notarial perteneciente a los archivos de la Orden de Predicadores, queremos dar cuenta de ese cambio operado en los conventos castellanos, en el marco de la reforma emprendida por otras congregaciones europeas.