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IMC 2014: Sessions

Session 1034: Images and Relationships in Late Medieval Devotional Texts

Wednesday 9 July 2014, 09.00-10.30

Organiser:Jennifer Depold, Oriel College, University of Oxford
Moderator/Chair:Rob Lutton, Department of History, University of Nottingham
Paper 1034-aA Very Slippery Element: Water as an All-Purpose Metaphor in Late Medieval Devotional Thought
(Language: English)
Hetta Howes, School of English & Drama, Queen Mary, University of London
Index terms: Gender Studies, Language and Literature - Middle English, Religious Life
Paper 1034-bIn the 'way of curacion': The Figure of the Patient in Middle English Medical and Religious Texts
(Language: English)
Michael Leahy, Department of English & Humanities, Birkbeck, University of London
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Medicine, Religious Life
Paper 1034-cAn Alternative Image of Christ: The Saviour as Soldier in Late Medieval Sermons
(Language: English)
Jennifer Depold, Oriel College, University of Oxford
Index terms: Lay Piety, Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching
Abstract

The papers in this session will provide new and interesting insights into late medieval devotion. While much work has been done on the subject, these papers examine some unusual, but orthodox, forms of devotional practice and language which add depth to the current understanding of devotion in this period.

The first paper will attempt to explicate the curious use of water in late 14th and 15th-century texts by drawing on encyclopaedic works and their treatment of water. The second paper will consider the various uses of 'the patient' in Middle English texts, discussing how surgical treatises call up the ways that the pain of surgery is conducive to one's spiritual progress and exploring the way that the patient is invoked metaphorically in devotional writings to illustrate the benefits of submission to suffering for the health of the soul. The final paper considers the social integration of knighthood within Christianity by examining the various compelling images of Christ as a knight in late medieval sermons, within the context of militant expressions of Christianity preached in the period.