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IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 634: Nothing New!: Heritage, Memory, and Identity in the Middle Ages, II

Tuesday 3 July 2018, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Centre for Religion & Heritage, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Organisers:Mathilde van Dijk, Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Andrew J. M. Irving, Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Moderator/Chair:Andrew J. M. Irving, Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Respondent:Mathilde van Dijk, Faculteit der Godgeleerdheid en Godsdienstwetenschap, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Paper 634-aThomas Becket: The Saint, the Shrine, and Their Owners
(Language: English)
John Jenkins, Centre for the Study of Christianity & Culture, University of York
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Monasticism, Religious Life
Paper 634-bPapal Mass at St Peter's on 25 December 800
(Language: English)
John Romano, Department of History, Benedictine College, Kansas
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Liturgy, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 634-cReligious Memory and Royal Piety: The Antwerp Commission of Christian II
(Language: English)
Ragnhild Marthine Bø, Institutt for arkeologi, konservering og historie, Universitetet i Oslo
Index terms: Art History - Sculpture, Liturgy, Religious Life
Abstract

This is intended as the second of two proposed sessions. 'They were the new monks... devout like Palestinians, obedient like Thebans, fervent like Egyptians, the disciples of the Antonies and Macariuses in the deep desert.' This is how the regular canon Johannes Busch described the first brothers in his community at Windesheim. His quotation introduces what our two sessions are about: how people in the Middle Ages appropriated the past in order to create an identity for themselves. Busch claimed the Desert Fathers as well as the early brothers in his community as his direct forebears, arguing that his brothers imitated these to perfection. At the same time, he acknowledged that there were many differences between these and their great models. As far as he was concerned, a literal imitation was not the point. The Windesheimers had to find a way to imitate what the Desert Fathers were actually about: a total focus on God.