Culture and school in the Middle Ages. Light and shade of educational problems
Giorgio CRESCENZA
Original title: Cultura y escuela en la Edad Media. Luces y sombras de problemas educativos
Published in
Keywords: Church, Education, Libraries, Medieval Age, Thomas Aquinas, University.
Famines and pestilences that alternated in the medieval age did not always allowed an orderly and regular flow of life. In this context, education and culture have not been a priority for all and of all, however cultural and educational strengths are many, including the birth of Universities and libraries. The article deals with a historical-pedagogical analysis on what happens in the school or in institutions similar to it which transmit culture codified in certain forms, through certain tools, with specific purposes. And this with the awareness that, especially in some periods, Courts and Churches are exactly the main vehicle of education, unlike school. It seems that an extensive renewal movement crosses the same religious circles and, on this point, the pedagogical project by Thomas Aquinas is reminded.
Desecration and purgation of the chantre of the cathedral of Orihuela Domingo Bou y Miralles
Emilio CALLADO ESTELA
Original title: Descarrío y purgación del chantre de la catedral de Orihuela Domingo Bou y Miralles
Published in
Keywords: 17th century, Church, Crimes, Orihuela, Reformation.
This article analyzes the case of the cantor of the cathedral of Orihuela, Domingo Bou y Miralles, whose love affairs with a young widow would earn him exile between 1691 and 1692, at the request of the local bishop Antonino Sánchez de Castellar and by order of the crown. A little more than half a year of purgation at court was enough for the pre-blessed, it seems, to stop join astray and return to the fold, since then giving himself up to the ecclesiastical office that was his own.
Fleeing from the profane society: on the obstacles for the construction of authority, rule and the support of the church in the Passio sancti Venceslavi martyris
Andrea Vanina NEYRA
Original title: Huir de la sociedad profana: sobre los obstáculos en la construcción de la autoridad, el gobierno y el fomento de la Iglesia en la Passio sancti Venceslavi martyris
Published in Idea and image of royal power of the monarchies in Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Authority, Church, Obstacles, Wenceslas.
Bishop Gumpold of Mantua’s Passio sancti Venceslavi martyris, commissioned by King Otto II, depicts Wenceslas as a Christian ruler who brought together Christian virtues, ascetic practices along with active political power. This paper outlines the manifest opposition between those features and the characteristics attributed to the people subject to the přemyslid duke’s authority. The population was described as a society of savage people, tied to pagan error and heresy, who imposed significant barriers to the expansion of Christ’s faith in the region of Bohemia. Their incivility, lack of culture and infidelitas are all apparent through the use of certain attributes used to describe the population, its customs and beliefs: impious, delusional, profane, arrogant, inhuman. Thereby, the specificities defining the Bohemian society at the end of the 10th century coincide with Wenceslas’ most important opponent, his brother and fratricide Boleslav. The depiction of the savage, profane and illicit environment is a prefiguration of the final episode of the hagiographical text: the scandalous martyrdom of the future Bohemian patron saint. Similarly, the predestined Christian future of the Kingdom is prefigured in the hero’s early life –a Christian among an erring surrounding– as well as in his miracles.
Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179): the Exceptional Way of a Medieval Visionary Woman
Carmen Lícia Palazzo
Original title: Hildegard de Bingen: o excepcional percurso de uma visionária medieval
Published in Expressing the Divine: Language, Art and Mysticism
Keywords: Church, Hildegard of Bingen, Middle Ages, visionary woman.
The goal of this article is to present a few aspects of the extensive body of work by the visionary nun Hildegard of Bingen, relating her acceptance with the 12th century context and suggesting certain research possibilities. The debate among monks of Cister and Cluny and the severe criticism to Abelard’s teachings by Bernard of Clairvaux constitute, in my opinion, an essential elements to be considered in order to explain the direct support by the Church to Hildegard’s texts and Hildegard as a person. However, it was certainly the quality of her work and her prodigious intelligence that consolidated her achievements not only as a visionary but also as composer, counsellor and therapist.
PETRE, PATER PATRUM, PAPISSE PRODITO PARTUM: translation of the fragments of the first documentation of the ‘pope’ Joan
Dominique Vieira Coelho dos SANTOS, Camila Michele WACKERHAGE
Original title: PETRE, PATER PATRUM, PAPISSE PRODITO PARTUM: tradução dos fragmentos da primeira documentação referente à ‘papisa’ Joana
Published in Mulier aut Femina. Idealism or reality of women in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Church, Popess Joan, Representation, narrative, translation.
This article’s aim is to present for the first time in Brazilian Portuguese, a translation, accompanied by the Latin text, the first three documents to mention ‘Pope’ Joan. They are a small excerpt from Chronica Universalis Mettensis, wrote by Jean de Mailly, the first to mention the Popess; Chronicon Pontificum et Imperatorum, document authored by Martin of Opava, which continues this report, and, finally, the lines of De Septem donis Spiritus Sancti, or Tractatus de diversis Materiis Praedicabilibus, as it will be called here, written by Stephanus de Bourbon, who also mention Joan. Also some historiographical reflections are made altogether with a brief introduction to gender studies in the Middle Ages. Unlike other countries, the Popess is still poorly studied in Brazil. However, even being a fictional character, this figure may assist us in understanding the social imaginarium related to context where these documents were produced. By translating the mentioned works, we hope to cooperate to enlarge the possibilities of researching on the Popess.
Why Did People ‘Invent’ Relics in the Roman East Between the Fourth and Sixth Centuries?
Estelle CRONNIER
Published in Pleasure in the Middle Ages
Keywords: Church, Inventions, Politics, Relics, Roman East.
The cult of relics did not exist in the first centuries of the Christian era, but only came into being in the fourth century. After the Peace of the Church and the Christianisation of the Roman Empire, it became a constitutive element of the new religion. However, a very small number of holy graves known to exist and could be pinpointed. This could explain why a series of ‘inventions’ or miraculous discoveries happened in this time – first of all in the Eastern provinces of the Empire –, that is to meet the needs of worship. But relics were not found at just any time or place. A careful examination of the different cases in their historical context gives us a better understanding of this phenomenon.
“Thy Kingdom come”: The Legitimation of the Medieval Court Through Image of the Heavenly Court
Jó KLANOVICZ, Icles RODRIGUES and Rodrigo Prates de ANDRADE
Original title: “Venha a nós o Vosso reino”: a legitimação da Corte Medieval através da imagem da Corte Celestial
Published in Aristocracy and nobility in the Ancient and Medieval World
Keywords: Church, Court, King, Nobility, image.
This article studies the medieval court by a perspective of a historiographical readout of the political theology. The idea of an instrument of legitimation of the royal power based in the heavenly court and that mirrored in the earthly court. This conception is very present in the medieval iconography, that will be used in this analysis.
