Martin of Braga’s De correctione rusticorum describes beliefs and practices, such as the belief that the year began on the Calends of January, or the custom of pouring food offerings on the hearth, which were by no means restricted to peasants31. 8 Et licet hinc gaudeamus, fratres carissimi, quia vos ad ecclesiam videmus fideliter currere, contristamur tamen et dolemus, quia aliquos ex vobis cognoscimus ad antiquam idolorum culturam frequentius ambulare, quomodo pagani sine deo et sine baptismi gratia faciunt (Sermon 53.1, CCSL 103, 233). 4 [Special Issue – February 2014]. 28 [U]t si qui uiri ac mulieres diuinatores, quos dicunt esse caragios atque sorticularios, in quiuscumque domo Ghoti, Romani, Syri, Greci uel Iudei fuerint inuenti, aut quis ausus fuerit amodo in eorum uana carmina interrogare [...] Illi uero qui tali iniquitate repleti sunt et sortes et diuinationes faciunt et populum preuaricando seducunt, ubi inuenti uel inuente fuerint, seu liberi seu serui uel ancille sint, grauissimi publice fustigentur uenundentur, et pretia ipsorumpauperibus erogentur (Conc. In short, the lives of these peasants were like slaves, they had nothing but their labor, which they sold to factory owners. This system allowed those who were in power to dominate those underneath them. The Canons of Martin of Braga (572) did the same for the clerics who were enchanters and made magic knots18. Men are incapable to act as individuals – all men belonged to the Catholic Church, which expected them to believe and follow what it taught. Agathense [506] 42, CCSL 148, 210-1). 52 Cum autem gentilis cumburunt, hoc est ustulauerunt mortuos suos parentibus, nullus amicus, nemo christianorum debet iugum/suum aut carrum ad adducere lignum ad conburendum eos (Poen. In this context, explicit references to different layers of society are rare and often tend to obscure religious differences between the customs of rich and poor, great and small, clerical and lay. We happen to know about pilgrim ages to Rome because the heretic Aldebert was charged with discouraging people from making the trip to the limina of the apostles10. Comparative Religion in Medieval Muslim Literature. Sermones, CCSL 23 [Turnhout, 1962), 369); Iam quid de illo stultissimo errore cum dolore dicendum est, quia dies tinearum et murium observant... ? 18Direct evidence of this sort is rare, but information concerning the beliefs and practices of a few social groups can also be found in texts which deal with the rituals and magical practices associated with different kinds of activities, particularly agrarian work. Credidisti quod quaedam credere soient, ut quamcunque domum intraverint, pullos aucarum, pavonum, pullos gallinarum, etiam porcellos, et aliorum animalium foetus, verbo, vel visu vel audito oscenare etperdere posse affirment? In Boglioni, P., Delort, R., & Gauvard, C. 34 Sed dicit aliquis, ego homo rusticus sum, et terrenis operibus iugiter occupatus sum (Sermon 6.3, CCSL 103, 32). 37 Decrevimus [...] hostias immolaticias, quas stulti homines iuxta aecclesias ritupagano faciunt sub nomine sanctorum martyrum vel confessorum [...] prohibeant (5, MGH Concilia, 2.1, 1, 3-4). Filotas, Bernadette. 424 pages | 6 x 9 | 8 illus. 20A particularly detailed picture of rural life in northern Gaul during the eighth century emerges from various sermons and legal texts. Actes du Ve Colloque du Centre d’études d’histoire des religions populaires tenu au Collège dominicain de théologie (Ottawa), Paris, 1976, p. 93-148. ; et GAUVARD, Claude (dir.). 19Here a distinction can be made between beliefs and practices. Childebert’s edict of 554 shows that it was not only slaves but also freemen and persons of even more honourable status who passed the vigils of feasts in drunkenness, obscenity and song, and whose women celebrated Sunday by dancing through the settlements12. Medieval literature is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages. This was one of the sermons identified as being intended for a rural parish, in which Caesarius took care to adapt both subject matter and illustrations to peasant congregations. The themes of medieval literature were of two types, religious writings and secular writings. Several of its paragraphs deal in a highly concrete fashion with the activities of peasants. They used spells and charms to protect themselves and their animals, to prevent or heal snakebites, and to keep worms from their vegetables and fruit43. Dr Mary Wellesley explains the path to becoming an anchoress, how anchoresses spent their days and what medieval texts such as Ancrene Wisse and Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love can tell us about anchoritic life. There peasants watched the stars for the propitious moment to begin ploughing or breeding their animals. Ger 312 War, Death, and the Hero in Medieval Literature. It achieved its domination through military might – it imposed its will upon its neighbors in exchange for protecting them from invaders like the Vikings from the north, the Magyars and the Mongols from the east and the various Islamic peoples … Achetez neuf ou d'occasion 12 De incantatoribus uel eis, qui instinctu diabuli cornua praecantare dicuntur, si superioresforte personae sunt, a liminibus excommunicatione pellantur ecclesiae, humiliores / uero personae uel serui correpti a iudice fustigentur, ut, si se timore Dei corrigetforte dissimulant, uelut scriptum est, uerberibus corrigantur (Synodus Aspasii Episcopi [551) 3, CCSL 148A, 163). 4 Die altgermanische Religion in der amtlichen kirchlichen Literatur des Abendlandes vom 5. bis 11. Some mentioned the refusal to work, others merely the honour paid the day «according to pagan custom». Janor. Ut in hoste nemo parem suum vel quemlibet alterum hominem bibere roget (Capitulare Bononiense [811] 6, MGH CapRegFr, 1, 167). In the Rhineland at the beginning of the eleventh century, village women went out into the fields and the river banks to perform a rain-making ritual described in astonishing detail by Burchard of Worms46. 47 Iam vero illut quale vel quam turpe est, quod viri nati tunicis muliebribus vestiuntur, et turpissima demutationepuellaribusfiguris virile robur effeminant, non erubescentes tunicis muliebribus inserere militares lacertos (Caesarius of Arles, Sermon 192.2, CCSL 104, 780). The religious element in the system of Descartes-both philosophy in literature and literature in philosophy-and of his followers is marked, and from them later French literature drew religion and inspiration. They were operated by the clergy. This is the most recurrent theme in medieval literature, as it is responsible for dictating all the rules of behavior, morals and good customs of society. 30 Si quis adfontes aut arbores vel lucos votumfecerit aut aliquit more gentilium obtulerit et ad honorem daemonum commederet, si nobilis fuerit solidos sexaginta, si ingenuus triginta, si litus quidecim (Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae [775-790] 21, MGH CapRegFr, 1, 69). 32 Sunt aliqui rustici homines, qui credunt, quasi aliquas mulieres quod vulgum dicitur strias esse debeant et ad infantes vel pecora nocere possint vel dusiolas vel aquaticas vel geniscus esse debeat (Anonymous sermon [late 8th-19th century] Levison ed., England and the Continent, 310). This has nothing to do with traditional beliefs and techniques, but it reveals the extent to which the Church’s teachings on sin and penance had been internalized and appropriated by at least some members of the masses. This is the main di… 9When it comes to magical practices, the involvement of the clergy is proved by a host of texts. Adresse : 212, rue Saint-Jacques 75005 Paris France. The Council of Toledo of 681 deprived masters of their rights over slaves whom they did not restrain from idolatry and it subjected them to excommunication. 15In rare cases, the texts identified a group by an occupation limited to the lower classes. Cette littérature se compose autant d'œuvres religieuses que séculières, et constitue un champ d'étude riche et complexe. Works of literature … The stories from the Bible, the Old and the New Testament showed the death, Burial and Resurrection of Christ in dumb shows. Theology, the life of the saints and the interpretations of the sacred scriptures are other common themes. See also Martin of Braga, Canones ex orientalium patrum synodis [572] 59, in C.W. 78 (747), MGH Epistolae Selectae 1 (M. Tangl ed., Berlin, 1926), 169. See also the sermon attributed to St. Eligius of Noyon (Vita Eligii, MGH ScrRerMerov, 4 [B. Krusch ed. 48 Nam Deus omnipotens ideo sidera constituit in coelis ut hominibus deservirent in terris [...] Hanc illis legem Creator omnium in principio posuit, nec ultra subvenire vel nocere valent: quamvis sint mathematici, qui haec nascentibus praeesse [...] architectis doceant observare (Atto of Vercelli [d. 961] Sermon 3, PL 134, 837A). But there is very little about the other devotions sanctioned by the Church, the prayers and cult of saints, relics and miracles that other sources indicate were also popular. The schools were dreary and cold, and physical activity was severely repressed. Persons of higher rank were to be excommunicated, those of humbler rank or slaves were to be whipped. Some of these concerned only proprietors and the educated, not the most disadvantaged groups. If you continue browsing the site, you agree to the use of cookies on this website. New Medieval Literatures is an annual work on medieval textual cultures. The establishment of Christianity throughout the territories that had formed the Roman Empire meant that Europe was exposed to and tutored in the systematic approach to life, literature, and religion developed by the early Church Fathers. Since a guiding principle of these was the adjustment of the penalty to the individual penitent, variations in suggested penances imply lower responsibility and therefore lower status. References to popular Christianity are incidental. 9 E.g., Sunt quidam, et maximae, mulieres, qui festis ac sacris diebus atque sanctorum nataliciis non pro eorum, quibus debent, delectantur desideriis advenire, sed ballando, verba turpia decantando, choros tenendo ac ducendo, similitudinem paganorum peragendo advenire procurant (Concilium Romanum [826] 35, MGH Concilia 2 [A. Werminghoff ed., Hanover and Leipzig, 1896] 2, 581). 54 [U]t isti mangones et cotiones qui sine omni lege vagabundi vadunt per istam terram, non sinantur/vagare et deceptiones hominibus agere, nec isti nudi cum ferro qui dicunt se data sibi poenitentia ire vagantes... (79, MGH CapRegFr, 1, 60-1). We know that they are peasants because the edict orders them to settle down and do agricultural and servile labour and canonical penance if they have committed some «unusual and capital sin». Le peuple du saint. But when he went on to encourage his hearers to whip and cut off the hair of persistent idolaters, he envisioned inferiors (slaves or children) as the objects of such discipline50. See also Regino of Prüm, De synodalibus causis II, 371, 354-356 and Atto of Vercelli (d. 961), Sermon 13, PL 134, 850-851. There are also philosophical themes covered by religious guidelines and parallel works of prohibited themes such as magic, alchemy and astrology. One of its clauses required the authorities to prevent peddlars and tramps from wandering about the land deceiving people, and it demanded that they stop those vagrants who «wandered around nude, loaded with chains, saying that they had imposed this on themselves as a penance»54. Despite the motives of heretical movements which were in the interests of … For example, Caesarius described two or three types of masquerades during the festivities of the Calends of January: as animals (cervus, annicula), as women and, perhaps, as monsters (Sermons 192.2 and 193.1 and 2, CCSL 104, 780, 783-784) (for bibliographic data, see fn 24). Literature and Religion in Late Medieval and Early Modern Scotland: Essays in Honour of Alasdair A. MacDonald: 18: Houwen, Lajr: Amazon.sg: Books Become a member to get ad-free access to our website and our articles. On the other hand, St. Boniface surely did not have only servants in mind when he complained of the scandal suffered by his carnal and «idiot» Bavarians, Alamanians and Franks when they were exposed to the public carryings-on of New Year’s celebrants in Rome. 5Thirdly, pastoral literature is, in general, one-sided. The first three are general: 3In the first place, a survey of the literature results in isolated scraps of data which cannot be organized to give a coherent picture of popular religion. Religious Education as the Basis of Medieval Literature, Faria Saeed Khan (Department of English University of Balochistan Quetta, Pakistan), International Journal of Humanities and Social Science: Vol. It also reveals a moral world in which the organized Church seemingly had no role to play. Similarly, there is no guarantee that the Austrasian Council of 742 referred only to peasants when it tried to prevent stulti homines from offering pagan-style sacrifices around churches in the names of the martyrs and confessors37. Merci, nous transmettrons rapidement votre demande à votre bibliothèque. For the period between the sixth and eleventh centuries, its importance is even greater than for the rest of the middle ages since it is the only form of early medieval document to confront directly, if seldom, the actual beliefs and religious practices of common people. Many of the canons dealing specifically with popular culture, that is, the customs of the subordinate classes, concerned traditional, so-called pagan, customs and rituals which clerical authors were seldom interested in observing or describing accurately. In addition, claims to having the power to inflict harm magically are usually made by the weak, not the powerful. 33 Conc. 17 Et aliquotiens ligaturas ipsas a clericis ac religiosis accipiunt; sed illi non sunt religiosi vel clerici, sed adiutores diaboli (Sermon 50.1, CCCM 103, 225). H. Kamaruddin Amin, MA Author Hilman Latief Editor Jay Willoughby Hilman Latief Cover Designer dinanhasbudin@yahoo.com Published by The Ministry of Religious Affairs-The … 43 Et qui signa caeli et Stellas ad auratum inspicet, et qui boues, quando primum arare incipit, et cum arietes et hircos in grege dimitti, qui ista omnia obseruare se dicit, sciat, se fidem perdere, non esse christianus, sedpaganus; Quicumque [...] nouam lunam contralunium uocat, et in aliqua utilitate operis sui [...] letamen uehendum aut uineam potandam adque colendam, aut in silua ligna incidenda, aut domum continnandam aut quocumque aliud agendum, et per lunam sibi/fieri impedimentum credit; Quicumque [...] in animalibus mutis aut in hominibus incantat, et prodesse aliquid aut contra esse iudicat; et qui ad serpentes morso vel ad uermes in orto uel in aliasfruges carminat et quodcumque aliutfacit Y (10, 13 and 14, Caspari ed., 8-9). Just as in modern literature, it is a complex and rich field of study, from the utterly sacred to the exuberantly profane, touching all points in-between. Si paupercula est, V annos (Poen. Do admonitions against association with Jews and pagans (e.g., Conc. On the other hand, the Double Penitential of Bede-Egbert included clerics among those who kept the fifth day in honour of Jupiter as well as indulging in other forbidden customs41. The Edict of Rothair, however, refused to accept such beliefs as credible (Pactus Legis Salicae 64, MGH Leges, 1.4.1 [K. A. Eckhart ed., Hanover, 1962] 230-232; Leges Alammanorum Pactus 31, MGH Leges, 1, 5.1. 16 Conc. “Popular Religion in Early Medieval Pastoral Literature”. But even in these cases, the authors did not copy indiscriminately. Rusticus, for example, might mean simple-minded, unsophisticated or ignorant of the requirements of Christianity, rather than peasant. There were no chapters on Society, Religion and Literature in the Imperial Gazetteer. Awarded the 2009 Haskins Medal by the Medieval Academy of America "An erudite and wonderful … But it is also possible that the landowners themselves were afraid that destroying the idols would affect the fertility of the fields and therefore their own well-being. The process of Christianization was a slow one and, even toward the end of the Middle Ages, many people still practiced 'folk magic' and held to the beliefs of their ancestors even while observing Christian rites and rituals. The case is clearer with what might be called economic crimes committed by magic. Aurelianense [541] 24, CCSL 148A, 138). It was believed that Man is finite, he is made of dust and to dust he shall return. These were not necessarily labourers only, since Atto of Vercelli noted in tenth century Piedmont that master-builders followed the counsels of astrologers48. The very noble and pious parents of Guibert of Nogent turned to a cunning-woman (anus quaedam) to have a spell of impotence undone. C - 13013 Marseille FranceVous pouvez également nous indiquer à l'aide du formulaire suivant les coordonnées de votre institution ou de votre bibliothèque afin que nous les contactions pour leur suggérer l’achat de ce livre. They deal, however, only with the practical matters involved in the daily struggle to survive and succeed. 11 Ep. In the early ninth century, Agobard of Lyons stated that «practically everyone, nobles and commoners, city folk and peasants, old and young» believed that storms were raised by weather magicians14. We've created a Patreon for Medievalists.net as we want to transition to a more community-funded model. 31 A. López Calvo, «La cataquesis en la Galicia medieval: Martin Dumiense y el De correctione rusticorum», Estudios Mindonienses, 13 (1997), 509-523; here, 511. In the West, the fusion of Christian and classical philosophy formed the basis of the medieval habit of interpreting life symbolically. Most of the works of that time were theological works. 51 E.g., Mulier si aliquem interemerit malitia sua, id est, per poculum aut per artem aliquant, VIII annos poeniteat. The medieval literature was written with a purpose to teach Christian dogmas to the masses. It was home to most advanced scientific production of its time for several centuries. In fact, Dieter Harmening has argued that penitenials as a whole are a source not for peasant but for clerical magic22. Thus the women who sang and danced in churches in tenth century Helmstadt, their Rhenish sisters who were tricked by the devil into thinking that they participated in Diana’s Ride, and the «little trollops» who promenaded around the Piedmontese countryside on the eve of St. John’s Day, dancing, singing and fortune-telling, probably can be ranked among the classes of the poor35. Some penitentials accepted poverty as a mitigating factor in abortion, even when magical means were used51. Thank you for supporting our website! Between 511 and 695, they enacted over 550 canons. 7In Frankish territory, for instance, the mid sixth century synod of Eauze (Dept. Few men could read and write. 6 A. Gurevich, Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception, trans. Its scope is inclusive of work across the theoretical, archival, philological, and historicist methodologies associated with medieval literary studies. De pugna duorum, quod wehadinc vocatur, ut prius non sortiantur, quam parati sint, neforte carminibus vel machinis diabolicis vel magicis artibus insidiantur (Conc.