Peter Marshall
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198204480
- eISBN:
- 9780191676307
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198204480.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, History of Religion
To be an effective pastor, a priest must naturally reside amongst his people. In this chapter, the alleged failings of the late medieval Church in the provision of pastoral care are presented through ...
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To be an effective pastor, a priest must naturally reside amongst his people. In this chapter, the alleged failings of the late medieval Church in the provision of pastoral care are presented through several accounts that showcased their negligence, non-residence or appropriation to a religious house, and denial of sacraments due to personal motives. Thus, the fact that the Church made the reception of sacraments an effective condition of salvation, yet could not, through its parochial agents, always guarantee their availability, was a situation that led to potent resentment against the clergies. The author concludes this chapter by suggesting that although attitudes of laypeople towards their pastors never veered from the twin poles of defeated expectation and bare satisfaction, there were some pastors who have been effective and caring, and thus elicited respect and affection from their flock.Less
To be an effective pastor, a priest must naturally reside amongst his people. In this chapter, the alleged failings of the late medieval Church in the provision of pastoral care are presented through several accounts that showcased their negligence, non-residence or appropriation to a religious house, and denial of sacraments due to personal motives. Thus, the fact that the Church made the reception of sacraments an effective condition of salvation, yet could not, through its parochial agents, always guarantee their availability, was a situation that led to potent resentment against the clergies. The author concludes this chapter by suggesting that although attitudes of laypeople towards their pastors never veered from the twin poles of defeated expectation and bare satisfaction, there were some pastors who have been effective and caring, and thus elicited respect and affection from their flock.
Michelle Armstrong-Partida
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781501707735
- eISBN:
- 9781501707827
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501707735.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This concluding chapter argues that medieval priests did not renounce their ministry and their ecclesiastical careers to marry and have families. Rather, in fourteenth-century Catalunya, parish ...
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This concluding chapter argues that medieval priests did not renounce their ministry and their ecclesiastical careers to marry and have families. Rather, in fourteenth-century Catalunya, parish clergy were able to meld a family and household with their profession despite the prohibition against marriage. The fact that so many clergymen were promoted through the holy orders to become parish priests and still managed to form de facto marriages, support their children, and train their sons to be clergymen indicates that, even though the standards of the medieval Church had changed since the Gregorian period, the customs of parish clergy had not. Contrary to contemporary assumptions, celibacy and the absence of marital union did not define the medieval Catalan priest. Ultimately, their public sexuality, use of violent acts in defense of honor, and participation in competition for standing in the community are evidence that clerics adopted characteristics of lay manhood in medieval society.Less
This concluding chapter argues that medieval priests did not renounce their ministry and their ecclesiastical careers to marry and have families. Rather, in fourteenth-century Catalunya, parish clergy were able to meld a family and household with their profession despite the prohibition against marriage. The fact that so many clergymen were promoted through the holy orders to become parish priests and still managed to form de facto marriages, support their children, and train their sons to be clergymen indicates that, even though the standards of the medieval Church had changed since the Gregorian period, the customs of parish clergy had not. Contrary to contemporary assumptions, celibacy and the absence of marital union did not define the medieval Catalan priest. Ultimately, their public sexuality, use of violent acts in defense of honor, and participation in competition for standing in the community are evidence that clerics adopted characteristics of lay manhood in medieval society.
Ralph Houlbrooke
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198208761
- eISBN:
- 9780191678134
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208761.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This chapter discusses funeral rites between the 15th and 18th centuries. The rites which followed death served many different purposes, including the ...
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This chapter discusses funeral rites between the 15th and 18th centuries. The rites which followed death served many different purposes, including the performance of religious and social duties towards the deceased; the symbolic transfer of rights, obligations, and social position; the expression of solidarity in mourning; and the discharge of duties of hospitality and almsgiving. How far anyone funeral fulfilled these functions largely depended upon the wealth and status of the deceased. Some of the main purposes of funerals changed in the course of time. The Reformation transformed their religious basis. The Civil Wars and Interregnum undermined the neo-feudal foundations of the aristocratic public funeral. Drastic simplification of burial rites by the victorious Puritans, temporary so far as the nation at large was concerned, served as a pattern for subsequent Nonconformist practice.Less
This chapter discusses funeral rites between the 15th and 18th centuries. The rites which followed death served many different purposes, including the performance of religious and social duties towards the deceased; the symbolic transfer of rights, obligations, and social position; the expression of solidarity in mourning; and the discharge of duties of hospitality and almsgiving. How far anyone funeral fulfilled these functions largely depended upon the wealth and status of the deceased. Some of the main purposes of funerals changed in the course of time. The Reformation transformed their religious basis. The Civil Wars and Interregnum undermined the neo-feudal foundations of the aristocratic public funeral. Drastic simplification of burial rites by the victorious Puritans, temporary so far as the nation at large was concerned, served as a pattern for subsequent Nonconformist practice.
Rebecca Rist
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- December 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198717980
- eISBN:
- 9780191787430
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198717980.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Religion, European Medieval History
The book explores the nature and scope of the relationship of the medieval papacy to the Jews of western Europe through a reassessment of the evidence for papal interaction with Jewish communities. ...
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The book explores the nature and scope of the relationship of the medieval papacy to the Jews of western Europe through a reassessment of the evidence for papal interaction with Jewish communities. The book analyses papal pronouncements in the context of the substantial and on-going social, political, and economic changes of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, as well the characters and preoccupations of individual pontiffs and the development of Christian theology. It also breaks new ground in exploring the other side of the story—Jewish perceptions of both individual popes and the papacy as an institution—through analysis of a wide range of contemporary Hebrew and Latin documents. The book engages with the works of recent scholars in the field of Christian–Jewish relations to examine the social and legal status of Jewish communities in light of the papacy’s authorization of crusading, prohibitions against money lending and condemnation of the Talmud, as well as increasing charges of ritual murder and host desecration, the growth of both Christian and Jewish polemical literature, and the advent of the mendicant orders. This monograph is an important addition to recent work on medieval Christian–Jewish relations. Furthermore, its subject matter—religious and cultural exchange between Jews and Christians during a period crucial for our understanding of the growth of the Western world, the rise of nation states and the development of relations between East and West—makes it extremely relevant to today’s multi-cultural and multi-faith society.Less
The book explores the nature and scope of the relationship of the medieval papacy to the Jews of western Europe through a reassessment of the evidence for papal interaction with Jewish communities. The book analyses papal pronouncements in the context of the substantial and on-going social, political, and economic changes of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, as well the characters and preoccupations of individual pontiffs and the development of Christian theology. It also breaks new ground in exploring the other side of the story—Jewish perceptions of both individual popes and the papacy as an institution—through analysis of a wide range of contemporary Hebrew and Latin documents. The book engages with the works of recent scholars in the field of Christian–Jewish relations to examine the social and legal status of Jewish communities in light of the papacy’s authorization of crusading, prohibitions against money lending and condemnation of the Talmud, as well as increasing charges of ritual murder and host desecration, the growth of both Christian and Jewish polemical literature, and the advent of the mendicant orders. This monograph is an important addition to recent work on medieval Christian–Jewish relations. Furthermore, its subject matter—religious and cultural exchange between Jews and Christians during a period crucial for our understanding of the growth of the Western world, the rise of nation states and the development of relations between East and West—makes it extremely relevant to today’s multi-cultural and multi-faith society.
Michael Everett
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780300207422
- eISBN:
- 9780300213089
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300207422.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter explores Thomas Cromwell's responsibilities involving the day-to-day operations of the English Church, such as administration, finance and monastic appointments. It presents a glimpse ...
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This chapter explores Thomas Cromwell's responsibilities involving the day-to-day operations of the English Church, such as administration, finance and monastic appointments. It presents a glimpse into how the Crown controlled the Church from the beginning of the Reformation, stating how English kings exerted considerable practical direction over the Church. It illustrates Cromwell's religious convictions, his promotion and protection of religious radicals, and how he developed a sort of mastery over ecclesiastical affairs, leading to his appointment as vicegerent in spirituals in 1535. There was insufficient proof of Cromwell being a religious reformer, yet he believed that certain elements of the Church were corrupt and in need of reform.Less
This chapter explores Thomas Cromwell's responsibilities involving the day-to-day operations of the English Church, such as administration, finance and monastic appointments. It presents a glimpse into how the Crown controlled the Church from the beginning of the Reformation, stating how English kings exerted considerable practical direction over the Church. It illustrates Cromwell's religious convictions, his promotion and protection of religious radicals, and how he developed a sort of mastery over ecclesiastical affairs, leading to his appointment as vicegerent in spirituals in 1535. There was insufficient proof of Cromwell being a religious reformer, yet he believed that certain elements of the Church were corrupt and in need of reform.
Maria Esposito Frank
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823263868
- eISBN:
- 9780823266302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823263868.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
After surveying a variety of apologetical and polemical Christian texts on Islam which circulated in medieval Eastern and Latin Christendom, this study traces the changing Christian perceptions of, ...
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After surveying a variety of apologetical and polemical Christian texts on Islam which circulated in medieval Eastern and Latin Christendom, this study traces the changing Christian perceptions of, and responses to, Islam. The trajectory followed in this study shows a progression from widespread — with few, precious exceptions — views of Islam as barbarism and idolatry, doomed to soon disappear, to more serious considerations of Islam as the theological ones that emerged in the late Middle Ages, when Ecclesiastic authorities began to address it on adoctrinal basis, as a Christological heresy. This study argues that, within a faulty understanding of Islam and of his Prophet, but outside the prevailing views at his time, Dante’s portrayal of Islam and his Prophet in Inferno 28 is the expression Dante’s own peculiar understanding of the Islamic faith and of Muhammad’s life. Subtly distinguishing between heresy and schism, Dante’ s Muhammad concludes that the image of the Prophet in the eighth circle of Hell is reminiscent of Arius, a controversial figure connected with a long history of theological division within Christendom. Additional arguments pointing at Dante’s references to Arius in Paradiso 13, and at the strong influence on Dante of Boethius’s writings and vicissitudes — especially his martyrdom by decree of the Arian king Theodoric — further explain the violation of the unity of the Christian community, which is the center of Inferno 28.Less
After surveying a variety of apologetical and polemical Christian texts on Islam which circulated in medieval Eastern and Latin Christendom, this study traces the changing Christian perceptions of, and responses to, Islam. The trajectory followed in this study shows a progression from widespread — with few, precious exceptions — views of Islam as barbarism and idolatry, doomed to soon disappear, to more serious considerations of Islam as the theological ones that emerged in the late Middle Ages, when Ecclesiastic authorities began to address it on adoctrinal basis, as a Christological heresy. This study argues that, within a faulty understanding of Islam and of his Prophet, but outside the prevailing views at his time, Dante’s portrayal of Islam and his Prophet in Inferno 28 is the expression Dante’s own peculiar understanding of the Islamic faith and of Muhammad’s life. Subtly distinguishing between heresy and schism, Dante’ s Muhammad concludes that the image of the Prophet in the eighth circle of Hell is reminiscent of Arius, a controversial figure connected with a long history of theological division within Christendom. Additional arguments pointing at Dante’s references to Arius in Paradiso 13, and at the strong influence on Dante of Boethius’s writings and vicissitudes — especially his martyrdom by decree of the Arian king Theodoric — further explain the violation of the unity of the Christian community, which is the center of Inferno 28.
Alexander Murray
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198208839
- eISBN:
- 9780191799952
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198208839.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History, History of Religion
We are born and die alone, and are often alone in between. But this is true of all human beings, in their millions. So in another sense we are not alone at all, quite the opposite. To manage other ...
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We are born and die alone, and are often alone in between. But this is true of all human beings, in their millions. So in another sense we are not alone at all, quite the opposite. To manage other shared problems our species has devised organisms specific to each. The organisms specific to our shared solitudes are religions. Because of the paradox in which they originate, religions have a double character: private and public. There is no clearer example than Christianity. It could never have come into existence without some degree of organization, with its half-dozen early members or, thanks to development of Roman and Jewish traditions, millions. But the whole purpose of the organization was to cultivate, in each member, responses essentially private, known only to God. The public and private elements in Christianity are always in tension, usually a creative one; but sometimes not. Murray’s five essays, produced for various occasions, consider different aspects of this tension, creative or otherwise, in the western church between, approximately, the millennium and 1300.Less
We are born and die alone, and are often alone in between. But this is true of all human beings, in their millions. So in another sense we are not alone at all, quite the opposite. To manage other shared problems our species has devised organisms specific to each. The organisms specific to our shared solitudes are religions. Because of the paradox in which they originate, religions have a double character: private and public. There is no clearer example than Christianity. It could never have come into existence without some degree of organization, with its half-dozen early members or, thanks to development of Roman and Jewish traditions, millions. But the whole purpose of the organization was to cultivate, in each member, responses essentially private, known only to God. The public and private elements in Christianity are always in tension, usually a creative one; but sometimes not. Murray’s five essays, produced for various occasions, consider different aspects of this tension, creative or otherwise, in the western church between, approximately, the millennium and 1300.
