Search Results

After Volmar

Honey Meconi

in Hildegard of Bingen

This chapter covers Hildegard’s turbulent last years. Her last theological treatise, Liber divinorum operum, was completed after Volmar died; his replacement, Gottfried of Disibodenberg, began ... More

This chapter covers Hildegard’s turbulent last years. Her last theological treatise, Liber divinorum operum, was completed after Volmar died; his replacement, Gottfried of Disibodenberg, began Hildegard’s Vita but died before completing it. The monk Guibert of Gembloux transmitted the questions that generated her Solutiones triginta octo quaestionum and solicited an important description of the nature of Hildegard’s visions. The Dendermonde manuscript including her music was sent to the monks of Villers Abbey, and the Riesencodex (also with her music) was begun. Her community was placed under interdict for burying a supposed excommunicate in sacred ground, and Hildegard’s subsequent “Letter to the Prelates of Mainz” includes her most powerful statement about the importance of music. The chapter closes with a description of the heavenly lights that followed her burial.Less

The First Estate: Parliament and the Church

Kirsty F. McAlister and Roland J. Tanner

in Parliament in Context, 1235–1707

This chapter examines the contribution of the first estate, which had disappeared entirely by the time parliament's history came to an end. It is clear that the church's role in parliament evolved. ... More

This chapter examines the contribution of the first estate, which had disappeared entirely by the time parliament's history came to an end. It is clear that the church's role in parliament evolved. While prelates were present by the end of the thirteenth century, it was not until around the turn of the sixteenth that significant ecclesiastical legislation began to emerge.Less

A Regional Religion: Catholic Prelates in the Postbellum South, 1865–1900

James M. Woods

in A History of the Catholic Church in the American South, 1513–1900

In a paper titled “The Vatican Council: Ten Years Later,” Bishop Eduardus Fitzgerald defends the doctrine of the infallibility of the pope as not an invention of the council but an elaboration of ... More

In a paper titled “The Vatican Council: Ten Years Later,” Bishop Eduardus Fitzgerald defends the doctrine of the infallibility of the pope as not an invention of the council but an elaboration of divinely revealed doctrines in sacred scripture and tradition, that the Holy Spirit, operating through the papacy, would preserve the church from teaching erroneous doctrines or morals. As a bishop in Arkansas, a southern state overwhelmingly poor and Protestant, Fitzgerald did not believe this new dogma would win many converts to Catholicism. This was the circumstance the prelate already knew, and it was quite common across the South. Just as the South was a peculiar region within the United States, the Catholic bishops ministering there had to live within the confines of this religious culture.Less

Catholic renewal and episcopal traditions in the sixteenth century

Alison Forrestal

in Fathers, Pastors and Kings: Visions of Episcopacy in Seventeenth-century France

This chapter examines the episcopal and Catholic renewal traditions in France during the sixteenth century. By the turn of the sixteenth century, French prelates had a variety of sources on which to ... More

This chapter examines the episcopal and Catholic renewal traditions in France during the sixteenth century. By the turn of the sixteenth century, French prelates had a variety of sources on which to base their understanding of the episcopal office. Those guides most immediately to hand, the Council of Trent and the examples of contemporary reforming prelates appeared particularly attractive, for they enabled the minority of French bishops who were attempting to introduce reforms in insecure conditions to lay the foundations for permanent ecclesiastical order. The chapter suggests that this French tradition provided strongly articulated views on episcopal jurisdictional rights and authority as well as, secondarily, on episcopal spirituality.Less

An uneasy alliance

Alison Forrestal

in Fathers, Pastors and Kings: Visions of Episcopacy in Seventeenth-century France

This chapter addresses the episcopate's understanding of its status and its role towards another power that consistently sought to increase its sway over the French church: the gallican crown and its ... More

This chapter addresses the episcopate's understanding of its status and its role towards another power that consistently sought to increase its sway over the French church: the gallican crown and its secular officials. The bishops' tensed relations with successive popes resulted in several clashes between the bishops and the French crown. The chapter suggests that from the bishops' conflicts with the state and the papacy, and indeed with the lower clergy, emerged a strong sense of communion and collective identity within the episcopate, based on the belief that prelates were duty-bound to protect their office and their brethren.Less

Private Lives in Common Spaces: Santa Clara 1671–1769

John J. Clune

in Cuban Convents in the Age of Enlightened Reform, 1761–1807

This chapter examines the origins of convent reforms at the Santa Clara Convent in Havana, Cuba, which had been a target of reformers for more than a century. It explains that the crown's decision to ... More

This chapter examines the origins of convent reforms at the Santa Clara Convent in Havana, Cuba, which had been a target of reformers for more than a century. It explains that the crown's decision to involve itself in the internal affairs of the Clarist community in Havana was precipitated by a quarrel between the nuns and their regular male superiors, justified by a negative report originating with a secular prelate. It also discusses the history of failed reform at Santa Clara, the royal response to reports of corruption, and the Franciscan solution to charges of corruption at Santa Clara.Less

Apology for the Woman Writing—: to a Prelate1

in Apology for the Woman Writing and Other Works

Marie le Jars de Gournay dedicates her novel, “The Apology for the Woman Writing,” to a prelate, who may have been her cousin, Charles de Hacqueville, Bishop of Soissons. She narrates how other ... More

Marie le Jars de Gournay dedicates her novel, “The Apology for the Woman Writing,” to a prelate, who may have been her cousin, Charles de Hacqueville, Bishop of Soissons. She narrates how other people are accusing her of ruining her finances or of other kinds of extravagance, and asks the prelate to defend her against the follies of popular gossip. Gournay says it is wholly impossible that persons of ill fortune should live in esteem, “especially in this age and with our mores.” People who live according to pure inclination are ordinarily less estimable as they age; the contrary is the case with those who live by reason, because the driving forces of mere inclination, which are physical, deteriorate with age, as those of reason improve with it. Gournay, who aspires to be among the adherents of the latter group, also talks about virtue, letters and learning, and the general condemnation of intellectual women.Less

An Overview: Catholics in the South and Desegregation, 1945–1970

Mark Newman

in Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992

Although segregation laws did not apply to private institutions in most southern states, most prelates were unwilling to defy segregationist white majority opinion, both Protestant and Catholic, and ... More

Although segregation laws did not apply to private institutions in most southern states, most prelates were unwilling to defy segregationist white majority opinion, both Protestant and Catholic, and risk opposition that might undermine their primary duty of preserving and spreading the faith. While some ordinaries and many priests supported or accepted segregation, other Catholic prelates, and some clergy and white laity, were troubled by southern segregation and by a growing appreciation that Jim Crow conflicted with Vatican condemnations of racism and support for the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ. Whatever their personal feelings, most prelates ordered desegregation in the postwar decades only in anticipation of, or to correlate with, secular desegregation in their dioceses. By 1970, few southern white Catholics identified themselves as segregationists, and southern Catholic institutions had abandoned overt exclusionary or segregationist practices. Yet, in many cases desegregation of Catholic institutions did not exceed tokenism.Less

Desegregation of Southern Catholic Institutions, 1945–1970

Mark Newman

in Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992

Many of the values that led southern Catholic leaders to support secular desegregation also led them to desegregate Catholic institutions. In some cases, particularly in parts of the peripheral ... More

Many of the values that led southern Catholic leaders to support secular desegregation also led them to desegregate Catholic institutions. In some cases, particularly in parts of the peripheral South, prelates desegregated Catholic schools, hospitals and churches ahead of secular change. In other instances, especially in the Deep South, ordinaries acted largely in tandem with secular desegregation, although occasionally more extensively, and sometimes partly or substantially in response to federal financial pressure. Some ordinaries eschewed publicity, while others publicly announced desegregation. In deciding policy, all prelates considered the extent or absence of secular desegregation and the nature of public and Catholic lay and clergy opinion in their dioceses, as well as the views of their consultors. Most prelates confined school desegregation to Catholic admissions, thereby restricting its impact because of large African American Protestant enrollment in black Catholic schools and limiting opposition to a change that brought only token desegregation.Less

Judges and Notaries

in The Medieval Origins of the Legal Profession: Canonists, Civilians, and Courts

The presiding officer of the consistory court of a bishop or lesser prelate was an ordinary judge usually styled the “official.” Prelates by definition possessed the right of “ordinary jurisdiction,” ... More

The presiding officer of the consistory court of a bishop or lesser prelate was an ordinary judge usually styled the “official.” Prelates by definition possessed the right of “ordinary jurisdiction,” which is to say that they were the usual and customary judges of disputes or disciplinary infractions among the faithful who were subject to them. At the pinnacle of the church's hierarchy, the pope claimed ordinary jurisdiction over all Christians, although in practice he normally authorized the auditors of the Roman Rota, the Audientia litterarum contradictarum, and other papal tribunals to exercise it on his behalf. Similarly, archbishops, bishops, abbots, archdeacons, deans, and other lesser prelates routinely deputized officials and commissary judges to deal with most matters that fell under their jurisdiction.Less

Prelude to a Debate

Hunter Powell

in The Crisis of British Protestantism: Church Power in the Puritan Revolution, 1638-44

This chapter explores the relationships and theological connections between the Apologists (congregational divines), the Smectymnuun (English Presbyterian) divines, Scottish divines, and the English ... More

This chapter explores the relationships and theological connections between the Apologists (congregational divines), the Smectymnuun (English Presbyterian) divines, Scottish divines, and the English revolution’s leading nobles. By examining their collective efforts at religious reform, we reassess how those relationships helped to bring down the prelacy and set the stage for the Westminster assembly. Here we will see an alliance built on common theological principles. We find that ecclesiological boundaries were not yet clearly defined, and those groups that would later argue for Presbyterianism in the assembly were far more congregational leaning during the early days of the revolution.Less

The Struggle Over Vida Común

in Brides of Christ: Conventual Life in Colonial Mexico

This chapter examines the struggle over the so-called vida común in the history of nunneries in colonial Mexico. It explains that under this form of observance, nuns would eat in a refectory sharing ... More

This chapter examines the struggle over the so-called vida común in the history of nunneries in colonial Mexico. It explains that under this form of observance, nuns would eat in a refectory sharing communal meals, give up their personal servants and dismiss girls and seculars living in the cloister. It suggests that the conflict between nuns and their male prelates regarding vida común was a gender contestation issue and explains that while the reform was understood as a religious issue, it was characterized by the explicit use of gendered terms by all those involved.Less

The Estates of Lower Austria

William D. Godsey

in The Sinews of Habsburg Power: Lower Austria in a Fiscal-Military State 1650-1820

This chapter explores the composition of the Estates and how admission to their ranks was regulated. It also considers relations among the four Estates. Membership in the Estates of prelates and ... More

This chapter explores the composition of the Estates and how admission to their ranks was regulated. It also considers relations among the four Estates. Membership in the Estates of prelates and townsmen was largely static over time, while that in the lords and knights was changing. As a body, the Estates were not monolithic. Lines of fissure ran between nobility and clergy, within and between the various formal and informal groups of nobles, and between the townsmen and the others. There were also confessional and geographical factors that produced vertical divisions. These distinctions governed the dynamic not only within the halls of the Landhaus but also between the Estates and government.Less

Patrons and Houses (1635–1643)

Alison Forrestal

in Vincent de Paul, the Lazarist Mission, and French Catholic Reform

As membership of the Lazarists swelled from the mid-1630s, de Paul introduced a new era for the group, characterized by major expansions in activity and infrastructure. This chapter investigates the ... More

As membership of the Lazarists swelled from the mid-1630s, de Paul introduced a new era for the group, characterized by major expansions in activity and infrastructure. This chapter investigates the first of two stages in provincial expansion in France, tracking de Paul’s efforts to found and fund houses for missions and retreats in the French provinces. It investigates the steps that he took to ensure the establishment of eight houses in north-eastern, eastern, and western France to mid-1643, the first located in Toul and the last in Sedan, both close to the north-eastern French border. Key to this development of the Lazarist infrastructure and activity was the acquisition of new patrons, including the Richelieu family and the French crown.Less

New Houses, New Purposes, New Problems (1643–1660)

Alison Forrestal

in Vincent de Paul, the Lazarist Mission, and French Catholic Reform

Chapter 8 investigates the second phase of Lazarist expansion under de Paul, as he oversaw the foundation of twelve more houses in the French provinces, beginning with a new house in Cahors in late ... More

Chapter 8 investigates the second phase of Lazarist expansion under de Paul, as he oversaw the foundation of twelve more houses in the French provinces, beginning with a new house in Cahors in late 1643 and concluding with the establishment of a house in Narbonne in 1659. Three themes form the main concerns of the chapter: the first is the emergence of seminary management as a major element of the Lazarists’ activities, and the second is the significance of episcopal patronage to their expansion; third, the chapter trains a critical eye on the origins, features, and fruits of the relations that de Paul cultivated with founders and donors to expand the Lazarist infrastructure.Less

Living Standards and Display

Martin Heale

in The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England

This chapter illustrates how the growing control of abbots and priors over monastic finances provided further opportunities for expenditure on their own office. Over the course of the later Middle ... More

This chapter illustrates how the growing control of abbots and priors over monastic finances provided further opportunities for expenditure on their own office. Over the course of the later Middle Ages, increasingly large sums of money were devoted to the financing of the head’s household and to impressive abbatial residences. Late medieval superiors also adopted new and ostentatious forms of display, utilizing their initials, rebuses, and even personal coats of arms to advertise their high-status artistic and architectural patronage. In short, monastic superiors were becoming more prelatical over this period, adopting the bishop as their model. This increased emphasis on the dignity of the abbatial office should not be equated with ‘worldliness’, but was rather the expression of an ecclesiastical magnificence thought appropriate for princes of the Church—even if this pursuit did not sit particularly comfortably with traditional monastic ideals.Less