Download PDF | Norman Tanner - The Ages of Faith_ Popular Religion in Late Medieval England and Western Europe -I. B. Tauris (2009).
249 Pages
Norman Tanner is Professor of Church History at the Gregorian University in Rome. He previously held teaching positions in the faculties of both history and theology at the University of Oxford. A medieval historian of international stature, he is best known for his groundbreaking books on the great ecumenical councils of the Christian Church. He is also the author of a volume in the 1B. Tauris History of the Christian Church series, The Church in the Later Middle Ages.
Introduction
From my years at Ampleforth College, Yorkshire, I enjoyed an interest in the late medieval Church, profiting from the excellent teaching of history by Thomas Charles-Edwards, Hugh Aveling, William Price (Headmaster), Basil (subsequently Cardinal) Hume and Anthony Davidson. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1961, I was privileged to have some fine courses in medieval philosophy, taught mainly by the eminent Frederick Copleston, during three years of Licentiate studies in Philosophy at Heythrop College, then in Oxfordshire. Oxford University, where I took the BA in History and D.Phil in Church History as a member of Campion Hall, was exceptionally strong in the teaching of medieval history.
I am particularly grateful for the inspiring teaching of James Campbell and Peter Lewis, who tutored me for various papers on England, France and Europe in the late Middle Ages, and Gillian Lewis and James O’Higgins, who tutored for the subsequent period, and to William Pantin, the supervisor of my D.Phil thesis, which was published, substantially unaltered, as The Church in Late Medieval Norwich 1370-1532 (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1984). Three years studying theology, in preparation for ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood, resulted in the B.Theol. at the Gregorian University in Rome. This time allowed me a precious opportunity to delve deeper into medieval theology and to come to know at first hand the capital city of the medieval Church. These early studies and experiences form an essential background to the essays and articles in the present collection.
For 25 years (1978-2003) I taught medieval history — focusing principally on the late medieval Church — at Oxford University, with the posts of Tutor at Campion Hall and (1997-2003) University Research Lecturer. For most of this time I was also Lecturer (part-time) in Medieval Church History at Heythrop College, University of London, as well as Visiting Lecturer / Professor — usually teaching medieval Church History or the councils of the Church — in various institutions abroad. It was during this time that most of the articles in the collection were written. In 2003 I was appointed Professor of Church History at the Gregorian University in Rome.
The articles in the book are collected under four headings: Church Councils, Norwich, England and Europe. The first group comprises various articles that grew out of my work as editor of Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (2 vols., 1990), which included the decrees of the ecumenical (or general) councils of the Western Church during the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. No 1 in the present collection, ‘Medieval Crusade Decrees and Ignatius’s Meditation on the Kingdom,’ examines the possible influence of medieval councils upon the ‘Meditation on the Kingdom,’ in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola. No. 2, ‘Reception of the First Seven Ecumenical Councils by Medieval and Later General Councils of the Western Church’, studies how the Western Church, ever since the schism of 1054, has continued to root itself in the Eastern Councils of the first millennium. No. 3, ‘Pastoral Care: The Fourth Latern Council of 1215’, examines the zeal and methodology of the most comprehensive council of the medieval West. Nos. 4 and 5 survey two major councils of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: Florence, which is known principally for the attempted reunion between the Catholic and Orthodox churches; and Trent, the council that profoundly influenced the life and thought of Roman Catholicism for four centuries. All five essays fit into the renewed interest in church councils in recent years, stimulated in part by the Roman Catholic Church’s surprisingly successful modern council. Vatican II (1962-5).
The second group of articles, on Norwich, develops themes to be found in The Church in Late Medieval Norwich 1370-1532. No. 6, ‘The Reformation and Regionalism: Further Reflections on the Church in Late Medieval Norwich’ looks at two issues. First, the paradox that a city noted for its thriving religious life in the late Middle Ages nevertheless embraced the Reformation with apparent enthusiasm. Secondly, does the case of Norwich suggest that regionalism was more important than nationalism in the English Church during this period? No. 7, ‘Religious Practice in Norwich’, forms a chapter in the recent Medieval Norwich (2004), edited by Carole Rawcliffe and Richard Wilson. It unfolds around the provocative suggestion that Norwich might be considered the ‘most religious city’ in late medieval Europe. Both essays fit into recent fascination with the late medieval Church, and revisionist tendencies in the relevant studies, whereby a much more sympathetic evaluation has replaced the earlier picture of a decadent Church and of impending doom that led almost inevitably to the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter-Reformation.
The third group comprises various other articles on England. No. 8, ‘Sources for Popular Religion in Late Medieval England’ was originally delivered at the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan, in May 1993 and was subsequently published in the Italian journal Ricerche di Storia Sociale e Religiosa. It surveys the notable developments in our knowledge of this field of study in the course of the twentieth century. No. 9, ‘Penances Imposed on Kentish Lollards by Archbishop Warham, 1511-12’, looks at a relatively neglected area in recent studies of Lollards: the punishments short of the death penalty that were imposed upon them.
The Archbishop of Canterbury devised an array of imaginative penances that were designed to fit the alleged crimes of the miscreants and to deter other people from following their examples. No. 10, ‘Crying “God for Harry! England and St George!”’, was published as the late medieval contribution to the Church Times series on the history of the English church, “Not Angles, but Anglicans’. The article emphasizes both England’s active participation within Western Christendom during the period, and the distinctive national contribution made by the English church. No. 11 ‘The Study of English Medieval Recluses in the Twentieth Century’, which was published in the Festschrift for Professor Yasuo Deguchi of Japan, looks at one distinctive and creative dimension of Christianity in late medieval England, the abundance of hermits and anchorites: Julian of Norwich, Richard Rolle and many others. The three parts of No. 12, ‘Canon Law in England’, ‘Hermits and Anchorites’ and ‘Popular Religion’, were articles in Reader’s Guide to British History, edited by David Loades. They provide bibliographical guides to recent literature on three topics that feature prominently in the present collection. No. 13 ‘Piety in the Later Middle Ages in England’ formed a chapter in A History of Religion in Britain (1994), edited by S. Gilley and W.J. Sheils. It provides a generally optimistic survey of the vivacity and creativity of Christianity in late medieval England — an assessment that expands on the positive evaluation already noted for Norwich.
The fourth group comprises various short articles on Europe, most of them originally published in the Jesuit periodical The Month. No. 14, ‘Private Life and the Middle Ages’, which is a review of the English translation of volume 3 of Histoire de la Vie Privé, edited by P. Ariés and G. Duby, explores the fundamentally communitarian and public nature of all life in medieval Europe. No. 15, ‘Medieval Christendom and the Restoration of a Christian Society’, proposes that while there is much to learn from medieval Christendom, attempts to reproduce it again today represent a fatal temptation. No. 16, ‘Do North Americans Understand the Middle Ages Better than Europeans?’, which was published in America magazine, reflects on the remarkable success of the annual gathering at Kalamazoo, mentioned above.
In arguing that the success of ‘Kalamazoo’ may be attributed to the innate symbiosis of north Americans with the Middle Ages, and that this symbiosis is much less prevalent among Europeans, the article had the undesired affect of irritating both American and British readers: the former for suggesting they were ‘medieval’ people, the latter for seemingly denying the continuity of their cultural heritage. No. 17, ‘Sin in the Middle Ages’, argues that medieval people were refreshingly frank about their faults, and that we could do well to learn from their openness. No. 18, ‘Making Merry in the Middle Ages’, urges the upbeat nature of medieval life, that indeed ‘all life was sport, in a sense’. No. 19, ‘Christianity versus Paganism? Reflections on Medieval Europe’, criticizes as exaggerated the attention given to paganism in The Pagan Middle Ages, the collection of essays edited by Ludo Milis, on the grounds that the book too quickly labels as paganism what in fact — following the doctrine of the Incarnation — is integral to Christianity. Finally, no. 20, ‘Inquisition and Holy Office’, offers a brief survey of the Catholic Church’s correction of religious dissidence through the centuries.
The articles taken together constitute, it may be hoped, a significant contribution to the study of religion in late medieval England and western Europe, from a variety of angles, and to some other topics of wider geographical and chronological scope. They may be regarded as being both in continuity with a long tradition of scholarship and in contact with more recent developments and reinterpretations. I am very pleased that I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd has undertaken the publication of this book.
The writing of the articles has spanned some 20 years. During this time a number of publications have appeared that would lead to some updates in the articles, though the resulting changes would, I think, be on points of details rather than the main lines of argument. Instead of attempting to indicate the desired updates within the articles themselves, I mention here some of the most relevant recent publications.
The most important is Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H.G.C. Matthew and Brian Harrison, (60 vols., Oxford University Press, 2004). This monumental work provides revised biographies of many people appearing in the present volume. Other major works of reference, published within the last decade, should be mentioned: The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, edited by EL. Cross and E.A. Livingstone (3" edn. revised, Oxford, 2005); Lexikon fiir Theologie und Kirche (revised 3" edn., 2006); New Catholic Encyclopedia (2™ edn. 2003); Lexikon des Mittelalters, (9 vols., completed in 1999); Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, edited by A. Vauchez, B. Dobson and M. Lapidge, (2 vols., Cambridge, 2000). On particular topics: R. Cross, Duns Scotus (Oxford, 1999) supplies the ‘major study of Scotus’ mentioned on p. 81; the Lichfield court book (p. 99) has been edited and translated into English: S. McSheffrey and Norman Tanner (eds.), Lo/lards of Coventry 1486-1522, Camden Fifth Series, xxiii (London, 2003); Anne Hudson and Pamela Gradon’s edition of the Lollard/Wycliffite sermon cycle (p. 84) is now complete; David King, The Medieval Stained Glass of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich (Oxford, 2006) supplements note 48 on page 207.
I am most grateful to the various owners of copyright for permission to reprint the articles. The permissions are indicated at the beginning of the notes for each chapter; see below, pp. 201-19.
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