Late Medieval Christianity: Religious Cultures, Heresies, and Orthodoxies

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 January 2018) | Viewed by 21338

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Theology, Fordham University, Bronx, NY 10458, USA
Interests: late medieval and early modern Christianity; the English and continental reformations of the sixteenth century; Lollardy/Wycliffism; heresy and orthodoxy; contemporary American Roman Catholicism; religious affiliation and disaffiliation; sexual diversity and contemporary Christian thought and practice

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Religions will feature original research on aspects of Christianity during the late medieval period, broadly defined as extending from the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) through the emergence of the Protestant reformations of the sixteenth century. Of particular interest are articles that address late medieval religious cultures and practices; that touch upon persons, groups, texts, or ideas denominated heterodox or heretical; or that focus on the ways in which religious groups and institutions defined, practiced, and reformed orthodoxy/ies. In addition, we especially welcome contributions that interrogate the categories of heresy, orthodoxy, and heterodoxy themselves, and in so doing generate new theoretical or methodological insights about the ways in which Christians and Christian communities have demarcated (and/or continue today to demarcate) the boundaries of acceptable belief and practice.

Articles may focus on a single geographical region or chronological sub-period, but special consideration will be given to studies that engage in comparative work across national, linguistic, intellectual, or temporal boundaries. Likewise, studies may emerge out of a single scholarly discipline (e.g., literary studies, theology, historical studies), but priority will be given to contributions that are interdisciplinary in nature. The goal of this Special Issue is to continue rounding out our understanding of the place that the categories of heresy and orthodoxy occupied in the thought-world, as well as the practical living-out, of late medieval Christianity.

Prof. Dr. J. Patrick Hornbeck II
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Late medieval Christianity
  • heresy
  • religious practices
  • religious cultures
  • heterodoxy
  • orthodoxy
  • canon law
  • lollards
  • Wycliffites
  • Hussites
  • Cathars
  • Waldensians
  • heresy of the Free Spirit
  • reform
  • reformation

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 321 KiB  
Article
Franciscan Prophets and the Inquisition (1226–1326)
by C. Colt Anderson
Religions 2018, 9(4), 108; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9040108 - 3 Apr 2018
Viewed by 7685
Abstract
This paper examines how Franciscan apologetics and polemics over the status of St. Francis and the Rule of 1223 created a climate of inquisitorial suspicion over prophecy and prophetic claims. Full article
14 pages, 240 KiB  
Article
How to Communicate Lateran IV in 13th Century Ireland: Lessons from the Liber Exemplorum (c.1275)
by Salvador Ryan and Anthony Shanahan
Religions 2018, 9(3), 75; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9030075 - 9 Mar 2018
Viewed by 4975
Abstract
The Liber Exemplorum, a collection of preachers’ tales, was compiled c.1275 by an English Franciscan working in Ireland, and is the earliest Franciscan example of its type. Out of 213 exempla which survive in this manuscript, some 26 of these are found in [...] Read more.
The Liber Exemplorum, a collection of preachers’ tales, was compiled c.1275 by an English Franciscan working in Ireland, and is the earliest Franciscan example of its type. Out of 213 exempla which survive in this manuscript, some 26 of these are found in no other source, and are drawn either from the compiler’s own experience or from his having heard of them second hand; these often mention Irish place names and feature Irish Christians as the main protagonists. The collection was compiled some 60 years after the calling of the Fourth Lateran Council, whose decrees would significantly shape the lives of medieval Christians for centuries. This article examines the manner in which some of the principal concerns of Lateran IV appear prominently as themes in this collection of preachers’ tales, and, furthermore, how such tales played a crucial role in the popular dissemination of the reforms envisaged by the council fathers. The tales themselves also offer a unique window on popular religious practice and ideas, both real and imagined, in late-13th-century Ireland. Full article
19 pages, 245 KiB  
Article
“To Sey or Thinke Otherwise”: Ordinary Theology and Facing Death in Late Medieval Norfolk
by Louisa Foroughi
Religions 2018, 9(3), 67; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9030067 - 28 Feb 2018
Viewed by 4444
Abstract
This article explores how Jeff Astley’s work on ordinary theology can enrich historical study of late medieval lay religion. Ordinary theology provides scholars with a new set of vocabulary and methodological approaches for accessing the religious discourses of “everyday” Christians and allows medievalists [...] Read more.
This article explores how Jeff Astley’s work on ordinary theology can enrich historical study of late medieval lay religion. Ordinary theology provides scholars with a new set of vocabulary and methodological approaches for accessing the religious discourses of “everyday” Christians and allows medievalists in particular to reach beyond contested labels for lay belief. The article begins with a discussion of the promises and limitations of Astley’s theories for historians of religion and concludes with a test case of how they might guide future research, through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 152 wills from fifteenth-century Norfolk. The results highlight the diversity of beliefs about the afterlife and associated doctrines among medieval laypeople even as they demonstrated commitment to orthodox Christianity and their local parishes. Full article
21 pages, 278 KiB  
Article
Matěj of Janov: Corpus Mysticum, Communionem, and the Lost Treatise of His Regulae
by Stephen E. Lahey
Religions 2018, 9(1), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9010016 - 9 Jan 2018
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3622
Abstract
The Bohemian theologian Matěj of Janov (d.1393) is little known outside of Czech Hussite scholarship, yet his Regulae Veteris et Novi Testamentum is arguably as important an influence on the genesis and development of Hussitism, as is the thought of John Wyclif. The [...] Read more.
The Bohemian theologian Matěj of Janov (d.1393) is little known outside of Czech Hussite scholarship, yet his Regulae Veteris et Novi Testamentum is arguably as important an influence on the genesis and development of Hussitism, as is the thought of John Wyclif. The chief Hussite theologian Jakoubek of Střibro relied on his works, and his emphasis on the need for daily Eucharist for all Christians seems to have been central to the utraquist ideal central to Hussitism. This article describes the structure and content of Matěj’s Regulae, a carefully constructed sustained argument of the threat of Antichrist facing the church, and the nature of the reforms needed to respond to them. The editions of Kybal (1908–1926) and Nechutová (1993) present the extant books of the Regulae, but Book Two treatise 2 appears to have been lost. Based on my argument for the overall structure of the Regulae, I attempt to reconstruct the contents of this book, which I will argue is directly related to Matěj’s very high regard for his predecessor, the preacher Jan Milič of Kromeřiž. Full article
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