This study presents research by specialists of monastic history, literature, and spirituality. Covering the period from 1150 to 1500, this volume demonstrates that monastic preaching was not only carried out in the cloister by monks, but also in public arenas by monks and nuns. The topics range from questioning if the sermons of Bernard of Clairvaux were ever preached, to an analysis of Hildegard of Bingen's preaching against the Cathars. Sermons addressed to monastic communities by secular preachers are also analysed. The diversity of monastic preaching - e.g., cloistered preaching, preaching against heretics, preaching by heretical monks, preaching by nuns - and a geographical range of monastic pastoral history is studied. 'Medieval Monastic Preaching' offers a preliminary step in understanding how sermons and preaching shaped monastic identity in the Middle Ages.
Author(s): Carolyn Muessig (ed.)
Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 90
Publisher: Brill
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 385
City: Leiden
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
List of Contributors xiii
Abbreviations xv
PART ONE. INTRODUCTION
What is Medieval Monastic Preaching? An Introduction / CAROLYN MUESSIG 3
PART TWO. CARTHUSIAN PREACHING
Why did Denys the Carthusian Write 'Sermones ad Saeculares'? / DENYS TURNER 19
'Shining Forth like the Dawn': Jean Gerson's Sermon to the Carthusians / BRIAN PATRICK MCGUIRE 37
Early Fifteenth-Century Chapterhouse Sermons at the Charterhouse of Mainz / JAMES HOGG 53
PART THREE. THE 'CURA MONIALIUM' IN GERMANY AND ENGLAND
Sermons for Nuns of the Dominican Observance Movement / REGINA D. SCHIEWER 75
Preaching to Nuns in Late Medieval England / V. M. O'MARA 93
PART FOUR. PREACHING BY ITALIAN NUNS AND HERMITS
Authority and Inspiration in the 'Vitae' and Sermons of Humility of Faenza / CATHERINE M. MOONEY 123
Preaching by Italian Hermits / GEORGE FERZOCO 145
PART FIVE. PREACHING BY AND AGAINST THE CATHARS
Defending the Lord's Vineyard: Hildegard of Bingen's Preaching against the Cathars / BEVERLY MAYNE KIENZLE 163
The Preaching of the Cathars / JOHN ARNOLD 183
PART SIX. PREACHING MONASTIC REFORM
The Religious's Role in a Post-Fourth-Lateran World: Jacques de Vitry's 'Sermones ad Status' and 'Historia Occidentalis' / JESSALYNN BIRD 209
Monastic Ideals and Episcopal Visitations: The 'Sermo ad Religiosos' of Robert Grosseteste / JAMES R. GINTHER 231
PART SEVEN. BENEDICTINE PREACHING IN ENGLAND
Benedictine Sermons: Preparation and Practice in the English Monastic Cathedral Cloisters / JOAN GREATREX 257
Benedictines and Preaching the 'Pastoralia' in Late Medieval England: A Preliminary Inquiry / PATRICK J. HORNER 279
PART EIGHT. CISTERCIAN PREACHING
Were the Sermons of St. Bernard on the Song of Songs ever Preached? / CHRISTOPHER HOLDSWORTH 295
Killing Time: An Essay on the Monastic Notion of Speed / M. B. PRANGER 319
The Liturgical Dimension of Twelfth-Century Cistercian Preaching / CHRYSOGONUS WADDELL 335
General Index 351
