The Mendicant Orders and Sanctity in the Thirteenth
Century:
A Bibliography
Compiled by Thomas Head
Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Contents:
1) General historical studies; 2) General
studies of religious history; 3) Hagiography;
4) Mendicant saints; 5) Preaching.
General historical studies.
A convenient, if idiosyncratic, summary of the political history and
social development of Europe during the thirteenth century may be found
in John Mundy, Europe in the High Middle Ages, 1150-1309, second
edition (New York, 1991). See also Léopold Genicot, Le XIIIe
siècle européen, revised edition (Nouvelle Clio, 18;
Paris, 1984). More specifically on the central kingsdoms and their key
monarchs, see: Maurice Powicke, The Thirteenth Century, 1216-1307
(Oxford History of England, 3; Oxford, 1962); Alan Harding, England
in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1993); M. C. Prestwich, Edward
I (London, 1988); Monique Bourin-Derruau, Temps d'équilibres,
temps de ruptures, XIIIe siècle (Nouvelle histoire de la France
médiévale, 3; Paris, 1990); Robert Fawtier, The Capetian
Kings of France: Monarchy and Nation, 987-1328, trans. Lionel Butler
and R. J. Adam (New York 1960); Elizabeth Hallam, Capetian France: 987-1328
(London, 1980); Jean Richard, Saint Louis, Crusader King of France,
ed. Simon Lloyd, trans. Jean Birrell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1992); Alfred Haverkamp, Medieval Germany, 1056-1273, trans. Helga
Braun and Richard Mortimer (Oxford, 1984); David Abulafia, Frederick
II: A Medieval Emperor (Oxford, 1993).
General studies
of religious history.
There are a number of surveys of religious history which provide trustworthy
and interesting accounts of the thirteenth century: Colin Morris, The
Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050 to 1250 (Oxford, 1989);
Richard Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
(Harmondsworth, 1970); Friedrich Kempf, Hans-Georg Beck, Eugen Ewig, and
Josef Andreas Jungmann, The Church in the Age of Feudalism (New
York, 1982); Augustin Fliche, Christianne Thouzelllier, and Yvonne Azais,
La Chrétienté romaine (1198-1274) (Paris, 1950); André
Vauchez (ed.), Apogée de la papauté et expansion de la
chrétienté (1054-1274) (Paris, 1993). The Morris and
the Vauchez provide particularly good bibliographies. All treat provide
at least summary treatment of the major changes in pastoral care and in
religious orders, changes which shaped the concepts and audience of sanctity
in this period. An excellent, if impressionistic, essay on the effect of
those changes may be found in Guy Lobrichon, La religion des laïcs
en Occident, XIe-XVe siècles (Paris, 1994). For more detail,
one may consult studies in the following collections: La mort au Moyen
Ages (Strasboug, 1977); Faire croire: Modalités de la diffusion
et de la réception des messages religieux du XII au XVe siècle
(Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome; 51; Rome, 1981); La
prière au Moyen Age (Senefiance, 10; Aix, 1981).
One of the most important developments of scholastic theology, in terms
of its impact on the cult of saints, was the doctrine of purgatory. The
fullest treatment of the topic is Jacques Le Goff, The Birth of Purgatory,
trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago, 1984), although many of his specific
conclusions have been disputes. For various reactions, see: Graham Robert
Edward, "Purgatory: 'Birth' or Evolution?" Journal of Ecclesiastical
History, 36 (1985), pp. 634-46; E. Mégier, "Deux exemples
de 'prépurgatoire' chez les historiens: A propos de La naissance
du Purgatoire de Jacques Le Goff," Cahiers de civilisation
Médiévale, 28 (1985), pp. 45-62; R. R. Atwell, "From
Augustine to Gregory the Great: An Evaluation of the Emergence of the Doctrine
of Purgatory," Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 38 (1987),
pp. 173-86.
Hagiography.
The most thorough examination of hagiographic sources from the thirteenth
century is Michael Goodich, Vita perfecta: The Ideal of Sainthood in
the Thirteenth Century (Monographien zür Geschichte des Mittelalters,
25; Stuttgart, 1982). Summaries of the evidence may be found in articles
by Goodich: "The Politics of Canonization in the Thirteenth Century:
Lay and Mendicant Saints," Church History, 44 (1975), pp. 294-307
(reprinted in Stephen Wilson, ed., Saints and Their Cults [Cambridge,
1983], pp. 169-88); "A Profile of Thirteenth-Century Sainthood,"
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 18 (1976), pp. 429-37;
"The Contours of Female Piety in Later Medieval Hagiography,"
Church History, 50 (1981):20-32.
Lest we think that "traditional" saints cults remained in
a kind of stasis during this period, see Olivier Guyotjeannin, "Les
reliques de saint Eloi à Noyon: procès et enquêtes
du milieu du XIIIe siècle," Revue Mabillon, new series,
1 (1990), pp. 57-110 and Louis Carolus-Barré, "Saint Louis
et la translation des corps saints," in Etudes d'histoire du droit
canonique dediées à Gabriel Le Bras (Paris, 1965), pp.
1088-112.
Perhaps the most famous royal saint of medieval Europe-Louis IX of France-reigned
and was canonized in this period. The main texts may be found in volume
20 of the Reueil des historiens de la France et de la Gaule, supplemented
by R. Folz, "La Sainteté de Louis IX d'après les textes
liturgiques de sa fête," Revue d'histoire de l'Eglise de
france, 57 (1971), pp. 31-45; David O'Connell, The Teachings of
St Louis: A Critical Text (Chapel Hill, NC, 1972); David O'Connell,
Les Propos de Saint-Louis (Paris, 1974); Louis Carolus-Barré,
Le procès de canonisation de Saint Louis (1272-1297). Essai de
reconstitution (Collection de l'Ecole Française de Rome, 195;
Paris/Rome, 1994). The bibliography on Louis is enormous, but on his sanctity
the best treatment is that by Robert Folz in Les saints rois du Moyen
Ages en Occident (VIe-XIIIe simcles (Brussels, 1984), supplemented
by the views of E. R. Labande, "Saint Louis Pèlerin,"
Revue d'histoire de l'Eglise de france, 57 (1971) and Louis Carolus-Barré,
"Saint Louis dans l'histoire et la legende," Annuaire Bulletin
de la Société de l'histoire de france (1970-1).
Cults also developed in the thirteenth century which were truly "popular"
in origin, that is beyond the control of, and sometimes opposed to, clerical
authority. On the cult of a rebelllious baron in England, see John Theilmann,
"Political Canonization and Political Symbolism in Medieval England,"
Journal of British Studies, 29 (1990), pp. 241-266; J. R. Maddicott,
"Follower, Leader, Pilgrim, Saint: Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford,
at the Shrine of Simon de Montfort, 1273," English Historyical
Review, 109 (1994), pp. 641-653; Claire Valente, "Simon de Montfort,
Earl of Leicester, and the Utility of Sanctity in Thirteenth-Century England,"
Journal of Medieval History, 21 (1995), pp. 27-49. And on the relics
of a canine saintly intercessor, see the highly entertaining and interesting,
if also problematic, analysis by Jean-Claude Schmitt in Le Saint lévrier.
Guinefort, guériseur d'enfants depuis le XIIIe siècle (Paris,
1979; ET: The Holy Greyhound [Cambridge, 1983]).
The Mendicant Saints.
Lester Little provides a provocative treatment of the rise of the mendicant
orders which places them in their social context in Religious Poverty
and the Profit Economy in Medieval Europe (Ithaca, NY, 1978). For a
summary of modern scholarship and translation of the most important primary
sources, see Rosalind Brooke, The Coming of hte Friars (London,
1975). General surveys in English of the histories of the two most important
mendicant orders may be found in J. R. H. Moorman, A History of the
Franciscan Order (Oxford, 1968) and William Hinnebusch, The History
of hte Dominican Order, 2 vols. (New York, 1965-73). On the development
of the tertiary orders of lay penitents or disciplinati associated
with the mendicants, see G. G. Meersseman, Dossier de l'ordre de la
péitence au XIIIe siècle (Fribourg, 1961); Mariano d'Alatri
(ed.), I frati penitenti di San Francesco nella società del due
e trecento (Rome); André Simon, L'Ordre des pénitentes
de Ste Marie-Madeleine en Allemagne au XIIIe siècle (Fribourg,
1918).
There are surprisingly few considerations of mendicant hagiography as
a genre. But one may consult the following excellent works: Raoul Manselli,
"Agiografia Francescana tra interpretazione teologica e religiosità,"
Agiografia nell'occidente cristiano, secoli XIII-XV (Atti dei convegni
Lincei, 48; Rome, 1980), pp. 45-56; Alain Boureau, "Vitae fratrum,
Vitae patrum. L'ordre dominicain et le modele des Peres du desert au XIIIe
s," Melanges de l'Ecole francaise de Rome. Moyen Age - temps modernes,
99 (1987), 79-100; Roberto Taciocco, Da Francesco ai 'Catalogi Sanctorum.'
Livelli isituzionali e immagini agiografiche nell'Ordine Francescano (secoli
XIII-XIV) (Collectio Assisiensis, 20; Assisi, 1990); the essays collected
in André Vauchez, Ordini mendicanti e società italiana,
XIII-XV secolo (Milan, 1990). On hagiography associated with the disciplinati,
see Fausta Casolini, "I penitenti in 'Leggende' e Cronache,"
in I Frati Penitenti (see above), pp. 69-85. The rise of the mendicants
did not only change models of hagiography, but other modes of seeking access
to the sacred. See, inter alia, Daniel Russo, "Saint François,
les Franciscains et les représentations du Christ sur la croix en
Ombrie au XIIIe siçcle. Recherches sur la formation d'une image
et sur une sensibilité esthétique au Moyen Age," Mélanges
de l'Ecole française de Rome, Moyen Age, 96 (1984), pp. 647-715.
On new liturgical forms, see William Bonniwell, A History of the Dominican
Liturgy, second edition (1945) and Stephan van Dijk, "Ursprung
und Inhalt der franziskanischen Liturgie des 13. Jahrhunderts," Franziskanische
Studien, 51 (1969).
Francis of Assisi. On the writings by and about Francis, see
John Moorman, The Sources for the Life of S. Francis of Assisi (Manchester:
Manchester University Press, 1940); Sophronius Clasen, Legenda antiqua
des Heiligen Franziskus (Leiden, 1967); Kajetan Esser (ed.), Die
"Opuscula" des hl. Franziskus von Assisi: Neue textkritische
Edition (Grottaferrata, 1976); Rosalind Brooke (ed. and trans.), The
Writings of Leo, Rufino, and Angelo: Companions of St. Francis (Oxford,
1970). For English translation, see Marion Habig (ed.), St. Francis
of Assisi: Writings and Early Biographies: English Omnibus of the Sources
for the Life of St. Francis (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1973).
For an interesting comment on the history of hagiographical scholarship
concerning Francis, see Guy Philippart, "Les Bollandistes et le dossier
de S. François," Gli studi francescani dal dopoguerra ad
oggi, ed. Fr. Santi (Spoleto, Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo,
1993), p. 47-71. There is an extraordinary amount of scholarship on Francis,
most of it based in part on hagiographic sources. Among the universe are
the following: John Moorman, Saint Francis of Assisi (London, 1950);
Hilarin Felder, Die Ideale des hl. Franziskus von Assisi, 6th ed.
(Paderborn, 1951); Francis De Beer, La conversion de Saint François
selon Thomas de Celano: Etude comparative des texts relatifs à la
conversion en Vita I et Vita II (Paris, 1963); Omer Englebert, Saint
Francis of Assisi, trans. Eve Marie Cooper, 2nd ed. (Chicago, 1966);
T. S. R. Boase, St. Francis of Assisi (London, 1968); San Francesco
nella ricerca storica degli ultimi ottanta anni (Todi, 1971); Edward
Armstrong, St. Francis, Nature Mystic: The Derivation and Significance
of the Nature Stories in the Franciscan Legend (Berkeley and Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 1973); Heinrich Tilemann, Studien zur
Individualität des Franziskus von Assisi (Hildesheim, 1973); Morris
Bishop, Saint Francis of Assisi (Boston, 1974); Lawrence Cunningham,
Saint Francis of Assisi (Boston: Twayne, 1976); Anthony Mockler,
Francis of Assisi: The Wandering Years (Oxford, 1976); Stanislao
da Campagnola, Francesco d'Assisi nei suoi scritti e nelle biografie
dei secolli XIII-XIV (Assisi, 1981); Stanislao da Campagnola, "Le
prime 'biografie' del santo," in Roberto Rusconi (ed.), Francesco
d'Assisi: Storia e arte (Milan, 1982), pp. 36-48; Hester Gelber, "A
Theater of Virtue: The Exemplary World of St. Francis of Assisi,"
in John Stratton Hawley (ed.), Saints and Virtues (Berkeley and
Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987), pp. 15-35; Rona Goffen,
Spirituality in Conflict: St. Francis and Giotto's Bardi Chapel
(University Park, 1988); Raoul Manselli, Saint Francis of Assisi,
trans. Paul Duggan (Chicago: Franciscan Herald, 1988); K. Reblin, Freund
und Feind: Franziskus von Assisi im Spiegel der protestantischen Theologiegeschichte
(Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988); Richard Trexler, Naked
Before the Father: The Renunciation of Francis of Assisi (New York:
Peter Lang, 1989). For further bibliographical guidance, see O. Schmucki,
"Quellen und studien uber den Hl. Franziskus von Assisi (1987-1990),"
Collectanea franciscana, 60 (1990), pp. 255-310. On the iconography
and cult of Francis, see George Kaftal, St. Francis in Italian Painting
(London, 1950); Isidoro Gatti, Il tomba di San Francesco nei secoli
(Assisi, 1983); James Stubblebine, Assisi and the Rise of Vernacular
Art (Cambridge, 1985).
Dominic Guzman. There is much less literature on Dominic, particularly
on the much smaller hagiographic dossier. The standard life is M.-H. Vicaire,
Histoire de S. Dominique, new ed. (Paris, 1982; ET of earlier edition,
London, 1964), although William Hinebusch's The History of the Dominican
Order (see above) is also useful. For a guide to the hagiography, see
Christopher Brooke, "St. Dominic and his First Biographer," Medieval
Church and Society (London, 1971), pp. 214-32. On vernacular versions
of the lives, consult W. F. Manning, "Les Vies médiévales
de Saint Dominique en langue vulgaire," and "Les Manuscripts
et miniatures des Vies en langue vulgaire," Cahiers de fanjeaux,
1 (1966), pp. 48-69 and 69-73. For translations of the sources, see Jordan
of Saxony, A New Life of Saint Dominic, trans. Edmond Ceslas McEniry
(Columbus, Ohio: Aquinas College, 1926) and Francis Lehner (ed.), Saint
Dominic: Biographical Documents (Washington, D.C., 1964).
Other early (male) mendicant saints. Anthony of Padua (+1231):
Ernest Gilliat-Smith, Saint Anthony of Padua According to His Contemporaries
(London and Toronto, 1926); Jacques Toussaert, Antonius von Padua: Versuch
einer kritischen Biographie (Cologne, 1967). Peter the Martyr (+1252):
A. Dondaine, "Saint Pierre Martyr," Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum,
23 (1953), pp. 66-162. Hyacinth of Cracow (+1257): Fabyan Windeatt, Northern
Lights: The Story of Saint Hyacinth of Poland and His Companions (London,
1945). Bonaventure (+1274): Efrem Bettoni, Saint Bonaventure, trans.
Angelus Gambatese (Notre Dame, Ind., 1964). Thomas Aquinas (+1274): Ch.-D.
Boulogne, Saint Thomas d'Aquin: Essai biographique (Paris, 1968);
Willehad Paul Eckert (ed. and trans.), Das Leben des heiligen Thomas
von Aquino, erzählt von Wilhelm von Tocco, und ander Zeugnisse zu
seinem Leben (Düsseldorf, 1965); Kennelm Foster (ed. and trans.),
The Life of Saint Thomas Aquinas: Biographical Documents (London,
1959). Philip Benizi (+1285): D. B. Wyndham Lewis, A Florentine Portrait:
Saint Philip Benizi (London, 1959). Nicholas of Tolentino (+1305):
Carlos Alonso, Saggio bibliografico su San Nicola da Tolentino (Tolentino).
On the cultivation of saints cults by the mendicants, see André
Vauchez, "La commune de Sienne, les ordres mendiants et le culte des
saints. Histoire et enseignements d'une crise," Mélanges
d'archéologie et d'histoire publiés par l'école française
de Rome, 89 (1977), pp. 757-767 and Chiara Frugoni, "The Cities
and the 'New' Saints," in Anthony Molho, Kurt Raaflaub, and Julia
Emlen (eds.), City-States in Classical Antiquity and Medieval Italy
(Ann Arbor, 1993).
Preaching.
Preaching was, of course, one of the most important and characteristic
activities of the mendicants. David d'Avray provides an excellent introduction
to the topic in The Preaching of the Friars (Oxford, 1985). For
more general context, see the essays collected in Jacqueline Hamesse and
Xavier Hermand (eds.), De l'homélie au sermon: Histoire de la
prédication médiévale (Louvain, 1993). For preaching
about the saints, see C. Piana, "I sermoni di Federico Vixconti arcivescovo
di Pisa (+1277)," Rivista di storia della Chiesa in Italia,
6 (1952); Carlo Delcorno, "Il racconto agiografico nella predicazione
dei secoli XIII-XV," Agiografia nell'occidente cristiano, secoli
XIII-XV (Atti dei convegni Lincei, 48; Rome, 1980), pp. 79-114; O.
Schmucki, "Zur Uberlieferung der Vogelpredigt des Hl. Franziskus von
Assisi," Theologische Zeitschrift, 45 (1989), p. 142-151; Nicole
Bériou, "La madeleine dnas les sermons parisiens du XIIIe siècle,"
Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Moyen age,
104 (1992), pp. 269-340; Katherine Jansen, "Mary Magdalen and the
Mendicants: The Preaching of Penance in the Late Middle Ages," Journal
of Medieval History, 21 (1995), pp. 1-25. On a particular topic of
earlier interest, see Christoph Maier, Preaching the Crusades: Mendicant
Friars and the Cross in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1994). For
one movement in which both preaching and eschatological imagery were essential,
see Augustine Thompson, Revival Preachers and Politics in Thirteenth-Century
Italy (Oxford, 1992).
Preaching served as an effective tool of pastoral care and lay education
because it was at least in part carried out in the vernacular. On the language
of sermons, see such work as Giles Constable, "The Language of Preaching
in the Twelfth Century," Viator, 25 (1994), pp. 131-52; Michel
Zink, La prédication et langue romane avant 1300 (Paris,
1982); Carlo Delcorno, "Predicazione volgare e volgarizzamenti,"
Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Moyen age,
89 (1979), pp. 679-89; Zelina Zafrana, "Predicazione francescana ai
laici," in her Da Gregorio VII a Bernardino da Siena (Perugia,
1987); Siegfried Wenzel, Macaronic Sermons: Bilingualism and Preaching
in Late-Medieval England (Ann Arbor, 1994). Large amounts of Latin
literature was produced, however, to serve as guides and aids in preaching.
The genre of exemplary stories or exempla was closely connected
to hagiography: a good introduction and survey may be had from C. Bremond,
Jacques Le Goff, Jean-Claude Schmitt, L'exemplum (Typologie des
sources du moyen âge occidental, 40; Turnhout, 1982) supplemented
by the essays collected in Rhétorique et Histoire: L'exemplum
et le modèle de comportement dans le discours antique et médiéval
(Mélanges de l'Ecole française de Rome, 92; Rome, 1980).
Jacques Berlioz has studied how heroic examples other than the saints could
be used in the exempla in "'Héros' païen et prédication
chrétienne: Jules César dans le recueil d'exampla
du dominicain Etienne de Bourbon (mort v. 1261)," in Exemplum et
Similitudo: Alexander the Great and Other Heroes as Points of Reference
in Medieval Literature, ed. W. J. Aerts and M. Gosman (Medievalia Groningana,
8; Groningen, 1988), pp. 123-41. An important reference guide to the primary
sources is found in F. C. Tubach, Index Exemplorum: A Handbook of Medieval
Religious Tales (Suonmalainen Tiedakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica,
Folklore Fellows Communications, 204; Helsinki, 1969). One may also usefully
consult several standard folkloric sources: Stith Thompson, Motif Index
of Folkliterature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales,
Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval Romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-books
and Local Legends, 6 vols. (Suonmalainen Tiedakatemia-Academia Scientiarum
Fennica, Folklore Fellows Communications, 106-109 and 116-118; Helsinki,
1932-36) and A. Aarne and Stith Thompson, The Types of the Folktale:
A Classification and Bibliography, third edition (Suonmalainen Tiedakatemia-Academia
Scientiarum Fennica, Folklore Fellows Communications, 184; Helsinki, 1973).
Collections of saints' lives were also compiled during this period,
in part to serve as aids in preaching. The most famous was the Golden
Legend of James of Varagine. No truly critical edition of the Latin
version of this text has ever been prepared. It was subsequently translated
into virtually every European vernacular. A good modern English translation
of the Latin original may be found in Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden
Legend: Readings on the Saints, trans. William Granger Ryan, 2 vols.
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). The most accessible introduction
to the work in English is Sherry Reames, The Legenda Aurea: A Reexamination
of Its Paradoxical History (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press,
1985). Probably the most profound interpretation has been provided by Alain
Boureau, La Légende dorée: Le système narratif
de Jacques de Voragine (+1298) (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1984)
and L'evenement sans fins: Récit et christianisme au moyen âge
(Paris, 1993). Other studies include: Sister Mary Jeremy, "Caxton's
Golden Legend and Varagine's Legenda Aurea," Speculum,
21 (1946), 212-21; Giselle Huot-Girard, "La justice immanente dans
la Légende dorée," Cahiers d'études
médiévales 1 (1974), pp. 135-147; Marie-Christine Pouchelle,
"Répresentations du corps dans la Légende dorée,"
Ethnologie française, 6 (1976), 293-308. Also see the essays
collected in Brenda Dunn-Lardeau (ed.), Legenda aurea: Sept siècles
de diffusion (Cahiers d'études médiévales, Cahier
spécial, 2; Montréal, 1986). For the effect of the work on
popular art and religion in one limited region of Europe, see the entrancing
catalogue Légende dorée du Limousin: Les saints de la
Haute Vienne (Limoges, 1993). There were other similar collections
prepared by mendicant preachers, see Albert Poncelet, "Le Légendier
de Pierre Calo," Analecta Bollandiana, 29 (1910), pp. 5-116;
Jean de Mailly, OP, Abrégé des gestes et miracles des
saints, trans. Antoince Dondaine (Paris, 1947); Brigitte Cazelles,
Le corps de sainteté d'après Jehan Bouche d'Or, Jehan
Paulus et quelques vies des XIIe et XIIIe siècles (Geneva, 1982).
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