John S. Ott
Portland State University
Winter 2003
HST 410/510:
The Holy and the Damned: Sanctity and Deviance in the European Middle Ages
(T, R 10:00-11:50, PCAT 154)
Instructor: Dr. John S. Ott
Office hours: W 1-3, or by appointment / Office: 441M Cramer Hall
Phone: 725-3013 / E-mail: ottj@pdx.edu
Webpage: www.web.pdx.edu/~ott
Course description and objectives
This course examines the spectrum of medieval belief in the relationship between the natural and supernatural worlds by focusing on two of its extreme, though commonly occurring, points of conjuncture: the bodies and persons of “saints” and “deviants”. Proceeding from the assumption that a culture’s deeply held values and fears—from which stem its sense of corporate identity—are often revealed by those individuals and groups it seeks to lionize or demonize, we will strive to understand the necessity and role of sanctity and deviance within the medieval world, and the inter-relation of the two. Topics to be examined: the construction of sanctity and the evolution of its models; gender and the construction of authority; the body (of women, Jews, homosexuals) as source of anxiety; the formation of Europe as a “persecuting society”; differing and overlapping discourses about deviance and deviants (heretics, Jews, prostitutes, witches), and more.Simultaneously, this course will pursue a number of objectives relating to the professional practice of history. For example:
- We will examine the role of historians as commentators on social issues;
- We will assess how religion and religious assumptions directly and indirectly impact how historians write and think about history;
- We will apply sociological and anthropological models of social organization, and examine how historians have used them, in formulating our ideas about medieval culture’s reaction to the holy and unholy
EvaluationAll students will be assessed through the following assignments, guidelines for which will be circulated in advance. Failure to complete any assignment will automatically result in a failing grade for the course.Required materialsIn addition, graduate students will prepare a critical presentation and formal review of selected additional readings, to be chosen in consultation with the instructor.
- Active, engaged participation in class discussion. Full attendance is presumed, and more than 2 absences will automatically result in a failing grade – 15%
- Various in class assignments, including reading responses, quizzes, group work, and so on - 15%
- Reflective short essay (approx. 3 pp.) on religious identity, due January 21 – 30% | Assignment Guidelines |
- A critical historiographical essay (approx. 10 pp.) drawing upon course readings, due March 18 – 40% | Assignment Guidelines |
Books and the course packet (CP) may be purchased at the university bookstore, although some texts should be readily available from independent sellers. Books, articles, and book chapters in the course packet will also be put on reserve (OR) at Millar Library or otherwise made available by the instructor for consultation. Whether or not they buy the course packet, students are responsible for preparing all the assigned readings.Texts:SyllabusPeter Brown, The Cult of the Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity (Chicago, 1981)
Gavin I. Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism (California, 1990)
R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (Blackwell, 1987)
David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence. Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton, 1996)
Walter Daniel, Life of Aelred of Rievaulx, trans. F. M. Powicke (Cistercian Publications, 1994)
Note: The syllabus may also be found on-line at the URL above, where there are also links to other web sites on medieval European history and culture, and some of the texts and readings assigned below.T (1/7) Introduction to course themes
Lecture: Saints and Sainthood in the Middle Ages
Exercise: Articulating and defining our assumptions
**************************
I. The Holy: Approaches to Interpreting Medieval Religion and Conceptions of Sanctity
TH (1/9) Religion and History: Approaches and Problems
Readings:
- Gavin Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism, chs. 1-4 (pp. 3-87);
- Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints, ch. 1, “The Holy and the Grave”
T (1/14) The Cult of Martyrs and Early Christian Conceptions of Sanctity
Readings:
- The Martyrdom of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna (On-line at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/martyrdom-polycarp-lightfoot.html);
- Thomas Heffernan, Sacred Biography. Saints and Their Biographers in the Middle Ages (Oxford, 1988), chs. 1-2 (pp. 3-71) (CP/OR)
TH (1/16) Constructing Holy Biographies
Readings:
- Jerome, Against Vigilantius (On-line at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/jerome-againstvigilantius.html);
- Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints (finish)
Recommended: Peter Brown, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,” in Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (UC Press, 1982), 103-152; Cynthia Hahn, “Seeing and Believing: The Construction of Sanctity in Early-Medieval Saints’ Shrines,” Speculum 72 (1997), 1079-1106.
T (1/21) Early Medieval Models of Sanctity: Around Tenth-Century Cluny
Readings:
- Odo of Cluny, Life of Saint Gerald of Aurillac, trans. G. Sitwell, in Soldiers of Christ, ed. T. F. X. Noble and T. Head (CP/OR);
- Odilo of Cluny, Life of Maiol, Abbot of Cluny, in Medieval Saints. A Reader, ed. Mary-Ann Stouck, pp. 250-264 (CP/OR);
- Patrick Geary, “Saints, Scholars, and Society: The Elusive Goal,” in Saints: Studies in Hagiography, ed. Sandro Sticca (SUNY, 1996)/Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Cornell 1994), pp. 9-29 (CP/OR)
Recommended Reading: Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra. Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages, 2d ed. (Princeton, 1990); Barbara Rosenwein: “Feudal War and Monastic Peace: Cluniac Liturgy as Ritual Aggression,” Viator 2 (1971): 129-157
REFLECTIVE ESSAY DUE, IN CLASS
TH (1/23) Early Medieval Models of Sanctity: Cluny Continued
Readings:
- Odilo of Cluny, Epitaph of the August Lady, Adelheid, trans. D. Warner in Medieval Hagiography. An Anthology, ed. T. Head (Garland, 2000), pp. 255-271 (CP/OR);
- David Warner, “Saints and Politics in Ottonian Germany,” in Medieval Germany: Associations and Delineations, ed. N. Van Deusen (Ottowa, 2000), pp. 7-28 (CP/Available from Instructor);
- Felice Lifshitz, “Beyond Positivism and Genre: ‘Hagiographical’ Texts as Historical Narrative,” Viator 25 (1994), 95-113 (CP/Available from Instructor)
T (1/28) High Medieval Models of Sanctity
Readings:
- Hariulf of Oldenburg and Lisiard of Soissons, Vita sancti Arnulfi episcopi Suessionensis (The Life of Arnulf, Bishop of Soissons), trans. J. Ott (On-line at http://www.web.pdx.edu/~ott/vitaarnulfi/index.html);
- Walter Daniel, The Life of Aelred of Rievaulx and the Letter to Maurice, trans. F. M. Powicke (read all, but you may skip introduction)
TH (1/30) Standards of Proof
Readings:
- Guibert of Nogent, On Saints and their Relics, trans. T. Head (CP/Available from Instructor);
- Aviad Kleinberg, “Proving Sanctity: Problems and Solutions in the Later Middle Ages,” Viator 20 (1989), 183-205 (E-reserve);
- André Vauchez, “The Holy See and the Critique of Miracles,” ch. 16 in Sainthood in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 481-498 (CP/OR)
T (2/4) Redefining authority: gender and sanctity
Readings:
- Thomas of Cantimpré, “The Life of Christina [of Saint-Trond] the Astonishing,” and “The Life of Umilità of Faenza,” both in Medieval Saints: A Reader, ed. Mary-Ann Stouck, pp. 436-469 (CP/OR)
- Barbara Newman, “Hildegard and Her Hagiographers: The Remaking of Female Sainthood,” in Gendered Voices. Medieval Saints and Their Interpreters, ed. C. Mooney (Pennsylvania, 1999), pp. 16-34 (CP/OR)
Recommended Reading: Jane Tibbetts Schulenberg, Forgetful of Their Sex. Female Sanctity and Society, ca. 500-1100 (Chicago, 1998); Julia M. H. Smith, “The Problem of Female Sanctity in Carolingian Europe c. 780-920,” Past and Present 146 (1995): 3-37; Laura Smoller, “Miracle, Memory, and Meaning in the Canonization of Vincent Ferrer, 1453-1454,” Speculum 73:2 (April 1998), 429-454
TH (2/6) Sexing and Gendering Medieval Models of Sanctity
Readings:
- Jo Ann McNamara, “The Need to Give: Suffering and Female Sanctity in the Middle Ages” in Images of Sainthood in Medieval Europe, ed. R. Blumenfeld-Kosinski and T. Szell (Cornell, 1991), pp. 199-221 (CP/OR);
- Caroline Walker Bynum, Holy Feast and Holy fast. The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women (UC Press, 1987), chs. 8-10 (pp. 245-296) (CP/OR)
*************************
II. The Damned: Definitions and Meanings of Deviance
T (2/11) Tolerance and Intolerance: theory and background
Reading:
- Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 1-6, 130-167 (CP/OR)
- Lecture: Categories of Deviance in the Middle Ages
TH (2/13) Religion and History II: Religion and Religiosity
Reading:
- Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism, chs. 7-10 (pp. 133-200)
T (2/18) Attitudes toward Minorities: Sources
Reading:
- Langmuir, History, Religion, and Antisemitism, chs. 12-13 (pp. 232-271);
- Janet Nelson, “Society, Theodicy, and the Origins of Heresy: Towards a Reassessment of the Medieval Evidence,” in Schism, Heresy and Religious Protest, ed. D. Baker, Studies in Church History, vol. 9 (Cambridge, 1972), pp. 65-77 (E-reserve)
TH (2/20) Attitudes toward Minorities: Words and Deeds
Reading: Students will then pick from one of the following groups of readings, all materials for which are on reserve unless noted otherwise:
On Jews: André Vauchez, “Anti-Semitism and Popular Canonization: The Cult of St. Werner,” in idem, The Laity in the Middle Ages (Notre Dame, 1993), pp. 141-152 (OR); Langmuir, History, Religion and Antisemitism, ch. 14 (pp. 275-305)
On Heretics: Heinrich Fichtenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, 1000-1200, (Penn State Press, 1998), chs. 4-5 (pp. 105-152) (OR)
On Templars: Malcolm Barber, The Templars (Cambridge, 2000), ****
On Prostitutes: Ruth M. Karras, Common Women. Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England (Oxford, 1996), chs. 5-6 (pp. 84-130) (OR)
On Homosexuals: John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Chicago, 1981), chs. 1 and 10 (pp. 1-39, 269-302) (OR)
T (2/25) Was Christian Europe a Persecuting Society?
Readings:
- R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (read all);
- Cary J. Nederman, “Introduction: Discourses and Contexts of Tolerance in Medieval Europe,” in Beyond the Persecuting Society, ed. J. C. Laursen and C. J. Nederman (Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 1998), pp. 13-24 (CP/OR)
TH (2/27) The Witchcraze
Readings:
Recommended Reading: Richard Kieckhefer, European Witch Trials. Their Foundation in Popular and Learned Culture, 1300-1500 (Berkeley, 1976); Edward Peters, The Magician, the Witch, and the Law (Pennsylvania, 1978)
- Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath (Penguin, 1992), pp. TBA
T (3/4) Witchcraft and its discourses
Readings:
- Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath (Penguin, 1992), pp. TBA (fin.);
- Michael D. Bailey, “From Sorcery to Witchcraft: Clerical Conceptions of Magic in the Later Middle Ages,” Speculum 76 (2001), 960-990 (E-reserve)
TH (3/6) Mediation of Social Conflict in a Pluralistic Society I
Reading:
- David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence (Part One)
BEGIN GRADUATE PRESENTATIONS
T (3/11) Mediation of Social Conflict in a Pluralistic Society II
Reading:
- David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence (Part Two)
CONTINUE GRADUATE PRESENTATIONS
*************************
III. Intersections and Concluding Thoughts
TH (3/13) Religion, Sanctity and Deviance
Readings:
- Richard Kieckhefer, “The Holy and the Unholy: Sainthood, Witchcraft and Magic in Late Medieval Europe,” in Christendom and Its Discontents, ed. S. Waugh and P. Diehl (Cambridge, 1996), 310-337;
- Langmuir, History, Religion and Antisemitism, ch. 17 (pp. 347-368)
END GRADUATE PRESENTATIONS
M (3/18) CRITICAL HISTORIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY DUE, IN MY OFFICE, BY 5:00
| Back to Top |