SoSe 22: V-Literatures of Medieval Britain: Literature of Religious Instruction in England, ca. 1230-1400
Joshua Easterling
Comments
As its primary aim this course engages the rich body of Middle English writings (ca. 1300 – 1420) that sought to provide individuals and communities with instruction in religious practices and devotion, as well as guidance on points of Christian doctrine. Beginning with excerpts from Robert Mannyng’s early fourteenth-century penitential handbook Handlynge Synne and the De intitutione inclusarum (in one of its two extant Middle English translations) by the Cistercian abbot Ælred of Rievaulx (d. 1167), this course explores a lively (textual) culture wherein readers’ allegiance to mainstream teachings by the medieval church (e.g. on the sacraments, spiritual virtues, salvation, etc.) could not simply be taken for granted. In an age when religious controversy and dissent were widespread phenomena, such writings reinforced specific doctrinal tenets of the church and, not infrequently, provide for modern scholars a record of prevailing heterodox (or outright heretical) movements that throughout this period openly attacked religious orthodoxy in its various forms.
While the majority of the works on our syllabus are quite long and (with the exception of Richard Rolle’s Form of Living and Walter Hilton’s Of Angels’ Song and Eight Chapters on Perfection) will therefore be read in excerpts, as a group they represent the remarkably diverse levels of inner and outer “perfection” that the religious intelligentsia in the later Middle Ages saw (and sought to support) in their spiritually ambitious contemporaries.
Students enrolling for this course should have a solid background as readers of Middle English. Beyond the few print texts required for the course there will be several additional primary and secondary resources available through Blackboard. Students are expected to (print out and) bring to class all texts to be discussed during our regular meetings.
Robert Manyng, Handlyng Synne, selections Aelred of Rievaulx, De institutione inclusarum Richard Rolle, Form of Living
Walter Hilton, Scale of Perfection, Book 2, selections 1 Walter Hilton, Scale of Perfection, Book 2, selections 2 Walter Hilton, Scale of Perfection, Book 2, selections
3 Walter Hilton, Of Angels’ Song
Walter Hilton, Eight Chapters on Perfection Henry Suso, Seven Points, selections 1 Henry Suso, Seven Points, selections 2
Marguerite Porete (MN), The Mirrour of Simple Soules The Cloud of Unknowing, selections
The Book of Privy Councelling, selections
TEXTS
:English Mystics of the Middle Ages, ed. Barry Windeatt (Cambridge, 2007). ISBN-13: 978-0521339582
Additional Readings
close14 Class schedule
Regular appointments