Ask a Medievalist

Summary

Come with us into Hell. We’ll accompany Dante and Virgil as they pass through the nine circles and out into purgatory and heaven. On the way, we’ll chat about Margery Kemp and Julian of Norwich, Hellboy, D&D, Giotto’s Scrovengi Chapel, and the tendency of ogliarchs to use philanthropy to try and make people like them.

Notes and Annotations

1/ Minne/affective piety: see episode 7, note 1.

2/ Hildegard: see episode 6, notes 17 and 23.

Marguerite Porete: see episode 7, notes 15 and 17.

3/ Jesse: Julian of Norwich: see episode 5, note 3 and episode 7, note 22. Jesus tells Julian that “Sin is necessary, but all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well” and “What is impossible to you is not impossible to me” (225, 233). This translation is from the Paulist Press translation of Julian’s Showings, translated by Colledge and Walsh. The original is in the Watson and Jenkins edition, pp. 209, 223.

4/ Jesse: Margery Kemp: see episode 6, note 29 and episode 7, note 23. Margery Kempe wrote one of the first (if not the first) autobiographies in English: The Book of Margery Kemp. Also see the British Library page. I recommend the Norton Critical translation by Lynn Staley, which I’m quoting in this episode (p. 117). The original is edited by Barry Windeatt (p. 303 for the quotes in this episode).

5/ Dante: Writer, failed politician, egoist. [“Failed politician” is a little unfair–he’s probably a better person for having been on the side that got exiled. I think he’d agree though–and with “egoist” too. –Jesse]

7/ For the terminally curious, here is the D&D Chick tract. I like that this comic includes two young women in the D&D group and…apparently the DM is some older woman? Anyway, it’s extremely unrealistic that the DM would just kill off a character like that. It’s very rude. Serious D&D players can hang onto their characters for years, and killing off a character permanently is a pretty intense situation. Also I have never been invited to join a coven devoted to ANY deity after participating in D&D, which honestly is a little disappointing.

Interesting and relevant side story, I’ve also been involved in the creation of a D&D adventure that started in limbo and worked its way through Dante’s Inferno. [So awesome! I want in on that adventure.–Jesse]

Jesse: In Medieval Crossover, Barbara Newman points out that “for us, the secular is the normative, unmarked default category, while the sacred is the marked, asymmetrical Other. In the Middle Ages it was the reverse” (viii). She goes on to comment that “the secular had to establish a niche” within the sacred paradigm that framed medieval society (viii). Barbara Newman, Medieval Crossover: Reading the Secular against the Sacred (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013)

8/ I think Jesse had read the Hellboy pancakes comic because I bought the collection that included it while I was staying with her in Manhattan one weekend, and true to form she read the whole thing before I flew out. [Yes that’s right!! I actually hadn’t read that one before, probably because it’s not based on . . . uh . . . myth/folklore.

Summary What is the purpose of sin, and why is it allowed? Why does Hell exist? When people go to Hell, do they stay there forever, and is there any way of getting them out? Em and Jesse take a look at the Medieval personification of God’s love and how several major female mystics tackled …

Continue reading "Episode 7: Love and Hell"

Summary

What is the purpose of sin, and why is it allowed? Why does Hell exist? When people go to Hell, do they stay there forever, and is there any way of getting them out? Em and Jesse take a look at the Medieval personification of God’s love and how several major female mystics tackled these questions, and then dive into Dante’s vision of Hell in The Inferno.

Annotations and Corrections

1/ Minne: love personified. [Minne is also German/Germanic and is part of the medieval courtly love tradition (“Lady Love”). The women in this episode frequently make use of the conventions of courtly love–for example, portraying Christ as a knight. However, Minne also extends far, far beyond courtly love in the philosophies of affective piety described in this episode. Minne becomes a pillar of these women’s philosophies, and consequently it takes more than one episode to describe Minne fully. But we tried to provide a start! I specify Dutch here because of Hadewijch, who wrote in Middle Dutch.–Jesse]

2/ Hadewijch of Brabent or Antwerp. If you’re really interested in more on her philosophy, check out episode 237 of the History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps podcast.

Jesse: Hadewijch lived in the first half of the thirteenth century presumably (based on her writings in the Brabant region). Her Wikipedia article is here. For more on Hadewijch and Minne, also see McGinn, The Flowering of Mysticism, pp. 199–222.

3/ [5:55] For reference, the printing press was invented in the West around 1440. (It was invented in China about 900 years earlier, in 593.)

4/ Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms. We should definitely talk about this as soon as we finish this series on mysticism and Hell. Also, this was one of my grad school readings, thanks.–Em

5/ We talk a bit in this episode and in several others about the change from writing in Latin to writing in “the Vernacular”–whatever the local language was. Dante and Chaucer are two early examples in their respective languages, but I’m not certain exactly when it became a “thing.” Certainly I think it must have started as education moved out of monasteries and into universities in the 12th century. [This seems like part of a future episode! I love the question of the vernacular. Manuscripts, writing, and illumination might be a future episode as well.–Jesse]

Booker T. Washington is an example of someone who taught himself to read English.

6/ The Crusader Bible in our site header is actually in Latin, Persian, and Judeo-Persian (Persian written in Hebrew characters). See the Citations tab for links to more info on it!

7/ Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179)–see Episode 6 beginning around 34:00 and notes 17 and 23.

8/ Jesse: Poem 16 (this is a short excerpt, the full poem is pp. 168–171) in Hadewijch: The Complete Works, introduced and translated by Mother Columba Hart O.S.B. This is part of a series I mention frequently, The Classics of Western Spirituality, published by Paulist Press.

9/ Arma Christi: Episode 5,

From the feast of Corpus Christi to the mystical marriage between St. Catherine of Siena and Jesus Himself, Em and Jesse dive into the world of Medieval mysticism and affective piety, exploring the ways in which women were able to co-opt the stereotypes of men into positive portrayals of female piety. Brief content note--there's nothing explicit, but we do mention circumcision in this episode.

From the feast of Corpus Christi to the mystical marriage between St. Catherine of Siena and Jesus Himself, Em and Jesse dive into the world of Medieval mysticism and affective piety, exploring the ways in which women were able to co-opt the stereotypes of men into positive portrayals of female piety. Brief content note--there's nothing explicit, but we do mention circumcision in this episode.

Summary Em and Jesse begin a journey into the world of Medieval mysticism with a discussion of hermits and anchorites/anchoresses. With some interesting discussions of cats, Michel Foucault, Plato, and Siddhartha Gautama. Annotations, Notes, and Corrections 0/ There are some sound issues in this episode–I (Em) recorded in what sounds like a cave, and Jesse’s …

Continue reading "Episode 5: Hermits and Anchoresses"

Summary

Em and Jesse begin a journey into the world of Medieval mysticism with a discussion of hermits and anchorites/anchoresses. With some interesting discussions of cats, Michel Foucault, Plato, and Siddhartha Gautama.

Annotations, Notes, and Corrections

0/ There are some sound issues in this episode–I (Em) recorded in what sounds like a cave, and Jesse’s mic is a little staticy and flat for some reason–I suspect she accidentally recorded with the wrong mic. Sorry! [Actually, I turned the gain way down and sat further away–I thought I was being too loud before!–JN]

1/ Quarantine: See our episode on the plague, especially note 22.

2/ The woman who died in 1990 was Maria-Nazerina of Jesus. She became an anchoress in 1945, meaning she went 45 years speaking once per year. (She appears to have been much stricter in her observance than many of the Medieval anchoresses we’ll discuss, in that she did only speak to her spiritual director instead of also offering counsel to anyone who wanted it.) Another modern anchoress we found is Sister Rachel Denton, who is arguably less strict than the Medieval women–for example, she gives seminars and uses the internet, and I think she has a garden. [Christina of Markyate is a good example of an anchoress who was in a tiny cell for a while…she shows up in more detail later in the episode.–JN]

3/ [4:57] My cat has occasionally caught mice, but we can’t rule out that there was something wrong with them that he managed to get them. [Julian’s cat comes from the Ancrene Wisse‘s Outer Rule, Part 8, which allowed anchoresses to have a cat. Here is the quote (lines 76–77: “Ye, mine leove sustren, bute yef neod ow drive ant ower meistre hit reade, ne schulen habbe na beast bute cat ane.” Translation: “My dear sisters, unless need drives you and your director advises it, you must not have any animal except a cat” (trans. Savage and Watson, p. 201). Here are some Julian of Norwich images with her cat (that she presumably had, because of Ancrene Wisse)! Here is the image of Julian with her cat in Norwich Cathedral (and here is the full window where you can see her name). Here is the second window in Norwich Cathedral of Julian (no cat–Julian is the far bottom right figure; here’s a close up). Here’s another great image of Julian and her cat from St Thomas, Earlham Road, Norwich. This window also includes Julian’s famous statement–a quote from Christ, who told Julian that “All shall be well.” We’ll discuss this full statement at more length in the Love and Hell episode in a few weeks. Here is a famous icon of Julian with her cat by Robert Lentz, OFM. (The cat pictured here is a legendary cat of great soul, Magnificat, the protector of all Northwestern University graduate students in medieval studies). Anne Savage and Nicholas Watson, eds. Anchoritic Spirituality: Ancrene Wisse and Associated Works. New York: Paulist Press, 1991.

Summary

Em and Jesse begin a journey into the world of Medieval mysticism with a discussion of hermits and anchorites/anchoresses. With some interesting discussions of cats, Michel Foucault, Plato, and Siddhartha Gautama.

Annotations, Notes, and Corrections

0/ There are some sound issues in this episode–I (Em) recorded in what sounds like a cave, and Jesse’s mic is a little staticy and flat for some reason–I suspect she accidentally recorded with the wrong mic. Sorry! [Actually, I turned the gain way down and sat further away–I thought I was being too loud before!–JN]

1/ Quarantine: See our episode on the plague, especially note 22.

2/ The woman who died in 1990 was Maria-Nazerina of Jesus. She became an anchoress in 1945, meaning she went 45 years speaking once per year. (She appears to have been much stricter in her observance than many of the Medieval anchoresses we’ll discuss, in that she did only speak to her spiritual director instead of also offering counsel to anyone who wanted it.) Another modern anchoress we found is Sister Rachel Denton, who is arguably less strict than the Medieval women–for example, she gives seminars and uses the internet, and I think she has a garden. [Christina of Markyate is a good example of an anchoress who was in a tiny cell for a while…she shows up in more detail later in the episode.–JN]

3/ [4:57] My cat has occasionally caught mice, but we can’t rule out that there was something wrong with them that he managed to get them. [Julian’s cat comes from the Ancrene Wisse‘s Outer Rule, Part 8, which allowed anchoresses to have a cat. Here is the quote (lines 76–77: “Ye, mine leove sustren, bute yef neod ow drive ant ower meistre hit reade, ne schulen habbe na beast bute cat ane.” Translation: “My dear sisters, unless need drives you and your director advises it, you must not have any animal except a cat” (trans. Savage and Watson, p. 201). Here are some Julian of Norwich images with her cat (that she presumably had, because of Ancrene Wisse)! Here is the image of Julian with her cat in Norwich Cathedral (and here is the full window where you can see her name). Here is the second window in Norwich Cathedral of Julian (no cat–Julian is the far bottom right figure; here’s a close up). Here’s another great image of Julian and her cat from St Thomas, Earlham Road, Norwich. This window also includes Julian’s famous statement–a quote from Christ, who told Julian that “All shall be well.” We’ll discuss this full statement at more length in the Love and Hell episode in a few weeks. Here is a famous icon of Julian with her cat by Robert Lentz, OFM. (The cat pictured here is a legendary cat of great soul, Magnificat, the protector of all Northwestern University graduate students in medieval studies). Anne Savage and Nicholas Watson, eds. Anchoritic Spirituality: Ancrene Wisse and Associated Works. New York: Paulist Press, 1991.

Em and Jesse continue their discussion of Passover and Easter, including the Venerable Bede's take on Easter's pagan origins, blood libel, and some long digressions about monasteries, Pope Francis, Saint Francis, and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.

Em and Jesse continue their discussion of Passover and Easter, including the Venerable Bede's take on Easter's pagan origins, blood libel, and some long digressions about monasteries, Pope Francis, Saint Francis, and Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice.