Miracles and Wonders: The Development of the Concept of Miracle, 1150–1350 PDF
Preview Miracles and Wonders: The Development of the Concept of Miracle, 1150–1350
Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West General Editors: Brenda Bolton with Anne J. Duggan and Damian J. Smith About the series The series Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West reflects the central concerns necessary for any in-depth study of the medieval Church – greater cultural awareness and interdisciplinarity. Including both monographs and edited collections, this new series draws on the most innovative work from established and younger scholars alike, offering a balance of interests, vertically though the period from c.400 to c.1500 or horizontally across Latin Christendom. Topics covered range from cultural history, the monastic life, relations between Church and State to law and ritual, palaeography and textual transmission. All authors, from a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds, share a commitment to innovation, analysis and historical accuracy. About the volume In this absorbing book, Michael Goodich explores the changing perception of the miracle in medieval Western society. He employs a wealth of primary sources, including canonization dossiers, hagiographical texts, theological treatises and sermons, to examine the Christian church’s desire to create a sounder legal definition of the miracle. About the Author Michael E. Goodich was formerly Professor of Medieval History at the University of Haifa, Israel. Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West Brenda Bolton with Anne J. Duggan and Damian J. Smith Other titles in the series: Edited by John S. Ott and Anna Trumbore Jones The Bishop Reformed Studies of Episcopal Power and Culture in the Central Middle Ages Patrick Healy The Chronicle of Hugh of Flavigny Reform and the Investiture Contest in the Late Eleventh Century Anke Holdenried The Sibyl and Her Scribes Manuscripts and Interpretation of the Latin Sibylla Tiburtina c. 1050–1500 Edited by Robert C. Figueira Plenitude of Power The Doctrines and Exercise of Authority in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Robert Louis Benson John Hine Mundy Studies in the Ecclesiastical and Social History of Toulouse in the Age of the Cathars Susan E. Wilson The Life and After-Life of St John of Beverley The Evolution of the Cult of an Anglo-Saxon Saint Edited by Christopher M. Bellitto and Louis I. Hamilton Reforming the Church before Modernity Patterns, Problems and Approaches Jerome Bertram The Chrodegang Rules The Rules for the Common Life of the Secular Clergy from the Eighth and Ninth Centuries. Critical Texts with Translations and Commentary Sylvia Schein Gateway to the Heavenly City Crusader Jerusalem and the Catholic West (1099–1187) MIRACLES AND WoNDERS This page intentionally left blank Miracles and Wonders The Development of the Concept of Miracle, 1150–1350 MICHAEL E. GooDICH University of Haifa, Israel I~ ~~o~!~;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2007 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Michael E. Goodich 2007 Michael E. Goodich has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Goodich, Michael, 1944–2006 Miracles and wonders : the development of the concept of miracle, 1150–1350. – (Church, faith and culture in the medieval West) 1. Miracles – History of doctrines – Middle Ages, 600–1500 2. Church history – 13th century 3. Church history – 12th century 4. Faith I. Title 231.7’3’094’0902 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Goodich, Michael, 1944–2006 Miracles and wonders : the development of the concept of miracle, 1150–1350 / by Michael E. Goodich. p. cm. – (Church, faith, and culture in the Medieval West) ISBN 978-0-7546-5875-7 (alk. paper) 1. Miracles–History of doctrines–Middle Ages, 600–1500. 2. Canonization–History–To 1500. I. Title. BT97.3.G66 2007 231.7’309022–dc22 2006034822 ISBN 978 0 7546 5875 7 (hbk) Contents Appreciating Michael Goodich viii Gary Dickson Preface x 1 Introduction 1 2 Signa data infidelibus non fidelibus: The Theology of Miracle 8 3 The Miracle in Contemporary Sermons 29 4 ‘Popular’ Voices of Doubt 47 5 Theory and Public Policy: Canonization Records 69 6 Canonization and the Hagiographical Text 87 7 Vidi in Somnium: The Uses of Dream and Vision in the Miracle 100 8 Conclusion 117 Bibliography 122 Index 140 Appreciating Michael Goodich Gary Dickson Appreciation begins in loss. Like historians, perhaps we only begin to understand things retrospectively. Aside from correspondence and emails, I got to know Michael Goodich best on three occasions. For academics getting on with their lives in different parts of the world, where we met had to be at conferences. The first of these was truly memorable. It was held in Erice, Sicily in late September, 1989, at the Ettore Majorana Centre’s International Workshop on Medieval Societies. There were pleasant dinners in the town’s restaurants; André Vauchez was a perfect host; and afterwards Marsala wine was on tap. The conference proceedings, published as Poteri carismatici e informali: chiesa e società medioevali (1992), included essays by Michael and myself. Michael’s subject was one which preoccupied him for many years. In this, his last book it comes to fruition – wonder-working powers, miracles, and those reputed to have performed them. At Erice he spoke of children and young people as holders of miraculous, charismatic power. Erice is where I got to meet (and dine with) this bright, animated, amiable, youthful- seeming scholar, a medievalist like myself, and working in a similar area, that of medieval religion and society. We were both Americans, both lecturing abroad, Michael in Israel, myself in Scotland. I immediately warmed to his personality and mischievous sense of humour. Michael Goodich (1944–2006) was an extraordinarily productive scholar. He was educated in the U.S. (B.A.,City College of New York; M.A., University of Pennsylvania; Ph.D. Columbia University), and apart from a couple of early teaching posts in America, he spent his entire academic career at the Department of General History, University of Haifa, where he rose through the ranks, becoming professor, chair, and dean. Yet this was not the whole story, for Michael loved to travel and took up a succession of visiting professorships at Yale, U.C. Berkeley, Stanford, U.C. Los Angeles, York, Toronto, as well as resident scholarships at St. John’s University, Collegeville Minnesota – where he immersed himself in medieval manuscripts, a ruling passion of his – and Princeton Theological Seminary. He published more than forty articles in leading journals. overwhelmingly, they concerned saints, their miracles, and the literary genre devoted to them; hagiography. The nine books he edited or wrote before this one not only traversed this same territory which he had made his own; Lives and Miracles of the Saints (2004); Violence and Miracle in the Fourteenth Century (1995); Vita perfecta: the Ideal of Sainthood in the Thirteenth Century (1982), but also tackled other demanding topics from The Unmentionable Vice: Homosexuality in the Later Middle Ages (1979) – a pioneering study – to From Birth to Old Age: the Human Life Cycle in Medieval Thought (1989). In addition, there were books about people on the edges of society; Minorities, Heretics and Life on the Margins in the Middle Ages (2007); Voices from the Bench: the Narratives of Lesser Folk in Medieval Trials (2005); Other Middle Ages: Marginal Appreciating Michael Goodich ix Groups in the Medieval Period (1998). These are books I came to know, and what is the greatest tribute one worker in the field can pay to another, came to use. It is hard not to see Miracles and Wonders: the Development of the Concept of Miracle, 1150–1350 as a grand synthesis of what had preceded it. The articles were his watercolours; for this book Michael Goodich chose to paint in oil. Here we have a close reading of how the miraculous was conceptualized in the Middle Ages, a reading that is anchored in the sources, most impressively including the manuscript sources. Yet by no means does the author ignore how the miraculous sheds light on social history. of great interest as well, is the constant interplay between two Christianities, learned and popular, Christianity from above and Christianity from below. What the author reveals most of all is the richness of the material. Miracles and Wonders is certain to be exploited by those who come after him. It is a shame that others will not now have the chance to discuss his book and pursue its arguments directly with him. I met Michael for the second time in 1996 in London at the Anglo-American conference. Both of us were appearing at a panel organized by Brenda Bolton, when a hoax alarm sent us scurrying out of Senate House. As we shuffled nervously out of the building, Michael relieved the tension with witty comments. over dinner that evening I had a chance to meet his charming wife, Marian. The last time I saw Michael was in 2003 at the Leeds International Medieval Congress. It was for all too short a time. We were hurrying between sessions. In the corridor we exchanged the usual pleasantries, news, and gossip about what was happening in ‘our’ medieval world. Michael was in top form. I came away – and I do not think this was a unique experience – feeling enlivened, more cheerful for having met him, as if his vivacity was communicable. Michael’s legacy lives on in an altogether appropriate and tangible fashion. Marian and their daughter Claudia have generously contributed Michael’s personal library of medievalia consisting of well over 200 books and manuscripts in facsimile to the University of Haifa Library, where Michael enjoyed studying, having in great part helped to build up its medieval history holdings. Some might think that the immortality reserved for scholars is a poor thing. For those working in the field it is as close to glory as one gets. It is to be cited in the literature. Michael Goodich now belongs to that literature. Gary Dickson
The list of books you might like
