Prophets abroad: the reception of Continental holy women in late-medieval England

403 Pages·1996·1.27 MB·English

by  Rosalynn Voaden

Prophets Abroad : The Reception of
title: Continental Holy Women in Late-medieval
England
author: Voaden, Rosalynn
publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd.
isbn10 | asin: 0859914259
print isbn13: 9780859914253
ebook isbn13: 9780585191720
language: English
Women mystics--Europe, Christian women
saints--Europe, Women in Christianity,
England--Church history--1066-1485,
subject
Mysticism--History--Middle Ages, 600-
1500, Mysticism--England--History,
Spiritual life--Christianity.
publication date: 1996
lcc: BV5077.E54P76 1996eb
ddc: 270.5/082
Women mystics--Europe, Christian women
saints--Europe, Women in Christianity,
England--Church history--1066-1485,
subject:
Mysticism--History--Middle Ages, 600-
1500, Mysticism--England--History,
Spiritual life--Christianity.
Page i
Prophets Abroad
The Reception of Continental Holy Women in Late-
Medieval England
Scholars have long been aware of the impact of the lives and works of
Continental holy women on English spirituality; female mystics such
as Margery Kempe were inspired by their predecessors abroad, whose
visionary experiences and spiritual reflections were recorded and
widely read. The essays in this volume investigate the influence of
Hildegard of Bingen, Marguerite Porete, Mechtild of Hackeborn,
Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena through examination of
manuscripts, spiritual guides, devotional collections, and the
translation, illumination, adaptation and alteration of their works for
an English audience. Other essays take a new look at Continental
influences on Margery Kempe and the neglected figure of Elizabeth
Barton. Overall, the volume offers new evidence of the ways in which
Continental sensibility and spiritual reflection were altered for English
devotional practice and spirituality.
Dr R V is a Research Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford.
OSALYNN OADEN
Page ii
British Library MS Cotton Claudius B.I., fol. 34r, detail: the Liber Celestis
of St Bridget of Sweden. By permission of The British Library
Page iii
Prophets Abroad
The Reception of Continental Holy Women in Late-
Medieval England
Edited by Rosalynn Voaden
D. S. BREWER
Page iv
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© Contributors 1996
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
First published 1996
D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
Reprinted 1999
ISBN 0 85991 425 9
D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
PO Box 41026, Rochester, NY 14604-4126, USA
website http://www.boydell.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Prophets abroad: the reception of continental holy women
in late-medieval England
1. Christian women - Europe - History 2. Spirituality
- Europe - History - Middle Ages, 6001500 3. Spirituality
- England - History - Middle Ages, 6001500
I. Voaden, Rosalynn
274.5'0922
ISBN 0859914259
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-20394
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Great Britain by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wiltshire
Page v
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction ix
by Rosalynn Voaden
Hildegard and the Male Reader: a Study in Insular 1
Reception
Kathryn Kerby-Fulton
Melting into God the English Way: Deification in the 19
Middle English Version of Marguerite Porete's Mirouer
des simples âmes anienties
Nicholas Watson
The Company She Keeps: Mechtild of Hackeborn in Late- 51
Medieval Devotional Compilations
Rosalynn Voaden
The Visionary and the Canon Lawyers: Papal and Other 71
Revisions to the Regula Salvatoris of St Bridget of
Sweden
Roger Ellis
MS Cotton Claudius B.I.: a Middle English Edition of St 91
Bridget of Sweden's Liber Celestis
Joan Isobel Friedman
Holy Women and their Confessors or Confessors and their 115
Holy Women? Margery Kempe and Continental Tradition
Janette Dillon
Ecstatic Reading and Missionary Mysticism: The Orcherd 141
of Syon
Denise L. Despres
The Prophet at Home: Elizabeth Barton and the Influence 161
of Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena
Diane Watt
*Auctricitas? Holy Women and their Middle English Texts177
Ian Johnson
Page vii
Acknowledgements
While editing this volume, I have at times felt like a medieval holy
woman: my study a cell, my penance to insert three hundred inverted
commas, my demons the postman who never even rang once and the
blank-faced computer I wrestled with daily. But my sustenance has
been the lively, thought-provoking essays which make up this book,
and the patience and cooperation of the contributors. And my good
angels were surely Alastair Minnis of the Centre for Medieval Studies
at York, and Caroline Palmer, editor at Boydell and Brewer.
Sustenance of a more material nature, for which I am most grateful,
was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada and by St Anne's College, Oxford.
ROSALYNN VOADEN
OXFORD, 1995