Reforming Saints: Saints' Lives and Their Authors in Germany, 1470-1530 (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology)

244 Pages·2008·3.99 MB·English

by  David J. Collins

Reforming Saints
OXFORD STUDIES IN HISTORICAL THEOLOGY
Series Editor
David C. Steinmetz, Duke University
Editorial Board
Irena Backus, Universite´ de Gene`ve
Robert C. Gregg, Stanford University
George M. Marsden, University of Notre Dame
Wayne A. Meeks, Yale University
Gerhard Sauter, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universita¨t Bonn
Susan E. Schreiner, University of Chicago
John Van Engen, University of Notre Dame
Geoffrey Wainwright, Duke University
Robert L. Wilken, University of Virginia
cassianthemonk writing the wrongs
ColumbaStewart WomenoftheOldTestamentamong
BiblicalCommentatorsfromPhilo
images and relics
throughtheReformation
TheologicalPerceptionsandVisualImages JohnL.Thompson
inSixteenth-CenturyEurope
thehungryare dying
JohnDillenberger
BeggarsandBishopsinRomanCappadocia
the body broken
SusanR.Holman
TheCalvinistDoctrineoftheEucharist
rescue for thedead
andtheSymbolizationofPower
inSixteenth-CenturyFrance ThePosthumousSalvation
ChristopherElwood ofNon-ChristiansinEarlyChristianity
JeffreyA.Trumbower
what pureeyescould see
after calvin
Calvin’sDoctrineofFaithinIts
ExegeticalContext StudiesintheDevelopment
BarbaraPitkin ofaTheologicalTradition
RichardA.Muller
the unaccommodated
thepoverty of riches
calvin
St.FrancisofAssisiReconsidered
StudiesintheFoundationofaTheological
KennethBaxterWolf
Tradition
RichardA.Muller reforming mary
theconfessionalization ChangingImagesoftheVirginMaryin
LutheranSermonsoftheSixteenthCentury
ofhumanisminreformation
BethKreitzer
germany
teaching thereformation
ErikaRummel
MinistersandTheirMessage
the pleasureof discernment
inBasel,1529–1629
MargueritedeNavarreasTheologian AmyNelsonBurnett
CarolThysell gregory of nazianzus
reformation readings on thetrinityand the
of the apocalypse knowledge of god
Geneva,Zurich,andWittenberg InYourLightWeShallSeeLight
IrenaBackus ChristopherA.Beeley
Reforming Saints
Saints’ Lives and Their Authors
in Germany, 1470–1530
david j. collins
1
2008
1
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Collins,DavidJ.
Reformingsaints:saint’slivesandtheirauthorsinGermany,1470–1530/DavidJ.Collins.
p.cm.—(Oxfordstudiesinhistoricaltheology)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-0-19-532953-7
1. Christiansaints—Germany. 2. Authors. 3. Authorship. 4. Humanism—Germany.
5. Renaissance—Germany. I. Title.
BX4659.G3C65 2007
235'.2094309024—dc22 2007014781
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PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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To my mother and father
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Acknowledgments
Receivingthegeneroushelpofsomanycolleagues,friends,teachers,
and scholarly institutions hasbeenasourceof great pleasure in
writingthisbook.Ihopethatmyexpressionsofgratitudeherewillbe
acceptedinreturnforadebtthatotherwiseIcannothopetorepay.My
first thanks goto the three scholar-teachers who bear thegreatest
responsibilityfor inspiringme to theadvanced study of history.
ThomasF.X.NobleintroducedmetotheMiddleAgesandtaughtme
as an undergraduatethe hardbut rewardinglessonthat foreign
countrieshave to be studied with foreign languages; John O’Malley
imparted to me his love ofthe Renaissance humanists;and Bob
Scribner drewmy attention toGermany, the Reformations, and
popular religion in thelast twoseminars he offered before his un-
timely death in 1998. Iundertook theinitial researchfor this mono-
graph asa doctoralstudentunder thesupervision ofRichard
Kieckhefer, with theadditional counselof Robert Lerner,William
Monter,andEdwardMuir.Theycouldnothaveguidedthisprojectin
its earliestphasewithmore care or enthusiasm. Igreatlyvalue their
mentoringand friendship.
InthecourseofmyresearchIwasalsoaidedatseveralimportant
juncturesby colleaguesin NorthAmericaand Europe.Theyhelped
mebetterunderstandthelargerissuesonwhichmyresearchtouched
and gave me invaluable assistance in themore recondite require-
mentsofmedieval andearly modern scholarship. In this regard
Iam especially grateful toEckhardBernstein,Randolph Head, Erika
viii acknowledgments
Rummel, and James Weiss. While abroad, I incurred similar debts to Robert
Godding and Bernard Joussard, bollandistes; Guy Philippart and his former
assistant Michel Trigalet of the Universite´ Notre-Dame de la Paix in Namur;
MonikaRenerofthePhilipps-Universita¨tinMarburg;GabrieliSignoriofthe
Universita¨t Konstanz; Markus Mu¨ller of the Albert-Ludwigs-Universita¨t in
Freiburg; Stephanie Haarla¨nder of the Johannes-Gutenberg-Universita¨t in
Mainz; and Klaus Herbers and Dieter Bauer in association with the Arbeit-
skreis fu¨r Hagiographische Fragen. The editors and readers at Oxford Uni-
versityPressalsogreatlyimprovedthisbook.IamespeciallygratefultoAlison
K. Frazier for her painstaking reading of and thoughtful commentary on the
book in draft. I credit these colleagues’ and friends’ sodalitas for making the
bookbetter,andItakefullresponsibilityforanyremainingerrors,oversights,
and misapprehensions.
A number of institutions supported my research in essential ways. Fel-
lowships and grants from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, the
Charlotte Newcombe Foundation, and Georgetown and Northwestern uni-
versitiesmadetwoyearsandseveralsummersofresearchabroadpossible.The
Monumenta Germaniae Historica, under the presidency of Rudolf Schieffer,
generously extended its hospitality to me during a two-year residence in Mu-
nich.ThestaffmembersoftheHerzog-August-BibliothekinWolfenbu¨ttel,the
Institut fu¨r Europa¨ische Geschichte in Mainz, and the Staatsbibliothek in
Berlin(inparticulartheIncunabulaDivisionunterdenLinden),whereIworked
forfruitful,ifbriefer,periodsoftime,extendedmeasimilarhospitality.Iam
obligedaswelltoahostoflibrariansandarchivists,manyofwhomIknowonly
‘‘virtually’’ontheinternet.TheirinstitutionsincludetheManuscriptsandOld
Books Division of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the Stadtarchiv in Nurem-
berg, the Landesarchiv in Mu¨nster, the Historisches Archiv der Stadt in Co-
logne,theStadtbibliothekinTrier,andtheUniversita¨ts-undLandesbibliothek
Sachsen Anhalt in Halle a. Saale, as well as the interlibrary loan staffs at
Northwestern and Georgetown universities. My colleagues in the History
Department and Medieval Studies Program at Georgetown continue to help
me—on and off duty, verbo et exemplo—negotiate a balance between re-
searchingandteaching.Nochapterinthisbookhasbeenpreviouslypublished,
butsomepreliminaryresearchandanalysishaveappearedinprintelsewhere:
onSaintBenno,inLaRevueB´en´edictinein2000;onSaintIdaofHerzfeld,in
GabrieliSignori’sHeiligesWestfalenin2003andintheAnalectaBollandianain
2006; and on late medieval German hagiography in general, in Guy Phi-
lippart’s Hagiographies in 2006. Editors and readers caught mistakes, alerted
me to oversights, and sharpened hypotheses, thereby improving the overall
project and indebtingme to them in the process.
acknowledgments ix
On a personal note, I wish to express my gratitude to the several com-
munities of the Jesuit order, especially in Brussels, Chicago, Munich, and
Washington, D.C., where I did most of my research and writing. They sup-
portedmeinmorewaysthanIcouldeverenumerate.MyKommilitoneninthe
MGH-Lesesaal—AnnetteWiesheu,JochenJohrendt,andChristianJostmann—
as well as MGH-Mitarbeiterin Veronika Lukas, helped make Munich a home-
away-from-home for the twoyears I was there.Seeming atevery turn toenjoy
my stories of late medieval saints and Renaissance humanists, the Clifton-
Soderstrom and Langford-Collier families did the same for me in Chicago.
Theirfriendshipcontinuestobeasourceofgreathappiness.Lastly,Ithankmy
family—parents, siblings, in-laws, abundant nieces, and two nephews—who
learnedmoreaboutwhattheyleastexpectedandwhosupportedmewithlove
in this as in all ofmy endeavors.