Monastic Literary Production for Lay Audiences in the Late Middle Ages

Sponsoring Organization(s)

Special Session

Organizer Name

Brandon Alakas

Organizer Affiliation

Royal Military College of Canada

Presider Name

Stephanie Morley

Presider Affiliation

St. Mary's Univ.

Paper Title 1

Preach with Their Hands: Assessing the Evidence of Enclosed Preacher-Scribes

Presenter 1 Name

Julia Marie Smith

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

Paper Title 2

The Märterbuch: Complexities of Legend Transmission in the Late Middle Ages

Presenter 2 Name

Megan Barrett

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Indiana Univ.-Bloomington

Paper Title 3

Þe Passioun of Our Lord: Translation, Adaptation, and the Laity

Presenter 3 Name

Catherine Innes-Parker

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Prince Edward Island

Paper Title 4

From Monks to Merchants: Using Discretio to Regulate Life, Learning, and Reader Response in Fifteenth-Century London

Presenter 4 Name

Anna Lewis

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Univ. of Ottawa

Start Date

9-5-2013 10:00 AM

Session Location

Bernhard 213

Description

This session aims to provoke discussion of the vital role monastic culture played in contributing to forms of lay piety in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a period that we refer to as the “long fifteenth century” in England. While much scholarly attention has been paid to reevaluating vernacular literature written during this period, this panel will focus exclusively on devotional texts written by religious authors for lay consumption. Seeking to further undermine dominant historical narratives, which view late medieval monastic culture as moribund, recent work has tended to focus on elite religious foundations, such as Syon Abbey and St Albans Monastery. This session will consider the role that individual monastic authors played as conduits for the transmission of religious culture to lay readers as a more general phenomenon within the evolution of English religious culture.

Brandon C. Alakas and Stephanie Morley