Late Medieval Life Research Articles

Martin Luther: A Late Medieval Life by Volker Leppin

Reviewed by: Martin Luther: A Late Medieval Life by Volker Leppin Sherry Jordon Martin Luther: A Late Medieval Life. By Volker Leppin. Translated by Rhys Bezzant and Karen Roe. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017. 135 pp. This book offers a concise biography of Luther which incorporates the latest scholarship to describe Luther's life and the development of his theology. It is an English translation of a book originally published in German in 2010 with the more striking title: Martin Luther: Vom Mönch zum Feind des Papstes (Martin Luther: From Monk to Enemy of the Pope). The author is professor of church history at the University of Tübingen and continues Heiko Oberman's legacy of placing Luther in his late medieval context. Leppin accomplishes this by describing how Luther's later theological convictions shaped his accounts of earlier events. For example, Leppin discusses how Luther's reflections on his monastic life are viewed through the lens of his later theological understanding of justification by faith. Leppin therefore refers to Luther's earlier writings to describe how monastic life, and especially his relationship with Staupitz, contributed to his theological and spiritual development. In fact, he uses the term "Staupitzianism" to characterize the depth of his influence on Luther and attributes Luther's development of sola gratia to Staupitz's understanding of a compassionate and merciful Christ. Leppin also reads Luther's 1545 description of his Reformation breakthrough with skepticism and argues for a gradual development of his theology grounded in a new approach to scripture. Luther interpreted the text as a direct address to the believer, an approach also found in late medieval sermons influenced by German Dominican mysticism (20–22). For Leppin, Luther's reform is inspired and nurtured by late-medieval piety and mysticism rather than a revolt against it. He describes the supporting role that humanism played in Luther's turn to the Bible (especially Paul) and the early church fathers (particularly Augustine), but Staupitz and late medieval mysticism emerge as the primary influences on Luther's theology. The book is structured chronologically, with most chapters describing Luther's role at specific times in his life: The Son, The Monk, the Young Professor, The Publicist, The Prophet, The [End Page 461] Preacher-Bishop, the Educator, The Outsider, and The Old Professor. The two exceptions are "The Year of Climax, 1525," and a concluding chapter titled "The End of Life." This structure reflects Leppin's conviction that 1525 was a turning point in Luther's life, when he was forced to the margins of reform as the charismatic movement he founded became institutionalized and ecclesiastical leadership transitioned to political authorities (89, 91–92). As a result, Luther's life after 1525 is limited to a few concluding chapters which emphasize the role that Philipp Melanchthon and the German princes played in consolidating reform. Leppin discusses some of the key events and controversies of Luther's life after 1525, but he presents Luther as an outsider who plays only an advisory role in the consolidation of reform. This biography would serve as a scholarly introduction to Luther's life and thought in undergraduate religion classes and congregations, especially if the readers have some previous theological background. Even then, it will be a challenging text and require additional explanation. For example, Leppin points to the centrality of justification in Luther's theology and biblical interpretation, but the term itself is not defined and there is no discussion of how his use of the term differs from that of Paul or the Nominalists. Perhaps because this text is an edited version of a larger biography, there are also some points where the connection between ideas is unclear. For example, Leppin asserts that a crucial moment in Luther's development of the principle of sola fide can be traced to the disputation at Heidelberg in 1518 but never explains how that is the case. The addition of an index would also be helpful. However, this text offers an excellent, concise biography of Luther that situates him in his late medieval context and within the academic and monastic communities that shaped his life and thought. [End Page 462] Sherry Jordon University of...

Thomas Usk and John Arderne

Thomas Usk and John Arderne

The Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae illustrated in medieval manuscripts known as the Tacuinum Sanitatis.

Beginning in the last two decades of the 14th century, richly illuminated versions of the Tacuinum Sanitatis, the Latin translation of an 11th-century Arabic manuscript known as Taqwim al-Sihha bi al-Ashab al-Sitta, were produced in northern Italy. These illustrated manuscripts provide a window on late medieval life in that region by containing some 200 full-page illustrations, many of which vividly depict the harvest of vegetables, fruits, flowers, grains, aromatics and medicinal plants. Our objective was to search for and identify the images of taxa of Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae. We have located all reported illustrated Tacuinum Sanitatis and similar or related manuscripts, searched through printed or electronic reproductions of them, categorized six of them that display full-page illustrations as archetypic, and established the identity of the Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae appearing in these six manuscripts. Of the Cucurbitaceae, Cucumis sativus (short-fruited cucumbers), Cucumis melo (including round as well as elongate melons), Citrullus lanatus (both sweet watermelons and citrons), and Lagenaria siceraria (including bottle-shaped as well as long gourds), are illustrated. Of the Solanaceae, Solanum melongena (egg-shaped purple aubergines) and Mandragora sp. (mandrake) are illustrated. These depictions include some of the earliest known images of cucumber, casaba melon (Cucumis melo Inodorous Group) and aubergine, each of which closely resembles an extant cultivar-group or market type. Overall, the botanically most accurate images are in the version of the Tacuinum located in the Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, cod. ser. n. 2644. Similarities and differences in botanical accuracy among the images of Cucurbitaceae and Solanaceae in the six archetypal Tacuinum manuscripts suggest to us that another illustrated Tacuinum, now lost, may have antedated and served as a model or inspiration for the six surviving archetypic manuscripts.

Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von Reformation und katholischer Reform 1500-1700, Band 1 (review)

Reviewed by: Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von Reformation und katholischer Reform 1500-1700, Band 1 Dennis Martin Orden und Klöster im Zeitalter von Reformation und katholischer Reform 1500-1700, Band 1. Edited by Friedhelm Jürgensmeier and Regina Elisabeth Schwerdtfeger. {Katholisches Leben und Kirchenreform im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung, Band 65.] (Münster: Aschendorff Verlag. 2005. Pp. 256. €22.80 paperback.) This first of three volumes designed to survey religious orders in the period of Protestant and Catholic Reformations covers (1) Benedictine monks and (2) nuns, (3) Cistercian monks and (4) nuns, (5) the Teutonic Order, (6) the [End Page 315] Knights of St. John of the Hospital (Knights of Malta), (7) Servites, (8) Birgittines, (9) Brethren of the Common Life, (10)Canonnesses and collegiate foundations for women, and (11)Ursulines. Subsequent volumes will take up Augustinian Eremites, Celestines, various mendicant friars, Jesuits, Carmelites, Carthusians, Poor Clares, Crosiers, Maria Ward's Congregatio Jesu, Praemonstratensians, and others. Only houses located within German-speaking regions of Europe are to be included. The first four chapters on Benedictine and Cistercian monks and nuns make up nearly half of the book. The editors explain that these eleven orders are included largely because the scholars assigned to cover them submitted their entries first. Most entries follow a standard pattern, beginning with a statistical snapshot of the order's situation ca. 1500, ca. 1550, and ca. 1648, followed by a map and a numerical listing of each German house of the order coded to permit the reader to gain an overview of which houses survived or failed to survive the chaos of the era and which regions suffered greater or lesser losses. The standard entry then continues with sections on (1) the origins, character and charism of the order; (2) its late medieval life, culture, and reform efforts up to 1517; (3) the impact of the early Reformation; (4) the impact of the "second Reformation,"territorialization, and confessionalization; (5) the impact of Trent's reforms; and (6) spirituality, art, culture, and scholarship at the end of the era. Extensive bibliographies at the end of each entry make up in part for the decision to eschew footnotes or endnotes. Although perhaps most useful as a reference work, the book does give the reader some sense of both common patterns and circumstances specific to certain orders. One notes how, for Benedictines, areas of late medieval reform correspond strongly to areas in which these orders survived the upheaval of the Reformation. On the other hand, in some instances an unreformed convent survived better than one that had been reformed under pressure during the fifteenth century, because the former often represented an institution of noblewomen embedded in the politics of the territory, which enabled it to weather the Protestant attacks on monastic life. Indeed, the chapters on women's houses (including Chapter 10 on canonnesses and women's collegiate foundations) as well as the two chapters on the military orders illustrate extremely well how adaptable certain institutional forms of religious life were; by the end of the era, some houses of each order had simply become Protestant versions of their pre-Reformation institutions, in some instances with Protestant and Catholic branches existing side by side. Yet a different pattern is observable with the Servites. Originating in Florence, their core area in German-speaking lands became the heartland of the Reformation, Saxony and Thuringia, where all their houses were lost. But two new Observant provinces in Tyrol and Bohemia in the seventeenth century thrived and played an important role until the Josephine secularizations in the 1780's and even influenced nineteenth-century Catholic life in Austria. [End Page 316] The authors take care to build up their descriptions as a series of concrete, vivid vignettes exemplary of the houses of a particular order in German-speaking regions. As a result, this valuable reference work is anything but an arid collection of data. One awaits eagerly the completion of the series. Dennis Martin Loyola University Chicago Copyright © 2006 The Catholic University of America Press

The Individualization of Crime in Medieval Canon Law

In The Mourning of Christ (c. 1305, fresco at Cappella dell'Arena, Padua, Italy), Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267-1337) depicts the Virgin Mary embracing Christ for the last time after he has been taken down from the cross. Whereas his predecessors in the devotional Byzantine tradition concentrated on flat, still figures, Giotto emphasizes their humanity and individuality. The grief on the Virgin's face is touching and convincing but in a slightly different way than the sorrow experienced by St. John or the other accompanying figures. Even the ten angels following the scene seem to grieve for the Redeemer in their own personal way. The individuality of Giotto's figures may not seem much if we compare it with the seventeenth-century Flemish masters. Giotto's Virgin and her company still show a restraint in their grief which does not seem entirely natural. In late medieval art, however, Giotto's approach was fresh and new, reflecting a trend toward individualization which was not peculiar merely to art but was taking over many other areas of late medieval life as well. Philoso- phy, theology, and law—the medieval scientiae—were all putting increasing emphasis on the rights and responsibilities of the individual. Nor does this trend leave criminal law and the law of evidence untouched. The medieval development of law was just as revolutionary as the develop- ment of other branches of knowledge. Starting in early twelfth-century Bolo- gna, the Corpus Iuris Civilis became an object of systematic academic research and teaching for the first time in history. The development of canon law was perhaps even more striking. Positive, enacted law first became not only an object of academic studies but also an instrument of social engineering in the domain of church law. The hierarchical structure of the worldwide Catholic Church was built and run in conjunction with positive, enacted legislation. 1 1

The Wakefield Master's Dramatic Art: A Drama of Spiritual Understanding by Liam O. Purdon (review)

104ARTHURIANA and action, seems excessively facile (94-5). Holding the volume together are suggestions that 'the legendary figure of Arthur was remarkably consistent' and that there is a single Arthurian tradition (1). Yet only without complication can the diverse span of literary Arthurs treated in this volume be considered 'remarkably consistent.' Essential to this book's force is its broad, comparative approach to material much more frequently treated in isolation, its introduction to and elucidation ofa cross-cultural and cross-generic exchange on the character and nature of literary insular kingship. Yet perhaps misleading to a student audience is the underlying assumption ofa steady, regular, 'local' British folklore version ofArthur— the 'intrinsically comic character,' the humorous, 'slow-witted' yet 'essentially goodnatured ' giant ('comparable with Obélix in the Astérix cartoons')—that defies the remarkably inconsistent figure ofearly Welsh and Latin written tradition (122-3). KRISTEN LEE OVER Northeastern Illinois University LiAM 0. purdon, The Wakefield Master's Dramatic Art: A Drama ofSpiritual Understanding. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Pp. xii, 321. isbn: 0-8130—2603-2. $55. Whether we teach it in a survey ofMedieval literature or English drama, the [Secunda] Pagina Pastorum, or Second Shepherds'Play, is a marvelous piece ofdrama. Its vivid language, characterization, and plot make it a favorite of students and helps them to see the possibilities of Medieval dramatization. If we are using an anthology of early British literature, however, this is likely to be the only play we read by the Wakefield Master, which, as Liam Purdon points out, is a shame. His goal here is 'to place the Wakefield Master in the correct literary pantheon—that is, among the great dramatic geniuses leading up to Marlowe, Jonson, and Shakespeare...' (xi). He further adds that he wants to demonstrate 'the Master's uniqueness, which makes this playwright an artistic rival, not of Shakespeare, but of his medieval nearcontemporary Geoffrey Chaucer' (252). The book thus offers six chapters, each exploring a contribution of the Master to theTowneley collection ofplays written some time in the second halfofthe fifteenth century. As part ofthe Corpus Christi pageants, these plays comprise nearly half of the Towneley cycle, taking as their subjects familiar biblical stories: Cain and Abel, Noah and the ark, the birth of Christ and adoration of the Magi (the modusproferandi of the shepherds), Herod, and Christ's buffeting on the cross. In addition, Purdon considers two Passion Group revisions concerning Pilate and Tutivillus. What Purdon wants to argue in his readings of these dramas is spirituality's centraliry to the technological mastery of nature's temporal and spatial dimensions, to theorientation ofthe mind itselfthat both speculativelyand empirically engages nature and artifice in the world about it, and even to the understanding and proper use, as opposed to abuse, of any practical art or techne. As the Master invites Corpus Christi audiences to recognize the expression or denial oftheir own spirituality in and through dramatized moments ofbiblical history anachronistically modified by the things and kinesis of everyday late-medieval life, we and they are afforded REVIEWS105 the singular opporrunity to observe—and, to a limited extent, participate in—what might be called an iconic material anthropology of spirituality, (ix) In each play, we are asked to see the effort by the Master to insert local practice and its attendant technologies into the biblical story being narrated. The placing on stage ofa heavy, team-drawn plow, a technological innovation enabling communal farming through its being shared and operated by a number ofpeople, is meant in the Mactatio Abel to draw attention to Cain's impenitence and sinfulness as related directly to his poor stewardship, misuse of family relations, and so on. In other words, Cain's symptoms, demonstrated to an audience with a sophisticated understanding of proper communal farming practice, prefigure and bear some relation to his fratricide. Purdon's point here is that there is a direct allegorical relationship between the way in which local practice is performed—Cain's bad plowmanship and thusbad fellowship/stewardship—and the individual's relationship with God. Misunderstanding and misuse of nature, including technological innovation, is sinful, and such a correction or reminder is, for Purdon, the Master's purpose...

Unity and Diversity: Perceptions of the Papacy in the Later Middle Ages

One feature of late medieval life always strikes the modern student as most strange: the Roman Church was an institution which you could, if you had the courage, opt out of, but you did not opt in, or rather, it was assumed that you were in unless you took steps to make dissent clear. Here I would want to add that being ‘in’ included accepting the papacy. My object in this paper is to discuss aspects of this situation, to ask how the papacy was perceived before opinions were distorted by the need to accommodate the impact of Luther. There are few areas where it is more important not to write history from the Reformation backwards; between Protestant polemic and Catholic apologetic the late medieval papacy remains in need of an impartial historian. Textbooks are few and detailed studies of many aspects non-existent. In this paper I will merely try to illuminate a few questions which arise when one begins to consider what it meant to say that in the late Middle Ages all orthodox Latin Christians accepted the papacy.