Christopher M. Bellitto

The life of Saint Douceline, a Beguine of Provence

Introduction The Life of Saint Douceline Interpretive Essay Douceline de Digne: The Douce et Digne Mother of Roubaud Bibliography Index

The Early Development of Pierre d'Ailly's Conciliarism

CHRISTOPHER M. BELLITTO* The theologian and church statesman Pierre dAilly (1350-1420) has been the subject of considerable scholarly attention, as befits one of the foremost fathers of the Council of Constance (1414-1418). The prominent role dAilly played as a conciliarist at Constance has, however, overshadowed the earlier development of his conciliar thought. This tendency is reflected in modern studies of dAilly which have correspondingly overlooked the important early stages of his career.1 DAillys initial service to the University of Paris, the French crown, and the Avignon papacy strongly influenced the evolution of his conciliarism. He seems to have embraced the via concil in three steps from the time he received his masters degree in theology in 1381 to his opposition in 1395 and 1396 to Frances attempts to withdraw spiritual and financial obedience from the Avignon papacy.2 He appears at first to have been an enthusiastic supporter of conciliar principles, as seen in his Epistola Diaboli Leviathan and the actions he took as rector of the College de Navarre and university chancellor. Second, dismayed by contentious debates among representatives of university, papacy, and crown at the Councils of Paris about the via cessionis, dAillys backing of the via concil grew cautious. The obstinacy of all involved appears to have moderated his enthusiasm for a full-scale conciliar resolution and moved an older, more circumspect dAilly to a third step: an oligarchic conciliarism, more properly characteristic of his ecclesiology, that assigned a mediatory role to the College of Cardinals. Especially illustrative of the latter two steps are his three cedulae of 1395 and 1396 which have not been analyzed in detail though they indicate in important ways how his conciliarism developed.3 The Context The development of dAillys conciliar views cannot be understood apart from the intertwined relations among the Church, crown, and university he served during the Great Schism.4 DAilly began the arts curriculum at the College de Navarre about 1364 and advanced through theology. He came to royal and papal attention in 1379 when he was delegated by the university to advise Charles V (1364-1380) of its support for a general council to resolve the schism. DAilly received the masters degree and license in theology in 1381, but his rising career stalled when Charles VI (1380-1422) banned university discussion of the schism. DAilly retreated to his Noyon canonry, returning in 1384 as rector of the College de Navarre. By 1389, he was royal chaplain. That year, perhaps to curry the kings support and dAillys friendship, Avignons Clement VII (1378-1394) nominated dAilly as Paris chancellor In late 1394, after the election of Benedict XIII (1394-1417) as Clements successor, Charles sent dAilly and others to convey greetings to Benedict, who was quick to see in dAilly a man he preferred as friend rather than as foe. DAilly resigned as chancellor when Benedict named him bishop of Puy in 1395; two years later he was made bishop of Cambrai and, in 1411, cardinal. DAillys career was marked by contentious attempts to resolve the schism. There had been Valois support for the Avignon popes since the schisms beginning in 1378 until 1392.5 When the schism wore on, however, the French royal family did not wish to be labeled as schismatic. As the dukes of Berry and Burgundy won control over the unstable Charles VI, they began to move toward a unified papacy about 1392. The University of Paris, meanwhile, did not formally accept Clement as pope until 1383.6 Despite the royal ban on debating the schism, dissent continued. In 1394, written opinions were gathered, revealing that the university community supported three courses of action to resolve the schism: a general council (via concilii), negotiation (via compromissi), and abdication (via cessionis). These options were delineated in the famous letter of June 6,1394, to Charles. …

Reform and renewal in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance : studies in honor of Louis Pascoe, S.J.

Introduction 1. For Louis B. Pascoe, S.J., Joseph F. OCallaghan 2. The Influence of Gerhart Ladners The Idea of Reform, Phillip H. Stump 3. Pope Urban II, a Pseudo-Council of Chartres, and Congregato (C.16, q.7, c.2 palea). A Critical Edition, Robert Somerville 4. Reformation of the Intellect in the Thought of Aelred of Rievaulx, Daniel Marcel La Corte 5. Franciscan Poverty as a Basis for the Reform of the Church in Ubertino da Casales Arbor vitae crucifixae Jesu, Gregory S. Beirich 6. Miles spiritus sancti: The Apocalyptic Dimension of Cola di Rienzos Reform Ideology, Thomas C. Giangreco 7. Reforming Life by Conforming it to the Life of Christ: Pseudo-Bonaventures Meditaciones vite Christi, Lawrence F. Hundersmarck 8. Gerson and the Celestines. A Critical Edition, Gilbert Ouy 9. The Rhetoric of Reform: Nicolas de Clamanges Images of the End, Christopher M. Bellitto 10. Peter of Candia at Padua and Venice in March 1406. A Critical Edition, Thomas E. Morrissey 11. Reform and Obedience in Four Conciliar Sermons by Leonardo Dati, O.P., Thomas M. Izbicki 12. Annates and Reform at the Council of Basel, Gerald Christianson 13. The German Church Shortly before the Reformation: Nicolaus Cusanus and the Veneration of the Bleeding Hosts at Wilsnack, Morimichi Watanabe 14. Conciliarism in England: St. German, Starkey and the Marsiglian Myth, Francis Oakley 15. The Consilium de emendanda ecclesia and the 1555 Reform Bull of Pope Julius III: Dead Letters or Building Blocks?, William V. Hudon Indices Index of Persons Index of Places Index of Subjects

Nicholas of Cusa—A Companion to His Life and His Times (review)

lated themselves from the indigenous populations. Established on Christian frontiers, their policies toward their non-Christian neighbors, although theoretically defensive, were highly aggressive in practice and were exemplified by the Reysen of the Teutonic Knights, the caravans of the Rhodian fleets, and the Hospitallers’ use of licensed piracy (the corso).The sources for the orderstates are mostly unpublished, and a historian tackling both Rhodes and Prussia must take into account the differences between religious orders with their own traditions that operated in the distinct environments of the Aegean and the Baltic, relied on their own sources of funding, and experienced external political and ecclesiastical pressures. Sarnowsky can write authoritatively in comparative terms about their states. His special expertise is evident in the articles in this collection on “The Late Medieval Military Orders,” “Military Orders and Power,”“Ritterorden als Landesherren,”“The Military Orders and Their Navies,” “The Priests in the Military Orders,” “The Legacies and the Bequests of the Masters,” and “Gender-Aspekte.” This volume is a welcome addition to a very valuable series.

Ten Popes Who Shook the World, and: Christian Churches of the Eastern Mediterranean, and: Jerusalem on the Hill: Rome and the Vision of St. Peter's in the Renaissance (review)

This short, illustrated volume of captivating essays began as a series of BBC radio programs in 2007. Eamon Duffy starts by declaring, “The papacy is an institution that matters, whether or not one is a religious believer” (p. 9), and moves easily from Walter Ullmann’s determinism—even as Duffy tells a more decentralized, messy tale—to Thomas Hobbes’s dismissal of the papacy as “not other than the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned on the grave thereof” (p. 17). There follows quite a pleasant read with all sorts of jewels—very few church historians could get away with calling Roman polytheism’s acceptance of other faiths “a sort of symbolic scalpcollecting” (p. 35) or the Holy Roman Emperor “God’s policeman” (p. 62) without losing perspective and gravitas. Why these ten and not others? Duffy states that he did not try to choose the “ten ‘best’ nor even the ten most influential. . . . [E]ach of the men discussed here encapsulates one important aspect of the world’s most ancient and durable religious institution” (p. 24). Much of his accessibility and appeal lies in the ability to take what can be an insider’s history and place each pope on a broader canvas, rendering compelling even familiar stories. The first six essays (on Peter, Leo I, Gregory I, Gregory VII, Innocent III, and Paul III) function in this way as episodes in a Western civilization survey course. Some might then find it abrupt to jump between Paul III, the surprising sixteenth-century reformer, to four popes of the nineteenth to twenty-first centuries: Pio Nono, Pius XII, John XXIII, and John Paul II. Duffy captures well John Paul II’s essential paradoxes, which in a sense define the church’s intramural struggles and efforts to remain a witness to the world today. CHRISTOPHER M. BELLITTO (Kean University)

Reforming the church before modernity : patterns, problems, and approaches

Contents: Introduction, Louis I. Hamilton. Part I Social Change and Religious Reform: Church reform and society in late antiquity, Robert A. Markus Gaudium et spes: ecclesiastical reformers at the start of a new age, John Howe. Part II The Ideas of Reform and the Intellectuals: Self and cosmos in becoming deiform: neoplatonic paradigms for reform by self-knowledge from Augustine to Aquinas, Wayne J. Hankey The early scholastics and the reform of doctrine and practice, Marcia L. Colish Fides quaerens et non quaerens intellectum: reform and the intellectuals in the early modern period, John OMalley. Part III Clerical Reform: Clerical hierarchy and imperial legislation in late antiquity: the reformed reformers, Rita Lizzi Testa To consecrate the church: ecclesiastical reform and the dedication of churches, Louis I. Hamilton The reform of the episcopate in the Libellus to Leo X by the Camaldolese hermits Vincenzo Querini and Tommaso Giustiniani, Giuseppe Alberigo. Part IV The Processes of Reform: The church in the Roman empire: changes without reform and reforms without change, Claire Sotinel Text and authority in the formation of the Cistercian order: re-assessing the early Cistercian reform, Martha G. Newman Compliance and defiance: the Daughters of Charity and the Council of Trent, Susan E. Dinan. Index.

Cusanus: The Legacy of Learned Ignorance (review)

In October 2001, the sixth centenary of the birth of Nicholas of Cusa (14011464), the American Cusanus Society hosted an international scholarly gathering at The Catholic University of America, joining similar conferences in Germany, Japan, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Netherlands, Argentina, the Czech Republic, and France.1 This volume represents the fruits of that meeting, but it is far more than a straightforward set of proceedings.

Joan of Arc. Her Story by Régine Pernoud and Marie-Véronique Clin (review)

Vones certainly aims to be exhaustive, especially in his referencing. The volume is massively—indeed, dauntingly and overwhelmingly—documented: footnotes must account for at least half of the printed area of the main text. The scale of the referencing often appears excessive, if not self-indulgent—but it does mean that the notes are potentially also extremely useful in other areas. Potted biographies abound. These are clearly necessary and central to the genealogical analysis; they also appear regularly elsewhere, especially when discussing the people associated with the pope. This prosopographical approach is at its extreme at pages 350-354: a single sentence consisting of a list of names (which actually starts on p. 349), occupying twenty lines of text, with notes which are almost exclusively biographies. The bibliography is comprehensive, to put it mildly; the list of printed material, primary and secondary, extends to over 100 pages. The foreword says that the original thesis has been cut in places, but further pruning would not seriously have damaged the analysis. Three appendices in turn print a selection of documents concerning the popes family; list the benefices in monastic houses held (or, rather, given up) by cardinals during the pontificate; and provide genealogies to illustrate the text. After such meticulous detail, the index comes as something of a disappointment: it is restricted to names and places.