Sean L. Field

Devotion, Discontent, and the Henrician Reformation: The Evidence of the Robin Hood Stories

The relationship between popular religious attitudes and the English Reformation has long been the subject of a fierce historical debate. The older “Whig-Protestant” view, championed most notably by A. G. Dickens, draws on evidence for clerical corruption and the spread of Lollardy to show that large numbers of English people were dissatisfied with the state of Catholicism, eager for religious change, and on the whole receptive to Protestant ideas. According to this version of events, Henry VIII and the Reformation Parliament rode a wave of popular discontent in breaking from Rome and dissolving the monasteries. If there was a split between the king and the masses, it came only later when Henrys conservative religious beliefs caused him to attempt to retain much of the substance of Catholicism in the face of popular clamor for more thoroughgoing reform. On the other hand, the “revisionist” camp, which includes such well-known names as J. J. Scarisbrick, Christopher Haigh, and Eamon Duffy, prefers to cite evidence from wills, local parish records, liturgical books, and devotional texts to show that “the Church was a lively and relevant social institution, and the Reformation was not the product of a long-term decay of medieval religion.” In this view, Henry VIII and his advisors pushed through a personally advantageous but widely disliked and resisted Reformation. An examination of the religious content of the tales men and women told about Robin Hood in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries offers a fresh perspective on this long-running dispute.

The Master and Marguerite: Godfrey of Fontaines' praise of The Mirror of Simple Souls*

This article examines the evidence for the intellectual and practical relationship between Marguerite Porete and the secular master of theology Godfrey of Fontaines. It analyses the nature, timing, and importance of Godfreys response to The Mirror of Simple Souls, and argues that considering the interaction between these two figures has important consequences for our understanding of both of their careers. * I am grateful to Robert E. Lerner for his help and encouragement (particularly because I know he does not agree with every argument put forward here), and for sharing with me a pre-publication copy of his forthcoming article, ‘New light on The Mirror of Simple Souls’. I further thank Cecilia Gaposchkin, Kathryn Kerby-Fulton, and the two anonymous readers for their criticisms and suggestions. A version of this paper was first presented at ‘Refreshment of the Scholars: A Symposium in Honor of Professor Robert E. Lerner’, held 31 May 2008 at Northwestern University. My thanks go to the organisers and participants of the conference, and to Kristen Johanson for unexpected inspiration on that last day of May and beyond.

A return to the evidence for Marguerite Porete’s authorship of the Mirror of Simple Souls

ABSTRACT In 1946 Romana Guarnieri identified Marguerite Porete as the author of the Mirror of Simple Souls. Since a small number of historians has recently expressed doubts about this identification, a fresh look at the evidence is warranted. This article first returns to Guarnieri’s announcement and subsequent statements on the subject in order to highlight both their strengths and their weaknesses. It then re-assesses the evidence, paying particular attention to new findings that have emerged since 1946. Although Guarnieri’s treatment of the evidence contained flaws, she was all but certainly correct in identifying Marguerite Porete as the author of the Mirror of Simple Souls. New, precise, linguistic analysis and fresh manuscript discoveries strengthen this case.

The Missing Sister : Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont’s Life of Isabelle of France

Sebastien Le Nain de Tillemont (1637-1698) ecrivit une courte vie d’Isabelle de France incluse dans sa grande Vie de saint Louis. La vie d’Isabelle de France fut passee sous silence quand J. de Gaulle edita cette oeuvre pour la premiere fois en 1847-1851. Cet article publie ce texte pour la premiere fois en le replacant dans le contexte de l’oeuvre de Tillemont et en donnant de nouvelles pistes sur la methode de travail de ce dernier, la redaction de laVie de saint Louis et les choix faits par J. de Gaulle. L’etude sur Isabelle faisait partie integrante de l’oeuvre de Tillemont sur Louis IX mais echappa a l’edition de J. de Gaulle. L’attention a cette oeuvre beneficiera aux etudiants qui s’interessent a la saintete au xiiie siecle et aux debuts de l’erudition moderne.

Imagining Isabelle: The Fifteenth-Century Epitaph of Isabelle of France at Longchamp

In her recent novel, The Crown Rose, fantasy writer Fiona Avery has set the thirteenth-century French princess Isabelle of France at the center of a world of magic, intrigue, conspiracy, and romance. Presumably the outlines of Isabelle’s real life piqued this author’s interest, for the career of Louis IX’s sister was indeed striking. Born in 5 and raised as the only daughter of the powerful and pious Blanche of Castile, Isabelle spurned a potential marriage to the heir to the German Empire at age eighteen, embraced a life of saintly virginity, and later became the royal patron of her new Franciscan abbey of l’Humilité-de-Notre-Dame (better known as Longchamp, located just west of Paris in the modern Bois de Boulogne). Isabelle did not become a nun herself, but she co-authored the rule for Longchamp and secured for the sisters the controversial title of Sorores minores. By the time of her death in 70, Isabelle enjoyed a reputation for sanctity that rivaled that of her brother, the future Saint Louis. She is now beginning to receive her scholarly due as a Capetian “saint,” powerful monastic patron, and co-author of an influential form of life for Franciscan women.

Torture and Confession in the Templar Interrogations at Caen, 28–29 October 1307

A number of recently restored documents concerning the 1307 arrest and interrogation of the French Templars were exhibited in 2011 at the Archives nationales in Paris, and digital images of five of these documents were simultaneously made available online.1 The result has been not only a renewed fascination with the affaire des Templiers in France, but the opportunity for scholars around the world to access digitally these long-neglected original manuscripts.2 Popular attention in 2011 understandably centered on the restoration of the massive roll (Paris, Archives nationales [hereafter AN] J 413, no. 18) preserving the notarized