Religious Writings

Newhauser, Richard. “Reigious writing: Hagiography, Pastoralia, Devotional and Contemplative Works,”The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Literature 1100-1500 ed. Larry Scanlon. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2009. 37-55.

While this article was not particularly helpful for me in terms of my paper, it was interesting to read in the terms of also reading the N-Town plays and some of the other readings that we have done in class. We have been read examples of saints' lives every day in class, and have also read them through several of the Canterbury Tales, and we read a pastoralia in the form of the "Parson's Tale," but I am curious to know what reading a devotional and contemplative work is like - have we read anything for this class that is comparable? I also think that it's interesting that dramas like the N-Town plays were not included in this list, since medieval drama seemed to fulfill the same purpose that religious works had in that they were designed to help the common person understand catechism and the Bible better. My question would the plays should or shouldn't be considered a literary religious work, since they were written down at one point.

Here are the main points of the article:

-Most Middle English literature is made up of religious works à mainly comprised of hagiography, contemplative and devotional writings, and pastoralia (edification in matters of doctrine by sermons, catechetical texts and other pastoral writings)

-Authorship of most religious works are not known, but it is clear that most of these texts were written by people of religious background

-Audience used to be mainly clergy but over the course of the middle ages it changed to include secular audiences as well.

-Writing of saints’ lives served to excite the minds of Christian readers to “imaginative association with the paradigmatic deeps of holy men and women” (p.41) – since the paradigm for these saints’ lives was the triumph of Jesus over torture and death, the narrative structure of saints’ lives were comedic, not tragic

-Chaucer includes two saints’ lives in The Canterbury Tales  - “Second Nun’s Tale” and “The Prioress’ Tale” with “The Man of Law’s Tale” considered by many to be one as well.

-Production of saints’ lives was markedly gendered in the late Middle Ages since women came to play a larger role in the consumption and composition of literature (which is in contrast to what an article I read earlier talked about).

-Constant that saints’ lives were used for both doctrinal instruction and entertainment

-Significant development of literature that focused on examining the interior spiritual life/the desire for perfection developed quite a bit over the twelfth century

-Contemplative writers are often very outspoken about their political opinions and sometimes used their writing to deliver clear critiques of the Church hierarchy or to defend the church against detractors.

-The goal of vernacular education in pastoralia was achieved not just orally by a preacher talking to his congregation but also by reading in environments not necessarily ecclesiastical in nature

-Most popular method of instruction in catechetical matters through preaching was with the use of short narratives in order to catch the reader or listener’s attention and to make the comprehension of doctrine easier

-Secular authors eventually contributed to the composition of major treatises of religious inspiration like Chaucer in “The Parson’s Tale”