medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Good to hear your voice again, John. And quite right to emphasize the
Cistercian nexus here. But we may differ on Caesarius and source
authentication. My reading of the DM shows him repeatedly concerned to
authenticate reports, though not to investigate their underlying
accuracy. Not much has been written in recent decades on textual
strategies in the _Dialogus miraculorum_ but there's a very good article
covering this very point by Brian P. McGuire, "Friends and Tales in the
Cloister: Oral Sources in Caesarius of Heisterbach's _Dialogus
Miraculorum_," _Analecta Cisterciensia_ 36 (1980) , 167-247, now
conveniently reprinted in M.'s _Friendship and Faith: Cistercian Men,
Women, and their Stories, 1100-1250_ (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002). Best,
John Dillon
At 10:38 AM 11/12/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
>I think Mr Landes has it right. Caesarius - a writer surely not
>especially careful about source authentication as any reader can
>easily attest - was a Cistercian. That order was especially
>important and active in the building of what finally became the
>Albigensian Crusade, and the white monks obviously loved this kind
>of anecdote. There is also the possibility that the Cistercians,
>who one recalls had once sent no less a person than Bernard of
>Clairvaux to preach against the Cathars, blew the gasket because of
>their final involvement in the Midi. They were replaced during the
>crusade in leadership by the newly appearing mendicants. They'd
>won a victory, but lost the war. John Mundy
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