medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Jon, you might take a look at Maureen Miller's book, The Bishop's Palace.
Best, Sharon
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Izbicki" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 19, 2006 12:18 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] bishop's prisons/bishops powers in his church
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> In this line, were crypts of churches used as court rooms?
>
> Tom Izbicki
>
> Thomas Izbicki
> Research Services Librarian
> and Gifts-in-Kind Officer
> Eisenhower Library
> Johns Hopkins
> Baltimore, MD 21218
> (410)516-7173
> fax (410)516-8399
>
>>>> Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]> 07/19/06 12:05 PM >>>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
>
>> > Yet the *assumption* of a bishop's consistory court of some kind in
> the
>> church is very frequently made in England, and their existence
>> immediately post-Reformation is a certainty.
>>
>> *where*, "in the church"?
>>
>> i'm just curious about the architectural setting for suchlike a
> proceding,
>> esp. if it were part of an on-going Institutional activity.
>
> Dear Jon and Christopher,
> The answer to that, at least sometimes, is that courts were conducted
> in porches. I
> quote from Paul Williamson, Gothic Sculpture 1140-1300 (New Haven,
> 1995), p. 4:
> "The deep porches of the more ambitious churches would have provided
> shelter for
> large numbers of people and could be used in a variety of ways. The
> ubiquitous
> subject of the Last Judgement on Gothic portals, often with the
> supporting figures of
> Virtues and Vices and Wise and Foolish Virgins, would serve as an
> especially
> appropriate backdrop to the dispensation of justice, as was the case at
> Leon
> Cathedral. Here, from an early date, a column set on the front of a
> Gothic canopied
> tabernacle was placed between the piers to the left of the Judgement
> portal. Its
> function is literally spelt out by the inscription LOCUS APPELLACIONIS
> carved on
> its front face, and the arms of Leon and Castile appear below.
> Presiding over this
> symbol, in the niche behind, is the seated figure of King Solomon, and
> a later
> personification of Justice, holding a sword and scales, has been
> inserted among the
> jamb figures of the adjacent doorway. Leon was not an isolated case,
> and it is
> known that trials were also conducted in the area of the south transept
> of Strasbourg
> Cathedral, in the west porches of the Minster of Freiburg im Breisgau,
> Saint-Urbain
> at Troyes, and elsewhere."
> See also Barbara Deimling, "Le portail d'eglise au Moyen Age et sa
> signification
> juridique historique," in Rolf Toman, ed., L'Art roman (Cologne:
> Konemann, 1996),
> pp. 324-27 [also available in German and English editions], who gives a
> number of
> other examples, mostly from the 12th and 13th centuries, although where
> it is
> stipulated, the justice rendered seems to have been secular rather than
> episcopal.
> Church doors before which justice was rendered were often painted red,
> as in the
> Porte rouge at Notre-Dame in Paris.
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
>
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