Dear Fabrizio,
You are asking important, if not even fundamental questions. I could write
very long on the subject of Christian or not so Christian Middle Ages, but
since it would probably bore to death half the people reading this list I
only refer to an important article by John Van Engen concerning this problem:
John Van Engen, The Christian Middle Ages as an Historiographical Problem.
American Historical Review 3/1986.
In this article Van Engen attacks rather harshly against the concept of
Indo-European folklore introduced by Jacques Le Goff, Jean-Claude Schmitt
and others. If you, or anyone else for that matter, wants to listen to the
other part as well, he/she can turn to Jean-Claude Schmitt's answer to Van
Engen which is published in his collection of essays:
Jean-Claude Schmitt, Religione, folklore e socièta nell'Occidente medievale
(Roma-Bari 1988).
Another intervention on behalf of the french school and against Van Engen is:
M. Lauwers, "Religion populaire", culture folklorique, mentalités. Notes
pour une anthropologie culturelle du moyen âge. Revue d'histoire
ecclesiastique 82/2 (1987).
Should anyone be interested in my personal opinion, I tend be closer to Van
Engen's opinions than those of the so called historical-anthropology.
As for your last question, I am afraid that the only sources probably are
those written by the clergy. Be it exemplum-collections, inquisitorial
records, sermons or whatever.
Cheers to all,
Jussi Hanska
At 07:19 AM 20.9.1999 PDT, you wrote:
>Dear listmembers, I am interested in the problem of medieval religious
>mentality. I mean the problem of pre-christian traditions in the medieval
>christian thought, expecially at the popular level. What can we say about
>that? Sure, the medieval man or woman lives their life without the
>consciousness to be in a mental atmosphere which derives a lot of its
>elements directly from the most remote ages. The “Benandanti”, in Friuli,
>didn’t think that their rites were deeply far from the christian reality. We
>do know that the christianization of western Europe wasn’t so simple as
>someone should think. Still, it is not so simple to penetrate in the
>religious mentality of a medieval farmer, for instance, to know his deep
>instincts and thoughts. Do you think the only sources we have for this,
>should be the penitential books (see the Burcard’s Corrector) and the works
>of the cultured medieval autors?
>
>Fabrizio Conti
>Medieval History student at
>University of Rome “La Sapienza”
>
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