On Wed, 2 Oct 1996, Thomas Izbicki wrote:
> The exemplum of the nail from the cross - like the genre of tales in >
>which the devil goes to court - strikes me as having a serious
>theological point, that our hope rests in mercy, not in strict justice. >
>Our merits do not suffice.
Mercy plays a prominent role in the judgment of sinners by St. Michael,
the Provost of Heaven, in Guillaume de Deguileville's "Pelerinage de
l'ame," the second part of his trilogy,"Le Pelerinage de la vie humaine."
(1330-32). The weighing of souls is prominently featured in this account
of the judgment of the pilgrim soul, and there is a prolonged debate
between Justice and Reason, on the one hand, and Mercy (Misericord) on
the other (aided by an intervention by the the Virgin Mary) as to what
should be placed in the scales and how it should affect the balance.
Satan is all the while cheerleading for the contributions of Conscience
(Synderesis) to the worser pan and objecting to Michael's allowance of
the mitigating documents provided by the Virgin through Mercy. All this
is carried on with a good deal of the wit typical of Deguileville and
presents a detailed picture in literary terms of these intersting
iconographic materials. I am translating this work at the moment and if
anyone is interested in further details I will gladly respond."L'ame " is
not available in English except for the partial reprint of the Middle
English version in the Garland Library of Medieval Literature (R.
McGerr)--and that is a quite different account. The French original is
available in microform versions of the J.J.Sturzinger edition (1893), but
the Roxburgh Club limited edition original is very rare. I know of
only two copies in the United States. And they do not circulate.
I'm a new member, just coming out of a fairly prolonged lurk to rise to
this interesting topic.
Gene Clasby
University of Miami
Coral Gables, Florida
USA
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