At 05:32 PM 6/4/99 +0000, you wrote:
>In the 13thc literature about S. Francis, unworthy priests pop up, and
Francis,
>contrary to what others may do, refuses to criticize them. Your theme is an
>interesting one. As it is a sub-type of anticlericalism, you might also
>consider the larger category. Although centered upon heresy, Malcolm
Lambert's
>essay 'Catharism as a Reform Movement', *Haeresie und vorzeitige
Reformation im
>Spaetmittelalter* (ed. F. Smahel) (Schriften des Historischen Kollegs
>Kolloquien, 39) (n.d. on off-print, but relatively recent) pp.23-39 does
bring
>out the anticlerical theme very well.
Francis, of course, knew the dangers of anti-clericalism. The most
interesting argument on this comes from Lambert and Moore on the 11th cn
reform, in which the victory of Hildebrand and Humbert (Robespierre and
Saint-Juste as one of my fellow medievalists put it), was the victory of a
modified Donatism (ie the boycott did not say the mass of simoniac or
nicolaite priests wasn't effective, but the call to avoid them implied it
heavily). The idea that in the latter 11th cn the papacy was taken over by
a radically subversive heresy is well worth pondering.
ps. don't forget that the evidence is strong that donatists were -- like
everyone in N. Africa except the later Augustine -- millenarians.
Augustine's abandonment of chiliasm is directly related in time and
theology to his anti-donatism, especially to the doctrine of original sin,
which played so key a role in both the attack on donatists and on the
notion that there cd ever be a visible, earthly reign of the saints.
rlandes
>Gary Dickson
>University of Edinburgh
>
>
>
Richard Landes
Department of History Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University
Boston University Boston University
226 Bay State Road 704 Commonwealth Ave. Suite 205
Boston MA 02215 Boston MA 02215
617-353-2558 (of) 617-358-0226 (tel)
617-353-2781 (fax) 617-358-0225 (fax)
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