Constant J. Mews - Böcker

Constant J. Mews offers an intellectual biography of two of the best known personalities of the twelfth century. Peter Abelard was a controversial logician at the cathedral school of Notre-Dame in Paris when he first met Heloise, who was the brilliant and outspoken niece of a cathedral canon and who was then engaged in the study of philosophy. After an intense love affair and the birth of a child, they married in secret in a bid to placate her uncle. Nonetheless the vengeful canon Fulbert had Abelard castrated, following which he became a monk at St. Denis, while Heloise became a nun at Argenteuil. Mews, a recognized authority on Abelard's writings, traces his evolution as a thinker from his earliest work on dialectic (paying particular attention to his debt to Roscelin of Compiègne and William of Champeaux) to his most mature reflections on theology and ethics. Abelard's interest in the doctrine of universals was one part of his broader philosophical interest in language, theology, and ethics, says Mews. He argues that Heloise played a significant role in broadening Abelard's intellectual interests during the period 1115-17, as reflected in a passionate correspondence in which the pair articulated and debated the nature of their love. Mews believes that the sudden end of this early relationship provoked Abelard to return to writing about language with new depth, and to begin applying these concerns to theology. Only after Abelard and Heloise resumed close epistolary contact in the early 1130s, however, did Abelard start to develop his thinking about sin and redemption--in ways that respond closely to the concerns of Heloise. Mews emphasizes both continuity and development in what these two very original thinkers had to say.

This will be a brief, accessible introduction to the lives and thought of two of the most controversial personalities of the Middle Ages. Abelard and Heloise are familiar names. It is their "star quality," argues Constant Mews, that has prevented them from being seen clearly in the context of 12th-century thought - that task he has set himself in this book. He contends that the dramatic intensity of these famous lives needs to be examined in the broader context of their shared commitment to the study of philosophy.

This new edition offers fascinating insights into one of the most celebrated love affairs of the Middle Ages. A new chapter charts the debate about the letters and offers fresh evidence to attribute them to Abelard and Heloise. The complete Latin text is reproduced with an annotated translation by Chiavaroli and Mews.

Christine de Pizan, one of the earliest known women authors, wrote the Livre de paix (Book of Peace) between 1412 and 1414, a period of severe corruption and civil unrest in her native France. The book offered Pizan a platform from which to expound her views on contemporary politics and to put forth a strict moral code to which she believed all governments should aspire. The text’s intended recipient was the dauphin, Louis of Guyenne; Christine felt that Louis had the political and social influence to fill a void left by years of incompetent leadership. Drawing in equal parts from the Bible and from classical ethical theory, the Livre de paix was revolutionary in its timing, viewpoint, and content. This volume, edited by Karen Green, Constant J. Mews, and Janice Pinder, boasts the first full English translation of Pizan’s work along with the original French text. The editors also place the Livre de paix in historical context, provide a brief biography of Pizan, and offer insight into the translation process.

Christine de Pizan, one of the earliest known women authors, wrote the Livre de paix (Book of Peace) between 1412 and 1414, a period of severe corruption and civil unrest in her native France. The book offered Pizan a platform from which to expound her views on contemporary politics and to put forth a strict moral code to which she believed all governments should aspire. The text’s intended recipient was the dauphin, Louis of Guyenne; Christine felt that Louis had the political and social influence to fill a void left by years of incompetent leadership. Drawing in equal parts from the Bible and from classical ethical theory, the Livre de paix was revolutionary in its timing, viewpoint, and content. This volume, edited by Karen Green, Constant J. Mews, and Janice Pinder, boasts the first full English translation of Pizan’s work along with the original French text. The editors also place the Livre de paix in historical context, provide a brief biography of Pizan, and offer insight into the translation process.

The words "Listen daughter" (Audi filia, from Psalm 44 in the Latin Vulgate) were frequently used in exhortations to religious women in the 12th century. This was a period of dramatic growth in the involvement of women in various forms of religious life. While Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) has become widely known in recent years as one of the most eloquent and original voices of the period, she is often seen as a figure in isolation from her context. She lived at a time of much questioning of traditional models of religious life, by women as well as by men. This volume introduces readers to a range of strategies provoked by the growth in women's participation in religious life in one form or another, as well as to male responses to this development. In particular, it looks at the "Mirror for Virgins" (Speculum Virginum), an illustrated dialogue between a nun and her spiritual mentor written by a monk not long before Hildegard started to record her visions. While this treatise engages in dialogue with a fictional virgin, other writings present women (not just Hildegard) as teaching both women and men.An appendix provides the first English translation of significant excerpts from the Speculum, as well as from other little known texts about religious women from the age of Hildegard. The underlying concern of this volume is to examine new ways in which religious life for women was conceived by men as well as interpreted in practice by women within a society firmly patriarchal in character.

Ever since the time of Francis of Assisi, a commitment to voluntary poverty has been a controversial aspect of religious life. This volume explores the interaction between poverty and religious devotion in the mendicant orders between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. While poverty has often been perceived more as a Franciscan than as a Dominican emphasis, this volume considers its role within a broader movement of evangelical renewal associated with the mendicant transformation of religious life. At a time of increased economic prosperity, reformers within the Church sought new ways of encouraging identification with the person of Christ. This volume considers the paradoxical tension between voluntary poverty as a way of emulating Christ and involuntary poverty as situation demanding a response from those with the means to help the poor. Drawing on history, literature and visual arts, it explores how the mendicant orders continued to transform religious life into the time of the renaissance. The papers in this volume are organised under three headings, prefaced with an introductory essay by the editors: Poverty and the Rule of Francis, exploring the interpretation of poverty in the Franciscan Order; Devotional Cultures, considering aspects of devotional life fostered by mendicant religious communities, Franciscan, Augustinian and Dominican; Preaching Poverty, on the way poverty was promoted and practiced within the Dominican Order in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Volume II of the AUTHORS OF THE MIDDLE AGES series contains nos. 5-6 in the series: 'Peter Abelard' by Constant J. Mews and 'Honorius Augustodunensis' by V.I.J. Flint. PETER ABELARD (1079-1142) was one of the most creative and controversial thinkers of the 12th century. This study traces his life as a logician and theologian, paying particular attention to the many scholarly debates provoked by the Historia calamitatum and the celebrated exchange of letters with Heloise. It contains a full survey of his writings, listing the manuscripts in which they occur. HONORIUS AUGUSTODUNENSIS, c. 1098-c. 1140, one of the most prolific and widely read authors of the early 12th century, was a passionate proselytiser on behalf of the Benedictines. This study sets out the extraordinary features of his career and the nature of the battle he fought through his writings. Few of his works have appeared in modern editions, this study gives short accounts of each and their manuscripts.

The previous collection by Constant J. Mews focused on the work and thought of Peter Abelard (1079-1142); the present volume looks more broadly at Abelard's intellectual and religious context in the Latin West, and at his teacher, the controversial nominalist philosopher and theologian, Roscelin of Compiègne. It opens with surveys of educational theory and practice in the 12th-century schools. Mews next explores the widespread movement in the period which sought to explain religious belief in terms accessible to reason, and the background to accusations of heresy made by monks troubled by new attempts to interpret Christian belief, both within and outside a school environment. Five related studies then deal with previously unedited texts by Roscelin of Compiègne and St Anselm that throw new light on the importance of the philosopher and theologian who exercised a major influence on Peter Abelard.

The words 'Listen daughter' (Audi filia, from Psalm 44 in the Latin Vulgate) were frequently used in exhortations to religious women in the twelfth century.

Ever since the time of Francis of Assisi, a commitment to voluntary poverty has been a controversial aspect of religious life. This volume explores the interaction between poverty and religious devotion in the mendicant orders between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. While poverty has often been perceived more as a Franciscan than as a Dominican emphasis, this volume considers its role within a broader movement of evangelical renewal associated with the mendicant transformation of religious life. At a time of increased economic prosperity, reformers within the Church sought new ways of encouraging identification with the person of Christ. This volume considers the paradoxical tension between voluntary poverty as a way of emulating Christ and involuntary poverty as situation demanding a response from those with the means to help the poor. Drawing on history, literature and visual arts, it explores how the mendicant orders continued to transform religious life into the time of the renaissance. The papers in this volume are organised under three headings, prefaced with an introductory essay by the editors: Poverty and the Rule of Francis, exploring the interpretation of poverty in the Franciscan Order; Devotional Cultures, considering aspects of devotional life fostered by mendicant religious communities, Franciscan, Augustinian and Dominican; Preaching Poverty, on the way poverty was promoted and practiced within the Dominican Order in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance.