Saints and Society: The Two Worlds of Western Christendom, 1000-1700 9780226890579

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Saints & Society

The Two Worlds of Western

Saints & Society Christendom, 1000 -1700

Donald Weinstein and Rudolph M. Bell

The University of Chicago Press Chicago and London

The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London ©1982 by Donald Weinstein and Rudolph M. Bell All rights reserved. Published 1982 Paperback edition 1986 Printed in the United States of America 969594 654

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Weinstein, Donald, 1926Saints and society. Includes index. 1. Christian saints-Cult-Europe. I. Bell, Rudolph M. II. Title. 82-7972 BX4659.E85W44 235/.2 AACR2 ISBN 0-226-89055-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-226-89056-2 (paper)

To Traian Stoianovich and Warren I. Susmansplendid historians, dear friends

Contents

List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: The Historian and the Hagiographer 1

Part 1 The Call to Holiness 1 Children 2 Adolescents 3 Chastity 4 Adults Appendix to Part 1: Statistical Profiles of Saints

Part 2 Perceptions of Sanctity 5 6 7 8

Who Was a Saint? Place Class Men and Women

17 19 48 73 100 T21

139 141 166 194 220

Conclusion: New Directions 239 Appendix on Sources 251 Appendix on Method 277 Notes 291 Index 309 vii

Illustrations

1. Nicholas of Tolentino 21 2. Juana de Aza 22 3. Serafina 34 4. Chiara di Montefalco 36 5. Francesca Romana (de' Ponziani) 42 6. Francesca Romana (de' Ponziani) 42 7. Francesca Romana (de' Ponziani) 42 8. Francis of Assisi 51 9. Nicholas the Pilgrim 61 10. Nicholas the Pilgrim 61 11. Prince Henry of Hungary and Cunegund 12. Thomas Aquinas 83 13. Umilta 92 14. Margaret of Cortona 106 15. Bernard of Clairvaux 144 16. Thomas Aquinas 145 17. Dominic de Guzman 146 18. Vincent Ferrer 147 19. Nicholas of Tolentino 148 20. Giuseppe di Cupertino 151 21. Bridget of Sweden 152 22. Stanis las of Krakow 162 23. Thomas Becket 163 24. Peter Martyr 165 25. Bernardino da Siena 174

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26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31.

Illustrations

Nicholas of Tolentino 178 Peter Martyr 180 Elizabeth of Hungary 203 Vincent Ferrer 230 Lorenzo Giustiniani 230 Francesca Romana (de' Ponziani) 231

Acknowledgments

Friends, colleagues, wives, students, and some who were initially strangers helped us in making this book with their encouragement, cheerful labor, and strenuous criticism. We learned from all of them, and we thank them. Donna D'Eugenio Galer and Francesco Parise assisted us in setting up the initial project in a graduate seminar at Rutgers. The American Philosophical Society and the Rutgers University Research Council gave us money for research trips abroad. In Rome, Father John O'Malley, S.J., helped us gain permission to consult the special canonization archives of the Archivio Segreto Vaticano. Pere Yvon Baudouin, O.M.L, was a gracious guide in the archives of the S. Congregatio per Ie Cause dei Santi. In Florence Ivaldo Baglioni was generous as always in sharing with us his masterly knowledge of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale. John Lenaghan in Florence and Joyce Salisbury in Madrid came to our rescue by locating several "impossible to find" works. We are also grateful to the staffs of the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, the library of the Pontificia Universitas Gregoriana, the Biblioteca Riccardiana, Saint Bonaventure University Library, the Free Library of Philadelphia, Saint Vincent College and Archabbey Libraries, the library of the Union Theological Seminary, the Widener Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the University of Illinois Library, Rutgers University Library, the University of Arizona Library, and the Speer Library of the Princeton Theological Seminary. Analysis of our data was made possible through the resources of the computer centers of Rutgers University and the University of Arizona. Willis Lamb generously provided indispensable technical help in preparing the manuscript. xi

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