Research Catalog

Rituals for the dead : religion and community in the Medieval University of Paris

Title
Rituals for the dead : religion and community in the Medieval University of Paris / William J. Courtenay.
Author
Courtenay, William J.
Publication
  • Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2019]
  • ©2019

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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library LF2165 .C685 2019Off-site

Details

Description
xi, 201 pages : illustrations, map; 24 cm.
Summary
"In his fascinating new book, based on the Conway Lectures he delivered at Notre Dame in 2016, William Courtenay examines aspects of the religious life of one medieval institution, the University of Paris, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In place of the traditional account of teaching programs and curriculum, however, the focus here is on religious observances and the important role that prayers for the dead played in the daily life of masters and students. Courtenay examines the university as a consortium of sub-units in which the academic and religious life of its members took place, and in which prayers for the dead were a major element. Throughout the book, Courtenay highlights reverence for the dead, which preserved their memory and was believed to reduce the time in purgatory for deceased colleagues and for founders of and donors to colleges. The book also explores the advantages for poor scholars of belonging to a confraternal institution that provided benefits to all members regardless of social background, the areas in which women contributed to the university community, including the founding of colleges, and the growth of Marian piety, seeking her blessing as patron of scholarship and as protector of scholars. Courtenay looks at attempts to offset the inequality between the status of masters and students, rich and poor, and college founders and fellows, in observances concerned with death as well as rewards and punishments in the afterlife."--Publisher.
Series Statement
The Conway lectures in medieval studies
Uniform Title
Conway lectures in medieval studies
Alternative Title
Religion and community in the Medieval University of Paris
Subject
  • Université de Paris > History > To 1500
  • Université de Paris
  • To 1500
  • Funeral rites and ceremonies, Medieval
  • Christian life > History > Middle Ages, 600-1500
  • Death > Religious aspects > Christianity > History of doctrines > Middle Ages, 600-1500
  • Christian life
  • France > Paris
Genre/Form
History.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-193) and indexes.
Contents
Introduction: the University of Paris and its communities -- Death in Paris -- The University's dead -- By whom the bells toll -- Allocating spiritual rewards: the power of the mass for the souls of the dead -- Virtus missae and its development -- The money economy and the afterlife -- Candles for Our Lady: the arts faculty nations as confraternities -- Candles in the ceremonies of the nations -- The churches of the nations -- Nations as confraternities -- Gaudy night: colleges and prayers for the dead -- Halls and colleges -- Medieval colleges and memorials for the dead -- Medieval colleges and Islamic Madrasas -- A hidden presence: women and the University of Paris -- Women and higher education in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries -- University wives -- Women in trades connected to the university -- Women as founders of colleges -- The growth of Marian devotion -- Dedications to the Virgin before 1200 -- The image of the Virgin on individual seals -- Marian devotion as evidenced in college statutes -- Marian iconography on magisterial seals -- Balancing inequality.
ISBN
  • 9780268104931
  • 026810493X
  • 0268104948
  • 9780268104948
LCCN
2018043811
OCLC
  • on1031910823
  • SCSB-9355026
Owning Institutions
Princeton University Library