Gregorius : an incestuous saint in medieval Europe and beyond / Brian Murdoch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Murdoch, Brian, 1944-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literature, Medieval--History and criticism.

Literature, Medieval.

Incest in literature.

Christian saints in literature.

Repentance in literature.

Romances--History and criticism.

Romances.

Christian hagiography--History--To 1500.

Christian hagiography.

History.

Christian saints--Legends--History and criticism.

Christian saints.

Christian saints--Legends.

Christian literature--History and criticism.

Christian literature.

Hartmann, von Aue, active 12th century. Gregorius.

Hartmann.

Gesta Romanorum.

Physical Description:

x, 270 pages ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2012]

Summary:

The story of the apocryphal pope and saint Gregorius was extremely popular throughout the middle ages and later in Europe and beyond. In a memorable narrative Gregorius is born from an incestuous relationship between a noble brother and sister, and is set out to sea with (unspecific) details of his origin. He is found and brought up by an abbot, but when revealed as a foundling leaves as a knight to seek his origins; he rescues his mother's land from attack, and marries her. On discovering his sin he undertakes years of penance on a rocky islet, which he survives miraculously. An angel sends emissaries from Rome to find him after the death of the pope, the key to his shackles is equally miraculously discovered, and he becomes pope. This hagiographical romance is not a variation upon Oedipus; it uses the invisible sin of incest as a parallel both for original sin (the sin of Adam and Eve) and for actual sin. It combines the universal theme of the quest for identity with the problem not of guilt as such, which is inevitable, but of how sinful humanity can cope with it. Book jacket.

Contents:

1. Hystoria Rara, sed Graciosa

2. France and England: Saint Grégoire and Seynt Gregory

3. Germany: Hartmann's Gregorius and the Latin poems

4. A European prose tradition: hagiography, exempla, and the Gesta Romanorum

5. Degenerations: chap-books, plays, late legends, and folktales

6. From the Romantics to Thomas Mann and beyond

7. Invisible sin.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [243]-263) and indexes.

ISBN:

9780199596409

0199596409

OCLC:

780482800