Dreams, visions, and spiritual authority in Merovingian Gaul / Isabel Moreira.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moreira, Isabel.

Contributor:

ebrary, Inc.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Merovingians--Religion.

Merovingians.

Dreams--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Dreams.

Dreams--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.

Church history.

Church history--Middle Ages, 600-1500.

Christian hagiography--History.

Christian hagiography.

Visions--History.

Visions.

Gaul--Church history.

Gaul.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (276 p.)

Place of Publication:

Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In early medieval Europe, dreams and visions were believed to reveal divine information about Christian life and the hereafter. No consensus existed, however, as to whether all Christians, or only a spiritual elite, were entitled to have a relationship of this sort with the supernatural. Drawing on a rich variety of sources—histories, hagiographies, ascetic literature, and records of dreams at saints' shrines—Isabel Moreira provides insight into a society struggling to understand and negotiate its religious visions.More ira analyzes changing attitudes toward dreams and visionary experiences beginning in late antiquity, when the church hierarchy considered lay dreamers a threat to its claims of spiritual authority. Moreira describes how, over the course of the Merovingian period, the clergy came to accept the visions of ordinary folk—peasants, women, and children—as authentic. Dream literature and accounts of visionary experiences infiltrated all aspects of medieval culture by the eighth century, and the dreams of ordinary Christians became central to the clergy's pastoral concerns. Written in clear and inviting prose, this book enables readers to understand how the clerics of Merovingian Gaul allowed a Christian culture of dreaming to develop and flourish without compromising the religious orthodoxy of the community or the primacy of their own authority.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Part 1. Visionary Access

Part 2. Visions and Authority in the Merovingian Community

Part 3. Dreams and Visions in Merovingian Hagiography

Conclusion

Appendix A. Otherworld Visions and Apocalypses

Appendix B. The Earliest Vitae of Aldegund of Maubeuge

Selected Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-258) and index.

ISBN:

9780801474675

0801474671

OCLC:

70767624