Inspiration and Authority in the Middle Ages: Prophets and their Critics from Scholasticism to Humanism

by Brian FitzGerald

Overview

Inspiration and Authority in the Middle Ages rethinks the role of prophecy in the Middle Ages by examining how professional theologians responded to new assertions of divine inspiration. Drawing on fresh archival research and detailed study of unpublished manuscript sources from the twelfth to fourteenth centuries, this volume argues that the task of defining prophetic authority became a crucial intellectual and cultural enterprise as university-trained theologians confronted prophetic claims from lay mystics, radical Franciscans, and other unprecedented visionaries. In the process, these theologians redescribed their own activities as prophetic by locating inspiration not in special predictions or ecstatic visions but in natural forms of understanding and in the daily work of ecclesiastical teaching and ministry. Instead of containing the spread of prophetic privilege, however, scholastic assessments of prophecy from Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas to Peter John Olivi and Nicholas Trevet opened space for claims of divine insight to proliferate beyond the control of theologians. By the turn of the fourteenth century, secular Italian humanists could lay claim to prophetic authority on the basis of their intellectual powers and literary practices. From Hugh of St Victor to Albertino Mussato, reflections on and debates over prophecy reveal medieval clerics, scholars, and reformers reshaping the contours of religious authority, the boundaries of sanctity and sacred texts, and the relationship of tradition to the new voices of the Late Middle Ages.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192535832
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	10/06/2017
Series:	Oxford Historical Monographs
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	654 KB

About the Author

Brian FitzGerald is Lecturer in the Program on History and Literature at Harvard University. After receiving his doctorate in History from Oxford University, he taught in the Humanities Program at Northeast Catholic College for three years before coming to Harvard in 2016. His research focuses on the intellectual and religious culture of twelfth- to fourteenth-century Europe.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. Hugh of St Victor and the Prophetic Contemplation of History
2. The Scholastic Exegesis of Prophecy
3. Polemic, Preaching, and Early Dominican Assessments of Prophetic Authority
4. The Mendicant Conflict over Prophecy: Thomas Aquinas and Peter John Olivi
5. Nicholas Trevet and the Consolation of Prophecy
6. Albertino Mussato and Humanist Prophecy
Conclusion
Appendix

Editorial Reviews

"In his thoroughly researched and carefully argued monograph, Brian FitzGerald offers a detailed and nuanced account of the ways in which prophecy and authority intersected among the scholastic theologians of the Later Middle Ages." — Ian Christopher Levy, Speculum

"It is perhaps a testament to FitzGerald's achievement that in addressing a seemingly simple question ('What was prophecy?'), he paints a picture of such nuance and depth that it generates as many new questions as it answers." — Laura Ackerman Smoller, University of Rochester, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"Inspiration and Authority in the Middle Ages is very valuable because it traces a genealogy of late medieval prophecy that undercuts the Joachite understanding that has dominated the research area for decades. Fitzgerald demonstrates that the interests of the late Middle Ages and those of the Renaissance are closer than many would think. This book is warmly recommended."—Carole Cusack, Reading Religion

From the Publisher