The Culture of the Lay Elites in the Middle Ages – Impulses, Agents, Forms

The Culture of the Lay Elites in the Middle Ages – Impulses, Agents, Forms

Veranstalter
Universiteit Gent
Veranstaltungsort
Ort
Gent
Land
Belgium
Vom - Bis
29.07.2019 - 31.07.2019
Deadline
28.11.2018
Website
Von
Claudia Wittig

Laity, in the Middle Ages, tends to be seen as ‘the other’. When we encounter the term in our sources it often draws attention to what someone is not: ordained, Latinate, educated. However, no one would suggest that only clerics shaped medieval culture and partook in its expressions. This workshop will explore ‘the other culture’ and ask about the agents, forms and impulses that it incorporated.
Lay, from Greek λαϊκός (laikós) originally meant “belonging to the people” as opposed to the elites. The way the term was used in the medieval period is complex and depends on the writer’s perspective. Though this has been acknowledged in the specialized literature the term is still used in a generalized way in publications. Often, medievalists still regard laity as what it is not or what it is yet to become – lay literacy as a different (inferior?) kind of literacy, lay piety as a secondary form of religious sentiment, lay investiture – rather teleologically – as a controversial praxis that caused much conflict and was eventually to end.
The observation that we see ‘lay’ as something other than the standard draws us back to our sources. As medievalist we rely heavily on written texts which are overwhelmingly produced by clerics or by people who had participated in an education that was closely associated with clerical institutions or drew on didactic strategies originally taken from the clerical sphere. In these texts, often written by clerics for clerics, lay people indeed existed in a different sphere of life, the specifics of which had to be considered if they were to be addressed. Even moralist authors took into account that a life in the world requires a certain life style that might cause conflict with Christian teachings. In this, they acknowledged a culture of the lay elites that existed in its own right. Fighting, the raison d’être of the secular aristocracy, was seen as necessary to protect the church and the subjects. A life in the world, if lived well, was legitimate and necessary because “we cannot all be friars”, explains Étienne de Fougères, bishop of Rennes, in his Livre des Manieres. Games, often condemned by the clergy as fruitless pursuits that endangered the soul, were acknowledged by other clerical writers as part of a lay elite culture. Already Petrus Alfonsi had listed chess among the skills to be acquired by a knight. Etienne allows the ideal ruler some recreational sports to distract him from his serious tasks. The tournament, disapproved by numerous religious authorities since Gregory the Great because of its brutality and the shed of Christian blood, could be justified as training for the war against enemies of the church.
Thus, ‘lay’ in the Middle Ages was far from meaning ‘of the people’. This workshop aims to explore the culture(s) of the lay elites from the 12th century until the end of the medieval period. We want to investigate the cultural expressions of different groups of lay elites: aristocratic men and women, knights, ministeriales, but also patricians and wealthy merchants. Did those groups define themselves as distinctly lay? How were they defined by others? Which cultural expressions did these groups prefer? From what did they draw inspiration and impetus? Who were the agents of their respective cultures?
We will also discuss the status of secular clerics such as bishops and court clerics, and that of religious lay elites who lived at the interface between lay and religious culture. How did they see themselves and how were they seen by their contemporaries? Including these different perspectives will help us develop a more nuanced understanding of what categories such as lay and clerical (and elite for that matter) could mean and how they could be employed in different contexts. Answers to these questions will inevitably be diverse. In this workshop we want to bring scholars from different medieval disciplines in a dialogue and create a space for exchange and a test ground to new approaches.
One of the aims of this workshop is to transcend narratives of linear influences, such as direct dependencies of court culture from clerical culture, or the unreflected imitation of cultural expressions by burghers and the gentry from the nobility. Possible topics include (but are not limited to):

- political culture
- knowledge and learning
- representation of status and power
- identities and hierarchies
- identification figures and narratives (e.g. origin stories)
- interfaces and connection between members of different groups
- gender relations
- religion and piety / lay religious communities

Papers are expected not to exceed 30 minutes. In order to encourage discussion and potential collaborations we have scheduled ample time for discussion and we plan for generous coffee breaks.

The workshop is planned in the framework of the U4-Network of the universities of Ghent, Goettingen, Groningen and Uppsala. This means that we can cover all costs for attendees from these universities. The call is, however, open for interested scholars from other universities.

Keynote Lecture by Sabrina Corbellini, University of Groningen

Crossing the Lay-Religious Divide: Spatial Approaches to Religious Literacies in Late Medieval Europe

The central idea is to approach readership of religious texts in the Late Middle Ages (i.e. the topic of the present research project "Cities of Readers") through the application of spatial approaches (o.a. "geography of reading" as discussed by the British geographer David Livingstone and "lieux de savoir" by the French historian Christian Jacob). As matter of fact, taking the cityscape and specific urban places and spaces as starting point will allow the re-discuss the lay-religious and literate-illiterate divide and open up new avenues in the reconstruction of patterns and networks of transmission of knowledge in late medieval Europe.

Confirmed Speakers:
Louise Berglund, Uppsala University
Henrike Manuwald, University of Goettingen
Arie van Steensel, University of Groningen
Claudia Wittig, University of Ghent
Steven Vanderputten, University of Gent

We invite scholars from all disciplines in medieval studies to participate and discuss their projects and approaches. You can apply to give a paper or to present their work in an informal poster session. Please send a brief abstract of your proposed paper or the project you wish to discuss by the 28th November to claudia.wittig@ugent.be

Programm

Kontakt

Claudia Wittig

Department of History
Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 33-35, BE-9000 Gent

claudiawittig@ugent.be