Authority Outside the Church John Wycliffe 1330–1384: translating the Bible into English so that the poor priests could tell people God’s law so the people could understand it

Authority Outside the Institutional Church What is a Papal Bull? What was significant about the Bull Periculoso 1293 in terms of nuns and why was it necessary to institute Church control of nuns’ lives? Troublesome nuns: the Beguines

Why so much trouble with the Church? Wealth and greed is always a good fallback when blaming the institutionalized church The 12 th century was another age of ferment and experimentation: Waldensians, Lollards, Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit, Spiritual Franciscans, Apostolici, Albigensians, Joachimites, and flagellants “liberty” and “poverty” were watchwords for all these groups

Controlling those nuns The Beguines were “not bound by vows, were not subject to papal enclosure, and did not totally renounce the possibility of marriage; their piety seems to have centered on the eucharist and the humanity of Jesus.” (Mitchell, 1982) What’s a Church to do?

Veneration of Mary – co-opting an image The Church cast out heretics: Lollards, Albigensians, and Free Spirit(ers) Marian worship was taken by the Church, who then venerated her into its own dogma The Church kept control until the 16 th c. Daddi

Stabat Mater – the mother was standing

More mystics and visionaries Bridget of Sweden↓ Elizabeth of Hungary→

Saint Catherine of Siena – “a sheep outside the sheepfold” Saint Catherine of Siena dictating her dialogues – Giovanni di Paolo (1448?) ( )

Margery Kempe – a mottled legacy of ridicule, heresy and worship c – after 1438 Big time traveller – pilgrimages in England, then to Rome, Jerusalem, Spain, Poland. Contemporaries found her zeal “excessive”. No word as to whether or not she was abducted from Lethbridge and taken to the States

1500s – institutional repression These groups appeared to usurp the functions of the institutional Church Women like Marguerite Porete (? – 1310) just frankly scared them Her emphasis on “religion of inwardness” suggested a faith without need of theologians and rituals. Soul surrender to Love

The Woman Factor? Albigensians heretics –They saw that women could be the equal of male believers: perfecta Lollards 13 th & 14 th c. –They allowed devout female followers to read and preach Waldensians –Women could take the sacrament in own language 1215 forward - Inquisition “Kill them all: God will recognize his own” Arnald-Amalric papal legate Siege of Bezier