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Post by Lady Mage on Mar 6, 2007 19:11:50 GMT -5
Yeah, i know, seirously. I can't think of any particular plot for a story though. What're you thinking on?
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Post by Lex on Mar 7, 2007 11:39:25 GMT -5
Hmm...
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Post by Lady Mage on Apr 30, 2007 15:25:13 GMT -5
Finally, an update to all my loyal readers!
Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Movement
If the 11th century was the hay day of the Cluniacs, and the 12th century was the hay day of the Cistercians, the 13th century was the hay day of the Franciscans.
St. Francis was the son of a cloth merchant of Assisi (Pietro Bernadoni). Francis knew townspeople, because he was one. Francis became disaffected of the life of the merchant his father wanted him to lead in his 20s. He began trying to conquer his fears: for instance, he was scared of lepers like many people of his day, so he went up to a leper and kissed him on the lips. What the leper thought of this, history neglects to tell us.
When Francis was 24, the crucifix in the church in Assisi spoke to him and told him to rebuild a church outside of the Assisi walls. Francis proceeded to wander through Assisi begging for building materials, much to his affluent father’s consternation.
Things came to a head when Francis sold the family cloth and used the money on building materials. Pietro Bernadoni dragged Francis before the Bishop’s court, and demanded repayment. Francis took off all his clothes, and walked stark naked out of the gates until a local cleric gave him a robe, a belt, and sandals.
Francis continued to rebuild churches in the area until a sermon inspired him to give up his sandals and walking stick, and go preaching in 1208. By 1209, Francis had gathered followers around him, and they traveled to Rome barefooted in 1210 to get papal permission to found a new order. They got it.
Francis proceeded to preach to birds, and even traveled to Egypt from 1219-1220 to preach and try to convert a Muslim sultan. He didn’t succeed, but the sultan gave him many gifts, one of which resides in Assisi today. Francis died in 1226, relatively young by Medieval standards.
The Franciscans grew at an astounding rate: by 1300, there were 1,400 religious houses, and 28,000 members. According to Francis’ rule, they were not wealthy as individuals or as corporations. They rejected planning, because they considered that it showed insufficient trust in God.
The Franciscans combined elements of secular clergy and monastic clergy. While they were an order and had rule that they had to abide by, they also preached, heard confessions, and said burial rites. They were an urban order. They preached frequently and constantly to lay people and did not condemn urban life. Whereas many confessionals just gave penance without hearing the causes for the sin, Franciscans actively discussed sins with the penant, and sized up the individual. The townspeople liked this because sometimes they could bargain their penance way down.
However, not everyone liked the Franciscans. Local clergy were jealous that Franciscans were taking away their business, and later donations. Success for the Franciscans was in fact failure in disguise. The Franciscans soon found ways around the fact that they were supposed to be poor, and people ridiculed them for this. By 1300, begging by the Franciscans was not at all common, and Franciscans were sometimes referred to as “gold-diggers” because they sometimes gave light penances on the understanding that the penant would pay them handsomely.
Eventually, the Franciscan order split in two: there were the Spiritual Franciscans who were horrified at the behavior of the others, and strictly observed St. Francis’ rules; and there were the Conventual Franciscans who favored the change. The different factions fought constantly until some of the Spiritual Franciscans were tried and burned for heresy.
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Post by Lex on May 3, 2007 2:04:17 GMT -5
Very interesting. When's the next part?
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Post by Lady Mage on May 5, 2007 9:51:02 GMT -5
NOW! ;D
Heretics and Heresy [/u] The High Middle Ages witnessed a revival of heresy (a deviation from the beliefs and the practices that have been established by the spiritual within the Christian Church). Few heretics had appeared in the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries, but starting in the 11th century, heresy becomes rampant, especially in southern France, northeastern Spain, and northern Italy. There are several factors to this revival. There was a disappointment in the ecclesiastical reform movements, especially the Gregorian reform movement of the 11th century where popes tried to enforce clerical celibacy and end simony (the buying and selling of church offices). Rising literacy among the lay people was also an important factor: they were able to read the bible to themselves and formulate ideas of their own, even if the church didn’t like it. Lastly, when people went on the crusades, they brought back Bogomollism from the Balkans and told their friends. (Bogomollists believed that God and Satan were equally powerful). Now, up to 1150, heretical groups kept to themselves, and rulers only found heretics by stumbling upon them. One way of testing to see if someone was a heretic was asking them to kill a chicken. If the person refused, you knew they were most likely a heretic, because some heretics believed in reincarnation, and no one wanted a chicken soul in a human body. Starting in 1100, heretical structure changes to involve aggressive wandering preachers who try to win people over. This is when heresy becomes a serious issue. After 1150, heresy is dominated by major international movements. Two of the biggest movements were those of the Cathars and the Waldensians. The Cathars were first noticed in Germany in the 1140s. By 1160, they were found in many parts of Europe. Cathars maintained that God had not created the world, Satan had, and therefore the material world was entirely corrupt and evil. They believed in a dualist system (with God and Satan equally powerful), and believed that Satan had lured angels from heaven, they became human souls, so human souls have angelic origins. Christ, they said, came to remind individuals that they had once been angels and to provide the means to return to heaven: a ceremony called consolomeutum, after taking, complete fasting was observed. This was generally taken right before death, or in the case of a preacher, they took it earlier, but had to obey different rules. The Waldensians were founded by Waldo, a wealthy merchant of Lyons, France. In 1173, Waldo gave up all worldly possessions, and threw his money to anyone who wanted it (with permission of his wife). He became a wandering preacher, and gathered several followers about him. When the local bishop got mad that lay people were preaching, Waldo and his followers traveled to Rome to get permission of the Pope to preach, but were refused. This was a huge mistake, for the Waldensians were very popular, and they continued to preach anyways. Waldo was never captured by the authorities, and his men and women traveling preachers- called barbas- traveled from town to town and met secretly with other Waldensians living in the town. The barbas would hear confessions, and preach, getting a good meal before going on. The papal decree that the Waldensians were heretics was a bad move, because the Waldensians didn’t actually harbor any heretical beliefs- they just were disobedient. However, once decreed heretics, they adopted some heretical ideas and began preaching them; for instance they preached that the sacraments were useless for salvation, and condemned catholic clergy as being unworthy of holding religious office. They also insisted on literal interpretation of the Bible, and insisted on the right of laypeople to read the Bible. The papacy learned from this mistake, and when, several years later, another ex-merchant asked to live by begging and preach to the poor, permission was granted. They needed Francis’ popularity to counteract the popularity of Waldo.
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zezima
Forum Newbie
Balence is power
Posts: 48
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Post by zezima on Feb 10, 2008 23:27:47 GMT -5
how about a bit more on the cathars? They were the reason the first Inquisition was called, and they were an important (if rather undernoticed) group of the time.
-Carthars believed that jesus and god were purely spirtual, and that matter was evil. -cathars rejected the cross, because if jesus was pure spirit he coulndt have died on one. Therefore, worshiping the cross made about as much sense as worshiping a hangmans noose. -the cathars actually started in france -instead of stately churches, the cathars built fortresses that vaugley resembled cathederals, but had thick walls no windows and automated crosbows in the walls
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Post by Noire on Mar 18, 2008 19:58:53 GMT -5
Lady Mage,
This is very good. I look forward to reading more from you and are giving you karma accordingly!
~noire
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