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Tues. 10/8. YDS Convocation. No class.
SHORT PAPER DUE IN CLASS 9 ON EARLY MEDIEVAL "LIFE WRITINGS" (3-5 pages). Assess, analyse and compare the representations the human subject in two or three of the saints lives we have read. As evidence for the practice and prevailing values of Early Christianity what do these sources tell you? You may want to orgainize your short paper around one or two recurrent themes or tensions that you find in these life writings. Finally, compare the holy lives you have selected to the Life of Charlemagne (see 10-page selection in Sourcebook 1). The life of Charlemagne is frequently identified as the first secular biography in the middle ages. What is "secular" about it? You might want to use the article by Robert Markus to organize your concluding thoughts on secular vs. sacred life writings in Early Christianity.
Read: Sourcebook 1. "Einhard's Charlemagne: The Practical Hero." In The Early Middle Ages. 500-1000. Ed. Robert Brentano.
9) Thurs. 10/10. Charlemagne, Europe, and the Concept of Christendom. Kingdoms and Communities in Carolingian Europe. Europe, Byzantium and Islam. Schism between the Eastern and Western Churches. The "Pirenne Thesis." The rise of Charlemagne. The Carolingian reforms. The contexts of learning. Texts, transmission and manuscripts. Likeness and presence: mediating the divine through image, word and ritual. John of Damascus and the Iconoclastic Controversy.
Handout 1: Theodulf of Orleans. "Hymn for Palm Sunday."
Required Readings: Lynch, Chapters 5 & 6, "The Church in the Carolingian Empire" & "The Carolingian Renaissance," pp. 65-96. Sourcebook 1. The Donation of Constantine. Sourcebook 1: John of Damascus: In Defence of Icons, c 730, extracts from On the Holy Icons and the Fount of Wisdom. Sourcebook: Selections on Carolingian art, iconoclasm and post-Carolingian discussions of religious imagery. From Caecilia Weyer Davis, Early Medieval Art.
Section 5: Relics, Images and Idols. Discuss the relationships between the Carolingian debates about images and about the Eucharist. How do you understand the relationships between the writings of theologians such as John of Damascus, Radbertus and Ratramnus and the cult of the saints?
Read: Selections from Paschasius Radbertus of Corbie: The Lord's Body and Blood and Ratramnus of Corbie: Christ's Body and Blood (read enough of each selection to be able to articulate the author's position and strategy of argumentation).
Recommended: One of the following articles from Patrick Geary's Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages, Cornell, 1994: "The Saint and the Shrine: The Pilgrim's Goal in the Middle Ages" pp. 163-176. "The Ninth-Century Relic Trade - A Response to Popular Piety? Pp. 177-193.
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