Giulia Barone : « The Roman Clergy and the Jubilee »
We know little about the Roman clergy in the 14th century. The pope, head of the Church, was at the same time bishop of Rome and leader of Western Christendom. Gradually, between the 11th and 12tth centuries, the College of Cardinals was instituted. In the 14th century, the cardinals carried out political and administrative functions for the pope, but had ceased to participate in the religious life of the city. The clergy of the great basilicas and principal parochial churches, forming a confraternity, assumed a strongly defensive attitude, particularly in regard to the mendicant orders, who failed to assert their influence as in other cities. On the whole, it seems that the jubilee had little impact on the local clergy, content with merely recording the flow of foreign pilgrims.
Anna Esposito : « Shelter and Assistance in Rome »
The article outlines the development of structures providing shelter in Rome, and their gradual evolution into assistance-oriented centers, increasingly turned to medicalization and, subsequently, the specialization of health services. The existence of two great centers located in two opposite poles of the city, the Santo Spirito hospital &emdash; near the Vatican &emdash; a papal institution, and the hospital of the Salvatore &emdash; near the Lateran &emdash; administered by laymen, did not hinder the multiplication of small hospitals/hospices managed by pious confraternities or by the nationes residing in Rome. During the 15th century particular attention is given to the care of women, with the creation of special hospital wards and shelters. The article also gives information on the organization, personnel, medical activity, and therapies practiced in Roman hospitals.
Etienne Hubert : « Rome in the 14th Century : Population and Urban Space »
Since Karl-Julius Belloch, evaluations of the Roman population traditionally estimate its number at 30 000 inhabitans around 1300, and 25 000 towards the end of the 14th century. If this rough estimate is accepted by all historians, an examination of the meagre sources regarding the evolution of intramural urbanized areas in the 14th century, combined with some available documentation on the virulence of the epidemics during the second half of the century, makes it possible to reevaluate the Roman population around 1300, at the time of its peak, and to place Rome in the second category of Italian cities comprising a population between 40 000 and 80 000 inhabitants.
Etienne Anheim, Isabelle Heullant-Donat, Emmanuelle Lopez,
Odile Redon : « Immediate History »
Contemporary historians of the jubilees of 1300 and 1350 have given an account of the event, and of the life of Rome, the city where pilgrims flocked, desirous of obtaining the plenary indulgence. Three points of observation have been retained: Florence, with the Nuova Cronaca by Giovanni Villani and the Cronaca by Matteo, his brother; Rome, illustrated by its sole chronicler Anonimo Romano; Avignon, residence of the pope during the second jubilee, whose Vitae comments on the difficult relationship with Rome and on the pope’s absence at the jubilee. The authors have given all their attention to the texts themselves, presented and translated here. These reveal the attraction Rome and the indulgence exercised on the Christian West, the lack of interest shown by the court of Avignon, and the ambiguous attitude of the Romans, more concerned with business and city politics than with the spiritual benefits of the jubilee.
Julia M. H. Smith : « Women at the Tomb: Access to Relic Shrines in the Early Middle Ages »
This paper examines why women were excluded from direct access to some Carolingian relic shrines. It locates the source of the prohibitions in late antique restrictions on female access to male monasteries, prohibitions which came to bear on relic shrines only when saintly burials began to be located within monastic churches from the Seventh Century onwards. Nevertheless, many Merovingian monasteries were able to cater both for monk’s need for a secluded place of prayer and the laity’s desire to access to saint’s tombs by building multiple churches. But changing norms for laying out monastic precincts in the Carolingian period combined with new practices of enshrining relics in the main abbey church to render lay access problematic. Although restrictions on lay access might affect lay man, lay women are more often excluded from direct contact with relics.
Charlotte Christensen-Nugues : « Consent and Coercion in Marriage : Abjuration “sub pena nubendi” at the Officiality of Cerisy, 1314-1346 »
According to medieval Canon Law the validity of a marriage depended solely on the consent of the parties. No one could force a couple to marry if they did not freely consent to do so. In parallel, any kind of sexual relations outside of marriage was prohibited by Canon Law. An unmarried couple could be forced to abjure one another sub pena nubendi. This meant that any future intercourse would automatically leave them legally married. In this article I study the conflict between the idea of marriage as solely depending on the free consent and the marriage coercition imposed by abjuration sub pena nubendi.
Julien Veronese : « John the Fearless and the “Mad Sect” of the Diviners: The Stakes and Circumstances of the Treatise Contre les devineurs (1411) by Laurent Pignon »
As the crossroads of the 14th and 15th centuries, at a time of political unrest in the French kingdom, a variety of magical and divinatory practices made a marked appearance in princely circles, and notably at the court of Burgundy. In 1411, the Dominican Laurent Pignon, in his role of good advisor, warned his prince, Duke John the Fearless, against this evil influence by dedicating to him his treaty, Contre les devineurs. Does this imply that the Duke was somehow implicated ? So, at least, rumor asserts. Pignon points out the dangers threatening his protector if superstitious practices are used as a means of government. To better convince him, Pignon affirms that the “diviners” whom the Duke may be tempted to heed form a sect devoted to the devil, set on controlling Christianity. The argument seems a conclusive one. But what are the real facts?