Sacred Folly

Sacred Folly
Author :
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Total Pages : 337
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780801461934
ISBN-13 : 0801461936
Rating : 4/5 (34 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Sacred Folly by : Max R. Harris

Download or read book Sacred Folly written by Max R. Harris and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-02 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, the Feast of Fools has been condemned and occasionally celebrated as a disorderly, even transgressive Christian festival, in which reveling clergy elected a burlesque Lord of Misrule, presided over the divine office wearing animal masks or women's clothes, sang obscene songs, swung censers that gave off foul-smelling smoke, played dice at the altar, and otherwise parodied the liturgy of the church. Afterward, they would take to the streets, howling, issuing mock indulgences, hurling manure at bystanders, and staging scurrilous plays. The problem with this popular account—intriguing as it may be— is that it is wrong.In Sacred Folly, Max Harris rewrites the history of the Feast of Fools, showing that it developed in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries as an elaborate and orderly liturgy for the day of the Circumcision (1 January)—serving as a dignified alternative to rowdy secular New Year festivities. The intent of the feast was not mockery but thanksgiving for the incarnation of Christ. Prescribed role reversals, in which the lower clergy presided over divine office, recalled Mary's joyous affirmation that God "has put down the mighty from their seat and exalted the humble." The "fools" represented those chosen by God for their lowly status.The feast, never widespread, was largely confined to cathedrals and collegiate churches in northern France. In the fifteenth century, high-ranking clergy who relied on rumor rather than firsthand knowledge attacked and eventually suppressed the feast. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century historians repeatedly misread records of the feast; their erroneous accounts formed a shaky foundation for subsequent understanding of the medieval ritual. By returning to the primary documents, Harris reconstructs a Feast of Fools that is all the more remarkable for being sanctified rather than sacrilegious.


Sacred Folly Related Books

Sacred Folly
Language: en
Pages: 337
Authors: Max R. Harris
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2011-05-02 - Publisher: Cornell University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

For centuries, the Feast of Fools has been condemned and occasionally celebrated as a disorderly, even transgressive Christian festival, in which reveling clerg
A Liturgical Play for the Medieval Feast of Fools
Language: en
Pages: 191
Authors: Robert C. Lagueux
Categories: Drama
Type: BOOK - Published: 2023-08-08 - Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A newly identified medieval play for the Feast of Fools, with a new English translation and musical edition ready for performance.Scholars and non-scholars alik
The Liturgy of the Medieval Church
Language: en
Pages: 734
Authors: Thomas Heffernan
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2005-04-01 - Publisher: Medieval Institute Publications

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume seeks to address the needs of teachers and advanced students who are preparing classes on the Middle Ages or who find themselves confounded in their
Nine Medieval Latin Plays
Language: en
Pages: 276
Authors: Peter Dronke
Categories: Drama
Type: BOOK - Published: 2008-03-24 - Publisher: Cambridge University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Nine outstanding plays composed during the period of the finest flowering of medieval Latin drama.
The Festive Play of Fernando Arrabal
Language: en
Pages: 128
Authors: Luis Oscar Arata
Categories: Literary Criticism
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-12-14 - Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Along with Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco, Fernando Arrabal is a major exponent of the Theater of the Absurd. In this study Arrabal's plays are seen as a con