In the Mirror of the Prodigal Son: The Pastoral Uses of a Biblical Narrative (c. 1200–1550 (Commentaria, 9) [Illustrated] 9004315071, 9789004315075

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In the Mirror of the Prodigal Son

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_001

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Commentaria Sacred Texts and Their Commentaries: Jewish, Christian and Islamic

Founding Editors Grover A. Zinn Michael A. Signer (ob.) Editors Frans van Liere Lesley Smith E. Ann Matter Thomas E. Burman Robert A. Harris Walid Saleh

VOLUME 9

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/comm





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In the Mirror of the Prodigal Son

The Pastoral Uses of a Biblical Narrative (c. 1200–1550) By

Pietro Delcorno

LEIDEN | BOSTON

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Delcorno, Pietro, author. Title: In the mirror of the Prodigal Son : the pastoral uses of a biblical narrative (c. 1200-1550) / by Pietro Delcorno. Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2017. | Series: Commentaria, sacred texts and their commentaries : Jewish, Christian, and Islamic, ISSN 1874-8236 ; VOLUME 9 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017026202 (print) | LCCN 2017031541 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004349582 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004315075 (hardback : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Prodigal son (Parable) | Sermons, Medieval--History and criticism. | Preaching--History--Middle Ages, 600-1500. | Preaching--History--16th century. Classification: LCC BT378.P8 (ebook) | LCC BT378.P8 D45 2017 (print) | DDC 226.8/06--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017026202

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 1874-8236 isbn 978-90-04-31507-5 (hardback) isbn 978-90-04-34958-2 (e-book) Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands, except where stated otherwise. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

Contents Contents

Contents Acknowledgments ix List of Illustrations xi Editorial Note xiv Introduction 1 1 The Medieval Exegesis on the Parable of the Prodigal Son 18 1 The Parable in the Gospel of Luke 21 2 Patristic Exegesis: Allegorical and Moral Readings 24 2.1 Tertullian’s Refusal of a Penitential Interpretation 25 2.2 The Allegorical Reading of Jerome 27 2.3 “Filii sumus, festinamus ad Patrem”: Ambrose’s Penitential Reading 30 2.4 Augustine: Exegesis and Self-Narrative 32 2.5 “Delicta non videt vis amoris”: Chrysologus’ Pastoral Use of the Parable  35 3 Into the Early Middle Ages: From Caesarius of Arles to the Pseudo-Eligius 37 4 Twelfth-Century Monastic Readings 41 4.1 Bernard of Clairvaux’s Parable of the Son of the King 41 4.2 Primacy of Mercy and Spiritual Union in Guerric of Igny 46 4.3 The Soul and the Body in a Sermon from Admont Abbey 48 4.4 The Exegesis of a Magistra: Hildegard of Bingen  50 5 The Main Scholastic Exegetical Instruments 55 5.1 The Bedrock: The Glossa ordinaria 57 5.2 The Multiple Readings of Hugh of Saint-Cher 59 5.3 Bonaventure: The Penitential Itinerary of the Prodigal Son 69 5.4 The Catena aurea and the Postilla 75 6 Mary Magdalen and the Prodigal Son in the Speculum humanae salvationis 79 7 Visualizing the Adventure of the Prodigal Son 87 8 Performing the Parable in Courtois d’Arras 94 9 Transition: Towards People, towards Cities 96 2 The Voice of the Preacher: Late Medieval Model Sermons 99 1 Preaching and Liturgy 101 2 Between Model Sermons and Reportationes 111

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3 Two Genres of Lenten Model Sermon Collections 120 4 Two Influential Models of Iacopo da Varazze 121 4.1 The Penitential Itinerary: Aversio, conversio, receptio 121 4.2 From the Elder Brother to the Virgin Mary 126 5 Preaching on the Virgin Mary (XIII-XVI Centuries) 128 6 Early Model Sermon Collections (XIII-XIV Centuries) 135 6.1 Three Dominican Preachers 135 6.2 Alberto da Padova: “Quasi plebis concionator” 140 6.3 François de Meyronnes: “The Son’s Repentance as the Glory of His Father” 142 7 Echoes of Sermons in Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi 148 8 A Heterodox Wycliffite Sermon 150 9 Vicent Ferrer: Dramatizing the Story and Bookkeeping the Merits 152 10 Towards Fifteenth-Century Model Sermon Collections  158 11 An Encyclopaedic Model Sermon by Conrad Grütsch 158 12 “Alexander the Great Had a Son”: Reworking the Gesta romanorum 164 13 “A Son Must not Do This”: Obedience as Main Virtue 170 14 “You Have a Brothel almost in Every Place” 174 15 On the Border of a Book of Hours 180 3 Italian Preaching on the Prodigal Son: From Bernardino da Siena to Savonarola 187 1 “Seek What Helps You to Leave Your Sins” 188 2 A Cornerstone of Bernardino’s Preaching 192 2.1 “Imagine that the Prodigal Son Was a Paduan Adolescent …” 192 2.2 Two Vernacular Reportationes (Florence 1424) 200 2.3 A Rediscovered Autograph 206 2.4 A Diptych on Obedience: Isaac and the Prodigal Son 208 3 A Model Sermon in the Quadragesimale de christiana religione 212 4 An Alternative Model Sermon on the Elder Brother 216 5 Against Jews and Hussites: Giovanni da Capestrano at Breslau  219 6 “Urged by Love and the Necessity of the Time” 223 7 In the Footsteps of the Master: Giacomo della Marca and Bernardino da Feltre 228 7.1 “Swallow Me into the Abyss of Your Love” 229 7.2 Applying the Model in Pavia 235 8 “Better Cold than Tepid!”: Savonarola and Lukewarm Christians 240

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4 The Layman, the Woman, and the Priest: Three Florentine Dramas on the Prodigal Son 251 1 The Youth Confraternity of the Purification and Piero Muzi 256 2 The Festa of the Fatted Calf 260 3 The Representation of the Prodigal Son of Antonia Pulci 273 4 A Spiritual Mother “Who Knew the Bible Very Well” 279 5 Castellano Castellani and the Florence of Savonarola 284 6 The Representation of the Prodigal Son of Castellani 289 7 “Con questo dolce suon che tanto piace …” 299 8 “I Thought I’d Burst for Contrition” 302 9 Beyond the Florentine Stage 305 5 Fifty Sermons on the Prodigal Son: Johann Meder’s Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo 310 1 The ‘Confession’ of a Preacher 311 1.1 The Preacher as a “Smart Cook” 314 1.2 Secrets for a Successful Recipe 317 2 The Sermons 320 2.1 The Prodigal Son as a Fool 320 2.2 From the House to the Tavern 323 2.3 “With a Hoarse Voice and Sad Sighs” 325 2.4 A Weekly Rhythm 328 2.5 Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction 329 2.6 From the Angel to Christ: “Conceive in Your Mind What I Suffered for You” 333 2.7 Meditating the Passion and Participating in the Last Supper 339 2.8 “Come in My Garden, My Bride” 342 2.9 From the Sepulchre to the Encounter with Christ 346 3 Two Absences: The Devil and the Elder Brother 350 4 An Unusual Illustrated Sermon Collection 354 4.1 The Role of Sebastian Brant  354 4.2 Visualizing the Sermons 356 5 Dissemination of Meder’s Quadragesimale 363 6 Erasmus’ Criticism to an Anonymous Theologian 365 6 The Sixteenth-Century Prodigal Son: A Multiple Mirror 370 1 Before the Storm: Michel Menot in Paris, 1518 372 2 Leipzig 1519: Fighting on the Prodigal Son 377 3 Voices of the Reformation 381 3.1 A Former Franciscan in Wittenberg: François Lambert 382

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3.2 Staging the Conflict 387 3.3 “Per solam fidem ad gratiam evangelicam” (Pellikan) 393 3.4 Two Sermons of Johannes Brenz 397 3.5 “Haec dulcissima imago saepe cogitanda est” (Melanchthon) 401 4 Early Catholic Responses in Preaching 407 4.1 Johannes Eck’s Archetype of the Penitent  408 4.2 Friedrich Nausea against the “Licence to Sin” 409 4.3 Nikolaus Ferber: “Scripturam scripturis interpretari” 411 4.4 Georg Witzel: “Better than Any Other Lively Description …” 414 5 Johann Wild’s Lenten Cycle on the Prodigal Son (Mainz 1547)  417 5.1 The Mirror: “In the Prodigal Son We Recognize Ourselves” 421 5.2 “Short Words with a Great Meaning” 423 5.3 Grace, Free Will, and Confession 425 5.4 The Elder Brother 429 Epilogue 432

Illustrations 451 Bibliography 476 Subject Index 532 Index of Names and Places 539 Index of Biblical Quotations 547 Index of Manuscripts 549

Acknowledgments Acknowledgments

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Acknowledgments Writing a book is a personal journey lightened up by many encounters. Along his way, the medieval prodigal son encountered bad companions and harlots, who led him astray. Fortunately, I met instead with people and institutions that helped me elaborate, develop, and conclude this project. I am deeply grateful to all of them for their invaluable support. For the past seven years, my research has been funded repeatedly by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research/Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO). Firstly, while I was working at my doctorate within the framework of the NWO founded-research project “Religious Orders and Religious Identity Formation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe”. Then, when I was awarded an NWO Rubicon Fellowship to conduct postdoctoral research on “Crossing the Alps with Dante: Preaching the Commedia in Fifteenth-Century Europe”. During the research and writing of this book, I have been based at Radboud University Nijmegen and the University of Leeds. I am really grateful for the years spent at both institutions and for all the colleagues and staff members who made me welcome there. I would also like to appreciate the support I received from the Graduiertenkolleg “Materialität und Produktion” of Heinrich Heine University, Düsseldorf, which welcomed me for a semester and allowed me to proceed with my work in a time of uncertainty. This book began its life as a doctoral dissertation supervised by Bert Roest and Peter Raedts. I benefitted considerably from their insights as well as generosity of time, curiosity, and enthusiasm. I would like also to thank all the other members of that wonderful research group based at Radboud University: Alison More, Anne Huijbers, and Kor Bosch. It has been truly a pleasure to work together in a climate of friendship, encouragement, and mutual esteem. I wish to thank also Matthew Treherne, who looked favourably at this research and saw its alignment with goals of the AHRC-funded project “Dante and Late Medieval Florence” (School of Languages Cultures and Societies, University of Leeds). I am very grateful to Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, who constantly worked towards fostering my connections with my alma mater, the University of Bologna, and with a distinguished group of Italian colleagues, who have looked at my research with interest. In the past few years, I had many opportunities to present my work and receive precious comments, suggestions, and at times critiques. I would like to mention here the activities of the Dutch Research School for Medieval Studies (Onderzoekschool Mediëvistiek), the International PhD and post-doctoral

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training school “The Dynamic Middle Ages II”, as well as the stimulating discussions held at numerous International Medieval Congresses in Leeds. I owe a special debt of gratitude to the scholarly community belonging to the International Medieval Sermon Studies Society. By attending their fantastic symposia, from Salamanca to St. Augustine, not only have I learned a lot on medieval preaching, but also – and perhaps more importantly – I have met great colleagues and friends. I would like to acknowledge those people who read parts of this book while it was still a work in progress and provided me with their generous feedback: Michele Camaioni, Sabrina Corbellini, George Ferzoco, Stéphanie Le Briz, Eleonora Lombardo, Nerida Newbigin, Anne Thayer, and Lorenza Tromboni. Many thanks also to the members of my doctoral committee for their insightful inputs: Nicole Bériou, Carolyn Muessig, Peter Nissen, Eva Schlotheuber, Maaike van Berkel, and Frans van Liere. At different stages of my writing endeavour, I was assisted by a number of skilful editors, namely Robert Hensley-King, Lauren Moreau, Nick Youmans, and Melanie Brunner. Without libraries, special collections, and digital editions this work would have been impossible to accomplish. Beside the libraries of my home institutions, I am particularly thankful to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek of The Hague, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek of Munich (whose digital editions allowed me to work also in some remote areas of South Africa), and the Archiginnasio of Bologna. Moreover, I wish to express my gratitude to the museums and libraries that provided me with the images I have included in the book, which represent a primary source of my own research. Finally, I thank the members of the Commentaria editorial board, who welcomed this project, and Marcella Mulder who followed it with patience. Lack of space prevents me from naming all the scholars and friends with whom I had the pleasure to discuss different aspects of my research in these years. I am looking forward to having the opportunity to express my gratitude to them in a more personal form. Nevertheless, a few names need to be mentioned: Carlo and Daniela, Giovanna, and Davide, since they all sustained me all along the way. And Michela, with whom I shared such beautiful years in every place we have called home.

List of Illustrations List of Illustrations

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List of Illustrations 1

Mary Magdalen − King Manasseh; Speculum humanae salvationis, Sarnen, Benediktinerkollegium, Cod. membr. 8, fol. 16v (1427) 452 2 The prodigal son – Prophet Nathan and King David; Speculum humanae salvationis, Sarnen, Benediktinerkollegium, Cod. membr. 8, fol. 17r (1427) 453 3 The father embraces his returned son, who asks for mercy; Speculum humanae salvationis, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Latin 512, fol. 16r (early 15th century) 454 4 The prodigal son receives his inheritance from his father – The father embraces his returned son; Speculum humanae salvationis, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Latin 511, fol. 15r (early 15th century) 455 5 The son kneels before his father; a servant brings the clothes, while the elder son (?) looks at the scene; Spieghel onser behoudenisse (Culem­borg: Johann Veldener, [c.1483]), fol. h7v 456 6-13 Cathedral of Bourges: Window of the prodigal son (early 13th century) 6 Lower section 457 7 Upper section 458 8 The departure of the prodigal son 459 9 The prodigal son dismounts from the horse and embraces a courtesan 459 10 The prodigal son loses all his means playing dice inside an inn 460 11 The prodigal son tends to animals 460 12 The father embraces his returned son, while a servant brings a tunic for him 461 13 The father brings together his two sons in reconciliation 461 14-18 The parable of the prodigal son, on the margins of the penitential psalms; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem (Paris: Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 25 April 1500), fols. h2v-h4r 14 The prodigal son asks for his inheritance – The prodigal son and three women in a tavern (fol. h2v) 462 15 The women leave the tavern with the spoils of the prodigal son − The prodigal son enters the service of a master (fol. h3r) 463 16 The prodigal son eats the acorns like the swine − The father welcomes his returned son, while the servants bring new clothes and slaughter the calf (fol. h3v) 463 17 The banquet − The father talks to his elder son (fol. h4r) 463 18 Tapestry on the prodigal son parable (Thuringia?, c.1420); Marburg, University Museum 464

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List Of Illustrations

Woodcuts on the prodigal son in Spiegel menschlicher Behaltnis, (Basel: Bernhard Richel, 1476), fol. 161r 465 20 Woodcuts on the prodigal son in Spiegel menschlicher Behaltnis (Basel: Bernhard Richel, 1476), fol. 161v 465 21-36 ‘Meister des Haintz Narr’, woodcuts on the prodigal son in Johann Meder, Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo (Basel: Michael Furter, 1495) 21 The prodigal son asks his father to hand him his inheritance (fol. a4v) 466 22 The prodigal son going on his way with the guardian angel (fol. b5r) 466 23 The angel tries to dissuade the prodigal son from entering a city (fol. b8v) 466 24 The prodigal son in an inn with his companions, while the angel admonishes him (fol. c4v) 466 25 The prodigal son is in misery, and his guardian angel speaks to him (fol. c8r) 467 26 The prodigal son cries for his sins, while the angel comforts him (fol. f6v) 467 27 On his way back home, the prodigal son prepares his confession with his guardian angel (fol. k3r) 467 28 The father welcomes his son (fol. n4v) 467 29 The father provides his son with new clothes and hands him over to Christ (fol. q6r) 468 30 Christ instructs the prodigal son, while a servant is butchering the fatted calf (fol. t7v) 468 31 Christ instructs the prodigal son, who is dressed in his new clothes (fol. v4r) 468 32 The banquet of the prodigal son as the Last Supper (fol. x8v) 468 33 The guardian angel and the prodigal son meet Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (fol. z1v) 469 34 The prodigal son prays before the tomb where Christ is buried (fol. A6r) 469 35 The apparition of Christ to the apostles and the prodigal son (fol. B4r) 469 36 The prodigal son kneels down before the Risen Christ (fol. C4r) 469 37-38 Amund, The parable of the prodigal son (1494); Södra Råda, Sweden 37 The ‘castle’ of the prodigal son and the prodigal son who receives his share of inheritance – The prodigal son is beaten and stripped of his precious clothes by a woman 470 38 An angel exhorts the prodigal son to return home 470 39 Shoehorn with the parable of the prodigal son (The Netherlands, 1578) 471

List of Illustrations

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40-43 Bernardino Passeri and Karel van Mallery, Engravings on the parable of the prodigal son – Jerónimo Nadal, Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia (Antwerp: Martin Nutius, 1594), fig. 66-69 40 The prodigal son asks for his inheritance, and receives a bag of money from his father 472 41 The prodigal son is beaten and expelled from the inn/brothel 473 42 The prodigal son tends the swine; in the background: the prodigal son’s conversion 474 43 The encounter with the father; the servants with the new clothes; the banquet; in the background: the return of the elder brother 475

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Editorial Note

Editorial Note

Editorial Note When transcribing from manuscripts and early printed books, I have nor­ malized the “u/v” according to their phonetic value and given preference to “i” over “j”. I have also introduced or adapted punctuation according to modern usage. Likewise, I have corrected the most evident spelling mistakes. In all other instances, I follow the orthography of the modern editions. The translations are mine, unless otherwise stated. Biblical quotations are generally taken from the New King James Version. For what concerns names of locations, wherever possible I have used English names, also for the places where editions were issued (therefore: Milan and not Milano; Cologne and not Köln; Padua and not Padova). For what concerns names of persons, I have used English versions only for well-known historical figures with a standardized name in present-day English scholarly literature: Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, Bona­ venture, Nicholas of Lyra, and so on. For other people, whose English names are less uniformly used or completely unavailable, I have retained the linguistic tradition connected with their place of origin or the region in which they were prevalently active: Michel Menot, Antonio da Bitonto, Johann Meder. I have also decided to address all preachers discussed in this work in this fashion, as the majority of them do not have a uniform English name, and it would be awkward to alternate between English and non-English name varieties when I compare preachers in the same section. Hence: Iacopo da Varazze (and not Jacobus de Voragine), Vicent Ferrer (and not Vincent Ferrer), Bernardino da Siena (and not Bernardine of Siena), Giovanni da Capestrano (and not John of Capistran / John of Capistrano), and so forth. Unless otherwise stated, data on the number of fifteenth- and sixteenthcentury editions are derived from: Incunabula Short Title Catalogue of the British Library () Censimento nazionale delle edizioni italiane del XVI secolo () Universal Short Title Catalogue ()

Introduction Introduction

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Introduction Then Jesus said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father: ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me’. So, he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living …” (Luke 15:11-13)

⸪ The present book investigates the relevance, function, and variety of interpretations of the parable of the prodigal son throughout the medieval period and up to the religious conflicts of the sixteenth century. During the given period, this biblical story was increasingly intertwined with major theological and pastoral themes. This parable became a fundamental instrument employed in pastoral activities to shape and negotiate the self-perception of the contemporary faithful, who in turn were called to look at the prodigal son’s story as a mirror reflecting their own lives. The itinerary of the prodigal son − or rather, its many retellings − provided the audience not only with the main features of Christian life, but also with models of basic human conduct such as rebellion, repentance, and reconciliation. In particular, the present study underscores the progressive construction, the wide circulation, and the numerous transformations of a paradigmatic reading of this parable both in late medieval period and during the religious crises of the sixteenth century, when the biblical story was at the heart of the controversies between Catholic and early Protestant spokesmen. From this perspective, I examine the multiple functions and the variety of meanings of this biblical parable in the context of the religious and social developments of the time. The interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son serves as a catalyst for analysing dominant late medieval discourses of religious instruction, particularly within a homiletic context.1 In doing so, this book 1 On the historiographical debate on and the definition of late medieval literature of religious instruction, see Bert Roest, Franciscan Literature of Religious Instruction before the Council of Trent (Leiden, 2004), pp. IX-XIX. My research developed in the context of the research project “Religious Orders and Religious Identity Formation in Late Medieval and Early Modern © PIETRO DELCORNO, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_002 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC License.

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Introduction

aims to make a significant contribution to a better and more nuanced understanding of the texts produced for and employed within pastoral activities, thereby accenting the historical and cultural relevance of a vast set of sources that are still in need of greater scrutiny. Studies on medieval sermons and comparable religious texts have flourished in recent decades.2 However, still too often these sources – particularly those written in Latin by clerics – are subject to a monolithic, undifferentiated treatment. This study argues that this group of sources, which may at first glance appear repetitive, in reality presents a surprisingly varied panorama that exhibits an intriguing interplay of continuity and change, and merits careful evaluation. Moreover, by analysing the pastoral use of a specific evangelical text – namely the parable of the prodigal son – this study also aims to contribute to our understanding of the manner in which key biblical texts circulated in so­ciety, that is, how they were appropriated, adapted, transformed, and dis­se­minated.3 Attentive consideration will be given to both the active players ­– men and women, lay and cleric –­and the various media involved in these processes. The interaction between biblical commentaries, model sermons, actual preaching, religious plays, devotional texts, religious songs, and a wide range of images was a decisive factor in the making and increasing popularity of the prodigal son.4 By way of an in-depth examination apropos a strategic Gospel pericope, this book also has the ambition to contribute to the study of “the practice of the Europe (ca. 1420-1620)”, which was led by Dr Bert Roest, and which was funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research/Nederlandse Organisatie voor Weten­ schappelijk Onderzoek (NWO). On the scope of the project, see Bert Roest and Johanneke Uphoff, eds., Religious Orders and Religious Identity Formation, ca. 1420-1620: Discourses and Strategies of Observance and Pastoral Engagement (Leiden, 2016). 2 A panorama of the most recent studies is provided in Ronald J. Stansbury, ed., A Companion to Pastoral Care in the Middle Ages (1200-1500) (Leiden, 2010) and Sabrina Corbellini, Margriet Hoogvliet and Bart Ramakers, eds., Discovering the Riches of the Word. Religious Reading in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2014). As introduction to the dynamic field of medieval sermon studies, see Beverly Mayne Kienzle, ed., The Sermon (Turnhout, 2000); Carolyn Muessig, ed., Preacher, Sermon and Audience in the Middle Ages (Leiden, 2002); and Volker Mertens, Hans-Jochen Schiewer and Wolfram Schneider-Lastin, eds., Predigt im Kontext (Berlin, 2013). 3 An interesting methodological perspective is provided by Hartmut Böhme et al., eds., Trans­ formation. Ein Konzept zur Erforschung kulturellen Wandels (Paderborn, 2011). See in particular the collective article with the same title of the book (pp. 39-56), which discusses, among others, the concepts of appropriation (Appropriation), assimilation (Assimilation), encapsulation (Einkapselung), hybridization (Hybridisierung), and interpretation (Umdeutung). 4 I echo here Katherine L. Jansen, The Making of the Magdalen: Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages (Princeton, 2000).

Introduction

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Bible”.5 Not in abstract terms but in a concrete way, the present study undertakes an investigation of the Bible’s pervasive presence, its multiple functions, and the great flexibility of applications that it underwent within the changing socio-religious situations of the centuries under discussion. In fact, the parable of the prodigal son was repeatedly interpreted and presented in sophisticated and manifold ways, and its message was differentiated to suit the capacities of highly diverse audiences. As we shall see, this biblical story was “a flexible matrix”6 used to shape a normative discourse of religious instruction and to strengthen a religious identity in both its personal and collective expression. This biblical narrative thus served to both transmit a vision of the world and – as part of a ritual form of communication − reassert “the representation of shared beliefs” that maintained a given symbolic order of society.7 By means of a slow and multifaceted process, in the later centuries of the Middle Ages the parable became an important master narrative that allowed people active in pastoral work to present their audiences with an emotionally engaging discourse on the model identity of the faithful and on the characteristics of God. In the skilful hands of those who shaped and controlled religious communication, the parable became an ideal space to touch upon the main features of Christian anthropology and soteriology. The study of the pastoral uses of this parable will lead us into the heart of a rich debate on freedom and grace, sin and conversion, justice and mercy, confession and salvation. More fundamentally, the story of the prodigal son emerges as a powerful instrument in the cultural construction and negotiation of the self-understanding of the faithful. This biblical text was indeed used to present the audience with “a normative centring”, which is to say, an authoritative, regulating, and legitimizing focal point, a clear-cut centre to interpret and orient life.8 In the present case, however, the normative discourse was developed in a narrative form. 5 On performative aspects of the biblical text see Susan Boynton and Diane J. Reilly, eds., The Practice of the Bible in the Middle Ages: Production, Reception, and Performance in Western Christianity (New York, 2011). 6 This expression is used for the images of the Mass of St. Gregory in Jeffrey F. Hamburger, “Introduction,” in The Mind’s Eye: Art and Theological Argument in the Middle Ages, eds. Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Anne-Marie Bouché (Princeton, 2006), pp. 3-10: 6. 7 On the transmission view and the ritual view of communication, see the classical pages of James W. Carey, “A Cultural Approach to Communication [1975],” in James W. Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society (New York, 1992), pp. 13-36. On the vast field of medieval communication, see Marco Mostert, A Bibliography of Works on Medieval Communication (Turnhout, 2012). 8 On the interpretative category of ‘Normative Zentrierung’ see Berndt Hamm, The Reformation of Faith in the Context of Late Medieval Theology and Piety, ed. Robert J. Bast (Leiden, 2004), pp. 1-48.

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Introduction

Within the parameters sketched above, this book aims to show how clever religious educators used the parable as an ideal basis for a thorough discussion of the essential points of Christian faith and conduct. It is worthwhile to note that the Latin verb parabolare was derived from the substantive parabola (a calque of the Greek παραβολή) during the early Middle Ages. Parabolare was a highly productive term in Romance languages, generating parler, parole, parlement in French, as well as the Italian parlare, parola. Although the exact conditions that produced this evolution have not been completely elucidated by philologists, the decisive role played by Christian culture is clear. The words of Jesus in the Gospel became the model for any discourse.9 A parabola was therefore the paradigmatic instrument to develop a well-structured discourse and to unfold a clear-cut interpretation of reality. Such a phenomenon proved particularly true for the parable of the prodigal son, which in the medieval period came to be considered as the model sermon of Jesus himself and a map to guide the listeners in their own lives. In this study, the parable of the prodigal son functions like Ariadne’s thread to enter the intricate and intriguing forest of texts of religious instruction produced for and performed in (late) medieval and sixteenth-century pastoral care. My encounter with a series of primary sources was a determining factor in the decision to focus on this parable. When I first visited the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague in 2009, I came across a peculiar incunabulum entitled Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo. At the time, I was looking for fifteenth-century sermons on another parable – that of Lazarus and the rich man.10 And yet, it was this fascinating book, with its unusual combination of words and images, that captured my attention. Its author, the Franciscan Johann Meder (d. 1518), considered the parable of the prodigal son as the ideal platform with which to offer his audience a lively, yet in-depth catechesis. As we shall see, this sermon collection had quite peculiar features. Nonetheless, as subsequent research has shown, the Quadragesimale novum was not the isolated product of an ingenious preacher who used this parable to expose his audience to the main points of a Frömmigkeitstheologie (theology of piety), which proposed an “internalization and intensification” of the emotional life of 9

10

“Dans l’Occident chrétien, la parole, en son sens générique, est pensée sur le modèle de celle du Christ”; Anita Guerreau-Jalabert, “Parole/parabole. La parole dans les langues romanes: Analyse d’un champ lexical et sémantique,” in Rosa Maria Dessì and Michel Lauwers, eds., La parole du prédicateur, Ve-XVe siècle (Nice, 1997), pp. 311-39: 331. See Pietro Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone: Metamorfosi di una parabola fra Quattro e Cinquecento (Bologna, 2014). This work has been relevant in developing the methodology that I employ in this study.

Introduction

5

the soul.11 Instead, Meder’s sermon collection proved to be a relatively late exponent of a longstanding, yet still growing interest in the parable of the prodigal son within pastoral activities. During the 1424 Lenten period, for instance, while preaching in the Floren­ tine church of Santa Croce, Bernardino da Siena, the most famous preacher of his time, began a sermon by saying that on the same day he had decided to preach on the parable of the prodigal son, and for that reason he deviated from the biblical readings proposed by the liturgy. As a means to underpin his choice, Bernardino carefully explained this change in the calendar of readings to his audience: “The parable of the prodigal son is so full of meaning that, if there had been no other argument to bring the sinners to penitence, it would have been enough”.12 In his experience, the prodigal son perfectly summarized the core message of Lent: namely the conversion of the sinner and the mercy of God. Even leaving all other biblical passages aside, this parable alone could reach the goal of moving its listeners to penitence. Bernardino praised and privileged this parable for its pragmatic function, i.e. for its potential in achieving a transformation of the listeners.13 Bernardino shared his evaluation of the exceptional importance of this biblical narrative with several eminent predecessors. A century before, in 1306, the Dominican Giordano da Pisa had been even more radical in singling out the value of the parable of the prodigal son. Preaching in the Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella, he not only stressed that this parable was “the most useful and necessary part of the Gospel for sinners”, but he went much further by stating that it possessed a quality that he deemed superior to other parts of the Gospel.

11

12

13

Berndt Hamm, “Was ist Frömmigkeitstheologie? Überlegungen zum 14. bis 16. Jahrhundert [1999],” in Berndt Hamm, Religiosität im späten Mittelalter: Spannungspole, Neuauf­ brüche, Normierungen, eds. Reinhold Friedrich and Wolfgang Simon (Tübingen, 2011), pp. 116-53. “El vangelo di domani [i.e. the parable of the prodigal son] è tanto pieno di sentenze, che se niuna altra cosa non ci fusse che questo a fare tornare un peccatore o più a penitenza, basterebbe”; Bernardino da Siena, Le prediche volgari, ed. Ciro Cannarozzi, 2 vols (Pistoia, 1934), 1, pp. 254-55 (hereafter cited as Firenze 1424). See Carolyn Muessig, “Bernardino da Siena and Observant Preaching as a Vehicle for Religious Transformation,” in A Companion to Observant Reform in the Later Middle Ages and Beyond, eds. James D. Mixson and Bert Roest (Leiden, 2015), pp. 185-203. See also Eleonora Lombardo, “La pragmatica politica nei sermoni minoritici tra Due e Trecento. Due casi di studio,” in Francescani e politica nelle autonomie cittadine dell’Italia basso-medioevale, ed. Roberto Lambertini (Rome, forthcoming).

6

Introduction

This Gospel passage is so full of wisdom that there is no word in it from which one cannot acquire much wisdom. This indeed is not the case with all the other Gospel passages. Yet, it is true for this one. Each of its words has a considerably deep meaning. In fact, this Gospel has a hundred words, and among them today we discuss only one, leaving out all the rest.14 Consistent with his remark, the Dominican preacher focused completely on a single detail of the story (the prodigal son’s plea for his share of the property). He then stated that “preaching for an entire Lent on this parable alone would be good and necessary”.15 The suggestion that Giordano da Pisa made (probably in hyperbolic manner) eventually came to be realized in 1494, when Johann Meder preached an entire Lenten cycle of fifty sermons on the prodigal son in Basel. The choice to preach a whole Lenten period on a single parable was without precedent. Other parables likewise had a prominent role in late medieval religious communication, such as the parable of Lazarus or that of the good Samaritan.16 Only the parable of the prodigal son, however, was put forth in a project of such proportions. Meder elevated this biblical story to the level of the major texts of 14

15

16

“Il quale vangelio è sì pieno di sapienzia, che non ci ha nulla parola che non se ne potesse trarre molta sapienzia. Non è così di tutti gli altri, che d’ogni parola si possa trarre tanta sapienzia, ma di questo sì, però che non ci ha nulla parola che non abbia grande abisso: che ∙cci n’ha de le parole entro presso a cento, ma di tutte queste non diceremo se non solamente dell’una, e tutte l’altre lagando”; Giordano da Pisa, Quaresimale fiorentino 13051306, ed. Carlo Delcorno (Florence, 1974), p. 173. “Questo vangelio non tratta altro se non de la penitenzia e de la misericordia, e è questo vangelo il più utile e ’l più necessario ai peccatori, che ∙ssia intra tutti gli altri. Il quale vangelo è tutto pieno di profonda sapienza, onde, disse il lettore [Giordano], non sarebbe sconvenevole a predicare tutta la Quaresima pur di questo, anzi sarebbe buono e necessario”; Giordano da Pisa, Quaresimale, p. 173. On Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31) in medieval preaching, see Jussi Hanska, ‘And the Rich Man also Died; and He Was Buried in Hell’: The Social Ethos in Mendicant Sermons (Helsinki, 1997). Yet, in the Middle Ages this story was generally considered as a historical narrative; Delcorno, Lazzaro, pp. 28-29 and 68-70. An interesting pastoral use of the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is the Curam illius habe or Medicina dell’anima, written by the Dominican Antonino Pierozzi (d. 1459). This handbook for priests is structured on the fundamental catechistic patterns (the Decalogue, the seven deadly sins, the seven sacraments, and so forth), with a focus on confession. Antonino framed each chapter of his work with a brief reference to a different moment in the story of the good Samaritan. I consulted Antonino Pierozzi, Curam illius habe: Medicina dell’anima (Bologna: Balthasar Azoguidi, 1472).

Introduction

7

Christian faith, just as the Creed, the Decalogue, and the Pater Noster, which had been used since the late thirteenth century to frame systematic catechesis in Lenten preaching.17 The remarkable sermon collection crafted by Meder was – at least indirectly – imitated subsequently by another Franciscan preacher. In the much-changed historical context of the harsh religious disputations between Protestants and Catholics, Johann Wild again focused on the prodigal son for an entire Lent. In 1547, while preaching in the Cathedral of Mainz, a city at the forefront of the confrontation with Lutheran ideas, he delivered twelve sermons on the prodigal son and transformed the evangelical parable into the perfect framework for a thorough discussion of free will, sin, grace, and justification. His attempt to address the most burning theological issues of his time systematically from the pulpit, came just a few months after the Council of Trent had issued its decrees on justification. Wild’s sermons on the prodigal son can thus be seen as an early initiative to disseminate the decisions of the Council, which had started to fix the guidelines of ‘orthodox’ Catholic theology.18 However, this was also the result of a century-long process that transformed this parable into a master narrative habitually used to discuss a set of key concepts and to shape the religious self. Spanning a period of more than two centuries, these four prominent preachers clearly expressed their predilection for the prodigal son as a key narrative to effectively convey an all-encompassing religious message to their listeners. Their sermons were just the tip of the proverbial iceberg of the growing attention given to this parable in pastoral activities. The specific space given to this biblical text in preaching becomes even more striking when one considers that the liturgy, as we will see, did not propose this parable in the readings for any of its main celebrations. The history of the pastoral use of this parable is therefore the history of a biblical text that was in a rather marginal position within the liturgy of the Latin Church and, nevertheless, increasingly gained a central role in religious communication. Time and again, we shall see that preachers not only reasserted the relevance of this Gospel passage and praised it as a perfect text for preaching on penitential themes. Rather, they also developed efficacious communicative strategies to give it a more appropriate space than that provided by the liturgical calendar. The growing relevance of the prodigal son narrative in preaching is paralleled by equally dynamic forms of appropriation and re-elaboration of this 17 18

See Jussi Hanska, “Sermones quadragesimales: Birth and Development of a Genre,” Il Santo 52 (2012), 107-27. See John M. Frymire, The Primacy of the Postils: Catholics, Protestants and the Dissemination of Ideas in Early Modern Germany (Leiden, 2010), p. 357.

8

Introduction

biblical text by means of other media of religious instruction, which included religious plays as well as a wide array of visual artefacts (such as illuminations, stained windows, ivory caskets, tapestries, and woodcuts). The contemporary presence and interaction of this parable through different media offered people multiple access points to this story, and to its associated religious message. This multi-media representation of the prodigal son was explicitly acknowledged and praised by a prominent sixteenth-century Catholic preacher, Georg Witzel. He stated that this parable enabled believers to visualize human history and its vicissitudes of sin and redemption better than any other lively description. Then, he added: For this reason, it is nice that this extraordinary parable is staged so often as a play and is so perfectly represented by painters and embroiderers. In this way, it is clearly represented to everybody, old and young, how the mercy of God is overwhelming, which he has manifested to the entire world in Jesus Christ, his only Son.19 Sermons, religious plays, paintings, and tapestries were all elements of a complex “culture of persuasion”.20 Such a culture surely shaped and moulded the sixteenth century, and yet its basic workings were hardly different in previous centuries, which also saw a close interplay between assorted media within the sphere of religious communication. This cultural process involved the agency not only of the clergy but also of the laity. During the fifteenth century, both “members of the respublica clericorum […] and of the respublica laicorum” actively participated – with different levels of engagement – in the process of appropriation and cultural elaboration, which promoted a “dynamic approach to religion and religious knowl­ edge”.21 This is clearly visible when we consider three different religious plays on the prodigal son, which were written for and repeatedly staged by some of 19

20

21

“Ist derhalben fein, das ist dise allerlieblichste Parabel Comoedien weise gespilet, und von malern und stickern auffs künstlichst controfact wirt, damit allen menschen alt und jung deutlich eingebildet were, wie übergros Gottes erbarmung sey, welche er in Christo Jesu seinem eingebornen der ganzen welt erzeigt hat”; Georg Witzel, Quadragesimale Catholicum (Mainz: Franz Behem / Cologne: Peter Quentel, 1545), fol. S2v. See Andrew Pettegree, Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (Cambridge, 2005). This concept has been recently adopted – with a specific attention to preaching – in Torrance Kirby and P.G. Stanwood, eds., Paul’s Cross and the Culture of Persuasion in England, 15201640 (Leiden, 2014). See Sabrina Corbellini, “Beyond Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: A New Approach to Late Medieval Religious Reading,” in Cultures of Religious Reading in the Late Middle Ages:

Introduction

9

the Florentine youth brotherhoods during the second part of the fifteenth century. The repeated attention given to this parable has – again – no parallel among the other narratives used on the Florentine confraternal stages, thus confirming the prominent standing that the prodigal son’s story had in the religious culture of the time. These three plays, which we shall analyse in detail, resulted from a strict cooperation between clerics and lay people, who together promoted a sophisticated form of religious (and civic) acculturation specifically targeted at the young members of the confraternity. The biographies of the three playwrights perfectly embody the different agencies involved in this activity of religious instruction. They included a layman, a laywoman, and a secular priest: Piero Muzi, Antonia Pulci, and Castellano Castellani. Their plays can be described as exegesis in a theatrical format. The text written by Antonia Pulci has the additional value of allowing for an investigation of the active participation of women in this process of appropriation and interpretation of the biblical text. From this perspective, the other prominent case that we shall consider is the twelfth-century “dramatic narrative exegesis” of Hildegard of Bingen, who dedicated special attention to the prodigal son.22 Three strategic considerations support my choice to focus on the pastoral uses of the prodigal son narrative. They form the very basis of the present study of the function, relevance, and flexibility of this biblical parable in late medieval and early modern religious culture as well as of the mechanisms of religious acculturation that were at play in this period. Firstly, in the realm of late medieval pastoral mission, the parable of the prodigal son was often employed as a means to present a well-structured religious model that went beyond a set of doctrinal or moral ideas. Through sermons and religious dramas, the people in the audience were commonly asked to identify with the main character of the story. Religious spokespeople considered the parable in question as an invaluable framework with which to project and shape the religious self. In other words, the parable gradually became a powerful device able to produce and suggest a “narrative identity”.23 The fictional story of the prodigal son was put forth as the real biography of the listeners: the narrative mediated (and manipulated) self-knowledge. The story – or

22 23

Instructing the Soul, Feeding the Spirit, and Awakening the Passion, ed. Sabrina Corbellini (Turnhout, 2013), pp. 33-53: 36. See Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Hildegard of Bingen and Her Gospel Homilies: Speaking New Mysteries (Turnhout, 2009), pp. 109-54. See Paul Ricoeur, “Narrative Identity,” in On Paul Ricoeur. Narrative and Interpretation, ed. David Wood (London, 1991), pp. 188-99, which underlines how this interpretative scheme is particularly true for “conversion narratives” (p. 199) – such as the story of the prodigal son.

10

Introduction

rather, its continuous re-elaboration – was utilized to expound upon the basic facets of Christian life for each and every believer; it thus formed a sort of narrative catechism, particularly in the penitential interpretation that dominated medieval (and post-medieval) exegesis of the parable and, what is more, its presentation to the laity. For instance, in 1547 Johann Wild exhorted his listeners to acknowledge that this story was indeed their own story: “We have to ask the light of grace, so that we learn to recognize ourselves in the prodigal son”.24 We shall see that in the sermons of Wild, as well as in those of many other preachers, the passage from the prodigal son to “we also” was continuous, and served to enhance the identification of the listeners with the protagonist of the story. Wild repeatedly insisted on this point by depicting the parable as a mirror: The parable of the prodigal son is nothing else but a mirror, in which it is possible to see at once both the sinner’s misery and the mercy of God, and to see how one passes from one to the other, i.e. from God’s favour and grace to the misery of a sinner, and back from the misery of sins to God’s grace. In fact, the prodigal son went through both experiences. […] These two mutationes or transformations are very different. One is good, and the other is bad.25 Such a mirror did not serve a static contemplation of a fixed identity but made possible a transformation.26 From this perspective, the parable – and its 24

25

26

“Da will uns nun zum ersten not sein, das wir umb das liecht der genaden bitten, damit wir uns in dem verlornen Son lernen erkennen”; Johann Wild, Die Parabel oder Gleichnusz von dem verlornen Son (Mainz: Franz Behem, 1550), fol. 5r (sermon 1). “die gleichnuß von dem verlornen Son nichts anderst ist dann ein spiegell, darinnen man bei einander sicht des sünders onseligheit und Gottes barmhertzikeit, und wie mann von einem zu dem andern kömpt, das ist von Gottes gunst und genaden in das elend eins sünders; und herwider, aus dem ellend der sünden zu Gottes genaden. Der verlorn Son hat die beide erfarn. Er war in huld unnd genad, in ehr unnd gut bei seinem vatter, kame aber in die höchste armut unnd ellend, dargegen aber kam er aus sollichen onseligen wesen wider in sein vorige ehr unnd wolstandt. Das seind nun zwo mutationes oder enderung einander sehr ongleich. Die eine ist gut, die ander böß”; Wild, Parabel, fols. 11v-12r (sermon 2). On the specula genre, see Alain Dubreucq, “La littérature des Specula: Déli­ mitation du genre, contenu, destinataires et réception,” in Guerriers et moines. Conversion et sainteté aristocratiques dans l’Occident médiéval (IXe-XIIe siècle), ed. Michel Lauwers (Antibes, 2002), pp. 17-39. On the ideas connected with mirrors in late medieval culture, see Herbert Leon Kessler, “Speculum,” Speculum 86 (2011), 1-41 (with bibliography). On the necessity of a dynamic concept of identity, see Adriano Prosperi, Identità: L’altra faccia della storia, (Rome-Bari, 2016).

Introduction

11

interpretation – was presented to the listeners as a spiritual map on which to locate and orient themselves in their own lives.27 Early on, this appears in Bernard of Clairvaux’s Parable of the Son of the King. On the basis of a rather free retelling of the story of the prodigal son, the text provided its intended audience of novices and monks with a “spiritual topography” concerning the conflict between virtues and vices.28 The idea of the parable as a useful map became explicit a century later in the influential sermons of the Dominican Iacopo da Varazze (Jacobus de Voragine). Having laid out the journey of the prodigal son, for the preacher, the four corners of the world symbolized four distinct qualities of God, by means of which he provided the listeners with a topography to orient their own lives. The point of arrival for each and every person was the encounter with God – that is portrayed here as the inescapable horizon − but the ultimate result of this encounter depended on the direction that one had chosen. East and west are God’s mercy and his justice, while south and north are his grace and his power. One who distances oneself from God’s prevenient mercy gets closer to his avenging justice, and one who distances oneself from his subsequent grace gets closer to his punishing power.29 Such a mechanism was not limited to written texts. The early thirteenth-century stained glass windows that depict the parable of the prodigal son in French cathedrals have been interpreted as “powerful ideological maps” or “cognitive maps of the medieval world”. They served to urge the viewers to give an ideologically orientated response to processes at work in the medieval social and religious landscape.30 27 28 29

30

As introduction to the studies on the medieval production of space, see Megan CassidyWelch, “Space and Place in Medieval Contexts,” Parergon 27/2 (2010), 1-12. See Mette Birkedal Bruun, Parables: Bernard of Clairvaux’s Mapping of Spiritual Topography (Leiden, 2007), pp. 135-64. “Quanto autem peccator magis se elongat a deo, tanto magis appropinquat ad deum […]. Ideo quasi oriens et occidens sunt eius misericordia et iusticia, auster et aquilo sunt eius gratia et potentia; qui igitur elongat se ab eius misericordia preueniente, appropinquat ad eius iusticiam ulciscentem et qui elongat se ab eius gratia subsequente, appropinquat ad eius potentiam punientem”; Iacopo da Varazze, Sermones Quadragesimales, ed. Giovanni Paolo Maggioni (Florence, 2005), pp. 178-79. See Gerald B. Guest, “The Prodigal’s Journey: Ideologies of Self and City in the Gothic Cathedral,” Speculum 81 (2006), 35-75 and Gerald B. Guest, “Narrative Cartographies: Mapping the Sacred in Gothic Stained Glass,” Res. Anthropology and Esthetics 53/54 (2008), 121-42.

12

Introduction

Nearly contemporaneous to Wild’s sermons mentioned above, on the other side of the doctrinal divide, a Lutheran leader such as Philipp Melanchthon likewise acknowledged the relevance of the parable by saying: A very sweet image is proposed to us in the detailed description of the return of the prodigal son. It exhorts us to penitence, attests that we will be received [by God], and eruditely summarizes both the causes and the effects. Therefore, this image has to be often considered attentively, so that we arouse ourselves to penitence and piety.31 Drawing on a longstanding medieval tradition, Melanchthon presented the prodigal son as the icon of the penitential itinerary and as a text that allowed him to expose the “summa evangelii, namely that, through Christ, the forgiveness of sins certainly will be given gratis to those who do penitence”.32 However, while there was a consensus on the strategic value of this biblical narrative for the instruction of believers, the ways in which the prodigal son was portrayed were by no means always the same. Rather, they shifted, depending on the priorities of those who adopted the story to convey their own message, as the sixteenth-century religious conflict perfectly illustrates. This leads us to the second major consideration that underpins my study, that is, the dynamics of continuity and change in the interpretation and usage of the prodigal son parable. The interpretation of this biblical narrative, as with many passages of the Gospel, was shaped by a long reception history. The history of the interpretation of this parable has not yet been mapped out in a satisfactory manner, especially from the perspective of its colourful pastoral treatment within the life of the Church. Studies on the prodigal son concentrate almost entirely on the patristic age or on modern and contemporary times. The long period between Augustine and Luther has not attracted comparable attention, aside from a few articles on individual commentators. An overarching analysis of the interpretation and pastoral uses of this parable for the millennium between the bishop of Hippo and the reformer of Wittenberg does not yet exist. What often seems to be perceived as something unaltered 31

32

“Hactenus in hac longa descriptione reditus filii prodigi, dulcissima imago proposita est, quae nos ad poenitentiam hortatur, et testatur nos recipi, et causas et effectus erudite complectitur. Quare saepe et diligenter cogitanda est, ut nos ad poenitentiam et pietatem excitemus”; Philipp Melanchthon, In evangelia quae usitato more diebus dominicis et festis proponuntur annotationes (Leipzig: Valentinus Papa, 1557), p. 293. “Haec tota concio […] teneamus summam Evangelii, quod omnibus agentibus poenitentiam certo detur remissio peccatorum gratis, propter Christum”; Melanchthon, In evangelia, p. 284.

Introduction

13

through the centuries was indeed a lively laboratory of experimentation. Moreover, in order to properly evaluate the late medieval depictions of this parable, the comparison with the previous exegetical and pastoral tradition is – in a methodological sense – considered essential. The analysis of patristic texts, high medieval homilies, and scholastic commentaries provides a solid foundation for a study of the innovation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as well as persistence of a dynamic cultural heritage. One example that draws on a preacher mentioned above, is how in 1547 Johann Wild depicted the process of the prodigal son’s conversion as a consequence of the action of grace. Such an interpretation was probably influenced by the recent Tridentine decrees on justification. However, one also has to consider that presenting a detailed theology of grace within a commentary on the prodigal son was a common practice, which dated back to well-known thirteenth-century biblical commentaries such as those of Hugh of Saint-Cher and Bonaventure. The reception of the Tridentine decrees and the legacy of thirteenth-century exegesis were not mutually exclusive. What at a first glance might seem a reference to contemporary events could be – at the same time – the continuation of a century-old medieval line of exegesis. The third strategic consideration behind my choice to focus on the story of the prodigal son pertains to the lively debate on this parable during the sixteenth century. The late medieval period already presented significantly diverse interpretations of this parable, several of which are closely scrutinized in this study. Nevertheless, such interpretations largely favoured a penitential reading. In both sermons and religious plays on the prodigal son, the preachers and playwrights put a different stress on either the sinful life of the protagonist or the father’s merciful welcome; on either the human efforts or the grace of God; on either the inner relationship with God or the necessity of clerical mediation. Still, the main focus was not on theological discussions, but rather on the exhortation to do penitence in accordance with the codified sequence of contrition, confession, and satisfaction. I suggest calling this a “late medieval consensus” on the interpretation of this parable. On the one hand, the current study investigates the gradual formation of this paradigmatic interpretation. In doing so, it examines the dissemination of this paradigm via different media, the nuances and tensions within this shared framework of interpretation, and the appropriation and reformulation of this message by various actors at play in the process of religious communication. On the other hand, moving into the sixteenth century, the present book explores the crisis of this consensus and its transformation at the dawn of the confessional age. In fact, it was exactly this previously shared penitential message that became highly controversial during the sixteenth century, as the commentary on this parable by the Lutheran

14

Introduction

Johannes Brenz summarized: “This is the main religious controversy of our time: how one has to make penitence”.33 From this perspective, the study of the pastoral use of this parable also helps to shed light on the history of penance. It has a deep symbolic meaning that, in 1519, in his famous dispute with Luther, the Catholic theologian Johannes Eck initiated the discussion about the penitential process by using the traditional reading of the conversion of the prodigal son as a process shaped by both fear and love of God. As is evident in Eck’s repeated references to both prior and contemporaneous preachers, by refuting Luther’s ideas, he was defending not only a theological position, but also a pastoral tradition accustomed to mix – in varied and sophisticated forms – the fear of damnation with the description of the merciful love of God. In their dispute over the prodigal son, Luther and Eck were discussing the profile of the perfect believer. The novelty of the discussion was in their profound disagreement. The only point on which they agreed was that “the prodigal son represents the model of the penitent” and “Christ proposed him to us”, as Eck stated.34 From this moment onwards, each side tried to enrol the prodigal son in its own religious discourse, thus breaking the earlier consensus on the parable’s penitential interpretation. While previous differences and tensions were composed into a common framework, from this moment onwards the entire scheme came under discussion. The prodigal son remained a key narrative in shaping religious identity, yet the context had become much more complex. Thus, the changing religious climate and the harsh debates of the period required a corresponding change in presenting the exemplary story of the prodigal son. An examination of the sermons and texts of religious instruction based on the prodigal son, therefore, both offers the possibility to touch upon a concrete pathway through which the religious debate of the time reached a wider audience, and enhances our understanding of the ways in which previous religious paradigms were adapted to and reinvented for the new historical context. This book is structured in six chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the reception history of the parable of the prodigal son from the first centuries of the Christian era up to the early fourteenth century. Different typologies of biblical commentaries play a central role in this chapter, starting from the Gospel itself, passing through the rich legacy of patristic exegetes and the novelties of the medieval monastic and scholastic interpretations. The chapter ends 33

34

“Haec est praecipua controversia nostri temporis de religione […] quomodo agenda fit poenitentia”; Johannes Brenz, Pericopae Evangeliorum (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Braubach, 1556), pp. 348-49. “Filius prodigus gerit typum penitentis […] eum ita proponit nobis Christus”; Martin Luther, Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe (Weimar, 1883-2009), 2, p. 359.

Introduction

15

with an initial consideration of the diverse forms (sermons, images, religious plays) by which thirteenth-century illiterate people were able to encounter and appropriate the story of the prodigal son. The chapter follows an ideal movement from the libraries and the classrooms, where the patristic and scholastic commentaries could be studied by clerical literates, to urban spaces such as the church and the town square, where people of different social backgrounds gathered, and where the voice of a preacher or a glittering stained glass window could mediate an interpretation of the story of the prodigal son relevant to the time. This urban scenario also dominates the following chapters. Drawing on the studies of David d’Avray on late medieval preaching as a precocious form of mass communication,35 Chapter 2 analyses the model sermons on the prodigal son that were disseminated via the most widespread Latin sermon collections written from the second part of the thirteenth to the late fifteenth century, i.e. from Iacopo da Varazze to Oliver Maillard. These types of sources had a key role in the dissemination of ideas in late medieval and early modern Europe. The most successful collections enjoyed a large circulation and were often used for decades or even for centuries by generations of preachers. Such preachers drew on these collections to craft the right sermons for their own congregations, mediating and adapting the written texts according to the circumstances. In a slow, centuries-long process, model sermons on the prodigal son deeply influenced the construction of a shared interpretation of this story, which reached large strata of society through the voices of preachers. Chapter 3 narrows our focus to the sermons written and preached in fifteenth-century Italy in the period that spans from the time of Bernardino da Siena to that of Girolamo Savonarola. This chapter and its scope provide the opportunity to study in greater depth both model sermons and reportationes, that is, the notes written down by a listener during or immediately subsequent to witnessing a sermon. The fifteenth-century Italian sources are exceptionally rich in this rare type of document. This allows for a fruitful analysis of the relationship between the surviving model sermons and actual preaching. Moreover, reportationes bear witness to the active contribution of laypeople directly involved in writing down, copying, re-elaborating, and transmitting the ideas conveyed from the pulpit by some of the most famous preachers of the time. The analysis of the sermons on the prodigal son preached in fifteenth-century Italy opens the way for studying other forms of appropriation of the parable that took place in the same cultural context. Chapter 4 focuses on three 35

See David d’Avray, “Method in the Study of Medieval Sermons,” in Modern Questions about Medieval Sermons, eds. Nicole Bériou and David d’Avray (Spoleto, 1994), pp. 3-29.

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Introduction

religious plays on the prodigal son that were written during the second part of the fifteenth-century in Florence, where a peculiar genre of theatre had a prominent role as a pioneering catechetical activity. These plays were primarily geared toward the boys of the confraternities and the audience of their performances. However, a closer look reveals that each play had been infused with its own perspective, relied on different sources, accented various aspects of the parable, and selected its own register. Each play was indeed a proper theological and catechetical interpretation of the parable, given that its playwright engaged with the biblical text with her or his own sensibility. They ­depended on a rich tradition of interpretation concerning the parable. Nonetheless, they were also innovative in their elaboration, which aimed at integrating their plays within the Florentine socio-political and cultural milieu. Hence, these plays summarize a familiarity with this key biblical text that crossed the borders between clerics and laypeople, men and women alike. After two chapters entirely focused on the geographic region of Italy, we then move to Basel. Chapter 5 focuses on the sermon cycle on the prodigal son preached by Johann Meder in this culturally dynamic city in 1494. This cycle represents a spectacular case of appropriation and transformation of the story of the prodigal son. Meder adopted this parable to present an all-encompassing religious message to his audience in a semi-dramatic form, inviting his ­listeners to identify with the parable’s main character. In these sermons, the itinerary of the prodigal son did not end with the father’s merciful reception, but instead developed into an intense meditation on the Passion of Christ. Within this ingenious sermon cycle, the prodigal son gradually assumes the distinguishing features of the sponsa Christi, and finally declares his passionate love for Christ. These sermons were immediately printed in the form of a lavishly illustrated book. Therefore, the analysis of this peculiar editorial format, which has no parallel among fifteenth-century sermon collections, allows for a close consideration of the interplay between visual and verbal communication within the context of the pastoral use of this parable. Finally, Chapter 6 depicts the different strategies used to appropriate the parable of the prodigal son within the diverging confessional factions of the first half of the sixteenth century, focusing on the German area, which was at the centre of the religious debate. The chapter first considers the role of the prodigal son in the disputation on penitence between Eck and Luther in 1519. Next, it turns to early Lutheran texts as a resource to investigate the manner in which evangelical ideas were disseminated via sermons, dramas, and com­ mentaries on the parable in question. Subsequently, it considers the sermons of leading Catholic preachers, who vigorously faced the challenges posed by the Reformation. Particular attention is given to Johann Wild. His sermons

Introduction

17

exemplify the way in which the prodigal son was considered a strategic tool to propose a well-structured religious identity, and to deal with contemporary theological debates. Moreover, their timing alongside the Tridentine decree on justification assumes an additional symbolic value as a sign of the transition to the new confessional era and its divisions. In this renewed religious and cultural context, the prodigal son continued to be depicted as the perfect mirror in which to contemplate one’s own life. The image reflected in the mirror was, however, no longer the same for everyone.

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Chapter 1

The Medieval Exegesis on the Parable of the Prodigal Son This chapter has the ambitious aim to provide an overview of the reception history of the parable of the prodigal son from the first centuries of the Christian era to the early fourteenth century.1 Through the analysis of a various set of sources, its main goal is to exhibit the richness of a multifaceted and complex process. This chapter will also serve as a foundation to evaluate the late me­ dieval pastoral uses of the parable of the prodigal son, enabling us to consider the dynamic interplay between factors of continuity and change. The existing scholarship on the history of the interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son has lacked a comprehensive approach. Studies on this parable concentrate almost entirely on the patristic age or on modern and contemporary times, not to mention the countless studies in the field of New Testament exegesis. The long period between Augustine and Luther has not attracted comparable attention. Aside from a few interesting articles on individual commentators, as well as several studies on eminent figures such as Hildegard of Bingen or Bernard of Clairvaux, an overarching analysis of the interpretation and pastoral uses of the prodigal son parable for the millennium between the bishop of Hippo and the reformer of Wittenberg does not exist. The biblical commentary written by François Bovon, one of the most renowned contemporary scholars on the works of the evangelist Luke, serves as a revealing example. Bovon provides a description of the reception history of each of the pericopes of the Gospel of Luke, something quite unusual in biblical commentaries. However, in his presentation of the prodigal son, Bovon passes directly from Augustine to Erasmus, just briefly mentioning Bonaventure, who evidently is regarded as spokesman for the entire Middle Ages.2 Likewise, two interdisciplinary volumes that approach the parable from 1 On the growing attention to effective history (Gadamer’s Wirkungsgeschichte) and reception history (Jauss’ Rezeptiongeschichte) in biblical studies, see Heikki Räisänen, “The ‘Effective History’ of the Bible: A Challenge to Biblical Scholarship?,” Scottish Journal of Theology 45 (1992), 303-24 and Mark Knight, “Wirkungsgeschichte, Reception History, Reception Theory,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 33 (2010), 137-46. 2 See François Bovon, L’Évangile selon Saint Luc (15,1-19,27) (Geneva, 2001), p. 53. A commentary on Luke is still missing in the series of the Blackwell Bible Commentary, which devotes particular attention to reception history.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_003

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different methodological angles do not present any medieval material.3 The situation does not change in two more recent studies. A monographic issue of the journal Graphè devoted to this parable presents only two articles (out of thirteen) on the medieval reception of the prodigal son. The two articles focus on specific examples, such as the role of this parable in the twelfth-century Cistercian literature and the thirteenth-century play Courtois d’Arras.4 These are valuable contributions; however, they do not provide a proper overview of the reception history of the parable during the long medieval period. A 2009 monograph on the “literary and artistic variations” of the prodigal son in Western culture largely conforms to this tendency, dealing mainly with the modern and contemporary periods.5 This and other studies tend to focus on the reception of the parable in secular literature, rather than on its colourful pastoral treatment within the history of the Church.6 The latter aspect seems to be perceived as something unaltered along the centuries, and fixed in a 3 See François Bovon and Gregoire Rouiller, eds., Exegesis. Problèmes de méthode et exercices de lecture (Genèse 22 et Luc 15) (Neuchatel, 1975) and Giuseppe Galli, ed., Interpretazione e invenzione. La parabola del Figliol Prodigo tra interpretazioni scientifiche e invenzioni artistiche (Genoa, 1987). Much more balanced examples of studies of the history of the exegesis on individual parables are Mattheiu Arnold, Gilbert Dahan and Annie Noblesse-Rocher, eds., La Parabole des talents (Mt 25,14-30) (Paris, 2011) and the monographic issue La zizzania nella chiesa e nel mondo: interpretazioni di una parabola, ed. Giuseppe Ruggeri, Cristianesimo nella storia 26 (2005), 1-263, which however does not move beyond the thirteenth-century. 4 See La parabole du fils prodigue, ed. Jean Marc Vercruysse, Graphè 18 (2009). I refer below to the two articles. 5 Marc Bochet, Allers et retours de l’enfant prodigue: l’enfant retourné. Variations littéraires et artistiques sur une figure biblique (Paris, 2009). In its introduction, the text manifests its ­purposes by saying that the “herméneutique rabbinique et patristique” will be just a “base de lancement pour aller au-delà du commentaire didactique: c’est alors que nous aborderons les recréations des dramaturges, romanciers, poètes, essayistes, psychanalystes” (p. 11). Consequently, only one and a half pages discuss the medieval period, mentioning Guerric of Igny, Bernard of Clairvaux and Bonaventure (pp. 21-22), before jumping to Bossuet. Later on, the book devotes considerable attention to Courtois d’Arras, yet without connecting it to other medieval texts. 6 For other examples of recent studies on the parable’s influence on secular literature, see Manfred Siebald, Der verlorene Sohn in der amerikanischen Literatur (Heidelberg, 2003), Emilia Di Rocco, ed., Il romanzo della misericordia: La parabola di Luca nella letteratura moderna e contemporanea, monographic issue in Studium 110 (2014), 163-217, and Béatrice Jongy, Yves Chevrel and Véronique Léonard-Roques, eds., Le Fils prodigue et les siens (XXe-XXIe siècles) (Paris, 2009). The latter explicitly focuses on contemporary literature and cinema. On the references to the prodigal son in a ‘classic’ movie such as Blade Runner see Jeremy Punt, “The Prodigal Son and Blade Runner: Fathers and Sons, and Animosity,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa, 128 (2007), 86-103.

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semi-perennial form by the Church Fathers – mainly Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine. Stephen Wailes’ Medieval Allegories of Jesus’ Parables is the only major departure from this trend. For each parable of the Gospel, it offers a detailed list of the homilies and commentaries and a helpful summary of the different interpretations from Tertullian to Ludolph of Saxony. Wailes’ work amounts to a quite useful starting point and yet, since it analyses forty-one biblical parables, it only devotes a few pages to a discussion about the prodigal son.7 Moreover, it fails to include a number of important medieval authors, such as Hildegard of Bingen and Hugh of Saint-Cher, who proposed highly original readings of this parable. In addition, Wailes’ goal was to map the different allegorical interpretations connected with each parable. Therefore, his work does not discuss other aspects of commentaries and homilies. In particular, the focus on pastoral care found in several medieval texts does not fully emerge. Such a perspective is central to the present study, which aims neither at a history of the exegesis on the parable of the prodigal son, nor at a history of the influence of this biblical narrative on European literature in general. The focus here is primarily to investigate the multiple uses of this biblical narrative in medieval pastoral activities. This will allow us to analyse the function of this parable as a matrix in shaping a normative discourse and in conveying a collective and personal religious identity. In this overview through more than ten centuries, I will examine various media of religious instruction, which scholarship frequently has placed in different categories. Thus, beside the biblical commentaries that play a prominent role in this chapter, the analysis also includes exegetical sermons, homiliaries, images, as well as Latin and vernacular poems. This choice also allows us to begin considering the plurality of media involved in the communication process and connected with religious instruction. Necessarily, the analysis will only touch upon a selection of the available sources, while the bibliography will provide a basic guide towards the sociocultural circumstances in which each text was written. Overall, the sources discussed in this chapter provide a nuanced view of this multifaceted history, and they will allow us to consider the later medieval period in its proper perspective.

7 Stephen L. Wailes, Medieval Allegories of Jesus’ Parables (Berkeley, 1986), pp. 236-45. This work offers also a useful synthesis on the medieval approach to the parables.

The Medieval Exegesis on the Parable of the Prodigal Son

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21

The Parable in the Gospel of Luke

The parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:19-32) is found only in the Gospel of Luke. It is generally considered to be one of the narrative masterpieces of this evangelist, and is certainly one of the most vivid and memorable accounts of the Gospel. The story occurs as the third and most elaborated in a triad of parables presented by Jesus in response to the criticism of the Pharisees and the scribes about his proximity to and tolerance for sinners (Luke 15:1-3).8 The first parable concerns the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7), and the second the lost drachma (Luke 15:8-10).9 The two stories present a similar dynamic: when something lost is eventually found, this provokes an overabundant joy in the protagonist, who invites other people to rejoice with him or her. In the same way – Jesus says – God and his celestial court rejoice over every sinner who repents (Luke 15:7 and 15:10), and so the Pharisees and scribes ought also to rejoice over the conversion of sinners. While the dynamic and meaning of these two parables is rather straightforward, the third story is far more complex. It is not possible to consider it simply as the parable of the lost son, as if it were just a repetition of the previous narratives with small variations. Although in some linguistic traditions this is the name given to the parable, such as in German (Der verlorene Sohn), the structure of the third parable is completely different. The difference is not only because more characters are involved, but because the story concerns relationships between people, highlighting their wills, emotions, and actions. In the first two parables, it is only possible to register the shepherd’s and the woman’s effort to rescue what is lost and their joy at the end. At a literal level, it would hardly make sense to argue why the sheep was lost or why the drachma was not with the other coins. Throughout history, the exegetes enriched the interpretations of these two parables through numerous allegorical readings of

8 For an accurate exegetical overview of Luke 15, see Bovon, L’Évangile, pp. 17-59. For a narrative analysis of the parable with an introduction to the exegetical debate between 1900-1985, see Vittorio Fusco, “Narrazione e dialogo nella parabola detta del figliuol prodigo (Lc 15,11-32),” in Galli, ed., Interpretazione, pp. 17-67, and for a more recent reading of the text, see Jean-Noël Aletti, Il racconto come teologia. Studio narrativo del terzo Vangelo e del libro degli Atti degli apostoli. Prima edizione con aggiunte (Bologna, 2009), pp. 181-223. Among the most recent exegetical analyses, see Marc Rastoin, “Le génie littéraire et théologique de Luc en Lc 15.11–32 éclairé par le parallèle avec Mt 21.28–32,” New Testament Studies 60 (2014), 1-19. 9 On these two parables, see Bovon, L’Évangile, pp. 30-41. The lost sheep recurs also in Matthew 18:12-14. Luke and Matthew, however, used it in two different ways; see Jacques Dupont, “La parabole de la brebis perdue (Matthieu 18,12-14; Luc 15,4-7),” Gregorianum 49 (1968), 265-87.

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them.10 Nevertheless, the parable of the prodigal son proved to be far more intriguing for its readers and interpreters. In fact, at its heart are questions that arise from human behaviour and the ethical dilemmas of its main characters: the father and his two sons. The narrative plays on the comparison and contrast between the three characters, or – as a commentator puts it – on the synkrisis between these actors.11 The exuberantly rich reception history of this parable has been shaped by several factors: the challenge to interpret the elusive characters of the story, whose words and actions are not exempt from ambiguities;12 the possibility to empathize with the characters; the complex dynamic of the narrative; and the unusual abundance of details. The interpretative possibilities are enhanced further by the open-ended plot. When the father invites the elder son to enter and share in the feast for the return of his brother, the reaction of the elder son remains unsaid; the burden to solve the story rests on the listeners, who participate in determining its ultimate meaning.13 In the original context – as Luke depicted it – the parable was a rhetorical weapon to challenge the point of view of the Pharisees, and to force them to reconsider the reasons of Jesus’ familiarity with sinners and to embrace them as God’s beloved. According to some scholars, a multi-levelled reading of the story was already intended by Luke, who had to deal with the specific historical

10

11 12

13

The story of the lost sheep was connected with a semantic field that reaches its peak in the image of Christ as the good shepherd. The allegorical reading of the lost drachma was usually understood in relation to the idea that as every coin bears the image of the emperor, the human being bears the image of God, as the story of the creation reads. See on this Wailes, Medieval Allegories, pp. 127-31 (the lost sheep) and pp. 234-36 (the lost drachma). Aletti, Il racconto, pp. 71-75 (on synkrisis) and pp. 181-223 (on the parable). See the comments on the monologue of the prodigal son, when he plots out the strategy for his return to his father (and indeed for his escape from famine), in Aletti, Il racconto, pp. 192-97 and Philip Sellew, “Monologue as a Narrative Device in the Parables of Luke,” Journal of Biblical Literature 111 (1992), 239-53; Sellew notes that “the very transparency of the son’s motivation in smoothing his return is of course a deliberate and ironic emphasis of the story line, permitting a contrast with his elder brother’s justified protests and his father’s generous response” (p. 247). See in particular George W. Ramsey, “Plots, Gaps, Repetitions, and Ambiguity in Luke 15,” Perspectives in Religious Studies 17 (1990), 33-42 and James A. Metzger, Consumption and Wealth in Luke’s Travel Narrative (Leiden, 2007), pp. 84-108. Introducing this work, Metzger states: “Jesus’ parables often elude, frustrate, tease, and intrigue. They overflow with possibility; gaps and ellipses abound; they are replete with moments of “undecidability”; attempts to pin them down fail. Their interpretive frames and settings may offer guidance but never exhaust their polyvalence” (pp. 22-23).

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context of his community.14 The profile of the main characters and their actions are far less straightforward than what is suggested by the most common readings of the text, which indeed opens avenues for multiple interpretations.15 Furthermore, scholars who adopted a reader-response approach to the parable emphasize the role and responsibility of each reader, situated within a given reading community, in interpreting the story and constructing its meaning.16 Who is the prodigal son? Why does he go away and return? What are his intentions? Who is the elder brother? Will he join the feast or not? Is the father fair in his behaviour? Or more generally speaking, what is the lesson of this story? Throughout the rich reception history of this parable, time and again its readers and interpreters faced this powerful narrative and had to decipher its code, to solve indeterminacies of the plot, and to define its message within their own historical context and for their concrete communities. Over the course of the centuries, some interpretations of the parable became paradigmatic, progressively shaping the dominant framework that was (and sometimes still is) adopted to understand and present the story of the prodigal son.17 The dynamic reception history of the parable crafted the lens through which it 14

15

16

17

See Aletti, Il racconto, pp. 214-16 and Heikki Räisänen, “The Prodigal Gentile and his Jewish Christian Brother [1992],” in Heikki Räisänen, Challenges to Biblical Interpretation: Collected Essays, 1991-2000 (Leiden, 2001), pp. 37-60. For Räisänen, the function of the parable might be connected with Luke’s view of the presence of Gentiles and Jews in the first Christian communities: “It is possible, and even likely, that the story was composed [by Luke] to drive home the point that converted Gentiles are accepted by God and should be joyously accepted by the community, even by observant Jewish Christians” (p. 57). With some caution, see the reading proposed in Metzger, Consumption and Wealth, pp. 84-108, where not only the repentance of the prodigal son is defined as a highly dubious confession (“a pre-prepared, canned ‘confession’ that lacks the feel of authenticity”; p. 107), but also his father’s behaviour is put into question. On reader-response criticism in biblical studies, see a useful introduction in Metzger, Consumption and Wealth, pp. 31-46, which draws on the studies of Wolfgang Iser and Stanley Fish. See also Stephen D. Moore, Literary Criticism and the Gospels: The Theoretical Challenge (New Haven, 1989) and Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger, ed., The Personal Voice in Biblical Interpretation (London, 1998). This perspective might be compared with the patristic hermeneutics summarized in Gregory the Great’s famous sentence: “Scriptura crescit cum legente”; see Pier Cesare Bori, L’interpretazione infinita. L’ermeneutica cristiana antica e le sue trasformazioni (Bologna, 1987). See Mikeal C. Parsons, “The Prodigal’s Elder Brother: The History and Ethics of Reading Luke 15:25-32,” Perspectives in Religious Studies 23/2 (1996), 147-74. Parsons shows how the patristic readings of the elder brother were (and still are) influential. Still, this article confirms the dominant trend that ignores the medieval period, passing directly from Augustine to Dürer and Calvin.

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was considered, starting from the influential legacy of the patristic commentaries on the prodigal son. These commentaries provided the setting and some of the main tools for the later medieval interpretations and pastoral uses of the parable. These early readings had a lasting influence in guiding and – somehow – also constraining the successive interpretations of the text, at least within Western medieval culture and, often, far beyond it. Their voices were always present in the medieval dialogue with the biblical text − a dialogue that, however, produced its own creative retelling of the parable and was attentive in exploring its moral and pastoral possibilities, adapting the story to the changing situations. 2

Patristic Exegesis: Allegorical and Moral Readings

In Latin Christianity, the commentaries on Luke written by Jerome, Ambrose, and Augustine at the end of the fourth century were particularly influential, and for centuries they formed the primary point of reference for any reading of this parable.18 They were often directly mentioned as auctoritates in commentaries and in sermons, and their ideas shaped different approaches in reading the parable. The commentaries of these authors constitute, as it were, a concordia discordans on the parable. Some basic elements are shared and constitute lasting benchmarks for the interpretation of the parable: the father always represents God; the citizen whom the prodigal serves is understood as the devil; and the banquet of the fatted calf symbolizes the sacrament of the Passion of Christ.19 However, the substantial differences in these authoritative commentaries on the parable provided ample space for a vibrant and kaleidoscopic debate on many of its points. To distinguish among early interpretations of the parable, Yves Tissot proposes a division in four different readings: gnosticisante, in which the angels/ devils are the elder brother and humankind the younger brother; éthique, in which the younger brother represents humanity, who returns after the occurrence of original sin; ethnique, in which the elder brother symbolizes the Jews and the younger the Gentiles; and pénitentielle, in which the prodigal son 18

19

See Wailes, Medieval Allegories, pp. 238-39. For an in-depth study of the interpretation of Luke 15 in the first centuries of the Christian era, see Paolo Siniscalco, Mito e storia della salvezza. Ricerche sulle più antiche interpretazioni di alcune parabole evangeliche (Turin, 1971), which focuses on Gnosticism and the Church Fathers until Origen. The connection between Christ and the calf is grounded on the typological reading of sacrifices in the Old Testament; see Siniscalco, Mito e storia, p. 86.

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represents the penitent Christian who sinned and the elder brother the rigorist party inside the Church.20 These interpretations were well known throughout the Middle Ages. For example, Giovanni da Capestrano mentioned all of them in a 1453 sermon.21 However, since the patristic age, exegetes followed two main directions. On the one hand, the allegorical approach read the parable as the history of the relationship between Jews, Gentiles, and Christians. On the other hand, the parable increasingly received a penitential reading, adopting a tropological or moral approach. While in the first case the characters of the parable represented collective identities and served to frame salvation history in general, the latter reading asked the individual believer to identify with the prodigal son and, therefore, served to shape the status of the believer as repentant sinner. Within these two main directions, an array of different exegetical solutions highlighted specific elements in the chosen salvation-historical or penitential explanatory metanarrative. Since the early commentaries on the parable have been the object of considerable scholarship to date, for the purposes of this study, I will note only briefly the main differences among the most influential patristic authors, to provide an idea of the multifaceted early history of the interpretation of the parable. 2.1 Tertullian’s Refusal of a Penitential Interpretation The allegorical and penitential readings of the parable are often interwoven in the commentaries. An example of this can be found in De pudicitia of Tertullian (d. after 220), one of the earliest texts discussing the prodigal son.22 Dating from the Montanist period of his life, Tertullian’s exegesis is underpinned by his theological position on the problem of Christians who have committed the sin of adultery or fornication. To reinforce his intransigent position and to combat opposite opinions, Tertullian radically excluded the possibility of identifying the prodigal son with the Christian sinner. Including this would have allowed for a reconciliation of the lapsi. Instead, as the only permissible 20

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Yves Tissot, “Allégories patristiques de la parabole lucanienne des deux fils (Luc 15, 11-32),” in Bovon and Rouiller, eds., Exegesis, pp. 243-72: 248-54. With minor differences, this division is adopted also by Enrico Cattaneo, “L’interpretazione di Lc 15,11-32 nei Padri della Chiesa,” in Galli, ed., Interpretazione, pp. 67-96. See also, with a few references to the Byzantine tradition, György Geréby, “The Two Sons of the Father: The Salvation-Historical Interpretation on Luke 15,11-32,” in Yossef Schwartz and ‎Volkhard Krech, eds., Religious Apologetics – Philosophical Argumentation (Tübingen, 2004), pp. 335-62. See below pp. 221-22. See Tissot, “Allégories,” pp. 266-71 and Siniscalco, Mito e storia, pp. 121-58. Prior mentions can be found in Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria, who adopted a penitential reading of the parable; see ivi, pp. 69-120 (esp. pp. 113-17).

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meaning, he interpreted the prodigal son as symbol of the pagan people who still do not know God, and the elder son as the pharisaic Jews. Adopting Tissot’s taxonomy, we can say that Tertullian only allowed the ethnique not the pénitentielle reading of the parable.23 Both Tertullian and his opponents (whose position can be retrieved only from Tertullian’s caustic reply) used the parable of the prodigal son to substantiate their opposite theological positions about the possibility or impossibility of reconciliation for a Christian sinner. This perfectly illustrates that – from the earliest interpretations onwards – the exegesis of the parable and the contingent pastoral life of the Church were deeply interconnected, and they mutually influenced each other. De pudicitia 7-10 presents a heated debate on the interpretation of parables in general and the trilogy of Luke 15 in particular. The context for this debate was the controversy on the possibility to accept the penitence of a Christian fallen into adultery and, in a broader sense, the penitential discipline in the Church. Tertullian explicitly said that the exegesis of each biblical text had to be guided by theological positions and not vice versa, thus controlling and limiting the potentially infinite allegorical readings of a biblical passage.24 Uncontrolled allegories were dangerous for the true faith. Therefore, “a wrong interpretation is not a lesser infringement than an erroneous behaviour”.25 Different theologies would result in different interpretations of the parable, as Tertullian’s exegetical itinerary illustrates. In fact, what he affirmed in De pudicitia must be compared with his position in De poenitentia, a work that predates his Montanist positions. In this work, he had read without problems the parable of the prodigal son as a straightforward appeal to conversion and repentance of Christian sinners.26 This earlier text focuses on penitence in general, while the discourse 23

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Tertullian’s key statement reads: “Hic erit prodigus filius, qui numquam retro frugi, qui statim prodigus, quod non statim Christianus”; Tertullian, La Pudicité, 9.17, eds. Claudio Micaelli and Charles Munier, 2 vols (Paris, 1993). See also the introduction, ivi, 1, pp. 9-140 (esp. on the parables, pp. 104-06). “Nos autem quia non ex parabolis materias commentamur, sed ex materiis parabolas interpretamur, nec ualde laboramus omnia in expositione torquere, dum contraria quaeque caueamus”; Tertullian, La Pudicité, 9.1. The necessity of a regula fidei was a principle elaborated in the previous debate on Gnostic exegesis. “Non est leuior transgressio in interpretatione quam in conuersatione”; Tertullian, La Pudicité, 8.9. “Quis ille nobis intelligendus pater? Deus scilicet; tam pater nemo, tam pius nemo. Is ergo te filium suum, etsi acceptum ab eo prodegeris, etsi nudus redieris, recipiet […] si patrem repetas uel offensum, Deliqui, dicens, pater, nec dignus ego iam uocari tuus. Tantum releuat confessio delictum, quantum dissimulatio exaggerat; confessio enim

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of second text concentrates on adultery. Never­theless, the passage of the De pudicitia sounds as a sort of palinode of Tertullian, who had passed to rigorist positions, changing both his theology and exegesis. 2.2 The Allegorical Reading of Jerome In writing a letter in response to a request from Damasus, bishop of Rome, in 383 Jerome provided the first surviving full commentary of this parable.27 He explicitly rejected Tertullian’s reading and reaffirmed that the prodigal son was a symbol of every sinner. Accusing Tertullian of being a novator, the letter implies the antiquity of the penitential reading.28 Nonetheless, when considering the “mystical interpretations”, Jerome recognized in the parable a prophetic announcement of the call of the Gentiles.29 He was well aware of the already existing allegorical and moral readings of the parable and addressed the ­problems involved in both of them, still devoting more attention to the allegorical interpretation. Introducing his comment with a compendium of salvation history, Jerome discussed the relationship between lex and gratia: “Now the law, being firmly devoted to justice, was without mercy. […] But the grace of the Gospel has tempered the severity of the law”.30 Among the properties given to the prodigal son, Jerome especially stressed free will (liberum arbitrium), which is what dif-

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satisfactionis consilium est, dissimulatio contumaciae”; Tertullian, La Pénitence, 8.7-9, ed. Charles Munier (Paris, 1984). On Jerome and his letters see Andrew Cain, The Letters of Jerome: Ascetism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2009), esp. pp. 43-67. “Vnde uehementer admiror Tertullianum in eo libro, quem de pudicitia aduersum paenitentiam scripsit, et sententiam ueterem noua opinione dissoluit […]. Ex quibus omnibus edocemur in publicanis non tam gentilium quam generaliter omnium peccatorum, id est, qui erant et de gentibus et de Iudaeis, accipi posse personas”; Jerome, Epistulae, ed. Isidorus Hilberg, 3 vols, 2nd ed. (Vienna, 1996), 1, pp. 115-16 (epistula 21). Jerome summarized his position by saying: “Hucusque de persona iunioris filii disputatum est, quem secundum praesentem parabolam in publicanis et peccatoribus, qui a domino ad paenitentiam prouocabantur, debemus accipere, secundum mysticos autem intellectus de futura quoque uocatione gentium prophetari”; Jerome, Epistulae, pp. 12930. “Lex quippe iustiti tenax clementiam non habebat […] et austeritatem legis euangelii gratia temperauit”; Jerome, Epistulae, p. 113. Except for small changes introduced to have a more literal translation, I follow the translation provided by Thomas Comerford Lawer, ed., The Letters of St. Jerome. Letters 1-22 (New York, 1963), pp. 110-11. On the importance of this preamble, see Cattaneo, “L’interpretazione,” pp. 94-95.

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ferentiates humans from animals and associates people with God.31 As we will see, this idea of liberum arbitrium as one of the gifts received by the son had a lasting impact on the reading of the parable. Jerome interpreted the hired men (mercenari) negatively as the Jews who remained faithful to the Law but were motivated by earthly rewards or fear. Thus, they are far from perfect, since where fear is, there is no love (an implicit quote from 1 John 4:18). From a salvation history perspective, the father embracing the prodigal son represents God who embraces humanity through the incarnation of the Verbum. This scene shows also God’s prescience and mercy, since the prodigal son is welcomed more thanks to God’s grace than to personal merit (“ex gratia magis quam ex merito”).32 Therefore, Jerome’s letter shows how the interpretation of the parable progressively incorporated key words of major theological debates. Themes like the role of liberum arbitrium, the relationship between lex and gratia, or the prescientia Dei touch on some of the main points of Christian anthropology and soteriology. Once they were connected with the parable, the debates concerning these themes would steer its interpretation in the centuries to come. Another detail that received an interesting interpretation are the seed pods (siliquae), which the prodigal son longs for when he is starving as a swineherd (Luke 15:16). For Jerome, they mean not merely the vices in general, but also Gentile culture that must be carefully filtrated before it can be used without danger by Christians.33 The sentence on the “carmina poetarum, saecularis sapientia, rhetoricorum pompa verborum” as the food of devils would become an influential topos, continuously repeated in any attack on ‘pagan’ culture.34 The 31

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“Dedit liberum arbitrium, dedit mentis propriae uoluntatem, ut uiueret unusquisque non ex imperio dei, sed ex obsequio suo, id est non ex necessitate, sed ex uoluntate, ut uirtus haberet locum, ut a ceteris animantibus distaremus, dum ad exemplum dei permissum est nobis facere quod uelimus”; Jerome, Epistulae, p. 118. See Jerome, Epistulae, pp. 124-26. Ambrose likewise referred to the prescentia of God and his knowledge of the secrets of souls: “Occurrit tibi, qui audit te intra mentis secreta tractantem”; Ambrose of Milan, Traité sur l’Évangile de S. Luc, ed. Gabriel Tissot, 2 vols (Paris, 1956-58), 2, pp. 94-95. Jerome drew on the allegorical exegesis of a Deuteronomy passage on the rules to marry a foreign woman who has been captured (Deuteronomy 21:12-13) to explain how a ­Christian has to negotiate Gentile culture. As introduction on this vast theme, see Manlio Simonetti, Cristianesimo antico e cultura greca (Rome, 1990). See Jerome, Epistulae, p. 122. On this medieval topos see Bernhard Blumenkranz, “Siliquae porcorum (Cf. Luc. XV,16). L’exégèse médiévale et les sciences profanes,” in Mélanges d’histoire du Moyen Âge dédiés à la mémoire de Luis Halphen (Paris, 1951), pp. 11-17 and Philip Rousseau, “Christian Culture and the Swine’s Husks: Jerome, Augustine, and Paulinus,” in The Limits of Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in

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reference to this interpretation of the siliquae plays, for instance, a strategic role in late medieval works such as the Lucula noctis of the Dominican Giovanni Dominici (d. 1419) and the Sermo de filio prodigo of the reformer and humanist Nicolas de Clamanges (d. 1437), a disciple of Pierre d’Ailly.35 The interpretation of the elder brother also presents some features that would become tropes. Jerome had to solve the problems that came from the identification of the elder brother with the Jews. In the story, the elder son presents himself as just and faithful to the father, who does not deny it and replies: “My son, you are with me always; everything I have is yours” (Luke 15:30). Jerome questioned the truth of the elder brother’s words. The commentary stresses that envy is a serious sin; therefore, the elder son did not respect the commandments of God and, for this reason, he lied to the father (“nec mirandum est patri eum ausum fuisse mentiri, qui fratri potuit inuidere”).36 Moreover, the elder brother is associated with the negative characters of other parables. His placement in the field, rather than at home, suggests a connection with the parable of the great supper (Luke 14:16-24), in which one of the guests refuses the invitation, justifying himself by his duty in the fields. The elder brother’s envy is linked with the protests of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), while his accusations towards his brother are compared

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Honor of R.A. Markus, eds. William E. Kligshirn and Mark Vessey (Ann Arbor, 1999), pp. 172-87. See Giovanni Dominici, Lucula noctis, ed. Edmund Hunt (Notre Dame, 1940), pp. 119-20. The reference to the prodigal son “qui dissipaverat omnem substantiam sue intellective potentie vivendo luxuriose et gentilium dicta sequendo” occurs in a strategic point of the work, namely at the beginning of chapter 13. Chapter 13 exposes the unica ratio that contrasts the argumentations supporting the use of ‘pagan’ literature by Christians; see on this Claudio Mésoniat, Poetica theologia: La ‘Lucula noctis’ di Giovanni Dominici e le dispute letterarie tra ’300 e ’400 (Rome, 1984), pp. 56-58. Mésoniat refers also to Nicolas of Clamanges’ sermon (pp. 44 and 55-56). Beside the critique against “qui in poeticis fabulis authorumque gentilium libris aetatem conterunt”, it presents a vivid invective against the “tumidi philosophi, verbosi sophistae, qui ad sobrietatem sapere nescientes humilem sacri eloquii disciplinam, sed mysteriis gravidam, suo ingenio indignam iudicant, et circa pugnas verborum, inextercabilesque sterilium subtilitatum labyrinthos studia consumunt”; Nicolas de Clamanges, Tractatus super exhortatione peccatoris ad poenitentiam (Paris: Guy Marchant, [c.1490]). This pamphlet gathers together two sermons (the second on Jesus healing the blind man of Jericho), and testifies to an early diffusion of this sermon on the prodigal son, which dates from between 1402 and 1414. Further reference can be found in Christopher M. Bellitto, Nicolas de Clamanges: Spirituality, Personal Reform, and Pastoral Renewal on the Eve of the Reformations (Washington, DC, 2001). Jerome, Epistulae, p. 134.

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with those of the Pharisee against the publican (Luke 18:9-14).37 This network of negative characters casts a dark shadow on the elder brother’s words and facilitates his identification with the Jews. Insisting on this perspective, Jerome wrote that the elder brother’s request of a young goat (haedum) means that Jews never received a redemptor. Redeemer is considered here in a political sense. Jerome put these words in the mouth of the elder brother: “Lo, we [the Jews] are still subject to the Roman empire. No prophet, no priest, no just person was sacrificed for us. Yet, for that spoilt son – that is, for the Gentiles – for sinners the most glorious blood was shed”.38 The new situation at the end of the fourth century, in particular after the 380 edict of Thessalonica, allowed Jerome to contrast the subjection of the Jews with the freedom (and increasing dominance) of the Christians within the Roman Empire. Moreover, by mentioning the parable of sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46) in connection with the elder son’s request of a young goat, Jerome made an allusion that links Jews and the Antichrist at the end of time.39 After Jerome, Ambrose also interpreted this detail in a similar way, adding a grim allusion to the fault (criminum) of the Jews who chose Barabbas, the goat, and condemned Christ, the lamb.40 From this moment onwards, the tools for a violently anti-Jewish reading of parable were at disposal of exegetes and preachers. 2.3 “Filii sumus, festinamus ad Patrem”: Ambrose’s Penitential Reading The commentary on Luke by Ambrose (d. 397) can be considered the most influential patristic text on the penitential reading of the parable.41 The specificity of this commentary depends upon its origin in preaching, hence its exegesis 37 38

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See Jerome, Epistulae, p. 133. On the practice to explain a parable through other parables, see Tissot, “Allégories,” p. 260. “Ecce adhuc Romano imperio subiacemus. Non propheta, non sacerdos, non iustus quisquam immolatus est nobis, et pro luxurioso filio, id est pro gentibus, pro peccatoribus, totius creaturae gloriosus sanguis effusus est”; Jerome, Epistulae, p. 135. “Tu uero in fine saeculi ipse tibi es haedum immolaturus antichristum et cum amicis tuis, spiritibus immundis, eius carne saturandus”; Jerome, Epistolae, pp. 135-36. See Ambrose, Traité, 2, p. 98. On the antijuive approach of Jerome and Ambrose and the philosémite approach of Augustine (see below, p. 34), see Tissot, “Allégories,” pp. 253-54. See also Geréby, The Two Sons. See Wailes, Medieval Allegories, pp. 242-43 and Tissot, “Allégories,” pp. 255-59. On Ambrose’s commentary on Luke, see Celestino Corsato, La ‘Expositio euangelii secundum Lucam’ di sant’Ambrogio. Ermeneutica, simbologia, fonti (Rome, 1993), esp. pp. 7-10 and 279-87. For more recent references, see Maria Doerfler, “Ambrose’s Jews: The Creation of Judaism and Heterodox Christianity in Ambrose of Milan’s Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam,” Church History 80 (2011), 749-72.

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has a stronger commitment to pastoral care than to theological discussion. Ambrose mentioned the allegory of Jews and Gentiles only at the end of the text, as an alternative reading. His homiletic commentary aimed instead at conveying a message on the mercy of God and the possibility of repentance for sinners. He exhorted his listeners to identify with the prodigal son: “we are sons; we must hasten to go to the Father”.42 The bishop of Milan appealed directly to the audience with pathos, using the second-person singular repeatedly: “Until now you have feared insult, he gives you back dignity; you as a petitioner revered him afraid, he gives you a kiss; you have feared words of blame, he prepares a banquet for you”.43 Altogether, the text results as a penitential sermon aiming to guide the listeners towards full confidence in God and a sincere confession of sins. Ambrose commented on all three parables of Luke 15 together. This gave him the opportunity to focus not only on the role of God and Christ in the salvation of the sinners, but also on that of the Church, which is identified with the woman who searches the lost drachma: Who are the father, the shepherd, and the woman? Are not they God the Father, Christ, and the Church? Christ carries you on his body, since he has burdened himself with your sins; the Church searches for you; the Father welcomes you. Like a pastor who brings you back, a mother who searches for you, a father who clothes you. First mercy, second intercession, third reconciliation. Each detail squares with the others: the Redeemer helps; the Church intercedes; the Creator is reconciled.44 The Church’s active role is asserted by depicting the music and the song of the feast mentioned in the parable as the hymns of the liturgy, and by saying to the sinner: “You have to be confident since […] for you the Church prays and the people cry”.45 Furthermore, Ambrose identified the house of the father with the Church, which becomes the point of arrival of any penitential itinerary: “It is not enough to announce your good purpose if you are not coming to the 42 43 44

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“Filii sumus, festinamus ad Patrem”; Ambrose, Traité, 2, p. 87. “Tu adhuc iniuriam metuis, ille restituit dignitatem; tu supplicium uereris, ille osculum defert; tu conuicium times, adornat ille conuiuium”; Ambrose, Traité, 2, p. 89. “Qui sunt isti, pater, pastor, mulier? Nonne deus pater, Christus, ecclesia? Christus te suo corpore uehit, qui tua in se peccata suscepit, quaerit ecclesia, recipit pater. Quasi pastor reuehit, quasi mater inquirit, quasi pater uestit. Prima misericordia, secunda suffragatio, tertia reconciliatio. Singula singulis quadrant: redemptor subuenit, ecclesia suffragatur, auctor reconciliatur”; Ambrose, Traité, 2, p. 87. “Confitere magis ut […] roget pro te ecclesia, illacrimet populus”; Ambrose, Traité, 2, p. 93.

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father. Where will you look for him, where will you find him? […]. Rise up, run to the Church. There is the Father, there is the Son, and there is the Holy Spirit”.46 As did Jerome, Ambrose interpreted the hired servants of the parable as the Jews. Yet, Ambrose also mentioned another kind of mercenarii: the good mercenaries called by God to work, among whom first of all are the apostles.47 From this perspective, Ambrose developed a digression on the parable of the laborers in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). While Jerome had made a polemical reference to it, Ambrose used this story to present briefly the different ages of the world: the hora prima was the creation; tertia was Noah’s age; sexta the age of Abraham and the patriarchs; nona was the age of the Law and the prophets; and undecima was the time of the saints.48 Hence, in the midst of a penitential narrative, the bishop of Milan inserted a salvation-historical digression. 2.4 Augustine: Exegesis and Self-Narrative Reading Augustine (d. 430), it becomes clear that his use of the parable was not limited to biblical commentaries or sermons, but also played a strategic role as a narrative of self-understanding in his Confessions.49 He highlighted as a key point that the prodigal son returned to God only through a redire in semetipsum.50 As scholars note, there is a relationship of imitation between the prodigal son’s internal monologue and Augustine’s Confessions.51 A couple of 46

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“Sed non satis est dicere nisi ad patrem uenias. Vbi illum requiras, ubi inuenias? […] Exsurge ergo, curre ad ecclesiam; hic est pater, hic est filius, hic est spiritus sanctus”; Ambrose, Traité, 2, p. 94. Also Augustine overlapped the house of the father and the Church, see Augustine, Quaestionum Euangeliorum libri duo, 2.33.1, ed. Almut Mutzenbecher (Turnhout, 1955). “Bonus mercenarius Petrus, Iohannes, Iacobus, quibus dicitur: Venite, faciam uos piscatores hominum [Matthew 4:19]; isti non siliquis, sed panibus abundant”; Ambrose, Traité, 2, p. 91. Ambrose, Traité, 2, pp. 92-93. This interpretation stems from Origen; see Wailes, Medieval Allegories, pp. 138-39. See Leo Charles Ferrari, “The Theme of the Prodigal Son in Augustine’s Confessions,” Recherches Augustiniennes 12 (1977), 105-18. Ferrari records eleven passages of Augustine which use this parable. “Et reversus est ad se, prius ad se, et sic ad patrem”; Augustine, Sermo 112/A, in Miscellanea Agostiniana: testi e studi, 2 vols (Rome, 1930-31), 1, pp. 256-64: 257. For an excellent analysis of this sermon, see Marie O. Bruhat, “La parabole du fils prodigue dans la prédication d’Augustin: Sermo Caillau-Saint-Yves 2.11 (112A),” Graphè 18 (2009), 37-54. Bruhat, “La parabole,” p. 43, which underlines that Sermon 112/A and the Confessions date from almost the same years and how, in both texts, the interior monologue of the protagonist is based on the appropriation of Psalms’ quotations: “C’est donc à travers son

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passages can be mentioned here as examples of the overlap between the story of the prodigal son and the spiritual autobiography of Augustine. At the end of the first book of the Confessions, Augustine recalled the wandering of the prodigal son as the image of everyone who has left God.52 Moreover, Augustine mentioned the trilogy of the parables of Luke 15 in the context of his reaction to the news of the conversion of Victorinus, which came shortly before his own conversion.53 Another key reference to the prodigal son recurs when the Confessions describes Augustine’s investigation of human erudition. Since the goods of human science were separated from the knowledge of God, their research is paralleled with the squandering journey of the prodigal son. Here, Augustine applied to himself Jerome’s interpretation of the siliquae porcorum. It was not for my profit but rather for my harm, that I laboured so to have so great a part of my substance in my own power, and preserved my strength but not for You, going from You into a far country to waste my substance upon loves that were only harlots. For what did it profit me to have good ability since I did not use it well?54 The most striking characteristic of this passage is Augustine’s identification of the prodigal son as an alter ego to depict a phase of his own life as a restless venture abroad in search of fame and fortune. Such a quest ended with his re-

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expérience personnelle qu’Augustin interprète le récit du fils prodigue, mais une expérience ressaisie à travers les Psaumes” (p. 45). “Non enim pedibus aut a spatiis locorum itur abs te aut reditur ad te, aut vero filius ille tuus minor equos vel currus vel naves quaesivit, aut avolavit pinna visibili, aut moto poplite iter egit, ut in longinqua regione vivens prodige dissiparet quod dederas proficiscenti, dulcis pater quia dederas, et egeno redeunti dulcior; in affectu ergo libidinoso, id enim est tenebroso, atque id est longe a vultu tuo”; Augustine, Confessions, 1.18, trans. Carolyn J.-B. Hammond, 2 vols (Cambridge, MA, 2014-16). On neoplatonic influences in this passage, see Cattaneo, “L’interpretazione,” pp. 91-92. Augustine, Confessions, 8.3. “Itaque mihi non ad usum sed ad perniciem magis valebat, quia tam bonam partem substantiae meae sategi habere in potestate et fortitudinem meam non ad te custodiebam, sed profectus sum abs te in longinquam regionem, ut eam dissiparem in meretrices cupiditates. Nam quid mihi proderat bona res non utenti bene?”; Augustine, Confessions, 4.16. I use the translation provided by Augustine, Confessions, trans. F.J. Sheed and intr. Peter Brown (Indianapolis, 2006). On this passage, see Ferrari, “The Theme of the Prodigal Son,” pp. 106-09. Already Jerome cast himself as the prodigal son (prodigus filius) and as a lost sheep (aberrans ovis) in his Epistula 2, written around 374; see Cain, The Letters, pp. 13-21.

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turn to the native land, from which he had departed impatiently.55 Therefore, the parable was used as a narrative of self-understanding – a solution that later became a powerful pattern. Furthermore, the way in which Augustine referred to the prodigal son clearly shows that one could refer to the parable without mentioning the elder son at all – as we will see in many medieval texts. Some details of the Augustinian commentary on the parable, as presented in his Quaestionum Evangeliorum libri duo, merit additional consideration. Augustine also identified the older brother with the Jews; however, in a positive way, as the only people who did not worship idols (“permanserunt in unius dei cultu”).56 Such an interpretation is the key to solve the problem of the fidelity to the father that the elder son claims. Thus, many Jews refuse to enter the Church as, in the parable, the elder son refuses to enter the house. In addition, the servant who explains the reason for the feast to the elder son represents the Bible, which offers clear arguments that explain the call of the Gentiles to salvation. Only God, however, will eventually convince the Jews to partake in the feast and this will happen at the end of the world.57 While Jerome’s interpretation postulated a negative reply from the elder brother to the invitation of the father, Augustine did not solve the tension of the story and left it open to an eschatological solution.58 From this perspective, he firmly refused Jerome and Ambrose’s connection between the elder son’s request of a goat and the Antichrist. According to Augustine, this did not fit at all with the father’s statement: “Son, you are always with me” (Luke 15:31). The bishop of Hippo also underlined the importance of preaching by saying that the prodigal son – i.e. the sinner – can return to the father’s house only 55

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Ferrari, “The Theme of the Prodigal Son,” p. 118 stresses the importance of the geographical return from Italy to Augustine’s native region. The (autobiographical) interpretation of the adventure of the prodigal son as a roundabout intellectual itinerary found expression also in Augustine, Quaestionum Euangeliorum, 2.33.1, in which the prodigal son who longs for the pods represents the human attempt to find the truth far away from God. Augustine, Quaestionum Euangeliorum, 2.33.1. Yet, this fidelity is mixed with earthly desires: “Quamquam enim tamquam in agro positus iste filius terrena desideraret, ab uno tamen deo ista desiderabat bona, quamuis communia cum pecoribus”; ivi, 2.33.5. On this, see Karl Theme, “Augustinus und der ‘älter Bruder’. Zu patristischen Auslegung von Lk 15,25-32,” in Universitas. Dienst an Wahrheit und Leben: Festschrift für Bischof Dr. Albert Stohr, ed. Ludwig Lenhart, 2 vols (Mainz, 1960), 1, pp. 79-85. “Non enim quasi mentientem redarguit, sed secum perseuerantiam eius adprobans ad perfruitionem potioris atque iocundioris exultationis inuitat”; Augustine, Quaestionum Evangeliorum, 2.33.5. “Augustin ne résout pas la tension du récit au moyen d’un préjugé antijuif, il la maintient comme une invitation au changement”; Bruhat, “La parabole,” p. 53.

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because the Gospel is announced. He distinguished between two types of preachers: those who seek temporal interests as the hired men in the parable and the reconciliationis praedicatores. The latter group is represented by the servants of the father, who carry the new clothes to the prodigal son.59 Finally, Augustine repeated the topos of the embrace of the father as a figure of the easy yoke of Christ (Matthew 11:29). In one of his sermons, using a powerful image, he said that such a yoke does not weigh one down, instead it sustains the person who accepts it, like the feathers of a bird, which are not a load but are vital for flying.60 This was also Augustine’s self-representation of his life as a redeemed prodigal son. “Delicta non videt vis amoris”: Chrysologus’ Pastoral Use of the Parable Shortly after Augustine’s death, a cycle of five sermons on the prodigal son by Peter Chrysologus (d. 450) offers an insight in the pastoral use of the parable. The bishop of Ravenna’s preference for the penitential approach is evident from his decision to devote only the last of his five sermons on this parable to its allegorical reading.61 Evidently, the penitential reading better suited his priorities and the needs of his audience. The first four sermons follow the parable step by step: the first is dedicated to the departure of the prodigal son, the second to his return to the father, the third focuses on the father’s love, and the fourth on the elder brother. Chrysologus paid attention to some psychological aspects of the story. In the first sermon, for instance, he pointed out that the prodigal son’s plea for his share of the property showed that he desired his father’s death.62 The preacher 2.5

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Augustine, Quaestionum Euangeliorum, 2.33.2-3. “Tam levis est sarcina Christi, ut non solum non premat, sed etiam allevet. […] Non est talis sarcina Christi: expedit enim eam portare, ut subleveris; si illam deponas, magis premeris. […] Forte invenitur aliquod exemplum, unde etiam corporaliter quod dico videatis […]. Advertite hoc in avibus. Omnis avis portat pennas suas […]. Oneratas putas? Detrahant onus, et cadent. Quanto minus sarcinam illam avis portavit, tanto minus volavit”; Augustine, Sermo 112/A, p. 259. Also Ambrose and Jerome had developed a connection between the embrace of the father and Matthew 11:29. He distinguished between historia and arcanum mysterium; see Peter Chrysologus, Collectio sermonum, ed. Alexandre Olivar, 3 vols (Turnhout, 1975-82), 1, p. 30 (sermon 3). His sermons were gathered by Felix, archbishop of Ravenna (d. 725). For the recent literature on Chrysologus’ preaching see Nathan Ristuccia, “Law and Legal Documents in the Sermons of Peter Chrysologus,” Journal of Late Antiquity 4 (2011), 124-56. “Et ideo cupit uiuentis patris liberalitate gaudere, qui ditari noluerat facultatibus decedentis”; Chrysologus, Collectio sermonum, 1, p. 16.

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applied the events of the parable to the lives of his listeners, by warning them against the danger of wealth, which could destroy any human relationship.63 The first sermon ends with an appeal to remain in the house of God the Father, on the lap of the mother (i.e. the Church), and in the embrace of one’s relatives, who are the other Christians. The oversight of other believers is presented as a deterrent against sin: their eyes are like lamps (“quot oculi, tot lucernae”) against the darkness, which is considered as favourable to sin.64 While in the house – the Church – this (positive) supervision is provided by the eyes of the other faithful, even “in the far country” a sinner does not escape the eyes of God (“diuini patris oculos non refugit”).65 In the third sermon the focus is on the love of the father, summarized by twice repeating the line: “the power of love does not look at sins” (“delicta non uidet uis amoris”).66 Thus, the prodigal son serves as an exemplum that teaches the audience to be confident in returning to God. Concerning the elder brother, the fourth sermon briefly analyses his vices: envy, jealousy, and also avarice. Chrysologus refuted the elder son’s claim that he never received even a young goat; in fact, like his brother, he received his share of the property at the beginning of the story.67 In the allegorical reading of the parable (sermon 5), the initial division of the property between the two sons is subject to an original exegesis. The younger son, i.e. the Gentiles, received five beneficia naturae (“habitus, sermo, scientia, ratio, iudicium”) that constitute the law of nature, while the other son, i.e. the Jews, received the five books of the Pentateuch, the law of God. The properties of God were shared in parts different in quality but equal in number (“per quos substantia inpar merito, numero par esset”) and function, since both laws were made to guide humanity to the knowledge of God.68

63 64 65 66 67 68

“Caeterum facultates unitatem scindunt, fraternitatem separant, cognationem spargunt, parentum perdunt et uiolant caritatem”; Ibid., p. 16. Ibid., 1, p. 19. Ibid., 1, p. 23. Here, there is an implicit reference to Psalm 138. Ibid., 1, p. 28. See Ibid., 1, pp. 31-35. Ibid., 1, p. 37.

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Into the Early Middle Ages: From Caesarius of Arles to the Pseudo-Eligius

Several authors from late antiquity (re-)interpreted the parable of the prodigal son by presenting it within their own historical context.69 For instance, sermon 163 of Caesarius of Arles (d. 542) shows how elements taken from Augustine’s exegesis, as well as from Jerome and Ambrose, were summarized and adapted for actual homilies in the changing pastoral context of sixth-century Gaul.70 In the early medieval period, exegetes contributed to the process of selection, organization, and re-elaboration of the patristic legacy. Their main effort was to make this heritage accessible by harmonizing previous commentaries, homilies, and treatises and transforming them “into consistent, running com­ mentaries”.71 In order to provide an idea of the exegetical works of this period, I shall briefly analyse three texts: the influential commentary on the prodigal son by Bede, a homily later included in the Homilarius of Paul the Deacon, and a sermon of Pseudo-Eligius of Noyon.72 In the prologue of his commentary, which had a significant role in the later reception history of Luke, Bede (d. 735) explicitly acknowledged his debt to the Church Fathers. Alongside the text, Bede introduced a system of marginal notes to make his sources visible. Still, he actively engaged with the patristic texts, since “he subjected his sources to an endless series of adaptation, condensing and amplifying, reorganizing and explaining”.73 Bede’s interpretation of the prodigal son drew abundantly on the previous tradition, and yet, also introduced interesting new features. For instance, he stressed the role of the 69 70

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Wailes, Medieval Allegories, p. 238, provides references to Paterius, Alulfus of Tournai, and Isidore. Further references in Tissot, “Allégories,” p. 246. See Caesarius of Arles, Sermones, ed. German Morin, 2 vols (Turnhout, 1953), 2, pp. 668-72. On Caesarius’ sermons, see Moreno Campetella, “Sermo humilis e comunicazione di massa nei Sermones di Cesario di Arles,” in Evangelizzazione dell’Occidente dal terzo all’ottavo secolo. Lingua e linguaggi, dibattito teologico, eds. Lucia Bacci and Innocenzo Mazzini (Rome, 2001), pp. 75-104 and Marie Anne Mayeski, “An Urban Bishop in a Changing World: The Exegesis of Caesarius of Arles,” Perspectives in Religious Studies 32 (2005), 401-19. Frans van Liere, An Introduction to the Medieval Bible (Cambridge, 2014), p. 148. On sermons and homilaries of this period, see Sermo doctorum: Compilers, Preachers, and Their Audiences in the Early Medieval West, eds. Maximilian Diesenberger, Yitzhak Hen and Marianne Pollheimer (Turnhout, 2013) and Thomas N. Hall, “The Early Medieval Sermon,” in Kienzle, ed., The Sermon, pp. 203-69. Arthur Glenn Holder, “Bede and the New Testament,” in The Cambridge Companion to Bede, ed. Scott De Gregorio (Cambridge, 2010), pp. 142-55: 146-49.

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prodigal son’s conscience as the most interior part of a human being, accessible only to God: “I have sinned against heaven, before the angels and the soul of the saints […] and against you, that is in the closed room of his conscience, which only God’s eyes could penetrate”.74 Therefore, in the conversion process the initiative of God takes a central place. Furthermore, also in this case the house of the father is identified as the Church, where one can “legitimately and fruitfully confess” his or her sins.75 Finally, Bede elaborated on the distinction between servus, mercenarius, and filius – and this became a recognizable topos in later texts. The condition of the son is superior, yet these three types of persons are not irreconcilable with each other, since the exegete connected each of them with a theological virtue: Between the son, the mercenary, and the slave there is a remarkable difference. The slave represents those who refrain from sinning out of the fear of hell or of the law. The mercenary represents those who do that for hope and desire of the kingdom of heaven. The son represents those who do that for the attachment to good itself and for the love of virtues. […] Faith is what makes [us] reject the corruption of vices for the fear of the future judgment and torments. Hope removes our mind from the present things and it disregards all the pleasures of the body for the expectation of the celestial prize. Love fires up the ardour of our mind to ponder the death of Christ and the fruit of spiritual virtues, and it makes us hate anything that is contrary those.76 74

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“Peccaui autem in caelum, coram spiritibus angelicis santique animabus […] coram te, uero in ipso conscientiae interioris conclaui qua Dei solius oculi penetrare ualebant”; Bede, In Lucae Euangelium Expositio, ed. David Hurst (Turnhout, 1960), p. 289. “Venire ad patrem est in ecclesia constitui per fidem ubi iam possit esse peccatorum legi­ tima et fructuosa confessio”; Bede, In Lucae, p. 290. The sentence derives from Augustine’s Quaestionum Euangeliorum, 2.33.2. “Intellegit namque inter filium, mercenarium at seruum non minimam esse distantiam. Seruum uidelicet esse eum qui adhuc metu gehennae siue presentium legum a uitiis temperat. Mercenarium qui spe atque desiderio regni caelorum. Filium qui affectu boni ipsius atque amore uirtutum. […] Fides namque est quae futuri iudicii ac suppliciorum metu uitiorum facit contagia declinare. Spes, quae mentem nostram de praesentibus auocans, uniuersas corporis uoluptates caelestium praemiorum exspectatione contemnit. Caritas quae nos ad mortem Christi et spiritalium uirtutum fructum mentis ardore succendens, quidquid illis contrarium est, toto facit odio detestari”; Bede, In Lucae, pp. 29091. Ambrose had touched on this idea adding a fourth status, that of the friend, and stressing the passage from mercenarius to amicus on the basis of John 15:4: “Nouit esse distantiam inter filios, amicos, mercennarios, seruos. Filius per lauacrum, amicus per uirtutem, mercennarius per laborem, seruus per timorem. Sed etiam ex seruis et mercen­-

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Bede did not pinpoint these different stages clearly (servus, mercenarius, filius) in the prodigal son’s life. Yet, this idea was further developed by an anonymous ninth-century homily that was heavily dependent on Bede’s commentary. This homily circulated at large since it was introduced in the manuscript tradition of the Homilarium composed by Paul the Deacon (d. c.799).77 It clearly depicts three different steps marking the evolution of the prodigal son during his journey back to the father: This prodigal man first, like a servant who returns to himself, begins to fear the torment of dire hunger. Then, willing to return to his father, he begins to think about the mercenary state. Finally, after his father ran to him and embraced and kissed him, he forgets the state of the servant, forgets also the salary of the mercenary, and immediately he begins to take care only of his inheritance, as a son of the father.78 In this way, the prodigal son becomes a symbol for the three different stages of the life of a believer. In his exemplary journey, he not only leaves sin behind, but he also arrives at the fullness of Christian life. His example served to portray a dynamic identity, a transformation − or, in Christian terminology, a conversion.

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nariis fiunt amici, iuxta quod scriptum est: Vos amici mei estis […] iam non dico uos seruos”; Ambrose, Traité, 2, p. 94. Paul the Deacon’s Homilarium is one of the most important medieval collections of homilies. It was made at the request of Charlemagne, to function as an official collection in the context of the Carolingian liturgical reforms. Originally, this collection of homilies did not cover the weekdays of Lent; see Réginald Grégoire, Homéliaires liturgiques médiévaux: analyse des manuscrits (Spoleto, 1980), pp. 423-78. Homilies for Lenten days (among which this sermon) were included in some manuscripts in the ninth century; see AiméGeorges Martimort, Les lectures liturgiques et leurs livres (Turnhout, 1992), pp. 87-89 and Hall, “The Early Medieval Sermon,” p. 222. For early examples of the presence of the homily on the prodigal son in homilaries in France, Catalogne, and Germany, see Raymond Étaix, Homéliaires patristiques latins: receuil d’études de manuscrits médiévaux (Paris, 1994), pp. 254, 466, and 610. “Ergo prodigus iste primo quasi servus ad se reversus, dirae famis coepit supplicia formidare. Mox reverti volens ad patrem, de statu mercenarii coepit cogitare. Postquam vero occurrens pater amplexatus est eum et osculatus, oblitus statum servi, oblitus et mercedem mercenarii, sola iam de haereditate coepit sollicitus esse filius patris”; Paul the Deacon, Homiliarium liber, PL 95:1260 (sermon 87). The text of the Patrologia latina derives from a 1539 edition and contains an expanded version of the original Homilarium, which scholars have reconstructed (see previous note). It reflects the complex and dynamic history of this sermon collection.

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The Homilarium, in its polymorphic form, was present throughout the medieval period (and far beyond) as a collection used in the everyday religious life, both as a series of lessons for the liturgical office and as a body of model sermons. Its readings were often part of the night office of the Church, thus shaping the aural landscape of monks and clerics. It was a voice present – as a liturgical and homiletic basso continuo – in the life of the Church. Beyond the differences between homilies and commentaries, a central issue is their actual use. For example, a late ninth-century sermon by Pseudo-Eligius of Noyon reworks part of Bede’s commentary on the prodigal son and perfectly demonstrates this point.79 In this case, the novelty was not the interpretation as such, but predominantly its liturgical setting and function. In fact, the author introduced these materials on the conversion of the prodigal son and the banquet in a homily for Holy Thursday. This was the customary day for the reconciliation of public penitents, thus the sermon provides “an insight into the penitential practice of the late Carolingian Church” and into the religious instruction given to an audience composed by clerics and laypeople.80 Imme­ diately before the section on the prodigal son, the preacher directly addressed the group of penitents who – after a period of ritual exclusion – were ready to be readmitted to the Church’s celebrations.81 They were invited to identify with the prodigal son and, now that their period of penance and atonement had been concluded, to participate with renewed spirit in the Eucharistic banquet solemnly celebrated that day. The Eucharist was symbolically prefigurated by the fatted calf of the parable. As we will see, while in the following centuries the penitential practice of the Church changed and progressively focused on the aural confession, also the pastoral use of the prodigal son adapted to this new penitential scheme.

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See James C. McCune, “Rethinking the Pseudo-Eligius Sermon Collection,” Early Medieval Europe 16 (2008), 445-76. McCune points out that part of this sermon borrows from a sermon of Heiric of Auxerre (d. 877), which in turn was based on Bede’s commentary. McCune, “Rethinking,” p. 462. On early medieval penitential practices, see Rob Meens, Penance in Medieval Europe, 600-1200 (Cambridge, 2014). “Nunc ad vos sermo noster dirigitur, quos mater Ecclesia quasi non suos recognoscens ob foeditatem scelerum vestrorum dudum a se repulit; modo vero, quia Domino per dignos poenitentiae fructus placuistis mundantes vos, quantum humana fragilitas permittit, ab omni inquinamento carnis ac spiritus, per crebra jejunia et afflictiones corporum, quasi jam suos ad se revocat”; Pseudo-Eligius of Noyon, Homiliae, PL 87:620 (homily 8).

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Twelfth-Century Monastic Readings

In this overview of the interpretations on the parable of the prodigal son, we pass now almost directly from the ninth to the twelfth century, bypassing about two centuries. This is not to say that the authors of that period were only collectors repeating the previous tradition. Such an assumption would be simplistic and a more in-depth study would reveal their specific nuances. Still, the commentaries and homilies on the parable briefly discussed thus far have provided us with a sufficiently multifaceted panorama. Moreover, several of these texts are those that would act as the main reference points in later periods, together with the new exegetical tools produced in the cathedral schools and universities. Yet, before turning the latter kind of texts, we have to consider how the parable was ingeniously appropiated by some of the most emblematic voices of the vibrant and differentiated monastic world of the twelfth century, which showed a growing attention to this biblical narrative and displayed the cultural tools to propose innovative approaches to it.82 4.1 Bernard of Clairvaux’s Parable of the Son of the King The intriguing world of the so-called parabolae of Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153) has been studied by Mette Birkedal Bruun, who investigated the spiritual topography that the Cistercian abbot mapped out for an intended audience of novices and monks.83 One of these fascinating texts, the parabola or sermo on the son of the king, exploits the itinerary of the prodigal son to unfold a description of the complex and dynamic spiritual journey of all humanity, every person, and each monk.84 By paraphrasing the great biblical narrative of lapse and salvation, the story plays with the knowledge the listeners are supposed to have of biblical passages, such as the story on original sin and the parable of the prodigal son, and betrays the nature of its intended audience. Bernard’s 82

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As an introduction on monastic sermons, see Carolyn Muessig, ed., Medieval Monastic Preaching (Leiden, 1998) and Beverly Mayne Kienzle, “The Twelfth-Century Monastic Sermon,” in Kienzle, ed., The Sermon, pp. 271-324. For bibliographical references to texts that are not directly considered here, such as the Commentary on Luke of Bruno of Segni (d. 1123) and the Unum in quatuor of Zacharias Chrysopolitanus (d. 1155), see Wailes, Medie­val Allegories, p. 238. On these texts, their literary genre, and the discussion of the medieval parables, see Bruun, Parables, pp. 135-164. As an introduction to the vast literature on Bernard, see Brian Patrick McGuire and Mette Birkedal Bruun, eds., A Companion to Bernard of Clairvaux (Leiden, 2011). On these three levels of reading, see Bruun, Parables, pp. 204-05 and, for the analysis of this parable, pp. 167-206.

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dramatic narrative interacts with these texts, not only by means of transparent references or quotations, but also with sudden turns and the insertion of new characters. These features surprise the audience and make the plot far more elaborate and lively. The result is a creative mimesis, or even a parody, of the story of the prodigal son. Bernard’s parable opens by retelling the original edenic state of humanity, which is personified as the son of God, the king. Unlike the prodigal son, this son had no siblings and did not request his share of the inheritance, but God provided him with free will “so that he could do well not forced but voluntarily”.85 Humanity, however, exited “the paradise of good conscience” (“de paradiso bonae conscientie”) in search of new experiences (“nova quaerens”) by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil against the prohibition of God. Here the narrative progressively turns from the Genesis story to the parable of the prodigal son. The son of the king becomes a wayfarer and, as a knight errant into the wilderness in search of some adventure, he roamed randomly through a symbolic landscape: “the foolish boy began to wander through mountains of heights [i.e. symbol of pride], valleys of curiosity, fields of licentiousness, woods of lust, swamps of fleshly delights, and rough rivers of secular cares”.86 His aimless journey was interrupted by the sudden arrival of the “old robber” (“antiquus praedo”) who offered the fruits of disobedience to the wandering puer and then, once he obtained his agreement, assaulted him, tied his legs and arms with the strong rope of earthly desires, threw him into the ship of treacherous security, and transported him into “the distant region of unlikeness” (“in longinquam regionem dissimilitudinis”). The “distant region” is undoubtedly an intended reference to the parable of the prodigal son.87 However, in this retelling of the story, there is a sort of spiritual kidnapping of humanity. In comparison with the biblical text, the process that leads the son to a quasibestial life and his state of slavery are intensified. He ends up eating the same pods as the swine (“siliquas porcorum manducare”) and, finally, he is depicted 85

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“Et ne quid deesset bonis eius, etiam liberum arbitrium ei indulsit, ut bonum eius voluntarium esset, non coactum”; Bernard of Clairvaux, Sancti Bernardi Opera, eds. Jean Leclercq and Henri Richais, 8 vols (Rome, 1957-77), 6/2, p. 261. “[…] coepit vagare puer insipiens per montes altitudinis, per valles curiositatis, per campos licentiae, per nemora luxuriae, per paludes voluptatum carnalium, per fluctus curarum saecularium”; Bernard of Clairvaux, Opera, 6/2, p. 261. On possible connections with courtly literature and on the negative connotation of wandering, see Bruun, Parables, pp. 172-79. “In this passage, Parable 1 reveals itself as a parabolization of the parable of the prodigal son”; Bruun, Parables, p. 183. On the expression regio dissimilitudinis, see ivi, pp. 182-96.

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as a prisoner enclosed into the deepest part of the prison of despair (“in desperationis carcere”). Only the initiative of the father will finally set the son free from this prison. The primacy of divine grace could not be expressed more clearly. The father does not remain inactive after the flight of his son but sends his servants, the personifications of virtues, to search for him. Fear (Timor) turns out to be the most efficacious sleuth and traces the son of the king in a deep prison, where he was weighed down by vices with different symbolic chains. Yet, the salutary shock that Fear provokes in the king’s son cannot rescue him. On the contrary, it leaves him more destroyed than ever (“non adiutum, sed deiectum”). The intervention of a second servant becomes necessary, namely Hope, who not only approaches the son with delicate gestures but who is also the first character to speak in this narrative. He says to the son (italics mine): Alas! How many hired men in your father’s house have bread in abundance, while you are perishing of hunger here! Get up and go to your father and say to him: “Father, make me as one of your hired men”.88 Hope says exactly the words that in the Gospel constitute the monologue of the prodigal son in misery. It is a powerful exegetical choice made by Bernard of Clairvaux. Only Hope, sent by God, can inspire the (prodigal) son, unlock his prison gate, and rescue him from the deep abyss of his despair, as the son depicts his situation (“in horribile profundum desperationis meae”). The monologue of the Gospel becomes a dialogue between Hope and the son. First, the son recognizes Hope with surprise (“Tune es – inquit – Spes? Et quomodo …”). Hope replies that he has been sent by his father to rescue him and to bring him home. The son praises Hope, but also points out the terrible difficulty to escape from such a prison, due to the number, force, speed, and cunning of the enemies.89 Yet, it is evident that Hope has already transformed the son from being an unaware prisoner of vices to someone who wants to break free. For this enterprise, Hope says that the father provided a special horse, Desire, which will bring them far away. The retelling of the prodigal son parable progressively 88

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“Heu – inquit – quanti mercenarii in domo patris tui abundant panibus, tu autem hic fame peris! Surge, obsecro, et vade ad patrem tuum, et dic ei: Pater, fac me sicut unum ex mercenariis tuis”; Bernard of Clairvaux, Opera, 6/2, p. 262. “O – inquit ille – dulce levamen laborum, dulcis consolatio miserorum! O una et non infima de tribus cubiculi regii assistricibus! Vides carceris mei profundum immane; vides vincula, quae tamen ad ingressum tuum maxima iam ex parte dirupta sunt et dissoluta; vides captivatorum immanem multitudinem, fortitudinem, velocitatem, astutiam; et quis tibi locus hic?”; Bernard of Clairvaux, Opera, 6/2, pp. 262-63.

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frames a vivid psychomachia, which is connected here with an allegorical and didactic travel narrative.90 Riding on Desire the son escapes, yet his enemies are implacable in chasing him. The initial ride is wild, since Hope did not put a bridle on the horse. This proved to be dangerous, and to avoid the risk that his son would fall and be captured again by his chasers, the king sends Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice as additional helpers for this adventurous escape, till this squad reaches the castle of Wisdom. For a positive conclusion to the flight, the cardinal virtues are necessary, and Bernard summarizes the description of the escape by saying: “In this way, along the road, Fear urges, Hope attracts, Fortitude strengthens, Temperance moderates, Prudence controls and counsels, Justice leads and directs”.91 The architectonic elements of the castle of Wisdom allegorically represent an ideal monastery: the fossa humilitatis protects it; the murus obedientiae defends it; the porta professionis is the only access to this castle. The arrival of the son at this place seems to conclude his tumultuous escape. The court of Wisdom welcomes him and rejoices with a sinner who does penitence (cf. Luke 15:7), and the whole story appears close to its expected happy end. Yet, with a coup de théâtre, it is precisely at this point when everything seems settled, that the major battle begins, due to the sudden arrival of Pharaoh and a ferocious host of allies who attack and besiege the castle. The castle that previously was presented as a safe harbour is quickly put in great peril and its walls risk falling down. In this way, a decisive point is highlighted for the audience: “one is never safe from the enemy, neither behind the walls of the monastery, nor at a spiritual stage where the immediate trials may seem to have ceased”.92 Within the castle, a sort of council of war establishes the necessity to ask for help, and gives to Prayer the mission to go to heaven, riding the horse of Faith (“Oratio […] ascendit super equum Fidei, proficiscitur per viam caeli”). There the king decides to send help to his son, and Love (Caritas), who is the queen of heaven, offers to go in person. Upon the arrival of Love, everybody in the castle is immediately filled with joy at her presence and all the virtues regain

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See Duilio Caocci, “Narrativa monastica e scritture morali tra XII e XIII secolo,” in La parola utile: saggi sul discorso morale nel Medioevo, eds. Duilio Caocci et al. (Rome, 2012), pp. 105-59: 128-29. “Sic itaque dum viam urget Timor, Spes trahit, munit Fortitudo, Temperantia moderatur, providet et instruit Prudentia, ducit et perducit Iustitia”; Bernard of Clairvaux, Opera, 6/2, p. 264. Bruun, Parables, p. 199. As Bruun points out, the scene is a “reverberation” of the plot of Prudentius’ Psychomachia (p. 155).

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their power.93 Due to the great exultation in the castle – provoked by divine grace (“gratiae dei impetus”) – the enemies realize that God is fighting against them and immediately take flight. Finally, Love carries the son of the king to heaven, where she presents him to God, who – exactly repeating the words as the father in the parable – gives orders to provide new clothes for his son and to prepare the banquet with the fatted calf, since “iste filius meus mortuus fuerat, et revixit; perierat, et inventus est” (cf. Luke 15:22–24). This quotation seals the narrative and confirms, as if it were necessary, that the reference to the biblical parable frames this text. Some space remains for a summary of the spiritual lesson of this parabola, which points out the different stages of the spiritual life for “each one who flees the world”, from an initial foolish penitence, through the phases of exaltation in flight and fearfulness in battle, till the final victory that represents the perfection in the kingdom of Love.94 In Bernard’s dramatic retelling, the biblical parable serves as a recognizable reference to present a vivid description of the spiritual life as a risky journey and as a restless battle. The parable of the prodigal son – he alone, while his brother disappears completely – becomes a microcosm able to contain everything, a mirror where one contemplates the whole of human history. Prior ethical and penitential interpretations of the biblical parable provided Bernard with the idea that this narrative encapsulated the story of all humanity and of every person. However, since the Cistercian abbot was actually presenting another parable and not (or better, not merely) commenting on the biblical story, this left him free to readapt the plot in a creative way, adding characters and new scenes. As a faint antecedent for the description of the action of the virtues, one can think of Bede’s passage on the three theological virtues mentioned earlier. There is a similarity in starting from fear (which Bede connected with faith), passing through the decisive intervention of hope, and culminating with love. Still, what Bernard presented is far more elaborated, dynamic, and entertaining. Moreover, it fit the spiritual environment of the Cistercian world from which the sermo derived and for which it was primarily intended. According to Bruun, these stories were used as an introduction into Cistercian 93

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“Reddita est miseris lux, timidis fiducia. Redit coram Spes, quae paene aufugerat; Fortitudo, quae paene corruerat. Resumit constantiam tota Sapientiae militia”; Bernard of Clairvaux, Opera, 6/2, p. 266. “Nota hic quattuor in pueri nostri liberatione. Primo paenitentiam, sed fatuam; secundo fugam, sed temerariam et irrationabilem; tertio pugnam, sed trepidam et meticulosam; quarto victoriam validam et sapientem, quae omnia in uno quolibet fugiente de seaculo invenies. Primo enim hebes et insipiens; postea praeceps et temerarious in prosperis; deinde trepidus et pusillanimis in adversis; postremo providus, et eruditus, et perfectus in regno caritatis”; Bernard of Clairvaux, Opera, 6/2, pp. 266-67.

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life and, indeed, “a monastic frame of resonance” was implied: the monastic context offered the hermeneutical tools to interpret these stories and allowed Bernard to rely “on the experience, imagination, memory, and biblical attunement of his audience to fill in gaps, add colour and vivacity to the tableaux, and accentuate the various layers of his stories”.95 4.2 Primacy of Mercy and Spiritual Union in Guerric of Igny Guerric of Igny lived at Clairvaux while Bernard was abbot, and in 1138 he became abbot of Igny, where he remained until his death in 1157.96 One of his sermons provides us with another fine example of the interpretation and liturgical use of the prodigal son narrative within the Cistercian milieu. The sermon is for the Saturday of the second week of Lent, when the parable recurred in the liturgy, and is one of the few sermons by Guerric that was not intended for a major feast. Evidently for him, this biblical narrative merited a special treatment. In its original form, the sermon probably addressed the monks of Igny. It does not consider the whole parable but instead focuses on the mercy of the father and on the scene of his encounter with his repentant son. In its opening, the sermon emphasizes the mercy of God, who is ready to forgive the sinners and indeed anticipates them, since their state of misery causes the Creator great pain. I quote this passage at length to illustrate the intense spiritual language of this sermon: O happy the humility of those who repent; o blessed the hope of those who confess. How mighty you are with the almighty; how easily you conquer the unconquerable; how quickly you turn the dreadful judge into a devoted father. We have heard today to our great edification of the prodigal son’s sorrowful journey, tearful repentance, and glorious reception. He was so gravely guilty and had not yet confessed but only planned to; had not yet made satisfaction but only bent his mind to it. Yet by merely intending to humble himself he immediately obtained a pardon […]. Everywhere mercy precedes. It had preceded the will to confess by inspiring it […] When he was still far off – we read – his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and running to meet him fell upon his neck and kissed him [Luke 15:20]. […] The father hastened to absolve the guilty one from what was tormenting his conscience, as if the merciful father 95 96

Bruun, Parables, pp. 160 e 162. See the introduction in Guerric of Igny, Sermons, eds. John Morson and Hillary Costello, 2 vols (Paris, 1970-73), 1, pp. 7-84 and Annie Noblesse-Rocher, L’expérience de Dieu dans les sermons de Guerric abbé d’Igny (XIIe siècle) (Paris, 2005).

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suffered more in his compassion for his miserable son than the son did in his own miseries. […] See how where sin abounded grace abounds still more [Romans 5:20]. The guilty one could scarcely hope for pardon; the judge, or rather not now the judge but the advocate, heaps up grace.97 After this section on the primacy of God’s mercy, Guerric focused on the scene of the father’s embrace and kissing of his son. For him, this symbolized the mystical union between God and the soul, which superseded the previous carnal union of the prodigal son with the prostitutes. Here, the Cistercian abbot adopted an amorous stylistic register, a choice that we will also encounter in other interpreters of this parable. He fell upon his neck and kissed him. When he thus showed his affection for him, what did he do by his embrace and his kiss but take him to his bosom and cast himself into his son’s bosom, breathe himself into him, in order that by clinging to his father he might become one spirit with him, just as by clinging to harlots he had been made one body with them [cf. 1 Corinthians 6:16-17]? It was not enough for that supreme mercy not to close the bowels (viscera) of his compassion to the wretched. He draws them into his very bowels and makes them his members. He could not bind us to himself more closely, could not make us more intimate to himself than by incorporating us into himself. Both by charity and by ineffable power he unites us not only with the body he has assumed but also with his very spirit.98 97

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“O felix humilitas poenitentium; o beata spes confitentium. Quam potens es apud Omnipotentem; quam facile vincis invincibilem; quam cito tremendum iudicem convertis in piissimum patrem! Prodigus iste filius, cuius hodie in magnam aedificationem nostram audivimus peregrinationem aerumnosam, poenitentiam lacrimosam, susceptionem gloriosam, prodigus, inquam, iste tam graviter reus, nondum confessus erat sed tantum confiteri deliberaverat; nondum satisfecerat sed tantum ad satisfaciendum animum inclinaverat; et de solo fere proposito conceptae humilitatis veniam statim obtinuit […]. Ubique misericordia prevenit. Praevenerat voluntatem confessionis ipsam inspirando. […] Cum adhuc, inquit, longe esset, vidit illum pater ipsius, et misericordia motus est; et accurrens cecidit super collum ejus, et osculatus est eum. […] Sic festinabat absolvere reum a tormento conscientiae suae, quasi plus cruciaret misericordem compassio miseri quam ipsum miserum passio sui. […] Vide autem quomodo ubi abundavit delictum, superabundet gratia. Reus vix poterat sperare veniam; iudex, imo non iam iudex sed advocatus accumulat gratiam”; Guerric of Igny, Sermons, 2, pp. 26-28. Here and below, I follow the English translation in Guerric of Igny, Liturgical Sermons, trans. Monks of Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, 2 vols (Kalamazoo, 1970-71), 1, pp. 140-42. “Cecidit, inquit, super collum ejus, et osculatus est eum. Cum sic super eum affectabat, quid agebat amplectens et osculans nisi illum sibi vel se ipsum illi insinuabat, se illi inspirabat;

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In this way, Guerric connected this scene of the parable with the spiritual themes of incorporation in God and of mystical union.99 This union is the spiritual climax of the whole sermon, which subsequently exhorts the audience to remain constantly humble, praising humility as the principal virtue of the spiritual life. 4.3 The Soul and the Body in a Sermon from Admont Abbey A comparable effort to adapt the biblical parable to a monastic culture and spirituality is also visible in a sermon attributed to a contemporary of Bernard of Claivaux and Guerric of Igny, namely either the Benedictine abbot Gottfried of Admont (d. 1165) or his younger brother and successor as abbot, Irimbert of Admont (d. 1177).100 The Eucharistic reference, the liturgical framework, and the taste for a tropological interpretation in this text are representative of the Admont sermon collection as a whole. In the homily for the Saturday of the second week of Lent, the first section roughly follows Augustine’s allegory on the two sons as the Jews and the Gentiles, just with some interesting insertions.101 Then, the sermon turns to the moral interpretation, saying: “After this brief comment according to the allegorical sense, let us turn the eye of our mind towards ourselves and look at what the parable suggests to us on the

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ut adhaerendo sibi unus secum fieret spiritus sicut adhaerendo meretricibus unum cum eis corpus fuerat effectus? Parum erat illi summae misericordiae viscera suae miserationis non claudere miseris. In ipsa sua eos viscera trahit suisque inserit membris. Non poterat nos sibi arctius astringere, non poterat nos magis intimos habere quam ut incorporaret sibi, et, sicut caritate sic virtute ineffabili, non solum assumpto corpori sed etiam ipsi couniret spiritui”; Guerric of Igny, Sermons, 2, p. 30. This point is emphasized in Bernard-Joseph Samain, “Les aventures du fils prodigue dans la littérature cistercienne du XIIe siècle,” Graphè 18 (2009), 55-66: 57. See Stephan Borgehammar, “Who Wrote the Admont Sermon Corpus – Gottfried the Abbot, his Brother Irimbert, or the Nuns?,” in De l’homélie au sermon: histoire de la prédication médiévale, eds. Jacqueline Hamesse and Xavier Hermand (Louvain-la-Neuve, 1993), pp. 47-51. On Admont homilies see also Kienzle, Hildegard of Bingen and Her Gospel Homilies, pp. 137-51. The reversio of the prodigal son, i.e. the Gentiles, corresponds with the incarnation of Christ and the annunciation of his death and Resurrection through preaching: “Reversio ista facta est in incarnatione Christi, quando ad salvandum genus humanum unigenitum suum Deus misit in mundum. Ibi sane filius iste adolescentior revertitur, quando audita post passionem, resurrectionem et ascensionem Domini nostri Jesu Christi praedicatione Evangelii ad fidem convertitur”; Gottfried of Admont, Homeliae dominicales, PL 174:203. For what concerns the Jews, the homilist inserts the topos of their present blindness (“ipsi […] in adventu unigeniti filii Dei ita excaecati sunt et reprobati”; 203), while their conversion will occur at the end of the world.

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moral level”.102 Here, a rather new interpretation is presented. The two sons together symbolize a human being; the younger son is the soul and his brother is the body.103 This reading has intriguing aspects, such as the positive evaluation of the initial request of the younger son for his inheritance, which represents the soul’s desire to experience grace and to communicate with the body and blood of Christ.104 The problem is not the initial request but the fact that after a few days the younger son leaves the father, since his love has become tepid (“a fervore divini amoris refrigescit et tepescit spiritus”). In his turn, the elder brother working in the field symbolizes the body that is faithfully committed to performing good deeds, and his words to the father are not a protest, but yet those of a true penitent and lover of God.105

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“His secundum sensum allegoricum breviter transcursis, ad nosmetipsos oculum mentis convertamus, et quid nobis parabola haec moraliter insinuet, videamus”; Ibid., 204. “In duobus eius filiis unum eumdemque hominem, qui constat ex anima et corpore, non inconvenienter possumus intelligere”; Ibid., 204. In another Admont homily, the two disciples of Emmaus are identified as the body and the soul of the believers (807) and Gilbert Dahan, Lire la Bible au Moyen Âge: Essais d’herméneutique médiévale (Geneva, 2009), pp. 43-44. I quote at length this passage for its references to the Eucharist and the Lenten period, as well as for the way in which it displays a direct speech of the son: “Substantiae huius portio quam postulat, spiritualium virtutum atque gratiarum donationes non incongrue si­­ gnificat. Sed et adhuc excellentius per eamdem quam postulat substantiae portionem non indigne divini muneris, vivifici utique corporis et sanguinis Christi, intelligere possumus communionem. Ad huius substantiae portionem homo spiritalis semper anhelat; hanc ut digne accipere valeat, vigiliis, ieiuniis, caeterisque piis laboribus die noctuque laborat. Unde quoties ad communicandum eiusdem substantiae portionem accedit, aut etiam diem sive horam illam cogitat, in qua accedere debeat, nunc ex amore quo tantae refectionis dulcedinem desiderat, nunc ex timore quo metuit ne indignus tanto divinae miserationis munere appareat, suppliciter Deum Patrem interpellat: ‘Pater, inquit, da mihi portionem substantiae quae me contingit. Pater sancte, pater clemens, et multae misericordiae, da mihi portionem substantiae illius, quae vere mea substantia est, portionem utique corporis et sanguinis Christi Filii tui, a qua subsisto […] ita ut per spiritalem gratiae dulcedinem intus me tangat […].’ Unde etiam aestimare possumus quod haec eadem sancti Evangelii lectio ordinante Spiritu sancto in hoc tempus quadragesimale idcirco posita sit, ut filii Dei qui nunc vigiliis, ieiuniis caeterisque laboribus arctius insi­ stentes carnem macerant, ad huius, de qua iam dictum est, substantiae portionem, ad huius spiritalis alimoniae refectionem ardentius anhelare studeant”; Gottfried of Admont, Homeliae, 204-05. “Per filium seniorem, qui in agro est, non injuste corpus hominis accipi potest, quod recte tunc in agro dicitur manere, quando bonis operibus semper se studet exercere […]. Verba ista, verba sunt non indignantis vel odientis, sed vere poenitentis et amantis. Dum enim

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In this interpretation, the two brothers embody in some way both sides of the Benedictine ideal: ora et labora. The original idea of the Admont homilist was to present a lesson for his monastic audience, a discourse on the role of both the soul and the body in the Benedictine life.106 Although this reading is not consistent throughout the homily and has to force some points in the plot of the biblical parable, nevertheless its approach can be compared to the sermo of Bernard of Clairvaux. Both abbots adapted the parable to the spiritual landscape of their own monastic milieu and their expected readership dictated their interpretation. 4.4 The Exegesis of a Magistra: Hildegard of Bingen The Expositiones euangeliorum of Hildegard of Bingen (d. 1179) presents two homilies on the parable of the prodigal son, which are her only expositiones commenting on the Gospel reading of a weekday, thus confirming the growing attention to this biblical narrative.107 These homilies are excellent examples of the “dramatic narrative exegesis” adopted by the abbess: in her exegesis, “the story unfolds like the acts of a drama voiced and performed by Hildegard herself as magistra, narrator, and interpreter”.108 With these homilies, the voice of a woman finally steps into the reception history of the parable of the prodigal son – or better, it finds the means to reach a modern audience. Hildegard’s exegesis proves her creativity and ability, resulting in texts that are as innovative as those of Bernard, Guerric, and the Admont homilist. In her expositiones, Hildegard added interpretative glosses to each biblical expression and introduced the audience to a spiritual interpretation of the pericope. The prodigal son parable provided Hildegard with the ideal field for her narrative exegesis. The story was perfectly suited to unfold the drama of salvation history both of the single soul and of humanity as a whole. Hildegard’s first

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totius vitae considerat negligentiam, miratur circa se tantam divinae miserationis cle­ mentiam”; Ibid., 209. The homilist explicitly said in another sermon that his interpretation differed from the exegesis of Gregory the Great, since the latter was intended for an audience of secular people, while he had to speak “ad edificationem eorum qui in monasteriis sunt”; Ibid., 416. For a scheme of the connection between the homilies and the liturgical readings, see Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Carolyn Muessig and George Ferzoco, “Introduction,” in Hildegard of Bingen, Opera minora, eds. Peter Dronke et al. (Turnhout, 2007), pp. 137-83: 165-69. As an introduction to Hildegard of Bingen, see Beverly Mayne Kienzle, Debra L. Stoudt and George Ferzoco, eds., A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen (Leiden, 2013). See Kienzle, Hildegard of Bingen, pp. 20 (quotation) and 109-154.

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homily on the prodigal son presents a tropological reading of the parable.109 The incipit stresses immediately some of the points that characterize this homily.110 For example, it refers to God as Creator, a theme that runs throughout the text, and that probably has an anti-dualist objective.111 In this reading the two brothers embody the post-lapsarian condition of humanity; each person has the knowledge of good and evil (cf. Genesis 2), and the difference lies in the use of this faculty. The homily exhibits, in a rather inventive way, “the journey of the soul who pursues knowledge of evil, contrasted with that of the soul who consistently pursues knowledge of good”.112 Hildegard presented the knowledge of good and evil in terms of contrasting virtues and vices, but also from a practical perspective as the absence of good deeds. Describing the sinful life of the prodigal son, Hildegard placed the vices instead of the devil at the centre. Among vices, malice (malicia) is portrayed as the master that the prodigal son served in the far away country. The magistra sharply pointed out that, as an effect of malice, when hunger strikes the country, the prodigal son blames God for his faults, instead of acknowledging his own responsibility. Thus, the story shows a dramatic reversal. When the prodigal son returns to himself, he recognizes his faults and realizes that his “hunger derives from the lack of taste for good deeds”, and defines the hired men in his father’s house as “those who buy

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On this homily and on the parable of Bernard as the closest text to the tropological storytelling of Hildegard, see Kienzle, Hildegard of Bingen, pp. 127-31 and 208-14 and Beverly Mayne Kienzle, “Hildegard of Biengen’s Gospel Homilies and Her Exegesis of the Parable of the Prodigal Son,” in “Im Angesicht Gottes suche der Mensch sich selbst”: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), ed. Rainer Berndt (Berlin, 2001), pp. 299-324: 310-13. Already the opening gives an idea of Hildegard’s method: “Homo quidam, ad cuius imaginem et similitudinem homo creatus est, habuit duos filios, cum homini dat scientiam boni et mali; et dixit adolescentior, qui pronior fuit ad malum in instabilitate morum, ex illis patri, Deo”; Hildegard of Bingen, Expositiones euangeliorum, eds. Beverly Mayne Kienzle and Carolyn Muessig, in Hildegard of Bingen, Opera minora, pp. 185-333: 260 (expositio 26). For instance, when the prodigal son comes to himself, he recalls his Creator and then says that he will go to his father, who created him: “In se autem reuersus, scilicet tandem creatoris sui reminiscens […]. Et ibo, per uiam bonam, ad patrem meum, qui me creauit”; Hildegard, Expositiones, p. 261. On anti-dualism in her homilies, see Kienzle, Hildegard of Bingen, pp. 245-88. Kienzle, “Hildegard of Biengen’s Gospel Homilies,” p. 313. The novelty of this interpretation is particularly emphasized in Peter Dronke, “Platonic-Christian Allegories in the Homilies of Hildegard of Bingen [1992],” in Peter Dronke, Sources of Inspiration: Studies in Literary Transformations, 400-1500 (Rome, 1997), pp. 61-81: 78.

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the celestial things through their blood and many works”.113 Welcoming his repentant son, the father commands his serfs – the virtues – to clothe his son. The gifted ring is interpreted as “the understanding of good works” (“comprehensionem bonorum operum”), while eating the fatted calf permits the son to regain the “taste of good works” (“gustum bonorum operum”). Hildegard’s interpretation of the elder brother is striking, since he receives a quite positive evaluation: his work in the field represents “those who possess the good knowledge and cultivate the celestial inheritance”.114 Following this path, he approaches the father’s house, which is the mansion of virtues. There, he hears the music of the feast, which represents the joy of the heavenly vision, “and he called, through meditation, one of the servants, that is faith alone, and asked him …”.115 Faith carefully explains what happens and the reaction of the elder brother is presented as a surprise for what God was able to do: “He was shocked (indignatus) about that, it means he was astonished (admiratus) that God made so much good from so much evil”.116 This interpretation softens the reaction of the brother, and retains a positive reading of him, who symbolizes a life that remains faithful to the knowledge of good. Initially, the elder brother refuses to join the feast, since he does not need to do penance. Yet God exhorts him to keep on the right path and explains to him why it was necessary to celebrate in a solemn way the return of the sinner. Here Hildegard introduces an intriguing simile, which hints at a courtly world. The father preparing the feast for the returned son is compared to a warrior who praises the military ability of

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“Quanti mercennarii in domo patris mei, scilicet qui sanguine suo et multis laboribus celestia mercantur, habundant panibus, uidelicet saturitate iusticiae; ego autem hic fame pereo, in hoc quod careo gustu bonorum operum”; Hildegard, Expositiones, p. 261. The mentioning of blood could be a reference to martyrdom. “Erat autem filius eius senior in agro, scilicet qui bonam scientiam in cultura supernae hereditatis habet”; Ibid., p. 263. “Et cum ueniret, uias suas considerando, et propinquaret per bonam coniunctionem domui, id est mansioni uirtutum, audiuit ad superna ascendendo symphoniam, scilicet gaudium supernae uisionis, et chorum, uidelicet decorem et gloriam in quibus Deo seruitur. Et uocauit per meditationem unum de seruis, scilicet solam fidem, et interrogauit …”; Ibid., p. 263. “Indignatus est autem, scilicet admiratus est quod Deus de tanto malo tantum bonum fecisset”; Ibid. p. 264. One can compare this with what the homily of Admont says (see note 105). The critical edition does not indicate any source for this interpretation, which will be used also by other exegetes, like Hugh of Saint-Cher and Nicholas of Lyra.

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the enemy whom he vanquished, since from that moment onwards, out of necessity this enemy will be a friend of the one who defeated him.117 Hildegard’s second homily on the prodigal son is even more surprising in its presentation of the entire salvation history. Instead of basing her interpretation on the diffused allegory of the two sons as the Jews and the Gentiles, the magistra adopted a much more uncommon allegory of the two sons as humanity and the angels.118 Through the narrative of the prodigal son, the salvation history is presented in its different stages. His journey to the distant land is linked to the expulsion of humanity from paradise and its entrance into this world, where human beings became idolatrous and indulged in a life of vice. While this interpretation was quite common, from the moment of the prodigal son’s conversion onwards, Hildegard presented a more original reading. The turning point occurs when humanity “recalled its Creator and God gave Abraham circumcision”.119 The hired men who come to the younger son’s mind represent the patriarchs who worshipped the true God before circumcision, such as Noah, Enoch, and Abel. If the first step is the exit from idolatry through circumcision, the return to the father symbolizes the reception of the Mosaic law on Mount Sinai. The law could not save humanity, however. Yet, the father foreseeing his (human) son’s return sent the prophets announcing the incarnation of his (divine) son; then in the Annunciation, God ran to his son (as the father does in the parable), while the embrace symbolizes the incarnation of Christ and the kiss his nativity.120 Finally, the slaughter of the fatted calf 117

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“sicut uir preliator qui superat inimicum, et inimicus postea erit amicus illius necessitate compulsus, quoniam ei resistere non poterit, et ideo uictus in milicia sua laudandus est”; Ibid., pp. 264-65. On this image and on Christ as vir preliator (cf. Isaiah 42:13), see Kienzle, Hildegard of Bingen, pp. 212-13 and 284-85. “Homo quidam, scilicet Deus, habuit duos filios, uidelicet angelos et hominem”; Hildegard, Expositiones, p. 265 (expositio 27). A reference to the angels (the gnosticisante interpretation, according to Tissot’s taxonomy) was available in the Glossa, where it comments on the anger of the elder brother. “In se autem reuersus, ita quod recordatus est a quo creatus esset, cum Deus Abrahae circumcisionem dedit”; Ibid., p. 266. “Cum autem adhuc longe esset, in lege, quia lex hominem ad uitam reducere non potuit, uidit illum patrem ipsius, ubi prophetas misit, loquentes de incarnatione filii Dei, et misericordia motus est, ubi Gabriel angelus Christum Mariae uirgini nuntiauit. Et accurrens, in ipsa salutatione Mariae, cecidit super collum euius […] ubi Spiritus Sanctus superuenit in Mariam in conceptione ipsius [i.e. uerbum], et osculatus est eum, ad osculo oris sui [cf. Song of Songs 1:1] in natiuitate filii sui”; Ibid., pp. 266-67. The critical edition does not indicate any source for this interpretation, yet already Jerome (see above, p. 28) and the Glossa (see note 136) suggested the connection with the incarnation.

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represents the crucifixion of Christ, while the feast of the parable stands for Christ’s Resurrection and Pentecost.121 At this point, the homily turns to the interpretation of the elder brother as the angels. The angels, hearing the symphony of the miracles done by the apostles, ask the prophets what happened. The elder brother’s reaction after their explanation is – again – presented as an indignatio that indeed is an admiratio. However, since the angels are reluctant to join the feast for the redemption of humanity, similar to the case presented in the first homily, God has to explain why what he did was not unfair to them. God stresses that they have more than humanity, since the angels already contemplate him face to face. Further to this, God underlines the role that the angels have in salvation history, as pro­ tectors of the Church and messengers (internuncius) between God and humanity.122 In this way, Hildegard’s interpretation embraces an all-encompassing account of salvation history, tracing its main stages within the parable and even including the angelic dimension. As far as a review of medieval exegesis and modern scholarship on the parable can tell, the identification of the conversion and return of the prodigal son with the acceptance of circumcision and the reception of the law on Mount Sinai has no antecedent. Jerome’s exegesis of the embrace of the father as the Incarnation could suggest this interpretation, yet Hildegard went much further in constructing an exact symmetry between the parable and the transformative moments in salvation history. Moreover, the problematic issue of the actual role of the Jews does not have a place in her exegesis. In Hildegard’s account, it seems that humanity as a whole passes through each stage of the story. Once the role of the Jews in salvation history had played out, they simply disappeared from the homily.123

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“Et adducite uitulum saginatum, quando filius Dei, qui pascua uitae credentibus attulit, ad Caipham et ad Pilatum adductus est, et occidite, ubi crocifixus est, et manducemus, ubi in passione sua attritus est, et epulemur in resurretione ipsius. […] Et coeperunt epulare, ubi apostoli confortati sunt, cum Spiritus Sanctus in igneis linguis super eos uenit [cf. Acts 2:3]”; Ibid., pp. 267-68. “angelos misit in salutem populi per admonitionem Spiritus Sancti in reedificatione ecclesiae, cum angeli ad necessitates hominum mittuntur. […] Fili, tu semper mecum es in puritate et sanctitate, faciem meam continue inspiciendo, quia homo dum in mortali corpore est, faciem meam uidere non poterit. Et omnia mea, scilicet miracula illa quae in fratre tuo perfeci, tua sunt, quoniam tu inter me et hominem internuncius semper eris”; Ibid., pp. 268-69. In this reading, one might speak of an involuntary radical supersessionism. In general, Hildegard’s Expositiones are not interested in the allegorical scheme on Jews and Gentiles.

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Hildegard’s profile as an exegete emerges from these two homilies. She undoubtedly knew and drew on the patristic heritage, yet she felt free – as much as Bernard, Guerric, and the Admont homilist – to propose her own interpretation of the biblical story to make it relevant for her audience, and to express her own theological view.124 At the same time, the sermons by these outstanding twelfth-century monastic writers show that they considered the parable of the prodigal son as a perfect narrative frame to elaborate on and propose their own religious message. The parable served to present in a dynamic and dramatic form (at least for Bernard and Hildegard) both the macrocosm of salvation history and the microcosm of the life of the soul (that of the monk/nun in particular) with its contrast of virtues and vices and its deeply personal experience of God’s love. 5

The Main Scholastic Exegetical Instruments

Alongside the homilies and writings of these abbots and abbesses, the twelfth century saw the emergence of scholastic exegesis in the cathedral schools.125 While texts such as the Admont homilies and Hildegard’s Expositiones had a notably modest circulation, judging from the surviving manuscripts, some of the texts produced in the French cathedral schools became extremely influential. This is particularly true for the Glossa ordinaria, which can be seen as the most lasting fruit of twelfth-century exegesis, thanks to the prominent position it acquired at the University of Paris in the thirteenth century. Several other school texts, such as the Liber exceptionum of Richard of Saint Victor (d. 1173) – which presents a summary of the allegorical commentaries on the prodigal 124

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A fundamental source for Hildegard’s familiarity with patristic and medieval commentators was the liturgy. Due to such an aural fruition of the patristic legacy “it is difficult if not impossible to determine which author constituted Hildegard’s textual ancestor”; Kienzle and Muessig, Introduction, pp. 141 and 171. For an introduction to biblical exegesis in the high and late Middle Ages, beside the seminal works of Beryl Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1985) and Beryl Smalley, The Gospel in the Schools c.1100 – c.1280 (London, 1985), see the excellent synthesis in Gilbert Dahan, L’exégese chrétienne de la Bible en Occident médiéval (XIIe – XIVe siécle) (Paris, 1999) and the useful overview of the commentaries on the Gospel in Emmanuel Bain, Église, richesse et pauvreté dans l’Occident médiéval: L’exégèse des Évan­ giles aux XIIe-XIIIe siècles (Turnhout, 2014), pp. 373-414. As a general introduction, among the most recent contributions, see Susan Boynton and Diane J. Reilly, eds., The Practice of the Bible; The New Cambridge History of the Bible from 600 to 1450, eds. Richard Marsden and E. Ann Matter (Cambridge, 2012); and Van Liere, An Introduction.

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son – likewise had a wide circulation in subsequent centuries.126 These new biblical commentaries were produced in the schools and in the new educational environment of the university, where over the course of the thirteenth century the mendicant orders assumed an increasingly leading role. On the one hand, these texts systematically collected the rich patristic heritage, and on the other hand they did not hesitate to develop new interpretations in close connection with contemporary theological debate and pastoral practice. The following sentence by Richard of Saint Victor effectively summarizes this idea, which both expresses devout loyalty to the patristic legacy and an awareness of the necessity to go further and progress in the comprehension of the Bible: “With great avidity we receive what was discussed by the fathers, and with great alacrity we persue what they overlooked; what our sagacity will discover we will make available with great liberality”.127 This section of the chapter addresses five different works, produced between the twelfth and the early fourteenth century. They can be considered as the most representative of this period of renewal of medieval exegesis due to their wide dissemination or their production by some of the greatest masters of the new mendicant orders. Three commentaries on the whole Bible were ubiquitously used in the Latin world throughout the late Middle Ages (and even beyond): the Glossa ordinaria; the Postilla of Hugh of Saint-Cher; and the Postilla of Nicholas of Lyra. The two postillae stemmed from the University of Paris, which had an unrivalled position in theological and biblical studies during these centuries. Moreover, also the last two sources that I consider in this section − the Commentary on Luke of Bonaventure and the Catena aurea of

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See Richard of Saint Victor, Liber exceptionum, 2.13.9, ed. Jean Chatillon (Paris, 1958), pp. 484-85. Richard presented a synthetic explanation of the parable according to the allegory of the two peoples, choosing an Augustinian perspective for what concerns the Jews. Then, he mentioned the penitential perspective as the most suitable one in his time: “Cotidie quoque Deus filium recipit revertentem, dum quemlibet peccatorem suscipit et penitentem. Et omnia supradicta facit, dum gratiam quam in baptismo acceperat, per culpam perdiderat, iterum illi reddit”. The parable receives only a brief mention in the influential Historia scholastica, which mainly clarifies the terms siliquae and saginatus; Peter Comestor, Historia scholastica, Evangelica, cap. 91, PL 198:1584. “Nos autem a Patribus pertractata cum omni aviditate suscipiamus, et ab ipsis omissa cum omni alacritate perquiramus, et sagaciter inventa cum omni liberalitate in commune proferamus”; Richard of Saint Victor, In visionem Ezechielis, prologue, PL 196:527. On this passage and the idea of progress in medieval exegesis, see Dahan, Lire la Bible, pp. 27-33.

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Thomas Aquinas – were written by mendicant theologians who had been Parisian masters.128 The texts analysed are only a selection within the tremendous amount of biblical exegesis carried out in those centuries. Still, these works contributed more than any other text to the creation of a common exegetical landscape at the end of the medieval period. The central position as exegetical instruments of the Glossa, the Postilla of Hugh of Saint-Cher and that of Nicholas of Lyra is confirmed also by their role in the early printed book market. They were not only printed separately, but often also together. One of the main achievements of early printing was, from 1495 onwards, the publication in a single work of the Glossa and Nicholas of Lyra’s Postilla: “a one-stop shopping tool for the preacher, a dream library for all practical purposes”.129 Moreover, leading printers such as Koberger, Froben and Petri discussed an ambitious project to combine in a single product the Glossa, Nicholas of Lyra, and Hugh of Saint-Cher. This plan never came to fruition, but it clearly shows what was the semi-official canon of school exegesis until the early sixteenth century.130 5.1 The Bedrock: The Glossa ordinaria The core of the Glossa ordinaria was (mainly) compiled in the twelfth-century cathedral school of Laon. At the beginning it was circulated as a set of separate glosses on different biblical books but progressively became an authoritative commentary on Scripture as a whole, thanks to the dominant position it assumed in the biblical teaching at Paris.131 The structure of the Glossa is well known: its manuscripts normally present the biblical text at the centre of the page, together with short interlinear glosses and more extensive marginal glosses, which generally proceed by quoting and summarizing the patristic auctoritates.132 Due also to its effective layout, the Glossa became the standard 128

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In the footnotes, I briefly refer also to the commentaries of Peter of John Olivi and Albert the Great, while the Augustinian Alberto da Padova will be considered in the next chapter, since his biblical commentary is organized according to the Lenten liturgical calendar, thus directly supporting the work of preachers. Karlfried Froehlich, “An Extraordinary Achievement. The Glossa Ordinaria in Print [1999],” in Karlfried Froehlich, Biblical Interpretation from the Church Fathers to the Reformation (Farnham, 2010), pp. 15-21: 19. This volume gathers several essays on the Glossa and its reception. Froehlich, “An Extraordinary Achievement,” p. 20. See Lesley Smith, The Glossa Ordinaria: The Making of a Medieval Bible Commentary (Leiden, 2009). See also Cédric Giraud, Per verba magistri. Anselme de Laon et son école au XIIe siècle (Turnhout, 2010). On the evolution of the layout, see Smith, The Glossa, pp. 91-139.

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exegetical tool, used for centuries by virtually everyone who studied and worked with the Bible, including masters, students and preachers. The Glossa on Luke has to be attributed either to Anselm of Laon (d. 1117) or to his brother Ralph of Laon (d. c.1130) and follows, as its main source, the commentary of Bede.133 Presenting the parable of the prodigal son, the Glossa collects elements from every different patristic approach, ranging from the penitential reading to the allegory of salvation history.134 The first interlinear gloss immediately summarizes the two main options: “This parable is taken to be about the Jew and the Gentile; yet in general it can be taken to be about the penitent [penitens] and the righteous, or who considers himself righteous”.135 The choice of the words is very careful, as the use of the term penitens instead of peccator suggests. Schematically, the first part of the parable – that on the prodigal son – favours the salvation history reading (the son’s departure from home symbolizes original sin, while the father’s actions towards him is the incarnation of Christ) and the penitential/sacramental approach (the return of the son represents the sinner who comes back through confession and who has eventually access to the Eucharistic banquet).136 On the other hand, the part on the elder brother follows the allegorical reading of Jews and Gentiles. Here, the Glossa presents the divergent positions of Jerome and Augustine on the Jews: they are the nation which avoided idolatry (Augustine), or they only pretended to have respected the commandments (Jerome); in eschatological time, they will enter the feast (Augustine) or they will be allies of the Antichrist (Jerome and Ambrose). This is not the only point that presents two irreconcilable readings side by side; for instance, the interpretation of the hired men

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See Smith, The Glossa, pp. 23 and 55. See Biblia Latina cum Glossa ordinaria: Facsimile Reprint of the Editio Princeps, Adolph Rusch of Strassburg, 1480/1481, eds. Karlfried Froehlich and Margaret T. Gibson, 4 vols (Turnhout, 1992), 4, pp. 195-97 (hereafter cited as Glossa ordinaria). Using this edition, one has to be aware that some elements could be later additions to the twelfth-century Glossa, which was already the result of a long composition process. On the reasons why this edition is still the best source available for scholars, see Smith, The Glossa, pp. 12-13. “Hec parabola de iudeo et gentili, generaliter autem de penitente et iusto, vel qui sibi iustus, accipi potest”; Glossa ordinaria, 4, p. 195. The marginal gloss for “cum autem ad huc longe esset” (Luke 15:20) reads: “Antequam intelligeret deum […] per verbum incarnatum anticipat filii reditum”. The interlinear gloss for “venit ad patrem” (Luke 15:20) reads: “In ecclesia constitutus, ubi iam peccatorum fructuosa possit esse confessio” (this is a quotation of Bede; see above note 75); Ibid., pp. 195-96.

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records both the positive and the negative perspectives.137 Moreover, several topoi that we have encountered in the patristic commentaries are mentioned: the siliquae as a negative symbol of profane culture; the link between the embrace of the father and the light yoke of Christ (Matthew 11:29); the reference to the parable of the great supper (Luke 14:16-24). Rather than describing in detail the mosaic of quotations composing the anthological exegesis that the Glossa proposed, it suffices to mention a few main patristic quotations. A long quotation taken from Ambrose is placed as the first marginal gloss to the parable, recalling the interpretation of the three parables of Luke 15 as the salvific action of Christ, the Church, and God the Father.138 The monologue of the prodigal son before his return is commented upon by a long marginal gloss on the distinction between servus, mercenarius, and filius. The 1481 printed edition of the Glossa assigned it to Ambrose, yet it was borrowed from Bede.139 Finally, the claim of the elder brother (“Behold, these many years …”; Luke 15:29) is glossed with a long quotation taken from Jerome’s reading on the envy and lies of the elder brother, even mentioning the anti-Jewish interpretation of the young goat as sign of friendship with the Antichrist and the demons.140 These examples illustrate the exegetical materials gathered in the Glossa. It was flexible enough to include different interpretations of the parable and to serve as a basis for distinct purposes, ranging from a penitential sermon to a scholastic lesson. Whether explicitly mentioned as a source or tacitly used, the interpretations proposed by the Glossa would pervade late medieval exegesis and preaching. 5.2 The Multiple Readings of Hugh of Saint-Cher The Postilla of the Dominican Hugh of Saint-Cher (d. 1263) was an innovative commentary conceived as a supplement to the Glossa, marking the transition from the exegesis of the cathedral schools to the scholastic exegesis of the universities.141 Together with Hugh’s concordances, this text provided a vital in137

138 139 140 141

The interlinear gloss presents the negative reading (“Id est quanti ex iudeis ob presentia bona tantum legem custodiunt, non ex dilectione”), while in the marginal gloss the positive one derives word by word from Bede. See Ibid., p. 195. On this passage, see above p. 31. See Ibid., p. 196. On this passage, see above p. 38. “id est in fine saeculi hedum, id est antichristum immolabit; et cum amicis daemonibus saturabitur”; Ibid., p. 197. See an insightful analysis of the characteristics of Hugh’s exegesis in Gilbert Dahan, “L’exégèse de Hugues. Méthode et herméneutique,” in Louis-Jacques Bataillon, Gilbert Dahan and Pierre-Marie Gy, eds., Hugues de Saint-Cher († 1263). Bibliste et théologien (Turnhout, 2004), pp. 65-99. Introducing this fundamental volume on Hugh of Saint-Cher,

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strument (and a model) for exegetical work in successive centuries. The Postilla saw an impressive dissemination in manuscript format, and later had an enduring success as a printed book, from the first edition of the Postillae super Evangelia in 1482 to that of 1753.142 Moreover, this commentary illustrates well the quick entrenchment of the mendicant orders in the Parisian University. In fact, it was the result of a team of Dominican friars working under the supervision of Hugh, who can be rightly considered as the founder of the Dominican exegesis.143 The Postilla, first of all, was an instrument for biblical studies in Paris geared to a fruitful pastoral service. Hugh pointed out this aspect in a striking comment on the Gospel passage of the shepherds who go to Bethlehem (Luke 2:15). Drawing on the etymology of Bethlehem as ‘house of bread’ and the biblical connection between bread and the word of God, he wrote: “Moraliter: In the same way the shepherds of the souls must go to Bethlehem, that is Paris, where they will be nourished with the bread of celestial doctrine, and then they have to return to their places to feed their sheep with the bread they acquired in Paris”.144 Exegesis was considered an irreplaceable preparation for a future ministry, especially for preaching, which was the main objective of any reli-

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the editors point out: “Hugues travaille vers les années 1230-1240, au moment précisément où se construit la théologie comme science, […] Hugues s’efforce de mettre au point des instruments de travail fondamentaux pour l’étude de la Bible et de la théologie” (pp. 7-8). On the relationship between Hugh’s Postilla and the Glossa, see Smith, The Glossa, pp. 22023. On the manuscript tradition, which counts approximately 400 manuscripts (often containing just parts of the Postilla), see Patricia Stirnemann, “Les manuscripts de la Postille,” in Bataillon, Dahan and Gy, eds., Hugues de Saint-Cher, pp. 31-42. On the two versions of this work (long and short) and on its printed editions, see Bruno Carra de Vaux, “La costruction du corpus exégétique,” ivi, pp. 43-63. On the influence of Hugh of Saint-Cher on exegesis and preaching, see Louis-Jacques Bataillon, “L’influence d’Hugues de SaintCher,” ivi, pp. 497-502. See Dahan, “L’exégèse,” p. 66. Dahan strongly highlights also Hugh’s connections with previous Parisians secular masters such as Peter the Chanter and his programme of theological training based on lectio, disputatio, praedicatio. This helps to avoid the historiographical risk to overrate the innovation brought by the mendicant orders. As Bataillon recalls, the Dominican theologian “est un de ceux qui ont mieux réalisé les directives du magnus cantor parisiensis”; Bataillon, “L’influence d’Hugues,” p. 497. See also Jacques Verger, “Hugues de Saint-Cher dans le contexte universitaire parisien,” in Bataillon, Dahan and Gy, eds., Hugues de Saint-Cher, pp. 13-22. “Moraliter. Sic pastores animarum debent transire usque Bethlehem, id est Parisios, ut ibi pane caelestis doctrinae reficiantur et postea reverti ad propria, ut oves suas reficiant pane quem Parisiis emerunt”; quoted in Dahan, “L’exégèse,” p. 94.

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gious learning and the cornerstone of the educational project of the mendicant orders, in particular for the Ordo praedicatorum.145 Although Hugh of Saint-Cher reaffirmed the fourfold subdivision of the senses of Scripture (literal, allegorical, anagogical, tropological), he usually adopted a threefold division in his commentary: litteraliter, mystice (that is allegorical) and moraliter – and often the allegorical and the tropological reading are not clearly distinguished.146 Hugh’s commentary on the prodigal son (divided in ad litteram, mystice, moraliter) constitutes a valuable specimen of his work.147 Hugh employed a variety of devices in his writing, including a large proportion of quotations drawing on biblical concordances and some distinctiones, namely, on the words porcus and collum. For example, the pigs are connected with six possible meanings (demon, luxuria, insidiator, cupidus, sapientia secularis, apostata) each of them with their appropriate biblical quotations (hence also providing a concise concordance).148 145

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On mendicant education see M. Michèle Mulchahey, “First the Bow is Bent in Study …”: Dominican Education before 1350 (Toronto, 1998); Bert Roest, A History of Franciscan Education (c. 1210-1517) (Leiden, 2000), and Bert Roest, Franciscan Learning, Preaching and Mission c. 1220-1650 (Leiden, 2014). See Dahan, “L’exégèse,” pp. 77 and 82. A clarification should not be overlooked: “moraliter ne désigne pas une exégèse moralisante, c’est-à-dire tirant une moralité de la lettre même du récit (cette démarche appartient á l’exégèse littérale), mais bien la tropologie, application spirituelle d’un récit ou d’un précepte á l’histoire intérieure du croyant” (p. 90). On the four senses of the Bible, beside the seminal work Henri de Lubac, Exégese médiévale. Les quatre sens de l’Écriture (Paris, 1959-64), see Dahan, Lire la Bible, pp. 199-224, which recalls both the role of Stephen Langton (d. 1228) in making this scheme canonical and the fact that, however, many commentaries follow a division in two or three levels (pp. 210 and 219). In the absence of a critical edition, I use the Biblia cum postilla domini Hugonis Cardinalis de Sancto Caro, 6 vols (Basel: Johann Amerbach, 1504), 5, fols. 203r-08r (hereafter cited as Hugh of Saint-Cher, Postilla). Introducing small changes in order to have a more literal translation, I follow the English translation provided in Hugh of Saint-Cher, Commentary on the Prodigal Son, trans. Hugh B. Feiss (Toronto, 1996). See also Emilia Di Rocco, “Leggere le Scritture con le Scritture: Ugo di Santo Caro e Nicola di Lira lettori di Luca (15,1132),” Studium 109 (2013), 509-27. Hugh of Saint-Cher, Postilla, 5, fol. 205r. On the distinctiones, see Dahan, “L’exégèse,” pp. 73-76 and the seminal contributions now gathered in Louis-Jacques Bataillon, La prédication au XIIIe siècle en France et Italie. Etudes et documents (Aldershot, 1993). As an example of the presence of concordances in Hugh’s commentary, see the chain of six quotations on the word calciamenta. See also Michel Albaric, “Hugues de Saint-Cher et les concordances bibliques latines (XIIIe-XVIIIe siècles),” in Bataillon, Dahan and Gy, eds., Hugues de Saint-Cher, pp. 467-79 and Dahan, L’exégese chrétienne, pp. 350-58.

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The commentary on the prodigal son is spectacularly rich and merits a detailed analysis. In his introduction to Luke 15, the Dominican master depicts Jesus as the divine doctor who uses three different parables to try to cure the illness of the Pharisees. The parables are like the antidotes to specific poisons, namely pride, greed, and lust. The reference to the three main vices is repeated at the beginning of each parable and, in the tropological reading, the distant country where the prodigal son goes has three cities, one for each deadly sin.149 Moreover, besides mentioning the three actors of salvation (Christ, the Church, God the Father – a reading dating back to Ambrose), Hugh presented an innovative Christological interpretation by pointing out that Christ not only served humanity as the shepherd, the woman, and the father, but Christ himself became a sheep, a coin, and a prodigal son to save humanity: These three parables can also be connected with each other in another way. When the first man sinned, he became a lost or wandering sheep, and wandering he offended [God], and since he offended, he needed to be reconciled with God through sacrifice. So the parable of the sheep is put first. And Christ became a sheep for sacrifice for the sake of human beings […]. Similarly, when humankind sinned, he sold himself to the devil and needed a price by which he could be redeemed. So Christ became the price or the drachma. He who had created man according to his image, was himself made into the image of man whom he was seeking […]. Again, when man sinned he became the foolish prodigal son, giving away for little not only himself, but also the grace of God and even God himself. Hence, the Son of God is made the prodigal son of man, giving himself for the prodigal humanity.150 149

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“Celestis medicus […], unde ad eos revocandos, tres per ordinem parabolas ponit – ovis, drachmae, filii. Parabolam ovis contra superbia, drachmae contra avaricia, parabolam filii cum luxuria obiiciens […] quia omne quod est in mundo aut est concupiscientia carnis etc. 1 Ioh 2 […]. In regione peccati tres sunt civitates, scilicet concupiscentia carnis, concupi­ scentia oculorum, superbiam vitae. In qualibet sunt multi cives. Quot sunt luxuriosi et gulosi, tot cives sunt in prima. Quot autem sunt avari et cupidi, tot sunt cives in secunda. Quot autem sunt superbi et ambitiosi, tot sunt cives in tertia”; Hugh of Saint-Cher, Po­stilla, fols. 203rv and 205r. On 1 John 2:16 as basis for the scheme on the three deadly sins see Carla Casagrande and Silvana Vecchio, I sette vizi capitali. Storia dei peccati nel Medioevo (Turin, 2000), pp. 210-13. “Item sic possunt ordinari istae tres parabolae adinvicem. Primus homo quando peccavit factus est ovis perdita sive errabunda et errando offendit, et quia offendit indigebat re­­ conciliari deo per sacrificium. Ideo primo ponitur parabola de ove. Et Christus factus est ovis in sacrificium propter hominem […]. Item quando homo peccavit vendit se diabolo

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The Postilla places Christ as a stand-in for the prodigal son and as one who squandered his patrimony for a foolish expense (i.e. the redemption of humanity), suggesting a fascinating and unusual reading.151 Moreover, the text presents the hired men as clerics and prelates in ecclesia who do not seek the salvation of souls, but the acquisition of honours and a comfortable life. Thus, the famine suffered by the prodigal son symbolizes Christ who suffers in his ecclesiastical body: “Or Christ says that: ‘Here, that is in the Church, where there are such hired man and not true pastors, due to hunger, that is due to a lack of the word of God and good example, I am dying, in my members’”.152 The application of the parable to the inner life of the Church is arguably the most interesting (and original) part of the comment, which clearly is far from merely a compendium of previous interpretations. Hugh recalled the two most common readings: the allegory of the Jews and Gentiles, and the penitential interpretation.153 However, he also proposed two further interpretations: first, the two sons of the parable are identified as the contemplativi and the activi; second, as the clerici and the laici. At the beginning of the tropological reading (moraliter) the two sons are identified as those occupied in the contemplative life and those pursuing the active life. The father is Christ, who is both virtus et sapientia (1 Corinthians 1:24): the first charism is necessary for the active life, the second one for the contemplative life. These two states of life need to stay together (“Non est bonum istos fratres separare”). In fact, although the contemplativi are superior to the activi (they represent the elder brother), in the single body (the Church) the eyes (the contemplativi) and the hands (the activi) need each other, as Paul

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et indiguit precio quo redimeretur, ideo Christus factus est precium sive drachma. Qui enim facerat hominem ad imaginem suam [cf. Genesis 1:26], factus est et ipse ad imaginem hominis quem quaerebat. […] Item homo quando peccavit fatus est filius prodigus dans seipsum pro modico et gratiam dei et etiam ipsum deum, propter quod filius dei factus est filius hominis prodigus dans seipsum pro homine prodigo”; Hugh of Saint-Cher, Postilla, fol. 204v (trans. Feiss, pp. 34-35). As far as I know, before the Dominican theologian, only the conclusion of a sermon of Augustine hints at this possibility, by saying: “Epulari autem nos opportet et gaudere, quia Christus pro impiis mortuus est et resurrexit. Hoc est enim quod dictum est: Quia frater tuus mortuus erat, et revixit; perierat, et inventus est”; Augustine, Sermo 112/A, p. 264. “Vel hoc dicit Christus: Ego autem hic, id est in ecclesia ubi sunt tales mercennarii et non veri pastores, fame, id est defectu verbi dei et boni exempli, pereo, in menbris”; Hugh of Saint-Cher, Postilla, 5, fol. 205v (trans. Feiss, p. 50). “Mystice autem in hac parabola exprimitur vocatio gentium et reprobatio iudaeorum. Communiter significatur hic electio humiliter paenitentium et reprobatio arrogantium. […] Maior filius est iudaicus populus vel iustus superbus, minor filius gentilis populus vel peccator humilis”; Ibid., 5, fol. 204v.

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the Apostle teaches (1 Corinthians 12). Hugh’s remark on the necessity to unify the two states of life should be read in connection with the early discussion about the identity of the mendicant friars as contemplativi but engaged in the pastoral mission. This theme returns in this commentary. However, this (hierarchical) harmony between the two brothers is broken by the dangers of the active life, which quickly leads to sin: “One can bear the occupations of the active life for a few days and somehow escape sin, but not for long, like a tunic cannot be used for a long time without becoming soiled”.154 Therefore, those who live an active life cannot escape sin. The journey of the prodigal son becomes the symbol of the perpetual odyssey of those persons, who always need to return home. The different stages of this penitential itinerary are detected in (and connected with) the prodigal son’s words: Integral penitence results from three things that should be noted in order: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Contrition is indicated by I will rise and go […]. Confession is indicated through what is added: and I will say to him: Father, I have sinned […]. Satisfaction is indicated by what follows: make me like one of your hired men.155 This is the first time that we find a clear connection between the prodigal son’s words in the parable and the threefold division of penance in contrition, confession, and satisfaction. As we will see, from the thirteenth century onwards this became a dominant scheme in the interpretation and – even more – in the presentation of this parable, as a consequence of the pastoral reform promoted by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215).156 Looking at Hugh’s exegesis, through satisfaction, the penitent proves to be deserving of the remission of sins (“ut operando in vinea tua et in agro tuo merear aeternam mercedem apud te”).157 Yet, this return is possible only 154

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“Potest enim aliquis per aliquot dies gerere occupationes activae, et quoquo modo peccatum effugere, sed non diu, sicut tunica non potest diu indui sine pollutione”; Ibid., 5, fol. 204v (trans. Feiss, pp. 41-42). “Tria notantur per ordinem ex quibus integratur penitentia, scilicet contritio, confessio, satisfactio. Contritio per hoc quod dicit: Surgam et ibo […]. Confessio notatur per hoc quod additur: Et dicam illi: Pater peccavi […]. Satisfactio notatur per hoc quod sequitur: Fac me sict unum de mercenariis tuis”; Ibid. 5, fol. 205v (trans. Feiss, p. 54). On the late medieval penitential doctrine and practice in the Latin Church, see Roberto Rusconi, L’ordine dei peccati. La confessione tra Medioevo ed Età Moderna (Bologna, 2002) and Abigail Firey, ed., A New History of Penance (Leiden, 2008). Hugh of Saint-Cher, Postilla, 5, fol. 205v. Thus, the prodigal son has to imitate the elder brother who works in the fields of the father. As Fusco notes, in some cases the penitential

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through the grace of God, who comes to the sinner like a vulture to its prey. What might sound rather strange to a modern reader is developed in a detailed parallel between the actions of the father and those of the vulture, “which first sees the cadaver from afar, then flies to it, attacks it, and finally incorporates it”.158 Thus, the father flies on the wings of misericordia et veritas, his falling on the neck of the returning son is like the nose-dive of the vulture, and his kiss is “as a vulture ingesting a cadaver” (“quasi vultur cadaver incorporans sibi”). Here, as already seen in Guerric’s sermon, the father’s embrace and kiss are connected with the spiritual theme of divine incorporation. The four actions of the father are also read as signs of four varieties of grace that are active during the redemptive process (gratia preveniens; gratia coadiuvans; gratia conservans; gratia consummans),159 whereas the kiss between the father and the son symbolizes the meeting between God and the sinner in the sacrament of confession: He kissed him, this calls attention to finishing or perfecting grace because a kiss is a sign of perfect reconciliation and peace and love. Therefore, it is placed last, since it only comes into play after the other three graces […]. In a kiss, the lips of those kissing are joined. There are two lips of the soul of the penitent, namely confession of sin and confession of praise […]. Similarly, there are two lips of the merciful God, namely remission of sin and promise of life. Remission of sin is joined to confession of sin, promise of life to confession of praise. The soul desires this kiss; Song of Songs 1: May he kiss me [with kisses of his mouth (1:1)].160

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perspective becomes the triumph of the elder brother’s point of view; see Fusco, “Narrazione e dialogo,” p. 66. “Cum autem adhuc longe esset. Hic notatur ordo quo deus venit ad peccatorem, secundum proprietatem et similitudinem vulturis, qui primo videt cadaver a longe, deinde advolat, postea insidet, tandem incorporat”; Hugh of Saint-Cher, Postilla, 5, fol. 206r. “In hoc quod dicitur: Vidit, notatur gratia preveniens qua respicit peccatores […]. In hoc quod dicitur: Accurrens, notatur gratia coadiuvans sive cooperans, quae non patitur moram vel dilationem. Sicut enim cum nutrix videt puerum invalidum conari ad ambulandum, statim accurit ne cadat, ita deus cum aliquis nititur per liberum arbitrium ambulare ad eum, statim deus accurrit per gratiam. […] In hoc quod dicitur: Cecidit super collum eius, notatus gratia conservans que fovet et amplectitur penitentem duobus brachiis charitatis: leva est dimissio culpe, dextera promissio glorie. […] In hoc quod dicitur: Osculatus est eum, notatur gratia consummans sive perficiens, quia osculum est signum perfecte reconciliationis et pacis et dilectionis …”; Ibid., 5, fol. 206r. “Osculatus est eum, notatur gratia consummans sive perficiens, quia osculum est signum perfectae reconciliationis et pacis et dilectionis, et ideo ultimo ponitur, quia non habebitur nisi post tres gratias predictas […]. In osculo coninguntur labia osculantium. Duo

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Thus, through this detailed phenomenology of the kiss, the commentary elaborates the constitutive elements for the celebration of the sacrament of confession, including the positive moment of the confessio laudis. From the same perspective, the servants of the parable are identified not only with the guardian angels, but primarily with the priests who have the task of absolving the penitents.161 When the figure of the elder brother comes back on the scene, Hugh moves his attention towards the contemplativi who, absorbed in their contemplation, forget their human fragility and become overly strict in evaluating sinners (“plus debito inveniuntur austeri”). Going against dominant interpretations, the Dominican exegete suggests a positive reading of being in the field, since “the study of contemplation is also said to be a field”.162 Although Hugh recalls the mistakes of the elder brother, he reaffirms his superiority over the younger son. The prodigal son is welcomed back with a great feast, yet the love of the father for the elder brother is superior: Son, you are always with me. In these worlds is shown the difference between the fallen who have been restored and those who have always been standing. […] Although there is no new joy about the latter, nevertheless they are loved more and are more blessed.163 This interpretation of the elder son as representative of the contemplativi is rather innovative and does not have a patristic antecedent. Although a direct connection is highly improbable, it presents striking similarities with the exegesis of the homilist of Admont and Hildegard of Bingen, perhaps suggesting a monastic origin for this reading. In this framework, the elder son’s assertion about the goat also receives a new interpretation: the goat symbolizes the remission of sin and the brother claims he has done nothing that needs to be

161 162 163

autem sunt labia animae paenitentes, scilicet confessio peccati et confessio laudis. […] Similiter duo labia dei miserentis, scilicet remissio culpae et promissio vitae. Remissio culpae coniungitur confessioni peccati, promissio vitae confessioni laudis. Istud osculum desiderat anima, Canticus 1: Osculetur me osculo etc.”; Ibid., 5, fol. 206r (trans. Feiss, pp. 59-60). “Servi etiam sunt ministri ecclesiae […]. Horum officium est confitentes absolvere”; Ibid., 5, fol. 206r. “Iste recte describitur esse in agro. Sicut enim ager dicit exercitium actionis, ita et studium contemplationis dicit ager”; Ibid., 5, fol. 206v (trans. Feiss, p. 67). “At ipse dixit illi: Fili tu semper mecum es. In his verbis ostenditur differentia inter lapsos qui reparant et semper stantes. […] Et licet de istis non fit novum gaudium, tamen plus diliguntur et beatiores sunt”; Ibid. 5, fol. 207v (trans. Feiss, p. 81).

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forgiven. Yet, this statement of the elder son is above all a sign of ingratitude, since he has indeed received more than his sibling: Note that the Lord gives some a young goat, that is remission of fault, to some he gives a lamb, that is the preservation of innocence, to some a fatted calf, that is abundance of spiritual joy. The first is great, the second greater, the third the greatest. He [the elder brother] is therefore thinking of an equality of gift, and in some fashion he says proudly regarding it: And you never gave me a goat, which is to say, I have never done anything for which I need to seek pardon. This is certainly great conceit, but it is even greater ingratitude. He has forgotten that the father gave to him something greater, i.e. a lamb, which is the preservation of innocence.164 In the Gospel there is no trace of the superior gift of a lamb to the elder son. Still, the main tension in Hugh’s tropological comment is the search for a balance between the mercy of God and his justice. The former allows the reception of the penitent, while the latter guarantees a hierarchical order of his grace and even of his love. The discussion about whether God loves a penitent sinner more than a righteous person who does not need to be converted will become a recurrent topic in the discussion and sermons on this parable – often overturning (or at least downplaying and trying to control) the destabilizing sentence of Luke 15:7: “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents …”.165 Furthermore, Hugh introduces a new level of interpretation by saying: “according to Chrysostom the two brothers are the order of clerics and the crowd

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“Nota quibusdam dat dominus haedum, id est remissionem culpae; quibusdam dat agnum, id est innocentiae; quibusdam vitulum saginatum, id est abundantiam spiritualis laeticiae. Primum magnum, secundum maius, tertium maximum. Iste ergo quasi parum reputans secundum donum, et quodammodo de eodem superbiens dicit: nunquam dedisti mihi haedum, quasi dicens, numquam feci unde debeam veniam impetrare. Certe magna iactantia est, sed maior est ingratitudo. Oblitus enim est quod maius dederit ei, scilicet agnum, id est conservationem innocentiae”; Ibid., 5, fol. 207v (trans. Feiss, p. 74). In a similar way, Peter of John Olivi (d. 1298) warned that the father who immediately welcomes the prodigal son could not be taken as example for the religious life, which on the contrary required a careful examination of the candidates and a time of trial; see Peter of John Olivi, Lectura super Lucam et lectura super Marcum, ed. Fortunato Iozzelli (Grotta­ ferrata, 2010), pp. 503-04. On Olivi’s commentary on the prodigal son, see Fortunato ­Iozzelli, “Aspetti dell’esegesi biblica di Pietro di Giovanni Olivi,” in Pietro di Giovanni Olivi frate minore (Spoleto, 2016), pp. 131-82: 162-80.

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of lay people”.166 Only on a superficial level, this reading is akin to that on contemplativi and activi. While the penitential itinerary of the prodigal son is supposed to stand for the laity, this time the elder brother’s being in agro is read in a negative light as the earthly interests of the clergy (“terrenae negociationis”), which are harshly criticized by Hugh.167 The most striking detail is the interpretation of the reasons for the elder brother’s indignation, which represents the clerical indignation with those (most likely the mendicant friars) who frequently preach the Gospel to the laity: The preaching of the law is prefigured by the symphony, and the preaching of the Gospel by the chorus. Hence clerics are indignant that the law and the Gospel are preached concordantly to laity. […] Or according to the letter, one asks another what this is that now is preached publicly everywhere. Clerics are aroused by this, and they say that preaching is becoming debased (vilescit) due to its frequency. However, if preaching is debased, it is becoming so among them! It is not debased among the laity but becoming more precious, because many are converting to penitence and they know their sins, whereas previously they were ignorant of them.168 Thus, the story of the prodigal son became that of any sinful lay person, who had to follow the penitential itinerary proposed by the Church. Moreover, a new role was reserved for the preachers, first of all, in the mind of Hugh of Saint-Cher, for those of the Ordo praedicatorum that he had entered in 1225. In this text, we find a pocket-sized preaching programme: preaching has to be 166 167 168

“Secundum Chrysostomus duo fratres sunt ordo clericorum et cetus laicorum”; Hugh of Saint-Cher, Postilla, 5, fol. 206v (trans. Feiss, p. 64). See Ibid., 5, fol. 206v. The Dominican used the link with the parable of Luke 14, as in Jerome and the Glossa. “Per symphoniam ergo legis predicatio, per chorum vero evangelii predicatio figuratur. De hoc ergo indignant clerici quod lex et evangelium concorditer laicis predicatur. […] Vel ad litteram unus interrogat alius quod sit hoc, quod ita modo publice predicatur ubique. De hoc admirantur clerici et dicunt quod vilescit predicatio, quia frequens. Sed si vilescit, apud eos vilescit! Apud laicos enim non vilescit, sed proficit, quia multi convertuntur ad penitentiam et cognoscunt peccata que prius nesciebant”; Ibid., 5, fols. 206v-07r (trans. Feiss, pp. 69-70). The Postilla introduces a similar reading also dealing with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, pp. 31-32. On Hugh’s emphasis on preaching as superior to contemplation and on his critique of monks and clerics who neglected it, as expressed in his commentary to the Song of Songs, see Suzanne LaVere, Out of the Cloister: Scholastic Exegesis of the Song of Songs, 1100-1250 (Leiden, 2016), pp. 119-58.

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frequent, public, and adaptable to new circumstances; it also has to address especially the laity by presenting them a clear moral message based on the analytic discussion of their (possible) sins; and it aims at the listeners’ conversion, penitence, and religious instruction. Here, one can find the coordinates of the religious life of the laity as ideally enclosed between the pulpit and the confession of sins, in line with the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council and the pastoral agenda of the mendicant orders.169 Considering that Hugh’s Postilla on Luke dates approximately to the mid 1230s,170 this passage reflects also the growing tensions that, shortly thereafter, would result in the secular-mendicant controversy, which culminated in the 1250s at the University of Paris (William of Saint-Amour’s De periculis novissimorum temporum dates to 1256). The polemic touched on the identity of the mendicant friars. For this reason, Hugh defended the active role of the friars, who – in the eyes of their (secular) critics – should have remained contemplatives, just like the monks. The critique concerned the position of the mendicant orders both in the educational system and in the pastoral life of the Church, which at that time experienced their increasing influence on preaching and confessing.171 Within this historical context, Hugh showed that the parable of the prodigal son could be used for discussing the inner conflicts of the Church. As Chapter 6 will demonstrate, this line of interpretation – which was unusual in thirteenth century – would find new protagonists during the sixteenth century. 5.3 Bonaventure: The Penitential Itinerary of the Prodigal Son Bonaventure of Bagnoregio (d. 1274) was deeply and directly involved in the discussion of the identity of the Franciscans and their mission in the Church, both as master of theology at the University of Paris and as Minister General.172 Indirectly, the pastoral perspective prevailing in his commentary on the prodigal son confirms the role the mendicant orders were assuming in the mission of the Church as protagonists of a new kind of religious life concentrated on pastoral ministry. 169 170 171

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See Rusconi, L’ordine dei peccati, chapter 2 and 4. See Bain, Église, richesse et pauvreté, pp. 386-88. On the controversy in general and the Parisian case in particular, see Roberto Lambertini, Apologia e crescita dell’identità francescana (1255-1279) (Rome, 1990); Roest, A History of Franciscan Education, pp. 51-58; Sita Steckel, “Rewriting the Rules. The Secular-Mendicant Controversy in France and its Impact on Dominican Legislation, c.1230-1290,” in Making and Breaking the Rules. Discussion, Implementation and Consequences of Dominican Legislation, ed. Cornelia Linde (Oxford, forthcoming). For a recent survey on Bonaventure, see Jay M. Hammond, J.A. Wayne Hellmann and Jared Goff, eds., A Companion to Bonaventure (Leiden, 2014).

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Bonaventure’s Commentary on Luke pays specific attention to the parables, which are considered as “a rhetorical means of persuasion that seeks the adhesion and the emotive involvement of the listener”.173 Within this text, the story of the prodigal son is transformed into a perfect catechesis on sin, penance, and the sacrament of confession.174 The tale of the two sons becomes the moral story of the prodigal son, marginalizing the elder brother and the allegorical interpretation. The commentary results in a useful scheme already tailored to present – for instance in a sermon – the teaching about penitence and the ecclesiastical requirement of annual confession, one of the pivotal pastoral initiatives promoted by the Fourth Lateran Council.175 Bonaventure adopted a very different strategy from that employed by Hugh of Saint-Cher. While the Dominican master had gathered a richly different set of interpretations of the parable, Bonaventure chose to focus only on the moral level of reading. This was developed in a coherent way, as a compact and easily memorable commentary on the parable.176 Within the second and largest sec173

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See the careful analysis in Emmanuel Bain, “Parabola, similitudo et exemplum: Bonaventure et la rhétorique des paraboles dans son Commentaire sur Luc,” in Études d’exégèse médiévale offertes à Gilbert Dahan par ses élèves, ed. Annie Noblesse-Rocher (Turnhout, 2012), pp. 141-59: 147. Bonaventure noted in his commentary: “Et maxime ille sunt discenda, quae sunt parabolice dicta” (comment on Luke 12:41; quoted ivi, p. 148). Bonaventure wrote this commentary in 1248-49 and reworked it in 1254-57. As an introduction to this work, see Barbara Faes de Mottoni, “Introduzione,” in Bonaventure, Commento al Vangelo di San Luca 1 (1-4) (Rome, 1999), pp. 7-28 and Bain, Église, richesse et pauvreté, pp. 166-171. Bonaventure, Commentarius in evangelium Lucae, in Bonaventure, Opera omnia, 10 vols (Quaracchi, 1882-1902), 7, pp. 389-402. There is also an English translation of this commentary: St. Bonaventure’s Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, ed. Robert Karris, 3 vols (St. Bonaventure, NY, 2001-04). The link between this commentary on the prodigal son and the directive of the Fourth Lateran Council is pointed out by Dennis J. Billy, “Conversion and the Franciscan Preacher: Bonaventure’s Commentary on the Prodigal Son,” Collectanea Franciscana 58 (1988), 25975: 266. On Bonaventure’s Commentary on Luke as a device for preachers, see Fortunato Iozzelli, “L’esegesi di Luca 15,11-32 in san Bonaventura,” Studi Francescani 104 (2007), 20528: 206-09. Bonaventure used Hugh’s Postilla especially for the patristic sources, while his reading was largely independent; see Louis-Jacques Bataillon, “Les sources patristiques du commentaire de Bonaventure sur Luc et Hugues de Saint-Cher,” in Bonaventuriana, Miscellanea in onore di Jacques Guy Bougerol O.F.M., ed. Francisco Chavero Blanco, 2 vols (Rome, 1988), 1, pp. 17-32; Robert Karris, “Bonaventure’s Commentary on Luke: Four Case Studies of His Creative Borrowing from Hugh of St. Cher,” Franciscan Studies 59 (2001), 133-236; Robert Karris, “St. Bonaventure’s Use of Distinctiones: His Independence of and Dependence on Hugh of St. Cher,” Franciscan Studies 60 (2002), 209-50.

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tion of the Commentary on Luke, which deals with Jesus’ preaching, the triplex parabola of Luke 15 highlights the divine pietas, as opposed to the Jewish impietas showed by Luke 15:1-3.177 Introducing the prodigal son’s story, Bonaventure summarized the main points of his penitential reading as follows: After the parable of the shepherd and his sheep and that of the woman and the drachmas, in third place is introduced the parable of the father and [his] sons. As much as this parable shows the great mercy of the father towards his son, it also may reveal the mercy of God towards the converted sinner, who is represented by the prodigal son. The mercy of the father is exhibited in that he alleviated the misery of his son who had sinned and did penitence. For this reason, the Evangelist describes four things in this parable: first, the insolence of the prodigal son; second, his misery and indigence […]; third, his penitence […]; fourth, the mercy of the father […]. This is presented with a very clear and ordered process. In fact, through his insolence he [the son] fell into misery and indigence; indigence yet prompted him to do penitence; and penitence prepared him to obtain the mercy of the father.178 From this point of view, it would not have made a great difference for Bonaventure’s reading if the parable had started with “A certain man had one only son”, and had ended with the embrace of the father and the feast. Indeed, introducing Luke 15, Bonaventure labelled this parable as “de patre et filio”, and only in a second instance as “de patre et filiis”. The part on the elder son is confined to a subdivision of the last point, where the mercy of the father is depicted as twofold: “in acceptando conversionem peccatoris” and “in placando 177

178

Bonaventure, Commentarius, pp. 381-83. A general scheme of the Commentary is ivi, p. XVIII. The part on Jesus’ preaching has two sections: the presentation of the doctrine of Jesus (Luke 4-11) and the confutation of Jewish falsity (Luke 11-21), which is characterized also by its impietas (Luke 15-17). “Post parabolam de pastor et ovibus suis et de muliere et drachmis subditur hic tertio parabola de patre et filiis, ut sic cum maxima sit pietas patris ad suum filium, maxima ostendatur hic pietas Dei ad peccatorem conversum, qui intelligitur per filium prodigum. Et quoniam misericordia patris in hoc hostenditur, quod relevabit miseriam filii prius peccantis et postmodum poenitentis, ideo in hac parabola quatuor describit Evangelista. Primo namque describit filii prodigi insolentiam; secundo, miseriam et indigentiam […]; tertio, eiusdem poenitentiam […]; quarto, patris misericordiam […]. Et hoc quidem facit rectissimo processu et ordine. Nam per insolentia praecipitavit in miseriam et indigentiam; indigentia autem excitavit ad poenitentiam; et poenitentia praeparavit ad patris misericordiam obtinendam”; Ibid., p. 389.

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indignationem obedientis”. The last part of the parable is almost seen as an appendix, which reasserts a concept already made clear – the mercy of the father – without adding anything new. Similarly, the allegorical reading is marginal: Bonaventure mentioned this option, but immediately turned his attention to the penitential reading.179 While Hugh of Saint-Cher presented a multi-layered approach to the parable, Bonaventure evidently considered this option as a possible distraction from the main and most appropriate message.180 Bonaventure commented on the parable on the basis of a clear structure of divisions and subdivisions and incorporated chains of biblical quotations for each keyword of the pericope. The layout of this structure exemplifies the rhetorical strategies adopted by this commentary. The first main point, the insolence of the prodigal son, is divided in three parts: 1. conditio libertatis humanae; 2. perpetratio voluntariae culpae; 3. dissipatio boni gratiae et naturae. In the last part, the wasting (dissipatio) of the natural and divine goods is described, referring to the scheme of the seven deadly vices. The text presents first the five spiritual sins (superbia, inanis gloria, invidia, iracundia, accidia), each of them linked with a biblical quotation containing the verb dissipo; then it adds the two carnal sins (gula, luxuria), drawing on the prodigal son’s living luxuriose (Luke 15:13) and adding other biblical quotations. While Hugh of Saint-Cher had presented the threefold scheme of vices, the Franciscan master opted for the more detailed septenary of vices, leaving out greed and inserting vainglory (inanis gloria). Thus, he cleverly adapted the septenary to the prodigal son, who could be anyone but a miser.181 The second main point, the prodigal son’s misery is again divided in three parts: 1. famis incommodum; 2. servitutis opprobri-

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“Per duos autem filios intelligimus humani generis universitatem, non solum quoad gentiles et Iudaeos, sicut Glossa exponit, sed etiam generaliter quoad innocentes et poenitentes, sicut oportet intellegi ex ipsa applicatione parabolae”; Ibid., p. 390 (beside the Glossa, it refers also to Bede). There is also another reference to the allegory of the two nations, when the text addresses the elder son’s refusal to enter the feast (p. 400). For instance, all the exegetical discussions on the young goat disappear. Likewise, the distinction between good and bad hired labourers is discussed with reference to the clergy alone, without mentioning the reading of the hired men as the Jews; see Ibid., pp. 393 and 401. See Ibid., p. 391. On this, see Iozzelli, “L’esegesi di Luca 15,11-32,” pp. 211-13. On the medieval schemes of the capital sins, see Casagrande and Vecchio, I sette vizi, pp. 208-20. Albert the Great (d. 1280) also adopted the scheme of the seven deadly vices, yet when commenting on the pigs in the parable; see Albert the Great, Commentarius in Lucam, in Albert the Great, Opera, 21 vols (Lyon: Claude Prost et al., 1651), 10, p. 193. Albert’s commentary on the parable likewise focuses mainly on the penitential reading.

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um; 3. mendicitatis genus extremum.182 The third section, on the repentance of the prodigal son, presents – as in Hugh’s Postilla − the three stages of the penitential itinerary: 1. humilitas contritionis; 2. humilitas confessionis; 3. humilitas satisfactionis. One immediately notes that three out of four sections are devoted completely to the prodigal son’s ‘adventure’, with a remarkable amplification of this part of the story. As we will see, this choice corresponded to the early thirteenth-century visualization of the parable, in particular as found in French cathedrals (and Bonaventure could have seen some of them). Finally, the section on the father’s mercy is articulated in two main parts. First, the father performs three of the seven acts of mercy when meeting his converted son: the mercy in welcoming the unworthy, the mercy in clothing the naked, and the mercy in feeding the hungry. When this section turns to the mercy of the father “who calms down the indignation of the obedient son” (“in placando indignationem filii obedientis”), Bonaventure proposed another subdivision in two parts: the impatientia of the son and the clementia of the father.183 Just as Hugh of Saint-Cher, he also interpreted the elder son’s work in the field in a positive way. It is not directly linked with the religious life, as it is in the Postilla, yet it symbolizes a life unmarred by idleness.184 Moreover, while Hugh addressed the different states in the ecclesiastical life (activi et contemplativi; clerici et laici), Bonaventure focused his attention completely on the personal moral level. Bonaventure’s description of the process of conversion and penitence of the sinner as personified by the prodigal son deserves further attention. According to this reading, humility is the behaviour that the sinner needs first and foremost throughout the whole penitential itinerary. In this perspective, the double mention of pride in the list of the seven deadly sins, both as superbia and as inanis gloria, does not seem accidental. In regard to contrition, Bonaventure proposed an analytical description. The dolor compunctionis guides the sinner’s meditation to his inner conscience, to his lost happiness (felicitas amisa), and to his present squalor (calamitas). For what concerns confession, Bona­ venture used the prodigal son’s admission – “Peccavi in caelum et coram te” – 182

183 184

In this section, Bonaventure quoted also a passage from the Confessions (2.2), showing the influence of Augustine’s self-narrative on the interpretation of the prodigal son; see Bonaventure, Commentarius, p. 393. See Ibid., p. 398. Bonaventure listed three causes of the impatience of the elder brother: difficultas laboris peracti; solemnitas gaudii auditi; liberalitas paternis beneficii indicati. “Et quia bona vita numquam est otiosa, ideo dicit quod erat in agro, scilicet ad laborandum”; Ibid., pp. 398-99. The elder son is presented as “moribus maturior” and “patri conformior et obedientior”.

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to explain that each sin is against both the Church and God.185 Moreover, the prodigal son’s words serve to summarize the requirements of the sacrament: “From this it derives that confession must be sincere and humble, so that the gravity of sin and the sinner’s unworthiness will be acknowledged and the mercy of the pious father beseeched”.186 In the story, satisfaction is represented by the prodigal son who rises up and returns back home. The penitential itinerary can be completed only by the intervention of God’s grace, which the father’s actions show in its threefold nature as gratia preveniens, gratia concomitans, and gratia subsequens. This is quite close to Hugh of Saint-Cher’s interpretation.187 Still, Bonaventure emphasized again the behaviour that a penitent must have: “although the father runs to him […], a true penitent never forgets his sin”.188 For this reason, the prodigal son repeats his confession in front of the father. The sacramental perspective is further enhanced by the meaning of the new clothes, which symbolize the interior purity bestowed by baptism and restored by confession, and by the consolidated interpretation of the fatted calf as Christ – “qui nobis occisus, qui nobis in sacramento altaris proponitur in cibum suavissimum”. Hence, in this banquet Christ is food, table companion, and host (“Christus est cibus, conviva et dispensator”) – with a reference also to Revelation 3:20. Bonaventure’s penitential perspective is well summarized in his commentary on the twice repeated line of the father: “Mortus erat et revixit” (Luke 15:24 and 15:32). The prodigal son was dead “per culpam” and “per amissionem iustitiae” and he has come to life “per poenitentiam” and “per recuperationem gratiae”. This concept is once again repeated in the conclusion of the commentary: the prodigal son was dead through his abandonment of Christ and his love of sin (“deserendo Christum” and “amando peccatum”); he came back to life by returning to Christ’s grace and through penance (“reduendo ad Christi gratiam” and “reduendo ad poenitentiam”).189

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188 189

Here, heaven symbolizes the unity of the Church; see Ibid., pp. 393-94. “Ex his igitur colligitur, quod confessio debet esse vera et humilis, ut sic recognoscatur gravitas peccati, indignitas peccantis, et imploretur misericordia pii patris”; Ibid., p. 394. Drawing probably on Jerome and the Glossa, Bonaventure opted for a Christological interpretation of the kiss of the father, which is the kiss God exchanged with humanity in the incarnation of Christ: “Istius deosculationis origo est in Verbo incarnato, in quo est unio summi amoris et connexionis duplicis naturae, per quem Deus nos osculatur et nos Deum deosculamus”; Ibid., p. 395. “Et nota quod licet pater sibi occurrat […] tamen verus poenitens numquam obliviscitur suum peccatum”; Ibid., p. 396. Ibid., pp. 398 and 402.

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This text was perfectly suited as foundation for a penitential sermon. In particular, it closely resembles the structure and mechanisms of many contemporary sermons, which we shall analyse in detail in the next chapter. A brief look at the surviving sermons of Bonaventure himself confirms that the materials gathered in his Commentary supported pastoral work quite well. Among the references to this parable within his Sermones dominicales, a section of the sermon for the eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost presents a compendium of the commentary on the prodigal son.190 This similarity highlights once again the vital link between what was taught at Paris and what was preached from the pulpit. 5.4 The Catena aurea and the Postilla Next we consider two other exegetical instruments that had a large success in the late Middle Ages and beyond, namely the Catena aurea of Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) and the Postilla of Nicholas of Lyra (d. 1349). The Catena aurea is an “anthological commentary”.191 Requested by Pope Urban IV and written between 1263 and 1268, it is a commentary on the four Gospels made by collecting quotations from 79 Latin and Greek authors. In regard to the parable of the prodigal son, the Dominican theologian largely quoted from the commentaries of Augustine and Ambrose. Their well-established exegesis was enriched in particular by extracts from Greek authors, such as Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Theophilus. By contrast, the commentaries of Jerome and Bede received only brief mentions.192 An analysis of the choice and order of the quotations would reveal the logic of Thomas Aquinas in composing this mosaic of patristic sources. Alongside the desire to enlarge the panorama by including Greek exegetes, it is clear from the hierarchical order of the quotations that – for example, interpreting the young goat requested by the elder brother – Aquinas preferred the interpretation of Augustine over that of Ambrose, although he mentioned both. The Catena au190

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The sermon is based on the thema: “Surge, tolle lectum tuum et vade in domum tuam” (Matthew 9:6). While commenting on the verb surge, Bonaventure inserted a section on the prodigal son, on the basis of the line “Surgam et ibo ad patrem meum” (Luke 15:18); Bonaventure, Sermones dominicales, ed. Jacques Guy Bougerol (Grottaferrata, 1977), pp. 442-43 (sermon 45). Bougerol notes: “tout le paragraphe depend textuellement de la Postille In Lucam […], toute l’exégèse de la parabole de l’enfant prodigue passé de la Postille dans le sermon” (p. 97). We do not have a sermon of Bonaventure entirely devoted to the prodigal son. See Dahan, L’exégèse chrétienne, pp. 151-54. See Thomas Aquinas, Catena aurea in quatuor Evangelia, ed. Angelico Guarienti, 2 vols (Turin: Marietti, 1953), 2, pp. 215-21.

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rea became a standard source for later exegetes and preachers, as the early reception in the sermons of Iacopo da Varazze exhibits.193 Its longstanding influence among scholars and preachers is confirmed by the fact it was printed as early as 1470 and appeared in no fewer than eight other fifteenth-century editions. Some decades after Thomas Aquinas finished his Catena aurea, the Fran­ ciscan exegete Nicholas of Lyra, who has been defined as “the greatest biblical exegete of the fourteenth century and perhaps the greatest in the West since Jerome”,194 composed in Paris both his Literal Postill (1322-31) and Moral Postill (1333-39).195 His running commentary on the whole Bible became ubiquitously widespread, even more than Hugh of Saint-Cher’s work.196 For instance, it served as a standard course book in the Franciscan school system.197 In addition to hundreds of manuscripts containing this commentary or parts of it, the success of the Postilla as a printed book proves its lasting influence. It was the first commentary on the entire Bible to be printed (1471-72), confirming its pri193

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196 197

See Alessandro Ghisalberti, “L’esegesi della scuola domenicana del secolo XIII,” in Giu­ seppe Cremascoli and Claudio Leonardi, eds., La Bibbia nel Medio Evo (Bologna, 1996), pp. 291-304: 296-301 and Louis-Jacques Bataillon, “Iacopo da Varazze e Tommaso d’Aquino [1979],” in Bataillon, La prédication, pp. 22-29. On the relationship between Thomas’ ­sermons and the Catena, see Louis-Jacques Bataillon, “Les sermons de saint Thomas et la Catena aurea [1974],” ivi, pp. 67-75. We do not have a sermon of the Doctor angelicus on the prodigal son; see Thomas Aquinas, Sermones, eds. Louis-Jacques Bataillon et al. (Rome, 2014). Philip D.W. Krey and Lesley Smith, “Introduction,” in Philip D.W. Krey and Lesley Smith, eds., Nicholas of Lyra: The Sense of Scripture (Leiden, 2000), pp. 1-18: 1. Beside this volume, see Gilbert Dahan, “Nicolas de Lyre. Herméneutique et méthodes d’exégèse,” in Dahan, ed., Nicolas de Lyre, franciscain du XIVe siècle: exégète et théologien, (Paris, 2011), pp. 99-124. This volume provides a vivid portrait of Nicholas of Lyra’s life and the development, impact, and reception of his exegesis. On fourteenth-century exegesis, see also William J. Courtenay, “The Bible in the Fourteenth Century: Some Observations,” Church History 54 (1985), 176-87. See Krey and Smith, “Introduction,” pp. 3-6. The Moral Postill was conceived as “an economical and practical handbook for lectores and preachers […] a brief typological and allegorical series of notes on those passages of Scripture that could be, according to Nicholas, properly be given a ‘moral’ interpretation” (p. 6). Recently, his commentaries to the four Gospels has been convincingly dated to 1308-10; Emmanuel Bain, “Nicolas de Lyre universitaire? Le commentaire des paraboles évangéliques (c. 1308),” in Dahan, ed., Nicolas de Lyre, pp. 125-52: 143-44. See Dahan, Lire la Bible, p. 194. The number of manuscripts ranges from 800 to 1200: see Krey and Smith, “Introduction,” pp. 8-12. See Roest, A History of Franciscan Education, p. 131.

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macy in late medieval biblical studies.198 It is not necessary to recall here Luther’s consideration and abundant use of the Postilla.199 Moreover, Nicholas of Lyra’s exegesis could be explicitly geared to pastoral purposes, as is shown in the late fifteenth-century success of a Postilla quadragesimalia. This publication was conceived as a useful handbook for preachers that presented Nicholas’ literal and moral comments on the liturgical readings of Lent, with the addition of brief quaestiones written by another Franciscan, Antonio da Bitonto (d. 1465).200 Indeed, introducing his Postilla moralis, Nicholas himself stated that he wrote it as an instrument for lectores Bibliorum and predicatores, thus joining together the classroom and the pulpit.201 The possible reasons for his immense popularity are synthesized in the traditional epithet that names Nicholas of Lyra as doctor planus et utilis, detecting his main qualities, which characterizes also his commentary on the prodigal son.202 Nicholas’ approach has been summarized as a literal exegesis that aimed to overcome “two common defects of the exegetes of his period: the excess of allegories and the pulverisation of the text”.203 Yet, the conception of literal exegesis adopted by Nicholas was quite broad.204 In the case of the parables, the definition of their literal sense was indeed under discussion since the 198

See Edward A. Gosselin, “A Listing of the Printed Editions of Nicolas de Lyra,” Traditio 26 (1970), 399-426: 401. Gosselin lists 10 editions of the Postilla litteralis and moralis (14711660), 36 editions (of which 27 incunabula) of the Postilla litteralis alone (1473-1643), 5 editions of the Postilla moralis (1478-84), 43 editions of sections of the Postilla (the New Testament, the Psalter, the Four Gospels), plus many printed editions of translations in the vernacular. 199 See on this Annie Noblesse-Rocher, “ʻCe bon Nicolas de Lyre …ʼ: quelques postures de Martin Luther à l’égard du Postillator,” in Dahan, ed., Nicolas de Lyre, pp. 335-58. 200 See Nicholas of Lyra, Postilla litteralis et moralis super epistolas et evangelia quadragesimalia, cum quaestionibus Antonii de Bitonto, ed. Pietro Malfetta (Ferrara: Lorenzo Rossi, 1490). This work had seven incunabula editions (Ferrara, Venice, Lyon, Rouen), and at least two other early imprints in Venice in 1516 and 1519. Also the editor, Pietro Malfetta, was a Franciscan theologian. 201 “Non tamen intendo omnes sensus mysticos scribere nec per singula verba discurrere, sed aliqua breviter ordinare, ad quae lectores Bibliorum ac praedicatores verbi Dei recurrere poterunt”, quoted by Dahan, “Nicolas de Lyre,” p. 106. 202 See Kevin Madigan, “Lyra on the Gospel of Matthew,” in Krey and Smith, eds., Nicholas of Lyra, pp. 195-221: 220-21, which recalls that also its non-controversial quality contributed to its popularity. See also Di Rocco, “Leggere le Scritture con le Scritture,” pp. 509-27. 203 De Lubac, Exégèse médiévale, 2.1, p. 353. 204 See Lesley Smith, “The Gospel Truth: Nicholas of Lyra on John,” in Krey and Smith, eds., Nicholas of Lyra, pp. 223-49: 223. In this perspective, see also the consideration of Gilbert Dahan (note 146).

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thirteenth century, and the Franciscan exegete chose to interpret them as “prophecies on the history of the militant Church, between the incarnation of Christ and the end of the world”.205 In his concise commentary on the parable, Nicholas presented the prodigal son as the Gentiles in general and as the individual Christian sinner. Particularly in its first part, the text switches continually from the allegorical to the tropological reading. For instance, the confession of the prodigal son in front of the father has a double possible meaning: “And I will say to him: Father etc., for the Gentiles it meant a true confession of faith […], while for the Catholic sinner it meant a complete contrition of sins and a sincere confession”.206 Within the penitential perspective, Nicholas’ historical consideration of the changes in access to the Eucharist is interesting: And let us eat [Luke 15:23]; in the primitive Church not only the ministers of the Church partook in this sacrament, but also all the people, everyday, as it is written in Acts 2. Also now once every year each Christian must nourish himself through this sacrament. Indeed, he or she is feeding everyday, since the priests take in this sacrament not only for themselves, but also for the people.207 Nicholas explicitly referred to the actual life of the Church, taking for granted the decision of canon 21 of the Fourth Lateran Council, which decreed that every Christian should confess his or her sins and receive the Eucharist at least once a year. Thus, he suggested to his intended readers not only the 205

See Bain, “Nicolas de Lyre,” p. 126. In this respect, as Bain underlines, Nicholas’ commentary on Matthew 13 is decisive: “Apostoli enim erant quasi fundatores ecclesie post Christum […] et ideo ad ipsos pertinebat scire secreta ecclesie, de quibus erat processus ecclesie a predicatione Christi usque ad finem mundi, quia ista erant futura in divina dispositione preordinata. Et istud vocatur hi mysterium regni celorum, id est secretum ecclesie militantis” (ivi, p. 132). On the discussions about the ‘parabolic’ or ‘prophetic’ literal sense of Scripture, see Van Liere, An Introduction, pp. 133-39. 206 “Et dicam ei: Pater etc., per veram fidei confessionem quantum ad populum gentilem […], quantum ad catholicum peccatorem per integram peccatorum contritionem et puram confessionem”; Nicholas of Lyra, Postilla super totam Bibliam, 4 vols (Strasbourg, 1492; facsimile Frankfurt am Main, 1971), 4, fol. o3v. There exists no study of Nicholas’ commentary on Luke. 207 “Et manducemus, quia in primitiva ecclesia non solum ministri ecclesie sumebant hoc sacramentum, sed etiam totus populus quotidie, ut habetur Actu 2. Et adhuc semel in anno quilibet christianus tenetur refici hoc sacramento; reficiatur etiam quotidie, quia sacerdotes non solum sumunt hoc sacramentum per se, sed etiam pro populo”; Ibid., 4, fol. o3v.

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correct exegesis of the parable, but also how it could be useful in their ministry to present – for instance via preaching – one of the fundamental precepts of the late medieval Church. In regard to the part of the parable on the elder brother, Nicholas preferred to read it as a historical prophecy of the events narrated in the Acts. The elder brother in the field represents the Jewish people who “in cultu unius dei erat occupatum”. His approach to the house and the music of the feast have their parallel with Pentecost, when many Jews gathered outside the place where the apostles, filled with the holy Spirit, had begun to praise the Lord in different languages (cf. Acts 2). The indignation of the elder brother is connected with the episode of the conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10-11), whereas the father exiting to persuade his reluctant son to enter symbolizes God who exhorted the Jews through the apostles and particularly through Paul.208 Next, Nicholas addressed the crux of the elder brother’s fidelity (“Fili, tu semper mecum es”) in an intriguing way, by restating that many Jews entered the early Christian community. Finally, the moral reading of the elder brother as the faithful Christian is summarized briefly. This minimizes the elder brother’s indignation to a rhetorical artifice, which provides room to stress the astonishing mercy of God with sinners.209 6

Mary Magdalen and the Prodigal Son in the Speculum humanae salvationis

Leaving the field of biblical commentaries behind, by turning to the Speculum humanae salvationis we begin to consider the role of the parable of the prodigal son in texts directly conceived for the religious instruction of the laity. That is to say, we start to look at how the exegesis elaborated in the schools circulated and made an impact in society, and how the interpretation of the parable 208 Ibid., 4, fol. o3v. The connection between the elder brother and the Jewish faction of the early Church (as it is presented in Acts 10-11) was already made by Bruno of Segni (d. 1123) in his Commentaria in Lucam, PL 165:418-19. The position is curiously close to that of some twenty-century exegetes, see note 14. 209 “Quidem admiratio potest dici quedam indigatio”; Nicholas of Lyra, Postilla, 4, fol. o3v. This passage becomes clearer in the Postilla moralis: “et talis admiratio indignatio dici potest large loquendo, quia parabola que est quedam similitudo non semper currit omni modo; pater autem amovet hanc admirationem seu indignationem”. For the Postilla moralis, I use the Biblia cum glossa ordinaria et expositione Lyre litterali et morali, 6 vols (Basel: Johann Froben and Johann Petri de Langendorff, 1498), 5, fol. A4r. The moral postil on the prodigal son summarizes the penitential reading.

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was (re-)shaped by its multiple pastoral uses. Moreover, the Speculum humanae salvationis allows us to appraise the synergy between Latin and the vernacular and between words and images that was at play in the communication process. Thus, this provides us access to the interaction between different media of religious acculturation. Very different from Nicholas of Lyra’s Postilla, but equally widely disseminated, the Speculum humanae salvationis was one of the most successful religious texts of the late Middle Ages. Written at the beginning of the fourteenth century (certainly before 1324), it circulated in hundreds of copies with almost 400 extant manuscripts. Towards the end of the fifteenth century, there was hardly a library in northern Europe that did not possess a copy of the Speculum, whether in Latin or in one of its many vernacular versions. The advent of printing further increased its dissemination, owing to early blockbooks and incunabula.210 The Speculum is the work of an anonymous Dominican friar, perhaps from the German area, as a prominent reference to the vision of the Dominican Walter of Strasbourg (d. 1263) seems to suggest.211 With its words and images, the Speculum can be considered a monument to the typological interpretation of the Bible: forty of its forty-five chapters present an episode of the lives of Christ and Mary that is commented upon with recourse to three other ‘parallel’ biblical episodes. These episodes are almost always taken from the Old Testament.212 The mise-en-page of the text is ingenious and probably the secret 210

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See Adrian Wilson and Joyce Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror: Speculum humanae salvationis (1324-1500) (Berkeley, 1984). Very useful is the introduction provided in Joost Roger Robbe, Der mittelniederländische ‘Spieghel onser behoudenisse’ und seine lateinische Quelle: Text, Kontext und Funktion (Münster, 2010), pp. 17-113. On the possibility for dating the Speculum to a few decades before 1324, see Francesca Manzari, “Lo Speculum humanae salvationis della Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana,” in ­Chiara Frugoni and Francesca Manzari, eds., Immagini di San Francesco in uno Speculum humanae salvationis del Trecento (Padua, 2006), pp. 9-54: 14-17. See Manzari, “Lo Speculum,” p. 17. Also Robbe, Der mittelniederländische Spieghel, p. 113 argues for a German Dominican author. Yet, the story of Walter of Strasbourg was widely disseminated by the Vitae fratrum of the Dominican Gerard of Frachet (d. 1271); see Cordelia Warr, “Visualizing Stigmata: Stigmatic Saints and Crises of Representation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Italy,” in Saints and Sanctity, eds. Peter Clarke and Tony Claydon (Woodbridge, 2011), pp. 228-47: 236-37. Some scholars argue for an Italian origin, namely in Bologna, see Evelyn Silber, “The Reconstructed Toledo Speculum Humanae Salvationis. The Italian Connection in the Early Fourteenth Century,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 43 (1980), 32-51. The first two chapters present eight episodes concerning the beginning of salvation history, from the fall of Lucifer to the deluge, while the last three chapters of the Speculum present the seven hours of the Passion, the seven sorrows of the Virgin, and the seven joys

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of its success. Each chapter occupies the verso side of one folio and the opposing recto side (fig. 1-2). On top of these two pages four images show the main episode and its three typological parallels. Below the images, a text of 100 rhymed verses unfolds the biblical message and its meaning for the spiritual life of the readers.213 The prologue of the Speculum presents this as a book written for the instruction (eruditio) of everybody, also drawing on the topos of images as the book for the illiterate: I decided to compile a book for the instruction of many, | in which the readers can take and give instruction. | In this life, nothing I evaluate to be more useful for a person | than the knowledge of God his creator and his own condition. | The literates can gain this knowledge through Scripture, | while the illiterate must be instructed through the books of the laity, which are the images. | Therefore, for the sake of God’s glory and for the instruction of the ignorant | I decided – with God’s help – to compile a book for the laity.214 The rapid translation of the Speculum into many vernacular languages proves that the lay people – the rudes indocti – were indeed keen to enjoy personally the ingenious interplay between images and words that characterizes this

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of the Virgin (some manuscripts do not present these three final chapters, which are twice as long: 200 verses and eight images each). The images are taken from a Speculum humanae salvationis copied in 1427 by “fratrem Thomas de Austria ordinis sancti Johannis”, as the colophon reads, and which is presently kept in Sarnen, Benediktinerkollegium, Cod. membr. 8, fols. 16v-17r. On this manuscript, see Charlotte Bretscher-Gisiger and Rudolf Gamper, Katalog der mittelalterlichen Handschriften der Klöster Muri und Hermetschwil (Dietikon-Zurich, 2005), pp. 158-61. Its digital reproduction is available at: (ac­cessed 5 January 2017). “Hinc est quod ad eruditionem multorum decrevi librum compilare | in quo legentes possunt eruditionem accipere et dare. | In praesenti autem vita nihil aestimo homini utilius esse | quam Deum creatorem suum et propriam conditionem nosse. | Hanc cognitionem possunt litterati habere ex Scripturis, | rudes autem erudiri debent in libris laicorum, id est in picturis. | Quapropter ad gloriam Dei et pro eruditione indoctorum | cum Dei adjutorio decrevi compilare librum laicorum. | Ut autem tam clericis quam laicis possint doctrinam dare, | satago illum facili quodammodo dictamine elucidare”; Speculum humanae salvationis, in Frugoni and Manzari, Immagini di San Francesco, pp. 293-392: 295 (hereafter cited as Speculum). It reproduces the text edited in Jules Lutz and Paul Perdrizet, Spe­ culum humanae salvationis, 4 vols (Mulhouse, 1907-09).

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book.215 The images were much more than a substitute and a support for those who could not read Latin. We are aware that the medieval topos of the “pictura laicorum scriptura” hides a much more complex and intriguing interaction between verbal and visual forms of communication.216 Far from being a repetition or mere visualization of the written text, these images were also addressed to learned people and required a specific cultural background to be understood. To be fully appreciated, a book like the Speculum humanae salvationis assumes a familiarity with biblical stories and a basic understanding of the mechanism of the typological reading.217 Therefore, the Speculum presented itself as a book that could be used not only in personal meditation, but also to teach those people who could not understand it by themselves, notwithstanding its rich display of pictures. For this reason, scholars often present the Speculum as a support for preaching, for instance in the context of confraternities. In fact, each chapter could provide inspiration for a sermon.218 The Speculum’s introduction underlines the work’s didactic purpose by ­stating that this ‘mirror’ provides an entry point into the salvation history of humankind and encourages a careful consideration of “how humanity is condemned for the devil’s fraud, | and how it is reformed thanks to the mercy of God”.219 The Speculum mainly focuses on the events of the life of the Virgin and on the Passion of Christ. Between the temptation in the desert and Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, a single chapter (Chapter 14) summarizes the entire public ministry of Christ. Exactly this chapter presents the parable of the prodigal son, which appears therefore as the exemplary model of Christ’s preaching. 215

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Useful starting points for the substantial bibliography on this topic are Marielle Hageman and Marco Mostert, eds., Reading Images and Texts: Medieval Images and Texts as Forms of Communication (Turnhout, 2005); Hamburger and Bouché, eds., The Mind’s Eye; and Jérôme Baschet and Pierre-Olivier Dittmar, eds., Les images dans l’Occident médiéval (Turnhout, 2015). See Lina Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini. Predicazione in volgare dalle origini a Bernardino da Siena (Turin, 2002), pp. 23-24 and Lawrence G. Duggan, “Was Art Really the ‘Book of the Illiterate’?,” Word & Image 5 (1989), 227-51, now also in Hageman and Mostert, eds., Reading Images and Texts, pp. 63-108 (followed by his “Reflections on ‘Was Art Really the Book of the Illiterate?’,” pp. 109-20). See John Lowden, “‘Reading’ Images and Texts in the Bibles moralisées: Images as Exegesis and the Exegesis of Images,” in Hageman and Mostert, eds., Reading Images and Texts, pp. 495-526. See Wilson and Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror, p. 28. “Incipit Speculum humanae salvationis | in quo patet casus hominis et modus redemptionis. | In hoc speculo potest homo considerare | quam ob causam Creator omnium decrevi hominem creare | potest etiam homo videre, quomodo per diaboli fraudem sit damnatus, | et quomodo per misericordiam dei sit reformatus” Speculum, 1.1-6.

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The incipit of this chapter announces that its topic will be “how Christ cured Mary Magdalen” (“audiamus quomodo Christus Mariam Magdalenam cura­ vit”). In fact, the first image (fig. 1) illustrating the text usually shows the Magdalen repentant, who bathes Jesus’ feet with her tears and wipes them with her hair (cf. Luke 7:38). As the verses under the image say, Mary Magdalen is the perfect example of the effects of Christ’s innovative preaching: “He preached the opening of the celestial kingdom through penitence; | before his advent humankind had never heard such a preaching”.220 The text insists on the words poenitentia and praedicatio. They summarize the ministry of Christ, perfectly fitting the perspective of a friar of the Ordo praedicatorum. From this point of view, the Magdalen is presented as the example that even “a wretched sinner can merit the kingdom of heaven through penance”.221 She provides the evidence that a sinner should never despair of God’s mercy. However, the anonymous Domi­nican did not indulge in presenting the story of Mary Magdalen, which is summarized in just four verses. The text rapidly passes to the first typological prefiguration of the conversion of sinners, namely the story of King Manasseh. His story is represented in the second image of the chapter, which shows a king chained in a prison (fig. 1). In fact, when Manasseh was prisoner in exile, he repented of his sins and humbly prayed to God, and the Lord heard his prayer and restored him as king in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 33:11-12). After having examined Bernard of Clairvaux’s parable, it is quite clear that a royal character imprisoned in an alien country could be a figura of the human condition under the domination of sin. At this point, the Speculum introduces the story of the prodigal son, which is the subject of the third image of this chapter (fig. 2). The text states that the Lord hinted at the same message – the mercy of God for penitents – when he “preached the parable of the prodigal son”.222 Since the chapter depicts the innovative preaching of Christ, the parable of the prodigal son represents the 220

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“In principio suae praedicationis emisit hunc dulcem sonum: | ‘Poenitentiam agite, appropinquavit enim regnum coelorum!’ | Per poenitentia, paedicavit regni coelestis apertionem. | Ante adventum suum numquam audivit homo talem preadicationem”; Speculum, 14.7-10. “Per poenitentiam meretur regnum coelorum peccator malignus | istud apparet in peccatrice Magdalena | […] | Nullus ergo peccator debet de clementia Dei despserare …”; Speculum, 14.12-17. “Hoc idem innuit Dominus per quandam parabolam | quam predicavit de filio prodigo secundum Lucam”; Speculum, 14.51-52. This is the first of six parables that the Speculum presents. The others are the wicked husbandmen (ch. 22), the lost sheep (ch. 33), the lost drachma (ch. 35), the talents (ch. 40), and the ten virgins (ch. 40). The specific attention given to Luke 15 is evident.

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exemplary sermon of Christ, while the conversion of Mary Magdalen was its ideal effect. Therefore, this parable has a strategic role in the Speculum. It is the model sermon preached by Christ himself, while the prodigal son is firmly connected with a key figure in late medieval religious culture, namely the Magdalen: the model of the perfect penitent, the beata peccatrix.223 As we will see, medieval preachers often joined these two biblical characters, even to the effect that Mary Magdalen represented a sort of feminine alter ego of the prodigal son. The verses of the Speculum analyse the itinerary of sin and conversion of the prodigal son from the penitential perspective. The interpretation of the parable is the most detailed part of the chapter (14:51-82). The text summarized and diffused the exegesis of contemporary commentaries, stating – like Hugh of Saint-Cher and Bonaventure – that the father who runs towards his returning son symbolizes prevenient grace. In fact, God attracts sinners and permits them to do penance, using several means: some he attracts with paternal inspiration and others through salutary preaching, some he attracts with the lavishness of his gifts, others he compels with punishment.224 The text only considers the prodigal son, without mentioning his brother. After presenting the merciful father welcoming his repentant son, the verses turn to the fourth and final biblical text of this chapter: the conversion of King David (2 Samuel 12). The story is introduced by saying that it is a figura explaining God’s promptness in forgiving the sinners. The link is clear: just as the father forgives the prodigal son as soon as the latter said “Peccavi”, so the prophet Nathan told David that God had forgiven him as soon as the king acknowledged his sin and said “Peccavi” (fig. 2).225 The text devotes just a few verses to the story of David’s sin, which would have been well-known to the Speculum’s audience. Next, a long list of twentyfive examples of converted sinners is presented: Peter, Paul, Matthew, Thomas, Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman, the good thief, the people of Nineveh, Rahab, Mary of Egypt and so forth. The references to their stories underpin the final teaching of this chapter: “We shall not despair because of the enormity of 223 224

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See Jansen, The Making of the Magdalen, pp. 199-244. “In tantum enim salutem nostram quaerit et diligit, | quod, omnibus modis quibus potest, nos sibi attrahit: | quosdam enim attrahit per paternam inspirationem, | aliquos autem atthrahit per salutiferam praedicationem; | quosdam etiam allicit per beneficiorum largitionem | quosdam vero compellit per flagellationem: | itso modo filius prodigus compellebatur, | quapropter poenitentia ductus, ad patrem suum revertebatur. | […] | Sic Deus occurrit poenitenti per gratia praevenientem | et recipit eum per clementiam omnia scelera dimittentem”; Speculum, 14.71-82. The connection between David and the prodigal son returns in fifteenth-century books of hours; see below p. 182.

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our sin, | since we have many witnesses of the mercy of God”.226 For those who could only look at the pictures, David was the last example of penitence. Yet, for readers who had a good biblical culture, the verses provided a rich outline for expanding the discourse. Thus, according to the ideal of a book that was designed for “eruditionem accipere et dare”, this rich pool of stories could serve both personal meditation and the teaching of others. The wide dissemination of the Speculum humanae salvationis makes the study of its manuscripts and printed editions an ideal opportunity for a systematic enquiry into the iconography of the prodigal son in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This, however, requires a comprehensive study, which lies beyond the scope of this book.227 I will provide only a few examples for the purpose of illustrating the rich visual form of communication adopted by the Speculum and by comparable illustrated texts.228 The aforementioned illustrations from a 1427 manuscript perfectly show the interplay between the words and images that characterize the Speculum.229 The illumination highlights the ring that the father gives to his son, and the servants who bring the new clothes, while the verses do not mention this scene, since the narrative ends with the father’s embrace (fig. 2). In this and other cases, aspects of the biblical parable not considered by the verses of the Speculum do appear in the illumination. Instead, a Speculum manuscript probably produced in Avignon in the first half of the fourteenth century, illustrates the parable by showing the father tenderly embracing his son, who looks like a beggar, half-naked and with a staff and a bowl for asking alms. On the right side, the illumination portrays also a servant 226 “Non ergo propter immanitatem peccatorum nostrorum desperemus | quia diversos testes divinae misericordiae habemus”; Speculum, 14.97-98. 227 The studies on the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man might be a model. See Ursula Wolf, Die Parabel vom reichen Prasser und armen Lazarus in der mittelalterlichen Buchmalerei (Munich, 1989) and Jérôme Baschet, Le sein du père. Abraham et la paternité dans l’occident médiéval (Paris, 2000). From a methodological point of view, see Jérôme Baschet, “Inventivité et sérialité des images médiévales. Pour une approche iconographique élargie,” Annales 51 (1996), 93-133 and his recent reconsideration in “Corpus d’images et analyse sérielle,” in Baschet and Dittmar, eds., Les images, pp. 319-32. 228 The investigation should include not only illuminated Bibles, but also works such as the Bible moraliseé, the Concordantia Caritatis, the Biblia pauperum (where the prodigal son is associated with the appearance of the Risen Christ to the apostles; see below pp. 34950), and Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi. A brief discussion of a few interesting examples is found in Ewald Vetter, Der verlorene Sohn (Düsseldorf, 1955), pp. IX-XXI and Jeffrey F. Hamburger and Nigel F. Palmer, The Prayer Book of Ursula Begerin, 2 vols (Zurich, 2015), 1, pp. 206-10. On the images and text of the Bible moraliseé see Guest, “The Prodigal’s Journey,” pp. 73-75. 229 On this manuscript, see note 213.

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bringing new clothes for the son.230 This iconography was adopted also in later manuscripts. An early fifteenth-century illumination visualizes the parable in a quite similar manner; however, it introduces a scroll with the confession of the prodigal son to his father (“Pater peccavi in celum …”), emphasizing the repentance of the sinner rather than the mercy of the father (fig. 3).231 A late fourteenth-century manuscript depicts a musician beside the father embracing his son, alluding to the feast in honour of the returned son, instead of depicting the serf with the clothes.232 Another option for illustrating the parable could include different moments of the story in the same illumination. This is the choice of yet another early fifteenth-century manuscript. On one side, it shows the son requesting the inheritance from his father and, on the other side, the father embracing his returned son (fig. 4).233 The illumination introduces the curious detail of a father who meticulously divides the inheritance using a pair of scales – in an allegorical interpretation this could be a symbol of God’s justice. Moreover, it also provides an effective visual contrast between the luxurious clothes à la mode that the son wears in the first scene and the ripped rags he wears when he returns. The transformation perfectly visualizes his ruinous misadventure. Moving to the late fifteenth century and printed books, the woodcut from a Dutch Spieghel onser behoudenisse (fig. 5) gathers many elements into a single scene. The woodcut reintroduces the character of the elder brother, who is not mentioned in the text. Outside of the house, the penitent son kneels before the father, who takes his hand and gives him the ring. On the right side a servant bringing clothes is depicted, while on the left the elder son is shown.234 A con230 231

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Rome, Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana, MS 55.K.2, fol. 25r, which is reproduced in Frugoni and Manzari, Immagini, p. 229. Paris, BNF, MS Latin 512, fol. 16r. Beside the image of the prodigal son, the illumination depicting David’s repentance presents a scroll that reads “David dixit: Peccavi”. The parallelism between the illuminations enhanced the link between the two stories. The digital reproductions of the manuscripts and prints of the BNF that I mention in this paragraph are available on the website: (accessed 8 March 2017). Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS Clm 3003, fol. 13v. The digital reproduction of the manuscript is available on the website of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (accessed 5 June 2017). Paris, BNF, MS Latin 511, fol. 15r. Dit is die prologhe van den spieghel onser behoudenisse (Culemborg: Johann Veldener, [c.1483]), fol. h7v. I consulted online the copy held by Paris, BNF, département Réserve des livres rares, XYLO-53I. The image follows the model of earlier Dutch blockbooks, which appear as early as 1468 and include only 39 chapters of the Speculum; see Wilson and Lancaster Wilson, A Medieval Mirror, p. 169.

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temporary, prestigious illuminated printed edition of a French Mirouer de la rédemption de l’umain lignage illustrates the parable by showing the prodigal son kneeling in front of the father, who – as the gesture shows – speaks to him or blesses him.235 Instead of the embrace between two people standing up, these last images put the father and the son in a hierarchical position, thus focusing more on the prodigal son’s confession and request of forgiveness. In other cases, the visualization could introduce new characters. In a manuscript of the Speculum copied in Cologne (c.1450), the father embraces the naked son and orders a woman – probably the mother − to bring the new clothes, while another figure on the right, probably the elder brother, looks at the scene.236 The mother appears also in the woodcut of the Latin and German Speculum published in 1473, within the scene of the embrace of the father and the son.237 These illustrations provide us with an initial idea of the nuanced interplay between words and images in the Speculum: its visual apparatus enhanced the verbal message of the verses and often offered further space for meditation to readers and viewers. Several variations were used in illustrating the parable, and yet, there was a large consensus in identifying the encounter with the father as the highlight of the story. In Chapters 2 and 5, we shall consider other images of the prodigal son that will enable further discussion of the verbal and visual communication in printed books – whereas now, we have to consider an earlier form of visualization of the parable. 7

Visualizing the Adventure of the Prodigal Son

While the manuscripts of the Speculum addressed single viewers (or small groups of people), other visual reproductions of the parable were poised for a larger audience. In the thirteenth century, several stained glass windows in French gothic cathedrals exhibited an exceptionally rich visualization of the story of the prodigal son. These representations were part of an “explosive expansion of the narrative pictorial cycle”, which exploited the frame of the windows to develop new narrative structures that went beyond the typological

235 236

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Le Mirouer de la redemption de l’umain lignage, trans. Julien Macho (Paris: [Antoine Vérard?], 1493-94), fol. 63v (Paris, BNF, département Réserve des livres rares, VELINS-906). The Hague, Museum Meermanno, MS 10 B 34, fol. 15r. The digital reproduction of this illumination is available on the website: (accessed 3 June 2017). See Speculum humanae salvationis [Augsburg: Günther Zainer, 1473], unpaginated.

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scheme, playing with “the double strategy of amplificatio and dispositio”.238 Prior to the thirteenth century, this parable was quite rare in visual art, but during that century it became one of the most popular narratives, reproduced in no less than seven French cathedrals.239 There are a few antecedents in manuscript illuminations dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries; however the complex narratives on the prodigal son in large windows constituted a great novelty in urban public space.240 In these visual retellings of the parable, the journey of the prodigal son and his sinful life are greatly amplified and adapted to the contemporary social environment. As Gerald Guest has convincingly argued, in early thirteenth-century French cathedrals the parable of the prodigal son was refashioned into a pointed discussion of contemporary urban life. The urban life in question surrounded the cathedrals themselves and, somehow, challenged the clerical power within the city. These narrative cycles point out the opposition between the house of the father and the secular city where the prodigal son – this thirteenth-century French prodigal son – squanders his means. In this way, they “allowed thirteenth-century clerics to figure the secular spaces of medieval city as sites of deception and corruption and to contend that only through penitence and renunciation could one achieve salvation”.241 Therefore, both social and spiritual reasons motivated 238

See Wolfgang Kemp, The Narratives of Gothic Stained Glass (1987; Cambridge, 1997), pp. 4 and 92. In this monograph, Kemp repeatedly adopts the windows on the prodigal son as a specific case study. He also connects the new narrative of the cathedral windows with the contemporary renewal of preaching (pp. 154-59). 239 See Guest, “The Prodigal’s Journey,” pp. 35-74. Here is the list of the windows: Chartres (1200-10); Sens (1207-15); Bourges (1210-15); Poitiers (1210); Countances (1220); Auxerre (1233-44); Clermont-Ferrand (1260-70). Guest’s essay provides a useful scheme of each window and its scenes of the parable. 240 A peculiar antecedent can be found on a folio of the Eadwine Psalter (Canterbury, 115560) currently found in New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, MS M.521, recto. The parable is vividly presented in eight scenes: the son receiving his share of the inheritance; the son leaving the house; the son banqueting with women; the son tending to the pigs; the father embracing his son and providing him with the new clothes; the killing of the calf; the feast; the father appeasing the elder son. See Margaret T. Gibson, T.A. Heslop and Richard W. Pfaff, eds., The Eadwine Psalter: Text, Image, and Monastic Culture in Twelfth-Century Canterbury (London, 1992), pp. 37-38 and 41. A digital reproduction is available online: (accessed 5 January 2017). As images in the public space, there was a capital (c.1140) of Saint-Lazare at Autun; see Otto Karl Werckmeister, “The Lintel Fragment Representing Eve from Saint-Lazare, Autun,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 35 (1972), 1-30: 16-17, which suggests the capital was part of an elaborated penitential iconographic program. 241 Guest, “The Prodigal’s Journey,” p. 35.

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the unprecedented iconographic popularity of the parable in the changing urban context and its peculiar representation in the cathedrals. Ranging from a minimum of ten scenes to a maximum of thirty, all of the window narratives greatly amplify the description of the prodigal son’s debauchery. The cursory Gospel reads: “and he took his journey into a far country; and there he squandered his fortune in a loose living”, only adding that – according to his sibling – he “devoured his means with harlots” (Luke 15:13 and 15:30). While the biblical text only hints at the sinful life of the prodigal son, the thirteenth-century stained windows unfold a detailed description of his misadventures by portraying his progressive downfall into the vices of contemporary urban life. The secular space of the town – the very locale of the cathedrals themselves and of the audience for these windows – was depicted and ideologically (mis)represented as a place of spiritual exile and death. Such a space was intrinsically opposite to the house of the father that – as we know from the exegesis of the time – could be easily identified with the Church and, therefore, with the cathedral itself and its spiritual power. Hence, the narrative suggested to its viewers “a vision in which the material economy of the town is renounced in favor of a spiritual rebirth”.242 From this point of view, the clerics who planned this rewriting of the parable structured it as a choice between the vicious and disorienting space of the earthly city and the harmony of the city of God, represented here by the house of the father. Indirectly, the house symbolized the cathedral as the proper place for the reconciliation of the sinners with God. The cathedral was the spiritual refuge where, as much as the prodigal son, the believers could regain their true identities: in the merciful embrace of God the Father, and under the authority of the cathedral chapter. Therefore, the parable served to present “a powerful ideological map” of the contemporary medieval world, and to reaffirm the authority of the cathedral over competing urban powers that challenged its primacy.243 In the previous century, the pictures of the windows were based on sophisticated programs rooted in theological and typological diagrams. The majority of the thirteenth-century windows presented instead a sort of narrative 242 243

Ibid., p. 55. See Ibid., p. 65. See also Guest, “Narrative Cartographies,” pp. 121-42, which further develops this consideration, also from a theoretical point of view: “In addition to reading these windows with an eye toward cultural geography, I also want to consider them ideologically, as responses to certain processes at work in the medieval social landscape. These artworks can, in short, be read as works of opposition designed to speak to an audience whose social milieu was becoming rapidly more urban and more secular” (p. 122). I would be careful in using the word “secular”, which here seems to mean independent from ecclesiastical power.

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theology, based on what Wolfgang Kemp calls a “vernacular narrative”, which was adapted to the contemporary experiences of the viewers.244 As an example, we look at the prodigal son window in the cathedral of Bourges (fig. 6-7). The armature of the window is quite complex; the window is divided in ten rows that alternate groups of three scenes and single scenes, and “the action moves upwards in a very deliberate zigzag motion”.245 The parable is presented through seventeen scenes, preceded by three images that portray the work of tanners (fig. 6) , the ‘donors’ of the window.246 The story starts from the bottom, thus presenting an ascending itinerary to the gaze of the viewer. In the first image, the younger son – wearing a purple tunic and a precious mantel – asks his inheritance from his father (fig. 6). On the row above, the first scene depicts the father, who stands beside a treasure chest, giving a precious cup and a considerable number of golden coins to his son. At the centre of the row, the elder son looks at this scene while he is tending to the calves in the field. The row closes with the departure of the prodigal son (fig. 8). As in other images of the time, he is represented according to a chivalric ideal: as a young knight, on a horse, with a groom at his service and a falcon in hand, he rides off in search of fortune. Upon his arrival in town, he is welcomed by a woman (fig. 6), who is usually interpreted as a courtesan or prostitute.247 This image exploits the interplay with the contemporary iconography of courtly love and, on the other hand, the symbolic representation of lust. With this picture, the depiction of the ruin of the prodigal son begins, and the courtly illusion dissolves into a portrayal of seduction in a brothel and gambling in a ­tavern.248 The downfall occupies six scenes. In the fifth row, first, the prodigal 244 See Kemp, The Narratives, pp. 77-78 and 115-35. 245 Kemp, The Narratives, p. 40. On this window, see ivi, pp. 32-41 and Guest, “The Prodigal’s Journey,” pp. 36-37. For excellent reproductions, see the website mastered by Dr. Stuart Whatling: (accessed 6 January 2017). 246 On the debated topic of the donors, see Guest, “The Prodigal’s Journey,” p. 55 and Kemp, The Narratives, pp. 163-217. 247 The window at Sens cathedral presents Latin captions under each scene, and the caption for a similar image reads: “Hic prodigus vadit cum tribus meretricibus”; see Guest, “The Prodigal’s Journey,” p. 67. 248 I draw on C. Jean Campbell, “Courting, Harlotry and the Art of Gothic Ivory Carving,” Gesta 34 (1995), 11-19: 14, which analyses a fourteenth-century ivory casket illustrating a parody of courtly romance based on the story of the prodigal son. Campbell does not consider the thirteenth-century windows, while compares the casket with Courtois d’Arras (see below). On the similarities between images of courtly love and of the vice of lust, see Michael W. Camille, The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 299-300 (and in general, pp. 298-316).

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son dismounts from the horse and embraces a courtesan, while another girl dances, playing a cithara (fig. 9). At the centre, the prodigal son kisses the courtesan, while a girl crowns him with a flower crown, drawing on the lyric theme of the lover’s crown (fig. 7).249 More difficult to interpret is the man on the left, perhaps the brothel-keeper. The scene is situated inside a house and the fancy bed behind the courtesan alludes to the sexual encounter that would follow. The last scene of the row presents the prodigal son exiting this house: he is still well dressed, yet an attentive onlooker would note that he has already lost his lavish mantle and tunic. The next row shows the prodigal son’s financial ruin: inside an inn he loses all his means playing dice (fig. 10). Now that he has no more money, two women, possibly the prostitutes from the previous scene, threaten the prodigal son with a club and violently expel him from the house – or one might think, from the inn/brothel (fig. 7). Whereas he arrived in luxury clothes riding a horse – as a hero at the beginning of a chivalric adventure – he ends up stripped to his underwear. From this moment onwards, the visual narrative follows the biblical story more closely. The prodigal son agrees to work as a shepherd for a landowner (fig. 7). While he tends to the swine and sheep, he is portrayed as sadly sitting under an oak (fig. 11). A viewer who knows the parable might think he is contemplating his situation, complaining about his misery, and thinking of (the food of) his father’s house. The moment in which the prodigal son stands up – which in biblical commentaries was considered a central moment of the story – and his actual journey to return back home are not portrayed. In fact, the next scene presents the father embracing his son, while a servant brings a tunic for him (fig. 12). This is the most iconic moment of the parable. Then, two scenes show the father ordering a servant to kill the fatted calf, followed by the banquet for the rescued son, alongside servants and musicians and the participation of guests and his mother too (fig. 7). The penultimate scene depicts the elder son just returned from the fields – with a hoe on his shoulder – arguing with his father. Finally, at the top of the window, the father brings together his two sons in forgiveness (fig. 13).250 In this way, this visual retelling offered a resolution to the open ending of the parable. 249 This detail recurs in other windows, such as in Sens, where there is also a writing that reads: “Hic coronatur a meretricibus”. The image shows the prodigal son enthroned and encircled by no less than six women. On the lover’s crown, see Campbell, “Courting, Harlotry,” p. 14. 250 A similar solution is adopted at Sens, where the last scene presents the father who brings the elder son inside the house, as the writing reads: “Hic intrat domum filius”. In proportion, the window of Sens devotes considerable space to the elder brother, who is present

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For the clerics who planned this window, the final scene probably also referred to the Augustinian allegorical reading of the parable, which announced the final conversion of the Jews and their eschatological participation to the eternal feast. To be properly understood, this possible reference – as well as the connection between the fatted calf and Christ and between the banquet and the Eucharist – required a viewer who was aware of the allegorical reading of the parable. As for the images of the Speculum humanae salvationis, the pictures of Bourges are deceivingly simple. The dynamic of the story itself and the links between the scenes were (and still are) only understood by viewers who were familiar with the biblical parable and its interpretations. Otherwise, the story visualized in the window would remain mysterious at least in some of its parts. It is not obvious that in the first scenes, it is the son who requires the money from his father and not the father who entrusts his son with a mission. Moreover, what happens between the scene in which the son tends to the beasts and that of his embrace with the father? An uninformed viewer might think that the father went in search of his son. In short, the images did not speak for themselves, and they could not be read automatically and autonomously as “the book of the illiterate”. They only spoke to those who already had a basic understanding of the main coordinates of the religious discourse. This emerges also from the sources of the time. Referring to his own experience in front of one of the great French stained glass windows, Cardinal Eudes de Châteauroux (d. 1273) noted the necessary mediation between image and viewer in a sermon he preached in Assisi in the 1260s. Introducing the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), he stated: When I was a child, once I was looking at a window that depicted this parable or story, but I could not understand what it was. There came beside me a young lay man, who I did not know, and told me: ‘This image […]’. And he explained this evangelical story to me.251

251

in five scenes out of twelve (the first two and the last three); see Kemp, The Narratives, pp. 98-101. “Cum uenerim modo ad locum istum recordatus fui quod, cum essem puer et inspicerem quandam uitream in qua depicta erat ista parabola siue ystoria et nescirem quid hoc esset, stetit iuxta me quidam iuuenis laicus quem non cognoscebam, et dixit mihi: ‘Ista pictura […]’ et exposuit michi ystoriam euangelii”; this sermon has been recently edited in Fortunato Iozzelli, “Francesco d’Assisi ‘Buon Samaritano’ nella predicazione di Odo da Châteauroux,” in Alexander Horowski, ed., Litterae ex quibus nomen Dei componitur. Studi per l’ottantesimo compleanno di Giuseppe Avarucci (Rome, 2016), pp. 269-90 (quotation p. 286). On this sermon and the relationship between sermons and images in the thirteenth century, see Nicole Bériou, “De la lecture aux épousailles: le rôle des images dans

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Even the basic plot of a parable was not self-evident for an uninformed viewer, who would need an interpreter. Moreover, these visual narratives were asking their audience to see beyond the image and to engage in a dialogue with the deeper meanings of the story. They provided, so to speak, “a passage from visibility to invisibility”.252 To read the prodigal son window, a viewer needed to recognize the parable and be able to follow its narrative, as well as to appreciate the interplay with courtly imagery. On this basis, the images of the window could interact with one’s previous understanding of the biblical story. Only in this way could the window become a visual exegesis of the parable. According to the different viewers and their levels of religious culture, it confirmed, enhanced, renewed, or challenged previous understandings of this story.253 Indeed, the representation of the parable was appropriate for multiple audiences, as “a flexible matrix” open to “a range of responses that reach from high-church doctrine to popular piety”.254 The words, either read or heard, were a prerequisite to engage in a real dialogue with these images. The images brought previous explanations of the story back to the viewer’s memory, either confirming them or presenting the viewer with new elements that could suggest a deeper or dif­ ferent understanding of the parable. The biblical commentaries on the parable that we have seen allow us to interpret the journey of the prodigal son as one of sin and conversion and to identify the father’s embrace as the symbol of God’s mercy. These elements were easily accessible for clerics and the literate laity. However, for the vast majority of early thirteenth-century people, the immediate sources for understanding these images were not those texts, but rather their mediated presentation, mainly through preaching, and in some rare cases through theatre or other forms of oral performance, as would have been the case with Courtois

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la communication de la Parôle de Dieu au XIIIe siècle,” Cristianesimo nella storia 14 (1993), 535-68. See Hamburger, “Introduction,” p. 9. On this aspect of medieval religious art, see Caroline Walker Bynum, “Seeing and Seeing Beyond: The Mass of St. Gregory in the Fifteenth Century,” in Hamburger and Bouché, eds., The Mind’s Eye, pp. 208-40 and Ottavia Niccoli, Vedere con gli occhi del cuore: Alle origini del potere delle immagini (Rome-Bari, 2011). On the synergy between words and images and the different levels of understanding of the viewers, see Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini, p. 28. On the role of the artist and the viewer in the visual hermeneutical process, see Martin O’Kane, “Wirkungsgeschichte and Visual Exegesis: The Contribution of Hans-Georg Gadamer,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 33/2 (2010), 147-59. See Hamburger, “Introduction,” p. 6 (he refers to the images of the Mass of St. Gregory).

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d’Arras.255 Before turning to preaching in the next chapters, Courtois d’Arras allows us to investigate a peculiar form of retelling of the parable, presenting striking similarities with contemporary windows and anticipating later forms of religious theatre. 8

Performing the Parable in Courtois d’Arras

Courtois d’Arras dates from the first quarter of the thirteenth century and presents a subtle variation on the story of the prodigal son. The parable is keenly updated to a contemporary context and presented as a parody or subversion of courtly ideals, thus powerfully mixing profane and religious elements.256 Four manuscripts preserve four different redactions of Courtois d’Arras and have to be seen as the result of several performance traditions. As Carol Symes rightly points out, it is prudent to define Courtois as “an entertainment consisting of some 650 to 700 rhymed verses”. One of the manuscripts indicates it as a lay, i.e. a short story in verses that could be performed by jongleurs. It was a flexible and adaptable text “designed by professionals for repeat performance”, which required “only one skillful performer for an effective, bravura presentation”, while “a full enactment could be done with as few as three or four actors”.257 Courtois is a peasant, young and foolish. Tired of the hard work on his father’s farm, he is anxious to change his life. Thus, he is happy to receive a modest sum of money as his share of the inheritance, stating that this would give him the possibility to have a splendid life, just by putting the money in a bank 255

On the decisive role of preaching in providing people with a hermeneutic basis to interpret images, see Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini. See also Simona Boscani Leoni and Maria Teresa Dolso, “Predicare con parole e immagini alla fine del Medioevo. L’esempio degli affreschi esterni della chiesa parrocchiale di Glurns/Glorenza (Alto Adige),” in Antonio Rigon and Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, eds., La comunicazione del sacro (secoli IX–XVIII) (Rome, 2008), pp. 215-68 and Pietro Delcorno, “A Fifteenth-Century Painted Sermon at the Door of the Cathedral of Bressanone,” Medieval Sermon Studies 55 (2011), 55-83. 256 See Jean Dufournet, “Courtois d’Arras et le Jeu de la Feuillée. De l’imitation créatrice à la parodie subversive,” Cahiers de recherches médiévales 15 (2008), 45-58 and his “Introduction,” in Courtois d’Arras. L’enfant prodigue, ed. Jean Dufournet (Paris, 1995), pp. 5-27. In the same line, one can read Wernher der Gartenaere’s Meier Helmbrecht (c.1280), which echoes some topos inspired by the prodigal son narrative. I would like to thank Giulia Boitani, who called my attention to this work. 257 See Carol Symes, A Common Stage: Theater and Public Life in Medieval Arras (Ithaca, 2007), pp. 71-80, for a reading attentive to the original socio-economic milieu. Symes is keen in placing the text within a broader context of public performances (including preaching) that contributed in shaping “the public sphere” of this medieval city.

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and living off the interest. One manuscript introduces a sister of Courtois, who tries to convince the father to stop his departure. In some way, she balances the elder son, who instead in the opening scene complains that his brother leaves to him the whole burden of the work on the farm, while he wastes the money that father and the elder son have earned.258 In any case, Courtois leaves the house flattering himself for securing a purse full of money – which is in fact only sixty sous. The reality of the city will be quite different from his expectations, showing that Courtois has no real understanding of the mechanisms of urban economy. With striking ease a tavern host persuades Courtois that everything there is almost free, since he will give him good credit, just by registering his debts. The scene of the tavern occupies almost half of the verses and effectively sets the drama in contemporary Arras. In the inn, Courtois is immediately accosted by two prostitutes. In the eyes of the inexperienced young peasant, “the hostel’s provisions and the habitués present the sumptuous appearance of the courts described in chivalric romance”.259 Thus, he thinks the women are elegant dames and pretends to behave with them as a true courtois person, as he says.260 The play presents an amusing parody of courtly love. For the naive Courtois, the tavern looks like a locus amorosus, an enchanted place, a sort of earthly paradise. The reality is evidently different. Taking advantage of Courtois’ momentary exit to relieve himself in the tavern green (“in an artfully vulgar gesture, the poet has Courtois literally pee on the garden of love”),261 Pourrette – one of the harlots – plots with the other: Here, fool, make him drunk! | We have found a foolish peasant! | Bah! He behaves as a courtly peasant! | He thinks to have found his own amusement, | yet, before he’ll take pleasure of a night with us, | the full and

258

As Symes notes, the audience of Arras would have related this economic discussion to contemporary debates on inheritance and on investing capital in speculation and trade rather than in real estate; thus, “the elder son represents a value system that is potentially endangered by the town and its effects on the behaviour of young men like his brother”; Ibid., pp. 73-75. 259 Ibid., p. 75. 260 “Commet avès vous non? – Cortois, cortois veire, ma douce amie”; Courtois, vv. 162-63 − I follow the critical edition Li lais de Courtois. Commedia francese del sec. XIII, ed. Giuseppe Macrì (Lecce, 1977), which also introduces the manuscripts in detail. On the limits of Dufournet’s edition, see Symes, A Common Stage, pp. 71-72. 261 Campbell, “Courting,” p. 13.

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heavy bag he carries on his bottom | should be relieved! | I know very well how to shave him!262 The two women are quick in setting a trap for the naive peasant with the complicity of the innkeeper and, after having made Courtois drunk, they succeed in tricking him into giving them his moneybag. As soon as they have it, the harlots leave the tavern, where Courtois waits for them, trusting their promise to return soon. He realizes his fault only when the host discloses to him the real identity of the two women, of course without mentioning his role in the plot. Next, Courtois has to give the host his precious clothes to pay his and the two harlots’ debts. Wandering as a beggar, he encounters a man who hires him as a swineherd − one of the activities he shunned at his father’s farm at the beginning of the story. Yet hard life, misery, and above all hunger – which is highlighted as the main cause of his decision – convince Courtois to go back to his father. What follows is his return to the father and the request for forgiveness, the welcome of the father and the protests of the brother. The father replies to the elder son quoting the words of Luke 15:7: “In Scripture, our Lord God did say: ‘There is more joy …’ ” and inviting everybody to sing the Te Deum.263 In this way, the itinerary of Courtois allowed him to come to know himself, abandoning the folly of the initial project and (re-)acquiring his identity as a son, who has to remain under the authority of the father. The reenactment of the parable and its updating was complete – in an entertaining form, suitable for an urban audience. 9

Transition: Towards People, towards Cities

The present chapter has proposed an itinerary through the complex history of the interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son over more than thirteen centuries. Starting from the Gospel, passing through the rich legacy of patristic exegetes and the novelties of later monastic and scholastic interpretations, we ended up considering an anonymous vernacular text set for the performance of jongleurs. The last sections allowed us to move beyond the 262

263

“Ore, fole, de l’enivrer, | nous avons trové fol vilain! | Ba! il fait le cortois vilain ! | Il cuide avoir trové galoches, | mais ains qu’il ait paié ses noches, | abaissera mout sa borsee | qu’il a si grant au cul torsee: | bien il sarai renre les costes” ; Courtois, vv. 246-53. For the translation, I follow the interpretation given by Macrì. “Damerdieu, cho dist l’escriture, | fait d’un pecheor gregnor joie | […] | Chantons: Te Deum laudamus. Chi define li lais de Cortois” ; Courtois, vv. 646-52.

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Latin commentaries or homilies and to start considering the different formats in which thirteenth-century illiterate people could encounter and appropriate the parable. We exited the libraries and the classrooms where the patristic and scholastic commentaries were studied and attentively browsed by the few literates. We have begun to consider urban spaces, where people of different social conditions lived and gathered, such as the naves of the cathedrals with their colourful windows and the public squares in which a text like Courtois could be performed. By contrast, a bestseller such as the Speculum humanae salvationis presented us with a text programmatically thought as “a book for the laity”, which became increasingly available to a larger audience, not merely due to its ingenious combination of visual and literal communication, but also owing to the vernacular translations that enabled the book to enter the houses of (wealthy) lay people. Furthermore, we looked at the communication strategies through which Bernard of Clairvaux and Hildegard of Bingen reworked the parable as a means for mapping the spiritual topography of the monastic life, uncovering the permanent fight between virtues and vices. Using the same story, the windows of the cathedrals presented the urban audience with a different kind of “cognitive map”.264 This map offered the viewer an ideological interpretation of the contemporary city, to locate him or herself in it, and to help him or her to navigate through its potentially disorienting space. The viewer was expected to identify with the prodigal son, to recognize his or her own condition in this itinerary, and to respond accordingly by strengthening one’s ties with the Christian community. The dynamic late medieval urban context will be the landscape of following chapters. We will look at the forms in which the parable was presented and actualized for urban audiences, giving particular attention to sermons of mendicant preachers, who were able to reach and influence large sectors of society. Addressing their congregations by means of their sermons, preachers elaborated on the homiletic contents and catechetical schemes found in the biblical commentaries of Hugh of Saint-Cher, Bonaventure, and Nicholas of Lyra. Stained glass images and a drama such as Courtois already presented us with a retelling of the parable keenly adapted to a contemporary city context, just as the parable invented by Bernard of Clairvaux fitted the Cistercian monastic environment. The window in Bourges and the drama of Arras addressed a specific audience, with a realistic description of the sinful life of the prodigal son that, at this time, is not found in biblical commentaries and sermons – or at 264 On the possibility to consider the stained windows presenting a journey (like the prodigal son or the Samaritan) as “cognitive maps”, see Guest, “Narrative Cartographies,” pp. 121-24.

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least in the sermons that have survived.265 The images of Bourges and the verses of Courtois were evidently the result of a broader culture that went beyond these single specimens. Yet, they can hardly be considered as the common entry point that lay people had to the parable of the prodigal son, and to the religious message elaborated and conveyed through this biblical story. In order to find a pervasive medium of religious instruction that was able to reach a much larger audience, we must turn to preaching. In particular, we have to consider the growing role of popular preachers coming from the ranks of those mendicant orders that – precisely in the years when the windows of the cathedrals were painted and Courtois d’Arras was written – were becoming a new and influential presence within medieval cities.266 265 Only in later sermons we will find this kind of detailed descriptions of the prodigal son’s debauchery with reference to taverns and brothels, gamblers and prostitutes. Perhaps, vivid retellings of the parable were already used by thirteenth-century preachers (after all, the stained windows were planned by clerics). If this were the case, the visual narrative of the windows as well as the Courtois d’Arras would hint at an oral dimension of early thirteenth-century popular preaching that almost entirely lies beyond our reach. On the scarcity of sources on early thirteenth-century preaching, see Nicole Bériou, L’avènement des maîtres de la Parole: La prédication à Paris au XIIIe siècle (Paris, 1998). 266 Beside the seminal enquiry of Jacques Le Goff, “Ordres mendiants et urbanisation dans la France médiévale,” Annales 25 (1970), 924-46, for the substantial bibliography on this topic see Nicole Bériou and Cécile Caby, eds., Moines et religieux dans la ville (XIIe-XVe siècle) (Toulouse, 2009).

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The Voice of the Preacher: Late Medieval Model Sermons In the previous chapter, the analysis of the medieval commentaries has shown the continuous overlap between exegetical texts and sermons. We have seen sermon cycles that developed into full-scale commentaries, such us Ambrose’s re-elaboration of his preaching on Luke, while other exegetical texts were structured bearing in mind the needs of preachers. This is the case with Bonaventure’s commentary on Luke, many chapters of which are organized as ready-made outlines for sermons. The present chapter focuses mainly on model sermons on the parable of the prodigal son.1 Still, time and again, we have to keep in mind that the distinction between biblical commentaries and sermons is functional in presenting different source materials, and remember the bidirectional influences and the permeable nature of these adjacent genres. It is not rare to find manuscripts in which biblical commentaries are rearranged and excerpted according to the order of the liturgical pericopes so to make the material easily accessible for preachers.2 This connection became more pronounced in the wake of the intellectual and pastoral reform promoted by Peter the Chanter (d. 1197), who structured a school program based on lectio, disputatio and predicatio. In this program, the study of Scripture and a ministry focused on preaching were closely intertwined. For medieval masters, teaching in schools and preaching from the pulpit were two sides of the same coin; one could not exist without the other.3 For this reason, in 1273, during a crisis in the University of Paris, Bonaventure exhorted the lay audience of one of his 1 For an encompassing overview of late medieval preaching, see Kienzle, ed., The Sermon, and Muessig, ed., Preacher, Sermon and Audience. On recent directions of research see Manuel Ambrosio Sánchez Sánchez, “Dos décades de estudio sobre predicación en la España medieval,” Erebea 1 (2011), 3-20 and Anne T. Thayer, “Medieval Sermon Studies since The Sermon: A Deepening and Broadening Field,” Medieval Sermon Studies 58 (2014), 10-27. This journal represents the best instrument to keep up with studies on medieval preaching. 2 On the case of Nicholas of Lyra, see above p. 77. On other cases see Nicole Bériou, “Prédication et communication du message religieux: Le tournant du XIIIe siècle,” in Matthieu Arnold, ed., Announcer l’Évangile (XVe-XVIIe siècle): Permanences et mutations de la prédication (Paris, 2006), pp. 41-60: 46. 3 See Louis-Jacques Bataillon, “De la lectio à la praedicatio. Commentaires bibliques et sermons au XIIIème siècle,” Revue des sciences philosophiques et théologiques 70 (1986), 559-74, which underlines that, with the insertion of distinctiones, the text of the biblical commentaries (for

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sermons to pray to God to avert the closure of the University, saying that it would be “one of the gratest injuries that the devil could do to the whole Church, since the Parisian studium is the wellspring from which rivulets exit and run through the entire world, providing it with bishops, archbishops and the other ecclesial ministers”.4 The studium of Paris had a unique position, yet the interconnection between teaching and preaching was also commonplace at the convent schools, where the lectores were responsible for the daily intellectual and spiritual formation of the friars and prepared them to their pastoral duties, especially that of preaching.5 Bearing this in mind, the present chapter analyses model sermons on the prodigal son, by looking at a number of the most widespread sermon collections between the second half of the thirteenth and the early sixteenth century. We shall leave for Chapter 3 the discussion of fifteenth-century Italian sermons, since this will facilitate a detailed investigation of a rich set of sources. Before turning to model sermons, however, this chapter discusses two preliminary issues: first, the relationship between preaching and liturgy; second, the importance of model sermon collections and their relationship with actual preaching.



instance, in Hugh of Saint-Cher or Costantino d’Orvieto) “peuvent parfois prendre les dimensions d’un petit sermon” (p. 568). 4 “Oremus pro statu Ecclesiae, praecipue pro studio parisiensi quod modo cessat et puto quod diabolo fecit modo maximam partem suae voluntatis, quando procuravit in cordibus quod cessaret, quia hoc est unum de maioribus damnis quod ipse possit facere sanctae Ecclesiae, quia studium Parisius est fons a quo rivuli exeunt per totum mundum et episcopi et archiepiscopi et alii ecclesiarum rectores”; Bonaventure, Sermones de diversis, ed. Jacques Guy Bougerol, 2 vols (Paris, 1993), 2, p. 593 (sermon 44, 25 April 1273). On the context of this sermon, see Nicole Bériou, “La prédication au béguinage de Paris durant l’année liturgique 1272-1273,” Recherches Augustiniennes 13 (1978), 105-229. 5 On the centrality of the studium of Paris in the development of thirteenth-century preaching, see the seminal works of David d’Avray, The Preaching of the Friars: Sermons Diffused from Paris before 1300 (Oxford, 1985), and Bériou, L’avènement des maître de la Parole. A keen reconsideration of geographical and cultural differences among the thirteenth-century preachers is found in Eleonora Lombardo, “La production homilétique franciscaine. Étude préliminaire de la structure des premiers recueils de sermons franciscaines,” Etudes Franciscaines 5 (2012), 85-110. On mendicants schools, along with the literature already mentioned in Chapter 1, see also Studio e studia: Le scuole degli ordini mendicanti tra XIII e XIV secolo (Spoleto, 2002).

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Preaching and Liturgy

The Latin biblical commentaries that we have discussed in Chapter 1 were primarily accessible only to theologians and preachers in the libraries of convents and cathedral schools. For the dissemination and re-elaboration of the contents of these commentaries within a homiletic context, the presence or absence of a biblical text among the liturgical readings was a decisive factor, as it determined to a large extent which biblical passage came (or did not come) to the attention of preachers. Elements of exegetical knowledge came to be widely known first and foremost by way of the homiletic expositions of the liturgical readings.6 Those biblical pericopes were read and (at leat in theory) explained to the faithful year after year, and eventually became part of a shared religious and cultural landscape. This certainly is true for the closing centuries of the Midde Ages, when preaching became an increasingly widespread phenomenon, which involved a significant portion of society, especially in urban contexts, even though frequent contemporary complaints from reformers about a lack of proper preaching to the lay people might indicate that the exposure of the faithful to sermons remained uneven. The homiletic explanations of the pericopes varied greatly, ranging from a simple translation of the Latin text of the Gospel with some basic explanatory comments to an extensive discussion of the text of the day or some of its elements. Considering the relationship between liturgy and preaching, David d’Avray and Jussi Hanska have analysed the possibility (and limits) of detecting a sort of “mental calendar of mendicant preaching”.7 Their research suggests that the contents of sermons were often connected with specific liturgical days in a way that was to some extent predictable. For instance, a preacher would know that in order to discuss marriage or the duties of the clergy, the best opportunities were, respectively, the Sunday of the Gospel of the Marriage of Cana and that of the Good Shepherd. Moreover, the Tenth Sunday after Holy Trinity was an 6 As general introduction, see Carlo Delcorno, “La trasmissione nella predicazione,” in Cremascoli and Leonardi, eds., La Bibbia nel medioevo, pp. 65-86; Siegfried Wenzel, “The Use of the Bible in Preaching,” in Marsden and Matter, eds., The New Cambridge History of the Bible, pp. 680-92; Van Liere, An Introduction, pp. 208-36. On the relationship between liturgy and preaching, see Nicole Bériou and Franco Morenzoni, eds., Prédication et liturgie au Moyen Âge (Turnhout, 2008). 7 D’Avray, The Preaching of the Friars, p. 251. See also d’Avray, “Method in the Study,” pp. 3-29; Hanska, ‘And the Rich Man also Died’; Jussi Hanska, “Reconstructing the Mental Calendar of Medieval Preaching: A Method and Its Limits,” in Muessig, ed., Preacher, Sermon and Audience, pp. 293-315.

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occasion for Anti-Jewish preaching, since its Gospel reading was Jesus’ prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem.8 This kind of connection is indicative of specific tendencies. Still, there was not an automatic mechanism, because each page of the Gospel could suggest different topics, especially when a sermon was constructed according to the multiple possibilities offered by the so-called sermo modernus. This procedure generally structured the homiletic discourse around a single line of the Bible, the thema, which was divided and analysed with sophisticated exegetical and rhetorical tools. This technique gave great liberty to the preachers, and allowed them to develop their sermons in different directions.9 Later in the chapter we will consider some sermon structured according to these rules, although the majority of sermons on the prodigal son preferred to develop the whole story of the parable, in the form of a ‘narrative’ sermon. In the Artes praedicandi, this latter form, which remained closer to the modus antiquus of the Church Fathers’ homilies, was considered particularly useful for sermons addressed to lay people.10

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See Jussi Hanska, “‘Videns Iesus civitatem flevit super illam’: The ‘Lachrymae Christi’ Topos in Thirteenth-Century Sermon Literature,” in Roger Andersson, ed., Constructing the Medieval Sermon (Turnhout, 2007), pp. 237-51 and Jussi Hanska, “Sermons on the Tenth Sunday after Holy Trinity: Another Occasion for Anti-Jewish Preaching,” in Jonathan Adams and Jussi Hanska, eds., The Jewish-Christian Encounter in Medieval Preaching (New York, 2015), pp. 195-212. This connection became so entrenched that in 1415 a letter of Pope Benedict XIII indicated that Sunday as a special occasion for sermons against the Jews or addressed to them; see Filippo Sedda, “The Anti-Jewish Sermons of John of Ca­­ pistrano: Matters and Context,” ivi, pp. 139-69: 141, which shows how in 1452 Giovanni da Capestrano seemed to follow this instruction in his preaching rally in Nuremberg For a first introduction, see Marianne G. Briscoe and Barbara H. Jaye, Artes praedicandi and Artes orandi (Turnhout, 1992), pp. 54-58 and for a thorough discussion Bataillon, La prédication au XIIIe siècle and Andersson, ed., Constructing. On the fluidity of this model in the thirteenth century, see Lombardo, “La production homilétique,” pp. 109-10. The Dominican Thomas Waley (d. 1349) stated that this form was widespread in Italy: “In aliquibus partis, puta in Italia, communiter, quando praedicatur non clero sed populo, non accipitur breve thema, sed totum evangelium quod legitur in Missa accipitur pro themate, et totum exponitur, et eius expositione multa pulchra et devota dicuntur”; Thomas Waley, De modo componendi sermones, in Thomas-Marie Charland, Artes praedicandi. Contribution à l’histoire de la rhétorique au Moyen Âge (Paris-Ottawa, 1936), p. 344. See on this Carlo Delcorno, “Medieval Preaching in Italy (1200-1500),” in Kienzle, ed., The Sermon, pp. 449-560: 470-86, and Carlo Delcorno, “‘Antico’ e ‘moderno’ nel sermone me­­ dievale [1995],” in Carlo Delcorno, ‘Quasi quidam cantus’. Studi sulla predicazione medie­ vale, eds. G. Baffetti et al. (Florence, 2009), pp. 105-22.

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For the present study, the liturgical calendar and the idea of a concomitant calendar of preaching provide a compass to orient oneself in the mare magnum of tens of thousands of surviving late medieval sermons.11 Moreover, the biblical pericopes proposed by the liturgy had a prominent position, since they received much more attention in preaching than those passages of the Gospel that were never read during the Mass.12 In light of this, it is important to consider the position of the parable of the prodigal son in late medieval liturgy. Before the Council of Trent, the Latin Church did not have a completely unified liturgical calendar. Still, apart from the peculiarities of individual dioceses, two lectionaries dominated from the thirteenth century onwards, namely that of the Dominicans and that of the Franciscans: the first was used in Paris, the second in Rome.13 Both liturgical calendars presented the prodigal son parable on the Saturday after the second Sunday of Lent, i.e. sabbatum post Reminiscere, which was both a weak and a strong position. A Saturday or another weekday was not comparable to a Sunday or another main feast day, when the liturgical readings were presented to a large congregation. Yet, in les rythmes du temps, Easter was “the gravitation point of the entire year”, and the Lenten period leading to it had a peculiar quality, as “an intensified time”. The “increased density” of this period of the year − as Jean-Claude Schmitt points out − is effectively shown by such an influential text as the Rationale divinorum officiorum by Guillaume Durand (d. 1296).14 In the late Middle Ages, Lent became the season of preaching par excellence, when it was increasingly common to preach on a daily basis, particularly in urban settings. The expansion of Lenten preaching is also evident from the emergence of a new genre of sermon collections, the so-called sermones quadragesimales or quadragesimal collections. This type of sermon collection was initially 11

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Johannes Baptist Schneyer, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für die Zeit von 1150-1350, 11 vols (Münster, 1969-1990) and the CD-ROM Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für die Zeit von 1350-1500 nach den Vorarbeiten von J.B. Schneyer, eds. Ludwig Hödl and Wendelin Knoch (Münster, 2001) give an idea of the overwhelming number of surviving late medieval sermons. For instance, there are no sermons based on the parable of the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21), which did not figure among the litugical readings; see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, pp. 34-35 and 40-41. See Maura O’Carroll, “The Lectionary for the Proper of the Year in the Dominican and Franciscan Rites of the Thirteenth Century,” AFP 49 (1979), 79-103 and Maura O’Carroll, “The Friars and the Liturgy in the Thirteenth Century,” in La predicazione dei frati dalla metà del ’200 alla fine del ’300 (Spoleto, 1995), pp. 189-227. As general introduction, see Martimort, Les lectures, pp. 55-58. See Jean-Claude Schmitt, Les rythmes au Moyen Âge (Paris, 2016), p. 300.

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developed in the second half of the thirteenth century by Italian Dominicans, who spotted an invaluable opportunity for catechetical instruction in the day by day preaching that occurred during Lent.15 In the thirteenth and early fourteenth century daily preaching was still a novelty.16 During the fifteenth century, however, this practice was so well-established that the presence of a famous preacher for a full quadragesimal cycle became a much requested event. In Italy, this even provoked a sort of race among cities and courts to book in advance the most renowned preachers of their time, such as Bernardino da Siena or Roberto Caracciolo. The epistolary of Bernardino da Feltre, for instance, is full of orders and counter-orders to preach in one city or another.17 Furthermore, Lenten preaching was not confined to exceptional charismatic preachers, but became standard practice involving a large number of homiletic practitioners. In time, it became a generalized form of religious instruction with considerable impact on urban society.18 Thus, the recurrence of the parable of the prodigal son during the most important preaching period of the year provided this text with a specific visibility. Nevertheless, even within Lent Saturday was a weak day for preaching, as it usually did not draw a copious audience. Hence, while preaching on the prodigal son in 1306, in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, the Dominican Giordano da Pisa (d. 1310) lamented – according to the anonymous reportator who wrote down the sermon – that “for explaining this topic I wish it were not Saturday, but a more solemn day, and with a larger audience”.19 Other weekdays had a 15

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Hanska, “Sermones,” pp. 107-27. See also Pietro Delcorno, Eleonora Lombardo, and Lorenza Tromboni, eds. Lenten Sermons: Fast of the Body, Banquet of the Soul – I sermoni quaresimali: digiuno del corpo, banchetto dell’anima, in Memorie Domenicane n.s. 48 (2017, forthcoming). See the discussion of the prologue of the Lenten sermon collection of Ugo da Prato (d. 1322) in Hanska, “Sermones,” p. 123. See Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Pescatori di uomini. Predicatori e piazze alla fine del Medioevo (Bologna, 2005), pp. 202-12. See also Vittorino Meneghin, Documenti vari intorno al Beato Bernardino Tomitano da Feltre (Rome, 1966) and Bernardino Guslino, La vita del beato Bernardino da Feltre, ed. Ippolita Checcoli (Bologna, 2008). See for instance Yoko Kimura, “Predicazione ‘di routine’ di fine Quattrocento: Il diario di un anonimo predicatore francescano (Biblioteca Comunale di Foligno, Ms. C. 85),” AFH 106 (2013), 585-98 and Yoko Kimura, “The Bildungsroman of an Anonymous Franciscan Preacher in Late Medieval Italy (Biblioteca Comunale di Foligno, MS C. 85),” Medieval Sermon Studies 58 (2014), 47-64. “a mostrare ciò, disse il lettore, non vorrebbe essere sabato, ma in più solenne dì, e ad altro popolo”; Giordano da Pisa, Quaresimale fiorentino, p. 178. The absence of part of his ­audience on Saturday is indirectly proved by the repeated absences of his reportator; see Prediche del beato F. Giordano da Rivalto dell’Ordine dei Predicatori, ed. Domenico Maria Manni (Florence, 1739), sermon 8 (8 March 1305) and sermon 24 (27 March 1305). On this preacher, see Carlo Delcorno, “Giordano da Pisa (Giordano da Rivalto),” in DBI 55 (2001),

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stronger preaching tradition, as it is shown by some fifteenth-century sermon collections, like the Sermones de tempore et de sanctis sive hortulus reginae, written in Saxony by Meffreth, which had a considerable diffusion with seven fifteenth-century editions. Although technically it was not a Quadragesimale, it offered model sermons for those weekdays during Lent on which preaching was customary in that region, namely Wednesday and Friday.20 The same is true for another quite popular collection, the anonymous Sermones parati that had the striking number of 22 printed editions between 1480 and 1500.21 Moving into the sixteenth century, we can consider the edition of the 1577 Lenten cycle held in San Pietro, Rome, by Francesco Panigarola, a famous Franciscan preacher. Its preface explains that in Rome it was not costumary to preach on Saturday. To fill this gap, the editor of the volume, another Franciscan friar, Giovanni Battista Cavoto di Melfi, wrote himself the sermons for the Saturdays of Lent (including a sermon on the prodigal son) imitating Panigarola’s style.22 This late case is revealing. It shows that in some places preaching on Saturday remained uncommon. Still, a Quadragesimale devised for a large readership should provide a complete set of sermons, covering all days of the week, even if this meant using the ingenious solution of a sort of ghost-writer to fill the gaps in the collection. As we shall see, however, even quadragesimal collections that offered a sermon for the Saturday post Reminiscere could choose to discuss other topics, avoiding any reference to the prodigal son’s story or only alluding to it in passing.

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pp. 243-51, and on the role of sermons in medieval Florence, see Isabella Gagliardi, “Co­scienze e città: la predicazione a Firenze tra la fine del XIII e gli inizi del XV. Considerazioni introduttive,” Annali di Storia di Firenze 8 (2014), 113-43. I consulted Meffreth, Sermones de tempore alias ortulus regine: Pars hyemalis (Basel: Nicolaus Kesler, 1487). On this preacher, see Dietrich Schmidtke, “‘Meffreth’ von Meißen,” in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, eds. Kurt Ruh et al., vol. 6 (1987), pp. 297-300. See Schneyer, Repertorium, 4, pp. 516-37, which dates the collection to the fourteenth century, although this remains highly hypothetical. “Havendo Mons. Panigarola predicato il presente Quadragesimale in Roma […] non predicò i Sabbati, essendo così communemente costume in detta Città, io (non perché presuma che le compositioni mie debbano framettersi con le compositioni di Monsignor Panigarola – che questa sarebbe arroganza e presontione espressa – ma per dar fuora un Quadragesimale compito) v’ho aggionte le Prediche mie sopra i Sabbati …”; Giovanni ­Battista Cavoto, Ai lettori, in Francesco Panigarola, Prediche quadragesimali […] predicate da lui in San Pietro di Roma l’anno 1577 (Venice: Eredi di Marco Sessa, 1600), fols. a2r-a3v. The letter dates 14 August 1596, which is the year of the first edition (Rome: Stefano Paolini, 1596).

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Despite its secondary place in the Lenten lectionary, late medieval preachers not only reasserted the relevance of the story of the prodigal son and praised it as a key element for effective preaching, but even developed efficacious strategies to give it a more appropriate space than that provided by the liturgy. There was a deliberate agenda in promoting the use of this parable for religious instruction, overcoming the problems posed by its position within the liturgical calendar. This means that, while at the time of the formation of the liturgical calendar the parable was considered a pericope of intermediate importance – included in the lectionary but not in a prominent place – the perception of its spiritual and pastoral relevance increasingly gained momentum during the closing centuries of the medieval period. On 24 March 1424, Friday post Reminiscere, in Santa Croce in Florence, Bernardino da Siena, the most famous preacher of his time, began his sermon by saying that he wished to preach on the prodigal son. Choosing as the thema the sentence “Misericordia motus est et currit et amplexus fuit” (Luke 15:20), he said: “This parable is the Gospel reading for tomorrow but, since tomorrow is the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary and I want preach on Her, I have taken the Lenten Gospel that would have been tomorrow […] and I am leaving out today’s Gospel”.23 That year, the Annunciation overlapped with the day reserved within the lectionary for the pericope on the prodigal son. The Marian feast was so important that its biblical readings overruled those of a Lenten weekday. In cases like this, a preacher had different options. For instance, in 1413, when the calendar presented a similar situation, Vicent Ferrer devoted the sermon of that day to the Virgin Mary, without any reference to the prodigal son.24 In contrast, in 1424, while preaching in Siena, Giovanni da Capestrano, another leading Franciscan preacher who was in close contact with Bernardino, conceived a different solution to ‘save’ the sermon on the prodigal son. On Saturday 25 March he preached twice: the morning on the Annunciation (the main sermon) and the afternoon on prodigality, using the parable as a starting point.25 Bernardino was more radical in his decision to 23

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“Questo vangelio è posto per domani, e perché domani è festa dell’Annunziata vergine Maria e intendo dire di lei, ò preso el vangelio concorrente di domani della quaresima […] e lascio quello d’oggi”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 254. Bernardino had announced this choice the previous Sunday, when he presented his audience with the weekly plan of his preaching (cf. p. 178). See Vicent Ferrer, Sermons, eds. Manuel Sanchis Guarner and Gret Schib, 7 vols (Barcelona, 1971-88), 1, pp. 171-76. See Lucianus Łuszczki, De sermonibus S. Ioannis a Capistrano. Studium historico-criticum (Rome, 1961), pp. 36-37. The sermons are written by Giovanni da Capestrano himself in what is now Capestrano, Biblioteca del Convento di San Giovanni, MS XXXI. Łuszczki

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preach on the prodigal son, saying that “tomorrow’s Gospel is so full of meaning that I do not want to skip it, and you will be pleased to hear it and will be patient if I skip today’s Gospel”.26 He reasserted that “all the Gospel texts are beautiful and rich of substance” and they all serve different purposes, “like different kinds of precious stones”.27 Still, in his evaluation of the evangelical narratives, an expert preacher like Bernardino considered the parable of the prodigal son superior to that of the proposed liturgical reading of the day in question: the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-44). It was not just a matter of personal taste. He carefully explained why the story of the prodigal son was sufficiently important to legitimate a change in the calendar of readings. As a means to convince his audience of his choice, he affirmined that the story of the prodigal son presented in a perfect manner the core message of Lent, namely the conversion of the sinner. In Bernardino’s opinion, even leaving all other passages of the Gospel aside, this parable alone could reach the goal of moving the listeners to penitence: this parable “is so full of meaning, that if there had been no other argument to bring the sinners to penitence, it would have been enough”.28 He perceived it as an opportunity not to be missed for a preacher. Among biblical passages effective for the religious transformation of the audience, the prodigal son came out on top.  In his evaluation of the outstanding value of this biblical narrative, Bernardino was not alone. We will see that prizing the value of the parable was a topos, repeated by preachers and probably internalized by the audience. At

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reports the structure of the sermon on prodigality: “Eodem die. Iam non sum dignus vocari filius tuus, Luc. 15. Filius ille qui talia locutus est […] Ideo de prodigalitate hic tractandum est. Circa quam de tribus quaerendum est: primo, quid est prodigalitas; secundo, an sit peccatum et quale; tertio, an sit maius peccatum quam avaritia. De hac materia per beatum Thomam, II-II quaestione 119” (fol. 51r). On this sermon cycle, see Alberto Forni and Paolo Vian, “Per un’edizione delle opere di S. Giovanni da Capestrano: Il quaresimale se­­ nese del 1424,” in Santità e spiritualità francescana fra i secoli XV e XVII, ed. Luigi Antenucci (L’Aquila, 1991), pp. 127-62. “El vangelo di domani è tanto misterioso che non voglio mi passi, e voi el piglierete per bene e arete pazienza se lascio quello che corre oggi”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 254. “Tutti e vangeli sono begli e di grande sustanza, ma piglia l’esempio di molte pietre pre­ ziose. L’una à una virtù e l’altra un’altra”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 254. “Tre splendori si dimostrano […] tutti sopra al sacro evangelio, ed è tanto pieno di sentenze, che se niuna altra cosa non ci fusse che questo a fare tornare un peccatore o più a penitenza, basterebbe”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 255. In other cases, similar statements on the effectiveness of a biblical text were based on the fear it could provoke; see Michel Menot, Sermons choisis (1508-1518), ed. Joseph Nève (Paris, 1924), pp. 357-58 (on the parable of Lazarus).

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least, a learned layman such as Franco Sacchetti (d. 1400) clearly echoed this position in his Sposizioni di Vangeli, a collection of short meditations for each day of Lent.29 If Bernardino was somehow egalitarian in evaluating all Gospel passages as “beautiful and rich of substance”, the fourteenth-century preacher Giordano da Pisa had been more radical in singling out the value of the parable of the prodigal son in 1306. Giordano not only emphasized that the prodigal son was “the most useful and necessary part of the Gospel for sinners, above all other Gospel texts”, but that it was in some way exceptional: This Gospel passage is full of wisdom that there is no word in it from which one cannot acquire much wisdom. This indeed is not the case with all the other Gospel passages. Yet, it is true for this one. Each of its words has a considerably deep meaning (abisso). In fact, this Gospel has a hundred words, and among them today we can discuss only one, leaving out all the rest.30 Consistent with this remark, the Dominican focused completely on a single detail of the story, namely the meaning of the prodigal son’s plea for a share of the inheritance. A single expression of the parable – the request for the portionem substantiae – was enough for two entire sermons held that day, one in the morning and the other in the evening. Not surprisingly, Giordano stated at the beginning of the first sermon that “preaching for an entire Lent on this parable alone would be good and necessary”.31 29

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“Die XVIII, in Sabato, De luxuria et disipatione. Disipavit totam substantiam suam luxu­ riose. Tra tutti gli Vangeli non è alcuno che dia speranza a’ peccatori quanto questo, però che Dio dimostra assai apertamente in questo Evangelio che, qualunche persona si parte di lui e poi ritorna, che sempre è disposto a riceverlo, sí come fece questo minore fratello in questo Evangelio, il quale avea con molti peccati consumato il suo luxuriose etc.”; Franco Sacchetti, Le Sposizioni di Vangeli, in Franco Sacchetti, Opere, ed. Alberto Chiari, 2 vols (Rome-Bari, 1936-38), 2, p. 174. “Il quale vangelio è sì pieno di sapienzia, che non ci ha nulla parola che non se ne potesse trarre molta sapienzia. Non è così di tutti gli altri, che d’ogni parola si possa trarre tanta sapienzia, ma di questo sì, però che non ci ha nulla parola che non abbia grande abisso: che ∙cci n’ha de le parole entro presso a cento, ma di tutte queste non diceremo se non solamente dell’una, e tutte l’altre lagando”; Giordano da Pisa, Quaresimale fiorentino, p. 173. “Questo vangelio non tratta altro se non de la penitenzia e de la misericordia, e è questo vangelo il più utile e ’l più necessario ai peccatori, che ∙ssia intra tutti gli altri. Il quale vangelo è tutto pieno di profonda sapienza, onde, disse il lettore [Giordano], non sarebbe sconvenevole a predicare tutta la Quaresima pur di questo, anzi sarebbe buono e necessario”; Giordano da Pisa, Quaresimale fiorentino, p. 173. Yet, in another Lenten cycle (Pisa,

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The suggestion that Giordano made (probably in a hyperbolic form) eventually came to be realized in 1494, when the Franciscan Johann Meder preached an entire Lenten cycle of fifty sermons on the prodigal son in Basel. The choice to preach an entire Lent on a single parable had no antecedent and was highly exceptional. However, fifty years later, in 1547, another Franciscan, Johann Wild, repeated the experiment in Mainz by preaching an entire Lent on the prodigal son. In the much-changed historical context of the harsh religious disputations between Lutherans and Catholics, Wild transformed the parable into the perfect framework for a thorough discussion of grace, sin, free will, and justification. The next chapters will discuss these sermon cycles in detail. What is already clear is that, covering a period of 250 years, these four prominent preachers expressed in different ways their predilection for the prodigal son as a key narrative to effectively convey a religious message to their audiences. Before discussing model sermon collections, we should consider briefly the presence of the other two parables of Luke 15 in the liturgy. As we know, in the Gospel the prodigal son was the climax in a set of three connected stories: the parable of the lost sheep, that of the lost coin, and finally that of the prodigal son. Evidently, preachers were well aware of the kinship among these parables. The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin (Luke 15:1-10) were the Sunday Gospel reading for the third Sunday after Pentecost in the Franciscan calendar and the third Sunday after Holy Trinity in the Dominican calendar. In commenting on those parables, it was possible to refer also to the prodigal son’s story.32 However, a survey of several model sermon collections shows that it

32

after 1307), Giordano provided a sermon on the entire parable, following its most diffused penitential reading; see Giordano da Pisa, Prediche inedite dal Ms. Laurenziano Acquisti e Doni 290, ed. Cecilia Iannella (Pisa, 1997), pp. 136-44. Quite interesting in this sermon is the interpretation of the father not only as God, but also as the priest who listens to the confession: “Anco questo padre è lo preite al quale elli va, et de’ andare, ad confessarsi come elli àe peccato et reputarsi indegno di tanto beneficio. Et in questo modo escie lo peccatore dei peccati suoi” (p. 142). This is the case in a Middle English sermon collections de tempore that survives in three fifteenth-century manuscripts; see Veronica O’Mara and Suzanne Paul, A Repertorium of Middle English Prose Sermons (Turnhout, 2007), pp. 1289-90. See also a sermon of the Sermones de tempore of the Dominican Martinus Polonus (d. 1278), which has as thema: “Dixit adolescentior filius ad patrem: Pater, da michi portionem substantie”. After a brief presentation of the first two parables, the sermon focuses on the story of the prodigal son and its penitential interpretation: “In hac ergo parabola de filio tria inveniuntur, videlicet peccatoris a deo recessus, et eiusdem peccatoris ad deum regressus, et dei ad ipsum peccatorem occursus. Recessus peccatoris a deo fuit per culpam […]. Sed regressus ad deum fuit per penitentiam […]. Occursum autem dei fuit per gratiam […]”; Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, MS C 347, fols. 13r-16v (quotation from fols. 13v-14r). The sermon differs

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was quite uncommon to comment extensively upon the prodigal son on that liturgical day.33 Therefore, although I will mention some relevant exceptions, I will not discuss systematically the sermons for that Sunday. The number of sermons on the prodigal son that we find for the Saturday post Reminiscere is sufficiently representative to flesh out a rich and detailed panorama of the different ways in which preaching exploited this biblical text. In addition, several sermons for other occasions use scattered references to the prodigal son in the form of a short exemplum or as an auctoritas.34 Although these occurrences are interesting in their own right, the present study will only investigate sermons that focus on the parable itself, as the shorter references in other sermons do not seem to greatly augment the overall picture of the homiletic usage of the parable. Nevertheless, one has to bear in mind that this additional Sunday (the third after Pentecost or the third after Holy Trinity), gave preachers an opportunity to focus on similar content, in particular stressing the mercy of a God who is ready to welcome the sinners, one of the central messages usually presented in sermons on the prodigal son. Ultimately, repetition was an important rhetorical strategy if the preacher wanted to have a lasting effect on the audience: repetita iuvant.

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from the scheme present in Polonus’ printed sermon collection, which however keeps the reference to the three parables and, in particular, to the prodigal son; Martinus Polonus, Sermones de tempore et de sanctis (Strasbourg: [Georg Husner], 1484), unpaginated (sermon 125). See Dagmara Wojcik, “Sermones de tempore et de sanctis of Martinus Polonus, OP: Authenticity in Question,” Medieval Sermon Studies 47 (2003), 51-60. For instance, Meffreth’s four model sermons for that Sunday present just a passing reference to the prodigal son; see Meffreth, Sermones de tempore alias ortulus regine: Pars estivalis (Basel: Nicolaus Kesler, 1487), fol. tt7v (dominica tertia post Trinitatis, sermon 3). In the very popular Sermones de tempore of the Dominican Johann Herolt, the two sermons for this Sunday do not mention the prodigal son; see Johann Herolt, Sermones Discipuli de tempore et de sanctis (Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1482), sermons 87 and 88. Neither does the equivalent sermon in the popular Sermones parati de tempore et de sanctis (Cologne: Johann Guldenschaff, c.1482), sermon 112. The parable recurs, for instance, in collections of exempla such as the fourteenth-century Ci nous dit and, in a reworked form, in the Gesta romanorum (see below pp. 164-70). ­Bernardino repeatedly referred to the parable as an exemplum, see Bernardino da Siena, Le prediche volgari. Quaresimale del 1425, ed. Ciro Cannarozzi, 3 vols (Florence, 1940), 1, pp. 51 and 80 (hereafter cited as Firenze 1425).

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Between Model Sermons and Reportationes

During the late Middle Ages, preaching was the most pervasive medium of religious instruction and the cornerstone of the pastoral project of religious acculturation promoted in particular by the mendicant orders.35 The Fourth Lateran Council had fixed the key elements of a wide-reaching pastoral strategy: it exhorted bishops to nominate suitable collaborators to support them in their office of preaching and hearing confessions (Canon 10) and imposed the obligation of annual confession on all the faithful (Canon 21).36 Within this renewed pastoral effort, the preachers’ voice gradually reached different strata of society, particularly in the urban context.37 Although preaching was far from an exclusively urban phenomenon, the urban setting constitutes the primary historical and cultural framework for the texts discussed in this study, as it results clear from the earlier references made to cities like Paris, Florence, Basel, and Mainz. An analysis of the specific characteristics of preaching and the religious life in mountainous or rural areas, or in those regions that the sixteenth-century Jesuits would call “our Indies”, would reflect a different scenario.38 Above all, it would require instruments of investigation different 35

36

37

38

See in particular d’Avray, The Preaching of the Friars; David d’Avray, Medieval Marriage Sermons: Mass Communication in a Culture without Print (Oxford, 2001), and Roest, A History of Franciscan Education, pp. 272-324. See Ronald J. Stansbury, ed., A Companion to Pastoral Care, which pointed out that “the late Middle Ages witnessed a vibrant attempt, essentially on the heels of Lateran IV, to make those ideals [of pastoral care] a reality” (p. 1). See also Dalla penitenza all’ascolto delle confessioni: il ruolo dei frati mendicanti (Spoleto, 1996) and Rusconi, L’ordine dei peccati. While this was the cornerstone of the Church’s prescriptive agenda, several scholars warn not to overestimate the actual practice of annual confession among the common people before the Council of Trent; see Ottavia Niccoli, La vita religiosa nell’Italia moder­na. Secoli XV-XVIII. Nuova edizione (Rome, 2008) and Firey, ed., A New History of ­Penance. Bériou, “Prédication et communication,” pp. 56-59. See Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, ed., From Words to Deeds: The Effectiveness of Preaching in the Late Middle Ages (Turnhout, 2014) and, on the fifteenth-century Observant movement, Mixson and Roest, eds., A Companion to Observant Reform. On the “Indie interne”, see Adriano Prosperi, Tribunali della coscienza. Inquisitori, confessori, missionari. Nuova edizione (Turin, 2009), pp. 551-99. For a useful introduction to Italy, see Piero Camporesi, “Cultura popolare e cultura d’élite fra medioevo ed età moderna,” in Storia d’Italia. Annali – 4: Intellettuali e potere, ed. Corrado Vivanti (Turin, 1981), pp. 79-157, and the updated overview in Religione delle campagne, ed. Maria Clara Rossi, Quaderni di storia religiosa 14 (2007). For eloquent examples of the pastoral visitations in these areas, see Niccoli, La vita religiosa, pp. 74-77 and, on a mountain region, Alessandro Pastore, Nella Valtellina del tardo Cinquecento: Fede, cultura, società (1975; Rome, 2015). For a reap-

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from those adopted in this research, which are useful for the urban context or at least for those towns and villages that were within reach of itinerant preachers.39 The distinction between urban and rural areas should not be taken as rigid. Documents on fifteenth-century countryside parishes show that preaching was not confined to cities: even famous preachers such as Vicent Ferrer or Bernardino da Siena preached also in villages and rural areas during their itinerant missions.40 Still, it is quite rare to find exact references to the content of late medieval preaching in rural contexts. We are far from the specific focus on these areas that characterized the pastoral strategy of Capuchins and Jesuits in late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and that produced a new type of documentation on these rural missions.41

39

40

41

praisal of the concept of “popular culture”, see Ottavia Niccoli, “Cultura popolare: un relitto abbandonato?,” Studi storici 4/2015, 997-1010. See for instance Charles Marie de la Roncière, “Présence et prédication des Dominicains dans le contado florentin (1280-1350),” in Dessì and Lauwers, eds., La parole du prédicateur, pp. 363-93, and Elena Lemeneva, “Preaching in a Rural Parish Community in Thirteenth-Century Styria,” Medieval Sermon Studies 47 (2003), 21-32. On the difficulties in obtaining a proper insight into sermons in parishes, see Jussi Hanska, “St Yves de Tréguier as a Preacher,” Medieval Sermon Studies 49 (2005), 27-36, which investigates parish preaching on the basis of the canonisation process of St Yves (d. 1303). The itinerary of preachers such as Bernardino da Feltre or the anonymous preacher studied by Kimura (see notes 17-18) are quite revealing in this perspective. Moreover, the Vita of Giacomo della Marca, written by one of his companions, recalls that during his itinerant preaching he used to stop also in small rural villages (casali): “et molte volte andava ad predicare per castella et casali, […] et alcuna volta predicava ad uno et dui et tre casali lo dì”; quoted in Ippolita Checcoli, Biografie esemplari: La vita del beato Bernardino da Feltre e di altri osservanti francescani nella società del XV secolo, PhD thesis, University of ­Bologna, 2011, p. 115. For France, see Hervé Martin, Le métier de prédicateur en France septentrionale à la fin du Moyen Âge 1350-1520 (Paris, 1988). On the diffusion of preaching in secondary centres in fifteenth-century German lands, see Frymire, The Primacy of the Postils, pp. 10-25. On the development of parish libraries and the diffusion of pastoral handbooks among secular clergy see Matt Wranovix, “Ulrich Pfeffel’s Library: Parish Priests, Preachers, and Books in the Fifteenth Century,” Speculum 87 (2012), 1125-55. One has also to recall the massive dissemination of preaching aids such as the Postilla of Guillermus (nearly 150 editions from 1472 on), which provided preachers with a brief commentary on the biblical readings for each Sunday and each major feast; see Anne T. Thayer, “The Postilla of Guillermus and Late Medieval Preaching,” Medieval Sermon Studies 48 (2004), 57-74. See Hervé Martin, “Prédication et mentalités,” in Arnold, ed., Announcer l’Évangile, pp. 417-49, which briefly points out continuity and change in pastoral missions in rural areas, referring to the studies of Bernard Dompnier and Bernadette Majorana for the modern period.

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The late medieval and early modern output of written sermons was enormous, both in manuscript format and as printed editions. This poses peculiar methodological challenges, as scholars studying these sources “have an embarrassment of riches”.42 Addressing this kind of source, one can follow two main directions that, broadly speaking, may be described as a quantitative and a qualitative approach. This distinction is rather artificial, but useful for understanding the characteristics of different types of sermons and in pinpointing a fruitful methodology to address them. The quantitative approach tries to define which sermon collections were the most widespread in a certain period or area, in order to consider their probable impact on the dissemination of ideas. The driving concept is that the most successful sermon collections – at first copied in hundreds of manuscripts and subsequently printed in thousands of incunabula – unfold standard contents that might have been preached, year in and year out, with enduring effects on people’s mentality.43 It has been said that these sermons embody “the voice of a common mendicant preacher”.44 Proposing this methodology, David d’Avray has spoken of “the drip-drip method of inculcating beliefs”.45 He convincingly summarizes his point by saying that the dissemination of “stereotyped material from model sermon books and booklets by preachers to lay listeners all over Europe can fairly be described as a kind of mass communication”.46 These sermons tell us “the common-places that would have recurred incessantly in different combination in popular preaching”, since they were designed for routine sermons, for which material had to be found each year.47 Following such a methodology, Jussi Hanska has investigated the social ethos of mendicant preaching through the analysis of a corpus of sermons on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that can be found in the ‘bestsellers’ among medieval sermon collections.48 This approach, which had been initially proposed to navigate the high number of manuscripts of late medieval sermons, has also been adopted for printed sermon collections. A pioneering example is Anne Thayer’s study of the penitential themes of the most frequently printed sermon collections in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.49 The diffusion of 42 43 44 45 46

47 48 49

Thayer, “Medieval Sermon Studies,” p. 12. See d’Avray, The Preaching of the Friars, pp. 1-11. Hanska, ‘And the Rich Man also Died’, p. 21. D’Avray, “Method in the Study of Medieval Sermons,” p. 9. David d’Avray, “Printing, Mass Communication, and Religious Reformation: The Middle Ages and After,” in The Uses of Script and Print, 1300-1700, eds. Julia C. Crick and Alexandra Walsham (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 50-70: 50. D’Avray, “Printing, Mass Communication,” p. 54. Hanska, ‘And the Rich Man also Died’, see especially pp. 20-24. See Anne T. Thayer, Penitence, Preaching and the Coming of the Reformation (Aldershot, 2002).

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printing further enhanced the circulation of model sermon collections. Historians have emphasized the importance of this type of text since, for a long time after the invention of print, preaching remained the most effective mass medium for the dissemination of religious ideas within a system of persuasion that adopted a multiplicity of media.50 Therefore, model sermon collections have been defined as “the most important genre for the dissemination of ideas” in many parts of late medieval and early modern Western Europe.51 Scholars have mapped the most widely diffused sixteenth-century sermon collections in France, German lands, and the Italian area, and they have proven their enormous impact on religious culture.52 The most popular sermon collections provide the best vantage point from which to evaluate the contribution of preaching to the widespread familiarity with, and elaboration on, a particular biblical text. The most successful collections enjoyed a European-wide dissemination and were often used for decades or even centuries by generations of preachers, who drew on them (sometimes with creativity, more often with repetitiveness) to craft the sermons for their congregations. While model sermons were written in Latin, preachers usually addressed the lay audience in the local vernacular, mediating and adapting the written texts according to the envisaged needs of their communities. Therefore, the repeated use of model sermons enormously multiplied their impact. In general, model sermons did not have the analytic depth of the treatises of the most renowned masters of theology, but deeply influenced – with a several centuries long inculcation process – the construction of a shared religious ­culture in European society.53 Sermons were a vital link between the learning found in the universities and pastoral care. Preachers popularized and disseminated what had been elaborated in vibrant centres of scholastic theology. As Peter Burke notes, mendicant preachers were indeed “amphibious or bi-cultural: namely men of the university as well as men of the market-place”.54 Discussing the elaboration of a “public theology” in a city such as Florence, Peter Howard points out that what was debated within the studia was disseminated at large, not only by the most prominent preachers but also by work-a-day preachers 50 51 52

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See Pettegree, Reformation, pp. 10-39. As a general introduction to the printing revolution, see Andrew Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance (New Haven, 2011). Frymire, The Primacy of the Postils, p. 1; what he says of the Holy Roman Empire can be applied also to other parts of Europe. Beside Frymire’s work, see Larissa Taylor, Soldiers of Christ: Preaching in Late Medieval and Reformation France (Oxford, 1992) and Emily Michelson, The Pulpit and the Press in Reformation Italy (Cambridge, MA, 2013). See Martin, “Prédication et mentalités,” pp. 417-49. Peter Burke, Popular Culture in Early Modern Europe, 3rd ed. (Farham, 2009), p. 109.

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around the city. Through this process, preaching mediated a dynamic cultural negotiation between clergy and laity.55 The richness of the Florentine case is rather unique, and yet it suggests a direction of investigation that might be extended to other cities that also had a university or important studia of religious orders (Paris, Bologna, Padua, Cologne, to mention just a few).56 Moreover, the role that Thomas Aquinas had in unfolding the potential of Lenten preaching for a systematic program of religious instruction, reminds us of the profound interaction between scholastic theology and popular preaching.57 Before discussing the qualitative approach, an examination of the diffusion of two Lenten sermon collections will demonstrate the value of a quantitative approach. The first collection is the Sermones quadragesimales of Iacopo da Varazze (Jacobus de Voragine). Most scholars know this Dominican friar for his famous Legenda aurea, and yet he also composed extraordinarily successful model sermon collections. His Sermones quadragesimales, which he wrote between 1277 and 1286, survive in more than 300 manuscripts and have no rival in terms of number of surviving manuscripts and geographical dissemination among the earliest quadragesimal collections.58 This number becomes even more striking when compared with other Lenten sermon collections composed before 1350, which at maximum survive in about 30 manuscripts.59 Whereas these are still remarkable numbers, they demonstrate even further the outstanding position held by Iacopo’s collection among the Lenten model sermons. Moreover, his collection had a lasting influence, since it was also repeatedly printed, with seven editions in the fifteenth century, and many more in the centuries thereafter. For example, the editor Giovanni Battista Somasco printed (and evidently sold) this collection four times between 1571 and 1589 in 55

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Peter Howard, “‘Doctrine, When Preached, Is Entirely Civic’: The Generation of Public Theology and the Role of the Studia of Florence,” in Communities of Learning: Networks and the Shaping of Intellectual Identity in Europe, 1100-1500, eds. Constant J. Mews and John N. Crossley (Turnhout, 2011), pp. 293-314: 303. On Padua, see Emanuele Fontana, Frati, libri e insegnamento nella provincia minoritica di S. Antonio (secoli xiii-xiv) (Padua, 2012), which however does not investigate the interplay between clerical and secular culture. See Hanska, “Sermones,” pp. 117-25 and Silvana Vecchio, “Le prediche e l’istruzione religiosa,” in La predicazione dei frati, pp. 301-35. For the critical edition, the list of manuscripts, and their geographical dissemination, see Iacopo da Varazze, Sermones Quadragesimales. For a profile, see Carla Casagrande, “Iacopo da Varazze,” in DBI 62 (2004), pp. 92-102. See Hanska, “Sermones,” pp. 116-17. Considering the specific nature of these texts as working tools, “survivors are only a small portion of the much larger number that once existed”; d’Avray, “Printing, Mass Communication,” p. 50.

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Venice, proving that Iacopo’s sermons were still an appealing product for the book market in the aftermath of the Council of Trent, more than three centuries after their composition. During the fifteenth century, many new sermon collections were written and enjoyed an unprecedented diffusion through printing. As second example of a widespread sermon collection for Lent, we can consider the Quadrage­ simale by Conrad Grütsch (or Gritsch). He was a Franciscan Conventual friar of the Upper Germany province and wrote these sermons between 1440 and 1444. His collection first circulated in manuscripts and subsequently was disseminated in print under the name of his younger brother, Johann Grütsch, a secular cleric and doctor in canon law at Basel.60 From 1472 on, with 24 incunabula editions and at least another 10 at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Grütsch’s Quadragesimale became a striking bestseller, with no fewer than 15,000 copies in circulation.61 Its dissemination, however, varied according to geographic and cultural areas. During the fifteenth century, the Quadragesimale was printed in many German cities (Augsburg, Cologne, Nuremberg, Reutlingen, Strasbourg, and Ulm) and had seven editions in Lyon, which mainly served the French market. However, it had only a single edition in Italy (Venice, 1495). This is not an isolated case. Studies on the sermon collections printed between 1470 and 1520 have pointed out a sort of impermeability – if not of diffidence – of the Italian market for the sermon collections from other parts of Europe, which quite rarely were reprinted in the Peninsula. On the contrary, the Latin sermon collections written in Italy easily crossed the Alps and were repeatedly printed in the rest of Europe.62 Even taking this important difference into consideration, it is difficult to overrate the impact of a text like that of Grütsch on the religious culture of the time. Manuscript and printed versions of model sermon collections were abundantly available in the convent libraries of mendicant orders and represented basic tools for day-by-day pastoral activities.63 Still, it remains difficult 60 61

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See Roest, Franciscan Literature, pp. 109-110 and André Murith, Jean et Conrad Grütsch de Bâle: Contribution à l’histoire de la prédication franciscaine au XVme siècle (Fribourg, 1940). The first edition can be dated from a rubricator’s inscription on the first page of a copy held at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Ink G-390); Johann [i.e. Conrad] Grütsch, Quadragesimale [Nuremberg: Johann Sensenschmidt and Andreas Frisner, not after 1472]. See Thayer, Penitence, pp. 32-40. On geographic differences in the previous centuries, see Lombardo, “La production homilétique,” pp. 85-110. See for instance, Eva Schlotheuber, Die Franziskaner in Göttingen: Die Geschichte des Klosters und seiner Bibliothek (Werl, 1996) and Eva Schlotheuber, “Late Medie­val Franciscan Statutes on Convent Libraries and Education,” Canterbury Studies in Franciscan

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to pinpoint exactly how these books were actually used by preachers. These sermon collections were working tools, well-organized compact encyclopaedias on every fundamental theological and moral issue, with elaborate and detailed indexes (sometimes with thousands of entries) that facilitated the shaping and reshaping of new sermons according to the needs of the users.64 Many copies of these incunabula bear the signs of the intense activity of their owners: underlining, brackets, glosses, and personal annotations bear witness to the ways in which preachers appropriated the model sermons to present them to their congregations. One such book even includes the owner’s handwritten notes on a medical prescription for the recovery of one’s voice.65 The voice, after all, was the real preacher’s irreplaceable tool. All the other instruments, including the most helpful sermon collections, had no power without the voice of the preacher that addressed a specific audience. To recover not the actual voice of the preacher, but an echo of it, we have to move on to another type of source, the reportatio, which opens the field to what I have labelled a qualitative approach to the complex phenomenon of preaching. Reportationes are indeed among the best sources to address “the stimulating tension posed by the gap between the written accounts that remain and the medieval experiences of what was fundamentally an oral and performative genre”.66 The model sermons provide us with a meaningful description of preaching over a long period and unfold for us what people used to attending sermons not only would presumably hear, but also would gradually assimilate, year after year. They were written by preacher for other preachers and aimed to be useful in all possible situations. By their very nature, thus, they do not easily allow for the reconstruction of the historical context or communication of individual sermons as performative and social events. Reportationes, the notes on sermons taken by someone during the preaching event or in its immediate aftermath, allow us to approach the ultimately irretrievable performative interaction between preacher and audience, which – as other form of performance

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History 1 (2008), 153-84. See also Entre stabilité et itinérance: Livres et culture des ordres mendiants, XIIIe-XVe siècle, eds. Nicole Bériou, Martin Morard and Donatella Nebbiai (Turnhout, 2014). See on this topic Letizia Pellegrini, “Tabula super sermones. Gli indici dei sermonari domenicani nei codici centro-italiani (secc. XIII-XV),” AFP 64 (1994) 119-44. See Oriana Visani, “Roberto Caracciolo e i sermonari del secondo Quattrocento,” Franci­ scana 1 (1999), 275-317: 306. The prescription for a type of mulled wine pro recuperanda voce, with the guarantee that “valet etiam ad omnem infrigidationem teste experientia”, is written in the vernacular by an Italian Franciscan preacher on the last page of a manuscript that contains the Quadragesimale de penitentia of Roberto Caracciolo. Thayer, “Medieval Sermon Studies,” p. 12.

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– remains beyond our reach.67 The sermons on the prodigal son preached by Giordano da Pisa and Bernardino da Siena that I mentioned earlier are reportationes. For them, we know the exact day and place, the specific preacher, and the actual historical context in which they were performed. This type of text conveys an echo of the living voice of charismatic preachers who were able to attract, entertain, and (sometimes) convince or move large crowds of people.68 These sources give us further insight into the ability of the “masters of the word”, a word that was first of all a spoken word.69 Yet, as study of reportationes shows, the nature of these texts is rather complex. They are not mechanical transcriptions of what was preached. Instead, even when the reportator claims to have faithfully taken notes and to have reproduced the sermon word for word, the resulting text structurally embodies the point of view of a specific person in the audience, with his or her understanding (or misunderstanding), and with his or her choice of what was important enough to be written down and what could be left out or summarized. This type of text resulted from the interaction between orator and listener and has been rightly defined as “a collective work”.70 The cultural differences and distinct choices of each reportator become apparent when we have different reportationes of the same sermon.71 The paratextual remarks of the reportator enrich these historical sources even further. The reportator sometimes not only took note of the preacher’s words, but also of his tone of voice, his pauses, gestures, and showing of objects or images to the audience (crosses, relics, skulls, paintings, banners). Moreover, a reportator could register some reactions in the audience (crying, weeping, miraculous healing), or describe as in a chronicle the processions or bonfires of vanities that were associated with preaching. To be more precise, these rituals 67

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See Roberto Rusconi, “Reportatio,” in Dal pulpito alla navata. La predicazione medievale nella sua recezione da parte degli ascoltatori (secc. XIII-XV), in: Medioevo e Rinascimento n.s. 3 (1989), 7-36 and Bériou, L’avènement, pp. 73-131. See also Augustine Thompson, “From Texts to Preaching: Retrieving the Medieval Sermon as an Event,” in Muessig, ed., Preacher, Sermon and Audience, pp. 13-37 and Beverly Mayne Kienzle, “Medieval Sermons and Their Performance: Theory and Record,” ivi, pp. 89-124. See Katherine L. Jansen and Miri Rubin, eds., Charisma and Religious Authority: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Preaching (1200-1500) (Turnhout, 2010). See Bériou, L’avènement and Carlo Delcorno, “Professionisti della parola: predicatori, giullari, concionatori [1998],” in Delcorno, ‘Quasi quidam cantus’, pp. 3-22. Zelina Zafarana, “Bernardino nella storia della predicazione popolare,” in Bernardino predicatore nella società del suo tempo (Todi, 1976), pp. 39-70: 70. See Carlo Delcorno, “La diffrazione del testo omiletico. Osservazioni sulle doppie reportationes delle prediche bernardiniane [1989],” in Delcorno, ‘Quasi quidam cantus’, pp. 24361.

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were part of late medieval preaching as a complex socio-religious event that presupposed – in different forms – active participation of the audience.72 It is not necessary to further insist on the importance of reportationes as windows on late medieval religious culture. Yet, it might be helpful to make explicit that the distinction between model sermons and reportationes should not draw attention away from the continuous and multiform interaction between these texts, which are not rigidly separated. They represent two kinds of sources for the same phenomenon, late medieval preaching, and allow us to approach it from different angles. Beside those famous preachers who were the object of the attention of the reportatores, the core of the day by day religious instruction was represented by a less flashy form of preaching, namely the sermons preached by less famous friars or priests, and displayed in daily pastoral practice. The content of this preaching is well represented by model sermon collections, written to match the religious expectations (and professional needs) of the ordinary clergy. There was interplay and cross-fertilisation between actual preaching and model sermons, since the latter often resulted from the re-elaboration by a prominent preacher of his personal notes to make them available to others.73 There was a symbiosis between the oral and the written form of the sermon. This kind of text is better framed as an orality-literacy continuum than as an orality-literacy dichotomy.74 As we shall see in the next chapter, in some cases it is possible to compare the reportatio of a sermon with the model sermon produced by the preacher at a later date, or to see how a preacher adapted the same sermon to different audiences.75 Combining the study of the most successful model sermon collections and some examples of 72

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See Muzzarelli, Pescatori di uomini and Roberto Rusconi, “Public Purity and Discipline: States and Religious Renewal,” in The Cambridge History of Christianity 4: Christianity in Western Europe c. 1100-c. 1500, eds. Miri Rubin and Walter Simons (Cambridge, 2009), pp. 458-71. See the prologue of the Sermones Narraverunt of Luca da Bitonto (d. 1242), in Felice Moretti, Luca Apulus, un maestro francescano del secolo XIII (Bitonto, 1985), pp. 162-72. See Carlo Delcorno, “Comunicare dal pulpito (secc. XIII-XV),” in Comunicare nel Medioevo: la conoscenza e l’uso delle lingue nei secoli XII-XV, eds. Isa Lori Sanfilippo and Giuliano Pinto (Rome, 2015), pp. 183-208: 189, which refers to Karl Reichl, “Plotting the Map of Medieval Oral Literature,” in Medieval Oral Literature, ed. Karl Reichl (Berlin, 2012), pp. 3-67. See for instance Christoph Burger, “Preaching for Members of the University in Latin, for Parishioners in French: Jean Gerson (1363-1429) on ‘Blessed are they that mourn’,” in Andersson, Constructing, pp. 207-20 and Pietro Delcorno, “‘Faré per manera que vàlgue per molts’. I sermoni di Vicent Ferrer sulla parabola di Lazzaro e il ricco epulone,” Erebea 1 (2011), 203-30. On Bernardino da Siena, see below pp. 192-216 and 235-40.

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reportationes, not only gives a richer perception of preaching, but also enables us to see, at least partially, the ways in which the model sermons were adapted in the pulpit. Using a metaphor, the study of these different sources makes it possible to listen to late medieval preaching in a form that remains always indirect and incomplete, but is somehow polyphonic. 3

Two Genres of Lenten Model Sermon Collections

The sermones quadragesimales collections, as mentioned above, did not exist as a specific genre before the 1260s, when they were invented by Italian Domi­ nican preachers to enhance Lent as the most fruitful time of the year for an intense program of catechetical preaching. The oldest surviving Lenten sermon collection is that of Aldobrandino Cavalcanti (d. 1277).76 He presented short sermons based on the daily liturgical readings of Lent, i.e. what can be called the normal format of a Lenten collection. This pattern was immediately challenged by the influential example of Thomas Aquinas, who preferred to structure Lenten cycles around catechetical schemes to be explained at length day by day. A clear example of this strategy is his Lenten preaching on the Creed (probably preached in 1273 in Naples), which came to be his successful Opusculum in symbolum apostolorum. As Hanska summarizes: “Thomas’ solution was to boldly move away from the Gospel readings and to organize the whole sermon cycle around the chosen topic, namely the Credo”.77 This choice proved to be influential and was followed by other preachers, such as Aldo­ brandino da Toscanella (d. after 1293) and Giordano da Pisa (d. 1310).78 Therefore, alongside the sermones quadragesimales based on the liturgy, flourished a group of sermones quadragesimales that developed specific catechetical patterns (Creed, Pater Noster, Decalogue, Virtues and Vices) aiming to organize a systematic program of religious instruction for the laity. These two sub-genres of sermones quadragesimales can be labeled as liturgical and topical sermon collections. By focusing on sermons on the prodigal son, I will mainly consider Lenten sermon collections based on the liturgy, while mentioning in passing some examples of topical sermon collections. A significant exception will be 76

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On this preacher, see Agostino Paravicini Bagliani, “Cavalcanti Aldobrandino,” in DBI 22 (1979), pp. 601-03. On his sermons, see Scriptores Ordinis praedicatorum medii aevi, eds. Thomas Kaeppeli and Emilio Panella, 4 vols (Rome, 1970-93), 1, pp. 35-38. Hanska, “Sermones,” p. 120. See now also Jussi Hanska, “The Collationes of Thomas ­Aquinas and the Birth of the Catechetic Lenten Collections,” in Delcorno, Lombardo, Tromboni, eds., Lenten Sermons. See Carlo Delcorno, “La fede spiegata ai fiorentini: le prediche sul Credo di Giordano da Pisa,” Lettere italiane 65 (2013), 318-52.

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Meder’s collection, which adopts the prodigal son as thematic framework for all his Lenten sermons. 4

Two Influential Models of Iacopo da Varazze

Considering their enormous influence, our analysis must begin with the two sermons on the parable of the prodigal son provided by Iacopo da Varazze in his quadragesimal collection. The first sermon focuses on the penitential itinerary of the prodigal son, while the second draws a connection between the parable and the Virgin Mary to develop a Marian sermon.79 This exemplifies two directions that other preachers would exploit as well. 4.1 The Penitential Itinerary: Aversio, conversio, receptio Iacopo da Varazze’s first sermon merits a closer look for its paradigmatic value as a model sermon on the prodigal son. It is structured in three parts that closely follow the narrative of the Gospel, without adhereing to all the criteria of the sermo modernus. The thema is the first line of the parable and serves as a global reference to the story, a clear outline of which is presented immediately: This Gospel mentions the prodigal son’s departure, his conversion, and the benevolent father. Therefore, three things should be noted. First, the departure of the sinner, when the Gospel says: He went to a far country. Second, his conversion, when it says: When he came to himself etc. Third, God’s benevolent reception, when it says: His father saw him and was moved by mercy.80 Each part is analysed in detail through further subdivisions. The first section presents the three miseries that the sinner faces when he separates from God. The first miseria is – in a rather tautological way – the departure from God. It serves to elucidate the paradox of the impossibility of a real separation from 79

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This solution had also been adopted in Aldobrandino Cavalcanti’s sermon collection. For the incipit of Aldobrandino’s two sermons see Schneyer, Repertorium, 1, p. 164 (n. 198-99). I consulted them in Assisi, Biblioteca del sacro convento, fondo antico MS 428, fols. 303v04r. “In isto euangelio fit mentio de filio prodigo auerso et postmodum conuerso et de padre benigno, et ideo tria hic notantur. Primo peccatoris auersio, cum dicitur: ‘Peregre profectus est in regionem longinquam’; secundo, eiusdem conuersio, cum dicitur: ‘In se autem reuersus etc.’; tertio dei benigna receptio, cum dicitur: ‘Vidit illum pater ipsius et misericordia motus est’”; Iacopo da Varazze, Sermones, p. 178.

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God, because as much a sinner distances himself from God, he also gets closer to God. Adopting a geographical image, Iacopo says that who departs from the west inevitably gets closer to the east, and who departs from the south inevitably gets closer to the north. Since God is everywhere, no one can really distance him- or herself from God. Nevertheless, the directions are not all the same, as the four cardinal points symbolize four distinct characteristics of God: East and west are God’s mercy and his justice, while south and north are his grace and his power. He who distances himself from God’s prevenient mercy gets closer to his avenging justice, and he who distances himself from his subsequent grace gets closer to his punishing power. We can see this in Jonah, who wished to escape from God who commands and found God who punishes.81 Iacopo provides the listeners with a clear map to orient themselves in the spiritual journey of life. The point of arrival is for every one the encounter with God – the inescapable horizon of life – but the ultimate result depends entirely on the direction that one has chosen. This fits perfectly into the dynamic of the parable, based on the journey of the prodigal son. In this way, Iacopo continues his elaboration on the topography of spiritual life, a version of which we have already see in Bernard of Clairvaux.82 The other two miseries of the sinner are: “that he wastes all his goods”, which are listed in detail with adequate biblical references, emphasizing lust as particularly destructive; and that “the sinner hungers”, because the three principal deadly vices (superbia, avaritia, luxuria) are insatiable.83 The second part of the sermon focuses on the conversion of the prodigal son and highlights the three codified elements of penitence: contrition, confession, 81

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“Quanto autem peccator magis se elongat a deo, tanto magis appropinquat ad deum, sicut homo uolens se elongare a celo appropinquat ad celum quia si elongat se ab oriente appro­pinquat ad occidentem et si elongat se ab austro appropinquat ad aquilonem. Ideo quasi oriens et occidens sunt eius misericordia et iusticia, auster et aquilo sunt eius gratia et potentia; qui igitur elongat se ab eius misericordia preueniente, appropinquat ad eius iusticiam ulciscentem et qui elongat se ab eius gratia subsequente, appropinquat ad eius potentiam punientem, sicut patet in Iona qui uoluit fugere deum precipientem et invenit deum punientem”; Ibid., pp. 178-79. The idea is close to (possibly even inspired by) Chryso­ logus’ quotation of Psalm 138 (see above p. 36). On the function of (spiritual) maps in preaching, see Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini, pp. 176-87. The connection with the three main capital vices was already present in Hugh of SaintCher’s commentary, which is probably Iacopo’s source here (see above p. 62).

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and satisfaction. Similar to what we have seen in the commentaries of Bonaventure and Hugh of Saint-Cher (whose Postilla is the most likely source), Iacopo’s sermon amounts to a sort of anatomy of the penitential process. It ­illustrates perfectly how a sermon could embody an all-encompassing pocketsize discourse on penitence.84 The first step is the sinner’s acknowledgement (recognitio) of his or her situation: “The sinner who repents has to acknowledge four things, as Gregory the Great says: where he was, where he will be, where he is, and where he is not”.85 Thus, using again a sort of spiritual map, Iacopo invites the sinner to locate his past, present, and future positions. This would have provoked precise reactions: considering that in the past one was in sin, one should experience sorrow; considering that in the future one will be before the eternal judge, one should fear; considering that now one is in misery, one should groan; finally, considering that one is not in glory, one should sigh. Dolere, timere, gemere, and suspirare detail what contrition concretely is.86 The second step is oral confession, which is a confession simultaneously before God, the guardian angels, and all the court of saints, as Iacopo states in interpreting the famous sentence of the prodigal son: “Pater peccaui in celum, id est coram angelis et sanctis dei, et coram te”. This has to provoke, again, a threefold reaction within the sinner. This time, however, Iacopo presents this as a discourse of the sinner, who speaks in first-person: “Since I sinned before 84 85

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On the pervasive topic of penitence in late medieval sermons, see Thayer, Penitence, pp. 46-141. “Debet autem peccator penitens quatrour reconoscere, sicut dicit Gregorius, scilicet ubi fuit, ubi erit, ubi est et ubi non est”; Iacopo da Varazze, Sermones, p. 180. Iacopo elaborated on an often quoted sentence of Gregory’s Moralia in Job (23.41) which defines the causes of real compunctio. “Vbi fuit, quia in peccato, et ideo debet dolere […]; ubi erit, quia in iudicio, et ideo debet timere […]; ubi est, quia in miseria, et ideo debet gemere […]; ubi non est, quia non est in gloria, et ideo debet suspirare […]”; Iacopo da Varazze, Sermones, p. 180. This can be compared with a passage from a contemporary Lenten sermon by Ranulphe de la Houblonnière (d. 1288), master of theology and from 1280 onwards bishop of Paris, who stated that God – sometimes – calls the people to his service through the flagellum tribulationis; the exempla are Adam and the prodigal son: “Sicut enim pater ostendendo uirgam reuocat filius suum, sic Christus comminando flagellum reuocat impium […]. Quasi diceret ei Dominus: ‘O Adam ubi es? [Genesis 3:9] […] Tu es in loco pudoris, in loco doloris, in loco certaminis, in loco laboris, et nisi peniteas, tu eris in loco horroris’. Similiter et Bernardus nos erudiendo dicit: ‘O homo considera unde uenis et erubesce, et quo uadis et contremisce, que queris et ingemisce’, cuius es et acquiesce. Multi tamen sunt similes filio prodigo qui ad patrem suum noluit reuerti quamdiu fuit in prosperitate temporali”; Nicole Bériou, La prédication de Ranulphe de la Houblonnière: Sermons aux clercs et aux simples gens à Paris au XIIIe siècle, 2 vols (Paris, 1987), 2, pp. 179-80.

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you, who are my judge, I must really blush and fear […]. Since I sinned before the angels who are my guardians, I must really grieve […]. Since I sinned before the saints and the celestial court […], I must really weep”.87 The third step of penitence is satisfaction. This draws on the prodigal son’s statement that he is ready to be treated as one of the servants of his father (Luke 15:19), which Iacopo paraphrases in this form: “It is almost as if he were saying: I am ready to satisfy and serve you for the hope of the eternal reward”.88 Yet, the preacher recalls that there are three very different ways to serve, and points out the difference between a slave, a mercenary, and a son. The first avoids failure because he fears punishment, the second serves for the reward, while a son serves only for love. Indeed – the Dominican says – the prodigal son experienced all three of these states: first, he was a servant on the farm under the tyranny of the devil; then he became like a mercenary when he was willing to serve his father, that is, to serve God hoping for eternal reward; ultimately, the father made him again a son, welcoming him back at home. As we have seen in the previous chapter, this set of ideas had a long history. It dated back to eighth-century authors such as Bede, passed through the widely disseminated Glossa ordinaria, and was now adapted by Iacopo da Varazze for a model sermon collection that was copied and then printed for three centuries. The centuries-old continuity is no doubt striking. Nevertheless, each text has its own nuance. Iacopo’s sermon underlines that God is the only one who can welcome back the sinner as a son. One has to note that this text does not linger on the role of the minister of the Church in confession. This role is tacitly understood, and yet it is not made explicit, as other sermons do. The whole text is devoted to the interior turmoil of the sinner and his or her personal relationship with God. Furthermore, in closing the second part of the sermon, the preacher stresses that behind each step of the sinner to return to God, there is always the initiative of God, who indeed made him free from slavery, allowed him to serve as a mercenary, and welcomed him back as son.89 The section on the penitential itinerary of the sinner concludes by praising the merciful action 87

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“Quia igitur peccaui coram te qui es iudex meus, multum debeo erubescere et timere. […] Quia peccaui coram angeliis qui sunt custodes mei, debeo multum dolere […]. Quia peccaui coram santis et curia celesti […] multum debeo flerere”; Iacopo da Varazze, Sermones, p. 180. “Tertium est satisfactio, quod notatur cum dicit: ‘Fac me sicut unum de mercenariis tuis’, quasi dicat: ‘Paratus sum tibi a modo satisfacere et seruire spe mercedis eterne’ ”; Ibid., p. 180. “Ecce quanta benignitas dei, quia peccatorem seruum dyaboli de seruitutem extrahit, ipsum tamquam mercenarium spe mercedis eterne sibi seruire facit et tandem tamquam filium ad eternam hereditatem recipit”; Ibid., p. 181.

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of God and his benignitas, thus smoothly introducing the last part of the sermon. The third and final section describes the mercy of God in welcoming the sinner. His benigna receptio has four characteristics: “He welcomes him quickly, sweetly, with honours, and with joy” (“Recepit enim eum uelociter, dulciter, honorabiliter et letanter”). God is always ready to welcome sinners with mercy, and is instead reluctant to punish, since “to punish is indeed against God’s nature”.90 Due to God’s merciful predisposition there is an active agency to save the sinner. This disposition of God is exemplified with the simile of the vulture that we have already found in the works of Hugh of Saint-Cher. Although the simile may seem strange to a modern reader, it gave Iacopo da Varazze the opportunity to depict an encounter so intense that it became an incorporation of the sinner into God (“et reconcilians ipsum sibi tanquam membrum incorporauit”), a theme that we have already found in the sermon of Guerric of Igny. Finally, the text presents the symbolic meaning of the clothes that the father gives to his son, before closing with a reference to the feast that God prepares for each sinner who converts. By means of this sermon, the Dominican preacher provided his own listeners as well as his colleagues (and their audiences) with an effective scheme to develop an all-encompassing presentation of sin, penitence, and God’s mercy. He clearly drew on widely available biblical commentaries and employed fundamental catechetical schemes (the three main vices; the three parts of penitence). The sermon gives listeners and readers both a clear map to orient themselves in their spiritual life and an appealing exhortation to return to God. The latter aspect is evident from the monologue of the prodigal son, who confesses his sin. The direct speech (which reshapes and amplifies the Gospel narrative) explicitly invites the audience to identify with the prodigal son, to let him speak for everybody, and to recognize that what he says is what everyone has to confess: “I am a sinner who needs God’s mercy”. Finally, the sermon considers only the prodigal son without even mentioning the elder brother, who is set aside for the second sermon.

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“Semper enim deus in miserando est promptus, in puniendo tardus. […] Quia uero deo est contra naturam suam punire, ideo ad puniendum est tardus; quia secondum sua naturam est misereri semper et parcere, ideo ad parcendum et miserandum est promptus”; Ibid., p. 181.

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4.2 From the Elder Brother to the Virgin Mary The thema of the second sermon is “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). Iacopo da Varazze structures the sermon as a sermo modernus, deriving the main division from the words of the thema. Fili, tu semper mecum es et omnia mea tua sunt. Although the father said these words to calm down his son who remained with him, these can be also the words of the Virgin Mary, who speaks to her son and says: ‘Son, you are always with me etc.’. Three things are noteworthy in these words. First, the maternal love of the Virgin, when she calls him son, saying: ‘Fili’. Second, the indivisible unity of Christ with his mother, when it con­tinues: ‘Tu semper mecum es’. Third, their sharing every good, when it continues: ‘Et omnia mea tua sunt’.91 The first point highlights that the Virgin was a true, considerate, and devout mother. The second explains how Christ was inseparable from Mary when he was in her womb, when he was living in this world, and when he left this world. The third exposes how Christ and the Virgin shared everything, namely flesh, soul, and divinity.92 This bare outline is enough to suggest that the sermon functions as a Marian sermon. Although the scope of this project does not in-

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“Fili, tu semper mecum es et omnia mea tua sunt. Lc. XV. Quamuis ista uerba pater dixerit filio suo qui secum remanserat ut ipsum placaret, possunt tamen esse uerba uirginis loquentis ad filum et dicentis: ‘Fili, tu semper mecum es, etc.’. In quibus uerbis tria notantur. Primum est ex parte uirginis materna dilectio, cum uocat eum filium dicens: ‘Fili’; secundum ex parte Christi cum matre indiuisibilis habitatio, cum subditur: ‘Tu semper mecum est’; tertium ex parte utriusque, omnium bonorum communicatio, cum subditur: ‘Et omnia mea tua sunt’”; Ibid., p. 181. “Circa primum, notandum quod beata uirgo fuit uera mater Christi et non tantum uera mater, sed etiam fuit studiosa mater et pia mater. […] Secundo ponitur ex parte Christi indiuisibilis cum mater habitatio, cum dicitur: ‘Tu semper mecum es’. Christus enim semper fuit cum matre in triplici statu suo, scilicet dum esset in utero matris sue, dum ipse uiueret in mundo et dum recessit de mundo. Nam dum esset in utero matris, ipsam santificauuit; dum uiueret in mundo, ipsam ab omni peccato conseruauit; dum recessit de mundo, ipsam totam gloriosam et luminosam fecit. […]. Tertio ex parte matris et filii fuit bonorum omnium communicatio, ideo dicitur: ‘Omnia mea tua sunt’. Omnia enim que fuerunt filii fuerunt et matris; et e contrario filius tria habuit, scilicet carnem, animam et deitatem et ista fuerunt uirginis, scilicet caro per generationem, anima per amorem, deitas per fruitionem”; Ibid., pp. 183-87.

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clude Iacopo da Varazze’s Mariology, one can note immediately the classical Dominican position on the maculate conception of the Virgin.93 The connection between the parable of the prodigal son and the Virgin Mary is something new, which did not depend on previous exegetical commentaries. As far as I can see, Aldobrandino Cavalcanti and Iacopo da Varazze were the first to propose this connection, and Iacopo’s sermon was the text that made it influential.94 This innovative interpretation stemmed from the liturgical calendar, which situated this parable on a Saturday. Since the Church had consecrated that day of the week to the Virgin, in the sermon for the first Saturday of Lent Iacopo stated that each Saturday he would present something in her honour.95 Thus, he found a way to apply the Gospel reading for each Saturday of Lent to the Virgin. That perfectly suited one of the Dominicans’ servitia specialia in honour of the Virgin, as Humbert of Romans (d. 1277) had stated in his commentary to the Dominican Constitutions, namely, “that on Saturday the whole divine office is in her honour, unless there are other more reasonable cases”.96 Concerning the parable, the result is that unexpectedly a woman is placed at the centre of a masculine story, where the only women mentioned were the prostitutes with whom the prodigal son squandered his money. In Iacopo’s sermon, a mother is at the centre. As a side effect of the choice to focus on the Virgin, Iacopo did not elaborate further on the second part of the parable. The biblical elder brother remains in the shadow, since he is transfigured in this Marian reading. Although Iacopo explicitly announced that he was moving 93

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“Fuit enim cum peccato originali concepta sed sine peccato nata, quia a spiritu sancto fuit in utero matris sue sanctificata et ab omni peccato mundata […]. Rarissimi qui nascuntur sine [peccato] originali; ideo rarissimi, quia non fuerunt nisi tres in nouo testamento, scilicet Christus, uirgo beata et Iohannes baptista”; Ibid., pp. 185-86 (the Virgin and John the Baptist were sanctified in the womb of their mothers). On the debate on the conception of the Virgin see L’Immaculée Conception: une croyance avant d’être un dogme, un enjeu social pour la Chrétienté, eds. Eléonore Fournié and Séverine Berlier-Lepape, L’Atelier du Centre de Recherches Historiques 10 (2012) (available online). The incipit of Aldobrandino’s sermon is: “Fili, tu semper mecum es et omnia mea tua sunt, Luc. 15. Accipe hunc processum de beata virgine”; Assisi, MS 428, fol. 304r. “Sicut dies dominica dedicata est dominice resurrectioni et feria sexta dedicata est dominice passioni, sic dies sabbati dedicata est beate uirgini, et ideo in sabbatis que in quadragesima occurrunt aliquid de ipsa loquemur ad eius gloriam et honorem”; Iacopo da Varazze, Sermones, p. 43 (Sabbato post Cineres, sermo secundo). “In hoc quod sabbatis totum officium in ecclesia fit de ea, nisi in casibus rationabilibus”; Humbert of Romans, Expositio super constitutiones fratrum predicatorum, in Humbert of Romans, Opera de vita regulari, ed. Joachim Joseph Berthier, 2 vols (Rome, 1888-89), 2, p. 71.

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from the literal meaning to a spiritual reading, the line “Son, you are always with me …” is applied here to the son par excellence, Christ himself. This casts a positive light on the character of the elder brother, who, in this reading, is connected with the Son of God. Finally, one can note a profound difference between the aims of these two sermons, which may be interpreted by borrowing a distinction used by André Vauchez to analyse the cult of saints.97 The first sermon proposed to the audience a model to be imitated (the prodigal son), while the second sermon praised and outlined the singularity of the Virgin Mary, an inimitable model of sanctity that should be admired and on whose intercession as “mediatrix inter nos et deum” – as Iacopo wrote – one could rely. 5

Preaching on the Virgin Mary (XIII-XVI Centuries)

Iacopo da Varazze’s choice to preach on the Virgin during the Saturdays of Lent proved to be successful and many sermon collections followed his example, often using the same themata. They represent a piece of the larger mosaic of expanding late medieval preaching on the Virgin Mary.98 The interest in the solution adopted by Iacopo da Varazze is shown by the interpolation of his Marian sermon on the parable into many manuscripts that contain the Lenten sermon collection of Antonio Azaro da Parma (I return to this Dominican preacher in the next section). I consulted two of these fourteenth-century manuscripts, both held by the University Library at Uppsala. For the second Saturday of Lent, the first of these collections (Uppsala, C 347) offers an abbreviated version of the two sermons of Iacopo da Varazze. The Marian sermon follows its model closely, as the incipit shows.99 The second 97

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See André Vauchez, “Saints admirables et saints imitables: les fonctions de l’hagiographie ont-elles changé aux derniers siècles du Moyen Âge,” in Les fonctions des saints dans le monde occidental (IIIe – XIIIe siècle) (Rome, 1991), pp. 161-72. For a first overview, limited to the Dominicans, see Laura Gaffuri, “La predicazione domenicana su Maria (il secolo XIII),” in Gli studi di mariologia medievale. Bilancio storiografico, ed. Clelia Maria Piastra (Florence, 2000), pp. 193-215. In the vast ocean of literature on medieval Marian devotion, see Miri Rubin, Mother of God. A History of the Virgin Mary (London, 2009). “Fili, tu semper mecum es et omnia mea tua sunt. Quamvis haec verba pater dixit filio qui secum remanserat ut ipsum placaret, possunt tamen esse virginis dicentis ad filium: ‘O fili, tu semper etc.’ In quibus verbis tria intenditur. Primum est ex parte virginis materna dilectio, cum eum filium vocat dicens: ‘Fili’; secundum est ex parte Christi cum matre inseparabiliter habitatio, id est: ‘tu semper’; tertium est ex parte utriusque omnium

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manuscript (Uppsala, C 268) presents the sermon on the prodigal son written by Antonio Azaro. However, it also includes Iacopo’s sermon on the Virgin as an alternative.100 This manuscript belongs to a branch of the manuscript tradition of Azaro’s sermon collection that incorporated the Marian sermons of Iacopo da Varazze.101 Apparently, those who compiled these manuscripts felt the necessity to have a Marian sermon for each Saturday of Lent and turned to Iacopo’s effective model. The anonymous preachers/copyists who reshaped Azaro’s collection were not the only ones to rely on Iacopo da Varazze’s sermon. The same model was exploited as well by a successful fifteenth-century sermon writer, the Dominican Johann Herolt (d. 1468). His Sermones quadragesimales, written in 1435, had a wide circulation, first in manuscript and then in printed form, with ap­ proximately ten editions produced between 1489 and 1530.102 Each of the 45 sermons of Herolt’s collection is divided in three independent parts: the first comments on the Gospel of the day; the second presents the Passion of Christ step by step; the third develops a detailed treatise on the penitential itinerary. Instead of providing a single coherent sermon for each day, Herolt offered ­outlines for three distinct sermon cycles. However, for each Saturday, he dedicated the third section of the sermon to the Virgin. For the third Saturday of Lent, therefore, he used an abbreviated version of Iacopo da Varazze’s sermon on the penitential itinerary of the prodigal son in the first part of his sermon, while the third part was essentially a rewrite of the second sermon of Iacopo da Varazze.103

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bonorum convitatio, id est: ‘omnia mea tua sunt’. Circa primum notandum est quod beata virgo fuit vera Christi mater, piissima mater, et studiosa mater …”; Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, MS C 347, fol. 60r. Schneyer, Repertorium, 1, p. 313, lists six manuscripts containing this reworked version of Azaro’s sermon collection. Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, MS C 268, fols. 156v-57r. The sermon on the prodigal son is on fols. 154v-56v. See Gilles Gérard Meersseman, “Le opere di Fra Antonio Azaro Parmense O.P. nella Bi­­ blioteca Nazionale di Monaco di Baviera,” AFP 10 (1940), 20-47. See Ian Siggins, A Harvest of Medieval Preaching. The Sermons Books of Johann Herolt, OP (Discipulus) (Bloomington, 2009), pp. 322-23. See Johann Herolt, Sermones quadragesimales qui discipuli vulgo dici solent (Hagenau: Heinrich Gran for Johann Rynman, 1517), fols. C3v-C4r. Compared with Iacopo’s sermon, the part in honour of the Virgin presents just a few differences in the auctoritates, the addition of a prayer by Bernard of Clairvaux (“Per te accessum habemus ad filium, o beata inventrix gratie”), and a final exemplum on the power of the Virgin as advocata peccatorum.

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Other preachers used similar strategies. In his Quadragesimale de floribus sapientiae, Ambrogio Spiera da Treviso (d. 1455), a Servite theologian, adopted the same thema used by Iacopo for a new sermon on the Virgin, which was fleshed out with recourse to a different division.104 Ambrogio recalls that the words of the thema (“Filii, tu semper mecum es, et omnia mea tua sunt”) have a spiritual meaning and can be considered as spoken by the Virgin to Jesus. Therefore, he announces that the sermon will discuss three points in detail: the noble condition of the Virgin; her sharing everything with Christ; her remuneration.105 Ambrogio originally preached this sermon in 1452 or 1453, in the Servite church of San Marcello in Rome. The sermon was intended primarily for students of theology, as he stated in the prologue of the collection, recalling that he wrote this book due to the insistent requests of his students and admiring their “studiorum solertia”.106 In their actual form, the sermons resamble more lectures for theologians than popular sermons and yet, the collection found a remarkable readership, with at least six printed editions produced from 1476 to 1516, four in Venice and two in Basel. Evidently, his students were not the only ones interested in the elaborated theological discussions provided by Spiera. The fifteenth-century sermon collection by the Dominican Gabriele da Barletta (d. after 1480) also offers a Marian sermon for the third Saturday of Lent. He was one of the most popular Italian preachers of his time. In his 104

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On this preacher, see Ronald Rentner, “Ambrosius Spiera: A Fifteenth-Century Italian Preacher and Scholar,” Church History 43 (1974), 448-59. He rightly notes that Ambrogio claimed familiarity with Bernardino da Siena (“cum quo, deo laudes, sepe locutus sum et pluries comedi in insula perusini laci”), which probably dates to the 1430s, when Ambrogio studied theology in Perugia. “Filii, tu semper mecum es, et omnia mea tua sunt. Virginis gloriose ad suum dilectissimum filium Iesum predicta verba mistice esse possunt; que tanto verius affirmantur quanto ipsa in multis cum suo filio participat. Si enim terrene matres filios sibi maximo cum labore nutriunt et quicquid faciunt filiis impendunt, sternunt et cumulant, quanto magis hec benedicta virgo que filium cum tanta puritate genuit, nutrivit, et aluit, cuncta ad Christi utilitatem exercere debebat. Inde merito dicere poterat: ‘Fili, tu mecum semper es, et omnia mea tua sunt’. In quibus sacratissimis verbis tres de gloriosa virgine more solito considerationes faciamus, videlicet: Virginis gloriose nobilem conditionem; Virginis gloriose perfectam participationem; Virginis gloriose reciprocam retributione”; Ambrogio Spiera, Quadragesimale de floribus sapientie (Venice: Vindelinus de Spira, 1476), fol. t2v (sermon 18). “Coegistis me, o iuvenes, haud mediocri charitate vestra, ut hoc quadragesimale conficiens vestris amorosis affectibus satisfacerem. Sic enim me vestra singularis virtus, et studiorum solertia, ac incredibilis, ut ita dicam, eloquentia vestra coegerunt […]”; Ibid., fol. a2r.

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Quadragesimale, which was repeatedly printed from 1497 onwards, Gabriele chose as the thema of that sermon “Fili tu semper mecum es, et omnia mea tua sunt”. After a brief presentation of the parable, he stated that the words of the thema could be applied to the Virgin and explained the relationship between the Virgin and each person of the Trinity.107 Yet another contemporary Dominican preacher (and severe inquisitor), Antonio da Brescia (d. 1498), adopted the same thema to develop a sermon on “the fullness of grace of the Blessed Virgin” (“de plenitudo gratie beate virginis”).108 He did not draw a precise connection between the thema and the contents of the sermon. It seems as if, after two centuries of uninterrupted use, the link between this thema and the Virgin had become self-evident for any preacher who would have used this sermon collection. By that time, the phrase automatically activated a wellknown Marian scenario. All these sermons adapted the liturgical readings to the growing late medieval devotion to Mary. The diary of an anonymous Observant Franciscan bears exceptional witness to the tradition of preaching on the Virgin during the Saturdays of Lent. He took notes of the twenty Lenten cycles that he preached from 1484 to 1507 in many Italian cities. While he changed many of his sermons along the years, he consistently preached on the Virgin on the Saturdays throughout his career, considering this a pivotal element of his Lenten preaching.109 Nevertheless, in the same period this type of Marian sermon could also be disregarded. Such a possibility is demonstrated by the notes for a sermon for 107

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“Fili tu semper mecum es, et omnia mea tua sunt. […]. Maior filius […] indignatus erat. Respondit pater verba assumpta: ‘Fili, tu semper mecum es, et omnia mea tua sunt’. Que verba dicuntur a Maria filio suo: ‘Fili, mecum es’. Cum Maria est pater per potentiam. Cum Maria est filius per sapientiam. Cum Maria, est spiritus sanctus per clementiam. Unde dicitur sancta sanctorum et sanctarum. Que conclusio probatur triplici ratione secundum doctores nostros: Primo ratione sanctificationis. Secundo ratione coniunctionis. Tertio ratione divinalis infusionis”; Gabriele da Barletta, Sermones quadragesimales et sermones de sanctis (Brescia: Giacomo Britannico, 1497), fols. 53v-54r. On this preacher, see Nicolò Maldina, “Dantean Devotions: Gabriele Barletta’s ‘Oral’ Commedia in Context,” in Voices and Texts in Early Modern Italian Society, eds. Stefano Dall’Aglio, Brian Richardson and Massimo Rospocher (London, 2017), pp. 185-99. Antonio da Brescia, Sermones aurei quadragesimales (Brescia: Angelo Britannico, 1503), fols. e1r-e2v. On his activity as inquisitor see Michael Tavuzzi, Renaissance Inquisitors: Dominican Inquisitors and Inquisitorial Districts in Northern Italy, 1474-1527 (Leiden, 2007), pp. 174-81. On his sermon collection, which still needs a thorough study, see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, pp. 213-15. On this diary and the cities reached by this preacher, see Kimura, “The Bildungsroman,” pp. 53-56. I would like to thank Dr. Kimura, who informed me that this friar preached always on the Virgin during the Saturdays of Lent.

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the Saturday post Reminiscere that Savonarola prepared for the Lenten cycle that he preached in the cathedral of Florence in 1491.110 In this scheme, he contrasted the love for Christ of the ancient Christians with the exorbitant attention given to the Virgin in contemporary preaching. First, the sermon has a short exposition of the parable of the prodigal son.111 Then, Savonarola introduced a fictional dialogue with someone in the audience, one of the typical rhetorical strategies adopted by preachers: “Why, friar, do you not preach on the Virgin on Saturday, like the others?” First, because I have to explain the Gospel etc. Second, I ask you: Why did the apostles and the ancients, in particular saint John, write nothing about the Virgin? This was – I say – on account of their vehement devotion [to Christ]. The Apostle [Paul] says: I have been crucified with Christ etc. [Galatians 2:19]. And the same is true for the others. Therefore, they could not think of anything else, like someone who is madly in love with a woman etc. […] I add just another thing, that the Apostle says: The righteousness of God is through faith [in Jesus Christ; Romans 3:22], and Peter says: There is no other name under heaven [given to the human race by which we are to be saved; Acts 4:12]. Therefore, first of all it was necessary to praise the name of Christ, thus also the Virgin was praised etc. […]. And why did not Gregory, Jerome, and the ancients write [about the Virgin]? Because the love for Christ was flourishing in their time. Today instead she is offered as a bait etc. Yet, the devil never ceases to find malicious elements even in this, as I am going to explain if you patiently listen to me.112 110

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On the relevance of this Lenten cycle, see Armando F. Verde, “Introduzione,” in Girolamo Savonarola, Il Quaresimale del 1491: La certezza profetica di un mondo nuovo. Testo latino secondo l’autografo con traduzione italiana a fronte, eds. Armando F. Verde and Elettra Giaconi (Florence, 2001), pp. XV-XLII. “Primo replica in brevitate que dixisti super Evangelio de currente [Luke 15:11-32] et hoc pro prohemio etc.”; Savonarola, Il Quaresimale del 1491, p. 118. Savonarola referred here to the previous year scheme for a sermon on the prodigal son, which is written in the margins of his breviary; see Girolamo Savonarola, Breviario di frate Girolamo Savonarola: po­­ stille autografe, ed. Armando F. Verde (Florence, 1999), p. 292. For Savonarola’s sermons on the prodigal son, see below pp. 240-50. “Quare, frater, non predicas in Sabbatis de Virginie sicut alii? Primo propter evangelia etc. Secundo quero quare Apostoli et antiqui, presertim Ioannes, nihil scripserunt? Dico propter vehementem devotionem. Dicit Apostolus: Christo confixus sum cruci etc. Ita et de aliis. Unde nihil poterant aliud cogitare, sicut captus amore mulieris etc. […]. Et potius

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Then, the sermon lays out what should be the true effects of devotion to the Virgin (a concrete commitment to peace and opposition to political factionalism) and which are, instead, the negative effects, by which the devil and the people transformed the Virgin into their own instrument, into a “product to sell”. Savonarola here attacked exterior, luxurious, or even fraudulent forms of devotion, and exposed how a true imitation of the Virgin’s humility should push people to live in peace together, without divisions.113 It would have been interesting to know the reaction of the audience to this sermon, which proposed a Christocentric faith and challenged well-established forms of Marian devotion. This, however, is impossible. In fact, Savonarola added this annotation beside this outline: “I did not preach this sermon on the Virgin but, instead, I preached on the Gospel of the day, as you find written in my notes, and it was a beautiful sermon etc.”.114 Although Savonarola had prepared another plan, in the end, standing before his real audience, he preferred to spend the whole sermon commenting on the parable of the prodigal son. In some way, he could not resist the pastoral appeal of this parable, and what in the preparatory scheme was supposed to occupy only the introduction resulted in a fully-developed sermon. Still, the outline that Savonarola had written in 1491 became useful in 1495, when he introduced a consideration on the excesses of the Marian cult in a sermon preached on the vigil of the Annunciation.115 In the much-changed context of the mid sixteenth-century, defying the custom of preaching on the Virgin during the Saturdays of Lent could provoke

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dicam unum. Ergo dicit Apostolus: Iustitia Dei est per fidem etc. Et Petrus: Non est datum aliud nomen sub celo etc. Ideo oportebat primo nomen Christi magnificare, sic etiam Virgo magnificabatur etc. […] Et quare Gregorius et Hyronimus et antiqui non scripserunt? Quia adhuc amor Christi erat in flore; hodie autem data est in escam etc. Et tamen diabolus non cessat etiam in hoc parte invenire malitias quas dicam si patienter audis etc.”; Savonarola, Il Quaresimale del 1491, p. 118. On preaching against civic factions, see Francesco Bruni, La città divisa. Le parti e il bene comune da Dante a Guicciardini (Bologna, 2003); Rosa Maria Dessì, ed., Prêcher la paix, et discipliner la société: Italie, France, Angleterre (XIIIe-XVe siècle) (Turnhout, 2005); Letizia Pellegrini, “Prédication et politique dans la péninsule italienne au XVe siècle,” in Preaching and Political Society: From Late Antiquity to the End of the Middle Ages, ed. Franco Morenzoni (Turnhout, 2013), pp. 311-30. “Non feci sermonem de Virgine sed de Evangelio, ut habes in his cartis etc., et fuit pulchrum etc.”; Savonarola, Il Quaresimale del 1491, p. 120. Savonarola referred to other notes that he had with him in that period (see p. 328). See Girolamo Savonarola, Prediche sopra Giobbe, ed. Roberto Ridolfi, 2 vols (Rome, 1957), 1, pp. 408-09.

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unforeseen consequences. Although it was just a tradition and not an obligation, it could be seen as suspicious not to preach on the Virgin that day. This at least is what happened in 1548 in Chioggia, near Venice. The reform-minded bishop Iacopo Nacchianti, a Dominican friar who had been educated in the Savonarolan convent of San Marco and who was already suspected of heterodox positions, invited the Franciscan Girolamo da Siena to preach in the cathedral during Lent.116 The bishop apparently appreciated Girolamo’s sermons, but someone in the audience considered the preacher a “Lutheran”, and denounced him to the Inquisition. The matter resulted in an inquisitorial action against Nacchianti, but the Franciscan friar, who had been apprehended in Bologna, was able to elude the surveillance and escaped. During the process against Nacchianti, one of the witnesses recalled that, among the things that raised suspicion about the preacher, and indirectly his admirer, was that the Girolamo “was considered Lutheran because he was preaching neither on saints nor on the Virgin on Saturday, as it was usual with the other preachers”.117 In the context of the “spiritual war” promoted in those years by the Inquisition of Gian Pietro Carafa, the future Pope Paul IV, this could indeed become another strand to confirm suspicions about unorthodox positions.118

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On Iacopo Nacchianti and this episode, see Gianmario Italiano, “La pastorale eterodossa di Iacopo Nacchianti a Chioggia (1544-48),” Rivista storica italiana 123 (2011), 741-91 and Wietse de Boer, “Nacchianti, Giovanni Battista (in religione Jacopo),” in DBI 77 (2012), pp. 655-58. “[Il frate] era tenuto lutherano perché non predicava di santi né del sabato della Madonna, secondo el solito delli altri”; deposition of Giachino Giustiniano, 11 October 1549, quoted in Italiano, “La pastorale eterodossa,” p. 747. As an example of a contemporary preacher who, during Lent, dedicated the Saturday sermons to the Virgin, see the collection of the renowned Franciscan preacher Cornelio Musso, which derives from his 1539 preaching in Rome; Cornelio Musso, Prediche quadragesimali […] sopra l’Epistole et Euangeli correnti per i giorni di Quaresima e sopra il cantico della Vergine per li sabati, 2 vols (Venice: Lucantonio Giunta, 1586). On the attention that inquisitors increasingly gave to detect heterodox preaching not only on the basis of what was said, but also (and in particular) on the basis of what was not said, see Giorgio Caravale, Predicazione e Inquisizione nell’Italia del Cinquecento: Ippolito Chizzola tra eresia e controversia antiprotestante (Bologna, 2012), pp. 83-100 (available also in English: Preaching and Inquisition in Renaissance Italy: Words on Trial (Leiden, 2016)). Chizzola and Nacchianti were both taken to trial in 1549, investigated by the inquisitor Annibale Grisonio, and eventually subdued to Roman orthodoxy.

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Early Model Sermon Collections (XIII-XIV Centuries)

After the analysis of the Marian sermons based on the parable, it is time to return to the early model sermon collections that comment extensively on the story of the prodigal son. I will discuss five sermon collections that each presents a sermon on the prodigal son and were among the most widely disseminated. These sermons show the different ways in which the parable was appropriated, ranging from short schemes to extended theological discussions. First, I will focus on the sermons of three Dominican preachers: Nicolas de Gorran, Giovanni da San Gimignano, and Antonio Azaro da Parma. Subsequently, I will turn to Alberto da Padova, an Augustinian friar, and to the Franciscan François de Meyronnes.119 6.1 Three Dominican Preachers The Sermones quadragesimales of Nicolas de Gorran (d. c.1295) is one of the oldest surviving Lenten sermon collections, and one of the first composed outside Italy.120 It contains bare schemes for sermons, two for each day of Lent, one on the Epistles and one on the Gospel. The enduring interest for this kind of sermons – short, precise, and easy to remember – is confirmed by two editions printed in the early sixteenth-century (Paris 1509 and 1523). For the parable of the “penitent son” – as Nicolas labelled him – the Dominican went straight to the kernel of the three constitutive parts of penitence.121 The thema is “Surgam et ibo ad patrem meum et dicam illi: ‘Pater peccavi in celum et coram te, iam non sum dignus vocari filius tuus” (Luke 15:18), and the main division of the sermon reads as follows: Three are the parts of penitence: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Contrition is painful, because the penitent returns to God having left behind malice. Confession provokes embarrassment, because he recognizes his sin and a penalty is inflicted on him. Satisfaction is laborious, 119 120 121

The selection is based on the overview provided by Hanska, “Sermones”. See André Duval, “Nicolas de Gorran,” in Dictionnaire de Spiritualité, 11 (Paris, 1982), coll. 281-83. Nicolas de Gorran followed (mainly) a penitential interpretation also in his commentary on this parable; see Nicolas de Gorran, Enarratio in quatuor Evangelia, 2 vols (Lyon: Anisson, Posuel & Rigaud, 1692), 2, pp. 295-303. On his exegetical works, see Gilbert Dahan, “Nicolas de Gorran sur l’échelle de Jacob (Genèse 28, 10-22): Instantané d’un exégète au travail,” in Portraits de maîtres offerts à Olga Weijers, eds. Claire Angotti, Monica Brînzei and Mariken Teeuwen (Porto, 2012), pp. 361-71

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because he pays his debt for the offence. And these three are explained here in the penitent son.122 In the sermon, Nicolas exploited each words of the thema to further highlight this message. Contrition requires two things: to leave sin behind (surgam) and to choose the good (redibo ad patrem meum). A proper confession needs to express confidence in the clemency of God (Pater), to disclose the sins (peccavi etc.), and to deplore one’s own state of misery (iam non sum dignus). In this way, the thema of the sermon summarizes all the elements of the penitential itinerary in an extremely functional manner. The penitential perspective is also at the centre of the sermon on the prodigal son by Giovanni da San Gimignano, and yet from a different perspective and in an interplay with the model sermon of Iacopo da Varazze. Giovanni da San Gimignano (d. after 1333) wrote his Sermones quadragesimales between 1304 and 1314, and they survive in 27 manuscripts (and three printed editions: 1511, 1584, and 1612). He prepared two sermons for every day, one on the Epistle and the other on the Gospel. Scholars noted that these sermons are doctrinally not too difficult and probably addressed a general audience.123 Despite the ­possible limitations of the intended audience, the sermon on the prodigal son does not avoid demanding theological discussions. The thema serves as reference to the whole parable, which – as the sermon reads − the Lord presented “to instruct and correct sinners” by uncovering the causes of sin, its effects, and the remedies against it.124 The first section occupies far more space than the other two and contains the most interesting points of dis­cussion. Giovanni 122

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“Tres sunt partes penitentie: contritio, confessio, satisfactio. Contritio dolorosa in qua redit penitens ad deum relicta malicia. Confessio pudorosa in qua recognoscit peccatum et taxatur ei pena. Satisfactio laboriosa in qua solvit emendam pro offensa. Et hec tria noscuntur hic in filio penitente”; Nicolas de Gorran, Sermones quadragesimales, in Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, MS C 18 (late thirteenth century), fols. 76r-89r: 82r. The sermon does not present substantial differences from the printed edition that I have consulted, Nicolas de Gorran, Fundamentum aureum omnium anni sermonum (Paris: Nicolas de la Barre, 1509), fol. 73v. On this preacher, see Silvana Vecchio, “Giovanni da San Gimignano,” DBI 56 (2001), pp. 206-10 and Scriptores Ordinis praedicatorum, 2, pp. 539-43, and 4, p. 170. “Homo quidam habuit duos filios. Philosophi tribus viis pervenerunt ad cognitionem rerum. […] In hoc ergo evangelio quod dominus ad instructionem et correctionem peccatorum precipue inducit […] namque describuntur tria in hoc evangelio. Primo, cause sive occasiones peccandi, quia dicit: adolescentior. Secundo, effectus peccati, quia: adhesit uni civium. Tertio, remedia morbi, quia: in se reversus dixit”; Giovanni da San Gimignano, Opus aureum sermonum quadragesimalium (Paris: Jean Petit, 1511), fol. h6r.

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analysed three “causae peccandi” of the prodigal son: his young age, his freedom, and his affluence (etas, libertas, ubertas). Drawing on Aristotle, he illustrates how four vices characterize youth: libido, prodigality, love of honours, and irascibility. The prodigal son’s freedom, which appears in his request to the father, serves to discuss the reasons why God gave free will to humankind and shifts the discourse from a moral to a theological level. According to Giovanni, this gift is twofold: by means of libertas a person can become virtuous or vicious, optimus or pessimus. Freedom is a great gift, which distinguishes humans from animals. And yet, humankind distances itself from God through freedom, as the prodigal son did with regard to his father. Why did God give free will to humanity, when “we see that a good father, if he can, surely will tie his son to avoid him to commit wickedness”?125 If God had foreseen that through this gift humanity would be condemned, why did he permit this? Is God responsible for the fall of humankind? Giovanni replied by saying that human freedom contributes to the glory and perfection of the universe (“ad decorem et perfectionem universi”). Since the general good overtakes the good of the individual parts, God could not have avoided giving free will to human beings – and therefore the possibility of sin – even if it had been better for them to avoid that gift so as to be unable to sin.126 Furthermore, since God gave free will to humankind for its own good, he cannot be charged with its misuse, “like someone who gives a knife to open a fruit to someone who, in turn, uses it to kill himself”.127 The key point in Giovanni’s perspective is that God “gave free will to humankind so that through freedom it could deserve the reward […] since without free will no merit can exist”. In fact, what is necessary is without merit or demerit. In addition, “God gave free will to humanity for its own defence”, because it makes the human being strong enough to withstand the devil.128 Therefore, the sinners cannot place blame on God for their own choices.

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“Si tu quereres quare deus dedit ei libertatem arbitrii cum nos videamus quod bonus pater si posset ligare filium ne male ageret libenter faceret […]”; Ibid., fol. h6v. “Et quia bonum totius premium bono partis non debuit deus qui est creator ac actor universi pretermittere facere hominem cum libertatem arbitrii et per consequens cum facultate peccandi dato etiam quod melius foret pro eo quod impeccabilis esset”; Ibid., fol. h7r. “Sed dicendum quod deus dedit ei liberum arbitrium non ligatum propter bonum eius. Si ergo male utitur eo non est culpa dei, sed sua. Sicut si aliquis daret alicui cultellum ut prescinderet pomum et ille cum eo occideret se ipsum”; Ibid., fol. h7r. “Imo dedit ei liberum arbitrium ut ex ipsa libertate mereretur premium […], quia sine libertate arbitrii non posset esse meritum, unde in naturalibus quia non sunt libera sed ad unum necessitata non est meritum vel demeritum, dedit etiam deus homini liberum arbi-

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This argument is developed in the most elaborated part of the sermon, which provided preachers with a vade-mecum to explain to their congregations the inseparable connection between free will and merits. Giovanni da San Gimignano insisted on the concept of free will and, instead of dwelling on the concrete details of the prodigal son’s sinful life, he exploited the parable to outline the basic elements of a theological anthropology. The other two parts of the sermon are brief. The last one, which focuses on the remedies of sin, summarizes almost word for word the second and third sections of Iacopo da Varazze’s sermon on the topic: the three things that characterize the conversion of the sinner (recognitio and its four steps, as well as confessio and satisfactio) and the four characteristics of God’s reception of penitents (velociter, dulciter, honorabiliter, letanter). It is as if Giovanni did not have to insist on these aspects, since they were already well developed in Iacopo’s sermon. The third Dominican preacher presented here is Antonio Azaro da Parma (d. after 1314), who even made it into Leandro Alberti’s De viris illustribus ordinis praedicatorum (1517), alongside of Giovanni da San Gimignano. Alberti defined Azaro as an “optimus concionator” and referred to his “sermones morales super evangelia”.129 Azaro’s sermon on the prodigal son is indeed a moral sermon on the Gospel. It was part of his Sermones quadragesimales, which count no less than 24 surviving manuscripts and two early printed editions.130 At the beginning of this sermon, Antonio emphasized the connection between the parable and the main goals of Lenten preaching: Every preaching during Lent aims at these two goals: that the sinners will be scared and so they will part from sin and hurry to do penance, and that penitents will be comforted concerning divine mercy and therefore will love penitence and live in it with joy. The Gospel reading of today achieves both goals marvellously.131

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trium ad sui tuicionem, quia ex hoc tam fortis est quod demon non potet eum vincere nisi vellit ipse”; Ibid., fol. h7r. “Video etiam Ioannem Sangeminianensem […] circa salutis nostrae annum florentem, MCCCXIIII, cum Antonio Azario Parmense loquentem optimo Concionatore, sermones morales super evangelia portante”; Leandro Alberti, De viris illustribus ordinis praedi­ catorum (Bologna: Girolamo Benedetti and Giovanni Battista Lapi, 1517), fol. 144rv. See Meersse­man, “Le opere di Fra Antonio,” pp. 20-47. See Hanska, “Sermones,” p. 117. The editions were printed in Cologne (1482) and Paris (1515). “Omnis predicatio que fit in quadragesima tendit ad ista duo, scilicet ut peccatores terreantur et sic a peccato recedant et ad penitentiam currant et ut penitentes consolentur de divina misericordia et sic penitentiam diligant et in ea cum gaudio vivant. Et hec duo

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According to Antonio, the parable has a performative power (facit): this story moves sinners to repent and confirms penitents in their commitment. Consequently, he exposed the whole parable in his sermon, commenting on its plot step by step. As is clear from the introduction, the penitential perspective dominates the sermon. After a detailed description of sin, Azaro expanded on the conversion process of the prodigal son, paying particular attention to his confession. He wrote that the embrace and kiss of the father already infuses his son with grace and love. Next, the sermon gives voice to the confession of the repentant son: After the son received this kiss, he told his father: “Father, you who love your son even when he flees from you, I sinned as a bad son, transgressing your command and abandoning you. I have sinned against heaven, because I despised and made light of it, and before you, who sees everywhere, not only the outside but also the inside, because you are the only one who looks into the heart. And yet I did not feel ashamed before you, that is, before your eyes, to think, to say, and to do things that were illicit and unbecoming to your eyes. Therefore, considering my sins, I am not worthy to be called your son”. O humble, complete, and true confession, which merits every praise!132 Antonio expanded the words spoken by the prodigal son in the Gospel to have a “complete confession”, which is presented as a perfect model for the listeners who have to confess their sins. He followed this up by pointing out the meaning of the new clothes given by the father to his son, which symbolize the radical transformation that penitence provokes. Penitence transforms the person from sinner to being righteous, from slave to son, from enemy to friend, from death

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magnifice facit presens evangelium”; Antonio da Parma, Postilla super evangelia domenicalia per circulum anni cum quadragesimali (Cologne: Johann Koelhoff, 1482), fol. h7r (sermon 31). “Pater […] cadit super collum euis gratiam suam sibi restituendo, osculatur eum amorem suum et caritatem influendo sibi. […] Sequitur quod filius postquam recepit osculum dixit ei: ‘Pater, qui diligis filium etiam a te fugientem, ego sicut malis filius peccavi, scilicet contra te mandatum tuum transgrediendo et te deserendo. Peccavi in celum quod contempsi et parvipendi, et coram te, qui ubique vides et non solum exterius sed interius, quia tu solus intueris cor et tamen non erubui coram te, id est coram oculis tuis, cogitare, loquere, et operare illicita et oculis tuis indigna, et ideo non sum dignus exigentibus culpis meis vocari filius tuus’. O confessio humilis, integra et vera et omni laude dignissima!”; Ibid., fol. h8r.

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to life, and so forth.133 For this reason, Antonio invited his audience to praise penitence and penitents (“O beata penitentia, quam gloriosa dicta sunt de te! Et ideo beatus homo qui habitat tecum …”) and reasserted that the prodigal son, who confidently returned to the father, should be “an example to us”.134 Then, the closing part of the text deals with the protest of the elder brother. Yet, the core of the sermon is the exemplary conversion of the prodigal son. In fact, the last line of the sermon returns to this point by exhorting the listeners to ask God to give them the grace “to closely imitate the penitent son in his penitence, so that we can be worthy to receive the crown in heaven with penitents”.135 To seal the sermon, the word penitentia/penitens is repeated three times. 6.2 Alberto da Padova: “Quasi plebis concionator” Beside model sermons, it would be possible to analyse the fourteenth-century postils that comment on the parable and circulated as handbooks for preachers, such as the Postilla super Evangelia que leguntur in Quadragesima by the Franciscan Filippo da Moncalieri (d. c.1344).136 I consider here an example of this type of text, which allows us to bring into the picture the Augustinian order’s contribution to this field. The Postilla super evangelia quadragesimalia of Alberto da Padova (d. c.1323-28) had a considerable diffusion, as it is proven by the sixteen surviving manuscripts and the four sixteenth-century editions.137 133

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“Supra mundum utilis quia per penitentiam fit homo de peccatore iustus, de servo filius, de mortuo vivus, de inimico amicus, de spoliato et paupere dives et plenus, de obligato ad penas inferni dignus gloria celi et cuius nomem erat delatum de libro viventium statim scribitur in libro supernorum civium”; Ibid., fol. h8v. “Hic etiam filius prodigus, qui cum tanta fiducia et spe reversus est ad patrem, dat nobis exemplum sperandi in deum”; Ibid., fol. h8v. “Rogemus dominum ut det nobis istum filium penitentem taliter in penitentia imitari quod possumus digne in celo cum penitentibus coronari. Amen”; Ibid., fol. i1r. This collection had a considerable dissemination; see Emanuele Fontana, “Filippo da Moncalieri e le sue Postille sui vangeli domenicali e quaresimali,” Franciscana 11 (2009), 223-55. The sermon on the prodigal son – broadly speaking – follows a penitential interpretation: “in isto evangelio beatus Luca quattuor tangit, scilicet: statum relinquentis perniciosum; modum penitentis congruentissimum; actum miserantis benignissimum; excessum invidentis indignatissimum”; Filippo da Moncalieri, Quadragesimale (Milan: Ulrich Scinzenzeler, 1498), fol. g4r. See Schneyer, Repertorium, 1, p. 146. On Alberto da Padova, see Arianna Bonato and Francesco Bottin, “Nuove ricerche per una biografia di Alberto da Padova,” in Alberto da Padova e la cultura degli Agostiniani, ed. Francesco Bottin (Padua, 2014), pp. 167-216. Beside this volume, on Augustinian studia of that age, see Eric L. Saak, High Way to Heaven: The Augustinian Platform between Reform and Reformation, 1292-1524 (Leiden, 2002), pp. 345-466. On late medieval Augustinian preaching, see Carlo Delcorno, “La

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Alberto was a talented preacher and a famous master, who taught in Bologna and Paris. His text reflects this twofold experience: it is a biblical commentary that elucidates each Gospel reading of Lent and, on the other hand, it is a model sermon collection structured around the unifying idea of the forty-year itinerary of Israel’s exodus. It is yet another example of the inter­connection between exegesis and homiletics. Drawing on the summary of the exodus from Egypt in Numbers 33, each day of Lent is connected with one of the forty-two stages (mansiones) of the journey of Israel through the desert, so that the allegorical interpretation of the name of each mansio provides the starting point for a sermon.138 The day of the parable of the prodigal son is linked with the stage of Rissah (Numbers 33:21), which is interpreted as “bridle and bit, or as a rope”. Alberto wrote that God, by means of his mercy, provides a bridle to stop the human being, who otherwise is quick to fall into sin, and “pulls us to himself through the bridle and the rope of his liberality in forgiving, as the story of the prodigal son shows”.139 The commentary develops – with its own nuances – the penitential reading of the parable and the allegorical interpretation of each of its elements. In his exegesis, Alberto avoided subtle scholastic distinctions and largely reported the patristic interpretations, in accord­ance with his exegetical scope. Indeed, in the prologue of his work he wrote that he would look at what could be helpful for illiterate people (“utilitati attendens rudium”). His aim was to kindle the devotion of the faithful (“pro

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predicazione agostiniana (sec. XIII-XV),” in Gli Agostiniani a Venezia e la chiesa di Santo Stefano (Venice, 1997), pp. 87-108. The itinerary starts with the sermon of the second day of Lent, which recalls the forty stops of Israel, and mentions the first two: “Prima mansio dicta est Ramassa, quod interpretatur corrosio tynee, secunda fuit Sochot, quod interpretatur tentoria sive taberna­ cula. Nam vita penitentium incipit a verme conscientiae mordente animam et deinde mundus iste fit eis non domus aut patria, sed tabernaculum viatoris …”; Alberto da Padova, Sermones quadragesimales, 2 vols (Venice: Marcantonio Zaltieri, 1584), 1, fol. 20v. The spiritual interpretations of the forty-two resting-places of Numbers 33 date back to Origen’s homilies, which were largely quoted by the Glossa. A connection with Lent can be found in Nicholas of Lyra’s Postilla moralis, which refers to Ambrose’s Lenten sermons, namely Pseudo-Ambrose’s sermon 19 (cf. PL 17: 640-41). Still, Alberto da Padova’s inter­ pretation of the forty-two names follows Pseudo-Bede’s commentary on the Book of ­Numbers (PL 91: 373-78). “Sextadecima penitentium mansio agitur hodie, cuius nomen est Ressa, quid interpretatur chamus, vel frenum, sive stadium, aut retinaculum. In stadio vitae praesentis lubricum est genus humanum ad culpam […]. Sed qui nibis praesidet, Deus suae pietatis adhibet retinaculum, cohaercens freno praesentis adversitatis a malo, et ad se nos trahens chamo sive capistro remissionis largitatis, quod totum patet in prodigo filio”; Alberto da Padova, Sermones, 1, fol. 218r. The sermon occupies fols. 217r-32v.

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fovenda devotione fidelium”), speaking not as a professor but almost as a popular preacher: “quasi plebis concionator, non doctor docentium, dominica verba quantum potui comparavi”.140 Alberto’s text could easily be adapted to a wider audience, as is made clear from the Lenten sermon cycle that Gregorio di Alessandria (d. 1447), another Augustinian master of theology and renowned preacher, held in 1427 in the Florentine church of Santo Spirito. Gregorio’s sermons are known through the vernacular reportatio by Betto di Andrea Gherardini, a Florentine layman. As scholars have convincingly argued, Gregorio relied heavily on Alberto’s exegesis, sometimes literally translating it.141 The same is true also for his sermon on the prodigal son.142 In the hands of a skilful preacher, Alberto da Padova’s work proved to be a suitable base from which to draw Lenten sermons. Thanks to the mediation of Gregorio di Alessandria, what had been elaborated in the studia of the Augustinian order was conveyed to lay people and, indeed, entered the house of a layman like Betto, who took notes during Gregorio’s sermons and then copied them out at home, to keep the memory of what he had heard and to appropriate the message. This case perfectly shows how preaching was a link between the studia and the religious life of the laity. François de Meyronnes: “The Son’s Repentance as the Glory of His Father” As final example of early fourteenth-century sermons on the prodigal son, I take into consideration the Sermones quadragesimales of François de Meyronnes (d. c.1328). While Alberto da Padova’s sermons are focused on the biblical interpretation, this collection reflects a much more elaborate theological discussion and probably derives from his university sermons preached in Paris. However, the collection’s scholastic roots were not an obstacle for its circulation and appreciation among later preachers, as is indicated by the number 6.3

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Alberto da Padova, Sermones, 1, fol. 1rv. On the prologues of sermon collections, see Nicole Bériou, “Les prologues de recuils de sermons latins du XIIe au XVe siècle,” in Les prologues médiévaux, ed. Jacqueline Hamesse (Turhout, 2000), pp. 395-426. Oriana Visani and Maria Grazia Bistoni, “La Bibbia nella predicazione degli agostiniani. Il caso di Gregorio di Alessandria,” in Sotto il cielo delle Scritture: Bibbia, retorica e letteratura religiosa (secc. XIII-XVI), eds. Carlo Delcorno and Giuseppe Baffetti (Florence, 2009), pp. 115-37. On the diffusion of Alberto’s Postillae in the German area, see Francesco Bottin, “Alberto da Padova e l’ambiente di Erfurt prima di Lutero,” in Ramosa arbor. Studi per Antonio Rigon da allievi, amici, colleghi, eds. Luciano Bertazzo et al. (Padua, 2011), pp. 50718. See Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 1281, fols. 47r-48v. I thank Oriana Visani for this information.

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of surviving manuscripts as well as by the fact that preachers such as Bernardino da Siena drew from this collection to compose their own sermons.143 Moreover, two incunabula editions (Brussels between 1481 and 1484; Venice 1492) confirm the lasting influence of François de Mayronnes’ text. The sermon on the prodigal son revisits the entirety of parable. The prologue points out that the story served to thwart the indignation of those who consider themselves righteous, like the Pharisees who murmured about the penitens. But why does this happen? Gregory provides the reason: “False righteousness is not compassionate, but indignant”. Thus, according to the Glossa: “They err in two ways: because they think that they themselves are righteous when they are arrogant and that others are guilty of sin when they have already repented”. But that no one should be indignant on account of the welcome extended to sinners is shown in the parable of the prodigal son, whose repentance was to the glory of his father, as it appears to us in the present Gospel where six considerations are presented to us.144 The six considerationes unfold the parable as a historia salutis, which begins with creation and concludes with the eternal reward. The first consideration deals with “the state of nature that precedes the common ‘propagation’ of both sons, where the text says: A certain man had two sons”.145 Referencing the Glossa − a source constantly used throughout the sermon − François de Meyronnes 143

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Schneyer, Repertorium, 2, pp. 71-72 lists 35 manuscripts that contain these sermons. On this theologian, see Elisa Chiti, “Franciscus de Mayronis,” in CALMA: Compendium Auctorum Latinorum Medii Aevi (500-1500), ed. Michael Lapidge (Florence, 2000- ), 3, pp. 457-62. On Bernardino’s use of these sermons, see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, pp. 166-67. “Sed quare hoc? Ratio est secundum Gregorium: ‘Falsa iustitia non habet compassionem, sed indignationem’. Unde Glossa: ‘Hii dupliciter errant, quia et se iustos putant cum sint superbi et alios esse reos, cum iam peniteant’. Quod autem nullus debet indignari propter peccatorum receptionem ostendit in parabola de filio prodigo, cuius penitentia fuit patri eius gloria, sicut patet nobis in presenti evangelio, ubi occurrunt nobis sex considerationes”; François de Meyronnes, Sermones ab adventu cum quadragesimali (Venice: Bernardino Rizo di Novara, 1491/92), fol. q1r (sermon 57). Albeit with small adaptations to be closer to the Latin text, I follow the translation provided by Robert Karris, “Francis of Meyronnes’ Sermon 57 on the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32),” Franciscan Studies 63 (2005), 131-58. “Prima est de statu nature quem precedit utriusque filii communis propagatio”; François de Meyronnes, Sermones, fol. q1r. The term propagatio refers, first of all, to the diffusion of the Jews and the Gentiles who are symbolized by the two sons.

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says that the two siblings represent the penitentes and the innocentes. Both are true sons of Christ. The penitents because “they imitate him when they crucify their flesh with its vices and passions”, while “the innocents are called sons because they are predestined to eternal life, and the Passion of Christ benefits them”.146 From the second to the fourth section the sermon focuses on the story of sin, penitence, and grace that the journey of the prodigal son entails. The second consideratio concerns the lapse into sin that the son’s departure (recessio) from his father symbolizes. Two conclusiones summarize the opposite results of sin. First, the sermon presents the positive consequences that God obtains even from sin: “God sometimes permits a person, who is predestined, to fall into sin so that, through the realization of his guilt, he may humble himself and rise up more perfect” or – as François adds a few lines after – “as a more holy person”, as the stories of Mary Magdalen and Peter prove.147 In fact, “God knows how to derive the greatest good from evil” as illustrated by the creation of man after the rebellion of Lucifer and, more so, by the incarnation of Christ – “the supreme miracle” – after man’s original sin.148 For this reason, the preacher repeats the exclamation of joy of the paschal liturgy: O felix culpa. In this part, there is space to reassert the idea that the share of the property received by the prodigal son represents free will and to discuss further, as we have already seen in Giovanni da San Gimignano, why it was necessary for the human being to be created free and with the possibility of falling into sin. In an unpredictable way, the first conclusio sheds a positive light on the history of sin of humanity. Next, the second conclusio turns to the many evils that derive from sin. This more predictable section contains the important consideration that, although each sin leads to other sins, this mechanism is not to be understood as something inescapable, because free will remains in the sinner: “sin is not the necessary cause that leads to sin, but is a cause that is concomitant or disposing the will to sin freely; therefore, a person, with the help of prevenient grace, can

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“Penitentes nam sunt filii, quia imitantes Christum carnem suam crucifigunt cum vitiis et concupiscentiis [cf. Galatians 5:24]. […] Innocentes etc dicuntur filii qui predestinati sunt ad vitam eternam, quibus prodest passio Christi”; Ibid., fol. q1r. “Permittit deus aliquando cadere predestinatum in culpam, ut cognitione sui reatus se humiliter et perfectior resurgat. […] ita permittit deus aliquando cadere sanctos, ut san­ ctiores resurgant. Isto modo Maria Magdalena ruit”; Ibid., fol. q1v. “Deus enim novit de malo maximum bonum elicere, quia lapsum luciferi ordinavit ad hominis creationem, lapsum hominis ad Christi incarnationem, quod supremum fuit miraculum”; Ibid., fol. q1v.

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freely turn himself away from sin and not commit sin”.149 Therefore, this section embodies a pocketsized discussion of God’s foreknowledge, human predestination and freedom, and divine grace – themes that characterize the sophisticated theological system of François de Meyronnes.150 Placing his ­subtle theological distinctions to one side, what matters most from our perspective is that – via a sermon collection that circulated widely – these reflections moved beyond universities and convent schools and reached a large audience. The third consideratio deals with the return of the prodigal son. It stresses that God is the origin of repentance and its efficient cause, and yet the human being has to prepare himself for it by embracing four necessary things, namely: faith, which is defined as the recognition of divine justice and goodness; the memory and acknowledgment of one’s own offenses; the contempt for the crime perpetrated; and, finally, the recognition of God’s mercy. Then, the text presents the delicate balance between God’s grace and human freedom, saying that “for the perfection of the justification of the impious [cf. Romans 4:5] four things are required: the infusion of grace; the movement of free will in God; the movement of free will against sin; and remission”.151 The fourth consideration focuses on the gift of grace, which results from the gracious welcome extended by the father to his penitent son. This section explains that “God is most prompt in mercy and most slow in punishing” (“Deus est ad miserandum promptissimus, ad ulciscendum tardus”). As we have seen, Iacopo da Varazze had already stressed this point. However, the Franciscan theologian expands the analysis of the human need for the aid of grace to perform “works of merits” (“ad operandum opera meritoria vite eterne”) and, in particular, the role of the gratia predestinationis. One has to read this insistence on predestination according to the framework of François’ theology, which places emphasis on the freedom of God’s will. Such an emphasis does not obliterate human initiative; this is clarified by outlining the ways in which “humility is very powerful in obtaining grace”.152 Considering the excellence of other people, looking at one’s own defects, and patiently enduring insults are the 149

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“Dico tamen quod peccatum non est causa necessaria inducendi peccatum, sed est causa concomitans vel disponens voluntatem libere peccare. Et ideo potet libere avertere a peccato et non peccare, divina gratia preveniente”; Ibid., fol. q2r. For a first introduction, see Bert Roest, “Freedom and Contingency in the Sentences Commentary of Francis of Meyronnes,” Franciscan Studies 67 (2009), 323-46. “Secunda conclusio est quod ad perfectionem iustificationis impii quatuor requiruntur, scilicet: infusio gratie, motus liberi arbitrii in deum, et liberi arbitrii in peccatum, id est contra, et remissio”; François de Meyronnes, Sermones, fol. q2v. “Secunda conclusio est quod ad gratiam adipiscendam multum valet humilitas. Ipsa namquam est radix ceterarum virtutum”; Ibid., fol. q3r.

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best practices to cast out arrogance and to excel in the virtue of humility. After underlining the role of God and that of the penitent, the sermon deals also with the role of ecclesiastical ministers: The grace of imparting the forgiveness of sin to sinners is reserved to the ministers of the Church, since their office is taken up with the care of recalling sinners to grace. For to them the keys have been committed as it was said to them in John 20: Receive the Holy Spirit, etc.153 The servants who provide the son with new clothes symbolize the ministers. The preacher points out the equilibrium between the action of God and that of priests: “For the Lord resuscitates through contrition in the secret of his heart the person whom he wants to be received by the ministers through confession, so that this person may be reconciled to God and to the Church”.154 When speaking of confession, the other sermons discussed in this chapter have all assumed the role of the ministers of the Church. Yet this sermon explicates this point and outlines what is required of a priest. According to François de Meyronnes, the minister’s requirements are symbolized by the gifts bestowed on the son (the robe, the ring, and the sandals) and the slaughter of the fatted calf.155 The first requirement is that the minister, as servant of the heavenly father, has received his office to give sacramental reconciliation; the second is that he announces a faith active in good deeds; the third is that he presents the penitent with good examples to follow; the last requirement is that he censures the previous sins of the penitent. In this way, the sermon provides both preachers and their audience with a portrait of the good confessor. The text stresses the importance of the absolution imparted by the minister, and emphasizes that the sacrament of confession is an occasion for the priest to provide the penitents with personalized religious instruction. This was at least the ideal proposed, although in all likelihood it was still distant from actual daily pastoral care.

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“Tertia consideratio est quod gratia remissionis culpe peccatoribus impartendam solis ministris ecclesie reservatur, quia eorum officium est sollecitudinem gerere de revocatione peccatorum ad gratiam. Nam eis sunt claves commisse ut dictum est eis, Joh. 20: Accipite spiritum sanctum etc.”; Ibid., fol. q3r. An equal stress on the priest’s role can be found in a contemporary sermon of Giordano da Pisa, see p. 109 note 31. “Quem enim dominus suscitat per contritionem in cordis secreto vult ipsum per confessionem recipi per ministros, ut reconcilietur deo et ecclesie”; Ibid., fol. q3r. Some similarities can be found in Nicolas de Gorran, Enarratio, 2, pp. 299-300.

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The moral reading of the killing of the fatted calf is quite peculiar. Whereas it was usually interpreted as an allusion to the Passion of Christ and the Eucharist, here it becomes a symbol of the “fleshly pleasures” of the sinner: And this is what it says: And bring out the fattened calf, that is, censure the person who yielded to fleshly pleasures. Therefore, the fattened calf is brought forth when the sinner is censured for his idleness, for his gluttony, for his voluptuousness, and for the freedom of his own will. Yet, it is killed when he is removed from the desire to sin through the salutary teaching of the ministers.156 At the very end of the sermon, François de Meyronnes turns again to the elder brother. The fifth consideratio deals with “the stirring of envy” (“de stimulo invidie”) that appears in the elder brother’s reaction. Here, the preacher voices criticisms against those who have an elevated (ecclesiastical) culture and look at sinners with excessive severity.157 Although it does not mention prelates directly (as in Hugh of Saint-Cher’s commentary), the text continues to outline the profile of the good minister of the Church. He has to censure the sins or – using the image of this sermon – to kill the fatted calf, and yet he should not look at people without comprehension of human frailty, remembering that “the bosom of divine mercy is always open to gather together those who repent […] and God rejects no one who approaches”.158 Nevertheless, avoiding arrogance and unfair judgment on the sinners who repent, it remains true that God loves more the innocent than the penitent. Thus, the final consideratio returns to the distinction made at the beginning of the sermon and, somehow, neutralizes the destabilizing radicality of the evangelical teaching by reasserting a meritocratic hierarchy. If a penitent and an innocent have equal love for God, their reward will be essentially the same. And yet, “with regard to accidental reward, God loves the innocent more than the repentant on account of the dignity of innocence, and to this dignity the 156

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“Et hoc est quod dicit: Et adducite vitulum saginatum, id est reprehendite dulcis carnalibus deditum. Unde adducitur vitulus saginatus, dum peccator de ocio, de gula, de luxuria et libertate proprie voluntatis reprehenditur, sed occiditur dum per ministrorum salubrem informationem a desiderio peccatorum removetur”; François de Meyronnes, Sermones, fol. q3v. “Illi qui maturioribus studis occupantur erga lapsos et infirmos plus debito inveniuntur austeri, et hoc quia sunt meritis provectiores proprie fragilitatis ignari”; Ibid., fol. q3v. “Gremium divine misericordie semper est apertum ad colligendum penitentes […]. Domus est gremium misericordie dei nullum venientem respuens”; Ibid., fol. q3v.

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repentant cannot come”.159 One should not boast about this. On the contrary, the innocent must thank God more than the repentant. Still, the conclusion is that, as a general rule, “the innocent who remains in a state of innocence has more grace and glory because the person who makes progress through a continuous habit of grace acquires more than the one who makes progress through the habit of grace that is discontinuous”.160 For this reason the father could truly say to the older son: Fili, tu semper mecum es et omnia mea tua sunt. 7

Echoes of Sermons in Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi

Model sermons influenced several genres of religious texts. For instance, we find their echoes within Ludolph of Saxony’s Vita Christi, which was one of the most widespread late medieval religious texts. Ludolph of Saxony (d. 1377) was a former Dominican who entered the Carthusian order around 1340.161 His masterpiece is a long meditation on the life of Christ according to the harmony of the Gospels. It enjoyed a wide circulation: first in manuscript and then, from 1472 onwards, through no fewer than 34 incunabula editions (in Latin, Dutch, French, Catalan, and Portuguese) and many additional imprints throughout the sixteenth century (in 1570 it was also translated in Italian by Francesco Sansovino). In Ludolph’s text, one chapter (2.7) is devoted to the three parables of Luke 15. In this chapter, alongside the quotations of the patristic commentaries, often mediated by compilationes such as the Catena aurea, it is possible to find direct echoes of the model sermons that we have analysed thus far. The description of the four characteristics of the father’s reception of the prodigal son (velociter, dulciter, honorabiliter, letanter) follows almost word for word the sermon of Giovanni da San Gimignano, who in turn summarized a section of Iacopo da Varazze’s sermon. Likewise, Ludolph’s list of six elements explained by the parable derives almost word by word from the six considerationes discussed by François de Meyronnes, as the table below clearly indicates. 159

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“Potest dici quod quantum ad bonum premii essentialis equaliter diligit si equalem habeant caritatem […]. Sed quantum ad premium accidentale plus diligit innocentem quam penitentem, propter dignitatem innocentie ad quam non potet pervenire pe­­ nitens”; Ibid., fol. q3v. “Tamen innocens stans in innocentia habet maius de gratia et gloria, quia proficiens per habitum continuatum plus acquirit quam per habitum discontinuatum”; Ibid., fol. q3v. For a plain presentation of this work and its lasting influence, see Roberto Osculati, “‘Sed heu! hodie multi …’: Ludolfo di Sassonia († 1378), l’evangelo e la chiesa del suo tempo,” Cristianesimo nella storia 30 (2009), 591-634. On the influence that Ludolph’s text had on preaching, see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, pp. 202-06.

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Ludolph of Saxony

Prima consideratio est de statu nature, Primo status nature, et utriusque filii quem precedit utriusque filii communis communis propagatio […] propagatio […] Secunda consideratio est de lapsu culpe Secundo, lapsus culpe et adolescentioris a quem ostendit filii adolescentioris a patre recessio […] patre recessio […] Tertia consideratio est de motu peniten- Tertio, locus penitentie et eiusdem tie quid probat eius reversio […] postmodum reversio […] Quarta consideratio est de dono gratie, quid infert revertenter a padre benigna susceptio […]

Quarto, munus gratie et revertentis a patre benigna susceptio […]

Quinta consideratio est de stimulo Quinto, stimulus invidie, et de eius iocunda invidie, quem ostendit suscepti fratris a susceptione senioris indignatio […] frate seniore indignatio […] Sexta consideratio est de virtute Christi Sexto, virtus doctrine et indignationis eius doctrine, quam ostendit indignationis rationabilis sedatio163 illius rationabilis sedatio162

Ludolph did not further develop this division. He preferred to expose the story step by step, before the recapitulation of the meaning of the three parables (where he copied a full page from Ambrose’s commentary) and the final prayer that closes the chapter. This prayer was meant to help readers to internalize the spiritual meaning of the parables and invited them to identify with the protagonists: 162 163 O Lord Jesus, come and look for your servant […]. Come, not with the club but with love and spirit of tenderness. O Lord, come, since only you can call back who is wandering, find who is lost, reconcile who ran away. Come, […] convert me to you and give me the grace of performing a true and perfect penitence, for I could be an occasion of joy for the angels, o Lord and my saviour. Amen.164 162 163 164

François de Meyronnes, Sermones, fols. q1r-q3v. Ludolph of Saxony, Vita Christi ([Strasbourg: Printer of the Vitas Patrum], 1483), fol. b3v. “Veni, domine Ihesu, quere servum tuum, veni pastor bone, quere errantem et lassam ovem tuam, veni sponsa matris ecclesie, quere dragmam perditam, veni pater miseri­ cordie, recipe filium prodigum ad te revertentem. Veni non cum virga sed cum caritate et

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The necessity to align the three parables within a single perspective means that everything is led back to the story of the prodigal son, while there is no space for his elder brother. Beside the lost sheep and the lost coin, only the lost son plays a role. Once again the appeal is for the readers to internalize – through prayer − his example as a model of “true and perfect penitence”. 8

A Heterodox Wycliffite Sermon

The so-called Wycliffite Sermons give us the opportunity to change our point of view and to see how, in the turbulent context of the late fourteenth century, the parable of the prodigal son could be read in a way that challenged the dominant theological positions and was condemned by the ecclesiastical authorities as heterodox. The Wycliffite Sermons are a remarkable collection of 294 vernacular sermons, written between John Wyclif’s death in 1384 and 1401.165 It is a coherent set of sermons for the whole liturgical year, which consistently presents Wycliffite tenets in almost every text. Furthermore, the striking diffusion of this collection proves that it was part of a carefully planned project of religious instruction, as the result of a work conducted in a “well-organized and prosperous centre for the dissemination of Lollard texts”.166 Considering that fifteenth-century ecclesiastical authorities actively sought out and destroyed this kind of text, the 11 manuscripts that contain the entire collection and the 36 manuscripts presenting parts of it bear witness to what should have been a pervasive dissemination of this collection in early fifteenthcen­tury England. The collection includes a complete Lenten sermon-cycle,

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spiritus mansuetudine. Veni ergo, domine, quia solus es qui possis errantem revocare, perditum invenire, profugum reconciliare. Veni ut facias salutem in terris, gaudium in celis, et converte me ad te, et da mihi veram et perfectam penitentiam agere, ut sim angelis occasio leticie, domine deus salutis mee. Amen”; Ibid., fol. b5r. See English Wycliffite Sermons, eds. Pamela Gradon and Anne Hudson, 5 vols (Oxford, 1983-96). In particular, see the introduction in vol. 1, pp. 8-123 (on the structure of the sermon cycle and the manuscripts) and vol. 4, pp. 8-182 (on the date, author and audience of these sermons, and on their polemical issues). See also J. Patrick Hornbeck, What is a Lollard? Dissent and Belief in Late Medieval England (Oxford, 2010) and, to put this sermon collection in its historical context, see H. Leith Spencer, “Middle English Sermons,” in Kienzle, ed., The Sermon, pp. 597-660 and Siegfried Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif (Cambridge, 2005). Anne Hudson, “Introduction,” in Selections from English Wycliffite Writings, ed. Anne Hudson (Cambridge, 1978), pp. 1-13: 11.

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which has survived in 17 manuscripts and contains a sermon on the prodigal son.167 The sermon in question first gives the Gospel reading in English and then comments on it. Many of the sermon’s elements propose well-established interpretations: the identification of the father with God and of the two sons with the Jews and the Gentiles; the remark that since God is the true spouse of humankind, those who love the world and its pleasures in excess betray God; the general penitential reading of the parable. The stress on the role of grace in the return of the sinner, or the representation of the prodigal son as the person who God predestined to bliss (“ƿe sone is ƿat man to whom God haƿ ordeyned blis, and is nou riȝtuesse and profitiƿ [advances] to Goddis chirche”) could perhaps have raised suspicions among the ecclesiastical authorities. Yet, it did not differ from the material found in François de Meyronnes’ sermon. On closer inspection, however, there are passages that clearly show Wycliffite ideology. The interpretation of the husks of the pigs as the vanity of human knowledge surely dates back to patristic exegesis, and yet, this sermon goes much further by saying that only the law of God is truly good, while theology (“sciense of godis”) as well as the “wordly lawe and ƿe popis lawe” seek not real goodness but the “good of ƿe world”. The opposition between God’s word and both canon and civil law is evident and runs through the sermon collection as one of its unique features.168 Less explicit but equally relevant is the reading of the best robe given by the father to the son: it is not only a sign of the innocence of the returned son, but also of the priesthood of all true believers. Moreover, the fatted calf permits to introduce an exposition of the Wycliffite doctrine on the Eucharist – an issue constantly addressed in these sermons – by saying that “it is ƿe sacrid oost ƿat is in figure Cristis body”, adding that “Crist was deed in his tyme, and ordeyned for to fede men gostly by his body”.169 The host is the body of Christ in figure and, as it is explained in other sermons, God’s body is the flesh that Christ had on earth and that is now in heaven, so that Christ can be eaten in the host only gostly. The text goes even further by presenting the elder son as the Jews who will be reconciled with Christ before doomsday, adding that nowadays their reconciliation with Christ is obstructed by the avarice of the pope.

167 168 169

See English Wycliffite Sermons, 3, pp. 101-06 (and the notes on it in vol. 5, pp. 314-19). A useful summary of this sermon is given in O’Mara and Paul, eds., A Repertorium, pp. 698-99. See English Wycliffite Sermons, 3, p. 103. On the opposition between Scripture and human laws, see vol. 4, pp. 71-88. English Wycliffite Sermons, 3, p. 105. On Eucharist in these sermons, see vol. 4, pp. 50-56.

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Due to the parameters of this study, we will not enter into a discussion of the theological positions expressed in this sermon, their relationship with Wyclif’s theology and exegesis, and their placement within the elusive doctrine of the Lollard movement.170 What we can take from this sermon demonstrates that the story of the prodigal son and its consolidated penitential interpretation could become the stage for presenting positions that challenged established dogma. This would not be the only occasion though, as we will see when we discuss Lutheran interpretations of the parable. 9

Vicent Ferrer: Dramatizing the Story and Bookkeeping the Merits

The incredibly successful preaching campaigns of the Dominican Vicent Ferrer (d. 1419) date almost to the same period as the Wycliffite sermons, and should be placed within the agitated context of the great schism that affected Western Christendom.171 In the last two decades of his life, Ferrer travelled through Spain, France, Switzerland, and Italy, addressing large crowds with his radical appeal to repentance and his apocalyptic announcement of the proximity of the Antichrist. His passionate performances from the pulpit were part of a well-structured pastoral missionary campaign complemented by confession rallies, processions, and the catechetic religious instruction of adults and children.172 A rich corpus of sermons survives as a testimony of this intense preaching activity and includes four different versions of a sermon on the prodigal 170

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A brief comparison can be found in Selections from English Wycliffite Writings, pp. 46-56 and 166-70, where Hudson notes that the sermon reveals many divergences from Wyclif’s Glossed Gospel and it introduces distinctively Lollard ideas in the exegesis of the parable. On Ferrer’s life and preaching see Pedro Cátedra, Sermón, sociedad y literatura en la Edad Media. San Vicente Ferrer en Castilla (1411-1412) (Salamanca, 1994); Josep Perarnau I Espelt, “Cent anys d’estudis dedicats als sermons de sant Vicent Ferrer,” Arxiu de Textos Catalans Antics 18 (1999), 9-62; Mirificus praedicator: À l’occasion du sixième centenaire du passage de Saint Vincent Ferrier en pays romand (Estavayer-le-Lac, 7-9 octobre 2004), eds. Paul Bernard Hodel and Franco Morenzoni (Rome, 2006) and El fuego y la palabra: San Vicente Ferrer en el 550 aniversario de su canonización, ed. Emilio Callado Estela (Valencia, 2007). To situate his preaching within the Iberian context, see Manuel Ambrosio Sánchez Sánchez, “Vernacular Preaching in Spanish, Portuguese and Catalan,” in Kienzle, ed., The Sermon, pp. 759-858: 804-17. See the descriptions gathered in Procès de la canonisation de Saint Vincent Ferrier, ed. Pierre Henri Fages (Paris, 1904). See also Pietro Delcorno, “‘Quomodo discet sine docente?’: Observant Efforts towards Education and Pastoral Care,” in Mixson and Roest, eds., A Companion to Observant Reform, pp. 145-84: 145-47.

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son.173 Ferrer adopted a standard format on those occasions and the scheme of this sermon has come to us in a multiple form: first as short scheme, probably dating to Ferrer’s preaching in Italy in 1407;174 second as a Latin reportatio of the Lenten cycle he preached in the cathedral of Lleida in 1414;175 third as a Catalan reportatio, probably dating to the 1410s;176 and finally as a text of his re-elaborated sermon collection, which was repeatedly printed from 1482 onwards.177 This presents a valuable opportunity to approach a sermon in its different phases. First, it survives as a bare scheme from the hands of a preacher; second, as the notes written by someone in the audience, either in Latin or in the vernacular; third, as a model sermon available for future preachers. Since the versions of this sermon are rather similar in their structure, I will discuss them together. I will use the version that had a large circulation through its printed editions as a base text, with references to the peculiarities of the other versions of this sermon, which have a similar structure and comparable chains of biblical quotations, although sometimes with a simplified development of the homiletic argument.178 What is clear is that Ferrer used this scheme 173

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176 177

178

The fundamental overview is Josep Perarnau I Espelt, “Aportació a un inventari de sermons de Sant Vicent Ferrer: Temes bíblics, títols i divisions esquemàtiques,” Arxiu de Textos Catalan Antics 18 (1999), 479-811. The sermon on the prodigal son is the number 638. Vicent Ferrer, Sermonario de Perugia (convento dei Domenicani, Ms. 477), ed. Francisco M. Gimeno Blay et al. (Valencia, 2006), p. 190. This scheme (n. 112) recurs also in two manuscripts related to that of Perugia: MS Vat. Lat. 4375 and MS Vat. Lat. 7730 of the Vatican library; see Josep Perarnau I Espelt, “Els manuscits d’esquemes i de notes de sermons de Sant Vicent Ferrer,” Arxiu de Textos Catalans Antics 18 (1999), 157-398. Vicent Ferrer, Colección de Sermones de Cuaresma y otros según el manuscrito de Ayora, ed. Adolfo Robles Sierra (Valencia, 1995) (henceforth Sermones 1414). The manuscript dates to 1435. On Ferrer’s ministry in that region, see Alberto Velasco Gonzàles, “El periple de Sant Vicent Ferrer per les terras de Lleida i la Franja,” in Arrels Cristianes. Presència i significació del cristianisme en la història i la societat de Lleida. 2: Temps de consolidació. La Baixa Edat Mitjana, s. XIII-XV (Lleida, 2008), pp. 457-90. Vicent Ferrer, Sermons, eds. Sanchis Sivera and Schib, 5, pp. 197-201. I follow Vicent Ferrer, Sermones de tempore et de sanctis (Cologne: Heinrich Quentell, 1485), fols. y6r-y8r (Sabbato post secundam dominicam in Quadragesima). The Lenten sermons were usually included in his Sermones de tempore and knew 13 incunabula editions (Cologne, Basel, Strasbourg, Nuremberg, Lyon, and Venice). While the 1414 sermon is close to the printed model sermon, the vernacular reportatio simplifies many passages and has a livelier style. This could have depended either on the different audiences Ferrer faced on the two occasions, or on the reportatores who took the notes. On Ferrer’s craftsmanship in structuring the sermons, see also Lluis Cabré and Xavier Renedo Puig, “‘Et postea aplicetur thema’. Format in the Preaching of St Vincent Ferrer OP,” AFP 66 (1996), 245-56 and Carlo Delcorno, “Vicent Ferrer e l’Osservanza fran­ cescana [2006],” in Delcorno, ‘Quasi quidam cantus’, pp. 263-90.

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over and over again, reshaping the sermon in a flexible way around the same struc­ture. In this case, we encounter a model sermon that was actually used without great transformations. In all four recurrences, the thema of this sermon is: “Pater illius misericordia motus est” (Luke 15:20), which serves as a general reference to the parable. The sermon is invariably divided in three main sections: the first discusses “the criminal hostility of the sinner”; the second “the virtuous conversion of the penitent”; the last “the abundant forgiveness provided by the Creator”.179 In its introduction, the sermon reasserts the topos of the excellence of this parable, by stating that “in no other part of the Old or the New Testament is shown so clearly the sweetness of divine mercy towards sinners who return to God through penitence than in today’s Gospel reading, which will be the topic of our sermon”.180 In the 1414 version, Ferrer added that this was the reason why, although he had celebrated the mass dedicated to the Virgin (as it was usual on Saturday), he wished to preach on this parable – a passage that sounds like an excusatio non petita.181 While the model sermon leaves the task of exposing the story of the Gospel to the future preacher (it simply notes: “Dicatur hystoria sancti evangelii”), the 1414 reportatio provides an example of the way Ferrer summarized the parable at the beginning of his sermon. He popularized and dramatized the story in a form that was accessible to everybody in the audience, and that would eventually become widespread in fifteenth-century preaching and religious dramas. For example, the account emphasizes the father’s love and wealth, something that can only be indirectly deduced from the Gospel.182 Furthermore, the son’s request seems credible, since he says that his aim is to be independent and to make his fortune (“Pater, vellem per me vivere, et lucrari aliquid …”). Ferrer adapted the story, adding details and expanding some of its elements. He stated that the son found a number of companions in the new country who encouraged him to squander his money on vanities until he had become penniless, 179

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“Primum est de adversione peccatoris criminosa. Secundum est de conversione penitentis virtuosa. Tertium est de remissione creatoris copiosa. De tertio punctamento dicit thema”; Ferrer, Sermones de tempore, fol. y6r. “In nulla sacra scriptura veteris nec novi testamenti ostenditur ita clare dulcedo divine misericordie erga peccatores qui revertuntur ad deum per penitentiam sicut in evangelio hodierno, de quo erit sermo noster”; Ferrer, Sermones de tempore, fol. y6r. “Sermo ergo iste erit Euuangelii ferie huiusmodi, licet dixerim meam Missam de Sancta Maria, maxime quia in nullo alio sicut in isto declaratur ita clare misericordia”; Ferrer, Sermones 1414, p. 207. “Erat quidam dives habens duos filios, quos multum diligebat”; Ibid., p. 207.

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nudus et crudus.183 This retelling of the parable highlights and humanizes the character of the father, who is not aware of the fact that his son is in trouble, and frets because he does not know the actual fate of his son. When the son returns and confesses his sin, the father replies: “I don’t care about the money you lost, instead I rejoice over your return”.184 Even more interesting is the sermon that survives as a vernacular reportatio. This time, the initial driving force of the story is not the son, who wants to leave the father’s house and seek fortune abroad. On the contrary, it is the father who exhorts him to depart: Once there was a great lord and he called his son and told him: “My dear son, you are grown up and here you have money. Go and make profit!”. And the son took the money and went away, to a distant country …185 This change allows the parable to resemble the story of a merchant family of the time, in which the father called upon his son to embark on his own business ventures or to strengthen the patrimony of the firm. Failing in this mission, the son transforms a business journey into a ruinous adventure of debauchery. This arrangement probably tailored the parable to suit the social context of the merchant cities of the Crown of Aragon, where Ferrer preached this sermon. Moreover, in this version the story mentions only one son and, indeed, the elder brother has virtually no influence in any of the versions of this sermon. Similarly to many other preachers, Ferrer used the story to analyse the condition of the sinner and to outline the necessary penitential itinerary. The first part of the sermon focuses on free will, which is the substantia that God gave to humankind. Even if a person becomes a slave of the devil through mortal sin, free will is not taken away, so one remains responsible for his or her own choices.186 Mortal sin immediately annuls all merits one has previously 183

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“Tunc iste filius […] ivit ad regionem longincam, in qua regione ipse invenit aliquos socios, qui eum fecerunt omnia bona sua expendere in vanitatibus, et in malis usibus, taliter quod omnia amisit, et remansit nudus et crudus”; Ibid., p. 207. “Iste moribatur fame […]. Et de hoc pater eius nichil sciebat de filio isto, et dolebat de eo ignorans quid esset de eo. […] Et iste dixit: Non sum dignus etc. Pater dixit: ‘Non curo de bonis perditis, sed gaudeo de adventu tuo’, et fecit sibi magnum festum et convivium”; Ibid., p. 207. “Una vegada ere hum gran senyor, e appellà son fill dient-li: ‘Mon fill, tu és ja gran, e axí avet ací moneda. Vés a guanyar!’ E aquell pren la moneda e anà-sse’n lluny, en lluny terras …”; Ferrer, Sermons, V, p. 197. “Pater dedit filio substantiam. Sic Christus pater omnibus hominibus dat liberum arbitrium faciendi bonum et malum. […] Sic scire dei non cogit aliquem ad faciendum bonum

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accumulated, since merits are grounded in the grace of God and without it they disappear.187 The sermon returns to this point when it comments on the new clothes given by the father to his son. This gift symbolizes the return (restitutio) of the merits accumulated before the occurrence of mortal sin, which were somehow ‘frozen’ in the treasure house of God. By contrast, good deeds done in the condition of deathly sin cannot provide merits, not even after conversion.188 In this way, the sermon distinguishes between merits that are viva, mortificata or mortua and explains to the listeners the mechanism of a correct accounting for the eternal judgment. The second section depicts the five steps of penitence: acknowledgment (cognitio), contrition (contritio), willingness to avoid sins in future (boni propositi assumptio), confession (confessio), and acceptance of the penitence given by the priest (penitentie iniunctio et acceptatio). The awakening of conscience is exemplified with reference to different social conditions: When a religious comes to himself he says: “Alas, despicable me, I am in religious life since many years and I did not observe the rule”. […]. In the same way, a cleric who comes to himself says: “Alas, despicable me, since so many years I am a priest and I have lived as a layman”. And a layman says: “Alas, despicable me, I am a Christian only by name”.189

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vel malum. Immo quemlibet dimittit in libertate arbitrii. […] Si dicatur: ‘Si servus est dyaboli, ergo perdit liberum arbitrium etc.’ Responsio quod non perdet ipsum […]. Isto modo peccator dicitur servus dyaboli non necessitate absoluta sed voluntaria”; Ferrer, Sermones, fol. y6rv. “Ex isto textu habetur quod quilibet qui peccat mortaliter perdit omnia bona et merita que congregavit. Unde, si quis haberet omnia merita prophetarum, apostolorum etc, et si peccaret mortaliter, statim perdet omnia illa et nihil remaneret sibi. […] Ratio quia omnia merita in gratia dei fundantur, qua perdita omnia merita perduntur, quia destructo fundamento cadit totum edificium”; Ibid., fols. y6v-y7r. “Tertio dicit: Date anulum in manibus eius. Ecce hic precedentium meritorum restitutio […]. Dicunt hic doctores theologie quod bona opera facta in gratia sunt viva. Sed quando homo peccat mortaliter, illa bona perduntur peccanti, et reservantur in thesaurum dei et dicuntur mortificata. Sed quando peccator reddit ad gratiam sibi restituuntur, sed opera bona de genere facta in statu peccati mortalis mortua sunt et illa non restituuntur, quia nunquam fuerunt meritoria”; Ibid., fol. y8r. “Quando religiosus ad se conversus dicit: ‘O miser, tot anni sunt quod sum in religione et non servavi regulam’. […] Idem de clerico ad se reverso dicente: ‘O miser, tot anni sunt quod sum sacerdos et vixi ut laycus’. Idem de layco dicente: ‘O miser, solo nomine sum christianus’”; Ibid., fol. y7r. The 1414 reportatio addresses the lay people by presenting respect for the commandments as a required standard for them; Ferrer, Sermones 1414, p. 211.

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Ferrer’s insistence on a sincere intention to change one’s life merits further attention. The sermon argues that contrition is essential; and yet it is not enough unless it is joined by this firm purpose. Therefore, a confessor should verify this point and refuse absolution when he does not find a firm will to avoid sins in future.190 The importance of the role of the confessor is reiterated with regard to satisfaction. The priest must assign the proper penitence to each sinner. The sermon complains that instead, many priests assign only the celebration of masses as standard penitence. Thus, they do not fulfil their task as doctors, because each sickness requires its own medicine. Finally, the third section emphasizes the love of God and points out that God’s forgiveness “is not for justice, but only for mercy”.191 However, it does not discuss the role of grace and lacks the subtle distinctions about grace other sermons present. This sermon focuses almost entirely on the human side of the penitential process, underlining what is required of the penitent and what is expected from the priest, without considering in detail the sphere of God’s action or the internal turmoil of the sinner. In his sermons on the prodigal son, the Dominican preacher was much more concerned to teach people exactly what to do, rather than to expound on the theology of grace. Perhaps, this pragmatism was also an element of his success. Before leaving Ferrer, the plurality of sources that we have on this sermon deserves a further methodological consideration. Scholars have sometimes separated model sermons from preached sermons as if they stand for two distant realities.192 In this case, however, the reportationes prove that the model sermon was quite close to what Ferrer repeatedly preached, year after year. Specific points could be simplified and probably adapted to suit the needs of the audience. Yet, the structure and the main points of the model sermon were actually presented to Ferrer’s audiences. This allows us to better understand the interrelations between model sermons and actual preaching.

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“Modicum enim valeret peccatorum contritio nisi homo recipiat firmum propositum non redire ad peccata. Ideo confessor debet petere confitentem: ‘Habes voluntatem et propositum abstinendi a peccatis?’ Si dicit non, non est absolvendus”; Ferrer, Sermones, fol. y7rv. “Ista est remissio culparum, quam Deus facit. […] Non ergo iusticia, sed misericordia”; Ferrer, Sermones 1414, p. 213. See Thomas F. Mertens, “The Sermons of Johannes Brugman, OFM (d. 1473): Preservation and Form,” in Andersson, ed., Constructing, pp. 253-74. For sermons written just to be read, Michel Zink uses the effective expression of a “predication dans un fauteuil”; Michel Zink, La prédication en langue romane avant 1300 (Paris, 1976), p. 135.

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Towards Fifteenth-Century Model Sermon Collections

The sermons of Ferrer provide us with an entry point into the rich legacy of fifteenth-century preaching. We now turn to the main fifteenth-century model sermon collections that include sermons on the prodigal son. Considering that the next chapters discuss closely specific examples of fifteenth-century preaching, in the remainder of this chapter I will focus my attention on only a few sermons. They are largely representative for their diffusion and allow us also to enlarge the scene by including other media of religious instruction, such as collections of exempla and illustrated books. Hence, I will first analyse a sermon of Conrad Grütsch. Alongside its striking dissemination, a discussion of this sermon opens up the possibility to investigate Grütsch’s remarkable use of the Gesta romanorum, one of the most famous medieval collections of exempla. Subsequently, I will scrutinize the anonymous Sermones thesauri novi, which became a bestseller in the Strasbourg region. Next, moving towards the end of the century and to France, I will consider three sermons on the prodigal son preached by Olivier Maillard, a popular Franciscan preacher. This will then lead us to an examination of the representation of the prodigal son in an influential type of book of hours printed in Paris around the same time as Maillard’s preaching, opening the way to investigating the presence and the function of this parable in other media. 11

An Encyclopaedic Model Sermon by Conrad Grütsch

Among the fifteenth-century model sermons on the prodigal son, the sermon by Conrad Grütsch deserves a special mention not only for its striking dissemination, but also for the overabundant richness of its text. Indeed, rather than ready-made sermons, the Franciscan preacher assembled an encyclopaedic text that amasses theological and juridical quaestiones, biblical references, lively examples, and allegorical images.193 Just to give an idea, in the incunab-

193

On Grütsch, see note 60. On his peculiar use of classical images and myths, see Nigel Palmer, “Bacchus und Venus,” in Literatur und Wandmalerei 2: Konventionalität und Konversation, eds. Eckart Conrad Lutz, Johanna Thali and René Wetzel (Tübingen, 2005), pp. 189-235 and Pietro Delcorno, “‘Christ and the soul are like Pyramus and Thisbe’: An Ovidian Story in Fifteenth-Century Sermons,” Medieval Sermon Studies 60 (2016), 37-61: 43-48.

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ula edition that I examined, the sermon on the prodigal son occupies eleven pages on two columns.194 The text opens by outlining parental duties and listing the cases in which a father can legitimately disinherit his son. The detailed list of seven cases not only serves to point out that the initial request of the prodigal son was somehow legitimate, but indeed presents a vade-mecum on matters of inheritance, touching on a variety of issues, including: filial violence against the father, sexual relations between a son and his mother or his father’s concubine, attempts of a son to prevent his father from making a testament (in order to have the complete inheritance for himself), and sons who do not care to set their father free from prison. Following such inheritance issues, the sermon presents three initial questions that revolve around the restoration of the sinner after penitence. The last issue – “whether the deeds that were alive through charity and mortified by sin will live again through penitence” – is discussed in detail.195 The text repeats what we have found in Ferrer’s sermon, and also explains the effects of the good deeds that a person does in the condition of mortal sin: the devils lose their grip on the soul of the sinner; the good deeds create a habit that can become a starting point for a change of life (as a truce can evolve into peace); the good deeds help restrain the sinner from committing other mortal sins; and they have positive effects in this life. Drawing on Bonaventure, Grütsch’s sermon emphasizes that a person – even in the condition of mortal sin – should not desist from doing good because God will find the way to remunerate that person with his grace.196 Only after this preamble, where the stress is on good deeds, does the text indicate that the sermon will highlight the mercy of God in welcoming the penitent, and does it provide the main division, which follows the story of the prodigal son: the dolorosa separatio adolescentis; the fructuosa reversio penitentis; the amorosa receptio indulgentis. In the first part, Grütsch reasserts that, far from God, the human being cannot find peace, as Augustine says: “my heart is restless until it comes to you, God”.197 194 195 196

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Johann [i.e. Conrad] Grütsch, Quadragesimale (Reutlingen: Michael Greyff, not after 1478), 16.P-17.S (Sabbato post Reminiscere). “Queritur tercio an opera per caritatem viva et mortificata ex peccato per penitentiam reviviscant”; Ibid., 16.R. “Dicit igitur Bonaventura in IV super magistrum [sententiarum], distinctione XV, articulo I, quod homo quantumcunque sit peccator non debet desinere bona facere, sicut elemosinas dare, frequentare ecclesias, orare, ieiunare et huiusmodi, quia quando sic aliquid facit ad dei gloria hoc non potest esse sine aliqua gratia gratis data …”; Ibid., 16.R. “Unde Augustinus: Inquietum est cor meum donec veniat ad te”; Ibid., 16.V. Ferrer’s sermon likewise referred to the Confessions, confirming the influential overlap between the

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By means of penitence, the sinner must return to the house of God the Father, which is the holy Church, where he will be safe from all his adversaries. He will find there a graceful father and a mother, who is the glorious and clement Virgin, because she welcomes those who seek refuge in the womb of her mercy, she protects them from all enemies, and she nourishes them with the milk of grace.198 Here, the text contains a long digression on the Virgin Mary who, as a mother, fosters the return of the sinner. The sermon praises the incomparable mercy of the Virgin and her irreplaceable role as intercessor, quoting from texts of Anselm and Bernard of Clairvaux. The reiteration of this point was a way to combine the sermon on the parable with the tradition of Marian preaching on Saturday. A preacher who intended to give a sermon on Mary would find sufficient material within this text. While Ferrer in 1414 felt the necessity to justify his choice of not focusing on the Virgin, Grütsch solved the problem by incorporating her clemency into the elements of the sermon. Thus, indirectly, the prodigal son acquires a mother, and later on, the sermon refers to him as ­someone who, by leaving his house, lost “his father, his mother, his brother”, identifying the mother with the Virgin.199 In the second part – “the fruitful return of the penitent to the state of grace” – sinners are invited to identify fully with the prodigal son: “the sinner is far away and separated from God and, in the same way of this prodigus, he must come to himself and ponder his extreme misery and the great mercy of God the Father; he must lament and not rest until he will come to the Father of mercy, God of full consolation”.200 The sermon reiterates the exhortation to imitate the prodigal son: “Like the prodigal son, in his heart the sinner should come back story of the prodigal son and Augustine’s self-narrative; Ferrer, Sermones, fol. y6v. “Debet ergo peccator redire ad domum dei patris, scilicet sanctam ecclesiam, in qua securatur ab omnibus adversariis, et hoc per penitentiam, et inveniet patrem graciosum, matrem scilicet virginem gloriosam clementem, que refugientes ad gremium sue misericordie suscipit et ab hostibus defendit et lacte gracie nutrit”; Grütsch, Quadragesimale, 16.X. 199 “Amittit deum scilicet patrem, Mariam matrem, fratrem angelum […]. Et ideo bene dicit egere, sicut patet in illo prodigo qui dimissis patre, matre, fratre et omnibus amicis ab­­ scessit in longinquam regionem …”; Ibid., 16.Z. 200 “Sequitur secunda pars in qua notatur fructuosa reversio penitentisa ad statum gracie, ibi: In se autem reversus etc. Moraliter peccator, longe a deo divisus et separatus, debet instar huius prodigi per conversionem in se reverti, pensare propriam miseriam et inopiam et dei patris maximam pietatem, dolere et non quiescere donec ad eum veniat, qui est pater misericordiam et deus totius consolationis”; Ibid., 17.B. 198

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to the benevolence of this pious father; in his mouth he should declare his wickedness; in his works he should focus on the humility of satisfaction”.201 Conversion must involve the whole person: inner being, words, and deeds. This threefold division could be easily connected with the traditional parts of penitence: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. And yet, presenting contrition, Grütsch’s sermon brings the benefits received from God to the forefront, rather than the sins. The positive memory of God’s mercy has to be the starting point for the conversion of the sinner. Yet, mercy cannot be separated from justice, since God will punish those who do not convert from their sins, even though this “goes against his merciful nature”.202 Next, the sermon provides the listeners with a formulary to start their confession, by saying to the confessor: “I am a shameful and miserable sinner, I confess that I sinned …”.203 Then, the sermon considers the relationship between contrition and confession. Why is outward confession necessary beside contrition? Are “contrition and confession of the heart” not sufficient? The sermon states that contrition joined with the intent to confess and provide satisfaction as soon as possible already purifies the sinner. Later on, if this person has the opportunity and does not confess and satisfy, the previous sin cannot return. However, in that event he or she commits a new mortal sin by breaking the commandments of the Church.204 But if contrition already deletes the sin, what is the effect of confession? To reply to this question, Grütsch argues that, since each sin is “against both God and the Church”, the ecclesiastical dimension of sin needs an ecclesiastical reconciliation “through confession, imposed satisfaction, and the priest’s absolution”.205 The sermon reminds the audience 201

“Ad hunc patrem pium et benignum debet peccator ad instar filii prodigi: in corde recurrere ad eius benignitatem; in ore proponere propriam iniquitatem; in opere intendere satisfactionis humilitatem”; Ibid., 17.C. 202 Ibid., 17.D. The text seems to draw on Iacopo da Varazze’s model sermon (see note 90). It repeats the same concepts and also the same quotation of Genesis 3, when it is said that God walked in the garden, which is interpreted as his reluctance to punish Adam and Eve. Similar ideas are present in the sermon of François de Meyronnes. 203 “Secundo, peccator debet proponere per confessionem oris propriam iniquitatem dicendo confessori: ‘Ego indignus et miser peccator peccavi in celum, quod confiteor deo omnipotenti in cuius conspectu malum feci etc.’”; Ibid., 17.E. 204 “Sed queritur an peccator per solam cordis confessionem et contritionem et non oris confessionem possit mundari a peccatis. […] Et si numquam sequitur oris confessio vel operis satisfatio, peccatum tamen iam dimissum in contritione non redit, peccat tamen mortaliter is qui potest confiteri iuxta preceptum ecclesie et opere satisfacere et hoc non facit”; Ibid., 17.E. 205 “Dum enim peccator peccat mortaliter, peccat contra deum et ecclesiam. […] peccat contra ecclesiam quam contemnit et scandalisat, et ligatur altero vinculo, quod solum per

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that sin is not a private matter between a person and God, rather it affects the community or – using the words of John Bossy – it has a visible and social dimension.206 Aural confession is also presented as necessary to establish correctly the measure of satisfaction: to solve this problem, God appointed the priest as arbiter and gave him the power to evaluate and impose penances (potentia arbitrandi et taxandi). The final part of the sermon – the amorosa receptio patris – opens with an exemplum taken from the Gesta romanorum, to which I shall return below. Apart from this exemplum, this section reveals its debt to previous model sermons, as the key words to describe the father’s reaction indicate: God goes to the penitent rapidly (velociter), embraces him sweetly (dulciter), and dresses him nobly (nobiliter).207 Here, the text discusses prevenient grace and its harmonization with human responsibility in the process of conversion. Grace is compared to the shining sun, which illuminates only those who open the doors; or with the indulgences that the pope offers to everybody but that are acquired only by those who go to Rome. In the latter case, if someone does not take advantage of the indulgence, the guilt is his own and surely not that of the pope.208 Despite Grütsch’s effort to combine the two aspects, an unsolved tension remains between the free gift of God and human initiative. As the examples of the sun or the indulgences elucidate, grace is presented as something that is already there for everybody without distinction, while the difference is made by human decision. Consistently, this section emphasizes the importance of the first step taken by the prodigal son: “The father would not have come to the prodigal son along the way if the son had not said before: I will rise confessionem et satisfactionem iniunctam et absolucionem presbiteri ydonei relaxatus”; Ibid., 17.F. 206 John Bossy, Christianity in the West 1400-1700 (Oxford, 1985), p. 45. See also his seminal article “The Social History of Confession in the Age of the Reformation,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 25 (1975), 21-38. On the social aspect of penance in later Middle Ages, see also Meens, Penance, pp. 215-16. 207 See Grütsch, Quadragesimale, 17.L. Written around the same time, the sermon on the prodigal son of Johannes Nider (d. 1438), the Dominican theologian and reformer famous for his Formicarius, also adopts the same key words (velociter, dulciter, honorabiliter, letanter) taken from Iacopo da Varazze. Nider’s sermon is a brief postillatio of the parable, based on a standard threefold division (sin, conversion, reception); Johannes Nider, Sermones de tempore et de sanctis cum quadragesimali (Esslingen: Conrad Fyner, c.1478), unpaginated (Sabbato post Reminiscere). 208 “Item papa dans indulgentiam ecclesiam vel Romam visitanti, que indulgentia non est in potestate mea, quia tamen actus scilicet ire ad ecclesiam vel Romam quam sequitur actus indulgentiarum est in potestate mea. Ideo, si indulgentias non habuero, merito mihi imputatur et non pape”; Grütsch, Quadragesimale, 17.N.

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and go to the father”.209 The discourse on prevenient grace ends up underlining – again, as at the beginning of the sermon – the necessity of human action and decision. Grütsch’s text effectively clarifies that it is not the penitent’s action that provokes and obtains grace. A penitent can dispose himself to receive God’s grace and yet, this remains a gift that is given “after this disposition but not because of this disposition”.210 Once the gratuity of grace as a gift that cannot be forced has been acknowledged, the discourse focuses on the necessary human disposition. After this theological discussion, the sermon suddenly turns to the spiritual theme of the relationship between God and the soul. The kiss of the father is connected with the kisses mentioned in the Song of Songs, and this opens the way for a first-person discourse of the beloved soul. I copy the passage in its entirety, as it provides an elegant example of how a spiritual theme − derived from the allegorical readings of the Song of Songs − could be disseminated through model sermons. The embrace and the kisses are signs of peace and love. […] The soul, bride of Christ, habitually longs for this greatly blessed and mostly beloved kiss; she longs with great desire and frequent sighs and repeats with the Song of Songs: Let him kiss me with kisses of his mouth (1:1), so that she could rejoice and be delighted. As if the soul would say: “My mostly beloved bridegroom Jesus, for whose love I am languishing, may he give me that grace and mercy that I am longing for with the whole depths of my heart, and may he comfort me with the sweetness of his piety and of his divine benediction, so that I can return to life”.211

209 “Non enim pater prodigo venisset obviam penitenti, si non prius dixisset: Surgam et ibo ad patrem”; Ibid., 17.N. 210 “Nam quamvis esse in gratia non sit in potestate hominis recipientis, sed solum in pote­ state dei tribuentis, quia tantum homo potet in actum et in opus, scilicet in peccati detestacionem et contricionem, post quam non propter quam deus vult dare gratiam, ideo si ipsam non habebis merito condemnaris, ideo necesse est ut Christus veniat obviam penitenti”; Ibid., 17.N. 211 “Nam amplexus and oscula sunt signa pacis et amoris. […] Isto osculo superbenedicto et amantissimo magno desiderio et frequenti suspirio anima sponsa Christi appetere solet, et ut iocundetur et letetur dicere illud Cantico 1: Osculetur me osculo oris sui, quasi dicat: ‘Amantissimus sponsus meus Iesus, in cuius amore langueo, immittat mihi gratiam et misercordiam quam totis visceribus cordis desidero et confortet me dulcedine sue pietatis et divine benedictionis et reviviscam’”; Ibid., 17.O. Hugh of Saint-Cher’s Postilla might have been an antecedent for Grütsch (see above, p. 65).

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Playing on the contrast between the two brothers within the parable, the sermon then introduces a final question: “One could ask whether God loves more the sinner who does penitence than the righteous person who has always been so”.212 The answer is that, since fervour is the discriminating factor, a penitent can surpass a righteous person. Mary Magdalen and Saint Paul are mentioned as bright examples of fervent penitents. In addition, the sermon recalls the sentence of Revelation against he who is neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm and whom God threatens to vomit from his mouth (Revelation 3:15). In this perspective, the elder brother of the parable symbolizes those who are righteous but tepid. Still, although a penitent can surpass a tepid righteous person, it is not the rule. According to Grütsch, the evangelical sentence “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7) applies only to a few special cases, while the supreme joy of the heavenly court is reserved for those who did not need to convert, first of all the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist. In this way, Grütsch was able to dampen the radical position of the Gospel and to restore a clear meritocratic order, while allowing for the existence of exceptional saintly penitents, such as Mary Magdalen.213 Concluding the analysis of this sermon, I want to remark that Grütsch repeatedly invited his listeners to identify with the prodigal son, in particular through making his voice ‘present’ via the use of direct speech. However, while the text gives voice to the penitent at its beginning, at the end the voice becomes that of the soul who longs for the kisses of her beloved. The prodigal son whom the audience must look to as a model has, therefore, a dynamic identity. The religious proposal goes beyond the simple penitential itinerary to introduce the topic of the soul as sponsa Christi. We will encounter this spiritual theme in other fifteenth-century sermons, such as those of Bernardino da Siena, Giacomo della Marca and, in particular, Johann Meder. 12

“Alexander the Great Had a Son”: Reworking the Gesta romanorum

In the presentation of the sermon of Grütsch, I left out an exemplum taken from the Gesta romanorum. It represents a doubling of the parable of the prodigal son and functions as a pocketsized sermon within the sermon. This exemplum shows how a story that was clearly shaped on the prodigal son could be 212 213

“Sed queritur an deus plus diligit peccatorem penitentem quam iustum semper benefacientem”; Ibid., 17.R. The discourse resembles that elaborated by François de Meyronnes, see pp. 147-48.

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used within a sermon on the same parable. It is a circular movement or, rather, an open, progressive spiral that offers sophisticated possibilities for interpreting the parable. This also enables us to analyse how a fifteenth-century sermon adapted and exploited a text derived from a collection of exempla that dates from almost two centuries earlier. The Gesta romanorum was one of the most popular late medieval collections of exempla. It survives in hundreds of manuscripts, testifying to its circulation in both Latin and different vernacular versions. Its striking success persisted throughout the fifteenth century, as proven by the twenty incunabula editions in Latin and the four in Dutch and German.214 In this collection, each exemplum has a narrative and its interpretation, which offers a didactic equation of characters and events alongside their allegorical meaning. Such a bi­ partite structure is the trademark of a collection that develops a consistent theological and pastoral exposition, in which the doctrine of sin, penitence, and salvation holds a central place.215 The parable of the prodigal son is echoed in two stories of this collection. The first is titled De invidia malorum adversum bonos and, to some extent, merges together the parable and an example taken from Seneca the Elder.216 In the Gesta romanorum the story begins with the father who expels his younger son from his house, since he married a prostitute against his father’s will. However, later on, he not only welcomes back his repentant son but also the grandson that was born from the harlot. This arouses the anger of the elder brother who – as in the parable – harshly complains to his father, saying that he has become mad (“Tu es demens”). The father defends his choice and points out that the elder son never recognized his own faults and never asked to be reconciled with him, therefore, “since you showed me so much ingratitude, you will not receive my inheritance and I will give to your brother the part that according 214

215 216

The dating and the origin of the Gesta romanorum are still disputed. The most comprehensive study is Brigitte Weiske, Gesta romanorum, 2 vols (Tübingen, 1992). See also Philippa Bright, “Anglo-Latin Collections of the ‘Gesta Romanorum’ and Their Role in the Cure of Souls,” in What Nature Does Not Teach: Didactic Literature in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods, ed. Jaunita Feros Ruys (Turnhout, 2008), pp. 401-26. The printed editions are concentrated between Germany, Low Countries, and France, while no edition was printed in Italy. See Weiske, Gesta romanorum, 1, p. 98. One of Seneca’s Controversiae reads: “Abdicauit quidam filium; abdicatus se contulit ad meretricem; ex illa sustulit filium. Aeger ad patrem misit: cum uenisset commendauit ei filium suum et decessit. Pater post mortem illius adoptauit puerum; ab altero filio [pater] accusatur dementiae”; Seneca the Elder, Declamations, 2.4, ed. Michael Winterbottom, 2 vols (Cambridge, MA, 1974), 1, p. 296.

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to the law would have been yours”.217 In the allegorical interpretation, the two sons represent angelic and human nature. After the fall, humankind was expelled from paradise and confined to a valley of tears, but then, thanks to the Passion of Christ and the saints’ intercession, reconciled with God. The complaining elder son is the devil “who continuously attacks us, murmurs against our reconciliation, and alleges that we ought not to receive the eternal inheritance because of our sin”, and yet, those who have been reconciled with God will substitute the fallen angels in eternal glory.218 The parable is reshaped so that it can fit a less common allegorical interpretation. The younger son’s marriage to a prostitute, his initial expulsion, and the final exclusion of the elder son are the macroscopic changes of a version that, moreover, solves the open end of the parable. While the first exemplum exploits the contrast between the two brothers of the parable and enhances the reversal of their situation, the second story of the Gesta romanorum – that used by Grütsch – omits the character of the elder son, introduces the mother as a new character, and turns the contrast between the father and his son into a dramatic conflict. The title is De naturali malitia per mansuetudinem superanda, and the father of the story becomes no one less than Alexander the Great: Alexander reigned prudently and he married the daughter of the king of Syria and had by her a most beautiful son. The boy grew up and when he became a man, he continuously conspired against his father and sought his death by all means.219 Given the situation, Alexander asks his wife whether this is really his son or the offspring of another man. The wife assures the emperor about his son, adding that she cannot understand his hostility to his father. Therefore, Alexander 217

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“Tu sepius contra me fecisti, et nunquam reconciliatus es michi, quia culpam tuam humiliter recognoscere noluisti […]. Et quia ingratus es, hereditatem meam non obtinebis, et illam, quam de jure habere debuisses, frater tuus occupabit”; Gesta romanorum, ed. Hermann Oesterley (1872; Hildesheim, 1963), p. 281. Notwithstanding its limitations, this remains the standard edition for the Gesta romanorum. Oesterley refers to Seneca as source of this story. See now also Gesta Romanorum: A New Translation, tran. Christopher Stace (Manchester, 2016). “Sed alius frater, scilicet diabolus, qui semper est ingratus, semper nos impugnat et de nostra reconciliatione murmurat et allegat, quod propter peccatum hereditatem regni celestis non debeamus consequi”; Gesta romanorum, p. 282. “Alexander regnavit prudens valde, qui filiam regis Syrie in uxore accepit, que filium pulcherrimum ei peperit. Crevit puer, et cum ad etatem legitimam pervenisset, patri suo sempre insidias fecit et per omnia mortem ejus quesivit”; Ibid., p. 284.

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decides to address his son directly, with great mildness, trying to make him see reason (italics mine): My dear son, I am your father. You came to this world by means of me and you will be my heir. Why do you threaten me? I have nurtured you with great delight and all my possessions are yours. Cease from this iniquitous purpose and desist from your desire to kill me.220 The line “omnia mea tua sunt” is almost verbatim what the father says to the elder brother in the Gospel (as if the two brothers of the parable were merged into Alexander’s son). Yet, the father’s heartfelt reasoning does not move his rebel son from his animosity. On the contrary, he constantly seeks the best opportunity to kill his father. At this point, Alexander decides for an extreme gesture: Seeing that, the father went to a deserted place and took his son with him. Taking a sword in his hand, the father said to him: “Take this sword and kill me here, for it will be much less a scandal if you assassinate me in secret than if you do it in public”.221 This scene is the climactic moment of the story: the astonishing offer of Alexander, who reveals his utmost love, breaks the hostility of his son and suddenly overturns his feelings. Their subsequent dialogue and gestures are a continuous reference to those of the parable and, indeed, this part can be read as a parody – in the technical sense of the word – of the biblical story (italics mine). The son, listening to that, immediately cast aside the sword and he fell upon his knees before his father, weeping and asking for his mercy: “Oh, my good father! – he said – I have sinned against you because I behaved badly and iniquitously. I no longer deserve to be called your son! Yet, I ask for your forgiveness and for your love. I will be your beloved son and I will serve you in everything according to your wishes”. Hearing this, the father 220

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“O bone fili, ego sum pater tuus; per me mundum intrasti, et heres meus eris. Quare michi minaris? In deliciis nutrivit te et omnia mea tua sunt. Desine – inquit – ab ista iniquitate, et noli me occidere”; Ibid., p. 285. “Pater hoc videns in locum desertum perrexit et filium suum secum duxit portansque gladium in manu sua dicens filio suo: ‘Accipe gladium istum et interfice me hic, quia minus scandalum est tibi in occulto me occidere, quam in publico’”; Ibid., p. 285.

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embraced him and kissed him, and said: “Oh my beloved son, hereafter avoid sin, be faithful to me, and I will be a gracious father to you”. Then, he clothed him in precious dresses, and brought the son home with him, where he had a banquet with all the satraps of the empire.222 The story rapidly concludes with the father who dies in peace and the son who governs wisely. At the moment of the son’s death, he publicly acknowledges the moral lesson that he learned: “All things pass; only the love for God remains” (“Omnia transiunt preter amare deum”). Before considering the allegorical interpretation of this tale, we must look at the characteristics of the version presented by Grütsch. The main differences are that the Franciscan preacher omitted the dialogue between Alexander and his wife as well as the finale of the story, which comes to a close with the father’s kiss and the expression of his forgiveness. Grütsch entirely focused on the dialogue between Alexander and his son, ending with the moving scene of their reconciliation. Hence, he brought the story closer to the biblical parable.223 Grütsch also abridged the allegorical interpretation of the exemplum coherently. Considering the allegorical reading, in the following, first I discuss the version of Grütsch and then point out the differences with the Gesta romano-

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“Filius hec audiens statim gladium a se projecit et coram patre genua flexit cum fletu magno misericordiam ab eo petens, ait: ‘O bone pater, peccavi in te, quia male egi; iniquitatem feci. Jam non sum dignus vocari filius tuus. Peto, ut remittas michi et me diligas et ammodo ero filius tuus dilectus, et per omnia secundum tuam voluntatem ministrabo tibi’. Pater hec audiens cecidit super collum ejus et osculatus est eum et ait: ‘O fili dilectissime, ammodo non pecces, esto michi fidelis filius, et ero tibi graciosus pater’. Et hoc dicto induit eum vestimentis preciosis, et eum secum ad domum duxit et magnum convivium satrapis imperii fecit”; Ibid., p. 285. Here is the narrative in the sermon: “Sicut recitatur in gestis romanorum de quodam filio regis Alexandri, qui multum dilectus a patre semper tamen patri insidiabatur. De quo admirans imperator prudenter et mansuete paterno affectu ait filio dicens: ‘Bone filio, ego sum pater tuus, per me mundum intrasti et heres meus eris, cur mihi mortem minaris? In deliciis nutrivi te, et omnia mea tua sunt. Desine – inquit – ab illa iniquitate’. Filius vero eius dictus non acquiescens, de die in diem in malicia crescebat. Pater hoc videns in locum desertum filium direxit, dans filio gladium quo ipse erat procintus, dixit: ‘O fili mii, interfice me, quia minus scandalum est tibi me hic in occulto interficere quam coram populo’. Filius hoc audiens, statim gladium a se proiecit et coram patre flexis genibus cum fletu magno misericordiam ab eo peciit, dicens: ‘O pater, peccavi, iam non sum dignus vocari filius tuus’. Pater vero pietate motus osculatus est eum dicens: ‘Fili dulcissime, dimissa sunt tibi omnia, ammodo non pecces et esto mihi fidelis et ego ero tibi graciosus”; Grütsch, Quadragesimale, 17.L.

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rum. Among the characters, the emperor represents Christ and the son the bad Christian: When a bad Christian does not obey the divine commandments, he seeks the death of Christ. He brought him in the desert of this world, where Christ not only manifested his willingness to die, but indeed he actually died for our sins. In fact, Christ gives you a sword, which is the possibility to receive him or to reject and kill him. For those who commit sin – according to the Apostle – they crucify God again [cf. Hebrews 6:6]. Since you have the power to kill Christ with your sins, do as this son! Recognize the goods that you received from Christ and the bad you have fallen into through sin, and cast from you the sword, which is the will contrary to God, and say in the humility of your heart: “Father, I have sinned etc.”224 The direct address to the listeners is significant: “Christ gives you a sword”. Grütsch emphasized this call. The Gesta romanorum only explains that the sword is free will, which enables one either to love God or to refuse him.225 The sermon adds that each person in the audience, with his or her choice, can crucify and kill Christ again. Thus, the address to the audience is strongly reinforced and dramatized. At the same time, Grütsch’s text skips the second part of the moralisatio proposed by the Gesta romanorum. This choice is logical when one considers that the thirteenth-century text inserts there a long reference to the story of the prodigal son. In a dizzying and frenetic game of mirrors and cross-references, the moralisatio presents nothing less than the story of the prodigal son and its interpretation. Commenting on the episode of the sword, 224

225

“Imperator est dominus noster Iesus Christus. Filius malus christianus. Mater dei gene­ trix. Dum enim malus christianus divinis preceptis non obedit querit mortem Christi quantum in eo est. Istum secum duxit in desertum huius mundi, in quo non tantum obtulit se mori, immo mortuus est propter delicta nostra. Iam dat tibi gladium, id est potestatem eum tenere vel a te eijcere et occidere. Quia – secundum apostolum – qui peccata committunt, iterum deum crucifigunt. Cum ergo habeas potestatem Christum occidi per peccata, fac instar filii huius: cognosce bona que accepisti a Christo et mala que incidisti peccato et proiice abs te gladium, id est voluntatem deo contrariam, et dicas in humiltate cordis: ‘Pater peccavi et malum etc.’”; Grütsch, Quadragesimale, 17.L. Suddenly here the character of the mother reappears. Yet, while in the Gesta romanorum the mother stands for the Church, Grütsch identified her with the Virgin, unifying this passage with what he wrote about the Virgin as the mother of the prodigal son and of all Christians. “Sic deus dat tibi gladium hoc est liberum arbitrium quo poteris portare amorem ejus et gratiam, vel simpliciter eum a te expellere. Fac ergo tu, sicut fecit ille filius! Projice a te gladium …”; Gesta romanorum, pp. 285-86.

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the Gesta romanorum reads: “Cast from you the sword of wickedness and malice, as it was done by the one about whom the Gospel says: The son went away into a far country …”.226 It is not just a passing reference. The whole parable is recounted and interpreted by the Gesta romanorum: the hunger of the prodigal son and his service as a pig herder, his return to his parental home and the gestures of the father, the ring and the shoes, all the way up to the fatted calf that represents “Christ who was sacrificed for us on the altar of the cross”. As in Chinese boxes, the interpretation of a story of the Gesta romanorum includes another story and its interpretation. While the narrative of the Gesta romanorum already makes allusions to the parable, the biblical story is explicitly at the centre in its commentary and, in some way, it substitutes the narrative of the Gesta romanorum.227 Grütsch did not include this part, which would have duplicated his commentary to the parable. The sermon already commented upon the sinful life of the prodigal son and his conversion, and now, after the story of Alexander’s son, it turns again to the parable, commenting – as we have seen – on the father’s merciful reception. The exemplum serves to emphasize how sin is a direct act of hostility against God, and can be seen as a terrible attempt to kill God, as Grütsch’s own comment on the episode of the sword exemplifies. This dramatic contraposition was not in the biblical parable. Grütsch probably thought it reinforced the way in which his sermon asked his listeners to pass from the identity of the sinner, who was revealed here as a potential killer of God, to that of the beloved soul who longed for the kisses of Christ. 13

“A Son Must not Do This”: Obedience as Main Virtue

The anonymous Sermones quadragesimales thesauri novi have often been erroneously attributed to the Dominican Petrus de Palude (d. 1342). In absence of studies on these sermons, it is difficult to date them precisely, although there

226 “Projice a te gladium iniquitatis et malicie, sicut fecit ille de quo legitur in evangelio: Filius peregre profectus est in regionem longinquam”; Ibid., p. 286. 227 Only at its end does the moralisatio again refer to what was presented by the story, commenting upon the sentence that Alexander’s son writes on the banner: “Et tunc poteris per civitatem cordis tui ostendere vexillum boni militis Christi, scilibet ubi erit scriptum: Omnia pretereunt preter amare deum, id est omnia peccata mea mala per penitenciam sunt deleta, et jam dei timorem et graciam ejus mecum porto, per quam vitam eternam obtinebo, ad quam nos perducat etc.”; Ibid., pp. 286-87.

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are reasons to date them around the 1440s.228 What we know is the context in which these sermons had a paramount diffusion. The number of editions of the Lenten collection is significant (nine editions from 1485 to 1498), especially considering that seven editions were printed in Strasbourg.229 Although the copies printed there would have had a wide circulation, due to the international book market, what we find in this sermon collection surely represented what was widely accessible to clergymen in the Strasbourg area during the late fifteenth century.230 In the Thesauri novi, the most interesting part of the sermon on the prodigal son is its introduction, which insists on obedience as the chief virtue of the true sons of God. The thema is “Fili, tu semper mecum es et omnia mea tua sunt” (Luke 15:31) and immediately the stress is put on obedience as the key to deserve the divine heritage: Customarily a son who wants to receive the inheritance of the father must be obedient to the doctrine and precepts of his parents. In the spiritual way, we are sons of the eternal father. To avoid losing the inheritance of the heavenly father, we must obey his commandments.231 228

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This sermon collection forms a set of model sermons for the entire year, together with the Sermones de tempore thesauri novi and the Sermones de sanctis thesauri novi. The Sermones de sanctis include four sermons on the Virgin conception (sermons 11-14), which are followed by the 1439 decree of the Council of Basel on the cult of the Immaculate Conception; see Sermones thesauri novi de sanctis (Strasbourg: Printer of ‘Vitas Patrum’, 1484). No Dominican author would have included this in a sermon collection. Although it has been suggested to ascribe the sermons to Petrus de Colle (d. c.1450), a Franciscan friar from the Upper Germany province (Léonide Mees, “Petrus a Colle auteur des Sermones thesauri novi?,” AFH 79 (1986), 516-18), the absence of Franciscan saints in the de sanctis still leaves the question of the authorship open. It was printed also once in Nuremberg (1496) and once in Paris (1498). Then, it had four sixteenth-century editions, two again in Strasbourg (1508 and 1518) and two in Cologne (1537 and 1541). For that reason it is not surprising to find parallels between this collection and the sermons of Geiler von Kaysersberg, the famous Stadtprediger of Strasbourg between 1478 and 1510; see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, pp. 130-31. On Geiler and the socio-religious context of Strasbourg in that period, see Rita Voltmer, Wie der Wächter auf dem Turm. Ein Prediger und seine Stadt: Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg (1445-1510) und Straßburg (Trier, 2005). “Consuetudo est quod filius volens habere hereditatem paternam debet esse obediens doctrine et preceptis parentum. Spiritualiter: sic nos sumus filii patris eterni, ne ergo privemur hereditate paterna celesti debemus obedire eius mandata”; Sermones quadra­ gesimales thesauri novi (Strasbourg: Printer of ‘Vitas Patrum’, 1485), fol. i3v (sermon 34).

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The statement is supported by recalling the introit of that day, a verse of Psalm 18:8: “This is exactly what the mother Church teaches in the introit of the mass, which reads: The law of the Lord is irrepressible, it converts the soul; the word of the Lord is faithful, it gives wisdom to the simple”.232 The introit joins together the two key concepts of the sermon: the law of God and conversion. Moreover, this is not the only reference to the liturgy of the day, because the prothema elegantly connects the theme of obedience with the collect, the epistle, and the reading of the Gospel.233 Beside the liturgical texts, the preacher introduces a biblical quotation, saying that “if you want to be a wise son, you have to observe the law of the father and the doctrine of the mother, which is the holy Church. Proverbs reads: My son, listen to my words and incline your ear to my discourse etc. for they constitute life for those who find them”.234 By stressing the necessity of an obedient listening to sermones that give access to life, the preacher empowered his own role, as his words mediated divine and salvific wisdom for the audience. On the contrary, “the transgressor of his parents’ commandments will be disinherited, as was the case – the Gospel says – with the prodigal son”. The prodigal son is a transgressor, and yet, his return shows the way to convert from sin, “therefore, if we left God the Father for our sins, we shall return to him by means of penitence, so that we might be told: Fili tu semper mecum es etc.”.235 The introduction closes with re-announcing the thema, which is not applied to the elder son, as one would expect, but rather to the prodigal son or, better, to those who follow his example, convert from sin, and return to God. The penitential perspective dominates the sermon, which offers a postillatio of the parable, enriched by biblical and patristic quotations. The main division resembles that of many other sermons that we have seen: first, the sinner’s aversio; then, his conversio; finally, the father’s benevolent receptio. In a few passages, the text draws directly or indirectly on Iacopo da Varazze’s sermon.236 232 233 234

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“Et hoc docet mater ecclesia in introitu misse dicens: Lex domini irreprehensibilis convertens animas, testimonium domini fidele, sapientiam prestans parvulis”; Ibid., fol. i3v. I consulted the missal adopted during this period in Strasbourg; see Missale Argentinense (Basel: Michael Wenssler, c.1490), fols. 52v-54r. “Nam, si vis fore sapiens filius serva legem patris et doctrina matris, scilicet sancte ecclesie. Proverbi 4: Fili mi, ausculta sermones meos et ad eloquia mea inclina aurem tuam etc. vita enim sunt invenientibus ea [4:20-22]”; Sermones quadragesimales thesauri novi, fol. i3v. This sentence recurs also in the famous incipit of the Benedictine Rule. “Qui autem excesserit in mandata parentum privatur hereditate, et sic filius prodigus de quo in evangelio […]. Et tamen postquam reversus fuit ad patrem, benedictio restituebatur sibi; et sic si nos aversi sumus per peccata a deo patre, revertamur ad eum per penitentiam, tunc dicetur nobis: Fili tu semper mecum es etc.”; Ibid., fols. i3v-i4r. The sermon repeats the coordinates of the spiritual map based on the “ubi fuit, ubi erit, ubi est et ubi non est” and its consequences: dolere, timere, gemere, suspirare; see Ibid., fol.

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One section lists the typologies of unworthy sons. The list is comparable to that in Grütsch’s sermon and yet, it is transformed into a spiritual reading. For instance, the first negative category is that of the sons who ridicule their father, since “in the same way Ham mocked Noah and the arrogant people deride the poor, but – as Proverbs 14[:31] reads – those who deride the poor person insult his creator”.237 This leads to a first-person confession of the prodigal son, who specifies his own faults: This adolescent said: “I no longer deserve to be called [your son]. In fact, abandoning you I made you sad; a son must not do this […]. I lived outside any discipline and I squandered my money as a prodigal; a son must not do this […]. I became servant of another lord, namely the devil; a son must not do this […]. I was morally corrupted when I was a swineherd; a son must not do this”.238 Articulated by the refrain “quod non debet facere filius”, this amounts to a confession that does not remain generic (as in the biblical parable), but instead enumerates distinct sins. The sermon suggests a model of analytic confession that has to be done in front of the priest. In turn, the priest manifests and confirms the reconciliation between God and the penitent by means of absolution, and reconciles the sinner also with the Church (“ut reconcilentur non tamen deo patri sed etiam ecclesie matri”). The sermon reiterates the simultaneous necessity of contrition, confession, and absolution. Notwithstanding the necessary mediation of the priest’s absolution, the stress remains on the indispensable initiative of the sinner in his/her conversion: one has to return to the father “per opera iusticie”. Instead, the sermon does not emphasize God’s grace. It highlights the benevolence of God, avoiding all the subtle distinctions between the role of grace and human liberty. The preacher felt it more urgent to portray the image of the perfectly obedient son, who receives the inheritance

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i4v. Furthermore, it includes the topos of the distinction between servus, mercenarius, and filius, as well as the description of the father welcoming his son velociter, honorabiliter, letanter. “Nota multiplices sunt filii indigni. Primo qui patrem irrident. Sic cham derisit Noe, et sic superbi deridentes pauperes. Proverbi 14: Qui calunniatur egentem exprobrat factori suo etc.”; Ibid., fol. i5r. “Imo iste adolescens dixit: ‘Non sum dignus vocari etc. Quia a te recedens te contristavi, quod non debet filius facere […]. Item, quia substantie mee prodigus extra disciplinam vixi, quod non debet facere filius […]. Item quia alterius scilicet diaboli servum me feci, quod non debet facere filius […]. Item quia degener in moribus fui pascendo porcos, quod non debet facere filius’ ”; Ibid., fol. i5r.

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due to his commitment to accomplishing the father’s will, namely the commandments of God and the Church. The sermon confirms the consolidated use of this parable as a master-narrative to depict the penitential itinerary. This shows once again that the key points of this reading were shared among many model sermons. Still, within this framework, this sermon places its emphasis on obedience to the commandments as the main element to merit the eternal inheritance: a perfect son either remains or returns under the authority of both God the Father and the mother Church. 14

“You Have a Brothel almost in Every Place”

Moving to the late fifteenth century, the last preacher that I will consider in this chapter is Olivier Maillard (d. 1502). He was one of most vigorous promoters of the Franciscan Observant reforms in France. His zeal was sanctioned by his three mandates as Ultamontan Observant general vicar (1487-90; 1493-96; 14991502).239 Maillard’s numerous charges within the Franciscan Observance did not prevent him from having a preaching career in France, Germany, and Flanders. His fame was so great that people climbed onto the rooftops to listen to his sermons. In 1485, after a preaching rally in Orleans, apparently it took 64 days to repair the roofs.240 His impassioned oratory – which also caused harsh clashes with the French royal court – can be appreciated in his sermon collections that were repeatedly printed from 1497 onwards. Although with some peculiarities, his activity was representative of the growing social function of preachers within French society, as shown by Hervé Martin, who speaks of the “omniprésence des prédicateurs” in the second part of the fifteenth century.241 The prodigal son is at the centre of three sermons of Maillard. They stem from his Lenten preaching rallies at Nantes before 1470, at Paris in 1498, and at Bruges in 1501. With minor changes, these three sermons share a recognizable structure. This uniformity suggests that throughout his career, Maillard probably preached his sermon on the prodigal son in a very similar form, year after year, by adapting it to the situation at hand. In this way, the texts that later

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On his life, see Bernard Chevalier, “Olivier Maillard et la réforme des Cordeliers (14821502),” Revue d’histoire de l’Église de France 65/174 (1979), 25-39. On his works, see Roest, Franciscan Literature, pp. 93-95. 240 See Burke, Popular Culture, p. 109. 241 See Martin, Le métier de prédicateur, pp. 73-90.

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circulated widely as model sermons bear witness to the context in which they were first preached. A brief description of the Nantes sermon cycle provides some insight into Maillard’s presentation of the parable. The sentence “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25) serves as thema for all the sermons during Lent, as Maillard explains on the first day.242 Each sermon is divided in two parts: the first comments on the Gospel reading of the day; the second develops a catechesis on the Ten Commandments and the Cardinal Sins. This bipartition of the sermons recurs in the cycles of 1498 and 1501, and appears to be Maillard’s pattern for merging a liturgical and a topical sermon cycle. The Nantes sermon on the prodigal son opens by affirming the essential and binding role of grace. Even human free will can only operate within the influence of prevenient grace, since without grace a person cannot think and desire what is supernatural.243 Yet, nothing is more foolish and shameful (“insania autem infamia”) than to remain in sin without recognizing the actual possibility of change given by God. This consideration causes Maillard to pause on the Gospel of the day, whose dominant penitential reading is presented to the audience in a threefold division: the recessio of the son; his reversio; the father’s susceptio. This division is quite familiar to us now, and indeed should have also been familiar to the listeners at that time. Several times, Maillard used quotations or arguments that we have repeatedly encountered in the previous sermons, such as the “ubi fuit, ubi erit …”, or the reference to Genesis 3 to explain that God is slow to punish and fast to forgive. The steps given for conversion are the same as in several other sermons: culpe cognitio, peccati contritio, oris confessio, operis satisfactio. In regard to contrition, Maillard adopted strong images. He lambasted those who announce that they will rise from their sins, but then “prefer to remain seated in their own excrement” or those who, after their confession, quickly “return to their vomit”.244 Changing tone, when the sermon presents the confession of the sinner as something “requested by God” 242

See Olivier Maillard, Opus quadragesimale […] in civitate Nannetesii fuit per eundem publice declamatum (Paris: Jean Petit, 1506), fol. 2r (sermon 1). The printed sermon collection also offers a second cycle, the Quadragesimale Criminosi. It presents a new second part for each sermon, which addresses a sinner who has to repent and who is portrayed in the figure of Absalom. 243 Ibid., fol. 43r (sermon 23). 244 “Hic igitur nota de multis qui dicunt se a peccato velle surgere, qui tamen minime surgunt, sed potius in suis fecibus semper iacent, de quibus dicitur: Conputruerunt iumenta in stercore suo [Joel 1:17]. Isti sunt qui more canis post confessiones suas sperant et inten­ dunt ad vomitum redire [cf. Proverbs 26:11]”; Ibid., fol. 44r.

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(“ad deum requisito”), it offers a model of confession. This becomes a sort of prayer of the sinner, who is made to identify with the prodigal son: Alas, dear Jesus, I am that traitor who never has been faithful to you in his life! I am that cruel person who has wounded you with his wickedness so many times. O merciful redeemer of humankind, remember that for me you became flesh, died, and were buried. O most clement saviour of us, you pardoned Mary Magdalen and the thief. O Lord, you prayed for those who were crucifying you. Please, treat me as you treated them, since I am the cause of your crucifixion too! O Lord, it would have been much better if I had died immediately after my baptism and I had not offended you! I no longer deserve to be called your son! I am ready to correct entirely my life and, through the merits of your Passion, may you have mercy and be propitious to me, since I am a poor sinner.245 As in Grütsch’s sermon, this prayer highlights the connection between the faults of every sinner and the crucifixion of Christ. Here too, the sinner is invited to recognize himself or herself as one of the culprits for the death of Jesus. In this way, the sermon intensifies the pathos of the prodigal son’s prayer and connects him with other models of conversion, such as Mary Magdalen and the penitent thief. Maillard, however, had not authored this moving prayer. The sermon does not mention any sources and yet – as we will see in Chapter 3 – this prayer was written by another Franciscan Observant preacher, Michele Carcano (d. 1474). His sermon collection was among Maillard’s sources, thus confirming the wide circulation of this genre of text and the influence of Italian models abroad.246 245

“Heu me, bone Iesu, ego sum ille proditor qui numquam in vita mea fui tibi fidelis; sum ille crudelis qui meis malis totiens te vulneravi. O misericordissime humani generis redemptor recordare quod pro me incarnatus es et mortuus et sepultus. O clementissime reparator nostri, Magdalene et latroni pepercisti. O domine, pro tuis crucifixoribus orasti, fac michi sicut uni illorum, quia et ego causa tue crucificionis fui! O domine, utinam fuissem mortuus illico post baptismi susceptionem et te non offendissem! Iam non sum dignus vocari filius tuus. Dispono totaliter vitam meam corrigere et tu per passionis tue merita indulgeas ac esto michi propicius peccatori”; Ibid., fol. 44r. 246 “Tercio necesse est habere oris confessionem, quam habuit iste cum dixit: ‘Pater peccavi in celum et coram te etc’. Unde debet dicere peccator: ‘Heu me, bone Ihesu, ego sum ille proditor qui numquam in vita mea fui tibi fidelis. Sum ille crudelis qui meis malis te totiens vulneravi. […] et tu per merita tue sancte passionis indulgeas mihi misero peccatori”; Michele Carcano, Sermonarium de peccatis per adventum et per duas quadragesimas (Ven­ ice: Franz Renner de Heilbronn and Nicolas de Frankfordia, 1476), fols. G6v-g7r (sermon

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Maillard’s 1501 sermon, preached at the Burgundian court in Bruges, presents only a bare scheme on the prodigal son, which essentially reproduces the main lines of the first part of the sermon of Nantes.247 More interesting is the 1498 sermon, which Maillard preached in Paris in the church of Saint-Jean-enGrève. During this whole Lenten cycle, he adopted the thema “Ascende ad me in montem, et esto ibi” (Exodus 24:12), which is presented as an invitation to climb Calvary, the place where one can obtain charity, the most necessary medicine that one can buy (“emere”) from Christ, the only true apothecary, at the pharmacy of the cross.248 For the day of the prodigal son, Maillard used the same scheme that he had adopted in Nantes. Yet, the 1498 sermon shows stronger traces of its original oral form, such as the frequent recourse to rhetorical questions, or the continuous presence of emphatic expressions.249 Moreover, the sermon is dotted with precise references to the Parisian urban context. In fact, it moves repeatedly from the story of the prodigal son to the debauched aspects – at least in the preacher’s eyes – of contemporary Paris. After exposing the sinful life of the prodigal son, Maillard addressed his listeners, criticizing their laxity in the education of their sons and daughters: Tell me, sirs, in your conscience, what this means for us. Do you not have such sons in this city? You are providing them with the rope with which they will hang themselves! You transform your daughters into your idols, 21). This sermon collection was also printed in 1479 in Basel. Maillard could have had access to an earlier manuscript copy, and yet this passage may also suggest that the sermons, which originated from Maillard’s preaching in Nantes, were reworked (by him or by others) at a later stage, when it would have been easy to introduce a passage taken from a printed copy of Carcano’s sermons. 247 Olivier Maillard, Novum diversorum sermonum opus (Paris: Jean Petit, 1513), fols. 69v-70v (sermon 23). 248 “Apotheca igitur charitatis est crux Christi super montem Calvarie sita. Apothecarius est ipse Christus. Si ergo volumus habere unam drogam charitatis, oportet ire ad apothecam, et ibi emere, aliter nemo posset eam habere”; Olivier Maillard, Quadragesimale opus declamatum parisiorum urbe ecclesia sancti Johannis in gravia […] (Paris: Jean Petit, 1515), fol. 4v (sermon 2). At the end of the first sermon, Maillard had exhorted his audience by saying: “Veniatis post prandium et portetis bursas vestras et ostendam vobis ubi emetis charitatem et per quadragesimam totam”; fol. 4v. 249 See Marie Bouhaïk-Gironès and Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu, eds., Prédication et performance du XIIe au XVIe siècle (Paris, 2013). Still, these elements could be introduced also in written sermons, as literary artifices of the genre; see Thomas F. Mertens, “Relict or Strategy: The Middle Dutch Sermon as a Literary Phenomenon,” in Speculum Sermonis. Interdisciplinary Reflections on the Medieval Sermon, eds. Georgina Donavin, Cary J. Nederman and Richard J. Utz (Turnhout, 2004), pp. 293-314.

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giving them clothes and makeup! You think to turn them into good and virtuous ladies, while you transform them into harlots! Is it not true that you are giving your sons money and freedom so that they can hang out at brothels, baths, and taverns?250 Maillard attacked the dissolute life of the city, rebuking his audience in particular for the presence of prostitutes and (informal) brothels within Paris and recalling that, in earlier times, Saint Louis had forbidden them inside the city walls. O damned sinners, who are written in the book of the devil! O procuresses and prostitutes, and you, burgesses, who rent them houses as brothels, where they can practice their obscenity and where their pimps can go! For sure, in front of God I say that I am greatly surprised that the earth doesn’t immediately open and swallow you, as it did with Dathan and Abiron. Do you have no other means of income, sirs? You want to live off the backsides (de posterioribus) of prostitutes! Saint Louis, in his time, built for them a place outside the city, while now the entire city is full of prostitutes everywhere! I appeal to you, magistrates!251 In the second part of the sermon, this topic is taken up again, reproaching the listeners for their laxity and in particular magistrates who do not enforce the laws.

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“Dicatis domini mei in coscientia quid istud representat nobis: habetis ne tales filios in ista civitate? Datis eis cordam qua suspendentur! Habetis filias de quibus facitis ydola vestra, vestiendo and poliendo. Credetis eas bonas et probas facere et facitis eas meretrices. Nunquid vos domini datis argentum et libertatem filiis vestris ut vadant ad lupanar et ad stuphas et tabernas?”; Maillard, Quadragesimale, fol. 66v (sermon 28). “O peccatores damnati, qui estis scripti in liber diaboli! O macquerelle et meretrices, et vos burgenses, qui locatis domos ad tenendum lupanaria, ad exercendum suas immundicias et ut lenones vadant! Certe et in conspectu domini testor et miror ad modum quod terra non aperitur ad absorbendum vos sicut Dathan et Abyron [cf. Numbers 16:31]! Non habetis unde vivatis, domini mei? Vultis vivere de posterioribus meretricum! Ludovicus santissimus, tempore suo, construxit eis domum extra civitatem, nunc autem tota civitas est ubique repleta! Ego appello de vobis, domini iusticiarii!”; Maillard, Quadragesimale, fols. 66v-67r. It refers to the 1256 order of Louis IX, which mitigated his previous 1254 ordinance. On these ordinances and on prostitution in late medieval Paris, see Bronisław Geremek, The Margins of Society in Late Medieval Paris (1971; Cambridge, 1987), pp. 87-94 and 211-41.

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Perhaps you would say: “It is very difficult, father, to observe the commandments”. Surely, it is not difficult for those who want it! You, sirs, who must apply the temporal and ecclesiastical laws and who govern the city, I have nothing else than my voice! I appeal to you, until you remove licentious women and prostitutes from hidden places! You have a brothel almost in every place of the city! Alas, alas! I die, since you good men are not crying against this injustice! And you, married men, you know very well what kind of life you live! What kind of example do you give to your daughters? No one [of you] protests, since everybody certainly understands [what I am saying]! In the same way, those who rent out houses to them, they cannot do this without damnation!252 In this sermon, the urban context in which the preacher was speaking jumps to the forefront not only with generic appeals, but with tackling specific issues, such as renting out houses to prostitutes and with explicitly referring to the actual political authorities and the laws of Paris. The traditional discourse on the conversion of the individual is interwoven with a political discourse that asks for the conversion of the entire city. This could not be achieved with the voice of the preacher alone. This reform project also required the intervention of the political authorities – one of the pivotal elements of the moral reform promoted by the Observant movement in its pastoral mission.253 According to Maillard’s sermon, there was an entire ‘prodigal city’ (Paris) that had to be converted and moralized by both the preacher’s voice and the magistrates’ initiatives. The civic dimension of this sermon is explicit. Preaching was a public event within the city. It interacted with urban politics and was intended to influence magistrates in the application or reformation of laws. The interaction or tension between preachers and political authorities increasingly characterized 252

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“Sed dicetis forte: ‘Hoc est difficile, pater, servare precepta divina’! Certe volenti nihil difficile est. Domini qui debetis exercere iusticiam temporalem et ecclesiasticam et habetis regimen istius civitatis, ego non habeo nisi linguam! Ego facio appellationem nisi deposueritis ribaldas et meretrices a locis secretis! Habetis lupanar ferme in omnibus locis civitatis. Heu, heu, ego morior, quod vos boni viri non clamatis contra iniusticiam! Et vos maritati bene scitis quam vitam ducitis! Quale exemplum datis filiabus vostris? Nullus murmurat, quia omnes capiunt profectum! Similiter, illi qui locant eis domos, quid non possunt facere sine sua damnatione!”; Maillard, Quadragesimale, fol. 67v. On renting out houses to prostitutes in Paris, see Geremek, The Margins, pp. 218-19. For contemporary sermons on prostitution, see Taylor, Soldiers of Christ, pp. 169-71 and Voltmer, Wie die Wätcher, pp. 666-715. See James D. Mixson, “Observant Reform’s Conceptual Frameworks between Principle and Practice,” in Mixson and Roest, eds., A Companion to Observant Reform, pp. 60-84.

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fifteenth-century preaching and, in some ways, paved the road for the central role of preachers within the cities during the Reformation.254 It is noteworthy that this aspect also emerges in a sermon on the prodigal son, in which the main focus is the penitential itinerary of the individual. From Maillard’s perspective, the personal conversion needed to be fostered and supported by an all-encompassing socio-religious and even political reform. In this, Maillard’s preaching can be compared with that of Girolamo Savonarola (d. 1498) and Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg (d. 1510). Maillard found an important antecedent and model in the program of social reform proposed by the sermons of Bernardino da Siena (d. 1444), and the quotation of a passage taken from Michele Carcano – a prominent disciple of Bernardino – confirms Maillard’s connection with this Italian model of preaching. Still, before focusing on fifteenth-century Italy in the following chapter, we must consider the Parisian books of hours as another medium of religious instruction that appropriated, visualized, and conveyed the story of the prodigal son in the same context in which Maillard operated. 15

On the Border of a Book of Hours

In late fifteenth-century Paris, contemporary to Maillard’s preaching, the prodigal son was presented through words and images in several editions of one of the greatest bestsellers of the time: the book of hours or Horae Beatae Virginis Mariae. Virginia Reinburg, who has studied the social history of this product in France, points out that printing gave a new wave of popularity to the books of hours in the 1490s. Books of hours became increasingly accessible to a broader readership, which included merchants and artisans, men and women. They often became book owners for the first time by acquiring a book of hours, which could serve also as literacy primer in the household. With its multiple formats and functions, the Horae represented the standard lay prayer book and became one of the most popular books of that age.255

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See for instance, Berndt Hamm, “Between Severity and Mercy: Three Models of Pre-Reformation Urban Preaching: Savonarola, Staupitz, Geiler,” in Hamm, The Reformation of Faith, pp. 50-87. See Virginia Reinburg, French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c.1400-1600 (Cambridge, 2012), in part. pp. 15-52. See also Sandra Hindman and James Marrow, eds., Books of Hours Reconsidered (London, 2013).

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Among the dozens of imprints of the Horae issued in those years in Paris, a series of illustrated editions, published from 1498 onwards as a collaborative effort of the bookseller Simon Vostre and the printer Pierre Pigouchet, includes a set of eight metalcuts on the prodigal son. These illustrations (measuring 35x21 mm) follow a design provided by the so-called Master of the Apocalypse Rose, one of the most talented Parisian artists of the time.256 In some editions, these images are accompanied by vernacular verses, which provide a further level of interpretation. While in other sections of the book of hours the verses serving as captions for the images are derived from preexisting com­po­ sitions, the forty verses on the prodigal son do not appear in previous texts, which ­suggests they may have been written specifically for the Vostre-Pigouchet edition.257 The visualization of the parable is in a strategic position within the book of hours, since its images function as an illustrated border within the section on the seven penitential psalms (fig. 14). This section was one of the parts of the book of hours that was most commonly used by readers.258 While the psalms were in Latin, the images provided complementary access to this section, addressing also less confident readers, for whom the Latin prayers represented a means to enter into communion with God and the community of faithful, as “a ritual act” in which “understanding mattered less than fidelity”.259 For these people, the presence of images represented the entry point to another level of book use, in which comprehension played a more important role and images served as focal point for personal meditation. The introduction of border ­images, sometimes accompanied by vernacular texts, was one of the great inno­vations of the early printed books of hours published in Paris, and contributed to their enormous popularity. Printers exploited the margins of the page for very practical reasons, namely to attract readers and to distinguish their 256 See Ina Nettekoven, Der Meister des Apokalypsenrose der Sainte Chapelle und die Pariser Buchkunst um 1500 (Turnhout, 2004), pp. 87-101. On the Parisian context, see Caroline Zöhl,  Jean Pichore: Buchmaler, Graphiker und Verleger in Paris um 1500 (Turnhout, 2004), in part. pp. 132-37 and pp. 152-54 (plates 122-30 and 234). 257 See Mary Beth Winn, “(Re)-sonner les Matines: Martial d’Auvergne’s Text in Books of Hour,” in Book and Text in France, 1400-1600: Poetry on the Page, ed. Adrian Armstrong (Aldershot, 2007), pp. 73-94. 258 On the verses of other sections, see below note 263 and Reinburg, French Books of Hours, pp. 16-17 and Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 14001580, 2nd ed. (New Haven, 2005), pp. 207-98. On the structure of the book of hours, see Roger S. Wieck, ed., Time Sanctified. The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life (Baltimore, 1988). 259 Reinburg, French Books of Hours, p. 92.

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books from rival editions. However, these sets of images and texts also provided a comment on the central Latin text and “offered another program of readings, a complementary discourse, separate from, but parallel to, the Hours themselves”.260 The section on the penitential psalms opens – at least in the two Vostre and Pigouchet’s editions that I have consulted – with two large metalcuts (123x80 mm) illustrating the sin of King David: on one side, we see David gazing at Bathsheba, who is bathing in a fountain, nude and assisted by four maidens; on the other side Uriah’s death is depicted, after David has ordered to leave him exposed to his enemies during battle.261 In a 1498 edition, Bathsheba’s bath is immediately connected with the story of Susanna: beside the image of Bathsheba, four smaller cuts (35x21 mm) display the beginning of Susanna’s story, showing her bath interrupted by the assault of the two lustful elders.262 The visual connection of the two stories is perfect: both depict a naked woman taking a bath in a fountain, while someone spies on her. Yet, the development was radically different. While Bathsheba accepted David’s proposal, Susanna bravely did not yield to the elders, although this posed a mortal risk for her. Furthermore, while after his sin David repented and experienced God’s mercy, the treachery of the two impenitent elders was unmasked by Daniel and they were sentenced to death. In a 1500 edition, each metalcut is accompanied by five vernacular verses that recount the story of Susanna and its morality.263 260 Winn, “(Re)-sonner les Matines,” p. 81. See also Mary Beth Winn, “Illustrations in Parisian Books of Hours: Borders and Repertoires,” in Incunabula and their Readers. Printing, Selling and Using Books in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Kristian Jensen (London, 2003), pp. 31-52 and Mary Beth Winn, “Printing and Reading the Book of Hours: Lessons from the Borders,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 81 (1999), 177-204. 261 See Horae ad usum Romanum (Paris: Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 22.08.1498), fols. e2v-e3r (I consulted the digital edition of the copy held by the Bibliothèque SainteGeneviève of Paris, OEXV 281) and Horae ad usum Cenomanensem (Paris: Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 25.04.1500), fols. i6v-i7r (I consulted the digital edition of the copy held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek of Munich, Ink H-345). The first image dates to 1496 and the second to 1498, see Nettekoven, Der Meister der Apokalypsenrose, pp. 120 and 245. 262 See Horae ad usum Romanum, fols. e3r-e4r. Bathsheba’s story is divided in twelve images, which are attributed to the Master of the Apocalypse Rose; see Nettekoven, Der Meister der Apokalypsenrose, pp. 124 and 275. See also Roger S. Wieck, “The Susanna Hours,” in Tributes in Honor of James H. Marrow: Studies in Painting and Manuscript Illumination of the Late Middle Ages and Northern Renaissance, eds. Jeffrey Hamburger and Anne Korteweg (London, 2006), pp. 577-84. 263 See Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fols. i7v-h2r. For this text and its possible connection with a mystery play, see Amos Parducci, “Le ‘Mystère de Suzanne’ et la décoration de quelques livres d’heures imprimés,” Romania 43 (1914), 226-37.

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After Susanna’s story, the section on the penitential psalms displays the parable of the prodigal son on its borders. Also in this case, the 1498 edition has only the metalcuts, while the 1500 edition presents the story in words and images (fig. 14-17).264 A closer look at this set of images and its text opens the way to consider how different media conveyed this biblical story to different but partially overlapping audiences. It is quite possible that this visual version of the parable was experienced by the same people that listened to Maillard’s preaching during those years, or at least by its more affluent and more educated part, among whom could be found the customers of Simon Vostre’s highquality Horae. In the same historical context, the presentation of this parable was further enhanced by another medium. The forty verses on the prodigal son that served as captions in the 1500 edition of the Horae reappeared later on within a French religious drama on this parable, L’Enfant prodigue par personnaiges, the first Parisian edition of which dates back to the 1510s.265 In this play, these verses were inserted as the voice of the Actor (Acteur), who intervened at different moments to summarize the moral meaning of the story.266 In the Horae, these verses served to comment upon the images and to make sure that the reader/viewer focused on the moral meaning of the parable. On stage the same verses conveyed an equal moral lesson to the audience. Some of the spectators of L’Enfant prodigue would recognize these verses as already familiar to them and, later on, reactivate the memory of the play while they were looking at and reading their book of hours. Therefore, the circular movement between sermons, images, and religious plays offered increasingly sophisticated possibilities for interpreting the story of the prodigal son.

264 See, respectively, Horae ad usum Romanum, fols. e4v-e5r and Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fols. h2v-h4r. In an edition for the English market, which dates from 1501, the set on the prodigal son precedes that on Susanna and the vernacular verses are substituted with Latin quotations from the parable; see Horae ad usum Sarum (Paris: Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 1501), fols. i7v-k5r. On the books of hours printed for the English market, see Eamon Duffy, Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers 1240-1570 (New Haven, 2006), pp. 121-46. 265 See L’Enfant prodigue: Moralità del sec. XVI, ed. Giuseppe Macrì (Lecce, 1982), p. 47. I will return to this play in Chapter 6, see below pp. 373-76.. 266 See L’Enfant prodigue, p. 37; Macrì notes that the interventions of Acteur – although following the same metric scheme – do not match the previous and following verses. This unrelatedness seems to confirm that the verses were not written for this play but, instead, taken from another text. As far as I know, scholars did not note the double function of these verses, which were used in both L’Enfant prodigue and in Simon Vostre’s Horae. On the function of this type of character in plays, see Philip Butterworth, ed., The Narrator, the Expositor, and the Prompter in European Medieval Theatre (Turnhout, 2007).

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We now look at the images and the captions that we find in the 1500 book of hours. The first scene shows the prodigal son who asks his father for his inheritance and receives it from two servants (fig. 14), while the text adds that the son “wanted to rule himself”.267 The second image presents a tavern where the prodigal son and three women are banqueting, served by a host (fig. 14). One of the women takes the prodigal son by his arm, and the viewer, who would have already recognized the story, can easily assume that these are prostitutes. The text makes this explicit, saying that the prodigal son “foolishly squandered all his money | with dishonest women and prostitutes”.268 The effects of this behaviour are depicted in the next scene (fig. 15). The prostitutes leave the tavern with the spoils of their cunning. In fact, two of them hold the clothes and the money bag of the prodigal son, who is depicted in his shirt with nothing else left in his hand. The text underlines the prostitutes’ derision of their client’s fate and declares that “from prostitution one does not exit well”.269 The following two metalcuts show the prodigal son first entering in the service of a master as a swineherd (fig. 15),270 and then eating acorns like the pigs (fig. 16), since – as the verses explain – “he ate what they ate | because he did not have other food”.271 In the next scene (fig. 16), the prodigal son is in ripped clothes kneeling before his father, who bends over him, while two servants hold new vestments and a third servant – in the background – slaughters the calf for the banquet. The verses underline the mercy of the father, who welcomes the penitent son “without reproach”.272 Then, the banquet is represented, where the 267 “Ung homme deux enfans avoit, | auquel le ieune demanda | le bien qui luy apartenoit. | Regir a par soy se vouloit | et le pere luy acorda”; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fol. h2v. See also L’Enfant prodigue, vv. 1105-09. 268 “Quant il eut a son manyement, | or et argent a toutes mains, | il vesquit prodigallement. | Le sien despendit follement | avec ribaudes et putains”; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fol. h2v. See L’Enfant prodigue, vv. 1226-30. 269 “Folles femmes le despouillerent, | quant il eut despendu le sien; | tout desconforté le lesserent | puis le gaberent et moquerent. | De puterie onc ne vint bien”; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fol. h3r. See L’Enfant prodigue, vv. 1386-90. 270 “Ainsi en region loingtaine | apres plaisir eut de grans maulx | et fut contraint de prendre peine. | Loué fut, c’est chose certaine, | pour aller garder les porceaulx”; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fol. h3r. See L’Enfant prodigue, vv. 1505-09. 271 “De ce qu’ilz mengoient il mengoit, | car il n’avoit aultre pitance; | en ayant fain lui souvenoit | des servans que son pere avoit, | qui mengoient a leur suffisance”; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fol. h3v. See L’Enfant prodigue, vv. 1560-64. 272 “Il retourna devers son pere | disant: i’ay peché, i’ay forfait. | Aisi son pere, par mistere, | le receut et sans vitupere | luy pardonna tout son meffait”; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fol. h3v. See L’Enfant prodigue, vv. 1791-95, where the first verse reads: “Il retourna devant son pere”.

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father announces that “his son was dead and has come to life again” (fig. 17).273 Finally, the last scene shows the father talking to his elder son (fig. 17), while the texts moves to a positive end for the story, in which the father persuades his son to overcome hostility toward his brother.274 If an owner of such a book of hours had been among Maillard’s audience, he or she would have found a perfect correspondence between the preacher’s concerns against prostitution and what the prayer book proposed for his or her personal meditation by means of words and images. Moreover, the images in the Horae would have supported and reactivated the memory of what Maillard had preached, just as the words of the preacher would have been able to bring back the images of the book. Looking at the illustrated border of the seven penitential psalms, those who prayed with this book would easily have been able to recall the preacher’s invectives against Parisian prostitutes. The interplay would have been further enhanced for the spectators of a religious play such as L’Enfant prodigue. This type of intertextuality was not limited to the specific case of Maillard’s sermon, but also concerned the sermons of other preachers. As we have seen throughout this chapter, the penitential perspective dominated late medieval preaching on the prodigal son. Whatever the specific emphasis of their homiletic discourse, preachers constantly suggested that their congregations interpret the prodigal son as a model for their own penitential itinerary. Remembering this widespread teaching, those who used the Horae published by Simon Vostre for their prayers had a supplementary means to personally meditate on and appropriate the parable. Considering the frequency with which the seven penitential psalms were used, the owners and users of this book of prayer may have meditated often on the story of the prodigal son.275 In this way, the meditation on the prodigal son as an exemplary tale of sin and conversion and, indeed, as a model for personal penitence, entered houses or was taken to churches or confraternities, wherever the books of hours were used. The images of the prodigal son provided a focus for penitential prayer or a useful prompt for meditation, fostered by and intertwined with what preachers (and in some cases playwrights) were saying about this parable. The vernacular text – in the edi273

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“Le pere ioyeux du remort | de son filz fist tuer ung veau, | menestriers sonner d’acord, | en disant que son enfant mort | estoit suscité de nouveau”; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fol. h4r. See L’Enfant prodigue, vv. 1888-902. “Le filz aisné du labouraige | revint, qui la feste escouta. | Il en eut dueil en son couraige, | mais le pere par beau langaige | en la parfin le contempta”; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem, fol. h4r. See L’Enfant prodigue, vv. 2018-22. The penitential psalms were customarily read or sung at vigils for the dead, during Lent, and in other penitential prayer situations; see Reinburg, French Books of Hours, p. 17.

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tions that incorporated it – provided another layer of meaning. Its forty verses were easy to memorize, facilitating the internalization of the story and its message. Praying with these images and verses helped a person to consider closely the story of the prodigal son. The interplay between what was heard during preaching and the images and texts that fostered personal prayer at home contributed, in day-to-day practices, to the adoption of the prodigal son as the ultimate model of penitential life and as a central element in the construction of a religious self.276 276

The role of the prodigal son as penitential model is evident also in a widespread anonymous French booklet for the Christian education of women, which provides the reader with a different model of penitence for each day of the week. On Saturday, the reader is asked to imitate the prodigal son: “Et le lundy vous humilieres avecques la pouvre femme prinse en peché a qui nostre seigneur pardonna. Et pensez que vous […]. Le vendrey avecques le publicain. Le samedy avec et comme le filz prodigue”; Une petite instruction et maniere de vivre pour une femme seculiere […] (Troyes: Jean Le Coq, 1560), fol. B3r. The earliest dated edition was printed in 1505, and the booklet had at least 17 other editions in the sixteenth century. On this and comparable devotional texts, see Margriet Hoogvliet, “‘Car Dieu veult estre serui de tous estaz’: Encouraging and Instructing Laypeople in French from Late Middle Ages to the Early Sixteenth Century”, in Corbellini, Hoogvliet and Ramakers, eds., Discovering the Riches of the Word, pp. 111-40. I would like to thank Dr Margriet Hoogvliet, who drew this text to my attention.

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Italian Preaching on the Prodigal Son: From Bernardino da Siena to Savonarola The previous chapter analysed model sermons on the prodigal son that dominated the long period from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. The present chapter focuses on the sermons that were written and preached in fifteenthcentury Italy. The period considered begins with the preaching tours of Bernardino da Siena in the 1420s, and ends with the sermons delivered by Savonarola in the 1490s. The appropriation, elaboration, and pastoral presentation of the parable by Italian preachers should not be separated from the ­general context depicted in the previous chapter. After all, older sermon collections, such as those of Iacopo da Varazze, remained influential in fifteenthcentury Italy, and non-Italian preachers such as Vicent Ferrer were also active in the Italian Peninsula. Nevertheless, several reasons suggest the convenience to devote a separate chapter to fifteenth-century Italian preaching. First, this provides the opportunity to study contemporary Latin and vernacular reportationes in greater detail, which bring us closer to what was actually preached, enabling a comparison with the surviving model sermons. From this perspective, the fifteenth-century Italian panorama is exceptionally rich, as it provides us with reportationes of sermons of Bernardino da Siena, Roberto Caracciolo, Bernardino da Feltre and Girolamo Savonarola. Through an analysis of these reportationes, we have a chance to encounter the active contribution of laypeople in the reception and circulation of the ideas conveyed from the pulpit. Notaries such as Daniele da Porcìa and Lorenzo Violi represented the frontline of laypeople directly involved in writing down, copying, transmitting (and elaborating) the message of some of the most famous preachers of the time.1 Secondly, the focus on fifteenth-century Italy allows us to evaluate the dynamics of the so-called ‘school of Bernardino’, which had a large impact on the renewal of preaching during this period. The influence of Bernardino da Siena was far from limited to Italy; we have already seen that preachers such as Oliver Maillard found inspiration in his model of preaching. Still, the first and most important imitators of 1 This aspect will be further discussed in the next chapter. It should be noted that many women also had an influential role in the transmission of vernacular sermons in late medieval Italy; see Eliana Corbari, Vernacular Theology. Dominican Sermons and Audience in Late Medieval Italy (Berlin, 2013).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_005

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Bernardino are to be found among fifteenth-century Italian preachers. More­ over, as we have seen in the previous chapter, the Peninsula somehow remained impermeable to fifteenth-century sermon collections written and printed north of the Alps, while the works of the Italian preachers circulated widely in other parts of Europe, due also to the prestige of contemporary Italian culture. Finally, an attentive analysis of the sermons on the prodigal son preached in fifteenth-century Italy opens the way for studying other forms of circulation and appropriation of the parable that took place in the same cultural context. This will be at the centre of the next chapter, which focuses on Florentine religious theatre. 1

“Seek What Helps You to Leave Your Sins”

As we have seen in the previous chapter, in 1424 in Florence, Bernardino da Siena preached a sermon on the prodigal son on the Friday of the second week of Lent, deliberately overlooking the liturgical readings for that day.2 He announced this choice on the previous Sunday, when presented the weekly plan of his preaching to his audience. On that occasion, he said that the topic of the sermon on Friday would be “the wretched son”, and on Saturday the Annun­ ciation, since it was the 25th of March.3 Bernardino sacrificed the sermon on the parable of the vineyard, which was the liturgical reading for that Friday, since he preferred not to miss the opportunity to preach on the prodigal son. This sermon played a strategic role in Bernardino’s Lenten cycle. From his perspective, the parable perfectly summarized the core message of Lent, namely the urgent need for the sinner to convert.

2 On this sermon, see above pp. 106-07. On Bernardino’s life, still useful Raoul Manselli, “Bernardino da Siena,” in DBI 9 (1967), pp. 215-26. In the vast literature on Bernardino, see Franco Mormando, The Preacher’s Demons: Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy (Chicago, 1999); Cynthia Polecritti, Preaching Peace in Renaissance Italy: Bernardino of Siena and his Audience (Washington, DC, 2000); Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby, Renaissance Florence in the Rhetoric of Two Popular Preachers: Giovanni Dominici (1356-1419) and Bernardino da Siena (1380-1444) (Turnhout, 2001); Delcorno, ‘Quasi quidam cantus’, pp. 203377 and Il processo di canonizzazione di Bernardino da Siena, 1445–1450, ed. Letizia Pellegrini (Grottaferrata, 2009). 3 “La sesta illuminazione, venerdì, sarà del figliuolo male capitato. La settima illuminazione, sabato, sarà della festa di nostra donna Vergine Maria quando ella fue da l’angelo annunziata”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 178.

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Introducing this sermon, Bernardino felt compelled to reassert his ethos before the audience: “I am preaching neither for money nor for worldly glory, but only for God’s honour and the benefit of your souls”.4 This passage reveals his self-consciousness as a preacher. He saw himself as the person who knew what was truly good for his audience; he considered himself as an indispensable mediator between the Gospel and his listeners. Therefore, he could bypass the liturgical calendar because of a superior pastoral necessity, which he as a preacher appointed to this ministry, rightly discerned.5 Many late medieval preachers identified their words with God’s words, sermo with verbum Dei.6 The identification is evident in Bernardino. Well-known passages of his sermons show that for him preaching the Gospel meant presenting that which was most fruitful to the audience: “You should have as a rule that every time one preaches what is useful (utile) and good for souls, this is preaching the Gospel”.7 Here and in other sermons he mentioned and took inspiration from chapter nine of the Franciscan Regula bullata, which commands sermons to be “ad utilitatem et hedificationem populi”.8 In particular, in 1427 Bernardino insisted that the fidelity to the Gospel of a sermon should be judged by its fruits alone: Make sure that what you say is for the well-being of the people, and you will always preach the Gospel! These are words of Christ, have you never heard them? […] A fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos [Matthew 7:20]. From the Gospel comes the fruit. What do you think the Gospel is? It is the 4 “Io non predico per denari, nè per grolia di mondo, ma solo per onore di Dio e per bene dell’anime vostre”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 254. 5 In Bernardino – in particular in his Florentine sermons – emerges his own primacy as “portavoce della verità di Dio”; Grazia Fioravanti Melli, “Bernardino da Siena. I quaresimali fiorentini del 1424-25,” Rassegna della letteratura italiana 77 (1973), 565-84: 574. 6 Visani and Bistoni, “La Bibbia nella predicazione degli agostiniani,” p. 116. 7 “Vede prima come egli [Francesco] predicava la parola di Dio, cioè el Vangelo, el quale viene da Dio: Adnumptient eis vitia et virtutes, penam et gloriam. Abbi per regola che ogni volta che si predica a utile e a salute d’anima sempre si predica el Vangelo. […] Non è altro el Vangelo se non che l’uomo sia virtuoso, lassi el vizio e segua le virtù, tema la pena e ami la gloria”; Bernardino da Siena, Prediche volgari sul Campo di Siena 1427, ed. Carlo Delcorno (Milan, 1989), pp. 1331-32. See also Muessig, “Bernardino da Siena,” pp. 185-203. 8 Francesco d’Assisi, Scritti, ed. Carlo Paolazzi (Grottaferrata, 2009), p. 334. On this influential chapter of the Franciscan rule, see Felice Acrocca, “La predicazione francescana intorno a Reg. Bull. IX,” in Negotium fidei. Miscellanea di studi offerti a Mariano D’Alatri, ed. Pietro Manaresi (Rome, 2002), pp. 107-25 and John O’Malley, “Form, Content, and Influence of Works about Preaching before Trent: The Franciscan Contribution,” in I frati minori tra ’400-’500 (Assisi, 1986), pp. 27-50.

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name of Jesus, which means Saviour, who saves the souls that fulfil his will. Anything else but what is useful for the soul should be preached! And that woman says: “I would like to hear the Gospel being preached as it reads”. And I tell you that sometimes it would be better for you to remain at home spinning rather than to go around looking for such a Gospel! Instead, seek what helps you to leave your life of sin …9 The theme of the effectiveness of preaching clearly emerges here.10 Such a perspective also underpinned Bernardino’s sermon on the prodigal son and his decision to consider it more important than the liturgical calendar. In this case, Bernardino joined his pursuit of a useful sermon with the wishes of the listeners who asked to hear a narrative explanation of “the Gospel as it reads”. The Gospel story and the goals of the preacher this time corresponded. The parable perfectly matched the objective to assist the audience to leave their life of sin, so Bernardino had no heistation to present the biblical narrative, indulging in a semi-dramatic style of preaching that his audience so enjoyed.11 For studies on preaching, Bernardino da Siena’s sermons have proven to be an inexhaustible gold mine. The body of his surviving sermons is incredibly extensive and diversified. It includes Latin and vernacular reportationes of some of his preaching campaigns, as well as his collections of Latin model sermons, that he wrote to be used by his confreres.12 These sermon collections 9

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“e però fa’ che tu dica quello che sia salute de’ popoli e sempre predicarai il Vangelo. Queste so’ parole di Cristo, udistel voi mai ricordare? […] disse: a fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos. Dal Vangelo vene el frutto. Che credi che sia el Vangelo? El nome di Iesù, el quale è interpretato Salvatore, el quale salva l’anime che fanno la volontà sua. Mai non si vorrebe predicare altro se non l’utilità dell’anime. E la donna dice: ‘Io vorrei che egli si predicasse el Vangelo come egli corre’. E io ti dico che elli sarebbe talvolta meglio che tu stesse a casa a filare che andar dietro a cercare tali Vangeli. Cerca quello che ti fa uscire de la via de’ peccati”; Bernardino da Siena, Prediche volgari 1427, pp. 1332-33. At the end of the century, Pelbart de Temesvár noted a similar popular desire for the plain presentation of the Gospel (see below, pp. 227-28). See on this Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, “From Words to Deeds: Reflections on the Efficacy and Effects of Preaching,” in Muzzarelli, ed., From Words to Deeds, pp. 1-19. See also Cécile Terreaux-Scotto, “‘Mon dire est un faire’: L’art de persuader dans les sermons politiques de Savonarole,” Cahiers d’études italiennes 2 (2005), 89-117. The semi-dramatic style characterizes Bernardino’s sermons on the prodigal son, Lazarus and the rich man, Mary Magdalen, Abraham and Isaac; see Carlo Delcorno, “L’ars praedicandi di Bernardino da Siena,” in Atti del simposio internazionale cateriniano-bernardiniano (Siena, 17-20 aprile 1980), eds. Domenico Maffei and Paolo Nardi (Siena, 1982), pp. 419-49: 426-29. Still useful Dionisio Pacetti, De Sancti Bernardini Senensis operibus. Ratio criticae editionis (Quaracchi, 1947). The so-called authograph of Budapest has to be added, on which see

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were part of a larger educational project implemented by the Italian Franciscan Observants. Its main aim was to train a pastoral taskforce, fully equipped to undertake the pastoral care in fifteenth-century urban settings.13 The analysis of Bernardino’s sermons on the prodigal son gives us the possibility to consider a sermon that he himself presented as strategic for penitential preaching during Lent. Moreover, this allows us to investigate the construction and usage of a model sermon, showing the constant interaction between sermons preached from the pulpit and sermons written behind a desk. How did Bernardino present his sermon on the prodigal son year after year? How did he fix his preaching experience in a model sermon? To answer these questions, the present chapter first analyses the reportationes of the sermons on the prodigal son preached by Bernardino between 1423 and 1425, also considering the recently rediscovered autograph notes by Bernardino himself in his Itinerarium anni. It then compares them with the model sermons on this topic that he later wrote for his two Lenten model sermon collections in the 1430s.14 These texts also provide insight into the legacy of Bernardino. During his life and even more so after his canonization in 1450, he was considered a model for preachers. Many of these men presented themselves as his disciples and imitators. Scholars have pointed out the profound influence of Bernardino on the renewal of preaching throughout the fifteenth-century, in regard to content and style. The presence of a “school of followers” has been extensively recognized by scholars.15 However, the mechanisms of the relationship between

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Cesare Cenci, “Un manoscritto autografo di S. Bernardino a Budapest,” Studi Francescani 61 (1964), 326-81. On Bernardino’s autographs see, Rossella De Pierro, “Lo scriptorium di San Bernardino nel Convento dell’Osservanza a Siena,” in In margine al Progetto Codex. Aspetti di produzione e conservazione del patrimonio manoscritto in Toscana, ed. Gabriella Pomaro (Pisa, 2014), pp. 37-112 and Nicoletta Giovè, “Sante scritture. L’autografia dei santi francescani dell’Osservanza del Quattrocento,” in Entre stabilité et itinérance, pp. 161-88. See Bert Roest, “Sub humilitatis titulo sacram scientiam abhorrentes. Franciscan Observants and the Quest for Education,” in Rules and Observance: Devising Forms of Communal Life, eds. Mirko Breitenstein et al. (Berlin: Lit, 2014), pp. 79-106. The manuscript Bergamo, Biblioteca Civica, MS MA 302 holds an unpublished Latin reportatio of the Lenten cycle Bernardino preached in 1443 in Padua. Unfortunately, the sermons for the second week of Lent are missing. See for instance, Ben-Aryeh Debby, Renaissance Florence, p. 212. Famous is the long list of preachers that Roberto Caracciolo (d. 1495) presented as imitators and followers of Bernardino da Siena in a sermon in honour of this new saint; see Roberto Caracciolo, Sermones de laudibus sanctorum (Augsburg: Erhard Ratdolt, 1489), fol. O6v (sermo de sancto Bernardino). See Oriana Visani, “Roberto Caracciolo, un imitatore di Bernardino da Siena,” in Atti del simposio internazionale, pp. 845-61. On the characteristics of Bernardino’s preaching and the strategies his disciples used to appropriate of them see Carlo Delcorno,

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the sermons of these preachers and those by Bernardino still deserve further investigation.16 By studying the sermons on the prodigal son, it is possible to consider whether or not Bernardino’s followers adopted his model sermons on this parable. If so, how and to what extent did they use them? Looking from the limited but significant point of view of the sermons on the prodigal son, what kind of reception of Bernardino’s scheme can we find? We will obtain some insight into these complex questions by considering the sermons of Giacomo della Marca, Giovanni da Capestrano, Bernardino da Feltre, and several other spokesmen of the Observant movement. 2

A Cornerstone of Bernardino’s Preaching

During the Lenten period of 1423, Bernardino da Siena preached in Padua. The following year and during Lent 1425, he was called to Florence. These three consecutive Lenten cycles were written down by different reportatores and allow for an investigation into the evolution of Bernardino’s preaching on the prodigal son. Each year, he devoted a sermon to this topic and, as already noted, in 1424 he did his best to find a space for this parable by departing from the readings proposed by the liturgy. During those three years, the sermon maintained more or less the same structure. Yet a closer look at the reportationes reveals Bernardino’s continuous refinement of his homiletic schemes. 2.1 “Imagine that the Prodigal Son Was a Paduan Adolescent …” In 1423, Bernardino preached his well-known Lenten cycle on the Seraphim.17 In this case, not only the date and place of these sermons are known, but also the identity of the reportator. He was Daniele da Porcìa, a layman closely

16

17

“L’Osservanza francescana e il rinnovamento della predicazione,” in I frati osservanti e la società in Italia nel sec. XV (Spoleto, 2013), pp. 3-54 and Carlo Delcorno, “Apogeo e crisi della predicazione francescana tra Quattro e Cinquecento,” Frate Francesco 112 (2015), 399-439. This point has been reaffirmed recently: “il compito fondamentale della storiografia consiste nel seguire e definire le diverse modalità di ricezione, i mutamenti e gli scarti ri­­ spetto a quel modello [i sermoni di Bernardino], utilizzato in forme diverse nel susseguirsi delle generazioni lungo il secolo XV”; Delcorno, “L’Osservanza francescana,” p. 17. On the evolution of the Franciscan Observance in Italy, see Pacifico Sella, Leone X e la definitiva divisione dell’Ordine dei Minori: La bolla Ite vos (29 maggio 1517) (Grottaferrata, 2001). This cycle is organized around the imago agens of the seraphim: each week Bernardino discussed one of the six wings of the seraphim, dividing each wing in seven feathers or

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connected with the Franciscan Observant friars and who, as a notary, had excellent professional skills to write down Bernardino’s preaching.18 Porcìa’s Latin reportatio first circulated in manuscript forms and then was even included in Bernardino’s Opera omnia, which was printed for the first time in 1591.19 Beside Porcìa’s text, an anonymous reportatio of the same sermon cycle is kept in Rome, Archivio Generale dei Frati Minori Conventuali, MS D 41. Although it still requires a thorough examination, Dionisio Pacetti’s detailed description of this manuscript provides precious information on the sermon on the prodigal son.20 In Porcìa’s reportatio the sermon on the prodigal son (entitled sermo de amore amplexante) occurs on the liturgical day of the parable (Saturday of the second week of Lent), while this other reportatio places it on Friday. Why would Bernardino have felt it necessary in 1423 to change the day of the sermon on the prodigal son? According to this reportatio, it was a matter of audience. In the preacher’s experience, more people would have been present at his sermon on Friday than on Saturday: Today, I will present a sermon on re-embracing love. This would have been the subject of the sermon for tomorrow, according to the plan that I presented to you on Sunday. However, since the Gospel reading of tomorrow is wonderful and greatly useful, and since today there is a greater crowd of people, it seemed to me that I had to switch the order of the two sermons.21

18 19

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21

flames, which represented different aspects of love. On this scheme and on the mnemonic image of the angel, see Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini, pp. 81-83 and 155-66. See Giulia Folladore, “Veloci calamo recollegi. Daniele da Porcìa, reportator di San Bernardino da Siena (Padova, 1423-1443),” Il Santo 48 (2008), 145-68. Bernardino da Siena, Opera omnia, ed. Pietro Ridolfi da Tossignano, 4 vols (Venice: Lucantonio Giunta, 1591). At present, three fifteenth-century manuscripts are known: Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 150; Assisi, Biblioteca Comunale, MS 246; and Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS G 282 Inf. The manuscript of Milan was not registered by Pacetti, De Sancti Bernardini Senensis operibus and generally escaped the attention of scholars. At a first reading, the 1591 text is quite close to the manuscript of Assisi. See Dionisio Pacetti, “Una redazione inedita del Seraphim predicato da S. Bernardino a Padova nella Quaresima 1423,” Bullettino di studi bernardiniani 4 (1938), 35-63, 97-125, 16288. “Hodie tractandum est de Amore reamplectente, de quo tractandum esset crastina die, secundum ordinem premissum die dominico preterito; sed quia crastinum evangelium pulcrum est et utile valde, quia hodie est maior frequentia populi, visum est michi debere ordinem permutari”; Pacetti, “Una redazione inedita,” p. 63.

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Again we see that Bernardino made this choice for the sake of a larger utility, which was the polar star that guided his decisions. Moreover, his remark confirms that – as we have seen in Chapter 2 – Saturday could be a weak day for preaching, at least in some contexts. Yet, the question remains: why is there this discrepancy between the two reportationes? Pending further studies on the two reportationes, several elements underpin the hypothesis that the anonymous reportatio is more exact than Porcìa’s in recording the original order of Bernardino’s sermons.22 A possible reconstruction of the events could be as follows. Bernardino decided to preach on the prodigal son on Friday, because a larger audience would have been present that day. Then, on Saturday, he preached on the good and bad companies (“de amore bene conversante”) introducing as the thema a sentence of the reading of the day, but without commenting on the parable. That was perfectly logical, since he had discussed it at length the previous day. The anonymous reportatio records and transmits the original order of the sermons. This order is also recorded by MS Ashburnham 150, which probably contains a first version of Porcìa’s reportatio, as is suggested also by a few linguistic features.23 At a later juncture, Porcìa’s reportatio might have been reorganized in accordance with the liturgical calendar, moving the sermon on the prodigal son to Saturday. That day was in fact its liturgical position, where the readers of a sermon collection would have looked for it.

22

23

First, within the tradition of Porcìa’s reportatio, one manuscript (Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Ashburnham 150) has the same order as the anonymous reportatio; see Salvatore Tosti, “Di alcuni codici delle prediche di S. Bernardino da Siena con un saggio di quelle inedite,” AFH 12 (1919), 187-263: 220-21. Second, the most diffused version of Porcìa’s reportatio presents on Friday a sermon on the “amore bene conversante”, which has as thema a sentence taken from the parable of the prodigal son (“Et misit illum in villam, ut pasceret porcos”; Luke 15:15), and does not contain references to the Gospel of the day (i.e. the parable of the vineyard). This sermon corresponds to the sermon that the anonymous reportatio has for Saturday, which discusses the same topic (the amor conversans) and has a thema taken from the same line of the parable (“Adhesit uni civium civitatis illius”; Luke 15:15). The difference among the themata is negligible, since they are just a reference to the parable and to the main topic of the sermon (the negative influence of bad company). A sermon on the prodigal son on that Saturday did not require additional explanation: it was the reading of the day. On the contrary, a sermon that chose a thema from this parable on Friday required a justification of some kind. The anonymous reportatio provides this, while its absence in Porcìa’s (main) version is suspicious, especially because it refers to the parable as “the Gospel of today” (it was not true). See Lucia Lazzerini, “Da quell’arzillo pulpito. Sermo humilis e sermoni macaronici nel quaresimale autografo di Valerio da Soncino O.P.,” in Dal pulpito alla navata, pp. 171-239: 172.

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This change would indicate that the reportatio of Porcìa was adapted to be more useful for future preachers. I have dwelt on this matter for two reasons. First, considering it highly improbable that the anonymous reportor invented such a disposition of sermons, it seems that Bernardino was seeking to preach on the prodigal son in front of as large a crowd as possible. As illustrated above, he considered this a strategic sermon, which ideally should reach the largest possible audience, not just a portion of it. Second, the two versions of Porcìa’s reportatio once again alert us to the complexity of this kind of source, which goes beyond the transition from the vernacular to Latin. Behind an apparent spontaneity of the reportationes, which allegedly guarantee to record the voice of the preacher word for word, a careful editorial activity could be hidden, and the process of transforming these notes into a model sermon collection could already be at play. This dynamic has been clearly acknowledged by scholars of late medieval sermons, and yet to repeat the point seems necessary when entering into the fascinating world of Bernardino’s sermons. Moving to the sermon, we will examine the reportatio of Porcìa.24 The thema (“Et misericordia motus est, et occurrens cecidit super collum eius et osculatus est eum”; Luke 15:20) serves as general reference to the parable that represents the “embracing love” of God. Bernardino announced three main sections of the sermon: the fall of the sinner, the resurrection to the state of grace, and the envy of the world.25 However, he did not fully develop the last part, namely in regard to the elder brother’s protest against his father’s show of mercy. The first two sections occupy nearly the entire body of the sermon. Both the fall of the sinner and the rise of the penitent are investigated through nine steps: “Sicut per novem status anima cadit […] ita per novem status relevatur”. Given this structure, the sermon proceeds in a narrative form and exposes the story of the prodigal son from a moral perspective. In some parts, Bernardino adopted a semi-dramatic register, in particular when he described the “slippery slope of sin” (“status lubricandi in peccatis”). Presenting the characters of the parable, the preacher did not limit himself by saying that the father is God, the younger son is the sinner, and the elder son is the virtuous person. He also added the character of the mother, who is identified as the Virgin Mary – just 24 25

The text of Porcìa is more accurate and detailed than the other reportatio, at least for what concerns the content of this sermon; see Pacetti, “Una redazione inedita,” pp. 46-47. “In quo notantur tria mysteria: in primo notatur lapsus peccatoris criminosi; in secundo notatur relevatio status gratiosi; in tertio notatur displacentia mundi et daemonis invidiosi”; Bernardino da Siena, Seraphim, in Bernardino da Siena, Opera omnia [1591], 4, p. 75. I follow here the editio princeps of 1591. I checked this sermon also in Assisi, Biblioteca Comunale, MS 246, fols. 57v-60r. The differences are minimal.

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as Grütsch did almost contemporaneously, as we have seen in the previous chapter. However, after a few lines, in a rather unusual way the mother departs from the celestial profile of the Virgin and instead becomes a very earthly mother, worried by the possible ruin of his son. In addition to the mother, Bernardino considerably amplified and updated the biblical story by introducing a section on the influence of bad companions: When this adolescent began to associate with rascals and bad company, he saw that his companions were wearing fringe dresses, caps of strange new fashions, and shoes of different styles […] and that they were engaging in every kind of debauchery. Thus, he was incited by his companions to ask his father for his share of the inheritance, so that he could freely follow his own will, like those rascals.26 The role of the companions in leading the prodigal son astray by convincing him to ask for his money to enjoy a dissolute lifestyle was innovative and anticipated later religious dramas. Bernardino situated the story into a fictional social context that allowed him to present characteristic elements of his view of society. The condemnation of the risks of corruption of youth was a recurrent theme in his preaching, as much as his restless and sharp criticism of all sort of “vanities”.27 Bernardino’s version of the parable then portrayed the son asking for his inheritance. His mother, in an attempt to restrain him from leaving the house, stated the possible troubling consequences of his adventure, even foreseeing for him a destiny as a thief. Bernardino explicitly indicated that this description was not in the Gospel, but rather the fruit of his imagination: I imagine that his mother, when she knew of his request [to his father], tried to dissuade him by saying: “My dear son, do not wish to ask your part of the inheritance, for when you will have wasted it with your fellows 26

27

“Unde iste adolescens, dum incepit conversari cum discolis et malis societatibus, videns alios socios suos portare vestes fimbriatas, et caputios ad rechegnatum cum noviis foziis, et caligas a gamba scissa et a gamba torta, et labi in omnem labem lasciviae, fuit a sociis promotus ad petendum portionem suam, ut ipse libere posset facere propriam voluntatem, sicut et ipsi discoli”; Bernardino da Siena, Seraphim, p. 75. On a similar passage in another sermon of Bernardino see Ilaria Taddei, “I giovani alla fine del Medioevo: rappresentazione e modelli di comportamento,” in I giovani nel Medioevo. Ideale e pratica di vita, eds. Isa Lori Sanfilippo and Antonio Rigon (Rome, 2014), pp. 10-23: 21. See Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Gli inganni delle apparenze: disciplina di vesti e ornamenti alla fine del Medioevo (Turin, 1996).

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living wrongly, you will not receive anything either from your father or your brother. At that point, you will become a thief and have a terrible destiny, since those who squander their wealth, when it runs out, they try to obtain the wealth of others”.28 Following this, Bernardino underlined the central message: “the origin of the ruin is following one’s own will”.29 The description of the prodigal son as a paradigmatic figure of the sinner is enclosed and summarized in the binomial voluntas/voluptas (which also worked well in the Italian vernacular). Following their own will, sinners separate themselves from God and completely misinterpret and neglect the proper function of human free will. Free will was created not to be independent but to conform to God’s will, as the Lord’s Prayer teaches and constantly reminds the faithful.30 Addressing his audience repeatedly with the second person singular (“Unde tu vides … et nota hoc … tu igitur”), Bernar­dino asked his listeners to use their imagination: “Therefore, imagine that the prodigal son was a Paduan adolescent …”. To make the story concrete and entertaining, Bernardino transformed the prodigal son into an adolescentem paduanum, who was persuaded by his friends to leave his hometown to start a new, luxurious life in Ferrara, not too far from home. There the Paduan prodigal son had a good time and bought horses and all kinds of fashionable clothes, before heading to France.31 The ­description was not lacking irony, just as when the preacher said that the Paduan prodigal son wore a “hood like a chimney” (“caputium ad fumacaminum”). Furthermore, Bernardino insisted on the negative role of bad company. The prodigal son is compared to a horse without reins that runs at breakneck 28

29 30

31

“Unde imaginor quod eius mater hoc sentiens dissuasit ei dicens: ‘Fili mi, noli petere portionem substantiae tibi tangentis, quia cum dissipaveris illam cum sociis tuis male vivendo, tu postea non reciperis a patre tuo, neque a fratre, et furaberis et male capitabis, quia qui sua consumunt, cum deest, aliena sequuntur’”; Bernardino da Siena, Seraphim, p. 75. The last sentence of the mother is, indeed, Disticha Catonis, 3.21. “Principium ruinae est sequi proprium velle”; Ibid., p. 76. “Vult dicere quod quando homo sequitur suam propriam voluntatem elongatur a Deo. […] quia voluntas est creata ut affectet Deum, et non elongatur a voluntate sui creatoris, sed semper sit sibi conformis dicendo: fiat voluntas tua sicut in celo et in terra”; Ibid., p. 76. “Unde finge hunc adolescentem fuisse Paduanum, et congregatis denariis ex alienatione substantiae sibi date, persuasu sodalium ivit Ferrariam, et ibi emit equos, et fecit sibi zorneas fimbriatas cum recamaturis et caputium ad fumacaminum, et caligas a gamba storta, et dabat sibi bonum tempus in hospitio, deinde ivit in Franciam, et sic peregre profectus est in regionem longinquam”; Ibid., p. 76.

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speed, without control. This is the image of concupiscentia and yet, Bernardino added that the spurs that made this horse run so fast, kick, and jump over ob­ stacles symbolized “the bad company that made the young spend all their wealth and end up badly”.32 The topic would have been fully developed the next day in the sermon on “de amore bene conversante”, which devotes an entire section to bad company. There, the Sienese recounted terrifying stories of murderers that he met in Lombardy. They told him that they got habituated to all kinds of savage violence (to the point of ripping open women, killing infants and selling their meat to the butcher) without any specific purpose, just for the bad company (“propter malam con­ver­sationem et malas societates”). What indeed is a startling story ends with an unexpected light of hope: Bernardino said that he persuaded one of them to change his life, and if he would continue to do as well as he was doing at present, “I hope that the merciful God will provide grace to him”. Thus, the exemplum suggested that the powerful words of Bernardino could transform even the worst criminal into a kind of redeemed prodigal son.33 In the second part of the sermon on the parable Bernardino did not give as much leeway to his own imagination. The dramatic parts are limited to the monologue of the prodigal son, when he decides to turn back home and 32

33

“Quartus gradus est in concupiscentiis sine freno rationis se laxare, sicut equus sine freno, quia si rumpitur frenum, hic inde vagatur discurrendo, et calcitrat, et multotiens interficit equitantem, quia non habet frenum, cum quo eum gubernet. Possumus ergo digne aequiparare adolescentem huiusmodi equo, et calcaria malis societatibus, quia sicut calcaria faciunt currere, calcitrare, atque saltare equum, similiter mala societas facit iuvenes dilapidare substantias suas et male capitare”; Ibid., p. 76. Here is the exemplum in its entirety: “Volui scire causas tantorum homicidiorum commissorum in Lombardia, et in aliis partibus ubi fui. Et habui homicidas, qui dixerunt quod non habebant voluntatem occidendi, nec praecesserant causae, sed propter malam conversationem et malas societates interfecerant aliqui ipsorum ultra trecentos homines, et vituperaverant infinitas foeminas, et postea ipsas occidebant et si gravidae erant pueros extrahebant ex ventribus ipsarum. Item pueros natos eijciebant et collidebant in muros capiendo per pedes, et percutiebant cum capite in muro et exanimabant pueros, carnes Christianorum vendiderant ad macellum, et aliqui emebant, et comedebant de ipsis. Domos infinitas cremaverant et arva vastaverant. Et dixit mihi ille ostendendo magnum aedificium, quod si illud foret plenum, moneta non persolveretur pro damnis per eum factis, et pro rebus ignitis et vastis. Unde dixi quod teneret certos modos, quos si tenebit spero quod misericordia Dei dabit sibi gratiam, reverus est ad laborandum. Et dixit mihi postea quod si modo lucratur quinque soldos, videtur sibi quod efficiantur ducati, ubi primo non poterat tantum praedari et lucrari, quin dilapidaret, et omnia illa dixit pro­ cessisse propter malam suam societatem”; Ibid., p. 74. The exemplum was used also in ­Bernardino da Siena, Siena 1425, 1, pp. 242-43.

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prepares his confession. This part amplifies what is already in the Gospel using a strategy that we have encountered in the works of other preachers. Moreover, although the penitential perspective is at the centre, a thorough discussion of the three constitutive parts of penitence is absent. For instance, satisfaction is not even mentioned in this sermon. In the same way, the role of the priest and of sacramental confession is passed over in silence. This omission is evident when Bernardino identified the servants of the father – who often symbolized the sacerdotes – with the virtues that adorn the soul after its humble return to God. In the section devoted to the father’s embrace, from which the title of the sermon is taken, Bernardino stressed the mercy of God, who kisses the penitent soul with his threefold mercy: “cum misericordia praeveniente, consequente, et subseguente”. The different stages of God’s mercy are not properly distinguished. They serve to imply a progression of the action of God towards the soul after it has recognized its sinful state and has become disposed to do penitence. However, Bernardino avoided any discussion of the relationship between God’s mercy and human will. Instead he offered his audience a gallery of biblical characters who experienced divine mercy and were exemplary in their penitence: Peter, Mary Magdalen, Paul, David, Zacchaeus, and Matthew.34 Bernar­dino ended this section of the sermon by transforming the embrace of the father into the open arms of Christ on the cross: In fact, Christ stays nailed on the cross, with his arms open and his feet nailed, and with his head humbly reclined, always he stays ready to welcome sinners. When he sees that they are willing to return to him, he instils prevenient grace, and runs to them instilling additional grace.35 The description of a nailed Christ who runs appears quite strange. However, the image of the crucified Christ as an inexhaustible source of grace can be considered the spiritual apex of the sermon. In this text, Bernardino was able to adopt different linguistic registers, from the ironic description of the Paduan adolescents to this intense image of Christocentric devotion. Among these linguistic registers figures a vernacular lauda that Bernardino introduced when 34 35

See Bernardino da Siena, Seraphim, p. 78 This list is repeated later on in the sermon, where Mary Magdalen is labelled as “speculum magnum peccatoribus” (p. 79). “Nam Christus stat cruci affixus cum brachiis apertis et pedibus conclavatis, et cum capite humili et inclinato, semper paratus ad recipiendum peccatores, et cum videt eos velle redire ad se, infundit gratiam praevenientem, et occurrit sibi gratias infundendo”; Ibid., p. 78.

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he presented the symbolic meaning of the fatted calf. The reportator wrote down only the incipit of what might have been a well-known devotional poem at that time: “O Iesu come potesti soffrire, la vita far morire etc”.36 2.2 Two Vernacular Reportationes (Florence 1424) Two anonymous reportatores recorded the sermon on the prodigal son that Bernardino preached in 1424. For the sake of clarity, I label them A and B. Both reportatores wrote in the vernacular, but they had different styles and priorities in recording the oral performance of Bernardino.37 If we go back to a passage mentioned earlier, we see for instance that only reportator A recorded what Bernardino said to justify his decision to preach on the prodigal son on that day, while reportator B apparently considered this something external to the sermon proper.38 I shall point out in the course of my analysis the differences found in these two texts. However, it is essential to note that the two reportationes substantially agree on the structure of the sermon and allow us to conclude that Bernardino adopted the same thema and the same main divisions as the previous year, as the following table shows.

36

37

38

Ibid., p. 79. In other sermons, Bernardino repeatedly used texts of Iacopone da Todi or, a few times, verses of Dante. Bernardino copied 23 laude of Iacopone in one of his manuscript (Siena, Biblioteca Comunale, MS U.V.5) and made extensive use of them in the 1423 cycle; see Dionisio Pacetti, “S. Bernardino poeta?,” Bullettino di studi bernardiniani 5 (1939), 217-20 and Roberto Rusconi, “La tradizione manoscritta delle opere degli Spirituali nelle biblioteche dei predicatori e dei conventi dell’Osservanza,” Picenum Seraphicum 12 (1975), 63-137. One reportatio (A) is contained in three fifteenth-century manuscripts and is published in Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424; the second (B) comprises only 27 sermons and is found only in one manuscript, namely Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS II.IV.116. On the latter reportatio, see Carlo Delcorno, “Note sulla tradizione manoscritta delle prediche volgari di S. Bernardino da Siena,” AFH 73 (1980), 90-123. Reportatio B is still unpublished, however three of its sermons – among which that on the prodigal son – are published as an appendix in Carlo Delcorno, “Ars praedicandi e Ars memorativa nell’esperienza di San Bernardino da Siena,” Bullettino abruzzese di storia patria 70 (1980), 77-162. See Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, pp. 254-55 and Delcorno, “Ars praedicandi,” p. 137. The different sensibility is constant in the two reportationes, see Delcorno, “Note sulla tradizione,” pp. 104-06.

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Florence 1424 (A)

Florence 1424 (B)

In quo notantur tria mysteria: in primo notatur lapsus peccatoris criminosi; in secundo notatur relevatio status gratiosi; in tertio notatur displacentia mundi et daemonis invidiosi.39

Tre sprendori si dimostrano in questa sesta illuminazione […]. El primo isprendore è del peccatore il cadimento creminoso; el secondo isprendore è del peccatore il rilevamento grazioso; el terzo isprendore è del cattivo criminoso invidioso.40

Della quale iluminazione abiamo a notare tre isprendori: del peccatore il cadimento ruinoso criminoso; del ­peccatore il rilevamento glorioso; del buono la sua invidia.41

Once again, the third part of the sermon is dealt with succinctly. On the contrary, in 1424 the other two parts are defined more precisely than in 1423. While each part is still divided into nine points, they are now grouped in three blocks of three points each, a form that the audience likely found easier to follow. The description of the sinful life of the prodigal son gradually involves the entire human person: first, intelligence becomes blind; second, the affection or the will is paralysed; third, memory suffers amnesia. In the same way, the part on conversion requires the effective influence of a threefold grace of God. Bernardino’s 1424 sermon on the prodigal son therefore improved upon the previous structure, with recourse to a more developed summary of theological anthropology. In particular, it more strongly marks the binding role of grace in the process of conversion, as is revealed at the beginning of the second section: 39 40 41 How can a sinner rise again? Through God’s grace. This is the main point [of this section]. Without grace, a sinner cannot rise, no way. There are three graces that permit the fallen sinner to rise again: first, prevenient grace; second, consequent grace; third, subsequent grace. Without these three graces, no soul can return to God, never.42 39 40 41 42

Bernardino da Siena, Seraphim, p. 74. Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 255. Delcorno, “Ars praedicandi,” p. 137. “Sequita la seconda parte […] cioè de­∙rilevamento del peccatore cascato. Con che e’ si rileva il peccatore? Co la gratia di∙dDio. Questa vuol essere la principale: se questa non c’è, mai non si rileva. Tre sono le grazie che fanno rilevare il peccatore cascato: prima gratia preveniente, seconda gratia consequente, terza gratia susequente. Sanza queste tre, nulla anima può mai tornare a∙dDio”; Delcorno, “Ars praedicandi,” p. 142.

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Reportatio A has expressions quite similar to those of reportatio B, yet it is more precise (or more interested) in recording a concise distinction between the three faces of God’s grace: The first grace derives only from God; the second is consequent grace, because we follow him; the third is subsequent, because we put it into effect. Without these three graces there is no way one can return to God and all three are necessary. The first grace: God [operates] without you. The second with you. He does not save you without you. The third is subsequent grace that we perform. Firstly God knocks at the door and then you open and let him enter, then you dine with him and he with you [cf. Revelation 3:20].43 Bernardino probably drew on Bonaventure’s commentary on the Gospel of Luke, which adopted similar categories in its exegesis of the parable, as we have seen in Chapter 1. Yet, what was just a passage within a more complex discourse in Bonaventure’s text, here becomes the primary structural element of the section. Moreover, Bernardino placed the description of the internal turmoil of the sinner at the forefront. According to the Sienese, the prodigal son experienced a contrasting counsel from his guardian angel and the devil: The good angel inspires him with the knowledge of himself and of God. The devil pushes him into despair. The good angel comforts him saying: “Don’t worry, think of God’s love, put down these thoughts, be contrite and return to God”. The sinner sees himself in a bad condition; he trembles and is afraid to go back, because he thinks that God will throw him out.44

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“In che modo si rileverà il peccatore se non è aiutato dalla divina grazia? […] Tre grazie ci fa Iddio a cavarci di tutti e peccati. La prima è grazia proveniente solo da lui. La seconda è grazia conseguente, che noi lo seguiamo. La terza è grazia susseguente, che noi in effetto la mettiamo. Senza queste tre grazie non si può mai tornare a Dio e tutte e tre bisognano. In prima, Iddio senza di te. Seconda grazia con teco. Non salva te senza te. Terza grazia, per te. Iddio picchia prima l’uscio e poi tu gli apri e mettilo dentro, poi ceni con lui, e elli è con teco”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 262. The sentence “non salva te senza te” echoes an often used sentence of Augustine; see below p. 409 note 124. In his model sermon, Bernardino quoted Bernard of Clairvaux, see below p. 213. “L’angiolo buono lo spira in conoscimento di sé e di Dio. Il dimonio il fa venire in disperazione. L’angiolo buono il conforta: ‘Non temere, pensa nel suo amore, non avere pensieri, abbi contrizione e torna a Dio!’ El peccatore si vede male impunto, triema, à paura di tornare per non essere da Dio cacciato”; Ibid., p. 263.

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The sermon insists repeatedly on this inner contrast during the process of conversion, giving voice to thoughts or – as reportatio B reads – the inner fight of the prodigal son’s will, where the devil is able to arouse “mille zenzanie” (thousands of “tares” (cf. Matthew 13:25), that is, bad thoughts).45 As in 1423, Bernardino provided a dramatization of the parable, actualizing it for his audience. Although this aspect is witnessed by both reportationes, it particularly characterizes reportatio B, which keenly records the spoken syntax and the theatrical register adopted by the preacher. It is an excellent specimen of the “theatre of Bernardino”, which demonstrated his capacity to give a voice to a variety of characters as well as to embody them on a virtual stage.46 The preacher’s ability is most evident when he staged the comments and suggestions of the bad companions who convince the prodigal son to ask for his inheritance and to leave his father for a supposedly adventurous new life. The younger son was prodigal and wicked, and had bad companions, while his father was very rich and good. I think that his companions said to this wicked son: “Oh dear! What are you doing? You look to me as one who is starving. You look like an idler! If we were rich like you, we would have always two servants with us! Go to your father, you are grown up and ready to be independent! Tell him to give you your share of wealth, and when you have it, then let us organize everything! We will have fun, we’ll get on the payroll [of great lords], and we’ll have a lustful and joyful good time”.47 45

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“Dice il vangelista che∙lla volontà il conbatteva, cioè diceva: ‘Andra’vi tu a cotesto modo? O che ti dirà egli? Ov’è la roba ch’io ti detti, che n’à’ tu fatta? E’ ti caccerà!’ E l’altro dicea: ‘Va’, va’, e non temere! E’ te ne darà da capo, se∙ttu vorai far bene’. L’altro diceva: ‘E’ ci è troppo di lungi, tu se’ troppo dilungatoti da∙llui, cioè da∙dDio; e’ ti converrà ire acatando’. […] A morale inteligenzia: quando uno si vuole levare del paccato, el diavolo gli mette mille zenzanie nel capo: ‘Tu pari uno ribaldo, che∙tti dirà Iddio? E’ non ti vorrà’ ”; Delcorno, “Ars praedicandi,” p. 144. On the different registers of the spoken language of Bernardino, who was able to break the barrier between “actor and audience”, see Emilio Pasquini, “Costanti tematiche e va­­ rianti testuali nelle prediche bernardiniane,” in Atti del simposio internazionale, pp. 677713. See also Carlo Delcorno, “Il ‘parlato’ dei predicatori [2000],” in Delcorno, ‘Quasi quidam cantus’, pp. 43-84 and Valentina Berardini, “Discovering Performance Indicators in Late Medieval Sermons,” Medieval Sermon Studies 54 (2010), 75-86. “Ora viene che questo figliuolo minore, ch’era prodico, cattivo, e faceva la mala usanza, e ’l suo padre era ricchissimo e buono, io mi credo che questo figliuolo cattivo, coloro con cui egli usava gli dissono: ‘Omè, che fa’ tu? A me pare che tu ti muoia di fame, tu mi pari pure un poltrone; che se noi fossimo ricchi come tu, noi aremmo senpre duo famigli dietro. Va’ a tuo padre, tu se’ omai grande e saprai fare i fatti tuoi. Di’ che∙tti dia la parte tua, e quando tu l’arai, laccia poi fare a∙nnoi. Noi goderemo, noi andremo al soldo, lussurieremo e godremo e darenci buon tenpo’ ”; Delcorno, “Ars praedicandi,” p. 138.

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Likewise, when explaining the moral interpretation of this part of the story, Bernardino used direct discourse. He gave voice to the devils that tempted the soul and, through their counsel, buried it in sin: Who are the bad companions? The demons who cajole that soul into temptation and sins […] and flatter it by saying: “You have your free will, ask for your share, and cheer up, eat and drink, sleep and be lustful!” They say: “Oh, dummy! Do you really think that there will be a world beyond this? Do not believe such a thing! Therefore, who enjoys in this world will enjoy also in the other!” In this way the devil buries the human soul, saying: “You are grown up now, you wish not to be subject to this God! Don’t you see how extreme are the things he asks you to do?” And in this way, the devil little by little moves the soul away from the right path.48 Then, Bernardino returned to the story, presenting the adventure of the prodigal son in a form similar to that used in Padua. He did not mention Ferrara, but kept France as the final destination: The prodigal son left his father and, with that money, he went to his companions and said: “It’s going well! I have my share! He gave me 15.000 florins!” They answered: “Well, well! Let us think about everything, and we’ll have fun!” So they began to obtain cloaks and velvet giornea, to buy horses, and to have servants; and when everything was ready, they went to France. There, they started to live as knights, and they used to say: “I am the son of that lord” – “I am of that other one”. In this way, they told all sort of lies, pretending to be important members of great families. So, they began to participate in tournaments, to have fun, to be lustful and to play [cards], and they did not care anymore to remember God and the saints.49 48

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“Qual è la mal usanza? I demoni, che tengono quell’anima in tentazione e in peccato […] e lusingallo: ‘Tu ài il libero albitrio, fatti dare la parte tua, e godi, e mangia e bei, e dormi e lussuria’. E dicongli: ‘Doh, isciocco, credi tu che sia altro mondo che questo? No ’l credere! E però chi goderà in questo mondo goderà nell’altro’. E così il diavolo lo va sotterrando: ‘Tu se’ oggimai grande, non volere istare tanto sugietto a questo Iddio. Non vedi tu che cose istreme sono le sue cose a seguitare?’ E così viene a poco a poco a cavarlo della via buona”; Ibid., pp. 138-39. The text seems to refer to the epicurean position, as it was presented in contemporary preaching. “Ed e’ si partì con questi danari, e andò a trovare gli conpagnoni, e disse: ‘La cosa istà bene, i’ ò auto la mia parte. E’ m’à dato quindici mila fiorini!’ Allora e’ rispuosono: ‘Or bene, la cosa istà bene, lascia fare a noi, noi goderemo!’ E cominciarono a fare cioppe, giornee di velluto, e conperare cavagli, e avere famigli; e via che si missono in camino bene in punto,

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We will find similar dialogues in Florentine religious theatre, which fully developed a few decades later. In some ways, Bernardino and other preachers prepared the audience for this actualization and dramatization of the Gospel account. Moreover, in this sermon we find the first reference in a written text to the chivalric imagery applied to the adventure of the prodigal son. This theme – as we know – played a prominent role in the visual tradition of this parable, also in Tuscany, as the early fourteenth-century frescoes in the tower room in the Palazzo Comunale of San Gimignano show.50 The tradition of portraying the prodigal son who leaves the father’s house as a young knight in search of adventure was not limited to the majestic thirteenth-century windows of the French cathedrals (fig. 8). It also found its way into later illuminations and artefacts, such as ivory caskets or tapestries that exploited, in different forms, the visual interplay between the biblical parable and courtly culture (fig. 18).51 Moreover, Bernardino’s reference to chivalric imagery was

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e andarono invesso Francia. Come e’ furono giunti, e’ cominciarono a porsi al soldo, e dicevano: ‘Io sono figliuolo del tale signore’ – ‘E io del tale’. E così andavano dicendo quante bugie potevano per farsi ben grandi, e che fussino di grande istato; e poi cominciarono a giostare godere e paquare, lusuriare e giucare, e non si curavano d’avere a mente né Dio né santi”; Ibid., p. 140. See C. Jean Campbell, The Game of Courting and the Art of the Commune of San Gimignano, 1290-1320 (Princeton, 1997), pp. 130-47. The frescoes by Memmo di Filippuccio (d. c.1325), in the so-called Stanza del Podestà, depict the story of the prodigal son (1. his departure from the father; 2. the harlots who welcome the prodigal son and introduce him in a pavilion; 3. two women expelling the prodigal son, while they keep his purse full of money) in connection with two other exempla of foolish love: Aristotle and Phyllis and, perhaps, Paolo and Francesca. An impressive visualization of the parable, which dates from the period of Bernardino’s sermon, is the monumental tapestry originally conserved in the Church of St Elisabeth in Marburg and today at the Marburg University Museum. The parable is depicted in eight scenes, which are organized on two rows. The upper row shows the prodigal son departure from the father, his journey as a knight, his arrival in the distant land, and his sinful feast with harlots. The lower row depicts his forced departure from the harlots, his misery as swineherd, his father’s embrace when he returns at home, and the banquet. The scenes of the two rows are connected with a sophisticated parallelism. Moreover, on the borders around the parable, the stages of human life from birth to death are represented in a circle, as to suggest the connection between the story of the parable and the story of each person. On the tapestry, see Kemp, The Narratives, pp. 34-36 and 93-95. On later tapestries, see Philippe Verdier, “The Tapestry of the Prodigal Son,” The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 18 (1955), 8-58 and Christina Cantzler, Bildteppiche der Spätgotik am Mittelrhein 14001550 (Tübingen, 1990), pp.137-38. On ivory caskets, see Campbell, “Courting, Harlotry,” pp. 11-19.

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particularly tuned to Florentine society, where chivalric elements played a relevant role in contemporary culture and in the practices of the elite.52 To have an idea of the different style of the two reportatores, and thus of their distinct reception of what Bernardino preached, we can see how the reportatio A summarizes the description of the debauched life of the prodigal son with a list of actions: “The prodigal son began to live in a lustful way: he ate, gobbled and savoured; he drank and guzzled, he danced, frolicked and sung; he took expensive clothes and allured; he rode horses, jousted and participated in tournaments; he played instruments and was lustful; he minded every aspect of a lustful life and he was completely embroiled in that”.53 It was a different strategy to register what Bernardino said; it was less theatrical but more encompassing. Finally, the continuous direct appeal to the individual listeners should be noted. For example: “so you must say as he says” (“e però di’ come dice lui …”); “you must do the same, o sinner: Go to Christ …” (“e così debbi fare tu, peccatore: andare al Cristo …”); “the prodigal son said: ‘Father, I have sinned […]’. You must do the same before the confessor …” (“costui disse: ‘Io ò peccato, padre […]’. E così debbi fare tu dinazzi al confessore …”).54 These appeals function as evocative calls that invite each and everyone to identify with the prodigal son and to imitate his conversion. 2.3 A Rediscovered Autograph In 2016, Sophie Delmas announced the rediscovery of an autograph manuscript by Bernardino da Siena, his Itinerarium anni, probably composed between 1417 and 1424.55 The manuscript had disappeared in 1757 from the library of the convent of La Capriola, where Bernardino’s books were jealously conserved, and was recently rediscovered in a private collection. Within the manuscript, 52

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See Paola Ventrone, ed., Le temps revient, ’l tempo si rinuova: Feste e spettacoli nella Firenze di Lorenzo il Magnifico (Milan, 1992), Giovanni Ciappelli, Carnevale e Quaresima: Comportamenti sociali e cultura a Firenze nel Rinascimento (Rome, 1997), pp. 121-53. “incominciò a vivere lussuriosamente: mangiare, pappare e leccare, bere, inebriare, danzare, ballare e cantare, cavalcare, vestire, vagheggiare, giostrare, armeggiare, sonare, lussuriare, ogni cosa di vita lussuriosa pensare, e in essa invischiare e intrigare”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, pp. 258-59. Delcorno, “Ars praedicandi,” pp. 143-45. Reportatio A records similar expressions. Sophie Delmas, “Un autographe retrouvé de Bernardin de Sienne: L’Itinerarium anni,” Medieval Sermon Studies 60 (2016), 2-4 and Sophie Delmas and Francesco Siri, “L’auto­ graphe retrouvé de Bernardin de Sienne: L’Itinerarium anni et son histoire,” AFH 109 (2016), 431-506. I would like to thank Dr Sophie Delmas, who generously provided me with the digital reproduction of the scheme on the prodigal son.

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among many sermons, one can find a scheme on the prodigal son arguably written in 1424. At folio 136v the manuscript presents a sermon that, according to an autograph note, Bernardino preached in Santa Croce, in Florence, on the fifth Sunday after Epiphany in 1424.56 The text on the prodigal son is written just a few pages after, at folios 138r-40r. Its comparison with the reportatio A and reportatio B confirms that this was the scheme followed by Bernardino in 1424. The rediscovered scheme on the parable is not a complete sermon, instead it should be seen as a work-in-progress, in which Bernardino outlined some sections, while leaving others unfinished. For instance, the third part of the sermon, that on the elder brother, is announced in the main division but not developed in the following notes. Arguably, this section was not a priority for Bernardino. This precious source allows us to see how similar were the personal notes written by Bernardino, his performance on the pulpit, and the reportatio written by an anonymous listener. In his manuscript, Bernardino employed a macaronic language, mixing Latin and the vernacular. The vernacular expressions evidently prepared the oral delivery, and they were recorded by the reportatores with striking precision. I provide a couple of examples to substantiate this point, using as case study reportatio A.57 The following table compares the main division of the sermon in the two texts: 58 59 Paris, IHRT, Collection privée, CP 360

Florence 1424 – Reportatio A

De filio prodigo. Luc. 15. Triplex misterium. Primum, el cadimento criminoso, ibi: Homo quidam habuit duos filios. Secundum, el rilevamento gratioso, ibi: In se autem reversus. Tertium, el dispiacimento invidioso, ibi: Erat autem filius.58

Tre sprendori […]. El primo isprendore è del peccatore il cadimento creminoso. El secondo ­isprendore è del peccatore il rilevamento grazioso. El terzo isprendore è del cattivo criminoso invidioso.59

Bernardino’s autograph mainly develops the first part of the scheme, where we find a close conformity with the reportatio. For instance, the main subdivision 56 57 58 59

“In Florentia in Sancta Cruce MCCCCXXIIII. Dominica V post Epiphaniam. De gratia”; Paris, IHRT, Collection privée, CP 360, fol. 136v. The elements that I compare are also present in the reportatio B. Paris, IHRT, CP 360, fol. 138r. Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 255.

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reads: “Primo: L’ontellecto (!) accechato, ibi: Homo quidam habuit […]. Secundo: L’affecto inbrattato, ibi: Et ibi dissipavit […]. Tertio: Diventare exmemorato, ibi: Et abiit”.60 The same expressions were recorded by the reportator: “El primo cadimento si è che diventa cieco l’intelletto del divino potere. El secondo, che s’inviscia e imbratta l’affetto del divino volere. El terzo, che perde in tutto la memoria, la memoria del divino potere.”61 This close relationship is evident in the list of the three types of blindness (“cecitates”). Bernardino wrote: “Primum: Libertà domandare […]; Secundum: Libertà pigliare […]; Tertium: Libertà usare”.62 The reportator registered similar vernacular expressions: “Tre sono e gradi della cecità. Primo, libertà del domandare. Secondo, libertà pigliare. Terzo, la libertà usare”.63 These examples prove that the autograph scheme was the basis for the 1424 sermon. The manuscript illustrates how Bernardino was working on the sermon on the prodigal son, for instance by inserting the new section on the role of grace, which was absent in 1423.64 While the in-depth study of the autograph manuscript will let scholars better understand Bernardino’s intellectual and pastoral work, the comparison between the scheme on the prodigal son in the manuscript and the anonymous reportatio already provides us with precious evidence. Indeed, it shows how close the relationship could be between the model scheme, the actual performance on the pulpit, and the notes of a skilful reportator, who was able to catch at least the main structure and some of the key words of the sermon with remarkable fidelity. 2.4 A Diptych on Obedience: Isaac and the Prodigal Son In 1425, Bernardino was again in Florence during Lent. As an anonymous vernacular reportatio of this cycle shows, the preacher largely changed his sermons, aware of the necessity to offer his audience something different from the previous year.65 In the first sermon, he announced that the sermons of that 60 61 62 63 64

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Paris, IHRT, CP 360, fol. 138r. Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 255. Paris, IHRT, CP 360, fol. 138rv. Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 255. “Per triplicem gratiam rilevatur peccator. Prima est preveniens. Secunda est consequens. Tertia est subsequens”; Paris, IHRT, CP 360, fol. 139r. For the reportationes, see above pp. 201-02. On Bernardino’s “tireless experimentation” of those years, in particular for what concerns the structure of his sermons, see Delcorno, “L’ars praedicandi,” p. 448 and, for a comparison of the two Florentine cycles, see Fioravanti Melli, Bernardino da Siena, pp. 565-84. At the end of the century, Pelbart de Temesvár (see below, pp. 227-28) thematized this issue in the prologue of his sermon collection: “pro qualibet dominica quattuor sermones sunt applicati […] ut predicatores qui resident in eadem civitate multis annis habeant de anno in annum alium et alium sermonem predicare, ne idem sermo continuatis annis assue-

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year would be complementary to what he had presented during the previous Lent.66 Nevertheless, Bernardino made some exceptions and left the sermon on the prodigal son almost unchanged. The structure of the sermon is clearly recognizable: the first part is on the three human dimensions affected by the sin and the second on the three kinds of godly grace, which were now described with gestures: “God calls you […] God holds his hand to you […] God takes you out from the sin”.67 These gestures helped to visualize what listeners might have perceived as overly technical theological concepts. In addition, this immediately involved the listener, who was personally addressed in the second person singular: tu. The mention of some peculiarities of the 1425 sermon should not turn our attention away from the most important fact, namely the stability of the overall scheme. Bernardino refined but also maintained it that year, to the point that it would be possible to make a synopsis of the sermons of 1424 and 1425, at least for most of their sections. Evidently, he considered this sermon a milestone of his Lenten preaching, an essential element that he repeated to the same audience without fear of fatiguing them. An element worth considering is that in 1425 the sermon on the prodigal son was presented as the second wing of a diptych. The day before, Bernardino had introduced the sermon by saying: “Today, I tell you how sons must be loved, while tomorrow I will tell you about the reverence that sons must have towards their fathers”.68 The first sermon gives an essential teaching to the fathers in his audience: “Obey God and your sons will obey you”.69 The interplay between the obedience a father gives to God and the obedience he receives from his sons is presented through the story of the sacrifice of Isaac. According to the preacher, the true love that a father should have for his sons lies in a perfect and blind obedience to God. This results in and guarantees the perfect obedience of the sons to the father. Furthermore, this notion of obedience is summarized in the final and dramatic dialogue between Abraham and Isaac; a dialogue not found

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factus in audientia populi vilescat, quia quod rarum charum, vilescit quotidianum”; Pelbart de Temesvár, Sermones pomerii de tempore (Hagenau: Heinrich Gran, 1498), fol. A1v. “L’anno passato vi predicai di quello che per ragione si doveva fare, e per ragione abbandonare. […] in questa santa quaresima predicherò del frutto che seguita a chi con ragione si sarà partito da’ vizii e da’ peccati, e con ragione seguita le virtù e ’l bene operare”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1425, 1, p. 6. “La prima, una grazia preveniente: chiamati Iddio. La seconda, una grazia consequente: porgiti la mano Iddio. La terza, una grazia sossequente: tirati fuori Iddio”; Ibid., 2, p. 261. Moreover, these three sections are connected with human intelligence, affection, and memory, like the three sections of the first part, with a perfect symmetry. “Oggi udirai di che amore si debbano amare i figliuoli, e domane che reverenzia debbono avere i figliuoli a’ padri”; Ibid., 2, p. 238. “Ubbidisci a Dio, e i tuoi figliouli obbediranno a te”; Ibid., 2, p. 239.

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in the Bible but introduced by Bernardino. When Abraham explains to the son that God asked for his sacrifice, Isaac replies: “My dear father, I am very glad, do to me what you want. I am disposed. God has to be obeyed and I want to obey you. I am ready”.70 For a virtuous son, obedience to God entails obedience to the father.71 This sermon is entirely devoted to depicting Abraham as the perfect father, who transmits the most important teaching to his son: complete obedience to God.72 The second sermon, through the story of the prodigal son, instead addresses the topic of disobedience, both to God and to the parents. In the sermon on the prodigal son, the section on the sinner’s conversion, is opened by a new long preamble on hope for God’s mercy. A sinner must trust God’s overabundant mercy, but this cannot become an excuse to indulge in sin: What does it mean to hope in God? You fall into sin and return to him, you fall again and yet you return to him. […] If you plunge into sin a thousand times a day, a thousand times he will raise you up. This is hoping in God, and truly you hope for his mercy. However, when you plunge into mortal sin and remain there and, nevertheless, you hope in God, in that case you pile sin on sin, presuming God’s mercy. This is a sin against the Holy Spirit. Neither in this world nor in the other can it be forgiven!73 The mercy of God cannot become a pretext for moral laxity. God never refuses his mercy to those who really want it, yet a sinner must actively want God’s mercy and not just say he does. This leads Bernardino to hint at the delicate question of the relationship between mercy and justice, reasserting that a preacher should insist on the fear of God rather than on “the sweetness of hope to please the people”. He believed that he was not too exigent in his sermons because the path to God was extremely narrower.74 Within the sermon, this 70 71 72 73

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“Padre mio, io sono molto contento, fa’ di me ciò che tu vuoi. Io sono apparecchiato. Iddio si vuole ubbidire e io voglio ubbidire a te. Io sono preparato”; Ibid., 2, p. 250. See on this theme, Robert J. Bast, Honour Your Fathers. Catechisms and the Emergence of a Patriarchal Ideology in Germany, 1400-1600 (Leiden, 1997). On this, see Baschet, Le sein du père, pp. 63-98. “Che è lo sperare di Dio? Ricaschi nel peccato e ritorna a lui, e ricaschi ritorna a lui. […] Se mille volte il dì cadessi in peccato, mille volte ti rileva; quello è sperare in Dio. Veramente per la misericordia di Dio speri. Ma quando cadi nel peccato mortale e sta’ vi dentro e pure speri in Dio, pecchi peccato sopra peccato; presumendo della misericordia di Dio, è peccato nello Spirito Santo, che non si rimette in questo mondo né nell’altro”; Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1425, 2, pp. 259-60. “Se io ti predico della misericordia di Dio e della sua giustizia, pigliala col sale, cioè col senno. Geronimo dice: I veraci predicatori sempre predichino il timore di Dio e non dolcezza di speranza per piacere a’ popoli. […] Io non credo predicarvi la via di Dio tanto

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passage offers just a glimpse of the difficult balance between fear and hope, mercy and justice. From the pastoral perspective of Bernardino, listening to a sermon on mercy of God should be a stimulus for conversion and not a pretext for spiritual laziness. Furthermore, the interpretation of the details of the parable could also be renewed. For instance, in this sermon, the sandals that the father gives to the returned son become the symbol of many things, including the good city statutes. How does this work in practice? Since the sandals are made from leather, they can be associated with parchment and, therefore, connected with texts written on this material, such as the Bible, canon law, and finally the statutes: “In order to eradicate bad behaviours and vices – Bernardino said – a good city statute is more effective than all the imperial laws. It works like shoelaces”.75 As we have seen in a previous chapter, similarly a few decades later, a preacher such as Olivier Maillard rebuked the Parisian magistrates, who did not enforce the statutes and did not care enough about the morality of their citizens. In the eyes of these preachers, personal conversion and laws of public morality were two sides of the same reform project. From the reportationes of 1423-1425 emerges the flexibility of this sermon across the years. The structure and main message are always clearly recognizable. This similarity is even more remarkable when we think that we are reading the sermon through the selective work done by different reportatores, who had their own skills and their own ideas of what was worthy to be recorded in their notes. Moreover, in 1423 and 1424 Bernardino moved up this sermon either to have a larger audience or to avoid overlap with the feast of the Annun­ ciation, while in 1425 he repeated it before the same listeners of the previous year. He clearly considered his sermon on the prodigal son a cornerstone of his Lenten preaching, an invaluable opportunity to convey an essential teaching about sin, conversion, and God’s mercy. However, at a closer look, the apparent uniformity results indeed dynamic. It is possible to detect a continuous revision of the homiletic scheme on the prodigal son. Bernardino ameliorated the catechetical components, pinpointing the effects of sin on the human being and the nature of divine grace. He also developed an attentive expositive strategy, where he balanced the symmetrical construction of the theological

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stretta, ch’ella non sia molto più stretta. Crediti tu essere pagato del paradiso per fare male?”; Ibid., 2, p. 260. “I calzamenti de’ piedi di bestia morta ad essempli de’ santi uomini, asprezza di peni­ tenza, essemplo della Scrittura o vogliamo dire bellezza de’ comandamenti di Dio, e della santa Chiesa e degli statute della città. Vale più un buono statuto della città che tutte le leggi imperiali per far levare una cattiva usanza o istirpare i vizii, come il correggiulo della scarpa”; Ibid., 2, pp. 265-66.

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elements with a lively presentation of the parable. He was a preacher at work and was not easily satisfied with his own sermons. 3

A Model Sermon in the Quadragesimale de christiana religione

A few years after the preaching campaigns of 1423-1425, Bernardino wrote the Quadragesimale de christiana religione, in which he reorganized his personal notes to provide other preachers with a model sermon collection.76 What happens to the sermon on the prodigal son in this collection? The scheme that he had developed and refined during the previous years is still clearly recognizable. The prologue announces that the whole sermon will be an exposition of the Gospel of the day, which admirably presents the conversion of a sinner. The main division immediately shows the continuity with what Bernardino had preached in previous years: “This Gospel proclaims three divine mysteries in the following order: first, sin ruins; second, grace resurrects; third, envy angers”.77 As is predictable, the model sermon contains many more biblical and patristic quotations. Moreover, thanks to the work done by the modern editors, it is possible to see the extent to which Bernardino relied on his exegetical sources.78 In addition, the section on the envy of the elder brother is outlined more fully, although it still remains marginal in respect to the body of the sermon. The differences largely depend on the distinct nature of the texts. However, the model sermon re-elaborated at Bernardino’s desk shows in many parts a correspondence almost word for word with the reportationes. This 76

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The work can be dated between 1429 and 1436; see Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, in Bernardino da Siena, Opera omnia, 9 vols (Quaracchi, 1950-65), 1, p. XIX. “Et in hoc octava, id est penitentialis, religiositas aperitur, per quam homo peccator poenitens humiliter petit et impetrat misericordiam Dei. Sed quia in occurrenti Evangelio, moraliter intellecto, hoc mirabiliter demonstratur, tota praesentis sermonis series in eius expositione et declaratione decurat. In quo Evangelio tria mysteria per ordinem declarantur: primum, ruinantis culpae; secundum, resurgentis gratiae; tertium, indignentis in­­ vidiae”; Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, 1, p. 294. Here and below I follow, with small changes, the English translation from Robert Karris, “St. Bernardine of Siena and the Gospel of Divine Mercy (Luke 15.11-32),” Franciscan Studies 62 (2004), 31-66. In particular, he used the Glossa ordinaria and the commentaries by Hugh of Saint-Cher (that he attributed to Alexander of Hales and read through Costantino da Orvieto; see Cesare Cenci, “Il Commento al Vangelo di S. Luca di Fr. Costantino da Orvieto, OP. Fonte di S. Bernardino da Siena,” AFH 74 (1981), 103-45), Peter Olivi, Matthias of Sweden and Bonaventure. The influence of Bonaventure’s commentary is pointed out by Karris, “St. Bernardine of Siena.”

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correspondence is visible, for instance, when we compare the introduction on the threefold grace of God in the model sermon and in the sermon preached in 1424 (for the English translation, see the footnotes). 79 80 De christiana religione

Florence 1424 (reportatio A)

Per triplicem nempe gratiam Dei gradatim resurgit homo […]: prima dicitur gratia praeveniens; secunda autem gratia ­consequens; tertia vero gratia subsequens. De quibus Bernardus in lib. De gratia et libero arbitrio ait: Deus tria haec, scilicet bonum cogitare, velle et perficere operatur in nobis. Primum sine nobis, secundum nobiscum, tertium propter nos. […] Prima autem gratia, qua mens resurgit de miseria peccatorum, dicitur gratia ­praeveniens […]. Talis gratia tria lumina secum portat, quibus tria facit animam repensare: primum, mala quae commisit; secundum, bona quae amisit; tertium, damna quae incurrit.79

Tre grazie ci fa Iddio per cavarci di tutti e peccati. La prima grazia è proveniente, solo da lui. La seconda grazia conseguente, che noi la seguitiamo. La terza grazia è ­susseguente, che noi in effetto la mettiamo. Senza queste tre grazie non si può mai tornare a Dio e tutte e tre bisognano. In prima, Iddio senza te. Seconda grazia, con teco – non salva te senza te. Terza grazia, per te. […] Togli la prima grazia proveniente. In che sta la grazia proveniente? Quando in verità viene nella mente in tre pensieri: uno del male operato, uno del bene perduto, uno del bene lasciato.80

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Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, 1, p. 299. “Now through God’s threefold grace a human being gradually rises up […]. The first grace is prevenient grace. The second is the consequent grace. The third is subsequent grace. In his book ‘Grace and free will’ Bernard writes about those graces: God works in us these three, namely, to think of the good, to will it, and to perform it. The first God does without us, the second with us, the third for our sake. […] Now the first grace, by which the mind rises up from the misery of sin, is called prevenient grace […]. With it this grace carries three lights that make the soul weigh three things. First, the evil it has committed. Second, the good it has omitted. Third, the punishments it is suffering”. Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 262. “God gives us three graces. The first grace derives only from God; the second is consequent grace, because we follow him; the third is subsequent, because we put it into effect. Without these three graces one cannot return to God and all three are necessary. The first grace: God [operates] without you. The second with you. He does not save you without you. The third is subsequent grace that we perform. […]. Take first the prevenient grace. What is prevenient grace? It is when three thoughts come to mind: one of the evil committed, one of the good lost, one of the good left”.

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Then, as would be expected, the analysis in the model sermon offers a more refined theological discourse. This primarily concerns the section on the priority of grace in the conversion of the sinner, and that on the three sentimenta (faith, hope and charity) that subsequent grace instils in the sinner. However, it is important to observe that – at least in this specific case – the distance between what was actually preached and the model sermon is smaller than what often has been considered to be the case. In general, it is possible to say that in this model sermon, while more attention is devoted to doctrinal aspects, the characters of the story have less space, especially those invented by Bernardino. The mother of the prodigal son disappears and his bad companions are hardly mentioned. The Sienese even stuck to the original end of the parable, without saying whether the elder brother would enter the feast or not. On the contrary, in 1424 he had imagined a happy end, where the elder brother was convinced by the father and joined the banquet.81 If the space for fantasy was curtailed, Bernardino was keen to characterize the protagonist and indeed moved the dramatic action into the prodigal son’s mind and heart, inside the human person. In this regard, the section on grace presents significant innovations. Describing the prevenient grace that illuminates the sinner’s conscience, Bernardino inserted a long, moving appeal of God to the soul: And I will speak to her heart [Hosea 2:14], as if the Lord might say: I will say to her: “My beloved soul, what is between you and this fetid world? What between you and this vile mud? Why do you spurn me and delight in vain things? The things you delight in are a momentary good, but with me is eternal good. This is ignoble, mine is noble. This is slight, but mine is great. […]. So why, my soul, are you immersed in love of this world? What are you seeking? What do you desire, my beloved soul? Why do you immerse yourself any longer in this most foul mire of sin? But you have prostituted yourself with many lovers. Nevertheless, return to me and I will receive you [Jeremiah 3:1], I, the merciful God. Return, return, o Shulammite; return, return, that we may behold you [Song of Songs 6:12]. Consider, my beloved soul, how I invite you most sweetly, how I desire you most lovingly, how I wait for you most graciously. […]. So why are you still waiting there? Why are you seeking something different? Why are you in love with other things, my beloved soul?”82 81 82

See Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 1, p. 270. “et loquar ad cor eius, quasi [Deus] dicat: Dicam illi: ‘Anima mea dilecta, quid tibi et huic foetido mundo? Quid tibi et vili luto? Cur delectaris in vanis, me spreto? In quo delectaris,

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Interwoven with scriptural quotations, this discourse presents God as a passionate and jealous lover, a biblical theme often used in the mystical tradition but, perhaps, less predictably in Bernardino’s writing. Fostering this ­perspective and also drawing upon a previous division proposed by Peter Olivi, the nuptial interpretation is also applied to the celebration of the return of the prodigal son.83 The conclusion is not only the conversion of the sinner, but the union between God and the soul that will be realized in the eternal life.84 Aimed at the description of the interiority of the person, the model sermon does not mention the influence of the guardian angel and the tempting devil. While in the reportationes the prodigal son experienced their contrasting counselling, here the devil and the angel cede the stage to a sort of psychomachia: How many various and contrary thoughts assault the mind of this wretched person! The pain of desperation follows upon the heels of the fear of returning to his father. Then, [there are] the love of paternal and fraternal kindness and the hope of a gracious welcome. On one side, there is worldly shame, on the other, the fear to die for extreme poverty; there the length of the journey, here the weakness caused by hunger. All these considerations point to the many thoughts that bring anxiety to the soul of the sinner contemplating a return to God […]. Finally, trusting the mercy of God, he says: I will get up and will go to my father, that is, to beg for mercy.85

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bonum est momentaneum, mecum autem est aeternum; hoc vile, meum nobile; hoc est modicum, meum vero magnum […]. Quid, igitur, anima mea, in amore huius saeculi immoraris? Quid quaeris? Quid concupiscis, anima mea dilecta? Cur in hac vilissima peccatorum faece amplius immoraris? Tu autem fornicata es cum amatoribus multis, tamen reverte ad me et ego suscipiam te, ego misericors Deus. Reverte, reverte, Sunamitis; reverte, reverte ut intueamur te. Considera, dilecta anima mea, quam dulcissime te invito, amantissime te desidero, benignissime te expexto. […] Quid igitur amplius immoraris? Quid aliud quaeris? Cur aliud diligis, anima mea dilecta?’ ”; Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, 1, p. 300. “Primum est nuptiale ornamentum quoad se; secundum, nuptiale convivium quoad Deum; tertium nuptiale concordium quoad proximum”; Ibid., 1, pp. 303-04. The same perspective is found in Grütsch’s sermon (see pp. 163-64) and will be developed even more by Meder (see pp. 333-54). “Quot variis et contrariis cogitationibus mens huius miserabilis conquassabatur! Hinc disperationis dolor, illinc redeundi ad patrem timor; inde amor paternae et fraternae dulcedinis, aliunde spes benignae receptionis; ex altera parte verecundia mundi, ex hac timor, scilicet ex inedia et necessitudine moriendi; hinc longitudo itineris, illinc debilitas famis. Quae omnia indicant multiplices cogitationes, quibus peccatoris anima anxiatur redeun-

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Bernardino did not completely renounce all picturesque details in his model sermon. Masterly is the lively description of the returning son, who is char­ acterized – here, in Bernardino’s vivid Latin – as “squallidum, pallidum, sca­ biosum, emortuum, macilentum, consumtum, discalceatum, pilosum seu hirsu­tum, claudum vesteque dilaceratum et quasi nudis membris et capite inclinato, vultu maesto confusioneque perfuso gradientem, gressuque nutantem et vix arudine se sustinere valentem, omninoque a priori effigie alienatum”.86 The portrait of the wretched son who returns in complete misery could not be carved more effectively. These dramatic elements notwithstanding, Bernardino focused his sermon more on the inner itinerary, and on what happens into the human conscience, where the voice of the Lord and human thoughts and feelings meet.87 In the construction of the religious self, the sermon proposed an ideal itinerary from the misery of sins to the (re-)discovery of the passionate love of God. From the preacher’s perspective, the listeners were expected to identify with the prodigal son and, by internalizing his example, to commit themselves to a similar itinerary of penitence and renewed spiritual life. 4

An Alternative Model Sermon on the Elder Brother

A few years after the Quadragesimale de christiana religione, Bernardino composed a second model sermon collection for Lent, the Quadragesimale de ­evangelio aeterno. In this work, for the second Saturday of Lent, he proposed a sermon based on the thema: “Fili, tu semper mecum es, et omnia mea tua sunt” (Luke 15:31). As we have seen, there was an established tradition to remove this sentence from the context of the parable and interpret it from a spiritual perspective, applying it to the Virgin Mary. Bernardino did something comparable to this tradition by using the line to introduce a sermon – or rather, a structured

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tis ad Deum […]. Tandem de misericordia Dei confidens, ait: Surgam et ibo ad patrem meum, scilicet pro misericordia impetranda”; Ibid., 1, p. 301. Ibid., 1, p. 302. “He was squalid, pale, scabby, ghastly, emaciated, consumptive, shoeless, hairy and shaggy, hobbling, clothed in rags that barely covered the essential, with bowed head, walking with face filled with dejection and confusion, tottering along and hardly able to maintain his balance with a staff, totally different from his former appearance”. Similar descriptions were also in the reportationes; see Bernardino da Siena, Firenze 1424, 2, p. 264. It is worth noting that Bernardino did not use the story of the prodigal son mainly for a catechetical presentation of the penitential process (contrition, confession, satisfaction), although this was the solution adopted (for instance) by Bonaventure’s commentary, which is one of his sources.

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treatise – on the religious life in general and the value of the religious vows in particular.88 The sermon opens by recalling that charitas is the “root, form, end, fullness and bond of perfection” and the summary of all divine teachings. Love exalts the soul before God: “A soul that is firm in love and God’s grace has a trifold dignity: first, the dignity of becoming a son; second, the dignity of unity; third, the dignity of communion”.89 These three aspects are connected with the thema: The first dignity is becoming a son […]. For this reason, the soul that is rooted in love and grace is called son by God, saying Fili. ‘Filius’ derives from ‘philos’, which means love, as God would say: ‘My beloved’ […]. The second dignity is the unity and transformation […]. The power of God’s love is so great that it transforms the lover into the beloved […]. For this reason, in the sentence proposed the Lord said: Tu semper mecum es, through unifying grace. The third dignity is communion […]. Therefore, if a friend is an alter ego, the soul through participation is an alter Deus. […] For this reason, the Lord said in the sentence proposed: et omnia mea tua sunt”.90

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See Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de evangelio aeterno, in Bernardino da Siena, Opera omnia, 3, p. 392-435. The text is composed by two different parts: the first is structured as a sermon; the second and longer one discusses religious life through a fictional dialogue between a master and a disciple (“Et, ut haec clarius elucescant, inducam discipulum et magistrum; discipulum dubitantem et interrogantem, et magistrum respondentem et declarantem; p. 410). “Ad desiderabilem caritatem iterum atque iterum totum intellectum et desiderium sublevamus. Ipsa enim est radix, forma, finis, complementum et vinculum perfectionis, ad quam magister omnium Christus legem, prophetas, et per consequens universa Dei documenta, reducit. Ipas sola est quae animam gratificat coram Deo […]. Porro triplex est dignitas animae in caritate et in Dei gratia constitutae: prima est filiationis; secunda, unionis; tertia, communionis”; Ibid., 3, p. 392. “Prima enim dignitas est filiationis […]. Propterea talem animam in caritate et gratia constitutam Dominus ‘filium’ in proposito verbo vocat, dicens: Fili. Filius dicitur a ‘philos’, quod est ‘amor’; quasi dicat: Amor meus! […]. Secunda eius dignitas est unionis et transformationis […]. Tanta est enim vis divini amoris, ut amantem in amatum Deum transformet et faciat esse in ipso et idipsum […]. Et de hoc in verbo proposito Dominus ad talem animam inquit: Tu semper mecum es, scilicet per gratiam unientem. Tertia dignitas eius est communionis […]. Unde si ‘amicus est alter ego’ [cf. Ethica Nicomachea 9.4], anima per partecipationem est alter Deus. […] Propterea Dominus in verbo proposito illi ait: et omnia mea tua sunt”; Ibid., 3, pp. 392-93.

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These words summarize the process of divinisation of the human soul. It is possible to draw a connection between this theme and the passionate appeal of God to the soul that Bernardino presented in the previous model sermon. He wrote that the complete union with God is the final perspective for every soul that is in divine grace and love. Yet, the discourse is addressed “per antonomasia” to those who live under a religious rule. He depicted them by echoing some of the major themes of Franciscan spirituality: “to acquire charity, to grow in charity, and to end their life in charity, they despise every earthly thing and, with the utmost love, naked, they embrace the naked crucified Christ though their religious vows”.91 The reference to the parable does not play a further role in this treatise. However, at least indirectly, the discourse on the superiority of the religious develops the topic of the elder brother’s virtuous life to extreme consequences. He becomes the symbol of the perfection of the religious life, in which the vows multiply the merits of every good action.92 The meaning and value of religious vows were under discussion in the fifteenth century, as exemplified by Lorenzo Valla’s De professione religiosorum. This text questioned the superiority of the religious life as a way to perfection and also the doctrine asserting that a good action done in fulfillment of a religious vow made it more meritorious. Bernardino’s treatise has to be read within that cultural context.93 This 91

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“Licet autem praedicta verba conveniant cuilibet animae quae in gratia est et in statu divinae dilectionis; tamen per antonomasiam diriguntur ad quemlibet regularem, qui, ut caritatem acquirat et in caritate crescat atque in caritate finiat vitam suam, cuncta temporalia spernit et nudus nudum Crucifixum per votum Religionis amorosissime amplexatur, cui merito Dominus singulariter ait: Fili, tu semper mecum es et omnia mea tua sunt”; Ibid., 3, p. 393. On the spiritual theme (and practice) of nakedness within the Franciscan tradition see Franco Mormando, “‘Nudus Nudum Christum Sequi’: The Franciscans and Differing Interpretations of Male Nakedness in Fifteenth-Century Italy,” Fifteenth-Century Studies 33 (2008), 171-97. “Ex praedictis igitur patet quod facere aliquid ex voto, non solum est melius et magis meritorius, sed etiam utilius est et expedientius, quam illud idem facere sine voto. […] Quare? Quia homo vivit purius, cadit rarius, resurgit velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securius, irroratur frequentius, purgatur citius, moritur confidentius et praemiatur copiosius. In quibus sacratis verbis novem exprimit rationes, quare sit melius facere bonum in statu religionis quam extra religionem, et maxime in seculari statu”; Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de evangelio aeterno, 3, pp. 400-01. Here Bernardino largely drew on Peter Olivi. See Costantino Valori, “Il De sacra religione di San Bernardino contro chi può essere stato scritto,” Bullettino di studi bernardiniani 1 (1935), 23-35. On fifteenth-century discussion of religious vows, a useful overview is found in Guido Dall’Olio, “Tre critici della vita mona­ stica: Lorenzo Valla, Erasmo da Rotterdam, Martin Lutero,” Studi Francescani 112 (2015),

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perspective was reversed during the sixteenth century, when the elder brother could become the negative symbol of those who trusted religious vows to earn merits before God. We will see an example of this in the 1527 play by Burkhard Waldis, a former Franciscan who crossed into the Lutheran camp. In all likelihood, he knew the sermon of Bernardino and proposed a polemic reversal. 5

Against Jews and Hussites: Giovanni da Capestrano at Breslau

Before discussing the influence of Bernardino’s sermons on the prodigal son on his disciples, I briefly consider Giovanni da Capestrano, who perhaps is the most famous companion of Bernardino da Siena.94 In fact, one of the sermons Capestrano preached in Breslau (present-day Wrocław) presents some peculiarities that are worth further consideration. This sermon shows how the preacher adapted the parable to his audience and, even more so, to the priorities of his mission. The studies on the leading role that Giovanni da Capestrano played in promoting the Franciscan Observant reform within Italy and his political and religious mission in Central Europe have received increasing attention in recent decades.95 However, the large majority of his sermons are still unpublished and await serious investigation.96 In light of this, Lucianus Łuszczki’s overview of

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335-58. On the relationship between humanism and Observant movement in Italy, see Cécile Caby, “Oltre l’‘Umanesimo religioso’: Umanisti e Chiesa nel Quattrocento,” in Cultura e Desiderio di Dio. L’Umanesimo e le Clarisse dell’Osservanza (Assisi, 2009), pp. 15-33. See also Patrik Gilli, “Les formes de l’anticléricalisme humaniste: anti-monachisme, antifraternalisme ou anti-christianisme?,” in Humanisme et Église en Italie et en France méridionale (15e siècle – milieu du 16e siècle), ed. Patrik Gilli (Rome, 2004), pp. 63-95, and Cécile Caby and Rosa Maria Dessì, eds., Humanistes, clercs et laïcs dans l’Italie du XIIIe au début du XVIe siècle (Turnhout, 2012). For a first introduction into his life, see Hélène Angiolini, “Giovanni da Capestrano,” in DBI 55 (2000), pp. 744-59, and as useful starting point for the substantial bibliography, see Giovanni da Capestrano e la riforma della Chiesa, eds. Alvaro Cacciotti and Maria Melli (Milan, 2008) and the special issue of Franciscan Studies 75 (2017, forthcoming). On Capestrano’s mission in Central Europe, see Ottó Gecser, “Itinerant Preaching in Late Medieval Central Europe: St John Capistran in Wroclaw,” Medieval Sermon Studies 47 (2003), 5-20; Ottó Gecser, “Preaching and Publicness: St John of Capestrano and the Making of His Charisma North of the Alps,” in Jansen and Rubin, eds., Charisma and Religious Authority, pp. 145-59; and particularly Ludovic Viallet, Les sens de l’observance: Enquête sur les réformes franciscaines entre l’Elbe et l’Oder, de Capistran à Luther (vers 1450 – vers 1520) (Berlin, 2014). A recent exception is the edition of a sermon that Capestrano preached in 1450 in Padua,

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Capestrano’s sermons is still fundamental. He indicates two sermons on the prodigal son retained in two autograph manuscripts by this preacher. The first manuscript contains Giovanni da Capestrano’s schemes for his 1424 Lenten preaching in Siena. As we have seen previously, in 1424 the Saturday after the second Sunday of Lent was the Feast of the Annunciation. Therefore, Giovanni da Capestrano preached two sermons: one on the Virgin Mary and the other on the vice of prodigality.97 The latter was not a novelty. In the same decades, Leonardo Dati (d. 1425), theologian and general master of the Dominicans, also used the sermon on the prodigal son to analytically discuss this vice in his Quadragesimale de flagellis (originally preached in 1406 in Florence). He made a step forward, associating the vice of prodigality with the younger son of the parable and the vice of avarice with his elder brother, thus discussing which vice was worse.98 The second manuscript of Capestrano contains brief schemes for another Lenten cycle. The thema for the sermon on the prodigal son is “Non sum dignus vocari filius tuus” (Luke 15:21), and the preacher divided the discourse in two parts, following the classical division on the “misery of the sinner” and “the clemency of Christ”.99 The only cycle that has been edited is the reportatio of the Lenten sermons that Capestrano preached in Breslau in 1453, during his long and famous European mission. The cycle is organized around the topics the Observant preacher considered fundamental for his audience. The entire second week of Lent was devoted to the exaltation and defence of sacerdotal dignity, which evidently was an important topic in Capestrano’s anti-Hussite mission.100 Therefore, on the liturgical day of the prodigal son, he preached a sermon

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see Filippo Sedda, “Renovabit sapientiam. Un sermone inedito di Giovanni da Capestrano ‘summula’ della sua predicazione,” AFH 104 (2011), 65-105. See Łuszczki, De sermonibus, pp. 36-37. See Leonardo da Udine [Leonardo Dati], Sermones quadragesimales de flagellis (Lyon: Antoine Du Ry, 1518), fol. 40v (sermon 21). The elder brother was associated with avarice already in Albert the Great’s commentary on the parable. On Leonardo Dati and the mistaken attribution of this collection to Leonardo da Udine, see Paolo Viti, “Dati Leonardo,” in DBI 33 (1987), pp. 40-44. “In hoc evangelio duo breviter denotantur: primum est peccatoris miseria […]; secundum est Christi clementia”; Capestrano, Biblioteca del Convento di San Giovanni, MS XXX, fol. 50v; see Łuszczki, De sermonibus, p. 18. See sermons 13-17 in Eugen Jacob, Johannes von Capistrano – XLIV sermones Vratislaviae habiti a. D. MCCCCLIII (Breslau, 1911). For an overview of the 1453 cycle, see Delcorno, “L’Osservanza francescana,” pp. 28-45. On Giovanni da Capestrano’s preaching about the clergy, Paolo Vian, “Signum ad sagittam. Il modello sacerdotale nello Speculum clericorum di Giovanni da Capestrano,” in S. Giovanni da Capestrano nella Chiesa e nella società del suo tempo, eds. Edith Pásztor and Lajos Pásztor (L’Aquila, 1989), pp. 165-220.

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divided in two parts: the first is based on the parable; the second continues his lessons on the authority and dignity of the clergy. To connect the two parts, he chose as the thema the order of the father to his servants, who were then identified as the priests (“Cito proferte stolam primam …”; Luke 15:22). Presenting the parable, Giovanni da Capestrano applied the four senses of Scripture to the story.101 He mentioned but did not comment on the literal sense, while in the allegorical reading he identified the two sons as the Jews and the Gentiles. As we know, this interpretation had a long history, and yet it was quite unusual in fifteenth-century preaching. Moreover, in his interpretation Capestrano chose its most severe version, saying that the Jews were “sons of the devil”.102 Such an interpretation was part of his relentless anti-Jewish preaching that, during the eight months he stayed in Breslau, proved to have tremendous effects. In fact, within a few weeks of his Lenten preaching, accusations of host desecration as well as the kidnapping and murder of Christian boys were made against the Jews. The accusations set in motion the entire mechanism of arrests, trials (supervised by Giovanni da Capestrano as inquisitor), tortures, and forced confessions, which resulted in hundreds of Jews being burnt at stake or – in the best case scenario – being expelled from the city and the region.103 Returning to the sermon at hand, after the allegorical reading, it deals with the tropological interpretation, in which the younger brother represents the sinners and his elder sibling the “superbos iustos”. The preacher noted that it was much better to be among the sinners who humbly recognize their sins instead of being one of the proud righteous people. Finally, in the anagogical reading, the elder son represents the devils and the younger son humanity – the interpretation that we have encountered in the tale of the Gesta Romano­rum.104 This interpretation was quite rare in preaching, and Capestrano 101

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“Nota sacra scriptura quadrupliciter exponitur, scilicet historice, alegorice, topoloice, et anagoice”; Jacob, Johannes von Capistrano, p. 65 (sermon 18, pp. 65-70). Also at the beginning of his 1450 sermon of Padua, he briefly hinted at the fourfold sense of the Bible, see Sedda, “Renovabit sapientiam,” pp. 70-71. “Sed populus Judaicus, scilicet senior filius noluit patienciam hinc videns quod deus tantam dedit graciam gentilibus. Et sic nolunt ad peticionem patris intrare et nolunt filii dei fore; sunt ergo fily dyaboli”; Jacob, Johannes von Capistrano, p. 66. See Miri Rubin, Gentile Tales: The Narrative Assault on Late Medieval Jews (New Haven, 1999), pp. 119-26, Filippo Sedda, “Giovanni da Capestrano e gli ebrei,” in “I Francescani e gli ebrei. Giornata di Studio (Firenze 25 ottobre 2012),” Studi Francescani 110 (2013), 297-326 and Sedda, “The Anti-Jewish Sermons,” pp. 139-69. “Anagoice quarto: intellegitur sacra scriptura secundum intellectum anagoicum id est superiorem. Demones sunt fily seniores, quia prius creati sunt quam nos. Homo vero in

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explained why the devil cannot be saved because of his pride. Here, the sermon introduces an exemplum that has a desert father as protagonist. The devil appears to Paulus simplex, one of the disciples of St Antony, simulating his sadness for having lost his friendship with God. The eremite is convinced to intercede with God for the devil, and God – who appreciates his simplicity – replies that he is ready to forgive the devil, with just one condition. Namely that the devil has to admit his fault and say: “Peccavi” (exactly what the prodigal son says to his father). When the eremite presents this condition to the devil, the latter furiously replies: “It is God who has to recognize his fault, not I”.105 Besides the presentation of the different possible readings of the parable (each of them associated with one or two exempla), the Observant preacher did not comment on specific elements of the story, apart from those mentioned in the thema, which enabled him to pass to the second section of the sermon. In closing the first part, he interpreted the gestures of the servants as the ministry of the priests towards the sinners: the stola is the grace that is given through baptism or “in absolutione”; the ring is the certainty of hope “that the priest gives to you when he absolves your sins”; the shoes are the good examples of the saints “that the priest offers to you and presents during confession”.106 The fundamental role of the priest in the reconciliation of the sinner is clearly stressed, opening the way for the section on his dignity. In this way, during his European mission, Capestrano carefully adapted the sermon on the prodigal son to present to his audience some of the issues he considered most urgent: the necessity of conversion, the accusations against the Jews, and the defence of clerical authority, which had an anti-Hussite function. Indeed, even the parable of mercy was enrolled in a violent campaign against what he considered to be the enemies of the faith.

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paradiso post hoc creatus est et tamen pater noster suscipit humilitatem hominum et superbiam demonum detestatur et contempnit. Et sic filius adolescentior est humana natura”; E. Jacob, Johannes von Capistrano, p. 67. “Dixit dominus cognoscens suam simplicitatem: ‘Volo pacem habere si solum velit co­­ gnoscere culpam suam et dicere: peccavi’. Quod Paulus demoni retulit. Dixit demon: ‘Nequaquam hoc faciam! Deberem ego culpam meam recognoscere? Ipse deberet co­­ gnoscere culpam suam, ego non fui in culpa, quia mihi cepit gloriam!’”; Ibid., p. 67 (I inserted the punctuation). This exemplum is also used by Giacomo della Marca (see below, note 143). The two sermons do not present any other resemblance. “Anulus est certitudo spei, quam certitudinem id est securitatem tibi dat presbiter in absolutione a peccatis. […] Calciamenta sunt exempla sanctorum et bonorum que prebet tibi presbiter et in confessione alligat”; Ibid., p. 68. Some similarities can be found in François de Meyronnes, Sermones, fol. q3r.

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“Urged by Love and the Necessity of the Time”

Bernardino was widely recognized as an innovator and as the ultimate master by successive generations of preachers, in particular among the Franciscans. His canonisation in 1450, only six years after his death, further strengthened his role as a model preacher. His sermons were widely diffused. The reportationes of his cycles were circulated in a rather significant number when considered as a set.107 Yet, already during Bernardino’s lifetime, his model sermon collections enjoyed a much larger manuscript dissemination. The editors of his Qua­ dragesimale de christiana religione listed more than fifty manuscripts containing complete sets of sermons, and many more that include just a selection of them.108 In 1451 Roberto Caracciolo, who was at that time the new rising star among Italian preachers, explicitly stated: “the Quadragesimale de religione christiana is wonderful and all preachers steal from it; I preached his sermons many times and the audience was always pleased with them”.109 The practice 107

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There are four manuscripts of the 1423 Lenten sermons (see above p. 193); four of the 1424 cycle and five of the 1425 one (see the introductions to the editions of these cycles). The 1425 cycle also presents two manuscripts that derived from it. First, Siena, Osservanza, Museo Castelli, MS 28; the connection of its vernacular sermons with the 1425 cycle of Bernardino is undeniable, although there is no agreement on the nature of this relationship; see Dionisio Pacetti, “Le prediche bernardiniane di un codice senese in una recente pubblicazione,” AFH 34 (1941), 133-84; Benvenuto Bughetti, “Il codice bernardiniano contenente gli schemi del santo in volgare per la quaresima di Firenze 1425. Siena, Osservanza, Museo Castelli, n. 28,” AFH 34 (1941), 185-235; and Ciro Cannarozzi, “S. Bernardino e il primo quaresimale conosciuto e scritto in volgare italico nel cod. 28 dell’Osservanza,” Miscellanea Franciscana 43 (1943), 130-70. A second manuscript contains many sermons of the 1425 cycle in Latin (among which also the sermon on the prodigal son); see Bernardino da Siena, Abbozzi (inediti) di sermoni ricostruiti sul Ms. VII G, 29 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli, eds. Salvatore Florio Di Zeno and Innocenzio Siggillino (Naples, 1986), pp. 221-26. The first 17 sermons of the 1425 cycle are also in Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Acquisti e doni MS 330, fold. 1r-140r (copied by the Franciscan Giovanni da Castello della Pieve in 1450-52); see I manoscritti datati del fondo acquisti e doni e dei fondi minori della biblioteca medicea Laurenziana di Firenze, eds. Lisa Fratini and Stefano Zamponi (Florence, 2004). Finally, the success of the 1427 cycle of Siena, which is preserved in 21 manuscripts, is probably a unique case; see Bernardino da Siena, Prediche volgari, pp. 67-69. Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, 1, pp. XX-XXII. The editors listed 125 manuscripts. “Quadragesimale de religione christiana est pulcra res et omnes predicatores ab ipso furantur, ego multotiens suos predicavi sermones, semper audientibus placuerunt”; quoted in Visani, “Roberto Caracciolo, un imitatore,” pp. 845-61. In this sermon, Carac­ ciolo listed among Bernardino’s texts he knew also the Seraphim and the vernacular sermons (i.e. probably the 1427 cycle).

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of preaching Bernardino’s models is attested for Cherubino da Spoleto and Antonio da Bitonto during the same time.110 The influence of Bernardino on his companions and followers was enormous. However, in this panorama, do we find traces of the use of Bernardino’s model sermon on the prodigal son? Did his disciples adopt his homiletic scheme? Preaching in Padua in 1451, Caracciolo did not adopt Bernardino’s scheme for the day of the prodigal son, even though he had made it clear that he knew well both the Seraphim and the Quadragesimale de christiana religione. In the sermon that Caracciolo probably preached that day (the reconstruction of the cycle does not completely answer this question), there is only a short reference to the parable at its beginning. It is connected to the theme of how the soul easily separates from God through sin and how it can quickly return to him, if it wants to.111 These elements are well connected with the parable, but Carac­ ciolo moved on to present a thematic sermon on the dangers of remaining in mortal sin, without further reference to the prodigal son. Neither in this reportatio (which had a considerable circulation, with 10 surviving manuscripts) nor in his own model sermon collections did Caracciolo devote a sermon to the story of the prodigal son in accordance with the example of his ideal mentor. For instance, in his vernacular sermon collection, which stemmed from his 1474 preaching rallies and enjoyed an outstanding success in Italy with 24 incunabula editions, he included just a sentence of the parable as thema of a sermon on the honour and reverence that sons and daughters must have for their parents.112 The sermon De honore parentum was indeed one of the typical themes of Bernardino and his disciples, and yet, while in 1425 Bernardino 110 111

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See Carlo Delcorno, “Modelli retorici e narrativi da Bernardino da Siena a Giacomo della Marca [1997],” in Delcorno, ‘Quasi quidam cantus’, pp. 291-326: 291-93. “Fuerunt mihi lacrime mee panes die ac nocte […] Psalmo 41 [4]. Valde faciliter, dilectissimi in Christo Ihesu, elongatur anima nostra a summo bono creatore Deo propter peccatum, licet, quandocumque peccator vult se Deo aproximare, non indigeat passus mutare, nec magnum tempus expendere, quoniam in affectu cordis possumus illi vicinos esse Do­mino, et cum eodem affectu possumus etiam nos ab ipso elongare. Ieronimus ad Da­­ masum papam de filio prodigo, super illo verbo Luce 15° c°: ‘Et peregre profectus est in regionem longinquam’, dicit: ‘Sciendum est non locorum spaciis, sed affectu aut esse nos cum Deo aut ab eo discedere’”; Roberto Caracciolo, Quaresimale padovano 1455, ed. ­Oriana Visani (Padua, 1983), p. 187. For the reason this reportatio dates back to 1451, see Oriana Visani, “Roberto Caracciolo e i sermonari,” pp. 275-317. “Dissipavit substantiam suam vivendo luxuriose. Vorrebbe io, o cittadini, che oggi avesti menato i vostri figliuoli e figliuole a questa predicazione, nella quale intendo monstrarvi quanta obedienza e quanta riverenzia debbano avere figliuoli e figliuole verso lor padri e madre”; Roberto Caracciolo, Quadragesimale volgare, in Roberto Caracciolo, Opere in volgare, eds. Enzo Esposito and Raul Mordenti (Galatina, 1993), p. 161 (sermon 18).

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joined it with the parable of the prodigal son, Caracciolo did not exploit this possible biblical springboard. In both 1451 and 1474 there would have been a quite logical link between the Gospel reading and the topic of the sermon. Yet, Caracciolo preferred a didactic presentation of a moral or theological point, rather than considering the parable. This inclination is accentuated even more in his Latin sermon collections, which were based on main catechetical schemes. For these sermons, Caracciolo did not consider it necessary to make a reference to the liturgical readings of the day, not even in the form of the sermo modernus (adopted by Bernardino da Siena’s Quadragesimale de evangelio aeterno), to draw a connection between the thema and the topic of the sermon. A good specimen is Caracciolo’s Sermones quadragesimales de poenitentia, a highly successful sermon collection: it had five editions in 1472 (four in Venice, one in Rome) and enjoyed 27 editions by the end of the century, including imprints in Strasbourg, Cologne, Naples, Basel, Ulm, and Lyon.113 For the Saturday post Reminiscere, this collection presents the sermon de peccato contentionis. The sermon takes its cue from the protest of the elder son against the father to discuss contentio as a consequence of the sin of vainglory. The text proceeds without further references to the parable and indeed serves to complete a well-structured triptych of sermons on vainglory.114 Within the Italian homiletic panorama, this was neither a complete novelty nor something limited to Franciscan preachers, as is clearly shown by the sermon collections of three leading Dominican preachers, namely Leonardo Dati (d. 1425),115 Leonardo da Udine (d. 1469),116 and Tommaso dai Litui (d. after

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On the fortune of this sermon collection see Giacomo Mariani, “Roberto Caracciolo’s Quadragesimale de poenitentia: Compilation, Structure and Fortune of a Fifteenth-Century Best Seller,” in Delcorno, Lombardo, and Tromboni, eds., Lenten Sermons. See Roberto Caracciolo, Sermones quadragesimales de poenitentia (Basel: Berthold Ruppel and Michael Wenssler, c.1479), sermons 35-37. See note 98. Leonardo da Udine, Sermones quadragesimales de legibus (Speyer: Peter Drach, 1479), sermon 18. The sermon discusses this affirmation: “Magis proficit homini ad salutem tuendam fortune adversitas quam temporalis eius prosperitas”. On this preacher, see Luciano Cinelli, “Mattei, Leonardo,” in DBI 72 (2008), pp. 163-65 and Stefan Visnjevac, “Law as the Sermon: The ‘Sermones quadragesimales de legibus’ of Leonardo Mattei da Udine (c.13991469),” in Verbum et Ius: Predicazione e sistemi giuridici nell’Occidente medievale/Preaching and Legal Frameworks in the Medieval West, ed. Laura Gaffuri (Florence, forthcoming) and Stefan Visnjevac, “‘As We Sin in Forty Ways, so We Fast for Forty Days’: Sermons for a Confessor,” in Delcorno, Lombardo, and Tromboni, eds. Lenten Sermons.

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1481).117 Still, the tendency to avoid the explanation of the parable of the prodigal son and to focus on a particular moral issue is dominant within the Lenten sermon collections of many leading Franciscan Observants, such as Antonio da Bitonto (d. 1465), Michele Carcano (d. 1484), Cherubino da Spoleto (d. 1484), Antonio da Vercelli (d. 1483), and Bernardino Busti (d. 1513).118 Their printed collections had a striking diffusion in Italy and Europe and yet, none of them presented a sermon that develops an in-depth analysis of the parable and that shows a reference to the model sermon elaborated by Bernardino da Siena. The story and the invitation to identify with the prodigal son do not play a significant role in these sermon collections. The topic addressed could be, for instance, contrition or “de vitio fetide luxurie”, as is the case in two sermon collections of Michele Carcano.119 The latter was a popular topic to discuss in connection with the dissolute life led by the prodigal son. This topic also recurs in the Lima vitiourum of the Dominican Giovanni Aquilano (d. 1479)120 as well as in the Rosarium sermonum of Bernardino Busti, a disciple of Carcano, who presented a long and detailed discussion of luxuria and all its different forms (fornicatio simplex, stuprum, raptus, adulterium).121 In the same way as Bernardino da Siena, these authors claimed the right for a preacher to choose freely what they thought was more useful and appropriate for their audience. In these cases, they clearly opted for an organic catechetical instruction by 117

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Thomasinus de Ferraria, Sermones quadragesimales (Cologne: Johann Koelhoff, 1474), fols. l2v-l7r. The thema of the sermon is “Pater peccavi in celum” (Luke 15:19) and, without further references to the parable, two issues are discussed: “Primo, si contricio de peccato debet essere maximus dolor. Secundo, si prodigalitas sit vicium” (fol. l3r). The collection was written in Ferrara between 1460 and 1466 and was printed only once. See a profile on this Dominican in Tavuzzi, Renaissance Inquisitors, pp. 248-49. See an overview of their sermon collections in Roest, Franciscan Literature, pp. 52-78. On Michele Carcano, Antonio da Vercelli, and Bernardino Busti, see also Fabrizio Conti, Witchcraft, Superstition, and Franciscan Preachers: Pastoral Approach and Intellectual Debate in Renaissance Milan (Turnhout, 2015). See Michele Carcano, Sermones de poenitentia (Venice: Nicolas de Frankfordia, 1487), fols. 120r-21v (sermon 57, de opportunitate contritionis) and Michele Carcano, Sermonarium per quadragesimam de commendatione virtutum et reprobatione vitiorum (Milan: Ulrich Scinzenzeler, 1495), fols. q5r-q8v (sermon 37, de punitione et maledictione peccati luxurie). He wrote also a sermon against desperation that deals with the prodigal son; see note 146. Giovanni Aquilano, Sermones quadragesimales lima vitiorum (Brescia: Angelo Britannico, 1497), fols. q1r-q8r (sermon 25; thema: “Dissipavit substantiam suam”). The prothema presents briefly the parable and its possible penitential reading, and yet this has no role within the sermon. See Bernardino Busti, Rosarium sermonum (Venice: Giorgio Arrivabene, 1498), fols. 150v55r (sermon 23; thema: “Dissipavit substantiam suam vivendo luxuriose”).

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transforming their sermon collections into systematic moral treatises, which aimed to regulate every aspect of contemporary daily life. Caracciolo gave his own explanation for this change. Some decades after his 1451 sermon on Bernardino (see above), in another panegyric for this saint, he said that, when he was a young preacher, in the 1450s, he adopted the sermons of Bernardino. Later, however, he preferred to use his own sermons: I did this not for presumption, but urged by love and the necessity of the time. In fact, I decided to compose those sermons because of the studia humanitatis that filled up all of Italy, due to the large numbers of excellent learned men, and also because of the craftiness of the common people, who in a certain sense became curious by listening to so many sermons.122 Although in different ways, both the studia humanitatis and the frequentia pre­ dicationum had changed the Italian cultural landscape, and Caracciolo thought it was necessary to update his preaching accordingly. What is certain is that in the second half of the fifteenth century, the new sermon collections produced by Italian preachers increasingly resembled the all-encompassing summae of moral theology. Roberto Rusconi speaks of “a marked tendency towards encyclopaedism” that characterized both the sermon collections and the treatises written by this generation of Franciscan Observant friars.123 The inclination to develop catechetical Lenten sermon collections was not entirely a novelty. Still, Bernardino da Siena had used it in such an effective form “to make everyone else understand the strengths of the catechetical method of constructing the Lenten cycle”.124 During the final decades of the fifteenth century, this form of sermon col­ lection dominated in Italy and also found its way to other parts of Europe. A clear example can be found in the Sermones pomerii quadragesimales of the Observant Franciscan friar Pelbart de Temesvár (d. 1504), who was active in Buda from 1483 onwards. This book functioned like a machine to produce sermons and was repeatedly printed after 1499.125 In the same work, Pelbart of122

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“Quod utique non ex presumptione sed charitate ac necessitate temporum volui temptare. Nam et propter studia humanitatis quibus iam completa est omnis Italia, et propter virorum doctissimorum in qualibet facultate copiam, ac etiam propter subtilitatem populorum, qui quodammodo propter multarum predicationum frequentiam effecti sunt curiosi, consulte visum est mihi agere ut sermones illos contexerem”; Roberto Caracciolo, Sermones de laudibus sanctorum (Venice: Giorgio Arrivabeni, 1489), fol. A4r. Rusconi, L’ordine dei peccati, p. 286. Hanska, “Sermones,” p. 125. At least 15 editions were printed between 1499 and 1521: 10 were printed in Hagenau (all by Heinrich Gran), the others in Augsburg, Lyon, and Strasbourg. On this preacher, see

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fered three sermon collections for Lent: the first on penitence and its parts; the second on vices; and the third on the Decalogue. The story of the prodigal son is never a key element in the three sermons for the Saturday after Reminiscere, although they deal with penitential issues. The parable is – at most – confined to the introduction of the sermon and provides a starting point for sermons on the relevance of contrition, the ingratitude of proud people, and the danger of remaining in sin by delaying confession. Introducing the third part of his encyclopaedic collection, Pelbart wrote that he included the themata of the liturgical readings of the day “since, for their devotion, the people long for hearing the Gospel of the day”.126 This resembles the statements made by Bernardino da Siena, and one can say that the connection with the Gospel of the day provided by Pelbart was a smart but small concession to the expectation and desire of an audience composed mainly of “the simple people of our region”.127 The core of the sermon, however, was the thematic analysis of a moral issue, which left no space for the story of the prodigal son – or delegated it to the actual preacher. 7

In the Footsteps of the Master: Giacomo della Marca and Bernardino da Feltre

The previous paragraph might have given the impression that the model sermon that Bernardino da Siena carefully carved out in his De christiana religione did not have any impact on his disciples. A model sermon that was the result of years of experience, and one Bernardino considered a fundamental piece of his Lenten preaching, seems to have sunk into oblivion. Such an outcome was due to a new form of sermon collections that dominated the landscape in the second half of the fifteenth century. Bernardino himself had contributed to

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Zoltán J. Kosztolnyik, “Pelbartus of Temesvár: A Franciscan Preacher and Writer of the Late Middle Ages in Hungary,” Vivarium 5 (1967), 100-10; Ildikó Bárczi, “La diversité thematique dans les predications de Pelbart de Temesvár,” AFH 100 (2007), 251-310. “Et quum devotio populi gliscit evangelium de die unoquoque quadragesimali audire, hanc ob rem statui thema pro singulis diebus accipere ex evangelio et eidem competenter materiam eiusmodi sermonis applicare, ut patebit intuenti”; Pelbart de Temesvár, Sermones pomerii quadragesimales (Hagenau: Heinrich Gran, 1500), fol. r10r (prologue of the Quadragesimale de preceptis decalogi). In another point, he noted: “Ego pro unoquoque sermone statui thema accipere ex sacro talis diei evangelio assignato iuxta morem ordinarii romani in missali, eo quod devotio populi huius exposcit et delectatur audire ex evangelio aliquid vel saltem textualiter”; fol. b4v. In each Lenten collection, the sermon 20 is that for the Saturday after Reminiscere. He used a simple style “pro capacitate populi simplicis huius nostre regionis”; Pelbart de Temesvár, Sermones pomerii de tempore, fol. A1v (prologue).

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promote this new format by suggesting an agenda of preaching mainly focused on ethical and political issues. This outcome suggests caution when speaking of the subsequent generations of preachers’ reception of Bernardino. His influence is indisputable, but the reception of his sermons remains a complex phenomenon. In fact, many protagonists operated with independence and their own sensibilities, with “an extremely free re-interpretation” of the legacy of their master.128 They looked at Bernardino – who had become St Bernardino by this time – as a model of inspiration and imitated his style, but they used his sermons more as a source of materials than as a normative model to follow literally. Moreover, other model sermons were soon placed alongside those of Bernardino, as becomes evident from the diary of the anonymous preacher studied by Yoko Kimura, with its frequent references to Caracciolo and Cheru­ bino da Spoleto.129 However, at least two of the major spokesmen of the socalled Bernardino school − Giacomo della Marca and Bernardino da Feltre − greatly appreciated the Sienese’s model sermon on the prodigal son, and reworked it for their own sermons. 7.1 “Swallow Me into the Abyss of Your Love” In 1444, immediately after the death of Bernardino da Siena, in a panegyric in his honour, Giacomo della Marca (d. 1476) recalled his own experience as disciple and companion of the Sienese.130 Among the episodes he recounted, he said that in 1430, when he was in Assisi with Bernardino, he was suddenly asked to preach during Lent in another city. Since he was not ready for this task, he asked Bernardino to borrow his schemes. The future saint gave Giacomo his own sermon collection for Lent, saying: “I will feel as if I robbed you if I do not provide you with what you ask”.131 The sermons that Giacomo borrowed from his master were probably an early version of Quadragesimale de christiana ­religione, a text that in any case was in Giacomo’s personal book collection.132 128 129 130

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See Delcorno, “Modelli retorici,” p. 292. Kimura, “Predicazione ‘di routine’,” pp. 591-92. On his life, see Carla Casagrande, “Giacomo della Marca,” in DBI 54 (2000), pp. 214-20 and Biografia e agiografia di san Giacomo della Marca (Monteprandone, 29 novembre 2008), ed. Fulvia Serpico (Florence, 2009). See also San Giacomo della Marca nell’Europa del ’400, ed. Silvano Bracci (Padua, 1997). “Ego haberem conscientiam sicut ire ad depredandum, non accomodare tibi”; quoted by Dionisio Pacetti, “Le prediche autografe di S. Giacomo della Marca (1393-1476) con un saggio delle medesime,” AFH 34 (1942), 296-327 and 35 (1943), 75-97: 83. See Dionysius Lasić, “Le tabulae librorum della Libreria di S. Giacomo della Marca,” Picenum Seraphicum 8 (1971), 13-41 and Giacomo della Marca tra Monteprandone e Perugia: lo Studium del Convento del Monte e la cultura dell’Osservanza francescana, eds. Fulvia

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He was probably “the most faithful disciple of Bernardino and yet he was quite distant from a slavish imitation of the master”.133 He wrote his own model sermons, often starting from those of Bernardino, with a process of selection that was adapted to and enriched with Giacomo’s own experience and sensibility.134 The same is true also for his Quadragesimale, which was prepared as a model sermon collection and circulated only in manuscript form. It presents two sermons for the liturgical day of the prodigal son: the first on the penitential itinerary of the prodigal son, the second on the vice of lust.135 In this way, Giacomo offered two possible strategies: one sermon follows the parable step by step, and the other singles out an aspect of the story that was useful for analysing a particular moral issue. In the latter sermon, the thema (“Dissipavit substantiam suam vivendo luxuriose”; Luke 15:13) serves simply as a loose link with the Gospel of the day. The reference to the lustful life of the prodigal son provides the means to move on to a thorough analysis of that vice. In fact, Giacomo wrote that no other vice was more abominable and no vice provoked divine wrath as much “as carnal vice and, above all, sodomy”, and for this reason the entire sermon would be devoted to that topic.136 Given this premise, the

133 134 135

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Serpico and Luigi Giacometti (Florence, 2012). See also Letizia Pellegrini, “Cultura del libro e pratiche dei libri nell’Osservanza italiana (XV secolo),” in Entre stabilité et itinérance, pp. 189-202. Delcorno, “L’Osservanza francescana,” pp. 17-18. See Delcorno, “Modelli retorici,” pp. 291-326. See also Renato Lioi, “S. Giacomo discepolo di S. Bernardino anche nella predicazione,” in Giacomo della Marca, Sermones dominicales, ed. Renato Lioi, 4 vols (Falconara, 1978-82), 4, pp. 176-90. I follow here the manuscript Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Vaticano Latino 7642. The two sermons are respectively at fols. 112r-13v and fols. 113v-15v. On this manuscript, which holds on the last page the date 1446, see Dionysius Lasić, “Sermones S. Iacobi de Marchia in cod. vat. Lat. 7780 et 7642 asservati,” AFH 63 (1970), 476-565. Two other manuscripts contain the entire Quadragesimale: Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, MS 187; Foligno, Biblioteca comunale, MS CA IX.1.11. The manuscript of Foligno contains a previous version of the collection; see Renato Lioi, “I Sermones Quadragesimales di S. Giacomo della Marca in un codice della Biblioteca Comunale di Foligno,” Annali del Pontificio Istituto Superiore di Scienze e Lettere S. Chiara 10 (1960), 37-137. See now Francesco Nocco and Filippo Sedda, “Il Quaresimale di Giacomo della Marca. Una sinossi con Giovanni da Ca­­ pestrano per un progetto di edizione,” in Delcorno, Lombardo, and Tromboni, eds., Lenten Sermons. “Nullum vicium repperi in mundo tam abhominabile et propter quod deus ita ad iracundiam provocetur sicut pro vicium carnis et maxime sodomiticum. […] Nullum vicium est quod tantum prolonget a deo et quod tantum consumet omnes gratias et virtutes in peccatore sicut illud abhominabile vicium. Ideo dicit quod peregre profectus est a deo et a seipso et a ratione in regionem longinquam, id est in habominacionem istius peccati […]. Propterea hodie locuturi sumus de isto nefando et detestabili vicio quod non licet nominari”; MS Vaticano Latino 7642, fols. 113v-14r. As far as I know, only Albert the Great hinted

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sermon is in some way similar to those of Michele Carcano, Giovanni Aquilano or Bernardino Busti. More interesting for us is the first sermon, entitled “de filio prodigo”. The story of the parable is at its centre, and parts of the sermon heavily depend on Bernardino da Siena’s model. The relationship between the two sermons is apparent when one compares their sections on God’s grace, as can be seen in the following table.  137 138 Bernardino da Siena

Giacomo della Marca

Per triplicem gratiam Dei gradatim resurgit homo de profundo lacu et de luto faecis [Ps. 39:3] omnium peccatorum suorum: prima dicitur gratia praeveniens; secunda autem gratia consequens; tertia vero gratia subsequens. […] Prima autem gratia, qua mens resurgit de miseria peccatorum, dicitur gratia ­praeveniens […]. Talis gratia tria lumina secum portat, quibus tria facit animam repensare: primum, mala quae commisit; secundum, bona quae amisit; tertium, damna quae incurrit.137

Principium enim conversionis est reverti ad se ipsum quia per peccatum exivit a se ipso. Tres enim gratias misericors deus mictit ad peccatorem qui vult reverti et discedere a villa […] et reverti ad civitatem sancte conversationis et rationis: 1° gratia preveniens illuminantem ­intellectum, quia: in se redit; 2° [gratia] cooperans inflammans ­voluntatem, quia dicit: surgam et ibo; 3° [gratia] roborans fortificans memoriam, quia dicit: pater peccavi. Prima gratia preveniens tria facit in anima: primo facit videre malum operatum, 2° facit videre bonum perditum, 3° facit videre [damnum] aquisitum.138

Giacomo drew on the scheme of Bernardino, and yet he did not refrain from making his own choices. For instance, in the theological terminology he preferred the expressions gratia cooperans instead of gratia consequens, and gratia roborans instead of gratia subsequens. Moreover, while the Sienese imme­diately presented the main division of his sermon, Giacomo began directly with

137 138

at a sodomitic aspect of prodigal son’s sinful life: “Et adhaesit, illicito amore et communione illicita […] uni civium regionis pessimae, Genesis 13: Homines Sodomitae pessimi erant […] Et misit illum in villam suam […] In hanc ergo villam misit eum, ut abominatam coleret concupiscentiam. […] Hos igitur porcos misit eum pascere civis regionis ignomi­ niosae, quae tota est plena puteis bituminis voluptatum, sicut Sodoma, sicut dicitur Gene­sis 13”; Albert the Great, Commentarius in Lucam, 10, pp. 192-93. Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, 1, p. 299. See note 79 for the translation. MS Vaticano Latino 7642, fol. 113r.

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the story of the prodigal son, who is depicted as a specimen of disobedience.139 The rebellion to the paternal authority is also singled out by the chosen thema: “Da michi portionem substantie que me contingit” (Luke 15:12). This perspective slightly differs from that of Bernardino, who said in his model sermon that the prodigal son first of all sinned out of weakness and ignorance.140 Still, a look at the first subdivision of the section on the sinner’s situation is enough to confirm Giacomo’s closeness to his mentor. 141 142 Bernardino da Siena

Giacomo della Marca

Prima est ruina mundanae excaecationis […]. Et habet tres gradus, secundum quod in tres caecitates anima ruit: primus gradus est libertatis petitio; secundus, libertatis ­reception; tertio est libertatis abusio.141

Et ideo dum homo a deo recedit in tribus precipitiis ruit: primo libertatem d­ esiderare, quia dicit da michi portionem; 2° libertatem capere; 3° libertatem uti quia peregre profectus est.142

Giacomo compared those who want to be released from obedience to a round stone that rolls down from the top of a mountain and cannot stop until it arrives at the very bottom. The same was the destiny of Lucifer, but this sort of rebellion can be applied to distinct states of life too: the religious state, the clerical state, and the state of lay people.143 139

140 141 142 143

“Causa omnium ruynarum est quando subditus vult discedere ab obedientia et uti sua voluntate sicut habemus exemplum in isto filio prodigo”; MS Vaticano Latino 7642, fol. 112r. “Filius prodigus ex fragilitate et ignorantia peccans …”; Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, 1, p. 294. Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, 1, p. 295. MS Vaticano Latino 7642, fol. 112r. “Primo, libertatem desiderare. […] erit sicut saxum rotundum qui, dum de excelso monte ruit, non se retinet usque ad profundum. Exemplum de Lucifero. Et religiosi statim fiunt apostate, ribaldi, latrones et iniqui. Ecclesiastici discedentes ab ecclesia fiunt heretici, scismatici etc. Seculares discedentes a deo ruunt in dei blasphemiam, proximi persecucionem, in malorum demoniatorum”; Ibid., fol. 112r. Giacomo insisted on the restless action of the devil, and to explain how much the devil is obstinate in his wickedness, the preacher inserted a lively exemplum, which was not in Bernardino’s text. A desert father, provoked by a devil, asks God to forgive the devil: “Deo respondit: Quod vis? At ille: Volo, domine, ut perdonas demoni. At ille: Sum contemptus, sed volo quod dicat tria verba, videlicet: Paccavi, mea culpa”. The eremite presents this condition to the devil, who replies: “Et ego volo quod dicat culpam suam est, quia ipse [Deus] peccavit contra me et

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Although the first part of the sermon is of interest for the continuous interplay with its main source, the second part presents the most intriguing interventions of Giacomo. At the beginning of the section on God’s grace, instead of the passionate appeal of God to the soul that dominated Bernardino’s sermon, Giacomo inserted a long prayer of the prodigal son. Interwoven with biblical references and focused on the Passion of Christ, this prayer became a model for each sinner seeking God’s mercy. When he comes to himself, the prodigal son says: “O glorious Passion of Christ, look at the soul of the sinners that, with such a great love, you redeemed through your precious blood. O Jesus Christ, full of grace, you stay crucified on the cross for the sinners, save me from the mouth of the lion [cf. Psalm 22:21]. I return to you, spring of piety, have mercy on me. O benign clemency of the very sweet Jesus, you have such a great patience with sinners, look at me with the eye of your piety. O you, who sought the lost sheep for thirty-three years and carried it on your shoulders [cf. Luke 15:4-6], here I am, I am the lost sheep, help me and set me free from the mouth of the infernal wolf. O happy love, you said: ‘I thirst’ [John 19:28], here is the water, i.e. the soul that you thirst; drink my soul, o dear Jesus, and swallow me into the abyss of your love. O piety of the blessed Christ, who said to Peter: ‘Not only seven times [but seventy-seven]’ [Matthew 18:22], here is my soul that has been beaten thousands of times, provide me with the ointment of your mercy and piety. O good shepherd, you laid down your soul for your sheep [cf. John 10:11], here I am, I am unworthy, I am a swineherd blind, maimed, and nude, treat me as a mercenary”.144

144

non ego contram ipsum” (fol. 112rv). This exemplum is used also by Giovanni da Cape­ strano (see p. 222). “Et dum in se revertit dicit: O gloriosa passio Christi, respice animam peccatorum quam cum tanto amore redemsti tuo sanguine precioso. O Christe Ihesu, plenus gratia qui in cruce confixus es propter peccatores, salva me ex ore leonis; reverto ad te fontem pietatis, miserere mei. O benignissima clementia dulcissimi Yesu, qui habes tantam pacientiam versus peccatores, respice ad me cum oculo tue pietatis. O tu, qui 33 annos ovem perditam quesivisti et in tuis humeris portasti, ecce me ovem perditam adiuva me et libera me de ore lupi infermalis. O felix amor qui dixisti ‘Sacio’ [!], ecce aqua, [id est] animam quam scitis [!], bibe igitur eam bone Yesu et absorbe me in abyssum tue caritatis. O pietas Christi benedicti, qui dixisti Petro: ‘Non solum septies’ Ecce anima milies per peccatum percussa, aperi mi unguentum tue misericoridie et pietatis. O bone pastor, qui animam tuam posuisti pro ovibus tuis, ecce me porcarius cecus, mutilus et nudus, sicut mercenarius recipe me indignum”; Ibid., fol. 113r.

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While Bernardino gave voice to God as passionate lover, Giacomo – with an equally moving text – suggested to each sinner the words with which to address Christ and to recall vividly his overabundant love and his salvific Passion. This prayer is rather similar to one used by Michele Carcano, and later on – as we have seen – copied verbatim in a sermon of Olivier Maillard.145 Carcano perhaps was inspired by this eloquent example of Giacomo della Marca, and included that prayer in a sermon on the remedies to desperation, which has a section on the prodigal son.146 The remainder of the section on grace follows Bernardino’s model rather closely. Describing the encounter of the father and the son, Giacomo connected the gestures of the father with the distinct dimensions of God’s grace – similarly to Bernardino’s 1425 sermon, and also to Bonaventure’s commentary on this parable − again praising the overwhelming love of God. While the son was still a long way off, the pious father saw him and ran to him with his prevenient grace, embraced him with his cooperant grace, and kissed him with his roborant grace, by saying: “O my son, I was so happy to hear about you! O my son, many said that you were dead. O my son, where is your resemblance with me? O my son, where are the royal and precious clothes that I gave you? O my son, where is the inheritance that you received from me?”. O unlimited piety of Jesus Christ, how great are the love and compassion through which you welcome the sinner who returns to you. You are merciful and compassionate in receiving him, since your nature is to have mercy. You are very quick in giving him grace. You look at him from afar with great mercy. You run to him along the way with great clemency. You embrace him with great charity. You kiss him with great love and benevolence. You give him the white robe, the ring and the adornments with great care.147 145 146

147

See p. 176. See Michele Carcano, Sermonarium de peccatis, fols. g6v-g7r (sermon 21). The volume presents two Lenten cycles that together comment on the seven deadly vices. In the second cycle, the sermon for the Saturday post Reminiscere deals with the remedies to desperation and presents the prodigal son among the exempla against desperation. This section results in a pocket-sized sermon. The parable is presented in a penitential perspective, according to the widespread threefold division: “De quo possimus breviter tria considerare: primo scilicet filii recessionem; secundo ipsius reversionem; tercio, benignissima patris susceptionem”. Each part is subdivided in four points, and the last part clearly echoes Iacopo da Varazze’s sermon (velociter, dulciter, honorabiliter, letanter). “Sed pius pater videns eum a longe occurrens cum gratia preveniente amplexatus est eum cum gratia cooperante et osculatus est eum cum gratia roborante, dicens: ‘O fili mi, grata

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Evidently, Giacomo della Marca considered the theme of God’s mercy to be the determining element, as a moving message for his audience to follow the example of the prodigal son. Instead of updating the parable or dramatizing its account, the preacher inserted these two sections. Both were designed to lead the listeners to ask for Christ’s mercy with an invocation to and praise for his overabundant love, which was manifested on the cross. Finally, we can note that, once again, the elder brother has a fleeting presence. Only briefly, at the end of the sermon, Giacomo wrote that the elder brother represented those who considered themselves righteous and neglected a true commitment to good deeds. Therefore, they could be surpassed by those sinners who were zealous in doing penitence. 7.2 Applying the Model in Pavia Martino Tomitano – this was the secular name of Bernardino da Feltre – entered the Franciscan Observ­ance in Padua in 1460. He received the religious habit from the hands of Gia­como della Marca and chose the name Bernardino in honour of St Bernardino da Siena.148 The outline of the family tree of his religious life could not have been clearer, and in his sermons he proudly recalled his belonging to a glorious lineage of preachers.149 Though he was one of the most renowned preachers of his time, he did not write a sermon collection, perhaps because of the frenetic rhythm of his apostolate and his restless commitment to found, enforce, and defend the Monti di Pietà. Nevertheless, a ­reportatio of the sermons that he preached during the last year of his life, between 1493 and 1494, has come to us in the redaction of Bernardino Bulgarino, another Franciscan. Bulgarino did not personally attend the sermons that he

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audivi de te. O fili mi, multi dicebant te esse mortuum. O fili mi, ubi est modo similitudo quam dedi tibi? O fili mi, ubi sunt vestita regalia et preciosa? O fili mi, ubi est hereditas mea que a me recipisti?’ O infinita pietas Yesu Christi, cum quanto amore et compassione excipis peccatorem ad te revertentem. Tu es misericors et miserator ad eum recipiendum, quia proprium tuum est misereri. Tu es ita presto ad dandam sibi gratiam. Tu cum tanta pietate respicis eum a longe. Tu cum tanta clementia occuris sibi a longe obviam. Tu cum tanta caritate amplecteris eum. Tu cum tanto amore et benivolentia obscularis eum. Tu cum tanta sollicitudine stola alba, anulo et ornamentis induis eum”; MS Vaticano Latino 7642, fol. 113v. For a comparable use of anaphoras in religious plays, see below pp. 266 and 292. See Bernardino Guslino, La vita, p. 63. On Bernardino da Feltre, see Renata Crotti Pasi, ed., Bernardino da Feltre a Pavia. La predicazione e la fondazione del Monte di Pietà (Como, 1994); Muzzarelli, Pescatori di uomini, pp. 193-265 and Matteo Melchiorre, A un cenno del suo dito: Fra Bernardino da Feltre (1439-1494) e gli ebrei (Milan, 2012). See Sermoni del beato Bernardino Tomitano da Feltre, ed. Carlo Varischi, 3 vols (Milan, 1964), 1, p. 50; 2, pp. 191, 395, and 496.

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copied down, probably around 1510. He based his text on older manuscripts that contained the reportatio of the preached sermons, which might have been the work of another Franciscan friar, Giacomo da Grumello.150 This network of friars reminds us that, even in the age of printing, the circulation of manuscript materials remained a central feature among preachers. The lion’s share of this reportatio are the sermons that Bernardino da Feltre preached in Pavia during the Lenten period of 1493. Within this cycle, the sermon on the prodigal son shows his indisputable debt to the sermon proposed by Bernardino da Siena’s Quadragesimale de christiana religione. In fact, Bernardino da Feltre followed the structure of the sermon of Bernardino da Siena step by step. The parallel of the section on the threefold grace of God is particularly telling, also for the shared reference to Bernard of Clairvaux (see the table below). 151 152 Bernardino da Siena

Bernardino da Feltre

Per triplicem gratiam Dei gradatim resurgit homo […]: prima dicitur gratia p ­ raeveniens; secunda autem gratia consequens; tertia vero gratia subsequens. De quibus Bernardus in lib. De gratia et libero arbitrio ait: Deus tria haec […] operatur in nobis. Primum sine nobis, secundum nobiscum, tertium propter nos […] Prima autem gratia […] dicitur gratia praeveniens […] tria facit animam repensare: primum, mala quae commisit; secundum, bona quae amisit; tertium, damna quae incurrit.151

Quod remedium attulit tam incurabili morbo nisi gratiam suam, ille benignissimus Deus? Que fuit triplex, videlicet: gratia preveniens, gratia subsequens, gratia cooperans. Prima illuminat intellectum, secunda accendit affectum, tertia roborat effectum. Bernardus dicit quod primam dat nobis Deus sine nobis et operetur nobis; secunda nobiscum; tertia per nos. Prima est preveniens […]. Triplex fuit, quia tria fecit eum videre in corde suo, videlicet: primo, malum quod fecit; secundum, bonum quod perdit; tertio, damnum quod incurrit.152

The examples could be easily multiplied, in some cases including the chains of biblical and patristic quotations. For instance, in both sermons the part on the property that the prodigal son received is discussed through the following­ 150 151 152

See Vittorino Meneghin, “I sermoni del B. Bernardino da Feltre nella loro recente edizione,” AFH 59 (1966), 141-57. Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de christiana religione, 1, p. 299. See note 79 for the translation. Sermoni del beato Bernardino, 1, pp. 268-69.

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sequence of references: (Pseudo) Alexander of Hales’ commentary on the five elements that constitute property; Matthew 25:15; Proverbs 5:9 interpreted with recourse to the Glossa; Sirach 15:14-18; and Jeremiah 21:8. This is not to say that Bernardino da Feltre repeated the model sermon of his homonymous master verbatim. For example, he only partially adopted the section on the long appeal of God to the sinner, although he maintained the quotations of Hosea and Jeremiah used by Bernardino da Siena.153 The interior debate of the prodigal son was recorded extensively, in the form of direct speech and through the addition of dramatic and practical details. The prodigal son says to himself: “Perhaps, my father will give me at least an old dress and a pair of second-hand shoes; in any case, it cannot be worse than here”.154 Moreover, Bernardino da Feltre increased the pathetic tone of the encounter between father and son. Running to his son, the father cries out of compassion and joy. His son cries too, exclaiming with emphasis: “Pater! Pater! Pater! Peccavi in celum etc.”. The aim was to move the audience to do penitence. In fact, the preacher immediately recalled that “from this passage derives the formula of the confession”, and rhetorically asked his audience: “Why are we still waiting?” (“Che stiamo a far?”).155 Even though Bernardino da Feltre’s sermon depends on the model sermon of his predecessor, he added his own contribution. For instance, the discussion about free will that God gives to human beings received more attention. Moreover, he added some examples and images to make his presentation 153

154

155

“Lactabo eum etc. Loquar ad cor etc. [Hosea 2:14] […] Dicebat ergo Dominus isti pauperculo: Quid facis hic in peccatis, in tanta miseria cum porcis? Revertere ad me, et ego su­scipiam te etc. [Jeremiah 3:1]”; Sermoni del beato Bernardino, 1, p. 269. The notes of this section are incomplete and the reportator’s filter perhaps had a decisive role in differentiating the texts. The reference to Jeremiah 3:1 is also strategic in the introduction of a sermon on the prodigal son of an anonymous fifteenth-century Lenten collection; cf. Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, MS Pluteo XX 31, fol. 230v. This sermon (fols. 230r-33v) analyses the story of the prodigal son in detail, and the preacher frequently addressed the youngsters in his prospective audience (“Ad vos iuvenes iterum sermo meus dirigitur …”; fol. 232v). “Saltem dabit qualche veste frusta, scarpe remesse, peius non possum stare quam hic!”; p. 269. On the macaronic language of this collection see Lucia Lazzerini, “Bernardino da Feltre, Merlin Cocai e la lingua dei fratres tra Quattrocento e Cinquecento,” in Crotti Pasi, ed., Bernardino da Feltre a Pavia, pp. 17-26. “Pauper filius cum lacrimis, videns se receptum et invenisse gratiam maiorem quam putabat: Pater! Pater! Pater! Peccavi in celum etc. Non sum dignus vocari amplius filius etc. Et ab hoc loco extracta est forma confessionis”; Sermoni del beato Bernardino, 1, p. 270. The use of the exclamatio, especially in a repeated form, was a typical trait of Bernardino da Siena’s style that was imitated by his disciples; see Delcorno, “Modelli retorici,” p. 307.

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clearer. The simile of the ship that leaves the shore (derived from PseudoDionysius’ The Divine Names) served to explain that it is the sinner who leaves God and not God who expels the sinner, while the image of the circle visualized the impossibility to escape from God, because in any chosen direction one becomes closer to him.156 Finally, Bernardino da Feltre compared the son leaving his father to a horse without bridle, adding that the bad companions are like spurs.157 This simile was not in the sermon of De christiana religione, but the Sienese had presented it in 1423 (see above p. 198). Is this a sign that Bernardino da Feltre used also the reportatio of 1423 alongside the model sermon collection? We have seen that preachers like Roberto Caracciolo explicitly referred to the Seraphim. It is even possible to speculate what could have been Bernardino da Feltre’s easiest access to these sermons. According to his biographer, during his secular life, the young Tomitano had been the preceptor of the sons of Daniele da Porcìa, the notary who wrote the reportatio of the Seraphim.158 In conclusion, the sermon of Bernardino da Feltre indicates how a model sermon written almost seventy years earlier could be adapted by a leading preacher, who appropriated the model and preached it to a new audience. The sermon of Bernardino da Siena presented us with an ideal evolution from the experimentations on the pulpit to the writing desk, where the text was fixed as a stable example. Here we have seen the complementary phenomenon; the transition from the books a preacher studied to his performance on the pulpit – and then, again the passage from Bernardino da Feltre’s words to another preacher’s book, as notes written down by a reportator. This highlights the continuous interaction between written and preached sermons, and the lasting influence of the Sienese’s sermons. Therefore, with Giacomo della Marca we considered how Bernardino’s model sermon on the prodigal son was adapted for another model sermon. With Bernardino da Feltre, we saw – albeit through the opaque screen of the reportatio – how the same model sermon was still concretely used at the end of the century. Large parts of the rich legacy of manuscripts of famous or anonymous fifteenth-century preachers still await scholarly attention. In fact, their future exploration could provide a more articulate picture of the complex and 156

157 158

“Sed vade pur longe ut vis, non effugies manus Dei, che non te pilij nel zuffo [cf. Psalm 138:9-10], quia Deus est sicut circunferentia, tu vero es in medio. Volve te quo vis, appropinquas ad circonferentiam!”; Sermoni del beato Bernardino, 1, p. 265. This idea is similar to the spiritual map to locate oneself that can be found in Iacopo da Varazze’s sermon on this parable. “Iste recessit a patre: la zoventù l’ha straportato, que est sine freno, quando juventus est cum libertate. Socij sunt calcaria”; Ibid., 1, p. 265. Bernardino Guslino, La vita, p. 60.

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multi­faceted reception of Bernardino da Siena’s model sermons in general and of his sermon on the prodigal son in particular. One can think of the sermon collections of Paolo d’Assisi (d. c.1460),159 Bernardino Caimi (d. after 1499),160 Bernardino da Fossa (d. 1503),161 all Observant friars, and the Conventual friar Francesco Vaccari (d. after 1506),162 to mention but a few of the Franciscan authors whose legacies remain largely or entirely unexplored. The cases considered here allowed us to see that, while Bernardino da Siena’s sermon on the prodigal son was not functional for the catechetical printed sermon collections, it was nonetheless still influential in the work and preaching of some of his most renowned disciples, such as Giacomo della Marca and Bernardino da Feltre. They remained close to the master’s idea that this biblical narrative was powerful in describing the penitential itinerary, in insisting on the merciful

159

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161

162

An anonymous vernacular reportatio of the sermons preached by Paolo d’Assisi in Santa Croce, in Florence, during the 1437 Lent is preserved in Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS Magliabechiano XXI 175. The sermon for the Saturday of the prodigal son (fols. 229r-31v) presents firstly a moral reading of the episode of Jacob and Laban (Genesis 29) and then a brief exposition of the parable. On Paolo d’Assisi and for a transcription of this manuscript, see Silvia Ferri, ‘Nota d’alchuni amaestramenti’: Un diario anonimo del ciclo quaresimale predicato da Paolo d’Assisi a Firenze nel 1437, Università di Bologna – Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia, a.a. 2008/09 (unpublished master dissertation). The manuscript contains also the reportatio of another set of sermons for Lent, which probably were preached by another preacher. In this collection, the sermon on the prodigal son presents a vivid discussion about the necessity of contrition followed by a brief commentary on the parable (fols. 241v-42r). His Quadragesimale is held in Como, Biblioteca Comunale, MS I.3.17C; see Celestino Piana, “Il Beato Bernardino Caimi da Milano. Un epigono della predicazione Bernardiniana nell’ultimo Quattrocento,” AFH 64 (1971), 303-36. The manuscript Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, MS Fondo antico 143 contains numerous works of Bernardino Aquilano, among which are his Lenten sermons; see Roest, Franciscan Literature, pp. 72-74. See also Santa Cresciani, “La Passione del Beato Bernardino da Fossa e il topos del Christus Patiens,” Bullettino abruzzese di storia patria, s. 3, 87 (1997), 95-138 and Beati aquilani dell’Osservanza: Bernardino da Fossa, Vincenzo Dell’Aquila, Timoteo da Monticchio, eds. Alvaro Cacciotti and Maria Melli (Padua, 2007). “Summa de vitiis et virtutibus, necnon de septem donis Spiritus Sancti per modum sermonum atque praedicationum, ut patebit infra; quos sermones ego fr. Franciscus de Vachariis de Argenta […] composui in famosissima urbe Ferrariae anno 1486 […] et illos per totam quadragesimam in religiosissimo episcopatu Ferrariae preadicavi, quos antea Venetiis praedicavi in sancto Salvatore”; Modena, Biblioteca Estense, MS y F. I. 11, fol. 2r. On this preacher, see Celestino Piana, “Lo Studio di S. Francesco a Ferrara nel Quattrocento. Documenti inediti,” AFH 61 (1968), 99-175: 144-45.

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grace of God, and above all, in effectively moving the listeners to do penitence and to confess their sin. 8

“Better Cold than Tepid!”: Savonarola and Lukewarm Christians

Contemporary to Bernardino da Feltre’s preaching rallies was the complex trajectory of the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola, which culminated in his clash with papal authority and his tragic death at the stake in 1498. Savonarola’s religious and political views, the characteristics of his preaching and its evolution, the emergence and crisis of his prophetic role, the legacy of his texts and his lasting influence in the early sixteenth century, have all been subject to keen investigation.163 Here, Fra Girolamo will be examined from the much narrower perspective of his sermons on the prodigal son and their interplay with contemporary sermons on this subject. Did Savonarola consider this parable a valuable instrument for preaching? If so, which elements did he highlight? Do we find any specific features in his approach to this biblical narrative? We have already seen in the previous chapter that in 1491 Savonarola avoided the custom to preach on the Virgin on Saturdays, and he reported in his notes that he dedicated the entire sermon to the prodigal son. A previous scheme gives an idea of what Savonarola might have said in 1491, at the beginning of his second and decisive period in Florence, when he began to become famous within the city. In 1490, Savonarola preached in Genoa during Lent, and wrote down his schemes for that cycle in the margins of his breviary.164 His notes on the parable are brief but nonetheless telling in terms of his priorities 163

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In the vast literature, see the recent monographs of Stefano Dall’Aglio, Savonarola and Savonarolism (2005; Toronto, 2010) and Donald Weinstein, Savonarola. The Rise and Fall of a Renaissance Prophet (New Haven, 2011). Among the many studies issued in the context of the fifth centenary of Savonarola’s death, see Gian Carlo Garfagnini, ed., Studi savo­ naroliani. Verso il V centenario, (Florence, 1996); Savonarola e la politica, ed. Gian Carlo Gar­fagnini (Florence, 1997); Girolamo Savonarola: L’uomo e il frate (Spoleto, 1999); Giro­ lamo Savo­narola da Ferrara all’Europa, eds. Gigliola Fragnito and Mario Miegge (Florence, 2001); Una città e il suo profeta: Firenze di fronte al Savonarola, ed. Gian Carlo Garfagnini (Florence, 2001). See, also for what concerns the characteristics of the marginal notes of his breviary, Savonarola, Breviario di frate Girolamo Savonarola. We do not have earlier sermons of Savonarola on the parable, in fact, his notes of the sermons he preached in San Gimignano in 1486 do not conserve a scheme for the Saturday after Reminiscere; see Armando F. Verde, “Girolamo Savonarola: Il Quaresimale di S. Gimignano (1486),” Memorie Domenicane n.s. 20 (1989), 167-253.

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in presenting this story to the listeners. He followed the narrative of the parable, in which the prodigal son represents the desire to be free from the yoke of God the father. Judging from these notes, a topic that received considerable attention was the word of God. The hunger that the prodigal son experienced in the foreign country is due to his refusal to listen to or read the word of God.165 This reference to not only listening (i.e. mainly attending sermons) but also reading the Bible is relevant and points to the diffused readership of religious texts, including the Holy Writ, which characterized late fifteenth-century Italy. We shall return to this topic in the next chapter. In this brief sermon, the theme of access to the Bible is also repeated with reference to the characters of the mercenaries who stay in the house of the father. They symbolize those who are nourished by God with the science of Scripture (“pascit scientia Scrip­ turarum”) and yet do not behave accordingly. These can be the masters, the preachers, the clerics who undertake their ministry for earthly reasons, or even the lay people who do not practice what they have heard during preaching.166 Instead of listening to the divine verbum, in his sinful life the prodigal son turns to other empty and harmful words, including those of the enchantments of the necromancers or the poems of the poets.167 Next, Savonarola added a few lines to list some concrete examples of sin. The prodigal son’s state of misery permitted the preacher to speak of those who try to solve economic difficulties with illicit solutions: “some people push their daughters into prostitution, others become usurers, and others do other things etc.”.168 Moreover, the feeding of the swine is interpreted as attracting other people to sin. While a generic misogynous reference to women is a predictable topos here, the reference to “the kings and lords who feed the wicked” is more interesting, although it is not selfevident in which direction Savonarola would have developed this point.169 While not expanding on this part in his notes, Savonarola recorded his strategy 165 166

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“Et facta est fames quia, si audit verbum, non comedit, imo nec audire vult nec legere”; Savonarola, Breviario, p. 292. “Et consyderans statum suum […] et quod Deus in Eclesia multos mercenarios pascit scientia Scripturarum, ut magistros, predicatores, prelatos, qui pro temporalibus serviunt, et audientes predicationem qui non bene tamen faciunt, dicit ergo: ‘O stulte, si Deus tanta pro te fecit, si tales pascit …”; Ibid., p. 292. “et finaliter tamquam desperatus adheret diabolo et incantationibus quorumcunque et nigromantibus etc. […] Cupit autem saturari de carminibus poetarum ex auro, honoribus etc., sed ista non pascunt”; Ibid., p. 292. On this topos, see above pp. 28-29. “Unde etiam quidam tradunt filias luxurie, quidam usuras faciunt, alii alia etc.”; Savona­ rola, Breviario, p. 292. “Et diabolus exercet ipsum ut pascat porcos, idest ut etiam alios trahat ad peccandum, ut patet in mulieribus, in regibus et dominis qui pascunt pravos et etcetera”; Ibid., p. 292.

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to discuss “for each state of life” the restless condition of those who have left God, attesting to his intention to tune the example of the prodigal son to different situations.170 Like many other preachers of his age, Savonarola – also in these brief notes – gave voice to the prodigal son, dramatizing the account, as it is shown by the direct speech of the son when he comes to his senses. Interestingly, the Savonarolian prodigal son projects a trajectory of gradual recovery from the condition of sin. He will go to the father “from virtue to virtue, hoping for his mercy” and he will ask to be treated as a mercenary as an intermediate step, “since I hope to make progress in such a way that my father will promote me from the mercenary condition to that of a son”.171 Finally, dealing with the elder brother, Savonarola noted concrete examples (“pratica”) to fulminate against the reactions of tepid people, those who murmur behind the back of penitents or laugh when they see prostitutes doing penitence. As we will see, this criticism of lukewarm people was a dominant trait in Savonarola’s sermons on the prodigal son. While this sermon attests to the content of Savonarola’s preaching in 1490, and probably also in 1491, in Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Florence, we now move onto a second sermon of the Dominican friar from 1496. This sermon was preached during the so-called Savonarolan republic and the increasing tension between the friar and the papacy. In a letter dated 16 October 1495, Pope Alexander VI ordered Savonarola to refrain from preaching. After months of forced silence, at the beginning of Lent, Savonarola decided to return to the pulpit of the Cathedral or – as he said – “to return to the battlefield for gathering the elected, to be comforted with them” and, with these companions, “to fight against the devils and the evil people and to gain the victory, since I am sent as your captain for this task”.172 Throughout the sermon of Ash Wednesday, Savonarola addressed the reasons for his previous silence and his subsequent decision to 170 171

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“Et hic discurre per omnes status, quod non sunt quieti qui recedunt a Deo etc.”; Ibid., p. 292. “Dicit ergo: ‘O stulte, si Deus tanta pro te fecit, si tales [mercenarios] pascit etc., si te vocat, surgam a peccato et vadam de virtute in virtutem sperans misericordiam et recognoscam peccatum meum et aggravabo et me humiliabo et dicam: Fac me sicut unum de mercenariis tuis, quia spero me ita proficere ut de mercenario filium facias etc.’. Cetera patent etc.”; Ibid., p. 292. “Per la qual cosa, considerando io la moltitudine delli eletti nella città di Firenze […] però mi sono tutto consolato e sono ritornato questa mattina in campo per congregarli e consolarmi con loro […]. Eccoci dunque, o diletti di Iesù, qua in campo accompagnati da moltitudini d’angeli per combattere con li diavoli e con li uomini perversi e per aver vittoria; io son mandato a questa volta per capitaneo, benché insufficiente e indegno …”;

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speak out, reasserting his prophetic authority as a preacher and rebuking the accusations circulated against him. The specific religious and political context informs the whole sermon collection. Furthermore, its own circulation was part of the complex cultural and religious battle at play. In fact, while the 1490 sermon has come down to us as a series of personal notes written in Latin by Savonarola, the 1496 Lenten cycle was recorded by Lorenzo Violi, a notary and an unfaltering supporter of Fra Girolamo.173 This resulted in a detailed vernacular reportatio, which was written for a timely publication. At the beginning of 1497, Violi printed the entire sermon collection, almost certainly after Savonarola had checked the text, as part of a sophisticated system of acquisition and consolidation of consensus. As such, Savonarola orchestrated the diffusion of his ideas through printing, which at that time was masterly and innovative.174 From 1497 to 1544, this sermon collection was available in eleven editions, which was a considerable number for a vernacular sermon collection oriented only towards the Italian market. Although the ideas in the sermon we are about to analyse stemmed from a specific milieu, they had an enduring circulation in the Italian religious landscape. At this point, the boundaries between model sermons and reportationes had become completely blurred. Preaching on 5 March 1496, Savonarola began with a brief summary of the parable. He continued with a long section on the nature of the human soul and the philosophical question of its immortality.175 The preacher stressed that the human soul has a natural desire for God and immortality. He depicted the soul as “the horizon of all creatures”. As the horizon connects and divides the celestial and terrestrial realms, the human soul is in the middle between the angels and the lower creatures and “participates of both natures”.176 As a consequence

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Girolamo Savonarola, Prediche sopra Amos e Zaccaria, ed. Paolo Ghilieri, 3 vols (Rome, 1971), 1, pp. 4 and 6 (17 February). See Gian Carlo Garfagnini, “Ser Lorenzo Violi e le prediche del Savonarola,” in Dal pulpito alla navata, pp. 261-85. See Gian Carlo Garfagnini, “Savonarola e l’uso della stampa,” in Girolamo Savonarola. L’uomo e il frate, pp. 307-30 (esp. pp. 317 and 327), and Roberto Rusconi, “Le prediche di Fra Girolamo da Ferrara: dai manoscritti al pulpito alle stampe,” in Una città e il suo profeta, pp. 201-34. The first edition of the 1496 cycle (1495 according to the Florentine calendar that was ab incarnatione) is Girolamo Savonarola, Prediche quadragesimali dell’anno 1495, ed. Lorenzo Violi (Florence: [Bartolommeo di Libri, Lorenzo Morgiani and Francesco Bonaccorsi], 8 February 1496/97). On Savonarola’s dialogue with philosopy, see Lorenza Tromboni, Inter omnes Plato et Ari­ stoteles. Gli appunti filosofici di Girolamo Savonarola (Porto, 2012). “E però dovete sapere che l’anima nostra è come l’orizzonte di tutte le creature. L’orizzonte si chiama quella parte o circulo del cielo che sta in mezzo tra la parte superiore e la

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of original sin, the soul is now mixed up in sin to the point that it needs God’s grace. As a plant needs light from above, the human being constantly requires divine help and support.177 The soul should ready itself for receiving this divine influence (“influsso”) by menas of praying continuously and confessing frequently. Replying to a fictive question about the meaning of his discourse, Savonarola said that the Gospel of the day explained exactly that the human soul cannot live well without the help of God’s grace, nor without prayer and the continuous influence of the superior light.178 Following this introduction, the preacher proceeded to comment on the parable, presenting the key point of his reading: “We are represented by these two sons […] one represents the cold and the other the tepid Christians”.179 The prodigal son’s request to his father and his departure from the house symbolize those Christians who rapidly turn cold. They make their confession during Lent but, immediately after Easter claim their freedom (“Io non son frate, io non sono religioso; io posso usare un poco la mia libertà”). Starting with small things, they quickly return to the previous life and completely abandon their prayer. They are compared with the prodigal son who asks to be free, then abandons his father, and quickly ends up living lussuriosamente. The pastoral perspective adopted by Savonarola is noteworthy. Instead of urging the audience to confess their sins – as we have seen in many other sermons – Savonarola already took for granted that his listeners would confess during Lent. Although there was still one month before Easter, he aimed for a more lasting result and began to discuss the aftermath of the Lenten period. After depicting the ruinous fall of the prodigal son, the sermon states that cold Christians, who plunge into great sin and cannot claim any meritorious

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inferiore. Così l’anima nostra sta in mezzo tra li angeli e le creature inferiori e partecipa della natura de l’uno e de l’altro”; Savonarola, Prediche sopra Amos, 2, p. 5 (sermon 18). “Verbigrazia, piglia similitudine d’una pianta, la quale tu vedi che, benché abbia di molte virtù e potenzie dell’anima perfette e la virtù dalla terra e dalla acqua, tamen, se non ha l’influenzia del cielo continua, non fa nulla. Così tu, se non hai sempre el divino adiutorio e la mano di Dio che ti sostenti e facci bene operare, è impossibile che tu viva bene”; Ibid., 2, p. 8. “‘Or che vuoi tu dire, frate, per questo discorso?’ – Voglio dire in effetto che l’anima non può viver bene senza la grazia di Dio, né senza l’orazione e il continuo influsso del lume superiore. […] E che questo sia el vero, sta’ a udire, se tel dimostra l’Evangelio”; Ibid., 2, p. 9. “Noi siamo significati per li dua figliuoli […]: e l’uno di questi sono e’ freddi e l’altro e’ tiepidi”; Ibid., 2, p. 9.

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act, “raise up from sin much more easily than the tepid Christians”.180 The sinful condition of the cold people is manifest, while the sin of the tepid is hidden and “completely internalized, consisting of subtle pride and vainglory”.181 To explain the situation, Savonarola introduced a colourful simile: They are like two people closed in a dark room and seated on dung, which they cannot see. Yet, one of them is seated on a carpet. While the light comes into the room, the person seated on dung without the carpet cries: “Alas! Where am I?”, and knows his situation immediately. This one is the cold person. To the other person is said: “Look, you are seated on dung!”, but he replies: “No, I am on a carpet!” This latter person is the tepid one, who rests on the carpet of his exterior good deeds. Therefore, the cold person rises up much more easily than the tepid one The cold person sees neither anything good before him, nor any good deeds, and when a bit of light enters he says: “Alas! I am a wretch!”, and soon he rises up. On the contrary, the tepid person, who thinks he has some heat and can get away with a few good deeds, does not see his mistake and does not rise up.182 For this reason, Savonarola stated that the prodigal son’s request to be treated as a mercenary was wrong, since he was asking to be treated like a tepid person. On the contrary, his condition of a manifest sinner was better than the state of the mercenary and the tepid (“egli è migliore stato el tuo che quello del mercennario e del tiepido”). Hence, Savonarola inserted this reply of the father to his son: “You are wrong in your request! I do not want you to be a mercenary and that you serve me with servile fear. Instead, you’ll be a son, and a son serves 180

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“Diventa costui porco, idest tanto che fa li peccati pubblicamente e diventa come le mere­ trice e non si vergogna di niente. E questo è quanto a colui che è freddo e che non ha niente di buono in sé. In se autem reversus. Chi è venuto a questo grado come sono le meretrice e publicani, più facilmente si rileva che non fanno i tiepidi”; Ibid., 2, p. 12. “il peccato del tiepido è tutto drento d’una sottil superbia e vanagloria”; Ibid., 2, p. 12. “Costoro sono come dua rinchiusi in una camera al buio, tutt’a dua in sullo sterco che non veggono, ma l’uno di loro è in sullo sterco sanza tappeto. E’ viene el lume. Quello che è in sullo sterco sanza tappeto, grida: ‘Oimé, dove sono io?’ – e cognoscesi. E questo è el freddo. A quell’altro gli è detto: ‘Tu se’ in sullo sterco’. Lui dice: ‘No, io sono in sul tappeto’. E questo è el tiepido, che sta in sul tappeto delle buone opere esteriore. E però più facilmente si rileva per questa ragione el freddo che el tiepido. Questo freddo, non vede niente di buono dinanzi a sé, né niuna sua buona opera, e come e’ viene un poco di lume, dice: ‘Oimé, che io sono uno ribaldo!’, e presto si rileva. Ma el tiepido, che gli pare avere del caldo e parli pur far qualche buona opera, non vede el suo errore e non si rileva”; Ibid., 2, p. 13.

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for love”.183 The sentence drew on the traditional contraposition between the serf and the son, which we have encountered many times. The sermon continues with a detailed description of the new clothes that the father gives to his son. Savonarola proposed an elaborate symbology for the ring: “The ring is round and has neither a beginning nor an end. It means that faith in the Holy Trinity has neither beginning nor end. This ring has a ruby at its centre, which symbolizes faith in the humanity of Christ, which is red as blood, as is the ruby. It is a ring of gold, which means charity, because as gold is the most precious metal, charity is the most perfect virtue. The father puts the ring on the son’s hand. The hand means action, since faith without works is dead [Letter of James 2:16]”.184 A tiny detail of the parable is amplified and provides a sort of pocket-sized catechism that includes the Trinity, incarnation, love, faith, and good works. Thereafter, Fra Girolamo turned to comment on the condition of the tiepidi. They are compared with a magnet that has lost its inner force. From the outside, the magnet keeps its shape and colour; it looks perfect, but indeed its force has completely vanished.185 The same happens to the tepid Christians, who have lost the grace of God but, from the outside, look perfect. Savonarola identified the tepid Christians with the elder brother, since he does not recognize his faults and instead thinks himself righteous. The preacher hammered on this concept, repeating the word tiepidi, and recommending his audience to 183

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“Non – disse il padre – non così figliuolo: tu erri; non voglio che tu sia mercennario e che tu serva per timore servile, ma come figliuolo, perché il figliuolo serve per amore”; Ibid., 2, p. 15. “Lo anello è tondo e non ha principio né fine, il che significa la fede nella Santa Trinità che non ha né principio né fine. Ha questo anello uno rubino in mezzo, il che significa la fede della umanità di Cristo, rossa di sangue come il rubino. Era lo anello d’oro, che significa la carità, perché come l’oro è il più prezioso metallo, così la carità è la più perfetta virtù. Messeli questo anello in mano: la mano significa l’operazione, quia fides sine operibus mortua est”; Ibid., 2, p. 16. “Sono certe pietre che hanno virtù naturale, come è la calamita, ma accade che qualche volta perdano la propria forma, ma non si conosce per la forte disposizione che hanno: e non muta figura né colore, e però non si può conoscere così presto se li manca la propria forma o no; ma poi si conosce in lungo tempo. La forma del ben vivere è la grazia di Dio, la quale tu perdi quando vai in peccato; e quando el peccato è manifesto, si cognosce allora esser caduta la forma del ben vivere. Ma sono alcuni che benché abbino perso questa forma, tu non te ne avedi di fuora, e questi sono e’ tiepidi, e’ quali a poco a poco s’alungano dalla orazione e attendono a queste cerimonie d’officii fi fuora …”; Ibid., 2, p. 17. He also used a similar simile on the following day, speaking of a diamond that has lost its inner power; see p. 53 (sermon 19).

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avoid the company of such Christians.186 The topic of the exteriority of a tepid Christian life – the magnet without force – allowed Savonarola to turn to the saying of the prophet Amos (the prophet at the centre of that Lenten cycle): “I hate and reject your feasts; I take no pleasure in your congregations” (Amos 5:21). Thus, the last part of the sermon concerns a series of Florentine practices that – in the eyes of Fra Girolamo – contaminated the Christian liturgy with worldly elements. They range from the secular aspects of the feast of San Giovanni (the Florentine patron) to the use of elaborate songs in churches (“Lasciate andare e’ canti figurati, e cantate e’ canti fermi”); and from the paintings of the saints that depict contemporary citizens or that wear luxurious dresses (“Voi fate parere la Vergine Maria vestita come una meretrice!”) to the presence of secular coats of arms on liturgical objects or paraments.187 Savonarola returned to the parable during Lent of 1497. On that occasion, he did not comment extensively on the whole story. Instead, the parable served as an invitation for the audience to accept, without any discussion, the correction of their spiritual and temporal fathers. In fact, Savonarola presented the prodigal son as the negative example of those who refuse paternal authority and plunge into sin. However, when one is deep into sin, he or she should not despair but rather imitate the prodigal son and return back to God, in order to experience his mercy through the ministers of the Church.188 Although the 1497 sermon’s references to paternal authority and the explicit invitation to identify with the prodigal son are interesting, the 1496 sermon is more intriguing because of its juxtaposition of freddi and tiepidi. Such a comparison enabled the preacher to use the parable in a polemical fashion to criticize the false Christians, namely those who appeared to be right but, in fact, were seated on a carpet that hid the their utterly sinful condition. By saying that being cold was far better than being tepid, Savonarola was drawing on a famous passage from the Book of Revelation, which reads: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16). Just a few days after the sermon on the parable,

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The word tiepido\tiepidaccio recurs ten times on a single page of the modern edition; see Ibid., 2, p. 20. Ibid., 2, pp. 23-26. Criticisms of worldly aspects of the liturgy were common in fifteenthcentury sermons (also in Florence); see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, pp. 172-73. See Girolamo Savonarola, Prediche sopra Ezechiele, ed. Roberto Ridolfi, 2 vols (Rome: Belardetti, 1955), 1, pp. 332-34 (Sermon 25, 25 February 1497). Also in this instance, Lorenzo Violi was the reportator.

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Savonarola explicitly quoted this passage to explain, time and again, the nature of tepid Christians. Do you know what the cold is? It is self-love. Do you know what the heat is? It is the love for God. The tepid person has the heat just on the outside and not on the inside. The ceremonies and the external deeds show that, in a tepid person, the heat of the love for God is only on the outside, while inside the cold of self-love dominates.189 As we saw, the connection between the parable of the prodigal son and the line of Revelation on the lukewarm Christians had been already used by Conrad Grütsch. Yet, the German preacher had not dwelt on it at length. In order to understand the concerns of Savonarola on this theme, it is necessary to consider another of his sermons. Immediately after his return to Florence in 1490, during his public lessons on the Book of Revelation, Fra Girolamo commented extensively on Revelation 3:15-16. In his notes, he referred to this group of lessons as a sermon de tepiditate.190 We have only his brief notes on these lessons, which were quite relevant in establishing his fame within the city. In these notes we can already find the main facets of Savonarola’s reading of the prodigal son. In particular, one lesson addressed the question “whether the cold people are better than the tepid”. In his answer, the friar referred explicitly to the prodigal son and noted to explain the story in detail (“et explana praticando”). He stated that sometimes it is easier to clean a stain from a cloth when a bigger stain of mud overlapped it. In the same way, he argued that sometimes it is easier to eradicate the invisible sin of pride – the typical sin of the tiepidi – when one falls into more visible sins, because “those who cleanse themselves from pride, thanks to the mud of their sins, are easily converted, since they are ready to humiliate themselves, as happens with the simple people, the prosti-

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“Sai tu quale è il freddo? È l’amor proprio. Sai tu quale è il caldo? È l’amor divino. El tepido ha il caldo di fuora ma non di drento, perché le cerimonie e l’apparenzia delle opere esteriori dimostrano nel tepido el caldo dell’amor divino di fuora, ma drento vi è il freddo dello amor proprio”; Savonarola, Prediche sopra Amos, 2, pp. 201-02 (Sermon 25, 12 March 1496). This time, Savonarola linked the tiepidi with his enemies, those who were trying to denounce him at the papal court in Rome (cf. p. 203). The theme of the tiepidi is indeed one of the most recurrent in the sermon cycle and, more generally, one of the key-words of Savonarola’s sermons. See Armando F. Verde, “Le lezioni o i sermoni sull’Apocalisse di Girolamo Savonarola (1490),” Memorie Domenicane n.s. 19 (1988), 5-109: 84 and 92.

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tutes, and the pagans”.191 In the next lesson, Savonarola defined different types of tepidity and then noted: “Conclude the argumentation of the previous lesson and finish [with] the parable of the prodigal son”.192 Savonarola repeatedly proposed to his audience the juxtaposition between manifest sinners, who had a good chance to convert, and lukewarm Christians, who were prisoners of their self-confidence and pride. The perceived tensions in the sermons of 1496 did not provoke Savonarola’s peculiar reading of the prodigal son parable, which predated that situation. Yet the specific Florentine context gave it an additional meaning, since among the tiepidi the friar could also enrol his enemies, primarily, those who were writing letters to the papal court to discredit him.193 In this way, his reading of the parable in connection with the verse of Revelation about the lukewarm Christians acquired a new force in the ongoing fight, to which Savonarola had returned as “commander” at the centre of the battlefield – a centre that corresponded with the pulpit. However, this specific political context should not completely obfuscate Savonarola’s pastoral perspective. Presenting the parable in 1496, he aimed at a permanent conversion of his listeners, going far beyond confession during Lent. From Savonarola’s perspective, annual confession should not become a superficial ritual obligation; it should not be the carpet that hides the dung. Savonarola’s appeal for an enduring conversion can be seen as a variation on a theme that we have already encountered in many preachers. Namely, that the penitential itinerary should guide a sinner not only towards a confession of his or her sins, but also towards becoming a true lover of Christ, on the model of Mary Magdalen.

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“An meliores sint frigidi. Argue ad partes. Ista dispositio est similis multis aliis in quibus quaedam falsa habent maiorem apparentiam quam vera. […] De frigido primo autem propone parabolam de filio prodigo et explana praticando. Ergo frigidus est qui cum male vivat nec de scientia bene vivendi nec de bonis operibus gloriari potest. Nam superbia est fetor vasis etc. Ergo oportet abstergere et hoc fit aliquando sicut in maculis panni per maiores luti maculas, unde Christus non est incarnatus a principio etc. Hi ergo qui per lutum peccatorum potuerunt abstergere superbiam, sunt faciles convertibiles quia facile possunt humiliari, ergo etc. ut sunt rustici, meretrices, pagani etc.”; Verde, “Le lezioni,” p. 84 (lesson 38). Commenting on this, Verde recalls the ubiquity of the theme of the tiepidi in Savonarola’s works. On early occurrences of this topic in Savonarola’s sermons, see Weinstein Savonarola, pp. 87-92. “Solve argumenta praecedentis lectionis et fini’ parabolam filii prodigi”; Verde, “Le ­lezioni,” p. 85 (lesson 39). See Jean-Claude Zancarini, “La question de l’ennemi dans les sermons et écrits de Savo­ narole,” in Fontes, Fournel and Plaisance, eds., Savonarole, pp. 45-57.

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In the present chapter, we have attentively considered the lively voices of preachers and the transmission of their written sermons, which increasingly reached an audience of lay people, thanks to reportationes and the advent of printing. Yet, in late fifteenth-century Florence the parable of the prodigal son was assimilated on many levels and through different media, which fostered its widespread presence. Alongside preaching and the circulation of sermons, from 1450 to 1520, a peculiar form of religious theatre provided the citizens with another medium of religious instruction. In the next chapter, we shall analyse this type of religious drama and see its interaction with sermons, especially in regard to the message and the techniques of communication. This approach will also bring us back to Savonarola and his complex legacy.

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The Layman, the Woman, and the Priest: Three Florentine Dramas on the Prodigal Son From the late fourteenth century onwards, in some of the conventual churches of Florence the lay confraternities used to organize annual religious plays for their principal liturgical feastdays (the oldest and most famous were the plays for Annunciation, Ascension, and Pentecost). These spectacles sought to celebrate the main mysteries of the Christian faith in a visible form, and made ingenious uses of theatrical machinery that enabled spectacular special effects. Examples include the flight of the archangel Gabriel in the Annunciation play or Jesus’ rising to heaven in the Ascension play.1 Besides these religious spectacles, a complementary form of religious drama was developed during the fifteenth century, particularly during its second half: the Florentine sacre rappresentazioni. They represented a peculiar genre of religious and civic theatre.2 The sacre rappresentazioni usually involved a less complex setting and focused more on moral issues than the previous religious spectacles. By concentrating more on the representation of the human life and by gradually freeing this type of theatre from the liturgical context, these plays focused explicitly on education. The sacre rappresentazioni were in fact conceived as a pioneering catechetical activity in confraternities for boys (fanciulli, i.e. young men from twelve to twenty-four years old).3 In a ludic and entertaining way, the young, 1 See Nerida Newbigin, Feste d’Oltrarno: Plays in Churches in Fifteenth-Century Florence (Florence, 1996). Influential was the mise-en-scène of the Annunciazione in 1439; see Paola Ventrone, “La propaganda unionista negli spettacoli fiorentini per il Concilio del 1439,” in La stella e la porpora. Il corteo di Benozzo e l’enigma del Virgilio Riccardiano, eds. Giovanna Lazzi and Gerhard Wolf (Florence, 2009), pp. 23-48. 2 On the Florentine sacre rappresentazioni and their religious, political, and cultural meaning, see in particular Richard C. Trexler, “Ritual in Florence: Adolescence and Salvation in the Renaissance,” in The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion, eds. Charles Trinkaus and Heiko A. Oberman (Leiden, 1974), pp. 200-64; Richard C. Trexler, Public Life in Renaissance Florence (New York, 1980); Nerida Newbigin, ed., Nuovo corpus di sacre rappresentazioni del Quattrocento (Bologna, 1983); Sophie Stallini, Le théâtre sacré à Florence au XVe siècle: une histoire sociale des formes (Paris, 2011); Paola Ventrone, Teatro civile e sacra rappresentazione a Firenze nel Rinascimento (Florence, 2016) (with an ample bibliography). 3 On the age of the participants in the confraternities and on their differentiated social background, see Ilaria Taddei, Fanciulli e giovani. Crescere a Firenze nel Rinascimento (Florence, 2001).

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non-professional actors learned by rehearsing and performing the words and actions that were to become exemplary in their lives. The educational aim of this innovative theatre was twofold: on one hand it was directed at the spectators, who were often guided to ponder pressing contemporary urban issues reflected (directly or indirectly) in these dramas, and on the other hand aimed at the performers, who memorized the texts and so internalized their contents.4 These spectacles drew on biblical stories, saints’ lives, and moral examples that resembled those used in contemporary sermons. Therefore, the plays have been defined as “preaching in form of theatre”, since they adopted a narrative strategy and a visualized mode of communication to convey content close to that found in sermons.5 The power of visual spectacles was acknowledged by leading contemporary preachers. Talking about the bonfire of vanities, Bernar­ dino da Siena underlined the mnemonic function of spectacles, suggesting that the fanciulli “will keep the memory of this thing fifty years from now and they will remember this good and holy deed, for as Bonaventure said: You will better remember what you have seen than what you have heard”.6 Interwoven within its didactic dimension, the theatre had a political dimension. Following the path of civic religion that dominated fifteenth-century Italian cities, this theatre aimed to form “new generations of virtuous citizens committed to the common good” and presented the youths participating in it

4 Even Eisenbichler, who argues to be cautious on the effects of the sacre rappresentazioni on the audience, recognizes the importance of these plays for the young performers, see Konrad Eisenbichler, “How Bartolomeo Saw a Play,” in The Renaissance in the Streets, Schools, and Studies: Essays in Honour of Paul F. Grendler, eds. Konrad Eisenbichler and Nicholas Terpstra (Toronto, 2008), pp. 259-78. 5 See Paola Ventrone, “La sacra rappresentazione fiorentina, ovvero la predicazione in forma di teatro,” in Letteratura in forma di sermone: i rapporti tra predicazione e letteratura nei secoli XIII-XVI, eds. Ginetta Auzzas, Giuseppe Baffetti and Carlo Delcorno (Florence, 2003), pp. 25580 and Paola Ventrone, “The Influence of the Ars Praedicandi on the Sacra Rappresentazione in Fifteenth-Century Florence,” in Bériou and Morenzoni, eds., Prédication et liturgie, pp. 33548. See also Pietro Delcorno, “‘We Have Made It for Learning’. The Fifteenth-Century Florentine Religious Play Lazero ricco e Lazero povero as a Sermon in the Form of Theatre,” in Muzzarelli, ed., From Words to Deeds, pp. 65-97. On the interplay between preaching and theatre, see now Bouhaïk-Gironès and Polo de Beaulieu, eds., Prédication et performance. 6 “Anco è per esempio de’ fanciulli […]; e queste cose buone aranno a memoria di qui a cinquanta anni, a ricordare tale buona e santa opera. Disse Buonaventura: Più terrai a mente quello che vedrai che quello che udirai”; Bernardino da Siena, Siena 1425, 1, p. 192. On bonfire of vanities, see note 83.

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as models for the audience.7 The young actors from the confraternities were, in fact, speaking to a city that strongly invested in their civic and moral formation. They were seen as the dawn of a renewed Florence – or as “children of the promise”.8 However, the visible role of the boys on stage should not draw attention away from the key role played by adults behind the scene, in preparing these plays and selecting their content.9 The playwrights and organizers were aware of the pedagogic strength of this medium for religious and moral instruction, as will become evident from the plays discussed in this chapter. Within this context, the prodigal son’s story of sin and conversion, repeatedly attracted the attention of the playwrights. In fact, three entirely different dramas on this parable were written in Florence during the second half of the fifteenth century. They were staged repeatedly by the confraternities, and gradually also gained their own readership, especially due to the advent of the printing press. The attention given to this biblical story is exceptional within Florentine religious theatre. No other biblical story generated such constant attention from playwrights.10 This towering position becomes even more apparent when one considers that, among the parables of the Gospel, the only ones that were staged in Florence were Lazarus and the rich man and, indeed, the three plays on the prodigal son.11 Moreover, although the sources record earlier dramas based on the prodigal son (for example, on Palm Sunday 1420 a 7

8 9

10

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Paola Ventrone, “Politica e attualità nella sacra rappresentazione fiorentina del Quattrocento,” Annali di Storia Moderna e Contemporanea 14 (2008), 319-48: 320 and Paola Ventrone, “Sant’Antonino e l’uso del teatro nella formazione del cittadino devoto,” in Antonino Pierozzi OP (1389-1459): La figura e l’opera di un santo arcivescovo nell’Europa del Quattrocento, eds. Luciano Cinelli and Maria Pia Paoli, Memorie Domenicane n.s. 43 (2012), 549-67. Lorenzo Polizzotto, Children of the Promise. The Confraternity of the Purification and the Socialization of Youths in Florence 1427-1785 (Oxford, 2004), pp. 82-88. See Konrad Eisenbichler, “Adolescence and Damnation: Sin and Youth in Florentine Confraternities,” in Power, Gender, and Ritual in Europe and the Americas: Essays in Memory of Richard C. Trexler, eds. Michael J. Rocke and Peter J. Arnade (Toronto, 2008), pp. 77-94: 78. Some other biblical stories has two different versions (for instance, the story of Joseph and his brothers; see note 80) or two plays that stage different episodes of a biblical character (this is the case with Abraham, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalen). I do not consider here the peculiar cases of Jesus and the Virgin. As far as I know, the only case of a story that has three versions is a miracle connected with the legend of Saint James and Compostela, the Three pilgrims who went to San Iacopo; see Nerida Newbigin, “Dieci sacre rappresentazioni fra Quattro e Cinquecento,” Letteratura italiana antica 10 (2009), 21-397: 24-25. Moreover, in the case of the prodigal son, the three plays are entirely different and not just reworking or adaptations of the previous texts. See Ferdinando Neri, “Studi sul teatro italiano antico: Le parabole,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 65 (1915), 1-44.

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Spel van dem Verloren Zoon was performed by the clergy at Dendermonde in Flanders), the Florentine ones are the oldest surviving texts of a drama explicitly based on this parable.12 As such, they are the forerunners of a series of plays whose numbers would increase enormously during the sixteenth and the seventeenth century.13 The extraordinary attention given to the prodigal son in Florentine theatre was related to the educational aim of these plays. The two sons in the parable allowed the depiction of two contrasting models of adolescence: the rebellious and vicious life of the prodigal son and the obedient life of his elder brother. Yet, each drama depicted its own ideal model of an obedient and virtuous life, stressing different aspects and adopting various strategies of adapting the biblical parable to the Florentine context. Methodologically, the possibility to compare a drama not only with its biblical source, but also with other plays written in the same context, provides us with a valuable opportunity to detect clearly the characteristics of and intentions behind each dramatic rewriting of this parable. The comparison between these dramas also highlights the different approaches of the playwrights. Each of them worked within his or her network of cultural, religious, and political connections in the city. While many of the other plays remain anonymous, the authors of the three Florentine dramas on the prodigal son are well-known personalities. They were a layman, Piero di Mariano Muzi; a lay woman, Antonia Pulci; and a secular priest, Castellano Castellani. Their marked differences and their distinct texts provide an invaluable insight into the assimilation and appropriation of biblical texts by the laity and the clergy, and by men and women. This engagement with the biblical text opens the way to consider how the elaboration of a public theological discourse also involved the active contribution of the laity.14 In the previous chapter we looked at a form of lay participation that was expressed through an attentive listening to preaching, which sometimes included the decision to 12 13

14

Courtois d’Arras has to be considered more as a creative imitation or a parody of the parable than as a dramaturgical transposition of it; see above pp. 94-96. See Joannes F.M. Kat, De verloren zoon als letterkundig motief (Amsterdam, 1952), p. 32 and Lenke Kovacs, “The Dramatisation of the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Catalan and European Sixteenth Century Drama,” in Mainte belle oeuvre faicte. Études sur le théâtre médiéval offertes à Graham A. Runnalls, eds. Denis Hüe, Mario Longtin and Lynette Muir (Orléans, 2005), pp. 265-88. Chapter 6 will detail further on sixteenth-century plays. The invitation to move beyond the limits of previous labels, such as devotional or catechetical writing, and to “take seriously the theological value […] of texts such as medieval sermons and hagiography, as well as plays, poetry and some of the so-called mystical writing” has been reasserted by Corbari, Vernacular Theology, p. 63.

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take selective notes in order to better memorize the sermons and participate actively in their dissemination. This time, however, lay people were at the forefront of this re-elaboration of the Gospel, in a way that in our itinerary has no comparison and that is worthy of a careful consideration. These plays enable us to see how – alongside and together with preaching – the parable of the prodigal son was continuously reworked to convey a clear-cut religious message, and to consider the active role of the laity in this practice, both in writing and staging plays based on the Gospel.15 Other forms of religious instruction, such as preaching, maintain a distinction between the authoritative voice of the clergy and the receptive ear of the lay audience, notwithstanding the agency of the latter in its reception and its influence on the preachers themselves.16 These theatrical performances instead unfold the presence of a strong cooperation between laity and clergy within a network of relationships that faci­litated cultural and religious exchanges.17 The cooperation was by no means limited to religious plays, instead it characterized the “public theology” that developed in fifteenth-century Florence from this two-way exchange.18 Against persisting historiographical stereotypes, in fifteenth-century Italy lay people showed a great confidence in their personal engagement with the Bible, as the studies of Sabrina Corbellini on the agency of lay people in coping and transmitting vernacular biblical texts have reasserted.19 However, in this case, it was not just 15

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On the lay people’s engagement with the Bible in Italy, see an updated overview in Sabrina Corbellini, “Reading, Writing, and Collecting: Cultural Dynamics and Italian Vernacular Bible Translation,” Church History and Religious Culture 93 (2013), 189-216. On the lay people’s widespread access to the Bible in fifteenth-century Italy, see Gigliola Fragnito, La Bibbia al rogo: la censura ecclesiastica e i volgarizzamenti della Scrittura, 1471-1605 (Bologna, 1997). On the vernacular Bible in the Florentine brotherhoods, see Rosa Maria Dessì, “Parola, scrittura, libri nelle confraternite. I laudesi fiorentini di San Zanobi,” in Il buon fedele. Le confraternite tra medioevo e prima età moderna, in Quaderni di Storia Religiosa 5 (1998), 83-105 and Sabrina Corbellini, “Plea for Lay Bibles in Fourteenth- and Fif­teenthCentury Tuscany: The Role of Confraternities,” in Faith’s Boundaries. Laity and Clergy in Early Modern Confraternities, eds. Nicholas Terpstra, Adriano Prosperi and Stefania Pa­store (Turnhout, 2012), pp. 87-112. On the agency of (female) listeners, see Corbari, Vernacular Theology, pp. 57-66. See Caby and Dessì Humanistes, clercs et laïcs. See Howard, “‘Doctrine,” pp. 293-314. See also Peter Howard, “The Impact of Preaching in Renaissance Florence: Fra Niccolò da Pisa at San Lorenzo,” Medieval Sermon Studies 48 (2004), 29-44. A useful vade-mecum on Florentine fifteenth-century religious poetry is Marco Villoresi, Sacrosante parole: Devozione e letteratura nella Toscana del Rinascimento (Florence, 2014). See Sabrina Corbellini, Mart van Duijn, Suzan Folkerts, and Margriet Hoogvliet, “Challenging the Paradigms. Holy Writ and Lay Readers in Late Medieval Europe,” Church

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a form of creatively retelling the parable; all three of these dramas also dwelt on the theological issues traditionally connected with the story of the prodigal son. Thus, they amounted to exegetical interpretations that addressed the Gospel in a new form; a form that was neither private nor confined to domestic circles, but received public recognition first on the stage of the confraternities and then, from about 1485 onwards, through the printing press. 1

The Youth Confraternity of the Purification and Piero Muzi

The oldest play was the Festa del vitello sagginato (Festa of the Fatted Calf), written by Piero di Mariano Muzi. He was the guardian of the Confraternity of the Purification, one of the leading Florentine brotherhoods for boys. While the other two plays about the prodigal son only indirectly reveal a connection with the milieu of the companies for boys, there is documentary evidence on the mise en scène by a specific confraternity for Muzi’s play. From 1450 onwards, the Confraternity of the Purification had an intensive involvement with acting and the Vitello sagginto was one of the two key plays in its repertoire. The other was the Rappresentazione della Purificazione, which was staged yearly for the feast of the Purification and ritually embodied the very identity of the confraternity.20 Alongside this drama, the Festa of the Fatted Calf was the other play that the brotherhood performed on a regular basis. The documents show that it was staged in 1450, 1462, and 1468, and probably on several other occasions.21 Before considering this play, its connection with this brotherhood gives us the opportunity to better pinpoint the characteristics

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History and Religious Culture 93 (2013), 171-88 and Sabrina Corbellini and Margriet Hoogvliet, “Holy Writ and Lay Readers in Late Medieval Europe: Translation and Participation,” in Texts, Transmissions, Receptions: Modern Approaches to Narratives, eds. André Lardinois et al. (Leiden, 2014), pp. 259-80. Using the 1427 Catasto, the percentage of adult male literacy in Florence has been measured at about seventy per cent, while it is more difficult to measure the contemporary female literacy, which nevertheless appears to have been widespread as well; see Robert Black, Education and Society in Florentine Tuscany: Teachers, Pupils and Schools, c. 1250-1500 (Leiden, 2007), pp. 1-42. On the sacre rappresentazioni performed by this confraternity, see Polizzotto, Children of the Promise, pp. 77-92. The records of the performances of the Florentine religious plays are generally scarce in comparison with the number of texts and confraternities involved in this activity; see Richard C. Trexler, “Florentine Theatre 1280-1500: A Checklist of Performances and Institutions,” Forum Italicum 14 (1980), 460-67 and the already mentioned studies of Nerida Newbigin.

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of this type of confraternity and its innovative educational use of theatre. This approach will help us to consider this drama in its original context. The civic and religious value of these confraternities is clearly stated in two letters of Ambrogio Traversari (d. 1439), the renowned humanist and general of the Camaldolese order.22 Writing to Pope Eugenius IV, this erudite monk highly praised the Florentine youth confraternities for their educational commitment. Traversari depicted them as a true “school of Christian virtue” (“schola christianae virtutis”), which stimulated the commitment of boys to their faith, increasing their participation in the sacraments of confession and communion (“confitentur saepius, plerumque communicant”). In this way, these adolescents became examples to their parents, and in the future would become either righteous citizens or zealously religious. In the last case, their confraternal experience would be a praexercitatio for the religious life.23 A comparable youth confraternity in Bologna, the Compagnia di San Girolamo, proposed a highly demanding model of spiritual life through the adoption of several monastic practices, and was presented as a sort of lay noviciate in which its participants should behave “ad similitudinem novitiorum religiosorum”.24 Therefore, these confraternities aimed for religious and social control over adolescents, and ideally prepared them for a Christian life in society or in a religious order.25 22 23

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On the substantial bibliography on Traversari, see Elisabetta Guerrieri, Clavis degli autori camaldolesi (secoli XI-XVI) (Florence, 2012), pp. 4-57. “Habet civitas nostra puerorum plurimas societates, nobilium, mediocrium, inopum. […] Confitentur saepius, plerumque communicant, et quum diebus reliquis suam quisque artem iussi a parentibus innocue exerceant, dominicis ac festis diebus coeunt omnes ad designatum locum, ibique divis laudibus vacant, et tempus per salutaria colloquia ducunt”; Ambrogio Traversari, Epistolae, 1.19, col. 40, ed. Lorenzo Mehus (1759; Bologna, 1968). “Gaudent primores civitatis plerique filios suos […] in ista schola christianae virtutis educari, in qua nihil praeter pietatem discitur, nihil praeter bonos mores hauritur. […] Ita instituti et imbuti, parentum repetunt domos, ibique religionis specimen praeferentes familiae reliquae ad bonam frugem exemplo atque incitamento sunt. […] Quam laetus ex hac exercitatione prodeat fructus obscurum esse non potest. Sive enim isti in saeculo permanere delegerint, gustum supernae gratiae, quae in tenera aetate perceperunt, servant, atque ad Magistratus quosque civitatis electi iustitiam prae ceteris colunt. Sive, quod saepissime fit, religionem profiteri maluerint, hac veluti praexercitatione edocti minus vitae quavis austeritate deterrentur, evaduntque facile in bonos viros”; ivi, 3.31, coll. 136-37. For an English translation, see Trexler, “Ritual in Florence”. Notarial act (c.1425) quoted in Candido Mesini, “La catechesi a Bologna e la prima compagnia della dottrina cristiana fondata dal B. Nicolò Albergati (1375-1444),” Apollinaris 54 (1981), 232-67: 243. Mesini publishes the statutes of the confraternity, copied in 1445. On confraternities and social control of the youth see Marina Gazzini, “Confraternite e giovani a Milano nel Quattrocento,” Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia 57 (2003), 65-84

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While in Florence during and after the Council, Pope Eugenius IV devoted specific attention to the confraternities for boys, which were spotted as pivotal players in the reform of the Florentine church.26 In 1442, Eugenius IV issued a bull to reorganize them, approving the establishment of four main youth confraternities and sanctioning their activities.27 These companies were the Arcangelo Raffaele, San Giovanni Evangelista, San Niccolò del Ceppo, and the Purificazione, which had been founded in 1427 as an offshoot of the Arcangelo Raffaele. The pope and the ecclesiastical authorities were not the only ones interested in the life of these confraternities. This is shown by the history of the Purification company, which found a powerful and wealthy patron in Cosimo de’ Medici, the undisputed leading actor on the Florentine political stage. In 1444, Cosimo provided the Purification with new quarters in the buildings of the Observant Dominican friary of San Marco, which had a central place in the civic and religious life of the city, and was led in those years by Antonino Pierozzi (Antoninus of Florence).28 As pointed out by Lorenzo Polizzotto, the Medici patronage came at a price and, from that moment onwards, “the Puri­ fication played an important role in the consolidation of the Medicean regime”, contributing in entrenching an ideology that supported – at least indirectly – the authority of the Medici. Such political influence can be seen also in the religious dramas performed by the Purification.29 In addition to other devotional and educational practices such as public processions, lauda-singing, listening to and delivering sermons, the statutes of this confraternity, approved in 1448 by Antonino Pierozzi (who had become archbishop of Florence in 1446), prescribed the staging of a religious drama on the occasion of the main feast of the confraternity.30 Such an innovative use

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and Ilaria Taddei, “Confraternite e fanciulli,” in Studi confraternali: orientamenti, problemi, testimonianze, ed. Marina Gazzini (Florence, 2009), pp. 79-93. See Luca Boschetto, Società e cultura a Firenze al tempo del Concilio: Eugenio IV tra curiali mercanti e umanisti (1434-1443) (Rome, 2012), pp. 373-77. See Polizzotto, Children of the Promise, pp. 10-12. On the seat of this confraternity, see Ann Matchette, “The Compagnia della Purificazione e di San Zanobi in Florence: A Recostruction of Its Residence at San Marco, 1440-1506,” in Confraternities and Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Speactacle, Image, eds. Barbara Wisch and Diane Cole Ahl (Cambridge, 2000), pp. 74-101, which publishes also the 1501 inventory of the company, which lists several spiritual books and theatrical props (pp. 93-100). On Antonino, see the recent Antonino Pierozzi OP (1389-1459). On the “politicization of the Purification”, see Polizzotto, Children of the Promise, pp. 53-64 (quotation, p. 54). On the political influence in its plays, see pp. 84-92. See Paola Ventrone, Lo spettacolo religioso a Firenze nel Quattrocento (Milan, 2008), p. 146.

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of theatre relied on humanist pedagogy. Referring to Quintillian’s Institutio oratoria, this pedagogy considered acting as an effective means of education, through which the adolescents could actively absorb the moral concepts and the behavioural guidelines by which they should live their adult lives.31 Piero Muzi was the guardian of the Purification company during the years in which it was at the centre of a rich network of promoters and patrons.32 The archival documents certify that he already held this position – to which he was appointed for life – in 1442 and that he was still in charge of it in 1454.33 He would never have obtained and maintained this office, if he had not proven to be reliable and clever in guiding the emergence and transformation of the confraternity. The son of a notary, Piero was an artisan, a borsaio (a producer and seller of bags), with a strong commitment to the confraternal life. He was not only guardian of the Purificazione, but in 1454 he also acted as guardian of a brotherhood for adults, the buca of Santa Maria della Pietà.34 Moreover, his brother, Antonio, was at the same time the guardian of the Arcangelo Raffaele. This was the oldest confraternity for boys, which counted among its members, for example, Iacopo Ammannati. When serving as a cardinal, Amman­nati recalled his time in the brotherhood as a decisive experience in his Christian education, and acknowledged Antonio Muzi to have been his spiritual father.35 This confirms the network of relationships around these confraternities and the quality of the laymen who guided them. Piero and Antonio Muzi closely matched the description of the ideal guardian for this type of brotherhood, which Traversari outlined in 1435: “At the head of each confraternity is a faithful, grave, religious, and God-fearing layman who rears these boys and who, in secular dress, drills the recruits for the militia of the Eternal King”.36 In his commitment to the Purification, Piero Muzi was also responsible for the organization of the first religious plays staged by the confraternity. After preparing over a few months, evidenced from the book of the expenses of the company, the boys of the company staged the play of the Purification of the 31 32 33 34 35

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See Ventrone, Teatro civile, pp. 140-165. See also Konrad Eisenbichler, The Boys of the Archangel Raphael: A Youth Confraternity in Florence, 1411-1785 (Toronto, 1998), pp. 198-217. See Polizzotto, Children of the Promise, pp. 70-71 and Stallini, Le théâtre, pp. 85-87. See Taddei, Fanciulli e giovani, p. 130. See Taddei, Fanciulli e giovani, p. 143. See Boschetto, Società e cultura, pp. 457-58. Also the humanist Vespasiano da Bisticci recalled his participation in this confraternity at the encouragement of Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, another spokesman of the papal curia. “Singulis praefectus est laicus fidelis, gravis, religiosus, ac timens Deum, qui hos [pueros] enutriat, et in saeculari habitu ad aeterni Regis militiam tyrones exerceat”; Traversari, Epistolae, 1.19. The English translation is found in Trexler, “Ritual in Florence,” p. 209.

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Virgin, on her feast day, 2 February 1450 (1449 in the Florentine calendar). Just two weeks later, on 19 February, they staged the Vitello sagginato, an appropriate play for the passage from Carnival to Lent.37 While the first text remains anonymous, the second was written by Piero Muzi, thus providing us with a precious insight into the religious culture and the educational strategies of a layman, who was at the forefront of the renewal of the civic and religious socialisation of the youth in Florence. 2

The Festa of the Fatted Calf

The Vitello sagginato was staged by the Purification at least three times from 1450 to 1468, and probably much more frequently. As proof of the success of this drama, eight manuscripts preserve its text. The manuscripts present variants and rearrangements, probably due to the repeated adaptation of the text for new performances, as the critical edition shows.38 Moreover, one of the manuscripts is a copy made in 1482 in Bologna for the aforementioned Com­ pagnia di San Girolamo.39 This confirms the circulation of the text outside Florence prior to its first printed edition, which appeared around 1490. The text closely followed the main formal features of the Florentine sacre rappresentazioni. These plays were characterized by the use of the ottava rima, a versatile hendecasyllabic eight-line stanza (rhymed: abababcc), which greatly helped the oral performance and the memorization of the texts.40 Moreover, the majority of the plays have an annuncio (prologue) and a licenza (valediction) delivered by an angel, who summarized the content of the drama.41 In Muzi’s play, the long introduction given by the angel narrates the parable in 37

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See Polizzotto, Children of the Promise, pp. 79-80. The 19 February 1450 was the second day of Lent. Also in 1491, the company of San Giovanni Evangelista played a sacra rappresentazione on the second day of Lent, since the stage was not ready before that day; see Eisenbichler, “How Bartolomeo,” p. 264. For the critical edition and the list of the manuscripts, see Newbigin, ed., Nuovo corpus, pp. 31-55. The manuscript is Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, MS 483. See Giuseppe Vecchi, “Le sacre rappresentazioni della compagnia dei battuti in Bologna nel secolo XV,” in Studi storici in memoria di Luigi Simeoni, 2 vols (Bologna, 1953), 2, pp. 281-324. See Ventrone, Teatro civile, pp. 153-56, which underlines the connection with the tradition of the cantari. See Paola Ventrone, “Per una morfologia della sacra rappresentazione fiorentina,” in Teatro e cultura della rappresentazione: Lo spettacolo in Italia nel Quattrocento, ed. Raimondo Guarino (Bologna, 1988), pp. 195-225. See also Nerida Newbigin, “Directing the

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seven octaves. As such, this introduction can be seen as a versification of the biblical text.42 The spectators first listened to the parable, and then were invited to watch its dramatization. This worked as a biblical reading followed by a sermon to explain it, a practice familiar to the audience. The angel explicitly mentioned the relationship between hearing and sight.43 First he says: “So listen with good zeal each one of you | to what Jesus says in the Gospel” (“Ciascuno stia a udire con buon zelo | come Gesù sì parla nel Vangelo”; 1.7-8). Then, after his account, he announces “Now you will all see this story”, anticipating the expected impact of its moral message: “Each of you should watch devoutly | and set your minds on doing what is good | following the good example represented here” (“Voi vedrete tutti questa storia. | Ciascuno stia con devozione, | e al far ben ciascuno abbi memoria | pigliando essempro alla presen­tazione”; 7.1-4).44 Muzi’s was one of the first plays that experimented one of the fundamental didactic mechanisms of the sacre rappresentazioni, i.e. a “pedagogical realism” that allowed for an identification with their protagonists.45 The play can be divided in six parts: the discussion the prodigal son has with his father and the treasurer of the house; the departure of the prodigal son; the appointment of the elder brother; the return of the prodigal son; the preparation of the feast; the return of the older son and his reconciliation with his

42

43

44

45

Gaze: Expository Modes in Late Medieval Italian Plays,” in Butterworth, ed., The Narrator, pp. 69-92. On the versification of the Gospel, see Francesca Gambino, “Epica biblica. Spunti per la definizione di un genere medievale,” La parola e il testo 5 (1999), 7-43. For references to previous versifications, see below pp. 301-02. This interaction was theorized by the first stanza of one of the earliest sacre rappresentazioni, Feo Belcari’s Abramo e Isacco. It reads: “L’occhio si dice ch’è la prima porta | per la qual lo’ntelletto intende e gusta, | la seconda è l’udir con voce scorta | che fa la mente nostra esser robusta: | però vedrete ed udirete in sorta | recitare una storia santa e giusta”; Alessandro D’Ancona, ed., Sacre rappresentazioni dei secoli XIV, XV e XVI, 3 vols (Florence, 1872), 1, p. 44. See Nerida Newbigin, “‘L’occhio si dice ch’è la prima porta’. Seeing with Words in the Florentine Sacra Rappresentazione,” Mediaevalia 28 (2007), 1-22. I quote the text edited in Newbigin, ed., Nuovo corpus, pp. 37-55. I introduce the number of the octave and the verse. I follow the translation provided in Piero di Mariano Muzi, The Festa of the Fatted Calf, ed. Nerida Newbigin (2011 online edition: (accessed 8 July 2017)), adapting it in parts in order to have a more literal translation. Here and in the other plays, I write the stage indications in italics. See Ventrone, Teatro civile, p. 171 (on the Vitello sagginato, pp. 171-74).

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brother. The play relies to a large extent on the biblical parable. Nevertheless, it introduces several novelties and some significant changes.46 While in the Gospel the request of the son to have his share of the estate does not encounter any resistance, here it occupies almost a quarter of the play (15 octaves out of 64). The discussion between the father and the son has different phases. The first time the son requests his share, the father replies by highlighting how comfortable a life the son has at home, and how hard he has worked to ensure his son can enjoy such a high standard of living: 9. O figliuol mio, ch’è questo che m’hai detto? Come ti vuoi dal tuo padre partire che stai qui meco con tanto diletto e se’ ricco e con ogni bel vestire? Deh, statti meco che sie benedetto! Perché stia ben, patito ho gran martìre: acciò che tu abbi del mio guadagnato, insino alla morte io mi son cacciato.

My son, what’s this that you are telling me? How can you want to leave your father when you are so happy living here with me, and you are rich, and have the finest clothes? Ah, stay with me and you’ll be far more blessed! I’ve suffered greatly for you to be rich. So that you should have what I’ve earned I’ve worked myself right to the brink of death.

As the discussion develops, the father seems to regret that he has been too accommodating in his son’s upbringing, thus transforming an obedient son into a rebel. The scene was also an indirect warning to the fathers attending the play, who should avoid being too compliant with their sons. Moreover, this stanza introduces the theme of obedience and respect due to the father, which turns into a central concept for the play. 13. O figliuol mio, tu sai che pel passato tu m’hai mostrato d’esser ubbidiente. Ora tu parli molto scostumato e riverenza a me non hai niente, e veggio perch’io t’abbia lusingato tu mi rispondi più arditamente.

My son, you know that in the past you gave all signs of being obedient to me. You’re speaking very rudely to me now, and show me not a glimmer of respect. I see that just because I’ve pleased you, you answer me more insolently.

In a crescendo of tension, the father threatens not to give him any money, by saying harshly that “The property is mine, and I have all the documents” (“La roba è mia, e così n’ho le carte”; 13.8). Then, after another impertinent reply of 46

A useful scheme that compares each of the three sacre rappresentazioni with the structure of the biblical parable can be found in Stallini, Le théâtre, pp. 271-82. Stallini briefly analyses some aspects of the three plays, pp. 85-105 and 206-10.

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the son, the father – as the ‘stage directions’ indicate – moves angrily towards the son (“El padre […] va contro al figliuolo adiratamente”).47 He accuses him of refusing to do what he commands and predicts all the troubles that this will cause for him. Faced by his son’s intransigence, the father finally agrees to give him his part of the estate, acknowledging his freedom (“O figliuol mio, tu se’ in libertade”; 17.1). The father orders his treasurer to give the son the fabulous amount of 10,000 florins, and – with a touch of anger – now declares him to be no longer a son, but a sensale, a broker. The parental relationship seems completely broken, since it remains just a question of money. Although the finale of the story was well known by the audience, this bitter discussion of money enhanced the play’s realism, echoing a kind of dispute that would sound familiar to actors and spectators.48 Muzi also used this scene to introduce the first allegorical character of the play. In fact, the father’s treasurer is named Libero albitro, i.e. Free Will. The relevance of this name is underlined by its mention four times in short succession, thus ensuring that the audience does not overlook this theological element, allowing for an allegorical reading of the whole story. As we have seen in previous chapters, precise references to this theological point are found in patristic and scholastic commentaries on the parable. Sermons also often discussed this point, and they surely were one of the possible direct sources of Muzi. This theological level was neither in conflict with the psychological construction of the characters nor with the entertaining dimension of the play. In fact, the harsh discussion between father and son is repeated when the son meets the treasurer, to the point that the furious son “makes show of using arms against Free Will” – as is written in the stage instruction introducing the scene – and threatens to kill him if he does not quickly hand over all the money granted to him by the father. After seizing the money, the son proclaims his intention to lead a life of luxury and takes his leave from the father without expressing any regret.49 Leaving home, the son publicly invites people to join him, so that they can have a good time together: 47

48 49

Speaking of ‘stage direction’ in sacre rappresentazioni is an anachronism, but the term fits better thn ‘rubric’ or ‘didascalia’; see on this Nerida Newbigin, “Rubrics and Didascalie in Fifteenth-Century Dramatic Texts: Some Observations on the Evolution of the Stage Direction,” Parergon, 13.2 (1996), 93-107 and Ventrone, Teatro civile, pp. 158-59. See Stallini, Le théâtre, pp. 94-95. A manuscript (Siena, Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati, MS I.II.33) adds an octave, in which the elder brother tries to convince his brother to remain, who answers scornfully; see Muzi, The Festa of the Fatted Calf, p. 18.

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24. Io ho una borsa piena di fiorini: chi vuol venire meco in compagnia? I’ sì lo vestirò di vestir fini, andren godendo questa roba mia. Saren tenuti ricchi cittadini. Chi vuol venire si metta in via! Merren de’ cani e sì andren cacciando, falcon e sparvier, e andremo uccellando.

A purse brimful of florins have I here: who wants to come with me and be my friend? I’ll dress him in the finest set of clothes, and we’ll enjoy this property of mine. We’ll be welcomed as wealthy citizens. Those who want to come should make their way! We’ll take some dogs, a-hunting we will go, and fowling too with falcons and with hawks.

Seven companions join the prodigal son in the wake of this alluring proposal. They promise to be his good friends by helping him to spend his fortune in a life full of pleasures. The prodigal son asks them who they are, and their leader replies: 27. Io sono el capitan della brigata: Superbia da ciascuno i’ son chiamata. Questa è l’Avarizia nominata, questa è la ’Nvidia, andrà in ogni lato, questa è la Gola che è molta amata, quest’è l’Accidia che le sta al lato, e quest’è Ira che verrà con furia, questa che dà piacer si è Lussuria.

I am the captain of this happy band: Pride is the name I’m known by to all. And this chap here is Avarice by name, and this is Envy, good for everywhere, and this is Gluttony, who’s much beloved, and this is Sloth, who is always beside him, and this is Wrath, who’ll come with fury, and this one, who gives pleasure, is Lust.

Once again, Muzi fused together the narrative with an allegorical perspective. The prodigal son’s companions are the seven deadly sins, who are led by pride, according to the most diffused schemes on the capital vices.50 As we have seen, the commentaries of Bonaventure and Albert the Great associated the prodigal son’s experience in the regionem longinquam with the seven deathly vices and, directly or indirectly, these texts probably suggested this idea to Muzi. Moreover, thinking to the mise-en-scène of this part of the play, one can wonder whether the actors wore particular dresses, symbolizing the characteristic of each vice, as a visual aid to enrich the show.51 50

51

See Casagrande and Vecchio, I sette vizi capitali and, for recent scholarship on this topic, Richard G. Newhauser and Susan J. Ridyard, eds., Sin in Medieval and Early Modern Culture. The Tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins (York, 2012). For later examples, see Hilaire Kallendorf, “Dressed to the Sevens, or Sin in Style: Fashion Statements by the Deadly Vices in Spanish Baroque Autos Sacramentales,” in The Seven Deadly Sins: From Communities to Individuals, ed. Richard G. Newhauser (Leiden, 2007), pp. 145-82. On vices in sixteenth-century dramas, see Charlotte Steenbrugge, Staging Vice: A Study of Dramatic Traditions in Medieval and Sixteenth-Century England and the Low Countries (Amsterdam, 2014).

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The debauched life of the prodigal son is not presented on the stage. It is only announced by this dialogue with his companions, in which they speak of precious and expensive dresses, horses, dogs, falcons for hunting, and rich banquets of game and good capons. These elements – present in the visual representations of the prodigal son and also used by Bernardino da Siena in his sermons – were closely associated with the ideal of the courtly life, which was a particularly influential model in contemporary Florence.52 Instead of describing the adventures of the prodigal son, Muzi keeps the father’s house at the centre of the stage. If the play were a movie, we could speak of a fixed camera perspective, which focuses on the house.53 The prodigal son’s vicious life, ruin, and conversion are only recounted indirectly at his return. Before that, Muzi introduces a dialogue between the elder brother and the father. The elder son assures his father that he will help him with the family’s business and the father asks him to go check on their farmers in the countryside. This request justifies the absence when his brother comes back, as the Gospel says: “the older son had been out in the field” (Luke 15:25). The scene also highlights a central topic of the play. In fact, the theme of obedience is repeatedly underlined as the chief virtue of the elder son, in opposition to his younger brother, who is “a rebel”, as the father labels him (“ha volute esser da me ribello”; 29.5). Padre: […] fa che mi sia figliuolo riverente e sempre mai siemi ubbidiente. (29.7-8)

Father: […] make sure, my son, you show me respect, and always be obedient to me.

Figlio maggiore: […] io farò ogni cosa dovuta, e da voi non mi partirò giammai. Deh, fate fine alla cosa ch’è suta. Dite quello ch’io faccia, e lo faroe, e sempre mai sì vi ubbidiroe. (30.4-8)

Older son: […] whatever you may need I’ll do, and I will never leave you here alone. I beg you, put this all behind you now. Tell me what I must do, and I’ll do it, and I’ll always obey you in this way.

Figlio maggiore: Ubbidir voglio il tuo comandamento e volentier farò ciò che mi dite. (32.1-2)

Older son: What you command I gladly will obey and what you say I’ll do most willingly.

52 53

See Ventrone, ed., Le temps revient. On Bernardino’s sermon, see above pp. 203-06. Probably practical reasons also influenced this choice, which eased the organization of the stage in the narrow space of the confraternity quarters. For instance, in 1468 the Prodigal Son was staged in the cloister of the San Marco convent; see Polizzotto, Children of the Promise, p. 79. On the places and spaces of the Florentine theatre, see Elvira Garbero Zorzi and Mario Sperenzi, eds., Teatro e spettacolo nella Firenze dei Medici: Modelli dei luoghi teatrali (Florence, 2001).

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This scene has no parallels in the Gospel and characterizes the elder brother as obedient, yet also as intransigent with the peasants, whom he depicts as deceivers and hard-headed men. By contrast, although the father is firm in asking for the right payment, affirms that he will always bestow justice and mercy. This foreshadows the successive scenes, when the father’s mercy celebrates its triumph on both sons.54 The stage direction requires that, while the elder son stays away in the country, his younger brother should return. The latter is depicted with his clothes in tatters, poorly dressed, and shaggy (“tutti e panni stracciati, vestito di taccolino e tutto piloso”), a description quite close to those in Bernardino da Siena’s sermons. Following the Gospel words, the prodigal son humbly asks for his father’s mercy. The father’s reaction emphasizes the emotional aspect of the encounter, as the anaphoric repetition of the expression “figliuol mio” demonstrates (it frames the stanza, using the rhetorical figure of the inclusio): 36. O figliuol mio, tu sia el ben venuto! O figliuol mio, dove se’ tu istato? O figliuol mio, tu se’ così sparuto! O figliuol mio, tu se’ sì digrassato! Figliuolo, a pena ch’i’ t’ho conosciuto! Figliuolo, tu se’ tutto trasformato! Io ho grande allegrezza nel cor mio perché tu se’ tornato, figliuol mio.

O my dear son, you are most welcome here! O my dear son, where have you been? O my dear son, you’re all just skin and bone! O my dear son, you’ve lost so much condition! My dear son, I hardly recognized you there! My dear son, you are quite transformed. My heart is overflowing with great joy because you have returned, my dear son.

The father orders one of his servants, symbolically called Hope, to bring new clothes, a ring, and shoes for his son, and then asks the son to tell him exactly where has he been and what has he done (“Deh dimmelo, figliuolo, ora al presente: | dove se’ stato e quello che hai fatto”; 39.6-7). The prodigal son details what has happened since he left home. His account occupies seven octaves and is a faithful versification of the Gospel story, which is presented here in firstperson by the son. While in the Bible the father stops the son when he wants to make a detailed confession, here the latter is presented without omissions. On the one hand, it served to complete the story by presenting this part of 54

“A far ragione i’ sarò sempre intero | con misericordia al nostro amico. | Se la chiedera[n] sanza ingannare, | el debito lor farò cancellare” (34.5-8). A manuscript introduces an interesting scene: two farmers go to the father to protest against his elder son’s behaviour by depicting him as a rapacious landowner; see Newbigin, ed., Nuovo corpus, p. 46. The scene is incomplete (there are two stanzas, while the remainder of the manuscript page is blank); however, it probably served to stress the elder brother’s intransigence and, on the other hand, as a comic insertion that enhanced the realism of the story. The latter was a specific function of the so-called inframmessa; see Ventrone, Per una morfologia, pp. 21819 and Stallini, Le théâtre, pp. 81-85.

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the parable through the emotionally intense words of the protagonist. On the other hand, this long speech provided a perfect model of the confession that the boys of the confraternity (and the spectators) were expected to make to their confessors on a regular basis. In fact, this speech makes explicit the process of the conversion of the prodigal son, his recognition of sin, his contrition, and his willingness to perform satisfaction (the elements of proper repentance). While in the Gospel the motivations of the son’s return are ambiguously linked more to hunger than to repentance, here the penitential process is flawless. Its catechetical meaning is clarified in full detail, as it was in many contemporary sermons. Moreover, this account dramatizes the penitential process. The prodigal son tells how his companions (the seven vices) kept him captive, until contrition set him free. Tenuto m’hanno preso, e rubaldoni, e legato m’avean con lor catene. Sciolsemi una buona condizione, quale è chiamata la contrizione. (41.5-8)

They kept me captive, villains that they were, and kept me there in bondage with their chains. A good condition set me free, and its name is contrition.

The chains of the vices are clearly symbolic. One might think of the contemporaneous images of the so-called “ride of the vices”, in which chained sinners ride symbolic representations of vices and are dragged to hell.55 The allegorical names of many of the play’s characters enable a visualization of the otherwise abstract concepts of the prodigal son’s spiritual turmoil during his journey from sin to conversion. Free will, Pride and the other vices, Contrition (although only indirectly mentioned), and later on Hope, Providence, and Good Cheer, who are servants of the father: they all appear on stage, acting and speaking as true characters.56 Moreover, the insertion of allegorical characters in the parable shares significant resonances with Bernard of Clairvaux’s Parable of the Son of the King, which we analysed in Chapter 1. Muzi could know that story either directly or indirectly. In fact, it was available in fifteenth-century Tuscany, as also mediated by vernacular texts such as the Colloquio spirituale of the Dominican Simone da Cascina (d. c.1420).57 55 56

57

This fifteenth-century iconographic theme was diffused in the South of France and North of Italy; see Jérôme Baschet, “Vizi e virtù,” in Enciclopedia dell’arte medievale, 12 vols (Rome, 1991-2002), 11, pp. 729-37. Allegorical characters return in sixteenth-century plays on this parable such as Le Gouvert d’Humanité (c.1540) and a 1583 Dutch play on the prodigal son by Robert Lawet (see below p. 391). This allegorical interpretation was also visualised by few early sixteenth-century tapestries; see Verdier, “The Tapestry of the Prodigal Son”. Simone da Cascina, Colloquio spirituale, ed. Fausta Dalla Riva (Florence, 1982), pp. 38-40. See on this, Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini, pp. 59-61, and, on the influence of the parables

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After the son’s confession, the father orders two other servants, Providence and Good Cheer (Allegrezza), to prepare a great feast to celebrate his return. This section would have been a key element in staging the play. In fact, it involved – at least in some cases – the presence of a real calf on the stage. Its presence is suggested by the company books, which show a payment of taxes for the living calf.58 This ‘special guest’ and the special effects that probably simulated its killing on the stage would give the scene a spectacular element, and this might be the reason why the drama became known as Festa of the Fatted Calf.59 In the late fifteenth century, when the drama was printed for the first time, the woodcut on the frontispiece of the booklet showed this moment of the play instead of the traditional encounter of the father and the son.60 The choice of this title seems to reflect the actual staging of the play more than the exegetical tradition that presented the calf as symbol of Christ. Likewise, the arrival of players and dancers gave allure to the drama.61 The scene was one of the most demanding and amusing parts of the play, and the words of the servant Allegrezza, who presents the musicians to the father, indicate a degree of pride for the result obtained: 51. Io ho fatto quello che mi dicesti e questi sonator ci son venuti, e detto m’è ched e’ son gran maestri, con gran difficultà io li ho avuti. Da molta gente e’ son stati chiesti, ma per gran prezzo io li ho convenuti. Se voi vi volete maravigliare, dite lor che comincino a sonare.

58 59

60

61

I’ve done just as you told me and these players have come back here with me, and I’ve been told they’re masters in their art, and getting them was very difficult. Their services are in immense demand, but I secured them for a mighty price. Now if you want to be truly amazed, give them the signal to start to play.

of Bernard of Clairvaux on Italian late medieval vernacular texts, see Caocci, “Narrativa monastica e scritture morali”. See Polizzotto, Children of the Promise, p. 79. On this kind of special effects, see Mara Nerbano, “Play and Record: Ser Tommaso di Silvestro and the Theatre of Medieval and Early Modern Orvieto,” European Medieval Theatre 8 (2004), 127-71 and Mara Nerbano, Il teatro della devozione: Confraternite e spettacolo nell’Umbria medievale (Perugia, 2006). The woodcut depicts a banquet with seven people seated at the tables and two musicians who play in the background; at the centre, a calf is tied to the ground with a rope, while a servant is on the verge of killing it with a great hammer; see Newbigin, ed., Nuovo corpus, p. 28. On dance in Florentine religious plays, see A. William Smith, “References to Dance in Fifteenth-Century Italian Sacre Rappresentazioni,” Dance Research Journal 23 (1991), 17-24.

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The songs and the dances are perfectly merged within the story, and they enlarge the scenic space to the space of the spectators, who share the festive atmosphere.62 The elder brother arrives when the feast is at its peak. The play presents the confrontation between the father and his reluctant son, and also offers a solution to what is left as unsolved in the Gospel. While the parable does not indicate whether the elder brother will accept or refuse the invitation of the father, the drama introduces a happy ending. After some protests, the older son confirms his blind obedience to the father. He orders the son to be kind in welcoming his returned brother. The scene further reinforces the placement of obe­dience as the highest virtue: Il padre risponde al figliuolo: 58. Tu mi se’ stato sempre reverente e così voglio sia per l’avvenire, ch’a ogni mio volere sì acconsente e da quello non volerti partire. E acciocché tu vada allegramente, prego che tu non facci il tuo disire. […]

The father replies to the older son: You’ve always given me greatest respect and so it will be in the future too, that you’ll accede to all that I decide, and do not think of straying from that path. So that you could be glad, I beg you, do not do as you would wish. […]

Il figliuolo risponde al padre: 59. Padre, far voglio ciò che voi volete, e contr’a voi non posso aver ragione. Vostra volontà fatta ho, e voi il sapete, e vincer voglio ogni mia openione, e fare i’ voglio ciò che mi direte e non intendo con voi far quistione. […]

The son replies to the father: Father, I will do what you want, for I can’t rightly do what you oppose. I’ve always done your will, as you well know, and all my opinions I will quell. I want to do whatever you will ask, and don’t intend to argue more with you. […]

Il Padre lo mena seco in casa e dice così:

The father takes him into the house with him and says as follows: Now come into the house with me at once to greet your brother, fruit of the same loins. Rejoice with him, because he come from afar, and say: “That we be equal: that is what I wish, and everything I have is yours as well”. Show him your true face, and embrace him and kiss him with all love, and rejoice in your heart fully.

60. Or viene in casa meco in buona ora far accoglienza al tuo fratel carnale. Sì ti rallegra, venut’è di fuora, sì gli dirai: “I’ vo’ che sia iguale a me, e ciò ch’i’ ho tu’ è ancora”. Mostragli la faccia tua reale, e sì lo abbraccia e bacial con amore, e rallegrati con tutto il tuo core.

62

See Stallini, Le théâtre, pp. 78-79.

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The ideal of a perfect obedience to the father could not have been expressed more effectively. In the face of the father’s will, any opinion and wish should vanish. The elder son has to conform fully to his behaviour; the father asks him to welcome his brother by imitating his fatherly gestures: the embrace and the kiss. Moreover, an intriguing reversal of perspectives takes place. In the Gospel it was the father who reassures the elder son of his position in the house by saying “Son, you are always with me and all that is mine is yours” (Luke 15:31). In the play, however, the father commands his elder son to say a similar line to his brother, which is intended to reassure the younger brother of his position and to clarify that there are no differences (or tensions) in the status of the two sons within the household. On the stage, the elder son conforms to his father’s request and celebrates the return of his brother, even saying to him: “I feel a sweetness deep within my heart [for your return]” (“dentro al mio core io ne sento dolcezza”; 61.4). What might appear as hypocrisy to the modern reader symbolizes the complete victory of the father. Hence, he can seal the play with a message that is addressed to both sons, the participants in the banquet, and the audience: 63. Parar si vuol, figliuol mie’, dal  Signore, che colle braccia aperte sta per noi per perdonare quando il peccatore con umiltà vuol ritornare a Lui. Egli sì l’accetta con grande amore e sì gli perdona e peccati suoi. Chi si aumilia sarà esaltato, e chi si esalta sarà umiliato.

We all must learn, dear sons, from our Lord, who stands for us with open arms to grant forgiveness when the sinner wants to come back to Him in humility. He accepts him with His endless love and He forgives him for his sins. Everyone who abases himself will be exalted, and one who exalts himself will be humbled.

In different ways, both sons experienced what the last sentence summarizes drawing on Luke 14:11. The prodigal son has been humble in his repentance and now is exalted, while the elder brother exalted himself in his rightness and has been humbled by the father, who told him that in this way he risked to become a rebel. The play ends with “everybody standing up to dance and sing a lauda”, as the stage direction indicates.63 The hymn exhorts everyone to avoid bad company, 63

On lauda singing in the confraternities, see Eyolf Østrem and Nils Holger Petersen, Medie­ val Ritual and Early Modern Music: The Devotional Practice of Lauda Singing in LateRenais­sance Italy (Turnhout, 2008) and Blake Wilson, Singing Poetry in Renaissance Florence: The ‘Cantasi come’ Tradition (1375–1550) (Florence, 2009).

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which is the source of misadventure and leads to a sorry death. This theme is quite similar to what we have seen in Bernardino’s 1423 sermon, where the mother of the prodigal son worried about the possible ruinous destiny of her son due to the negative influence of bad companions. The refrain of the lauda is: “Be sure to keep yourself | from bad company, | such friends are evil | and they lead their fellows into a sorry destiny” (“Deh sappiatevi guardare | dalle cattive compagnie, | imperò ch’elle son rie | e fanno altrui malcapitare”). The last stanza states that people who are sentenced to death frequently confess that they ended up there because they chose to keep bad company.64 The prodigal son was able to escape that sorry destiny and yet, in celebrating his salvation, the play once again admonishes the members of the brotherhood that they must avoid such a slippery path. Finally, through this collective singing and dancing the boundary between the stage and the audience was completely blurred. The feast that started on the stage was in fact continuing below it, skilfully merging together what was presented during the play with what was experienced by the audience, transforming the seat of the Purificatione in the feasting house of the father.65 The analysis has shown the play’s main characteristics. Two of them deserve further consideration. First, Muzi lingered on the relationships between the father and his sons. He enhanced the dialogues between the father and the prodigal son, also touching upon the discussion about the wished-for economic independence. Moreover, he gave particular space to the elder brother. As we have seen, this was unusual in late medieval presentations of the story, in which he was often marginal or even absent. Instead, here the elder brother was used to repeatedly stress the blind obedience owed to the father. Evidently, this perfectly suited an audience that was mainly composed of the members of the confraternity, their brothers, and their fathers.66 The theme of the “acceptance of and obedience to constituted authority” was one of the key messages of the play: it exhorted the audience (and the actors too) to recognize the role of the authority of the father in the house and, at least indirectly, of all other forms of 64

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“Quante volte i’ son ito | a que’ che vanno a morire | e da lor sempre ho udito | ch’egli hanno auto a dire. | Per chi gli ha voluti udire, | questo sì hanno parlato. | Dicon: ‘Qui son capitato | sol per mio cattivo usare’”. This message was similar to the exemplum on the Lombard criminals used by Bernardino in his sermon on bad company (see above, p. 198). In 1485, this lauda was published in a collection of laude of different authors; see Laude, ed. Iacopo de’ Morsi (Florence: Francesco Bonaccorsi, 1485/86), fols. 123v-24v. On the feasts usually associated with the plays, see Eisenbichler, “How Bartolomeo”. As in many Florentine dramas, the valediction addresses explicitly these people: “Fathers and brothers who dwell here within | we say to all of you who have been here …” (“Padre e fratelli che avete qui stanza, | si dice a tutti che siete qui stati …”; 64.1-2).

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authority.67 As Robert Bast points out, the increasing late medieval emphasis on the commandment “honour your father” had deeply socio-political implications, and always involved obedience to patriarchal authority in the family, the Church, and the state.68 Therefore, the character of the just and merciful father indirectly sanctified the established authority, something that could only be approved of by the Medicean patrons of the confraternity.69 The second aspect that I want to underline is the theological dimension of the play. The play achieved more than making the biblical parable accessible in a form that was easy to memorize, thanks to the versification. Likewise, even as the model for a penitential itinerary and proper sacramental confession, it presented more than just an exemplary story of sin and conversion. These catechetical aspects were relevant, but Muzi also found ways to address other theological issues. The treasurer named Free Will exemplifies Muzi’s ability to present the common people with demanding theological themes, which were reflective of centuries of elaboration on the biblical text. It is difficult to pinpoint his sources, yet Muzi was repeating and popularizing what had been elaborated by the Church Fathers and discussed by the scholastic commentaries on this parable. Feo Belcari, a contemporary playwright, claimed to have consulted Flavius Josephus, Origen, and Nicholas of Lyra for his Rappresentazione di Abramo e Isac − and scholars have been able to prove that he actually did rely (directly or indirectly) on these sources.70 Belcari was probably the most eminent of the ‘lay theologians’ among the Florentine playwrights, and his cultural stature was indeed superior to that of Muzi.71 However, Muzi could have had a familiarity with patristic or scholastic texts through the numerous vernacular translations that were available in Florence at that time. On the other hand, he could have discussed these topics with the Dominican friars of the San Marco 67

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Polizzotto, Children of the Promise, p. 89. Paternal authority was a central theme also in other early dramas, such as Belcari’s Abramo e Isacco (1449), which insists on the theme of the perfect obedience owed to the father (and to God). Bast, Honour Your Fathers. Ventrone, Teatro civile, p. 167, which recalls the theme of the respect of the authority was a “genetic” elements of the earliest sacre rappresentazioni, which also reflected in the choice of their topics the paternalism of the Florentine society, where Cosimo de’ Medici was honoured with the title of pater patriae (for instance, in Belcari’s dedicatory sonnet of his Ascensione). See Nerida Newbigin, “Il testo e il contesto dell’Abramo e Isac di Feo Belcari,” Studi e pro­ blemi di critica testuale 23 (1981), 13-37. See Stefano Cremonini, “Linguaggio biblico nelle Laude di Feo Belcari,” in Delcorno and Baffetti, eds., Sotto il cielo delle Scritture, pp. 171-92: 172; see also Mario Martelli, Letteratura fiorentina del Quattrocento. Il filtro degli anni Sessanta (Florence, 1996), pp. 32-36.

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convent (where the confraternity had its seat), or he could easily have heard about them through preaching. As we have seen, references to free will as the share of property that the prodigal son receives at the beginning of the story were common in sermons. The relevance of this topic in contemporary Florence is also confirmed by an anonymous lay writer, who composed a theological handbook by selecting relevant topics from the sermons that he heard. It is clear from this notebook that homiletic discussions about free will and predestination attracted his attention, to the extent that they were considered worthy of a specific chapter in his notebook.72 Beyond the identification of Muzi’s exact source, the relevance here is that through this text and the activity of the confraternity these issues could reach the adolescents of the brotherhood and the audience at large in what can really be seen as an example of theology in the vernacular. In the same way, the allegorical names of many characters (Free Will, Pride, Hope, Providence) suggest a possible connection with a version of the parable written by Bernard of Clairvaux, which circulated in vernacular adaptations. All of this points at a sophisticated level of meditation on the biblical text, a rich and multi-layered reading of it, in which – directly or indirectly – there was interplay between patristic allegories, scholastic theology, and spiritual interpretation of the parable. The catechetical proposal of this play was all but banal or simplistic; the ludic activity had a theological core. 3

The Representation of the Prodigal Son of Antonia Pulci

Antonia Pulci was an exceptional personality in fifteenth-century Florence, and in the early Renaissance.73 She was the daughter of Francesco Tanini, a merchant of the Florentine contado. In 1470, at around the age of seventeen, she married Bernardo Pulci, a noble man of the Florentine cultural elite. Bernardo’s family was close to the Medicean entourage, and was a family of writers: “the Muses were at home in the Pulci household”, it has been said.74 Antonia herself contributed to the literary fame of the family alongside her husband Bernardo and his brothers, Luca and the most talented of them, Luigi, 72

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See Zelina Zafarana, “Per la storia religiosa di Firenze nel Quattrocento: Una raccolta privata di prediche,” Studi medievali, 3rd ser., 9 (1968), 1017-113. On the relevance of these topics in the intellectual debate of the time, see Amos Edelheit, Scholastic Florence: Moral Psychology in the Quattrocento (Leiden, 2014). The best presentation is Elissa B. Weaver, “Editor’s Introduction,” in Antonia Pulci, Saints’ Lives and Bible Stories for the Stage, ed. Elissa B. Weaver and trans. James Wyatt Cook (Toronto, 2010), pp. 1-65. Luigi Pulci, Morgante e lettere, ed. Domenico De Robertis (Florence, 1962), p. L.

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the author of Morgante. Antonia had learned to read and write in the vernacular during her childhood at home. She was probably taught by her mother, Iacopa Tanini, who was also able to write, as a letter to Clarice Orsini, the wife of Lorenzo de’ Medici, demonstrates.75 This kind of female literacy was not rare among the Tuscan merchant class, as is evident from the well-known cases of Alessandra Macinghi Strozzi and Margherita Datini.76 Yet, Antonia achieved a level of literacy that was exceptional at that time, even in the Florentine environment where women’s literacy was much more diffused than in many other contexts. Among the contemporary Florentine women, only Lucrezia Torna­ buoni, mother of Lorenzo de’ Medici, mastered such a high level of literacy, as her vernacular laude and sacred poems show.77 However, while Tornabuoni’s texts were only circulated as manuscripts within the family circle, Antonia was “one of the first women writers to have sent her work to press” and to have seen her texts receive a large circulation during her life-time.78 Alongside the possible example of Lucrezia Tornabuoni, Antonia was probably influenced by Pulci’s literary engaged environment and by her husband in particular, who wrote the religious play Baarlam e Josafat, which was staged by the brotherhood of the Purification in 1474.79 Antonia is the only known fifteenth-century female author of Florentine dramas. She wrote at least six sacre rappresentazioni on biblical stories and saints’ lives, among which the Prodigal Son.80 Although only the mid-sixteenth75 76

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See Weaver, “Editor’s Introduction¸” p. 20. On the level of literacy of women of the merchant class, see different positions in Judith Bryce, “Les Livres des Florentines: Reconsidering Women’s Literacy in Quattrocento Florence,” in At the Margins. Minority Groups in Premodern Italy, ed. Sthephen J. Milner (Minneapolis, 2005), pp. 133-61, Ann M. Crabb, “‘If I could write’: Margherita Datini and Letter Writing, 1385-1410,” Renaissance Quarterly 60 (2007), 1170-206, and Luisa Miglio, Governare l’alfabeto. Donne, scrittura e libri nel Medioevo (Rome, 2008). See Fulvio Pezzarossa, I poemetti sacri di Lucrezia Tornabuoni (Florence, 1978), Lucrezia Tornabuoni de’ Medici, Sacred Narratives, ed. Jane Tylus (Chicago, 2002), and Silvia Gazzano, “Le laudi di Lucrezia Tornabuoni. Edizione critica,” Interpres 32 (2014), 152-230. Weaver, “Editor’s Introduction,” p. 2. See also the insighful analysis of Nerida Newbigin, “Antonia Pulci and the First Anthology of Sacre Rappresentazioni (1483?),” La Bibiliofilia 118 (2016), 337-61. For a reading of this play as a refined encomiastic praise of the young Lorenzo de’ Medici see Gianni Cicali, “L’occultamento del principe. Lorenzo il Magnifico e il Barlaam e Josafat di Bernardo Pulci,” Quaderni d’italianistica 27/ 2 (2006), 57-70. On the characterization of vernacular poetry as the form of literature of a specific Florentine class, see Martelli, Letteratura fiorentina, p. 52. Five of these plays are edited in Antonia Pulci, Saints’ Lives: St. Domitilla, St. Guglielma, St. Francis, Prodigal Son, and Destruction of Saul and the Lament of David. Her play on

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century printed editions of this text survived, her authorship is confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt by Antonio Dolciati, who was well acquainted with her – as we will see – and who attended a performance of her Prodigal Son before 1492, when he took the Augustinian habit. In writing this play, Antonia followed the structure of the text of Muzi, although rewriting each octave in an entirely new style. Yet, she also introduced two major interventions in the structure of the drama. The first is a completely new opening scene. Antonia skipped Muzi’s long summary on the whole parable. Her text opens with a short prayer delivered by the angel, who asks God to help the players in performing the Gospel: “O just Redeemer, full of clemency, | […] | kindle our hearts with utmost zeal, | so we can play your Gospel here”.81 Then, the play presents three boys who are animatedly playing cards and gambling. Their dialogue is playful and lively, consisting of short phrases in popular jargon, which immediately sets the story in the contemporary urban environment. One of the boys bets high wagers and miserably loses them, causing him to tear up the cards in anger. While taking his leave and cursing his bad luck, he announces his next move: 5. O maledette carte! O ria fortuna! Iniquo, averso e doloroso fato! […] io voglio andare la redità al mio padre a dimandare. 6. Certo chi non s’arrischia non guadagna. Io voglio andare a provar mia ventura e pel mondo cercar ogni campagna e darmi ogni piacer senza misura. So che la redità mia sarà magna: chi ha assai denar può ir senza paura. Questo mondo è di chi se’l sa godere, e vo’ dar bando a ogni dispiacere.

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5 O cursed cards! O fate malevolent! Adverse, perverse, and sorrowful destiny! […] I’ll take a chance, and ask my father for my inheritance. 6. Surely if nothing’s ventured, nothing’s gained: I want to go away and try my luck, go seeking through the world in every land and experiment any pleasure without restraint. I know that my inheritance is great, and one with money can travel without fear. This world is made for those who can enjoy it, and I want to banish any sorrow.

Joseph and his brothers remains unidentified althought, it is probably the play printed by Antonio Miscomini, see Newbigin, “Antonia Pulci,” p. 340. “O giusto redentor pien di clemenza | […] | accendi il nostro cuore di sommo zelo, | che recitar possiamo il tuo Vangelo” (1.1 and 1.7-9). I follow the edition and translation that are found in in Antonia Pulci, Saints’ Lives, pp. 308-61. I indicate the number of the octave and the verses. I introduce small changes in order to have a more literal translation.

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At the very moment that he announces his intention to ask his father for his inheritance, it becomes clear that this boy accustomed to playing cards, gambling, and drinking wine (a pitcher of wine was included in the bet) is the prodigal son. It is an elegant and effective dramaturgical strategy, which immediately shows the prodigal son in action, demonstrating his weakness and immaturity. Therefore, in the following scene, when he asks the father for his inheritance, the audience already looks at him as a debauched person, who will surely do anything but good with the money. In the course of the drama, the text cleverly stresses the vice of gambling in different ways. When the prodigal son returns, he begins his confession by saying: “I am afraid, sweet father, to begin | to tell you of my villainous life. | I’ve not had any purpose but to play” (“Io temo, dolce padre, a cominciare | a dirti la mia vita scellerata. | Io non ho atteso se non a giocare”; 49.1-3). Then, the elder brother complains to a servant about the father who welcomed home someone who “gambled away” every good (“ciò che aveva al mondo s’ha giocato”; 61.3). This could be a metaphoric expression, but immediately after he holds against the father that he is throwing a great feast for a barattiere (65.5), which was the technical term for a professional gambler.82 While in the Gospel the elder brother holds it against his father that the prodigal son devoured his inheritance with harlots, here the emphasis is on another type of sinful behaviour. Antonia adapted the story to present an issue that was perceived as relevant in religious and civic public discourse. Gambling had been the target of an intense moralisation campaign in many Italian cities, both through new legislation and through preaching.83 In this way, the drama contextualized the character of the prodigal son in the contemporary setting. Pulci’s second main innovation was the manner in which she expanded on Muzi’s depiction of the seven deadly sins as the prodigal son’s travelling companions. While Muzi curtailed their presentation in an octave told by Pride, Antonia gave each vice a full octave in which to present itself.84 To give an idea of these descriptions, we look at Avarice and Sloth below:

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See Gherardo Ortalli, Barattieri. Il gioco d’azzardo fra economia ed etica. Secoli XIII-XV (Bologna, 2012). See Ortalli, Barattieri, pp. 208-15. Alongside sermons, preachers exhorted the people to throw their cards and dice into the bonfires of vanities, which were often lit at the conclusion of their preaching rallies as a symbolic purification of the city; see Gábor Klaniczay, “The ‘Bonfires of the Vanities’ and the Mendicants,” in Emotions and Material Culture, ed. Gerhard Jaritz (Vienna, 2003), pp. 31-59. Pulci slightly changed the order of vices used by Muzi, putting sloth at the end of the list.

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Avarizia: 30. Io son per nome chiamata Avarizia e non penso se non di accumulare, non riguardo parenti o amicizia, pur ch’io possa assai roba ragunare; questo è mio bene ed ogni mia letizia, me stesso offendo per meglio avanzare. Non ho mai ben pensando nel futuro, per far roba di mia vita non curo.

Avarice: 30. My name is Avarice, and I can think of nothing but hoarding money, I value neither my kin nor friendship, as long as I can gather many goods; this is what I cherish, my every joy, I’d even hurt myself to save up more. I never have enough when I think to the future, in gathering goods, I disregard my own life.

Accidia: 35. Poi che noi siam congiunti in amicizia io ti vo in parte dir mia condizione: io son l’Accidia, piena di tristizia, e spesse volte in me non è ragione; el tedio mi diletta e la pigrizia. In una ora fo cento mutazione e spesso non so dir quel ch’io voglia, afflitto sempre sto in tormento e doglia.

Sloth: 35. Since we are united now in friendship, I want to tell you something of my state: I am Sloth, one filled with wickedness, and oftentimes I have no purpose. Tedium and laziness delight me. A hundred times an hour I change my mind, and often what I want, I just don’t know; I’m always plagued with torment and woe.

Each sin is accurately and cleverly characterized, instead of being only mentioned as in Muzi’s play.85 This underpins a clear-cut presentation of the sinful adventure of the prodigal son. The didactic self-presentation of the deadly vices resembles a brief but precise examination of conscience. This section can be compared with other rhymed catechetical texts, such as the concise contemporary poem Sempre recorre a Dio, which presents an examination of conscience based on the seven deathly vices and the ten commandments.86 Moreover, while Pulci increased the space allotted for the presentation of the vices, she avoided the other allegorical references included in Muzi’s play. The servants of the father, including his treasurer, do not have proper names. She preferred to convey a univocal moral reading of the parable, leaving out other theological issues. 85

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This novelty was registered by the title of one of the sixteenth-century editions of the play: Opera nova dove si contiene la disputa del figliuolo prodigo, con li sette peccati mortali, composta per madonna Antonia Pulci – Nuovamente ristampata. The only copy of this edition that I know is Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, R.G.Lett.It.IV.654 (int.4). Sempre recorre a Dio che ha potenza [Bologna: Giovanni Benedetti, c.1500] fol. 1r. This text is part of a booklet containing also La virtù della Messa (fols. 2r-4r) and another short text on the value of the Mass (fol. 4rv). The only copy known is Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, A.V.KK.XI.95/7.

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Besides these two major innovations, there are other novelties. When the prodigal son is leaving his father, his brother tries to stop him, showing a sincere attachment (24-25). This makes the tender reconciliation that ends the play more realistic, whereas it was somewhat forced in Muzi’s version.87 Moreover, Pulci inserted a monologue of the prodigal son on his way back home (41-43). In this way, she stayed closer to the Gospel, which depicts the personal considerations of the prodigal son when he decides to return to his father. While reworking the Gospel, Pulci introduced here a small but significant change. Whereas in the Gospel the prodigal son prepares to confess his sin, here he instead admits his disobedience: “I shall say to him: ‘Just father | […] | I have been disobedient to you’” (“Dirogli: ‘Giusto padre | […] | io ti son disubidiente stato’”; 43.1.4). This term is repeated immediately afterwards, when he meets his father (“Poi che stato ti son disubediente”; 44.3). This shows how Pulci engaged with the biblical text, carefully shaping her interpretation. The theme of obedience is less overtly dominant in her text than in Muzi’s. Yet, by adopting a different strategy, she skilfully placed this topic at points of great relevance for the story. This topic recurs also at the very beginning of the play. When the prodigal son asks his father for his inheritance, he even claims his own disobedience: “In this I shall disobey you” (“In questo ti sarò disubbidiente”; 15.5). Finally, throughout the text, Antonia Pulci revised the characterisation of the protagonists. Elissa Weaver speaks of a “general process of humanizing the family relationships and imposing psychological realism on their interactions”.88 In fact, Pulci put the feelings of the three main characters at the forefront, as the first dialogue between the father and the son already highlights. The conflict is less accentuated, there is no discussion about money, and the father expresses his pain and concern for the decision of the son, who is firm in his request, but much less aggressive and impudent. Again, in the first dialogue between the father and the older son the problems of their business disappear, leaving space for the description of the devoted son who takes care of his sorrowful father. One can say that interior traits dominate the characters, even though the outward manifestation of their feelings is more controlled, even curtailed. This tone is apparent in the reaction of the father to the return of his son, which is much more measured and quite different from the overwhelming

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These octaves resemble the abovementioned variant of Muzi’s play (see note 49). Pulci could know this version, but it is also possible that the manuscript of Siena interpolated Pulci’s octaves in Muzi’s play. Weaver, “Editor’s Introduction,” p. 52.

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joy expressed by the father in Muzi’s version.89 In his own way Muzi also expressed a psychological realism, which made his characters vigorous and lively, while Pulci preferred a softer and more tactful tone, less based on a chiaroscuro contrast of emotions. Still, the scene of the boys playing cards proves that she was also able to use a different style, based on comic realism. In conclusion, Pulci cleverly actualized the story by presenting the prodigal son as a contemporary adolescent who was playing cards with his friends, thus connecting him with something familiar to her audience and the boys of the confraternities, who were the most probable actors for staging this drama. Then, compared to her antecedent, she preferred to focus on the itinerary of sin and conversion of the prodigal son, diminishing the relevance of the elder brother. To underpin that message, she expanded the part on the deadly sins and left out other possible allegorical references. Therefore, she unified the story around a single perspective, in which the seven vices were astutely described and gained a central role in the play, thus enhancing its didactic function. 4

A Spiritual Mother “Who Knew the Bible Very Well”

The theatre of the confraternities of boys was the expected context for Pulci’s drama, due to its topic and the description of the risks of bad company for youths. However, documents connecting this play to a specific brotherhood are missing. Yet, at least one spectator attested to have seen it when he was a teenager. In 1528, Antonio Dolciati, the prior of the Observant Augustinian convent of San Gallo in Florence, wrote a brief and intense testimony on Antonia Pulci’s life after she was widowed in 1488. The account is part of Dolciati’s dedicatory letter to his vernacular commentary on the Augustinian Rule, which was written for the nuns of the monastery of Santa Maria della Misericordia, founded by Pulci in 1501, a few months before her death.90 This letter, although imbued with hagiographical topoi, gives invaluable information on Antonia’s culture and spirituality. According to Dolciati, soon after the death of her husband, Antonia moved back to her original family home, where she lived in retirement, spending her time in prayer, devotional reading, and penitence: 89

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“El ben tornato sia, figliuol diletto! | Tu m’hai di gaudio il cor tutto infiammato. | Sappi che in doglia e in paura e sospetto | per tuo partir, figliuol, son sempre stato. | Ringrazio il vero Dio con puro effetto, | poi che se’ a salvamento ritornato; | e voglio far solenne e degna festa | e rivestirti d’una ricca vesta” (45). See Weaver, “Editor’s Introduction,” pp. 24-28. On Dolciati, see Raffaella Zaccaria, “Dol­ ciati Antonio,” in DBI 40 (1991), pp. 433-35.

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On the upper floor she had set up a small room, a poor and a spiritual place, with an oratory and many devotional books, and there, almost always alone, day and night she dedicated herself to prayer and reading religious works, castigating her body with strict fasting, corporal punishments, vigils, and tearful contemplations.91 The description is a first-hand testimony. Francesco – this was his secular name – was born in 1476. Between the ages of eight and fifteen, he frequented the school of the cathedral, “learning the first rudiments of grammar and the principles of the system of singing with the other clerics of my age, […] where I also learned the order of the divine office”.92 During that period, Dolciati frequented Antonia’s house to teach her how to pray the divine office. Then, in 1492, he took the habit of the Augustinian friars at the convent of San Gallo. Antonia had a decisive influence on his decision: I was her teacher in my youth, instructing her in the Lord’s holy office, and she to me was a mother and a teacher in the ways of God, urging me continuously to serve Him and to disdain the world. She did not cease until she had led me to this holy religious order in which, in thanks, I was able to take her name, since my baptismal name was Francesco.93 He considered Antonia his true spiritual mother, who “caused me to be reborn spiritually to Christ in my religious order” (“me spiritualmente a Cristo rigenerò nella religione”), and his new name was a permanent devoted reminder of her.94 91

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“Nella superiora parte di quella [casa] si aveva religiosamente e poveramente ordinata una cameretta con el suo oratorio e più libri devoti, e in quella, standosi quasi sempre sola, dì e notte si essercitava in orazioni e sacre lezioni, castigando el suo corpo con assidui digiuni, discipline, vigilie e lacrimose contemplazioni”; Weaver edits and translates this part of Dolciati’s letter in Antonia Pulci, Saints’ lives, pp. 470-77. “imparai i primi rudimenti grammaticali ed e principii delle ragioni del canto con e mia coetanei chierici nella scuola del nostro duomo di Firenze, dove etiam imparai l’ordine de’ divini offizi”. “Suora Antonia de’ Tanini, della quale io nella mia fanciulleza fui maestro, insegnandogli ordinare l’offizio del Signore e lei a me fu madre e maestra nella via d’Iddio, inducendomi continuo al servizio di quello e al disprezo del mondo. Né mai cessò insino a tanto che mi ebbe condutto a questa sacra religione nella quale di grazia ottenne che mi fui posto el suo nome. Imperoché io nel battesimo fui chiamato Francesco”. On spiritual mothers in this age, see Gabriella Zarri, “Madri dell’anima. La direzione spi­ rituale femminile nell’età moderna,” in Venire al mondo: L’elaborazione della nascita nelle religioni dell’Occidente, eds. Michelina Borsari and Daniele Francesconi (Modena, 2003), pp. 107-45 and Gabriella Zarri, Uomini e donne nella direzione spirituale (secc. XIII-XVI)

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She guided him with an exemplary life of prayer and penitence, but also with her own writings: And because she knew the Bible very well and wrote verse in the vernacular with singular grace, she wrote many, many devout laude, to various saints, among which there is a most devout one on the Corpus Christi, which she used to recite with great devotion before taking communion. I still have this one with me, in her own hand, and I keep it as one of my dear mother’s jewels. She also composed many beautiful and devout plays (devote rappresentazioni) on Joseph, on David and Saul, on the Prodigal Son, and many others that I do not recall, since it is more than thirty-six years since I saw them.95 When Dolciati was a boy of the cathedral school, he was able to attend the sacre rappresentazioni written by Antonia Pulci, and after more than three decades, he kept the memory of them. They had been part of his spiritual itinerary as an adolescent that – under the guidance of a determined spiritual mother – passed from the temptations of the secular world to the safe harbour of the religious life. Pulci’s writings are presented as a spiritual nourishment for herself (she used her own words to prepare herself before receiving communion, the apex of the spiritual life) and for others, among whom Dolciati, who kept a handwritten text of Antonia as a sort of relic. These writings were, first of all, based on Antonia’s knowledge of the Bible, the first characteristic that Dolciati recalls while outlining her profile as a spiritual author. Dolciati also recounts that Antonia, in a non-specified moment, “received the habit of the ammantellate of Saint Monica from the hands of Reverend Father maestro Fra Mariano, a most excellent preacher”.96 Having become a

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(Spoleto, 2016). See also Gabriella Zarri, “Female sanctity, 1500-1660,” in The Cambridge History of Christianity. Reform and Expansion 1500-1660, ed. Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia (Cambridge, 2007), pp. 180-200. “E perché aveva grande notizia della Bibblia e singulare grazia in fare versi vulgari in rima, compose più e più devote laude di diversi santi, tra le quali è quella devotissima del Corpo di Cristo, la quale lei soleva dire con grande devozione prima che si comunicassi. Questa di sua propria mano scritta io ho ancora appresso di me e come un gioiello di mia cara madre tengo. Compose etiam molte belle e devote rapresentazioni, di Joseph, di David e Saul, del figliuolo prodigo e assai altre delle quali ora non mi ricordo, emperoché sono più di trentasei anni non le ho vedute”. “avendo già per più anni prima ricevuto l’abito delle mantellate di Santa Monica per le mani del reverendo padre maestro Mariano, predicatore eccellentissimo e fundatore del detto nostro convento di San Gallo”. On the forms of semi-religious life and their connection with the Observant movement, see Alison More, “Dynamics of Regulation,

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semi-religious, Antonia lived at home at first. Later she gathered other devout women round her, and they were hosted in the Florentine Monastery of Annalena (the Dominican convent of San Vincenzo). Finally, with her dowry, she bought a house where she founded the Monastery of Santa Maria della Misericordia with these companions in 1501. The connection that Dolciati makes between Antonia Pulci and Mariano da Genazzano (d. 1498) is worth noting. In the 1480s, Mariano da Genazzano was the most prominent preacher in the city, closely linked with the Medicean entourage, and appreciated for his oratory by humanists such as Poliziano.97 He was also in close contact with the Pulci family, so much so that in 1484 he convinced Luigi Pulci to make public amends for his Morgante, which had caused a scandal.98 Antonia probably was among the spiritual daughters of this prominent friar. She would have heard his sermons and received his spiritual advice, just as another devout woman, Margherita di Tommaso Soderini had. She was member of one of the most important families of Florence and cousin of Lorenzo de’ Medici.99 Between 1484 and 1489 Margherita wrote a personal notebook, in which she noted the most valuable teachings of Mariano da Genazzano’s sermons and spiritual instructions.100 Margherita’s notes on one of the sermons given by this Augustinian friar provide us an example of the preaching on the prodigal son, which Antonia would have heard during the years in which she wrote her play. The sermon in question addresses the topic of hope, and repeatedly stresses the central role of the mercy of God, who wants to save the sinners and actively searches for them. To make this argument, the preacher drew on the three parables in

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Innovation, and Invention,” in Mixson and Roest, eds., Observant Reform, pp. 85-110 and Martina Wehrli-Johns, “Vita mixta und via media im spätmittelalterlichen Diskurs: Neuere Forschungen zum sogenannten Semireligiosentum,” Spee-Jahrbuch 17-18 (2010-11), 101-19. See Daniela Gionta, “Pomicelli Mariano (Mariano da Genazzano),” in DBI 84 (2015), pp. 621-27. See Stefano Carrai, Le Muse dei Pulci (Naples, 1985), pp. 173-87. Here is the description of Margherita given by Piero Pucci in a letter to his brother: she is “a venerable woman in our city, who is honored as greatly as any other, as much for her beauty as for the nobility of her blood and for her prudence and manner of speaking as well as for the holiness of her life. I was amazed when I heard her speak”; quoted in Patricia Lee Rubin, Images of Identity in Fifteenth-Century Florence (New Haven, 2007), pp. 23839. See David Gutiérrez, “Testi e note su Mariano da Genazzano (†1498),” Analecta Augusti­ niana 32 (1969), 117-204 and Shunji Oguro, “From Ears to Hand, from Hand to Heart: Writing and Internalizing Preaching in Fifteenth-Century Florence,” in Muzzarelli, ed., From Words to Deeds, pp. 47-64.

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Luke 15. Margherita’s notes focus particularly on the story of the lost coin; however, the preacher proposed a crescendo that climaxed in the prodigal son’s story, disclosing the identity of God as a father and the human being as his adoptive son: O sinner, do not despair but put your hope in God. In fact, God is a father, because he made us his adoptive children; and the adoptive children will have the inheritance of the father if they return to him. God is a redeemer […]. God is merciful, it means that he always awaits us and his mercy is constantly ready to welcome us, if we just want that. His mercy is greater than our iniquity. Sinner, do not despair! Have a firm hope that God will forgive you. Return to God!101 Margherita took notes of sermons, interacting with the biblical message as exposed by her spiritual father. Antonia Pulci went beyond that, since she engaged personally with the Bible. Using her own language and sensibility, she wrote her own interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son. In doing so, she drew on what she had learned both from teachers such as Mariano da Genazzano and from her own meditation upon the Gospel. The result of this activity was not only part of a form of private religious acculturation (like the personal notes of Margherita), but also an interpretation of the Gospel for a larger audience, which received public recognition as a form of ‘theatrical exegesis’. In this way, Antonia was considered a spiritual teacher and, at least by a prominent figure such as Dolciati, a true spiritual mother. In conclusion, Antonia Pulci’s activity as a playwright – something she started during her marriage – was part of an intense Christian life. It was a particular way to engage personally with the Biblical text, and to share her results at large, reaching multiple audiences consisting of the boys of the confraternities, the spectators of their plays, and the readers of her rapidly published texts. At the beginning of their respective texts, Piero Muzi and Antonia Pulci insisted that what they were presenting was nothing less than the Gospel. The word 101

“Vedi quanto Idio ci ama; però non ti disperare, o pechatore, spera in Dio. In quanto dicie padre, ci à fatti suoi figiuoli adotivi; e figliuoli debono avere la redità del padre, in quanto ritornino a lui. In quanto dicie redentore, vol dire ch’egli à el potere, el sapere, el volere di darci quelo che ci à promeso e molto piú. In quanto dicie miserichordioso, vol dire senpre ci aspetta, senpre la sua miserichordia è aparechiata a riceverci, purché noi vogliamo: piú è grande la sua misericordia che la nostra iniquità. O pechatore, non ti volere disperare, ma abi ferma speranza che Idio ti perdoni. Torna a Dio”; quoted in Gutiérrez, “Testi,” p. 163. According to its thema (John 12:15), the sermon was probably preached for the Saturday after the fifth Sunday of Lent. It perfectly shows the use of the parable in a day different from its liturgical occurrence.

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Vangelo strategically seals the first octave in both dramas. Moreover, in the valediction of her play, Antonia reasserted this conviction, speaking of “the devout story of the sacred Gospel” that the audience has contemplated (“O voi tutti che la devota storia | del Vangel sacro contemplato avete”; 71.1-2). These dramas have been considered a kind of preaching in form of theatre; in this case we hear the voice and the ideas of a learned layman and a learned lay woman.102 Both writers found their own ways to use the stage and propose their meditation on the Gospel in a strategic educational context such as the confraternities of boys. Thus, they gave an appreciated contribution to the formation of the religious identity of the new generation of citizens. 5

Castellano Castellani and the Florence of Savonarola

The third Florentine play on the prodigal son was written by Castellano Cas­ tellani (1461-1519), a secular priest and lecturer of canon law, who was a prolific author of laude and sacre rappresentazioni.103 Despite coming from a family of modest economic means, he managed to study in Pisa. In 1482 he was registered as one of the canonists who advised the Studium, and from 1488 onwards he held the position of lector in canon law. While lecturing in Pisa, Castellani came into contact with Giovanni de’ Medici, the son of Lorenzo and the future Pope Leo X, who studied canon law in Pisa from 1489 to 1492. During the same period Castellani also knew Bernardo Pulci, who was the Florentine procurator (the official overseeing the University of Pisa) between 1484 and 1488. It is possible that Bernardo’s religious works influenced the literary production of Castellani. Even more relevant is the likely influence of the religious poetry of the late Lorenzo de’ Medici on Castellani. Lorenzo’s Rappresentazione dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo was staged in 1491 and immediately published with the Medi­ cean coat of arms on its title page.104 102

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On the distinction between exhortation and preaching, and on the right of lay people to give religious instruction see Carlo Delcorno, “Predicazione e movimenti religiosi: Confronto e tensioni,” Cristianesimo nella storia 24 (2003), 581-617 and Bert Roest, “Female Preaching in the Late Medieval Franciscan Tradition,” Franciscan Studies 62 (2004), 119-54. On Castellani’s life, see Giovanni Ponte, Attorno al Savonarola. Castellano Castellani e la sacra rappresentazione in Firenze tra ’400 e ’500 (Genoa, 1969), pp. 10-17. On his devotional poetry, see also Marco Villoresi, “In lode dell’icona. Su alcuni componimenti poetici di – e attribuibili a – Castellano Castellani (1461-1519),” Studi italiani 1 (2009), 29-51. Ponte argues that the first reference to a religious play composed by Castellani dates to 1493, on the basis of a letter he wrote to a friend, where he stated: “Io vi scrissi come avevo facto la festa et che alla tornata mia io ve la arrecherei”; see Ponte, Attorno al Savonarola, p. 20. Yet, speaking of a festa, Castellani may rather be referring to some other enter­· tainment. I am greatful to Nerida Newbigin for this remark. On the turn to religious

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In 1494, during the outburst of the revolt of Pisa against Florence, the Uni­ versity moved first to Prato (1495-96), and then to Florence (1497-1505), and Castellani likewise moved to these cities. In Prato, he collaborated with Girolamo Savonarola in reforming the Convent of San Michele, which was put under the responsibility of the Dominicans of San Marco of Florence, the friary of Savonarola. This meeting was decisive in shaping Castellani’s literary production. He became a piagnone (“mourner”, as the supporters of the friar were named), addressing the religious themes that characterized Savonarola’s moral preaching in his own works. This remained true after 1497, when Castellani separated himself from the destiny of the declining Savonarola. The political positions of Castellani were not free of ambiguity: first he supported the Medici, then Savonarola, later on Piero Soderini, and finally the restored Medicean power. Yet, his literary production remained strongly influenced by the severe religious and moral perspective of the Savonarolan movement, which continued to inform Florentine religious culture well into the sixteenth century.105 Most scholars agree in dating the Representation of the Prodigal Son to the brief period of Castellani’s fervent support for Savonarola.106 The play presents internal references to the ongoing clash between the companies of young followers of Savonarola (piagnoni) and the adversary bands (compagnacci) that opposed the programme of moralisation imposed by the friar.107 Castellani developed the original idea from Antonia Pulci’s work and opened this play with two boys playing cards and joking about it by calling the deck of cards their “prayer book to say the office”.108 This time the scene is far more elaborated, because the two vicious boys are contrasted with two devout boys, who criticize them for blaspheming, gambling, and not honouring their fathers by

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vernacular poetry in the last years of Lorenzo the Magnificent’s government, see Mario Martelli, “La politica culturale dell’ultimo Lorenzo,” Il Ponte 36 (1980), 923-41 and 1040-69 and Mario Martelli, “La cultura letteraria nell’età di Lorenzo,” in Lorenzo il Magnifico e il suo tempo, ed. Gian Carlo Garfagnini (Florence, 1992), pp. 39-84. For Lorenzo’s own compositions, see Lorenzo de’ Medici, Laude, ed. Bernard Toscani (Florence, 1990) and Lorenzo de’ Medici, Rime spirituali – La rapresentatione di San Giovanni e Paulo, ed. Bernard Toscani (Rome, 2000). See Lorenzo Polizzotto, The Elect Nation: The Savonarolan Movement in Florence, 1494-1545 (Oxford, 1994) and Dall’Aglio, Savonarola. See Ponte, Attorno al Savonarola, pp. 13-14; Newbigin, ed., Nuovo Corpus, p. 32; and Stallini, Le théâtre, pp. 104-05. See Ottavia Niccoli, “I fanciulli del Savonarola. Usi religiosi e politici dell’infanzia nell’Italia del Rinascimento,” in Savonarole: Enjeux, débats, questions, eds. Anna Fontes, Jean-Louis Fournel and Michel Plaisance (Paris, 1997), pp. 105-20. “El libricino ho io | da dir l’ofizio in su questo bel sasso” (1.3-4); text in D’Ancona, ed., Sacre rappresentazioni, 1, pp. 357-89. Introducing small changes, I follow the English version available in Michael O’Connell, ed., Three Florentine Sacre Rappresentazioni: Texts and Translations (Tempe, 2011), pp. 161-249.

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squandering money and time in such a way. The two wicked boys reply by ridiculing the religious behaviour of the others, who are addressed as piagnoni and pinzoccheri, and who are invited to run away to San Marco to become friars at the convent of Savonarola, the headquarters of his movement.109 Uno di quelli cattivi risponde: One of the wicked ones says: 1. […] De’, non ci torcer più, capo d’arpione, 1. […] Do not torment us, you harpoon-head! ch’io non posso patir chi è piagnone! What I can’t stand is a piagnone! L’altro suo compagno cattivo: 2. Zucchetta mia, farfalla senza sale, pinzocheruzzo, viso da ceffate, se ’l giuoco ti par pur così gran male ché non corri a San Marco a farti frate?

The other evil companion: 2. Listen, gourd-head, witless butterfly, pinzocheruzzo, slap-face, if gambling is such a great evil to you, why don’t you run along to San Marco and become a friar?

This prologue situates the story not only in a generic contemporary setting as Pulci had already done, but in the specific context of Florence, with references to the ongoing urban fights and with precise topographical coordinates.110 This scene provides indications that allow us to tentatively date the play to the Carnival of 1496 or 1497. Savonarola transformed those two Carnivals into spiritual events at the very peak of his moralizing battle.111 This hypothesis is further supported by the fact that one of the vicious boys says that he would like to expel the piagnoni from the city, as it had been done with the Jews: “They go around all modest, reverent and upright, | but they prey on everything, though they don’t have claws. | If I had my way, | I’d force them to go away like Jews” (4.5-8).112 This appears to be a reference to the 28 December 1495 decision to 109 110 111

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On this and other plays by Castellani that stage this conflict see Ventrone, Teatro civile, pp. 279-98. This strategy had been used also in an anonymous play on the parable of Lazarus (c.1470); see Pietro Delcorno, “La Festa di Lazero rico e di Lazero povero: Una sacra rappresenta­ zione fiorentina sulla parabola del ricco epulone,” Interpres 30 (2011), 62-135: 78-79. See Ponte, Attorno al Savonarola, p. 14. The opposition between the amusement of the play and Carnival with its traditional rock fights is explicitly mentioned at the end of the play (“Così fuggendo el carnasciale e ’ sassi | ci pascerem di questi dolci spassi”; 121.7-8), thus pointing out one of the results of Savonarola’s reform of Carnival: the end of the rock fights among youths. In the first Lenten sermon of 1496, Savonarola presented this fact as a sign of the divine inspiration of what happened during Carnival; see Savonarola, Prediche sopra Amos, 1, p. 38 (17 February 1496). See Giovanni Ciappelli, “Il carnevale del Savonarola,” in Garfagnini, ed., Studi savonaroliani, pp. 47-59. “Vanno composti, reverenti e interi, | predan per tutto, e pur non hanno unghioni, | s’io ne potessi far quello ch’io vorrei, | gli farei proprio andar come e’ giudei”.

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expel the Jews from Florence within a year from the writing of the statutes of the Monte di Pietà. The Monte eventually started its activities in 1496, and its foundation was greatly helped by the support of Savonarola. He preached on it during Lent and promoted a large procession for Palm Sunday to raise the capital necessary for the Monte. In this procession, ‘the boys of Savonarola’ were responsible for collecting money from the people.113 Their involvement in raising funds for the Monte could illuminate why in Castellani’s play the compagnaccio says that the piagnoni appear devout, but are in fact predators. This allusion to the planned expulsion of the Jews is consistent with dating the text around 1496-97, when the project was part of the contemporary debate, making this a meaningful reference.114 Analysing the opening scene of Castellani’s Prodigal Son, Konrad Eisenbichler presented it as a fictional creation that reproduced the tensions of Savonarola’s age and the role taken by the “bands of roaming Savonarolan ‘inquisitors’” in his reform.115 The young supporters of Fra Girolamo were charged with the task of purging the city of its sins by imposing a moral discipline on its citizens. Among those targeted by them were the gamblers, as one of the pro-Savonarola contemporary chronicles, the so-called Pseudo-Burlamacchi, recalls in detail: The inquisitors roamed the entire city, inside and out, seeking out places where there were gamblers, and they took away their cards and dice and tables and all their playing instruments, and sometimes their money and they gave it to the poor, getting everything with kind and sweet words. The terror and fear these boys roused were such that when players heard them coming they dropped everything and ran away. Sometimes, nonetheless, some players said a few foul words to them, and some beat them up, but the children bore everything patiently. […] And so the children purged the city, both inside and out, of games.116 113 114

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See Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Il denaro e la salvezza. L’invenzione del Monte di Pietà (Bologna, 2001), pp. 28-37 and Michel Plaisaice, “1496: Savonarole metteur en scène de la procession des rameaux,” in Fontes, Fournel and Plaisance, eds., Savonarole, pp. 121-31. Several Florentine sacre rappresentazioni referred to the ongoing debate about the presence of the Jews in the city; see Pietro Delcorno, “The Roles of Jews in the Florentine Sacre Rappresentazioni: Loyal Citizens, People to Be Converted, Enemies of the Faith,” in Hanska and Adams, eds., The Jewish-Christian Encounter, pp. 253-81. Eisenbichler, “Adolescence,” p. 83. “Trovarono ancora l’uffitio dell’inquisitori, li quali li giorni festivi per tutto l’anno, doppo desinare et doppo vespro, circundavan [per] tutta la città, drento et di fuori, e’ luoghi de’ giucatori, et toglievon loro le carte et dadi et tavole et tutti gli strumenti da giucare, et qualche volta e’ danari et davongli a’ poveri, con benigne e dolce parole ogni cosa ottenendo. Era tanto il terror et spavento di questi fanciulli, che li giucatori, come gli

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Other sources tell us that the young moral censors did not use only “kind and sweet words” but also adopted violence as a means of purifying the city. In his sermons, Savonarola replied to those who said “We have fallen prey to these young men” by saying that the people who did not intend to gamble had nothing to fear, thus indirectly admitting that the sinners had indeed to fear his youth ‘bands’.117 As repeatedly happened in the city, also on the stage the dispute between piagnoni and compagnoni degenerates into a fist-fight, during which the religious zeal of the devout boys, who do not hesitate to use even unfair strokes, forces the adversaries to flee. After the fight, Castellani inserted two octaves in which the victorious boys contrast the effects of bad company with those of their confraternity. El buono […] dice al suo compagno: 8. Vedi quel che fa far la compagnia! Pian piano ben ratto va chi mal camina. Quanti alle forche van per questa via! E ’l buon dì si conosce da mattina; dunque prudente ognun che vive sia ché non giova al mal vecchio medicina.

The good one says to his companion: 8. See what bad company makes happen! Those who choose evil ways go slowly but surely [to death] | How many go to the gallows this way! Morning tells what kind of day it will be. So everyone should be prudent, because medicine isn’t working for an old sickness

[…] El suo compagno: 9. Se delli error qualcun vivendo fa, la penitenzia poi gli purga e monda; ma chi il timor di Dio in sé non ha ogni grave peccato in quello abbonda. El primo: Quel che alla Compagnia potendo va tiene una vita assai lieta e gioconda; quivi si canta vespri, salmi e laude: tranquillo porto ove ogni error si esclude.

[…] His companion: 9. If someone commits errors in his life, penitence may free and cleanse him. But for one who doesn’t have the fear of God, all the mortal sins heap up in him. The first: One who goes, when he can, to the Company leads a happy and pleasant life. There one sings vespers, psalms, and lauds. It’s a tranquil harbour that keeps all errors out.

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sentivano apparire, lasciando ogni cosa si fuggivano; qualche volta nondimeno qualche persona dicevan loro qualche mala parola et alcuni li battevon, et loro con patientia ogni cosa sopportavono […]. Et così purgavon tutta la città dentro et fuori da’ giuochi”; quoted and translated in Eisenbichler, “Adolescence,” pp. 81-82. “Dicono ancor costoro: ‘Noi siamo in preda di fanciugli’. Non siamo in preda, no; che mal ti fanno li fanciulli? E’ proibiscono che e’ non si giuochi. Questo è bene. Tiepido, o tu vuoi giucare o no: se tu non vuoi giuocare, tu non hai aver paura de’ fanciulli; io per me non ho paura che mi venghino a torre le carte; se tu ne hai paura, adunque tu debbi voler giuocare”; Savonarola, Prediche sopra Amos, 2, p. 234 (13 March 1496).

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In this way, the life and activities of the confraternity were explicitly praised and contrasted with the wicked life of bad company, which push people to a life that often leads to the gallows, as the hymn at the end of the play by Muzi had already admonished. In this case, performing this scene the members of the confraternity were led to acknowledge the value of their company and to contrast it with other contemporary groups of boys.118 The actors proudly expressed their membership of the confraternity and their victorious fight against its adversaries, whose presumption of strength was humiliated and taunted on the stage. Therefore, in what seems to be its original context, the play was thought to enhance the identity of the members of the confraternity and to empower them in their struggle for a ‘purged’ city. 6

The Representation of the Prodigal Son of Castellani

Castellani thoroughly renewed the dramatization of the parable. Nevertheless, before analysing the novelty of his text, one should not disregard the relevance of Castellani’s debt to the previous plays. As we have seen, Castellani’s opening scene undoubtedly elaborates on an idea of Antonia Pulci, who was the first to open by presenting the prodigal son as a gambler. The fact that the cleric Castel­ lani decided to write sacre rappresentazioni, a form of texts that had previously been the territory of lay authors, is significant per se.119 His choice was even more relevant when one considers that during the last decades of the fifteenth century another model of theatre was also available in Florence, which included the pioneering experiments of performing classical comedies in the schools as well as the production of new Latin didactic plays that also contained religious themes.120 A learned cleric such as Castellani could have opted to follow 118

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The mise en abîme between the action on the stage and the activities of the confraternity was also adopted in other plays; see Paola Ventrone, “La mise en abîme e il rilancio della sacra rappresentazione nella Firenze post-savonaroliana,” in Studi di storia dello spettacolo: Omaggio a Siro Ferrone, ed. Stefano Mazzoni (Florence, 2011), pp. 74-86. Many Florentine sacre rappresentazioni are anonymous, therefore we cannot exclude that other clerics wrote religious plays before Castellani. However, other clerics such as Pietro Domizi (d. 1518) preferred to organize school performances of classical and new Latin texts; see Ventrone, Teatro civile, pp. 246-57. The most famous cases were the 1476 performance of Terence’s Andria organized by Giorgio Antonio Vespucci with the boys of the Schola cantorum eugeniana (the cathedral school founded by Pope Eugenius IV in 1436) and the 1488 performance of Plautus’ Menaechmi, organized by Paolo Comparini, with the Schola cantorum of the church of San Lorenzo (founded in 1458 by Cosimo de’ Medici); see Ventrone, Teatro civile, pp. 24657.

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that more elitist model. By choosing the format of the vernacular sacra rappresentazione, he acknowledged the potential of this medium for religious instruction. For his Prodigal Son, Castellani not only depended on his theological culture, but also looked at previous elaborations by lay people such as Piero Muzi and Antonia Pulci, who engaged with the biblical text to present “the Gospel” on the stage. I reaffirm this point, since it exhibits the extent to which the exchange between lay people and clerics was bidirectional in the search for effective forms to elaborate and actualize the Gospel. This operation “involved members of the respublica clericorum […] and of the respublica laicorum”, who together actively participated – with different levels of engagement – in shaping the process of religious appropriation and cultural elaboration, within a community of interpretation that experienced a “dynamic approach to religion and religious knowledge”.121 Having established this, we can now focus on the innovative characteristics of Castellani’s play. After the brawl, the two wretched boys resume their gambling and – as in Pulci’s play – the one who loses is revealed to be the prodigal son. However, this time it is his companion who suggests that he ask his father for his share of inheritance by means of deception. Thus, this boy embodies another aspect of the influence of bad company, in a way that shows similarities with the semidramatic sermons of Bernardino da Siena: 12. Cerca fare a tuo padre qualche inganno. 12. Go try and play a trick on your father. […] Pretend that you want to make some business deal […] Fingi di voler far mercatanzia and say: Father, I want my portion of the estate. e di’: Mio padre, io vo’ la parte mia. […] 15. A me mi par che tu la intenda bene; Fa’ pur di dargli parole melate, se vedi pur che al tuo voler non viene, fingi per disperato farti frate.

[…] 15. I really think you’ve got the right idea. Work up some honeyed words for him. If you see he’s not coming around to your wishes, pretend that in your desperation you’ll become a friar.

The prodigal son acts upon this suggestion and presents his request to the father as the decision to try his fortune (“provar la mia ventura”; 16.2). He explains he wants “to grow in honour, esteem, and fortune” (“crescendo con onor, stato e tesoro”; 16.8) or, as he says immediately after, to become more virtuous, wise, and dexterous. In addition to this rational, though hypocritical, argumentation, the prodigal son threatens to commit suicide if the father will not give him his inheritance (“Padre, se questa grazia non mi fai | per desperato io mi torrò 121

Corbellini, “Beyond Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy,” p. 36.

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la vita”; 19.1-2). In the discussion, there is also space for a sharp altercation between the prodigal son and his brother. Finally, the father tries to stop his son by escalating the situation. Since the son pointed out that he is requesting what will be his legitimate share after the death of the father, he offers his son a knife: 26. […] Può esser che si crudo ti mantenga che tu non oda e’ mia dolci conforti? Poi che tu vuoi che la morte mi spenga, fa’ che con esso teco el mio cuor porti. Ora gli dà il coltello e dice: Togli il coltel, figliuol, trai fuor del petto quel che alfin sazierà tuo van concetto!

26. […] Can it be that you are so pitiless that you don’t hear my sweet pleading? Because you want death to put an end to me, be sure to take my heart with you. Now he gives him a knife and says: Take the knife, my son, and tear from my breast what finally will satisfy your vain desire!

The tension of this dialogue culminates in the appearance of a knife on the stage, visualized in a gesture apt for a tragedy. It represents the reversal of the knife dominating the famous scene of Abraham and Isaac: there the knife embodies obedience, but here it summarizes a scene of disobedience. Behind the dramaturgical effect of this detail, which heightens the emotional level of the scene, it reveals a possible reference to one of Castellani’s sources. In fact, the same detail was at the centre of the story of Alexander the Great and his rebel son as recounted in the Gesta romanorum. As we have seen in Chapter 2, this story was based on the prodigal son, as its moralisatio exhibits. In this story, the father’s gesture of offering a sword to his son by saying “Accipe gladium istum et interfice me hic” provokes the immediate repentance of the rebel, who throws the sword away and asks his father for forgiveness. In the moralisatio, the gesture of throwing it away represents the itinerary of sin and conversion of the prodigal son. Although it is difficult to prove that Castellani had this exact story in mind, the coincidence is striking.122 It suggests that beyond what at first appears a purely dramaturgical choice, one may find the echo of previous theological meditations on the parable. In Castellani’s play, once the prodigal son has obtained his money, he gathers his companions and announces his decision to depart on a long journey and spend his life in pleasure. Instead of an allegorical representation of the vices, this time the companions of the prodigal son are his usual friends, who know him very well and enthusiastically join his venture. The great novelty of 122

This story and its morality was available not only through the many fifteenth-century printed editions of the Gesta romanorum, but also in the sermon on the prodigal son in the Quadragesimale of Conrad Grütsch, which had also been printed in Venice (1495). On this story, see above pp. 164-70.

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Castellani’s play is that it presents the debauched life of the prodigal son neither symbolically nor indirectly, but instead shows it on the stage. Yet, before this plays out, there is still space for the sorrowful father, who expresses his concern about his son’s plans with a series of questions and the anaphoric repetition of the word figliuol, which resembles the octave of Muzi mentioned earlier: 35. Figliuol, dove se’ tu ch’io non ti veggio? Figliuol, chi ti tien or che tu non caggi? Figliuol, chi t’insegnò seguir il peggio? Figliuol, dove sono ora e’ tua viaggi? Figliuol, per tuo amor la morte chieggio. Figliuol, chi mi ritiene in tanti oltraggi? Figliuol, se indrieto al tuo padre non torni, finirò ne’ sospir la vita e’ giorni.

35. My son, where are you that I cannot see you? My son, who will keep you now from falling? My son, who has taught you to follow the worst? My son, where now do your travels take you? My son, for your love I want to die. My son, who supports me in this painful life? My son, if you don’t turn back to your father, I will end my life in sighs and tears.

This octave perfectly characterizes the father in this play, in which he repeatedly expresses his pain and concern for the absent son. A servant and the older son encourage the disconsolate father, who turns to spiritual practices to ask mercy from God. The scene becomes a religious conversation, in which the elder son suggests that his father should trust the providence of God, who might have destined some good end to his brother’s departing. The father seems to be comforted and exhorts his older son to persevere in good, yet acknowledges at the same time the freedom of divine grace. In a single stanza, Castellani condenses the delicate balance between grace and good deeds. He introduces the theme of grace as the driving force that will provoke the conversion of the prodigal son, and, on the other hand, he reasserts the reasons for commitment to a virtuous life for those who want to escape eternal death.123 Moreover, this father, patiently facing the trials of life and through alms and trust in God seeking mercy for his loose-living son, seems to propose a valid teaching to the fathers in the audience, offering a pious model to follow in the difficulties of their own lives. The greatest novelty of the play is the representation of the dissolute life lead by the prodigal son away from home. While the two previous dramas set 123

“Sol ti ricordo el conservarti buono | ché morte corre e vola più che un vento; | benché la grazia del Signor sia dono | col quale chi piace a lui sol fa contento, | pur, preparando delle strade el porto, | Idio sa dar la vita a un ch’è morto” (39.3-8). The last line anticipates the final teaching of the parable (cf. Luke 15:32).

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the whole play in the father’s house, this time a long section of the play has a different setting. This required technical solutions that could allow for the stage to be organized in different sectors, or even for more than one stage.124 In this play, the sinful life of the prodigal son gains full visibility. When he arrives at the harbour, instead of going to sea for an exotic and exciting journey, he immediately becomes stuck in a much more prosaic tavern visit. There he is duped by a dishonest innkeeper, and inconsiderately and ingenuously squanders all his money. The protagonist rapidly loses control of the situation, and the self-interested host is quick to introduce him to “gamblers, loaded dice, pimps, and prostitutes who descend like vultures on the naive youth”.125 The description of the life of the inn is characterized by a traditional set of sins (idleness, gluttony, drunkenness, gambling, obscenity, blasphemy, lechery) that were considered to be the “sins of the tavern” and “sins of youths”.126 The scene was a well-established amplification of the sinful life of the prodigal son, who leaves home with great plans and rapidly becomes ensnared in a most trivial and predictable net of sins. Although it was not the first time that the life of a tavern was staged in a sacra rappresentazione,127 Castellani masterminds a lively description of the prodigal son’s ruin. He brings a substantial number of characters on stage, who speak ambiguously and use deceptive jargon. This must have been rather entertaining for the audience, and it shows Castellani’s skilful adhesion to representing daily life. Instead of giving a didactic description of the vices, the play demonstrates how a host of wretched people is ready to ensnare a young man in vice. Castellani appears confident that staging a realistic and sharp description (albeit moralistically connoted) of the disgrace of the prodigal son would be far more effective than a limpid but cold enumeration of the characteristics of each vice. And yet, what could be staged feasibly by a confraternity had its limits. The tavern scene fades out when the innkeeper suggests that he can guarantee his guest “other pleasures or other fun, | whatever your young blood is looking for” (“Se volete altri piaceri o altri spassi | come ricerca el fior di gioventù”; 59.1-2); the prodigal son accepts and leaves his friends at the tavern to be taken to Lucrezia, a prostitute who receives the host-pimp’s order to “sharp .

124 125 126 127

See Stallini, Le théâtre, pp. 206-10 and for contemporary plays that used more stages, see Nerbano, Il teatro, pp. 83-100. Konrad Eisenbichler, “From Sacra Rappresentazione to Commedia Spirituale: Three Prodigal Son Plays,” Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 45/1 (1983), 107-13: 112. See Eisenbichler, “Adolescence,” p. 83. See the Rappresentazione d’uno miracolo del Corpo di Cristo (c.1470), edited in Newbigin, “Dieci sacre rappresentazioni,” pp. 74-97.

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her razor skilfully” to fleece the incautious youth (“con destrezza il rasoio assottigli”; 64.8). Instead of showing the encounter between the prodigal son and Lucrezia, the scene moves back to the house of the father, who laments the loss of his son and is encouraged by his servant who exhorts him to keep trusting in God. The father’s lamentation expands the perception of time and changes the tone of the play, which passes from the lively banter of the tavern scene to a much more solemn and emotionally intense style, echoing Petrarchan poetry in places:128 65. Passa via el tempo, el mese, l’anno e ’l giorno: cosí pian pian si va correndo a morte e ’l mio dolce tesor non fa ritorno. Oh, ore lunghe, che fusti già sì corte! Spesso rivolto gli occhi intorno intorno, né però s’apre di pietà le porte. Figliuol diletto, e’ mia sospir non senti, poi che del fallo tuo più non ti penti!

65. Time passes away, the days, the months, the years, | and so goes running slowly to death and still my sweet treasure does not return. O hours so long, that were once so short! Often I turn my eyes and look around, but still the doors of pity do not open. Beloved son, you don’t hear my sighs, for you don’t repent of your fault!

66. Io tanto chiamerò con pianti e urla che a pietà moverò le fiere e’ sassi! Io avevo ogni bene, or non ho nulla.

66. I will call out with so much tears and wailing, so that I move wild beast and stones to pity! I had every good, and now I have nothing.

The scene returns back to the prodigal son. Having squandered all his money, he is no longer welcomed by Lucrezia and her pimp, and he is driven away, according to the stage direction, “barefoot and with only his shirt”; a scene that was recurrent in the images of the parable.129 When the prodigal son meets his old companions – who had tried to caution him at the tavern – they deny knowing him, to the point that they call him a rascal (manigoldo) and sarcastically suggest he ask for help at a hospice for the poor (“Va’, truova uno spedal che ti raccetti, | ché qui non è fra noi da porci speme”; 74.5-6). In this way, the play condemns bad company, showing that it proves to be treacherous when someone needs help. This encounter strips away his final illusions and the prodigal son falls into despair. Next, the play follows the narrative in the Gospel; the son accepts to work as swineherd on a farm in order to survive. After the house and 128 129

On Petrarca’s influence on sacre rappresentazioni, see Villoresi, Sacrosante parole, pp. 12842. For the Tuscan area, see Campbell, The Game of Courting, pp. 130-47 (see above, p. 205).

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the inn, the farm becomes the third setting of a play that required considerably more spatial organization for its staging than the previous dramas. In his misery, the protagonist reconsiders his venture. Initially he curses his misfortune, then his proud life, finally he acknowledges his own sin and, after a moment of desperation, he eventually turns to God.130 At this point, the prodigal son directly addresses the spectators with a parenetic admonition, in which he exhorts them to learn from his destiny. Then, along the way to go back to the father’s house, he again exhorts the audience directly to attentively meditate on the lesson of his story.131 In this way, the moral lesson of the play is presented two times in the prodigal son’s own voice, while he is still in the midst of his misery, thus enhancing the pathos of the message. 132 81. Impari ognun che vuol pigliar esemplo dalla mia gioventù dov’ oggi sono. Ché quando ora infelice mi contemplo, penso quanto el morir mi sare’ buono. Fuggendo in puerizia el divin templo, messi e’ costumi e ’l padre in abbandono. Lo stato mio, che fu già tanto grande, è di guardare e’ porci, e pascer ghiande.

81. Learn, you who wish take a lesson from my youth where I find myself! For when I look how unhappy I am now, I think how good it would be for me to die. Fleeing the holy temple in my youth, I abandoned good behaviour and my father. My situation, which was once so grand, is now to keep pigs and feed on acorns.

[…] Mentre che va, dice: 84. Fermate il passo chi veder mi vuole, e chi vuol far la vita sua perfetta. Taverne e balli e le secrete scuole fanno come il zimbel che sempre alletta. Non crediate, fratelli, alle parole di chi si mostra tordo, et è civetta. Tenete, o giovanetti, l’arco teso; ché chi si guarda è rare volte offeso.

[…] While he goes [home], he says: 84. Stop in your tracks, if you want to look upon me, and want your life to become perfect. Taverns, dancing, and secret schools are like a decoy bird, full of allure. Brothers, do not believe the words of one who plays the thrush but is a owl.132 Young men, keep your bow strung, because the one who is wary is seldom tripped up.

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132

“Contra di me s’è il mio peccato desto, | che trasmutato m’ha d’un uom in furia. | Chi mi tien ch’io non pigli oggi un capestro | a vendicarmi di me stesso la ’ngiuria? | Consigliami, Signor; dammi fortezza, | ch’ogni mio senso pel dolor si spezza” (80.3-8). The same strategy is used in the play on Lazarus and the rich man, where the latter directly exhorts the spectators to learn from his sorrowful destiny; see Delcorno, “La Festa di Lazero,” pp. 80-82. The contraposition is between a harmless bird (tordo) and a predatory one (civetta).

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The second octave uses the image of hunting with decoy birds and clearly addresses the young members of the brotherhood. They must not follow the disastrous example of the prodigal son by avoiding carefully all the insidious temptations of the world. The play served to visualize and explore the dangers of a sinful life on the stage, in order to teach how to recognize its consequences and to escape its alluring temptations. The stage of the confraternity could be a laboratory to conduct a controlled – and ideologically guided – experiment. This should give the giovanetti sufficient insight into evil and prepare them to face the pitfalls of life as prudent warriors who stand with strung bows, vigilant and ready to repel the enemies. After this didactic plea, the story moves to the encounter between the prodigal son and the father. The scene follows the biblical account, so much so that the son begins his request of forgiveness with the words of the Gospel: “Peccavi, padre, in celum et coram te” (86.1). This Latin quotation was so familiar to the audience that it did not need to be translated, and it probably also served as authentication of the biblical nature of the play – as a relic placed in an altar sanctifies it.133 With an interesting detail, in this play the father gives the son his own ring. It is a delicate gesture of love, which unsurprisingly is connoted with a nuptial reference.134 Moreover, the return of the son gives new life to the father himself, who states: “Son, embrace for a while your good father, | who having been without life now awakes from death” (“Figliuolo, el tuo buon padre alquanto abbraccia, | che essendo spento, da morte si desta”; 90.6-7). Finally, the play treats the return of the older son. The father appeals him not on the basis of obedience but in the name of love (“per lo amore che mi porti”; 100.7). In some ways, the father is able to share his love for the returned son with his brother who, after initial resistance, says: “I too want to take him in my arms, | for great love cannot be contained” (“Volo nelle mie braccia anch’io tenere, | c’un grande amor non si ferma alle mosse”; 101.3-4). The encounter between the two brothers is depicted in an overwhelmingly moving tone. The prodigal son repeats his request for forgiveness in front of the brother. The latter, on the one hand experiences the same feelings as the father in the previous scene (Castellani purposely uses the same expressions) and, on the other hand, accuses himself.

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The image has been used for biblical quotations in images by Giovanni Pozzi, “Dall’orlo del visibile parlare,” in Visibile parlare: Le scritture esposte nei volgari italiani dal Medioevo al Rinascimento, ed. Claudio Ciociola (Naples, 1997), pp. 15-41: 32. “Ora si cava l’anello, e mettelo in dito al figliuolo: L’anel c’al dito mio tenuto ho tanto | con quel ti sposo in segno di vittoria” (89.1-2).

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El fratello minore si getta ai piedi del maggiore e dice: 102. Fratel, peccavi, eccomi qui dolente: so ben che di star teco non sono degno, pur si de’ perdonar a chi si pente; abbi pietà del tuo fratello indegno. El fratello maggiore l’abbraccia e dice: Oimè, che di’, tu, fratel clemente? […]

The younger brother throws himself at the feet of the elder and says: Brother, peccavi, see me here in sorrow: I know well that I’m not worthy to stay here with you, | even if one has to pardon one who repents. Have pity on your unworthy brother. The elder son embraces him and says: Alas, what are you saying, kind brother? […]

E baciandolo dice: 103. Son questi gli occhi e ’l volto, è questo el petto, | son questi e’ membri del mio bel tesoro? Tiemmi, dolce fratello, alquanto stretto, che di dolcezza mi consumo e moro. Perdona a me el commesso difetto che mi dà ora al cor doppio martoro.

And kissing him, he says: 103. Are these the eyes, is this the face and breast, are these the limbs of my beautiful treasure? Hold me tightly, sweet brother, that I may melt and die with delight. Pardon me the mistake I made that gives my heart a double sorrow.

The reconciliation could not have been described in a more moving way. Then, when the story has arrived at its conclusion, the father invites a “young man with a lyre” (as the stage direction describes him) to sing and illustrate “who is the son who separates himself from God” (“Quale è quel figlio che da Dio si diparte”; 105.8). Using this stratagem, Castellani inserts a final moral lesson in the story. The sixteen-octave long explanation develops an allegorical reading of the whole parable. As the scene of the tavern was lively and sharp, this section is solemn and didactic. Castellani retraces the moral allegory of the parable, in which the father is God and both the sons, not only the younger, represent those who separate themselves from God, though in different ways. The allegorical reading of the itinerary of the prodigal son does not present surprises and reuses several images already at play in the text. Here the image of the bow recurs again, because the person who is prey to lust “loses the fruit of grace | and cannot anymore hit the target with his arrow” (“così chi perde della grazia el frutto | non può più saettar, volendo, a segno”; 110.3-4). Describing vices, Castellani focuses on the corporal senses, mentioning sight, hearing, taste, touch, and adding also speech to the list. As with the tavern scene, the teaching stresses that the vices’ grip starts with concrete and sensorial experiences. Instead of following the list of the capital vices (like Muzi and Pulci), Castellani draws from this other catechetical scheme. The scheme on senses might be less familiar to the modern reader, still, it was a common part of the mnemonic and

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didactic teachings presented to children and adolescents, as one can see in the Libretto della dottrina cristiana repeatedly printed in the last decades of the fifteenth century.135 Alongside didactic elements, Castellani also includes spiritual themes, such as when he comments on the fatted calf as a symbol of the Passion of Christ, who invites the sinner to kiss or drink from his wounded side (“porgi la bocca al mio dolce costato”), and thus enter into a personal and intense relationship with the crucified Christ and his salvific blood.136 The lines on the prodigal son are far more elaborate than the few lines dedicated to the elder brother. Nonetheless, it is relevant that the latter also represents a sinner. To achieve this, Castellani interprets the older son who goes to the farm as a symbol of a person who separates him or herself from God, yet in a less evident manner than the prodigal son. Indeed, in the play it is the father who askes the elder son to go to the farm. However, in the final moral lesson this becomes the sign of the elder son’s being “overcome by the senses that have taken the light away from him”.137 Although Castellani is slightly enigmatic, the elder brother embodies the person who is not evidently a sinner but is, nevertheless, a prisoner of his self-love and does not rely on God. 138 118. Era ito lo intelletto alquanto in villa perché gli era discosto al divin verbo; vinto dal proprio amor arde e sfavilla, e vuole il frutto che è già fatto acerbo. Come il padre gli porge una favilla del suo bel fuoco, egli strugge ogni nerbo, et entra in casa, e col minor fratello, si fa pien di virtù, formoso e bello. 135

136 137 138

118. The mind had gone to the villa a while138 because it had forsaken the divine Word; overcome by self-love, it burns and glitters and wants the fruit that has already become sour. And when the father offers him a spark from his great fire, all his resistance melts. He enters the house, and with his younger brother, he becomes rich in virtue and truly beautiful.

See Libretto della dottrina cristiana attribuito a S. Antonino arcivescovo di Firenze, ed. Gilberto Aranci (Florence, 1996), pp. 46-47. See also Gilberto Aranci, “I ‘confessionali’ di s. Antonino Pierozzi e la tradizione catechistica del ’400,” Vivens Homo 3 (1992), 273-92. This anonymous booklet was first printed in 1473 and received (at least) ten incunabula editions. Its list of senses includes speaking, which is discussed together with taste and before touch, as in Castellani’s play. On the sins of the tongue, see Carla Casagrande and Silvana Vecchio, I peccati della lingua. Disciplina ed etica della parola nella cultura me­­ dievale (Rome, 1987). “Questo è quando e’ ti chiama, o servo ingrato, | e dice: ‘Pensa un po’ la morte mia, | porgi la bocca al mio dolce costato, | che non ti lascerà smarrir la via’” (117.3-6). “Però va in villa el suo fratel maggiore, | vinto dal senso che gli ha tolto el lume” (109.1-2). The villa could be both the farm mentioned in the parable but also – in the Florentine culture − a place of vacation.

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The moral reading indicates clearly that both brothers are – in different ways – separated from God. The interpretation is perfectly consistent with the last scene of the play, where both brothers ask each other for forgiveness and confess their sins. The straightforward message proposed to the audience was that no one could consider oneself rightful without experiencing the merciful love of God, to whom everybody – also the virtuous members of the confraternity – should return with a repentant attitude. Moreover, the rather obscure allusion that compares the elder brother to a fire that needs to be kindled, might become more intelligible by comparing it with the sermons preached by Savonarola during the years in which this play was composed. As we have seen, commenting on the parable in 1496, Savonarola identified the prodigal son with the cold Christians and the older son with the tepid Christians. The preacher pointed out that the situation of the tiepidi was worse than that of the freddi, because their sinful condition was hidden, while on the outside they appeared as good Christians. In Savonarola’s words, the tiepidi are hot only on the outside, while inside they are completely cold because they are dominated by self-love.139 They are therefore unlikely to be converted and do not repent, because they are reluctant to acknowledge their situation. Castellani stressed the need for conversion of the elder brother. From the outside he appears like a sparkling fire but, indeed, needs the true flame of God to overcome his selflove. The language of this stanza evokes Savonarola’s continual attacks on the tiepidi, whose Christian life was entirely exterior. 7

“Con questo dolce suon che tanto piace …”

Among the things that can “hasten the man to his death”, Castellani includes “the ear that shows you sounds and songs that delight” (111.1-4). Nonetheless, if music and songs could be dangerous, they could have also a salvific power, as the “young man with a lyre” claims at the beginning of his song.140

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“Sai tu quale è il freddo? È l’amor proprio. Sai tu quale è il caldo? È l’amor divino. El tepido ha il caldo di fuora ma non di drento […] drento vi è il freddo dello amor proprio”; Savo­ narola, Prediche sopra Amos, 2, p. 202 (12 March 1496). See above, pp. 240-50. On the function of music and laude in sacre rappresentazioni, see Stallini, Le théâtre, pp. 77-81 and Østrem and Petersen, Medieval Ritual, pp. 32-42.

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106. Per far del cielo el buon cristian capace e drizzarlo alle sue sante legge, con questo dolce suon che tanto piace ch’ogni affanno mortal tempra e corregge, ci sforzerem co’ nostri versi accendere ognun che cerca e’ detti sensi intendere.

106. To make the good Christian ready for heaven | and to instruct him in God’s holy laws, with this sweet sound that so pleases and tempers and corrects all human anguish, let us try to kindle with our verses everyone who seeks to understand this story.

Castellani developed the same idea further in his Evangeli della Quaresima, which was printed before 1512.141 This work is a collection of 42 laude (form: xYyX ABABbCcX), one for each day of Lent. It represents the most extended composition of Castellani, who intended to reach the “ideal of a poetry grounded in Christian truth, largely accessible to the common people, free from the imitation of the ancients”.142 Castellani’s Evangeli enjoyed a certain success, with at least four imprints in the first half of the sixteenth century.143 This confirms the inclination of Castellani to find the ways to convey a theological and moral discourse at a popular level, through theatre and songs, knowing that these media could kindle the heart, instruct the mind, and greatly help memorization. In the Evangeli della Quaresima, each lauda presents a versification of the Gospel reading of the day, its allegorical or moral meaning, and a final exhortation. The lauda for the Saturday after Reminiscere has 21 stanzas and shows clear connections with Castellani’s play.144 The versification of the parable closely follows the Gospel text.145 The interpretation of the story (stanzas 17-21) 141

142 143 144 145

Castellani dedicated this work to Argentina Malaspina, the wife of Piero Soderini, who was elected Gonfaloniere of Justice for life in 1502, a position that he held till the end of the Florentine Republic in 1512. Ponte, Attorno al Savonarola, p. 17, dates the composition between 1504 and 1511, while Giuseppe Corsi, “Laude di Castellano Castellani,” Giornale storico della letteratura italiana 90/469 (1973), pp. 68-76, suggests that the texts could predate the election of Soderini. Ponte, Attorno al Savonarola, pp. 95-96 and, for an analysis of this collection, pp. 95-100. The editions were all printed in Florence: three are dated (1514; 1534; 1548), while the other, probably the oldest one, does not have a colophon. See Gustavo Camillo Galletti, ed., Laude spirituali di Feo Belcari, di Lorenzo de’ Medici, di Francesco d’Albizzo, di Castellano Castellani e di altri (Florence, 1863), pp. XIX-XXI. It expands the initial dialogue between the prodigal son and the father (2-5 stanzas) and the description of the life in misery of the prodigal son (7-9 stanzas). While his sinful life occupied a significant space in the play, here it is summarized by one stanza (6). The part on the elder brother retains the open end of the biblical parable, without saying whether or not he will join the feast.

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is a rewriting of the moral lesson that concluded the drama, as the parallel between an octave of the play and a stanza of the song demonstrates (the differences are in italics): Rappresentazione del Figliuol Prodigo

Evangeli della Quaresima

107. El padre di famiglia è il magno Dio, el cui potere ogni effetto dispensa: ricco, potente, mansueto e pio, tanto che ’l ciel si pasce alla sua mensa. Da questo parte el peccatore, che è rio, quando lasciando lui al mondo pensa, e chiede, per superbia in sé rivolto, la parte sua, come bestiale e stolto.

17. El padre di famiglia è solo Dio, il cui potere ogni effetto dispensa: ricco, potente, mansueto e pio, tanto che ’l ciel si pasce alla sua mensa. Da questo chi mal pensa si parte, e per superbia in sé rivolto, come bestiale e stolto, chiede la parte, e nel peccato muore.

The difference mainly depends on the metric of the two texts. One could say that the final part of the play constituted the first brick in the construction of the Evangeli della Quaresima. In the play, Castellani experimented with writing a versification of the Gospel suitable to be sung on a public occasion. He must have been satisfied by the result if he developed that model in the large-scale project of the Evangeli. On the other hand, there is a difference between the song of the play and the lauda with regard to their content. The lauda does not provide any interpretation of the elder brother, who returns to his usual marginal role. From this point of view, the text resembles previous versifications of the Gospels of Lent, which focused only on the younger son. For instance, this was the case of the fourteenth-century Laudes evangeliorum of Perugia (dramatizations of the Gospel readings of Lent)146 and, in the Florentine context, the Vangeli della Quaresima of Antonio Pucci (d. 1388), who versified the parable in a sonetto caudato.147 Also in his version of the Diatessaron (the harmonisation

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Vincenzo De Bartholomaeis, ed., Laude drammatiche e rappresentazioni sacre, 3 vols (Flo­ rence, 1943), 1, pp. 138-39. On the confraternities in Umbria, see Nerbano, Il teatro della devozione. See Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 1294 (2760), fol. 8v and Florence, Biblioteca Na­­ zionale Centrale, MS Magliabechiano II II 452, fol. 148rv. The second manuscript, which dates from 1420-21, also offers a paraphrase of the Gospel of the day before each sonetto (see fols. 143v-54v). See Anna Bettarini Bruni, “L’impegno civile di Antonio Pucci versificatore dei Vangeli,” in Firenze alla vigilia del Rinascimento. Antonio Pucci e i suoi contemporanei, ed. Maria Bendinelli Predelli (Fiesole, 2006), pp. 33-63.

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of the four Gospel), Pucci versified the prodigal son, using tercets in this case.148 At the beginning of his Diatessaron, Pucci clearly outlined his aim: “I versifed the Gospel, so that – by recalling one of these texts in his mind – anyone who is illiterate can be more prepared when he goes to listen to preaching”.149 Pucci’s text pinpoints the didactic function of this type of poetry and its expected ­beneficiaries, probably members of a confraternity. Pucci’s versification was aimed at a more fruitful reception of preaching; it facilitates the cooperation between the preacher and his audience in the dynamic process of obtaining a deeper understanding of Scripture. Castellani’s Evangeli della Quaresima were probably destined for a similar usage, as an effective support for a conscious participation in the Lenten celebrations and as a form of appropriation and internalization of the message of the Gospel readings. 8

“I Thought I’d Burst for Contrition”

The prodigal son (without mention of his brother) is at the centre of a third text attributed to Castellani, which shows both his attachment to this parable and his awareness of the strategic role that the story could play in the penitential itinerary. This time Castellani presents a sermon on the prodigal son. The sermon is delivered by a very special preacher, and proves particularly effective in provoking the conversion of a very special sinner. The preacher, in fact, is Jesus himself, and the sinner converted by the prodigal son story is Mary Magdalen. The sermon is actually part of another play, the Rappresentazione della conversione di santa Maria Maddalena.150 Within the play, the Magdalen is convinced by her sister Martha to go listen to a sermon of Jesus, who preaches from a pulpit. What follows is a sixteen-octave long sermon, which progressively captures

148

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See Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 1294 (2760), fol. 24rv. This 28 verses composition on the prodigal son breaks off when he comes to his senses. Also the 1399 versification of the Diatessaron written by the Venetian Gradenigo includes a part on the prodigal son, with interesting dramatic elements; see Jacopo Gradenigo, Gli Quattro Evangelii concordati in uno, ed. Francesca Gambino (Bologna, 1999), pp.140-43 (and its analysis at pp. XLVII-LV). “Mettogli in rima perc’ogni mio pare | grosso, recandosene uno a la mente, | sie più informato andando al predicare”; quoted in Bettarini Bruni, “L’impegno civile,” p. 38. See D’Ancona, ed., Sacre rappresentazioni, 1, pp. 255-302 and O’Connell, Three Florentine, pp. 37-159, which presents a brief analysis of the play on pp. XII-XXII. I follow O’Connell English translation. On the attribution of the play to Castellani, see Ponte, Attorno al Savonarola, pp. 121-22 and on this play Ventrone, Teatro civile, pp. 336-40.

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the Magdalen’s attention and heart.151 She arrived at the sermon late and prejudiced against this famous preacher; however, she cannot resist him, as the stage directions indicate: Now the Magdalen arrives with her companions, and her servants prepare a seat in front of the pulpit, and she ostentatiously sits down there, freely looking around and not paying attention to Jesus; then Jesus looks at her and continues to preach, always having his holy gaze upon her; after he has spoken the first stanza of the sermon, she looks at him and her eyes meet those of Jesus …152 The sermon appeals to the soul of the sinner for conversion (“O alma peccatrice, che farai?”; 79.1) and is structured around three parables: the talents (Matthew 25:14-30), the lost sheep (Luke 15:4-7), and – at its peak – the prodigal son. The first parable serves to recall the flame of hell awaiting those who do not convert themselves. The second is presented in an octave with six Latin lines, adapting the Vulgate text to the verses, followed by Jesus’ appeal to the sinful soul, which is reassured about God’s mercy.153 Finally, two octaves summarize the parable of the prodigal son:

151

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153

On this sermon, see Ventrone, “La sacra rappresentazione,” pp. 273-74. On this scene in Renaissance paintings and on the cross-influence between religious plays and visual art, see Bram de Klerck, “Mary Magdalene’s Conversion in Renaissance Painting and Mediaeval Sacred Drama,” in Lardinois et al., eds., Texts, Transmissions, Receptions, pp. 175-93. “Ora giugne Maddalena con la sua compagnia, e’ suoi donzelli parano una sedia dinanzi al pergamo, e lei tutta pomposa vi si posa su, guardando a suo piacere, non attendendo ancora a Jesù; dipoi Jesù la riguarda e seguita di predicare, sempre avendo il suo santissimo sgurado sopra di lei; e lei, di poi detto la prima stanza della predica, lo guarda, et e’ sua occhi si scontrorono con quelli di Jesù”. “Quis ex vobis centum oves habens, | si forte unam ex illis perdiderit, | nonne nonaginta novem dimittens | et illam querit, donec ipsam invenerit? | Et cum invenerit, in humeros ponens, | gaudens, in domum suam cito venerit, | e convoca gli amici e la brigata | a farne festa, ché l’ha ritrovata”; 81.1-8. “Torna al pastore, o alma peccatrice, | el qual ti cerca per a sé chiamarti | […] | ritorna, deh, ritorna a penitenzia, | ché Dio ti chiama per sua grande clemenzia”; 83.1-8.

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84. Un padre fu che due figliuoli aveva, e quel minor […] andò, e spese il misero dolente, ciò ch’egli aveva, a viver carnalmente.

84. There was a father who had two sons; the younger […] He, the miserable, went away and wasted all that he had, living in bodily pleasures.

85. Avendo poi bisogno, fu pentito, tornando al padre tutto umiliato; e di nuovo dal padre fu vestito, e più che mai fu dolcemente amato. Così fa il sommo Idio ch’è infinito de l’alma che dolente è del peccatore: pur che la voglia nel suo amor tornare sempre è benigno, e vuogli perdonare.

85. Then in need he repented, and returned in humility to his father. He was clothed anew by his father and more than ever tenderly loved by him. So the eternal and supreme God does for the mourning soul of the sinner. So long as one’s desire is to return to his love, he is always merciful and longs to pardon.

At this point, the final exhortation of Christ is directed to Mary Magdalen, who embodies the exemplary reaction in front of such a sermon: 86. Alma, tu hai feriti molti cuori stando in delizie, in pompe, e in vari diletti: tu hai fornicato con molti amadori, e se’ ripiena di molti difetti, e hai il tuo core ch’è pien di rancori: ritorna a me, se brami ch’io t’aspetti, perché con gli altri raddoppi il talento, acciò con gli altri in ciel viva contento.

86. Soul, you have wounded many hearts, | living in splendour, in delight, and in empty pleasures. You have committed fornication with many lovers, and you are filled with many vices. You have a heart filled with resentment. If you want me to wait for you, return to me, so that with the others you may redouble the talent, and with those others live happily in heaven.

Dopo la benedizione di Jesù, Maddalena piangendo, coperta il capo, non si posa per la gran confusione che aveva, e tutto el popolo piangeva, e in gran stupore stavano ammirati riguardando il fine.

After Jesus’ blessing, the Magdalen, in tears, covers her head and cannot be still because of the great confusion she is in. All the people were weeping and caught in great wonder, looking to see what would happen.

The audience within the play shows the audience of the play the proper and expected reaction to the words of Christ and the powerful language of the tears of Mary Magdalen. It was a way to guide and emotionally enhance the effect of the play on the spectators. The dramatic conversion of the Magdalen is represented as a falling in passionate love with Christ, echoing the spiritual themes of the Song of Songs – in particular that of the “wound of love” (cf. Song of

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Songs 2:5) – that had a long mystical and spiritual tradition.154 In fact, later on she exclaims: “You have taken my heart with you, | so I can’t think anything but possessing you. | Don’t look at my faults, which are infinite, | but see my heart that you’ve pierced with your love”; “See how I pine for you, Jesus | […] | Jesus, my heart burns with love of you. | You have pierced me so that now I feel lost”.155 She accounts that the words of Christ inflamed her heart and “when he said: ‘I want to pardon you’; | I thought I’d burst for contrition” (“Allor m’infiammò tanto del suo amore | […] | ma quando disse: ‘Io ti vo’ perdonare’; | per contrizione io credetti scoppiare”; 110.1.7-8). Late medieval preachers and religious educators had established a firm connection between Mary Magdalen and the prodigal son, as we have seen in the Speculum humanae salvationis. She was a sort of prodigal daughter, or – as we will see in discussing the sermons of Meder – a ‘prodigal bride’, who united the character of the Song of Songs and the penitential behaviour of the prodigal son. Finally, by presenting the parable of the prodigal son as a turning point in the conversion of Mary Magdalen, the play stages the idea that Castellani – and many contemporary preachers and playwrights, as we have seen – had of the effectiveness of this biblical narrative. The parable not only presented the exemplary conversion of the sinner, but also was able to provoke it. It was a performative story. Just as in the play the Magdalen identified with the prodigal son, so everyone who listened to or watched this story could recognize himself or herself in him. Everyone had to feel the heart pierced by the love of God, in order to ask forgiveness for his or her sins and start a new life imbued with the love of God, and in obedience to his authority. 9

Beyond the Florentine Stage

By now it is apparent the central place and function of the prodigal son’s parable in the Florentine context of religious instruction between 1450 and 1510. The story of the prodigal son repeatedly found its way to propose to the audience a clear-cut narrative identity that condemned the rebellious and dissolute 154

155

See O’Connell, Three Florentine, pp. XX-XXI and, on this mystical tradition, Lino Pertile, La puttana e il gigante. Dal Cantico dei cantici al Paradiso Terrestre di Dante (Ravenna, 1998), pp. 95-101. “Tu hai il mio cuor, Jesù, con teco assunto | ch’altro non posso se non possederti. | Non guardar all’error mio ch’è infinito, | ma guarda il cor che m’hai d’amor ferito” (125.5-8); “Vedi come per te, Giesù, languisco | […] | Giesù, col tuo amore il mio cor ardi: | Tu m’hai ferito sì ch’io mi smarrisco” (130.4-8).

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life of the prodigal son and encouraged adhesion to his exemplary repentance and submission to paternal authority. The message of these plays was geared mainly to the boys of the confraternities and the spectators of their feste. Nevertheless, each play had its own register and its own perspective, focused on different aspects of the parable. Each play was a proper theological and catechetical interpretation of the parable. The three playwrights can be defined as three exegetes, or at least as three ‘preachers’ who – depending on a rich tradition of interpretation – engaged with the Biblical text with their own sensibility. In different forms, they were innovative in their elaboration, and connected to the Florentine socio-political and cultural context. Moreover, the differentiated identities of Piero Muzi, Antonia Pulci, and Castellano Castellani perfectly illustrate a familiarity with the Biblical text that crossed the borders that usually divide – maybe more in scholarship than in history – clerics and lay people, men and women. The Florentine context had, as it is well known, its peculiarities and should not be taken as completely representative for fifteenth-century society at large. However, it was not a separate world. At least to some extent, these relatively unparalleled intensive experiments found their way towards other urban contexts. The circulation of these plays on the prodigal son in the form of manuscripts or printed editions, testifies to the way in which this parable was able to reach differentiated audiences, far beyond the stage of the Florentine companies. To pinpoint that, it would be necessary to investigate carefully the nine manuscripts that contain the Fatted Calf, to see where they originated and which communities of readers they describe.156 The manuscript circulation of this early play hints at communities of readers connected with a confraternity or a domestic circle. Moreover, the fact that Muzi’s play was copied in Bologna, in 1482, shows that it had a circulation that extended beyond Florence. This already significant readership increased enormously with the printed editions of the sacre rappresentazioni. They provided a new level of circulation for the texts, which now had the format of small unbound pamphlets that could be bought by ordinary people for a few pence, to be read or listened to at home.157 Many of these editions have been lost, since they consisted of a quire 156 157

On these manuscripts, see Newbigin, ed., Nuovo corpus, pp. XI-XXV and 31-33. See Nerida Newbigin, “Plays, Printing and Publishing, 1485–1500: The Florentine Sacre Rappresentazioni,” La Bibliofilia 90 (1988), 269-96, which reports the list of sacre rap­ presentazioni bought at the beginning of the sixteenth century by Ferdinand Colomb (Cristoforo Colombo’s son), who noted on his copies how much he paid for them. See also Paola Ventrone, “Fra teatro libro e devozione: Sulle stampe di sacre rappresentazioni fiorentine,” Annali di storia moderna e contemporanea 9 (2003), 265-313 and Newbigin, “Antonia Pulci” (with bibliography).

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of a few pages, usually lacking a proper binding, just as many ephemeral pamphlets.158 However, the surviving copies show the diffusion of these plays, and reveal interesting details. Muzi’s Vitello sagginato, which had a significant manuscript circulation, apparently had only one printed edition, which dates from about 1490.159 Never­ theless, this imprint multiplied the copies available of the play from – we can optimistically guess – about twenty manuscripts to at least 200 or 300 printed copies. The fact that no other imprint of the Vitello sagginato is known could mean that it was rapidly replaced in the book market by the plays of Pulci and Castellani. One edition of Castellani’s play dates from before 1515 and another two from the end of the sixteenth century.160 The first edition that we have was commissioned by Zanobi della Barba (“fece stampar ser Zanobi della Barba”), from the printers Antonio Tubini and Andrea Ghirlandi. Zanobi was a storyteller, a cantator in pancha, as he was matriculated in the Arte dei medici e spetiali in 1518.161 Zanobi’s involvement hints at one of the channels of diffusion of this text. It entered in the repertoire of a professional storyteller, who presented and sold it on the public squares or during religious festivals. He probably adapted part of it for the oral performance by a single canterino, who easily could have presented, for example, the closing section of Castellani’s play, which was already meant to be performed by a single player. Among the plays on this parable, Antonia Pulci’s Prodigal Son constitutes the enduring bestseller. No early editions of her text are known, although it is highly probable that they existed. Yet, from 1550 to 1630 her play went through no less than 16 editions, not only in Florence, but also in Siena (1579), Viterbo (1579), Bologna and Orvieto (1611), Venice and Treviso (1627) − with two other late seventeenth-century editions.162 This means thousands of copies, printed 158

159 160 161

162

For a general overview, see Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance, pp. 65-90 and, for Italy, see Brian Richardson, Printing, Writers, and Readers in Renaissance Italy (Cambridge, 1999). See Alfredo Cioni, Bibliografia delle Sacre Rappresentazioni (Florence, 1961), p. 303. See Cioni, Bibliografia, p. 142. “cerretanus et cantator in pancha et faciens etiam exercitium cartolarij in vendendo et stampando”; see Marco Villoresi, “Zanobi della Barba, canterino ed editore del Rinascimento,” in Il cantare italiano tra folklore e letteratura, eds. Michelangelo Picone and Luisa Rubini (Florence, 2007), pp. 461-73. See also Rosa Salzberg, “The Word on the Street: Street Performers and Devotional Texts in Italian Renaissance Cities,” The Italianist 34 (2014), 336-48 and Luca Degl’Innocenti, Brain Richardson and Chiara Sbordoni, eds., Interactions between Orality and Writing in Early Modern Italian Culture (New York, 2016). See Cioni, Bibliografia, pp. 138-41. The Viterbo edition does not result in Cioni’s bibliography. A copy of it is Biblioteca Vaticana, Stamp.Cappon.V.855(int.22).

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in different cities and each sold for a few coins. In the sixteenth and early seventeenth century such a vernacular and rhymed version, which was easy to memorize, must have been the most familiar version of the parable for many people. In discussing the circulation of the biblical text within Italian society, one has to consider also this kind of text that – although quite different from direct translations of the Gospel – represented one of “the laity’s various routes to accessing the Scriptures”.163 In these texts, the Gospel and a catechetical meditation on it were merged together.164 When Antonia Pulci wrote her play, there was an ongoing effort to grant the laity better access to the Bible. This effort had started in the fourteenth century and in Italy symbolically culminated in 1471, when the Camaldolese Nicolò Malerbi published a translation of the entire Bible, writing in his dedicatory letter that it was addressed to “everybody, without any distinction of age, both men and women” (“tutti univer­ salmente, senza alcuna differentia de maschio o de femina o de età”).165 The six­teenth-century fate of these two fifteenth-century products, Pulci’s play and Malerbi’s Bible, might be seen as indicative of ongoing changes in the Italian religious climate. Whereas the play of Antonia Pulci continued to be a religious bestseller, during the second half of the century the Italian Bible faced increasing restrictions and prohibitions.166 Whatever the changing circumstances over the course of the sixteenth century, when these plays were originally written, performed, and started to circulate, they were part of a vibrant religious culture that adopted multiple media to present and elaborate on the parable of the prodigal son. This biblical story was increasingly perceived as a key text for shaping the religious identity of the lay people. Thus, the parable was not only used in preaching, but also in a number of other media: as a play on the stage of the confraternities, as a religious lauda, as the oral performance of a storyteller, and as a booklet that could 163

164 165

166

Sabrina Corbellini, “Instructing the Soul, Feeding the Spirit and Awakening the Passion: Holy Writ and Lay Readers in Medieval Europe,” in Shaping the Bible in the Reformation. Books, Scholars and Their Readers in the Sixteenth Century, eds. Bruce Gordon and Matthew McLean (Leiden, 2012), pp. 15-39: 18. See Niccoli, La vita religiosa, pp. 113-17. See also Marina Roggero, Le carte piene di sogni: testi e lettori in età moderna (Bologna, 2006). See Edoardo Barbieri, Le Bibbie italiane del Quattrocento e del Cinquecento: storia e bibliografia ragionata delle edizioni in lingua italiana dal 1471 al 1600, 2 vols (Milan, 1991-92) and Edoardo Barbieri, “Malerbi, Nicolò,” in DBI 68 (2007), pp. 149-51. See Fragnito, La Bibbia al rogo, and Gigliola Fragnito, Proibito capire. La Chiesa e il volgare nella prima età moderna (Bologna, 2005). Fragnito shows the increasing restrictions for any type of vernacular paraphrases of the Bible by the end of the sixteenth century, including also texts quite similar to the sacre rappresentazioni.

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be read or listened to at home. The molteplicity of media assured a great familiarity with this parable and its catechetical and theological topics. By means of these media, the story of prodigal son was firmly stored in “the womb of memory” of a large part of the people.167 The three plays on the prodigal son (and the lauda of Castellani) show the peculiar attention given to this biblical story in the Florentine context. The parable represented a central narrative to convey a well-structured religious message that was developed with recourse to different strategies. Furthermore, the Conversion of Mary Magdalen highlights the ideal result that a sharp presentation of the prodigal son was expected to achieve. The scene of the conversion of the Magdalen stages the expectations that, at that time, many clerics had when they preached on the prodigal son. Although in this drama an exceptional preacher was at work, his followers – using the same story – could strive to reach comparable results. As we have seen, the sermon on the prodigal son was considered strategic by preachers like Giordano da Pisa or Bernardino da Siena. However, as another preacher discovered, it was possible to exploit this story in a far richer manner: not just to build a single sermon, but to construct an entire Lenten cycle of fifty sermons. 167

For this expression of Antonino Pierozzi, see Peter Howard, “‘The Womb of Memory’: Carmelite Liturgy and the Frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel,” in The Brancacci Chapel. Form, Function and Setting, ed. Nicholas A. Eckstein (Florence, 2007), pp. 177-206: 184. Howard points out the familiarity of the Florentine people with biblical texts presented in the liturgy and through other forms of religious instruction.

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Fifty Sermons on the Prodigal Son: Johann Meder’s Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo In 1494, the Franciscan Johann Meder had to preach during Lent in the culturally vibrant city of Basel.1 Searching for the best strategy to gain the attention of his audience without being “a corruptor of God’s word”, he conceived a highly innovative sermon cycle, based entirely on the parable of the prodigal son, which became the narrative framework for fifty sermons. Meder could not have known that he was realizing what Giordano da Pisa had theorized almost two centuries earlier while speaking to his Florentine audience. Meder adopted the prodigal son parable as the biblical text from which to develop a wellstructured catechesis; he elevated the parable to the same level as the strategic catechetical patterns such as the Creed, the Pater Noster, the Decalogue, and the Seven Vices that dominated many late medieval topical sermon collections.2 In Meder’s view, the story of the prodigal son contained sufficient material for an entire Lenten period and allowed a preacher to present his audience with a systematic program of religious instruction. Moreover, by giving specific attention to the liturgical readings within the thematic framework of the parable, Meder creatively combined a liturgical and topical sermon collection, merging together these two sub-genres of sermones quadragesimales. Meder adopted a semi-dramatic strategy comparable to that employed by Bernardino da Siena, who was explicitly mentioned by Meder in his sermons. Meder’s sermon collection is, however, even more radical than Bernadino’s in its experimentation, and its dialogues and descriptions are not too far removed from the material found in the religious plays of the period. Albeit in a different

1 This chapter is partially based on Pietro Delcorno, “Un sermonario illustrato nella Basilea del Narrenschiff. Il Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo (1495) di Johann Meder,” Franciscan Studies 68 (2010), 215-58 and 69 (2011), 403-75; and Pietro Delcorno, “La parabola di Piramo e Tisbe. L’allegoria della fabula ovidiana in una predica di Johann Meder (1494),” Schede Umanistiche 23 (2009), 67-106. A brief description of Meder’s sermon collection is given in Rudolf Cruel, Geschichte der deutschen Predigt im Mittelalter (1879; Hildesheim, 1966), pp. 56569; Florent Landmann, “Zum Predigtwesen der Straßburger Franziskanerprovinz in der letzen Zeit des Mittelalters,” Franziskanische Studien 14 (1927), 297-332: 302-07; and, for its woodcuts, Vetter, Der verlorene Sohn, pp. XXII-XXV. 2 See Hanska, “Sermones,” pp. 107-27.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_007

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way, we can again speak of “preaching in the form of theatre”, yet here the pulpit becomes a sort of virtual stage. The sermon cycle represents a spectacular case of appropriation and transformation of the parable by means of which Meder presented an all-encompassing religious instruction to his listeners, explicitly inviting each of them to identify with the prodigal son. There is little doubt that these innovative sermons attracted attention in Basel, for they were immediately printed as a prestigious sermon collection in 1495 with the title Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo. The book represented truly something novum, also in its layout. The volume opened with a poetic introduction by the humanist Sebastian Brant and was accompanied by a wonderful set of woodcuts carved by one of the artists who had worked on the illustrations of Brant’s famous Das Narrenschiff (The Ship of Fools), published in 1494. The result was an unprecedented illustrated book of sermons without parallel among late fifteenth-century sermon collections. For this reason, both its contents and its editorial format merit attentive consideration 1

The ‘Confession’ of a Preacher

Meder had arrived in Basel in the second half of 1493, and the 1494 Lenten preaching cycle was his first important pastoral task in the city.3 At that time, he was about sixty years old and had considerable homiletic experience. He was born in Baden (not far from Zurich), probably in the mid-1430s since he matriculated at the University of Heidelberg in 1451, where he later graduated as Bachelor of Arts in 1453. Thereafter, at an unknown date, he entered the Observant branch of the Franciscans. As he repeatedly fulfilled preaching and lectorate assignments, he must have studied theology shortly after his entrance into religious life. The first reliable information about his Franciscan life dates from 1477, when he was nominated for a triennium as preacher in the convent of Pforzheim. Next, he held preaching and lectorate assignments in the friary of Ruffach (1480-83), again in Pforzheim (1483-86), and in Oppenheim (148687). Successively, Meder was nominated preacher in the convent of Wissemburg (1487-89), preacher and lector in the convent of Zabern (1489-92), and preacher and confessor for the Poor Clares of Alspach, near Kaysersberg (1492-93). 3 On the Franciscan life of Meder, see Michael Bihl, “Tabulae Capitulares Observantium Argentinensium,” Analecta Franciscana 8 (1946), 667-894: 820-21. Still useful the overview in Paul L. Nyhus, “The Franciscans in South Germany, 1400-1530: Reform and Revolution,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 65/8 (1975), 1-47.

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Meder then served as preacher at the Franciscan friary in Basel, where he lived from late 1493 to 1502. During his final year in Basel, he also preached to the Poor Clares of the monastery of Gnadental, just outside the town gates. He was then reappointed preacher to the monastery of Alspach (1502-07).4 This was his last official assignment. Meder died in 1518, in Kaysersberg, where he likely resided during the last years of his life. Although by 1494 Meder was already an expert and skilled preacher, it was the first time he had to preach in a larger urban centre and – according to his own testimony – he realized that the audience of Basel required something special. Basel was a city with an increasingly international profile. It played a central role within the cultural and spiritual life that characterized the Oberrhein Region, which has been recently defined as the most dynamic “geistige Region” beyond the Alps between 1450 and 1520.5 During the fifteenth century, three events contributed to the transformation of the city: the Council of Basel (1431-1449), the foundation of the University, and the growth of the printing industry. The Council of Basel was the longest-lasting council in history, and it deeply influenced the life of the city where it remained until 1447. Basel was transformed into a major centre of Western Christianity, acquiring an unprecedented international dimension and enjoying the presence of high-profile theologians and humanists.6 One need only recall the importance of the Enea 4 Alspach and Gnadental were among the first convents of Poor Clares that had been reformed a few decades earlier, under the guidance of the Franciscan friars of the Regular Observance in the German provinces. Considering that other prominent friars such as Olivier Maillard, Stephen Fridolin, Kasper Schatzgeyer were active as preachers and spiritual guides of these dynamic centres of religious life, Meder’s assignment to these communities is quite significant. On these two convents, see Bert Roest, Order and Disorder: The Poor Clares between Foundation and Reform (Leiden, 2013), pp. 187-89, 290 and 338 and Johanneke Uphoff, “Instruction and Construction: Sermons and the Formation of a Clarissan Identity in Nuremberg,” in Roest and Uphoff, eds., Religious Orders, pp. 48-68. 5 “in keiner anderen Region nördlich der Alpen in diesem Zeitraum zu einer derartigen Verdichtung vielfältiger und prominenter geistiger Impulse, Konzeptionen und Innovationen, zu einer derartigen Konzentration kreativer Köpfe und Bewegungen kam wie gerade hier”; Berndt Hamm, “Der Oberrhein als geistige Region von 1450 bis 1520,” in Basel als Zentrum des geistigen Austauschs in der frühen Reformationszeit, eds. Christine Christ-von Wendel, Sven Grosse and Berndt Hamm (Tübingen, 2014), pp. 3-50: 17-18. This volume provide an excellent description of the cultural, spiritual, and economic panorama of Basel between late fifteenth and early sixteenth century. 6 See Johannes Helmrath, “Basel, the Permanent Synod? Observations on Duration and Continuity at the Council of Basel (1431-1449),” in Nicholas of Cusa on Christ and the Church: Essays in memory of Chandler McCuskey Brooks, eds. Gerald Christianson and Thomas M.

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Silvio Piccolomini’s sojourn for the diffusion of humanism outside of Italy.7 The conciliar discussion about Church reform, moreover, fostered ecclesiastical reforms within the city. Both the male and female Dominican convents had already adopted Observant reforms in the 1420s, while the Franciscan house and the Poor Clares of Gnadental were reformed during the course of the Council. The foundation of a Carthusian monastery in 1401 and the reform of the collegiate chapters of St. Peter and St. Leonhard further proved the vivacity of religious life in the city. In addition, people from Basel had numerous opportunities to hear sermons. Endowed preacherships were funded in the cathedral and in the collegiate church of St. Peter, while preaching was constant in the mendicant churches of the Franciscans, the Dominicans, and the Augustine Hermits.8 A number of urban parishes were likewise active centres of preaching and pastoral care, as the Manuale curatorum authored by Johann Ulrich Surgant (d. 1503) clearly shows. Surgant was the parish priest of St. Theodor from 1473 on. He summarized his experience in this pastoral handbook, which underlines in its prologue that the main task of pastoral caregivers is indeed preaching.9 The cultural level of the city and its clergy had been fostered by the foundation of the University, one of the indirect consequences of the Council. After an initial attempt in the 1440s that lasted only a few years, the University of Basel was established on a firmer ground in 1460 with the approval of Pope Pius II (the humanist Piccolomini, who had spent time in Basel during the Council) and progressively attracted professors and students from abroad. Among its first professors were Johann Grütsch – brother of Conrad – who in 1466 also Izbicki (Leiden, 1996), pp. 35-56; Claudius Sieber-Lehmann, “Basel und ‘sein’ Konzil,” in Die Konzilien von Pisa (1409), Konstanz (1414-1418) und Basel (1431-1449): Institution und Personen, eds. Heribert Müller and Johannes Helmrath (Ostfildern, 2007), pp. 173-204. For an overview of the recent studies, see A Companion to the Council of Basel, eds. Michiel Decaluwe, Thomas M. Izbicki and Gerald Christianson (Leiden, 2017). 7 See Johannes Helmrath, “Vestigia Aeneae imitari: Enea Silvio Piccolomini als ‘Apostel’ des Humanismus. Formen und Wege seiner Diffusion,” in Johannes Helmrath, Wege des Humanismus: Studien zu Praxis und Diffusion der Antikeleidenschaft im 15. Jahrhundert (Tübingen, 2013), pp. 73-114. 8 An overview is found in Amy Nelson Burnett, Teaching the Reformation: Ministers and Their Message in Basel, 1529-1629 (Oxford, 2006), pp. 20-26. To obtain an inkling of the sermon collections present in the convent libraries of the city, see François Dolbeau, “La bibliothèque des Dominicains de Bâle au XVe siècle: Fragments inédits d’un catalogue topographique,” AFP 81 (2011), 121-63. 9 See Jürgen Konzili, “Studien über Johann Ulrich Surgant (ca. 1450-1503),” Zeitschrift für schweizerische Kirchengeschichte 70 (1976), 107-67 and 308-88.

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became rector of the University, and Johann Heynlin von Stein (or Lapide), who arrived in 1473 from the University of Paris and who had a profound impact on the younger generation of humanists in Basel. In the same period, Geiler von Kaysersberg studied theology and preached his first sermons in Basel (1471-75), where he also became friends with Sebastian Brant. Brant had arrived as a student in 1475 and spent his entire academic career in that city, where he would become doctor utiusque iuris in 1489 and teach law until returning to his native Strasbourg in 1501.10 The lively cultural context, the flourishing economy, and the strategic geographical position of the city facilitated the arrival of the printing press industry in 1469 and its rapid growth. Within a few years, Basel became one of the capitals of the European printing market, particularly renowned for the production of illustrated books.11 Within this cultural and religious context, what was the right strategy to engage an audience? When Meder edited his sermon collection in 1495, he layed out in a preface what his thought and mood had been the previous year. Through a filter of literary topoi, he depicted his anxiety and inner thoughts and the process of inventio that led to his sermon cycle. This prefaciuncula offers us Meder’s self-representation as a preacher, a sort of ‘autobiographical confession’.12 1.1 The Preacher as a “Smart Cook” “Sedenti mihi quodam in tempore …”: at the beginning of the preface, Meder portrayed himself as absorbed in meditation, while he attentively considered “what was the most useful way to preach to the people during the imminent Lent”. As a first reaction, he experienced “the greatest pain”.13 He had the im10

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See Thomas Wilhelmi, “Zum Leben und Werk Sebastian Brants,” in Thomas Wilhelmi, ed., Sebastian Brant. Forschungsbeiträge zu seinem Leben zum ʻNarrenschiffʼ und zum übrigen Werk (Basel, 2002), pp. 7-35. See Pierre Louis van der Haegen, Der frühe Basler Buchdruck. Ökonomische, sozio-politische und informationssystematische Standortfaktoren und Rahmenbedingungen (Basel, 2001). On Basel illustrated books, still fundamental is Friedrich Winkler, Dürer und die Illustrationen zum Narrenschiff. Die Baseler und Straßburger Arbeiten des Künstlers und der altdeutche Holzschnitt (Berlin, 1951). On the prologues of the sermon collections, see Bériou, “Les prologues,” pp. 395-426, which only briefly considers the fifteenth-century texts. “Sedenti mihi quodam in tempore (cuius caudam septuagesime initium aspiciebat) ac tumultibus aliarum occupationum sepositis altius mihi meditanti quid super imminenti quadragesima confluenti populo foret predicandum utilius (ad id me imposito officio compellente) in mentem primum venit quod dolorem haut parum ingerebat”; Johann Meder, Quadragesimale novum […] de filio prodigo et de angeli ipsius ammonitione salubri

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pression that what the Apostle Paul prophesied was true of his own situation: “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires, will accumulate teachers tickling their ears and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to fabulas” (2 Timothy 4:3-4). The plain proclametion of the Scriptures was not enough for this audience. Only an adorned discourse that was refined in its exposition and exceptional in its form would be ‘tasty’ for such a corrupted audience, as if a difference did not exist “between those who practise the office of orators and those who are sent [by God] to announce the verbum divinum to the most simple people”.14 Quoting from Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria, Meder recalled with fear the lesson of Demosthenes and Quintilian, who pointed out that the most necessary requirements for delivering an effective discourse were an accurate pronunciatio and a lively actio, which indicate primacy of the performance over the content.15 This provoked pain (“dolorem infert”) in a preacher, who could not flatter the ears of the people (“aures hominum demulcere”), even though he possessed the appropriate skills. In support of his statement, the pensive Meder recalled Paul the Apostle as the model of the good preacher, who had been sent by God neither with persuasive human wisdom nor with sublime words, but in demonstration of the Spirit and virtue (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:1-4). As an anti-model, Meder described the “corruptor of God’s word” (“adulterator verbi Dei”), who overwhelmed his discourse by indulging in adorned sentences; as a foolish result, this kind of preacher hid the treasure of Holy Scripture from the simple

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(Basel: Michael Furter, 1495), fol. a2r. The first two editions do not report Meder’s name and only read “editum ac predicatum a quodam fratre Minore de observantia in inclita civitate Basiliensi” (fol. a1r). Meder’s name appears in the title of the third edition (Basel: Michael Furter, 1510) and in the fourth and last edition (Paris: Jean Petit, 1511). “Inter que verbum Dei tam abruptum patitur dispendium, ut nihil ferme saporis audientibus inferat, nisi verborum facundia pronunciationis actione, aut singulari aliqua alia dicendi forma perornetur, quasi ea in re tam salubri nihil differentie sit eius qui oratoris fungitur officio et eius qui verbum divinum mittitur simplicioribus pronunciandum”; Ibid., fol. a2r. “Quod si sic est, ipsa me (nescio si alios) terret Quintiliani sententia, qua constanter affirmat vel mediocrem orationem commendatam viribus actionis plus habere momenti quam optimam eadem illa destitutam. Nequem enim inquit tam refert qualia sunt que intra nos composuimus, quam quomodo efferantur cum nulla oratoris probatio tam firma sit ut non perdat vires suas nisi adiuvetur asseveratione dicentis. Affectus omnes languescant necesse est nisi voce, vultu, et totius prope habitu corporis inardescant. Accedit demum ad fluctuationem meam magnus ille Demostenes, omnium grece oratorum precipuus, qui quid esset in toto dicendi genere summum interrogatus, pronunciationi palmam dedit”; Ibid., fol. a2rv. The quotations of Quintilian and Demosthenes derive from Quintilian, Institutio oratoria, 9.3.2 and 9.3.6.

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people.16 This statement was in line with the ideal of the sermo humilis, as it was expressed also by other contemporary preachers.17 Yet, Meder was aware that simply claiming fidelity to this model would not solve the problem of finding a form of preaching able to capture the attention of his audience: Still, who could restrain unbridled human curiosity? […] We see that common people particularly succumb to this custom: they do not listen to a preacher, or do it reluctantly, unless he uses some form of speaking by which their ears are mollified.18 According to Meder, a preacher must tackle this situation and find the right form with which to effectively address such an audience without betraying the Gospel message. A preacher must adapt his sermons to the infirmity of his listeners, who suffered a kind of mental nausea due to the excess of vain words; “as a smart cook” (“instar sagacis ciborum preparatoris”), the preacher had to present them with the usual solid teaching in an unusual form, “so that the appetite returns to those whose stomachs were languishing”.19 Without changing the ingredients, the recipe of preaching could and indeed had to be new. 16

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“Adulterator verbi Dei (ut ego autumo) potius quam predicator dici debet qui nimio verborum ornatu tam utile thezaurum simplicibus abscondit, cum veritas dicat: Sint verba vestra ita ita, non non [Matthew 5:37]” Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. a2v. On this topos, see Martin, Le métier de prédicateur, pp. 215-17. Antonio da Vercelli (d. 1483) presented similar remarks in the preface to his Lenten sermons: “Et licet quadragesimale istud non sit tante excellentie sicut forte liceret, respectu ornatus, quia rudi latino et inculto sermone utor, et respectu sententiarum, quia sublimiores forte sententias appeteres. Respondeo et dico quod respectu ornatus non sum professus talem artem atque doctrinam, sed magis legem sacri evangelii et sanctissime charitatis, que legi Tuliane non subiciiuntur, et que magis utiles sententias quam verba ornata conspiciunt”; Antonio da Vercelli, Sermones quadragesimales de XII mirabilibus Christianae fidei excellentiis (Venice: Giovanni and Gregorio de’ Gregori, 1492/93), fols. 4v-5r. “Sed quis valet infrenatam generis humanis restingere curiositatem? […] Videmus enim populares precipue in hanc consuetudinem precipitatos, ut aliter predicatorem vel non audiant, vel invite, nisi aliqua forma dicendi utatur, qua aures demulcet eorum”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. a2v. “Oportet igitur (ut reor) et huic infirmitati condescendere (que forte ex cibi habundantia, aut certe ex malorum humorum in stomacho mentis superfluitate nausea languet) et instar sagacis ciborum preparatoris nonnunquam de se sanam doctrinam, attamen comunem sub aliqua forma proponere, ut languens stomachus ad appetendum reformetur”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. a2v. This passage shall be compared with the position of Caracciolo, who said that the (Italian) audience was transformed by the concomitant effect of the studia humanitatis and the frequentia predicationum; see above p. 227.

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While Meder was reflecting on what to preach, it occurred to him that the parable of the prodigal son “contains all the elements that contribute to the sinner’s conversion”, that is, the main goal of Lent.20 According to Meder, this parable presents the six elements depicting a perfect conversion of a sinner to God: first, the sinner’s separation from God, due to malice; second, the subsequent state of misery; third, the recognition of one’s sins due to God’s grace; fourth, the return to God; fifth, the paternal welcome, i.e. the bestowal of divine mercy; sixth, the full recovery of the state of grace.21 Stating that the parable of the prodigal son summarizes the Lenten message and identifying in that story the different stages of the penitential itinerary was, however, hardly a novelty. This represented the “sanam doctrinam communem” that Meder promised to offer his audience. Yet, if he had identified the materia for his Lenten cycle, he still had to find the forma. Making recourse to the culinary metaphor, while Meder had defined the healthy ingredients, he still needed a palatable recipe for the discriminating tastes of his listeners. 1.2 Secrets for a Successful Recipe Once Meder had decided upon the main elements for his sermons, suddenly, he remarked on the importance of the doctrine on the guardian angel: It can no longer be neglected that, […] from his birth, each person has a good angel who is in charge of protecting him and who guards him in all his ways, as Psalm 90 says: He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways [90:11]. Even when a person separates himself

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On the metaphor of the sermon as a food that has to be prepared considering the dispositio comedentis, see Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections, p. 344. “Ego ipse cum (ut premisi) solus cella inclusus sederem, versareturque mea cogitatio circa materiam in sacra quadragesima populo proponendam (eam quam maxime que peccatorem ad perfectam reducit conversionem), ipsa evangelica parabola de filio prodigo (ordine secundo) occurrebat. In qua (ni fallor) omnia que ad perfectam conducunt peccatoris conversionem sufficienter includuntur”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fols. a2v-a3r. “Si enim mihi quis talem salubrem proponeret questionem: quid scilicet ad veram conversionem proprius accederet, huic ego talem responsionem (ex sensu predicte parabole) daret, ut scilicet in ordine sex forent considertiones volenti convertiri ad deum necessarie, ita ut prima consideratio versetur circa aversionem a deo cuius sit malicie. Secunda circa sequentem illius aversionis penam cuius sit miserie. Tertia circa sui recognitionem cuius sit gratie. Quarta vero versetur circa reversionem ad deum cuius debeat esse festinantie. Quinta circa paternam receptionem dei cuius sit misericordie. Sexta et ultima debet versari omni studio circa recuperationem amissi per peccatum gratiosi status cuius sit glorie. In his igitur sex considerationibus perfecta conversio ad deum includitur si ad effectum a peccatore deducantur”; Idem, fol. a3r.

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from God, [the angel] does not leave him. In fact, the angel moves him, guards him, and provides other goods to him; this proves not solely God’s goodness but first of all the soul’s dignity.22 The urgency to recall this doctrine depended on Meder’s main invention for this sermon collection, namely the introduction of the guardian angel of the prodigal son. Some preachers, such as Bernardino da Siena, had already mentioned the guardian angel as counsellor of the prodigal son.23 The originality in this instance arrives in the way that Meder developed this idea. The guardian angel accompanies the prodigal son in every stage of his journey, admonishing and talking with his protégé. Thus, the sermons present the story of the prodigal son in the form of a dialogue between him and his angel.24 As we shall see, the prodigal son and the guardian angel were not the only characters to which Meder gave a voice in his sermons. Alongside them, he moved other characters onto the virtual stage of the ‘pulpit drama’ which he orchestrated for his audience.

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“Preterea minime pretereundum est quod secundum Hieronimum – et allegat eum Magister in secundo di. XI [Peter Lombard, Libri quatour sententiarum, 2.11] – unusquisque homo ab origine nativitatis sue habet unum bonum angelum sibi ad custodem deputatum, qui eum custodit in omnibus viis suis, secundum illud Psal. 90: Angelis suis mandavit de te ut custodiant te in omnibus viis tuis. Etiam cum homo a Deo recedit non recedit, quin eum moveat, custodiat et alia beneficia ei impertiatur, quod non tam Dei bonitatem, quam anime dignitatem ut plurimum ostendit”; Ibid., fols. a3v-a4r. The role of the guardian angel in Meder’s sermon collection reflected the contemporary diffusion of this cult. See Philippe Faure, “Les anges gardiens (XIIIe-XVe siècles): Modes et finalités d’une protection rapprochée,” Cahiers de recherches médiévales et humanistes 8 (2001), 23-41 and Carlo Ossola, “Introduzione,” in Gli angeli custodi. Storia e figure dell’ ‘amico vero’, ed. Carlo Ossola (Turin, 2004), pp. IX-XLV: XIV-XXII, which recalls the key role played by Bernard of Clairvaux’s sermon on the sentence: Quoniam angelis suis mandavit de te (Psalm 90:11). On Peter Lombard’s influential position, see Marcia P. Colish, Peter Lombard, 2 vols (Leiden, 1993-94), 1, pp. 342-53. See also Ἄγγελος-Angelus. From the Antiquity to the Middle Ages, “Micrologus” 23 (2015), in particular Nicole Bériou, “La figure de l’ange dans l’imaginaire du XIIIe siècle, révélée à la lumière de la prédication,” ivi, pp. 409-26. See p. 202. “His igitur prelibatis, anteque materiam preintentam aggrediar, scilicet de vera conversione peccatoris ad deum sub forma parabole de filio prodigo scire volo lectorem ipsius quod sub dialogo deducere (Deo cooperante) utcumque eam intendo, videlicet angeli et peccatoris in filio prodigo designati, ita ut, in quolibet statu, angelus sibi beneficia ammonitionis communicet eidem statui congrua”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. a4r. The angel is also mentioned in the title of the sermon collection.

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Once Meder had introduced the two main protagonists, he indicated the forma this dialogue would take. At the beginning of each sermon, the prodigal son poses a question to his guardian angel, who replies on the basis of the Gospel reading of the day. Then they discuss some aspects of the main topic, namely the perfect conversion to God through penitence. Finally, the sermon ends with a parabola that elucidates some moral or theological truth.25 The format is thus defined. Within the framework of the biblical parable, each sermon presents a dialogue between the prodigal son and the angel, referring to the Gospel reading of the day and ending with a parabola. This final element is a refined mise en abîme, with parables presented within the narrative framework of another parable. The parabolae that end the sermons function as allegorical visions, which follow the biblical scheme of the apocalyptic revela­tions: the angel introduces the prodigal son to a vision; the son cannot understand what he saw; and the angel discloses the meaning of the vision by deciphering its symbolism. The majority of the parabolae display the following pattern: The angel guides the prodigal son to the parabola by saying: “Look!”. When the son has looked, the angel says: “What did you see?”. “I looked – the son says – and there it was […]. This is the visio that I saw. Tell me, o angel, what does it mean?” The angel: “You saw a similitudo adequate to your question …”.26 Summarizing, Meder introduced two elements to capture the attention of listeners who were interested only ad fabulas and who asked for aliqua forma: a narrative dimension based on a vivid dialogue, which gives the sermons a semi-dramatic pace, and a visual dimension based on the parabolae and their allegorical interpretation. Breaking with dominant conventions, the preacher invented his own recipe to please the selective taste of his audience. His pur25

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“In ipso autem dialogo talem intendo deducere formam: quatinus in principio cuiuslibet sermonis filius prodigus angelo sibi a deo deputato aliquid proponat […] ut ipse angelus occasionem sumat respondendi ei ex accurrenti evangelio secundum exigentiam sensus ipius aut litteralis si aptus ad hoc fuerit, aut mistici si occasio id requirit, excetis aliquibus loco quorum ex epistolis respondebit […]. Deinde dialogus ipse versari debet circa materiam principaliter penitentiam, scilicet perfecte conversionis ad Deum per penitentiam; super finem sermonis similiter sub dialogo concludendo cum aliqua parabola finali interrogationi ipsius filii prodigi apta et informativa ac veritatis ostensiva”; Ibid., fol. a4r. “Angelus ducit eum ad parabolam dicens: ‘Vide’. Et vidit. Et rursum angelus ‘Quid – inquit – vidisti?, Filius: ‘Vidi, et ecce […]. Hanc vidi visionem. Dic, angele, quid signet ipsa?’. Angelus: ‘Congruam tue interrogationi similitudinem vidisti. Nam …’”; Ibid., fol. a8rv. The terms visio, parabola, and similitudo are interchangeble in Meder’s text.

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pose in doing so was to guide the listeners from the fabulae to the parabolae, without corrupting Holy Scripture. The Bible remained at the centre of his message, as the framework of the story of the prodigal son and the constant reference to the biblical readings of the liturgy ensured. This imaginative scheme provided an admirable balance between different necessities, such as the systematic catechesis on the theme of conversion, the connection with the readings of the liturgical calendar, and the care for the audience’s attention. 2

The Sermons

We shall now look at the structure of the sermon collection and its main points, particularly emphasizing the semi-dramatic strategy adopted by Meder. Since it is not possible to analyse all the fifty sermons in detail here, I focus on the key elements and the most representative part of the collection. We start with the first five sermons, which present the “status aversionis a Deo” by focusing on the first part of the parable, that is, the request of the prodigal son, his departure for a distant country, and his dissolute life. 2.1 The Prodigal Son as a Fool The first sermon is for the Quinquagesima, the Sunday immediately before the beginning of Lent. It served as a sort of prologue for the listeners, who evidently did not have the prefaciuncula and only gradually discovered Meder’s masterplan. The sermon provides us with an idea of the format employed in his sermons, but also reserves a few surprises. After a general remark on the necessity of conversion and on Lent as the most favourable period for this goal, the preacher underlined that everyone needs to be aware of his or her own sinful condition. According to the sermon, the process of conversion could start only when a sinner acknowledged his or her situation. Introducing the moral reading of the parable of the prodigal son, Meder outlined four negative characteristics of the younger son, i.e. the sinner: “This son was a foolish boy for his age, ignorant in his request, dissolute in his roaming, and distant in his estrange­ ment”.27 At this point, Meder presented the protagonists of the Qua­dra­gesimale and its semi-dramatic framework:

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“Nam duo filii, quorum unus a patre recedens, alius in agro dominico laborans, statum peccatorum et statum bonorum signant: per seniorem boni, per iuniorem designatur peccator se a Deo avertens. […] Sciendum quod peccator in sua aversione a Deo describitur secundum quattuor malas condictiones, fuit enim hic filius etate puer fatuus, in postu-

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On this Sunday the guardian angel comes and sees the prodigal son who stands before his father asking for his portion of goods. And the angel says to the prodigal son: “What are you asking your father, who is so pious, good, and delightful? What goal does your yearning serve? What is your intention?” The son: “I ask my father my share of goods, so that I can exercise my freedom and taste the pleasures of the world, and with this money I aim to go to those distant regions that I will find more apt for my pleasurable youth”. The angel: “I see that you are a foolish and unaware boy”.28 At first, the angel proposes a brief reflection based on the Gospel of the day. The prodigal son is not persuaded and instead asks why the angel called him fatuus, since he just wants what the most wise and powerful people in the world usually enjoy.29 The doctrinal part of the sermon follows, in which the angel depicts the six characteristics of the stultus.30 The prodigal son notes that many people who are considered wise and powerful – and even many ecclesiastics – behave in the way the angel depicted as foolish. Hence, he disagrees

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lando ignarus, in peregrinando vagus, in alienando se remotus, que omnia in peccatore se a Deo avertente inveniuntur”; Ibid., fol a6r. “In hac igitur dominica venit angelus filio prodigo a Deo deputatus, et ipsum videt coram patre suo stantem et partem substantie sue ab eo postulantem, et dicit ad eum: ‘Quid postulas a patre tuo tam pio et bono ac facie tam iocundo, et quo tendit appetitus tuus? Que vel est intentio tua?’ Filius: ‘Postulavi patrem substantie mee, cum qua (ut mea possim libertate uti, ac gaudiis perfrui mundi) remotas partes adire temptabo, quas iocundi mee iuventuti inveniam aptiores’. Angelus: ‘Ut video, quia puer fatuus es ac ignarus […]’”; Ibid., fol. a6r. “Filius: Audio optimas tuas admonitiones, sed dic mihi cur me ob id quia mundo deservire intendo fatui nomine censeas? Quod si sic est, ergo omnes stulti sunt delectationibus mundi perfruentes, quod absurdum videtur, eo qui sapientiores mundi ac potentiores his delectationibus preter ceteros inserviant”; Ibid., fol. a7r. On the connection between fool and sinner, one has to consider the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-12) and that of the dives stultus (Luke 12:16-21). The tradition connected with the verse Dixit insipiens in corde suo (Psalm 13:1 and 52:1) was relevant, also from an iconographic point of view; see Muriel Laharie, La folie au Moyen Âge, XIe-XIIIe siècles (Paris, 1991) and Yona Pinson, The Fools’ Journey. A Myth of Obsession in Northern Renaissance Art (Turnhout, 2008). For the use of this theme in preaching, see Bernardino da Siena, Siena 1425, 2, pp. 30-41 (the thema is Psalm 13:1) and a fifteenth-century German sermon that opposes a ship of fools to the ship of penitence led by St Ursula, using as thema a verse on the foolish virgins: Quinque ex eis erant fatue (Matthew 25:2); see Adolf Spamer, “Eine Narrenschiffpredigt aus der Zeit S. Brants,” in Otto Glauning zum 60. Ge­­ burtstag: Festgabe aus Wissenschaft und Bibliothek, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1936), 2, pp. 113-30.

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with the angel’s description and provocatively asks how these people listen to the Scriptures, and what effects Holy Writ has on them.31 This question leads to the first parabola of the sermon collection. With a masterful coup de théâtre, Meder drew on an image taken from Das Narrenschiff, which was the ultimate novelty. Brant had published the Ship of Fools during Carnival of 1494, and Meder istantaneously recognized and exploited its potential for preaching purposes.32 In Brant’s book, two strategic chapters – chapter 22 on the teaching of wisdom, and the final chapter on the wise person – are illustrated with a woodcut drawn by Albrecht Dürer. It depicts the personification of wisdom as an angelic preacher on a pulpit, who addresses an audience that includes common people and a few fools wearing their iconic donkey-ears hood with small bells. The prodigal son contemplates this scene as the first vision. Meder adapted Dürer’s image for his sermon cycle. On the pulpit, a preacher announces the Lord’s word and exhorts the audience “to convert to God doing true penitence” – i.e. the main topic of Lent ­– and among the audience is a fool, wearing a donkey-ears hood with bells, exactly as in Das Narrenschiff. Meder’s account, however, adds the fool’s reaction to the sermon. While other listeners praise the sermon as quite effective, the fool “subverts the whole gravity of the sermon” by laughing and shaking his bells.33 Not only is he impervious to the Scriptures, but he also has the subversive ca31

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“Filius: Audio quia verum est quod dicis, sed unum est quod me haut parum in admirationem vertit, quod videlicet hec conditiones plus in his qui videntur aliis in scientia et au­­ ctoritate preesse inveniuntur, sicut experientia est testis. Nam prelati, ecclesiastici, reges, principes et alii, et non minus – proch pudor – hi qui officium in ecclesia habent alios ab hac stultitia abstrahendi, his ut communiter inserviunt, quomodo legunt Scripturam, aut quomodo intelligunt, et quid verbum Dei in eis operetur, velle o angele a te scire”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. a8r. Meder probably knew Brant’s text (and its woodcuts) before its publication; see Delcorno, “Un sermonario,” pp. 444-47. “Filius: Vidi. Et ecce ecclesia magna populo repleta, quos doctor quidam alloquens verbum Dei declamatorie proposuit, ast quatenus relictis mundi deliciis se per veram penitentiam ad Deum converterent, solenniter peroravit. Vidi, et ecce quidam stultus eo in sermone stans erecta cervice apertoque ore doctoris verba instar sapientis auditoris au­­ scultabat. Erant autem exuvie eius in omnibus fatuam formam pretendentes. Nam tunice caputium eius consutum erat, in cuius summitate aures asinine prominebant, et in superiori cupucii parte nola magna pendebat. Erat autem discalciatus. Habebat etiam in manu sua baculum, et cingulum cum pera magna. Et ecce, finito sermone, cum predictus stultus a circumstantibus, cuius sermo ille videretur sibi fore efficacie, interrogaretur, movit caput, tintivit nola, ex cuius sonitu cachinabatur ipse et percutiens manu peram baculumque in altum erigens totum pondus sermonis in derisum convertit”; Meder, Quadra­ gesimale, fol. a8v. Following the 1497 edition, I correct perornavit with peroravit.

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pacity to overturn their meaning. The guardian angel explains to the prodigal son that the stultus of the vision symbolizes those who love this world. They may listen to or read something that could remove them from their sinful life, as their consciences urge them to do. Yet they turn their attention to the jingling of the bells, that is, to the deceptive reliance on God’s final mercy.34 As the angel reasserts, the first step to real wisdom is to recognize this folly. In such a way, the first sermon ends by presenting a sophisticated mise en abîme. As in the vision, Meder’s audience was in a church listening to a preacher, who proposed to the people the verbum Dei and exhorted them to convert to God by means of penitence. Yet, as the vision explained, it was not enough to preach a sound and effective sermon because its result depended upon the listeners, who had to choose their attitude to reply to the sermon. They could either listen to it carefully or scorn it by preferring the fabulae and the illusory jingling of the bells. Meder asked his audience to choose their way to listen to his sermons, enstablishing a fruitful pact between preacher and listeners.35 2.2 From the House to the Tavern The next sermons discuss the prodigal son’s itinerary from the father’s house to a city tavern. The sermon of Ash Wednesday illustrates why the prodigal son “in postulando a patre substantiam fuit ignarus”. The setting of the story is still the father’s house, and the angel tries in vain to persuade the son to remain there. The final part of the sermon deals with an interesting contraposition between 34

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“Congruam tue interrogationi similitudinem vidisti. Nam hic stultus mundi amatores de­­ signat, qui si nonnunquam audiunt vel legunt per que possunt a via mala converti, propria conscientia eos ad hoc stimulante, movent caput ut tinnientis nole sonitum audiant, quod nihil aliud est quam falsa consolatio de finali Dei misericordia. Percutiunt peram, quia de cupiditate cogitant terrenorum. […] Baculum in altum erigunt, dominari aliorum per ambitionem cupientes. Ex quibus auditorum seu lectorum bonorum oblivio sequitur. Discalciati incedunt, quia sanctorum exempla minime sequuntur. In qua miseria maior pars hominum heu finem finit vite sue. Nec aliquem moveat quod primus sermo circa cognitionem stulticie versetur. Nam sapiens Salomon cor suum ad hoc dedit ut sciret stultitiam et prudentiam hominum, ut dicit Ecclesiastes 1 [1:17]. Super quo dicit Hieronimus quod prima sapientia est caruisse stulticia, qua nemo carere potet nisi ipsam cognoscat”; Ibid., fols. a8v-b1r. Jerome’s sentence (Commentarius in Ecclesiasten, PL 23: 1023) is also in the Glossa’s commentary on Ecclesiastes 1:17. This function was usually assigned to the prothema in the Artes praedicandi, but could be taken by specific sermons at the beginning of fifteenth-century sermon cycles; see for instance Bernardino da Siena, Siena 1427, pp. 141-202 (sermons 3-4; on which see Muzzarelli, Pescatori di uomini, pp. 15-93) and Bernardino Busti, Rosarium sermonum, fols. 1v-18v (sermons 1-2; on which see Conti, Witchcraft, pp. 69-72 and 81-82).

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the liturgy of the imposition of ashes and its carnivalesque parody.36 This asked the listeners to recall the meaning of the liturgy of ashes as salutary meditation on their mortal condition. In the third sermon, the angel speaks with the prodigal son along his road away from home, while he is “in peregrinando vagus”. Then, two sermons deal with the prodigal son’s debauched life. In sermon four, the angel encounters the son “non iam in domo patris, nec in via propinqua, sed in remotis regionibus”.37 Instead, the setting of the fifth sermon is a tavern, where the prodigal son is squandering his money “with lascivious companions, both men and women”. The angel vigorously censures this behaviour, asking why he stays in such company and wastes his patrimony. The son states that he does not have anything to fear, since these are “faithful friends” and by associating with them he “dropped the anchor of hope in a safe place”.38 The reference to the anchor of hope (an allusion to Hebrews 6:19) introduces the maritime imagery that dominates the sermon. Speaking about the perils of the sea of this world and the dangerous navigation of human life, the angel refers to the Gospel of the day, which is Jesus walking on the water (Mark 6:47-56). The words of the angel – who exhorts the prodigal son “to embark on the boat of St Peter” and “to return to the father” – do not persuade the prodigal son, and yet they seem to find a way into his heart, since he asks whether a sinner like 36

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The prodigal son asks to the angel: “‘Nam cum hodie gratia visitandi missam ecclesiam intrarem vidi in ea quendam sacerdotem stare ante altare indutum vestibus sacerdotalibus et habentem in manu vas plenum cineribus, quos multorum hominum capitibus sparsit, qui omnes flexis poplitibus hos similiter ac reverenter susceperunt. Sed finita missa, cum redire domum inciperem, vidi in plateis plures homines turpi veste deformes, habentes in manibus saccos cineribus plenos cum quibus plures sequentes, ipsos percutientes cineribus maculabant chachinnantes, ac ipsos deridentes. Quid sibi vult mirabilis cinerum aspersio in una eademque religione christiana, ut una pars cum devotione et fletu receperit cineres a sacerdote, alia pars non nisi cum trufatione et levitate id egerit?’. Angelus eum ducit ad parabolam …”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fols. b3v-b4r. On this sermon, see Delcorno, “Un sermonario,” pp. 408-14. Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. c1r. “Venit igitur hodie angelus […] et repperit eum in quodam hospicio lascivis circumvallatus utriusque sexus societatibus, consumantem prodige cum ipsis ea qua de paterna domo secum portavit. Et increpans eum verba etiam correctionis ei infert dicens: ‘Quid miser hic inter tot lascivos sedens eorum trufis communicans? Cur tuam (quam tibi tam optimus pater contulit substantiam) tam inutiliter consumis?’. Filius: ‘Accumbo hic quietus, vallatus eorum consortio qui mei propositi consentanei existunt. Nec est quid (his fulcitus sociis) timere habeo. Eorum enim sponsione spei anchoram in tutum locum proieci ut nihil mihi mali valeat contingere. Nam mea iuventa longos promittit dies. Mundus et caro addicunt stabiles delectationes. His fidis amicis merito me amicabiliter sociavi’”; Ibid., fol. c5r.

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him can return from the previous condition.39 The angel replies that it is difficult but possible, as the final vision illustrates: the sinner’s soul is compared to a fish that goes down to a mountain river and, to escape the nets of the fishers (the devils) waiting downstream, it must go up a steep stream – like a salmon – and return to its pristine condition, when it was safe in the lake at the top of a mountain. It is not be easy, but it is possible to climb back up to the original condition of baptism, which is symbolized by the mountain lake.40 The prodigal son’s first timid signals of conversion are presented here, and not at the moment of his financial and social ruin, as late medieval sermons usually portray. Here, the prodigal son begins to consider the need for conversion while he is still affluent and enjoying a luxurious life. Meder seemed to suggest to his audience that the seduction of world could be overcome from the inside and not only when its charms faded and a sinner became desperate. This would have been the result of a more mature and reflective conscience. Compunction of remorse could be felt when one was still in a situation of ease instead of only when one had lost everything. Meder deemed it wise to persuade his listeners to embrace penitence without waiting for any tragic events in their life, such as those that marked the adventure of the prodigal son. 2.3 “With a Hoarse Voice and Sad Sighs” On the first Sunday of Lent, Meder introduced the second stage in the itinerary of the prodigal son, namely the pain and misery that derive from sins. This section occupies the sermons for an entire week. First, the preacher directly addresses the prodigal son, by saying: “hardship shall teach you what you did not want to learn from fortune”.41 Then, the sermon turns to its narrative framework with a long section in which the angel is looking for the prodigal son, since – though he is his guardian angel – he does not know what has happened

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“Angelus: ‘[…]. Vides igitur quam vana sunt verba tua […]. Ideo tibi consulo ad navem confuge Petri que Christum secum habet […]. Igitur hec perpende mente diligentius, et ad patrem revertere’. Filius: ‘Satis apparet verborum tuorum veritas in experientia. Sed peto ut me de misera elongatione peccatorum […] informare velis, si quo modo possem ab his que incepi reverti.’”; Ibid., fol. c6r. “Aliqui tamen pisces perseveranti saltu montem ascendentes in priorem locum sunt reversi. […] Tu igitur revertere et cum paucis quos vidisti ascendere, reascende”; Ibid., fol. c7v. “O anima peccatrix, o miser fili prodige, qui relinquisti domum patris tui, qui omnem tuam substantiam expendisti, nunc circumspice et vide quibus sis miseriis vallatus, quantisque calamitatibus expositus. Doceat te vexatio quod a furtuna discere noluisti”; Ibid., fol. c8v.

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to his protégé. This passage perfectly shows the dramatic strategy adopted by Meder and merits being quoted at length. This Sunday, the angel came […] and when he entered the tavern (where he used to spot his entrusted among other debouched young people), he did not find the prodigal son. Thus, he asked the son’s tavern companions: “Have you seen that man whom I used to visit here? Do you know where he could be?”. They said they did not know anything and had completely forgotten him. O mundus non mundus, sed immundus! False friend […]. Therefore, when the angel did not find him there, he began to search the neighbourhood, seeking in streets and squares, looking for him whom he wanted to recall to do penance. Finally, passing by a field, he saw him far off tending to a group of pigs. And when the angel came closer, he found the son no longer looking like the son of a king, but as an abject swineherd. The angel greeted him, and then he looked carefully at him, head to toe, and said: “Aren’t you that great king’s son, whose care the father committed to me? Aren’t you that man who enjoyed any pleasure by wasting the goods of your father prodigally? […] How did you end up in this misery? […] You move as a half dead man, whose vital breath has been weakened by death’s proximity, whose eyes are hollow and dazed, the gaze tearful, the forehead frowned […]. Oh, how sad are your sighs! How changed is your face! How different you have become in this region! Please, tell me: what kind of master do you serve here and what reward do you expect from him? […]” […] Haltingly the son began to speak as best as he could – breathless, with a dry palate, speaking with a hoarse voice and sad sighs – and replied to the angel’s questions: “Alas! Miserable me! I wasted all my goods with women and companions …”.42 42

“Igitur in hac sancta dominica venit more solitus angelus […]. Et cum domum hospitii intrasset (quo consueverat hucusque ipsum inter lascivos iuvenes invenire) minime eum repperit. Tunc sodales suos interrogat, dicens: ‘Nunc quem hactenus visitare consueveram vidistis? Scitis ne quo se loco receperit?’ At illi se omnino nescire fatentur, et ipsum in oblivione habere. O mundus non mundus, sed immundus; amicus fallax, amicus mense […]. Igitur cum angelus eum eo in loco non reperisset, regionem illam circuit per vicos et plateas, querens quem desiderat ad penitentiam revocare [cf. Song of Songs 3:2]. Et tandem, cum quemdam campum pertransisset, vidit eum a longe porcos pascentem. Et cum ad eum propius accederet, non ut regis filium, sed sicut abiectum subulcum repperit. Et premissa salutatione, incepit eum a planta pedis usque ad verticem oculacius intueri, dicens: ‘Es tu ne ille magni regis filius, quem pater cure me commisit? Qui ante hos dies deliciis affluebas, substantiam paternam prodige expendens? […] Quomodo igitur ad hanc penuriam venisti? […] Incedisque quasi semivivus homo, cuius vitalis spiritus quasi

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The prodigal son briefly narrates his misfortune and depicts his present condition of servitude under a tyrannical lord. Without criticizing his misbehaviour, the angel immediately comforts and exhorts him to return home, promising that his father would welcome him without hesitation. Yet, the son says he has not enough energy to resist temptation, thus giving an opportunity to the angel to introduce the Gospel reading of that day, namely the temptation of Christ in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11). Although the narrative served a clear didactic purpose, it did not lack vivacity, such as the invention of the guardian angel’s search, or the incisive description of the misery of the prodigal son. His portrait can be compared with that provided by Bernardino da Siena, who likewise described the wretched con­ dition of the prodigal son, who returns home “squallidum, pallidum, scabiosum, emortuum, […] capite inclinato, vultu maesto confusioneque perfuso […] omni­noque a priori effigie alienatum”.43 Considering that in other sermons, Meder explicitly mentioned Bernardino’s model sermons (which were printed in Basel in 1489), this passage may have been a valuable source of inspiration.44 Nevertheless, Meder carved out a much more dramatic narrative, based on intense and lengthy dialogues between the angel and the prodigal son (this sermon also includes the interaction with the prodigal son’s companions in the tavern). A passage like this was not distant from the style of a religious play. Another element of this sermon is worth noting. Meder did not depict the sinful life of the prodigal son in detail. Instead, the narrative suddenly passes from a generic description of his debauchery to his complete misery. Clearly, it was not a matter of lack of space, since the preacher had fifty sermons in which to deal with the parable. It would have been easy to expand on this part of the story to address topics such as the vanity of luxury clothes, lust, gambling, or

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mortis vicinitate lentescit, cuius defossi natantesque sunt oculi, obtuitus lacrimosus, frons contracta, labentes gene naresque acuti. O quam mestra sunt suspiria tua, quam alienus vultus tuus! Et tibi quam dissimilis factus es in ista regione. Dic queso mihi cuius conditionis est dominus cui servis et quid premii te expectat? […]’. Tunc subsistens filius paulisper cepit ut potuit (anhelo pectore, arido palato, rauca voce, ac mestis suspiriis) interroganti angelo respondere: ‘Heu, me miserum! Omnem consumpsi substantiam cum mulieribus et sodalibus […]’”; Ibid., fol. d1rv. Meder might have derived the theme of the prodigal son as regis filius, who became dissimilis in a regione longiunqua, from Bernard of Clairvaux; see above pp. 41-46. See p. 216 – also for the translation. Meder quoted long passages from Bernardino’s sermon for Good Friday; see Meder, Quadragesimale, fols. ɔ6v, ɔ7v and A3v.

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gluttony in specific sermons.45 Evidently, Meder had no interest in using this story for a close-up analysis of the vices of contemporary society. Instead, he focused on the interior life of the believers, as the remainder of the sermon cycle demonstrates. 2.4 A Weekly Rhythm The first six sermons develop a dynamic storyline, where the narrative setting varies almost every day. From the first Sunday of Lent onwards, the rhythm of the sermon collection changes. Each Sunday sermon introduces the key elements, setting the tone for the entire week. It presents a new scene, provides the weekly theme, and usually includes the liveliest dialogues. For example, the entire week after the first Sunday (sermons 7-12) concerns the same narrative situation. Day after day, the guardian angel exhorts the prodigal son to rise up and return to his father, and each day the son raises some objection; hence, the angel has to convince his protégé that he can repent and does not have to fear his father – explaining for instance that the father surely will not hand him over to torturers.46 Each sermon details a new aspect of sin and of its nefarious consequences as a means of persuading the prodigal son to leave his current situation. Throughout the week’s preaching programme, Meder fully developed a catechesis both on the miserable condition of sinners and on God’s mercy. In fact, the interventions of the angel are predominantly encouraging in tone. He comforts the prodigal son and makes assurances about the mercy of God, who is ready to welcome every sinner who returns, no matter how nude, hungry, and debilitated by sin. The sermon collection’s weekly pace functions as a highly skilful and effective communicative strategy. Meder offered a story that also made sense for those who attended only the Sunday sermons. They did not lose out on any fundamental part of the story. Moreover, this solution allowed the preacher to systematically discuss the central topics of the penitential itinerary. The slow pace of the narrative symbolically represented the intense effort necessary in 45 46

This seem to have been instead the strategy adopted by an anonymous Parisian preacher in the early sixteenth century; see pp. 368-69. Sermon seven begins: “Igitur hodie angelus redit ad priorem locum, ubi elegum filium cum porcis heri relinquit in sua egestate persistentem. Et ait: ‘Quid miser adhuc tardas reverti ad patrem?’. Filius: ‘Non audeo reverti ad eum. Timeo enim eius magnam offensam ne forte me tradat in manus tortorum’. Angelus: ‘Nequaquam sic de tuo patre cogitare tibi expedit. Nam in manus tortorum neminem tradit, nisi qui finaliter in sua permanet duricia cordis’”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. d4r. The reference to torturatores connects with the Gospel of the day, namely Matthew 25:31-46, which serves to underline the need of both fear and love in the penitential process (“Recte sicut equus duobus calcaribus stimulatur ad cursum, ita homo debet stimulari timore et amore”; fol. d5r).

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the process of conversion, “for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction”, yet “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life” (Matthew 7:13-14).47 While it was quick and easy for the prodigal son to go down the slippery slope of sin, the way of conversion would be long and hard. 2.5 Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction The sermons of the three subsequent weeks discuss the main stages of the penitential itinerary: contrition, confession, and satisfaction.48 Each of them occupies an entire week. On a completely new scale, Meder proposed what we have seen in many sermons so far, namely the prodigal son’s conversion as a model of penitence. Instead of dealing with this concept in (a section of) a single sermon, he developed it over 21 sermons. The second week of Lent (sermons 13-19) discusses the laborious process to arrive at a sincere contrition. The Sunday sermon provides the weekly framework. It introduces the “status recognitionis”, which is embodied by the prodigal son who “came back to his senses” (Luke 15:17). This famous sentence of the parable serves as thema for the entire week, and its subdivision provides the four topics the preacher discusses in those sermons.49 The opening of the Sunday sermon introduces the narrative setting: The angel came to the prodigal son in the usual way, and he found him at some distance from the pigs. He had in his hand a small handkerchief with which he was drying his tears. He was seated and, oppressed by sadness, he held his head with one hand, weeping abundantly. Feeling sorry for him, the angel said: “Why do you sit here in sorrow, weeping and lamenting? Rise and return to your father, and you will be consoled by him”.50 47 48

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This quotation introduces the parabola ending the fourth sermon; see Ibid., fols. c3v-c4r. On these topics in contemporary sermon collections, see Thayer, Penitence. On late me­dieval debates on contrition and satisfaction, see Hamm, The Reformation of Faith, pp. 88-152. “In se reversus: Quanti mercennarii in domo patris mei habuntant panibus, et ego hic fame pereo; Luce XV. Verba sunt fillii prodigi qui iam ad se et in se reversus […] Recognovit enim quattuor necessaria huic statui, scilicet propriam miseriam quam ex culpa contraxit, ideo dicit: ego hic fame pereo. Secundo, cognovit Dei patris gloriam quam offendit, ideo dicit: quanti mercennariis, scilicet sunt in domo celesti et ecclesia. […]. Tertio recognovit eius habundantiam quam possident qui in eius domo sunt, ideo subdit: qui habundant panibus […]. Quarto recognovit patris misericordiam, ideo post verba thematis subinfert: vadam, scilicet per penitentiam sperans ab eo consequi misericordiam”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. f7rv. “Igitur in hac dominica […] venit angelus ad filium prodigum more solito, et reperit eum, paulisper porcos declinasse, habentem in manu panniculum quo lacrimas ab oculis

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Comforted by the angel, the son asks how he might obtain a full understanding of his sin and prepare himself to return to his father. Answering this request, the angel introduces the theme of penance as “secunda tabula post naufragium”, and the sermon is concluded with a parabola that explicitly draws on the vision of the arid bones of Ezekiel 37, which symbolizes here the possible resurrection of the sinner.51 At the end of each sermon the prodigal son seems persuaded, yet the next day he is still hesitant and full of doubts. Hence, the angel has to reassure him of the mercy of God and expose a new aspect of penance.52 This situation lasts until Saturday, when the prodigal son finally announces to his guardian angel that the next day he will start his journey to return home and, in itinere, he will prepare his confession diligently. This introduces the theme of the following week. The third week (sermons 20-26) adopts the next line of the parable (“I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him: Father, I have sinned …”; Luke 15:18-19) as the thema and its subdivision serves to pinpoint the topics of the sermons. As Grütsch had done before him, Meder immediately underlined that confession highlights the ecclesiastical dimension of penitence: “A sinner did not offend only God, yet also the Church; thus he must satisfy not only God through contrition, but also the Church through confession”.53 Within the narrative, the angel is unable to find the prodigal son in the farm. There only the dejected master remains, who is sad to have lost his servant − one of the few references to the devil in this sermon collection. The prodigal son is already walking home, and when the angel smiling addresses him, he asks the angel to

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tergebat, seditque et gravatum mesticia caput brachii palmo sustentabat, flens largiter. Cui angelus compatiens: ‘Cur – inquit – sedis hic tristis, flens et eiulans? Surge, vade ad patrem ut ab eo consolari merearis’”; Ibid., fols. f7v-f8r. Ibid., fol. g2r. In this an other cases the visions appropriate biblical prophetic visions. See the sermon of Tuesday: “In hac feria venit angelus […] Filius: ‘Gaudebam me heri a te persuasum ut id facerem. Sed ecce hodie, hora adhuc lucernaria, cum me ad iter prepararem, obviavit mihi fiducia quidam que me reddidit aversum.’”; Ibid., fol. g7r. “Nam post contritionem est necessarium peccatori ut etiam confiteatur ecclesie peccata super quibus contritus est. Et merito, quia peccator non solum deum, sed etiam ecclesiam offendit, quare non solum satisfacere debet deo per contritionem, sed etiam per confessionem ecclesie sancte. […] Nunc superst videre de quarto eius statu, quo iam vult eaque in contritione repperit mala contra deum patrem commissa humiliter confiteri. Ideo dicit: vadam. In quibus verbis ostendit se habere quattuor bonas conditiones in isto quarto statu. Nam ibat festinanter, confessus est fideliter, oravit humiliter, et se laboribus penitentialibus subiecit libenter. Quo ad primum dicit: ibo; secundum ibi: pater peccavi; tertium ibi: non sum dignus, quartum ibi: fac me sicut unum etc.”; Ibid., fols. k3v.

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instruct him along the way on how to make his confession.54 The journey serves as the narrative setting for the entire week. Along the road, the angel encourages and instructs the prodigal son, preparing him for the decisive moment of his encounter with the father. The doctrinal content discussed in the sermons clearly emerges from the topics of their parabolae: those who feel ashamed to confess themselves; the necessity to choose a wise confessor; the necessity to prepare diligently for confession, and so forth.55 Meder gave considerable attention to the figure of the confessor, who ideally should be an expert spiritual counsellor. The long-awaited encounter with the father takes place the next Sunday (sermon 27) and is described in dramatic fashion. At the beginning of the sermon, the angel finds his protégé who is fatigued from the journey and exhorts him to master what is left of his energy. In fact, if the father will see his son in this state, he will provide him with suitable food to recover fully.56 This serves to introduce the Gospel of the day, namely the multiplication of the loaves and

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“In hac ergo dominica, venit angelus ad filium suum sibi a patre commissum, et iam invenit eum distantia haut magna elongatum a regione in qua sub tam diro domino tam elegus hactenus victitavit, vidit etiam dominum porcorum stantem circa porcos tristemque faciem pertendentem de amissione servi illius. Nec mirum quia sicut angeli boni gaudent de uno peccatore penitentiam agente, sic mali angeli tristantur de penitentia peccatoris. Et premissa salutatione, hilari facie eum cepit alloqui dicens: ‘Quo tendis et quod est propositum tuum?’. Filius: ‘Ad patrem volo ire ut culpam meam apud ipsum recognoscam. Sed rogo te, o angele, adhibe in me instruendo diligentiam, et dic mihi quid a patre boni expectabo, si contrito corde confessioneque integra ipsum adibo’”; Ibid., fols. k3v-kvr. The mention of the devil introduces the Gospel of the day, which is on Jesus’ power to chase away the demons (Luke 11:14-28). “Vigesima [parabola] de his qui postponunt discreti confessoris consilia; vigesimaprima, de his qui verecundantur peccata confiteri; vigesimasecunda, quare cum lacrimis et humilitate confitendum sit confessori; vigesimatertia, de his qui querunt confessorem simplicem; vigesimaquarta, de diligenti preparatione ad confessionem”; Ibid., fol. a6rv (the tabula parabolarum is at the end of the book). “Igitur in hac sacra dominica venit angelus ad locum quo heri filium cure sue commissum relinquit, et invenit eum in terra sedentem, et arbori apodiatum, et dicit: ‘Cur te hic locus tenet fixum immobilenque ad iter tam necessarium? […]’. Filius: ‘O angele, nosti impetu quam motosam viam hac in septimana (non sine dirissimo labore) ierim, que me in tantum fatigavit ut necesse habeat quiescere vel ad modicum’. […]. Et angelus ei tale dedit responsum: ‘Surge – inquit – et extende vires et propera ad patrem, ipse enim clamat – Mat. 11 – Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis et ego reficiam vos [11:28]. Sic cum viderit te tam fatigatum venire propter se miserebitur tui, et te cibo reficiet congruo’”; Ibid., fol. n5rv.

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the fish (John 6:1-14). While the angel and the prodigal son are walking and talking, they suddenly see the father coming. While the angel and the son were talking, the father saw his son from far off and ran towards him. So, the angel said to the son: “Let us go towards him […]”. Hearing that and seeing his father with his own eyes, the son went down to his knees out of fear […]. Yet, the angel raised him up, saying: “Get up quickly, since your father is here”. The angel did not finish the sentence, and the father was already there, and fell upon his neck and kissed him sweetly. Thus, the son burst out the words he had prepared: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I no longer deserve to be called your son; make me as one of your hired workers”.57 After this moving encounter, the father does not call his servants immediately, as in the biblical parable. Surprisingly, he places his son once more in the custody of the guardian angel, who is asked to provide further instruction to him. The penitential itinerary does not end with confession: As soon as the father was beseeched by the son in this way, he called the angel and said to him: “I want to commit him to you, so that you will teach him in which way he can satisfy for his sins; thus, he will merit to be redressed with the clothes of joy and happiness and to be nourished here with the fatted calf, so that he will merit to be called my son”. With great joy, the angel received the son again under his care and began to teach him about satisfaction.58

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“Et ecce, cum simul angelus et filius colloquerentr, vidit pater filium a longe et venit in occursum eius. Tunc angelus ad filium: ‘Eamus – inquit – et nos in eius occursum, quia veniens veniet et non tardabit [cf. Habakkuk 2:3], nisi tecum fuerit’. Quod audiens filius, vidensque oculis ipsum patrem, pre nimio terrore deficiens humo se prostravit. […] Et cum sic (ut dixi) prostratus fuisset, levavit eum angelus dicens: ‘Surge velociter quia pater adest’. Et ecce vix verba finierat, pater affuit, et cadens super collum eius osculatus est eum dulciter. Tunc filius in preconcepta verba prorumpens ait: ‘Pater, peccavi in celum et coram te, iam non sum dignus vocari filius tuus, fac me sicut unum de mercennariis tuis’”; Ibid., fol. n6r. “Cumque pater sic a filio rogatur, vocat angelum: ‘Tibi – inquit – ipsum recommendans volo ut eum doceas quomodo satisfacere pro peccatis possit, ut mereatur reindui vestimentis iocunditatis et leticie et refici in proximo (vitulo obeso) ut mereatur filius meus vocari’. Tunc angelus eum recepit in priorem curam cum gaudio et eum de satisfactione docuit dicens: ‘Te, o fili, in capite illius materie […]’”; Ibid., fol. n6rv.

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A remarkable coup de théâtre is at play here, given that the audience – knowing the story – would expect something different, namely the new clothes and the banquet. Up to this point, the preacher had expanded the story, introducing new elements but without changing its plot. Here, the original narrative bows to Meder’s catechetical needs. He solved the fact that the biblical story does not leave space for the satisfaction of the prodigal son, who immediately enjoys a fully restored condition. As we have seen, commentators and preachers dealt with this problem in different ways, for example by considering the journey back home as the sinner’s satisfaction. Evidently, that interpretation was not enough for Meder, who thought satisfaction needed its proper place to be discussed after the scene of confession. In Meder’s narrative of the encounter, it is no coincidence that the father does not interrupt the son’s discourse. The son makes his integral confession, also repeating “make me as one of your hired workers”. Biblical commentaries (and many sermons) stressed and interpreted the discrepancy between the discourse that the prodigal son prepares (Luke 15:19) and what he actually says (Luke 15:21). Meder distanced himself from this exegetical tradition and instead created space to discuss the third stage of the penitential itinerary. The father insists that the son must merit (mereor) the new condition, and so the remainder of the week is dedicated to examining satisfaction in detail (sermons 27-33). From the Angel to Christ: “Conceive in Your Mind What I Suffered for You” The sermons on satisfaction conclude the catechesis about penance, while the last two weeks of Lent focus on the Passion and the Eucharist. Here, the events of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection gradually overlap and replace the final part of the story of the prodigal son. The Passion Sunday sermon (sermon 34) introduces the final state of the prodigal son’s journey, his restoration to the state of grace. The thema is the father’s order to the servants to bring out the new clothes for his son (Luke 15:22), while it is announced that the banquet will be the topic of the next Sunday, which is Palm Sunday. The narrative setting of the sermon for Passion Sunday is particularly vivid and contains considerable surprises. Judging the prodigal son ready to be reintroduced into the father’s house, the angel “takes him by the hand and guides him back to the father”. The angel attests to the father that his son has congruously (de congruo) accomplished satisfaction, and the father welcomes him “in special grace”.59 The son greatly praises the 2.6

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father’s mercy and asks him what signs characterize those who will be welcomed like him. The father highlights three signs of true conversion: to avoid mortal sin, to listen diligently to God’s word, and to seek God’s glory.60 Next, the son humbly asks the father to bestow the salvific clothes on him. In the Gospel, they are the best robe, the ring, and the sandals. However, Meder added other elements that allowed for a more detailed description of the restored condition of the prodigal son. Six servants arrive at the request of the father: “The first serf brings a candid robe; the second a red tunic; the third a golden ring; the forth the sandals; the fifth a silky mitre inlaid with gold; the sixth a golden belt and a pater noster [beads] of coral with a golden cross”.61 The prodigal son receives the clothes from the father as a sign of his new identity. Presenting their symbolic meaning, Meder elaborated the theme of grace that overtakes sin. After penitence, the final state of the prodigal son (i.e. the sinner) is superior to the initial one, as the examples of David, Peter, and Mary Magdalen confirm. The white robe symbolizes the innocence resulting from an authentic penitence; the red tunic represents the Passion of Christ whose blood purifies the penitent; the golden ring is faith shaped by charity; the sandals represent the saints’ good examples. While the interpretation of these objects was not new, no precedent is known for the two other objects. They seem to have been specifically invented by Meder. According to a widespread symbolic tradition, the belt represents continence.62 More original is the mitre that symbolizes contemplative life. As a mitre restrains the hair, in the same way “the contemplative life forces the wandering thoughts to focus on God”.63

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pulsasset, nunciavit patri filium suum adesse […] ut eum sua informatione aptum redderet paterno suo consortio. […] Et cum angelus ipsum filium patri presentasset recepit eum pater in singularem gratiam”; Ibid., fols. q6v-q7r. “ ‘O pater, quam magna est bonitas tua, que me indignum tam benigne recepit. Sed dic mihi, obsecro, qui sunt et que eorum signa quos tu sic paterne vis recipere sicut me indi­ gnum recepisti’. Pater: ‘Hi sunt qui per veram penitentiam se convertunt ad me […]. Sed eorum signa sunt quia se custodiunt a peccato mortali […]. Secundo, quia cum diligentia audiunt verbum dei. Tertio, quia non querunt horem proprium sed dei”; Ibid., fol. q7rv. “Tunc ecce venerunt servi quorum quivis singulare ornamentum in manum portavit: primum portavit vestem albam; secundus tunicam rubeam; tertius anulum aureum; quartum calciamenta; quintum mitram sericam aureo verniculatam; sextus portavit cingulum aureum et pater noster coralleum cum cruce aureo”; Ibid., fol. q8r. See for instance the Glossa ordinaria commentary on Exodus 12:11: “Renes vestros accingetis”. “Mitra aurea qua continguntur crines vita est contemplativa, qua cogitationes vage constringuntur in Deum”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. q8v.

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Then, the son asks the father why that Sunday recalls the Passion, even if Good Friday will be in more than ten days. The father declares that from that moment onwards he wants the son to begin meditating on the Passion, and his new clothes provide him with the right instruments for a devout meditation and an effective imitation of the Passion of Christ. For this task, the father gives his son an adequate guide: “I want you to be in care of my own son [Christ]; for this and the next week you will be busy with him so that you will meditate with great devotion on his precious Passion”.64 Thus, unexpectedly, the son is placed in the custody of Christ, who replaces the angel. Christ is the perfect son of the father and as such is different from the elder brother of the parable. Christ becomes a character within the narrative framework of the sermons; Christ himself exposes and explains his own Passion to the prodigal son. This greatly intensifies the pathos of the homiletic discourse. At the end of this sermon, Christ-as-character introduces the prodigal son to vision of the day – the parabola. This is quite an extraordinary construction, that is, a parable within the parable. Within the narrative framework of a parable narrated by Christ in the Gospel (the prodigal son), Christ-as-character presents and interprets another parable. Yet, this is not the last surprise of this asthonishing sermon. The parabola that Christ presents to the prodigal son is no other than an allegoric version of the Ovidian story of Pyramus and Thisbe.65 In this sermon, the two lovers and their tragic destiny are considered an allegory of the perfect love between Christ and the soul. Pyramus offers himself to death as Christ did for human salvation, while Thisbe represents the human soul, who is willing to participate in the Passion and death of her beloved. Drawing on a rich tradition of allegorical and Christological readings of this myth, Meder deciphered each detail of the Ovidian fabula as a Christian sym-

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“Et pater: ‘Hoc – inquit – est quod a te volo habere, ut nunc incipias te occupare in pre­ ciosa passione filii mei, ut te his diebus inveniam semper vestitum in tunica rubea, et ornatum mitra devote meditationis passionis mei filii, et utaris pater noster devote orationis, cum cingulo stricte penitentie et calciamentis indutus perfecte imitationis illius passionis. Hec sunt enim ornamenta quibus ornatos oportet fore omnes qui ex me sunt et in domo mea morantur. Et ideo ut id melius possis facere et occasionem maiorem habeas te occupandi circa passionem filii mei, te volo ab ipso fore commendatum, ut hac septimana et sequenti cum omni devotione secum sis occupatus et ut in sua preciosa passione medi­ teris”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. r1v. See Delcorno, “La parabola,” pp. 67-106 and Delcorno, “Christ and the Soul,” pp. 51-56. On the use of Ovid in preaching, see Siegfried Wenzel, “Ovid from the Pulpit,” in Ovid in the Middle Ages, eds. James Clark, Frank Coulson and Kathryn McKinley (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 160-76.

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bol.66 Pyramus is Christ and Thisbe the human soul; the wall that separates the two lovers indicates sin; the fissure through which they talk is the voice of the prophets; the lion that disrupts their meeting is the devil, and so forth. The same reasoning is used until the death of Pyramus under the mulberry tree, which symbolizes the cross that Christ “made bloody with his own blood and blacked with its own colour”.67 His death is not the result of a dreadful mistake – as for Pyramus – since he voluntarily offers himself to save his beloved from the lion, i.e. the devil. Retelling this famous story, Meder omitted the names Pyramus and Thisbe and any historical reference to Babylon or Semiramis, because in his perspective, this should not be a historical account (like in Ovid) but rather a parable presented by Christ. Pyramus and Thisbe’s intense love was depicted as an example that should inspire the audience to an equally passionate love for Christ – at least this was the expectation of the preacher. As Christ says to the prodigal son, Thisbe’s readiness to sacrifice herself with her beloved represents the exemplary behaviour for engaging in the meditation on his Passion: When a devout soul will have conceived in her mind the love I had [sacrificing myself], she also must be inflamed in my love and be ready to suffer gladly any kind of pain for me, even death. This kind of soul becomes deserving of communicating with my Passion. Therefore, do the same and conceive in your mind what I suffered for you.68 66

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On the medieval interpretations of this myth, see Franz Schmitt-Von Mühlenfels, Pyramus und Thisbe. Rezeptionstypen eines Ovidischen Stoffes in Literatur, Kunst und Musik (Heidelberg, 1972), pp. 26-65. See also Delcorno, “La parabola,” pp. 74-84. Jesus gives this explanation of the vision: “Hec civitas est totum universum, domus regis celum, filius regis ego sum, domus turpis mundus est, dyabolus princeps qui puellam, id est humanam animam, captivam tenebat, quam et ego dilexi, cupiens per humanam naturam mihi eam copulari, quod fieri non poterat multo tempore quousque plenitudo ipsius veniret. Sed per fissuram, id est prophetias, obscure sibi loquebar promittens meum adventum. Sed, veniente tempore, veni et ego ad aquam ut ei virtutem regenerandi tribuerem. Sed ante hec vidi puellam a leone dyabolo laceratam et maculatam. Cui pre nimio amore, quo eam diligebam, meipsum voluntarie cruci exponens, dirissimam mortem (ad quam non obligabar) libenter sustinui, videns quia propter me hanc suam miseriam sustineret eo quod primus homo voluit rapere in paradiso quod meum erat, id est scientiam Dei patris”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. r2v. “Hunc igitur amorem meum cum anima devota mente conceperit, debet et ipsa in meo amore inardescere, et propter me omnia mala libenter sustinere, etiam mortem. Et talis anima est que se reddit dignam communicando meis passionibus. Tu ergo fac similiter et mente tua concipe que propter te sustinui”; Ibid., fol. r2v.

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The use of Pyramus and Thisbe in preaching was not completely new. The interpretation that Meder adopted derives from Pierre Bersuire’s Ovidius Moralizatus and had been used on the same liturgical day (Passion Sunday) in Conrad Grütsch’s Quadragesimale. It is highly plausible, that Meder took the idea to use this Ovidian myth from Grütsch.69 However, Meder introduced significant differences in his presentation of the Ovidian tale, its interpretation, and its function in the structure of the sermon collection. He intervened in different points of the storyline. For example, the sermon presents the two lovers as a son of a king and as a poor girl who is the prisoner of a nasty prince (“puella que corpore quidem formosa erat, sed vestibus ipsa plebeia”). This simplifies the transition to the allegorical interpretation, in which the girl is the human soul imprisoned by the devil. The most striking novelty is the description of Pyramus’ death. In Meder’s version, “for the excess of love and compassion, hanging himself on the mulberry tree, he [the lover] pierced his heart with his own sword”.70 In the allegorical reading of this myth, the connection between the mulberry tree and the cross was normally reserved for the explanation, while here it appears already within the story. This surprising death on a tree (“se in arbore suspendens”) does not have parallels in the medieval rewritings of the Ovidian tale. There is only one exception: an image that, significantly, appeared in Basel cathedral. A twelfth-century sculpture on a capital visualizes this Ovidian story and shows Pyramus who pierces himself while hanging on a tree. This capital represents the oldest Christological interpretation of this myth, predating all the texts that are known.71 Having arrived in Basel several months before, Meder had time to become familiar with this sculpture, which was located (and still is) in a perfectly visible part of the cathedral. By stating that Pyramus died “se in arbore suspendens”, Meder probably evoked what he and his listeners could see in the cathedral of their city.72 Therefore, the preacher was not only making use of a universally famous love story, but also silently referring to the image of the 69 70

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See Grütsch, Quadragesimale, 32.R. See Delcorno, “Christ and the Soul,” pp. 43-50. Here is the account of the death of the lover, as the prodigal son sees it in the vision: “Venit interim (iam de loco recedente leone) iuvenis et vidit puelle vestes cruore bestiali maculatas et, ex hoc ipsam suspicans ob sui occasionem morte tam turpi interisse, se pre nimio amore et compassione in arborem suspendens, proprio gladio cor proprium penetravit, seipsum morti ob puelle amorem ultro exponens”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. r2rv. On medieval images of Pyramus and Thisbe and on this capital, see Delcorno, “La para­ bola,” pp. 87-93 and Delcorno, “Christ and the Soul,” pp. 51-55. On explicit references to images in preaching, see Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby, “The Preacher as Goldsmith: The Italian Preachers’ Use of the Visual Arts,” in Muessig, ed., Preacher, Sermon and Audience, pp. 127-53 and Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini.

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capital, which was known by many people of his audience and that represented a previous visual reception and allegorical interpretation of the Ovidian myth. Those listeners who recognized – probably at different points of the account – Meder’s reference to the Ovidian tale could appreciate his sophisticated interplay with this specific image and with a tradition of allegorical interpretation of the myth. While the sculpture in Basel cathedral probably influenced Meder’s rewriting of the story, he skillfully connected the content of his sermon with an image of the cathedral. This would have been constantly accessible and visible for his listeners, thus transforming it into an aid for their memory. After his sermon, the people seeing the sculpture might have been prompted to think of Meder’s words, thus prolonging their effect.73 Another significant innovation in Meder’s use of this myth is the authority of its interpretation. In Meder’s fictional construction, Christ interprets this story and identifies himself with the protagonist, saying to the prodigal son: “I am the son of the king […] I loved […] I came […] I offered myself voluntarily on the cross”.74 In this way, the allegory of the Ovidian fabula receives the highest possible validation and is raised to the level of evangelical parables. Finally, this parabola plays a pivotal role in the entire sermon collection. During the first part of Lent, the listeners were invited to identify with the prodigal son, whose story of sin and conversion had its solution in the encounter with the merciful father. The penitential itinerary was here at the centre, and the audience was explicitly invited to imitate the prodigal son and his contrition, confession, and satisfaction. In the meeting with his father, the son receives new clothes, which symbolizes his new identity, and is entrusted to Christ. Here begins the second part of the Quadragesimale, which concerns the affective contemplation of Christ’s love and Passion. As a decisive turning point between these two parts, the Ovidian parabola strategically defines the new identity of the two protagonists − Christ and the prodigal son − who occupy the fictional stage for the remainder of the sermons. The prodigal son sheds the habit of the penitent and becomes the beloved soul. The Ovidian story depict in advance the itinerary through which Christ guides the soul to participation in his Passion. Thisbe’s readiness to sacrifice herself for love becomes the exemplar attitude to meditate upon the Passion. As Christ says to the prodigal son – and therefore to the listeners – three steps are necessary: to conceive mentally of this love (concipere), to be inflamed by it (inardescere), 73

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On this mechanism, see Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini, p. XXV. The reference to this capital was recognizable only for the audience in Basel and those who read this sermon collection in that city. For the Latin text, see note 67.

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and to communicate with Christ’s Passion (communicare). As we shall see, from this moment onwards the identity of the prodigal son is progressively defined by his assimilation with the characters of Mary Magdalen and of the bride of the Song of Songs. The construction of this identity as the sponsa Christi begins in this sermon, when Christ exhorts the prodigal son – and so each and everyone in the audience – to become like ‘Thisbe’.75 2.7 Meditating the Passion and Participating in the Last Supper After this quite clever sermon, the other sermons of the week (35-40) use the following sentence as the thema: “Why is your apparel red, and your garments like one who treads in the winepress?” (Isaiah 63:2). The prodigal son asks this question to Christ, who begins a systematic presentation of the theological aspects of his Passion, explaining its cause in the first instance.76 A devout and affective tone characterizes the dialogue. The son addresses Christ with sentences such as: “Dic mihi, amantissime Iesu, amor et desiderium meum …”, “O amantissime Iesu, audivi verba tua super mel dulcia, et liquefacta est anima mea cum tu dilectus locutus es mihi”.77 Particularly compelling is the Thursday sermon (sermon 38). As it begins, the prodigal son asks Christ to experience the pains of his Passion: O my beloved Christ, son of the living God, you sustained such extreme pains for me, an undeserving sinner. I ask you from the very depth of my 75

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On the feminisation of late medieval affective meditations on the Passion, which provided readers with performative intimate scripts to produce, feel, and perform compassion, see Sarah McNamer, Affective Meditation and the Invention of Medieval Compassion (Philadelphia, 2010). “Quare rubrum est […]. Verba sunt transumtive filii prodigi loquentis ad dominum Iesum volentis scire magnum misterium sue amarissime passionis […]. Igitur in hac die filius prodigus se induit per actualem operationem virtutum illarum quibus heri a patre indutus est. Imponit enim capiti suo mitram devote contemplationis, ut crines variarum cogitationum possit restringere et unire, ac in passione Ihesu devote occupari. Sumit et pater noster ut ad eum devote oret. Sic et de reliquis ornamentis, silicet de anulo fidei, quia per fidem et dilectionem oportet meditari passionem Christi. Et cum sic ornatus stat ante Iesum Christum, ut eum velit hac septimana edocere de misteriis sue passionis. Filius prodigus verba sibi primo infert thematis […]. Iesus: ‘Propter humani generis redemptionem hec passum sum’. Filius: ‘Dic mihi, amantissime Iesu, amor et desiderium meum …’”; Meder, Quaresimale, fols. r2v-r3r. See Ibid., fol. r3r (sermon 35) and fol. s6v (sermon 38). The second sentence merges Psalm 118:103 (“Quam dulcia palato meo eloquia tua, super mel sunt ori meo”) and Song of Songs 5:6 (“Anima mea liquefacta est, ut locutus est”).

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heart: if it is possible, give me this grace, namely that I experience your most precious Passion in me.78 The prodigal son is hesitant in presenting this request. He wonders whether one who was a public sinner can enjoy this kind of spiritual experience, participating in the Passion of Christ with the same intensity as Christ’s mother.79 This introduces the Gospel of the day: the episode of the peccatrix bathing Jesus’ feet with her tears (Luke 7:36-50), who was usually identified as Mary Magdalen and generally considered a public meretrix.80 As we know from the Speculum humanae salvationis, the connection between the prodigal son and the Magdalen had a long history. In this sermon, Christ-as-character recalls the perfect conversion of Mary Magdalen, whose penitential itinerary culminated in a union with his Passion. She followed his harsh steps (“mea dirissima vestigia”) during the Passion; and when the disciples of Christ had left, she remained with the Virgin to watch over his sepulchre, “with great faith and an affection wounded by compassion”.81 In Meder’s sermons, this is the behaviour of the prodigal son on Holy Saturday, when he is presented as a perfect imitator of the Magdalen. Getting closer to Palm Sunday, the narrative framework of the sermons introduces the theme of the prodigal son waiting and longing for the fatted calf

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“O amantissime Iesu, fili Dei vivi, qui propter me indignissimum peccatorem tot intensissimos dolores sustinuisti, te intimis ex precordiis rogo: fac mecum (si foret possibile) hanc gratiam, ut possim in me sentire tuam preciosissimam passionem”; Ibid., fol. s5v. This request had strong antecedents in the late medieval and Franciscan spiritual tradition; see Delcorno, “La parabola,” pp. 94-97 and, for a non-Franciscan text, see Speculum humanae salvationis, p. 385 (see below note 89). “Et hec est questio, utrum scilicet aliquis qui diu in peccatis perstitit peccatorque publicus fuit (quemadmodum ego fui) ad talem possit (per tuam gratiam) pervenire illustrationem ut possit illuminari in misterio tue passionis quantenus valeat mentali compassione tibi compati, sicut pia mater filio unico suo in doloribus dirissimis existenti”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. s5v. See Jansen, The Making of the Magdalen, pp. 168-77. “Nam hec mulier publica fuit peccatrix, attamen venit ad tantam illustrationem amarissime passionis mee, ut mea dirissima vestigia hora mortis mee devotissime ac mente compassiva sequeretur cum dolorosissima matre mea. Etiam recedentibus discipulis a monumento ipsa minime recedebat. Stabat enim circa monumentum foris [John 20:11], fide magna vulneratoque compassionis affectu, cupiens suis devotissimis obsequiis corpus meum, quod putabat adhuc mortuum, prosequi. Igitur possibile est hoc fieri”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. s6v. The theme of following the vestigia of Christ refers to 1 Peter 2:21.

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and the banquet.82 Hence, the sentence “Bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry” (Luke 15:23), serves as thema of the sermons of Palm Sunday and the three following days (sermons 41-44). On the basis of a consolidated tradition, Meder identified the vitulus saginatus with Christ, who is pinguis of all the grace that serves for the salvation of world. With a dilatory strategy, the banquet is announced, but yet not celebrated. The prodigal son asks Christ to prepare him for the banquet. This opens the way to a catechesis on the Eucharist, which occupies the sermons until Maundy Thursday. Then, in the sermon de cena Domini (sermon 45), after a preamble on the preciousness of the Eucharist, the prodigal son is literally introduced to the Last Supper: On this most sacred day […], the prodigal son came wearing his virtuous ornaments. When he arrived to the place where he was used to talk with Christ in those days, he did not find him there. While he was walking sadly, without knowing where to find Jesus, suddenly his angel appeared and told him: “Come, I will show you the one whom your soul longs for”. And taking him by his hand, the angel guided the prodigal son to a large upper room that was furnished, where Christ wanted to eat the Passover with his disciples [cf. Luke 22:11-12]. […] When the prodigal son found Christ in the place where he sat with his disciples at the table, humbly he himself set down there and, with the greatest attention, he contemplated the words and actions of Jesus.83

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“In hac sacra feria surgit filius prodigus hora matutinali, languet enim desiderio cibandi ac reficiendi super dominica proxima”; “Hodie […] surrexit filius prodigus iterum tempore matutinali, qui quasi nihil dormitionis oculis indulsit, eo quod desiderio indicibili afficiatur cibari vitulo saginato et obeso”; Ibid., fol. r8v (sermon 39) and fol. t4v (sermon 40). “Igitur in hac sacratissima feria que Christi exemplo lucet, cibatione nova viret, ac passionis eius initio charitate ardet, venit filius prodigus suis virtuosis vestibus perornatus. Et cum venisset ad locum quo his diebus cum Christo loqui consueverat, eum minime repperit. Et cum tristis incederet, nesciens quo se loco recepisset Iesus, ecce angelus suus ei apparens dixit: ‘Veni, ostendam tibi eum quem anima tua concupiscit’. Et apprehensa manu eius duxit illum in cenaculum quoddam magnum stratum, in quo Christus cum suis discipulis voluit typicum manducare pascha […]. Et cum eum reperisset in loco quo cum discipulis suis ad mensam sedebat, cum humilitate ad mensam sedens, diligentissime contemplatur et verba et actita Iesu”; Ibid., fol. y1rv. A much earlier occurrence of the parable in a Maundy Thursday sermon was in the homilies of Pseudo-Eligius, see above p. 40.

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In this way, the story of the prodigal son develops into the narrative of Christ’s Passion. The banquet of the fatted calf is transformed into the Last Supper, where the prodigal son contemplates the tria maxima that Jesus undertook for the salvation of the humanity: the foot washing, the Eucharist, and his farewell discourse. Moreover, the angel not only guides the prodigal son into the cena­ culum, but also provides the explanation of what he has seen. After the angelic catechesis, the prodigal son directly addresses Jesus to express his admiring joy with passionate words.84 This leads to the usual parabola, by means of which Jesus shows to the prodigal son why only a few are able to attend this banquet, due to the decadence of the Church that has lost its initial fervour.85 Then, the sermon closes by presenting seven episodes from the Old Testament that prefigure the fruits of the Eucharist, and the twelve spiritual teeth (“dentes spirituales”) necessary to savour it. 2.8 “Come in My Garden, My Bride” The sermon for Good Friday has a complex and refined structure, by which Meder exposes a devout meditation on the events of the Passion and their spiritual meaning.86 The thema is a line taken from the Song of Songs: “Veni in ortum meum, soror mea, sponsa mea. Messui mirram meam cum aromatibus meis” (5:1). This sentence favours spiritual meditation, since the invitation is 84

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“O amantissime Iesu, desiderio cordis mei, quam bona, quam salubria, quamque iocun­ dissima ac omni acceptione dignissima sunt hec omnia que hodie oculis meis a te acta perspexi, auribusque meis audivi, plurimum enim me reddunt gaudiosum menteque iocundum”; Ibid., fol. y7r. “Nam in primitiva ecclesia quotidie ad hanc mensam accedebant tam clerus quam populus […]. Ei hic fervor ad tempus duravit. Sed senescente mundo homines in torporem et negligentiam versi sunt circa ea que salutem respiciunt animarum: refriguit caritas [cf. Matthew 24:12], cleri student cupiditati ac pompositati, gaudent in delectationibus carnis. Desipiunt eis que dei sunt et salutis animarum, quorum malo exemplo imitantur seculares”; Ibid., fol. y8r. On the different use of the primitiva ecclesia, Meder quoted Nicholas of Lyra’s Postilla (see above p. 78), yet he introduced a negative evaluation of this trasformation. The responsibility of the clergy for the decadence of the Church is underlined also in the parabola of sermon 19; see Delcorno, “Un sermonario,” pp. 235-37. Paul Keppler, “Zur Passionspredigt des Mittelalters,” Historisches Jahrbuch 3 (1882), 285315: 299-301, underlines the lyrical tone of this sermon in comparison with contemporary Passion sermons. On this sermon, see Delcorno, “Un sermonario,” pp. 246-50. On the medieval meditations on the Passion, see Thomas H. Bestul, Text of the Passion. Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society (Philadelphia, 1996), pp. 26-68 and, on the Franciscan tradition, Roest, Franciscan Literature, pp. 472-514. As an introduction to Passion sermons, see Holly Johnson, The Grammar of Good Friday: Macaronic Sermons of Late Medieval England (Turnhout, 2012), pp. 3-44.

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made to the beloved soul, the bride of the Song of Songs, who has to join Christ in the garden of his Passion, to share with him both the bitterness of his pains and the sweetness of the fruits of his Passion. This twofold experience is symbolized by the myrrh that has long sharp thorns but provides a precious aroma.87 At the beginning of this sermon, the prodigal son encounters Jesus not in the cenaculum but along the way to Gethsemane. Jesus announces to him his imminent Passion and invites the prodigal son to partake in it. The prodigal son said: “O my beloved Jesus, desire of my heart, where are you going with your disciples? Where can I find you? In what quiet place will I find you, so that I can receive your usual instruction?” […] Jesus said to him: “O my son, up to now I informed you with sweet words […]. However, now bind yourself to the cruellest pains of my Passion (by means of your compassionate heart) and follow me, your lord and your most prudent master. You will see my entire Passion with your own eyes, if they will not be blurred by tears […]. My beloved son, come into my garden, since I go to gather my myrrh with my aromas (Song of Songs 5:1). Do not fear, although you will find many plants of myrrh that will pierce 87

Meder could know works such as Geistlicher Mai and Geistlicher Herbst of the Franciscan Stephan Fridolin (d. 1498); on these works see Petra Seegets, Passionstheologie und Passionsfrömmigkeit im ausgehenden Mittelalter. Der Nürnberger Franziskaner Stephan Fridolin (gest. 1498) zwischen Kloster und Stadt, Spätmittelalter und Reformation (Tübingen, 1998), pp. 91-93. This book serves as an introduction to the (Franciscan) Passionsfrömmigkeit that dominates the works of Fridolin and Meder. On the influence of the devotio moderna on the fifteenth-century preaching in the German lands, see Hans-Joachim Schiewer, “German Sermons in the Middle Ages,” in Kienzle, ed., The Sermon, pp. 861-962: 885-91 and the section ‘Predigt und Frömmigkeit im Umkreis der Devotio Moderna’, in Mertens et al., eds., Predigt im Kontext, pp. 377-432. On medieval spiritual interpretations of the Song of Songs, see Rossana Guglielmetti, ed., Il Cantico dei Cantici nel Medioevo (Florence, 2008). Among the contemporary Latin sermon collections, only the Passion sermon of the Sermones quadragesimales biga salutis (editio princeps 1498) by Oswaldus de Lasko (d. 1511) adopts a verse of the Song of Songs as thema: “Egredimini et videte filie Sion regem Salomonem in diademate quo coronavit eum mater sua in die desponsationis illius” (Song of Songs 3:11). It serves to invite the audience to contemplate the Passion by means of seven theatra; see [Oswaldus de Lasko], Sermones dominicales […] biga salutis intitulati (Hagenau: Heinrich Gran for Johannes Rynman, 1502), fol. t5r. In 1306, Giordano da Pisa used the thema: “Fasciculus meus mirre dilectus meus mihi” (Song of Songs 1:12) for his Passion sermon, which however his reportator was unable to write down; see Giordano da Pisa, Quaresimale fiorentino, pp. 410-11 − a possible source for Giordano might have been Giacomo di Benevento’s sermons, see Carlo Delcorno, La predicazione nell’età comunale (Florence, 1977), pp. 95-97.

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your heart with a sword (Luke 2:35), you will find there the most precious aromas, which will delight you in many ways. Through this, you can be incited to acquire two other things that are greatly needed to meditate upon my Passion. In fact, a devout soul must both suffer and rejoice with me. Thus, come with me into the garden of my Passion and you will find those things that move you to compassion, i.e. the various myrrh of my pains, and you will also find those things that delight you, i.e. excellent information to comfort you”. Then, Jesus went ahead with his disciples, and the prodigal son followed him by means of a holy meditation and a sincere love.88 The prodigal son – and therefore the audience – is invited to an emotional, intense participation in the Passion of Christ, who advises that this experience “will pierce your heart like a sword”. These were the words used by Simeon to prophesies the Virgin Mary’s interior participation in the Passion. Thus, Christ announces to the prodigal son that he will participate in his pain – the conpassion – as the Virgin, which was exactly what the son had requested in sermon 38. The participation in the Passion of Christ together with the mater dolorosa was a widely diffused devotional trope. One only has to recall how this theme is developed in the Stabat Mater or in the Speculum humanae salvationis.89 The theme of the heart pierced by a sword also recalls the allegorical ex88

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“Tunc filius prodigus gradu concito precucurrit Iesum et discipulos eius, scilicet per devotam meditationem. Et cum mente ad eum venisset, cecidit ad pedes eius dicens: ‘O Iesu amantissime, desiderium cordis mei, quo ibis cum discepulis tuis? Ubi te invenire potero? Quo te in loco quietius habebo, ut solitas informationes a te valeam recipere?’ […] Tunc Iesu ait illi: ‘O fili mi, hectenus verbis dulcissimis te (tanquam eum qui lacte opus est) informavi. Sed nunc constringe (corde compatiente) passionis mee dirissimos dolores et me dominum tuum magistrumque prudentissimum sequere, et oculis tuis videbis (nisi lacrimis suffusi obfuscentur) totius passionis mee ordinem […]. Veni, amantissime fili, in ortum meum, quia vado ut metere valeam mirram meam cum aromatibus meis. Ne timeas, quia etsi mirram invenies variam que cor tuum compassionis gladio penetrabit, attamen ibidem invenies aromata preciosissima in quibus multipliciter delectaberis, quatenus per hec duo possis incitari ad alia duo valde necessaria ad meditandum passionem meam. Debet enim anima devota mihi compati et congratulari. […] Igitur veni mecum in ortum passionis mee et invenies ea que te movent ad compassionem, silicet variam dolorum meorum mirram. Invenies etiam que delectant, idest optimas informationes ad tuam consolationem’. Tunc dominus Iesus ultra processit cum discipulis suis, et sequebatur eum filius prodigus per sanctam meditationem sinceramque affectionem”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. z2v. “Stabat mater dolorosa | iuxta crucem lacrimosa | cuius animam gementem | […] | pertansivit gladius. | […] | Sancta mater istud agas | crucifixi fige plagas | cordi meo valide; | tui

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planation of the Ovidian story that Christ-as-character presented to the prodigal son and that also relied on the mystical motif of the ‘wound of love’ (vulnus amoris).90 In the same perspective, pain and joy are continually mixed in this sermon, since the memory of the events is connected with their spiritual interpretation. As the bride of the Song of the Songs, the prodigal son is invited to enter the garden of his beloved. This is not the historic Gethsemane. Instead, it is a symbolic garden, with seven flowerbeds (each of which contains different plants of myrrh and aromas) that represent the seven hours of the Passion, according to well-established models.91 In this sermon, the tone is orientated to interior meditation. Only at the ­moment of the death of Christ, did Meder insert a long and passionate lament of the prodigal son; this ends with accusations against the Synagogue and Jerusalem as being guilty of deicidium.92 After this poignant passage, the ser-

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nati vulnerati | […] | poenas mecum divide. | […] | Fac me plagis vulnerari | cruce hac inebriari | in amore filii”; Iacopone da Todi, Laude, ed. Franco Mancini (Rome-Bari, 2006), pp. 339-41. In the sermon, the part on the mother standing under the cross is particularly poignant and lyrical; see Meder, Quadragesimale, fols. ɔ3r-ɔ5r. In the Speculum humanae salvationis, the section on the seven sorrows of the Virgin opens with the request of the Dominican Walter of Strasbourg (d. 1263) to experience the Passion of Christ and the sorrows of the Virgin. This leads to a sort of stigmatisation: “Visum sibi siquidem est, quod manus eius et pedes extenderentur | et cum maximo dolore clavis ferreis transfigerentur; | postea suppliciter ex intimo corde rogavit beatam Virginem, | ut sibi de eius variis tristi­ tiis etiam patefaceret aliqualem, | visumque est ei, quod quidem gladius acutissimus adveniret | et cor eius cum maximo dolore pertransiret”; Speculum humanae salvationis, p. 385. On the vulnus amoris (Song of Songs 2:5), see the seminal consideration in Erich Auerbach, “Gloria passionis,” in Erich Auerbach, Lingua letteraria e pubblico nella tarda antichità e nel Medioevo (Milan, 1960), pp. 68-79. On the basis of Luke 2:35 already Bersuire connected Thisbe and Mary; see Delcorno, “Christ and the Soul,” p. 59. “Et cum in ortum venisset et eum a media nocte usque ad horam completorii sequentis diei secutus fuisset, vidit quod hic ortus mire erat magnitudinis attamen ordinatissime distinctus in septem aureolas”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. z2v. Meder combined the theme of the spiritual garden and the horologium spirituale. Perhaps, there is also a reference to Bonaventure’s Lignum vitae, which was connected with the “fasciculus mirrae” (Song of Songs 1:12); see Bonaventure, Lignum vitae, in Bonaventure, Opera omnia, 8, pp. 68-87: 68. “Igitur cum filius prodigus hec omnia oculacius perspexisset, incepit ut potuit et ipse lamentum perstrepare dicens: ‘O amantissime Iesu amabilis valde super amorem universe creature […]. O anima mea, precioso Christi sanguine redempta ac disponsata, respice in faciem Christi tui, et vide […]. Ve tibi, impia sinagoga, que omni fera crudelior vitam devorasti boni Iesu […]. Plange et tu, dolorosa Hierusalem, que olim civitas glorie, nunc civitas homicidii, immo patricidii quin potius deicidii – horrendo vocabulo

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mon describes the deposition of Jesus from the cross and his entombment in the sepulchre. The preacher concluded by saying that a devout soul must prepare other aromas to go to the sepulchre of Christ, where one should “bury one’s worldly concerns and fix his or her mind only on Christ”.93 Such will be the prodigal son’s behaviour during Holy Saturday. 2.9 From the Sepulchre to the Encounter with Christ Although Holy Saturday was a day without a liturgical celebration, Meder did not refrain from presenting a sermon. The text resembles a meditation, since it has neither a thema nor a reference to a liturgical reading. It begins by describing the prodigal son who remains in mourning at the tomb of Christ. The angel asks him why he stays there, and why he is not at home like the other people, who spend the vigil preparing the food for Easter and looking forward to the end of the Lenten fast. The son declares solemnly that nothing would comfort him, unless his possibility to converse with Christ were to be restored, as Christ is his beloved and his only desire and hope. The angel states that his previous comment was indeed ironic (“yronicam”), and he praises his decision to spend that day in devout meditation.94

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– nuncuparis’”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fols. A1r-A2r. On anti-Jewish topoi in fifteenthcentury Passion sermons in Basel and Strasbourg, see Regina D. Schiewer, “‘Sub Iudaica Infirmitate – Under the Jewish Weakness’: Jews in Medieval German Sermons,” in Adams and Hanska, eds., The Jewish-Christian Encounter, pp. 59-91: 72-78. “De multiplici aromate hic dici posset que omnia relinquo anime devote, que preparare debet aromata sua et venire ad sepulcrum domini nostri Iesu Christi in sua devotione et ibidem sedere, sepulto huic mundo et solum Christo Iesu mente vacare. Quod nobis facere concedat […]. Amen”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. A3v. Although this seems the very end of the long and complex sermon, what follows is the usual section with the parabola; the prodigal son exits the garden and meets the angel, who leads him to a vision and its interpretation. “Sedit filius prodigus circa ipsius Christi sepulchrum mestis et tristis […]. Et cum sic sedisset et orasset venit ad eum angelus ut hactenus facere consueverat, dicens: ‘Quid hic circa sepulchrum Christi tristis ac mestus sedis? Cur non vadis in domum tuam? Ut te possis melius ad futurum festum preparare, more secularium hominum, qui hac die studium quodammodo apponunt quatinus Domini resurrectionem iocundam possint, non mente in devotione iocunda, sed cibis in quadragesima hac relictis itidem accuratius preparatis corporali observantia suscipere, et penitentialem lamentationem a se abicere’. Tunc filius angelo tale dedit responsum: ‘O angele, non est in toto mundo quod me consolari valeat, quamdiu amantissimum Iesum, unicam spem meam totumque desiderium, in priori dulcissima conversatione non habuero. Nam nisi ab ipso consolari non valeo’. Tunc angelus: ‘Fili mi – inquit – desiderium quod in te audio esse valde placet mihi, quia hoc per yronicam meam interrogationem experiri volui’”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. A6v. This

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On Easter, the thema of the sermon is again a line from the parable: “It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found” (Luke 15:32). Implicitly Meder applied this sentence both to the Resurrection of Christ and to the prodigal son, who experienced a spiritualis resurrectio in his conversion.95 In the narrative framework, the prodigal son goes to the upper room (cenaculum), where he encounters the frightened disciples and assists the arrival of Mary Magdalen and the other women, who – full of joy – announce that Jesus is living and the se­pulchre is empty. Next, the text narrates the events of Easter on the basis of concordance among the four Gospels as a means to give the audience a clear account of “the historical truth”.96 The concordia evangeliorum on the Resurrection of Christ is presented as a historic chronicle, without any commentary. In a similar way, on Easter Monday, the sermon describes the prodigal son in the cena­ culum again with the apostles, where suddenly the two disciples of Emmaus arrive and tell the others about their encounter with Christ, namely the Gospel reading of the day (Luke 24:13-35). The prodigal son’s encounter with the Risen Christ occurs on Easter Tuesday, in the final sermon of the cycle. The thema is again taken from the parable: “Fili, tu semper mecum es, et omnia mea tua sunt” (Luke 15:31). As the sermon explains, what the father originally says to the elder son can now be applied to what Christ says to the prodigal son, “who by means of true penitence and perfect conversion has become dignum de congruo to be welcomed after his death in the house of the father”.97 As we have seen, since the thirteenth century a spiritual interpretation of this line of the parable had become common

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preamble hints at a society in which, despite the preachers’ efforts, the preparation for Easter also focused on culinary aspects. See Ibid., fols. B4v-B5r. The rare idea of Christ as a stand-in for the prodigal son was presented by Hugh of Saint-Cher, see above pp. 62-63. “Sed cum idem filius prodigus venisset in cenaculum ubi Christus cenam manducavit, reperit ibi discipulos Christi congregatos propter metum Iudeorum [cf. John 20:19]. […] Et cum colloqueretur discipulis, venit Maria Magdalena cum gaudio indicibili et alie mulieres cum ea asserentes ipsum viveret, et vacuum sepulchrum fore. […] Quod tesimonium illarum mulierum ac aliorum ut certius habeamus, concordantiam quattuor evangelistarum de hac re audiamus, ut certiores nos reddat historie veritas”; Ibid., fol. B5r. “Fili tu semper mecum es […]. Que verba quamvis dicta sint a patre filii prodigi ad seniorem filium qui semper mansit cum patre nec ipsius mandatum trangressus fuit, attamen nunc dicere potet pater eadem verba ad filium prodigum, qui per veram penitentiam et conversionem perfectam se dignum fecit de congruo ut post mortem recipiatur in domum patris”; Ibid., fol. C4v. Dignum de congruo means that God’s prize far exceeds the human merit, which cannot deserve a reward per se (that would be de condigno). Thus, the prodigal son can state that he has been saved while he was indignum.

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in preaching and was either applied to the Virgin Mary (Iacopo da Varazze) or to those who lived the religious life (Bernardino da Siena). From this perspective, Meder elaborated on a previous tradition but did so with remarkable novelty. In this sermon the prodigal son and his elder brother completely overlap. There is only one son. By way of his conversion and the heartfelt meditation of the Passion, the prodigal son becomes his elder brother, that is, the sinner becomes the devout believer, whom God welcomes into eternal life. For this last sermon Meder again used a lively dramatic setting. As on previous days, the prodigal son goes to the cenaculum “languishing by his intense desire to see Christ”, and while he is talking with the disciples “suddenly, when the doors were locked, Jesus came and said: ‘Peace be with you’”.98 This scene introduces the pericope of the day, which is the apparition of the Risen Christ to the disciples (Luke 24:36-47). Immediately after the Gospel text, the moving encounter between the prodigal son and Jesus is described. In the final dialogue of the sermon collection, we read: The prodigal son falls down at the feet of Jesus, praying to him with tears and saying: “O Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, while I was unworthy, by means of penitence you raised me up from the dunghill of sins, such as Mary Magdalen. You purified me with your precious blood, you adorned me with clothes of different virtues, and by way of a unique grace you let me rejoice over the mystery of your glorious Resurrection. Humbly I beg you, asking that – although I am undeserving – you shall receive me in your house of the bright vision […] so that I can live with you inseparably. My soul desired you during the night [cf. Song of Songs 3:1], since you are my hope, my desire, my love, and my every good. I long to depart from this life and be with you [cf. Philippians 1:23] so that I – with all your elects – might glorify you forever. You live and reign with God the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever, amen”. When the prodigal son had prayed in this way, Jesus lifted him in his arms; he embraced and kissed him, by saying: “Peace be with you. Come, my elected son, since you will be with me always and all that is mine is yours [cf. Luke 15:31]; it is time to celebrate at my banquet in my kingdom …”.99 98

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“In hac igitur die venit filius prodigus in cenacum cum languido desiderio cupiens Chri­ stum videre. Et cum sic conversatur et loqutur cum discipulis Iesu et cum his duobus qui venerunt de castello Emaus, ecce subito ianuis clausis Iesus intravit dicens: ‘Pax vobis’ [cf. John 20:19]”; Ibid., fol. C4v. “Tunc filius prodigus procidit ad pedes Iesu, orans cum lachrymis ac dicens: ‘O domine Iesu Christe, fili Dei vivi, qui me indignum de peccatorum sterquilinio cum Maria

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The prayer of the prodigal son is rich with biblical echoes. It is of particular interest that he associates himself with Mary Magdalen. As we have seen, in the second part of the sermon collection her identity repeatedly overlaps that of the prodigal son. Yet, while on the morning of Easter Mary Magdalen could not hold on to the Risen Christ (the famous: Noli me tangere; John 20:17), the experience of the prodigal son ends with the embrace and kiss of Christ, who welcomes him into eternal life. The gestures of Jesus clearly duplicate those of the father welcoming the prodigal son, and yet Jesus’ words are those that the father in the parable says to the elder brother. The prodigal son is now the deserving son who is welcomed by Christ in the final home, namely the celestial fatherland. The remainder of the sermon details the theme of eternal glory and the eternal contemplation of God. This explains the absence of the parabola at the end of the sermon. The prodigal son now has direct access to the gratifying visio beatifica and no longer needs the allegoric visions of the parabolae. Thus, the sermon and the entire cycle are closed with an invocation to God, “who may guide us at this vision by means of a true penitential itinerary”.100 In the final sermon, the Risen Christ plays the role of the father in the parable by repeating his gestures and words. It may come as a surprise, especially if one recalls that on Easter (sermon 48) the Resurrection of Christ is indirectly associated with the spiritual resurrection of the prodigal son. Meder might have taken inspiration from a widespread late medieval text such as the Biblia pauperum. In this text, each episode of the life of Christ is combined with two

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Magdalena per penitentiam levasti, qui me tuo precioso sanguine mundasti, ac vestibus virtutum variis decorasti, et misterio tue gloriose resurrectionis singulari gratia letificasti, te humiliter peto quatenus me (tametsi indignum) in tuam domum clare visionis recipere velis […] ut tecum inseparabiliter conversari valeam. Anima enim mea te desideravit in nocte, quia spes mea tu es, desiderium meum et amor meus et totum bonum meum. Cupio dissolvi et esse tecum ut te (cum omnibus electis tuis) valeam in sempiternum laudare. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre et Spiritu Sancto in secula seculorum. Amen’. Et cum sic orasset, suscepit eum Ihesus in brachiis suis et amplexens osculatus est eum, dixit: ‘Pax tecum. Veni, fili mi electe, quia tu semper mecum eris et omnia mea tua sunt, tempus est ut epuleris super mensam meam in regno meo […]’”; Ibid., fol. C5rv. The bride of the Song of Songs, who seeks for her beloved going around the city during the night, was considered a prefiguration of Mary Magdalen seeking Christ outside the empty sepul­chre. For example, this connection was visualized and disseminated at large by the Bi­blia pauperum; see Edith Ann Matter, “Il Cantico materiale: il testo latino dalla Glossa ordinaria alla Biblia pauperum,” in Guglielmetti, ed., Il Cantico, pp. 475-92. “Attamen essentiale premium omnes obtinebunt, scilicet claram dei visionem. Ad quam visionem nos perducat per veram penitentiam […] dominus noster Iesus Christus, qui cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto vivit et regnat in secula seculorum, amen”; Meder, Quadra­ gesimale, fol. C7v.

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other biblical episodes and a series of biblical quotations. The apparition of the Risen Christ to his disciples was typologically connected with the father who welcomes the prodigal son.101 Commenting on it, the Biblia pauperum reads: “This pious father means that celestial father, namely Christ, who came to his apostles to comfort them about his death and to reveal them his Resurrection”.102 In this way, the Biblia pauperum connects Christ with both the father and the prodigal son. Considering what Meder wrote, it is intriguing to look at a fourteenth-century German manuscript of the Biblia pauperum that depicts the scene by presenting the father who says to the son: “Veni, dulce fili mi, quia dignus fuisti”.103 The father welcomes a son who has become dignus, which is the same concept presented by Meder at the beginning of his last sermon. 3

Two Absences: The Devil and the Elder Brother

Meder preached a highly innovative Lenten cycle, while also considering the liturgical readings. His use of the parable of the prodigal son gave him a framework to cover the entire Lenten period and to discuss its main penitential and soteriological themes. They were presented by means of lively dialogues of the prodigal son with his guardian angel, his father, and Christ. The parabolae that close the sermons added a narrative element, which had a mnemonic function and gave the mind’s eye of the listener the possibility to visualize abstract theological concepts in a vivid manner.104 Although the connection between all 101 102

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The other typological episode is Joseph who reveals himself to his brothers (Genesis 45:3). “In evangelio legitur quod filius cuiusdam divitis ad patrem dixit ut sibi partem hereditatis traderet, et cum pater sibi tradidisset, abiit et totam hereditatem male consumpsit. Quo facto, ad patrem rediit, et pater eum benigne recepit et consolabatur. Iste enim pius pater significat illum patrem celestem, scilicet Christum, qui ad suos, scilicet apostolos, veniens, eos de sua morte consolatus est, et suam resurrectionem eis manifestavit”; Biblia pauperum, Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS CLM 23426, fol. 8v (South Germany, 1330-40). On this manuscript, see Béatrice Hernad, Die gotischen Handschriften deutscher Herkunft in der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek. Teil 1: Vom späten 13. bis zur Mitte des 14. Jahrhunderts (Wiesbaden, 2000), pp. 195-99 (the miniature of the prodigal son is reproduced in the Tafelband, p. 315). A digital reproduction of the manuscript is available on the website of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, MS CLM 23426, fol. 8v. The symbols of the parabolae and their interpretations connect the sermons and progressively provide a basis to memorize their contents. What has been noted about Simone da Cascina’s Il Colloquio spirituale is valid also for Meder’s parabolae: “La logica implacabile delle associazioni, delle corrispondenze, mira esattamente a questo. Le parole del testo guidano l’occhio della mente a vedere l’immagine sia nel suo insieme […] che nelle sue

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these different elements could be laborious at times, the overall result was undoubtedly ingenious, intriguing, and entertaining. Meder chose a peculiar communication strategy. The listeners were clearly asked to identify with the prodigal son. Meder neither directly criticized their vices, nor exhorted them with threats and promises. The relation between the preacher and the audience was mediated by the story. It was transferred onto the relationship between the angel (and then Christ) and the prodigal son, with a dialogue that first proceeded with a placid and didactic tone, and then involved the theme of spiritual love. Meder did not focus his attention on social issues such as usury, luxury, sodomy, or gambling, which were typical topics in fifteenth-century Lenten preaching. He proposed to his audience an interior dimension of the Christian life, which needed both an authentic penitential itinerary and a personal relationship with Christ, whose Passion must inflame the believer’s heart and pierce it like a sword. Meder aimed first of all at a spiritual education characterized by a Christocentric devotion, in accordance with the guidelines of the contemporary ‘theology of piety’ (Frömmigkeitstheologie), which proposed an “internalization and intensification” of the emotional life of the soul.105 The itinerary of the prodigal son does not end with the merciful reception of the father, but leads to his final declaration of love to Christ: “Anima mea te desideravit in nocte, quia spes mea tu es, desiderium meum et amor meus”. In the second part of the cycle, the prodigal son gradually assumes the distinguishing marks of the sponsa Christi. This becomes evident from the repeated parallels that Meder proposed between the prodigal son and figures such as Thisbe, the bride of the Song of Songs, and in particular Mary Magdalen. Thus, the final embrace between Christ and the prodigal son has both paternal and spousal dimensions.106 In the part on the penitential itinerary, the Quadragesimale repeatedly insists on the mercy of God. Although the sermons also recall the destiny of

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diverse componenti, e a ‘vedere’ così anche i concetti astratti associati”; Bolzoni, La rete delle immagini, p. 61. See Hamm, The Reformation, p. 90. See also Volker Leppin, “Katechismen im späten Mittelalter,” in Volker Leppin, Transformationen: Studien zu den Wandlungsprozessen in Theologie und Frömmigkeit zwischen Spätmittelalter und Reformation (Tübingen, 2015), pp. 137-58, esp. p. 150. In addition to Fridolin, Meder could take inspiration from another Franciscan author, Hendrik Herp (d. 1477), who described the religious life as an itinerary towards the perfect union with God in his De processu humani profectus; see on this Hervé Martin, “Devotio moderna et prédication (début XVe-début XVIe siècle),” in La dévotion moderne dans les pays bourguignons et rhénans des origines à la fin du XVIe siècle, ed. Jean-Marie Cauchies (Neuchâtel, 1989), pp. 97-110.

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eternal damnation for those who did not convert, the assurance of God’s benevolence dominates the discourse. The preacher seems confident that the presentation God’s love, manifested in particular by the Passion of Christ, is more persuasive to the audience than a threatening presentation of the flames of hell. However, the theme of divine mercy is joined with that of the few who positively answer God’s love, the few who follow Christ, the few who in the end will be saved. Time and again the prodigal son asks both the angel and Christ why only a few people are living a sincere Christian life. This leitmotiv occurs in many of the parabolae: only a few fish reach the safe lake; only a few pilgrims arrive in Jerusalem; and only a few invited guests come to the banquet.107 The result is a productive tension between the overabundant mercy of God and the fact that only a few people sincerely reply to such love. On the one hand, such an emphasis corresponded with Meder’s vision of his time and of the Church as an institution in need of profound moral reform.108 On the other hand, the presence of this tension represented an effective pastoral strategy. The message was that the sinner could be saved, but salvation required a strenuous commitment. Within Meder’s homiletic narrative, the guardian angel plays a key role. He symbolizes God’s continuous proximity to the sinner, and he incessantly exhorts the prodigal son to proceed along the way of conversion and penitence. This positive function of the angel becomes even more remarkable due to the (almost complete) absence of the tempter devil. Meder only briefly mentions the traditional link between the devil and the master that the son serves in the distant land. Yet, the devil played no further role in his narrative. Compared with some of the contemporary sermons, Meder’s devil was rather harmless. The situation is asymmetrical; the angel is at the centre of the fictional stage, while the devil is a marginal character, who never contrasts the angel. This unusual asymmetry becomes particularly evident when one compares Meder’s Quadragesimale novum with another sermon collection, the Qua­dra­ gesimale viatoris, which dates back to the first half of the fifteenth century. Meder was likely familiar with it, since it had circulated widely in the south of Germany, first in manuscript form and then in several printed editions (Augs­burg 1476 and 1479; Ulm 1479).109 The Quadragesimale viatoris presents a ­wayfarer (viator) who wishes to follow Christ, and yet the tempter devil (an107 108

109

See the parabolae in sermons 5, 17, 20, 41, and 47. Meder’s concerns about the corruption of the Church are expressed in a few of his para­ bolae and, later on, in his interest in the Revelationes of Pseudo-Methodius; see Delcorno, “Un sermonario,” pp. 235-37 and 439-44. On the Quadragesimale viatoris, see Delcorno, “Un sermonario,” pp. 471-75.

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gelus malus) tries to restrain him every day by presenting him with many doubts and temptations, which the wayfarer’s guardian angel (angelus bonus) systematically resolves.110 Thus, each sermon presents a dialogue structured as a scholastic question: an initial idea of the wayfarer (videtur); the devil’s objections based on a set of quotations (sed contra); the solution of the problem provided by the angel (respondeo). Although the arguments of the angelus bonus prevail, the human being is presented as continuously tempted by the devil. The scheme was quite mechanic and static; it lacks Meder’s narrative inventions and dramatic dialogues. Yet the Quadragesimale viatoris could have been one of the sources of inspiration for Meder. In his collection, the prodigal son was likewise a viator, who discussed his situation with his guardian angel, for a considerable part of the story.111 Beyond the specific case of the Qua­ dragesimale viatoris, the contemporary presence of the angelus malus and the angelus bonus was a quite popular theme in late medieval texts and images.112 One has just to think of the Artes moriendi, in which angels and devils alternate around the deathbed. 110

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The scheme is introduced by saying: “In presenti quadragesima decrevi scribere homini devoto qui adinstar viatoris vult post Christum divertere. […] Sed, sicut corporales viatores aliquando impediuntur a latronibus, depredantur et occiduntur, sic spirituales viatores temptationibus spiritualium inimicorum devorantur […]. Et propterea talis viator, hec considerans, omni die inveniet unum malum angelum, ipsum in suo itinere impedientem. Sed quia Deus non derelinquit sperantes in se, habebit et inveniet alterum angelum bonum se adiuvantem et ipsum recto itinere deducentem”; Quadragesimale viatoris [Augsburg: Monastery of Saint Ulrich and Afra, n.a. 1476], fol. 1r. Its structure is close to the Sermones de legibus, in which every day a “anima fidelis simplex et devota” goes to church, listens to the readings of the day, and is full of good intentions; yet, when this person is back home, the devil Belial presents him with many doubts, which are solved by the intervention of Moises and Thomas Aquinas; Leonardo da Udine, Sermones quadra­ gesimales de legibus (Speyer: Peter Drach, 1479). On this preacher, see above p. 225. Meder may have also take inspiration from the Quadragesimale peregrini cum angelo, which was widespread in the south of Germany during the fifteenth century. The Quadragesimale peregrini is an astonishing semi-dramatic Lenten sermon collection. It depicts the journey of a pilgrim and an angel in the reals of the afterlife, which is described according to Dante’s Commedia. For the outstanding role of the angel, the lively dialogues, the theme of the journey, and the role of allegoric visions, the Quadragesimale peregrini looks a possible model for Meder’s Quadragesimale novum. On this sermon collection, see Pietro Delcorno, “Preaching Dante’s Commedia in a German World”, in Timothy Johnson, ed., Preaching and the New Worlds (New York, forthcoming) and Pietro Delcorno, “‘Et ista sunt scripta Dantis’: Predicare la Commedia in Quaresima,” in Delcorno, Lombardo, Tromboni, Lenten Sermons. See Philippe Faure, “Ange bon et ange mauvais des Pères de l’Église au Moyen Âge,” in De Socrate à Tintin: Anges gardiens et démons familiers de l’antiquité à nos jours, eds. Jean-

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Another absence in Meder’s sermons is even more surprising. In fifty sermons on the parable, the elder brother does not play any role. While the absence of the devil is remarkable only in relation to the extraordinary role of the guardian angel, the absence of the elder brother profoundly changed the storyline of the parable. By leaving out the elder brother, Meder completely omitted the second part of the parable. In many medieval sermons, the elder brother had a marginal role, or was not directly considered. And yet, Meder’s solution is more radical. Evidently, he did not have problems of space. However, not even one of his fifty sermons dealt with the elder brother. In Meder’s retelling of the parable, the elder son is replaced by the real perfect son of the father: Jesus Christ. When the prodigal son comes back home, the father (i.e. God) hands him over to his true son, Christ, who introduces him to the new life of grace, by means of the Eucharist and the meditation of the Passion. Instead of commenting on the contrast between the two sons, Meder presented his audience with a multifaceted and yet unified proposal, which completely focused on the prodigal son. His itinerary needed to be a clear model for the listeners. Eventually, in the last sermon, Meder’s prodigal son even absorbes the positive elements of the elder son: he longs to remain forever in the house of the father (what the elder son did in the parable) and is addressed by Christ with the words used in the Gospel for the elder son. In some readings of the parable, the elder brother symbolized the contemplative life (Hugh of Saint-Cher) or the religious life (Bernardino da Siena). In Meder’s sermons, instead, the contemplative habit is assigned to the prodigal son, as the symbols of the gifted mitre and the prayer beads make explicit. 4

An Unusual Illustrated Sermon Collection

The intriguing sermon cycle that Meder preached in 1494 apparently drew attention in Basel, since it was quickly printed in 1495. The involvement in this edition of Sebastian Brant and the unusual format of a book of Latin sermons illustrated by first-class woodcuts make it a unique product among the fifteenth-century printed sermon collections. 4.1 The Role of Sebastian Brant The format of the Quadragesimale novum probably depends upon the direct involvement of Sebastian Brant, who was an influential figure in the dynamic Patrice Boudet, Philippe Faure and Christian Renoux (Rennes, 2011), pp. 79-92. Among images, see also the Spiegel der Vernunft (below, note 125).

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and transforming Kommunikationskultur of those decades.113 Brant was in close contact with the Franciscans of Basel and actively supported them in the harsh quarrel regarding the Immaculate Conception that took place in those years.114 Moreover, a few years later, as a preface to his edition of the Revelationes of Pseudo-Methodius, Brant inserted a letter he had written to Meder in 1497. The letter not only proves their mutual esteem, but also shows that Meder had urged Brant to provide the edition of the Revelationes with images, for the sake of the simple folk.115 Evidently, Meder knew that he was the right person to organize the edition of such an illustrated book. The Revelationes edited by Brant was published by Michael Furter and included a set of woodcuts designed by the so-called Meister des Haintz Narr. Exactly the same people were involved in the 1495 edition of the Quadragesimale novum, which was written by Meder, introduced by Brant, published by Furter, and illustrated by the Meister des Haintz Narr.116 Since Furter was not a publisher specializing in sermon collections (Meder’s would be the only exception in his rich catalogue), the likelihood that the transformation of the sermons preached in 1494 into an intriguing illustrated book was orchestrated by Brant seems high.117 In fact, he also adorned the edition with a poetic composition that opens the book and invites the reader to consider it carefully. Brant was a prodigal poetic composer for the books of his friends or the books that he edited. Still, Meder’s is the only sermon collection that Brant honoured in this fashion, something that suggests a direct involvement in the project. Brant had the necessary connections with the Basel publishers and was already an expert in producing sophisticated illustrated books,

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See Klaus Bergolt, ed., Sebastian Brant und die Kommunikationskultur um 1500 (Wiesbaden, 2010). See Martina Wehrli-Johns, “L’Immaculée Conception après le concile de Bâle dans les provinces dominicaines et franciscaines de Teutonie et de Saxe: débats et iconographie,” in L’Immaculée Conception. On Brant’s devotional texts, see Mary Alvarita Rajewski, Sebastian Brant: Studies in Religious Aspects of His Life and Works with Special Reference to the ‘Varia Carmina’ (Washington, DC, 1944). On this letter, see Delcorno, “Un quaresimale,” pp. 439-44. On the Meister des Haintz Narr see Winkler, Dürer und die Illustrationen, pp. 89-92. Among the 73 surviving editions published by Furter between 1488 and 1500, Meder’s Quadragesimale is the only sermon collection; see Van der Haegen, Basler Wiegendrucke, pp. 335-37. Brant had an strong working relationship with Furter and collaborated on 24 of Furter’s editions; see Frederik Hartweg, “Der Nürnberger Narrenschiff-Druck: Entalemannisierung als Behebung eines Kommunikationshindernisses?,” in Bergolt, ed., Sebastian Brant, pp. 301-48: 327.

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in particular due to the recent printing enterprise of Das Narrenschiff, to which Meister des Haintz Narr likewise contributed his woodcuts.118 Brant’s composition of eleven couplets entitles “In sermones de filio prodigo carmina”.119 Its structure is simple: it opens with an appeal to the reader to consider carefully this libellum, which can help to uncover the vanity of the world and the mercy of God; then it briefly presents the story of the prodigal son according to its moral reading and emphasizes the mercy of the father; finally, it closes with a short prayer. Brant shared Meder’s praise for the merciful God, who “never closes the door to those who return to him”.120 However, the poetic composition does not reveal the main novelties of Meder’s version of the parable – it does not contain spoilers. Brant’s two opening verses deserve attention: “Si placet, o lector, hunc contrectare libellum, | conspicere et totum perlegere usque potes”. They suggests three actions to the (potential) reader: to handle, to look, and to read carefully. The verb conspicere pinpoints the importance of the visual aspect of the book, likely referring to the set of lavish images that characterizes this sermon collection. According to Brant, the images might persuade those who handled the book to become actual readers. Conspicere might be the bridge between contrectare and perlegere. Not only did the images accompany the reading, but they orienteted the (potential) readers, and might also be determinant in the decision to buy this book – something relevant for those who were involved in the editorial market, such as Brant. 4.2 Visualizing the Sermons The quality of the images of the Quadragesimale novum was comparable to the best products of the moment, such as Der Ritter vom Turn (Basel: Michael Furter, 1493) or Das Narrenschiff (Basel: Johann Bergman, 1494).121 This set of 118 119

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On the relationship between Brant and Meder, see Delcorno, “Un quaresimale,” pp. 42547. Sebastian Brant, In sermones de filio prodigo carmina, in Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. a1v (edited in Delcorno, “Un quaresimale,” pp. 426-27). Brant included a new version of this short poem – with a different incipit – in his Varia Carmina (Basel: Johan Bergmann, 1498). This second version is edited in Sebastian Brant, Kleine Texte, ed. Thomas Wilhelmi, 2 vols (Stuttgart, 1998), 1, p. 356. An English translation of this version is in Rajewski, Sebastian Brant, pp. 35-36. Neither Rajewski nor Wilhelmi connect the composition with its original function in the Quadragesimale. “Hinc tibi summe Deus, tibi laus, tibi gloria soli, | qui reduci clausas non sinis esse fores”. On these woodcuts, see Vetter, Der verlorene Sohn, pp. XXI-XXV. Vetter considers them as an innovative visual product, which may have influenced Dürer’s famous (and influential) engraving on the prodigal son (c.1497). However, this remains just a hypothesis; see

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images perfectly visualizes the narrative framework created by Meder and reproduces his innovations in retelling the parable. This implied a substantial work to transform a consolidated iconographic tradition. In order to understand the transformation, one has to look at a previous set of woodcuts on the prodigal son. Six woodcuts of the Spiegel menschlicher Behaltnis (Basel: Bernhard Richel, 1476) represent the most relevant antecedent in the early print market (fig. 19-20). The 1476 Spiegel was one of the best examples of the illustrated books printed in Basel before the generation of Dürer and was surely well known by the publishers of the city.122 This Spiegel was a much re-elaborated German version of the Speculum humanae salvationis, which merged it with a Plenarium, that is, the biblical readings and their brief explanations for all the Sundays and the main feasts of the year. The first image of the 1476 Spiegel represents the prodigal son receiving his inheritance from the father in the presence of his brother and his mother (fig. 19). The second image portrays the prodigal son, who has dismounted from his horse and is welcomed by a woman (fig. 19). Such iconography, dating back to the twelfth century, was widespread in stained glass windows (fig. 9) and ivory caskets. The iconography was also present in fifteenth-century Germany, as proven by the wonderful tapestries of the churches of St Elisabeth in Marburg (fig. 18) and St Sebaldus in Nuremberg.123 The third woodcut shows the pro­ digal son dancing with the woman and other companions as two musicians play trumpets and flutes (fig. 19), while the fourth depicts him in misery, attending to the swine in tattered clothes (fig. 19). The fifth image brings to life the ­encounter between the prodigal son and his father, while the final scene presents the banquet (fig. 20). The presence of six woodcuts for a single biblical

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Rainer Schoch, “Der verlorene Sohn,” in Albrecht Dürer. Das druckgraphische Werk, 3 vols (Munich, 2001-04), 1, pp. 45-48. The reproductions of the 1476 woodcuts are in Albert Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke, XXI: Die Drucker in Basel (Teil I) (Leipzig, 1938), n° 85 and 221-25. Later on, the Spiegel menschlicher Behaltnuss (Speyer: Peter Drach, 1481) closely imitated the woodcuts of Richel’s edition, see Albert Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke, XVI: Die Drucker in Speyer (Leipzig, 1933), n° 500-05. On these images and as a useful overview of the woodcuts in German books, see Daniela Laube, “The Stylistic Development of German Book Illustration, 1460-1511,” in A Heavenly Craft: The Woodcut in Early Printed Books, ed. Daniel De Simone (New York, 2004), pp. 47-71 (esp. 60-62). See Verdier, “The Tapestry,” p. 53 and Cantzler, Bildteppiche, pp. 137-38. See also above p. 205. In the German cultural context, one has to consider also the nine scenes that ­represent the parable in one of the late fourteenth-century windows of the church of Sankt Jacobi in Stendal (Saxony); see Karl-Joachim Maercker, Die mittelalterlichen Glasmale­reien in der Stendaler Jakobikirche (Berlin, 1995), pp. 99-111.

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narrative was exceptional in the 1476 Spiegel. Moreover, while the other additions to the scheme of the Speculum humanae salvationis concern the Sunday Gospel readings, the prodigal son was a pericope for a weekday. Its relevance in this book once again confirms the peculiar status of this biblical parable, which stood out per se and not for its liturgical position. The 1476 visualization of the parable is rich in detail but closely follows the biblical story. It only adds some elements in the representations of the prodigal son’s sinful life, building on a consolidated iconography. Considering the 1476 predecessor, the images carved for Meder are much more innovative. The Quadragesimale includes eighteen woodcuts, two of them repeated twice. They are distributed in accordance with the dynamic |of the sermons. Therefore, the majority of the images are at the beginning and at the end of the book, while in the middle they spotlight only the Sunday sermons. Each of the first six sermons is opened with a woodcut, thus immediately visualizing the development of the story and its novelties. The first image depicts the prodigal son asking his father to hand him his inheritance (fig. 21). He is dressed in tight stockings, a fine puff and slash doublet, and a flashy hat with ostrich feathers – similar to what is found in earlier illuminations (fig. 4). His clothes look much more luxurious than those of his father and his brother, who stands behind him. Next to the father stands the guardian angel, who speaks to the prodigal son, as his gestures show. The same image opens the second sermon, while the third is introduced by another woodcut. It depicts the prodigal son along his way, far from home, alongside the guardian angel who unsuccessfully tries to persuade him to return home (fig. 22).124 The image of the fourth sermon shows the prodigal son at the gate of a city, while the angel tries to dissuade him from entering (fig. 23). The son is standing on the bridge that crosses the city moat, and his position might have a symbolic meaning, as “an embodiment of the perilous path of life, [that] could be leading him toward perdition”.125 124 125

Vetter, Der verlorene Sohn, p. XXIII suggests a connection with the iconography of Hercules at the crossroads. See Pinson, The Fools’ Journey, pp. 142-43, which suggests this reading for contemporary images such as Bosch’s Wayfarer (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado) and an interesting German woodcut, the Spiegel der Vernunft (c.1488). The latter presents as symbol of human life a pilgrim on a bridge, who is accompanied by a devil (who pulls him backward to the worldly pleasures of a tavern) and by an angel (who gives him advice pointing at the crucifix and the tables of the Decalogue), while on the other side of the bridge Death is waiting for him. On the Spiegel der Vernunft, see also Johannes Hartau, “‘Narrenschiffe’ um 1500. Zu einer Allegorie des Müßiggangs,” in Wilhelmi, ed., Sebastian Brant, pp. 125-69: 136-38.

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In these images, alongside his fashionable clothes and his flashy hat, the prodigal son carries an enormous sword (probably it involves a phallic symbolism), alluding not only to the chivalric imagery often associated with his adventure (fig. 8, 18) but also to the contemporary wide-spread genre pictures of Swiss soldiers and Landsknechts.126 Indeed, this fashionable prodigal son looks quite similar to the portrait of young man depicted by Dürer in his famous Promenade (c.1498). The next image visualizes the prodigal son seated at a table in a tavern, with a companion and two women, while the angel admonishes him in vain (fig. 24). At the beginning of the sixth sermon, the picture portrays the prodigal son seated in misery, with ripped clothes, his hair in disarray, and barefooted, while he is tending to the pigs. Before him, the guardian angel stands out and begins his catechesis (fig. 25). From this moment onwards, the images become weekly, following the storyline provided by Meder. They correlate to the Sunday sermons and immediately provide the readers with the narrative setting of the story. Thus, they help to visualize the spiritual itinerary of the prodigal son. We can note a strict adhesion of the images to Meder’s text. For example, in the sermon of the second Sunday, which introduces the theme of contrition, Meder described the prodigal son as “having in his hand a small handkerchief with which he was drying his tears, while he was seated and, oppressed by sadness, he held his head with one hand, weeping abundantly”.127 The woodcut visualizes details such as the handkerchief and the hand that supports the prodigal son’s head (fig. 26).128 The illustration for the following Sunday depicts the prodigal’s journey home, discussing with the angel, as the sermon says (fig. 27). In comparison with the woodcuts of the 1476 Spiegel, which focus on the luxurious life of the prodigal son, Meder’s Quadragesimale (both as text and as images) does not deal extensively with this aspect of the story, concentrating instead on the prodigal son’s itinerary of conversion. The emphasis on the relationship between the prodigal son and his guardian angel had no precedent in the iconography of the parable. Neither before, nor after it, do we find anything resembling the artistic programme of these 126

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The detail of the sword recurs in many images of the parable; the closest antecedent is in a woodcut of the 1481 Spiegel; see Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke, XVI, n° 501. I am grateful to Dr. Karen Watts, who called my attention to the images of Swiss soldiers and Landsknechts. See above, note 50. This image is reproduced twice, i.e. before sermon 13 and 15; Meder, Quadragesimale, fols. f6v and g6v. The second edition (1497) changes this woodcut and the new one introduces the detail of the tears on the prodigal son’s face; see Albert Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke, XXII: Die Drucker in Basel (Teil II) (Leipzig, 1940), n° 482.

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woodcuts.129 There is only one partial and intriguing exception. In 1494, a prominent Scandinavian artist, Amund, painted a detailed version of the parable on the wooden vault of the little parish church of Södra Råda, in the south of the present-day Sweden.130 The story develops in twenty images (fig. 37), and within this lively visualization, the moment of the conversion is depicted by showing the prodigal son in misery while an angel takes him by his hand and convinces him to go back home (fig. 38).131 In the same year that Meder preached his sermons, more than 1500 kilometres north of Basel, Amund introduced an angel into a visual retelling of the parable. Evidently, there was not a direct connection between Meder and Amund. Yet, on the basis of a shared culture, both could have had this idea indipendently – although one might consider also the possible loss of earlier visual models that inspired them and of which we do not have any information. Returning to the Quadragesimale, the image of the prodigal son’s encounter with his father does not present novelties, apart from the presence of the angel (fig. 28). On the contrary, the following woodcut showing the father who bestows new clothes to his son (fig. 29) includes specific features of Meder’s sermon: the angel takes the prodigal son by the hand to guide him home (the sermon reads: “ad manum accipiens ad domum patris duxit”); the father is assisted by six servants – as Meder wrote – who bring different ornaments. In the scene a further invention from Meder is presented, since the servant closest to the guardian angel carries a mitre (or hat) in his hand. On the right side of the picture, Christ is depicted, to whom the father commits the prodigal son in custody. The woodcut is full of characters and details, yet nothing is left to chance. It confirms that the images were prepared with great precision in order 129

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See Vetter, Der verlorene Sohn, p. XXIII. Possible model for the image of the prodigal son on the way back home with the guardian angel might have been the images of Tobiah and the Archangel Raphael, which were for instance in the Speculum humanae salvationis. The contemporary Dürer’s woodcut of Gerson as Pilgrim (1494) also contains similarities, as it depicts a pilgrim guided along his way by an angel. On the paintings of Södra Råda, which have been destroied by a fire in 2001, see Anna Nilsén, “Södra Råda Church in Sweden: A Lost National Treasure,” Konsthistorisk tidskrift/ Journal of Art History 71:3 (2002), 153-71 and Bengt G. Söderberg, Svenska kyrkomålningar från medeltiden (Stockholm, 1951), pp. 191-96. Images of Södra Råda are available on the website of the Swedish National Heritage Board: (accessed 20 June 2017). In Amund’s cycle, aside from the detailed description of the debauched life of the prodigal son, other two scenes are remarkable: first, the master whipping the prodigal son, who has been discovered eating the pods as the pigs; second, the mother who redresses the prodigal son with the new clothes, instead of the servants. Both the father and the mother are crowned (fig. 37), transforming the story into the adventure of the son of a king (as in Bernard of Clairvaux’s parable – and also in Meder’s sermons; see note 42).

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to fit the parable as Meder reshaped it in his sermons, thereby changing the iconographic tradition connected to the story. From Palm Sunday onwards, the number of illustrations increases again. In the last ten sermons of the collection seven woodcuts are found. The image for Palm Sunday (sermon 41) shows Christ taking the prodigal son by the hand to guide him in the meditation of the Passion, while on the left a servant is butchering the fatted calf (fig. 30). The image of sermon 42 depicts Christ instructing the prodigal son, who is dressed in his new clothes (fig. 31). Next, the images merge together the account of the parable and the events of the Passion, following Meder’s textual reimagining of the story. This was a significant conceptual operation. In drawing these images, Meister des Haintz Narr intervened in the well-established iconography of key moments of the Passion. First, the woodcut for Maundy Thursday merges the banquet of the parable and the Last Supper. The prodigal son takes a seat at the table beside Christ and holds what seems to be a wafer in his hand (fig. 32). Behind the son, the guardian angel instructs him, while on the left side of the table two apostles are depicted, as their halos indicate.132 The images build also a visual contrast between the tavern (fig. 24) and the cenaculum (fig. 32). Even more suggestive is the woodcut for Good Friday, since it modifies the iconography of Jesus’ prayer in the Gethsemane. The scene was recognizable at the first glance, since it presents traditional elements, such as Jesus kneeling before the (symbolic) cup of his Passion, the apostles asleep, and the fence that closes the garden. However, instead of showing the arrival of Judas with the soldiers sent to capture Jesus, the woodcut depicts the guardian angel and the prodigal son who enter into the garden, while Jesus interrupts his prayer to look at them (fig. 33).133 The decision to intervene on the iconography of Christ’s prayer in the Gethsemane is particularly audacious, and visualizes Christ’s invitation to the sponsa mea, who has to participate in his Passion. A similar solution is adopted for the image of the Holy Saturday, in which the burial of Christ and the prayer of the prodigal son before the tomb are merged (fig. 34). In this case, the son occupies the position usually reserved to Mary Magdalen.134 The Easter woodcut (fig. 35) reproduces the apparition of Christ to the apostles gathered in the upper room (cenaculum), again with the pro­digal in their midst. 132 133

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The other character from behind is in the position often occupied by Judas; the absence of the halo might suggest this identification. Among many contemporary images of Gethsemane, see in particular that of the Itine­ rarius Virginis (Basel: Lienhart Ysenhut, c.1489), which was prepared by the same Meister of Haintz Narr; Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke: XXII, n° 231. This image can be compared with a woodcut by Meister of Haintz Narr in the previously mentioned Itinerarius Virginis; see Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke: XXII, n° 244.

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The image for the final sermon depicts the prodigal son kneeling down before the Risen Christ (fig. 36). As the caption recalls, this event constitutes the real arrival of the prodigal son to the house of the father, that is, eternal beatitude.135 From this description, it is evident that this rich set of images – absolutely extraordinary in a fifteenth-century Latin sermon collection136 – allowed the people who took this book in their hands (contrectare) and looked at it (conspicere) to have immediately a fair idea of the main elements of Meder’s sermons: the parable of the prodigal son; the presence of the guardian angel; the arrival of Christ (recognizable for his cruciform halo); the events of his Passion and Resurrection. With an expressive style and great attention to detail, the images visualize the gist of the Quadragesimale. Therefore, the images could function as an introduction and an invitation to the reading of the sermon collection, which not only aimed to be an instrument for other preachers, but also a book for theological and spiritual meditation for learned people (at the conclusion of his book, Meder called his sermons also a tractatunculum).137 The high-quality pictures introduced the reader to the book’s principal message – with a role similar to that of the prefaciuncula – and guided the meditation, visualizing the story and making it more engaging for the reader. As in the sermon collection the parabola that ends each sermon serves to illustrate its main topic and to fix it in the memory of the audience, in a similar way the woodcuts allow the reader to recap the main features of the spiritual itinerary proposed by the book and to commit them to his or her visual memory. Encountering the details of the story in the sermons – for instance those concerning the prodigal son’s new clothes or his entrance in the garden – the reader gradually could learn to appreciate the deeper meaning of these images. In this way, a bidirectional interplay between words and images was at play.138 135 136 137

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“Sequens figura declarat quomodo filius prodigus recipitur finaliter a patre in domum eterne beatitudinis”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. C4r. See Delcorno, “Un sermonario,” pp. 432-38. “Igitur ut debito fine presentem tractaculum (quem fretus spiritus sancti gratia utcumque exili meo ingenio compilavi et confluenti populo ut potui peroravi) concludere valeam …”; Meder, Quadragesimale, fol. C5v. For instance, a copy of the 1495 edition (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Broxb. 12.3) was in possession of the Cistercian Nuns of S. Maria of Bredelar (Westphalia), as the inscription on fol. a1r states: “Liber B. M. Virginis de Bredelar”. In 1513, the same copy was in use of a Franciscan friar of the region, Nicholas Chysgen of Hebern: “Ad usum fratris Nicolai Chysgen de Herpena ordinis minorum … Anno 1513 in die S. Elisabet” (cancelled inscription on fol. a1r). It also fits with the characteristics of the “Frömmigkeitstheologie als multipliziertes Medienphänomen von Texten und Bilden”; see Hamm, “Was ist Frömmigkeitstheologie?,” pp. 146-49. See also Media Salutis: Gnaden- und Heilsmedien in der abendländischen Reli-

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The woodcuts thus depicted the prodigal son’s itinerary in full detail, from his foolishness, through his penitential journey and his participation in the Passion, to his final encounter with Christ. While the reader was invited to identify with the prodigal son (and to perform a similar spiritual itinerary), the function of the guardian angel, who guides this journey, was now held by the book itself. The book replaced and prolonged the voice of the preacher by means of a discourse turned into printed words and images.139 5

Dissemination of Meder’s Quadragesimale

While a tangible effect of 1494 Meder’s preaching was the edition of the Qua­ dragesimale novum, it is quite difficult to measure the reception of this sermon collection and to evaluate its readership. However, the number of editions and the fact that a publisher of another city printed this book as well indicate its fair success. The first edition of 1495 must have sold out rather quickly, for Furter published a second edition in 1497. There are also traces of a third fifteenthcentury imprint by Furter, which differs from the previous ones in some details of its images.140 During those years, Meder was a public preacher in Basel, as evidenced by the above-mentioned 1497 letter of Brant who addressed him as “in Basilea publicum concinatorem”.141 This role might have given some notoriety to his book. After Meder’s departure from the city in 1502 and a period of silence, Furter published this sermon collection again in 1510, this time also indicating the name of Meder on the title page.142 The 1510 front page also pres-

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giosität des Mittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit, eds. Berndt Hamm, Volker Leppin and Gury Schneider-Ludorff (Tübingen, 2011) Concerning the function of these images as a mirror in which one has to recognize his or her own story, within the same cultural context one can recall the introduction of Das Narrenschiff, where Brant compared the illustrations of the book to a mirror; see Harry Vredeveld, “Materials for a New Commentary to Sebastian Brant’s Narrenschiff,” Daphnis 26 (1997), 553-651 and 29 (2000), 709-13: 710. See Schramm, Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke, XXII, pp. 12-13 and Pierre Louis van der ­Haegen, Basler Wiegendrucke. Verzeichnis der in Basel gedruckten Inkunabeln (Basel, 1998), p. 288. Sebastian Brant, Epistola Johanni Meder, in Pseudo-Methodius, Revelationes (Basel: Michael Furter, 1498), fols. a1v-a2r: a1v. The letter is edited in Brant, Kleine Texte, 1/2, pp. 352-53 − but see also Harry Vredeveld, “Towards a Serviceable Edition of Sebastian Brant’s Kleine Texte,” Humanistica Lovaniensia 50 (2001), 19-89: 64-65. The title reads: “Parabola filii glutonis profusi atque prodigi, nedum venuste verum etiam utiliter et devote per venerandum patrem fratrem Joannem Meder ordinis minorum

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ents four verses (Thetrasticon) by Daniel Agricola (d. c.1540), an Observant friar who was appointed as preacher at the convent of Basel from 1507 to 1513.143 This possibly indicates the actual interest of another Franciscan preacher for this sermon collection. The 1510 edition found its way to Paris, where in 1511 the publisher Jean Petit issued Meder’s collection for the last time.144 While Furter’s imprints always presented the luxury set of woodcuts, the Parisian edition did not include images to guide its readers. Yet its production shows that the sermons had a wide circulation and attracted attention also in a context where their author was not directly known. Considering the average size of print runs in this period, one can roughly calculate that something like 1500-2000 copies of Meder’s Quadragesimale were printed, and that at least those of the first two editions were indeed sold out.145 The datum indirectly confirms the interest of preachers in this innovative sermon collection, since we can assume that preachers (be it secular ­clerics or friars) and their religious houses or parishes were among the typical owners of this book.146 Much more difficult is to find traces of its actual use. An indirect testimony to its usage – at least as a source for inspiration – may be found in the words of Erasmus of Rotterdam, who spoke of a preacher who adopted a scheme similar to Meder’s.

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observantium Basilee concionata et collecta, pro totius anni precipue quadragesime sermonibus accommodata”; Johann Meder, Parabola filii glutonis (Basel: Micheal Furter, 1510), fol. a1r. In the new title, the reference to the angel disappears. “Quem sordes luxusque premunt, quem turba malorum | illecebris mundi, frausque petul­ca nimis | comperies dogma cautum simul atque salubre | pellectum dare quod tenet iste liber”. On Daniel Mayer (or Agricola), see Bihl, “Tabulae Capitulares,” pp. 781-84 and Landmann, “Zum Predigtwesen,” pp. 309-13. The edition reproduces the 1510 title and Agricola’s four verses, just adding to the title “Nunc vero ab innumeris quibus scatebat mendis correpta. Parisius quoque impressioni solicitius data 1511”; Johann Meder, Parabola filii glutonis (Paris: Jean Petit, 1511), fol. a1r. On these numbers, see Thayer, Penitence, p. 202 and Niel Harris, “La sopravvivenza del libro, ossia appunti per una lista della lavandaia,” Ecdotica 4 (2007), 24-65. See note 137. The (partial) account book of the book dealer Peter Drach clearly proves the numerous acquisitions of religious books made by the German clergy in the late fifteenth century; see Hendrik Mäkeler, Das Rechnungsbuch des Speyerrer Druckherrn Peter Drach d. M. (um 1450-1504) (St. Katharinen, 2005) and Pettegree, The Book in the Renaissance, pp. 38-40 and 69 (it recalls that in 1503 Anton Koberger warned Johann Amerbach that, according to him, the book market for the clergy was saturated).

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365

Erasmus’ Criticism to an Anonymous Theologian

In the summer of 1518, while Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam was at Basel, he wrote his Ratio seu Methodus compendio perveniendi ad veram theologiam. This text, a much-enlarged version of the Methodus written as one of the introductory essays for the first edition of his Novum Testamentum (Basel: Johann Froben, 1516), appeared in 1519 as an introduction to the second edition of the same work, again printed by Froben. The Ratio was Erasmus’ manifesto on biblical hermeneutics and theology.147 Within this text, Erasmus repeatedly dealt with the parable of the prodigal son. Firstly, he praised the story for his effectiveness in addressing the sinners; secondly, he recalled its patristic readings; finally, he complained about contemporary excesses in reading the parable allegorically. Speaking about the metaphors and parables used in the Gospel, Erasmus pointed out that Jesus used this method of speaking for its great persuasive power (“ut ad persuadendum cum primis efficax est”) both for learned and for simple people, saying that “a parable is effective not only for teaching and convincing, but also for moving the feelings, for enjoyment, for clarification, and for more deeply etching on the soul the same teaching, so that it cannot be forgotten”.148 In order to illustrate this principle, Erasmus presented the prodigal son narrative according to its most common penitential interpretation: “For when the parable of the prodigal son who repents is used, it affects the soul quite strongly”.149 The humanist briefly retold the story of the prodigal son in its main points, all the while underlining the interior feelings of the prodigal son and the father, whose mercy in welcoming the returned son was particu147

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The critical edition is Desiderius Erasmus, Ratio seu Methodus compendio perveniendi ad veram theologiam, in Desiderius Erasmus, Ausgewählte Werke, eds. Annemarie Holborn and Hajo Holborn (Munich, 1933), pp. 175-305. On this text and the following polemics, see Marcel Gielis, “Leuven Theologians as Opponents of Erasmus and of Humanistic Theology,” in Erika Rummel, ed., A Companion to Biblical Humanism and Scholasticism in the Age of Erasmus (Leiden, 2008), pp. 197-214 and on the debates about Erasmus’ Novum Testamentum, see Basel 1516. Erasmus’ Edition of the New Testament, eds. Martin Wallraff, Silvana Seidel Menchi and Kasper von Greyerz (Tübingen, 2016). I follow, with minor changes, the English translation provided by Donald Morrison Conroy, The Ecumenical Theology of Erasmus of Rotterdam: A Study of the ‘Ratio verae theologiae’ (Pittsburgh, 1974). “Neque vero tantum ad docendum ac persuadendum efficax est parabola, verum etiam ad commovendos affectus, ad delectandum, ad perspicuitatem, ad eadem sententiam, ne possit elabi, penitus infigendam animo”; Erasmus, Ratio, p. 260. “Nam vehementius afficit animum adhibita parabola de filio prodigo resipiscente …”; Ibid., p. 260.

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larly emphasized.150 The tendency to dramatize the account of the parable became even more evident in Erasmus’ 1523 paraphrase on the Gospel of Luke, where the description of the prodigal son who comes back “squalidum, gementem et lachrymantem” was quite close to those of contemporary preachers.151 In the Ratio Erasmus concluded the passage on the prodigal son by saying: These things, I contend, touch the soul more sharply than when someone simply says without a parable that God gladly receives the sinner back, if only he will be sorry for his past life from the bottom of his heart, and his sin will not be flaunted at him who has come to deeply detest his offenses himself.152 150

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“In qua [parabola] narratur adolescens a patre postulare portionem substantiae quae ad ipsum rediret, deinde sibi fisus committere se regioni longinquae, mox oblitus indulgentissimi patris cum turpissimis scortis ac nepotibus prodigere rem parentis benignitate datam, deinde coactus extrema rerum omnium penuria tandem amentiam suam agno­ scere et relictae vitae tangi desiderio. Revertitur filius, agnoscit erratum; occurrit pater, in amplexus filii effundit sese. Profertur nova vestis, profertur anulus, occiditur vitulus saginatus, tota domus laetitia persrepit. Nec aliter gaudet senex recepto iuvene, quam si revixisset a rogo. Non exprobratur temeritas poscentis, non luxus ac nequitia profundentis. Non meminit iam horum paterna pietas, cui satis est, quod resipuerit, quod sibi redditus sit filius”; Ibid., p. 260. Beside the usual reference to bad company, noteworthy is the ‘resurrection’ of the father, who looks as if “he were reborn from the fire (a rogo)”. For instance, here is the description of the prodigal son’s return: “Vidit [pater] autem miserabili specie redeuntem, qui ferox et insolens profugerat. Videbat pannosum, macie confectum, squalidum, gementem et lachrymantem. Haec ipsa rerum species statim commovit paternum pectus et iustam iram flexit ad misericordiam. Procurrit obviam venienti, et non expectatis filii precibus, pietate nativa victus, irruit in collum filii, et osculatus est eum. Haec tametsi essent argumenta propensi ad ignoscendum animi, tamen sibi etiamnum iratus iuvenis ait: ‘Pater peccavi supra modum, et coram angelis dei, et coram te, et tamen audeo venire in conspectum tuum, quum indignus sim qui posthac nominer filius tuus, quandoquidem a me omnia pietatis iura rupta sunt.’ […] Nondum omnia dixit filius quę fuerat meditatus, singultu sermonem interrumpente. Plus autem loquebantur lachrymae, quam oratio”; Desiderius Erasmus, “In Evangelium Lucae paraphrasis,” in Desiderius Erasmus, Tomus Primus Paraphraseon in Novum Testamentum (Basel: Hieronymus Froben and Nikolaus Episcopus, 1535), pp. 162-70: 167. This is Erasmus’ last revision of his paraphrase of Luke, firstly edited in 1523. The 1535 edition serves as basis text for the English translation in Collected Works of Erasmus. 48: Paraphrase on Luke 11-24, ed. Jane E. Phillips (Toronto, 2003). Phillips notes that Erasmus might have been influenced by Terence’s Adelphi in the description of this scene (ivi, p. 82); however, contemporary preaching also presented similar description; see above pp. 216 and 326-27. “Haec, inquam, acrius feriunt animum, quam si quis citra parabolam dicat deum libenter recipere peccatorum, modo ex animo paeniteat superioris vitae, nec exprobrari peccatum ei, qui ipse vehementer oderit sua commissa”; Erasmus, Ratio, p. 260.

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Meder and many other preachers would have completely agreed with this idea, which underpinned their decision to devote specific space to this parable in their sermons. Moreover, we can note that here Erasmus – exactly as many preachers of his time – omitted the character of the elder brother from this story. Discussing the four senses of the Holy Writ and the method to deal with them in the Ratio, Erasmus referred again to the tropological interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son. As a means of explaining how a prototype may assume different shapes according to the diversity of times, he recalled that “the swine husks, with which the lost son wanted to fill his hungry belly, can be employed to symbolize wealth, lustful pleasures, honours, and a worldly education”.153 Immediately after, he mentioned the allegorical interpretation of this story, saying that “the entire parable can be adapted to represent the Jewish nation and the Gentiles of that era: the Gentiles come to their senses and are received back, the Jews grumble, the communal father pacifies both”.154 Later on in his Paraphrasis, Erasmus combined the tropological and allegorical readings of the parable, drawing abundantly upon the patristic and scholastic legacy.155 Yet, according to Erasmus, excesses in the allegorical reading could be counter-productive. He refused the radical position of those “who would scorn all allegories as an arbitrary matter and very much like a dream”.156 However, he harshly criticized those who “would superstitiously study all the details of the parable allegorically” or those who transformed every kind of story in an alle153

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“Ut ne dicam interim, quod typus pro varietate rerum, ad quas accommodatur, pro diversitate temporum velut aliam accipit figuram: sicut porcorum siliquae, quibus perditus ille filius cupit explere ventrem famelicum, ad opes, ad voluptates, ad honores, ad mundanam eruditionem possunt accommodari”; Erasmus, Ratio, p. 284. The passage was already present in his 1516 Methodus, see Erasmus, Methodus, in Erasmus, Ausgewählte Werke, pp. 150-62: 157. “Quin tota parabola potest ad Iudaeorum populum ac gentes illius temporis applicari. Gentes resipiscunt et recipiuntur, obmurmurant Iudaei, placat utrosque pater communis” Erasmus, Ratio, p. 284. Here Morrison Conroy’s translation (p. 318) skips the final sentence, thus missing the Augustinian perspective of this interpretation. In the 1516 Erasmus just wrote “Quin tota parabola potest ad Iudaeorum populum et gentes applicari”; Erasmus, Methodus, pp. 157-58. See Erasmus, In Evangelium Lucae paraphrasis, pp. 162-70 and Erasmus, Paraphrase on Luke 11-24, pp. 69-88. The footnotes of the translation highlight the continuity between Erasmus’ reading of the parable and its patristic and scholastic interpretations. On Erasmus’ paraphrase of the prodigal son, see also Friedhelm Krüger, Humanistische Evangelienauslegung: Desiderius Erasmus von Rotterdam als Ausleger der Evangelien in seinem Paraphrasen (Tübingen, 1986), pp. 163-70. “Sunt qui fastidiant omnes allegorias tamquam rem arbitrariam somniique simillimam. A quibus ut vehementer dissentio …”; Erasmus, Ratio, p. 282.

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gory.157 To exemplify this position, Erasmus referred again to the prodigal son parable: I heard of a certain Parisian theologian who dragged out the parable of the prodigal son for forty days so that he might compare it to the number of Lent days. He depicted the journey as the son went away and returned, how on one occasion at an inn he dined on meat pies made of tongue, on another occasion how he wandered past a water-mill, then how he played dice, then how he stopped at a restaurant, then how he would do one thing or another. This theologian twisted the words of the prophets and the evangelists and transformed them into fables. And sometimes he seemed to be a god to the uneducated masses and the uncouth burghers.158 Unfortunately, it is not possible to know to whom exactly Erasmus was referring. However, the target of his criticisms was a preacher who used a system similar to that employed by Meder. If we are to believe Erasmus’ grotesque summary, this preacher insisted more than Meder on an analytical description of the sinful life of the prodigal son, depicting his adventures in a way that may be compared to that of contemporary religious plays, such as the French piece

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“Proinde qui student omnes parabolae partes superstitiose ad allegoriam accomodare, plerumque deveniunt ad frigida quaedam commenticula”; Erasmus, Ratio, pp. 281-82 (the section was added in 1523 edition). On this position, see also the famous chapter 54 of the Encomium Moriae, where Erasmus satirized preachers who used the fabulae of the Gesta romanorum. “Audivi quendam theologum Parisiensem, qui de filio prodigo parabolam in quadraginta dies protraxit, ut aequaret quadragesimae numerum, affingens iter abeuntis ac redeuntis, quasi nunc in diversorio vesceretur artocrea e linguis confecta, nunc praeteriret molam aquatilem, nunc luderet alea, nunc cessaret in ganea, nunc aliud atque aliud ageret, et ad eiusmodi confictas naenias prophetarum et evangeliorum verba detorquebat. Atque interim imperitae multitudini et crassulis magnatibus deus esse videbatur”; Erasmus, Ratio, p. 282. The reference to the day of Lent as well as the details of the alea and the ganea were added in the 1520 edition. The possible connection between this passage and Meder’s sermon collection is suggested in the commentary to Gulielmus Gnapheus, Acolastus. A Latin Play of the Sixteenth Century, ed. W.E.D. Atkinson (London, Ontario, 1964), p. 213. On Erasmus’ elitist ideal of preaching, see Bert Roest, “Franciscan Preaching at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century: Contextualizing Jean Vitrier” in From Learning to Love: Schools, Law, and Pastoral Care in the Middle Ages. Essays in Honour of Joseph W. Goering, eds. Tristan Sharp et al. (Toronto, forthcoming).

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L’Enfant prodigue, which was printed for the first time in Paris in the 1510s.159 It is impossible to say whether the anonymous preacher took inspiration from Meder’s Quadragesimale, although we know that it had been available in Paris since 1511. What Erasmus presented as twisting the Bible, transforming it into naenias, may have be seen by this preacher as an ingenious recipe to combine the announcement of the Gospel and the necessity to catch the attention of his audience. Despite his satirical accusations, Erasmus had to admit that such form of preaching was highly successful before an urban audience. Thus, by another way, we have returned to the initial dilemma of Meder. He pondered the necessity to be effective and the risk of becoming an adulterator verbi Dei, who corrupts the Gospel and presents fabulae to the audience. The ingenious solution elaborated by Meder attracted the attention not only of the “uneducated masses” but also of a learned humanist such as Brant. Twenty years later, a similar solution (perhaps less refined in its form and in its spiritual message) disgusted a humanist such as Erasmus. The different evaluation did not solely derive from the diverse religious sensibilities of these two humanists. It was also the sign of a changing religious culture. In the same year that Erasmus edited his Ratio in Basel, Martin Luther and Johannes Eck publicly debated on the prodigal son in Leipzig. The debate no longer concerned the form, but rather the substance of the interpretation of the Gospel to be conveyed to the people. The disagreement was now on the basic ingredients of exegetical and theological understanding. 159

See L’Enfant prodigue. On this drama, see pp. 183-86 and 373-76.

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Chapter 6

The Sixteenth-Century Prodigal Son: A Multiple Mirror With the advent of the Reformation, existing interpretations and pastoral uses of the prodigal son narrative came under discussion. In previous centuries, exegetical and pastoral traditions had gradually considered the parable an ideal opportunity to present the penitential process and to discuss moral and theological topics, such as free will, grace, satisfaction, and good works. Despite the differences in approach regarding the parable that the previous chapters have traced, there was a substantial late medieval consensus on the main points of its dominant interpretation. With the Reformation, however, this penitential interpretation moved to the centre of the debate. In 1537, the Lutheran pastor Johannes Brenz emphasized this point in a sermon, stating: “This is the main religious controversy of our time: how one has to make penitence”.1 In the context of such a harsh religious controversy, theologians and exegetes, as well as preachers and playwrights, adopted different strategies to appropriate this biblical story and to depict a ‘Catholic’ or ‘Lutheran’ prodigal son. The parable proved to be a perfect narrative machine to convey not only particular doctrinal or moral ideas, but also a well-structured religious identity. Spokesmen of different confessions agreed that – as Johannes Eck said – “the prodigal son represented the model of the penitent”.2 As such, within diverse confessions, the parable played a significant role in the different multi-media systems that fuelled the contemporary “culture of persuasion”.3 The faithful were asked to identify with the main character of the story and to internalize its message. Prolonging a well-established pattern, the gradual formation of which has been charted in this study, preachers continued to consider the parable an invaluable instrument in shaping religious identity, attaching to the narrative all the basic elements of the religious life. The parable became a narrative catechism, or – as the Franciscan Johann Wild formulated it – it was the perfect mirror in which a believer could contemplate his or her own life. During this period, however, the mirror reflected quite different images. 1 Brenz, Pericopae Evangeliorum, p. 348. See below p. 399, also for the original text. 2 “Filius prodigus gerit typum penitentis”; Luther, Werke, 2, p. 359. 3 See Pettegree, Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion.

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_008

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The present chapter investigates the strategies employed by diverging confessional factions in appropriating the prodigal son narrative during the first half of the sixteenth century, when Western society experimented and was confronted with a plurality of discourses on religious reform. Here, I shall concentrate on the sermons and related forms of religious instruction written and circulating in the Holy Roman Empire between 1520 and 1550, that is, before the historic watershed of the 1555 Peace of Augsburg.4 This period and the area in question were those of maximum debate, given that geographical and theological boundaries among confessions were not yet established. In such a context, preaching continued to be one of the central media of religious instruction and model sermon collections were “the most important genre for the dissemination of ideas”.5 This chapter shall first recap the main points of the late medieval consensus on the interpretation of the biblical parable by analysing a 1518 sermon of the Franciscan Michel Menot. It then considers the role of the parable in the dispute on penitence between Eck and Luther in 1519. Next, it turns to the early followers of Luther in order to trace the ways in which evangelical ideas were disseminated by means of sermons, dramas, and commentaries on the prodigal son. Finally, it examines the sermons of leading Catholic preachers facing contemporary challenges within the German lands. Among these preachers, particular attention is devoted to the Quadragesimale on the prodigal son that Johann Wild preached in the Cathedral of Mainz during the 1547 Lenten period. His sermon collection distinctly exemplifies that the prodigal son was considered a strategic tool used both to shape a well-structured religious identity and to deal with the contemporary theological debate, which was projected back onto this biblical story. Moreover, the chronological coincidence of Wild’s preaching with the Tridentine decree on justification is of additional symbolic value, as it is a sign of transition to the new confessional era, in which ‘Europe’s house’ became definitively and recognizably divided.

4 For an overview of the religious debates and political events of those years, see Diarmaid MacCulloch, Reformation: Europe’s House Divided 1490-1700 (London, 2003) and Joachim Whaley, Germany and the Holy Roman Empire. Volume 1: Maximilian 1 to the Peace of Westphalia 1493-1648 (Oxford, 2012). 5 Frymire, The Primacy, p. 1. On the centrality of preaching in the medial system of the Reformation see Pettegree, Reformation, pp. 1-39.

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Before the Storm: Michel Menot in Paris, 1518

With the Franciscan Michel Menot (d. 1518), who became the most famous preacher in Paris after the death of Oliver Maillard (d. 1502), we refocus our analysis on the historical context already considered at the end of Chapter 2. Due to his boisterous inventiveness, Menot was one of the preachers whose style may well have displeased a humanist such as Erasmus. Yet, Menot’s obituary honoured his eloquence, bestowing him with the epithets os aureum and lingua deaurata.6 Immediately following Menot’s death, three of his Lenten sermon collections were printed. They were based on sermons that he had preached in Tours (1508) and in Paris (1517 and 1518). In 1508, the Saturday after Reminiscere overlapped with the Annunciation.7 In 1517, Menot focused on the other pericope of the day, i.e. Genesis 27.8 His 1518 preaching cycle did, instead, include a sermon on the prodigal son. A quick look at Menot’s 1518 sermon permits us to reassert what was the most diffused interpretation of the prodigal son narrative on the eve of the Reformation. The parable was understood as a guide to penance and as an exhortation to the listeners to confess their sins. This general consensus gave Menot leeway to focus on the rhetorical strategy to move his audience, without the need to detail the theological aspects of penitence. Menot’s sermon also has its peculiarities. It mixes Latin and vernacular in a macaronic fashion and presents the story of the prodigal son in a vivid semi-dramatic form.9 At the 6 See Michel Menot, Sermons choisis (1508-1518), ed. Joseph Nève (Paris, 1924), p. X. On Menot, see also Étiene Gilson, “Michel Menot et la technique du sermon médiéval,” Revue d’histoire franciscaine, 2 (1925), 301-50, Martin, Le metier de predicateur, ad indicem, and Taylor, Soldiers of Christ, ad indicem. 7 Menot devoted the sermon for that day to the Virgin; see Michel Menot, Sermones quadra­ gesimales ab ipso olim Turonis declamati (Paris: Claude Chevallon, 1525), fols. 68r-72r. 8 Michel Menot, Sermones quadragesimales ab ipso olim Parisiis declamati (Paris: Claude Chevallon, 1526), fol. 32rv. The 1517 and 1518 Lenten cycles were published together and knew four editions from 1519 to 1530; see Menot, Sermons choisis, pp. xxxI-XXXVIII. 9 The critical edition of this sermon, with an accurate lexical study, is in Dorothée Werner, Le sermon sur l’Enfant prodigue de Michel Menot (1520). Introduction, édition critique, étude lexicologique (Tübingen, 1989), the sermon is on pp. 71-84. See also Jean-Pierre Delville, “La parabole du Fils prodigue au XVIe siècle: Érasme, Menot, Calvin,” Graphe 18 (2009), 81-104 and Hervé Martin, “Les sermons du Dominicain Jean Clérée (1455-1507). Un jalon parmi d’autres vers la comédie de mœurs,” in Bouhaïk-Gironès and Polo de Beaulieu, eds., Prédication et performance, pp. 91-108, which compares the theatrical style of Clérée and Menot. For Cléree’s sermon on the prodigal son, see Jean Clérée, Sermones quadragesimales (Paris: [Jean de Villers] for François Regnault, 1520), fols. 58r-60v. On contemporary macaronic sermons, see also Lazzerini, Da quell’arzillo pulpito, pp. 171-239.

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beginning, the sermon presents a rather conventional division, in accordance with the dominant penitential perspective: In the Gospel of today there are three noteworthy things: the sinner’s turning away [from God] that must be despised: He went into a far country; the conversion of the penitent that must be imitated: He came to himself; the father’s reception that must be contemplated: The father was moved with compassion.10 The sermon follows the story step by step, adding several dramatic details. Its style is promptly clear from the resolute discourse of the prodigal son wherein he asks his father for his share of the inheritance (“Venit ad patrem resolutus sicut Papa …”), since – as Menot says – “sans monsieur d’argenton, without ­mister money one can do nothing”.11 In Menot’s retelling, the son also recalls that his mother is deceased, leaving them considerable goods (“mater mea defuncta est, reliquit nobis bona”), and ponders his own legal state (“ego non sum bastardus …”). These two elements were also present in L’Enfant prodigue par personnaiges, a religious play with which Menot (and his 1518 audience) may have been familiar.12 Evidently, the preacher was not troubled by introducing 10

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“In evangelio hodierno Luce XV tria notantur: Peccatoris aversio detestanda: Abiit in regionem longinquam. Penitentis conversio imitanda: In se ipso reversus. Patris receptio recolenda: Pater misericordia motus”; Werner, Le sermon, p. 71. “Et quia sans monsieur d’argenton, sine domino argento, nil fit credo quod liber vita patrum valde vos attediat”; Werner, Le sermon, p. 73. The wordplay on the Vita patrum indicates that the sons await impatiently the death of their fathers; see Menot, Sermons choisis, p. 51. See L’Enfant prodigue, verses 681, 718, 887, 1037-38 (“Bien soit quant il partira, | ce n’est que des biens de ma mere”), and 1059 (“Mon pere, je ne suis pas bastard”). See also JeanClaude Aubailly, “Variations dramatiques sur la parabole du fils prodigue à la fin du Moyen Âge,” in Et c’est la fin pour quoy sommes ensemble. Hommage à Jean Dufournet: Littérature, histoire et langue du Moyen  ge, eds. Jean-Claude Aubailly et al. (Paris, 1993), pp. 109-24, which compares this drama with other two early sixteenth-century French plays on the prodigal son: the Moralité des Enfants de Maintenant, and the Gouvert d’Humanité (the latter is attributed to Jean d’Abondance). On these two texts and their genre, see Estelle Doudet, Moralités et jeux moraux, le théâtre allégorique en français (15e16e siècle) (Paris, forthcoming). Both texts are free reformulations of the theme of the prodigal son. The Enfants de Maintenant is “une véritable moralité pédagogique adaptée à un public spécifique d’écoliers” (p. 119). Maintenant and Mignotte put their two sons, Finet and Malduict, into the hands of Instruction to educate them. Yet, the two boys do not support Discipline and ask their father their shares of the inheritance to leave school and enjoy their lives. Seduced by Jabien and his daughter Luxure, both brothers end up in a tavern, where they start losing their money playing cards and dice. Finet continues to play until he loses everything and Luxure conducts him to Honte (Shame), who pushes

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additional details to the parable as long as they enlivened the story for his listeners. After a careful description of the prodigal son’s expenses in purchasing fashionable clothes,13 the central and lengthiest section of the sermon focuses on the sinful life of the prodigal son and his subsequent misery, from which the audience was meant to learn a fourfold lesson on carnalitas, egestas, servilitas, and necessitas. Menot’s description is colourful. In his misery, the prodigal son quickly becomes “like a gatherer of apples, dressed up as a chimney sweep, naked as a worm, just with a shirt fixed on his shoulder and clean as a dishcloth from the kitchen”.14 The characterization of the prodigal son’s harsh life as a swineherd is particularly effective in depicting his terrible hunger and his miserable physical condition. The tone is even more dramatic and filled with horrific detail than the sermons of Bernardino da Siena and Johann Meder. In a telling instance, we read:

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him to Desespoir (Despair), who sentences him to death. Before his death, Perdition shows Finet an image of hell, where he is destined to be forever. On the contrary, Malduict repents before it is too late and asks God’s help. Hence, he meets Bon Advis (Good-counselor), who suggests him to return under Discipline. Malduict humbly submits himself to Instruction and Discipline and confesses his mistakes. In turn, Discipline beats him with a cane and addresses him with a long moral lesson before giving him back his clothes as a scholar. Only after the vigorous correction provided by Discipline and Instruction, Malduict is able to ask forgiveness also from his father. The innovative doubling of the prodigal son in the two characters of Finet and Malduict shows the didactic aim of the play. They stage the alternative between salvation (through penitence and discipline) and damnation: one prodigal son recovers, the other falls into despair and eternal damnation. The change of perspective of the story is summarized by the substitution of the merciful embrace of the father with the beatings by the cane of Discipline: “Il te fault sçavoir | ton gouvernement. | Tout premierement | discipline avoir. | Tu te mettras à deux genoulx | et en auras deux ou trois coups | de mes verges dessus la teste. Adonc il le bat”; “Moralité nouvelle des Enfans de Maintenant,” in Ancien Théatre François, ed. Emmanuel Viollet Le Duc, 10 vols (Paris, 1854-57), 3, pp. 5-86: 79. On the Gouvert d’Humanité (1540), which displays a clear confessional polemic, see p. 390. “Emit sibi pulchras caligas d’escarlate bien tyrées, la belle chemise fronsée sus le colet, le puorpoint fringuant de velous, la toque de Florence a cheveux pignez, et qui sentit ce damaz vouler sus le doz, coccineas bene tractas, pulchram camisiam rugis plenam supra collum, bonbicinium elegans velutium, tocam florentinam, crines crispatos et ut sensit hunc damascum volantem supra dorsum, hec secum dicit: ‘Oportet ne mihi aliquid? Non, omnes tuas habes plumas, tempus est volandi longius’”; Werner, Le sermon, pp. 73-74. “Ita quod in brevi tempore mon gallant fut mis en cueilleur de pommes, habillé comme ung brusleur de maisons, nud comme ung ver. Meus gallandus fuit positus sicut collector pomorum, vestitus sicut combustor domorum, nudus sicut vermis; vix ei remansit camisia […] munda sicut torsorium coquine, nodata super humerum …”; Ibid., p. 77.

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When winter came, he did not have anything to protect himself from the cold. Therefore, his situation became worse than before, since his poor body turned into nothing. With difficulty he could stand up on his feet. Scabies, les rognes, consumed his back. His hair fell from his head and the nails from his fingers. The worms gnawed at his whole body. His face was so horrible and foul that to look at him was pitiful.15 Due to his misery, the prodigal son finally realizes the error of his ways and decides to return to his father. Here, Menot directly addressed his listeners, identifying them with the sinner and asking them to imitate the conversion of the prodigal son: “O blasphemers, usurers, plunderers, pimps, lewd people and prostitutes, and all of you who have been similar to the prodigal son in your life, I ask you to imitate him in conversion!”.16 Menot recalled the three elements necessary for conversion (cognitio, contritio, satisfactio), yet he did not offer a comprehensive description of the penitential process. Instead, he proceeded with his vivid account of the journey of the prodigal son, who travels as a vagrant, going from one bush to another (“ivit de sepe in sepem, de dumo in dumum”) until he comes close to his father’s house. The sermon includes a quite theatrical account of the son’s approach toward his parental home. He creeps hesitantly along the house walls (“ibat paulatim fricans humeros contra muros castris”) and arrives at the door, where a servant recognizes him and runs to inform the father. The father immediately rushes to the door, and yet he finds it difficult to recognize his son: “Et dicit intra se: Est filius meus; ho, non est, ita est, non est, et certe ita est; est ille sine alio, nec sum delusus”. The father’s embrace is followed by the son’s confession, the feast, and the harsh complaints of the elder brother, who has to be calmed down by the father. Also in this section, Menot preferred to retell the parable in a colourful way instead of developing a theological or moral analysis of its details. For instance, he addressed neither the sacrament of confession, nor the symbolic meaning of the son’s new clothes. Menot also did not reserve any space for a discussion of free will or grace – topics found in many other sermons of the era. He did not even discuss in further detail the three key elements of conversion mentioned in the sermon. 15

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“Cum enim venit hyems, non habebat quo se tueri posset contra frigus; ideo cecidit in maiorem miseriam quam ante, ita quod totum corpus suum pauperculum resolvebatur in nihilum. Vix poterat se ferre super pedes; scabies, les rognes, comedebant ei dorsum; cadebant ei crines de capite et ungues de digitis; vermes rodebant ei totum corpus; habebat vultum tam horridum et immundum quod erat magna pietas eum aspicere”; Ibid., p. 80. “O blasphematores, usurarii, raptores, lenones, lubrici et meretrices et vos omnes qui similes fuistis prodigo in vita, sitis, queso, ei similes in conversione!”; Ibid., pp. 80-81.

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As a skilful storyteller, Menot was keen to present his audience with a moving and dramatic retelling of this well-known story. He enriched the parable with vivid and powerful narrative details, which resemble those of the contemporary L’Enfant prodigue, published during the same years in Paris. In Menot’s opinion, it was more important to entertain and move the audience than to provide it with a detailed catechesis. Notwithstanding the fact that Erasmus lambasted his preaching style, Menot – in his own way – would have agreed with what the humanist wrote on parables as effective tools “for moving the feelings, […] and for more deeply etching on the soul the same teaching, so that it cannot be forgotten”.17 Menot thus addressed his listeners with a dramatic story of misery and redemption rather than unfolding a theological discussion about – for instance – the relationship between grace and contrition. For Menot, the audience would have understood the moral meaning of the story and its penitential reference without difficulty. The general consensus on the interpretation of this parable allowed the preacher to focus on the narrative strategy to move his listeners to penitence, without addressing directly the nature of penitence and how to obtain the forgiveness of sins. It is quite interesting that such catechetical elements were confronted more explicitly in a play such as L’Enfant prodigue. The play is characterized by the colourful and comic representation of the prodigal son’s misadventures in a brothel, which occupies the largest part of the text. However, the text also explicitly deals with the spiritual themes of conversion and mercy. They are discussed not only when the drama depicts the prodigal son’s conversion, but also in an initial dialogue between the father and his elder son. Their dialogue stages the contrast between the reasons of mercy and those of merit (vv. 850-944).18 Instead, Menot chose to adopt a communicative strategy entirely focused on the dramatization of the story because, overall, the penitential interpretation of the parable was taken for granted. Only one year later, this consensus was broken in the dispute between Eck and Luther. 17 18

See above, p. 365. Particularly intriguing is also the positive role of the master of the farm: first he has mercy in view of the prodigal son’s misery and employs him as a swineherd; then he persuades him to return home, ask for mercy, and change his life, since his father would surely forgive his faults. Instead of being a symbol of the devil, in this play the master becomes a wise counselor, as the son states: “Consillé m’a bien loyaulment | mon maistre de requerir grace | […] | Je tiendray son ensegnement, | car il est sage, je le yoy” (vv. 1684-89). In Menot’s sermon (perhaps influenced by this theatre piece?) the master likewise plays a positive role, since he feels really sorry for the condition of the prodigal son: “O fili, magna paupertas in qua nunc vos video me movet ad compassionem; habeo in quodam fundo, hic prope, extra civitatem […] magnum gregem porcorum; si eos vultis custodire, bene volo; non possum melius vobis dare”; Werner, Le sermon, p. 79.

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Leipzig 1519: Fighting on the Prodigal Son

In July 1519, on the theological ‘stage’ of Leipzig, Johannes Eck and Martin Luther held a strenuous disputation for eleven days.19 It addressed four main topics: first, spiritual potestas, especially that of the Pope, which occupied the two theologians for four days and had huge consequences (the 1520 bulla Exurge Domine was a direct result of this disputatio); second, purgatory (two days); third, indulgences (one day); finally, the penitential process (three days). On 12 July, opening the discussion about penitence, Eck, theologian from the University of Ingolstadt, said that his aim was to reassert the message usually preached in the pulpit, namely that “true penitence stems also from the fear of pain”, which stood in contrast to what Luther had said (and published) in a 1518 sermon on penitence.20 As an example of the “modus predicandi” of Jesus, Eck presented the parable of the prodigal son. Eck introduced the conversion of the prodigal son, stressing its gradual process that had its origin in the fear of pain and eventually arrived at love. Quoting a passage by Basil the Great, Eck recalled that “he who has been an enemy of God, has to become a servant, before he can become God’s friend”.21 The major issue in the discussion concerned 19

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See MacCulloch, Reformation, pp. 127-28, and Volker Leppin, “Die Genese des reformatorischen Schriftprinzips: Beobachtungen zu Luthers Auseinandersetzung mit Johannes Eck bis zur Leipziger Disputation,” in Leppin, Transformationen, pp. 355-98. “Contra conclusionem reverendi patris [Luther] et partem sermonis sui de penitentia pro defensione optimorum patrum predicantium intendo probare, penitentiam veram incipere a timore etiam pene …”; Luther, Werke, 2, p. 359 (Luther’s 1518 sermon on penitence is found in vol. 1, pp. 317-24). On the theology and practice of penitence and private confession in Luther and his early followers, see Thayer, Penitence, pp. 142-70; David Bagchi, “Luther and the Sacramentality of Penance,” in Retribution, Repentance, and Reconciliation, eds. Kate M. Cooper and Jeremy Gregory (Woodbridge, 2004), pp. 119-27; Ronald K. Rittgers, The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience, and Authority in SixteenthCentury Germany (Cambridge, MA, 2004); and Ronald K. Rittgers, “Embracing the ‘True Relic’ of Christ: Suffering, Penance, and Private Confession in the Thought of Martin Luther,” in Firey, ed., A New History of Penance, pp. 377-93. On Eck, see Johannes Eck (14861543): Scholastiker, Humanist, Kontroverstheologe, eds. Jürgen Bärsch and Konstantin Maier (Regensburg, 2014), and Johan Peter Wurm, “Eck, Johannes,” in Franz Joseph Worstbrock, ed., Deutscher Humanismus 1480-1520. Verfasserlexikon, 3 vols (Berlin, 2008-15), 1, coll. 576-89. “Primo quia talem modum predicandi observavit dominus Ihesus et eius precursor sanctus Iohannes. Luce enim 15. filius prodigus gerit typum penitentis secundum Augustinum de questionibus Euangelicis, Ambrosium lib. 2 de penit. c. 3, Chrysostomum, Hieronymum et alios. Sed eum ita proponit nobis Christus, quod ‘in se conversus dixit: Quanti mercenarii in domo patris mei abundant panibus, ego autem hic fame pereo: surgam et ibo ad patrem meum et dicam illi: ‘Pater, peccavi in celum et coram te’ etc. Hic dominus Christus modum penitentis descibens exponit primo, motum penitentem premiorum

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timor servilis and timor filialis, that is, whether the fear of God was initially caused by the fear of punishment and the hope of reward (timor servilis), or whether it was moved directly by love (timor filialis). Eck stated that “Augustine also approves of the contemporary way of preaching by explicitly teaching that one cannot come to love and true grace without first experiencing not only a filial fear but also a servile fear”.22 Integral to Eck’s interpretation is the distinction between the serf, the mercenary, and the son that was so common in many sermons on the parable of the prodigal son. As is clear from Eck’s repeated references to earlier and contemporary preachers, by refuting Luther’s ideas he was defending not only a theological position, but also a wider pastoral tradition: “Therefore, it is correct to preach that penitence stems from fear (timor), and I refuse what Luther says […] namely that penitence stems from love (amor et dilectio)”.23 According to Eck, preachers were following the Scriptures when they insisted on the seriousness of sin and the risk of eternal damnation.24 In

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magnitudine, scilicet ‘abundant panibus’, et timore pene, scilicet ‘hic fame pereo’. Quibus gradibus evectus penitentiam veram cepit meditari, scilicet ‘et dicam: Pater peccavi’. Et hoc Basilius explanat: tres sunt ibi penitentie gradus: mercedis spes, suppliciorum timor et bonitatis paterne syncera dilectio, et sic antequam fiat amicus dei qui extitit inimicus, efficitur prius servus”; Luther, Werke, 2, p. 359. “Imo beatus Augustinus approbat modum predicandi nostre tempestatis, docens expresse nullum pervenire ad charitatem et ad veram gratiam nisi precedente timore non filiali sed etiam servili”; Luther, Werke, 2, p. 260. Eck mentioned here a famous passage of Augustine: “si autem nullus timor, non est qua intret charitas” (PL 35:2047-48). While Eck considered timor as already part of the penitential process, Luther replied that only with the arrival of love does penitence really begin: “Ad Augustinus […] dico: Si recte intelligatur, admitto, hoc est, quod penitentia nondum est incepta, quando timor precedit charitatem, sed intrante charitate incipitur penitentia, id est amor iusticie et odium peccati: si autem charitas non intraret, timor non operaretur nisi maiora peccata”; Luther, Werke, 2, p. 263. As a concrete example of the recurrence of the passage from Augustine in late medieval preaching, see how Bernardino employed it to motivate the necessity of preaching on the pains of hell; Bernardino da Siena, Quadragesimale de evangelio aeterno, 3, pp. 366-79. “Ideo bene predicantur, penitentiam a timore incipere, et non accipio quod reverendus pater [Luther] ab initio resolutorii refert reverendi patris Staupitii [Staupitz] vocem quasi celitus demissam, penitentiam incipere ad amore et dilectione”; Luther, Werke, 2, p. 360. On the position of the Augustinian Johann von Staupitz and his role as Luther’s mentor, see Berndt Hamm, “Johann von Staupitz (ca. 1468-1524) – spätmittelalterlicher Reformer und ‘Vater’ der Reformation,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 92 (2001), 6-42 and Franz Posset, The Front-Runner of the Catholic Reformation: The Life and Works of Johann von Staupitz (Aldershot, 2003), which provides references to a 1517 Staupitz’s sermon on the prodigal son on pp. 186-87. “Quare predicatores sacram imitati scripturam hactenus bonum habuerunt modum de penitentia paranda recogitando gravitatem peccatorum, eterni supplici, etc”; Luther, Werke, 2, p. 359.

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his view, both earlier and contemporary preachers were right to assert that true penitence started with timor, thus planting the fear of God with their sermons.25 What was Luther’s reply? Firstly, the theologian of Wittenberg said that he had never seen someone who misunderstood Scripture so completely as Eck. Luther countered Eck’s arguments by saying that the conversion of the prodigal son stemmed from love of justice and that the memory of the abundance of his father’s house preceded the consideration of his own misery.26 Then, he asserted that the necessary fear was the timor domini sed filialis and made the essential role of prevenient grace explicit.27 Moreover, Luther opposed the timor dei to the timor penae – the first was principium sapientiae (Proverbs 1:7), while the second was “potius principium insipientiae” –, and he accused Eck of confusing filial with servile fear.28 In order to support his position, Luther had to admit that on this point he was breaking with the interpretation of ­numerous Church Fathers. Luther contrasted the teaching of Paul the Apostle with their opinion, asserting: “I recognize that Ambrose, Isidore, Bernard, Gregory and the other fathers teach that wisdom derives from fear and penitence stems from fear; however (sed contra), I consider what the Apostle Paul teaches about the law and the fear of the law …”.29 In turn, Eck replied that the 25

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“Bene predicasse nostre tempestatis et superioribus predicatores, quod penitentia a timore incipiat, et quod nituntur sermonibus suis in populo timorem dei seminare, ut sic semen diaboli extirpetur”; Ibid., 2, p. 361. “incepit penitentiam a recordatione magnitudiniis premii […] incepit vere ab amore iusticie”; Ibid., 2, p. 362. “Addo et illud, quod Christus nunquam peccatores coegit timore ad penitentiam, sed suaviter allexit quoscumque vocavit, ut Zacheum, Magdalenam, apostolos et omnes […]. Dico ergo, quod timor domini quidem necessarius est, sed filialis […]. Nec timore nec amore potest se homo erigere ad gratiam capessendam. Sed gratia prevenit et movet ad merum dei obtutum et amorem iusticie”; Ibid., 2, p. 363. “Non enim timore pene sed timore dei penitendum est, quod ille sit servis non mansurus in domo, hic autem filius et heres. Ideo et illud proverbiorum 1: ‘Principium sapientie timor domini’ non admitto intellectum de timore pene, qui ante gratiam torquet hominem infructuose, cum expresse dicat ‘timor domini’, non ‘timor pene’. Timor pene potius est principium insipientie. Videat ergo egregius d.d. [Eck] ut non in unum chaos confundat timorem servilem et timorem filialem, ne sibi ipse scripture et patrum intelligentiam precludat”; Ibid., 2, p. 364. “Ambrosium inductum in epistola ad Studium, quod precedit penitentia et sequitur gratia et alia, item Isidorum de summo bono, item tres abyssos recogitandas peccatorum, Bernhardum super canticis, Gregorium in moralibus et alios patres, qui docent, a timore ascendendum ad sapientiam et penitentiam a timore incipiunt, libenter admitto, sed contra apostolum Paulum de lege et timore legis intelligo”; Ibid., 2, p. 364. Luther just tried to put Augustine on his side.

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prodigal son’s memory of these benefits did not derive from his love for the father, but from the contemplation of his own state of misery, that is, “until he had money he did not convert, but when he was hungry he converted to himself”.30 Moving from this initial contrast, the two theologians went on to discuss penitence for three days. It does not fall within the scope of this study to detail their lively disputation and its consequences. What is relevant, however, is the paradigmatic role played by the parable of the prodigal son in this discussion. The biblical commentaties and sermons of the previous centuries had paved the way for what happened in Leipzig, since they furnished a consolidated platform to discuss free will, grace, and penance within the narrative framework of this parable. In the confrontation between Eck and Luther, three elements emerge as particularly noteworthy. First, Eck chose the prodigal son as the starting point for a discussion of penitence and explicitly referred to a tradition of preaching on such biblical passage. The parable was considered an ideal text for presenting penitence to the faithful. Yet, for the first time after centuries of general consensus, the interpretation of the parable became a battleground of opposing theologies. Second, the disagreement concerning the process of conversion of the prodigal son served as the basis for the discussion of the identity of the true believer. The only point on which Eck and Luther seemed to agree was that – as the theologian from Ingolstadt concluded – “the prodigal son represented the model of the penitent” and that “Christ proposed him to us in this way”.31 Third, the sharp reaction of Luther, who accused Eck of completely misunderstanding the Bible indicates that the process of conversion and the role of love in it were vital elements for Luther. On this point, Luther admitted without reticence that he moved away from the patristic tradition, which had infused and informed preaching practices for centuries, as Eck emphasized. From then on, each side tried to enrol the prodigal son in its religious discourse, thus breaking the earlier consensus on the parable’s penitential interpretation. Eck made explicit reference to a longstanding continuity in preaching on this point, which for him directly linked Jesus and the Church Fathers with contemporary preachers. However, the late medieval panorama of sermons on the prodigal son was rich in nuance and far less unanimous than Eck suggested, as evinced in previous chapters. Still, while earlier differences and tensions took place within a common framework, from this moment onwards the entire 30

31

“conversio illa fuit facta contemplatione pene, dum neminem haberet, qui eum siliquis satiaret: durante enim pecunia non convertebatur in se, sed famelicus est conversus in se”; Ibid., 2, p. 365. “filius prodigus gerit typum penitentis […] eum ita proponit nobis Christus”; Ibid,, 2, p. 359.

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scheme came under discussion. The prodigal son’s story remained a key narrative in shaping religious identity, yet the general picture became much more complex. The changing religious climate and the harsh discussions of the period also required a renewal in preaching. As a tangible sign of such renewal, after 1520, the model sermons of Iacopo da Varazze were out of print for more than fifty years. Previous model sermon collections were still circulating and continued to be abundantly used by preachers, as the glosses on incunabula copies exhibit.32 However, a new generation of model sermons and biblical commentaries quickly pulled ahead on the printing market. Leaving the main theological discussion in the background, the remainder of the chapter will analyse the pastoral uses of the parable of the prodigal son in this new and dynamic religious context. By looking at the sixteenth-century sermons and texts of religious instruction based on this parable, we touch upon one means through which the religious debate reached a wider audience. Examining these texts allows us to see at play both continuity and change. As John Frymire has argued assiduously, model sermon collections perhaps lacked the doctrinal precision of theological treatises, yet preaching was “the best medium to disseminate information, influence opinion, and instil normative values”.33 One of the merits of Frymire’s study is that, in the face of persisting stereotypes, his work draws attention to a vibrant and reactive Catholic field. Moreover, his study points out what Andrew Pettegree has argued for the Reformers, which is to say that sixteenth-century preaching “was the bedrock around which the churches harnessed other communication media”.34 3

Voices of the Reformation

The positions of Luther and Eck concerning the interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son shortly became well-known in Germany, due to the instant 32

33 34

On a 1482 copy of Herolt’s Sermones de tempore still used in the 1520s with glosses to rebut Lutheran positions, see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, p. 54. See also the case of Thomas Swalwell, Benedictine monk of Durham (d. 1538), in Anne T. Thayer, “Selections in a World of Multiple Options: The Witness of Thomas Swalwell, OSB,” in Roest and Uphoff, eds., Religious Orders, pp. 110-25. Frymire, The Primacy, p. 15, see in general pp. 1-25. Pettegree, Reformation, p. 39. Pettegree also affirms: “The Reformation became a movement only because the initiative of Wittenberg and Zurich was emulated in dozens of pulpits across central Europe” (p. 25). A similar central role of preaching in the dissemination of ideas in sixteenth-century Italy is found in Caravale, Predicazione e Inquisizione, pp. 13-30.

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dissemination of the text of the Leipzig disputation, which was printed ten times in the second half of 1519 and a further three times during the following year. Still, Luther never wrote a sermon on the parable. His incredibly successful and influential sermon collections – which he referred to in 1527 as his “very best book” – were focused on the liturgical readings for the Sundays and the principal feasts as a means to provide pastors with model sermons for all the main celebrations.35 Therefore, we have to look at other Lutheran authors to find how the parable of the prodigal son was exploited in religious instruction. While Luther himself did not seem particularly attached to the parable (or at least had other priorities in his work), the prodigal son quickly proved to serve as a strategic narrative to stage both the conflict between Lutheran and Catholic positions and to portray the perfect evangelical believer. Use of the parable as a polemical tool is accentuated particularly in the earliest authors, such as François Lambert and Burkhard Waldis. Later on, prominent reformers such as Konrad Pellikan, Johannes Brenz, and Philipp Melanchthon adopted the parable as a catechetical tool that permitted them to address the main issues of grace, free will, sin, and justification. Thus, by means of sermons and plays the parable rapidly found a central position in Lutheran (and other forms of reformed) religious instruction. 3.1 A Former Franciscan in Wittenberg: François Lambert In the early 1520s, Georg Burkhardt Spalatin (d. 1545), advisor to the Elector of Saxony, promoted the project of producing in Wittenberg a commentary on the entire New Testament to disseminate officially Luther’s innovative exegetical positions. In 1523, Spalatin commissioned the writing of the commentary on the Gospel of Luke to François Lambert d’Avignon (d. 1530), who was giving public lectures on the Bible during those months in Wittenberg.36 His commentary grew out of from those public lectures, as a written form of this teaching.

35 36

See Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 25-39 and 535-55. On the project of a ‘Wittenberg Commentary’, see Timothy J. Wengert, Philip Melanchthon’s Annotationes in Johannem in Relation to Its Predecessors and Contemporaries (Geneva, 1987), pp. 31-42. See also Pierre Fraenkel, “François Lambert, son commentaire sur l’Evangile de Luc et certaines traditions exégétiques de son ordre: trois sondages,” in Pierre Fraenkel, ed., Pour retrouver François Lambert. Bio-bibliographie et études (BadenBaden, 1987), pp. 215-50. This volume is the most exhaustive study of François Lambert’s life and works. On his writings and their editions, see in particular Reinhard Bodenmann, “Bibliotheca Lambertiana,” ivi, pp. 9-213. On the non-linear itinerary of Lambert and his strategy to build his own religious identity, see Pietro Delcorno, “Between Pulpit and Reformation: The ‘Confessions’ of François Lambert,” Franciscan Studies 71 (2013), 113-33.

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Lambert was a former Franciscan friar and praedicator apostolicus, who had arrived in Wittenberg at the end of 1522 following an adventurous itinerary from Avignon to the city of Luther. According to his own account, this journey embodied the passage from the pope and what he defined as “the conventicle of evils” (i.e. the Franciscans) to “the supreme academy of the world, the University of Wittenberg”.37 Lambert managed to swiftly gain the confidence of Spalatin and Luther. When writing to Spalatin about Lambert’s trustworthiness, Luther mentioned the positive testimony of Tilman Limperger (d. 1535) and Konrad Pellikan (d. 1556), who were the auxiliary bishop of Basel and the guardian of the Franciscan friary in the city, respectively.38 Although both were known to be sympathetic to evangelical positions, the fact that Luther considered a Catholic bishop and a guardian of a friary as reliable warrantors, shows how much the situation on the ground was permeable, fluid, and shifting at that time. In 1523, a few months after his arrival in Wittenberg, Lambert contributed to the anti-Franciscan campaign that Luther promoted with the support of several other former friars.39 Lambert’s first work was the Rationes propter quas Minoritarum conversationem habitumque reiecit, a short pamphlet in which he presented his reasons for leaving the Franciscan life. At the end of the Rationes, Lambert pointed out his limitations in preaching in the new foreign country, writing: “I have become almost mute, because I cannot preach the word of God to the people with my own voice. I wait for God to tell me what I have to do. In the meantime, I will do my best to exhort everyone to evangelical sincerity through my writings”.40 In his condition of forced ‘mutism’, Lambert – who 37

38

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“Quid ergo fecissem cum impiis isti? Acceptis igitur commissionis (ut vocant) literis ad ordinis generalem, aut vicegeneralem, a Galliis veni in Germaniam, ubi opportunitate accepta, pharisaicum illud tegumentum reieci. […] Segregatus igitur a malignantium conventiculis, veni ad illam vere supremam orbis Academiam Witenbergensem”; François Lambert, Rationes propter quas Minoritarum conversationem habitumque reiecit [Basel: Andreas Cratander, 1523], fol. a5rv. The first edition was printed in Wittenberg. “De integritate viri nulla est dubitatio: testes sunt apud nos, qui illum et in Francia et in Basilea audierunt, tum Basiliensis suffraganeus ille Tripolitanus cum Pelicano, dant illi pulchrum testimonium”; Aimé Luis Herminjard, ed., Correspondance des Réformateurs dans les pays de langue française, 9 vols (Geneva, 1866-97), 1, n. 62. On Limperger, who in 1529 was among the promoters of the Reform in Basel, see Pierre-Louis Surchat, “­Lim­­perger, Tilman (OESA) (um 1455-1535[?]),” in Erwin Gatz and Clemens Brodkorb, eds., Die Bischöfe des Heiligen Römischen Reiches, 1448 bis 1648: ein biographisches Lexikon (­Berlin, 1996), pp. 427-28. On Pellikan, see below pp. 393-97. See Geoffrey Dipple, Antifraternalism and Anticlericalism in the German Reformation: Johann Eberlin von Günzburg and the Campaign against the Friars (Aldershot, 1996). “Doleo me factum esse quasi mutum, quod non possim vivo vocis actu verbum domini populis nunciare, verum expectabo quid mihi imperet dominus et sustinebo manum

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continued to consider himself foremost a preacher – deemed writing as a means to preach through books. Lambert’s commentary on Luke therefore reflects his lessons at Wittenberg in 1523. It represented an authorized reception of Luther’s teaching and was printed five times in just two years. Moreover, it was the way in which a preacher who had lost his own pulpit could exercise his ministry indirectly, that is, via the medium of the printing press. In this work, the three parables of Luke 15 serve to stage the conflict between real believers and false Christians, namely those who follow the pope and the “impii Antichristi satellites”. Such is evident in Lambert’s commentary on the parable of the lost sheep: Clearly the shepherd is Christ. The hundred sheep are all true and false Christians. The ninety-nine sheep are the multitude of pseudo-Christians, who establish their own righteousness and trust in it […]. The lost sheep stands for the small number of true faithful, who humbly recognize themselves as lost and miserable. When Christ sees the humility of these faithful, he abandons the ninety-nine sheep in the desert, i.e. in the irreverent and false justice of the flesh, which is barren and without any fruit of true justice. Christ abandons them by rejecting them from himself, i.e. he places them beyond his grace. Instead, Christ comes through the illumination of his own Spirit […] to this sheep, since he stays with the true faithful, making them participants in his own grace and truth.41 Lambert was drawing on Augustine’s interpretation of the parable, in which the single sheep represented the humble penitent, while the ninety-nine were

41

eius, interim vero quantum potero nitar, ut vel saltem scriptis, tam latinis quam vulgaribus cunctos ad evangelii synceritatem admoneam”; Lambert, Rationes, fol. a5v. Likewise, in the letter to Spalatin that served as dedication to his commentary on Luke, Lambert depicted himself as an exile due to his faith: “Ego homo in Saxonibus peregrinus et, propter testimonium Iesu Christi, e Gallia, maxime ab inclyta Avenione, urbe Romano pontifici subiecta, exul”; François Lambert, In divi Lucae Evangelium commentarii (Nuremberg: Johann Petreius, 1524), fol. A2v. “Nimirum hic homo habens oves Christus est. Oves centum, omnes et veri et falsi Chri­ stiani. Nonaginta novem, pseudochristianorum multitudo, qui suam iustitiam constituunt, et illi fidunt […]. Ovis perdita paucitas verorum fidelium, qui se a seipsis perditos et miseros humiliter cognoscunt. Quorum ubi Christus videt humilitatem, relinquit 99 in deserto, in impia et falsa iustitia carnis, quae deserta et absque fructibus verae iustitiae est. Hos tum relinquit, cum a se reiicit, id est extra suam gratiam ponit. Venit per illustrationem spiritus sui […] venit ergo ad hanc ovem, quia manet cum veris fidelibus, quos suae gratiae et veritatis participes facit”; Lambert, In divi Lucae Evangelium, fol. Aa5v.

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the proud people who esteemed themselves superior to the repentant sinners.42 Lambert adapted this interpretation to the polemical context of his own time by inserting key terms of Luther’s theology, such as the contraposition between iustitia carnis and vera iustitia and the role played by the interior illumination of grace. The prodigal son and his brother were used by Lambert to present the conflict between true and false Christians, as he affirmed in introducing the parable: “the elder son represents those who trust in their things, i.e. in carnal justice; the younger son represents those who humbly confess to be sinners and trust only in God, who is good and righteous”.43 The prodigal son wasted his goods because he did not live ex fide, while the famine symbolized the absence of the word of God. In his misery, the prodigal son could not return by his own force to the father, since the conversion was impossible without the inner illumination of the Spirit. Therefore, he bound himself to the world and to the “ecclesia malignantium”, which represents the church of the pseudo-Christians.44 The conversion was instead the result of the Holy Spirit’s guiding light, which aroused in the prodigal son the desire to hear the word of God. This is the meaning of the bread of the father’s house the son suddenly yearns for.45 While the bread was interpreted as a symbol, Lambert firmly refused the symbolic interpretation of the other details of the parable. He stated that the servants of the father and the new clothes did not have any specific meaning, yet they globally meant that the prodigal son had been renewed by the Spirit, so that through Christ he became iustus of God’s own justice.46 Lambert also 42

43

44

45

46

See Augustine, Quaestionum Euangeliorum, 2.32. On the limited reception of this interpretation in medieval authors (even though the Glossa and the Catena aurea mention it), see Wailes, Medieval Allegories, p. 130. “Homo deus est; senior filius eos designat qui proprie, id est carnis iustitiae fidunt; adole­ scentior vero, eos qui se peccatores humiliter confitentur, ipsum autem solum patrem summum, bonum et iustum [fidunt]”; Lambert, In divi Lucae Evangelium, fol. Aa7v. “Verum non mox ad patrem regreditur, quod nundum illum ad se sancti spiritus illuminatione attraxerit, sed abit et adhaeret uni civium regionis illius, mundi scilicet et ecclesiae malignantium, dum impiorum mores vitamque sequitur et amat”; Ibid., fol. Aa8v. “In se autem reversus illustratione spiritus sancti, ac necessaria dei eloquiorum pane discutiatus, dicit: ‘Quanti mercenarii in domo patris mei, id est, in ecclesia, abundant panibus coelestis dotrinae. Ego autem hic fame pereo […]’. Nam tractus a deo, mox eius bonitatem et quod pater clementissimus sit, suam vero impietatem confiteri proponit”; Ibid., fol. Bb1r. “Non enim videtur quod per servos, stolam, annulum et calcimenta quicquam velit specialiter accipi. Est ergo in eiusmodi patris summi voluntas conspicienda, ut haec ita capiantur: ‘Volo ut iste filius meus exuto veteri Adamo meo spiritu renovetur, ut scilicet in filii mei fide permaneat, unde per eum iustus mea iustitia fiat’”; Ibid., fol. Bb1v.

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criticized the longstanding identification of the fatted calf with the Eucharist and the Passion. As we have seen, the actions of the father’s serfs had been used many times to introduce and emphasize the necessary mediations of the priest, both in completing the penitential process and in giving access to the Eucharist. Lambert closed the door to such an interpretation and left no room for the minister’s mediation. Instead, he emphasized the direct relationship with God by means of the believer’s faith in Christ and his justification. The refusal to identify the fatted calf with Christ is quite emblematic. It represented a break with the past and with a Eucharistic-centric piety. For Lambert, the key element was the bread as symbol of the divine word, and of the new bibliocentrism. This general process was reflected in the new evangelical space of worship, where the pulpit gradually would flank the altar (or even substitute it, as in the Reformed tradition) as focal point and as the physical and spiritual centre of the congregation.47 Next, Lambert’s commentary focuses its attention on the elder brother. He embodies the pseudocristiani, who trust in their own works (“qui suis operibus fidunt”) and in a false righteousness. From this perspective, the father’s sentence: “Son, you are always with me” expresses only the elder son’s illusory esteem: “And the father said: ‘Son, you are always with me, according to your opinion’. In fact, in this way the pseudooperarii judge themselves, since they think that through the merits of their works they cannot be separated from God”.48 Thus, the parable gave Lambert the opportunity to explicitly address one of Luther’s main themes, namely the opposition between the logic of merit and the logic of grace: The false Christians say: “It is necessary to deserve that grace in advance through fasting, almsgiving, prayers, and other similar works”. This is the argument of impious flesh (impia caro), which cannot understand that human merit is nothing! Only through God’s mercy and the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ will we be worthy to obtain his grace and gifts.49 47

48

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See Lee Palmer Wandel, The Reformation: Towards a New History (Cambridge, 2011), pp. 201-25 and, in particular, Andrew Spicer, “Sites of the Eucharist,” in A Companion to the Eucharist in the Reformation, ed. Lee Palmer Wandel (Leiden, 2014), pp. 323-63. “At ille dixit: Fili tu semper mecum es secundum iudicium tuum. Sic enim de se iudicant pseudooperarii, sentientes quod suorum operum meritiis a deo numquam dividantur”; Lambert, In divi Lucae Evangelium, fol. Bb2v. “Dicunt enim: ‘Oportet eam gratiam ieiuniis, eleemosynis, orationibus et aliis eiusmodi operibus ante promereri’. Sic arguit impia caro, non valens intelligere quod nullum sit meritum hominis. Sola quippe dei pietate et domini Iesu Christi meritis eius gratiam et dona consequi valemus”; Ibid., fol. Bb2rv. There is also space to present the opposition between the true Christian practices and the false religious works: “Verum quae sunt

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Lambert adapted the story to the ongoing religious debate, introducing in his exegesis the pivotal elements of the theology elaborated in Wittenberg. His quick assimilation of Luther’s key points is particularly interesting to consider. Just one year before, in early 1522, Lambert was still a Franciscan travelling preacher, just as Oliver Maillard and Michel Menot had been before him. Only five years had passed since the Parisian sermons of Menot, yet the religious panorama had rapidly changed and presented completely new challenges. Religious spokesmen were required to reorient themselves and to choose their doctrinal stance. 3.2 Staging the Conflict Developing a late medieval trend, early reformers saw religious dramas as a powerful medium to expose and inculcate the new faith by exploiting the synergy of oral and visual communication. This idea is perfectly summarized by what a Swiss printer wrote as a foreword to a reformed biblical play: The following play is created in such a way that it not only speaks of the lesson in words, but also, when performed, portrays and represents the matter in all actuality before the very eyes of the audience. […] For truly, God speaks to us now in many ways, extending to us his holy word not only in sermons, but also in books, in writings, in psalms and religious songs, and in elegant plays, through which the more prominent stories are taken from Holy Scripture, repeated, refreshed, and portrayed as if they were alive before people’s eyes, so that we may well say that the wisdom of God shouts and cries in the street [cf. Proverbs 1:20].50

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necessaria dimittunt pharisaei, quale est omnibus ministrare, peccantibus et desolatis compati et auxiliari, gaudium de proximi commodis, tristari pro incommodis, et similia quaeque. Caeterum quae non oportet, neque usquam praecepit deus, qualia sunt monachum fieri, dicare sacella, fundare missas, et reliqua id genus, anxie custodiunt. Sic quippe faciunt, ut fide, verbo dei, charitate, spe, ac iustitia vera contemptis, sua inventa vigilantissime servent”; Ibid., fol. Bb2v. “diß nachfolgend spil dermassen gestaltet, dz es nit allein mit worten hiervon redt, sonder auch die sach an jhr selb gar noch eygentlich so es gespilet wirt, allen zuosehendem für die ougen stellet und anbildet. […] Dann warlich redt yetz Gott mitt uns uff mancherley wyß, und helt uns syn heiligs wort für nit allein mit predigen, sonder auch mit trucken, mit schrifften, mit Psalmen und geistlichen liedern, und durch zierliche spil, mit wölchen die fürnemern geschichten auß H. Schrifft gezogen eräferet, erfrischet und glych lebendig der lütten vor die ougen gestellet werden, dz wir wol sagen mügen die wyßheit Gottes rüff und schryge uff der gassen”; Samuel Apiarius, An den Christlischen Leser, in Hans von Rüte, Goliath (Bern: Samuel Apiarius, 1555), fol. A1v. Text and translation in

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Burkhard Waldis, likewise a former Franciscan friar, wrote what is considered to be the first reformed play on the prodigal son. His Parabel von verlorn Szohn was originally staged on Carnival Sunday of 1527 in Riga, where Lutheran ideas had been introduced as early as 1521.51 It is worthwhile to briefly recapitulate Waldis’ eventful life, as a telling example of the vicissitudes of many protagonists of that period.52 Burkhard was born around 1490 in Hesse, and in 1522 he was a Franciscan friar in Riga. That year, with three other friars, he was sent to Rome by the archbishop of Riga (the secular ruler of the region) with the diplomatic mission to seek the pope’s support against the growing Lutheran influence in Riga. After his return with the papal letters that the archbishop had asked for, he was imprisoned by the town council, which in the meantime had become predominantly Protestant. During his short imprisonment, Waldis abandoned the Franciscan life and joined the Reformation, in part due to the corruption of the papal curia he had witnessed first-hand in Rome. Soon after, he married and worked as a pewterer. During those years, as a craftsman in Riga, he wrote and published his drama on the prodigal son. In 1536, during one of his journeys, Waldis was arrested by Catholic authorities in Bauska and suffered three and a half years of imprisonment (and torture) in the prisons of the Teutonic order. During that period, in order to endure his suffering and isolation, he translated the Psalms into German. He was finally released in 1540 and – as a sort of martyr of the Reformation – he went to study in Wittenberg between 1541 and 1544. Following his studies, he became pastor of the priory at Abterode in Hesse, where he died in 1556. Waldis’ Parabel is a didactic drama on the theme of justification by faith, as it is evident from a long monologue of the Actor, which amounts to a versified

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Glenn Ehrstine, Theatre, Culture and Community in Reformation Bern: 1523-1555 (Leiden, 2002), pp. 201 and 239-40. In this volume, see: “The stage as pulpit: reformers and theater” (pp. 15-30) and “Protestant theater as visual medium” (pp. 214-22). See also Pettegree, Reformation, pp. 76-101. On the Reformation in the Baltic area, see Matthias Asche, Werner Buchholz and Anton Schindling, eds., Die baltischen Lande im Zeitalter der Reformation und Konfessionali­ sierung. Livland, Estland, Ösel, Ingermanland, Kurland und Lettgallen. Stadt, Land und Konfession 1500-1721, 4 vols (Münster, 2009-12) and, for a summary, N.K. Andersen, “The Reformation in Scandinavia and the Baltic,” in The New Cambridge Modern History Volume 2: The Reformation, 1520–1559, ed. Goeffrey Rudolph Elton (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 14471. For Waldis’ life and works, I draw on Joe Delap, “Burkhard Waldis,” in James Hardin and Max Reinhardt, eds., German Writers of the Renaissance and Reformation, 1280-1580 (Detroit, 1997), pp. 303-08.

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catechesis or sermon.53 The basis of the dramatic tension of Waldis’ play is the antithesis of the prodigal son and his elder brother. The first, after his misadventure, declares his faith in God’s mercy, while the second stubbornly relies on his own merits. The final dialogue between the elder son and his father is revealing. The son cannot understand the reason for his father’s mercy and his brother’s unmerited justification. He is unable to conceive the idea of pure grace. Instead, he continues to place all of his trust in good works, asserting that he will achieve his own salvation through the harshest penitential practices. With “a touch of personal irony for Waldis”,54 at the end of the play the elder brother leaves the father’s house and says that since his merits are not recognized there, he intends to join a strict form of religious life and to become a friar (“Den hardesten orden ik weet up erdenn, | dar ynn will ick eyn broder werdenn”; vv. 1536-37).55 The drama served as propaganda for justification through faith and against the vision of salvation through good works. The religious orders were attacked as a symbol of the logic of the accumulation of merits through human commitment. Beside the biographical reference to Waldis’ own life, this theme was part of the general campaign in the 1520s against taking religious vows, which was fierce particularly against Franciscans. However, as we have seen, the identification of the elder brother as symbol of the religious life was not completely new. It had an antecedent in Hugh of Saint-Cher’s commentary on the parable. Moreover, a model sermon of Bernardino da Siena had taken the cue from the father’s reply to the elder son (“Son, you are always with me …”) to praise the merits of the religious life and vows. Waldis probably had the opportunity to acquaint himself with Bernardino’s model sermons during his Franciscan life and may have recalled them while writing this play. Waldis’ representation of the elder brother as a friar seems a reversal of the the elder brother as a positive symbol of the life under religious vows. The same biblical sentence that Bernar­ dino had used to exalt the religious life was exploited by a former Franciscan to mock it. The same strategy was adopted also in a 1546 drama by Hans Sachs (d. 1576), the Nuremberg playwright famous for his Carnival plays. In this drama, the elder son’s protest against the mercy of his father likewise ends up with his 53

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See Jemas A. Parente, Religious Drama and the Humanist Tradition: Christian Theatre in Germany (Leiden, 1987), pp. 74-75 and Markus Angebauer, “‘Idt ys all hir tho Rige ge­· schehn …’: Burkhard Waldis, der verlorene Sohn und die Reformation in Riga,” Jahrbuch des baltischen Deutschtums 42 (1995), 21-26. Parente, Religious Drama, p. 75. Burkhard Waldis, “De parabbell vam verloren Szohn,” in Die Schaubühne im Dienste der Reformation, ed. Arnold Erich Berger, 2 vols (Leipzig, 1935-36), 1, pp. 143-206: 192.

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decision to leave the house and to become a Carthusian monk.56 The scene echoes Waldis’ Parabel and hints at its circulation and reception far away from Riga. Such an explicit polemical approach could also be found in contemporary Catholic dramas of the prodigal son, which staged the conflict with Lutheran ideas as well as the traditional penitential message. This is the case in the Gouvert d’Humanité (Lyon 1540), an allegorical play that can be considered a “sermon dramatisé”, loosely based on the prodigal son. In this play, Erreur (Mistake) expresses the Lutheran positions and is presented as “the apostle of a religion that does not renounce wordly pleasure”.57 In the drama, Humanité (i.e. the prodigal son) is first seduced by Temptation and Luxure, yet he begins to repent thanks to Remort de Coscience (Remorse), who gives a skull to Humanité, who can look at it as a mirror and ponder his own destiny. Therefore, Péché Mortal (Mortal Sin) sends Erreur, who tries to pull Humanité out of the garden of Pénitence, where Remort de Coscience has brought him. Erreur is explicitly presented as the instigator of the Lutheran ideas; he denies the value of Lenten fasting as well as sacramental confession, and he says that heaven is open to everybody without any ascetic effort. However, Erreur is successfully contrasted by Caresme (Lent), who is the doorkeeper of the garden of Pénitence. Once Humanité is in the garden, Pénitence addresses him with a long sermon on the virtues of three trees: contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Their fruits are bitter but they can cure Humanité. Yet, he does not persevere in the penitential life, and soon succumbs to the renewed assoult of Temptation, Luxure, and Erreur. While Justice announces that the imminent death of Humanité would bring him to hell (“au feu d’enfert a l’eternel tourment”; v. 1544), Miséricorde successfully defends Humanité and persuades him to promise to emend his own life. In this way, the play underlines the fragility of the human condition and ends by exhorting the listeners to correct their own lives. Other playwrights chose a less polemical approach, or at least presented their theological position in a subtler way, which sometimes even allowed their 56 57

See Kovács, “The Dramatisation,” p. 272. On Sachs, see Eckard Bernstein, “Hans Sachs,” in Hardin and Reinhart, eds., German Writers, pp. 241-52. See Aubailly, “Variations dramatiques,” p. 123 and, more in general, pp. 119-23. For the text, see the recent critical edition: Jean d’Abondance, Le Gouvert d’Humanité, ed. Xavier ­Leroux (Paris, 2011), which contains a detailed analysis of the drama, ivi, pp. 33-76. For its combination of polemical and didactic themes, Leroux defines the play a “moralité polémique” (p. 33). While Aubailly and Leroux emphasize the connection between ­Gouvert d’Humanité and the prodigal son story, Stephanié Le Briz-Orgeur rightly invites to be more cautious; see her rich review of Leroux’s study in Romania 133 (2015) 231-37: 237. It is interesting to note that the only surviving imprint of this play occurs in a book that contains three dramas, the first of which is L’Enfant prodigue par personnaiges (see on this, Leroux, pp. 11-16).

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texts to cross the growing confessional divide. Only two years after Waldis’ Parabel, the Dutch humanist Willem de Volder or – as he is more commonly known – Gulielmus Gnapheus (d. 1568) published his Latin drama Acolastus (Antwerp 1529).58 This didactic comedy became the prototype for the so-called ‘Christian Terence’ tradition and for the humanistic school dramas based on the prodigal son.59 Acolastus was one of the most successful sixteenth-century religious plays and one of the most frequently read, readapted, and staged all over Europe. Within a timespan of only five years, it had no less than eleven editions, printed in Antwerp, Paris, Cologne, Leipzig, and Basel. Moreover, it was soon translated or paraphrased in other languages. In 1535, Georg Binder, a friend of Zwingli, printed a German translation in Zurich, while an English and a French version were published in 1540 and 1545, respectively.60 Gnapheus’ play was not strictly bound to an explicit religious position. While Waldis exploited the two sons of the parable to depict the opposite position of Lutheranism and ‘Papism’, Gnapheus omitted the character of the elder brother and did not bring his theological ideas to the forefront. The story depicts the initial fascination of Acolastus (i.e. Uncontrolled, who is the prodigal son) with the logic and teaching of his friend Philautus (i.e. Self-love) and then – after his own downfall – the way Acolastus repudiates Philautus’ doctrine, acknowledges his own guilt, and returns to his father. Everything happens according to the merciful design of divine providence, which Eubulus (i.e. Good58

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On Gnapheus and his Acolastus, see Gnaphaeus, Acolastus. A Latin Play and Fidel Rädle, “Zum dramatischen Schaffen des Gulielmus Gnapheus im preussischen Exil,” in Huma­ nismus im Norden: frühneuzeitliche Rezeption antiker Kultur und Literatur an Nord- und Ostsee, ed. Thomas Haye (Amsterdam, 2000), pp. 221-49. See also the panorama provided by Jan Bloemendal and Howard B. Norland, eds., Neo-Latin Drama and Theatre in Early Modern Europe (Leiden, 2013). See for instance the Latin play Asotus by the Dutch humanist Georgius Macropedius (d. 1558), written between 1506-1510 but first published in a revised version in 1535; see, also for a brief comparison with Acolastus, Jan Bloemendal, “Neo-Latin Drama in the Low Countries,” in Bloemendal and Norland, eds., Neo-Latin Drama, pp. 293-364: 303-06. On Macropedius, see Jan Bloemendal, ed., “The Latin Playwright Georgius Macropedius (1487–1558) in European Contexts,” European Medieval Drama 13 (2009), 1-233. On a 1583 Dutch play on the prodigal son by Robert Lawet that used intriguing allegorical characters, see Elsa Strietman, “Spectacular Performance: Robert Lawet’s De Verlooren Zoone,” in Performance: Drama and Spectacle in the Medieval City. Essays in Honour of Alan Hindley, eds. Catherine Emerson, Mario Longtin and Adrian P. Tudor (Louvain, 2010), pp. 339-60. Rädle, “Zum dramatischen Schaffen,” p. 222 and, on several other German versions or adaptations of Acolastus, see Kovács, “The Dramatisation,” pp. 274-76, which recalls: the 1536 version by Johann Ackermann, staged in Zwirckau; the 1540 version by Georg Mickam in Colmar; the 1545 version by Wolfgang Schmeltzl in Vienna; and a 1542 Ladin version, written by Johannes Zutz in Engadina.

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counsellor) announced in advance to Acolastus’ father, convincing him to let his son have his freedom.61 The play shows that, thanks to divine providence, self-love is defeated and – after numerous tribulations – Acolastus learns to recognize both himself and his father, which is to say God. Despite the irenic tone of the play, Gnapheus skilfully underlined that God’s forgiveness precedes human conversion. While Acolastus lives in miserable, hopeless conditions, he states that he has no (human) way to be saved, since the consciousness of his sin is destroying him (“Nullus sum, si non quispiam | Deus mihi ceu ἀπό μηχανῆς appareat, | nam male sibi consciae menti mors ingruit”). In the meantime, Eubulus convinces Acolastus’ father to forgive his son’s faults in advance, without any condition. As soon as the father states he forgives his son, a sudden inspiration guides Acolastus to come to himself and to trust in his father’s mercy: “Sed illud ecce subito adspiratur mihi | bonum esse patrem, facilem, placabilem, pium”.62 As the epilogue states, the whole play aims to show “the nature of man’s rebellion against God […] and how deep is the compassion of the Heavenly Father”.63 This message fulfils the true role of a (Christian) comedy, which has to be “the mirror of human life”, as Gnapheus wrote in his dedicatory letter.64 Gnapheus was a supporter of the Reformation. He had been imprisoned twice by the Inquisition in The Hague, in 1523 and 1525, and he had to flee Holland in 1530 due to his religious ideas. Still, Acolastus does not directly address the religious discussions of the time. Although the prodigal son’s conversion clearly stems from a sudden inspiration of grace in the play, Gnapheus’ support to Luther’s position was not explicit − at least not in the form Waldis’ play had done.65 For the same reason, Acolastus was repeatedly printed during 61

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On the theological value of the characters’ names, see W.E.D. Atkinson, “Introduction,” in Gnapheus, Acolastus, pp. 1-81: 52-53. In 1536, for the staging of Acolastus in the Latin school of Elbing (near Danzig), where Gnapheus had moved in 1530, the playwright wrote a new prologue that made explicit the theological meaning of the characters of the play (for instance, Eubulus is identified as the mercy of God). The text is presented and commented upon in Rädle, “Zum dramatischen Schaffen,” pp. 227-29. Gnapheus, Acolastus, pp. 196-97. “unde discere | facile potes, quae hominis rebellio in deum | et contumacia, quam meritam accersat sibi | mortem. Sed ex aduerso habes, die patris | sit quanta pietas, qui libenter redditum | sibi filium recipit …”; Ibid., p. 202 “Laudata est commoedia Tulio ut humanae uitae speculum”; Ibid., p. 84. This echoes Cicero’s definition of comedia as it was transmitted by Donatus: “comoediam esse Cicero ait imitationem vitae, speculum consuetudinis, imaginem veritatis”; Donatus, De Comedia, 5.1. On possible references within the play to the controversy between Luther and Erasmus on the freedom or servitude of human will; see Atkinson, “Introduction,” pp. 47-72. Atkinson’s argument for an influence of Luther’s De servo arbitrio (1525) is not fully persuasive.

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the course of the century in both Catholic and Lutheran cities, while later on it was adapted to be staged by students in Catholic schools, such as the Scottish college of Vienna in 1540.66 Gnapheus’ play was appropriated and transformed for Jesuit schools as well. In Cordoba, the Jesuit Pedro Pablo de Acevedo (d. 1573) – “the pioneer of the Jesuit theatre in Spain” – chose this story in 1555 as the first play to be performed in an Iberian Jesuit school.67 In 1576, the Jesuits staged an entirely reworked Acolastus in Fulda by including additional allegorical characters (Prudentia, Fortuna, Spes) and key references to the Catholic concepts of poenitentia and meritum, which were terms absent in Gnapheus’ Acolastus.68 Staging the prodigal son was an effective educational instrument on each side of the confessional divide, and served to different theological agenda. 3.3 “Per solam fidem ad gratiam evangelicam” (Pellikan) The commentary on the prodigal son written by Konrad Pellikan (d. 1556) is part of his monumental commentary on the Bible, which was the first reformed commentary on the whole Scripture. He wrote it between 1532 and 1539, while he was professor of Greek and Hebrew in Zurich, where he had arrived at the invitation of Huldrych Zwingli in 1526. That year, Pellikan abandoned the Fran­ ciscan order, moved to Zwingli’s city, and married Anna Frieß.69 With him, we complete a tryptic of former Franciscan friars who left their convents and became spokesmen for the Reformation. These three cases help to illustrate the contribution that people coming from the mendicant orders – including Luther himself – gave to the new religious movement. Drawing (also in a polemical way) on the education they had received in the mendicant convent 66 67

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See Kovács, “The Dramatisation,” p. 275. See Ruth Olaizola, “La prédication comme fondement d’un théâtre didactique et religieux? Les premières pièces des collèges jésuites en Espagne,” in Bouhaïk-Gironès and Polo de Beaulieu, eds., Prédication et performance, pp. 273-92: 273-79. A play on the prodigal son was performed also at the inauguration of the Jesuit college in Cádiz in 1568, see Joaquín Pascual Barea, “Neo-Latin Drama in Spain, Portugal and Latin America,” in Bloemendal and Norland, eds., Neo-Latin Drama, pp. 545-632: 598. For a description of the 1576 play and its comparison with Gnapheus’ text, see Fidel Rädle, “Acolastus – Der Verlorene Sohn: Zwei lateinische Bibeldramen des 16. Jahrhunderts,” in Gattungsinnovation und Motivstruktur, ed. Theodor Wolpers, 2 vols (Göttingen, 1997), 2, pp. 15-34. See also Fidel Rädle, “Jesuit Theatre in Germany, Austria and Switzerland,” in Bloemendal and Norland, eds., Neo-Latin Drama, pp. 185-292: 207-08. See Walter Röll, “Pellikan (Kürsner, Pellicanus), Konrad,” in Worstbrock, ed., Deutscher Humanismus, 2.2, coll. 421-34. See also Grado Giovanni Merlo, Nel nome di san Francesco: Storia dei frati minori e del francescanesimo sino agli inizi del XVI secolo (Padua, 2003), pp. 422-28. On the Swiss context, see Amy Nelson Burnett and Emidio Campi, eds., A Companion to the Swiss Reformation (Leiden, 2016).

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schools and studia, these ‘lapsed’ friars provided important elements to the elaboration and dissemination of the ‘evangelical’ ideas. Pellikan’s biography suggestively connects different protagonists that we have already encountered. In 1502, he became lecturer of theology in the Franciscan friary of Basel, the year in which Johann Meder left the city. Pellikan worked in Basel between 1502 and 1508 and returned again in 1519 as guardian of the friary. In this later period, he became acquainted with Erasmus and collaborated with him on the edition of several works of Jerome and other Church Fathers. In those years, Pellikan had a peculiar position. On the one hand, he was in correspondence with Luther and Zwingli; on the other hand, he was still convinced of the possibility of a reform within his own order. He was accused repeatedly to be luteranus, yet he firmly claimed his fidelity to Franciscan ideals. In this liminal position, in 1522 Pellikan welcomed François Lambert in the Basel friary, when the latter was traveling from Avignon to Wittenberg and, at that point, was still wearing the Franciscan habit. As was mentioned earlier, Pellikan wrote a letter of recommendation to Luther on Lambert’s behalf. Only at the beginning of 1526, when Zwingli invited Pellikan to teach in Zurich, did he abandon the Franciscan order. Pellikan’s commentary on the Gospels was published in Zurich in 1537. His commentary on the parable of the prodigal son is far less polemical than Lambert’s text. This depended in part on the different characters of the two exegetes. Lambert was a polemicist, while Pellikan had a much more irenic disposition. However, this diversity also reflected the different phases in which their works were issued, as well as their different nature. While Lambert wrote in a magmatic phase of transition, Pellikan worked on his commentary when the new confessions were gradually structuring themselves. In his text, Pellikan – at least ideally – addressed the new reformed pastors according to his own pedagogic motto: “simplicibus simplex simpliciter scripsi”.70 Pellikan’s reading seems to make clear references to the key points of the Reformation, and yet these are presented through the historical perspective of Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees and the conflict between Jews and Gentiles within the early Church. One could say that Pellikan’s interpretation was still influenced by the lesson of another Franciscan exegete, the fourteenth-century theologian Nicholas of Lyra.71 However, behind the Pharisees of the Gospel, a reformed pastor – i.e. the expected reader of this text – could easily perceive critical stances toward Catholic positions. Pellikan’s commentary on the lost sheep already illustrates this point when it opposes the “evangelicus pastor” (i.e. Christ but also the true minister of the Church) who rejoices in the saved sheep to “the murmuring Pharisees, who rely on false justice and cannot un70 71

See Röll, “Pellikan,” coll. 424 and 429. See above, pp. 78-79.

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derstand that God prefers mercy to sacrifice [cf. Matthew 12:7]. On the contrary, those who are truly righteous – the friends of the good shepherd – rejoice more about the recovered sheep than about the many who trust their own frigid righteousness”.72 Presenting the parable of the prodigal son, Pellikan’s text firstly asserts that it is referring to every sinner who repents, but it dealt originally with the Gentiles who were welcomed “ad evangelii gratiam” and with the envy of the Jews, who esteemed themselves as righteous.73 In this instance, the exegetical reading prevails over the polemical one. In Pellikan’s text, the conversion of the prodigal son is provoked by the concomitant effects of misery that push the sinner to repentance, and by divine inspiration, which moves the sinner from inside.74 One can measure a certain distance between this presentation of the prodigal son’s conversion, which speaks of a felix calamitas, and the radical assertions of Luther in 1519. Still, Pellikan’s commentary appears to hint at the contemporary debate when commenting on the prodigal son’s monologue. In fact, the repentant son declares himself to trust fully in the mercy of the father, who represents his only hope (“una spes est”). Moreover, the prodigal son states that “in front of the father a simple confession and a soul that is truly sorry for [the sins] will be valued more than a thorough expiation”.75 Such an indication abolishes the necessity of penitential practices as a form of satisfaction. The conversion of the sinner depends entirely on the graceful divine inspiration; the only merit of the prodigal son is that he did not ignore this salvific inspiration. Thus Pellikan asserted that “confessio crimis pro satisfactione est”.76 Satisfaction was fully absorbed by confession. 72

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“Obmurmurent pharisaei, qui fucata iustitia freti, non intelligunt quanto gratior sit deo misericordia quam sacrificium. Qui vere iusti sunt, qui amici boni pastoris, maiori gaudio gratulabuntur receptae ovi quam multis in sua frigida iustitia confidentibus”; Konrad ­Pellikan, In sacrosanta quatuor evangelia et apostolorum acta commentarii (Zurich: Christoph Froschauer, 1537), p. 161. “Tertiam parabolam adiecit, quae quanquam et ipsa generaliter pertinet ad omnem peccatorem post ingentia flagitia resipiscentem, tamen pro temporis illius quo dicta est ra­tione peculiarius notat Gentes ad evangelii gratiam receptas, et Iudaeos qui sibi iusti videbantur illorum invidentes felicitati”; Ibid., p. 162. “Iam igitur erat ventum ad extremam calamitatem, sed felix calamitas quae compellit ad resipiscentiam! […] Atque hic erat patris attractus. […] Sed bene habet, quum peccator afflatu tacito benigni patris redit ad cor”; Ibid., p. 164. “plus apud illum valebit simplex confessio et animus sibi vere displicens quam accurata purgatio”; Ibid., p. 164. “Discedere a familia patris perire est, extra hanc enim nulla est salus; nec est reditus, nisi pater semet in memoriam ingerat filio ad extrema deducto. Suggestio patris est beneficium, sed quod suggestionem salutarem non negligit filius, hoc illi pro merito imputatur. Confessio criminis pro satisfactione est”; Ibid., p. 166.

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In this commentary, the elder brother stands for the Pharisees – and more in general the Jews – who were “fixed in the insipid letter of the law and did not know the great joy of the evangelic spirit”.77 While Pellikan’s allegorical interpretation referred in particular to the historic conflict in the early Church, the key terms of the contemporary debate surfaced. The elder brother symbolizes “the Jews who were repulsed by the Gentiles, who came from idolatry and – without the weight of the law – by faith alone (per solam fidem) were admitted to evangelic grace”.78 Behind the historic past, contemporary issues are clearly visible. In light of Pellikan’s biography, one would immediately label this text – written and published in Zwingli’s Zurich − as a reformed commentary on the parable. However, the picture is more complex than what might be apparent at a first glance. A more thorough examination reveals that Pellikan’s exegesis is a word-for-word copy of Erasmus’ Paraphrasis on the prodigal son.79 This fact also explains its distance from Luther’s positions. Although in the preface of his work Pellikan acknowledged his debt to Erasmus, one could hardly imagine how extensive it is in his commentary on the prodigal son.80 That which made Pellikan’s work a ‘reformed’ commentary was first of all its position within reformation culture, that is, its being published in Zwingli’s city. This case perfectly shows that the boundaries among confessions were still not completely fixed, and Erasmus’ exegesis could serve in Zurich as well as in Catholic cities, where his Paraphrase on Luke continued to sell well in those years. Not surpris77

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“Filius natu maior domi non erat, sed versabatur in agro legis Mosaicae, sudans gestandis oneribus praeceptorum […]. Affixus enim insipidae literae legis, non noverat quantum habeat gaudiorum evangelicus spiritus. […] Demiratus autem affectator vetustae legis et legalium operum suorum ac meritorum, pharisaeus fidens in propria iustitiam et obe­ dientiam”; Ibid., p. 166. “An non videris tibi videre filium hunc maiorem indignantem ingredi […] Iudaeos indi­ gnantes adversus Graecos, quod admitterentur ad ministerium apostolorum, destoma­ chantes quod Gentes ab idolatria venientes, absque legis onere per solam fidem admittantur ad gratiam evangelicam, baptismo donentur et spiritu sancto confirmentur?”; Ibid., p. 167. Pellikan’s passages presented in the previous notes are literally the same in Erasmus, “In Evangelium Lucae paraphrasis,” pp. 164-69. For the English translation see Collected Works of Erasmus 48, pp. 69-88. “In hoc etiam sic aliorum expositiones sequutus sum, ut plerumque ipsorum verba et integras paginas transcripserim, quando vehementer arridebant, et meliora ab aliis tradita non videbam. In primis vero D. Erasmi Roterodami in his scriptis sententiam posui”; Pellikan, In quatuor evangelia, fol. 3v. On the relationship between Erasmus and Pellikan, see Bert Roest, “‘Expectamus regnum franciscanum’: Erasmus and His Seraphic Obsession,” Collectanea Franciscana 74 (2004), 23-44: 30.

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ingly, Erasmus’ works were harshly attacked by those working towards a clear and visible division of the religious battlefield.81 3.4 Two Sermons of Johannes Brenz Among the most important and extensive Lutheran commentaries on Luke is that by Johannes Brenz (d. 1570). The commentary was divided into 190 sermons that he probably had presented from the pulpit in the form of a lectio continua on this Gospel. The work was published in two volumes between 1538 and 1540 in Schwäbisch Hall, where the city council had appointed Brenz as city preacher in 1522. From that city, he played a leading role in the reformation movement in southern Germany and in the organization of the Evangelical territorial churches in Brandenburg and Württemberg. Brenz had become acquainted with Luther in 1518, when Brenz heard him in a disputation at the University of Heidelberg, where he was studying under the guidance of Johannes Oecolampadius (d. 1531), the future reformer of Basel.82 In his commentary on Luke, Brenz dedicated two sermons to the parable of the prodigal son, which exhibit how one of the most eloquent representatives of the Reformation preached on this parable in the late 1530s.83 The first is focused on the son’s journey of sin and conversion, while the second deals with the mercy of his father and the impiety of his elder brother.84

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See Rummel, ed., A Companion to Biblical Humanism. On Johannes Brenz’s life, see James M. Estes, Christian Magistrate and Territorial Church: Johannes Brenz and the German Reformation (Toronto, 2007), pp. 21-42. See also the articles collected in a special issue of Blätter für württembergische Kirchengeschichte 100 (2000), esp. Jörg Baur, “Johannes Brenz. Ein schwäbischer Meisterdenker auf den Spuren Luthers,” pp. 29-57 and Martin Brecht, “Brentii Ecclesia. Der Prediger von Schwäbisch Hall und seine Kirche,” pp. 215-40. Johannes Brenz, In Evangelii quod inscribitur secundum Lucam, duodecim posteriora ca­­ pita (Schwäbisch Hall: Peter Braubach, 1540), fols. 472v-80v (homilies 10-11). The page numbers continue those of the first volume, which had been published in 1538. Brenz’s commentary was printed seven times during the sixteenth century. It was also used to compose Brenz’s Postils, which were published between 1550 and 1553 by Johannes Pollicarius and which, considering the number of editions, circulated widely; see Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 150-52 and 473. The incipit of homily 11 summarizes the structure of the two sermons: “In adolescente decoctore vidimus imaginem primum peccatoris luxu perditi, deinde peccatoris resipiscentis. Videamus nunc in parente eius imaginem immensae clementiae et misericordie Dei, in filio autem seniore imaginem invide et execrabilis impietatis hypocritarum”; Brenz, In Evangelii, fol. 476v. Note the visual lexicon: videre, imago.

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In the first sermon, Brenz depicted the conversion of the prodigal son, as the model for each sinner returning to God.85 The preacher pointed out three steps in the process of conversion. The first step is “peccatum suum vere et serio agnoscere”, which means not only a generic memory of sins committed, but also to perceive them in one’s conscience (“in conscientia ita sentire”). The misfortune of the prodigal son – as well as those that occur to each person – is an instrument by which God calls the sinner back and gives him a true understanding of his own sin. The second step is to hope and to have faith in the mercy of God: “one should not despair; on the contrary, he or she has to hope in the clemency and mercy of God the father, and to believe that God will forgive sins because of Christ, his own son”.86 Brenz underlined the key role of the faith in Christ: “if the recognition of sins and the faith in Christ have been true, you do not have to doubt anymore about the remission of sins”, since “Christ is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world [John 1:29] […] where there is faith in Christ, there is also the remission of sins, justification, and eternal life”.87 However, true faith manifests itself in the fruit that it bears and in “true good works”, as the presence of a soul in a body manifests itself in many forms.88 Therefore, although the stress is on the primacy of faith, the third and final step of penitence is represented by the fructus poenitentiae. Following a theological position that we will find also in a sermon of Melanchthon, Brenz stated that “God’s commandments, which require good deeds, become the road on which one has to return to the father’s house”.89 Thus, he ended the sermon exhorting his audience to “peccata relinquere et bona opera facere”.

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“Quod adolescens ad patrem reversurus agit, hoc etiam agendum est peccatori ad deum per poenitentiam reversuro”; Ibid., fol. 475r. “Hic est secundus poenitentiae gradus, ad quem necessario post primum ascendendum est, videlicet quod postquam peccatum agnitum est, non est desperandum, sed bene sperandum est de clementia et misericordia Dei patris et credendum quod Deus remittat peccata propter Christum filium suum”; Ibid., fol. 475v. “Certe, si vera fuit peccatorum agnitio, si et vera fuerit fides, non est quod de remissione peccati amplius dubites. […] Hic est agnus Dei, inquit, qui tollit peccati mundi. […]. Quare ubi est fides in Christum, ibi est etiam remissio peccati, iusticia et vita eterna”; Ibid., fols. 475v-76r. “Ut enim humana anima, ubi vere in corpore fuerit, non potest ociari, sed revelat praesentiam suam operibus et exercitiis vitae, ita fides in Christum, ubi vera est, ibi etiam declarat se veris bonis operibus, ut nullam ibi fidem esse sentiendum sit, ubi nulla bona opera sequuntur”; Ibid., fol. 476r. “Mandata enim Dei, quae bone opera exigunt, via sunt super qua ambulandum est ad paternam domum”; Ibid., fol. 476r.

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To modern readers, this final exhortation might appear similar to previous medieval presentations of the prodigal son’s conversion. As we have seen, Bonaventure interpreted the prodigal son’s itinerary to return home as his commitment to good works, that is, satisfaction. We see here a sign of the progressive recovery among Lutherans of the divine commandments and good works – as fruits of the salvific presence of true faith. However, on another point Brenz directly attacked a central element of the previous discipline of confession. Presenting the prodigal son’s request for mercy, Brenz disavowed the need for a detailed confession: Very serious were the sins, very serious also the pain, and yet absolutely short the confession. The son does not enumerate the circumstances of sins, as is the habit of the hypocrites. He does not say: “In this city, I lost to gambling so much money. In that other city, I had so many harlots. In this and that banquet I was drunk so many times”. You do not hear anything of the circumstances of his sins. He simply gathers all his faults in a single sheaf and says: “I have sinned against the angels and against you”.90 The confession became a confessio fidei instead of a confessio peccatorum. In another sermon, which deals with the other two parables of Luke 15, Brenz’s critique of the penitential system based on contrition, confession, and satisfaction is systematic. The sermon dates to 1537 and Brenz included it in his Perico­ pae evangeliorum, which he published in 1556. This sermon is the text in which – as mentioned introducing this chapter – he stated that the way to do penitence was “the main religious controversy of our time”, and he enumerated the abuses of a system that transformed contrition into merit, asked for a detailed confession, and attributed to satisfaction a decisive role in the forgiveness of sins.91 90

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“Gravissima peccata, gravissimus etiam dolor, sed brevissima confessio. Non enumerat circunstantias peccatorum iuxta hypocritarum consuetudinem, non ait: ‘In hac civitate tot numos amisi ludo. In illa urbe totalui scorta, in hoc et illo convivio toties sui ebrius’. Nihil harum circumstantiarum audis, sed simpliciter uno fasciculo comprehendit omnia sua scelera, dicens: ‘Peccavi coram angeli et coram te’”; Ibid., fol. 475v. We recognize here the traditional list of ‘sins of the tavern’ attributed to the prodigal son. “Quid ergo faciam in agenda poenitentia? Haec est praecipua controversia nostri temporis de religione. Non controvertitur de vescendis carnibus in feria sexta, sed de his rebus quibus paratur iusticia coram Deo, et quomodo agenda sit poenitentia, ut consequamur salutem. Ac superiori quidem seculo ita didicimus, quod ad agendam poenitentiam primum requiratur contritio. Hoc quidem non male dictum est, sed est male intellectum, quia senserunt contritionem mereri remissionem peccatorum e dignitate operis. At hoc falsum est. Deinde confessio. Et haec quidem habuit suos abusus et impietates, videlicet

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In the second sermon, Brenz first praised the unconditional mercy of God and then, drawing on the character of the elder brother, he criticized the traditional penitential works of the hypocrites, who clearly represented the ‘papists’. As we have seen in the texts of Lambert and Waldis, this was becoming a topos, which Brenz helped to strengthen and disseminate. He gave an effective description of the elder son, who was working in the fields when his brother arrived and the feast began. According to the double level of reading that Brenz adopted, the scene symbolized the Jews who denied the Gospel and the hypocrites who trusted in their works, since both types “belonged to the same catalogue”. The elder son is in the field and fatigues, while the younger son returns and the banquet begins. In the same way, the Jews worked in the field of the law and fatigued in servile works, as donkeys, while the Gospel of Christ was revealed and the sinners and publicans were received in God’s grace through faith. As Paul says, the law is a pedagogue [cf. Galatians 3:24]. As long as a boy is under a pedagogue, he is not different from a serf. Likewise, the hypocrites led a very hard life in the field of their preferred works. At one time they dig the ditch of fasting, at another they plough the furrows of their very long orations, then they manure their field with pilgrimages, next they sow anniversaries and masses. What else? There is not a moment in which they do not torment themselves by inventing and performing new good works.92

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quod omnia peccata enumeranda fuerunt, quod est impossibile, et quod operi operato attribuita fuit remissio peccatorum […]. Tertio satisfactio, videlicet opus missae aut pere­ grinationis, aut elemosynae, aut id genus aliud […]. Sed haec est impietas, quod dignitati et merito horum operum attributa fuit maiestas remissionis peccatorum”; Brenz, Pericopae Evangeliorum, pp. 348-349 (first sermon of the third Sunday after Trinity). On this sermon collection and its dissemination, see Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 161 and 184-85. “In hac parabola sicut iunior filius adumbrat gentes et publicos peccatores, ita senior filius adumbrat Iudeos et hypocritas. Nam si seniorem filium conferamus cum Iudei et hypocritis, videbimus eos plane in unum catalogum pertinere. Senior filius est in agro, et sudat, dum iunior redit et convivium instituitur. Sic Iudaei, dum Evangelion Christi revelaretur et peccatores ac pubblicani reciperetur in gratiam Dei per fidem, laborarunt in agro legis, et sudarunt laboribus servilibus, imo asinis. Lex enim, quemadmodum Paulus ait, paedagogus est. Quamdiu autem puer sub paedagogo est, nihil differt a servo. Sic et hypocritae durissimam exigunt vitam in agro electiciorum suorum operum. Nunc enim fodiunt foveam ieiuniorum, nunc arant sulcos longissimarum precularum, nunc sterco­ rant agrum suum peregrinationibus, nunc seminant anniversaria et missas. Quid plura? Nullum tempus exigunt, quo non excogitantis et facendis novis bonis operibus sese excrucient”; Brenz, In Evangelii, fol. 478rv. For Lambert’s similar text, see above note 49.

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Next in the sermon, Brenz described the anxiety of those who perform good deeds, as it is based on a restless and false confidence in their own merits, rather than on the proper faith in Christ. As a result, “they proceed in a dejected and glum fashion, since from the seeds of their own justice they harvest nothing but pain, sadness, affliction, and desperation”.93 In this way, Brenz portrayed the stereotype of the hypocrite who condemns himself to a miserable life and does not experience the joy of faith in God’s mercy.94 3.5 “Haec dulcissima imago saepe cogitanda est” (Melanchthon) The last text we consider is a sermon by Philipp Melanchthon (d. 1560), which was among the most influential and widely disseminated evangelical sermons on the prodigal son, in part due to the prestige of the Praeceptor Germaniae. Melanchthon’s Annotationes were reportationes of sermons to young students that he delivered at his home in Wittenberg. Someone in the audience wrote down the sermons and published them with Melanchthon’s permission in 1544. His collection had a striking success, with five editions printed in one year alone, its immediate translation into German, and no less then twenty-three German and Latin editions in the following forty years.95 The book became one of the Lutheran bestsellers of that period. Together with Anton Corvin’s Postils (first edition 1535), the Annotationes met the need for model sermons updating Luther’s earlier collection. Due to changing circumstances, the main issue was no longer ‘popery’ but the confrontation with radical reformers – as the events of the ‘rebellion’ of Münster had dramatically proved.96 93

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“Numquam dedisti mihi hoedum ut cum amicis meis letarer. Hac voce significat quod etsi hypocritae multa bona opera faciant, tamen quia non faciunt ea ex fide in Christum, sed ex fiduciam suorum meritorum, nunquam ex animo letantur coram Deo, sed semper tri­ sties, moesti et tetrici incedunt, adeoque e semine suae ipsorum iusticiae, nihil aliud metunt quam dolorem, tristitiam, afflictionem et desperactionem”; Ibid., fol. 479v. “Itaque quanto gaudio afficiuntur peccatores ex Evangelio per fidem, tanta moesticia et aegritudine animi afficiuntur hypocritae ex operibus suis, quorum meritis sibi confidere videntur”; Ibid., fol. 480r. See Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 87-89. A useful entry on Melanchthon’s life and works is Derk Visser, “Philipp Melanchthon,” in Hardin and Reinhart, eds., German Writers, pp. 16677. For an updated bibliography, see Irene Dingel et al., eds., Philip Melanchthon: Theologian in Classroom, Confession, and Controversy (Göttingen, 2012). See Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 75-98. See also Sigrun Haude, In the Shadow of “Savage Wolves”: Anabaptist Münster and the German Reformation during the 1530s (Boston, 2000), which observes in its conclusions: “Notwithstanding its potential for generating a political and religious revolution, the experience of Münster acted in the end as a profoundly stabilizing factor” (p. 147).

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In Melanchthon’s Annotationes, the liturgical pericopes were followed by several theological points (loci) discussed with clarity and simplicity. The book’s ease of use made it popular. Later on, during the critical period of the Augsburg Interim (1547-1555), the Weissenfels pastor Johannes Pollicarius provided a new German translation (1549) of these sermons. Pollicarius wrote that it was necessary to stick to “fine, pure, and basic exegesis” and that Melanchthon’s text (as well as Brenz’s sermons, which Pollicarius edited in 1550) provided evangelical pastors with safe and nourishing sermons, “especially during these last and dangerous times”.97 As we know, the pericope for the third Sunday after Trinity presented the twin parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin.98 Nevertheless, Melanchthon preferred to focus his sermon mainly on the parable of the prodigal son. As several preachers before him, he acknowledged the special relevance of this parable: A very sweet image is proposed to us in this detailed description of the return of the prodigal son. It exhorts us to penitence, attests that we will be received [by God], and summarizes eruditely both the causes and the effects [of penitence]. Therefore, this image has to be often considered attentively, so that we arouse ourselves to penitence and piety.99 Drawing on a longstanding tradition, Melanchthon presented this story as the icon of the penitential itinerary and as a text that allowed him to expose the summa evangelii, namely that, through Christ, the forgiveness of sins is given gratis to those who do penitence.100 Melanchthon thus outlined the whole penitential process, using a threefold scheme similar to that found in Brenz. He wrote that “Penitence or conversion to God contains three parts: contrition,

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See – also for Pollicarius’ quotation – Frymire, The Primacy, p. 88. On Luther’s choice to keep the traditional lectionary, on its value for Lutherans spokesmen, and on the polemics against early Calvinists who abandoned it for the lectio continua, see Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 9-38 and 225-51. In some cases, however, also Lutheran and Catholic preachers (such as Brenz and Wild) adopted the lectio continua by preaching continuously on an entire book of the Bible. “Hactenus in hac longa descriptione reditus filii prodigi dulcissima imago proposita est, quae nos ad poenitentiam hortatur, et testatur nos recipi, et causas et effectus erudite complectitur. Quare saepe et diligenter cogitanda est, ut nos ad poenitentiam et pietatem excitemus”; Philipp Melanchthon, In evangelia annotationes, p. 293. “Haec tota concio […] teneamus summam Evangelii, quod omnibus agentibus poenitentiam certo detur remissio peccatorum gratis, propter Christum”; Ibid., p. 284.

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faith, and new obedience; each of these aspects has to be constantly con­sidered”.101 Discussing contrition, Melanchthon emphasized the role of fear in a way that we have not found in previous Lutheran authors. Contrition means to acknowledge God’s wrath in the face of sin and to be sincerely frightened by it, and to suffer truly. […] Therefore, the acknowledgment of God’s wrath and the sorrow in view of the pains [of damnation] might grow in us. […] This has to be pondered constantly with regard to contrition, and security has to be eradicated from the soul, since penitence cannot exist without some level of fear and sorrow.102 One can measure the distance between these lines and Luther’s statements in 1519. Eck probably would have subscribed to these sentences without any problem.103 What had changed since 1519 was the historical and religious context. Melanchthon’s target was now the antinomistic position of radical reformers.104 He attacked those who said that “penitence should not begin from fear of pain or from preaching of the law” and said that “on the contrary, it is necessary to inculcate the law, since it represents God’s eternal and immutable judgment”.105 Commenting on the parable, Melanchthon preached that the prodigal son began to think of his situation only when he suffered harsh misery.106 101 102

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“Cum autem poenitentia seu conversio ad Deum tres partes contineat: contritionem, fidem, et novam obedientiam. De singulis assidue cogitandum est”; Ibid., p. 285. “Contritio est vere expavescere agnita ira Dei adversus peccatum, et vere dolere. […] Sic in nobis crescat agnitio irae Dei, crescat dolor conspectu poenarum. […] Haec de contritione assidue cogitanda sunt, et extirpanda ex animis securitas, quia sine aliquo pavore ac dolore impossibile est poenitentiam existere”; Ibid., pp. 285-86. The striking difference in the interpretion of this parable between Luther in 1519 and Melanch­thon in the 1530s and 1540s is discussed by Eginhard Peter Meijering, Melanchthon and Patristic Thought: The Doctrines of Christ and Grace, the Trinity and the Creation (Leiden, 1983), pp. 133-36. Meijering does not consider this sermon but focuses on the reference to a sermon of pseudo-Basil on penitence, which Melanchthon quoted as a sermon on the prodigal son within his discussion about the freedom of human will in his Loci communes. This statement was introduced in the 1535 edition of the Loci; see below note 110. On the Antinomian controversy, see Timothy J. Wengert, Law and Gospel: Philip Melanchthon’s Debate with John Agricola of Eisleben over ‘Poenitentia’ (Grand Rapids, 1997). “Nec omittatur hac de poenis cognitio, quia quidam satis ociosis animis disputat, non incoandam esse poenitentiam a timore poene aut praedicatione legis. Imo Legem inculcare necesse est, quia est aeternum et immutabile iudicium Dei”; Melanchthon, In evangelia annotationes, p. 286. “Ita hic prodigus post quam iam premitur calamitate, incipit causas et remedia cogitare, et ut textus ait, ad se rediens dixit, id est, admonitus calamitate cognovit de causis et de

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In the 1530’s, Melanchthon gradually elaborated an “evangelical doctrine of free will”, according to which God called those who were saved, and his own mercy allowed human will to receive God’s grace without any meritorious act.107 The sinner had to reply to the call of God’s grace, as Melanchthon recalled, quoting a biblical sentence that underlined both the primacy of God’s initiative and the necessity of the human response: “While we still languish, God himself attracts us through his word and the Holy Spirit, as Revelation 3 states: Do penitence. Here, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice, I will enter to him (Revelation 3:19-20)”.108 In this quotation Melanchthon omitted (probably on purpose) that the Bible speaks not only of hearing the voice but also of opening the door. However, it is clear that in his view there was room for a human reply to God’s call. The role that Melanchthon gave to free will within the doctrine of justification did not obscure the primacy of God’s grace. The equilibrium between the two elements was summarized using a sentence of pseudo-Basil about the return of the prodigal son, which Melanchthon often employed in his writing on free will: “Tantum velis, et Deus praeoccurrit” – “You need only to will, and God has already come”.109 Melanchthon introduced this sentence in his 1535 Loci communes, in the section discussing free will.110 In the 1553 German edition of his Loci, he added an explicit reference to the prodigal son and to Revelation 3:

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remediis”; Ibid., p. 290. This position is quite similar to that of Brenz’s sermon mentioned above. Melanchthon underlined as well that the human reply to calamities – i.e. to the call of God – was not always the same: while the prodigal son came to himself, the Pharaoh as well as Saul did not recognize God’s voice and behaved in a blasphemous manner. On the evolution of Melanchthon’s theology on grace and free will, see Gregory B. Graybill, Evangelical Free Will: Philipp Melanchthon’s Doctrinal Journey on the Origins of Faith (Oxford, 2010). “Nobis languentibus, ipse nos attrahit verbo et Spiritu sancto, ut Apocal. 3 dicitur: Age poenitentiam. Ecce sto ad ostium et pulso, si quis audierit vocem meam, ingrediar ad eum”; Melanchthon, In evangelica annotationes, p. 291. “Basilius inquit de hoc ipso loco: Tantum velis, et Deus praeoccurrit”; Ibid., p. 290. “Sic et Basilius inquit: μόνον θέλησον καὶ θεὸς προαπαντᾷ. Tantum velis, et Deus praeoccurrit. Deus antevertit nos, vocat, movet, adiuvat, sed nos viderimus ne repugnemus. Constat enim peccatum oriri a nobis, non a voluntate Dei”; Philipp Melanchthon, Loci praecipui theologici (Leipzig: Valentinus Papa, 1559), p. 90 (De libero arbitrio). This passage was added by Melanchthon in his 1535 edition of the Loci, see Timothy J. Wengert, “Philipp Melanchthon and the Origins of the ‘Three Causes’ (1533-1535): An Examination on the Roots of the Controversy over the Freedom of the Will,” in Dingel et al., eds., Philipp Melanch­thon, pp. 183-208: 203-04.

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Chrysostom says that God draws man [to him]. However, he draws the one who is willing to come along, not the one who resists: Trahit Deus, sed volentem trahit. And Basil says that God comes first towards you, but you should also want him to come to you. And take the wonderful parable in which the son who had squandered and wasted his inheritance in riotous living comes home. As soon as the father sees him from afar, he pities him, runs to him, falls on his neck, and kisses him. Here the son does not turn back, does not scorn his father, but instead goes also towards him, acknowledges his sin, and begs for grace. From this illustration we can learn how this teaching is to be used. Basil has taken this passage from it: Tantum velis, et Deus praeoccurrit. Also in the Book of Revelation, chapter 3: I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens me the door, I will enter to him etc.111 Melanchthon incorporated the contents of his sermon in his doctrinal ‘summa’, repeating the idea that this parable was a perfect image (Bild) to learn about grace and evangelical free will. It is interesting to note that this text was not very far from what Erasmus had written about the prodigal son in his De libero arbitrio.112 111

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“Und also spricht Chrysostomus: Gott ziehet den menschen, Ehr zihet aber den, welches wille mit gehet und nit widerstrebet: Trahit Deus, sed volentem trahit. Und Basilius spricht: Gott gehet dir zuvor entgegen, doch soltu auch wollen, das ehr zu dir khomme, und nimmet dise rede auß der lieblichen gleichnus, da der son widerumb khommet, der sein erbteyl ubel verschlemmet hatt, Alß bald yhn der vatter von fern sihet, erbarmet ehr sich sein, lauffet yhm entgegen, fallt yhm umb den halß, kusset yhn. Hie laufft der Son nit zu ruk, veracht den vatter nicht, sondern gehet yhm auch entgegen, bekent seine sund, und bitt umb gnad. Auß disem bild khonnen wir lernen, wie dise lahr zu uben ist. Und hatt Basilius disen spruch daraus genomen: Tantum velis, et Deus praeoccurrit. Item in Apocalypsi, cap. 3: Ich stehe vor der thur und klopff an. Wer meine stimm horet und mir uffthuet, zu dem will ich hinneyn khomen etc”; Philipp Melanchthon, Heubtartikel Christlicher Lere: Melanchthons deutsche Fassung seiner Loci theologici nach dem Autograph und dem Originaldruck von 1553, eds. Ralf Jenett and Johannes Schilling (Leipzig, 2002), pp. 149-50. This passage (without the reference to Revelation 3) is quoted in Graybill, Evangelical Free Will, pp. 282-83 (on the 1553 edition of the Loci, pp. 275-83). “Filius ille prodigus quomodo dicitur prodegisse portionem suae substantiae, si nulla portio fuit in illius manu? Quod habebat acceperat a patre. Et nos fatemur omnes naturae dotes esse dona dei. […]. Quid est fames? Est afflictio qua deus extimulat mentem peccatoris, ut agnoscat et oderit seipsum, tangaturque desiderio relicti patris. Quid est filius secum loquens, confessionem ac reditum meditans? Est voluntas hominis applicans sese ad gratiam extimulantem, quam – ut diximus – vocant praevenientem. Quid est pater occurrens filio? Est gratia dei, quae provehit voluntatem nostram, ut perficiamus quod

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Within the sermon, Melanchthon used the scene of the father running to his son in order to praise God’s mercy. The theologian exhorted his audience to bring before God “not our merits but our dirty consciences and our own great filth, since while we are still in this condition, the father runs to us”.113 The three objects that the father gives to his returned son summarize the new life: “The ring symbolizes the Gospel and the faith; the clothes symbolize good conscience; the sandals symbolize the works of vocation, in which confession has to shine”.114 Melanchthon also recovered the spiritual meaning of the fatted calf as symbol of the Passion of Christ, something that Lambert had drastically refused just a few years earlier. Melanchthon’s sermon was in one of the most successful Lutheran sermon collections. In the hands of generations of pastors, it contributed to spread the evangelical ideas from the pulpits to Sunday congregations. Once again, the parable of the prodigal son turns out to be also an excellent litmus test to analyse the religious environment. In fact, the sermon reveals that the panorama was dynamic and that the interpretation of this parable – i.e. the understanding of the process of conversion – was changing within the Lutheran field. The change was mainly due to the necessity to respond to the challenges raised by other radical religious movements and to assert the positive role of discipline within the behaviour of the faithful.115 As Melanchthon stated in this sermon, “Discipline has its praise and rewards and it is necessary, although we all know that it cannot satisfy the law of God and vices remain within the people”.116

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volumus”; Desiderius Erasmus, De libero arbitrio, in Desiderius Erasmus, Ausgewählte Schriften, ed. Werner Welzig, 8 vols (Darmstadt, 1967-75), 4, p. 152. “Ita hic pater procul accedentem conspicit. Trepide et languide accedimus, et afferrimus non merita, sed pollutam conscientiam et magna sordes. Quanquam autem tales sumus, tamen pater occurrit, modo accedamis, pater videt, id est, scit nostras miserias, curat nos, edit verbum, et vocat nos, afficitur misericordia, serio vult nos servare”; Melanchthon, In evangelica annotationes, pp. 290-91. “Ita hic summa totius novae vitae aptissime comprehensa est. Annulus significat Evangelium et fidem. Vestis, bonam coscientiam. Calcei, opera vocationis, in quibus lucere debet confessio”; Ibid., p. 293. A similar change can be traced in the interpretation and pastoral use of the parable of Lazarus, see Delcorno, Lazzaro e il ricco epulone, pp. 269-84. On the persisting influence of late medieval sermons on later Lutheran postils, see Jussi Hanska, “Poverty and Preaching between the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period. The Case of Ericus Erici, Bishop of Turku,” in Lived Religion and the Long Reformation in Northern Europe c. 1300-1700, eds. Sari Katajala-Peltomaa and Raisa Maria Toivo (Leiden, 2017), pp. 131-58. “Habet suam laudem et premia disciplina et necessaria est, sed tamen sciamus eam non satisfacere legi Dei et manere in hominibus vitia”; Melanchthon, In evangelica annotationes, p. 294.

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Although maintaining the primacy of divine mercy and the absence of any human merit, the fear and the law, as well as disciplina and good works, returned to play a central role in the presentation of the parable. It was no coincidence that in Melanchthon’s sermon the elder brother was again marginalized. He was no longer the explicit target of a harsh polemic against Catholics, as in the early days of Lambert or Waldis. Instead, the elder brother could be portrayed as the symbol of “the man who is governed by an honest discipline”.117 4

Early Catholic Responses in Preaching

Having seen the evolution and the different positions within the reformed camp, we turn now to the Catholic preachers who first faced the challenge posed by the Reformation in the German lands. John Frymire convincingly portrays the response of Catholic preaching to the Reformation as “a paradigm in need of revision”.118 He has shown that the output of new model sermon collections on the Catholic side almost squares that of the reformed authors. The vigorous Catholic response soon met the requirement of a biblical foundation, both in contents and in its outlook, which meant being able to “meet Luther on his own terms”.119 A passage of Frymire’s book summarizes the main findings of his research well: The data certainly explodes the common scholarly notion, explicitly stated or suggested through silence, that the Catholic response to the German Reformation in the pulpits amounted to a non-response. 132 thousand complete sets of Catholic postils put into circulation between 1530 and 1555 suggest, at the very least, that more than a few priests were preaching in more places than just the princely courts and large cities and towns. […] Postils were passed down from one generation of pastors to the next. […] The regular reading of postils throughout the year and throughout parishioners’ lives lent them a longevity, in term of potential impact and reception, that far exceeded that of pamphlets and other such smaller works.120

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“Et e contra, filius frugalior est homo qui honesta disciplina regitur”; Ibid., p. 288. See Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 38-49. See Ibid., pp. 50-74. Ibid., pp. 154 and 156.

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Frymire’s work provides scholars with a precious general picture of preaching in this period, its different phases, and its main protagonists. Still, since it focuses mainly on the Sunday postils, it does not consider the Lenten sermon collections in which sermons on the prodigal son can normally be found. In order to obtain an insight in the early Catholic sermons on the parable, we have to turn to the Lenten sermon collections of preachers such as Friedrich Nausea, Nikolaus Ferber, and Georg Witzel, and to a sermon from Eck’s Sunday collection that – as Melanchthon’s ­– directly consider this parable. 4.1 Johannes Eck’s Archetype of the Penitent Johannes Eck, who had been the adversary of Luther in Leipzig, was not only a sharp theologian but also a quite active preacher.121 His de tempore sermon collection derived from his preaching in the parish church of St Moritz in Ingolstadt. The book was printed for the first time in 1530 and became quite popular, with no fewer than ten editions in the German lands and another ten in Paris by 1583. In this sermon collection, Eck ended one of his sermons for the fourth Sunday after Pentecost with a significant passage on the prodigal son. He said that Jesus introduced this parable since it allowed him to underline the role of human action in conversion. While the parable of the lost sheep and that of the lost coin respectively stressed the primary initiative of Christ and the support of the Church, the parable of the prodigal son pointed out that, although Christ had died for the sinners and the Church was praying for their conversion, each penitent had to do his or her own part to reach beatitude.122 Salvation depended on the hierarchical cooperation of these three co-protagonists: Christ, the Church, the human being. For this reason Jesus presented the three parables of Luke 15. The translator of Eck’s sermons added that this topic summarized the whole of Lenten preaching: “habes hic materiam praedicandi

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On Eck’s sermons, see Wilbirgins Klaiber, Ecclesia militans: Studien zu den Festtagspredigten des Johannes Eck (Münster, 1982) and Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 4-7 and 55-57. “Et deinceps in tertia ista filii prodigi, quomodo per se quisque suam quaerat felicitatem”; Johannes Eck, Homiliarum […] super evangelia de tempore a pascha usque ad adventum. Tomus secundus (Cologne: Jaspar von Gennep, 1554), p. 419 (sermon 3 of the Forth Sunday after Pentecost). The first edition of Eck’s sermons was in the German vernacular and it was printed in 1530. I use the 1534 Latin translation by Johann Mentzinger (preacher of the cathedral of Mainz in 1534-38), which became the most widespread version of these sermons. I have consulted also the German edition, Johannes Eck, Christenliche Außlegung der Evangelienn vonn der zeit durch das gantz jar, 2 vols (Ingolstadt: Georg Apian, 1530), 2, fol. 109rv.

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per totam quadragesimam” – a topos that we know quite well.123 The prodigal son was the archetypus of any penitent (in German, it reads: “der ist ein form einß rewenden menschen”). These were concepts that Eck had stated in the 1519 disputation and that were disseminated later on at large through his model sermons. Moreover, in this section Eck summarized his teaching with a sentence of Augustine that became a refrain in Catholic sermons on the prodigal son: “He who created you without you will not justify you without you”.124 4.2 Friedrich Nausea against the “Licence to Sin” Among the most influential Catholic preachers in the 1530s was Friedrich Nausea.125 After a stint as cathedral preacher in Mainz between 1526 and 1534 (from the sermons of that period derived his popular Centuriae), he was chosen by Ferdinand of Austria as counsellor and court preacher, and later was appointed bishop of Vienna (1541). As a proponent of the so-called via media, he advocated a deep reform of the Catholic Church by acknowledging that Evangelicals had stressed several good points, and he participated in several Catholic-Lutheran colloquies, as well as in some sessions of the Council of Trent, where he died in 1552. The sermons that Nausea preached at the Vienna court during Lent 1535 were printed a few months later as his Sermones quadragesimales. Although these are just brief schemes, the notes on the prodigal son present several interesting features. Nausea asserted that many contemporary preachers had 123

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“Estque haec expositio piae meditationi commodissima. Nam si fundamentum inspicias, tria haec necessaria sunt ad conversionem peccatoris, que hic comtinue sine ulla alia intermixtione dominus coninxit (habes hic materiam praedicandi per totam quadragesimam)”; Eck, Homiliarum, p. 419. “Etsi autem Christus pro peccatoribus mortus sit, et ecclesia pro iisdem oraverit, tamen necessarium adhuc est ut peccator […] etiam quod suum est faciat. Qui creavit te sine te, non iustificabit te sine te. Atque ideo prioribus duabis tertiam adhuc parabolam adiunxit dominus de filio prodigo, qui hominis poenitentis quidam velut archetypus est, aptissime representans, quomodo ille peccando alienatus sit a deo, quomodo in seipsum digressus poenitentiam meditetur, et quomodo ad patrem veniens sit peccata confessus […]. His itaque tribus parabolis bene pensatis, habes quicquid necessarium est ad agendam ­poenitentiam”; Eck, Homiliarum, pp. 419-20. Augustine’s sentence is in his Sermo 169, PL 38:923. On Nausea’s life and works, see Gerhard Philipp Wolf, “Friedrich Nausea (1496-1552). Prediger, Kontroverstheologe und Bischof,” Zeitschrift für bayerische Kirchengeschichte 61 (1992), 59-101, which however devotes little attention to Nausea’s sermons, for which one has to rely on Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 55-70. Still useful is Remigius Bäumer, “Friedrich Nausea (ca. 1490-1552),” in Erwin Iserloh, ed., Katholische Theologen der Reformationszeit, 5 vols (Münster, 1984-88), 2, pp. 92-103.

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broken with the long tradition that went from the patriarchs to Christ and from the apostles to the doctors of the Church. Some preacher put so much emphasis on God’s mercy that, according to Nausea, he transformed human sin into a minor issue. Thus, these preachers encouraged the people to abandon both penitence and fear of God, thereby presenting their audience with a sort of “licence to sin”.126 The reference to Lutheran positions (or better, to their polemic misrepresentations) was obvious to Nausea’s listeners. Still, he recognized that the opposite problem was also true. There were people, who had such a great fear about their sins that they risked despairing about their salvation. The Church had provided Lent to support the sinners in their penitence, and the parable of the prodigal son served to persuade the audience that God was ready to have mercy on each sinner who repented, no matter how great or inveterate his or her sins. In this way, Nausea aimed to depict a balanced presentation of penitence from a Catholic perspective. While he denounced the mistakes caused by the Reformation, he implicitly recognized that Luther had addressed some legitimate issues. Following this introduction, the sermon unfolds into a quite simple commentary on the parable, which is explained according to its traditional penitential reading, combining the role of human effort and God’s grace.127 Within Nausea’s text one finds the section of Iacopo da Varazze’s sermon that invites the sinner to trace his or her life via a sort of spiritual map, on which one had to locate himself or herself.128 It is quite revealing that a prominent churchman such as Nausea, preaching at the court of Ferdinand of Austria during those 126

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“Quanquam plerique nostra tempestate predicatores ita contra omnium patriarcharum, prophetarum, Iesu Christi, eiusque apostolorum, et id genus doctorum sanctorum morem dei misericordiam ex innocentissima Iesu Christi passione et morte potissimum proclamantes sublevarunt, tamquam nihili fecerunt omnia peccata, et usque adeo non opus esse tanta pro eis peccatis poenitentia, ut pene nobis ex dei misericordia licentiam peccan­di fecerint, dederintque multis occasionem ne prorsus poeniteant, neque deum timeant propter peccata, quibus illum offenderunt”; Friedrich Nausea, Sermones qua­dra­ gesimales (Cologne: Peter Quentel, 1535), fol. 19r. Quentel reprinted this collection in 1544. According to Nausea, grace intervenes after contrition but before confession and satisfaction: “Occurrit et osculatur pater illum, quando deus ineffabili sua gratia et misericordia praevenit confessionem peccatoris et satisfactionem, contentus pro tunc firmo suo pro­ po­sito et contritione”; Ibid., fol. 19v. “Ad poenitentiam vero non dubie peccator movebitur, ubi recognoscit ubi fuit, quia in peccato, i.e. a deo et eius gratia separatus; et ubi erit, quia in iudicio, in quo veritas et iusticia est, non autem misericordia; ubi est, quia in miseria, derelictus ab omnibus, ubique non sit, quia non gloria, quo omnes tendunt. Quae sane si ex animo cogitat peccator oportet, doleat, timeat, gemat, et suspiret”; Ibid., fol. 19v. For Iacopo da Varazze’s pas-

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years of religious turmoil, did not have qualms about reusing a passage derived from a thirteenth-century Dominican preacher. Within the Catholic renewal of preaching in the 1530s and after the medieval legacy was alive and kicking. 4.3 Nikolaus Ferber: “Scripturam scripturis interpretari” The Enarrationes evangeliorum per sacrum quadragesimae tempus by Nikolaus Ferber of Herborn (d. 1535) reflect what he preached in Cologne in the early 1530s. They are interesting when viewed in light of the biography of this Observant Franciscan friar.129 As guardian of the Marburg friary, Ferber faced the confessional crisis directly. He had a personal link with the Landgrave Philipp of Hesse, and since 1525 tried to convince him to remain in the Catholic camp, as attested by their epistolary exchange.130 When the Landgrave summoned a synod in Homberg (1526) for the reformation of his territory, Ferber was the only ecclesiastical leader to oppose this project, which Philipp of Hesse had entrusted to a person that we have already encountered, the former Franciscan turned Lutheran François Lambert. Ferber had a fierce discussion with Lambert and contested the validity of the synod itself, that is, the authority of Philipp of Hesse. As a result, he was expelled from the assembly, and the Franciscans were eventually forced to leave Marburg, where their friary became the seat of the new Lutheran University in 1527.131 Ferber became guardian of the friary of Brühl, near Cologne, where he also was appointed as the cathedral preacher.132 Between 1530 and 1532 he was minister of the Observant province of Cologne and subsequently commissarius generalis Cismontanus, which gave him the occasion to travel through many European countries as

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sage, see above p. 123 (this topos was used also by the Sermones thesauri novi and by Maillard). For another example of reuse of older models, see note 137. See Peter Fabisch, “Nikolaus Herborn OFM (ca. 1480-1534),” in Iserloh, ed., Katholische Theologen, 5, pp. 32-49. Still fundamental is the documentation gathered in Ludwig Schmitt, Der kölner Theologe Nikolaus Stagefyr und der Franziskaner Nikolaus Herborn (Freiburg in Breisgau, 1896), which briefly analyses also the Enarrationes evangeliorum, ivi pp. 142-50. For an updated bibliography, see Gisela Moncke, “Eine wiederentdeckte Druckschrift von Nikolaus Ferber aus dem Jahre 1529,” Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 82 (2007), 117-28. See Richard Andrew Cahill, Philipp of Hesse and the Reformation (Mainz, 2001), pp. 81-88. See Cahill, Philipp of Hesse, pp. 151-80. See also Edmund Kurten, Franz Lambert von Avignon und Nikolaus Herborn in ihrer Stellung zum Ordensgedanken und zum Franziskanertum im Besonderen (Münster, 1950). On the Observant Franciscans in the area, see Daniel Stracke, Monastische Reform und spätmittlealterliche Stadt. Die Bewegung der Franziskaner-Observanten in Nordwestdeutschland (Münster, 2013).

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well as to consider the needs of the mission overseas.133 He had a keen perception of the historical situation and of the necessity to formulate an energetic response to the challenges posed by the Reformation. Besides producing polemical writings against the Lutherans, Ferber acknowledged the need for a renewed pastoral approach. In 1529, he published a Metodus praedicandi verbi divini, which was printed as an appendix to the second edition of his anti-Lutheran Enchiridion.134 Although the Metodus was an ars praedicandi sui generis, which was written as a letter to his Franciscan brethren in the Brühl convent, the Metodus was the first treatise on preaching that directly considered the challenges raised by the Lutheran movement and also integrated humanistic elements (in particular the call ad fontes). Ferber criticized the Catholic preachers who relied on old and overly convenient books for preaching (such as the by now infamous Dormi secure) or even those who light-heartedly used Luther’s sermons – which Ferber harshly labelled as feces. In proper humanist fashion he denounced the use of fables and silly stories in preaching and also criticized those who quoted philosophers and canon law masters or entered into overly subtle scholastic disputes.135 In his Metodus, Ferber exhorted his readers to base their sermons on biblical and patristic sources. Introducing his Enarrationes in 1532, he was even more radical in the choice to focus solely on Scripture. In the dedicatory letter, he wrote that the sermons reflected his preaching in the Cologne cathedral and explained that he quoted only a few auctoritates, since the people now wanted sermons only based on the Bible. I mention the names of the doctors only rarely […]. The fact that I did not mention their names was not out of malice but after proper consideration, so that I might serve actual listeners, to whom nothing could be more pleasing than to be explained Scripture through Scripture.136 133

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Ferber wrote one of the first treatises targeting the mission in the New World; see Bert Roest, “Early Mendicant Mission in the New World: Discourses, Experiments, Realities,” Franciscan Studies 71 (2013), 197-217: 210. Nikolaus Ferber, Methodus praedicandi verbi divini, in Nikolaus Ferber, Locorum communium adversus huius temporis haereses enchiridion (Cologne: Peter Quentel, 1529), fols. S7v-Y5v. See John O’Malley, “Form, Content, and Influence,” pp. 36-40 and Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 53-55. See also Bert Roest, “‘Ne Effluat in Multiloquium et Habeatur Honerosus’: The Art of Preaching in the Franciscan Tradition,” in Franciscans and Preaching: Every Miracle from the Beginning of the World Came about through Words, ed. Timothy J. Johnson (Leiden, 2012), pp. 383-412: 406. “Confero enim scriptura scripturis, locos locis, id quod hactenus ita observare studui, ut inter conciones, raro doctorum nomenclaturam citaverim […]. Non tamen malitia a

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“Scripturam scripturis interpretari” framed exactly the current necessity for preachers to meet Luther on his own terms. In his sermon on the prodigal son, Ferber relied primarily on biblical sources and only mentioned a few patristic authors in passing. His focus was on the first part of the parable, while the elder brother’s part was relegated to an appendix. Although the Franciscan preacher presented both the allegorical interpretation (the two sons as the Jews and the Gentiles) and the moral interpretation (the prodigal son as model sinner and penitent), it is clear that the latter was his main topic. Introducing the sermon, Ferber presented a division that closely followed those found in the previous centuries: “The message of the parable can be divided in three parts: first, the receding of the sinner from God, and from the supreme good; second, his miserable and catastrophic condition; third, the kind and smooth reception of the repentant”.137 Finally, in the recapitulation of the sermon, Ferber exhorted his audience to identify with the prodigal son and to perform the same penitential itinerary, “since we also are sons of perdition, who have squandered all our wealth”.138 In this sermon, polemics are absent, and the Lutheran positions are not even mentioned. The fact that the text underlines confession as legitimate and fruitful only within the Church (“in Ecclesia legitima et fructuosa est confessio”), or that it puts forth the servants of the father as symbols of the Church ministers, becomes meaningful only when considering the historic context in which Ferber wrote this sermon.139 The sermon’s division and use of these ele-

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citando nomine abstinui, sed consilio, quo videlicet et tempori servirem presenti et auditoribus quoque satisfacerem, quibus aliud nihil gratius erat quam scripturam scripturis interpretari”; Nikolaus Ferber, Enarrationes evangeliorum per sacrum quadragesimae tempus (Antwerp: Michael Hillen, 1533), fol. A3r. The dedicatory letter was addressed to the Infante Ferdinand of Portugal (d. 1534) and was written on 10 October 1532 in Ypres. “Haec est summa totius parabolae, quam in tres partes partire libet. Primo, ponetur peccatoris a Deo, adeoque a summo bono, recessio. Secundo, miseranda eiusdem et calamitosa conditio. Tertio, benigna ac blanda resipiscentis suceptio”; Ferber, Enarrationes, fol. 105rv. A few years later, another Franciscan preacher, Johannes Royaerd (d. 1547), who was active mainly in Bruges, wrote a sermon using the penitential division of late medieval sermons on this parable: “In hac sancti evangelii lectione tria summatim comprehenduntur. Primum est a Deo peccatoris inconsulta aversio. Secundum aversi a Deo consulta conversio, ibi: in se autem reversus. Tertium, erga revertentem benigna Dei miseratio”; Johannes Royaerd, Homiliae in evangelia feriarum quadragesimae (Antwerp: Johann Steels, 1546), fol. 89v. Each part is divided in five points, which are literally taken from Ferrer’s model sermon. “Itaque et nos filii sumus perditionis, qui omnem substantiam prodegimus. Age igitur, hoc quisque praestet quod hic filius, redeat ad cor, certum apud se propositum firmiter vitandi peccatorum occasiones […]”; Ferber, Enarrationes, fol. 115r. See Ferber, Enarrationes, fols. 110r and 113r. The sentence on legitimate confession was taken from Augustine and Bede (see above p. 38) and was present in Aquinas’ Catena aurea.

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ments were quite similar to what we have seen in the sermons of the previous centuries. Yet these features no longer remained undisputed. 4.4 Georg Witzel: “Better than Any Other Lively Description …” The 1540’s witnessed a large production of Catholic Postils, which attempted to be as biblically-based as possible and to combine “traditional exegesis with specifically counter-Reformation discourse”.140 One of the leading preachers of this period was Georg Witzel (d. 1573).141 His complex biography gave him a peculiar acquaintance with the Lutheran positions. Witzel had become a priest at a rather young age in 1520. Attracted by Luther’s teaching, he joined the Reformation in 1524 and married. Luther himself appointed him as pastor, a role that he would have for several years. However, he started doubting the validity of Lutheran theology, especially in terms of its consequences for the morality of the people. These doubts even earned him a period of imprisonment in Wittenberg for heresy. When he was released in 1530, he first moved back to Vacha in Thuringia, where he once had been a Catholic priest, and then in 1531 he re-converted to Catholicism. Witzel marked his break with the Lutheran positions with a theological work that was programmatically entitled Pro defensione bonorum operum, adversos novos evangelistas (1532), a compendium of the New Testament passages that supported the necessity of good works.142 In 1533, he became advisor and preacher for George Duke of Saxony (d. 1539), and the Catholic authorities allowed him to keep his wife and ­children with him in Dresden (without, however, providing him with a dis­pensation).143 While the Lutherans depicted Witzel as a Judas, the German Catholics found in him not only a fervent convert and a learned spokesman, but more importantly someone who knew Lutheran preaching from the inside. While other Catholic theologians had only read and studied Luther’s sermons to rebut 140 141

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Frymire, The Primacy, p. 75 and, in general, pp. 98-139. On the life and works of Witzel, see Barbara Henze, Aus Liebe zur Kirche Reform: Die Bemühungen Georg Witzels (1501-1573) um die Kircheneinheit (Münster, 1995) and Werner Kathrein et al., eds., Im Dienst um die Einheit und die Reform der Kirche: Zum Leben und Werk Georg Witzels (Frankfurt am Main, 2003). [Georg Witzel], Pro defensione bonorum operum, adversus novos evangelistas (Leipzig: Michael Blum, 1532). He expanded this work in his Comprehensio locorum utriusque testamenti de absoluta necessitate bonorum a fide operum (Leipzig: Nikolaus Wolrab, 1538). In the following years, Witzel was among the most active proponents of the possibility of a marriage for clergymen alongside the option of celibacy (a position that, for instance, was supported also by Nausea); see Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, From Priest’s Whore to Pastor’s Wife: Clerical Marriage and the Process of Reform in the Early German Reformation (Farnham, 2012), pp. 259-62.

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them, Witzel “had made them his daily bread for nearly a decade”.144 He knew how to tackle that model from a Catholic point of view. His massive Sunday Postils and his other sermon collections had an extraordinary success, with more than sixty editions from 1537 to 1577 in the Holy Roman Empire. Among Witzel’s works, his Quadragesimale catholicum also had a considerable dissemination, with eight editions between 1546 and 1571. Printed first in the vernacular, these sermons were immediately translated into Latin (1547) and circulated at large in this language, not only in the German lands, but also in France.145 Witzel’s sermon on the prodigal son deals with both the itinerary of the protagonist as a model of the penitential process and the allegorical reading on the Jews and the Gentiles. While the allegorical interpretation did not present surprises, the penitential reading allowed Witzel to underline the necessity of penitence and good works. This position was an obvious reference to the opposing Lutheran ideas, which were addressed directly and in a more polemical way in the Latin translation made by Gerhard Lorich of Hadamar, a Catholic priest who translated several works of Witzel.146 In general, the sermon reaffirms the necessity of contrition at the beginning of the penitential process, yet it presents contrition as an effect of grace. Furthermore, it stresses the threefold aspects of penitence as well as the interpretation of the banquet as participation in the Eucharist liturgy. 144 145

146

See Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 107-08, and on Witzel’s sermon collections, pp. 107-19. The work had seven editions in the Holy Roman Empire (according to Frymire), and one in Paris (1565). In the dedicatory letter, Witzel stated that he had written a sermon collection that focused more on the literal interpretation of the Biblical text than previous ones, in order to provide preachers with a suitable model to instruct their congregations. Witzel’s list of collections he had consulted is interesting, as it includes many of the fifteenthcentury preachers that we have considered in the previous chapters, such as Conrad Grütsch, Johann Nider, Roberto Caracciolo, Leonardo da Udine, and Geiler von Kaysersberg; see Witzel, Quadragesimale catholicum, fol. *5v. For instance, introducing the penitential reading, Lorich wrote: “Quod si in hunc sensum presentem parabolam accipis, cave peccatoribus pertinacie ansam porrigas, quod Lute­ rani faciunt, poenitentiam non a contritione et luctu, sed a gaudio, auspicandam dogmati­ zantes”; Georg Witzel, Quadragesimales conciones, trans. Gerhard Lorich (Cologne: Heirs of Johann Quental, 1559), p. 132 (the first Latin edition dates 1547). Witzel’s original text invites his readers to be cautious in presenting the parable, but does not mention the Lutherans: “Darnach mag man dis gleichnis auff allerley sünder und püsser verstehn auch nach der Tauff, doch nit on grosse cautel, damit man nicht rohe leute mache und zu sehr leichtlich Ablas ausswerffe an den Gottes zorn …”; Witzel, Quadragesimale, fol. R5v. On Lorich, see Frymire, The Primacy, p. 128.

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In this sermon, Witzel explicitly acknowledged the role played by other media of religious instruction in familiarizing the populace with the story of the prodigal son and its spiritual meaning. He stated that this parable enabled believers to visualize “before their eyes” human history and its vicissitudes of sin and redemption better than any other lively description (“plus quam hypotypice”).147 Then, he added: Therefore, it is nice that this extraordinary parable is staged so often as a comedy and is so perfectly represented by painters and embroiderers. In this way, it is clearly represented to everybody, old and young, how the mercy of God is overwhelming, which he manifested to the entire world in Jesus Christ, his only Son.148 Witzel clearly saw the potential of a close cooperation between different media. What he depicted with his words was visible to his audience in paintings, woodcuts, engravings, and tapestries.149 Indeed, in the sixteenth century the theme of the prodigal son became exceptionally popular in every form of visual art, including images on domestic objects such as dishes and tankards,150

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“Denn hie wirt uns für die augen gestelt, plus quam hypotypice, wie das menchlich geshlecht verlorn, und in sünden todt war, aber es ist errett, aus der hellen gefürt, aus der maledeiung gerissen, lebendig gemacht, erhöhet, geehret, und endtlich zu Gottes kindschfft und Erbe gesezt”; Witzel, Quadragesimale, fol. S2v. The rethoric figure of the hypotyposis (in Latin evidentia) indicates a lively description used to give the illusion of reality. “Ist derhalben fein, das ist dise allerlieblichste Parabel Comoedien weise gespilet, und von malern und stickern auffs künstlichst controfact wirt, damit allen menschen alt und jung deutlich eingebildet were, wie übergros Gottes erbarmung sey, welche er in Christo Jesu seinem eingebornen der ganzen welt erzeigt hat”; Witzel, Quadragesimale, fol. S2v. The Latin translation skips the reference to the images, while it states that the religious plays were both in Latin and in German; Witzel, Quadragesimales conciones, p. 135. Particularly fitting is the comparison with a German tapestry woven in 1517 (today in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin); see Cantzler, Bildteppiche, pp. 137-38. See also Adolph S. Cavallo, ed., Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1993), pp. 513-16 (fragments of a tapestry woven in the southern Netherlands, c.1510-25). A 1525 majolica plate probably made in Gubbio and depicting the prodigal son among swine (following a well-known Dürer’s engraving) is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York (n. 1975.1.1105), while a 1580-1620 ceramic bowl is held by the British Museum (n. 1894,0807.1). Moreover, a 1575 tankard depicting the parable is held by the Boijmans Museum of Rotterdam (n. A 3195); see Anne Jaap van den Berg et al., Thuis in de Bijbel: Oude meesters, grote verhalen (Zwolle, 2014), pp. 124-25.

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table­cloth and the sides of iron stoves,151 or even decorated shoehorns (fig. 39).152 Furthermore, considering Witzel’s reference to plays on the prodigal son, one has to note that throughout his sermons he repeatedly named the prodigal son as Acolastus.153 Due to the extraordinary success of Gnapheus’ namesake play, which was available both in German and in Latin at that time, such a name is not a coincidence. More than using just a learned Greek term, Witzel played with the memory of his listeners, since several of them could have witnessed a performance of, or read the play Acolastus. After all, introducing his sermon on the prodigal son, Witzel stated that a parable was like a comedy. Both were invented stories, and yet they had the capacity to reveal the reality of human life. 5

Johann Wild’s Lenten Cycle on the Prodigal Son (Mainz 1547)

The last preacher considered here is Johann Wild (d. 1554).154 He was born in 1495 and entered the Observant Franciscan order in 1515. In 1528, he was appointed convent preacher in the friary of Mainz. Eleven years later, his homiletic reputation had become such that he was also appointed preacher of Mainz cathedral, a position usually reserved for secular preachers, such as Friedrich Nausea before him. Wild would keep this position until his death in 1554.155 His preaching expressed an energetic appeal for a Catholic reformation. Such a stance was thematized particularly in his sermons at the diocesan synod in 1549. This synod was part of a broader program of reform that Sebastian 151

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A sixteenth-century linen tablecloth, with a sophisticated representation of the main scenes of the parable, is held by the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam (n. BK-1973-159). On iron stoves, see Dieter Pesch, Herdgussplatten: Bestandskatalog (Cologne, 1982), pp. 150-51. A 1578 shoehorn, decorated which the story of the prodigal son, is held by the Rijksmu­ seum of Amsterdam (n. NG-NM-3134). See van den Berg et al., Thuis in de Bijbel, pp. 126-27, which suggests a connection with Luke 15:22 (“Put sandals on his feet”). The Rijks­museum holds also another shoehorn with the representation of the parable, which dates 1597 (n. NG-NM-2968). See Witzel, Quadragesimale, fols. R5rv and S2v. See Thomas Berger, “Johannes Wild (1495-1554),” in Heribert Smolinsky and Peter Walter, eds., Katholische Theologen der Reformationszeit 6 (Münster, 2004), pp. 110-31. Still useful is Nikolaus Paulus, Johann Wild, ein Mainzer Domprediger des 16. Jahrhunderts (Cologne, 1893). On the religious context in Mainz, see Rolf Decot, “La prédication à Mayence,” in Arnold, ed., Annoncer l’Évangile, pp. 261-78, also available (with minor differences) as “Der Einfluss der Reformation auf die Predigt im Mainzer Dom von Capito bis Wild,” in Zwischen Konflikt und Kooperation: Religiöse Gemeinschaften in Stadt und Erzstift Mainz in Spätmittelalter und Neuzeit (Mainz, 2006), pp. 87-102.

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von Heusenstamm (d. 1555), archbishop of Mainz and prince-elector, promoted in the wake of the 1548 Augsburg Interim.156 After the synod, the archbishop compelled Wild to publish his sermons as official model sermons for the region under his jurisdiction. Since the late 1530’s, leading Catholic reformers had urged Wild to print his famous sermons but he had firmly refused.157 The ­archbishop’s authoritative request forced Wild to submit the manuscripts of his earlier sermons. He also prepared an additional set of Sunday sermons, the first volume of which was edited in 1552, but the second only two years later, because in 1552 the Lutheran troops of the Margrave Albrecht Alcibiades of Brandenburg-Kulmbach occupied Mainz temporarily. During the occupation, Wild was apparently the only Catholic spokesman to remain in the city. His fame as a Bible-oriented preacher was so great, even among Lutherans, that the Franciscan friary was not damaged by soldiers, unlike many other Catholic churches and convents. Furthermore, Albrecht of Brandenburg asked to hear one of his sermons and appreciated it so much that he invited Wild to leave the Catholic side and become his official preacher.158 While Wild had great fame and the support of his archbishop in Germany, in other countries his books, which had begun to be printed in 1549, experienced almost immediate censorship. In 1551, the Sorbonne condemned his sermons on the Gospel of John as Lutheran. Throughout the second half of the century, Wild’s works continued to be successful and to collect condemnations at the same time. His case epitomizes the plurality of the mid-sixteenth-century Catholic world, as Frymire summarizes: It is a testament to the particularity of European Catholicism at this time that while Wild’s sermons were being condemned in places such as Paris and later Spain [and Rome] they could be printed with approbation all over Germany, Louvain, and the Netherlands. Archbishop von Heusen­stamm did not flinch at the Sorbonne’s condemnation of Wild.

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See Freidhelm Jürgensmeier, “Heusenstamm, Sebastian von (1508-1555),” in Gatz and Brodkorb, eds., Die Bischöfe, pp. 291-92. See Frymire, The Primacy, p. 139 and, on Wild’s sermons, pp. 139-48. Frymire summarizes here his previous “‘Der rechte Anfang zur volkommenen Reformation der Kirche’: Der Mainzer Domprediger Johann Wild und die Katholische Predigt und Druck im Anschluss an das Augsburger Interim von 1548,” in Frömmigkeit-Theologie-Frömmigkeitstheologie. Festschrift für Berndt Hamm, eds. Gudrun Litz, Heidrun Munzert and Roland Liebenberg (Leiden, 2005), pp. 437-51. See Frymire, The Primacy, p. 146.

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He continued to press upon his cathedral preacher to hand over his sermons.159 Only one year after the first Parisian condemnation, Wild’s Sunday Postils were published, bearing the archbishop’s coat of arms on the front page as a sign of the official approval of this sermon collection for his territory.160 Judging from the extraordinary dissemination of Wild’s sermon collections, Sebastian von Heusenstamm was right in considering them as a valuable weapon to counter Lutheran writings. Between 1549 and 1596, 34 works of Wild were published multiple times, amounting to no less than 250 editions in Latin, German, and several other languages.161 Wild’s sermon cycle on the parable of the prodigal son was among the first of his books to be printed. The cycle was originally preached during the 1547 Lenten period.162 According to the preface – a letter by the Mainzer humanist Theobald Spengel (d. 1562) to the humanist theologian Johannes Cochlaeus (d. 1552) – Wild had presented Spengel with a manuscript copy of his sermon cycle, just for personal use and with the request to give it to no one else. Yet Spengel eventually decided to have them printed, since the pastoral need of many was more urgent than the wishes of the author, and nothing else seemed to him more necessary in the present dangerous time than these sermons on 159 160 161 162

See Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 143-44. On the censorship on Wild’s sermons, pp. 328-67. See Johann Wild, Postill oder predigbuch Evangelischer warheyt und rechter Catholischer lehr uber die Evangelien so vom Advent an biß auff Ostern (Mainz: Franz Behem, 1552). See Decot, “La prédication à Mayence,” p. 275 and Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 514-15. The same year, the French humanist and theologian Claude d’Espence (d. 1571) published four homilies on the parable of the prodigal son; see Claude d’Espence, Homilies sur la parabole de l’enfant prodigue (1547), eds. Simone de Reyff et al. (Geneva, 2011). Although it is not clear whether this text was ever preached from the pulpit, it reflects the humanistic ideal of a return to the patristic model of preaching, and indeed was an updated imitation of Jerome’s exegesis (its modern editors define it as a “pratique de l’imitation adulte”; p. 62). The four homilies deal with: human free will (1); the sinner’s condition of misery (2); the sacrament of penitence (3); the condition of the Jewish people (4), at which juncture the humanist left Jerome’s exegesis in favour of the Augustinian interpretation. D’Espence gave this text to his editor in Lyon while, as a member of the French delegation, he was on his way to Bologna, where the Council had moved in March 1547. The homilies represented “une sorte de manifeste de l’humanisme chrétien” (p. 14), which still considered possible the return of everybody to the true house of the father, i.e. to a Church purified from its abuses. For a member of the party favourable to a profound reform of the Catholic Church, as d’Espence was, this was the main task of the Council. See also Alain Tallon, ed., Un autre catholicisme au temps des Réformes? Claude d’Espence et la théologie humaniste à Paris au XVIe siècle (Turnhout, 2010).

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penitence. According to this account, Wild had given Spengel these sermons “as he had conceived them, pronounced them in his pulpit, and as he had written them down”, thus indicating a close connection with their oral form.163 These sermons were printed in German in 1550 and translated into Latin in 1554. In less than twenty years, this sermon cycle alone was printed ten times (eight editions in Latin) in Germany, France, the Low Countries, and even Italy.164 This collection on the prodigal son consists of twelve sermons, which Wild had preached on Ash Wednesday, on each Sunday of Lent, and finally on each day from Maundy Thursday to Tuesday after Easter. Wild might have known Meder’s Quadragesimale, which likewise is centred on the prodigal son. However, in the 1547 sermons there is no explicit trace of the specific elements that characterized Meder’s Quadragesimale. Wild often preached using the lectio continua on a biblical book or text, so it is also possible that he decided to preach an entire Lenten cycle on the prodigal son without considering Meder’s example. If this was the case, we would have two German Observant Franciscan preachers who in quite different historical contexts singled out the parable of the prodigal son as an ideal platform for an entire Lenten collection. In the case of Wild, the parable enabled him to present his audience with an energetic appeal to conversion, and to discuss theological issues concerning penitence, grace, and free will. In other words, it served to directly address the burning 163

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“wie er sie concipirt und auff der Cantzel pronuncirt und geschrieben hatte”; Theobald Spengel, “Vorrede,” in Wild, Die Parabel, fols. *2r-*4v: *3v. On Cochlaeus see Remigius Bäumer, “Johannes Cochlaeus (1479-1552),” in Iserloh, ed., Katholische Theologen, 1, pp. 73-81 and on his role in the edition of Catholic sermon collections, see Frymire, The Primacy, pp. 57, 118, and 139. There are two German editions, both printed in Mainz by Franz Behem (1550 and 1557), and eight editions in Latin: Cologne: Heirs of Arnold Birckmann, 1554; Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1554; Antwerp: Jean Bellère, 1554; Mainz: Franz Behem, 1556; Antwerp: Martinus Nutius, 1557; Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1557; Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1567 (within Wild’s Opuscola); Venice: Giovanni Bariletti, 1567. The Latin translation is very close to the German, at least in two of the editions that I consulted: Johann Wild, De filii prodigi parabola conciones […]; Tempore Quadragesimali atque Pascha (Cologne: Heirs of Arnold ­Birkmann, 1554) and Johann Wild, Quadragesimalis interpretatio parabolae filii prodigi in qua ceu ­speculo peccatoris errantis, resipiscentis vitamque emendantis imago depingitur (Antwerp: Martin Nuntius, 1557). On the contrary, the 1554 Antwerp edition presents a loose translation written by the Augustinian canon Johannes Latomus (d. 1572), which requires further consideration for its peculiarities: Johann Wild, Quadragesimalia duo: alterum, in duo po­­ strema capita I libri Esrae et historiam evangelicam de muliere peccatrice; alterum, de filio prodigo, trans. Johannes Latomus (Antwerp: Jean Bellère, 1554).

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issues of the current theological and pastoral debate. Therefore, Wild’s sermon cycle is an extraordinary testimony of the relevance of this biblical narrative within sixteenth-century pastoral activities. 5.1 The Mirror: “In the Prodigal Son We Recognize Ourselves” On Ash Wednesday, Wild introduced his Lenten sermons by stating that penitence was the most necessary theme in preaching, but, since it tasted of “bitter krauts”, the people always ran away from it as far and as long as they could.165 Even when a person had one foot in the grave, he or she tried to find an excuse to avoid or postpone penitence. We try to accommodate ourselves as much as we can, so that we do not have to do penance. One relies on pure faith; another makes do with a sentence of Scripture, which indeed he understands incorrectly.166 These were allusions to the Lutheran motto sola gratia and sola Scriptura, and yet Wild did not attack the Lutherans head on. Instead, his preaching aimed to involve his listeners directly, by addressing them in the first-person plural (“wir”) throughout his sermon cycle. Wild immediately stated a basic professio fidei (“Unßer glaub helt das …”) in the Church as the only place where the forgiveness of sins was granted to penitents. This belief was “our greatest consolation” (“unser höchster trost”), since “we must know ourselves as sinners” (“Fur sünder müssen wir uns bekennen”), and no one could be saved without forgiveness of sins. However, forgiveness could not be without penitence. In fact, Christ began his preaching with a penitential message (cf. Matthew 4:17) and “where penitential preaching has no space, there one knows the Church of God or of Christ not to be”.167 On the contrary, Lent provided the ideal time for intense penitential preaching (“sechs gantzer wochen zur bußpredig”), which had to be considered in close connection with the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. Many preachers, however, in their “soft sermons” (“mit jren sanfften predigen”) always preached about grace, but never about penitence. To counter this nefarious habit, Wild stated that he followed the example of the Church 165

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“Es ist die buß was man sonst das gantz jar predigt, geht alles sanffter ein. Die buß aber ist ein bitter kraut, das kan dem Adam nit schmecken, er fleucht davor so lang und so weit er kan”; Wild, Die Parabel, fol. 1v (sermon 1). “Wir suchen und flicken uns wie wir künden, das wir nur nit an die buß müssen. Einer vertröst sich uff den blossen glauben, der ander behilfft sich jrgendt mit eim spruch der geschrifft, den er doch onrecht versteht”; Ibid., fol. 2r. “Und wo die buß predig kein statt hat, da ist auch gewißlich nit die Kirche Gottes oder Christi”; Ibid., fol.3r.

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Fathers, who did not separate grace and penitence in their sermons.168 Therefore, he had chosen to preach on the parable of the prodigal son, since this narrative permitted him to discuss sin, its bitter consequences, grace and penitence, the Eucharist, the Passion, and the Resurrection of Christ. Wild asked his listeners to visualize and deeply carve this story into their memory.169 The first step was to acknowledge that the parable was their own story, therefore: “we have to ask [from God] the light of grace, so that we learn to recognize ourselves in the prodigal son”.170 The passages from the prodigal son to phrases beginning with “we also” are continuous in these sermons. This technique supported the identification of the listeners (and the preacher as well) with the prodigal son. Wild repeatedly insisted on this point, by depicting this parable as a mirror, as he stated at the beginning of the second sermon: In the previous sermon, I said among other things that the parable of the prodigal son is nothing but a mirror, in which it is possible to see at once both the sinner’s misery and the mercy of God, and to see how one passes from one to the other, i.e. from God’s favour and grace to the misery of a sinner, and back from the misery of sins to God’s grace. In fact, the prodigal son went through both experiences. […] These two mutationes or transformations are very different from one another. One is good, and the other is bad.171 168 169 170 171

“Unsßere alte Vetter […] gnaden haben sie auch geprediget, aber der bussen nit vergessen”; Ibid., fol. 3v. “Wölt Gott, wir kündten uns den verlornen son wol und dieff einbilden”; Ibid., fol. 4v. “Da will uns nun zum ersten not sein, das wir umb das liecht der genaden bitten, damit wir uns in dem verlornen Son lernen erkennen”; Ibid., fol. 5r. “In der nähsten Predig hab ich unter andrerm gesagt, das die gleichnuß von dem verlornen Son nichts anderst ist dann ein spiegell, darinnen man bei einander sicht des sünders onseligheit und Gottes barmhertzikeit, und wie mann von einem zu dem andern kömpt, das ist von Gottes gunst und genaden in das elend eins sünders; und herwider, aus dem ellend der sünden zu Gottes genaden. Der verlorn Son hat die beide erfarn. Er war in huld unnd genad, in ehr unnd gut bei seinem vatter, kame aber in die höchste armut unnd ellend, dargegen aber kam er aus sollichen onseligen wesen wider in sein vorige ehr unnd wolstandt. Das seind nun zwo mutationes oder enderung einander sehr ongleich. Die eine ist gut, die ander böß”; Ibid., fols. 11v-12r (sermon 2). Among many late medieval spe­ cula, Wild might have had Geiler’s Navicula sive speculum fatuorum in mind, which adopted similar expressions in its introduction; cf. Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg, Navicula sive speculum fatuorum (Strasbourg: [Matthias Schürer], 1510), fol. A2rv. This sermon cycle based on Brant’s Narrenschiff was repeatedly printed between 1510 and 1520 in southern Germany. Since Wild entered the Franciscan Observant province of Upper Germany in 1515, he might have used Geiler’s works during his homiletic training.

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Such a mirror, therefore, was not for a static contemplation of a fixed identity but allowed the ‘viewer’ to learn the way for a necessary transformation. At the end of the third sermon, which deals with the sinful life of the prodigal son, Wild asserted again that the parable was like “a mirror that Christ prepared for us”. Looking at this mirror might be unpleasant, nevertheless it was a quite useful tool, as it drove people to recognize their sin and to do penitence.172 The visual nature of this parable was an element that was stressed also by other contemporary preachers, such as Witzel and, on the other side of the doctrinal divide, Melanchthon. Wild recalled the comparison with the mirror again in the introduction of the fifth sermon, so to ensure that the audience memorized this concept.173 This theme was so important in Wild’s sermon collection that two of its Latin editions have as their title: “Lenten interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son, in which, as in mirror, it is depicted the image of the sinner who errs, recovers, and corrects his life”.174 Such a title also reflected the main division that Wild announced at the end of his first sermon, saying that the parable shows “how the sinner separates himself from God; how he returns to God; how he is received by God”.175 This threefold division was quite similar to many earlier sermons on the prodigal son. Yet, this time it was expanded to cover an entire sermon collection. 5.2 “Short Words with a Great Meaning” Considering the contemporary debate, the part in which Wild discussed “how and through which means man escapes the misery [of sin] and returns to God” is of particular relevance. He said that Christ presented this point in the para-

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“Das will uns Christus zu bedencken geben, das setzt er uns zu eim spiegel für. Wer hierinn die armseligheit und ellend des sünders nit sicht, der will nit sehen, ja will mutwillig verderben. Das lassend uns bedencken, liebe brüder. Es ist woll ein unlieblicher spiegell, kann uns aber zu viel gutem dienen. Es ist das erst so man bei der buß muß anzeigen. […] Gott wölle uns allen die augen auff thun, das wir unßern schaden sehen, unnd genad, das wir davor fliehen und darwider bauwen. Amen”; Wild, Die Parabel, fols. 24v-25r (sermon 3). Ibid., fol. 32v (sermon 5). Johann Wild, Quadragesimalis interpretatio parabolae filii prodigi in qua ceu speculo peccatoris errantis, resipiscentis, vitamque emendantis imago depingitur (Mainz: Franz Behem, 1556). The same title occurs in the editions Antwerp: Martin Nutius, 1557. “Als in dißer unßer Parabel vom verlornen Son, haben wir angezeiget: wie der sünder von Gott abweichet, wie er sich wider zu Gott bekeret, wie in Gott auffnimpt”; Ibid., fol. 7v (sermon 1).

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ble “with short words, and yet each of them has a great meaning”.176 Wild was careful in balancing the primacy of God’s grace and the role of human responsibility. The prodigal son came to himself as he replied to God’s call. His conversion was the result of the cooperation between grace and human will. Nothing could happen without God, “and yet we have to do our part”.177 The preacher pointed out that both the prodigal son’s actual misery and his memory of the father’s house brought him to come to himself. The fear of God was the necessary beginning of penitence. Hope for God’s mercy was also necessary, since it enabled the sinner to avoid desperation.178 Wild significantly insisted on God’s initiative and mentioned the role of faith beside hope: When these two come together – recognition of sin and faith in God’s mercy; fear and hope – then one does not long remain in his sin, as we can see in the prodigal son […]. However, both have to be instilled in us by God. […] God has given us both fear and hope: through fear he incites us; through hope of grace he attracts us.179 176

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“Da geht das ander stuck an, so in die bußpredig gehört. Wir haben gehört was den menschen von Got abwendet, und wohin in die sünde bringt. Nun für hin werden wir hören wie und durch welche mittel der mensch dem ellend entrinnt und wider zu Gott kompt. Unnd das zeigt nun Christus auch fein unnd deuttlich an, wiewol mit kurtzen worten, deren doch ein jedes etwas grosses auff im hat”; Ibid., fols. 35v-36r (sermon 5). This recalls what Giordano da Pisa said 250 years earlier, see above p. 109. “Ist aber ein seltzam ding, ja on Gottes wirckung geschicht es nimmermeh. Wir müsseen aber das unßer auch da zuthun”; Idib., fol. 37r. “Der anfamg (sag ich) ist es zur buß, wenn mann die sünd erkennet, und sich dabei förchtet. Ist aber noch kein rechte buß. Was gehört dann meh dazu? Hör was der verlorn Son weiter sagt: O, wie viel taglöner seind in meines vatters hauß, die brots genung haben. Da sihestu wie er sich wendt von seinem ellend zu seines vatters güttigheit. […] Das gab jm ein hoffnung. Und das ist auch das ander, das zur buß gehört. Es ist nit genug das man die sünd und Gottes zorn sicht, und darab erschrickt, zittert, weinet, unnd trauret. Mann muß auch hoffen, und sich mit der hoffnung Göttlicher genaden wider auffrichten, sonst verzweifeln wir”; Ibid., fol. 38rv. Within these sermons, the ultimate example of desperation is Judas, who recognized his sins but had not faith in God’s mercy. Judas is compared both with the apostle Peter (cf. sermon 3, fols. 22v-23r) and with the prodigal son: “Sihe aber zu, das deine beicht im gluaben geschehe, darumb sagt der verlorn Son: Vatter, ich habe gesündiget. Judas saget auch: Ich habe gesündiget (Matthew 27:4). Er kundt aber nit glauben, das Gott ein vatter wer, darumb mußt er verzweifflen”; fol. 54r (sermon 7). This passage is in the sermon on Palm Sunday, when the liturgy read the Passion of Matthew and so also the episode of Judas’ suicide. “Wo die zwei zusamen kommen, Erkentnuß der sünden unnd Glaub in die barmhert­ zigheit Gottes, forcht unnd hoffnung, da bleibt der mensch nit lang in sünden. Das sehen wir nun an dem verlornen Son, das er sich als bald auffmacht. Es muß aber Gott die beide

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Thereafter, Wild presented (and replied to) the questions of a fictive listener: But nobody should say: “Since God does all, what can I do? Who can ascribe the fault to me, if I remain a sinner? For surely it depends not on anyone’s will or action, but only on the mercy of God etc.” Not like that, brother! The children of the world might want to excuse themselves with such arguments, and yet they deceive themselves. God always anticipates us with his grace: I stand – he says – at the door and knock. Who opens me the door, to him I will come etc. [cf. Revelation 3:19-20].180 The fictive listener seems to give voice to Lutheran positions or at least how they could be assimilated at a popular level, but the reply of contemporary Luthe­ran leaders such as Brenz and Melanchthon would not be very different from that of Wild. The quotation from Revelation 3 further increases the resemblance with Melanchthon’s sermon – although one has to recall that it had been used by Bonaventure as well as by fifteenth-century preachers such as Bernardino da Siena.181 5.3 Grace, Free Will, and Confession In the sixth sermon, Wild underlined that the good purpose (“ein guter fürsatz”) of the prodigal son, who decided to return home and to ask forgiveness for his sins, was the result of the action of cooperant grace.182 While only the sinner was responsible for leaving God, the return depended on God’s grace, and “by looking at the prodigal son one can see in which way God helps the

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in uns wirken. Niemand kann seine sünden recht erkennen, Gott thue jm dann die augen auff; niemand kan recht glauben, Gott gebe es jm dann […]. Gott zeigt uns die sünd durch sein gesatz. Er straffet die sünde durch seinen geyst, er gibt uns beide forcht unnd hoffnung ein. Mit der forcht treibet er uns, mit hoffnung der genaden zeucht er uns”; Ibid., fols. 38v-39r (sermon 5). “Soll doch keiner derhalben sagen: ‘Thuts Gott alles, was kan ich dan thun? Was kan man mir auch die schuld geben das ich in sünden bleibe? Es stehet doch nit an jemandts wöllen unnd laufen, sondern allein an der barmhertzigheit Gottes, etc.’ Nit also, bruder! Die weltkinder wöllen sich wol hiemit entschuldigen, betriegen aber sich selbs. Dann Gott fürkompt uns alle zeit mit seinen genaden: Ich – spricht er – steh vor der thür unnd klopffe, wer mir auffthut, zu dem will ich einkern, etc.”; Ibid., fol 39rv. See above pp. 74, 202 and 404. “Das war der rechte anfang zur buß, zur genaden, zum heil. Und was ist diß anders gewesen, dann Gratia Dei cooperans, die mitwirckende genade Gottes?”; Ibid., fol. 43v.

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sinner”.183 This allowed Wild to explain in detail the stages of justification by arguing that the prodigal son’s process of conversion highlighted the various forms of grace at work: gratia praeveniens, gratia incitans, gratia cooperans, gratia iustificans, and gratia consummans or perficiens. Each Latin term was translated in the vernacular and associated with one stage of the prodigal son’s conversion.184 With this detailed catechesis – which adopted theological terms – Wild underlined the decisive role of grace in each passage of the penitential itinerary. Human free will was only asked to welcome grace. This reply was, however, essential. A person had to collaborate with grace, as Wild recalled with a phrase from Augustine that we have already encountered: The best that free will can do is to follow and welcome grace […]. Yet, our will and work have also to do their own part. Augustine said: Qui creavit te sine te, non iustificabit te sine te. Who created you without your contribution, he will not justify and save you without your contribution. It is said: Non ego, sed gratia Dei mecum [1 Corinthians 15:10]. Not I, but God’s grace; however, not without my contribution, yet with me. This is what one can see in the prodigal son. The largest part was God’s grace [work­ ing] on him, however he also did his part: I want to get up – he said – and go to my father.185 183

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“Solche gedancken kommen nit aus fleisch und blut [cf. Matthew 16:17], Gott wircks und erweckt sie in dem menschen. In der abkörung des sünders von Gott, wirckt fleisch und blut. Aber in der bekörung zu Gott, muß die genad vorn und hinden dran sein. Dein verderben – sagt Gott – hast du aus dir selbs, allein aber aus mir hast du dein hilff [cf. Hosea 13:9]. Wie aber Gott dem sünder helffe, sicht mann fein an dem verlornen Son”; Ibid., fol. 44r. “Zum ersten thet im Gott die augen auff, das er kundt sehen wo er lage, unnd was er verlorn het. Das war Gratia praeveniens, die fürkommende genade Gottes. Da er nun dißes behertzigt, unnd die erste genaden annam, erweckt Gott in jm ein gutten fürsatz, das er nit lenger wolt bleiben […]. Das war Gratia incitans, die treibende genade Gottes. Da er dißen fürsatz auch geschopfft het, gab jm Gott noch weiter genade, das er den gutten fürsatz auch an das werck leget. Das war Gratia cooperans, die mittwirckende genade Gottes. Er stund uff (spricht die schrifft) und kam zu seinem vatter. Da empfieng er nun auch Gratiam iustificantem, die genad dadurch mann gerechtfertigt wirt, in dem, das jm der vatter umb den hals fellt und jn küsset. Zu letst empfieng er auch Gratiam consummantem oder perficientem, die gnad dadurch der mensch volkommen wirdt, in dem, das jn der vatter hieß kleiden und speisen”; Ibid., fol. 44rv. “Das beste so der frei will hierinnen thut ist das er der genaden folget, die genaden annimpt, und jm die selbge nutz macht, sunst wurden wir allein unßers freien willens halber langsam von sünden auff stehn, wenn nit Gottes genad zuvor unnd mit und auch

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It does not appear coincidental that Wild’s attempt to systematically address the theological issues concerning free will and grace in his sermons came just a few months after the Council of Trent had issued its decrees on justification. Although some of Wild’s positions were condemned in France and Spain, throughout his career Wild was “a cautious postillator”.186 He was well aware of the danger of addressing theological issues still under debate. According to Frymire, this sermon – and in general this sermon collection – can be seen as a very early initiative to disseminate the decisions of the Council of Trent from the pulpit, which had started to determine the new ‘orthodox’ Catholic theology.187 However, beside the probable influence of the Tridentine document, one has also to consider that presenting a detailed theology of grace within a commentary on the prodigal son was common practice since the thirteenth century. Hugh of Saint-Cher’s Postilla, for instance, interpreted the gestures of the father welcoming his son with recourse to four types of grace: gratia preveniens, gratia cooperans, gratia conservans, and gratia consummans sive perficiens, while Bonaventure’s commentary – a text that Wild as a Franciscan probably knew quite well – depicted the threefold nature of grace as gratia preveniens, gratia concomitans, and gratia subsequens.188 Model sermons such as those by François de Meyronnes, Bernardino da Siena, and Giacomo della Marca had addressed the same theme while presenting the story of the prodigal son.189 In Wild’s sermons, the possible reception of the Tridentine decrees and the legacy of thirteenth-century scholastic exegesis were not mutually exclusive. What at a first glance might appear a reference to contemporary events could also be the perpetuation of a medieval line of exegesis. Wild was keen to discuss the decisive role of grace and the necessary cooperation of human free will by employing a theological lexicon that was not in the usual register of this sermon collection. Answering all the questions under debate was not a constant priority for Wild, as shown when he presented the prodigal son’s discourse to the father as an exemplary confession. On Palm

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hernacher wirckte. Jedoch muß dannoch unßer will unnd werck auch da bei sein. Qui creavit te sine te, non iustificabit te sine te, sagt Augustinus. Der dich erschaffen hat on dein zuthun, der wirt dich nit gerecht und selig machen on dein zuthun. Es heiß: Non ego, sed gratia Die mecum. Nit ich, sonder Gottes genad, doch nit on alles mein zuthun, sonder mit mir. Das sicht mann nun hie an dem verlornen Son. Das grössest thet die genade Gottes an jm, er thet aber das sein auch dazu. Ich will auffstehn (sagt er) und zu mainem vatter gehn”; Ibid., fols. 44v-45r. On the sentence of Augustine, see above note 124. Frymire, The Primacy, p. 139. See Frymire, The Primacy, p. 357. See above pp. 65 and 74. See above pp. 144-45, 213, 231, and 234.

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Sunday, the Franciscan preacher emphasized that the prodigal son, even when he had already experienced the father’s mercy, still accused himself, since he longed to hear the father’s graceful words of forgiveness.190 For the same reason, Wild exhorted his listeners to make their confession during Holy Week, and to leave out all the doctrinal questions about this sacrament, since they could prevent them from confessing their sins: We do not have to argue fiercely whether [confession] was established by God or not. Here you have heard that confession is good and useful, that God appreciates it and it is his glory [cf. Matthew 9:8]. Therefore, you also [like the prodigal son] need to find consolation through an oral confession, if you want to be at peace with your conscience. Why do you complain about confession?191 In this way, Wild avoided the harsh discussion about the divine origin and sacramental nature of confession, and pointed out the personal requirements for a good confession, which needed to be moved by faith as well as by the willingness to be sincere, complete, and humble. The parable should be viewed as a model. This approach is illustrated even more clearly in a book of prayers written by Wild, in which the repentant is explicitly asked to identify with the prodigal son by preparing his own confession.192 Wild’s reluctance to provide his audience with assurances on the divine origin of the sacrament of confession may be surprising. However, one has to con190

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“Wolt er dannoch auch mit dem mund sich selber anklagen, damit er auch das mündlich wort der versünung und genaden möcht hören. Unnd das soll uns noch heuttigs tags treiben zu der beicht”; Wild, Die Parabel, fol. 53v (sermon 7). “Wir dürffen nit viel disputieren, ob sie von Gott gebotten sei oder nit. Hie hörest du das die beicht gut unnd nutz ist, das sie Gott gefelt, unnd sein ehr ist. So darffest du auch mündlicher tröstung, solt du zu friden kommen in deiner gewissen. Was beschwerest du dich dann zu beichten?”; Ibid., fols. 53v-54r. “Resipiscentis cum filio perdito coram Deo confessio: En Domine Deus, infoelix ego peccator, ad paterne tue miserationis solium provolutus, peccatum meum, cum filio perdito, supplex deprecatum venio. Peccavi pater coelestis in te, filius tuus vocari deinceps dignus non sum, quia homo peccator sum, nunquam in mandatis tuis delectatus sum […]. Accedo ergo ad te, cum filio illo perdito, in quo pro tua clementia misericodiam tuam magnificasti, cuius conversionem patienter expectasti, quem etiam cum gaudio susci­ piens insigni decorasti elogio: Filius – inquiens – hic meus mortus erat et revixit, perditus erat et inventus est”; Johann Wild, Libellus precationum […] nunc primum Latinitate donatus (Mainz: Franz Behem, 1554), fols. 74rv and 77r. Wild’s Bettbüchlin was a bestselling text with six German editions (all printed in Mainz) and eleven Latin editions, published in Mainz, Antwerp, Cologne, Lyon, and Dilligen.

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sider that first of all, he had a pastoral goal in mind. Lent was at its end, and he did not need to resolve a theological controversy but to convince his listeners to confess their sins during those very days. Moreover, the doctrinal issues were still under discussion at the Council of Trent and it was not easy to preach on them without assuming risky positions. The decree on the sacrament of penitence would be approved only in 1551, four years later. However, only a few weeks before Wild preached this sermon, a conciliar canon had asserted that all and only the seven sacraments had been instituted by Christ.193 Preaching on such themes was problematic in the volatile religious debate of that period, especially because a preacher had to follow pastoral priorities that differed from those of systematic theology. This could be one of Wild’s main reasons in refusing initially to have his sermons published. They were written for urgent pastoral goals before the consolidation of the theological debate. Therefore, they risked not being completely orthodox in the end, and even subject to the accusation of Lutheranism – which was exactly what happened immediately after their publication, and even more so when the Tridentine Council concluded to set up the new theological paradigm. 5.4 The Elder Brother The final element to consider in this sermon collection is the role assigned to the elder brother. On Easter Monday, Wild said to his audience that the story of the prodigal son was complete with the feast in his honour. Following the prodigal son, they too had returned to the house of the father and enjoyed the feast and the spiritual gifts of God on Easter. Yet Christ had added a sort of appendix on the elder brother, which served to discuss the righteous people. Thus, Wild devoted the last two sermons of the collection to the elder brother.194 Sermon 193

194

“Si quis dixerit, sacramenta novae legis non fuisse omnia a Iesu Christo domino nostro instituta, aut esse plura vel pauciora quam septem, videlicet baptismum, confirmationem, eucharistiam, paenitentiam, extremam unctionem, ordinem et matrimonium, aut etiam aliquod horum septem non esse vere et proprie sacramentum: anatema sit”; Sessio VII, 3 March 1547, Decretum primum de sacramentis, Canones de sacramentis in genere, n. 1. “Nun wolan, so weit seind wir kommen mit unßerm verlornen Son, wir seind wider in unßers vatters hauß, in aller vorigen ehr, lieb, genad, unnd gunst unßers vatters, haben unßern trost, freud und lust, ja alles guts an Christo, der ist unßer Osterlemlein, ja unßer gemestes kalb. Unnd das wer nun eben genug für uns, höher küdern wir nit kommen auff erden, grössers künden wir nit hoffen! Unnd darumb möchte ich es wol hie bei lassen bleiben, unnd die Osterpredig damit beschliessen. So hat aber Christus noch etwas an die Parabel oder gleichnuß von dem verlornen Son gehenckt, das kann ich auch nit wol dahinden lassen. […] Mussen aber auch wissen, was der vatter mit dem andern unnd

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11 deals with the allegorical reading of this section of the parable, contributing to the renewed interest for this kind of interpretation.195 Sermon 12 presents the moral interpretation of the elder brother. While the condemnation of the elder brother’s presumption is predictable, the defence of his work in the field is more interesting, especially considering the criticism raised by Brenz and other Lutherans. Wild defended the elder brother’s commitment to working, which he depicted as a sign of obedience to God. The Franciscan preacher asked his audience to distinguish between the elder brother’s presumption, which had to be condemned, and his work in the house of the father, which was indeed an example to be praised (“zuloben”).196 As the prodigal son was a positive model in his conversion but not in his sinful life, the elder brother was criticized for his presumption but not for his labour while remaining under the authority of the father. Therefore, in the prayer that ended the sermon cycle, Wild combined the positive characteristics of both brothers: May the Almighty God give us all his grace, so that we convert to him from our heart, and throughout our life studiously aim to fulfil his will, so that we too can remain with him forever and enjoy his eternal goods with all the elects. Amen.197 For Wild, the profile of a perfect believer merged the good elements of the two sons. During Lent, he used the prodigal son to depict the process of conversion under the impulse of grace, while Easter was presented as the feast that celebrated the Resurrection of Christ as well as the new life of those who had fol-

195 196

197

eltern Son thue und handel. Dann Gott hat nit allein mit den sündern zuthun, sonder auch mit den gerechten […]. So wöllen wir nun die zwen tag vollends hören, was Christus auch von dem eltern Son sagt”; Ibid., fols. 86v-87r (sermon 11). This is proven also by the abovementioned sermons of Georg Witzel and Claude d’Espence. “Zum ersten, ist es recht unnd wol gethon, das der elter Son in des vatters hauß bleibt und arbeitet […]. Dann das gehört eim kind Gottes zu, deß hat uns Christus an jm selber ein exempel vorgetragen. […]. Darumb ist es an dißem eltern Son zuloben, das er sich auff dem acker und in der arbeit oder dienst seines vatters helt und finden leßt. Unnd das sag ich nit on ursach. Dann mann findt etlich die diß und der gleichen ort der schrifften also annemen, als ob Gott nit frag nach unßern wercken und dienst oder gehorsam”; Ibid., fol. 98r (sermon 12). “Der allmechtig Gott gebe uns allen sein genad, das wir uns von hertzen zu jm bekeren, und die gantze zeit unßers lebenß uns fleissen seinen willen zu thun, auff das wir auch dort ewig bei jm mügen bleiben, unnd seiner ewigen gütter mit allen außerwelten geniessen. Amen”; Ibid., fol. 101v.

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lowed the prodigal son’s example. However, at least in this world, everyday life in the house of the father (i.e. the Church) was not a continuous banquet. Thus, as a model for ordinary days, Wild encouraged his listeners to look at the commitment of the elder brother, who worked diligently and did not leave the safe harbour of his father’s house. After returning home and celebrating the feast, one had to remain obedient to God and active in his house. Moreover, to avoid future departures from God’s grace, in the last sermon the Franciscan preacher asked his listeners to jealously guard this parable in their hearts: “Who does not want to fail now, let him for sure take this parable to heart”.198 At the end of Lent, this precious pocket-sized Spiegel should not be stowed away; it had to be taken to heart, as a permanent mirror for one’s conscience. 198

“Wer nun nit felen wil, der laß jm dieße Parabel wol zu hertzen gehn”; Ibid., fol. 97v.

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Epilogue

Epilogue The sermons of Johann Wild brought us to the threshold of a new historical era dominated both by the solidification of confessional differences and by a fundamental shift in the political landscape. Three events symbolically mark this epochal transformation; namely, the Tridentine decrees on justification in 1547 as well as the 1555 Peace of Augsburg and the concomitant election of the inquisitor Gian Pietro Carafa as Pope Paul IV.1 The utter recomposition of Western European Christianity had been attempted either by means of religious dialogue or military enterprise; yet such approaches – embodied most importantly by Charles V – had proven untenable. The positions of the spokesmen of the via media, who had sought to attain a compromise among the different theological positions, were therefore considered with increasing suspicion – or no longer suited the demands of a time that prioritized clear-cut distinctions. The ultimate destiny of Wild’s works perfectly epitomizes the gradual transformation of the religious panorama. After his death in 1554, Wild’s sermons continued to be published with considerable success over the course of three decades, and yet a new generation of Catholic leaders looked at his works with growing diffidence. The attitude of the early German Jesuits clearly shows such a change. One of the earliest Jesuits in Ingolstadt was proud to recall that in 1556 the library of their college, recently founded by Peter Canisius (d. 1597), was able to acquire “three German volumes of Wild” – thanks to a generous donation from the Duke of Bavaria, Albrecht V (d. 1579) –, which would be used to train future Jesuit preachers.2 Still in 1566 and 1569, the sermons of Wild – as well as those of other via media proponents such as Georg Witzel – were among those recommended for an “integra bibliotheca catholica” in the indexes of

1 As a general introduction see MacCulloch, Reformation. On the 1547 decrees as key point of the Council, see Adriano Prosperi, Il Concilio di Trento: Una introduzione storica (Turin, 2001), pp. 65-67. On the early 1550s as a decisive turning point in the Catholic Church, see the recent work of Massimo Firpo, La presa di potere dell’Inquisizione romana 1550-1553 (Rome-Bari, 2014). 2 “Deinde opera D. Doctoris Hondij concessit optimus Princeps [Albert V], pro sua liberali voluntate, ut Bibliopola emerentur libri qui defuerunt in humanitate 40. Florenis. Mox tria Volumina Feri [i.e. Wild] Germanice aedita eiusdem Hondij benevolentia et principis expensis donata fuerunt, quae concionatoribus deservirent”; Beati Petri Canisii, S.J., Epistulae et acta, ed. Otto Braunsberger, 8 vols (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1896-1923), 2, pp. 902-03 (Thomas Lentulus; 7 July 1556). This episode is recalled – with some inaccuracy – in Frymire, The Primacy, p. 337. © PIETRO DELCORNO, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_009 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC License.

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Bavaria. This resulted from the work of a com­mission led by Canisius himself within the region that was at the forefront of the counter-reformation movement in the German lands.3 Notwithstanding the repeated condemnations of Wild’s books in other countries and the fierce attack that the Spanish Dominican Domingo de Soto launched against him in 1554, Wild’s sermons were still highly esteemed in the Catholic German territories of the 1560s.4 This esteem would not last, however. Just over a decade later, in 1580, when the counter-reformation movement had gained particular momentum, Canisius wrote a detailed letter dedicated to the issues of censorship and its repercussions for existing sermon collections to the new Duke of Bavaria, Wilhelm V. In his letter, the Jesuit explicitly criticized the works of Wild and Witzel. Canisius included them in a list of authors who were formerly considered Catholic and yet, “in the complete sense of the term they are not Catholic”, as their doctrinal exposition was not sufficiently clear or “in many places deviates from the approved Catholic faith”, i.e. from Tridentine theology (“Sacri Concilii Tridentini normam”) and its early reception.5 A sign of the changing times, while the previous Duke had supported the Jesuits by financing the purchase of Wild’s sermon collections for their libraries, his son was now asked to halt the dissemination and use of those same books. In the new confessional era, the works of these authors were neither useful nor acceptable. They had to be replaced with more doctrinally sound sermon collections and pastoral tools, among which was Canisius’ own catechism – one of the new Catholic 3 Frymire, The Primacy of the Postils, pp. 339-40. An excellent summary of the CounterReformation is provided by Elena Bonora, La Controriforma (Rome-Bari, 2001). 4 On the attack of Domingo de Soto against Wild, see Gérard Morisse, “Johann Wild et l’Inquisition espagnole,” Gutenberg Jahrbuch 70 (1995), 159-74. 5 “Ubi nec tacere possum nec debeo, scriptores quosdamn huius temporis Catholicos nominari, eorumque libros in precio haberi, et Catholico nomine vulgo celebrari, sed qui revera et integre Catholici non sunt. Loquor de Georgio Wicelio, Conrado Cligio, Joanne Fero, Jacobo Schöppero, Georgio Cassandro, ut alios id genus plures praetermittam. Et enim si horum scripta quae extant, legitime ponderentur, ac praesertim ad Sacri Concilii Tridentini normam, vereque solidam Theologiae regulam excutiantur, etiamsi maiore quidem ex parte doctrinam Catholicam tradant atque tueantur, tamen, si verum fatendum est, nonnunquam in fide sana et catholica religione claudicant, ac lima et praecisione quadam indigent, ut sine offensione tuto legantur et lectoribus pariant aedificationem”; Letter of Canisius to Wilhelm V (8 August 1580) in Beati Canisii epistulae, 7, pp. 549-55: 553. On this letter, see Frymire, The Primacy of the Postils, p. 342. On Canisius, see Patrizio Foresta, ‘Wie ein Apostel Deutschlands’: Apostolat, Obrigkeit und jesuitisches Selbstverständnis am Beispiel des Petrus Canisius (1543-1570), (Göttingen, 2016). Already in 1569, the Jesuit Alfonso Pisano, who was at the time professor of theology at Dillingen, expressed to Canisius some misgivings about the works of Wild and Witzel; see Beati Canisii epistulae, 6, p. 272.

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best­sellers.6 Due to a rather curious twist of events, Wild’s bodily ­remains suffered a similar fate at this time, traversing the path from glory to forced oblivion. After his death, he had been buried in the Franciscan church of Mainz close to the main altar; notably, in a position of prestige.7 Yet in 1574 the church passed over to the Jesuits – who had established themselves in the city in 1561 – and soon after they removed the headstone of the Franciscan preacher. The memorial of Wild was no longer a priority for the new inhabitants.8 I have opted to dwell on the destiny of Wild’s legacy, precisely because it reflects the broader transformation that was taking place. On the one hand, it refers to the gradual implementation of the new “Tridentine paradigm” and to the role of political powers in the age of the confessional Churches.9 On the other hand, it shows the increasing relevance of new protagonists within the Catholic milieu, such as the Jesuits. Parallel to these phenomena, among the Protestants, the prominent role Jean Calvin (d. 1564) and the Reformed ­chur­· ches achieved represented a radical novelty that further enriched and complicated the religious and political scene. The situation became even more complex with the “Protestants in arms” in France and the Low Countries from 1562 onwards.10 Within this socio-religious and political context, the growing role of censorship and political control over religious discourse pertained not only to the production and circulation of books such as those of Wild, but also to other forms of religious instruction, such as the production and staging of religious plays. The freedom to stage the story of the prodigal son now had its limits. Dramatic productions could need prior ecclesiastical approval. This was at least the case in Italy, where in 1579 an edict of the Inquisition in Pisa 6

7 8 9

10

On the origin of this text see Patrizio Foresta, Ad Dei gloriam et Germaniae utilitatem: San Pietro Canisio e gli inizi della compagnia di Gesù nei territori dell’impero tedesco (1543-1555) (Soveria Mannelli, 2006). “Tumulatus ante summam aram aedis Ordinis sui” – as refers Paulus, Johann Wild, p. 67. See Decot, “La prédication à Mayence,” p. 277. See Paolo Prodi, Il paradigma tridentino. Un’epoca della storia della Chiesa (Brescia, 2010), who underlines the innovative dynamism of the initial phase of this historical phenomenon. On the interlocked phenomena of the confessionalisation and the Sozialdisziplinierung as a process involving different competitive powers, see Disciplina dell’anima, disciplina del corpo e disciplina della società tra Medioevo ed età moderna, ed. Paolo Prodi (Bologna, 1994), esp. Wolfgang Reinhard, “Disciplinamento sociale, confessionalizza­ zione, modernizzazione. Un discorso storiografico,” ivi, pp. 101-23. See a synthesis in MacCulloch, Reformation, pp. 237-53 (Calvin) and 306-13 (wars of religion in the 1560s). As introduction and for further bibliographical references, see also Sabina Pavone, I gesuiti dalle origini alla soppressione (Rome-Bari, 2004) and Corrado Vivanti, Le guerre di religione nel Cinquecento (Rome-Bari, 2007).

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forbade “comic actors” to stage anything “inherent to the Old and New Testament or sacred themes or ecclesiastical and religious topics […] and anything that represents necromancy or depicts it in comedy”.11 The prohibition was the severe outcome of an inquisitorial trial against a company of actors who had planned to stage a series of plays in the city and instead were forced to defend themselves before the inquisitors. Among the plays that they had planned to perform was Il figliol prodigo.12 Two years later, the archbishop of Florence forbade the staging of secular and religious plays in the oratories of Florentine confraternities. These plays could be performed, but not in sacred spaces and not without previous permission from the ecclesiastical authorities.13 Despite growing regulations, the fortune of the prodigal son on the stage would not diminish. As we have seen in Chapter 6, the parable became a standard topic for dramas in schools and Jesuit colleges.14 However, playwrights and actors had to carefully consider the confessional context in which they were living. In this changing religious and cultural context, the parable of the prodigal son continued to play a prominent role in the production, dissemination, and appropriation of the religious message. Though tracing the parable’s varied pastoral uses within the different confessions goes beyond the scope of this study, the results of this investigation on the late medieval and early 11

12

13

14

“Divieto a tutti quanti li comici […] di rappresentare cosa alcuna né scrittura di testamento vecchio o nuovo, né di scrittura sacra o santa, né cosa ecclesiastica o religiosa […] né meno representare o comediare negromantia”; quoted in Prosperi, Tribunali della coscienza, p. 349. On this episode, see also Carlo Ginzburg, “Folklore, magia, religione,” in Storia d’Italia. 1: I caratteri originali, eds. Ruggiero Romano and Corrado Vivanti (Turin, 1972), pp. 601-76: 654-55. Prosperi, Tribunali della coscienza, p. 347. Analogous restrictions were promoted by Carlo Borromeo in Milan. On the censorship of biblical plays as unauthorized biblical translations, see Fragnito, La Bibbia al rogo, pp. 48, 132-33, and 199-216. Beside the plays mentioned in Chapter 6, see the entry Sohn, Der verlorene, in Elisabeth Frenzel, Stoffe der Weltliteratur: Ein Lexikon dichtungsgeschichtlicher Längsschnitte, 10th ed. (Stuttgart, 2005). Within the Italian context, together with the already mentioned play of Giovanni Maria Cecchi (on which, see Eisenbichler, “From Sacra Rappresentazione to Commedia Spirituale,”), one has to consider texts such as Maurizio Moro, Rappresentatione del figliuolo prodigo (Venice: Carlo Pipini, 1585) and Giuliano Francini, La rappresentatione del figliuol prodigo (Orvieto: Antonio Colaldi, after 1587). On seventeenth-century canovacci of the commedia dell’arte based on a rather free re-invention of the prodigal son’s story, see Neri, “Studi sul teatro,” pp. 36-44 and Giuseppe Billanovich, “Diavolo e vangelo nella commedia dell’arte [1938],” in Giuseppe Billanovich, Itinera: vicende di libri e di testi, ed. Mariarosa Cortesi (Rome, 2004), pp. 7-20.

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sixteenth-century period offer a basis for just such an enquiry. Before recapitulating the main findings of the research proposed in this book and formulating my final remarks, it may be useful to indicate – in the form of an epilogue – a few possible directions for additional research concerning the ‘modern’ prodigal son, drawing mainly upon the scholarship available to date on the topic. For an evaluation of the production of new exegetical texts among Pro­ testants, one may begin by considering Jean Calvin’s commentary on the prodigal son in his Harmonia ex tribus evangelistis composita (1553). In this text, the reformer continued to adopt the parable as a narrative tool to shape a (Protestant) religious identity, using the consolidated rhetorical scheme: “just as the prodigal son […] in the same way we …”.15 By contrast, he clearly proposed his interpretation of the prodigal son’s confession as an alternative to “the confession that the pope constructed”, thereby adapting the story to the ongoing confessional conflict.16 Within Lutheranism, which faced the challenge to redefine itself after the death of Luther, one may consider the Glossa compendiaria (1570) of Matthias Flacius Illyricus (d. 1575), which was a commentary on the bilingual New Testament of Erasmus.17 Flacius Illyricus was a leader of the so-called ‘gnesio-Lutherans’, who presented themselves as defenders of the authentic Luther over and against the more nuanced positions on free will and predestination expressed by Melanchthon and those labelled

15

16

17

“Ergo quemadmodum hic iuvenis paternae clementiae fiducia ad quaerendam reconciliationem erigitur, ita nobis poenitentiae initium sit oportet Divinae misericordiae agnitio, quae nos ad bene sperandum excitet”; Jean Calvin, Harmonia ex tribus evangelistis composita, Matthaeo, Marco et Luca, adiuncto seorsum Iohanne (Geneva: Robert Estienne, 1560), p. 276. See on this passage Delville, “La parabole de Fils prodigue au XVIe siècle,” pp. 101-04. “Sequitur etiam confessio, non qualem fabricavit Papa, sed qua filius offensum patrem sibi placat: nam haec humilitas redimendis offensis omnino necessaria est”; Calvin, Harmonia, p. 276. ΤΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΥΙΟυ ΘΕΟΥ ΚΑΙΝΗΣ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗΣ ΑΠΑΝΤΑ. Novum testamentum Jesu Christi filii dei ex versione Erasmi […]. Glossa compendiaria Matthiae Flacii Illyrici albonensis in Novum Testamentum (Basel: Pietro Perna and Theobald Dietrich, 1570), pp. 279-80. On this work and his author, see Luka Ilić, “What has Flacius to do with Erasmus? The Biblical Humanism of Matthias Flacius Illyricus,” Colloquia Maruliana 24 (2015), 207-20. It is relevant to mention also the publisher of this edition: Pietro Perna was a former Dominican friar, who had fled from Italy in 1542 (just like Bernardino Ochino (a former Capuchin) and Pietro Martire Vermigli (a former Augustinian Canon), at the moment of the foundation of Carafa’s inquisition) and who became a promoter of the Italian heterodox movement in Basel; see Leandro Perini, La vita e i tempi di Pietro Perna (Rome, 2002).

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as Philippists, positions that entered into the 1577 Formula of Concord.18 The parable of the prodigal son allowed Flacius to insist on several points that were under discussion in the intra-Lutheran debate. The scene of the father running towards his son (defined here as “pictura ingentis misericordie patris coele­ stis”) serves Flacius to point out that “verissimum autem est quod etiam ante­ quam peccator sese moveat ex sua peccatorum sentina, pater coelestis eum ad se trahat”, without mentioning – as Melanchthon had emphasized – the necessary reply of the sinner.19 Moreover, it does not seem to be a coincidence that almost half of the commentary is devoted to the elder brother, criticizing any form of good works or disciplined regime (“aliquam speciem externorum operum ac discipline”) – whereas Melanchthon had recovered the term disciplina in a positive sense as a means of responding to the challenges raised by antinomian positions as well as radical religious and political movements. Among the texts of religious instruction on the prodigal son written by Catholic authors, I dwell upon the works of Ottaviano Preconio (d. 1568), Jeró­ nimo Nadal (d. 1580), and Diego de Estella (d. 1578), as they offer differentiated entry points to the pastoral use of the prodigal son after the Council of Trent. All three were highly productive pastoral and exegetical authors, and it was no coincidence that they were exponents of religious orders (both old and new) that were prominent players in the confessional projects of counter-reformation Catholicism.20 The Franciscan Ottaviano Preconio was ordained bishop of Monopoli in 1546 and then, in 1562, archbishop of Palermo.21 He played an active role in the Council of Trent, and his pastoral writings can be viewed as an initial attempt to implement the conciliar pastoral strategy in his diocese, as their focus on the sacraments demonstrates. In 1567, Preconio published his Meditatione del peccatore ridotto a guisa del figliol prodigo (“Meditation of a Sinner in the guise of 18

19

20 21

See MacCulloch, Reformation, pp. 347-53 and, for an in-depth analysis, Luka Ilić, Theologian of Sin and Grace: The Process of Radicalization in the Theology of Matthias Flacius Illyricus (Göttingen, 2014). It is interesting to note that Flacius Illyricus reshaped the medieval allegorical interpretation of the gesture of the father, adapting it to the needs of Lutheran theology: “Qui volunt ociosius applicare omnes partes huius parabolae, dicunt illam amplexationem et exosculationem significare iustificationem, annulum significare Spiritussancti donum, vestem bonam coscientiam, calceos opera vocationis, convivium denique perpetuam laetitiam et celebrationem Dei in hac vita aeterna”; Flacius Illyricus, Glossa compendiaria, pp. 279-80. See Bonora, La Controriforma, pp. 44 and 68-82. See Michele Granà, “L’attività politica di Ottaviano Preconio O.F.M.Conv., padre conci­ liare a Trento e arcivescovo di Palermo (1502-1568),” in I francescani e la politica, ed. Alessandro Musco (Palermo, 2007), pp. 561-77.

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the Prodigal Son”). In it, he wrote in the first-person singular, identifying himself with the prodigal son: “Deh, meschino me, figliol prodigo in tutto stolto […] L’ufficio mio fu solo de pascer porci […] Io, figlio prodigo …”.22 After a section on his own sin, the author presented a devout meditation on the Passion of Christ, which is depicted as the ideal means to achieve true contrition. Preconio adopted an emotionally intense register, in which he – in the guise of the sinner, that is, the prodigal son – addressed Christ directly, while meditating on the pains of his Passion: “Tu dunque Signore hai pianto e lacrimato tante volte per cagion mia …”.23 A closer analysis of this text would show how the prodigal son was – once again – considered the prototype for the sinner, and how his story was framed as a narrative of self-understanding. Furthermore, the connection between the prodigal son and the meditation on the Passion of Christ offers an interesting possibility of comparison with Johann Meder’s earlier work. While the text of Preconio had a moderate dissemination (with only one edition in Naples), the work of Jerónimo Nadal – one of the most prominent Jesuits of the time − can be deemed a monument of the Tridentine pastoral strategy.24 From 1568 onwards, Nadal planned and carried out the complex ­production of the Evangelicae historiae imagines and the Adnotationes et meditationes. These were two complementary parts of a refined visual-textual commentary on the Gospel readings for all Sundays of the liturgical year and for the Lenten period. The text and the preparatory sketches were complete by 1576, but the final product was only published in 1593-94, following Nadal’s death.25 The result was a magnificently illustrated commentary on the liturgical pericopes, in which the images could also be printed separately as visual catechetical support. Thanks to a system of cross-references between imagines and meditationes, the reader/viewer was guided to meditate on and visually capture the main theological points of each Gospel text. Usually, one engraving – with its rich details – was enough to illustrate a Gospel passage. Some pericopes did, however, receive special treatment, and the parable of the pro­digal son was a prominent instance. Four different engravings give an extra­ordinary, 22

23 24 25

Ottaviano Preconio, Meditatione del peccatore ridotto a guisa del figliol prodigo a misero e calamitoso stato il quale ricerca contritione per vigore della passione di Christo afflitto et morto per gli peccati suoi (Naples: Giovanni De Boy, 1567), fols. 5v, 7r, and 10v. Preconio, Meditatione, fol. 59r. See William V. Bangert, Jerome Nadal, S.J., 1507-1580: Tracking the First Generation of Jesuits, ed. Thomas M. McCoog (Chicago, 1992). See Danilo Zardin, “Le Adnotationes et meditationes illustrate di Nadal sui Vangeli del ciclo liturgico: il modello e il riuso,” in Visibile teologia: Il libro sacro figurato in Italia tra Cinquecento e Seicento, eds. Erminia Ardissino and Elisabetta Selmi (Rome, 2012), pp. 3-23.

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detailed visual commentary on the parable (fig. 40-43).26 Only the sections on the Passion and Resurrection of Christ display a larger number of images. Clearly, Nadal considered the story of sin and conversion of the prodigal son as a key text in his project of “visible theology”.27 A more in-depth scrutiny of the illustrated commentary on the parable – which was soon also available in vernacular adaptations28 – would open the door to a study of the religious discourses on this parable developed by the Jesuits, and in general, the catechetical use of images of the prodigal son in the confessional age. The latter theme more evidently merits a specific investigation. Such a project would expand and complement the work done by art historians of the early modern period, who have already pointed to the enormous success of the prodigal son – also as a “profane” subject – in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century visual arts across the confessional spectrum. One only need recall the names of Maarten van Heemskerck, Guercino, Rubens, and Rembrandt.29 The Franciscan Diego de Estella – the third writer I mention here – was a renowned preacher and spiritual author, who had been appointed preacher at the court of King Philip II in the 1560s. Among his writings, several of which are mainly focused on the love of God, there is a vast commentary on the Gospel of Luke. This work, which Estella conceived explicitly for the use of preachers, was first printed in 1574-75.30 In its introduction, Estella stated the reasons for choosing this specific Gospel. Therein, he underlined the central theme of 26

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See Jerónimo Nadal, Evangelicae historiae imagines: ex ordine Evangeliorum, quae toto anno in missae sacrificio recitantur (Antwerp: Martin Nutius, 1593), fig. 66-69. The commentary on this pericope is in Jerónimo Nadal, Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia: quae in sacrosancto missae sacrificio toto anno leguntur (Antwerp: Martin Nutius, 1594), pp. 125-30. I borrow the expression from Ardissino and Selmi, eds., Visibile teologia. On the 1599 Italian version edited by Agostino Vivaldi, see Zardin, “Le ‘Adnotationes’,” pp. 7 and 21-23. See for instance: Barbara Haeger, “The Prodigal Son in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Netherlandish Art: Depictions of the Parable and the Evolution of a Catholic Image,” Simiolus 16 (1986), 128-38; Cornelia Diekamp Moiso, “Il tema del figliol prodigo nella pittura neerlandese,” in Galli, ed., Interpretazione e invenzione, pp. 205-44; the chapter “The prodigal son by Guercino” in Heidi J. Hornik and Mikeal C. Parsons, Illuminating Luke. 2: The Public Ministry of Christ in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Painting (New York, 2005), pp. 135-64; Stéphanie Fardel-Dewaël, “Le Fils Prodigue, miroir mondain des Pays-Bas méridionaux (XVIe-XVIIe siècles),” Graphè 18 (2009), 105-23; Anita Boyd Morris, “Pictures of Debauchery: Profane Images of the Prodigal Son’s Revels in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Paintings,” Dutch Crossing 35 (2011), 213-28. A brief introduction to the work of Estella and an English translation of his commentary on the prodigal son is provided by Robert Karris, “Diego de Estella on Luke 15:11-32,” Fran-

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mercy, and specifically mentioned the prodigal son: “[Luke] alone wrote that very beautiful and graphic parable about the prodigal son. That parable is so filled with love’s sweet consolation that it could melt like wax the hard hearts of the most obstinate people, once they had heard it, and cause them to be seized and elevated into the love of God”.31 We recognize here the familiar topos regarding the special power of this story to move its listeners to penitence. In his rich and detailed commentary, Estella interpreted the parable “through the lenses of the Council of Trent”, most particularly when he considered the themes of justification and sacramental penitence.32 Estella inserted, for instance, an explicit polemic against the “impissimi Lutherani”, underlining that a person does not lose his free will once he or she sins.33 Moreover, the servants of the father are identified as “the ministers of the Church, who administer the sacraments, especially the priest who absolves from sins”, because grace “is conferred through the ministry of priests and preachers”.34 Nevertheless, Estella drew on long-standing exegetical strategies to address main theological points while discussing the parable, such as presenting the

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ciscan Studies 61 (2003), 97-234. See also Jesús Martinez de Bujanda, Fray Diego de Estella (1524-1578). Estudio doctrinal de sus obras espirituales (Madrid, 1970). “Praeterea sanctus hic Evangelista dulcior et suavior est, dum Christi misericordiam et pietatem magnificat et commendat. Hic est qui maioribus criminibus gravatos et afflictos dulci consolatur eloquio. […] Solus parabolam illam filii prodigi amoris dulcedine et suavitate plenam scribit ita graphice et artificiose, ut dura hominum obstinatorum corda, ea audita, tanquam cera liquescant, et in divini numinis dilectionem rapiantur et eleventur”; Diego de Estella, In sanctum Jesu Christi evangelium secundum Lucam, doctissima pariter et piissima commentaria, 2 vols (Lyon: Jeanne Giunta, 1583), 1, fol. 1v. (Here and below, I follow the English translation provided by Karris, “Diego de Estella”). In his Modus con­ cionandi, Estella advocated for a literal interpretation of the parable, criticizing some traditional allegorical readings (such as the fatted calf as symbol of the Passion); see Diego de Estella, Modo de predicar y Modus concionandi, ed. Pio Sagüés Azcona (Madrid, 1951), pp. 21-23 and 217-18 (in the Spanish version, Estella explicitly mentioned Wild’s commentary). In his commentary on Luke can be found a long and interesting section in which Estella criticized large parts of the previous exegetical traditions (refusing for instance the allegory of the two sons as the Jews and the Gentiles). This section was removed from later editions after the intervention of the Inquisition (for instance, it is missing in the 1583 Antwerp edition that I have consulted); see on this Karris, “Diego de Estella,” p. 117. Karris, “Diego de Estella,” p. 109. “Docemur […] quod per peccatum non perditur liberum hominis arbitrium, ut impissimi Lutherani ausi sunt asserere”; Diego de Estella, In sanctum Jesu Christi evangelium secundum Lucam enarrationes, 2 vols (Antwerp: Peter Beller, 1583), 2, p. 246. “Servi isti ministri sunt ecclesiae qui sacramenta ministrant, et maxime sacerdotes absolventes a peccatis. […] nunc ministerio sacerdotum et praedicatorum confert illam [gratiam]”; Ibid., 2, p. 251.

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different types of grace in the scene of the encounter between the father and his son. While dealing with one of the most sensitive theological topics of his age, Estella simply copied word-for-word the thirteenth-century Postilla authored by Hugh of Saint-Cher, including its description of gratia preveniens, coadiuvans, conservans, and consummans – a fact overlooked by the modern editor.35 Still, Estella’s explanation is more sophisticated on the point of the gratia preveniens, wherein the process of justification is carefully discussed. Then, in the section that comments on the three gifts given by the father to his returned son, the text reiterates the three types of grace (gratia preveniens, cooperans, consummationem prestans) granted to the sinner.36 The commentary’s close dependence on medieval sources is further confirmed by the use of the simile of the vulture, which we have encountered not only in Hugh of SaintCher’s text, but also in Iacopo da Varazze’s model sermon on the prodigal son.37 By silently borrowing these elements from the medieval scholastic exegetical tradition and adapting them to the theological and pastoral needs of his time (for instance, by introducing a list of ten reasons on the importance of sacramental confession), Estella’s commentary constitutes a bridge between the late medieval pastoral uses of the prodigal son parable and its subsequent fortune in the modern period. In fact, notwithstanding the initial troubles that this commentary encountered with the Spanish Inquisition, which requested that

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“Accurrens, notatur gratia coadiuvans sive cooperans, quae non patitur moram vel dilationem. Sicut enim nutrix videns puerum invalidum conantem ad ambulandum, statim occurit ne cadat, ita Deus cum aliquis nititur per liberum arbitrium ambulare ad eum, statim Deus accurrit per gratiam. […] Secundo dicitur hic quod Cecidit super collum eius, in quo notatur gratia conservans, quae fovet et amplectitur poenitentem duobus brachiis charitatis: leva est dimissio culpe et dextera promissio gloriae. […] Amplexus cum osculo, ipsa gratia reconcilians est hic signis descripta […]. Praeterea in osculo notatur gratia consummans seu perficiens, quia osculum est signum perfectae reconciliationis et pacis et dilectionis. Et ideo ultimo ponitur, quia non habebitur nisi post tres gratias predictas”; Ibid., 2, p. 250. On Hugh’s text, see above p. 65. “Observa autem quod triplici gratia adiutus fuit hic: gratia videlicet praeveniente, cooperante sive subsequente, et gratia consummationem praestante”; Ibid., 2, p. 252; each type of grace is then elucidated through key quotations taken from the letters of St Paul (“De hic tribus gratiis loquitur Paulus …”), as an indirect reply to the Lutheran positions. “Cum autem adhuc longe esset, vidit illum pater ipsius et misericordia motus est. Hic notatur ordo quo Deus venit ad peccatorem, secundum propietatem et similitudinem vulturis, qui primo vidit cadaver a longe, deinde advolat, et postea insidet, et tandem incorporat”; Ibid., 2, p. 249. See above p. 65 (Hugh of Saint-Cher) and p. 125 (Iacopo da Varazze).

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changes be made, Estella’s work was an enduring international bestseller.38 Over a period of nearly a century, it was printed seventeen times in several Catholic countries, with editions in Salamanca (1574–75; 1582), Alcalá (1577– 78), Lyon (1580; 1583; 1584; 1592), Venice (1582–83; 1586), Antwerp (1583–84; 1593; 1599–1600; 1606–08; 1612; 1622; 1653–55), and Mainz (1680).39 Thus, it became one of the standard reference commentaries on the prodigal son. The same dynamic of continuity and change can also be seen in another exceptional document, which finally brings us quite close to the domain of parochial pastoral care beyond the urban context; namely, the sermon on the prodigal son written by Domenico Sala, a priest in the small Santa Maria Assunta of Rancio parish in the archdiocese of Milan, near Lecco. Sala composed his text in the 1570s for one of the monthly meetings among the clergy of the area. At these gatherings, the attending priests were asked to practice preaching and to submit copies of their sermons to the religious authorities of the diocese, “who would evaluate them in order to ensure that the ministry of the word was being fulfilled properly in the parishes”.40 The very existence of this type of document enables us to investigate a level of pastoral interaction that was almost inaccessible in the previous historical period, and it also attests to the initiatives that were implemented in Carlo Borromeo’s Milanese diocese to both promote and control preaching in the parishes. The content and structure of Sala’s sermon are rather simple. The sermon presents a translation of the parable into the vernacular, provides a brief interpretation in accordance with a penitential reading of the story, and closes with an exhortation to the audience. The pastoral visitations of that period depict Domenico Sala as a secular priest with a notably modest theological background, such that we can reasonably assume that his sermon represents the minimal threshold of understanding regarding the parable among the rank and file clergy of that area.41 The content of Sala’s homily makes clear that key concepts forged over the 38 39 40

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A brief discussion of the troubles of this work with the Inquisition is given in Karris, “Diego de Estella,” pp. 98-103. See Pio Sagüéz Azcona, “Fray Diego de Estella. Nuevos datos biobibliográficos sobre todas sus obras,” Revista Española de Teología 44 (1984), 195-215: 202-05. See Benjamin W. Westervelt, “The Prodigal Son at Santa Justina: The Homily in the Borromean Reform of Pastoral Preaching,” Sixteenth Century Journal 32 (2001), 109-26. This text – as well as other texts from this precious collection kept in the Archivio storico dio­ cesano of Milan – has been edited in Angelo Turchini, Monumenta Borromaica 3: Parole di Dio, parroci e popolo. Prove di predicazione del clero lombardo (Cesena, 2011), pp. 364-66. A few years later, in 1583, Gasparo Cristofori, who was a parish priest in Valtellina – not far from Lecco – identified himself with the prodigal son (‘Non vi dimando già la stola prima, ma solum mi facciate uno de mercenari vostri’), when he wrote to Cardinal Carlo Borro-

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course of centuries of interpretation and pastoral use of this parable also had reached the basic level of parochial pastoral care. Instances of this include: the interpretation of the two sons as personifications of the good and the bad Christian; the sharing of property depicted as a symbol of free will; the itinerary of the prodigal son as a means to elucidate the process of sin, contrition, and confession; the interpretation of the father’s servants as the priests hearing the confession of sinners, and so forth. It is, however, difficult to pinpoint the exact sources of this sermon. The inventories of books of other parishes in the area list many of the standard exegetical authorities, such as Thomas of Aquinas’ Catena aurea and Nicholas de Lyra’s Postilla (in the form of a partial edition that offered a commentary on the liturgical readings). They also show the abundant presence of old and new model sermon collections, including those of Iacopo da Varazze, Vicent Ferrer, Johann Herold, Roberto Caracciolo, Cornelio Musso, Luis de Granada, as well as the vernacular Lenten sermon cycle of Ludovico Pittorio (d. 1525).42 With 25 sixteenth-century editions, Pittorio’s work was one of the prominent bestsellers on the Italian book market. His sermons would have been easily accessible, even for a priest with a modest theological education like the parish priest of Rancio, who may well have derived from Pittorio an unusual interpretation of the shoes given to the son by his father.43 In any event, it is difficult to ascertain exactly which books

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meo to ask for forgiveness for several crimes he committed as a priest; see Pastore, Nella Valtellina del tardo Cinquecento, pp. 47-48 and 151. On this list of sermon collections, see Turchini, Parole di Dio, pp. 90-94. Some of the priests of the area had a more solid theological culture than Domenico Sala, as is proven by a sermon of Girolamo Di Basti, curate of Malgrate, near Lecco, who drew on a model sermon of Vicent Ferrer; see Wietse de Boer, “The Curate of Malgrate or the Problem of Clerical Competence in Counter-Reformation Milan,” in The Power of Imagery: Essays on Rome, Italy and Imagination, ed. Peter van Kessel (Rome, 1992), pp. 188-200. On the religious culture of the regular clergy, see the results of the important ongoing research project “Libri e biblioteche degli Ordini religiosi in Italia alla fine del secolo XVI”, led by Roberto Rusconi; see Roberto Rusconi, “Le biblioteche degli ordini religiosi in Italia intorno all’anno 1600 attraverso l’inchiesta della Congregazione dell’Indice. Problemi e prospettive di una ricerca,” in Libri, biblioteche e cultura nell’Italia del Cinque e Seicento, eds. Edoardo Barbieri and Danilo Zardin (Milan, 2002), pp. 63-84 and Libri, biblioteche e cultura degli Ordini regolari nell’Italia moderna attraverso la documentazione della Congregazione dell’Indice, eds. Rosa Marisa Borraccini and Roberto Rusconi (Rome, 2006). Sala: “La scarpa è serrata di soto e aperta di sopra, a significare che il peccator, qual ritorna ala via bona di Cristo, de’ lasar le cose terene e risguardar sempre le cose celeste”; Turchini, Parole di Dio, p. 366. “Mettetegli etiam in piedi gli calciamenti, che sono di sotto serrati, e di sopra aperti, per dimostrarci che ’l si tenga il core serrato alle cose terrene e aperto alle celesti”; Ludovico Pittorio, Homilario quadragesimale (Venice: Johann Criegher, 1568), fol.

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Domenico Sala had at hand’s reach – and it is possible that he had assimilated some of the contents used for his own sermon through channels of oral communication. What remains relevant is that by repeating and adapting numerous medieval elements, the priest of Rancio provided his parishioners with a sermon that exhorted them to “imitate” the penitential itinerary of the prodigal son (“se imitareti questo fiolo giovine”). However, in a convenient shift in interpretation that reflected the priorities of the post-Tridentine age, the father of the parable became “the spiritual father, i.e. your confessor”.44 The grandiose commentary of Diego de Estella and the simple sermon of Domenico Sala show the different ways in which the changing religious culture and the pastoral practices of the late sixteenth century were still influenced by medieval interpretations and pastoral uses of the parable of the prodigal son. This offers a vantage point from which to look back and to summarize the major findings of this study. This book has traced and analysed the gradual construction, wide dissemination, and multiple transformations of a paradigmatic interpretation of the parable of the prodigal son in the medieval period, as well as the crisis and the renewal of this paradigm in the early sixteenth century. The guiding methodological assumption has been that the study of the numerous interpretations and uses of a specific biblical narrative allows for an investigation of the forms and the media through which religious discourse was concretely shaped within a context of pastoral activities. The main argument of this study has been that this parable increasingly became a reference point in late medieval discourses concerning religious instruction. In the skilful hands of those who mastered religious communication, this story became highly functional in the shaping and reshaping of a narrative of self-understanding. It served to propose and impose a powerful discourse. With the many re-presentations of this parable, the faithful were asked to recognize their own sinful lives in the story of the prodigal son, and they were urged to imitate his exemplary conversion.

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45r (Saturday after Reminiscere). On the dissemination of this sermon collection, first published in 1506, see Michelson, The Pulpit and the Press, pp. 26-27. On Pittorio, a humanist who later became a Servite, see Giancarlo Andenna, “Pittorio, Ludovico,” in DBI 84 (2015), pp. 320-22. “E così voi peccatori se imitareti questo fiolo giovine, ogni volta che sareti im peccato mortale vi ricoreti dal vostro patre spirituale, cioè dal vostro confesore, sareti abrazato dal nostro signor Iesu Cristo e, così facendo, voi tuti il signor Idio vi darà sanità in questo mondo, ne l’altro il riposo e gaudio dil paradiso”; Turchini, Parole di Dio, p. 366. On the role of catechesis in the growing sixteenth-century patriarchal ideology, see Bast, Honor Your Fathers and – on Milan – Angelo Turchini, Sotto l’occhio del padre. Società confessionale e istruzione primaria nello Stato di Milano (Bologna, 1996).

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The more than one hundred texts written by approximately eighty authors examined in this book have highlighted the wide, ingenious, and multifaceted use of this biblical narrative within late medieval and early modern pastoral activities. The analysis has emphasized in particular the role of preaching as a pervasive medium of religious instruction within (at least) the urban context, where the voices of popular preachers – especially those coming from the ranks of the mendicant orders – were increasingly able to reach large sectors of society. The parable of the prodigal son was employed to present its audience with a convincing model of sin and conversion, and to invite them to internalize and reproduce the example of the prodigal son. The listeners were urged to undertake a homologous penitential itinerary in order to return – by means of contrition, confession, and satisfaction – to the house of the father, i.e. the Church. Within this type of religious discourse, the sinful condition of the human being and his or her need for conversion were constantly reasserted and exposed in manifold ways. Nevertheless, another message was asserted by such religious discourses with (almost) equal energy; namely, that of the unlimited mercy of God, who was ready to forgive sinners and was likewise reluctant to punish their faults. Sermons on the prodigal son also presented a discourse on the intense relationship between God and the soul, developing either the passionate appeal of God who addressed the human soul as his beloved, or the prodigal son’s affective contemplation of Christ’s Passion and his overabundant mercy. In this type of text, the prodigal son first embodied the ideal penitent, who recognized his sin and undertook a penitential itinerary; then he was transformed into the beloved soul, the sponsa Christi, who longed for spiritual union with Christ. This bears witness to the versatility of many late medieval preachers, who were able to adopt clearly distinct registers, passing from harsh critique of customs to devout meditation on the love of Christ. Thereby, contrary to stereotypical presentations of medieval preaching as an instrument in a fear-based pastoral model, the sources analysed here contribute to uncovering a much more nuanced medieval religious discourse that presented lay people with a message in which fear and hope, sin and mercy were deeply intertwined. This study has also demonstrated the predominance of the penitential interpretation in late medieval readings of the story of the prodigal son. Between the thirteenth and the early sixteenth centuries, normative discourses on this parable repeated almost invariably the main features of this interpretation. The seemingly endless reproposition of these basic concepts guaranteed that both preachers and listeners gradually became familiar with the penitential explanation, which at the end of the medieval period was considered a given. The parable served as a powerful master narrative with which to frame the lives

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of the listeners in a story of sin and (need for) mercy, and allowed for the presentation of an anatomy of the penitential process. This could be accomplished in comparatively simple forms or by means of a pocketsize but attentive discussion of topics such as God’s foreknowledge and human freedom, divine grace and human merits, interior contrition and sacramental confession. Model sermons on the prodigal son offered preachers a functional scheme to familiarize their congregations with these strategic topics in a simplified and yet not overly simplistic form. Sermons thus enhanced and popularized an automatic connection between these theological and pastoral issues and the parable of the prodigal son. The penitential interpretation of this story provided key elements for the dissemination of a basic theological culture and contributed to the gradual construction of a shared religious landscape. As part of a ritual form of communication, the repetition of these contents contributed to structuring and preserving a symbolic order of society. The analysis of a large number of these texts also revealed the freedom and talent of individual exegetes, preachers, and playwrights who − within a shared penitential domain − developed multiple aspects, variations, and nuances. This book has therefore highlighted not only the pervasive presence of a pastoral paradigm, but also the creative experimentations present in the elaboration of this biblical narrative, which was used to shape and control sophisticated religious messages and effective pastoral instruments. The homiletic discourse had the potential to move far beyond the basic penitential elements and involve themes such as a passionate Christocentric devotion. Such a phenomenon clearly emerges in the sermon cycle of Johann Meder, who brought the topos regarding the exceptionality of this parable to its extreme consequences when he transformed the story of the prodigal son into a narrative framework covering the entire Lenten period. In these sermons, the journey of the prodigal son did not end with the merciful reception of his father, but instead evolved into the description of the emotionally intense relationship between Christ and the human soul. In the context of the dominant penitential interpretation of this parable, the present study has explored the strategic role of preaching in shaping, reshaping, and disseminating the story of the prodigal son in addition to the ways in which it mediated theological concepts elaborated by scholastic exegesis. In seeking effective forms of communication, late medieval sermons increasingly dramatized the parable. In particular, it was possible to trace the transformation of the few words uttered by the prodigal son in the Gospel into a long and poignant monologue, in which he asked for mercy and pronounced an exemplary confession. From this perspective, sermons on the prodigal son also served as a school of penitential prayer. They were a vade-mecum for a good

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and sincere confession, even providing the proper words for it. In a telling instance, fifteenth-century reportationes allowed us to see a variety of schemes adopted to dramatize and tailor the message to specific audiences, going as far as transforming the prodigal son into a Paduan adolescent who went to Ferrara in search of adventure, as stated by Bernardino da Siena. The strategy of these semi-dramatic sermons was developed – once again – in a radical manner by Meder, who introduced lively descriptions of the main scenes of the parable and colourful dialogues between its protagonists. These dialogues were not so distant from those of the contemporary religious plays inspired by the parable, and we can argue that Meder and other preachers transformed the pulpit into a kind of virtual stage. This study has considered sermons within a broader spectrum of sources, uncovering – at least in some cases – the mechanisms of a complex multimedia system of communication and persuasion. The interaction between biblical commentaries, sermons, religious plays, devotional texts, and a wide range of images contributed significantly to the making and popularizing of the late medieval profile of the prodigal son. Following a specific biblical narrative has allowed us to see, in concrete forms, the multiple channels through which the Bible reached a large audience and became part of everyday life. Moreover, it has been possible to trace – in specific cases within this com­ munication system – the concomitant agency of men and women as well as members of the laity and the clergy in the reception, transformation, and ap­ propriation of this parable and in the elaboration of a public religious discourse. This became evident in a number of religious plays on the prodigal son written and repeatedly staged in the vibrant context of fifteenth-century Florence. The prominent place of this parable within Florentine religious theatre confirmed the exceptional attention granted to the biblical story within the realm of educational activities. Once visualized and actualized on the stage in an entertaining way, this parable proved an ideal means of proposing to the audience (and to the young actors of the confraternities) a clear-cut religious model that, on the one hand, invited the renunciation of the rebellious and dissolute life led by the prodigal son and, on the other hand, called for an imitation of his repentance and adhesion to paternal authority – in the family, the state, and the Church. The destiny of the elder brother of the biblical parable has emerged in the study as another element of particular interest. In the various medieval presentations, the story of the two brothers was generally transformed into the story of the prodigal son alone, marginalizing or erasing in full the presence – and particularly the function – of the elder brother. The latter was often barely mentioned or used only to introduce a discussion about the relationship

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between mercy and merit. However, this study also has uncovered a surprising way in which a sermon could be developed on the basis of the phrase that the father says to his elder son: “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours”. Due to the versatility of the sermo modernus, this biblical sentence could be taken out of its original context and transformed into a dialogue between the Virgin and Christ. Thus, from the thirteenth century onwards, preachers were able to deliver a sermon in honour of the Virgin Mary on the foundation of the parable. This unpredictable result did not derive from previous exegetical commentaries. Rather, it was codified by Iacopo da Varazze in his highly influential Lenten sermon collection. Preaching not only reformulated previous exegetical interpretations, but also opened the way to innovative readings of the biblical text. The dominant tendency, therefore, was to separate the two brothers. The prodigal son served to build a penitential sermon, while the figure of the elder brother allowed for the construction of a Marian sermon. Nevertheless, the presence of the two brothers also made it possible to employ this biblical narrative to frame a contrast or a radical opposition. Biblical commentaries continued to refer to the patristic allegorical interpretations of the parable, and although this type of interpretation became less common in late medieval pastoral writings, it was still an available option that provided preachers with the possibility to develop a discourse on the mercy of God while simultaneously involving anti-Jewish stereotypes that depicted Jews (symbolized by the elder brother) as hard-hearted and blind, and sometimes even as sons of the devil. Furthermore, in particular historical contexts and in conflict situations, exegetes, preachers, and playwrights created highly different discourses based on the contrast between the two brothers. In a twelfth-century sermon written in the Benedictine monastery of Admont, the two brothers represented the soul and the body. In the thirteenth century, the contrast between the two brothers gave Hugh of Saint-Cher the means to develop a discourse on the active and the contemplative life as well as on the clergy and the laity, in which he defended the pastoral commitment of the new mendicant orders. In late fifteenth-century Florence, Savonarola associated the elder brother with lukewarm, that is, false Christians, who were prisoners of their self-confidence and pride. What in the earlier years of his ministry had been a spiritual theme gradually assumed also a political meaning, given that he labelled all his adversaries as lukewarm (tiepidi). Finally, in the sixteenth century the opposition between the two brothers served to stage the conflict between Catholics and Lutherans. In times of harsh contrast, the parable became a useful polemical tool, as when Burkhard Waldis transformed the figure of the elder brother into a grim Catholic monk, who mistakenly trusted in the merit of his own good works.

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The early sixteenth-century religious disputes broke the previous general consensus on the theological interpretation and pastoral use of this parable. The penitential paradigm came under severe strain, as is evidenced already by the 1519 dispute between Martin Luther and Johannes Eck. The divergent and conflicting interpretations of this parable originated from its intense use in previous centuries, which entrenched an automatic connection between this biblical narrative and theological themes such as sin and free will, grace and conversion, mercy and merit. The crisis of the previous paradigm was undoubtedly a significant break with the past. The interpretation of the penitential itinerary of the prodigal son was profoundly rediscussed and reframed. However, a complex dynamic of continuity and change was at play within this general framework of transformation. Without acknowledging it, prior medieval schemes were employed by both Catholic and Protestant authors on a constant basis. In various ways, the paradigm of the excellence of this biblical narrative as the ideal pastoral tool with which to convey to lay people a discourse about sin, penitence, mercy, and salvation was reconfirmed and transmitted to modern times. The prominent role attributed to the parable of the prodigal son in pastoral and educational activities arose from a conviction shared by parties on each side of the confessional divide, namely that – as Johann Wild stated to his audience – “in the prodigal son we learn to recognize ourselves”, as “the parable of the prodigal son is nothing but a mirror, in which it is possible to look at both the sinner’s misery and the mercy of God, and to see how one passes from one to the other”. The parable was a mirror that mediated and constructed selfknowledge, as well as a map that helped the faithful to embark upon a spiritual journey. The story of the prodigal son was used in a pragmatic way to achieve this result. This book has traced how the ideal image reflected by this mirror and the paths of the penitential itinerary were shaped and changed during the late medieval period and the complex transition to the early modern era. By means of this multifaceted and engaging history, the parable of the prodigal son became the parable par excellence and a landmark in discourses of religious instruction, in which it was presented as the paradigmatic biography of any believer.

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Figure 1

Mary Magdalen − King Manasseh; Speculum humanae salvationis, Sarnen, Benediktinerkollegium, Cod. membr. 8, fol. 16v (1427) . © Benediktinerkollegium Sarnen.

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Figure 2

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The prodigal son – Prophet Nathan and King David; Speculum humanae salvationis, Sarnen, Benediktinerkollegium, Cod. membr. 8, fol. 17r (1427) . © Benediktinerkollegium Sarnen.

454

Figure 3

Illustrations

The father embraces his returned son, who asks for mercy; Speculum humanae salvationis, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Latin 512, fol. 16r (early 15th century) . © Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Illustrations

Figure 4

455

The prodigal son receives his inheritance from his father – The father embraces his returned son; Speculum humanae salvationis, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Latin 511, fol. 15r (early 15th century) . © Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

456

Figure 5

Illustrations

The son kneels before his father; a servant brings the clothes, while the elder son (?) looks at the scene; Spieghel onser behoudenisse (Culemborg: Johann Veldener [c.1483]), fol. h7v . © Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Illustrations

6 Lower section. Figures 6-13 Cathedral of Bourges: Window of the prodigal son (early 13th century) . © Dr Stuart Whatling.

457

458

7 Upper section.

Illustrations

459

Illustrations





8 The departure of the prodigal son.

9 The prodigal son dismounts from the horse and embraces a courtesan.

460

10 The prodigal son loses all his means playing dice inside an inn.

11 The prodigal son tends to animals.

Illustrations

Illustrations

12 The father embraces his returned son, while a servant brings a tunic for him.

13 The father brings together his two sons in reconciliation.

461

462

Illustrations

14 The prodigal son asks for his inheritance – The prodigal son and three women in a tavern ( fol. h2v). Figures 14-17 The parable of the prodigal son, on the margins of the penitential psalms; Horae ad usum Cenomanensem (Paris: Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 25 April 1500), fols. h2v-h4r. Ink H-345, urn:nbn:de:bvb: 12-bsb00074555-7. © Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München.

463

Illustrations

15 The women leave the tavern with the spoils of the prodigal son − The prodigal son enters the service of a master ( fol. h3r).

16 The prodigal son eats the acorns like the swine − The father welcomes his returned son, while the servants bring new clothes and slaughter the calf ( fol. h3v).

17 The banquet − The father talks to his elder son ( fol. h4r).

464

Illustrations

Illustrations

Figures 19-20 Woodcuts on the prodigal son in Spiegel menschlicher Behaltnis (Basel: Bernhard Richel, 1476), fol. 161rv. Ink S-511, urn:nbn:de:bvb: 12-bsb00031709-3. © Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München.

Figure 18

On page 464 – Tapestry on the prodigal son parable (Thuringia?, c.1420); Marburg, University Museum. © Bildarchiv Foto Marburg/Scheidt, Thomas/Heil, Verena/Schneider, Katrin.

465

466

21 The prodigal son asks his father to hand him his inheritance ( fol. a4v).

23 The angel tries to dissuade the prodigal son from entering a city ( fol. b8v).

Illustrations

22 The prodigal son going on his way with the guardian angel ( fol. b5r).

24 The prodigal son in an inn with his companions, while the angel admonishes him ( fol. c4v). Figures 21-36 ‘Meister des Haintz Narr’, woodcuts on the prodigal son in Johann Meder, Quadragesimale novum de filio prodigo (Basel: Michael Furter, 1495), Inc-i-85, urn:nbn:de:tuda-tudigit-7258. © Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Darmstadt.

467

Illustrations

25 The prodigal son is in misery, and his guardian angel speaks to him ( fol. c8r).

26 The prodigal son cries for his sins, while the angel comforts him ( fol. f6v).

27 On his way back home, the prodigal son prepares his confession with his guardian angel ( fol. k3r).

28 The father welcomes his son ( fol. n4v).

468

Illustrations

29 The father provides his son with new clothes and hands him over to Christ ( fol. q6r).

30 Christ instructs the prodigal son, while a servant is butchering the fatted calf ( fol. t7v).

31 Christ instructs the prodigal son, who is dressed in his new clothes ( fol. v4r).

32 The banquet of the prodigal son as the Last Supper ( fol. x8v).

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469

33 The guardian angel and the prodigal son meet Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane ( fol. z1v).

34 The prodigal son prays before the tomb where Christ is buried ( fol. A6r).

35 The apparition of Christ to the apostles and the prodigal son ( fol. B4r).

36 The prodigal son kneels down before the Risen Christ ( fol. C4r).

470

Illustrations

37 37 The ‘castle’ of the prodigal son and the prodigal son who receives his share of inheritance – The prodigal son is beaten and stripped of his precious clothes by a woman. © Photo: Gabriel Hildebrand (1992), Swedish National Heritage Board.

38 38 An angel exhorts the prodigal son to return home. © Photo: Pål-Nils Nilsson (1984), Swedish National Heritage Board. Figures 37-38 Amund, The parable of the prodigal son (1494); Södra Råda, Sweden.

Illustrations

figure 39 Shoehorn with the parable of the prodigal son (The Netherlands, 1578); Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam (nr. NG-NM-3134). © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

471

472

Illustrations

40 The prodigal son asks for his inheritance, and receives a bag of money from his father. Figures 40-43 Bernardino Passeri and Karel van Mallery, Engravings on the parable of the prodigal son – Jerónimo Nadal, Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia (Antwerp: Martin Nutius, 1594), fig. 66-69. © Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Illustrations

41 The prodigal son is beaten and expelled from the inn/brothel.

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474

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42 The prodigal son tends the swine; in the background: the prodigal son’s conversion.

Illustrations

43 The encounter with the father; the servants with the new clothes; the banquet; in the background: the return of the elder brother.

475

476

Bibliography

Bibliography

Bibliography

Abbreviations

AFH AFP CISAM DBI

Archivum Franciscanum Historicum Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo Dizionario biografico degli italiani (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1960-) Patrologia cursus completus […] series Latina, ed. Jacques Paul Migne, 221 vols (Paris: Migne, 1844-64)

PL



Primary Sources

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532

subject Index

Subject Index

Subject Index Absolution 146, 157, 161, 173, 222, 440 Actio 315-16 Active life 63-64, 448 Actors 94, 251-53, 256, 259, 263, 279, 435, 447 Adolescence 173, 254, 257, 435 Allegory 77, 335, 365, 367-68 Allegorical character 41-46, 263-64, 266-68, 272-73, 276-77, 373n, 390-93 Allegorical interpretation 20, 21, 24-30, 36, 41-46, 50-55, 58, 63, 78, 165-68, 221, 263-64, 273, 297-98, 413, 415, 430, 440n, 448 Allegorical vision 319, 322-23, 325, 330, 335-38, 346n, 353 Amor–timor 14, 49n, 328n, 377-80 Amplification of the parable 73, 88-89, 154, 195-98, 310-50, 372-77, 387-93 Angel 24, 53-54, 166, 221, 243, 260, 275 Angel, guardian 202, 215, 317-18, 320-35, 340, 346, 352-54, 358-63 Antichrist 30, 34, 58-59, 152, 384 Anti-Jewish interpretation 30, 59, 221, 345-46, 448 Ash Wednesday 242, 323-24, 421 Attention 316, 319, 369, 421 Audience 5, 7, 11, 14, 50, 87, 102, 104, 114, 117-18, 134, 154-55, 157, 164, 172, 175, 185, 189, 193-95, 211, 227-28, 270, 302, 304-05, 312, 315-16, 319, 322-23, 340, 351, 368-69, 372, 376, 380, 410, 412-13, 421-22, 442, 446-47 Augustinians 279, 281-83 Avarice 36, 62, 151, 220, 264, 277 Bad companions 154, 194, 196-98, 203, 217, 238, 264, 267, 270-71, 288-91, 294, 324-26, 357, 366n Bible 2-3, 56-58, 60, 76, 80-81, 103, 151, 211, 241, 254-55, 281, 283, 306-09, 315-16, 322, 365, 369, 387, 412-13, 447 Blood of Christ 49, 233, 298, 334, 336, 348 Body 48-50, 448 Bonfire of vanities 118, 252, 276n Bread as word of God 60, 241, 385-86 Brothel 90-91, 178-79, 376

Calf 184, 268, 361, 440n Calf, symbol 24, 67, 74, 147, 170, 341, 386, 406 Camaldolese order 257, 308 Carnival 259, 286, 322, 324, 388-89 Cathedral 11, 55-56, 73, 87-94, 97, 134, 153, 242, 280-81, 313, 337-38, 409, 411-12, 417 Censorship 418, 419n, 433, 434, 435n, 441 Charity 38, 44, 177, 217-18, 246, 334, 342n Chivalry/courtly imaginary 42, 90, 93-95, 204-5, 265, 359 Christ Christ as character 335-43 Christ as preacher 4, 82-84, 302-05 Christ, imitate 145, 335 Christocentric faith 133, 199, 351, 386, 398, 446 See also: Passion of Christ; Blood of Christ Christological interpretation 62, 337 Church 31-32, 59, 63, 69, 78-79, 169n, 174, 342, 396447-48 Church, reform 352, 409, 419n See also: House; Sin against the Church Circumcision 53-54 Cistercians 41, 46, 97, 362n Civic religion 179-80, 252, 257 Civic theatre 251 Clothes, luxurious 86, 196-97, 204, 206, 264-65, 358-59, 374 Clothes, new 74, 156, 334, 339n, 360-61 Comedy 289, 391-92, 416-17, 435 Communication 3, 7-8, 13, 80, 82, 97, 113-14, 183, 251-53, 351, 355, 376, 381, 387, 416, 444-47 Compagnacci 285-88 Compassion 46-47, 234, 337, 340, 343-44 Compunction 73, 123n, 325 Confession 31, 40, 46, 64, 69, 73, 78, 87, 123, 136, 146, 161, 244, 330-31, 399, 428-29, 436, 444 See also: Model confession; Sacramental confession Confession of faith 78, 399 Confraternity 9, 185, 251-53, 288, 435, 447 Confraternity for boys 9, 251, 256-60, 271, 274, 288-89, 296

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_012

Subject Index Conscience 38, 42, 46, 73, 139, 156, 214, 237, 277, 323, 325, 390 Contemplative life 63-64, 66, 334, 448 Contrition 64, 73, 78, 123, 136, 146, 202, 226, 228, 305, 330, 376, 403, 415, 438 Conversion 5, 9n, 21, 38-39, 40, 69, 83-84, 93, 107, 121, 153, 179, 201-02, 214, 302-05, 317, 322, 334, 347-48, 359, 360, 373, 380, 408, 420, 426, 449 Council Council of Basel 171n, 312-13 Council of Trent 7, 103, 111n, 116, 409, 419n, 427, 429, 432-33, 437, 440 Council, Lateran IV 64, 69, 70, 78-79, 111 Courtly ideals see Chivalry Cross 170, 177, 199, 336-38, 345-46, 358n Dance 91, 206, 268, 270-71, 357 Debauchery of the prodigal son 89, 98n, 155, 264-65, 292-93, 324, 360n, 373-74 Desperation 43, 84, 202, 215, 226n, 234n, 295, 374n, 401, 410, 424 Devil 24, 59, 82, 124, 133, 137, 159, 166, 173, 202, 204, 221-22, 325, 330, 331n, 336, 352-54, 358n, 448 Dialogue 43, 132, 167-68, 318-19, 327, 339-40, 348-49, 351, 353, 447 Direct speech 123-24, 139, 163, 169, 177, 214, 234, 242, 295, 375, 428 Discipline 173, 287, 373-74, 406-07, 437 Disobedience 42, 172-73, 166-67, 210, 232, 254, 265, 270, 278, 291, 395, 447 Disputation 377-81, 397, 409, 449 Divinisation 217-18 Dominicans 60-61, 68, 80, 103-04, 120, 127-29, 131, 135, 225-26, 272-73 Dramatization of the parable 45, 154-55, 190, 195-98, 203-05, 216, 242, 260-73, 275-79, 284-99, 310-50, 366, 368-69, 372-77, 387-93, 446-47 Easter 103, 244, 346-47, 349, 361, 429-30 Education 56, 61, 177-78, 186n, 251, 254, 257-59, 295-96, 373n, 390-93, 435, 449 Effectiveness 5, 7, 84, 170, 189-90, 23, 239-47, 304-05, 315-16, 365, 369, 376, 440, 446 Elder brother 22, 23n, 24, 49, 52, 58-59, 63, 66-68, 79, 86-87, 90-91, 95, 127-28,

533 147-48, 164, 165, 185, 212, 220-21, 242, 254, 265-66, 269-70, 276, 292, 296-99, 347-48, 357-58, 367, 375, 385-86, 395-96, 400, 407, 429-31, 437, 443, 447-49 Elder brother, not mentioned 34, 45, 84, 125, 150, 155, 166, 235, 354, 367, 391, 447 Elder brother, symbol of religious life 63-66, 216-19, 354, 389-90, 448 See also: Jews as the elder brother Enemies 43, 222, 248-49, 448 Envy 29, 36, 59, 147, 165, 212, 264, 276, 395 Eucharist 40, 48-49, 58, 74, 78, 92, 151, 170, 257, 281, 341-42, 354, 386, 415, 422 Exemplum 84, 110, 123n, 158, 164-70, 198, 199, 205n, 222, 232n, 271n, 295 Fabula 315, 320, 368n, 369, 412 Faith 38, 45, 52, 78, 133, 145, 146, 246, 334, 339n, 340, 385-86, 388-89, 386, 398-400, 420, 424 False Christian 246-48, 384-86, 399-401, 448 Fasting 346, 390, 400 Fear 14, 28, 38-39, 44, 49n, 123-24, 138, 198, 215, 332, 377-80, 403, 407, 424, 445 Fear, filial 378-79 Fear, servile 245, 378-79 Fear of God 210, 288, 379, 410, 424 See also: Amor-timor Fool 175, 184, 321-23 Franciscans 69, 76, 103, 174, 189, 223-40, 311-12, 372, 383, 388-89, 393-94, 411, 417-18, 434, 437, 439 Free will 7, 27-28, 42, 65n, 137-38, 144-45, 155, 162-63, 169, 175, 197, 204, 237, 263, 272-73, 380, 404-05, 419n, 420, 424-27, 436, 440, 441n, 449 Freedom 72, 137, 145, 147, 178, 207, 232, 244, 264, 321, 392, 446 Frömmigkeitstheologie 4, 351, 362 Gambling 90-91, 275-76, 285-88, 290, 293, 373n, 399 Garden 342-46, 361-62, 390 Gluttony 72, 147, 264, 276, 293, 328 Goat, symbol 30, 34, 59, 66-67, 75 Good works 49, 51-52, 146, 155-56, 159, 173, 245-46, 292, 386, 389, 398-400, 414-15, 439-31, 437, 448

534 Grace 7, 10-11, 27-28, 45, 47, 62, 65, 67, 74, 144-45, 162-63, 198, 201-02, 207, 209, 213, 217, 231, 234, 236, 246, 292, 341, 348, 376, 380, 386, 392, 395, 404, 415, 420-22, 424-27, 440-41, 449 Grace, primacy of 43, 214, 384, 386, 389, 392, 395-96, 400, 404, 407 Gratia coadiuvans 65, 441 Gratia concomitans 74, 427 Gratia consequens 201, 209n, 213, 231, 236 Gratia conservans 65, 427, 441 Gratia consummans 65, 426-27, 441 Gratia cooperans 231, 234, 236, 424, 425-27, 441 Gratia incitans 426 Gratia iustificans 426 Gratia preveniens 11, 65, 74, 84, 144, 162-63, 175, 199, 201, 209n, 213-14, 231, 234, 236, 379, 426-27, 441 Gratia roborans 231, 234 Gratia subsequens 11, 74, 201, 209n, 213, 231, 236, 427 Heart, pierced 304-05, 337, 344-45, 351 Hell 38, 303, 352, 374n, 378 Holy Thursday 40, 341, 361 Hope 38, 43, 46, 210, 215, 266, 282-83, 348, 378, 395, 398, 424, 436n, 445 Horse 43-44, 90-91, 197-98, 204, 206, 198, 238, 265, 357 House of the father as the Church 31-32, 36, 38, 89, 160, 445 Humanism/humanists 227, 259, 312-14, 365, 369, 391, 412 Humanity 24, 45, 50, 53, 63n, 82, 137, 155, 166, 390 Humility 46, 73, 133, 145-46, 169, 270, 436n Hunger 12n, 22n, 51, 63, 96, 122, 215, 241, 374, 380, 385 Hunting 264-65 Hussites 219-22 Iconography 85, 357-61 Identify with the prodigal son 9-10, 25, 31-35, 40, 97, 125, 160, 164, 176, 206, 216, 260, 305, 363, 413, 422-23, 428, 438, 442n, 445, 449 Identity, dynamic 3, 10, 39, 164, 170, 338, 363, 380-81, 422-23, 449

Subject Index Illuminations 85-87, 88, 205, 358 Images 2, 92, 118, 205, 247, 337, 353, 416-17, 439 Images and words 4, 80-82, 85-87, 180-86, 362-63, 438-39 Images, woodcuts 268, 311, 354-63, 364, 416 See also: Illuminations; Iconography; Ivory casket; Stained-glass windows; Tapestry; Visualizing the parable Incarnation 28, 47, 48n, 53-54, 58, 74n, 144, 176, 246 Incorporation 47-48, 65, 125, 441n Indignation 52, 54, 68, 73, 79, 131n, 140n, 143, 149 Inheritance 49, 86, 90, 95, 108, 159, 165-66, 171, 184, 196, 203, 275-76, 283, 290, 357-58, 373 Inquisition 134, 221, 392, 434-35, 436n, 440n, 441 Interpretation Interpretation ethique 24 Interpretation ethnique 24, 26 Interpretation gnosticisante 24, 53, 166, 221 Interpretation, literal 77-78, 415n, 440n Interpretation, tropological 25, 48, 51, 63, 78, 195, 221 See also: Christological interpretation; Multiple interpretation; Penitential interpretation Irony 196, 346 Ivory casket 90n, 205 Jesuits 111-12, 393, 432-34, 435, 438-39 Jews 54, 71, 79, 92, 286-87 Jews and Gentiles 23n, 24-31, 34, 36, 48, 58, 78-79, 144n, 367, 394-96, 413, 415, 419n, 440n Jews as the elder brother 24, 29-30, 34, 36, 151 Jews, mercenaries as symbol 28, 32 Journey 39, 41, 46, 93, 122, 329-33, 375 Judge 46-47 Justice 174, 384-85 Justice and mercy 27, 67, 145, 157, 161, 164, 210, 266, 410n Justice, false 58, 143, 235, 246, 384-86, 394-95

Subject Index Justification 7, 145, 386, 388-89, 398, 404, 426-27, 432, 440-41 Kiss 47, 65, 74n, 163, 199, 234, 270, 297-98, 348-49 Last Supper 341-42, 361 Lauda/song 2, 31, 258, 270-71, 274, 281, 284, 288, 299-302, 387 Law 27, 36, 38, 53-54, 151, 159, 172-73, 178-80, 211, 379, 396, 400, 403, 406-07 Lay people 2, 8-10, 68-69, 79, 81, 92, 101-02, 142, 156, 180, 187, 254-55, 259, 272-73, 289-90, 368-69, 445-48 Lay audience 69, 101-02, 114, 368-69, 381 Lay reportator 192-93, 243, 282 Lent 5-7, 39n, 46, 49n, 103-10, 115, 120, 127, 138, 185n, 188, 208-09, 220, 300-02, 310, 390, 438 Lent, Quadragesimale 4, 6, 103-04, 109, 115-16, 120-21, 127-31, 141, 150, 153, 192, 223-28, 230, 310-64, 372, 408, 420-31 Lent, Saturday of 103-05, 127-34, 154, 160 Listening without acting 241, 322 Literate/illiterate 15, 81-82, 92-93, 97, 141, 255, 274 Liturgy 7, 40, 46, 48, 99, 101, 107-10, 120, 172, 247, 251 Liturgical calendar 5, 7, 103-110, 150, 175, 188, 194, 223-28, 310, 319-20, 331, 358, 402, 438-39 Lollards 150-52 Lost drachma 21, 31, 62, 71, 109, 149-50, 283, 402, 408 Lost sheep 21, 31, 33n, 62, 71, 109, 149-50, 233, 303, 384, 402, 408 Love 36, 38, 44-45, 49n, 65-67, 124, 147, 167-68, 202, 234, 248, 342-46, 348-49, 378-79, 439 Love, passionate 163, 214-15, 233-34, 249, 304-05, 335-39, 342-46, 348-49, 445-46 See also: Amor-timor; Charity; Mercy; Self-love Lukewarm see tepid Lust 42, 62, 90, 108n, 122, 147n, 226, 230, 297, 373n, 390 Macaronic language 207, 237n, 372

535 Magdalen as model 83-84, 176, 302-05, 340 Marian sermon 126-34, 154, 160, 448 Media of religious instruction 2, 8, 20, 80-81, 113-14, 158, 180, 183-86, 250, 305-09, 370, 387, 416, 444-47 Meditation 85, 87, 181-86, 308, 335, 338, 342-46, 354, 438 Memory 93, 142, 161, 183, 185-86, 201, 260, 300, 308, 338, 350, 362-63, 365, 417, 431 Mendicant orders 56-57, 60-61, 64, 69, 98, 111, 116, 448 Mendicant preachers 68-69, 97, 101, 113-14, 313, 445 Mercenary 28, 32, 38-39, 124, 173n, 242, 245 Merchant 155, 180 Mercy 5, 8, 10-11, 27, 31, 46-48, 67, 70, 82, 124-25, 138, 160, 199, 215, 234, 282-83, 351-52, 365-66, 376, 389, 392n, 406, 416, 422, 425, 437n, 445-46, 449 Mercy of the Virgin 160 Mercy, acts 70 Merit 28, 64, 137-38, 145, 155-56, 176, 218-19, 332-33, 376, 386, 389, 393, 400-01, 406-07, 446, 448-49 Mirror 10, 82, 363n, 370, 392, 422-23, 431, 449 Misery 10, 71-72, 96, 160, 216, 233, 325-26, 359-60, 366, 374, 380, 449 Model confession 123-24, 139, 161, 173, 176, 205, 233, 267, 399, 427-28, 436, 438, 446 Model sermon 2, 4, 99-180, 187, 195, 212-19, 238-39, 243, 371, 401, 446 Model, prodigal son as 3, 14, 27, 140, 150, 160, 172, 185-86, 206, 233, 247, 261, 272, 295, 306, 317, 329, 338, 354, 370, 372, 375, 380, 398, 409, 415, 422-23, 436, 438, 444-45 Monastery 41, 44, 48, 50, 55, 97, 257, 390 Money 94-96, 154-55, 178, 184, 189, 196, 204, 262-63, 275-77, 286-87, 291, 294, 373, 380 Monks 11, 41, 46, 50, 55, 66, 69, 390, 448 Monologue of the prodigal son 22n, 32, 43, 59, 125, 198, 233, 278, 446 Monte di Pietà 235, 287 Mother of the prodigal son 87, 91, 160, 166, 169n, 195-97, 357, 360n, 372 Multiple interpretation 22-23, 61, 93, 221, 367 Music 31, 52, 79, 91, 258, 268, 299-300, 387 Musicians 86, 91, 268, 357

536 Narrative Narrative framework 3, 310, 319, 325, 335, 340, 348, 357, 446-47 Narrative of self-understanding 3, 7, 9, 32, 34, 380, 438, 444-45, 449 Narrative sermon 102, 121, 154, 190, 212, 228-40, 317-20, 368, 372-76 Narrative theology 50, 89-90, 148-49 See also: Dramatization; Self-narrative; Visual narrative Necromancer 241, 435 Nuns 50-55, 279, 311-12, 362n Obedience 44, 72-73, 170-74, 209-10, 247, 254, 269-72, 291, 430-31, 447 Obedience to God 210, 430-31 Obedience to the father 209-10, 224n, 232, 247, 262, 265, 271-72, 306, 447 Open-ended plot 22-23, 34, 91, 166, 185, 300n, 389-90 Orality 177, 207, 238, 307, 444 Pact preacher-listeners 188-89, 323, 338-39 Pains 339, 343-46, 438 Palm Sunday 253, 287, 333, 340-41, 361, 424n Pamphlets 306-09 Parables 4, 6, 20, 22n, 29, 70, 77-78, 83n, 253, 303-04, 338, 365 Parable of the prodigal son, exceptional value 5-7, 9, 46, 50, 107-09, 154, 192-95, 253, 305, 309, 317, 358, 438-40, 446-47, 449 Parables (Luke 15) 21, 26, 31, 33, 59, 62, 71, 83n, 109-10, 148-50, 282-83, 384, 402, 408 Parables (Meder) 319, 322, 329n, 330, 335-38, 342, 346n, 350, 352 See also: Dramatization; Rewriting Parents/fathers 171-72, 209-10, 224, 247, 257, 262, 271-72, 292, 373 Parody 42, 90n, 94-95, 167, 254n, 324 Passion of Christ 24, 38, 54, 80n, 82, 129, 145, 166, 176, 233-34, 298, 335-46, 351-52, 361-62, 406, 410n, 422, 445 Passion sermon 342-46 Passion, participation in the 337-40, 343-46, 361 Pastoral care 1, 7, 64, 69, 111, 114, 119, 152, 165, 189-91, 313, 421, 428-29, 437-38, 441-45, 448-49

Subject Index Pastoral use of the parable 2-3, 12, 18, 30, 35, 75, 77, 80, 435, 437-38 Pastors 394, 402, 406, 407, 414 Patronage 258-59, 272, 418 Penitence 12-14, 70, 88, 138, 149, 199, 228, 322, 348, 370-71, 390, 402, 410, 415, 421-23, 449 Penitent 58, 67, 138, 143, 147, 153, 162, 164, 370 Penitential interpretation 10, 13, 24-27, 35-36, 46, 58, 63-64, 71-75, 109n, 140n, 141, 151, 172-73, 195, 320, 365-66, 376, 380, 413, 442, 445-49 Penitential practice 26, 40, 52, 69, 156, 389 Penitential process: contrition, confession, satisfaction 13, 64, 73-74, 122-23, 129, 135, 161, 175, 267, 317, 328-33, 359, 70, 390, 399, 410n, 443, 445 Penitential psalms 181-86 Penitential sermon 31, 35, 68, 75, 121-26, 135-36, 156, 302-05, 377-80, 421 Pentecost 54, 79 Performance 94, 117, 152, 174, 203, 207, 238, 256, 260, 307, 315, 368, 375-76 Persuasion 8, 107, 114, 237, 365, 370, 428-29, 447 Pharisees 21, 62, 143, 394 Piagnoni 285-88 Pigs 61, 72n, 91, 151, 184, 241, 295, 326, 357, 359, 367, 416n Pilgrim 352-53, 358n, 359n, 360n, 400 Play, religious/educational 8-9, 182n, 183-86, 196, 205, 254-79, 284-299, 310, 327, 368-69, 373-74, 376, 387-93, 416-17, 434-35, 447 Playwright 9, 254, 272-74, 284-85, 387-93, 416, 446, 448 Polemic 25-27, 63-69, 247-49, 285-88, 382, 385, 389-90, 436-37, 448 Poor Clares 311-12 Pope 151, 162, 383-84, 388, 436 Prayer 44, 83, 149, 176, 180-86, 233-34, 244, 279-81, 344-45, 348, 356, 361, 400, 428, 430, 446 Preachers 4-7, 58, 77, 117-18, 142, 172, 174, 179-80, 189, 226, 242, 315-16, 362, 364, 378-79, 439 Preaching program 68-69

Subject Index Preaching 68, 93, 98, 313, 412 See also: Pact preacher-listeners Predestination 144-45, 151, 273, 436 Pride 42, 62, 67, 70, 73, 122, 221, 228, 245, 248-49, 264, 276, 301, 448 Priests/clergy 9, 66, 68, 78, 92, 109n, 146-47, 156-57, 161-62, 173, 220-22, 247, 254, 331, 386, 413, 440, 442-44 Printed books 57, 60, 76, 80, 105, 115-17, 148, 165, 180-86, 243, 253, 300, 306-08, 311, 314, 354-64, 384, 387, 391, 442-43 Printed sermons 4, 113-17, 129, 130-31, 153, 171, 174, 224-28, 243, 311, 354-64, 381-82, 415, 418-20, 432-33, 443 Prison 43, 83, 159, 337, 388, 392, 414 Prodigality 106, 220, 226n, 293-94, 324 Prostitutes 33, 90, 95-96, 127, 165-66, 178-79, 184, 205n, 241-42, 245n, 247-48, 293-94, 340, 375-76, 399 Providence 267-68, 273, 292, 391-92 Psychomachia 44, 215 Pulpit as virtual stage 318, 327, 338, 447 Readers 81-82, 85, 87, 130, 149, 180-86, 253, 279-81, 283, 306-08, 323, 355-56, 359, 362-64, 393, 438 Realism 261, 263, 266n, 275-76, 278-79, 293 Reception history 12, 18-19, 22-23, 50 Recognition of sin 123, 138, 145, 156, 175, 221, 267, 295, 317, 320, 329, 398, 405, 423-24, 445 Religious instruction 1-3, 69, 79, 81, 120, 146, 150, 152, 251-52, 305, 434 Religious life 67n, 389-90, 437 Religious vows 217-19, 389 Remission of sin/forgiveness 12, 65-66, 146, 157, 210, 270, 296, 305, 346, 392, 399, 402, 421, 428 Repentance 21, 26, 31, 39n, 46, 83, 86, 139, 143, 145, 152, 395 Reportatio 15, 117-20, 142, 153-55, 157, 187, 191, 192-207, 212-13, 235-36, 243, 282, 401, 447 Resipiscentia 32, 121, 156, 160, 233, 373, 392, 395, 397n, 424 Resurrection 54, 347-50, 361-62 Reward 28, 124, 137, 143, 147, 378, 406 Rewriting of the parable 11, 41-46, 89, 97, 98n, 155, 164-70, 332-33, 368, 373-76, 387-93, 421-37, 435n, 444 See also: Dramatization

537 Rhetoric 29n, 315-16 Righteous 58, 67, 139, 143, 164, 221, 235, 246, 386, 395, 429 Ring 156n, 246, 296, 334 Rural areas 111-12, 442-44 Sacramental confession 65-66, 70, 74, 111, 146, 199, 237, 244, 257, 272, 390, 413, 419n, 428-29, 440-41 Sacrifice 24n, 30, 62, 170, 209-10, 336, 338, 395 Salvation history 25, 27, 32, 41-46, 50, 53-55, 58, 82, 143 Satisfaction 46, 64, 74, 124, 157, 199, 332-33, 395, 399 Scholastic exegesis/theology 55-79, 114-15, 130, 142, 263, 272-73, 353, 367, 427, 441, 446 Self-love 248, 298-99, 391-92 Self-narrative 33-35, 160n, 314-17, 449 Sepulchre of Christ 340, 346-47, 349n, 361 Sermo modernus 102, 126, 225, 448 Servants 38-39, 124, 199, 327, 333, 379 Servants as symbol of apostles 32, 79 Servants as symbol of preachers 35, 63 Servants as symbol of priest 66, 146-47, 413, 440 Siliquae (pods) 28-29, 33, 34n, 42, 59, 184, 367 Sin 69, 125, 137, 182, 212, 228, 422, 445-46, 449 Sin against the Church 74, 146, 161-62, 173, 330 Sin against the Spirit 210 Sin, carnal and spiritual 72 Sin, mortal 155-56, 159, 161, 224, 390 Sin, original 41-42, 58, 62, 137, 144, 244 Sinful life 89, 184, 358 Sinner 5, 21, 25-26, 71, 136-38, 153, 164, 169, 195, 202, 249, 317, 320-23 See also: Debauchery Singing 185, 258, 270-71, 280, 288, 297, 299-302, 387 See also: Lauda Sister of the prodigal son 95 Sloth 277 Sodomy 230 Soul 48-50, 55, 159, 163, 202, 204, 217, 243, 303, 335-36, 445, 448 Special effects 251, 268

538 Spectators 183, 185-86, 252, 261, 263, 269-70, 283, 293, 295, 304 Spiritual father 282-83, 444 Spiritual map 41, 89, 122-23, 172n, 449 Spiritual mother 280-81, 283 Spiritual union 46-47, 215, 217, 333-50, 445 Sponsa Christi 16, 163-64, 338-39, 342-45, 348-49, 351, 361, 445 Stage 183, 260n, 271, 293-95, 296, 311 Staging 8, 258-59, 268, 288, 293, 416, 447 Stained-glass windows 11, 87-94, 205 Sword 167-70, 291, 337, 344-45, 351, 358-59 Tapestry 205, 267n, 357, 416 Tavern 90-91, 95-96, 178, 184, 293-95, 324, 326, 358n, 359, 361, 368, 373n Tears 83, 167, 304, 329, 340, 348, 359, 366n, 438 Tepid 164, 240-50, 299, 448 Trinity 131, 246 Typology 80, 82-85, 87, 89, 350 University 55-56, 59-60, 69, 100, 114-15, 145, 284-85, 312-14 Urban space/city 88, 95, 97-98, 101, 103-04, 111, 131, 155, 177-80, 191, 211, 275, 368-69, 445 Useful 5, 108, 189-90, 193-94, 314

Subject Index Vainglory 72, 225, 245 Verses 81, 94, 181-86, 260, 274-75, 308, 355-56, 364 Versification 261, 266, 300-01, 308 Vices 11, 36, 42-43, 51, 55, 62, 72, 89, 97, 122, 145, 209n, 228, 267 Vices, personification of 42-43, 264, 276-77, 373n, 390 Vices, seven deadly 72, 175, 264, 276-77, 310 Viewer 87, 90, 92, 438 Virtues 11, 38, 43-44, 51, 55, 97, 199, 209n, 348 Virtues, cardinal 44 Virtues, personification of 43-44 Virtues, theological 38, 45, 214 Visio beatifica 348-49 Visual exegesis 93, 362, 439 Visual narrative 87, 89-91, 93, 252, 319 Visualizing the parable 8, 73, 81-94, 181-86, 356-63, 405, 416-17, 423, 438-39, 447 See also: Images Vulture, simile 65, 125, 441 Wisdom 6, 44, 108, 172, 322, 379 Women 2, 9, 50, 84, 90, 127, 178-79, 180, 182, 184, 186n, 187n, 190, 241, 254, 273-84, 308, 339, 447 Youth 9, 196, 257, 260, 306

Names and Places Index ofIndex Namesofand Places

539

Index of Names and Places Abel 53 Abraham 32, 53, 190n, 209-10, 253n, 272, 291 Absalom 175n Abterode 388 Acevedo, Pedro Pablo 393 Ackermann, Johann 391n Acolastus 391-92, 417 Adam 123n, 161n, 385n Admont Abbey 48, 448 Admont homilist 48-50, 52n, 55, 66 Agricola, Daniel (Mayer) 364 Albert the Great 57n, 72n, 220n, 230n, 264 Alberti, Leandro 138 Alberto da Padova 57n, 135, 140-42 Albiron 178 Albrecht of Brandenburg 418 Albrecht V of Bavaria 432 Alcalá 442 Aldobrandino Cavalcanti 120, 121n, 127 Aldobrandino da Toscanella 120 Alexander of Hales 212n, 237 Alexander the Great 166-70, 291 Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) 242 Alspach 311-12 Alulfus of Tournai 37n Ambrose 20, 24, 28n, 30-32, 34, 35n, 37, 38n, 58-59, 62, 75, 99, 149, 377n, 379 Amerbach, Johann 364n Ammannati, Iacopo 259 Amos 247 Amund 360, 470 Anselm of Canterbury 160 Anselm of Laon 58 Anthony the Great 222 Antichrist 30, 34, 58-59, 152, 384 Antonino Pierozzi 6n, 258, 309 Antonio Azaro 128-29, 135, 138-40 Antonio da Bitonto 76, 224, 226 Antonio da Brescia 131 Antonio da Vercelli 226, 316n Antwerp, edition 390-91, 420n, 428n, 440n, 442 Apiarius, Samuel 387n Aquinas see Thomas Aquinas Aragon 155 Aristotle 137, 205n, 217n

Arras 95, 97 Assisi 92, 229 Augsburg, edition 116, 227n, 352 Augustine 12, 18, 20, 23n, 24, 30n, 32-35, 37, 38n, 48, 56n, 58, 63n, 73n, 75, 92, 159, 160n, 202n, 377n, 378, 384, 385n, 409, 413n, 426 Autun 88n Auxerre 88n Avarice (Avarizia) 264, 276-77 Avignon 85, 383, 384n, 394 Azaro see Antonio Azaro 128-29, 135, 138-40 Babylon 336 Baden 311 Barabbas 30 Bariletti, Giovanni 420n Basel 6, 16, 109, 111, 116, 310, 311-14, 337-38, 346n, 354, 360, 365, 383, 397, 436 Basel, Carthusian monastery 313 Basel, Cathedral 313, 337-38 Basel, Dominican convent 313 Basel, edition 130, 153n, 177n, 225, 311, 312, 327, 354-64, 369, 391 Basel, Franciscan convent 312, 313, 364, 383, 394 Basel, Gnadental 312, 313 Basel, St. Leonhard 313 Basel, St. Peter 313 Basel, St. Theodor 313 Basel, University 312-14 Basil of Caesarea 75, 377, 378n, 403n, 404-05 Bast, Robert 272 Bathsheba 182 Bauska 388 Bede 37-39, 40, 45, 58, 59, 72n, 75, 124, 413n Behem, Franz 420n, 423n Belcari, Feo 261n, 272 Belial 353n Bellère, Jean 420n Bergman, Johann 356 Bernard of Clairvaux 10, 18, 19n, 41-46, 48, 50, 51n, 55, 83, 97, 122, 123n, 129n, 160, 202n, 213, 236, 267, 268n, 273, 318n, 327n, 360n, 379 Bernardino Aquilano see Bernardino da Fossa

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_013

540 Bernardino Bulgarino 235 Bernardino Busti 226, 231, 323n Bernardino Caimi 239 Bernardino da Feltre 104, 112n, 187, 192, 229, 235-39, 240 Bernardino da Fossa 239 Bernardino da Siena 5, 15, 104, 106-108, 110n, 112, 118, 119n, 130n, 143, 164, 180, 187-218, 219, 223, 225-39, 252, 265, 266, 271, 290, 309-10, 318, 321n, 323n, 327, 348, 354, 374, 378n, 389, 425-26, 447 Bersuire, Pierre 337, 345n Bethlehem 60 Binder, Georg 391 Birckmann, Arnold 420n Bisticci, Vespasiano 259n Boitani, Giulia 94n Bologna 80n, 115, 134, 141, 260, 306-07, 419n Bologna, Compagnia di San Girolamo 257, 260 Bonaventure 13, 18, 19n, 56, 69-75, 84, 97, 99, 123, 159, 202, 212n, 216n, 234, 252, 264, 345, 399, 425, 426 Borromeo, Carlo 435n, 442 Bosch, Hieronymus 358n Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne 19n Bossy, John 162 Bourges 88n, 90-92, 97, 98, 457-61 Brandenburg 397 Brant, Sebastian 311, 314, 322, 354-56, 363, 369, 422n Bredelar 362n Brenz, Johannes 14, 370, 382, 397-402, 403n, 425, 430 Breslau (Wrocław) 219-21 Bruges 174, 177, 413n Brühl 411-12 Brunn, Mette Birkedal 41, 45 Bruno of Segni 41n, 79n Brussels 143 Buda 227 Burke, Peter 114 Cádiz 393n Caesarius of Arles 37 Caiaphas 54n Calvin, Jean 23n, 434, 436 Canisius, Peter 432-33 Canterbury 88n

Index Of Names And Places Caracciolo, Roberto 104, 117n, 187, 191n, 223-25, 227, 229, 238, 315n, 415, 443 Carafa, Gian Pietro (Paul IV) 134, 432, 436n Carcano see Michele Carcano Castellani, Castellano 9, 254, 284-305, 306-07, 309 Catalogne 39n, 153 Cavalcanti, Aldobrandino see Aldobrandino Cavalcanti Cavoto, Giovanni Battista 105 Cecchi, Giovanni Maria 435n Cesarini, Giuliano 259n Charlemagne 39n Charles V 432 Chartres 88n Cherubino da Spoleto 224, 226, 229 Chioggia 134 Chizzola, Ippolito 134n Chrysologus, Peter 35-36, 80n Chrysostom, John 67, 75, 377n, 405 Chysgen of Hebern, Nicholas 362n Cicero, Marcus Tullius 316n, 392n Clairvaux 46 Clamanges, Nicolas de, 29 Clement of Alexandria 25n Clérée, Jean 372n Clermont-Ferrand 88n Cochlaeus, Johannes 419, 420n Colmar 391n Cologne 87, 115, 411 Cologne, Cathedral 411-12 Cologne, edition 116, 138n, 153n, 171n, 225, 391, 420n, 428n Colomb, Ferdinand 306n Colombo, Cristoforo 306n Comparini, Paolo 289n Compostela 253n Contrition (Contrizione) 267 Corbellini, Sabrina 255 Cordoba 393 Cornelius 79 Corvin, Anton 401 Costantino d’Orvieto 100n, 212n Countances 88n Courtois d’Arras 94-96 Cristofori, Gasparo 442n Cyril of Alexandria 75 D’Abondance, Jean 373n, 390n

Index of Names and Places Da Polenta, Francesca 205n Damasus 27 Daniel 182 Daniele da Porcìa 187, 192-95, 238 Dante Alighieri 200n, 353n Danzig 392n Dathan 178 Dati, Leonardo 220, 225 Datini, Margherita 274 David 84-85, 182, 199, 274n, 281, 334, 453 D’Avray David 15, 101, 113 Delmas, Sophie 206 Demosthenes 315 Dendermonde 254 De Soto, Domingo 433 D’Espence, Claude 419n, 430n Di Basti, Giovanni 443n Dillingen 428n, 433n Dolciati, Antonio 275, 279-82 Dominici, Giovanni 29 Domitilla, saint 274n Domizi, Pietro 289n Dompnier, Bernard 112n Donatus 392n Drach, Peter 364n Dresden 414 Dürer, Albrecht 23n, 322, 356n, 357, 359, 360n, 461n Durham 381n Eck, Johannes 14, 16, 369-71, 377-81, 403, 408-09, 449 Egypt 140 Eisenbichler, Konrad 287 Elbing 392n Engadina 391n England 150, 183n Enoch 53 Envy (Invidia) 264 Erasmus of Rotterdam, Desiderius 18, 364, 365-69, 372, 376, 392n, 394, 396-97, 405, 436 Estella, Diego de 437, 439-42, 444 Eubulus 391-92 Eudes de Châteauroux 92 Eugenius IV (Gabriele Condulmer) 257, 258, 289n Europe 14, 113-14, 116, 152, 188, 226, 227 Eve 161n

541 Fear (Timor) 43-44 Felix of Ravenna 35n Ferber, Nikolaus 408, 411-14 Ferdinand of Austria 409-10 Ferdinand of Portugal 413n Ferrara 76n, 197, 204, 226, 239n Ferrer, Vicent 106, 112, 152-60, 187, 413n, 443 Filippo da Moncalieri 140 Fish, Stanley 23n Flacius Illyricus, Matthias 436-37 Flanders 174, 254 Flavius Josephus 272 Florence 16, 105n, 111, 114, 188, 192, 200-06, 208-12, 220, 240, 248, 250, 251-309, 374n, 435, 447-48 Florence, Buca di Santa Maria della Pietà 259 Florence, Cathedral 132, 242 Florence, Compagnia dell’Arcangelo Raffaele 258, 259 Florence, Compagnia della Purificazione 256-60, 271, 274 Florence, Compagnia di San Giovanni Evangelista 258, 260n Florence, Convent of San Gallo 279-80, 281n Florence, Feast of San Giovanni 247 Florence, Monastery of Annalena 282 Florence, Monastery of Santa Maria della Misericordia 279, 282 Florence, Monte di Pietà 287 Florence, San Lorenzo 289n Florence, San Marco 134, 258, 265n, 273, 285-86 Florence, Santa Croce 5, 106, 207, 239n Florence, Santa Maria Novella 5, 104 Florence, Santo Spirito 142 Florence, School of the cathedral 280-81, 289n Fortitude (Fortitudo) 44 Fortune (Fortuna) 393 France 37, 39n, 112n, 114, 116, 152, 174, 180, 197, 204, 267, 384n, 415, 420, 427, 434 Francesco Vaccari 239 Francini, Giuliano 435n Francis of Assisi 189n, 274n François de Meyronnes 135, 142-48, 149, 151, 161n, 164n, 222n, 427

542 Frederik III of Saxony 382 Free Will (Libero albitro) 263, 267, 272-73 Fridolin, Stephen 312n, 343n, 351n Frieß, Anna 393 Froben, Johann 57, 365 Frymire, John 381, 407-08, 427 Fulda 393 Furter, Michael 355, 356, 363 Gabriel, archangel 53n, 251 Gabriele da Barletta 130-31 Gadamer, Hans-Georg 18n Geiler von Kaysersberg, Johannes 171n, 180, 314, 415n, 422n Genoa 240 George of Saxony 414 Gerard of Frachet 80n Germany 16, 39n, 80, 112n, 114, 116, 142n, 170, 350n, 353n, 357, 371, 381, 397, 407, 408, 415, 418, 420, 422n, 433 Gerson, Jean 359n Gethsemane 343, 345, 361 Gherardini, Betto di Andrea 142 Ghirlandi, Andrea 307 Giacomo da Grumello 236 Giacomo della Marca 164, 192, 222n, 228-35, 238-39, 427 Giacomo di Benevento 343n Giordano da Pisa 5-6, 104, 108-09, 118, 120, 146n, 309-10, 343n, 424n Giovanni Aquilano 226, 231 Giovanni da Capestrano 25, 106, 192, 219-22, 233n Giovanni da Castello della Pieve 223n Giovanni da San Gimignano 135-38, 148 Girolamo da Siena 134 Giustiniano, Gioachino 134n Gluttony (Gola) 264 Gnapheus, Gulielmus (Willem de Volder) 391-93, 417 Good Cheer (Allegrezza) 267, 268 Gottfried of Admont 48 Gradenigo, Jacopo 302n Gran, Heinrich 227n Granada, Luis de 443 Gregorio d’Alessandria 142 Gregory of Nyssa 75 Gregory the Great 23n, 50n, 93n, 123, 133n, 143, 379

Index Of Names And Places Grisonio, Annibale 134n Gritsch see Grütsch Grütsch, Conrad 116, 158-70, 173, 176, 196, 215n, 248, 291n, 313, 330, 337, 415n Grütsch, Johann 116, 313 Gubbio 416n Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) 439 Guerric of Igny 19n, 46-48, 50, 55, 65, 125 Guest, Gerald 88 Guglielma, saint 274n Guillaume Durand 103 Guillermus 112n Hagenau 227n Ham 173 Hanska, Jussi 101, 113 Heemskerck, Maarten van 439 Heidelberg 311, 397 Heiric of Auxerre 40n Hercules 358n Herolt, Johann 110n, 129, 381n, 443 Herp, Hendrik 351 Hesse 388 Heusenstamm, Sebastian von 418-19 Heynlin von Stein (Lapide), Johann 314 Hildegard of Bingen 9, 18, 20, 50-55, 66, 97 Holland 392 Homberg 411 Hoogvliet, Margriet 186 Hope (Spes/Speranza) 43-44, 266, 267, 273, 393 Hosea 237 Howard, Peter 114 Hugh of Saint-Cher 13, 20, 52n, 56-57, 59-69, 70, 72, 73, 74, 76, 84, 97, 100n, 122n, 123-25, 147, 163n, 212n, 347n, 354, 389, 427, 441, 448 Humanité 390 Humbert of Romans 127 Iacopo da Varazze 10, 15, 76, 115, 121-29, 136, 138, 145, 148, 161n, 162n, 172n, 187, 234, 238n, 348, 381, 410, 441, 443, 448 Iacopone da Todi 200n, 345n Igny 46 Ingolstadt 377, 408, 432 Ireneus of Lyon 25n Irimbert of Admont 48 Isaac 190n, 209-10, 272, 291

Index of Names and Places Iser, Wolfgang 23n Isidore of Seville 37n, 379 Italy 15, 16,104, 111n, 114, 116, 152-53, 180, 187, 224, 226-27, 241, 254n, 267n, 308, 313, 381n, 420, 434, 436n Jacob 239n Jacobus de Voragine, see Iacopo da Varazze James, apostle 32n, 253n Jauss, Hans Robert 18n Jeremiah 237 Jericho 29n Jerome 20, 24, 27-30, 32-34, 35n, 37, 53n, 58, 59, 68n, 74n, 75, 76, 133n, 210n, 224n, 318n, 323n, 377n, 394, 419n Jerusalem 83, 345 John the Baptist 127n, 164, 253n, 377n John, apostle 32n Jonah 122 Joseph, son of Jacob 253n, 275n, 281, 350n Judas 361, 414, 424n Justice (Iustitia/Justice) 44, 390 Kaysersberg 311-12 Kemp, Wolfgang 90 Kimura, Yoko 112n, 131n, 229 Koberger, Anton 57, 364 Laban 239n Lambert, François 382-87, 394, 400, 406, 407, 411 Laon 57-58 Latomus, Johannes 420n Lawet, Robert 267n, 391n Lazarus 4, 6, 68n, 85n, 107n, 113, 190n, 253, 286n, 295n, 406n Lecco 442, 443n Leipzig 369, 377, 380, 391 Lent (Careme) 390 Leonardo da Udine 220n, 225, 353n, 415n Leonardo Dati see Dati, Leonardo Leone X see Medici, Giovanni de’ Limperger, Tilman 383 Lleida 153 Lombard, Peter 159n, 318n Lombardy 198 Lorich, Gerhard 415 Louis IX 178 Louvain/Leuven 418

543 Love (Caritas) 44-45 Luca da Bitonto 119 Lucifer 80n, 144, 232 Lucrezia, prostitute 293-94 Ludolph of Saxony 20, 148-50 Luke, evangelist 21-22, 23n, 24, 140n Lust (Lussuria/Luxure) 264, 373n, 390 Luther, Martin 12, 14, 16, 18, 77, 369, 371, 376-77-81, 382-86, 392-397, 401, 403, 407-08, 410, 412-13, 415, 436, 449 Lyon, edition 76n, 116, 153n, 225, 227n, 419n, 420n, 428n, 442 Macinghi Strozzi, Alessandra 274 Macropedius, Georgius 391n Maillard, Oliver 15, 158, 174-80, 183, 187, 211, 234, 312n, 372, 387, 411n Mainz 109, 111, 417-18, 434 Mainz, Cathedral 7, 371, 408n, 409, 417 Mainz, edition 420n, 428n, 442 Mainz, Franciscan friary 417-18 Majorana, Bernadette 112n Malaspina, Argentina 300 Malatesta, Paolo 205n Malerbi, Nicolò 308 Malfetta, Pietro 77n Malgrate 443n Mallery, Karel von 472 Manasseh 83, 452 Marburg 205n, 357, 411, 464 Mariano da Genazzano (Pomicelli) 281-83 Martha of Bethany 302 Martin, Hervé 174 Martinus Polonus 109-110n Mary (Virgin) 53n, 80, 82, 106, 121, 126-34, 164, 169n, 171n, 188n, 195-96, 216, 220, 240, 247, 253n, 260, 340, 344, 345n, 348, 372n, 448 Mary Magdalen 79, 83-84, 144, 164, 176, 190n, 199, 249, 253n, 302-05, 334, 339-40, 347-49, 351, 361, 379n, 452 Mary of Egypt 84 Master of the Apocalypse Rose 181, 182n Matthew, evangelist 21n, 84, 199 Matthias of Sweden 212n Meder, Johann 4, 6-7, 16, 109, 121, 164, 215n, 305, 310-69, 374, 394, 420, 438, 446-47, 466-69 Medici, Cosimo de’ 258, 272n, 289n

544 Medici, Giovanni de’ (Leone X) 284 Medici, Lorenzo de’ 242, 274, 282, 284, 285n Meffreth (von Meißen) 105, 110n Meister des Hainzt Narr 355-56, 361, 466-69 Melanchthon, Philipp 12, 382, 398, 401-07, 408, 423, 425, 436-37 Memmo di Filippuccio 205n Menot, Michel 106n, 371, 372-77, 387 Mentzinger, Johann 408n Mercy (Miséricorde) 390 Michele Carcano 176, 177n, 180, 226, 231, 234 Mickam, Georg 391n Milan 31, 435n, 442, 444n Miscomini, Antonio 275n Mistake (Erreur) 390 Moises 353n Monopoli 437 Moro, Maurizio 435n Mortal Sin (Péché Mortal) 390 Münster 401 Musso, Cornelio 134n, 443 Muzi, Antonio 259 Muzi, Piero 9, 254-73, 275-78, 283, 289-91, 297, 306-07 Nacchianti, Iacopo 134 Nadal, Jeronimo 437-39, 472-75 Nantes 174-75, 177 Naples 120, 225, 438 Nathan 84, 453 Nausea, Friedrich 408, 409-11, 414n, 417 Netherlands 416n, 418-19, 434 Newbigin, Nerida 256n, 284n Nicholas of Lyra 52n, 56, 57, 76-79, 80, 97, 99n, 141n, 272, 342n, 394, 443 Nicolas de Gorran 135-36, 146n Nider, Johannes 162n, 415n Nikolaus of Herborn see Ferber, Nikolaus Nineveh 84 Noah 32, 53, 173 Nuremberg 357, 389 Nuremberg, edition 116, 153n, 171n Nutius, Martinus 420n, 423n Ochino, Bernardino 436n Oecolampadius, Johannes 397 Olivi, Peter of John 57n, 67n, 212n, 215, 218n Oppenheim 311 Origen 24n, 32n, 141n, 272 Orleans 174

Index Of Names And Places Orsini, Clarice 274 Orvieto 307 Oswaldus de Lasko 343 Ovid 335-38, 345 Padua 115, 191n, 192, 197, 201, 204, 219n, 221n, 224, 235 Palermo 437 Panigarola, Francesco 105 Paolo d’Assisi 239 Paratus 105, 110n Paris 57, 60, 75, 103, 111, 123n, 142, 174, 177-80, 211, 372 Paris, edition 135, 138n, 158, 171n, 180-86, 364, 369, 391, 408, 415n Paris, Saint-Jean-en-Grève 177 Paris, University 55, 56, 60, 69, 99-100, 141, 314, 418 Passeri, Bernardino 472 Paterius 37n Paul IV see Carafa Paul the Deacon 37, 39 Paul, apostle 63, 79, 84, 133n, 164, 169, 199, 315, 379, 400, 441n Paulus simplex 222 Pavia 236 Pelbart de Temesvár 190n, 208n, 227-28 Pellikan, Konrad 382, 383, 393-97 Penitence (Pénitence) 390 Perna, Pietro 436n Perugia 130n, 301 Peter Comestor 56n Peter the Chanter 60n, 99 Peter, apostle 32n, 84, 133n, 144, 199, 233, 324, 334, 424n Petit, Jean 364 Petrarca, Francesco 294n Petri de Langendorff, Johann 57 Petrus de Colle 171n Petrus de Palude 170 Pettegree, Andrew 381 Pforzheim 311 Pharaoh 44, 404n Philautus 391-92 Philip II 439 Philipp of Hesse 411 Phyllis 205n Piccolomini, Enea Silvio (Pious II) 313 Pierozzi see Antonino Pierre d’Ailly 29

545

Index of Names and Places Pigouchet, Pierre 181-82 Pilatus, Pontius 54n Pious II see Piccolomini Pisa 108n, 115, 284-85, 434-35 Pisano, Alfonso 433n Pittorio, Ludovico 443 Plautus 289n Poitiers 88n Poliziano, Agnolo 282 Pollicarius, Johannes 397n, 402 Polonus see Martinus Polonus Pomicelli, Mariano see Mariano da Genazzano Pourrette 95 Prato 285 Prayer (Oratio) 44 Preconio, Ottaviano 437-38 Pride (Superbia) 264, 267, 273, 276-77 Providence (Provedenza) 267-68, 273 Prudence (Prudentia) 44, 393 Prudentius 44n Pseudo-Ambrose 141n Pseudo-Basil see Basil Pseudo-Bede 141n Pseudo-Burlarmacchi 287 Pseudo-Dionysius 238 Pseudo-Eligius of Noyon 37, 40 Pseudo-Methodius 352n, 355 Pucci, Antonio 301-02 Pucci, Piero 282n Pulci, Antonia 9, 254, 273-84, 285-86, 289-90, 297, 306-08 Pulci, Bernardo 273, 274, 284 Pulci, Luca 273 Pulci, Luigi 273, 282 Pyramus 335-38 Quentel, Peter 410n Quintilian 259, 315 Rahab of Jericho 84 Ralph of Laon 58 Ramassa 140n Rancio 442-44 Ranulphe de la Houblonnière 123n Raphael, archangel 360n Ravenna 35 Reinburg, Virginia 180 Rembrandt van Rijn 439 Remorse (Remort de Coscience) 390 Reutlingen 116

Richard of Saint Victor 55-56 Richel, Bernhard 357 Riga 388, 390 Rissah 140 Roberto da Lecce see Caracciolo Roest, Bert 2 Rome 103, 134n, 162, 248n, 388, 418 Rome, edition 225 Rome, San Marcello 130 Rome, San Pietro 105 Rouen 76n Rouillé, Guillaume 420n Royaerd, Johannes 413n Rubens, Pieter Paul 439 Ruffach 311 Rusconi, Roberto 227, 443n Sacchetti, Franco 108 Sachs, Hans 389, 390n Sala, Domenico 442-44 Salamanca 442 Salomon 323n, 343n San Gimignano 205, 240n Sansovino, Francesco 148 Saul 274n, 281, 404n Savonarola, Girolamo 15, 133, 180, 187, 240-50, 285-88, 299, 448 Saxony 105, 384n Schatzgeyer, Kasper 312n Schmeltzl, Wolfgang 391n Schmitt, Jean-Claude 103 Schwäbisch Hall 397 Semiramis 336 Seneca the Elder 165, 166n Sens, Cathedral 88n, 90n, 91n Siena 106, 220, 223n, 307 Siena, La Capriola 206 Simeon 344 Simone da Cascina 267, 350n Sinai 53, 54 Sloth (Accidia) 264, 276-77 Sochot 140n Soderini, Margherita di Tommaso 282-83 Soderini, Piero 285, 300n Sodom 231n Södra Råda 360, 470 Somasco, Giovanni Battista 115 Spain 152, 393, 418, 427 Spalatin, Georg Burkhardt 382-84 Spengel, Theobald 419-20

546 Spiera, Ambrogio 130 Staupiz, Johann von 378n Stendal 357n Strasbourg 158, 171n, 172, 314, 346n Strasbourg, edition 116, 153n, 171, 225, 227n Surgant, Johann Ulrich 313 Susanna 182-83 Swalwell, Thomas 381n Sweden 360 Switzerland 152, 393 Tanini, Antonia see Pulci, Antonia Tanini, Francesco 273 Tanini, Iacopa 274 Temperance (Temperantia) 44 Temptation (Temptation) 390 Terence 289n, 366n, 391 Tertullian 20, 25-27 Thayer, Anne 113 The Hague 4, 392 Theophilus 75 Thisbe 335-39, 345n, 351 Thomas, apostle 84 Thomas Aquinas 57, 75-76, 107n, 115, 120, 353n, 413n, 443 Thomas de Austria 81n Thomasinus de Ferraria see Tommaso dai Litui Thuringia 414 Tissot, Yves 24, 26 Tobiah 360n Tomitano, Martino see Bernardino da Feltre Tommaso dai Litui 225-26 Tornabuoni, Lucrezia 274 Tours 372 Trasimeno island 130n Traversari, Ambrogio 257, 259 Treviso 307 Tubini, Antonio 307 Tuscany 205, 267 Ulm, edition 116, 225, 352 Umbria 301n Uppsala 128 Urban IV, pope 75 Uriah 182 Ursula, saint 321n Vacha 414

Index Of Names And Places Valla, Lorenzo 218 Valtellina 442n Vauchez, André 128 Venice 134 Venice, edition 77n, 116, 130, 143, 153n, 225, 307, 420n, 442 Venice, San Salvador 239n Vermigli, Pietro Martire 436n Vespucci, Giorgio Antonio 289n Victorinus 33 Vienna 391n, 393, 409 Violi, Lorenzo 187, 243, 247n Virgin see Mary Visani, Oriana 142n Viterbo 307 Vostre, Simon 181-83, 185 Wailes, Stephan 20 Waldis, Burkhard 219, 382, 388-92, 400, 407, 448 Walter of Strasbourg 80, 345n Watts, Keren 359n Weaver, Elissa 278 Wernher der Gartenaere 94n Whatling, Stuart 90n Wild, Johann 7, 10, 12, 13, 16, 109, 370-71, 402n, 417-31, 432-34, 440n, 449 Wilhelm V of Bavaria 433 William of Saint-Amour 69 Wissemburg 311 Wittenberg 381n, 382-84, 387-88, 393, 401, 414 Wittenberg, University 383 Witzel, Georg 8, 408, 414-17, 423, 432-33 Wrath (Ira) 264 Wrocław see Breslau Württemberg 397 Wyclif, John 150, 152 Ypres 413n Yves de Tréguier 112n Zabern 311 Zacchaeus 84, 199, 379n Zacharias Chrysopolitanus 41n Zanobi della Barba 307 Zurich 311, 381, 391, 393-94, 396 Zutz, Johannes 391n Zwingli, Huldrych 391, 393-94, 396 Zwirckau 391n

of Biblical Quotations Index ofIndex Biblical Quotations

547

Index of Biblical Quotations Genesis 1:26 63 Genesis 2 42, 51 Genesis 3 42, 161, 175 Genesis 3:9 123 Genesis 13 231 Genesis 27 372 Genesis 29 239 Genesis 45:3 350 Exodus 12:11 334 Exodus 24:12 177 Numbers 16:31 178 Numbers 33 141 Numbers 33:21 141

Song of Songs 2:5 Song of Songs 3:1 Song of Songs 3:2 Song of Songs 3:11 Song of Songs 5:1 Song of Songs 5:6 Song of Songs 6:12

305, 345 348 326 343 342, 343 339 214

Sirach 15:14-18 237 Isaiah 42:13 53 Isaiah 63:2 339 Jeremiah 3:1 214, 237 Jeremiah 21:8 237

Deuteronomy 2:12-13 28

Ezekiel 37 330

2 Samuel 12 84

Hosea 2:14 214, 237 Hosea 13:9 426

2 Chronicles 33:11-12 83 Psalm 13:1 321 Psalm 18:8 172 Psalm 22:21 233 Psalm 39:3 231 Psalm 41:4 224 Psalm 52:1 321 Psalm 90 317, 318 Psalm 90:11 318 Psalm 118:103 339 Psalm 138 36, 122 Psalm 138:9-10 238 Proverbs 1:7 379 Proverbs 1:20 387 Proverbs 4:20-22 172 Proverbs 5:9 237 Proverbs 14:31 173 Proverbs 26:11 175 Ecclesiastes 1:17 323 Song of Songs 1:1 53, 65, 163 Song of Songs 1:12 343, 345

Joel 1:17 175 Amos 5:21 247 Habakkuk 2:3 332 Matthew 4:1-11 327 Matthew 4:17 421 Matthew 4:19 32 Matthew 5:37 316 Matthew 7:13-14 329 Matthew 7:20 189 Matthew 9:6 75 Matthew 9:8 428 Matthew 11:28 331 Matthew 11:29 35, 59 Matthew 12:7 395 Matthew 13 78 Matthew 13:25 203 Matthew 16:17 426 Matthew 18:12-14 21 Matthew 18:22 233 Matthew 20:1-16 29, 32 Matthew 21:33-44 107

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_014

548 Matthew 24:12 342 Matthew 25:1-12 321 Matthew 25:2 321 Matthew 25:14-30 19, 303 Matthew 25:15 237 Matthew 25:31-46 30, 328 Matthew 27:4 424 Mark 6:47-56 324

Index Of Biblical Quotations John 20:11 340 John 20:17 349 John 20:19 348 Acts 2 78, 79 Acts 2:3 54 Acts 4:12 132 Acts 10 79 Acts 11 79

Luke 2:15 60 Luke 2:35 344, 345 Luke 7:36-50 340 Luke 7:38 83 Luke 10:25 175 Luke 10:25-37 6, 92 Luke 11:14-28 331 Luke 12:16-21 103, 321 Luke 12:41 70 Luke 14:11 270 Luke 14:16-24 29, 59, 68 Luke 15 21, 24, 26, 31, 33, 59, 62, 109, 148, 283 Luke 15:1-10 109, 399, 402 Luke 15:1-3 21, 22, 71 Luke 15:4-7 21, 31, 62, 233, 303, 384 Luke 15:7 21, 44, 67, 96, 164 Luke 15:8-10 21, 31, 62 Luke 15:10 21 Luke 15:11-32 1-449 Luke 16:19-31 6 Luke 18:9-14 30 Luke 22:11-12 341 Luke 24:13-35 347 Luke 24:36-47 348

Romans 3:22 132 Romans 4:5 145 Romans 5:20 47

John 1:29 398 John 6:1-14 332 John 10:11 233 John 12:15 283 John 15:4 38 John 19:28 233 John 20 146

1 John 2:16 62 1 John 4:18 28

1 Corinthians 1:24 63 1 Corinthians 2:1-4 315 1 Corinthians 6:16-17 47 1 Corinthians 12 64 1 Corinthians 15:10 426 Galatians 2:19 132 Galatians 3:24 400 Galatians 5:24 144 Philippians 1:23 348 2 Timothy 4:3-4 315 Hebrews 6:6 169 Hebrews 6:19 324 James 2:16 246 1 Peter 2:21 340

Revelation 3:15 164 Revelation 3:15-16 247, 248 Revelation 3:19-20 404, 405, 425 Revelation 3:20 74, 202

of Manuscripts Index ofIndex Manuscripts

549

Index of Manuscripts Assisi, Biblioteca Comunale, 246 Assisi, Biblioteca del Sacro Convento, fondo antico 428

193, 195 121, 127

Bergamo, Biblioteca Civica, MA 302

191

Capestrano, Biblioteca del Convento di San Giovanni, XXX Capestrano, Biblioteca del Convento di San Giovanni, XXXI

220 106

Como, Biblioteca Comunale, I.3.17C

239

Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Acquisti e doni 330 Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Ashburnham 150 Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Pluteo XX 31 Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, II.IV.116 Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Magliabechiano II II 452 Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Magliabechiano XXI 175 Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 1281 Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 1294 (2760) Foligno, Biblioteca comunale, CA IX.1.11

223 193-94 237 200 301 239 142 301-02 230

Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, G 282 Inf. Modena, Biblioteca Estense, y F. I. 11 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 3003 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 23426

193 239 86 350

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M.521

88

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 511 Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Latin 512 Paris, Institut de recherche et d’histoire des textes, Collection privée, 360

86, 455 86, 454 207-08

Rome, Archivio Generale dei Frati Minori Conventuali, D 41 Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, 187 Rome, Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana, 55.K.2 Rome, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, 483 Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vaticano Latino 4375 Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vaticano Latino 7642 Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Vaticano Latino 7730

193 230 86 260 153 230-35 153

Sarnen, Benediktinerkollegium, Cod. membr. 8 Siena, Biblioteca Comunale, I.II.33 Siena, Biblioteca Comunale, U.V.5 Siena, Osservanza, Museo Castelli, 28

81, 452-53 263, 278 200 223

The Hague, Museum Meermanno, 10 B 34

87

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004349582_015

550

Index Of Manuscripts

Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, C 18 Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, C 268 Uppsala, Universitetsbibliotek, C 347

136 129 109, 128

Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, Fondo antico 143

239