Violence against the clergy in northern France, 1450-1490

法国北部针对神职人员的暴力行为，1450 年至 1490 年

• 批准号: 2877252
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Oxford
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2877252
• 关键词: Violence; against; clergy; northern; France

Could attacking a clergyman be justified in late medieval France? Violence against clerics was prohibited by canon law; yet it is evident that attacks did occur, and the ways in which such violence was dealt with by authorities and within communities was variable. Attitudes towards violence against churchmen were thus complicated, and perhaps not universally condemnatory. However, that some instances of violence against clerics were punished suggests that there were indeed boundaries which distinguished 'acceptable' from 'unacceptable' violence against the clergy. I will study instances of lay violence against the clergy in northern France in the late fifteenth century to answer several questions. Why did such prohibited violence occur at all? How did instances of violence towards the clergy alter and contribute to shared ideas of 'acceptable' violence in society? Where did the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable violence lie, and how did communities and authorities negotiate these boundaries? Finally, how did episodes of violence committed by the laity against the clergy function to allow communities to renegotiate power dynamics in the late medieval parish?Although violence, the clergy and the medieval church have been studied in conjunction, it is often either violent clerics and the institutional church's attempts to regulate them, or the impact of violence on clerical identity, which are the focus. Shifting the perspective to focus on the causes, meaning and consequences of lay violence against the clergy will situate these altercations within the wider grammars of violence in medieval society, and recognise the social contingency and communicative purposes of such attacks.Meanwhile, societal attitudes towards violence have been researched in other contexts: for example, whether honour killings could be morally or even legally justifiable, or the circumstances in which domestic violence was considered acceptable. However, violence against churchmen has not yet been used as a prism through which to explore this theme. Whilst some forms of violence were treated with ambivalence even by the authorities, the complete legal prohibition on violence against the clergy by the church, as well as the spiritual repercussions inherent in attacking mediators between God and man, will enable investigation not only of how authorities shaped ideas of acceptable violence, but also of how individuals and lay communities did so too. Examining instances of violence simultaneously as a response and a contribution to these shared ideas of justifiable violence in society will moreover allow delineation of the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable violence, and observation of the ways in which these boundaries were constantly and mutually negotiated by individuals, communities, and authorities.This project will be based on records from ecclesiastical courts and pastoral visitations from northern France, found in the Archives Nationales in Paris, and across local archives. A significant portion of the church court records have not yet been the subject of major study. These documents will offer accounts of cases involving violence against the clergy, from the incidents themselves to the outcome of any legal action. Another core corpus of material will be the records of the papal penitentiary, the institution which dealt with supplications from penitents across Christendom for absolution of reserved sins (like violence against clerics). Those from France have not been the subject of major study to date. The supplications offer the opportunity to study more intimate accounts from the perpetrators of violence themselves; the papal penitentiary, though often considered as a judicial court, functioned much more like a forum of confession for sinners. These will therefore provide the opportunity to explore the ways in which individuals attempted to justify attacking clerics to themselves as well as to authorities.

在中世纪晚期的法国，攻击牧师是否合理？教会法禁止针对神职人员的暴力行为；然而，显然袭击确实发生过，而且当局和社区内处理此类暴力的方式各不相同。因此，人们对针对教士的暴力行为的态度很复杂，而且也许并没有受到普遍谴责。然而，一些针对神职人员的暴力行为受到惩罚，这表明针对神职人员的暴力行为确实存在区分“可接受”和“不可接受”的界限。我将研究十五世纪末法国北部针对神职人员的世俗暴力事件，以回答几个问题。为什么会发生这种被禁止的暴力行为？针对神职人员的暴力事件如何改变并促成社会上“可接受”暴力的共同观念？可接受和不可接受的暴力之间的界限在哪里？社区和当局如何协商这些界限？最后，平信徒针对神职人员实施的暴力事件如何发挥作用，使社区能够重新谈判中世纪晚期教区的权力动态？虽然暴力、神职人员和中世纪教会被结合起来研究，但通常要么暴力神职人员和机构教会试图规范他们，要么暴力对神职人员身份的影响才是焦点。将视角转向针对神职人员的世俗暴力的原因、意义和后果，将把这些争吵置于中世纪社会更广泛的暴力语法中，并认识到此类攻击的社会偶然性和交流目的。同时，社会对暴力的态度也在其他背景下进行了研究：例如，名誉杀人在道德上甚至法律上是否合理，或者家庭暴力发生的情况。 认为可以接受。然而，针对教士的暴力尚未被用作探索这一主题的棱镜。虽然当局对某些形式的暴力行为也抱有矛盾的态度，但法律完全禁止教会对神职人员使用暴力，以及攻击神与人之间的调解人所固有的精神影响，这不仅使我们能够调查当局如何形成可接受的暴力观念，而且还可以调查个人和世俗社区是如何这样做的。同时审查暴力事件，作为对社会中合理暴力的这些共同观念的回应和贡献，还将允许划定可接受和不可接受的暴力之间的界限，并观察个人、社区和当局不断相互协商这些界限的方式。该项目将基于教会法庭的记录和法国北部的牧民探访记录，这些记录可在档案中找到 巴黎国家档案馆和当地档案馆。教会法庭记录的很大一部分尚未成为主要研究的主题。这些文件将提供涉及针对神职人员的暴力案件的记录，从事件本身到任何法律诉讼的结果。另一个核心材料是教皇监狱的记录，该机构负责处理整个基督教世界的忏悔者请求赦免保留的罪恶（例如针对神职人员的暴力）。迄今为止，来自法国的那些还没有成为主要研究的对象。这些恳求提供了研究暴力肇事者本人更私密的叙述的机会；教皇监狱虽然常常被视为司法法院，但其功能更像是罪人的忏悔场所。因此，这些将提供机会探讨个人试图向自己和当局证明攻击神职人员的合理性的方式。