Beyond Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy: Preaching and Exampla in the Context of Lollard Heresy

在启蒙运动的理性出现之前，中世纪一直被认为是“信仰的时代”。这一观点受到了更新的学术研究的挑战，它揭示了信仰的基本问题是如何被辩论的，甚至在中世纪后期也是如此。尽管受到不容忍的对待，并最终被教会镇压，但14世纪和15世纪的Lollard异端邪说暴露了神职人员和世俗社区的真正焦虑。圣礼的效力、访问和解释圣经的权利、宿命的概念：所有这些都受到了辩论，可能会破坏教会在地球上的权威。我建议通过研究Exempla(道德和宗教寓言，通常涉及奇迹)来探索这些焦虑，这些Exempla包括在布道和其他宗教著作中，以确定作家和传教士如何寻求解决问题和焦虑，这些问题和焦虑可能已经被Lollardy带到了前面，但在整个中世纪一直是长期关注的问题。因此，这项研究并不认为洛勒迪是引发担忧的原因，但承认它是引发辩论的催化剂。

The medieval period was long regarded as an 'age of faith' before the reason of the Enlightenment. This view has been challenged by more recent scholarship, which sheds light on how, even in the later middle ages, fundamental questions of belief were being debated. Although treated with intolerance and ultimately suppressed by the Church, the Lollard heresy of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries exposed genuine anxieties in clerical and lay communities. The efficacy of the sacraments, the right to access and interpret scripture, notions of predestination: all were debated, potentially undermining the Church's authority on Earth. I propose to explore these anxieties by examining the exempla (moral and religious fables, usually involving miracles) which are included in sermons and other religious writings in order to identify how writers and preachers sought to address questions and anxieties that may have been brought to the fore by Lollardy, but had been perennial concerns throughout the middle ages. The research does not assume that Lollardy was the cause of the concerns, therefore, but acknowledges the way in which it acted as a catalyst for debate.