The monastic and hagiographical contents of Hilary's Sermon on the Life of Honoratus (430-431) have received substantial consideration. Much less attention has been paid to the role the sermon played in the specific context of Arles. In this article, I will focus attention on the social and political dimension of the text and will argue that Hilary's main purpose was to justify his election as bishop of Arles. Hilary portrayed Honoratus as the ideal bishop and exploited the similarities between the two in order to present himself as the suitable successor.
At the turn of the fourteenth century (1295-1301), the Florentine Dominican Remigio de' Girolami produced a collection of essential texts connected to events in Florentine politics that present the testimony of a well-informed intellectual directly involved in the Communal crises. This article proposes to analyze, as a case study, the influence of Remigio's five sermons on Florentine communal life. His preaching in reaction to the crises shaking Florence happened in dialogue with the institutions and citizens of the Commune. It bears witness to the interactions between Santa Maria Novella and the city of Florence and contributes to the development of the political philosophy of its time.
Peer-reviewed journal article (post-print AAM version). M. Caponi, "«Con eterna voce al mondo intero ammoniscono fraternità»: i 'martiri di Kindu' e il culto dei soldati caduti per la pace", in M. Paiano (ed.), Pietà e guerre del Novecento/ Piety and Wars in the Twentieth Century, special issue of Archivio italiano per la storia della pietà, 32 (2019), 191-223, ISSN: 1128-6768. [POST-PRINT, Author's Accepted Manuscript] ABSTRACT «With Everlasting Voice they Advise Brotherhood to the Whole World»: the 'Martyrs of Kindu' and the Cult of Fallen Soldiers for Peace This essay focuses on the issue of martyrdom from a particular point of view, that is the cult of Italian aviators killed in Kindu in 1961. The Catholic world offered an original contribution to the construction of the public narrative of the Congolese massacre and the celebration of its victims. The starting point is the sermon given by Ugo Camozzo, archbishop of Pisa (seat of the brigade to which the military belonged), who spoke of the dead as the actors in a «mission of human and Christian civilization». The analysis sets that sentence into its broader context; in addition to questioning the persistence of national-Catholic frames, it dwells on the contents of the funeral liturgies and the comments appeared in the press, in order to highlight the intertwining of the elements of continuity and the factors of change which shook a church experiencing the Johannine turning point: anti-Communism, the rethinking of the "religious war culture", the racist and colonial legacy, the emergence of a "new universalism" aimed at claiming on a global scale a profane, and no more hierocratic, Christendom.
Albertano da Brescia (1190 circa – 1250 circa) viene considerato oggi dalla storiografia internazionale come una delle figure chiave del medioevo. Giudice, politico, letterato, predicatore, egli fu autore di una serie di opere, tre trattati didattico-morali e cinque sermoni confraternali, che conobbero una grande diffusione, sia nell'originale latino sia tradotte in numerose lingue europee. A lui è stato attribuito il progetto pedagogico ed etico di costruzione del civis medievale, membro della società religiosa e dello stato. Attraverso un codice conservato presso la Biblioteca Trivulziana, posseduto a fine Trecento dai due fratelli entrambi cittadini di Milano, si cercherà di indagare la riuscita di questo progetto, approfondendo alcuni aspetti del bacino di ricezione e dei canali di trasmissione delle sue opere. In particolare si considereranno ambienti sociali e politici, persistenza del latino, fruizione femminile. ; Albertanus of Brescia (c. 1190s–c.1250s) is nowadays considered by international historiography as one of the key figures of the Middle Ages. Judge, politician, writer, preacher, he was the author of three moral-didactic treatises and five confraternity sermons that enjoyed great diffusion, both in their original Latin and in subsequent translations in many european languages. He's been attributed the pedagogical and ethical project of building the medieval civis, member of the religious community and of the state as well. Through the lens of a codex of the Trivulziana Library, belonged in the late 14th century to two brothers citizen of Milan, we'll try to check the success of this project, deepening some aspetcts of the catchment area and of the transmission channels of his works. In particular, they will be taken into consideration social and political environments, latin's persistence, women's fruition.
International audience ; The tale of a meeting between Leonardo and Savonarola in the summer of 1495, later reported by Vasari (1550 and 1568) but confirmed by a memorandum remained in Leonardo's possession (Codex Atlanticus, f. 628 r), which refers explicitly to a "mission" assigned to him (presumably by Ludovico Sforza) to go to Florence, in order to get (through a competent mediator, probably Bernardo Rucellai) a detailed report about the new political rules promoted by the friar, lends credibility to a hypothesis of comparison between their anthropological conceptions, especially as they emerge from their "transfigured" use of the prophetic semantics, despite their shared repudiation of astrological quackery. If, on the one hand, Savonarola's preaching does not have any properly predictive character, in terms of intentional "divination", standing rather as a projection or representation of the contingency of the current days, in purely political terms, Leonardo's riddles, which he literally called "prophecies", on the other hand - and similarly - transform the genre of presages or predictions into entertainment tools for courtly audiences, that, however, in some cases, become a vehicle for a critical evaluation of the troubles of contemporary society. The likelihood that, on the occasion of his convocation in Florence in 1495, Leonardo was able to listen to Savonarola's sermons, so steeped in apocalyptic prophecy, may provide an explanation to the appearance of writings called "prophecies", among his notes, just in the last five years of the century. Their underlying vision of man, clearly pessimistic, offers significant points of contact with the negative anthropology advocated by Savonarola's preaching, which also makes use of animal apology, especially in the conceptual and ideological interpretation of the "anti-human" conflictuality among men, that makes them "beasts" towards themselves, in a sort of anticipation of Hobbes' famous motto homo homini lupus.
ITALIANO: Sin da quando l'Inquisizione medievale si affidò al rigore e alla determinazione di due Ordini religiosi di grande fedeltà e devozione alla fede come i domenicani e i francescani, e cioè almeno a partire dalla metà circa del XIII secolo, gli istituti strutturali salienti della giurisdizione inquisitoriale cominciarono a modellarsi sulla caratteristica più precipua ed emblematica di quegli Ordini, e cioè la loro attitudine alla predicazione. Accadde cioè che la predicazione iniziò a svolgere inevitabilmente un ruolo centrale e preminente nella costruzione della disciplina processuale antiereticale, per la quale non esisteva ancora una sufficiente produzione normativa di matrice papale. In particolare, la predicazione acquistò un ruolo preminente soprattutto all'inizio e alla fine dell'intera procedura, essendo destinati i sermoni dell'inquisitore da una parte ad aprire e sostenere il meccanismo processuale delle indagini preliminari nella fase dell'inquisitio generalis, e dall'altra parte a concludere e suggellare l'intero procedimento giudiziario con la liturgia pubblica delle abiure, delle penitenze e delle condanne al termine della fase dell'inquisitio specialis. / ENGLISH: Since the medieval Inquisition was entrusted, towards the middle of the thirteenth century, to the rigour and the determination of two religious orders of such great loyalty and devotion to the Faith as Dominicans and Franciscans, the main institutions of the inquisitorial jurisdiction began to reflect the principal and most emblematic feature of those orders, which was their aptitude to preaching. Preaching began inevitably to play a central and dominant role in the construction of the procedural rules against heresy, concerning which the Popes had not yet enacted adequate legislation. Preaching acquired a particularly prominent role at the beginning and at the end of the whole judicial procedure, as the sermons of the inquisitors were intended on one hand to open and support the procedural mechanism of the preliminary investigation stage of the inquisitio generalis, and on the other hand to finish and seal the entire court proceedings through the public liturgy of the reading of abjurations, penances and sentences at the end of the inquisitio specialis.
This study analyses the intellectual and political history of Laskar Jihad, the most spectacular Muslim paramilitary group that emerged in Indonesia in the aftermath of the collapse of the New Order regime in May 1998. Using an interpretive framework derived from social movement theory and identity politics, this study exposes the roots of the group and its transformation into a militant, jihadist movement. Based on extensive fieldwork, numerous interviews and a study of the movement's literature, this study demonstrates that the very existence of Laskar Jihad cannot be dissociated from Saudi Arabia's immensely ambitious global campaign for the Wahhabization of the Muslim umma. Operating under the banner of the transnational Salafi da'wa movement, this campaign has succeeded in disseminating the Wahhabi message around the world. The impact of this campaign has been felt in Indonesia since the mid-1980s, reflecting the success of the movement's proponents to attract a significant number of followers and establish an exclusive current of Islamic activism. This study addresses how the rapid efflorescence of the Salafi movement coincided with increasing tension among its protagonists caused by their increasing competition to become the movement's legitimate representative. Fragmentation and conflict among the Salafis became inevitable. The movement's main actor was Ja'far Umar Thalib, a typical cadre of Islamism who grew up in the puritanical atmosphere of al-Irsyad and Persis, two reformist Muslim organizations in Indonesia. His militancy matured in Pakistan, and he went to Afghanistan to fight with the Afghan mujahids. Upon return, he immediately immersed himself in Salafi activism, giving lectures and sermons in Salafi teaching centres scattered among various Indonesian cities. Bolstered by further study with Muqbil ibn Hadi al-Wadi'i of Yemen, he quickly emerged as the movement's most visible, and leading, authority. Utilizing pre-existing networks and interpersonal bonds formed through his activism in the Salafi movement, Ja'far Umar Thalib mobilized thousands of Salafis and other aspirant mujahids to join Laskar Jihad. Through conspiracy rhetoric blaming Zionist and Christian international powers for the escalation of the Moluccan conflict, he created a pretext for collective action that encouraged an analytical shift from individuals to groups. Based on this pretext, which was strengthened and legitimized by fatwas from prominent religious authorities in the Middle East, the Salafis justified their actions and created a new collective identity as heroes for their religion and fellow faithful and as patriots for their beloved state. Thus it is not surprising that they vied with one another to captain the ships that would take them to the frontlines of the Moluccas in a fervid attempt to absorb themselves into a protracted, bloody communal conflict in the islands. For these youths jihad seems not only a demonstration of their commitment to Islam but also a way to express their resentment and frustration in the face of rapid modernization and globalization. From April 2000 until its disbanding in October 2002, Laskar Jihad dispatched more than 7,000 fighters to the Moluccas to confront Christians. This brief episode of jihad activism owed much to the support of military elites who saw it as a chance to use militant Muslim groups to retaliate against Abdurrahman Wahid for having sacked them from key military positions. Ironically, however, most of the Laskar Jihad fighters were unskilled combatants. They went to the Moluccas with limited experience and an untried fighting capacity. Their greatest achievement perhaps lay in creating propaganda that successfully influenced public opinion through the media. Given this fact, this study argues that the jihad conducted by Laskar Jihad can be more accurately described as drama: an endeavour by the Salafis to shore up their self-image as the most committed defenders of Islam, and thereby to put their identity on the map of Indonesian Islam.
This article highlights the multiple political function of a central episode in the hagiographical representation of the youth of Bernardine of Siena, namely his service at the hospital of Santa Maria della Scala of Siena during the 1400 plague. The memory of this episode served the purposes of the Franciscan Observance as well as those of different local contexts. This story portrayed Bernardino as able to respond to the needs of the city not only by means of his personal virtues but also by gathering other people and convincing them to work for the common good, even putting their own lives at risk. The hagiographical episode includes the first "sermon" of Bernardino, who – still as a lay man – addressed the members of the hospital confraternity. This text, programmatically, emphasises the necessity for the lay people to prioritize the bonum commune over the bonum proprium, and indirectly depicts the leadership of the Observant friars in the life of the city. Moreover, while Siena used the memory of the 1400 plague to affirm the connection between Bernardino and its civic institutions, the representation of this episode in a set of frescoes painted in Lodi in 1476 not only depicted a model for the laity but was also functional in legitimizing the reform of the hospitals in that city. ; Questo contributo mette in luce la molteplice funzione politica di uno schema agiografico centrale nella rappresentazione della giovinezza di Bernardino da Siena: il suo servizio durante la peste del 1400 presso l'Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala di Siena. La memoria di questo episodio si prestava ad essere utilizzata tanto dall'Osservanza minoritica quanto in diversi contesti locali. In questo racconto Bernardino è presentato come capace di rispondere ai bisogni della città non solo attraverso le proprie virtù, ma radunando altre persone e convincendole a impegnarsi per il bene comune, anche a rischio della propria vita. L'episodio, così come è raccontato dagli agiografi, incorpora la prima predica fatta dal giovane Bernardino (ancora laico) ai membri della confraternita dell'Ospedale. Il testo indica programmaticamente la necessità per i laici di anteporre il bonum commune al bonum proprium e delinea un ruolo di leadership dei frati dell'Osservanza nel cuore delle città. Inoltre, se a Siena la memoria della peste del 1400 serviva a sottolineare il rapporto tra il santo e le istituzioni della città, la raffigurazione di tale episodio in alcuni affreschi dipinti a Lodi nel 1476 non soltanto veicolava un modello di spiritualità laicale ma serviva a promuovere e legittimare la riforma ospedaliera in corso a Lodi. ; Questo contributo mette in luce la molteplice funzione politica di uno schema agiografico centrale nella rappresentazione della giovinezza di Bernardino da Siena: il suo servizio durante la peste del 1400 presso l'Ospedale di Santa Maria della Scala di Siena. La memoria di questo episodio si prestava ad essere utilizzata tanto dall'Osservanza minoritica quanto in diversi contesti locali. In questo racconto Bernardino è presentato come capace di rispondere ai bisogni della città non solo attraverso le proprie virtù, ma radunando altre persone e convincendole a impegnarsi per il bene comune, anche a rischio della propria vita. L'episodio, così come è raccontato dagli agiografi, incorpora la prima predica fatta dal giovane Bernardino (ancora laico) ai membri della confraternita dell'Ospedale. Il testo indica programmaticamente la necessità per i laici di anteporre il bonum commune al bonum proprium e delinea un ruolo di leadership dei frati dell'Osservanza nel cuore delle città. Inoltre, se a Siena la memoria della peste del 1400 serviva a sottolineare il rapporto tra il santo e le istituzioni della città, la raffigurazione di tale episodio in alcuni affreschi dipinti a Lodi nel 1476 non soltanto veicolava un modello di spiritualità laicale ma serviva a promuovere e legittimare la riforma ospedaliera in corso a Lodi.
