Prophets Abroad : The Reception of Continental Holy Women in Late-Medieval England

Scholars have long been aware of the impact of the lives and works of Continental holy women on English spirituality; female mystics such as Margery Kempe were inspired by their predecessors abroad, whose visionary experiences and spiritual reflections were recorded and widely read. However, very little scholarly work has been done on the effect of Continental holy women on the spiritual and devotional practices of late-medieval England. The essays in this volume investigate the influence of Hildegard of Bingen, Marguerite Porete, Mechtild of Hackeborn, Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena by focusing on topics including manuscript dissemination, incorporation in spiritual guides, and the translation, illumination, adaptation and alteration of their works for an English audience. Overall, they offer new evidence of the way in which Continental sensibility and spiritual reflection were altered and adapted for an identifiably English devotional practice and spirituality.Dr ROSALYNN VOADEN teaches in the Department of English at Arizona State University. The contributors are: DENISE DESPRES, JANETTE DILLON, ROGER ELLIS, JOAN FRIEDMAN, IAN JOHNSON, KATHRYN KERBY-FULTON, ROSALYNN VOADEN, NICHOLAS WATSON, DIANE WATT. Essays on the influence of continental holy women on their English counterparts.Scholars have long been aware of the impact of the lives and works of Continental holy women on English spirituality; female mystics such as Margery Kempe were inspired by their predecessors abroad, whose visionary experiences andspiritual reflections were recorded and widely read. However, very little scholarly work has been done on the effect of Continental holy women on the spiritual and devotional practices of late-medieval England. The essays in thisvolume investigate the influence of Hildegard of Bingen, Marguerite Porete, Mechtild of Hackeborn, Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena by focusing on topics including manuscript dissemination, incorporation in spiritual guides, and the translation, illumination, adaptation and alteration of their works for an English audience. Overall, they offer new evidence of the way in which Continental sensibility and spiritual reflection were altered and adapted for an identifiably English devotional practice and spirituality. Dr ROSALYNN VOADEN teaches in the Department of English at Arizona State University. The contributors are: DENISE DESPRES, JANETTE DILLON, ROGER ELLIS, JOAN FRIEDMAN, IAN JOHNSON, KATHRYN KERBY-FULTON, ROSALYNN VOADEN, NICHOLAS WATSON, DIANE WATT. Hildegard and the male reader : a study in insular reception / Katherine Kerby-Fulton -- Melting into God the English way : deification in the Middle English version of Marguerite Porete's Miroeur des simple ames anienties / Nicholas Watson -- The company she keeps : Mechtild of Hackeborn in late-medieval devotional compilations / Rosalynn Voaden -- The visionary and the canon lawyers : papal and other revisions to the Regula Salvatoris of St Bridget of Sweden / Roger Ellis -- MS Cotton Claudius B.I. : a Middle English edition of St Bridget of Sweden's Liber celestis / Joan Isobel Friedman -- Holy women and their confessors or confessors and their holy women? Margery Kempe and the continental tradition / Janette Dillon -- Ecstatic reading and missionary mysticism : The Orcherd of Syon / Denise L. Despres -- The prophet at home : Elizabeth Barton and the influence of Bridget of Sweden and Catherine of Siena / Diane Watt -- *Auctricitas? Holy women and their Middle English texts / Ian Johnson Edited By Rosalynn Voaden. Includes Bibliographical References.