Devotion to the Name of Jesus in Medieval English Literature, c. 1100 - c. 1530 [Hardcover]

An account of the literary origins and development of the devotion to the Name of Jesus in late medieval England, exploring the ways in which literary texts bear witness to the Name as a powerful source of contemplation and spiritual development which became central to devotional practice in the period.Devotion to the Name of Jesus in Medieval English Literature, c. 1100 - c. 1530offers a broad but detailed study of the practice of devotion to the Name of Jesus in late medieval England. It focuses on key texts written in Latin, Anglo-Norman, and Middle English that demonstrate the way in which devotion moved from monastic circles to a lay public in the late medieval period. It argues that devotion to the Name is a core element of Richard Rolle's contemplative practice, although devotion to the Name circulated in trilingual England at an earlier stage. The volume investigates to what extent the 1274 Second Lyon Council had an impact in the spread of the devotion in England, and beyond. It also offers illuminating evidence about how Margery Kempe and her scribes used devotion, how Eleanor Hull made it an essential component of her meditative sequence seven days of the week, and how Lady Margaret Beaufort worked towards its instigation as an official feast.Introduction1. Jesus and His Name: The Emergence of New Devotional Attitude2. The Dulcis Iesu memoria Tradition and the Devotion to the Name of Jesus3. The Name and Spiritual Song: Anglo-Norman Lyrics, Richard Rolle, and the Fourteenth-Century Tradition4. Rollean Afterlives: Fifteenth-Century Texts, Compilations, and Manuscripts5. The Book of Margery Kempe, Eleanor Hull's Meditation, and Fifteenth-Century Devotion to the NameAfterwordDenis Renevey,Professor of Medieval English Language and Literature, University of LausanneDenis Renevey is Professor of Medieval English Language and Literature at the University of Lausanne. He has published eleven books as author or editor, and over forty articles orl#.