HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

"Écrire et enseigner l'histoire: tel est mon métier. Il m'a amené à feuilleter beaucoup de documents d'âge divers, pour y faire, de mon mieux, le tri du vrai et du faux: à beaucoup regarder et observer, aussi. Car j'ai toujours pensé qu'un historien a pour premier devoir, de s'intéresser à la vie. Sans se pencher sur le présent, il est impossible de comprendre le passé". March Bloch, L'étrange défaite. Témoignage écrit en 1940.

The course is part of the interdisciplinary activities of the "History - Ancient and medieval Mediterranean", "History - from European hegemony to globalisation", "Anthropology" and "Archive and library studies" curricula of the Bachelor's degree programmes in History. Students are expected to achieve a good knowledge of the main topics and features of the history of the Latin Church in the Middle Ages by considering its institutions and its social dimension, from the Carolingian Age to the Great Western Schism.

Students are expected:
1. -to acquire a basic knowledge of the history of the medieval Latin Church and to be able to interpret its fundamental events in the wider context of the medieval history (knowledge and understanding);
- to know religious movements and orders, relationships between ecclesiastical and secular power, phases of crisis and reform, papal primacy and conciliarism, schisms, canonical law (knowledge and understanding);
- to know the main types of sources for the history of churches and religious movements from the 8th to the 14th centuries (knowledge and understanding);
2. - will be able to critically analyze the various historiographic themes related to the history of the medieval church and religious movements (knowledge and understanding);
3. to develop a critical approach to a vast array of sources, both primary and secondary sources, analyzed during classes, by placing them into the historiographical debate (judgment autonomy);
4. - to acquire an appropriate lexicon and to consolidate their skills and ability to communicate what they know in a critical way (Communication skills);
5. - will be able to understand and critically analyse the complexity of historical developments in relation to different historical themes (Learning skills).

It is of great help to have a sound knowledge of Medieval History. Students who has not yet attended a class in Medieval History should read a good handbook in advance.

The Church in the Carolingian Age: the papacy and the Frankish; western monasticism.
The papal reform in the eleventh century: reform movement against simony and clerical marriage, the papacy, the empire; the Eastern schism.
The investiture controversy.
Female monasticism. Reformed orders and congregations: eremitic and cenobitic monasticism.
Consolidation of the papal monarchy, orthodoxy, heresy and religious dissent.
Clergy, lay people, and the cura animarum.
The Church and the universities.
The end of the papal monarchy, the Great Schism, the conciliarism, the relations between the Latin Church and the medieval states.

1. A. Rapetti, Storia del monachesimo medievale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2013;
2. Vita religiosa al femminile (secoli XIII-XIV), Roma, Viella, 2019, Introduzione, Conclusioni and capp. 1-10;
3. One of the following texts::
a) C. Azzara, A. Rapetti, Storia della chiesa nel medioevo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009;
b) G.G. Merlo, Il cristianesimo medievale in Occidente, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012;
c) Storia del cristianesimo, II. L'età medievale (secoli VIII-XV), a cura di M. Benedetti, Roma, Carocci, 2015, capp. 4-9, 12;
4. Teaching materials provided in classroom and available online (Moodle platform).

Oral exam aimed at verifying the student's knowledge of the topics and content covered in class and in the textbooks. Students are expected to acquire a good knowledge of the history of the medieval Latin Church and to connect and compare in an appropriate way the different features (institutions, crisis and reform, relation between ecclesiastical and secular power, religious movements and orders, monasticism, religious dissent). They will acquire independence of judgement by analyzing critically primary and secondary sources and the ability to communicate what they have learnt by using the suitable vocabulary.

oral

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

27-30L: excellent or good knowledge of the topics covered in class and in the referral books; excellent or good ability to organize and present information; appropriate use of technical terminology of the discipline;
24-26: fair knowledge of the topics covered in class and in the referral books; fair ability to organize and present information; not always correct use of the technical terminology of the discipline;
18-23: occasionally superficial and/or incomplete knowledge of the topics covered in class and in the referral books; presentation not always clear and/or lacking in technical terminology of the discipline.

The course will be held over 30 hours (6 ECTS) and classes will be focused on discussions of archival sources and historical researches in order to learn how to analyse critically history processes and to frame hypotheses and interpretation of facts as proposed by chosen topics. All attendees are expected to actively participate in discussions. All materials (slides, maps, sources) will be available in the e-learning platform moodle.unive.it. Class attendance is highly recommended.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development