As is true in societies anywhere and anytime, medieval society held humiliation in horror, perceiving it as the most terrible of punishments. The world of chivalry, as represented and idealized in literature, flees shame and is intoxicated by ostentation and splendor. However, this same society follows a system of worship founded on the abasement of a God who became man and was humiliated on the cross. Theirs was a religion that invites man both to imitate this divine abasement and to recognize oneself as a sinner through the practice of humility, a moral concept foreign to the ancient civilizations. However, this same religion denies abasement while simultaneously exalting it - the resurrection of Christ transforms the cross into a sign of victory and glory. The Church encouraged reforms that sought a return to evangelical poverty, but was distrustful of their more radical manifestations, seeing in its temporal powers the triumph of Christ. Humility as a virtue provides an escape from humiliation. We could say that medieval society was marked by a culture of shame, and Christianity by a culture of guilt, but medieval society is Christian. We will examine this complex web of contradictions in the course, but not in and of themselves; rather, through medieval narratives that involve humility and humiliation - narratives of abasement. The narrative of humiliation focuses on the humiliated, but also to an even greater extent on the person inflicting humiliation, either directly or because he is a spectator. Narrative multiplies the viewpoints on humiliation, which is humiliating precisely because it is witnessed by others. Finally, the narrative as a universe of signs amplifies the story of humiliation. In fact, suffering is in the sign that makes it a humiliation. The narrative of humiliation is worse than the humiliation itself. We will focus on various episodes from the chansons de geste, romances, chronicles, pious stories, and the lives of the saints. From the trial of Ganelon, the falsely accused hermit, to the Knight of the Cart to the deposition of Edward II and Richard II, from the Congés d'Arras to Franciscan literature, through fables and mysteries, we will examine narratives as various and different in spirit as possible.

January 12, 2011
André Vauchez, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (French Academy of Humanities), Institut universitaire de France (University Institute of France)
Humility and the refusal of power by Saint Francis of Assisi and in Franciscan spirituality (13th-14th centuries)