This dissertation offers a study of the fifteenth century French polemical treatises written by authors such as Jean de Montreuil, Jean Juvénal des Ursins, Noël de Fribois and Robert Blondel, together with an edition of perhaps the most important of these works, Pour ce que plusieurs (1464). This treatise may have been written by Guillaume Cousinot II, who had been personally involved in the events surrounding the attack upon Fougères in 1449, a subject addressed in highly partial terms by this text; moreover, Cousinot had visited the Lancastrians in exile in Scotland, which might explain how Sir John Fortescue was able to learn of Jean Juvénal's Tres crestien, tres hault, tres puissant roy (1446), and how Pource que plusieurs in turn drew upon the pamphlets of Fortescue. The polemical texts went beyond moral and chivalric discussion of the war, to address the complex legal and historical issues underpinning the conflict. In response to the English claim to the French throne, Jean de Montreuil adopted the Salic Law, a highly dubious and problematic authority, but one that achieved great fame particularly through the influence of Pour ce que plusieurs. Similarly, the polemical writers rejected English demands for Aquitaine and Normandy in full sovereignty by arguing that no French king could alienate the sovereign rights of the crown. In the sixteenth century, both of these principles were elevated to the status of Fundamental Laws. These texts were not intended to serve as propaganda, but were generally produced by royal officials to serve as manuals for their fellow administrators and diplomats, and perhaps also for the king and other members of the court involved in negotiations with the English. Only in exceptional circumstances were such works disseminated beyond the narrow circles of the government and court, though royal officials did draw upon them when speaking at public assemblies.

Thesis (doctoral)--Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1995. / Cover title. Includes bibliographical references (p. 527-554) and index.

Thèse-Univ. de Paris. / "Bibliographie" : p. xi-xxxii.

Current scholarship on the devotional practices of late medieval England has emphasized two representations of Christ. The first, considered the dominant trend, is that of the suffering Christ; the second, a minor, but important trend particularly for female audiences, is the maternal Christ. Both are revealing of the nature of late medieval Christo-centric devotion. This project contributes to the understanding of late medieval Christocentric devotion in England during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries by examining the representation of Christ in a martial role, as presented to clerical and lay audiences through the medium of popular sermons. It is a new contribution to the scholarship of late medieval devotion in its demonstration of a multifaceted Christ; the martial Christ echoes, but in many ways also contrasts, the images of the suffering and maternal Christ, in order to provide its audience with a more complex rendering of the human Christ, one which may have been more accessible to a lay populace seeking to form a relationship with him. This project also contributes to the growing field of sermon studies, intended to be comprehensive in nature. It uses a different approach to sermon studies, in that the entire corpus of nearly 4,500 sermons was reviewed. This was done in order to provide the most complete picture of the martial Christ. As a result, this project examines Christ in various martial roles, as well as his modelling of knighthood for kings, knights, preachers, and the laity. These representations were utilised by preachers to instruct their audiences in devotional practice, specifically forms of affective meditation; it was used as a didactic tool to teach the laity the complex doctrines of redemption and atonement; and finally, it was employed as a means to demonstrate the importance of right living in order to fulfill what Christ had promised on the cross, that is eternal salvation.

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