The Flagellum haereticorum fascinariorum (The Scourge of Heretical Bewitchers) was written by the Dominican inquisitor Nicolas Jacquier in 1458. Jacquier wrote the text to combat a sect of diabolical witches, the fascinarii, who worshipped demons at nocturnal “synagogues” and performed terrible crimes with demonic aid. The Flagellum was also aimed at those who did not believe in the physical reality of the sect or of interactions between humans and demons. This thesis, the first English-language work to examine the Flagellum in detail, traces Jacquier’s argument and endeavours to understand how his text was shaped within, and also helped shape, the cultural structures of late-medieval Burgundy. / Jacquier’s argument can be loosely divided into four parts. The first section defines the ways in which demons relate to humans, concluding that demons can act to delude humans both within the body, and through real, bodily interaction in the external world. The second section attacks the argument, based on the famous Canon Episcopi, that the fascinarii are simply deluded spiritually by the interior manipulation of demons. The reality of a demonworshiping sect raised questions about God’s omnipotence and benevolence. The Flagellum’s third part therefore elaborates a theology of divine permission based on the metaphor of the scourge to argue that God justly permits demonic action in the world. The final chapters of the tract turn to the legal dilemmas raised by the fascinarii. Jacquier argues that the fascinarii freely choose to sin and addresses difficulties associated with the possibility of demonic interference in witness statements. / Alongside my description of Jacquier’s argument, I have endeavoured to situate the Flagellum within the cultural structures of late-medieval Burgundy. I examine how the Flagellum can be read alongside a tale from the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles to reveal tropes of demonic deception within fifteenth-century Burgundian courtly texts. I explore the possibilities of interpreting the Flagellum’s treatment of gender within the Dominican reform movement, with its focus on external and communal piety. I interpret the symbolic language of the scourge and trampling within Christian cultural structures of redemption through abasement. Setting the tract in dialogue with fifteenth century Burgundian art, I begin the task of understanding the ways in which time is organised within the Flagellum through an examination of scholastic epistemology. Finally, I situate arguments about the fascinarii and free will within debates over free will and determinism. The result of these discussions is an appreciation of the Flagellum’s immersion in interrelated cultural structures of bodily reality, sight, time and knowledge. / Through this analysis, I locate the study of witchcraft within a wider cultural history, uniting the interpretation of Burgundian art, literature and theology with an intensive study of the Flagellum.

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This dissertation examines the ways that books can show the place of magic in fifteenth-century English society. Specifically, I am interested in what was important about magic to people and how magic was used by people in the creation of their identities, both as individuals and within the community. As I explore these issues, I aim to demonstrate that magic freely co-mingled with non-magical texts in manuscripts. Furthermore, this mixing of magical and non-magical texts is a vital part of understanding magic’s role in the shaping of people’s identities, both public and private. Chapter one presents the results of a preliminary survey of magic in fifteenth-century English manuscripts. I clarify how I delineate between texts – magical and non-magical and between genres of magic. This chapter also uses a series of case studies to look at some of the issues of ownership that are dealt with in more detail in the later chapters of this thesis. Chapters two, three, and four look at individual manuscripts in depth. In Chapter two, I examine how a lower gentry household used their notebook to establish their place within a strata of the gentry that was increasingly interested in medical and scientific texts in the fifteenth century. Chapter three looks at the private notebook of an anonymous scribe and how its owner combines the ordinary and transgressive qualities of magic to create an identity for himself that is based on a quasi-clerical masculinity and the ludic qualities of magic. Chapter four concerns Robert Taylor’s medical notebook, which he may have used as a part-time medical practitioner, and the insight it gives into the everyday concerns of medieval people. Chapter five is an examination of the book of an early fifteenth-century Cistercian monk named Richard Dove. Dove’s notebook contains a copy of the Ars notoria, the only manuscript containing ritual magic that I study in this dissertation. I argue that Dove, unlike other monastic users of the Ars notoria, does not use the text for its spiritual benefits, but its material benefits as part of his desire to participate in a broader intellectual culture outside the monastery.

This dissertation examines the ways that books can show the place of magic in fifteenth-century English society. Specifically, I am interested in what was important about magic to people and how magic was used by people in the creation of their identities, both as individuals and within the community. As I explore these issues, I aim to demonstrate that magic freely co-mingled with non-magical texts in manuscripts. Furthermore, this mixing of magical and non-magical texts is a vital part of understanding magic’s role in the shaping of people’s identities, both public and private. Chapter one presents the results of a preliminary survey of magic in fifteenth-century English manuscripts. I clarify how I delineate between texts – magical and non-magical and between genres of magic. This chapter also uses a series of case studies to look at some of the issues of ownership that are dealt with in more detail in the later chapters of this thesis. Chapters two, three, and four look at individual manuscripts in depth. In Chapter two, I examine how a lower gentry household used their notebook to establish their place within a strata of the gentry that was increasingly interested in medical and scientific texts in the fifteenth century. Chapter three looks at the private notebook of an anonymous scribe and how its owner combines the ordinary and transgressive qualities of magic to create an identity for himself that is based on a quasi-clerical masculinity and the ludic qualities of magic. Chapter four concerns Robert Taylor’s medical notebook, which he may have used as a part-time medical practitioner, and the insight it gives into the everyday concerns of medieval people. Chapter five is an examination of the book of an early fifteenth-century Cistercian monk named Richard Dove. Dove’s notebook contains a copy of the Ars notoria, the only manuscript containing ritual magic that I study in this dissertation. I argue that Dove, unlike other monastic users of the Ars notoria, does not use the text for its spiritual benefits, but its material benefits as part of his desire to participate in a broader intellectual culture outside the monastery.

Neste trabalho nos propomos analisar a concessão de perdão para os crimes contra a pessoa e sua honra durante o reinado de D. João II [1481-1495]. Para tanto inferimos que, muito embora fosse uma prerrogativa do rei, uma atribuição que evidenciava a pretensão do poder régio em tutelar outros poderes que exerciam competência judicial, este ato gracioso implicava, fundamentalmente, numa negociação entre o monarca e seus súditos. Essa negociação envolvia obrigações e reciprocidades, que encerravam o rei e os três estamentos da sociedade numa complexa relação de subordinação e dependência. Desta forma, procuraremos evidenciar que o exercício da justiça e da misericórdia contribuiu para reforçar a imagem de D. João II como promotor da justiça e do bem-comum e mantenedor da ordem no corpo social. Assim, punição e perdão, justiça e misericórdia, serão trabalhados como aspectos complementares no processo de legitimação e fortalecimento do poder real, expresso de maneira muito peculiar na divisa adotada pelo Príncipe Perfeito: polla ley polla grey. / In this work we propose the analysis on the concession of pardon for the crimes against the person and his honor throughout the reign of John II [1481 1495]. We consider that though this concession was a kings attribute, an attempt of the royal power to regulate the other powers that had judicial competence, this gracious act implied, fundamentally, in a negotiation between the monarch and his subjects. Such negotiation involved obligation and reciprocity that placed the king and the three states of this society in a complex relation of subordination and dependence. Therefore we will attempt to show that the exercise of justice and mercy contributed to strengthen the image of John II as a supporter of justice and the common good as well as the maintainer of order in the social body. Hence punishment and forgiveness, justice and mercy will be worked as complementary aspects in the process of legitimacy and fortification of the royal power, expressed in a very peculiar way in the motto adopted by the Perfect Prince: polla ley polla grey.

Dans la deuxième moitié du XVe siècle, les Croniques et conquestes de Charlemaine de David Aubert, l’Histoire de Charlemagne de Jean Bagnyon et l’anonyme Cronique associee ont cherché à rassembler et compiler les récits associés à Charlemagne. Composées dans des milieux différents à un moment où tant la réécriture en prose que le personnage de l’empereur étaient en vogue, ces compilations ont recyclé des chansons de geste et des chroniques des siècles précédents pour (re)constituer une histoire cohérente du personnage. Leur résultat est tantôt une biographie princière, tantôt un fragment cyclique qui s’arrête à la mort de l’empereur. La prose donne une forme nouvelle à ces récits inédits par leur organisation et leur extension, mais banals par leur matériau, recyclé de compilation en compilation. Par l’étude du contexte historique, et surtout la comparaison des versions proposées, dans leur récit, leurs articulations et leur présentation, nous souhaitons montrer comment la compilation est le reflet d’une lecture critique et organisée propre aux nouvelles habitudes de la fin du Moyen Âge. Le remaniement oriente sa propre lecture en fonction d’un public familier de la tradition littéraire : les morceaux de bravoure sont réécrits, comme l’épisode de Roncevaux, d’autres sont triés et oubliés en fonction du projet propre à chacune des œuvres. La compilation oscille entre la reconnaissance des textes et la déprise introduite par le nouvel ensemble. Au cœur de notre questionnement se trouve la double dynamique de fixation et de malléabilité de la mémoire, érigée au Moyen Âge comme modalité de l’activité littéraire. Nous proposons en annexe la transcription de la Cronique associee (ms Paris, Arsenal 3324) pour rendre ce texte plus facilement accessible. / In the second half of the fifteenth century, David Aubert’s Croniques et conquestes de Charlemaine, Jean Bagnyon’s Histoire de Charlemagne and the anonymous Cronique associee tried to collect and compile the stories linked to Charlemagne. Composed in various circles, when both rewriting in prose and Charlemagne himself were popular, these compilations recycled epic songs and chronicles written in the previous centuries to piece together a coherent story of this character. What results is either a princely biography or a cyclic fragment that is interrupted when the emperor dies. The prose form revives these stories whose structure and scope were novel but whose material had become trite after being compiled again and again. By studying the historical context, and especially by comparing the composition, narrative structure and presentation of different versions, I wish to show how the compilation reflects a critical and organized reading which epitomizes the new practices of the late Middle Ages. The rewriting process bears its own guidelines, depending on a reading public who is familiar with literary tradition: the purple patches, such as the Roncesvalles episode, are rewritten, while other passages are sorted away or forgotten, in keeping with the objective of each specific work. Through compilation, texts are either recognized or abandoned, blended within the new unit. At the heart of my investigation is the twofold dynamic of the fixation and malleability of memory, fashioned in the Middle Ages as a modality of literary activity. A transcript of the Cronique associee (ms Arsenal 3324) is appended to the dissertation in order to make this text more readily accessible.

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