Dissertation
SOMPNIUM PRIORIS DE SALLONO SUPER MATERIA SCISMATIS BY HONORAT BOVET: A CRITICAL EDITION AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
01/2015
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/111532
Abstract
In 1394, Honorat Bovet the Prior of Selonnet, a Benedictine monk from Provence and a diplomat attached to the court of Charles VI of France, would write his Sompnium super materia scismatis, an allegorical dream vision responding to The Great Western Schism in the Catholic Church. When the same College of Cardinals elected first Urban VI and then Clement VII as Pope, they created an impossible legal and spiritual dilemma for the Church. At the forefront of debates on creating a solution, the University of Paris developed three ways to restore unity without resorting to force: the ways of arbitration, cession, or general council. However, attempts to bring these suggestions to the king were grudgingly allowed and finally thwarted by the Duke of Berry who threatened to execute and throw in the river anyone who persisted. During this impasse, Bovet chose to attempt in fiction what had been forbidden in debate. Styling himself as a visionary, he describes meeting the beautiful and badly damaged Lady Ecclesia who sends him, a most unworthy messenger, on a mission to a palace where he must climb from level to level addressing all the warring and bickering kings of Europe from England to Hungary calling them to work together to end the Schism. As he addresses the geo-political powers owing obedience to Rome or Avignon, Bovet reveals the historical situation in much of Europe at the end of the fourteenth century as well as the arguments surrounding the three ways proposed to end the Schism. Climbing ever higher, he comes to the King of France and the powerful Dukes of Burgundy and Berry, where he argues the necessity of civil authorities cooperating and communicating in order to intervene in the affairs of the Church. This study presents the first critical edition of the Sompnium as well as the first translation into English from the original Latin. This edition includes an introduction to Bovet’s life, the two surviving manuscripts of his Sompnium, his relationship to The Great Western Schism, and his rhetoric. Extensive notes explore the historical, textual, and political background of this dream vision.
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Details
- Title
- SOMPNIUM PRIORIS DE SALLONO SUPER MATERIA SCISMATIS BY HONORAT BOVET: A CRITICAL EDITION AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION
- Creators
- Patsy Diane Glatt
- Contributors
- Michael Hanly (Advisor)Debbie Lee (Committee Member)William Hamlin (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Department of English
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 329
- Identifiers
- 99900581639801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation