Church-sect dynamics and the Feast of Corpus Christi

Sociology of Religion, Fall, 2004 by Barbara R. Walters

This paper examines an initial expressive-contingency phase of the Corpus Christi religious movement, which was led by Juliana. It focuses on an analysis of the signs, interaction orientations, and presentation strategies that appear in anecdotes that describe the relationships between Juliana and others who defined, legitimated, and became carriers of her charismatic religious authority. Special attention is given to significant and contingent interactions in human relationships that emerge as powerful structural propellants (cf. Mahoney 2002) in the micro-level dynamics of the movement.

Juliana Mont-Cornillon

The principle source of information about Juliana comes from her vita, a form of popular devotional reading written for religious audiences. (1) In the thirteenth century these were often authored by monks as a vehicle for the presentation of religious ideals to the faithful; hence vitae depart significantly in style from critical biographies (cf. Mooney 1999). The authors typically "framed" details in the life of an individual to fit into a pattern (cf. Goffman 1986) that enabled the presentation of a living incarnate model while ensuring a close match between ideals of sanctity in the spirit of the author's religious order and the aspirations of the public to whom the vita was proposed (Roisin 1947: 80).

Juliana's vita was an exception to the "male interpreter" pattern described by Mooney (1999), Coakley (1991), and others. The author of her Latin vita is unknown, but the book represents a translation of an earlier vita in Old French, which is widely believed to have been written by Juliana's friend, Eve of Saint-Martin's (Demarteau 1896; Delville 1999). The translation into Latin was most likely the work of a friend of Canon John of Saint-Martin's. Thus, what the recording of Juliana's life may have lost as a consequence of the absence of her confessor Canon John by her side at her deathbed (cf. Kleinberg 1992: 41), it gained from its female author, who was a close friend and wrote her version immediately upon Juliana's death. Eve, because of the woman's perspective, highlighted gifts that depart somewhat from those in standard pious models of women characteristic of the period (cf. Vauchez 1997; Bynum 1987; Coakley 1991).

Juliana's life fits neatly into analytic categories used to define a charismatic ideal type (cf. Weber 1978; Sanders 2000; Walters 2002): (1) special gifts such as prophecies, miracles, and teaching, (2) divine calling, (3) recruiting disciples through networks, (4) provoking hatred as well as devotion, and (5) non-remuneration for services. More unusual for vitae of the period, Juliana's gifts also include "prodigious intelligence and capacious memory" as well as musical gifts, which enhanced both her charisma and her religious authority. Whereas delivering a homily or preaching was prohibited for women, Juliana could "proclaim" through singing and interpret biblical readings or doctrine by setting new words to old music.