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Author Schutte, Anne Jacobson.

Title Aspiring saints : pretense of holiness, Inquisition, and gender in the Republic of Venice, 1618-1750 / Anne Jacobson Schutte.

Publication Info. Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xvi, 337 pages) : illustrations
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-326) and index.
Contents Preface -- Twelve true stories? -- The Roman Inquisition in Venice -- "Little women" and discernment of spirits -- From study to courtroom -- Refashioning "true" holiness -- Sorceresses, witches, and inquisitors -- Healers of the soul -- Healers of the body -- Rings and other things -- Time and space -- Sex and gender -- Pretense?
Summary Between 1618 and 1750, sixteen people & mdash;nine women and seven men & mdash;were brought to the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities in Venice because they were reporting visions, revelations, and special privileges from heaven. All were investigated, and most were put on trial by the Holy Office of the Inquisition on a charge of heresy under various rubrics that might be translated as "pretense of holiness." Anne Jacobson Schutte looks closely at the institutional, cultural, and religious contexts that gave rise to the phenomenon of visionaries in Venice. To explain the worldview of the prosecutors as well as the prosecuted, Schutte examines inquisitorial trial dossiers, theological manuals, spiritual treatises, and medical works that shaped early modern Italians' understanding of the differences between orthodox Catholic belief and heresy. In particular, she demonstrates that socially constructed assumptions about males and females affected how the Inquisition treated the accused parties. The women charged with heresy were non-elites who generally claimed to experience ecstatic visions and receive messages; the men were usually clergy who responded to these women without claiming any supernatural experience themselves. Because they "should have known better," the men were judged more harshly by authorities. Placing the events in a context larger than just the inquisitorial process, Aspiring Saints sheds new light on the history of religion, the dynamics of gender relations, and the ambiguous boundary between sincerity and pretense in early modern Italy.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Inquisition -- Italy -- Venice.
Inquisition.
Italy -- Venice.
Visionaries -- Italy -- Venice -- History -- 18th century.
Visionaries.
History.
Chronological Term 18th century
Subject Holiness -- Catholic Church -- History of doctrines -- 18th century.
Holiness -- Catholic Church -- History of doctrines.
Holiness -- Catholic Church.
Discernment of spirits -- History of doctrines -- 18th century.
Discernment of spirits -- History of doctrines.
Discernment of spirits.
Women in the Catholic Church -- History -- 18th century.
Women in the Catholic Church.
Chronological Term 1600-1799
Genre/Form Electronic books.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Schutte, Anne Jacobson. Aspiring saints. Baltimore, Md. : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001 0801865484 (DLC) 00009314 (OCoLC)43953893
ISBN 0801876869 (electronic book)
9780801876868 (electronic book)
0801865484 (alkaline paper)
9780801865480 (alkaline paper)