Preaching peace in Renaissance Italy: San Bernardino of Siena and his audience.

摘要

This dissertation is a study of San Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444) as a peacemaker; it explores the relationship between this famous popular preacher and his audience in order to understand how he convinced people to exchange the kiss of peace.;My first chapter is an overview of the scene of the sermon. It outlines Bernardino's rhetorical and visual techniques and the many ways his audience responded to his preaching, including processions, exorcisms, and less-welcome reactions such as resistance to his message. Chapter Two narrows in on one spectacular element of audience participation--mass peacemakings--and places them in an historical context. I especially try to show how peacemakings were conditioned by the listeners' expectations of what "should" happen and how coercion was sometimes involved. The next chapter discusses the context of Bernardino's preaching on civil discord and his use of social psychology. Chapter Four is a case-study of the 1427 Siena sermons which culminated in a mass peacemaking. These sermons are a unique source from the Quattrocento: a verbatim record of a 45-day preaching marathon, they enable us to listen to a grand reconciliation among citizens.;Besides being an opportunity to trace the way in which a great preacher moved souls, a study of Bernardino as peacemaker points to the tensions which existed in a Christian culture permeated by an alternative set of values. Bernardino was never just a priest handing down stale Christian maxims, but a receptive orator who manipulated the dynamic between himself and a not-always-passive crowd. His sermons thus inevitably reveal the conflict between Christian preacher and the darker assumptions which he and his audience shared.