Title Ceremonial Splendor Performing Priesthood in Early Modern France

Published Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022

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Description 1 online resource (289 p.) Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Note on Translations -- Introduction: Priestly Performance, 1630-1730 -- Chapter 1. Clothing -- Chapter 2. Gestures -- Chapter 3. Ceremonies -- Chapter 4. Publics -- Chapter 5. Rivals -- Conclusion: Ceremonial Specialization and the Divergence of Performance Repertoires -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Acknowledgments Summary By the end of France's long seventeenth century, the seminary-trained, reform-minded Catholic priest had crystalized into a type recognizable by his clothing, gestures, and ceremonial skill. Although critics denounced these priests as hypocrites or models for Molière's Tartuffe, seminaries associated the features of this priestly identity with the idea of the vray ecclésiastique, or true churchman.Ceremonial Splendor examines the way France's early seminaries promoted the emergence and construction of the true churchman as a mode of embodiment and ecclesiastical ideal between approximately 1630 and 1730. Based on an analysis of sources that regulated priestly training in France, such as seminary rules and manuals, liturgical handbooks, ecclesiastical pamphlets and conferences, and episcopal edicts, the book uses theories of performance to reconstruct the way clergymen learned to conduct liturgical ceremonies, abide by clerical norms, and aspire to perfection.Joy Palacios shows how the process of crafting a priestly identity involved a wide range of performances, including improvisation, role-playing, and the display of skills. In isolation, any one of these performance obligations, if executed in a way that drew attention to the self, could undermine a clergyman's priestly persona and threaten the institution of the priesthood more broadly. Seminaries counteracted the ever-present threat of theatricality by ceremonializing the clergyman's daily life, rendering his body and gestures contiguous with the mass. Through its focus on priestly identity, Ceremonial Splendor reconsiders the relationship between Church and theater in early modern France and uncovers ritual strategies that continue to shape religious authority today Analysis authority ceremony clergy early modern French literature history religion excommunication of actors modesty moliere performance studies priesthood procession ritual sacrament seminary seventeenth century tartuffe theater true churchman Notes Description based upon print version of record Subject Catholic Church -- Clergy -- Training of -- France -- History -- 17th century Catholic Church -- France -- Liturgy -- History -- 17th century Catholic Church -- France -- Customs and practices -- History -- 17th century SUBJECT Catholic Church. fast (OCoLC)fst00531720 Subject Catholic theological seminaries -- France -- History -- 17th century Performance -- Religious aspects -- Catholic Church. Theater -- Religious aspects -- Catholic Church. Theater -- France -- History -- 17th century RELIGION / Christian Church / History. Catholic theological seminaries. Clergy -- Training of. Liturgics. Performance -- Religious aspects -- Catholic Church. Theater. Theater -- Religious aspects -- Catholic Church. France. Genre/Form History. Form Electronic book ISBN 9781512822779 1512822779

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