Contenu de l'article

Titre Les prêtres du purgatoire (XlVe et XVe siècles)
Auteur Michelle Fournié
Mir@bel Revue Etudes rurales
Numéro no 105-106, 1987 Retour des morts
Rubrique / Thématique
Le retour des morts
 II - Les corps intermédiaires
Page 93-121
Résumé anglais Purgatory Priests in the 14th and 15th Centuries Jacques Fournier, the bishop of Pamiers, and future Benoît XII, took Arnaud de Monesple into the nets of the Inquisition. This priest from Pamiers had been tied to an armier, a man who received messages from the dead, since 1310. In order to placate these ghosts Arnaud used to say mass ; this practice was condemned at first when the beneficiaries were suspicious spirits, however, it was officially accepted in the 14th century in the Toulouse region. It was reserved for souls in Purgatory. In the 15th century, the "Purgatory Souls' Basins" administred property received by charity and could pay large numbers of priests. Bishops strongly reacted to this parallel clergy : they set the calendar for mass for souls, they restored pre-eminence in dealing with the dead to parish priests who were in danger of losing it in this region. Purgatory priests, popular metaphysical intermediaries, were thus the agents of an ambiguous c legalization of wishes destined to the dead in transit.
Source : Éditeur (via Persée)
Article en ligne http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rural_0014-2182_1987_num_105_1_3184