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Document Details : Title: De autoriteit van een kok Subtitle: Hoe van Jan van Leeuwen († 1378) een auctor werd gemaakt Author(s): VANDEMEULEBROUCKE, Eva Journal: Spiegel der Letteren Volume: 57 Issue: 4 Date: 2015 Pages: 375-406 DOI: 10.2143/SDL.57.4.3134512 Abstract : During the Middle Ages the right to preach God’s Word was restricted to the Latin-educated members of the Church. Over the years they had claimed that only they had the authority to communicate and interpret divine doctrines, thereby assuring the faithful of the means by which they would achieve eternal life in heaven. It was unimaginable that an illiterate cook – officially excluded from all forms of religious authority – would be seen as capable of guiding the faithful in any way through spiritual tracts on the sublime path to the light of eternal salvation. This article makes clear how the lay brother Jan van Leeuwen († 1378) claimed his right to be heard, and the ways in which the Groenendaal monastery facilitated his mission. By an in-depth analysis of the opera omnia manuscripts and the treatises of the ‘bonus cocus’, it will be shown how Jan van Leeuwen was fashioned into an auctor, worthy of faith and obedience, who could occupy a place next to the iconic Jan van Ruusbroec. |
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