Visions in late medieval England : : lay spirituality and sacred glimpses of the hidden worlds of faith / / by Gwenfair Walters Adams.

• Superior document: Studies in the history of Christian traditions, v. 130
• Author: Adams, Gwenfair Walters.
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the history of Christian traditions ; v. 130.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (302 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Visions were highly popular in the late Middle Ages, whether preached as vivid stories from the pulpit, illuminated in saint-filled manuscripts, or experienced during the breathless anticipation of a Mass or eerie darkness of a Yorkshire graveyard. This volume is the first to map out the wide range of vision types in late medieval English lay piety. Analyzing 1000 visionary accounts gathered from sermon and exempla collections, religious devotional works, saints’ legends, and lay stories, it explores five central dynamics of spirituality that visions shaped and sustained: Transactions of Satisfaction (visits to and from purgatory and hell), Reciprocated Devotion (visitations of the saints), Spiritual Warfare (attacks by demons), Supra-Sacramental Sight (Mass and Passion sightings), and Mediated Revelation (prophetic visions).

Table of Contents

Transactions of satisfaction and visions of the otherworld -- Reciprocated devotion and visitations of the saints -- Spiritual warfare in demonic encounters -- Seeing through the surface : vision as supra-sacramental sight -- Visions, power, and the dynamic of mediated revelation -- Appendix A : Vision : range of uses of term in late medieval England -- Appendix B : Byland Abbey ghost stories as contemporary accounts -- Appendix C : Additional visions and vision types.