Le parrainage à la fin du Moyen Âge : savoir public, attentes théologiques et usages sociaux

Godparenthood in the Later Middle Ages. Montaillou and Domremy. This essay examines three kinds of documents which provide insight into some neglected aspects of the social uses of godparenthood. 1) The depositions in Joan of reconciliation trial allow the author to describe the extent to which ties between spiritual kin were part of public knowledge part of discourse and hearsay in the village. 2) Late medieval synodal statutes seem to show that specialists of canonical law took social practices into account when formulating the religious necessity to bap tize as early as possible. They found ways of combining even private baptism through the midwife (in case of an emergency) with subsequent representative ritual including namegiving and godparents. 3) The inquisitor Jacques Fournier's "ethnological eye" demonstrates the use of spiritual kinship in the famous shepherd society of Montaillou Face to face with the inquisitor spiritual kinship was utilized as legiti mizing denomination for dangerous friendship. In everiday practice god- and coparenthood served to ritualize friendship as part in the economy of gifts and recognition obligingness and obligation.Jussen Bernhard, Chaix Florence, Chaix Gérald. Le parrainage à la fin du Moyen Âge : savoir public, attentes théologiques et usages sociaux. In: Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations. 47ᵉ année, N. 2, 1992. pp. 467-502