Larissa Taylor

Education

• Ph.D., Brown University, 1990
• M.A., Brown University, 1982
• A.L.B., Harvard University, 1981

Areas of Expertise

• History of fear
• Joan of Arc
• French and Italian cultural and social history
• Ancient and medieval Europe and Near East
• Plagues, pandemics, and history of disease and medicine
• Popular Christianity in Europe and Near East, 30-1500
• Medieval sexuality

Personal Information

• President Emerita, American Catholic Historical Association, 2012

Current Research

• The History of Fear from Antiquity to 1888

Publications

BOOKS

Giovanna d'Arco e la Guerra dei Cent'Anni (Italian translation of The Virgin Warrior) (Milano: Mondadori, 2010)

Un’ avvincente “storia narrata,” la prima della fortunata collana che ha per protagonista una donna: Giovanna d’Arco, una delle figure femminili più straordinarie e controverse della storia, la fanciulla guerriera che nel XV secolo inflisse pesanti sconfitte agli inglesi, ribaltò le sorti dell’assedio d’Orléans, riconquistò Reims, sottomise le campagne tra Parigi e Bourges e rese possibile l’incoronazione di Carlo VII. A partire dagli atti del processo che condannarono la fanciulla al rogo per eresia e stregoneria, Larissa Taylor, ricostruisce con straordinaria capacità di scrittura la vita e le gesta eroiche della giovane che contribuì a creare la nazione francese. Personaggio controverso, per molti Giovanna era ispirata direttamente da Dio, per altri era una pazza invasata. In queste pagine coinvolgenti emerge tutta l’ambiguità della pulzella d’Orléans: una contadina analfabeta di diciassette anni in grado però di guidare un esercito, con carismatica destrezza e genio strategico.

The Virgin Warrior: The Life and Death of Joan of Arc (London: Yale University Press, 2009)

France's great heroine and England's great scourge: whether a lunatic, a witch, a religious icon, or a skilled soldier and leader, Joan of Arc's contemporaries found her as extraordinary and fascinating as the legends that abound about her today. But her life has been so endlessly cast and recast that we have lost sight of the remarkable girl at the heart of it - a teenaged peasant girl who, after claiming to hear voices, convinced the French king to let her lead a disheartened army into battle. In the process she changed the course of European history. In The Virgin Warrior, Larissa Juliet Taylor paints a vivid portrait of Joan as a self-confident, charismatic and supremely determined figure, whose sheer force of will electrified those around her and struck terror into the hearts of the English soldiers and leaders. The drama of Joan's life is set against a world where visions and witchcraft were real, where saints could appear to peasants, battles and sieges decided the fate of kingdoms and rigged trials could result in burning at the stake. Yet in her short life, Joan emboldened the French soldiers and villagers with her strength and resolve. A difficult, inflexible leader, she defied her accusers and enemies to the end. From her early years to the myths and fantasies that have swelled since her death, Taylor teases out a nuanced and engaging story of the truly irresistible 'ordinary' girl who rescued France.

The Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage (Leiden: Brill, 2009)

The Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage is an interdisciplinary reference work, giving wide coverage of the role of travel in medieval religious life. Dealing with the period 300-1500 A.D., it offers both basic data on as broad a range of European pilgrimage as possible and clearly written, self-contained introductions to the general questions of pilgrimage research. Despite widespread modern interest in medieval pilgrimage and related issues, no comprehensive work of this type exists and it will be of interest to scholars and students for personal and academic use. Local sites of pilgrimage are represented in this work as well as the main routes to Rome, Jerusalem and Santiago. Written and material sources relating to pilgrimage are used to illustrate aspects of medieval society, from brewing, book production and the trade in relics, to the development of the towns, art, architecture and literature which pilgrimage engendered. The Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage will serve as the main starting point for any serious study of this phenomenon. The Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage is published in English in one illustrated volume of 550,000 words in 435 signed entries, and is compiled and written by over 180 contributors from Europe and North America. Entries are presented alphabetically under headwords, with cross-references, maps, black-and-white illustrations, an editorial introduction and indexes.

Soldiers of Christ: Preaching in Late Medieval and Reformation France (RSART: Renaissance Society of America Reprint Text Series _ 14, University of Toronto Press, 2002)

In an age when the printed book was still in its infancy, the pulpit was the mass medium. A vital part of religious life, sermons were the chief occasions on which the church attempted to bridge the gap between high theology and popular religious culture. The preaching event provided the opportunity for men and women to socialize, flirt, dispute with or mock the preacher and, in a more positive way, to heed the preacher's words and change their lives. Larissa Taylor has examined over 1600 sermons given by the leading lay preachers in France between 1460 and 1560, and examines the social context of preaching and the sermon while reconstructing popular attitudes towards original sin, free will, purgatory, the Devil, the sacraments, and the magical arts.

Previously published by Oxford University Press, 1992. Winner of the 1996 John Nicholas Brown Prize of the Medieval Academy of America.

Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Europe (Boston, ppk. repr. 2003; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2001)

Sermons are an invaluable source for our knowledge of religious history and sociology, anthropology, and the mental landscape of men and women in pre-modern Europe, of what they were taught and what they practiced. But how did an individual process the preached message from the pulpit? How exactly do written sermons duplicate the preached Word? Do they at all?

The 11 leading scholars who have contributed to this book do not offer uniform answers or an all-encompassing study of preaching in the Reformations and early modern period in Europe. They do, however, provide new insights on Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed preaching in Western and Central Europe. Part One examines changes in sermon structure, style and content in Christian sermons from the thematic sermon typical of the Middle Ages to the wide variety of later preaching styles. Catholic preaching after Trent proves not to be monolithic and intolerant, but a hybrid of forms past and present, applied as needed to particular situations. Lutheran homiletic theory is traced from Luther and through Melanchthon, the intention of the sermon being to transform the worship service based on exegesis of Scripture. In Reformed worship, the expository sermon, often given on a daily basis with a continuing exegesis, was designed to communicate the tenets of the faith in terms that the laity could understand ("plain style"). Part Two deals with the social history of preaching in France, where preachers often incited their hearers to attack human beings or holy objects or were themselves attacked; in Italy, where preaching became a collective and "home-grown" product; in early modern Germany, where the authorities strove for uniformity of preaching practice and the preacher was seen as a moral guardian; in Switzerland, where leaders from Zwingli on sought to bring religious practice, conduct, and government in line with biblical teaching and propagated a pastoral vision of preaching; in England, where after the Reformation preachers became the indispensable agents of salvation, but clergy and congregations were often ill-prepared for the task; in Scandinavia, where post-Reformation sermons have a clear didactic aim, teaching obedience to the authorities; and in the Low Countries, characterised by its numerous denominations, all with their own churches and particular practices in terms of preaching. The volume ends with a consideration of the influence of late medieval preaching on the Reformation, concluding that the diversity of emphasis on how the practice of penance was preached (and received) very likely affected the appeal (or not) of the Lutheran/Reformed message in a given country.

Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period is previously published by Brill Academic Publishers in hardback (ISBN 90 04 11564 1, still available)

Heresy and Orthodoxy in Sixteenth-Century Paris: François Le Picart and the Beginnings of the Catholic Reformation (Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers, Incorporated Series: Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thou., Leiden and Boston: Brill, 1999)

This is the story of Paris from the Reformation to the Religious Wars. Through the works of Francois Le Picart, the most popular preacher from 1530-1556, the book delineates the increasing tensions sparked by Reformation ideas. Targeted by Calvin and Beza, Le Picart was considered the reason Paris remained in the Catholic fold. A fierce opponent of heresy, he helped compile the Articles of Faith, read heretical books, lectured on scripture, and presided at executions. His 270 sermons, the only substantial preaching source for this period, offer glimpses of life during these increasingly troubled times that challenge works by Denis Crouzet suggesting that France was in the grip of eschatological anguish.

 

BOOK CO-CONTRIBUTOR

• Barry D. Sell, Larissa Taylor, and Asuncion Lavrin, Nahua Confraternities in Early Colonial Mexico: The 1552 Nahua Ordinances of fray Alonso de Molina, OFM Berkeley: The American Academy of Franciscan History, 2003.

 

JOURNAL GUEST EDITOR

• The Last Things, Historical Reflections 26:2 (2000).

 

ENCYCLOPEDIA EDITOR

• Great Events from History: The 17th Century (Pasadena: Salem Press, 2006).
• Great Lives from History: The 17th Century (Pasadena: Salem Press, 2006).

 

CLEP EDITOR

• Robert Ziomkowski (author), Larissa Juliet Taylor (editor), CLEP Western Civilization I Ancient Near East to 1648 (Research & Education Association, 2007)

 

ARTICLES

• "Joan of Arc, The Church and the Papacy, 1429-1920," Presidential Address, Catholic Historical Review 98(2012), 217-240.
• "Le vent de l'Esprit: Claudel, Vezelay and the Pilgrim Experience," Paul Claudel Papers 2(2004), 93-104.
• "Impossible Dreams?: Convergences of Faith: Islam, Christianity and Judaism," in Tingis 1(Winter, 2004), 6-10.
• Introduction to The Last Things, Historical Reflections 26:2 (2000), 161-71.
• "God of Judgment, God of Love: Catholic Preaching in France, 1460-1560," Historical Reflections 26:2 (2000), 247-68.
• "The Good Shepherd: François LePicart (1504-1556) and Preaching Reform from Within," Sixteenth Century Journal 28:3(1997), 793-810.
• "The Influence of Humanism on Post-Reformation Catholic Preachers in France," Renaissance Quarterly 50:1(1997), 115-30.
• (with Barry Sell) "He Could Have Made Marvels in This Language: A Nahuatl Sermon by Father Juan de Tovar, S.J.," Estudios de Cultura Nahuatl 26(1996), 212-44.
• "Comme un chien mort: Preaching About Kingship in France,1460-1572," Proceedings of the Western Society for French History 22(1995), 157-70.
• "Images of Women in the Sermons of Guillaume Pepin (c. 1465-1533)," Journal of the Canadian Historical Association (1994),265-76.
• "Elizabeth I: A Psychological Profile," Sixteenth Century Journal 15:1(1984), 47-72.

 

CHAPTERS

• "Apostle to the Apostles: The Complexity of Medieval Preaching About Mary Magdalene," in Mary Magdalene in Medieval Culture: Conflicted Roles, eds. Peter Loewen and Robin Waugh (London, Routledge, December 2013).
• Introduction, in Encyclopedia of Medieval Pilgrimage (Leiden: Brill, 2009).
• "Society and Piety," in The Blackwell Companion to the Reformation World (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 22-36.
• "Dangerous Vocations: Preaching in France in the Late Medieval Period and Reformations," in Larissa Taylor, ed., Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period (Leiden: Brill, 2001),91-124.
• Preface, in Larissa Taylor, ed., Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period (Leiden: Brill, 2001), ix-xviii.
• "French Preaching, 1215-1535," in Beverly Kienzle, ed., The Sermon.Typologie des sources du moyen age occidental (Brepols: Turnhout-Belgium, 2000, 711-58.
• "Funeral Sermons as Religious Propaganda in Sixteenth-Century France," in Bruce Gordon and Peter Marshall, eds. The Place of the Dead in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1999), 224-239.
• "Out of Print: The Decline of Catholic Printed Sermons in France, 1530-1560," in Robin Barnes, et al, eds., Festschrift for Robert Schnucker. (Kirksville, MO: Thomas Jefferson University Press, 1998, 121-9.

 

ENCYCLOPEDIA ENTRIES

• "Joan of Arc," Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2012.
• "Diane de Poitiers," Great Lives from History 1494-1600 (Salem Press, 2005) I:283-285.
• "Angelique Arnauld," "Marie de l'Incarnation," "Marguerite Bourgeoys," "Paul de Chomedey," "Sieur de Maisonneuve," Great Lives from History, The Seventeenth Century (Salem Press, 2006).
• "France: Preaching and Sermons," Encyclopedia of the Reformation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), III:326-8.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

• "Joan of Arc," Oxford Bibliographies Online, 2011.

 

BOOK REVIEWS

• Charlotte A. Stanford, Commemorating the Dead in Late Medieval Strasbourg: The Cathedral's Book of Donors and Its Uses (1320-1521), in Church History (2013).
• Tracy Adams, The Life and Afterlife of Isabeau of Bavaria, H-FRANCE (March 2011).
• Nancy Bradley Warren, Women of God and Arms: Female Spirituality and Political Conflict, 1380-1600, in Catholic Historical Review 93(2007)386-8.
• Kevin Gould, Catholic Activism in South-West France, 1540-1570, in Renaissance Quarterly 60(2007), 568-70.
• Patricia Cholakian and Rouben C. Cholakian, Marguerite de Navarre: Mother of the Renaissance, in Church History 75(2006), 901-3.
• Susan E. Dinan, Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-Century France: The Early History of the Daughters of Charity, in Renaissance Quarterly 59(2006), 1223-5.
• Daniel Hobbins, ed., The Trial of Joan of Arc, in H-FRANCE 6:64(2006).
• Barbara Diefendorf, From Penitence to Charity: Pious Women and the Catholic Reformation in Paris, in Renaissance Quarterly 58:4(2005), 1355-7.
• Paul Botley, Latin Translation in the Renaissance: The Theory and Practice of Leonardo Bruni, Giannozzo Manetti and Desiderius Erasmus, in Ancient History Bulletin 19(2006), 102-4.
• David M. Whitford, Caritas et Reformatio: Essays on Church and Society in Honor of Carter Lindberg, in Church History 74(2005), 164.
• Glenn S. Sunshine, Reforming French Protestantism: The Development of Huguenot Ecclesiastical Institutions, 1557-1572, in Journal of Modern History 77(2005), 1096-8.
• Marion Leathers Kuntz, The Anointment of Dionisio: Prophecy and Politics in Renaissance Italy, in Renaissance Quarterly 56:3(2003) 1184-5.
• Edward Grant, God & Reason in the Middle Ages, in Church History (2003).
• Alain Boureau, The Myth of Pope Joan, H-FRANCE (September, 2002).
• Richard A. Muller, The Unaccommodated Calvin: Studies in the Foundation of a Theological Tradition, in American Historical Review 106:2(2001), 526-7.
• J. Hamesse, B. Kienzle, A. Thayer, and D. Stoudt, eds., Medieval Sermons and Society: Cloister, City, University in Catholic Historical Review 86(2000), 664-6.
• Philippe Maurice, La famille en Gevaudan au Xve siecle, in Speculum 76 (2001), 762-3.
• Thierry Wanegffelen, Une difficile fidelité: Catholiques malgré le concile en France XVIe-XVIIe siecles, in Sixteenth Century Journal 32 (2001),229-31.
• Jan Miernowski, La Dieu Néant: Theologies négatives a l'aube des temps modernes, in Renaissance Quarterly 53 (2000), 1227-9.
• Jean Calvin, La famine spirituelle (sermon inedit sur Esaie 55), ed. Max Engammare and trans. Francis Higman, in Renaissance Quarterly 53 (2000), 1227-9.
• Corrie Norman, Humanist Taste and Franciscan Values: Cornelio Musso and Catholic Preaching in Sixteenth-Century Italy, in Catholic Historical Review 86 (2000), 680-1.
• Robert Bireley, The Refashioning of Catholicism, 1450-1700, in Religious Studies Review 72 (2001).
• William Courtenay, Parisian Scholars in the Early Fourteenth Century, in Church History 69 (2000), 177-9.
• Nicholas Wright, Knights and Peasants: The Hundred Years War in the French Countryside, in Speculum, 74 (2000), 218-9.
• Ruth Mazo Karras, Common Women, in Renaissance Quarterly 53:3 (2000), 911-13.
• Christopher Elwood, The Body Broken: The Calvinist Doctrine of the Eucharist and the Symbolization of Power in Sixteenth Century France, in American Historical Review 105:3 (2000), 1016-7.
• Alexander Sedgwick, Travails of Conscience: The Arnauld Family and the Ancien Regime, in Renaissance Quarterly 52:1 (2000), 265-6.
• Bernard Quilliet, Le France du beau XVIeme siecle, in American Historical Review 105:1(2000), 296.
• Moshe Sluhovsky, Patroness of Paris: Rituals of Devotion in Early Modern France, in Sixteenth Century Journal 30(1999), 496-9.
• Lynn Martin, Plague: Jesuit Accounts of Epidemic and Disease in the 16th Century, in Sixteenth Century Journal 30 (1999), 274-6.
• Marie-Florine Bruneau, Women Mystics Confront the Modern World: Marie de l'Incarnation (1599-1672) and Madame Guyon (1648-1717), in Renaissance Quarterly 52(1999), 544-7.
• Kathryn Joy McKnight, The Mystic of Tunja: The Writings of Madre Castillo,1671-1742, in Renaissance Quarterly 52(1999), 544-7.
• Adrianna Bakos, Images of Kingship in Early Modern France: Louis XI in Political Thought, 1560-1789, in American Historical Review 44(1999), 652-3.
• Matthias Wirz, Muerent les moignes! La revolte de Payerne (1420), in Speculum (1998), 103-4.
• Anne Winston-Allen, Stories of the Rose: The Making of the Rosary in the Middle Ages, in Sixteenth Century Journal 29(1998), 891-2.
• James Given, Inquisition and Medieval Society: Power, Discipline and Resistance in Languedoc, in Church History 67(1998), 362-3.
• Bernd Moeller und Karl Stackmann, Stadtische Predigt in der Fruhzeit der Reformation: Eine Untersuchung der deutscher Flugschriften der Jahre 1522 bis 1529, in Sixteenth Century Journal 29(1998), 624-6.
• Pierre Brind'Amour, ed., Nostradamus: Les premieres centuries ou propheties, in Sixteenth Century Journal 29:1 (1998), 145-7.
• Peter Francis Howard, Beyond the Written Word: Preaching and Theology in the Florence of Archbishop Antoninus 1427-1459, in Sixteenth Century Journal 28(1997), 1420-2.
• Rudolf Simek, Heaven and Earth in the Middle Ages: The Physical World Before Columbus, in Arthuriana 7:2(1997), 1-2.
• Robins, Marianne Ruel, ed., Paroles d'evangiles: Quatres pamphlets allemands des annees 1520, in Sixteenth Century Journal 28:3(1997), 1033-5.
• Nicole Cazauran, ed., Discours merveilleux de la vie, actions et deportements de Catherine de Medicis, Royne-mere, in Sixteenth Century Journal 27(1996), 1086-8.
• Patricia Ranft, Women and the Religious Life in Pre-Modern Europe, in Sixteenth Century Journal 27(1996), 1200-1.
• Peter Matheson, Breaking the Silence: Women, Censorship and the Reformation, in H-GERMAN (September, 1996).
• Steven Ozment, The Burgermeister's Daughter, in Journal of Family History (1996), 125-6.
• Stephen Haliczer, Sexuality in the Confessional, in Renaissance Quarterly 50(1997), 50-1.
• Frederick McGinness, Right Thinking and Sacred Oratory in Counter-Reformation Rome, in Catholic Historical Review 82(1996), 714-5.
• Anne Tukey Harrison, ed., The Danse Macabre of Women: Ms. fr. 995 of the Bibliotheque Nationale, in Renaissance Quarterly 49:2(1996), 45-6.
• Gregory Hanlon, Confession and Community in Seventeenth-Century France, in Common Knowledge 5:1(1996), 126.
• Craig Harline, The Burdens of Sister Margaret, in Renaissance Quarterly 49:4, 896-7.
• Michael Wolfe, The Conversion of Henri IV, in Renaissance Quarterly 48:4(1995), 864-6.
• M.A. Screech, Clement Marot: A Renaissance Poet Discovers the Gospel, in Renaissance Quarterly 48:4(1995), 868-70.
• Barbara Sher Tinsley, History and Polemics in the French Reformation: Florimond de Raemond: Defender of the Church, in American Historical Review 99:1(1994), 243.
• Marie-Anne Polo de Beaulieu, ed., Jean Gobi, La Scala Coeli, in Speculum 69:2(1994), 483-5.
• Hippolyte Aubert, ed., Correspondance de Theodore de Beze, tome XV (1574), in Renaissance Quarterly 47:2(1994), 392-4.
• Aldo Scaglione, Knights at Court: Courtliness, Chivalry and Courtesy from Ottonian Germany to the Italian Renaissance, in Renaissance Quarterly 47:4(1994), 140-1.
• Barbara Diefendorf, Beneath the Cross: Catholics and Huguenots in Sixteenth-Century Paris, in Sixteenth Century Journal 24:1(1993), 192-3.
• Georges Cesbron, ed., DuBellay: Actes du Colloque Internationale d'Angers du 26 au 29 mai 1989, 2 vols., in Sixteenth Century Journal 23:2(1992), 414-6.
• Jean-Francois Dreze, Raison d'etat, raison de Dieu: Politique et mystique chez Jeanne de France, in Catholic Historical Review 78:3(1992), 451-2.
• Euan Cameron, The European Reformation, in Sixteenth Century Journal 23:4(1992), 864-5.
• Jean-Michel Mehl, Les jeux au royaume de France du XIIIe au debut du XVIe siecle, in Speculum 67:4(1992), 1009-10.
• Francoise Badel, Un évêque à la Diète: Le voyage de Guillaume de Challant aupres de l'empereur Sigismond (1422), in Catholic Historical Review 77:4(1991), 618-9.
• Nicole Lemaitre, La Rouergue flamboyante, in Catholic Historical Review 76:2(1990),366-7.

 

PUBLIC/CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

• Presidential Address, American Catholic Historical Association: "Joan of Arc, The Church and the Papacy, 1429-1920," Chicago, January 2012.
• "The Real Joan of Arc," Invited presentation, Colby Alumni Club, Boston, February 2011.
• "Joan of Arc, Neither Prophet Nor Puppet," American Historical Assn, Boston, January 2011.
• "Joan of Arc, The Virgin Warrior," invited presentation, University of Siena, IT, April, 2010.
• "Joan of Arc, The Church and the Papacy," Renaissance Society of America, Venice, IT, April 2010.
• "Joan of Arc's Trial and the Dominicans of Saint-Jacques," American Catholic Historical Association, Princeton, March 2010.
• "Trick or Treat: Joan of Arc and Yolande of Aragon," International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, May 2009.
• Panelist and Presider, "The Afterlife of Joan of Arc," International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, May 2008.
• Catholic Piety and Popular Religion: NEH Summer Seminar on 'Teaching the Reformation in a Pluralist Age' Grand Rapids, MI (2007).
• 'That Astonishing and Marvelous Maid': Pius II's Commentary on Joan of Arc, Renaissance Society of America, Miami, March 2007 .
• Who was Joan of Arc? Invited presentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, January 2007.
• Exile as Pilgrimage: The Beginnings of 'Modern' Conceptions of Pilgrimage in Dante and Petrarch, Society for Italian Historical Studies, Atlanta, January 2007.
• Jesus, Gender and Politics: The Execution of Joan of Arc, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, October 2006.
• Joan of Arc and the Dominicans of Rouen, Maine Medievalists Association, Bates College, September 2006 .
• Joan of Arc's Trial Performance: A Reappraisal, International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI, May 2006.
• The Village Voice: Remembrances and Testimony at the Nullification Trial of Joan of Arc, International Medieval Congress, Kalamazoo, MI, May, 2005.
• Who Killed Joan of Arc? Western Society for French History, Lubbock, TX,September, 2004.
• Teaching Joan of Arc: A Historical Perspective, Panel discussion, Medieval Institute, Kalamazoo, MI, May, 2004.
• Ascending Mount Ventoux: Pilgrimage in Medieval, Renaissance and Modern Perspective, Renaissance Society of America, Toronto, 2003.
• Le vent de l'Esprit, Modern Language Association, New York City, December,2002.
• Early Islam: Convergences with Christianity and Judaism, Colby Alumni College, Waterville, Maine, July, 2002.
• Holy War: Catholic Preaching in France During the Religious Wars,Renaissance Society of America, Florence, Italy, March,2000.
• Women, Hermaphrodites, Catholics and Libertines: Imagery in the Treatises of Pierre Viret at the Herzog August Bibliothek, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Toronto, October, 1998.
• Images of Purgatory and Hell in Late Medieval French Sermons, French Historical Studies Conference, Ottawa, March, 1998.
• Sister, Whore, Apostle, Preacher: Images of Mary Magdalene in the Sermons and Art of the Late Middle Ages and Reformation, Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, University of Toronto, January, 1998.
• Astrology in Sixteenth-Century France: A Reappraisal of Denis Crouzet's Guerriers de Dieu:, Southern Historical Association, Atlanta, November, 1997.
• The Funeral Sermon as Religious Propaganda in Sixteenth-Century France,Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Atlanta, October, 1997.
• Prostituierte, Predigerin und Apostel: Maria Magdalena in den Predigten und der Kunst des sp?ten Mittelalters und der Reformation [Prostitute,Preacher and Apostle: Mary Magdalene in the Sermons and Art of the Late Middle Ages and Reformation], Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbuttel, Germany, June, 1997.
• Images of Mary Magdalene in the Art and Religion of the Late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation Workshop, Harvard University, Cambridge, April, 1997.
• The Good Shepherd: Francois LePicart and Preaching Reform from Within,Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St. Louis, October, 1996.
• The Philosophy of Preaching in Late Medieval French Sermons, Tenth International Medieval Sermon Studies Symposium, Oxford, England, July, 1996.
• The Prostitute Imagined in Pre-Modern France, French Historical Studies Conference, Boston, March, 1996.
• Using Theodore Rabb's Teleseries The Renaissance in the Classroom: The Dissenter, Southern Historical Association, November, 1995.
• Prophecy and Prediction at the Court of Catherine de Medici, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, San Francisco, October, 1995.
• The Woman Mary Magdalene: The Pulpit Tradition in the Late Middle Ages, Medieval Institute, Kalamazoo, May, 1995.
• Commentator, Plenary Session: Women, History and Religion in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: A Session in Memory of Nancy Lyman Roelker, New England Historical Association, South Hadley, MA, April, 1995.
• The Three Faces of Magdalene: Changing Images in the Renaissance,St. Louis University, St. Louis, October, 1994.
• Comme un chien mort: Preaching About Kingship in France, 1460-1572, Western Society for French History, Des Moines, October, 1994.
• Gender and Language in the Preaching of Guillaume Pepin, Canadian Historical Association, Calgary, June, 1994.
• The Real Mary Magdalene: Images of Sainthood, Prostitution and Sexuality from the Pulpit, 15th-16th Centuries, Second Annual Conference on the Family, Ottawa, May, 1994.
• Sister, Whore, Apostle and Preacher, Seminar on British and European Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, May, 1994.
• Strange Bedfellows: Preachers and Prostitutes in Medieval Europe, Western Society for French History, Missoula, October, 1993.
• The Saintly Sinner: Images of Mary Magdalene in Late Medieval Preaching,Center for Literary and Cultural Studies, Harvard University, Cambridge, April, 1993.
• The Influence of Humanism on Post-Reformation Catholic Preachers, French Historical Studies Conference, Chico, CA, March, 1993.
• Use of the Bible in Late Medieval Sermons, Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Atlanta, October, 1992.
• Defender of the Faith: The Preaching of Francois LePicart Against Heresy in Paris, French Historical Studies Conference, El Paso, March, 1992.