A Further Look at Secular and Sacred Lyric in the Early Consistory: Lo Cocir de la Mort and La Contemplatio de la Crotz*

Abstract

The second version of the Leys d’Amors (1356) includes a long devotional poem, LaCon-templatio de la Crotz, and omits a secular poem about the fear of Death, Lo Cocir de la Mort. The two poems are connected by a common concern with death in the broadest sense. The Contemplatio is not a contemplation but rather a dolorist narrative of the Passion that was intended to include a cycle of illustrations. It is linked to the Planctus Mariae and other texts that are attested in medieval Toulouse. This article argues that the Contemplatio replaced the more secular Cocir and underlined the more cautious attitude towards the Church of the second redaction. However, the first redaction of the Leys d ’A m o r s contains fragments of Passion devotion and the Contemplatio is connected to religious visual and musical culture in Toulouse. This implies that the complexity of the early Consistory’s relationship with mendicant spiritual devotion has been underestimated