Normative centering in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries: Observations on religiosity, theology, and iconology

Journal of Early Modern History

Volumn 3, Issue 3, 1999, Pages 307-354

  Hamm, Berndt ^a   Frymire, John M ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 84949115057     PISSN: 13853783     EISSN: 15700658     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/157006599X00297     Document Type: Review

References (162)

1. To keep references to a minimum, for these translations the reader is referred to the articles and bibliographies in The Handbook of European History, 1400-1600, ed. T. A. Brady, Jr., H.A. Oberman, & J.D. Tracy, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1994-95)
2. and The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation, ed. H.J. Hillerbrand, 4 vols. (Oxford, 1996)
3. Trans. T.A. Brady, Jr. in Handbook of European History, vol. 2, pp. 193-227
4. This study forms the basic outline developed more fully by Hamm in his Bürgertum und Glaube. Konturen der städtisichen Reformation (Göttingen, 1996)
5. "What was the Reformation Doctrine of Justification?" [Germ. 1986], trans. C.S. Dixon in The German Reformation: The Essential Readings ed. idem (Oxford, 1999), 56-92 (with Dixon's introductory remarks, 8-10 and 53-55)
6. "Von der spätmittelalterlichen reformatio zur Reformation: der Prozeß normativer Zentrierung von Religion und Gesellschaft in Deutschland," Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte 84 (1993), 7-82; here 82
7. Hamm, "The Urban Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire," 196-98: "3. The 'Concentration of Norms' in Religion and Society." C.S. Dixon renders the term "normative centering" (10)
8. A. Angenendt, Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter (Darmstadt, 1997), 71-75: "2, 3(b): Volksfrömmigkeit und Frö mmigkeitstheologie."
9. A. Angenendt, Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter, 74
10. See the four points of conclusion to the conference by B. Moeller, and the accompanying discussion, in Die frühe Reformation in Deutschland als Umbruch. Wissenschaftliches Symposion des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1996, ed. B. Moeller and S.E. Buckwalter, Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 199 (Gütersloh, 1998), 487-89
11. This is acknowledged by, among others, H. Schilling (Die frühe Reformation in Deutschland als Umbruch, 25)
12. and H.R. Schmidt (Die frühe Reformation in Deutschland als Umbruch, 338f.)
13. Berndt Hamm, "Reformation als normative Zentrierung von Religion und Gesellschaft" Jahrbuch für Biblische Theologie 7 (1992), 241-279
14. Hamm, "Von der spätmittelalterlichen reformatio zur Reformation: der Prozeß normativer Zentrierung von Religion und Gesellschaft in Deutschland," Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 84 (1993), 7-82
15. Hartmut Boockmann, "Das fünfzehnte Jahrhundert in der deutschen Geschichte," in Mittelalterforschung nach der Wende 1989 [= Historische Zeitschrift, Beiheft 20], ed. Michael Borgolte (Munich, 1995), 485-511
16. Luther, for example, differentiated between "Law" and "Gospel" within the standard of truth that he ascribed to God's word in the Bible
17. Cf. Berndt Hamm, "Das Gewicht von Religion, Glaube, Frömmigkeit und Theologie innerhalb der Verdichtungsvorgänge des ausgehenden Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit," in Krisenbewußbein und Krisenbewältigung in der Frühen Neuzeit - Crisis in Early Modern Europe, Festschrift fur Hans-Christoph Rublack, ed. Monika Hagenmaier & Sabine Holtz (Frankfurt a.M., 1992), 163-196 (in reference to the use of the term "consolidation" or "compression" [Verdichtung] by Volker Press, Peter Moraw, and Heinz Schilling)
18. Key concept: the formation of the early modern state as the intensification, standardization, and centering of the structures of power; cf. Hamm, "Von der spätmittelalterlichen reformatio," 59-61
19. Here we limit ourselves to the significance of central perspective and central layout for painting, as well as for the architecture of cities, castles, and gardens from the Renaissance into the eighteenth century; cf. Werner Hofmann, Das entzweite Jahrhundert - Kunst zwischen 1750 und 1830 (Munich, 1995). In this book Hofmann describes the abandonment of central perspective and its monofocality in favor of a fragmentation of perspective, a multi-perspectival and intentional unclarity in the work of art. As such, polyfocality became the essential signature of modern art - after, I should like to add, the "early modern" works of the fifteenth century came to be characterized by the development of a new aesthetic norm of centrality, just as city architecture near the end of the Middle Ages distanced itself from complex, angular, patchwork forms and tended toward cleaner, more simple objects and buildings and toward a new lucidity in terms of urban visual perspectives. The fascinating and revealing question about the period from the fifteenth through the early eighteenth centuries seems to be, in what relation did phenomena like the development of central perspective stand to concurrent manifestations of "centering" within govermental, bureaucratic, legal, educational, social, economic, cultural and religious, and especially confessional spheres?
20. Cf. Heiko A. Oberman, "The Shape of Late Medieval Thought: The Birthpangs of the Modern Era," in The Pursuit of Holiness in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion, ed. Charles Trinkaus & Heiko A. Oberman, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 10 (Leiden, 1974), 3-25, esp. 11 ("the search for new security")
21. Berndt Hamm, Frömmigkeitstheologie am Anfang des 16. Jahrhunderts. Studien zu Johannes von Paltz und seinem Umkreis, Beiträge zur Historischen Theologie 65 (Tübingen, 1982), 216-303 (chapter 5, "Im Umkreis der Suche nach Gnaden- und Heilsgarantien")
22. Cf. Jean Delumeau, Rassurer et protéger. Le sentiment de sécurité dans l'Occident d'autrefois (Paris, 1989)
23. e siècle). Une cité assiégée (Paris, 1978)
24. e siècle) (Paris, 1983)
25. For the importance of the Black Death in this escalation, cf. František Graus, Pest-Geissler-Judenmorde. Das 14. Jahrhundert als Krisenzeit, 3d ed., Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 86 (Göttingen, 1994)
26. Luther's attacks against papists, Jews, and Turks, in whom he saw the personification of Satan's ragings, are paradigmatic; on this see Heiko A. Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil [German ed 1982], trans. Eileen Walliser-Schwarzbart (New Haven, 1990)
27. for the broader contexts of Luther's shared mentality, cf. idem, The Roots of Antisemitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation [German ed. 1981], trans. James I. Porter (Philadelphia, 1984)
28. To be sure, there are noteworthy exceptions to this rule in which examples of "normative centering" are characterized not by an increase, but rather a decrease in the degree of aggressiveness against ecclesiastical and religious opponents. One thinks of Johann von Staupitz (†1524), the vicar general of the German Augustinians and Luther's teacher, spiritual guide, and pastor. Staupitz attempted to center the whole of theology, piety, and the Church upon the mercy of God (see below 320f. with note 41), which effected a willingness to endure - in this sense, "tolerance" - and restraint in the face of ecclesiastical militance. Cf. Heiko A. Oberman, "Duplex misericordia: The Devil and the Church in the Early Theology of Johann von Staupitz" [German ed. 1989], trans. Andrew C. Gow, in Heiko A Oberman, The Impact of the Reformation (Grand Rapids, 1994), 35-50
29. Confessional "centering" and standardization within a political unit (i.e., city, territory, etc.) was accompanied by external political contact with those belonging to the same confession, such that in the end (roughly in the half-century between 1570/75 and 1625/30) international ideological systems stood antagonistically against one another. Just as the internal situation of the developing early modern state was characterized by confessional integration and, at the same time, hostile demarcation against confessional oppo-nents, representing two sides of the same coin, so the phenomenon was mirrored outside of particular territories at the level of international homogenization and dualization. Cf. Heinz Schilling, "Konfessionalisierung und Formierung eines internationalen Systems während der frühen Neuzeit," in Die Reformation in Deutschland und Europa: Interpretationen und Debatten [= Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, Sonderband], ed. Hans R. Guggisberg, Gottfried G. Krodel & Hans Füglister (Gütersloh, 1993), 591-613
30. Cf. Hamm, "Reformation als normative Zentrierung," 277f
31. Cf. The paradigmatic study of Heinz Schilling, Konfessionskonflikt und Staatsbildung. Eine Fallstudie über das Verhältnis von religiösem und sozialem Wandel in der Frühneuzeit am Beispiel der Grafschaft Lippe, Quellen und Forschungen zur Reformationsgeschichte 48 (Gütersloh, 1981)
32. cf. also Die reformierte Konfessionalisierung in Deutschland - Das Problem der "Zweiten Reformation". Wissenschaft. Symposion des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1985, ed. Heinz Schilling, Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 195 (Gütersloh, 1986)
33. Die lutherische Konfessionalisierung in Deutschland. Wissenschaftl Symposion des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1988, ed. Hans-Christoph Rublack, Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 197 (Gütersloh, 1992)
34. Cf. Die katholische Konfessionalisierung. Wissenschaftl. Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum und des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1993, ed. Wolfgang Reinhard & Heinz Schilling, Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 198 (Gütersloh, 1995)
35. For a much needed critique of the hazards of organic categories of historical interpretation shaped by biological metaphors, cf. Hartmut Boockmann, "Das 15. Jahrhundert und die Reformation," in Kïrche und Gesellschaft im Heiligen Römischen Reich des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts, ed. Hartmut Boockmann (Göttingen, 1994), 9-25, esp. 10f
36. Cf. Erich Meuthen, "Gab es ein spätes Mittelalter?" in Spätzeit. Studien zu den Problemen eines historischen Epochenbegriffs, ed. Johannes Kunisch, Historische Forschungen 42 (Berlin, 1990), 91-135, here 115
37. Cf. Meuthen, "Gab es ein spätes Mittelalter?" 115
38. Gustav Adolf Benrath, "Traditionsbewußtsein, Schriftverständnis und Schriftprinzip bei Wyclif," in Antiqui und Moderni. Traditionsbewußtsein und Fortschrittsbewußtsein im späten Mittelalter, ed. Albert Zimmermann, Miscellanea mediaevalia 9 (Berlin, 1974), 359-382
39. Cf. Klaus H. Lauterbach, Geschichtsverständnis, Zeitdidaxe und Reformgedanke an der Wende zum sechzehnten Jahrhundert. Das oberrheinische "Buchli der hundert capiteln" im Kontext des spä tmittelalterlichen Reformbiblizismus, Forschungen zur oberrheinischen Landesgeschichte 33 (Freiburg i.Br., 1985). One thinks, for example, of John Hus and the Hussites with their concentration on the biblical standard of the pura lex Christi as the norm for living
40. Cf. Peter Bierbrauer, "Das Göttliche Recht und die naturrechtliche Tradition," in Bauer, Reich und Reformation, Festschrift für Günther Franz, ed. Peter Blickle (Stuttgart, 1982), 210-234
41. P. Blickle, "Das göttliche Recht der Bauern und die göttliche Gerechtigkeit der Reformatoren," Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 68 (1986), 351-369
42. Cf. Christoph Burger, Aedificatio, Fructus, Utilitas. Johannes Gerson als Professor der Theologie und Kanzler der Universität Paris, Beiträge zur historischen Theologie 70 (Tübingen, 1986), 71-97
43. "... necessaria est praecipue conversio retrorsum ad ius divinum, quod est iurium omnium originale et fontale principium, forma, regula et exemplum. Fiat haec animae conversio ad Jesum." Gerson, Conversi estis, ed. Palémon Glorieux, in Jean Gerson: Oeuvres complètes, vol. 5 (Tournai, 1963), 178
44. with a reproduction of the woodcut from the title page of Tengler's "Der neue Laienspiegel" (Augsburg, 1512), 51, with further analyisis at 50, n. 136. This woodcut, with the mirror of "true justice" in its center, is a good example of the graphic assimilation of textual "normative centering." For research on didactic art during the century before the Reformation, it is most interesting just how frequently graphic "normative centering" occurred in analogy to its textual counterpart. As will be shown below, this relationship shows itself most clearly in the areas of devotion, the "theology of piety," and "images of piety."
45. For the expression sola misericordia as employed by Gerson, and for his corresponding conception of the Christian's assurance of hope grounded solely on God's compassion, cf. Sven Grosse, Heilsungewißheit und Scrupulositas im späten Mittelalter, Beiträge zur historischen Theologie 85 (Tübingen, 1994), 102-158, esp. 103, n. 308
46. Cf. also the (Pseudo?)-Gersonian Appellatio peccatoris ad divinam misericordiam, in Jean Gerson: Oeuvres complètes, vol. 8 (Paris, 1971), 536-539 (no. 20); for an accompanying woodcut with the representation of a merciful Divine Judgment in the form of stairs leading to salvation (with an early modern German poem below the image that refers to the text of Gerson), see below 345f. with note 109
47. Cf., for example, Gerson, De praeparatione ad missam, in Jean Gerson: Oeuvres complètes, vol. 9 (Paris, 1973), 46
48. Cf. Gerson: "fiduciam nostram totam in deum iactemus," and idem, De vita spirituali animae, in Jean Gerson: Oeuvres complètes, vol. 3 (Tournai, 1962), 126: "desperare debeamus de viribus nostris ... nec confidere in homine, sed projicere totam spem nostram in deum."
49. For the "normative centering" of both the late medieval "theology of piety" and late medieval "images of piety," centered upon the suffering and death of Christ, see below 340-351
50. On Staupitz's use of such sola-formulations cf. Hamm, "Von der spätmittelalterlichen reformatio," 40f. Since he was not only the vicar general of the German Augustinians, Luther's pastor, spiritual guide, and fatherly friend, but also his theological mentor, Staupitz's pointed, radically Augustinian and biblically accentuated "theology of grace" and Christocentrism, accompanied by their many sola-formulations, lead directly to the "normative centering" of the early Reformation that was initiated by the young Luther's writings
51. See below, 343-351
52. Cf., for example, Die Passion Christi in Literatur und Kunst des Spätmittelalters, ed. Walter Haug and Burghart Wachinger, Fortuna vitrea 12 (Tübingen, 1993)
53. Petra Seegets, Passionstheologie und Passionsfrömmigkeit im ausgehenden Mittelalter. Der Nürnberger Franziskaner Stephan Fridolin (gest. 1498) zwischen Kloster und Stadt, Spätmittelalter und Reformation, Neue Reihe 10 (Tübingen, 1998)
54. Falk Eisermann, "Diversae et plurimae materiae in diversis capitulis. Der 'Stimulus amoris' als literarisches Dokument der normativen Zentrierung," Frühmittelalterliche Studien 31 (1997), 214-232
55. Cf. Klaus Schreiner, Maria-Jungfrau, Mutter, Herrscherin [1994], rev. ed. (Munich, 1996)
56. The metaphors served to place the suffering Christ within the geographical context of the middle point of a defined area and within the geometrical center of a city within a region. Stephan Fridolin, "Predigten über die Komplet," Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Cod. 3801 (part 2), fol. 195r
57. Cf. also Johannes von Paltz, Coelifodina (1502), ed. Christoph Burger and Friedhelm Stasch, in Johannes von Paltz. Werke, vol. 1 (Berlin, 1983), 13 and 11: "passio Christi est quasi summa totius sacrae scripturae."
58. From the compassio brought forth by meditation that induces the affective assimilation of Christ's suffering (which is, at the same time, the painful ruing of one's own sins for which Christ suffered), the repentent sinner will be led to imitatio, that is, to an active imitation of Christ, and thereby to conformitas, to congruity with Christ Cf. Martin Elze, " Das Verständnis der Passion Christi im ausgehenden Mittelalter und bei Luther," in Geist und Geschichte der Reformation. Festschrift für Hanns Rückert, ed. Heinz Liebing and Klaus Scholder, Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 38 (Berlin, 1966), 127-151, esp. 127-134
59. On the Devotio moderna cf. most recendy Nikolaus Staubach, "Christianam sectam arripe: Devotio moderna und Humanismus zwischen Zirkelbildung und gesellschaftlicher Integration," in Europäische Sozietätsbewegungen und demokratische Tradition. Die europäischen Akademien der Frühen Neuzeit zwischen Frührenaissance und Spätaufklärung, ed. Klaus Garber, Heinz Wismann, and Winfried Siebers (Tübingen, 1996), 112-167 (with further bibliography)
60. Pointed out most recently (and correctly) by Emidio Campi, Zwingli und Maria. Eine reformationsgeschichltiche Studie (Zurich, 1997), 24-34
61. Cf. also Fritz Büsser, "Zwingli, ein Zeitgenosse des Erasmus," in Die Prophezei. Humanismus und Reformation in Zürich, ed. idem (Bern, 1994), 13-25
62. idem, "Zwingli als Exeget. Ein Beitrag zum Erasmus-Gedenkjahr," in Die Prophezei, 26-46
63. "Sed ut certiore cursu queas ad felicitatem contendere, haec tibi quarta sit regula, ut totius vitae tuae Christum velut unicum scopum praefigas, ad quem unum omnia studia, omnes conatus, omne otium ac negotium conferas ... [Oculus tuus] ad solum Christum tamquam ad unicum et summum bonum spectet, ut nihil ames, nihil mireris, nihil expetas nisi aut Christum aut propter Christum." Erasmus, Enchiridion militis christiani (1501), Canon quartus, in Erasmus von Rotterdam: Ausgewählte Schriften, vol. 1, ed. Werner Welzig (Darmstadt, 1968), 168-170
64. Cf. The citations of Erasmus by Hamm, "Von der spä tmittelalterlichen reformatio," 45f. with the pointed maxim (n. 122): Christus "solus est totus imitandus."
65. Cf. Léon E. Halkin, Erasmus von Rotterdam. Eine Biographie (Zurich, 1989), 260: "Erasmus' Theologie jedoch ist auf Christus zentriert."
66. On the central significance of Jerome for Erasmus, cf. Eugene F. Rice, Jr., Saint Jerome in the Renaissance [1985], 2d. ed. (Baltimore, 1988), 116-136
67. John C. Olin, "Erasmus and Saint Jerome: An Appraisal of the Bond," in Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Man and the Scholar. Proceedings of the Symposium held at the Erasmus University, Rotterdam, 9-11 Nov. 1986, ed. J. Sperna Weiland and W.Th.M. Frijhoff (Leiden, 1988), 182-196 (with further bibliography)
68. Cf. Berndt Hamm, "Hieronymus-Begeisterung und Augustinismus vor der Reformation. Beobachtungen zur Beziehung zwischen Humanismus und Frömmigkeitstheologie (am Beispiel Nürnbergs)," in Augustine, the Harvest, and Theology (1300-1650). Festschrift für Heiko A. Oberman, ed. Kenneth Hagen (Leiden, 1990), 127-235, esp. 180-224
69. On the slogan sola virtus among devotional humanists in Nuremburg, cf. also Berndt Hamm, "Humanistische Ethik und reichsstädtische Ehrbarkeit in Nürnberg," Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 76 (1989), 65-147; here 129-133
70. Cf. Reformbemühungen und Observanzbestrebungen im spätmittelalterlichen Ordenswesen, ed. Kaspar Elm, Berliner Historische Studien 14: Ordensstudien VI (Berlin, 1989)
71. Ralph Weinbrenner, Klosterreform im 15. Jahrhundert zwischen Ideal und Praxis. Der Augustinereremit Andreas Proles (1429-1503) und die privilegierte Observanz, Spätmittelalter und Reformation, Neue Reihe 7 (Tübingen, 1996)
72. Analyzing the Dominican Johannes Nider and the Augustinian Proles, Weinbrenner demonstrates how the path of repentence, as formulated in the observant cloisters, was understood as a repeat performance of the path of Christ's suffering; this path was to lead to a spritual death on the cross fulfilled by the surrender of one's own will (Klosterreform im 15. Jahrhundert, 181-197). On aspects of Nider's theology within the context of the "theology of piety," cf. also Werner Williams-Krapp, "Observanzbewegungen, monastische Spiritualität und geistliche Literatur im 15. Jahrhundert," Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur 20 (1995), 1-15
73. Cf. Weinbrenner, Klosterreform im 15. Jahrhundert, 197-205 ("Strukturen der Sicherheit")
74. Hamm, Frömmigkeitstheologie, 291-299
75. Cf. The ideal representation of the Franciscan cloister at Nuremberg, after its adherence to the Observant movement, by the Franciscan chronicler Nikolaus Glassberger, written in 1508: "After the convent at Nuremberg had been reformed, the brothers thought of nothing other than that which is godly; some sang Psalms, others busied themselves with books, and still others preached the Word of God. And with the example of their life, the word of their teaching and their most devoted intercession, they steadily led the Christian populace away from the vices and won them over for the virtues, such that anyone, were he to recall the repulsiveness of the brothers' former depravities, upon seeing the condition and life of the brothers as they now lived, would surely have to believe that from that profane place a most holy temple of God had burst forth like a bolt of lightning." ["Igitur reformato conventu Norimbergensi, Fratres iam nihil praeter divina cogitabant, alii psallendo, alii libros relegendo, alii praedicando verbum Dei, et populum christianum exemplo vitae verboque doctrinae ac intercessione devotissima iugiter a vitiis revocando et ad virtutes alliciendo, adeo quod, si quis tunc ilium statum atque illam Fratrum vitam inspiceret, qua tunc vivebant, qui prioris corruptelae fastidia meminerat, existimaret, velut ex loco profano sacerrimum Dei templum subito tamquam fulgur emicuisse."] Nikolaus Glassberger, Chronica, ed. Patres Collegii S. Bonaventurae, Ad Claras Aquas, Analecta Franciscana 2 (Quaracchi, 1887), 320
76. cited by Seegets, Passionstheologie und Passionsfrömmigkeit, 4 and note 1
77. Cf. Manfred Schulze, Fürsten und Reformation. Geistliche Reformpolitik weltlicher Fürsten vor der Reformation, Spätmittelalter und Reformation, Neue Reihe 2 (Tübingen, 1991)
78. Dieter Stievermann, Landesherrschaft und Klosterwesen im spätmittelalterlichen Württemberg (Sigmaringen, 1989)
79. Important and more recent literature on the emergence and development of the early modern state is provided by Harm Klueting, Das Konfessionelle Zeitalter 1525-1648, UTB 1556 (Stuttgart, 1989), 73-94
80. Cf. Hamm, "Von der spätmittelalterlichen reformatio," 65-71, where I discuss religion as the "buttress" (Strebepfeiler) of society
81. Cf. Heinz Schilling, Die Stadt in der frühen Neuzeit, Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte 24 (Munich, 1993), 38f. and 94
82. Werner Buchholz, "Anfänge der Sozialdisziplinierung im Mittelalter. Die Reichsstadt Nürnberg als Beispiel," Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 18 (1991), 129-147
83. Berndt Hamm, Bürgertum und Glaube. Konturen der städtischen Reformation (Göttingen, 1996), 74f
84. On the origins of this familiar quotation (combined from Seneca and Lactantius) cf. Hamm, "Von der spätmittelalterliche reformatio," 67
85. e siècle. Les conseillers des ducs de Bourgogne (Brussels, 1955), 442 (Lactantius) and 444 (Seneca)
86. This is how I defined and described "piety" (Frömmigkeit) in my article, "Frömmigkeit als Gegenstand theologiegeschichtlicher Forschung. Methodisch-historische Überlegungen am Beispiel von Spätmittelalter und Reformation," Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 74 (1977), 464-497. I also find the latest definition of my Erlangen colleague Walter Sparn pertinent in this context: "[Christliche] Frömmigkeit ist das Lebensgefühl und die Lebensgestalt christlichen Glaubens." The historian encounters "piety" in this sense either in the form of theoretical reflection (on the actualization of piety) or in evidence that documents the practice of piety
87. At the time Luther joined the Erfurt cloister of Augustinian Hermits (17 July 1505), both of these contrasting tendencies were represented under one roof by the very different theologies of Johannes von Staupitz and Johannes von Paltz. Whereas Staupitz developed a highly internalized method of devotion that partly furthered the mystical tradition, Paltz took the same devotional and pastoral intentions and emphasized, in contrast, the immeasurable stores of grace found in the sacraments, indulgences, and the authorized powers of ecclesiastica] offices. Both perspectives involved frequent return to the "normative center" of repentence, Christ's Passion, and God's mercy. On Paltz cf. Berndt Hamm, "Paltz, Johannes von," Theologische Realenzyklopädie, vol. 25 (Berlin, 1995), 606-11, with bibliography, 610f; on Staupitz, cf. my forthcoming article in Theologische Realenzyklopädie, which will contain a full bibliography
88. Cf., for example, the treatment of this theme by Girolamo Savonarola published in 1496, De simplicitate christianae vitae, ed. Pier Giorgio Ricci (Rome, 1959)
89. cf. Falk Eisermann, "Die 15 geistlichen Tode Jesu Christi," in the exhibition catalogue Glaube Hoffnung Liebe Tod - Von der Entwicklung religiöser Bildkonzepte, Ausstellungskatalog, ed. Christoph Geissmar-Brandi and Eleonora Louis, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Kunsthalle Vienna, 2d. ed. (Vienna, 1996), 98f
90. Cf. Berndt Hamm, "Die Reformation als Medienereignis," Jahrbuch für Biblische Theologie 11 (1996), 137-166; here 160-163
91. Cf. Christoph Burger, "Theologie und Laienfrömmigkeit. Transformationsversuche im Spätmittelalter," in Lebenslehren und Weltentwürfe im Übergang vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit. Politik-Bildung-Naturkunde-Theologie, ed. Hartmut Boockmann, Bernd Moeller & Karl Stackmann, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Philol.-Histor. Klasse, 3d. ser., 179 (Göttingen, 1989), 400-420
92. Cf. most recently Ruth Slenczka, Lehrhafte Bildtafeln in spätmittelalterlichen Kirchen, Pictura et Poesis 10 (Cologne, 1998), with literature on the theme of the didactics of piety in images
93. Cf. also Hartmut Boockmann,. "Belehrung durch Bilder? Ein unbekannter Typus spätmittelterlicher Tafelbilder," Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 57 (1994), 1-22
94. It hardly needs to be emphasized that the discussion of "images of piety," whose function was to teach and to remind, should not be limited to the type of panel-images discussed by Boockmann and Slenczka. Many other types of images could depict elements that taught and conveyed specific ideas in the service of the didactics of piety: retables, epitaphs, votive panels, devotional images, illustrations in devotional books and pamphlets, etc. Since such images were to lead the viewer to knowledge, remembrance, reflection, and understanding, the affective (i.e., in mente) objective of attempting to motivate particular forms of piety could combine directly with the attempt to lead one to an operative praxis pietatis - saying certain prayers, for example. Also within the "theology of piety," differences in literary form or genre were not accompanied by corresponding differences in content or objective: various texts of varying types could include didactic information, reflective prayers and meditations cast in memorizable forms, highly emotional motivational aids, and more specific orientational instruction (dogma, anamnese, pathos, ethos). In fact, it is a characteristic of the "theology of piety" to mix these elements, a characteristic that also applies to "images of piety." Just how diverse the functions of such images were considered may be gauged, for example, by the treatise on the lay viewing of images (1528) found in Berthold Pürstinger's (Bishop of Chiemsee) Tewtsche Theologey, chapters 85 and 86, ed. Wolfgang Reithmeier (Munich, 1852), 589-601. Pürstinger emphasized the close connections between text and image in this way: "Wo nu dem gemainen volckh die pild wurden entzogen, waere gleich als wo den gelerten die schrifft verpoten, nachdem kain vnderschid ist der heyling geschicht zelernen oder zedencken in schrifft oder gemael" ( 601)
95. That is precisely why such images could serve the illiterate by taking over the role of texts in providing informative, instructional, and emotive materials, along with motivational encouragement for concrete acts of devotion, a fact that was repeatedly emphasized by late medieval theologians and the clergy. Cf. Schreiner, Maria, 252-256, esp. 253: "Daß Bilder der 'layen schrift' oder der 'layen puchstaben' seien, aus denen gelernt werden könne, wie man ins 'hymelriche' komme, verfestigte sich im hohen und späten Mittelalter zu einem vielgebrauchten Topos." On the other hand, just how much such images were also intended for advanced readers at the close of die Middle Ages, may be seen by the ever-increasing number of texts that accompanied them (on this point see below, 331 and note 76). These scrolls and borders of text underline the readerly character of the non-verbal language of images and the visualized meanings they produce; the texts provide an interpretive key to unlocking those aspects of the images associated with the "theology of piety." Images were also produced for the spiritual development of the literate because, according to contemporaries, the sense of sight could significantly contribute to piety; indeed, an image, so they thought, could produce a more suggestive effect, directly setting the devotion of the heart in motion, than could that which was written or heard (cf. Berthold Pürstinger, Tewtsche Theologey, 593 and 597) - not to mention its ability to statisfy the desire for aesthetic pleasure
96. Cf. Max Hasse, Der Flügelaltar (Dresden, 1941)
97. Claudia Lichte & Gerhard Weilandt, Prachtvoll und wandelbar. Entstehung und Funktion von Flügelretabeln im Mittelalter, ed Württembergisches Landesmuseum Stuttgart (Stuttgart, 1994) (with further bibliography)
98. On issues regarding the relation between text and image, cf. Text und Bild, Bild und Text. DFG-Symposion 1988, ed. Wolfgang Harms, Germanistische Symposien-Berichtsbände 11 (Stuttgart, 1990)
99. Das illustrierte Flugblatt in der Kultur der Frühen Neuzeit, ed. Wolfgang Harms and Michael Schilling, Mikrokosmos 50 (Frankfurt a.M., 1998)
100. esp. The contribution by Sabine Griese, "'Dirigierte Kommunikation.' Beobachtungen zu xylographischen Einblattdrucken und ihren Textsorten im 15. Jahrhundert," 75-99
101. On the triptych of Hubert and Jan van Eyck, which is displayed in the baptismal chapel of St. Bavo's cathedral, Ghent, cf. The fine introduction (with further bibliography) by Peter Schmidt, Der Genter Altar, trans. Achim and Eva Zacharias, photos by Paul Maeyaert (Louvain, 1995)
102. further bibliography in Esther Gallwitz, Ein wunderbarer Garten. Die Pflanzen des Genter Altars, Insel Taschenbuch 1853 (Frankfurt a.M., 1996)
103. Cf. Schmidt, Der Genter Altar, 48
104. The painting hangs in the Staatsgalerie Augsburg. Cf. The reproductions and commentary in Bruno Bushart, Hans Holbein der Ältere, 2d. ed. (Augsburg, 1987), 102-105
105. cf. also Hartmut Boockmann, Die Stadt im späten Mittelalter (Munich, 1986), 168f. (no. 264)
106. According to late medieval doctrine, as it had been worked out in the thirteenth century, the "individual" or "particular" judgment was God the Father's judgment of an individual's soul immediately following death, as soon as the soul had separated itself from the body. As Divine Judge, God the Father pronounced whether the soul went directly to Paradise, or was sent to Purgatory for punishment and purification, or fell into the damnation of Hell. On the day of the Last Judgment, the individual soul would join its resurrected body, and the two would appear together with all of the other souls for the universal judgment of Christ the "Judge of the World." There, Christ's verdict would ratify the preliminary decision that had been handed down at the "individual" or "particular" judgment. After this ratification, men and women would fully experience, through the reunion of their bodies and souls, the complete essence of either salvation or damnation for the first time; Purgatory would cease to exist. On "individual"/ "particular" judgment (iudicium divinum particulare), cf. Peter Jezler, "Jenseitsmodelle und Jenseitsvorsorge - eine Einführung," in Himmel, Hölle, Fegefeuer. Das Jenseits im Mittelalter, ed. idem, exhibition catalogue (Zurich, 1994), 13-26, esp. 18f. and the literature at note 9 (26)
107. Cf. The plastic representation of the same "particular" judgment scene on a Late Gothic clock in Munich's Frauenkirche, designed by Erasmus Grasser around 1500. Discussing the movable figures of the clock, Schreiner (citing an article by Peter Friess) writes: "'Gottvater, der die Fürbitte [der unter ihm stehenden Figuren Christus und Maria] erhört, steckt mechanisch bewegt das Schwert mit der rechten Hand zurück in die Schwertscheide. Er blickt dabei geradeaus nach vorn und rollt ebenfalls mechanisch die Augen, außerdem bewegen sich mechanisch seine Lippen.' Hätte der Konstrukteur der Uhr Gottvater eine Stimme geben können, hätte dieser vermutlich gesagt 'Barmherzigkeit will ich allen denen erzeigen, die da mit wahrer Reue von hinnen scheiden.' So stand es jedenfalls auf Spruchbändern, die Interzessionsbilder von damals kommentierten." Maria, 185. Schreiner fails to give any specific examples, but cf., in addition to Holbein, below note 88. Another iconographic representation of the way in which the blows of God the Father's punishing justice are warded off, and the victory of protective mercy over retributive righteousness is emphasized, may be seen in the so-called 'Justification" painting by Sebastian Dayg (1511) on the Marian altar in the south sidechoir of the cathedral at Heilsbronn. There, to the right of His Father, Christ of the Passion holds back the Father's drawn sword of judgment, during which time Mary, at the Father's left, stands at the side of the sinner in need of protection. Shown as a Madonna draped in the cloak of protection for the sinner, Mary shows Christ and God the Father her naked breast. On this iconographic type of "chain of intercession," cf. below, 344f. with note 108; on Dayg's intercessional painting cf. Daniela Nieden, "Untersuchungen zum Marienaltar im Münster zu Heilsbronn," unpublished M.A. thesis, Universität Freiburg i.Br., 1995, esp. 69-74
108. Cf. Susan Marti & Daniela Mondini, "'Ich manen dich der brüsten min, Das du dem sünder wellest milte sin!' - Marienbrüste und Marienmilch im Heilsgeschehen," in the exhibition catalogue Himmel, Hölle, Fegefeuer, 79-90
109. Schreiner, Maria, 173-210
110. The same three texts that emerge from the mouths of Holbein's God the Father, Christ, and Mary were also found on a burial stone in the choir of the former Franciscan church in Nuremberg; see Ulrich Schmidt, Das ehemalige Franziskanerkloster in Nürnberg (Nuremberg, 1913), 18
111. There is an exemplar in the Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, Inv.: 1960/1000, S.D. 61 ; there is an illustration of the woodcut, with commentary, in Thomas Lentes, "Die Barke zur Ewigkeit. Der Mastbaum und die Waage des Kreuzes," in Glaube Hoffnung Liebe Tod, 194-197
112. Cf. Lentes, "Die Barke zur Ewigkeit," 194: "Der ... Holzschnitt stellt das Bild eines Schiffes vor Augen, das spä tmittelalterlichen Frommen als das sicherste Schiff für die Jenseitsreise galt: das Schifflein der heiligen Ursula. Etliche Bruderschaften wurden gegründet, um mit Gebeten ihren Schiffslohn zu entrichten und so im schützenden Schiff der Heiligen und ihrer elftausend Gefährtinnen die letzte Reise bestehen zu können. [. . .] Gedient hatte das Blatt zur Verbreitung der Braunauer Ursula-Bruderschaft Ihr Gründer, der Kleriker Georg Ranshover, und ihr Schirmherr, Friedrich der Weise, laden beide entsprechend auf dem Blatt zum Einstieg in das Schiff ein: links der Kurfürst, identifiziert durch die Wappen, und rechts der Priester."
113. Cf. also André Schnyder, Die Ursulabruderschaften des Spätmittelalters. Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der deutschsprachigen religiösen Literatur des 15. Jahrhunderts, Sprache und Dichtung, neue Folge 34 (Bern, 1986)
114. The 'T' displayed on the host is a symbol of the cross
115. For the image of Christ and the blood of His Passion as a "font of grace" cf. May-Brit Wadell, Fons Pietatis. Eine ikonographische Studie (Göteborg, 1969)
116. For the presentation and iconography of the "scales of justice" and the Last Judgement cf. Leopold Kretzenbacher, Die Seelenwaage. Zur religiösen Idee vom Jenseitsgericht auf der Schicksalswaage in Hochreligion, Bildkunst und Volksglaube, Buchreihe des Landesmuseums für Kärnten 4 (Klagenfurt, 1958)
117. Arnold Angenendt, "Theologie und Liturgie der mittelalterlichen Toten-Memoria," in Memoria. Der geschichtliche Zeugnbwert des liturgischen Gedenkens im Mittelalter, ed. Karl Schmid and Joachim Wollasch, Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 48 (Munich, 1984), 79-199; here 126-128
118. see Philipp Wackernagel, Das deutsche Kīrchenlied von der ältesten Zeit bis zu Anfang des 17. Jahrhunderts, vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1864), 63 (no. 80)
119. cf. Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 2d. ed., vol. 10 (Freiburg, 1965), col. 760
120. For the employment of the verse, "O crux ave spes unica!" during the proclamation of jubilee indulgences by the papal legate Raimund Peraudi before and after 1500, cf. Johannes von Paltz, Supplementum Coelifodinae (1504), ed. Berndt Hamm, Spätmittelalter und Reformation. Texte und Untersuchungen 3 (Berlin, 1983), 80, 22f. with note 12
121. Cf. Reinhard Schwarz, "Die spätmittelalterliche Vorstellung vom richtenden Christus - ein Ausdruck religiöser Mentalität," in Geschichte in Wissenschaft und Unterricht 32 (1981), 526-553
122. Cf. Willibald Sauerländer, Gotische Skulptur in Frankreich 1140-1270, with photographs by Max Hirmer (Munich, 1970), 24-29
123. The change is dearly shown by a direct comparison between the representations of the Last Judgment on the middle west portal (1145-55) and the middle south portal (1210-15) of the Notre-Dame cathedral at Chartres; Sauerländer, Gotische Skulptur, 25 (plate I) and illustrations 107-113. Cf. also Adolf Reinle, "Der Christus am Strassburger Engelspfeiler. Ein frühes franziskanisches Denkmal," Neue Zürcher Zeitung (international ed.), 11-12 April 1998 (no. 84), 53
124. The change in representations of Christ in images of the Last Judgement was admittedly long underway. Already in the Romanesque art of the eleventh century, the judging Christ could be represented with his wounds. Along with this, from the first half of the eleventh century to the beginning of the thirteenth, one observes a continual expansion and intensification of the passional character of the representations: early on Christ appears only with the cross of His Passion, followed in time by the marks of the wounds on His hands and feet, then by the appearance of angels bearing the devices used to inflict His wounds, until finally, He loses His imperious robes and sits half-naked, displaying the wound in His side. On this development, cf. Beat Brenk, Tradition und Neuerung in der christlichen Kunst des ersten Jahrtausends. Studien zur Geschichte des Weltgerichtsbildes, Wiener byzantinische Studien 3 (Vienna, 1966), 133-142 and 238-242
125. Cf. Brenk, Tradition und Neuerung, 141
126. Cf. The citations taken from Bernard of Clairvaux, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventure in Angenendt, "Theologie und Liturgie," 129f.
127. and Angenendt, Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter, 136f., including the important sentence from Thomas, Summa theologiae, suppl. q. 90 art. 1 resp.: "Conveniens est, ut ipse Christus secundum humanam naturam, cuius redemptionis beneficio ad regnum admittimur, illi iudicio praesídeat." In the Late Middle Ages, beginning in the thirteenth century, one already finds the idea that the Christ of the Passion, along with the display of His wounds, increases terror among His enemies, since the magnitude of His suffering holds up before their eyes the dimensions of their guilt and the dreadfulness of their punishments
128. On this new type of representation, beginning in the early fourteenth century, cf. The examples of images and texts (with further bibliography) in Dieter Koepplin, " Interzession," in Lexikon der christlichen Ikonographie, vol. 2 (Freiburg, 1970), cols. 346-352
129. Dieter Koepplin, "Reformation der Glaubensbilder: Das Erlösungswerk Christi auf Bildern des Spätmittelalters und der Reformationszeit," in Martin Luther und die Reformation in Deutschland, exhibition catalogue Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Frankfurt a.M., 1983), 333-378; here 334-352 ("Spätmittelalterliche Glaubensbilder")
130. Christus und Maria. Auslegungen christlicher Gemälde der Spätgotik und Frührenaissance aus der Karlsruher Kunsthalle, exhibition catalogue (Karlsruhe, 1992), 49-59
131. Marti and Mondini, "'Ich manen dich der brüsten mein,'" in Himmel, Hölle, Fegefeuer, 79-90 and 198-201 (nos. 21-23), 282f. (no. 91)
132. Schreiner, Maria, 183-188; cf. also above, note 85 (painting by Sebastian Dayg)
133. Koepplin, "Interzession," col. 347, employs the term "combined intercession" (kombinierte Interzession) for the various types of compositions that display God the Father with the intercessional pleadings of Christ and Mary. Here I distinguish between two types of intercession, depending on whether the breast-displaying Mary, like the wound-displaying Christ, appeals directly to God (Type I), or whether she displays her breast and makes her plea through Christ (Type II). In the exhibition catalogue Himmel, Hölle, Fegefeuer, there are two examples from the first half of the fourteenth century: 81, plate 49 (glass window from the Freiburg cathedral) and 199, cat. no. 22 (initiale of a choir psalter ms.). These early representations of the combined intercession of Jesus and Mary cannot be decisively placed in either category, although to me Type II seems the more likely choice. There are good reasons to argue that Type II representations began to be applied earlier than those of Type I; foremost among them is the fact that this graduated sequence had found literary representation already in the twelfth century, in the form of a "chain of intercession" (the sinner turns to Mary, who turns to Christ, who then appeals to God the Father), through the highly influential work De laudibus Beatae Mariae Virginis by Arnold of Chartres, abbot of Bonneval and friend of Bernard. Under Bernard's name this work had a wide reception (see Migne, PL 189, col. 1726). At the beginning of the graphic assimilation of Bernard's thought stood representations of Mary/Christ and Christ/God the Father in two different scenes, a split made patently obvious for the first time in a devotional book of text and images, Speculum humanae sahationis (written before 1324), which was distributed widely throughout Europe and proved groundbreaking for the development of an iconography of "particular" judgment; cf., for example, Himmel, Hölle, Fegefeuer, 80, plate 48 (taken from an ms. of the Speculum humanae sahationis around 1330). If the intercessors (with or without a sinful, pleading human) are combined in one image, then those arranged in order beneath God (Type II) can either be lined up along the same plane or graduated in the form of actual "stairs of salvation." This provided graphic representation of the juridically based, theological concept that the road to clemency was graduated along progressive instances of authority. For the occasional appearance of the third figure of intercession, John the Apostle/Evangelist (in the graduated order: the dying human crying from his deathbed for rescue - John - Mary - Christ - God the Father)
134. cf. The exhibition catalogue Martin Luther und die Reformation in Deutschland, 337f. (no. 447)
135. Ludwigs Lust. Die Sammlung Irene und Peter Ludwig, exhibition catalogue, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg (Nuremberg, 1993), 110 (text) and 112 (image), no. 86: "Ars bene moriendi."
136. "Abnuere o tibi nate nihil matrique valemus." Woodcut "Von der gnadenrichen Furbitt vor got dem Vater fur die armen sunder" (see above, note 36); reproduction with commentary in the exhibition catalogue Himmel, Hölle, Fegefeuer, 200f. (no. 23); cf. another image of the "stairs of salvation" in Martin Luther und die Reformation in Deutschland, 336f. (no. 446), with the scroll of text coming from the mouth of God the Father: "Queque petita dabo, fili, tibi; nulla negabo." On the "inability" of God, who cannot refuse the intercessional pleading of Christ and Mary (which gives the sinner a high degree of assurance in his expectations and certainty in his hope), cf. Arnold of Bonneval's (as above, note 108) formulation: "Christus nudato latere patri ostendit latus et vulnera, Maria Christo pectus et ubera, nec potest ullo modo esse repulsa, ubi concurrunt et orant omni lingua disertius haec clementiae monumenta et charitatis insignia." On the freely chosen, merciful, self-imposed obligation of God in which this "inability" is grounded, cf. Berndt Hamm, Promissio, pactum, ordinatio. Freiheit und Selbstbindung Gottes in der scholastischen Gnadenlehre, Beiträge zur historischen Theologie 54 (Tübingen 1977)
137. Cf. The examples in the exhibition catalogue Himmel, Hölle, Fegefeuer, 84, illus. 53; and in Schreiner, Maria, 183 and 185; there is an example of a plague-altar (by Martin Schaffer, between 1513-15) with a "chain of intercession" linking St. Sebastian and St. Rochus to Mary, who in turn stands in front of Christ, who faces God the Father, in Kurt Löcher, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg: Die Gemälde des 16. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart, 1997), 443-446
138. This is the Christ of the Last Judgment (and for that matter, only His severe side, without any mention of the merciful aspects found in contemporary images of the judgment) that Luther had in mind when, in retrospect, he wrote in 1533: "Denn ich kandte Christum nicht mehr denn [= anders] als einen gestrengen richter, fur dem ich fliehen wolt und doch nicht entfliehen kundte." WA 38, 148, 11f. Cf., for example, his statement from 1537 as well: "Also machen sie [i.e., die Papisten] aus Christo nichts denn einen strengen, zornigen Richter, fur dem man sich furchten musse, als der uns wolle inn die helle stossen, wie man in gemalet hat auff dem Regenbogen zu gericht sitzend und seine Mutter Maria und Johannes den Teuffer zu beiden seiten als furbitter gegen seinem schrecklichen zorn. Das heisst ja Christum fein, rein weggenomen und nicht allein ungekennet, sondern schlecht [= schlichtweg, einfach] gar zugedeckt, begraben und verschorren, das ich nicht mehr also in sehe, das er fur mich geboren, gelidden, gestorben und aufferstanden sey (wie die kinder im Glawben [= Glaubensbekenntnis] sprechen), sondern allein also, das er mich richten wolle nach meinem leben und wercken, ob ich fur die sunde bezalet und gnug gethan habe oder nicht
139. " WA 46, 8, 32-9, 4. For further statements of this kind by Luther
140. cf. Dokumente zu Luthers Entwicklung, ed. Otto Scheel, 2d. ed. (Tübingen, 1929), nos. 182, 194, 312, 346, 381, 383. Such comments by Luther say a great deal about the mentality of Angst among the faithful around 1500, and about Luther's own sense of being in a state of spiritual crisis: he was tempted to flee Christ. The comments say precious little, however, about the character of the many witnesses documentable from the late medieval "theology of piety" and its associated images. Indeed, were one to evaluate matters on the basis of Luther's understanding, one would never come upon the idea that the large majority of these witnesses held up for the eyes of the faithful not the Christ of the Last Judgment, but rather the compassionate Christ of the Passion - that Christ (even when appearing at one's "particular" or "individual" judgment) who stood in for mankind through His suffering, who presided over a clement courtroom, and who interceded for the poor sinner. In Luther's retrospective presentation, the late medieval figure of compassion - the Christus pro nobis - disappears completely behind the looming shadow of the pitiless Christus iudex. Perhaps this is to be explained on the basis of the intense pressures involved in meeting the conditions for salvation that man was required to fulfill himself, conditions that continued to be demanded and remained continually present in late medieval theology and devotional practice (see further below). The pressure to meet such conditions aroused bitter feelings in the young monk Luther, making him lose sight of the "sweet" Christ of the Passion, and fixing his gaze instead on that day in which that other Christ would sit before him and demand an account and explanation as to why His Passion had not changed Luther into a God-loving man. For that reason, his spiritual guide and pastor, Staupitz, pointing to the wounds of Christ, could not help Luther either
141. Cf. Drei Schauspiele vom sterbenden Menschen, ed. Johannes Bolte, Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart 269-70 (Leipzig, 1927), V-VIII, 5-9 (vv. 103-244)
142. on this discussion cf. Theo Meier, Die Gestalt Mariens im geistlichen Schauspiel des deutschen Mittelalters, Philologische Studien und Quellen 4 (Berlin, 1959), 131f
143. Examples in the exhibition catalogue Glaube Hoffnung Liebe Tod, passim; cf., for example, Henk van Os, The Art of Devotion in the Late Middle Ages in Europe 1300-1500, exhibition catalogue, Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, 1994), 116f. and plate 36 (an isolated heart of Christ in the center of the cross)
144. On the cult of the host during the Late Middle Ages (and related delusions regarding Jewish host desecration), cf. Angenendt, Geschichte der Religiosität im Mittelalter, 503-508 (with further bibliography). The increase in devotion to the Passion beginning in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (i.e., since the era of the crusades) betrays close connections with a new dimension of anti-Semitism and Jewish pogroms: the Jews were simultaneously persecuted as the initiators and as the enemies of Christ's Passion, and charged with ritual murder and host desecration
145. cf. Michael Toch, Die Juden im mittelalterlichen Reich, Enzyklopädie deutscher Geschichte 44 (Munich, 1998), 111-120 (with further bibliography)
146. Compare, for example, Staupitz's sermon on mercy (Barmherzigkeitspredigt) in Nuremberg 1516/17 with Savonarola's terrifica praedicatio in Florence during the 1490s. On Staupitz, cf. Hamm, "Humanistische Ethik," 133-143
147. on Savonarola cf. Pierre Antonetti, Savonarola: Ketzer oder Prophet? Eine Biographie [French ed. 1991] (Zurich, 1992), esp. 71-73 ("Die terrifica praedicatio")
148. Cf. above, 318-320; for displacement and shifts in accent, cf. above, 341 with note 99. In this context it is most telling to note how preachers around 1500 could warn against praising the mercy of God too strongly. That is what the Strasbourg cathedral preacher, Johannes Geiler von Kaysersberg, meant when, near the end of the fifteenth century, he asserted that, given the current state of the world, it was very dangerous to preach on the mercy of God since for every person troubled by religious doubts, there would spring up "hundert, ja tausend und zehnmal hunderttausend anmaßende Menschen," cited by E.J. Dempsey Douglass, Justification in Late Medieval Preaching. A Study of John Geiler of Kebersberg, Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought 1 (Leiden, 1966), 174 with note 4. On the phenomenon of "easy grace," about which Geiler warned, cf. The jubilee preaching from 1500 discussed below
149. on Staupitz's connections to Frederick the Wise and to the Nuremberg city council (see below), cf. Theodor Kolde, Die deutsche Augustiner-Congregation und Johann von Staupitz. Ein Beitrag zur Ordens- und Reformationsgeschichte (Gotha, 1879), 209-328
150. On Staupitz cf. above, 32Of. with note 41. On the theological ties between Staupitz and Luther, cf. Heiko A. Oberman, Masters of the Reformation. The Emergence of a New Intellectual Climate in Europe [revised and abridged trans. of 1st German ed., 1977], trans. Dennis Martin (Cambridge, 1981), 75-91
151. David C. Steinmetz, Luther and Staupitz. An Essay in the Intellectual Origins of the Protestant Reformation, Duke Monographs in Medieval and Renaissance Studies 4 (Durham, North Carolina, 1980)
152. Lothar Graf zu Dohna, " Staupitz und Luther: Kontinuität und Umbruch in den Anfängen der Reformation," Pastoraltheohgie 74 (1985), 452-465
153. Richard Wetzel, "Staupitz und Luther. Annäherung an eine Vorläufer-Figur," Blätter für pfälzische Kirchengeschichte 58 (1991), 369-395
154. [= Ebernburg-Hefte 25 (1991), 41-67]
155. See above, 339f. with note 96: "O crux ave spes unica!"
156. On calling out to Mary in prayer with the words, "Tu es unica spes nostra" and " O dulcissima mater nostra Maria, unica spes et refugium animae nostrae," cf. Dempsey Douglass, Justification in Late Medieval Preaching, 195
157. Jan Gossaert, diptych of the Chancellor of Besançon, Jean Carondelet, 1517; Paris, Musée National du Louvre; reproduction in Max J. Friedländer, Die frühen niederländischen Maler von van Eyck bis Bruegel (Cologne, 1956), plates 219/220. That the prayers of the patron, Carondelet, were intended primarily for the situation of his death, is also revealed by the back of the panel that depicts Mary: above a skull, a scroll of text reads, " Corde contemnit omnia, qui se semper cogitat moriturum. hieronimus." In their two-sidedness, the diptyches of the century preceding the Reformation are, on the one hand, evidence of individualization, in that they allow the praying countenance of an individual patron to come to the fore; on the other, however, they provide evidence for religious "centering" in that they make either the pitiable Christ of the Passion, or Mary holding the Christ-child, the privileged addressees; in so doing, they appeal to the pro me aspect of Divine compassion
158. Cf., for example, the diptyches in Mary's honor executed for patrons in Van Os, The Art of Devotion, 116f., plate 36: diptych for Willem van Bibaut (anon. 1523)
159. also Dirk de Vos, Hans Memling. Das Gesamtwerk (Stuttgart, 1994), 278-283: diptych of Martin von Nieuwenhove (Memling, 1487)
160. A diptych executed for a patron featuring the pitiable, wretched Christ may be seen in the exhibition catalogue, Martin Luther und die deutsche Reformation, 343f. (no. 458): diptych executed for Count Georg von Löwenstein (by Hans Pleydenwurff, around 1456)
161. Cf. Martin Luther und die deutsche Reformation, 368 (no. 490) on how far this pro me aspect of the gift of salvation could go in the Late Middle Ages: there, an image of a praying cleric before the cross (anon. 1519) is accompanied by the text: "O iesu sis mihi iesus"
162. (cf. Matt 1:21)!