A Companion to Death, Burial, and Remembrance in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe, c. 1300-1700

This companion volume seeks to trace the development of ideas relating to death, burial, and the remembrance of the dead in Europe from ca.1300-1700. Examining attitudes to death from a range of disciplinary perspectives, it synthesises current trends in scholarship, challenging the old view that the Black Death and the Protestant Reformations fundamentally altered ideas about death.00Instead, it shows how people prepared for death; how death and dying were imagined in art and literature; and how practices and beliefs appeared, disappeared, changed, or strengthen over time as different regions and communities reacted to the changing world around them. Overall, it serves as an indispensable introduction to the subject of death, burial, and commemoration in thirteenth to eighteenth century Europe Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements List of Figures Abbreviations Notes on Contributors Introduction: Dying, Death, and Commemoration, 1350–1700 1 Context: Trajectories of the Historiography of Death and Commemoration 1.1 Historical Demography, Mentalities and Mortality 1.2 The Black Death, Change and Continuity 1.3 Discontinuities? Reformation Revisionism, Religious Cultures and Death 2 Current Themes and the Structure of This Volume 2.1 Ritual and Performativity 2.2 The Body, Its Treatment, Representation and Meaning 2.3 Materiality, Material Culture and Sacred Space 2.4 From Mentalité to Emotion Part 1 Dying, Death, Burial and the Afterlife Chapter 1 Changing Western European Visions of Christian Afterlives, 1350–1700: Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory 1 Transition to the Afterlife: Particular and Last Judgement 2 Shifting Geographies of the Afterlife, 1350–1700 3 The Realms of the Afterlife: The Fall and Rise of Purgatory 3.1 Heaven 3.2 Hell 3.3 Purgatory 4 Conclusions Chapter 2 Preparations for a Christian Death: The Later Middle Ages 1 Remember to Die 2 Mapping the Eschatological Landscape 3 The Cultural Turn to the Macabre 4 Practical Planning 5 The Hour 6 Conclusion Chapter 3 Deathbed and Burial Rituals in Late Medieval Cathol 1 The Deathbed 2 The Ordo Commendationis Anime 3 Preparation of the Body 4 The Office of the Dead 5 Burial Location 6 The Funeral and Associated Liturgies and Practices 7 Grief and Mourning 8 After the Burial Chapter 4 “Do This in Remembrance of Me”: Offerings, Identity, and Bills in the Medieval English Royal Funeral 1 Preparing the Body 2 The Procession: Navigating Purgatory and Society 3 Paying the Bills 4 The Slight of Hand: The Presentation of Achievements 5 Conclusions Chapter 5 The Reformation of Burial in the Protestant Churches 1 Rewriting Burial in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe 2 Location 3 Sermons and Services 4 Public Performances of Grief 5 Death, Burial, and Identity 6 Conclusion Chapter 6 The Counter Reformation and Preparations for Death in the European Roman Catholic Church, 1550–1700 1 Handbooks for Dying: Advice Books and Devotional Treatises 2 Popular Practices of Preparation: Confraternity Membership and Indulgences 2.1 Confraternities and Support of the Dying 2.2 Indulgences 3 Last Things: The Rituals of the Deathbed 3.1 Making a Will and Bequests 3.1.1 Salutation and Gaining of Intercession 3.1.2 Burial and Funeral Arrangements 3.1.3 Post-mortem Intercessory Arrangements 3.2 Rites of Passage: Sacraments and Prayerful Consolation 4 Conclusions Chapter 7 Dying, Death and Burial in the Christian Orthodox Tradition: Byzantium and the Greek Churches, ca. 1300–1700 1 Background Context 2 The Late Byzantine Period (1204–1453) 3 The Post-Byzantine Period (1453–1700) 4 Conclusions Chapter 8 Death, Burial and Remembrance: The Christian Orthodox Tradition in the East of Europe 1 Geographical and Religious Contexts 1.1 Territorial Framing 1.2 Religious Framing 2 Death Preparation, Dying, and Burial 2.1 Burial Places 3 Commemoration Immediately after Death 3.1 Remembrance – General Commemoration 3.2 Remembrance – Individual Commemoration 4 Conclusion Part 2 Cultural and Emotional Responses to Loss: Grief and Commemoration Chapter 9 Body, Liturgy, and Tomb Monuments in the Later Middle Ages 1 Body and Self 2 Memory and Materiality 3 Salvation and Identity 4 Conclusions Chapter 10 Images of Death in Art and Literature in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe (1300–1700) 1 Visual Representations of Death and the Dead 2 Literary Representations of Death and the Dead 3 Conclusions Chapter 11 Funeral Sermons and the Reformation: The British Isles and Germany Part i. Funeral Sermons over Time: From Catholic to Protestant in the British Isles 1 The Contents of Funerary Sermons 2 Conclusions Part ii. Protestant Funeral Sermons in Early-Modern Germany 1 Dying, Death, and Grief 2 Lutheran Sermons 3 The Palatinate 4 Conclusion Chapter 12 Dramatizing and Celebrating Death in the Early-Modern Visual Arts: The Fortunes of the Post-Tridentine Iconography of Martyrdom 1 The Martyr: A Figure of Paradox 2 The Return ad fontes 3 The Truth of Emotion 4 The Strength of Evidence 5 Proof by Image 6 Conclusion Chapter 13 The Motion of Another’s Death: Grief and Mourning 1 The Anatomy of Grief 2 “Blessed are those who mourn” 3 The Public Trajectory of Grieving 4 Conclusion Chapter 14 Relics and Saints: Commemoration and Memorialization of the Holy Dead 1 Scholars and Folktales 2 The Counter-Reformation and the Recent Dead 3 Conclusion Chapter 15 The Undead: Ghosts and Revenants 1 Restless Corpses and Ghosts: The Question of Corporeity 2 ‘Corporeal’ Ghosts of the Byland Collection 3 Pestilential Revenants and Continuity in Ghost Stories 4 The Reformation and Old Stories in New Contexts 5 Poltergeists and Communication Challenges 6 Bodies of the Walking Dead and the Loss of Control 7 Conclusion Bibliography Published Primary Sources Secondary Sources Index "In the Christian tradition, death was a punishment by God for the original sin of Adam and Eve. Banished from the Garden of Eden after eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, they were condemned to labour, until "you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."2 But later in historical time, God sent his son Jesus Christ to earth to teach people how to overcome death and achieve eternal life, as witnessed in the gospels. Christ taught that if sinful humans would repent of their sins and love God, they would be saved from death, for as he said to Martha in the house of Lazarus, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."3 The central narrative of Christian soteriology is the death of Christ himself, through crucifixion, and his resurrection from the dead three days later. Having triumphed over death, his purpose was to lead his followers to salvation. After Christ's bodily ascension into heaven, the task of saving souls for eternity was passed to his church. The emphasis on Christ's death and resurrection, and its representation in the eucharistic service, mean that death and commemoration lie at the very heart of Christianity"-- Provided by publisher "In the Christian tradition, death was a punishment by God for the original sin of Adam and Eve. Banished from the Garden of Eden after eating the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge, they were condemned to labour, until "you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."2 But later in historical time, God sent his son Jesus Christ to earth to teach people how to overcome death and achieve eternal life, as witnessed in the gospels. Christ taught that if sinful humans would repent of their sins and love God, they would be saved from death, for as he said to Martha in the house of Lazarus, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."3 The central narrative of Christian soteriology is the death of Christ himself, through crucifixion, and his resurrection from the dead three days later. Having triumphed over death, his purpose was to lead his followers to salvation. After Christ's bodily ascension into heaven, the task of saving souls for eternity was passed to his church. The emphasis on Christ's death and resurrection, and its representation in the eucharistic service, mean that death and commemoration lie at the very heart of Christianity"-- Fourni par l'éditeur This companion volume seeks to trace the development of ideas relating to death, burial, and the remembrance of the dead in Europe from ca.1300-1700. Examining attitudes to death from a range of disciplinary perspectives, it synthesises current trends in scholarship, challenging the old view that the Black Death and the Protestant Reformations fundamentally altered ideas about death. Instead, it shows how people prepared for death; how death and dying was imagined in art and literature; and how practices and beliefs appeared, disappeared, changed, or strengthen over time as different regions and communities reacted to the changing world around them. Overall, it serves as an indispensable introduction to the subject of death, burial, and commemoration in thirteenth to eighteenth century Europe