Marquard von Lindau and the Challenges of Religious Life in Late Medieval Germany: The Passion, the Eucharist, the Virgin Mary (Oxford Modern Languages and Literature Monographs)

This is a study of the intellectual history and religious culture of German-speaking Europe in the late Middle Ages. Its focus is the bilingual oeuvre of the Franciscan friar Marquard von Lindau (d. 1392), arguably the most widely-read author in the German language before the Reformation. His most successful works were those in which he considered pragmatic issues of Christian life, aimed at a broad reading public that stretched from monks and nuns living the contemplative life in enclosed convents; to his confreres, novices and students in the mendicant orders; and the literate citizens of the burgeoning mercantile centers. It is three of these pragmatic issues, central to late medieval religious life, around which this book is structured: the Passion of Christ, the sacrament of the Eucharist, and the devotion to the Virgin Mary. The dominant approaches taken towards each of these in the fourteenth-century church represented problematic challenges to Marquard; challenges which he met in a distinctive and influential manner, by no means in accordance with the affectively-charged devotional practices encouraged by many within and without his order, and so often considered normative for late medieval religious culture. The original voice with which Marquard spoke is made clear through the location of his oeuvre within the pan-European context of the debates in which his works participate. The ethos his works projected redetermined the trajectory of intellectual life in Germany into the fifteenth century and beyond. This is a study of the intellectual history and religious culture of German‐speaking Europe in the late Middle Ages. Its focus is the bilingual oeuvre of the Franciscan Marquard von Lindau (d. 1392), arguably the most widely read author in the German language before the Reformation. His most successful works were those which were aimed at a broad implicit audience and dealt with pragmatic issues of the Christian life. This book deals with three of those pragmatic issues most central to late medieval religious life: Christ's Passion, the sacrament of the Eucharist, and devotion to the Virgin Mary. Marquard's approach is understood and contextualized in each case in comparison with the works of his predecessors, his contemporaries, and his successors, in Germany and in the wider European world, in order to locate his contribution ‐ and theirs ‐ in this way within a wide temporal framework. It is argued that the dominant approaches hitherto taken towards these aspects of fourteenth‐century religious life, and the patterns of behaviour and thought which those approaches had fostered, represented problematic challenges to Marquard. These were challenges which he met in a distinctive and influential manner, often in direct and remarkable opposition to the affectively charged devotional practices encouraged by many within and without his order, and which have been considered normative for the religious culture of the late Middle Ages in modern historiography. The ethos projected by his works determined a new trajectory for intellectual life in Germany into the fifteenth century and beyond This is a study of the intellectual history and religious culture of German-speaking Europe in the late Middle Ages. Its focus is the bilingual oeuvre of the Franciscan friar Marquard von Lindau (d. 1392), arguably the most widely-read author in the German language before the Reformation. His most successful works were those in which he considered pragmatic issues of Christian life, aimed at a broad reading public that stretched from monks and nuns living the contemplative life in enclosed convents; to his confreres, novices and students in the mendicant orders; and the literate citizens of the burgeoning mercantile centres. It is three of these pragmatic issues, central to late medieval religious life, around which this book is structured: the Passion of Christ, the sacrament of the Eucharist, and the devotion to the Virgin Mary. The dominant approaches taken towards each of these in the fourteenth-century church represented problematic challenges to Marquard; challenges which he met in a distinctive and influential manner, by no means in accordance with the affectively-charged devotional practices encouraged by many within and without his order, and so often considered normative for late medieval religious culture. The original voice with which Marquard spoke is made clear through the location of his oeuvre within the pan-European context of the debates in which his works participate. The ethos his works projected redetermined the trajectory of intellectual life in Germany into the fifteenth century and beyond. Contents......Page 8 Introduction......Page 10 1 The Passion......Page 46 2 The Eucharist......Page 153 3 The Virgin Mary......Page 252 Conclusion......Page 344 Bibliography......Page 351 B......Page 376 C......Page 377 E......Page 379 F......Page 380 H......Page 381 J......Page 382 M......Page 383 P......Page 387 S......Page 388 U......Page 389 Z......Page 390 A study of Marquard von Lindau, arguably the most widely-read author in German before the Reformation. Active in the second half of the 14th century, in the generation after the Black Death, Marquard made a distinctive and critical contribution to contemporary understanding of Christ's Passion, the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary Contents 8 Introduction 10 1 The Passion 46 2 The Eucharist 153 3 The Virgin Mary 252 Conclusion 344 Bibliography 351 Index 376 A 376 B 376 C 377 D 379 E 379 F 380 G 381 H 381 I 382 J 382 K 383 L 383 M 383 N 387 O 387 P 387 Q 388 R 388 S 388 T 389 U 389 V 390 W 390 Z 390