Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Sullivan, Robert George

Titel

The concept of 'reht' (iustitia) in Early Middle High German religious literature

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1991

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Early Middle High German poems (ca. 1050-1190) were once seen as an expression of the spirit of the monastic center Cluny. Although literary historians have gradually rejected this characterization, in general, the historical context of the poems has been ignored or expressed only in vague terms. Following Hugo Kuhn and Francis G. Gentry, this study concentrates on the concept of reht in Early Middle High German literature in an attempt historically to localize this literature within the context of the changes that occurred in the 11th- and 12th-century Empire. Recent historians of medieval law have argued that Old High German reht was usually equivalent to Latin iustitia and that only in the 12th century did the vernacular concept of reht develop its modern double meaning of "subjective right" or a "system of law." This study shows that in the Early Middle High German period, reht was still heavily dependent on the concept of iustitia and that it played a central role in the religious literature of the time. The concept of iustitia implies a system of ordo in which the justice due to and from each person is determined by his place in the social order. The social categories of ordo used by the Early Middle High German poets in their admonitions to justice are the "free" and the "unfree," the "rich" and the "poor," and "lords" and "servants." The poets especially demanded one reht of the rich, the practice the works of mercy towards the poor, and another of the lords, the rendering of impartial justice. The reht required for the free is that their legal status should be maintained and not unjustly denied them. The poets' categories of the rich and the poor and the lords and servants can be traced to the character pairs of sermonic practice, but the Early Middle High German poets infuse these pairs with contemporary concerns. The German poets thus reflected contemporary concerns with justice and contributed to the development and diffusion of a code of ethics for the lay aristocracy.