Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Thayer, Anne Thiel

Titel

Penitence and preaching on the eve of the Reformation: A comparative overview from frequently printed model sermon collections, 1450-1520

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1996

Link zum Volltext

• ProQuest

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This dissertation argues that the tone of penitential preaching likely to have been heard by the laity on the eve of the Reformation was a discernible contributing factor to their receptivity to Protestant ideas in the sixteenth century. Using catalogues of incunabula and early printed books, a list of model sermon collections which had at least five printed editions between 1450 and 1520 is compiled. From this list, ten collections, having great international or regional popularity, are then chosen for analysis of their penitential teachings. The sermon collections all teach that penitents must be contrite, confess their sins, and perform works of satisfaction, but different collections stress different parts of this process giving their sermons different tones. "Rigorist" collections stress contrition and satisfaction, giving the penitent significant responsibility for the successful forgiveness of sins. "Moderate" collections give primary emphasis to confession and secondary emphasis to contrition, moderating the penitent's responsibilities by the absolution of the priest. "Absolutionist" collections strongly emphasize confession and the power of absolution, encouraging the penitent to trust the working of the sacrament for the forgiveness of sins. The characteristic tones of the sermon collections are also apparent in their teachings in the related areas of purgatory, indulgences, and the cult of the saints. Purgatory and especially indulgences are discovered to be merely peripheral issues in these sermon collections, overshadowed by the penitential process itself. Biblical saints are used to support the norms of the penitential process as presented by each group of sermon collections. Luther's criticisms of the late medieval penitential process and his alternative teachings are shown to be closely related to rigorist penitential emphases. The publication histories of the sermon collections reveal that pre-Reformation rigorist preaching correlates with the adoption of Protestantism and absolutionist preaching with continued Catholicism.