Spätmittelalterliche Askesepraktiken als Ausdruck des epochentypischen Dolorismus

Abstract

In the religious history of Europe, the High and Late Middle Ages were the era during which ascetic ideals reached their highest pitch. From late antiquity to the 11th century, self-castigation motivated by piety had been nearly exclusively the task of the ‘virtuosi’ of Christianity, of hermits, monks and nuns, to whom the ‘celsitudo perfectionis’ was reserved. It was not until the wake of the Gregorian Reform that a change in mentality took place in which asceticism waxed into an ideal for all pious laymen and especially -women. More and more, not only passive castigations such as fasting and chastity became important, but also active practices such as autoflagellation and the willing exposure to sickening situations. The present paper, based on written and iconographic evidence, largely deals with these religious performances as realities of late medieval pious life, considering shortly, too, statements of medieval theologians and mystics who tried to present an ‘algodicy’, i. e. an apologetic interpretation of the existence of pain as one step in God’s plan of salvation. The will to present the passion of the founder of Christianity in extremely cruel forms and to imitate his sufferings by doing penance for personal and general sinfulness emerge as major reasons for the quest for self-afflicted pain which cannot be understood without taking into account psychological approaches.