„DAS GEBET DES SÜNDIGEN PAPSTES“ INHALTLICHE ANALYSE EINES POPULÄREN RELIGIÖSEN LESESTOFFES AUS DEM BEREICH DER CHRISTLICHEN DEUTSCHEN VOLKSFRÖMMIGKEIT
“Prayer of the Guilty Pope.” Content Analysis of a Popular Text in Christian German Folk Piety

Summary/Abstract: The subject of the paper is a folk prayer, a German popular text, which was collected by Zsuzsanna Erdélyi from a Swabian woman in Hungary. The prayer is a modern textual version of late medieval ars moriendi. It can be regarded as a folk prayer as it was in use among the common people, but its authorship cannot be linked to the common people. The author might have been a person from the lower clergy, with profound knowledge of theology and the Bible. This religious text satisfied a spiritual need among the people, as it was read out by the bed of the dying person, thus assisting the soul in reaching heaven. If the dying person recited it, or if it was read out to him, the prayer promised delivery from sin and automatic salvation without clerical mediation. No wonder such prayers were disapproved of and even banned by the Church.

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