Dying Unprepared in Early Modern Swedish Funeral Sermons

chapter 7 Dying Unprepared in Early Modern Swedish Funeral Sermons

Otfried Czaika

Introduction

Since the first half of the sixteenth century, Sweden was de facto and since 1593 de jure a Lutheran country. In spite of this, Lutheran funeral sermon appeared as a genre quite late, around 1600.1 During the following century, we are able

1 Otfried Czaika, “Die Anfänge der gedruckten Leichenpredigt im schwedischen Reich,” in Kommunikationsstrukturen im europäischen Luthertum der Frühen Neuzeit, ed. Wolfgang Sommer, (Die lutherische Kirche: Geschichte und Gestalten) 23 (Gütersloh, 2005), pp. 135–52; Otfried Czaika, “Andlighet och genealogi: Den tryckta likpredikan i Sverige,” Släkt och Hävd 2004:1, pp. 29–59. On the changes related to the preparation for death between the Late Middle Ages and the Age of Reformation, see the studies of Fallberg Sundmark and Reinis: Stina Fallberg Sundmark, Sjukbesök och dödsberedelse: Sockenbudet i svensk medeltida och reformatorisk tradition, (Bibliotheca Theologiae Practicae) 84 (Skellefteå, 2008); Austra Reinis, Reforming the Art of Dying: The ars moriendi in the German Reformation (1519–1528) (Aldershot, 2007); Volker Leppin, “Preparing for Death: From the Late mediaeval ars moriendi to the Lutheran Funeral Sermon,” in Preparing for Death, Remembering the Dead, eds. Tarald Rasmussen and Jan Øygarden Flæten, (Refo500 Academic Studies) 27 (Göttingen, 2015), pp. 9–24; Jan Cemper-Kiesslich and Fabian Kanz, “Ein Begräbnis erster Klasse? Forensisch- anthropologisch/archäologische Betrachtungen zu Sterben und Tod im Mittelalter,” in Wel- terfahrung und Welterschließung im Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, ed. Anna Kathrin Bleuler, (Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zu Mittelalter) 5 (Heidelberg, 2016), pp. 305–20; Horst Schmidt- Grave, Leichenreden und Leichenpredigten Tübinger Professoren (1550–1750): Untersuchungen zur biographischen Geschichtsschreibung in der frühen Neuzeit, (Contubernium) 6 (Tübingen, 1974), pp. 35–39. For his dissertation, Göran Stenberg researched the rhetorical structure of funeral sermons from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Sweden: Göran Stenberg, Döden dikterar: En studie av likpredikningar och gravtal från 1600- och 1700-talen (Stockholm, 1998). Olavi Rimpiläinen discussed funeral traditions in Finland and the history of the Finnish funeral sermon in the seventeenth century: Olavi Rimpiläinen, Läntisen perinteen mukainen hautauskäytäntö Suomessa ennen isovihaa, (skhs:n toimituksia) 84 (Helsinki, 1971); Olavi Rimpiläinen, Suomalainen hautauspuhe puhdasoppisuuden aikana, (Suomalaisen teologisen kirjallisuusseuran julkaisuja) 88 (Helsinki, 1973); Otfried Czaika, “The Experience of Female Readers in Sweden around 1600: Evidence Collected from Funeral Sermons,” in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte 107 (2016), pp. 243–66.

Dying Unprepared in Early Modern Swedish Funeral Sermons 143 to observe how the number of printed funeral sermons in the Swedish Empire grew rapidly. Until 1650, around 700 death sermons and other sepulchral texts were printed in Sweden, not counting those some hundred sermons or related genres such as academic programma exequiale2 or epicedia3 and the sepulchral texts published in conjunction with Gustav ii Adolf’s (r. 1611–32) death in 1632.4 My research covers not only the collections held by the major libraries in Sweden and Finland as, e.g. Stockholm, Uppsala, Lund, Gothenburg, and Helsinki but also minor holdings as, e.g. the collections in Skokloster Castle and the city libraries of Linköping, Skara, Östersund, and Växjö and the Librar- ies of Åbo Akademi (in Turku, Finland) and the University of Turku, Finland.5 Funeral sermons provide us with a rare glimpse into early modern lives. The personalia which usually follow the homiletic parts of a death sermon contain plentiful facts about the deceased’s life, e.g., religious and spiritual practices, demographic and genealogical information, or medicinal records.6 Last but

2 I.e. texts related to a funeral for a student or academic teacher. 3 I.e. poetic texts for a funeral usually written in Latin or Greek. 4 As a result of a post-doc project funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation (Suomen kulttuuri- rahasto) 2002–05, I was able to collect bibliographical data for all funeral sermons printed in early modern Sweden between 1598 (the year the first Swedish funeral sermon was printed) and 1650. I would like to express my gratefulness to the Finnish Cultural Foundation for its generosity. 5 Some early modern funeral sermons from Sweden can be accessed with bibliographical data in Jan Drees’ works on early modern Swedish prints and in Allan Ranius’ bibliography on prints published in Linköping: Jan Drees, Die soziale Funktion der Gelegenheitsdichtung: Stu- dien zur deutschsprachigen Gelegenheitsdichtung in Stockholm zwischen 1613 und 1719 (Stock- holm, 1986); Jan Drees, Deutschsprachige Gelegenheitsdichtung in Stockholm und Uppsala zwischen 1613 und 1719: Bibliographie der Drucke nebst einem Inventar der in ihnen verwendeten dekorativen Druckstöcke, (Acta Bibliothecae Regiae Stockholmiensis) 56 (Stockholm, 1995); Allan Ranius, Biographica minora: Förteckning över personverser och likpredikningar tryckta i Linköping 1636–1700 (Linköping, 1987). The most comprehensive bibliography of early modern sermons from Sweden is still Johan Christopher Stricker, Försök til et swenskt homiletiskt bibliotek (Stockholm, 1767). This bibliography contains funeral sermons as well. A compari- son with the material I have collected from Swedish and Finnish libraries and archives shows however that Stricker has registered less than 50 per cent of the printed funeral sermons from the period 1598–1650. More than forty years ago Uwe Bredehorn pointed out that library collections containing funeral sermons are not – or just partly – catalogued. This is still true for many libraries – not only in Scandinavia. Uwe Bredehorn, “Leichenpredigten aus bibliothek- arischer Sicht,” in Leichenpredigten als Quelle historischer Wissenschaften, ed. Rudolf Lenz (Cologne, 1975), pp. 209–33. 6 Rudolf Lenz, Leichenpredigten, eine Bestandsaufnahme: Bibliographie und Ergebnisse einer Umfrage, (Marburger Personalschriften-Forschung) 3 (Marburg an der Lahn, 1980), pp. vii– xvi; Ingomar Bog, “Die Leichenpredigt als Quelle der geschichtlichen Sozialwissenschaften: