Prayer in Peasant Communities

unities Prayer in Peasant Comm Viktor Aldrin Limited doctoral dissertation edition for my dear wife Emilia Abstract Doctor of theology Dissertation in religious stuDies, university of gothenburg, 11 november 2010 Title: Prayer in Peasant Communities: Ideals and Practices of Prayer in the Late Medieval Ecclesiastical Province of Uppsala, Sweden Title in Swedish: Bön i bondesamhällen. Senmedeltida böneideal och bönepraktiker i den svenska kyrkoprovinsen Author: Viktor Aldrin Language: English with a Swedish summary Department: Department of Literature, the History of Ideas and Reli- gion, University of Gothenburg, PO Box 200,SE -405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden ISBN: ——— (Limited dissertation edition) Online full-text: http://www.viktoraldrin.com ThE aim of this study has been to identify, explain and delineate praying among peasant communities in the ecclesiastical province of Uppsala, Sweden. Four aspects have been examined through the perspectives of ideals and practices, namely the standards of prayer, -devo tional prayer, prayer in times of need and prayer cultures. The standards of prayer considered the physical and mental behaviour of the praying peasant woman or man. The most ordinary way to act during prayer was to stand with hands together, palm against palm, and to pray in the vernacular often using mental themes to enhance the devotion. Devotional prayers were foremost the three ‘standard’ prayers Pater- noster, Hail Mary and Apostolic Creed, and could be used separately or combined. Prayer in times of need was possibly considered a matter of praying to saints, something that cannot be proven to have been either practiced or recommended on other, ordinary occasions where God and the Virgin Mary were considered the proper recipients of prayer. A few authentic prayers exist that were possibly said by peasant women and men in connection with miracles and these show the ability to construct elaborate prayers and to propose businesslike agreements with saints. These three prayers were required knowledge for a peasant woman or man and were put to the test in order to become a godparent, and were therefore made available in the vernacular by the parish priests. Ways to maintain the prayer cultures were through mnemonic techniques, and indulgences stipulating and confirming prayers used or to be used in connection with certain churches, days and places within the churches. Name saints could also be used, since the person and the name saint were considered to have a special bond. Prayer could also be used as pro- tection for the living; since a prayer was considered to generate either merits or favours from a celestial patron to his or her client. The prayer life of those belonging to peasant communities was both elaborate and full of nuances. Keywords: prayer, devotion, peasantry, medieval, Middle Ages, laity, practical theology, Church history, theology, Sweden, Finland. Prayer in Peasant communities viktor alDrin Prayer in Peasant communities iDeals anD Practices of Prayer in the late meDieval ecclesiastical Province of uPPsala, sweDen Doctor of theology Dissertation in religious stuDies. the DePartment of literature, the history of iDeas anD religion, university of gothenburg. mmx Contents Abstract Author’s preface i Part I Chapter 1. The endeavour 3 Aim, definitions and delineation 5 The main questions 18 Earlier research 18 Disposition 21 Chapter 2. The realisation 23 Ideals and practices as perspectives 24 Reflexive methodology as a theoretical framework 26 Methods 30 Chapter 3. The sources 37 Non-written sources 38 Written sources 39 Chapter 4. Standards of prayer 55 Right postures 57 Right words 78 Right intentions 82 Right occasions 89 Conclusions 106 Chapter 5. Devotional prayer 109 The Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary and angels as recipients of prayer 110 The three ‘standard’ prayers 115 Additional prayers 130 Conclusions 140 Chapter 6. Prayer in times of need 143 Saints as recipients of prayer 145 Individual and personal prayers in miracle stories 158 Context and comparison of the cited prayers 171 Questions of authenticity and authorship 174 Conclusions 181 Chapter 7. Prayer cultures 183 Transmitting prayer culture 184 Maintaining prayer culture 191 Prayer vs. magic 212 Excursus: Corpses in prayer? 222 Conclusions 227 Part III Summary 233 Epilogue 241 Sammanfattning på svenska (Summary in Swedish) 243 Bibliography 249 Author’s preface hiS STudy is founded in my strong interest concerning how ordinary laypeople would have ex- pressed their religiosity during the Middle Ages, a quest that started long ago with my first essay on Church History at Lund University. When I began this doctoral thesis, I intended to examine the religious life, as a whole, of the laity, but I soon realised that one of the -in tended chapters, that of prayer, was to become the whole book, and that it was the majority of the population that I wanted to focus on – those belonging to peasant communities. First of all, I wish to thank my two supervisors; my main supervisor Professor Bertil Nilsson and my secondary supervisor Dr Martin Berntson for their thorough reading of my many versions of this study and their critical yet constructive comments. I am also grateful to the Department of Literature, the History of Ideas and Religion at the -Uni versity of Gothenburg that provided me with a postgraduate scholarship, my colleagues at the department, especially those at the seminar in Religious Studies and Theology, and to Dr. Tobias Hägerland (now at the Centre of Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University). The staff at Gothenburg University Library has also been of much appreci- ated aid. During my postgraduate studies, I have been able to present chapters of this study at the seminar of Church History at the Faculty of Divinity at Uppsala University and the seminars of Church History and Practical Theology at the Centre of Theology and Religious Studies at Lund Uni- versity. I wish especially to thank the following persons in association with these seminars, namely Professor Emeritus Alf Härdelin, Dr Stina Fallberg Sundmark, both at Uppsala University; and Professor Stephan Borgehammar at Lund University. In September 2007, I was guest scholar at the University of Helsinki in Finland, through a scholarship from the Nordic Centre of Medieval Studies and was mentored by Professor Tuomas Lehtonen, director of the Finnish Literature Society, who also invited me to present my study at their seminar, and Assistant Professor Jyrki Knuutila at the Faculty of Theology (and I also wish to express my gratitude to his wife Sirpa) who has given me invaluable information on the Finnish half of medieval Sweden. During my stay in Helsinki, I met a number of scholars who through their comments on my research project added many valuable thoughts, namely Assistant Professor Helena Edgren, director of the National Museum of Finland, Assistant Professor Mia Korpiola at the Faculty of Law, University of Helsinki, Assistant Professor Jussi Hanska at the Department of History and Philosophy, University of Tampere and Assistant Professor Juha Malmisalo at the Faculty of Theology, Uni- versity of Helsinki. In November 2008, I was able to visit the Faculty of Divinity at Cam- bridge University in the United Kingdom, through scholarships from Göteborgs Universitets Jubileumsfond, Kungliga Gustav Adolfsakadem- ien för svensk folkkultur and Adelbertska stiftelsen as guest postgraduate student, under the mentorship of Professor Eamon Duffy, and was also invited to the seminar on Church History. During my stay in the United Kingdom, I also visited other scholars, who provided me with most valuable comments on my research, namely Professor Miri Rubin at the Department of History, Queen Mary, London University, Profes- ii sor David d’Avray at the Department of History, University College of London and Professor Robert Swanson at the Department of History, University of Birmingham. I also wish to thank Professor Jonas Carlquist at the Department of Contemporary Literature and Scandinavian Studies, Umeå University, who acted as an opponent at the penultimate version of this study, and Reverend Alistair Littlewood in Nottingham, UK, for his guidance in the English language and his many proofreadings of this study in its differ- ent stages and to Dr Laura Napran who proofread the manuscript in its final shape. I wish to express my gratitude to my parents, Anders and Inger Johansson, and my brother Ludvig Johansson for their unyielding sup- port during my many years of study and research. Finally, I wish to thank and dedicate this study to my dear wife Emilia whom I met because of my moving to Gothenburg to begin my postgraduate studies, and who has never failed to make me believe in the achieving of the impossible. Soli deo gloria, Gothenburg 16 June 2010 iii The endeavour chaPter 1 hE prayEr life of the peasantry in the Middle Ages is a subject few, if any, have written about, -al beit this group of people constituted the vast ma - jority of the population, and even though prayer constituted one of the most important features of its religiosity. This may have to do with a conclu - sion often made on the subject: the lack of sources and thereby the -im possibility of examination. It is true, there are no first-hand sources by peasant women or men about their life in prayer, but there are no such first-hand sources from almost any other lay group of society either (except for a few surviv- ing sources, such as private prayer books owned by the nobility or rich townspeople). A study on the prayer life of merchants would be equally complicated to do, as would probably also that of the nobility. In fact, the very nature of prayer life seems to be not to document it at all, or at least not by oneself. A study of lay prayer in the twenty-first century would be equally complex, since there would be practically no primary sources.

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