Smrt a spása duše v 17. - 18. století: brněnští měšťané a osudy potridentské zbožnosti

Mgr. Tomáš Malý, Ph.D.

Doctoral thesis

Death and Salvation in the 17th and 18th Centuries: Burghers of Brno and Ways of the Post-Tridentine Piety

Abstract:

Disertace se zabývá vybranými aspekty vývoje potridentské zbožnosti, nahlížené zde především prostřednictvím vztahu člověka ke smrti a spáse. Studie kombinuje obecnou rovinu problému, reprezentovanou analýzou raně novověkých diskusí o smrti a spáse, s detailní sondou do prostředí královského města Brna mezi koncem 16. a koncem 18. století. Výchozím bodem výzkumu se stala kvantitativní analýza 2.768 měšťanských testamentů, kombinovaná následně s rozborem raně novověkého nábožensky- vzdělavatelného diskursu a s obecnými podmínkami religiózní praxe nejenom v samotném městě. Jádro práce tvoří tři kapitoly, věnované postupně otázkám přípravy raně novověkého člověka ke smrti, o spáse a o charitativně-zbožných strategiích v rámci poslední vůle. Zvláštní pozornost je přitom upřena k problematice očistce a zádušní mše, resp. k měnícím se postojům vůči nově se etablující katolické koncepci spásy a komemorace.

Abstract:

The thesis deals with selected trends of the post-Tridentine piety, which has been seen here especially through the man’s relation to death and salvation. The study combines a “general level” of the theme, represented with an analysis of the early modern discussions about death and salvation, with a detailed probe of the situation in one royal town between the end of the 16th and the 18th centuries. The leaving point of the research was an analysis of the circumstances in the South-Moravian town Brno, which had become one of the important counter-reformation aims at the end of the 16th century, and which was regarded as a locality with a considerable reception of the enlightened ideas two centuries later. The basic questions of the thesis are to sum up as follows: In what way the counter-reformation impulses of the second half of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries were reflected in the conduct of Burghers? In what way and how fast the catholic forms of piety were adopted by the initially largely non-catholic citizens? In what circumstances, when (if ever) and why the trends of secularization were (were not) established here in the late 18th century? By each point the attention has been paid to the Burghers’ reaction to the state and church impulses in the new patterns of piety and salvation. The study combines both quantitative and qualitative research. Results of the quantitative (semantic and content) analysis of 2.768 last wills from 1599 to 1789 have been presented in connection with the early modern “religious-educational” discours and with general conditions of the religious practice not only in the town itself. The heart of the study is represented by three chapters dealing in sequence with issues of preparation for death, salvation and charitable/devotional strategies within a last will. By the each issue the literary tradition and wills has been combined and the attitudes of testators regarding their sex and social position taken into account. A special attention has been paid to the theme of purgatory and requiem mass, i.e. to changing attitudes towards the newly establishing catholic concept of salvation and remembrance.

Keywords

Zbožnost, 17. a 18. století, testamenty, komemorace, očistec, Brno, královská města, Morava. Piety, 17th and 18th century, last wills, remembrance, purgatory, royal towns, Moravia.

Language used: Czech

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 2. 10. 2008

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 23. 10. 2008
• Supervisor: PhDr. Bronislav Chocholáč, Dr.
• Reader: PhDr. Michaela Hrubá, Ph.D., doc. PhDr. Jiří Mikulec, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Arts

Doctoral programme / field:
Historical Sciences / Czech History