Communities of Devotion

Religious Orders and Society in East Central Europe, 1450–1800

Maria Craciun, Elaine Fulton

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9780754663126
• eBook ISBN:
  9781317163473
• Topic: Teología y religión
• Subtopic: Historia del mundo

Between the later middle ages and the eighteenth century, religious orders were in the vanguard of reform movements within the Christian church. Recent scholarship on medieval Europe has emphasised how mendicants exercised a significant influence on the religiosity of the laity by actually shaping their spirituality and piety. In a similar way for the early modern period, religious orders have been credited with disseminating Tridentine reform, training new clergy, gaining new converts and bringing those who had strayed back into the fold. Much about this process, however, still remains unknown, particularly with regards to east central Europe. Exploring the complex relationship between western monasticism and lay society in east central Europe across a broad chronological timeframe, this collection provides a re-examination of the level and nature of interaction between members of religious orders and the communities around them. That the studies in this collection are all located in east central Europe - Transylvania, Hungary, Austria, and Bohemia- fulfils a second key aim of the volume: the examination of clerical and lay piety in a region of Europe almost entirely ignored by western scholarship. As such the volume provides an important addition to current scholarship, showcasing fresh research on a subject and region on which little has been published in English. The volume further contributes to the reintegration of eastern and western European history, expanding the existing parameters of scholarly discourse into late medieval and early modern religious practice and piety.

CHAPTER 1
Mendicant Piety and the Saxon Community of Transylvania, c.1450–1550

Maria Crăciun*

On the central panel of the altarpiece placed in the church at Mălâncrav (Malmkrog, Almakerék) in southern Transylvania, the female donor, kneeling in front of the enthroned and crowned Virgin, is represented with Chiara (or Clare) of Assisi (Figure 1.1).1 The saint, standing behind the donor and holding the monstrance above the woman’s head, is depicted as introducing her protégée to the Virgin. The donor is also depicted as addressing the Virgin directly through a speech scroll which asks for her protection and mediation with God: ‘Ora pro me sancta Dei genitrix.’ Thus, the female donor appeals to Mary as a major intercessor, a role reserved for her because of her special status as the Mother of God.2 On the other side of the Virgin, the male donor, introduced by the archangel Michael, directly addresses the Christ Child seated on the Virgin’s lap: ‘O fili Dei Miserere mei.’ As it is generally accepted that the church at Mălâncrav was built by several generations of the Apafi family,3 it is not too difficult to identify the male donor as Mihály Apafi, also considered to be the commissioner of the altarpiece which was produced sometime in the mid-fifteenth century.4 This conclusion is supported by the fact that the male donor is introduced to the viewer of the piece by the archangel Michael, presumably his name saint, while special devotion to Michael is also reflected by his full-length depiction as a dragonslayer on one of the fixed wings of the altarpiece. It is, however, more difficult to identify the female donor as there is little surviving written evidence, and one of the coats of arms on the predella of the altarpiece which would have helped with this identification has disappeared over time (Figure 1.2).5 Although the identification of the female donor remains an intriguing issue, more interesting for the purposes of this volume is the question of why this woman chose to be represented by Chiara of Assisi in the first place. Her choice may simply suggest attachment to a personal protector with whom she possibly shared a name; it may also indicate an affinity with mendicant saints, as Chiara was a Franciscan saint – the founder of the Poor Clares.

The depiction itself, however, provides one further, final clue as to the reason behind the donor’s choice. Chiara is clearly represented here with her particular attribute, that of the monstrance:6 Chiara’s legend claims that she saved Assisi sometime in the first half of the thirteenth century during a siege by the German Emperor Frederick II, when she walked on the city’s walls with the holy sacrament held in such a vessel.7 The visually prominent depiction of the host within the monstrance, then, may well suggest an attempt to promote a piety focused on the eucharist, apparently endorsed by both Chiara and her fifteenth-century protégée. Yet Chiara does not appear on any other surviving Transylvanian painted panels or frescos; the question remains, therefore, as to whether the evident attachment to the mendicants and the eucharistic and Marian piety they sought to promote was unique to this donor and this church, or is suggestive of the existence of the broader influence of the mendicants among the laity of late medieval Transylvania.

Figure 1.1 Central panel of the altarpiece of Mălâncrav

Figure 1.2 Predella of the altarpiece of Mălâncrav

In answering this question, this chapter will explore the religious world of the Transylvanian laity – especially that of the Transylvanian Saxons – and demonstrate that their beliefs and practices were not only framed by the parish but also informed by the discourse of the religious orders most popular at that time: the Dominicans and the Franciscans. Consequently, this study aims to assess the impact of the mendicants on secular society in late medieval Transylvania (c.1450–c.1550), particularly at parish level, by exploring the attachment of the laity to the specific eucharistic and Marian piety promoted by the friars. Despite the official adoption of evangelical ideas by the Saxon community in 1544–1545, religious orders were only expelled from Transylvania in 1556 following the decisions of the diet of Sebeş.8 Although in some cases this event was preceded by violent attacks by the town population who sacked the convents, most communities seemed to be surviving in the 1530s, with convents housing as many as 33–34 monks or nuns.9 There is no direct evidence from Transylvania suggesting that Franciscan friars embraced evangelical ideas and became ardent preachers of the Reformation, as was the case in other regions of hungary.10 However, the enthusiasm of the laity for the eucharistic piety promoted by the mendicants may have increased their receptivity to evangelical views on the sacrament. Both visual and textual evidence suggests that Transylvanian secular society was strongly impacted by the pious models promoted by the mendicants. As a consequence, the study will investigate the relationship between the laity and the friars expressed primarily by the iconography of altarpieces placed mostly in parish churches, as well as by endowment of mendicant establishments (churches, chapels and altars) through various types of bequests, requests to be buried in mendicant churches and expressions of a desire to benefit from the guidance provided by the friars (Map 1.1).11 The study will therefore deal with two types of evidence: visual, in the case of lay commissions for the parish churches; and textual, in the case of bequests for convent churches.

Map 1.1 Mendicant convents and parish churches in late medieval Transylvania (showing only parish churches where altarpieces have survived)

By looking in particular at the art placed in parish churches, produced under lay patronage without direct involvement from the friars, one is better able to assess the impact of mendicant spirituality on secular society by highlighting the presence of themes and compositions promoted by these religious orders. Most of the altarpieces to be examined in this chapter, produced between 1450 and 1550, are examples of provincial art with arguably little aesthetic value. But being manufactured with secular financial support, which implies control over the iconographic programme, they may provide insight into lay understanding of religious experience. Starting from this premise, the chapter will attempt to explore all surviving examples of mendicant-influenced altarpieces in Transylvania made between the mid-fifteenth and mid-sixteenth centuries, analysing iconographic choices in terms of the specific doctrinal messages transmitted, the particular devotional patterns they expressed and the distinctive piety they were intended to shape. By focusing on images in particular, the study attempts to explore the religious world of a broader and generally less articulate segment of the laity. Images on altarpieces were seen by the entire village or urban community in the context of the parish church, whereas in the late medieval period texts written by the mendicants were usually only read by the elite. Finally, by privileging the visual the study wishes to highlight an alternative vehicle for the two-way communication between the clerical elite and the laity. This will show that the Saxon community was certainly attached to the parish church – which framed their daily religious experience and which they wished to decorate in an impressive manner – but no less to the convent churches where they sought the spiritual guidance and, above all, the intercessory powers of the friars’ prayers.

It is not surprising that the Apafi, prominent members of the Transylvanian nobility, endowed their church with an altarpiece meant to decorate the high altar. During the second half of the fifteenth century and until the 1520s, the commissioning of altarpieces even for rural parish churches had become the prevailing tendency. Indeed, due to the comparatively early date of their mid-fifteenth century altarpiece, the Apafi could perhaps be considered trendsetters in this regard. However, taking into account the location of their estate, in the county of Alba but in close proximity to the Saxon districts of southern Transylvania, it is equally possible that they were susceptible to a fashion which had developed in the Saxon towns.12 Consequently, this study will attempt to place the analysis of the iconography of the altarpieces within the context of a piety which was forged within a specific community, the Saxons of Transylvania. Settled in Transylvania as a privileged community, the Saxons had developed particular institutional structures, including ecclesiastical ones. In 1191 the Hungarian king, Béla III, granted the Ecclesia Theutonicorum the right to become the free provostship of Sibiu directly affiliated to the archbishopric of Esztergom, rather than to the bishopric of Transylvania at Alba Iulia. This ensured a degree of ecclesiastical autonomy for the Saxons which other inhabitants of the region did not benefit from, while the Andreanische Freibrief of 1224 allowed Saxon communities in Trans...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Series Editor’s Preface
• List of Contributors
• List of Illustrations
• List of Maps
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction Communities of Devotion: Religious Orders and Society in East Central Europe, 1450–1800
• 1 Mendicant Piety and the Saxon Community of Transylvania, c.1450–1550
• 2 The Influence of Franciscan Friars on Popular Piety in the Kingdom of Hungary at the End of the Fifteenth Century
• 3 The Third Path: Charity and Devotion in Late Medieval Transylvanian Towns
• 4 Conflict and Cooperation: The Reform of Religious Orders in Early Sixteenth-Century Hungary
• 5 Between Bishop and Prince: Monasteries and Authority in Austria in the Late Sixteenth Century
• 6 Mutual Aid: The Jesuits and the Courtier in Sixteenth-Century Vienna
• 7 Jesuits, Confessional Identities and Landlordship in God’s Transylvanian Vineyard, 1580–1588
• 8 Tanquam Peregrini: Pilgrimage Practice in the Bohemian Franciscan Province
• 9 The Basilian Monk and the Identity of the Uniate Church in Eighteenth-Century Transylvania
• Epilogue
• Index