In this course we will try to do two things. In the first instance we will be concerned with medieval constructions of death, that is the ways in which Latin Christianity defined, explained and situated death. Inevitably this must include changing ideas about everyman and everywoman’s responsibilities for their own deaths, and about the nature of the transition between life and death whether understood medically in the terms of texts like ‘the signs of death,’ or canonically in the sense of preparation for the soul’s departure. To what extent was death final, or was the afterlife of the dead a living part of medieval society? To answer this question we must briefly examine the status of ghosts, revenants and those in purgatory from the 13th century onwards. Secondly, we will consider some specific kinds of death and dying, including the particular issues surrounding death in childbirth which may have been the cause of up to fifty per cent of young female fatalities in the middle ages, and the medieval rituals involved in inflicting death through the execution of criminals and traitors. In the case of those executed for treason is there a suspicion that the fact of death was not enough, and that painful death was necessary? We will also consider the nature of sudden death amongst the communities of soldiers, merchants, travellers and the murdered. Finally, the general thesis of different attitudes to death before and after periods of heavy mortality such as the Black Death must be examined in order to determine whether we can speak of one ‘death in the middle ages?’
The approach to these themes will make considerable use of original sources in translation, but we will make particular use of the texts known as ars moriendi and their illustrations. Many sources such as these are exhortatory. They advise how people ought to reflect on and prepare for their own deaths in a way which might lead one to believe that the whole of life in the middle ages was merely a preparation for a death which, of course, extended beyond the experience itself and until the last Judgement. Some consideration will also be given to the evidence of material culture from paintings and manuscript illuminations to new research in archaeology which could be thought to reveal ‘real deaths.’
Did our witnesses, as we do, fear physical death? How should we read this short middle-English text?
When the head trembles,/ And the lips grow black./ The nose sharpens./ And, the sinews stiffen,/ The breath is wanting,/ The teeth clatter,/ And the throat rattles/ The soul has left/ And the body holds nothing but a clout –/ Then will the body be thrown in a hole./ And no-one will remember your soul.
Pondering this question is where we begin.
What our students say
"This was an excellent class. Far surpassed my expectations! I liked that it was both lecture and discussion based."
