"Le bureau des âmes", reviewed by Kirsi Salonen (original) (raw)

The Revised Book VI, Part I: Selected Norms and Commentary

The Jurist, 2021

This study comments upon selected norms of Part I (“Delicts and Penalties in General”) of the revised Book VI (“Penal Sanctions in the Church”) of the Latin code. The revised text places a greater emphasis on the demands of justice and the necessity of having recourse to the penal system, balanced by principles such as the presumption of innocence and the right of defense. Substantive changes are presented in a tabular format for ease of comparison with former disciplines and schemata, with a particular focus on style and Latinity. Most significantly, the institute of prescription has been clarified, the scope of censures (in particular, that of interdict) broadened, and expiatory penalties made more determinate. The study concludes with an overall summary and initial assessment of Part I of the revised text.

The Revised Book VI, Part II: Selected Norms and Commentary

The Jurist, 2022

This study comments upon selected norms of Part II (“Individual Delicts and Penalties”) of the revised Book VI (“Penal Sanctions in the Church”) of the Latin code. Substantive changes are presented in a tabular format for ease of comparison with former disciplines and schemata, with a particular focus on style and Latinity. The revised text reconfigures the categories of delicts in Titles I–III and incorporates a number of extra-codical norms. Most significantly, nine new categories of delict have been constituted and many penalties rendered preceptive and determinate. The study concludes with a summary of the most significant changes to Part II and reflects upon the importance of the long-awaited instruction on the penal process.

Zur Diskussion über das Wismarer Verfestungsbuch 1353–1430

Zapiski Historyczne

A Contribution to the Discussion on the Wismar Register of the Proscribed of 1353-1430 The presented text is a contribution to the discussion on the latest edition of the Wismar register of the proscribed from 1353-1430, published in 2019, and a thematically related collection of studies entitled Verfestungen, Stadtverweisungen, Urfehden. Kriminalität und ihre Ahndung in mittelalterlichen Hansestädten am Beispiel Wismars. The paper draws attention to those research issues that have been omitted or insufficiently highlighted in the mentioned studies. In this regard the article mentions the rules for freeing oneself from proscription, the erroneous equation of proscription and banishment, and the means of deleting entries in registers of the proscribed. It was also noted that deleted entries generally occur in the most recent sections of registers of the proscribed. Their absence usually signals the sections of records from more distant times that have lost their relevance and thus no longer needed to be edited on an ongoing basis. Moreover, the article emphasises the need for research into such issues as the social composition of the proscribed who appeared in the Wismar register, as well as their victims, female criminality, cases of relapse into crime among the proscribed, and the subsequent fate of such 'recidivists' , or the attitude of municipal authorities to crimes committed against the representatives of the broadly understood social margin. When researching these issues, the comparative perspective should be broadened to include registers of the proscribed from late medieval towns in the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order state in Prussia.

Cura animarum. Seelsorge im Deutschordensland Preußen, hrsg. v. Stefan Samerski

Ordines Militares, 2015

Cura animarum is a conference volume devoted to the organizational, religious and cultural aspects of the dominion of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. It is the result of the 47 th meeting of the Institut für ostdeutsche Kirchen-und Kulturgeschichte e.V., which took place in Gdańsk-Oliwa on 6-9 September 2010. Apart from the introduction by the editor Stefan Samerski (pp. 9-14) the volume includes 13 articles written by 12 authors (two texts were written by Edith Feistner). The publication opens with an article by Arno Mentzel-Reuters ("Der Deutsche Orden als geistlicher Orden", pp. 15-43). The researcher from Munich addresses the important issue of the significance of the clergy in the structure of the Teutonic Order and spiritual aspects of the performance of its members. The main argument presented in the article is the opinion that the communal life of the brothers of the Teutonic Order was based primarily not on the idea of a military struggle, but on the tradition of Western monasticism, that is monastic life aimed at self-development in grace, peace and discipline (pp. 27, 29, 30, 41). The author seeks evidence supporting this view in various aspects of the functioning of the Teutonic Order. In the first part of the text, he underlines the significance of statute norms for monastic life (p. 16); next, he goes on to analyse the influence of court literature on the development of the idea of miles christianus, the traces of which may be found also in Prussia (pp. 17-18). The subsequent pages discuss the importance of brother-priests in the Order, including the office of the prior, along with the functions of "choir masters", that is priest brethren who organised worship within the Liturgy of the Hours (pp. 21-23). Further on, the researcher discusses the issue of the discrepancy between statute norms and the reality of everyday life in monastic houses. It is assumed that the phenomenon was growing as the laws passed by grand masters in the 14 th century were not adjusted to the Prussian conditions. The only way to explain the increasing disparity were the transition from the educational guidelines, delivered to members of the Order during sermons, to the allegorical spiritual texts (an example of this is the Latin text written by brother Ulrich in the 1330s) (pp. 23-26). The presented opinions may cause some objections. The subsequent pages discuss the main ideas which shaped the spiritual identity of the Teutonic Order. A. Mentzel-Reuters rightly points out that continuously recited texts and rituals were important factors which forged the bonds within the Order, not the administration as was suggested in earlier historiography (p. 32). He analyses the role of convent chapters taking into account