Afterlife in Western Belief (c. 1250-1300)

It is unlikely that the death anxiety, so prevalent in the fifteenth century, originated in the plagues that ravaged Europe between 1350 & 1450. In Montaillou, a Pyrenean village, the peasants feared a peregrination that would lead to a demon-torturer; they aspired to a salvation identified with...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annales : histoire, sciences sociales (French ed.) sciences sociales (French ed.), 1979-02, Vol.34 (2), p.245-263
Main Author: Neveux, Hugues
Format: Article
Language:fre
Subjects:
Anxiety
Death/Deaths (see also Mortality, Dying)
Europe
History/Historic/Historical
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:It is unlikely that the death anxiety, so prevalent in the fifteenth century, originated in the plagues that ravaged Europe between 1350 & 1450. In Montaillou, a Pyrenean village, the peasants feared a peregrination that would lead to a demon-torturer; they aspired to a salvation identified with rest & sleep. The Golden Legend, written around 1270, confirms the juxtaposition of suffering inflicted by devils & rest-sleep. These & other popular notions are interpreted as reflections of the Catholic Church's effort to enclose the souls of the dead in well-defined zones: hell, paradise, &, after the end of the twelfth century, purgatory. The death anxiety characteristic of the fifteenth century goes back much earlier than the plagues; the plagues merely revived a fear that antedated them. Modified HA.
ISSN:0395-2649