From 26 to 28 June 2024, we were once again represented at an international conference, namely the annual conference of the International Society for Theological Medieval Studies (IGTM) on the topic of ‘The End: Finiteness, Death, and Completion in Medieval Theology’ in Utrecht. While Sven Gröger and Michael Lebzelter spoke on other topics, Isabell Väth and Jonathan Reinert presented results specifically from our project:
In a section on ‘Death and Practice’, Isabell Väth spoke under the title ‘The Return of the Pope. The Lord’s Prayer and the Assurance of Salvation’ on the so-called pope and chaplain narrative. It tells how a dying pope asks his chaplain for help in gaining assurance of salvation, whereupon the chaplain suggests praying the Lord’s Prayer three times – each time with a different intention. Isabell Väth analysed various versions of this narrative from a German studies perspective in the context of the late medieval Ars moriendi.
In the ‘Death and Prayer’ section, Jonathan Reinert analysed in his lecture on ‘Finiteness, Death, and Completion in Late Medieval Explanations of the Lord’s Prayer’ how various explanations of the Lord’s Prayer from our St Gall sources deal with death and dying.
All in all, it proved to be very profitable and instructive to look at some of our sources specifically from the thematic perspective of death and dying – not least because of the inspirations we were able to take away from the excellent scientific exchange at an excellently organised IGTM conference. Immediately afterwards, we did not return home, but remained international and travelled on to Leeds to present the results of our project at IMC 2024 (read more about that here).