Ludwig Schmugge – författare

This is the first book to include full texts and photographs from the Apostolic Penitentiary, ""A Sip from the 'Well of Grace'"", which is groundbreaking in its analysis of one of the most important papal offices of the Middle Ages. The Penitentiary alone was responsible for granting absolutions, dispensations, licenses, and special declarations in various matters such as marriage, illegitimacy, murder and violence, confession, and clerical ordination. With access to archival records long sealed by the Vatican, Kirsi Salonen and Ludwig Schmugge offer historians many new insights for interpreting an important structure of medieval life.The book begins with an introduction to the functions of the Apostolic Penitentiary and considers its role among the various papal offices. Also examined are the various circumstances for which Christians turned to its authority. Procedures for cases as well as the canon law regulations behind the cases are discussed, along with an overview of various documents that were produced during the handling of a case in the Penitentiary.The second part of the book introduces several case studies. Each case is illustrated with the help of original documents preserved both in the Vatican Secret Archives and in numerous local archives in Germany, Italy, and Scandinavia. The original Latin documents are fully edited and accompanied by English translation. Each document is also available in the form of a digital photo, which allows readers to learn concretely what the documents and writing looked like and to exercise palaeographic skills.""A Sip from the 'Well of Grace'"" will be an important addition to any collection on the social and religious history of the later Middle Ages. It is the seventh volume in the ongoing ""Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law"" series.

In the first detailed study of papal penitentiary materials on marriage, renowned medieval historian Ludwig Schmugge tells the exciting stories of seduced maidens, too-closely-related husbands and wives, and thousands of couples who faced lawsuits—all of whom had transgressed marriage law on various grounds in the Middle Ages. This work vividly describes many of the individual cases and offers new insight into the social and legal pressures on marriage in the Middle Ages. At a time when betrothal, marriage, and sexual morals were strictly subject to the church's law, petitions from couples abounded. More than two hundred clerics of the penitentiary in the papal curia devoted their time and attention to these petitions alone. With exceptional thoroughness, Schmugge sifted through the thick volumes of registers in the Vatican Secret Archives for his research. Here he presents the exciting, almost unbelievable, and often scandalous fates of these late medieval men and women, while highlighting the important connection between the papal monarchy and the social history of the laity in the later Middle Ages.

Die erst seit 1987 der Forschung offen stehenden Bittschriften von Männern und Frauen aller Stände und jeden Alters an den Papst in Rom erschliessen eine ganz neue Quelle für unsere Kenntnisse vom Spätmittelalter und der Renaissance: Hier kommen Menschen zu Wort, von denen in ihrer Heimat fast nie eine Spur geblieben ist, deren Sorgen und Nöte uns die römische Überlieferung indes erhalten hat. Die Suppliken (in Latein) erzählen "Episoden aus ihrem Leben, ja ganze Lebensgeschichten: wahre Kurzgeschichten aus dem späten Mittelalter" (Arnold Esch). Der Historiker findet hier einen bisher verborgenen Zugang zu den rechtlichen, sozialen und kulturellen Zuständen und Problemen von Menschen während des Pontifikats Hadrians VI. (1522–1523).

In »Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum VI« sind 7478 lateinische Regesten aus den Suppliken-Registern der Pönitentiarie, der obersten päpstlichen Bußbehörde, aus der Zeit Sixtus' IV. (1471-1484) ediert. Damit wird neben dem »Repertorium Germanicum« ein weiteres wichtiges Quellenwerk für die deutsche Geschichte unter dem bekannten Papst für die Forschung bereitgestellt.