One way to classify this sort of transaction is to treat it as a vow,
which was in Roman law a type of contract, i.e., it created an obligation
that the courts recognized and might in various ways enforce. I suspect
that is what Eamon Duffy had in mind. People, of course, still do this, as
you will soon see if you go to any pilgrimage shrine and look at the "ex
voto" offerings that are almost certain to be littering the place. Courts,
on the other hand, at least in western industrialized countries, no longer
try to enforce votive obligations.
JAB
At 09:20 AM 1/14/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Good day to all!
>
>In <i>The Stripping of the Altars</i>, pp. 183ff, Duffy describes a
>process that might best be described as striking a bargain with a saint.
>In return for some benefit from a saint, the person venerating the saint
>would promise to perform a specific deed. (Duffy describes this trans-
>action as a "contract.")
>
>Martin Luther described such a transaction he made with St. Anne. (It's in
>the Table Talk somewhere, but I cannot find it right at the moment. The
>gist was, "Help me, St. Anne, and I shall become a monk," [if we accept
>the Table Talk as being reliable].)
>
>Was the practice Duffy describes common on the continent as well as in
>England? If so, where may I read more concerning it as practiced in late
>medieval Germany?
>
>
>As ever,
>
>Frank
>
>
>
>Frank Morgret
>15 Towering Hts -- #1206
>St Catharines, Ontario
>CANADA
>L2T 3G7
>
>[log in to unmask]
>
James A. Brundage
History & Law
University of Kansas
<[log in to unmask]>
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