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
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