medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Message
A short answer, due to shortness
of time.
At least in Scandinavian churches, there
were up till about 1250 in almost every church a north door and a south door,
the north door for women, the south door for men. Inside the church, men and
women were not supposed to be together, but stay in the southern and northern
parts respectively.
At the churchyard, the northern part was
reserved for women and the southern part for men. This is confirmed by a good
number of archaeological excavations.
Around 1250, new theological thinking
required graves where families were kept together, and the division of the
churchyard became obsolete. At least in northern climate, this led to a complete
abandonment of the northern part of the churchyard, which in many parishes have
been practically out of use since the mid-thirteenth century. Superstitiuous
thinking have furnished plenty of explications for this.
At the same time, northern doors in most
churches were closed. They were kept only in churches where they fulfilled some
purpose, for example because of the presence of the residence of a church
patron or some prelate at the northern side of the church, or for liturgical
purposes (e.g. processions). Also, very conservative regions, like Gotland,
have kept their north doors until the present day.
There exists a good study on this
matter by Swedish Church historian Bertil Nilsson at the University of
Gothenburg. It is called Kvinnor, män och barn på medeltida begravningsplatser
(Uppsala 1994, ISBN 91-88504-02-6). It contains a rather short English summary:
Women, Men, and Children in Medieval Burial Places.
There exists a good deal of
superstitious explanations concerning the northern part (women's part) of
churches being particularly associated with evil, especially since the
northern side in Scandinavian churches for climatic reasons is often deprived of
windows. I have never come across the idea of the devil slipping out through the
north door, however.
I recommend a good deal of caution when
dealing with this kind of traditions, since we more often than not do
not have a very good idea of how old they are. I suspect that many of them are
rather young.
Unfortunately, I will be off to Lithuania
with a group of students for a week when I have finished this message, so I
guess the rest of the discussion has to go on without me.
I hereby introduce myself to the other list
members,
Anders Fröjmark, Assistant Professor of
History, University of Kalmar, Sweden
Hi!
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval
religion and culture
Was it commonly held that the north door of a church was there so that
when a child was baptised, it could be left open and the devil could escape
through it?
Were there any other functions for this door?
Apologies if these questions reveal even greater ignorance than I am
aware of...
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