Dear Phyllis,
of course they did; there are several pictures of swearing on a reliquary
in the diverse 14th-cent. codices of Eike of Repgow's "Sachsenspiegel",
e.g. You will find enough material in the many histories of German Law,
especially the illustrated ones like the recent vols. by Wolfgang Schild
(Wolfgang:? I have no access to my bookes at the moment).
Best wishes,
Peter Dinzelbacher, Salzburg
At 08:43 17/08/99 -0700, you wrote:
>Hello, folks. Are there any Germanists out there? Can anybody tell me
>whether medieval Germans swore oaths on the relics of saints? It seems
>fairly clear that they didn't by the time of the Reformation (but who did
>swear oaths on relics that late anyway?), but what about during the more
>hagiocentric centuries? It's been argued that Germans never did swear
>oaths on saints, but the argument is based mostly on evidence of the Peace
>of God movement, which never really took off in Germany anyway, and just
>doesn't seem to have enough evidence extant to make a case either way.
>
>Any help would be deeply appreciated. I'm being driven mad trying to
>argue with an emeritus professor with absolute self-confidence, a very
>flexible notion of chronology, and main training as a modernist.
>
>Phyllis
>
>Phyllis G. Jestice
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>
>
>
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