Die Domkapitel und Bischöfe im Ordensland Preussen: Ideologie, Religiosität und Kirchenreform anhand der Bildlichen Quellen

Abstract

The Chapters and Bishops of the Teutonic State in Prussia: Ideology, Religiosity and the Church Reform on the Basis of Pictorial Sources The paper focuses on the Church elite in Prussia in the context of the formation and development of the common religious identity in the region through the material sources (work of art). In the historic studies there is still no comprehensive research on the spirituality of high clergy and their activity for the shaping and controlling of the lay-people religiosity (popular religion). In the discussion on the inner spiritual model of canons and bishops as well as on the church reform and promotion of the devotio moderna, not only the written archive basis, but also the iconographic (pictorial) sources have to be analyzed. The author shows on the several examples of artworks (both of official and private use) the possibilities of exploitation medieval images in the study on the individual religious needs and exclusive practice of canons (especially: the decoration of private books and the images in the closed oratories and cloister chambers) and on the propaganda threads, realized as external testimony of religious attitudes, medium of self-presentation and visualization of ecclesiastical ideology in the liturgical spaces of Prussian cathedrals (Marienwerder (Kwidzyn), Konigsberg (Kaliningrad), Kulmsee (Chelmza), Frauenburg (Frombork)) and bishop’s seats (Heilsberg (Lidzbark Warminski)).