Report: Workshop “Body and Clerical Order in the Middle Ages: Between Convention and Unconventional­ity?” (Cologne, 25 to 27 September 2024)

An international and interdisciplinary workshop entitled „Körper und Geistlichkeit im Mittelalter: Zwischen Konvention und Unkonventionalität?“ (“Body and Clerical Order in the Middle Ages: Between Convention and Unconventionality?”) took place at the University of Cologne from 25 to 27 September 2024. It was organized in cooperation between the DFG Research Training Group 2212 “Dynamics of Conventionality (400-1550)”, which is based at the University of Cologne, and the  working group “Body and Clerical Order in the Middle Ages. Virtue, Power and Representation”. This working group was founded in December 2023 by Daniela Bianca Hoffmann (FOVOG-Dresden), Jan Lemmer (University of Cologne) and Matthias Weber (Ruhr-Universität-Bochum); it was the first workshop of the working group, which will be followed by others.

At the workshop, the relationship between body and clerical order was examined with a particular focus on convention and conventionality. In four sections, firstly imagined and interpreted bodies, secondly suffering and disciplined bodies, thirdly the body as a medium of episcopal self-presentation and finally the body conventions of various social groups were examined. Both the body of members of the clerical order and the view of the body by members of the clerical order were addressed.

The fourteen lectures came from the fields of history (Middle Ages and early modern period), philosophy, theology and art history. They were devoted to a variety of topics such as the depiction of “heretical” bodily practices by the clergy, the gender-specific description of bodies in the vitae of saints, the handling of relics in political rituals, the body in medieval religiosity, the evaluation of bishops' eating habits and the assessment of the female body in the context of secular rituals. The concluding contribution by Brendan Röder opened up numerous perspectives for a comparison between the Middle Ages and the early modern period.

FOVOG members and an associated scholar were also present at the workshop: Marko Jerković (Zagreb) spoke on the topic of “Disciplining the Body in the Order of Preachers”, Marcus Handke (FOVOG-Dresden) on the topic of „Grundpraktiken der Frömmigkeit. Der „äußere Mensch“ als Modell multifunktionaler Repräsentation und Kommunikation bei David von Augsburg († 1272)“ (“Basic Practices of Piety. The “outer man” as a model of multifunctional representation and communication in David of Augsburg († 1272)”) and Nathalie Schmidt and Mirko Breitenstein (FOVOG-Dresden) on the topic of „Konvention der Versehrtheit. Die Antoniter und ihre Kranken“ (”The convention of infirmity. The Antonites and their sick”).

The detailed program of the workshop is available via H-Soz-Kult: https://www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-146480

A detailed conference report will follow and will be published on H-Soz-Kult.

For information on the working group see: https://tu-dresden.de/gsw/fovog/projekte/koerper-und-geistlichkeit-im-mittelalter-tugend-macht-und-repraesentation?set_language=en