Working group "Body and Clerical Order in the Middle Ages. Virtue, Power and Representation" (KuG)

Founded by:
Daniela Bianca Hoffmann (Dresden)
Jan Lemmer (Cologne)
Matthias Weber (Bochum)

Founded in December 2023, the working group aims to focus on a field of research that has been underexposed to date but is central to understanding the medieval world. The position of power and the special social influence and status of clerical actors are considered typical of the period; this position was often communicated visually and ritually by means of the body, which was also typical of the era. Although body-related practices in the Middle Ages have been intensively researched for the secular sphere, which has led to the identification of various rituals, social rules and the like, body practices and concepts of the clerical order, including their medial communication, have so far only been examined selectively and in relation to individual groups of actors (especially popes and bishops).

Analysing these bodily practices and concepts can help to shed light on a factor that should not be underestimated when it comes to the status identity and social positioning of the clerical order. Three dimensions in particular - the body as a means of expressing virtue and of attaining and representing power and status - appear to be important here. For through various body-related actions, one could not only approach God as a priest, monk or nun and demonstrate virtue, but also rise or fall in reputation as a political or social actor, gain or lose power and represent and legitimise one's own status.

The working group aims to systematically and comparatively analyse these bodily practices and concepts, including their mediation, and to find out how they were used to differentiate from the laity, for social differentiation within the clerical order (such as between bishop and priest, monk and nun, religious and semi-religious and generally for the formation of hierarchies) and differentiation from other denominations and religions. In this way, a contribution is to be made to an interdisciplinary understanding of the clerical order in the medieval world, which in many cases is also informative for the understanding of the church today.