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Every institution or organization in history has quickly experienced criticism as soon as it was established. The Catholic Church faced such criticism throughout the entire Middle Ages, as many literary examples demonstrate. This article traces the theme of Anticlericalism from the twelfth through the sixteenth century, focusing on the comments by the poet Walther von der Vogelweide, on the didactic tales by the poet The Stricker, on a variety of late medieval verse narratives (mæren), and early modern prose narratives (Schwänke). In fact, Walther's biting comments directed against the Holy See and the clergy at large finds surprising parallels in hateful broadsheets aimed at the Jesuits since the late sixteenth century. The literary evidence presented here offers powerful insights into the pervasive theme intimately connected with the Catholic Church, actually its very bane. 1. Introduction We generally tend to assume that the Catholic Church exerted tremendous, if not overarching or total influence over all people in the Middle Ages, at least in Western and Central Europe, which often extended especially to people's inner spirituality, since they were extremely scared about the afterlife and the well-being of their souls (Dinzelbacher 1996). But we are too easily blinded by this
Amsterdamer Beiträge zur Älteren Germanistik – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2014
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