Bűnbánat és emlékezés Merseburgi Thietmar krónikájában

Absztrakt

The remembrance on the dead had a great role in the age of the turn of the first Millennium. In the work of Thietmar — bishop of Merseburg — the spirituality of the memory was reflected, too. Thietmar wrote his chronicle about the history of his bishopric, the history of the Saxon Kings, and he described his family and his own life as well: e. g. he noted the date of his birth. He depicted his appearance and presented himself in a disadvantageous way. He confessed his sins to the reader, and expressed a deep sense of guilt. In his chronicle one can read about the repentance and penitence of other people too, and on the role of Thietmar as a father-confessor. We can read about people who publicly admitted their sins. It is an interesting problem, how a bishop-chronicler thought about his relatives, acquaintances and his own life. Hopefully this essay will help to get closer to the mentality of a person, who lived at the time of the first Millennium.