Publication details
'As if they were worshipping the stench of a dead horse's blood': The Warnings of Jan Hus against the Veneration of the Holy Blood of Wilsnack
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The cult of the Holy Blood emerged in the small town of Wilsnack in northern Germany. It surrounded three supposedly miraculous hosts sprinkled with what was thought to be the blood of Christ. Despite some critical views, the cult flourished in late medieval Europe. The first to openly stand against the Holy Blood of Wilsnack was prominent Czech theologian and religious reformer Jan Hus. His treatise De Sanguine Christi addresses the issue of the bloody hosts from a theological as well as factual point of view. The pilgrims supposedly believed in the healing properties of the hosts, even their ability to reverse death, and experienced hysterical fits and extreme emotions at the shrine. In his treatise, Hus argues that the hosts are fraudulent and the pilgrimage to Wilsnack poses a danger to the religious and moral integrity of the pilgrims, as well as to the social integrity of the whole community. In further fifteen points, Hus elaborates on the particular threats of the pilgrimage. This paper would aim to analyse the concept of a “dangerous pilgrimage” in its spiritual meaning as it was proposed by Jan Hus and other critics, following in Hus' footsteps. |
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