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Document Details :

Title: Academische theologie in Middelnederlandse verzen
Author(s): WACKERS, Paul
Journal: Ons Geestelijk Erf
Volume: 90    Issue: 3-4   Date: 2020   
Pages: 312-329
DOI: 10.2143/OGE.90.3.3289110

Abstract :
In this article the third text in ms. Tübingen, Universitätsbibliothek, Me.IV.3 is analysed. It concerns a text on the last judgment in verse. It is the only Middle Dutch text in verse on this subject and it is also unique because it announces in the prologue that the content will be based on the work of Thomas Aquinas and Peter Lombard. For the first half of the text this is true. Often a part of the text is based on a passage in the Summa theologiae or the Sentences. This article lists the subjects where this happens, shows how the passages from these academic handbooks were adapted and argues that the changes were made because the author wanted to give his public more insight in some miraculous aspects of the last judgment but combined with exhortations to live in such a way that they will be among the righteous when the judgment comes. To strengthen this last aim the last part of the text pays much attention to the severity of the judgment and the pains of hell that await the sinners. This part is based on non-academic sources, as are important parts of the first half (although this is not mentioned in the text itself). The end of this article reflects on this mix of sources and stresses that the existence of this text shows that we must be careful with generalisations about the public of religious texts in the vernacular.

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