Dorothea von Montau and the Masters of Prague

ISSN： 1745-9214

Source： Oxford German Studies, Vol.39, Iss.2, 2010-07, pp. : 106-123

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Abstract

Dorothea von Montau has conventionally been viewed as an isolated figure. This article aims to shift the focus away from Dorothea as a historical individual, and onto the body of heavily theological texts which treat Dorothea produced by her confessor, Johannes Marienwerder. It builds on recent work which regards the canons of the Pomesanian cathedral chapter at Marienwerder as more significant than the Teutonic Order for the promotion of Dorothea's cause. It explores the long-standing association between Johannes Marienwerder and the more famous figure of Matthaeus of Cracow, and locates them amongst a wider group of German-speaking senior masters at the university of Prague in the later fourteenth century with shared interests in the inspired word, revelatory writing (notably the Revelationes of Birgitta of Sweden), and the active pastoration of religious women. Narrative accounts of the involvement of Johannes and Matthaeus in the pastoral supervision of lay women enjoying mystical forms of religious experience, contained in hitherto unedited texts written by the archbishop Jan of Jenštejn, offer parallel evidence which, for the first time, permits a comparative study of Johannes' later writing on Dorothea. The appendix provides an edition of an extract from Jan of Jenštejn's De bono mortis.