The Emotional last days of a plague-victim. An exploration of emotions in the Devotio Moderna.

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is threefold. Firstly it tries to point out a possible correlation between the so-called Black Death and the emergence of the Catholic reform-movement know as the Modern Devotion. Secondly it treats the Modern Devotion as an Emotional Community whilst trying to find out which emotions are most relevant for this particular group. Finally it examines to which extend the Black Death influenced the emotional-world of the members of the Modern Devotion. This is achieved through the study of one case-study in particular, the description of the last days of Lubbert ten Bosch, who lived in the first community of the Modern Devotion located in the Dutch city of Deventer.