Money, favor and grace. The monetarisation of politics and piety in the 12th and 13th century

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Bernd Schneidmüller
• Subject Area: Medieval History
• Term: from 2011 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 203098025

The research project 'Money, favor and grace. The monetarisation of politics and piety in the 12th and 13th century' examines the effects that the continuous development of money had on politics and piety during the High Middle Ages. The increased availability of money enabled various innovations on the political as well as the ecclesiastical and religious level: the grace and favor of rulers could be negotiated and measured by money, the divine grace could be quantified and traded through indulgences. These changes point to a cultural change, which affected all spheres of medieval society. This change will be examined under specific points of view by the two subprojects. The first subproject 'Money as a duty? Ransom and dowry payments in the 12th and 13 Century' deals with the consequences of the money economy on two important fields of aristocratic politics in the German Empire, France, England and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Connected to cultural and economic questions, the focus is laid on the measuring and rating of funds. The second subproject 'Indulgence, donation and alms. The monetarisation and quantification of piety in the 12th and 13th century' treats the increasing quantification of piety and divine grace, as well as the intensified use of money in church life. The focus of the investigation is the indulgence, whose development causes a strong increase of counted piety: for the first time, the believers are promised specifically quantified sized spiritual rewards for their works.As part of the overall research project, the two subprojects explore the influence of money on politics and piety. Thereby both general developments and specific individual cases will be analyzed. The amounts of money and time mentioned in the sources will be made comparable and interpretable. At the end of the project it will be possible to classify and evaluate the sums of money present in the 12th and 13th century. The project will lead to deeper knowledge in its respective fields and close current research gaps. At the same time, it makes a fundamental contribution to the research of medieval monetarisation, which affected society on various levels.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants