In the Middle Ages there was no act more shameful than suicide. However, strict canons and brutal manners were not able to discourage people who lost their meaning in life. Also for those with too much weight on their heads.
As early as the 6th century, a synod convened to the city of Braga decided:“Those who bring death upon themselves, whether by iron or poison, or by jumping from a height, or by hanging, or by any other brutal means, are not to be mentioned at Mass. While burying their bodies, one must not sing any psalms. " Finally, it was emphasized that the corpses of suicides are to be treated in exactly the same way as the carcass of criminals sentenced to death.
Merciless law
Throughout the centuries, the Braga Canon has become a pillar of the European approach to suicide. He was transcribed hundreds of times, supplemented with references to the satanic possession of suicides. And also more and more new sanctions. In one book of penance, it was added, for example, that the corpse of a suicide should not be put in "unpolluted earth."
The discovery of a suicide's body in the Middle Ages caused no less shock than it does today. A miniature from a French manuscript from the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Sounds harmless. In practice, however, the rule boiled down to the fact that people who took their own lives were thrown directly into the pits with rotting carrion. Also Pope Nicholas, who held his pontificate in the second half of the 9th century, came to the conclusion that suicides did not deserve a dignified burial at all. They had to be hidden in the ground just so that "the stench of decay would not hurt the living.
The bodies of suicides were exposed to the public and even subjected to elaborate posthumous torture. The unfortunate families had to take into account the loss of all their property. Above all, however, suicide was a source of unimaginable humiliation. The odium of sin fell on wives, children, grandchildren. The suicide was a criminal even worse than a murderer, more insolent than a moneylender. After all, he openly rejected the gifts he had received from God. And he could not count on any outsiders' pity.
Criminals who took their own lives were condemned with full force. This does not mean, however, that suicides were unheard of in medieval Europe. On the contrary:they happened often, even at the top of the government.
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The Burgundian Count Raculf, who lived at the same time as our Mieszko II, was told, for example, that he fell into such madness that he "tried to hurt both himself and the people around him, using clubs and all sorts of projectiles that could hit him. hands". He gave up his suicide attempts only after the intervention of his pious man, Saint Benedict.
Emperor with tendencies
Similar tendencies were to wake up also in the German Emperor Henry IV. A controversial hegemony who became famous for his great dispute with Pope Gregory and his derogatory penance on the road to Canossa. At the age of fifty, when he had lost power to his son and had lost all his self-respect, the monarch concluded that there was no point in living any longer. In any case, this is how the chronicler Bernold of Konstanz portrayed it. Let him speak for a moment.
According to the historian, Henryk "was in such a terrible state of depression that - as they say - he tried to devote himself to death". I think he even got a rope or a knife ready. He survived, but only thanks to the swift and conscious intervention of the courtiers. As a result, as Bernold stated, the wish of the marginalized ruler "did not come true".
Henry IV in Canossa in the painting by Eduard Schwoiser.
Melancholy of power
We also know the story of suicides that no one saved. Chased by his brother, the prince of the Angles, Edwin, was about to throw himself in despair between the sea waves during a forced voyage abroad. In turn, Henry VII, son of the German emperor Frederick Hohenstauf, killed himself when his rebellion against his father ended in a disgusting defeat. The year was 1242 and Henry was in a closely guarded fortress. According to one tradition, he got rid of his life by jumping out of the window. Another account says that he jumped from the bridge into the river when the guards lost their vigilance for a moment during the transport of the distinguished prisoner.
The story mutated, and human power was done to disguise the truth about the death of the unfortunate heir to the throne. For Emperor Frederick, even the version that he himself had ordered his son to be strangled in prison seemed less disgraceful. After all, murder was the usual measure of politics. It was like getting your hands dirty with it. But it was definitely not proper to have a son who committed suicide.
There are many examples. In the 15th century, even the first… suicide lists will appear. The oldest epistle, the sender of which announced taking his own life, dates back to 1461. The letter was written by the prince of the Italian Urbino, Federigo da Montefeltro. He complained to his doctor that he could not stand the gout anymore, the longing for his dead son and the subsequent war defeats. He saw only one way out of the situation. Death.
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