Eternal life policy. The problem of mercy in last wills of the Saxon period

Abstract

Mercy was one of the main ideas in the social and religious life in the modern period. A significant role in propagating this idea was played by the parable of the Last Judgement. Underlaid with fear of eternal damnation, it opened the venue for salvation, thanks to the belief in the unlimited love of God and good deeds. The idea of good deeds practised in form of alms, pious bequests and widely understood charity as conditions of eternal life, became for Catholics a way leading to salvation. The proof is provided by numerous sources from the area of past funeral culture, such as last wills, books of good death or funeral orations. Mercy appears as religious imperative resulting from the belief in God’s love and power of absolution as well as a form of compassion towards the suffering of a fellow human being, which gives rise to the willingness to disinterestedly help the sick, the poor, the suffering and – most of all – the souls of sinners awaiting aid in purgatory. This idea should be treated as a form of individual charity of the testators, in which individual generosity strengthened by religious motivation became a specific apotheosis of poverty. In last wills we shall find yet another form of mercy in the shape of mutual relations between the testator and his relatives, in whom he seeks forgiveness for inflicted harms and mercifully forgives harms he suffered from them. A separate category of mercy found in last wills is the Biblical character of the Prodigal Son, seeking forgiveness from his own father, who – like God the Judge and Saviour – shows his mercy and lets him back into the paternal house.