Church portal as legal place

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Detail from the portal of St Trophime Cathedral in Arles
Detail from the portal of St Trophime Cathedral in Arles

The church portal as a legal place is an expression of the central cultural and architectural sociological importance of the church as an institution and building in the Middle Ages .

background

The church portal as a legal venue goes back to the function of the city gates as places where certain legal acts were carried out in the open air, such as court meetings at city and castle gates or in church yards.

In the Old Testament the city gate served as a legal place of elders, must be confirmed by numerous biblical passages, for example, at 5.15  EU : "Hate evil, love good and brings in goal the application of justice" in the Middle Ages was the Church , especially the east -facing main church of a city, equated with the "Heavenly Jerusalem" . The church portal thus symbolically became the city gate.

Here was the threshold between good and bad. The unbaptized first had to be 'cleaned' in a separate baptistery before they were allowed to enter the church. The open door is a symbol of Christ himself who said, “I am the door; whoever enters through me will be saved ”( Jn 10.9  EU ).

The lions often found on church portals were related to Solomon's throne , which was flanked by two lions. Since Solomon is the most exemplary judge in the Old Testament, the two lions were generally associated with jurisdiction and symbolized judicial power. Several medieval court files have been preserved that were concluded “inter duos leones”, “between two lions”. Lions also adorn the porch of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo.

The ecclesiastical marriage of Catholic bride and groom, which was prescribed by the Tridentine Council , was initially carried out in private homes and was only later moved to the church portal. After the wedding ceremony there, the bride and groom were allowed to attend mass in the church. Only later, with the bridal mass, was the wedding moved to the church. This tradition explains the name of most of the portals on the north side of Gothic churches as " bridal gate " or " bridal door", as in St. Sebald (Nuremberg) and the large churches in Bamberg, Braunschweig and Mainz as well as the cathedrals in Magdeburg and Worms and Verden.

Historic imitation of a portal hall ( St. Antonius Basilica in Rheine; architect Franz Klomp , end of the 19th century)

Trade contracts were also signed in front of church portals. Therefore, the market often took place directly in front of the church. The dimensions that were supposed to apply in trade were often scratched into their outer walls.

Last but not least, the church portal stands for a separate legal district . The portal also served as an asylum site in the Middle Ages . Numerous contemporary reports describe how people on the run sought asylum at the church door, with touching the door ring being the decisive legal act. Such medieval door pullers have been preserved from time to time and are still in their original location. And since red has been the color of judges since ancient times, as it is today with the Federal Constitutional Court , the relevant entrance gates of the churches were also painted red.

In and on church buildings and portals , apart from church services and legal acts, there were also theater and music performances as well as passion and mystery plays .

An imitation of a portal hall, which was modeled on the historical model in every detail around the end of the 19th century, is located in front of the west entrance of the St. Antonius Basilica in Rheine.

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heiner Lück : scenes of the process. Topography, shape and function of places of legal life Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg , 2008
  2. ↑ Nikolaus Grass : The Norman Bride Gate Wedding Rite and its Spread in Central Europe . In: Research on legal archeology and legal folklore 5 (1983), ZDB -ID 800035-9 , pp. 69-93.
  3. ↑ Heiner Lück: Of virgins, brides and stones. The “bridal stone” as an element of archaic marriage rituals. In: Sybille Hofer, Diethelm Klippel, Ute Walter (eds.): Perspektiven des Familienrechts. Festschrift for Dieter Schwab on his 70th birthday on August 15, 2005. Gieseking, Bielefeld 2005, ISBN 3-7694-0973-6 , pp. 205–226.
  4. ^ Ulrich Rhode : Church marriage law (PDF; 447 kB)
  5. ↑ Heiner Lück: Cardinal directions , in: Albrecht Cordes , Heiner Lück , Dieter Werkmüller , Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand (eds.): Concise dictionary for German legal history . 2nd, completely revised and enlarged edition. Volume I. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-503-07912-4 ( online , full access subject to charge).
  6. ↑ Ursula Mende: The door pullers of the Middle Ages. Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaften, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-87157-086-9 .
  7. ↑ Barbara Deimling: Ad Rufam Ianum: The legal historical meaning of "red doors" in the Middle Ages . In: Journal of the Savigny Foundation for Legal History , German Department 115, 1998, pp. 498–513, doi: 10.7767 / zrgga.1998.115.1.498 .