Praying against the Turks

This chapter examines the intercessory rites that were written primarily for military help against the Ottomans. The center of gravity here moves eastward to the area between Vienna and Augsburg along the Danube, the region most threatened by the “new Turk.” The ritual texts at the heart of this chapter bespeak men's (and women's) understanding of their relationship to God, offer an interpretation of fifteenth-century events, and reveal an apocalyptic anxiety pinned to the Ottoman specter (different in agency and reception from the apocalyptic expectations of the early crusaders). Above all, these texts suggest the extent to which the ideological constructs underlying the reaction to the Ottomans, which was itself a medieval inheritance, became an integral part of the fabric of early modern devotional life.