Thank you all for the opportunity to present my research in this lecture.

As the title reads, my lecture will cover prophecies in the late medieval Holy Roman Empire.

A special focus lies on the connection of prophecies and the politics of princes, that

is counts, dukes, kings, emperors and so on.

This connection is shown by the sources.

A large number of medieval prophecies have been passed on in manuscripts from the surroundings

of rulers and are accompanied by commentaries on them.

In addition, we often find anecdotes in historiography about how prophecies or even prophets themselves

supposedly influenced political decisions.

We could now justify this closeness with the fear of the forthcoming end times, but this

fails because of the fact that there is a great number of prophecies that are not only

oriented towards the end of times.

In current research, these prophecies, which by chance seem to apply to a certain prince,

are seen as directed outwards.

To this certainly important dimension, I want to add the inward effect.

A powerful prophecy that apparently applies to the ruler may have had an effect not only

on outsiders, but on the ruler himself as well.

To cover the developments of the prophetic texts as well as their connection to and usage

in the princely sphere, I am preparing a book containing several case studies, each devoted

to a specific prophecy and their tradition in the medieval sources.

This means both the historiography and the tradition in the manuscripts, that is manuscripts

collecting prophecies, additions or single leaves of parchment.

These case studies will be surrounded by additional chapters addressing specific questions by

consulting more prophecies, for example cases in which we have reactions to prophecies that

did not come true.

In the main part of my lecture, I want to present the developing outlines of one of

the main case studies, devoted to the so-called Vignette Aquila prophecy.

Drawing from this, I want to give a glimpse into one of the additional chapters by outlining

a comparison to the prophetic traditions treated before with traditions in England.

To achieve this, I am going to use eagles and lions as guides to present the sphere

of links, references, adaptations and similarities, that is prophecies, in the late medieval Holy

Roman Empire.

So let's begin.

You can see here the so-called Vignette Aquila prophecy.

This prophecy was addressed by several important researchers, but never in the focus of their

book.

For example, it was addressed by Marjorie Reeves in her important studies on Joachim

of Jorre, as well as it was mentioned by Hannes Möhring in his works regarding the myth of

the emperor at the end of times.

Recently, it was also covered by Frances Neuper in her search for the becoming of a specifically

German identity in some prophecies.

The prophecy is covered in a vast amount of manuscripts from the 15th century.

To quote Robert E. Lerner, who of course also mentioned this prophecy, quote, unnoticed

15th century manuscript copies of Vignette Aquila are a legion, end of quote.

These words are from 1983 and they are still true.

As you can read, the prophecy announces an eagle whose flight will be beaten by a lion.

The chick of the eagle will nest in the home of the lion and the king will be elected.

After a conspiracy, a root will shoot from the root of the eagle with the name Friedericus

Orientalis and he will rule the earth.

Finally, the pope will be caught and the clergy will fall apart.