Cult of the Past, Status and Identity at Sorø.The Cistercian Monastery as a Collective Site of Memory during the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance.By Birgitte Bøggild JohannsenIn recent decades the paradigmatic concept of lieu de mémoire, elaborated by the French historian Pierre Nora in his monumental work, Les lieux de mémoire (1984- 1992) has proven inspirational to almost all branches of the cultural sciences. The article takes its point of departure in Nora’s definition of a site of memory, referring partly to an actual locality (i.e. Sorø Abbey) and a complex of monuments (funeral memorials to the founder, Absalon, his kin and members of the royal family from Christoffer II (†1332) to Margrete (†1412)). In a figurative sense, the concept is also used in relation to incidents, persons, institutions or activities whose values are regularly renegotiated or reinterpreted, in particular during discourses on national or collective identity, values or symbols. The article focuses upon a discussion of both meanings of the word, with reference to the targeted production of memory in Sorø during the late 15th and the 16th centuries, materialized in various texts and monuments written or erected at the instigation of the Catholic and Post- Reformation abbots, principals or readers at the monastery (Henrik Christiernsen Tornekrands, Morten Pedersen, Ivar Bertelsen and Christiern Macchabæus). Using a term coined by the German historian Oluf B. Rader (2003, 2007) the recycling of memory, in particular as concretized in funeral monuments (or the re-gistration of tombs) is to be considered as a ‘generator of legitimacy’, creating meaning, status and identity, not least during moments of crisis or times of political and religious upheaval. In cases like these, the cult of past glory and venerable traditions would be explored as a safe haven of stability and power. This agenda appears most relevant at the famous centre of learning at Sorø Abbey, which looked back during the period in question to former days of glory in order to confront a changed, still unclarified future
