Introduction

Abstract

In the centre of the Burgundian town of Beaune is a marvellously preserved medieval hospital, The Hôtel Dieu de Beaune. In the fifteenth century, it contained just one huge ward, the far end of which comprised a chapel dominated by an altar painting of the Last Judgement. Christ is seated in glory; below him is the archangel, weighing the souls of the dead; to his left, the damned descend in terror to hell; to his right, the saved ascend to glory. For those dying in the Beaune hospital there was no getting away from this vision; each time they opened their eyes, there it was. But what did it mean for them? Did some die fearing they might go to the wrong place? Did all assume they were going to heaven? Did the poorer patients feel vindicated by a knowledge that lords and bishops numbered among those going to hell? Were they comforted to know that after death they would not be forgotten by the living who would still be praying for their souls? We can never know what the occupants of the hospice made of this picture, but we can be sure that the surroundings of the patient in the modern hospital ward, or even in a modern Christian hospice, are strikingly secular by comparison. A recent study of a hundred and thirty modern British hospice logos found only two that confidently affirm that death is not the end, and none that so much as hint that there may be any choice of postmortem destinations (Froggatt and Walter, forthcoming).