Helen Shiner Mar 22, 2012:

@ Kirsten I do think that is over-complicating matters in the extreme. Jewishness is irrelevant. What is important is natural EN.

Kirsten Bodart Mar 22, 2012:

@Helen That is a reference to a Jewish person, for a start. Catholics and also protestants, I suppose the latter, believe that a dying person should be compus mentis to receive confessions (Penance), Holy Communion (Viaticum) and Anointment. In the latter, the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth and hands are anointed (in some countries more parts of the body) which refer to the senses. The confession and Holy Communion, though, imply praying and in that, the sick person who receives his last rites (as this man must have done) needs to be conscious to do so and needs to be able to pray for his own soul, needs to reconcile himself with God to pass peacefully. I grant you that there is another meaning for 'senses', but putting that in a church death register would be confusing. It is not because we tend to use this formulation now (and normally it is limited to 'peacefully' which I suppose contains the two) that it has always been like this. Unless you are referring to Plato and the distinction between mind (soul) and spirit which the Christian faith somewhat endorses, but then senses doesn't come in either.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04660c.htm

Johanna Timm, PhD Mar 21, 2012:

description of the death of William III in 1702 http://tiny.cc/wdsfbw
(posted as reference already but maybe overlooked?) seems to be a historically appropriate formulation, seeing that the German church register entry mentioned in this question is dated in 1798. And at least it’s now established that mit gegenwärtigem Geiste does not refer to the presence of the Holy Spirit!

Lancashireman Mar 21, 2012:

presence of mind ... ... suggests that the deceased showed initiative and played some sort of active, organisational role in his own death.
http://tinyurl.com/7ytxhwk

Helen Shiner Mar 21, 2012:

@Kirsten You might like to note the very natural formulation of being in full command of one's senses as exemplified here:
“Yohanan [ben Zakkai] died in full command of his senses, entirely aware of the next step in his life. Exemplifying a good death, he expressed his humility before the judgment that awaited. As he lay dying, no sage represented in the classical writings of Judaism cited Ps. 22:l, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” But if they died serenely, it was not with an excess of self-confidence or pride. For, with all humanity, all of them expected to come before God in judgment, and none took vindication for granted. Death takes place in the context of faith, and the spirituality of Judaism comes to concrete embodiment in that larger context as well. For sages and the Torah that they shaped for all of holy Israel, not only did death form a natural stage in human life, but it also marked a step on a longer journey, one that led to eternal life.
http://onedaringjew.wordpress.com/2012/01/09/ben-zakkai-juda...
It is, indeed, everything to do with it. And it is very often said of a person on their death bed. One for the natives perhaps?

Horst Huber (X) Mar 20, 2012:

Of course it is an adverb, to go with "erwartet", and describes the mental attitude, as does "mit gegewärtigem Geiste", also an adverbial phrase.

Kirsten Bodart Mar 20, 2012:

getrost could this not be an adverb? As in 'without fear, confidently, and with a conscious mind'? Though there is still an experession in Dutch you can use with 'getroosten' as a verb, German only seems to have kept the past participle.

Horst Huber (X) Mar 20, 2012:

"Getrost" alludes to the "Tröstungen der Religion", as in "Most gracious spirit, give me thy comfort ...".