The Medieval Record: Sources of Medieval History [2 ed.] 9781624668388, 1624668380, 9781624668395, 1624668399
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Table of contents :
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgments
Topical Contents
A Note to Instructors on Teaching from This Book
A Student’s Guide to Using This Book
Part One: The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations: 100–1050 C.E.
Chapter 1: A World in Flux
The Pax Romana
The Blessings of the Roman Peace
1. Aelius Aristides, THE ROMAN ORATION and TWO MOSAICS AT OSTIA
Imperial Reform or Revolution?
2. Lactantius, ON THE DEATHS OF THE PERSECUTORS
The Late Roman Empire
3. THE THEODOSIAN CODE
Christianity and the Roman World
Why Are Christians Persecuted?
4. Tertullian, A DEFENSE OF CHRISTIANS AGAINST THE PAGANS
Constantine’s Revolution
5. Eusebius of Caesarea, ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Church and State in the Late Empire
6. THE THEODOSIAN CODE
The Christian Emperor
7. THE BARBERINI IVORY
Chapter 2: New Peoples in an Old Empire: Invasions and Settlements in the Western Roman Empire
The Newcomers
Why Have the Barbarians Triumphed?
8. Salvian, THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD
Invaded by a Crowd of Giants
9. Sidonius Apollinaris, LETTERS
Clovis the Frank, Agent of God
10. Gregory of Tours, HISTORY OF THE FRANKS
Governing the Barbarian Kingdoms
Frankish Law and Society
11. THE SALIC LAW CODE
Government in Ostrogothic Italy
12. Cassiodorus, VARIAE
Heavenly Portraits
13. THE ALTAR OF RATCHIS; A ROMAN SARCOPHAGUS
Chapter 3: Emerging Europe’s Neighbors: Byzantium and Islam
Byzantium: From Justinian I to Basil II (527–1025)
An Emperor and Empress
14. MOSAIC PORTRAITS OF JUSTINIAN AND THEODORA AT SAN VITALE
Regulating Trade and Industry
15. THE BOOK OF THE EPARCH
Securing an Empire’s Borders
16. Constantine VII, GOVERNING THE EMPIRE
Emperor Basil II and the Apogee of Byzantine Power
17. Michael Psellus, THE CHRONOGRAPHIA
Dar al-Islam: From the Prophet to the Abbasids
The Word of God
18. THE QUR’AN
Striving in the Way of God
19. Imam al-Bukhari, THE AUTHENTIC [COLLECTION] OF AL-BUKHARI
The Dhimma: A Contract with People of the Book
20. THE PACT OF IBN MUSLAMA; THE PACT OF UMAR; Al-Nawawi,MANUAL of ISLAMIC LAW
Chapter 4: Saints, Monks, Bishops, and Popes
Saints
Casting Out Evil Spirits and Triumphing over Death in Sixth-Century Italy
21. Pope Gregory I, DIALOGUES
Holy Asceticism and Sacred Solitude in Ninth-Century Saxony
22. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN LIUTBIRG
Monks
Establishing a Monastic Community in Italy
23. THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT
The Heart and Soul of Celtic Monasticism
24. Adomnán, LIFE OF SAINT COLUMBA, FOUNDER OF HY; Saint Columban, THE MONKS’ RULE, THE CENOBITIC RULE, and THE PENITENTIAL
Bishops and Popes
The Issue of Christian Authority
25. Pope Gelasius I, LETTER TO EMPEROR ANASTASIUS I
Guiding the Ship of Western Christendom
26. Pope Gregory I, LETTERS
A Conflict over Icons
27. Pope Gregory II, LETTER TO EMPEROR LEO III
Organizing a Church in Northern England
28. The Venerable Bede, LETTER TO BISHOP ECGBERT
Converting Pagan Germans
29. Willibald, LIFE of SAINT BONIFACE
Chapter 5: The Carolingian Experiment
Charlemagne
The Great Deeds of Charles the Great
30. Einhard, THE LIFE OF CHARLES THE GREAT
Delivered with Authority
31. Charles the Great, LETTERS
Charlemagne’s Government
32. Charles the Great, CAPITULARIES
A Pope’s Image of Papal-Frankish Relations
33. Pope Leo III’s Lateran Mosaics
The Later Carolingians
Troubles for Charlemagne’s Grandsons
34. Nithard, FOUR BOOKS OF HISTORIES
The End of an Empire
35. Regino of Prüm, CHRONICLE
Chapter 6: Restructuring and Reordering Europe: 850–1050
Early France: A World of Local Lordship
The Search for Peace and Security
36. THE PEACE OF GOD; THE TRUCE OF GOD
The Ideal Tenth-Century Lord? The Ideal Eleventh-Century Lord?
37. Odo of Cluny, THE LIFE OF THE MAN OF GOD, GERALD;Adémar of Chabannes, THE LIFE OF SAINT GERALD OF AURILLAC
The Ideal Eleventh-Century Vassal?
38. Fulbert of Chartres, LETTER TO DUKE WILLIAM V OF AQUITAINE
England and the Ottonian Empire: New Monarchic Order
King Alfred’s Educational Program
39. Alfred the Great, LETTER TO BISHOP WÆRFERTH
Otto the Great and the Papacy
40. Liudprand of Cremona, CONCERNING KING OTTO
The Ottonians and Byzantium
The Artistic Influence of Byzantium?
41. TWO CRUCIFIX IVORIES
Two Views of Byzantium
42. Liudprand of Cremona, RETRIBUTION and REPORT ON THE EMBASSY TO CONSTANTINOPLE
Two Imperial Images
43. THE CROWNING OF OTTO II AND THEOPHANO and THE CROWNING OF ROMANOS AND EUDOKIA
Visions of the World
A Woman of Genius and Three Women of Virtue
44. Roswitha of Gandersheim, DULCITIUS
Popular Religious Attitudes in Early Eleventh-Century France
45. Ralph Glaber, FIVE BOOKS OF HISTORY
Part Two: European Efflorescence and Expansion: 1050–1300
Chapter 7: Varieties of Religious Expression
The Different Faces of Piety
The Monastic Cult of Mary
46. Bernard of Clairvaux, SERMONS IN PRAISE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER
The Popular Cult of Mary
47. Jacques de Vitry, SERMONS FOR THE PEOPLE ACCORDING TO CLASS
Two Images of the Virgin’s Death
48. THE DARMSTADT KOIMÊSIS OF THE THEOTOKOS and THE STRASBOURG DORMITION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
Twelfth-Century Popular “Heresy”: The Waldensians
49. Stephen of Bourbon, A TREATISE ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS FOR SERMONS
Twelfth-Century Popular “Heresy”: The Cathars
50. Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay, THE ALBIGENSIAN HISTORY
The Franciscan Spirit
51. Francis of Assisi, TESTAMENT
The Drive to Create an Ordered Christian Society
Reforming Western Christendom
52. DECREES OF THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL
The Inquisitorial Process
53. Pseudo-David of Augsburg, ON THE INQUISITION OF HERETICS
Chapter 8: The Other Orders of Society
They Who Work the Land
Eleventh-Century Peasant Rights and Duties in the Rhineland
54. Burchard of Worms, THE LAW OF THE FAMILY OF THE CHURCH OF WORMS
Twelfth-Century Peasant Colonists beyond the Elbe
55. Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen, CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES
Thirteenth-Century Land Leases in Italy
56. TWO PADUAN LAND CONTRACTS
They Who Fight
The Ideal Feudal Warrior?
57. THE SONG OF ROLAND
Feudal Law
58. Ranulf de Glanville, CONCERNING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND
Urban Dwellers
A Twelfth-Century Town along the Castilian Frontier
59. THE FUERO OF CUENCA
Italian Communal Government
61. John of Viterbo, BOOK ON THE GOVERNMENT OF CITIES
Jewish Communities
An Episcopal Grant to the Jews of Speyer
62. Rüdegar Huozman, CHARTER TO THE JEWS OF SPEYER
An Imperial Grant to the Jews of Worms
63. Emperor Frederick I, A CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES FOR THE JEWS OF WORMS
Images of “the Jew”
64. THE BAPTISMAL FOUNT OF THE CHURCH OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL, BOCHUM; ECCLESIA AND SYNAGOGA, STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL; THE SOUTH PORTAL, STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL
Chapter 9: Innovation and Diversity in Intellectual and Artistic Expression
Reason and Revelation in the Schools of Paris
Understanding through Questioning
65. Peter Abelard, SIC ET NON
Thirteenth-Century Rational Theology
66. Thomas Aquinas, SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES
Ensuring Theological Correctness
67. A STATUTE OF 1272 OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS OF PARIS
Literature
Courtly Romance
68. Chrétien de Troyes, EREC AND ENIDE
The Art of Parody
69. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE MARKS OF SILVER
A Satirical Deconstruction of Jewish Blood Libel?
70. Richard of Devizes, THE CHRONICLE OF RICHARD OF DEVIZES FOR THE TIME OF KING RICHARD I
Romanesque and Gothic Art
Virgin and Child: A Byzantine Triptych and a Romanesque Statue
71. A VIRGIN AND CHRIST CHILD TRIPTYCH and NOTRE DAME LA BRUNE
Temptation in Romanesque and Gothic Style
72. Giselbertus, EVE; Anonymous, THE TEMPTATION IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN; and Anonymous, THE TEMPTER AND THE FOOLISH VIRGINS
Chapter 10: Political Theory and Reality
Monarchs and Popes in Conflict
A Half Century That Shook the West
73. FOUR DOCUMENTS FROM THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY
A Byzantine View of the Investiture Controversy
74. Anna Comnena, ALEXIAD
Investitures in the Wake of the Investiture Controversy
75. THE SARCOPHAGUS OF BISHOP ADELOCHUS and THE INVESTITURE OF KING ROGER II
A Papal Rejoinder to the Byzantine Emperor
76. Innocent III, SOLITAE
A Middle Ground?
77. John Quidort (John of Paris), ON ROYAL AND PAPAL POWER
The Power of Monarchs
The King’s Justice
78. THE ASSIZE OF CLARENDON
The Ideal King?
79. Jean de Joinville, THE BOOK OF THE HOLY WORDS AND GOOD DEEDS OF OUR KING, SAINT LOUIS
Limited Government in Spain, England, and Germany?
Representative Government in Spain
80. Alfonso IX, DECREES OF 1188; Alfonso X, ORDINANCES OF THE CORTES OF SEVILLE IN 1252; Pedro III, ORDINANCE OF 1283
Limitations on Royal Power in England
81. MAGNA CARTA
Limitations on Imperial Power in Germany
82. Frederick II, STATUTE IN FAVOR OF THE PRINCES
“What Affects All Should Be Approved by All”
83. Edward I, SUMMONS TO PARLIAMENT, 1295
Chapter 11: The Crusades: Expanding Europe’s Horizons
The Crusade: Ideal and Reality
Pope Urban’s Crusade
84. Pope Urban II, LETTERS TO FLANDERS AND BOLOGNA; Robert the Monk, HISTORY OF THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM
Crusaders and Jews in the Rhineland
85. Ekkehard of Aura, THE JERUSALEMITE; Albert of Aachen, HISTORY OF THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM; THE MAINZ ANONYMOUS
The Capture of Jerusalem
86. THE DEEDS OF THE FRANKS AND OF THE OTHER PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM
Crusaders as Colonists
The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
87. Fulcher of Chartres, A HISTORY OF THE JERUSALEM PILGRIMS
Franks and Muslims in the Latin East
88. Ibn Jubayr, AN ACCOUNT OF EVENTS THAT HAPPENED ON CERTAIN JOURNEYS
Crusade, Conversion, and Settlement in the Eastern Baltic
89. Henry of Livonia, CHRONICLE
The Mongols: A Challenge and an Opportunity
“A Detestable Satanic People”
90. Matthew Paris, THE GREATER CHRONICLE: AN ENTRY FOR 1240; “IVO OF NARBONNE’S CONFESSION”; THE TARTAR FEAST
Saint Louis, Prester John, and the Tartars
91. Jean de Joinville, THE BOOK OF THE HOLY WORDS AND GOOD DEEDS OF OUR SAINTLY KING LOUIS
A Franciscan Missionary in China
92. John of Monte Corvino, LETTER TO THE WEST
Part Three: Crisis, Retrenchment, Recovery, and a New World: 1300–1500
Chapter 12: The Fourteenth Century: Catastrophe and Creativity
Natural Disasters and Their Consequences
Explaining and Responding to Catastrophe
93. Jean de Venette, CHRONICLE
The Effects of the Plague in England
94. Henry Knighton, CHRONICLE
Schism, Rebellion, and War
The Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism
95. Saint Catherine of Siena, LETTERS
A New Challenger to the Papacy’s Authority
96. John Wycliff, CONCERNING THE POPE
The Hundred Years’ War and the English Peasant Rebellion
97. Jean Froissart, CHRONICLES OF FRANCE, ENGLAND, ANDNEIGHBORING COUNTRIES
To Ransom a King
98. THE FRANC À CHEVAL
Social Commentary
Disorder in the Court
99. Franco Sacchetti, THREE HUNDRED NOVELLAS
Fourteenth-Century English Society
100. Geoffrey Chaucer, THE CANTERBURY TALES
The Study of Nature
“People Can Encircle the Entire World”
101. THE BOOK OF JOHN MANDEVILLE
Does the Earth Revolve on Its Axis?
102. Nicholas Oresme, ON THE BOOK OF THE HEAVENS AND THE WORLD OF ARISTOTLE
Chapter 13: The Fifteenth Century: An Age of Rebirth?
The Late-Medieval Church and Christian Society
Conciliarism: Attack and Counterattack
103. The Council of Constance, HAEC SANCTA and FREQUENS; Pope Pius II, EXECRABILIS
Beating the Drum of Unrest
104. Georg Widman, CHRONICLE; A WOODCUT FROM THE NUREMBERG CHRONICLE
Joan of Arc: Saint or Witch?
Joan of Arc: An Agent of God
105. Christine de Pisan, DITIÉ DE JEHANNE D’ARC
Joan of Arc and Other Female Agents of the Devil
106. Johann Nider, FORMICARIUS
New Secular Rulers
Louis XI: A Character Sketch
107. Philippe de Commynes, MEMOIRS
Lorenzo de’ Medici: Character Sketches in Words and Ceramic
108. Francesco Guicciardini, THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE; A BUST OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI
Arts and Letters
Which Studies Should a Lady Humanist Pursue?
109. Leonardo Bruni, A TREATISE ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE
Visions of Life and Death
110. Martin Schongauer, THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS; The Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion, THE CRUCIFIXION
New Geographic Horizons
The Marvels of Nature
111. Johann Bämler, WONDROUS FOUNTAINS AND PEOPLES
A New Colonial Venture into the Atlantic
112. Jean de Béthencourt, V, THE CANARIAN
“The Great Victory That Our Lord Has Bestowed Upon My Voyage”
113. Christopher Columbus, LETTER ANNOUNCING THE DISCOVERY
Glossary
Image Credits
Back Cover
Citation preview
The Medieval Record Sources of Medieval History Second Revised Edition Alfred J. Andrea
The Medieval Record Sources of Medieval History Second Revised Edition
The Medieval Record Sources of Medieval History Second Revised Edition
Alfred J. Andrea University of Vermont
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Indianapolis/Cambridge
Copyright © 2020 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 23 22 21 20
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
For further information, please address Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. P.O. Box 44937 Indianapolis, Indiana 46244-0937 www.hackettpublishing.com Cover design by Rick Todhunter Interior design by E. L. Wilson Composition by Aptara, Inc. Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952433 ISBN-13: 978-1-62466-839-5 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-1-62466-838-8 (pbk) ISBN-13: 978-1-62466-870-8 (web PDF)
Ingenia et artes maxime fovit. To the Memory of William M. Daly (1920–2005) Professor Emeritus, Boston College Who introduced several generations of students To the challenge and pleasures Of analyzing medieval sources
Contents Topical Contents xiv
Invaded by a Crowd of Giants
9. Sidonius Apollinaris, LETTERS
A Note to Instructors on Teaching from This Book xxxviii A Student’s Guide to Using This Book xli
Part One The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations: 100–1050 C.E.
Clovis the Frank, Agent of God
10. Gregory of Tours, HISTORY OF THE FRANKS
Governing the Barbarian Kingdoms 1
Chapter 1 A World in Flux
4
The Pax Romana
5
The Blessings of the Roman Peace
5
1. Aelius Aristides, THE ROMAN ORATION and TWO MOSAICS AT OSTIA
Imperial Reform or Revolution?
5 8
2. Lactantius, ON THE DEATHS OF THE PERSECUTORS 8
The Late Roman Empire
3. THE THEODOSIAN CODE
Christianity and the Roman World Why Are Christians Persecuted?
4. Tertullian, A DEFENSE OF CHRISTIANS AGAINST THE PAGANS
Constantine’s Revolution
5. Eusebius of Caesarea, ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY
Church and State in the Late Empire 6. THE THEODOSIAN CODE
The Christian Emperor
7. THE BARBERINI IVORY
10
10
14 15 15 17
17
19
19
23
23
Frankish Law and Society
11. THE SALIC LAW CODE
Government in Ostrogothic Italy 12. Cassiodorus, VARIAE
27
45
45
Chapter 3 Emerging Europe’s Neighbors: Byzantium and Islam
52
Byzantium: From Justinian I to Basil II (527–1025)
53
An Emperor and Empress
14. MOSAIC PORTRAITS OF JUSTINIAN AND THEODORA AT SAN VITALE
Regulating Trade and Industry
15. THE BOOK OF THE EPARCH
Securing an Empire’s Borders
16. Constantine VII, GOVERNING THE EMPIRE
54 54 57
57
58
58
Emperor Basil II and the Apogee of Byzantine Power 60 17. Michael Psellus, THE CHRONOGRAPHIA
Dar al-Islam: From the Prophet to the Abbasids
Striving in the Way of God
8. Salvian, THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD
41
41
49
The Newcomers
27
40
13. THE ALTAR OF RATCHIS; A ROMAN SARCOPHAGUS 49
The Word of God
Why Have the Barbarians Triumphed?
34
34
Heavenly Portraits
Chapter 2 New Peoples in an Old Empire: Invasions and Settlements in the Western Roman Empire 25 26
29
29
18. THE QUR’AN 19. Imam al-Bukhari, THE AUTHENTIC [COLLECTION] OF AL-BUKHARI
60
63 64
64
68 68
vii
viii Contents The Dhimma: A Contract with People of the Book 20. THE PACT OF IBN MUSLAMA; THE PACT OF UMAR; Al-Nawawi, MANUAL of ISLAMIC LAW
Chapter 4 Saints, Monks, Bishops, and Popes
70 70
74
Charlemagne’s Government
32. Charles the Great, CAPITULARIES
A Pope’s Image of Papal-Frankish Relations 33. Pope Leo III’s Lateran Mosaics
Saints 75
The Later Carolingians
Casting Out Evil Spirits and Triumphing over Death in Sixth-Century Italy
Troubles for Charlemagne’s Grandsons
21. Pope Gregory I, DIALOGUES
Holy Asceticism and Sacred Solitude in NinthCentury Saxony 22. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN LIUTBIRG
75
75
78
78
Monks 83 Establishing a Monastic Community in Italy 23. THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT
The Heart and Soul of Celtic Monasticism
84
84
89
24. Adomnán, LIFE OF SAINT COLUMBA, FOUNDER OF HY; Saint Columban, THE MONKS’ RULE, THE CENOBITIC RULE, and THE PENITENTIAL 89
Bishops and Popes The Issue of Christian Authority
96 98
25. Pope Gelasius I, LETTER TO EMPEROR ANASTASIUS I
98
Guiding the Ship of Western Christendom
99
26. Pope Gregory I, LETTERS
99
A Conflict over Icons
104
Organizing a Church in Northern England
106
Converting Pagan Germans
109
27. Pope Gregory II, LETTER TO EMPEROR LEO III 104 28. The Venerable Bede, LETTER TO BISHOP ECGBERT 106
34. Nithard, FOUR BOOKS OF HISTORIES
The End of an Empire
35. Regino of Prüm, CHRONICLE
The Search for Peace and Security
36. THE PEACE OF GOD; THE TRUCE OF GOD
31. Charles the Great, LETTERS
118
128
132
132
139
139
142
The Ideal Eleventh-Century Vassal?
146
37. Odo of Cluny, THE LIFE OF THE MAN OF GOD, GERALD; Adémar of Chabannes, THE LIFE OF SAINT GERALD OF AURILLAC 142 38. Fulbert of Chartres, LETTER TO DUKE WILLIAM V OF AQUITAINE
146
England and the Ottonian Empire: New Monarchic Order
147
King Alfred’s Educational Program
148
Otto the Great and the Papacy
150
39. Alfred the Great, LETTER TO BISHOP WÆRFERTH 148 40. Liudprand of Cremona, CONCERNING KING OTTO 150
41. TWO CRUCIFIX IVORIES
118
128
The Ideal Tenth-Century Lord? The Ideal Eleventh-Century Lord?
112
Delivered with Authority
127
137
Chapter 5 The Carolingian Experiment
30. Einhard, THE LIFE OF CHARLES THE GREAT 114
125
Early France: A World of Local Lordship
The Ottonians and Byzantium
114
125
136
109
The Great Deeds of Charles the Great
121
Chapter 6 Restructuring and Reordering Europe: 850–1050
29. Willibald, LIFE of SAINT BONIFACE
Charlemagne 113
121
The Artistic Influence of Byzantium? Two Views of Byzantium
155 156
156
159
42. Liudprand of Cremona, RETRIBUTION and REPORT ON THE EMBASSY TO CONSTANTINOPLE 159
Contents ix Two Imperial Images
43. THE CROWNING OF OTTO II AND THEOPHANO and THE CROWNING OF ROMANOS AND EUDOKIA
Visions of the World A Woman of Genius and Three Women of Virtue 44. Roswitha of Gandersheim, DULCITIUS
Popular Religious Attitudes in Early EleventhCentury France 45. Ralph Glaber, FIVE BOOKS OF HISTORY
Part Two European Efflorescence and Expansion: 1050–1300
164
164
165 166
166
171
171
175
Chapter 7 Varieties of Religious Expression
177
The Different Faces of Piety
178
The Monastic Cult of Mary
178
46. Bernard of Clairvaux, SERMONS IN PRAISE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER
The Popular Cult of Mary
47. Jacques de Vitry, SERMONS FOR THE PEOPLE ACCORDING TO CLASS
Two Images of the Virgin’s Death
48. THE DARMSTADT KOIMÊSIS OF THE THEOTOKOS and THE STRASBOURG DORMITION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
178 181 181 183
183
Twelfth-Century Popular “Heresy”: The Waldensians 186 49. Stephen of Bourbon, A TREATISE ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS FOR SERMONS
186
Twelfth-Century Popular “Heresy”: The Cathars 188 50. Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay, THE ALBIGENSIAN HISTORY 188
The Franciscan Spirit
51. Francis of Assisi, TESTAMENT
191
191
The Drive to Create an Ordered Christian Society 194 Reforming Western Christendom
194
52. DECREES OF THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL 194
The Inquisitorial Process
200
Chapter 8 The Other Orders of Society
204
They Who Work the Land
205
53. Pseudo-David of Augsburg, ON THE INQUISITION OF HERETICS 200
Eleventh-Century Peasant Rights and Duties in the Rhineland
54. Burchard of Worms, THE LAW OF THE FAMILY OF THE CHURCH OF WORMS
206 206
Twelfth-Century Peasant Colonists beyond the Elbe
209
Thirteenth-Century Land Leases in Italy
211
55. Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen, CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES 209 56. TWO PADUAN LAND CONTRACTS
They Who Fight The Ideal Feudal Warrior?
57. THE SONG OF ROLAND
Feudal Law
211
213 214
214
217
58. Ranulf de Glanville, CONCERNING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND 217
Urban Dwellers
220
A Twelfth-Century Town along the Castilian Frontier 220 59. THE FUERO OF CUENCA
220
An English Guild of Merchants
223
60. ORDINANCES OF THE MERCHANT GUILD OF SOUTHAMPTON
Italian Communal Government
61. John of Viterbo, BOOK ON THE GOVERNMENT OF CITIES
Jewish Communities An Episcopal Grant to the Jews of Speyer
62. Rüdegar Huozman, CHARTER TO THE JEWS OF SPEYER
An Imperial Grant to the Jews of Worms
63. Emperor Frederick I, A CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES FOR THE JEWS OF WORMS
223 228 228
230 231 231 232 232
x Contents Images of “the Jew”
64. THE BAPTISMAL FOUNT OF THE CHURCH OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL, BOCHUM; ECCLESIA AND SYNAGOGA, STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL; THE SOUTH PORTAL, STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL
235
235
Chapter 9 Innovation and Diversity in Intellectual and Artistic Expression 238 Reason and Revelation in the Schools of Paris Understanding through Questioning 65. Peter Abelard, SIC ET NON
Thirteenth-Century Rational Theology
66. Thomas Aquinas, SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES
Ensuring Theological Correctness
67. A STATUTE OF 1272 OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS OF PARIS
240 241
241
243
68. Chrétien de Troyes, EREC AND ENIDE
The Art of Parody
69. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE MARKS OF SILVER
Romanesque and Gothic Art Virgin and Child: A Byzantine Triptych and a Romanesque Statue
248
248
A Middle Ground?
77. John Quidort ( John of Paris), ON ROYAL AND PAPAL POWER
78. THE ASSIZE OF CLARENDON
The Ideal King?
79. Jean de Joinville, THE BOOK OF THE HOLY WORDS AND GOOD DEEDS OF OUR KING, SAINT LOUIS
Limited Government in Spain, England, and Germany?
252
Representative Government in Spain
253
258 258
Temptation in Romanesque and Gothic Style
261
261
Chapter 10 Political Theory and Reality
266
Monarchs and Popes in Conflict
266
73. FOUR DOCUMENTS FROM THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY
76. Innocent III, SOLITAE
252
258
A Half Century That Shook the West
A Papal Rejoinder to the Byzantine Emperor
The King’s Justice
71. A VIRGIN AND CHRIST CHILD TRIPTYCH and NOTRE DAME LA BRUNE 72. Giselbertus, EVE; Anonymous, THE TEMPTATION IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN; and Anonymous, THE TEMPTER AND THE FOOLISH VIRGINS
75. THE SARCOPHAGUS OF BISHOP ADELOCHUS and THE INVESTITURE OF KING ROGER II
246 246
267 267
271
Investitures in the Wake of the Investiture Controversy 273
The Power of Monarchs
A Satirical Deconstruction of Jewish Blood Libel? 253 70. Richard of Devizes, THE CHRONICLE OF RICHARD OF DEVIZES FOR THE TIME OF KING RICHARD I
74. Anna Comnena, ALEXIAD
243
Literature 248 Courtly Romance
A Byzantine View of the Investiture Controversy 271
80. Alfonso IX, DECREES OF 1188; Alfonso X, ORDINANCES OF THE CORTES OF SEVILLE IN 1252; Pedro III, ORDINANCE OF 1283
Limitations on Royal Power in England 81. MAGNA CARTA
273 275
275
278 278
281 281
281
284
284
288 289
289 292
292
Limitations on Imperial Power in Germany
296
“What Affects All Should Be Approved by All”
298
82. Frederick II, STATUTE IN FAVOR OF THE PRINCES 296 83. Edward I, SUMMONS TO PARLIAMENT, 1295
298
Chapter 11 The Crusades: Expanding Europe’s Horizons
302
The Crusade: Ideal and Reality
304
Pope Urban’s Crusade
84. Pope Urban II, LETTERS TO FLANDERS AND BOLOGNA; Robert the Monk, HISTORY OF THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM
305
305
Contents xi Crusaders and Jews in the Rhineland
309
85. Ekkehard of Aura, THE JERUSALEMITE; Albert of Aachen, HISTORY OF THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM; THE MAINZ ANONYMOUS 309
The Capture of Jerusalem
86. THE DEEDS OF THE FRANKS AND OF THE OTHER PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM
Crusaders as Colonists The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
87. Fulcher of Chartres, A HISTORY OF THE JERUSALEM PILGRIMS
Franks and Muslims in the Latin East
88. Ibn Jubayr, AN ACCOUNT OF EVENTS THAT HAPPENED ON CERTAIN JOURNEYS
Crusade, Conversion, and Settlement in the Eastern Baltic 89. Henry of Livonia, CHRONICLE
The Mongols: A Challenge and an Opportunity “A Detestable Satanic People”
90. Matthew Paris, THE GREATER CHRONICLE: AN ENTRY FOR 1240; “IVO OF NARBONNE’S CONFESSION”; THE TARTAR FEAST
Saint Louis, Prester John, and the Tartars
91. Jean de Joinville, THE BOOK OF THE HOLY WORDS AND GOOD DEEDS OF OUR SAINTLY KING LOUIS
A Franciscan Missionary in China
92. John of Monte Corvino, LETTER TO THE WEST
Part Three Crisis, Retrenchment, Recovery, and a New World: 1300–1500
316 316
319 320 320 325 325 329
329
335 336
336 340
340 344
344
349
351
Explaining and Responding to Catastrophe
352
94. Henry Knighton, CHRONICLE
95. Saint Catherine of Siena, LETTERS
A New Challenger to the Papacy’s Authority
352
356
356
359 359
359
364
96. John Wycliff, CONCERNING THE POPE
364
The Hundred Years’ War and the English Peasant Rebellion
366
97. Jean Froissart, CHRONICLES OF FRANCE, ENGLAND, AND NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES
To Ransom a King
98. THE FRANC À CHEVAL
Social Commentary
366 373
373
374
Disorder in the Court
374
Fourteenth-Century English Society
377
99. Franco Sacchetti, THREE HUNDRED NOVELLAS 374 100. Geoffrey Chaucer, THE CANTERBURY TALES
The Study of Nature “People Can Encircle the Entire World” Does the Earth Revolve on Its Axis?
102. Nicholas Oresme, ON THE BOOK OF THE HEAVENS AND THE WORLD OF ARISTOTLE
Chapter 13: The Fifteenth Century: An Age of Rebirth?
377
386 386
386
390 390
393
The Late-Medieval Church and Christian Society 394 Conciliarism: Attack and Counterattack
103. The Council of Constance, HAEC SANCTA and FREQUENS; Pope Pius II, EXECRABILIS
Natural Disasters and Their Consequences
The Effects of the Plague in England
The Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism
101. THE BOOK OF JOHN MANDEVILLE
Chapter 12 The Fourteenth Century: Catastrophe and Creativity 350
93. Jean de Venette, CHRONICLE
Schism, Rebellion, and War
Beating the Drum of Unrest
104. Georg Widman, CHRONICLE; A WOODCUT FROM THE NUREMBERG CHRONICLE
Joan of Arc: Saint or Witch? Joan of Arc: An Agent of God
105. Christine de Pisan, DITIÉ DE JEHANNE D’ARC
395 395 398 398
402 403
403
Joan of Arc and Other Female Agents of the Devil 407 106. Johann Nider, FORMICARIUS
407
xii Contents
New Secular Rulers Louis XI: A Character Sketch
107. Philippe de Commynes, MEMOIRS
Lorenzo de’ Medici: Character Sketches in Words and Ceramic
108. Francesco Guicciardini, THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE; A BUST OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI
Arts and Letters Which Studies Should a Lady Humanist Pursue? 109. Leonardo Bruni, A TREATISE ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE
Visions of Life and Death
110. Martin Schongauer, THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS; The Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion, THE CRUCIFIXION
410
New Geographic Horizons
428
411
The Marvels of Nature
428
415
A New Colonial Venture into the Atlantic
430
411
415
420 421
111. Johann Bämler, WONDROUS FOUNTAINS AND PEOPLES 428 112. Jean de Béthencourt, V, THE CANARIAN
“The Great Victory That Our Lord Has Bestowed Upon My Voyage” 113. Christopher Columbus, LETTER ANNOUNCING THE DISCOVERY
421 425
425
Glossary 436 Image Credits 445
430
432 432
Acknowledgments Whatever its merits, this book owes much to many colleagues, and it would be poorer without their contributions. Blake R. Beattie of the University of Louisville introduced me to the delights of Franco Sacchetti’s wit and made available his translation of the novella that appears in these pages. Joseph F. O’Callaghan, professor emeritus at Fordham University, generously shared his translation of several texts relating to representative government in Spain. Aphrodite Papayianni of Birbeck College, University of London, has been my go-to colleague whenever I have a question regarding Byzantine history. Mohamed Adhikari of the University of Cape Town set me onto the Canarian, which chronicles one of Latin Europe’s earliest colonial ventures into the Atlantic. The two anonymous reviewers who read and commented on the penultimate version of this book offered several helpful suggestions. Throughout my career, I have been blessed with colleagues such as these, whose generous friendship is a gift. The interlibrary loan gurus of UVM’s Howe Library, Lisa Brooks and Sarah M. Paige, located and borrowed long-out-of-print texts that I thought no one could find. Without their assistance, I would not have been able to translate several sources that appear in this book. Likewise, Christina Krupp, Howe’s book acquisitions specialist, was zealous in tracking down and purchasing the many in-print books that my work required. Rick Todhunter of Hackett Publishing Company has been a tireless supporter of my effort to revise totally, even radically, this little book of sources, and I thank him for that support and friendship. Leslie Connor’s careful copyediting saved me from more than just a few embarrassing slips, inconsistencies, oversights, and typos. Liz Wilson, Hackett’s production director, has once again worked her magic in shepherding a manuscript into printed form. And Elana Rosenthal gently guided me through the humbling thickets of page proofs. I owe a special debt to two master historians who, so many years ago, laid the base for this book: my mentors, William M. Daly of Boston College, to whom this book is dedicated, and Brian Tierney of Cornell University. The only way in which I can ever repay them is to pass on the skills they taught and the passion for medieval history that they communicated in and outside the classroom. The person who has given me the greatest support is my wife, Juanita. She and our son and daughter, Peter Damian and Kristina Ladas, have made this work possible and worthwhile. The inevitable errors contained herein must fall solely on my head. A. J. A.
xiii
Topical Contents Agrarian Life
See Farmers and Farming
Asceticism
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem
316
Matthew Paris
336
Henry of Livonia
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
78
Jean de Joinville
The Penitential
89
John Wycliff
Cenobitic Rule Gregory I
Jean de Venette
Geoffrey Chaucer
(See also Religion: Penances, Sanctions, Absolution, and Indulgences)
Assault, Injury, and Homicide
89
Jean de Venette
99
Jean Froissart
352 377
340 352 364 366
Georg Widman
398
Christine de Pisan
403
Francesco Guicciardini
Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion
415
(See also Torture, Flogging, Mutilation, and Execution)
Gregory of Tours
34
The Penitential
89
Salic Law Code
329
41
Biography and Personality Pictures Sidonius Apollinaris Michael Psellus
425
29 60
Einhard 114
Adomnán 89
Peace of God; Truce of God
139
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
156
Ralph Glaber
Ralph Glaber
171
Jean de Joinville
Burchard of Worms
206
Matthew Paris
223
Geoffrey Chaucer
252
Philippe de Commynes
271
Bust of Lorenzo de’ Medici
305
Brigands and Brigandage
Charles the Great
121
Einhard 114
Adémar of Chabannes
142
Liudprand
Two Crucifix Ivories
Liudprand 159
Stephen of Bourbon
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Fulcher of Chartres
220
Jean Froissart
232
Georg Widman
253
Francesco Guicciardini
281
(See also Hagiography)
Fuero of Cuenca
Merchant Guild of Southampton Frederick I
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver Richard of Devizes Anna Comnena
Assize of Clarendon Robert the Monk
Ekkehard of Aura Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous
xiv
309 309 309
142
150, 159
171 186 284 320 336 366 377 398 411 415 415
Theodosian Code
10
Salic Law Code
41
Salvian 27
Topical Contents xv Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
78
Charles the Great
121
Peace of God; Truce of God
139
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Nithard 128 Adémar of Chabannes Burchard of Worms
Assize of Clarendon Frederick II
Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Jean Froissart
(See also Thieves and Theft)
Byzantium
Donation of Constantine Theodosian Code Barberini Ivory
San Vitale Mosaics Book of the Eparch Constantine VII Michael Psellus Gelasius I Gregory I
Gregory II
142 206 281 296 309
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver Jean de Joinville Alfonso X
366
Jean de Venette
10, 19 23 54 57 58 60 98 99
104
164 183 271 273
Solitae 275 305
Charity, Alms, and Gift-Giving
Lactantius 8 Eusebius 17 Constantine VII
248
329
Crowning of Romanos and Eudokia
Gregory of Tours
Chrétien de Troyes
Rüdegar Huozman
John of Monte Corvino
156
Robert the Monk
223
Henry of Livonia
Liudprand 159
Investiture of Roger II
Merchant Guild of Southampton
325
Two Crucifix Ivories
Anna Comnena
Liudprand 159
309
xiv
34 58
75
Einhard 114
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem
Einhard 114
Darmstadt Koimêsis
Gregory I
Geoffrey Chaucer
Children, Girls, and Boys
231 252
284, 340
289 316 329 344 352 377
Salic Law Code
41
Rule of Saint Benedict
84
Gregory I
75
Charles the Great
121
Alfred the Great
148
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes Burchard of Worms John of Viterbo
Richard of Devizes Magna Carta
Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette
Christine de Pisan
Francesco Guicciardini Martin Schongauer
Chivalry and Courtliness
142 206 228 253 292 309 309 344 352 403 415 425
Song of Roland
214
Jean Froissart
366
Chrétien de Troyes Geoffrey Chaucer
(See also Court Life and Manners)
248 377
xvi Topical Contents
Church, Roman Clergy, Clerical Privileges, and Authority
Gregory II
Peace of God; Truce of God
Donation of Constantine
xlv
Frescoes of San Silvestro
xlv
Gelasius I
98
Gregory IX
Theodosian Code
Charles the Great Lateran Mosaics
Peace of God; Truce of God Alfred the Great Francis of Assisi
Fourth Lateran Council Richard of Devizes Concordat of Worms John Quidort
Jean de Joinville Magna Carta Urban II
Robert the Monk
Fulcher of Chartres Henry of Livonia
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette
Henry Knighton
Geoffrey Chaucer Georg Widman
Councils and Synods Gregory I
Gregory II
xlv 19
118, 121 125 139 148 191 194
Stephen of Bourbon
186
Gregory VII
267
Fourth Lateran Council Jean de Joinville Urban II
Robert the Monk John Wycliff
Council of Constance Pius II
The Papacy
194 284 305 305 364 395 395 xlv
278
Frescoes of San Silvestro
xlv
292
Gregory I
99
305
Willibald 109
329
Charles the Great
352
Liudprand 150
377
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver
267
Gregory IX
284
Gelasius I
305
Gregory II
320
Einhard 114
344
Lateran Mosaics
356
Francis of Assisi
191
398
Dictatus Papae
267
99
104
Liudprand 159 Fourth Lateran Council
194
Anna Comnena
271
267
Rule of Saint Benedict
84
Gelasius I
98
The Penitential
Liudprand 159
Donation of Constantine
Willibald 109
Excommunication
139
253
Bede 106
Dictatus Papae
104
89
Gregory VII Henry IV
Anna Comnena
xlv 98
104
118 125
252 267 267 271
Solitae 275 John Quidort
278
Robert the Monk
305
Urban II
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette
Henry Knighton
Catherine of Siena John Wycliff
Council of Constance Pius II
305 344 352 356 359 364 395 395
Topical Contents xvii Reform of the Church Gregory I
99
Einhard 114
Charles the Great Lateran Mosaics
121
Fourth Lateran Council
194
Fourth Lateran Council
359
Four Documents from the Investiture Controversy
Dictatus Papae
Catherine of Siena John Wycliff
Council of Constance Christine de Pisan
Unworthy Clerics
148
Crowning of Otto II and Theophano; Crowning of Romanos and Eudokia
164
267
Pseudo-David of Augsburg
200
364 395 403
Rule of Saint Benedict
84
Gregory I
99
The Penitential
Charles the Great
89 121
Liudprand 150 Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver
252
Fourth Lateran Council Henry IV
Anna Comnena
Assize of Clarendon Jean de Venette
Henry Knighton
Catherine of Siena John Wycliff
Jean Froissart
Geoffrey Chaucer
(See also Hermits, Monks, Nuns, Canons, and Friars; Preaching and Preachers)
Church and State
194 267 271 281 352 356 359 364 366 377
Frescoes of San Silvestro
xlv
Theodosian Code
19
San Vitale Mosaics
54
xlv
Eusebius 17
Gelasius I
Gregory II
Sarcophagus of Adelochus Investiture of Roger II
23 98 99
194
267 271 273 273
Solitae 275 John Quidort
278
Magna Carta
292
Jean de Joinville Henry of Livonia
John of Monte Corvino Council of Constance Pius II
Cities, Towns, and Urban Life Aelius Aristides Theodosian Code
Sidonius Apollinaris
284 329 344 395 395 5
19 29
Cassiodorus 45 Gregory I
99
Liudprand 150 Strasbourg Dormition
183
Burchard of Worms
206
Stephen of Bourbon
Merchant Guild of Southampton xlv
Barberini Ivory
Anna Comnena
Fuero of Cuenca
Donation of Constantine Gregory IX
125
Liudprand 150
Charles the Great Alfred the Great
118, 121
John of Viterbo
Rüdegar Huozman Frederick I
Richard of Devizes Magna Carta Frederick II Edward I Urban II
Ekkehard of Aura Albert of Aachen
186 220 223 228 231 232 253 292 296 298 305 309 309
xviii Topical Contents The Mainz Anonymous
309
Chrétien de Troyes
Henry of Livonia
329
Jean de Joinville
Ibn Jubayr
Jean de Venette Jean Froissart
Franco Sacchetti
Geoffrey Chaucer
Francesco Guicciardini
Contracts, Charters, and Legal Documents Donation of Constantine Theodosian Code
325 352 366 374 377 415 xlv
10, 19
Cassiodorus 45 Book of the Eparch
57
Pact of Ibn Muslama; Pact of Umar; Al-Nawawi 70 Charles the Great
Peace of God; Truce of God Fulbert of Chartres
Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council Burchard of Worms
Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen Two Paduan Land Contracts Ranulf de Glanville
Merchant Guild of Southampton John of Viterbo
Rüdegar Huozman Frederick I
Concordat of Worms Jean de Joinville Alfonso IX Alfonso X Pedro III
Magna Carta
Henry of Livonia Jean Froissart
Franco Sacchetti Pius II
Court Life and Manners Sidonius Apollinaris San Vitale Mosaics Liudprand
118, 121 139 146 194 206 209 211 217 223 228 231 232 267 284 289 289 289 292 329 366 374 395
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver Jean Froissart
Johann Nider
Courts, Imperial, Royal, and Papal
54
105, 159
252
284, 340
366 407
Donation of Constantine
xlv
Sidonius Apollinaris
29
Frescoes of San Silvestro
xlv
Alfonso IX
289
Pedro III
289
Alfonso X
Magna Carta Edward I
John of Monte Corvino Jean Froissart Pius II
Philippe de Commynes
Crimes, Sins, Faults, and Punishment
289 292 298 344 366 395 411
Theodosian Code
10, 19
Salic Law Code
41
Cenobitic Rule
89
Salvian 27 Rule of Saint Benedict The Penitential
84 89
Charles the Great
121
Adémar of Chabannes
142
Peace of God; Truce of God
139
Liudprand 105 Jacques de Vitry
181
Pseudo-David of Augsburg
200
Fourth Lateran Council Burchard of Worms Fuero of Cuenca Frederick I
Statute of 1272
Chrétien de Troyes 29
248
Richard of Devizes
Giselbertus, Eve; Temptation in the Garden of Eden; The Tempter
194 206 220 232 246 248 253 261
Topical Contents xix Henry IV
Gregory VII
Assize of Clarendon Jean de Joinville Alfonso IX
Magna Carta Urban II
Robert the Monk
Ekkehard of Aura Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous Matthew Paris
Jean de Venette Jean Froissart
Geoffrey Chaucer Pius II
Georg Widman
Christine de Pisan Johann Nider
Philippe de Commynes
Francesco Guicciardini
(See also Assault, Injury, and Homicide; Brigands and Brigandage; Justice/Judicial Proceedings; Torture, Flogging, Mutilation, and Execution)
Crusade
267 267 281 284
Cultural Syncretism
See Syncretism, Cultural
Death and Dying
289
Sidonius Apollinaris
29
305
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
78
309
Peace of God
309
Roswitha of Gandersheim
352
Darmstadt Koimêsis; Strasbourg Dormition
183
377
Fourth Lateran Council
194
398
Song of Roland
407
Rüdegar Huozman
415
Richard of Devizes
292
Gregory I
305
Charles the Great
121
309
Two Crucifix Ivories
156
336
Ralph Glaber
366
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
395
Burchard of Worms
403
Merchant Guild of Southampton
411
Baptismal Font in Bochum Magna Carta
Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem
Fourth Lateran Council
194
Fulcher of Chartres
Robert the Monk
305
Jean de Venette
309
Jean Froissart
Urban II
Ekkehard of Aura Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Fulcher of Chartres Henry of Livonia Jean de Joinville
Catherine of Siena Geoffrey Chaucer
Christine de Pisan The Canarian
(See also War: Holy War)
305
Matthew Paris
309
Henry Knighton
309
Franco Sacchetti
316
Francesco Guicciardini
319 329 340 359 377 403 430
Philippe de Commynes Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion
The Devil, Demons, Diabolical Agents, and Antichrist Gregory I
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
75
139 166 171 188 206 214 223 231 235 253 292 309 309 316 320 336 352 356 366 374 411 415 425
75 78
Adomnán 89 Gregory II
104
xx Topical Contents Bede 106 Willibald 109 Einhard 114 Charles the Great
121
Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Jacques de Vitry
181
Liudprand 150 Ralph Glaber
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay Fourth Lateran Council Richard of Devizes
Giselbertus, Eve; Temptation in the Garden of Eden; The Tempter Matthew Paris
Jean de Joinville
Catherine of Siena John Wycliff
Jean Froissart
Johann Nider
171 188 194 253 261 336 340 359 364 366 407
Deviance and Debauchery
Tertullian 15 Salvian 27 Al-Nawawi 70 Gregory I
Rule of Saint Benedict The Penitential
75, 99 84 89
Charles the Great
121
Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Liudprand 105 Jacques de Vitry
Fourth Lateran Council Fuero of Cuenca
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver Richard of Devizes Jean de Joinville
Albert of Aachen Matthew Paris
Geoffrey Chaucer John Mandeville Georg Widman
181 194 220 252 253 284 309 336 377 386 398
Johann Nider
(See also, Crimes, Sins, Faults, and Punishment)
Disease
407
Sidonius Apollinaris
29
Gregory I
75
Adomnán 89 Francis of Assisi
191
Jean de Venette
352
Merchant Guild of Southampton Henry Knighton Johann Bämler
223 356 428
Economic Activity Banking
Rüdegar Huozman
231
Geoffrey Chaucer
377
Frederick I
Francesco Guicciardini Craft and Manufacture Aelius Aristides Theodosian Code
Book of the Eparch
Richard of Devizes Alfonso X
Money, Inflation/Deflation Jean de Venette
Henry Knighton Money, Minting Frederick II
Franc à cheval Real Estate
Jean de Venette
Henry Knighton
232 415 5
10 57
253 289 352 356 296 373 352 356
Regulation
Lactantius 8 Theodosian Code
Book of the Eparch
Merchant Guild of Southampton
10 57
223
Topical Contents xxi Alfonso X
Magna Carta Frederick II Ibn Jubayr
Henry Knighton Trade
289 292 296 325 356 5
Theodosian Code
10
Book of the Eparch
Donation of Constantine
xlv
Frescoes of San Silvestro
xlv
Gregory IX
Aelius Aristides
xlv 5
Lactantius 8
Aelius Aristides
Two Mosaics at Ostia
Empires and Imperial Authority
5
Theodosian Code Barberini Ivory
10, 19 23
Cassiodorus 45 San Vitale Mosaics
54
231
Michael Psellus
60
325
Gelasius I
377
Gregory II
57
Merchant Guild of Southampton
223
Constantine VII
Frederick I
232
Pact of Umar
329
Gregory I
432
Einhard 114
Rüdegar Huozman Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia
Geoffrey Chaucer
Christopher Columbus Usury
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Jean de Joinville
284
Fourth Lateran Council
(See also Government: Taxes, Tithes, and Rents)
Education
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg Rule of Saint Benedict
194
78 84
Einhard 114 Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes Alfred the Great Francis of Assisi
Fourth Lateran Council Peter Abelard
Thomas Aquinas Statute of 1272
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette
Philippe de Commynes Francesco Guicciardini Leonardo Bruni
118 142 148 191 194 241 243 246 344 352 411 415 421
70 98 99
104
118, 121
Nithard 128 Regino of Prüm Liudprand
Crowning of Otto II and Theophano; Crowning of Romanos and Eudokia Roswitha of Gandersheim
Bede 106 Charles the Great
Charles the Great
58
Frederick I Henry IV
132
150, 159
164 166 232 267
Solitae 275 Frederick II
296
John of Monte Corvino
344
Jean de Joinville
John Mandeville
Estates, Management of Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
340 386
78
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
142
Two Paduan Land Contracts
211
Burchard of Worms Frederick I
Magna Carta
Fulcher of Chartres Ibn Jubayr
Henry Knighton
206 232 292 320 325 356
xxii Topical Contents Jean Froissart
John Mandeville
Fables, Legends, Myths, and Rumors
366 386
Donation of Constantine
xlv
Ralph Glaber
171
Liudprand 150 Song of Roland
Richard of Devizes Ekkehard of Aura Matthew Paris
Jean de Joinville
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette Jean Froissart
John Mandeville Georg Widman Johann Bämler
Christopher Columbus
(See also Magic and Sorcery; Prophecy, Visions, Portents, and Divination; Prester John)
Famine
Sidonius Apollinaris
214 253 309 336 340 344 352 366 386 398 428 432
Families
29
352
10
Salic Law Code
41
The Penitential
34 89
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
142
Burchard of Worms
206
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay Song of Roland
Ranulf de Glanville Fuero of Cuenca
Jean de Joinville Magna Carta
Robert the Monk Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous
Jean de Venette
352
John of Monte Corvino Franco Sacchetti
Philippe de Commynes Francesco Guicciardini Martin Schongauer
Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion (See also Women: Mothers)
Farmers and Farming
188 214 217 220 284 292 305 309 309
344 374 411 415 425 425
Aelius Aristides
5
Theodosian Code
10
Lactantius 8 Peace of God
139
Ralph Glaber
171
Adémar of Chabannes Burchard of Worms
Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen Two Paduan Land Contracts Frederick II
Theodosian Code
Gregory of Tours
320
Magna Carta
Liudprand 150 Jean de Venette
Fulcher of Chartres
Ibn Jubayr
Henry Knighton Jean Froissart
John Mandeville
Christopher Columbus
Feudalism, Fiefs, Lords, and Vassals
142 206 209 211 292 296 325 356 366 386 432
Charles the Great
118
Adémar of Chabannes
142
Peace of God
Fulbert of Chartres
Fourth Lateran Council Burchard of Worms Song of Roland
Ranulf de Glanville Chrétien de Troyes Concordat of Worms
Sarcophagus of Adelochus Magna Carta Frederick II
139 146 194 206 214 217 248 267 273 292 296
Topical Contents xxiii Edward I
298
Gregory of Tours
Jean Froissart
366
Cassiodorus 45
Fulcher of Chartres Geoffrey Chaucer
320 377
“Fringe Peoples” Atlantic and Caribbean Peoples The Canarian
Christopher Columbus
430 432
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem
416
Ibn Jubayr
325
Avars
Regino of Prüm
Baltic Peoples
Henry of Livonia
Bretons
Regino of Prüm
Bulgars/Bulgarians Constantine VII Michael Psellus
Regino of Prüm
320
132
Matthew Paris
John Mandeville Eastern Christians
Gregory I
Charles the Great
Indian Ocean Peoples Barberini Ivory
Henry Knighton John Mandeville Magyars
Regino of Prüm
329
Mixed or Unidentified Cultures Theodosian Code
132
Two Crucifix Ivories Mongols (“Tartars”)
58 60
356 386 132
132
336 386
305 325 329 344
Salvian 27 29
156
344
Henry Knighton John Mandeville
Pechenegs (Patzinaks) Constantine VII Regino of Prüm
Constantine VII
340 356 386 58
132 58
Nithard 128 Liudprand 159
Scythians (generic Central Asian nomads) Barberini Ivory
Germanic Peoples
10
John of Monte Corvino
Jean de Joinville
Slavs
Sidonius Apollinaris
23
336
320
(See also Byzantium)
118, 121
Matthew Paris
Fulcher of Chartres
John of Monte Corvino
104
Nithard 128
Rus’
Henry of Livonia
99
Einhard 114
305
Ibn Jubayr
49
Willibald 109
Urban II
Robert the Monk
41
Liudprand 159
Liudprand 159 Cannibals
Altar of Ratchis Gregory II
Arabs
Fulcher of Chartres
Salic Law Code
34
Turks
Constantine VII
23 58
xxiv Topical Contents Urban II
Robert the Monk
305 305
Vikings
Nithard 128 Regino of Prüm
Frontiers
Aelius Aristides
132
5
Theodosian Code
10
Constantine VII
58
Barberini Ivory
23
Einhard 114 Charles the Great Song of Roland
Fuero of Cuenca
Fulcher of Chartres Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Matthew Paris
Jean de Joinville
Geoffrey Chaucer The Canarian
Christopher Columbus
121 214 220 320 325 329 336 340 377 430 432
Government Administration
Theodosian Code
10, 19
Lactantius 8 29
Cassiodorus 45 Merchant Guild of Southampton John of Viterbo
Jean de Joinville Alfonso X Pedro III
Jean Froissart
John Mandeville
Philippe de Commynes Francesco Guicciardini
Constantine VII
58
Einhard 114 Liudprand 159 Fuero of Cuenca
220
Francesco Guicciardini
415
Jean de Joinville
Political Theory
340
Donation of Constantine
xlv
Frescoes of San Silvestro
xlv
Charles the Great
118
Gregory IX
San Vitale Mosaics
Crowning of Otto II and Theophano; Crowning of Romanos and Eudokia John of Viterbo Dictatus Papae Henry IV
Anna Comnena
xlv 54
164 228 267 267 271
Solitae 275 John Quidort Edward I
278 298
Einhard 114
5
Charles the Great
Cassiodorus 45
Rebellion
Aelius Aristides
Sidonius Apollinaris
Foreign Relations
118, 121 223 228 284 289 289 366 386 411 415
Charles the Great
121
Regino of Prüm
132
Jean de Joinville
340
Pius II
395
Nithard 128 Liudprand 150 Jean Froissart
Christine de Pisan
Philippe de Commynes
366 403 411
State Building
Lactantius 8 Cassiodorus 45 Charles the Great
118, 121
Liudprand 155 Assize of Clarendon
281
Topical Contents xxv Magna Carta
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Jean de Joinville Georg Widman
Francesco Guicciardini
292 316 340 398 415
Taxes, Tithes, and Rents
Hermits, Monks, Nuns, Canons, and Friars Life of the Virgin Liutbirg Rule of Saint Benedict
78 84
Adomnán 89 Monks’ Rule of Saint Columban
89
The Penitential
89
Cenobitic Rule
89
Lactantius 8
Bede 106
Salvian 27
Charles the Great
121
Pact of Ibn Muslama
Jacques de Vitry
181
Theodosian Code
Book of the Eparch
10, 19 57 70
Willibald 109 Peace of God
Al-Nawawi 70
Francis of Assisi
Ralph Glaber
171
Jean de Joinville
209
Urban II
223
Henry of Livonia
232
Jean de Venette
Peace of God; Truce of God
139
Assize of Clarendon
Burchard of Worms
206
Edward I
211
Fulcher of Chartres
231
John of Monte Corvino
Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen Two Paduan Land Contracts
Merchant Guild of Southampton Rüdegar Huozman Frederick I
Jean de Joinville Magna Carta
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Henry Knighton Jean Froissart
Geoffrey Chaucer Georg Widman
Hagiography
284, 340 292 316 325 329 356 366 377 398
Geoffrey Chaucer
139 191 281
284, 340
298 305 320 329 344 352 377
Homicide
See Assault, Injury, and Homicide
Invasion
Sidonius Apollinaris
29
Gregory I
99
Gregory of Tours
34
Einhard 114 Nithard 128 Liudprand 150
Gregory of Tours
34
Song of Roland
214
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
78
Robert the Monk
305
Gregory I
75
Urban II
Adomnán 89
Albert of Aachen
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem
Willibald 109 Jean de Joinville
The Mainz Anonymous
142
284, 340 309
The Mainz Anonymous
Fulcher of Chartres Henry of Livonia
305 309 309 316 320 329
xxvi Topical Contents Matthew Paris
336
Alfonso X
289
Jean Froissart
366
Albert of Aachen
309
Jean de Joinville Christine de Pisan The Canarian
340 403 430
Islam and Muslims
Qur’an 64 Al-Bukhari 68
Pact of Ibn Muslama; Pact of Umar; Al-Nawawi 70 Einhard 114 Liudprand
Ralph Glaber
Fourth Lateran Council Song of Roland
Fuero of Cuenca Alfonso X Urban II
Robert the Monk
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Fulcher of Chartres Ibn Jubayr
Jean de Joinville
Henry Knighton
Christine de Pisan The Canarian
Judaism and Jews
150, 159 171 194 214 220 289 305 305 316 320 325 340 356 403 430
19
Gregory I
99
Qur’an 64
Ralph Glaber
Fourth Lateran Council Fuero of Cuenca
Rüdegar Huozman Frederick I
Baptismal Fount in Bochum
156 171 194 220 231 232 235
Ecclesia; Synagoga 235 Richard of Devizes Jean de Joinville
The Mainz Anonymous Matthew Paris
Rintfleisch Massacres Jean de Venette
Henry Knighton
253 284
309 309 336 350 352 356
Justice/Judicial Proceedings
Tertullian 15 Salic Law Code
41
Cassiodorus 45 Charles the Great
121
Fulbert of Chartres
146
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
142
Liudprand 150 Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Stephen of Bourbon
186
Ralph Glaber
Fourth Lateran Council
Pseudo-David of Augsburg Burchard of Worms
Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen Ranulf de Glanville Fuero of Cuenca
Merchant Guild of Southampton John of Viterbo
Theodosian Code
Two Crucifix Ivories
Ekkehard of Aura
Rüdegar Huozman Frederick I
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver Richard of Devizes
Assize of Clarendon Jean de Joinville Alfonso IX Alfonso X Pedro III
Magna Carta Frederick II
John of Monte Corvino Henry Knighton
171 194 200 206 209 217 220 223 228 231 232 252 253 281 284 289 289 289 292 296 344 356
Topical Contents xxvii Jean Froissart
366
Willibald 109
Georg Widman
398
Peace of God; Truce of God
139
Pseudo-David of Augsburg
200
Franco Sacchetti Johann Nider
Philippe de Commynes Francesco Guicciardini
(See also Law and Jurisprudence)
Kingdoms and Kingship
374 407 411 415
Fourth Lateran Council Dictatus Papae
29
Salic Law Code
41
34
121 194 267
Solitae 275 Council of Constance
Sidonius Apollinaris Gregory of Tours
Charles the Great
Pius II
Rules of Religious Communities
395 395
Rule of Saint Benedict
84
Adomnán 89
Cenobitic Rule
89
Charles the Great
Francis of Assisi
Cassiodorus 45
Monks’ Rule of Saint Columban
Einhard 114
The Penitential
Lateran Mosaics
Geoffrey Chaucer
Alfred the Great Liudprand
Ranulf de Glanville Henry IV
Anna Comnena John Quidort
Assize of Clarendon Jean de Joinville Alfonso IX
Magna Carta Frederick II Edward I
Fulcher of Chartres Ibn Jubayr
John of Monte Corvino Jean Froissart
Franc à cheval
Christine de Pisan
Philippe de Commynes
118, 121 125 148
150, 159 217 267 271 278 281 284 289 292 296 298 320 325 344 366 373 403 411
Law and Jurisprudence Canon Law
Theodosian Code Salic Law Code
89
191 377 10, 19 41
Charles the Great
121
Burchard of Worms
206
Truce of God
Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen Ranulf de Glanville Fuero of Cuenca
Merchant Guild of Southampton Rüdegar Huozman Frederick I
Assize of Clarendon Jean de Joinville Alfonso IX Alfonso X
Magna Carta
Jean Froissart
Franco Sacchetti
139 209 217 220 223 231 232 281 284 289 289 292 366 374
Shari’a (Islamic Religious Law)
Al-Bukhari 68
Cenobitic Rule
89
Gregory I
99
The Penitential
Secular Law and Regulations
89
89
Al-Nawawi 70 University Regulations Statute of 1272
246
xxviii Topical Contents (See also Justice/Judicial Proceedings; Torture, Flogging, Mutilation, and Execution)
Lactantius 8 Eusebius 17 23
Salvian 27 Sidonius Apollinaris
29
Mosaic of Justinian
54
Gregory of Tours Michael Psellus
34 60
Einhard 114 Nithard 128 Adémar of Chabannes Liudprand
Song of Roland
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver Anna Comnena Jean de Joinville
Fulcher of Chartres
John of Monte Corvino Jean Froissart
Christine de Pisan
Philippe de Commynes Francesco Guicciardini
Magic and Sorcery
142
150, 159 214 252 271
284, 340 320 344 366 403 411 415
Salic Law Code
41
The Penitential
89
Adomnán 89 Willibald 109 Charles the Great
121
Richard of Devizes
253
Roswitha of Gandersheim John of Monte Corvino Johann Nider
Merchants
Two Mosaics at Ostia Book of the Eparch Peace of God
Merchant Guild of Southampton
228
Frederick I
232
Rüdegar Huozman
Leadership, Evaluations of
Barberini Ivory
John of Viterbo
166 344 407
5
57
139 223
Magna Carta
Henry of Livonia
Geoffrey Chaucer John Mandeville
(See also Economic Activity)
Miracles and Wonders
231 292 329 377 386
Gregory of Tours
34
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
78
Gregory I
75
Adomnán 89 Liudprand 150 Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Fulcher of Chartres
320
Jacques de Vitry Jean de Venette
Georg Widman
Christine de Pisan Johann Bämler
(See also Magic and Sorcery; Prophecy, Visions, Portents, and Divination)
Missionaries Gregory I
181 352 398 403 428
99
Bede 106 Willibald 109 Henry of Livonia
329
John of Monte Corvino
344
Jean de Joinville
(See also Preaching and Preachers)
340
Monks
See Hermits, Monks, Nuns, Canons, and Friars.
Nature and the Natural Order John Mandeville
386
Johann Bämler
428
Nicholas Oresme
390
Topical Contents xxix
Nuns
Outlaws
Salvian 27
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg 78 Adémar of Chabannes
142
Assize of Clarendon
281
Frederick II
Jean Froissart
(See also Brigands and Brigandage)
232 296 366
Peace Benefits of
Aelius Aristides
296
Henry of Livonia
329
Robert the Monk
See Hermits, Monks, Nuns, Canons, and Friars.
Frederick I
Frederick II
Jean de Joinville
Catherine of Siena Christine de Pisan
Francesco Guicciardini
Charles the Great
121
Ralph Glaber
171
Francis of Assisi
23
Robert the Monk
Constantine VII
Albert of Aachen
Francesco Guicciardini Search for and Instruments of
148 415
Salic Law Code
41
Constantine VII
58
Cassiodorus 45 Pact of Ibn Muslama; Pact of Umar
70
Einhard 114
415
Einhard114
Urban II
Alfred the Great
403
Saint Martin’s Cross, Iona 90
5
Nithard 128
359
Al-Bukhari 68
Truce of God
58
340
Pilgrim/Pilgrimage
Eusebius 17 Barberini Ivory
305
The Mainz Anonymous
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Fulcher of Chartres Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Jean Froissart
Geoffrey Chaucer Georg Widman
(See also Crusade)
139 191 305 305 309 309 316 320 325 329 366 377 398
Charles the Great
121
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
142
Ralph Glaber
171
206
Jacques de Vitry
181
223
Pseudo-David of Augsburg
267
Henry of Livonia
289
John Wycliff
292
Geoffrey Chaucer
Peace of God; Truce of God Francis of Assisi
Burchard of Worms Fuero of Cuenca
Merchant Guild of Southampton John of Viterbo
Concordat of Worms
Assize of Clarendon Alfonso IX Pedro III
Magna Carta
139
Preaching and Preachers
191
Bernard of Clairvaux
220
Stephen of Bourbon
228
Robert the Monk
281
John of Monte Corvino
289
Jean Froissart
178 186 200 305 329 344 364 366 377
xxx Topical Contents Georg Widman
Nuremberg Chronicle
(See also Missionaries)
Prester John
398 398
340
John Mandeville
386
The Canarian
Prophecy, Visions, Portents, and Divination Life of the Virgin Liutbirg Adomnán
344 430
Adomnán 89 Gregory II
Einhard 114 Charles the Great
121
Stephen of Bourbon
186
89
Francis of Assisi
121
Albert of Aachen
309
Fulcher of Chartres
340
Jean de Joinville
398
Christopher Columbus
Ekkehard of Aura
Robert the Monk
305
The Mainz Anonymous
320
Henry of Livonia
352
John of Monte Corvino
Ekkehard of Aura
Fulcher of Chartres Jean de Joinville Jean de Venette
Georg Widman
Christine de Pisan Johann Nider
(See also Miracles and Wonders)
Relics
403 407
xlii
Altar of Ratchis
49
Gregory I
34 75
Urban II
305
The Mainz Anonymous
309
Robert the Monk
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Fulcher of Chartres Georg Widman
305
Donation of Constantine Gregory of Tours
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
191 309 309 309 320 329 340 344 432 78
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
142
Bernard of Clairvaux
178
Two Crucifix Ivories Jacques de Vitry
Stephen of Bourbon
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay Francis of Assisi
Fourth Lateran Council
Baptismal Fount in Bochum
316
Virgin and Christ Child Triptych
398
Jean de Joinville
320
Religion Conversion
Devotion and Piety
171
Einhard 114
Reliquary of Charlemagne Gregory of Tours
104
Willibald 109
Willibald 109 Charles the Great
99
Bede 106
Ralph Glaber 78
70
Al-Nawawi 70 Gregory I
Jean de Joinville
John of Monte Corvino
Pact of Ibn Muslama
Notre Dame la Brune Urban II
Robert the Monk
The Mainz Anonymous xlv
34
Qur’an 64
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Ibn Jubayr
156 181 186 188 191 194 235 258 258 284 305 305 309 316 325
Topical Contents xxxi Geoffrey Chaucer
377
Martin Schongauer
425
Georg Widman
Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion Faith and Doctrine Theodosian Code
398 425 19
Qur’an 64 Al-Bukhari 68
Bede 106 Einhard 114 Regino of Prüm
132
Stephen of Bourbon
186
Bernard of Clairvaux Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay Francis of Assisi
Fourth Lateran Council
Pseudo-David of Augsburg Peter Abelard
Thomas Aquinas Statute of 1272
Jean de Joinville
John of Monte Corvino Christine de Pisan Heresy
Theodosian Code
178 188 191 194 200 241 243 246
284, 340 344 403 19
Willibald 109 Liudprand 159 Ralph Glaber
171
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Stephen of Bourbon
Fourth Lateran Council
Pseudo-David of Augsburg Statute of 1272
Assize of Clarendon Urban II
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette
John Mandeville Georg Widman
Christine de Pisan Johann Nider
186 194 200 246 281 305 344 352 386 398 403 407
Humor
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Richard of Devizes
253
Gospel according to the Marks of Silver Geoffrey Chaucer Georg Widman
Penances, Sanctions, Absolution, and Indulgences Cenobitic Rule
The Penitential
252 377 398 89 89
Gregory II
104
Peace of God; Truce of God
139
Francis of Assisi
191
Charles the Great
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay Fourth Lateran Council
Pseudo-David of Augsburg Song of Roland
Statute of 1272 Urban II
Robert the Monk Jean de Venette
Henry Knighton
Catherine of Siena John Wycliff
Geoffrey Chaucer Pius II
Philippe de Commynes
121 188 194 200 214 246 305 305 352 356 359 364 377 395 411
Persecution
Lactantius 8 Tertullian 15 Eusebius 17 Theodosian Code
19
Gregory of Tours
34
Sidonius Apollinaris
29
Qur’an 64 Gregory I
99
Charles the Great 121 Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Stephen of Bourbon
186
Ralph Glaber
Fourth Lateran Council
171 194
xxxii Topical Contents Pseudo-David of Augsburg
200
Urban II
305
Anna Comnena
271
Ibn Jubayr
325
Richard of Devizes
Assize of Clarendon Urban II
Robert the Monk
Ekkehard of Aura Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette Johann Nider
Popular Belief and Practices
253 281 305 305 309 309 309 344 352 407
Gregory of Tours
34
Gregory I
99
Salic Law Code
41
Charles the Great
121
Jacques de Vitry
181
Ralph Glaber
Stephen of Bourbon
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay Ibn Jubayr
Matthew Paris
Jean de Venette
Georg Widman
171 186 188 325 336 352 398
Fulcher of Chartres Henry of Livonia Matthew Paris
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette
Henry Knighton
Geoffrey Chaucer Schism
Stephen of Bourbon Anna Comnena
320 329 336 344 352 356 377 186 271
Solitae 275 Urban II
305
John of Monte Corvino
344
Henry of Livonia
Catherine of Siena John Wycliff Pius II
329 359 364 395
Toleration
Qur’an 64
Pact of Ibn Muslama; Pact of Umar; Al-Nawawi 70 Gregory I
99
Bede 106 Fuero of Cuenca
220
Al-Bukhari 68
Frederick I
232
Al-Nawawi 70
John of Monte Corvino
Ritual and Sacraments
Mosaics of Justinian and Theodora Pact of Umar Gregory I
54
Rüdegar Huozman
70
Fulcher of Chartres
75, 99
Einhard 114 Charles the Great
121
Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Alfred the Great
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay Francis of Assisi
Fourth Lateran Council
Pseudo-David of Augsburg Song of Roland
Richard of Devizes
148
Unbelievers
Theodosian Code
Gregory of Tours
231 320 344 19 34
Qur’an 64
188
Pact of Ibn Muslama; Pact of Umar; Al-Nawawi 70
194
Gregory I
191 200 214 253
Adomnán 89 99
Gregory II
104
Charles the Great
121
Willibald 109
Topical Contents xxxiii Nithard 128
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
142
Ralph Glaber
Bernard of Clairvaux
178
Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Fourth Lateran Council Song of Roland
Fuero of Cuenca
Rüdegar Huozman Frederick I
Baptismal Fount in Bochum Ecclesia; Synagoga
Richard of Devizes Jean de Joinville Urban II
Robert the Monk
Ekkehard of Aura Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Matthew Paris
John of Monte Corvino Jean de Venette
Catherine of Siena Christine de Pisan The Canarian
Christopher Columbus
Saints and Sanctity
Reliquary of Charlemagne Two Crucifix Ivories
Darmstadt Koimêsis; Strasbourg Dormition The Mainz Anonymous
The Power and Authority of Saints Donation of Constantine Gregory of Tours Gregory I
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
171 194 214 220 231 232 235 235 253
284, 340 305 305 309 309 309
Roswitha of Gandersheim Jacques de Vitry
Virgin and Christ Child Triptych Notre Dame la Brune Jean de Joinville
Christine de Pisan
(See also Hagiography)
Serfs, Servants, Slaves, Servitude, and Slavery Theodosian Code Salic Law Code
166 181 258 258 284 403
10 41
Cassiodorus 45 Book of the Eparch Pact of Umar
57 70
Al-Nawawi 70 Rule of Saint Benedict
84
Charles the Great
121
325
Peace of God
139
336
Burchard of Worms
352
Two Paduan Land Contracts
403
Rüdegar Huozman
432
Magna Carta
316
Regino of Prüm
329
Adémar of Chabannes
344
Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen
359
Fuero of Cuenca
430
Frederick I
xlii
156
183
309 xlv
34 75 78
Adomnán 89 Willibald 109
Frederick II Urban II
Robert the Monk
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Matthew Paris
John of Monte Corvino Henry Knighton Jean Froissart
Christine de Pisan
Christopher Columbus
132 142 206 209 211 220 231 232 292 296 305 305 316 325 329 336 344 356 366 403 432
xxxiv Topical Contents
Settlement of Land
Franc à cheval
373
Georg Widman
398
Tricensimae lii
Geoffrey Chaucer
Salvian 27
Christine de Pisan
Pact of Ibn Muslama; Pact of Umar
(See also War)
Theodosian Code
10
Cassiodorus 45
70
Bede 106 Einhard 114 Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen
209
Fulcher of Chartres
320
Rüdegar Huozman
231
Henry of Livonia
329
The Canarian
430
Christopher Columbus
432
Soldiers, Armies, Fortifications, and Military Life
Philippe de Commynes
Syncretism, Cultural
377 403 411
Aelius Aristides
5
Barberini Ivory
23
Salic Law Code
41
Eusebius 17 Sidonius Apollinaris
29
Cassiodorus 45 Altar of Ratchis Gregory I
49 99
Theodosian Code
10
Bede 106
Michael Psellus
60
Einhard 114
Gregory of Tours Charles the Great Peace of God
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
34 118
Charles the Great
121
142
Crowning of Otto II and Theophano; Crowning of Romanos and Eudokia
164
139
Liudprand 150 Two Crucifix Ivories
156
Ranulf de Glanville
217
Song of Roland
Fuero of Cuenca
Rüdegar Huozman Chrétien de Troyes Jean de Joinville Magna Carta Frederick II
Robert the Monk
Ekkehard of Aura Albert of Aachen
The Mainz Anonymous
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Matthew Paris Jean Froissart
Willibald 109
214 220 231 248
284, 340 292 296 305 309 309 309 316 325 329 336 366
Two Crucifix Ivories
156
Darmstadt Koimêsis; Strasbourg Dormition
183
Thomas Aquinas
243
Peter Abelard
Statute of 1272
Virgin and Christ Child Triptych Notre Dame la Brune
Investiture of Roger II Fulcher of Chartres Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Jean de Joinville
John of Monte Corvino Francesco Guicciardini
Thieves and Theft
241 246 258 258 273 320 325 329 340 344 415
Burchard of Worms
206
Frederick I
232
Fuero of Cuenca
Assize of Clarendon
220 281
Topical Contents xxxv Jean de Joinville
284
Michael Psellus
60
Henry of Livonia
329
Gregory I
99
Albert of Aachen
(See also Brigands and Brigandage)
309
Tertullian 15 Theodosian Code
19
Salic Law Code
41
Book of the Eparch
Charles the Great
Einhard 114 Nithard 128
Torture, Flogging, Mutilation, and Execution
Gregory of Tours
Adomnán 89
34 57
121
Jean Froissart
Johann Nider
366 407
Holy War
Eusebius 17 Barberini Ivory
Gregory of Tours
23 34
142
Qur’an 64
Two Crucifix Ivories
156
Charles the Great
118
Fourth Lateran Council
194
Urban II
305
206
Ekkehard of Aura
Adémar of Chabannes
Liudprand 150
Al-Bukhari 68
Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Song of Roland
200
Robert the Monk
220
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem
Pseudo-David of Augsburg Burchard of Worms Fuero of Cuenca Frederick I
Baptismal Fount in Bochum Anna Comnena
Assize of Clarendon Robert the Monk
The Mainz Anonymous
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem Matthew Paris
Jean de Venette Jean Froissart
Georg Widman Johann Nider
Philippe de Commynes
Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion
232 235 271 281 305 309 316
(See also Crusade)
316 329 377 403
Tactics, Strategy, and Weapons
Einhard 114
366
The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem
316
407
Jean de Joinville
340
352 398 411 425
Liudprand 150
Fulcher of Chartres Jean Froissart
Geoffrey Chaucer Georg Widman The Canarian
Christopher Columbus
War
Gregory of Tours
Christine de Pisan
309
142
See Justice/Judicial Proceedings
Sidonius Apollinaris
Geoffrey Chaucer
305
Odo of Cluny; Adémar of Chabannes
336
Trial
Effects of War
Henry of Livonia
214
Treaties
Gregory of Tours
29 34
Constantine VII
320 366 377 398 430 432 34 58
Einhard 114
xxxvi Topical Contents Liudprand 159 Song of Roland
214
Chrétien de Troyes
248
Fuero of Cuenca
Henry of Livonia Jean de Joinville
John Mandeville
220 329 340 386
War as an Instrument of Statecraft
Eusebius 17 Constantine VII Michael Psellus
58 60
Einhard 114 Nithard 128
Liudprand 150 Alfonso IX
289
Fulcher of Chartres
320
Edward I
Matthew Paris Jean Froissart
298 336 366
Mosaic of Theodora
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
Crowning of Otto II and Theophano; Crowning of Romanos and Eudokia The Mainz Anonymous Ibn Jubayr
Catherine of Siena Geoffrey Chaucer
Christine de Pisan Crimes against Salic Law Code
Cultural Roles
142
Chrétien de Troyes
248
Ranulf de Glanville Jean de Joinville
Leonardo Bruni
78
178
Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay
188
Jacques de Vitry Fuero of Cuenca
Richard of Devizes
Giselbertus, Eve; Temptation in the Garden of Eden; The Tempter Jean de Joinville Alfonso X
Albert of Aachen
Heroic Women
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
220 253 261 284 289 309 398 407 78
166
309
The Mainz Anonymous
309
359
Catherine of Siena
164
Albert of Aachen
325
Jean de Venette
377
Christine de Pisan
403
Legal Status and Protections Salic Law Code
41
The Penitential
Fuero of Cuenca
220
Fuero of Cuenca
305
Magna Carta
Liudprand 150
Burchard of Worms
Chrétien de Troyes
248
John of Viterbo
309
Jean de Joinville
Henry of Livonia
181
Roswitha of Gandersheim
121
The Mainz Anonymous
421
Bernard of Clairvaux
Charles the Great
Albert of Aachen
340
Liudprand 150
Charles the Great
Robert the Monk
217
“Fallen Women”
Johann Nider 54
336
Adémar of Chabannes
George Widman
Women Authority, Women of
Matthew Paris
309 329
Married and Marriage of Theodosian Code
309 352 359 403 41 89
121 220
206 228 292 340 10
Topical Contents xxxvii Gregory of Tours
34
Mosaic of Theodora
54
Salic Law Code
41
Al-Nawawi 70 The Penitential
89
Roswitha of Gandersheim
166
Fourth Lateran Council
194
Jacques de Vitry
Burchard of Worms Ranulf de Glanville
Merchant Guild of Southampton Chrétien de Troyes Magna Carta Urban II
Robert the Monk
Fulcher of Chartres Ibn Jubayr
Henry of Livonia Jean de Venette
John Mandeville
Francesco Guicciardini Models and Types
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
181 206 217 223
Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion Johann Bämler
Rights of and Limitations upon Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
Magna Carta
292
Urban II
Leonardo Bruni Stepping outside of Expected Norms
305
Jean de Joinville
340
320
Georg Widman
329
Johann Nider
292 305
Geoffrey Chaucer
325
Christine de Pisan
352 386 415
Virgin Mary, Cult of the Two Crucifix Ivories
Bernard of Clairvaux Jacques de Vitry
403 407 156 178 181
Notre Dame la Brune
258
248
Henry of Livonia
386
Martin Schongauer
403
Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion
421
Women’s Work
Life of the Virgin Liutbirg
Bernard of Clairvaux
178
The Mainz Anonymous
309
Martin Schongauer
398
178
78
Georg Widman
Albert of Aachen
377
183
309
Mothers
186
Darmstadt Koimêsis; Strasbourg Dormition
Jean de Joinville
Leonardo Bruni
421 166
Stephen of Bourbon
235
Christine de Pisan
305
Roswitha of Gandersheim
Ecclesia; Synagoga
John Mandeville
223
248
Virgin and Christ Child Triptych
The Mainz Anonymous
78
220
Merchant Guild of Southampton
166
Chrétien de Troyes
428
Fuero of Cuenca
Roswitha of Gandersheim Bernard of Clairvaux
425
309 425
Adémar of Chabannes Georg Widman
258 284 329 398 425 425 78
142
398
A Note to Instructors on Teaching from This Book As with the first edition (1997), the second edition of The Medieval Record is based on the proposition that engaging students of history in source analysis is the surest way to help them become active inquirers into the past, rather than passive recipients of historical facts that, of and by themselves, have little or no apparent meaning to them or their lives. Involvement with primary-source evidence enables students to understand that historical scholarship is a dynamic process that involves drawing inferences and perceiving patterns from clues yielded by the past, not of memorizing someone else’s conclusions or a string of dates, names, and similar data. Moreover, investigation through primary- source analysis motivates students to learn by stimulating their curiosity and imagination and helps them develop into critical thinkers who are comfortable with complex challenges, nuances, ambiguities, and uncertainties. In organizing this source book, I have sought to present a balanced picture of the emergence, efflorescence, and transformation of the First Europe, namely the so-called Middle Ages. Believing that the study of history properly touches every aspect of past human activity and thought, I have further endeavored to offer a collection of sources representing a wide variety of medieval perspectives, concerns, and experiences. Additionally, it has been my goal to include a broad array of source genres, so that the book’s users might better understand the various types of evidence that the student of medieval European history should expect to confront. This dual quest for balance and comprehensiveness has led me into the arena of unwritten evidence. Although most historians center their research on documents, the discipline requires us to consider all of the clues surrendered by the past, including its artifacts. Consequently, this book contains a number of images of art and other artifacts that users can and should analyze as historical sources. Every author aims at perfection and invariably misses the mark. Likewise, every instructor who picks up this book will find judgments, inclusions, and omissions that seem eccentric and maybe even downright bizarre. Regardless, I hope that this book proves useful to colleagues and students alike.
Aids for the Student User Source analysis is often a daunting exercise for students who have just begun studying history at an advanced level. To make these sources as accessible as possible, the book provides a variety of aids and support.
The Student’s Guide As far as I know, the “Student’s Guide” that precedes Chapter 1 is a feature that appears in no other medieval source book. There I explain—initially in a theoretical manner and then with concrete examples—how a student of history goes about the task of interpreting written and artifactual sources. In doing this, I present the reader with three sources, the eighth-century Donation of Constantine, a papal letter of 1236, and three mid-thirteenth-century frescoes, just as they would appear in the body of the book, and then I discuss how I interpret them and the process through which I reached those xxxviii
A Note to Instructors on Teaching from This Book xxxix
insights. My purpose is simple: to demonstrate that source analysis is well within the capability of any person using this book.
Introductions Unlike other history source books, this work contains introductions on four levels. A short historical overview precedes each of the book’s three major parts, or sections. In turn, each chapter has its own brief historical summary of matters relevant to that chapter. Each chapter subset has an introductory note that sets the theme of that portion of the chapter. Finally introductions to each source identify and place that piece of evidence into context. Because The Medieval Record provides an interpretive synopsis of the broad outlines of medieval European history, these introductions are cumulatively much fuller than those encountered in other source books.
Questions for Consideration Suggested Questions for Consideration immediately precede each source. As is also true of the source introductions, their purpose is to help the student make sense of each piece of evidence and to wrest from it as much insight as possible. It does not serve a student’s understanding of history to hand him or her a document or artifact and ask, “Well, what do you make of it?” The questions that so readily come to professional historians are not obvious to most undergraduates, who legitimately seek guidance in asking the right questions so that they might arrive at credible answers. That noted, I urge professors as well as students who have become comfortable with source analysis to posit their own questions or to reframe (and even reject) the ones offered here. No introduction or suggested question contained in this book is the last word on the subject. There is plenty of room for students to arrive at insights that have eluded me by asking questions of the evidence that I never dreamed of.
Translated Documents When I have been able to secure a solid edition of a Latin or Greek text or of any other medieval document that was composed in a language that I can read (unfortunately, Arabic is not included in that category), I have usually opted to translate it anew. There are a few exceptions to that rule. The poetic translation in Chapter 12 for Chaucer’s “General Prologue,” for example, is far better than I could ever hope to render. I have tried my best to render my translations into contemporary American English while maintaining the meaning and flavor of the original. I leave it for you to decide whether or not I have succeeded in this endeavor.
Footnotes Notes that explain terms and allusions that the average undergraduate cannot reasonably be expected to know constitute another form of assistance. Beyond that, some footnotes provide information that I consider essential to the student’s full understanding of the source.
Glossary In that same spirit, there is a glossary of important terms at the end of this book for easy reference. After all, many terms that medievalists take for granted are puzzling to others.
xl A Note to Instructors on Teaching from This Book
Illustrations Each part and chapter is accompanied by a captioned illustration. As with every other element in this book, they serve an instructional purpose.
Using The Medieval Record Some instructors might use The Medieval Record as their sole textbook. I do, but I am in a small minority in doing so. Most instructors will use it as a supplement to a standard narrative textbook, and many of them will likely not require their students to analyze every source. To assist both instructors and students in selecting sources that best suit their interests and needs, there is an analytical table of contents at the front of this book that lists sources by topic. It is intended to suggest the wide variety of material available within these pages, particularly as subjects for essays.
Another Note on Images, Translations, and Commentary Except where explicitly noted, all translations are my own. Those illustrations not my own or in the public domain are listed in the “Image Credits” section at the back of this book. If anyone takes exception with any translation, introduction, or note, please contact me directly. I value the advice and critiques of my colleagues.
And Finally I hope you and your students have as much fun working with these sources as I have had putting them together. Doing history is an exciting adventure that we must share.
A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources Primary sources are the raw materials from which we fashion our picture and understanding of the past. They are our evidence, our clues, as to what they who have gone before us thought and did. As with all clues, and this is especially true for evidence from a remote past, they are fragmentary because they can never encompass everything that happened everywhere to everyone. Beyond that fact is the reality of loss. Due to conflicts, natural disasters, neglect, and deliberate destruction and disposal, most of what long-ago people created is lost to us. Moreover, as products of the human mind and hand, they represent perspectives and never give the whole truth. Put another way, every “fact” that they give us is filtered through someone’s or some group’s viewpoint. As fragmentary and flawed as they are, without primary sources we would be unable to create our vision of the past and would not be able to interpret its meaning for our lives. But before we begin interpreting this evidence, we must first understand the type and qualities of the evidence at hand.
Documents as Primary Sources Historians rely on documentary evidence, and the documents that we use as primary sources come in many forms. Just as our proper investigation of the past is so much more than merely a study of past politics and wars, so our written sources reflect the broad spectrum of human activity. Put another way, every scrap of writing from the past is a primary source. Each in its own way provides evidence from which the historian draws insight.
Artifacts as Primary Sources As important as documents are in enabling us to construct a reasonable and coherent picture of the past, they are not our only types of evidence. Artifacts—material objects that were fashioned by hand or machine—are also valuable clues that allow us to peer into the lives and values of distant people. Everyday artifacts, such as household items, tools, toys and games, clothing remnants, and cheaply produced-and-sold religious objects, give voice to persons whom we mistakenly term “inarticulate,” namely people who have left behind no written records. Beyond that, some artifacts enable the historian to go beyond the evidence of documents and to understand more fully and deeply the modes of life and belief of a past society. Reading a twelfth-century account of the presumed miraculous powers of a saint’s relic allows us to understand the importance of the cult of relics in medieval Christian society, but viewing and studying a cathedral’s jewel-encrusted reliquary of that same saint’s bones makes the cult far more tangible for us. Some reliquaries, as is the case of the one shown here, also provide strong evidence of agendas that were more than just religious. Consider, for example, how this reliquary represents Charlemagne, who died in 814, and ask yourself why Emperor Charles IV commissioned it over five hundred years later. xli
xlii A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources Illus. SG-1. The golden reliquary bust of Charlemagne containing part of his skull, crafted around 1350 under the patronage of Emperor Charles IV, the Cathedral of Aachen, Germany. Although the Roman Church never officially recognized Charles the Great as a saint, the cult of Saint Charlemagne persisted in areas that had been the heartland of Charlemagne’s empire, and it is strongest in Aachen, site of his favorite residence, his palace church, and burial. In 1165, Paschal III (r. 1164–68), the “pope” supported by Emperor Frederick I (r. 1155–90) during his struggle with Pope Alexander III (r. 1159–81), canonized Emperor Charlemagne as a saint. Although the Third Lateran Council of 1179 condemned Paschal as a heretic and an anti-pope and annulled all his acts, the council took no action to suppress the cult of Charlemagne.
The Value and Limitations of Primary Sources in Historical Research Historians equally acknowledge the indispensable value and the limitations of their evidence. Those limitations, when coupled with the fallibility of the human intellect, mean that the study of history does not provide us with timeless Truth. But reconstructions and interpretations of the past, no matter how partial and open to modification they might be, help us gain greater insight into our collective past—an insight that helps us place our own days and concerns into a broader context. Because the reconstructed past—history—is our collective memory and provides us with vicarious experiences that range far beyond our limited lives, thereby enabling us greater insight into the human experience, it is important to get it as right as possible. That means it is our obligation to try to avoid the myths, errors, misconceptions, exaggerations, weird conspiracy theories, and outright lies that give us a skewed view of where we have been and what it all means. In our effort to accomplish this, primary sources, despite all their imperfections, are our only signs along the tangled path toward the past. So, let us look at how we read these signs.
The Methods of Source Analysis We should not despair just because we cannot ever know the past in its totality. In fact, we know quite a lot about the past thanks to the careful research (and lively debates) of historians. Practitioners of this discipline have evolved a method for examining primary-source evidence that enables them to
A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources xliii
push back many of the shadows of the past and to arrive at a reasonable picture of the past and, more important, judicious interpretations of what it all means. That method revolves around a careful examination of the testimony, both articulated and implied, that these sources provide. The first question that the historian puts to the evidence is “Is this what it purports to be?” In other words, was the document or artifact created by the person or group to whom it is ascribed, or is it a forgery? Consider the Donation of Constantine, which appears below in the sample exercise on source analysis. It purports to be a donation that the Emperor Constantine I gave to the Roman Church in the early fourth century. Does it date from that period? The short answer is no. It probably was created by the papal court in the mid-eighth century. Does this answer mean that the forged Donation of Constantine has no value as a historical source? No, and it is a resounding no, because even forgeries have value as sources. Their value lies in the questions asked of them. The Donation of Constantine tells us nothing about the intentions and actions of Emperor Constantine I, but it allows us to infer quite a bit about the worldview and policies of the papal court around the year 750. As we shall further see, its use by popes in the thirteenth century provides valuable insight into papal ideology and politics in that era. You, the users of this book, will not have to worry about testing the validity of a source. It is my job to provide you with that information. The introductions to each source and accompanying footnotes will inform you as to what we know (or think we know) about each source that you are asked to analyze. Knowing whether or not a source is genuine is just the beginning of the process of determining its worth and drawing insights from it. Even if a source is valid, and most are, the researcher must ask and attempt to answer six additional questions: What kind of source is it? Who wrote or crafted it? For whom was it created? When and where was it crafted in relation to the event or issue under consideration? And why was it produced? In many instances the introductions and notes in this book will provide clear answers to these vital questions. In some cases we will not have definitive answers to one or more of these questions, and I will inform you of that uncertainty. At other times you will be left to your own devices to address one or more of these points because your answer is the key to understanding and interpreting the source under consideration. But do not worry. I promise that either the source itself or I will provide enough clues for you to achieve success. But now let us consider further why answers to these six “W-questions” are so important to the historian. What is important because understanding the nature of a source can save the historian a great deal of frustration. Only a foolish historian would attempt to wrest insight into thirteenth-century religious values and modes of piety from Magna Carta, a political charter of 1215. The person would be better served studying thirteenth-century books of “canned” sermons compiled by theologians and successful preachers for clerics who lacked their training or competence (or were just lazy). That is an extreme example, but the point is worth making. The historian must know which questions one can legitimately ask of a source, and that knowledge springs from knowing what the source is and is not. Who, for whom, and when, where, and why are equally important. Knowing each enables a historian to understand a source’s perspective and purposes. Consider this example. Geoffrey de Villehardouin’s Conquest of Constantinople, composed by a second-tier leader of the Fourth Crusade that captured Constantinople in 1204, is one of the major eyewitness accounts of that crusade and an invaluable source of information for its many twists and turns. But it must be used cautiously. Geoffrey produced his history around 1207, when he was settled in northern Greece as the marshal of Romania, namely the empire that the crusaders had carved out in the Balkans following their capture of Constantinople. As Villehardouin presents them, the crusade leaders were reasonable and prudent men, who faced crisis after crisis that cumulatively led them to their almost inevitable capture and sacking of this Christian city. What is more, as chevaliers, they had acted honorably as they waged a just war. For that
xliv A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources
reason, his history reads like an epic and is filled with heroes and villains drawn in black and white. When we accept his account for what it is, then we can use his history of the crusade to advantage. And what exactly is it? It appears to me to have a dual nature and purpose. First, it is the memoir of a partisan crusade leader who wished to tell most of the truth as he perceived it (and there are some elements in his story that do not seem to ring true—due to either a faulty memory or an effort to camouflage uncomfortable truths). Further, it is his attempt to justify to persons back in France actions that he believed had been necessary and honorable. There is no doubt that we must use this account, and we can garner a good deal of information from it regarding the course of the crusade. Further, it provides a privileged insight into the councils and minds of the crusade leaders, thereby enabling us to view the crusade from the top down. But in using it, we must tread carefully, and wherever possible we must check his account against all other extant sources for this crusade.
An Exercise in Source Analysis Now that we have considered source analysis on a theoretical level, let us see how one might analyze several sources. What follows is a small collection of sources—documents and artifacts—as they would appear in this book. After we have had a chance to study them, I will offer my analysis of them. In so doing, I submit that my interpretation is not the last word on the subject. You will probably see things that I have overlooked, and you might legitimately differ with my reading of the evidence. This is not to say that anyone’s opinion is as valid as anyone else’s. Good history is not opinion-based. Historical research demands careful, critical thinking and the presentation of conclusions based upon a full and honest evaluation of all the available evidence. We are not debaters or advocates who cherry-pick data to support preconceptions and ideological positions. By looking at every scrap of evidence—evidence that often presents us with contradictions and ambiguities—we will arrive at a nuanced picture of whatever we are studying that avoids black-and-white simplicities and easy certainties. But that very complexity means that there is room for differing interpretations— interpretations based not on how I want the past to be but on how I see the past now that I have immersed myself in the sources.
But before You Begin to Study the Sources in This Exercise, Here Are a Few Things You Should Know Source introductions should enable you to place that evidence into its proper historical context. Without context, evidence is meaningless. The same is true for the footnotes that accompany the documents. Their purpose is to explain issues and things that you might not know or that might be confusing. In addition to the footnotes, you will find at the back of this book a glossary of terms. If you come across a term that you do not understand and it is not explained in a footnote, you will probably find it defined in the Glossary. The Questions for Consideration are intended to help you to extract as much insight as possible from the sources. Some questions focus on facts: matters that are clearly articulated in a document or in plain view on an artifact. Gathering such facts is not source analysis, but it is a preliminary step toward analysis. The most important questions are those that challenge you to draw inferences from what you have read or viewed. Such interpretation is the real stuff of historical inquiry. You should also understand that the Questions for Consideration are far from perfect. They are not comprehensive, and they might not even be the best questions to raise. If you or your instructor see that there are other, even better questions to raise, then go for it. After all, our answers are only as good as the questions we ask.
A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources xlv
The text of the documents in this book sometimes contain ellipses (…) that indicate something has been omitted because I consider it unnecessary for your analysis and understanding of the issue or issues under consideration. Whenever a document requires some added word or phrase for clarity, I have inserted it with brackets ([ ]) surrounding it. If there is a major break in a document that requires an explanatory transition, it appears in italics and is clearly set off from the body of the text, but neither of the sample documents in this exercise has such a break.
A Struggle between Popes and an Emperor: Gregory IX and Innocent IV Confront Frederick II THE DONATION OF CONSTANTINE; LETTER OF GREGORY IX TO FREDERICK II; THREE FRESCOES FROM THE CHAPEL OF SAN SILVESTRO, ROME Relations between the popes of Rome and the Western emperors became especially strained during the reigns Pope Gregory VII (r. 1073–85) and Henry IV (r. 1056–1106), and remained so for several centuries thereafter.1 Open conflict was often the result. One of the most bitter contests between empire and papacy took place during the second quarter of the thirteenth century as Emperor Frederick II (r. 1220–50) struggled with two successive popes. The Western emperors reigned over a multi-ethnic entity centered on Germany and northern Italy. For its part, the Roman papacy held a significant amount of central Italy, an area known as the Patrimony of Peter, or the Papal States. Additionally, each party claimed a heritage that imbued it with a special, indeed unique, authority. The emperors of the West asserted that they enjoyed the powers and prerogatives of the Roman Caesars, who included not only Constantine I, the first Christian Roman emperor, but also Charlemagne, a Frankish king who had assumed the crown of empire on Christmas Day 800. As the heirs of Constantine and Charles the Great, their imperial authority, which included defense of Christendom, came directly from God and was subject to no outside oversight or intervention. Popes affirmed an equally ancient legacy, contending that they were the direct successors of Saint Peter to whom Jesus had given “the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven,” which included direct and full power over the Church and, by the late eleventh century, they interpreted this to mean ultimate authority over Christendom. Because of conflicting territorial interests in Italy and, even more so, because of differing visions of their respective roles within and over Christendom, conflict was almost inevitable. The roots of this two-fold tension can be seen as early as the middle of the eighth century when an unknown cleric in Rome forged the Donation of Constantine, which seems to have been created to impress the Frankish king, Pepin the Younger, with the papacy’s special place in the hierarchy of power and its claims to lands in Italy. According to the forgery, the pagan priests of Rome instructed Emperor Constantine, who had contracted leprosy, that he would be healed if he bathed in the warm blood of slaughtered children. When he saw the assembled children and their crying mothers, he shrank in horror at the thought of committing this outrage and sent them home with gifts. That night, Saints Peter and Paul visited him in a dream and instructed him to seek out Sylvester, bishop of Rome (and, therefore, the pope). He followed their direction, and subsequently Pope Sylvester baptized Constantine into the Christian faith. As Constantine was immersed in the baptismal fount, the scales of his disease fell away. Our first source, an excerpt from that forged document, picks up the story as Constantine enumerates what he then bestowed on Sylvester and his successors out of gratitude for his new faith. The Donation was almost universally accepted in the West as genuine until the Italian humanist 1. See Chapter 10, sources 73–77.
xlvi A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources
Lorenzo Valla proved it a forgery in 1440. Despite the Donation’s assumed authenticity, popes rarely cited it as the source for any of their territorial or other temporal rights, because what one emperor gives another can take away. They certainly could not cite it as a basis for their claim to unparalleled authority over the Church and its people, because they believed that their God-given power was enshrined in Holy Scripture. This reticence ended, at least for a while, in 1236. Pope Gregory IX feared that Frederick II, king of Sicily, king of Germany, and emperor, threatened the Papal States by simultaneously holding the crowns of Germany and Sicily. Because the kingdom of Sicily included southern Italy and the kingdom of Germany brought with it control of portions of northern Italy, the pope believed that Frederick had placed the papal territories in a vise. Frederick had promised in 1216 that, as soon as he was crowned emperor, he would abdicate the crown of Sicily in favor of his son, who would hold the kingdom as a papal fief. Frederick failed to honor that pledge and, instead, moved to assert imperial control over all of Italy. Moreover, Gregory and Frederick had a “history.” In 1227, the pope had excommunicated Frederick for delaying his departure on crusade. Frederick, although excommunicated, then went on crusade, and during his absence in the East, open war broke out in Italy between imperial and papal forces. Upon his return in 1229, Frederick readily defeated the papal forces in southern Italy and made his peace with the pope in 1230. Relations were fairly harmonious for a few years, but by 1236, fractures began to appear in their relationship, as Frederick battled to assert fuller imperial control over northern Italy and beyond. In October 1236, Gregory countered with a letter of which portions appear as our second source. In 1237, Frederick waged open war against a confederation of north Italian cities that had been a papal ally since 1167. With the integrity of the Papal States and even Rome now threatened, Gregory excommunicated Frederick again in March 1239, and in the winter of 1239–40, the pope proclaimed a holy crusade against the emperor. Gregory’s death in 1241 did not end the conflict. Pope Innocent IV (r. 1243–54) was an even more determined opponent. In 1245, Innocent presided over a church council at Lyons, France, to which he had fled. The council reiterated the sentence of excommunication and, moreover, declared Frederick deposed of his imperial and royal offices. Frederick continued the struggle, holding his own in Italy, until death intervened in 1250. Upon the emperor’s death, Pope Innocent returned to Rome. In 1246, while Pope Innocent was still in exile, a small chapel dedicated to Pope Saint Sylvester I was constructed next to the church of Santi Quattro Coronati (the Four Holy Martyrs), which is located near the pope’s Lateran Palace in Rome. Soon thereafter, unknown artists crafted a series of frescoes on the chapel walls. Far more than mere decoration, the frescoes told a story, and the large numbers of people who visited the chapel could not avoid “reading” that story. Three of the frescoes constitute our third source.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to the Donation of Constantine, how did Constantine display his gratitude toward and reverence for the papacy and the Church? 2. To whom does Gregory IX refer when he tells Frederick that he is failing to recognize “your own creator”? 3. What does the Donation allow us to infer about the mid-eighth-century papacy’s vision of its place within Italy, the West, and Christendom at large?
A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources xlvii
4. Consider Gregory IX’s interpretation and use of the Donation of Constantine. Did he add to or deviate from its original text? 5. Compose full captions for each of the three frescoes that explain in detail what is happening in each scene. 6. What does your analysis of the letter of Pope Gregory and the frescoes allow you to infer about the thirteenth-century papacy’s vision of itself ? Had anything changed since the mid-eighth century?
The Donation of Constantine 2 As…I recognized that I had been restored to total health through the freely given gift of Saint Peter himself,3 we judged it fitting, along with all our satraps4 and the entire Senate, also the Optimates5 and the entire Roman people, all of whom are subject to the glory of our empire, that, just as he is seen as having been established as the vicar of the Son of God on Earth,6 so also the pontiffs7 who hold the place of this Prince of the Apostles should receive from us and our empire the concession of a princely power that is of greater magnitude than the clemency of our earthly imperial Serenity appears to possess, selecting the Prince of the Apostles himself or his vicars to be strong patrons for us before God. And so, because our imperial power is of this world, we decided to honor his most holy Roman Church reverently and fully and decreed that the most holy seat of Saint Peter be more gloriously exalted than our empire and earthly throne, allotting to him the power, the glorious dignity, the strength, and the honor of the empire. And by decree we confirm that he has primacy both over the four preeminent sees of Antioch, Alexandria, 2. Constitutum Constantini, ed. Horst Fuhrmann, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Fontes, vol. 10 (Hanover: Hahn, 1968), 77–96, passim. 3. As the heir of Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles, Sylvester is Saint Peter’s stand-in. 4. An historical error. The Persian Empire had satraps, not the Roman Empire. 5. Optimates (best men) were the conservatives who dominated the Senate during the last days of the Roman Republic. 6. Beginning with the reign of Innocent III (r. 1198–1216), popes consistently claimed the title “Vicar (deputy) of Christ.” A few had used it prior to Pope Innocent but none as early as the fourth century. 7. Consult the Glossary.
Constantinople, and Jerusalem8 and also over all the churches of God in the entire the world. And the pontiff who over time has stood over the most holy Roman Church shall be higher than and the leader over all priests throughout the whole world, and whatever pertains to the worship of God or the stability of the Christian faith shall be arranged according to his judgment.… Meanwhile, we wish all peoples of every ethnicity and land throughout the entire world to know that within our Lateran Palace we have constructed from its foundation a church and a baptistery9 for our Savior Lord God, Jesus Christ…. We decree that this most holy church be designated, honored, venerated, and proclaimed head and summit of all churches throughout the entire world,10 in the same manner as we have established in law [other matters] through our other imperial decrees…. We grant to those holy apostles, my lords, the most blessed Peter and Paul11 and through them also our father, Blessed Sylvester, the Supreme Pontiff and universal pope of the city of Rome, and to all his successor pontiffs, who will sit in the seat of Saint Peter to the end of the world, and as of this moment we hand over: the Lateran Palace of our empire, which ranks above and excels all other palaces throughout the entire world;12 then the diadem, namely 8. Consult the Glossary at Patriarch. 9. The baptistery (a place where people are baptized) of the Archbasilica of Saint John in the Lateran dates to 440. 10. The Archbasilica of Saint John in the Lateran has been the pope’s cathedral church since the fourth century. 11. Papal Rome was (and is) the city of Saints Peter and Paul. According to tradition, both were martyred and buried just outside of the city. 12. Constantine did hand over the Lateran Palace to the bishop of Rome and ordered the building of the first Church of Saint John in the Lateran. The palace remained the papal residence into the early fourteenth century.
xlviii A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources
the crown on our head, together also with the Phrygian tiara;13 and the superhumeral, namely the band that normally encircles the imperial neck;14 also, indeed, the purple cloak and scarlet tunic and all imperial vestments; and the rank of commanders of the imperial cavalry. We confer also at the same time imperial scepters, pikes, standards, banners, and various imperial ornamentations, every ceremony that relates to the imperial eminence, and the glory of our power…. So also we have decreed the following: that he, our venerable father Sylvester, the Supreme Pontiff, and all his pontifical successors should accept the diadem, namely the crown made of purest gold and precious gems that we have granted to him from our own head, wearing it on their heads for the glory of God and the honor of Saint Peter. In fact, this most holy pope did not by any means permit the wearing of that crown of gold above the clerical crown15 that he wears for the glory of Saint Peter. So, we have, with our own hands, placed upon his most holy head a Phrygian tiara of sparkling white brilliance, symbolizing the Lord’s miraculous Resurrection. Holding the bridle of his horse out of reverence for Saint Peter, we performed the role of his groom. We ordain that all his pontifical successors individually wear that very Phrygian tiara in processions in imitation of our imperial power. Wherefore to ensure that the pontifical preeminence is not degraded but rather is adorned with a glorious power greater than the dignity of an earthly empire, behold, we give over and fully deliver to the oft-mentioned most blessed pontiff, our father Sylvester, the Universal Pope, and to the power and command of him and his pontifical successors not only our palace, as has been made manifest, but also the city of Rome and all the provinces, places, and cities of Italy and the western regions and, by a firm imperial judgment through this our sacred imperial and civil order, we have decreed that they be managed and, we grant, that they should remain under the law of the Holy Roman Church. Therefore we have considered it appropriate that our empire and royal power be transferred and transmuted to the eastern regions and that a capital city named after us 13. The peaked papal crown resembles the Phrygian cap worn in antiquity by men in Anatolia (consult the Glossary) and neighboring regions. 14. The papal pallium, a narrow band of white wool with embroidered crosses. Consult the Glossary for more information. 15. Consult the Glossary at Tonsure.
be built in the best location in the province of Byzantium and our empire established there.16 For, it is not right that an earthly emperor hold power at a place where the rule of priests and the head of the Christian religion has been established by the Heavenly Emperor. Indeed, we decree that all these things that we have established and confirmed through this our sacred imperial charter and through other divine decrees remain undiminished and unaltered down to the end of the world.
*** Letter of Pope Gregory IX to Emperor Frederick II (October 23, 1236)17 Go back to the memory of your predecessors, and behold! Go on to the examples of the emperors of happy memory—Constantine, Charles the Great, Arcadius,18 and Valentinian19—and examine more diligently those matters where the conclusion of an infallible solution is accepted without objection regarding premises,20 where the disproved assumption of a false opinion is silenced. For we by no means overlook what is publicly obvious to the entire world, namely that the aforementioned Constantine, who possessed exclusive government over all the regions of the world, decided, together with the whole Senate and the people, not only those residing in the City but those inhabiting the entire Roman Empire, and with the unanimous consent of all, that it was fitting that, inasmuch as the vicar of the Prince of the Apostles governed throughout the whole world the empire of the priesthood and souls, so he should rule over [earthly] matters and bodies throughout the entire world. And considering that he, as it is known, 16. Following his victory in 324 over Licinius (see source 5), Constantine, now the sole Roman emperor, began construction of a new imperial capital at the ancient city of Byzantion (Byzantium in Latin). Dedicated on May 11, 330, the city was renamed Constantinople—the city of Constantine. 17. Gregorius IX, Epistolae, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Epp. Saec., XIII, 1:604, Epist. 703, at http://clt.brepolis.ne .ezproxy.uvm.edu/emgh/pages?Toc.aspx (accessed December 14, 2015). 18. Emperor of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, in 399, he ordered the destruction of all remaining pagan temples. 19. Valentinian I (r. 364–75), the last effective emperor of the western half of the empire. 20. It is self-evident and accepted without contradiction.
A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources xlix
to whom the Lord committed on Earth the governance of heavenly matters, should govern earthly matters with the reins of justice, he handed over to the Roman Pontiff the imperial insignia and scepters and the City, along with its entire area of jurisdiction, which you endeavor to disturb by distributing money in it among our people…. He also handed over to his perpetual care the empire, and thinking it impious that he, an earthly emperor, should hold any power where the head of the entire Christian religion was established by the Emperor of Heaven, he left Italy to the Apostolic management and chose a new home in Greece. Later, in the person of the aforementioned Charles the Magnificent, who thought that the heavy yoke imposed by the Roman Church should be borne with pious devotion, the Apostolic See transferred the judgment seat of empire to the Germans,21 and, as you recall, it was placed on your 21. The papal theory of translatio imperii (the transference of the empire), in which Pope Leo III transferred imperial authority from the emperor in Constantinople to Charles the Great and his successors when he crowned Charles emperor on Christmas Day 800. See source 30.
Three Frescoes from the Chapel of San Silvestro
predecessors and so also on your person through consecration and anointment.22 Although it did not reduce in any substantial manner its own jurisdiction, it conceded the power of the sword in the subsequent coronation.23 Therefore, as long as you fail to recognize your own creator, you stand convicted of diminishing the rights of the Apostolic See and, no less, your own faith and honor.
***
22. Frederick’s imperial consecration by Pope Honorius III in 1220. 23. The papacy invests the emperor with the sword of temporal authority because priests cannot shed blood.
l A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources
A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources li
Analyzing the Sources It is not necessary to tell you how to respond to the first two Questions for Consideration. All you need to do is read the two documents to find the requested information. These questions are warmups—a way to engage your mind and to get you fully into the process of reading sources closely. Now that you are warmed up, it is on to question 3, which is a bit more challenging. Briefly, the Donation of Constantine informs King Pepin that the pope is Christendom’s chief priest, whose spiritual authority places him on a plane higher than that held by emperors. Moreover, in recognition of that status, Constantine bestowed on the papacy legitimate authority over Italy and the western regions of the Roman Empire. And question 4? A close reading of the letter of Pope Gregory IX and a comparison of it with the Donation shows us that Gregory has done more than just reiterate points made in the forged donation. He claims that Constantine had decreed that “inasmuch as the vicar of the Prince of the Apostles governed throughout the whole world the empire of the priesthood and souls, so he should rule over [earthly] matters and bodies throughout the entire world.” A bit farther on, the pope notes that Constantine had “handed over to his [Sylvester’s] perpetual care the empire.” Nowhere in the Donation does Constantine recognize Sylvester’s suzerainty over the entire world, and nowhere does he hand over the entire empire to him. What is more, and this should not surprise us because it was a post eighth-century development, Gregory introduces the theory of the papacy’s translation of empire. This relates back to question 2, which you have already dealt with. Clearly the emperor’s “creator” was the Roman papacy—at least in Gregory’s eyes. Perhaps you can find other deviations from or additions to the Donation in this papal letter. Responding to question 5 is fun. Obviously these three frescoes (and there are more; so google “images for Chapel of San Silvestro Quattro Coronati”) narrate portions of the story of the Donation of Constantine. The first fresco shows Pope Sylvester baptizing Constantine. And here is an error. The pope is wearing the pallium even before Constantine supposedly bestows it on him. Oops! To the emperor’s left stand three courtiers. The one wearing a tiara holds a richly embroidered imperial garment while another holds the imperial crown. Note the pope’s simple white, unembroidered tunic as compared with the embroidered tunic worn by the high-ranking imperial official who holds the imperial crown. Note also the tonsures on the pope and his four attending clerics. In the second scene, Sylvester, seated on what appears to be a bejeweled imperial throne, is wearing new garments. Instead of the simple priestly garments in the first scene, he now wears a cloak of imperial purple and underneath it an embroidered tunic just like the one worn by the Roman official in the previous scene. He also wears a bishop’s miter (the tall, double-crowned headdress with two lappets, or folds of cloth, in the back), and the pallium. There is no good reason that you should know what a miter is, but clearly you can see that he is dressed as someone who is simultaneously a high priest and a high-ranking Roman imperial officer. To underscore the pope’s new role, Constantine offers him three tokens of temporal authority: the Phrygian tiara, a white horse, and a parasol (an ancient symbol of authority). There is no good reason for you to recognize the parasol as an imperial symbol, but the tiara and white horse are unmistakable. If you look closely you will also see a courtier standing on the city’s ramparts holding the imperial crown. Apparently, Constantine has passed it back after Sylvester declined it. The third scene pulls it all together. Here is Sylvester on a white horse that Constantine leads as though he were the pope’s groom. The pope is wearing the tiara (whereas the three bishops behind him wear miters) and is blessing Constantine. An imperial attendant (he is surely not a cleric because he has no tonsure) holds a parasol over the pope. Constantine is motioning toward the building toward which he is leading the pope’s horse. This must be the Lateran Palace. You can barely see the building because the fresco bends around a corner of the chapel and falls into shadows, but you can
lii A Student’s Guide to Using This Book: Investigating the Past through Primary Sources
see a small portion of a building and a cleric standing within it holding a processional cross. This has to be a way of indicating that the pope was taking possession of the palace. Directly behind the emperor is a soldier holding a ceremonial sword—another symbol of imperial power. Taken together, these three scenes underscore the basic message of the Donation of Constantine: because the pope is the chief priest of all Christendom, he was rightly given temporal authority over Rome and Italy and “the western regions”—whatever that vague term meant. One last point: note that sword. Nowhere is it mentioned in the text of the Donation of Constantine, but it will figure prominently in Gregory’s letter. Unlike every other artifact that appears in this book, these three scenes have no captions. I leave it to you to write the captions. Now on to question 6. Whereas the frescoes that were executed during the reign of Pope Innocent IV seem to follow rather closely the text of the Donation (except for the pallium slip-up), Pope Gregory’s letter pushes papal claims further. In a sense, this letter turns the Donation on its head. While it recognizes Constantine’s “historic” donation, it assumes that it was made in full recognition that this was the papacy’s due because “the vicar of the Prince of the Apostles governed throughout the whole world the empire of the priesthood and souls, so he should rule over [earthly] matters and bodies throughout the entire world.” The pope had full spiritual authority insofar as he was “head of the entire Christian religion.” This (at least as I see it) goes far beyond being the chief priest of Christendom. The strong implication here is that just as the immortal soul should ultimately control the corruptible body, so the papacy should control base earthly governments. It followed from this that Constantine, recognizing this reality, “handed over to his perpetual care the [entire] empire.” With this full authority over the entire empire, the papacy rightly transferred the seat of empire and the imperial title from Constantinople to the Germans in the person of Charles the Great and his successors, who were to use “the power of the sword” in the service of the Church. Thus, the papacy was the creator (and ultimate controller) of emperors. Enough said on that. I hope that you have learned from this exercise that source analysis is not an arcane art reserved for specialists. It is well within your power to reach meaningful insights from the sources in this book. The most important qualities that you need to bring to this task are care in studying the sources thoroughly (which means, above all else, attention to detail), a willingness to put aside preconceptions and to follow wherever the evidence leads you, and common sense. Now, let’s get started on your analyzing some sources. Good luck and have fun.
Illus. 1.1 Remains of a temple in the former Roman city of Tricensimae (of the Thirtieth [Legion]), today an archeological park near Xanten, Germany. Originally a military camp along the Rhine River, the settlement became a fortified colonial town toward the end of the first century C.E. In the second century, it was home to over 10,000 soldiers and settlers, making it one of the empire’s largest frontier settlements. Assaults by the Franks in the last quarter of the third century almost destroyed it, and it was rebuilt around 310. Further Frankish infiltration into the region resulted in its violent end toward the close of the fourth century.
Part One The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations: 100–1050 C.E. The decline and fall of the Roman Empire is one of the most vexing issues in Western history. Students and teachers often approach the question as they would a postmortem, examining the corpse of the Roman Empire to discover the time and cause of death. When did it die? Was it the year 410, when Visigoths sacked Rome, or was it 455, when Vandals did the same? Was it in 476, when the last Roman emperor in the West was deposed? Did it linger on a bit after 476, only to pass away quietly in its sleep? Did it die as a result of a long-term internal disorder? Was it the victim of a sudden disease from outside? Was it murdered? Did it commit unwitting suicide? Many theories abound: Christianity weakened the empire’s martial spirit and its ability to defend itself; Roman technology was inadequate to meet the demands of changing times; disease mortally weakened Roman society; an exhausted soil was incapable of supporting the empire’s population; the empire’s vitality was sapped when the Roman upper classes were submerged by rural, Eastern, and Germanic peoples. Some of these theories are blatantly wrong: Rome’s Christian emperors and legions were no less vigorous in waging war than their pagan predecessors; there is no evidence of soil exhaustion; and the suggestion that Rome’s supposedly superior upper classes were mongrelized by inferior outsiders is not supported by any objective evidence and is contemptible in its racism. Other theories, such as the view that plague and the incursions of Germanic and other fringe peoples weakened and battered an already overextended empire, contain a lot of truth, but they do not fully explain the passing away of the Roman Empire. The fact is, Rome did not fall in a single moment or pass away due to a single, isolated circumstance. Indeed, the notion that Rome fell is misleading. What happened was much more complex than simply the collapse of an empire. An entire Mediterranean-based civilization, which embraced the cultures of many diverse peoples other than just the Romans, was transformed over a period of centuries into three major successor civilizations: Byzantium; Islam; and Latin, or Western, Europe. All of Eurasia’s empires and civilizations were battered and, in differing degrees, changed by forces that swept the entire landmass between roughly 200 and 700 C.E. The old equilibrium between seminomadic fringe peoples and their settled neighbors that had allowed the rise of great regional empires in China, India, Southwest Asia, and the Mediterranean during the first millennium B.C.E. had broken down, and with renewed assaults on these empires, the civilizations that they encompassed underwent change. The shift in balance between Eurasia’s great empires of late antiquity and the fringe peoples was due to the weakening of the internal fabrics of these empires, their growing inability to defend swollen frontiers, and the greater aggressiveness of the so-called barbarians, especially mounted nomads. For its part, the Roman Empire experienced serious invasions during the middle decades of the third century C.E. Fleets of Germanic pirates ravaged the Aegean, and various other Germanic invaders menaced the continent. So great was the threat to Italy, Emperor Aurelian (r. 270–75) deemed it necessary to construct massive defensive walls around the city of Rome. Aurelian also found it necessary to shorten the empire’s frontier by abandoning the province of Dacia (present-day Romania) to the Goths. Such drastic measures, when combined with reorganization of the empire’s frontier forces, eventually helped 1
2 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
restabilize Rome’s borders along the Illus. 1.2 The Porta San Paulo (Gate of Saint Paul), originally known as the Porta Rhine and Danube Rivers toward the Ostiensis (the Ostian Gate), was one of eighteen grand gates in the twelve-mile-long Aurelian Walls. The gate and its defensive towers were added to by emperors Maxentius end of the third century. A century later, however, Rome’s (r. 306–12) and Honorius (r. 395–423). barbarian problem once again reached crisis proportions. In 376, the Visigoths, a Germanic confederation, received Roman permission to settle in the Balkans. Abuse by Roman officials drove them to revolt, and in 378 they destroyed a Roman army and killed an emperor. Although Emperor Theodosius the Great (r. 379–95) saved the immediate situation, the late Roman Empire’s political-military reverses had just begun. The Visigoths were only the vanguard of the invaders. By the end of the fifth century, the western half of the empire, including Italy, was divided into a patchwork of independent Germanic kingdoms, and the eastern half of the empire, centered on Constantinople, was well on its way toward becoming the nucleus of a new civilization. The new invaders badly wounded the Roman Empire, and some historians argue that they cumulatively were the empire’s assassins. This is true in a strictly political sense, but only so far as the western half of the empire was concerned. By the end of the sixth century, precious little of the western half of the Roman world was ruled by imperial Roman authority. However, the collapse of imperial structures in the West was not the major story. Empires in the ancient world were precarious entities, and many had risen and fallen over the previous three millennia. China’s Han Empire, which was roughly as large and as old as the Roman Empire, disintegrated in the early third century against a background of plague, declining population, decreasing economic activity, invasion by various Turco-Mongol nomads, and the rise of local warlords. The end of empire occasioned over 350 years of disunity and dislocation, as well as some significant
The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations 3
changes in Chinese life. What was more significant, however, was what did not change. In the late sixth century, China re-emerged from political chaos ready to create a new and even greater empire, and that new empire was an extension of a civilization firmly rooted in its remote past. In brief, the cultural continuities in China over the thousand-year period between 400 B.C.E. and 600 C.E. were far more significant than the differences. This was not true for Roman civilization, especially Roman civilization in the western half of the empire, where radical cultural changes took place. Quite simply, Roman civilization did not suddenly collapse, fall, or die; it became something else. More correctly, it metamorphosed into several new civilizations.
Chapter 1
A World in Flux
By the middle of the second century Illus. 1.3 The Obelisk of Theodosius (390) in the Hippodrome of Constantinople: C.E., the Romans had carved out an Emperor Theodosius I presents a victor’s laurel crown. With the creation of a “New empire that extended from the low- Rome” at Constantinople, many elements of the Old Rome were brought to the new lands of Scotland to the northern imperial city, including the popular chariot races. regions of Arabia, from the forests of western Germany to North Africa’s Sahara, and from the Atlantic Ocean to Mesopotamia. The heart and soul of this three-thousand-mile-wide empire was the Mediterranean Sea, a richly diverse cultural region that had a long history well before Rome began its climb to greatness. More than just a political entity, the Roman Empire was late antiquity’s most extensive and complex civilization. Borrowing heavily from their Mediterranean subjects, especially the Greeks, the Romans fashioned a Mediterranean-wide community, in which an upper-class Greco-Roman culture flourished wherever Roman armies and officials exercised dominion. In the process of creating this synthesis, Rome carried the ideas and institutions of several thousand years of civilization to a multitude of new recipients. Through the agency of Roman imperialism, Mediterranean civilization moved westward and northward, where it took shallow root among the elite classes of such Western peoples as the Celts of Gaul and Britain. 4
Chapter 1: A World in Flux The Pax Romana 5
The most lasting imprint that the Roman Empire had on history was its embracing of Christianity and the creation of a Christian Roman Empire in the fourth century C.E. Without the several centuries of Christian-Roman synthesis that took place during the fourth and fifth centuries, the histories of Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean would have been radically different.
The Pax Romana The two centuries that span the period 30 B.C.E. to 180 C.E. are generally known as the age of the Pax Romana (Roman Peace), an age of general imperial prosperity and overall security. The Roman Empire was a slave-based society, dependent upon the forced labor of millions of unfree individuals, and its empire grew at the expense of numerous subjugated peoples and polities. Nevertheless, many of its subjects gloried in the peace and prosperity of the imperial system, as our first source illustrates. The Roman Peace, however, had systemic weaknesses, as the Crisis of the Third Century demonstrated. Between 180 and 284, the entire empire seemed to be on the verge of total disintegration. In the process of responding to the challenges of the third century, Rome’s leaders changed forever the face and reality of the Pax Romana, as the second and third sources bear witness.
The Blessings of the Roman Peace 1. Aelius Aristides, THE ROMAN ORATION 1 and TWO MOSAICS AT OSTIA In 155, Aelius Aristides, a wealthy landowner and Roman citizen from Anatolia (see the Glossary), visited the imperial court in Rome. There he delivered a panegyric (a formal public speech of praise) in the presence of Emperor Antoninus Pius. Although this Greek-speaking rhetorician presented a highly stylized address replete with clichéd phrases and hyperbolic flourishes, he nevertheless managed to capture the worldview of so many of the Roman Empire’s ruling elite of his day. Accompanying this speech are second-century mosaics that decorated the floors of two merchant shops at Ostia, Rome’s port onto the Mediterranean. Located at the mouth of the Tiber River, about nineteen miles from the heart of the city, Ostia at the time probably had a population in excess of 50,000. These mosaics were likely symbolic of the enterprises that each merchant engaged in. The first depicts two ships, one a sea-going vessel (on the left as one views it) and the other a river craft, onto which goods would be moved for shipment upriver to Rome. Both vessels moored near the Claudian Pharos, a lighthouse modeled upon the massive Pharos of Alexandria in Egypt, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Both it and its Ostian counterpart signaled mariners at night through means of a huge pyre. The second mosaic initially mystifies viewers until they have an “aha” moment.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to Aristides, what were the unique attributes and blessings of the Roman Empire? 2. According to him, how did the Romans manage to offer good government to all their subject peoples? 1. Bruno Keil, ed., Aelii Aristidis Smyrnaei quae supersunt omnia, Volumen II, orationes XVII–LIII continens (Berlin: Weidmann, 1898), 91–124, passim.
6 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
3. Which of his claims strike you as obvious exaggerations and blatant pufferies? Which strike you as patently false? Why? 4. Granted the need to please his audience and the hyperbole, do any of Aristides’s claims strike you as plausible? Before responding, consider the next question. 5. Which trades or enterprises might the two mosaics symbolize? Do they help you respond to question 4? 6. What does this oration allow us to infer about the second-century Roman self-image?
The Roman Oration The land that you possess equals what the sun can pass over, and the sun encompasses your land…. You do not reign within fixed boundaries, and another state does not dictate the limits of the land you control. Rather, the sea extends like a belt, set in the middle of the civilized world and in the middle of the land over which you rule. Around that sea lie the great continents—massively sloping down to it, forever offering you in full measure what they possess…. Whatever each culture grows and manufactures cannot fail to be here at all times and in great profusion. Here merchant vessels arrive carrying these many commodities from every region in every season…so that the city takes on the appearance of a sort of common market for the world. One can see cargoes from India and even, if you will, from southern Arabia in such numbers that one must conclude that the trees in those lands have been stripped bare,2 and if the inhabitants of those lands need anything, they must come here to beg for a share of what they have produced…. Your farmlands are Egypt, Sicily, and all of cultivated Africa.3 Seaborne arrivals and departures are ceaseless, to the point that the wonder is, not so much that the harbor has insufficient space for all these merchant vessels, but that the sea has enough space (if it really does). Just as…there is a common channel where all waters of the Ocean have a single source and destination,4 so there is a common channel to Rome and all meet here: trade, shipping, agriculture, metallurgy—all the arts and 2. Aromatics from southern Arabia, pepper and other spices from India and points east. 3. North Africa was a major grain-producing area in Roman times. 4. Ancient Greco-Roman geographers believed that the three continents (Africa, Asia, and Europe), all of equal size, were surrounded by a single great ocean that had a single source of water.
crafts that are or ever were and all things that are produced or spring from the earth. What one does not see here does not exist. So it is not easy to decide which is the greater: the superiority of this city relative to cities that presently exist or the superiority of this empire relative to all empires that have ever existed…. The entire civilized world prays with one voice that this empire exist forever…. For all who have ever gained an empire, you alone rule over free men…. You, who conduct public business throughout the entire civilized world exactly as if it were a single city-state, appoint governors, as if it were by election, to protect and care for the governed and not to act as slave masters over them…. One could say that the people of today are ruled by governors sent out to them only to the degree that they wish to be ruled…. You have divided into two parts all men throughout your empire…everywhere giving citizenship to all those who are more accomplished, noble, and powerful, even as they retain their native-born identities, while the rest you have made subjects and the governed. Neither the sea nor the great expanse of intervening land keeps one from being a citizen, and there is no distinction between Europe and Asia…. No one is a foreigner who deserves to hold an office or is worthy of trust. Rather, there is here a common “world democracy” under the rule of one man, the best ruler and director…. You have divided humanity into Romans and non-Romans,…and because you have divided people in this manner, in every city throughout the empire there are many who share citizenship with you, no less than they share citizenship with their fellow natives. And some of these Roman citizens have not even seen this city! There is no need for troops to garrison the strategic high points of these cities because the most important and powerful people in each region guard their native lands for you…. Yet there is not a residue of resentment among those excluded. Because your government is both universal
Chapter 1: A World in Flux The Pax Romana 7
and like that of a single city-state, its governors rightly rule not as foreigners but, as it were, their own people…. What in former days seemed impossible has in your time come to pass. You control a vast empire with a rule that is firm but not unkind…. As on a holiday, the entire civilized world lays down the weapons that were its ancient burden and has turned to adornment and all glad thoughts, with the power to realize them…. Cities glisten with radiance and charm, and the entire Earth has been made beautiful like a garden…. Like a perpetual sacred flame, the celebration is unending…. It is now possible for Hellene5 and non-Hellene, with or 5. Anyone, like Aristides, who was an educated Roman citizen and shared in the empire’s Greco-Roman high culture.
Illus. 1.4 A floor mosaic from a merchant’s shop at Ostia.
without property, to travel with ease wherever he wishes, as though passing from homeland to homeland…. Let us pray that all the gods and their children grant that this empire and this city flourish forever and never cease until stones float on water and trees cease to put forth shoots in spring, and that the Great Governor6 and his sons be preserved and obtain blessings for all.
***
6. The emperor.
8 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Illus. 1.5 A floor mosaic from a merchant’s shop at Ostia.
Imperial Reform or Revolution? 2. Lactantius, ON THE DEATHS OF THE PERSECUTORS 7 In the third century, the Roman Empire endured the greatest concatenation of crises that it had faced to that point, as the Mediterranean world experienced invasions on every front, civil wars, economic collapse, social turmoil, massive epidemics, and numerous other natural disasters. The Crisis of the Third Century essentially ended with the imperial accession in 284 of Diocletian, who ruled until his voluntary retirement in 305. Although several of Diocletian’s predecessors had anticipated some of his reforms of the empire’s civil and military structures, and had even begun to restore order to a battered but still-alive empire, Diocletian rightfully is accorded credit (and blame) for having initiated in a systematic manner the radical restructuring that enabled the Roman Empire to continue to exist for several more centuries. In the process of saving the empire, however, Diocletian and his immediate successors transformed it into an undisguised authoritarian state centered on the emperor. One of the important eyewitnesses to Diocletian’s reign was Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (ca. 250–325?). Born a pagan in North Africa, Lactantius became a master of Latin rhetoric and was summoned to Diocletian’s court at Nicomedia in Anatolia to supervise the Latinity of the official documents of an imperial court that had settled in this Greek-speaking area of the empire in 286. While in Nicomedia, Lactantius converted to Christianity in time to witness the outbreak of the Great Persecution of the Christian Church that began and emanated out from Nicomedia in 303. Evidence suggests he lost his office during this period of oppression but was not otherwise harmed. The persecution ended, for the most part, in 311, and soon thereafter Lactantius completed the first edition of On the Deaths of the Persecutors, which recounted in edifying detail the horrible ends suffered by the handful of emperors who had chosen to persecute Christians over the past 250 years. Because Diocletian fell into that category, we have the vivid and quite hostile portrait that follows. Despite Lactantius’s bias, this account is a valuable source of information for the measures that Diocletian took to reorder and, thereby, reinvigorate and preserve the empire. 7. J. L. Creed, ed., Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), 10–12.
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Questions for Consideration 1. What specific reforms and changes did Diocletian institute? 2. What do those reforms, as enumerated here, suggest about some of the systemic problems in the empire—at least as Diocletian perceived them? 3. What appears to have been his overall imperial policy? 4. Lactantius was obviously prejudiced against Diocletian. Nevertheless, do any of his charges or judgments strike you as plausible?
While Diocletian, that author of crimes and inventor of evils, was ruining everything, he could not even hold his hand back from God.8 This man turned the whole world upside down by reason of his greed and timidity. He appointed three men to share his rule, having divided the world into four parts.9 And he multiplied the armies, inasmuch as each individual co-regent strove to maintain a far larger number of troops than previous leaders had when governing the state alone. The number of those who received sustenance from the government began to exceed by so much the number of those who contributed that, with farmers’ resources exhausted by the enormous size of imperial requisitions, farms were abandoned and cultivated land reverted to forest. To ensure complete terror, the provinces were divided into fragments;10 many governors and even more officials were imposed on individual regions and almost on individual cities, and added to these were large numbers of accountants, controllers, and prefects’ deputies. All of these civil officials rarely acted with civility; rather, they engaged 8. The Great Persecution. 9. The Tetrarchy, or “rule by four,” was a radically new way of governing the empire. In 285, Diocletian appointed a co-emperor, Maximian, who bore, along with Diocletian, the title Augustus. Each Augustus exercised sovereign rule over one-half of the empire, with Diocletian, as senior Augustus, choosing the richer and more stable eastern half. In 293, each Augustus appointed a deputy emperor and heir-designate, who bore the title Caesar. Each Caesar received one-half of his Augustus’s portion of the empire to govern. Thus, the empire was quartered so far as civil and military authority was concerned, thereby making it, in theory, easier to govern and to protect the frontiers. The system broke down soon after Diocletian died in 313. 10. Diocletian roughly doubled the number of provinces from about fifty to almost one hundred.
solely in frequent condemnations, proscriptions, and exactions of innumerable goods. The exactions were not simply frequent, they were unending, and by reason of these forced payments, unbearable damage was done. How also could the procedures for raising troops be endured? Given his insatiable greed, this same Diocletian did not want the value of his treasury ever to be reduced. Rather, he constantly amassed extraordinary gifts and contributions so that he could preserve, whole and inviolate, the wealth that he was storing up. When this same man created a huge price inflation by his various misdeeds, he tried to set by law the selling price of commodities.11 Then much blood was spilled over petty and trifling items. In the panic that ensued, nothing appeared for sale, and inflation raged worse than before until, after many had lost their lives, that law was repealed out of necessity.12 On top of this, there was added a certain boundless passion for building, which resulted in a no less boundless demand that the provinces deliver workers, artisans, wagons, and whatever else was necessary for Diocletian’s construction projects. Here he built basilicas,13 there a circus, here a mint, there an arms factory, here a house for his wife, there one for his daughter. Suddenly a major portion of the city had been destroyed, and all the citizens, accompanied by their wives and children, moved out, as if from a city that had been captured by the enemy. When these buildings had been completed (along with the ruin of the provinces), he would say: “They have not been built correctly. They must be done differently.” They then would have to be torn apart. 11. The Edict on the Sale Price of Goods (also known as the Edict on Prices) of 301. 12. There is no known record of this edict’s repeal, but it appears to have become a dead letter by 305, when Diocletian abdicated. 13. Consult the Glossary.
10 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
The Late Roman Empire 3. THE THEODOSIAN CODE 14 The Tetrarchy that Diocletian had put into place broke down soon after he abdicated, and his Edict on Prices was equally a failure. Notwithstanding these setbacks, Diocletian’s autocratic state flourished and expanded under the control of Constantine and Constantine’s immediate successors. As the following document illustrates, however, there was a price for the new stability. One of the best mirrors of late Roman society is the Theodosian Code, a collection of imperial proclamations that span the period from 313 to 437. The code exists largely because of the patronage of Theodosius II (r. 408–50), emperor of the eastern half of the Roman Empire. In 429, he commissioned a panel of jurists to arrange systematically all imperial edicts from the reign of Constantine I to his time, without attempting to resolve any contradictions. The result was more than 2,500 edicts divided among sixteen books, or chapters. Each book was divided into titles, or subjects, and the edicts under each title were arranged chronologically. For example, Title I of Book 12, “Decurions,” contains 192 edicts on the subject, dating from 313 to 436. Indeed, this section devoted to decurions, the municipal officials in charge of local administration, is the lengthiest in the entire code. That alone is a good indication of the importance the emperors attached to the office and their consistent attempts to resolve issues relating to the decurion system.
Questions for Consideration 1. Exactly what was the status of coloni, and how, if at all, did they differ from slaves? What do the two edicts regarding coloni suggest about some of the problems that vexed the patrons of many coloni? 2. What do these edicts reveal about the military problems that the late Roman Empire faced? What measures did the emperors take to meet these problems? Judging from the evidence, how successful were these measures? 3. From the empire’s perspective, what was the problem with its decurions/curiales? What measures did the empire institute to solve the problem? How successful do those measures appear to have been? 4. What does the decurion/curialis problem suggest about the systemic troubles that were plaguing the late Roman Empire? 5. How did the government attempt to regulate the key craft of bread makings? What do these guild regulations suggest about the fourth-century empire’s economy? Based on the evidence, how successfully did the empire regulate this and other guilds and the economy?
14. Imperatori Theodosiani Codex in the online Latin Library at http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/theodosius/ theod05.shtml (accessed December 22, 2015).
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Book V Title 17. Regarding fugitive coloni,15 inquilini,16 and slaves 1. Emperor Constantine Augustus17 to the People of the Provinces. If a colonus who rightfully belongs to another is discovered with any person whatsoever, this person shall not only restore the same colonus to his ignoble status, he shall, in fact, assume the head tax18 for the same colonus for the period that he was with him.
1.1 It is also fitting that coloni who consider fleeing be bound in iron and reduced to a servile status, so that, by virtue of their condemnation to a slave’s status, they be compelled to fulfill the duties of free people. (October 30, 332)…
Title 19. A colonus must not alienate his peculium19 or enter into a civil suit without his lord’s knowledge 1. Emperors Valentinian and Valens Augusti20 to Clearchus, Vicar of Asia. Without a doubt, coloni cannot legally dispose of the fields that they are bound to, so that, even if they have belongings of their own, they may not licitly transfer them to others without the guidance and knowledge of their patrons. ( January 27, 365)
Book VII Title 1. Military Affairs 5. Emperors Valentinian and Valens Augusti. Calling again to military training and the camp the sons of those men who have served in arms, We shall also confer on them the full benefit of the terms of service of those 15. Originally, colonus (pl. coloni) meant a colonist. It now meant a tenant farmer. 16. “Someone who dwells in a place not his own.” The inquilinus was a tenant farmer who possessed more property rights than a colonus. 17. Constantine I. 18. A tax imposed directly on a person. 19. Any property obtained or held by a dependent person. 20. Co-emperors Valentinian I and Valens.
men of second rank who have given especially satisfactory service to the State.21 If, however, feebleness of health, or a bodily condition, or insufficient height22 should exempt any of them from armed military service, we order them to serve in other offices. For if, after the age that We have established,23 they have become enamored with a life of ignoble ease, they shall, without dispute, be obliged to join the municipal councils24 according to the quality of their ability. If the accident of a disability or disease or consuming physical feebleness has so weakened any such persons that they are not fit for service in military camp or other service, they shall be perpetually free of the burden of curial duties. (April 29, 364)… 8. The same Augusti to Equitinus, Count and Master of Soldiers.25 Your Authority shall announce to absolutely all veterans that, if anyone should not, of his own free will, offer his son who is fit for the honor of armed service, for which he himself has toiled in sweat, he shall be ensnared in the trap of our law. (September 24, 365)
Title 15. Border Lands 1. Emperors Honorius and Theodosius Augusti26 to Gaudentius, Vicar of Africa. We have learned for certain that parcels of land that had been granted to non-Romans, through the benevolent foresight of our predecessors of the distant past, for the care and defense of the border and frontier fortifications, are held by others. Whether the lands are held due to the greed or the longing desire of these people, it is imperative that they know that they must serve with zeal and toil in caring for the border fortifications and protecting the 21. The recruits would enter military service with the same rank as those who had received their first meritorious promotion. 22. The minimum height for military service was five feet five. 23. Sons of veterans were liable for service at age sixteen; for other recruits the age of enlistment was eighteen. 24. Local municipalities were administered by councils (curiae), and the persons who sat on these councils were known as curiales (sing. curialis). In theory, a person’s wealth and property allowed him to serve in one of these unpaid positions. It was originally a highly sought-after honor. See below for several edicts regarding curiales and decurions. 25. A commanding general. 26. Honorius, emperor of the West; Theodosius II, emperor of the East.
12 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
frontier, just as did those persons to whom antiquity delegated this task. Otherwise, they should know that these parcels must be given over either to the non-Romans, if they can be found, or certainly and deservedly so to veterans,27 so that, by observance of this ruling, there can be no mistrust or fear in any part of the frontier fortifications and the border. (April 29, 409)
Title 18. Deserters and They Who Hide Them 1. Emperors Valentinian and Valens Augusti: Edicts for all of Italy and the Alps. If a deserter should be apprehended at the home of any person whatsoever, [and] if that person is a plebeian and someone of more humble status, he should know that he will be punished with the penalty of the mines.28 If, however, he is someone of higher status and rank, he should understand that he will be fined half of his property. And the office staff of each and every judge shall be subject to this penalty, if by chance it should have in its membership proven deserters and does not surrender them.29 (March 26, 365)
Title 20. Veterans 6. Emperor Constantius Augustus30 to Helpidius, Consularis of Pannonia.31 All privileges granted to veterans who have served meritoriously in the army shall be maintained in proportion to one’s proving that he has competently served in the military. Immunity from compulsory labor or the compulsory public service that is laid upon people must be granted to these same men. ( June 24, 342? 353?)
We learn that certain veterans, who are unworthy of that title, are committing brigandage. For that reason, We command that veterans who are right-minded should certainly either till the land or invest money in businesses of the highest quality and deal in merchandise. However, mortal punishment will immediately be raised against those who neither cultivate a farm nor spend a useful life in commerce. For they who disturb the public peace must be stripped of all privileges, and so, if they should commit any crime, no matter how small, they shall be subjected to all penalties. (August 11, 353?)
Book XII Title 1. Decurions33 1. Emperor Constantine Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. No judge may presume to grant an exemption from compulsory civil service to any curialis, nor shall he free anyone from the municipal council by his own judgment. For, if anyone should be impoverished by such a misfortune that he needs assistance, he must be referred to Our Knowledge by name, so that an exemption from compulsory civil service might be granted him for a certain amount of time. (March 15, 313; reissued 315 and 326)…
7. The same Augustus to Evagrius, Prefect of the City32
7. The same Augustus regarding the edict. We decree that the sons of decurions, who have attained the age of eighteen years, be assigned to compulsory civil services throughout the province of Carthage. For one should not wait for them to be released from the family and freed from [these] sacred [bonds], since the wills of fathers must not prejudice the interests of municipalities. (February 21, 320; reissued 329)…
27. Retired veterans were settled along Rome’s frontiers, where they worked farms given them as pensions, served as a reserve militia force, and raised sons for military service. 28. The person will be sent to labor as a slave in the mines—a punishment that almost ensured an early death. 29. The deserters harbored by a judge’s staff would most likely not be soldiers but, rather, persons fleeing the posts of curialis and decurion. 30. Constantius II (r. 337–61). 31. The governor of an important frontier province that lay south and west of the Danube. 32. The prefect of the city of Rome. The highest civil official in the city, he oversaw the courts, the Senate, and the police. He also supervised all of the city’s guilds and was ultimately in charge of
the city’s grain supply. Regarding the guilds and the bread supply, see below. 33. Decurian was synonymous with curialis. By the fourth century, the decurion’s chief responsibility was tax collection, and decurions were held financially responsible for shortfalls in assessed taxes.
13. The same Augustus to Evagrius, Praetorian Prefect. Since We have learned that the municipal councils are being left desolate by persons who are obligated [to serve on them] by birth status and are requesting through supplication imperial service for themselves and are hastening off to the legions and various civil offices, We order all municipal councils to be advised that they should
Chapter 1: A World in Flux The Pax Romana 13
apprehend those persons with less than twenty years of service in civil offices who either evade [the duties of their] birth status or, holding in contempt their nomination [to a municipal office], insinuate themselves into imperial service, [and] they shall drag them back to the council. They shall know for certain that this [mandate] must be observed regarding a person who deserts a municipal council and enters imperial service. He shall be recalled to the municipal council who has found refuge in imperial service or has been [previously] dispensed [from these duties] by Our favor—not only the person born to that status but also one who possesses an adequate amount of property for his duties on the council. (May 17, 326)… 62. The same Augusti34 to Symmachus, Prefect of the City If a municipal official should creep into a guild of craftsmen in order that he might make a mockery of other duties, he shall be returned to his former status. In the future, no person who derives his birth status from decurions shall dare to aspire to this post [in a guild]. (December 10, 364)…
146. The same Augusti35 to Dexter, Praetorian Prefect. We have noticed that many men hide under the shadow of powerful individuals in order to defraud their native municipality of owed duty. Therefore, it is fitting that a fine is instituted for any person who violates the letter of established law. He is to be compelled to pay into Our treasury five pounds of gold36 for each curialis and one pound for each member of a guild. Therefore, they should expel all men whom they harbor lest Our Clemency rise to a greater state of indignation because of the obstinacy of the concealers. ( June 15, 395)
Book XIV Title 3. Breadmakers and Packanimal Drovers 8. The same Augusti37 to Symmachus, Prefect of the City. Your Sincerity’s office must be on guard lest any person assigned once and forever to the body of breadmakers be 34. Valentinian I and Valens. 35. Arcadius, emperor of the East (r. 383–408), and Honorius, emperor of the West (r. 395–423). 36. The Roman pound was 328.9 grams (about 11 3/4 ounces). Gold coins, known as solidi (sing. solidus), were minted at the rate of seventy-two solidi per pound. A solidus was roughly the pay for a month and a half for a Roman cavalryman. 37. Valentinian I and Valens.
allowed, for any reason whatsoever, the opportunity and means of withdrawing [from it], even if he should work for the granting of release from his entire [guild] of breadmakers, and its assembly seems to have agreed [to it] by consensus. It is additionally fitting that no one be granted license to transfer from one [breadmaking] establishment to another. ( January 15, 365)…
11. The same Augusti to Symmachus, Prefect of the City. We universally proclaim by this injunction that freedom will be granted to no person whatsoever to enter the Church [as a cleric] for the purpose of evading the duty of breadmaker. Should any person enter it, he should know that the [clerical] privileges attached to Christianity have been abolished and that he can and must be recalled after any period of time [in the Church] to the community of breadmakers. (September 27, 365)…
14. The same Augusti38 to Ursicinus, Prefect of the Annona.39 If the daughter of a breadmaker marries any man whatsoever and later, when her patrimony has been used up, he should think that she can be released from the guild, We decree that this same man is bound to the duties and community of breadmaking, and not to any other law and business, as if he were held by the bond of birth status to the same. (February 22, 372)
Title 7. Guild Members Arcadius and Honorius Augusti to Gracchus, Governor of Campania.40 Suitable judges should have the task of dragging back guilds, or rather guild members, so that they order those persons who departed far away to return to their own municipalities, along with all of the things that they possess lest, due to their longing for their possessions, they cannot be held fast in the place of their birth…. (May 24, 397)
38. Valentinian I, Valens, and Gratian. 39. The official in charge of Rome’s grain supply, including weights and measures and the baking and distribution of bread. 40. A region south of Rome.
14 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Christianity and the Roman World As befit an empire of so many different peoples and cultures, Roman authorities were generally tolerant of the diverse deities and religious practices of the empire’s subjects. Normally all they required was that the various cults and their devotees not manifestly threaten public order and morality and that each religion help guarantee the gods’ continued favor toward the state. Yet, as source 4 suggests, as far as many Roman leaders were concerned, Christians violated those basic requirements. Therefore, Christianity ran afoul of Roman authorities early in its history. Unyielding adherence to the Christian religion became a crime, at least theoretically punishable by death, from the age of Nero (r. 54–68) onward. Regardless, persecution of Christians was sporadic, local, and often halfhearted until the mid-third century. When persecutions did occur before then, it was usually when provincial governors found themselves forced to bow to local sentiment in order to keep a discontented populace quiet. Crop failures and other natural disasters seemed to demand a few Christian victims as propitiation to the gods. The first significant, empire-wide persecution of Christians occurred in 250 under Emperor Decius, who required every member of the empire to acquire a certificate attesting that the person had sacrificed to a Roman deity for the well-being of the empire and its emperor. In the despair and confusion of the age, the empire was simultaneously seeking divine aid and searching for scapegoats. In 260, Emperor Gallienus halted persecution and extended de facto recognition to the Christian Church by returning confiscated property, but this was only a temporary reprieve. In 303, Diocletian launched the Great Persecution, the last and greatest assault on Christians by the Roman state. The attack was most bitter in the East and of only minor consequence in much of the West, except for Sicily, Spain, Rome, and western North Africa. In North Africa the struggle between those who resisted the imperial edict to hand over the Holy Scriptures and those who complied caused a serious fissure in the Christian community, as we shall see in source 6. In 311, Emperor Galerius, in the grip of a frightening disease, decided to strike a bargain with the Christian god. In exchange for their prayers for him, he granted Christians freedom of worship. A few days after issuing the edict, Galerius was dead. The following year, Constantine was campaigning in Italy against an imperial rival. According to one Christian author, on the eve of battle, Constantine had a vision bidding him to mark his soldiers’ shields with the Greek characters chi (X) and rho (P), which together comprised an ancient symbol of victory and the emblem of the Unconquered Sun, his father’s personal god. To Christians, however, the Chi-Rho ( ) was Christ’s monogram, representing as it did the first two letters of the Greek word Christos—Christ, or the Anointed One. Constantine obeyed his vision, and shortly thereafter he won a decisive victory, thereby becoming uncontested emperor in the West. For whatever reason, Constantine ascribed his victory to Christ. In 313, he and his co-emperor, Licinius, met at Milan, in northern Italy, and there reached an agreement that offered freedom of worship for all persons in the empire and recognized the full legal status of each local Christian church. Christianity had weathered the storm of Roman persecution. After the meeting at Milan, Constantine never wavered in his patronage of Christianity, although it took him about a decade to wean himself fully away from residual attachment to the cult of the Unconquered Sun. Notwithstanding that, Christianity, a faith that commanded the belief of about 10 percent of the empire’s population in 313, was the emperor’s favored religion, and the consequences were momentous for both the empire and Christianity. By the end of the fourth century, Christianity, in one form or another, was probably the religion of a majority of city dwellers in the eastern half of the Roman Empire and was making rapid advances among the region’s rural populations. In the western half of the empire the progress of conversion was far slower but steady. The four sources that follow allow us to trace the fortunes of Christianity within the Roman Empire from the late second to the early sixth century.
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Why Are Christians Persecuted? 4. Tertullian, A DEFENSE OF CHRISTIANS AGAINST THE PAGANS 41 The Christian apologist Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullian (ca. 160–after 220) is an enigmatic figure about whom little is known. He was probably born in Roman North Africa, the pagan son of an army centurion. Rather than entering military service, he appears to have entered the legal profession and seems to have enjoyed an early brilliant career. Around the year 195, he converted to Christianity and soon thereafter turned his considerable rhetorical talents, legal knowledge, and energy to an outpouring of passionate, eminently quotable, and deliciously sarcastic writings, advocating an austere vision of Christianity that emphasized a life of self-denial. Around the year 197, he composed A Defense of Christians against the Pagans, in which he defended Christian practices and beliefs before the court of public opinion. Addressed to the empire’s provincial governors, his treatise develops the argument that persecution of Christians is inconsistent with the principles of Roman law, morality, and reason. Our selection provides evidence of the accusations leveled against Christians, the extent to which they were sought out and brought before courts of justice, and the manner in which they were tried.
Questions for Consideration 1. What were the specific crimes, misdemeanors, anti-social deeds, and forms of foolishness that Christians were charged with? 2. Why were those acts were attributed to them? In other words, were any of the charges based on false assumptions and misunderstandings? 3. What policies regarding Christians did Roman authorities have in place around the year 200? 4. Based on Tertullian’s testimony, what do you conclude was the reasoning behind those policies? 5. What do you infer from the fact that Tertullian dared to compose this defense? 41. Tertullian, Apologeticus adversus gentes pro Christianis in Douglass Series of Christian Greek and Latin Authors, ed. F. A. March, vol. III, Tertullian (New York: Harper & Bros., 1875), 28–46, passim.
It is against the law to condemn anyone without a defense and a hearing. Only Christians are forbidden to say anything in defense of the truth that would clear their case and assist the judge in avoiding an injustice. All they care about (and this by itself is enough to arouse public hatred) is a confession to bearing the name “Christian,” not an investigation of the charge. Now, let us assume you are trying any other criminal. If he confesses to the crime of murder, or sacrilege, or sexual debauchery, or treason—to cite the crimes that we stand accused of—you are not content to pass sentence immediately. Rather, you weigh the relevant circumstances: the nature of the deed; how often, where, how, and when it was committed; the co-conspirators and the partners-in-crime. Nothing of this sort is done in our case. Yet, whenever that false charge is brought against us, we must equally be made to confess: How many
murdered babies has one eaten? How many illicit sexual acts has one performed under cover of darkness? Which cooks and which dogs were there?42 Oh, how great would be the glory of that governor who should bring to light a Christian who has already devoured a hundred babies! To the contrary, we find that it is forbidden to hunt us down. When Pliny the Younger was a provincial governor and had condemned some Christians to death and had intimidated others to abandon the steadfastness of their faith, he was still concerned about their sheer numbers and worried about what to do in the future. So he consulted Trajan, the reigning emperor. Pliny explained that, except for their obstinate refusal to offer sacrifice, he had learned 42. Which cooks to cook the murdered babies? The dogs are explained in footnote 45.
16 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
nothing else about their religious ceremonies, except that they met before daybreak to sing hymns to Christ and God and to bind themselves by oath to a way of life that forbids murder, adultery, fraud, treachery, and all other crimes. Trajan then wrote back that people of this sort should not be hunted down but, when brought to court, they should be punished.43 What a decision! How inevitably self-contradictory! He declares that they should not be hunted down, as though they are innocent. Then he prescribes that they are to be punished, as though they are guilty. He spares them, yet he directs his anger upon them. He pretends to shut his eyes, yet he calls attention to them. Judges, why do you tie yourselves up in knots? If you condemn them, why not hunt them down? If you do not hunt them down, why not also find them innocent? Throughout all the provinces, soldiers are assigned by lot to hunt down bandits. When it comes to traitors and public enemies each person is a soldier. Inquiry extends even to one’s associates and confederates. Christians alone may not be hunted down, but he may be brought to court, as if hunting down led to anything other than being hauled into court. So, you condemn someone who is hauled into court, although no one wished to seek him out. He has not merited punishment, I suppose, because he is guilty, but because, forbidden to be looked for, he was found!… A person shouts out, “I am a Christian!” He says what he is. You want to hear what he is not. You preside to extract the truth, yet in our case alone you take infinite pains to hear a lie. “I am,” he says, “what you ask if I am. Why torture me to twist the fact around? I confess, and you torture me. What would you do if I denied?” Clearly when others deny you do not readily believe them. In our case, when we deny, you immediately believe us…. 43. This famous exchange of letters between Pliny the Younger and Emperor Trajan took place around 112 and concerned Christians in the provinces of Bithynia and Pontus along the Black Sea Coast of Anatolia. The letters have been preserved.
Inasmuch as you treat us differently from all other criminals, which you do by concentrating on disassociating us from that name (for we are cut off from the name “Christian” only if we do what non-Christians do),44 you must know that there is no crime whatsoever in our case. It is only a name…. So much for my preface, as it were, which is intended to beat into submission the injustice of the public hatred felt for us. Now I take the stand to plead our innocence…. We are said to be the worst of criminals because of our sacramental baby-killing and the baby-eating that accompanies it and the sexual license that follows the banquet, where dogs are our pimps in the darkness when they overturn candles and procure a certain modesty for our impious lusts.45 We are always spoken of in this way, yet you take no pains to investigate the charges that you have made against us for so long. If you believe them, investigate them. Otherwise, stop believing what you do not investigate. The fact that you look the other way suggests that the evil that you yourselves dare not investigate does not exist…. You say, “You do not worship the gods, and you do not offer sacrifices for the emperors.” It follows logically that we do not offer sacrifices for others because we do not do so even for ourselves. All of this is a consequence of our not worshipping the gods. So we are accused of sacrilege and treason. This is the chief case against us. In fact, it is the whole case…. Your gods we cease to worship from the moment we recognize that they are not gods. So that is what you ought to require us to prove—that those gods do not exist and for that reason should not be worshipped because they deserve worship only if they are gods.
44. Sacrifice to the gods of the empire and participate in civic- religious festivals. 45. The rumor was that strings were attached to both dogs’ tails and to the candles that illuminated the room. When food (presumably cooked babies) was tossed to the dogs, they leaped at it, overturning the candles and plunging the room into darkness.
Chapter 1: A World in Flux Christianity and the Roman World 17
Constantine’s Revolution 5. Eusebius of Caesarea, ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 46 Eusebius (ca. 260–339 or 340), Greek bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, was a prolific author with wide-ranging interests. His most enduring work, the Ecclesiastical History, traces the fortunes of the Christian Church from its earliest days to the early fourth century and has earned him the title “Father of Church History.” In addition to offering the most complete and coherent account that we possess of the early Church’s first three centuries, he diligently incorporated into his text large amounts of documentary evidence that would otherwise be lost. Without the Ecclesiastical History, it would be almost impossible to reconstruct the history of the early Christian Church. Eusebius’s scholarship did not obviate the apologetical tone and theological message of this work. Within its pages, history is a cosmic contest between the forces of God and those of the Devil. On the one side are the patriarchs, prophets, and saints; on the other are pagans, persecutors, latter-day Jews, and heretics. Although the Devil and his minions always lose, the righteous suffer considerably as they struggle against evil. More than a scholar, Eusebius was active in the affairs of the early fourth-century Church and suffered in the process. He was imprisoned during the era of the Great Persecution and saw many of his friends tortured and martyred. But he also lived to witness Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, and he came to enjoy the emperor’s patronage and friendship. Earlier, before the Great Persecution, Eusebius had begun a detailed history of the Church to his own day, completing the work in seven volumes around 303. The events of 312 and following, however, necessitated that he update his history. Consequently, he enlarged the work to ten books in order to include the history of Christian fortunes down to 324, thereby demonstrating the manner in which Divine Providence had once again triumphed over the forces of evil. The following excerpts come from Book 10 and describe the consequences of two victories over imperial rivals. The first concerns Licinius’s victory in 313 over Emperor Maximinus II Daia, which gave Licinius uncontested control of the eastern half of the empire. Maximinus had persecuted Christians, whereas Licinius lukewarmly supported Constantine’s patronage of Christianity. Following this victory, Licinius and Constantine, who was emperor in the West, met at Milan, where they published an edict of religious toleration. The second excerpt concerns Constantine’s victory in 324 over Licinius, his former co-emperor.
Questions for Consideration 1. Compare Chapters 1 and 2 with Chapter 9. How do you explain their similarities and differences? 2. The Ecclesiastical History ends with the final words of Chapter 9 that are quoted here. What does this conclusion suggest about Eusebius’s worldview? 46. Eusebius of Caesarea, History of the Church, Book X, in Patrologia Graeca ed. J.-P. Migne, Eusebius, Book 2 (1857), cols. 842–906, passim.
18 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Chapter 1
Chapter 9
…Let us proceed to show that after those terrible and morbid spectacles that we described,47 we are now permitted to see and celebrate things that so many righteous people and martyrs of God who lived before us desired to see on Earth but did not see, desired to hear but did not hear…. Acknowledging that such things are greater than we deserve, we have been struck speechless at the grace manifested by the Author of these great gifts, and rightly are we in awe of Him, worshipping Him with the whole power of our souls, and testifying to the truth of the words uttered by the Prophet: “Come and see the works of the Lord, the wonders that He has done on Earth. He ends war to the far reaches of the world; He shall break the bow and snap the spear in half, and shall consume shields with fire.”48 Rejoicing in those things that have been clearly fulfilled in our day, let us proceed to our account. Consonant with what we have said, the whole wicked congregation of God’s enemies was destroyed and was suddenly swept away from human sight…. And finally, on a bright and splendid day that was cloudless, heavenly rays illuminated the churches of Christ throughout the entire world. Not even persons outside of our community were prevented from sharing in the same blessings, or, at least, from coming under their influence and enjoying a portion of the benefits that God bestowed on us.
To him, therefore God granted, from Heaven above, the deserved rewards of piety—trophies of victory over the unfaithful—and He cast the guilty one with all his counselors and friends prostrate at the feet of Constantine. For when Licinius carried his madness to its ultimate form, the emperor, thinking he could no longer be tolerated,… mingling the firm principle of justice with humaneness, gladly decided to protect those who were oppressed by the tyrant and undertook, by disposing of a few destroyers, to save the majority of humanity.51… Consequently, the protector of the virtuous, mixing hatred of evil with love of goodness, went forth with his son Crispus,52…and extended a saving right hand to all who were perishing. Both of them, father and son, under the protection of God, the Universal King, with the Son of God, the Savior of all humanity, as their leader and ally, drew up their forces on all sides against the enemies of God and won an easy victory…. And the things that Licinius had seen with his own eyes happen to the former, impious tyrants he himself likewise suffered.53… Having followed the same path of impiety that they had trod, he justly was hurled over the same precipice. And so he lay prostrate.54 On his part, Constantine, the mighty victor who was adorned with every virtue of piety, along with his son Crispus, a most God-beloved prince, who was like his father in all respects, recovered the East, which belonged to them,
Chapter 2 Indeed, all human beings were freed from tyrannical oppression, and being released from the evils that had earlier beset them, one person in one way and another in another way acknowledged the Defender of the Faithful to be the only True God…. Church buildings rose again from their foundations to immense heights and with a splendor far greater than that of the former churches that had been destroyed. The supreme rulers49 also underscored for us the generosity of God through their repeated edicts on behalf of Christians, and the emperor50 sent personal letters to the bishops, along with honors and gifts of money…. 47. Earlier, Eusebius described “the much-tried fortitude of the athletes of religion,” namely the persecutions bravely endured by Christian martyrs. 48. Psalms, 46: 8–9. 49. Co-emperors Constantine and Licinius. 50. Constantine.
51. In 316, Constantine attacked Licinius, on the pretext that he was persecuting Christians in violation of their agreement in 313 to treat Christians benevolently. Constantine was victorious and confiscated a major portion of the rich Balkan Peninsula. In 324, Constantine returned to complete the task, on the same pretext. Licinius capitulated and surrendered his remaining half of the empire, on the promise that his life would be spared. (See note 54.) Constantine was now master of the entire Roman world. 52. Crispus was Constantine’s eldest son and presumed heir. See note 55. 53. In 312, Constantine became uncontested emperor in the West by defeating Emperor Maxentius, who did not persecute Christians; Licinius defeated Maximinus, a notorious persecutor of Christians. Both emperors died in the immediate aftermath of their defeats. 54. Despite promising to spare Licinius’s life, Constantine ordered his execution in 325. These circumstances forced Eusebius to transform Licinius from a hero to a villain in the last edition of his Church History, which he revised around the year 325 and before Crispus’s death in 326 (next note).
Chapter 1: A World in Flux Christianity and the Roman World 19
and they formed one united Roman Empire as in the past, bringing under their peaceful rule the whole world.55… Edicts full of clemency and laws containing the mark of benevolence and true piety were issued in every place 55. In 326, Crispus, whom Constantine had placed in charge of the empire’s western provinces, was accused, probably falsely, of plotting treason and executed on Constantine’s order.
by the victorious emperor. So, after all tyranny had been wiped away, the empire that belonged to them was preserved firm and without a rival for Constantine and his sons alone. Having obliterated the godlessness of their predecessors and recognizing the benefits conferred on them by God, they exhibited their love of virtue and of God, as well as their piety and gratitude to God, by the actions that they performed in view of all.
Church and State in the Late Empire 6. THE THEODOSIAN CODE 56 Book XVI of the Theodosian Code is devoted to edicts that concern the new imperial Christian order. As you examine these laws, keep in mind two facts. In the fourth century, multiple, radically different forms of Christian belief and practice fiercely competed with one another. Moreover, all of Constantine’s successors, save one,57 were, to greater or lesser extents, champions of Christianity, although the forms of Christianity that they favored varied. Constantius II (r. 337–61) and Valens (r. 364–78) promoted the Arian doctrine that maintained that Jesus, God the Son, was God the Father’s First Creation. He was made divine by adoption and, therefore, was not the equal of the Father. Emperor Theodosius I (r. 379–95), the last Roman emperor to rule over the entire empire, championed the teaching of the Council of Nicaea of 325 that maintained Jesus was of the same substance as God the Father and coeternal with Him. In large measure because of Theodosius and other imperial adherents of the Nicene Creed (as well as the firm advocacy of the popes of Rome and the vast majority of the other bishops in the West), this latter doctrine became the imperial Church’s established, orthodox position.
Questions for Consideration 1. Was there any evolution whatsoever in the way in which the empire treated heretics? 2. Compare the rescripts of May 11, 391, and August 4, 425. Why were heretics treated more harshly than apostates? 3. How well or poorly did Jews fare in the new Christian Roman Empire? 4. A double question regarding pagans: What was the empire’s official position regarding paganism, and how easy (or not) was it to enforce? 5. How did the various emperors attempt to balance their dual responsibilities—to the Roman state and to the Church? 6. Review Eusebius. In light of these edicts, how prescient was he regarding the new imperial- Christian order?
56. Imperatori Theodosiani Codex in the online Latin Library at http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/theodosius/theod05. shtml (accessed December 28, 2015). 57. Emperor Julian (r. 361–63) renounced Christianity in favor of restoring traditional polytheism, but his short reign was no more than a momentary diversion.
20 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Book XVI Title 1. The Catholic Faith 2. Emperors Gratian,Valentinian, and Theodosius Augusti:58 An Edict to the People of the City of Constantinople. We wish that all people over whom the temperance of Our Clemency holds sway to practice the religion that the divinely inspired Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans—a religion that has been established from his day right up to now. And clearly it is a religion that the Pontiff Damasus and that Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, a man of apostolic sanctity, manifest.59 It is a religion in which, in accordance with apostolic teaching and evangelical doctrine, we believe in a single Deity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit of equal majesty and contained within a Holy Trinity. We further command that persons who follow this precept shall embrace the name “Catholic Christians.” The rest, in fact, whom we judge to be demented and insane, shall bear the infamy of heretical belief and their meeting places shall not be called “churches.” They shall be smitten with punishment, initially by divine vengeance and afterwards by Our actions as well, which We will exact in accordance with the judgment of Heaven. (February 27, 380)
Title 2. Bishops, Churches, and Clerics 2. Constantine Augustus to Octavian, Governor of Luvania and Bruttium.60 Persons who devote the ministry of religion to worship of the Divine, that is, they who are called clerics, are exempted from all compulsory public service whatsoever, lest through the sacrilegious spite of some people they be called away from divine services. (October 21, 319; initially issued 313)… 4. The same Augustus to the People
58. Gratian (r. 375–83), Valentinian II, and Theodosius I. 59. Patriarch Peter II of Alexandria (r. 373–80) was a firm opponent of Arianism. Emperor Valens, an Arian Christian, drove him from his see, and Peter took refuge in Rome under the protection of Pope Damasus I. Peter later returned in triumph to Alexandria. For more about this patriarchate, see Pope Gregory I’s letter to Eulogius of Alexandria (source 26). Consult also the Glossary at Patriarch. 60. The “toe” of southern Italy.
Each and every person shall have the freedom to leave to the most holy and venerable community of the Catholic Church, at death, whatever he wishes of his goods. The bequest shall not be voided. For there is nothing that is more greatly due people than that the written expression of their last will, following which they can no longer will anything, be free, and their free will, which does not return again, be unhampered. ( July 3, 321)…
6. The same Augustus to Ablavius, Praetorian Prefect. Exemption from compulsory public service shall not be granted by reason of popular consent or to all petitioners (whoever they might be) who claim clerical status, and neither will people be added to the clergy rashly and beyond measure. Rather, when a cleric has died, another shall be chosen to take the place of the deceased, a person with no kinship ties to municipal officials and not someone with a wealth of means by which he might quite easily be able to support compulsory public services. Therefore, when there is any doubt regarding the nomination of anyone between civic service and the clergy, if an impartial judgment determines him suitable for public service and if he is judged suitable for the municipal council by reason of either lineage or property, he shall be removed from the clergy and handed over to the municipality. For it is fitting that the wealthy bear the burden of secular demands, and the poor should be sustained by the wealth of the churches. ( June 1, 326; reissued 329)
Title 5. Heretics Emperor Constantine Augustus to Dracilianus. 1. The privileges that have been conferred in consideration of religion extend only to those who observe the Catholic rites. It is Our will, moreover, that heretics and schismatics61 are not only denied these privileges but also shall be bound and subjected to various compulsory public services. (September 1, 326)… 5. Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Theodosius Augusti to Hesperius, Praetorian Prefect All heresies have been prohibited by divine and imperial law and must cease forever. If any wicked individual should diminish the concept of God through his punishable effrontery, he shall only possess personal knowledge of these poisons; he shall not hurt others by sharing them. 61. Consult the Glossary.
Chapter 1: A World in Flux Christianity and the Roman World 21
If anyone, by means of a restored death, should corrupt bodies that were redeemed by the holy baptismal font by stealing that which he repeats,62 he alone shall know such [a doctrine]. He shall not lead others to perdition through his nefarious teachings. All teachers and ministers alike of this perverse superstition, whether they defame the name of bishops through their assumption of the episcopate63 or what is almost the same, they counterfeit religion with the title of “priests,” or even call themselves deacons,64 inasmuch as they shall not, indeed, be considered Christians, must absent themselves from the meeting places of a doctrine already condemned. (August 3, 379) 6. The same Augusti to Eutropius, Praetorian Prefect No place for [celebrating] their mysteries,65 no opportunity for exercising the madness of an obstinate mind shall be made available to heretics. All should know that even if a special concession of any sort has been obtained by people of that type through an imperial rescript that was elicited through fraud, it is invalid.66 ( January 10, 381)… 64. The same Augustus and Caesar67 to Bassus, Count of the Imperial Estates.68 (After other matters): We command that Manichaeans,69 heretics, schismatics, and every sect hostile to Catholics be
62. A reference to the rebaptism demanded by the Donatists, a breakaway sect of rigorist Christians that originated in fourth-century North Africa. The Donatists claimed as invalid baptisms (and other sacraments) that had been administered by sinful clerics who had handed over the Scriptures to Roman authorities during the Great Persecution. The official, imperial Church taught that the state of grace or sin of the cleric administering a sacrament is irrelevant, because it is a Church of sinners not saints. Moreover, baptism, which wipes away previous sins, may only be administered once. Thus, rather than wiping away sins, a Donatist rebaptism reintroduced the death of heretical sin. 63. Consult the Glossary. 64. Consult the Glossary. 65. Their rites. 66. An edict issued by Emperor Gratian around 380 affirmed freedom of worship for Arians, Donatists, and all but three enumerated “heretical” sects. Gratian later declared he had been tricked into issuing it. Regarding “rescript,” consult the Glossary. 67. Theodosius II and Valentinian (the future Valentinian III). 68. The official who oversaw the emperor’s private possessions and those of municipalities and churches. 69. In the third century C.E., the Prophet Manes, or Mani, proclaimed a Religion of Light that postulated two antithetical Principles, Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. Manichaeans claimed a global mission and won millions of adherents across
driven from the very sight of the various cities, so that the cities are not contaminated by the contagious presence of criminals. We, therefore, order that all persons of unholy error be excluded [from the cities], unless a timely correction should cure them. Etc. (August 6, 425)
Title 7. Apostates70 4. Emperors Valentinian, Theodosius, and Arcadius Augusti to Flavianus, Praetorian Prefect. They who forsake the sacred faith and profane holy baptism shall be segregated from the community of everyone, shall be disqualified from [giving] testimony, and, as We already previously ordained, will not have the right to make a will or receive inheritances from wills. They may inherit from no one; they may not be designated as heirs by anyone. We would also have ordered them cast away and exiled a far distance away had it not seemed to be a greater punishment to remain among people and to be bereft of their approval. (May 11, 391)
Title 8. Jews, Caelicolists, and Samaritans71 4. The same Augustus72 to the Priests, Rulers of the Synagogues, Fathers of the Synagogues, and All Others Who Serve in That Very Place. We command that the priests, rulers of the synagogues, fathers of the synagogues, and all others who serve the synagogues shall be free from every compulsory public service that involves bodily labor. (December 11, 321)…
25. The same Augusti73 to Asclepidotus, Praetorian Prefect It is Our pleasure that in the future absolutely no synagogues of the Jews shall be either indiscriminately taken away or burned down, and if, after the issuance of this law, Eurasia and North Africa. Due to Christian and Islamic pressures, Manichaeanism declined precipitously in western Eurasia after the seventh century but lived on in eastern Eurasia for additional centuries. It essentially disappeared around the late fourteenth century. 70. Consult the Glossary. 71. Caelicolists were an obscure sect that combined Christian and Jewish practices. Samaritans were (and are) an ethnoreligious community of monotheists whose form of Judaism differs in some striking ways from the rabbinical traditions of mainstream Judaism. 72. Constantine I. 73. Honorius and Theodosius II.
22 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
any synagogues have been recently seized, or appropriated for churches, or at any rate consecrated to the holy mysteries,74 the Jews are to be provided places where they can construct [synagogues] proportionate, to be sure, with those that were taken away. If any donations75 have been removed, they shall be returned to them, unless they have been dedicated to the mysteries. If holy consecration does not permit their return, then a price of equal value shall be paid in compensation. Furthermore, in the future, no synagogues shall be built; the old ones shall remain in their [present] condition. (February 15, 423)
Title 10. Pagans, Sacrifices, and Temples. 4. The same Augusti to Taurus, Praetorian Prefect. It is Our pleasure that hence forward temples in every place and in all cities shall be closed down and access to them forbidden, thereby denying license to sin to all persons who are morally lost. It is also Our will that all people abstain from [pagan] sacrifices. If, perhaps, someone perpetrates anything of this sort, let him be struck down with an avenging sword. We further decree that the property of the person thus executed shall be appropriated by the [imperial] treasury. Provincial governors shall be punished in a similar fashion if they fail to avenge these wicked crimes. (December 1, 346; reissued 354?)… 76
be aware that, by reason of the restriction that We have established in law, they are prohibited from unholy entries [into temples]. Therefore, if someone should strive to do anything contrary to [Our] prohibition regarding the gods or [pagan] sacred rites, he must know that he will not be exempted by reason of any leniency. If, moreover, during the time of his administration, a judge, relying on the privilege of his power and acting as a sacrilegious violator, should enter polluted places, he shall be forced to pay into Our treasury fifteen pounds of gold and also his office staff a like sum, unless it opposed [him] with its combined strength. ( June 16, 391)
Title 11. Religion 1. Emperors Arcadius and Honorius Augusti to Apolodorus, Proconsul of Africa.80 Whenever there is a case regarding a religious matter, it is fitting that bishops attend to the matter. All other cases, indeed, that belong to [the jurisdiction of ] governors or pertain to the practice of civil law must be heard in accordance with the law. (August 20, 399)
11. The same Augusti77 to Evagrius, Augustal Prefect, and Romanos, Count of Egypt78 The right to perform sacrifices shall be granted to no person; no person shall ritually circumambulate temples;79 no person shall revere [pagan] shrines. People must especially
74. Consult the Glossary, definition 2 under Mysteries, Holy. 75. Such items as Torahs, ornamental tapestries, and ritual vessels. 76. Constantius II and Constans. 77. Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius I. 78. The augustal prefect was the chief administrator of Egypt and was directly answerable to the emperor of the East. The count of Egypt was his subordinate. 79. Walking around a temple was a Celtic practice that was common in Roman Gaul. It was (and remains) also a Hindu and Buddhist rite and conceivably came into the Mediterranean from the East.
80. The chief administrative officer of North Africa, he was answerable directly to the emperors and not to any praetorian prefect.
Chapter 1: A World in Flux Christianity and the Roman World 23
The Christian Emperor 7. THE BARBERINI IVORY Our last source, known both as The Emperor Triumphant and the Barberini Ivory (named after its seventeenth-century owner), provides insight into the way in which the Christian Roman emperors perceived themselves and their faith. The sculpture, consisting of five interlocking ivory panels, was probably crafted in sixth-century Constantinople. The carving portrays either Emperor Anastasius I (r. 491–518) or, more likely, Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–65) receiving the submission of various Asian peoples. The triumphant emperor emerges on horseback out of the central panel, while a female personification of Earth supports his right foot. Beneath the horse’s hooves, on the left as we view the carving, are a pastoral people from the steppe lands of Central Asia, who are identifiable by their peaked (Phrygian) hats, trousers, and boots. The empire had had for centuries a complex relationship with the horse-riding nomads from the Great Eurasian Steppe. To the right of this lower register as we view it are Indians, identifiable by their dhotis (a cotton garment wrapped around the lower body) and turbans and other symbols that are best left for your discovery. Both groups are accompanied by the rare Asian lion (at least, it seems to be an Asian, not an African, lion) and led by a winged Victory in the center of the panel. Behind the lance that the emperor holds, a soldier dressed in the garments of a Central Asian nomad raises his hand in surrender. Farther to the emperor’s right, a Roman general approaches, bearing a statuette of the spirit of Victory, who carries a laurel crown. A third winged Victory hovers over the mane of the emperor’s horse. Crowning the composition is a medallion supported by two angels, within which a youthful, beardless Christ in Majesty offers the gesture of benediction with his right hand. Within the medallion, which can also be viewed as a nimbus, or halo, are symbols for the sun, the moon, and the stars. The Constantinopolitan artist has preserved Greco-Roman naturalism, particularly in regard to the bodies of humans and animals, and has also retained several traditional pagan symbols and motifs, such as the allegorical figures of Earth and Victory. The sculptor has also transformed certain pre-Christian artistic types, such as the beardless young man (the standard representation of Apollo) and winged heavenly beings, which had been common for centuries in Greco-Roman art, into figures representing Christian beliefs.
Questions for Consideration 1. In addition to their dress, what other symbols inform us that the figures on the right of the lower register (as we view it) are Indians? 2. What are the Central Asian nomads, whom Greeks and Romans called “Scythians,” and the Indians on the lower register doing? In other words, why are they in this sculpture? 3. What is the overall message of this sculpture? Be as complete as possible in answering this question. 4. Eusebius enters a time machine and visits sixth-century Constantinople. Compose his commentary on this sculpture.
24 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Illus. 1.6 Barberini Ivory.
Chapter 2
New Peoples in an Old Empire: Invasions and Settlements in the Western Roman Empire
Since at least the late first century B.C.E., the Romans conceived of their empire as having no permanent boundaries or temporal limits. In the words of the first-century B.C.E. poet Virgil, it was “an empire without end.” Rivers, deserts, and hostile neighbors were only momentary obstacles to the eternal, divinely mandated mission of Rome “to rule Earth’s people.” That faith was severely tested but not destroyed in the mid-third century. Between 230 and 285, the Sassanian Persian Empire and a variety of seminomadic border peoples battered the Roman Empire. The empire, however, shored up its frontier defenses in the late third century and survived. Renewed military vigor, combined with drastic domestic measures, secured Rome’s citizens an additional century of relative stability. Toward the end of the fourth century, however, the old frontier pressures again become intolerable, as various “barbarian” fringe peoples, who came from beyond the borders of the Rhine and Danube Rivers, infiltrated across the empire’s borders.
Illus. 2.1 Remains of the Roman limes (fortified boundary—pronounced “lee-maze”) along the Rhine.
25
26 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Textbooks often refer to these migrants as “Germans,” but that collective label is misleading. In the early centuries C.E., the term “German” was used only to refer to the peoples who dwelled immediately across the Rhine, such as the Franks. Although other groups, such as the Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, Suevi (or Suebi), and Lombards, spoke Proto-Germanic dialects, they did not think of themselves as belonging to a Germanic folk or possessing a common German ethnicity. They self-identified as Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Burgundians, and so forth. Complicating the issue of ethnicity even further was the fact that although these large tribes were led by persons who shared unique historical memories and distinctive languages and practices, these large groups were, more often than not, confederations that contained significant numbers of “other folks.” Moreover, the various tribes that textbooks identify as Germanic were often hostile toward one another to the point that many of them fought other German-speaking tribes while employed as Roman foederati (allies). In addition, a significant number of new peoples, whom Romans often lumped together with these Teutonic-speaking tribes as “barbarians,” were not Germanic in any sense of the word. The Irish and the Picts, the former clearly Celtic and the latter probably so, were almost as significant in the transformation of Roman Britain as the Germanic-speaking Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Huns, a nomadic confederation out of Central Asia, were certainly not Germanic, although it is unclear whether they were primarily progenitors of the later Turco-Mongol peoples of the steppes or closer in ethnicity and language to the Indo-European Scythian horsemen of antiquity. In all likelihood, the Huns, like so many of the Germanic tribes, were of mixed heritage. The Alans, on the other hand, who also came out of the steppe lands of Eurasia, were clearly an Iranian people, or at least largely so. Despite their fragmentation and the often willingness of various tribes to settle within the empire as allies and mercenary soldiers in the service of Rome, the newcomers badly wounded the Roman Empire, and some historians argue that they cumulatively assassinated the empire. In a strictly political sense, this is true, at least as far as the western half of the empire was concerned. By the end of the sixth century, precious little of the western half of the Roman world was ruled by imperial Roman authority. More profoundly, these newcomers played a key role in transforming culture in the West, thereby helping to usher out the old Greco-Roman order and to lay the basis for a new civilization that many historians call “The First Europe.” The documents in the first section of this chapter illustrate how three churchmen of Roman Gaul, whose lives spanned the fifth and sixth centuries, viewed the invaders and the consequences for Gallo-Roman society. The sources in the second section shed light on the ways in which these newcomers were integrated into the western half of the late Roman Empire.
The Newcomers One of the enduring clichés favored by writers of history textbooks is that medieval Europe emerged out of a fusion of three elements: the remnants of Greco-Roman civilization; Latin Christianity; and the cultures and vigor of the fringe peoples who migrated into the western regions of the late Roman Empire. There is truth in this statement, but it does not tell the complete story. It neglects the continuing vitality of the indigenous, age-old folk traditions of the many peoples who inhabited these lands before the newcomers carved up the western half of the Roman Empire. Although these native “Romans” constituted a majority of the population of the Roman West, they were generally dismissed by the dominant minority as pagani, a term that originally meant “outsiders” and, at first, had no religious connotation. Living in the countryside, in ethnically mixed frontier settlements, and in the slums of cities, the pagani did not share in the “high culture” of the elites, but their ways and beliefs persisted long after the Western Roman Empire of the Caesars had passed away.
Chapter 2: New Peoples in an Old Empire The Newcomers 27
Beyond that, the three commonly enumerated building blocks of a new Western world and this fourth factor, the customs and worldviews of the Roman world’s non-elites, differed radically from one another in many essential ways. Consequently, it took many centuries for these four elements to fuse into something resembling a coherent civilization. Even when they had achieved a level of integration, their inherent differences served as driving forces within the West’s new order. Such was the case with the tension between Romanitas—all the cultural and governmental elements associated with the Roman Empire—and the cultures of the newcomers.
Why Have the Barbarians Triumphed? 8. Salvian, THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 1 Salvian of Marseilles (ca. 400–after 480) was a prolific author about whom we know very little. Born in Gaul around the turn of the century, Salvian married early in life and fathered a daughter. Subsequently, he and his wife embraced lives of religion and retreated from the world. He entered the monastery of Lérins, which was located on an island just off the coast of present-day Cannes on the French Riviera. There, as a priest, he gained a wide reputation as a preacher, teacher, and writer. Shortly after 439, he completed his most famous work, The Present Judgment, which today is known as The Governance of God. In it he documented and attempted to explain the reasons behind the miseries visited upon the people of Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa in the wake of the migrations of “the barbarian peoples.” In the excerpts that follow, Salvian provides an overview and analysis of the misfortunes that befell the Western Roman Empire between 406 and 439.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider Salvian’s use of irony. Does it underscore his message? And what is that message? 2. Can you find any other rhetorical devices that he employs? Do they strengthen or weaken his message and its credibility? How credible do his statements appear to be? 3. Now review the sources in Chapter 1 that are relevant to Salvian’s indictment of the Roman world that he knew. Do they support, enhance, or cause you to question Salvian’s testimony? 4. Compose either Salvian’s commentary on Aelius Aristides’s Roman Oration or Aristides’s review of Salvian’s work (assuming that you have perfected Bill and Ted’s most excellent time machine). 1. Salvianus Massilienus, De gubernatione Dei, http://clt.brepolis.net/llta/pages/Toc.aspx (accessed April 11, 2016).
Book 5, Chapter 4 Insofar as it pertains to the way of life of the Goths and Vandals, how are we better than they or how can we even be compared to them? First, let me speak about their love and charity…. Almost all of the barbarians, at least they who are of one people and under one king, love one another; almost all Romans persecute one another….
Indeed, what a situation: how cruel, how rooted in wickedness by its very nature, how foreign to the barbarians, how familiar to Romans that they mutually extort from one another through debt-liabilities. In fact, it is not mutual. For it would be almost tolerable if each endures what he inflicts. It is more oppressive in that the many are crushed by a few, for whom a public tax is private booty, who make the bills of public debt private gain. And not
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only the highest [officials] but they who are almost the lowest, not only judges but even the judges’ underlings. For what cities are there, or even municipalities and villages, in which there are not as many curiales as there are tyrants? Although, perhaps they boast of this name because it seems to be one of power and honor. For almost all robbers rejoice and are proud if they are said to be somewhat more ruthless than they are. As I said, what place is there where the bowels of widows and orphans are not devoured by civic leaders and, along with these, almost all holy people? For the civic leaders view them almost as widows and orphans because they are either unwilling to protect themselves out of zeal for their profession or they are unable to do so because of their simplicity and humility. Not one of them, therefore, is safe nor, in like manner, except for the most powerful, are any of them immune from the devastation of universal brigandage, unless they are like these robbers themselves. Given this state of affairs (yes, indeed, the matter has degenerated to such a level of crime), unless one is evil, he cannot be safe.
Book 5, Chapter 5 All the while, the poor are stripped bare, widows wail, orphans are ground underfoot. The degree is such that many of them (and they are not of low birth and have been broadly educated) have fled to the enemy, lest they perish from the pain of public persecution. Evidently, they seek Roman humanness among the barbarians because they cannot bear barbaric inhumanness among the Romans. And although they differ in religion2 and although they differ in language from those to whom they flee, and also, as I shall say, they find disagreeable the fetid stench of barbarian bodies and clothing, they prefer to endure a dissimilar form of worship among the barbarians rather than raging injustice among the Romans. It follows that, far and wide, they migrate either to the Goths or to the Bacaudae3 or to other barbarians, wherever they are in power, and they have no remorse for having migrated. For they prefer 2. The Visigoths and Vandals, about whom Salvian wrote, were Arian Christians. 3. Groups of militant insurgents and bandits, largely farmers fleeing their lands in Gaul and Spain, that emerged during the chaos of the third century. Their numbers were often large, and various bands were able at times to fight Roman armies on more or less equal terms. In 458, Emperor Majorian employed Bacaudae to fight the Vandals. The Bacaudae slowly disappeared along with the last remnants of Roman political authority in the West.
to live free under the appearance of captivity than to be held captive under the appearance of liberty. Therefore, the title “Roman citizens,” at one time not only greatly valued but dearly bought, is now voluntarily repudiated and fled from, and it is considered to be almost of no worth and even abominable. And what can be a greater testimony to Roman wickedness than that many men, upright and noble and for whom the status of being a Roman should be the highest dignity and honor, have been driven by the cruelty of Roman wickedness to such a state that they do not wish to be Roman? It follows that even they, who do not flee to the barbarians, are compelled, nevertheless, to be barbarians. Certainly this is the case for a large percentage of Spaniards and not a small percentage of Gauls and, further, for those people throughout the entire Roman world whom Roman wickedness has now compelled to be non-Romans.
Book 5, Chapter 6 Now I turn to talk about the Bacaudae, who were despoiled, injured, and destroyed by evil judges. After they had lost the right of Roman liberty, they also lost the honor of the name “Roman.” And this misfortune is blamed on them! We ascribe to them the name of their calamity. We ascribe to them a name that we, ourselves, have created.4 We call them rebels; we call them outlaws, they whom we compelled to be criminals. For by what other means were they made Bacaudae except by our wickedness, except by the perversities of judges, except by the persecution and pillage committed by those who have turned what is called a public tax into profit for their own gain and made the tributary indictions their own objects of plunder?5… And so it happened that people, strangled and destroyed by the pillaging of judges, began to live like barbarians because they were not permitted to be Romans.
4. The etymological origin of Bacaudae is unclear. Possibly, it meant “fighters” in Gallic, the native language of the Gauls. 5. The imperial government annually sent each province a tax assessment known as the “tributary indiction.” In theory, the provincial governor would assess each municipality an equitable portion of that sum, supervise its collection, and remit it to the central government. Because no municipality knew the sum of the indiction or what its fair share should be, governors and their subordinates had ample opportunities for turning taxes into private profits.
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Book 6, Chapter 12 But, of course, we who are corrupted by prosperity are corrected by adversities, and we, whom a long peace has made intemperate, are made temperate by disorder. Have the city masses who were shameless in prosperity begun to become pure in harsh times? Did drunkenness, which increased in times of tranquility and plenty, at least cease in the face of the enemy’s plundering? Italy has already been devastated by so many disasters. Have, therefore, the vices of the Italians ceased? The city of Rome has been besieged and taken by storm.6 Have, therefore, the Romans ceased being blasphemous and raving mad? The barbarian peoples have streamed over Gaul like a torrent. Insofar as it pertains to evil habits, are not the offenses of the Gauls the same as they were before? The Vandals have crossed over into Spanish territory.7 The Spaniards’ lot has certainly changed, but their wickedness has not changed. Finally, lest any part of the world be immune from deadly evils, warfare has begun to cross the sea. They have devastated and demolished cities enclosed by the sea in Sardinia and Sicily, namely the imperial granaries. And the vital blood vessels having been severed, they have captured Africa itself, which is the virtual beating heart of the Republic.8 And then what? When the barbarians entered 6. The Visigothic sack of Rome in 410. 7. The Vandals, who crossed the Rhine into Gaul on December 31, 406, invaded Spain in 409. 8. The Vandals were the first of the newcomers to develop seafaring skills, and by 426 had taken to the Mediterranean as pirates. Unable to withstand Visigothic pressure from the north, the Vandals departed Spain and crossed over to western North Africa in 429, which was embroiled in civil war.
this land, did the inhabitants cease their vices, perhaps out of fear? Or, just as the most worthless slaves are accustomed to momentary correction, did terror at least force on them modesty and restraint? Who is able to evaluate this evil? The barbarian people enveloped the walls of Cirta and Carthage9 with resounding noise, and the assembled masses of Carthage went mad in the circuses and reveled in the theaters. Some were garroted outside the walls; others were fornicating within.10 Part of the populace was held captive by the enemy outside the walls; part was captive to vices within. It is unclear whose fate was worse. To be sure, they on the outside were held captive in the flesh, but they on the inside were held captive in soul…. As I have said, the din of destruction outside the walls and the clamor of gladiatorial contests and games within the walls, the cry of the dying and the cry of revelers were mingled. And perhaps one could scarcely distinguish between the wailing of the people falling in battle and the yelling of the people shouting in the circus.
9. Cirta was a city of about 50,000 and the capital of the province of Numidia (roughly present-day Algeria). The Vandals captured Cirta in 432. Carthage, located in present-day Tunisia, was a city of about 500,000 at its height. It was the second largest and most important city in the West (after Rome). Until its capture by Islamic forces in the early seventh century, its bishops rivaled the bishops of Rome in prominence within the Western Church. Carthage withstood the Vandals until it fell in 439. 10. A churchperson reading this would be reminded of the Acts of the Apostles, 15:20 and 29, and 21:25, where Christians are commanded to abstain from the meat of strangled animals and from fornication.
Invaded by a Crowd of Giants 9. Sidonius Apollinaris, LETTERS 11 The heading for this source derives from a poem written by Gaius Sollius Modestus Sidonius Apollinaris, a Gallo-Roman aristocrat, an imperial officeholder, the last significant Latin author of the Roman Empire, the bishop of Clermont (today Clermont-Ferrrand), and a canonized saint of the Roman Church. In that poem, composed at an unknown date, he complained of the long-haired, seven-foot Burgundians, with rancid butter in their hair and “reeking of garlic and foul onions,” who invaded his home daily, even before dawn, demanding large amounts of food, and so disturbing his muse that he 11. C. Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, Opera, ed. Paul Mohr (Leipzig: B. Teubner, 1895), 2–4, 150–52, 147–50, passim.
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could not compose six-foot-meter lines of poetry.12 As a wealthy landholder in the region of present- day Auvergne in east-central France, Sidonius not only had plenty of opportunities to interact with the Burgundian and Visigothic invaders, he produced one of the most important body of documents relating to many of the significant events of his age. Born in 431/432 and dying at an unknown date in the period 487–89, Sidonius was related by birth, marriage, friendship, and duty to a vast array of the major actors within a Roman world that was fast passing away. Following an education in classical Latin literature, rhetoric, and law, he married Papianilla, daughter of Avitus, a future emperor of the West (r. 455–56), who owed his advancement to the imperial purple to his friendship with the Visigothic king Theodoric II (r. 453–66), whose father, Theodoric I (r. 417/18–451), had been killed in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, in which the Visigoths played a key role in blunting the Huns’ invasion of Gaul under their leader Attila. Apparently Avitus had been instrumental in persuading the Visigothic king to join forces with the Roman general Aetius to battle the Huns. In 456, Sidonius traveled to Rome to present a panegyric before the Senate in praise of his imperial father-in-law. In that extended, highly stylized poem, he also celebrated the counsel and actions of King Theodoric II, whom he portrayed as a willing ally and servant of Rome. Following Avitus’s short reign, Sidonius, being an equal-opportunity courtier, was back in Rome to deliver a panegyric for Emperor Majorian, against whose reign he had initially rebelled. In 468, he made a third journey to Rome, where he offered a panegyric for Emperor Anthemius. The three panegyrics did not bring their recipients good fortune. Ricimer, a Romanized Suevian commander of all “Roman” troops in the West, who controlled that half of the empire through a series of puppet emperors, deposed Avitus (who died shortly thereafter in unclear circumstances), tortured and beheaded Majorian, and simply beheaded Anthemius. The third panegyric, however, brought Sidonius good fortune, winning for him the status of Roman patrician and the post of prefect of Rome, which he held for a year. As prefect of the city, Sidonius was active in securing Rome’s grain supplies in the face of piratical interdictions by Vandal fleets.13 The Vandals of North Africa, having invaded and sacked Rome in 455, remained a constant threat. Shortly after his return to Gaul, the people of Clermont elected him bishop, which meant that he suddenly became the spiritual leader (and much more) of the entire region of Auvergne. Marriage and children (Papianilla was still his wife, and they had three daughters and a son) were no bar to priestly ordination or episcopal consecration at this time, but bishops were expected to be effective protectors of their people in the face of the breakdown of Roman civic and military authority in the West. Sidonius’s wealth, connections, and recent service as prefect of Rome made him a natural choice. For most of his adult life to that point, Sidonius had supported the ideal of a Gothic-Roman alliance, even as he looked his aristocratic nose down at their “clothes that were dirty from neglect and the shabby, greasy linens on their backs.”14 Now Bishop Sidonius found himself organizing and leading a heroic, four-year defense of Auvergne when the Visigoths, based in Toulouse, invaded the region annually beginning in 471. The bulk of the troops mustered to meet the Visigothic menace were Burgundians, who initially enjoyed success in beating off the invaders. In the end, however, led by their king, Euric (r. 466–84), who had gained his throne by murdering his brother, Theodoric II, the Visigoths succeeded in gaining Auvergne in 475, when the empire ceded it to the Goths in exchange for a foothold on a small strip of Gaul’s Mediterranean coast. Upon gaining Auvergne, Euric claimed it to be part of an independent kingdom, having put aside his brother’s and father’s claim that the Visigoths were allies in the service of the Roman Empire. 12. Ibid., 311. 13. The Theodosian Code (source 3) provides evidence of the duties of the prefect of Rome. 14. “Panegyric on Avitus,” ll. 454–55, Sidonius, Opera, 290.
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Euric imprisoned Sidonius far from his bishopric but pardoned him at an unknown date, allowing him to wander about freely but not return to Clermont. During the time of his exile, Sidonius visited Euric’s court, and soon thereafter composed a poem extolling the power of “our lord whom the conquered world petitions,” including “seven-foot Burgundians who often beg for peace on bended knee” and “the Roman seeking safety.”15 Sidonius’s poem bore a happy result. The Gothic king permitted Sidonius to return to his episcopal duties at Clermont. Upon Sidonius’s death, the grateful people of Auvergne venerated the aristocrat-turned-bishop as a saint. Ever the classical stylist as well as a man of affairs, Sidonius repolished and published several editions of his letters, along with his three imperial panegyrics and a number of other poems. All are important primary sources, but the letters especially are a treasure trove for historians researching the social, cultural, and political conditions of Gaul in the dying days of the Roman Empire in the West. Our first document consists of excerpts from a letter to his brother-in-law Agricola, the son of Avitus, in which Sidonius describes in detail King Theodoric II, following his visit to the king’s court at Toulouse. The letters are not arranged chronologically but, it seems, in order of importance. The undated letter to Agricola is the first in that edition. The second letter, addressed to Bishop Graecus of Marseilles, one of four Gallo-Roman Catholic bishops commissioned by the Western emperor Julius Nepos to negotiate the treaty of 475 by which Auvergne was ceded to Euric, concerns the recent loss of the region. The third document, consisting of excerpts from his letter to Bishop Basilius of Aix, who was also one of the four bishops who arranged the surrender of Auvergne, was composed sometime after the letter to Graecus, although its importance led Sidonius to place it immediately before the letter to the bishop of Marseilles.
Questions for Consideration 1. Based upon the letter to Agricola, did Sidonius appear to view Romanitas as something acquired by nature or by nurture, by blood inheritance or by education? In other words, could a Goth possess this quality? 2. Historians often cite Sidonius as a witness to a rapidly changing world. What specific elements in these three texts support that judgment? 15. Letter to Lampridius, 8:9, ibid., 186.
Sidonius to His Dear Agricola, Greetings Because of his popular reputation for propriety, you have, many times over, requested a written description of Theodoric, king of the Goths—a description that encompasses his physical attributes and qualities as a person. I willingly obey, to the extent that the limits of a letter allow, and I praise the spirit that engenders in you such refined curiosity. Well, he is a man worth knowing well, even by those who have less than close acquaintance with him. The Lord God and nature’s design have joined forces to crown him with the gift of perfect good fortune. His personal habits are such that not even the jealousy that surrounds
those who exercise royal power can rob him of people’s admiration…. Now, you might inquire about his daily activities, which are openly public. Before dawn, accompanied by an exceedingly small retinue, he attends the services of his priests. He prays with a great outward sign of earnestness, although, if I may speak in confidence, one can sense that he observes this devotion more as a matter of habit than conviction. He devotes the rest of his early morning to taking care of royal administrative duties. A body of armed companions surrounds the throne. A mob of pelt-garbed attendants is admitted lest they be beyond reach, but they are kept far away lest their noise prove disturbing. And so they carry on a buzz of murmuring before the doors,
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outside the curtains but within the barriers.16 Amid all of this, envoys from various peoples are introduced, and he listens to much but says little. If something requires future action, he puts it off; if something requires immediate attention, he speeds it up. The second hour arrives.17 He rises from the throne to inspect his treasury or stables at his leisure. If a hunt has been announced, he goes out with it, [but] he considers carrying a bow fastened to his side to be beneath royal dignity. Yet, if a bird or wild animal should, by chance, either present itself as a target or come nearby, a boy places the bow, with its string or thong hanging loose, into his hand that he puts behind his back. It so happens that he considers it childish to carry a quiver and likewise effeminate to receive a bow that is already strung. Therefore, when he takes it, he either bends the two ends toward one another [thereby stringing it] or placing the knotted end of the bowstring down toward his heel, he runs a gliding finger up toward the hanging loop-end of the slack string [and thereby strings it]. Once that is done, he takes his arrows, aims, and fires. Or he might first urge you to choose what you wish him to strike down. You choose what he should hit, and he hits what you have chosen. And if one or the other has made a mistake, very seldom is it the fault of the bowman’s shot but rather that of the selector’s eyesight. If one joins [him] at dinner (which, certainly, on all non-festival days is like that of a private household), there is no unpolished mass of discolored silver plate set on rickety tables by an out-of-breath servant. The weightiest thing on such an occasion is the conversation, for either no stories are told there or [only] serious ones. The furnishings in the room [consist of ] a carved couch and drapery that is sometimes dyed purple cloth and sometimes fine linen. The food attracts one by its artfulness not by its costliness; the platters by their brilliance not their weight. The refilling of cups and wine bowls is so rare that it is easier for the thirsty to complain than for a drunkard to abstain. What else? You can see there Greek elegance, Gallic abundance, Italian deftness, public solemnity, a private attentiveness, a royal discipline.
16. The Roman imperial throne room had secure barriers just inside the doors, and beyond that were curtains, setting off the emperor from public view. 17. Consult the Glossary at Hours.
After remarking that, because of its fame, it is unnecessary to describe how Theodoric celebrated festival days, Sidonius notes that the king rarely took a siesta and that often, after his midday meal, he enjoyed a board game that involved dice. When he has good throws, he is silent; when he has bad throws, he laughs. In neither instance does he show anger; in both instances he is philosophical…. [Yet] you would think he was handling weapons as he moves the board counters. His sole focus is on victory. When it is time for play, he puts aside for the moment the seriousness of royalty and encourages fun, freedom, and companionship. It seems to me, and so I say it, he fears being feared. Furthermore, he delights in a defeated opponent’s agitation. It is only then that he believes his colleague has not thrown the game, for a rival’s displeasure allows him to trust in his own victory. Now here is something to surprise you. The exultation that comes to him on these occasions of little consequence often enhances the chances of important suits before him. At such times, the safe haven of a decision is suddenly opened up for petitions that, for a long time before that moment, have been tossed to and fro due to the unseaworthiness of their advocates’ craft. On such occasions, if I have any favor to ask, I am happy to be defeated, for I lose the game in order to win my request. Around the ninth hour, the heavy burden of ruling again imposes its weight. Back come the pushy petitioners; back come they who usher them away. Quarrelsome arguments resound to and fro and all about, and this continues to dusk when it dwindles away, having been interrupted by the royal evening meal. The importuning of the petitioners is then variously divided among the courtiers according to which courtier is a person’s patron, and so the petitioners keep watch right up to the time of night set aside for sleep. Although it is rare, it is true that comedians who engage in farcical bantering are brought in during the evening meal, but no guest may be stung with the poison of a biting tongue. So also no water organs sound forth there.18 Likewise, no singer intones a rehearsed vocal arrangement while accompanied by a music teacher. There is no music from any lute-player, flute-player, choral master, or women
18. A pipe organ in which air was forced into the pipes by water power.
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playing the tambourine or cithara.19 The king is charmed only by those strings that no less calm the soul with virtue as soothe the ear with melody…. But did I not promise to tell you a little about the king not much about the kingdom? It is fitting that my pen comes to a stop at once because you desired to learn nothing more about the man than his tastes and personality, and I took it upon myself to produce a letter not a history. Farewell.
Sidonius to the Lord Father, Graecus, Greetings …Our bondage has been made the price for the security of others. Oh, the pity of it! The bondage of the people of Auvergne, who, if the stories of the ancients are remembered, once dared call themselves brothers of the people of Latium and counted themselves Trojans by blood.20 If recent events are recounted, they are the people who, through their own strength, held in check the military power of a common enemy. They are the people who, although often besieged within their walls, were unafraid of the Goths and, in turn, struck terror within the camp of their besieging assailants. They are the people who, coming face to face with the enemy army in their neighborhood, acted as leaders as well as soldiers. Yet if any gain accrued as a result of their struggles, you benefited accordingly; if matters went against them, the defeats crushed them alone. It was they, out of love for the state, who did not fear to hand over to the law Seronatus, the man who handed over provinces to the barbarians.21 At last, the state barely had the courage to put him to death following his conviction. In the final analysis, have deprivation, arson, combat, and pestilence merited swords made fat by slaughter and warriors grown emaciated by starvation? Was it in expectation of this celebrated peace that we carried away as food weeds torn out of the cracks of walls and, in our ignorance, were repeatedly poisoned by noxious vegetation, whose indistinguishable shoots and juices a famine-ridden hand, made green in color like them, often gathered? Is it because of these numerous tests of our devotion that, as 19. A stringed instrument that gave its name to the modern zither. 20. Latium (today Lazio) was the region surrounding Rome; the Romans claimed direct descent from the Trojan hero Aeneas. 21. A high-ranking Roman official who conspired with Euric. All we know about him comes from hostile references in two of Sidonius’s letters.
I have heard, a retreat has been made? We pray that you all are ashamed of this treaty, which is neither fruitful nor honorable…. You are insufficiently mindful of the common good, and when you gather in council, you are less concerned with alleviating public dangers than with supporting private interests…. But how long can these deceptions persist?… If necessary, it would be our pleasure to still be besieged, to still fight, to still go hungry. But if truly we are surrendered, we who could not be taken by force, it is certainly you who devised that barbarous act that you, in your cowardice, recommended…. Surely, if you cannot heal us in our final moments, at least make it happen, by means of zealous prayer, that the blood of those whose liberty is doomed to die may survive. Provide land for the exiles, ransom for captives, and aid for wandering refugees. If our walls are thrown open to the enemy, do not close yours to friends. Deign to hold me in your remembrance, Lord Father.
Sidonius to the Lord Father Basilius, Greetings By the gift of God, we possess the long-standing privileges of friendship in a way that is a novelty in our day, and for quite some time now, we have esteemed one another as equals…. Euric, king of the Goths, having broken and dissolved the old treaty, is “defending by right of arms” (or rather extending) the boundaries of his kingdom. Given my sins, I cannot lodge a complaint regarding this situation, and you, given your sanctity, cannot explain it…. But I must confess that, although the aforesaid king of the Goths is rightly feared for his military might, I quake in fright less over his deceitful attacks on Roman walls than those against Christian laws. As they say, mention of the word “Catholic” so sours his face and heart that one wonders whether he is more the ruler of his people or of his sect. For all his military might, energetic spirit, and youthful vigor, he suffers from one delusion: he thinks that the success that has come to him in his dealings and plans has been granted because of the legitimacy of [his] religion. Rather, he attained it by reason of earthly good fortune. That being so, consider for a moment the Catholic body’s private state of health so that you might move quickly to administer a public medication. Bordeaux, Périgueux, Rodez, Limoges, Javols, Eauze, Bazas, Saint- Bertrand, Auch, and a far greater number of [other] cities have now suffered amputation with the deaths of their highest priests and, in turn, no other bishops have been
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appointed to the offices of the departed, through whom, most assuredly, the ministerial offices of the lesser orders are filled.22 A wide area of spiritual ruin has resulted…. Thus a sense of sad hopelessness at the disruption of their faith weighs down a people who have been deprived by the deaths of their bishops. There is no care [of souls] in the desolate dioceses. In the churches you can see crumbling roofs falling down or door hinges torn off. The entrances to basilicas23 are obstructed by thickets of prickly brambles…. What solace is left the faithful when not only the teaching of the clergy perishes but even a memory of it?… Examine more deeply the losses of spiritual members and you will surely realize that proportionate to the number of bishops snatched away, so you see the number of people whose faith is imperiled. I do not have to mention your colleagues Crocus and Simplicius,24 who, expelled from the cathedrals that they had been given,25 suffered different 22. Consult the Glossary at Cleric. 23. Consult the Glossary. 24. Two otherwise unknown bishops. 25. Consult the Glossary.
punishments while undergoing a similar exile. For one of them laments that he does not see that to which he wishes to return; the other laments that he sees that to which he cannot return. You find yourself holding a middle position among the most holy pontiffs Leontius, Faustus, and Graecus26 as far as your city, your seniority, and your fraternal love are concerned. The evils of the treaty flow through the four of you; agreements and stipulations of each realm are conducted through you four. Work so that the principal agreement contained within the peace accord is as follows: with episcopal ordinations allowed, we might, by reason of the Faith, have authority over those Gallic people who, as fate has it, are enclosed within Gothic borders, even though we do not have authority over them by reason of the treaty. Deign to remember me, Lord Father.
26. Along with Basilius and Graecus, Leontius, bishop of Arles, and Faustus, bishop of Riez, constituted the four bishops commissioned to negotiate the treaty of 475.
Clovis the Frank, Agent of God 10. Gregory of Tours, HISTORY OF THE FRANKS 27 During the fifth century, the Franks, a loose confederation of autonomous Germanic tribes united only by shared customs and language, spread slowly into Gaul from their ancestral lands to the north and east of the Lower (northern) and Middle Rhine. Their proximity to the Roman frontier meant that they had had close contact with Roman borderland society for several centuries prior to their incursion, and some Frankish groups had been settled within the limes as allied soldiers since the mid-fourth century, with several Franks reaching high positions in the imperial army and even the civil bureaucracy. Once in Gaul in force and on their own, the Franks confronted other new settlers, whose kingdoms were initially far more powerful than the petty Frankish entities. Most notable among their rivals were the Visigoths, Burgundians, and Alemanni. Additionally, the Franks had to deal with the vestiges of Roman military and civic authority that had survived amid the carving up of Gaul and other regions of the West by the new peoples. At the start, these forces combined to block the Franks’ penetration into the heartland of Gaul. A major turning point in Frankish fortunes occurred in 481, when Clovis (ca. 465–511) succeeded his father, Childeric, as leader of one of the several small groups that together made up the Salian branch of the Frankish people, so named because of its home on the Isala (IJssel) River in the presentday central Netherlands. In 481, Clovis held only a small portion of northern Gaul and contiguous regions across the Rhine. Thirty years later, Clovis’s four sons inherited and divided among themselves 27. Gregorii episcopi Turonensis, Libri historiarum X, ed. Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm Levison, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, 2 vols. (Hanover: Hahn, 1951), 1: 70–73, 75–76, 84–91, passim.
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a kingdom that encompassed most of Gaul and significant portions of western Germany. Despite the vicissitudes of family intrigue and bloodletting in the generations that followed, Clovis’s successors managed not only to hold on to but to expand the kingdom into the largest and most powerful of all the new states in the West. Long after the Visigoths and other invaders had passed out of history as identifiable cultures, the Franks were laying the base for the new Europe’s first attempt at empire building. Clovis’s career was pivotal in the history of the Franks, because it was he who first united the Franks into a single kingdom and launched a series of successful campaigns of conquest against their Roman and Germanic neighbors. Just as significant was Clovis’s conversion to Catholic Christianity. Whereas the Goths were Arian Christians and hated by many native Roman clergy and laity for their supposed heresy, Clovis’s Franks adopted the official faith of late Roman society in the West, thereby becoming more than acceptable to the Gallo-Roman clergy, the true shapers of opinion in the land of Gaul. One of the most important sixth-century opinion-makers was Georgius Florentius Gregorius, known today as Saint Gregory of Tours. The offspring of a well-established Gallo-Roman aristocratic family that had a long tradition of service to the Gallican Church and the Roman Empire, and bishop of the important see of Tours from 573 to 594, Gregory enjoyed close relations with all of the important Frankish leaders of his day. Without being conscious of it, Bishop Gregory represented, in his person and his writings, the new synthesis that was taking form between the ancient Mediterranean ways of thought and life that were declining (but never wholly lost) in the West and the bold, vigorous style of the new peoples. Gregory’s writings show him to be a man who was very much a part of a world in which social standards and values were changing. In contrast to the highly stylized prose of classicists such as Sidonius Apollinaris, Gregory admitted to writing not “in the learned words of a rhetorician, which few could understand, but in a rustic language that the many could comprehend.”28 Late in life, Gregory undertook to tell the story of the Franks, who had become the most important element in sixth-century Gaul. Most of the ten books of his History of the Franks center on Clovis’s royal grandchildren, Gregory’s contemporaries. But Bishop Gregory, using oral and documentary sources, also sketched the life and career of Clovis. Gregory’s treatment of this early Frankish king gives us a fascinating glimpse of the process of cultural fusion that was taking place in Gaul. At the same time, we must use Gregory with caution for several reasons. Not only did he compose his history almost a century after Clovis’s death, Bishop Gregory wrote with a religious perspective that colored his interpretation and possibly even his presentation of the events he narrated. Before looking at Gregory’s treatment of Clovis, however, we need to revisit King Euric and Bishop Sidonius Apollinaris, whom we studied immediately above.
Questions for Consideration 1. In light of Sidonius Apollinaris’s letter to Bishop Basilius and what you have learned about King Euric, evaluate Gregory’s description of King Euric’s treatment of the Catholic Church of Gaul. What does your answer suggest about the value of Gregory’s history as a primary source? 2. Based on the evidence, why do you think Clovis converted, and when might he have begun entertaining such a notion? 3. Study the story of Clovis’s appointment to the consulship. What is your best judgment regarding the truth behind that story? What is your reasoning behind that judgment?
28. Ibid., 1.
36 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
4. What do these stories suggest about Clovis’s reputation and legend almost a century after his death? What do they suggest about oral tradition as a historical source? Can we infer anything from them regarding his actual character and policies? If so, what? 5. What do these stories reveal about popular religious beliefs? 6. It has been said that Bishop Gregory presented history as a compelling morality story revolving around the constant combat between the forces of God and of the Devil. Does this interpretation seem to have any validity in light of what you have read in these excerpts? 7. Along with the obvious political changes, significant social and cultural changes were taking place in sixth-century Gaul for Franks and Gallo-Romans alike. What were those changes, and which of them seem to you to be the most important? 8. Textbooks often draw a strict dichotomy between the Germanic newcomers and the indigenous Gallo-Roman population. Consider that supposed polarity in light of evidence presented by Sidonius Apollinaris and Gregory of Tours.
Book 2, Chapter 25
Book 2, Chapter 27
At this time, Euric, king of the Goths, having crossed the border from Spain,29 began a terrible persecution of the Christians in Gaul. He cut down at random those not ascribing to his perversity [of belief ]. He incarcerated clerics; in fact, he exiled some bishops, others he slaughtered by the sword. And furthermore, he ordered the entrances of holy churches blockaded with brambles, so that infrequent entry might lead to a loss of faith. It was largely then in the province of Novempopulana that the twin cities of the Garonne River were laid waste by this violent attack.30 There exists today a letter from the noble Sidonius to Bishop Basilius on this matter, which speaks eloquently about these things. But not long after this the persecutor died, struck down by divine vengeance.
After this had taken place, Childeric died31 and his son Clovis succeeded to his kingship. In the fifth year of Clovis’s reign, Syagrius, king of the Romans and son of Aegidius,32 had the seat of his authority in the city of Soissons, which the aforementioned Aegidius once held. Clovis, along with his kinsman Ragnachar, who himself held royal power, marched against Syagrius and challenged him to prepare the field for battle. Syagrius did not hesitate and was not afraid to fight. And so they fought against one another. Syagrius, seeing his army crushed, turned tail and slipped away quickly to King Alaric at Toulouse.33 Clovis sent Alaric a message to send him back. Otherwise he should understand that he would bring down upon himself a war for harboring Syagrius. Because Alaric feared that he would incur the wrath of the Franks because of this man, as it is the habit of the Goths to quake with fear, he had him bound over to Clovis’s envoys. Clovis
29. Emperor Avitus sent the Visigoths under King Theodoric II into Spain to battle the Suevi, who had conquered most of the peninsula. After defeating the Suevi, the Visigoths became Spain’s new masters. At its height, the Visigothic Kingdom included most of Spain and Gaul. 30. Novempopulana was a Roman province located in presentday Gascony in southwestern France. The twin cities of the Garonne were present-day Toulouse and Bordeaux. Toulouse was the Visigothic capital under Theodoric II, and Bordeaux was the seat of Euric’s court for a while.
31. Euric died in 484, whereas Childeric died in 481/482. 32. Aegidius, a Gallo-Roman, had been a commander of Roman (largely barbarian) troops in Gaul, who had allied with Childeric, the last Frankish king to serve as an “imperial German.” When Childeric was deposed and went into exile for eight years, Frankish nobles elected Aegidius as king of their small tribe. Like his father, Syagrius ruled over a small enclave centered on Soissons and was independent of any control by the emperor in the West. Apparently he adopted the title “king of the Romans.” 33. Alaric II (r. 484–507), son of and heir to King Euric.
Chapter 2: New Peoples in an Old Empire The Newcomers 37
ordered him to be held captive in chains. After Clovis took possession of Syagrius’s kingdom, he ordered that he be secretly put to the sword. At this time, many churches were despoiled by Clovis’s army because he was still possessed by pagan errors. It happened that the soldiers had plundered a ewer34 of wondrous size and beauty from a certain church, along with the rest of the items used for sacramental purposes. The bishop of the church sent messengers to the king requesting that, if his church could not recover any of the other sacred vessels, at least the ewer be returned. Hearing this, the king said to the envoy: “Follow us to Soissons because all the items that have been acquired will be divided up there. When the division of spoils delivers that vessel to me, I will grant what the father requests.” They came then to Soissons. The entire heap of booty was set out in their midst. The king said, “I ask you, my brave warriors, that you at least do not refuse to grant me that vessel beyond my due share of the spoils.” He referred to the above-mentioned ewer. Upon the king’s having said this, those of them who were more sensible cried out “Glorious king, all that we see is yours, and we ourselves are subject to your rule. Do now what seems most pleasing to you, for no one can resist your power.” When they had so spoken, a fool, who was envious and hotheaded, raised his double-bladed battle axe and drove it into the ewer, shouting out in a loud voice, “You will receive nothing except what the division of spoils fairly allots you.” At this all were stunned, but the king hid his sense of injury with a show of gentle patience, and taking up the ewer, he returned it to the envoy from the church, keeping the wound hidden within his heart. Now, after a year had passed, he ordered every military unit to assemble armed on the Field of Mars35 for an inspection as to the condition of their weapons. As he walked around inspecting the entire army, he came to the man who had struck the ewer. He said to him: “No one has brought weapons as neglected as you. Neither your spear nor your sword nor your battle axe is serviceable” Seizing the man’s battle axe, he threw it to the ground. When the man bent over a bit to pick it up, the king, raising his 34. A pitcher for liquids. 35. Campus Martius, so named after a field of the same name in Rome that was dedicated to Mars, the god of war. Annually, the Franks would assemble at their own Field of Mars in early spring (usually March, the month dedicated to Mars) prior to campaigning.
hands, drove his own battle axe into the man’s head. “This,” he said, “is what you did to that ewer at Soissons.” With the man’s death, he ordered the rest of the army to depart, raising great fear of himself by this action. Clovis marries the Burgundian princess Clotilda, who is a Christian. Bishop Gregory presents her as a Catholic Christian, but it is possible that she followed the Arian faith. Whatever her belief, she convinces Clovis to have their first-born son baptized. Following his baptism, the infant dies. Regardless, she prevails upon Clovis to have a second son baptized. The child falls ill after baptism but survives.
Book 2, Chapter 30 The queen did not cease declaring that Clovis should recognize the True God and put aside his idols. But he could not be moved in any fashion to this belief until finally it happened that a war with the Alemanni36 broke out, in which he was driven by necessity to confess that which he had previously and freely denied. It happened that in the midst of battle, as the two forces were brutally slaughtering one another, Clovis’s army actually began to collapse to the point of utter destruction. When he saw this, he raised his eyes to Heaven and, with remorse in his heart and moved to tears, he said: “Jesus Christ, whom Clotilda declares to be the Son of the Living God, who is said to give aid to those in distress and victory to those who trust in you, I earnestly beg for the glory of your intervention. If you grant me victory over these enemies and I come to know that power that, as she declares, people dedicated to your name say they have learned comes from you, then I will believe in you and will be baptized in your name. For I have called upon my gods, but, as I discover, they are far removed from aiding me. For this reason, I believe that they are powerless who do not hasten to the side of those who are obedient to them. Now I call on you; I desire to believe in you in insofar as I am rescued from my adversaries. As soon as he spoke these words, the Alemanni turned their backs and began to run away. And when they saw that their king had been killed, they submitted to his rule, saying: “We beg that the human 36. Like the Franks, the Alemanni (literally, “all people”) were a confederation of related tribes. They settled in what is today French Alsace, southwestern Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and a few adjacent areas.
38 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
death toll go no further. We are now yours.” At that, he stopped the fighting. After offering encouragement to the people,37 he returned [home] in peace. He told the queen how he had earned victory by calling on the name of Christ. This took place in the fifteenth year of his reign. According to Gregory, the queen then had Saint Remigius, bishop of Rheims, instruct Clovis in the faith and baptize him. Along with Clovis, more than 3,000 of his soldiers were also baptized.38
Book 2, Chapter 35 Now when Alaric (II), king of the Goths, saw that King Clovis was conquering people upon people, one after another, he sent an envoy to him with the message: “If my brother consents, my soul yearns that, with God’s grace, we might see one another.” Clovis did not reject this [overture], and he went to him. They met on an island in the Loire, which was near the village of Amboise, within the territory of the city of Tours. They conversed, ate and drank together, pledged mutual friendship, and parted in peace. At that time, many people of Gaul had as their greatest desire the wish to have the Franks as their masters.
Book 2, Chapter 37 Now King Clovis said to his people: “I bear as a heavy weight the fact that these Arians hold part of Gaul. Let us, with the help of God, invade, and having conquered them, bring the land under our rule.” Since this speech pleased everyone, he mustered the army and set it on the path to Poitiers, where Alaric was then in residence.
37. Presumably the Alemanni. 38. Gregory gives the impression that this conversion took place in 496, shortly after Clovis’s victory over the Alemanni, in order to draw a close parallel with Constantine’s legendary battlefield conversion. Gregory makes this parallel explicit by referring to Clovis as “a new Constantine” and favorably comparing Bishop Remigius’s sanctity and miracle-working powers with those of Pope Silvester I. (See the “Student’s Guide.”) Actually, it seems more than likely that Clovis’s baptism into Catholic Christianity took place on December 25, 503 (or possibly 506). Moreover, given the opaqueness of other evidence and Bishop Gregory’s distance from the event, as well as Gregory’s perspective, historians are unsure as to what Clovis’s religion was prior to his Catholic baptism. Was it a brand of paganism or Arian Christianity?
But inasmuch as part of the army was passing through the land of Tours, out of reverence for the blessed Martin,39 he issued the edict that no one should take anything from that region except grass for fodder and water. One man from the army, however, found hay belonging to a certain poor man and said: “Did not the king order that only grass should be taken and nothing else? And this,” he said, “is grass. We will not be transgressing his order if we take it.” When he had done violence to the poor man, taking his hay by force, the deed came to the king’s attention. Quicker than it takes to tell it, the soldier was executed by the sword, and the king said: “And where can there be a hope for victory if we offend the blessed Martin?” The army was content to take nothing more from the region. Indeed, the king himself sent a delegation to the holy basilica, saying, “Go, and perhaps you will receive some good omen of victory from the holy temple.” Then, giving the envoys gifts to set up in the holy place, he said: “Lord, if you are my helper and have decreed to deliver into my hands this unbelieving people that has been forever hostile toward you, deign to reveal it in a propitious manner at the entrance to the Basilica of Saint Martin so that I might know that you will deign to show favor to your servant.” In accordance with the king’s order, the servants hurriedly approached the place as suppliants. As they were entering the holy basilica, the cleric who was leading the singing suddenly intoned this response: “You have girded me, Lord, with strength for battle. You have subdued under me those who rise against me. You have caused my enemies to flee before me, and you have destroyed those who hate me.”40 Upon hearing the singing, they gave thanks to the Lord and vowing gifts to the blessed confessor41 they joyfully reported back to the king. Furthermore, when he arrived at the Vienne River with the army, he was dismayed that he did not know where to cross it because it had become swollen from torrential rains. That night, however, he offered an entreaty to the Lord that He deign to show him a ford over which he could cross. At daybreak, a deer of great size entered the river, proceeding before them at God’s command. And
39. Saint Martin (ca. 316 (or 336?)–97), former bishop and now saintly patron and protector of Tours, was the most popular saint in Gaul. 40. Psalms, 18:39–40. 41. Saint Martin. Consult the Glossary.
Chapter 2: New Peoples in an Old Empire The Newcomers 39
with its fording [the river], the people knew that it was possible to cross over at that spot. As the king approached Poitiers, while encamped at a distance [from the city], a pillar of fire rose from the Basilica of Saint Hilary.42 It seemed to reach out over him, as though, aided by the light of the blessed confessor Hilary, he would more readily defeat the heretical legions against whom this same bishop had so often clashed for the sake of the faith.43 Therefore he called upon the entire army not to despoil anyone here or along the way and not to pillage anyone’s property…. Meanwhile, Clovis encountered Alaric, king of the Goths, on the field of Vouillé, ten miles outside of Poitiers…. When, as they are accustomed, the Goths turned tail, this very king, Clovis, attained victory with the help of the Lord.44 He had as an ally Chloderic, the son of Sigibert the Lame. This Sigibert limped after being wounded in the knee while fighting the Alemanni…. Furthermore, when Clovis had killed King Alaric, while the Goths were in flight, two of the enemy suddenly appeared and thrust their lances at him, one on each side. But owing to his chain mail and the speed of his horse, he escaped death. A great number of people from Auvergne, who had come with Apollinaris,45 fell there, including leading men of the senatorial class. Fleeing from this battle, Amalric, Alaric’s son, went to Spain and wisely took charge of his father’s kingdom.46 Clovis sent his son Theodoric…to Clermont. Going there, he subjugated to his father’s authority the cities stretching from the frontiers of the Goths to those of the Burgundians. Alaric had reigned twenty-two years. As for Clovis, who spent the winter in the city of Bordeaux, he carried off all of Alaric’s treasury from Toulouse and went to Angoulême. The Lord granted him such favor that the 42. See Exodus, 13:21–22. 43. Saint Hilary, a fourth-century bishop of Poitiers and confessor, was renowned as an implacable enemy of the Arian Church. He had the honorific title “Hammer of the Arians.” 44. The battle took place in 507; with his victory, Clovis was master of Aquitaine, and the Visigoths ceased to be a factor in Gaul. The battle has been characterized, with quite a bit of exaggeration, as the place “where France began.” 45. Apollinaris, the son of Sidonius Apollinaris, led troops in support of Alaric II and survived the battle. He was later named bishop of Clermont, an office he held for only four months before his death. 46. The Visigothic presence north of the Pyrenees was now limited to a narrow stretch of Gallic coastline.
walls spontaneously fell down before his gaze.47 Then, having driven out the Goths, he subjugated the city to his rule. After that, with victory in hand, he returned to Tours and presented many gifts to the holy Basilica of Saint Martin.
Book 2, Chapter 38 Then Clovis received from Emperor Anastasius48 documents conferring the title of consul, and in the Basilica of Saint Martin, after putting on a purple tunic and cloak, he placed a diadem on his own head. Then, having mounted a horse, he dispensed gold and silver with a most generous liberality to the people standing along the road that runs between the gate of the atrium49 and the [cathedral] church of the city, scattering it with his own hand. And from that day he was hailed as consul or Augustus.50 Leaving Tours, he arrived in Paris, where he established the seat of his kingdom….
Book 2, Chapter 40 When King Clovis was residing at Paris, he secretly sent word to the son of Sigibert, saying: “Behold, your father has grown old and limps on a crippled leg. If he were to die,” he said, “by right his kingdom would come to you, along with our friendship.” Seduced by his cupidity, he contrived to kill his father. When he [Sigibert] left the city of Cologne and crossed the Rhine, he decided to take a walk in the forest of Buchau. He was taking a mid-day siesta in his tent when his son, setting killers on him, had him murdered there, so that he might come into possession of his kingdom. But, by the judgment of God, he fell into the pit that he cruelly dug for his father.
47. Compare this with the biblical account in Joshua, 6:1–27. 48. Anastasius I, who reigned in Constantinople. 49. The large enclosed, open-air courtyard leading up to the Basilica of Saint Martin. 50. This supposedly occurred in 508, but there is no record of Clovis’s ever using either title, which were not synonymous to begin with. In fact, no emperor would bestow the imperial title “Augustus” on a faraway “barbarian” chief. One theory is that Clovis celebrated his victory over Alaric by distributing coins to the people of Tours, and this gesture of generosity became embroidered over time. It is also possible that Emperor Anastasius, who had encouraged Clovis’s attack on Alaric II, bestowed on the Frankish king some token of imperial gratitude, and an honorary consulship was not outside the realm of possibility.
40 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
He sent messengers to King Clovis announcing his father’s death and saying: “My father is dead, and I control his treasures, along with his kingdom. Send your people to me, and I will happily and willingly hand over whatever of his treasures pleases you.” Clovis replied to him: “I am grateful for your good will and ask that you disclose it to those of my people who come to you, but thereafter you keep all for yourself.” When the envoys arrived, he opened his father’s treasury. While they were examining various items, he said, “In this little chest my father used to store gold coins.” They said to him, “Put your hands in there, right to the bottom, and discover how many.” When he did so and was fully bent over, one of them raised his doublebladed axe in his hand and buried it in his brain. And so, he shamefully incurred what he had done to his father. Upon hearing that Sigibert and his son had been killed, Clovis went to that place,51 summoned all the people into his presence, and said: “Hear what has happened,” he said. “While I was sailing the Scheldt River, Chloderic, the
son of my kinsman, was in pursuit of his father, saying that I wanted to kill him. As he fled through the forest of Buchau, bandits were set upon him, and he surrendered to death and died. He [Chloderic] also has been killed, struck down by whom I do not know, while opening his treasury. But I am not at all involved in these matters. For I could not shed the blood of my kinsman. That would be impious. But inasmuch as these events have taken place, I offer you this advice: if it seems agreeable, turn to me so that you might be under my protection.” Those who heard these words applauded with both shields and voices. Raising him up on a shield, they made him their king. And he received Sigibert’s kingdom, along with his treasures. He also took under his dominion those people. For daily God laid low his enemies under his hand and increased his kingdom because he walked in His presence with a righteous heart and did what was pleasing in His eyes.52
51. Present-day Cologne on the Rhine.
52. See the prayer of King Hezekiah of Judah: 2 Kings, 20:3.
Governing the Barbarian Kingdoms Two of the chief glories of Roman civilization were its empire-wide rule of law and a highly developed system of jurisprudence. The various “barbarian” peoples who inhabited the regions on both sides of the empire’s borders possessed laws and a tradition of juridical conduct that differed radically from the legal institutions of their Greco-Roman neighbors. Originally, these laws were unwritten and committed to the memories of tribal elders. Moreover, they did not consider law to be an extension of the authority of a state or ruler. They also did not perceive any body of law as operative exclusively within a particular political setting or geographic region. Rather, as far as they were concerned, laws were customary and personal. That is, each tribe or people, by virtue of its common ancestry, shared laws peculiar to it, and those laws traveled with that people, collectively and individually. Law was not something created by a legislator, it was inherited. While such was the case before prolonged exposure to Roman society, the story was not that simple after they encountered Roman political and legal institutions. Centuries-long, cross-border interchanges with Roman communities and armies even before the great migrations had an impact on the ways in which some of these so-called fringe peoples viewed society and governance. More important was the impact of their large settlements within the empire from the late fourth century onward, which brought them into a fuller relationship with Roman officials, such as Sidonius Apollinaris, who often served their new barbarian overlords. If the story is true that Clovis accepted an honorary consulship from the emperor in far-away Constantinople, then we can infer that the allure of Romanitas was not lost on this supposed barbarian. The two sources that follow give us some insight into ways in which the kings of two of these new peoples attempted to accommodate their people to the realities of having carved out kingdoms within the body of the empire—an empire that they did not see as having withered away in the West.
Chapter 2: New Peoples in an Old Empire Governing the Barbarian Kingdoms 41
Frankish Law and Society 11. THE SALIC LAW CODE 53 One result of the newcomers’ settlements within the boundaries of the Western Roman Empire was that a number of tribal laws were collected and written down, thus recording values and relationships that were changing yet still largely embedded in traditions that were centuries old. Of these sets of law, the earliest that exist today are the sixth-century legal codes of the Visigoths, Burgundians, Salian Franks, and Anglo-Saxons. All of these, except for the Anglo-Saxon laws, were set down in Latin and probably with the assistance of Gallo-Roman jurists trained in the traditions of Roman law. Inasmuch as Britain had always been on the outermost fringe of the Roman Empire and had been largely cut off from direct imperial control since the early fifth century, it is not surprising that the Anglo-Saxon laws were the most traditional, were essentially free of Roman influence, and were set down in Anglo-Saxon. On the continent, the Visigoths and Burgundians, who settled in the most deeply Romanized regions of the former empire, had codes of laws that reflected a connection with their Gallo-Roman and Hispano-Roman neighbors. The Franks, whose bases of power were northern Gaul and areas east of the Rhine, were far less Romanized, and their laws showed it. The earliest form of Frankish law that has come down to us is the Salic Law Code, a collection of rules governing the behavior of members of the Salian, or Salic, branch of the Frankish people. The initial codification of Salic law took place probably in the period 507–11, late in the reign of King Clovis and after he had managed to unite the Franks and conquer major portions of Gaul. Although compiled in the early sixth century, the Salic Law Code undoubtedly reflects many traditions that went back at least to the fourth century. At the same time, the code allows us a glimpse of how Frankish society was changing as a consequence of the rise of a king whose authority gave legitimacy to the code. The code, however, presents a number of problems for anyone who seeks to understand early sixth-century Salian Frankish society. One problem is that eighty-seven manuscripts of the code exist, with only one dating from as early as the mid-eighth century, about 250 years after its creation. This means that we have only copies and copies of copies, with all the consequent problems that entails. All eighty-seven manuscripts differ from one another in one way or another and to greater or lesser extents. Some of these differences were certainly the products of scribal errors. Others reflect the fact that elements of the law changed over time. Moreover, the current critical edition of the code corresponds to no single manuscript but represents the scholarly editor’s best attempt, based upon an exacting study of the manuscripts, to re-create the text as it might have looked in Clovis’s day. Such an interpretive recreation is always open to challenge. Notwithstanding this problem, the code presents a privileged view into Frankish society around the time of Clovis—as long as we bring our full powers of critical analysis to its study. And here is a hint to help you: the fines mentioned in these laws were intended to serve as a means of reducing acts of private revenge and family feuds.
Questions for Consideration 1. Explain the Frankish methods of adjudication. What were the reasons behind these rules and procedures? 2. There was a correlation between fines and status. Create a chart of the social hierarchy in Clovis’s kingdom. 53. Pactus Legis Salicae, ed. Karl August Eckhardt, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges nationum Germanicarum, vol. 4, part 1 (Hanover: Hahn, 1962), 18, 20, 59–66, 70–71, 75–78, 81–84, 89, 91–92, 118–19, 154, 156–61, 200–203.
42 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
3. Consider further the social value and positions of women and children as reflected by the code. How do you explain them? 4. What do these various law allow us to infer about the extent of and limits on sixth-century royal power?
I. Concerning a summons to court54 1. If someone who has been summoned to court in a manner that accords with the lord’s law does not come, and if a legitimate excuse has not detained him,…he shall be judged liable for [payment of ] 600 denarii, which make 15 solidi.55… 4. If anyone is occupied in the lord’s service, he cannot be summoned to court….
XIII. Concerning the abduction of freemen and free women 1. If three men abduct a free girl from [her] house or an [other] enclosed place,…they shall be held liable to pay 1,200 denarii, which make 30 solidi…. 6. Indeed, if the girl who was taken had been placed under the king’s protection the fine then that is to be exacted is 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi. 7. If, in fact, it was a royal servant or leet56 who carried off the free woman, he will pay with his life. 8. If, however, the free girl followed any one of these of her own will, she shall lose her free status. 9. The freeman who takes another’s female slave shall be punished in a similar manner.… 12. If, indeed, anyone should seize a woman betrothed to someone else and joins himself [to her] in marriage…he 54. The traditional assembly of all freemen that met regularly to decide important issues. 55. Note 36 in Chapter 1 describes the gold solidus. The ratio of silver denarii (sing. denarius) to solidi fluctuated in late imperial times, depending upon the purity of the silver in the coin. At their prime, twenty-five denarii equaled one solidus. 56. A leet ranked about midway between a free Frank and a slave. The status of a leet was similar to that of a Roman colonus (see source 3). Over time leets and coloni intermarried, and the terms became interchangeable.
shall be judged liable for 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi.57 13. Likewise, he shall be judged liable for 15 solidi to the husband-to-be to whom she is betrothed. 14. Should anyone assault a betrothed girl who, in the company of her wedding party, is being led along a road to her husband and violently rapes her…, he shall be judged liable for 8,000 denarii, which make 200 solidi.
XIV. Concerning brigands and pillaging 1. If anyone should rob a freeman by waylaying him and it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi. 2. If, indeed, a Roman should rob a Salian barbarian and it is not proved with certainty, he can clear himself [of the charge] with 25 oath-takers,58 half of whom he has chosen. If he cannot find the oath-takers…, let him go to [the test of ] the boiling cauldron59 or [the matter] should be attended to in the way in which the case above is dealt with.60 3. If, in fact, a Frank should rob a Roman and it is not proved with certainty, he can clear himself [of the charge] with 20 oath-takers, half of whom he has chosen. If he
57. The payment went presumably to her family. 58. In certain cases, a person could prove innocence by taking a sacred oath and offering a requisite number of oath-takers, who believed in the person’s innocence and supported the defendant’s oath with oaths of their own. If the defendant could not find enough oath-takers, or anyone stumbled over the oath, it was clear evidence of guilt. 59. The accused reached into a pot of boiling water to retrieve an object. The resultant wound was dressed and blessed by a priest. After a certain amount of time, the wound was examined. If it was clean, the accused was judged innocent; if it was festering, he was judged guilty. See section LIII below. 60. Judged guilty, he pays the fine stipulated above.
Chapter 2: New Peoples in an Old Empire Governing the Barbarian Kingdoms 43
cannot find oath-takers…, he shall be judged liable for 1,200 denarii which make 30 solidi.
organs, he shall be judged liable for 1,200 denarii, which make 30 solidi.
4. If anyone, contrary to the king’s ordinance, presumes to negatively influence or assault a person who wishes to move [to some place], has a royal permit, and has made [himself ] available in public court…, he shall be judged liable for 8,000 denarii, which make 200 solidi.
7. If, in fact, that wound runs continuously and does not heal…, he shall be judged liable for 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi. Moreover, for [the cost of ] medical attention…, [he shall pay] 360 denarii, which make 9 solidi….
XV. Concerning homicide or him who takes another’s wife while the husband is alive 1. If anyone kills a free man or takes another man’s wife while the husband is alive [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 8,000 denarii, which make 200 solidi. 2. If anyone has forced sexual intercourse upon a free girl and it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi. 3. If anyone secretly has an adulterous relationship with a free girl, and both of them freely and willingly entered into the relationship, [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 1,800 denarii, which make 45 solidi….
XVII. Concerning wounds 1. If anyone wounds or tries to kill another man and the blow fails [to kill], and it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi. 2. If anyone tries to shoot another man with a poisoned arrow and the shot goes wide, and it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi. 3. If anyone strikes a person so that blood spills to the ground and it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 600 denarii, which make 15 solidi. 4. If anyone strikes another man on the head so that his brain shows, and it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 600 denarii, which make 15 solidi.
XIX. Concerning evil spells on people and harmful drugs 1. If anyone casts spells on another or gives [a person] a drugged potion to drink so that the person dies, and it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 8,000 denarii, which make 200 solidi, or surely be delivered to the fire…. 4. If any woman casts a spell on another woman so that she cannot have children, she shall be judged liable for 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi.
XX. Concerning the man who touches the hand or arm or finger of a free woman 1. If any freeman should touch the hand, arm, or finger of a free woman or any woman whatsoever, [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 600 denarii, which make 15 solidi…. 4. If any man fondles a woman’s breast or cuts it so that blood flows…, he shall be judged liable for 1,800 denarii, which make 45 solidi….
XXIV. Concerning the homicide of children and women 1. If anyone should kill a free boy below [the age of ] 12 years (up to the end of the twelfth [year]), [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi…. 5. If anyone should batter a pregnant free woman [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 28,000 denarii, which make 700 solidi.
5. And if the three bones that are situated over that man’s brain protrude out, he shall be judged liable for 1,200 denarii, which make 30 solidi.
6. If anyone should kill an infant in its mother’s womb or within nine nights [of birth] before it has a name, [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 4,000 denarii, which make 100 solidi.
6. If, in fact, [the wound] goes between the ribs or enters the belly so that it penetrates all the way to the internal
7. If a boy under 12 years [of age] commits any offense, no fine is required of him….
44 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
XXX. Concerning insults 2. If anyone should shout out that another person is “covered in shit,” he shall be judged liable for 120 denarii, which make 3 solidi. 3. If anyone, man or woman, shouts out that a free woman is “another whore” and cannot prove it…, the person shall be judged liable for 1,800 denarii, which make 45 solidi…. 6. If any freeman accuses another of having thrown away his shield and running away and cannot prove it…he shall be judged liable for 120 denarii, which make 3 solidi….
XLI. Concerning the homicide of free people 1. If anyone, indeed, should kill a free Frank or [other] barbarian who lives by the Salic law [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 8,000 denarii, which make 200 solidi…. 5. If anyone, indeed, should kill a man or free woman who is under the king’s protection [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi…. 8. If, indeed, a Roman who is a companion of the king is killed [and] it is proved against a person…, he shall be judged liable for 12,000 denarii, which make 300 solidi. 9. If, indeed, a Roman landholder who is not a companion of the king is killed [and] it is proved against a person…, he shall be judged liable for 4,000 denarii, which make 100 solidi. 10. If anyone, indeed, should kill a Roman who pays tribute61 [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 2,500 denarii, which make 62½ solidi. 11. If anyone, indeed, should find at a crossroad a freeman who has no hands or feet, whom his enemies have deposited there, and kills him, [and] it is proved against him…, he shall be judged liable for 4,000 denarii, which make 100 solidi. 12. If anyone throws a freeman into a well and he emerges from it alive… [The culprit] shall be judged liable for 4,000 denarii, which make 100 solidi…. 14. If anyone accuses a freeman of any crime whatsoever for which that person was killed…, he shall be judged liable for 4,000 denarii, which make 100 solidi. 61. Probably a half-free person, or colonus.
15. If anyone kills a free girl before she is able to have children, he shall be judged liable for 8,000 denarii, which make 200 solidi. 16. If anyone kills a free woman after she begins to bear children, he shall be judged liable for 24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi. 17. If, in fact, he kills a woman who is past middle age and is no longer able to have children, he shall be judged liable for 8,000 denarii, which make 200 solidi…. 19. If anyone kills a pregnant woman, he shall be judged liable for 600 solidi.62…
LIII. Concerning redeeming [one’s] hand from the boiling cauldron 1. If anyone has been sentenced to the boiling cauldron and it should happen that an agreement is reached that he, who was sentenced, may redeem his hand and give oath-takers, then he may redeem his hand with 120 denarii, namely 3 solidi, if it were such a case that, had it been proved against him, he would legitimately owe 600 denarii which make 15 solidi…. 3. If, in fact, it is such a case in which, had it been proved [against him], he would have been judged liable for 35 solidi, and there is agreement that he may redeem his hand and give oath-takers, he may redeem his hand with 240 denarii, which make 6 solidi…. 7. If, indeed, someone charges another with [an act involving] wergeld,63 and he has been sentenced to the boiling cauldron, and it is agreed that he may give oath-takers and redeem his hand, he may redeem his hand with 1,200 denarii, which make 30 solidi.
LIV. Concerning the killing of a count64 If anyone kills a count…, he shall be judged liable for 24,000 denarii, which make 600 solidi.
62. Compare law XXIV, 5. 63. “Man money”—wergeld was the compensation paid to relatives for a homicide, including an unintentional killing. 64. The count, who was always a Frank, served as a regional military leader, judge, and tax collector and was answerable directly to the king. See VII.3 in the next source.
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Government in Ostrogothic Italy 12. Cassiodorus, VARIAE 65 Late in the fourth century, the migrations of the Huns precipitated a series of events that placed tremendous pressure on Rome’s neighbors and, ultimately, on the Roman Empire. No later than 375, the westward sweep of the Hunnish advance washed over a major portion of the Ostrogoths, who had established a prosperous state in the area of the Black Sea. When the Ostrogoths entered the empire a few years later, they did so as subjects of the Huns. When Attila the Hun’s horsemen were checked in 451 on the Catalaunian Plains of Gaul, Ostrogothic warriors fought alongside the Huns against their Visigothic cousins. The death of Attila two years later and the subsequent rapid breakup of the Huns allowed the Ostrogoths to gain their independence. They were now on their own, and in significant strength, within the empire’s borders. Around the same time, the person who would lead this tribe to the heights of its power was born in the eastern Roman province of Pannonia, where a group of Ostrogoths who had escaped Hunnish domination had taken refuge as military allies of the empire. Known to history as both Theodoric the Ostrogoth and Theodoric the Great (ca. 453–526), this member of the Amali royal family went to Constantinople as a hostage at the age of eight and remained there for ten years. During that decade, he fell under the influence of Greco-Roman civilization, and forever after he was committed to finding a legitimate and worthy place for his Gothic people within the Roman world. In the early or mid-470s, Theodoric became king of all the Ostrogoths. In 483, he was invested with the powers and title of a Roman general, and the following year this Gothic-Roman citizen received the honorific title of consul. Theodoric’s titles and his reverence for Constantinople and the empire centered there did not preclude, however, his unsuccessfully marching against the city in 487 out of a sense that the empire was not providing properly for its Ostrogothic allies. Emperor Zeno’s fear of Theodoric led him to approve what must have seemed at the time a brilliant solution to two vexing problems. Italy was in the hands of the German adventurer Odoacer (or Odovacar), who in 476 had deposed and exiled the last Roman emperor in the West, Romulus Augustulus. In 488, Zeno commissioned Theodoric and his Ostrogoths to re-win Italy for the empire. In March of 493, Theodoric killed Odoacer and took over sole control of Italy and its neighboring territories. Although he acknowledged the overlordship of the emperor at Constantinople, Theodoric was now the king of Italy and the only effective ruler in the peninsula. His government was marred, however, by the fact that many of his Catholic Christian subjects deeply resented being ruled by a Goth who was an Arian Christian. Toward the end of his life, Theodoric became increasingly paranoid and persecuted Catholic enemies—both real and imagined. Not all Catholic Romans, however, resisted this heretic’s rule. One of Theodoric’s closest companions was Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator, an aristocrat, statesman, educator, scholar, and later a monk. In the period 506–38, by virtue of his holding a number of high civil posts, Cassiodorus rendered into acceptable Latin prose the correspondence, edicts, plans, and decisions of Theodoric and his royal successors. Around 538, Cassiodorus compiled 468 official documents that he had drafted into twelve books, or chapters. Following his compilation of this major work and amid the chaos that accompanied the invasion of Italy by the forces of Emperor Justinian I, Cassiodorus retired and turned increasingly to religion. Meanwhile, Justinian’s Gothic War (535–54) devastated Italy and brought the Ostrogothic Kingdom to a bitter end. 65. Cassiodorus Senator, Variarum libri duodecim, ed. Theodor Mommsen, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctorum Antiquissimorum, XII (Berlin: Weidmann, 1894), 10–11, 80–81, 88, 94–95, 100, 202–03; Magni Aurelli Cassiodori, Variarum Libri XII, ed. A. J. Fridh, Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, XCVI (Turnholt: Brepols, 1973), 9–10, 99–100, 109–10, 118–19, 126, 262–63.
46 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Despite the vicissitudes of circumstances and time, Cassiodorus’s collection, known as the Variae (Potpourri), survived, and today it is one of our best sources for the reign and policies of King Theodoric. It is impossible to say how much these documents reflect the political philosophy and advice of Cassiodorus.
Questions for Consideration 1. While taking into account Cassiodorus’s diplomatic language in the letter to Emperor Anastasius and the delicacy of the negotiations, what do you infer from that letter regarding Theodoric’s view of the empire and his relationship to it? 2. Consider Theodoric’s next two letters, which concern the situation in Gaul. What do they suggest about his view of his place among the German kings of the West and his role within the empire? 3. What does Theodoric’s concern with Rome’s sewer system suggest? 4. What do the letter to Unigis and the formula regarding the appointment of a Gothic count allow you to infer about Theodoric’s view of law and its place within his kingdom? What does it allow you to infer about his vision of the proper relationship that should exist between Romans and Goths? 5. If these few documents are read carefully, one can infer something about the nature of Theodoric’s government and even about some of the internal troubles that beset his kingdom. What are your insights regarding these two issues? 6. Arguably, the Variae was Cassiodorus’s defense of his years of service to the Ostrogothic rulers of Italy. Does that possibility cause you to look at these letters with different eyes?
Theodoric and the Empire I.1. King Theodoric to Emperor Anastasius66 It is fitting for us, Most Clement Emperor, to seek peace because we know of no reason for anger…. Indeed, every kingdom should desire a tranquility from which its people benefit and in which the common good of all peoples is maintained…. Therefore, most pious of princes, it befits your power and honor that we should seek harmony with you, we who to this point have benefitted from your affection. For you are the fairest glory of all realms; you are the salvific defense of the whole world, whom all rulers rightfully esteem, because they know that there is in you something unique, [and] above all others, we, who by divine aid learned in your republic the art of governing Romans with equity. Our kingdom is an imitation of yours, modeled 66. Composed in 508 following a minor skirmish in Italy between imperial and Ostrogothic forces. The documents in the Variae follow no discernible chronological pattern. This is the first entry in Book 1. Did Cassiodorus consider it the most important document in his collection?
on your good purpose, a copy of the one and only empire. Insofar as we follow you, then do we excel all other peoples. You have often urged me to hold the Senate in high esteem [and] to gladly embrace the laws of [past] leaders, so that I might unite all the members of Italy. For how can you force asunder from the Augustan Peace of [your] power him whom you desire to be in harmony with regarding your ways of life? In addition, there is the reverential affection for the city of Rome, from which those elements that join them in the unity of her name cannot be separated. Accordingly, we have entrusted him and him67 to be endowed with the office of legate68 to your Most Serene Piety, so that a true peace, which is known to have been broken by [a number of ] causes that arose, might thereafter be firmly and permanently restored, once the matters of contention have been eliminated. For we do not believe that you will allow any discord to remain between two states that are always shown to have been one body under 67. Neither is named in the Variae’s copy of the letter. 68. Consult the Glossary.
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[their] ancient leaders. They ought not only to be joined in a bond of carefree love, but they surely should help one another with all their might. May there always be one will, one purpose in the Roman Kingdom! And whatever we might accomplish, may it redound to your honor. Therefore, while greeting [you] with a respectful salutation, we entreat in a humble spirit that you do not hold back Your Clemency’s most glorious affection, which I should hope for, even if it has not been known to have been extended to others.
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, and Franks III.4. King Theodoric to Clovis, King of the Franks69 The divinely ordained laws of kinship have chosen to take root among kings so that, by reason of their peaceful souls, the tranquility that people desire might blossom forth. This is sacred. It may not be violated by any violence. For what faith can anyone have in hostages, if one cannot put faith in affectionate relations? Let lords be joined by ties of close relationships so that separate states might glory in a common will, and almost as though they are united through certain channels of harmony, may the desires of peoples be conjoined. Given this, we are amazed that your spirit has been so aroused by trivial causes to the point that you intend to enter into a most severe conflict with our son, King Alaric. The result will be that many who fear you both will rejoice over your clash. Each of you is a king over a prominent people. Each of you is in the flower of life. You will violently, not just lightly, shake your kingdoms if you give free rein to partisan rivalries. Your manliness should not be an unforeseen calamity for your fatherland because, whereas the full-blown ill-will of kings is occasioned by light causes, it is a heavy disaster for the people…. What would you yourself think of us if you knew that we had ignored your quarrels? Let there be no such conflict in which one of you will be defeated and suffer pain. Cast aside [your] weapon, you who plan to fight, thereby humiliating me. With the authority of a father and friend, I forbid you under pain of sanction. He who holds such warnings in contempt, which I do not believe [will be the case], will suffer our opposition and that of our allies.
69. This letter was part of an unsuccessful attempt by Theodoric to prevent Clovis’s invasion of the Visigothic kingdom of Toulouse in 507.
Therefore, we have decided, with all our heart, to send him and him, our envoys, to your Excellency, and through them we have directed our letters also to your brother, our son, King Alaric, so that in no way might a foreign malignity sow discord between you.70 Rather, you both should remain at peace and should peacefully terminate these matters through the mediation of friends. Theodoric’s attempts at mediation failed. As the Franks moved against Alaric II from the north, the Burgundians, led by King Gundobad, attacked the Visigoths’ lands from the east. Theodoric rallied the Ostrogoths to deny the Mediterranean region of Visigothic Gaul to the Franks and Burgundians. After securing this region in 508, Theodoric dispatched a letter to its inhabitants.
III.17. King Theodoric to All the Gallic Provincials Cheerfully obey Roman custom, you who have been restored to it after a long period of time, because it is gratifying to return to that condition from which, it is agreed, your forefathers began their rise. Therefore, you, who are recalled, with God’s aid, to an ancient freedom, must clothe yourselves in the conduct of the toga.71 Strip off barbarism. Cast aside mental vulgarity. It is not right for you to live according to alien ways of life in our time of justice.… Gradually relearn law-abiding habits. Because it is virtuous, a novelty should not be troublesome. For what is a happier circumstance than that people place their trust in laws alone and do not fear future happenstances? Public law provides the surest comfort for human life. It is a support for the weak and a bridle on the strong. Love the law. Security comes from it, and moral conscience progresses from it. Foreign people live according to their own will, whereby he who is able to secure what he desires, finds therein, more often than not, his own death. Now show yourselves secure in your riches. Let the treasures of your predecessors that have been long hidden away be brought into the light. For someone is by far the nobler the more he glistens with upright morals and a shining patrimony.
70. This is either a reference to Gundobad, king of the Burgundians (r. 473–516), who was also an enemy of Alaric II, or to Emperor Anastasius, who encouraged Clovis to attack Alaric and provided naval support. 71. The garment reserved for adult male Roman citizens.
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For this reason, we have sent you a Prefectural Vicar72 so that we might be perceived as having dispatched the rule of civil law along with such an office. Take delight in what you heard so much about. Understand that people are valued not so much for bodily strength as for rationality, and that they who can furnish justice to others deservedly prosper. In fact, this region, known as Provincia (present-day Provence), was under military control for the roughly twenty-eight years that the Ostrogoths held it. In 536, King Witigis handed over the area to the Franks as partial payment for an alliance against Emperor Justinian’s invading army.
The City of Rome III.30. King Theodoric to the Illustrious Man Agricolus, Prefect of the City73 Care for the city of Rome keeps constant vigil in my mind. What is worthier, of the matters that we should be mindful of, than to require the repair of the place that clearly preserves the splendor of our state? Therefore, your Illustrious Sublimity should know that we have sent the distinguished John on account of the splendid sewers of Rome, which cause such wonder to those who see them inasmuch as they surpass the wonders of other cities. There you can see, as it were, rivers enclosed in veritable hollow hills, flowing through huge plastered channels…. Therefore, Rome, one can surmise the singular magnitude of your greatness. For what city dares to rival your towers, when even your underground structures have no equal? Therefore, we order you to offer the services of your administration to the aforementioned John because we wish that persons in public office carry out our ordinances, putting aside private hands that are so audaciously plunged into illegalities.
Keeping Peace and Order III.43. King Theodoric to Unigis, the Sword-bearer74 We delight to live after the law of the Romans, whom we desire to defend with arms, and we are no less interested 72. A judicial-financial official who had no executive authority. 73. Composed in 510/511. 74. A high-ranking Gothic officer at the royal court. The letter dates to summer 508.
in matters of morality than it is possible to be in matters of war. For what is the profit in having removed barbarian turmoil, unless one lives according to law? When, with the aid of God, our army entered Gaul, [certain slaves], having cast aside their bonds of servitude, took themselves to other [masters], an action that seemed agreeable to them. We order that they be returned to their prior masters without any hesitancy whatsoever because legal rights must not be confused with the rule of law,75 and a defender of liberty may not show favor to a worthless slave. The mighty struggles of other kings are aimed at the plundering or devastation of captured cities; our purpose, with the aid of God, is to so rule that our subjects grieve that they came under our dominion so late.
VII.3. Formula Regarding the Office of Count of the Goths throughout the Various Provinces76 Inasmuch as we know that, by God’s help, Goths dwell intermingled among you,77 in order to prevent the disorder that customarily arises among close neighbors, we have decided that it is correct to send to you as count, ______, a highly placed man, who has already proved to us his character. In accord with our edicts, he has the authority to resolve a legal contest between two Goths. If it should happen that a lawsuit arises between a Goth and a native-born Roman, he may, after seeking counsel from a Roman jurist, decide the contest by fair-minded reason. If, however, it is between two Romans, let the Roman judges, whom we appoint throughout the provinces, hear it. In this way, may the laws of each protect each and, with various judges, one justice may embrace everyone. Thus, if God so grants it, with one common peace, may both people fully enjoy sweet tranquility. Know, however, that we have equal affection for all [our subjects], but he can commend himself more abundantly to our soul who duly and freely esteems the law. We like nothing that is disorderly; we detest wicked arrogance, along with those who are its agents. Our sense of duty leads us to detest violent people. In the case of disputes, let it be laws, 75. There is to be no legal wrangling over this. 76. A formulaic letter sent to a province upon the appointment of its new count. The count, who was always a Goth, performed the same functions as Frankish counts, who are mentioned in the Salic Law Code. 77. About one-third of the arable land of Theodoric’s kingdom was confiscated for Ostrogothic settlements as payment for their military service, which they alone provided.
Chapter 2: New Peoples in an Old Empire Governing the Barbarian Kingdoms 49
not strong arms, that decide the matter. Why should they, who know they have courts of justice at hand, choose to seek out violent means? It is for this reason that we pay the judges their salaries. It is for this reason that we maintain so many official staffs with their various privileges that we might not allow anything to grow up among you that could extend to the point of hatred. Since there is a single authority over you, let one desire that living together embrace you. Let both people hear what we have in our heart. Inasmuch as the Romans are neighbors to your lands, so may
they be joined [to you] in affection. You also, Romans, ought dearly to love the Goths, who in peace swell the numbers of your people and in war defend the entire state. It is appropriate, therefore, that you obey the judge appointed for you, so that you might, in every way, fulfill whatever he might decide is necessary for the preservation of the laws; and to the extent that you obey our command, you will be found to have promoted your own interests.
Heavenly Portraits 13. THE ALTAR OF RATCHIS; A ROMAN SARCOPHAGUS Theodoric’s dream of creating a new Romanitas out of the combined efforts and genius of the Ostrogoths and Italo-Romans proved empty. In the generation following his death, imperial armies sent by Emperor Justinian invaded and devastated the Italian Peninsula. After almost three decades of warfare, the Ostrogoths disappeared as a recognizable people, and a severely weakened, reconquered Italy was ripe for a new invasion from the north. Those invaders, the Lombards (or Langobards), appeared in 568 and proved to be especially destructive. In time, the Lombards settled down, established several competing states in Italy, converted from Arianism to the faith of the Roman Church, and adopted many of the other cultural attitudes and habits of the people whose lands they now possessed. Although the Lombards never conquered the entire peninsula, they were a major political-military power in Italy down to the late eighth century. They were also artists, and much of the artwork they created exists today in the Italian cities they once ruled. One of the masterpieces of Lombardic art is the Altar of Ratchis, commissioned by Ratchis, duke of Friuli and later king of the Lombards, in memory of his father Duke Pemmom. Ratchis, who was married to a Roman, abdicated his royal throne in 749 to enter the Benedictine Monastery of Monte Cassino. Created in the period 739–44, the altar is a rectangular, box-like construction of carved marble slabs, made in the style of a reliquary box. As a Christian altar, it would have contained sacred relics. Shown here is the altar frontal, the portion of the altar that faces the priest and the congregation. Within an almond-shaped aureole (technically known as a mandorla), a beardless Christ in Majesty is flanked by two seraphim (six-winged angels) and offers a blessing. Over Christ’s head, the hand of God the Father reaches down to touch His nimbus, or halo. Two cherubim (angels who wait on God) are on each side of the mandorla, along with stars and a symbol of the sun. The altar was made all the more like a reliquary box by virtue of the fact that it was brightly painted (most of the paint has been lost), and gemstones, which are lost, were set into the eyes of Christ and the six angels and into the stars. We will compare it with a marble Roman sarcophagus that was carved in the second quarter of the third century for a non-Christian burial. Two winged Victories hold a portrait medallion of the deceased, who wears a toga and grips a scroll. Underneath the medallion is a basket of fruit, and flanking the basket are two allegorical figures. Terra, the Earth Mother, is on the right (our left) holding a cornucopia. At her feet is a snake, a symbol of fertility and rebirth. Beyond her, a mask representing tragic theater sits on a pedestal and behind it a cupid, the deity of erotic love, plays a double flute—itself an erotic symbol. Oceanus (the god of the sea) is on the medallion’s left; at his feet is a mythical sea creature. At the far left (our right), Cupid walks away with Heracles’s club over his left shoulder. From it he will
50 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
carve his bow; arrows shot from it inflame desire. As interesting as these symbols are, their multiple levels of meaning need not concern us here. We need only focus on the medallion and winged Victories.
Questions for Consideration 1. Refer to the Barberini Ivory (source 7). Compare it with the Altar of Ratchis and this Roman sarcophagus. What are the significant commonalities? What are the significant differences? What inferences follow from that comparative study? 2. It has been said that a comparative analysis of these three works of art, each a masterpiece, reveals two historical trends: (1) the way in which the “barbarian West” was moving away from the Greco-Roman world, even as it found inspiration in that past; and (2) the growing cultural gap between the West and Byzantium. Comment on these two points.
Illus. 2.2 Altar of Ratchis, a copy of the original in the Museo Cristiano, Cividale del Friuli, Italy.
Chapter 2: New Peoples in an Old Empire Governing the Barbarian Kingdoms 51
Illus. 2.3 Sarcophagus with Flying Victories, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russian Federation.
Chapter 3
Emerging Europe’s Neighbors: Byzantium and Islam
Illus. 3.1 Hagia Sophia, Constantinople’s patriarchal church of the Holy Wisdom,
The Mediterranean Sea provided constructed 532–37 at the command of Justinian I, reconstructed 558–62 due to severe shape and substance to the Roman earthquake damage, and converted into a mosque in 1453 (note the four minarets). It Empire, and as the empire gave way became a museum in 1935. to new realities, the Mediterranean’s peoples took on new ways of life and thought. The Mediterranean is an area of water, islands, and adjacent continental lands that covers more than one million square miles. The First Europe only inherited a portion of that vast region—the lands stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to the northwestern Balkans. Most of the ancient Mediterranean was divided between two other successor civilizations, Byzantium and Islam, and it is to those two cultures that we now turn. Substantial cultural differences separated Byzantium from Islam, and both civilizations were quite different from the new society emerging in Western Europe. Yet despite their many dissimilarities, all three cultures drew heavily from two common roots: the monotheistic religious traditions of Southwest Asia and the secular ideas and institutions of Hellenistic culture. What is more, they were never isolated from one another. Over the centuries, their points of contact resulted in significant interchanges. For these reasons, we can justifiably think of the three as sibling heirs of the great Mediterranean
52
Chapter 3: Emerging Europe’s Neighbors Byzantium: From Justinian I to Basil II (527–1025) 53
community of related, civilized peoples that Rome had fashioned and as partners in a yet-larger community of western Eurasian peoples. For many centuries, however, they were unequal partners. Byzantium and Islam were initially far richer beneficiaries of Hellenistic culture than was Europe, their poor relation and neighbor. When the First Europe was still an essentially primitive culture, struggling to create an identity for itself, Byzantium and Islam had already created golden ages of political stability, economic vitality, and artistic and intellectual brilliance. Moreover, Islam originated in Arabia, a land that had never been integrated into the Roman Empire, except for a small northwestern corner of the peninsula. Also, early on, Islamic armies conquered lands in western Central Asia, most notably Iraq and Iran, that had never been part of the Roman Empire and had urban traditions that were already thousands of years old. As a consequence, Arab, Mesopotamian, and Persian cultures were profoundly and essentially embedded in Islam.
Byzantium: From Justinian I to Basil II (527–1025) While the former western portions of the Roman Empire were in the midst of a painful process of political breakdown and sweeping cultural transformation, the empire’s eastern half was evolving more gently and with greater continuity into a new cultural synthesis known as Byzantine civilization. Modern historians created the term to distinguish the Eastern Christian civilization centered at Constantinople, the site of the ancient Greek city of Byzantion, from preceding Greco-Roman cultures. The Byzantine world revolved around the orthodox emperor, who in theory was answerable to no one on Earth. As a Christian, he was not a god-king. He was, however, the next best thing: the living image of God on Earth, insofar as his imperial majesty was a pale reflection of the Glory of God. As such, the emperor was the link between the Christian Chosen People and their God. Emperor Constantine I was even accorded the title isapostolos, “equal of the Apostles.” Although no subsequent emperor received this honor, they all claimed to be the vice-regents, or deputies, of Christ. Under the leadership of these emperors, who also styled themselves autokrator (one who rules by himself with absolute authority), the Eastern Christian Empire experienced many centuries of vitality. Some eighteenth-century European historians regarded Byzantine civilization as an unoriginal and degenerate fossilization of late antiquity, but nothing could be further from the truth. Although the Byzantines saw their state as a living continuation of the Roman Empire and, therefore, called themselves Romaioi (Romans), in fact, by the middle of the sixth century, Constantinople had become the matrix of a new civilization that persisted and flourished to 1453, when the city of Constantinople finally fell to the forces of Islam. To be sure, over those 900 years, Byzantium experienced fluctuations in fortune and creativity, but by and large, Byzantine civilization was noted throughout its long history for economic prosperity and cultural brilliance. Moreover, long after 1453, Byzantine culture remained a living force in Russia and Eastern Europe’s other Orthodox Christian societies, such as Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia, which had adopted Constantinople’s religion and many of its traditions. The following four sources shed light on two of Byzantium’s ages of special vitality, the reign of Justinian I and the era of the Macedonian emperors, during which the Eastern Roman Empire exerted powerful influence on its many neighbors.
54 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Illus. 3.2 and 3.3 Monograms of Justinian and Theodora, Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, Constantinople (today the mosque Küçük Ayasofya [Little Hagia Sophia], Istanbul, Turkey).
An Emperor and Empress 14. MOSAIC PORTRAITS OF JUSTINIAN AND THEODORA AT SAN VITALE The age of Justinian I (r. 527–65) was pivotal in the history of the Eastern Roman Empire. The last emperor of Constantinople to speak Latin as his native tongue, Justinian dreamt of reuniting and revivifying the Roman Empire by reconquering the West from its barbarian lords. Despite the investment of vast human and material resources, the effort largely failed. It is true that Justinian’s army managed to reconquer the western regions of North Africa. Byzantine forces also reestablished an imperial presence in southeastern Iberia and on the nearby Balearic Islands, and regained the Italian mainland as well as Dalmatia (today coastal Croatia) and the central Mediterranean islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. These conquests were initially impressive, but they proved impermanent in various degrees. As early as 568, the empire began to lose its grip on northern and central Italy due to Lombardic invasions. The Visigoths regained all of their lost territory on the Spanish mainland by 624, and Muslim forces swept through North Africa, conquering the last vestiges of Byzantine authority in the Maghreb (western North Africa) by 700. In like manner, all of the islands slipped away from imperial control between the mid-eighth and mid-eleventh centuries as various Muslim powers invaded and conquered them. Finally, Byzantium’s last foothold on the Italian mainland was lost to the Normans in 1071, and Dalmatia passed into Venetian hands in the late twelfth century. The major achievements of these wars of reconquest were the ruination of the city of Rome; the transformation of much of Italy into a war-ravaged backwater; destruction of the Ostrogothic kingdom of Italy and the Vandal kingdom of Africa, thereby creating power vacuums that new
Chapter 3: Emerging Europe’s Neighbors Byzantium: From Justinian I to Basil II (527–1025) 55
invaders would exploit; and stripping the Eastern Empire of much-needed wealth and military manpower. Following Justinian’s passing from the scene, the Greek-speaking emperors and people of Byzantium were forced to look less to the west and increasingly to their eastern, northern, and southern borders, thereby accelerating the impact of West Asian influences on a rapidly maturing Byzantine culture. Just as serious, Justinian also promoted the narrow cause of Christian orthodoxy in a cosmopolitan empire that contained large numbers of variant Christian beliefs and ways of interpreting and living the faith. The result was deep alienation, especially among the empire’s Egyptian and Syrian subjects, and a consequent internal weakness that Islamic Arabic forces exploited in the seventh century. For all his miscalculations and missteps, Justinian I probably merits the title “the Great.” A manifestation of his greatness—at least as he saw it—is his portrait mosaic in the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, the city that served as the center of imperial authority in northeastern Italy down to 751. Complementing Justinian’s mosaic is that of his wife, Theodora, which also merits our attention. Created in 548, the two mosaics flank the altar of the church. High above the altar is a mosaic of Christ in Majesty. Below and to Christ’s right is Justinian’s mosaic; to Christ’s left is Theodora’s mosaic. The crowned Justinian has a nimbus, or halo, a sign of sacred power. He wears the imperial purple and gold and carries an offering of Eucharistic bread, which, according to Orthodox Christian theology, will be transformed into Christ’s body by a priest at the altar. To his left are three churchmen and what appears to be a secular official in the background over the emperor’s left shoulder. Archbishop Maximian, who had completed construction of the church, is identified with his name inscribed above him. The cleric on the archbishop’s immediate left holds a Gospel book. During the Mass, a passage from one of the Gospels is read aloud from the right side of the altar, where this mosaic is located. To Justinian’s right are two imperial officials and six members of the imperial bodyguard. On the shield of one is the XP (Chi-Rho) monogram for Christos, Greek for “Christ.” Theodora also wears a crown, imperial purple and gold, and a nimbus. On the hem of her robe are brocaded images of the Three Kings bearing gifts to the Christ Child. She holds a bejeweled cup containing the Eucharistic wine, which, according to Orthodox Christian theology, will be transformed into Christ’s blood by a priest at the altar. On her left are seven court ladies in descending order of rank; two high-ranking court officials stand to her right, one of whom pulls back a drapery to reveal a baptismal font, the fountain in which people are baptized into the Church. Directly behind Theodora is a dome, which probably represents the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus. The church, which stood close to the imperial palace, was built under the dual patronage of Theodora and Justinian during the years 527–36, as their inscribed monograms in the church attested. It also served as the model for the far grander patriarchal Church of Hagia Sophia.
Questions for Consideration 1. Theodora’s mosaic places her in a defined space, whereas Justinian’s mosaic lacks any points of spatial reference. Does this seem significant? If so, how do you interpret the emperor’s lack of specific place? 2. How does Justinian’s mosaic symbolize the special powers and position of the emperor? 3. Based on these two mosaics, describe the role that Empress Theodora apparently played within the empire. 4. Revisit the Barberini Ivory (source 7). Based on that ivory relief and the mosaic portrait of Justinian, compose an essay on the duties and authority of a Byzantine emperor.
56 The Collapse of Roman Unity and the Emergence of Three Successor Civilizations
Illus. 3.4 Emperor Justinian, His Court, and Clerics.
Illus. 3.5 Empress Theodora and Court Attendants.
Chapter 3: Emerging Europe’s Neighbors Byzantium: From Justinian I to Basil II (527–1025) 57
Regulating Trade and Industry 15. THE BOOK OF THE EPARCH 1 Close control over the economy was an important element of Byzantine statecraft. In the age of the Macedonian dynasty (867–1056), when Byzantium was at its peak of power and prosperity, Constantinople had a large number of occupational guilds, all of which were supervised by the city’s chief civil official, the eparch. Some, known as imperial, or public, guilds, were direct continuations of the state-supervised guilds that we studied in the Theodosian Code. As had been true many centuries earlier, membership in them was limited to guild-caste families. However, unlike what had been the law in the fourth and fifth centuries, family members were now not obliged to join the guild. In fact, anyone wishing to join had to pass a rigorous examination. A second type of guild was the private guild that was open to anyone who met its standards and could pay its entrance fee. As with the imperial guild, membership brought security and a sense of belonging to a craft aristocracy. Tradition credits Emperor Leo VI, the Wise (r. 886–912), with ordering the compilation of The Book of the Eparch, a collection of regulations guiding the conduct of members of nineteen private guilds. Although Leo might have initiated the project, internal evidence strongly suggests that the book was added to over the course of the tenth century. Five of the nineteen guilds highlighted in the book involved the silk industry and trade. As the numbers suggest, these guilds were important to Byzantium’s economy. Constantinople became Europe’s first center of silk production in the mid-sixth century but continued to be a major importer of Asian silk for centuries thereafter.
Questions for Consideration 1. What were the major obligations of a silk clothier (silk merchant), and why did they exist? 2. What do you infer from the fact that a slave could be a member of this guild? 3. Is there any evidence that the profession of selling silk was highly remunerative? 4. What evidence exists to support the inference that one reason guilds existed and were regulated was to protect the interests of guild members? 5. It has been said that in Byzantium silk was a symbol of political authority. What evidence is there to support this statement? 1. ΤΟ ΕΠΑΡΧΙΚΟΝ ΒΙΒΛΙΟΝ, ed. Jules Nicole, Geneva, 1893, in The Book of the Eparch (London: Variorum Reprints, 1970), 26–38, passim.
IV. Regarding the Silk Clothiers 1. Silk clothiers must purchase [only] silk garments. They may not make other purchases, except for items they require for their personal use, and may not sell such items. Furthermore, they may not resell to persons who are foreign to the city articles that are on the list of prohibited items, namely purple [silks] made from special dyes, so as to prevent their export from the
empire.2 Offenders will be flogged and their goods shall be confiscated. 2. Purple silks were reserved for the imperial family and the emperor’s closest associates. The Byzantines gave silk textiles to foreign dignitaries and churches, and offered them to foreigners for purchase, but usually only silks of a certain quality. Generally, the best could not be exported (see source 42), but as the next source indicates, there were exceptions.
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2. Silk clothiers, whether free or slave, who purchase from any person, be he a noble or a silk buyer, garments exceeding ten nomismata in value,3 must declare the purchase to the eparch so that he might know where these articles are to be sold. They who do not do this will suffer the above-mentioned punishment…. 4. If anyone does not inform the eparch of his intention to purchase goods destined for a foreign people, so that the eparch can affix his seal to it, he shall be held liable. 5. If someone wishes to gain admission to the guild of silk clothiers, five members of the craft must attest in the presence of the eparch that the person is worthy to exercise the craft. Then he shall be admitted. He shall open a clothier shop and may carry on business. Moreover, he will pay the guild six nomismata.4 3. The nomisma (pl. nomismata) was an imperial gold coin. In the tenth century, its gold content was about 4.36 grams with a fineness of .960. 4. As his entrance fee.
6. In order to obtain a clothier-shop license, one must pay ten nomismata. Moreover, the eparch’s recommendation is necessary. 7. If anyone is, at one and the same time, a clothier and a dyer [of silks], he must be given the option [of choosing] one or the other, to the exclusion of one of them. Anyone who attempts to exercise both crafts shall be subject to the above-mentioned punishment. 8. Care must be scrupulously exercised that foreigners who are visiting the city and dwelling in lodgings do not purchase prohibited or unfinished garments, except for their own use and as long as it was fabricated in the imperial city. These people must also notify the eparch when they are ready to depart so that he might learn what sort of items they have purchased. Should anyone conspire to help them evade [this regulation], he shall be flogged and [his head] shaved, and his goods confiscated. 9. If anyone secretly or openly so acts as to cause the rent of the shop that another [clothier] inhabits to rise, he is to be flogged and [his head] shaved and his goods confiscated.
Securing an Empire’s Borders 16. Constantine VII, GOVERNING THE EMPIRE 5 Constantine VII (r. 913–59) has been called “the Scholar Emperor” because of his considerable learning, his patronage of higher education, and the fact that he wrote or commissioned four important books. He also proved to be an able administrator and diplomat once he had gathered power into his own hands. Only eight when he ascended the throne in 913, and dominated first by regents and then by more powerful co-emperors, he finally managed to achieve uncontested authority in 944/45 and ruled ably for the next fifteen years. Sometime in the period 948–52, he composed what is best described as a top-secret, in-depth briefing paper for his son and successor, Romanos II. Its original title was To His Own Son Romanos, but history remembers it by the more explicit Latin title De administrando imperio (Governing the Empire), even though it was written in Greek. The work was not meant for general circulation, but somehow it survived. Chief among the issues it addressed was security along the empire’s northern border, which included the Black Sea, Byzantium’s commercial gateway to the rich caravan routes and cities of western Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and beyond. The key to controlling the Black Sea was Cherson, a Byzantine province in southeastern Crimea, the northern peninsula that juts into the Black Sea. For about two centuries, Byzantium had depended on its alliances with the Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic confederation that dominated a vast region north of the Black and Caspian Seas, to keep other, more hostile peoples at bay. But toward the mid-ninth century, Khazar power was in steep decline. Byzantium then turned to relative newcomers, the Pechenegs (or Patzinaks as the Byzantines called them), another semi-nomadic Turkic people that had migrated west out of the steppes of Central Asia and now controlled the lands once ruled by the Khazars. For that reason, Constantine devoted the 5. Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, Greek text ed. Gyula Moravcsik (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1967), 48, 50, 52, 54.
Chapter 3: Emerging Europe’s Neighbors Byzantium: From Justinian I to Basil II (527–1025) 59
opening chapters of his treatise to explaining why and how his son should maintain a proper relationship with this non-Christian people.
Questions for Consideration 1. How would one best describe the relationship between the empire and the Pechenegs? 2. What does this document suggest about the nature of Byzantium’s foreign policy? 3. What can we infer from this document about the peoples who resided along Byzantium’s borders?
1. Regarding the Patzinaks and the numerous advantages that ensue by their being at peace with the emperor of the Romans I consider it to be always to the great advantage of the emperor of the Romans to be attentive to keeping peace with the Patzinak people and to enter into accords and treaties of friendship with them and annually to dispatch to them an ambassador with appropriate gifts that are suitable for this people, and to receive from them guarantees, namely hostages and an ambassador, who shall be brought together and placed in the care of a responsible minister of this City Protected by God. And they shall enjoy every imperial benefit and gift that is appropriate for the emperor to bestow. This Patzinak people lives next to the province of Cherson. If they are not friendly toward us, they could make incursions into and plundering raids against Cherson and could ravage [the city of ] Cherson itself and the region named after it.
2. Regarding the Patzinaks and the Rus’ 6 The Patzinaks are neighbors with the Rus’ and campaign with them as well. Often, when they are not at peace with one another, the Patzinaks raid the land of the Rus’ and commit considerable damage and destruction. The Rus’ are exceedingly concerned with keeping the peace with the Patzinaks…. Moreover, the Rus’ are totally unable to go to war beyond their borders unless they are at peace with the Patzinaks. The reason is that when they are away from their homes, the Patzinaks might advance upon them and damage and destroy their property…. The Rus’ also cannot come to this imperial City of the Romans, for war or commerce, unless they are at peace with the Patzinaks.… 6. An amalgamation of Norse, Slavic, Baltic, and Finnish peoples who resided in lands that today are largely contained within Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia. Kiev and Novgorod were their major centers of power.
3. Regarding the Patzinaks and the Turks7 The tribe of the Turks also trembles at and greatly fears the aforementioned Patzinaks because they have often been defeated and almost completely wiped out by them. It follows from this that the Turks always fear the Patzinaks and are constrained by them.
4. Regarding the Patzinaks, the Rus’, and the Turks As long as the emperor of the Romans is at peace with the Patzinaks, neither can the Rus’ nor the Turks militantly march against the dominions of the Romans. They also cannot exact from the Romans vast and inflated sums in coinage and merchandise as the price of peace because they fear the strength of this people whom the emperor can turn against them while they are campaigning against the Romans. When the Patzinaks are joined in friendship with the emperor and won over by written messages and gifts, they can easily advance against the lands of the Rus’ and the Turks, enslave their women and children, and ravage their country.
5. Regarding the Patzinaks and the Bulgars8 And so also to the Bulgars the emperor of the Romans will seem more formidable and can impose on them a 7. Here Constantine refers to the Magyars, or Hungarians, who were not a Turkic people. The Magyars, who came out of the steppe lands of Central Asia, spoke a Finno-Ugrian language but had been culturally influenced by various Turkic peoples well before the end of the ninth century when they entered the land that became Hungary. 8. The Bulgars, also a Turkic people, had migrated from the steppe lands of Central Asia and established themselves in the northern Balkans in the late seventh century, where they merged with a Slavic majority that had settled there in the sixth century. The First Bulgarian Empire dates from 681 to 1018. The next source deals with the destruction of that empire.
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necessary peacefulness, if he is at peace with the Patzinaks. This is so because the aforesaid Patzinaks are also neighbors of these Bulgars, and when they desire, either for their own gain or to do a favor for the emperor, they can easily march against the Bulgars, and with their overwhelming forces and their strength crush and defeat them. And for this reason the Bulgars constantly struggle and strive to maintain peace and harmony with the Patzinaks…. Chapter 6 notes that the Patzinaks never perform any service for the people of Cherson without receiving payment in commodities such as purple cloth, gold brocades, pepper, and other goods for which they have contracted.
7. Regarding [the dispatch of ] imperial emissaries from the Chersonites to Patzinacia
and demand from them hostages and an escort. On their arrival, he must leave the hostages under guard in the city of Cherson. He then goes off with the escort to Patzinacia in order to carry out his instructions. Now the Patzinaks are greedy and extremely desirous of goods that are rare in their land and are shameless in demanding generous gifts. The hostages demand this for themselves and that for their wives. The escorts demand something for their toil and trouble and yet some more for the burden imposed on their animals. Then when the imperial emissary enters their land, they immediately ask for the emperor’s gifts. When these gifts have satisfied the men, they then ask for gifts for their wives and parents. Moreover, everyone who escorts him back to Cherson demands payment from him for their toil and trouble and the burden imposed on their animals.
When an imperial emissary goes to Cherson on this mission, he must immediately send a message to the Patzinaks
Emperor Basil II and the Apogee of Byzantine Power 17. Michael Psellus, THE CHRONOGRAPHIA 9 The history of Byzantium is one of peaks and valleys. The pattern of triumph, decline, and recovery repeated itself continuously until Byzantium’s collapse in the mid-fifteenth century. One key to understanding this cycle is the power invested in emperors and occasional empresses. Rarely does an individual single-handedly alter in a radical way the course of an empire or any other large institution, but autocratic monarchs could and did play inordinately important roles in the unfolding of Byzantine fortunes. Like Justinian the Great, Basil II (r. 976–1025) dominated an age of Byzantine greatness. In fact, many historians see Basil II’s reign as the political, military, and cultural apogee of Byzantine civilization. Late in the eleventh century, Michael Psellus (1017/18–78?), a monk, scholar, and politician, composed the Chronographia (Chronicle), a series of imperial character sketches covering the period from the start of the reign of Basil II through that of Michael VII (r. 1071–78). As far as Psellus was concerned, the empire’s history was largely driven by the ways in which individual emperors and empresses responded to the challenges and temptations of office. In the following excerpt, Psellus describes the qualities that he believed allowed Basil II to rule so successfully.
Questions for Consideration 1. What picture of Basil II emerges from this sketch? 2. According to Psellus, which of the emperor’s personal qualities aided his success? How so? 9. The History of Psellus, ed. Constantine Sathas (London: Methuen & Co., 1899), 14–18, passim.
Chapter 3: Emerging Europe’s Neighbors Byzantium: From Justinian I to Basil II (527–1025) 61
3. How old was Psellus during Basil’s reign? Might that fact be significant in evaluating his portrait of the emperor? Notwithstanding, does this sketch appear to ring true? 4. Compare Basil II with Constantine VII. What strikes you as more significant, their similarities or their differences? What does your answer suggest about the nature of the Byzantine state? 5. Consider the mosaic portrait of Justinian and the Barberini Ivory (source 7) in light of Psellus’s Chronographia. Are any images of imperial power common to all three? If so, what are they, and what do they suggest about the Byzantine vision of the ideal emperor? 29. When it came to dealing with those who were subject to him, Emperor Basil behaved with a good deal of contempt, and it is quite true that the great reputation that he acquired as a ruler was based more on fear than loyalty. As he grew older and became more experienced, he relied less on the judgment of men wiser than he. He alone introduced new procedures; he alone organized his armed forces. When it came to civil government, he ruled not according to written law but according to the dictates of his own intuition, which nature had well equipped him for in that regard. As a consequence, he was inattentive to highly educated men. In fact, he showed utter contempt toward the learned….
imperial power. Moreover, he took care to close the exit on the treasury, with the result that, partly through strict economy and partly by the addition of fresh funds from beyond the borders, a huge sum of money, worth many talents, was built up.11… In addition, he carried off to his treasury and deposited there all the wealth of people who had rebelled against him and were subsequently subdued…. Inasmuch as he devoted the greater part of his reign serving as a soldier on guard along our borders and keeping the barbarians from raiding our lands, not only did he not make withdrawals from his treasury reserve, he even multiplied his wealth many times over.
30. …Having rid the empire of barbarians,10 he dealt with his own subjects and totally subjugated them as well, and I think “subjugate” is the correct word to describe it…. After the great families had been brought low and put on an equal level with everyone else, Basil found himself playing power-politics with significant success. He surrounded himself with favorites who were not noted for intelligence, nobility of birth, or sufficient learning. He entrusted them with official edicts, and he habitually shared state secrets with them. The emperor’s comments on memos or on requests for favors never varied because Basil disdained all elegance in oral and written language. He dictated words to his secretaries as they came to his tongue, stringing them together, one after the other. There was no subtlety in his language, nothing was elaborate.
32. When campaigning against barbarians, Basil did not follow the strategy that was customary for other emperors, namely commencing operations at mid-spring and returning home at the end of summer. In his mind, the time to return was when the task undertaken was completed. He tolerated with equal indifference the hardships of winter and the heat of summer, and he disciplined himself to endure thirst. In fact, he kept all of his natural inclinations under strict control. The man was as hard as steel. He knew army life in accurate detail…. His experience in military matters went so far that the duties of the protostates, the duties of the hemilochites,12 and the assignments allocated to the soldiers immediately junior to them were no mysteries to Basil. The knowledge served him well in his wars.… The emperor knowing full well the character and combat duties of each soldier and knowing what each man was fit for, either by personality
31. So therefore, by suppressing arrogance and malice, he created his own good fortune on the way to achieving full 10. Basil had disposed of several rival claimants to the throne, along with their foreign allies. Further, the Bulgars had been raiding Byzantine territory since 976. As a consequence of a series of wars and diplomatic maneuverings carried on between 986 and 1018, he subjugated and effectively destroyed the First Bulgar Empire. His armies fought with such ferocity that Basil earned the sobriquet Boulgaroktonos (Bulgar Slayer).
11. A talent was a weight of precious metal that varied according to time and place. 12. The protostates (one who stands in front) commanded a five-man vanguard; the hemilochites (leader of a half file) commanded seven soldiers.
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or training, was able to use him in the proper role and had him serve there.
33. …He conducted his own wars and drew up troops in the proper line of battle, but preferred not to engage in combat himself. A sudden retreat might otherwise be embarrassing…. When everything was ready, strict orders were given that no soldier should advance ahead of the line or break from the ranks for any reason whatsoever. If these orders were not obeyed or some of the bravest and most daring soldiers rode out well in advance of the others, they could expect no rewards for valor upon their return, even if they had fought the enemy successfully. On the contrary, Basil promptly discharged them from the army, and they were punished like common criminals. He believed that the decisive factor in achieving victory was massing troops in one coordinated body, and it was for this reason alone that Roman armies were invincible….
34. Basil’s character was composed of two elements: he ungrudgingly adapted himself to the crises of war and no less so to the tranquility of peace. If the truth were really to be known, he was a nasty villain in war and carried himself as an emperor in peace. He kept his rage under control and… hid anger in his heart, but if his orders were not obeyed in war, on his return to the palace, he stoked and revealed his wrath. The vengeance he took on the wrongdoer was terrible. Usually he persisted in his opinions, but on occasion he did change his mind…. He was slow to undertake any course of action, but once he took it, he would never willingly alter his decision. As a consequence, his attitude toward friends was unwavering, unless necessity forced him to revise his opinion of them. Likewise, when he had become angry with someone, he did not quickly moderate his ire. In fact, he considered whatever decision he had formed to be an irrevocable, divinely inspired judgment.
Illus. 3.6 The northeast corner of Constantinople’s Theodosian land wall that successfully repelled invaders until it was breached by Ottoman cannon fire in 1453. The Blachernae Palace, of which remnants can be seen here, was built into the wall toward the end of the fifth century, but it only became the regular imperial palace in the late eleventh century. Constantinople was one of the most besieged cities in world history. Its many besiegers included, but were not limited to: Persians (626); Arabs (674–78 and 717–18); Bulgars (813); rebels (821–22, 1047, and 1376); Rus’ (860, 907, and 941); Western crusaders (1203 and 1204); and Ottoman Turks (1390–1402, 1411, 1422, and 1453).
Chapter 3: Emerging Europe’s Neighbors Dar al-Islam: From the Prophet to the Abbasids 63
Dar al-Islam: From the Prophet to the Abbasids Two great empires dominated western Eurasia in late antiquity: the Roman Empire and the Sassanian Empire, which controlled Iran and Iraq and threatened Rome’s eastern provinces. Between and to the south of these imperial behemoths lay the Arabian Peninsula. Its harsh desert climate and hardy warrior people combined to keep both powers at bay, despite periodic attempts to incorporate this region into their respective empires.
Illus. 3.7 Magok-i-Attari (Pit of the Herbalists) Mosque, Bukhara, Uzbekistan. This twelfthcentury mosque (renovated in the sixteenth century and 1930), the oldest-known permanent place of Islamic worship in Central Asia, represents the manner in which Islam, as with Christianity, built upon and superseded preexisting cultures and faiths. The mosque stands upon the remains of an early Buddhist shrine and a fifth-century C.E. Zoroastrian fire temple.
Romans and Persians had sought to dominate Arabia because it was a key point of transit for goods passing between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Hijaz, a narrow, fertile strip of land along Arabia’s western coast, contained several caravan towns, chief of which was Mecca (Makkah). Mecca was also a religious center, drawing numerous pilgrims to its most important sanctuary, the Ka’bah, where the images of numerous deities resided. Although Judaism and Christianity had made inroads into Arabia, the tribes of Arabia were largely polytheistic until the rise of a prophet in Mecca known as Muhammad (ca. 570–632), whose monotheistic teachings transformed Arabic culture and welded the Arabs into one of the most dynamic forces in the history of the world. The faith that Muhammad preached was Islam, which means “submission” in Arabic. One who submits in a totally uncompromising manner to the will of the single, omnipotent God of the universe, known as Allah (The God), is a Muslim. The Prophet of Islam was a well-to-do merchant of Mecca, who around 610 began to receive visions in which he was called to preach a powerful religious-ethical message. Muhammad believed that just as the Jews and the Christians had received their divine revelations from God, now the Arabs were receiving the full and final word of God through Muhammad himself, the last and greatest of the prophets. Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus,
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and several other prophets had been earlier messengers of God. Muhammad was the “seal” of these forerunners. Most of Meccan society was initially unmoved by Muhammad’s preaching. In fact, Muhammad and his converts experienced a good deal of hostility from many Meccan leaders, who perceived Islam as a threat to the city’s social and economic structures. Consequently, in 622, Muhammad and fellow Muslims journeyed to the city of Yathrib, where he was able to establish a theocratic Muslim community. In his honor, the city was renamed Madinat al-Nabi (City of the Prophet), or, more simply, Medina. From Medina, Muhammad and his followers initiated a jihad (struggle) against Mecca. In 630, Muhammad was able to re-enter Mecca in triumph and to transform the Ka’bah into Islam’s chief shrine by cleansing it of all its pagan idols. The Prophet of Allah was now the most powerful chieftain in Arabia, and the various tribes of the peninsula soon united under his leadership. When Muhammad died in 632, his closest associate, Abu Bakr, assumed the title and office of caliph (deputy, or successor, of the Prophet), thereby accepting leadership over the family of Islam. Thanks to Abu Bakr’s efforts at destroying secessionist elements, Islam remained a reasonably unified community under his stewardship (632–34), ready to explode out of its homeland, which it did under the second caliph, Umar (r. 634–44). Within a century, Muslim-controlled territory reached from the Pyrenees and Atlantic coast in Spain to the Indus Valley of northwest India and China’s far-western borders in Central Asia. Originally, the Arabs considered Islam their special revelation and had no intention of sharing the faith with their non-Arab subjects, but several factors combined to attract large numbers of non-Arab converts. They included Islam’s uncompromising monotheism and the straightforwardness of its other central doctrines; the psychic and social security offered by membership in a totally integrated Muslim community, where one’s entire life is subject to God’s Word; and the desire to escape the second-class status of Islam’s non-Muslim subjects. When the Abbasid caliphs (750–1258) established their court at Baghdad on the Tigris in 762, they claimed dominion over a multi-ethnic community bound together by one of the most attractive and fastest-growing religions in the history of humanity. The culture of this world community, which Muslims call Dar al-Islam (the House of Submission), was a combination of many elements, of which the most important were Arabic, Persian, and Hellenistic.
The Word of God 18. THE QUR’AN 13 The revelations that Muhammad believed that he had received through the agency of the Angel Gabriel were eventually set down into a canonical sacred book known as al-Qur’an (the Recitation). Muslims accept this “Book sent from Heaven” as the coeternal, infallible Word of Allah. The Qur’an contains 114 surahs, or chapters, with each divided into verses. Except for the brief first surah, which praises Allah, the surahs are arranged by length from the longest to the shortest with no attempt at chronological sequence. The surahs excerpted below represent some of the rich variety of the topics and concerns dealt with in the Qur’an. They further illustrate the ties between Islam and its Judaic and Christian sibling faiths and some of the ways in which early Islamic society interacted with these other monotheistic cultures. 13. The Koran, trans. J. M. Rodwell (London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1909), 352–53, 358, 367, 390–93, 37–78, 210, passim. Modernized and corrected by A. J. Andrea.
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Questions for Consideration 1. Describe the tone and message of al-Baqara (Surah 2). How do you explain them? 2. Who are the “People of the Book,” and what is the religious message of Surah 3? Be forewarned, this is a multilayered message. 3. Judging from these two surahs, how successful does Muhammad appear to have been in winning over Christian and Jewish Arabs to his message? Is the change in the direction of the qibla, which is mentioned in Surah 2, a piece of evidence? If so, how do you interpret it? 4. What is the Book that “confirms those that precede it,” and what were those predecessors? 5. The Muslim victory at the battle of Badr signaled to the clans of Arabia that this new community was a power to be reckoned with. How did the Muslims interpret it? 6. Explain the prophecy in Surah 30. 7. These excerpts present several of Islam’s essential articles of faith. Identify and explain each.
Surah 2 Al-Baqara14 They say, “Become Jews or Christians that you might have our true guidance.” Say: “No! The religion of Abraham, [who was] sound in faith, not one of those who join gods with God.”15 Say: “We believe in God and that which has been sent down to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob16 and the tribes,17 and that which was given to Moses and to Jesus, and that which was given to the prophets from their Lord.18 No distinction do we make between any of them, and to God we submit.” If, therefore, they believe even as you believe, then they have true guidance, 14. “The Cow,” verses 135–149, passim, 190–93, 195, 256. The title is a reference to the golden calf worshipped by the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus, 32:1–35). 15. Both Hebrews and Arabs claim Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic) as their lineal, blood ancestor—Hebrews by way of his son Isaac and Arabs through his son Ishmael. Christians claim Abraham as their ancestor in faith. Joining gods with God refers to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity as well as (in Muslim eyes) other forms of polytheism. 16. The son of Isaac and, like his father and grandfather, an ancient Hebrew patriarch. 17. The Twelve Tribes of Israel. 18. The Qur’an mentions prophets (nabi; pl. anbiya) and messengers (rasul; pl. rusul ) of God. The prophets, who are not enumerated, were vast in number, spoke the truth of God, and were religious leaders and lawgivers before Muhammad. Messengers, who were few in number and included Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, were given direct Divine Revelation.
but if they turn away, then they cut themselves off from you. God will suffice to protect you against them, for He is the Hearer, the Knower…. Say: “Will you dispute with us about God when He is our Lord and your Lord? We have our works and you have your works, and we are sincerely His.” Will you say, “Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes were Jews or Christians”? Say: “Who knows best, you or God? And who is more at fault than one who conceals the witness that he has from God? But God is not unmindful of what you do….” The foolish ones will say, “What has turned them from the qibla that they used?”19 Say: “The East and the West are God’s. He guides whom He will onto the right path.” Thus have We made you a central people so that you might be witnesses over mankind and that the Messenger might be a witness over you. We appointed the qibla that you formerly had only so that We might know him who follows the Messenger from him who turns [away] on his heels. The change is a difficulty, but not to those whom God has guided…. “We will have you turn to a qibla that shall please you. Turn your face toward the Sacred Mosque,20 and wherever you are, turn your faces toward that quarter…. And fight in the way of God against those who fight against you, but do not commit the injustice of attacking them first. God does not love such injustice. And 19. The qibla is the direction of daily prayer. Originally, while in Mecca, Muslims faced west, toward Jerusalem, while praying. 20. The Ka’bah in Mecca.
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kill them wherever you shall find them, and eject them from wherever they have ejected you, for persecution is worse than carnage. Yet, do not attack them at the Sacred Mosque, unless they attack you there. If they attack you, slay them. Such is the payment for infidels. But if they stop, then truly God is gracious, merciful. Fight, therefore, against them until there is no more persecution and the only worship is that of God. But if they stop, then let there be no hostility, except against the wicked.… Give freely for the cause of God. Do not cast [yourself ] into ruin with your own hands. Do good. God loves those who do good…. Let there be no compulsion in religion. Now is the right way made distinct from error. Whoever, therefore, shall deny Thagout21 and believe in God, he will have taken hold on a strong handle that shall not be broken. And God is He who hears and knows.
Surah 3 Al-Imran22 God! There is no god but He, the Living, the Merciful! Truly He has sent down to you the Book, which confirms those that precede it. For He had sent down the Law23 and the Gospel beforehand, as Guidance for the people, and now He has sent down the “Illumination.”24… Remember when the angels said, “Mary! Truly God has chosen you, and purified you,25 and chosen you above [all of ] the women of the world.”... Remember when the angel said, “Mary! Surely God gives you good news of a Word from Him.26 His name shall be Messiah Jesus27 the son of Mary, illustrious in this world and in the next and one of 21. Idols or gods, but here apparently a proper noun, probably meaning Satan. 22. “The House of Imran,” verses 2–4 and 42–78, passim. According to the Qur’an, Imran was the father of Miriam (Mary), the mother of Isa ( Jesus). 23. The Jewish Torah. 24. Al-furqan can also be translated as “the Deliverance.” Here it appears to mean the illumination of a final and complete Divine Revelation, but it could also refer to deliverance from disaster at the Battle at Badr (see Surah 8), as many scholars infer. It could also refer to both. See notes 30, 34, and 41 below. 25. As with Christians, Muslims believe that Mary was sinless. 26. Cf. the Gospel of John, 1:1, where Jesus is called “the Word [λόγος (logos)] from God.” 27. Messiah (Hebrew, “the anointed one”) is used here and elsewhere in the Qur’an as a personal name and not as a title.
those who have near access [to God]. And he shall speak to men alike when in the cradle28 and when grown up. And he shall be one of the righteous.” She said, “How, my Lord, shall I have a son when no man has touched me?”29 He said, “So [it will be], God will create what He will. When He decrees anything, He only says ‘Be,’ and it is. And He will teach Him the Book and the Wisdom30 and the Law and the Gospel. And he shall be the Messenger to the Children of Israel. [He will say] ‘Now I have come to you with a sign from the Lord. Out of clay I will make for you the form of a bird, as it were, and I will breathe into it, and it will become, by God’s permission, a bird.31 And I will heal the blind and the leper, and with God’s permission will restore the dead to life. And I will tell you what to eat and what to store up in your houses.32 Surely in that there is a sign for you, if you are believers. And I have come to attest to [the truth of ] the Law that came before me and to allow you part of what had been forbidden to you. And I come to you with a sign from your Lord. Fear God then and obey me. Truly God is my Lord and your Lord.’ ”... Truly, Jesus is like Adam in the sight of God.33 He created him from dust. He then said to him “Be” and he was…. Say, “Come to a just judgment between us and 28. Surah 19, Miriam, verses 30–33, states that the infant Isa ( Jesus) in his cradle informed Miriam’s relatives that he was the servant and prophet of God from Whom he had received the Gospel, and then he foretold the course of his life. 29. As with Christians, Muslims believe that Mary was a virgin throughout her life. 30. The Book is the essence of the divinely-revealed Qur’an. Wisdom (al-hikma) is usually understood to mean Divine Revelation. Another interpretation is that it is gnosis, the secret spiritual wisdom of Gnosticism, a religious movement that flourished in the early centuries C.E. Supporting this interpretation is verse 184 of this surah, which refers to a mysterious Book of Illumination that had been given to God’s messengers. In the fourth century, the imperial Roman Church condemned Gnostic Christianity as a heresy. Vestiges of Gnosticism still lived on in Syria, Egypt, and parts of Arabia in Muhammad’s day. 31. The Gnostic “Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” tells the story of how the young Jesus created twelve sparrows out of clay on the Sabbath, breathed life into them, and set them free. 32. Gnostic Christians considered certain foods, especially meat, prohibited. 33. Neither had a human father. Islam considers Adam to be Allah’s first prophet.
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you—that we worship none but God and that we join no other god with Him, and that none of us takes others for [our] lords, instead of God.” If they turn their backs, Say, “Bear witness that we are Muslims.” People of the Book, why dispute regarding Abraham, when the Law and the Gospel were sent down after him?… God knows, but you know nothing. Abraham was neither Jew nor Christian. He was sound in the faith, a Muslim, and not one of those who adds gods to God.”… People of the Book, why clothe the truth with falsehood? Why knowingly hide the truth? They who are the nearest kin of Abraham are surely they who follow him and this Prophet [Muhammad] and they who believe. God is the Protector of the faithful. A party among the People of the Book would like to mislead you, but they only mislead themselves and do not realize it…. And there are some among them who twist the Book with their tongues so that you might suppose it to be from the Book, but it is not from the Book. And they say, “This is from God.” Yet it is not from God, and they utter a lie against God and know they do so.
help of your Lord, He answered you: “I will truly aid you with a thousand angels.”38… When your Lord spoke to the angels, “I will be with you, therefore make firm the faithful. I will cast dread into the hearts of the infidels. Strike off their heads then, and strike off their every finger-tip—this because they have opposed God and His Messenger. And whosoever shall oppose God and His Messenger—surely God will be severe in punishment.”... So it was not you who slew them, but God slew them, and you did not cast when you cast, but God cast.39… Fight then against them until strife40 is at an end and religion—all of it—is God’s. If they desist [from their unbelief ] truly God sees what they do. But if they turn their back [on God’s religion] know that God is your protector: Excellent Protector! Excellent Helper!... And know that when you have taken any booty, a fifth part belongs to God and to the Messenger and to near relatives and to orphans and to the poor and to the wayfarer, if you believe in God and what We sent down to Our Servant on the Day of Deliverance,41 the day of the meeting of the armies. God is powerful over all things.
Surah 8 Al-Anfal34
Surah 30 Al-Rum42
Remember how your Lord caused you35 to go forth from your home on a mission of truth and part of the believers were quite averse to it. They disputed with you about the truth that had been made so clear, as if they were being led forth to death and saw it before them.36 And remember when God promised you that one of the two contingents37 would fall to you, and you desired that they who had no arms should fall to you. But God wished to prove true the truth of His words and to cut off the last remnant of the disbelievers, so that He might prove His truth to be the truth and bring to nothing that which is nothing, though the impious were averse to it. When you sought the
The Romans have been defeated in the land nearby.43 But after their defeat they shall defeat their foes in a few years.44 First and last is the affair with God. And on that day shall the faithful rejoice in the aid of their God. He aids whom He will; and He is the mighty, the Merciful.
34. “The Spoils [of War], verses 7–41, passim. This surah refers to the Battle of Badr of 624, the first major armed engagement between Muslim and Meccan forces, in which, according to tradition, fewer than 400 Muslims defeated almost three times that number of Meccans. 35. Muhammad. 36. A reference to their leaving Medina for the Battle of Badr not the hijra from Mecca. 37. According to tradition, there were two contingents, an unarmed Meccan caravan and an armed troop sent out from Mecca to protect it.
38. Surah 3:124 has it as three thousand angels. 39. According to tradition, Muhammad cast a handful of gravel at the Meccans, and then miraculously their eyes were blinded by gravel and sand. 40. The word fitna has multiple meanings, including “persecution.” 41. Al-furqan. See note 24 above. Here “Deliverance” is clearly the proper translation inasmuch as the reference is the Battle of Badr. 42. “The Romans,” verses 2–5. This surah contains the Qur’an’s only reference to the Byzantines. 43. A reference to the Sassanian conquests of Damascus (613) and Jerusalem (614). Not only did the capture of Jerusalem shock the Roman world, it came as a blow to Muslims, who revere the city, as Surah 2 indicates. 44. Emperor Heraclius initiated a series of successful campaigns of counterattack and reconquest that resulted in a decisive Byzantine victory at Nineveh in 627.
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Striving in the Way of God 19. Imam al-Bukhari, THE AUTHENTIC [COLLECTION] OF AL-BUKHARI 45 Religion is a balance of orthodoxy (correct belief ) and orthopraxy (correct conduct). The Qur’an provides guidance in both areas, but another source of guidance is al-Hadith (Tradition). Hadith, which is second only to the Qur’an in the weight of its authority, consists of a vast array of stories and sayings attributed to Muhammad and his closest confidants and allies. Individually known as hadiths (tales or instructions), they collectively deal with essentially every aspect of a Muslim’s life. One can find in it lessons on how to properly welcome a child into the world and how to bury the dead. And for life in-between? Does one wish instruction in the rules of proper hygiene? Hadith has the answers. The authority behind these prescriptions is Muhammad himself, the most perfect of God’s creatures, whose every recorded action and utterance is a lesson for True Believers. Unlike the revelations in the Qur’an, Hadith is not contained within a single canonical book. Rather, there are many collections, some more authoritative than others. Sunni Muslims recognize six major compilations, whereas Shi’a Muslims reject the veracity and authority of many of the transmitters of the Sunni traditions. Consequently, they trust four rather different books of Hadith. Among the Sunni compilations, two stand out as the most widely respected and reliable, the sahihayn (authentic [collections]) of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (815–75) and Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari (810–70). Indeed, it was only during the ninth century, about two and a half centuries after the Prophet’s death, that scholars began to catalog in any systematic manner the hundreds of thousands of hadiths that were circulating throughout the Islamic world. Significantly, both al-Bukhari and Muslim were Persians, not Arabs, signifying the eastward shift of Islam’s cultural nexus under the Abbasid caliphs. Of these two giants of Hadith, Imam al-Bukhari is reputed to have collected some 600,000 hadiths (many were slight variations of common themes) and memorized more than 200,000. Of these, he selected a few more than 7,000 that he recognized as authentic and assembled them systematically in a work known as Al-Sahih al-Bukhari (The Authentic [Collection] of al-Bukhari). His prodigious labor earned him a reputation as a holy man, and today his tomb in Uzbekistan is a site of pilgrimage. Although al-Bukhari’s collection is wide-ranging, the excerpts that appear here largely deal with jihad. Jihad means “striving” in Arabic, and Muslims have used the term in a variety of contexts. One can speak of the “Greater Jihad,” which, according to tradition, is the inner and outer struggle to live a life that accords with Islam’s highest spiritual and moral values. One can speak of “jihad of the tongue,” which is preaching Islam. Sufi mystics speak of “jihad of the soul,” which is the struggle to attain union with God while still on Earth. Regardless, “jihad in the way of God” has generally been understood as physical combat.
Questions for Consideration 1. Book 2, Chapter 1, hadith 8 spells out the Five Pillars of Islam. Based on this hadith, would you say that Islam emphasizes orthodoxy or orthopraxy? 2. Can hadith 13 of Book 2, Chapter 6 be considered an aspect of jihad? 3. Review that portion of Surah 2 of the Qur’an that begins, “And fight in the way of God against those who fight against you, but do not commit the injustice of attacking them first. God does
45. Aftab-ud-din Ahmad, trans., Sahih-al-Bukhari: English Translation and Explanatory Notes (London: Ahmadiyya Anjuman Lahore Publications, United Kingdom, 2019), 21, 23, 29, 30, 37, 38, 95.
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not love such injustice.” Does the entire passage help you to place hadith 25 of Book 2, Chapter 16 into a clearer context? If so, what is that context? 4. Compare hadith 8 of Book 2, Chapter I with hadith 26 of Chapter 17. Is there any discrepancy? If so, how do you explain it? 5. How might a Muslim reconcile hadith 36 of Chapter 25 with hadith 39 of Chapter 29? 6. On the basis of these hadiths and previous passages in the Qur’an, describe the ideal jihad in the way of God. 7. Review your answer to question 1 in light all of these hadiths. Does your answer to the larger question—orthodoxy or orthopraxy?—still seem valid?
Book 2, Faith, Chapter 1, H. 8 Ibn Umar46 reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “Islam is based on five [fundamentals]; the testimony that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah,47 the keeping up of prayer48 and the giving of Zakat,49 the Pilgrimage50 and the fasting during Ramadan.”51
Chapter 6, H. 13 Anas52 reported from the Prophet that he said: “None of you has faith until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”
Chapter 16, H.25 Ibn Umar reported that the Messenger of Allah said: “I have been commanded that I should fight the people till they bear witness that there is no god but Allah and keep up prayer and pay the Zakat. When they do this, their
46. Abdullah ibn Umar (ca. 610–93), son of the Caliph Umar and brother-in-law of the Prophet. 47. The Shahada (testimony), or basic profession of faith. 48. Ritual prayers performed five times daily. 49. Alms given in charity. Normally Muslims were assessed 2.5 percent of their moveable wealth as zakat. 50. The annual hajj to Mecca during Dhu al-Hijah, the last month of the Muslim lunar calendar. All Muslims who are able to undertake the journey are enjoined to make the hajj at least once in a lifetime. 51. Taking no food or drink from sunrise to sunset during the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. 52. Anas ibn Malik (ca. 612–712?), the longest-lived of the Prophet’s Companions.
blood and property will be safe with me except as Islam requires, and their reckoning is with Allah.”
Chapter 17, H.26 Abu Huraira53 reported that the Messenger of Allah was asked: “What deed is the most excellent?” He said: “Faith in Allah and His Messenger.” It was asked: “What after that?” He said: “Jihad in the way of Allah.” It was asked: “What after that?” He said: “A Pilgrimage that is acceptable (to Allah).”
Chapter 26, H.36 Abu Hurairah reported from the Prophet that he said: “Allah takes the responsibility for whosoever goes forth in His way, (saying) ‘if nothing causes him to go forth except faith in Me and affirmation of the truth of my messengers, then I will bring him back with what he may gain as a reward or as a booty or make him enter the paradise.’ And had it not been hard for my followers, I would not have remained behind an army and it has always been my passionate desire that I be killed in the way of Allah, then given life again, and killed again, and given life again and killed again.”
Chapter 29, H.39 Abu Hurairah reported from the Prophet that he said: “Religion is easy, and no one exerts himself too much in religion but it overpowers him; so act aright and keep to the mean and be of good cheer and ask for [Divine] help in the morning and in the evening and during a part of the night.” 53. A nickname (father of the kitten) for Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sakhr, one of the Prophet’s Companions.
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Book 3, Knowledge, Chapter 45, H.123 Abu Musa54 reported [that] a man came to the Prophet and said: “O Messenger of Allah, what is fighting in the 54. Abu Musa al-Ashari was a Companion of the Prophet and participated in the conquest of Persia.
way of Allah? For, one of us fights in a state of anger and another fights out of pride.” At this he (the Prophet) raised his head towards him. He (the narrator) said that he raised his head because the man was standing. He (the Prophet then) said: “The one who fights so that Allah’s word may be raised high, he is [fighting] in the way of Allah, the Mighty, the Glorious.”
The Dhimma: A Contract with People of the Book 20. THE PACT OF IBN MUSLAMA 55; THE PACT OF UMAR 56; Al-Nawawi, MANUAL of ISLAMIC LAW 57 When the armies of Islam’s first caliph, Abu Bakr, began raiding the territories of their neighbors, they discovered lands ripe for conquest. The Byzantine and Sassanian Empires had exhausted each other in a series of destructive wars that raged from 503 to 627, and they were further enervated by massive natural disasters and pandemic plague. Additionally, both empires were rent by ethnic and religious dissension. The Arabs, driven by a sense of religious righteousness, exploited these weaknesses in a series of lightening-like campaigns. By the time of Caliph Umar’s death in 644, the Byzantines had lost all of Syria-Palestine and Egypt to Islam, and the Arab conquest of the Sassanian Empire was almost complete. Less than a century later, Muslim armies were battling a Chinese army at the Talas River in Central Asia and Frankish forces along the banks of the Loire River. One question facing the conquering Muslim armies was how to deal with their non-Muslim subjects, especially Jewish and Christian “People of the Book.” Rarely did Muslim commanders attempt conversion by the sword. In fact, victorious Muslims armies initially separated themselves physically from their new subjects, choosing not to reside in conquered cities. Moreover, at first there was no systematic attempt to convert non-Arabs, although soon enough some Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians, and other “infidels” became Mawali, converted clients of their Arab masters. Regardless, Muslims were a small minority within these lands, and they remained so for centuries to come. The following documents shed light on how Muslim authorities dealt with this issue. The first, The Pact of Ibn Muslama, records a peace treaty that Habib ibn Muslama offered the inhabitants of Tiflis (today Tbilisi, Georgia) in 645. Although located within the Sassanian Empire, Tiflis was a Christian city. The second document, The Pact of Umar, purports to be the peace treaty offered by Caliph Umar to the Christians of Syria around 637. It was apparently written down in its current form in the ninth century but is supposedly based on the account of a Muslim who died in 697. Despite this claim, most historians conclude that the pact is an anachronism that reflects ninth-century realities because it is inconsistent with the policies of Islam’s first four “Rightly Guided” caliphs (632–661) and the Umayyad dynasty (661–750) that followed. Faced with local revolts and presenting themselves as orthodox and rigorous in their practice of Islam, the caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty instituted new policies regarding 55. Al-Baladhuri, Kitab Futah al-Buldan (The Origins of the Islamic State), trans. P. K. Hitti (New York: Columbia University Press, 1916), 316–17. 56. Thomas W. Arnold, trans., The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith, 2nd ed. (Westminster: A. Constable and Co., 1913), 57–59. Modified by A. J. Andrea. 57. Minhajet Taliban: A Manual of Muhammadan Law according to the School of Shafii by Mahiudin Abu Zakaria Yahya ibn Sharif en Nawawi, trans. A. J. Andrea from the French edition of L. W. C. Van den Berg and E. C. Howard (London: W. Thaker & Co., 1914), 467, 469.
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the vast numbers of their non-Muslim subjects. Seeking historical support for such actions, they found an apparently manufactured pact convenient. Whatever their origins, the two pacts are excellent examples of the dhimma, or contract of protection, offered to subject non-Muslims throughout most of Islamic history. The persons who lived under such compacts were known as dhimmis. The third document is from a law book by one of the most distinguished Sunni jurists in thirteenth-century Syria, Imam al-Nawawi. His Manual of Islamic Law (1270) focuses on the practical application of Shar’ia (religious law). In our excerpt, al-Nawawi discusses payment of the jizya and other tokens of submission that could be imposed on dhimmis as well as penalties to which they could be subject.
Questions for Consideration 1. How would you characterize the Pact of Ibn Muslama? Why do you think it had this quality? 2. Why were non-Muslims prohibited from teaching their children the Qur’an and were forbidden the use of certain phrases, modes of dress, and surnames? 3. How did the Pact of Umar differ from the Pact of Ibn Muslama? 4. In the period when al-Nawawi was composing his Manual of Islamic Law, Syria was governed by the militant Mamluk dynasty of Egypt. Its sultan, Baibars (r. 1260–77), was waging jihads against the remnants of the Latin states of Syria-Palestine that had been established during or shortly after the First Crusade as well as against “pagan” Mongols and Christian Armenians. Can you find reflections of that background in this excerpt? If so, what are they? 5. Some see an evolution from the Pact of Ibn Muslama to Imam al-Nawawi’s manual. Do you? If so, trace that evolution, and delineate the evidence that has allowed you to follow the path. How might we explain that evolution?
The Pact of Ibn Muslama In the name of Allah, the compassionate, the merciful. This is a statement from Habib ibn-Muslama to the inhabitants of Tiflis,…securing them safety for their lives, churches, convents,58 religious services and faith, provided they acknowledge their humiliation and pay tax to the amount of one dinar on every household.59 You are not to combine more than one household into one in order to reduce the tax, nor are we to divide the same household into more than one in order to increase it. You owe us counsel and support against the enemies of Allah and his Prophet to the utmost of your ability, and are bound to entertain the needy Muslim for one night and provide him with that food used by “the people of the Book” and which 58. Consult the Glossary. 59. The jizya (tribute), was laid on non-Muslims. For the dinar, consult the Glossary.
it is legal for us to partake of.60 If a Muslim is cut off from his companions and falls into your hands, you are bound to deliver him to the nearest body of the Believers, unless something stands in the way. If you return to the obedience of Allah and observe prayer, you are our brethren in faith, otherwise the poll-tax is incumbent on you.61 In case an enemy of yours attacks and subjugates you while the Muslims are too busy to come to your aid, the Muslims are not held responsible, nor is it a violation of the covenant with you. The above are your rights and obligations to which Allah and his angels are witness and it is sufficient to have Allah for witness.
*** 60. Islamic law prohibits consumption of certain foods and drink, notably pork and alcohol. 61. The jizya.
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The Pact of Umar In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate! This is a writing to Umar from the Christians of such and such a city. When you marched against us, we asked of you protection for ourselves, our posterity, and our coreligionists; and we made this stipulation with you that we will not erect in our city or the suburbs any new monastery, church, cell, or hermitage; that we will not repair any of such buildings that might fall into ruins, or renew those that might be situated in the Muslim quarters of the town; that we will not refuse the Muslims entry into our churches either by night or by day; that we will open the gates wide to passengers and travelers; that we will receive any Muslim traveler into our houses and give him food and lodging for three nights; that we will not harbor any spy in our churches or houses or conceal any enemy of the Muslims. That we will not teach our children the Quran; that we will not make a show of the Christian religion or invite anyone to embrace it; that we will not prevent any of our kinsmen from embracing Islam, if they so desire. That we will honor the Muslims and rise up in our assemblies when they wish to take their seats; that we will not imitate them in our dress, either in the cap, turban, sandals, or parting of the hair; that we will not make use of their expressions of speech62 or adopt their surnames; that we will not ride on saddles or gird on swords or take to ourselves arms or wear them or engrave Arabic inscriptions on our rings; that we will not sell wine; that we will shave the front of our heads; that we will keep to our own style of dress, wherever we might be; that we will wear belts around our waists.63 That we will not display the cross upon our churches or display our crosses or our sacred books in the streets of the Muslims or in their marketplaces; that we will strike the clappers in our churches lightly;64 that we will not recite our services in a loud voice when a Muslim is present; that we will not carry palm-branches65 or our images in procession in the streets; that at the burial of our dead we will not chant loudly or carry lighted candles in the streets of the 62. Muslims greet one another with certain qur’anic verses and other affirmations of their faith. 63. Christians wore leather or cord belts; Muslims wore silk and other types of fine cloth as belts. 64. Christian churches could not ring bells; the faithful were summoned by wooden clappers. 65. On Palm Sunday, which precedes Easter by a week.
Muslims or their marketplaces; that we will not take any slaves who have already been in the possession of Muslims or spy into their houses; and that we will not strike any Muslim. All this we promise to observe, on behalf of ourselves and our co-religionists, and receive protection from you in exchange; and if we violate any of the conditions of this agreement, then we forfeit your protection and you are at liberty to treat us as enemies and rebels.
*** Al-Nawawi, Manual of Islamic Law An infidel who has to pay his poll-tax should be treated by the tax-collector with disdain; the collector remaining seated and the infidel standing before him, the head bent and the body bowed. The infidel should personally place the money in the balance, while the collector holds him by the beard and strikes him on both cheeks. These practices, however, according to most jurists, are merely commendable, but not obligatory, as some think.… If the capitulation66 is to the effect that the infidels continue to be owners of the land, they may not only continue to make use of their churches or synagogue but may even build new ones. Some jurists merely recommend, but the majority declare it obligatory, that the infidels should be forbidden to have houses higher than those of their Muslim neighbors, or even as high; a rule, however, that does not apply to the infidels who inhabit a separate quarter. An infidel subject to our Sovereign may not ride a horse, but a donkey or a mule is permitted him, whatever may be its value. He must use…wooden spurs, those of iron being forbidden him, as well as a saddle.67 He must go to the side of the road to let a Muslim pass. He must not be treated as a person of importance nor given the first place at a gathering. He should be distinguished by a suit of colored cloth and a girdle68 outside his clothes. If he enters a bathing-house where there are Muslims, or if he undresses anywhere else in their presence, the infidel should wear round his neck an iron or leaden necklace or some other mark of servitude. He is forbidden to offend 66. The dhimma. 67. Is also forbidden. 68. Belt. See note 63 above.
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Muslims, either by making them hear his false doctrines or by speaking aloud of Esdras69 or of the Messiah, or by ostentatiously drinking wine or eating pork. And infidels are forbidden to sound the bells of their churches or of their synagogues or celebrate ostentatiously their sacrilegious rites. When the infidels do not observe the conditions imposed on them, the agreement made with them remains nonetheless intact, but they must be forced from that time to fulfill their engagements more strictly. It is only when they make war upon us or refuse to pay the poll-tax or to 69. Esdra is an apocryphal book that the Roman Church incorporated into the Christian Old Testament, but Jewish scholars excluded it from the Tanakh (the Jewish Bible). Here the term seems to refer to the Bible as a whole.
submit to our laws that the agreement is ipso facto broken, and we are freed from our obligations in that respect. When an infidel commits the crime of fornication with a Muslim woman or makes her his wife; or shows our enemies the places where our frontiers are exposed; or seeks to turn a Muslim from the faith or speaks insultingly of Islam or of the Qur’an or defames the Prophet—the agreement, so far as it concerns him, is ipso facto broken, provided that this penal clause has been expressly stipulated. An infidel who breaks the agreement by armed force should be at once resisted and killed. An infidel who breaks the agreement in any other way…the Sovereign may have him killed or reduced to slavery or may pardon him or release him for a ransom, as may seem to him most advantageous. He cannot, however, be made a slave if he embraces Islam before the Sovereign decides upon his fate.
Chapter 4
Saints, Monks, Bishops, and Popes
Illus. 4.1 The Temple of Concord, Agrigento, Sicily. This fifth-century B.C.E. Doric
Pagans throughout the Roman temple survived destruction by Christian authorities because Bishop Gregory of Empire generally thought and wor- Agrigento converted it into the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in 597. Larger nearby shipped in terms of holy places, such temples were not as fortunate. The remains of the church were removed in the late as temples and natural sites sacred to eighteenth century. deities and spirits. Christianity did not reject this form of devotion. Sites that had once been associated with such goddesses as Artemis, Diana, Isis, Minerva, and Athena, for example, were transformed into centers for the cult of the Virgin Mary. Sacred springs that once were sites of healing at the hands of nature deities became curative spas overseen by local saints, some of whom earlier had been sprites and gods but were now transformed into Christian guardians. Similarly, other places that were uniquely associated with the lives and martyrdoms of Jesus and his saints, such as Jerusalem and Rome, became sacred Christian spaces. Despite this appropriation, Christianity brought about profound changes in the ways in which people related to the Sacred. Beginning in the East and spreading to the West, during the period from roughly 250 to 550, Christian holy people fast replaced holy spaces as the primary focal points of religious imagination and practice. Holy people came in many guises and both sexes. What they had in common was that they were perceived as special friends of God who offered protection and guidance to the people of God’s community. 74
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A lasting movement, however, cannot depend solely on the dynamism of charismatic individuals. The Christian Church required institutions that provided stability and order. Consequently, the Church created structural elements that gave it coherence and a sense of permanence. This had begun even before the conversion of Constantine I and accelerated after the imperial adoption of Christianity as city-centered administrative districts became centers of ecclesiastical and social authority. As Roman order broke down, the persons who administered these districts, namely bishops and archbishops, increasingly assumed civil responsibilities. From the mid-fifth century onward, the archbishop of Rome, known as the pope, increasingly claimed and was recognized as possessing a special authority over other church leaders in Italy and beyond. Almost contemporaneously, monasteries, which had originated in the wastelands of the East, emerged in the West as centers of what monks who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict term sacra stabilitas (sacred stability). Along with wonder-working holy people, who continued to be a significant factor in the Christian West, monks became a major force in spreading Christianity among rural people and transforming former pre-Christian sacred sites into Christian holy places.
Saints Our two documents illustrate some of the ways, so it was believed, that holy people protected and served their people. The first saint we shall look at is a sixth-century bishop in Italy, the second a ninth-century female hermit in Saxony.
Casting Out Evil Spirits and Triumphing over Death in Sixth-Century Italy 21. Pope Gregory I, DIALOGUES 1 Pope Gregory I (r. 590–604), known as “the Great,” held the throne of Saint Peter at a time when Italy was beset by disasters. The two-decades-long Gothic Wars of Justinian (535–54) had destroyed the Ostrogothic Kingdom, turned much of the countryside into wilderness, and left cities and towns devastated and depopulated. As already noted, in 568, Lombards invaded the peninsula, bringing with them a renewal of the horrors of war. In short order, they conquered almost all of northern Italy and carved out principalities in central and southern Italy. The Byzantine Empire managed to hold on to only a few remnants of the peninsula and the islands of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia. Amid the evils of human conflict, Italy suffered from one of the deadliest pandemics ever to rage through the Mediterranean, the Plague of Justinian (541–42), and recurring waves of the epidemic persisted for several centuries to come. Bubonic plague probably carried away up to 50 percent of Italy’s population, and it continued to kill in the decades that followed. In 590, Rome suffered a recurrence of the plague, and among its victims was Pope Pelagius II (r. 579–90). His successor was the papal deacon Gregory, who had once been the civil prefect of the city but had turned to a life of spiritual contemplation at the Monastery of Saint Andrew that he had established at his family’s villa within the city. Much against his will, Gregory was called by the people and clergy of Rome to serve as their bishop. Faced with such catastrophes, Gregory set out to do his duty by serving the spiritual and material needs of God’s people and saving as many souls as possible. Not long into his pontificate, he began composing a work known as the Dialogues. In a series of stylized conversations between Gregory and his deacon Peter, Gregory set out to demonstrate to the people of Italy that contemporary and 1. http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01p/0590-0604,_SS_Gregorius_I_Magnus,_Dialogorum_Libri_ IV-De_Vita_et_Miraculis_...,_LT.pdf, 31–38, passim (accessed April 11, 2017).
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near-contemporary saints lived among them and served as conduits for God’s mercy and love. The following stories concern Saint Fortunatus, bishop of the north-central Italian city of Todi, who died in 537, just about the time of Gregory’s birth.
Questions for Consideration 1. What does the story of the devil who cast a child into a fire suggest about Gregory’s worldview? 2. Consider the story of Fortunatus and the mad horse. Stories regarding the ability of saints to tame wild beasts and even to be served by them abound in the Dialogues and throughout similar lives of the saints. What is the message behind this trope (common theme)? 3. What was Pope Gregory’s method for collecting and recording these stories? What do you conclude from your answer? 4. Consider the miracles ascribed to Fortunatus. What did sixth-century believers expect of their wonderworkers and why? 5. The stories related by Gregory contain echoes of Gospel accounts. What do those echoes suggest?
Book 1, Chapter 10 Fortunatus, bishop of the city of Todi. Gregory: In that same region,2 there was a man of pious life named Fortunatus, the bishop of Todi, who possessed the grace of extraordinary power for casting out evil spirits, so that occasionally he would expel legions of demons from possessed bodies. And focused on continuous, zealous prayer, he triumphed over the multitudinous assaults that they directed against him…. This servant of Almighty God drove an unclean spirit from a certain possessed individual. Toward evening,… this evil spirit, masquerading as some sort of itinerant stranger, began to walk about the city’s plazas, exclaiming: “Oh, what a holy bishop is Fortunatus. Look at what he has done. He has expelled a traveler from his lodging. I seek a place where I can rest, but I find none in this city.” Then a certain fellow, who was seated before a blazing fire at home, along with his wife and little boy, heard his voice. Curious as to what the bishop had done to him, he invited him into the home, where he had him sit by the fire with him. While they were talking with one another, that same evil spirit assaulted his little boy and threw him into the fire, where he quickly died. The wretched fellow who had lost his child now knew that he, whom he had invited in, was the very spirit that the bishop had expelled. 2. Umbria in north-central Italy.
Peter: How can this be, as we say, that this Ancient Enemy dared do this act of murder in the home of him who, thinking him an itinerant stranger, had offered him the favor of his hospitality? Gregory: Peter, many things appear to be good but are not because they do not flow from a good spirit…. When an intention that precedes an act is perverse, then everything that follows from it is bad, even though it might seem good. For I think that this man who lost his son, even while he showed what passed for hospitality, found pleasure not in an act of kindness, but in the defamation of the bishop. The punishment that followed makes it clear that the act of hospitality that preceded this incident was not without fault. For there are some who seek to “do good” in order to cast a dark shadow on the deserved esteem owed another’s actions. They are driven not by the good that they do but by the praise [they receive] at another’s expense. Therefore, I think that the man who offered hospitality to the evil spirit was more intent on ostentation than on the act itself, so that he could appear to be better than the bishop. For this reason he received him whom that man of the Lord, Fortunatus, had expelled. Peter: What you say is so. For the outcome of the act proves that it had not proceeded from a pure intention. Gregory: On another occasion, when a certain individual who lacked sight had been brought to him begged for the favor of his intercession, he obtained it. For after the man
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of God offered a prayer, he made the sign of the cross on his eyes. By these acts, sight was immediately restored and dark blindness vanished.3 There is also the story of a certain soldier’s horse that was seized with madness to the point that it was barely restrained by numerous men. Even then it could attack whomever, tearing at their limbs with its teeth. Then, after it had been tied up in some way or other by a large number of men, it was brought to the man of God. With his outstretched hand, he immediately made the sign of the cross over its head. With this, its entire madness turned to docility so that, as a consequence, the horse that previously had been crazed was now far gentler. Then that same soldier, upon having witnessed his horse changed from its madness by the swift power of a miracle, decided to give the horse to the holy man. When he declined to accept it, the soldier, in fact, persevered, entreating that his offering not be rejected. The holy man decided on a middle path between two extremes, and listened to the soldier’s plea. He refused to accept it as a gift for the power that he had demonstrated. Rather, he offered a fair price, and thereafter accepted the horse that had been offered him. For, he was aware that, had he not taken it, the fellow would have been unhappy. Mindful of charity, he purchased something he did not need. I also ought not to be silent regarding this item relating to the powers of this man, which I learned about twelve days ago. For a certain old pauper had been directed to me. Because I am always delighted to converse with the elderly, I asked him where he was from. He replied that he was from the city of Todi. I said to him, “Father, I ask of you, did you then know Bishop Fortunatus?” He said, “I knew him, and knew him well.” Then I continued: “Tell me, I beg, if you know of any of his miracles. And I desire to know what sort of man he was.” He said: “He was far different from the type of men we see [today]. For whatever he asked of Almighty God, he obtained while in the act of asking. I will tell you one of his miracles that comes to mind now.”… The old man then tells the story of how Fortunatus managed to secure the release of two small boys whom certain Ostrogoths had taken captive. At first the leader of the Goths refused to free them, but when he had an 3. Compare this with six Gospel accounts: Matthew, 9:27–31 and 20:35–43; Mark, 8:22–26 and 10:46–52; Luke, 18:35–43; John, 9:1–7.
accident in front of the Church of Saint Peter that resulted in a broken rib, he realized that the bishop had cursed him. He sent the boys back to Fortunatus in the care of a deacon. Upon receiving the boys, Fortunatus sent the deacon back with some holy water. When sprinkled with the water, the Goth’s rib immediately and fully healed. The next day, the same old man told the story of an even greater miracle by this man. He said: “In the same city of Todi, there was a man of admirable life called M arcellus, who lived with his two sisters. On the evening of Holy Saturday,4 he took sick and died. Inasmuch as his body had to be transported quite a distance, it was not possible that he be buried that same day. Given the necessary delay in burying him, his sisters, stricken by his death, went crying to the venerable man Fortunatus and began to cry out with loud voices: ‘We know that, because you hold fast to an apostolic life, you cleanse lepers and give sight to the blind.5 Come, and resuscitate our dead [brother.]’ As soon as he learned of their brother’s death, he also began to shed tears over his death. So he replied, ‘Go home, and say nothing [more] about this because it is Almighty God’s decree, which no person can contravene.’ And so they departed, and the bishop remained, mourning his death. On the following day, however, before the dawn of [Easter] Sunday, he called his two deacons and went [with them] to the home of the deceased. Proceeding to the place where the dead body lay, he gave himself up to prayer. When he finished praying, he arose and sat next to the corpse. In a voice that was subdued, he called to the deceased by name, saying: ‘Brother Marcellus.’ He, as if sleeping lightly, was awakened by the nearby subdued voice. He immediately opened his eyes and looking at the bishop, said: ‘What have you done? What have you done?’ To which the bishop replied, saying, ‘What have I done?’ And Marcellus [said]: ‘Yesterday two people came who, having released me from my body, led me to a good place. Today, however, a messenger said, “Take him back because Bishop Fortunatus is visiting his home.’ ”6 Having said this, he immediately recovered from his illness and lived for a long time.” And we must not think that he lost that place [in Heaven] that he had gained, because it is without doubt that through the prayers of this man [Fortunatus] he, who
4. The evening before Easter Sunday. 5. See Matthew, 10:8. 6. Compare this with John, 11:1–44.
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before his death had striven to please God Almighty, was able after [this momentary] death to live more virtuously. But why do we talk about the many [miracles] from his lifetime, when now we have so many records of powerful intercession without interruption at [the site of ] his body? Just as he had been accustomed to do without interruption
while alive, in like fashion he drives out demons and cures the sick whenever it is requested out of faith, and he abides [with us] through his mortal bones.7 7. Fortunatus’s relics are venerated in the Church of San Fortunato in Todi.
Holy Asceticism and Sacred Solitude in Ninth-Century Saxony 22. THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN LIUTBIRG 8 Pope Saint Gregory I is one of the most famous and venerated persons listed in the official canon, or authoritative list, of saints recognized by the Roman Church. For every holy person of his caliber, however, Christendom produced numerous confessors of the faith whose cults never extended far beyond the communities in which they lived and died. Like their more well-known counterparts, these local saints served as models of spiritual heroism, as it was understood by the society that venerated them, and they offered their neighbors, in both life and death, protection from evil in all its forms. Of course, not all of the saints’ contemporaries saw them in this light. Some people, perhaps many, were disturbed by their local saints’ often peculiar behavior. One local saint whose behavior both edified and troubled those who knew her was Liutbirg (ca. 786?–ca. 866?), a woman of apparently noble Frankish birth who spent most of her life in distant Saxony, a land whose people had recently been converted to Christianity and incorporated into the Carolingian Empire. While still young, Liutbirg entered a female monastery. It was there that the visiting Countess Gisla, one of the most powerful landholders of Saxony, discovered her. Impressed by the girl’s intelligence and manner, Gisla persuaded Liutbirg to become a member of her own household. Following Gisla’s death around 830, Liutbirg served Gisla’s son and heir, Bernhard, as manager of his household. While functioning in this capacity, Liutbirg also exhibited the qualities of a religious zealot. In time, she prevailed upon the reluctant Bernhard to allow her to put aside her managerial responsibilities in order to devote the rest of her life to prayer and self-mortification as an inclusa, a female religious shut-in. Apparently, she was the first in Saxony. Liutbirg’s cell was a small room enclosed within the convent church of Wendhausen, a female religious house that Countess Gisla had founded. It was there that Liutbirg gained regional fame for sanctity and for possessing certain special powers. Although Liutbirg entered into the Roman Church’s canon of recognized saints, her cult never reached far beyond her home region. Notwithstanding, Saint Liutbirg’s life and legend present an insightful picture of the role that a holy woman could and did play in ninth-century Europe. The following excerpts, which begin with Liutbirg’s functioning as the supervisor of Count Bernhard’s household and end with her death, come from a biography composed shortly after her death by an unknown cleric, probably a monk at the imperial monastery of Fulda. The author had known Liutbirg, but he also informs his readers that he drew widely from oral accounts of her life and deeds. The genre to which this vita (life) belongs is known as hagiography, which means “something written about a saint.” As you probably concluded from having read the excerpts from Pope Gregory’s Dialogues, most hagiographical literature is one-dimensional. The genre demands that the author focuses on the subject’s spiritual life, heroic virtues, and divinely derived powers. Rarely do hagiographies provide any substantial details about the holy person’s life outside of a religious context. 8. Vita Liutbirgae Virginis in Das Leben der Liutbirg: Eine Quelle zur Geschichte der Sachsen in karolingisher Zeit, ed. Ottokar Menzel (1937; rep. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1978), 16–18, 20–22, 24–27, 29–32, 40, 42–46, passim.
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Questions for Consideration 1. How did Liutbirg display her religious zeal while serving as Count Bernhard’s steward? Why did she desire to do more? 2. Holy people who follow their own visions of godliness can be threatening to the established Church. Describe Liutbirg’s relationship with the Church’s hierarchy. Was she threatening to the Church? What inferences follow from your answers? 3. In section 15, the author refers to Liutbirg’s “manly spirit.” Elsewhere, in a section not presented here, he refers to her as a “virago” (a woman who acts like a man). What does he imply by such terms? 4. What type of power and authority did Liutbirg have after her inclusion in her cell? What were the origins of that power? 5. Despite whatever power and authority that she might have had, was Liutbirg constrained in any way because of her sex? 6. Consider specifically the incident of the demons’ visiting Liutbirg. What does that allow you to infer about this society’s beliefs regarding evil and the Devil? 7. Now summing it all up: As far as you can infer, what does the author wish us to learn from this life of Saint Liutbirg? 8. Consider Fortunatus and Liutbirg in the context of the theory that Christian holy people transformed vernacular places into holy spaces. Does it apply to them? If so, how so? 10. Inasmuch as Bernhard…owned many possessions,… to whichever of his property sites he journeyed, he did not easily endure time away from this esteemed woman, because she was the guardian and faithful steward of his possessions. Consequently, wherever she stayed [with him] for any period of time, she did not neglect to frequent the churches of God, which she visited daily and nightly, and she so assiduously persisted in divine worship that she spent the whole night without sleep in the church, until the light of day. She could so not bear, even to the least degree, missing the Divine Liturgy9 that, given that she was regarded as so effective in those matters that she undertook, her steadfastness in the face of such prodigious activity was considered to be a great miracle. It was clearly evident to all who knew her that unceasing labor of this sort was not drawn from the powers of her weak body but, through the aid of His Divinity; the constancy of her soul was, without a doubt, strengthened and breathed upon by His Spirit from Heaven above. Throughout this exceedingly burdensome duty that lasted so long, never did she grow weary, never did she yield with bended neck. Rather 9. Consult the Glossary.
constantly, day by day, with unbroken strength she battled in a wrestling match against the allures of the world and the filthiness of the flesh, and with a foot saturated with purity, she was also trampling bodily lasciviousness and a flattering mental impudence that urged weakness. With the hoe of self-control, she was engaged in clearing out the prickly fruits of the thorn bushes of worldly amusements along with [their] roots. 11. In fact, she was weakened by fasts and vigils, and beyond that enervated by manual labor. As we discovered, her body was consumed as if it were starved; the color of her face changed, and her physical strength wasted away. Pallor began to replace the healthy color of her features, and skin sticking to her bones thinned [further] her emaciated appearance. This largely came about due to her nocturnal vigils, by which she was dangerously exposed to the highest degree of peril. For it was her usual habit that, if there were no church that she knew of in the place in which she was staying for a period of time, insofar as she knew that there was one in the neighborhood, she always set off for it every night to hold vigil there, accompanied by a little boy or some young girl. She remained praying there until the celebration of Mass was finished and
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Holy Communion consumed. Then the woman who was devoted to God would, rejoicing, retrace the way by which she had come, returning to her former work, and she managed the household of her lord not only with words but also with outstanding examples of virtue. 12. Consequently, the aforementioned count, seeing the appearance of her face, thin and in its meagerness quite wasted, was concerned for her and asked those who attended him: “What illness holds our beloved mother Liutbirg in its grip?” The answer given him was that the cause was not illness, but immoderate fasting, continuous vigils, and an excessive ill treatment of her body. Added to this was her continuous, nightly travel to churches that were dangerous to access, and this trek by her was every night accompanied by only one little boy or girl, and also in her bare feet. Stupefied, the count summoned her to him and, in his customary manner, addressed her with respectful and gentle words, saying: “Why, dearest mother, you who have offered yourself as a mirror in leading others to a deep-seated morality and an honorable life not only by words but also by deeds, why do you, as if on a pathway of headlong descent, now strive to travel toward an early death before the time predestined for you by God? It is something to be feared even by armed men when plundering by pagans and falsely named Christians takes place by day and night and disturbs the hearts of strong men. Even if the danger of such great madness did not exist, what else would you have offered yourself as other than voluntary prey for the teeth of wild beasts and the jaws of wolves? It could only be said by those who do not grieve and by our enemies that this was nothing other than the utter madness of empty superstitions. A reputation for an outstanding prior life would, as it were, be counted as nothing.” Liutbirg explains that her devotions and lack of concern for her mortal body are her means of meriting eternal life. She puts his mind to rest, and he offers to grant whatever she might desire. She answers. 14. …Then she, with a deep, long sigh, followed by tears breaking forth, said, “I am an exceedingly great sinner, my lord, held back by many chains. Up to this point in my life, I have led an errant life, delighting in all desires and in the pleasures of this world.... I now earnestly ask of your piety some place in which to reside, so that I may be able, for the rest of my life, to undergo penance for my offences, and to pray for blessings on those who, because of God, bestowed on me, a wretch, works of mercy. This, so I believe, my lord,
will happily redound to your eternal reward and that of your mother of revered memory.…” Bernhard asks Liutbirg where such a place of solitude might be found. She replies that she has already seen such a place and asks for a small cell there. 15. …He, admiring the steadfastness of the tiny woman, and the boldness of her superior, manly spirit, said, after a long, intervening silence: “The sentiment expressed by your words so far, that you attempt to undertake a life that is solitary, secluded, and separated from other people who dwell together, is something not customary, as of yet, in these parts. The judgment of priests and also of our bishop, more than that of the laity, should undoubtedly be sought on this.” She immediately continued, “By no means, my lord, have I imagined that any such a thing should be begun without its being decided, after a holy and prudent examination by our rectors, that not my but the Lord’s will should be carried out, and their guidance must be made known as to how such matters should be undertaken.” Therefore, they decided that the final decision regarding their petition should be appropriately discussed and wisely deliberated by the bishop and priests over an ample space of time. At the end of this conversation, with faith in his promises, she reverted to her cheerful spirit, totally submitting hope for her enterprise to divine goodness. Bishop Theotgrim of Halberstadt happens to visit ernard, and Liutbirg takes the opportunity to tell him B she desires his clemency. The flabbergasted bishop tells her to speak freely. She…declared herself to be a sinner, and openly confessed that she stood accused of innumerable luxuries. In supplication, she implored his aid for the sins she had committed, and without hesitation laid out the thoughts that her mind concealed. 17. He carefully concentrated on the sentiment behind her words, knowing that, insofar as he had the power to do so, he should always support rather than obstruct righteous desires and passions…. Theotgrim tells her that they must seek divine guidance in order to find the proper way for her to pursue this path. He summons Bernhard and engages in a lengthy discourse on the dangers that await anyone wishing to take this narrow path. The dangers include Pride, “leading her army of soldiers, who raises up her banners of victory not only for evil deeds but even for good deeds.” He then concludes:
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20. … “It is necessary to take the middle road, looking ahead with the greatest care, falling neither to the right through vain glory nor to the left into the pit of hopelessness. Very much so, one must continually plead for divine aid so that, Christ our Savior permitting, things that were begun with good intentions arrive at a good end.” 21. When the bishop had so advised her with such words, she again prostrated herself at his feet, repeating her profound thanks to him. “By the grace of God, I am what I am. I entrust my hope to Him who created me and who has arranged my life up to today. I firmly believe in Him, through whose help, although I am unworthy, I will not be deterred from that which I hope for. Be mindful, therefore, holy priest, of your word, by which you have given me hope.”… [Then] she said: “I earnestly request that, through the grace of your goodness, you set the time and day for me, so that my God’s will concerning me, a wretch, might be fulfilled.” Consequently, the bishop, along with the count, marveled greatly at her constancy of mind, and they both agreed to do what she had asked and set a day to meet at the location that she desired. The bishop, accompanied by many other clergy, consecrates her little cell, “which was like a peasant’s hut,” and forbids her to leave it, except in an emergency. 22. …After his blessings and instruction, which he gave in a fatherly way, he left her shut up by the mournful barrier of a wall, praying that, with God’s mercy, she would be worthy to bring her struggle to a good end. Now, indeed, the venerable maidservant of God, Liutbirg, having achieved control of her longed-for desire, persisted in prayer day and nights. She had undertaken self-denial in food and drink for a body that was exceedingly weakened and gaunt by the continuous stresses of fasting and keeping vigils, so that she was eating only bread with salt and greens, and on Sundays and feast days she ate legumes and the tiniest fishes, but this was seldom and at little expense. In fact, a furnace of burning charcoal was in that very cell for dying various colors.10 As we said earlier, she was skilled in many womanly crafts.11 At no time did she cease from being occupied in some useful work. From day to night, she continually was engaged in working with her 10. There is a gap in the manuscript text. The sense of the sentence is that she heated dyes in order to apply them to textiles. 11. Textile production—spinning, weaving, and dying—was considered to be an exclusively female occupation. See the next note for more regarding this “womanly work.”
hands or praying, or meditating, and if some period of time remained from such tremendous outlays of energy, she instructed those women who were there with her,12 except for the little bit of time she spent for eating and sleep, which the fragility of human nature demanded…. 24. Now, it is a fact that it is not possible to relate how many snares of the enemies13 that she endured and the various deceptions of the Devil that she suffered, whether through artificial contrivances of different terrors or through illusions crafted by his sly cleverness or through apparitions masquerading as heavenly citizens, and as is always customary in his seduction, now and then he mixed truth with falsity. In this way he can more easily drag into error the unguarded mind that has recognized what is true.… The author notes that he will narrate only some of the many stories that circulated of how the Devil tempted and tormented Liutbirg. The following is one of them. 26. Showing to her corporeal eyes yet another contrivance, inasmuch as he never ceases to lay out in her mind the snares of his wickedness, whether through depraved thoughts or evil desires, he attacked her with terrors. Once he arrived in the guise of a boy, sat on top of the windowsill,14 and called out to her. She, in fact, was prostrated in prayer and did not answer him. He, in turn, raised his voice louder and said, “Do you fear me, Liutbirg?” Her prayer finished, she rose up and said to him: “Why should I fear you, who has no power except what is permitted to you by God, in whom all powers reside? I fear Him, who has the power to condemn body and soul to Gehenna.”15 But he responded: “If you do not fear me, I will fetch for you someone whom you will fear.” He suddenly departed, and returned with another bearing the appearance of a little dog, and as they sat again at the window, he asked if she feared the two of them. She answered: “I fear the two of you as much as I feared you by yourself earlier.” The two of them departed and returned, bringing with them a third that had the appearance of a billy goat, with a hairy brow, 12. Presumably women who were either slaves or semi-free dependents of the Convent of Wendhausen. Early medieval Europe inherited from antiquity the gynaeceum, a women’s textile workshop, whose inhabitants were largely unfree. 13. Demons—the enemies of God and humanity. 14. The author informs us elsewhere that her cell had a single small window. 15. Hell.
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a broad beard, wide-set horns, and a terribly menacing expression, which acted like a hoofed animal.16 Now the little dog opened wide its jaws with a fierce look. The little man then asked if she now feared the three of them. She answered him that as long as she was in the household of her lords, she feared [their] dogs more than these [demons]. And he said: “I will bring you guests of such a sort whom you will fear.” And when they departed, she prostrated herself in prayer, crying unto the Lord from the depths of her heart that He might free her from the power of the Enemy. And while she was engrossed in prayer, mice rushed into her cell, and the number of them that broke in was so large that neither the floor nor the walls of the little domicile, not even the ceiling, were visible. Thus the entire surface of the little cell was so covered by a horde of mice that they ran about here and there over her while she was prostrate in prayer. Also, now because of the sheer numbers of such raucous vermin, nothing other than this odious filth was moving about within that very cell. When she finally finished her prayer, she stood up, took holy water, which she always had at hand, and went around, sprinkling the little room, while chanting and praying, with the result that she so put them to flight that not one remained there. 27. When the mice had been totally driven away, the person who had unleashed them, the little man who had appeared in the beginning, eventually returned. Assailing her with slanderous words, he said: “O, you who are holy beyond measure and a woman of the highest level of purity, who allows nothing that is so filthy to come close to her! I remember the day when such vermin were not so despised by you. Do you not remember when you once were performing night vigil with your companion? As you both laid out a small dinner for the two of you, you both poured out your drinks from a container, a dead mouse that had drowned immediately flowed out. You instantly grabbed its tail and flung it away. While laughing loudly, you said that this was not a source of pollution. By freely taking that drink, it meant that at that very moment you counted as nothing the sanctity of the religion that you now feign.”17 In fact, this had been totally forgotten and never remembered in a confession of her transgressions. Her mentioning it, I believe, was more a proof of her holy 16. It threatened to gore her. 17. According to the early eighth-century Penitential of Theodore, a list of major and minor sins and the penances imposed for them, a drink in which a dead rodent was discovered had to be discarded. See source 24 for excerpts from a penitential.
piety than evidence of her malevolence, just as showing a wound to physicians is a better way to achieve its healing than hiding it, and so this might procure healing for one doing penance…. While enclosed in her cell, Liutbirg’s fame as a prophetess and living saint spreads throughout Saxony. 35. Now, indeed, to the more intimate examples of her power of discernment, which either came to us by her own telling or through the witness of faithful men or the truthful testimony of women and were confirmed as true by credible evidence. Surely, she had been rewarded by God with a prophetic spirit regarding many future events that she made clear, of which she had assuredly foretold [only] a few to persons who had made inquiry, while avoiding a reputation for sanctity…. The author now tells how Liutbirg had a premonition of the death of a woman’s mother at the very hour of her death. Whenever she predicted something to people, she charged them, under a pledge made by a sworn oath, that they reveal nothing before her day of death…. A certain monk (our author?) asks Liutbirg if she knows the day of her death. She says no, but she knows that she will spend thirty full years in her cell. Consequently, it surely happened, as she had foretold, that she remained in the same cell for a period of thirty years, and whatever she had predicted, indubitably happened. For it became manifestly clear that in regard to those matters that she had predicted, a sure outcome always followed. She reported that even Saint Martin18 came to her in a genuine vision and offered instruction about the quality of [her] food and clothing. He also lectured her, with father-like words, about the force of prayer and steadfastness throughout her entire life. After having fed on his consolatory conversations, as if on honeyed dishes, matters that before had seemed heavy seemed lighter to her. She conversed with especially holy men, and also had the most intimate dialogue with those whom she knew were trained and learned in holy law. From them she plucked some little flowers of their perfection, and it always happened that both left happy. In fact, abbots and bishops who 18. Saint Martin of Tours, a fourth-century founder of Gallican monasticism and patron of the Frankish royal family. See source 10.
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had knowledge of her, either personally or through their messengers, commended themselves to her prayers and included her in theirs. Inspired by the exchanged prayer, they rejoiced in the Lord. When her bishop, Haymo, of worthy memory,19 a man of the greatest sanctity and erudition, frequently visited her with fatherly affection (she dwelt in his diocese, and the means for her way of life belonged to his care and prudence), he conversed with her and left her instructed and edified by reason of these many conversations, and he kindly supported her with physical necessities. Above all else, there was Ansgar, the archbishop of Bremen, a man of holy remembrance and, in the perfection of all virtues, a special athlete of Christ.20 He cherished her to such a high degree with a love for her as a holy daughter that, for the sake of visiting her, with the highest measure of kindness he came hurrying, as a devoted father, along an exceedingly lengthy route. In his great generosity, the venerable bishop supported her, not only with his presence and conversation, but also with physical subsidies. He was the willing patron for all of her needs. He sent her, to implement the holy work to which she unceasingly stuck with the greatest zeal, girls of noble bearing. She educated them in psalmody21 and crafts of skill, and, after teaching them, she granted them 19. Bishop of Halberstadt (r. 840–53). 20. Saint Ansgar, known as the “Apostle of the North,” was a papally commissioned leader in the Church’s mission to convert the Danes and Swedes. From 831 to his death in 865, he served as archbishop of Hamburg (and the combined archdiocese of Hamburg-Bremen from 847). 21. Singing psalms (sacred songs).
freedom,22 permitting them to go either to their relatives, or wherever they might wish…. 37. We will now recount her death, as we heard about it. When she first began to become slightly ill, she made confession to each of the priests who was summoned daily. At the same time, she received with prayer their blessings right up to the foreordained time, that hour when she had to return her soul to God. She humbly begged the priests gathered together with the sisters23 and the many others who had assembled there that, with one heart, they all pray for her, and asked all to forgive her sins. After taking viaticum,24 she prostrated herself before the cross that she had fixed above the window. With her arms stretched out in the shape of a cross and her head lowered to the ground, she was heard to say finally at the end of her prayer: “You who deigned to ascend the gallows of the cross for us sinners, and You who had mercy on the thief hanging there,25 may You deign to have mercy on me, because into Your hands I commend my spirit.”26 And so, amid the voices of those singing psalms and mourning, she, as I believe, returned her happy soul to the Lord, to whom is honor and glory forever and ever. 22. Apparently, they came to her gynaeceum (see note 12 above) as enslaved or semi-free young women, and there they learned textile crafts and some liturgical chants. After this basic education, they were rewarded with freedom. 23. Of the Wendhausen convent. 24. Consult the Glossary. 25. Luke, 23:39–43, notes that one of the two criminals crucified alongside Jesus repented and sought and received Jesus’s mercy. 26. The dying words of Jesus: Luke, 23:46.
Monks During the third and fourth centuries, many pious men and women sought escape from what they perceived to be a corrupt and decaying society by going into the wastelands of Egypt, Syria-Palestine, and Anatolia. Sources indicate that mingled among the pious were charlatans who assumed the mantle of sanctity for self-serving ends. It seems likely, however, that the majority of these fugitives, whom we know as the Desert Elders, shared a desire to live the Gospels in a totally uncompromising manner, alone with their God. This flight to the desert became the foundation of Christian monasticism. The first Desert Elders were usually hermits (another term is “anchorites”), who elected to live solitary lives in their desert refuges. The desert oases could support only a limited number of hermitages, however, and in time, many former hermits chose to join together into communities. Those who elected to live communally were known as “cenobites” (convent dwellers). By the end of the sixth century, cenobitic communities became the Christian monastic norm in the East and the West, but they never totally displaced hermits.
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Moreover, the lives and legends of the first desert hermits continued to inspire Christian monasticism through the ages. Whether anchorite or cenobite, Christian monks of every variety have universally claimed that their ways of life continue the tradition of the flight to the desert. Indeed, the term “monk” derives from the Greek monachos, which means “one who lives alone.” So, whether they live in communities or hermitages, monks are people dedicated to seeking and worshipping God apart from the distractions of the world. The world, however, is not easily escaped, especially when it perceives monks as Christian heroes who, by virtue of their successful struggles with the Devil, have gained a special spiritual strength that they can impart to the weaker members of society. On their part, monks, in obedience to the Christian call to save and transform the world and to reject its vain allures, have often been willing to offer themselves as agents of divine grace. Monks had always comprised an exceedingly small percentage of the population, but from the beginning of the flight to the desert, they became folk heroes of such magnitude that they played a major role in turning Christianity into a mass religion. The following two sources illustrate the two major forms of monasticism that took shape in the West during the fifth and sixth centuries. Members of each played an important part in the eventual transformation of Western civilization. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to exaggerate the importance of their role in the evolution of the First Europe.
Establishing a Monastic Community in Italy 23. THE RULE OF SAINT BENEDICT 27 Beginning in the fourth century, Christian cenobitic monasticism spread west from its places of origin in the eastern Mediterranean. Like monasteries in the East, monastic organization varied widely among the first monasteries in the West. Early in the sixth century, an Italian monk, whom history knows as Saint Benedict of Nursia, established a house for male religious recluses at Monte Cassino, which lies south of Rome, and there he presided as the monastery’s father, or abbot. Following the practices of his day, he composed a rule intended only for the monks of Monte Cassino and its few associated houses, and he liberally based his rule on earlier sets of monastic regulations. Indeed, the practice of creating so-called mixed rules, which drew from a variety of earlier rules, was common at this time. For several centuries after Benedict’s death, his rule served the same purpose, as founders of monasteries in Italy and beyond freely borrowed from it as they mixed and matched regulations from a variety of sources. Despite this modest beginning, Benedict’s rule became in time the Holy Rule of Western monasticism and the norm for all monastic life in the West. Several factors explain this success. We leave it to you to discover the special qualities of the Rule that led to its widespread adoption beyond Benedict’s few monasteries. Beyond inherent features that set it apart from so many other rules and made it attractive, Benedict and his rule enjoyed some influential patrons. When Lombards destroyed the monastery of Monte Cassino around 577, its surviving monks fled to Rome, where they were given refuge by several successive popes, including Pope Gregory I. In 593, Gregory celebrated the life and legend of Benedict in his widely disseminated Dialogues. Toward the end of Book 2, which focuses exclusively on Benedict’s saintly life and miracles, the pope noted that the abbot wrote a rule for monks that stood out for its discretion and clarity. There is every good reason to conclude that Gregory and his successors possessed a copy of the Rule and distributed it as they saw fit. Just as important as papal patronage, eighth- and ninth-century Carolingian kings and emperors 27. Sancti Benedicti Regula Monachorum, ed. Cuthbert Butler (Freiburg im Breisgau: B. Herder, 1912), 1–18, 54–60, 64–65, 72–74, 122–24, passim.
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placed the weight of their considerable authority behind Benedict’s rule in a fairly successful attempt to reform and standardize monastic life within their lands. In the period 816–18, the Rule of Saint Benedict was declared the sole official monastic rule for the Frankish Empire. Benedict’s rule consists of a Prologue and seventy-three chapters that offer practical instruction regarding many different areas of monastic concern. Chief among them are how one enters and stays on the pathway to individual spiritual growth, the manner in which Benedict’s ideal monastery is to be organized and governed, and the monks’ day-to-day activities, especially their lives of prayer. The following selections provide a sample of Benedict’s vision.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to Benedict, what are the worst sins and abuses that monks can be guilty of ? What does your answer suggest about his view of the ideal monastery and the purpose of the monastic life? 2. According to Benedict, what are the chief virtues of an ideal monk? What do you infer from your answer? 3. Why is the abbot so central to the Benedictine monastery? What sort of person should the ideal abbot be, and how should he govern the abbey? 4. Consider the various metaphors that Benedict employs when referring to his monastery and its monks. What do they suggest about his view of monastic life? 5. Monasticism has been defined as a system of organized asceticism. Does this definition adequately encompass the monastic life as set out in this rule?
PROLOGUE Listen, son, to the master’s precepts and incline the ear of your heart; freely accept and faithfully fulfill the admonitions of a loving father, so that through the labor of obedience you might return to Him from whom you have strayed by reason of the sloth of disobedience. My words are now addressed to you, whoever you might be, so that, by renouncing your own will, you might take up the strong and glorious weapons of obedience to fight for Christ, the True King…. We must, therefore, establish a school for service to the Lord. In establishing it, we hope to ordain nothing that is harsh or heavy to bear. If, however, for adequate reason—the correction of faults or the preservation of charity—there is some disciplinary strictness herein, do not then and there be terrified and run away from the path of salvation, for its entrance is necessarily narrow. As we progress in the life of monastic conversion28 and faith, our hearts will be enlarged and, with the unspeakable 28. Conversion of one’s whole life and being.
sweetness of love, we shall run along the path of God’s commandments so that, never forsaking His teachings but persevering in His doctrine right up to the moment of death in the monastery, we shall share in Christ’s suffering through our patience and, thereby, deserve to be partakers also of His Kingdom.
CHAPTER 1 The Kinds of Monks There are clearly four kinds of monks. The first kind consists of cenobites, namely, they who live in monasteries, doing spiritual battle under a rule and an abbot. The second kind consists of anchorites, namely, hermits. They are not in the first fervor of their monastic conversion, but after long testing in a monastery and with the assistance of many brethren, they have learned how to fight against the Devil. Well-armed, they leave the fraternal ranks to engage in the solitary combat of the desert. Now alone and without another’s help, but relying on their own strength and God’s help, they are prepared to fight against the
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temptations of the flesh and the mind. The third kind of monks is that abominable one of sarabaites,29 who, never having been hardened, like gold in a furnace, by any rule or experience, are as soft as lead. They keep faith with the ways of this world in their actions, and their tonsures mark them out as liars before God. In twos, threes, and even singly, they live without a shepherd shut up in their own sheepfolds, not in those of the Lord. Their law is the satisfaction of their desires. Whatever they think of or choose to do, that they call holy; what they do not like, that they regard as illicit. The fourth kind of monks consists of those called gyrovagues.30 They spend their entire lives wandering through various provinces, being entertained for three or four days at a time in the cells of various monks, always wandering and never stable, slaves of their own wills and the allurements of gluttony. In all respects, they are worse than the sarabaites. It is better to pass over in silence than to speak of the wretched way of life of all these [last two kinds of ] monks. Therefore, let us proceed with God’s help to provide for that strong kind of monks known as cenobites.
CHAPTER 2 What Sort of Man the Abbot Should Be An abbot who is worthy of ruling a monastery must always remember what he is called and fulfill in his actions the name of one who is called a “superior.” For he is believed to serve as the representative of Christ in the monastery and for that reason is called by His title, according to the words of the apostle: “You have received the spirit of the adoption of sons, whereby we cry Abba, Father.”31… The abbot should always remember that at the dread Judgment of God two matters will be examined: his teaching and the obedience of his disciples. Let the abbot know that whatever lack of fruitfulness the Father might discover in the sheep will be laid to the blame of the shepherd. On the other hand, if the shepherd has spent total diligence in the care of an unruly and disobedient flock and devoted his full attention to correcting their disorderly ways, then he will be found guiltless before God’s tribunal.… Then, 29. According to Saint John Cassian (ca. 360–435), a noted monk and writer of southern Gaul, who had lived among the monks of Syria-Palestine and Egypt, it was a Coptic term that had its origins in the Egyptian desert. 30. “Rolling wheels.” 31. Romans, 8:15. Abba is Hebrew for “father.”
finally, let those sheep who were mindless of his care suffer the penalty of death itself. Therefore, when anyone has received the name of abbot, he ought to lead his disciples by means of a twofold way of instruction. He should display all goodness and holiness by his deeds even more so than by his words. For disciples who are quick of mind, let him use words to expound the Lord’s commandments; for those, however, who have hard hearts or are simpler of mind, let him demonstrate the divine precepts by his own actions…. The abbot should not display preferential treatment for anyone in his monastery. He should not love one more than another, unless he has discovered him to be better in good works and obedience. A freeborn monk must not be given preference over one who enters the monastery from a state of servitude, unless there is some other rational ground for preference…. Whether slave or free, we are all one in Christ,32 and we owe equal military service under the same Lord. In his instruction, the abbot ought to always observe the rule of the apostle, in which he states: “Use argument, appeal, rebuke.”33 This means he must behave differently at different times. Balancing threats with encouragement, he shows the rigor of a school master and the tender love of a father. This means he must sternly reprimand the undisciplined and restless, but he should earnestly implore the obedient, the meek, and the patient to advance in virtue. We advise him to rebuke and punish the negligent and rebellious. Let him not overlook the sins of offenders. Rather, as soon as they appear, he should cut them out by the roots, insofar as he is able to.... The abbot ought always to remember what he is and what he is called and should know that more is expected of him to whom more has been entrusted. Let him also realize how difficult and arduous a task he has undertaken, of ruling souls and serving men of many different personalities. One he must encourage, another he must reprimand, and another he must persuade—each according to his nature and intelligence. The abbot must adapt and conform himself to everyone in such a way, not only as not to suffer a loss in the flock entrusted to him but so that he might rejoice as his increases. Above all else, he must not be overly concerned with the fleeting and temporary things of this world, neglecting or treating lightly the welfare of those entrusted to him. Rather, he must keep in 32. Galatians, 3:28; Ephesians, 6:8. 33. 2 Timothy, 4:2.
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mind that he has undertaken the care of souls, for which he must render an account….
for him. Neither he nor the food given him may be blessed by anyone passing by….
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 27
Concerning Excommunication for Faults If any brother is contumacious, or disobedient, or proud, or a grumbler, or is found have set himself in opposition to any point of the Holy Rule or to have held in contempt the orders of his superiors, let such a monk be admonished secretly for a first and a second time by his superiors, as our Lord has commanded.34 If he does not amend his ways, let him be rebuked publicly in the presence of everyone. If even then he fails to correct himself, let him be excommunicated, provided that he understands the gravity of the penalty. If, however, he is stubborn, he must undergo corporal punishment.
How the Abbot Should Be Solicitous for the Excommunicated The abbot should carry out with the deepest concern his responsibility for errant brothers, because it is not the healthy who need a physician but those who are ill.38 Like a wise physician, he should use every possible remedy. He should send…prudent elder brothers who, in an almost secret manner, might comfort the troubled brother, induce him to make humble satisfaction, and console him, lest he be swallowed up by too much sorrow.39 And let it be as the apostle says, “that love for him be affirmed,”40 and let everyone pray for him. For the abbot is obligated to use the greatest care and to exercise all prudence and diligence, lest he lose any of the sheep entrusted to him. For he should know that he has undertaken the care of unhealthy souls and not a despotic rule over healthy spirits….
CHAPTER 24 What the Measure of Excommunication Should Be The measure of excommunication or punishment must be proportionate to the degree of the fault, and it is for the abbot to judge the level of all faults. If some brother is found guilty of lesser faults, he shall be excluded from sharing in the common meal…. Until he has made satisfaction,…he shall have his meal alone, after the community meal. If the brothers eat at the sixth hour, let him eat at the ninth;35 if they eat at the ninth hour, he shall eat in the evening, until, after proper satisfaction, he obtains pardon.
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Graver Faults The brother who is judged guilty of a graver fault shall be excluded both from the meal and the oratory.36 Let none of the brothers consort with him or speak with him. He is to be left alone at the work assigned him, abiding in penitential grief and pondering that terrible sentence of the apostle: “This sort of man is handed over for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit might be saved on the day of the Lord.”37 Let him take his meals alone, in an amount and at the hour that the abbot considers suitable
Of Those Who, Though Often Corrected, Refuse to Change Their Ways If any brother, though often corrected and even excommunicated for some offense, does not amend his ways, let him receive more severe correction. That is to say, he must be beaten. If even then he does not correct himself or, perhaps (may it not be so), he is so puffed up with pride that he wishes to defend his actions, then let the abbot act as any prudent physician would. If he has applied the poultices and ointments of his exhortations, if he has used the medicine of divine scripture, and if, finally, he has employed the cauterization of excommunication and blows from a rod and now he sees that his work is fruitless, let him employ yet something stronger—his own prayers and those of all the brothers—so that God, who can do everything, might effect the cure of this sick brother. But if he is not made well even in this way, then let the abbot use the knife of amputation…lest one diseased sheep infect the whole flock.
34. Matthew, 18:15–16. 35. Consult the Glossary at Hours. 36. The place devoted to daily prayer. 37. 1 Corinthians, 5:5.
38. Matthew, 9:12. 39. 2 Corinthians, 2:7. 40. Ibid., 8.
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CHAPTER 29 Whether Brothers Who Leave the Monastery May Be Received Again If a brother, who by his own fault left the monastery, wishes to return, he must first promise full amendment of the fault that occasioned his leaving. Then let him be received back in the lowest rank, as a test of his humility. Should he depart a second time, he may be received back again, and even for a third time, but he should understand that after that all prospect of return will be denied him….
CHAPTER 33 Whether Monks May Possess Anything of Their Own Above all else, this vice must be totally rooted out and removed from the monastery. That is, no one should presume to give or accept anything without the abbot’s permission or to possess anything of his own, nothing whatsoever, be it a book, or writing tablets, or a stylus41— nothing whatsoever. For monks should not have even their own bodies or wills at their own disposal. Rather, let them look to the monastery’s father for all their necessities. It is unlawful to have anything that the abbot has not given or permitted….
CHAPTER 39 The Amount of Food We believe that it suffices for the daily meal, whether at the sixth or ninth hour that every table has two cooked dishes, on account of individual infirmities. If, perhaps, a brother cannot eat one, he can eat the other. Therefore, let two cooked dishes suffice for all the brothers, but if any fruits or fresh vegetables are available, a third may be added. A generous pound42 of bread should suffice for the day, whether there is one meal or both dinner and supper. If they are to have supper, the cellarer43 should hold back a third of a pound of that bread, to be served at supper. If their work happens to be heavier than normal, the abbot has the discretion and power to increase the allowance, 41. As had been the practice in the Roman world, most writing was done by inscribing letters onto a waxen tablet with a sharp instrument known as a stylus. 42. A Roman pound was 11.60 ounces. 43. The monk in charge of provisions.
should it be expedient. Above all else, however, gluttony must be avoided, and never must indigestion seize a monk, for there is nothing so unbecoming to every Christian as gluttony…. Young boys44 shall not receive the same amount of food but less than their elders, and frugality will be the rule at all times. Except for the sick who are especially weak, everyone must abstain at all times from consuming the flesh of four-footed animals.
CHAPTER 40 The Measure of Drink “Everyone has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that.”45 Consequently, it is with some misgiving that we establish the amount of nourishment that others consume. Nevertheless, keeping in mind the frailty of weaker brothers, we believe that a hemina46 of wine a day suffices for each. Those, however, to whom God gives the capacity for abstinence should understand that they will have their own special reward. If, however, local circumstances, or their work, or the heat of summer require more, the superior has the right to make that decision, but he must in all cases take care that neither excess nor inebriation creeps in. To be sure, we read that wine is in no way a fit drink for monks, yet because today’s monks cannot be persuaded of that, let us at least agree upon this: to drink not to the point of satiety but more sparingly. For wine leads even the wise to go astray. When the local circumstances are such that the above-mentioned quantity of wine cannot be had, but much less or even nothing at all, those who live there should bless God and not grumble. Above all else, we admonish them to abstain from grumbling!…
CHAPTER 73 The Full Observance of Righteous Behavior Is Not Established in This Rule We have composed this rule so that, by practicing it in monasteries, we might show that we have attained, to some degree, honesty of character and the beginning of 44. Boys who had been given to the monastery for their education, with the understanding that they probably would take proper monastic vows upon reaching maturity. 45. 1 Corinthians, 7:7. 46. A bit more than 9.5 ounces.
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our monastic conversion. For him who would hasten to the perfection of monastic conversion, there are the teachings of the Holy Fathers, whose observance leads one to the summit of perfection. What page or what utterance of the divinely inspired Old and New Testaments is not an infallible norm for a human life? What book of the most holy Catholic Fathers does not proclaim the proper path by which we should make our way to the Creator? Then the Collations of the Fathers, and the Institutes47 and the Lives of the Fathers,48 and the Rule of our holy father 47. John Cassian (note 29 above) composed both the Collations (better known as the Conferences) and the Institutes, which became standard instructional reading for monks in the West. 48. The many different collections of the biographies and sayings of the early desert saints.
Basil49—what else are they but instruments of virtue for good-living and obedient monks? To us, however, who are slothful, who live badly, and who are negligent, they bring a blush of shame. Therefore, you, whoever you might be, who hurries toward the heavenly fatherland, fulfill, with Christ’s help, this little rule written for beginners, and then you will attain at last, under God’s protection, those heights of wisdom and virtue that we mentioned above. 49. Saint Basil the Great (330–79), monk, theologian, a Father of the Eastern Church, and bishop of Caesarea, is regarded as the father of Byzantine monasticism. He wrote no rule in the sense of Benedict’s Rule. Rather, his so-called Longer and Shorter Rules are a series of disconnected precepts. Regardless, more than any other individual, he infused Eastern cenobitic monasticism with vitality and made it an integral part of Eastern Christian culture.
The Heart and Soul of Celtic Monasticism 24. Adomnán, LIFE OF SAINT COLUMBA, FOUNDER OF HY 50; Saint Columban, THE MONKS’ RULE, THE CENOBITIC RULE, and THE PENITENTIAL 51 In the fourth and fifth centuries, missionary monks such as Saint Patrick (ca. 390–461), who were raised in Gaul under Egyptian-like monastic conditions, carried Christianity and monasticism into Ireland. This land of tribal societies embraced the Christianity that the monks transmitted from across the sea and adapted to their Celtic warrior culture the uncompromisingly rigorous forms of monasticism that accompanied the new religion. Unlike the continent, where episcopal dioceses provided the organizational framework for the Church, in Ireland monasteries initially served as the Church’s ecclesiastical focal points. Moreover, monasteries tended to be associated with particular kin groups, and kin leaders often took on the role of abbot of their tribe’s monastery. Bishops, on the other hand, served a purely sacramental role as one of the abbey’s several monastic officials appointed by and subject to the authority of the abbot. One practice that was peculiar to Celtic monasticism and that became its hallmark was voluntarily making oneself a wandering exile for Christ. By abandoning the support system of a kin structure, a person performed the ultimate renunciation of the world. As a result, Irish monks spilled out of their homeland, carrying with them the Christian faith and Celtic monasticism. During the sixth and seventh centuries, they set up monasteries on the outer islands of the British archipelago, in Scotland, northern England, and at various locations on the continental mainland from Gaul to northern Italy to Central Europe. Wherever possible, they preached the faith to pagans, and many more than willingly placed themselves in harm’s way. Two of the most notable Celtic hero-monks were Saint Columba (ca. 521–97) and Saint Columban (ca. 543–615). 50. Adomnani vita Columbae, Adomnán’s Life of Columba, ed. Alan Orr Anderson and Marjorie Ogilvie Anderson, rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 12–18, passim. 51. Sancti Columbani Opera, ed. G. S. M. Walker (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1957), 122–26, 140–42, 144–50, 154–56, 158–60, 168–73, passim.
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Columba, a Latinized form of the Gaelic Colm Cille (dove of the Church), was active in Scotland, and is most noted for founding the island abbey of Iona in 562 in the Inner Hebrides. The monastery that Columba and his twelve companions established on Iona became a major center of Celtic-Christian culture and a springboard for the evangelization of mainland Scotland and northern England. Despite a series of devastating Viking raids on the island that began in 795, the cult of Saint Columba continued to attract devout Christians to Iona. Up until the sixteenth-century Calvinist Reformation, Iona was Scotland’s major center of pilgrimage. Our first source is an excerpt from The Life of Columba by Adomnán (ca. 628–704), the ninth abbot of Iona, who collected oral legends and written narratives relating to his predecessor and composed a hagiographical account of the saint’s life and deeds. Like Columba, Saint Columban was baptized with the popular Irish-Christian name Colm (dove), to which tradition added the Gaelic suffix án (lesser) to differentiate him from his sainted predecessor. Whatever he was called, Columban was not inferior to any other Irish monk. He was active in Frankish Gaul and Lombardic northern Italy, where he acquired a reputation for healing and founded several monasteries that served as centers for the conversion of still-pagan rural folk, the less than fully converted Franks, Illus. 4.2 Saint Martin’s Cross, which rises to the height of sixteen feet eight inches, was carved and erected on Iona, around 750–800. The nimbus that and the Arian Lombards. While in Gaul, the saint began compos- encircles the cross arm is one of the several distinctive characteristics of the Celtic cross, and it might have had its roots in the pre-Christian, Neolithic stone ing a set of rules for his monks largely based circles that are found throughout the islands off Scotland’s west coast. Standing upon the monastic practices of Bangor in before the western entrance of the abbey church, it and two other “high crosses” Ireland, where Columban had lived before greeted the pilgrims who came to pray at the relics of Saint Columba and his departing for the continent around 590. companions. The bosses and intertwined serpents on this face of the cross are Columban’s monastic instructions consists typical of Celtic sculptural art of this period. Legend maintains that the rocky of two elements: The Monks’ Rule and The knoll behind the cross, known as Tòrr an Aba (The Mound of the Abbot), is the Cenobitic (Communal ) Rule. Unlike the brief site on which Columba had a private cell where he prayed, studied, and wrote, Monks’ Rule, which largely sets out general and from which he kept an eye on his monks. principles, The Cenobitic Rule consists of a list of penalties for specific offences against monastic decorum and good order. Occasional echoes of the Rule of Saint Benedict in the Monks’ Rule make it clear that less than fifty years after Benedict’s death, his Rule had already made it across the Alps to Gaul. Whether or not Columban adopted the spirit of Benedict’s Rule is for you to decide. Significantly, within a few decades of Columban’s death, his continental monasteries adopted substantial parts of the Rule of Saint Benedict to create a hybrid Celto-Benedictine rule, and by the tenth
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century they were major Benedictine houses. On its part, Iona was slower to change, given its distance from the Carolingian Empire that promoted Benedictine monastic reform. But clearly Iona was Benedictine by the year 1200 and probably had adopted Benedict’s Rule well before then. A third work ascribed to Columban, The Penitential, takes the issue of error, correction, and retribution many steps further than The Cenobitic Rule. It is a compilation of the penances due for the moral faults and grave sins of monks (Part A) and non-monks (Part B), inasmuch as a significant number of laypersons and even secular clerics were under the authority of one or another of his monasteries. Penitentials such as this were a hallmark of Celtic Christianity, having their origin in the monasteries of Wales and Ireland during the sixth century. There is good reason to conclude that Columban composed this penitential over a long period of time and, in the process, adopted parts of several earlier penitentials. Due both to the reputation for sanctity of the wandering Celtic monks and the guidance that the works afforded local priests, penitentials took root as a genre in Anglo-Saxon England and on the continent, despite early opposition by some local bishops, who saw them as a threat to episcopal authority. By the twelfth century, however, penitentials were far less used by confessors, probably due to three developments: an increasing emphasis on the confessor’s ability to examine the penitent and to assign the proper penance; an insistence on the absolute privacy of the confessional, whereby even penances could not be made public; and the growth and popularity of indulgences and the theological doctrine that underpinned it. Had penance become kinder and gentler?
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider Adomnán’s digest of Columba’s miracles and prophecies in light of the Celtic culture into which he had been born. What exactly is the image of the saint that Adomnán wishes to project? Now consider those same miracles and prophecies in light of Christian tradition. What is the other image that Adomnán wishes to project? 2. Compare Saint Adomnán’s hagiographic life of Columba with the Life of the Virgin Liutbirg. Which strike you as more significant, their similarities or dissimilarities? Why? To what do you ascribe those similarities and dissimilarities? 3. Which monastic virtues do Columban’s two rules stress? Of these, which is paramount? Why? 4. Compare Columban’s two rules with Benedict’s Rule. What, if anything, do they have in common? Do they differ in any way? Which are more significant, the similarities or differences? 5. What is the spirit, or worldview, that underlies The Penitential ? In wrestling with this issue, you might want to consider the following: (1) How and why do parts A and B differ? (2) How does this document deal with both involuntary acts and such voluntary acts as homicide, magic, thievery, and sex? (3) What role does excommunication play in all of this? (4) Are there any echoes of a society in which wergeld played an important role?
The Life of Columba Here begins the text of Book I that concerns prophetic revelations. A brief narrative of miracles of power. In accord with our clear promise given above, it is fitting that there should be briefly presented in the first pages of this book the sort of proofs the venerable man offered of [his] power.
Indeed, by the power of prayers, he healed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ persons who suffered attacks by various maladies. With the aid of God, this single man repulsed innumerable attacking bands of demons making war against him that were visible to his bodily eyes and that were preparing to inflict deadly diseases upon his monastic community. They were beaten back from this, our primary island. With the aid of Christ, he restrained the raging frenzy of wild beasts, by killing some, by courageously repelling
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others. Also swelling waves resembling mountains that once surged forth in the midst of a great storm were quickly stilled into insignificance by this man’s prayer.52 And his ship, in which this man traveled by chance, was carried to the desired port once calm was established. After visiting for some days in the territory of the Picts,53 he began a return trip from there. In order that he might confound the sorcerers,54 he raised the sail against the opposing blasts of the wind, and so his little boat sped away on a rapid course through the water, as if it had a following wind. At other times, as well, winds that were unfavorable for persons under sail were turned into following winds through the prayer of this man. In the same territory mentioned above, he took a dazzling white stone from a river that he blessed so that it might produce some cures. That stone, contrary to nature, when immersed in water floated like an apple. This divine miracle was performed in the presence of King Brude55 and his household retainers. In like manner, in that very same province, he revived the dead son of a certain believing lay person (which is a major miracle) and delivered him up alive and whole to the father and mother.56 At another time, when this same blessed man was a young deacon in Ireland, living in the household of the holy bishop Findbarr,57 there was not any wine that is necessary for the most holy mysteries.58 Through the power of his prayer, he changed pure water into true wine.59 On occasion there appeared to some brothers on various and different occasions, both in the darkness of night and the light of day, an enormous light of heavenly brilliance poured out over him.60 He also was worthy to receive the sweet and most pleasant visits in shining light of holy angels. Repeatedly, through the Revelation of the Holy Spirit, he saw the souls of certain righteous individuals carried by 52. See Mark, 4:35–41, and Matthew, 8:23–27. 53. The northern and central regions of the Scottish mainland. The Picts were one of three major Celtic cultural groups that inhabited Scotland. 54. Druid priests. 55. Bridei I, a Scottish king from the 550s to the mid-580s. 56. See Luke, 7:11–17, 8:49–56; John, 11:1–44. 57. This could not have been Saint Finbarr of Cork; the dates are wrong. 58. Consult the Glossary. 59. See John, 2:1–11. 60. See Matthew, 17:1–8; Mark, 9:2–8; Luke, 9:28–36; 2 Peter 1:16–18.
angels to the heights of Heaven. But he also viewed other souls of the condemned carried to Hell by demons. Quite often he foretold the future recompense of quite a few persons who still lived in mortal flesh—happy for some, sad for others. And in the terrible devastation of war, by the power of prayer, he procured from God that some kings would be conquered and other rulers were made into victors. This extraordinary privilege, given by God for the honor of all saints, was bestowed [on him] not only while he continued in this present life but even after he had departed from his flesh, as if he were some victor and exceedingly powerful warrior…. Adomnán then relates how Columba appeared to the English king Oswald in a dream assuring him that he would triumph in battle over his British rival Catlon.61 The king, who woke up after these words, related this vision to his assembled council, all of whom were greatly energized [by it]. All the people promised that upon their return from battle they would believe and accept baptism. For up to that time all of Saxony was in the darkness of heathenism and ignorance,62 with the exception of King Oswald himself. He had been baptized, along with twelve men who were with him, while in exile among the Scots.63 Why say more? On the very next night, as he had been instructed in the vision, King Oswald, with a substantially smaller army, advanced from the camp to battle against [an army of ] many thousands. As had been promised him, a happy and easy victory was granted him by the Lord, and King Catlon was cut down. Following the battle, the victor was later returned as the emperor, ordained by God, of all Britain.64 Our abbot Faílbe, my predecessor, confidently 61. Oswald of Northumbria defeated the Welsh king Cadwallon ap Cadfan at the Battle of Heavenfield in 633 or 634. 62. A reference to Anglo-Saxon England; the British elements were largely still Christian. Oswald’s people were Angles not Saxons. 63. “Scot” referred to both the Gaelic Irish of Ireland and the Gaelic Scots. The latter inhabited the Hebrides and the southwestern regions of the Scottish mainland. Following his father Æthelfrith’s death in battle around 616, the young Oswald went into temporary exile in the powerful kingdom of Dál Riata, which encompassed parts of western Scotland and northeastern Ireland. He appears to have been converted to Christianity there. 64. The victory allowed Oswald to establish himself as king of Northumbria, which consisted of present-day northern England and southeastern Scotland.
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narrated this to me, Adomnán. He asserted that he had heard about the vision from the mouth of this very King Oswald who was recounting it to Abbot Ségéne.65 But there also seems to be something else that must not be passed over without notice: that certain lay persons belonging to this same blessed man, though they were guilty and blood-stained individuals, through certain songs in praise of him in the Gaelic tongue and a commemoration of [his] name, were liberated, on that very night when they chanted the songs, from the hands of their enemies who had surrounded the very house of the same singers. They escaped uninjured through fire, swords, and lances. And a small number of them had refused to chant, as if they valued little these very chants that commemorated the sainted man. Miraculously, they alone perished in that assault by the enemy.
*** The Monks’ Rule Here begins the Monks’ Rule of Saint Columban, abbot. First of all, we are taught to love God with a whole heart and a whole mind and with all strength and a neighbor as our very selves;66 then [come] works.
I. Regarding Obedience At the first word of a senior, all who hear it should rise to obey because obedience is shown to God, according to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who hears you, hears Me.67 Consequently, if anyone hearing the word does not immediately rise, he is judged to be disobedient. Moreover, he who speaks back incurs the charge of insubordination, and therefore is guilty not only of insubordination but also, by opening for others the doorway of disagreement, is to be considered a destroyer of many. In fact, if anyone should grumble and not obey willingly, he likewise is to be considered disobedient. Therefore, let his work be discarded until his goodwill is recognized. For what is the defined 65. Ségéne (d. 652), the fifth abbot of Iona, was a major source for oral accounts of the life and deeds of Columba. Faílbe (d. 679), was the eighth abbot of Iona. Both Ségéne and Faílbe, as well as all other abbots before Adomnán, were from Columba’s clan. It is not known if Adomnán was a kinsman of the saint. 66. Matthew, 22:37–39. 67. Luke, 10:16.
limit of obedience? It is surely commanded all the way to death because Christ obeyed the Father all the way to death for us….
III. Regarding Food and Drink The monks’ meals should be poor and eaten in the evening so as to avoid satiety and [their] drink so as to avoid intoxication and so that they sustain and do no harm: vegetables, beans, milled grains mixed with water along with a small loaf of bread, so that the belly is not burdened and the mind not clogged. For they who desire an eternal reward must consider the extent to which [matters such as this are] useful and advantageous. For that reason, one’s manner of life should be moderate just as work should be moderate because this is true prudence, with the result that an ability for spiritual progress is maintained through an abstinence that punishes the flesh. For if abstinence exceeds moderation, it will be a vice not a virtue. For virtue sustains and maintains many good things. Therefore, one must fast daily, just as one partakes of food daily, and while one eats daily, the body must be indulged with more simple food and rather little of it. Indeed, one must eat daily because one must make daily progress, by daily prayer, daily labor, and daily study. IV. Regarding Poverty and Despising Avarice Monks, to whom, for the sake of Christ, the world is crucified and they to the world,68 must guard against avarice, for without a doubt it is damnable for them not only to possess superfluous things but even to wish for them. It is their will not their property that is needed. They, leaving behind all things and daily following Christ the Lord with the cross of reverence, have treasures in Heaven.69 Therefore, while they will have much in Heaven, they should be content on Earth with the insignificant things of utter necessity, knowing that avarice is a leprosy for monks who imitate the sons of the prophets, and for a disciple of Christ it is perfidy and perdition. For the uncertain followers of the apostles, it is also death. Therefore, it follows that nakedness and contempt for riches constitute the first perfection of monks; the second, in fact, is the purging of vices; the third a most perfect and continuous love of God and an unceasing love of things divine, which follows upon forgetting earthly things…. 68. Galatians, 6:14. 69. Matthew, 19:21.
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X. Regarding a Monk’s Perfection A monk should live in a monastery under the discipline of a single father, in the company of many, so that from the one he might learn humility, from the other patience. For one should teach [him] silence, the other meekness. He must not do as he wishes, he must eat what he is given, he must possess only as much as he has been given, he must complete his assigned work, he must be subject to him whom he has not wanted. He should come to bed exhausted and asleep on his feet, and he should be compelled to rise with sleep not yet completed. When he has suffered a wrong, he should be silent. He should revere the head of the monastery as a lord, love him as a father, believe that whatever he might command is beneficial for him, and he should not pass judgment on the opinion of an elder. His duty is to obey and carry out what he has been ordered to do. As Moses says, Hear, Israel etc.70 THE END OF THE RULE.
*** The Cenobitic Rule I. It has been ordained by the holy fathers, most beloved brothers, that we make confession before dinner or before entering bed or whenever it is opportune because confession and penance free one from death. Therefore, not even that little sin should be omitted from confession…. Thus, he who has not arrived [in time] for grace at a meal and has not answered “Amen”: it is ordained to correct him with six blows.71 Likewise, he who has spoken while eating [and] not because of another brother’s needs: it is ordained to correct him with six. And he who has not blessed the spoon with which he eats [six blows] and he who has talked with a “clap,” that is he has sounded forth in a higher tone than what is usual, six blows…. II. …If he says that anything is his own, six blows. He who gouges the dinner table with a knife shall be corrected with ten blows…. III. …He who leaving the house has not prostrated himself in asking for a prayer or after receiving a blessing
70. Deuteronomy, 6:4. 71. All blows were on the hand with a leather strap.
has not approached the cross72 and signed himself 73: it is ordained to correct him with twelve blows. IV. He who, because of a cough, has not chanted well at the beginning of a psalm: it is ordained to correct him with six blows…. He who tells idle tales to another, if he immediately accuses himself, a mere pardon, but if he has not accused himself, the imposition of silence74 and fifty blows. Offering an excuse without thinking when one is being interrogated about something and, in seeking pardon, does not immediately say, “My fault, I am sorry”: fifty blows. He who, without thinking, sets counsel against counsel: fifty blows. He who has struck an altar: fifty blows…. VI. Whoever has not quickly fled to the restful harbor of the Lord’s humility but excessively persists in proud talk, thereby opening the door of contradiction for others, should be separated from the freedom of the holy Church by doing penance in a cell,75 until his good will is recognized and he is again inserted through humility into the holy congregation…. VIII. …If the senior [at the table] should, at a meal, become aware of minor infractions that merit penance, he should impose [them] at the meal, and no more than twenty-five blows should be administered…. IX. …Brothers doing penance and they who are required [to do] a penance of psalms, that is, one for whom it has become necessary that he chant additional psalms on account of a nocturnal dream because it was a diabolical delusion or because of the nature of the dream—some required to chant a penance of thirty psalms, others twenty-four in sequence, others fifteen, others twelve—as penitents they should chant them while kneeling, even on Sunday night and in the season of Easter.76 X. If some brother has been disobedient, two days [of penance] with one loaf of bread and water. If someone 72. The stone Celtic cross that stood before the monastery’s door. 73. As a mark of devotion, one made the sign of the cross on one’s body with the right hand: forehead to chest, left shoulder to right shoulder. 74. Silence for a full day. 75. Either each monk lived in a separate hut, or cell, rather than sleeping in a communal room, or the monastery had a cell set aside for penitents. 76. According to John Cassian (see note 29), it was the practice of monks in the Egyptian desert to omit genuflection and kneeling during the season of Easter.
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says, “I will not do it,” three days with one loaf of bread and water. If someone murmurs, two days with one loaf of bread and water. If someone does not ask for pardon or mentions an excuse, two days with one loaf of bread and water…. If someone is given a task and does it carelessly, two days with one loaf of bread and water. If someone should speak badly of his abbot, seven days with one loaf of bread and water; if someone should speak badly of his brother, twenty-four psalms; if of a lay person, twelve psalms…. XI. If someone speaks with a layperson without authorization, twenty-four psalms…. XII. If someone has aroused anger in his brother and later apologizes and the brother does not forgive him but sends him to his senior, he who aroused the anger, twenty-four psalms, and the other, one day on bread and water.
*** The Penitential Here begins [the book] on penance. A. 1. True penance is not committing faults that require penance but weeping over faults that have been committed. But because the weakness of many (not to say all) negates this, the degrees of penance must be known. Thus, a catalogue of them is handed down from the holy fathers so that the length of penances might be established in accordance with the magnitude of the offences. 2. If, therefore, someone has sinned in thought, that is has desired to kill a person or to commit fornication or to steal or to secretly eat and get drunk or, in fact, to strike another or to desert or to commit acts similar to these, and is prepared in his heart to carry these out: he must do a halfyear’s penance on bread and water for the major offenses, for the lesser, forty days. 3. If, however, someone, overcome by sin, has committed the sinful act, if he committed the sin of homicide or sodomy, he must do penance for ten years. If he fornicated only once, a monk should do penance for three years, if more often, seven years. If the monk has deserted and broken his vow, if he repents and has returned at once, he must do penance for one hundred and twenty days; if, however, he has returned years later, he must do penance for three years….
6. If someone, perhaps, made himself drunk and vomited, or having overeaten, has by that act vomited out the consecrated host, he must do penance for forty days. If, in fact, he is forced to vomit the host due to an illness, he must do penance for seven days. If someone loses the very host, he must do penance for a year…. B. The diversity of faults makes for a diversity of penances…. First one must lay down sanctions regarding capital crimes,77 which are also punished by the chastisement of [secular] law…. 5. If someone has committed perjury, he must do penance for seven years, and never thereafter may he swear an oath. 6. If someone had destroyed someone else though his black magic, he must do penance for three years on bread and water by measure, and for three more years he must abstain from wine and meat, then finally in the seventh year he may be restored to communion. If, however, his magic was [used] for [exciting] love and did not destroy anyone, he must do penance on bread and water for a year if a cleric,78 a lay person for half a year, a deacon two years, a priest three years. Above all else, if through this [magic] someone causes a woman’s miscarriage, one should add an extra 240 days, lest he be guilty of homicide…. 10. If someone has committed a sexual crime on himself or with an animal, he must do penance for two years, if he is not in [clerical] orders; if, however, he is in orders or subject to a vow, he must do penance for three years, if [his] age does not preclude it…. 13. Whoever has committed homicide, that is killed his neighbor, must do penance, as an unarmed exile,79 for three years on bread and water. And after three years he may return to his people, rendering the obligation of duty and service to the family of the slain person.80 And so, after [having given] satisfaction, he may be joined to the altar81 at the discretion of the priest…. 15. If, indeed, some layman has fornicated in the manner of sodomy, that is, has sinned with a man by having 77. Here “capital crimes” is best be understood as mortal sins that endanger the life of the soul. 78. A cleric in minor orders. 79. Unarmed and devoid of family and friends, the penitent was highly vulnerable. 80. Compare this with the penalties laid down in the Salic Law. 81. Restored to communion in the Church.
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feminine-like intercourse, he should do penance for seven years, the first three on bread and water and salt, with dried produce from the garden; for the remaining four he must abstain from wine and meat. And thus, may his guilt be removed from him, and the priest should pray for him, and so he may be joined to the altar. 16. If someone from the laity has committed fornication with unmarried women, namely widows or girls, if with a widow, he must do penance for one year, if with a girl, for two years, moreover, he must pay her family the [established] price for her humiliation. If, however, he has no wife but has had sex as a virgin with a virgin, if her parents agree, let her become his wife, but both must first do penance for a year, and then let them marry…. 18. If any layman or laywoman overlay their infant,82 they must do penance for a whole year on bread and water, and for two more years they must abstain from wine and meat, 82. Smother by rolling on top of the child in a communal bed.
and so first let them be joined to the altar at the discretion of the priest, and then this husband may licitly use his [marriage] bed. For lay people must know that in the period of penance laid on them by priests, they are not permitted to have sexual relations with their wives, but only after the penance has been fulfilled. For a penance may not be halved. 19. If some layman has committed theft, that is has stolen an ox, or horse, or sheep or any other animal from his neighbor, if he has done it once or twice, he should first make good the damage that he did to his neighbor and he must do penance on bread and water for 120 days. If, however, he made it a practice to steal often and cannot make restitution, he must do penance for a year and 120 days and promise never to do it thereafter. And so, he may have communion at Easter of the second year, that is, after two years, on the condition that he give alms to the poor [earned] from his own labor and a banquet to the priest who rendered judgment on his penance, and in this way shall the guilt of his evil ways be remitted.
Bishops and Popes Despite their intention to remain apart from the world, monks had an impact on the lives of common men and women. Yet so far as most people were concerned, the individuals who most represented the everyday power and authority of Christianity were the secular clerics who resided among them. In a clerical context, “secular” refers to the clergy who live among the laity and minister to its spiritual needs. Whereas monks normally lived in autonomous, self-governing monasteries, secular clerics were part of a hierarchical network that tied small village churches to larger urban churches, where bishops and archbishops resided. Evidence suggests that boards of elders, or overseers, governed first-century Christian communities. During the second century, such boards appear to have given way to rule by a single overseer, known as an episkopos in Greek and episcopus in Latin. We translate the term as “bishop” (from biscop in Old English). By the time of Constantine the Great, bishops, especially those in the East, were the Church’s clerical voices and leaders. Most bishops had their sees, or seats of power, in small- to moderate-sized towns. Bishops, whose sees were located in larger or more politically important centers exercised more extensive authority. Known as an archbishop, or metropolitan, each exercised supervisory rights over all other bishops within his province. Many archbishops held regular provincial councils, or synods, at which they and their subordinate bishops addressed province-wide issues. Yet so far as the majority of humanity in Christian Europe was concerned, the local diocesan bishop was as far up the ecclesiastical ladder as an individual could or should go. He and his secular clergy constituted their Church, and certainly the Holy Father in faraway Rome was more remote and disassociated from their lives than even the archbishop who lived in the distant provincial capital.
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During the third century, Rome lost its position of political primacy and was replaced in the West by such new imperial centers as Milan and Ravenna in Italy and Trier in Germany. When Constantinople was dedicated as the New Rome in 330, the whole center of imperial power shifted eastward. And when the last Roman emperor in the West was forced to abdicate in 476, the emperor residing at Constantinople became the sole legitimate ruler of an empire whose western regions were rapidly becoming fragmented, ungovernable by a single imperial authority, and quite un-Roman. Even as Rome was losing its political power, its spiritual authority was ascending. Although every bishop theoretically received his powers directly from Jesus and through the Twelve Apostles and governed an essentially autonomous community, as just noted, some bishops deserved special respect by virtue of the importance of their sees. Rome was nowhere near as rich or politically significant as several other cities, but it was still Rome—the sentimental heart of the empire—and that counted for quite a lot. Moreover, the Church of Rome alone could claim the bodies and, therefore, the inherited powers of Saints Peter and Paul, the Church’s two greatest apostles. This was powerful spiritual ammunition in a culture that believed in the immediate intervention of heavenly patrons, especially patrons who allowed their relics to reside in the churches of their devotees. Increasingly, and particularly from the pontificate of Pope Saint Leo I, known as “the Great” (r. 440– 61), the bishops of Rome claimed to be the legal heirs of Saint Peter, whom they believed had received special powers of governance over the Church directly from Jesus and who, according to tradition, had been Rome’s first bishop. The main biblical underpinning for this claim was (and remains) the Gospel of Saint Matthew (16:17–19), which Pope Gregory I quotes in source 26 when writing to Emperor Mauricius. As a consequence of this Petrine claim, from the sixth century on, the bishops of Rome increasingly claimed exclusive right to the title pope, or “father” ( papa in Latin), a title that originally was applied to all bishops out of respect for their spiritual paternity, as we saw in Sidonius Apollinaris’s letter to Graecus. However, the Roman papacy’s case for sole claim to the title gained ground in the West. Moreover, as far as many popes of Rome were concerned, the title meant much more than just an acknowledgment of their spiritual fatherhood; it signified the bishop of Rome’s legitimate claim to govern the Church with an authority analogous to the almost absolute power of a traditional Roman head of a household. During these early centuries, few persons outside of Rome were ready to accept or even acknowledge the implications of such claims, but the foundations had been laid for what would become the medieval papacy. And that emerging papacy played a vital role in promoting the extension of Christianity into pagan lands, often through the use of monastic missionaries. Such expansion made it necessary to establish new archbishoprics and bishoprics in these lands in order to expand and solidify the gains made by the first wave of missionaries. Without the day-to-day ministrations of bishops and other secular clerics, it would not have been possible to transform Europe into a civilization that looked to Roman Catholic Christianity for moral and religious guidance. Additionally, the establishment of churches in England, Germany, and elsewhere on the basis of the initiative and authority of the bishops of Rome further strengthened Rome’s position within the orbit of the Church of the West. Our first three sources present some of the seminal writings of three of the most important popes of the Roman papacy’s formative years: Gelasius I, Gregory I, and Gregory II. Each was instrumental in the Roman papacy’s evolution into the most important church office in the West. The two sources that follow them illustrate how activities in England and on the continent expanded the institutional Church and strengthened the position of the Roman papacy within that Church.
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The Issue of Christian Authority 25. Pope Gelasius I, LETTER TO EMPEROR ANASTASIUS I 83 In 494, Pope Gelasius I (r. 492–96) wrote to Emperor Anastasius I regarding a rupture in relations between the churches of Rome and Constantinople. The rift had been occasioned by the acceptance by the patriarch of Constantinople of an edict that Emperor Zeno had published in 482 that sought a reconciliation through compromise with a large, break-away body of Eastern Christians who held the belief that Jesus had a single divine nature. The dispute, which spilled out into the streets of many Eastern cities and resulted in substantial bloodshed, demanded an imperial response. Zeno’s accommodation maintained that while Jesus had two natures, divine and human, they were merged into a single, compound nature. This concession did not satisfy those who accepted as infallible the doctrine that Jesus had two separate, distinct natures—divine and human. When Anastasius continued imperial support of Zeno’s compromise, Gelasius intervened. The pope’s intervention did not immediately bear fruit; the schism only ended when Emperor Justin I and his patriarch formally abandoned Zeno’s compromise in 519. Gelasius’s letter, however, did have a life far beyond his day inasmuch as it became, for the Roman Church, a classic expression of the right relationship between the powers of the priesthood and those of secular rulers.
Questions for Consideration 1. What is the tone of Gelasius’s message? 2. Italy at this time was under the rule of Theodoric the Ostrogoth, whom Emperor Zeno had recognized as “king of Italy.” Does this letter give any hint of that political reality? What do you infer from your answer? 3. How does Gelasius view the Roman papacy? How does he view the emperor? 4. Strictly speaking, does Gelasius argue for a separation of church and state? If he does not go that far, what does he argue? 5. Review the Barberini Ivory (source 7) and the mosaic of Justinian I (source 14). Would the emperors (or emperor) portrayed therein agree with Gelasius’s interpretation of imperial power and the emperor’s responsibilities? 83. Gelasii epistula ad Anastasium, ed. E. Schwartz, Publizistische Sammlungen zum Acacianischen Schisma (Munich: Abhandlungen de Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Abteilung, 1934), Neue Folge. Heft 10:19–24, passim.
Letter to Emperor Anastasius …Glorious Son, as one who is Roman born, I love, cherish, and admire the Roman emperor, and as a Christian, along with him who is zealous for God, I desire to possess knowledge of the truth.… I pray that Your Piety does not judge duty to the Divine Plan to be arrogance. I ask earnestly that Rome’s emperor be free from having it said of him that he took offense at the truth that is being brought
to his attention. Indeed, August Emperor, there are two [elements] through which this world is chiefly ruled, the sacred authority of pontiffs and royal power, of which that of priests is far weightier inasmuch as they even have to render an account at the Divine Judgment for these very kings who rule over people. You also are aware, Most Clement Son, that, while you take precedence over all humankind in dignity, nevertheless you piously bow [your] neck to those who preside over divine affairs and seek from
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them the means of your salvation. Consequently, you realize that in matters concerning the reception and correct administration of the heavenly sacraments, you ought to submit yourself to the religious hierarchy rather than rule over it, and that in these matters you should depend on their judgment and should not desire to bend them to your will. For if in matters that pertain to public order, these religious leaders also recognize that the imperial office was conferred on you by divine disposition and submit to your laws lest they seem to obstruct your decrees in purely mundane matters, is it not proper and agreeable, I ask you, that you obey with good will those who have been charged with administering the revered mysteries? In like manner, just as no light risk weighs on pontiffs who have kept silent in regard to that which pertains to the service of God, so also there is no little danger for those who show contempt—May it not be so!—when they ought to obey. If it is proper that the hearts of the faithful should be submissive to all priests in general who rightly administer divine things, how much more so should unanimous assent be given to the bishop of that see that God Most High willed to be preeminent over all priests, and that the devotion of the universal Church has continually honored? As Your Piety is clearly aware, no one can ever raise himself totally through human means to the privilege and place of recognition of him whom the voice of Christ
set before all, whom the Church has always regarded as worthy of veneration, and who is held in devotion as its primate. Things that are instituted by divine judgment can be attacked by presumptuous persons, but they cannot be subdued by any power whatsoever…. The authority of Your Piety has now also checked the public riots on the occasion of the games,84 and therefore, the masses of the city of Constantinople will necessarily obey you so much more for the salvation of their souls, if you, the emperor, lead the multitude back to the catholic and apostolic communion. Indeed, August Emperor, if anyone, perhaps, should attempt [to do] anything contrary to the laws of the state—May it not be so!—you could not allow it for any reason. Do you not think that it is in the interest of your conscience that the people subject to you be brought back to a pure and sound worship of the Divinity?… I now leave to your conscience, under divine judgment, which [course] should be better followed in this case, whether, as we desire, we all proceed at the same time to a guaranteed life or, as they demand, we hurl [ourselves] to a certain death.
84. A reference to the emperor’s attempt to curb the riots between the Blues and Greens that periodically broke out at the chariot races.
Guiding the Ship of Western Christendom 26. Pope Gregory I, LETTERS 85 Shortly after Gregory I assumed the papal throne in 590, he noted sadly in a letter to John, the patriarch of Constantinople, “I, unworthy and weak, have taken charge of an old and grievously shattered ship.”86 That ship was Rome, Italy, and the Western Roman Empire, and it was certainly shattered, but Gregory, who would guide the fortunes of the Western Church until his death on March 12, 604, proved worthy of his office and as equal as any human could have been to the great challenges facing him and Western society. The challenges were stupendous. Periodic plague, famines, and droughts killed off millions. In addition to natural disasters, wars and invasions added to the sum total of population loss and human misery. The cumulative effect was massive deurbanization and economic ruin throughout Italy. Rome, which had been besieged, captured, and sacked on several occasions, became a malaria-ridden, derelict town of ruins and deserted fields. 85. Pope Gregory I, Gregorii I Papae Registrum Epistolarum, ed. Paul Ewald and Ludwig M. Hartmann, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1957), 1:47–48, 187, 320–23, 485–86; 2:331, 334. 86. Ibid., 1:5.
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Faced with these crises, Pope Gregory could have spent his entire pontificate responding only to local disasters and needs. In fact, this native-born Roman aristocrat, who earlier had served as Rome’s chief civil leader, devoted large amounts of his energy as pope to caring for the spiritual and physical needs of the people of Italy. He even helped organize defenses against the Lombards. Notwithstanding local demands on his attention, Gregory did not neglect matters far removed from Italy’s borders. He carried on a lively correspondence with the emperor at Constantinople and with Eastern Christian bishops, and he also exhibited concern for the churches of North Africa. Perhaps most significant of all, he dispatched in 596 a band of forty monks to work as missionaries among the pagan Anglo-Saxon-Jutish settlers of faraway Britain. There, under the leadership of a monk named Augustine, they established a church at Canterbury in the kingdom of Kent in southeastern England. This act of religious charity, perhaps even optimism, in an age of general despair bore rich fruit. Through his actions, life, and writings, Gregory the Great played a crucial role in making the Roman papacy the moral and spiritual leader of the West.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the first letter. What is its tone and articulated policy? What does this allow you to infer about Gregory? 2. Consider his letter to the clergy of Milan. How did Gregory interpret the events of his day? 3. Consider the messages of the letters to Melitus and Augustine in the light of this letter to Milan. How might Gregory’s worldview have influenced his sending a mission to England and the policies he set out for those missionaries? 4. Why did Gregory take offense at John the Faster’s use of the title “ecumenical patriarch”? What does this suggest about Gregory the man and the pope? 5. Consider further Gregory’s letter to Emperor Mauricius. How did Gregory view the emperor’s role in Christendom? What did he expect from the emperor in faraway Constantinople? What does this suggest about Gregory’s view of the empire? 6. What do Gregory’s letters to Constantinople and Alexandria suggest about his vision of the Roman Church’s place within the universal Church? What do they allow you to infer about his view of church leaders outside of the orbit of Rome? 7. “Syncretism” is a term that refers to the adaptation of foreign cultural elements to a host culture. What do the letters to Mellitus and Augustine suggest about the process of cultural syncretism, so far as Germanic society’s adoption of Latin Christianity was concerned?
March 591, Gregory, to Peter, bishop of Terracina87 Joseph, a Jew, the bearer of this letter, has informed us that Your Fraternity expelled the Jews who reside in the walled town of Terracina from the place where they were accustomed to assemble for the celebration of their 87. A coastal town about thirty-five miles from Rome and an important stronghold of the Byzantine Empire. It had a sizeable Jewish population until early modern times.
festivities, and with your knowledge and consent, they moved to another place for similar celebrations of their festivals. And now, they complain that they have again been expelled from that place. But if this is true, we desire that Your Fraternity abstain from [giving] cause for grievance of this sort, and that they be allowed, as has been the custom, to gather at the place that, as we already said, they had acquired, with your knowledge, for their assemblies. For, it is necessary, by means of gentleness, kindness,
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friendly admonition, and persuasion, to gather together in unity those who dissent from the Christian religion, lest they, whom the sweetness of preaching and the anticipated terror of future judgment88 might have entertained [the thought of ] believing, be repelled by threats and acts of terror. It is therefore proper that they should gather to hear from you the word of God kindly [offered] rather than they be led to fear by an immoderate harshness.
June 595, Gregory to Mauricius Augustus Our most pious and God-appointed lord, among all the burdensome cares of empire, with righteous spiritual zeal pays careful attention to [supporting] a sense of
brotherhood among the clergy. Clearly, he piously and correctly understands that no person can exercise proper rule on Earth unless he knows how to deal with divine matters, and he also knows that the peace of the state depends on the peace of the universal Church. Indeed, Most Serene Lord, what human power, what strength of arm would dare raise a sacrilegious hand against the eminence of your most Christian empire, if its priests, as they should, strove with one mind to entreat their Redeemer on your behalf through [their] prayer and merits? What sword of a most savage people would rage with such cruelty for the slaughter of the faithful, were it not for the fact that our lives, we who are called priests but who are not, are weighed down by perfidious deeds?… We make common cause with the barbarians through our sins, and our faults, which weigh down the forces of the state, sharpen the swords of the enemy. Indeed, what shall we say for ourselves, who are unworthily set over God’s people, when we oppress them with the burdens of our sins and destroy by example what we preach with our tongues?… Our bones are wasted by fasts, but we are bloated in our minds. Our body is covered with rags, but in the pride of our heart, we surpass the imperial purple. We lie in ashes but look for high honors. Teachers of humility, we are masters of pride…. For this reason [my] most pious Lord most providentially seeks to deter those who attack [the empire] by promoting peace within the Church and by deeming it a worthy endeavor to bring back the hearts of priests to its harmony. This, indeed, is what I desire, and for myself, I give glad obedience to your most serene commands. Inasmuch, as it is truly not my cause, but God’s, and because not only I but the entire Church is disturbed, because the holy laws, because the venerable Council,90 because even the very commands of our Lord Jesus Christ are disturbed by the invention of a certain proud and haughty phrase, may [you], the Most Pious Lord, cut out the spot that is wounded and bind the resisting sick person in the restraints of imperial authority. For in curbing such matters, you provide relief to the state, and when you cut off such things, you assure a longer reign for yourself. To all who know the Gospel, it is clear that the Lord orally committed to the holy apostle, Peter, the prince of
88. By God at death. 89. A reference to the signs of End Times described in the New Testament’s Book of Revelation.
90. The Roman Church maintained that the ambiguous canon 6 of the Council of Nicaea of 325 recognized the primacy of the bishopric of Rome.
April 593, Gregory to the priests, deacons, and clergy of the church of Milan …Given that heavenly judgment provides pastors for people in accordance with what they deserve, seek after spiritual matters, love heavenly things, despise those things that are temporal and fleeting, and hold it as absolutely certain you will have a pastor pleasing to God if you please God by your actions. Behold, we now see in ruins all the things of this world that we used to hear from Sacred Scripture were doomed to perish. Cities are overthrown, fortresses uprooted, churches destroyed, no cultivator [of the soil] inhabits our land. Humanity’s sword incessantly rages in our very midst—we who are the very few left behind. Along with this, calamities strike us from above. Therefore, we see the evils of the world that that we heard long ago would descend [upon the world]; these very blows upon the regions of Earth have become like the pages of books to us.89 Therefore, as all things pass away, we should reflect on how all that we have loved was nothing. Look with an anxious mind, therefore, upon the approaching day of the Eternal Judge and, by repenting, anticipate its terrors. Wash away all the stains of [your] transgressions with [your] tears. Repress with a lamentation that lasts for a while the wrath that hangs over [you] eternally. When our loving Creator comes to judge, He will comfort us with all the greater favor in direct proportion to what He now sees as the punishment that we inflict upon ourselves for our own transgressions.
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all the apostles, care of the entire Church…. For to him it was said: “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed also in Heaven.”91 Behold, he received the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; the power to bind and loose is given him; the care of and first place in the entire Church is committed to him, and yet he is not called the universal apostle. But, the most holy man, my fellow-priest John, presumes to be called universal bishop.”92 I am compelled to cry out: “O tempora, O mores!”93 Behold! All regions of Europe have been given over to the law of the barbarians, cities are overthrown, fortresses uprooted, provinces depopulated, no cultivator [of the soil] inhabits the land, idol worshippers rage and daily dominate—all to the slaughter of the faithful—and still priests, who ought to lie weeping on the ground and in ashes, seek for themselves names of vanity and take pride in new and profane titles. Do I, Most Pious Lord, defend my own cause in this matter? Am I resentful because of a wrong done me? [No!] It is the cause of Almighty God. It is the cause of the universal Church…. Certainly, in honor of Blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, [the title universal] was offered by the venerable synod of Chalcedon to the Roman pontiff.94 But not one [bishop of Rome] has ever consented to use this unique title, lest, by giving something special to one priest, all priests would be deprived of the honor due them. How is it, then, that we do not seek the glory of this title, even when it is offered, but
91. Matthew, 16:18. 92. John IV, bishop of Constantinople (r. 582–95), venerated as Saint John the Faster in the Eastern Orthodox Church. Gregory was offended by John’s use of the title “ecumenical patriarch.” Gregory assumed that it implied a claim to rule over the universal Church. It seems, however, that the title simply meant that John was supreme within the region of his patriarchate, a right accorded the patriarchs of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch in canon 6 of the Council of Nicaea. 93. “Oh, how lamentable this age and its customs!” 94. Not so. Consult the Glossary at Patriarch.
another presumes to seize it for himself, even though it has not been offered?… Behold. We all suffer offense in this matter. Let the author of the offense be brought back to a proper way of life, and all priestly quarrels will end. For my part, I am the servant of all priests,95 as long as they live in a manner that befits priests. But whoever, through the swelling of vainglory, lifts up his neck against God Almighty and against the laws of the [Church] Fathers, I trust, by Almighty God, that such a man will not bend my neck to himself, not even with a sword…. July 597, Gregory to Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria96 Your most sweet Holiness has spoken much in his letter to me about the chair of Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, saying that he himself 97 now sits in that chair in a continuous manner through his successors…and, indeed, I gladly accepted all that was said, inasmuch as he has spoken to me about Peter’s chair who occupies Peter’s chair.98 Although special honor to me in no way delights me, nevertheless I truly rejoice because you, Most Holy One, have bestowed on me what you have given yourself. For who can be unaware that the holy Church has been made firm in the strength of the prince of the apostles, who derived his name from the firmness of his spirit, so that he was called Petrus, which comes from petra.99 To him it is said by the voice of Truth: “I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.”100 And again it is said to him: “When you are finally converted, strengthen your brothers.”101And once more: “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me? Then feed My sheep.”102 It follows from this that although there are many apostles, so far as primacy is concerned, the seat 95. Gregory’s favorite title was “servant [or slave] of the servants [slaves] of God,” which he is credited with coining. 96. Saint Eulogius of Alexandria in Egypt (r. 580–608), was a warm friend of the Roman papacy and a defender of its primacy. There are thirteen extant letters addressed by Gregory to this patriarch. 97. Saint Peter. For the Petrine claim of Alexandria, consult the Glossary at Patriarch. 98. Eulogius. 99. Greek for “rock.” 100. Matthew, 16:19. 101. Ibid., 22:32. 102. John, 21:17.
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of the prince of the apostles alone has grown strong in authority, which in three places is one see. For he himself exalted the see in which he deigned to reside and end his life on Earth. He himself honored the see to which he sent his disciple as evangelist. Peter himself strengthened the see in which, although he would leave it, he sat for seven years.103 Because, therefore, it is the see of one, and one see over which by Divine Authority three bishops now preside, whatever good I hear of you I impute to myself. If you believe anything good of me, impute this to your merits, because we are one in Him who says: “That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, and that they may be one in Us.”104 July 18, 601, Gregory to Mellitus [traveling] among the Franks105 Following the departure of our congregation that is with you, I have been rightly consumed by anxiety because I have heard nothing about the success of your journey. When, indeed, Almighty God has conducted you to our most reverend brother, Bishop Augustine, inform him that, after long deliberation, I have decided the following in regard to the issue of the Angles. The shrines of that people’s idols should be [only] minimally altered,106 but the idols that are in them must be destroyed. Take holy water and sprinkle it in these shrines, build altars, and deposit relics [in them]. For if these same shrines are well built, it is necessary to transfer them from the worship of devils to the service of the True God. In this manner, when the people see that their shrines are not torn down, they will be able to banish error from their hearts and more comfortably come to places they are familiar with, [now] knowing and adoring the True God. Since they are also accustomed to kill many oxen as sacrifices to demons, they should also have some solemn 103. Antioch. Consult the Glossary at Patriarch. 104. John, 17:21. 105. Abbot Mellitus led a second wave of missionaries to England that set out in 601. This letter reverses an earlier decision that the pope had made regarding how to deal with pagan temples. The letter was intended to reach Mellitus as he journeyed through the land of the Franks toward England. 106. Actually, the pre-Christian Germans largely worshipped out of doors, so the Jutes, Angles, and Saxons probably had few, if any, built shrines.
festivity of this sort but in a changed form. Thus, on the day of the dedication [of a church] or on the feast days of the holy martyrs whose relics are deposited there, they may construct around these churches, which have been transformed from [pagan] shrines, tents for themselves out of the branches of trees, and they may celebrate that holy day with religious feasts. Do not let them sacrifice animals to the Devil any longer, but let them slay animals for their own eating in praise of God, and let them give thanks to the Giver of all for their full stomachs. In this way, while they retain some bodily pleasures, they might more easily be able to incline their minds toward spiritual joys. Without a doubt, it is impossible to cut away everything all at once from hard hearts. One who strives to climb to the highest pinnacle must ascend by steps and paces; he is not raised up [there] in leaps and bounds…. July 601, Gregory to Bishop Augustine107 Inasmuch as there is one faith, why are there different practices among the churches? The Roman Church has one type of Mass; there is another in the churches of Gaul. My brother, you must bear in mind that you are acquainted with the practices of the Roman Church, in which you have been nurtured. I wish, however, that if you have found any practices that might be more pleasing to God Almighty, be they the customs of the Church of Rome, or of Gaul, or of any Church whatsoever, you carefully select out whatever you have been able to collect from these many churches and diligently introduce them to the Church of the Angles, which is still new to the faith, especially in regard to its customs. We ought not to love things for their location; rather, we should love locations for the good things. Therefore, choose from particular churches those things that are holy, religious, and proper, and, collecting them as it were into a bundle, plant them in the minds of the Angles for their use. 107. In 598, Augustine sent a list of questions to the pope regarding issues that vexed him. Gregory’s illness prevented a speedy answer, but in 601 he sent back his answers, along with Augustine’s commission as archbishop of all England. This excerpt is Gregory’s reply to one of those questions.
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A Conflict over Icons 27. Pope Gregory II, LETTER TO EMPEROR LEO III 108 Numerous factors, such as invasions by Lombards, Slavs, and Arabs, tended to pull Byzantium and the West apart, particularly after the age of Justinian I. Despite these centrifugal forces, Italy and the Roman papacy managed to maintain ties with Constantinople and the Eastern Church for many centuries after Justinian’s day. Indeed, in the century bracketed by the pontificates of Pope Theodore I (r. 642–49) and Pope Zacharias (r. 741–52), a significant number of the bishops of Rome were either Syrian or Greek. Contact, however, does not necessarily bring with it harmony or understanding, and during this era of the so-called Byzantine papacy, Rome and Constantinople had many disagreements on political and religious issues, the two being intimately connected. Tensions reached a new level in 726, when Emperor Leo III inaugurated a program of iconoclasm, or “image breaking.” Citing biblical injunctions against graven images, Leo and his advisors moved to stamp out what they considered to be an idolatrous practice: the use of sacred icons by the faithful in their worship. In their more extreme forms, some practices did border on image worship. Yet Leo’s attack on icons ran counter to a centuries-old tradition of using and venerating icons in order to raise the mind and heart of the worshipper to God. Leo’s program of iconoclasm, which became the official policy of the Byzantine Church down to 843 (except for a thirty-year hiatus from 786 to 816), infuriated large numbers of clerics, monks, and laity in the East and occasioned an equally severe reaction from the Roman papacy. In 726 or 727, Pope Gregory II, a Syrian of Arabic heritage, sent the following letter to Emperor Leo in response to the imperial decree against sacred images. Unlike the angry masses in Constantinople and elsewhere in the East, who could be kept in line, at least momentarily, by imperial troops, Gregory II was sufficiently far removed from Byzantium to act with relative impunity. Even so, Emperor Leo’s agent in Italy plotted the rebel pope’s murder, but without success.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to Gregory, how has Leo deviated from imperial tradition? 2. How does Gregory defend the use of icons? 3. On what grounds does Gregory base his refusal to bow to the emperor’s edict? 4. Emperor Leo III claimed, “I am the Deputy of Christ.” Did Gregory II agree? 5. What would Pope Gelasius I have thought of this letter? What about Pope Gregory I? 6. Consider the assumptions that underlie this letter. Does Gregory II see the Churches of Rome and Constantinople as essentially united or divided? 108. From Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, A Source Book for Medieval History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905), 96–100, passim.
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We have received the letter which you sent us by your ambassador Rufinus. We are deeply grieved that you should persist in your error, that you should refuse to recognize the things which are Christ’s, and to accept the teaching and follow the example of the holy fathers, the saintly miracle-workers and learned doctors…. But you have followed the guidance of your own wayward spirit and have allowed the exigencies of the political situation at your own court to lead you astray. You say: “I am both emperor and bishop.” But the emperors who were before you…proved themselves to be both emperors and bishops by following the true faith, by founding and fostering churches, and by displaying the same zeal for the faith as the popes. These emperors ruled righteously; they held synods in harmony with the popes, they tried to establish true doctrines, they founded and adorned churches. Those who claim to be both emperors and priests should demonstrate it by their works; you, since the beginning of your rule, have constantly failed to observe the decrees of the fathers. Wherever you found churches adorned and enriched with hangings you despoiled them. For what are our churches? Are they not made by hand of stones, timbers, straw, plaster, and lime? But they are also adorned with pictures and representations of the miracles of the saints, of the sufferings of Christ, of the holy mother herself, and of the saints and apostles; and men expend their wealth on such images. Moreover, men and women make use of these pictures to instruct in the faith their little children and young men and maidens in the bloom of youth and those from heathen nations; by means of these pictures the hearts and minds of men are directed to God. But you have ordered the people to abstain from the pictures, and have attempted to satisfy them with idle sermons, trivialities, music of pipe and zither, rattles and toys, turning them from the giving of thanks to the hearing of idle tales. You shall have your part with them, and with those who invent useless fables and babble of their ignorance. Hearken to us, emperor: abandon your present course and accept the holy Church as you found her, for matters of faith and practice concern not the emperor, but the pope, since we have the mind of Christ. The making of laws for the Church is one thing and the governing of the empire another; the ordinary intelligence which is used in administering worldly affairs is not adequate to the settlement of spiritual matters. Behold, I will show you now the difference between the palace and the Church, between the emperor and the pope; learn this and be saved; be no longer contentious. If anyone should take from you the
adornments of royalty, your purple robes, diadem, scepter, and your ranks of servants, you would be regarded by men as base, hateful, and abject; but to this condition you have reduced the churches, for you have deprived them of their ornaments and made them unsightly. Just as the pope has not the right to interfere in the palace or to infringe upon the royal prerogatives, so the emperor has not the right to interfere in the churches, or to conduct elections among the clergy, or to consecrate, or to administer the sacraments, or even to participate in the sacraments without the aid of a priest; let each one of us abide in the same calling wherein he is called of God. Do you see, emperor, the difference between popes and emperors?… Those emperors who have lived piously in Christ have obeyed the popes, and not vexed them. But you, emperor, since you have transgressed and gone astray, and since you have written with your own hand and confessed that he who attacks the fathers is to be execrated, have thereby condemned yourself by your own sentence and have driven from you the Holy Spirit. You persecute us and vex us tyrannically with violent and carnal hand. We, unarmed and defenseless, possessing no earthly armies, call now upon the prince of all the armies of creation, Christ seated in the heavens, commanding all the hosts of celestial beings, to send a demon upon you; as the apostle says: “To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved.”109 Do you see now, emperor, to what a pitch of impudence and inhumanity you have gone? You have driven your soul headlong into the abyss, because you would not humble yourself and bend your stubborn neck. When a pope is able by his teaching and admonition to bring the emperor of his time before God, guiltless and cleansed from all sin, he gains great glory from Him on the holy day of resurrection, when all our secrets and all our works are brought to light to our confusion in the presence of his angels. But we shall blush for shame, because you will have lost your soul by your disobedience, while the popes that preceded us have won over to God the emperors of their times. How ashamed we will be on that day that the emperor of our time is false and ignominious instead of great and glorious. Now, therefore, we exhort you to do penance; be converted and turn to the truth; obey the truth as you found and received it. Honor and glorify our holy and glorious fathers and doctors who dispelled the blindness from our eyes and restored us to sight. You ask: “How was it that 109. 1 Corinthians, 5:5.
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nothing was said about images in six councils?”110 What then? Nothing was said about bread or water, whether that should be eaten or not; whether this should be drunk or not; yet these things have been accepted from the beginning for the preservation of human life. So also, images have been accepted; the popes themselves brought them to councils,111 and no Christian would set out on a journey without images, because they were possessed of virtue and approved of by God. We exhort you to be both emperor and bishop, as you have called yourself in your letter. But if you are ashamed to take this upon yourself as emperor, then write to all the regions to which you have given offence, that Gregory the pope and Germanos the patriarch of Constantinople112 are at fault in the matter of the images [that is, are responsible for the destruction of the images], and we will take upon ourselves the responsibility for the sin, as we have authority from God to loose and to bind all things, earthly and celestial; and we will 110. The (up-to-then) six ecumenical councils, whose decisions were considered infallible: Nicaea (325); Constantinople (381); Ephesus (431); Chalcedon (451); II Constantinople (553); and III Constantinople (681). All had been held in the East under imperial patronage. 111. No pope attended any of these early ecumenical councils. 112. Saint Germanos I (r. 715–30) resisted iconoclasm.
free you from responsibility in this matter. But no, you will not do this! Knowing that we would have to render account to Christ the Lord for our office, we have done our best to convert you from your error, by admonition and warning, but you have drawn back, you have refused to obey us or Germanos or our fathers, the holy and glorious miracle-workers and doctors, and you have followed the teaching of perverse and wicked men who wander from the truth. You shall have your lot with them. As we have already informed you, we shall proceed on our way to the extreme western regions, where those who are earnestly seeking to be baptized are awaiting us. For although we have sent them bishops and clergymen from our church, their princes have not yet been induced to bow their heads and be baptized, because they hope to be received into the Church by us in person. Therefore, we gird ourselves for the journey in the goodness of God, lest perchance we should have to render account for their condemnation and for our faithlessness. May God give you prudence and patience, that you may be turned to the truth from which you have departed; may he again restore the people to their one shepherd, Christ, and to the one fold of the orthodox churches and prelates, and may the Lord our God give peace to all the Earth now and forever to all generations. Amen.
Organizing a Church in Northern England 28. The Venerable Bede, LETTER TO BISHOP ECGBERT 113 Irish monks from Iona established themselves on Lindisfarne off the northeastern coast of England in 634, where they founded a monastery and from which they launched a vigorous missionary effort in the kingdom of Northumbria. Due to their efforts, within about twenty years, Northumbria was largely “Christianized,” whatever that meant in the seventh century. The Roman mission that had arrived in southeastern England in 597 was slow to move out of the kingdom of Kent, but Roman forms of Christianity still filtered north, and clashed with Celtic traditions in Northumbria. The problem was that although united in doctrine, the Celtic and Roman Churches differed in three significant areas: ritual; the method for computing Easter; and organization. The differences came to a head in 664 at the Synod of Whitby. The king of Northumbria, Osuiu, followed Celtic traditions, whereas his wife, Eanflaed, had been educated in the Roman traditions; when he was celebrating Easter, she was still in the midst of the Lenten fast. Ostensibly, the king convened the synod in order to settle the issue of which method for computing Easter would be followed. In fact, it determined which ecclesiastical system would win out in northern England. Rome was the winner, when the king decided 113. Venerabilis Baedae, Historiam Ecclesiasticam Gentis Anglorum, Historiam Abbatum, Epistolam ad Ecgberctum, ed. Charles Plummer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896), 405, 408–14.
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Illus. 4.3 A fragment of a sandstone frieze (a horizontal decorative band) from the Abbey Church of Saint Paul, Jarrow. Carved probably in Bede’s day, the sculpture combines Roman, Anglo-Saxon, Irish, and Pictish artistic traditions. The scene depicts Christ, “the True Vine” (John, 15:1–17), whose fruit feeds the birds. It is likely that Viking raiders, who sacked the monastery in 794, destroyed the frieze.
that, whereas the Irish could boast of such saints as Columba, Rome had the papal successor of Saint Peter, the keeper of the keys of Heaven. Shortly thereafter, Benedictine forms of monasticism began to make serious inroads into Northumbria. A key figure in this process was the Anglo-Saxon abbot Saint Benedict Biscop (ca. 628–90). In 674, he established the Benedictine monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth on England’s northeastern coast (a short distance from Lindisfarne), and in 685 dedicated its sister-house of Saint Paul at Jarrow, seven miles away. Benedict, an avid collector of books, was responsible for making this dual monastery a major center of scholarship. From roughly the mid-seventh to mid-eighth century, Irish, Mediterranean, and Anglo-Saxon cultural influences blended together in northeast England to create a period of religious, intellectual, scholarly, and artistic flowering known as the Northumbrian Renaissance. Of all the saints and scholars involved in this short-lived era of cultural ferment, the greatest was the Venerable Bede (ca. 672–735). Saint Bede was arguably the finest historian in the West between the years 400 and 1100. His History of the Church of the English People, which traces the fortunes of Christianity in England from Roman times to 731, is a model of painstaking research in an age and culture that little understood or appreciated historical scholarship. The source that appears here consists of excerpts from Bede’s last known work, a lengthy letter to Saint Ecgbert (d. 766), bishop of York, which Bede composed in 734. A year later, Ecgbert became Archbishop Ecgbert, when York was elevated to a position of primacy in England, second only to Canterbury. The archbishop of York was now the metropolitan primate of northern England.
Questions for Consideration 1. How deep does the “Christianization” of Northumbria appear to have been by 734? 2. That aside, what problems confronted the Church of Northumbria? 3. Despite its problems, were there any positive factors that potentially could work in the favor of the Northumbrian Church?
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To the Most Beloved and Most Reverend Bishop Ecgbert, greetings from Bede, servant of Christ. I remember that you said last year, when I tarried with you for some days in your monastery for the purpose of studying, that you wished, when you returned to that same place this year, that I converse with you regarding our mutual interest in learning. Had it been possible, God willing, to realize it, there would be no need to write to you…. This cannot be the case, as you know, because it so happens that my state of health prevents it. Nevertheless, motivated by brotherly devotion in response to your affection, I have taken care to do what I could, namely sending by way of a letter that which I could not [convey] through speech by being [with you] in person…. 5. And because distances are far too great in the regions that are part of the diocese that you preside over for you to travel about through all of them by yourself and to preach the word of God in individual villages and fields, even in the span of an entire year’s cycle, it is totally necessary that you take on more helpers in your sacred work, namely by ordaining priests and appointing teachers. They will engage in preaching the word of God in the individual villages and consecrating the holy sacraments and especially performing the service of holy baptism when a favorable moment arises. In exercising this preaching to the people, I think that, above all else, in every instance it is necessary to be sure that you take care that the Catholic faith, which is contained in the Apostles’ Creed114 and the Lord’s Prayer, which the Scripture of the Holy Gospel teaches us,115 is deeply imprinted on the memory of all who belong to your region. And, indeed, they who have learned how to use the Latin language for the purpose of reading have certainly learned them perfectly, but make the ignorant, that is they who only know their own language, learn them in their own tongue and make these people repeat them diligently. This should be done not only for the laity, that is they who still live a secular life, but also for [those] clerics or monks who are ignorant of the Latin language. And so the entire body of the faithful might learn how to believe [and] how, by firmly believing, it might be able to defend and arm itself against the assaults of unclean spirits, and the entire choir of God’s worshippers might know what, above all else, should be sought after from Divine Mercy. Because of this I have often given to many uneducated priests both of 114. An ancient statement of Christian doctrine that goes back at least to the late fourth century. 115. Matthew, 6:5–15; Luke, 11:1–13.
these, namely the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, translated into the language of the Angles…. 7. Take note of the exceedingly great sin that they commit who most diligently demand earthly riches from those who hear them116 and do not attempt to expend any labor whatsoever on their eternal salvation by preaching, exhorting, and admonishing [them]. Weigh this thoroughly and with the most careful attention, Most Beloved Bishop. For we have heard and it is rumored that there are many villages and hamlets of our people that are situated in inaccessible mountains and overgrown forests, where for many years no bishop has been seen, who might perform there some ministerial function or confer some heavenly grace. Nevertheless, not one of these [places] is, in fact, exempt from paying taxes to the bishop. These places not only lack bishops, who through the laying on of hands might confirm those who have been baptized,117 they also, in fact, lack any teacher who could teach them the truth of the faith and the difference between good and evil acts. And so it is that certain bishops not only do not teach the Gospel or lay hands on the faithful without charge but, it is true, even worse, having taken money from those who hear them—something that the Lord forbade118—they disdain to exercise the duty of preaching the Word, which the Lord had commanded119…. 8. …For when a bishop, who is devoted to the love of money, has taken under his nominal rule a region that is so highly populated that he cannot, in the span of an entire year, reasonably travel through or around it, he has proven to be the cause of a fatal danger to himself and to those over whom he falsely bears the title “bishop.” 9. By briefly raising the issue to Your Holiness, Beloved Bishop, regarding the exceedingly miserable calamity under which our people labor, I earnestly beg that you labor to bring back to the way that they should be those things that you perceive to have been most perversely done. For you have, as I believe, a most ready helper for such a righteous labor, namely King Ceolwulf, who, due to his innate love of religion, will take care, from this point onward, to support with steady effort whatever relates to the rule of piety and, most of all, aid in the completion of 116. Consult the Glossary at Simony. 117. The sacrament of confirmation that is bestowed by a bishop on baptized young adults in order to strengthen them in their faith. 118. Matthew, 10:8. 119. Matthew, 28:19; Mark, 16:15; Luke, 14:23.
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those matters that you, who are his most beloved relative, have begun well.120 Regarding this, I want you to admonish him tactfully so that you might make it possible that the state of our people’s Church is improved in your days to a point of its being better than it has been up to now. This cannot be accomplished in any better manner, so it seems to me, than if more bishops are consecrated for our people…. 10. I would consider it appropriate, after holding a council and once the consent of a majority is obtained, that, by simultaneous pontifical and royal edicts, some monastic site should be found, where an episcopal see could be established. And lest, perhaps, the abbot or the monks attempt to contravene or resist this decree, they should receive license to elect one of their own to be ordained as bishop and to exercise episcopal supervision over all of the adjoining lands that belong to the same diocese, along with supervision over the monastery itself. Otherwise, if it happens that it is not possible to find anyone in
that monastery who is fit to be ordained as a bishop, in accordance with canonical law,121 the [right of choosing] who will be ordained as bishop of their diocese still rests with the congregation of these monks. If, with the Lord’s help, you thus carry out what we suggest, I think that you will very easily obtain this [objective], namely that, in accordance with the decrees of the Apostolic See, the Church of York shall have a metropolitan bishop. And if it is seen to be necessary that, in order to support a bishopric, some monastery should be expanded somewhat more abundantly in regard to its lands and possessions, there are innumerable places, as we all know, that are absurdly given the name “monastery” but possess absolutely nothing of the monastic way of life. Of these I wish some to be transferred by the authority of a synod from luxury to moral purity, from emptiness to truth, from a gluttonous belly and palate to a temperate and pious heart, and to be used to aid the episcopal see that ought to have been recently created.122
120. Ceolwulf of Northumbria (r. 729–37) was Ecgbert’s first cousin, and the person to whom Bede dedicated his History of the Church of the English People. He abdicated his throne in order to enter a monastery and was subsequently canonized as a saint.
121. Consult the Glossary. 122. A number of prominent cathedral churches in England bear the honorific title of “Minster,” such as the York Minster. Derived from the Latin monasterium, the title is witness to the fact that many English episcopal sees developed around monasteries.
Converting Pagan Germans 29. Willibald, LIFE of SAINT BONIFACE 123 By the last quarter of the seventh century, English missionaries had begun to travel to the continent to bring the faith to the Frisians, who inhabited a region that today constitutes much of the Netherlands. These English missionaries were mainly Benedictine monks, and their work involved not only trying to convert non-Christians in lands that had never been part of the Roman Empire but also expending efforts to reform the Frankish Church, which was in disarray in the latter stages of the Merovingian era. The most famous of the missionary-monks was Saint Boniface (ca. 675–754), the “Apostle to the Germans.” Born in Wessex, he was given the name Wynfrith at baptism and entered a nearby monastery in childhood. In 718, he left England never to return, and the following year received a commission from Pope Gregory II to preach to the pagans of northern Europe. It might have been at that time that the pope bestowed on him the name “Boniface” (Good Fate). In 722, he returned to Rome, where he was consecrated as a bishop. Returning to Germany, where he was assisted by a significant number of English monks and nuns and some secular clerics, he preached the faith, converted large numbers, and established monasteries and churches. In 732, Pope Gregory III raised him to the rank of archbishop of Germany. By 741, Boniface had eight subordinate, or suffragan, bishops who were spread throughout 123. Vitae Sancti Bonifatii Archiepiscopi Moguntini, ed. Wilhelm Levison, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum (Hannover and Leipzig: Hahn, 1905), 26–27, 29–32.
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Germany and under his supervision. In 754, he and about fifty of his companions were killed in Frisia by pagan bandits. His remains were laid to rest in the church of the Benedictine monastery of Fulda in Hesse, which became a center of pilgrimage and one of Western Europe’s premier centers of learning in the centuries that immediately followed. Our source is from the Life of Saint Boniface, by Willibald, who composed the work within fourteen years of Boniface’s death. Willibald was an English priest and missionary who apparently never knew Boniface but depended for his information on Boniface’s companions.
Questions for Consideration 1. Ceowulf, Dettic, Deorulf, and Charles Martel: What did they have in common, and why was it significant? 2. How deep does the “Christianization” of the North appear to have been in Boniface’s day? 3. What was so significant about Boniface’s cutting down the Donar Oak? 4. What was significant about his building an oratory from its timber? 5. Review the letter of Gregory II to Emperor Leo III (source 27), and consider his statement in the last paragraph that he is prepared to travel to the yet unconverted peoples of the far western regions. How does this biography of Boniface help us place that statement into historical context?
When he had acquired for the Lord a vast number of Frisians and when many, taught by him regarding spiritual doctrine, had come to a knowledge of the truth in the beaming rays of the true light, then, indeed, under the protection of the Lord, he traveled to other parts of Germany in order to preach. And [he came to] the aforementioned place,124 where twin German brothers ruled, namely Dettic and Deorulf. With the Lord’s help, he had snatched them from the sacrilegious guilt of worshipping idols, which were wrongly used in the service of a so-called Christianity. Additionally, by making clear the way of right understanding, he convinced a huge mass of people to lay aside horrific errors [and] drew them away from the malevolent superstition of heathenism. And having gathered together a congregation of God’s servants, he constructed a small chapel. Likewise, while preaching the rules of the Gospel near the Saxon border, he freed from demonic captivity a Hessian populace that up to that point wandered erroneously in pagan rites. After he had baptized many thousands of people who had been cleansed of an ancient paganism, he sent to Rome a fit messenger and faithful bearer of his letter, a man called Bynnan, and through the medium of a voiceless letter 124. Amöneburg in west-central Germany.
disclosed in an orderly fashion to the venerable father, the pontiff of the Apostolic See, all the things that, by the gift of the Lord, had been accomplished all around him. And he showed how a huge multitude of people, illuminated by the Divine Spirit, had received the sacrament of rebirth.125 But also he wrote further regarding those matters that pertained to the daily needs of God’s Church and the people’s progress, requesting the advice of the Apostolic See…. Pope Gregory II sends back a letter commanding Boniface’s presence in Rome. Boniface immediately sets out, and upon reaching the pope, offers his profession of faith. After that, he discusses with Gregory his work among the Germans. The pope then informs Boniface that he will consecrate him as a bishop. When the holy day of the sacred solemnity (and the feast day of Saint Andrew) and the day set aside for the ordination had dawned,126 then the holy pontiff of the Apostolic See imposed on him the episcopal dignity and the name Boniface,127 and he presented to him the little book 125. Baptism. 126. November 30, 722. 127. Wynfrith had borne the name Boniface since at least 719; as noted above, Gregory II probably bestowed the name on him during his first visit to Rome.
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in which the most sacred laws of the Church’s constitution have been compiled in episcopal synods, and he commanded that from this moment onward this order of pontifical, institutional discipline remain unchanged in his hands and that the people subject to him be instructed by these examples. But he [also] bestowed on both him and all persons subject to him now and forever the friendship of the Holy Apostolic See. And through his most sacred letter, he placed this holy man, now raised to the rank of bishop, under the royal power and devotion of glorious Duke Charles.128… Indeed, when by this time many Hessians had been brought under the Catholic faith and, confirmed by the grace of the sevenfold Spirit, accepted the laying on of hands,129 others, in fact, not yet strengthened in soul, refused to receive wholly the lessons of the pure faith. Moreover, other persons secretly and others, on the other hand, openly were sacrificing to trees and springs. Others, indeed, secretly and others even openly practiced inspection of animals and divination,130 sleight of hand and 128. Charles Martel, duke and prince of the Franks and the true power in Francia from 718 to his death in 741. In 751, his son, Pepin, became king of the Franks. 129. A reference to Isaiah, 11:2–3, a passage that Christians interpreted as enumerating the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that are bestowed through Confirmation: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. 130. Foretelling the future by interpreting certain signs. Among these was inspecting the organs of sacrificed animals.
incantations. Others, to be sure, turned to interpreting omens and the flights of birds, and they practiced various sacrificial rites. Meanwhile, others, who were of sounder mind, rejecting every form of heathen profanation, committed none of these things. With the advice and consent of these persons [and] with the servants of God131 standing by his side in a place called Gaesmer,132 he [Boniface] attempted to cut down a certain oak tree of wondrous size that is called, in the ancient language of the pagans, the Oak of Jove.133 Strengthened by a constancy of mind (for indeed, a large mass of pagans was present who were most passionately cursing inwardly the enemy of their gods), he notched the tree. But when, in fact, he had cut into the tree just a bit, suddenly the tree’s immense bulk, propelled by a divine blast of wind from above, crashed down, with its crown of leaves shaking violently. As if assisted by a command from on high (for the brothers who were standing by did nothing), it broke into four pieces, and four trunks of immense size and equal length were there to be seen. Upon seeing this, the pagans who earlier had cursed [him], now, to the contrary, abandoned their former abusive language, believed, and blessed the Lord. Then, moreover, the most holy bishop, after first discussing it with the brothers, constructed from the material of the aforementioned tree a wooden oratory, and dedicated it to the honor of Saint Peter. 131. Monks. 132. The location is uncertain. 133. The Donar Oak, or Oak of Thor, the Teutonic sky-god.
Chapter 5
The Carolingian Experiment
Illus. 5.1 Charlemagne’s Palace Chapel at Aachen consecrated in 805 by Pope
The Merovingian royal family, the dynasty Leo III. Charlemagne’s architect, Odo of Metz, modeled the chapel upon begun by Clovis, reigned in Francia for two Emperor Justinian I’s Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna, which Charles visited and a half centuries, but by the early seventh on three occasions. A second source of inspiration was probably the rotunda of century, Frankish nobles were increasingly the Chapel of the Anastasis (Resurrection) located within the Church of the able to rule their lives and lands largely Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. The chandelier was donated in the twelfth century undisturbed by the king. One partial cor- by Emperor Frederick I and his wife Beatrice. rective to this tendency toward political fragmentation and royal impotence was the growing power of a class of ministers known as the mayors of the palace. Originally overseers of the king’s household, the mayors became the principals behind the throne, and one mayor, Charles Martel (ca. 688–741), gave his name to a dynasty that became the new royal family of the Franks in 751. The Carolingians not only replaced the Merovingians, they produced Western emperors from 800 to 899. Charles Martel’s cause was supported by the Roman Church and the church people in Francia who were loyal to Rome. The reason was simple: Charles was a patron of church reform, and he lent the weight of his authority to the missionary labors of Boniface and like-minded missionaries. 112
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In 751, Charles Martel’s son deposed the last Merovingian monarch and began to reign as King Pepin I (r. 751–68). Pope Zacharias had countenanced the coup, and in 754, Pope Stephen II traveled across the Alps to anoint Pepin and consecrated Pepin’s two young sons, Charles and Carloman, as patricians of the Romans, a title that he also bestowed on Pepin. To this point, bestowal of the honor had been the exclusive prerogative of emperors and was the title borne by the exarch of Ravenna, the emperor’s representative in Italy. In order to understand the pope’s usurping this right, we need look no further than the forged Donation of Constantine, which apparently dates from this period and is dealt with in the “Student’s Guide.” Whatever the legal basis for Pope Stephen’s actions, this anointing invested Pepin with the aura of divine approval. Pepin’s accession to the throne coincided with the papacy’s search for a defender against resurgent Lombard aggression in Italy. The Byzantine administration in central Italy had collapsed by 750, and the Iconoclastic Controversy still burned bright. With no help expected from imperial forces, the papacy needed to call for help from across the Alps. The Donation of Constantine confirmed its right to do so. King Pepin and later his son Charles did not disappoint the pope. Pepin twice marched into Italy, where he momentarily blunted the Lombardic threat to the papacy. Renewed Lombard aggression brought King Charles (r. 768–814) into Italy, as well. Following a decisive military victory, Charles shut away the Lombard king in a monastery and in 774 assumed for himself the title king of the Lombards. He was on his way to becoming Charlemagne—Charles the Great. A quarter century later, on Christmas Day 800, the people and clergy of Rome acclaimed Charles emperor, and Pope Leo III placed an imperial crown on his head. The honor was deserved. Charles was Western Europe’s dominant monarch, and he held lands extensive enough to be termed an empire. More than that, many of his contemporaries saw him as the only logical heir of Roman imperial legitimacy. Unfortunately, Charlemagne’s heirs were unable and unwilling to hold his empire together. In 843, Charles’s three grandsons divided it up into three kingdoms, thereby effectively killing the Carolingian experiment in empire. Nonetheless, the largely honorific title of emperor remained alive, to be passed among various Carolingian monarchs throughout the rest of the century. The feeble reign of Louis the Child, the last Carolingian king of the East Franks, ended in 911, and the reign of Louis V, the last Carolingian monarch of the West Franks, ended with his death in 987. With these events, the Carolingians passed out of history. Before this inglorious end, the Carolingians had produced an empire and a modest renaissance in arts and letters. Perhaps most important of all, their actions and posterity’s memory of those deeds were instrumental in shaping the body and spirit of the First Europe. The sources in this chapter shed light on some of the factors that contributed to the fairly rapid rise and almost equally rapid demise of Carolingian greatness.
Charlemagne The imperial coronation of Charles the Great by Pope Leo III is a memorable symbol of the fusion of three of the First Europe’s constituent elements: the memory and legitimacy of the Roman Empire, Latin Christianity, and Germanic culture.1 As is true of all symbolically significant historical events, however, the myths and drama associated with this event tend to obscure the historical setting in which it took place. The sources included in this section combine to place Charlemagne into that fuller historical context. Source 30 provides a Carolingian interpretation of Emperor Charles and his relationship with 1. See Chapter 2, pp. 26–27, for a discussion of the four constituent elements.
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the Roman papacy. The three letters that comprise source 31 reflect Charles’s mind and policies at the height of his powers, and source 32 provides a glimpse of the laws Charles issued as he wrestled with the realities of governing his lands before and after 800. Source 33, a mosaic at the papacy’s Lateran Palace, presents Pope Leo III’s view of Charlemagne’s relationship with the See of Saint Peter after Charles had been on the throne for fully three decades.
The Great Deeds of Charles the Great 30. Einhard, THE LIFE OF CHARLES THE GREAT 2 Charles the Great ruled a major portion of continental Europe for close to half a century. His efforts to expand the boundaries of Latin Christendom and impose an order based on his understanding of Christian principles won him a reputation that extended all the way to the court of Caliph Harun alRashid in Baghdad. Within a few years of his death, as Carolingian unity and order began to crumble, Westerners fondly looked back on Charles’s reign as a golden age. One of Charles’s many accomplishments was his patronage of scholarship on a modest but historically significant scale, a phenomenon often referred to as the Carolingian Renaissance. One of the scholars drawn to Charles’s patronage was Einhard, a Frankish intellectual who had been educated at the monastery of Fulda.3 Fresh from this education, Einhard arrived at Charles’s court at Aachen in the 790s. Einhard was vastly talented in a wide variety of areas. As an architect, he supervised the construction of several of Charles’s buildings at Aachen. Einhard also served Charles as an ambassador and was a poet of considerable skill. In all likelihood, he succeeded Alcuin of York as master of the court school when the Englishman retired in 796. Needless to say, Einhard came to know Charles quite well during the last two decades of the emperor’s life. Following Charles’s death, Einhard served as private secretary to Emperor Louis the Pious (r. 813–40), retiring in 830. Early in his retirement years, Einhard undertook to write a biography of Emperor Charles. It appears that his primary reason for engaging in this task was to instruct Louis, Charles’s son and successor, on the qualities that an effective Christian-Frankish emperor should have. This tutelage by way of a memoir occurred at the very moment when family quarrels were pulling Louis’s empire apart. In the following excerpts, Einhard describes Charles’s Saxon wars, his diplomatic relations, his attitude toward learning, his character and religiosity, his interactions with Christians far from Francia, including the Roman papacy, and Louis’s imperial coronation in 813.
Questions for Consideration 1. What does the Saxon War allow us to infer about Charles? 2. Consider Einhard’s report of Charles’s diplomatic relations (Chapters XVI and XXVII). After you have weighed and decided the degree of credibility of Einhard’s account, what do you conclude regarding extent and nature of his diplomacy? 3. What light does Chapter XXV shed on Charles’s attitude toward and policies regarding learning? 4. In what ways, if at all, did Charles act like a Christian emperor even before Christmas Day 800?
2. Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni, ed. Ph. Jaffe (Berlin: Weidmann, 1876), 31–32, 42–43, 46–49, 50. 3. See the introductions to sources 22, 29, and 31.
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5. Einhard’s statement that Charles initially had an aversion to the imperial title has puzzled many historians. From other sources, we know that on Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo placed a crown on the Frankish king’s head, and the people assembled in the Basilica of Saint Peter acclaimed Charles emperor. Compare these facts with Einhard’s treatment of that day, and also compare that Roman ceremony with the manner in which Louis the Pious was made emperor. Now can you think of any reason why Charles might have been displeased thirteen years earlier? (Note that Charles never returned to Rome after leaving in 801.) 6. According to Einhard, what were Charles’s most sterling qualities? Which of them probably contributed to the success of his reign? Which of them contributed to the legend of Charlemagne as emperor-hero?
VII. …No struggle that the Frankish people undertook was carried on with such persistence and bitterness or was so laborious because the Saxons, as was true for almost all the tribes inhabiting Germany, were naturally fierce, were dedicated to the worship of devils, and were hostile to our religion. And they did not consider it to be dishonorable to defile and transgress all human and divine law. Then there were the circumstances that daily disturbed the peace. Specifically, our and their borders passed almost in their entire extent through open plain, except in a few places, where significantly large forests or mountain-ridges intervened, thereby making the boundaries well defined. As a consequence, murders, robberies, and arson were ceaseless on both sides. In this way, the Franks became so enraged that they decided that it was a good idea that they no longer conduct reprisals but rather undertake an open war against them. And so, a war was undertaken against them that was waged continuously for thirty-three years with great fury on both sides, but was more ruinous for the Saxons than for the Franks.4 In fact, it could have been ended sooner were it not for the Saxons’ treachery. It is hard to say how often they were defeated and humbly surrendered themselves to the king, promised to do what they were ordered to do, without delay furnished the hostages that were demanded, and received the envoys sent to them. At various times they were so defeated and weakened that they even promised to renounce the worship of devils and to willingly submit themselves to the Christian religion. But as often as they were inclined to do these things, just as often they were ever in a rush to violate these promises. 4. From 772 to 804, or for thirty-two years, Charles’s armies embarked on at least eighteen separate campaigns in Saxony.
Thus, I cannot say with certainty which of these [courses of action] they found more appealing and easier to do. To be sure, scarcely a year passed from the beginning of the war with them that there was not a turnaround of that sort on their part. But the king’s steadiness of purpose and his unwavering singlemindedness in both adversity and times of good fortune could not be defeated by any fickleness on their part nor could he be turned away in exhaustion from the tasks that he had undertaken. For he never allowed any of them who did anything of this sort to go unpunished. In that situation he either personally led an army or sent one led by his counts5 to exact revenge for their deceit and to impose proper punishment on them. Finally, after he had conquered and asserted his authority over all who had offered resistance, he transported ten thousand people from among those who dwelt along both banks of the Elbe River, and settled them, along with their wives and children, in many different groups here and there throughout Gaul and Germany. The war, which had dragged on for so many years, ended with their accepting the terms imposed by the king; namely renunciation of devil worship and the religious customs inherited from their ancestors, acceptance of the sacraments of the Christian faith and religion, and union with the Franks, thereby becoming one people with them…. XVI. He also increased the glory of his kingdom by establishing a bond of friendship with certain kings and peoples. For example, he established such a bond with Alfonso, king of Galicia and Asturias that, whenever he sent letters or envoys to Charles, he insisted that he should 5. Counts administered an area that was usually coterminous with an episcopal diocese. Chapter 34 of the Capitulary on Saxony delineates some of a count’s responsibilities.
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be called nothing other than Charles’s “man.”6 He also, through his generosity, bent the kings of the Scots to his will to such a degree that they never called him anything other than “lord” and themselves his subjects and servants. Letters that they sent him exist that express their feelings of this sort toward him.7 He had such a bond of friendship with Aaron, king of Persia, who held almost all of the East except for India, that Aaron preferred his goodwill to the friendship of all other kings and princes in the entire world and thought that he alone was due his [demonstrations of ] honor and generosity.8 Accordingly, when his legates, whom he had dispatched with offerings to the most Holy Sepulcher of our Lord and Savior and site of the Resurrection,9 came to Aaron, and relayed to him their lord’s wishes, he not only granted what they requested be done but also permitted that this sacred place of Salvation be reckoned as under Charles’s jurisdiction.10 Aaron sent along his own envoys with the legates who were returning home and dispatched to him costly gifts, among which were garments, spices, and other riches of the lands of the East. Inasmuch as he had asked him for an elephant a few years earlier, he sent him the only one he had.11 6. Alfonso II, the Chaste (r. 783 and 791–842), ruled over a Christian enclave in northwestern Spain. Threatened by Muslim attacks from the south, he sent embassies to Charles in 796, 797, and 798, seeking his help. These diplomatic overtures strengthened Alfonso’s legitimacy when Charles recognized Alfonso as king of Asturias. 7. There is no extant correspondence between Charles and any Gaelic king, but the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 8. Harun [Aaron] al-Rashid, caliph of Baghdad (r. 786–809). His reign was the high point of Abbasid power and prosperity. The caliph and the Frankish king had mutual interests inasmuch as they had a common enemy in the Umayyad caliph of Cordoba in Spain, and both also sought to put pressure on Constantinople. Charles sent three missions to Baghdad, and Harun dispatched at least two embassies to Charles. Charles’s father, King Pepin, had begun diplomatic relations with Baghdad as early as 765. 9. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. 10. Charles had sent an ambassador to Jerusalem in 799. In a public ceremony in the Basilica of Saint Peter in Rome on December 23, 800, two monks, who had accompanied the ambassador on his return journey to the West, bestowed on Charles a banner and the keys to the Holy Sepulcher and city that the patriarch of Jerusalem had sent as symbols of Charles’s moral authority. 11. The elephant, named Abul-Abbas, arrived in Aachen in July 802, brought there by Charles’s envoy to Baghdad, Isaac the Jew.
The emperors of Constantinople, Nicephorus, Michael, and Leo,12 also freely sought his friendship and an alliance and sent many envoys to him. When, however, he assumed the title of emperor, he certainly aroused their suspicion, as if he wished to rip the empire away from them. So he concluded an ironclad treaty with them so that there would be no reason for offence between the parties, for the Romans and the Greeks are always suspicious of Frankish power.13 Hence there is this Greek proverb: “Have a Frank as a friend; do not have him as a neighbor.”14 … XXV. He was exceedingly and abundantly eloquent and could express whatever he wished with the utmost clarity. He was not merely satisfied with speaking in his native tongue, but also expended labor learning foreign languages. Among these, he learned Latin to the degree that he was able to speak it as well as his native language. Greek, however, he could better understand than speak. In fact, he was eloquent to such a degree that he might even appear to be loquacious. He most zealously cultivated the liberal arts,15 highly respected those who taught them, and conferred great honors upon them. He listened to the grammar lessons of the aged deacon Peter of Pisa.16 He had as a teacher in other branches of learning another deacon, Albinus, otherwise named Alcuin, a man of Saxon birth from Britain, who was the most learned man in every respect.17 He spent much time and labor with him studying rhetoric, dialectic, Charles brought the animal on his travels and campaigns, and it was on such a campaign that Abul-Abbas died in 810. 12. Nicephorus I (r. 802–11), Michael I (r. 811–13), and Leo V (r. 813–20). Note the dates of their reigns. 13. During the first decade of the ninth century, Frankish and Byzantine forces clashed in northern Italy over their respective areas of interest, but an agreement was reached in 811 and ratified in 814 that implicitly recognized Charles as emperor in the West. In return, the Byzantine Empire received Venice and some territory in the Balkans. 14. Einhard wrote this proverb in Greek. 15. Consult the Glossary at Seven Liberal Arts. 16. A Latin grammarian and poet, Peter (744–99) was summoned to Charles’s court following the king’s conquest of the Lombards in 774. 17. Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus, known as Alcuin of York (ca. 735– 804), was actually an Angle. A student of Archbishop Ecgbert (source 28), he was one of the leading lights of the Northumbrian Renaissance. Alcuin was master of Charles’s palace school from 782 to 796 and one of the chief architects of the Carolingian Renaissance.
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and especially astronomy. He learned the art of making calculations, and with keen effort and the greatest of curiosity he thoroughly investigated the motion of the constellations. He also tried to write and used to keep tablets and blank pages toward this end in bed under a pillow so that, when there was some leisure time, he might accustom his hand to form the letters. However, his effort met with little success because he began too late in life. XXVI. He cherished with the greatest devotion and most extraordinary piety the Christian religion, in which he had been instructed from infancy, and because of that he built the exceedingly beautiful basilica at Aachen, which he adorned with gold, silver, and lamps, and with gratings and doors of solid brass. He made sure that the columns and marbles for this structure were brought from Rome and Ravenna, for he could not find them elsewhere.18 As long as health permitted, he diligently worshipped at the church, morning and evening, likewise in the nighttime hours and at the time of the sacrifice of the Mass.19 He took very great care that all the services conducted in the basilica should be held in the best possible manner, very often impressing upon the sextons20 that they should not allow any improper or unclean thing to be brought into the basilica or to remain in it. He provided it with sacred vessels of gold and silver, and with such an abundance of clerical robes that not even the doorkeepers, who filled the lowest ecclesiastical office,21 found it necessary to wear their everyday clothes when performing their duties. He took great pains to improve training in [church] reading and the singing of psalms, for he was skilled to quite a high degree in both, although he neither read in public nor sang, except in a low voice and with others. XXVII. He was exceedingly committed to supporting the poor, and in that liberal generosity that the Greeks call eleimosina22 to the point that he took care not only to do so in his own country and his own kingdom, but when he learned that that there were Christians living in poverty 18. This is the octagonal Palace Chapel, an image of which is on p. 112. Many of the chapel’s columns and marble decorations were taken from the former palace of the then-defunct Byzantine exarch of Ravenna. 19. There were a number of ritual variations of the Mass across Europe and beyond. Charlemagne decreed that the Roman rite for the Mass was to be observed throughout his lands. 20. The church’s caretakers. 21. See the Glossary at Cleric. 22. Charity.
across the sea in Syria and in Egypt and in Africa, at Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Carthage, having compassion on their wants, made it a practice to send [them] money. The chief reason that he sought friendships with kings across the sea was that he might provide some consolation and relief to the Christians living under their rule. Above all other sacred and revered places, he cared for the Church of Blessed Peter the Apostle in Rome. He heaped high its treasure storerooms with a vast quantity of gold and also silver and gems. He sent many, indeed innumerable gifts to the pontiffs. Throughout the entire time of his reign, he considered nothing more important than that the city of Rome’s ancient authority should be revitalized through his efforts and labor, and that the Church of Saint Peter should be not only safe and protected by him but also that, by means of his wealth, it would be beautified and enriched above all other churches.23 Nevertheless, although he thought so highly of it, during the forty-seven years in which he reigned, he went there only four times to fulfill vows and offer up prayers.24 XXVIII. His last journey was not only for those reasons. The truth is that the Romans had inflicted many injuries upon Pope Leo, namely ripping out his eyes and cutting out his tongue, so that he had been compelled to beg the king’s help.25 He [Charles] therefore went to Rome to repair the state of the Church, which was exceedingly disordered, and he passed the whole winter there.26 It was during that time that he received the titles of Emperor and Augustus. Initially he was so averse to this that he declared he would not have entered the church on that day, even though it was the greatest of feast-days, if he could have foreseen the pope’s intention. Nevertheless, upon receiving the title, he bore with great patience the jealousy of the Roman emperors, who were indignant over this matter. He overcame their 23. Among his gifts to the papacy, Charles bestowed lands in central Italy in 781 and 787. These grants, probably in response to the Donation of Constantine, added considerably to the papacy’s civil power. 24. Charles’s pilgrimages and visits to Rome took place in 774, 781, 787, and 800–801. 25. The attack by members of the family of the previous pope, Hadrian I, occurred on April 25, 799. Leo’s injuries were not as severe as Einhard intimates. Blindness and muteness would have disqualified Leo from continuing as pope. Shortly after the attack, Leo traveled to Charles’s Saxon outpost at Paderborn, a punishing round trip of four- or five-months’ duration. 26. Charles arrived on November 24, 800.
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insolence with magnanimity, in which he was unquestionably far superior to them, by sending to them legation after legation and addressing them as “brothers” in letters.27... XXX. Toward the end of his life, when now he was broken by ill-health and old age, he summoned his son Louis, king of Aquitania,28 who alone survived from among his
27. See notes 12 and 13 above. The sole ruler of Byzantium in 800/801 was Empress Irene. Earlier, Irene’s ten-year-old son Constantine VI had been briefly betrothed to Charles’s eightyear-old daughter Rotrud. Shortly after 800, Charles proposed marriage to Empress Irene, but she was deposed in 802. 28. Louis I, the Pious (r. 813–40). Aquitaine was a vast subkingdom in southwest Francia.
sons by Hildegard,29 and gathered together all the chief men of the whole kingdom of the Franks in a solemn assembly.30 With the consent of all, he appointed Louis as his co-ruler over the entire kingdom and named him heir to the imperial title. Then, having placed on his head a diadem, he commanded that he be proclaimed Emperor and Augustus. This decision was greeted with great approval by all who were present, for it seemed as though it had come to him by divine inspiration for the welfare of the kingdom. This act increased his royal dignity and planted no little terror into foreign states. 29. His third and favorite wife, she gave Charles five daughters and four sons, dying in childbirth at age twenty-six in 783. 30. September 11, 813, at the Basilica of Aachen.
Delivered with Authority 31. Charles the Great, LETTERS 31 The first two letters that follow were, in all likelihood, the literary creations of Alcuin of York. As was true of most of his royal and imperial contemporaries, Charles depended on classically educated secretaries to compose his letters. Although the words of the first two letters are Alcuin’s, the ideas and policies contained in them undoubtedly had Charles’s approval. It is plausible that Charles orally drafted the major points contained in his more important letters. The first letter, which likely dates to the period 794–96, was addressed to Baugulf, abbot of Fulda (r. 779/80–802), and it appears to be the sole surviving example of a number of similar letters that were dispatched to the most important bishops and abbots in Charles’s lands. Founded in 744 by Saint Boniface’s disciple Saint Sturmi, Baugulf ’s immediate predecessor as abbot, Fulda had been a Frankish royal abbey since 764/765; that is, the Carolingians were its patrons and immediate lords, and as such, they had the right to install its abbots. In Abbot Baugulf ’s day, Fulda was noted as a center of strict Benedictine observance and one of the premier centers of learning in the West. The second letter was sent to Pope Leo III (r. 795–816) in 796, shortly after Charles’s court received word of Leo’s accession to the papal throne. We must understand this letter in the context of Charles’s checkered relations with Pope Hadrian I (r. 772–95), Leo’s predecessor. It was Hadrian who implored Charles to invade Lombardy in defense of the papacy, thereby opening the way for Charles’s conquest of the Lombards in 774. However, when Hadrian approved the decrees of the Second Council of Nicaea of 787 that momentarily ended Byzantine iconoclasm, Charles’s theologians discovered, in a faulty translation of the council’s acts, reason to conclude that the pope had wandered too far in the direction of image worship. Consequently, Charles gave his approval to a four-volume work known as the Libri Carolini (Charles’s Books), which Alcuin apparently composed and that set out for the pope and the entire Western Church the orthodox, Carolingian position on the use of holy images. 31. From D. C. Munro, trans., University of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints, vol. 6., no. 5 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1900), 12–14, modified by A. J. Andrea; Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal, trans., A Source Book for Medieval History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905), 107; Munro, Translations, 11–12, modified by A. J. Andrea.
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The third letter is a formulaic epistle composed long after Alcuin had left Charles’s court. Addressed to Abbot Fulrad of Saint Quentin, the letter dates to around 806. As with the letter to Abbot Baugulf, this is the single extant example of a general letter—in this case, one sent to all nobles and high-ranking churchmen whom Charles expected to attend the spring general assembly, or May Field (see source 32).
Questions for Consideration 1. According to the letter to Abbot Baugulf, what was Charles’s main reason for promoting education? 2. Does the letter to Baugulf establish or outline a program of educational reform or organization? If not, what does the letter do? What do you conclude from your answer? 3. Consider Charles’s letter to Pope Leo. What role(s) does Charles claim for himself ? What role(s) does he assign the pope? 4. What do you infer from the letter to Pope Leo about Charles’s view of the Western Church and his relationship to that Church? 5. The Carolingians were avid patrons of the Rule of Saint Benedict and attempted to impose it on all monastic houses within their lands. What evidence, however, does the letter to Abbot Fulrad present to suggest that Benedictine monasticism had changed since the days of Saint Benedict? 6. What does this letter to Fulrad tell us about the realities of early ninth-century military operations? 7. What does it tell us about Charles’s organizational abilities and the way in which his government functioned?
Letter to Abbot Baugulf Charles, by the grace of God, king of the Franks and Lombards and patrician of the Romans, to Abbot Baugulf and to the entire congregation, also to the faithful committed to you,32 we have directed a loving greeting through our missi 33 in the name of omnipotent God. Be it known, therefore, to your devotion that is pleasing to God, that we, together with our faithful, have considered it to useful that the bishoprics and monasteries entrusted by the favor of Christ to our control,34 in addition in the culture of letters, also ought to be zealous in teaching those who, by the gift of God, are able to learn, according to the capacity of each individual, so that just as 32. The “congregation” was the body of monks in the abbey; “the faithful” were those persons, largely lay agricultural laborers, subject to the monastery and the abbot’s authority. 33. See the General Capitulary on the Missi (source 32). 34. Those episcopal sees and monasteries that were directly subject to royal authority and over which the king had the right of appointing the bishop or abbot.
the observance of the Rule imparts order and grace to an honesty of morals, so also zeal in teaching and learning may do the same for sentences, so that those who desire to please God by living rightly should not neglect to please him also by speaking correctly…. For although correct conduct might be better than knowledge, nevertheless knowledge precedes conduct. Therefore, each one ought to study what he desires to accomplish, so that so much more fully the mind may know what ought to be done, as the tongue hastens in its praises of Omnipotent God without the hindrances of errors. Because errors should be shunned by all men, so much the more ought they to be avoided as far as possible by those who are chosen for this very purpose alone, so that they ought to be the special servants of truth. For when in the years just passed letters were often written to us from several monasteries in which it was stated that the brothers who dwelt there offered up on our behalf sacred and pious prayers, we have recognized in most of these letters both correct thoughts and uncouth expressions; clearly, what pious devotion dictated faithfully to the mind, the tongue, uneducated on account of a neglect of study, was
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not able to express in the letter without error. Because of this, it happened that we began to fear that perhaps, just as the skill in writing was less [than it should be], so also the wisdom for understanding the Holy Scriptures might be much less than it rightly ought to be. And we all know well that, although errors of speech are dangerous, far more dangerous are errors of understanding. Therefore, we exhort you not only not to neglect the study of letters, but also, with a most humble mind pleasing to God, to study earnestly in order that you may be able more easily and more correctly to penetrate the mysteries of the divine Scriptures. Since, moreover, images, tropes,35 and similar figures are found in the sacred pages, no one doubts that each one in reading these will understand the spiritual sense more quickly if previously he has been fully instructed in the mastery of letters. Such men truly are to be chosen for this work who have both the will and the ability to learn and a desire to instruct others. And may this be done with a zeal as great as the earnestness with which we command it. For we desire you to be, as it is fitting that soldiers of the Church should be, devout in mind, learned in discourse, chaste in conduct, and eloquent in speech, so that whoever shall seek to see you out of reverence of God, or on account of your reputation for holy conduct, just as he is edified by your appearance, may also be instructed by your wisdom, which he has learned from your reading or singing, and may go away joyfully giving thanks to Omnipotent God. Do not neglect, therefore, if you wish to have our favor, to send copies of this letter to all your subordinates and fellow-bishops and to all the monasteries.
of the Catholic faith. It is your part, most holy father, to aid us in the good fight by raising your hands to God as Moses did,36 so that by your intercession the Christian people under the leadership of God may always and everywhere have the victory over the enemies of His holy name, and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified throughout the world. Abide by the canonical law in all things and obey the precepts of the holy fathers always, that your life may be an example of sanctity to all, and your holy admonitions be observed by the whole world, and that your light may so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father who is in Heaven. May omnipotent God preserve your holiness unharmed through many years for the exalting of his holy Church.
Letter to Abbot Fulrad
Charles, by the grace of God king of the Franks and Lombards, and patrician of the Romans, to his holiness, Pope Leo, greeting…. Just as I entered into an agreement with the most holy father, your predecessor, so also I desire to make with you an inviolable treaty of mutual fidelity and love; that, on the one hand, you shall pray for me and give me the apostolic benediction, and that, on the other, with the aid of God I will ever defend the most holy seat of the holy Roman Church. For it is our part to defend the holy Church of Christ from the attacks of pagans and infidels from without, and within to enforce the acceptance
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Charles, most serene, Augustus, crowned by God, great pacific Emperor, and also, by God’s mercy, king of the Franks and Lombards, to Abbot Fulrad. Be it known to you that we have decided to hold our general assembly this year in the eastern part of Saxony, on the river Bode, at the place which is called Stassfurt. Therefore, we have commanded you to come to the aforementioned place, with all your men well-armed and prepared, on the fifteenth day before the Kalends of July, that is, seven days before the festival of St. John the Baptist.37 Come, accordingly, so equipped with your men to the aforementioned place that from there you may be able to go well prepared in any direction where our summons shall direct; that is, with arms and gear also, and other equipment for war, namely food and clothing. So that each horseman shall have a shield, lance, sword, dagger, bow, and quivers with arrows; and in your carts utensils of various kinds, that is, axes, planes, augers, boards, spades, iron shovels, and other utensils that are necessary for an army. In the carts also [there will be] supplies of food for three months, dating from the time of the assembly, and arms and clothing for a half-year. And we command this in general, that you proceed peacefully to the aforementioned place, through whatever part of our realm your journey shall take you, that is, that you presume to take nothing except fodder, wood, and water; and the men of each one of your vassals shall march along with the carts and h orsemen, and the leader
35. By “images” the author means metaphors and similes. “Trope” in this context is a word or phrase used in a nonliteral, or figurative, manner.
36. Exodus, 17:11–13. 37. June 17. June 24 is the feast of Saint John the Baptist. The Kalends is the first day of each month.
Letter to Pope Leo III
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shall always be with them until they reach the aforementioned place, so that the absence of a lord may not give an opportunity to his men for doing evil.38 38. The abbot’s vassals were the more important warriors (and often, but not necessarily, landholders), who were directly subordinate to him. For information regarding later developments regarding vassalage, consult the Glossary and sources 38, 57, and 58.
Send your gifts, which you should present to us at our assembly in the middle of the month of May, to the place where we then shall be. If, perhaps, your journey should so shape itself that on your march you are able in person to present these gifts of yours to us, we greatly desire it. See that you show no negligence in the future if you desire to have our favor.
Charlemagne’s Government 32. Charles the Great, CAPITULARIES 39 The following two documents are known as capitularies, because each consists of a number of regulatory chapters (capitula in Latin), or articles. Capitularies generally were drafted at the annual general assemblies that Charles held prior to leading his army on campaign. At these meetings of “a people in arms,” Charles convened his major secular and ecclesiastical lords and sought their advice on a variety of issues. The results of these deliberations were published as capitularies and had the force of law. The first document is Charles’s Capitulary on the Saxon Territories, which he apparently issued in 785 at his Saxon outpost at Paderborn, although some historians are uncertain of the date and place and ascribe it to the period 775–90. Whatever its date, the capitulary sheds light on the means that Charles used to subjugate and convert the Saxons and some of the resistance that his efforts met. The second document is known as the General Capitulary on the Missi, which Charles issued in 802. Charles’s missi dominici (the sovereign’s envoys) were not permanent, full-time officials. Rather, they were lay and ecclesiastical lords who exercised special commissions to inquire into the activities of local counts, bishops, and monasteries. Working in pairs of one layman and one churchman, they traveled to a region comprising about six out of the empire’s roughly three hundred counties, examined the state of affairs in their assigned area, made public Charles’s capitularies, carried imperial messages to local nobles and officials, corrected minor irregularities, collected revenues, reported major crimes and misdemeanors to the emperor, and raised troops in Charles’s name. The Merovingians had employed such agents, but it remained for Charles to make them a central part of his government. In theory, every part of Charles’s empire received a visit from a pair of missi at least once a year.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the Capitulary on the Saxon Territories. What does this document tell us about Saxon pagan practices? How credible does this testimony appear to be? In answering this, you might find it helpful to compare this document with material in Chapter 4. 2. There were numerous non-Christians in several of Charles’s other lands, some of which he had gained through conquest, but he employed these strict measures only against the Saxons. Does the capitulary offer any clues why he acted in this manner? What about clues offered by Einhard? 39. “Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae” and “Capitulatio missorum generale” in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Capitularies regnum francium, ed. Alfred Boethius and Victor Krause, 2 vols. (Hanover: Hahn, 1883–97), 1: 68–70, 91–99, passim.
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3. It has been said that this capitulary offered positive as well as negative incentives to embrace Christianity. What were those positive incentives? 4. Explain the reasoning behind chapter 34 of the Capitulary on the Saxon Territories. 5. In 797, Charles issued a second Capitulary on Saxony, which omitted the severe features of this capitulary, such as the long list of crimes against Christianity for which death was the punishment. Why do you think he did so? 6. Consider the oath expected of all freemen (chapters 2–9 of the General Capitulary on the Missi). What does it suggest about the nature and extent of Charles’s government? 7. Consider chapters 10, 11, 14, 19, and 40 of the General Capitulary on the Missi. What do these chapters allow us to infer about Charles’s view of the imperial Church and its clerics? 8. Compare these two capitularies, taking special note of their dates, tones, and general sense. What inferences do you draw from this comparative analysis? 9. After reading these two capitularies, review The Salic Law Code (source 11). How had Frankish law, in both theory and practice, changed since the days of Clovis? How had it remained the same? What do you conclude from your answers? 10. After a careful reading of both capitularies, what do you infer was Charles’s vision of his duties as king and emperor?
Capitulary on the Saxon Territories (785?) First, concerning the greater chapters it has been enacted:40 1. It is pleasing to all that the churches of Christ, which are just now being built in Saxony and consecrated to God, should not have less but greater and more illustrious honor than what the shrines of the idols have had. 2. If anyone has fled to a church for refuge, no one may presume to expel him from the church through violence, but he shall be left in peace until he is brought to a judicial assembly. And for the honor that is due God and the saints, and for the reverence due to the church itself, his life and all his limbs shall be granted to him. Moreover, let him plead his case to the best of his ability, and a judgment will be rendered on him. And so let him [then] be led to the presence of the lord king, and he shall send him where it pleases his clemency. 3. If anyone has violently invaded a church and has carried off anything in it by force or theft or has burned down that very church, he shall be punished by death. 4. If anyone, out of contempt for Christianity, has disdained the holy Lenten fast and has eaten meat,41 he shall be punished by death. But, conversely, let it be taken into 40. The greater chapters concerned offenses that carried the death penalty; the lesser chapters dealt with noncapital offenses. 41. The forty-day fast preceding Easter.
consideration by a priest, lest, perhaps, anyone has been driven to eat meat out of necessity. 5. If anyone has killed a bishop or priest or deacon he shall likewise receive a capital punishment. 6. If anyone, deceived by the Devil, has believed, in the manner of the pagans, that any man or woman is a witch and eats people and, because of that, has burned that same person or has given that person’s flesh [to others] to eat or has eaten it himself, he shall be punished by a capital sentence. 7. If, in accordance with pagan rites, anyone has caused the body of a deceased person to be consumed by fire and has reduced the person’s bones to ash, he shall be punished by death. 8. If, hereafter, any member of the Saxon people hides among them, wishing to conceal himself unbaptized, and has scorned coming to baptism and wished to remain a pagan, he shall be punished by death. 9. If anyone has sacrificed a person to the Devil and, in the manner of the pagans, has presented that person as a victim to the demons, he shall be punished by death. 10. If anyone has formed a conspiracy with pagans against Christians or has chosen to join with them in opposition to Christians, he shall be punished by death; and whoever has deceitfully given consent to this same [act] against the king or the Christian people shall be punished by death.
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11. If anyone has shown himself to be unfaithful to the lord king, he shall be punished with a capital sentence. 12. If anyone rapes the daughter of his lord, he shall be punished by death. 13. If anyone has killed his lord or lady, he shall be punished in a similar manner. 14. If, in fact, anyone has fled on his own initiative to a priest because he secretly committed [any of ] these mortal crimes and, after confession, has wished to do penance, on the testimony of the priest, he shall be freed from death.42… 18. On the Lord’s Day no meetings or public judicial assemblies shall be held, unless perhaps in a case of great necessity or when war compels it, but all shall go to church to hear the word of God and shall be free for prayers and good works. And likewise, on special feast days they shall devote themselves to the community of God and the Church, and shall stay away from secular gatherings.43 19. Likewise, it has been pleasing to insert in these decrees that all infants shall be baptized within a year, and we have decreed that if anyone refuses to bring his infant to baptism within the course of a year, without the advice or permission of a priest, if he is of noble lineage he shall pay 120 solidi to the treasury;44 if a freeman, 60; if a litus, 30.45… 21. If anyone has made a vow at springs or trees or groves or has made some offering in the manner of the heathens and has eaten a meal in honor of the demons, if he is a noble, 60 solidi, if a freeman, 30, if a litus, 15. If, in fact, they do not have the means for paying at once, they shall be given into the service of the Church until the solidi are paid.46 22. We command that the bodies of Saxon Christians shall be carried to church cemeteries and not to the burial mounds of the pagans. 23. We have ordered that fortune tellers and soothsayers shall be handed over to the churches and priests.47… 34. We have prohibited all Saxons from holding public assemblies in general, unless perhaps our missus shall have caused them to assemble in accordance with our command, but each count shall hold judicial assemblies 42. The remaining chapters deal with noncapital offenses. 43. Feast days are days commemorating special moments in the life of Jesus or the major saints. 44. This was not a coin but a weight. Charles created a coin of 1.7 grams of silver known as a denarius, and 240 denarii constituted a pound. Twelve denarii equaled a solidus. 45. See note 56 of source 11. 46. They will become indentured servants of the Church. 47. Please explain.
and administer justice in his jurisdiction. And this shall be supervised by the priests, lest it be done otherwise.
General Capitulary on the Missi (802) 1. Concerning the embassy sent out by the lord emperor. Therefore, the most serene and most Christian Lord Emperor Charles has chosen from among his nobles the most prudent and wisest men, both archbishops and other bishops as well, and venerable abbots and pious laymen, and has sent them throughout his whole kingdom, and through them he stipulated that all of the people mentioned below would live in accordance with proper law.48 Moreover, where anything that is not right and just has been enacted in the law, he has ordered them to inquire into it most diligently and to inform him of it. He desires, God granting, to reform it. And let no one, through his cleverness or skill, dare to thwart the written law, as many are accustomed to do, or the judicial sentence passed upon him, or to abuse the churches of God, or the poor, or the widows, or orphans, or any Christian person. But all shall live entirely and honestly in accordance with God’s precept [and] in compliance with a just rule, and each one shall be instructed to live harmoniously [with others] within his community or social station. The canonical clergy49 ought to fully observe a canonical life without concern for base gain; women dedicated to God ought to keep diligent watch over their lives; the laity and the secular clergy ought rightly to observe their own laws without malicious fraud; [and] all ought to live in mutual charity and perfect peace. And let the missi themselves make a diligent investigation whenever any man claims that an injustice has been done him by anyone, just as they desire to maintain for themselves the grace of God Almighty and to hold onto the fidelity promised to them [by their subordinates], so that totally in all cases and everywhere, in accordance with the will and fear of God, they shall administer the law fully and justly in the case of the holy churches of God and of the poor, of orphans and widows, and of the whole people. And if there is anything of such a nature that they, together with the provincial counts, are not able by themselves to correct and to render justice, they shall, without any reservation, refer it, together with their reports, to his judgment, and the path of true justice shall not be impeded by anyone 48. Initially Charles had used low-ranking subordinates as missi, but by 802, he depended almost exclusively on important lords to fill these posts. 49. Canonical clergy in this context were monks who lived according to a rule (canon).
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on account of flattery or gifts, or on account of any blood relationship, or out of fear of the powerful. 2. Regarding the fidelity to be promised to the lord emperor. He has commanded that every man in his entire kingdom, whether ecclesiastic or layman, and each one according to his vow and class, who previously had sworn his fidelity to him as king, should now offer that same oath [to him] in the [context of his having] the title of Caesar. And all of those who had not yet made that very oath should likewise do so, down to those who are twelve years old. And everyone should be publicly informed of the many important elements that are encompassed in that sacred oath, not merely, as many have thought up to now, fidelity to the lord emperor in regard to his life, and not introducing any enemy into his kingdom out of enmity, and not consenting to or concealing another’s faithlessness [to him]. But all should know that this oath contains within itself the following substance: 3. First, that each man, individually and on his own, shall endeavor, consistent with his understanding and abilities, to live fully in the holy service of God, in accordance with the law of God and his own oath, because the lord emperor himself is unable to render to all individually the necessary care and service…. 5. That no one shall presume to rob or do any injury of a destructful nature to the churches of God, or to widows, or orphans or pilgrims, for the lord emperor himself, subservient to God and His saints, has constituted himself their protector and defender…. 7. That no one shall presume to neglect a summons to war from the lord emperor; and that no count shall be so presumptuous as to dare to excuse anyone of those who are required to join the army, either on account of any relationship, or flattery, or favors from any one…. 9. That no one, for any reason, shall make it a practice of defending another unjustly in court, either from any desire for profit when the case is less than reasonable or by impeding a just judgment by his skill in argument, or by a desire for winning when the case is less than reasonable. But each one shall plead his own case or tax or debt, unless someone is infirm or does not know how to plead. For these people, the missi, or the local nobles who are in the court, or the judge who knows the case in question shall plead before the court, or, if it is necessary, a person of the sort who is acceptable to all and knows the case well may be allowed to plead, but this shall be done with the total agreement of the nobles or missi who are present. In every case it shall be done in accordance with just law, and no one shall have the power to impede justice by a gift,
bribe, or any kind of evil flattery, or by the privilege of a relationship. And no one shall unjustly plot with another in any matter, but with all eagerness and goodwill, all shall be prepared to carry out justice. For all of the above-mentioned ought to be observed by the imperial oath. 10. [We ordain] that bishops and priests shall live according to the canons and shall so teach others [to do the same]. 11. That bishops, abbots, and abbesses who are the superiors of others, shall strive with the greatest devotion to surpass those subject to them in this attention [to the canons] and shall not oppress those subject to them with a harsh rule or tyranny, but with sincere love they shall carefully guard the flock committed to them with mercy and charity and by examples of good works…. 14. That bishops, abbots and abbesses, and counts shall be mutually of one mind, following the law in order to render a just judgment with all charity and the unity of peace and that they shall live faithfully in accordance with the will of God, so that always, everywhere and through them and among them a just judgment shall be rendered. The poor, widows, orphans, and pilgrims shall have consolation and protection from them; so that we, through the goodwill of these, may deserve the greater reward of eternal life rather than punishment. … 19. That no bishops, abbots, priests, deacons, or other members of the entire clergy shall presume to have dogs for hunting, or hawks, falcons, and sparrow-hawks, but they shall observe fully the canons or rule of their order. If, however, anyone presumes to do so, he should know that he shall lose his office. And in fact, he shall suffer thereafter such punishment that the others will be afraid to possess such things for themselves.… 27. And we command that no one in our entire kingdom shall dare to deny hospitality to rich, or poor, or pilgrims; that is, no one may deny shelter and a hearth and water to pilgrims crossing [our] land in God’s name or to anyone traveling for the love of God and for the salvation of his soul. If, however, anyone wishes to give them more in the way of donations, he should know that he will have the greatest reward from God.… 32. We command that murders, by which a multitude of Christian people perish, are to be shunned in every instance and are forbidden…. Nevertheless, so that sin does not also increase [and] so that there are not extreme hostilities among Christians, when, at the urging of the Devil, murders do happen, the guilty party shall immediately hasten to make amends and with all speed shall pay
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to the relatives of the murdered man appropriate compensation for the evil done. And we firmly forbid the relatives of the murdered man to dare in any way to continue their hostility on account of the evil committed, nor may they refuse to grant peace to him who asks for it. Rather, having given their pledges [of peace], they shall receive the appropriate compensation and shall give in return perpetual peace. Moreover, the guilty party shall not delay paying the compensation…. But if anyone has refused to offer appropriate compensation, he shall be deprived of his property until we render our judgment.… 40. Therefore, we desire that all our decrees are known throughout our entire kingdom through our missi who have now been sent out or through churchmen—bishops, abbots,
priests, deacons, canons,50 [and] all monks or women dedicated to God—so that each one in his ministry or class might keep our ban51 or decree, or where it might be appropriate to thank the people for their goodwill, or to furnish aid, or where there might be need still of correcting anything…. Where, however, we believe that there is anything unpunished, we shall certainly try, with all our zeal and will, to correct it, so that, with God’s aid, we might correct it, both for our eternal reward and that of all our faithful…. 50. Consult the Glossary. 51. The ban was the royal prerogative to command people, prohibit or compel actions, and administer justice. Charles delegated the right of the ban to high-ranking laity and clerics.
A Pope’s Image of Papal-Frankish Relations 33. Pope Leo III’s Lateran Mosaics Pope Leo III spent lavishly on beautifying Rome, and one of his projects was construction of two massive state halls in the Lateran Palace—one for formal receptions, the other for dining. For the dining hall, the pope commissioned a mosaic triptych (a set of three related images), which was completed sometime between 798 and April 799. In the center, which is not shown here, Christ commissions the apostles to preach the Gospel. To the right of this central mosaic, Christ bestows the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven on Pope Saint Sylvester and the labarium (a military standard with the Chi-Rho emblem) on Emperor Constantine. In the mosaic on the left, Peter is flanked by two kneeling figures: Pope Leo III and King Charles. Time deteriorated the mosaics, and an attempt to remove and restore them in 1743 resulted in their destruction and replacement by crude copies. Despite their aesthetic shortcomings, they will serve our purpose. The mosaic to the left of Jesus depicts Saint Peter, with the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven on his lap, handing a pallium (consult the Glossary) to Pope Leo and a lance with an attached battle standard to King Charles. Both the pope and the king have square nimbuses, conventional signs that they are sanctified or powerful people who are still living; Peter has a round nimbus, a sign of canonized sainthood. The four Latin inscriptions read (from top to bottom and left to right as we view the mosaic): “Saint Peter”; “Most Holy Lord Pope Leo”; “To Lord King Charles”; and “Blessed Peter, You Give Life to Pope Leo and You Give Victory to King Charles.” Several descriptions of the original mosaic differ from this copy in a few details. One sixteenthcentury author tells us that all he could read in the bottom inscription was “Blessed Peter, Give…to Pope Leo and Victory…to King Charles.” To the contrary, a seventeenth-century papal librarian saw in that same inscription the words “Blessed Peter, Give Charles the Crown, Life, and Victory.” Probably the most trustworthy rendering of the mosaic’s Latin inscriptions appears in an early eighteenth- century engraving by Bernard de Montfaucon, a student of Italian antiquities. Montfaucon read “Our Most Holy Lord Pope Leo” over the pope’s figure; “Our Lord King Charles” over Charles’s figure; and “Blessed Peter, Give Life to Pope Leo and Give Victory to King Charles” in the inscription at the feet of all three figures. Whatever the words might have been, the images in this public mosaic and its companion on its far right are eloquent enough. Inasmuch as the triptych was completed in the period 798–99, Charles undoubtedly saw this artistic interpretation of papal-imperial and papal-Frankish relations on his fateful last visit to Rome in 800/801. We can only wonder what he thought of it.
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Questions for Consideration 1. Is there anything significant about Leo being on Saint Peter’s right and Charles being on his left? Explain your answer. 2. What do you make of the fact that it is Peter who gives Charles the lance and not Jesus or God the Father? 3. The images of a triptych normally relate to one another in some way and, thereby, present a single, overriding theme. How do the two mosaics shown here relate to one another? Now, with the central mosaic (which is not depicted here) in mind, what do you conclude is the overall message of the triptych? 4. Review the mosaic of Justinian at Ravenna (source 14), which Charles undoubtedly viewed. What strikes you as more significant, their similarities or their differences? What conclusions follow from that answer? 5. Review the three preceding sources in this section. Now compose a Carolingian commentary on this mosaic.
Illus. 5.2 Lateran Mosaic: Jesus, Pope Sylvester I, and Constantine I.
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Illus. 5.3 Lateran Mosaic: Saint Peter, Pope Leo III, and King Charles.
The Later Carolingians Charlemagne’s accomplishments were impressive, but they should not blind us to the fact that, at the time, no single individual or generation could counter indefinitely the centrifugal forces of localism that were dividing continental Europe into smaller, more governable units. The sheer size of his empire militated against anything approaching close centralized control. The fact that he was able to carve out such a vast empire and to hold it together for so long was a testament to his vision and vigor as well as the loyalty of many who served him. But during the last years of Charles’s life, his empire began to show signs of political splintering, as some local counts and high-ranking churchmen grabbed power, despite the emperor’s best efforts to keep these lords in check. Moreover, fragmentation was built into the very fabric of Frankish inheritance customs. Charles and his brother Carloman had shared equally in the division of Pepin’s kingdom in 768, and it was only following Carloman’s death in 771 that Charles was able to gain the whole kingdom. In accordance with time-honored Frankish custom, in 806 Charlemagne formally divided his lands among his three
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legitimate sons—Charles, Pepin, and Louis—with Charles, the eldest, receiving a substantially larger portion. Pepin died in 810, and Charles died the following year, leaving Louis as the sole surviving heir. Charlemagne crowned Louis as co-emperor in 813, and he succeeded to all of his father’s lands the following year as Louis I (r. 813–40). Just as promising for those who dreamed of a strong and unified empire was the fact that Louis, unlike his father, put aside the title “king of the Franks and of the Lombards” and referred to himself simply and forcefully as “August Emperor ruling by the divine ordination of Providence.” Louis certainly seems to have had a vision of a single, indivisible empire, but he also had several strong-willed, ambitious sons, each of whom wanted his part of the Carolingian patrimony. The result was civil war among Louis’s sons, even during their father’s lifetime. In 843, Louis’s three surviving sons—Lothair, Charles the Bald, and Louis the German—divided the empire into three kingdoms. The Carolingian world reached a new level of fragmentation from which there was no going back. The general breakdown of Carolingian order and unity was hurried along by new invasions: Vikings from Scandinavia; Muslim raiders from North Africa and Spain; and Magyars, or Hungarians, from the steppes of Central Asia. Once again, Western Christian society was under siege, and its destiny was simple: it must either fight off or absorb the new invaders or go under as an identifiable civilization. In the process of successfully meeting the challenge posed by the invaders, Western Europe emerged stronger and more resilient than ever before, but it also suffered heavy losses in the fight. One of its more notable losses was the passing away of the Carolingian Empire before the ninth century had ended.
Troubles for Charlemagne’s Grandsons 34. Nithard, FOUR BOOKS OF HISTORIES 52 Nithard (ca. 795–845), grandson of Charlemagne by reason of the love affair between Charles’s daughter Bertrada and the court poet Angilbert, was a soldier, statesman, and chronicler of the troubles that beset the Carolingian Empire in the generation following Charles’s death. As a partisan of Louis I’s youngest son, Charles the Bald, who was king of western Francia (r. 843–77) and later emperor (r. 875–77), Nithard participated as a warrior and negotiator in the fratricidal struggles that intermittently ravaged the empire from 830 to 842/843. The peace treaty of Verdun of 843, which settled the issue of how the empire was to be divided among Louis’s three surviving sons, did not end the empire’s woes, however, as Nithard’s own life and death testify. This learned grandson of Charlemagne met his end in 845 fighting invading Vikings. Nithard informs his readers that he undertook the task of recording the Carolingian family struggles of his day at the urging of his lord, King Charles, and we should not be surprised, therefore, that this history consistently views events from the perspective of Charles’s camp. Despite that prism, Nithard seems to present the events of the civil war as honestly as circumstances and partisan loyalty allowed. Certainly, as the war dragged on, Nithard became more despondent over its destructive course, and in his later chapters, he showed an increasing lack of enthusiasm for his task as its chronicler. In the following excerpts, Nithard outlines the origins of the civil war, chronicles its resolution in 842/843, and, as he ends his history, reflects on the differences between his own day and that of Charlemagne.
52. Nithardi historiarum libri IIII, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum, ed. George Henry Pertz (Hanover: Hahn, 1870), 1–5, 45–47, 54–55.
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Questions for Consideration 1. How did Louis I, also known as Louis the Pious, use the Church to ensure that no one would challenge his hold on the throne? Did it work? 2. What evidence is there that even before the civil war, the empire was troubled by factional disputes and power-seeking lords? What does this suggest about the empire’s structural weaknesses? 3. What fueled this civil war? Ideology? Something else? What do you conclude from your answer? 4. How specifically did the civil war accelerate the breakdown of imperial order, unity, and power? 5. Nithard provides evidence of the difficult process of “Christianizing” northern Europe. What is that evidence? 6. How does this history help us understand why Charles I became Charlemagne in Western Europe’s historical memory?
Book I 1. When Emperor Charles of blessed memory, rightly called “the Great” by all peoples, died at a respectable old age, specifically around the third hour of the day, he left all of Europe in a totally [and] abundantly good state. For in his time, he was a man who so excelled the [rest of ] the human race in every form of wisdom and in every virtue that he seemed to everyone living on Earth terrifying but equally worthy of love and admiration, and in this way, as was manifestly clear to all, he made his entire imperial reign likewise virtuous and profitable in every way. But above all, I confess that he will be admired for the tempered severity with which he so restrained the fierce and iron hearts of Franks and barbarians, which not even Roman might had been able to tame, so that they clearly endeavored [to do] nothing in the empire except what was in harmony with the public welfare. He ruled successfully for thirty-two years and, in no less way, held the helm of the empire with every success and good fortune for fourteen years. 2. Louis, the heir of all this majesty, was the youngest of Charles’s sons by a valid marriage, and with all of the others having died, he succeeded [him]. As soon as he had learned for certain that his father had died, he came directly from Aquitaine to Aachen…. Indeed, at the beginning of his imperial rule, he ordered the vast treasure left by his father to be divided into three parts, and one part he spent on the funeral. The [other] two parts he actually divided between himself and those of his sisters who were born in valid wedlock, and he ordered them to leave the palace
immediately [and go to] their monasteries.53 His brothers Drogo, Hugo, and Theodoric,54 who were still of a tender age, he made companions of [his] table and directed that they be raised in the palace with him. And to his nephew Bernard, Pepin’s son, he granted the kingdom of Italy.55 Because Bernard defected from Louis a little later, he was taken prisoner and deprived of his sight as well as his life by Bertmund, governor of the province of Lyons.56 From then on, however, Louis was fearful that [his] younger brothers might, with the people stirred up, act likewise and, therefore, he ordered them to appear before his public assembly, tonsured them, and committed them, under free custody, to monasteries.57 When this had been taken care of, he made his sons enter valid marriages and divided the whole empire among them so that Pepin was to have Aquitaine, Louis Bavaria, 53. Bertrada and Hiltrud, who retired to comfortable, highranking monastic offices. 54. Three of Charles’s illegitimate children. 55. Pepin had been king of Italy from 781, when he was crowned at age four, to his death in 810. With Charlemagne’s assent, the crown of Italy then passed to Bernard, Pepin’s illegitimate son. Emperor Louis simply confirmed Bernard’s continued rule. 56. In 817, Bernard plotted rebellion, or so Emperor Louis believed. Louis condemned Bernard to be blinded, and the procedure caused him to die in agony in 818. 57. Drogo, Hugo, and Theodoric entered the Church in 818. Drogo and Hugo became high-ranking churchmen and served as valued counselors to Emperor Louis. Theodoric’s fate is unknown.
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and Lothair, indeed, after Louis’s death, the whole empire, and he also permitted Lothair to bear the title of emperor with him.58 In the meantime, Irmengard, the queen and their mother, died, and a short time later Emperor Louis married Judith, who gave birth to Charles.59 3. Indeed, once Charles had been born, Louis did not know what he could do for him since the father had already divided the whole empire among his other sons. When the distressed father questioned his sons on behalf of [his other] son, Lothair finally gave his assent and swore a sacred oath that his father should give Charles whatever part of the kingdom that he wished, and he affirmed by oath that in the future he would be Charles’s protector and defender against all enemies. However, incited by Hugo, whose daughter Lothair had married,60 and by Mathfrid61 and others, he later regretted what he had done and sought to undo it totally. This did not in the least escape his father and stepmother, and from then onward Lothair secretly (but not openly) sought to destroy what his father had arranged. To aid him in countering Lothair’s plot, the father employed a certain Bernard, the duke of Septimania,62 whom he appointed as his chamberlain. He entrusted Charles to him [and] made him second to himself in the empire. Bernard then recklessly abused the state, which he was supposed to strengthen, and he undermined it entirely. At that time Alemannia was handed over to Charles by decree.63 Then Lothair, as if he had finally found a just reason for complaint, urged his brothers and the entire populace to restore authority and order to the state.64 Consequently, the brothers, along with all the people, suddenly converged on Louis at Compiègne; they made the queen take the veil, tonsured her brothers, Conrad and Rudolf, and sent them to Aquitaine to be held by Pepin. On his part, Bernard took flight and found ref58. Lothair was crowned co-emperor in Aachen by Louis in 817. 59. Queen Irmengard died in October 818; Louis married Judith of Bavaria in February 819. Charles was born in 823. 60. Hugo, count of Tours. Lothair had married his daughter Irmengard. 61. Mathrid was the count of Orléans. 62. A region that extended from the Pyrenees to the Rhone. 63. In late 829, Charles was granted the region once inhabited by the Alemanni, today southwest Germany, Alsatian France, and northwest Switzerland. 64. Lothair, the villain of this history, was in Italy at the time and did not initiate the rebellion. A group of dissident magnates set it in motion, and Lothair joined the rebellion in May 830.
uge in Septimania. His brother Herbert was captured, blinded, and imprisoned in Italy. Indeed, once Lothair had taken over the state by this act, he held his father and Charles in free custody.65 He ordered monks to keep Charles company, and they were to get him accustomed to the monastic life and were to persuade him to assume the same life for himself. The state’s situation, however, grew worse daily because everyone was seduced by greed and sought only his own ends. On account of this, the monks whom we mentioned above, as well as others who deplored what had happened, began to question Louis as to whether he was willing to vigorously reconstitute the government and stand behind it if it were restored to him, and most of all, if he would restore and promote divine worship, through which all order is protected and guided. Since he readily agreed to this, his restoration was rather quickly agreed upon. Louis chose a certain monk, Guntbald, and, under the guise of religious business, secretly sent him to his sons Pepin and Louis with the promise that he would increase the kingdom of each if they would stand as one with the men who desired his restoration. Given this [promise], they all too eagerly and greedily agreed. An assembly was convoked, the queen and her brothers were returned to Louis, and the entire populace submitted to his rule.66 Then those persons who had sided with Lothair were led before the assembly and were either condemned to death by Lothair himself or, if granted life, were sent into exile. Lothair also had to be content with Italy alone and was permitted to go there on the condition that hereafter he would not attempt to do anything in the kingdom contrary to his father’s will.67 When matters were at this point and the state seemed to have a bit of time to catch its breath, immediately the monk Guntbald, whom we mentioned above, wanted to be second in the empire because he had worked so hard for Louis’s restoration. But given that Bernard had formerly held this position (as was said earlier), he strove with the greatest amount of effort to hold it again. Also, although Pepin and Louis’s kingdoms had been enlarged 65. The coup of 830 resulted in Louis’s being kept in a monastery at Soissons and Lothair ruling as virtual sole emperor, although Louis retained some influence on affairs. 66. October 830. 67. February 831. The division of 813 was now nullified. Except for Italy, where Lothair ruled as king but in his father’s name, the empire’s lands were divided among Louis, Pepin, and Charles.
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as promised, nevertheless both tried hard to be first in the empire after their father. But they who were in charge of the government at that time resisted their desires. This accord lasted only a short time. A second rebellion broke out in 833, resulting in Louis’s second deposition. Although he was restored to the throne in 834, Louis’s last years were troubled by the constant conflicts among his four sons and their followers. Pepin died in December 838, and Emperor Louis died in July 840, having named Lothair as his imperial successor. When Lothair claimed the entire empire for himself and disregarded the earlier partitions that had invested his brothers with kingdoms, Louis and Charles combined forces to fight him. They routed Lothair’s forces in battle in June 841, an engagement in which Nithard, as he informs us, fought. Lothair was forced to abandon Aachen, but his defeat was not decisive and he fought on. We pick up the story in late 841/early 842.
Book IV 2. …Indeed, as is known to everyone in Europe that, with a great effort that took many forms, Emperor Charles, deservedly called “the Great” by all peoples, converted the Saxons from the vain worship of idols to God’s true Christian religion. From the beginning, they have frequently proved themselves in many ways to be equally noble and exceedingly ready to fight. The entire population is divided into three classes. Namely, among them there are aedhilingi; there are frilingi; [and] there are those who, in their language, are called lazzi: that is, in the Latin language, nobles, free persons, and those in servitude. But part of the Saxon nobility was divided into two factions in the conflict between Lothair and his brothers. One followed Lothair, the other Louis. This being the case, when Lothair saw that following his brothers’ victory, the people who had been with him wanted to defect, he was compelled by various forms of necessity to seek help from whomever and however he could get it. So he gave away public property for private use; he gave freedom to some and to others, however, he promised it after victory. He also sent a message to Saxony, to its vast multitude of frilingi and lazzi, promising that, if they should side with him, he would allow them to have the same law in the future that their ancestors had observed when they were idol-worshippers. Since they desired this to an immoderate degree, they took for themselves a new
name, namely “Stellinga,”68 massed together into a single body, almost drove their lords from the kingdom and, following ancient custom, each lived according to whichever law he chose. Moreover, Lothair had also called in the Northmen to aid in his cause and had placed some Christians under their control. He even permitted them to plunder other Christians.69 Louis therefore feared that, because they are neighbors, the same Northmen and Slavs might unite with the Saxons who called themselves Stellinga and that they might invade the kingdom to revenge themselves and root out the Christian religion in these parts.70… 3. At the same time the Northmen laid waste Contwig,71 then crossed the sea from there and likewise depopulated Hamwig and Nordhunnwig.72 Inasmuch as Lothair, however, had withdrawn all the way to the bank of the Rhone, he took up residence there and made use of the shipping on this river. Consequently, he attracted as many men as he could from every quarter to aid him. Nevertheless, he sent an envoy to his brothers, informing them that he was willing, if only he knew how it could be done, to send his magnates to them to negotiate a peace…. A peaceful division of the empire was accepted by all three parties in late 842 (and later ratified at Verdun in August 843), with Charles receiving West Francia, Louis East Francia, and Lothair retaining the imperial crown and receiving the middle region (from the Low Countries to central Italy). Although Lothair held the two imperial capitals, Aachen and Rome, his imperial title was more nominal than real. Despite this solution, Nithard ended his history with the following observation. 7. From this everyone might draw the conclusion how demented it is to neglect public welfare and to rage after private and selfish desires, since both insult the Creator so 68. “Companions” or “allies.” 69. Lothair ceded some land in Frisia to the former Danish king Heriold (Harald). Although baptized a Christian in 826 and earlier allied with Emperor Louis I, Heriold and his Danes also raided Frankish lands, and not much could be done to stop them during the civil war. 70. The various Slavic peoples to the east were largely not Christians, and most Danes were still unbaptized. 71. The Pas-de-Calais. 72. Hamwig is present-day Southampton, England; Nordhunnwig probably lay just north of Hamwig.
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much that He turns even all of the elements against the madness of the perpetrator. I shall very easily endeavor to demonstrate this by examples known to this day by almost everyone. For in the days of Charles the Great of good memory, who died now almost thirty years ago, there was peace and concord everywhere because this people walked together along the one proper way, the way of public welfare, and thus the way of God. But now, to the contrary, because each follows the path that he desires, dissensions and disputes are manifest everywhere. Then there was abundance and happiness everywhere, now there is pain and sorrow everywhere. Then the elements smiled on every kingdom; now, however, they are hostile to everyone
everywhere, as Scripture, left [to us] as a divine gift, testifies: And the world will wage war against the mad.73 About this same time, on March 20,74 there occurred an eclipse of the moon. Moreover, a large amount of snow fell in the same night, and by the just judgment of God, as was said before, it incited a sense of sorrow in all. I mention this because, from this time onward, brigandage and evils of every kind were inserting themselves everywhere; now the unseasonable weather was snatching away hope of any good [to come]. 73. Wisdom, 5:21. 74. Actually, March 19, 843.
The End of an Empire 35. Regino of Prüm, CHRONICLE 75 Chronicles were a popular form of historical record keeping in early Europe, especially among monastic writers. As the definition in the Glossary informs us, they were not full-fledged, narrative histories, but at their best, they were more than just a series of short, random notes on disconnected matters. Regino (ca. 845–915), abbot of the rich, Carolingian-patronized monastery at Prüm from 892 to 899, composed a chronicle that traced human history, largely that of the West, from the birth of Christ to 906. Regino was one of the most widely educated individuals of his age, and he borrowed extensively from ancient and more modern authors in his attempt to write a reasonably detailed account of the major religious and secular events that preceded his own adulthood. Even when he finally reached the late ninth century and began recording the events of his day, Regino continued to use written sources, as well as oral testimony and his own experiences, to fill out his accounts and to present his readers with a series of vivid stories and character sketches. These stories and sketches are all the more important for the historian because of Regino’s status. He was politically well-connected and participated in or was directly affected by many of the contemporary events that he narrated. For example, in 899, he was deposed as abbot of Prüm due to the fact that he was on the wrong side of a struggle for control of the kingdom of Lotharingia. The following selections deal with some of the most important events and crises of Regino’s day. We begin with the death of Emperor Charles III (r. 876–87), known as “the Fat.” Following Charles’s inability to stand up to the Northmen, who besieged Paris in 885–86 (and sacked the abbey of Prüm in 882 and 892), an assembly of German nobles deposed this great-grandson of Charlemagne in 887 and elected Arnulf of Carinthia. Shortly thereafter, Charles the Fat died, earning his place in history as the last Carolingian emperor to claim rule over the entire empire, albeit briefly and ineffectually. Even though Carolingians continued to hold various regional kingships for a few years more, and Arnulf bore the now largely empty title of emperor from 896 to 899, Charles III’s deposition and death signaled, for all practical purposes, the end of the Carolingian Empire. The second excerpt deals with the election of Odo, count of Paris, as king of West Francia (r. 888– 98), the first non-Carolingian king of that land since 751. The last several excerpts detail the impact of the Northmen and the Magyars on late ninth-century Carolingian society. 75. Regionis abbatis Prumiensis Chronicon, ed. Friedrich Kurze, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum (Hanover: Hahn, 1890), 598–601.
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Questions for Consideration 1. How convincing is Regino’s portrait of Charles III? What about the reasons he offers to explain the empire’s breakup? On what do you base these assessments? 2. What point of view underlies Regino’s treatment of Charles III and the effects of his deposition and death? 3. Does Regino seem aware that the year 888 is a watershed in Carolingian history? 4. Overall, how well informed (or not) does Regino appear to be regarding basic facts? With your answer to this and questions 1–3 in mind, what is your overall evaluation of the worth of this chronicle as a source? 5. Why was Odo chosen as king of West Francia? What does this suggest about late ninth-century political realities? 6. What does Regino’s treatment of the Viking attacks of 888/889 suggest about these late ninth-century invasions? 7. Why were the Vikings such a threat to continental Europe? For instance, did it have any geographic features that made it especially vulnerable to Viking attacks? 8. How did the Magyar menace differ from the Viking threat? What do you conclude from your answer?
888. In the 888th year of the Lord’s Incarnation, on the day preceding the Ides of January,76 Emperor Charles, the third of this name and dignity, died and was buried at the monastery of Reichenau.77 He was truly a most Christian prince who feared God, observed His mandates with his whole heart, scrupulously obeyed the Church’s laws, was generous in his almsgiving, was unceasing in his devotion to prayer and the chanting of psalms, was indefatigable in his single-minded praise of God, and entrusted his every hope and all his plans to divine disposition. Consequently, everything that happened to him happily turned out well. In fact, he easily took possession of all the Frankish kingdoms in a short space of time and without conflict or opposition—the same kingdoms that his predecessors had acquired with bloodshed and great labor. The fact, however, that, toward the end of his life, he was stripped of his offices and despoiled of all his possessions was a trial, we believe, designed not only for his purification but, more importantly, so that he could prove himself. Indeed, the common report is that he bore this with the utmost
patience, keeping true to his vows to offer thanks [to God] in adversity as well as in prosperity. Therefore, he has already received, or will undoubtedly receive, the crown of life that God promised those who love Him. After his death, the kingdoms that had been obedient to his authority were unbound from their union and returned to their separate ways, as if destitute of a legitimate heir.78 Now, not waiting for their natural lord, each sets out to elect for itself a king from its own inner organs. This excited great impulses toward war, not because the Franks lacked princes who could rule these kingdoms with nobility, fortitude, and wisdom but because their equality of generosity, dignity, and power increased discord among them. No one so excelled the others that the rest would deign to submit themselves to his overlordship. Francia could have produced many princes well suited to guiding the course of the kingdom had not Fortune armed them for their mutual destruction, as they strove for excellence.… Meanwhile, the people of Gaul gathered together and, with the consent of Arnulf and their own equal assent and consent, elected as their king Duke Odo,…a vigorous man who exceeded all others in beauty of form, height,
76. January 12. 77. An abbey on an island in Lake Constance.
78. Charles III had no legitimate heir, his only son having been born to a lover.
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and magnitude of strength and wisdom.79 He ruled the commonwealth manfully, and in defense against the unremitting depredations by the Northmen, he proved indefatigable.… In the same year, the Northmen, who were besieging the city of Paris, did something extraordinary and unheard of both in our own day and even in times past: When they realized that the city was beyond capture, they began to exert all their strength and every bit of their ingenuity on the following plan. Turning their backs to the city, they would leave it, thereby enabling their fleet and all their troops to sweep up the Seine.80 In this way, they would enter the Yonne River and thus penetrate the borders of Burgundy without opposition. Because the Parisians, however, used every means to bar their passage upstream, the Northmen dragged their ships over dry land for more than two miles, and having by this stratagem avoided every risk, they once again floated them on the Seine’s waters. Shortly thereafter, they left the Seine and, as they had planned, sailed with all possible speed up the Yonne, putting in at Sens.81 There, they set up camp, blockaded that same city by siege for six straight months, and destroyed almost all of Burgundy with robbery, murder, and fire. But because the citizens of Sens vigorously fought back and because God protected them, the Northmen were not able to capture the aforementioned city in any way whatsoever, even though they tried to do so many times by the sweat of their efforts and by the cleverness of all their skills and war machines….
889. In the 889th year of the Lord’s Incarnation, the Hungarians, an exceedingly ferocious people, who are crueler than any beast and so unheard of in earlier ages that they were unknown by name, moved out of the realms of Scythia 79. Odo, or Eudes, count of Paris, reigned until his death in 898. His family, known as the Robertians, intermittently held the royal crown of West Francia until 987, when Hugh Capet, a Robertian, ascended the throne following the short and inglorious reign of Louis V, Europe’s last Carolingian monarch. Thereafter, the Robertians, now known as the Capetians, produced kings of France in an unbroken line until 1328. 80. They bypassed Paris, which at the time was a small, fortified island in the Seine, today’s Île de la Cité. 81. A rich archbishopric, about eighty miles southeast of Paris.
and out of the swamps that the Don creates in great volume by its flooding.82… This people was expelled out of these lands and from their homes by a neighboring people called the Pechenegs, because the Pechenegs surpassed them in numbers and valor and the land of their birth was not large enough to accommodate their growing population.83 Put to flight, therefore, by Pecheneg aggression, the Hungarians said farewell to their homeland and set out in search of inhabitable lands, where they could establish settlements. First, they roamed the wastelands of the Pannonians and the Avars,84 seeking their daily food by hunting and fishing. Then, by repeated aggressive attacks, they broke through the borders of the Carinthians, Moravians, and Bulgars85 and killed a few by the sword and many thousands with arrows, which they shoot so skillfully from their bows made of horn that it is almost impossible to defend oneself against their strikes. They do not know how to fight hand-to-hand in close battle formation or how to take cities by siege. Rather, they fight by charging forward on their horses or by retreating, often even pretending to flee.86 They also cannot fight for long periods of time. They would otherwise be unbearable if their energy and perseverance were as intense as their onslaught. Most of the time, they retire from combat when the battle is hottest, but shortly thereafter, they return from flight to fight, so that just when you believe you have won overwhelmingly, you are about to undergo the real challenge.87 Their type of fighting is all the more dangerous, insofar as other people are unacquainted with 82. Scythia, named for the ancient Scythians who dwelt along the northern and eastern shores of the Black Sea. The Don, which empties into the Sea of Azov, is in present-day western Russia. 83. See source 16. 84. Pannonia was a Roman province bounded on the north and east by the Danube River. The Avars were a confederation of steppe peoples who settled in the Pannonian Basin in the midsixth century, and were subdued and Christianized by Charlemagne’s armies in the 790s. 85. Carinthia was present-day southern Austria; Moravia was located in what is today the Czech Republic; the Bulgars, a Turkic people who had migrated from Central Asia, ruled over the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018), which was a major power in the Balkans. 86. The feigned retreat and subsequent encirclement of the disorganized pursuers was a favorite battle tactic of steppe horsemen. 87. Using the mobility and speed of their horses, Central Asian warriors constantly moved about the battlefield probing for weaknesses and advantages.
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it. There is one difference between their way of fighting and that practiced by the Bretons; the Bretons use javelins, and the Hungarians, arrows.88 They do not live in the manner of human beings but of wild animals. According to rumor, they feed on raw meat, drink blood, cut up into pieces the hearts of their captives, which they eat like medicine, are not influenced by compassion, and have no stomach for any type of proper behavior. They cut their hair right down to the skin with a knife. They ride horses all the time; they are accustomed to traveling, thinking, standing, and conversing on horseback. They expend great care in teaching their children and slaves to ride and shoot arrows. By temperament, they are boastful, quarrelsome, dishonest, and overly hasty, as can be expected from a people who expect the same ferocity from women as they do from men. They constantly deprive 88. The Bretons, a Celtic people inhabiting the peninsula of Brittany, were essentially independent of Carolingian and Robertian authority. Their horse-riding warriors were noted for hurling javelins under full gallop.
themselves of rest for the sake of making trouble abroad and at home. By nature, they are taciturn and are more likely to act than to speak. Not only the aforementioned lands but even the greatest part of the kingdom of Italy suffered destruction from the cruelty of this most abominable people. In the same year, the Northmen left Sens and returned to Paris with their whole army. Because the people of Paris totally barred them from proceeding down river, they set up camp again and attacked the city with all their might, but, thanks to God’s help, the Northmen did not prevail. A few days later, they once again sailed up the Seine with their fleet, entered the Marne River, burned down the city of Troyes, and laid waste the land all about right up to the cities of Verdun and Toul.89 89. All three cities lie upriver (to the east) from Paris, but none is on the Marne. Troyes is on the Seine, about 90 miles southeast of Paris; Verdun is on the Meuse, about 160 miles to the northeast of Paris; Toul is even farther east, about 200 miles from Paris and roughly 112 miles from the Marne. Its nearest major river, the Moselle (Mosel), is about 73 miles away.
Chapter 6
Restructuring and Reordering Europe: 850–1050
Illus. 6.1 Dedication page image of Emperor Otto III enthroned from the Gospel Book
Despite the collapse of the Carolin- of Otto III, ascribed to the workshop of Liuthar at Reichenau Abbey, ca. 1001. gian Empire in the late ninth century, the last half of the 800s and the century and a half that followed was not an era of unmitigated disasters, unremitting invasions, universal political fragmentation, and total social dislocation. But it did have problems. The western regions of the former Carolingian Empire experienced weak kings and, more than elsewhere in Europe, the rise of local political units that historians generally, but imprecisely, refer to as “feudal lordships.” Moreover, in the several centuries immediately following the breakup of the empire, lords and their armed retainers fought seemingly incessant wars, as they jockeyed for power in a region whose heartland, as the year 1000 approached, was the emerging kingdom of France. 136
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Yet these lords and soldiers often provided the only possible military defense against invaders and homebred bandits in the face of the breakdown of monarchic authority. Ironically, local bullies, who had seized lands and the administration of justice, often provided a modicum of security at the local level. Indeed, by the mid-eleventh century, some local lords offered more than just minimal protection and order. The duke of Normandy, William I, for example, the descendant of Northmen who had settled the region, had consolidated and expanded his authority to such an extent that, by 1060, he was more powerful, more effective, and controlled more territory than his king, Philip I. East Francia, which we can now call Germany, experienced far less disunity than its western counterpart. Germany was divided into four linguistic and geographic entities—the Franks, Saxons, Swabians, and Bavarians—and each retained its own identity, laws, and ducal leaders. Of these, the Saxons produced a series of especially vigorous dukes. One of them, Henry I, managed to secure the kingship of Germany, thereby becoming the first non-Frank to reign as king of East Francia. His son and successor, Otto I, known to history as “the Great,” went one step farther and re-established an empire that once again encompassed Italian and Germanic lands and peoples, although its boundaries were quite different from those of Charlemagne’s empire. In the tenth and early eleventh centuries, German emperors generally worked in concert with the papacy to expand the borders of Roman Catholic Christendom into the lands of the Scandinavians of the north and the Hungarians and Slavs of central and eastern Europe. By 1050, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia had been added to the family of believers claimed by the Roman Church, and Norse adventurers had even carried the new faith to Iceland, Greenland, and the fringes of North America. Meanwhile, Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and Serbs had accepted the faith and ecclesiastical traditions of Constantinople. Old beliefs and religious practices still persisted in all the new Christian lands, but, except for Greenland and North America’s Vinland, the momentum toward permanent integration into the cultures of Western Europe and Byzantium was irresistible. In addition to this dramatic spread of Europe’s eastern and northern frontiers and the relative pacification of two of its most menacing invaders, Western Europe also witnessed the rise of England’s first united monarchy and the consequent rise in that island of a reasonably well- governed state. Intellectual, artistic, and educational renewal often accompanied political restructuring. Despite the ravages of ninth- and tenth-century invasions and internecine wars, Western Europe did not plunge into a dark age. As it would so many times in the centuries to follow, Western civilization displayed an amazing resilience and surprising regenerative powers. Western Europe around 1050 was still beset by many problems and a good deal of internal disharmony. Yet it had turned the corner and was ready for its first great age of efflorescence.
Early France: A World of Local Lordship West Francia suffered greatly from all of the challenges that had hastened the collapse of Carolingian unity. As Regino of Prüm’s chronicle implied, Count Odo was elected king in 888 largely because of his ability to defend the region around Paris from Viking marauders. His effective power, however, did not spread far beyond Paris. When he died, the crown passed back to the Carolingians in the person of Charles III, the Simple (r. 898–922), and he proved so ineffectual that in 911 he was forced to cede land at the mouth of the Seine to the Norse leader Rolf. Although Rolf became a Christian, married
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Charles’s daughter, and swore nominal fealty to Charles, this land served as the nucleus for the essentially autonomous duchy of Normandy. Royal inability to deal effectively with the crises that beset France continued throughout the tenth and eleventh centuries, even after the descendants of King Odo gained permanent possession of the French crown in 987. In tenth- and eleventh-century France, great lords emerged at the regional level, usurping royal and ecclesiastical lands and offices and turning what had been public duties in the age of Charlemagne into private rights. These lords built up armies of personal retainers and used their soldiers, increasingly known as vassals, to govern and extend the lands subject to them. The purpose, and often result, of this arrangement was to bind people in a relationship as intimate and meaningful as that of blood kinship. As is ideally the case in any family relationship, each party incurred responsibilities toward the other. The vassal swore to serve his lord faithfully, usually as a soldier, and the lord swore to protect the life, family, and possessions of his vassal. Additionally, the lord often granted the vassal an office, stronghold, land, or some other source of revenue in return for that service. This grant, which eventually became known in Latin as a feudum (“fief ” in English), serves as the root for that mystifying and not easily defined term “feudalism.” There is a growing tendency among medieval historians either to not use the term or to severely limit its definition and meaning. Certainly, no medieval lord, especially during the two centuries covered by this chapter, thought of himself as living in a feudal world or at the top of a feudal pyramid. In fact, the notion of a “feudal system” has its basis in the work of sixteenth-century French legal scholars, who sought to find (or create) coherence as they studied local attempts in early medieval France to impose order and security in the face of the breakdown of central authority. Yet, although it is an inexact, generally misunderstood, and ill-used term (much like “medieval”), long usage has given “feudalism” a certain place of privilege in the medievalist’s lexicon. For that reason, it will pop up here and there in the paragraphs and pages that follow, but we hope always to make clear how and why we are using it and its limitations as a descriptor. Few sources exist for the early stages of this lord-vassal relationship—certainly too few to allow us to trace its development in any meaningful detail. Moreover, few contemporaries thought it necessary to describe in detail what was fast becoming an accepted and moderately common phenomenon. Notwithstanding these limitations, some documents are available that give us tantalizing glimpses of the early realities and even ideals of this world of lordship. The documents that appear together as source 36 reflect two ways—the Peace of God and the Truce of God—by which some southern French church leaders sought to lower the level of violence that resulted from local lords’ often unrestricted use of their private armies. Adémar of Chabannes’s Life of Saint Gerald of Aurillac, source 37, demonstrates an early eleventh-century monk’s attempt to put flesh and blood, as well as the authority of divine sanction, on the Peace of God movement through an artful vita of a sainted count who supposedly lived and practiced the ideal of peace. The earlier and less detailed life of Gerald by Abbot Odo of Cluny, which also appears as part of source 37, is focused elsewhere. In source 38, a notable churchman and advocate of reform, Bishop Fulbert of Chartres, provides a theoretical statement of the obligations of vassals and lords.
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The Search for Peace and Security 36. THE PEACE OF GOD 1; THE TRUCE OF GOD 2 Beginning in 989, regional church councils in southern France demanded that warriors accord defenseless people and certain special places a personal peace, or immunity from violence. Later, other church councils in this same general area of France expanded the peace movement by legislating periods of truce, during which all normal fighting was prohibited. Our two documents come from an age in which the peace movement was just getting underway as a localized phenomenon. The first source dates from 990 and is a proclamation of the Peace of God by Guido II, bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay. The second is an example of the Truce of God. Preserved as a communication from Reginbald, archbishop of Arles, and several other high-ranking French clerics to the clergy of Italy, it dates to the period 1037–41. In it, Archbishop Reginbald and his colleagues recommend that the Italian clergy adopt the Truce of God, which obviously has already been proclaimed in the Mediterranean province of Arles and elsewhere.
Questions for Consideration 1. W hich persons and places are protected by Bishop Guido’s Peace? Why are they so singled out? 2. Consider the allowed exceptions to these peace prohibitions. What do they suggest to you? 3. Article 7 seems out of place in Bishop Guido’s Peace. Is it? If not, how does it fit in? 4. The Church of Le Puy-en-Velay was a major pilgrimage site because of an apparition of the Virgin Mary that was believed to have occurred there in the third century. Does that fact have any relevance to this particular Peace of God program? 5. Consider Reginbald’s statement: “This is the peace or truce of God that we have received from Heaven through the inspiration of God.” What do you think: Was this empty rhetoric, or did he believe those words? What is the basis for your answer? 6. W hat sanctions are threatened against those who violate the Peace and the Truce of God? What impact do you think they would have on those so threatened? 7. W ho will punish those who break the Truce of God? How does Reginbald justify this double penalty? 8. W hat is promised to those who observe the Truce of God? What impact do you think that promise would have on eleventh-century individuals? 9. Based on the tone and message of these two documents, what conclusions have you reached concerning life in southern France at the turn of the millennium?
1. Ludwig Huberti, ed., Studien zur Rechtsgeschichte der Gottesfrieden und Landfrieden, 1. Buch, Die Friedensordnungen in Frankreich (Ansbach: C. Brügel & Sohn, 1892), 123–24. 2. “Scripta treuga Dei et pacis,” Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Legum Sectio IV. Constitutiones et Acta Publica Imperatorum et Regum, ed. Ludwig Weiland, vol. 1 (Hanover: Hahn, 1893), 596–97.
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A Charter of Truce and Peace A charter of truce and peace. In the name of the divine, supreme, and undivided Trinity. Guido of Anjou, by the grace of God bishop, greeting and peace to those who desire the mercy of Heavenly Justice. We desire that it be it known to all the faithful of God that, because we see the wicked deeds that daily increase among the people, we have called together certain bishops [eight are listed], and many other bishops, princes, and nobles, whose number is unknown. And because we know that no one who disturbs the peace shall see the Lord, we urge [all], in the name of the Lord, to be sons of peace. 1. From this hour and into the future, no person shall break into a church in the bishoprics over which these bishops rule, and in these counties,…except that bishops [may do so] for taxes owed them. 2. No person in these counties or these bishoprics shall seize as plunder any of the following: horses, colts, oxen, cows, asses, or the burdens that they bear, or sheep, goats, or pigs. Nor shall a person kill them, unless he or his followers require it for an expedition. On an expedition a person may take food, but shall carry nothing to his home; and no one shall take material for fortifying or besieging a castle unless it is material from his own land or property or benefice3 or area of command. 3. Clerics shall not bear arms; no one shall injure at any time monks or any unarmed persons who accompany them; except that bishops and archdeacons [may do so] for taxes owed them. 4. [No one shall seize] a male or female peasant as payment, unless the peasant has forfeited freedom and unless the same peasant has ploughed and worked the land of another—land that is disputed—[and] unless that same peasant belongs to his land or benefice. 5. From this hour and into the future, no one shall dare to seize ecclesiastical lands, whether they are of a bishop, a chapter, canons, or a monastery, and neither shall anyone unjustly demand any wrongful tax [from them], unless he had acquired the land as a precarium4 from the bishop’s hand or at the will of the brothers. 6. No one shall presume to seize merchants or knowingly rob them of their goods. 3. Consult the Glossary. 4. Consult the Glossary.
7. We also forbid any lay person to impose his authority in the matter of ecclesiastical burials or offerings [to the church], and no priest shall accept money for baptism because it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. 8. If, in fact, anyone has been a plunderer or, being accursed, has violated this convention and does not wish to keep it, let him be excommunicated and condemned and cut off from Holy Mother Church, until he makes satisfaction. If he does not do so, no priest shall say Mass or perform divine services for him, and if he dies, no priest shall bury him nor may he be buried in church ground; no priest shall knowingly give him communion. If any priest knowingly violates this decree he shall be deposed from his priesthood.
*** The Truce of God of the Archdiocese of Arles In the name of God, the Omnipotent Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Reginbald, archbishop of Arles, with bishops Benedict of Avignon and Nithard of Nice, and also the venerable abbot, Dom Odilo,5 united with all the bishops, abbots, and other clergy living in Gaul, to all the archbishops, bishops, and other clergy residing throughout all of Italy, grace to you and peace from God, the Omnipotent Father, who is, was, and shall be. 1. We beseech all of you and implore all people who fear God and believe in Him and have been redeemed by His blood to take care and be mindful, for the salvation of [your] souls and the wellbeing of [your] bodies, to follow in the footsteps of God by keeping peace with one another, so that you might earn eternal peace and tranquility with Him. 2. Therefore receive and keep that peace and truce of God that we have now received, transferred to us from Heaven through divinely inspired mercy, and that we firmly observe. Namely, it has been established and instituted that among all Christians, friends and enemies, neighbors and strangers, there should be a firm peace and stable truce from vespers6 on Wednesday right up to sun5. Derived from Dominus (Lord), a title of respect for abbots and senior monks. The fifth abbot of Cluny (r. 999–1049), Saint Odilo was the most influential monk of his age. 6. Consult the Glossary at Canonical hours.
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rise on the second day of the week, that is Monday, so that in every hour during these four days and nights,7 people, freed of every fear of [their] enemies and made secure in the tranquility of this peace and truce, might do whatever suits them. 3. All who observe and firmly keep the peace and truce of God shall be absolved [of their sins] by God, the Omnipotent Father, and His Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, and by Saint Mary with the choir of virgins, and Saint Michael8 with the choir of angels, and Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, with all the saints and all the faithful, now and forever, throughout eternity. 4. They, in fact, who have promised [to observe] the truce and have willfully and knowingly violated it shall be excommunicated by God the Omnipotent Father and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and by all the saints of God; they shall be accursed and despised here and into eternity, and they shall be damned, as [were] Dathan and Abiram and as [was] Judas who betrayed the Lord, and they shall be overwhelmed in the depths of Hell, as [was] Pharaoh in the midst of the sea,9 if they fail to offer the prescribed reparation. 5. Namely, if anyone has committed homicide in these days of the truce of God, he shall be exiled and driven from his native land. Making a distant journey to Jerusalem, he shall suffer exile there. If, in fact, anyone has violated the above-mentioned truce of God and the peace in any way whatsoever, after having been tried, he shall, in accord with the nature of the offenses, be compelled to pay [the penalty] as prescribed by secular law and shall be judged [to owe] double the penance prescribed by the holy canons. 6. For that reason, we conclude it is appropriate that we should be doubly sentenced—by secular and spiritual judicial authority—if, in any way, we presume to break that promise that we have made. For we believe that this inspired cause came to us from Heaven by God though divine agency; because, as we believe, before it 7. Actually five nights. 8. A warrior archangel. 9. Dathan and Abiram plotted to overthrow Moses during the period of the desert wandering (Numbers, 16:26; Deuteronomy, 11:216); Judas betrayed Jesus and handed him over to Jewish authorities (Matthew, 26:47–56; Mark, 14:10–21, 43–50; Luke, 22:47–48; John, 13:27–30 and 18:3–12); as Pharaoh’s army pursued the Israelites, it drowned in the Sea of Reeds (Exodus, 14:21–29).
was transmitted to His people by God, nothing good was transpiring in our region. Certainly the Lord’s Day was not celebrated. Rather, people performed every manner of work on it. 7. Therefore, as we said above, we have vowed and dedicated four days to God: Thursday, because of the Ascension;10 Friday, because of Christ’s Passion;11 Saturday out of veneration for the tomb;12 and Sunday, inasmuch as [on that day] the Resurrection must be celebrated without defilement by everyone; absolutely no agricultural labor may be performed on it [and] no one ought to fear an enemy. 8. By the power conferred by God and handed down by the apostles, we bless and absolve all who will have cherished this peace and truce of God (as was said above); however, we excommunicate, curse, condemn, and exclude from Holy Mother Church those who oppose it. 9. If, however, anyone takes it upon himself to punish those who have presumed to break this decree and the truce of God, those inflicting the punishment shall not be held guilty and liable for punishment. Rather, as defenders of the cause of God, they shall go and come [freely] with the blessing of all Christians. If, in fact, anything has been stolen during the other days and one finds it within the days of truce, he shall in no way be constrained [from recovering it], lest an advantage is given to the person who wronged him. 10. In addition, brothers, we request that, whatever the day [might be] on which you have established the above-mentioned peace and truce, you devoutly observe that day in the name of the Holy Trinity. Drive thieves of every sort out of your country, and curse and excommunicate them in the name of all the saints who are mentioned above. 11. Indeed, offer your tithes and the first fruits of your labors to God, and bring offerings from your goods to the churches for the souls of the living and the dead, so that God might free you from all evils in this life, and after this life bring you to the Kingdom of Heaven—God who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit throughout eternity. Amen.
10. Jesus’s ascension into Heaven. 11. Jesus’s crucifixion. 12. Jesus’s corpse lay in the tomb all day Saturday.
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The Ideal Tenth-Century Lord? The Ideal Eleventh-Century Lord? 37. Odo of Cluny, THE LIFE OF THE MAN OF GOD, GERALD 13; Adémar of Chabannes, THE LIFE OF SAINT GERALD OF AURILLAC 14 Until recently, historians ascribed authorship of the Life of Saint Gerald of Aurillac to Saint Odo, abbot of Cluny (r. 927–42), who in 928/929 served briefly as the visiting abbot of the monastery of Saint Peter at Aurillac. While there, he learned about the abbey’s saintly founder, Gerald, who had flourished in the late ninth to early tenth century (ca. 836?–ca. 909?), and around 930, Odo composed an edifying but brief life of Gerald that modern scholars label the Vita brevior (the Shorter Life). A bit later, so it was once supposed, he expanded that hagiographic biography into a much longer, more detailed Vita prolixior (the Longer Life). As is now clear, Abbot Odo did not compose the far-longer vita of Gerald. The themes and prose styles of the two vitae are strikingly dissimilar. Moreover, although the author of the Vita prolixior borrowed some details and stories from the Vita brevior, his creation contains a number of errors and anachronisms that indicate an early eleventh-century date of composition, probably the 1020s. Evidence points to the monk Adémar of Chabannes (ca. 989–1034), a gifted forger of vitae, liturgies, and other ecclesiastical documents, as the person who authored the work and then ascribed his forgery to the sainted abbot of Cluny. Adémar might have been distantly related to Gerald. Certainly, Gerald fascinated Adémar, who mentioned him numerous times in his other works. Moreover, Adémar had already tried to raise to a new height the cult of Saint Martial, the patron saint of his own monastery at Limoges, by crafting a spurious vita that purported to demonstrate that this third-century bishop had actually been one of Jesus’s seventy-two disciples and a cousin of Saint Peter, who dispatched Martial to serve as the “apostle of Gaul.” It was not possible to claim such an exalted lineage and life for Saint Gerald, but Adémar was determined to do his best. Portions of three chapters regarding Gerald’s youth and young manhood are excerpted below from the lesser-known Vita brevior. Following them are nine chapters from the Vita prolixior, which became the standard hagiographic biography for Gerald. Be aware that none of the material that appears here from chapters 8–24 is contained in the Vita brevior. The reason for juxtaposing the two vitae is to provide you with sufficient evidence with which you can study the differences in perspective and authorship as well as the ways in which Adémar borrowed from and altered Odo’s account.
Questions for Consideration 1. Revisit source 36. About when did the Peace of God movement begin in southern France? What is significant about that dating? 2. Far more than the Vita brevior, the Vita prolixior provides a lengthy justification for Gerald’s fighting. What was Adémar’s view of such violence? Does his treatment of fighting differ in any way from the documents in source 36? If so, how do you explain that difference? 3. Authors often reveal a fair amount about themselves in what they write. Based upon these excerpts, can you sketch a picture of Adémar beyond his attitude toward violence? What, in other words, were his values and worldview? Can you do the same for Abbot Odo? 13. Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum latinorum antiquorum saeculo xvi qui asserrantur in bibliotheca nationali Parisiensis ediderunt hagiographi Bollandiani, 3 vols. (Brussels: O. Schepens, 1889–93), 2: 393–95, passim. 14. Odon de Cluny, Vita sancti Geraldi Auriliacensis, ed. Anne-Marie Bultot-Verleysen, (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 2009), 136, 140–42, 144–46, 162–70, passim.
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4. Apart from any differences found and discussed in addressing the preceding questions, what other clues can you discover in these two vitae that contribute to the conclusion that they were the work of two separate individuals? 5. W hat constituted normal training for the eleventh-century sons of nobility? 6. Adémar borrowed from the Vita brevior the story of how, when Gerald fell ill, he was offered an alternative education. (Odo ascribed this decision to his father alone.) What does this sudden shift in Gerald’s education suggest about noble families of the tenth and eleventh centuries? 7. Peasants figure in three of the stories excerpted here. Do these vignettes give us any insights into the peasantry of this era? If so, what are they? 8. W hat do Gerald’s supposed virtues suggest about some of the darker sides of early eleventh- century life in and around this region?
VITA BREVIOR Book I Here begins the life of Saint Gerald, the Confessor. 1. Gerald, indeed, was born in the province of Aquitaine, namely in the region that is Auvergne and also Cahors and that borders Albi. He was, in fact, the child of [his] father Gerald [and] mother Adeltrude. His forebearers were as highly ranked in the nobility as they were rich in possessions and, what was more outstanding, most were also known for [their] pious reputation. For, indeed, Saint Caesarius, bishop of Arles, and the blessed abbot Aredius are reputed to have been from the same family stock.15 Moreover, in the case of his mother Adeltrude, it has been noted that several miracles have already been performed at her tomb.16… 2. …And when he had reached that age when boys are accustomed to be contrary or malicious and willfully vengeful, a certain sweetness appeared in Gerald, so that through these childish acts he somehow hinted at what sort [of person] he would be. Consequently, he was attracted to literary studies, [but] such was his father’s will that, upon completing the psalter, he immediately received instruction in secular subjects. But, as we believe, it happened by divine arrangement that he frequently became enfeebled by illness. In consideration of this, his father ordered 15. Saint Caesarius, archbishop of Arles (r. 502/503–42), and Saint Aredius (ca. 510–91). Both were among southern Gaul’s most important sixth-century churchmen. 16. His mother, who died around 879, is listed in the Roman Church’s catalog of saints.
that he be more fully instructed in the literary disciplines so that, if he were not fit for secular military service, he would be prepared for an ecclesiastical office. It happened that on this occasion he became acquainted with chant and additionally received a foretaste of the art of grammar, which later greatly benefitted him because his mind, as if perfected, became more ready [to deal with] those matters that he was inclined toward, and his memory was more honed for remembering [them]. In fact, it happened that thereafter he surpassed many clerics in knowledge of the Scriptures. Having passed through childhood, when he was already developing in manly strength, that illness ceased, but his knowledge and love of Scripture remained in his adolescent heart. And because he fully excelled [other] men in body and quickness, he joined the ranks of the armed soldiery, but the sweetness of the Scriptures, which his mind had already imbibed, caused him to incline toward spiritual matters and to be almost averse toward military matters…. 3. Upon his parents’ deaths, when he came into his own authority over their possessions by right of inheritance, he did not, as adolescents are wont to do, become puffed up with an immature air of authority nor did he alter for the worse the humility of heart that he had earlier adopted. From that point onward, he reluctantly was forced to be occupied in managing and taking care of these affairs, [but] in such a manner that he could have free time and could devote himself to the service of others. Indeed, he bore with difficulty the vexing cares and duties of the household because he was fearful, in the hidden recesses of his heart, of being distracted by and caught up in earthly entanglements. It is true that because great necessity
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compelled him every now and then to subdue through force of arms the violent men who plundered his estates and peasants to a great degree, in a commanding voice he ordered his soldiers to fight the enemy with their lances reversed.17 Indeed, the piety that incited in the recesses of his heart a desire to fight this way soon made him irresistible to his enemies. For never was it once heard that the good fortune of victory had failed anyone who had fought out of loyalty to Gerald. But it remains certain that neither he himself ever wounded anyone at any time nor was he wounded by anyone.
VITA PROLIXIOR Book I 1. The man of the Lord, Gerald, was born in the fortified town or village of Aurillac,18 which is in that part of Gaul that is called Celtica by the ancient writers, namely the territory that is situated within the boundaries of Auvergne, and also Cahors and Quercy and also Albi. He was, in fact, the child of [his] father Gerald, [and] mother Adeltrude. He was so illustrious by the nobility of his birth that, among the families of Gaul, his family was viewed as especially eminent both by reason of its wealth and the rectitude of its way of life. For it is asserted that his forebearers held modesty and piety as though they were a certain inheritance given them. There are two witnesses to this point springing from his own family tree, and they are sufficient proof of this: namely Bishop Caesarius of Arles and the blessed abbot Aredius.… 4. …As a child, a certain sweetness of soul along with a shyness that especially graces youth adorned Gerald’s boyish activities. By the grace of Divine Providence, he gave himself over to the study of letters, but such was his parents’ wish, it [extended only] to completing the psalter. After that he was instructed in worldly exercises, as is the custom for boys of the nobility. Namely, he rode with Molossian hounds,19 he practiced archery, he learned how to release falcons and hawks with a proper launching technique. But lest, because of a worthless education, the time appropriate for the study of letters should pass without 17. See note 21 below. 18. Aurillac only developed into a settlement after Gerald had founded the monastery of Saint Peter there probably in the early 890s. 19. A breed of hunting dog.
profit, the divine will ordained that he should be ill for quite some time. It was the sort of fatiguing illness that caused him to withdraw from secular exercises but it did not impede a pursuit of learning. Indeed, he was so unremittingly covered with little pustules that, for a long, protracted period time, they now thought that he could not be cured. For this reason, his father, along with his mother, decided that he should be given over more seriously to the study of letters, so that, if he were less suited for secular pursuits, he could be prepared for an ecclesiastical office. So, therefore, it happened that he learned more than a little bit of chant and he also delved somewhat into grammar, which later proved quite useful to him. Sharpened in intellect by that exercise, his polished mind was the more acute for everything that he desired to do, for he had a lively mind, was discerning, and was fairly quick to learn whatever he thought desirable. 5. Leaving behind childhood, when he now reached adolescence, the strength of his limbs consumed the harmful humors of his body. Moreover, he became so agile that he vaulted over the backs of horses with an easy spring. And because he quickly developed in bodily strength, it was demanded that he become acquainted with military service. But the sweetness of the Scriptures, whose study he regarded with greater affection, had already taken hold of an adolescent soul. Although he excelled in military exercises, he was still attracted to the charm of letters, and because of this, by reason of a willful sluggishness, he was a little slow in regard to the former, [and] in regard to the latter he was habitually zealous…. 6. Upon his parents’ deaths, when he attained full power over his estate, Gerald was not swelled up, as is the general case with adolescents who are haughty in their immature exercise of power, nor did he alter the modesty of heart that he had had from the beginning. His seigneurial power grew great, but his humble mind never grew haughty. He was compelled to be occupied in administering and taking care of matters that, as we have said, he took upon himself by right of inheritance, and was compelled to leave that sweetness of the heart, which he had already tasted beforehand to a limited degree, for the bitter hurly-burly of earthly affairs. He unwillingly put aside this solitude of his heart, and as soon as it was possible, he returned to it. For while he seemed almost to fall headlong from the heights of contemplation to the business of the world, just as it is normal for a falling mountain goat to save itself from death by its horns, so returning to divine
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love and meditation on Scripture, he evaded the ruin of spiritual death…. And, indeed, fixed on this refreshment of the heart, he yearned [for it], but his household affairs and dependents obligated him to put aside repose and to devote himself to serving others…. 8. Therefore,…he set himself to repress the insolence of violent men, first earnestly taking care to offer [his] enemies peace and promising an exceedingly easy reconciliation. He especially took care so that he either conquered evil by goodness or, if they proved disagreeable, the justice of his side would find greater favor before the eyes of God. And sometimes, indeed, he soothed them and brought them back to peace. But when someone’s insatiable malice made a mockery of a rather peaceful person, he broke the teeth of the wicked.20… He was aroused not by a desire for vengeance, as is the case with many, nor was he stimulated by a love of praise from the masses, rather he was impelled by a love of the poor, who could not defend themselves.… For he ordered the pauper to be snatched away and the needy person liberated from the hand of the sinner.… At various times, when the inevitable necessity of fighting weighed heavy upon him, in a commanding voice he ordered his men to fight with the sharp points of [their] swords held in a reversed position [and their] lances turned forward.21 The enemy would have found this ridiculous except that Gerald, strengthened by divine power, overwhelmed his enemies in short order. It also would have seemed totally senseless to his men except that they had learned by experience that Gerald, whom piety overcame in the very moment of battle, had always proved invincible. For when they saw that he was triumphant in a new form of fighting that was mixed with piety, they turned derision to admiration. And now, sure of victory, they readily carried out his orders, for it was totally unheard of that he or the soldiers who fought in his service failed to achieve victory. But it remains certain that neither he himself ever wounded anyone at any time nor was he ever wounded 20. Psalms, 3:7, 58:6. 21. Given what Odo wrote, we would expect to read, “with lances reversed.” A momentary lapse in concentration on Adémar’s part? Was Adémar working with a corrupted, now-lost copy of Odo’s work? Did a later scribe corrupt Adémar’s text? Possibly Adémar deliberately altered Odo’s text. Unable to envision how couched lances could be reversed, he imagined that forward-pointing lances were a way of intimidating the enemy and preventing carnage, whereas swords pointing backward could not do any damage.
by anyone. For Christ, as it is written, was at his side.22 Looking into the eye of Gerald’s heart, He perceived that it was out of love for Him that he was so well-disposed to the point that he had no wish to attack the enemies’ persons but only to check their audacity. By all means, no one should be troubled that a just man sometimes employed fighting, which seems incompatible with piety. Indeed, no one who has examined the case impartially will judge that Gerald’s glory has been tarnished by this…. It was licit, therefore, for a layperson to carry a sword into battle so that he could defend the defenseless masses…so that he might restrain by the law of war or the might of the law those persons whom ecclesiastical censure could not subdue. It does not darken his glory that he fought for God’s cause…. To the contrary, it adds to his glory that he always prevailed openly, without the help of deception or ambushes and, nevertheless, was so protected by God that, as we said above, he never stained his sword with human blood…. 17. The poor and those who had suffered an injustice always had free access to him, and were not required to bring the smallest of anything in order to entrust their case to him…. And because everyone knew how obliging he was to all, many were able, through him, to take care of their needs and even settle matters [that seemed] beyond resolution. Nor did he refuse, either personally or through his people, to take an interest, in the affairs of the poor and, insofar as it was possible, he offered aid. Often when he knew that the litigants seethed with sharp differences, on the day that the case was to be heard, he had Mass celebrated for them and implored divine help for those whom, humanly speaking, he could not help. Nor did he allow any lord to take away a benefice from his vassal out of anger.… You might think the rigor of his justice leaned toward severity in this one way alone that, whenever a poor person, who was at risk for a severe punishment was brought before a more powerful person, he was there to support the weaker person in such a way that he overcame the stronger person without injuring him. In other respects, truly hungering after justice, he permitted no harm to be done not only to his people but even to strangers…. 18. A thirst and hunger for justice burned with regularity within him…. Robbers had taken possession of a certain forest, carrying out robbery and murder among passers-by and those who lived nearby. Gerald, hearing of 22. Proverbs, 3:26.
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this, immediately ordered their capture. Then it happened by chance that a certain peasant, who was driven by fear, joined them. The soldiers who captured them, fearing, perhaps, that Lord Gerald would either set the robbers free or blame them for showing him the prisoners unpunished, immediately put out everyone’s eyes. So on this occasion it happened that the peasant was blinded. Afterward he withdrew to the district of Toulouse. A long time afterwards, when Lord Gerald had received word that he had not been an associate of the robbers, he was deeply saddened, and asked if he was still alive and where he had gone. When he heard on good authority that he had gone to the province of Toulouse, he sent him, so they say, one hundred solidi, ordering the person bearing this to request, in his name, pardon from the man…. 21. …Once, while he was traveling along a public road, a certain peasant woman was guiding a plow in a small plot of land that bordered the road. Seeing this from across the way, he ordered her to be brought to him. He asked her why a woman took it upon herself to do a man’s work. She responded that her man had been ill for quite some time now, the time for sowing was passing by, she was alone, and she had no one to help her. Taking pity on her misfortune, he ordered her to be given as many coins as there were days of sowing known to be left, so that on each day she might employ the services of an agricultural laborer, and therefore she might stop doing manly work…. Nature flees from everything that is artificial, and its Author, God, abhors all that is contrary to nature. In itself, this is
certainly a trifling matter, but the attitude of a righteous man who is in harmony with the laws of nature causes it to grow grand…. 24. In fact, he was so generous and peaceful toward those subject to his authority that it amazed the persons who observed it. For they frequently reproached him for being mild and timid—he who, as if he were powerless, allowed himself to be taken advantage of by low-born persons. But he was not lightly annoyed by persons who insulted him, as [opposed to those] lords who are accustomed to becoming enraged so easily. On one occasion, for example, he came across quite a few peasants who, having abandoned their estates, were moving to another province. When he recognized them and inquired where they were headed with their goods, they replied that they had been wronged by him when he had granted them their holdings. Now the soldiers who were marching alongside urged the lord to order them beaten and compelled to return to the homes from which they had departed. But he was unwilling, for he knew that he and they had one Lord in Heaven, who was accustomed rather, according to the Apostle, to put aside threats23 and who was not accustomed to raise the hand of His might against the orphan.24 He, therefore, gave them permission to depart and gave them permission to dwell in a place that they thought would be more suitable for them. 23. Ephesians, 6:9. 24. Job, 31:21.
The Ideal Eleventh-Century Vassal? 38. Fulbert of Chartres, LETTER TO DUKE WILLIAM V OF AQUITAINE 25 The following document, addressed to Duke William V of Aquitaine (r. 990–1030), comes from the pen of Fulbert, bishop of Chartres (r. 1006–28) and dates to around 1020. Apparently, William, who was embroiled in a dispute with his powerful vassal Hugh of Lusignan over the issue of respective rights, requested that Fulbert, one of the age’s most learned men, clearly enunciate the obligations owed to a lord by those who had sworn fidelity to him. Bishop Fulbert responded with a short treatise on the ideal relationship that should exist between lords and their vassals.
Questions for Consideration 1. Why do you think Fulbert begins by listing the vassal’s six negative duties? What might that imply about the times and feudal realities? 25. Frederic A Ogg, trans., A Source Book for Medieval History (New York: American Book Company, 1907), 220–21.
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2. In addition to the negative duties, what must a vassal do for his lord? What do you think Fulbert means by a vassal’s advising and aiding his lord? 3. Does the lord owe anything to his vassal? If so, what? What inferences do you draw from your answers? 4. What are the implied sanctions for any vassal or lord who fails to meet his obligations? 5. Some historians dismiss this letter as a rhetorical exercise that tells us nothing about contemporary realities. Does that seem to be a valid critique? 6. Based on your answer to question 5, what picture emerges of early eleventh-century French feudalism from this letter? To William, most illustrious duke of the Aquitanians, Bishop Fulbert, the favor of his prayers: Requested to write something regarding the character of fealty, I have set down briefly for you, on the authority of the books,26 the following things. He who takes the oath of fealty to his lord ought always to keep in mind these six things: what is harmless, safe, honorable, useful, easy, and practicable. Harmless, which means that he ought not to injure his lord in his body; safe, that he should not injure him by betraying his confidence or the defenses upon which he depends for security; honorable, that he should not injure him in his justice,27 or in other matters that relate to his honor;28 useful, that he should not injure him in his property; easy, that he should not make difficult that which his lord can do easily; and practicable, that he should not make impossible for the lord that which is possible. 26. Several law manuals from Roman antiquity and possibly books of local customs that had the force of law in their respective territories. 27. The right of justice was one of the clearest indicators of rank and power. 28. “Honor” had two meanings in this context: honor as we understand it and one’s office.
However, while it is proper that the faithful vassal avoids these injuries, it is not for doing this alone that he deserves his holding: for it is not enough to refrain from wrongdoing, unless that which is good is done also. It remains, therefore, that in the same six things referred to above he should faithfully advise and aid his lord, if he wishes to be regarded as worthy of his benefice and to be safe concerning the fealty which he has sworn. The lord also ought to act toward his faithful vassal in the same manner in all these things. And if he fails to do this, he will be rightfully regarded as guilty of bad faith, just as the former, if he should be found shirking, or willing to shirk, his obligations would be perfidious and perjured. I should have written to you at greater length had I not been busy with many other matters, including the rebuilding of our city and church, which were recently completely destroyed by a terrible fire.29 Though for a time we could not think of anything but this disaster, yet now, by the hope of God’s comfort, and of yours also, we breathe more freely again. 29. The wooden cathedral church burned down in 1020, and Fulbert oversaw its replacement by a stone Romanesque church.
England and the Ottonian Empire: New Monarchic Order The cliché “What does not destroy me, makes me stronger” holds true for England and Germany in the ninth and tenth centuries. In meeting the crisis of invasion, each emerged as a stronger, more centralized kingdom, and in the case of Germany, the result was an empire modeled upon and rivaling Charlemagne’s. When Danish raiders first appeared on the southern coast of England in 787, four Anglo-Saxon kingdoms dominated the land and vied among themselves for hegemony: Northumbria in the north; Mercia in the Midlands; East Anglia in the southeast; and Wessex in the southwest. A century later, Danish invaders and colonists had effectively destroyed the power of three of the kingdoms, leaving the
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field open for the rise of Wessex as England’s sole bulwark against pagan Danish rule. Led initially by Alfred the Great, the kings of Wessex rose to the challenge. Their successful defense of their kingdom and subsequent counterattack against Danish-held areas resulted in the eventual Christian conversion of the Vikings in England and, around 954, the unification of all peoples and lands in England under the House of Wessex. In the midst of these struggles, the kings of Wessex also labored, with some success, to raise the level of literacy and learning in their island kingdom. As our first document illustrates, Alfred the Great established the precedent of attacking the silent internal enemies, illiteracy and ignorance, while carrying on the battle against external menaces. Germany suffered from Viking raids out of neighboring Denmark and seasonal invasions by waves of Hungarian light cavalry out of the east. Beginning with King Henry I (r. 919–36), Saxony produced vigorous royal war leaders, who contained the threat from Scandinavia and crushed the Hungarians in two major battles. The scale of the threat posed by the Danes and Hungarians, when combined with the Saxon king’s successes on the battlefield, resulted in the growth of royal power and the momentary diminution of ducal independence. The second monarch of the House of Saxony, Otto the I, built upon what his father had begun to the point that in 962 he was master of Germany and a good portion of Italy, lord over a number of vassal states in the Slavic East, and recognized as emperor by the Roman papacy. Our second document sheds light on Otto’s relationship with the papacy.
King Alfred’s Educational Program 39. Alfred the Great, LETTER TO BISHOP WÆRFERTH 30 King Alfred of Wessex (r. 871–99), whom history has labeled “the Great,” owed much to the accomplishments of his immediate royal predecessors, his father Æthelwulf and four brothers. Regardless, due to his perseverance, as well as military, diplomatic, and organizational skills, Alfred achieved great ends. Additionally, he was a scholar and a patron of education. Much like Charles the Great, Alfred gathered scholars at his court from far and wide and set them to the task of reforming learning throughout his kingdom. A major element of that educational program was their translation of selected Christian classics from Latin to West Saxon, the vernacular tongue of Alfred’s people, which consequently became a literary language and the ancestor of eleventh-century Old English. Despite his continuing wars with the Danes, King Alfred joined in the translation effort. Probably around 892/3, Alfred, with the help of four clerics, produced his initial contribution, a translation of The Book of Pastoral Care by Pope Gregory the Great. By way of a preface to this work, Alfred addressed the following letter to his friend and collaborator Bishop Wærferth of Worcester. Because this was Alfred’s first translation, the letter to Wærferth served the purpose of setting forth the king’s educational program as well as the philosophy that underlay it.
Questions for Consideration 1. How does Alfred characterize England prior to the Viking invasions? How does he characterize the Danish impact on England?
30. Adapted from Frederic A. Ogg, trans., A Source Book of Medieval History (New York: American Book Company, 1908), 191–4. Modifications by A. J. Andrea based on King Alfred’s West-Saxon Version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care, ed. Henry Sweet (London: N. Trübner & Co., 1871), 3–8.
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2. Based on this letter, what appears to have been the common language of ninth-century church services in England? 3. How did Alfred propose to improve England’s level of learning? 4. Notwithstanding his program of Saxon education, Latin retained a place in Alfred’s scheme. What was it, and what do you infer from that fact? 5. Consider the value of the clasps that Alfred ordered to be put on each copy of The Book of Pastoral Care. What does this suggest to you? 6. Compare this document with Charles the Great’s letter to Abbot Baugulf (source 31). For example, how does each monarch view the present level of learning in his realm? Why is each concerned, and what does each propose to do about it? What conclusions do you draw from your comparative analysis? 7. Compare Alfred’s circle of scholars with that of Charlemagne’s court. What insights follow from this comparative analysis? King Alfred greets Bishop Wærferth with loving words and with friendship. I let it be known to you that it has very often come into my mind what wise men there formerly were throughout England, both within the Church and outside it; also what happy times there were then and how the kings who had power over the nation in those days obeyed God and His ministers; how they cherished peace, morality, and order at home, and at the same time enlarged their territory abroad; and how they prospered both in war and in wisdom. Often have I thought, also, of the sacred orders, how zealous they were both in teaching and learning, and in all the services they owed to God; and how foreigners came to this land in search of wisdom and instruction, which things we should now have to get from abroad if we were to have them at all. So general became the decay of learning in England that there were very few on this side of the Humber31 who could understand the rituals in English, or translate a letter from Latin into English; and I believe that there were not many beyond the Humber who could do these things. There were so few, in fact, that I cannot remember a single person south of the Thames when I came to the throne.32 Thanks be to Almighty God that we now have some teachers among us. And therefore, I enjoin you to free yourself, as I believe you are ready to do, from worldly matters, that you may apply the wisdom that God has given you wherever you can. Consider what punishments 31. A wide estuary that separates Northumbria from central and southeast England. 32. The Thames River was Wessex’s northern boundary.
would come upon us if we, ourselves, neither loved wisdom nor allowed other people to obtain it. We should then only care for the name “Christian,” and have regard for very few of the Christian virtues. When I thought of all this, I remembered also how I saw the country before it had been all ravaged and burned; how the churches throughout the whole of England stood filled with treasures and books. There was also a great multitude of God’s servants, but they had very little knowledge of books, for they could not understand anything in them because they were not written in their own language. When I remembered all this, I wondered extremely that the good and wise men, who were formerly all over England and had learned perfectly all the books, did not wish to translate them into their own language. But again, I soon answered myself and said: “Their own desire for learning was so great that they did not suppose that men would ever become so indifferent and that learning would ever so decay; and they wished, moreover, that wisdom in this land might increase with our knowledge of languages.” Then I remembered how the law was first known in Hebrew and when the Greeks had learned it how they translated the whole of it into their own tongue, and all other books besides. And again the Romans, when they had learned it, translated the whole of it into their own language. And also all other Christian peoples translated a part of it into their languages. Therefore, it seems better to me, if you agree, for us also to translate some of the books that are most needful for all men to know into the language that we can all understand. It shall be your duty to see to it, as can easily be done if
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we have tranquility enough,33 that all the free-born youth now in England, who are rich enough to be able to devote themselves to it, be set to learn as long as they are not fit for any other occupation, until they are well able to read English writing. And let those afterwards be taught more in the Latin language who are to continue learning and be promoted to a higher rank. When I remembered how the knowledge of Latin had decayed throughout England, and yet that many could read English writing, I began, among other various and manifold troubles of this kingdom, to translate into English the book that is called in Latin Pastoralis, and in English The Shepherd’s Book, sometimes word for word, and sometimes according to the sense, as I had learned it from Plegmund, my archbishop,34 and Asser, my bishop,35 and Grimbald, 33. Three of the last six years of his reign were filled with bitter battles against the Danes. 34. Saint Plegmund, a scholar whom Alfred summoned from Mercia, served as archbishop of Canterbury from 890 to his death in either 914 or 923. 35. Asser was a Welsh monk and scholar whom Alfred invited to his court. He served as bishop of Sherborne and composed a laudatory, rather hagiographic biography of King Alfred, which is our main source for the king’s life and deeds. A few scholars have
my mass-priest,36 and John, my mass-priest.37 And when I had learned it, as I could best understand it and most clearly interpret it, I translated it into English. I will send a copy of this book to every bishopric in my kingdom, and on each copy there shall be a clasp worth fifty mancuses.38 And I command in God’s name that no man take the clasp from the book, or the book from the minster.39 It is uncertain how long there may be such learned bishops as, thanks be to God, they now are almost everywhere; therefore, I wish these copies always to remain in their places, unless the bishop desires to take them with him, or they be loaned out anywhere, or any one wishes to make a copy of them.
claimed that Asser’s Life of Alfred is a forgery, but this remains a minority judgment. 36. One of Alfred’s chaplains, Saint Grimbald was a French monk and scholar whom Alfred invited to his court. 37. John the Old Saxon. According to Asser, he was from Germany (Old Saxony) and was knowledgeable about fighting, suggesting an early life as a warrior. When he arrived at Alfred’s court, he was a well-known scholar-monk and poet. 38. A gold coin of 4.25 grams. 39. A cathedral church. See note 122 of source 28.
Otto the Great and the Papacy 40. Liudprand of Cremona, CONCERNING KING OTTO 40 With the dethronement in 923 of the king of Italy, Berengar I, who enjoyed the title but not the authority of emperor, the imperial title vanished in the West for almost four decades. On February 2, 962, however, Pope John XII (r. 955–64) anointed the Saxon king of Germany, Otto I (r. 936–73), as emperor. Much like Charlemagne, upon whom he modeled himself, Otto was the most powerful monarch of his day in Western Europe and was remembered by posterity as worthy of the title “the Great.” Unlike Charles the Great, however, Otto carved out an empire in Germany and Italy that lived on for centuries after his death. Liudprand (ca. 920–72), bishop of Cremona, was an eyewitness to the birth of that empire, and his account, which covers the years 961–64, outlines in detail the events leading up to and following Otto’s consecration as emperor. Liudprand, who was born into an aristocratic Lombard family in northern Italy, initially served Berengar II, the king of Italy. Following a falling out with Berengar, Liudprand fled to Otto’s court in Germany. Late in 961, as King Otto marched toward Rome for his imperial anointment, he installed Liudprand in the bishopric of Cremona as a way of securing a trustworthy ally in Lombardy’s strategically important Po River Valley. In or around 965, Liudprand composed Concerning King Otto, which describes a pivotal period for Otto I and the Roman papacy. 40. Liudprand of Cremona, Opera Omnia, ed. P. Chiesa (Turnholt: Brepols, 1998), 169–71, 173, 175, 177–83, passim.
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Questions for Consideration 1. Why did Pope John initially call in and then turn against Otto? What does your answer suggest about papal-imperial relations and the balance of power in Italy? 2. How do you explain the actions of the Romans throughout this period? 3. Compare the Roman synod’s citation and interpretation of the passage from Matthew, 18:18, with Pope Gregory I’s citation and explication of Matthew, 16:19, which was apparently addressed solely to Peter (source 26, the letter to Emperor Mauricius). What do you conclude from your comparative analysis? Do you see any real or potential conflicts? 4. What role did Otto play in judging and deposing Pope John? What role did Otto play in Pope Leo’s election? In Benedict’s deposition? What do you infer from your answers? 5. How does Liudprand deal with Pope John? Pope Leo VIII? Benedict V? What are your conclusions? 6. Note the ways in which Liudprand refers to Otto and what he says about the emperor’s duties and actions. What do you infer from all of this? 7. Consider the ceremony in which Benedict was deposed. Explain its symbolism from start to finish. 8. Based upon your answers to the above questions, what do you conclude regarding Liudprand’s perspectives, prejudices, and worldview? 9. Now that you have examined Liudprand’s psyche and motives, go one step further. What are the merits and shortcomings of this source? 10. Consider both Alfred the Great and Otto the Great. In what ways did each man appear to be influenced by the life and legend of Charlemagne? What do your answers suggest about the impact of Charles the Great on European history? 1. It was when Berengar and Adalbert were reigning,41 or rather raging, in Italy, and to be more truthful, were exercising a tyranny, that John, the supreme pontiff and universal pope,42 whose Church was then familiar with the 41. Berengar II (r. 950–61) and his son Adalbert. 42. John XII (r. 955–64). Originally named Octavian, John was the son of Alberic II (d. 954). In 932, Alberic had engineered a revolution in Rome that established it as an independent citystate. Recalling the glories of the Roman Republic and Empire, Alberic ruled the city as “princeps and senator of all the Romans.” The title princeps (first citizen) recalled the title borne by Rome’s first emperor, Caesar Augustus. It was no accident that Alberic named his son Octavian, the birth name of Caesar Augustus. Alberic managed to secure Octavian’s succession as the secular head of Rome and also stage-managed his son’s future election as pope, once the then-reigning pope, Agapetus II, died. Upon Agapetus’s death, Octavian, who was somewhere between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four, claimed the papal throne and changed his name to John.
savagery of the aforementioned Berengar and Adalbert,43 dispatched envoys of the Holy Church of Rome, namely the cardinal-deacon John and the secretary Azo, to Otto, the most serene and pious king (now august emperor), begging [him], both through letters and a recital of the situation, that, for the love of God and of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, who, he hoped, would absolve his sins, that Otto free him and the Holy Roman Church that had been entrusted to him from their jaws, and restore them to their pristine health and freedom…. While the pope’s envoys are laying out their case, Waldpert, archbishop of Milan, and a number of other Italian clerics and laypersons appear at Otto’s court complaining of abuses by Berengar, Adalbert, and Willa, Berengar’s wife. 43. Both men had designs on Rome and the extensive lands held by the papacy.
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2. The most pious king was consequently moved by their tearful requests, and considered not his own interests but those of Jesus Christ. Although it was contrary to custom, he appointed his own son, who was still a boy in years, as his co-equal king and left him in Saxony.44 On his part, he assembled his forces and quickly came to Italy. There he drove Berengar and Adalbert from the kingdom so quickly that it is certain that he had the most holy apostles Peter and Paul as allies. And so, the good king, gathering up what had been dispersed and buttressing up what had been broken, restored to each what had been his. Then he set out for Rome to do likewise. 3. There he was welcomed with wondrous ceremony and a new form of ceremony, and he received the anointment of imperial rule from John, the one and the same supreme pontiff and universal pope. He not only restored [the Church’s] possessions, but also honored [the Church] with lavish gifts of gems, gold, and silver. Furthermore, he received from the same Pope John and all the leading men of the city an oath [sworn] over the most precious body of Saint Peter that they would never aid Berengar and Adalbert. After that, he promptly returned to Pavia. 4. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Pope John, forgetful of his oath and the promise that he had made to the holy emperor, sent [word] to Adalbert that he should return, swearing an oath that he would assist him against the might of the most holy emperor. For the holy emperor had so terrified this same Adalbert, persecutor of God’s churches and of Pope John, that he had totally left Italy and had gone to Fraxinetum, entrusting himself to the faith of the Saracens.45 To put it briefly, the righteous emperor could not fully comprehend why Pope John now showed affection to Adalbert, a man whom previously he had attacked with bitter hatred. Accordingly, after summoning some of his closest followers, he sent off an inquiry to Rome as to whether this was true. When his messengers arrived, they received this answer, not from just any random people or from a few but from all the citizens of Rome: “There seems to be a similar reason why Pope John hates the most holy emperor, who freed him from Adalbert’s hands and why the Devil hates his Creator. The emperor, as we have experienced it in actual 44. The future Emperor Otto II (r. 967–83), who had been born in 955, was made co-king in 961. 45. In the late ninth century, Muslims from al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) established a frontier state at La Garde-Freinet in Provence, from which they harassed the alpine pilgrimage and trade routes into Italy.
practice, knows, works for, and loves the things of God, protects ecclesiastical and secular interests by [his] arms, honors them by [his] practices, and cleanses them by [his] laws. Pope John is opposed to all these things. What we say is not unknown to the populace at large. A witness to this is the widow of Rainer, his own soldier, a woman to whom John, blinded by a burning obsession, gave governance over many cities [and] gave the most holy golden crosses and chalices of Saint Peter. Stephana, his aunt, is a witness. She left this life recently in an effusion of blood from the child whom she had conceived by him. If all else were silent, the Lateran Palace, which once was home to saints but is now a brothel for whores, will not forget his union with his aunt, sister of the other concubine Stephana. Witness the absence of all women of every ethnicity, except for Romans, who fear to visit and pray at the thresholds of the holy apostles because they heard how, a few days ago, several wives, widows, and virgins were forcibly raped there. Witnesses are the churches of the holy apostles, which let in not a trickle of rain but an entire deluge upon even their sacrosanct altars. How greatly their roofing terrifies us! When we seek divine services there, death reigns in the roofing, which greatly hinders us who wish to pray, and it soon drives us from the Lord’s house. Not only are [our] witnesses women who have managed to become artificially reed-like but also women of ordinary body types. To him it is the same: women who wear down the blackened pavement with [their] feet and women who are carried [to him] with the aid of great horses. And that is the reason why there is such a great antipathy between him and the holy emperor. It is as great as the lot in life that has befallen the wolf and the lamb. So that he might do these things with impunity, he is grooming Adalbert as his father, his patron, and his protector.” 5. When the emperor heard these things from the envoys who had returned, he said, “He is a boy. He will easily change through the example of good men. I hope for his honest turn around through kind persuasion so that he might easily lift himself out of these vices.”… John and Otto exchange accusations of unfaithfulness, with Otto producing evidence that John conspired to incite the Magyars to attack his lands. After fruitless negotiations between the emperor and pope, John receives Adalbert back in Rome. In September 963, Otto marches on the city. 8. …With the emperor encamped next to the city, the pope and also Adalbert fled Rome. The citizens, indeed,
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welcomed the holy emperor and all his men into the city, promising again to be loyal and adding a strong oath that they would never elect or ordain a pope except with the consent of and election by the Lord Emperor Otto, Caesar Augustus, and his son King Otto. 9. After three days, at the request of the bishops and people of Rome, there was a large gathering and they sat [there] with the emperor.… 10. When all had taken their seats and were keeping completely silent, the holy emperor began in this manner: “How fitting it would have been for the Lord Pope John to be present at this exceedingly glorious holy council! We ask you, holy fathers, who have shared a common life and profession with him, to give your opinion why he has refused [to attend] such a splendid gathering.” Then the Roman bishops and cardinals, priests and deacons, together with the whole populace said: “We are surprised that Your Most Holy Prudence desires to question us about something that does not lie beyond the sight of either the inhabitants of Iberia or of Babylonia or of India. This man is now not one of those who come in sheep’s clothing but are within as ravening wolves. He rages so openly [and] engages in the Devil’s business so publicly that he uses no circuitous means.” The emperor replied: “It seems proper to us that the charges are expressly set out; then, through common deliberation, we shall consider what we should do.”… Charges of sacrilege, simony, acts of uncanonical irregularity and of gross immorality, unbelief, and murder are leveled against John. One indictment concerned his responsibility for the castration and subsequent death of a cardinal. Through his interpreter, Bishop Liudprand, Otto makes it clear that he is unwilling to accept these charges without hard evidence. The clergy at the council then decide to send John an invitation to return to Rome to answer the charges. 13. After reading this letter, he wrote a defense of this sort: “Bishop John, servant of the servants of God, to all bishops: We heard it said that you wish to create another pope. If you do this, I excommunicate you through Almighty God so that you might not have license to ordain no one and to celebrate Mass.”… The bishops reply with a letter that begins by charging John with immaturity, and it even chides him for his ignorant employment of a double negative. We pick up the letter at that point.
14. “…If you do not delay in coming to the synod and clearing yourself of the indictments, we will obey your authority without hesitation. But if—may it not be so!—you neglect to come and to clear yourself of the capital-crime indictments, especially since there is nothing that prevents your coming—no sea voyage, no bodily sickness, no long journey—then we shall disregard your excommunication, and rather turn it back upon you, as we rightly have the power to do. Judas, the betrayer, indeed the seller, of Our Lord Jesus Christ, initially received, along with the other apostles, the power of binding and loosing from the Master in these words:—‘Amen, I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven.’46 As long as Judas was a good man in the company of [his] fellow disciples, he had the power to bind and loose. Later, however, when he became a murderer because of greed and sought to destroy the life of everyone, whom then could he loose among those who were bound or bind among those who were loosed, unless [it was] himself, whom he hanged with a most accursed noose? Given on the tenth day before the Kalends of December47 and sent by the hand of Adrian, cardinal-priest, and Benedict, cardinal-deacon.” 15. When they arrived at Tivoli,48 they could not find him. For, armed with a quiver, he had now gone off into the countryside, and no one could point out to them where he was. When they could not find him, they returned with the same letter to the holy synod, which now was gathered for the third time. Soon thereafter the emperor said: “We anticipated his arrival so that we might, in his presence, complain of his conduct toward us. Since, however, we now know for certain that he will not be here, we earnestly implore you to carefully listen to how he has behaved treacherously toward us. We therefore inform you, archbishops, bishops, priests, deacons, and other clergy, as well as counts, judges, and all the people, that this very Pope John, being hard pressed by Berengar and Adalbert, who had rebelled against us, sent to Saxony, asking us, for the love of God, to come into Italy and free the Church of Saint Peter and himself from their jaws. Of course, we need not tell you how much we accomplished with God’s 46. Matthew, 18:18. In this passage, Jesus refers to the entire community of believers—the Church. 47. November 22, 963. 48. A town about nineteen miles outside of Rome.
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assistance, since you see it today [for yourselves]. However, after he was snatched away from their grasp through my agency and returned to his due honor, forgetful of the oath and fidelity that he swore to me on the body of Saint Peter, he arranged for that very Adalbert to come to Rome, defended [the city] against me, stirred up acts of sedition, and with our soldiers looking on, made himself a war leader, having donned a coat of mail and a helmet. Let the holy synod make known what it decrees on this matter.” To this the Roman pontiffs and the rest of clergy and all the people responded “An unheard-of wound must be burned out by unprecedented cauterization! If he harmed only himself by his corrupt morals and not others, we should have to tolerate it somehow. But so many persons who were earlier chaste have been made unchaste in imitation of him! So many upstanding men have become reprobates in imitation of him! Consequently, we plead that the magnitude of your imperial authority cast out from the Holy Roman Church this monster, who is redeemed from [his] vices by no virtue, and that another be appointed in his place, who, by the example of the goodness of his way of life, might be up to the task of presiding over us and being beneficial for us, one who himself lives righteously and who offers us an example by living well.” Then the emperor said: “What you say is welcome, and nothing would please us more than that such a man be found who could be placed at the head of this holy and universal see.” 16. Once these speeches had been made, all the people spoke with one voice: “We elect as our shepherd and supreme universal pope of the Holy Roman Church, Leo, the venerable first secretary of the Holy Roman Church, an esteemed man and one worthy of the highest priestly rank of proved worth deserving of the highest sacerdotal rank;49 we have rejected the apostate John because of his shameful morals.” When all had said this for the third time, with the emperor’s consent [and] according to custom, they led the aforementioned Leo to the Lateran Palace while singing lauds,50 and at the specified time, by an act of holy consecration they elevated him to the highest priestly office in the Church of Saint Peter and promised through sworn oaths future fidelity to him.51… 49. Leo, a layperson, was the papal official in charge of the education and supervision of the tabilliones, secretaries who had limited judicial authority. For more on Leo, see notes 54 and 57 below. 50. Psalms of praise (laude), they are the last songs in the Book of Psalms, all of which begin by praising God. 51. December 4, 963. Keeping his birth name, he was proclaimed Leo VIII.
Emperor Otto sends most of his soldiers back north and stays in Rome with only a few retainers. With Otto and Leo apparently defenseless, the exiled Pope John bribes the Romans to kill both men, and an armed rebellion ensues. Despite his small contingent of soldiers, Otto prevails against the mob, killing many and taking prisoners. Leo successfully pleads for the prisoners’ lives and their release, against Otto’s better judgment. With Rome ostensibly quiet, Otto sets off north to find Adalbert. 19. Meanwhile, women, who were not low-born and were numerous, with whom the so-called pope, John, had exercised the wantonness of his lust, incited the Romans to abandon the supreme and universal Pope Leo, who had been elected by God and these very people, and to welcome John back into the city. When they did this, the venerable Pope Leo was freed from their hands through the mercy of God, and along with a few companions, he set out for the clemency of the most pious Emperor Otto. 20. Then the holy emperor assembled the army, which was organized for a return to Rome, for he bore it bitterly as a shameful act of great magnitude that the deposed John had proved faithless when Lord Pope Leo was expelled and then against the persons of John, a cardinal-deacon, and Azo the secretary, one of whom had his right hand cut off and the other his tongue, two fingers, and nose. Yet, before the troops of the holy emperor had been assembled, the Lord wished to make known to all the ages just how justly Pope John had been repudiated by his bishops and all the people and just how unjustly he was later welcomed back. On a certain night outside of Rome, while he took his pleasure with the wife of some man, he was struck in the temple by a devil without a doubt, with the result that he died from this blow within the space of eight days.52 Moreover, at the instigation of the same one who had struck him, he did not receive the Eucharistic viaticum,53 according to what we have often heard under oath from his relatives and companions who were present there. 21. With his death, all of the Romans, forgetting the oath that they swore to the holy emperor, made Benedict, a cardinal-deacon, pope.54 Moreover, they swore an oath 52. February 26, 964. 53. Consult the Glossary. 54. Benedict V was elected pope on May 22, 964, and lasted in office until June 23. He had participated in the deposition of John and Leo’s election in 963. Apparently he now considered both acts illegitimate. The Roman Church agrees. In its official papal catalog, John XII is listed as the legitimate pope until his
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that never would they abandon him but, rather, they would defend him against the emperor’s power. After having heard of this, the emperor surrounded the city. He did not permit anyone to exit the city whose limbs were not severed. He battered the city with siege machines and famine until he could finally take possession of it, even though the Romans did not wish it, and until he could return the venerable man Leo to his see and could have Benedict, the invader of the highest see, brought into his presence. 22. Therefore, with Lord Leo, supreme and universal pope, sitting in the Lateran church55 and also Otto, the most holy emperor, as well Roman bishops, Italian, Lotharingian, and Saxon archbishops, [and other] bishops, priests, deacons, and the entire Roman populace,…Benedict, the invader of the Apostolic See entered, led in by the hands of those who had elected him, clad in the papal vestments. Cardinal-archdeacon Benedict assailed [him] with these words: “Invader, by what authority, by what law, have you usurped these pontifical vestments in the presence of our lord, the venerable Pope Leo, whom you, along with us, elected to the apostolic pinnacle, upon John’s indictment and deposition? Can you deny that, in the presence of the lord emperor, you swore an oath that you, along with the other Romans, would never elect or ordain a pope without his consent and that of his son, King Otto?” Benedict replied: “If I have sinned, have mercy on me.” Then the emperor, death. For further information regarding papal succession in this turbulent year, see note 57. 55. The Archbasilica of Saint John in Lateran is the pope’s cathedral church.
with tears spilling out, demonstrated how merciful he was. He asked the synod not to be prejudiced against Benedict. If he wished and could, he should answer the interrogation and defend his case. If he could not or if he did not wish to, and declared himself guilty, he should find some mercy out of reverence for God. Upon hearing that, this same Benedict quickly cast himself at the feet of Lord Leo, the pope, and of the emperor, and he loudly exclaimed that he had sinned and was an invader of the Holy Roman See. After that he took off the pallium, which he returned to the Lord Pope Leo, and likewise the pontifical staff, which he was holding in his hand. The pope broke this staff and showed it broken to the people. Then he told Benedict to sit on the floor and removed his chasuble, which they call a planeta, and also his stole.56 Afterward, he said to all the bishops: “We deprive Benedict, an invader of the Holy Roman and Apostolic See, of every pontifical and priestly office. Indeed, because of the charity of Lord Emperor Otto, thanks to whose efforts we have been restored to our proper see, we permit him to retain the rank of deacon, yet not now in Rome, but in the exile into which we send him.57 56. The chasuble, or planeta, is a sleeveless outer vestment that is worn at Mass and other solemn liturgical services. The stole is a long piece of fabric that hangs down from the neck on both sides of the cleric’s front. 57. The text ends abruptly here. To this day, the Roman Church recognizes Benedict as a legitimate pope, and views Leo VIII, as initially an antipope who became legitimate only following Benedict’s abdication. Leo, served as pope for only eight months more, dying on March 1, 965. Benedict died in exile in Germany in 965/66.
The Ottonians and Byzantium The Eastern Roman Empire had served as an imperial model for the Carolingians, and it was no less so for the Ottonians. Moreover, Byzantium was once again a superpower in western Eurasia. Although it lost its holdings in Sicily to Muslim invaders, it pushed its frontiers far to the east and north and reestablished its presence and authority in southern Italy. Under Basil II, its borders reached an extent that had not been seen since the Muslim conquests of the seventh century. This revival of empire was accompanied by the Macedonian Renaissance that was characterized by a renewed interest in classical Greek literature and scholarship and the reintroduction of Greco-Roman motifs and styles into Byzantium’s Christian art. Following as it did Byzantium’s two periods of iconoclasm (730–87 and 814–42), during which significant numbers of Christian images had been destroyed, defaced, or covered over, this artistic resurgence had a far-reaching impact and inspired artists in faraway Western Europe. The following three sets of sources suggest some of the complex relations that existed between the cultures and empires of Byzantium and the Ottonians.
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The Artistic Influence of Byzantium? 41. TWO CRUCIFIX IVORIES The first ivory is a tenth-century icon from Constantinople that depicts the crucified Christ surrounded by a number of persons, angels, and symbols. To Christ’s right, the grieving Virgin, his mother, Mary, is comforted by Saint John. Behind them stand two holy women, one weeping and the other in a traditional pose of lamentation. To his left are the crucifixioners, three of whom are clearly Roman soldiers. The soldier in the foreground and closest to Jesus is the centurion Longinus, who pierced Jesus’s side with a lance. The soldier standing to his left with a shield points toward Jesus, bringing to mind the New Testament text in which the soldiers cry out, “This truly was the Son of God.”58 Note that soldier’s beard. He probably represents the so-called barbarian mercenaries, including Norse from the West, whom the Eastern Romans enrolled in their imperial guard and armies. In the rear rank stand two persons not in armor, both of whom appear to be stereotypical caricatures of Jews. The one closer to the cross holds a sponge with the vinegar that was given Christ on the cross. Two angels hover over the cross. Above and to our left as we view the icon is a symbol of the sun; to our right is a symbol of the moon. Beneath the cross are a skull and assorted bones. The second crucifixion scene, which dates to around the year 1000, was probably crafted in Cologne in the Rhineland, and was used as a book cover. Holy icons were never used for that purpose in Byzantium. Jesus is flanked by symbols of the sun (sol ) and moon (luna). Above his head is a sign that reads (in Latin), “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” Above the sign, a heavenly hand holds out a laurel wreath. The blood from Jesus’s body drips into the chalice at his feet. In the lower register to his right are his mother, who carries a vessel (as the mother of Jesus, she is the Lord’s Vessel), and Saint John, who carries a book. (The Gospel book was a common iconographic symbol for Saint John the Evangelist.) The other lower register shows three holy women, two of whom carry vessels containing unguents for Jesus’s corpse, and an angel who informs them that the tomb is empty. Behind them is a domed structure that represents the Rotunda of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. At its center is the Edicule (little house), a shrine that surrounds what Christians believe to be the empty tomb of Jesus. In the upper register to the right as we view it, Jesus, flanked by angels, ascends to a waiting hand in Heaven, while his apostles look on from below. In the upper register to our left, Jesus appears in a mandorla (an almond-shaped aureola), which has the symbols for the four evangelists at its corners. This is the moment of the Parousia, or Second Coming of Jesus, when he will judge all humanity.
Questions for Consideration 1. The introduction to these two ivories explains only a few of their many symbols, namely those you could not be expected to interpret. Consider the many symbols that have been identified but not been explained, such as (but not limited to) the sun and moon, the laurel wreath, the skull and bones, and the chalice. What do they individually and collectively mean? 2. Byzantine art has often been characterized as rigid, static, highly spiritual, and unconcerned with naturalism. Does this characterization seem to hold true for this tenth-century ivory? 3. The differences between the crucifixion scenes are obvious. Why then do many scholars see the Rhenish book cover as an example of Byzantine influence on Ottonian-era art? Do you agree with them?
58. Matthew, 27:54.
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lllus. 6.2 Crucifixion Scene. Tenth-century ivory icon from Constantinople. Bode Museum, Berlin.
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Illus. 6.3 Crucifixion Scene with the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Parousia. Late tenth- or early eleventh-century Rhineland. Musée de Cluny, Paris.
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Two Views of Byzantium 42. Liudprand of Cremona, RETRIBUTION and REPORT ON THE EMBASSY TO CONSTANTINOPLE 59 As we learned when reading Concerning King Otto, Bishop Liudprand was a fierce partisan with a caustic pen. In 949–50, Liudprand served as an envoy of King Berengar II of Italy to the court of Emperor Constantine VII. Liudprand took advantage of his stay in the imperial capital to learn Greek. Following his return to Italy, Liudprand fell out with King Berengar, and in 958 he began exacting revenge with his pen. The result was the Antapodosis, a history that purportedly examined the ways in which divine justice had manifested itself in human (largely Italian) affairs from 888 to 950. Antapodosis, which is Greek, normally means “reward,” but in Liudprand’s hands it was used ironically and should be understood as “retribution.” Liudprand asserted that his motive in composing the work was to “describe, expose and shout out the deeds of Berengar, who now does not reign in Italy but rather tyrannizes [it], and of his wife Willa, who, because of the immensity of her tyranny, is appropriately called a second Jezebel and because of her insatiable larceny is appropriately called Lamia.”60 Liudprand expected his readers to know that Jezebel was a murderous pagan queen of ancient Israel, and Lamia was a child-eating witch of Greek mythology. One other point merits mention. Although Liudprand continued to revise the Antapodosis for years following its initial completion in 962, Otto I appears in it only briefly as a pious and mighty king. There is no foreshadowing of his rise to the imperial throne. Moreover, Liudprand fails to mention that, in the glow of the victory achieved at the Garigliano River, Pope John X crowned King Berengar I of Italy as Roman emperor in 915. As far as the Antapodosis is concerned, during the period under consideration—888–950—the title of emperor and the legitimate imperial authority that accompanied it resided solely in Constantinople. As we shall see, the Report on the Embassy to Constantinople presents a different worldview. In our first excerpt from Retribution, Liudprand describes the Battle of Garigliano of 915. Pope John X had assembled and led an alliance of Italian and Byzantine troops that managed to defeat and dislodge an invading Muslim force from North Africa that had occupied this area of southern Italy since 882. Because the battle took place about five years before his birth, Liudprand depended on secondand third-hand accounts. The second excerpt from this work describes his treatment in Constantinople by Emperor Constantine VII in the week preceding Easter 950. Following his unsuccessful attack on the Byzantine-held, Italian port city of Bari in 968, Emperor Otto I sought to lessen tensions with Byzantium by arranging a marriage alliance between a Byzantine princess and his son and heir Otto. Such a marriage would also give a certain legitimacy to a claim to the entire Italian Peninsula on behalf of young Otto, who had been crowned co-emperor on Christmas Day 967 in anticipation of the proposed wedding. Emperor Otto’s obvious choice of ambassador to the court of Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas was Liudprand, who arrived in Constantinople in late 968. Nicephoros had good reason to mistrust Otto I’s intentions regarding Byzantine southern Italy. Adding to the tension, Pope John XIII had recently dispatched a letter to the emperor in which he addressed him as “emperor of the Greeks” and referred to Otto as “emperor of Rome.” This was not diplomatic. Liudprand’s embassy was a failure. Upon his return to the West, he took up his poisonous pen and composed The Embassy of Liudprand, Bishop of Cremona, to the Emperor of Constantinople, Nicephorus, on Behalf of the August Ottos and Adelheid, more commonly known as the Report on the Embassy to 59. Liudprand of Cremona, Opera Omnia, ed. P. Chiesa (Turnholt: Brepols, 1998), 56–57, 149–150, 187–88, 194–97. 60. Ibid., 68.
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Constantinople. The excerpts from Liudprand’s account of his misadventures in Byzantium begin with his arrival and continue to his exchanges with Leo, brother of Emperor Nicephoros II Phocas, some high-ranking officials, and the emperor himself.
Questions for Consideration 1. How does Liudprand portray the Byzantines and especially Emperor Constantine VII in Retribution? Compare this with Liudprand’s treatment of the Byzantines and Emperor Nicephoros in the Report on the Embassy to Constantinople. 2. How might we explain the contrast? In addressing this issue, look beyond just the personalities of the two emperors. Consider the dates of Liudprand’s first two visits to Constantinople. Consider also his Concerning King Otto, which was composed in 965. 3. According to Liudprand, how do the Byzantines look upon the Western Church? Does his report on this point seem credible? 4. What was the real reason that the Bulgarian envoy was accorded more honor than Liudprand? (Hint: review source 16) What does your answer to this question suggest about cultural-political realities at this time? 5. What do both of these sources suggest about Western-Byzantine relations in the tenth century?
RETRIBUTION And so, upon the aforesaid John’s having been made pope, a certain Landulf, a vigorous man who was an expert in the prosecution of war, shone forth as prince of all the Beneventans and Capuans.61 In the midst of the Phoenicians’62 weakening the state of the Republic63 to a level beyond tolerable, Pope John consulted this eminent Prince Landulf regarding a course of action in response to what the Africans were doing. When the prince heard this, he answered the pope, through intermediaries, in this manner: “This matter, Spiritual Father, should be looked into by great councils. Therefore, send word to the emperor of the Argives,64 whose land across the sea these people never cease to depopulate, as they do our own land. Invite the people of Camerino and even Spoleto65 to help us. With 61. Prince Landulf I of Capua and Benevento was one of the most powerful princes of southern Italy. 62. Muslim Berbers and Arabs from North Africa, many of whom inhabited the region of Carthage, a Phoenician city in antiquity. They and Muslims from Iberia began attacking and then invading southern Italy around the year 800. 63. The city and region of Rome. 64. A Homeric term for Greeks. 65. Two cities in north-central Italy.
God protecting us, let us boldly go to war with them. If we are victorious, let the victory be ascribed not to our numbers but to God; if, instead, the Phoenicians are victorious, let it be imputed to our sins and not to our slothfulness.” Upon hearing this, the pope immediately sent messengers to Constantinople, humbly requesting that the emperor support him. Indeed, because the emperor was a most holy and God-fearing man, he ordered without delay that large numbers of troops be conveyed by ship.66 When they disembarked alongside the Garigliano River, Pope John was there along with Landulf, the very powerful prince of Benevento, and also with the Camerinans and S poletans. Finally a quite horrible battle ensued between the two sides. When, indeed, the Phoenicians noticed that the Christian side was winning, they fled to the summit of Mount Garigliano and tried to defend only the narrow passes. On that very day, the Greeks encamped on that slope that was more difficult to ascend and more suitable for a Phoenician retreat. Staying there, they kept the Phoenicians 66. This large contingent of troops arrived from the Byzantine-controlled regions of Apulia and Calabria and not from Constantinople.
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under observation, lest they escape, and engaging them in combat daily, they killed more than a few. Therefore, with the Greeks and Latins fighting daily, by the mercy of God, not one Phoenician was left who was either not cut down by the sword or not forthwith taken alive as a captive. Moreover, in that very battle the most holy apostles Peter and Paul were seen by the religiously faithful, and we believe that it was through their prayers that the Christians merited the fact that the Phoenicians should flee and they should gain a victory….
***
I think that I should not pass over in silence what else I witnessed there [Constantinople] that was novel and wondrous. In that week before vaiophóron, which we call “Palm branches,”67 the emperor makes a payment in gold coins to both the soldiers and persons appointed to various offices in accordance with what their rank merits. Because he wanted me to be present at this payout, he ordered me to come…. I do not want you to think that it was concluded in a single day. In fact, the emperor began on the fifth day, from the first hour all the way into the fourth,68 and finished up on the sixth and seventh days…. Thus, with my standing by and viewing the process with admiration, the emperor asked through his logothete69 what had pleased me about the whole matter. I replied to him: “Certainly it would please me if it were profitable, just as Lazarus’s lying at rest, which the rich man who was in torment saw, would have benefited the rich man, if it had come his way. Because it did not happen to him, how, I ask, could it have pleased him?”70 Smiling and touched with a bit of embarrassment, the emperor, therefore, motioned with his head for me to come to him. I more than willingly accepted a 67. Palm Sunday. 68. Consult the Glossary at Hours. 69. A senior minister of finance. 70. A reference to a parable in the Gospel of Luke (16:19–31). A former rich man, who is in Hell, implores a former beggar, Lazarus, who is in Heaven, to dip his finger in water and cool his parched tongue. It is also a wry reference to a second Lazarus, the friend whom Jesus raised from the dead ( John, 11:1–44). The Byzantine Church celebrates the Feast of Saint Lazarus on the Saturday before Palm Sunday. It was on that very day (the seventh day of the week) that Liudprand offered this witticism to Constantine VII.
large cloak and a pound of gold coins, which he willingly gave me.
*** REPORT ON THE EMBASSY TO CONSTANTINOPLE We arrived at Constantinople on the 4th of June, were shamefully received—as an insult to you—and were miserably and dishonorably treated. We were confined in a palace sufficiently large and open so that it neither kept out the cold nor warded off the heat. Armed soldiers were stationed as jail guards, who prohibited all my people from leaving and others from entering…. To add to our troubles, we found Greek wine to be undrinkable because of its admixture of pitch, resin, and plaster.71 The house was without water, and we could not even quench our thirst with water that we would have purchased with the funds given us…. On the 6th of June…I was led into the presence of Leo, the emperor’s brother, coropalatus,72 and logothete. Here we were exhausted by a massive argument regarding your imperial title. For he referred to you not as “emperor,” that is βασιλεα (basilea) in his language, but as ρηγα (rega), that is “king” in our tongue.73 To which when I said that it means the same even though it is expressed differently, he said that I had come not to make peace but to cause strife. And so, rising in a rage, he received your letter in a truly insulting manner—through an interpreter and not personally…. Liudprand falls ill and, moreover, feels mistreated by Emperor Nicephoros, claiming that he exchanged insults with the emperor while dining with him. Banished to his lodgings, he wrote to Leo, threatening to go home. When he had read the letter, he ordered me to come to him after four days. In accord with their tradition, their 71. A lightly resinated wine known as retsina. Gypsum (calcium sulfate) was added to wine and beer as an antioxidant preservative and to add clarity. 72. “Master of the palace.” He served as the palace chief of staff. 73. Basileus is the term for both “king” and “emperor” and was the title of the emperor in Constantinople. Basileia means “queen” or “empress.” Ρηγα (rega) was neither a classical nor a Byzantine Greek word. It appears to have been a Byzantine attempt to transliterate rex, the Latin word for “king.”
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wisest men…sat with him to debate your request…. They began their discourse in the following manner: “Explain, the reason, brother, for exhausting yourself to come here.” When I told them that it was on account of a marriage alliance that would be the basis of an endless peace, they said: “It is unheard of that a porphyrogenita of a porphyrogenitus, that is a daughter born in the purple of someone born in the purple,74 should mix with foreigners. Still, because you seek such a rare thing, you shall have what you want, if you give what is proper: namely Ravenna,75 and Rome with all their adjoining territories that extend from there to us. If you truly desire friendship without the marriage alliance, let your lord permit Rome to be free,76 and hand over into their former servitude the princes of Capua and Benevento, former servants of our holy empire who are now rebels.”77 I answered them: “Even you cannot be ignorant of the fact that my lord rules over Slavs78 who are more powerful than Peter, king of the Bulgarians, who married the daughter of the emperor Christopher.”79 “But Christopher,” they said, “was not born in the purple.” “As for Rome,” I said, “for whose liberty you eagerly clamor: Whom does it serve? To whom does it pay tribute? 74. Purple was largely reserved for the imperial family, and empresses gave birth in the “Purple Room.” Thus, children born of a reigning emperor were “born in the purple.” When Liudprand was preparing to leave Constantinople, five purple robes that he had purchased were confiscated as items that could not be exported. In his anger, he noted that such robes were worn by loose women and parasites in the West. For a regulation regarding the exportation of purple fabrics, see source 15. Source 16 mentions the use of purple cloth for diplomatic purposes. 75. Ravenna had been the seat of the Byzantine exarch (governor) of Italy from 584 (or a bit earlier) to 751, when the Lombards captured the city. 76. From Otto’s control. 77. Landulf, who appears above in Retribution, and his brother Pandulf. 78. Otto successfully waged wars of conquest, colonization, and conversion against pagan Slavs along and beyond his eastern and northern frontiers. 79. In 927, King Peter (r. 927–69) married Maria, daughter of Christopher, the eldest son and one of three contemporaneous and nominal co-emperors of Romanos I (r. 920–44). Christopher died in 931 before he could assume the imperial throne on his own.
Was it not formerly serving whores? And while you were sleeping, in fact, not displaying any fortitude, did not my lord, the august emperor, free it from that foul servitude? Constantine, the august emperor who founded this city that he called after his own name, as kosmocrator80 made many offerings to the Holy Apostolic Roman Church, not only in Italy but in almost all the western kingdoms, as well as those in the east and south, namely in Greece, Judaea, Persia, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Egypt, Libya, as his charters of privilege, which we possess, bear testimony.81 And, rightly so, my lord has handed over to the most holy vicar of the apostles whatever belonged to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Italy, in Saxony, in Bavaria, and in all his realms. If my master withheld anything from all of these properties, be it cities, manors, soldiers, or a single family, then I have denied God. Why does not your emperor do the same so that he restores to the Church of the Apostles its properties that are located in his realms and, thereby, make richer and freer that Church, which is already rich and free, thanks to my lord’s exertions and generosity?”82 “He will do so,” said the parakimomenos Basil,83 “when Rome and the Roman Church are organized according to his wishes.” Then I replied: “A certain man, having suffered a good deal of injury from another, approached God with these words: ‘Lord, avenge me upon my adversary.’ To whom the Lord said: ‘I will do so on the day when I shall render to each according to his deeds.’ But the man replied, ‘Quite late, indeed!’” Then everyone, except the emperor’s brother, broke off the debate shaking with laughter and ordered me to be taken back to my hated lodgings and to be closely guarded until the feast day of the holy apostles, which all religious persons celebrate.84 On that feast day I was quite sick, but nevertheless, the emperor commanded me and 80. Ruler of the universe. 81. See the Donation of Constantine. 82. The Roman Church claimed ecclesiastical rights over churches and lands held by the Byzantine Empire and its Church in southern Italy, Sicily, and the western Balkans. 83. “One who sleeps nearby,” this official slept in the emperor’s bed chamber and usually functioned as the emperor’s chief minister. 84. June 29, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
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the Bulgarian envoys, who had arrived the day before, to meet him at the Church of the Holy Apostles.85 After some wordy chants and the celebration of Mass, we were invited to table. At the farthest end of the table, which was narrow and long, he placed above me a Bulgarian envoy, a fellow whose hair was cut in the Hungarian fashion, with a bronze chain around his waist and, as my mind suggested to me, a catechumen86—clearly an insult to you, my August Lords.87 On your account I was despised; on your account rejected; on your account scorned. But I give thanks to Jesus Christ, whom you serve with your whole spirit, that I was deemed worthy to suffer insults in your name. In truth, my lords, I left the table because I considered the affront was directed at you, not me. As I was going away indignantly, Leo, the coropalates and emperor’s brother, and Simeon, the first secretary, followed after me, howling: “When Peter, emperor of the Bulgarians, married Christopher’s daughter, accords, that is mutual agreements, were written down and sealed by an oath to the effect that, so far as the apostles of all peoples are concerned (by that we mean envoys), the apostles of the Bulgarians, when with us, must be given precedence, must be honored, must be esteemed. What you say is true: the Bulgarian apostle over there has his hair cut short, is unwashed, and his belt is a bronze chain. Nevertheless, he is a patrician. We judge and determine that it is horribly wrong to give a bishop, especially a Frankish bishop,88 preference over him. Since we see that you bear this indignantly, we are not going to allow you to return now to your lodgings, as you suppose. Rather, we shall force you to take food with the emperor’s servants in some inn.” I said nothing to them in response because of the incomparable pain in my heart; but I did what they ordered, judging a table unfit where a Bulgarian envoy 85. Constantinople’s Church of the Holy Apostles, second in majesty and importance only to Hagia Sophia, was the burial place of many early emperors and empresses, including Constantine I, Justinian I, and Theodora. It was torn down in 1462. 86. Someone receiving instruction in the faith but who has not yet received baptism. 87. Otto I and his son. 88. To the Byzantines, all Westerners were “Φράνγκοι” (Frangkoi, or Franks).
is given precedence not, I say, over me, namely Bishop Liudprand, but over your envoy.… After eight days had passed and the Bulgarians had departed, thinking that I esteemed his table highly, he [Nicephoros] compelled me, still quite ill, to dine with him again in the same place. The patriarch was there, along with quite a few other bishops, and in their presence he propounded to me many questions concerning the Holy Scriptures, which, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I deftly explained. Finally, in order to make a joke at your expense, he asked which synods we recognized.89 When I declared to him Nicaea, Chalcedon, Ephesus, Carthage, Antioch, Ancyra, and Constantinople,90 he said, “Ha! Ha! He! You forgot to mention Saxony! If you ask why our books do not mention it, my answer is that it is primitive and it cannot yet make its way to us.” I responded to him: “In whichever limb disease holds a grip, it must be burned out through cauterization. All heresies have emanated from you and have flourished among you; among us, that is Westerners, they were strangled, they were killed.… After the Saxon people received holy baptism and the knowledge of God, they have not had the slightest stain of heresy, which would render a synod necessary for its correction; of heresies there have been none. You say that the Saxon faith is primitive. I affirm this very same proposition. For the faith of Christ is always primitive and not old where faith is followed by works. Here faith is not primitive but old, and here works do not accompany faith. But on account of its age, it is despised like a worn-out garment. I know for certain of a synod held in Saxony where it was discussed and established that it is more honorable to fight with swords than pens, and better to die than to turn one’s back to the enemy. Your own army is finding that out now.”91 And in my heart I said: “And may the outcome prove how warlike the S axons are.” 89. Ecumenical councils. The Church of Constantinople recognized eight: Nicaea (325); I Constantinople (381); Ephesus (431); Chalcedon (451); II Constantinople (553); III Constantinople (680–81); II Nicaea (787); and IV Constantinople (869–70). 90. Carthage, Antioch, and Ancyra were not ecumenical councils. 91. Liudprand refers to Otto I’s several invasions of Byzantine lands in southern Italy that proved unsuccessful.
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Two Imperial Images 43. THE CROWNING OF OTTO II AND THEOPHANO and THE CROWNING OF ROMANOS AND EUDOKIA Emperor Otto I persisted in seeking an imperial princess as wife for his son Otto, and the assassination of Nicephoros in 969 offered an opening. Liudprand returned to Constantinople in 970/971 and found a more receptive environment. In 972, he left Constantinople with Theophano, a twelve-year-old niece of the new emperor of Constantinople, John I. Theophano was not an imperial daughter “born in the purple,” but she was sufficiently “imperial” to be deemed worthy of marriage to the seventeen-year-old Otto II. Following Otto II’s premature death, she served as regent for her son, Otto III. Between 985, when she assumed the regency, and her death in 991 at age thirty-one, she was the most powerful crowned head in Western Europe. Her young son’s exalted notion of what it meant to be an emperor, as the dedication page of the Gospel Book of Otto III (page 136) gives clear expression, owed much to her. This marriage also signaled a momentary lessening of tensions between the Eastern and Western Empires and their imperial families, but Liudprand did not live long enough to witness the full consequences of his third embassy to Constantinople. He died during or shortly after his return journey home. To celebrate the union of East and West in the persons of Otto II and Theophano, in 982/983, a Greco-Italian, John Philagathos of Calabria, who served as Otto II’s chancellor in Italy and the empress’s confidant, commissioned an ivory plaque depicting the dual coronation of Otto and Theophano that had occurred almost a decade earlier. Flanking Christ’s head are the Greek monograms IC ( Jesus) and XC (Christ). Above Otto’s head, partially in Latin and partially in Greek, is the caption, “Otto, Emperor of the Romans, Augustus.” Above Theophano’s head we read, again partially in Greek and partially in Latin, “Theophano, Empress, Augusta.” In the space between Jesus and Otto is the prayer, “Lord, come to the aid of your servant, John, monk. Amen” Below Otto’s feet, John Philagathos performs the traditional Byzantine ritual of prokynesis, prostration or bowing before a person of higher rank. If you look closely, you will see that Otto clutches a heart to his chest and Theophano holds a book. These two clues lead scholars to infer that this ivory was originally used to decorate the cover of a prayer book, probably belonging to Theophano. Compare this ivory with one crafted in Constantinople around the year 945. Scholars identify it as celebrating either the childhood marriage in September 944 of the six-year-old Romanos, the future Emperor Romanos II, and the equally young Bertha, the daughter of Hugh of Provence, the king of Italy or, more likely, Romanos’s coronation as junior co-emperor on Easter 945 at the command of his father, Constantine VII, whom we saw in sources 16 and 42. Upon her reaching the court at Constantinople, Bertha’s name was changed to Eudokia. She died in 949, still a child and with her marriage unconsummated. With her death and that of her father two years earlier, the alliance that King Hugh had endeavored to forge was ended. The Greek inscriptions read, “Romanos, Emperor of the Romans” and “Eudokia, Empress of the Romans.”
Questions for Consideration 1. Compare the two plaques. What are their significant differences? Their significant similarities? What do you conclude from your analysis? 2. Based on sources 41–43, how would you characterize Western-Byzantine relations in the tenth century?
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Illus. 6.4 The Crowning of Otto II and Theophano, Musée de Cluny, Paris.
Illus. 6.5 The Crowning of Romanos and Eudoxia, Départment des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques, Bibliothêque Nationale de France, Paris.
Visions of the World To this point, we have looked exclusively at the high and the mighty and largely at men. As we know, so-called Great Men constitute an infinitesimally small percentage of any society. The up-tonow emphasis in this chapter on Europe’s secular and ecclesiastical male leaders (exceptions being Theophano and Eudokia) is a consequence of the extant sources, which were largely produced for and by such leaders or by their male underlings. Needless to say, if we were to depend exclusively on such sources, we would have a skewed and incomplete view of the early medieval world. Happily a few (unhappily, too few) documentary sources exist that reveal glimpses of the world as perceived by some of the First Europe’s all-too-silent majorities. Yet even in these cases, the authors were invariably members of the educated, privileged classes. Source 44, a play by Roswitha of Gandersheim, a high-born, well-educated, tenth-century Saxon churchwoman, provides the strong voice of a woman who trumpeted the moral strength of her sex. Source 45 is far less artful, the product of the French monk Ralph Glaber. But in its lack of sophistication, Ralph’s work sheds light on early eleventh-century popular religious beliefs and movements. Far more than any other source in this chapter, it reflects history from the bottom up.
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A Woman of Genius and Three Women of Virtue 44. Roswitha of Gandersheim, DULCITIUS 92 Roswitha, whose name has many spelling variations (including the more correct Hrotswitha and Hrotsvit), was born to a noble family in Saxony around 935. Scholarly opinion currently places her death around 1000. At some unknown moment in her life, she entered the Convent of Gandersheim, a religious house reserved exclusively for high-born women and patronized by the Saxon emperors and empresses of Germany. Theophano, wife of Otto II, often visited the convent, and she and her husband sent their five-year-old daughter Sophia to be educated and raised there. Gerberga II, one of the two abbesses during Roswitha’s years at Gandersheim, was the niece of Emperor Otto I. As befit their class and their house’s extensive lands, the abbesses of Gandersheim were powerful women who exercised the rights of lordship over their lands, coined their own money, held law courts, dispatched soldiers to the king’s army, and held a seat in the imperial diet, a deliberative and legislative body that elected the kings of Germany. Although Gandersheim had Benedictine origins, by the tenth century it had become a house of secular canonesses. Unlike women who followed the Rule of Saint Benedict, canonesses did not take life-long vows; they could own private property and keep servants, and they could leave the house if they so wished. Most canonesses, however, probably opted for the comfortable religious routine of the convent and remained there until death. Apparently, Otto II’s daughter Sophia lived out her life as a canoness, as did Roswitha. One of the house’s attractions was its library. The canonesses of Gandersheim were well educated in the Latin classics, and Roswitha was one of the most learned of all. In addition, she was a playwright and poet of considerable skill. In fact, she was Saxony’s first Latin poet, Germany’s first dramatist, and Europe’s first female historian. Moreover, a number of her compositions suggest a familiarity with Byzantine saints’ lives, which in turn suggests some knowledge of Greek. A sixteenth-century humanist-monk characterized Roswitha as “rara avis in Saxonia” (a rare bird in Saxony), a poetical description that simultaneously acknowledges her extraordinary, even unique, genius but unfairly overlooks the Ottonian court’s active patronage of the arts and learning and the many other learned and talented people connected with the Ottonians. A more balanced judgment might be that, if there was an Ottonian Renaissance, as certainly appears to be the case, then Roswitha was one of its leading lights. Roswitha’s most famous literary creation is a cycle of six didactic plays that she produced for her sisters at Gandersheim. The plays, which are thematically and structurally interconnected, deal with the lives, virtues, and holy deaths of various early Christian women and men. One of the more striking aspects of her six-part morality drama is that Roswitha always balances examples of male and female virtus, which means, simultaneously, “courage,” “power,” and, in its Christian context, “virtue,” One play has three male martyrs; another has three female martyrs. In one play, a man delivers a learned discourse on the mathematical basis of music; in another, a woman lectures Emperor Hadrian on mathematical theory. In the preface to her plays, Roswitha informs her readers that “Therefore, I, the Strong Voice of Gandersheim, have not been reluctant to imitate him whom others praise by reading, so that, in that selfsame form of composition in which the sordid and sinful acts of licentious women were recited,
92. Hrotsvithae Opera, ed. H. Homeyer (Munich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1970), 268–77. This translation is dedicated to Professor Brian Tierney of Cornell University, who enlivened parties by directing dramatic performances of the play.
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the praiseworthy chastity of holy virgins might be celebrated, within the limits of my little talent.”93 The writer to whom she refers is the second-century B.C.E. Roman comic playwright Terence, whose clarity of prose and wit made him a popular author among Europe’s monks and nuns, and the simple conversational Latin that he employed in his six extant plays made them excellent texts for persons learning Latin. Moreover, his plays contained edifying moral lessons. Our selection is Dulcitius, which celebrates the martyrdoms of three virgin sisters, Agape (Pure Love), Chionia (Purity), and Hirena (Peace). According to Christian tradition, they were martyred under Emperor Diocletian in the Macedonian city of Thessalonica. Unlike her other plays, each of which is named after a Christian protagonist and saint, this play bears the name of an antagonist, the governor of Macedonia who, according to tradition, interrogated and condemned them to death. Dulcitius appears here in its entirety. Your class might gain greater insight into Roswitha’s art with a dramatic reading of it. And do not forget to provide suitable sound effects.
Questions for Consideration 1. In what ways does Roswitha seem to help her audience identify with the women? Why do you think she would want to do that? 2. The play contains several religious symbols. What are they, and what do they mean? 3. What seem to be the main points that the playwright intends her audience to take away from this play? How convincingly has she made those points? 4. It has been argued that this play is evidence that Roswitha’s plays were performed and not just read at Gandersheim. What is the basis for that conclusion? Do you agree? 5. If written and performed correctly, plays have the ability to rouse emotions, as well as stimulating thought. Which emotions did Roswitha seem to want to elicit from her audience?
93. Ibid., 233. “The Strong Voice of Gandersheim” (Clamor Validus Gandeshemensis) is a play on the Old Saxon word Hrodsuind (strong voice), the etymological root of Hrotsvitha/Roswitha.
The Martyrdom of the Holy Virgins, Agape, Chionia, and Hirena, whom Governor Dulcitius secretly visited under cover of the silence of night, desiring to be satiated in their embraces. But, as soon as he entered, he lost his mind and began kissing and fondling pots and pans, instead of the virgins, until his face and clothes were stained with a horrid blackness. Later, he gave Count Sisinnius the duty of punishing the virgins.94 He also was miraculously deluded but finally ordered Agape and Chionia to be burned and Hirena shot through. [SCENE 1] DIOCLETIAN. The prominence of your noble family and the fairness of your beauty demand that you all be wedded in legal matrimony to the foremost men in court. 94. Compare this with what takes place in scene 9.
This shall be granted by our command if you deny Christ and agree to bring sacrificial offerings to our gods. AGAPE. Don’t worry. Don’t trouble yourself by providing for our marriages because we can’t be compelled, under any circumstances, either to deny the Name that must be proclaimed or to corrupt our purity. DIOCLETIAN. What’s this folly that drives each of you? AGAPE. What sign of folly do you see in us? DIOCLETIAN. It’s obvious and great. AGAPE. In what way? DIOCLETIAN. Chiefly in that, having renounced the practices of an ancient religion, you follow the useless novelty of the Christian superstition. AGAPE. You rashly slander the majesty of God Almighty. It’s dangerous. DIOCLETIAN. For whom?
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AGAPE. For you, and the state that you govern. DIOCLETIAN. She raves. Take her away! CHIONIA. My sister doesn’t rave. She rightly rebuked your foolishness. DIOCLETIAN. This girl rages even more madly; remove her likewise from our sight, and let the third be questioned. HIRENA. You’ll find the third rebellious as well and thoroughly resistant. DIOCLETIAN. Hirena, although you are younger in age, be greater in substance. HIRENA. I ask that you show me. How so? DIOCLETIAN. Bow your neck to the gods and be a corrective example to your sisters and be the cause of their freedom. HIRENA. Let those bow down to idols who wish to incur the wrath of Heaven! But I’ll not defile a head anointed with a royal unguent by placing myself at the feet of graven images.95 DIOCLETIAN. The worship of the gods brings no dishonor but the highest honor. HIRENA. And what dishonor is more disgraceful, what disgrace is greater than when a slave is venerated as the master? DIOCLETIAN. I don’t exhort you to venerate slaves, but rather the lords and gods of princes. HIRENA. Isn’t he anyone’s slave who, as a piece of goods for sale, is procured from an artisan for a price? DIOCLETIAN. The brazenness of her speech must be eradicated by humbling punishments. HIRENA. This is what we hope for. This is what we embrace, that for the love of Christ we are mutilated by tortures. DIOCLETIAN. Let these contumacious girls who fight against our decrees be bound in chains and held in the squalor of prison awaiting Dulcitius’s examination. [SCENE 2] DULCITIUS. Bring them forward! Soldiers, bring forward the girls whom you hold in prison. SOLDIERS. Here they are, those whom you requested. DULCITIUS. Wonderful! What beauty, what elegance, what exceptional young girls. SOLDIERS. Perfectly lovely. DULCITIUS. I am captivated by the sight of them. SOLDIERS. That’s believable. 95. The reference is to holy oil placed on the forehead at baptism and confirmation.
DULCITIUS. I burn to entice them to my love. SOLDIERS. We do not think that you’ll prevail. DULCITIUS. Why? SOLDIERS. Because they are steadfast in their faith. DULCITIUS. What if I entice them with flattery? SOLDIERS. They’ll despise it. DULCITIUS. What if I terrify them with torture? SOLDIERS. They’ll consider it of little matter. DULCITIUS. Then what should one do? SOLDIERS. Plan it out. DULCITIUS. Place them in custody in the kitchen pantry, in its entryway where the staff ’s pots are kept. SOLDIERS. Why that place? DULCITIUS. Where they can be visited by me frequently. SOLDIERS. As you order. [SCENE 3] DULCITIUS. What are the prisoners doing at this time of night? SOLDIERS. They devote themselves to hymns. DULCITIUS. Let’s approach closer. SOLDIERS. From a distance we hear the sound of high-pitched singing. DULCITIUS. Stand guard with torches before the door. I, however, will enter and satiate myself in their desired embraces. SOLDIERS. Enter. We’ll stand guard outside. [SCENE 4] AGAPE. What’s that noise outside the door? HIRENA. Wretched Dulcitius is coming in. CHIONIA. May God protect us! AGAPE. Amen. CHIONIA. What does this clash of utensils, pots, and pans mean? HIRENA. I’ll take a look. Come here, please, Take a look through the cracks. AGAPE. What’s going on? HIRENA. Look at the fool. He’s taken leave of his mind. He thinks that he is enjoying our embraces. AGAPE. What’s he doing? HIRENA. Now he caresses utensils on his soft lap. Now he fondles pots and pans, pouring out on them amorous kisses. CHIONIA. Ridiculous. HIRENA. His face, hands, and clothes are so dirty, so filthy that with the black soot that clings to him he looks very much like an Ethiopian.
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AGAPE. It’s appropriate that he should appear in body the way in which he is possessed by the Devil in mind. HIRENA. Look. He’s preparing to leave. Let’s watch how the soldiers who await him in front of the door treat him upon his exit. [SCENE 5] SOLDIERS. Who’s this who comes out? A demon. Or more so, the Devil himself. Run away! DULCITIUS. Soldiers, why are you running away? Stay! Escort me home with your torches. SOLDIERS. This voice is our master’s, but the appearance is the Devil’s. Let’s not stay, but let’s hurry up and leave. The apparition wishes to destroy us. DULCITIUS. I’ll go to the palace and let the principals there know the insult that I’m enduring. [SCENE 6] DULCITIUS. Guards, let me into the palace. I need a private audience with the emperor. GUARDS. Who’s this vile and detestable monster covered in torn and dirty rags? Beat him with fists! Throw him down the stairs! He’ll not be allowed to proceed freely any farther. DULCITIUS. Woe is me. Woe is me. What’s happened? Am I not I dressed in the most splendid clothes, and don’t I look well-kempt all over my body? Yet, whoever looks at me shrinks from me as though I were a horrible monster. I’ll go back to my wife from whom I’ll learn what has happened. Ah, she’s leaving the house with disheveled hair and the entire household follows her, crying. [SCENE 7] WIFE. Oh, dear, oh, dear, my lord Dulcitius. What’s happened to you? You aren’t of sane mind. You’ve been made a laughing stock by the little Christian girls. DULCITIUS. Now I finally understand. I’ve been made a figure of ridicule by their black arts. WIFE. What’s especially confounded me and has made me particularly sad is that you were ignorant of what you endured. DULCITIUS. I command that these lascivious girls be led out, publicly stripped of their clothes so that they are naked and, in turn, experience mockery such as we underwent. [SCENE 8] SOLDIERS. We sweat fruitlessly. We labor in vain. Look, their clothes cling to their virginal bodies like skin. But the governor who urged us to strip them snores away
in his seat, and he cannot at all be awakened from his sleep. Let’s go to the emperor and report to him the course of the events that have taken place. [SCENE 9] DIOCLETIAN. It grieves me greatly to hear that Governor Dulcitius has been so greatly deluded, so greatly insulted, so greatly tricked. But these vile young women shall not boast with impunity that they have made a mockery of our gods and those who worship them. I shall direct Count Sisinnius to exact vengeance. [SCENE 10] SISINNIUS. Soldiers, where are the lascivious girls who are to be tortured? SOLDIERS. They’re held in prison. SISINNIUS. Leave Hirena and bring the remaining two. SOLDIERS. Why do you except the one girl? SISINNIUS. Sparing her youth. Perhaps, she might be converted more easily if she’s not intimidated by her sisters’ presence. SOLDIERS. Just so. [SCENE 11] SOLDIERS. Here they are whom you requested. SISINNIUS. Agape and Chionia, heed my advice. AGAPE. If it’s good for our health. SISINNIUS. Bring offerings to the gods. AGAPE. We’ll bring the offering of praise without intermission to the true and eternal Father, to His coeternal Son, and equally to the Holy Paraclete.96 SISINNIUS. This isn’t what I bid you to do. Rather, I prohibit it under pain of penalty. AGAPE. You’ll not prohibit it, nor will we ever sacrifice to demons. SISINNIUS. Stop this hardness of heart and sacrifice. Otherwise, I will proceed with your execution in accordance with Emperor Diocletian’s decree. CHIONIA. It’s fitting that you obey the order for our slaughter given by your emperor, whose decrees, as you know, we hold in contempt. In fact, if you delay out of a sense of mercy, it’s only fair that you be killed. SISINNIUS. Soldiers, don’t delay. Take these blasphemers away and throw them alive into the fire. SOLDIERS. We’ll immediately turn to building what you have ordered and throw these girls into the raging flames, thereby finally putting an end to their insults. 96. Consult the Glossary at Trinity, Holy.
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[SCENE 12] AGAPE. It is not unusual for You, Lord, not for You, that fire forgets the violence of its power, thereby obeying You. But we are weary of delays. We implore, therefore, that our souls’ bonds be dissolved, so that with the extinction of our bodies, our spirits might sing praises with You in Heaven. SOLDIERS. It’s a marvel! It’s a wondrous miracle! Take a look. Their souls have left their bodies, and no traces of injury are to be seen. Rather, neither their hair nor their clothes have been burned by the fire, less so their bodies. [SCENE 13] SISINNIUS. Bring out Hirena. SOLDIERS. Here she is. SISINNIUS. Hirena, tremble at the death of your sisters and, by their example, fear perishing. HIRENA. I hope to follow their example by dying, and by that I might merit rejoicing with them eternally. SISINNIUS. Yield! Yield to my persuasion. HIRENA. By no means will I yield to villainous persuasion. SISINNIUS. If you don’t yield I’ll not guarantee you a swift end, but a lingering death, and I’ll multiply new tortures day by day. HIRENA. The more violently I’m tortured, the more gloriously I’ll be exalted. SISINNIUS. You don’t fear torture? I’ll order what horrifies you. HIRENA. With the help of Christ, I’ll escape whatever devilish things you ordain, SISINNIUS. I’ll have you brought to a brothel, where your body will be shamefully defiled. HIRENA. It’s better that the body be soiled with stains of whatever sort than that the soul be polluted by idols. SISINNIUS. If you associate with harlots, you’ll be so polluted that you’ll not be able to be counted in the company of virgins. HIRENA. Lust deserves punishment, but compulsion deserves a crown. One is not said to be accused of guilt unless the soul consents. SISINNIUS. I’ve spared her in vain; in vain, I’ve felt compassion for her youth. SOLDIERS. We already knew this. In no way can she be moved to worship the gods, nor can she ever be broken by fear. SISINNIUS. I’ll spare her no longer. SOLDIERS. Right! SISINNIUS. Take her without mercy and, dragging her along cruelly, lead her in dishonor to the brothel.
HIRENA. They will not do it. SISINNIUS. Who can prevent it? HIRENA. He whose Providence rules the world. SISINNIUS. I’ll see. HIRENA. And sooner than you wish. SISINNIUS. Soldiers, don’t be afraid of the false prophecies of this blaspheming girl. SOLDIERS. We’re not afraid. Rather, we’ll do our best to carry out your orders. [SCENE 14] SISINNIUS. Who are they who approach us? How like the soldiers to whom we handed over Hirena. They are! Why are you returning so quickly? Why are you arriving so out of breath? SOLDIERS. We are looking for you. SISINNIUS. Where’s she whom you led away? SOLDIERS. On a mountain top. SISINNIUS. Which one? SOLDIERS. The nearest one. SISINNIUS. Oh, you idiots and dull-wits! You’re totally incapable of rational thought. SOLDIERS. Why are you complaining? Why the threatening voice and face? SISINNIUS. May the gods destroy you! SOLDIERS. What have we committed against you? What harm have we done you? Which of your orders have we disobeyed? SISINNIUS. Did I not order you to take that rebel against the gods to a house of ill repute? SOLDIERS. You did so command, and we set out to carry out your orders, but two young men whom we did not know intervened, asserting that they were sent by you to that spot so that they might lead Hirena to the mountain top. SISINNIUS. I know nothing about that. SOLDIERS. So we see. SISINNIUS. Of what sort were they? SOLDIERS. Splendidly dressed and absolutely aweinspiring in countenance. SISINNIUS. Did you not follow them? SOLDIERS. We followed. SISINNIUS. What did they do? SOLDIERS. They placed themselves on Hirena’s right and left and sent us here so that the outcome of this affair would not be kept secret from you. SISINNIUS. One course of action is left. I should mount my horse and seek out these men, whoever they might have been, who so freely made a mockery of us.
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SOLDIERS. We’ll likewise make haste. [SCENE 15] SISINNIUS. Hmm! I don’t know what to do. I’ve been struck witless by the black arts of the Christians. Look, I circle the mountain and several times have found a pathway, but I do not know how to ascend or how I can make my way back. SOLDIERS. We are all deluded by some sort of wonder- working, and we are plagued with excessive fatigue. If you allow this insane instigator to live any longer you will destroy yourself and us. SISINNIUS. Any one of my men: pull back your bow with force, launch an arrow, pierce that witch! SOLDIERS. That’s right.
HIRENA. Blush for shame, you wretch! Sisinnius, blush for shame and lament that you have ignobly been defeated because you couldn’t overcome a child of tender virginity without the help of weapons. SISINNIUS. Whatever shame accrues, I’ll bear it more lightly because doubtlessly you will die. HIRENA. That’s my greatest joy, but truly for you a reason to grieve because you shall be damned in Tartarus97 for your malignant cruelty. I, however, having received the martyr’s palm and the crown of virginity, shall enter Heaven, the chamber of the Eternal King, to Whom is honor and glory into eternity. 97. Hell.
Popular Religious Attitudes in Early Eleventh-Century France 45. Ralph Glaber, FIVE BOOKS OF HISTORY 98 Ralph Glaber (ca. 985–ca. 1050) entered a monastery around the age of twelve. It was a common practice to commend boys and girls as young as five to monasteries in the hope that they would receive decent educations, find reasonably secure and meaningful lives within the cloister, and take life-long monastic vows, once they reached the age of maturity. Many of these children, such as Bede the Venerable, undoubtedly developed into adult monks and nuns who were at peace with their way of life. Others were less than comfortable with the monastic profession that had been imposed upon them. Ralph Glaber appears to have fit into the latter category, at least for most of his monastic years. Ralph led a restless monastic existence, wandering among seven or eight monasteries in his native Burgundy, including the great abbey of Cluny, where he spent five years. There, he came under the influence of Abbot Odilo, who helped settle Ralph’s turbulent spirit, at least for a while. Whatever the case, Ralph dedicated his work of history, a project that he had begun before arriving at Cluny in 1030, to Odilo. By reason of his travels and his association with Cluny, which was the matrix of a vast religious network, Ralph was able to gather tales from a wide variety of people. The result was Five Books of History, which covers the period from 900 to 1047. Ralph’s history is filled with factual errors and abounds with every sort of fantastic story. Once too easily dismissed as a worthless historical source, Ralph’s work is now prized by social historians who seek to understand the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of Europe’s non-elites, including peasants.
Questions for Consideration 1. What does the story of Leutard suggest about religious belief and life at the level of the peasantry? 2. Consider the actions of Bishop Jebuin. What do they tell you about the role and responsibilities of diocesan bishops? 3. What does this story and Ralph’s telling of it suggest about class distinctions and attitudes? 4. What does the second story suggest about the place of Jerusalem in the religious imagery of Western Christians? 98. Raoul Glaber: les cinq livres de ses histoires, 900–1044, ed. Maurice Prou (Paris: A. Picard, 1886), 49–50, 71–75.
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5. In order to create a sense of identity, so it is claimed, a society must simultaneously create a notion of the “other.” Does Ralph’s testimony support or call into question that theory? What about the other sources in this chapter? Are any of them relevant to this issue? 6. It has been said often that the affirmation of a sense of special identity is often accompanied by the spinning of conspiracy stories or theories. Do you find any evidence to support such a judgment in this or any other source or sources in the chapter?
Book II, Chapter 11 Concerning Leutard, the Insane Heretic Around the end of the year 1000, a peasant by the name of Leutard was living in Gaul at a hamlet called Verlut in the district of Châlons, who, as the outcome of the affair proved, could be believed to be Satan’s representative, for his perverse insanity began in this way. The fact is that on some occasion or other he was spending time in a field in order to finish some agricultural work, when he fell asleep from the labor. It seemed to him that a great swarm of bees invaded his body through nature’s secret [passages], which, bursting out from his mouth with a loud roar, assailed him with a multitude of stings. And even as he was greatly disturbed by the stabs, they seemed to talk to him and to teach him how he might do many things impossible for people. Exhausted, finally, he got up and went home and sent away his wife as though he were divorcing out of [obedience to] an evangelical precept. Moreover, going out as if to pray, he entered a church, seized a cross, and pounded to dust the image of the Savior. They who saw this were frightened and awestruck, believing him to be insane, as he was. Inasmuch as they were rustics of impressionable intellect, he persuaded them that he had accomplished all these things through God’s miraculous revelation. Thereupon he poured forth sermons of no value and devoid of truth, and wishing to appear as a teacher, he taught contrary to the teachings of the masters. For he said that giving tithes was in every way superfluous and senseless. And, as with other heresies, which, in order to deceive more cleverly, cloak themselves in the divine Scriptures, to which they are, in fact, opposed, so also this man said that the prophets had, in part, narrated things that were useful [but] in part [things] not worthy of emulation. Through his reputation, as if it were of someone of sane and religious mind, within a short period he drew to himself a not-inconsiderable part of the masses. When the aged bishop Jebuin, a most learned man, in whose diocese, as it happened, this man was, learned this, he ordered him to be brought to him. When he had interrogated him about everything, he
discovered all that he had said and done. He [Leutard] chose to hide the poison of his iniquity and sought to obtain for himself testimonials that he had not offered instruction on the holy Scriptures. When the very wise bishop heard things that were not in accord [with what the bishop had learned], indeed, things not so much scandalous as damnable, he verified that the man had become an insane heretic [and] recalled from madness the populace that had been deceived in part, and fully restored [it] to the Catholic faith. But Leutard, seeing himself defeated and bereft of popularity with the masses, killed himself by plunging into a cistern.
Book III, Chapter 7 Concerning the Destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the Slaughter of the Jews At that same time, namely in the ninth year after the aforementioned millennium, the church at Jerusalem that contained the Sepulcher of Our Lord and Savior, was totally destroyed by order of the prince of Babylon.99 Clearly, the reason behind this destruction is known to have originated in the manner that we are about to narrate. Indeed, because a very great multitude of the faithful from all over the world was continually traveling to Jerusalem for the sake of visiting the Lord’s illustrious memorial, the envious Devil once again began to offer the poison of his evil as drink to the devotees of the true faith through the Jewish people, who are familiar with him. In fact, there was in the royal city of Orléans in Gaul a not inconsiderable multitude of this people who were discovered to be more 99. Here “Babylon” means the delta region of Egypt, so named because of Babylon Fortress. The prince is the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim. Adherents of a branch of Shi’a Islam, the Fatimids were generally tolerant of Jews and Christians, but al-Hakim was an exception. In 1009, he ordered the destruction of Church of the Holy Sepulcher. He likewise began a program of destroying other Christian and Jewish places of worship throughout Palestine, but in 1012, he relented and allowed Christians and Jews to begin rebuilding the destroyed buildings.
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swelled with pride and more envious and audacious than others of their kind. Ultimately, these people, once they had formed a plan, seduced through bribery a certain goodfor-nothing fellow, Robert by name, clearly a tramp who wore the garb of a pilgrim, undeniably a fugitive serf from the monastery of Saint Mary Melerensis. After carefully taking him in, they sent him to the prince of Babylon with letters written in Hebrew characters on little pieces of parchment that were [so] attached to an iron stave that they could not, through any means, be torn away from it. Setting out, he delivered to the aforementioned prince the letters that conveyed fraud and iniquity and [declared] that, unless he demolishes the venerable home of the Christians very quickly, he would discover himself totally bereft of authority in the neighboring kingdom, by reason of the Christians occupying it. Indeed, when the prince heard these [words], he was immediately seized with fury. He sent some of his people to Jerusalem to completely destroy the already-mentioned temple. Going there, they did as he had commanded them. Yet they were little able to shatter with iron hammers the vaulted Rotunda of the Sepulcher.100 Then they also toppled in like manner the Church of the Blessed Martyr George in Ramla, whose spiritual power had terrified beyond measure the people for quite some time;101 for it is reported that frequently those wishing to enter it were suddenly stricken blind. When, therefore, as we said, the temple was demolished, it became manifestly clear after a short while that this very great act of impiety had been perpetrated by the wickedness of the Jews. And so it was spread about throughout the entire world and decreed by the common consent of these Christians that all Jews should be totally driven out from their lands and cities. So universally regarded with hatred, they were banished from cities; some were cut down by swords, others were drowned in rivers, or were slain in other lethal ways. Also, quite a few killed themselves in various ways.102 So, as is certain, once a deserved vengeance had been visited upon them, scarcely 100. A carved image of the Rotunda appears in source 41, with a description of it and the Edicule. The Rotunda and Edicule were largely destroyed. In 1042, Emperor Constantine IX financed the partial reconstruction of the church, and by 1047, the Rotunda was replaced with a vaulted dome open to the sky, and the Edicule was rebuilt in masonry. 101. Saint George is a legendary warrior saint. Ramla is today in Palestine. 102. See sources 85 and 93 for more graphic examples of this act of piety.
a handful of them could be found in the Roman world.103 Then also it was decreed by the bishops and forbidden for any Christian to do any business whatsoever with them. If, however, any of them wished to be converted to the grace of baptism and wished to cast off every Jewish custom and practice, they decreed that these persons should be so received. And many of them did this motivated more out a love of the present life and fear of death than for the joys of life eternal. For some of them, who had fraudulently begged that they themselves become such, after a short while shamelessly returned to their former way of life…. And yet, five years following the destruction of the temple, a small number of fugitive and wandering Jews, who survived the aforementioned massacre by hiding out in remote places, began to appear the cities. And inasmuch as it is fitting, although it is to their confusion, that some of them remain into the future either as a confirmation of their own wickedness or as testimony to the shedding of Christ’s blood, we truly believe regarding this phenomenon that, by reason of a providential divine intervention, Christian animosity toward them had temporarily lessened.104 Moreover, in that same year, through the favor of divine mercy, the mother of that very prince, namely the emir of Babylon, a most Christian woman named Maria, began to rebuild, with polished and squared stones, the temple of Christ that her son had ordered destroyed. And assuredly her husband, namely the father of him about whom we are presently speaking, as almost another Nicodemus, is said to have been a secret Christian.105 And then, from all over the world, an incredible multitude of people, exultantly journeying to Jerusalem, brought countless gifts to the restored house of God. 103. France and the empire constituted the focus of Ralph’s “Roman world.” 104. Compare Ralph’s testimony regarding Latin Europe’s Jewish communities with evidence provided in sources 62–64. 105. Al-Hakim’s mother (whose name is unknown) appears to have been Muslim. His father, Caliph al-Aziz, a Shi’a Muslim and never a Christian, had two consorts, the second being a Melkite Christian slave who refused to convert to Islam. Her name is unknown, but she is known by the title al-Azizah. She was the mother of Sitt al-Mulk, who was, in all likelihood, al-Hakim’s half-sister. Sitt al-Mulk has been named as a likely suspect in al-Hakim’s mysterious disappearance (murder?) in 1021. While serving as regent for her nephew, al-Hakim’s son Ali az-Zahir, she was the de facto ruler of Fatimid Cairo and its empire from 1021 until her death in 1023. Like her father, Sitt al-Mulk was noted for her tolerance toward Christians and Jews. Nicodemus was a secret follower of Jesus who gave his grave site to his crucified master.
Illus. 7.1 The fortified Occitanian town of Carcassonne. The forces of the Albigensian Crusade captured it in 1209.
Part Two European Efflorescence and Expansion: 1050–1300 The First Europe emerged from the crucible of the ninth and tenth centuries stronger than ever. Tested, battered, changed by numerous challenges, it had not been broken. Europeans had displayed an amazing resilience. They beat off Muslim attackers from the Mediterranean. They even managed to absorb their two other formidable foes, the Vikings and the Magyars, thereby substantially expanding the borders of Latin European civilization. By the mid-eleventh century, Europe was preparing for one of its most creative eras, a period that many historians term the High Middle Ages—essentially, the era from around 1050 to roughly 1300. This era witnessed changes in the ways in which Europeans related to their Christian God and the Roman Church, which claimed to speak for that God. During these centuries, significant social and economic developments took place that affected all levels of society and resulted in the creation of a new dynamic class—the bourgeoisie. In the realms of the intellect and the creative arts, European thinkers and artists produced timeless masterpieces and, much to their credit, continued innovating and exploring new avenues of inquiry and expression, rather than proceeding along comfortable, known avenues. In the political arena, proto-nation-states emerged in England and France during the thirteenth century, and, what is more, the seeds of later French absolutism and English constitutional monarchy were planted by 1300. The empire, which from the mid-twelfth century onward can be termed the “Holy Roman Empire,” experienced a roller-coaster ride of highs and lows. Lands that had earlier been frontier regions or had been controlled by non-Latin powers, such as Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, Croatia, Scandinavia, southern Italy, Sicily, and most of the Iberian Peninsula, became integral members of the family of Latin European polities during these centuries. Throughout Latin Europe the rule of political pluralism prevailed, providing this young civilization with one of its most distinctive characteristics—the competition of political forces. No emperor, king, or pope was ever able to bend all, or even most, of Europe to his will, although many tried. In the futile drive to create a monolithic society governed by a single supreme power on Earth, popes, emperors, and kings quarreled incessantly throughout these two and a half centuries and beyond. The result was a rich variety of political theory regarding church-state relations and clearer definitions of what it meant to be a Latin Christian. In the process of defining who they were, they equally defined who they were not. This creation of a more clearly delineated us and them resulted in a number of movements against Christian Europe’s perceived enemies, including homebred non-Christians and heretics, as well as infidels in Iberia, northeastern Europe, and across the Mediterranean waters. Western Europe waged its brand of Christianity against unbelievers, particularly Muslims, and in the process stamped Western civilization with a crusader mentality. Long after the crusades to the lands of the eastern Mediterranean had ended, Western Europeans and their transoceanic progeny in the Americas and elsewhere retained the notion that the world could be made better through the use of idealistically driven violence. In addition to this idea, the crusades also helped open up the West to a wider world beyond the geographic boundaries of the European subcontinent. Western crusaders and those who followed them established overseas colonies in the eastern Mediterranean, thereby creating better conduits than Europe had had for centuries for the influx of goods from the East and, to a far lesser extent, ideas. Most of the wisdom of Greek antiquity, as viewed through the prism of Islamic scholarship, that came into the West during these centuries arrived via Iberia and Sicily rather than the Latin East. 175
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The crusades in Syria-Palestine might have been poor vehicles for transmitting Greco-Islamic knowledge westward, but the crusader spirit ultimately drove thirteenth-century Europeans to the far reaches of China. Still later, this crusading ethos was a factor in motivating Western Europeans to venture ever farther into the waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and ultimately brought them all the way to the Americas and the seaports of East Africa and South and East Asia. Europe and the world would never be the same as a result of Europe’s crusader drive and the many other developments that took shape in the West between 1050 and 1300.
Chapter 7
Varieties of Religious Expression
Illus. 7.2 The mid-twelfth-century Annunciation Window of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres. The Archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the Mother of Jesus. Since the late ninth century, Chartres Cathedral has possessed the Sancta Camisa (Holy Tunic) relic, which is believed to be the garment that Mary wore at Jesus’s birth. As a focal point for the cult of Mary, the cathedral became one of the most popular pilgrimage sites in Europe during the twelfth century and continued so for many centuries thereafter.
Christian Europeans of the High Middle Ages expressed their religious energy in a wide assortment of ways. Most, regardless of their differences, focused on a personal relationship between God-redeemed humanity and a loving God who deigned to become a mortal man in order to perfect human nature through grace. This new religious mood centered on Jesus, the Suffering Man and the Redemptive Brother, and Mary, His mother, the adoptive Mother of all who believed. At the same time, images of Jesus the Righteous Judge, who separated the impenitent guilty from the righteous, and God the angry Father, who visited calamities on the unjust, were never erased from the Western religious psyche and comfortably existed alongside these new spiritual currents. The first manifestations of this new religious vision appeared in Europe’s monasteries and convents during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Here an emphasis emerged on discovering God within the human soul and on living a life modeled upon that of Jesus. This new spirituality stressed pure love of God, the saints, and fellow humans, especially one’s cloistered colleagues. With the growing importance of urban centers in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, we find new forms of spirituality also springing up in towns and cities. Many of the movements were orthodox and functioned well within the boundaries of traditional Latin Christianity, even as they expanded its modes of pious expression. Other urban religious movements ultimately proved to be (or were pushed into becoming) heterodox and challenged, thereby, the authority and teachings of the established Church. Challenges to ecclesiastical authority, as well as impulses to offer humans a more perfect Church, resulted in attempts to reform the Church and its members, both lay and clerical. Such challenges also resulted in more rigid definitions of what constituted proper Christian behavior and belief and what constituted error. The established Church not only sought the moral reformation of its clergy and laity, 177
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thereby calling them to higher standards of behavior, it also sought to excise from its midst those who were perceived as living insults to this loving God and His Church. Efforts to cleanse the Church of dissident members often produced terror and bloodshed in the name of serving a loving God.
The Different Faces of Piety The multiple religious innovations of the High Middle Ages reflected a spirit of religious optimism that judged the average person to be someone worthy and capable of cooperating with God in achieving salvation. Beginning toward the late eleventh century, new monastic movements sprang up, especially in northern Italy and eastern France, that paradoxically emphasized retreat from the increasingly attractive snares of the world but also service to that world. Of all the new orders of monks, the most important was the Order of Cîteaux, which was founded in Burgundy in 1098. The order’s most dynamic member, Bernard of Clairvaux, composed the sermon that appears as source 46. Sources 46–48 reflect the cult of the Virgin Mary as seen from two perspectives: that of a monk and that of the secular clergy. Veneration of Mary was as old as Christianity itself. However, in the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, partly due to influences from the Byzantine East, the cult of Mary surged to new heights in the West. Churches, particularly cathedrals, were dedicated in dramatically increasing numbers to Notre Dame—Our Lady. In Mary, the West had a model of human perfectibility and a patroness before the throne of Heaven. Conversely, the twelfth and thirteenth centuries also witnessed widespread questioning of and outright rejection of mainstream Catholic beliefs and practices, including the cult of saints. Heterodoxy, namely religious beliefs and practices that ran counter to the official teachings and rituals of the established Church, was rife in this age of the New Piety, and it took many shapes. Amid all of these competing voices, two major forms of heresy took root. One was an anticlericalism that rose to the level of an outright rejection of the Church and its ministers as conduits of grace and salvation. The other was a dualistic theology, which you will be able to define after examining the evidence. Sources 49 and 50 introduce the Waldensians and the Cathars, the leading exemplars, respectively, of anticlericalism and dualism. Individually and combined, they rocked the Church of the High Middle Ages. In countering heretical trends, most of which were born and nurtured in Europe’s newly important urban centers, the Church employed many expedients. Of all of them, the mendicant friars, particularly the Franciscans, were the Roman Church’s most widely employed weapon against its heterodox critics who assailed it for its perceived venality, corruption, religious errors, and spiritual irrelevance. Source 51 introduces Saint Francis, “the little poor man of Assisi.”
The Monastic Cult of Mary 46. Bernard of Clairvaux, SERMONS IN PRAISE OF THE VIRGIN MOTHER1 Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153) was born into the lower nobility of Burgundy and educated in the rhetorical arts. In 1112, he suddenly abandoned it all to enter the new monastery of Cîteaux, taking with him all five of his brothers, several other male relatives, and roughly a score of other men. Three years later, the twenty-five-year-old Bernard was sent out to establish a monastery in a desolate area that bore the unappealing name the “Valley of Wormwood.” In an act of spiritual optimism, Bernard renamed it Clairvaux (Shining Valley) and dedicated its abbey to the Virgin Mary. He served as abbot of Notre Dame de Clairvaux to the day of his death. 1. Bernard of Clairvaux, “In Laudibus Virginis Matris, Homilia II,” Sancti Bernardi Opera, ed. Jean Leclercq, C. H. Talbot, and H. M. Rochais, 8 vols. (Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1957–77), 4: 21–23, 34–35.
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Although Bernard was committed to the Cistercian ideals of self-abnegation and retreat from the world, his zeal, sense of righteousness (even self-righteousness), and talent for eloquent expression brought him into contact with virtually all of Western Europe’s major characters and controversies of the first half of the twelfth century. A measure of Bernard’s impact on Latin Christendom is that Pope Alexander III declared his canonization as a saint in 1174, less than twenty-one years after Bernard’s death. Despite his involvement in the affairs of Greater Christendom, Bernard was devoted to his monastic profession and his monks at Clairvaux and served as their constant teacher. The following source consists of excerpts from the second of four homilies that Bernard wrote for his monks in celebration of the vigil of the feast of the Virgin’s Nativity (September 8). Known collectively as Sermons in Praise of the Virgin Mother, the homilies were meant to be read and contemplated upon. Due to Bernard’s reputation, the homilies were copied and distributed throughout the Cistercian Order’s European-wide network of houses. In the Second Homily, Bernard comments on a portion of the text in the Gospel of Luke (1:26–27) in which the Archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that God has chosen her to bear the Messiah. The text begins: “The Angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the House of David, and the Virgin’s name was Mary.”
Questions for Consideration 1. Which virtues of Mary does Bernard emphasize? Why would they appeal to his monastic audience? 2. One of Mary’s titles is the “New Eve.” What does that mean? 3. According to Bernard, what role does Mary play in human redemption? What inferences do you draw from your answer? 4. Consider Chapter 17, the last section of this homily. According to Bernard, what functions does Mary now perform? What inferences do you draw from your answer? 5. Historians often speak of twelfth-century monasticism’s new emphasis on affective, or emotional, spirituality. How, if at all, does this source provide an example of that phenomenon? 6. What might be the implications for a culture that has created two models of womanhood: Eve and Mary? No one doubts that surely this New Song, which shall be given solely to virgins to be sung in the Kingdom of God,2 shall be sung by her, the Queen of virgins, along with the others, or rather as first among the others Moreover, I imagine that in addition to that song that is reserved for virgins alone, yet, as I said, shall be shared by all virgins, she will give joy to the City of God by some sweeter and more elegant canticle. Certainly, not one of those virgins will be found worthy to draw out and intone its melodious notes because it will be rightly reserved for her alone to sing it, she who alone takes pride in her Maternity, her Divine Maternity. She takes pride, so I have said, in her Maternity, not in herself, but in Him to Whom she gave birth, namely God. For it is God to Whom she gave 2. See the Book of Revelation, 14:3–4.
birth. Intending to bestow upon His Mother a unique glory in Heaven, He took care to prepare her on Earth with a unique grace, through which, it is plain to see, she conceived miraculously and virginally and gave birth unspoiled.3 For the only type of birth that befit God was that He should be born of none other than a Virgin. Likewise, it was fitting that if a Virgin were to give birth, she should bear none other than God. So also, the Creator of humanity, in order to become human, born of a human, had to choose such a person out of all humanity. In fact, 3. Church dogma maintains that Mary conceived Jesus through the miraculous intervention of the Holy Spirit, and she did not lose her physical virginity in the act of giving birth. Jesus emerged from her womb “as light through glass.” Moreover, the birth was painless.
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He had to create a Mother whom He knew would be worthy of Him and whom He had known would be pleasing to Him. He willed, therefore, that she be a virgin, someone stainless from whom He could be born stainless,4 He who would wipe away the stains of everyone. And He willed that she be humble, someone from whom He, who is mild and humble of heart, could be born—He who would, in Himself, be a model to every one of these necessary and salutary virtues. Consequently, God bestowed on the Virgin motherhood, in whom He had already earlier inspired a vow of virginity, and from whom He had first asked the gift of humility. Otherwise, if she possessed even some tiny bit of goodness that did not proceed from grace, how could the Angel have pronounced her “full of grace” in the words that followed [his appearance]?5
2. So that she, who would both conceive and give birth to the Holy of Holies, might be holy in body, she received the gift of virginity; so that she might be holy in spirit as well, she received the gift of humility…. 3. Rejoice, Father Adam, but more so, exult, Mother Eve. Just as you are the parents of all humanity, so you have been the destroyers of all humanity, and what is more unfortunate, its destroyers before becoming its parents.6 Both of you, I say, find consolation in your daughter, and in so great a daughter, especially she from whom evil first arose, whose disgrace has passed to all women. For the time is at hand when now the disgrace is lifted, and a man can have no reason to accuse a woman, as was so, when unwisely presuming to excuse himself, he cruelly did not hesitate to accuse her, saying: THE WOMAN WHOM YOU HAD GIVEN ME GAVE ME TO EAT FROM THE TREE, AND I ATE.7 Eve, run, therefore, to Mary; mother, run to your daughter. Daughter, answer for your mother. Let her take away her mother’s disgrace. Let her now make satisfaction to the Father for her mother, because, behold, if a man fell because of a woman, now he will only be lifted up through a woman. What did you say, Adam? THE WOMAN WHOM YOU HAD GIVEN ME GAVE 4. Latin and Orthodox Christians accept the dogma of the Immaculate Conception—Mary was uniquely conceived without the stain of Adam and Eve’s Original Sin on her soul. 5. Luke, 1:28: Gabriel’s greeting to Mary is “Hail, you who are full of grace, the Lord is with you.” 6. Genesis, 3–4: Adam and Eve committed the Original Sin and were banished from Paradise before Eve bore children. 7. Genesis, 3:12.
ME TO EAT FROM THE TREE, AND I ATE. These are evil words. By them you increase your guilt to a higher degree rather than reduce it. Nevertheless, Wisdom had conquered evil. The case for pardon that God tried to draw out from you through His interrogation, but could not, He has found in the treasury of His never-failing love. Without a doubt, a woman has been exchanged for a woman, a prudent woman for a foolish woman, a humble woman for an arrogant woman. She offers you a taste of the Tree of Life rather than a taste of the tree of death, and rather than the bitterness of a poisonous food, she provides the sweetness of eternity’s fruit. Change, therefore, your words of malicious excuse into a cry of thanksgiving, and say, “Lord, the woman whom You had given me gave me to eat from the Tree of Life, and I ate, and it was sweeter than honey in my mouth, for by it You have given me life.” For behold, THE ANGEL WAS SENT TO THE VIRGIN for this reason. O, Virgin, admirable and most worthy of every honor! O, uniquely revered woman, admirable above all women, the person who has made good [the sin] of [our] parents, the person who gives life to their offspring!… 17. The verse ends, THE VIRGIN’S NAME WAS MARY.8 Let us say a few things about this name, which is said to mean “Star of the Sea,” and is properly and totally fitting for the Virgin Mother.9 For she is most aptly compared to a star, because, just as a star emits its light without diminishing itself, so the Virgin gave birth to her Son without injury to herself. Neither does a star’s ray reduce its brightness nor did the Son of the Virgin reduce her total virginity. She is, indeed, that noble Star arisen from Jacob,10 whose ray of light illuminates the entire world, whose splendor both glitters in the heavens and penetrates the regions of Hell, and also traverses all lands. Warming spirits much more than bodies, it nourishes virtues and purges vices. She, I say, is the splendid and exceptional Star raised by necessity over this great and vast sea, shining with virtues, brilliant as a paragon of virtue. O, you, whoever you are, who perceive that in the flood tide of this world you are more tossed about amid storms and tempests than 8. Luke, 1:27. 9. Christian authors mistakenly equated the name Mariam (Mary), the Greek variation of the Hebrew Miryam, with mare, Latin for “sea,” and appropriated for her the title Maris Stella (Star of the Sea), a title formerly borne by the Egyptian goddess Isis. 10. Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, was the father of all Israelites.
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walking on solid ground, do not turn your eyes away from the bright light of this Star, lest the force of the storms sweep you away! If the winds of temptation grow strong, if you founder on the rocks of tribulation, look to the Star, call on Mary. Whether you are tossed about by the waves of pride or ambition or slander or jealousy, look to the Star, call on Mary. If rage or greed or a sexual attraction batters the ship of your spirit, look to Mary. If you are disturbed by the magnitude of your crimes, confounded by the foulness of your conscience, terrified at the horror of judgment, and you begin to drown in a pit of sorrow and an abyss of desperation, think of Mary. In the midst of dangers, of hardships, of uncertainties, think of Mary, call out to Mary. Let her not vanish from your mouth, let her not vanish from your heart, and so that you might obtain the aid of her prayer, do not forsake the example of her way of life. By following her you will not go astray; calling upon
her, you will not despair; thinking of her, you will not go wrong. With her holding you, you will not fall down; with her protecting you, you will not be afraid; with her leading you, you will not grow tired. Through her graciousness you will come through, and as a result you will experience in your very being how rightly it is said: AND THE NAME OF THE VIRGIN IS MARY. But now let us pause for a while so as not to look at the brightness of such a great light with only a passing glance. For, if I might appropriate the words of the apostle: IT IS GOOD FOR US TO BE HERE,11 and it is good to sweetly contemplate in silence what no long-winded discourse could adequately explain. Meanwhile, however, through a devoted contemplation of that sparkling Star, we will be more keenly refreshed for a discussion of those matters that follow. 11. Matthew, 17:4; Mark, 9:5; Luke, 9:33.
The Popular Cult of Mary 47. Jacques de Vitry, SERMONS FOR THE PEOPLE ACCORDING TO CLASS 12 Bernard of Clairvaux addressed his homilies on the Virgin to fairly sophisticated, well-read monks. But what about the laity, especially unlettered laypeople? What were they told of the Virgin, and how did they view her? The thirteenth century abounded in preachers’ handbooks for clerics teaching religious values to mass audiences, and from them we can garner insights into the popular religious mind. Jacques de Vitry (ca. 1160/70–1240), a patron of evangelical religious reform at all levels of society, was one of his age’s leading advocates of the use of entertaining morality stories, or exempla (sing. exemplum), to bring sermons alive. A scholar at the University of Paris, a historian, bishop of Acre in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and a cardinal of the Roman Church, Bishop Jacques was also one of Europe’s foremost preachers and a leading theoretician of the art of homiletics. Among his many writings, Vitry prepared several collections of sermons. The following stories come from his Sermons for the People according to Class, which organizes its seventy-four sample sermons according to the class and condition of each intended audience from bishops to agricultural workers and every class and status in between. The first story appears in a sermon aimed at married people, and the second is in a sermon for virgins and young girls.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the first story. Why did the Virgin intervene on behalf of these two sinners? 12. The Exempla or Illustrative Stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry, ed. Thomas Frederick Crane (1890; rep. New York: Burt Franklin, 1971), 92–93, 117–19.
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2. What is the moral of the story? 3. What is the moral of the second story? 4. What do the two stories assume about the Virgin’s powers? 5. In both stories, the Virgin, of all people, seems to wink at adultery. Is this so? How do you explain the Virgin’s behavior, and what does it suggest about popular thirteenth-century notions of the Virgin? 6. What do the two stories suggest about popular notions regarding the relationship of people and their everyday lives to the supernatural? 7. What do these stories seem to suggest about popular notions of sexuality and gender relations? 8. How, if at all, are the two stories consonant with Bernard of Clairvaux’s portrait of the Virgin? How, if at all, do they differ? What conclusions follow from your answers?
Sermon 66 I heard about a certain woman from the diocese of Artois whose husband fell in love with a certain woman, and consequently he treated the wife badly and was generous to the adulteress. The wife, unable to do anything else, frequently wept aloud in front of the image of Holy Mary and complained to the Blessed Virgin about the whore who had stolen her husband from her. Then one night, as she began to sleep a little, following a long vigil in front of the image, during which she had cried continuously, the image seemed to answer her: “I cannot avenge you as far as that woman is concerned. Although she is a sinner, every day she genuflects before me one hundred times, saying ‘Ave, Maria.’ ”13 When she awoke, she went away deeply unhappy, and when on a certain day she came across the woman, she said to her: “You are a miserable whore for seducing and snatching away my husband from me. I complained bitterly about you in person to the Blessed Virgin, and you have so enchanted her by saluting her every day one hundred times with your filthy mouth that, in your case, she does not want to do justice for me. Rather, she said that she could not avenge me because of one hundred daily genuflections before her, but I will complain about you to her Son, Who will not fail me so far as justice is concerned. He will take vengeance on you.” The woman was deeply troubled, realizing that, even though she was a sinner, the Blessed Virgin, whom she had doubtlessly dishonored, had abstained from punishing her because of the 13. “Hail, Mary.”
service she had devoted herself to. She fell at the feet of the woman, swearing to God and the wife that she would not sin any longer with her husband. And so the Blessed Virgin made peace between them and made amends with the woman with the very best sort of vindication.
*** Sermon 72 A certain very religious man told me that it happened in a place where he had been staying that a virtuous and pious matron went frequently to church and served God, day and night, with the greatest devotion. Moreover, a certain monk, the sexton14 and treasurer of the monastery, who had a great reputation for piety, was also, as a matter of fact, there. When, however, the two frequently spoke with one another in the church regarding religious matters, the Devil, envying their virtue and reputation, let loose upon then strong temptations with the result that a spiritual love turned carnal. As a result, they conspired among themselves and fixed a night when the monk was to leave his monastery with the church’s treasure, and the matron would leave her home with a sum of money that she would steal from her husband. So, after they had left and fled, the monks, on rising in the morning, saw that the chests had been broken open and the church’s treasure stolen; and when they could 14. The person in charge of the monastery’s church building and all its possessions.
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not find the monk, they quickly pursued him. Likewise the husband of the aforementioned woman pursued his wife when he saw his chest open and its money stolen. Apprehending the monk and the woman with the treasure and money, they brought them back and threw them into strict confinement. So great was the scandal throughout the entire region, and so much were all religious persons reviled, that the harm resulting from the disgrace and scandal was far greater than their sin. Then the monk, returning to his senses, began with many tears to beseech the Blessed Virgin, whom from infancy he had always served, and never before had anything like this happened to him. Likewise the said matron began urgently to implore the aid of the Blessed Virgin, whom regularly, day and night, she had been accustomed to salute and to kneel before her image. Eventually a very angry Blessed Virgin appeared, and after she had scolded them severely, she said: “I can obtain remission of your sin from my Son, but what can I do about such a dreadful scandal? Undeniably you have so fouled the name of religious persons in the eyes of all the people that in the future no one will trust persons of religion. The harm you have done is almost irremediable.” In the end, however, the merciful Virgin, overcome by their prayers, summoned the demons who had caused the deed and ordered them that, just as they had brought dishonor upon religion, so they must bring the scandal to an end. As it was, they were not able to resist her commands. After a good deal of anxiety and deliberations
back and forth, they found a way to remove the scandal. In the night they placed the monk in his church, and having repaired the broken chest to its pristine condition, they placed the treasure in it. Also they replaced the money in the chest that the matron had opened and closed and locked it. And they placed the woman in her room and in the place where she was accustomed to pray nightly. When, therefore, the monks found the treasure of their house and the monk praying to the Lord as had been his practice, and the husband discovered his wife and treasure, and they ascertained that their property was just as it had been before, they were stupefied and awed. Rushing to the prison, they saw the monk and the woman in shackles, just as they had earlier left them, but they also saw that one of the demons had transformed himself into the likeness of the monk and another into the likeness of the woman. When, therefore, the entire city had assembled to view the miracle, the demons said in the hearing of all, “Let’s go, for we have sufficiently deluded these people and caused them to think evil of religious persons.” And, saying this, they suddenly disappeared. Then all the people threw themselves at the feet of the monk and of the woman and begged pardon. Consider what a great infamy and scandal and what inestimable damage the Devil would have caused against religious persons, if the blessed Virgin had not hastened to offer aid.
Two Images of the Virgin’s Death 48. THE DARMSTADT KOIMÊSIS OF THE THEOTOKOS and THE STRASBOURG DORMITION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN One of the Byzantine Church’s twelve principal holy days is the Koimêsis of the Theotokos (Falling Asleep in Death of the Mother of God) celebrated on August 15 and preceded by a rigorous two-week fast. According to one legend, Mary lived to age sixty, dying in Jerusalem and surrounded by the apostles who had miraculously gathered from all over the world. Thereafter she was resurrected and her body was raised to Heaven. Icons of the Koimêsis abounded throughout the Byzantine world, with many making their way west, especially in the Ottonian era. Our first image is a Byzantine ivory icon dating to the late tenth century that today resides in a museum in the German city of Darmstadt. The discolored holes along the edges of the icon indicate that it was used as a book cover soon after reaching Germany. Surrounded by thirteen apostles, the Virgin lies on a bier that is bedecked with silken drapery. A young attendant waves a censer, a vessel that contains lit charcoal and fragrant incense. At the Virgin’s
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feet, Saint Paul performs an act of homage, apparently kissing her foot. In the upper-right register an angel descends bearing her funeral shroud. Jesus dominates the center of the icon and holds the enshrouded soul of His Mother, which is represented as an infant. In the upper-left register an angel bears Mary’s soul to Heaven. The Latin West, which termed the same event the Dormition (Falling Asleep), also produced numerous images of this moment in Sacred History. One of the most striking is a carving over one of the two exterior doors of the southern portal of the Cathedral of Notre Dame of Strasbourg. Located on the Rhine River in what was then the Germanic-speaking region of Alsace, Strasbourg lay just within the western-most border of the Holy Roman Empire. Given its location, influences from every region of Western Europe flowed into the city. When the previous early twelfth-century, Romanesque cathedral burned down in 1176, the city’s bishop began construction of another Romanesque structure. Around 1225, however, master crafters from Chartres, which lies not far from Paris, convinced the bishop to adopt the new Gothic style of the Île de France. Strasbourg, which prospered economically under the rule of the Hohenstaufen emperors, responded by devoting a fair portion of its wealth to the erection of the tallest, arguably the grandest, and certainly one of the most beautiful Gothic churches in all of Western Christendom. The cathedral’s exterior is rich in Gothic sculptures, and one of the most beloved is the tympanum15 of the Dormition that was carved around 1230 and graces the cathedral’s south portal which, at that time, served as the church’s main entrance. (See Chapter 8, source 64, for a view of the entire south portal.) Here Mary lies on a bed surrounded by twelve apostles. One of them, Saint Peter, cradles her shoulders. At the foot of the bed, Saint Paul touches her foot. A youthful Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’s most important disciples, sits at the center of the bed and dominates the foreground. Jesus dominates the background. Holding His Mother’s winged soul in His left hand, He blesses her with his right hand. A mourning Saint John, to whom Jesus had entrusted the care of His Mother, is braced against Jesus.
Questions for Consideration 1. Compose two lists—one that records all of the similarities between the two scenes and one that catalogs all of their differences. Which do you conclude are more significant, the similarities or the differences? 2. Now go one step further: What are the implications of your answer? In answering this, ask yourself, “which adjectives and nouns best describe each of the two scenes?” 3. Judging from the two scenes, which Christian tradition do you think emphasized the cult of the Risen, Glorified Christ? Which emphasized the Suffering Jesus? 4. Consider Mary Magdalene’s placement in the Strasbourg sculpture. Whom or what does she appear to symbolize? 5. In what way, if at all, does the Strasbourg Dormition represent the new trends in piety of the High Middle Ages? 6. We have not yet looked at Gothic art and architecture in any systematic way, but give this a try anyway. It has been said that Gothic was a perfect medium for the expression of bourgeois religious values and aspirations. Whatever does that mean? Does the Strasbourg Dormition strike you as particularly “bourgeois”? If so, in what ways?
15. Consult the Glossary.
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Illus. 7.3 Koimêsis of the Theotokos, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany.
Illus. 7.4 The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, Strasbourg Cathedral, France.
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Twelfth-Century Popular “Heresy”: The Waldensians 49. Stephen of Bourbon, A TREATISE ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS FOR SERMONS 16 Around 1170, a wealthy merchant of Lyons in southeastern France named Waldes underwent a religious conversion, renounced his earthly riches, began preaching repentance and a life of poverty, and soon attracted numerous followers. There was nothing intrinsically revolutionary or threatening about Waldes’s initial religious fervor. This era witnessed many mainstream religious enthusiasts, including the early Cistercians, who claimed to be pursuing the vita apostolica (apostolic life)—a life of poverty modeled upon the presumed poverty of Jesus and his apostles. In 1179, Waldes sought and received papal permission to lead a life of evangelical poverty but was forbidden to preach publicly because of his lay status. Waldes and his disciples refused to accept this limitation and continued preaching. In 1184, Pope Lucius III excommunicated Waldes and his sect, and within a decade, the Waldensians, who by then had spread well beyond France, were challenging the Roman Church. The Waldensians experienced severe persecution by church authorities over the centuries but survived and made common cause with Protestants, especially Calvinists, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A Waldensian Church exists today, and in 2015, Pope Francis publicly apologized and asked forgiveness from Waldensian Christians for Catholic persecution of their forebears. The following description of Waldensian origins comes from the writings of Stephen of Bourbon, a Dominican friar, priest, preacher, and active member of the Inquisition (source 53). The Dominicans, or more correctly the Order of Preachers, was a religious congregation of mendicant friars that arose in the early thirteenth century to combat heresy through preaching. Stephen wrote sometime after 1249 about events that took place several decades before his birth. As you read and analyze this account, you should attempt to evaluate the reliability of the secondhand information that he imparts. How far and in what ways, if at all, can we trust this source? Even if there are errors within it, does it have value? If so, what value?
Questions for Consideration 1. According to Stephen, how did the Waldensians become increasingly dangerous? Why did that change take place, and why did the Church find it so threatening? 2. How, if at all, did Waldes and his followers exhibit the new piety of their age? 16. Anecdotes historiques, légendes et apologues, tirés du recueil inédit d’Étienne de Bourbon, Dominicain du XIIIe siècle, publiés pour la Société de l’histoire de France par A. Lecoy de La Marche (Paris: Librairie Renouard, H. Loones, successeur, 1877), 290–93.
Book 4, Chapter 342 For the Waldenses are named after the first teacher of this heresy, who was named Waldes.17 They are also called the Poor People of Lyons because it was there that they
began professing poverty. They also call themselves the Poor in Spirit because of what the Lord said: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”18 And, indeed, they are poor in spirit— impoverished in regard to spiritual wealth and the Holy Spirit.
17. Modern textbooks commonly refer to him as Peter Waldo, but twelfth- and thirteenth-century sources do not support that tradition. The name “Peter” initially appears in documents from
the second half of the fourteenth century. See note 22 for a possible explanation of this mistake. 18. Matthew, 5:3.
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This sect began in this way, according to what I have heard from quite a few persons who observed its earliest members and from a certain priest who was named Bernard Ydros. He was quite well-respected and wellto-do in the city of Lyons and was a friend of our [Dominican] brothers. When he was a young man and a scribe, at Waldes’s direction he was employed to write in the vernacular the first books that these people possessed, while a certain grammarian, Stephen of Anse by name—whom I often encountered—translated and dictated them to him. Stephen, who held a benefice from the major church of Lyons,19 came to a sudden death when he fell from the balcony of the house that he was building. There was in that city a certain rich man named Waldes. Upon hearing the Gospels, he was curious to learn what they meant, since he was not well educated. He made a contract with the said priests, the one to translate them into the vernacular, the other to write what he dictated, which they did. They did so for many books of the Bible and likewise for many passages from the Holy Fathers, grouped by topics, which they call Sentences.20 When the said citizen had read and reread these texts and learned them by heart, he resolved to live a life of evangelical perfection, just as the apostles had lived it. Selling all his possessions, in contempt of the world, he broadcast his money to the poor and presumed to usurp the office of the apostles by preaching in the streets and plazas the Gospels and those things that he had learned by heart. He drew to himself many men and women that they might do the same, strengthening them in the Gospel. He also sent out persons from every sort of the lowest occupations to preach in the surrounding villages. They in turn, men as well as women, ignorant and illiterate, wandered through the villages, entered houses, preached in the plazas and even in churches, and induced others to do the same. When, indeed, as a result of their impudence and ignorance, they had spread far and wide numerous errors and scandals, they were summoned by the archbishop of Lyons, whose name was John. He forbade them to involve themselves in expounding the Scriptures or preaching.21 19. The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist. 20. Citations and excerpts from theological authorities arranged by topic. 21. Stephen errs here. Archbishop Guichard (r. 1165–81) forbade them to preach, probably before 1179. His successor, John Fair Hands (r. 1181–93), expelled Waldes and his followers from Lyons in or after 1181.
They, in turn, fell back on the apostle’s reply. Assuming the role of Peter, this man replied as Peter had responded to the chief priests.22 He said: “it is more important to obey God than men”—the God who had commanded the apostles: “Preach the Gospel to every creature (at the end of Mark).”23 He asserted this as though the Lord had said to them what He said to the apostles, who, indeed, did not presume to preach until they had been clothed with power from on high, until they had been illuminated by most perfect and fullest knowledge, and had received the gift of all tongues.24 Therefore, these persons, namely Waldes and his fellows, fell first into disobedience by their presumption and their usurpation of the apostolic office, then into arrogance, and finally into the sentence of excommunication. After they were driven out of that land, they were summoned to the council held in Rome at the Lateran.25 They remained obdurate and were ultimately judged to be schismatics. Thereafter, they mingled in Provence and Lombardy with other heretics, imbibing and sowing about their errors.26 Consequently, they have been judged by the Church as exceedingly hostile, infectious, and dangerous heretics, who wander about everywhere, assuming the appearance of holiness and faith but devoid of them. The more dangerous they are the more they lie hidden, transforming themselves under the guises of different types of human attire and occupation. Once one of their leaders was captured who carried with him the trappings of multiple crafts by which he was able to transform himself like Proteus.27 If he were sought in one disguise and learned of it, he transformed himself into another. 22. Acts of the Apostles, 5:29. A misreading of what Stephen writes here might have led to ascribing the name “Peter” to Waldes. 23. Mark, 16:15. 24. Acts of the Apostles, 2:1–4. 25. Stephen errs again. The Waldensians were driven out of Lyons in or after 1181 and were condemned at the local synod of Verona in northern Italy in 1184. The Lateran Council in Rome that he refers to must be the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, which condemned all current heresies. At the Third Lateran Council of 1179, Pope Alexander III had approved Waldes’s apostolic lifestyle. 26. Provence in southeastern France was the heartland of the Catharism, and Lombardy in north-central Italy had a significant Cathar presence. 27. Proteus, a Greek god of the sea, was known as “he of elusive change” because of the sea’s sudden transformations.
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Sometimes he wore the clothing and marks of a pilgrim, other times the staff and iron shackles of a penitent; other times he passed himself off as a cobbler, another time as a barber, another time as a reaper, and so on. Others, likewise, do the same.
This sect began around the year of our Lord’s Incarnation 1170, in the episcopacy of John, called Fair Hands, archbishop of Lyons.28 28. See note 21.
Twelfth-Century Popular “Heresy”: The Cathars 50. Peter of Vaux-de-Cernay, THE ALBIGENSIAN HISTORY 29 The Waldensians were not the only group of religious enthusiasts to embrace the ideal of apostolic poverty. The Church welcomed, or at least preempted, some of these zealots, such as the early Franciscans and northern Italy’s Humiliati; others assumed or were driven into positions of hostility toward the Church. None of the latter, however, including the Waldensians, was as threatening to the hold that the Roman Church had on the West as a sect generally identified as the Cathars. The Cathars were known by many names, including “Albigensians,” because the city of Albi was one of the many fortified centers in Provence that gave them refuge. All of the names, most of which were pejorative, appear to have been bestowed on them by their enemies. It was once thought that “Cathar” derived from the Greek καθαρός (katharos—pure) and was a self-description adopted by adherents of this faith. It now seems more likely that it derived from the Latin cattus (cat) and originated in the belief that Cathars kissed the back side of a cat, which was the form that the Devil assumed when appearing to them. On their part, Cathars seem to have referred to themselves simply and exclusively as “Christians,” seeing themselves as the only true Christians. Catharism arose in the West in the twelfth century, apparently traveling from the Balkans along trade routes and finding root in parts of northern and central Italy and Provence, a region also known as Languedoc and Occitania. The hierarchy of the Roman Church perceived it as a menace to Christian civilization and responded in multiple ways. The Cathar threat was a stimulus to the rise of the mendicant friars of the thirteenth century and at efforts to reform Christian society from top to bottom. It also provoked the Albigensian Crusade, a holy war waged from 1209 to 1229 that devastated Provence and its Occitanian culture and precipitated the incorporation of the region into the French kingdom. It also provided impetus for the creation of the Inquisition. Before the mendicant friars became the Church’s sharp end of the spear in combatting Catharism, the Roman papacy and local bishops depended on the Cistercians to fill that role through their preaching and presumed lives of apostolic simplicity that could serve as counterweights to the evident asceticism of Cathar leaders, who were known as Perfecti. The Cistercians also had a crusading tradition that stretched back to Bernard of Clairvaux, and the order avidly supported the holy war that Pope Innocent III launched to eradicate Catharism. Abbot Guy of Vaux-de-Cernay, an associate of Simon de Montfort, one of the early leaders of the Albigensian Crusade, brought his nephew, the young monk Peter, along on the crusade. As a consequence, Peter composed a history of the crusade that covers events leading up to the war and extends down to December 1218, when the account ends abruptly. In the excerpts that appear below, Peter describes Catharism.
29. Petri Vallium Sarnaii monachi Hystoria albigensis, ed. Pascal Guébin and Ernest Lyon, 3 vols. (Paris: Libraire Ancienne Honoré Campion, 1926–39), 1:9–20, passim.
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Questions for Consideration 1. What is meant by “Cathar dualism”? 2. What was the Cathar belief regarding all physical matter, and what were its ramifications? 3. What was the major religious-social division within Catharism, and how did it differ, if at all, from the Roman Church’s division between clergy and laity? 4. Was the Consolamentum a sacrament? 5. How credible does Peter’s condemnation of the Perfecti appear to be? How credible do his claims of the Cathars’ scorning traditional teachings regarding sexual morality appear to be? 6. Peter’s description of the Cathars generally conforms to what other sources inform us about them, but like Peter’s account, they were the products of hostile reporters. How far do you trust the overall reliability and worth of this account? 7. Can you find any parallels between the Cathars and the Waldensians? If so, what were they, and to what degree were they significant? What do you conclude from those answers? 8. Some historians claim that rather than just holding beliefs that were heretical, the Cathars espoused the doctrines and practiced the rituals of a rival religion. Evaluate this judgment.
Book 1, Chapter 10 Regarding the sects of the heretics …First, it should be understood that the heretics declared that two creators existed, namely an invisible one, whom they called the “benign god,” and a visible one, whom they called the “malign god.” They attributed the New Testament to the benign god, and the Old Testament to the malign god, and rejected the latter totally except for certain authoritative passage that were inserted from the Old Testament into the New Testament, which they thought worthy of acceptance out of reverence for the New Testament. They asserted that the author of the Old Testament was a liar because he said to the first humans, “On the day that you eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil you will die,”30 but after eating they did not die, as he had said [they would], although, of course, the real truth is that after tasting the forbidden fruit they became subject to the misery of death. They also called him a murderer, because he had incinerated the people of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed the world in the waters of the Deluge, and then again because he drowned Pharaoh and the Egyptians in the sea. They declared that all of the patriarchs 30. Genesis, 2:17.
of the Old Testament were damned and asserted that John the Baptist was one of the major demons.
Chapter 11 They also said in their secret assembly that the Christ who was born in earthly and visible Bethlehem and was crucified in Jerusalem was “evil” and that Mary Magdalene was his concubine, and she was the woman taken in adultery regarding whom one reads in the Gospel. For the “good” Christ, so they said, never ate nor drank nor had he assumed true flesh nor was he ever in this world except spiritually in the body of Paul. I have, in fact, said “in earthly and visible Bethlehem” because the heretics thought that there is another land, unique and invisible, and in that land, according to them, the good Christ was born and crucified. Furthermore, they said that the good god had two wives, Oolla and Ooliba,31 and from them he fathered sons and daughters. There were other heretics who said that there is one creator but he has two sons, Christ and the Devil. They also said that all creatures had been [once] good, but everything had been corrupted through the vials about which one reads in the Apocalypse.32 31. See Ezekiel, 23:4. 32. Book of Revelation, 16:1.
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Chapter 12 All of these people—the limbs of Antichrist, the first-born of Satan, the seed of evil, children filled with wickedness, speaking untruth wrapped in hypocrisy, seducers of the hearts of the innocent—had infected almost the entire province of Narbonne with the poison of their wickedness. They said that the Roman Church was a den of thieves and that it was the whore mentioned in the Apocalypse.33 They denied the sacraments of the Church to the point that they publicly proclaimed that the water of holy Baptism is no different than river water, that the host of the most holy body of Christ is not different from common bread, instilling into the ears of simple people the blasphemy that the body of Christ, even had it been so massive as to contain within itself the Alps, would now have been consumed by those eating it and would have been reduced to nothingness. They considered Confirmation, Extreme Unction, and Confession to be trivial and worthless; they preached that holy Matrimony is prostitution, and no one can be saved within it by producing sons and daughters.34 Denying also the Resurrection of the body, they invented certain strange myths, saying that our souls are those angelic spirits who were driven from Heaven because of their prideful rebellion. They left their glorified bodies in the ether, and these souls, after successively inhabiting any seven earthly bodies, will return to the bodies they left, as though they had then, at last, completed their penance.
Chapter 13 It should be understood, however, that certain of the heretics were called “Perfecti,” or “Good People”; others were called “Believers of the Heretics.”35 They who were called Perfecti wore a black robe, lied about keeping themselves chaste, and totally forsook the eating of meat, eggs, and cheese. They wished it to appear that they were not liars, whereas they lied to the utmost degree about God almost continuously. They also said that they should not swear an oath for any reason, at any time. However, they who were called Believers of the Heretics lived secular lives, and did not endeavor to imitate the life of the Perfecti. They hoped, however, 33. Book of Revelation, 17:1–18. 34. Consult the Glossary at Sacrament(s). 35. Perfecti (sing. Perfectus) means “perfected ones.” The so-called Believers of the Heretics actually referred to themselves simply as Credentes (believers; sing. Credens).
to be saved through their faith. If, indeed, they were divided in their mode of living, they were one in belief (actually in unbelief ). They who were called Believers of the Heretics were given over to usury,36 robbery, murder, and illicit carnal acts, perjuries, and all types of perversity. Indeed, they sinned fearlessly and without restraint because they believed they would be saved without restitution of stolen goods and without confession and penance, as long as they could say a “Pater noster”37 and receive a laying on of hands by their teachers in the last moment of life.
Chapter 14 For they had officials from the ranks of the “perfected heretics” whom they called “deacons” and “bishops,” and none of the Believers at the point of death imagined that he could possibly be saved without the laying on of hands of these Perfecti. In fact, they thought that if they laid hands on anyone who was dying, no matter how sinful, as long as he could say a “Pater noster,” he would be saved and, as they commonly say, receive “consolation,”38 so that, without making any amends, without any other reparation, he would immediately fly up to Heaven.
Chapter 15 Here we have taken it upon ourself to insert a funny story that we heard relating to this. A certain Believer of the Heretics, at the last moment of life, received the Consolamentum through the laying on of hands by his teacher, but he could not say a “Pater noster” and so he expired. His “consoler” did not know what to say about the man. He seemed to have been saved by receiving the laying on of hands, but damned because he had not said the Lord’s Prayer. What more can I say? The heretics consulted a certain knight, Bertrand de Saissac, who was a heretic, about what they should conclude about the man. The knight gave them this advice and answer: “Regarding this man, we support the position and state that he is saved. We judge all others to be damned unless they have said the “Pater noster” in their final moment.”… 36. Some hostile accounts of Waldes state that he had made his fortune through usury. 37. “Our Father,” the Lord’s Prayer. 38. The term for this laying on of hands was Consolamentum (the consolation).
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Chapter 18 We do not believe, moreover, that one should fail to mention that certain heretics said that no one can sin from the belly button down. They said that images in churches are idolatry. They maintained that church bells are the trumpets of demons. Likewise, they said that one who sleeps with his mother or sister does not sin more gravely than [if
he sleeps] with any other woman. In addition, among the most foolish of their heresies, they said that if one of the Perfecti commits a mortal sin (such as eating the smallest amount of meat or cheese or eggs or anything else forbidden to them), all who received the Consolamentum from him lost the Holy Spirit and they were obliged to receive it again, and also those already saved would have fallen from Heaven because of the “consoler’s” sin.
The Franciscan Spirit 51. Francis of Assisi, TESTAMENT 39 The parallels between Waldes and Francis of Assisi (1181/82–1226) are striking and the differences revealing. Born the son of a well-to-do textile merchant of Assisi in Italy and a woman from Provence named Pica, the future founder of the Franciscans was baptized Giovanni, or John. The nickname by which he later became known, Francesco, or “the little Frenchman,” was one that stuck. Very much like Waldes, Francis underwent a profound religious conversion that led him to renounce all worldly possessions and to preach repentance, peace, and love. Also like Waldes, he attracted like-minded followers from his hometown and sought papal approval for his way of life. In 1209 or 1210, Francis and his few companions traveled to Rome, where they received the verbal approval of Pope Innocent III. But papal approval came with a price; Innocent insisted that the brothers, who up to then were laymen, be tonsured as clerics. Thus was born what Francis called the Order of Friars Minor, or Lesser Brethren. More popularly, his followers are known as Franciscans. The Franciscans, like their great thirteenth-century counterparts, the Dominicans, were a new type of clergy, being neither monks nor secular clerics. They were mendicant friars, which means “begging brothers.” Traditional cenobitic monks had always renounced personal property, even though their monasteries might be and often were exceedingly rich and powerful. Francis, however, had no intention of becoming a monk or of founding a monastic order. He also had no intention of allowing himself or his followers to possess any worldly wealth, either as individuals or as a corporation. Practicing what they believed was total apostolic poverty, Francis and his early disciples owned nothing, not even the clothes on their bodies, and worked or begged for their daily food and no more. In return, they preached and attempted to live the Gospel to its fullest. Originally possessing no buildings of any sort, the Friars Minor conducted their ministry in the open air, in marketplaces, and in whatever churches local clerics might invite them temporarily. The poetic simplicity by which Francis embraced the vita apostolica and the way in which he seemed to personify the highest religious ideals of his age earned for him the devotion of popes and peasants alike and the sobriquet alter Christus (the other Christ). Thousands flocked to follow Francis, and before his death, Friars Minor were preaching to Christians all over Europe and among Muslims in Spain, North Africa, and the Holy Land. As the Franciscan movement grew, its burgeoning numbers and unexpected success necessitated a certain amount of organization. In 1223, the Franciscans adopted, with papal approval, a formal rule that church lawyers had helped draft. What had begun as an attempt by a single, charismatic individual to follow the Gospels literally was now changing into a major religious order with its own 39. Testamentum sancti Francisci in Die Opuscula des Hl. Franziskus von Assisi, ed. Kajetan Esser (Grottaferrata, Rome: Collegii S. Bonaventurae ad Claras Aquas, 1976), 438–44.
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administrative framework. The very size and growing complexity of the Order of Friars Minor threatened the heroic standards of poverty set by Francis and his earliest disciples. As these events unfolded, Francis’s health seriously declined, he became more immersed in mystical prayer and solitude, and he handed over leadership of his order to more practical people. According to tradition, while in severe pain from a fatal illness and shortly before his death on October 3, 1226, Francis dictated a final testament for the instruction of his brethren, in which he summed up the essence of his life and vision in order to remind them of the order’s foundations and spirit. There is no doubt that these are the saint’s words and served as a farewell to his religious brothers, but its length and complexity suggest that it was not a spontaneous composition on a deathbed. It seems more likely that Francis composed it over a period of time as his health failed and possibly with the editorial assistance of one or more of his friars. Whatever its place, time, and method of composition, the Testament of Saint Francis was and remains an emphatic proclamation of the Little Frenchman’s deepest ideals and beliefs.
Questions for Consideration 1. How, according to Francis, did he arrive at his religious conversion? 2. What does this testament tell you about Francis’s vision of the Friars Minor? 3. From what Francis tells about himself, what parallels can you find between his life and religious vision and that of Waldes? But what set Francis apart from Waldes? 4. Why did Francis not want glosses on the Rule or on his testament? What conclusion follows from your answer? 5. What light does Francis’s Testament shed on the ideals and piety of his age?
The Lord so gave to me, Brother Francis, to begin to do penance because, when I was in sin, it seemed to me to be far too bitter to see lepers. And the Lord Himself led me into their midst, and I showed compassion to them. And when I left them, that which had seemed to me bitter was changed for me into a sweetness of soul and body, and afterward I remained a little and then I left the world. And the Lord gave me so much faith in churches so that I would simply pray in this way and say: “We adore You, Lord Jesus Christ, and in all Your churches that are in the whole world, and we worship You because by Your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.” After that the Lord gave and gives me so much faith in priests who live according to the rules of the holy Roman Church that, because of their position, if they should persecute me, I would wish to seek refuge with them. And if I had as much wisdom as Solomon had, and if I should meet the poorest priests of this world, I would not wish to preach against their will in the parishes in which they
live. And I desire to fear, love, and honor them and all others as my masters. And I do not wish to look for sin in them because I see the Son of God in them, and they are my masters. And I do this because in this world, I see no physical presence of the Most High Son of God Himself except His most sacred Body and most sacred Blood that they receive and they alone administer to others. And I wish that these most sacred mysteries be honored and revered above all things and that they be placed in richly ornamented places. Wherever I find His most holy Names and words in improper places, I wish to collect them, and I ask that they may be collected and put in a proper place. And we ought to honor and venerate all theologians and all who serve the most sacred Divine Words, as it is they who minister to us spirit and life. And when the Lord gave me some brothers, no one showed me what I should do, but the Most High Himself revealed to me that I should live according to the precepts of the holy Gospel. And I had it written down in
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few words and simply, and the Lord Pope confirmed it for me.40 And they who came to take up this life gave to the poor all that they might have had, and they were content with one tunic, patched inside and out, with a cord and pants. And we wished for no more. We clerics said the Office like other clerics; the lay brothers said the Pater noster, and we remained in the churches willingly enough.41 And we were unlearned and subject to all. And I worked with my hands and I wish to work, and I strongly wish that all the other brothers work at some labor that is respectable. Those who do not know how to, let them learn, not because of a greedy desire to receive payment for the labor but to set an example and to drive away idleness. And when payment for the labor is not given to us, we must turn to the Lord’s dining table, begging alms from house to house. The Lord revealed to me this salutation that we should say: “The Lord give you peace.” Let the brothers be careful not to receive in any way whatsoever churches, poor dwellings, and all other places that are constructed for them unless, as becomes the holy poverty that we have promised in the Rule, they always dwell there as strangers and pilgrims. I strictly enjoin by obedience on all the brothers that, wherever they are, they should not dare, either themselves or through some intermediaries, request any letter in the Roman Curia42 either for a church or for any other place, or under the pretext of preaching, or on account of their persons’ being persecuted,43 but wherever they are not received, they should flee to another land to do penance, with the blessing of God. And I wish to obey the Minister General of this brotherhood strictly and the guardian whom it might please him to give me.44 And I so wish to be captive in his hands 40. Apparently he refers here to Innocent III’s oral confirmation of 1209/1210 and not to the formal, papally approved Rule of 1223. 41. Francis successfully resisted becoming a priest, but Innocent III insisted that he be ordained a deacon. The early Franciscans refused to own churches, but they willingly used churches into which they had been invited. 42. The papal court. 43. They are not to receive licenses to preach in any diocese where they are not welcomed by the bishop. 44. Francis had surrendered leadership of the Order of Friars Minor in 1220. The guardian was the superior of the small community to which Francis was attached.
that I cannot go or act beyond his command and will because he is my master. And although I might be simple and infirm, nevertheless I desire to always have a cleric who will perform the Office with me, as is contained in the Rule. And all the other brothers should likewise be held to obey their guardians and to perform the Office according to the Rule.45 And as for those who might be found not performing the Office according to the Rule and wishing to change it in some way, or who are not Catholics, let all the brothers, wherever they may be, if they find one of these in any place whatsoever, be bound by obedience to present him to the guardian who is nearest to the place where they found him. And the guardian shall be strictly bound by obedience to watch over him closely day and night like a prisoner so that he cannot be snatched from his hands until he shall personally place him in the hands of his minister.46 And the minister shall be strictly bound by obedience to send him through the agency of such brothers who shall watch him day and night like a prisoner until they shall present him to the Lord of Ostia, who is master protector, and corrector of the entire brotherhood.47 And the brothers should not say: “This is another Rule; for this is a reminder, a warning, and an exhortation and my Testament that I, little Brother Francis, make for you, my blessed brothers, so that we might observe in a more Catholic way the Rule that we have promised to the Lord. And the Minister General and all the other ministers and guardians shall be bound by obedience not to add to these words or to take from them. And they shall always have this writing with them along with the Rule. And in all the chapters that they hold, when they read the Rule, they shall read these words also. And I strictly enjoin on all my brothers, clerics and lay brothers, by reason of obedience, not to put glosses on the Rule or on these words saying: “in this manner they ought to be understood.”48 But as the Lord has given me to speak and to write the Rule 45. The Rule of 1223 enjoined clerical friars to recite the daily Office according to the Roman rite. 46. A provincial minister, not the minister general. 47. Ugolino, cardinal-bishop of Ostia and the future Pope Gregory IX, served as cardinal-protector of the order. 48. Francis believed that the Rule of 1223 was simple and clear and needed no clarifications or interpretations to meet changing circumstances. He was wrong.
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and these words simply and purely, so shall you understand them simply and without glosses and observe them in holy service until the end. And whoever shall observe these things may he be filled in Heaven with the blessing of the Most High Father and may he be filled on Earth with the blessing of His Beloved Son together with the Holy Spirit, the
Paraclete,49 and all the Powers of Heaven and all the saints. And I, little Brother Francis, your servant, insofar as I am able, I confirm to you within and without this most holy blessing.
49. Consult the Glossary at Trinity, Holy.
The Drive to Create an Ordered Christian Society Having defined themselves as members of God’s family, Latin Christians implicitly set for themselves the task of being worthy of that family. No matter their disagreements, preachers such as Jacques de Vitry and Waldes agreed that all too often clerics and laity fell far short of the high standards of behavior demanded of them by a God who had redeemed them but still required their full cooperation in achieving salvation. Continuing attempts to order, reform, and cleanse Christian society were, therefore, woven into the fabric of Europe’s High Middle Ages. Our first source illustrates how the thirteenth-century Church attempted to regulate its clergy and laity. The second reading is an example of that same Church’s policies toward individuals who deviated from its doctrines.
Reforming Western Christendom 52. DECREES OF THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL50 At least as early as the third century, Christian bishops occasionally met in regional synods, or councils, where they collectively dealt with common matters affecting their communities. In 325, the practice went a significant step further when a council of over three hundred bishops, representing dioceses from around the Roman Empire and as far away as Persia, met at Nicaea in Anatolia in order to settle the Arian Controversy. Although the vast majority of the bishops who gathered in 325 came from eastern Mediterranean cities, the Council of Nicaea is recognized as the first ecumenical, or general, council of the Church. The theory behind ecumenical councils is that the Church is the repository of God’s Truth. Therefore, when its leaders assemble in a plenary session that represents the entire Church, their decisions on doctrine are assumed to be God-inspired and infallible. In the years between 325 and 870, eight ecumenical councils convened. Each was held in the East under the authority of the emperor at Constantinople and was called at a moment when the universal Church seemed to be at a critical juncture, especially in regard to the faith. As far as the Byzantine Church was (and is) concerned, the last ecumenical council met at Constantinople in 869–70. Beginning, however, in 1123, the popes of Rome initiated the practice of convening, solely on their own authority, ecumenical councils in Rome. These councils (which really represented only the Western Church) met at the Lateran Basilica of Saint John, next to the papal palace, and were occasions for 50. Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, ed. Giuseppe Alberigo et al., 3rd ed., 2 vols. (Bologna: Istituto per le Scienze Religiose, 1973), 1: 230–31, 233–35, 241–44, 248, and 265–66.
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public displays of papal authority, as well as meetings designed to address the problems facing Western Christendom. The Lateran Councils of 1123, 1139, and 1179 were spectacular, but they were dwarfed in size and historic significance by Innocent III’s Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. From the beginning of his reign in 1198, Pope Innocent declared that his dual objectives were recovery of Jerusalem (which Islam had reconquered in 1187) and reform of the Church. To achieve those ends, Pope Innocent announced his intention to hold an ecumenical council. Toward the end of his eventful pontificate and after much preparation, his general council finally assembled on November 11, 1215, and concluded its business on November 30. With most of the work done ahead of time by lawyers and theologians, the council briefly debated and passed sixty-nine canons, or laws, aimed at regulating and reforming the Church. Additionally, it published a statement of faith as its initial decree and a detailed policy statement on measures to be taken for the recovery of the Holy Land. The following decrees suggest the scope of the council’s attempts to combat heresy, reform the Church, and impose its vision of right order on Western society. We begin with the council’s statement of faith.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the council’s statement of faith. Which contrary beliefs does it condemn? 2. How did the council attempt to deal with the problem of heresy? What do these measures suggest about the level of the problem as far as the Church was concerned? 3. By what right did the council involve secular authorities in its drive to root out heresy, and how could it justify its pronouncing as invalid the acts of secular officials who aided heretics? 4. How, if at all, were the council’s decrees concerning the clergy a response to the problem of heresy? 5. Consider canon 18. What might have been the consequences? 6. What was the Church’s policy toward non-Christians, and how did it relate to the other decrees of the council? 7. How, if at all, are these canons illustrative of the new spirituality alluded to in the chapter introduction?
1. Regarding the Catholic faith We firmly believe and straightforwardly confess that there is only One True God, eternal and immeasurable, omnipotent, unchangeable, incomprehensible, and undefinable, Father and Son and Holy Spirit, three persons indeed, but one essence, substance, or nature, wholly uncompounded. The Father [is] from no one; the Son, however, [is] from the Father alone; and the Holy Spirit [is] from both equally,51 51. Under the influence of the Carolingians and Ottonians, the Roman Church added Filioque (and from the Son) to the Nicene Creed’s statement that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.
[all three] eternally, without a beginning or an end…. The One Principle of all things, Creator of all things that are invisible and visible, spiritual and physical, Who, by His almighty power at the very beginning of time created out of nothing both types of creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, namely angelic and earthly, and then [created] the human, composed, as it were, of spirit and body in communion [with one another]. For the Devil and other demons were created by God as naturally good, but they The Eastern Churches consider this an unjustified addition to the infallible creed of faith that was canonized in the fourth century.
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became evil by their own actions. The human, in truth, sinned at the prompting of the Devil…. There is, in truth, one Universal Church of the faithful, outside of which no one is at all saved, in which Jesus Christ Himself [is] equally priest and sacrifice. His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread having been changed in substance by divine power into [His] body and the wine into [His] blood, so that, in order to attain the mystery of unity, we might receive of Him from Him what He Himself received of ours. And surely no one is able to perform this sacrament except for a priest who has been ordained in accordance with the keys of the Church that Jesus Christ Himself gave to the apostles and their successors.52 In truth, the sacrament of Baptism, which is consecrated in water with an invocation to the indivisible Trinity, namely to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, brings salvation to infants and adults alike when ritually performed by anyone in the form established by the Church.53 And anyone who falls into sin after the reception of Baptism can always be restored through true penitence. Not only virgins and the continent but also married people are pleasing to God by reason of [their] correct faith and good works so that they deserve to gain eternal blessedness….
3. Regarding heretics We excommunicate and anathematize54 every heresy that raises itself up against this holy, orthodox, and Catholic faith that we expounded above, condemning all heretics, 52. The Mass is a sacrifice, with Jesus acting as both sacrificing priest and the bloodless sacrifice. When the priest speaks the words “This is my body…this is my blood,” the substances, or essences, of the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Jesus, even though the external forms of bread and wine remain. This act, which is known as transubstantiation, was first officially articulated by the Roman Church in this credal statement of the Fourth Lateran Council. The mystery of unity refers to the consumption at Mass of the body and blood of Christ in the form of bread and wine. This completes the sacrifice, a sacrifice made possible by divine power and a human agent—the priest. “What He Himself received of ours” refers to both the belief that God the Son took on a human body that was subsequently sacrificed on the cross and the fact that the congregation of the faithful has offered the bread and wine for the Mass. 53. In the absence of an ordained cleric, any baptized and believing Christian may perform this sacrament, which is necessary for salvation. 54. Condemn, or curse, to perdition.
whatever the names they might be assigned. Indeed, they have different faces, but their tails are knotted together inasmuch as they are united in their falsity. By all means, those condemned are to be handed over to the reigning secular authorities, or to their officers, for corrective punishment. Clerics are first to be stripped of their orders. If they are lay people, all of the possessions of the condemned are to be confiscated;55 if, in fact, the condemned are clerics, their possessions are to be given to the churches from which the clerics received their stipends. They, however, who might have been found to be persons of interest solely on the basis of suspicion are to be struck down with the sword of excommunication, unless they demonstrate innocence by an appropriate purgation that is proportionate to the reasons for suspicion and the person’s own character.56 Such persons must be avoided by everyone until they have made appropriate satisfaction, so that, if they persist in the excommunication for a year, they are to be condemned from then onward as heretics. Secular authorities, in whatever offices they might be discharging duties, should be advised and urged and, should it be necessary, compelled by ecclesiastical censure that, if they wish to be reputed and counted as faithful, they take a public oath for the defense of the faith to the effect that they will strive in good faith, in accordance with their ability, to exterminate from the lands subject to their jurisdiction all heretics identified by the Church. Thus, whenever someone is promoted to spiritual or temporal authority, he shall be obliged to confirm this article with an oath. If, in fact, a temporal lord, who has been so directed and counseled by the Church, neglects to purge his territory of this heretical filth, he shall be shackled with the chain of excommunication by the metropolitan and other bishops of the province. If he refuses to give satisfaction within a year, this shall be reported to the supreme pontiff so that he might then declare his vassals freed from their fealty to him and make the land available for occupation by Catholics, who, upon having rid it of heretics, might possess it unopposed and preserve it in the purity of the faith, saving the right of the overlord and provided that he presents no obstacle on the matter and does not offer in opposition any sort of impediment. The same law is to be observed no less in regard to those who do not have overlords. 55. By the secular authorities. 56. Consider this “purgation” in light of canon 18 below.
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Catholics, in fact, who take up the emblem of the cross and gird themselves for the extermination of heretics shall enjoy that [same] indulgence and will be protected by the holy privilege that is granted to those who go to the aid of the Holy Land.57 In addition, we resolve to subject to excommunication believers who receive, defend, and support heretics. We firmly ordain that if any such person who has been designated as excommunicated afterward refuses to render satisfaction within a year, then according to the law itself, he shall be designated as infamous and not be admitted to public offices or councils or [be allowed] to elect others to the same or to give testimony. He shall be intestable. That is, he shall not have the freedom to make a will or to claim an inheritance. Moreover, nobody shall be compelled to answer to him on any business whatever, but he shall be compelled to answer to them. If it happens that he is a judge, his legal judgment shall have no force, and no cases of any sort may be brought before him for a hearing; if he is a lawyer, by no means may anyone be allowed to be defended by him. If a notary, documents drawn up by him shall be totally worthless and damned along with their damned author. And in similar matters we order the same to be observed. If, in fact, he is a cleric, he shall be deposed from every office and benefice, so that a greater guilt is followed by a heavier punishment. Persons, however, who refuse to avoid such people after they have been pointed out by the Church, shall be struck with the sentence of excommunication until they make suitable satisfaction. Certainly, clerics should not give the sacraments of the Church to such pestilent people nor may they give them a Christian burial nor accept alms or offerings from them, or else they shall be deprived of their office and not restored to it without a special indult from the Apostolic See.58 Likewise, any and all regulars shall also be punished for this by losing
57. By Innocent III’s day, the Church had developed a body of privileges that it accorded crusaders. Chief among them was the plenary indulgence, which remitted all penances due for sins that had been forgiven in the sacrament of confession or through other licit means. See source 84 for the origins of this crusade indulgence. Other privileges included placing the crusader and the crusader’s family and property under church protection. 58. A papal license that authorizes an action normally not allowed by canon law.
their privileges in the diocese in which they presume to commit such excesses.59 Because, indeed, there are some who, under the guise of piety but denying its power,…appropriate to themselves the authority to preach…, all those who have been forbidden or not sent who, without authority from the Apostolic See or the Catholic bishop of the locality, shall have presumed to usurp the office of preaching, either publicly or privately, shall be shackled with the bond of excommunication and, unless they turn around very quickly, they shall be punished by another suitable penalty. We further state that each and every archbishop and bishop, either in person or through his archdeacon or through suitable honest persons, should, twice or at least once a year, travel around [any] parish of his in which heretics are said to dwell. There he should oblige three or more men of good repute, or even if it seems expedient the whole neighborhood, to swear that if anyone knows of heretics there or of any others who attend secret conventicles60 or who differ in life and habits from the normal way of life of the faithful, then he should be sure to identify them out to the bishop. The bishop himself, moreover, should summon the accused persons to his presence. They should be punished canonically if they are unable to clear themselves of the charged sin or if, after procured absolution, they relapse into their former wickedness. If, indeed, there are any of them who, with damnable obstinacy, reject the sacredness of an oath and, as it happens, will not offer an oath, then, by this very fact, they shall be regarded as heretics. We, therefore, will and command and, in virtue of obedience, strictly command that bishops see carefully to the effective execution of these things throughout their dioceses if they wish to avoid canonical punishment. For if any bishop is negligent or remiss in cleansing his diocese of the ferment of depraved heresy, then when it becomes evident through unmistakable signs, he shall be deposed from his episcopal office, and another suitable person shall be put in his place, a person who wishes and is able to annihilate depraved heresy….
59. Monasteries and houses of other regular clerics enjoyed a wide variety of privileges and freedoms, often bestowed by papal license. They could include freedom from supervision by the local bishop. 60. Unlawful religious meetings that center on dissenting doctrines and practices.
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11. Regarding schoolmasters61 Because of poverty, some persons are denied a formal education and the opportunity for advancement. In the Lateran Council, therefore, a salutary ordinance was decreed that in each cathedral church there should be provided some suitable benefice for a master who should instruct without charge the clerics of that church and other poor scholars.62 In such a way the teacher’s needs would be satisfied, [and] the pathway to doctrinal learning would open up for students. Yet, because it is little observed in many churches, we confirm the aforementioned statute and add that not only in every cathedral church but also in other churches that have sufficient resources, a qualified master shall be chosen by the prelate, along with the chapter or the greater and wiser portion of the chapter, who will freely instruct the clerics of these and other churches in the study of grammar and in other studies, as far as is possible. Clearly, the metropolitan church should, nevertheless, have a theologian who can teach scripture to the priests and others and especially instruct them in matters that are as pertaining to the care of souls. Moreover, the income of one prebend shall be assigned by the chapter to each master, and as much shall be assigned by the metropolitan to the theologian. By this he does not become a canon, but as long as he continues to teach, he collects the income of one. If, perhaps, the metropolitan church is overburdened by providing for two masters, it should provide for a theologian in the aforesaid way but should, in fact, provide for a grammarian in another church of the city or diocese, which should suffice…. 14. Regarding the punishing of clerical incontinence In order that the morals and conduct of clerics might be reformed for the better, all of them should strive to live in a continent and chaste way, especially those in holy orders. They should especially guard against every vice that involves lust…so that they might have the strength to minister in the sight of Almighty God with a pure heart and an unsullied body. Indeed, lest the ease of forgiveness prove an incentive to sin, we decree that those who are caught giving into the vice of incontinence are 61. Compare this canon with King Charles’s letter to Abbot Baugulf (source 31) and King Alfred’s letter to Bishop Waerferth (source 39). 62. Canon 18 of the Third Lateran Council of 1179.
to be punished according to canonical sanctions, in proportion to how greatly or little they have sinned. We order that such sanctions to be effectively and strictly observed, so that they whom the fear of God does not hold back from evil may at least be restrained from sin by temporal punishment. Therefore, if anyone has been suspended for this reason and presumes to celebrate divine services, he shall not only be deprived of his ecclesiastical benefices but, in fact, shall also, on account of his twofold guilt, be deposed in perpetuity. Prelates, in fact, who dare to support such persons in their wickedness, especially if they do it for money or for some other temporal gain, are to be subject to like punishment. They, however, who have not renounced the marriage bond, following the custom of their region, shall be punished even more severely if they fall into sin because they may legitimately marry.63 15. Regarding the prevention of drunkenness among clergy All clerics must carefully abstain from intoxication and drunkenness, whereby they temper the wine to themselves and themselves to the wine. No one should be urged to drink because drunkenness leads to mental vacuity and stirs up a lustful urge. Accordingly, we decree that abuse of this sort is to be entirely eliminated whereby in some places drinkers pledge themselves, each in his way, to drink equal amounts, and in the judgment of such, that man is more praised who makes more people drunk and who drains cups that are fuller. Should anyone show himself culpable in these matters, he shall be suspended from his benefice or office unless, after being warned by his superior, he makes suitable satisfaction. We forbid all clerics to hunt game or engage in falconry, so let them not presume to have dogs [for hunting] or birds for fowling.
16. Regarding the dress of clerics Clerics should not hold secular offices or engage in secular businesses, especially those that are dishonorable. They should not watch mimes, entertainers, and actors and should avoid taverns altogether, unless it happens that 63. Certain regions under the rule of the Church of Rome— mainly southern Italy, Sicily, and the recently conquered Latin Empire of Constantinople—had priests who followed the Byzantine rite. Byzantine tradition allowed men studying for the priesthood to marry and then advance to the priesthood while remaining married.
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they are obliged [to do so] by necessity while on a journey. They should not play games of chance or dice or be present at such games. They should have a suitable crown and tonsure, and they must diligently apply themselves to the divine services and other moral pursuits. Their garments should be closed on top and be cut neither too short nor too long. They must not indulge in red or green clothes and also long sleeves or embroidered or pointed slippers or in bridles, saddles, pectoral ornaments,64 and spurs that are gilded or bear other superfluous ornamentation. They who are in the priesthood or hold a clerical office should not wear cloaks with sleeves at divine service in a church, or even elsewhere, unless a justifiable fear requires a change of dress. They are not at all to wear buckles or belts ornamented with gold or silver, or even rings except for those whose dignity of office makes it appropriate.65 All bishops, however, should wear outer garments of linen in public and in church, unless they have been monks, in which case they should wear the monastic habit; and they should not wear their mantles loosely in public but rather fastened behind the neck or across the chest.66… 18. Regarding forbidding clerics [to participate] in a judicial case involving blood and in a duel No cleric may publish or pronounce a sentence [involving the shedding] of blood or carry out a punishment involving [the shedding of ] blood or be present when it is carried out.… No cleric whatsoever may compose or dictate a letter that requires punishments [involving the shedding] of blood. Therefore, in the courts of princes this duty must be entrusted to laymen not to clerics. Moreover, no cleric may be placed in charge of mercenaries, crossbowmen, or similar “men of blood.” No subdeacon, deacon, or priest may practice the art of surgery, which encompasses cauterizing [wounds] and making incisions, nor may anyone of them perform any sort of rite of blessing or consecration on a purgation by the ordeal of boiling or cold water or of red-hot iron. The previously promulgated prohibitions regarding single combat and duels remain in force.67… 64. For the horse. 65. Bishops and other high-ranking clerics wore signet rings as tokens of their office. 66. The episcopal mantle is a long cape worn on ceremonial occasions but not while celebrating divine services. 67. The Second and Third Lateran Councils, respectively, had forbidden combat tournaments and decreed that knights who
27. Regarding the instruction of those to be ordained Inasmuch as the guidance of souls is the art of arts, we strictly command bishops to carefully prepare those who are to be promoted to the priesthood and to instruct them, either personally themselves or through other suitable men, in the divine services and ecclesiastical sacraments, so that they might be able to celebrate them correctly. Whereas, if they presume henceforth to ordain the ignorant and ill-prepared, which can indeed easily be detected, we decree that both the ordainers and the ordained are to be subject to severe punishment. For it is vastly preferable, especially in the ordination of priests, to have a few good ministers than many bad ones, for if a blind man leads another blind man, both will fall into a pit…. 66. Regarding the same68 with respect to the greed of clerics It has come to the attention of the Apostolic See through frequent reports that certain clerics demand and extort payment for funeral rites for the dead, blessings on those marrying, and the like. And if it happens that their greed is not satisfied, they deceitfully set up false impediments. On the other hand, under the pretext of pious scruple, some lay people, stirred up by the ferment of heretical depravity, strive to destroy a praiseworthy custom of Holy Church, introduced by the pious devotion of the faithful.69 For this reason, we forbid wicked exactions to be made in these matters, and we direct that pious customs to be observed, ordaining that ecclesiastical sacraments are to be conferred freely but that those who maliciously strive to change a praiseworthy custom are to be restrained, when the truth is known, by the bishop of the place…. 68. That Jews should be distinguished from Christians in their dress In some provinces a difference of dress distinguishes Jews or Saracens from Christians, but in others a certain confusion has so developed that no difference is discernible. Because of this it occasionally happens that by mistake Christians join with Jewish or Saracen women, and Jews died in them were to be allowed the sacraments but denied a church burial. 68. The previous three canons condemned other forms of simony. 69. The offering of a gratuity to a cleric for services performed or to a church as an act of veneration. The Waldensians, among others, claimed such gifts were contrary to Holy Scripture.
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or Saracens with Christian women. In order that such aberrations of damnable mixing might no longer have the refuge of an excuse as a pretext for an error of this kind, we decree that such persons of either sex, in every Christian province and at all times, are to be distinguished in public from other people by the type of their dress—inasmuch as this was even enjoined upon them by Moses himself, as we read.70 Moreover, they shall appear in public as little as possible in public on the days of lamentation and on Passion Sunday71 because some of them on such days, as we have heard, do
not blush to parade about in ornate attire and are not afraid to mock Christians who are performing a commemoration of the most Sacred Passion and displaying signs of grief. What we most strictly forbid, however, is that they dare in any way to burst out in derision of the Redeemer. And because we must not ignore an insult to Him Who blotted out our disgraceful deeds, we order that those who presume such things be restrained by secular princes through the addition of a suitable punishment, lest they dare to blaspheme in any way Him Who was crucified for us.
70. Leviticus, 19:19; Deuteronomy, 22:5, 22:11. 71. Passion Sunday, the fifth Sunday of Lent, began the period known as Passiontide, a time of lamentation leading up to
commemoration of the passion (suffering) and death of Jesus on Good Friday.
The Inquisitorial Process 53. Pseudo-David of Augsburg, ON THE INQUISITION OF HERETICS 72 Canon 3 of the Fourth Lateran Council required archbishops and bishops to inquire into the possible existence of heresy in their provinces and dioceses and further required local lords to lend them full assistance in defending the faith. The efficacy of such local efforts varied widely and generally proved less than satisfactory. The next logical step was to set up a body of inquisitors, who were responsible directly to the Roman papacy and charged with seeking and rooting out heresy. The seminal act in the evolution of what became known in popular lore as the Inquisition took place in 1231, when Pope Gregory IX commissioned the Dominican prior of Regensburg in Germany as a papal judge and ordered him to travel about as he deemed necessary, seeking out heretics wherever he could find them. Gregory also invested this judge with the authority to commission other Dominicans to assist him. Use of the mendicant friars in the work of itinerant inquisition was a masterstroke. They were unattached to local dioceses and owed their loyalty exclusively to the papacy and their respective orders. Moreover, they had reputations as superior preachers and, at least initially, were widely respected for their piety and religious zeal. During the late thirteenth century, the Inquisition took shape as the Church’s most effective weapon against heresy. Modern myth to the contrary, however, the medieval Inquisition was not an organized department of papal government that reached into every corner of Europe, and it was not directed from a central office in Rome. Throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it was no more than a set of disconnected inquisitions commissioned by various popes and bishops who increasingly used the willing services of Dominican and Franciscan inquisitors. Notwithstanding the Inquisition’s lack of centralized organization, inquisitorial practices were remarkably consistent across Europe by 1300.
72. De inquisitione haereticorum in “Der Tractat des David von Augsburg über die Waldesier,” ed. Wilhelm Preger, Abhandlungen der historischen Classe der königlich bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, XIV (1879), 2 Bd., 204–35, at 227–32.
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During the last half of the thirteenth century, an inquisitor’s handbook, entitled On the Inquisition of Heretics, appeared and subsequently was widely circulated. At the head of the work we read “Here begins the tract by Brother David regarding the inquisition of heretics.” Until recently, it was thought that these words referred to the German Franciscan David of Augsburg (d. 1272), a noted preacher and mystic. Today, consensus is that Brother David was not David of Augsburg, and judging from the tract’s style, it is likely that the author, now known as Pseudo-David of Augsburg, was a Dominican not a Franciscan. Whoever the author was, his treatise focuses on his experiences as an inquisitor into the beliefs and practices of Waldensian Christians in Germany, and in that work he describes some of the difficulties that inquisitors faced when interrogating suspected heretics. Apparently, the problems and procedures that Pseudo-David described remained constant into the fourteenth century. In 1323 or 1324, the Dominican friar Bernard Gui, an inquisitor who worked in the region of southern France known as Toulouse, produced the Inquisitor’s Manual, which describes in great detail the methods of inquisition that had evolved over the past century. In his book, Gui reproduced the dialogue that follows. This dialogue, which apparently was consistent with Gui’s own wide experiences, illustrates an encounter between a trained inquisitor and someone accused of Waldensian beliefs.
Questions for Consideration 1. What evidence is there that the accused has been coached or has prepared for this confrontation? 2. What gives him away as a Waldensian? 3. What does being “handed over to the judgment of secular authority” entail? 4. The person before the inquisitor clearly wants to preserve both his conscience and his life. What do you think his chances are of escaping with both? On what do you base that conclusion? 5. Many (certainly not all) historians have concluded that most inquisitors were conscientious and saw themselves as having two immediate objectives in any examination of a suspected heretic: to extract a humble confession from the sinner and to lead that person to seek mercy and forgiveness. To achieve such ends, the subtlest and the crudest methods of interrogation were equally used. Please evaluate the worth of that analysis in light of the evidence presented in the source. Do you agree or disagree with these historians?
Regarding the Method for Detecting Heretics This is their manner of behavior. When anyone of them is first brought up as a prisoner for examination, he arrives almost confident and cheerful, almost as though he has no knowledge of evil and is unconcerned. I ask him why he has been brought before me. He emphatically replies calmly and with a smile: “My Lord, I would be glad to learn the cause from you.” I say: “You are accused of being a heretic and that you believe and teach other than what the Holy Church believes.” He responds with great self-confidence, raising his eyes to heaven: “My Lord, you know that I am innocent of this and that I never held any faith other than that of the true Christian faith.” I say: “You
call your faith Christian because you consider our faith to be false and heretical. But I earnestly ask whether you have ever proclaimed or believed as true a faith other than that which the Roman Church and its people believe to be the true faith?” He responds: “I hold as faith the true faith that the Church believes.” I say: “You believe the confederates of your error to be the Holy Church, and you believe its faith.” He responds: “I believe the true faith to be what the Roman Church believes and that you yourself openly preach to us.” I say: “Perhaps you have some of your sect at Rome, and you call them the Roman Church. I, also when I preach, say many things and speak of some matters on which we also seem to agree, such as there is one God. So also, you believe in some of the
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things that I preach. Nevertheless you might be a heretic if you do not believe other matters that likewise must be believed.” He responds, “I believe all things that a Christian should believe.” I say: “I know your tricks. As I said earlier, you judge what a Christian should believe to be what the members of your sect believe. But given that it would be tedious to argue over sophistries, simply state whether you believe in one God,—the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit.” He promptly responds: “I believe.” “Do you believe in Christ born of the Virgin, Who suffered, arose, and ascended to Heaven?” He quickly responds: “I believe.” “Do you believe that bread and wine, when celebrated in the Mass by priests, is changed into the body and blood of Christ by divine power?” He responds, “Ought I not to believe this?” I say: “I do not say or ask if you ought to believe, but if you believe.” He responds: “I believe whatever you and other good doctors tell me to believe.” I say: “Those good doctors, in whom you wish to believe, are the masters of your sect; if I agree with them, then you believe along with me; otherwise, not.” He responds: “I also willingly believe along with you if what you teach me is good for me.” I say: “You consider it good for you if I teach you what your other masters teach. Therefore, I say, do you believe that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ is on the altar?” He responds promptly: “I believe, and I say that a body is there, and that all bodies are of our Lord.” “I ask, however, whether the body there is of the Lord, a body that was born of the Virgin, hung on the cross, arose from the dead, ascended, etc.?” He responds: “And you, My Lord, do you not believe it?” I say: “Indeed, I believe it all.” He responds: “And I believe likewise.” I say: “You believe that I so believe it. That is not what I ask. I ask, rather, whether you yourself believe it.” He responds: “If you wish to interpret otherwise all that I say, which I offer plainly and simply, then I don’t know how to respond. I am a simple and uneducated man. Don’t catch me up in my words.” I say in reply: “If you are simple, answer and act simply without verbal obfuscation.” He responds: “Willingly.” I say: “Are you willing to swear that you have never proclaimed anything contrary to the faith that we believe to be true?” A little alarmed, he responds: “If I ought to swear, I will willingly swear.” I say: “I do not ask whether you ought to, but whether you wish to swear.” He responds: “If you order me to swear, I will swear.” I say: “I do not force you to swear because, inasmuch as you believe every oath to be illicit, you wish to transfer the guilt to me, who forced you; but if you will
swear, I will hear it.” He responds: “Why should I swear if you do not order me to?” I say: “So that you might relieve me of my suspicion and so that I do not think you to be a heretic.” He responds: “So, how should I say the oath?” I say: “Swear in the manner that you know.” He responds: “My Lord, I do not know how unless you teach me.” I say: “If I had to swear, then, as is normal, with my hand raised and fingers spread wide, I would say, ‘So help me God, I have never spread about heresy nor have I believed what is contrary to the true faith.’ ” Then trembling, as if he does not know how to form the very words, he will stumble over them as if either he or another were interjecting something else, so that there is no straightforward form of an oath; rather, this type of speaking is not a confirmation by oath, and yet the purpose is that he might be thought by others to have taken an oath. If, however, he has strung the words together, then he aims to turn the words around so that he swears nothing with them, with the purpose of deceiving bystanders and being thought to have delivered an oath. Or he converts the oath’s formula into the form of prayer, as “God help me that I am not a heretic,” or the like, or he will think that by so turning around the words of the oath, he has not rendered an oath. When, however, asked whether he had sworn, he will respond: “Did you not hear me swear?” I have also heard all of these questions and the responses from people who afterward were convicted as heretics, so that one should know that they are accustomed to take such paths while being examined. When, however, they have been checked by the questions, they either fretfully deliberate how they might respond in a cunning fashion, not directly, when they fear discovery, or they respond to something other than the main question, and are pleased that the inquisition has been interrupted by the interjection of something else so that they might respond to that, or they say that they are simple people and do not know how to respond wisely.… Moreover, they say: “My Lord, if I have transgressed in any way, I will willingly bear the penance, just help me to be freed from that infamy of which I am accused through envy and without fault of mine.” But a vigorous inquisitor must not be moved by such fawning or believe their hypocrisies but proceed firmly so that he either makes them confess their error or, at least, publicly abjure heresy, so that if they are subsequently found to have sworn falsely, as condemned persons so to speak,
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they will, without a hearing, be totally handed over to the judgment of secular authority. If, however, one consents to swear that he is not a heretic, I say to him: “If you wish to swear so as to escape the fire, one oath will not suffice for me, or two, or ten, or a hundred thousand because you dispense each other for a certain number of oaths taken under necessity, but I will require numberless oaths. Moreover, if to this
point I have, as I presume, adverse witnesses against you, all of your oaths will not prevent your being burned alive. You will have stained your conscience by swearing against it, and in the end you will not avoid the sentence of death. But if, however, you will simply confess your error, you can find mercy.” In the face of such fear, I have seen some confess their errors in order to escape [punishment].
Chapter 8
The Other Orders of Society Around the year 1000, Bishop Adalbero of Laon composed a poem addressed to King Robert II of France, in which he praised God’s triple but unified and undivided house, a Trinitarian metaphor for a Christian society composed of three classes: they who pray, they who fight, and they who labor. According to Adalbero, each class supports the other two. The bishop then plaintively noted that whereas the world had been at peace as long as that system prevailed, now laws had grown weaker, and peace had vanished. The morals of people had changed, as had society. Adalbero’s lament over the apparent breakdown of morality and social order Illus. 8.1 A commoner’s shoe from Amsterdam dating to around 1300, preserved was one way of interpreting what was tak- in the silt of the Amstel River. Amsterdam Museum. ing place in early eleventh-century Europe, as towns and cities were beginning to become important driving forces for economic and social change. In the process, a new class emerged—the bourgeoisie, or urban dwellers. We might wonder how many of the former peasants and younger sons of the ecclesiastical and military classes who took up residence in towns to pursue lives as artisans and merchants would have agreed with Adalbero’s assessment. In the previous chapter, we looked at those who prayed. In this chapter, we will consider Adalbero’s two other orders and two that he did not mention. First, we will examine the backbone of all premodern societies—the peasantry. Then, we will look at those who fought—Europe’s warrior class. Next, we will consider those who lived in urban environments, Europe’s new and often disturbing class or, more correctly, classes—the bourgeoisie. Finally, we will look at an element that largely lived within urban walls but stood partially apart from its Christian neighbors—Jewish communities.
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Illus. 8.2 The Labors of October, Fontana Maggiore (the Greater Fountain), Perugia, Italy. Completed in 1278, the fountain has three tiers of sculptures executed by the father and son duo Nicola and Giovanni Pisani, arguably the greatest sculptors of their day in Europe, who combined French Gothic and ancient Roman styles in their work. The lowest tier contains reliefs depicting the manual labors of the year. On the left, a farmer pours must (raw grape juice) into a barrel, an early step in winemaking. On the right, the barrel is sealed.
They Who Work the Land According to Adalbero, the peasantry was an unfortunate class that possessed nothing without suffering. This observation probably was correct in his day, as far as the vast majority of peasants, particularly the unfree, were concerned. As the three sources in this section suggest, however, such a sweeping generalization fails to take into account the wide variety of status, possessions, privileges, and opportunities that separated various peasants from one another.
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Eleventh-Century Peasant Rights and Duties in the Rhineland 54. Burchard of Worms, THE LAW OF THE FAMILY OF THE CHURCH OF WORMS 1 Around 1024/25, Burchard, bishop of Worms and an eminent canon lawyer, issued a law code consisting of thirty-two articles for all of his lay dependents—free and unfree, urban and rural. Worms, located on the banks of the Rhine River, was one of the empire’s important administrative centers, and its bishop wielded considerable secular as well as ecclesiastical power. As bishop, Burchard was the greatest landholder in the region, possessing a considerable number of rural estates and a fair portion of the real estate within the city walls. He let out some of his rural holdings as fiefs to vassals, who owed him regular knight service and dues but governed their fiefs free of Burchard’s supervision. Peasants who were dependent directly upon Burchard and cultivated the rest of his countryside properties were supervised by the bishop’s agents. To Burchard’s mind, all of “his people” were members of the family of Saint Peter, the patron saint of Worms, and in this code, the bishop set out a system of norms and sanctions for his extended family. Although the code contains some provisions that clearly relate only to urban members of the family of Saint Peter, most of the laws, at least in part, deal with peasants who tilled the soils of Saint Peter’s estates. This code predates by a quarter century the period 1050–1300, and many of its statutes were not new but well-established customs that Bishop Burchard saw fit to set down in writing. At the same time, Burchard was not hesitant to make new law. Whatever the case, the code reflects many of the conditions and trends of rural life that continued in much of northern Europe well past 1050.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the prologue and articles 30 and 32, which offer interesting glimpses into some of the realities surrounding the family of Saint Peter in Bishop Burchard’s day. What inferences do you draw from this evidence? 2. Several laws provide insights into the status of female peasants in the family of Saint Peter. What picture emerges? 3. Article 10 deals with serfs inheriting land. Why does the son inherit all land that carries with it servile obligations? Consider article 14 in light of your answer. What do you conclude? 4. The code provides evidence of the differences in status, fortune, and opportunity that separated the servile members of the family of Saint Peter. What were those differences, and what inferences do you draw from your answer? 5. What forces were at work that tended to reduce serfs to the lowest class? What counterforces were at work that allowed for upward mobility? 6. What do these laws allow us to infer about eleventh-century legal principles and procedures in the Rhineland? 7. What overall picture of life on the estates of Saint Peter emerges from this document?
1. “Lex familiae Wormatiensis,” in Quellen zur deutschen Verfassungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, ed. Lorenz Weinrich (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977), 90–104, passim.
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In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity, I, Burchard bishop of the Church of Worms, because of the unremitting cries of the wretched and the repeated schemes of many people who have been ripping apart like dogs the family of Saint Peter, imposing different laws upon them and oppressing the weaker among them by their judicial decisions, with the advice of the clergy and knights and the whole family, I have ordered these laws to be written down so that no advocate whatsoever or vidame2 or ministerialis3 or any other chattering person among them might be able to add anything new on the aforementioned family. Rather, let it be made clear before the eyes of all that there is one and the same law, common to rich and poor. 1. If anyone of the family of Saint Peter has legally married his spouse, whatever he has given as a dowry4 and if she holds it for a year and a day without [anyone’s] protest, if the man should die first, the wife shall have the entire dowry to the end of her life. If, however, she dies without children, the closest heirs of her husband shall receive the dowry. It is the same if the wife dies first. And whatever they have acquired together, if one of them outlives the other, that person shall have possession of it all and may thereafter do whatever he or she wishes [with it]. Whatever the woman brought with her to the marriage, when both are dead, if they have had children, the children shall come into possession of the mother’s inheritance. If, however, they have not had children, unless her bequest prohibits it, her entire possessions shall go to the woman’s relatives after her death. And if they have had children together and the mother dies first, and the children die, whatever they have inherited from their mother shall return as inheritance to the mother’s relatives…. 3. If anyone on our domain who has an inheritance dies, the heir shall receive the inheritance without [giving] a gift5 and thereafter he shall provide the service owed [for it].
4. If anyone of the family dies, the nearest heirs shall inherit whatever he left behind that was not dowry, unless a bequest prohibits it. 5. If anyone with the consent of his wife [and] with a proper witness hands over goods given as dowry or goods of any other sort, this [transaction] shall be upheld, unless other considerations prohibit it…. 7. Let this be the law of the family: if anyone, by the judgment of his peers, should come into the hands of the bishop for some crime, he shall be condemned by the bishop along with his possessions…. 9. Let this be the law of the family: that for the wergeld of a fisgilinus6 five pounds [of silver] will be paid to the treasury [of the bishop], and two and a half pounds go to his kin. 10. Let this be the law: if in the family some man and his wife die and leave behind a son along with a daughter, the son shall inherit the land on which service is owed; the daughter, however, shall inherit the mother’s clothes and the money she has earned. The rest that remains they shall divide totally and equally between themselves…. 13. And this is established: that if any person of the family who is a fisgilinus unjustly conducts any affair, great or small, in accordance with the bishop’s public authority, he shall pay as bail five solidi, as if he were a dagowardus,7 and he shall pay five solidi to him to whom the injury was done, if he is of the same status. And if he is outside of his class, he shall pay as bail one-twelfth of a pound of gold, and he offers no oath.8 14. If anyone should marry out of the bishop’s household into the fief of one of the bishop’s vassals, the person answers to the law of the bishop’s household; if, however, he should marry from a fief into the bishop’s household, he answers to the law of the lord of the fief. 15. If anyone of the family accepts a wife from outside, it is right that, when he dies, two-thirds of his goods are taken into the bishop’s possession.
2. A high-ranking cleric who served as the bishop’s deputy and administered the church’s possessions. 3. A privileged layman, normally at this time a serf, who was a trusted administrative agent. 4. Following Germanic tradition, the husband, not the wife, brought a dowry to the marriage. 5. Known as oblations, such “gifts” were often demanded of serfs in order for them to inherit a parent’s possessions and the right to work the parent’s portion of the lord’s land.
6. A fisgilinus (feminine fisgilina), or fiscalinus ( fiscalina), was a serf who resided on the bishop’s domain (also known as a fisc) and was directly dependent on the bishop. Consult source 11, note 63, and the Glossary for an explanation of wergeld. 7. A serf who was subject to unlimited labor service. 8. A pound of gold was divided into twelve ounces; the oath that was not necessary was his swearing that he was innocent. Here and elsewhere in the code, Burchard shows a desire to eliminate occasions for perjury.
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16. Let this be the law: if a fisgilinus man marries a dagowarda, the children who are born from that union shall live in accordance with the lower status; likewise, if a dagowardus marries a fisgilina woman…. 22. If anyone wishes to deprive a fisgilinus man of his rights, that is [reduce him] to a dagowardus or [impose] an unjust tax [on him], the fisgilinus man shall gain the rights that are his by birth by producing seven of his relatives who have not been paid.9 If he has been accused in regard to the father’s side, he must bring forth two of his relatives [as witnesses] from that side and a third from his mother’s, likewise [if he has been accused] regarding the mother’s side, unless he is able to be vindicated by the judgment of a city official or the testimony of relatives…. 29. Let this be the law: if the bishop should wish to take a fisgilinus into his service, he may place on him no service other than that of chamberlain, or wine-steward, or steward, or stable master, or ministerialis.10 And if he does not wish to do such service for the bishop, he shall pay four denarii on the occasion [of the bishop’s] service to the king, six on the occasion of an expedition, and when [the bishop] must attend the three annual court assemblies.11 And [then] he may serve whomever he wishes. 30. Homicides have taken place almost daily within the family of Saint Peter, often for no reason or on account of drunkenness or pride; in the manner of a wild beast one person raged against another as if insane with the result that in the course of one year thirty-five innocent serfs of Saint Peter belonging to that same church were killed. And their murderers rejoiced and appeared more glorified thereafter than at all repentant. On account of this enormous injury to our church, with the advice of our vassals, we have decreed that this rectification be 9. Whom he has not bribed to swear to his status as a fisgilinus. 10. Consult the Glossary at Chamberlain and note 3 above. The steward was in charge of the kitchen staff and all food but not drink, which was the responsibility of the wine steward. The stable master was responsible for the horses and transportation. 11. “Service to the king” meant assembling and sending troops when summoned; “expedition” refers to long-distance expeditions; the three annual court assemblies were the ceremonial and legal-administrative occasions at set times in the year when the king required the presence of his vassals-in-chief at his court to render him advice and service.
implemented. If anyone from the family should kill his fellow member needlessly, that is without a necessary cause such as he wished to kill him, or he was a brigand and he was defending himself and his goods, and without the aforementioned reasons, we decree that he shall be stripped of skin and hair12 and be branded on each jaw with an iron made for this purpose, and shall pay the wergeld and make peace with the relatives of the murdered man in the usual manner, and the relatives shall be compelled to accept this [peace]. If, however, the relatives of the slain person wish to take revenge on the relatives of the murderer, if anyone of these relatives is able, by an oath, to clear himself of advising and abetting [the murder], he may have a true and perpetual peace from the relatives of the slain person. If, however, the relatives of the murdered person desire to reject this law and devise plots against the above-mentioned persons but they come to nothing so that no one is harmed, they shall lose [their] skin and hair [but] without branding. If, however, they kill or wound any of them in an act of violence, they shall lose [their] skin and hair and suffer the above-mentioned branding. If, however, the murderer flees and cannot be captured, whatever he owns will be confiscated by the fisc13 and his relatives, if innocent, shall have a true peace. If, however, the killer does not flee but wishes to defend his innocence through a duel with a relative of the slain person and wins, he shall pay the wergeld and shall make peace with the relatives. If, however, none of the relatives of the slain person wishes to fight the murderer, he shall clear himself before the bishop by boiling water14 and shall pay the wergeld and shall make peace with the relatives, and they shall be compelled to accept it. If, however, through fear of this law, they go to another family and stir them up against their own family members, and if there is no one who dares to fight a duel against any of them, they shall each clear themselves before the bishop by boiling water, and if someone fails [the ordeal] he shall suffer those [penalties] that are set down in writing above. If anyone of the family kills someone else of the family in the city without 12. They are scourged (stripped of skin) and then their heads are shaved as an act of humiliation. 13. The bishop’s treasury. See note 6. 14. The ordeal of boiling water, which is described in source 11, note 59.
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the aforementioned exculpatory conditions, he shall lose skin and hair and suffer branding in the manner written above and must pay the fine and hand over wergeld and make peace with the relatives, and they shall be obligated to accept it. If, however, anyone from an outside family works the land of Saint Peter and dares to do so, that is, if he kills anyone of our family without the exculpatory conditions already set down in writing above, he shall either suffer those [penalties] mentioned above or lose the land that he holds from us and be liable to reprisals from the family [of Saint Peter] and its advocate. If, however, our servant who is in our court or our ministerialis dares to do such things, we desire that the issue regarding how such presumption might be punished be subject to our judgment and the advice of our vassals…. 32. If anyone of the family commits theft and it was not due to necessity driven by hunger but out of avarice and greed and out of habit, if what was stolen can be appraised at five solidi and it can be demonstrated that, either in the public market or in the assembly of the citizens [of the city], the miscreant pledged security for the
said theft,15 we decree, for the punishment of evil-doers, that he lose the legal status that he was born with because of the theft, and if he is accused by anyone of anything, he may not clear himself by an oath but by either a duel or boiling water or red-hot iron.16 It shall likewise be done for one who has been caught in public perjury. Likewise for him who has been caught giving false testimony. Likewise for him who loses a duel over the crime of theft. Likewise for him who has plotted with enemies against his lord, namely the bishop, or against the bishop’s honor17 or well-being. 15. Apparently made public recompense to the person who was robbed. 16. It appears that this would be for a second offense. Normally, free persons could clear themselves of a charge by means of a sacred oath or, if it were a serious felony, with the aid of oath-helpers. The ordeal of the red-hot iron involved picking up a hot iron, having the wound bound and blessed and later examined. If it was healing properly, one was innocent. 17. The bishop’s lands.
Twelfth-Century Peasant Colonists beyond the Elbe 55. Frederick of Hamburg-Bremen, CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES18 Adémar of Chabannes wrote of disgruntled peasants who left the lands of Gerald of Aurillac and struck out for greener pastures, without Gerald’s hindering them. Such lordly benevolence was rare in any century, but from the age of Charlemagne onward, German lords intermittently encouraged peasant colonists to immigrate to the lands east of the Elbe River. In Charles the Great’s day, the Elbe was the boundary separating Christian Germans from pagan Slavs, and Charlemagne and his successors sought to change that by making war and creating settlements in the east. The process was slow and suffered many setbacks. In 1066 and again in 1072, for example, Slavs attacked and virtually destroyed the port city of Hamburg on the lower, or northern, reaches of the Elbe. Despite such disasters, the work of colonizing, converting, and Germanizing the region between the Elbe and Oder Rivers and beyond continued on well into the High Middle Ages. In 1106, Frederick, archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, authorized establishment of a colony of peasant settlers in lands that lay directly east of his archdiocese, and in the charter that appears here, he prescribed the terms that bound the colonists. The document is typical of the increasingly frequent charters of privileges that were aimed at attracting farmers into former wastelands in Western Europe and the frontier lands of central and eastern Europe. 18. Document 80, “Kolonistenrecht 1106,” in Quellen zur deutschen Verfassungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte, ed. Lorenz Weinrich (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977), 161–62.
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Questions for Consideration 1. What privileges did Archbishop Frederick grant these settlers? 2. How has he bound the settlers to him? Conversely, what freedoms has he granted them? 3. How were these peasants governed compared with those from the family of Saint Peter of Worms? What significant differences do you find? 4. Based on your answers to the first three questions, what do you infer was the legal status of these farmers? Were they serfs, or were they free? 5. Why was Bishop Frederick willing to grant such privileges to the colonists? 6. Compare these colonists with the peasants described in the code of laws issued by Burchard of Worms. What picture emerges of possible avenues of upward mobility open to European farmers during the High Middle Ages?
1. In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Frederick, by the grace of God bishop of Hamburg,19 to all the living and future faithful in Christ, a perpetual benediction. We wish to make known to all a certain agreement that certain people living on this side of the Rhine, who are called Hollanders,20 have made with us. 2. These aforesaid men came together at our court and earnestly petitioned that we grant them for cultivation certain land that lies within in our bishopric that is to this point uncultivated, swampy, and useless to our people. Consequently, we consulted our vassals about this petition and, considering that this would be profitable to us and to our successors, have granted their petition, there being no reason to refuse it. 3. The agreement in regard to this petition was such that they should pay us every year one denarius for each homestead on the aforesaid land. We have determined that it is necessary that the dimensions of a homestead be written down here, lest the people argue over it in the future. A homestead shall be seven hundred and twenty rods long and thirty rods wide.21 In like manner, we grant them the streams that flow through the land. 19. Actually, he was archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, an archdiocese created in the ninth century by combining the cities of Hamburg and Bremen, even though they were separated by more than seventy-five miles. 20. The eastern side of the Rhine. These Hollanders came from the region known today as the Netherlands. 21. This would make each homestead about thirteen and a half acres.
4. They also agreed to pay the tithe according to our decree, that is, every eleventh sheaf from the fruits of the earth, every tenth lamb, likewise for pigs, likewise for goats, likewise for geese, also a tenth of honey and a like measure of flax. For every trained colt they shall pay a denarius on the feast of Saint Martin,22 and for every calf an obol.23 5. They promised to obey us always in all matters relating to ecclesiastical justice according to the decrees of the holy fathers, canon law, and the practices of the Church of Utrecht.24 6. In order to settle all differences among themselves in regard to secular law and contracts, they agreed to pay every year two marks for every one hundred homesteads, lest they suffer the prejudice of foreigners. If they cannot settle the more important judicial and contractual cases they shall refer them to the bishop’s court. And if they bring the bishop with them for the purpose of deciding a case, they shall provide for him as long as he remains there, in this manner, by granting him one-third of the fees arising from the trial; and they shall keep the other two-thirds. 7. We have granted permission to found churches in the aforesaid land wherever it might seem to them appropriate. Clearly for the support of the priests who shall serve 22. November 11. 23. A half denarius. 24. The Hollanders’ home diocese, about 175 miles southwest of Bremen and subject to the archdiocese of Cologne on the Rhine.
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God there in these churches we grant a tenth of our tithes from these parish churches. Notwithstanding, they agreed that the parishioners of each of these churches should endow their church with a homestead for the aforesaid support of their priest. 8. The names of the men who came to us in order to make and confirm this agreement assembled with us are: Henry, the priest, to whom we have granted the aforesaid churches for life; and the others are laymen, Helikin, Arnold, Hiko, Fordolt, and Referic. To them and to their heirs after them we now grant the often-mentioned land according to the secular laws and the aforementioned agreement.
9. This agreement was affirmed in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1106, in the sixth year of the indiction of the reign of Henry IV, august emperor of the Romans.25 [There follow the names and seals of sixteen clerical and lay witnesses.]
25. Henry IV ruled from 1056 to his forced abdication in December 1105 in favor of his son Henry V. An indiction was a fifteen-year fiscal period that Emperor Constantine I had instituted. The year 1106 was the sixth year of Henry’s fourth indiction, namely the fiftieth year of his reign. Archbishop Frederick either did not know of the abdication or chose not to recognize the legitimacy of Henry V’s coup. Henry IV died in August 1106.
Thirteenth-Century Land Leases in Italy 56. TWO PADUAN LAND CONTRACTS 26 Increasingly from the twelfth century onward, urban residents in central and northern Italy leased out land they owned both in the nearby countryside and even within urban walls to farmers who contracted to work it in return for a set rent. When the rent was primarily a portion of the annual produce, the lease arrangement was known as mezzadria, and the sharecropper was called a mezzadrio (pl. mezzadri). The term means “halving,” but the portion given could be any percentage of the total produce. There was nothing uniquely Italian about this system. Similar arrangements existed in France, the Rhineland, and England, but with the rapid growth and proliferation of Italian urban centers, the residents of these towns and cities more often than not looked for tenant farmers to work family lands that they themselves could not or did not wish to cultivate. The mezzadria was not the only form of land lease employed in Italy and elsewhere. Whereas the mezzadria was normally a short-term lease, long-term leases in which sharecropping was not a part of the contract became progressively popular. Whatever the arrangement, the parties involved went to the local notary who drew up a formal contract. Notaries were trained professionals who performed a service that was essential for the proper functioning of urban life. Consequently, they were easy enough to find in Italy, and probably every town and city had one or more. The two contracts that appear here were included in a notarial formulary that was put together 1223 in Padua, a prosperous, independent city, or commune, not far from Venice in northeast Italy. A formulary is a collection of formulaic documents that serve as models for persons seeking to draw up similar items. Italian notarial documents are noted for their convoluted texts and inclusion of technical terms. This made counterfeiting all the more difficult, if not impossible, and lent legalistic precision to a contract, deed, or testament.
26. Melchiorre Roberti, ed., “Un formulario inedito di notaio padovano del 1223,” Memorie del Reale Istituto veneto di scienze, lettere ed arti 27, no. 6 (1906): 1–104, at 69–70, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1. c2631113;view=1up;seq=445 (accessed January 25, 2018).
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Questions for Consideration 1. Consider Albertino who is a party in the first contract. What do you infer about his socioeconomic status? 2. What about Albertino in the second document? What does the evidence allow you to infer about him? 3. How does the status of each Albertino compare with that of the peasants of the family of Saint Peter? With that of the Hollander colonists? What conclusions follow from your comparative analysis? 4. How would you characterize the differences between the two leases, and how do you explain those differences?
A Charter for a Lease or for the Renewing a Contract Dom John, prior by the grace of God of the Monastery of Saint Cyprian, with the consent and approval of his brothers here present, namely Dom Valentino and Dom Peter and others, for one hundred Venetian lire of denarii,27 which is the agreed-upon and contracted price and which he has acknowledged that he received from Albertino de Luciano in the name of that monastery and for that monastery, affirming that there are no exceptions and declaring himself paid for the time of the contract and the recorded binding agreement, with the aforementioned money handed over for the use of this monastery, together with his aforementioned brothers, has invested this Albertino, in accordance with the law of perpetual lease,28 with a piece of land suitable for a house with a house built upon it, together with a fenced-in yard and garden belonging to it, located in the city of Padua in the district of Santa Lucia. Bordering it on one end is a public road, on the other end [the land of ] Egidiolio Phylose, on one side by Symeon the notary, on the other by Peter, as they say. Therefore, assuredly, the aforesaid lease or investiture of a lease ought to be renewed every twenty-nine years by this Albertino and his heirs, and they should give to this Dom John or his successors for each and every renewal ten soldi of Venetian pennies. Following a valid audit that the same Albertino and his heirs have given 27. The Venetian pound, or lira, consisted of twenty-four copper-silver pennies, or denarii, therefore 2,400 pennies. 28. A law that stipulates that a leasee may renew the lease indefinitely, as long as the contracted price and other conditions are met.
him, in full amount, the aforesaid price, they should have, hold, and possess the land with fenced-in-yard and garden and with a house built upon it and thereafter, as he wishes, he shall renew it every twenty-nine years in accordance with the law of perpetual lease, as was said, without refusal or counter claim by Dom John and his successors, [with the right of ] access, entering, entrance, and leaving, along with the road and serfs, canals and aqueducts, with all that is above and below [ground], and with all its hedges and things that belong [to the property] and with every right and authority and legal license over the goods and persons belonging to this land and building or that belonging to the aforesaid Dom John in the name of this monastery, except for the fact that by law and the stipulations [of this lease] it is said and asserted that this land along with its building may not be given to another; it may not be alienated or in any other way placed under legal obligation, except to the aforementioned Albertino, and it is free of every [obligation of ] service. And if he [Dom John] has the authority [to ask for] more than the said price, he [Albertino] should give and concede it wholly and irrevocably, etc., as is provided in the lease contract above.
A Charter for a Time-limited Rental Symeon, a notary, has invested Albertino de Camponogara for ten years, by right of rental, with a piece of land lying in that place. It belongs to him [Symeon], etc. This Albertino pledges to protect and defend this land up to the aforesaid time of ten years so that from this time forward this Albertino and his heirs might have and hold the aforesaid land by right of rental up to the aforesaid
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time of ten years. Wherefore, this Albertino promises and agrees by pledge to the aforementioned Symeon, a notary, in good faith and without deceit, to work and plant, drain and ditch and plant willows and to give him a third part of the crops produced there and to carry them to his [Symeon’s] house in Padua at his own expense and annually for ten years [give him] at the feast of Saint Stephen a shoulder of game and a cake,29 at Shrove Tuesday30 two capons, 29. December 26. Both items, the shoulder of a boar or venison and a cake or baked bread, were traditionally given as symbols of servitude. 30. The day preceding Lent and the last day for eating meat, also known as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday).
at Easter twelve eggs, on the feast of All Saints,31 one duck or one goose, and at the feast of Saint Justina32 twenty soldi, for each and every year from the first to the last, up to its finish; he is moreover held to attend to these matters, with the commitment of all of his goods, present and future that he might own both to pay him all the dues that he shall incur and for damage, if anything should happen to his portion of the crops, and must make good to him, without oath or examination, all of the obligations mentioned above. 31. November 1. 32. Saint Justina of Padua is the patron saint of the city. Her feast day is October 7.
They Who Fight Early medieval warriors were largely unruly individuals, little concerned with moral standards, and as a group, they were generally of low social status. During the High Middle Ages, a change occurred as some, certainly not all, of Europe’s warriors evolved into a landed class. That distinction, “some, certainly not all,” is important. The mounted knight who supported his profession of arms from a fief was far from a universal figure during the High Middle Ages. Indeed, many areas of the West were devoid of anything that we can identify as “feudal.” When Latin Europe is considered as a whole, it is safe to say that feudal warriors constituted only a minority of those who bore arms. Urban militias, levies raised from church lands or from land held in free tenure, and mercenaries of every type, especially bowmen and other infantry soldiers, far outnumbered and often outfought the classical (and overemphasized) feudal knight on horseback. Despite that fact, in certain regions, such as France, England, and western Germany, feudal warriors were becoming a defined class, with their own social niche and manners. We have seen how, during the early eleventh century, clerics such Fulbert of Chartres and Adémar of Chabannes, in step with the Peace and Truce of God movements, called warriors to higher standards of moral conduct. Toward the end of the eleventh century and the beginning of the twelfth, professional entertainers, known in Languedoc as troubadours, began to articulate a code of knightly conduct that caught on in certain aristocratic courts—first in Languedoc and later in northern France, the Rhineland, and England—and that later generations would term “chivalry.” In essence, the chivalric ideal rested on the assumption that the chevalier, or mounted knight, belonged to a special, hereditary order of society, which possessed unique values, virtues, and modes of behavior that ennobled its members and justified their power, privileges, and ways of life. Supposedly, at least according to the bards who sang their praises, chivalric principles and customs governed the life and conduct of these noble warriors, but reality and ideal diverged more often than not. Our first selection illustrates an important early stage in the development of a Code of Chivalry as an ideal, if not a total reality. Feudal warriors were also developing their own codes of law, which defined the reciprocal duties and privileges of vassals and their lords. Our second document presents an example of late twelfth-century feudal law.
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The Ideal Feudal Warrior? 57. THE SONG OF ROLAND 33 The chanson de geste, or “song of heroic deeds,” known as The Song of Roland is France’s earliest and greatest epic poem, although the singular is misleading. Some eight manuscripts exist of versions of the poem in various Old French dialects, and quite a few other versions exist in a variety of medieval tongues, such as Welsh and Norse. Of the eight Old French texts, scholars agree that the most authentic is a manuscript at Oxford that dates to the second quarter of the twelfth century. Although it has serious deficiencies, this manuscript serves as the core of what is accepted today as the most authentic version of the original poem. Scholars further conclude that the original epic was composed around 1100. One theory is that it was composed to stir up French aid for the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem that had been created in the wake of the First Crusade. Whatever the motive and whenever it was composed in more or less its final form, it surely was based on stories and songs about Charlemagne, Roland, Oliver, Turpin, and other legendary Frankish heroes that had been told and sung for several centuries. The epic relates the legendary last battle of Count Roland and his companions. The story is loosely based on a minor disaster suffered by Charlemagne in 778. While his army was returning from an expedition in northern Spain, Christian Basques ambushed and wiped out his baggage train and rear guard in the mountain pass of Roncesvalles. Among the fallen was Roland, lord of the Breton frontier. We know little else about this skirmish or the historical Roland. When Roland re-emerges several centuries later, however, he has been transformed into Charlemagne’s nephew and the greatest champion in the emperor’s holy war against Islam, and the Basque bandits have become an enormous Muslim army. Charlemagne, who was only thirty-six at the time of the ambush and twenty-two years shy of his eventual coronation as emperor, has metamorphosed into a Moses-like patriarch more than two hundred years old, who rules as God’s sole agent on Earth over a united Christian world. He, his nephew, and his nephew’s companions are now Frenchmen, even though there had been no France or French culture in Charlemagne’s day. In a similar anachronistic manner, The Song of Roland assumes a society permeated by feudal relationships and values. The story revolves around the themes of feudal loyalty and chivalric honor. Roland has unwittingly offended his stepfather, Ganelon, who, in revenge, enters into a conspiracy with the Saracen king, Marsilion, to deliver up Roland and the rest of the flower of French knighthood. Ganelon then arranges for Roland to command the emperor’s rear guard, knowing that the Saracens plan to ambush it and that Roland will be too proud to sound his horn for reinforcements. Such is the case. Despite the entreaties of Oliver, his closest friend and intended brother-in-law, Roland does not sound the horn until the battle is lost and 20,000 Christian soldiers lie dead. The emperor returns too late to prevent his nephew’s death but manages to exact revenge by destroying all Muslim forces in Spain and consigning Ganelon to death by torture. The selection that follows describes the opening and final stages of Roland’s last fight and reflects the warrior values of a knightly society in the era of the First Crusade.
Questions for Consideration 1. Why does Roland not wish to sound his horn? Why does Oliver initially urge Roland to blow the horn but later tells him that it would be shameful to do so? What conclusions follow from your answers? 33. La Chanson de Roland: Oxford Version, ed. T. Atkinson Jenkins, rev. ed. (Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1924), 81–135, 173–74, passim.
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2. How does Roland define a vassal’s duty? Would Oliver remove or add anything to that list? With which of these two warriors, Roland or Oliver, would Fulbert of Chartres agree more? 3. Consider the words and actions of Roland, Oliver, and Turpin, and from them draw up a list of the components comprising the late eleventh-century Code of Chivalry. Do you see any potentially contradictory values or practices? If so, how do you explain them? 4. How does the author express the salvation of Roland’s soul in feudal terms? What inferences do you draw from this scene? 5. What role does religion play in this epic? Would Odo of Cluny or Adémar of Chabannes agree with Archbishop Turpin’s sermon and the poem’s overall religious vision? What conclusions follow from your answers to these questions? 79. The pagans34 arm themselves with Saracen coats of triple-layered chain mail.35 They buckle on helmets made in Saragossa36 and strap on swords of Viennese steel. Their shields are handsome, and their lances, crafted in Valencia,37 are tipped with white, blue, and red streamers. They leave behind their pack mules and riding horses and, mounting their war-horses, ride forth in proper formation. The day is fair and the sun bright, and all their gear glistens in the light. To add to the splendor, they sound a thousand trumpets. So great is the clamor, the sound carries to the Franks. Upon hearing it, Oliver says to Count Roland: “Sir comrade, I think we are now going to battle the Saracens.” Roland answers: “May God so grant it. If we make a stand here for our monarch, we are only doing what is expected of good men. A man ought to be willing to suffer pain and loss for his lord. He should endure extremes of heat and cold and should be ever ready to lose hide and hair in his lord’s service. Let each of us now be sure to strike hard blows, so that no bard may sing ill of us in his songs. Pagans are wrong, and Christians are right. On my part, I will not set a bad example.”… 83. Oliver says: “The heathen army is massive, and our numbers are few. Roland, my good friend, sound your ivory horn. Charles will hear it and return with his whole army.” Roland replies: “That would be foolish, for by so doing I would lose my reputation in sweet France. I prefer 34. When this poem was crafted, most Latin Christians thought Muslims were polytheistic pagans. 35. Knee-length garments of interconnected iron rings (chain mail) that protected the torso and thighs. 36. A city in northeast Spain that Christian forces captured in 1118. 37. A region in eastern Spain.
to strike hard blows with Durendal,38 so that the blade is bloodied right up to its gold hilt. These foul pagans made a mistake in coming to this mountain pass. I pledge that they have not long to live.” 84. “Roland, my comrade, blow your horn. Charles will hear it, return with his army, and the king and his barons will aid us.” Roland answers: “God forbid that my family be shamed by my actions or any dishonor fall on sweet France. No, I will fight with Durendal, the good sword girded here at my side, and you will see its blade run red. The pagans asked for trouble when they gathered their army. I pledge that all of them will die.”… 86. Oliver says: “I see no shame here. I have seen the Saracens of Spain; they cover the hills and valleys, the scrubland and the plains. Numerous are the ranks of this hostile people, and we are but a small band of comrades.” Roland answers: “This only inflames my desire. May God and His angels forbid that France should be dishonored because of me. I would rather die than dishonor myself. The more we act like warriors, the more the emperor loves us.” 87. Roland is heroic, Oliver is wise, and both are marvelous vassals. Once armed and on their horses, they would rather die than flee the battlefield.… 89. Next comes Archbishop Turpin.39 He now spurs his horse to the top of a hill and preaches a sermon to the Franks: “Lord barons, Charles placed us here, and it is a man’s duty to die for his monarch. Now help defend Christianity. It is certain you will have to fight, for here 38. The name of Roland’s sword. Its meaning is debated, but it probably has something to do with its hardness. Dur in Old French means “hard,” and the dying Roland unsuccessfully tries three times to break it. 39. The warrior-archbishop of Reims.
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are the Saracens. Confess your sins and beg God’s mercy. For the salvation of your souls, I will absolve your sins. Should you die, you will die as holy martyrs, and you will have exalted seats in Paradise.” The Franks dismount and kneel, and the archbishop blesses them. As their penance, he commands them to strike blows.40… Despite a courageous stand, the rear guard is overwhelmed. 127. Roland, aware of the great slaughter of his men, turns to his companion Oliver, saying: “Noble comrade, for God’s sake, what do you think? See how many good vassals lie on the ground. We ought to weep for sweet France, the fair, that has lost such barons and is now bereft. Ah, my king and friend, would that you were here now! Oliver, my brother, what should we do? How shall we send the king news of this?” “I do not know what to say,” says Oliver, “but I would prefer to die than be dishonored.” 128. Then Roland says: “I will blow my ivory horn, and Charles, as he crosses the mountains, will hear it. I swear that the Franks will return.” Oliver replies: “That would be shameful for you to do and would dishonor your family. It would be a disgrace as long as they lived. You would not blow the horn when I told you to do so, now I advise you not to sound it. To do so now would be useless.”… 130. Roland asks: “Why are you angry with me?” Oliver responds: “You have no one to blame but yourself. Valor tempered by wisdom is not folly; prudence is better than arrogance. Because of your recklessness these Franks have died. Never again will King Charles enjoy our service. Had you taken my advice, my lord Charles would have been here, and this battle would have ended differently. King Marsilion would have been captured or killed. Your heroism, Roland, has been our undoing. We shall never again fight for the great Charles, who will have no equal till the end of time. Now you must die, and France will be shamed by its loss. Today our loyal friendship will be ended; before night falls we will be sorrowfully parted.” 131. The archbishop, hearing them quarrel, goads his horse with spurs of pure gold, rides to them, and rebukes them both, saying: “Sir Roland, and you, Sir Oliver, in God’s name, I pray you, stop this arguing. Your horn will give us little help now, yet it is better if you blow it. The king will avenge us, and the Spaniards will not 40. Consult the Glossary at Confession.
depart from here rejoicing. Our Frankish comrades will dismount and find us dead and mutilated. They will lay us on stretchers placed on the backs of pack mules and will mourn us in sorrow and pity. They will bury us in churches, so that our corpses are not eaten by wolves, swine, and dogs.” “Sir, you speak well and correctly,” says Roland. 132. Roland sets his ivory horn to his lips and blows it with all his might.… A good thirty leagues away they hear it resound. Charles and his whole army hear it, and the king remarks: “Our men are engaged in battle.”… 133. With anguish and deep torment, Count Roland blows his ivory horn with all his might, to the point that bright blood spurts out of his mouth, and the vessels of his brain are ruptured.… Oliver, Turpin, and all of the other Franks are dead, their bodies surrounded by the corpses of the tens of thousands whom they killed. The Saracen leaders are dead. Charles is coming, so the enemy flees. Roland cannot pursue because his horse is dead. Although dying, Roland, is unconquered. Unable to destroy Durendal his sword, he lies down on top of it. 175. Count Roland lay down beneath a pine tree, his face turned toward Spain. He begins to remember many things: all the lands he has conquered, sweet France, the noble lineage from which he is descended, and Charlemagne, his lord, who raised him in his own household. He cannot keep back his tears and sighs. But not forgetting himself, he confesses his sins and begs God’s mercy: “Father, You who are truth itself, who raised Lazarus from the dead and saved Daniel from the lions,41 preserve my soul from all the dangers that beset it because of the sins I have committed throughout my life.” He holds out his right glove to God, and Saint Gabriel42 takes it from his hand. His head sinks down to rest on his arm. With clasped hands he meets his end. God sends down His cherubim43 and Saint Michael, who saves us from the perils of the sea,44 and with them comes Saint Gabriel, and they carry the soul of the count to paradise. 41. Jesus raised his friend Lazarus from the dead; Daniel was a Jewish prophet whom God protected while he was in a lion’s den. 42. An archangel and messenger of God. 43. An order of angels that waits on God. 44. Saint Michael was a warrior archangel; the island monastery of Mont-Saint-Michel off the Breton coast was dedicated to Michael, the protector of sailors.
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Feudal Law 58. Ranulf de Glanville, CONCERNING THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE KINGDOM OF ENGLAND 45 As noted in Chapter 6, vassals served lords in return for fiefs. Originally, a fief, or fee, was anything of value, but increasingly, it became a grant of land over which the vassal ruled in the lord’s name. During the eleventh century, fiefs tended to become hereditary, passing to the vassal’s oldest surviving male heir. Feudal soldiers, therefore, who several generations earlier had generally been hired thugs in the employ of warlords, were becoming landed gentry. As this rising class gained power and status, it developed complex bodies of law to regulate relationships between lords and vassals, especially regarding the tenure of fiefs. Around 1187–88, someone who was intimately versed in the laws and legal procedures that were taking shape in England during the reign of Henry II composed a treatise on English royal law and custom. Tradition has assigned its authorship to Ranulf de Glanville (d. 1190), England’s chief justice from 1180 to 1189, and there is no convincing reason to deny Glanville the honor of authorship. Whoever the author was, he possessed a broad and deep knowledge English common law. Consequently, his treatise sheds a great deal of light upon all aspects of King Henry’s legal reforms. Most of the civil and criminal laws and procedures described in this lengthy treatise do not concern anything that even remotely could be called “feudal,” which in and of itself is revealing. Yet feudal contracts were still important to the aristocratic and military classes in late twelfth-century England. For our purposes, this treatise indicates how feudal law functioned in England toward the close of the twelfth century. The following excerpts focus on the act of homage, the most important of all feudal ceremonies, and the consequences that followed from that act.
Questions for Consideration 1. Why could women not perform homage? That being the case, how did they inherit their fathers’ fiefs in the absence of brothers or nephews? 2. Could women be lords under twelfth-century Anglo-Norman common law? Why or why not? 3. On the basis of your answers to questions 1 and 2, what do you infer about the status of women under late twelfth-century English common law? 4. What do the rules governing vassal–liege lord relations suggest about the complexities of feudal relationships? 5. When and why could a vassal legitimately fight or oppose his lord? What does this suggest about the feudal contract? 6. How and why might a vassal lose his fief ? What conclusions follow from your answer? 7. Explain the principle enunciated in Chapter 4. Do the rules articulated in Chapter 1 support this principle or not? 8. Is there any evidence in this excerpt that by the late twelfth century lawyers and others were questioning traditional forms of adjudication? If so, what is that evidence? 9. Are the principles enunciated by “Glanville” consonant with what we discovered in Fulbert of Chartres’s letter and The Song of Roland? If so, how? If not, how do they differ? 45. The Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England Commonly Called Glanvill, ed. G. D. G. Hall (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1965), 103–7.
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Book IX. Chapter 1. The doing of homage46 and the receipt of relief 47 It remains to continue on [the subject of ] the aforementioned performance of homage and reception of reliefs. When father or any other ancestor dies, the lord of the fief is immediately bound to receive the homage of the rightful heir, whether that heir is underage or has attained full maturity, provided that the heir is male. For females are not permitted by law to perform homage, although they generally offer an oath [of fealty] to their lords. If, in fact, they are married, their husbands should perform homage to their lords for their fief. I say this if such fiefs require homage. If, however, the heir is male and a minor, the lord of the fief is not entitled by law to have wardship of the heir himself or of his holding until he has received the homage of this heir.48 For it is a general principle that no one may demand service from an heir, whether it is relief or something else, whether the heir has reached majority or is a minor, until the lord has received the heir’s homage for the holding for which the lord claims to be owed service. A man, however, is allowed to perform homage to different lords for fiefs from the different lords, but one of these [homages] should be the chief [homage] and accompanied by an oath of allegiance. In that case, it is clear that he who must do homage should render it to the lord from whom he holds his chief tenement.49 Homage should be done in this form: namely, he who is obliged to perform his homage, [who] shall thereby become the man of his lord. He shall swear to bear faith to him for the holding from him for which he performs homage, and 46. Homage means “to become one’s man.” In the ceremony, the vassal-to-be usually knelt bareheaded before the lord, signifying his dependence, and often placed his hands within the hands of the lord. It was customary for the vassal to receive from the lord a weapon or other token of his owed military service. (See source 75.) The act of homage was usually accompanied by a sacred oath of fealty, or loyalty, normally offered standing and in the presence of sacred relics. 47. Consult the Glossary. Article 3 of source 54 mentions a similar tax placed on serfs. 48. A vassal who owed military service had to be twenty-two or older. If he were younger, he became the lord’s ward, under circumstances described above. During the period of wardship, the lord took possession of the fief and used its revenues as he saw fit, being bound, however, to maintain the ward in an “honorable manner.” He also had to allow his ward to gain possession of the fief upon reaching his majority. 49. The chief lord was known as the “liege lord,” and service to him superseded all other obligations owed any other lord except the king. Moreover, the king was the immediate liege lord of the major lords, who were known as the king’s tenants-in-chief.
shall preserve the earthly honor of his lord in all matters, with the exception of the faith owed to the lord king and his heirs. From this it is evident that a vassal may not attack his lord without breaking the faith of his homage, unless, perhaps, in defending himself or unless, on the order of the king, he marches against his lord with the king’s army. Generally, according to law, no one can, without breaking the faith of homage, do anything that tends to deprive his lord of his inheritance or to bring dishonor on his person. If, in fact, anyone has made multiple acts of homage for different fiefs from different lords who are attacking one another, and his liege lord should command him to go in person with him against another of his other lords, he must obey him in the matter of this, his command, but with the exception of the service due to the other lord for the fief that he holds from him.50 It is clear from what has been said above that if anyone should do anything contributing to the disinheritance of his lord, and should be convicted of it, he and his heirs shall, by law, lose the fief that he holds from him. The same will also hold true if someone lays violent hands on his lord to hurt him or shame him and this is lawfully proved against him in the appropriate court. But I ask whether anyone can be forced to defend himself against his lord in the lord’s court against such charges; and whether his lord can, by the judgment of his own court, compel him to do so without an order from the lord king or one of the king’s justices or without the king’s writ or that of the chief justice?51 And, in fact, anyone might, by judgment of his court, lawfully bring and compel his man to come to his court. And unless he is able to clear himself against his lord with three hands,52 or as many as the court shall decide, the entire fief that he holds from him shall be at his lord’s mercy. I further ask: can a lord compel his man to come to his court to answer for a service that his lord claims he has not rendered to him or claims that the man is in arrears for a portion of his service to him? Indeed, he may lawfully and absolutely do this, even without a writ from the lord king or his justices. And so, in consequence, the controversy between the lord and his man might result in a duel53 or be submitted to the Grand Assize54 if one of the man’s peers, 50. Such a vassal might be obliged to send a specific number of warriors to the lord against whom he is fighting. 51. A writ was a formal order, usually issued by a royal court, compelling a specific action. 52. With three persons swearing to his innocence. 53. Combat between the defendant (or his champion) and the lord’s champion. 54. In 1179, Henry II established the Grand Assize at Windsor, a royal court where lords and their vassals could, on the sworn
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who has seen the tenant or his ancestors render this service to this very lord or his ancestors for that fief, offers himself as a witness and is prepared to prove it. If, in fact, this tenant is convicted of the charge, he shall, by law, be disinherited of the entire fief that he holds from that lord. If, however, anyone is unable to administer justice to his tenants, then finally it is necessary to have recourse to the [king’s] Court. A free male person may perform homage, whether he has reached maturity or is underage, whether a cleric or a layman. Consecrated bishops, in fact, do not by custom perform homage to the lord king even for their baronies, but, by custom, they swear fealty at that point by oath. By custom, however, bishops-elect, do homage before their consecration.55… oaths of twelve knights who were assumed to know the history of the feudal holding under question, peacefully settle land disputes involving fiefs. 55. A bishop performs homage to the king only once, following his initial election to an episcopal see and before his consecration as a bishop.
Illus. 8.3 The Palace of the Commune and the Tower of the Captain of the People, Assisi, Italy. In 1198, the homines populi (common people) rose up, overthrew their Hohenstaufen imperial overlords, and established a commune. By 1215, the former Church of San Donato, which earlier had been the Roman Temple of Minerva, was transformed into the Palace of the Commune, the residence and offices of the podestá, who was then the chief magistrate. The palace cellar served as a jail. In 1267, work was begun next door on the Tower of the Captain of the People, a second, apparently co-equal chief magistrate. The tower, which rises to 154 feet (47 meters), served as the captain’s home and offices and was completed in 1305.
Chapter 3. Persons to whom they render homage Acts of homage may be rendered to any free person, male or female, whether of mature age or a minor, a cleric or a lay person. It should be known, however, that if anyone does homage for a certain holding to a woman who later marries any man whatsoever, that man is bound to render homage to that same husband for the same holding….
Chapter 4. That the bond of fidelity inherent in lordship and homage must be mutual Indeed, the bond of fidelity inherent in lordship and homage must be mutual, so that a man owes as much to the lord on account of homage as the lord owes to him on account of lordship, except for reverence.
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Urban Dwellers People who lived in towns and cities did not constitute a single, monolithic class. To refer to them simply as a “middle class” is to overlook the significant economic, social, and political differences that divided them into many different classes. Despite this fact, urban dwellers shared some important characteristics that set them apart from most other Europeans. Perhaps the most important of these common characteristics was that urban dwellers were, by and large, free. Europe’s cities and towns, which were rapidly proliferating in number and expanding in size from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, were centers of industrial creativity and commercial exchange. Effective production and commerce were best carried on by people unhampered by the servile bonds of serfdom. Indentured servants and even slaves were to be found in the more prosperous towns and cities of Europe, but they were a distinct minority. Not only were most urban dwellers personally free, they also enjoyed a large measure of self-defense and self-government. The Germanic word burg—from which we derive such terms for townspeople as burgesses, burghers, and bourgeoisie—originally meant a fortified site. Cities and towns were encircled by walls, and those walls guaranteed their inhabitants at least a modicum of physical security. Free people who are capable of defending themselves tend to be self-governing. At the very least, a town would secure from a local lord or the king a charter of liberties that limited the extent to which any external authority could intervene in the town’s fiscal, political, and judicial affairs. A few towns and cities in Italy went further and became independent of all but the most nominal forms of outside control. This often occurred when a sworn association of townspeople, known as a commune, formed to gain independence from the local bishop or from imperial authority. If necessary (and it often was necessary), commune members were prepared to fight to win and maintain their independence. Although communes could be found in many areas of Europe, it was only in Italy, Europe’s epicenter of urbanization, that a handful of communes successfully transformed their hometowns into city-states. Our first source provides tantalizing glimpses of townspeople along Christian Europe’s Iberian frontier. The two sources that follow it illustrate different types of urban settlements and the people who dwelt therein: a chartered royal borough in England and a self-governing city in Italy.
A Twelfth-Century Town along the Castilian Frontier 59. THE FUERO OF CUENCA 56 As part of the centuries-long process of Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile captured Cuenca in central Spain in 1177. Soon thereafter a bishopric was established in the town, and new settlers were encouraged to take up residence in the former Muslim stronghold. Part of the attraction of settling there was the detailed fuero, or law code, that King Alfonso granted its citizens. Created around 1190, the code became the model for similar municipal charters granted to many other urban communities in the region. Cuenca’s fuero formalized a considerable number of regional traditions. Moreover, it established an extensive body of rules and regulations touching on almost all aspects of human life. It was a body of law born out of the need to establish permanent Castilian control over a strategically vital frontier town
56. The Code of Cuenca: Municipal Law on the Twelfth-Century Castilian Frontier, trans. and introduction James F. Powers (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), 30–31, 40–41, 81, 85, 160, 164–65, 223. By permission of the University of Pennsylvania Press.
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that faced challenges from Muslim lords to the south and the Christian king of Aragόn, whose own frontier lay but a few miles to the east. The selections that appear here provide a glimpse into the complex social interactions that existed in the culturally diverse settlements along the Christian-Muslim frontier in the age of the Reconquista and the impact of the pressing military needs that this life engendered.
Questions for Consideration 1. Why would the town council have the right to deny settlement to anyone of whom it did not approve? 2. Consider statute I. 6. Why were exemptions granted and levies imposed? 3. What do statutes II. 32, XI. 23, and XI. 48 allow you to infer about the social, economic, and legal status of the women of Cuenca? For example, what do they tell us about the types of work in which they were engaged? 4. What were the relative legal and social positions of Christians, Jews, and Moors within the city? What about the unfree? 5. What overall picture emerges from this code of life in late twelfth-century Cuenca?
CHAPTER I Concession of the Code and Outline of Its Privileges 5. Refusing citizenship to settlers within the district The council reserves the right to deny settlement privileges to anyone it does not approve of, without risk of subsequent fine.
6. No citizens to pay tribute Anyone owning a house in the city that is occupied by family members is free of all taxes in perpetuity. This exemption does not include the levies for the upkeep of the walls of the city and for fortifications and towers in the land under the city’s control. However, a mounted knight owning a horse worth fifty menkales or more is exempt from fortification taxes and he passes that right to his heirs.57 57. Mounted knights consisted of the lower and upper nobility and non-noble citizens who could afford a horse and were known as caballeros villanos (lowborn knights). A caballero villano enjoyed the same privileges as a knight from the lower nobility (see the next note). Menkal (or mizcall ) derived from the Arabic mithqal (weight) and originally meant any precious metal weighing 4.25 grams. At this time, a menkal was a weight of silver or a silver coin equal to one-fourth of an Almoravid dinar (see the Glossary).
7. All settlers get equal penalties Those counts, potestates, milites, or infançons 58 who come to live in Cuenca, from my kingdom or any other, will abide by the same penalties as the rest of the settlers, concerning death as well as life….
10. Privilege of the settlers I likewise grant to all setters this prerogative: whoever may come to live in Cuenca, whatever condition he may be, whether Christian, Moor, or Jew, free or servile, should come in safety. He need not answer to anyone by reason of enmity, debt, bond, inheritance, mayordomia, merindadico,59 or any other thing he may have done before the conquest of Cuenca. But if he had an enemy before the conquest of Cuenca, and he encounters his enemy while living here, both parties should designate bondsmen, according to the code of Cuenca, so that they remain in peace. He who does not want to designate a bondsman should leave the city and its district….
58. Potestates are top-level nobles, milites are knights, or lowerlevel aristocracy, and infançones constitute the middle-ranking nobles. [Note by J. F. Powers.] 59. Special taxes paid to the royal officials known as the mayordomo and the merinius. [Note by J. F. Powers.]
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CHAPTER II Statutes Regarding Property Holdings 32. Concerning the bathhouse, and the testimony of women Men may use the common bathhouses on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Women may enter on Mondays and Wednesdays. Jews should enter on Fridays and Sundays.60 No one, neither woman nor man, should pay more than an obolus entry fee.61 Servants and children of citizens should enter free of charge. If a man enters any part of the bathhouse premises on the women’s day for bathing, he is liable for a fine of ten aurei.62 He should pay the same fine for spying on women in the bath on those days. However, if a woman enters a bathhouse on a day reserved for men, or is found there at night, and because of this the woman is publicly dishonored or harmed in some way, she should have no right to bring charges of a kind sufficient to exile the offending man. On the other hand, if a man commits these acts against a woman on the women’s bathing days, or steals her clothing, let him be hurled from the city cliffs.63 Officials can gather testimony from women at the bathhouse, at the bakehouse, at the fountain and river, and also at the spinners’ and weavers’ workplaces. Female witnesses should be the wives or daughters of citizens of the city. If a Christian should intrude in a bathhouse on the Jewish bathing days, or if a Jew should intrude on the Christian bathing days, resulting in either person attacking or killing the other, no formal accusations should be accepted from either of the persons or their relatives.64
60. Although not an obligatory practice, many Jews bathed before the Sabbath began, at sunset on Friday, in a mikvah, the ritual bathhouse associated with a synagogue. It is not clear if the Jewish community of Cuenca had a mikvah at this time. See p. 230 for a photo of a mikvah. 61. The obolus, or obolo, was a small copper coin with a trace of silver. 62. Gold coins. Alfonso’s mint struck the maravedi. At 3.86 grams of gold, it was modeled on the Almoravid dinar. 63. Cuenca is a hill town perched atop cliffs that are steep and deep. 64. The meaning here is that if either Christians or Jews enter on the wrong day they do so at their own risk. The result of such action will not be eligible for any judicial process. [Note by J. F. Powers.]
The bathhouse manager should provide bathers with all bathing necessities, such as water and the like. Failing to provide these necessities will make the manager liable to a fine of ten solidi, five to be paid to the almutazaf, and five to the complainant.65 Anyone stealing bathhouse equipment should have his ears cut off; if bathers’ belongings are worth up to ten menkales or more, then let the thief be hurled from the city cliffs….
CHAPTER XI No One Should Pay the Pecuniary Penalty of Homicide for a Man Killed During Sports 20. He who injures or kills a free Moor Anyone who injures or kills a free Moor should pay for him, as for a Christian.66
21. The free Moor who injures or kills a Christian If a free Moor injures or kills a Christian, for injuring him he should pay the pecuniary penalty according to the Code of Cuenca; for killing him, he [the Moor] should be put in the hands of the plaintiff, so that the plaintiff should take the money from the pecuniary penalties, and finally should do with his [the Moor’s] body what he wants….
23. He who has a child with another’s Moorish woman If someone has a child with another’s Moorish woman, this child should be the servant of the señor of the Moorish woman, until his father redeems him. Also, we say that such a child should not divide with his siblings that which corresponds to the patrimony of their father, while he remains in servitude. Later should he become free, he should take a share of the goods of his father…. 48. The woman who is surprised with an infidel If a woman is surprised with a Moor or with a Jew, both should be burned alive….
65. Here, the solidus, or sueldos, was a silver coin worth onetwelfth of an Almoravid dinar. The almutazaf (Arabic: al muntazar) was the official who controlled the general running of the market and oversaw its weights and measures. 66. The laws governing monetary penalties for injury and death were complex. Injury payments ranged from five solidi to four hundred gold coins, depending on the injury and circumstances. Monetary penalties for homicide normally were three to four hundred gold coins.
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CHAPTER XXIX Cases Between Christians and Jews 1. Cases between Christians and Jews If a Jew and a Christian litigate for something, two citizen alcaldi 67 should be designated, one of whom should be a Christian and the other Jewish. If one of the litigants is not pleased by the judgment, he should appeal to four citizen alcaldi, two of whom should be Christian and two Jewish. These four should have final judgment. Whoever appeals the judgment of these four should know that he will lose the case. These alcaldi should guard against judging anything else than what the Code of Cuenca prescribes…. 29. No one may take weapons out of town to sell them For the advantage and defense of the city, we establish by the code that neither Christian nor Moor nor Jew should remove wooden or iron weapons from the city. And whoever removes them to sell them should pay twenty aurei. He who takes them for the purpose of fighting and making war should pay no fine because of this. Also, no weapon or vessels of gold or silver should be taken out of use in Cuenca…. 67. Derived from the Arabic al-qadi (the judge), an alcadus (or alcalde) was a parish official elected by the town council The alcalde handled political and judicial matters within the parish and assisted Cuenca’s chief magistrate, the iudex (judge).
32. The Christian who injures or kills a Jew If a Christian injures or kills a Jew, he should pay five hundred solidi to the king, if it can be proved, as the code between Jews and Christians prescribes. But if not, for injury he should clear himself with two of four designated [citizens] and for death twelve citizens, and he should be believed. If it is the Jew who injures or kills a Christian, he should pay the penalty of the offense that has been assigned, if it can be proved, according to the Code of Cuenca. But if not, for injury, he should be cleared with two of four designated Jews and should be believed; for death, he should be cleared with twelve Jewish citizens and should be believed. 33. All the pecuniary penalties of Jews belong to the king and not to another Jews do not have any part in the pecuniary penalty of a Jew, because all belong entirely to the king, since, in fact, the Jews are serfs of the king and they are entrusted to his treasury. Equally, neither does the iudex have a right to a seventh part of the pecuniary penalty of a Jew, since he has not done any work to request it.68
68. Normally, the “pecuniary penalties,” or fines, imposed for a crime were divided among the plaintiff, various officials, such as the iudex and alcalde, and the royal representative.
An English Guild of Merchants 60. ORDINANCES OF THE MERCHANT GUILD OF SOUTHAMPTON 69 Southampton, an English port town, was a prosperous center of handicraft and trade when Duke William of Normandy invaded England in 1066 and burned down the town in his campaign to gain the English crown. For almost a full century thereafter, the town languished, although it continued to house some artisans and merchants, even as the majority of its inhabitants survived through agriculture and fishing. The fortunes of Southampton took a decided turn for the better under King Henry II (r. 1154–89), who held sway over the county of Anjou and the duchy of Aquitaine, in addition to the duchy of Normandy. Given this expanded continental connection, Southampton’s merchants entered into a trading network with south-central and southwestern France, which became the basis for the town’s new prosperity. Carrying prime English wool to Saint-Malo, Nantes, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux, Southampton’s merchants returned with agricultural products, especially wines from western France. Sailing northeast to the textile centers of the Low Countries, such as Bruges and Antwerp, Southampton’s merchants exchanged wool for manufactured cloth and a wide variety of luxury goods. 69. The Oak Book of Southampton, of C. A. D. 1300, ed. P. Studer, 3 vols. (Southampton: Cox & Sharland, 1910–11), 1: 24–64, passim. The translation reflects the document’s inconsistent use of capital letters.
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This reversal of fortune became the impetus for the town’s development into a favored royal borough and the rise in power of its guild of merchants. In the days of King Henry I (r. 1100–35), Southampton had been part of the royal demesne, or crown lands, and was governed directly by the king’s reeve, or deputy. During the first year of the reign of King John (r. 1199–1216), the situation changed dramatically when the king granted the burgesses of Southampton the perpetual right to assess, regulate, and collect all of their tolls and taxes in return for an annual payment of two hundred pounds sterling to the royal treasury. Southampton now had limited self-government under royal authority. The group that took the lead in securing the privileges of self-government was Southampton’s guild of merchants. No surviving records mention the borough’s guild, or association, of merchants before the reign of Henry I, but its origins probably date back well into the pre-Conquest era. The following document, which lists the rules of Southampton’s merchant guild, was transcribed around 1300, but most of its ordinances date from well before that year. The first twelve regulations appear to be among the oldest, but many others also reflect twelfth- and thirteenth-century realities. In essence, this is a document that evolved over the course of two centuries or more. As such, it reveals not only the inner workings of a fairly typical twelfth- and thirteenth-century English guild of merchants but also the way in which this particular guild’s position within the town developed over time. But in investigating that evolution, understand that although these ordinances are numbered sequentially, the numbers do not follow a strict chronological (or logical) pattern. It appears, for example, that statute 22 is considerably older than several that precede it.
Questions for Consideration 1. What social functions did guilds perform? How important do these social functions appear to have been relative to the guild’s other purposes and roles? 2. How and why did the guild regulate entry into its membership? 3. How and why did the guild protect its members? 4. In this same vein, consider statutes 13, 14, 16, and 22. What police and judicial powers does the guild claim over nonmembers? 5. How and why did the guild regulate trade? 6. Continuing issues already addressed, consider statutes 24 and 63. What is their intent? What does your answer suggest about the economic and social principles that underlay the guild? 7. Consider statutes 32, 35, and 53. What do they suggest about the guild’s power and place in the community by the late thirteenth century? 1. How the Alderman, Seneschal, Chaplain, skevins, and usher shall be elected to the Guild. In the first place, there shall be elected and established from the merchant Guild an Alderman, a Seneschal, a Chaplain, four skevins, and an usher.70 And it is to be known that the Alderman shall 70. The alderman (senior man) was the guild’s chief executive officer; the seneschal was in charge of the guild’s property and served as a vice-alderman. The chaplain was its priest. The
receive from everyone entering into the guild four pennies, the Seneschal two pennies; the chaplain two pennies; and the usher one penny.71 And the guild shall meet twice a year: that is to say, on the Sunday immediately following skevins originally served the guild as minor functionaries but evolved into a body of four “elders.” The usher was the sergeant at arms and doorkeeper. 71. One pound sterling equaled 240 pence.
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Saint John the Baptist’s Day, and on the Sunday immediately following after Saint Hilary.72… 4. What the lepers shall have as long as the Guild meets. And when the Guild meets, the lepers of La Madeleine shall have, from the alms of the guild, two cesters of ale, and the sick of God’s House and of Saint Julian shall [each] have two cesters of ale. And the Friars Minor shall have two cesters of ale and one cester of wine. And four cesters of ale shall be given to the poor whenever the Guild shall meet.73 5. No one from the Guild shall go outside of the town when it meets. And when the Guild meets, no one from the Guild shall go out of town on business without the permission of the Seneschal. And if any one does so, he shall be fined two shillings, and pay them.74 6. How two men from the Guild shall visit the sick of the Guild and what each worthy man shall have. And when the Guild meets,…if a Guildsman is ill and is in town, it shall send him two loaves of bread and a gallon of wine and a dish from the Kitchen; and two worthy men from the Guild shall go to visit him and find out his condition. 7. When a Guildsman dies, all those who are of the Guild shall act in this manner; they who are of the Guild and are in the town shall attend the service of the dead. And when a Guildsman dies all who are of the Guild and in the town shall attend the service of the dead, and Guildsmen shall carry the body and bring the body to the place of burial. And whoever will not do this shall pay, according to his oath,75 two pennies, to be given to the poor. And those of the neighborhood where the dead man shall be should find a man to watch over the body on the night that the dead shall lie in his house. And so long as the service of the dead shall last, that is to say the vigil and the Mass,76 there ought to burn four Candles of the 72. Saint John the Baptist’s feast day is June 24, and Saint Hilary’s is January 13. 73. The burgesses of Southampton established the leper house of La Madeleine (the Hospital of Saint Mary Magdalene) in or before 1173/74. The hospital of Saint Julian, founded in 1185, served ill paupers. The Franciscans settled in the borough in 1233/34. A cester equaled at least four gallons. 74. Two shillings were twenty-four pence, or one-tenth of a pound sterling. 75. Presumably the oath he took upon entering the guild. 76. The vigil was a wake and prayer service on the evening preceding burial; Mass was celebrated on the day of burial.
Guild, each Candle of two pounds or more, until the body is buried. And these four candles shall remain in the keeping of the Seneschal of the Guild…. 9. How the nearest heir of a deceased Guildsman shall have his father’s seat. And when a Guildsman dies, his eldest son or his next heir shall have the seat of his Father, or of his uncle, if his Father was not a Guildsman, but of no one else, and he shall give nothing for his seat. Nor can a husband have a seat in the Guild by right of his wife, nor demand a seat by right of his wife’s ancestors. 10. No one may or can give away his seat in the Guild. And no one has the right or ability to sell or give his seat in the Guild to any man. And the son of a Guildsman, other than his eldest son, shall enter into the Guild on payment of ten shillings, and he shall take the oath of the Guild. 11. If a Guildsman is imprisoned anywhere in England. And if a Guildsman is imprisoned in England in time of peace, the Alderman, along with the Seneschal and along with one of the skevins, shall go, at the cost of the Guild, to procure the deliverance of the one who is in prison. 12. If anyone strikes another with his fist and is convicted of it, he shall lose the right of Guildship until. And if any Guildsman strikes another with his fist and is convicted of it, he shall lose the right of Guildship until he has bought it back for ten shillings, and taken the oath of the guild again like a new entrant. And if a Guildsman strikes another with a Stick or a Knife or any other weapon, whatever it might be, he shall lose the Guild and the franchise,77 and he shall be held as a stranger until he has been reconciled to the good men of the Guild and has made recompense to the one whom he injured, and he shall owe the Guild twenty shillings; and this shall not be waived. 13. If anyone (a stranger)78 strikes a Guildsman and he is of the franchise, or insults [a Guildsman]. If anyone who is not of the Guild but is of the franchise offends or strikes a Guildsman and is reasonably convicted, he shall lose the franchise and go to prison for a day and a night. 14. If anyone who is not of the Guild nor is of the franchise strikes a Guildsman. And if a stranger or anyone else who 77. Citizenship in the borough. The Anglo-Norman word ffraunchise means “freedom.” 78. This parenthetical addition is in the manuscript, but clearly it belongs with statute 14, not 13.
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is not of the Guild nor is of the franchise strikes a Guildsman, and is reasonably convicted, he shall be imprisoned for two days and two nights, unless the injury is such that he deserves more severe punishment. 15. If a Guildsman reviles or slanders another Guildsman for which a complaint is made. And if a Guildsman reviles or slanders another Guildsman, and a complaint regarding it is brought to the Alderman, and if he is reasonably convicted, he shall pay a fine of two shillings to the Guild, and if he is not able to pay he shall lose the Guild. 16. That no one who has the franchise or any other [person] shall speak ill of or commit evil 79 against a Guildsman and if he does so and is convicted. And if anyone who is of the franchise reviles a guildsman, and is convicted of this before the Alderman, he shall pay five shillings as a fine or lose the franchise…. 18. If anyone of the Guild forfeits the Guild for any act or infringement and is expelled. And if anyone of the Guild forfeits the Guild by any act or infringement, and is expelled by the Alderman and the Seneschal and the skevins, and twelve sworn men of the town; and he wishes to return to the Guild again, he shall do everything over just as one who has never been of the Guild, and shall make amends for his infringement according to the discretion of the Alderman and the aforesaid worthy men. And if anyone of the Guild or the franchise brings legal action against another outside of town, either with or without a writ, he shall lose the Guild and the franchise if convicted of it. 19. No one shall buy anything for resale in the town except a Guildsman. And no one shall buy anything in the town of Southampton or sell it again in the same town, unless he is of the merchant Guild or of the franchise. And if anyone does this and is convicted of it, all that he has bought shall be forfeited to the King. And no one shall be exempt of customs fees unless he clearly is of the Guild or the franchise, and this from year to year. 20. No one, other than a Guildsman, may deal in honey, fish oil, salted herring, oil, millstones, or animal hides, except 79. Maufere. The fact that “committing evil” is left out of the text that follows suggests a scribal error in transcription.
on the days of market or a fair.80 And no one may deal in honey, fish oil, salted herring, or any kind of oil, or millstones, or fresh animal hides, or any kind of fresh furs, except a Guildsman, or keep a tavern for wine, or sell cloth at retail, except on the day of market or a fair. He may not keep grain in his granary beyond five quarts to sell at retail if he is not a Guildsman; and whoever does this and is convicted shall forfeit everything to the King…. 22. If anyone falls into poverty and does not have the means to live. If any Guildsman falls into poverty and does not have the means to live, and is not able to work or to provide for himself, he shall have one mark81 from the Guild to relieve his condition when the Guild meets.82 No one of the Guild or of the franchise shall claim another’s goods as his by which the traditions of the town shall be harmed. And if any one does so and is convicted, he shall lose the Guild and the franchise; and the merchandise so claimed shall be forfeited to the King. 23. And no native [of the town] or outsider may sell or purchase merchandise before a Burgess.83And no native or outsider may bargain for or buy any kind of merchandise whatsoever coming into the city before a Burgess of the merchant Guild, as long as the Guildsman is present and wishes to bargain for and buy this merchandise, and if anyone does so and is convicted, whatever he has bought shall be forfeited to the King. 24. How a Guildsman shall share the merchandise that another Guildsman buys. And anyone who is of the merchant Guild shall share in all merchandise that another guildsman shall buy or any other person, whosoever he might be, if he wishes and requests part and is there where the merchandise is bought so that he satisfies the seller 80. Market days were weekly or semi-weekly events when farmers and fishermen brought food and other items for sale to the town and did so freely. Fairs were large wholesale events held annually at specific times, normally in conjunction with a religious festival. Foreign merchants were welcome but were required to pay a fee for the privilege. 81. When bestowed twice a year, a mark would support an early thirteenth-century family modestly for a year. 82. Here one ordinance runs into another, probably due to a transcriptional error. 83. A citizen of the town.
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and gives a guarantee on his part. But no one who is not a Guildsman can or may share with a Guildsman if the Guildsman is not willing…. 32. How twelve worthy men shall be elected to maintain the King’s peace and how Bailiffs, sergeants, etc.84 Every year on the day following Saint Michael,85 there shall be elected by the whole community of the town, assembled in a place provided to consider their state of affairs and to take care of the common business of the town,86 and then shall be elected by the entire community,87 twelve worthy men to execute the King’s commands, together with the bailiffs, and to keep the peace and protect the franchise, and to do and keep justice for all persons, poor as well as rich, natives and outsiders, all that year; and to this they shall be sworn in the form provided. And these twelve worthy men shall choose on that same day two worthy men from among themselves and other commendable and wise men, with whom the community is well pleased, to be Bailiffs for the ensuing year; and they shall receive their Bailiwicks the day after Michaelmas, as has been customary. And this shall be done from year to year, so that the Bailiffs shall be renewed every year, and the twelve aforesaid, if there is reason. The same shall be done in making and removing the clerk88 and sergeants of the town....
84. Bailiffs were officers of the town who were responsible for maintaining law and order, supervising the markets, especially their weights and measures, registering debts, collecting customs fees, and maintaining all tax records. Sergeants were their assistants in maintaining the peace. 85. September 30, the day following Michaelmas, or the feast of Saint Michael. 86. This assembly, which settled local matters, was known as the town-mote and had deep pre-Conquest origins. 87. This awkward redundancy is probably also a transcriptional error by a scribe. 88. The clerk’s duties are not precisely known. He probably served as the town’s recorder and might have been a lawyer.
35. That the common Chest 89 shall be in the house of the Alderman or of the Seneschal. And the common chest shall be in the house of the chief Alderman90 or of the Seneschal, and the three keys of the Chest shall be lodged with three discreet men of the aforesaid twelve sworn men, or with three of the skevins, who shall loyally guard the Common seal, and the charters and the treasure of the town, and the standards, and other legal documents of the town; and no letter shall be sealed with the common seal, nor any charter taken out of the Chest except in the presence of six or twelve sworn men, and of the Alderman and of the Seneschal. And nobody shall sell according to any kind of measure or weight if it is not sealed, under forfeiture of two shillings…. 53. That the Alderman shall be the head of the town and of the Guild in the town.91 The Alderman is head of the town and of the Guild, and should principally take pains and make it his purpose to maintain the franchise and the statutes of the Guild and of the town, and he shall have the first voice in all elections and in all matters that concern the town and the Guild. 63. No one shall [go out to meet any wine] or other merchandise coming to the town, to [purchase] anything.92 And let it be known that no one shall go out to meet any wine or other merchandise coming to the town of Southampton, in order to buy anything, before the ship has arrived and anchored for unloading, and if any one does so and is convicted, the merchandise that he has purchased shall be forfeited to the king.
89. Of the guild. 90. Prior to October 22, 1249, when the guild received a royal charter assuring the guild members that they and their successors should never at any time be governed by a mayor, Southampton had a chief alderman, or mayor, who was separate from the guild’s alderman. 91. This statute was established after October 22, 1249. See the previous note. 92. These gaps in the heading also suggest scribal error.
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Italian Communal Government 61. John of Viterbo, BOOK ON THE GOVERNMENT OF CITIES 93 If the citizens of northern Italy’s new communes were to govern themselves, they needed to understand the nature of government and how it functioned, and jurists responded with numerous treatises on the theory and practice of good government. One of the most influential was the thirteenth-century Book on the Government of Cities by the Italian lawyer John of Viterbo. We know little about the author. Even the date of the work’s composition is uncertain; some scholars have dated it as early as 1228, others as late as after 1261. In the excerpts that follow, John, citing Roman law, explains why cities exist and defines the role of the podestà, the chief magistrate of many northern Italian cities, whose title derived from the Latin potestas (power). Podestàs were often salaried professionals who were brought in from outside to govern and given one-year contracts, generally renewable upon review by an urban council. Because most Italian cities suffered from family and class conflicts, city councils often recruited foreign executives on the theory that only an outsider could treat all persons and classes in an evenhanded manner.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider John’s statement regarding the primary function of a city. What does it suggest about medieval urban centers? 2. How would you characterize the podestà’s powers. Please be specific. 3. John refers to the inhabitants of a city as “citizens.” What does that mean? 4. Consider “matters that touch all must be approved by all.” What did that mean to John of Viterbo? Did he envision the city as a democracy? If not, what was his understanding of a city’s constitution and reason for existence? 5. Compare Southampton and Cuerca with the city described here. What, if anything, did they have in common? How did they differ? Which were more significant, the similarities or the differences? What conclusions follow from your answers? 93. Johannis Viterbiensis liber de regimine civitatum, ed. Gaitano Salvemini, in Bibliotheca Juridica Medii Aevi, ed. Augusto Gandenzi, vol. 3 (Bologna: In aedibus successorum Monti, 1901), 218–19, 228–29, 260.
2. THE MEANING OF “CITY” A city, indeed, is said to be the liberty of [its] citizens or the defense of its inhabitants, as is said of a fortified town, for the purpose of its walls is that they are so constructed as to protect those dwelling within. This word civitas (city) is an abbreviation, and so its aforementioned meaning derives from the three syllables that civitas contains within itself. These are ci, vi, and tas. Ci stands for citra (apart from); vi stands for vim (oppression); tas stands for habitas (you dwell). It follows that civitas means “you dwell apart from oppression.” Thus, residence there is without oppression
because the governor of the city will protect persons of more humble station so that they do not suffer injury at the hands of more powerful individuals, for “We cannot be the equals of the more powerful.”94 Likewise, “it is not right for anyone to be oppressed by his adversary’s might. If this is the case, it certainly reflects the ill-will of the 94. This and the following quotation come from the Digest, one of four books of late-Roman imperial law compiled under the authority of Emperor Justinian I. Medieval lawyers in the West assumed Roman law was still valid. This was particularly so in imperial lands, of which northern Italy was a part.
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person governing the province.” Likewise, because everyone’s house is his most secure refuge and place of shelter, no one should drag him from there against his will. It is also not natural that anyone in a city is constrained by violent fear, etc. Likewise, one speaks correctly of “immunity” because inhabitants are made immune by the walls and towers of their city and are protected within it from hostile foreigners and enemies.
3. THE CREATION OF CITIES Cities, in fact, were created or established for a particular purpose. I do not speak of the holy city of heavenly Jerusalem, called “the Great City,” the city of our God, whose explanation I leave to theologians and prophets because it is not for me to speak of Heaven. Rather, I speak of cities in this world that have been founded so that anyone might hold onto his possessions, and his guardianship of his belongings will not be disturbed….
38. THE PODESTÀ’S OATH The podestà’s oath, in fact, should be administered by a judge: “You, Lord B., shall swear on the Holy Gospels, which you hold in your hands, that you will administer this city’s affairs and the business that pertains to your office and will rule, unite, govern, maintain, and hold safe this city, its surrounding countryside and district, and all people and every person, the small as well as the great, foot soldiers as well as knights,95 and maintain and protect their rights and preserve and assure the observance of the established law regarding minors and adults, especially little children, orphans, widows, and other people worthy of pity, and everyone else who will come to petition or answer charges under your jurisdiction and that of your judges. Likewise, to defend, preserve, and maintain churches, shrines, hospitals, and other revered places, roadways, pilgrims, and merchants; to keep inviolate the constitution of this city, on which you are swearing with a sound and pure conscience, saving exceptions, if any exceptions have been made, putting aside hatred, love, deceit, favor, and every sort of fraud, according to our sound and pure common understanding, from the first day of January for one year following and for 95. Well-to-do citizens could afford a knight’s armor, weapons, and horses. Poorer citizens served as infantry or in some similar role. In Italy, many knights and nobles had residences within a city, but many citizens whose wealth had been made through commerce or a craft also served as knights.
the whole day of January first.” Having said these words, he who has administered the said oath shall say: “Just as I have administered this, so you, Lord B., will swear, and you promise to respect the commune of Florence,96 and you will honor it in good faith and without fraud, guile, and without any sort of deceit. So may God and these holy Gospels of God aid you.” Following this, the judges, notaries, chamberlains, the podestà’s bodyguard or guards, and even his squires97 swear oaths….
119. THE PODESTÀ’S CONSULTATION WITH THE COUNCIL ON COMPLEX ISSUES To be sure, in those situations that are complex or serious or that pertain to the essential interests or benefit of the city, he should confer with the council,98 once it has been assembled, and should do so again and again, if the nature of the matter demands it…. For the podestà can act decisively with the knowledge and advice of the city council…. If the gravity of the situation requires greater counsel, others from among the wiser element of the citizenry should be summoned to give advice, after they have been elected by the city at large. To wit, representatives of the judges and those experienced in the law, representatives from the merchant and banker guild officials, representatives from the trade leaders,99 and other appropriate persons… For matters that touch all must be approved by all,100 and let unanimous agreement determine what will benefit everyone.
96. Florence, an industrial-commercial city in the northern region of Tuscany, was a commune since at least 1200. John of Viterbo evidently served the city in some legal capacity. 97. A podestà usually brought a large retinue of his own trained assistants, who would be given positions of responsibility during his term of office. They included notaries (legal secretaries), chamberlains (financial officers), a bodyguard or bodyguards (milites potestatis), and squires (personal attendants). 98. Councils, composed of resident aristocrats and rich merchants who had often joined forces to create a town’s first commune, were initially the normal governing bodies of Italy’s independent city-states. During the thirteenth century, many councils found it necessary to surrender executive power to a podestà, but they remained as checks on his exercise of authority. 99. The elected heads of the other trade and artisan guilds. 100. A principle of Roman contract law. See source 83 for its application to politics in England.
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Jewish Communities
Illus. 8.4 The anteroom of the subterranean Mikvah of Speyer. Built in 1120, this bath, which was used for ritual cleansing, was an important element in the religious life of Speyer’s large Jewish community. Its red sandstones and Romanesque windows echo the façade of the nearby Cathedral of Speyer. See Chapter 9 for a photo of the cathedral.
We would be blind to the realities of history if we overlooked medieval Europe’s non-Christian minorities. Jews, in particular, played a role in the cultural, social, and economic history of Europe that was disproportionate to their numbers. Despite Christian antipathy and often blatant hostility toward Judaism, vibrant Jewish communities proliferated and grew throughout Europe during the High Middle Ages, especially in the wake of the eleventh-century economic revival. It would also be a mistake to think that urban Jews supported themselves solely by commerce and money lending, as important as they were to the Jewish economy. Their occupations were as varied as those of their Christian neighbors, with the exception that Jews generally were not professional warriors, but in times of emergency some served in urban militias. Like their city-dwelling Christian neighbors, urban Jews could and did own nearby agricultural estates, both large and small. Whether merchants, bankers, artisans, estate owners, or manual laborers, Europe’s Jews contributed greatly to the economic upswing of cities and towns from England to Poland, from Scandinavia to the Mediterranean. As our first two sources illustrate, Jews were viewed as members of a distinctive, even marginal social order. Consequently, they were given special charters that defined their privileges, obligations, and status within the communities in which they settled. Although these charters guaranteed their privileges and rights, Jews were the targets of Christian bias and hostility, a phenomenon best characterized as anti-Judaism, to distinguish it from modern anti-Semitism, which is based on the nineteenth-century pseudoscience of race. This anti-Judaism could and did spark moments of bloody persecution. We shall see sources relating to those persecutions in Chapters 11 and 12. Our third source, which continues a theme discovered in source 41, presents visual evidence of the ideology that underlay anti-Judaism.
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An Episcopal Grant to the Jews of Speyer 62. Rüdegar Huozman, CHARTER TO THE JEWS OF SPEYER101 In 1084, Bishop Rüdegar Huozman of Speyer invited a community of Jews to settle in his city. They might have been migrants from the nearby city of Mainz who were fleeing persecution and seeking to join Jews whose families had been settled in Speyer since the early eleventh century. Whatever the case, in order to entice the new inhabitants, the bishop offered a charter of liberties, which Emperor Henry IV confirmed and significantly expanded in 1090. Together, these documents laid the basis for a large Jewish community that flourished in this Rhineland city until the mid-fourteenth century. When reading Bishop Rüdegar’s charter, do not be misled by his characterization of Speyer. As a significant port for waterborne commerce along the Rhine River, the town had been an episcopal see since the fourth century and was enclosed by a wall as early as the tenth century. A measure of its eleventh-century importance is the fact that in 1030, Emperor Conrad II inaugurated the construction of a massive imperial cathedral in the town. Speyer’s population was not large in Bishop Rüdegar’s day, yet it was anything but a village.
Questions for Consideration 1. What does the bishop’s expressed reason for inviting a Jewish community to settle in his city suggest about the Jews’ reputation? 2. What does the bishop’s action suggest about methods of urban development in his age? 3. Is there any evidence of anti-Judaism in this document? Please explain your answer. 4. How does the bishop attempt to protect the Jews of Speyer? 5. What economic activities do these Jews engage in? 6. What religious privileges does this charter guarantee? 7. What political-social privileges does the charter grant? 8. How are the Jews of Speyer treated as an entity separate from their Christian neighbors? 9. What overall picture of Jewish-Christian relations in Speyer emerges from your answers to questions 1–8? 101. Document 78, “Freiheitsbrief des Bishofs von Speier für die von Ihm aufgenommenen Juden,” in Ausgewählte Urkunden zur Erläuterung der Verfassungsgeschichte Deutschlands im Mittelalter, ed. Wilhelm Altmann and Ernst Bernheim, 5th ed. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1920), 161–62.
1. In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. When I, Rüdegar, whose surname is Huozman, humble bishop of Speyer, wished to make a city out of the village of Speyer, I thought that it would add many times over to the honor of our place if I joined some Jews [to it]. I located the
ones whom I collected apart from the common area and dwellings of the other citizens of the city; and lest they be troubled by the facile arrogance of a disturbed heart, I have surrounded them with a wall. The land for their dwellings I had acquired legally (first I secured the hill partly by
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purchase, partly by trade; the valley, however, I received as a gift from the heirs). I have given them this place, I say, on the condition that they pay every year three and one-half pounds coined in the mint of Speyer, for the common use of the brothers.102 2. I have given them also the free right of changing gold and silver and, in fact, of buying and selling everything that they wish within the walls of their quarter and from the area outside the gate clear up to the boat-landing [on the Rhine] and on the wharf itself. And I gave them the same right throughout the entire city. 3. In addition, I have given them, from land owned by the church, a place for burial held as free property.103 4. I have also granted that, if a Jew from someplace else is their guest, he shall pay no tolls [to the city]. 5. Next, their chief rabbi, just as is the case of the chief magistrate of the city in regard to its citizens, shall judge every complaint that arises among or against them, but if it should happen that, by chance, he cannot reach a decision, the case will advance to the bishop or his chamberlain. 6. They shall watch, guard, and defend only their own wall, sharing the guard work with [their] servants.
102. The town had three monasteries. 103. The Jewish community pays no rent for it.
7. They also have our license to have nurses and hired servants.104 8. The butchered meats that apparently are forbidden to them according to the restrictions of their law they may licitly sell to Christians, and Christians may licitly buy them. 9. To add to the sum of my kindness, I grant them a law that is better than whatever [any other] Jewish population has in any city whatsoever of the German kingdom. None of my successors may amend this grant and endowment to the detriment of these people or for a greater tax, as if these people had usurped this status for themselves and they had not received it from the bishop. This charter has been left for them as a fitting witness of that grant. And so that a memory of this very deed might live on through the ages, I have confirmed it with my own signature and my impressed seal, as can be seen below. This charter was given on the Ides of September105 in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1084,… in the twelfth year from when the forenamed bishop began to preside in this city.
104. Normally Jews were forbidden to employ Christians as wet nurses and servants. The ambiguity of this provision is tantalizing. 105. September 13.
An Imperial Grant to the Jews of Worms 63. Emperor Frederick I, A CHARTER OF PRIVILEGES FOR THE JEWS OF WORMS 106 Like Speyer, which lies twenty-two miles upriver (south), Worms was an imperially favored city governed by a prince-bishop. It also had a substantial Jewish community that had constructed its first synagogue within the city’s walls in 1034. As with Speyer, the Jewish quarter gave its inhabitants easy access to the Rhine harbor and its warehouses. On April 6, 1157, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa confirmed the privileges granted the Jews of Worms by Emperor Henry IV that acknowledged their special place within the empire. Several of the provisions contained in this charter were also part of the much briefer charter of 1090 that Henry IV 106. “Judenprivleg Friedrich I,” in Quellen zur deutschen Verfassungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte ed. Lorenz Weinrich (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1977), 240–46; and Document 84 in Ausgewählte Urkunden zur Erläuterung der Verfassungsgeschichte Deutschlands im Mittelalter, ed. Wilhelm Altmann and Ernst Bernheim, 5th ed. (Berlin: Weidmann, 1920), 170–72.
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granted the Jewish community of Speyer, namely protecting the Jews’ right to travel freely in order to conduct business, prohibiting forced baptisms, laying down severe penalties for persons who attacked Jews, and acknowledging the legitimacy and independence of the community’s legal system.
Questions for Consideration 1. What does Emperor Frederick mean when he states that he wished that the Jews of Worms look to him “for all justice” and that “they belong to our treasury”? Does statute XXIX. 33 of the Fuero of Cuenca help place this statement into a clearer light? 2. What do the protections stipulated in this charter allow us to infer about the dangers and forms of oppression that Jewish communities and their members faced? 3. Why did this charter stipulate that Jews who wished to convert to Christianity had to delay conversion for three days and, once having converted, lost their inheritance? 4. What can we infer from this document about the economic activities of the Jews of Worms? 5. What does this charter allow us to infer about the means and methods of justice in the twelfthcentury empire and evolving attitudes regarding traditional judicial procedures? In addressing this issue, review Burchard of Worms’s early eleventh-century charter to the family of Saint Peter and canon 18 of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.
In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Frederick, by the clement grace of God, emperor of the Romans, always Augustus. Let it be known to all bishops, abbots, dukes, counts, and all others who are subject to the laws of our realm that we also confirm by the ever-rightful authority of our law the statutes that our great-grandfather Emperor Henry granted to the Jews of Worms and their other co-religionists in the time of Solomon the bishop of these same Jews.107 1. Because we wish that they look to us for all justice, we command by the authority of our regal dignity that no bishop, or chamberlain or count or local judge or anyone whatsoever, except him whom they have elected from their congregation, shall presume to do anything with them or against them regarding any matter or regarding a fine from any judgment unless it is he alone whom, by their election (as we said already), the emperor himself has given to them, especially since they belong to our treasury, so that it will have pleased us. 2. No one also shall dare to take away from them anything whatsoever of the properties that they possess by right of inheritance in the matter of vacant lands, orchards, 107. The city’s rabbi.
vineyards, agricultural fields, slaves, or of other goods both moveable and immoveable. In like measure, no one shall interfere with what they have erected on the city wall, either within or outside of it.108 Indeed, if anyone should, in contravention of this, our edict, attempt to molest them in any way, he shall forfeit our grace and shall restore twofold to them whatever he took. 3. They shall have also the free right to change silver throughout the entire city with persons of every sort, the only exceptions being in front of the mint or any place where the mint officials have set up an exchange. 4. They shall travel about freely and peacefully throughout the entirety of our realm for the exercise of their business and commerce, buying and selling. And no one shall exact a toll from them; no one shall demand [from them] a public or private tax. 5. Guests may not be quartered within their homes without their consent. No one shall demand a horse from them for the king’s journey or that of the bishop or as transportation for a royal expedition. 108. The Jewish quarter adjoined the city’s north wall, on which there are today remnants of the windows of Jewish houses. Normally, it was forbidden to weaken a wall by putting windows into it or external buildings against it.
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6. If, perhaps, a stolen item happens to be found in their midst, if a Jew says he purchased it, he shall state under an oath that accords with his law how much he paid, and upon receipt of that amount shall restore it to him who owned it. 7. No one may dare to baptize their unwilling sons and daughters. If someone should have baptized them after they have been taken by force or furtively carried off or constrained, he shall pay twelve pounds of gold to the king’s treasury. If, however, anyone of them freely wishes to be baptized, it must be delayed for three days in order that it be totally ascertained whether he truly is abandoning his law for the sake of the Christian religion or for some pressure placed on him. And so, they who give up their father’s law, so also give up their inheritance. 8. No one shall also take away from their service their slaves who are pagan under the pretext of baptizing them into the Christian religion. If anyone does this, he shall pay the fine, namely three pounds of silver and return the slave to his lord. The slave, indeed, shall obey all the orders of his lord except those contrary to the Christian faith. 9. They are permitted to have Christian maidservants and nurses and may employ Christian men for labor except on feast days and Sundays. No bishop or any cleric may prohibit this. 10. They are not permitted to obtain a Christian slave. 11. If a Jew brings suit against a Christian or a Christian against a Jew, each, according to the circumstances, shall seek justice according to his own law and argue his own case. And just as any Christian is allowed to offer proof through his own public oath and that of one witness of either law109 and by that has freed himself of posting a bond to the Jew, so also the Jew may offer proof through his public oath and that of one Jew and one Christian, thereby having freed himself of posting a bond to the Christian, and he shall not be further bothered by the plaintiff or a judge. 12. No one may force a Jew [to undergo the ordeal of ] burning iron or of hot or cold water nor beat him with a scourge or throw him into prison. Rather he shall 109. A Jew or a Christian.
swear an oath according to his own law after forty days. No one can be convicted for any cause whatsoever unless there are both Jewish and Christian witnesses. They who appeal to the king’s court in any matter whatsoever must be given time [for an adequate appeal]. Anyone who molests them in contempt of this, our edict, shall pay to the emperor the ban-fee, namely three pounds of gold.110 13. If anyone takes part in a plot against anyone of them or has carried out an ambush with the purpose of killing him, both the plotter and the killer each shall pay twelve pounds of gold to the king’s treasury. If, in fact, he wounds him and it is not mortal, he shall pay one pound of gold. And if it is a serf who has killed or wounded him, his lord shall either pay the abovementioned restitution or hand over the serf for punishment. If the above-mentioned serf cannot pay because of his poverty, the same punishment that was imposed in the time of Henry, our imperial great-grandfather, on him who killed a Jew named Vivus shall be carried out, that is to say his eyes are to be gouged out and his right hand cut off. 14. If the Jews have any internal legal matter or case, it shall be decided by their peers and not judged by anyone else. If, at any time whatsoever, some perfidious person among them desires to hide the truth in some internal matter, he shall be compelled to tell the truth by him who is their bishop. If, however, they have been accused of some grave matter, they have [the right to] appeal to the emperor, if they wish. 15. Besides their wine, they have license to sell spices and medicines to Christians and, as we said earlier, no one may exact from them horses or transport service or any public or private tax, And so that the authority of this grant remains inviolate for all time, I have signed this charter and ordered it sealed with our impressed seal. [There follow the names of ten witnesses, including his son Conrad, the bishops of Worms and Speyer, and his imperial chancellor Rainald of Dassel.] 110. The fee one paid to have an imperial ban, or sentence of outlawry, lifted. A person who was banned, or outlawed, was not protected by law.
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Images of “the Jew” 64. THE BAPTISMAL FOUNT OF THE CHURCH OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL, BOCHUM; ECCLESIA AND SYNAGOGA, STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL; THE SOUTH PORTAL, STRASBOURG CATHEDRAL Images of the Jew were everywhere in Western Europe during the High Middle Ages and following, especially in the art that graced its urban churches. Our first source is a twelfth-century baptismal fount in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Bochum, Germany. Carved in the Romanesque style, it portrays the crucifixion of Jesus. Three persons in the scene wear the horn-shaped cap known in Germany as the Judenhut ( Jew’s hat). The second image is of two allegorical figures Ecclesia (the Church) and Synagoga (the Synagogue). Carved in the Gothic style between around 1215 and the early 1230s, they once flanked the south portal door of Strasbourg Cathedral. By 1200, this allegorical pair was fairly common in Western Europe and appeared in a variety of media, including stained-glass windows and statuary. Typically, Ecclesia holds a chalice in which, during the Mass, wine will become the blood of Jesus. Synagoga is blindfolded, holds a broken spear, and lets a tablet slip from the fingers of her left hand. Our third image, a view of the entire south portal, allows us to place these two statues into a fuller context. Positioned at the center of the portal is a statue of King Solomon the Wise Judge. The sword that Solomon holds is a dramatic representation of the biblical story of how this king of Israel discovered which of two women was the mother of a living baby whom both she and the mother of a dead baby claimed (1 Kings, 3:16–28). Over him is a figure of Jesus, Judge of the World, holding a globe. Both statues are nineteenth-century replacements for the originals that were destroyed during the French Revolution, but we know from an early seventeenth-century engraving that they are reasonable duplicates. In order to understand the narrative role that these two centrally located statues play, notice the directions in which Ecclesia and Synagoga cast their eyes. Three additional facts are worth your consideration: the plaza in front of the south portal served as a venue for public ceremonies, especially large-scale penitential services; the bishop of Strasbourg and the cathedral’s archdeacon used the area known as the south transept, which is located immediately inside the south portal, as a court of law; and Strasbourg’s Second Municipal Charter of around 1214 entrusted the city banner to the care of the Jewish community.
Questions for Consideration 1. What are the three persons with pointed hats doing? What, therefore, is the message of this carving? 2. Ecclesia and Synagoga are metaphors in stone. Explain each symbol, including ones not pointed out or explained in the introduction. 3. Now let us place them into a fuller context. Thirteenth-century Strasbourg had a large, well-to-do Jewish population, which resided in the area adjacent to the cathedral. What message did the person who commissioned the sculptures of Solomon, Ecclesia, and Synagoga wish to convey? And how would a Jewish resident of the city interpret those sculptures? 4. Review canon 68 of the Fourth Lateran Council. Do you see any commonalities between that regulation and the messages of these sculptures in Bochum and Strasbourg?
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Illus. 8.5 Baptismal Fount, Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Bochum, Germany.
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Illus. 8.6 Ecclesia and Synagoga, Musée de l’Oeuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg, France. Unlike the column statues on the cathedral’s west façade that appear in source 72, these two statues were carved totally in the round and were attached only to their respective bases. In order to preserve them from environmental degradation, the statues were removed to a nearby museum and replaced with the copies that we see in the next illustration.
Illus. 8.7 Strasbourg Cathedral, South Portal. Except for the two tympana (note the tympanum of the Dormition on the left, which is part of source 48) and the statues of Ecclesia and Synagoga, all of the sculptures of the south portal were destroyed during the French Revolution and later replaced in the nineteenth century. The portal itself is a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic styles; the rounded arches are Romanesque; the statuary is Gothic. See sources 71 and 72 below for a fuller exploration of these two artistic styles.
Chapter 9
Innovation and Diversity in Intellectual and Artistic Expression
Illus. 9.1 The Imperial Cathedral of Speyer, Germany. This Romanesque church, the
The period 1050 to 1300 was one of largest of its style in Germany, was begun in 1030, consecrated in 1061, and expanded the West’s most fertile eras of cultural to its present dimensions between 1090 and 1106. creativity. Intellectually and artistically, Latin Europe proved capable of amazing breakthroughs and, what was equally amazing, bursts of renewal, revision, and restructuring of yesterday’s novelties. In the intellectual arena, European scholars applied in new ways classical Greek modes of rational analysis to the study of theology, moral philosophy, law, and a variety of other critical subjects. Toward the end of the eleventh century, scholars were using early sixth-century Latin translations of the elementary logical treatises of Aristotle as the basis for testing the limits of human reason to cast light on core religious and ethical issues. From the middle of the twelfth century onward, schoolmasters and students avidly searched for, collected, and studied Latin translations of the more advanced logical and scientific works of Aristotle, as well as commentaries on his works by Muslim and Jewish scholars. By 1160, the whole body of Aristotle’s logic was known in the West, and by the end of the century, the same was true for his extant scientific treatises, which Europe initially acquired from Spain and Sicily through Arabic translations of and commentaries upon the original Greek texts. This swift influx of Greek rationalism revolutionized education and had a profound effect on Latin Christianity’s approach to theology. The work of thirteenth-century intellectuals was no less impressive. They carried forward the breakthroughs of the twelfth century and expanded them on a number of fronts. By the middle of the 238
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century, European scholars had access to better, more literal translations of Aristotle’s works directly from the Greek texts. Perhaps the most characteristic and daring achievement of this second century of Christian Aristotelianism was that a significant number of Europe’s best teachers constructed encyclopedic syntheses, or summae, in a variety of fields, especially theology and law. Early twelfth-century scholars had been largely wandering students and teachers who drifted among Europe’s various cathedral and monastic schools, but thirteenth-century lovers of learning gravitated toward its newest intellectual arenas, the universities. Although universities attracted masters and students representing a wide variety of schools of thought and approaches to learning, their means of investigation and instruction were refined variations on the methods of rational analysis championed by so many twelfth-century predecessors.
High-medieval literature also reflects in its variety, complexity, and maturity a society that had achieved a remarkable level of sophistication. Latin and vernacular poems that sang of heavenly aspirations and carnal pleasures, knightly epics and Arthurian romances, satires and parodies, popular tales both pious and bawdy, witty animal fables, plays that interwove comic and solemn scenes, biographies and autobiographies, and histories of every sort—all were part of the rich fabric of European letters.
Illus. 9.2 Lincoln Cathedral. Dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the former Romanesque cathedral was extensively damaged by an earthquake in 1185. Bishop Hugh began reconstruction in 1192, and the project was essentially completed in 1235. Constructed in the style of Early English Gothic, for several centuries Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest building in Europe.
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In the area of the visual arts and architecture, twelfth- and thirteenth-century Europe witnessed the maturation of Romanesque forms and then the creation and perfection of the Gothic vision. Solid, earthbound Romanesque structures fittingly served a prosperous society that had established a secure place in the here and now, whereas soaring Gothic churches and civic buildings symbolized the energy and aspirations that drove that society to new heights. The essence of Gothic construction is the opposition of contrary forces to create an edifice that seems to defy gravity. Thrust and counterthrust, particularly through use of a serendipitous architectural device known as the flying buttress, resulted in a complex structure whose sheer beauty and size reflect the faith and pride of the society that created it. Such an achievement was fitting for a civilization that contained so many creative tensions.
Reason and Revelation in the Schools of Paris As a religious culture based on what its adherents believe to be Divine Revelation, Christianity has continually wrestled with the issue of the proper relationship of faith to reason. This quandary was intensified by the fact that Christian Europe was an heir not only of Jewish monotheism but also of Greek philosophy and science. Thanks to the scholarship and authority of such early Christian writers as Saint Augustine (d. 430) and Boethius (d. 524), and to monastic scholars who preserved and studied the surviving texts of Roman antiquity, a fair amount of Europe’s Greco-Roman heritage survived the vagaries of late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Yet, for all of the continued vitality of monasticism, urban cathedral schools were replacing monasteries as Western Europe’s premier intellectual centers by the year 1100. Learned monks emphasized traditional, conservative subjects, such as classical literature, and approached theology as a form of prayer, as we saw with Bernard of Clairvaux. The secular clerics who taught primarily at cathedral schools were no less pious, but they emphasized the more dynamic subjects of dialectic (logic) and law and approached theology as a form of speculative philosophy. For these intellectuals, Aristotle’s books on dialectic became tools that they hoped would enable them to understand more fully both Heaven and Earth and thereby to function more effectively as dual citizens of the City of God and the City of Humanity. By the late twelfth century, some cathedral schools had evolved into Europe’s (and the world’s) first universities, that is to say, chartered corporations, or guilds, of masters and students that offered standardized curricula leading to recognized teaching licenses, or degrees, in certain core disciplines, namely, the liberal arts, theology, canon and civil law, and medicine. Although we cannot date their precise beginnings, by 1200, Europe already had three recognized universities—Bologna, Paris, and Oxford—and many more would be established within the next several centuries. Of all the branches of learning studied at Europe’s medieval universities, none was more prestigious or demanding than theology, and of all the schools of theology, Paris was preeminent. After about 1150, whenever medieval Christian Europe was confronted with a weighty religious issue, it usually turned to the masters of theology at Paris for guidance. The first two documents in this section illustrate two of the most significant periods and personalities in the evolution of Paris as Christian Europe’s center for theological studies. In the first source, we see Peter Abelard, peripatetic scholar and champion of faith illuminated by reason, who flourished in the period before Paris had an established university. In many respects, Master Peter and his contemporaries were the pioneering teachers who turned Paris into Europe’s leading center of theological study and creativity. The second source is an example of the methods of inquiry and elucidation of the University of Paris’s greatest thirteenth-century theologian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, arguably the most brilliant
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mind of his generation and culture. Together, Abelard and Aquinas point out the ways in which reason and Revelation coexisted in the urban schools of the High Middle Ages. The third source, composed in the year that Aquinas retired from his professorial chair at Paris, illustrates a residual problem that vexed some masters at Paris who sought to apply the principles of philosophy to the study of Divine Revelation.
Understanding through Questioning 65. Peter Abelard, SIC ET NON 1 In twelfth-century Latin Europe, dialectic represented order and harmony to a society that was all too aware of the chaos of life. Like the modern digital revolution, twelfth-century dialectic provided European scholars with both a medium of analysis and a system for categorizing information and insight. It is no exaggeration to state that the great theological, philosophical, and legal systems of the High Middle Ages were based on dialectic. The most influential early champion of dialectic was Peter Abelard (1079–1142), a peripatetic teacher of logic and theology at Paris and elsewhere. Born the son of a minor Breton noble, Peter chose a life of learning and teaching and sometime in the course of his studies adopted the surname Abelard, which means “noble strength,” an indicator of the young scholar’s self-image and approach to dialectical combat. Abelard was a master of the academic jousting that took place in the schools of France and was, moreover, an original thinker and an inspired and inspiring teacher. Our source is from the prologue to a textbook that Abelard compiled for his students sometime after 1120. Titled Sic et Non (Yes and No), it presents readers with 158 theological questions for investigation. Significantly, the first question he posited was “that faith cannot be demonstrated by human reason and the contrary.” Texts culled from the Bible and other authoritative sources that seemed either to support (sic) or deny (non) the proposition under consideration follow each of these deliberately provocative questions. All of the questions go to the heart of the Christian faith. Abelard was not testing his students’ faith, but he was challenging their ability to apply the rules of logic and reason to resolve the apparent quandaries. Given this objective, Master Peter offered only the opposing texts without any suggested resolutions. As any good teacher would, however, Abelard provided his students with sufficient instructions and examples on how to wrestle successfully with the problems he had given them, and he did so by laying down, in a lengthy prologue to the work, a series of general rules of textual analysis. What follow are several of those guidelines.
Questions for Consideration 1. How does Abelard regard the Bible? Does he think its authors were capable of error? How does he explain the apparent contradictions and errors that appear in portions of the Bible? 2. Does he accept all texts as equally authoritative? If not, what order of priority has he established? 3. If citing authorities is not sufficient in the study of theological issues, how, according to Abelard, should one approach these issues? 1. Peter Abailard, Sic et Non: A Critical Edition, ed. Blanche B. Boyer and Richard McKeon (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 89–104, passim.
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4. Was Abelard a religious skeptic, or did he believe that there is an absolute standard of religious truth that humans can know? 5. In this prologue, does he place any limits on human reason? If so, what are they, and what conclusions follow from your answer?
Here Begins the Prologue of Peter Abelard in Sic et Non It is true that among the great multitude of words, quite a few sayings of the saints seem not only to differ from one another but even to contradict one another, [but] we should not be so presumptuous as to judge those men through whom the world itself will be judged, as it written: The saints shall judge nations and again, You shall sit and judge.2 We do not presume to accuse them of being untruthful or, as it were, condemn them for being in error, they to whom it was said by the Lord: Who hears you, hears Me, and who rejects you, rejects Me.3 Therefore, keeping in mind our feebleness of intellect, we believe that the deficiency lies within our own ability to understand rather than in any deficiency in the writings of those to whom it was said by the Truth Himself: For it is not you who speak but the spirit of your Father Who speaks in you.4 Indeed, why should it be surprising if we, lacking [the guidance of ] the Holy Spirit Himself, through Whom these things were written and dictated and by Whom these things were made known to the writers, should fail in our understanding of them? Uncommon modes of expression and the various different meanings of the same word (as the very same word is used in this way and in that way) especially impede our attaining an understanding of something. Indeed, just as each person has an abundance of words, so there are so many meanings…. One must also carefully pay attention when any of the sayings of the saints are presented to us that are, as it were, opposite to or different from the truth, so that we are not led astray by the false attribution of a text or by a corruption of the text itself. For there are many apocrypha5 ascribed to the names of the Fathers in order to give them authority, and there are even many corruptions in the texts of the Divine Testaments due to scribal error. For this reason, Jerome, a most faithful writer and accurate 2. Book of Wisdom, 3:8; Matthew, 19:28; Luke, 22:30. 3. Luke, 10:16. 4. Matthew, 10:20. 5. Counterfeit texts ascribed to an authoritative author.
translator…warned us by saying: “She should be wary of all apocrypha.… She should know that they are not the works of those to whom they are ascribed in the titles.”6 This same man, regarding the title of Psalm 77, which is Asaph’s Instruction,7 said likewise: “It is written according to Matthew that when the Lord had spoken in parables and they failed to understand, etc., He said that these things were done so that it might be fulfilled what was written by the Prophet Isaias, ‘I will open my mouth in parables.’ The Gospels so have it right up to today. It is not Isaias who says this, rather Asaph.”8… So here there was an error by the scribes as they wrote “Isaias” for “Asaph.” For we know that a Church of many peoples was assembled from among the ignorant Gentiles. Therefore, when they read in the Gospel, that it might be fulfilled what was written in the Prophet Asaph, he who first wrote down the Gospel began to say: “Who is this Prophet Asaph?” For he was not known by the people. And what did he do? In order to correct an error, he made an error…. Why should one be surprised that likewise in the writings of the later Fathers, who are far less authoritative, this has sometimes happened, if in the Gospels there are also some corruptions due to the ignorance of scribes?… I think that it is no less important to ascertain whether such texts cited from among the writings of the saints are ones that they themselves retracted in another place and corrected when they later perceived the truth, as the blessed Augustine did on numerous occasions, or rather if they are articulating the opinion of others rather than their own judgment, just as Ecclesiastes on many occasions introduces the contradictory opinions of diverse 6. Saint Jerome (345–420), Letter to Laeta (Epistola 107:12) with advice for her daughter. 7. Today Psalm 78. Twelve psalms in the Book of Psalms are attributed to Asaph. 8. Jerome, Tract, or Homily, on the Psalms. The relevant biblical texts cited here are Psalms, 78:2, and Matthew, 13:35. Isaias was several different Hebrew prophets of the eighth through sixth centuries B.C.E., whose sayings comprise the Book of Isaiah.
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persons.9… or rather by positing a question, they left these matters open to further inquiry rather than settling them with a definitive statement…. Nevertheless, so that the way is not blocked and posterity is not deprived of the exceedingly healthy labor of discussing and debating the difficult questions of language and style, a distinction must be made between the books of later authors and the supremacy of the canonical authority of the Old and New Testaments, where, if anything should seem absurd, you may not say: “The author of this book did not hold to the truth.” Rather, either the codex10 is defective, or the translator erred, or you do not understand it. If, by chance, things in the works of later authors, which are contained in innumerable books, are thought to deviate from the truth because they are not reasonable as articulated, then in this case the reader or listener is free to judge so that he might approve what is pleasing or reject what is offensive, and so it is with all matters of that sort, unless the issues are securely established by certain reason or canonical authority.…
In consideration of these points that have been raised, it seems appropriate that we have undertaken to collect various sayings of the holy Fathers that, as we remember, are perceived as having given rise to questioning because of some lack of harmony. Questions of this sort spur young readers to a maximum effort in seeking the truth, and they become sharper through inquiry. Indeed, the first key to wisdom is clearly proved to be assiduous and frequent questioning. Aristotle, that most insightful philosopher of all…exhorted it, saying, “…Doubting regarding everything will not be useless.”11 Indeed, by doubting we come to inquiry; by inquiry we perceive the truth. This is according to the Truth Himself, who said, Seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened for you.12 He also gave us His own moral example. Around twelve years of age, He wished to be found seated amid the teachers, questioning them, first displaying for us through His questioning the model of a student before that of a teacher by His teaching, even though He is the full and perfect Wisdom of God itself.
9. The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the twenty-four canonical books of the Hebrew Bible and is accepted as a divinely inspired book of wisdom by Christians. 10. A bound manuscript.
11. From Boethius’s sixth-century translation into Latin of Aristotle’s Categories. 12. Matthew, 7:7.
Thirteenth-Century Rational Theology 66. Thomas Aquinas, SUMMA CONTRA GENTILES 13 Abelard’s use of dialectic to probe theological questions disturbed some conservative church leaders, including Bernard of Clairvaux, who launched an assault on Abelard’s rationalism and brash personality. Bernard complained that this approach to Revelation corrupted the faith of the simple folk and sullied the purity of the Church. Despite the force of Bernard’s impassioned onslaught and condemnations of some of Abelard’s teachings by two French church councils, the rationalism that Abelard championed eventually won the day in the schools. However, no subsequent master who put together a collection of questions dared to emulate Abelard by leaving the issues unresolved. What most alienated the majority of Abelard’s detractors was not so much his rationalism as what appeared to them to be his arrogance and aggressive style. Notwithstanding his enemies, Abelard helped transform Paris into Europe’s premier academic center. Sometime after Abelard’s death but well before 1200, the masters of Paris formed a teaching guild, or universitas (corporation), which enjoyed a monopoly on higher education in the city. The University of Paris attracted students and teachers from all over Europe, and of all of its thirteenth-century alumni and teachers, the greatest was an Italian Dominican friar and professor of 13. S. Thomae de Aquino, Summa contra Gentiles (Rome: Sedes Commissionis Leoninae et Libreria Vaticana, 1934), 2–3, 6–7.
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theology known as Thomas Aquinas (1225–74). Around 1258/59, Thomas, who held one of the two theological chairs that the university reserved for mendicant friars, began the first of his two great summae of theology, a labor he completed around 1264/65. Known as the Summa contra Gentiles, which is best translated as “A Comprehensive Treatise in Opposition to the Unbelievers,” the work was intended to serve as a handbook for Dominican missionaries in Spain and elsewhere, who needed rational defenses of Catholic belief in their debates with learned Muslims, Jewish rabbis, and Cathars. Even though Christians shared with Muslims and Jews the belief that a single God of the universe had revealed certain otherwise unknowable truths though the agency of prophets, Aquinas realized that it was necessary to base his arguments primarily on reason. Consequently, he constructed a natural theology grounded upon the principles of Aristotelian philosophy. In essence, he attempted to demonstrate that certain limited elements of the Catholic faith could be arrived at without the benefit of Divine Revelation. In contrast, his later, more mature and comprehensive Summa theologica (A Synthesis of Theology) is a vast tome that combines arguments from Revelation and philosophy and was aimed at Christian students of advanced theology. This latter masterwork was predicated on the assumption that humanity needs both reason and Revelation because arriving at any truth regarding God by reason alone is an arduous, time-consuming task limited to few, and even these few cannot avoid mixing error with truthful insight. In the following excerpts from Book I of the Summa contra Gentiles, Aquinas addresses the relationship of reason and Revelation.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to Aquinas, what are the two truths? 2. According to Aquinas (and Aristotle), what are the sources of human knowledge? Put another way, how do humans achieve “natural knowledge”? 3. According to Aquinas, what can natural knowledge achieve and what are its limits? 4. According to Aquinas, why is it foolish to reject Divine Revelation just because it does not make sense? 5. According to Aquinas, can reason and Revelation, science and faith truly conflict? What if they appear to conflict? 6. Although Aquinas uses Aristotle’s principles, and categories, he departs from him. How so? Why so? 7. Would Aquinas’s arguments convince an unbeliever? Why or why not?
CHAPTER III THE MEANS BY WHICH IT IS POSSIBLE TO MAKE KNOWN DIVINE TRUTH Because, in fact, not every truth is to be made known in the same way, rather it is the mark of an educated person to seek to grasp certainty in each class of things just as far as the nature of the matter allows14 and as Boethius maintains: it is 14. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (Book I, Chapter 3).
necessary to first show in what way it is possible to make manifest a proposed truth.15 Now in those matters in which we confess belief about God there are two types of truth. Certain truths regarding God surpass in every way the power of human reason, for example that God is three and one. Surely, there are certain things that even natural reason can attain, such as that God exists, God is one, and other matters such as 15. Boethius, On the Trinity, Book II.
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this, which even the philosophers demonstratively proved regarding God, being guided by the light of natural reason. Nevertheless, there are some divine truths that wholly transcend the power of human reason, as is most evidently apparent. For inasmuch as the foundation of all knowledge that reason perceives about anything is an understanding of that matter’s essence because, according to the teaching of the Philosopher, the core element of demonstration is what a thing is, it follows that the way in which one knows the substance of a thing determines the way in which those elements that belong to it are understood.16 Consequently, if the human intellect comprehends the substance of any object, think of a stone or a triangle, nothing knowable about that object exceeds the power of human reason. This, however, is not the case with us regarding God. For the human intellect is not able, by its own natural power, to reach an understanding of His substance. Because of the nature of our intellect, given what it is in the present life, understanding begins with the senses, and therefore those things that do not fall under the senses cannot be grasped by the human intellect, except insofar as a knowledge of them is gathered from things that are sensed. Now, things that are sensed cannot lead our intellect to the point that the divine substance is perceived in them because they are results that are unequal to the power of their Cause. Nevertheless, our intellect is led by things that are sensed to divine knowledge so that it might know, regarding God, that He exists and other facts of this sort that must be attributed to the First Principle.17 It follows that there are certain intelligible facts regarding God that are open to human reason; there are, surely, others that totally surpass the power of human reason…. Moreover, the very same phenomenon is clearly apparent in the failure that we experience daily in regard to understanding things. We ignore many of the properties of things that we sense, and in most cases we are unable to discover fully the natures of those properties that we do perceive 16. For Aquinas, Aristotle was “the Philosopher.” Here he cites a passage from Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics, which focuses on the science of demonstration, or definition. An essence, or substance, is the property or set of properties that makes something what it is and without which it would not be what it is. The essence of a triangle is three angles created by three joined lines. 17. Aquinas saw in Aristotle’s postulation of the theory of first principles (the self-evident bases from which something is known) a First Principle of the universe, namely the Judaeo-Christian God.
through our senses. So much more is it the case, therefore, that human reason is not sufficient for investigating all of the knowable truths of that Most Excellent Substance. The statement of the Philosopher also agrees with this. In Book II of Metaphysics he asserts that our intellect in relation to the prime entities that are most evident in nature is like the eye of a bat to the sun. Sacred Scripture also bears witness to this truth. For it is said in Job, 11: Will you, perhaps, comprehend the depths of God and will you perceive the Almighty perfectly? and [ Job,] 36: Behold, God is great, exceeding our knowledge. And I Corinthians: We know in part. One, therefore, should not immediately reject as false all that is said about God, even though it cannot be investigated by reason….
CHAPTER VII THAT THE TRUTH OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS NOT IN OPPOSITION TO THE TRUTH OF REASON Now, although the aforesaid truth of the Christian faith surpasses the capacity of human reason, nevertheless those truths that reason has naturally instilled cannot be opposed to this truth. For those entities that have been naturally implanted in reason are most true, so much so that it is not possible to think them false. Nor is it permitted to believe false that which is held in faith because it has been confirmed in a manner that is clearly divine. Since, therefore, only error is opposed to truth, as is manifestly apparent from a study of their definitions, it is impossible that the aforesaid truth of faith be contrary to those principles that reason knows naturally…. Now knowledge of the principles that are known naturally has been divinely implanted in us because God Himself is the Creator of our nature. Divine Wisdom, therefore, also embraces these principles. It follows, therefore, that whatever contradicts principles of this sort is contrary to Divine Wisdom. It cannot, therefore, be from God. Those things, therefore, that we hold in faith from Revelation cannot be contrary to natural knowledge…. And for that reason the Apostle says in Romans 10: The word is very near in your heart and your mouth; this is the word of faith that we preach. But because it transcends reason, some think it opposed [to reason]. This is not possible.
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The authority of Augustine also agrees with this. He says so in A Commentary on the Words of Genesis, Book II: That which truth shall reveal cannot in any way be opposed to the sacred books of either the Old or New Testaments. From this one may clearly conclude that whatever the arguments might be that are raised against the
doctrines of the faith, they do not correctly follow from the first principles of nature, which are self-evident. It follows that they do not have the force of being demonstrable but are arguments that are either believable or cleverly fallacious, and so, there is room for disproving them.
Ensuring Theological Correctness 67. A STATUTE OF 1272 OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS OF PARIS 18 Not every thirteenth-century intellectual and church leader shared Thomas Aquinas’s serene confidence that true philosophy cannot contradict the true faith. After all, Aristotle, “the Philosopher,” had maintained that the world is eternal, a proposition that no orthodox Christian, (or Jew or Muslim) could accept. As early as 1215, Cardinal Robert de Courçon, an alumnus of the University of Paris, its former chancellor, and now a papal legate, led the movement to forbid lectures on Aristotle’s books on physics and metaphysics, although he allowed the reading and use of Aristotle’s books on logic and ethics. In his papal bull of 1231, which granted the University of Paris wide-ranging privileges, Gregory IX continued the official prohibition on previously banned books of science until they had been thoroughly examined and purged of all heretical propositions. Notwithstanding this assault, an official list of courses offered by the Liberal Arts faculty in 1255 included a long catalog of Aristotle’s scientific treatises, such as his Physics, among the core books on which the masters would lecture. It also included Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Presumably, they had been examined and found acceptable in the quarter century since Pope Gregory’s bull. Despite this triumph of the Aristotelian canon, many church leaders remained skeptical of the legitimacy of philosophical pursuits and especially decried the application of philosophy to theology. Some even questioned the orthodoxy of certain Parisian masters. In 1270, Bishop Stephen of Paris publicly condemned and excommunicated all who taught thirteen notorious heresies, including the idea that the world is eternal. It is in this context that we must understand the statute of 1272 that follows.
Questions for Consideration 1. What exactly does this statute prohibit? 2. By implication, what does the statute permit? 3. Is it a direct attack on Aristotelian philosophy or the use of logic to cast light on theological beliefs? 4. If not, what is it, and what does it represent? 18. Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, ed. Heinrich Denifle, vol. I (Paris: Fratres Delalain, 1889), 499–500.
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A Statute of the faculty of Arts19 against masters of Arts dealing with theological questions, and that no one shall dare to settle, in opposition to the faith, questions that touch on the faith as well as philosophy. To every and each son of Holy Mother the Church, now and in the future, who shall see the present page: each and every master of the science of Logic or professor of Natural Science at Paris…offers greetings [in the name of ] the Savior of all. All should know that we the masters, each and all… wishing with all [our] power to avoid present and future dangers that in circumstances of this sort might befall our faculty in the future, with common consent and not one of us in opposition,…we the masters, one and all, having been brought together for this purpose in the Church of Sainte Geneviève in Paris,20 decree and ordain that no master or bachelor21 of our faculty should presume to decide or even dispute22 any purely theological question, such as concerning the Trinity and the Incarnation, and likewise all similar matters, since such a person would be transgressing the boundaries assigned him. For, as the Philosopher says, it is totally improper for a non-geometrician to dispute with a geometrician.23
19. The University of Paris consisted of four faculties: Arts, Medicine, Canon Law, and Theology. The faculty of Arts provided a basic program centered on the Seven Liberal Arts, of which dialectic was the premier discipline. After seven or eight years of study, a student was examined and, if passed, advanced to the degree of Master of Arts, which brought with it a license to teach the Arts. If he desired, he could then advance to one of the three higher areas of study at Paris, or could pursue at another university civil, or Roman, law, which was not offered at Paris. 20. A church of secular canons on the Left Bank. The school of Sainte Geneviève, where Abelard had taught, was one of the cradles of the University of Paris. 21. A Bachelor of Arts was an apprentice teacher on the path to becoming a Master of Arts. He had reached a level of expertise, after two or more years of study, whereby his master allowed him to hold a public disputation to demonstrate his ability. Some students left the university after achieving this status. Thus was born the B.A. as a terminal degree. 22. Consult the Glossary at Disputation. 23. Posterior Analytics, Book I, Part 12.
But if someone should have so presumed, unless within three days after having been warned or ordered by us he willingly recant publicly his presumption in the classes or public disputations where he first disputed the said question, he shall be removed permanently from our society. We further decree and ordain that if someone has disputed anywhere whatsoever in Paris any question that seems to touch both on the faith and philosophy, if he has argued it contrary to the faith, from that time [onward] he shall be removed permanently from this, our society as a heretic, unless he has taken care to humbly and devoutly recant his error and his heresy in a full assembly or wherever it seems expedient to us, within three days after our warning. Adding further that if any master or bachelor of our faculty reads24 or disputes any difficult passages or any questions that seem in some measure to undermine the faith, he shall refute the arguments or text, if they are contrary to the faith, or just acknowledge that they are absolutely false and totally erroneous, and he shall not otherwise presume to dispute or lecture on difficult subjects of this sort, either [as found] in a text or authorities, but he shall pass over them totally as erroneous. But if someone should be defiant in this matter, he shall be punished with a penalty that, in the judgment of our faculty, befits and is merited by his guilt. Moreover, so that all of this might be observed without violation, we masters, all and one, have sworn our personal oath, having placed our hands within those of the rector,25 and we all have spontaneously agreed to be bound to this. In memory of this matter, we have had this very statute inscribed in the Register26 of our faculty in the same words, and so it is done. Moreover, any rector who shall hereafter be created in the faculty shall swear that he shall cause all bachelors who are passing into our faculty to be bound to observe this very statute, by swearing their personal oath, having placed their hands in his. Given at Paris in the year of the Lord 1271, the first day of April.27 24. Aloud in class as a lectio, or lesson, for students. 25. The head of the Arts faculty. Eventually the rector of the Arts faculty became the head of the entire university. 26. The official records. 27. By modern reckoning 1272. The calendar of Paris began the new year on Easter Sunday, which in 1272 fell on April 24.
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Literature Europe’s literary production during the High Middle Ages was as varied, sophisticated, and original as its other achievements. European writers composed secular and religious works as well as compositions that bridged the two spheres; they expressed themselves in poetry and prose and wrote in Latin and a variety of vernacular tongues. If this section were to contain sources representative of the entire spectrum of twelfth- and thirteenth-century literature, it would exceed all reasonable limits of length. Therefore, it centers on four of the more characteristic genres of literature in this era: romance, parody, history, and satire, and does so economically by using one source to illustrate history writing and satire. Although the selected sources do not represent the full range of this civilization’s literary creativity, they suggest the richness of its variety. Moreover, we have already studied other types of literature from this era, and they include Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermons in Praise of the Virgin Mary (source 46), The Song of Roland (source 57), and Jacques de Vitry’s exempla (source 47). One important genre not represented in our excerpts is lyric poetry. Poems by well-known as well as anonymous poets ranged in subject matter and style from the most sublime spiritual cantos to classically inspired verses extolling the joys of nature to passionate love poems and bawdy, irreverent drinking songs in meters that replicated the banging of wine goblets on tables. The reason for not including such poems here is simple. Lyric poetry does not translate well. Literal and “poetic” translations alike inevitably fail to capture the poet’s artistic use of language but in radically different ways.
Courtly Romance 68. Chrétien de Troyes, EREC AND ENIDE 28 The Song of Roland introduced us to a muscular military world, where women played minimal roles. Roland’s fiancée, Aude, only appears at the end of the epic in order to drop dead upon hearing of Roland’s death; the tougher, strong-minded Bramimonde, Muslim queen of Spain, plays a larger part and survives her husband’s death. She, however, winds up as war booty and is sent off to France to be converted “through love” to Christianity. During the twelfth century, however, a countervailing vision emerged of women and their role within chivalric society. As early as the last years of the eleventh century, troubadour lyric poets in Occitania, where Provençal was the language, were singing the praises of court women and extolling the virtues of a refined love that ennobled the lover. The Hispano-Arabic love poetry of nearby al-Andalus deeply influenced the themes and structures of these troubadour songs, but surely the court women themselves were far more than passive agents in the creation of this new genre. In the all-too-often absence of a male lord, such women could and did exercise extensive powers either over domains in their own name or as regents for husbands and sons. They also were just as likely to be patrons of the troubadours as was any man of wealth and power. Turning on its head the feudal virtue of loyalty to a lord, the troubadours pledged undying devotion to a lady, who was the arbiter of and reason for proper courtly conduct, or courtoisie. During the twelfth century, troubadour conventions traveled north into the heartland of France, east into Germany, southeast into Italy, and across the channel into England. Wherever these values and poetical conceits took hold, they had a profound impact on literature and even on some social manners. Toward the middle of the twelfth century, literary artists in the Île de France created a new form of vernacular literature, the courtly romance, in order to provide a new voice to troubadour visions of 28. Chrétien de Troyes, Arthurian Romances, trans. W. W. Comfort (London: Dent, 1914), 28–34.
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love’s redemptive qualities. The romance (romanz in Old French) was an extended story, in either verse or prose, that dealt with extraordinary feats of love and knightly prowess in the setting of a mythical, idealized past. The origin of the term probably derives from the fact that the earliest romances dealt with “Roman” themes—the fabled feats of certain ancient warriors, such as Alexander the Great, whom Europeans knew through extant Latin (Roman) sources. The fully evolved romance was generally set against one of four thematic backgrounds: the siege of Troy; the age of Alexander the Great; the era of Charlemagne; and, most popular of all, the company of King Arthur and his knights. This last cycle of stories derived largely from Celtic legends regarding a shadowy but apparently historical sixth-century British warlord, whom twelfth-century romancers metamorphosed into the ideal chivalric knight. The greatest and earliest writer of Arthurian romances was Chrétien de Troyes, a learned cleric who served at the court of Countess Marie of Champagne and about whom little else is known. Apparently, he was born around 1140 and seems to have died sometime before 1200. His extant body of work includes five romances. The first is Erec and Enide, which dates to around 1170, making it the earliest surviving Arthurian romance. In Erec and Enide, Chrétien examines and resolves the chivalric conflict that affects a happily married couple, Erec, prince of Outer Wales, and his new bride, Enide. He posits the question: Is marital bliss an impediment to martial duty? The excerpt opens with Erec at a tournament that he visits while residing at the court of King Arthur.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the opening sentence of this extract. What does it reveal about one of the purposes behind this tournament? Does the text suggest any other reasons for the tournament? Compare these purposes with Count Roland’s reasons for fighting. 2. Consider Erec’s knightly attributes, deeds, and reasons for fighting. How do they conform to those of Roland and Oliver? How do they differ? 3. Erec receives permission from two persons to depart from King Arthur’s court. Who were they, and what is the apparent implication? 4. According to Chrétien’s standards, who has the purer or better love and sense of marital responsibility, Erec or Enide? Why do you conclude that? Without even reading the rest of the romance, whose love do you think will prove to be the means by which the other partner is redeemed? 5. Consider the women in this selection. How are they portrayed, and what roles do they play? What sort of power, if any, do they have? What conclusions follow from your answers? 6. The chivalric world portrayed here was a literary creation. Notwithstanding, how might this imaginative world have had an impact on the way in which real people behaved? Many an ensign of red, blue, and white, many a veil and many a sleeve were bestowed as tokens of love. Many a lance was carried there, flying the colors argent and green, or gold and azure blue…. And now the field is quite covered with arms. On either side the ranks tremble, and a roar rises from the fight. The shock of the lances is very great. Lances break and shields are riddled, the hauberks29 29. Long tunics of chain mail.
receive bumps and are torn asunder, saddles go empty and horsemen tumble, while the horses sweat and foam. Swords are quickly drawn on those who tumble noisily, and some run to receive the promise of a ransom, others to stave off this disgrace.30 30. This type of early tournament was known as a melée. Two groups of knights charged one another, and each knight sought to defeat and capture as many opponents as possible. A victor
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Erec rode a white horse, and came forth alone at the head of the line to joust, if he could find an opponent. From the opposite side there rides out to meet him Orguelleus de la Lande,31 mounted on an Irish steed which bears him along with marvelous speed. On the shield before his breast Erec strikes him with such force that he knocks him from his horse; he leaves him prone and passes on. Then Raindurant opposed him…; he was a knight of great prowess. Against one another now they charge and deal fierce blows on the shields about their necks. Erec from a lance’s length lays him over on the hard ground. While riding back he met the King of the Red City, who was very valiant and bold. They grasp their reins by the knots and their shields by the inner straps. They both had fine arms, and strong swift horses, and good shields, fresh and new. With such fury they strike each other that both their lances fly in splinters. Never was there seen such a blow. They rush together with shields, arms, and horses. But neither girth nor rein nor breast-strap could prevent the king from coming to earth. So he flew from his steed, carrying with him saddle and stirrup, and even the reins of his bridle in his hand. All those who witnessed the jousting were filled with amazement, and said it cost him dear to joust with such a goodly knight. Erec did not wish to stop to capture either horse or rider, but rather to joust and distinguish himself in order that his prowess might appear. He thrills the ranks in front of him…. In front of the gate of the town the strife began again between those within and those without. There Sagremor32 was thrown down, who was a very gallant knight. He was on the point of being detained and captured, when Erec spurs to rescue him, breaking his lance into splinters upon one of the opponents. So hard he strikes him on the breast that he made him quit the saddle. Then he draws his sword and advances upon them, crushing and splitting their helmets. Some flee, and others make way before him, for even the boldest fears him. Finally, he distributed so many blows and thrusts that he rescued Sagremor from them, and drove them all in confusion into the town. would then hold for ransom the horse, arms, and person of each captured opponent. 31. A misogynistic villain for whom women are sexual items. 32. A Knight of the Round Table who was the son of the king of Hungary and the grandson and heir of the emperor of Constantinople.
Meanwhile, the vesper hour drew to a close.33 Erec bore himself so well that day that he was the best of the combatants. But on the morrow he did much better yet; for he took so many knights and left so many saddles empty that none could believe it except those who had seen it. Everyone on both sides said that with his lance and shield he had won the honors of the tournament. Now was Erec’s renown so high that no one spoke save of him, nor was any one of such goodly favor. In countenance he resembled Absalom, in language he seemed a Solomon, in boldness he equaled Samson, and in generous giving and spending he was the equal of Alexander.34 On his return from the tourney Erec went to speak with the king.35 He went to ask him for leave to go and visit his own land; but first he thanked him like a frank, wise, and courteous man for the honor which he had done him; for very deep was his gratitude. Then he asked his permission to leave, for he wished to visit his own country, and he wished to take his wife with him. This request the king could not deny, and yet he would have had him stay. He gives him leave and begs him to return as soon as possible; for in the whole court there was no better or more gallant knight, save only his dear nephew Gawain;36 with him no one could be compared. But next after him, he prized Erec most, and held him more dear than any other knight. Erec wished to delay no longer. As soon as he had the king’s leave, he bid his wife make her preparations and he retained as his escort sixty knights of merit with horses and with dappled and grey furs. As soon as he was ready for his journey, he tarried little further at court, but took leave of the queen and commended the knights to God. The queen grants him leave to depart. Erec and Enide travel with a large retinue to his father’s royal court at Carnant, where they are received with great festivity. 33. Consult the Glossary at Canonical hours. 34. Respectively, King David of Israel’s son, who was known as the most handsome man in the kingdom; King Solomon of Israel, who was noted for his wisdom; a biblical hero noted for his superhuman strength and ability to kill Philistines; and Alexander the Great. 35. Arthur. 36. The principal hero of the Arthurian cycle, whom Chrétien placed first (and Erec second) among all the Knights of the Round Table.
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Never was a king more gladly seen in his kingdom, nor received with greater joy, as all strove to serve him well. Yet greater joy they made of Enide than of him, for the great beauty which they saw in her, and still more for her open charm. She was seated in a chamber upon a cushion of brocade which had been brought from Thessaly.37 Round about her was many a fair lady; yet as the lustrous gem outshines the brown flint, and as the rose excels the poppy, so was Enide fairer than any other lady or damsel to be found in the world, wherever one might search. She was so gentle and honorable, of wise speech and affable, of pleasing character and kindly mien. No one could ever be so watchful as to detect in her any folly, or sign of evil or villainy. She had been so schooled in good manners that she had learned all virtues which any lady can possess, as well as generosity and knowledge. All loved her for her open heart, and whoever could do her any service was glad and esteemed himself the more. No one spoke any ill of her, for no one could do so. In the realm or empire there was no lady of such good manners. But Erec loved her with such a tender love that he cared no more for arms, nor did he go to tournaments, nor have any desire to joust; but he spent his time in cherishing his wife. He made of her his mistress and his sweetheart. He devoted all his heart and mind to fondling and kissing her, and sought no delight in other pastime. His friends grieved over this, and often regretted among themselves that he was so deep in love. Often it was past noon before he left her side; for there he was happy, say what they might. He rarely left her society, and yet he was as openhanded as ever to his knights with arms, dress, and money. There was not a tournament anywhere to which he did not send them well appareled and equipped. Whatever the cost might be, he gave them fresh steeds for the tourney and joust. All the knights said it was a great pity and misfortune that such a valiant man as he was wont to be should no longer wish to bear arms. He was blamed so much on all sides by the knights and squires that murmurs reached Enide’s ears how that her lord had turned craven about arms and deeds of chivalry, and that his manner of life was greatly changed. She grieved sorely over this, but she did not dare to show her grief; for her lord at once would take affront, if she 37. Brocade is a rich fabric, usually silk, with a raised pattern, often of gold or silver thread. Thessaly is a region of north-central Greece.
should speak to him. So the matter remained a secret, until one morning they lay in bed where they had had sport together. There they lay in close embrace, like the true lovers they were. He was asleep, but she was awake, thinking of what many a man in the country was saying of her lord. And when she began to think it all over, she could not keep back the tears. Such was her grief and her chagrin that by mischance she let fall a word for which she later felt remorse, though in her heart there was no guile. She began to survey her lord from head to foot, his wellshaped body and his clear countenance, until her tears fell fast upon the bosom of her lord, and she said: “Alas, woe is me that I ever left my country! What did I come here to seek? The earth ought by right to swallow me up when the best knight, the most hardy, brave, fair, and courteous that ever was a count or king, has completely abjured all his deeds of chivalry because of me. And thus, in truth, it is I who have brought shame upon his head, though I would willingly not have done so at any price.” Then she said to him: “Unhappy thou!” And then kept silence and spoke no more. Erec was not sound asleep and, though dozing, heard plainly what she said. He aroused at her words, and much surprised to see her weeping, he asked her: “Tell me, my precious beauty, why do you weep thus? What has caused you woe or sorrow? Surely it is my wish to know. Tell me now, my gentle sweetheart, and take care to keep nothing back, why you said that woe was me? For you said it of me and of no one else. I heard your words plainly enough.” Then was Enide in a great plight, afraid and dismayed. “Sire,” says she, “I know nothing of what you say.” “Lady, why do you conceal it? Concealment is of no avail. You have been crying; I can see that, and you do not cry for nothing. And in my sleep I heard what you said.” “Ah! fair sire, you never heard it, and I dare say it was a dream.” “Now you are coming to me with lies. I hear you calmly lying to me. But if you do not tell me the truth now, you will come to repent of it later.” “Sire, since you torment me thus, I will tell you the whole truth, and keep nothing back. But I am afraid that you will not like it. In this land they all say—the dark, the fair, and the ruddy—that it is a great pity that you should renounce your arms; your reputation has suffered from it. Everyone used to say not long ago that in all the world there was known no better or more gallant knight. Now they all go about making game of you—old and
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young, little and great—calling you a recreant. Do you suppose it does not give me pain to hear you thus spoken of with scorn? It grieves me when I hear it said, and yet it grieves me more that they put the blame for it on me. Yes, I am blamed for it, I regret to say, and they all assert it is because I have so ensnared and caught you that you are losing all your merit, and do not care for aught but me. You must choose another course, so that you may silence this reproach and regain your former fame; for I have heard too much of this reproach, and yet I did not dare to disclose it to you. Many a time, when I think of it, I have to weep for very grief. Such chagrin I felt just now
that I could not keep myself from saying that you were ill-starred.” “Lady,” said he, “you were in the right, and those who blame me do so with reason. And now at once prepare yourself to take the road. Rise up from here, and dress yourself in your richest robe, and order your saddle to be put on your best riding horse.” Erec and Enide now set out on a series of adventures that will enable them to reaffirm their love in a manner that allows Erec to become a worthy king of Outer Wales and Enide to become his equally worthy queen.
The Art of Parody 69. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO THE MARKS OF SILVER38 Parody is the mimicking of a well-known text or ceremony in order to achieve a humorous effect that reaches the level of absurdity. Because medieval students were trained to write in imitation of the Latin masters of antiquity, they developed a feeling for genre, style, and cadence that enabled them, when the mood struck, to burlesque everything from the sonorous poetry of Virgil to the most sacred texts and ceremonies of the Church. One of the most popular parodies of the High Middle Ages was The Gospel according to the Marks of Silver, which probably originated in the early twelfth century but was later recast and expanded. Today it exists in three different versions. Who knows how many other versions are now lost? The persons who composed, edited, and expanded it assumed that the reader would immediately recognize the biblical texts that were being parodied. The parody opens with the words “Here begins the Holy Gospel according to the Marks of silver,” an almost exact echo of the words that precede the Gospel reading in each celebration of the Mass. However, instead of hearing the Gospel according to the Evangelist Mark, the audience hears or reads the gospel according to the marks of silver. A tone of absurdity has now been set, and what follows is a delicious perversion of one of the core messages of the Gospels: “Do not store up riches on Earth…for your heart will always be where your riches are” (Matthew, 6:19–21; Luke, 12:33–34). The version that appears here is the shortest and oldest of the three. The notes that accompany the text refer to the biblical passages that are being twisted for comic effect. You will find it helpful to read those passages from the Bible in order to understand more fully the author’s (or authors’) art and message.
Questions for Consideration 1. Who do you think was the intended audience of this parody? 2. Is this parody an assault on Christianity? On the Roman Church? On something else? Or is it even an assault on anything? 3. Various parodies with this theme were popular from around 1100 onward and were certainly well known to clerics and other literate persons. Compose commentaries on this parody by Waldes, Francis of Assisi, and Pope Innocent III. 38. Evangelium in An Anthology of Medieval Latin, ed. Stephen Gaselee (London: Macmillan and Co., 1925), 65–66.
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Here begins the Holy Gospel according to the Marks of silver. In that time, the pope said unto the Romans: “When the Son of Man shall come unto the seat of Our majesty,39 say first: ‘Friend, for what have you come?’40 And if he should continue knocking, giving you nothing,41 cast him forth into the outer darkness.”42 And it came to pass that a certain poor cleric came to the court of the lord pope, and cried out, saying: “Have mercy even unto me, you doorkeepers of the pope because the hand of poverty has touched me.43 For I am destitute and poor, and I beg that you relieve my misfortune and misery.”44 They, however, upon hearing him, became righteously indignant and said: “Friend, may your poverty be with you unto damnation;45 get thee behind us Satan,46 because you taste not of the things that taste of money. Amen, amen, I say unto you: you shall not enter unto the joy of your lord until you have given the very last penny.”47 And the poor man went away and sold his cloak and tunic and all that he had and gave it to the cardinals and
39. Matthew, 25:31. 40. Ibid., 26:30. 41. Ibid., 7:7–11; Luke, 11:5–13. 42. Matthew, 25:30. 43. Ibid., 15:22. 44. Job, 19:21; Psalms, 70. 45. Acts of the Apostles, 8:20. 46. Mark, 8:33. 47. Matthew, 5:26.
the doorkeepers and the chamberlains.48 But they said: “And what is this among so much?” And they cast him out before the gates,49 and he going forth wept bitterly,50 and he could not be consoled.51 Thereafter there came to the court a certain rich, fat, well-fed, bloated52 cleric, who had committed murder during an uprising.53 He first gave to the doorkeeper, next to the chamberlain, third to the cardinals.54 And they consulted among themselves as to who should have received the most.55 But the lord pope hearing that the cardinals and ministers had received so many gifts from the cleric became ill unto death.56 Then the rich man sent unto him a sweet medicine of gold and silver, and he was cured at once.57 Then the lord pope summoned unto himself the cardinals and ministers and said unto them: “Brothers, be watchful lest anyone seduce you with empty words.58 For I give unto you an example that even as much as I take, so also you should take.”59 48. Ibid., 13:44–46. 49. Ibid., 22:13. 50. Ibid., 26:75. 51. Ibid., 2:18; Jeremiah, 31:15. 52. Deuteronomy, 32:15. 53. Barabbas in the Gospel of Mark, 15:7. 54. Matthew, 25:14–15. 55. Ibid., 20:10. 56. Philippians, 2:27. 57. John, 5:9. 58. Ephesians, 5:6. 59. John, 13:15.
A Satirical Deconstruction of Jewish Blood Libel? 70. Richard of Devizes, THE CHRONICLE OF RICHARD OF DEVIZES FOR THE TIME OF KING RICHARD I 60 Satire is closely allied with parody inasmuch as both use exaggeration as a means of achieving a humorous mood, but satire’s humor is usually more biting and often has a moral, social, or political purpose. Defined broadly, satire is a genre that uses exaggeration, irony, wordplay, and outright fabrication to hold up to ridicule a human folly, belief, or way of life. Grounded as they were in the writings of classical 60. Richardus Divisiensis de rebus gestis Ricardi Primi in Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I, ed. Richard Howlett, 4 vols. (London: Longman & Co., 1886), 3:383–84, 435–40; and Chronicon Richardi Divisensis de tempore Regis Richardi Primi, ed. John T. Appleby (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1963), 3–4, 64–69.
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Roman satirists, the learned clergy of the High Middle Ages had an appreciation for satire and a fair number tried their hand at it. One of the most successful satirists was Richard of Devizes, a Benedictine monk at Saint Swithun’s Priory, which was attached to Winchester Cathedral. We know almost nothing about Richard, other than the fact that he composed a history of the first three years of King Richard I’s reign, 1189–92, and probably also composed a portion of the Winchester Annals covering the years 1196–1202. Beyond that, all we can say is that his history of the early years of King Richard’s reign shows him to be a sophisticated prose stylist, a person of strong opinions and prejudices, and someone who, more often than not, was capable of looking at the events of his day in fresh and original ways. Much of Richard’s history focuses on King Richard’s adventures on the Third Crusade, but the main excerpt that appears here concerns the charge of Jewish ritual murder in the city of Winchester. The myth of Jews murdering innocents for religious reasons had roots that went back at least to the first century C.E. It, however, only became a significant feature of Christian anti-Judaism in the course of the twelfth century with the unsolved murder of the twelve-yearold William of Norwich in 1144, which was ascribed, without any evidence whatsoever, to Jewish perpetrators, who had sacrificed William. No one was indicted or prosecuted for his death, but local tradition transformed William into a martyr and saint, although the Church never formally canonized him. Moreover, the charge of Jewish Blood Guilt, or the ritual killing of a Christian at the time of Passover, which normally coincided with or was close to Christian Passion Week, was sufficient to spur occasional attacks on Jewish communities. Several of the earliest took place in twelfth-century France. The blatant falsity of these charges has led historians to use the term “Jewish Blood Libel.” In 1192, a charge of Jewish ritual murder arose in Winchester, leveled against one of England’s largest and most prosperous Jewish communities. Independent evidence shows that this event occurred with the anticlimactic result that Richard reports. That aside, as we can see from Richard’s description of the incident, he used it as an occasion to give full vent to his sardonic wit. In order to place Richard’s treatment of the case into clearer perspective, we begin with the opening passage of his history in which he describes events surrounding the coronation of King Richard I on September 3, 1189.
Questions for Consideration 1. Does the first excerpt provide any context for your understanding better the author’s purpose in relating, in the manner in which he does, the tale regarding the charge of ritual murder in Winchester? Does it help you to have a clearer view of Richard’s views regarding Jews and Christian attacks upon them? If so, what conclusions have you arrived at? 2. Is this story a satirical deconstruction or something else? In other words, why did Richard compose the story of ritual murder, and where did his sympathies lie? Could it be satire and simultaneously an anti-Judaic rant? These are questions that divide historians. How do you interpret it? 3. The story of the supposed murder of the French cobbler is filled with ethnic stereotypes that have an intended humorous effect. Apart from the humor, what might we infer from these stereotypes? 4. Review source 64, The Baptismal Fount of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. What connection, if any, is there between that relief sculpture and the charge of ritual murder?
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Now in the year from the Incarnation of the Lord, 1189, when Clement was pope,61 Richard, the son of King Henry II by Eleanor,62 brother of King Henry III,63 was consecrated king of the English by Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster, on the third of the Nones of September…. On the very day of the coronation, around that solemn hour in which the Son was immolated to the Father,64 an immolation of the Jews to their father the Devil commenced in the city of London. The duration of this well-known mystery65 was so long that the holocaust66 could barely be completed on the second day. The other towns and cities of the country emulated the faith of the Londoners, and with equal devotion bloodily dispatched their blood suckers to Hell. To some extent but in varying degrees, this tempest was brought down upon the lost67 throughout the kingdom. Only Winchester alone spared its worms, being a prudent and far-sighted people, and a city that always acts in a civilized manner. It never did anything speedily. Fearing nothing more than having remorse, it took into consideration the outcome of things before considering beginnings. It did not want, unprepared and at its peril, to partially vomit out in a violent manner the undigested matter by which it was distressed. 61. Clement III. 62. Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122–1204). 63. Henry the Young King (1155–83). In 1170, Henry II crowned his fifteen-year-old son as titular king of England. The young king never exercised any autonomous authority, and his premature death ended a non-reigning reign. Late twelfthcentury English chroniclers referred to him as Henry III, but when King John (r. 1199–1216) died, his son and heir, Henry, became the official Henry III (r. 1216–72). 64. The traditional hour for the sacrificial death of Jesus on the Cross is 3:00 p.m. 65. In addition to being an oxymoron, “well-known mystery” appears to be a double entendre. “Mystery” can also mean the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, in which the body and blood of Jesus, under the appearance of bread and wine, is consumed in the sacrifice of the Mass. Oxymorons, especially alliterative ones, such as male miseratus (having wicked compassion), and saeva suavitas et blaesa benigitas (ferocious pleasantness and double-talking beneficence), which appear in the second excerpt, were the stock-in-trade of medieval satirists. 66. Richard was not the first Christian writer to refer to the deaths of Jews through persecution as a “sacrificial holocaust.” See Albert of Aachen, source 85. 67. The Jews who had lost God’s grace by not recognizing Jesus as the Messiah.
Meanwhile, it kept it in its bowels, modestly (or physically) hiding its disgust, until at an opportune time for remedy, it could empty out all of the diseased matter once and for all….
*** Because Winchester should not be deprived of its rightful reward for keeping peace with the Jews, as was related at the beginning of the book, the Jews of Winchester, who, as is the custom of the Jews, are zealous for the honor of their city (although what was done, perhaps, did not help it),68 created for themselves widespread notoriety by martyring a boy in Winchester, with many clues of the deed. This was the case: A certain Jew had taken into the service of his family’s household a certain Christian boy who apprenticed in the craft of shoemaking. He did not continuously reside there for work, nor was he allowed to complete anything significant at any one time, lest his living there point to his planned murder. And, inasmuch as he was paid far better for a little bit of work there than for a good deal of work elsewhere, enticed by his gifts and deceits, he freely frequented the home of the devil. Now he was French by birth, underage, and an orphan, in a wretched condition and extremely poor. A certain French Jew, having taken wicked compassion on his miseries in France, by means of frequent advice, persuaded him that he should rush off to England, a land flowing with milk and honey.69 He praised the English as generous and rich; no one there would die poor who labored honestly. The boy, as is natural for the French, was ready to desire whatever you might desire. Taking with him a certain companion of the same age as himself and of the same country, he got ready to set out, having nothing in his hands except a staff, nothing in his wallet except an awl.70 He bade farewell to his Jew. The Jew said to him: “Go forth manfully. May the God of my fathers lead you as I 68. Etsi factum forte defuerit a phrase that appears to be deliberately ambiguous. It can also be understood as “although perhaps it never happened,” with reference to the deed that follows. 69. Exodus, 3:8, and elsewhere in the Bible. 70. The shoemaker’s indispensable tool.
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wish.” And, placing his hands over his head, as if he were a scapegoat, after certain rattlings in his throat and silent oaths, now certain of his prey, he continued: “Be of stout soul. Forget your people and your land, for every land is the home of the brave, just as the sea is for fish, just as whatever place in the world lies open is home to a bird.71 When you have entered England, if you come to London, quickly pass through it, for that city greatly displeases me. Every type of person, out of every country that is under Heaven, has gathered there; every race of people has introduced into the city its vices and customs. No one lives in it without sinning. There is not in it an entire neighborhood that does not overflow with wretched abominations; there, the greater the criminal, the better off he is. I am not ignorant of the person whom I am instructing. You have, beyond to your years, an ardent spirit, a cool memory, and from these two extremes a rational sobriety. I have no fear for you, unless you associate with people who live badly, for ways of life are formed through association. Let that be, let that be. You will come to London. Behold! I warn you: whatever there is of evil or perversity in particular parts of the world, whatever there is of evil or perversity in all parts of the world, you will find in that single city. Do not visit the throngs of pimps. Do not mix with the herds at the cook shops. Avoid the talus and tessera,72 the theater and the tavern. You will come upon more braggarts there than in all of France, whereas the number of parasites is infinite. Actors, buffoons, smooth-skinned hustlers, black Africans, flatterers, pretty boys, effeminate men, pederasts, immoral music girls, quack drugdealers, bawdy women, fortune-tellers, extortionists, night wanderers, magicians, mimes, beggars, jesters: this entire crowd has filled every house. Therefore, if you do not wish to live with foul people, you will not live in London. I do not speak against the learned, the [professed] religious73 or Jews, although, given their dwelling in the midst of evil people, I should think them less perfect there than elsewhere. “My exhortation does not go so far that you should not go to any city. In my opinion, you should reside nowhere 71. A quotation from Ovid, Fasti, 1:493–94. 72. A reference to two betting games: one was played with four oblong-shaped, four-sided tali (bones), made from animals’ knuckle bones; the other with three six-sided tesserae (tiles) that resembled today’s dice. 73. Monks and canons.
except in a city, but it is important in which one. Certainly, if you land near Canterbury, or if you pass through it, your journey is wasted. There is there an entire assemblage of lost souls, [worshipful of ] their (I know not whom) recently deified person who had been the archpriest of Canterbury, while all about during the day they die in indolence on the streets for want of bread.74 Rochester and Chichester are little villages and have nothing for which they should be called cities except [they are] sees that have ecclesiastical banners.75 Oxford scarcely sustains its people, I will not say ‘satiates.’ Exeter feeds people and beasts with the same grain. Bath, located (in fact, buried) in valley depths, in a very dense atmosphere of sulphurous vapor, stands at the gates of Hell. Nor should you choose your place of settlement in the northern cities—Worcester, Chester, Hereford—because of the Welsh, who lead dissolute lives.76 York abounds in Scots, vile and faithless little people. The district of Ely is perpetually putrefied by the surrounding swamps. In Durham, Norwich, or Lincoln there are few of your type among those holding power; hardly ever would you hear someone speaking a Romance language. At Bristol, there is no one who is not or has not been a soap maker, and every Frenchman loves soap makers as he does people who carry out buckets of human waste. After the cities, every market, village, or town has rude and rustic inhabitants. Moreover, at all times, think of the Cornish in the same ways that, as you know, our Flemings are thought of in France. Otherwise, this country is generally the most favored of all with the dew of Heaven and a bountiful soil. In every place there are also some good people, but far fewer in all save one—Winchester. “In those parts, it is the Jerusalem of the Jews; in it alone they flourish in perpetual peace. It is a school for those who desire to live well and prosper. Here they become people. Here there is sufficient bread and wine for nothing. There are in it monks of such compassion and mildness, clerics who are understanding and generous, citizens who 74. In 1173, Pope Alexander III canonized Archbishop Thomas Becket as a martyr and saint, two years after his murder in the cathedral of Canterbury. His tomb became an immediate site of pilgrimage. 75. Both were the sees of bishops. 76. All three are north of Winchester but not so far north as to be considered “northern cities.” They are sufficiently close to Wales to allow Richard his comment regarding the Welsh.
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are courteous and faithful, women of beauty and modesty, so that little holds me back but that I should go there and become a Christian with such Christians. I direct you to that city, the city of cities, the mother of all, the best above all. There is one fault, and it alone, in which they customarily indulge too much. With due respect, I should say, except for learned men and the Jews, Winchesterites lie like watchmen.77 For nowhere else under Heaven are so many false rumors fabricated so easily as there. Otherwise, they are truthful in all matters. I should have many additional things to tell you regarding my business affairs, but lest, perhaps, that you not understand or forget, place this note into the hands of my Jewish friend because I believe that you will be rewarded ultimately by him.” The short note was in Hebrew. The Jew ended his speech, and the boy, having interpreted everything as good, came to Winchester. His awl supplied him, as well as his companion, with food and, for the worst part, they had the consolation of ferocious pleasantness and double-talking beneficence thanks to the Jew’s note. Wherever by day the poor little boys worked or ate apart, each night they slept in one little bed in an old cottage of an old farm woman. Days follow days and months months. In the same way that we have to this point so diligently described, our boys hasten the times of separation in order to be together. The day of the Adoration of the Cross had arrived,78 and the boy on that same day was working at his Jew’s. In some way, brought about by some means, he did not appear. In fact, it was close to Passover, a Jewish feast day.79 His companion, surprised in the evening at his failure to return to the bed, spent that night terrified in excessive sleeplessness. He sought him out for several days through every corner of the city. When he failed to find him, he simply asked the Jew if he had sent his protégé somewhere. When the boy sensed his being violently harsh beyond his norm, while he had been so courteous the day before, and noticed his change of words and facial expression, he immediately became hot. And, as he was sharp of tongue and wondrously eloquent, he erupted in 77. A twist on the question “Who will watch the watchmen?”: Juvenal, Satire 6:347–48. 78. Good Friday, the day of Passion Week that commemorates Jesus’s crucifixion, fell on April 10 in 1192. 79. The first night of Passover had occurred on April 5.
accusations. Shouting loudly, he charged him with having done away with his companion. “You son of a filthy whore,” he said, “you robber, you traitor, you devil, you have crucified my companion.”80 Alas for me, that I do not have a measure of adult strength. I would tear you apart with my hands.” The noise of the shouting in the house was heard in the street. Jews and Christians came running from every direction. The boy persists, and now made more resolute by the crowd, addressing those present, he began to plead for his companion. “O, you men who are assembled,” he said, “consider if there is any sorrow that equals my sorrow.81 That Jew is a devil; that man has ripped my heart from my breast; that man has murdered my only companion; I presume that he also ate him.82 A certain son of the Devil, a Jew of French birth—I neither understand nor am acquainted [with the situation]—that Jew gave my companion a note as his death warrant, addressed to this person. Induced, rather seduced, he came to this city. He often was in service to this Jew, and was most recently seen in his house.” He did not lack a witness to some points inasmuch as a Christian woman, who, in violation of the canons, had wetnursed young Jewish boys in the same house,83 firmly swore that she had seen the boy descend into the Jew’s cellar without going out. The Jew denies it; the matter is referred to the judges. The accusers have deficiencies: the boy because he is underage, the woman because service to Jews had rendered her disreputable. The Jew offered to clear his conscience of the disgrace with an oath. Gold placated the judges. Phineas gave and pleased [them], and the controversy ended.84
80. Blood Libel often included the charge that the murder was by crucifixion. 81. Book of Lamentations, 1:12. 82. Blood Libel also often included the charge that the blood of the martyred individual was used to make unleavened bread for the Seder meal. 83. Canon 26 of the Third Lateran Council forbade, under threat of excommunication, Christians to serve in a Jewish household as wet-nurses or any other type of servant. Compare, however, that prohibition with Rüdegar Huozman’s charter to the Jews of Speyer (source 62). 84. God granted the priest Phineas the right to perform the ritual of expiation for the Israelites; Numbers, 25:13.
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Romanesque and Gothic Art We have already studied examples of Romanesque and Gothic sculpture in Chapters 7 and 8, and you probably already have a fairly solid understanding of each artistic style, but it is a good idea to define both for the sake of clarity. Romanesque is a style of eleventh- and twelfth-century architecture, sculpture, and painting remotely based on the inspiration of late-Roman models. The most characteristic and easily identifiable Romanesque creations are the solid stone churches with rounded-arch construction that can be found, with significant regional variations, throughout most of Latin Christian Europe. Spread over an area that stretched from the Mediterranean to the North Sea and from England to eastern Europe, Romanesque churches were the products of Europe’s first major effort at building large, permanent structures of stone on a widespread basis. In their overall shape and massive size, Romanesque churches were distant echoes of Roman basilicas. As was true of everything else that medieval Europeans adapted from antiquity, however, Romanesque architects and their patrons radically altered classical elements to reflect the realities, tastes, and spirit of a distinctly new civilization. One area in which Romanesque master masons and those who supported their labors broke away from the model of the Roman basilica was in their use of ornate sculpture on the exterior portals and interior columns of their churches. Much of this sculpture, as well as most Romanesque painting, displayed a continuing influence of Byzantine aesthetics on the Latin West. At the same time, however, Romanesque sculptors provided the impetus for the West’s rediscovery of the possibilities of sculpture as an artistic medium. The result was a breakout in new, quite distinctly Western forms of artistic expression in the age of the Gothic. Just as Romanesque styles varied by region, so also the Romanesque did not uniformly give way to the Gothic style. Most of Germany, eastern Europe, and the Mediterranean remained wedded to the Romanesque aesthetic long after the Gothic had swept across northern France and then east to the Rhineland and west to England. Moreover, many older churches had Gothic elements added to preexisting Romanesque structures. It was only after 1300 that Gothic art spread and triumphed throughout most of Latin Europe. Primarily northern French in origin, with clear Islamic influences from al-Andalus and probably also from eastern Mediterranean lands that had recently opened up to the West in closer and more significant ways due to the crusades, the Gothic style reached an apogee of brilliance in such late twelfthand thirteenth-century cathedrals as Chartres, Amiens, Rheims, Strasbourg, Canterbury, and Lincoln. Distinguished by their pointed arches and ribbed vaults, Gothic churches were noted for their walls of stained glass, in contrast to the thick walls of masonry that characterized Romanesque’s “heavenly fortresses.” On the exterior of their great churches, Gothic architects continued to perfect the art of sculpture begun so dramatically by their Romanesque predecessors. The following pieces of sculpted art illustrate several important aspects of the Romanesque and Gothic styles. The first set of artifacts presents us with a Byzantine ivory relief of the Virgin and Child and a Romanesque statue of the same two principals. Our second pair of sculptures consists of a Romanesque temptress and a Gothic tempter.
Virgin and Child: A Byzantine Triptych and a Romanesque Statue 71. A VIRGIN AND CHRIST CHILD TRIPTYCH and NOTRE DAME LA BRUNE The triptych that appears here for the purpose of comparison shows the Virgin and Child flanked by anonymous saints. Crafted in the tenth century in or around Constantinople, the ivory was once gilded
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and painted. Little of the gilt and paint remain on the ivory, but the gilded and painted cedar statue that serves as our main focus retains its luster. Romanesque sculptors largely worked in relief, but they did produce some small votive statues in the round, largely of the Virgin and Child. Such statues were venerated items at some of the pilgrimage sites that dotted the West. The statue that appears here is a wooden reliquary known as Notre Dame la Brune (the Dark Madonna), and is one of the chief treasures of the Abbey Church of Saint Philibert in Tournus, Burgundy. The abbey church, which is one of the finest examples of early twelfth-century Burgundian Romanesque, was a popular pilgrimage site due to the fact that it possessed the relics of the early Christian martyr Saint Valerien, as well as the bones of Saint Philibert, a ninth-century monastic reformer. The statue depicts the Virgin seated on a columned throne. Jesus, who sits on her lap, holds the Gospels in his left hand. Stylistic elements strongly suggest that the statue was crafted in the second half of the twelfth century.
Questions for Consideration 1. Do you see any stylistic or other connections between this typical Byzantine icon and the Romanesque statue? If so, what are they, and how significant do they appear to be? 2. How does the sculptor of the Notre Dame la Brune approach the problem of depicting the human body? How would you characterize his overall technique? In addressing these questions, pay particular attention to such items as the Virgin’s drapery and hands, the Christ Child’s face and head, and both figures’ expressions and postures. 3. Describe the emotions that the artists of Notre Dame la Brune sought to engender in the persons who venerated the statue?
Illus. 9.3 Virgin Hodegetria and Child Flanked by Anonymous Saints.
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Illus. 9.4 Notre Dame la Brune, Abbaye Saint-Philibert de Tournous.
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Temptation in Romanesque and Gothic Style 72. Giselbertus, EVE; Anonymous, THE TEMPTATION IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN; and Anonymous, THE TEMPTER AND THE FOOLISH VIRGINS Almost all Romanesque artists are anonymous; Giselbertus is an exception. This master sculptor, who designed and carved the entire program of sculptures for the Cathedral of Saint Lazare in the Burgundian city of Autun between about 1125 and 1145, proudly inscribed Giselbertus hoc fecit (Giselbertus made this) directly beneath the figure of Christ, who dominates the west portal’s Last Judgment Tympanum. One cannot imagine the church’s patron, Bishop Etienne de Bage, allowing any run-of-the-mill artisan to place his name in such a prominent place on a church that Pope Innocent II consecrated in 1132. Just as interesting as and perhaps even more original than his Last Judgment, which art historians judge to be one of the great masterpieces of Romanesque art, is Giselbertus’s sculpture of Eve, the tempted and temptress. Eve was originally part of the now-lost Fall of Adam and Eve relief that ran the length of the lintel (the horizontal stone that is directly over the door) of the north portal, the cathedral’s primary entrance. Unfortunately, most of the north portal’s sculptures were removed, scattered, and destroyed in the eighteenth century, and the Eve fragment survived only by being built into a nearby house, where it remained until discovered in 1866. The reclining nude is alive with motion. Part of Giselbertus’s genius lay in his decision to carve Eve (and presumably Adam) in deep relief, producing sharp contrasts of light and shade and rounded images that seem to leap out at the viewer. His technique appears to have borrowed almost as much from the tradition of late-Roman freestanding sculptures as it did from the medium of Roman relief carving. Eve is portrayed on the ground, supported by her knees and elbow, and about to pick a fruit from a heavily laden branch that is bent toward her by a satanic serpent. The extant remains of the serpent can be seen curling across her left ankle. She appears to be whispering to a now-lost Adam, who probably was also recumbent. Our second scene of the temptation in the Garden of Eden comes from the Benedictine cloister attached to the Cathedral of Monreale outside of Palermo, Sicily. Twelfth-century sculptors were noted for the biblical, mythological, and historic scenes, as well as elaborate flora and fauna decorations, that they carved in deep relief on the capitals of columns. A capital is the broad, topmost area of a column that serves to distribute more evenly the weight bearing down on the column. Such a large surface almost begs for decoration. The 228 double columns and their capitals that ring the arcade enclosing the four sides of the cloister were completed in the late twelfth century and exhibit a variety of styles, including Moorish, Byzantine, French, and Provençal. Stylistically, many of the capitals are transitional, insofar as we can see in them both Romanesque and Gothic elements. Our third sculpted image of temptation is neither a relief nor a freestanding statue. Rather, it is a type of statuary that was characteristic of the façades of Gothic churches that were decorated with highly detailed columns. Whether the figures were Old Testament prophets, kings and queens, Christian saints and hellish devils, or symbolic types, each was an allegory in stone. Known as column statues, each work of art was carved out of the same stone as the column into which it was inset and made to appear freestanding. As such, it was attached to but seemingly free of the bonds of the column. The scene shown here loosely depicts the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Matthew, 25:1–13). In our first illustration, we see three foolish virgins, who have allowed their lamps to burn out, and a young man, apparently a prince, offering them a fruit. Our second illustration is a close-up view of his handsome face and winning smile. The third image shows his backside. The
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three lumps at the bottom of his open gown are toads. You are left to figure out which creatures are above the toads.
Questions for Consideration 1. How has Giselbertus dealt with the human body? His relief has been characterized as “sensuous.” Do you agree? If so, how could Giselbertus and Bishop Etienne justify placing this sculpture over the church’s main entrance? 2. Which emotions did Giselbertus seem to want to stir in the viewer? In addressing this question, might the sculpted Mary Magdalene in the much later Gothic sculpture of the Dormition of Strasbourg Cathedral (source 48) be a clue? 3. By placing Eve and presumably Adam on the ground, Giselbertus cleverly overcame the spatial limitations imposed by a long but narrow block of stone. But did this posture also carry with it a theological message? 4. Consider the Romanesque and Gothic sculptures studied here and in previous chapters. Does the Monreale capital appear to you to be “transitional”? If so, why? If not, how would you classify it? 5. How does one explain the sculptors’ depiction of nudity in these two Garden of Eden scenes? 6. What is the message of the Strasbourg statuary? 7. Consider the aesthetic and technical aspects of Romanesque and Gothic sculpture. How would you characterize each?
Illus. 9.5 Giselbertus, Eve, Musée Rolin, Autun.
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Illus. 9.6 The Temptation in the Garden of Eden, La Cava Abbey Cloister, Monreale Cathedral.
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Illus. 9.7 The Tempter and Three Foolish Virgins, Strasbourg Cathedral, West Façade. Modern reproductions.
Illus. 9.8 Detail of The Tempter. The original sculpture, which is preserved in the Musée de l’Oeuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg.
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Illus. 9.9 Rear view of The Tempter, Strasbourg Cathedral. Modern reproduction.
Chapter 10
Political Theory and Reality
Illus. 10.1 Miniature of Matilda, Abbot Hugh, and King Henry IV from Donizo, Vita Mathildis (Life of Matilda). This early twelfthcentury miniature, or manuscript illustration, depicts King Henry IV at Canossa in January 1077, seeking the intercession of Matilda, the margrave of Tuscany, and Abbot Hugh the Great of Cluny in an attempt to mend relations with Pope Gregory VII. The Latin at the bottom reads: “The king prays to the abbot and pleads with Matilda.” Matilda, the most powerful ruler in northern Italy and a devout supporter of the reform papacy, was instrumental in effecting this brief reconciliation.
Several sources in Chapters 6 and 8 illustrate feudal arrangements in the political ordering of France and Anglo-Norman England, and similar relationships and arrangements existed, but to a lesser degree, in some regions of Germany, Italy, Spain, and eastern Europe. The story of European politics and political theory during the High Middle Ages, however, cannot be reduced to feudal relationships, and there never was a pan-European, all-encompassing “feudal system.” The following sources depict some of the variety and vitality of political theory and reality from the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries. The theories represented here include the notions of priestly royal and imperial power, papal theocratic supremacy, the separation of secular and ecclesiastical authority, and constitutional limitations on royal power. The realities were equally diverse: the growth of royal juridical power in England, as well as a movement to make the English monarch subject to his own laws; the development of the cult of the king as father of his people in France; struggles between the papacy and the empire; the decentralization of power in Germany; and the growth of parliamentary, representative assemblies in Spain and England.
Monarchs and Popes in Conflict Between 1050 and 1300, monarchs and popes engaged in a series of power struggles that had profound repercussions on the course of Western civilization. As early as the late fifth century, Pope Gelasius I had defined the two separate spheres of authority enjoyed by priests and kings, but his carefully crafted distinction had no immediately perceptible impact on political thought in either the East or the West. The emperors at Constantinople governed their 266
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empire as an indivisible whole, perceiving no meaningful distinction between their power over secular officials and their authority over priests. Charlemagne and his successors in the West saw themselves in the same light and acted accordingly. On their part, a number of popes and other church leaders in the West declared the spiritual independence and even primacy of the priestly sphere. Their voices, however, were often drowned out by powerful secular leaders, and even large numbers of high-ranking clerics who willingly bowed to the authority of emperors, kings, and lords. The claims of Western church people to independence and at least a moral superiority over secular rulers were vitiated by the fact that the Church of the West was intimately involved with every aspect of secular government. Church leaders, such as Bishop Burchard of Worms, were powerful lords, whose ecclesiastical offices brought with them wide-ranging military and political responsibilities and great wealth. In the last quarter of the eleventh century, these inherent tensions and contradictions sparked a half-century-long struggle between the empire and the papacy known as the Investiture Controversy. The combatants eventually resolved some of their differences in 1122, but the core tensions remained unresolved. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the papacy reached the height of its moral authority and simultaneously constructed mechanisms of government that transformed the Roman Church into one of the most organized and powerful entities in Europe. Approximately at the same time, several kingdoms in the West were building governmental systems that enabled their monarchs to govern their realms more completely than ever before. The result was a continuing cycle of church-state controversies. The fact that neither popes nor monarchs were ever able to overwhelm the other proved ultimately fruitful, so far as Western political culture was concerned. Slowly, ever so slowly, some observers began to articulate the political theory that there are two powers, church and state, each with its separate sphere of activity.
A Half Century That Shook the West 73. FOUR DOCUMENTS FROM THE INVESTITURE CONTROVERSY 1 The Investiture Controversy was a struggle between the papacy and the Western Empire that raged from 1075 to 1122 and ostensibly centered on the issue of lay lords investing high-ranking church people with their offices and the symbols of their spiritual powers. In fact, however, the issues were far more complex and far deeper. The immediate background to the Investiture Controversy lay in successful attempts to free the Roman papacy from the control of local Roman factions. A parallel movement to reform the moral life of the Roman clergy, especially of the man who held the keys of Saint Peter, accompanied this drive for freedom from the sordid business of Roman dynastic politics. Emperor Henry III played a pivotal role in this reformation from 1046 until his death in 1056. During that decade, he appointed four successive reform-minded popes from the ranks of the German clergy. His death and the succession of a child as king of Germany created a power vacuum that allowed more radical clerical reformers to take increasing control of the papacy. The radicals blamed lay control of the Church and its priests for what they perceived to be the moral degeneracy of Christendom. Their argument was simple: the laity, by virtue of its immersion in 1. Register of Gregory VII, 2:55a, A Source Book for Medieval History, trans. Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar H. McNeal (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905), 136–38, 151–52, 155–56, 165–66. The translation of the Concordat of Worms has been modified based on the edited text in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges, 2:75–76.
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the corruption of this world, corrupted clerics whenever and wherever it controlled them, even when the laypeople were pious emperors. The situation was ripe for confrontation when the young Henry IV (r. 1056–1106) came of age and endeavored to assert traditional imperial rights over the Church, and the situation reached a point of crisis when Archdeacon Hildebrand, one of the radical reformers, assumed the papal throne as Gregory VII (r. 1073–85). The first document, known as the Dictatus Papae (The Pope’s Proclamation), appears in the official collection of Pope Gregory’s correspondence for March 1075 under the title “What Is the Power of the Roman Pontiffs?” It is clearly not a letter. The best-informed opinion is that, in the normal course of events, each of the twenty-seven assertions in this list would have been supported by citations from the Bible and other authoritative sources. It was, in other words, the outline of a church lawyer’s uncompleted brief or, more correctly, a proposed collection of canons that was never published. Despite that, the document provides insight into the program and mindset of the papal party as the situation was beginning to heat up but before the controversy became full blown. The second document is a letter of January 24, 1076, that Henry IV sent to Pope Gregory, in response to the pope’s letter of December 1075, in which Gregory had warned Henry to fall in line and obey papal mandates regarding papal attempts to reform the Church, or else be ready to suffer the consequences. Henry’s reply, which was drafted at a synod of imperial church leaders that Henry had convened at Worms, was the opening salvo in what became a half-century war of words and swords. The third document is Gregory’s first excommunication and deposition of King Henry in February 1076. In January 1077, Henry performed penance before the pope at the castle of Canossa in northern Italy and was readmitted into the Church, but soon thereafter, he fell to quarrelling with the pope again. In March 1080, Gregory declared Henry once again deposed. Gregory’s proclamations of deposition did not prevent Henry from capturing Rome in 1084 and installing his own antipope. Gregory escaped capture and went into exile, where he died, reportedly proclaiming, “I have loved Righteousness and hated iniquity, and, therefore, I die in exile.” If uttered, it was surely the confident cry of triumph of a self-professed martyr. Despite Henry’s apparent victory, the controversy dragged on between the papal reform party, which elected its own successor to Gregory VII, and the imperial party and its antipope. Finally, with both sides exhausted, Henry IV’s son and successor, Henry V, entered into a peace treaty with Pope Calixtus II, which history knows as the Concordat of Worms of 1122. The concordat, which is our fourth and last document, settled the issue over which the two parties had struggled so bitterly for so long. Or did it?
Questions for Consideration 1. W hich powers does Gregory claim over other clerics in the Dictatus Papae? Which powers does he claim over princes? 2. Compose a commentary on the Dictatus Papae by any one of the following: Pope Gelasius I; Pope Gregory I; Charlemagne; Pope Leo III. 3. The Dictatus Papae and King Henry’s letter reveal two views of how the earthly Church functions. What are those views, and how, if at all, do they differ? 4. Consider the tone of Gregory’s letter that excommunicates and deposes Henry and its implied worldview. What insight does that letter give you into the mind and personality of Pope Gregory? 5. W hich issues did the Concordat of Worms settle? Were there any important issues that it did not address? All things considered, how successfully did the concordat resolve the basic issues of the Investiture Controversy?
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DICTATUS PAPAE 1. That the Roman Church was established by God alone. 2. That the Roman pontiff alone is rightly called universal. 3. That he alone has the power to depose and reinstate bishops. 4. That his legate, even if he is of lower ecclesiastical rank, presides over bishops in council, and has the power to give sentence of deposition against them. 5. That the pope has the power to depose those who are absent.2 6. That, among other things, we ought not to remain in the same house with those whom he has excommunicated. 7. That he alone has the right, according to the necessity of the occasion, to make new laws, to create new bishoprics…. 8. That he alone may use the imperial insignia.3 9. That all princes shall kiss the foot of the pope alone. 10. That his name alone is to be recited in the churches. 11. That the name applied to him belongs to him alone.4 12. That he has the power to depose emperors. 13. That he has the right to transfer bishops from one see to another when it becomes necessary. 14. That he has the right to ordain as a cleric anyone from any part of the Church whatsoever. 15. That anyone ordained by him may rule [as bishop] over another church…. 16. That no general synod may be called without his order. 17. That no action of a synod and no book shall be regarded as canonical without his authority. 18. That his decree can be annulled by no one, and that he can annul the decrees of anyone. 19. That he can be judged by no one. 20. That no one shall dare to condemn a person who has appealed to the Apostolic See. 21. That the important cases of any church whatsoever shall be referred to the Roman Church.
2. Absent from a council. 3. See the Donation of Constantine. 4. The Coptic patriarch of Alexandria also bore the title “pope.”
22. That the Roman Church has never erred and will never err to all eternity, according to the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. 23. That the Roman pontiff who has been canonically ordained is made holy by the merits of Saint Peter…. 24. That by his command or permission subjects may accuse their rulers. 25. That he can depose and reinstate bishops without the calling of a synod. 26. That no one can be regarded as Catholic who does not agree with the Roman Church. 27. That he has the power to absolve subjects from their oath of fidelity to wicked rulers.
*** THE LETTER OF HENRY IV TO GREGORY VII, JANUARY 24, 1076 Henry, king not by usurpation, but by the holy ordination of God, to Hildebrand, not pope, but false monk. This is the salutation that you deserve, for you have never held any office in the Church without making it a source of confusion and a curse to Christian men instead of an honor and a blessing. To mention only the most obvious cases out of many, you have not only dared to touch the Lord’s anointed, the archbishops, bishops, and priests; but you have scorned them and abused them, as if they were ignorant servants not fit to know what their master was doing. This you have done to gain favor with the vulgar crowd. You have declared that the bishops know nothing and that you know everything; but if you have such great wisdom you have used it not to build but to destroy. Therefore we believe that Saint Gregory, whose name you have presumed to take, had you in mind when he said: “The heart of the prelate is puffed up by the abundance of subjects, and he thinks himself more powerful than all others.”5All this we have endured because of our respect for the papal office, but you have mistaken our humility for fear, and have dared to make an attack upon the royal and imperial authority that we received from God.6 You have even threatened to take it away, as if we had received it from you, and 5. Pope Gregory I, The Pastoral Rule. 6. Henry IV, who was king of Germany and Italy and emperor-elect, had not yet been crowned emperor by the pope.
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as if the empire and kingdom were in your disposal and not in the disposal of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ has called us to the government of the empire, but he never called you to the rule of the Church. This is the way you have gained advancement in the Church: through craft you have obtained wealth; through wealth you have obtained favor; through favor, the power of the sword; and through the power of the sword, the papal seat, which is the seat of peace; and then from the seat of peace you have expelled peace. For you have incited subjects to rebel against their prelates by teaching them to despise the bishops, their rightful rulers. You have given to laymen the authority over priests, whereby they condemn and depose those whom the bishops have put over them to teach them.7 You have attacked me, who, unworthy as I am, have yet been anointed to rule among the anointed of God, and who, according to the teaching of the Fathers, can be judged by no one save God alone, and can be deposed for no crime except infidelity. For the holy Fathers in the time of the apostate Julian did not presume to pronounce sentence of deposition against him, but left him to be judged and condemned by God.8 Saint Peter himself said: “Fear God, honor the king.”9 But you, who fear not God, have dishonored me, whom He has established. Saint Paul, who said that even an angel from Heaven should be accursed who taught any other than the true doctrine, did not make an exception in your favor, to permit you to teach false doctrines. For he says: “But though we, or an angel from Heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”10 Come down, then, from that apostolic seat that you have obtained by violence; for you have been declared accursed by Saint Paul for your false doctrines and have been condemned by us and our bishops for your evil rule. Let another ascend the throne of Saint Peter, one who will not use religion as a cloak of violence, but will teach the life-giving doctrine of that prince of the apostles. I, Henry, 7. Gregory and other radical reformers within the papal party called upon Europe’s laity to reject sinful bishops and priests, especially those guilty of simony and lay investiture. 8. Emperor Julian the Apostate (r. 361–63) rejected Christianity and attempted to reinstate state worship of the ancient GrecoRoman deities. 9. 1 Peter, 2:17. 10. Galatians, 1:8.
king by the grace of God, with all my bishops, say unto you: “Come down, come down, and be accursed through all the ages.”
*** GREGORY VII’S FIRST EXCOMMUNICATION AND DEPOSITION OF HENRY IV Saint Peter, prince of the apostles, incline your ear to me, I beseech you, and hear me, your servant, whom you have nourished from my infancy and have delivered from my enemies who hate me for my fidelity to you. You are my witness, as are also my mistress, the Mother of God, and Saint Paul your brother, and all the other saints, that your holy Roman Church called me to its government against my own will, and that I did not gain your throne by violence; that I would rather have ended my days in exile than have obtained your place by fraud or for worldly ambition. It is not by my efforts, but by your grace, that I am set to rule over the Christian world which was specially entrusted to you by Christ. It is by your grace and as your representative that God has given to me the power to bind and to loose in Heaven and on Earth. Confident of my integrity and authority, I now declare in the name of omnipotent God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Henry, son of the emperor Henry, is deprived of his kingdom of Germany and Italy; I do this by your authority and in defense of the honor of your Church, because he has rebelled against it. He who attempts to destroy the honor of the Church should be deprived of such honor as he may have held. He has refused to obey as a Christian should; he has not returned to God from whom he had wandered; he has had dealings with excommunicated persons; he has done many iniquities; he has despised the warnings that, as you are witness, I sent to him for his salvation; he has cut himself off from your Church, and has attempted to rend it asunder; therefore, by your authority, I place him under the curse. It is in your name that I curse him, so that all people may know that you are Peter, and upon your rock the Son of the living God has built his Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
***
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THE CONCORDAT OF WORMS The Oath of Calixtus II Calixtus, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved son, Henry, by the grace of God emperor of the Romans, Augustus.11 We hereby grant that in Germany the elections of the bishops and abbots who hold directly from the crown shall be held in your presence, such elections to be conducted canonically and without simony or other illegality. In the case of disputed elections you shall have the right to decide between the parties, after consulting with the archbishop of the province and his fellow-bishops. You shall confer the regalia of the office upon the bishop or abbot elect by the scepter,12 and this shall be done freely without exacting any payment from him; the bishop or abbot elect on his part shall perform all the duties that go with the holding of the regalia. In other parts of the empire the bishops shall receive the regalia from you in the same manner within six months of their consecration, and shall in like manner perform all the duties that go with them. The undoubted rights of the Roman Church, however, are not to be regarded as prejudiced by this concession. If at any time you shall have occasion to complain of the carrying out of these 11. Pope Paschal II had crowned Henry V as emperor in 1111, during a time of momentary accord. 12. The emperor or king could invest the new prelate with delegated royal authority and powers (regalia) by touching him or her (in the case of an imperial abbess) with the imperial or royal scepter.
provisions, I will undertake to satisfy your grievances as far as shall be consistent with my office. Finally, I hereby make a true and lasting peace with you and with all of your followers, including those who supported you in the recent controversy. The Oath of Henry V
In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. For the love of God and his holy Church and of Pope Calixtus, and for the salvation of my soul, I, Henry, by the grace of God, emperor of the Romans, Augustus, hereby surrender to God and His apostles, Saints Peter and Paul, and to the holy Catholic Church, all investiture by ring and staff.13 I agree that elections and consecrations shall be conducted canonically and shall be free from all interference. I surrender also the possessions and regalia of Saint Peter that have been seized by me during this quarrel, or by my father in his lifetime, and that are now in my possession, and I promise to aid the Church to recover such that are held by any other persons. I restore also the possessions of all other churches and princes, clerical or secular, that have been taken away in the course of this quarrel that I have, and I promise to aid them to recover such that are held by any other persons. Finally, I make a true and lasting peace with Pope Calixtus and the holy Roman Church and with all who are or have ever been of his party. I will aid the Roman Church whenever my help is asked, and I will do justice in all matters regarding which the Church might have occasion to complain. 13. The symbols of a prelate’s office.
A Byzantine View of the Investiture Controversy 74. Anna Comnena, ALEXIAD14 Sometime after 1137, Princess Anna Comnena, daughter of Emperor Alexius I (r. 1081–1118), took it upon herself to compose the history of her father’s reign. The work is highly partisan, as its title, Alexiad, which echoes Homer’s Iliad, strongly suggests. In our excerpt, Anna comments on the early years of the Investiture Controversy. The struggle between papacy and empire provided the background to the First Crusade, which figured so prominently in her father’s reign and in her book. Although the heated exchanges between Gregory VII and Henry 14. Anna Comnena, Alexiadis libri XV, ed. Charles Du Fresne Du Cange, with additions by Ludwig Schopen, 2 vols. (Bonn: Weber, 1839, 1878), 1:62–65, passim.
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IV commenced eight years before she was born and took place half a world away, Anna’s perspective, her secondhand knowledge of the affair, and even her misinformation are revealing.
Questions for Consideration 1. W hat was likely the “totally indecent outrage” that Anna accused the pope of ? 2. Assuming that Anna’s interpretation of the Investiture Controversy reflected the perspective of the Byzantine imperial court, what can we confidently say about the view from Constantinople of that struggle? 3. Compose Anna Comnena’s commentaries on the four documents in source 73.
Now it came about that the pope of Rome (an extremely high dignitary who is protected by troops of various lands) had an argument with Henry, king of Germany.… The dispute between the king and the pope was that the pope accused Henry of not bestowing ecclesiastical offices freely, but of selling them for money, and every now and then giving bishoprics to unworthy persons…. On his part, the king of Germany charged that the pope was guilty of usurping his princely ecclesiastical office because he had seized the apostolic throne without Henry’s consent.15 Moreover, he had the arrogance to recklessly threaten the pope, saying that if he did not resign his self-elected pontifical office, he should be expelled from it.… When the pope heard this, he turned his rage upon Henry’s envoys. First he tortured them inhumanly, then had their hair clipped with scissors, and their beards sheared with a razor. As a final act, he committed a totally indecent outrage upon them, which transcended even the insolence of barbarians, and so sent them away. My female and princely dignity prevents my being explicit regarding the outrage inflicted on them, for it was not only unworthy of a high priest, but of anyone who confesses allegiance to the name of Christ. I am horrified at this barbarian’s mindset, and still more the deed, and I would have polluted my pen and parchment had I candidly described what took place. But as a display of barbaric insolence, and proof that time in its course brings forth men with shameless morals, who are ripe for any 15. By tradition, the pope-elect applied for imperial approval of his election. Hildebrand had been elected pope and assumed the papal office without requesting approval from Henry.
sort of wickedness, it suffices for me to say that I cannot bear to disclose or relate even the tiniest word about what he did. And this was the handiwork of a bishop! Oh, what justice! The deed of a “supreme high priest”! Not just any high priest but one who claimed to preside over the whole world, as the Latins assert and believe, and this is only part of their empty boasting. Indeed, when the imperial seat was transferred from Rome to our Queen of Cities, along with the Senate, and the entire imperial apparatus, the chief priesthood of the Church was also brought here. And its emperors, from the very beginning, have accorded supreme rights to the bishop of Constantinople, and the Council of Chalcedon unambiguously elevated the bishop of Constantinople to the highest position in the Church, and placed all other bishops of the inhabited world under his jurisdiction.16 There can be no doubt that the insult done to the envoys was aimed at the king who sent them; not only because the pope scourged them, but also because he invented this new kind of outrage. I think that by his actions, the pope declared that the power of the king was of no account, and by committing this horrible outrage on the king’s envoys the pope, a demi-god, so to speak, was dealing with a demi-ass! Consequently, by wreaking his insolence on the ambassadors, and sending them back to the king in the state that I mentioned, the pope set in motion a great war. 16. The Council of Chalcedon of 451 stipulated in canon 28 that the bishop of Constantinople enjoyed a primacy of honor second only to that of the bishop of Old Rome because Constantinople was the New Rome.
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Investitures in the Wake of the Investiture Controversy 75. THE SARCOPHAGUS OF BISHOP ADELOCHUS and THE INVESTITURE OF KING ROGER II In 1130, or possibly 1144, the Church of Saint Thomas in Strasbourg commissioned a sarcophagus for the bones of Bishop Adelochus, who three centuries earlier had supported the rebuilding of the church. The result was a masterpiece of Alsatian Romanesque sculpture. The scene that appears here shows Adelochus receiving investiture of his temporal powers. Seated to his rear is a woman who appears to be holding a flower. As you study this relief, keep in mind that twelfth-century Strasbourg was a German city that was firmly in the camp of the imperial party. On Christmas Day 1130, the Italo-Norman prince Roger de Hauteville, count of Sicily and duke of Apulia and Calabria, was crowned as King Roger II of Sicily, with the blessing of one of two competing popes, Anacletus II (r.1130–38). King Roger, in turn, became an uncompromising opponent of the other pope, Innocent II (r. 1130–43). On his part, Pope Innocent, who eventually triumphed over Anacletus and branded his opponent as an anti-pope, was forced to recognize Roger’s royal title in 1139. Despite his problems with the papacy, Roger II was one of the most powerful monarchs in the West, ruling over a multi-ethnic kingdom that embraced the southern half of the Italian Peninsula, the island of Sicily, and the Maltese Archipelago. Palermo, his capital city, was richly diverse, with large populations of Muslims and Greek and Latin Christians and a sizeable Jewish community. In 1143, his admiral George of Antioch commissioned the construction of the Church of Santa Maria dell’ Ammiraglio (Saint Mary of the Admiral) in Palermo. During construction of the church, an unknown Byzantine-Sicilian artist crafted and placed on the building’s façade a mosaic depicting King Roger’s coronation. Centuries later, while the old Norman façade was being redone in the Baroque style, the mosaic was moved into the church. The mosaic has a background of gold inlay. Roger is dressed in the ceremonial garments of an Eastern Roman emperor. The letters above him, ΡΟΓΕΡΙΟΣ ΡΗΞ, are a Greek transliteration of the Latin Rogerius Rex (King Roger). Crowning him is Jesus, identified as ΙΣ ΧΣ (IS CHS), the Greek abbreviation for “Jesus Christ.” As you study this piece of art, it might be helpful to know that throughout his reign, Roger II used title βασιλεύς (basileus), which means “king” in Greek and was the title applied to the emperors in Constantinople.
Questions for Consideration 1. The woman standing behind the bishop is an allegorical figure. What or whom does she most likely represent? 2. Explain the symbolism of the investiture ceremony that is portrayed here. 3. Explain the symbolism of the mosaic of King Roger II’s coronation. 4. Cardinal Gregorio Papareschi, the future Pope Innocent II, represented the papacy at the negotiations that led to the Concordat of Worms. Compose Pope Innocent’s commentary on each piece of art.
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Illus. 10.2 Sarcophagus of Bishop Adelochus, Église Saint-Thomas, Strasbourg, France.
Illus. 10.3 The Coronation of King Roger II, Santa Maria dell’ Ammiraglio (also known as the Church of the Matorana), Palermo, Sicily.
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A Papal Rejoinder to the Byzantine Emperor 76. Innocent III, SOLITAE 17 Innocent III (r. 1198–1216) was arguably the most dynamic and powerful pope of the High Middle Ages. Already a trained theologian and experienced papal official, the thirty-seven-year-old Cardinal Lothario ascended the papal throne with a sense of high purpose. During his more than eighteen years as pope, Innocent was embroiled in numerous struggles with secular and ecclesiastical lords and dispatched large numbers of letters that articulated his position on a variety of issues. Innocent composed many of those letters not only for the moment but with an eye toward the future, inasmuch as the pope endeavored to provide church lawyers and subsequent popes with a body of authoritative texts that, more fully than ever before, defined the place of the pope within Christendom. Papal letters that address important legal and constitutional points are known as decretals, and Innocent’s decretals proved to be a treasure trove for canon lawyers in his own day and well beyond. In 1209 or 1210, the pope sent a collection of his important decretals to the masters and students at the University of Bologna, Europe’s premier center for legal studies, for use in the law courts and lecture halls. One of the decretals contained in the collection was Solitae, a letter that he wrote in late 1200 to Emperor Alexius III of Constantinople. As is true of all papal letters, the decretal’s title derives from its opening word, which means “usual.” Scholars divide on the issue of how usual or unusual were the claims articulated in Solitae. But in order to begin to understand and evaluate those claims, some background is necessary. In 1198, Alexius initiated relations with the new pope in the hope of reaching a political alliance against a common enemy, Philip of Hohenstaufen, a claimant to the kingship of Germany and the Western imperial title. Innocent responded to this overture by insisting that the emperor first must submit the “Greek” Church to the authority of the Roman papacy and promise to aid the upcoming crusade before any political alliance was possible. In early 1199, Alexius dispatched a second letter to Rome, in which he attempted to dismiss as politely as possible the pope’s arguments and preconditions, while leaving the door open for an alliance. Innocent’s second letter to the emperor, composed in late 1199, left no doubt that he was serious and would accept nothing less than the Church of Constantinople’s submission to his papal authority and Alexius’s crusade cooperation. In 1200, Alexius replied with a now lost third letter that was franker in tone and message than his two earlier dispatches to Rome. Solitae was the pope’s reply.
Questions for Consideration 1. What arguments had Alexius made in his letter of 1200? What do those arguments suggest about relations between emperors and priests in Byzantium? 2. According to Innocent III, what is the proper relationship between the papacy and temporal authority? On what assumptions does the pope base that view? 3. How does Innocent view the papacy in relation to the Byzantine Empire? 4. How does Innocent view the papacy in relation to the universal Church? What is the basis for that vision?
17. From the Gesta Innocentii III, in “The Gesta Innocentii III: Text, Introduction, and Commentary,” ed. David R. Guess-Wright (Ph.D. diss., Bryn Mawr, 1981), 103–9.
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5. Based on this letter, how would you characterize papal-Byzantine relations at the opening of the thirteenth century? 6. Assume that you are a canon lawyer writing a commentary on this decretal. What are the decretal’s salient points, and what conclusions would you reach from this text?
TO ALEXIUS, EMPEROR OF CONSTANTINOPLE With our usual affection for you, we have received the letter your Imperial Excellency dispatched to us through the person of our beloved son, I., the archdeacon of Durazzo,18 a prudent and faithful man. Through your letter we learned that the letter we had sent to you through the office of our beloved son and chaplain, John, who was then serving as a legate of the Apostolic See, had arrived in your empire and was read. As you intimated to us in your letter, however, your Imperial Sublimity is astonished that we seemed to have reproached you in some small way, although we remember that we wrote what we wrote not in a spirit of reproach but rather in the gentle spirit of bringing something to your attention. We have gathered from your letter that your reading of what Saint Peter, the prince of the apostles, wrote, “For the sake of God, be subject to every human creature, as much as to the king, who is the preeminent authority, as to the lords, for they are sent by God to punish evildoers and to praise the doers of good,”19 served not as the cause of your wonder but as a convenient opportunity. What caused us even more reasonably to wonder is that his Imperial Highness wished, through these words and others that he introduced, to place the empire above the priestly dignity and power, and from the authoritative text quoted above he desired to draw out a triple argument. The first argument is based on the text “be subject.” The second is based on what follows that: “to the king, who is the preeminent authority.” The third is based on the words that are appended directly to that: “to punish evildoers and to praise the doers of good.” Imagining through the first argument that the priesthood is a subordinate state, through the second that the empire has precedence, through the third that emperors have received jurisdiction over priests, as well as laypeople, and, indeed, the power of the sword over priests!20 Inasmuch as some priests are 18. I or J is unknown. Durazzo, the present-day Durrës in Albania, was a port city under Venetian control. 19. 1 Peter, 2:13–14. 20. The power to try in court and punish clerics.
good men and some are evildoers, he who, according to the apostle, bears the sword for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of the doers of good, is able to punish with the sword of vengeance priests who dare to deviate into evildoing, because the apostle does not distinguish between priests and everyone else. Doubtless, had you paid more careful attention to the person speaking these words and the people to whom he was speaking and the meaning of the words, you would not have drawn such an interpretation from the text. For the apostle is writing to his subordinates, and he has been urging on them the virtue of humility. It was in this context that he said, “be subject.” For, if he wanted to place on the priesthood the yoke of subservience and to confer sovereign authority on them to whom he admonished priests to be subject, it would follow that even every slave received power over priests when he says, “to every human creature.” Regarding what follows, however, “to the king, who is the preeminent authority,” we do not deny that the emperor, to be sure, is preeminent in temporal matters. But the pontiff has precedence in spiritual affairs, which are as superior to temporal concerns as the body is to the soul. Let it also be noted that the statement was not simply “be subject,” but “for the sake of God” was added, nor is the text pure and simply “to the king, who is the preeminent authority,” but rather the phrase “as much as” is introduced, perhaps not without reason. What follows, however, “to punish evildoers and to praise the doers of good,” should not be understood as meaning that the king or emperor has received the power of the sword over all, the good and the evil, but only over those who, by using the sword, are given over to the jurisdiction of the sword, according to what the Truth said: “All who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.”21 For no one can or should judge another person’s servant, because, as the apostle notes, a servant stands or falls with his lord. On that point you also introduced the argument that although Moses and Aaron were brothers in the flesh, Moses was the prince of the people and Aaron 21. Matthew, 26:52.
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had more priestly power, and Joshua, Moses’s successor, received ruling authority over priests.22 Also King David was superior to Abiathar, the chief priest.23 Moreover, although Moses was prince of the people, he was also a priest, who anointed Aaron as priest,24 and the prophet recognized Moses’s priesthood when he said: “Moses and Aaron were His priests.”25 The higher authority entrusted to Joshua that you wrote about should be interpreted more in accordance with the spirit of the text rather than the letter, because, as the apostle writes: “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.”26 Joshua, who led his people into the Promised Land, symbolized the person of the True Jesus.27 Also, although David possessed the royal diadem, he governed the priest Abiathar not as a consequence of his royal dignity but on account of his authority as a prophet. Whatever was long ago true in the Old Testament now is otherwise in the New Testament, because Christ was made a Priest unto eternity according to the order of Melchizedek28 and offered Himself as a sacrifice to God the Father not as a king but as a priest on the altar of the cross, through which He redeemed the human family. In regard particularly to him who is the successor of the Apostle Peter and the vicar of Jesus Christ,29 you should have been able to perceive the nature of the special privilege of priesthood from what was said not by just anyone but by God, not to a king but to a priest who was not of royal lineage but from a family of priestly succession, namely, from the priests who lived in Anathoth: “Behold, I have placed you over peoples and kingdoms, so that you might uproot and scatter, build and plant.”30 It is also said in divine law: 22. Exodus, chapters 4 and 7; Numbers, 16:40; and the Book of Joshua. 23. 1 Samuel, 22:20–23. 24. Exodus, 29:1–46. 25. Psalms, 99:6. 26. 2 Corinthians, 3:6. 27. Jesus (Iησους) is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua. Throughout this letter, Innocent uses the Latin Iesus to refer to both Joshua and Jesus. 28. Epistle to the Hebrews, 5:6. Melchizedek was the priest-king of Salem ( Jerusalem?), who presented Abraham with an offering of bread and wine and blessed him: Genesis, 14:18–20. 29. Innocent III consistently referred to himself as the “vicar of Christ,” rather than the traditional “vicar of Peter,” and from his day onward that served as a papal title. 30. The words with which God commissioned Jeremiah as a prophet: Jeremiah, 1:10.
“Do not slander the god-like, and do not speak evil of the prince of your people.”31 These words place priests before kings, calling the former gods and the latter princes. Moreover, you ought to know that God made two great lights in the firmament of heaven, a greater light and a lesser light—the greater light to preside over the day, the lesser light to preside over the night. Each is great, but one is greater, because the Church is signified by the word “heaven,” according to what the Truth said: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the human head of a household who gathered workers at the break of day in his vineyard.”32 The word “day” we understand to mean “spiritual,” and “night” means “carnal,” according to the testimony of the Prophet: “Day utters the word to day, and night proclaims knowledge to night.”33 God gave, therefore, to the firmament of heaven, that is the Universal Church, two great lights. That is, He instituted two dignities, which are pontifical authority and royal power. The one, however, that rules over days, that is over spiritual matters, is greater; the one that rules over nights, that is over carnal matters, is lesser. Thus it is recognized that the difference between the sun and the moon is as great as that between pontiffs and kings. If his Imperial Highness carefully considers these matters, he would neither make nor permit our venerable brother, the patriarch of Constantinople, a truly great and honorable member of the Church, to sit on the left next to his footstool, when other kings and princes reverently rise in the presence of archbishops and bishops, as they should, and assign them an honorable seat next to themselves.34 For, as we believe, your Prudence is not ignorant of the fact that the exceedingly pious Constantine showed such honor to priests. For, even though we have not written in rebuke, we may, nevertheless, very reasonably rebuke, as Saint Paul the apostle is recorded to have written, by way of instruction, to Bishop Timothy: “Preach, persist both when it is convenient and when it is inconvenient, importune, censure, implore, rebuke with all patience and learning.”35 For Our 31. Exodus, 22:28. 32. Matthew, 20:1. 33. Psalms, 19:2. 34. John X Camaterus, with whom Innocent also corresponded, was the patriarch of Constantinople. Although the patriarchs were imperial appointees and were subject to a high degree of scrutiny by the emperor, they generally were accorded great honor and authority. 35. 2 Timothy, 4:2.
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mouth ought not to be bound, but it ought to be open to all, lest we be, as the Prophet says, “mute dogs who do not want to bark.”36 For this reason our correction should not annoy you but rather should be accepted, because a father chides the son whom he loves, and God censures and castigates those whom He loves. We, therefore, carry out the duty of the pastoral office when we entreat, accuse, rebuke, and take pains to win over to those things that are pleasing to the Divine Will, when it is convenient and when it is inconvenient, not just everyone else but even emperors and kings. For all of Christ’s sheep were committed to us, in the person of Saint Peter, when the Lord said, “Feed My sheep,”37 not making any distinction between these sheep and those, in order to show that anyone who does not recognize Peter and his successors as teachers and pastors is outside His flock. Because it is so well known, we need hardly mention what the Lord said to Peter and, in the person of Peter, to his successors: “Whatsoever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever you permit on Earth will be permitted in Heaven,”38 excepting nothing when He said “whatsoever.” In truth, we do not wish to pursue this any longer, lest we seem contentious or attracted to something of this sort, because, should it be advantageous to boast, one should prefer to boast not of some mark of honor but of his onerous burden, not of his magnitude but of his disquietude. For this reason, the apostle boasts of his infirmities.39 We have learned that it is written: “Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and everyone who humbles himself shall be exalted”;40 and further, “The greater you are, the more you should humble yourself in all things”; and elsewhere, “God resists the 36. Isaiah, 56:10. 37. John, 21:15–17. 38. Matthew, 16:19. 39. 2 Corinthians, 11:30. 40. Luke, 14:1, 18:14.
proud but gives glory to the humble.”41 Because of that we describe our exaltation in humility, and we regard our greatest exaltation to be our humility. For this reason also we write and confess that we are the servants, not only of God, but of the servants of God and, in the Apostle’s words, we are debtors equally to the wise and the foolish.42 Your Highness knows whether or not we have been able to lead your Imperial Excellency to welcoming the good and the useful through our letter and whether we have advised you of proper and honorable courses of actions, because we remember that we invited you to nothing other than the unity of the Church and aid for the land of Jerusalem. May He, Who breathes where He wills and Who holds the hearts of princes in His hand, so inspire your mind that you acquiesce to our advice and counsel and do that which should deservedly produce honor for the Divine Name, profit for the Christian religion, and the salvation of your soul. We, however, will do what we know is expeditious, no matter what you might do. Would that you made it a point to imitate better in word and deed the devotion to the Apostolic See of your illustrious predecessor, Emperor Manuel of glorious memory,43 so that, through its aid and counsel, things might go better for you and your empire, as they did for him. Would that you, at least from this time onward, make up for what up you have neglected up to this point. The aforementioned archdeacon, however, can faithfully tell Your Excellency what he has heard from us. 41. Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Joshua ben Sirach, 3:18. 42. Romans, 1:14. 43. Emperor Manuel I Comnenus (r. 1143–80), known as “the Great,” was married successively to two Latin Christian women and had a reputation as a Latinophile. More to the point, he faced a wide variety of Eastern and Western enemies, including Roger II of Sicily, Emperor Frederick I, and the Venetians. Consequently, Manuel courted the goodwill of the papacy.
A Middle Ground? 77. John Quidort ( John of Paris), ON ROYAL AND PAPAL POWER 44 Increasingly from the late eleventh century onward, popes and monarchs—kings as well as emperors—struggled with one another to assert ultimate authority over their Christian subjects. One of the most bitter controversies, which raged from early 1296 to late 1303, engaged the energies of King 44. Johannes Quidort von Paris, Über königliche und päpstliche Gewalt (De regia potestate et papali ), ed. Fritz Bleienstein, Textkritische Edition mit deutscher Übersetzung (Stuttgart: Ernst Klett, 1969), 75–76, 87–89, 106, 113, 157.
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Philip IV of France, Pope Boniface VIII, and their respective partisans. This conflict provided the setting for John Quidort (ca. 1250–1306), a Dominican priest of Paris, to articulate a somewhat new political theory. Quidort was a student of the theology and political philosophy of Thomas Aquinas, and although he took Aquinas’s political philosophy further than his famous Dominican predecessor had gone, clearly the deep influence of Aquinas is evident throughout his writings. In turn, Aquinas had been influenced by the rediscovery of Aristotle’s Politics, a treatise that eloquently presented the position that the sovereign state originates from natural human needs and is necessary for full human development. Around 1302, as the struggle between Boniface and Philip reached its final and shocking stages, Friar John composed On Royal and Papal Power. Although his and Aquinas’s were minority voices in the ongoing struggle between secular and sacred authority, Quidort represents an important school of thought and a foreshadowing of what would become, centuries later, a mainstream Western notion of the proper relationship of church and state.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to John of Paris, what are humanity’s two ends, or goals, and how is each attained? 2. John accords the priesthood a role and place of honor. What are they? How do they compare with the role and place of honor of princes? 3. The argument of Saint Augustine of Hippo’s fifth-century City of God was that the shameful servitude that comes with government is a direct consequence of humanity’s sinfulness. Government, therefore, is a necessary evil—sinners keeping other sinners in check. How has John deviated from that theory? 4. Compare John of Paris’s political theory with that of Pope Gelasius I. Where do they agree and/ or disagree? Which are more significant, the similarities or the differences? Explain your answer. 5. Based on your analysis of this document, with which side does John appear to stand, the king’s or the pope’s? 6. Compose responses to Friar John’s views by either Henry IV or Alexius III and one of the two popes whom we have seen in this chapter (and note John’s citation of Solitae).
Chapter 1 It should first be known regarding kingship that the properly understood definition of it is that kingship is rule by one person over a community that is perfectly ordered for the common good…. Such rule is derived from natural law and the law of nations.45 For a human is naturally a political or civil animal, as is said in Book I of the Politics, where, according to the 45. Natural law is the theory that certain universal rights, duties, and modes of behavior are inherent in humans by virtue of their nature. The law of nations (or peoples) was a Roman legal concept that certain traditions and standards of behavior bind all peoples and states in a system of common law based on reason, self-interest, practicality, and natural law.
Philosopher,46 it is shown in regard to food, clothing, and defense. In regard to these things, a solitary person is not self-sufficient…. Therefore, it is necessary for a person to live in a community and in such a community that provides sufficiently for his life. The community of a household or of a village is not sufficient, but the community of a state or of a kingdom is; for in a single household or single village one cannot find all of the necessities of food, clothing, and defense that make for a full life as one can in a state or kingdom. Moreover, when each person pursues his own ends, every community disintegrates and is broken up into separate entities, unless it is ordered toward 46. Aristotle.
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the common good by some one individual who is responsible for the common good…. Chapter 5 …We say that priestly power is greater than royal power and excels it in dignity because we always find this: what is concerned with the final end is more perfect and better and gives direction to what is concerned with a lesser end. It is true that kingship is ordained to the purpose that an assembled multitude might live in accordance with virtue, as has been said, and it is further ordained to a higher purpose, which is the enjoyment of God. The responsibility and direction of this belongs to Christ, whose ministers and vicars are priests. It follows that priestly power is of greater dignity than the secular power, and this is generally conceded…. In Solitae it is said that the spiritual excels the temporal as the sun the moon, and so on.… Yet, if in principle the priest is greater in dignity and worthier than the prince, it does not follow that he is greater than him in all respects. For the lesser secular power itself is not so related to the greater spiritual power that it originates or is derived from it in the same way that the power of a proconsul is related to that of the emperor, who is greater than him in all respects because the proconsul’s power is derived from the emperor.47 Rather, the relationship is like that of the power of a head of a household to the power of a general of armies. One is not derived from the other but both from some superior power. And so the secular power is greater than the spiritual power in some matters, namely in temporal affairs, and it is not subject to the spiritual power in any way because it does not originate from it. Rather, both originate directly from the One Supreme Power, namely God. Given this fact, the inferior is not subject to the superior in all matters but only in those in which the Supreme Power has subordinated it to the greater. Who would argue that because a teacher of literature or an instructor in morals guides all the members of a household to a nobler end, namely knowledge of the truth, than a physician, who is concerned with a lesser end, namely bodily health, that, therefore, the physician should be subject to the teacher in preparing his medicines? Indeed, this is inappropriate because, when the head of the household placed each in the home, he did not at all subordinate the lesser to the greater. Therefore, the 47. Proconsul was a title and office inherited from the Roman Republic that, during the era of the empire, was applied to provincial governors.
priest is greater than the prince in spiritual matters and, conversely, the prince is greater in temporal affairs, though it is granted that, absolutely speaking, the priest is the greater just as the spiritual is greater than the temporal….
Chapter 10 Granted that Christ as a man had the aforementioned authority and power [over the goods of the laity], nevertheless he did not give it to Peter, and it follows that the aforementioned power does not belong to the pope by reason of his being Peter’s successor. Rather, episcopal and temporal powers are separate not only in themselves but in the person [who holds one or the other]. And the emperor is greater in temporal affairs, having no superior over him, just as the pope is greater in spiritual matters…. Furthermore, royal power existed both in principle and in practice before papal power, and there were kings before there were Christians in France. Therefore royal power, in principle and in practice, does not come from the pope, but from God and from the people who elect a king either as an individual or as a member of a dynasty, as before.48 For to say that earlier royal power was immediately from God but later from the pope is patently ridiculous. For this could not be unless Christ had given Peter the power of conferring royal dignity…. Chapter 17 …The twentieth argument49 is that corporeal entities are ruled by spiritual beings and depend on them like a cause. I answer that an argument made in this way fails in multiple ways: In the first place, because it assumes that royal power is corporeal and not spiritual and that it has a responsibility for bodies and not of souls, which is false, as is said above, since it is ordained for the common good of the citizens, but not just any good whatsoever, but for the good of living in accord with virtue. The Philosopher says in the Ethics that the intention of a legislator is to make people good and to lead them to virtue, and in the Politics he says that, just as the soul is worthier than the body, so a legislator is worthier than a doctor because the legislator has a responsibility for souls, the doctor for bodies.50
48. Election, literally “being called out,” did not mean in this context chosen by vote or even acclamation. It meant that the royal power of an individual or dynasty rested on common consent, and this was a popular theory among political philosophers of the period. 49. John refutes forty-two contrary arguments. 50. Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book 2; Politics, Book 1.
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The Power of Monarchs The power and levels of authority of Europe’s monarchs varied considerably according to time, place, and circumstances. Up until the thirteenth century, the kings and emperors of Germany, who also ruled over northern Italy, largely managed to maintain the power and prestige that they had inherited from Otto I, and in some respects they expanded on that power. The kings of England ruled fairly effectively over a compact island-kingdom from the middle of the tenth century to 1066, and after that date, the power of England’s Anglo-Norman kings reached a new level of effectiveness. French monarchs lagged behind their colleagues in England and Germany in creating an effective royal establishment; however, from the late twelfth onward, the reach and authority of French kings increased dramatically. The two sources that appear here reflect both reality and ideology. The first illustrates the new twelfth-century legal functions and authority of the English crown. The second provides an insight into the importance of King Louis IX, as both an effective monarch and as a symbol of good kingship, in the growth of French royal authority in the thirteenth century.
The King’s Justice 78. THE ASSIZE OF CLARENDON 51 The theory of sacral kingship, in which the monarch acted as the deputy of the Divine Judge, reached its apogee in the eleventh century and then gave way to the more secular notion of the monarch as the supreme legislator who imposed rational order on his realm. The transition from a liturgical to a lawbased kingship is quite apparent in England after 1066. William the Conqueror’s reign (r. 1066–87) was a watershed in English history, in large part because he imposed on an already well-governed country a feudal regime that allowed him to govern his new realm more closely than any of his European counterparts. William I’s two immediate successors shared their father’s strengths. Of them, Henry I (r. 1100–35), known as “the Lion of Justice,” was especially successful in creating a peaceful kingdom ruled by a strong monarchy. His death, however, occasioned nineteen years of civil war and local brigandage, due to a disputed royal succession. In 1154, the twentyone-year-old duke of Normandy and count of Anjou and Maine, a great-grandson of William I, assumed the crown of England, pacified his new kingdom, and reigned as Henry II until his death in 1189. Although King Henry II was very much a French prince, with far-flung interests well beyond his English kingdom, he proved to be one of England’s greatest medieval monarchs and possibly its most innovative legislator. History has accorded him the title “Father of English Common Law,” with common law understood as royal laws and legal procedures common to all English free persons. Even though free people were a minority in twelfth-century England, this was a significant step in the direction of greater royal authority because the alternative to the king’s law was an inherited patchwork of local customs and jurisdictions. Henry filled his thirty-five-year reign with a constant series of decrees aimed at directing all important civil and criminal cases to his increasingly professional royal courts. One of the earliest and most important of King Henry’s innovative edicts was the Assize of Clarendon of 1166. The term assize, which means “a sitting” in Old French, meant primarily a court session. It could, however, as is the case here, also refer to the law enacted at a session of the king’s court. 51. William Stubbs, A Translation of Such Documents as Are Untranslated in Mr. Stubbs’ Collection from the Earliest Times to the Conclusion of Edward the First’s Reign (Oxford: E. B. Gardner et al., 1873), 143–46.
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The sworn inquest jury, mentioned in article 1 of the assize, deserves special notice, inasmuch as it is the direct ancestor of the modern Anglo-American grand jury, which indicts rather than establishes the guilt or innocence of an accused person. Henry II’s Anglo-Norman predecessors had occasionally commanded their sheriffs to gather small groups of neighbors who were juried, or placed under oath ( jurati), and required to provide a verdict, or true answer (verum dictum), to some specific question. The most dramatic use of inquest juries was when William the Conqueror’s agents gathered information for his Domesday survey, or census, of 1086. It was Henry II, however, who transformed the institution into a regular and permanent arm of royal justice. The text that appears here was preserved as an appendix to the chronicle of Roger of Hoveden, which was completed in 1201. This probably explains why its language is so unlegalistic and imprecise in places.
Questions for Consideration 1. Exactly what process do articles 1–13 set in motion? 2. What evidence shows that this assize did not end all private jurisdictions and nonroyal courts? On the other hand, how did it curtail their activities? 3. Consider articles 12–14. What do they suggest about King Henry’s attitude toward trial by ordeal? 4. What role did the accused’s reputation and past record play in the process established by this assize? How might King Henry have justified the courts’ use of this type of evidence? 5. How might we explain the assize’s regulations regarding vagrants? 6. How did Henry attempt to set up a countrywide system for identifying and apprehending criminal fugitives? 7. What does the assize tell us about the workings of Henry’s police and judicial system in 1166?
Here begins the Assize of Clarendon, made by King Henry II, with the approval of the archbishops, bishops, abbots, counts and barons of all England. 1. In the first place the aforesaid King Henry, by the counsel of all his barons, for the preservation of peace and the maintenance of justice, has decreed that an inquest shall be made for each county, and for each hundred by twelve of the more lawful men of the hundred,52 and by four of the more lawful men of each village. Upon oath they will speak the truth: whether if, in their hundred or in their village, there is any man who, since the lord king has been king, has been charged or publicly exposed as being a robber or murderer or thief; or anyone who is a concealer of robbers or murderers or thieves. And let the 52. A division of the county with ancient Germanic roots, it did not necessarily number one hundred households.
justices53 inquire into this before them, and the sheriffs54 before them. 2. And he who is found through the oath of the aforesaid to have been charged or publicly exposed as being a robber or murderer or thief, or a concealer of them, since the lord king has been king, shall be seized and go to the ordeal of water,55 and shall swear that…so far as he knows, he was not a robber or murderer or thief or concealer of them since the lord king has been king…. 4. And when a robber or murderer or thief, or concealers of them, has been seized through the aforesaid oath, if the justices have not come sufficiently quickly into that county where they have been taken, the sheriffs shall send 53. Royal itinerant judges. 54. Consult the Glossary at County. 55. The ordeal of boiling water (source 11, note 59).
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word to the nearest justice through some knowledgeable man, that they have seized such men; and the justices shall send back word to the sheriffs where they wish those men to be conducted before them: and the sheriffs shall bring them before the justices. And with them they shall bring, from the hundred and vill where they were seized, two lawful men to bring the record for the county and hundred as to why they were seized; and there they will make their law before the justice…. 6. And the sheriffs who seized them shall lead them before the justice without any other summons than they have then. And when the robbers or murderers or thieves, or concealers of them, who shall be seized through the oath or otherwise, are delivered to the sheriffs, they shall receive them immediately without delay. 7. And in those counties where there are no jails, let them be made in a borough or in some castle of the king with the king’s money and from his woods if they are near, or from some nearby woods, in view of the king’s servants; to the end that in them the sheriffs may have guarded those who have been seized by the ministers and their servants, who are used to doing this. 8. The lord king wills also that all shall come to the county courts to take this oath; so that no one shall stay away on account of any liberty that he has, or court or soke that he may have,56 but that they shall come to take this oath…. 10. And in the cities or boroughs no one may have men, or receive in his home or on his land or in his soke, those whom he will not take in hand to present before the justice if they be wanted or are in frankpledge.57 11. And no one may be in a city or borough or castle, or outside it…who shall forbid the sheriffs to enter into his 56. A liberty was a special exemption. A soke, a holdover from Anglo-Saxon times, was the right of local jurisdiction, often granted by royal charter. Within the Anglo-Norman system, it was normally one of a feudal lord’s rights. 57. A police and bail system apparently established by King Canute of Denmark and England in the early eleventh century and made more systematic by the Anglo-Norman kings, whereby men of the lower classes were organized into groups of ten and took oaths to be mutually responsible for one another. If one of the ten was accused of a crime, the other nine were obligated to produce him or make good the damage. Sheriffs were required to visit each village and borough twice each year to ensure that everyone who owed this obligation was duly sworn. Clerics, nobles, knights, free landholders, merchants, and the like were exempt from frankpledge.
land or soke to seize those who have been charged or publicly exposed as being robbers or murderers or thieves, or concealers of the same, or outlaws or charged with regard to the forest;58 the king commands that they shall help the sheriffs seize them. 12. And if anyone is seized who is in possession of robbed or stolen goods, if he has been defamed and has a bad reputation from the public, and has no warranty,59 he will not have law.60 And if he is not notorious on account of the stolen things he has, he shall go to the ordeal by water. 13. And if anyone shall confess before lawful men, or in the hundred court, to robbery or murder or theft, or the concealing of those committing them, and afterwards wants to deny it, he shall not have law. 14. Moreover, the lord king wills also that those who shall be tried and absolved by the law, if they are of very bad repute and are publicly and disgracefully defamed by the testimony of many and lawful men, shall leave the lands of the king, so that within eight days they shall cross the sea unless the wind detains them; and, with the first wind that they have afterwards, they shall cross the sea; and they shall not return any more to England unless by the mercy of the lord king: both there and if they return, they shall be outlawed; and if they return they shall be seized as outlaws. 15. And the lord king forbids that any waif, that is, a vagrant or unknown person, shall be sheltered anywhere except in a borough, and there he shall not be sheltered more than a night, unless he becomes ill there, or his horse, so that he can show an obvious excuse. 16. And if he is there more than one night, he shall be seized and held until his lord shall come to give surety for him, or until he himself shall procure good sureties; and likewise he shall be seized who sheltered him. 17. And if any sheriff sends word to another sheriff that men have fled his county into another county on account of robbery or murder or theft, or the concealing of them, or for outlawry, or for an accusation with regard to the king’s forest, he shall seize them: and also if he knows it of himself or through others that such men have fled into his 58. They hunted, gathered wood, or otherwise trespassed in forests reserved exclusively for the king’s pleasure. 59. A bond, or surety, such as frankpledge. 60. “To have law” normally meant to be free under bond before one goes to trial. In this case, the person would be punished summarily without any trial.
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county, let him seize them and hold them in custody until he has good sureties from them. 18. And all sheriffs shall cause a record to be kept of all fugitives who fled their counties; and they shall do this in the presence of the county courts; and they shall carry the names written to the justices when first they come to them, so that they may be sought for throughout England, and their goods may be taken for the use of the king. 19. And the lord king wills that when the sheriffs receive the summons of the itinerant justices to appear before them with the men of their counties, they shall assemble them and inquire for all who have newly come into their counties since this assize; and they shall release them under surety that they come before the justices, or they shall hold them in custody until the justices come to them, and then they shall bring them before the justices. 20. Moreover, the lord king forbids monks or canons or any religious house to receive anyone of the lower class as
monk or canon or brother, until they know of what reputation he is, unless he is sick unto death. 21. The lord king forbids, moreover, anyone in all England to receive in his land or his soke or home under him anyone of that sect of renegades who were excommunicated and branded at Oxford.61 And if anyone receives them, he himself shall be at the mercy of the lord king; and the house in which they have been shall be carried outside the village and burned. And each sheriff shall swear that he will observe this, and shall make all his ministers swear this, and the stewards of the barons, and all the knights and freeholders of the counties. 22. And the lord king wills that this assize shall be kept in his kingdom as long as it shall please him. 61. In 1166, Henry condemned a group of Cathars who had been arrested at Oxford to be scourged, branded on the forehead, and abandoned to the cold of winter. According to reports, all perished.
The Ideal King? 79. Jean de Joinville, THE BOOK OF THE HOLY WORDS AND GOOD DEEDS OF OUR KING, SAINT LOUIS 62 Despite the civil war that preceded his reign, Henry II ruled over a realm that was far more centralized and better governed than the France of his contemporary Louis VII. Moreover, as feudal lord of the western half of the kingdom of France, Henry controlled a vast collection of duchies and counties that collectively dwarfed the modest royal demesne around Paris that King Louis directly held. A century later, however, the king of France was master of most of his realm and one of the most powerful monarchs in Latin Europe. Much of this dramatic turnabout came as a result of the policies of two monarchs: Philip II (r. 1180–1223), who pursued an opportunistic agenda that enabled him to enlarge the royal demesne enormously, largely at the expense of Henry’s youngest son, King John; and Philip’s grandson, Louis IX (r. 1226–70), who combined a pious determination to rule justly and well with a firmness that made it possible for him to achieve many of his domestic objectives. Although he promoted and led two costly and disastrous crusades, Louis IX managed to retain a high level of popularity throughout his kingdom. Indeed, his reputation as a selfless champion of the faith who had suffered substantially during his initial crusade added to his aura. He was likely the most beloved of all medieval French monarchs, and the affection he earned bore rich dividends for his royal successors. A measure of the love and respect accorded Louis IX is evident in the fact that the Roman Church, under French pressure, declared him a saint in 1297. Jean de Joinville (ca. 1224–1317) was one of the king’s greatest admirers and, in turn, one of the kingdom’s most respected lords. Jean accompanied Louis on the king’s first crusade, a six-year campaign that resulted in the capture and imprisonment of Louis and his army in Egypt in 1250. In the course 62. Joinville, Vie de saint Louis, ed. Jacques Monfrin (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 1995), 26–32, 346–54.
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of their shared trials, the two men became close friends, and Joinville was accorded the honor of investment as a royal vassal. They remained friends for the rest of Louis’s life, even though Joinville refused to accompany the king on his second crusade in 1270, arguing that his duty lay in protecting the people of Champagne and not in campaigning overseas. Louis died on that crusade, and Joinville lived on to serve several other monarchs. Joinville’s was one of the strongest voices in promoting Louis’s canonization as a saint, and following that successful campaign, he turned to recording his memories of Saint Louis at the request of Queen Jeanne of Navarre, wife of King Philip IV. Dictated between 1305 and 1309, the work is a hagiographical account without miracles. Apart from the fact that the king suffered and died on crusade and was, in Joinville’s eyes, a martyr for the faith, the author offers a second argument in support of Louis’s sanctity that runs throughout the excerpts that follow.
Questions for Consideration 1. How does Joinville depict Louis’s piety, and what does the whole picture suggest about the religious values of his society? 2. Modern students of politics often equate a leader’s piety with weakness. Was Louis a weak king? On what do you base your judgment? 3. Compare the various ways in which Louis dispensed justice. What do they suggest about the man and his age? 4. Against which specific abuses did Louis aim the Great Ordinance of 1254? Is there any significance in the fact that Louis enacted these ordinances within six months of his return to France? 5. Based on what Joinville tells us about Louis, what do you think thirteenth-century society expected of its monarchs? 6. This memoir is the reminiscences of an old man who is looking back at events that took place more than a half century earlier. Does this fact appear to compromise the value of this source? If so, to what degree? On what evidence do you base your judgment?
He [Louis] told me that there was once a great debate between clergy and Jews at the monastery of Cluny.63 An old knight was there, to whom the abbot gave bread at that place for the love of God, and he asked the abbot to allow him to speak the first words, and he received permission, but grudgingly. So he rose and leaned on his crutch, and asked that they should bring to him the most important cleric and most learned master among the Jews; and they did so. Then he asked him a question, which was this: “Master,” said the knight, “I ask you if you believe that the Virgin Mary, who bore God in her body and in her arms, was a virgin at His birth and that she is the mother of God.” 63. Consult the Glossary at Disputation.
And the Jew replied that he had no belief in any of that. Then the knight answered that the Jew had acted like a fool when he neither believed in her nor loved her but had entered into her monastery and house. “And, indeed,” the knight said, “you will pay for it!” So, he lifted his crutch, struck the Jew near the ear, and beat him to the ground. Then the Jews turned to flight and carried away their badly wounded master. And so ended the debate. Then the abbot came to the knight and told him he had committed a great folly, and the knight replied that he had committed a greater folly in organizing such a debate; for there were a great many good Christians there who, before the debate ended, would have gone away having totally lost their faith by reason of not fully understanding the Jews.
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“So, I tell you,” said the king, “that no one, unless he is a first-rate cleric, should debate with them. But a layperson, when he hears the Christian law slandered, should not defend the Christian law except with his sword, which he should plunge into the [person’s] belly and drive it in as far as it will go.” His life was so organized that every day he heard the hours sung and a Requiem Mass64 without song and then, if it was convenient, a sung Mass of the day or of the [day’s] saint.65 Every day he rested in his bed after having eaten; and when he had slept and rested, he said, privately in his chamber—he and one of his chaplains together— the office for the dead,66 and after he heard vespers. At night he heard compline.67 A corded friar68 came to him at the castle of Hyères, where we disembarked;69 and, for the king’s instruction, he said in his sermon that he had read the Bible and books that speak of heathen princes, and he said that he had never found, among believers and unbelievers, that a kingdom had been lost or had changed lords, except that where justice had failed. “Therefore, let the king, who is now going into France, take care,” he said, “that he administers justice well and speedily among his people, so that Our Lord might allow his kingdom to remain in peace throughout the course of his life.”… The king did not forget this lesson, but ruled his land well and faithfully in accordance with God, as you shall hear in a while…. Often it happened that in summer, after his Mass, he went and sat himself down in the forest of Vincennes,70 and leaned against an oak, and made us sit around him. And all those who had a case71 came to speak to him, without the hindrance of an usher or of any other persons. Then he would ask, out of his own mouth, “Is there anyone who has a case?” And they who had a case stood up, and 64. The Mass for the dead. 65. Each daily Mass has a special theme or is dedicated to a particular saint or sacred event. 66. Special prayers for the deceased. 67. Consult the Glossary at Canonical hours. 68. The Franciscan clerical habit (everyday garment) was cinched with a cord. 69. The friar was the renowned preacher Hugh of Barjols. This took place on July 3, 1254, the day Louis reached French territory following his six-year crusade. 70. A community east of Paris. 71. A written petition regarding some grievance.
he would say to them, “Keep silence all of you, and your cases will be settled, one after another.” Then he would call my Lord Peter of Fontaines and my Lord Geoffrey of Villette and say to one of them, “Settle this case for me.” And when he saw that there was anything to amend in the words of those who spoke on his behalf, or in the words of those who spoke on behalf of any other person, he would himself, out of his own mouth, amend what they had said. Sometimes I have seen him in summer go to do justice among his people in the garden of Paris…. He had a carpet laid down so that we could sit around him. And all the people who had a case to submit to him stood around him. And then he would settle their cases in the same way as at the forest of Vincennes, as I previously told you. I saw him, at another time in Paris, when all the prelates of France had asked to speak with him, and the king went to the palace to hear them. And Bishop Guy of Auxerre… was present there, and he spoke to the king on behalf of all the prelates in this manner: “Sire, these lords who are present here, archbishops and bishops, have directed me to say that Christendom, which should be guarded by you, is perishing in your hands.” The king crossed himself when he heard that word and said, “Tell me how that might be.” “Sire,” he said, “it is because excommunications are so lightly thought of today that excommunicants allow themselves to die before seeking absolution and will not give satisfaction to the Church. They ask you, for the sake of God and because it is your duty, to command your provosts and bailiffs72 to seek out all who allow themselves to remain excommunicated for a year and a day and to force them, by seizure of their goods, to have themselves absolved.” At this, the king replied that he would issue such commands willingly in the case of all those for whom it could be shown to him with certainty that they were in the wrong. The bishop said that they could not in any way accept this because they rejected his right of jurisdiction in their cases. Then the king told them that he could do nothing else because it would be against God and reason if he forced people to seek absolution when the clergy were doing them wrong. “And on this point,” said the king, “I give you the example of the count of Brittany. While totally excommunicated, he pleaded for seven years against the prelates of Brittany, and he argued his case so far that the pope condemned them all. If, in the first year, 72. Prévôts and baillis who served as royal financial, administrative, and judicial agents.
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I had forced the count of Brittany to get himself absolved, I would have sinned against God and against him.” Then the prelates resigned themselves; never again did I hear it said that any further steps were taken in these aforesaid matters….
*** After King Louis had returned to France from overseas, he bore himself quite devoutly toward Our Lord and most justly toward his subjects to the point that he considered and thought it would be quite a fair thing and good to reform the realm of France. First, he established a general ordinance for all his subjects throughout the realm of France73 in the following manner: “We, Louis, by the grace of God, king of France, ordain that all our bailiffs, viscounts, provosts, mayors,74 and all others, in whatever matter it might be and whatever office they might hold, shall swear that, as long as they are in office or in their area of jurisdiction, they shall do justice to all, without exceptions of persons, as well to the poor as to the rich and so to strangers as to the native-born, and that they shall observe the uses and customs that are good and approved. “And if it happens that the bailiffs or viscounts or others, such as the sergeants or foresters,75 do anything contrary to their oaths and are convicted of it, we desire that they be punished in regard to their possessions and persons, as the malfeasance requires, and the bailiffs shall be punished by us, and the others by the bailiffs. “Furthermore, the other provosts, the bailiffs, and the sergeants shall swear to loyally maintain our rents and our rights and not allow our rights to lapse or be suppressed or diminished. Along with this, they shall swear not to take or receive, by themselves or through others, gold, silver, or any indirect benefits, or any other things, except fruit or 73. This was the Great Ordinance of December 1254, which Louis published less than six months after his return from crusading. 74. Viscounts were minor royal officials in northern France; mayors were the elected heads of urban communities that had been given a measure of self-government by royal charter. 75. Lesser officials: sergeants were armed agents, mounted and dismounted, and functioned throughout the realm; foresters were charged with maintaining the royal forests in northern France.
bread or wine or another present to the value of ten sous,76 and the said sum may not be exceeded. “Furthermore, they shall swear not to take, or cause to be taken, any gift of whatever kind it might be for their wives or their children or their brothers or their sisters or any other person related to them. And as soon as they have knowledge that any such gifts have been received, they will cause them to be returned as soon as they can do so. And along with this, they shall swear not to receive any gift, of whatever kind it might be, from a person within their area of jurisdiction or from any other person who has a suit or might plead before them. “Furthermore, they shall swear not to give or send any gift to a man who is one of our confidants or to their wives or children or any person belonging to them or to those who receive their accounts on our behalf or to any persons whom we might send to their bailiwicks or their provostships to inquire into their actions. And with this they shall swear to take no profit from any sale that might be made from our rents, our areas of jurisdiction, our coinage, or anything else belonging to us. “And they shall swear and promise that if they know of any official, sergeant, or provost serving under them who is disloyal, a robber, a usurer, or addicted to other vices, due to which he should leave our service, then they will not support him because of any gift, or promise, or affection, or any other thing. Rather, they shall punish and judge him in good faith. “Furthermore, our provosts, our viscounts, our mayors, our foresters, and our other sergeants, dismounted and mounted, shall swear not to bestow any gift upon their superiors, or their wives, or children who belong to them. “And because we desire that these oaths be firmly established, we wish that they be taken by clerics and laity, knights and sergeants, in full court before all persons, regardless of the fact that they might have already sworn before us, so that they might fear even more incurring the sin of perjury not only out of fear of God and of us, but also from fear of shame before the world. “We will and ordain that all our provosts and our bailiffs abstain from taking an oath with any words that would bring God into contempt or Our Lady and all the saints, and that they also abstain from dice and taverns. We wish that the making of dice be forbidden throughout our entire kingdom and that wanton women be turned out 76. Twenty sous equaled one livre, or pound; the royal livre was 367.1 grams of silver.
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of [their] houses, and whoever rents a house to a wanton woman shall forfeit to the provost or the bailiff the annual rent of that house. “Moreover, we forbid our bailiffs to purchase or cause to be purchased, by themselves or others, possessions or lands that might be in their bailiwicks or in another without our authorization, as long as they are in our service. And if such purchases are made, we wish that they be placed into and remain in our hands…. “We order that no bailiff or provost who is in our service shall burden the good people in their jurisdiction beyond what is right, and that none of our subjects be put in prison for debt, except if the debt is to us alone. “We ordain that no bailiff may levy a fine for a debt owed by any of our subjects or for any offense, except in a full and open court, where the fine can be adjudicated and estimated with the advice of worthy persons…. We forbid a bailiff or mayor or provost to compel our subjects, either by threat, intimidation or chicanery, to pay a fine in secret or in public, or to accuse any person without reasonable cause. “And we ordain that they who hold the office of provost, viscount, or any other office do not sell it to others without our consent.77…
77. Persons purchased offices because the right to collect royal revenues was often farmed out to the officeholder for a fee. The officer’s profit (or loss) was the difference between what he collected and what he had paid the royal treasury for the right. Officers also enjoyed the right of being housed, fed, and entertained at the expense of his hosts while traveling on official business.
“And we forbid that they sell the said offices to their brothers, nephews, or cousins after they have bought them from us.… “We forbid our bailiffs and provosts to weary our subjects in cases brought before them by moving the venue from place to place. Rather, they shall hear the matters brought before them in the place where they have been accustomed to hear them, so that they are not induced to abandon their rights because of the burden of expense. “Furthermore, we command that they [provosts and bailiffs] dispossess no man of the property that he holds without full inquiry into the case or without our special order, and that they not impose on our people new exactions, taxes, and customs duties. They shall not convene a military assembly for the purpose of taking their money, for we wish that no one who owes us military service is summoned to join the host without sufficient cause, and that those who desire to come to the host in person should not be compelled to purchase an exemption by a payment of money.78… “Likewise, we wish that, after their term of office, all bailiffs, viscounts, provosts, and mayors remain for a period of forty days in the land where they held their offices— remaining there in person or through a deputy—so that they might answer to the new bailiffs regarding any wrong done to any person who might wish to bring a complaint against them.” By this Ordinance the kingdom was greatly improved.
78. Consult the Glossary at Scutage.
Limited Government in Spain, England, and Germany? The Spanish kingdoms of Castile-León and Aragόn, as well as England and France, developed increasingly efficient, centralized monarchies during the High Middle Ages. Such was not the case, however, for either the kingdoms of Germany and Italy or the empire. Paradoxically, the growth of royal power in thirteenth-century Spain and England was accompanied by the development of institutions that emphasized the right and duty of the king’s subjects to advise the king, to give consent to royal actions, and even to oppose those royal actions that seemed to violate tradition, good order, and the king’s own law. The thirteenth-century empire, meanwhile, was undergoing crises that ultimately undermined the power of the king of Germany and Italy, who was also emperor, while simultaneously building up the independent authority of German princes and northern Italian lords and communes.
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Representative Government in Spain 80. Alfonso IX, DECREES OF 1188; Alfonso X, ORDINANCES OF THE CORTES OF SEVILLE IN 1252; Pedro III, ORDINANCE OF 1283 79 During the High Middle Ages, and especially in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, representative, parliamentary assemblies of one sort or another appeared all over Europe. England, Scandinavia, the empire, the kingdom of Sicily, Poland, Hungary, France, Christian Spain, the Roman Church, the Dominican Order—all of these and more witnessed the rise and institutionalization of assemblies of representatives who individually wielded full authority to speak and act for those who had sent them and, as a body, possessed full power to bind by their decisions all elements of the greater body that they, as a whole, represented. We have already seen one representative assembly, the Fourth Lateran Council (source 52). As in the case of the general councils of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that were assembled at the command of powerful popes, most representative assemblies functioned as convenient instruments of monarchic policy that enabled rulers to govern efficiently and with a fair measure of popular support. However, as English Parliament and several general councils of the Church would demonstrate in the fifteenth century, representative assemblies were potential curbs on monarchic authority. Although they received their legitimacy from the rulers who assembled them and were largely subject to monarchic control, once in session, they could and sometimes did display an independence of mind. In several instances, they opposed their monarchs in radical ways. Spain holds a special place in the history of medieval representative assemblies because it is there, in the northern kingdom of León, that we find the first instance of representatives from towns being summoned to a royal council, or cortes. The origins of León’s parliamentary development can be found in the first year of the reign of King Alfonso IX. The young, inexperienced Alfonso IX, facing the enmity of his neighbor and cousin, King Alfonso VIII of Castile, sought to secure the broad support of his subjects by holding an extraordinary meeting of his cortes in April 1188. The decrees enacted at that council are significant because they provide the first evidence of the convocation of representatives of the towns to the royal court, where previously only high-ranking churchmen and nobles had served as the king’s counselors. The phrase “citizens chosen from each city” implies a process whereby each city council elected or designated representatives to act on its behalf at the king’s court. In later times, those representatives would be called procurators and would receive full powers to act for and to bind their constituents. After a separation of more than seventy years, the kingdoms of Castile and León were reunited in 1230, thereby allowing their single monarch to muster vast resources in a renewed campaign of expansion at the expense of Muslim states to the south. This resulted in the capture of Seville in 1248 and the conquest of the greater part of southern Spain by 1252. During the reign of Alfonso X (r. 1252–84), the cortes of Castile-León developed the composition and functions that would characterize it for the remainder of the Middle Ages. The first cortes of his reign, held in Seville in October 1252, passed a royal ordinance that set the pattern for the future. The greater part of the ordinance is concerned with setting prices for clothing and other goods, prohibiting the export of certain types of goods deemed necessary for the welfare of the realm, regulating the dress of Jews and Muslims, and limiting the formation of guild associations, except for purely 79. Julio González, ed., Alfonso IX, 2 vols. (Madrid: Instituto Jerónimo Zurita, 1944), 2:23–26, no. 11; Georg Gross, ed., “Las Cortes de 1252. Ordenamiento otorgado al Consejo de Burgos en las Cortes celebradas en Sevilla el 12 de octubre de 1252 (según el original), Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia, 182 (1985): 95–114, passim; Cortes de los antiguos reinos de Aragón y Valencia y Principado de Cataluña, ed. Real Academia de la Historia, 25 vols. (Madrid, 1896–1919), 1:140–53, passim. Printed by permission of the translator Joseph F. O’Callaghan.
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religious purposes. The three articles excerpted below provide an example of the types of regulations that this cortes passed. More important for our purposes is the preamble, which sets forth the king’s official reasons for convening the assembly and informs us of the cortes’s composition. East of Castile-León, in the Mediterranean kingdom of Aragón, the corts, as it was known in the Catalan tongue, began to take shape during the thirteenth century and achieved its fullest development in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Our third document is pivotal in the parliamentary history of Catalonia. In it, Pedro (or Pere) III, king of Aragón and count of Barcelona, defined and established in 1283 the fundamental rights of the Catalan corts.
Questions for Consideration 1. What principle does article 2 of Alfonso IX’s decree establish? 2. What principle does article 3 of that same decree establish? 3. According to Alfonso X, why had he convened the cortes of Seville? 4. What does this text allow you to infer about the assembly’s purpose and powers and the relative influence of the townspeople who attended? 5. What principle does article 9 of the ordinances of 1283 establish? 6. What principle does article 11 of Alfonso X’s decree establish? 7. Consider the Catalan document as a whole. What powers and rights does it give the corts, and in what ways are they different from those enjoyed by the earlier cortes of Castile-León? What conclusions follow from your answer?
DECREES ENACTED BY ALFONSO IX OF LEÓN IN THE CURIA OF LEÓN, 1188 1. In the name of God. When I, Lord Alfonso, king of León and Galicia, celebrated a curia at León with the archbishop [of Santiago de Compostela] and the bishops and magnates of my kingdom and with the elected citizens of each city, I determined and I affirmed by oath that I would preserve for all the people of my kingdom, both clergy and laity, the good customs that had been established by my predecessors. 2. I also established and I swore that if anyone should make or say to me any denunciation about someone, I would make that denunciation known to the one accused without delay. And if he [the accuser] cannot prove in my curia the denunciation which he has made, he shall suffer the penalty that the accused would have suffered if the accusation had been proved. I also swore that because of an accusation made to me about someone or an evil thing that was said about him, I would never do harm or injury either to his person or to his goods until I summoned him by my letters to come to my curia to make his
law according as my curia should command. And if [the accusation] is not proved, the one who made the charge shall suffer the aforesaid penalty and shall also pay the expenses incurred by the accused in coming and going [to my court]. 3. I also promised that I would not make war or peace or treaty without the counsel of the bishops, nobles, and good men by whose counsel I ought to be guided.
*** ALFONSO X, KING OF CASTILE-LEÓN, ENACTS AN ORDINANCE IN THE CORTES OF SEVILLE IN 1252 Don Alfonso, by the grace of God, king of Castile, Toledo, León, Galicia, Sevilla, Córdoba, Murcia, and Jaén, to the [municipal] council of Burgos and its district and of the whole province, health and grace. Know that I saw the agreements that my great-grandfather King Alfonso [VIII] and my father King Fernando [III]
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made for their benefit and that of their people and of their entire realm. [Those agreements] were not observed at that time because of the wars and great pressures that occurred. Now when God wished that my father the king—may God pardon him—should conquer the land with God’s favor and with the help and service that you gave him, you showed me the injuries that you received because the agreements were not observed as they should have been. And because you also showed me the injuries that you received many times because of the objectionable things that were done and the great scarcity of goods to be sold, I thought it right and proper that those agreements be made and that we now agree on for the benefit of myself and of all of you ought to be observed. I made these agreements with the counsel and consent of my uncle, Don Alfonso de Molina, and my brothers, Fadrique, Felipe, and Manuel, and of the bishops, magnates, knights, and [military] orders80 and the good men of towns, and of other good men who were with me. And I do this out of the great desire that I have to protect you from harm and from wrongful acts that result in injury to you, and to improve you in everything so that you may be richer and better off and may have more and be worth more and may be able to better serve me. The agreements are these:… 11. I also command that craftsmen of whatever craft they may be shall not join together against the people, but each one shall sell his work as best he can…. 14. I also command that confraternities and wrongful sworn associations or evil assemblies that are injurious to the realm and to the diminution of my lordship are not to be created, except to give food to the poor…or to bury the dead…. Nor are there to be magistrates to judge the confraternities except those appointed by me in the towns according to law…. 41. I also command that no Christian woman shall nurse the child of a Jew or of a Moor, nor shall a Jewish
80. Military orders, such as the Order of Calatrava and the Order of Santiago, arose in the Iberian Peninsula during the twelfth century and following to promote the struggle against Islam. Often modeled on the Knights of the Temple, which also had a significant presence in Iberia, these orders consisted of knights drawn from the nobility, non-noble sergeants, and clerics, all of whom lived semi-monastic lives but, in the case of the knights and sergeants, served as warriors.
woman nurse any Christian. The one who does so will be fined 10 maravedís81 for each day that she does so.
*** CONSTITUTIONS OF PEDRO III, KING OF ARAGÓN AND COUNT OF BARCELONA, AT THE CORTS OF BARCELONA, 1283 In the name of God. When we, Pedro, king of Aragón and Sicily82 by the grace of God, following the paths of our predecessors and willingly seeking the tranquility of our subjects, ordered a General Court of the Catalans to be celebrated in Barcelona, there assembled in the Court bishops, prelates, religious, barons, knights, citizens, and townsmen of Catalonia.… And each and every one of the aforesaid asked…us to give assent to certain petitions and chapters as our constitutions and ordinances.… 9. We wish, we establish, and we also ordain that if we or our successors wish to make any general constitution or statute in Catalonia, we shall make it with the approbation and consent of the prelates, barons, knights, and citizens [of the towns] of Catalonia or of the greater and wiser part of those summoned.83… 18. That once a year, at that time that seems most convenient to us, we and our successors will celebrate in Catalonia a General Court for the Catalans, in which, with our prelates, religious, barons, knights, citizens, and townsmen, we will treat of the good estate and reformation of the land. We shall not be bound to celebrate the said Court if we are prevented by any just reason.
81. Beginning in the twelfth century, several rulers of Castile issued maravedis (sing. maravedi) that contained 3.8 grams of gold and were modeled on the Almoravid dinar. Over time, the metals, weights, and values of maravedis varied from place to place. 82. Pedro claimed the kingdom of Sicily by virtue of his marriage to Constance, the daughter and heiress of Manfred of Hohenstaufen. Following a popular rebellion in 1282 known as the Sicilian Vespers, Pedro was invited by the rebels to accept the crown of Sicily. In 1283, he was waging war to solidify his claim. 83. Determining the will of “the greater and wiser part” was a common ideal in medieval ecclesiastical and secular elections. This meant that potentially a minority could claim that it was the wiser element, and its votes should be weighed rather than counted.
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Limitations on Royal Power in England 81. MAGNA CARTA 84 The late twelfth-century treatise on English law and custom that tradition ascribes to Ranulf de Glanville defined many of the reciprocal obligations and rights that bound lords and vassals in the age of Henry II. Just as the vassal was expected to serve the lord faithfully, the lord incurred an obligation to protect the vassal’s honor, status, and well-being. A lord’s failure to live up to such commitments could justify a vassal’s defiance of and even rebellion against his lord. But just as this built-in tension resulted at times in violence, it also gave rise to some interesting constitutional developments in England. Early in the thirteenth century, many of the great lords of England believed that King John was abusing his royal feudal privileges and generally treating all of his subjects, but especially the nobles, in a shoddy manner. The result was a baronial revolt in which the rebels sought not to depose or injure John, their liege lord, but to force him to acknowledge that he was equally subject to all the customs and laws of England, even though, as sovereign monarch, he was the source of justice and law. With the aid of the burghers of London and Stephen Langton, the archbishop of Canterbury, who were equally disenchanted with the king’s heavy-handed attempts to raise money in order to defend his continental possessions, the rebel barons forced John, on June 15, 1215, to agree to a list of reforms. Known originally as the Articles of the Barons, the document eventually became known as Magna Carta de Libertatibus, or The Great Charter of Liberties. Despite the efforts of the English king’s nominal feudal overlord, Pope Innocent III, to quash the barons’ articles, the charter would not go away. In order to rally support to his cause, John’s son, King Henry III, issued revised versions of the charter of liberties in 1216, 1217, and 1225. It was the fourth version, which Henry granted upon reaching adulthood in 1225, that subsequent English kings constantly reconfirmed in return for support and financial assistance. As a result, Magna Carta became a living reminder of the limits of royal power in England. The following extracts are taken from the original articles of 1215. Articles 12, 15, 52, and 61 were dropped from Henry III’s revisions of the charter, but they are included here as evidence of the historical context in which the Great Charter first took shape.
Questions for Consideration 1. Judging from the guarantees that John was forced to give, in what ways had he abused his royal and feudal rights? In addressing this question, refer back to what “Glanville” (source 58) tells us of feudal rights. 2. How did the barons propose to prevent John from extorting uncustomary or unreasonable sums of money from them in the future? 3. What did the archbishop of Canterbury, the burghers of London, and the barons’ own vassals get for their support of the rebellion? 4. How does the Great Charter deal with women, and what inferences do you draw from your answer? 5. Consider articles 12 and 14 in light of what you have studied in source 78. What was this common council? What do you think it will become? 84. Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History, ed. William Stubbs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881), 296–306, passim.
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6. What do articles 20, 21, 39, and 40 guarantee, and what do they not guarantee? 7. Consider article 61. What were the barons trying to accomplish in that article? On what feudal principle was it based? What do you infer from the fact that it was dropped as early as 1216? 8. Some historians have characterized the Great Charter as a document that seeks to protect the narrow class interests of the baronage. What do you think of this judgment?
John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, count of Anjou,85 to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, judges, foresters, sheriffs, reeves, officials, and all bailiffs and his faithful people, greeting.… 1. In the first place, we have granted to God, and by this our present charter have confirmed, for us and for our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished and its liberties unimpaired. And we so will that it be observed, as is apparent from the fact that, before the dispute between us and our barons arose, out of a pure and spontaneous desire, we granted freedom of elections, which is considered to be most important and especially necessary for the English Church, and we confirmed it by our charter and obtained confirmation of it from the lord Pope Innocent III.86 This we shall observe, and we desire that it be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity. We have granted moreover to all free men87 of our kingdom for us and our heirs in 85. John had lost Normandy and Anjou to King Philip II, but he still claimed them as feudal principalities. 86. In 1207, John refused to accept the election of Stephen Langton to the archbishopric of Canterbury—an election that Pope Innocent III had engineered. The king resisted all papal pressure until he faced a papally sanctioned French invasion of England in 1213. Forced to capitulate, John not only accepted Stephen as archbishop, he surrendered England to the papacy and received it back as a fief. By this act, King John secured Innocent’s future support in his struggles with his barons. In November 1214, John granted the English Church a charter confirming its right to free elections. In January 1215, he reissued the charter, which Pope Innocent then confirmed. John’s claim that this concession preceded his troubles with the barons is wrong. He probably granted the charter in an effort to separate the upper clergy from the rebellious barons. If so, the ploy failed. 87. Possibly 50 percent of the adult male population was free in 1215, probably less than that.
perpetuity all the liberties written below, to be had and held by themselves and their heirs from us and our heirs. 2. If anyone of our earls or barons, or others holding from us in chief by military service88 shall have died, and when he has died his heir is of full age and owes relief,89 he shall have his inheritance by means of the ancient relief; that is to say, the heir or heirs of an earl for the entire barony of an earl a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a baron for the entire barony a hundred pounds; the heir or heirs of a knight for the entire knight’s fief a hundred shillings at most; and who owes less let him give less according to the ancient custom of fiefs. 3. If, moreover, the heir of any one of such should be underage, and should be in wardship,90 when he comes of age he shall have his inheritance without relief and without a fine. 4. The custodian of the land of such an heir who is under age shall not take from the land of the heir any except reasonable revenues, reasonable customary payments, and reasonable services, and this without destruction or waste of people or of property; and if we have committed guardianship of the land of any such a one to a sheriff or to anyone else who is answerable to us for its revenues, and he has caused destruction or damage during his guardianship, we will recover compensation from him, and the land shall be committed to two suitable and prudent men from that fief, who shall be responsible to us for its proceeds or to him to whom we have assigned them; and if we shall 88. Any vassal, secular or ecclesiastical, who held a fief directly from the king and owed military service for it. 89. Consult the Glossary. 90. A lord had the right to serve as the guardian of any underage heir or heiress or, if he wished, to name a guardian for the ward. During this period of wardship, the guardian enjoyed the normal revenues from the fief.
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have given or sold91 to anyone guardianship of any such land, and he has caused destruction or damage there, he shall lose that guardianship, and it shall be handed over to two suitable and prudent men from that fief who, likewise, shall be responsible to us, as noted above…. 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall have her marriage portion and her inheritance immediately and without obstruction, nor shall she give anything for her dowry or for her marriage portion, or for her inheritance, which inheritance her husband and she held on the day of the death of her husband, and she may remain in the house of her husband for forty days after his death, within which time her dowry shall be given to her. 8. No widow shall be compelled to marry so long as she prefers to live without a husband, but she must pledge that she will not marry without our consent,92 if she holds from us, or without the consent of her lord from whom she holds, if she holds from another…. 12. No scutage or aid shall be imposed in our kingdom except by the common council of our kingdom, except for the ransoming of our body, for making our eldest son a knight, and for the first-time marriage of our eldest daughter, and for these purposes it should be only a reasonable aid. In the same way it shall be done concerning the aids of the city of London.93 13. And the city of London shall have all its ancient liberties and free customs, equally by land as by water. Moreover, we will and grant that all other cities and boroughs and villages and ports shall have all their liberties and free customs. 14. And for holding a common council of the kingdom concerning the assessment of an aid, except in the three cases mentioned above or for the assessment of a scutage, we shall cause to be summoned individually by our letters the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, and greater barons and, moreover, we shall cause to be summoned 91. John discovered that the sale of guardianships brought in funds that he needed immediately. 92. A lord had the right to deny a vassal’s widow permission to marry someone whom he considered to be an enemy or otherwise undesirable. As the widow’s guardian, the lord faced the temptation to marry off a rich widow to the highest bidder or to some lackey, and John was guilty of that practice. 93. Aid was money provided a lord in both normal and extraordinary times.
generally through our sheriffs and bailiffs all those who hold from us in chief, [for an assembly] on a fixed day, namely one that is minimally forty days in the future and at a fixed place. And in all the letters for that summons, we will state the reason for the summons, and when a summons has been so given, the business shall proceed on the appointed day with the advice of those who might be present, even if not all of those who were summoned have come. 15. We will not allow anyone in the future to receive an aid from his free men, except for ransoming his body, for making his oldest son a knight, and for the first-time marriage of his oldest daughter, and for these purposes it should be only a reasonable aid. 16. No one shall be compelled to perform more service for a knight’s fief, or for any other free tenement,94 than is owed from it…. 20. A free man shall not be fined for a small offence, except in proportion to the degree of the offence, and for a great offence he shall be fined in proportion to the magnitude of the offence, sparing his freehold;95 and a merchant in the same way, sparing his merchandise; and a villain shall be fined in the same way, sparing his wainage,96 if they should be at our mercy.97 And none of the above fines shall be imposed except on the basis of oaths by reputable men from the neighborhood. 21. Earls and barons shall be fined only by their peers, and only in proportion to the degree of the offence. 22. No cleric shall have a fine imposed on his secular holding, except according to the principle articulated above for others. He shall not be fined according to the size of his ecclesiastical benefice…. 28. No constable or other bailiff of ours shall take anyone’s grain or other moveable goods without immediate payment for them, unless he is able to obtain a postponement voluntarily given by the seller…. 39. No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any way destroyed, 94. Land held for a fee or rent. 95. Land held without any obligation or service. 96. The portion of a harvest that a serf was allowed to keep for food and seed. 97. If these persons appear before a royal court and not another court.
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nor will we proceed against him, nor send [anyone] against him, except by the legal judgment of his peers or by the law of the land. 40. To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny, or delay right or justice. 41. All merchants shall be safe and secure going out from England and coming into England and in remaining and going throughout England, as well by land as by water, for buying and selling, free from all evil tolls, by the ancient and lawful customs, except in time of war, and if they are from a land at war with us. And if such merchants are found in our land at the outbreak of the war, they shall be detained, without injury to their bodies or goods, until it is known to us or our chief judge in what way the merchants of our land are treated who then are found in the country that is at war with us. And if ours are safe there, the others shall be safe in our land…. 52. If anyone, without the legal judgment of his peers, has been deprived or dispossessed by us of his lands, castles, liberties, or rights, we will restore them to him immediately. And if a dispute should arise regarding this, then it shall be resolved by the judgment of the twenty-five barons, of whom mention is made below in [the article regarding] a peace guarantee…. 54. No one shall be seized or imprisoned on the appeal of a woman concerning the death of anyone other than her husband…. 60. Moreover, all of these customs and liberties mentioned above that we have granted shall be observed in our kingdom insofar as the matter pertains to us in respect to our subjects. All men of our kingdom, both clerics and laity, should observe them insofar as the matter pertains to themselves in respect to their own people. 61. Since, moreover, we have granted all of the above-mentioned for the sake of God, for the improvement of our kingdom, and to better calm the conflict that has arisen between us and our barons, wishing them to enjoy them completely and with lasting stability in perpetuity, we make and concede to them the guarantee described below.
That is to say that the barons shall elect twenty-five barons from the kingdom, whomever they wish. These are obliged, with all of their power, to observe, hold, and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties that we have granted to them and that we have confirmed by this our present
charter. In this way, if we or our chief judge, or our bailiffs, or any of our ministers does wrong in any way toward anyone, or if we have transgressed any of the articles of peace or the guarantee, and the wrong has been shown to four barons of the aforesaid twenty-five barons, those four barons should come to us or to our chief judge, if we are out of the kingdom, laying before us the transgression. They should ask that we cause that transgression to be corrected without delay. And if we have not corrected the transgression or, if we are out of the kingdom, if our chief judge has not corrected it within a period of forty days, counting from the time in which it was shown to us or to our chief judge, if we are out of the kingdom, the aforesaid four barons shall refer the case to the rest of the twenty-five barons, and these twenty-five barons, along with the whole community of the country, shall distress and inconvenience us in every way that they can, namely by the seizure of castles, lands, possessions, and in such other ways as they are able, until it has been corrected according to their judgment, saving our person and that of our queen, and those of our children. And when the correction has been made, they shall devote themselves to us as they did before. And whoever in the country wishes may take an oath that, in regard to all the above-mentioned measures, he will obey the orders of the aforesaid twenty-five barons and that he will inconvenience us along with them as far as he is able, and we freely give permission to take the oath to whomever wishes to take the oath, and we will never prohibit anyone from taking the oath. All those, moreover, in the country who on their own and by their own accord are unwilling to take an oath to the twenty-five barons as to distressing and inconveniencing us along with them, we will compel to take the oath by our mandate, as mentioned before. And if any one of the twenty-five barons has died or departed the land or is in any other way hindered with the result that the aforementioned actions are less able to be carried out, the remainder of the aforesaid twenty-five barons shall, as they see fit, elect another in his place, who shall take an oath in the same way as the others. In all those matters, moreover, that those twenty-five barons are charged to carry out, if perhaps these twenty-five are present, and they disagree among themselves about something, or if any of them, when they have been summoned, are not willing or are not able to be present, that which the greater part of them who are present has arranged or commanded should be considered valid and established, just as if the whole twenty-five had agreed on it. And the aforesaid twenty-five should swear that they will observe faithfully
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all the things that are said above, and with all their ability cause them to be observed. And we will obtain nothing from anyone, either by ourselves or through another, by which any of these
concessions and liberties shall be revoked or diminished, and if any such thing should be obtained, let it be invalid and void, and we will never use it by ourselves or through another.
Limitations on Imperial Power in Germany 82. Frederick II, STATUTE IN FAVOR OF THE PRINCES 98 The Western Empire reached its apogee of power during the reigns of the early Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick I (r. 1152–90) and his son, Henry VI (r. 1190–97). Despite the often-successful efforts of Frederick and Henry to extend the emperor’s authority and prestige, they were never able to transform the kingship of Germany and the imperial crown that came with it into a hereditary possession. Both remained elective offices, with election in the hands of the great princes of Germany. This was a fatal flaw that cost the empire dearly. When Henry unexpectedly died in Sicily, he left behind an infant son and a younger brother, Duke Philip of Swabia. The great lords of Germany divided on whom to elect as the next king, Philip of Hohenstaufen or Otto of Welf. The result was more than a decade of civil war, as the Hohenstaufen and Welf factions struggled for the crowns of Germany, Italy, and the empire. In the course of the civil war, the princes of Germany gained greatly at the expense of monarchic authority. Fortune finally favored Henry VI’s young son, Frederick II (r. 1212–50), who was crowned king of Germany in 1212, and in 1220 he received the imperial crown. Although Frederick II had an exalted vision of his imperial power and attempted with some success to create an absolute monarchy based upon a highly organized bureaucracy in his native kingdom of Sicily, imperial administration in his German and northern Italian lands had almost totally broken down since 1197. Due to his bitter conflicts with the papacy, which began in 1227 and continued to the day of his death in 1250 (see the “Student’s Guide”), Frederick never had the opportunity to reassert strong imperial control over Germany. To make matters worse, Emperor Frederick, whose focus was on Italy and especially Sicily, handed over the crown of Germany to his young son Henry (VII), who proved too weak to stand up to the great ecclesiastical and secular princes. Henry tried to ally the crown with the rich cities of Germany, whose leagues threatened the territorial powers of the princes. This ploy so alienated the great lords that in 1231, they extorted from him a charter known as The Statute in Favor of the Princes, which largely recapitulated a charter of privileges that Emperor Frederick had granted to Germany’s ecclesiastical princes in 1220, ironically in order to gain their support for young Henry’s election as king of Germany. Now these rights of self-government were extended to Germany’s secular princes, and Emperor Frederick had no choice but to ratify the charter in May 1232. Modern readers often find this document ambiguous in places due to the economy of its language, in which many what-were-then commonly understood practices and conventions are only obliquely referenced. Regardless, your careful reading of it will enable you to see how the balance of power was shifting in mid-thirteenth-century Germany.
Questions for Consideration 1. What rights does this charter grant the princes? 2. What constraints does it lay upon the king/emperor?
98. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Leges, ed. Georg Pertz, 5 vols. (Hanover: Hahn, 1835–89), 2:291–93.
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3. What does this charter give to or take away from other classes? 4. This statute has been characterized as hostile to urban interests. Was it? If this statute was antiurban, what reasons explain it? 5. Compare this document with Magna Carta. How does each restrict the exercise of royal power? Are those restrictions similar or different? Are the constitutional consequences of the restrictions similar or different? In short, where does each document leave the king/emperor relative to his great lords and other subjects?
In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity. Frederick II, by the favor of divine mercy, emperor of the Romans, Ever Augustus, king of Jerusalem99 and of Sicily100…. We concede, therefore, in accordance with what the very king, our son, is known to have conceded, and we grant by perpetual confirmation, establishing as law: No new castle or city shall be erected…by us or by anyone else under any pretext whatsoever. Also: New markets shall not interfere in any way with old ones. Also: No one shall be compelled to attend any market unwillingly. Also: People shall not be detoured away from an old highway, unless the transit is voluntary.101 Also: The ban-mile in our new cities shall be waived.102 Also: Each of the princes shall exercise in peace according to the accepted customs of the land the liberties [and] jurisdictions over the counties and hundreds103 that are either freely held or held as fiefs. 99. Frederick claimed the crown of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem by virtue of his marriage in 1225 to the heiress, Isabella II, also known as Yolanda of Brienne. Although she died in 1228, and legally the crown passed to their infant son, Conrad II, Frederick continued to claim the title. In 1229, although excommunicated by the pope, he crowned himself king of Jerusalem in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher while on crusade. 100. Inherited from his mother, Queen Constance, the daughter and heiress of Roger II and widow of Emperor Henry VI. Six months before her death in 1198, she had the three-year-old Frederick crowned as king of Sicily, which included the island and the southern half of the Italian Peninsula. 101. Fees from local markets and toll roads were an important source of princely income. 102. A limited area beyond the city gates that fell under the jurisdiction of a city. Frederick waives the royal and imperial right to jurisdiction within the ban-mile. 103. Defined in note 52 of source 78.
Also: Centgrafs104 shall receive their hundreds from the lord of the land or from him who was enfeoffed by the lord of the land. Also: No one may change the location of a hundred court without the consent of the lord of the land. Also: No person subject to an ecclesiastical court shall be summoned to a hundred court. Also: Citizens called phalburgii105 shall be totally expelled [from the cities]. Also: Payments of wine, money, grain, and other [rents] that peasants have formerly agreed to pay [to the king] are remitted, and shall not be further collected. Also: The serfs of princes, nobles, ministeriales,106 [and] churches shall not be welcomed in our cities.107 Also: The properties and fiefs that have been seized by our cities shall be restored to the princes, nobles, ministeriales, and churches, and never again shall they be seized. Also: Neither directly nor through others will we obstruct or allow to be infringed the right of princely safe conduct through their land that they hold as fiefs from our hand. Also: No persons shall be compelled by our local judges to return their [possessions] that they might have received quite a while earlier from [any] persons prior to their taking up residence in our cities unless these [other] persons were immediately subject to the empire [and] are acknowledged in a court within their lands to enjoy by their law [the right] of taking possession of such items. 104. The officials who presided over a hundred court within a county. 105. “Boundary-marker citizens.” They were nonresidents who lived outside a city’s rural boundary, or ban-mile, but possessed the rights of citizenship within the city. 106. Formerly serfs who served as warriors and ministers of the king, they were now a class of free petty nobility. 107. Imperial cities such as Speyer and Worms, which by this time were largely free of royal and imperial control.
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Also: No person who has been a predator throughout the land or condemned by a judge or outlawed shall knowingly be admitted into our cities; apprehended and convicted, they shall be driven out. Also: We will not coin new money in the land of a prince by which the coinage of this same prince is devalued. Also: Our cities shall not extend their jurisdiction beyond their boundaries unless we possess special jurisdiction. Also: In our cities the plaintiff shall bring suit in the court of the defendant,108 unless the defendant or the debtor has been found to be the dependent of the local prince, in which case he will be required to answer there.
Also: No one may receive as surety properties with which someone was feudally invested without the consent and hand109 of the princely lord. Also: No one shall be compelled to work on a city’s fortifications, unless he is legally bound [to do so]. Also: People residing in our cities shall pay to their lords and advocates the customary and legal rents for properties outside the city, and they shall not be troubled with undue exactions. Also: Serfs, persons who are subject to advocates, [and] vassals, who might wish to go to their lords shall not be forced by our officials to stay.
108. When, for example, one was a cleric and the other a layperson, or when one was Jewish and the other Christian.
109. The lord had to demonstrate by some act or document that he approved the mortgage or pawn.
“What Affects All Should Be Approved by All” 83. Edward I, SUMMONS TO PARLIAMENT, 1295 110 John of Viterbo (source 61) noted in his treatise on city government that “matters that touch all must be approved by all.” This maxim became a common cliché among thirteenth-century jurists because it conformed to the widespread notion that a representative assembly, presided over by a monarch, was the most effective and legitimate expression of sovereign power. The most enduring representative body to emerge in the thirteenth century was English Parliament, which began to take shape as a representative assembly in the reign of Edward I (r. 1272– 1307). Parliamentum derives from the Old French parler (to talk), and originally it meant any body of people that met to discuss any issue. The most important deliberative body in thirteenth-century England was the king’s Great Council of major feudal lords, whose composition varied, depending on the matters the king wished to place before it. When the matter revolved around war plans, lay earls and barons would predominate; when the matter touched on ecclesiastical issues, prelates predominated. In good feudal fashion, the king consulted with his lay and clerical vassals periodically in order to benefit from their expertise and, just as importantly, to rally their support for his policies. On its part, the baronage valued its prerogative to advise and consent to royal actions directly affecting it. Thus, articles 12 and 14 of Magna Carta specifically stipulated that the king could not impose scutage or new levies of money on his vassals without the approval of the council of royal tenants-in-chief. The Great Council was first called a parliament in 1236, and thereafter, the term became increasingly attached to it. Despite its new name, Parliament remained for the next three decades, as it had been since the days of William the Conqueror, a feudal assembly of royal vassals. In 1265, however, Simon de Montfort, leader of a baronial revolt against Henry III, summoned two knights from each county and two burgesses from each borough to a small parliament of rebel lords. By including representatives 110. Select Charters and Other Illustrations of English Constitutional History, ed. William Stubbs (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1881), 484–86.
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from the commons, he hoped to rally support to his fading cause. He was wrong. Although the illegality of Montfort’s parliament meant that this was not a binding precedent, King Henry’s son and successor, Edward I, experimented with the expediency of occasionally summoning representatives from the commons to his parliaments, beginning with his initial one in 1273. In 1295, Edward summoned to Parliament representatives from thirty-seven counties, one hundred and ten cities and boroughs, and the lower clergy, as well as all of the usual great lords and prelates of the realm and his royal “small council” of professional jurists and administrators. Historians often refer to this meeting as the Model Parliament, but of the twenty subsequent parliaments that Edward called, only three followed the model of 1295, and only twelve included representatives from the counties and boroughs. Even so, the Parliament of 1295 was a landmark because of the precedent it set, and increasingly in the early fourteenth century, representatives from the commons were summoned to Parliament. From the middle of the fourteenth century onward, they were present whenever the king called a parliament. In 1295, King Edward faced crises on several fronts. Wales, which he had conquered in 1283, had broken out in rebellion in 1294, and in that same year, war ensued between Edward and King Philip IV of France over the duchy of Gascony in southwestern France. The following year, King Philip entered into a mutual-support alliance with the king of Scotland with the purpose of countering a common threat—the king of England. In order to continue the fight to regain Gascony, suppress Welsh independence, and carry out a planned invasion of Scotland (which he launched in 1296), Edward needed to raise a massive amount of financial support from his subjects. Consequently, he decided to summon a larger than usual parliament to his residence at Westminster, even though he had met with his Great Council a few months earlier. The three documents that follow represent the different types of writs of summons that Edward’s secretariat dispatched to prelates, great lords, and sheriffs throughout the realm.
Questions for Consideration 1. The writs to Archbishop Robert and Earl Edmund stipulate that when the church leaders and magnates assemble at Westminster, they are to consider, ordain, and make provision for countering current dangers. How does the writ to the sheriff of Northamptonshire differ in this regard? Is this significant? If so, what might it suggest about the reason behind King Edward’s summoning of representatives from the counties, cities, and boroughs? 2. Consider the dates, tone, and rhetoric of these three documents. Do their differences seem to have any significance? 3. In light of your answers to questions 1 and 2, what do you conclude was Edward’s view of the relationship between the representatives from the commons and the Great Council? 4. What does it seem that Edward thought he was he doing by summoning parliament? Did he see doing so as sharing his sovereign power? If not this, then what? 5. In the course of the thirteenth century, England’s upper and middle classes experienced a growing sense of “Englishness” and even a degree of xenophobia, despite their many ties with the continent. Do these documents provide any evidence of this phenomenon? 6. Compare Edward’s parliament with the Spanish representative assemblies that we studied. What strike you as being the most significant similarities? The most significant differences? What do you conclude from your answers?
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The King to the venerable father in Christ, Robert,111 by the same grace archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England, greeting. As a most just law, established by the careful foresight of sacred princes, exhorts and decrees that what affects all should be approved by all, so also it is quite evident that common dangers must be met by counter measures arrived at in common. You know quite well, and it is now, as we believe, spread throughout all regions of the world, how the king of France fraudulently and deceitfully robbed us of our land of Gascony by vilely withholding it from us.112 Now, in fact, not content with the aforementioned fraud and wickedness, having gathered together a massive fleet and a huge host of warriors in order to invade our kingdom, with which he has already aggressively invaded our kingdom and the inhabitants of the same kingdom,113 he proposes, may God forbid it, to eradicate the English language totally from the Earth, should his power be equal to the detestable proposition of a contemplated evil. Because, therefore, missiles seen ahead of time do less injury, and your interests especially, as that of other fellow citizens of the same kingdom, are tied up in this affair, we command you, strictly charging you in accord with the fidelity and love by which you are bound to us, that on the next Lord’s day after the feast of Saint Martin,114 in the next approaching winter, you be present in person at Westminster. Giving warning in advance to the provost115 and chapter of your church, the archdeacons and all the clergy of your diocese, cause to be present in the same place, along with you, the same dean and archdeacons in person and the said chapter through one suitable representative and the said clergy through two representatives, with their having full and sufficient power from the same chapter and clergy to 111. Archbishop Robert Winchelsey (r. 1293/94–1313). 112. After having declared Gascony forfeit for the slimmest of reasons, Philip convinced Edward to surrender the duchy, with the promise that he would reinvest Edward with it after a short period of grace. Philip then failed to uphold his part of the bargain. 113. Philip threatened to blockade England’s Channel ports with galleys constructed in the Mediterranean; Edward countered in 1295 by ordering the construction of some two hundred vessels and creation of a unified naval force. The blockade never was realized, and the invasion noted here refers either to the French occupation of Gascony or else it is fabricated polemic. 114. November 13. Saint Martin’s Day (November 11) fell on Friday in 1295. 115. The head of the cathedral’s chapter of canons.
consider, ordain, and make provision, along with us and with the rest of the prelates, the magnates, and the other inhabitants of our kingdom, for countering dangers and concocted evils of this kind. Witness the King at Wingham,116 the 30th day of September.
[Similar letters were directed to the archbishop of York and all of England’s bishops; the same letter, but without the clause “Giving warning in advance…,” was sent to sixtyseven abbots, the masters of the Order of the Poor Fellow Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (the Knights Templar) and the Order of Saint Gilbert of Sempringham (the Gilbertines), and the prior of the Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (the Hospitalers).]
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The King to his beloved and faithful relative, Edmund, earl of Cornwall, greeting. Because we wish to consult and meet with you and with the other magnates of our kingdom about providing counter measures against the dangers that threaten our entire kingdom in these days, we command you, strictly charging you in accord with the fidelity and love by which you are bound to us, that on the next Lord’s day after the feast of Saint Martin, in the next approaching winter, you be present in person at Westminster to consider, ordain, and make provision, along with us and with the prelates, the rest of the magnates, and the other inhabitants of our kingdom, for countering dangers of this kind. Witness the king at Canterbury, on the first day of October. [Similar letters were sent to seven earls and forty-one barons.]
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The King to the sheriff of Northamptonshire. Because we wish to consult and meet with the earls, barons, and other magnates of our kingdom about providing counter measures against the dangers that threaten this very kingdom in these days, on that account we have commanded them to be with us on the Lord’s day next after 116. An estate of the archbishop of Canterbury, where Edward was visiting.
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the feast of Saint Martin, in the next approaching winter, at Westminster, to consider, ordain, and make provision for countering dangers of this kind. We strictly enjoin upon you the duty to ensure that two knights from the aforesaid county, two citizens from each city in the same county, and two burgesses from each borough, of those who are especially discreet and quite capable of work, are elected without delay, and ensure that they come to us on the aforesaid day and at the aforesaid place. Moreover, the said knights are to have then and there full and sufficient power for themselves and for the community of the aforesaid county,
and the said citizens and burgesses for themselves and for the communities of the aforesaid cities and boroughs separately for doing what shall then be ordained according to the common council in the premises, so that the aforesaid business shall not remain unfinished in any way for lack of this power. And you shall send there the names of the knights, citizens, and burgesses, together with this writ. Witness the King at Canterbury, on the third day of October. [Each sheriff throughout England received a similar letter.]
Chapter 11
The Crusades: Expanding Europe’s Horizons
Illus. 11.1 The cross of the Military Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, known more popularly as the Hospitalers, exterior decoration on the Church of Saint John, Odense, Denmark. The Hospitalers established a commandery (headquarters) and the church in the city at some unknown date. The first known mention of the church is dated 1295.
Following the collapse of Roman political unity, the West lost easy and regular contact with North Africa and the lands of the eastern Mediterranean, although the Muslim occupation of almost all of the Iberian Peninsula and continued Byzantine presence in Italy and Sicily assured emerging Europe of limited contact with those lands across the Mediterranean. Moreover, Western merchants, particularly Italians, continued to carry on some limited commerce across the sea. Notwithstanding this trickle of Western activity, Muslim and Byzantine ships dominated the Mediterranean up to the latter half of the eleventh century, and the West was a minor player in trans-Mediterranean affairs until sometime after 1050. North of the Alps and Pyrenees, the story was different. Although Western Europeans faced the barriers of wilderness and often hostile pagan societies, they pushed out the boundaries of their civilization into the hinterlands well before the eleventh century. As we have seen, Christian monks brought the faith and emerging Western civilization to tribal Ireland in the fifth century, and Irish missionaries carried Christianity and its culture to the pagans of the other British Isles and the continent. Charles the Great waged a war of conquest and conversion against the pagan Saxons to his northeast, and the converted Saxons played a pivotal role in the introduction of Western Christian civilization into the lands of Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. By the year 1000, Christian Scandinavians had established colonies in Iceland, along the southwestern shore of Greenland, and, for about three decades, in Newfoundland and perhaps elsewhere in North America. Seasonal voyages by Greenland Norse to North America in search of lumber and other raw materials continued to at least 1347, but their brief contacts with Native Americans appear to have had no appreciable impact on the cultures or histories of either people. 302
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Illus. 11.2 The cross of Saint John, exterior decoration on the fourteenth-century Church of Saint George, Agia Triada, Crete. In the wake of the Fourth Crusade, Venice occupied Crete as an overseas colony in 1205. Hospitalers from Malta supported the Venetian lords of Crete against invading Ottoman Turks during the Cretan War (1645–69). The Venetians and their allies, including the Hospitalers, were forced to withdraw from Crete in 1669.
Indeed, the Scandinavian expansion across the waters of the North Atlantic had little overall effect on Europe and its worldview. However, new Western activity in the Iberian Peninsula and central Mediterranean during the early eleventh century proved to be the opening round of a series of holy wars and overseas adventures that took European colonists into the biblical land of Syria-Palestine by 1100 and even brought a handful of Western missionaries and merchants to China by the late thirteenth century. From the late eighth century onward, various Christian leaders warred sporadically against the Muslims of Iberia. Charles the Great even conquered Barcelona in 810 and pushed as far south as the Ebro River in northeast Spain. It was only with the collapse of the caliphate of Cordoba in 1031, however, that Spanish and French Christian warriors began to pick up the tempo of their raids along the fluid frontier that separated Muslim and Christian states and shift from largely defensive counterthrusts to offensive operations. By midcentury, the Reconquista—the Christian reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula—was underway. This centuries-long series of wars, truces, and shifting alliances would not be completed until 1492, when Grenada, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain, fell to the armies of Aragón and Castile-León. One of the immediate effects of the early Reconquista, however, was its contribution to a growing feeling among eleventh-century Latin Christians that holy war against Islam was a legitimate expression of piety. Similarly, Italian cities and princes were fighting Muslims long before the First Crusade was launched. Between 827 and 902, Muslim invaders conquered Sicily, and around that same period, Saracen pirates established numerous fortifications along the coasts of Italy and Provence. Thanks in large measure to the vigorous leadership of Pope John X, a Christian coalition defeated the Muslim pirates of Italy in 915 and ended the days of their occupation of Italian mainland bases (see source 42). Muslim seafaring raiders from island strongholds and North Africa still harassed European merchants
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off the coast of Italy until the maritime cities of Pisa and Genoa made the waters around Italy safe for waterborne commerce around the year 1000. By midcentury, the same Pisans and Genoese were on the offensive, raiding Muslim ports in Sicily and North Africa. The tide had turned, and Europe was now ready to expand into the larger Mediterranean, at the expense of Islam. All of this served as context for Pope Gregory VII’s call in 1074 for an armed expedition against the Seljuk Turks. The pope proposed to lead the army himself—an army whose goal was the liberation of the Christians of the East. He even suggested that after relieving Turkish pressure on Constantinople, the army might push on to free Jerusalem from Muslim control. The momentous events of the Investiture Controversy precluded Gregory’s ever realizing this dream, but the reform papacy did not forget the idea. Another reform pope, Urban II, took up the call for a papally sponsored holy war against Islam in 1095, thereby launching a series of expeditions that would have a profound impact on Europe, its Muslim and Byzantine neighbors, and, ultimately, the world.
The Crusade: Ideal and Reality In 1071, the Seljuk Turks, recent converts to Islam, destroyed a Byzantine army at Manzikert in eastern Anatolia. By sweeping through the Anatolian Peninsula, the Seljuks deprived the Eastern Roman Empire of its heartland and threatened Constantinople. In light of this threat, it is likely that Emperor Alexius I appealed directly to the West for mercenaries to bolster his forces, although there is no evidence that he planned an immediate countercampaign. Regardless of what Alexius might or might not have had in mind, on November 27, 1095, at the Council of Clermont in southeastern France, Pope Urban II issued an impassioned call for military action that had the double objective of rescuing Eastern Christians from the Turks and liberating Jerusalem. This was to be a pilgrimage in arms. The response to Urban’s appeal was astounding. Between 1096 and 1101, three major waves of pilgrims from every corner of Latin Europe departed for the Holy Land; altogether, maybe as many as 130,000 men, women, and children participated, of whom probably only a minority were trained warriors. How many died along the way or abandoned the expedition is anyone’s guess, but surely the numbers were great. Regardless of the high cost in lives, disappointed dreams, and expended wealth, Urban had unleashed a movement, which we call “the crusades,” that was to engage much of Europe’s energy for the next several centuries and would touch all levels of society. Trying to define what a crusade was and attempting to fix with any precision when the crusades began and when they ended involves the historian in a maze of academic debates. Scholars vigorously debate whether or not there were proto- or early crusades prior to 1095/96. Furthermore, although they generally agree that crusading took a variety of forms as it evolved after the First Crusade and although most concur that it extended well past 1300, there are spirited differences of opinion regarding what those later forms were and how long crusading persisted as a living force in Latin Christian culture. For our purposes, it suffices to state that a crusade was an armed expedition against an enemy of the Church that was normally (but not always) blessed and authorized by a legitimate ecclesiastical authority, usually the pope, and for which its participants were promised a spiritual reward. In the course of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Roman Church and its believers launched crusades against Muslims in the so-called Middle East, the Iberian Peninsula, and North Africa, against pagans in the Baltic, and against heretics and political opponents of the papacy in Europe, but the primary focus of the crusade movement during these two centuries was the liberation of the Holy Land from Islam. The crusade, as an ideal and reality, however, continued to be part of the Western mindset long after the Holy Land ceased to be a focal point of serious crusading endeavors. Wars against the Ottoman Turks, which Latin Christians fought far into the seventeenth century, were waged as latter-day crusades. Moreover, Columbus and the conquistadores who followed him to the Americas saw themselves
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as crusaders, as did the Portuguese, who became a significant force along Africa’s western and eastern coasts, throughout the Indian Ocean, and beyond during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. By 1500, the crusade had gone global. Whether they undertook a crusade to Jerusalem at the end of the eleventh century or fought Ottomans in the seventeenth century, crusaders believed that their actions merited God’s favor. Our first two sources, two brief letters by the pope and Robert the Monk’s version of Pope Urban’s sermon at Clermont, provide insight into why so many Western Christians believed that sacred warfare was a legitimate expression of Christian piety. Pope Urban II characterized the crusade as an act of heroic self-sacrifice and love, and most participants in the First Crusade probably were focused on the penitential and devotional aspects of this pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Yet, reality has a way of intruding upon idealism. The accounts of Ekkehard of Aura, Albert of Aachen, and the anonymous Jewish chronicler of Mainz cast light on one of the more sordid series of events that took place during the early stages of the First Crusade. In like manner, an eyewitness description of the capture of Jerusalem in July 1099 reminds us that holy war is still war.
Pope Urban’s Crusade 84. Pope Urban II, LETTERS TO FLANDERS AND BOLOGNA 1; Robert the Monk, HISTORY OF THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM 2 We have no transcript of Pope Urban’s sermon at Clermont, although six accounts of it were composed in the twelfth century, and three of the authors were at the council. One or more of those three might have been working from notes taken at Clermont or shortly thereafter, but that is far from certain. Compounding the problem is the high likelihood that the events and outcome of the crusade influenced how some, or even all, of these reporters remembered and reconstructed Urban’s sermon. One other point to keep in mind is that medieval historians, like their Greco-Roman predecessors and models, approached the speeches that they purported to report as opportunities for demonstrating their own rhetorical skills. Therefore, the words and even arguments that they set down were usually their own and not those of their historical characters. One of the most important versions of Pope Urban’s sermon appears in the Historia Iherosolimitana (History of the Journey to Jerusalem) by Robert, a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Rémi in Reims, France. Robert, who tells us he was at the Council of Clermont, composed his work around 1110. Much of his history is an admitted retelling in more polished form of the “plain and unadorned” Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum (The Deeds of the Franks and of the Other Pilgrims to Jerusalem), a portion of which appears below as source 86. Despite this debt and the additional fact that Robert did not go on crusade, his Historia has great value. It includes a description of the council held at Clermont, which is totally lacking in the Gesta, and Robert also drew from a variety of additional sources to provide important details of the crusade not found in the Gesta. More than that, Robert’s prose style assured that his history became, in its day, the most popular account of the First Crusade. Eighty-four Latin manuscripts dating from between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries are known to exist today—an extraordinary number for any medieval text. Moreover, before the end of the sixteenth century, it had been translated into German, Dutch, and Italian. Robert’s Historia, more than any other 1. Die Kreuzzugsbriefe aus den Jahren 1088–1100, ed. Heinrich Hagenmeyer (Innsbruck: Wagnerische UniversitätsBuchhandlung, 1901), 136–38. 2. The Historia Iherosolimitana of Robert the Monk, ed. D. Kempf and M. G. Bull (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2013), 5–8.
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account of the expedition to Jerusalem, fixed in the minds of educated Europeans the image of what a crusade was and should be. Attached to more than thirty manuscripts of Robert’s history are two curious documents, one purporting to be a letter of 1091 by Emperor Alexius I to Count Robert of Flanders and the other a supposed letter of early 1098 to the West by the patriarch of Jerusalem and other bishops. Each was an appeal for military aid. Their style and content show them to be crude forgeries, although the letter to Count Robert might be a pale reflection of a genuine, now-lost letter that Alexius sent to the count of Flanders, with whom he had warm relations since the late 1080s. Apparent echoes of these two spurious letters, which seem to date from the first decade of the twelfth century, appear in Robert’s version of Urban’s sermon. In addition to the six different (and differing) accounts of Urban’s sermon, we have several letters that the pope sent to various constituencies urging their participation in the crusade. The two most telling letters, which he dispatched to Flanders and Bologna in late 1095 and late 1096, respectively, appear below. They preceded by more than a decade Robert’s account of the pope’s sermon at Clermont and therefore rightly should be read first.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider Urban’s two letters. What do they allow us to conclude regarding the pope’s vision of this expedition’s structure and purpose? How, in other words, would the expedition be organized, and what was its mission? 2. The pope promised “remission of all of their sins” to those who went on this expedition. What exactly did he mean by that? How might that phrase have been misunderstood? 3. Now consider Robert the Monk’s version of the pope’s sermon at Clermont. Which elements in it parallel statements that the pope made in either or both of his letters? Do any of the points made in Robert’s version of the sermon appear to contradict points made in either or both of the letters? What do you conclude from your answers? 4. There are quite a few points raised in Robert’s account that have no parallel in the pope’s two letters. Which seem to you to have most likely been part of the speech that Robert heard, and why so? Which seem unlikely to have been uttered by Urban that day? Why so? 5. Among the latter, which seem to be instances of reading history backwards? In other words, do you find any artistic foreshadowings of realities that emerged only as the crusade unfolded?
Urban II, Letter to All the Faithful in Flanders (December 1095) Bishop Urban, servant of the servants of God, to all the faithful, lords as well as subjects, living in Flanders, greetings and grace and an Apostolic Blessing. We believe that you, Brothers, already learned long ago from the reports of many people that a barbarous frenzy has devastated and miserably infested the churches of God in the regions of the East. Even beyond that, and it is an abomination to say it, they have seized the holy city of Christ, a city made illustrious by His Passion and Resurrection, subjecting it and its churches to an
intolerable slavery. Devoutly reflecting on and grieving over this calamity, we visited the regions of France and, in a substantial way, we urged the lords and subjects of that land to liberate the Eastern churches. At a council in Auvergne, as is well known, we enjoined them to embark on such a military mission for the remission of all of their sins, and we appointed in our place our most beloved son Adhemar, bishop of Le Puy, as the leader of this expedition and effort.3 Thus, they who strongly wish to undertake 3. Prior to his appeal at Clermont, Urban appointed Bishop Adhemar as his legate on the expedition that he planned to set in motion. The bishop, who was a strong supporter of Christian
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this expedition should obey his orders as if they were our own and should be totally subject to his “loosening and binding” insofar as such orders are perceived as being relevant to this undertaking. If God should inspire any of you to take this vow, they should know that he will set out, with God’s help, on the feast of Mary’s Assumption4 and that they can then join his company.
married men do not rashly set out on such an expedition without the consent of their wives. May Almighty God strengthen in you awe and love of Him and may He lead you, freed of all your sins and errors, to an understanding of how to love Him above all else and to show Him true devotion.
Urban II, Letter to the Clergy and People of Bologna (September 19, 1096)
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Bishop Urban, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved Catholic children of the clergy and people of Bologna, greetings and an Apostolic Blessing. We offer thanks for your goodness because, while living amid schismatics and heretics,5 certain ones of you have always remained firm in the Catholic faith. Certain others of you, in fact, through the grace of God, have discovered the truth and left the false pathways of your errors, and now you are wise in matters relating to the Catholic faith. Therefore, we urge you, most beloved in the Lord, to manfully march along the path of truth and take care to add to beginnings even better conclusions, for not he who begins but he who perseveres to the end will be saved.6… We have heard that quite a few of you have felt the desire to go to Jerusalem, which you should understand greatly pleases us. You should, moreover, know that, for all those performing this task who do so not out any desire for earthly gain but solely for the salvation of their souls and the liberation of the Church, we, through the mercy God Almighty and the prayers of the Catholic Church and by our own authority, as well as that of almost all of the archbishops and bishops in France, remit the entire penance imposed on them for their sins for which they have made a genuine and full confession because they have risked their possessions and themselves for love of God and their neighbor. We do not, in fact, grant freedom to go there to clerics and monks who do not have the permission of their bishops or abbots. Furthermore, bishops should take care not to allow their parishioners to go without the guidance and foreknowledge of the clergy. Also, care must be taken that young military action in Spain, took the cross on November 27, at the conclusion of the pope’s sermon. He headed east with the forces of Count Raymond of Toulouse in October 1096. 4. August 15. 5. Bologna was a hotbed of religious dissent. 6. Matthew, 24:13.
Robert the Monk, History of the Journey to Jerusalem Here begins the Historia, Book 1. In the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1095, a great council was held within the borders of France, specifically in Auvergne, in the city known as Clermont. Pope Urban II attended it along with the bishops and cardinals of Rome. In fact, this council was justly famous for its bringing together French and German bishops and princes.7 Once ecclesiastical matters had been taken care of at the council, the lord pope went out onto an open plain of some size because no building whatsoever had the capacity to hold all the people. Launching forth with words of rhetorical sweetness that were aimed at convincing all persons in attendance, he said: “People of France,8 people who live beyond the mountains,9 a people chosen and beloved by God, as is clear from your many accomplishments, a people set apart from all other peoples as much by geography as by your Catholic faith and by the honor accorded you by the holy Church, it is to you that our sermon is directed, and it is to you that we extend an appeal. We want you to know the mournful situation that has led us to your country, what emergency for you and for all the faithful has driven us here. “Troublesome news has emerged from the land of Jerusalem and the city of Constantinople, and it now constantly invades our ears. It is, namely, that a people from the kingdom of Persia, a foreign people, a people totally alienated from God, that is to say a generation that has not set straight its heart and whose spirit is not true to God,10 has invaded the 7. This was at the height of the Investiture Controversy (source 73), when many German bishops and princes supported Henry IV and his antipope, Clement III. 8. Pope Urban II was French, having been born in the region of Champagne. 9. North of the Alps. 10. Psalms, 78:8.
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lands of those Christians and depopulated them by force of arms, plunder, and arson. It has taken some of them as captives to its own land, and it has put some of them to miserable deaths, and it has either utterly destroyed the churches of God or transformed them for their own worship.11 They topple altars that have been soiled with their own filth; they circumcise Christians and either pour the blood from the circumcision on the altars or pour it into baptismal fonts.12 And when it pleases them to inflict on Christians a foul death, they slice into the belly, pull out the end of the intestines, tie it to a post, and then whip them around it until, with their bowels extracted, they fall dead to the ground. They shoot arrows at others who are tied to posts; they assault with swords others, whose necks are laid bare and extended, testing whether they can cut off [the head] with one blow. What should I say about the abominable defilement of women, about which it is worse to speak than to pass over in silence?13 The kingdom of the Greeks has now been dismembered by them, and what cannot be crossed in a journey of two months has been subjected to their laws. “To whom, therefore, will the task fall to avenge this, to snatch away this [from them], unless it is you, on whom God has conferred, above all other peoples, the honor of prominence in war, a greatness of spirit, physical fitness, and the strength to lay low the hairy head 14 of those who resist you? May the deeds of your ancestors move you and incite your spirits to manly vigor—the merit and greatness of King Charlemagne and of his son Louis, and of your other kings, who destroyed pagan kingdoms and, with them, extended the boundaries of the holy Church. Especially may the Holy Sepulcher of your Savior Lord move you, which is held by foul people, and the holy places, which now are abused and sacrilegiously defiled by their filthy ways. Oh, most valorous knights and descendants of victorious ancestors, do not prove unequal [to them], but rather call to mind the courageous deeds of your predecessors. “If, perhaps, loving affection of your children and of your parents and of your spouses holds you back, recall 11. The putative letter by Alexius to Count Robert notes that Christian holy places are destroyed and threatened with worse. 12. Alexius’s letter notes that the “Petchenegs and Turks” pour into baptismal fonts blood from the forced circumcisions of Christian youths. 13. Alexius’s letter describes some of the forms of debasement to which Christian women were subjected. 14. Psalms, 68:21
what the Lord says in the Gospel: He who loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me.15 All who leave home, or father, or mother or wife or children or lands in My name, shall receive a hundred times over and will inherit life eternal.16 Let no possession hold you back; let no concern for family affairs hold you back. For this land that you inhabit, enclosed by seas on every side and ringed about by mountains, is strained to the limits by your great numbers; it does not overflow with copious riches, and it barely provides food for those alone who cultivate it. That is why you devour and fight with one another,17 why you wage wars and constantly kill and wound one another. Therefore, your feuds must stop, brawls must cease, wars transform into tranquility, and conflicts arising from every disagreement must come to rest. Set out on the road to the Holy Sepulcher, deliver that land from a wicked people, and conquer it for yourselves. That land was given by God into the possession of the sons of Israel; as the Scripture says, it flows with milk and honey.18 “Jerusalem is the navel of the Earth. It is a land fruitful above all others, almost another earthy paradise of delights. Here the Redeemer of the human race dignified it by His coming. He adorned it with His words. He sanctified it by His Passion. He redeemed it by His death. He made it worthy by His burial. Yet, this royal city, placed at the center of the world, is now held captive by its enemies, and it is enslaved to the religious rites of heathens by those ignorant of God. For this reason it begs and wishes to be freed and ceaselessly prays that you come to its aid. In fact, it especially demands your help because you have been granted by God, above all other peoples, as we have already said, the honor of prominence in war. So, seize upon this way for the remission of your sins, made secure in the unfading glory of the Kingdom of Heaven.” 15. Matthew, 10:37. 16. Ibid., 19:29. 17. Galatians, 5:15. 18. Exodus, 3:8; Numbers, 13:28. The letter ascribed to the patriarch of Jerusalem calls for reinforcements to bolster “us who need not die…because we have undergone far more serious trials… and have greatly weakened the opposition. Come, therefore, hasten to a prize that pays twofold, namely a land of the living and a land flowing with milk and honey that abounds with every sort of food”: Epistula patriarchae Hierosolymitani et aliorum episcoporum ad occidentales, in Hagenmeyer, Kreuzzugsbriefe, 148. Alexius’s letter to Count Robert emphasizes that if Western warriors wish to fight for gold, Constantinople has more than the entire rest of the world.
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After Pope Urban, in an elegant sermon,19 had spoken these words and many other things of like matter, the sentiment of all those who were there coalesced into a single entity whereby they shouted out, “God wills it! God wills it!” When the venerable Roman pontiff heard this, he raised his eyes to Heaven, gave thanks to God, and, gesturing with his hand for silence, said: “Most beloved brothers, today we demonstrate what the Lord said in the Gospel: Where two or three are gathered in My name, I am in their midst.20 If the Lord God had not inhabited your minds, all of you would not have had one voice. To be sure, although your voices were many, they nevertheless had a single source. Therefore, I say to you that God, who placed this into your hearts, has elicited it from you. Consequently, let this be your war cry in battle because it has come from God. When you mass in battle to charge the enemy, this single cry from God will be the war cry of all: ‘God wills it! God wills it!’ “We do not order or urge the old or the feeble or those who are little fit for combat to undertake this journey nor, under any circumstances, should women march out 19. A pun: Urbanus urbano sermone, literally, “Urban in an urbane sermon.” 20. Matthew, 18:20.
who are not accompanied by their spouses or brothers or legal guardians.21 For such persons are a greater hindrance than a help; they are more of a burden than of service. The wealthier should assist those who have little in the way of resources and take with them at their own expense men who are fit to travel to war. Priests and clerics of every rank may not go without the permission of their bishops because this expedition would not benefit them were they to go without their permission. Likewise, lay people should not travel on this pilgrimage without the blessing of their priests. “Therefore, whoever has a mind to undertake this holy pilgrimage and has consequently made a pledge to God and offers himself as a living sacrifice, holy and fully pleasing to Him22 shall wear the sign of the Lord’s cross on his forehead or chest. Thereafter, he who wishes to turn back after having made the vow shall place it on his back between his shoulders. By this double act, such men will fulfill that teaching of the Lord that He sets forth in the Gospel: ‘He who does not take up his cross and follows Me is not worthy of Me.’ 23 ” 21. The spurious letter of the patriarch to the West notes that the reinforcements he requests should consist only of men. 22. Romans, 12:1. 23. Matthew, 10:38.
Crusaders and Jews in the Rhineland 85. Ekkehard of Aura, THE JERUSALEMITE 24; Albert of Aachen, HISTORY OF THE JOURNEY TO JERUSALEM 25; THE MAINZ ANONYMOUS 26 The first wave of the First Crusade, which has been problematically termed “the Peasants’ Crusade” and “the People’s Crusade,” consisted of at least five separate armies, each of them large and each of which began its eastward trek well before August 15, 1096, the departure date that Pope Urban had set. The first of these forces, which was initially led by Peter the Hermit, passed from France to Germany in the months of March and April, accompanied by sporadic acts of violence against various Jews who were unlucky enough to attract attention. These followers of Peter the Hermit might have been the perpetrators of a contemporaneous attack on the Jewish community of Rouen that claimed several lives. These apparently random events were minor (as if any assault or murder can be termed “minor”) compared to what followed in three of the Rhineland’s cities—Worms, Mainz, and Cologne—during these same spring months. Other Jewish communities, such as those in Metz, Trier, Speyer, Xanten, Mehr, Regensburg, Prague, and Wesseli, also experienced pogroms at the hands of crusaders during this 24. Ekkehard of Aura, Hierosolymita, ed. Heinrich Hagenmeyer (Tübingen: Franz Fues, 1877), 126–28. 25. Albert of Aachen, Historia Ierosolimitana. History of the Journey to Jerusalem, ed. Susan B. Edgington (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2006), 48–52, 56–58. 26. “The Mainz Anonymous,” reprinted from https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Translation:Mainz_Anonymous (accessed May 10, 2018). Minor edits and revisions by A. J. Andrea.
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springtime of anti-Jewish activities, but it seems likely that, as with the attacks farther west in France, their combined death toll did not begin to equal the horrific number of violent deaths that occurred in the three Rhenish cities. With only two exceptions, early twelfth-century Latin Christian historians of the First Crusade failed to mention the crusaders’ attacks on European Jewish communities. One of these exceptions was the German monk Ekkehard of Aura. Ekkehard did not participate in the first two stages of the crusade, the so-called People’s Crusade of 1096 and the so-called Crusade of the Nobles of 1096–99. He was, however, a participant in the German contingent of the disastrous third wave of the crusade, which is also known as the Crusade of 1101. Sometime after his return to Europe in 1102, he composed a brief crusade history that has become known as Hierosolymita (the Jerusalemite—a title accorded pilgrims to Jerusalem). The work’s treatment of the first two stages of the crusade is essentially derivative and filled with errors; its description of the Crusade of 1101 has value insofar as it is the only extant history of that third wave of the First Crusade by a participant. For our purposes, however, we turn to his account of the Rhineland massacres of 1096. The other Latin historian, known today as Albert of Aachen (also Albert of Aix and Adalbert of Aachen), presented a much fuller account. We know almost nothing about Albert. We are not even certain that his given name was Albert or Adalbert. The first manuscript copy of his history to so identify him dates from around 1200. Evidence gleaned from his history allows us to infer that he was a churchman who lived in the Rhineland, and possibly in the city of Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle in French). In a brief autobiographical aside, he informs the readers of his Historia Ierosolimitana that he was inspired to undertake the expedition to Jerusalem but was prevented from doing so because of “various impediments.” It is easy to assume that one of those impediments was his not receiving the permission of his ecclesiastical superior. “Albert” then notes that because he was unable to participate in the crusade, he undertook to compose its history—a history that he tells us is based on the oral testimony and reports of persons who had “been there.” The result was a history rich in details, many of which cannot be found in other Latin narratives of the First Crusade. Among those unique details is his account of crusader attacks on the Jews of the Rhineland. Three Hebrew accounts of the Rhineland massacres have come down to us. The fullest is The Chronicle of Solomon bar Simson; the most poetic is The Chronicle of Rabbi Eliezer bar Nathan; probably the earliest is The Mainz Anonymous, the core of which seems to have been composed shortly after the events it narrates. It certainly appears to have incorporated the living testimony of eyewitnesses. We know almost nothing about the identity of its author or compiler, other than the fact that he was well schooled in the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as his numerous citations of Scripture bear witness. His narrative’s detailed focus on the Jewish martyrs of Mainz and his identification with the city also strongly suggest that he either was a resident of the city or was closely associated with it through ties of blood, marriage, or business. It also seems likely that he was not in the city at the time of the massacre. Whatever his identity, the anonymous author’s immediacy or, more likely, near immediacy to the events of 1096 makes this account worthy of our study. As you examine the anonymous author’s account, be aware that Speyer, Worms, and Mainz are known collectively as the ShUM cities, an acronym crafted from the initial letters of the Hebrew names of these three Rhenish cities. Together, the ShUM cities, which were fairly close together along the Rhine, were the demographic, cultural, and economic heartland of the medieval Ashkenazim, namely the Jews of the Rhineland and northern France.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the tones, uses of language, and overall messages of Ekkehard’s and Albert’s accounts. What was each author’s opinion of these attacks and the attackers?
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2. All three sources provide, in one way or another, a rationale for the crusaders’ attacks on the Jews. What was that reason? Does it appear to have been their sole motive? If not, what else appears to have motivated them? 3. In light of evidence provided in The Mainz Anonymous, how well informed about these attacks do Ekkehard and Albert appear to have been? 4. Sin is a motif that runs throughout these accounts, especially those of Albert and the anonymous author of Mainz. What role does sin play in each narrative? What do your answers suggest about medieval Christian and Jewish “mentalities”? 5. The Rhineland pogroms of 1096 are often presented as a stark dichotomy: crusader perpetrators and Jewish victims. Do these sources support that view? 6. Consider the roles played by the bishops of Speyer and Mainz. What can we say with certainty about their actions? What do those actions allow us to infer? 7. The first wave of the First Crusade has often been characterized as a series of unorganized bands of ill-armed and ignorant rabble—a Peasants’ Crusade. How well or poorly does that characterization hold up in light of these sources? 8. Consider Urban’s vision of this expedition’s spirit, purpose, personnel, and organizational structure. What do these three documents allow us to infer about the reality that unfolded in regard to these four aspects of his vision?
Ekkehard of Aura, Hierosolymita
Albert of Aachen, Historia Iherosolimitana
There also rose up at that time a certain knight named Emicho, who was the count, moreover, of those lands around the Rhine,27 a man who, already for a while, had quite an infamous reputation due to his tyrannical way of life. Then, in fact, as he claimed, just like another Saul,28 he was called by divine revelations to be the defender of religion in this manner, usurping for himself command over almost 12,000 of those who were signed.29 Indisputably, as they were led through the cities of the Rhine, the Main, and also the Danube, in their zeal for Christianity (being even in this matter zealous servants), they either totally annihilated the accursed Jewish people wherever they were found or even made it their business to drive them into the fold of the Church.
As summer was beginning, in the same year in which Peter and Gottschalk, after having assembled an army, led the way ,30 a similar army was subsequently gathering together in succeeding masses from various kingdoms and lands, that is to say from France, England, Flanders, and Lotharingia.31 It was an immense and countless army of Christians, burning with the fire of divine love. And having taken up the sign of the cross, they carried all their household goods and material possessions and the instruments of war that they needed for traveling to Jerusalem. Consequently, in succeeding masses, they gathered together into a single body from diverse kingdoms and cities, but
*** 27. Count Emicho of Flonheim on the Middle Rhine. 28. A reference to Saint Paul who, when he was Saul the persecutor of Christians, was converted in a blinding revelation: Acts of the Apostles, 9:1–19. According to Solomon bar Simson, Emicho claimed that one of Jesus’s apostles appeared to him, miraculously impressed the sign of the cross on his flesh, informed him that when he reached southern Italy Jesus would appear to place a royal crown on his head, and he would defeat his enemies. 29. Signed by the cross. See the sermon of Pope Urban.
30. The charismatic French preacher Peter the Hermit and the priest Gottschalk from the German Rhineland. Albert credits Peter with having given Pope Urban II the idea for the expedition to Jerusalem. It is far from certain that such was the case, but it is possible that Peter had been whipping up enthusiasm for some sort of pilgrimage to Jerusalem prior to November 27, 1095. This would help explain how he was able to dispatch a large contingent east in early March 1096. Gottschalk’s group followed soon thereafter. 31. The westernmost portion of the empire, it was a vast area comprising the present-day Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, the RhinelandPfalz, and the Saarland, and France’s Lorraine region.
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because they did not in any way whatsoever shun illicit sexual relations, there was excessive carousal with women and girls who had set out with the intention of such unrestraint. There was continuous pleasure-seeking and boasting of every indiscrete sort about the opportunity offered by this journey. I do not know if it was by the judgment of God or due to some mental delusion that they cruelly rose up against the Jewish people, who were scattered throughout all the cities, and inflicted an exceedingly cruel slaughter on them, especially in the kingdom of Lotharingia, claiming that this was the beginning of their expedition and of their service against the enemies of Christianity. This massacre of the Jews was first carried out in the city of Cologne by its citizens. They suddenly assaulted a small band of Jews, killing many of them with severe wounds; they destroyed their homes and synagogues, dividing up a substantial sum of money among themselves. When the Jews saw this cruelty, about two hundred of them began to flee by boat to Neuss32 in the stillness of the night. When the pilgrims and those signed by the cross discovered this, they did not leave a single one alive. Rather, after the Jews had been punished with the same sort of massacre, they robbed them of all their possessions. Not long after these events, continuing their journey, as they had vowed, they arrived in a great multitude at the city of Mainz.33 Here Count Emicho, a nobleman and quite powerful in this region, accompanied by a huge band of Germans, was awaiting the arrival of the pilgrims, who were assembling together there from diverse regions by way of the royal road.34 The Jews of this city, in fact, knowing of the slaughter of their brethren and that they could not escape the hands of so many, sought refuge with Bishop Ruthard, in the hope of safety, placing vast treasures in his care and trust, putting great faith in his protection because he was the bishop of that very city. He, moreover, as the chief priest of the city, carefully stored the incredible quantity of money that he received from them. He settled the Jews in the quite spacious palace of his residential quarter, out of sight of Count Emicho and his followers, so that 32. A city on the Rhine. 33. Cologne lies north of Mainz. Compare the itinerary of Emicho’s band provided in The Mainz Anonymous. 34. A via regia (royal road) enjoyed the emperor’s special protection and guarantee of peace. Of all the royal roads, the most famous and well traveled ran from the Rhine to eastern Europe.
they might remain there safe and sound in a very secure and quite well fortified dwelling.35 Emicho and the rest of his band, however, having discussed the matter, attacked the Jews in the palace at dawn with arrows and missiles. Having broken locks and doors, they overcame and annihilated upward of seven hundred men, who vainly resisted the strength and assault of so many thousands.36 They slaughtered the women in the same way. They cut down with the edges of their swords tender children, no matter their age and sex. The Jews, indeed, seeing how the Christian enemy were rising up against them and their little children and were sparing no one of any age, even turned on themselves and their brethren and on the children, the women, mothers and sisters, and they killed one another in a mutual carnage. Mothers with nursing children—which is horrible to say—cut their throats with knives, stabbed others, wishing by far that they perish at their own hands, rather than be killed by the weapons of the uncircumcised.37 After this exceedingly cruel massacre of the Jews had taken place, and a few had escaped, and a few had been baptized rather through fear of death than out of love of the Christian religion, Count Emicho, Clarembald,38 Thomas39 and that entire intolerable association of men and women continued the journey to Jerusalem with a vast amount of booty taken from these people. They went in
35. According to Solomon bar Simson, the Jewish community bribed Archbishop Ruthard with three hundred silver coins to stay with them in Mainz, rather than leave for the safety of an outlying community. Ruthard then took the Jews into his inner chamber and told them he would die or live with them. 36. Solomon bar Simson reports that a number of armed Jewish men resisted the attackers, but they were overwhelmed by their vastly superior numbers, and eleven hundred Jews died that day. Archbishop Ruthard’s staff was the first to flee, followed by Ruthard, whom the attackers wished to kill because he had spoken in favor of the Jews. 37. The act of kiddush ha-shem (Sanctification of the Name [of God])—self-martyrdom and the killing of loved ones to save them from profanation. 38. The lord of Vendeuil in Picardy, northern France. 39. Thomas of Marle, who in 1116 inherited the lordship of Coucy from his father. The twelfth-century monastic authors Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis and Abbot Guibert of Nogent-sousCoucy characterized him as the worst sort of villainous lord and knight.
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the direction of Hungary, where passage along the royal highway was rarely denied to all pilgrims.40 Earlier groups of crusaders had clashed with the Latin Christian Hungarians. These included the army led by Gottshalk, which was wiped out by the Hungarians. In light of these events, King Coloman forbade further transit by crusaders through his kingdom. When Emicho’s great army (which Albert claims was 200,000 strong with “scarcely” 3,000 knights) found the way barred, he, Thomas, and Clarembald decided to force their way though and to lay waste Coloman’s lands. The result was slaughter on both sides and the eventual destruction of Emicho’s army, although he, Clarembald, and Thomas managed to escape. Albert then comments on this outcome: In this affair the hand of God is believed to have been against the pilgrims, who sinned in His eyes by excessive impurities and fornicating concubinage, and who had, in an unwholesome massacre, offered as a holocaust41 the exiled Jews (granted they do not accept Christ) rather out of greed for money than for divine justice, since God is a just judge and commands no one who is unwilling or under compulsion to come to the yoke of the Catholic faith.
*** The Mainz Anonymous It was in the 1028th year since the destruction of the Temple42 that this evil occurred among the Jews, that noblemen, officials, and peasants of France first rose, took counsel, and plotted to ascend, to soar like an eagle,43 to fight, clearing a way to go to Jerusalem, the holy city, and to arrive at the grave of the crucified, the trodden corpse who 40. The road through Hungary was the normal route for pilgrims traveling by land from northern Europe to Jerusalem. 41. Mactauerant—“offered as a sacrifice.” Albert might well be the first Christian author to use this term to characterize the murder of Jews as a sacrifice, or holocaust. See Richard of Devizes, source 70, for a similar use of this term. 42. 1096. Ashkenazic communities dated the destruction of the Second Temple to 68 C.E. rather than 70 C.E. 43. Obadiah, 1:4. The passage is, fittingly, “ ‘Though you soar like an eagle…I will bring you down,’ says the Lord.” Because the excerpts that appear here are so heavy with biblical quotations and phraseology, most scriptural references will not be footnoted.
can neither effect nor save, for he is nought. Each said to his fellow, “Lo, we are going to a distant land to fight its kings. We are endangering ourselves to kill and subdue all the kingdoms that don’t believe in the hung one. But it was the Jews who killed and hung him!” They were demeaning us from every side, from every corner; they took one another’s counsel and decided to [cause us to] return to their disgusting law, or to destroy us, from the young even to the sucklings. They—noblemen and peasants alike— put a symbol of evil, a cross, on their clothes and the hats upon their heads. When the communities of France heard of this, they were seized with fear and trembling. They adopted their ancestors’ profession, writing letters and sending messengers to all the Rhineland communities that they should fast, sit in abstinence, and beg for mercy from Him who dwells on high, that He save the French Jews from the Christians’ hands. When the letters reached those holy ones, the distinguished pillars of the world, the people of Mainz, they wrote a letter back to France as follows: “All the communities declared fasts: we have done what is ours to do. May the Omnipresent save us and you from all troubles and tribulations. We fear for you greatly, but need not fear so much for ourselves, as we have not even heard any rumor [of the danger]”—for we had not heard that the massacre was decreed and the sword was about to reach our very souls. And when the errant ones started arriving in this land, they would ask for money with which to buy bread; we gave them, explaining “Serve the king of Bavel and live” 44 as referring to ourselves. But all this did not help us: our sins caused that at whatever city the crusaders came to, its burghers heckled us, for they, too, helped the errant ones destroy both vine and root all the way to Jerusalem. When the errant ones came, troop after troop like the army of Sancherev,45 some of the noblemen of this land said, “Why should we sit thus? Let us, too, go with them, for whoever goes on this journey and clears a path to ascend to the impure grave of the crucified will be prepared and readied for the hellfires.” So the errant ones gathered. They came from each city, until they were as numerous as the sands at the sea; with them were noblemen and peasants. They announced at large, “Whoever kills even one Jew shall 44. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon: Jeremiah, 27:17. 45. Sennacherib, king of Assyria: 2 Kings, 18–19; 2 Chronicles, 32.
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have all his sins pardoned.” And one pacha46 named Dietmer said that one may leave the country only after he had killed a Jew. When the Mainz community heard this, they declared a fast, crying out forcefully to God, sitting night and day in fasting and abstinence; young and old said elegies morning and night. But despite all this, our God did not rescind his anger with us: the errant ones came with their symbols and banners before our houses, chasing and piercing us with spears on sight, so that we were afraid to tread even as far as our thresholds. It was the eighth of Iyar,47 the Sabbath, when God’s exacting justice commenced against us. The errant ones and burghers rose first against the holy men, the exalted pious ones of Speyer, taking counsel against them, to capture them [while] together in the synagogue. But they were told of this, so they rose early in the morning that Sabbath, prayed quickly, and left the synagogue. When the errant ones and burghers saw that their plot to capture them together had failed, they rose against the Jews, killing eleven…. When the bishop, John, heard this, he came with a large army and aided the community wholeheartedly; he brought them into rooms, saving them from the errant ones and burghers.48 He took some of the burghers and cut off their hands, for he was a pious one among the Gentiles, and the Omnipresent brought about merit and safety through him. And Rabbi Moses the leader of the community protected them there, extending himself for them. He caused all the forced converted who remained here and there in the country of Henry to return [to Judaism].49 By the king’s [order],50 Bishop John locked the remaining members of the [ Jewish] community of Speyer in his fortified towns: God heeded them, for His great Name’s sake, and the bishop hid them until the enemies of God had passed. They were there, fasting, crying, and eulogizing, greatly despairing for their lives, for the errant ones, the Gentiles, Emicho (may his bones be ground to dust), and the 46. This could mean either “nobleman” or “rebel.” 47. May 3. 48. Solomon bar Simson reports that following the deaths of eleven members of the Jewish community, Bishop John saved the rest, and none was defiled by baptism. 49. Rabbi Moses ben Yekutiel’s request to Emperor Henry IV resulted in Henry’s granting permission to those Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity to return to Judaism if they so wished. 50. Henry IV, but it is not certain that he intervened at this point.
common folk gathered against them daily to grab them and destroy them. Through Rabbi Moses the leader of the community, Bishop John saved the Jews, for God had given him the idea to sustain them without having been bribed. This was from God, to allow us a remnant and some escape through his hands. A combined force of crusaders and local burghers next attacked the Jews of Worms twice during the month of May. The first attack was directed against the Jews who had elected to stay in their homes. Two weeks later, the crusaders and burghers attacked the Jews who had sought protection in the bishop’s towers. Despite resistance by the latter group, large numbers of Jews died, many by their own hands or at the hands of loved ones. When the holy, exaltedly pious men, the holy community of Mainz heard that part of the community of Speyer, and, again, the community of Worms,51 were killed, their spirit was weakened, and their heart melted, becoming like water. They cried to God, saying, “Oh! God! Are You destroying the remainder of the Jews? Where are all Your miracles about which our forebears told us? Did You not bring us up from Egypt?—and now are leaving us in the power of the nations, that they may destroy us.” And all the Jewish leaders gathered from [where they had been interspersed] among the community, and went to the bishop and his officers, and asked them, “What shall we do about the news that we hear about our murdered brethren in Speyer and Worms?” So they told them, “Listen to our advice. Bring all your money to our treasuries and to the bishop’s, and bring yourselves, your wives, your children, and all that’s yours into the bishop’s courtyard, that you may then be saved from the errant ones.” They gave us this advice in order to cause us to be caught, to have us gathered in one spot where we could be grabbed like fish trapped in a trap of evil. But the bishop gathered his officers and servants—great officers, the leaders and prominent men of the land—to help us and save us from the errant ones, for at the start his intent was to save us, but in the end, he rotted…. It was the first day of the month Sivan52 that the wicked Emicho—may his bones be ground in an iron mill— 51. Speyer is south (upriver) of Worms, and Worms is south of Mainz. If Emicho’s band was on its way to Jerusalem by way of southern Italy, why was it traveling from Speyer to Worms and then to Mainz? 52. May 25.
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arrived outside the city with a great army and the errant ones and peasants, for he, too, had said, “It is my desire to follow the errant course.” He was our chief oppressor: his eye did not pity the old, the young men or maidens, the children or sucklings, even the sick. He made God’s nation like trodden earth, killing young men by sword and rupturing the pregnant. They encamped outside the city for two days. The heads of the community said, “Let’s send him money and give him our writ that other communities along the way should honor him; perhaps God will act with His great kindness”—for they had previously scattered their money among the bishop, the local lord, his officers, his servants, and the burghers, about four hundred half-coins,53 so that they should help them, but it did not gain anything for them…. It was midday that the evil Emicho (of ground bones) arrived with his entire army. The burghers opened the gates for them; God’s enemies said to one another, “See, the gate opened on its own. The crucified is doing all this for us, that we may avenge his blood from the Jews.” They came with their banners, a great army, numerous as the sand at the sea, to the bishop’s gate, where members of the Holy Covenant were. When the holy ones, those in awe of the Almighty, saw the great crowd, they trusted in and stuck to their Creator. They donned their shields and girded their weapons—young and old—with Rabbi Klonymus (son of Rabbi M’shulam) at their head. A pious man, one of the greatest of the generation, our master, Rabbi M’nachem (son of our master, Rabbi David, the Levite)54 was there, and he told all assembled, “Wholeheartedly honor the honorable, awesome Name.” They all answered…calling out in a great voice, “Hear O Israel, God is our god; God is one!” And they all approached the gate to fight against the errant ones and the burghers. The two sides fought one another until the sins had their effect and the enemies won, capturing the gate. And the bishop’s men, who had promised to help the Jews, had previously fled, allowing them to be taken by the enemies, for the bishop’s men were crushed reeds. Thus, the enemies entered the courtyard. Slaughter and multiple acts of kiddush ha-shem ensue. The following are several examples. 53. Four hundred marks, or half-pounds. 54. A member of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. Before the destruction of the Second Temple, Levites served as assistants to the temple priests.
And the pure women were throwing money out to delay the enemies a bit, until the women could slaughter their own children; the hands of merciful women were strangling their children, to do the will of their Creator, and were turning their children’s tender faces to the Gentiles. When the enemies came to the rooms, they broke the doors and found the Jews still twitching and rolling in their own blood. They took the Jews’ money, stripped them naked, and smote the remaining ones, not leaving any remnant. This they did in all the rooms that had members of the Holy Covenant. But there was one room that was strongly [fortified]; the enemies fought until evening to [enter] it. When the holy ones saw that the enemies were stronger than they, they stood up, men and women, and slaughtered the children, and then one another; some fell on their swords and died, some were killed by their own swords or knives. The righteous women would toss rocks to the enemies outside the windows, so the enemies could stone them, and they accepted all the stones [thrown back], until their entire flesh and face had become strips. They were abusing and insulting the errant ones regarding the name of the hung one, the disgraced, disgusting son of adultery: “In whom do you trust, a trodden corpse?” And the errant ones approached the door to break it. An important woman, Mistress Rachel, a distinguished woman (daughter of Rabbi Isaac, the son of Rabbi Asher), was there, and she told her friends, “I have four children. Do not have pity on them, lest these uncircumcised come and grab them alive so that the children live with the enemies’ heresy; rather, honor the Holy Name even with them.” So one of her friends went and took a knife. When Rachel saw the knife, she cried a long, bitter shout, hid her face, and said, “Where is Your kindness, God?” She took Rachel’s youngest son, Isaac, a very pleasant boy, and slaughtered him. Rachel had spread out her sleeves between the two brothers, saying to her friend, “By your life, do not slaughter Isaac in Aaron’s sight.” But Aaron saw that his brother had been slaughtered, and cried, “Mother, Mother, don’t slaughter me.” He went and hid under a box. She took her two daughters, Bela and Madrona, and slaughtered them to God who had commanded us not to exchange His pure awe, and to be steadfast with Him. When the holy one finished slaughtering the three of her children before our Creator, she raised her voice, calling her son, Aaron: “Aaron, where are you? Nor will I have pity or mercy on you.” She dragged him by his foot from under the box where he had been hiding,
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and slaughtered him before the exalted God on high. She put them in her two sleeves, two on each side, near her belly, and they were twitching next to her, until the errant ones captured the room, finding her sitting and lamenting over them. The errant ones told her, “Show us the money you have in your sleeves.” When they saw the slaughtered children, they smote her, killing her on top of them…. She died on top of them, as that righteous woman had died on top of her seven sons.55… The errant ones killed everyone in that room and stripped them naked; the corpses were still twitching and becoming stained in their own blood as they were stripping them. 55. Hannah’s seven sons were tortured and killed at the command of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes around 167/166 B.C.E. for refusing to eat pork: 2 Maccabees, 7. Accounts of her martyrdom differ, but she also died, possibly by her own hand.
After narrating the acts of martyrdom of other members of Mainz’s community, the author ends with the following words. Unlike Solomon bar Simson, he does not go on to describe or even mention attacks on further Jewish communities, such as Xanten and Cologne. All these were the deeds of those we have singled out by name. What the rest of the community and its leaders did, how they acted—like Rabbi Akiva and his fellows56—to demonstrate the singleness of the King, the king over kings, Who is blessed and Whose Name is blessed, I have no knowledge. May God save us from this exile.
56. Scholar-martyrs in the period 135–38 C.E.
The Capture of Jerusalem 86. THE DEEDS OF THE FRANKS AND OF THE OTHER PILGRIMS TO JERUSALEM 57 Despite overwhelming odds and heavy losses through death and desertion over the course of almost three years of campaigning (and an on-again-off-again flow of reinforcements), the crusaders captured Jerusalem on July 15, 1099. One of the participants in the battles that culminated in that victory was an anonymous Italo-Norman knight from Apulia, who joined the crusade as a vassal of Bohemond, the prince of Taranto. In late 1098, while Bohemond remained in Antioch, now ruling it as its prince, this nameless warrior joined the retinue of Count Raymond IV of Toulouse for the march to Jerusalem. Around 1100–1101, and possibly earlier, this knight composed the first history of the crusade by a Western author. Evidence suggests that he dictated it to a monastic scribe who translated it from the author’s vernacular into simple Latin. Its style is straightforward, even artless, and it has the tone of a chanson de geste, the military epic genre that was so popular with the warrior classes of Europe, especially the French, Normans, and Provençals. Despite its rusticity, which Robert the Monk found so offensive, this account was in its day and remains so today one of the most valuable sources for the day-to-day events of the First Crusade. In the following selection, this warrior-author narrates the final assault on the city, which commenced on July 13, and culminated two days later. The events that accompanied the crusaders’ taking of the city need context. It was common practice at this time to indiscriminately kill the inhabitants of cities that resisted an attack. In 1077, the Turkish commander Atsiz ordered the killing of a reputed 3,000 Muslim inhabitants of Jerusalem after recapturing the city that had rebelled against Seljuk authority. Apparently the slaughtered rebels were mainly Fatimid Shi’as, whereas the Seljuks were Sunni Muslims. The Fatimids of Egypt recovered Jerusalem from the Seljuks in August 1098 only to lose it to the crusaders eleven months later and, in the process, to suffer once again the evil consequences of conquest. 57. Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, ed. Rosalind Hill (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1962), 90–92.
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Questions for Consideration 1. Explain the reasoning behind the procession around Jerusalem that took place on July 8. 2. Explain the actions of Count Raymond of Toulouse and Tancred in this assault. 3. Explain the actions of the crusaders once the city had been taken. 4. What does the author mean when he states that the crusaders “paid the debt owed Him”? By day and night, on Wednesday and Thursday, we attacked the city on every side in a most gallant manner, but before we assaulted it, all of the bishops and priests, through their preaching and instruction, ordered the army to make a devotional procession to the honor of God around Jerusalem and to faithfully offer up prayers, alms, and fasting. Most assuredly, very early in the morning of Friday, we attacked the city on every side and were unable to inflict any harm on it, and all of us were shocked and extremely frightened. However, as the hour approached in which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to suffer for us on the gibbet of the cross,58 our knights were fighting bravely on the siege tower, namely Duke Godfrey and his brother Count Eustace.59 Then a certain knight from our ranks, by the name of Lethold, climbed onto the wall of the city.60 Scarcely, in fact, had he climbed onto it then all the city’s defenders fled along the walls and through the city, and our men pursued close behind them, killing and cutting them down all the way to the Temple of Solomon,61 and where there was so much killing that our men walked through the blood of the slain up to their ankles.62… They, however, who were within the city gallantly engaged our men with fire and stones. But when the 58. As midday approached. According to tradition, Jesus was on the cross from noon to three. 59. The contingents led by Duke Godfrey of Bouillon and Count Eustace III of Boulogne. 60. Lethold, a knight from Tournai, was a member of the army of Count Robert II of Flanders. 61. Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. 62. Psalms 68:23 (67:24 in the Latin Vulgate), “so that your foot might be dipped in the blood of your enemies.” This is possibly an edit by a monastic scribe. If we accept various Latin and Muslim accounts as reasonably accurate and factor in the size of the mosque, we can estimate that between three and five thousand persons were killed at the mosque that day. That would have produced quite a bit of blood, but not enough to fill the mosque and its roof with blood that reached to ankle level.
count63 heard that the Franks were in the city, he said to his men: “Why do you delay? Look! All the Franks are now in the city.”64 Then the amir who was in the Tower of David gave himself up to the count and opened for him the gate at which pilgrims used to pay taxes.65 So our pilgrims now entered the city, chasing and killing Saracens right up to the Temple of Solomon, where they congregated. They gave our men a fierce battle throughout the entire day, so that their blood flowed throughout the entire temple. Finally, when the pagans were defeated, our men took prisoner a fair number of men and women, and killed those whom they chose and kept alive those whom they chose.66 In fact, a huge number of pagans of both sexes had gathered on the roof of the Temple of Solomon, to whom Tancred and Gaston of Béarn had given their banners.67 Soon thereafter, our men rushed about throughout the entire city, seizing gold and silver, horses and mules, and houses that were filled with all sorts of goods. All of them came, however, to worship at the Sepulcher of our Savior Jesus, rejoicing and weeping due to an overabundance of joy, and there they paid the debt owed Him. In the morning, however, our people cautiously climbed to the roof of 63. Count Raymond of Toulouse. 64. As Provençals, the men of Count Raymond of Toulouse’s force did not think of themselves as Franks, or French. 65. The amir was Iftikhar ad-Daulah, the Fatimid governor of the city. The Tower of David was the citadel that adjoined the Jaffa Gate, where pilgrims paid a tax in order to enter and worship in the city. 66. Such decisions were often based on whether a captive could either be held for a high ransom or be sold off as a slave. 67. Tancred Marchisus, an Italo-Norman, joined his uncle Bohemond on the crusade, but left his army in favor of the contingent led by Count Raymond of Toulouse when Bohemond remained behind to govern Antioch. Tancred later served as regent of Antioch and became the lord of Galilee. Gaston IV was the viscount of Béarn in Burgundy. By giving their banners to the prisoners, the two men claimed them as their own captives.
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the temple and attacked the Saracens, men and women, decapitating them with unsheathed swords. In fact, other Saracens threw themselves headlong from the temple. Seeing this, Tancred was extremely angry. Then our leaders reached the decision that everyone should give alms and along with the alms pray that God would choose for Himself whomever He wished to rule over the others and govern the city. They also ordered that all the Saracen dead be thrown outside of the city due to the terrible stench because almost the entire city was filled
with their corpses. And the surviving Saracens dragged the dead outside in front of the gates, and they formed mounds of them almost the size of houses. No one has ever heard of or seen such a slaughter of a pagan people. Because they were burned on pyres that resembled pyramids, no one knows their numbers, except God alone. Count Raymond, indeed, had the amir and the others who were with him taken to Ascalon,68 safe and unharmed. 68. A Fatimid-held coastal city southwest of Jerusalem.
Illus. 11.3 The Church of Saint Anne, Jerusalem. The crusaders and colonists who followed took over a significant number of Eastern Christian churches in lands that they occupied, installing in them Latin clerics. Beyond that, they converted most captured mosques into churches, although they did set aside areas for Islamic worship. The Church of Saint Anne, dedicated to the Virgin Mary’s mother and believed to be the site on which Mary’s childhood home stood, was one of the new pilgrimage churches that the Latins built. Constructed between 1131 and 1138, it is an excellent example of architectural fusion, incorporating a Byzantine dome into what was largely a Western Romanesque structure. Saladin reconquered Jerusalem in October 1187, but the church was spared destruction or radical remodeling due to his converting it into a madrasa, or qur’anic academy, in 1192. The Ottoman sultan bestowed the by-then-abandoned madrasa on Emperor Napoleon III in 1856 as a token of thanks for France’s participation in the Crimean War. Today the church, which is administrated by the French Missionaries of Africa, commonly known as the White Fathers, remains a well-visited pilgrimage site.
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Crusaders as Colonists As far as we know, Pope Urban II never articulated a plan for what the Latins would do with Jerusalem once they conquered it. Moreover, a majority of the surviving crusaders departed for their European homelands toward the end of the summer of 1099, because they had fulfilled their pilgrimage vow by capturing Jerusalem, worshipping at the Holy Sepulcher and other sacred sites, and guaranteeing Jerusalem’s security with a victory over a large Fatimid army at the Battle of Ascalon (August 12, 1099). The departing pilgrims included Duke Robert of Normandy, Count Robert of Flanders, and Count Eustace of Boulogne, and most of their followers probably left with them. Despite this flight of veteran soldiers that thinned the army considerably, the crusader leaders decided not to return the city to the Eastern Roman emperor but to elect its new ruler from their own ranks. This was an almost inevitable turn of events, given the distrust and hostility that had arisen between Emperor Alexius and most of the crusade leadership. Even before reaching Jerusalem, crusade leaders had carved out two independent principalities, the county of Edessa (1098–1150) and the principality of Antioch (1098–1268). So, following their capture of Jerusalem, the crusade leaders chose Godfrey of Bouillon to serve as “prince of Jerusalem and defender of the Holy Sepulcher.” When Godfrey died less than a year later, his younger brother, Baldwin of Boulogne, rushed down from Edessa, where he had established himself as ruler, and had himself proclaimed King Baldwin I (r. 1100–18), despite the opposition of the patriarch of Jerusalem, Daimbert of Pisa. Baldwin delayed his coronation until Christmas Day 1100, when he was crowned and anointed by the defeated patriarch in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. With such obvious symbolism, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem (1100–1291) was born, although Godfrey had exercised quasi-regal authority and full secular power over Jerusalem in the preceding year. The fourth crusader state in the Holy Land, the county of Tripoli (1109–1289), came into being with the conquest of the northern Lebanese coast begun by Count Raymond of Toulouse and, following his death, completed by his son Bertrand, with the assistance of fleets from Genoa and Provence. Today many historians argue that these self-governing polities were not colonies in any sense of the term. And it is true that they did not conform to the types of colonies that Europeans and, much later, Euro-Americans established and maintained from the fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. They were not governed by and answerable to a mother country, and were not directly exploited for economic gain, even though the self-governing, commercial enclaves within them that Pisans, Genoese, Venetians, and others established were lucrative profit-making enterprises. Still, over the past two and half millennia and more, colonies have taken on a variety of forms, and it is a mistake to take modern colonial enterprises as the sole, all-encompassing model. These four states were governed by a small minority of Latin Christians, who depended on a constant influx of immigrants and pilgrims from the West to maintain their hold over these lands and peoples. And Western powers, especially the papacy, found ingenious means for attracting and dispatching colonists and pilgrims to the East. These included numerous calls over the next several centuries for crusades in support of their co-religionists and the lands they possessed. Beyond that, conceivably the three states of Antioch, Tripoli, and Jerusalem would never have lasted as long as they did were it not for the lifeline to the West provided by the West’s Mediterranean powers, especially the great maritime cities of Italy. It is true that the first two military orders that emerged in the Age of the Crusades, the Templars and the Hospitalers, were created in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem as a means of providing forces-inreadiness for the defense of the kingdom. Nevertheless, both orders and those that followed in their wake, such as the Teutonic Order, depended on patrons, rich holdings, and organizational structures that were centered in Europe. Finally, although a distinctive Frankish-Levantine culture took shape by reason of the settlers’ interchange with the many different peoples, religions, and ways of life of this region, the core of that syncretic culture remained Latin and the religious focus of its people was fixed
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on Rome. Given that reality, perhaps we can say that Latin Christendom was the “mother country” of these four colonial states. Although historians might quibble over whether or not these four polities fit some ideal colonial model, there is no disputing the fact that other crusades produced distinct colonies in other lands. They included the colonies carved out by the Baltic Crusades, which got underway in the mid-twelfth century, and the lands colonized in mainland and insular Greece by Venice and others following the capture of Constantinople in 1204 by the army and navy of the Fourth Crusade. As we shall see in Chapter 13, they also encompassed Atlantic islands that latter-day crusaders invaded and colonized in the course of the fifteenth century. The sources that follow provide insights into the colonies carved out by crusaders in Syria-Palestine and the Baltic.
The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem 87. Fulcher of Chartres, A HISTORY OF THE JERUSALEM PILGRIMS 69 Fulcher, a priest of Chartres, set off on crusade with the army of Count Stephen of Blois in October 1096, but in October of the following year he became Baldwin of Boulogne’s chaplain. As such, he accompanied Baldwin, who split off from the main army in late 1097, either on a private campaign to carve out a principality for himself or as part of an overall strategy to secure the crusaders’ eastern flank. Whatever, his primary motive, in early 1098, Baldwin became lord of the Armenian city of Edessa and its surrounding territory, thereby establishing the first crusader state in the East. As noted above, following the death of Godfrey of Bouillon, Baldwin left Edessa to be crowned king of Jerusalem. About that time, Fulcher, who arrived in Jerusalem with Baldwin, began to compose a history of the crusade and its aftermath. Because Fulcher had missed the sieges and captures of Antioch and Jerusalem, his Historia Hierosolymitana necessarily depended on the eyewitness accounts of others, including the anonymous author of the Gesta Francorum, when it came to describing those monumental events. The value of his history, and its value is considerable, lies elsewhere. In large part, Fulcher’s history focuses on the fortunes of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem from 1100 to 1127, when the work abruptly ends. Additionally, he dealt with the other three crusader states, largely from the perspective of their relations with the kingdom, and he even touched upon Jerusalem’s interactions with various Muslim powers. As such, his history is the only contemporary, eyewitness account of the formative years of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and it was crafted by a Frankish resident who was close to the kingdom’s center of power. The following excerpts deal with the decision to choose Godfrey of Bouillon as prince and defender of Jerusalem and the subsequent creation and expansion of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem under Baldwin I. Fulcher’s insertion of short poems into his more significant chapters is a style known as prosimetry— the juxtaposition of prose and poetry, with the metrical lines acting as commentary on the prose. Its use had never been widespread among Latin chroniclers and historians, although Robert the Monk used it sporadically in his crusade history. Arab historians, however, commonly employed prosimetry as a means of demonstrating a superior education and facility with language. Was this a case of the influence of Arab culture on a Latin resident of Jerusalem? 69. Fulcheri Carnotensis, Historia Hierosolymitana (1095–1127), ed. Henrich Hagenmeyer (Heidelberg: Carl Winters, 1913), 306–10, 384–90, 609–14, 746–49.
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Questions for Consideration 1. According to Fulcher, how did God display divine approval of the crusaders’ capture and occupation of Jerusalem? 2. According to Fulcher, how did the leaders of the Latin remnant in Jerusalem justify creating a king, despite the objections of some? How does Fulcher’s subsequent account support that decision? 3. What does Fulcher’s list of King Baldwin I’s most notable conquests suggest about geopolitical realities in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem? 4. According to Fulcher, how had the fortunes of the kingdom changed between 1100/1101 and Baldwin I’s death in 1118? 5. According to Fulcher, how had the settlers changed between 1100/1101 and 1124? How do you explain those changes? 6. Based on Fulcher’s account, does the Kingdom of Jerusalem appear to have been a Latin colony? Or was it something else? On what evidence do you base your conclusion? 7. It has been suggested that Fulcher’s history was written for the eyes of people back home in Europe and with the intention of attracting settlers and even crusaders. Evaluate that thesis in light of these excerpts.
Book I, Chapter 30 Regarding the creation of a king and patriarch in the city and discovery of the Lord’s Cross70 In the year one thousand one hundred less one From the Virgin birth of the Lord Who shone bright at birth, When July had already been touched by light fifteen times by Phoebus,71 The Franks captured Jerusalem by the power of their might, And soon thereafter Godfrey was made prince of the country.72 Because of his outstanding nobility, military skill, and temperate patience, and no less his elegant manners, the 70. It appears that this heading was written by someone other than Fulcher. 71. July 15, 1099. Phoebus is Phoebus Apollo, a Greek god of the sun. 72. July 22.
entire population of the Lord’s army chose him as ruler of the holy city’s kingdom to preserve and govern it. Then also canons were appointed to serve in the Church of the Lord’s Sepulcher and in His Temple.73 Then also they decided that a patriarch should not yet be installed there until they had asked the Roman pope whom he would name as the person in charge.74 Meanwhile, Turks and 73. The latter is the Muslim shrine of the Dome of the Rock (Qubbat al-Sakhrah), which Latins referred to as the Templum Domini (Temple of the Lord) and transformed into a church administered by Augustinian canons. 74. Actually, on August 1, 1099, the clergy, with the support of Godfrey, chose Arnulf of Choques, a papal legate traveling with the army, as Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. Arnulf ’s election was unfortunate because the city already had a patriarch, the Byzantine Orthodox Symeon II (r. 1084–1106), who resided in exile on Cyprus. Symeon had had good relations through the exchange of warm letters with the papal legate Adhemar of Le Puy, Urban’s chosen “leader” of the crusade. But Adhemar had died in Antioch in 1098 to be succeeded by the anti-Byzantine Arnulf, as the pope’s chief representative on the crusade. Because of canonical questions regarding his election, Arnulf was removed from the patriarchate in December 1099. But in 1112, he was again elected patriarch and served to his death in 1118, except for a brief span of time in 1115–16 when he stood deposed by a papal legate. During both periods of his controversial tenure, Arnulf
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Arabs and also black Ethiopians,75 almost five hundred in number, who had fled into the Tower of David, requested that Count Raymond, who had taken up quarters near that tower, permit all who were alive to depart, provided that they left behind their money in that tower. He granted this, and they went to Ascalon from there. It then pleased God that a single fragment of the Lord’s Cross was discovered in a hidden location. Up to this point, it had been concealed away since ancient times by men of religion, but now, God being willing, it was revealed by a certain Syrian individual. Along with his father, who knew of the place along with him, he had conscientiously concealed and guarded it there. Everyone, together and publicly, carried away aloft this particular fragment, reshaped into the form of a cross and partially covered with gold and silver decoration, to the Lord’s Sepulcher and then from there to the Temple, joyfully singing psalms and giving thanks to God, Who for so many days had preserved for Himself and us this, His and our treasure….
Book II, Chapter 6 Regarding the succession of King Baldwin and the minuteness of his kingdom In the year 1101 from the Incarnation of the Lord, in the Basilica of Blessed Mary in Bethlehem and on the day of the Lord’s Nativity,76 King Baldwin was ceremoniously elevated to the kingship with holy oil and crowned by the aforementioned patriarch,77 in the presence of the bishops, and the clergy and people who were in attendance. They had not done this for his brother and predecessor because he did not wish it, and then there were certain individuals
promoted a vigorous, even harsh policy of promoting the Latinization of the kingdom’s Church, thereby alienating its Eastern Christians. Patriarch Symeon, who died in 1206, and his successors resided in exile in Constantinople, until Saladin reinstalled a Byzantine patriarch following his conquest of the city in 1187. 75. They were probably mamluks, or slave-soldiers, from Saharan and sub-Saharan areas, such as present-day Sudan. 76. By today’s reckoning, December 25, 1100. The New Year began on Christmas Day according to many medieval calendars. The Basilica of Mary is more commonly known as the Basilica of the Nativity, which contains a grotto believed to have been the site of Jesus’s birth. 77. Daimbert (Dagobert) of Pisa (r. 1099–1205).
who did not think it meritorious.78 Yet, upon wiser consideration, they decided that it should be done. “For what is the objection?” they said. “That our Lord Christ was dishonored with words of abuse in Jerusalem as though He were a criminal and crowned with thorns, since He also willingly gave Himself up to death in the end for us? In fact, that crown was not in their minds something honorable or[a symbol] of royal dignity but of ignominy and disgrace.79 But what these butchers did as an insult to Him, by the grace of God, has been turned to our salvation and glory. In addition, a king is not elevated contrary to the law. Rather, when he is called forth legally and according to God’s mandate, he is made holy by a true benediction and is consecrated. He who takes up the authority that comes with a golden crown takes up also the honorable duty of delivering justice. In regard to him, by right, as to a bishop concerning his episcopate, it can be aptly applied, ‘He desires to do good who desires to reign. If he does not rule justly, he is not a king.’ ” 80 At the start of his reign, however, he possessed as yet few cities and people. Through that same winter period, he vigorously defended his kingdom from enemies on all sides, and because they discovered him to be an outstanding opponent, even though he had few people, they did not as a consequence dare attack him. If he had had a larger army, he would have willingly advanced against his enemies. Up to that time, the land route for our pilgrims was totally blocked. Meanwhile they—French as well as English, and Italians and Venetians—sailing by sea, alone in a single ship or in [convoys of ] threes or fours, in the midst of pirates and past the cities of the Saracens, were rightly afraid. Under the guidance of the Lord, they arrived at Jaffa, for in the beginning we had no other port.81 When we saw that these people had come from our own Western lands, we immediately greeted them with joy, as if they 78. Patriarch Daimbert, the two Norman princes of Antioch, Bohemond and Tancred, and Count Raymond of Toulouse had been hostile to the idea of a Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem for various reasons, including the patriarch’s desire to transform Jerusalem and surrounding lands into a Church-dominated state. 79. One objection to crowning a king of Jerusalem was that it was unseemly to wear a royal crown in the city where Christ wore a crown of thorns. 80. See Isaiah, 32.1. 81. Captured in June 1099, Jaffa, which is about forty-two miles from Jerusalem, was initially the kingdom’s sole lifeline to the West.
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were saints. Each of us intently asked them about his homeland and family. They related as much as they knew. When we heard good news, we rejoiced; when, however, we heard bad news, we mourned. They went on to Jerusalem and visited the Holy of Holies, for which they had come. Afterwards, some stayed in the Holy Land; others, indeed, returned to their homelands. For this reason the land of Jerusalem remained depopulated. There were not [enough] to defend it from the Saracens, if only they had dared to attack us. But why did they not dare? Why did so many people, so many kingdoms fear to invade our little kingdom and rag-tag populace? Why did they not assemble from Egypt, from Persia, from Mesopotamia, and from Syria, at least a hundred times with a hundred thousand fighters, to manfully advance against us, their enemies? And why did they not, like countless locusts do to the harvest of a small field, totally devour and destroy us so that there would be no further mention of us in a land that had been ours long ago. For at that time we did not have more than three hundred knights and a similar number of infantry to defend Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Ramala and even the stronghold of Haifa.82 We also scarcely dared to assemble our knights when we wished to carry out any operation against our enemies, fearing that in the meanwhile they would do damage to our emptied fortifications. Really, it is clear to everyone that it was a truly wondrous miracle that we lived amid so many thousands of thousands and even as conquerors made some of them subjects and actually ruined others by despoiling and capturing them. What was the origin of this martial exploit? What was the origin of such power? Truly from Him Whose Name is Almighty, Who, not unmindful of His people who labor in His Name, in His Mercy gives aid to them in their times of need, they who trust in no one else save Him alone. God Himself has promised, moreover, to reward in the future with eternal glory him whom He now makes happy with a small portion of temporal riches. Oh times so worthy of remembrance! Often, indeed, we were distressed when we could receive no help from our friends across the sea. For we were afraid that our enemies, perceiving how few our people were, would someday rush down upon us in a sudden assault from all sides, when none but God alone could help us. 82. Essentially the extent of the kingdom in 1100.
As far as we were concerned, we lacked nothing, if only we did not lack people and horses. They who came by sea to Jerusalem, could not bring horses with them.83 No one, in fact, came to our aid by land. The people of Antioch could not help us nor could we help them.84…
Book II, Chapter 64 Regarding the death of King Baldwin I In the year of the Virgin Birth, 1118, when March was exiting, King Baldwin aggressively attacked and sacked the city of Pharamia, as they call it.85 One day as he walked along the river that the Greeks call the Nile and the Hebrews Gihon,86 in the neighborhood of the said city, he was enjoying himself with some of his vassals.… The king became weakened by an interior pain from an old wound that had seriously flared up. This was immediately reported to his vassals. Upon hearing of his infirmity, all were equally and dutifully sympathetic, saddened, and distraught. A decision was made to return home. Because the king could not ride a horse, they constructed for him a litter fashioned from tent poles, in which they laid him, and the order to return to Jerusalem was given with the blast of a herald’s horn. When they reached a village called Laris,87 he died, totally consumed by the illness that had attacked him. They removed his intestines, salted them, and laid them in the coffin, and hurried on to Jerusalem. On that day on which it is customary to carry palm branches,88 by divine decree and in an unexpected happenstance, the train of mourners and sorrowful funeral cortege met a procession that was then descending from the Mount of Olives into the Valley of Jehoshaphat.89 At the sight 83. The exigencies of long-distance warfare across the Mediterranean led to the creation of horse transport vessels in the course of the twelfth century. 84. Antioch lay about three hundred miles away through largely hostile territory. Its prince, Bohemond, was a captive in Muslim hands, and his regent, Tancred, was no friend of King Baldwin. 85. The Egyptian city of al-Farama in the Nile Delta, which Baldwin captured on March 22 after a one-day siege. 86. Genesis, 2:13. 87. Al-Arish, about fifty miles from where they started. 88. Palm Sunday, April 7, 1118. 89. Part of Jerusalem’s Palm Sunday Latin ritual consisted of a procession outside the city walls, from the Mount of Olives to the Church of Blessed Mary’s Tomb in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, led by the patriarch, who carried a fragment of the Holy Cross.
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of this and almost as if he were a relative, all who were there gave themselves up to lamentations rather than song, to sighs of grief rather than joy. The Franks wept; the Syrians grieved, and even the Saracens who saw it. For who could control himself ? Who did not devoutly weep there? Therefore, then returning to the city, the clergy as well as the people did what was fitting and customary for this sorrowful occasion and buried him in Golgotha next to Duke Godfrey, his brother.90
The epitaph of King Baldwin When this king died, the devout Frankish people cried. He was their shield, strength, and bulwark. For he was their weaponry, the terror and adversary of enemies; A strong leader of his homeland, just like Joshua.91 Acre, Caesarea, Beirut, also Sidon92 He seized from an unspeakable native foe. Thereafter the lands of the Arabs, or those that touch the Red Sea, He added to his rule and subdued to his authority,
90. The tombs of Duke Godfrey and the seven kings of Jerusalem who succeeded him and died before 1187 were placed in the Chapel of Adam in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. This chapel is located at the foot of the stairs leading up to what is believed to be the top of Mount Golgotha, the site of Jesus’s Crucifixion. The tombs were largely destroyed in 1244, and the process was completed in 1809–10. Fragments exist in two museums in the city. 91. The ancient leader of the Israelites who led them in the conquest of the Holy Land. 92. Four important coastal cities, of which Acre, Sidon, and Beirut were operating ports. Acre, the kingdom’s most important port, fell to Baldwin I’s forces in 1104. Baldwin took Caesarea in 1101 with the aid of a Genoese fleet; the king, also assisted by a Genoese fleet and Count Bertrand of Tripoli, took Beirut in 1110. In that same year, Baldwin captured Sidon with the key assistance of a Norwegian fleet under the command of King Sigurd I, “the Crusader.”
And he captured Tripoli, and no less so he conquered Arsuf,93 And moreover performed many other honorable deeds. The king held sway for eighteen years. Then there came to pass that which was to be. Sixteen times had Phoebus seen the star of the ram’s head.94 When the extraordinary King Baldwin died. Here ends Book II.
Book III, Chapter 37 Regarding the sign that then appeared Then, for almost one hour, the sun appeared to us in dazzling color, changed into a new and hyacinth-colored beauty and transformed into the shape of the moon, as some sort of crescent eclipse. This, in fact, took place on the third day before the Ides of August, as the ninth hour of the day was waning.95 Therefore, you should not marvel when you see signs in the heavens because God acts no less on Earth as in the heavens. He transforms and arranges on Earth whatever and in whatever way He wishes. If those things that He made are to be marveled at, more to be marveled at is He Who made them. Consider, I beseech you, and reflect in your mind how in our time God has transformed the Occident into the Orient. For we who were Occidentals have now been made into Orientals. He who was a Roman or Frank has in this land been made into a Galilean or Palestinian. He who was a citizen of Rheims or Chartres, now is transformed into a citizen of Tyre or Antioch. Already we have forgotten the places where we were born; they are already unknown to many of us or not even mentioned. 93. Two other coastal cities, of which Tripoli was an important port and the capital of the County of Tripoli. Tripoli fell in 1109 to Bertrand, son of Raymond IV of Saint-Gilles, count of Toulouse, with the substantial support of King Baldwin’s army; Arsuf fell in 1101 to King Baldwin, again assisted by Genoese naval forces. 94. The constellation Aries. 95. Mid-to-late afternoon, August 11, 1124.
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Here now people own their own homes and have households as if by right of paternal inheritance. Here already one has married not someone from among his own people but a Syrian woman or an Armenian woman and occasionally a Saracen woman who has, however, accepted the grace of baptism. Another has in his household a fatherin-law as well as a daughter-in-law or his own son or a stepson if not a stepfather. Here there are grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Here one tends his vineyards; here one cultivates his land. People alternatively converse back and forth in the eloquence and idiom of various languages. Different languages have now been made common property known to each ethnicity, and one faith unites those who are ignorant of their descent. Indeed, it is written: The lion and the ox shall eat straw together.96 He who was born a foreigner is now like a native-born person, and he who was a sojourner has surely become a resident.
Our relatives and parents join us from time to time, totally giving up, not even willingly, whatever they possessed. For they who impoverished there, God has made wealthy here. They who had little money possess innumerable byzants here,97 and they who did not have a rural homestead now, by the gift of God, possess a city here. Therefore, why should one return to the Occident who has found the Orient like this? God does not wish them to be afflicted by poverty who dedicated themselves to follow Him with their crosses, to follow even to the end. You see, therefore, that this is a boundless miracle, and one that the whole world must truly hold in wonder. Who has to this point heard anything like it? God, therefore, wishes to enrich us all and to draw us to Himself as His most beloved friends. And because He wishes it, we also freely wish it, and what is pleasing to Him we do with a loving and humble heart so that we might happily reign with Him throughout eternity.
96. Isaiah, 65:25.
97. Consult the Glossary.
Franks and Muslims in the Latin East 88. Ibn Jubayr, AN ACCOUNT OF EVENTS THAT HAPPENED ON CERTAIN JOURNEYS 98 To Muslims and Eastern Christians alike, all Western European settlers in the crusader states were Franj, or Franks, regardless of their lands of origin in the West or native languages. This included the subsequent generations of settlers who were born in these territories of the Latin East. Whether a newcomer from the West or a native-born resident, each and every Frank was a member of a distinct minority in the land that the Franks called Outremer (the land across the sea). The county of Edessa consisted largely of Armenian Christians, and Greek (Byzantine) and Syrian Christians dominated the principality of Antioch’s population. Both states also contained Muslim minorities, and in the case of Antioch, Muslims surely outnumbered the resident Franks several times over. The same might have been true for Edessa as well. It is equally probable that at least 80 percent of the populations of the county of Tripoli and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem were divided about equally between Eastern Christians of various sorts and Muslims. The only places where Frankish settlers appear to have outnumbered Eastern Christians and Muslims were key coastal towns, such as Acre and Tyre, and the holy city of Jerusalem. In the two former cases, this was due to resident mercantile enclaves, known as fondaci (sing. fondaco), established by Venetian, Genoese, Pisan, and other foreign groups. The latter case was due to the fact that for eighty-eight years, between 1099 and 1187, the rulers of Jerusalem severely restricted Muslim and Jewish residence in the Holy City. 98. Ibn Jobair, Voyages, ed. and trans. Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes, 4 vols. (Paris: Libraire Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1949–65), 3:348–60, 364. Translated from the French by A. J. Andrea.
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Demographic realities have consequences. At its most basic level in the Latin East, Frankish lords had to govern the indigenous populations of their states in ways that took into account this numerical imbalance. On February 1, 1183, Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Ahmad Ibn Jubayr al-Kinani, secretary to the emir of Granada, set off from al-Andalus on a hajj to Mecca, returning to Granada on April 25, 1185. Soon thereafter, he completed an account of his travels based on a journal that he kept while on pilgrimage. Included within his story is a description of what he witnessed, heard, and experienced during the thirty-two days that he spent in September–October 1184 in and offshore of Frankish-held territories in Syria-Palestine while on his homeward journey. It is worth noting that this was a crucial period in the history of the Franks of Outremer, upon whom Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, was exerting an ever-increasing military pressure.
Questions for Consideration 1. What, according to Ibn Jubayr, are the best and worst aspects of Frankish rule? 2. Some scholars have argued that Ibn Jubayr used the Franks as a foil. By praising an enemy’s supposed virtues, he hoped to provoke reform among his own people. Based on your reading of these excerpts, does that argument seem credible to you? 3. An eminent historian once remarked, “I wonder what Ibn Jubayr would have written about the Franks had he spent more time in the Frankish states.” What do you think of that quip? Does it make sense to you? In responding to this question, be aware that thirteen of the thirty-two days mentioned above were spent on board a ship in the harbor at Acre. 4. In the light of your answers to questions 2 and 3, does Ibn Jubayr’s testimony appear to be solid and trustworthy or does it appear to be unreliable? 5. Based on your study of this source, what can you say with some degree of certainty about Frankish-Muslim relations in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem around 1184? We left [Damascus] on the evening of Thursday…, which was the 13th of September, in a large caravan of merchants traveling with their merchandise to Acre.99 It is exceedingly strange—one of the strangest things that one can report regarding worldly affairs—that Muslim caravans travel to Frankish lands, while Frankish captives enter Muslim lands.100… We left, on the morning of Saturday, traveling 99. By the 1170s, Acre had become the most important and populous port city in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. Saladin captured Acre in 1187, but crusader forces retook it in 1191. With Jerusalem still in Muslim hands, Acre became the de facto capital of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1192 and remained so for the next ninety-nine years. In 1291, it was the last significant Frankish stronghold on the continent of Southwest Asia to fall to the Mamluks, who destroyed its fortifications. 100. Saladin’s campaign of 1184 against the city of Nablus resulted in the capture and enslavement of several thousand Franks. Ibn Jubayr witnessed these captives entering Muslim territory.
toward the city of Banyas. Midway on the road, we came upon an oak-tree of great size, with wide-spreading branches. We were told that it is called “The Tree of the Balance Scale.” When we asked about it, we were told that it was the boundary on this road between safety and danger. Some Frankish brigands rob and commit mayhem along the road. If they surprise someone on this side of the tree within Muslim territory, be it by the length of an arm or of a span,101 he is their captive; but he who is seized short of the boundary,102 they allow to go on his way. This is the sort of pact that they faithfully observe. It is one of the most pleasant constraints that the Franks impose on themselves and is exceedingly extraordinary.
101. The width of a hand. 102. Within Frankish land.
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A Description of the City of Banyas May God Most High defend it! This city is on the frontieredge of Muslim territory. It is small, with a fortress…. It had been in the hands of the Franks, when Nur ad-Din returned it to Islam.103 There is a vast area of tillable soil on a neighboring plain, which is commanded by a Frankish fortress called Hunin, three parasangs from Banyas.104 Cultivation of this plain is divided between Muslims and Franks, in accordance with a rule that they call “the Rule of Division.” They apportion the harvest in equal shares and their animals are mingled together without any injustice resulting on either side. We departed [from Banyas] on Saturday evening.… We moved on to one of the biggest fortresses of the Franks, called Tibnin.105 This is the place where one pays the customs dues levied on caravans. Its sovereign is al-Khinzira, who is called the Queen.106 She is the mother of the king, al-Khinzir, who is the sovereign of Acre.107 May God destroy it. We passed the night at the foot of this fortress. The tax imposed on people is not excessive: per head, it is a dinar and a qirat, in the dinars of Syria.108 This was not imposed upon the merchants because they intended to enter that blasted king’s territory, where the tax was imposed.109 The tax there is a qirat for every dinar [worth of merchandise]…. We left Tibnin—May God deliver it [to us]!—at daybreak on Tuesday, and our journey passed through a 103. Nur ad-Din, the Turkish ruler of Syria and a prominent jihadist, recovered it in 1165. 104. Located in the Upper Galilee, the fortress, which the Franks called Chattel Neuf, commanded the headwaters of the Jordan River as well as the fertile plain around Banyas. An Arabic/ Persian parasang was roughly three and a half miles. 105. Better known as Taron, it was one of the strongest Frankish fortresses in the Galilee. 106. Al-Khinzira means “the sow.” The reference is to Queen Agnes of Courtney, the widow of King Amalric. A controversial person, she was one of several strong-willed and powerful women who played significant roles in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. She died shortly after Ibn Jubayr’s transit through her lands. 107. Al-Khinzir means “the pig.” The reference is to King Baldwin IV (r. 1174–85), known as “the Leper King.” 108. A qirat is 1/24 of anything, in this case 1/24 of a dinar. 109. They were headed for Acre, where the tariff on 111 different items was collected by law.
continuous series of farms and crop fields, whose inhabitants were all Muslims, living there comfortably with the Franks—We take refuge in God from such disorder! Their status is that they pay half of their crop at harvest time, and also pay the jizya poll-tax of one dinar and five qirat per person.110 Other than that, no demands are made on them except that they pay a light tax on the fruits of trees. Their houses belong to them and all their goods are permitted them. All the coastal towns of Syria that are in the hands of the Franks are governed in this manner as well as rural estates, villages, and farms belonging to Muslims. Now a spirit of disquiet has entered their hearts when they observe the situation of their fellow Muslims on rural estates owned by Muslims and that of the men who run them, for their state of well-being and comfort is the opposite of their own. This is one of the misfortunes that weighs upon Muslims. The Muslim community deplores the injustices done by its own people who are landlords and praises the conduct of their adversaries and enemies, that is to say Frankish landlords, and are accustomed to their fairness. He who laments this state of affairs must turn to God.… On Monday, we ended up at a farm belonging to Acre, located a parasang from the town. The headman, its foreman, is a Muslim, appointed by the Franks to oversee the Muslim workers who were there. He offered magnificent hospitality to all the members of our caravan, welcoming all, great and lowly, in a large reception hall in his house. He offered them various kinds of dishes that he had served them, and extended to all his generous hospitality. We were among those who took advantage of this invitation. We passed the night there. On Tuesday morning…, which was the 18th of September, we came to Acre— may God destroy it! We were taken to the custom house, which is a khan prepared to accommodate the caravan.111 In front of the door, on stone benches covered with carpets, are seated Christian clerks of the custom with ebony inkstands ornamented with gold. They know how to write and speak Arabic as does their chief, the tax farmer of the custom, who is called Sahib, a title given him because of the importance of his position.112… All of the collected 110. Consult the Glossary. Now Muslims paid the jizya to their Frankish overlords. 111. A khan, or caravanserai, was a place set aside to house caravans—the people and their merchandise and animals. 112. An Arabic word that originally meant “owner,” it was a general term of respect that is best translated as “master.”
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tariffs go to the custom farm, and this custom farm is worth a considerable amount.113 The merchants deposited their baggage and took lodgings in the upper story.114 The baggage of those who declared that they had no merchandise was examined in case it contained anything concealed, after which they were permitted to go their own way and seek lodging where they would. All this was done politely and respectfully, without bullying and manhandling. We lodged in a room facing the sea that we rented from a Christian woman, and we prayed God to grant us peace and secure our safety.
A Description of the City of Acre May God overwhelm it and restore it to Islam! This is the capital of the Frankish cities in Syria… and a port of call for all ships. It is the equal of Constantinople in grandeur and activity. It is the central gathering place for ships and caravans, and the meeting-place of Muslim and Christian merchants from all regions. Its roads and streets are choked by crowds, and there is little space in which to walk. It burns in unbelief and iniquity. It abounds in pigs and crosses. It stinks, is revolting, and is full of garbage and excrement. The Franks snatched it from Muslims in the first decade of the sixth century;115 Islam wept copiously. It was one of great sorrows. Mosques were transformed into churches and minarets into bell-towers. God kept undefiled in His principal mosque a place that is in the hands of the Muslims as a small place of prayer where strangers can congregate to offer the obligatory prayers. Adjacent to its mihrab116 is the tomb of the prophet Salih117—God bless and preserve him and all the prophets!—God protected this place from the desecration of unbelief through the baraka of this holy tomb.118 113. A tariff, or tax, farmer paid a stipulated sum to the ruling authority. Anything collected beyond that sum and his other expenses, such as the wages of his clerks, was profit. 114. The ground floor was reserved for the animals. 115. Actually, the last decade of the fifth century of the Islamic calendar (March 24, 1104). 116. The decorated niche in the mosque’s wall that indicates the direction of Mecca and of prayer. The former principal mosque in which this mihrab was set became the Cathedral of the Holy Cross during Frankish occupation. 117. A prophet mentioned in the Qur’an whom God sent to warn the errant people of Thamud. 118. Baraka is the spiritual presence of God that flows downward to holy persons, places, and even objects, bringing with it a
To the east of the town is a spring called the Spring of the Cow because it is where God brought forth the beast for Adam.119 One descends to this spring by gently graded stairs. It is located near a mosque of which only the mihrab remains; the Franks have built another mihrab in the eastern part,120 and Muslims and Christians assemble there, the one turning to his place of prayer, the other to his. In the hands of the Christians, this mosque is venerated and respected—God wishes to preserve a place of prayer for the Muslims. For two days we remained here, and then, on Thursday…the 20th of September, we set forth across country to Tyre.… We took up residence there in a khan prepared for the reception of Muslims.
Description the Town of Tyre121 May God destroy it! This is a city that is proverbial for its impregnable defenses; it will not fall compliantly and submissively into an aggressor’s hands. The Franks prepared it as a refuge in case of emergencies of that sort, making it a strong point for their security. Its roads and streets are cleaner than those of Acre. In their unbelief, its inhabitants are naturally milder; by habit and disposition they are far kinder to Muslim strangers. Their temperament is more amiable. Their dwellings are larger and more spacious. The situation for Muslims in this city is easier and more peaceful. Acre is larger, more oppressive, and more idolatrous. But one can report nothing more extraordinary than the fortifications and defensive might of Tyre…. It is fitting to tell of a spectacle that was a bit of extravagance in this base world, a wedding procession that we were witnesses to one day in the port area of Tyre. All the Christians, men and women, had assembled on this special sanctity. 119. Ayn al-Baqar. According to a Jewish tradition, which Christians and Muslims adopted, this was where God produced a cow with which Adam could begin ploughing following expulsion from Eden. 120. The building was not destroyed. It was transformed into a church, and only the mihrab remained to remind one that it had once been a mosque. In the eastern part of the building, the Franks had constructed an apse (a domed, semicircular recess into which an altar was placed). To Ibn Jubayr’s eyes, this was a Christian mihrab. 121. Tyre, located in present-day Lebanon, was held continuously by the Franks from 1124 to 1291. It was the northernmost and deepest of the ports held by the Franks.
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occasion, and formed themselves into two lines at the door of the bride whom they were going to lead. Meanwhile they were playing trumpets, flutes, and other instruments, until finally she emerged, swaying with a hesitant step, between two men who supported her on the right and left and appeared to be close maternal relatives. She was most elegantly adorned and her dress was truly magnificent. From it trailed, in accordance with their custom, a train of silk embroidered with gold. On her head she wore a golden diadem covered by a veil of woven gold, while a similar veil decorated with pearls was draped above her breast. Proud of her ornaments and finery, she walked at a languorous pace, like a dove, or in the manner of a wisp of cloud. We seek refuge in God from the seduction of such a sight. Before her marched Christian notables in their finest clothing, trailing the trains of their robes behind them. Behind her were her peers and equals among the Christian women, processing in their finest apparel, bearing themselves proudly with their luxurious adornments. Marching at their head were musicians. Muslims and other Christians formed two ranks of spectators along their route, gazing upon them without any sign of disapproval. They led her in this fashion to the house of her groom, which they entered and where they passed the day in feasting. By chance we viewed this pompous spectacle.122 We ask God that He protect us from the danger of being seduced!… 122. This wedding-day ceremony and the bride’s outfit were typically Arab-Christian. It is unclear if the bride was a Syrian or Frankish Christian.
There is no excuse before God for a Muslim to stay in an infidel town, except when passing through it. If he is in the land of Islam, he is safe from the pains and ills to which he is prey in Christian lands, and the humiliation and the miserable condition laid upon those who pay the tributary tax. For example, hearing words, especially from the mouths of the base-born and the stupidest of the lot, that will distress the heart in its reviling of him [Muhammad] whose name God has sanctified, and whose glory He has exalted. It is impossible to ritually purify oneself. It is an environment filled with pigs and so many other prohibited things that are too numerous to be recounted or enumerated. Beware, beware of entering their lands. We must ask God for the beauty of forgiveness and for mercy for this sin on which our feet have slipped, and His forgiveness is given only after one decides to repent.… Ibn Jubayr returns to Acre, where he embarks on a ship that is part of a Genoese convoy headed toward Sicily. On Saturday…, being the 6th of October, with God showing favor toward Muslims, we embarked on a vessel, a large ship, taking on water and provisions. The Muslims secured places apart from the Franks. A countless mass of Franks embarked, more than two thousand. Called Balagriyun123 they were Jerusalem pilgrims. May God deliver us from their company by granting us a quick and safe passage. 123. From the Italian pellegrini (pilgrims).
Crusade, Conversion, and Settlement in the Eastern Baltic 89. Henry of Livonia, CHRONICLE124 In an effort to baptize pagans and to settle lands that offered agrarian and mercantile benefits, Latin Christendom had been pushing east and north since the days of Charles the Great, and this drive to the east gained momentum under the Ottonian emperors. In the mid-twelfth century, the movement became a holy crusade. After several less-than-successful missionary wars against the pagan Wends, a Slavic amalgamation of tribes living along the Baltic in an area bounded by Poland and Saxony, in 1147, a number of German nobles convinced Bernard of Clairvaux, the driving force behind the Second Crusade (1147–49), that military service closer to home in the service of Christendom was the moral and 124. Henrici Chronicon Livoniae, ed., Leonid Arbusow and Albert Bauer, rev. ed., Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum ex Monumentis Germaniae Historicis (Hanover: Hahn, 1955), 17–18, 48–50, 54–55, 215–16, 218–22.
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spiritual equivalent of an armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Consequently, the Wendish Crusade became one of the three theaters of operation of the Second Crusade (the other two being Portugal and Syria), and persons who took the cross against the Wends enjoyed the same privileges, including a plenary indulgence, as crusaders who departed for the East. Thus were born the Baltic Crusades, a series of wars sanctioned and sanctified by the Church that had the articulated goals of converting various pagan peoples who lived along the southern and eastern coasts of the Baltic Sea and establishing settlements in their lands. Waged by Germans, Scandinavians, Poles, Bohemians, and others (including converted Balts), the crusades lasted for about four centuries, from 1147 to the sixteenth-century victory of Protestantism throughout much of the North. Fought on many fronts, including Finland and Russia/Ukraine, the Baltic Crusades were a perpetual crusade that involved a dizzying number of alliances and counter-coalitions. They even included holy wars waged against Latin Christian Poles and Orthodox Christian Russians. Although the Baltic Crusades ended in anticlimax, they were the vehicle for the deeper penetration of Western Christendom into the lands and cultures of this region of Eastern Europe. The Baltic Crusades’ best source for the period 1184–1227 is a chronicle by a German priest known as Henry of Livonia (d. after 1259). In 1205, Henry went to Livonia, essentially present-day Latvia and southern Estonia, as a member of an evangelizing mission promoted by the German churchman Albert of Büxhövden, the third bishop of Livonia (r. 1199–1229). The mission was part of the century-long Livonian Crusade (1193–1290). Two decades of participation in many of the momentous events that accompanied the crusade (including seeing his church burned three times) propelled Henry to compose a history of the early years of the Livonian Crusade and its antecedents, which he revised and repolished sometime after 1227. Significant portions of the excerpts from Chapters VI and XI that appear below focus on the foundation and early exploits of the Brothers of the Knighthood of Christ of Livonia, more popularly known as the Sword Brothers. Founded in 1202 and given papal approval in 1204, the Sword Brothers provided Bishop Albert with a permanent professional army, freeing him from having to depend totally on seasonal crusaders from Germany and Scandinavia. On his part, Albert founded Riga in 1201 as the nerve center for the Livonian Crusade. In the course of the thirteenth century, this port town on the eastern Baltic frontier became the seat of an archbishopric and a flourishing mercantile center that played a prominent role in the Hanseatic League. On their part, the Sword Brothers vigorously promoted the dual causes of conversion and colonization in Livonia and beyond. Following, however, the order’s defeat in battle in 1236, which resulted in the loss of most of its knights, the survivors merged with the Teutonic Knights in 1237. By that date, the Teutonic Order (founded in Acre ca. 1190) was already the Latin Church’s primary crusading force in Eastern Europe, and it served that role into early modern times. Other parts of these two excerpted chapters give us insights into some of the aspects surrounding missionary work and settlement in Livonia, whereas our excerpts from Chapter XXX show us the other face of crusading in the Baltic.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the establishment of Riga and the Abbey of Dünamünde, the establishment and actions of the Brothers of the Knighthood, the story of Gottfried, the brief story regarding Ungannian thievery, and the conquest of Ösel. Combined, what do they suggest about the methods of and purposes behind the settlement of Livonia? 2. The conversion of the Letts described in Chapter XI has been characterized as “conversion by treaty.” Whatever does this mean, and is it appropriate?
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3. Compare two conversions: the Letts who lived around Ümera and the Öselians. What do they individually and collectively suggest about the realities of the Livonian Crusade? Now add in the conversion of the Letts of Tālava. What does that add to your analysis? 4. In 1208 or shortly thereafter, Henry of Livonia built a church for the Letts who lived around Ümera and resided there until at least 1259, “although exposed to quite a few dangers.” What specific realities might those few words cover? 5. Consider the role that the Virgin Mary plays in this narrative. Why does she loom so large? 6. Henry’s chronicle ends on a triumphal note, but the Livonian Crusade went on for many more decades. What does that suggest? 7. Livonia was not the Holy Land; it also was not land that had been taken from Christians in the past. Why, therefore, did many Latin Christian contemporaries see it as a crusade and its participants as “pilgrims”? 8. In the light of this chronicle and all the sources that precede it in this chapter, was the Livonian Crusade a true crusade?
Chapter VI 3. The first convent and the monks’ first leader.… Albert, bishop of Üxküll, 125 in the third year of his consecration, transferred the convent of regular clerics126 and the episcopal seat from Üxküll to Riga,127 and he dedicated the episcopal cathedral, along with all of Livonia, to the honor of Mary, the Blessed Mother of God.128 He also founded a cloister for Cistercian monks at the mouth of the Düna,129 which he called Dünamünde or Mount Saint Nicholas.130 125. In 1186, Meinhard, an Augustinian canon and missionary, was consecrated as the first bishop of Livonia and established his episcopal seat at Üxküll, almost thirty miles up the Daugava River, which flows into the Gulf of Riga. 126. Henry informs us that Bishop Meinhard was assisted by monks, including Brother Theodoric, a Cistercian. 127. Riga, which lies a bit less than ten miles upriver from the Gulf of Riga, had been a small but important center of trade and fishing before Bishop Albert made it his cathedral town in 1201. Protected from Baltic Sea tempests and blessed with a deep harbor, Riga was far more strategically located than Üxküll, which could not be reached by large shipping vessels. 128. Livonia came to be known as Terra Mariana—Mary’s Land. 129. Known today as the Daugava (see note 124), and also called the Western Dvina. 130. Dünamünde means “mouth of the Düna.” The monastery was fortified, but in 1228, the Kurs attacked and destroyed the monastery, killing its inhabitants. Despite this setback, other monks rebuilt the abbey.
He consecrated as abbot of this monastery his co-worker in the Gospel, Brother Theodoric of Turaida.131 4. The establishment of the Brother Knighthood. At the same time, foreseeing the deceit of the Livonians and fearing that he would not be able to withstand the pagan masses, and also to multiply the numbers of the faithful and to preserve the Church among the pagans, this same Brother Theodoric established some Brothers of the Knighthood of Christ.132 Pope Innocent [III] assigned them the Templar’s Rule and gave them an insignia to wear on their clothing, specifically a sword and cross, and commanded that they be subject in obedience to their bishop.133…
131. Turaida (Thor’s Garden) is a town about thirty-four miles from Riga. It was one of the earliest areas in Livonia converted to Christianity. Brother Theodoric, who later became the bishop of Estonia, was a German. Henry’s use of the identifier “of Turaida” simply indicates that Theodoric worked there as a missionary. 132. All other sources credit Bishop Albert with the foundation of the Sword Brothers. 133. As with the Templars, the Sword Brothers were divided into three classes: knights, priests, and serving brothers. The knights were drawn largely from the ranks of the German nobility, but some came from native Baltic noble families. The insignia, worn on a white cloak in the manner of the Templars, consisted of a red Greek, or Maltese, cross over a red sword. The bishop to whom they were subject was Albert, bishop of Livonia (and later archbishop of Livonia).
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Chapter XI 1. The baptism of the Letts.134 Year nine.135 In the ninth year after all of Livonia had been baptized, the Church rested and rejoiced in the quiet of peace…. 3. The giving of a third part of Livonia to the Brothers of the Knighthood. It also happened at the same time that the Lord increased from day to day the numbers and family of the Brothers of the Knighthood. It seemed to them that, inasmuch as they grew in personnel and work, so they ought to grow in possessions and goods, so that they who bore the burden of the heat of the day in war and in other continual labors should likewise receive the reward for their labors—a day’s wage for a day’s pay.136 Therefore, they vehemently begged the lord bishop on a daily basis for a third part of all Livonia and also for the other lands and peoples round about that had not yet been converted whom the Lord, through them and likewise others from Riga, might in the future subject to the Christian faith. So, inasmuch as they would be called upon for greater expenses, they would enjoy greater revenues. The bishop, in fact, in the manner of a father, desired to support such men, who day and night set themselves up as a bulwark for the Lord’s house, and to multiple their numbers. Wishing to repay their labors and expenses, he conceded to them alone a third part of Livonia. Because he had received Livonia with full rights of governance and law from the emperor,137 he relinquished to them a third part of his holding with full rights of law and governance. In the matter of lands not yet acquired or converted, he reasonably told them “no,” because, in fact, he could not give what he did not have. They, however, pressed him with timely and untimely entreaties. Eventually and finally the matter reached the ears of the supreme pontiff. Committing the lands not yet acquired to God, he assigned them a third part of those already acquired, setting aside for the bishop 134. In addition to the Livs, or Livonians, the Letts were one of several ethnic groups in this region of the southeastern Baltic. Eventually, they absorbed a number of smaller tribes and provided the nucleus for the emergence of Latvia as a major identifiable cultural entity. 135. 1207, the ninth year of Bishop Albert’s consecration. 136. Matthew, 20:2 and 12. 137. King Philip of Swabia. Philip claimed the imperial throne after the death of his brother, Emperor Henry VI, but Pope Innocent III frustrated his attempt to gain the crown.
a quarter of the tithes from their lands, in recognition of their obedience [to him]. The division of Livonia. Consequently, at the request of the bishop, the Brothers of the Knighthood divided Livonia into three parts and gave him, as if he were their father, first choice. Whereupon he took as first choice Kaupo’s land, that is to say, Turaida.138 They chose for themselves the other side of the Lielupe as the second part, leaving the third part in Metsepole for the bishop.139 Later they received compensation in other areas for all provinces or other estates that had already for a short while been given [them] as benefices. 4. Gottfried, the first advocate.140 With Livonia divided up in this manner, the bishop sent priests into his portions and left it to the Brothers of the Knighthood to administer their own parts. In that same year also, a certain pilgrim knight, Gottfried, was sent to Turaida to administer the office of civil deputy. He went around to the parishes, settled the cases and disputes of the people, collected money and a great many gifts, and sent a bit of it to the bishop, keeping most of it for himself. Whereupon, certain other pilgrims who were not happy [about this] broke open his chest and found nineteen marks of silver secretly collected from [others’] possessions. This does not take into account quite a few other marks of silver that he had already frittered away. Because he had acted unjustly by perverting justice, oppressing the poor, justifying evildoers, and taxing new converts, it happened, according to the just judgment of God, that he incurred a disgraceful punishment that terrorized others of this sort and, as has been reported by some people, he later suffered a most shameful death…. 7. The matter of the merchant goods that were once plundered by the Ungannians.141 At the same time,142 the priest
138. Kaupo of Turaida was the first prominent Livonian noble to convert to Christianity, which he did around 1191. He became a close associate of Bishop Albert, who brought him to Rome in 1203/04 to meet Pope Innocent III. An ardent supporter of the crusade, he was killed in battle against the Estonians in 1217. 139. The Lielupe River is in central Latvia; Metsepole is the area along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Riga. 140. Consult the Glossary. 141. A Finnic people who inhabited present-day southern Estonia. 142. 1208.
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Alebrand143 was sent, along with some others, to Ungannia to demand [the return of ] the goods of merchants that had been carried away before the construction of Riga. As the merchants were traveling in their carts from the Düna to Pskov,144 the Ungannians, upon the advice of the Livonians, robbed them along the road of many goods that were worth nine hundred marks and more. The Ungannians, in fact, neither gave back the goods nor rendered any definite answer regarding returning them in the future. The baptism of the Letts who live around Ümera.145 Given this circumstance, Alebrand, caring little about this matter, turned back, and along the way, he preached the Word of God to the Letts who lived around Ümera regarding their reception of baptism, especially given that now all of Livonia and quite a few Letts had received the Word of God. They were happy at the priest’s arrival. Seeing that they had often been ravaged by the Lithuanians146 and always oppressed by the Livonians, and that they hoped to be given relief and defended by the Germans, they joyfully received the Word of God. First, however, they cast lots and requested their gods’ assent, [asking] whether they should submit to the baptism of the Russians of Pskov, along with the Letts of Tālava,147 or submit to the baptism of the Latins. For the Russians in their time had come to baptize their Letts of Tālava, who had always been their tributaries. The lot fell to the Latins, and the Letts were counted in the Church of Livonia along with the Rigans. And Alebrand baptized some villages, returned to Riga, and reported to the bishop. And the bishop rejoiced along with him, and being always desirous of taking care of the Church, he sent back to that place with this same Alebrand his scholar Henry, now promoted to holy orders,148 and when the process of baptizing in those regions was finished, Alebrand returned [home]. The other, in fact, having built a church and having received it as a benefice, took up residence with them, and although exposed
143. Around 1206, he built the missionary church of Krimulda under the patronage and protection of Kaupo. In 1206/07, he became the first deputy in Livonia with the authority to hear both civil and ecclesiastical cases. 144. Today a city in Russia about twelve miles from Estonia. 145. The area around the Gauja River in present-day Latvia. 146. A pagan Baltic people. Like the Letts, they were divided into small tribes of peasants ruled by a mounted aristocracy. 147. Located today in northeastern Latvia. 148. Our chronicler, Henry, who was now an ordained priest.
to quite a few dangers, he did not fail to point out to them the blessedness of a future life. Henry’s chronicle ends with Chapter XXX, in which he deals with the war waged in 1227 against the pagans of Ösel, a large island off the Baltic Coast. Henry originally completed his work in 1225–26, but at a later date added Chapter XXX to provide a fitting conclusion to the chronicle. You will note that he intersperses lines of verse throughout his account.
Chapter XXX 1. The venerable bishop’s twenty-eighth year149 Provides the faithful Church with calm peace. As the legate from the Apostolic See150 was leaving Livonia, he remained for a long while with the ships at the seaside, awaiting favorable winds. Suddenly he saw Öselians returning from Sweden with spoils and numerous captives. They customarily imposed multiple miseries and evils upon the captives at all times, both young women and virgins, having sport with them and having sexual relations with others as their wives, each [taking] three or two or many. They allowed themselves these illicit acts, even though…it is not right for a pagan to wed a Christian. And they were also used to selling them to the Kurs and other pagans. Consequently, when the lord legate learned of all the evils that they perpetrated in Sweden, that is to say of the churches burned down, the priests who were killed, the sacraments that were carried away and violated, and similar miseries, he commiserated with the captives, and he prayed to the Lord that vengeance be taken on the evildoers. Traveling to Gotland,151 he sowed the Word of God, displaying to all who bore the name “Christian” the symbol of the Holy Cross for the remission of sins, so that they might take vengeance upon the wicked Öselians. The Germans obeyed and took the cross. The Gotlanders refused to. The Danes did not hear the Word of God. Only the German merchants desired for themselves payment in heavenly goods. They secured horses; they prepared weapons; they came to Riga. The Rigans rejoiced, 149. 1226. 150. Bishop William of Modena, who arrived in Livonia in 1225. 151. An island off the east coast of Sweden that had a substantial colony of Scandinavian and German merchants.
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and went out to meet the visitors. The baptized Livonians, Letts, and Estonians rejoiced that they might also bring the name of “Christian” to the unbaptized Öselians…. In early January 1227, the Rigans and their allies attack Mona, an island fortress that lay near Ösel. The people within the fortress initially promise to submit and to be baptized, but 4. They were unwilling to give up their depraved ways, and they still thirsted to drink the blood of Christians, and they wanted to do other evil things. Because of their sinful minds, they were not worthy of the gift of holy baptism. Placing trust in the strength of the fortress, not wanting peace, and saying wicked things, they deserved to be killed rather than baptized. And because they vigorously spurned peace, peace fled from them and only vengeance came…. Following a vigorous German assault The Germans entered the fortress and killed the people. They could not spare the pagan Öselians, For they cut down some and took others captive. The Livonians and Letts surrounded the fortress; they allowed none of the inhabitants to escape. When the enemy had been defeated, the victors rejoiced, singing songs of praise to God. He Who always protected David from the Philistines152 freed His people, giving them victory over their enemies. They took possession of the city, took as plunder wealthy properties, pillaged exceptional goods, drove off horses and flocks, and consumed with fire what remained. Fire devoured the Öselians’ fortress, but the rejoicing Christians pillaged the spoils. 5. When the fortress at Mona had been reduced to ashes, the army hurried to another fortress called Waldia, which is in the middle of Ösel.153 Waldia is the strongest city of all the Öselian cities. The army encamped there and prepared its weapons of war…. The Livonians, the Letts, and the Estonians, along with even some Germans, went around to all the rural districts. They seized horses and the best cattle, goods and many spoils, a good amount of grain, and similar things, and burned down 152. 1 Samuel, 17 and elsewhere. 153. Today it is the town of Valjala.
the villages with fire. The inhabitants of Waldia could not withstand the stone missiles because of the large number of people in the fortress; likewise, they could not bear up under the bolts of the ballistarii.154 Noticing the weapons that had been prepared, with which the fortress could easily be taken, they conceived a fear of God. They begged for peace, and intensely terrorized by the slaying of the people of Mona, they gave themselves up humbly and spoke words of peace. As suppliants, they begged to receive the sacrament of holy baptism. This was a thing of joy for the Christians. Praise is sung to the Lord, and peace is given to the people. They demanded as hostages the sons of the better people. The Öselians of Waldia became the sons of obedience—they who formerly had been the sons of pride. He who formerly was a wolf was now a lamb. He who formerly was a persecutor of Christians was now a brother who accepted peace, did not refuse to surrender hostages, faithfully asked for the grace of baptism, did not fear to pay perpetual tribute. Bishop Albert and other priests baptize many thousands. When these rites had been celebrated in the city of Waldia, messengers arrived, sent from all the cities and kiligunds155 of Ösel, seeking peace and asking for the sacrament of baptism. The army rejoiced, and when hostages had been received, peace and fraternal love were given. They were told to set free the Swedish captives. They obeyed and promised to free them. They brought priests with them to their forts, who might preach Christ, throw out Tharapita156 along with the other pagan deities, and wash the people with sacred baptism…. Thus, thus, Riga always waters pagans! Thus, she now waters Ösel in the middle of the sea. By washing, she purges sin; in granting the kingdoms of the heavens, She gives the higher and lower pouring on of water.
154. Crossbow artillery. 155. More correctly, kihelkond, Estonian for “parish.” 156. The Öselians’ chief deity.
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These gifts of God are our delight. The glory of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the Blessed Virgin Mary gave such joy to their Rigan servants on Ösel. To vanquish rebels, to baptize those who come freely and humbly, to receive hostages and tribute, to free all the captives who bear the name “Christian,” to return with victory. What kings have to this point not been able to do, this Blessed Virgin, through her Rigan servants, has quickly and easily accomplished to the honor of her name. When it is completed, when it is done, that is to say when all the people
are baptized, Tharapita thrown out, Pharaoh drowned,157 the captives freed, return rejoicing, you people of Riga. Brilliant, triumphal victory always follows you. Glory be to the Lord. Praise to God beyond the stars. The end. 157. Exodus, 14:23–29.
The Mongols: A Challenge and an Opportunity In 1211, Mongol horsemen began an assault on China under the leadership of a chieftain named Temuchin (1167?–1227), who had recently conquered and united most of the tribes of the grasslands of Mongolia. In recognition of that unification, Temuchin had assumed the title Chinggis (or Ghengis) Khan (resolute ruler) in 1206.158 Well before the conquest of northern China was completed, Mongol armies wheeled west in 1219 to invade the Muslim empire of Khwarazm, which stretched from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf. This invasion, in turn, led to a Mongol reconnaissance in force into Christian Georgia in the Caucasus and the Russian states that lay north of Georgia. Beginning early in 1221, the Mongols spent more than two years devastating and scouting the Russian steppe lands. When they withdrew in 1223, they left with an intimate knowledge of Russia and adjacent lands, as well as with large amounts of booty. Following a fourteen-year interlude, Batu Khan, a grandson of the deceased Chinggis Khan, and his brilliant general Subedai led a new assault on Russia in late 1237. This time, the Mongols came to conquer. Kiev, the premier city of thirteenth-century Russia, fell in December 1240, and in early 1241, Mongol detachments swept into Latin Christian Poland and Hungary. In Poland, they burned Cracow to the ground in late March, massacring most of its people, and destroyed a large Polish army at Liegnitz (Legnica) on April 9. Two days later, Mongol invaders eliminated a massive Hungarian army at the River Sajó in Hungary. All of Poland and Hungary lay helpless before the invaders, and in July 1241, Mongol raiding parties reached the outskirts of Vienna in Austria. No power in the West seemed capable of stopping the Mongols’ drive to the Atlantic, as panic ensued as far away as Spain and the Low Countries. In response, Pope Gregory IX authorized a crusade against the Mongols on June 16. In fact, some German bishops had already, on their own authority, issued crusade decrees in April. Despite initial enthusiasm for a crusade in defense of Latin Christendom, nothing came of either attempt to launch a Mongol Crusade. Fortuitously for Western Europe, Batu Khan abandoned his plans for further westward campaigning and in 1242 retreated to the lower Volga steppes, where he set up the khanate of the Golden Horde. Some contemporaries and many modern historians have theorized that Batu’s withdrawal was a consequence of his receiving word that Ögödei, Chinggis Khan’s successor as khan of khans, had died in Mongolia in December 1241. This might have been a factor in Batu’s decision, but it is likely that the major reason was that the Mongol cavalry had exhausted the Great Hungarian Plain’s pasturage, and the regions farther west and south offered insufficient grasslands, whereas the area of the lower Volga was rich in grasses. Whatever the reason or reasons, the Mongols never returned in force to Hungary and Poland and, therefore, never pushed into Western Europe. 158. Scholars now reject an earlier interpretation that the title meant “universal lord.”
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The West, however, had no way of knowing in 1242 that the Mongol drive into Europe had reached its farthest extent. The Mongols remained a major concern for Europe for the rest of the century. As the sources contained in this section illustrate, the West exhibited an ambivalent attitude toward these horsemen from Mongolia. The Mongols were fearsome invaders, whose cruelty was legendary among thirteenth-century European writers and preachers. They had already wiped out two Latin Christian armies in orgies of bloodshed. What was next? At the same time, the Mongols were doing even greater damage to Muslim armies and states in Central and West Asia. What if the Roman Church could convert the Mongols to its brand of Christianity and join with these new friends of Christ in a final, glorious crusade against Islam? This dream ultimately led European Christian missionaries to China before the century had ended.
“A Detestable Satanic People” 90. Matthew Paris, THE GREATER CHRONICLE: AN ENTRY FOR 1240; “IVO OF NARBONNE’S CONFESSION” 159; THE TARTAR FEAST As early as 1221, word of the Mongol menace reached Western Europe, and by the late 1230s what had been at first rumors became a flood of news, much of it fanciful, some of it quite accurate, and almost all of it frightening. In 1238, the English Benedictine monk Matthew Paris, who served as the Abbey of Saint Albans’s official chronicler, began to record in his Chronica majora (The Greater Chronicle) what became an almost-obsessive series of accounts of the actions of and threats posed by the Mongols (or Tartars, as they were called in the West). In 1240, during which time Mongol forces in western Eurasia were focused largely on the conquest of Christian Eastern and Central Europe and not so much on Islamic lands, Matthew returned to the issue of the Mongols. That account appears below as our initial narrative source. In addition to offering his own words, Matthew recorded roughly 350 documents in the Greater Chronicle and an accompanying appendix. Eleven of the documents concerned the Mongols. One of them, which Matthew incorporated into his chronicle in 1243 and which is excerpted below as our second narrative source, is the sole surviving copy of a letter from Ivo of Narbonne to Archbishop Gerald of Bordeaux. Much of the letter, which is known as “Ivo of Narbonne’s Confession,” deals with Ivo’s dalliances with an anticlerical group of religious and social reformers in northern Italy known as the Patarines, whom the Church branded as heretics. In the course of his lengthy account, Ivo recounted the Mongols’ attack upon the duchy of Austria in 1242. Accompanying the letter is an illustration that has become known as “The Tartar Feast.” Matthew was a gifted illustrator as well as a prolific chronicler, and he illuminated his three manuscripts of the Chronica majora with many pen-and-ink line-drawings and maps as well as small colored paintings. The caption on the left within this illustration reads: “The heinous Tartars, or Tattars, feasting on human flesh.” The caption on the right informs us: “When Tattar horses, which are most rapacious, lack better pasturage, they are content with the branches and leaves and even the bark of trees.” As you study these three sources, you will see that there are surprising parallels and connections among them.
159. Matthew Paris, Chronica majora, ed. H. R. Luard, Rolls Series, 7 vols. (London: Longman & Co. et al., 1872–83), 4:76–78, 270, 272–73, 275–76.
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Questions for Consideration 1. What are the major points that Matthew makes about the Tartars in his 1240 entry? What do those points suggest about the level of the West’s knowledge of the Mongols at that time? 2. Ivo claimed to recount only what he knew from experience and with certainty. Test that claim. Which parts of Ivo’s letter appear to be a firsthand account by an eyewitness? Do any parts seem to be based upon rumors? What conclusions follow from your analysis? 3. Consider the illustration. What are the ages and sexes of the person being roasted, the person tied to the tree, and the three heads without bodies? And how does the horse fit in? In light of Ivo’s letter and the entry for 1240, what is the message here? 4. Describe the actions, facial features, and postures of the three Tartars. How has the artist conveyed the message that they are “a monstrous race of inhuman men”? 5. Consider the hat worn by the Tartar who is roasting a person on a spit. Have you seen such a hat before? Where? Does any other feature of this Tartar match any other caricature that you have seen elsewhere in this book? Compare his dress and actions with those of his companions. All pieces of evidence considered, who or what does he appear to be, and what is Matthew’s apparent message?
1240 How the Tartars, having recovered their power, burst out of their mountains, terrorized the East by devastating many lands, and even now terrified Christians. So that mortal joys might not continue and the delights of the world might no longer be enjoyed without mourning, in this very year a detestable satanic people, namely an immense army of Tartars burst out their mountainencircled land, which had been made fast with an impassable mass of rocks.160 Escaping like demons released from Tartarus161 (so they are well called Tartars, as if they are inhabitants of Tartarus), they swarmed out and, like locusts, overwhelmed the face of the Earth. They devastated the lands of the East with dreadful destruction, laying waste with fire and carnage. Traveling through the lands of the Saracens, they leveled cities, cut down forests, tore down fortresses, ripped up vineyards, destroyed agricultural fields, and massacred city dwellers and rural folk. And if, by chance, they spared anyone who begged them, they compelled them, like the lowest of slaves, to fight in front of them against their own people. If they pretended to fight or, perhaps, secretly warned them so that they 160. See note 162. 161. The classical Latin name for Hell. Therefore, Tartar was a pun.
might flee, these Tartars, who followed in their rear, killed them. If they fought bravely and conquered, they gained no thanks as a reward. And so they used up their captives as if they were beasts of burden. For the men are inhuman and bestial. They should be called monsters rather than human beings, thirsting after and drinking blood, tearing apart and devouring the corpses of dogs and humans. They are clothed in the skins of bulls, are armed with iron lances, short in stature, stocky and compact in body, vigorously strong, invincible in war, untiring in labor. Their backs are unarmored, but their fronts are protected by armor. As a delicacy, they drink blood flowing from their cattle. They have large, strong horses that eat leaves and even trees, which because of the shortness of their legs, they mount by means of three steps, which is like using three stirrups in sequence. Devoid of human laws, they have no knowledge of clemency; they are more ferocious than lions and bears…. They have swords and daggers with one cutting edge. They are marvelous archers, not sparing sex, age, or rank…. These Tartars, the memory of whom is hateful, are believed to have been from the ten tribes who followed after golden calves, having abandoned the Law of Moses.162 It is also they whom Alexander of Macedon is known to have 162. The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were taken into captivity and distributed throughout the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 722
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initially shut up in the sheer Caspian Mountains with walls cemented with bituminous mortar.163 Given that the work seemed to be beyond the capacity of human labor, he called upon the aide of the God of Israel. And the mountain peaks joined one another, and the place was made inaccessible and impassable…. The issue arises, however, that it is doubtful that they are these Tartars who are now emerging, as they do not speak the Hebrew language, nor do they know the Law of Moses. Neither do they use nor are they ruled by legal institutions. The reply to this is that it is, nevertheless, credible that they are part of those who had been enclosed, of whom mention was made earlier. Also, in the time of Moses’s leadership, their rebellious hearts were turned to a depraved way of thinking164 so that they followed after alien gods and unknown rites. And thus, what is even now more strangely wondrous, in order that they might be unknown to every other people, their heart and language are mutilated and, in accordance with God’s vengeance, their way of life is transformed into feral and senseless cruelty. They are, moreover, called Tartars from a certain river, which is called Tartar, that runs through their mountains, through which they have now passed through.
To Gerald, archbishop of Bordeaux by the grace of God, from Ivo, called the man from Narbonne, formerly the most novice of his clerics, greeting…. Up to this point, it is well known only to those in the know, how great the danger is to Christians from the overwhelming onslaught of the Tattars.165 For one cannot sufficiently defame the cruelty and artful ability for deception
of that people. In briefly informing you of their nefarious habits, I will recount nothing of which I am doubtful or that I hold [only as] an opinion, but only that which I have experienced and that I know with certainty.… Therefore, because of this166 and the many other sins that have arisen among us Christians, an angry Lord has been made, as it were, into a hostile devastator and a fearful avenger. I can say this because a certain ill-bred breed of inhuman humans,167 whose law is lawlessness, whose wrath is furious, that serves as the rod of the Lord’s fury, is overrunning countless lands, which it is dreadfully devastating, killing and horribly exterminating by fire all who stand in their way. And only this summer, this aforementioned people who are called Tattars, departing from Pannonia,168 which they had taken through treason, cruelly laid siege with countless soldiers to the aforesaid fortified town169 in which I was then securely residing. As regards men-at-arms on our side, there were no more than fifty knights whom, along with twenty crossbowmen, the commander had left in the garrison. All of these looked down from certain high point on the army that was spreading out around them. They abhorred the monstrous cruelty of the accomplices of the Antichrist,170 and they heard the pitiful cries of Christians that were arising to God— Christians in the adjoining province who suddenly had been taken captive. Without consideration of class, fortune, sex, or age, they indiscriminately destroyed them all by various forms of torture. The leaders, along with their dinner guests and other lotus eaters,171 fed on their corpses as though they were bread, leaving nothing for the vultures except bones. And it is a wonder, but the famished and gluttonous vultures, who abounded above in great numbers, did not deign to feed upon the remains. The old and deformed women they gave to the cannibals172 (as they are
B.C.E.; golden calves were biblical symbols of polytheistic worship: Exodus, 32:4; 1 Kings, 12:26–30. 163. The Gates of Alexander, also known as the Caspian Gates, is a myth that originated no later than the first century C.E. and evolved with numerous variations. The most popular version is that Alexander the Great shut up a narrow mountain pass in the Caucasus Mountains with an iron gate in order to deny passage to barbarians from the north. 164. Romans, 1:28. 165. Ivo more correctly uses “Tattars,” a variant of “Tatars,” rather than “Tartars.” The Tatars were actually a Turkic people whom the Mongols had conquered and with whom they had intermarried. Although called Tatars by many, especially in East and
Central Asia, the Mongols called themselves Mong, the Mongol word for “brave.” 166. The Paterine “heresy,” for which he is repenting. 167. A rhetorical flourish: gens ingens, homines inhumani. 168. The kingdom of Hungary. 169. Neustadt in the duchy of Austria. 170. The archenemy of Christ who will appear toward the end of time. 171. Lotofagi. An ironic twist. According to Homer, the lotus eaters lived in a perpetual state of torpor and forgetfulness due to their eating the lotus plant. The correct Latin word for “cannibals” is anthropophagi (eaters of humans). 172. Ivo uses the non-ironic antropfagi here.
*** “Ivo of Narbonne’s Confession”
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Illus. 11.4 Matthew Paris, “A Tartar Feast.” An illustration by the author in the Chronica Majora II. The Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge University, MS 16, fol. 167r.
known world-wide) as food, as if it were a daily ration. They did not eat the beautiful women [immediately]. Rather they suffocated them under a mass of rapists as they cried out and wailed. They raped virgins until they died, and then their breasts were cut off, which they kept for their leaders as delicacies, and they feasted on their virginal bodies in a more splendid manner. The Tatars suddenly retreat back into Hungary at the approach of a large Christian army. Several of the former besiegers are captured, including a multi-lingual English outlaw, who had served the Tatars as an interpreter and envoy, since they needed such talents in order to attain their goal of conquering the world. He then begins to tell his captors about his former masters. Regarding their manners and superstitious belief, their physical disposition and stature, their homeland and method of fighting, he swore that they, beyond all other people, are avaricious, easily provoked, deceitful, and merciless. However, in light of the severity of the punishment and the cruelty of the punishments that would be inflicted by their leaders, all of them are restrained from disputes, cheating, and violence toward one another. They call the forefathers of their tribes “gods,” and at set times they hold solemn festivals for them. Many of the festivals are local, and only four are for all the tribes. And they believe all things have been created for them alone. They believe it is no sin to exercise cruelty against rebels.
They have strong and robust chests, lean and pale faces, hard and upright shoulders, deformed and short noses, sharp and prominent chins, upper jaws that are low and deep, teeth that are long and few, eyebrows that grow from the hairline to the nose, eyes that are shifty and black, countenances that are hostile and fierce, extremities that are bony and sinewy, also legs that are thick but short below the knee. In stature they are our equals because what they lack below the knee is compensated for by a larger upper body. Their homeland was long ago a wasteland and a vast wilderness, far beyond the land of all the Chaldeans,173 from which they drove out lions, bears, and other wild beasts with their bows and other weapons. From their boiled leather hides they have fashioned for themselves light but impenetrable armor. They are accustomed to riding firmly seated on horses that are not large but strong and that are satisfied with little forage. They fight without tiring and bravely with lances, maces, double-edged axes, and swords, but they prefer bows and are skilled in fighting with them. Their backs are lightly armed lest they flee. They do not retire from battle before they see the main standard of their leader in retreat. Vanquished they beg no favors; victorious they show no mercy. All of them as one man persist in their desire and purpose of total dominance over the world. Yet they do not number a million. 173. The people of Mesopotamia.
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Saint Louis, Prester John, and the Tartars 91. Jean de Joinville, THE BOOK OF THE HOLY WORDS AND GOOD DEEDS OF OUR SAINTLY KING LOUIS 174 In 1229, Emperor Frederick II successfully negotiated the return of Jerusalem to Christian authority, but in August 1244, the city again fell to an Ayyubid sultan of Egypt. Perhaps symbolic of the age, Khwarazmian mercenaries, who had been driven out of their homeland in western Central Asia by invading Mongols, were the core of the sultan’s army. They massacred most of the city’s Christian population and pillaged and burned down most of its churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. News of these events reinforced King Louis IX’s resolve to embark on a crusade, which he did in 1248. On his way to the Holy Land, Louis spent the autumn and winter of 1248 on Cyprus. The island, which had been in Frankish hands since 1191, served as his army’s assembly point and winter quarters. There, in December, he received two Christian ambassadors from Eljigidei, commander of Mongol forces in Southwest Asia, with a letter offering wishes for a successful crusade and a request that the Latins treat Eastern Christians more charitably. The Mongols were then pressing against Baghdad, which they would capture in 1258, and had designs on Syria and Anatolia. Consequently, as the envoys made clear, Eljigidei welcomed Latin Christian action against Egypt, hoping it would draw off Muslim energies, but did not want the crusaders to hamper his activities in Southwest Asia. Encouraged by a false rumor circulating on Cyprus at that time that the Great Khan, Güyüg, and his family had become Christians as well as the envoys’ assurance that Eljigidei was a Christian (which he probably was not), the French crusader-king responded by sending several Dominican friars as emissaries to the khan of khans in January 1249. No one in the West was aware that Güyüg had died recently and his widow, Oghul Qaimish, was serving as regent. She received them at her camp deep in Central Asia and sent back the message that Joinville records. We have already studied an excerpt from Joinville’s memorial to King Louis in Chapter 10, so this author needs no introduction. One point does, however, merit mention. Pope Innocent IV had already sent three embassies of mendicant friars to the Mongols in the spring of 1245 to protest their attacks on Christians and to ascertain their intentions regarding Latin Europe. The most celebrated of the three missions, led by the Franciscan John of Plano Carpini, attended the enthronement of Güyüg Khan in Mongolia in August 1246. Friar John and his companion were well treated by Güyüg and his mother, but the letter that John brought back to the pope from Güyüg informed Innocent that his sole duty was to submit to the Great Khan’s authority. As Louis would learn, Mongol attitudes had not changed in the intervening three years. In the account that Joinville presents us, Prester John ( John the Priest) looms large. He was a mythic Christian emperor and priest of an immense realm of otherwise-forgotten Christians in the “Three Indies,” a vague region in faraway Asia filled with marvels. His legend emerged in Western Europe toward the mid-twelfth century, apparently from stories circulating in the Latin East. Although Prester John was a myth, there were, in fact, Christian societies flourishing far beyond the boundaries of Western Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. They included the Ethiopians of the Horn of Africa, the so-called Saint Thomas Christians of India, and the Church of the East (misnamed the Nestorian Church), which stretched from its primatial see in Baghdad to northwest China. The Church of the East, which retained its Syriac language and rites as it traveled across Eurasia, had taken root among several Turkic tribes on both sides of China’s northwestern border during the seventh century, thereby becoming the largest body of Christians in the grasslands of Central and East Asia. Mongols and Christian Turks had intermarried, and many Mongol leaders had Christian wives or a Christian mother, and several Mongol generals were also Christian. It was probably the Church of the East, more than any other group of distant Christians, that provided the basis of the myth and gave the West continuing reason to believe that a powerful Christian emperor was out there, somewhere, waiting to link up with 174. Jean de Joinville, Vie de saint Louis, ed. Jacques Monfrin (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 1995), 232–42.
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his Western co-religionists. As with the crusades, the hope and search for Prester John continued well into early modern times. As you study this document, keep in mind that an aged Joinville was dictating his remembrances in the period 1305–9. Moreover, the reports of thirteenth-century Franciscan diplomats and missionaries, such as John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck, who traveled to the Mongols, dwelt among them, and had fine eyes for ethnographic details, are more reliable sources when it comes to learning about Mongol culture as it evolved. But when we accept Joinville’s account for what it is, it has value.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider the stories of Prester John and the Mongol prince. What is the message of each, how are they related, and what purpose or purposes do they serve? 2. What overall picture of the Mongols does Joinville give us, and which parts of it seem to reflect reality? Which parts appear fanciful? 3. Overall, which parts of this story of the exchange of missions appear believable, and why? 4. Remember that Joinville narrated this story in the early fourteenth century, more than six decades after Matthew Paris was writing and drawing. The vagaries of memory aside, does this account exhibit any changes in Latin Europe’s view of the Mongols? If so, what were they, and how do you explain them?
As I previously told you, while the king was sojourning in Cyprus, messengers arrived from the Tartars and gave him to understand that they would help him conquer the kingdom of Jerusalem from the Saracens. The king sent back the messengers, and sent with them, with his own messengers, a chapel that he had had crafted all in scarlet, and in order to attract them to our faith, he had had all of our faith depicted in the chapel: the Annunciation of the angel; the Nativity; the Baptism in which God was baptized; the entire Passion and the Ascension; and the coming of the Holy Spirit.175 He sent cups, books, and all things needed for the chanting of Mass, and two preaching friars to sing the Mass before the Tartars.176 175. The moments in Sacred History depicted in this tableau are the central events in the redemptive life of Jesus, beginning with His conception when the angel appeared to Mary, through His baptism in the Jordan River and His crucifixion, to His sending of the Holy Spirit to His apostles following His resurrection and ascension into Heaven. 176. The official name of the Dominicans is the Order of Preachers. Actually, the company consisted of three Dominicans led by Andrew of Longjumeau. Friar Andrew had already traveled into Mongol territory in 1245 on one of the three missions dispatched by Innocent IV in that year. Little is known of that enterprise, other than his spending twenty days with a monk
The king’s messengers arrived at the port of Antioch, and from Antioch, it took them fully a year of travel, riding ten leagues a day177 to reach the great king [of the Tartars]. They found all the land subject to them and many cities that they had destroyed, and great mounds of dead peoples’ bones. They asked how they had gained such power that allowed them to kill and utterly destroy so many people, and this was how, as they [Louis’s messengers] reported it to the king. They came from and originated in a great plain of sand where nothing good would grow. This plain began at certain very large and wondrous rocks that are at the world’s end, toward the East. These rocks have never been passed by any person, as the Tartars testify. And they said that within them are enclosed the people of Gog and
of the Church of the East, Simeon Rabban-ata (Master Abbot Simeon), somewhere in Iran. Simeon, who had been tasked by the Mongols with handling Christian affairs in lands they held in Southwest Asia, sent back with Andrew a letter for the pope requesting more favorable treatment of members of the Church of the East in lands under Latin rule. (Simeon probably also convinced Eljigide to make a similar request in the letter he sent King Louis.) There is no evidence of Andrew’s having contacted directly any Mongol chieftain during that initial mission. 177. About thirty-five miles.
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Magog, who must appear at the end of the world when Antichrist comes to destroy all things.178 In this plain were the Tartar people, and they were subject to Prester John and to the emperor of Persia,179 whose land bordered his, and to several other pagan kings, to whom they rendered tribute and service every year for the pasturage of their animals because they had no other means of livelihood. This Prester John and the king of Persia and the other kings held the Tartars in such contempt that when they brought their rent they would not receive them face-forward, but turned their backs on them…. There follows an imaginative, quite erroneous story of how a wise man encouraged the fifty-two Tartar tribes to unite and further convinced them that the only way to escape bondage was to have a king. He then persuaded them to conduct a two-part, selection-by-lot process to find that king. Lo and behold, the person selected was the wise man. …The people were so glad that each rejoiced greatly. And he silenced them and said: “Lords, if you want me to be your king, swear to me by Him who made Heaven and Earth that you will keep my commandments.” And they swore it. The laws that he gave them were for the maintenance of peace among the people. They were of this sort: no one should steal another’s goods, nor should any man strike another if he did not wish to lose his fist; no man should have relations with another’s wife or daughter, if he did not wish to lose his fist or his life. He gave them many other good laws for the maintenance of peace.180 178. According to the prophet Ezekiel, Gog is a prince and Magog his land out of which ride an apocalyptic horse people whom God will allow to ravage complacent Israel in the Final Days: Ezekiel, 38:1–23 and 39:1–13. In the Book of Revelation, 20:7–8, Gog and Magog are the satanically deceived nations of the Earth that will attack the City of Saints just before the End of Time. The myth also grew up in the West that Gog and Magog were held back by Alexander’s iron gate, a barrier mentioned in Matthew Paris’s chronicle (see note 162). 179. The “emperor of Persia,” was the shah of Khwarazm, whose empire stretched from Persia eastward to Samarqand, roughly from present-day Iran to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. It never included Mongolia. The armies of Chinggis Khan invaded, devastated, and conquered Khwarazm in 1219. 180. Tradition ascribes a written Great Yasa, or code of laws, to Chinggis Khan, supposedly set down in the quriltai (princely assembly) of 1206. The evidence for this is shaky at best.
After he had established order and organized them, he said to them: “Lords, the most powerful enemy whom we have is Prester John. I command that you be totally ready tomorrow to attack him. If it should happen that he defeats us—may God guard us from this—then let each do as best he can. And if we defeat him, I order that the killing should last three days and three nights. No one [during that time] should be so rash as to lay a hand on any booty but only kill the people. For after we have obtained victory, I will distribute the booty among you so fairly and loyally that each will consider himself compensated.” To this they all agreed. On the following day, they attacked their enemies and, as God so willed, defeated them. All those whom they found armed and capable of defense, they killed to a man. Those whom they found in religious garb, priests and other religious people, they did not kill. The other people belonging to Prester John’s land, who were not in that battle, offered themselves as their subjects.181… There follows the story of a Mongol prince who became lost for three months, and when he returned he was under the illusion that he had been gone for only one night at most. During that time when lost, he had a vision of a King and a Queen. The King commanded him to return to his king and to inform him that it was He, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, who had willed that victory over Prester John and Who now gave him power to subject the entire world. The King commanded that as a sign of His power, the Tartar king bring only three hundred men to fight the king of Persia’s three hundred thousand. But before he goes into battle, the king is to take priests and other men of religion who had been captured in the victory over Prester John to teach the Tartars what they should believe. The King then commanded a knight named George to lead the Tartar prince back to his tent. As soon as all of his people saw the prince, they greatly rejoiced, as did the army, so much so that it is beyond telling. He asked the great king to give him the priests, and the king gave them to him. Then the prince and all his people received the priests’ teachings so favorably that they were all baptized. After all of this, he took three hundred 181. One theory is that this putative defeat of Prester John refers to the Mongols’ crushing of the neighboring Naiman khanate in 1204. The Naimans, a Turkic people, included large numbers of Christians and Buddhists. One thirteenth-century Persian historian of the Mongol Empire, Juvayni, stated that the Naimans were predominately Christian.
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men-at-arms and had them confessed and made ready for battle. He then went and fought against the emperor of Persia and defeated him and drove him from his kingdom. He fled all the way to the kingdom of Jerusalem. It was this same emperor who defeated our people and took Count Walter of Brienne prisoner, as you will hear later.182 The people of this Christian prince were so numerous that the king’s messengers told us that he had in his camp eight hundred chapels on wagons.183 Their manner of living is such that they eat no bread and live on meat and milk. The best meat that they have is horseflesh; they put it in brine and later dry it so that they can cut it like black bread. The best beverage they have, and the strongest, is mare’s milk flavored with herbs.184 There was presented to the great king of the Tartars a horse laden with flour that had come a three-month’s journey’s distance, and he gave it to the king’s messengers. There are among them a great many Christians who believe in the law of the Greeks,185 and those [Christians] of whom we have already spoken and others186 These [Christians] they send against the Saracens when they wish to make war on them, and they send Saracens against the Christians when they have an affair with them. All sorts of women who have no children go with them to war, and they pay a wage to the women in the same manner as to the men, in proportion to their vigor.187 And the king’s messengers reported that the male and female soldiers ate together in the quarters of the chiefs whom they served,
and that the men did not dare to touch the women in any way because of the law that their first king had given them. They eat the flesh of every sort of animals that dies in the camp. The women who have children look after the horses, [and] they supervise and prepare the food for those who go into battle. They put raw meat between their saddles and the blankets of their saddles; when the blood is well pressed out, they eat it totally raw.188 What they cannot eat they throw into a leather bag and when they are hungry, they open the bag and always eat the oldest [bits] first. In regard to that, I saw a Khwarazmian, one of the emperor of Persia’s people, who guarded us in prison,189 who, when he opened his bag we held our noses, for we could not bear the stench that came out of the bag. But now let us return to our subject and tell how the great king of the Tartars,190 after he had received the king’s envoys and gifts,191 sent for, under safe conduct, several kings who had not yet submitted to his mercy. And when they arrived, he had the chapel set up for them and spoke to them in this way: “Lords, the king of France has come under our rule, and look, here is the tribute that he sent us. And if you do not submit yourselves to our mercy, we will send him to destroy you.” There were many there who, through fear of the French king, placed themselves under the mercy of that [Tartar] king.192 Their messengers traveled along with those of the king [of France],193 and they brought letters from their great
182. Following his father’s defeat in 1219 and death in 1220, the last the shah of Khwarazm, Jalal ad-Din, spent the rest of his young life wandering in exile with his army and fighting the Mongols and other powers in Southwest and South Asia almost without pause. When he was murdered in 1231, large numbers of his now-leaderless troops became mercenaries in the army of the Ayyubid sultan of Egypt, and, as noted above, they captured Jerusalem in August 1244. Walter IV the Great of Brienne, count of Jaffa and Ascalon, commanded the combined Latin forces that, along with their Muslim allies, were crushed by the Ayyubid army at the Battle of La Forbie in October 1244. He was captured and later murdered in Cairo in 1246. 183. They were portable felt tents called gers ( yurts to Turkic speakers), in which the Mongols lived. 184. Qumiz, a drink of fermented mare’s milk. 185. The Greek Orthodox creed and rite. 186. In addition to members of the Church of the East, the Mongol Empire and its armies included substantial numbers of other Christians, including Armenians, Georgians, Russians, Syrians, Greeks, and even some Latins. 187. Women had a high status in Mongol society.
188. Steak tartare, a delicacy that combines lean raw hamburger meat, raw egg, capers, and various spices and condiments, is supposedly a modern version of this food. Although some ancient and medieval sources claimed that Huns, Mongols, and other steppe horse nomads dried their meat in this manner, modern scholars dismiss this evidence as unfounded myth. It is possible that raw strips of meat were placed under a saddle to treat a horse’s sores. 189. Along with King Louis and the remnant of the king’s crusader army, Joinville was taken prisoner by Ayyubid forces in April 1250 in the Egyptian delta. He was subsequently ransomed. 190. Actually his widow. 191. In 1249. 192. It is unknown if such a meeting took place in 1249, but John of Plano Carpini informs us that at the enthronement of Güyüg as Great Khan in 1246, large numbers of vassal kings and princes attended as well as an ambassador from the yet-unconquered caliph of Baghdad, and numerous other envoys. 193. Around April 1251, these envoys reached King Louis in Caesarea (in present-day Israel). The king’s crusade against Egypt had already ended disastrously.
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king to the king of France that said in effect: “A good thing is peace. For in the land where peace reigns those that go about on four feet eat the grass of peace; they who go about on two feet peacefully work the soil, from which good things come. And this we tell you as a warning to you: you cannot have peace unless you have it with us. For Prester John rose up against us, and such and such
kings”—and he named many—“and we have put them all to the sword. So we advise you to send us each year [tribute] from your gold and silver, and so keep us as your friends. And if you do not do this, we will destroy you and your people, as we have done to the kings already named.” And you should know that the king greatly regretted that he had ever sent a delegation of envoys.
A Franciscan Missionary in China 92. John of Monte Corvino, LETTER TO THE WEST 194 Despite disappointment at the Mongols’ reception of their early embassies to the Great Khan and his lieutenants, popes and kings in the West did not abandon hope of deflecting the Mongols from Latin Europe and even allying with them against Islam. After about 1250, the papacy added a third goal: conversion of the Mongols. By then it was clear that the Mongols had a fair number of Christian subjects and even allies and that they were tolerant toward Christians of every sort. Word had even reached the West of high-ranking Christians within the Mongol ranks, and every now and then there were rumors (always false) of the Great Khan’s flirtation with Christianity and even his intention to convert. As the situation in the Latin states of Syria-Palestine severely degenerated and as the aid of Prester John became a fading hope, especially given rumors of his defeat by the Mongols, conversion of the Mongols and employment of them as crusaders became an increasingly attractive objective. Apart from the evangelical mandate to baptize all nations, there was the irrefutable fact that the Mongols were already Islam’s worst nightmare. In 1287, Arghun, il-khan of Persia, a nephew and subordinate of the Great Khan, Kubilai (r. 1260–94), sent a monk of the Church of the East, Rabban (Master) Sauma, to the West, bearing letters for the pope, the kings of France and England, and the emperor of Constantinople, in which the Mongol prince offered to become a Christian in return for an alliance against the Muslims of Syria-Palestine. Arghun died before he or anyone else could act on the proposal, and in 1295, his successor embraced Islam, thereby ending any hope of a Mongol-European crusade in the Holy Land. Arghun’s overtures, however, set in motion a remarkable adventure for one Franciscan missionary. Pope Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan to become pope, warmly received Rabban Sauma in Rome and even concelebrated a Mass with him, Shortly thereafter, in 1289, the pope dispatched a Franciscan friar, John of Monte Corvino, to the Mongols with letters for Arghun and other khans farther to the east, including the khan of khans, Kubilai. Friar John had only just returned to Rome, after having served as a missionary in Armenia and Mongol-controlled Persia between about 1280 and 1289. Apparently, his report so impressed Pope Nicholas that the pope ordered John to return immediately to Southwest Asia and then to travel on to the Great Khan in northern China. In 1291, John arrived in Tauris (present-day Tabriz, Iran), Arghun’s capital, but the il-khan had died in March of that year, and Islam was on the ascendance in the il-khanate under his successor. Moreover, between May and July of the same year, the last significant Latin strongholds on the mainland of SyriaPalestine fell to Muslim forces. Having nothing further to accomplish in Persia, John set out for the court of the Great Khan in China. Civil war among the Mongols delayed Friar John’s journey across Central Asia and resulted in a detour to India, from where Friar John sent back to Rome a detailed report on India’s native Christian communities. Due to this delay, John arrived at the Mongol capital of Dadu, which was also known by its Turkic name Khanbaliq (City of the Khan), around 1294–95, 194. Iohannes de Monte Corvino, Epistola II, in Sinica Franciscana, vol. 1, Itinera et Relationes Fratrum Minorum Saeculi XIII et XIV, ed. Anastasius van den Wyngaert (Florence, Italy: College of San Bonaventura, 1929), 345–51.
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several months or more after Kubilai’s death. Making the best of his situation, John decided to remain in and around Dadu (today the heart of Beijing) as a missionary. In the course of his long stay in China, Friar John wrote two letters to his fellow Franciscans back home. In response, Pope Clement V appointed him archbishop of Khanbaliq in 1307 and dispatched seven assistant missionaries, three of whom arrived alive in China. The new archbishop remained at his post until his death around 1328, and Pope Benedict XII subsequently sent a replacement. Notwithstanding this effort, the Roman Catholic mission in China barely limped along. Latin missionary activity in China ended at some unknown date following the expulsion of the Mongols from China by the native Ming dynasty in 1368. It would not be revived until the coming of the Jesuits in the sixteenth century. The following document is one of the letters that Friar John sent to the West from China. In it, he relates his success working with the late King Körgüz, or George, a Christian, the leader of the Önggüd Turks, and the son-in-law of the late Kubilai Khan.
Questions for Consideration 1. What problems did Friar John encounter? 2. How was Friar John able to gain most of his converts, and from which group(s) does he seem to have won most of them, the Turkic Christians, the non-Christian Mongols, or the Chinese? What do you conclude from your answers? 3. What does John’s letter suggest about Mongol attitudes and policy toward Christians? 4. What does this letter allow us to infer about European-Chinese contacts in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries? 5. What picture does John draw of the Mongol Empire? How, if at all, has the empire changed since the mid-thirteenth century? 6. How, if at all, have Mongol-European relations changed since the mid-thirteenth century? 7. Review Urban’s sermon at Clermont. Does John of Monte Corvino’s letter reflect a different view of the world? If so, how? I, Brother John of Monte Corvino, of the order of Minor Friars, departed from Tauris, a city of the Persians, in the year of the Lord 1291, and proceeded to India. And I was in the country of India and at the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle, for thirteen months.195 And there I baptized about one hundred persons in various localities. The companion on my journey was Brother Nicholas of Pistoia, of the Order of Preaching Brothers, who died there and was buried in that very church. Traveling on farther, I arrived in Cathay,196 the realm of the Emperor of the Tartars who is called the Grand 195. According to tradition, the Christian message was brought to the Malabar Coast of southwestern India by the Apostle Thomas, who was martyred there. 196. Northern China, so called because of the Khitan (Qidan) people, who established there the Liao Kingdom (907–1125) centered on what later became Beijing.
Khan.197 In fact, through the letter of the Lord Pope, I invited the Emperor to the Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, however, has grown far too old in idolatry,198 but he bestows many kindnesses upon the Christians, and I have been with him now for twelve years.199 Some Nestorians, who profess to bear the Christian name but deviate greatly from the Christian religion, have grown so powerful in these parts that they will not allow a Christian of any other rite to have a chapel, no matter how small, or to publish anything other than Nestorian doctrine.200 197. Temür Khan (r. 1294–1307). 198. The Mongol khans who ruled China favored a Tibetan form of Tantric Buddhism. 199. Temür became the Great Khan in May 1294, probably before John arrived at Dadu. John wrote this letter in January 1305, less than eleven years after Temür ascended the throne. 200. The Church of the East taught that there is a clear separation between the divine and human natures of Jesus. Therefore, it
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Because neither any apostle nor disciple of the apostles came to these lands, the aforesaid Nestorians, either directly or through others who have been corrupted by money, have brought down on me exceedingly severe forms of persecution, claiming that I was not sent by the Lord Pope, but that I have been a spy, a sorcerer, and someone who misleads people. And after some passage of time, produced other false witnesses who declared that another envoy had been sent bearing an immense treasure for the Emperor and that I had murdered him in India and stole what he was carrying. And this intrigue went on for around five years, so that I was often dragged to trial [and threatened] with an ignominious death. At last, by God’s Providence, the Emperor, through the confession of some individuals, became aware of my innocence and the malice of the adversaries, and he banished them with their wives and children. I had, in fact, been alone on this journey without confession201 for eleven years until Brother Arnold, a German from the province of Cologne202 came to me, now going on two years. I have built one church in the city of Khanbaliq, which is the King’s chief place of residence. This I completed six years ago. I also built a bell tower for it and put three bells in it. I have also baptized there, by my estimate, around six thousand persons to this point. And if those calumnies of which I have spoken had not been made, I would have baptized more than thirty thousand, and I am often engaged in baptizing. Likewise, I have gradually purchased forty boys, the sons of pagan parents, ranging in age between seven to eleven, who had never learned to that point any law.203 I have baptized them and I have instructed them in Latin and in our rite, and I have written out for them psalters with thirty collections of hymns and two breviaries.204 By the aid of these, eleven boys already know our service, and form a choir and perform the weekly services as is done in rejected the Byzantine and Roman attribution of the title Theotokos, “Mother of God” to Mary. Once a great Asian Church, which made inroads into China as early as the seventh century, it was severely damaged by the armies of Amir Temür (Tamerlane) in the late fourteenth century. Today the Church survives as the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East with members throughout Southwest Asia (despite current persecutions in Syria, Iraq, and Iran) and in India and the United States. See note 207 below for information regarding the appellation “Nestorian.” 201. There was no priest to whom he could confess his sins. 202. The Franciscans were organized into regional provinces. 203. By “law” he means religion. 204. A breviary is a book of prayers that contains the office, or canonical hours, of the day.
a convent,205 whether I am present or not. Many of them are also employed in writing out psalters and doing other needed tasks. The Lord Emperor, moreover, takes great pleasure in their chanting. I ring the bells at all the canonical hours, and with a convent of babes and sucklings 206 I perform the divine office. Yet we sing by rote because we do not have a book of the office with musical notes. Good King George. A certain King of this part of the world, who belonged to the sect of Nestorian Christians and was of the family of that great King who was called Prester John of India, attached himself to me in the first year of my arrival here and was converted by me to the truth of the true Catholic faith. He took lesser orders207 and, clothed in sacred vestments, officiated with me in celebrating the Mass. Because of this, other Nestorians accused him of apostasy. Nevertheless, he led over a large part of his people to the true Catholic faith, and built a beautiful church on a scale of royal magnificence in honor of our God, the Holy Trinity, and the Lord Pope, and calling it, in my honor, “the Roman Church.” This King George, a true Christian, departed to the Lord six years ago, leaving as his heir a son in the cradle, who is now nine years old. Following the King’s death, inasmuch as the brothers of this King George were perfidious followers of the errors of Nestorius,208 they perverted all those whom he had converted, carrying them back to their original schism. And because I was alone and not able to leave the Emperor Khan,209 I could not go the above-mentioned church, which is twenty days’ journey away. Yet, if some other good co-workers and helpers could come, I trust in God that all this might be set right for I still possess the grant made by the aforementioned late King George. 205. The main branch of the Franciscans lived in convents and were known as Conventuals. 206. Psalms, 8:2, “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.” 207. Consult the Glossary at Cleric. 208. Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople (r. 428–31), was condemned and deposed by the Council of Ephesus in 431 for allegedly denying the divinity of Jesus. His condemnation, based on his rejection of the traditional title Theotokos (Mother of God) accorded Mary, was more personal and political than doctrinal. The Church of the East, which traces its origins to the first century, defended his orthodoxy and named him as one of its three “Greek Teachers.” It is this association that led to the Church’s being incorrectly termed “Nestorian.” 209. The Mongol khans, especially the Great Khans of China, tended to surround themselves with “holy and wise men” representing a number of different religions and schools of philosophy.
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I say again that had it not been for the aforementioned slanderous charges, the harvest reaped would have been great. Indeed, if I had also had two or three associates as my helpers, perhaps the Emperor Khan would have been baptized. I ask that such brethren come, if any are willing to come, who are zealous in offering themselves as an example and not in magnifying their outward signs of piety. The route. I tell you that the route through the land of Cathay of the Emperor of the Northern Tartars is shorter and safer, so that, accompanied by post-riders, they might be able to transit it within five or six months.210 The other route, however, is very long and quite dangerous, involving two sea-voyages. The first of them is like the distance between Acre and the province of Provence. The other, in truth, is like the distance between Acre and England.211 It could possibly happen that they could scarcely complete the journey in two years.212 Because the first route was not safe for a long while due to wars, it has been twelve years that I have not received news regarding the Curia,213 our Order, and the state of the West. Two years ago already, a certain physician, a surgeon from Lombardy, arrived, who infected these parts with unbelievable blasphemies regarding the Roman Curia, our Order, and the state of the West.214 Because of that I greatly desire to obtain the truth. I ask that the brethren whom this letter might reach do their best so that its contents might reach the notice of our 210. During the period of the so-called Pax Mongolica (Mongol Peace), ca. 1250–1350, the main route of what is now known as the Silk Road swung north of the traditional northern route, and its main terminus became Dadu rather than Chang’an (present-day Xi’an). In 1234, the Great Khan Ögödei instituted a communication network of post stations that were spaced about every thirty miles along the length and breadth of the Mongol Empire. They offered fast transit of dispatches carried by post riders (a Mongol pony express) and places of rest and refuge for travelers. 211. These two sea routes are Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf to the Malabar Coast of India, followed by a voyage from southwestern India to China. Piracy and storms made the voyages quite unpredictable. 212. Because of the need to wait six months or more on each leg for favorable trade, or monsoon, winds, as well as emergencies that often occurred. 213. The papal court. 214. This would be the struggle and propaganda war between the court of Philip IV of France and Pope Boniface VIII, in which a branch of conservative Franciscans, known as the Spiritual Franciscans, were allied against Pope Boniface.
Lord Pope and the Cardinals, and the Procurator of the Order in the Roman Curia.215 I beg the Minister General of our Order for an antiphony and a book on the legends of the saints, a gradual,216 and a psalter with notes that can serve as an exemplar because I have nothing except for a traveling abridged breviary with shortened lessons and a small missal.217 If only I had an exemplar, the aforementioned boys could copy it. I am in the process of building another church in order to distribute the boys in several localities. I am now old and [my hair] has turned white, more from work and tribulations than age, for I am fifty-eight. I have gained competency in the Tartar language and script, which is the normal language of the Tartars,218 and I have already translated into that language and script the entire New Testament and the psalter, which I have had written out in the most lovely form of their calligraphy. And I hold fast to, read, and preach openly and publicly the Testament of Christ’s Law. I had discussed with the aforementioned King George, had he lived, to translate the entire Latin Office,219 so that it might be sung throughout all the land under his dominion. And while he was alive I used to celebrate Mass in his church, according to the Latin ritual, with the words of both the canon220 and the preface in that script and language. And the son of the said King is named John after my name, and I hope in God that he will walk in his father’s footsteps. According to what has truly been seen and heard, I believe that no king or prince in the world can equal the Lord Khan in the breadth of his land, in the numbers of his people and in the magnitude of his wealth. Finis. Given in the city of Khanbalik in the Kingdom of Cathay, in the year of the Lord 1305, the eighth day of January. 215. Since its inception, the Franciscan Order had a papally appointed cardinal-protector, or procurator, in Rome. 216. An antiphony is a book of call-and-response hymns (antiphonies). A gradual is a book of antiphonies that are sung during the Mass. 217. The Roman Missal is a book that contains all of the prescribed prayers, hymns, and instructions for the celebration of Mass. 218. The Mongols, who had been illiterate, adopted the script of the Uighur Turks in which to write Mongolian. It is unclear here if the language to which he refers is Mongolian or Uighur. The latter had become a fairly common tongue in this area of the Mongol world. 219. Consult the Glossary at Canonical hours. 220. Consult the Glossary.
Illus. 12.1 The Flagellants at Doornik, a miniature from the Chronicle of Gilles le Muisit. On August 15, 1349, about two hundred flagellants arrived at the Flemish city of Doornik (Tournai in French) from Bruges, which was more than fifty miles away. In words that appear beneath this illustration, Gilles, abbot of the monastery of Saint Martin, noted: “The people from Bruges prepared themselves and began to perform their ritual, which they termed ‘penance.’ Moreover, the inhabitants of both sexes, who never before witnessed such a thing, began to feel compassion for these people and began to suffer alongside them in penance and to give thanks to God for such a penance that they considered most appropriate.” The headgear of the penitents identifies them as members of the Brotherhood of the Cross.
Part Three Crisis, Retrenchment, Recovery, and a New World: 1300–1500 The two centuries that constitute the Late Middle Ages present vivid contrasts. The fourteenth century was characterized by spectacular catastrophes that seemed to threaten to destroy European civilization, whereas the fifteenth century saw Europe emerge from these crises and set itself along a road to recovery that resulted in its becoming a significant player in global history during the sixteenth century. How can we describe this two-hundred-year period: As medieval Europe’s age of senescence or as the Renaissance—a time of rebirth? As the following two chapters illustrate, each of these descriptions fails to define adequately this complex era.
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Illus. 12.2 The Rintfleisch Massacres of 1298. Hand-colored woodcut by Michael Wolgemut in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) of Hartman Schedel. Fol. CCXXverso. In the period 1348–51, numerous attacks were launched on the Jewish populations of Germany, the Low Countries, Spain, and northern Italy in response to the initial onslaught of the Black Death. The result was catastrophic for the communities in German-speaking areas. Unlike the attacks that accompanied several crusades, these pogroms set in motion a substantial migration of Jews from Germany and other areas populated by Ashkenazic (northern European) Jews into the lands of Eastern Europe. Migration was largely not the case for the Sephardic Jews of Spain at this time. Their migration would occur more than a century later with their expulsion in 1492. A half century before the pogroms of the mid-fourteenth century, other scapegoating persecutions presaged the plague-era assaults. In 1298, a series of attacks on Jewish communities in the region of western Germany known as Franconia began and from there moved east into Bavaria and Austria, continuing into the early years of the fourteenth century. Their immediate cause was a false rumor that the Jews had desecrated the consecrated Eucharistic host. Apparently the first attacks were led by either a local knight or a butcher known as Lord Rintfleisch (Lord Beef ), hence they are known as the Rintfleisch Massacres. The memory of these persecutions was vivid enough that in 1493, Hartman Schedel included this woodcut in his world chronicle, accompanied by the text: “The Jews, who had multiplied in many places, were burned in the first year of Emperor Albert [I] at Nuremberg, Würzburg, Rothenburg, and many other places because of their evil deeds. Sparing no one of this unhappy people on account of sex or age, several thousand are said to have perished, except for baptized children.” It is instructive to study the faces and gestures of the victims in order to try to deduce where the artist’s sympathies lay.
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If the period around 1050 to 1300 was an age of advancement on numerous fronts, the fourteenth century was an age of adversity brought on by numerous crises that seemed to many Europeans to presage the end of the world. The world, as they knew it, did not end, but it was changing. A change in climatic patterns around 1300 brought the Little Ice Age, which meant colder, wetter weather for Europe. This, in turn, resulted in disastrous floods, crop failures, and recurrent, widespread instances of famine. Chronic warfare also bedeviled Europe throughout the century. Numerous conflicts erupted among competing cities, factions, and dynasties in Italy and Germany, and in 1337 Edward III of England and Philip VI of France initiated the Hundred Years’ War. Large-scale peasant rebellions shook France and England, including a Peasants’ Rebellion in Flanders of 1323–28, the Jacquerie Rebellion of 1356–58 in northern France, and the English Peasants’ Rebellion of 1381. Increasing urban-class tension was dramatically underscored by the revolt of Florence’s working poor, the Ciompi, in 1378. These national and urban rebellions challenged traditional secular authorities and structures. Likewise, the Church lost prestige in the course of the fourteenth century, due first to the papacy’s prolonged residence at Avignon and then, more seriously, to the Great Schism, which began in 1378. As the clergy came under increasing scrutiny and criticism, new spiritual and theological movements, which ranged from orthodox forms of mysticism to new heresies, presented challenges to the Church’s authority. A disruption of economic capital paralleled this loss of spiritual capital. Europe’s three greatest international banking houses—the Acciaiuoli, the Bardi, and the Peruzzi, all of Florence—collapsed in the 1340s due to ill-considered loans that became toxic. Europe would have to wait a century for another banking house of comparable scope and influence to emerge. On an even wider economic level, long-distance trade routes that connected Western Europe with East Asia and the Indian Ocean essentially closed down due to multiple factors, the most significant of which was a massive die-off across much of Eurasia and North Africa. Of all the crises that Europeans faced, one stood out for its unmatched horror and devastation—the bacterial pandemic that later generations would remember as the Black Death. Not only did the arrival of this new killing disease exacerbate all of the other crises that beset Europe, arguably it had a profound impact on the collective psyche of Western civilization. It would be an exaggeration to state that a preoccupation with death and decay pervaded Western European culture during the latter part of the fourteenth century. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to find the themes of mortality and deterioration playing discernible roles in the visual arts, letters, and thought of this period. At the same time, Europeans exhibited tremendous powers of endurance in the face of these crises and proved capable of significant creativity in many areas. The fourteenth century was the age in which the English House of Commons took shape and the Hanseatic League became a full-fledged politicalmilitary entity as well as a regional economic giant. In the arts, it was the age of such literary giants as Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Langland, and Chaucer and such revolutionary painter artists as Giotto, Martini, and Lorenzetti. So far as thought was concerned, the century saw several Parisian thinkers break with Aristotelian physics, thereby anticipating the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. For all of its fourteenth-century ills, Europe was not on the brink of collapse.
Natural Disasters and Their Consequences Despite wars, regional famines, and local epidemics, Europe’s population steadily increased throughout most of the High Middle Ages, multiplying by a factor of about 2.5 in the period 1000–1300. This population growth was largely due to several centuries of favorable weather and the adoption of a variety of farming innovations that combined to raise crop production substantially. Due primarily to
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a high infant mortality rate and mortal infections from birthing, average life expectancy was still low by modern standards. But that was not the entire story. A high birthrate more than compensated for a high mortality rate. If one survived into the teen years, there was a good chance that the person would live into middle or old age. The overall result was that late thirteenth-century Europe was probably overpopulated relative to its ability to feed itself consistently well. Before 1300, the demographic growth curve was flattening out, and even declining in certain areas, which indicates that Europe had momentarily reached, or even exceeded, the limit of its ability to exploit its soil and water. Should the climate change for the worse and remain so for a substantial period of time, Europe would be in serious trouble. Toward 1300, Europe, along with much of the rest of the world, experienced a long-term change in climatic patterns. The effects were not everywhere the same across the globe. For Europe, it meant that the weather became colder, stormier, and less predictable. More often than not, the moist, mild westerly winds that had fed Europe’s agricultural and pasture lands for centuries now turned into either fierce tempests or field-drying droughts. Grain often rotted or withered in fields, and some crops could no longer be raised successfully in marginal areas. Much of Norway could no longer grow wheat, and grapes now failed to mature in England. Herring, a major protein staple, migrated out of the Baltic Sea, which froze over on several occasions. Widespread famine followed, with its first major onslaught occurring between 1315 and 1317. Europe could have conceivably weathered this crisis in reasonably good order and with few, if any, long-term effects, but a now-ill-nourished, weakened society was devastated toward midcentury when a bacterial infection, known as “the plague,” swept across the trade routes of Asia and entered Europe by way of the Mediterranean. The plague ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, and following this initial onslaught, it became endemic in the West, returning in several subsequent waves later in the century. No subsequent outbreak, however, was as devastating as the first onslaught of the plague, which carried away probably 50 percent of Latin Europe’s total population in less than four years, although there were surely significant regional differences in the rates of morbidity and mortality. Trade routes, which were an economic lifeline for many areas of Europe, brought death as well, whereas less connected and less economically advantaged regions had more survivors. Needless to say, this sudden, massive die-off had a profound effect on European civilization, as the following two documents illustrate.
Explaining and Responding to Catastrophe 93. Jean de Venette, CHRONICLE1 Jean de Venette (ca. 1307–68?), a priest, master of theology at the University of Paris, and head of the French province of the Order of Carmelite Friars, composed a vivid account of French history that covered the years 1340 to 1368. In it he concentrated on the disasters that seemed to characterize his age. Of peasant origin himself, he displayed genuine concern for the sufferings of France’s lower classes, who bore such a disproportionate amount of society’s pain. The following selections deal with the famine of 1315–17, the onslaught of the Black Death in France, and some of the human responses to the latter catastrophe. 1. Chronicle of Jean de Venette in Chronique latine de Guillaume de Nangis de 1113 à 1300 avec les continuations de cette chronique de 1300 à 1368, ed. Hercule Géraud, 2 vols. (Paris: Jules Renouard, 1843), 2:179–80, 210–18.
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Questions for Consideration 1. How credible is Venette’s picture of the plague, its victims, and the consequences of the epidemic? On what do you base your judgment? 2. You have already studied the crisis faced by certain European Jewish communities in 1095. Compare that with the crisis that Europe’s Jewish population faced in the mid-fourteenth century. What conclusions follow from this comparison? 3. W hat does the flagellant movement suggest about the psychological effects of the plague? Compare it with the age’s persecution of the Jews. Were they connected in any way? Explain your answer. 4. What does the attitude of the masters of theology at Paris, the pope, and Venette toward the flagellants suggest? 5. According to Venette, what were the most serious consequences of the plague? What does this tell us about the man and the purpose behind his history? 6. Venette twice notes short-term rebounds (although he did not see them as short-term) following the demographic shocks of famine and plague. What might explain that phenomenon? 7. What is the general tone of this history, and what does it suggest about the fourteenth century?
MCCCXL. Should anyone wish to remember a significant portion of the quite wondrous events that took place in 1340 and following, he should read this present work that I, a certain friar, have briefly recorded in these pages from memory, just as I partially witnessed them and partially heard about them. First, virtually unknown prophecies have come to my hand, but what they mean is not totally known. Whether they speak the truth or otherwise I do not say; this is left to the readers’ judgment. A certain priest of the diocese of Tours, freed in the year of the Lord 1309 from the hands of the Saracens, who had held him captive for the space of thirteen years and three months, was celebrating his Mass in Bethlehem, where the Lord was born. While he prayed for the Christian people…there appeared before him letters of gold written in this way: In the year of the Lord 1315, on the fifteenth day of the month of March, there shall begin such a great famine in the land that lower-class people shall strive and struggle against the world’s mighty and rich. Also the crown of the mightiest fighter shall thereafter fall to the ground very quickly. Also its flowers and its branches shall be broken and crushed. Also a noble and free city shall be seized and taken by slaves. Also strangers shall dwell there. Also the Church and the line of Saint Peter shall become weakened. Also the blood of many shall be poured out on the land. Also a red cross shall appear and shall be lifted up.
Therefore, good Christians, be vigilant. These are the words of that vision, but what they truly mean is not known. It should be noted that in the very year 1315, when I was seven or eight years of age, I witnessed the start of this great and mighty famine that it foretold. It was so severe and grueling in France that the majority of the population died of hunger and want. And this famine lasted two years and more, for it began in ’15 and ended in ’18, and so there was a great scarcity of grain. Then, by God’s dispensation, almost unexpectedly abundance returned and the aforementioned scarcity ended. Furthermore, women were conceiving more abundantly than usual and were giving birth to lovely offspring.…
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MCCCXLVIII. In the year of the Lord 1348, the people of France and of almost the entire world were struck a blow, and it was other than by war. For just like the famine, which I described in the beginning,…so pestilence and its tribulations appeared again in various parts of the world. In the very year 1348 in the month of August, after the hour of vespers2 when the shining sun was beginning to set, a certain huge and exceedingly bright star was seen 2. Consult the Glossary at Canonical hours.
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above Paris, toward the west. It did not seem, as is the case of other stars, to be very high above our hemisphere but, in fact, rather quite near.3 And it so happened that, as the sun set and night came on, the aforesaid star did not seem to me and to many other friars who were watching it to move from one place. Finally, when night had now arrived, the aforesaid extremely large star, to the great amazement of all of us who were watching, broke into many different rays. As it shed these rays near Paris toward the east, it totally disappeared and was completely annihilated. Whether it was a comet or not, whether it was otherwise composed of some airy exhalations and was finally dispersed into vapor, I leave to the judgment of astronomers. It is possible, however, that it was a presage of the incredible pestilence to come, which, as I shall relate, followed very shortly thereafter in Paris and throughout all France, as well as elsewhere. Whereby, in that very year and in the following year, the death rate of people of both sexes, and more so of the young than the elderly, was so great in Paris and in the kingdom of France, and not less so, as reported, in other parts of the world, that they could hardly be buried. People lay ill scarcely beyond two or three days and died suddenly, as if fully healthy. A person who was well one day was dead the next and being carried to the grave. Swellings suddenly appeared under the arms or in the groin, and their eruption was an infallible sign of death. This sickness, or pestilence, was called an epidemic by the physicians. So great was the number of people who died then, namely in the years of Our Lord 1348 and 1349, that its equal has never been heard of or seen or read of in times past. The aforementioned plague and disease arrived by reflection4 or association and contagion, for if someone who was well visited someone who was sick, the visitor barely or rarely evaded the risk of death. Consequently, in many towns, small and great, timid priests withdrew, leaving administration [of the sacraments] to some regular clerics who were more courageous and, to be brief, in many localities out of twenty persons not two remained alive. The mortality rate was so high at the Hôtel-Dieu in Paris that, for a long time, every day more than five hundred dead were carried in carts to the Cemetery of the Holy 3. In March 1345, a triple conjunction of the planets Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn occurred, which many at the time understood to be a portent of coming disasters. Can Venette be referring to this phenomenon and misdating it? 4. Just as a mirror reflects an image, so the disease is “reflected,” or passed, from one person to another.
Innocents in Paris for burial.5 And these saintly sisters of the Hôtel-Dieu, not fearing death, carried on their duties in all sweetness and humility, with no thought of any [earthly] honor. A vast number of the said sisters, a number often renewed by death, rests in peace with Christ, as is piously believed. The aforementioned plague, as is said, originated among the unbelievers, then arrived in Italy. Thereafter, crossing the mountains, it reached Avignon, where it even attacked various lord cardinals and then took from them their entire households.6 Then, little by little, it advanced through Gascony and Spain from village to village, from street to street, and finally from house to house, or rather from person to person, arriving unexpectedly in these parts of France. It crossed over all the way to Germany, but it was less [virulent] for them than for us. While the aforementioned epidemic lasted, the Lord, by reason of His compassion, deigned to confer such grace that almost all of the dying, no matter how sudden [death might be], looked forward to death joyfully. No one died without confession and the most holy viaticum.7 And for the greater good of the dying, the lord pope, Clement VI, mercifully allowed and granted through their confessors absolution from penance and guilt to the dying in numerous cities and towns.8 As a result, they died more willingly, leaving behind many inheritances and worldly goods to churches and religious orders because they were seeing their family heirs dying off before them. People said that this pestilence was caused by an infection of the air and waters because there was then, at this time, no famine or lack of food supplies of any sort, but on the contrary great abundance. A result of this theory of infected air and water and its consequent sudden death was the blaming of the Jews for infecting wells and waters and corrupting the air. Because of that, the whole world cruelly rose against them to such a degree that in 5. The Hôtel-Dieu (Hospital of God), which stood next to the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, was constructed to house about five hundred patients. 6. The papacy had been resident at Avignon, which was then papal territory, since 1309. 7. Consult the Glossary. 8. A general absolution, which was granted to a group of persons in danger of imminent death, required no immediate private confession. Persons so absolved had to be penitent, must do penance if possible, and resolve to seek out a confessor thereafter, if they survived.
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Germany and in other parts of the world where Jews lived, they were massacred and slaughtered by Christians, and many thousands of Jews were burned [to death] here and there, indiscriminately.9 Their insane steadfastness and that of their wives was astounding. While they were being burned, mothers threw their children into the fire first, so that their children might avoid baptism, and then hurled themselves in after them to burn with their husbands and children. It is said that many bad Christians were discovered who likewise put poison into wells. Yet, in truth, such poisonings, granting that they actually were perpetrated, could not have caused so great a plague or killed so many people. It follows that there was another cause: for example, the will of God in that there were corrupt humors and a foulness in the air or on land.10 Perhaps such poisonings, if they actually took place in some localities, reinforced this. The aforementioned dying, however, lasted in these areas of France for the greater part of the years 1348 and 1349, and then it ceased, leaving many country villages and houses in good-sized towns virtually empty and deserted. Then many houses, and some rather splendid ones, quickly collapsed in ruin, and many houses fell in ruin in Paris, though damage among its houses was less than what took place in many other areas. After the cessation of the aforementioned epidemic, pestilence, and dying, the men and women who survived married one another. Surviving wives conceived everywhere beyond the norm. There was no sterility. On the contrary, pregnant women were seen everywhere, and many gave birth to twins, and some produced three living children in one birth. But what is especially surprising is that when the aforementioned children, who were born after that time of the aforesaid plague, came of age for teeth, they commonly had only twenty or twenty-two teeth in their mouths, whereas before that time people 9. Jews had been officially expelled from England in 1290 and from France in 1322. Although both countries probably still had remnant, possibly secret, Jewish populations scattered about, both lands avoided these mass killings. Pope Clement VI denounced the attacks in two papal bulls, pointing out that such charges were ludicrous on several levels. It is not clear how effective he was in his attempt to stop the massacres. 10. Until the triumph of the germ theory in the late nineteenth century, the prevailing explanation for epidemic diseases was that they originated in “miasma,” the poisonous fumes arising from swamps and other putrefying matter.
commonly had a combined thirty-two teeth in their upper and lower jaws.11 I am greatly mystified as to what this number of teeth in the “post-born” means, unless, as it is said, by reason of this great die off of countless people and their replacement by others and by the remnant that survived, a new era has consequently resulted. But, sad to say, the world was not changed for the better by this renewal of the human race. For thereafter men were more greedy and grasping, even though they had far more possessions than before. They were more quarrelsome and troubled one another more frequently with suits, disputes, brawls, and legal pleas. Nor did the die-off resulting from this terrible plague inflicted by God restore peace between kings and lords. On the contrary, the enemies of the king of France and even of the Church were stronger and wickeder than before. They stirred up wars on sea and on land, and greater evils sprang up everywhere. And what was additionally remarkable, although there was a full abundance of all goods, yet everything was twice as expensive, whether household equipment or food, as well as merchandise, hired helpers, farm workers, and servants. The only exceptions were landed properties and houses, of which there is a glut today. From that time, charity also began to grow quite cold, and evil flourished, along with ignorance and sinfulness, for few could be found in homes, villages, and towns who knew how or were willing to instruct boys in the rudiments of grammar.… MCCCXLIX. In the year of the Lord 1349, while the aforementioned plague was still active and spreading farther from town to town, many men in Germany, Flanders, Hainaut, and Lorraine rose up and began a new cult on their own authority. Stripped to the waist, naked and carrying whips, they marched in large groups and bands through the squares and plazas of cities and good-sized towns. They were massed together as they marched and formed circles, beating themselves upon their backs with weighted scourges, rejoicing in loud voices, and singing hymns that were newly composed and appropriate for their ritual. And so for thirty-three days,12 they processed through many towns doing great penance and providing great spectacles to an awe-struck people. They zealously scourged themselves on their shoulders and arms, drawing 11. John of Reading, a monk of Westminster, noted that everyone born after the plague had two fewer teeth than those born earlier. 12. According to tradition, Jesus lived on Earth for thirty-three years.
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blood with whips tipped with sharp points. But they did not come to Paris or to any part of France,13 for they were forbidden to do so by the lord king of France, who did not want them. He did so on the advice of the masters of theology at the University of Paris, who said that this new cult had been formed contrary to God, contrary to the rites of Holy Mother Church, and contrary to the salvation of all their souls. Indeed, that this was and is true was shortly made clear. For the lord pope, Clement VI, was fully informed regarding this new rite by the masters of Paris, who reverently dispatched messengers to him. Because it had been damnably formed contrary to law, by his authority, he forbade the Flagellants to practice in the future such public acts of penance which they had presumptuously undertaken on their own. His prohibition was merited, for already Flagellants of this sort, supported 13. The region of the Île de France that centered on Paris.
by certain fatuous priests and persons in religious orders, were inventing erroneous and evil modes of life and deceitful opinions beyond measure. For they said that their blood, which was thus drawn by the scourge and poured out, was mingled with the blood of Christ, and they moreover devised many other erroneous things and said things that less correctly and sanely pertained to the Catholic faith. Given that they had begun fatuously on their own and not from God, it followed that within a brief period of time their sect and rite were reduced to nothing. On being warned, they desisted and, at the hands of their prelates who acted as the pope’s agents, they humbly received absolution and penance for this, their error. One must not overlook the fact that many honorable women and devout matrons had likewise performed this aforementioned penance with scourges, marching and singing through towns and churches, but after a little while, as with the others, they put aside all of this.
The Effects of the Plague in England 94. Henry Knighton, CHRONICLE14 England’s abundant plague-era records indicate that the island kingdom suffered grievously during the eighteen months of the disease’s initial onslaught. Modern estimates of the human losses in England for the years 1348–50 range between 40 and 60 percent of a total population of anywhere from four to five million people, with a 50 percent mortality rate being a reasonable figure. Whatever the die-off from the plague’s initial onslaught, England’s population continued on a downward slope well into the fifteenth century due to recurrent, albeit less-virulent, waves of the plague. Indeed, two centuries later, that is the mid-sixteenth century, England’s population was still about a half million below what it had been on the eve of the arrival of the Black Death. One of the best sources for the economic and social effects of the plague on English society is the chronicle of Henry Knighton, an Augustinian canon of Saint Mary’s Abbey in Leicester. The fourth and final book of Henry’s chronicle of English history from the Norman Conquest to his own day covers the period from 1337 to 1396, presumably the year of his death. Internal evidence suggests that Henry began writing his chronicle in 1377, almost three decades after the initial appearance of the plague in England. Whether narrating events distant from or proximate to his own day, Knighton clearly relied on a wide variety of written sources. Presumably he depended on then-extant lists of prices and wages for Leicester when he undertook to record the economic impact of the plague.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to Knighton, what immediate impact did the plague have on commodity prices? Can you think of any reasons for this change in value, other than the one that he supplies? 14. Knighton’s Chronicle, 1337–1396, ed. G. H. Martin (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995), 94, 98–106.
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2. Did commodity prices remain stable after their initial reaction to the epidemic? How do you explain what happened next? 3. What impact did the plague have on wages? Why? 4. How did the crown attempt to counter the effect on wages? What seems to be Knighton’s implication regarding the success or failure of that policy? Does his judgment seem reasonable? Why or why not? 5. Can you think of any other reasons why the king might have fined those who paid excessive wages? 6. What impact, according to Knighton, did the plague have on the English Church? 7. What effect did the plague seem to have on England’s manorial system? 8. Based on this account, what appear to have been the major short- and long-term effects of the Black Death on English society? 9. Venette also deals with some of the economic and social effects of the plague. Does his testimony support or contradict Knighton’s account? Can you reconcile these two sources? What conclusions can you draw after having studied both sources? 10. Overall, how valuable and trustworthy does Knighton’s chronicle appear to be?
In the year of grace, one thousand xxx.xlviii [1348]…. A universal die-off. In this and the following year, there was a general die-off of persons throughout the entire world. It began in India, then [spread to] the land of the Tartars, then to the Saracens, finally to Christians and Jews. The result was that in the space of a single year, namely from Easter to Easter, according to the report that rattled about in the Roman Curia, eight thousand legions [of people]15 died almost sudden deaths in these distant remote lands, not counting Christians.… Then that most grievous plague arrived by sea through Southampton and came to Bristol.16 Those in the throes of death [there]—almost the entire population of the town— died, as it were, struck by sudden death, for there were few who lay in their beds more than three days or two days or for even half a day. Then that raging death burst out [to regions] all around, following [the passage] of the sun. At Leicester, in the little parish of Saint Leonard, more than nineteen times twenty [380] died; in Holy Cross parish, more than 400; in the parish of Saint Margaret in Leicester, more than 700. And so in each parish, [they died] in huge numbers.
The bishop of Lincoln gives chaplains the power to absolve. Then the bishop of Lincoln sent word throughout the entire diocese, giving general power to each and every priest, regular clerics as well as seculars, to hear confessions and also to give absolution, with full and total episcopal authority,17 the sole exception being a case involving debt. In such a case, the person ought first to make restitution while he lived, if he could, but certainly others should do it for him from his property after his death. The pope grants a general remission. Likewise, the pope granted full remission of all sins to anyone in danger of death, the absolution to be given one time only, and he conceded this license to last until the following Easter, and each person could choose whomever he wished as a confessor. Disease of sheep. During that same year, there was a great pestilence among sheep everywhere throughout the kingdom, to such a degree that in one locality more than 5,000 sheep died in a single pasture, and they so stank that neither beast nor bird would touch them. A cheap price for all goods. And the price for all goods was cheap because of the fear of death, for there were truly
15. Eight thousand legions equals eight million persons. 16. Other witnesses state that Bristol was the plague’s initial port of entry.
17. Any priest, not just one’s parish priest or a friar who had a license to administer the sacraments and preach in a particular area, could hear and absolve sins.
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few people who cared for riches or anything else. A person could have a horse, which earlier had been valued at forty shillings, for half a mark,18 a large, fat ox for four shillings, a cow for twelvepence, a heifer for sixpence, a fat sheep for fourpence, a ewe for threepence, a lamb for twopence, a large pig for fivepence, a stone of wool for ninepence.19 And sheep and cattle wandered unchecked through fields and among the crops, and there was no one to drive them away or to round them up. Rather, for lack of supervision, animals perished in uncountable numbers throughout every region, dying in out-of-the-way ditches and hedgerows. Because there was such a shortage of serfs and laborers, there was no one available who knew what needed to be done. For no memory existed of such a severe and raging dieoff since the age of Vortigern, king of the Britons, in whose time, as Bede testifies in his book on the history of the Angles, the living did not suffice to bury the dead.20 In the following autumn, it was not possible to hire a single reaper for a wage lower than eightpence with food or a single hay-mower for less than twelvepence and food. Because of this, many crops rotted in the fields for lack of harvesters, but in the year of the plague, as mentioned above in reference to other matters, there was such an abundance of every sort of grain that no one cared about it.… Master Thomas Bradwardine was consecrated archbishop of Canterbury by the pope, and when he returned to England, he went to London, and within two days, he was dead. He was renowned above all other clerics in all Christendom, especially in theology but likewise in other liberal studies.21 At that time, there was such a scarcity of priests everywhere that many churches were widowed and had no divine offices, Masses, matins, vespers, sacraments, and sacramentals.22 A person could scarcely secure a single chaplain to minister to any church for less than ten pounds or ten marks. Whereas before the plague, when there had been an abundance of priests, one could secure a chaplain for four or five marks, or for two marks with meals; in this time, there 18. The English mark was two-thirds of a pound sterling, or thirteen shillings, fourpence. A half mark was six shillings, eightpence. 19. A stone equaled about fourteen pounds. 20. Vortigern ruled in the latter half of the fifth century. 21. Regarding Bradwardine, see the introduction to source 102. 22. Sacramentals are items, such as holy water or candles, that have been blessed by a priest and may be used and even carried away by clerics and laypersons alike for private devotions.
was scarcely anyone who wanted to accept a vicarage23 for twenty pounds or twenty marks.24 Within a short period of time, however, a huge multitude of men whose wives had died in the plague rushed into holy orders. Of these, many were illiterate and were almost purely laymen, and even if they could read, they could not understand what they read. Ox hides went for a trifle, namely about twelvepence; a pair of shoes went for about ten-, twelve-, or fourteenpence; a pair of boots went for about three or four shillings. Meanwhile the king sent word into each county of the kingdom that reapers and other laborers could not receive more than what they customarily received, subject to a prescribed statutory penalty, and he made a statute regarding this matter.25 The laborers, however, were so arrogant and contrary minded that they did not heed the king’s order; rather, if anyone desired to hire them, he had to pay what they wanted. One either lost his fruits and crops, or, as they wished, he pandered to the arrogant, greedy desires of the laborers. When it was brought to the king’s attention that they were not obeying his statute and were giving higher wages to their laborers, he levied heavy fines on abbots, priors, great and lesser knights, and on others, from both the higher and lower ranks, throughout the kingdom, from some a hundred shillings, from others forty shillings, from others twenty shillings, from each according to what he could pay. And he took twenty shillings from each farm throughout the kingdom, raising not less than a fifteenth from this fine.26 Finally, the king ordered numerous laborers arrested and imprisoned. Many of these ran away and fled to the 23. A vicarage was a church in which the absentee holder of a benefice hired a deputy, or vicar, to perform his duties. 24. Did Knighton here and above mistakenly equate a pound sterling with a mark? 25. On June 18, 1349, King Edward III published an ordinance forbidding laborers from receiving wages higher than those paid in 1346. On February 9, 1351, the king’s Parliament, which was dominated by landholders, passed the Statute of Laborers, reaffirming the earlier ordinance and giving it greater precision by establishing a schedule of wages for various occupations. Any laborer who received a higher wage was liable to a fine that equaled twice the wage received. 26. The fifteenth was theoretically the amount equal to 15 percent of the value of all moveable goods that a community would pay to the king with parliamentary approval. In fact, the fifteenth tended to be a negotiated lump sum that equaled less than 15 percent of the value of all moveable goods.
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forests and woodlands for a while. Those who were captured were severely fined, and most swore that they would not take daily wages that were greater than the standard established by ancient custom, and so they were freed from incarceration. The same was done for others, the artisans, in the boroughs and towns.… In the wake of the aforementioned plague, in every city, borough, and town many buildings, large and small, fell into ruin for lack of inhabitants and totally collapsed to the ground. Likewise, many villages and hamlets were deserted, with not one home left in them, because all who had lived therein were dead. In all likelihood, many of these villages would never again be inhabited. In the following winter, there was such a shortage of serfs for all areas of activity that, as was popularly believed, there could have scarcely been in earlier times a shortage of similar magnitude. Beasts and all the farm animals that a person possessed wandered about without a shepherd, and all of a person’s possessions were without a guardian.
As a consequence, all necessities became so expensive that something that in earlier times had been valued at a single penny now at this time cost four- or fivepence. The lords relax tenants’ rent. Moreover, given the reality of a shortage of serfs and a scarcity of commodities, the kingdom’s magnates and other, lesser lords who had tenants remitted payment of rent, lest their tenants leave. Some remitted half of the rent, some more and some less; some remitted it for two years, some for three, and some for one, according to what they could negotiate with them. Likewise, those who received day-labor service throughout the entire year from tenants, such as those who happened to have been born into that status, had to release them and remit such labor obligations. They either had to excuse them totally or, under easier terms, to set a small rent, out of fear that otherwise their houses would fall into excessive and irreparable decay and the land everywhere would be left totally uncultivated. And all foodstuffs and all other necessities became exceedingly high priced.
Schism, Rebellion, and War During the fourteenth century, the forces of disharmony and separation became quite evident and, at times, seemed to threaten not only the stability but the very existence of European Christian civilization. The Roman papacy, which represented the ideal of Christendom united under the guidance of God’s deputy on Earth, increasingly came under criticism. Criticism of perceived papal excesses had roots deep in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but during the fourteenth century, it reached new proportions, as orthodox reformers and heretics alike called to account popes who seemed, to many individuals, to be subverting the message of the Gospels. Warfare, a cause of human misery in every age, appears to have reached alarming levels of frequency and intensity during this century. Most dramatically, the monarchs of France and England became embroiled in the Hundred Years’ War, a series of destructive campaigns fought on French soil and in the waters of the English Channel. Equally fierce conflicts ravaged the lands of Germany and Italy, where the supporters of competing factions shed one another’s blood. Increasingly violent class tensions beset Europe’s cities, and in the countryside, peasant rebellions shook France, England, and Catalonia. Disasters of human origin exacerbated the devastating effects of natural disasters.
The Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism 95. Saint Catherine of Siena, LETTERS 27 Many scandals rocked the late-medieval papacy, but none were more disastrous for its image than the so-called Babylonian Captivity and the Great Schism that followed upon its heels. Between 1305 and 27. Excerpted from Kenelm Foster and Mary John Ronayne, eds. and trans., I, Catherine: Selected Writings of St. Catherine of Siena (London: Collins, 1980), 107–10, 255–60, passim. Copyright © 1980 by Collins Publishers. Reprinted with permission of HarperCollins Publishers Limited.
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1377, seven consecutive French popes resided outside of Italy, and from 1309 onward, the papal court was at Avignon on the Rhône, where a massive palace arose. The popes at Avignon were not evil men; most were pious and conscientious in their attempts to rule well. During this era, however, the papacy gained the reputation, no matter how poorly deserved, of being a tool of French royal policies because, even though Avignon was not then part of the kingdom of France, it was located in a region that was under French royal influence. The Avignon papacy also gained the reputation, undoubtedly better deserved, of presiding over a highly bureaucratic, legalistic, and venal papal establishment that had moved away from the simplicity of the Gospel ideal. The Italian poet (and disappointed office seeker) Petrarch petulantly characterized mid-century Avignon as “the Babylon of the West,” thereby providing an image that has persisted to our day. In 1377, Pope Gregory XI returned the papal court to Rome and died the following year. His successor, Urban VI, the first Italian pope in over seventy years, proved to be a disastrous choice and soon alienated the eleven French cardinals, who dominated the sixteen-member College of Cardinals. The dissident cardinals declared Urban’s election invalid and elected another pope, a Frenchman who assumed the title Clement VII; along with their pope, these cardinals returned to Avignon, leaving Urban and his supporters in Rome. For the next three decades, the Church had two rival popes, each with his own papal court and subordinate clergy. Adding to the confusion, in 1409, a third pope joined the mix, Alexander V. Needless to say, Latin Christendom was divided over the issue of who was the legitimate pope. One of the major figures in the closing years of the Babylonian Captivity and the opening stages of the Great Schism was Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–80), an Italian mystic who was associated with the Dominican Order. Despite her humble origins, lack of advanced education, and youth, Catherine had a large following of devoted spiritual disciples, including many church leaders. In 1376, she traveled to Avignon at the request of the city of Florence, in the hope of making peace between the Florentines and the pope. There, she made a profound impact on Pope Gregory XI and was instrumental in his decision to return the papal court to Rome. When the Great Schism broke out in 1378, Pope Urban VI called Catherine to Rome to work for his cause. Despite deteriorating health, the saint remained in Rome until her death, tirelessly pleading the pope’s case. The following letters, addressed to Pope Gregory XI and Queen Joanna I of Naples (r. 1343–82), reveal Catherine’s passionate involvement in the affairs of Western Christendom. The first letter, dictated in her native Tuscan dialect in March 1376, was sent to the pope as Catherine was preparing to travel to Avignon. The letter to Queen Joanna, one of the age’s most gifted rulers, dates to August 1379. In it, Catherine upbraids the queen for having abandoned the cause of Pope Urban VI. Joanna originally supported the Avignonese Clement VII but shifted to Urban, due to a pro-Urban rebellion in Naples; she later returned to Clement’s camp when it became expedient to do so. The queen’s machinations ultimately failed to save her. In 1380, Urban VI excommunicated her as a heretic and declared her kingdom forfeit. Charles of Durazzo, whom Urban crowned as king of Naples in June 1381, captured Naples and imprisoned Joanna. The following year, Joanna was murdered.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to Catherine’s letter to the pope, what ills beset Christendom, and what were their causes? 2. According to Catherine, which three things must the pope do in order to reform Christendom? What does her proposed program of reform suggest about Latin Christendom in the age of the Babylonian Captivity? 3. According to Catherine, how seriously had Queen Joanna erred in abandoning Pope Urban VI and espousing Clement VII’s cause, and what would be the consequences of the queen’s act?
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4. What tone does Catherine assume in her letter to Pope Gregory? In her letter to Queen Joanna? 5. By what authority does Catherine presume to instruct the pope and the queen? 6. What do the two letters allow you to infer about Catherine’s view of the papacy? 7. What do the letters allow you to infer about Catherine’s image of contemporary Christendom and her place within it?
To: Gregory XI Most holy, sweet and dearest father in Christ sweet Jesus, Your wretched and unworthy daughter Catherine, servant and slave of the servants of Jesus Christ,28 writes to you in His precious blood. With desire I have desired to see in you such fullness of divine grace that you may thereby be the means and the instrument for bringing peace to the whole world. And so I urge you, dearest father, to exercise the power and authority that are yours with all diligence and a most earnest desire for peace, the honor of God and the salvation of souls. And if you say to me, father: “The world is so very torn and troubled. How can I bring about peace?,” I answer, on behalf of Christ crucified, “You need to exercise your power in three main areas: first, in the garden which is the Church let you (who are in charge) pull out all the stinking flowers, full of filth and greed and swollen with pride”—that is, all the bad shepherds and rulers who are poisoning and polluting the garden. O please, dear father gardener, use your power. Dig up those flowers. Throw them out where they can no longer wield authority. Compel them to learn how to govern themselves by a good and holy life. Plant fragrant flowers in the garden for us: shepherds and rulers who will be true servants of Jesus Christ crucified, concerned only for the honor of God and the salvation of souls, men who will be true fathers of the poor. Alas, what a spectacle! To see the very men who should be mirrors of voluntary poverty, humble lambs distributing the Church’s wealth to the poor, more involved in the empty pleasures, pomp and power of the world than if they belonged to it a thousand times over! Indeed, many laypeople put them to shame by their good and holy lives. It 28. Catherine plays on the papal title “servant (or slave) of the servants (slaves) of God.”
really looks as if the supreme eternal Goodness is compelling us by force to do what we have not done through love; is allowing the Bride’s luxuries and power to be taken from her,29 as if to show that He wills holy Church to go back to being poor, meek and humble, as in those blessed early days when her one concern was the honor of God and the salvation of souls, spiritual and not temporal things.30 Ever since she has attended more to the temporal than to the spiritual, things have gone from bad to worse. So you see, God in His supreme justice is allowing her to suffer and be persecuted. But take heart, father, and have no fear, whatever happens or may happen, for God is doing this to make the Church perfect once more; to ensure that lambs will once again graze in this garden instead of wolves who devour the honor due to God by stealing it and appropriating it to themselves. Take heart in Christ sweet Jesus, for I trust that His help, the fullness of divine grace, will soon support and sustain you. If you act as I have said, you will come from war to great peace, from persecution to great unity not by human means but by the practice of virtue—and so prevail over the devils we see—wicked men—and the ones we don’t, though they are ever on the watch. But remember, sweet father, that you would be unlikely to achieve this unless you also do the other two things that make up the three—namely your return, and then that you raise the standard of the most holy cross.31 Your holy desire must not falter whatever you may see or hear in the way
29. The Church is the Bride of Christ. 30. The doctrine, known as apostolic poverty, that we saw in sources 50 and 51. In 1323, Pope John XXII, in reaction to claims by a fundamentalist faction of the Friars Minor known as the Spiritual Franciscans, condemned as heresy the notion that Jesus and the apostles owned nothing. 31. Call a crusade.
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of scandal, or cities in revolt.32 Rather, let such things be as fuel on the fire of your holy desire to accomplish these things. In any case, do not postpone your coming. Pay no heed to the Devil; he knows he stands to lose and is doing his utmost to put obstacles in your way and rob you of what is yours, by making you lose love and charity and preventing your coming. I tell you, father in Christ Jesus, to come, soon, like a meek lamb. Respond to the Holy Spirit who is calling you. Come, come, come, I say, and do not wait for time which does not wait for you. Then you will do as the Lamb who was slain did, whose vicar you are. Unarmed He destroyed our enemies, for He came as a meek lamb, the virtue of love being His only weapon, His one aim being the protection of spiritual things and the restoring of grace to man who had lost it through sin. Alas, sweet father, with such gentleness I beg you, nay I say to you from Christ crucified, to come and overthrow our enemies. Put no faith in the Devil’s counselors who may try to block your good and holy resolution. Show the manliness I expect from you—no more cowardice! Answer God’s call to you to come and take possession of the place of the glorious shepherd Saint Peter, whose vicar you still are, and then to raise the standard of the holy cross for, as by the cross we were delivered (as Pavoloccio33 said) so when this standard—which I see as the solace and refuge of Christians—is raised, we shall be delivered from war, disputes and iniquities and the infidel people from their infidelity. In this way you will come, and then you will see holy Church reformed through the appointment of good pastors; you will restore to her the color of glowing charity she has lost—so much blood has been sucked out of her by wicked gluttons that she has gone pale all over. But take courage and come, father. Do not keep the servants of God waiting any longer, for they are in torment with their desire. And I, poor wretch, can wait no longer. Though alive, I feel I am dying of anguish, when I see God so vilified. But do not abandon peaceful measures because of what has happened in Bologna,34 just come, for I tell you 32. Pope Urban V returned to Rome in late 1367. At the urging of his French cardinals, who outnumbered the non-French by more than 2:1, and with several cities in the Papal States in revolt, he returned to Avignon in late 1370, where he soon died. 33. “Dear little Paul.” The affectionate Tuscan nickname for Saint Paul. See Romans, 6:1–23. 34. On March 20, 1376, Bologna had joined other Italian cities and powers in rebelling against the pope.
that these raging wolves will put their heads in your lap as meek as lambs and will beg for mercy. Father, I will say no more. I beg you to grant an audience and to listen to what Fra Raimondo35 and those with him have to say, for they come from Christ crucified and from me; they are true servants of God and sons of holy Church. Pardon my own ignorance, father, and in your gracious kindness forgive me for the love and sorrow that make me speak. Grant me your blessing. Abide in the sweet and holy love of God. Sweet Jesus. Jesus, Love.
***
To: Queen Joanna I of Naples. Dearest and respected mother, (“Dear” you will be to me when I see you being a daughter, duly subject and obedient to holy Church, and “respected” in that I shall pay you all due respect once you have turned away from the darkness of heresy to follow the light.) I, Catherine, slave of the servants of Jesus Christ, write to you in his precious blood, desiring to see in you that true knowledge of yourself and your Creator which is necessary for our salvation, for from this blessed knowledge every virtue springs.… Alas, dearest mother, you know that the truth cannot lie. Then why choose to go against it? By going against the truth of holy Church and of Pope Urban VI, you are going against God’s truth and losing the fruit of Christ’s blood, since it is on this truth that holy Church is founded. Alas, if you are not concerned for your own salvation, show some concern for the peoples entrusted to you, the subjects you have ruled with such diligence and in such peace for so long. Yet now, because you have gone against this truth, you see them at loggerheads, the curse of division setting them at war among themselves, killing one another like animals. Alas, how can you endure to see them torn apart on your account, white rose against red, the truth against a lie and your heart not burst? Alas, my wretched soul! Do you not see that they were all created by the spotless [white] rose of the eternal will of God and 35. The Dominican priest Raimondo da Capua, who served as Catherine’s confessor and official spiritual advisor but, as with all of her religious circle, or “family” as she called it, deferred to her as his spiritual mother.
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recreated in grace by the glowing red rose of the blood of Christ, which cleansed us from our sin in holy baptism, brought us together as Christians and made us all one in the garden of holy Church? Reflect that they were cleansed and given these glorious roses,36 not by you or by anyone else, but by our Holy Mother Church alone, through the Supreme Pontiff, Pope Urban VI, who holds the keys of the Blood. How, then, can your soul allow you even to want to take from them something that you cannot give them? And do you not see how cruel you are to yourself ? Through their wickedness and lack of unity, you are undermining your own position. Moreover, you will have to account to God for the souls that are perishing because of you. What account can you give? A very bad one. So we shall make a very poor showing before the supreme Judge at the moment of death, which will be upon us any moment. Alas, if this does not move you, at the very least ought you not be moved by the shame you have incurred before the world? Much more so now, after your conversion, than before. This latest fault is much more serious and displeasing to God and to creatures than the earlier one. After the first one you had acknowledged the truth and confessed your guilt; like a daughter, you had seemed to profess your willingness to return to the mercy and lovingkindness of your Father. Yet after all this, you have behaved even worse than before, either because you were not being sincere and were putting on an act, or because Justice has willed that I should do penance anew for my own old sins, so long persisted in; the penance, that is, of not meriting to see you feed peacefully at the breast of holy Church, who was there waiting to feed you, and to be fed by you—she feeding you with grace in the blood of the Lamb and you helping her with your support. For you saw how widowed she—the Church of Rome, seat and center of our faith—had become without her husband, and we without our father. Now that she has got him back again, she was looking to you to be a pillar supporting her husband, a shield ready to ward off the blows from him, and hit back at those who seek to wrest him 36. Scholars have long debated the origin of Catherine’s rose imagery. It appears that it had no connection with any coats of arms or factional badges but was simply a metaphor that she created for the moment.
from her. Oh, our ingratitude! Not only is he your father by his dignity, but your son, too, so it is very cruel of you to reverse things with the spectacle of a daughter quarrelling with her own father, a mother with her own son.37 This grieves me so deeply that I can carry no greater cross in this life. When I think of the letter I received from you, in which you confessed that Pope Urban was truly supreme father and pontiff, and said that you wished to obey him! Yet now I find the opposite. Alas! Round off your confession, for the love of God! What is needed for confession, as I said, is to confess the truth with contrition of heart, and to make satisfaction. Make satisfaction, then, by rendering your debt of obedience, since you have confessed that he is the vicar of Christ on earth. Obey, and so receive the fruit of grace and placate God’s wrath toward you. What has happened to the truth normally found in the mouth of a queen, which is usually, which must be, gospel? Nothing that she promises rightly and according to God must ever be taken back. And I see and have proof that you made a promise; that you said you were willing to obey the supreme pontiff, yet now you are doing the opposite, in word and in deed. I am appalled and unbearably grieved to see the eye of your understanding so darkened by the selflove induced by the devil’s illusions and evil counsel that you care nothing about your own damnation, the ruination of your people in soul and body, your own physical fate, or your reputation before the world. Sweetest mother, for the love of Christ crucified, be sweet, and not now bitter, to me. Come back to your senses a little; sleep on no longer in such a slumber, but rouse yourself in the little time you have left. Don’t wait for time which does not wait for you.… I am relying on the infinite goodness of God to give you the grace to force yourself to respond with great eagerness and prompt obedience to holy Church and to Pope Urban VI. God will not despise all the many prayers and tears that have been and are being poured out by His servants for your salvation. Be grateful and appreciative for such a gift, that the spring of filial piety may well up within you. I will say no more. Abide in the sweet and holy love of God. Sweet Jesus. Jesus, Love. 37. Neapolitan by birth, Bartolomeo Prignano (Urban VI) had been one of Joanna’s subjects before his elevation.
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A New Challenger to the Papacy’s Authority 96. John Wycliff, CONCERNING THE POPE 38 The Oxford scholar and priest John Wycliff (ca. 1330–84) rose to public prominence in 1371 for his assault on the Church’s claim that its property was inviolate from all use, tax, and seizure by the state, even in times of emergency. From this beginning, Wycliff went on to develop a theory of dominion that included the proposition that lay rulers could rightfully deprive sinful clerics of their ecclesiastical holdings because their sins made them unworthy of exercising any legitimate authority. Wycliff ’s increasingly radical ideas came to the notice of Pope Gregory XI, who in 1377 issued a list of eighteen erroneous propositions attributed to Wycliff and ordered his arrest and examination. Various attempts to condemn Wycliff in England initially failed, largely due to the protection afforded him by several royal patrons. Thus protected, Wycliff continued to write voluminously, producing theological treatises that increasingly deviated from the teachings of the Roman Church. Among his conclusions was the doctrine of election and predestination—the belief that God predestines every human for either salvation (the elect) or damnation. Based on this theological premise, Wycliff drew a sharp distinction between the invisible Church of the elect and the visible, earthly Church of Rome, which was mired in corruption. In this and many other ways, Wycliff anticipated the theological teachings of the sixteenth-century Protestant reformers. Finally, in 1382, an English church council condemned twenty-four of Wycliff ’s opinions and forced some of his followers to recant them. Wycliff, however, was neither excommunicated nor removed from his clerical office. He continued writing, despite failing health, and died of a stroke on December 31, 1384. Wycliff ’s followers popularized his ideas (which he originally presented in rather dry, academic Latin treatises) by producing English digests of his most important works. Wycliff possibly had a hand in producing some of these English tracts, which were read and used by a group of wandering lay preachers known as Lollards. Although the crown eventually suppressed heretical Lollardy during the fifteenth century, Wycliff ’s ideas traveled to Central Europe, where they had a significant impact on the thought of Jan Hus, the Bohemian reformer. In 1415, the Council of Constance condemned a long list of Wycliff ’s teachings and books and put an exclamation point on the condemnation by burning Hus alive as a heretic. Through Hus’s writings, however, some of Wycliff ’s ideas eventually came to the notice of Martin Luther. The following document is an excerpt from the Middle English pamphlet Concerning the Pope, a simplified reworking of some of the points made in Wycliff ’s learned work Concerning the Pope’s Power of late 1379. To avoid confusion, the editor has rendered the text into modern English.
Questions for Consideration 1. Can you find any internal evidence that allows us to assign an approximate date to this document? 2. Why do we conclude that this work was aimed at a general audience? 3. What does the author think of the Great Schism? 4. Which failings does the author find in the popes? 5. Which points do you think would strike the intended audience as especially telling? Why? 38. John Wycliff, Wycliff: Select English Writings, ed. Herbert E. Winn (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1929), 70–72. Modernized by A. J. Andrea.
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6. What, if anything, is heretical about this tract? Which points might an orthodox reformer agree with? In addressing this question, you might find it helpful to review the relevant sources in Chapters 7 and 10. 7. How, if at all, does this tract reflect the fourteenth century’s mood of crisis?
Note how God shows love for His Church through the schism that has recently befallen the papacy. Our faith teaches us through the words of Saint Paul that all good things happen to those of God’s children who fear Him,39 and so Christians should heed them. The first book of God’s law relates how God threatened the fiend when He said: I shall create an enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, and she shall totally crush your head.40 And so some people conclude that the holy prayers that the Church made to Christ and His mother moved Him to send this grace down to sever the head of Antichrist, so that his falsity might be better known. And it seems to them that the pope is Antichrist on Earth, because he is the opposite of Christ in life and lore. Christ was a very poor man from His birth to His death and forswore worldly riches and begging,41 in accord with the state of primal innocence,42 but Antichrist, in contrast to this, from the time that he is made pope to the time of his death, covets worldly wealth and tries in many shrewd ways to gain riches. Christ was a most meek man and urged that we learn from Him, but people say that the pope is the proudest man on Earth, and he makes lords kiss his feet, whereas Christ washed His apostles’ feet.43 Christ was a most unpretentious man in life, deeds, and words. People say that this pope is not like Christ in this way, for whereas Christ went on foot to cities and little towns alike, they say this pope desires to live in a castle in a grand manner. Whereas Christ came to John the Baptist to be baptized by him, the pope summons people to come to him wherever he might be, yea, as though Christ Himself, and not he, the pope, had 39. Romans 8:28, “In all things God works for the good of those who love him.” 40. Genesis, 3:15. The woman is Eve (see source 72). Christians regarded this as a prophecy of the birth of Mary, the New Eve, whose Son would destroy the Devil’s power (see source 46). 41. An oblique attack on the mendicant (begging) friars, whom Wycliff despised. 42. The innocence of Adam and Eve before the Fall. 43. John, 13:4–11. See source 73.
summoned them to Him. Christ embraced young and poor in token of his humility; people say that the pope desires to embrace worldly prestige and not good people for the sake of God, lest he dishonor himself. Christ was busy preaching the Gospel, and not for worldly prestige or for profit; people say that the pope allows this, but he would gladly make laws to which he gives more prestige and sanction than Christ’s law. Christ so loved His flock that He laid down his life for them and suffered sharp pain and death in order to bring them to bliss. People say that the pope so loves the prestige of this world that he grants people absolution that guarantees a straight path to Heaven so that they might perform acts that redound to his honor. And so this foolishness could be the cause of the death, in body and soul, of many thousands of people.44 And how does he follow Christ in this way? Christ was so patient and suffered wrongs so well that He prayed for His enemies and taught His apostles not to take vengeance. People say that the pope of Rome wishes to be avenged in every way by killing and by damning and by other painful means that he devises. Christ taught people to live well by the example of His own life and by His words, for He did what He taught and taught in a manner that was consonant with His actions. People say that the pope acts contrary to this. His life is not an example of how other people should live, for no one should live like him, inasmuch as he acts in a manner that accords to his high state. In every deed and word, Christ sought the glory of God and suffered many assaults on His manhood for this goal; people say that the pope, to the contrary, seeks his own glory in every way, yea, even if it means the loss of the worship of God. And so he manufactures many groundless gabblings. If these and similar accusations are true of the pope of Rome, he is the very Antichrist and not Christ’s vicar on Earth.
44. A reference to indulgences, especially those granted for crusades and pilgrimages to Rome.
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The Hundred Years’ War and the English Peasant Rebellion 97. Jean Froissart, CHRONICLES OF FRANCE, ENGLAND, AND NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES45 Latin was the language of choice of almost all clerical historians throughout the Middle Ages. Except for a few outliers, such as the Old English Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, vernacular histories were simply not in vogue before 1200. Early in the thirteenth century, however, two French crusader-soldiers, Geoffrey de Villehardouin and Robert de Clari, independent of one another, narrated accounts of the Fourth Crusade in their native tongue, thereby initiating a tradition among a handful of French historians of presenting history in vernacular prose, a practice that Jean de Joinville continued a century later. The earliest French-language histories revolved around the later crusades, adventures in which French knighthood played such a prominent part. For much of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, however, the series of campaigns fought between the English and French, known as the Hundred Years’ War, captivated the attention of French chroniclers. The greatest of the French-language chroniclers of the Hundred Years’ War was Jean Froissart (ca. 1337–after 1404), a cleric, courtier, writer of romances, and poet. Froissart sprang from the merchant class of Flanders but attached himself to the nobility of England and France and shared the values of his patrons. As he noted, he wrote history “to encourage all valorous hearts and to show them honorable examples.” Beginning his task around 1370, Froissart composed a chronicle in four books that spanned the period 1325 to 1400 and centered on the battles waged by the flower of European chivalry. The first book covered the history of his age to 1377 and heavily borrowed from The True Chronicles of Jean le Bel of Liege for events up to 1361. Thereafter, Froissart depended on his own observations and research, traveling widely to interview participants and view documents. Our first excerpt describes the Battle of Poitiers of 1356, in which the forces of the prince of Wales, Edward of England, defeated King John II of France. The second excerpt, from Book II, deals with the English Peasants’ Rebellion of 1381.
Questions for Consideration 1. The English victory at Poitiers stunned people throughout Europe. Even the English thought it a miracle. Does this account suggest any factors that were key to the victory? How so? 2. Compare the actions of the English archers and men-at-arms with the scene of King John’s capture. What does your answer suggest about fourteenth-century combat? 3. Consider how (according to Froissart and his source) Prince Edward treated two enemies: Robert de Duras and King John. What does this account of his actions suggest? 4. It has been said that fourteenth-century English and French nobles exhibited a growing sense of ethnic and even proto-national identity but, at the same time, possessed a strong sense of class loyalty that transcended ethnic and regional boundaries. Comment on this judgment. 5. According to Froissart, why were the English peasants disaffected? 6. Consider Froissart’s testimony in light of what Knighton tells us. How do the two sources portray the state of the English peasantry in the second half of the fourteenth century?
45. From Thomas Johnes, trans., Chronicles of England, France, and Spain and the Adjoining Countries (New York: Colonial Press, 1901), 51–65, 211–30, passim.
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7. John Ball was a priest. Some scholars have seen a connection between Wycliff ’s ideas and those espoused by Ball. How strong does this possible connection seem to you? 8. Consider the peasants’ actions in and around London and their relationship with the citizens of London. What role(s) did the Londoners play, and what do their actions suggest about the nature of this rebellion? 9. Consider the people and places that the rebels focused on in their attacks. Does a pattern emerge? If so, what does it suggest? 10. How and why was King Richard able to defeat the rebellion, and what conclusions do you draw from that victory? 11. Clearly the speeches are Froissart’s invention (and they allow us to infer quite a bit about his mindset), but otherwise how close to reality do these two accounts appear to be? What are the clues on which you base your judgment?
The prince and his army…marched forward, burning and destroying the country in their approach to Anjou and Touraine. The French troops had taken up their quarters in a plain before the city of Poitiers, and it was reported to Edward by a detachment of his own men, that they were in immense numbers. “God help us,” said Edward, “we must now consider which will be the best manner to fight them most advantageously.” This night the English quartered in a very strong position, not far from the enemy, among vineyards and hedges. The next day was Sunday, and early in the morning after he had heard Mass and received Communion, the king of France, who was very impatient for battle, ordered his whole army to prepare. Upon this the trumpet sounded, and everyone mounted his horse, and made for that part of the plain where the king’s banner was planted. There were to be seen all the nobility of France richly dressed in brilliant armor, with banners and pennons gaily displayed; for no knight or squire, for fear of dishonor, dared to remain behind.… As soon as the cardinal’s negotiations were ended,46 the prince of Wales thus addressed his army: “Now, my gallant fellows, what though we be a small number compared with our enemies? Do not be cast down; victory does not always follow numbers; it is the Almighty who bestows it. I entreat you to exert yourselves and to combat manfully,
for if it please God and Saint George47 you shall see me this day act like a true knight.” The whole army of the prince, including everyone, did not amount to 8,000; while the French, counting all sorts of persons, were upwards of 60,000 combatants, among whom were more than 3,000 knights; however, the English were in high spirits.… The engagement now began on both sides; and the battalion of the [French] marshals48 was advancing before those who were intended to break the battalion of the [English] archers, and had entered the lane, where the hedges on both sides were lined by the archers, who, as soon as they saw them fairly entered, began shooting in such excellent manner from each side of the hedge that the horses smarting under the pain of the wounds made by their bearded arrows would not advance, but turned about, and by their unruliness threw their riders, and caused the greatest confusion, so that the battalion of the marshals could never approach that of the prince. However, there were some knights and squires so well mounted, that by the strength of their horses they passed through and broke the hedge; but even these, in spite of their efforts, could not get up to the prince’s battalion.… The battalion of the marshals was soon after put to rout by the arrows of the archers, and the assistance of the men-at-arms, who rushed among them as they were struck down, and seized and slew them at their pleasure.…
46. Cardinal Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, who unsuccessfully attempted to prevent bloodshed through mediation.
47. A legendary warrior-saint who served as patron saint of England. 48. Mounted knights.
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To say the truth, the English archers were of infinite service to their army, for they shot so thickly and so well, that the French did not know which way to turn themselves to avoid their arrows.… In that part the battle was very hot, and greatly crowded; many a one was unhorsed, and you must know that whenever anyone fell, he had but little chance of getting up again. As the prince was thus advancing upon his enemies, followed by his division, and upon the point of charging them, he perceived the Lord Robert de Duras lying dead near a small bush on his right hand, with his banner beside him, and ten or twelve of his people, upon which he ordered two of his squires and three archers to place the body upon a shield, and carry it to Poitiers, and present it from him to the cardinal of Périgord, saying, “I salute him by that token.”49… The English archers shot so well that none cared to come within reach of their arrows, and they put to death many who could not ransom themselves.… King John, on his part, proved himself a good knight; indeed, if a fourth of his people had behaved as well, the day would have been his own. Those also who were more immediately about him acquitted themselves to the best of their power and were either slain or taken prisoner. Scarcely any attempted to escape.… During the whole engagement the Lord de Chargny, who was near the king, and carried the royal banner, fought most bravely; the English and Gascons,50 however, poured so fast upon the king’s division, that they broke through the ranks by force, and in the confusion the Lord de Chargny was slain, with the banner of France in his hand. There was now much eagerness manifested to take the king; and those who were nearest to him, and knew him, cried out, “Surrender yourself, surrender yourself, or you are a dead man.” In this part of the field was a young knight from St. Omer, engaged in the service of the king of England, whose name was Denys de Morbecque; for three years he had attached himself to the English, on account of having been banished from France in his younger days for a murder committed during an affray at Saint Omer. Now it fortunately happened for this knight, that he was at the time near to the king of France, to whom he said in good French, “Sire, sire, surrender yourself.” The king, who found himself very disagreeably situated, turning to him asked, “To whom shall I surrender myself ? Where
is my cousin, the prince of Wales?51 If I could see him, I would speak to him.” “Sire,” replied Sir Denys, “he is not here; but surrender yourself to me, and I will lead you to him.” “Who are you?” said the king. “Sire, I am Denys de Morbecque, a knight from Artois; but I serve the king of England because I cannot belong to France, having forfeited all I possessed there.” The king then gave him his right-hand glove, and said, “I surrender myself to you.”...
49. Robert de Duras was the cardinal’s nephew. 50. King Edward III was also duke of Gascony.
51. King Philip III of France was Prince Edward’s great-greatgrandfather and King John’s great-grandfather.
Once it is clear that his army has carried the day, Prince Edward begins to wonder what has happened to King John and dispatches the earl of Warwick and Lord Reginald Cobham to search for the French king. The two barons immediately mounting their horses left the prince and made for a small hillock that they might look about them; from this position they perceived a crowd of men-at-arms on foot, advancing very slowly. The king of France was in the midst of them, and in great danger, for the English and Gascons had taken him from Sir Denys de Morbecque, and were disputing who should have him; some bawling out, “It is I that have got him;” “No, no,” replied others, “we have him.” The king, to escape from this perilous situation, said, “Gentlemen, gentlemen, I pray you to conduct me and my son, in a courteous manner, to my cousin the prince, and do not make so great a riot about my capture, for I am a great lord, and I can make all sufficiently rich.” These words, and others which fell from the king, appeased them a little; but the disputes were always beginning again, and the men did not move a step without rioting. When the two barons saw this troop of people they descended from the hillock, and sticking spurs into their horses, made up to them. On their arrival, they asked what the matter was and were informed that the king of France had been made prisoner, and that upwards of ten knights and squires challenged him at the same time as belonging to each of them. The two barons then pushed through the crowd by main force and ordered all to draw aside. They commanded in the name of the prince, and under pain of instant death, that everyone should keep his distance, and none approach unless ordered so to do. All then retreated behind the king, and the two barons, dismounting, advanced to the royal prisoner with profound reverence, and conducted him in a peaceable manner to the prince of Wales.…
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Lord James Audley had not long left the prince’s presence, when the earl of Warwick and Lord Reginald Cobham entered the pavilion and presented the king of France to him. The prince made a very low obeisance to the king and gave him all the comfort as he was able. He ordered wine and spices to be brought, which, as a mark of his great affection, he presented to the king himself. Thus was this battle won, as you have heard related, on the plains of Maupertuis, two leagues from the city of Poitiers, on the 19th day of September 1356. The victory brought much wealth to the English, for there were large quantities of gold and silver plate, and rich jewels in the French camp. Indeed, the loss on the part of the French was very great; besides the king, his son Lord Philip, seventeen earls, and others who were taken prisoners, it is reported that five or six thousand were left dead on the field. When evening came the prince of Wales entertained his royal prisoner at supper with marked attention. The next day the English left Poitiers and advanced to Bordeaux, where they passed the winter in feasting and merriment. In England, when the news arrived of the battle of Poitiers, and of the defeat of the French, there were great rejoicings, solemn thanksgivings were offered up in all the churches, and bonfires made in every town and village.… When winter was over and the season was sufficiently advanced for traveling, the prince made preparations for quitting Bordeaux, and for conducting the French king and his principal prisoners to England, leaving behind him several of his own knights to guard the cities and towns that he had taken. After a long and tedious voyage, he and his retinue, together with the captured monarch, arrived at Sandwich, disembarked, and proceeded to Canterbury. When the king of England was informed of this, he gave orders to the citizens of London to make such preparations as were suitable for the reception of so mighty a person as the king of France. The prince and his royal charge remained one day at Canterbury, where they made their offerings to the shrine of Saint Thomas,52 and the next morning proceeded to Rochester, the third day to Dartford, and the fourth to London, where they were received with much honor and distinction. The king of France, as he rode through London, was mounted on a white steed, with very rich furniture, and the prince of Wales on a little black hackney by his side. The palace of the Savoy was first appropriated to 52. Saint Thomas Becket, who had been murdered before Canterbury Cathedral’s high altar in 1170. See sources 70 and 100.
the French king’s use; but soon after his arrival he was removed to Windsor Castle, where he was treated with the greatest possible attention, and hunting, hawking, and other amusements were provided for him.
*** There happened great commotions among the lower orders in England, by which that country was nearly ruined. In order that this disastrous rebellion might serve as an example to humankind, I will speak of all that was done from the information I had at the time. It is customary in England, as well as in several other countries, for the nobility to have great privileges over the commonalty; that is to say, the lower orders are bound by law to plough the lands of the gentry, to harvest their grain, to carry it home to the barn, to thrash and winnow it; they are also bound to harvest and carry home the hay. All these services the prelates and the gentlemen exact of their inferiors; and in the counties of Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Bedford, these services are more oppressive than in other parts of the kingdom. In consequence of this, evil people living in these districts began to murmur, saying, that in the beginning of the world there were no slaves, and that no one ought to be treated as such, unless he had committed treason against his lord, as Lucifer53 did against God; but they had done no such thing, for they were neither angels nor spirits, but men formed after the same likeness as these lords who treated them as beasts. This they would bear no longer; they were determined to be free, and if they labored or did any work, they would be paid for it. A crazy priest in the county of Kent, called John Ball, who for his absurd preaching had thrice been confined in prison by the archbishop of Canterbury, was greatly instrumental in exciting these rebellious ideas. Every Sunday after Mass, as the people were coming out of church, this John Ball was accustomed to assembling a crowd around him in the marketplace and preaching to them. On such occasions he would say, “My good friends, matters cannot go on well in England until all things shall be in common; when there shall be neither vassals nor lords; when the lords shall be no more masters than ourselves. How ill they behave to us! For what reason do they thus hold us in bondage? Are we not all descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? And what can they show, 53. The rebellious angel who became the Devil.
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or what reason can they give, why they should be more masters than ourselves? They are clothed in velvet and rich stuffs, ornamented with ermine and other furs, while we are forced to wear poor clothing. They have wines, spices, and fine bread, while we have only rye and the refuse of the straw; and when we drink it must be water. They have handsome seats and manors, while we must brave the wind and rain in our labors in the field; and it is by our labor they have wherewith to support their pomp. We are called slaves, and if we do not perform our service we are beaten, and we have no sovereign to whom we can complain or who would be willing to hear us. Let us go to the king54 and remonstrate with him; he is young, and from him we may obtain a favorable answer, and if not we must ourselves seek to amend our condition.” With such language as this did John Ball harangue the people of his village every Sunday after Mass. The archbishop, on being informed of it, had him arrested and imprisoned for two or three months by way of punishment; but the moment he was out of prison, he returned to his former course.55 Many in the city of London, envious of the rich and noble, having heard of John Ball’s preaching, said among themselves that the country was badly governed, and that the nobility had seized upon all the gold and silver. These wicked Londoners, therefore, began to assemble in parties, and to show signs of rebellion; they also invited all those who held like opinions in the adjoining counties to come to London, telling them that they would find the town open to them and the commonalty of the same way of thinking as themselves, and that they would so press the king that there should no longer be a slave in England. By this means the men of Kent, Essex, Sussex, Bedford, and the adjoining counties, in number about 60,000, were brought to London, under command of Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and John Ball. This Wat Tyler, who was chief of the three, had been a tiler of houses—a bad man and a great enemy to the nobility. When these wicked people first began their disturbances, all London, with the exception of those who favored them, was much alarmed. The mayor and rich citizens assembled in council and debated whether they should shut the gate and refuse to admit them; however, upon mature reflection they determined not to do so, as they might run the risk of having
the suburbs burned. The gates of the city were therefore thrown open, and the rabble entered and lodged as they pleased. True it is that full two-thirds of these people knew neither what they wanted, nor for what purpose they had come together; they followed one another like sheep.… In order that gentlemen and others may take example and learn to correct such wicked rebels, I will most amply detail how the whole business was conducted. On the Monday preceding the feast of the Holy Sacrament in the year 1381,56 these people sallied forth from their homes to come to London, intending, as they said, to remonstrate with the king, and to demand their freedom. At Canterbury, they met John Ball, Wat Tyler, and Jack Straw. On entering this city they were well feasted by the inhabitants, who were all of the same way of thinking as themselves; and having held a council there, resolved to proceed on their march to London. They also sent emissaries across the Thames into Essex, Suffolk, and Bedford, to press the people of those parts to do the same, in order that the city might be quite surrounded. It was the intention of the leaders of this rabble that all the different parties should be collected on the feast of the Holy Sacrament on the day following. At Canterbury the rebels entered the Church of Saint Thomas, where they did much damage; they also pillaged the apartments of the archbishop.… After this they plundered the Abbey of St. Vincent, and then, leaving Canterbury, took the road toward Rochester. As they passed they collected people from the villages right and left, and on they went like a tempest, destroying all the houses belonging to attorneys, the king’s agents, and the archbishop, which came in their way.… On Friday morning the rebels, who lodged in the square of Saint Catherine’s, before the Tower,57 began to make themselves ready. They shouted much and said, that if the king would not come out to them, they would attack the Tower, stone it, and slay all who were within. The king, alarmed at these menaces, resolved to speak with the rabble; he therefore sent orders for them to retire to a handsome meadow at Mile-end, where, in the summertime, people go to amuse themselves, at the same time signifying that he would meet them there and grant their demands. Proclamation to this effect was made in the king’s name, and thither, accordingly, the commonalty of the different villages began to march; many, however, did
54. Richard II. 55. An ecclesiastical court had condemned Ball to life imprisonment, but commoners broke him out of jail.
56. The three days of the feast of Corpus Christi (Body of Christ), June 13–15. 57. The Tower of London, which was a royal residence.
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not care to go, but stayed behind in London, being more desirous of the riches of the nobles and the plunder of the city. Indeed, covetousness and the desire of plunder was the principal cause of these disturbances, as the rebels showed very plainly. When the gates of the Tower were thrown open, and the king, attended by his two brothers and other nobles, had passed through, Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and John Ball, with upward of 400 others, rushed in by force, and running from chamber to chamber, found the archbishop of Canterbury, by name Simon, a valiant and wise man, whom the rascals seized and beheaded. The prior of Saint John’s suffered the same fate,58 and likewise a Franciscan friar, a Doctor of Medicine, who was attached to the duke of Lancaster, also a sergeant-at-arms whose name was John Laige. The heads of these four persons the rebels fixed on long spikes and had them carried before them through the streets of London; and when they had made sufficient mockery of them, they caused them to be placed on London Bridge, as if they had been traitors to their king and country.… King Richard meets the rebels outside London. The king showed great courage, and on his arrival at the appointed spot instantly advanced into the midst of the assembled multitude, saying in a most pleasing manner, “My good people, I am your king and your lord, what is it you want? What do you wish to say to me?” Those who heard him made answer, “We wish you to make us free forever. We wish to be no longer called slaves, nor held in bondage.” The king replied, “I grant your wish; now therefore return to your homes, and let two or three from each village be left behind, to whom I will order letters to be given with my seal, fully granting every demand you have made: and in order that you may be the more satisfied, I will direct that my banners be sent to every stewardship, castlewick,59 and corporation.”… Thus did this great assembly break up. The king instantly employed upwards of thirty secretaries, who drew up the letters as fast as they could, and when they were sealed and delivered to them, the people departed to their 58. Archbishop Simon Sudbury and Prior Robert Hales, who was in charge of the Priory of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitaler). Archbishop Simon was the realm’s lord chancellor and Prior Robert was treasurer of the exchequer. 59. The territory under the jurisdiction of a castle.
own counties. The principal mischief, however, remained behind: I mean Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and John Ball, who declared, that though the people were satisfied, they were by no means so, and with them were about 30,000 also of the same mind. These all continued in the city without any wish to receive the letters or the king’s seal, but did all they could to throw the town into such confusion, that the lords and rich citizens might be murdered and their houses pillaged and destroyed. The Londoners suspected this, and kept themselves at home, well-armed and prepared to defend their property.… At the same time that a party of these wicked people in London burned the palace of the Savoy, the church and house of Saint John’s, and the hospital of the Templars,60 there were collected numerous bodies of men from Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, who, according to the orders they had received, were marching towards London. On their road they stopped near Norwich, and forced everyone whom they met to join them.… This day all the rabble again assembled under Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and John Ball, at a place called Smithfield, where every Friday the horse market is kept.61 There were present about 20,000, and many more were in the city, breakfasting, and drinking Rhenish wine…in the taverns…without paying for anything; and happy was he who could give them good cheer to satisfy them. Those who collected in Smithfield had with them the king’s banner, which had been given to them the preceding evening; and the wretches, notwithstanding this, wanted to pillage the city, their leaders saying, that hitherto they had done nothing. “The pardon which the king has granted will be of no use to us; but if we be of the same mind, we shall pillage this rich and powerful town of London before those from Essex, Suffolk, Cambridge,…Lincoln, York, and Durham shall arrive; for they are on their road.… Let us, then, be 60. The Savoy Palace was the opulent London home of John of Gaunt. The Priory of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem in Clerkenwell, outside the walls of the city, had a reputation for wealth. The papacy had disbanded the Templars in 1312. Their Temple Church and lands in London came into the possession of the Knights Hospitaler, who apparently set up a hospital there. In 1346, they leased part of the property to a college of lawyers, which was the origin of today’s Middle Temple Inn of Court. Sometime before 1388, the knights leased the rest of the property to another college of lawyers, which was the origin of today’s Inner Temple Inn of Court. 61. Smithfield, located outside the city walls, was a livestock market, a site for summer fairs, and a place for public executions.
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beforehand in plundering the wealth of the city; for if we wait for their arrival, they will wrest it from us.” To this opinion all had agreed, when the king, attended by 60 horses, appeared in sight; he was at the time not thinking of the rabble, but had intended to continue his ride, without coming into London; however, when he arrived before the Abbey of Saint Bartholomew,62 which is in Smithfield, and saw the crowd of people, he stopped, saying that he would ascertain what they wanted, and endeavor to appease them. Wat Tyler, seeing the king and his party, said to his men, “Here is the king, I will go and speak with him; do you not stir until I give you a signal.” He then made a motion with his hand, and added, “When you shall see me make this signal, then step forward, and kill everyone except the king; but hurt him not, for he is young, and we can do what we please with him; carrying him with us through England, we shall be lords of the whole country, without any opposition.”… Wat Tyler approaches the king and begins negotiating with him. In the midst of this parley, the mayor of London strikes Tyler down, and one of the king’s squires finishes him off with a sword. When the rebels found that their leader was dead, they drew up in a sort of battle array, each man having his bow bent before him. The king at this time certainly hazarded much, though it turned out most fortunately for him; for as soon as Tyler was on the ground, he left his attendants, giving orders that no one should follow him, and riding up to the rebels, who were advancing to revenge their leader’s death, said, “Gentlemen, what are you about: you shall have me for your captain: I am your king, remain peaceable.” The greater part, on hearing these words, were quite ashamed, and those among them who were inclined for peace began to slip away; the riotous ones, however, kept their ground. The king returned to his lords and consulted with them what next should be done. Their advice was to make for the fields; but the mayor said, that to retreat would be of no avail. “It is quite proper to act as we have done; and I reckon we shall very soon receive assistance from our good friends in London.” While things were in this state, several persons ran to London, crying out, “They are killing the king and our mayor;” upon which alarm, all those of the king’s party sallied out towards Smithfield, in number about seven or eight thousand.… These all drew up opposite to the 62. Actually, it was an Augustinian priory.
rebels, who had with them the king’s banner, and showed as if they intended to maintain their ground by offering combat.… As soon as Sir Robert Knolles63 arrived at Smithfield, his advice was immediately to fall upon the insurgents, and slay them; but King Richard would not consent to this. “You shall first go to them,” he said, “and demand my banner; we shall then see how they will behave; for I am determined to have this by fair means or foul.” The new knights were accordingly sent forward, and on approaching the rebels made signs to them not to shoot, as they wished to speak with them; and when within hearing, said, “Now attend; the king orders you to send back his banners; and if you do so, we trust he will have mercy upon you.” The banners, upon this, were given up directly, and brought to the king. It was then ordered, under pain of death, that all those who had obtained the king’s letters should deliver them up. Some did so, but not all; and the king on receiving them had them torn in pieces in their presence. You must know that from the time the king’s banners were surrendered, these fellows kept no order; but the greater part, throwing their bows upon the ground, took to their heels and returned to London. Sir Robert Knolles was very angry that the rebels were not attacked at once and all slain; however, the king would not consent to it, saying, that he would have ample revenge without doing so. When the rabble had dispersed, the king and his lords, to their great joy, returned in good array to London.… John Ball and Jack Straw were found hidden in an old ruin, where they had secreted themselves, thinking to steal away when things were quiet; but this they were prevented doing, for their own men betrayed them. With this capture the king and his barons were much pleased, and had their heads cut off, as was that of Tyler, and fixed on London Bridge, in place of those whom these wretches themselves had put there. News of this total defeat of the rebels in London was sent throughout the neighboring counties, in order that all those who were on their way to London might hear of it; and as soon as they did so, they instantly returned to their homes, without daring to advance farther.… After the death of Tyler, Jack Straw, John Ball, and several others, the people being somewhat appeased, the king resolved to visit his bailiwicks, castlewicks, and 63. A freebooter who was infamous for the devastation caused by his military tactics in France.
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stewardships, in order to punish the principal insurgents, and to recover the letters of pardon which had been forced from him, as well as to settle other matters tending to the peace of the realm. By a secret summons he assembled 500 spears and as many archers, and with them took the road to Kent, in which quarter the rebellion had first broken out. The first place he stopped at was a village called Comprinke; here he ordered the mayor, and all the men of the village, to be called, with whom one of his council remonstrated, telling them how much they had erred, and that because this mischief, which had nearly proved the ruin of England, must have had some advisers, it was better that the ringleaders should suffer than the whole; his majesty, therefore, demanded, under pain of incurring his displeasure forever, that those should be pointed out who had been most culpable. When the people heard this and saw that the innocent might escape by pointing out the guilty,
they looked at each other, and said: “My lord, here is one by whom this town was excited.” Immediately the person alluded to was taken and hanged, as were seven others. The letters-patent,64 which had been granted, were demanded back, and given up to the king’s officer, who tore them in pieces, saying, “We command, in the king’s name, all you who are here assembled to depart everyone to his own home in peace; that you never more rebel against the king or against his ministers. By the punishment which has been inflicted your former deeds are pardoned.” The people with one voice exclaimed, “God bless the king and his good council.” In the same manner they acted in many other places in Kent, and, indeed, throughout England, so that upwards of 1,500 were beheaded or hanged. 64. An open, or unbound, letter that confers a right.
To Ransom a King 98. THE FRANC À CHEVAL Following the Treaty of Brétigny of May 25, 1360, which ceded about one-third of France to Edward III, King John II had been released in exchange for eighty-three hostages (including his son, Prince Louis) and the promise of payment of a ransom of three million écus, a gold coin that John’s predecessor, Philip VI, had minted and spent in vast sums. With his treasury depleted, in December 1360, John authorized creation of a new gold coin, the franc à cheval (the mounted franc). Its immediate purpose was to pay off his ransom. The full ransom was never paid because when Prince Louis escaped from England, King John felt honor-bound to return to captivity. He arrived in England in January 1364, and died there three months later. John departed Earth, but the franc remained, coined with various images by succeeding kings. This, in fact, was the first royal coin to be termed a franc. Legend has it that franc derives from the ancient Frankish word for “free,” given that this coin was intended to hasten the king’s full freedom. It is more likely that the coin received its popular name from the inscription that runs along the edge of the coin: Iohannes Dei Gratia Francorum Rex ( John, by the grace of God, king of the French). The origin of its name is not important. What is significant is the artistry of the mint that crafted it. Weighing 3.88 grams of pure (24 karat) gold, the coin has an obverse (front) image of King John mounted on a charger.
Questions for Consideration 1. Explain the imagery depicted here. 2. Does the image of King John accord with the word picture of him that Froissart presents? If so, how so? If not, why not?
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Illus. 12.3 The franc à cheval, obverse.
Social Commentary Perhaps the fact that Europeans could laugh at themselves in the midst of the many crises that beset them is proof positive of the basic resiliency of fourteenth-century society. As the following two sources illustrate, insightful commentary on the many ways that individuals and classes deviated from society’s ideals and highest standards could be and often was presented with a wry smile, rather than a worried frown.
Disorder in the Court 99. Franco Sacchetti, THREE HUNDRED NOVELLAS 65 John of Viterbo explained how government in an Italian commune functioned in theory (source 61), but only a satirist could do justice to the human comedy that was an ever-present reality in the busy law courts of Italy’s cities. Franco Sacchetti (ca. 1332–1400), a citizen of Florence who rose high in that city’s public offices, is most remembered today not for his active political life but for his collection of novellas. The novella, the most distinctive literary genre of fourteenth-century Italy, was essentially a secular variation of the exemplum, or moral anecdote, that popular preachers used in their sermons. In theory, each novella should contain an edifying moral lesson, but in reality their primary purpose was 65. Franco Sacchetti, Il Trecentonovelle, ed. Antonio Lanza (Florence: Sansoni, 1984), 362–65 (novella CLXIII), trans. Blake Beattie. Reprinted by the kind permission of the translator.
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entertainment, often with an earthy flavor. Written not in Latin but in the vernacular dialects of Italy, these short stories attest the vigorous culture of a literate lay society in late-medieval Italian cities. Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–75) of Florence, whose Decameron was and is the most justly celebrated of all novella collections, defined and popularized the genre, and his influence on those who followed, including Sacchetti, was profound. The Decameron’s one hundred novellas were held together by an overarching theme—a group of young urbanites, fleeing the plague in Florence, amuse themselves in their rural hideaway by telling stories. Sacchetti borrowed the setting of a flight from a plague-stricken city as the background for his own collection of novellas and freely acknowledged his debt to Boccaccio. At the same time, his Three Hundred Novellas (of which 223 are extant) is distinctive in content, inasmuch as its author drew heavily on his own political experiences and wide travels. Its tone is also distinctive. The language is less artful than Boccaccio’s and thereby more authentically common. In fact, its humor and language are often crude. If Boccaccio is a fine glass of Chianti classico, then Sacchetti is a tumbler of raw Tuscan table wine. The humorous characterizations are also very much Sacchetti’s own, as is the social criticism, which he aimed at city government, clerical corruption, and the pretensions of the privileged classes. True to the genre, however, Sacchetti wanted, above all else, to tell entertaining stories based on the humorous side of daily life in Tuscany. In this novella, the author takes dead aim at the legal profession, which flourished and proliferated in urban Italy’s highly litigious environment. By the end of the story, none of the characters come off looking good—which was, in all likelihood, exactly what Sacchetti’s readers demanded from a story about lawyers.
Questions for Consideration 1. On the basis of this story, describe the different levels of Florence’s legal profession and explain the functions of each. 2. What does the courtroom scene tell us about fourteenth-century Florentine judicial procedure? 3. What stereotypes does Sacchetti employ in drawing each of his characters? What might these various stereotypes suggest about popular images of notaries, lawyers, and judges?
Once, in the neighborhood of Santo Brancazio,66 Florence, there was a notary67 named Ser68 Bonavere. He was a big, coarse man, quite jaundiced—practically yellow skinned69—and badly built, as if he had been hewn with a pickaxe. He was an ever-eager petitioner, and right or 66. Each neighborhood, or popolo, was identified by its parish church. 67. A professional who specialized in drawing up private and public documents according to established formulas that gave the documents legal validity. 68. An honorific title of respect used especially for notaries and priests. 69. According to fourteenth-century medical theory, yellowish skin was indicative of a bilious, or irascible, temper due to an overabundance of yellow bile in the system.
wrong, he never ceased to dispute. And it was his custom that he never had an inkwell or pen or ink in the pen-case he carried. And if, while going through the street, he was asked to draft a contract, he would search his pen-case and say that through forgetfulness he had left the inkwell and pen at home, and on that account, he said, they should go to the grocer and pick up a reed and folio of paper. Now it happened that a rich man from those parts was nearing death after a long illness and wished to make a will, and his relatives feared he might die before he could do this. With one of them at the window, they spied Ser Bonavere making his way through the street. They called out that he should come up and meet them halfway on the stairs, and they said he had been sent by God to make this much-needed will. Ser Bonavere searched the pencase and said that he did not have his inkwell. He said
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that he would go for it at once, and so he went. When he got home, he took great pains for a good hour to find the inkwell and a pen. The others, who wished that the good man who was dying should make his will, saw how long Ser Bonavere stayed away. Fearing that the sick man might not die, they quickly sent for Ser Nigi da Santo Donato and had him make the will. Finally Ser Bonavere left his house, after having spent a good deal of time softening the wick of his inkwell,70 and arrived to draw up the will. But he was told that he had taken so long that they had had Ser Nigi do it. Greatly humiliated, he turned back. And lamenting sorely to himself over the loss that seemed to have befallen him, he thought for the longest time about actually supplying himself with ink and folios and pens and a quill-case, so that a similar misfortune could not interfere with his plans again. And when he reached the grocer’s shop, he bought a gathering of folios, which he bound up tight and tossed into his pen-case; and he bought a phial with its chamber full of ink and hung it from his belt; and he bought not one pen, but a bundle of pens, and one enormous pen, big enough to last a large brigade for a full day, and he hung it from his side in a leather spice-pouch. And so furnished, he said: “Now we’ll see if I’m ready to draw up a will like Ser Nigi!” With Ser Bonavere so well furnished in this manner, it happened that he went to the Palazzo del Podestà71 that same day to give an exception to a collaterale72 of the podestà, who came from Monte di Falco.73 This judge, an elderly man, wore a biretta74 encircled with whole squirrelskins, and was clad in red cloth. He was sitting at the bench when the aforementioned Ser Bonavere showed up with the packet at his side and with the folio of the exception in hand, and having plunged through the huge throng that was there, he arrived and stood before the judge. The 70. The inkwell had bristles that functioned as a wick to draw up ink from a reservoir below. 71. Known also as the Bargello (fortified tower), it was constructed in 1255 to house Florence’s captain of the people, and in 1261, the podestà (see source 61) moved in and from it conducted public business. Today it is a national museum. 72. A legal instrument used to contest the jurisdictional competence of a judge. 73. Present-day Montefalco is a town about 120 miles from Florence. As noted in source 61, most cities drew their podestà from outside. 74. A stiff, square ceremonial hat.
advocate of the other party was Messer75 Cristofano de’ Ricci, and the proctor76 was Ser Giovanni Fantoni. When they caught sight of Ser Bonavere with the exception, they thrust their way through the crowd and, dividing the ranks, came before the judge. And as they squeezed up against the judge, Messer Cristofano said: “This exception is just a case of pissing into the wind! We’re going to fight this one out with hatchets!” And as they bumped up against one another, the phial of ink was broken, and the greater part of the ink went over the long, hooded garment of the judge, and some splashed onto that of the advocate. When the judge saw this, he lifted the hem and, marveling to himself, he began to look around. He shouted to the servants to lock the door of the palazzo, so that the source of this fearful occurrence could be found. Seeing and hearing all this, Ser Bonavere lowered his hand; and when he searched for the phial, he found it all broken, with a lot of ink still in it. He quickly slipped between the men and departed with God. The judge, still stained almost from head to toe, and Messer Cristofano, covered with splashes, looked at one another, and, as if they had taken leave of their senses, some looked at one and some looked at the other. The judge stared at the ceiling vaults, as if the ink had come from above, and then he turned to the walls. And failing to see where such a thing could have come from, he turned toward the bench, looking above it. Then, bowing his head, he looked under it. Then, climbing the steps of the bench, he examined each step in turn. At last, having seen everything, he began to rub himself all over, as if he were going quite out of his mind. Messer Cristofano and Ser Giovanni, having a bit more of their wits about them, said: “Oh, Messer lo Collaterale, don’t touch it; leave it to dry.” Others said: “That robe is ruined.” Others said: “It looks like one of those gloomy dark things they used to wear.”77 75. An honorific title that implied high rank or social status, rather than just professional status (as Ser). Cristofano came from the aristocratic Ricci clan. 76. Unlike the advocate, whose principal expertise was courtroom oral arguments, the proctor was a highly trained lawyer who represented a private citizen in a suit by composing and filing all necessary documents. 77. Sacchetti, who probably composed these novellas between 1388 and 1395, appears to refer to Florence’s somber pre-plague styles. From a pre-plague population of approximately 110,000– 120,000, Florence was reduced to about 50,000 inhabitants by
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And with each one looking and speaking in this manner, the judge grew suspicious. Facing them, he said: “And do you know who has done this thing that has humiliated me?” Someone gave one explanation and someone else another, so that the judge, now practically beside himself, told his bailiff 78 to have the neighborhood public sanitation officer draw up an official complaint on the matter. And the bailiff, very nearly laughing, said: “And against whom shall he draw it up? It all happened to you, and you do not even know who did it! It would be better if you were to see that from now on no one brings ink to the bench. As for your robe, which you’ve made black to the feet, just cut it here; that would make it shorter. Who cares if you end up looking like a middle-rank soldier?” Hearing these arguments, the judge, mocked from essentially every side, followed through with what the bailiff had said to him and remained completely baffled by the affair. And for a good two months at the bench, he watched everyone who came there, certain that ink would continually be thrown at him. From what he cut from the feet of his robe he made socks and gloves, as best he could. Messer Cristofano, on his part, cut off the armbands, and lifting the strips, he shut his mouth in astonishment. And Ser Giovanni Fantoni, who was with him, said: “By Christ’s Gospel, that’s a great wonder!” 1351. In the midst of and following the epidemic, many people responded to the high mortality rate by wearing colorful, ostentatious, even provocative clothing as a way of affirming life. 78. The court’s law enforcement officer.
And so most people forgot it in the morning, except that Ser Bonavere had no more than one pair of white gloves, and these, when he found himself at home, he discovered to be all covered with ink, so that they looked like a boy’s abacus table. Those involved washed themselves and cleaned up the ink as best they could, but the best remedy was in resigning themselves to the whole business. It would have been better had the said Ser Bonavere not been a notary, but since he was, he should have gone out prepared and equipped with the tools of his craft, just like his colleagues. Had he done so, he would have drawn up the will, which would have been quite profitable for him. He would not have ruined the judge’s robe, nor that of Messer Cristofano, nor would he have driven the judge and the others who were there crazy, and he would not have spilled ink on his own tunic and gloves, which he ended up throwing out for a really quite lousy reason. And in the end, he would not have had the expense of the broken phial or the ink that was in it, though it could have been worse. For if that judge had known about him, he would have had to mend the ruined robes, and perhaps he would have had to do worse. And so it remains, as the saying goes: “In a hundred years and in a hundred months, water returns to its place of origin.”79 And so it went against Ser Bonavere who, having gone dry and without ink for a very long time, then set so much of it at his side that he painted the podestà’s court with it. 79. A loose rendition of Ecclesiastes, 1:7.
Fourteenth-Century English Society 100. Geoffrey Chaucer, THE CANTERBURY TALES 80 Like Sacchetti, Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1342–1400) was a man of public affairs whose lasting fame rests on his literary, not on his political, achievements. Also like Sacchetti, Chaucer was a sharp-eyed social satirist whose art was influenced by Giovanni Boccaccio but who was much more than a mere imitator. Chaucer was born in London, the son of a prosperous wine merchant. After obtaining a rudimentary classical education at one of London’s leading schools, he served as a page in the household of the countess of Ulster, where he learned courtly manners. In 1359, Chaucer campaigned with the army of Edward III in France, where he was captured. King Edward himself, who held Chaucer in high regard, paid a substantial portion of the young man’s ransom in 1360, and thereafter Chaucer rose rapidly in 80. Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales in Modern English, trans. J. U. Nicolson (Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Co., 1934), 2–9, 14–17; with slight modifications and notes based on the Middle English text by A. J. Andrea.
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the king’s service. Twice while serving on royal business, Chaucer visited Italy, where he probably had an opportunity to acquaint himself firsthand with the writings of Boccaccio. Chaucer read Italian, as well as French and Latin, and was a prodigious reader with an extraordinary memory. During these years as a trusted servant of King Edward, Chaucer also began to compose a variety of literary pieces in his native English. In 1386, Chaucer suddenly experienced a change in political fortune. He was relieved of his many offices and endured a three-year period of enforced retirement. This proved to be a blessing, insofar as it gave him the leisure to begin organizing his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer framed The Canterbury Tales around the device that a group of about thirty pilgrims, who have joined to travel to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury, will entertain one another by telling stories—two each on the way to Canterbury and two each on the return trip. Chaucer never completed this immense project, apparently tiring of it, but what he did leave behind is, for all of its flaws, one of the great works of European vernacular literature. Chaucer unabashedly borrowed the majority of his stories from ancient and modern writers, and collectively this collection of tales illustrates the wide range of wares in fourteenth-century Europe’s storehouse of imagination and experience. Chaucer’s special genius was not in creating the tales that he chose to tell; it lay, rather, in his delineation of character, as he used the stories and their tellers to shed light on many different aspects of contemporary English society. The following selection, which is translated into modern English from the original Middle English verse, comes from the “General Prologue,” in which Chaucer introduces his readers to some of the memorable characters who will journey to Canterbury. In modernizing the text, the translator has employed rhymed couplets in iambic pentameter, in imitation of Chaucer’s style.
Questions for Consideration 1. What do the knight’s campaigns suggest about late fourteenth-century crusading? 2. Compare the knight and the squire. Aside from their generational differences, what other message does Chaucer seemingly want to convey in his juxtaposition of the portraits of these two men? 3. Consider the yeoman. What seems to be Chaucer’s message regarding this individual? Does a rereading of Froissart shed any light on what Chaucer is doing here? 4. Consider Madame Eglantine and the monk. How well do they conform to the Rule of Saint Benedict? Consider Friar Hubert. How well does he conform to the Franciscan ideal? Who of the three is the most sympathetic, or likeable, character? Who is the least sympathetic? What does Chaucer seem to be saying in presenting these three portraits? 5. What do your answers to question 4 suggest about late fourteenth-century stereotypes of nuns, monks, and friars? 6. Consider the parson, especially given Chaucer’s portraits of the three other church figures. What is Chaucer telling us here? 7. Some scholars claim to find Lollard sympathies in Chaucer’s work; others find him quite orthodox in his religious beliefs and attitudes. Consider these excerpts from the prologue in light of the excerpts from Wycliff and Froissart, as well as the decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council (source 52). What do you conclude? 8. What does Chaucer’s portrait of the merchant suggest about the interests and activities of this class and the attitudes of nonmerchants toward the mercantile class? (Do not forget that Chaucer’s father was a successful merchant.)
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9. The Wife of Bath is one of Chaucer’s most unforgettable characters. How does he present her? Compare her with Madame Eglantine. What do you infer from Chaucer’s portraits of these two women? 10. Consider the knight, the merchant, and the Wife of Bath. What do their interests suggest about fourteenth-century travel? 11. All things considered, what do these nine people allow us to conclude about late fourteenthcentury English society? A knight there was, and he a worthy man,
This self-same worthy knight had been also
Who, from the moment he first began
At one time with the lord of Palatye
To ride about the world, loved chivalry,
Against another heathen in Turkey:
Truth, honour, freedom and all courtesy.
And always won he sovereign fame for prize.84
Full worthy was he in his liege-lord’s war,
Though so illustrious, he was very wise.
And therein had he ridden (none more far)
And bore himself as meekly as a maid.
As well in Christendom as heathenesse,
He never yet had any vileness said,
And honoured everywhere for worthiness.
In all his life, to whatsoever wight.85
At Alexandria, he, when it was won;
He was a truly perfect, gentle knight.
Full oft the table’s roster he’d begun81 Above all nations’ knightd in Prussia. In Lithuania82 raided he, and Russia No christened so oft of his degree. In far Granada at the siege was he Of Algaciras, and in Belmarie. At Ayas was he and at Satalye When they were won; and on the Middle Sea At many a noble meeting chanced to be. Of mortal battles he had fought fifteen, And he’d fought for our faith at Tramissene Three times in lists, and each time slain his foe.83 81. Sat at the honored place at the head of the table. 82. The translator rendered this as “Latvia,” but the Middle English is “Lettow,” which is clearly Lithuania. Moreover, Latvia makes no sense for the fourteenth century. 83. Three times he had engaged in single combat against an enemy. This was not a tournament.
84. In addition to the Hundred Years’ War (“Full worthy was he in his liege-lord’s war”), the knight participated in the ill-fated crusade to capture Jerusalem by way of Alexandria in Egypt that Peter I of Lusignan, king of Cyprus, led in 1365. He rode with the Teutonic Knights against pagan Prussians in the Baltic and against Eastern Orthodox Christians in Russia. He also raided Lithuania. In Spain, he participated in the siege and capture of Algecitras (Algeciras) in 1344 and in raids on Muslim coastal towns in North Africa (Belmarie). He twice accompanied Peter of Lusignan to coastal Anatolia when the king briefly captured Antalya (Satalye) in 1361 and when he raided the port of Ayas (present-day Yumurtalik, Turkey) in 1367. The knight was quite active in the Mediterranean (the Middle Sea), possibly participating in the exploits of the Knights Hospitaler, who had conquered the island of Rhodes in a campaign that lasted from 1306 to 1310 and then used it as a base for attacks on Muslim shipping and ports. He fought in Algeria at Tremessen (present-day Tlemçen) and served under the Turkish governor of Paltye (Palathia) in Anatolia. All of these military activities attracted crusaders, adventurers, and mercenaries from all over Europe, and a number of fourteenth-century English knights, including the future King Henry IV, participated in multiple crusades from Granada to Prussia to the eastern Mediterranean. 85. The Middle English word used by Chaucer. It means “person” or “sentient being.”
380 Crisis, Retrenchment, Recovery, and a New World
But now, to tell you all of his array,
Courteous he, and humble, willing and able,
His steeds were good, but yet he was not gay.86
And carved before his father at the table.93
Of simple fustian wore he a jupon87
A yeoman had he,94 nor more servants, no,
Sadly discolored by his habergeon;88
At that time, for he chose to travel so;
For he had lately come from his voyage
And he was clad in coat and hood of green.
And now was going on this pilgrimage.
A sheaf of peacock arrows bright and keen,
With him there was his son, a youthful squire,
Under his belt he bore right carefully
A lover and lusty bachelor.89
(Well could he keep his tackle yeomanly:
With locks well curled, as if they’d laid in press.
His arrow had no draggled feathers low),
Some twenty years of age he was, I guess.
And in his hand he bore a mighty bow.
In stature he was of an average length,
A cropped head had he and a sun-browned face.
Wondrously active, aye, and great of strength.
Of woodcraft knew he all the useful ways.
He’d ridden sometimes with the cavalry
Upon his arm he bore a bracer95 gay
In Flanders, in Artois, and Picardy,90
And at one side a sword and buckler,96 yea.
And borne him well within that little space
And at the other side a dagger bright,
In hope to win thereby his lady’s grace.
Well sheathed and sharp as spear point in the light;
Prinked out he was, as if he were a mead,91
On breast a Christopher of silver sheen97
All full of fresh-cut flowers white and red.
He bore a horn in baldric98 all of green;
Singing he was, or fluting, all the day;
A forester he truly was, I guess.
He was as fresh as is the month of May.
There also was a Nun, a Prioress,99
Short was his gown, with sleeves both long and wide.
Who, in her smiling, modest was and coy.
Well could he sit on horse, and fairly ride.
Her greatest oath was but “By Saint Eloy!”100
He could make songs and words thereto indite,92
And she was known as Madam Eglantine.
Joust, and dance too, as well as sketch and write.
Full well she sang the services divine,
So hot he loved that, while night told her tale,
Intoning through her nose, becomingly;
He slept no more than does a nightingale. 86. Chaucer’s word. In Middle English it meant “richly or gaudily dressed.” 87. A short coat made from coarse, sturdy cloth (fustian). 88. A coat of mail armor known as a hauberk. 89. A young knight-to-be in the service of an older, more experienced knight. 90. Areas where the English had campaigned in the Hundred Years’ War. 91. Adorned (prinked out) as if he were a meadow (mead). 92. Compose.
93. He served his father at table. 94. The knight. His yeoman was a free servant, who ranked below a squire or a mounted sergeant but above a groom or a page. 95. An archer’s arm guard. 96. A small, round shield. 97. A medal of Saint Christopher, patron of travelers. 98. A belt that hangs from one shoulder to the opposite hip. 99. Depending on the size of her convent, she would be either second in charge at an abbey or the head of a smaller house known as a priory. 100. Saint Eligius, a seventh-century Gallo-Roman bishop.
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And fair she spoke her French, and fluently,
Her nose was fine; her eyes were gray102 as glass;
After the school of Stratford-at-the-Bow,
Her mouth was small and therewith soft and red;
For French of Paris was not hers to know.
But certainly she had a fair forehead;
At table she had been well taught withal,
It was almost a full span broad, I own,
And never from her lips let morsels fall,
For, truth to tell, she was not undergrown.
Nor dipped her fingers deep in sauce, but ate
Neat was her cloak, as I was well aware.
With so much care the food upon her plate
Of coral small about her arm she’d bear
That never driblet fell upon her breast.
A string of beads and gauded all with green;103
In courtesy she had delight and zest.
And therefrom hung a brooch of golden sheen
Her upper lip was always wiped so clean
Whereupon there was first written a crowned “A,”
That in her cup was no iota seen
And under, Amor vincit omnia.104
Of grease, when she had drunk her draught of wine.
Another little nun with her had she,
Becomingly she reached for meat to dine.
Who was her chaplain;105 and of priests she’ three.
And certainly delighting in good sport,
A Monk there was, one made for mastery,
She was right pleasant, amiable—in short.
An outrider, who loved his venery;106
She was at pains to counterfeit the look
A manly man, to be an abbot able.
Of courtliness and stately manners took,
Full many a blooded horse had he in stable:
And would be held worthy of reverence.
And when he rode men might his bridle hear
But to say something of her moral sense,
A-jingling in the whistling wind as clear,
She was so charitable and piteous
Aye, and as loud as does the chapel bell
That she would weep if she but saw a mouse
Where this brave monk was master of the cell.107
Caught in a trap, though it were dead or bled. She had some little dogs, too, that she fed On roasted flesh, or milk and fine white bread. But sore she’d weep if one of them were dead, Or if men smote it with a rod to smart: For pity ruled her, and her tender heart. Right decorous her pleated wimple101 was;
101. A cloth headdress that covered the neck and sides of the face as well as the head. The flagellants of Doornik are wearing wimples (p. 348) as are two women in the woodcut on p. 402.
102. The translator has “blue,” but Chaucer’s text has “gray.” 103. This was a rosary—a string of beads that serves as an aid to prayer and meditation. Her rosary has five clusters of ten small coral beads, with each group of ten (a decade) followed by a larger green “gaud” bead. An “Ave Maria,” or “Hail Mary,” prayer is said at each coral bead. Each gaud (from the Latin gaudium—“joy”) is where the person stops to meditate and prays an “Our Father,” or “Lord’s Prayer.” Gaud beads were also known as “Pater noster” (Our Father) beads. 104. “Love conquers all.” 105. The word is chapeleyne. In this context, it means her secretary not her spiritual counselor and confessor. 106. An outrider was someone who conducted business outside of the monastery. “Venery” is a double entendre. It meant in Chaucer’s day both “hunting wild game” and “pursuit of sexual pleasure.” 107. He was in charge of a subsidiary house of his monastery, probably an outlying priory.
382 Crisis, Retrenchment, Recovery, and a New World
The rule of Maurus or Saint Benedict,108
And smooth as one anointed was his face.
By reason it was old and somewhat strict,
Fat was this lord, he stood in goodly case.
This said monk let such old things slowly pace109
His bulging eyes he rolled about, and hot
And followed new-world manners in their place.
They gleamed and red, like fire beneath a pot;
He cared not for that text a clean-plucked hen
His boots were soft; his horse of great estate.
Which holds that hunters are not holy men;
Now certainly he was a fine prelate:
Nor that a monk, when he is cloisterless,
He was not pale as some poor wasted ghost.
Is like unto a fish that’s waterless;
A fat swan loved he best of any roast.
That is to say, a monk out of his cloister.
His palfrey113 was as brown as is a berry.
But this same text he held not worth an oyster;
A Friar there was, a wanton and a merry,
And I said his opinion was right good.
A limiter,114 a very festive man.
What? Should he study as a madman would
In all the Orders Four115 is none that can
Upon a book in cloister cell? Or yet
Equal his gossip and his fair language.
Go labour with his hands and swink110 and sweat
He had arranged full many a marriage
As Austin bids?111 How shall the world be served?
Of women young, and this at his own cost.
Let Austin have his toil to him reserved.
Unto his order he was a noble post.
Therefore he was a rider day and night;
Well liked by all and intimate was he
Greyhounds he had, as swift as birds in flight.
With franklins116 everywhere in his country,
Since riding and the hunting of the hare
And with the worthy women of the town;
Were all his love, for no cost would he spare.
For at confessing he’d more power in gown
I saw his sleeves were purfled112 at the hand
(As he himself said) than a good curate,117
With fur of grey, the finest in the land;
For of his order he was licentiate.118
Also, to fasten hood beneath his chin
He heard confession gently, it was said,
He had of good wrought gold a curious pin:
Gently absolved too, leaving naught of dread.
A love-knot in the larger end there was. His head was bald and shone like any glass, 108. For the Rule of Saint Benedict, see source 23. Saint Maurus was Benedict’s first disciple. 109. Chaucer’s term, which means “pass away.” 110. Middle English—swynken (to work). 111. Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430). His instructions for his clergy, upon whom he imposed a semimonastic life, became in the twelfth century the rule for canons regular. 112. Middle English—purfiled (lined).
113. A riding horse. 114. He was licensed to beg within a particular area. 115. The four orders of mendicant friars—Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Austin Friars. 116. Country gentlemen of non-noble birth who held extensive property. 117. A parish priest who had the care of souls (cura animorum). 118. He had a license from his order to hear confessions (and perform other sacramental duties), thereby bypassing the local parish priest.
Chapter 12: The Fourteenth Century: Catastrophe and Creativity Social Commentary 383
He was an easy man to give penance119
And so, wherever profit might arise,
When knowing he should gain a good pittance;
Courteous he was and humble in men’s eyes.
For to a begging friar, money given
There was no other man so virtuous.
Is sign that any man has been well shriven.120
He was the finest beggar of his house;
For if one gave (he dared to boast of this),
A certain district being farmed to him,124
He took the man’s repentance not amiss.
None of his brethren dared approach its rim;
For many a man there is so hard of heart
And though a widow had no shoes to show,
He cannot weep however pains may smart.
So pleasant was his “In principio,” 125
Therefore, instead of weeping and of prayer,
He always got a farthing126 ere he went.
Men should give silver to poor friars all bare.
He lived by pickings, it is evident.
His tippet121 was stuck always full of knives
And he could romp as well as any whelp.
And pins, to give to young and pleasing wives.
On love days could he be of mickle help.127
And certainly he kept a merry note:
For there he was not like a cloisterer,
Well could he sing and play upon the rote.122
With threadbare cope128 as is the poor scholar,
At balladry he bore the prize away.
But he was like a lord or like a pope.
His throat was white as lily of the May;
Of double worsted was his semi-cope,
Yet strong he was as ever champion.
That rounded as a bell,129 as you may guess.
In towns he knew the taverns, every one,
He lisped a little, out of wantonness,
And every good host and each barmaid too—
To make his English soft upon his tongue.
Better than begging lepers, these he knew.123
And in his harping, after he had sung,
For unto no such solid man as he
His two eyes twinkled in his head as bright
Accorded it, as far as he could see,
As do the stars within the frosty night.
To have sick lepers for acquaintances. There is no honest advantageousness In dealing with such poverty-stricken curs; It’s with the rich and with big victuallers. 119. After a priest absolves a person of sins, he imposes a penance in order to satisfy divine justice. 120. Absolved. 121. A large fold in a hood or sleeve that could hold items. 122. A stringed instrument. 123. Chaucer’s text is more stinging. What is translated as “begging lepers” is actually “a lazar or a beggestere” (a leper or a beggar woman).
124. He had paid a fee for exclusive begging rights. 125. “In the beginning.” The opening words of Genesis and the Gospel of Saint John, presumably they were also the opening words of the friar’s sermon. 126. A coin minted since the thirteenth century, it was worth a quarter of a penny, or 1/960 of a pound sterling. 127. Love days were days set aside in England, from the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries, for amicably settling disputes, even major ones that were pending in a court, through arbitration rather than in any court of law. Arbitrators would be paid for their services, especially those who provided “mickle (a great amount of ) help.” 128. An outer robe. 129. That caught one’s attention, just as a bell does.
384 Crisis, Retrenchment, Recovery, and a New World
This worthy limiter was named Hubert.130
Her kerchiefs were of finest weave and ground;135
There was a Merchant with forked beard, and girt
I dare swear that they weighed a full ten pound
In motley gown,131 and high on horse he sat,
Which, of a Sunday, she wore on her head.
Upon his head a Flemish beaver hat;
Her hose were of the choicest scarlet red
His boots were fastened rather elegantly.
Close gartered, and her shoes were soft and new.
He spoke his notions out right pompously,
Bold was her face, and fair, and red of hue.
Stressing the time when he had won, not lost.
She’d been respectable throughout her life,
He would the sea were held at any cost
With five churched husbands bringing joy and strife,
Across from Middleburgh to Orwell town.132
Not counting other company in youth;
At money-changing he could make a crown.133
But thereof there’s no need to speak, in truth.
This worthy man kept all his wits well set;
Three times she’d journeyed to Jerusalem;
There was no one could say he was in debt,
And many a foreign stream she’d had to stem;
So well he governed all his trade affairs
At Rome she’d been and she’d been in Boulogne,
With bargains and with borrowings and with shares.
In Spain at Santiago, and at Cologne.136
Indeed, he was a worthy man withal,
She could tell much of wandering by the way:
But, sooth to say, his name I can’t recall.…
Gap-toothed was she,137 it is no lie to say.
There was a wife come from Bath, or near,
Upon an ambler138 easily she sat,
Who—sad to say—was deaf in either ear.
Well wimpled, aye, and over all a hat.
At making cloth she had so great a bent
Was broad as is a buckler or a targe;139
She bettered those of Ypres and even of Ghent.
A rug was tucked around her buttocks large,
In all the parish there was no goodwife
And on her feet a pair of sharpened spurs.
Should offering134 make before her, on my life; And if one did, indeed, so wroth was she It put her out of all her charity. 130. Saint Hubert (ca. 656–727) was noted for his generosity to the poor. 131. A bright, multicolored garment. 132. English merchants shipped large amounts of wool to Middelburg in the southwestern Netherlands, where the textile manufacturers of such major centers of production as Bruges and Ghent purchased it. Orwell Haven in Suffolk was a major port of departure for English merchant convoys to Flanders. 133. An anachronism by the translator. The crown, a silver coin worth five shillings, was first minted in 1707. 134. An offering of money or goods (probably her fine cloth) to the parish church.
135. Ground was Middle English for “texture.” 136. Rome held the bones of Peter and Paul and numerous other saints. Special indulgences were given to pilgrims who visited and prayed at specific churches in Rome in a Holy Year (also known as a Jubilee Year). The first Holy Year was called for 1300 and the second for 1350. The third was held in 1390. The cathedral at Boulogne, France, was believed to hold the miraculous (and miracle-performing) statue of Notre-Dame de la Mer (Our Lady of the Sea). The Basilica of Santiago at Compostela in northwest Spain was second only to Rome as a major pilgrimage site in Europe because it was believed to hold the remains of Saint James the Greater, the cousin of Jesus. The Cathedral of Cologne was believed to hold the relics of the Three Magi. 137. A gap in the front teeth was associated with a lustful nature. 138. A frisky pacing horse. 139. Like a buckler, a targe was a small, round shield.
Chapter 12: The Fourteenth Century: Catastrophe and Creativity Social Commentary 385
In company well could she laugh her slurs.140
And shame it is, if priest take thought for keep,
The remedies of love she knew, perchance,
A shitty shepherd, shepherding clean sheep.
For of that art she’d learned the old, old dance.
Well ought a priest example good to give,
There was a good man of religion, too,
By his own cleanness, how his flock should live.
A country Parson, poor, I warrant you;
He never let his benefice for hire,143
But rich he was in holy thought and work.
Leaving his flock to flounder in the mire,
He was a learned man also, a clerk,141
And ran to London, up to old Saint Paul’s
Who Christ’s own gospel truly sought to preach;
To get himself a chantry there for souls,144
Devoutly his parishioners would he teach.
Nor in some brotherhood did he withhold;145
Benign he was and wondrous diligent.
But dwelt at home and kept so well the fold
Patient in adverse times and well content,
That never wolf could make his plans miscarry;
As he was ofttimes proven; always blithe,
He was a shepherd and not mercenary.
He was right loath to curse to get a tithe,
And holy though he was, and virtuous,
But rather would he give, in case of doubt,
To sinners he was not impiteous,
Unto those poor parishioners about,
Nor haughty in his speech, nor too divine,
Part of his income, even of his goods.
But in all teaching prudent and benign.
Enough with little, coloured all his moods.
To lead folk into Heaven but by stress
Wide was his parish, houses far asunder,
Of good example was his busyness.
But never did he fail, for rain or thunder,
But if some sinful one proved obstinate,
In sickness, or in sin, or any state,
Be who it might, of high or low estate,
To visit to the farthest, small and great,
Him he reproved, and sharply, as I know.
Going afoot, and in his hand, a stave.
There is nowhere a better priest, I trow.
This fine example to his flock he gave,
He had no thirst for pomp or reverence,
That first he wrought and afterwards he taught;
Nor made himself a special, spiced conscience,
Out of the gospel then that text he caught,
But Christ’s own lore, and His apostles’ twelve
And this figure142 he added thereunto
He taught, but first he followed it himselve.146
That, if gold rust, what shall poor iron do? For if the priest be foul, in whom we trust, What wonder if a layman yield to lust? 140. The modernizer’s “laugh her slurs” is puzzling. Chaucer wrote, “In felaweshipe wel koude she laughe and carpe.” (In company she could easily laugh and chatter.) 141. A university scholar. 142. Metaphor.
143. He was not guilty of hiring a deputy, or vicar, to tend his church, pocketing the difference between his church’s income, or benefice, and what he paid the vicar. 144. A good living could be earned by chanting Masses for the souls of the wealthy dead, who had left bequests for this service. 145. Serving as the chaplain to a religious confraternity or a guild would pay a priest handsomely. 146. The Middle English word for “himself ” used by Chaucer.
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The Study of Nature During the fourteenth century, the natural mysteries that especially involved scientifically minded clerical scholars and educated laypeople were in the arenas of geography, anthropology, astronomy, and mechanical physics. Our first source illustrates the geographic, astronomical, and anthropological facts and fictions that educated fourteenth-century Europeans accepted as a reasonable and true picture of the world. The second source illustrates how, in the area of mechanical physics, several important fourteenth-century scholars challenged the scientific work and theories of Aristotle.
“People Can Encircle the Entire World” 101. THE BOOK OF JOHN MANDEVILLE147 If we wish to discover how literate Western Europeans in the fourteenth century viewed the larger world that lay far beyond their small subcontinent, we can do no better than to turn to the pages of a curious work by an otherwise unknown person who claimed to be Sir John Mandeville, an English knight of Saint Alban’s. First appearing between 1356 and 1366, The Book of John Mandeville purported to be the firsthand account of this knight’s adventures in the East between 1322 and 1356/1357, in which he claimed to have served the sultan of Egypt and the Mongol khan of China. In fact, the work is a fictional tour de force by a gifted author who masked his identity behind an assumed name and a fabricated place of origin. Fragmentary evidence suggests that a physician from Liège in Flanders, Jehan a la Barbe (also known as Jehan de Bourgogne), was the author or had a hand in its composition, but the author’s (or authors’) identity will likely never be known for certain. As far as his purported travels are concerned, scholarly consensus is that most of “Sir John’s” expeditions were to libraries, where he discovered quite a few books from which he borrowed liberally. For example, the outline of the travelogue describing his supposed journey to India and China is lifted from the travel account of the Franciscan missionary Odoric of Pordenone (d. 1331), who spent most of his adult life working in Russia and throughout Asia, including three years as an assistant to Archbishop John of Monte Corvino in Khanbaliq. Mandeville amplified Friar Odoric’s rather spare story by adding fables and tales from many other authors, by giving free rein to his own fertile imagination and sardonic wit, and by spicing his story with an impressive array of geographic and astronomical theories, many of them based on Arabic science. No matter the book’s questionable authenticity as a traveler’s tale, Mandeville’s book, written originally in Middle French, was widely hand-copied (about three hundred manuscripts survive) and circulated in ten European languages by 1400. Between the late 1470s and 1515, it was mass-printed in eight languages, making it late-medieval Europe’s most popular travelogue in an age noted for its fascination with world travel. One of those readers was Christopher Columbus, who consulted it before his epic voyage. Even if Sir John did not travel to all the regions that he claimed to have visited (and there is some indirect evidence that he had visited the eastern Mediterranean but went no farther), his work is historically important because it illustrates the manner in which educated Europeans of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries viewed the lands and peoples beyond their frontiers. Indeed, in many ways, Mandeville was instrumental in shaping that vision of the outside world on the eve of Europe’s overseas explorations. 147. The British Museum’s “Cotton Manuscript,” printed 1625; Chapters 20, 30. Modernized by A. J. Andrea.
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In the first selection, Sir John deals with the shape and size of Earth. Many people today are unaware that the notion that medieval European scholars believed the world is flat is a modern myth. It was created and popularized in the early nineteenth century by two men who were separated by an ocean but not by their notions of a presumed medieval ignorance and superstition: the American humorist and writer Washington Irving and France’s Antoine-Jean Letronne. In point of fact, John Holywood’s treatise De sphaera mundi (Regarding the Sphericity of the World ), which was based on a ninth-century Arabic work, was a basic text at the University of Paris and elsewhere in Europe from the early thirteenth century onward. In the second selection, Mandeville shares his supposed firsthand knowledge of the wondrous land of Prester John, the mythic Christian emperor whom we encountered in Joinville’s biography of Saint Louis of France and John of Monte Corvino’s letter to the West (sources 91 and 92).
Questions for Consideration 1. What was Sir John’s view of the physical world? 2. What do Mandeville’s stories suggest about his attitudes toward alien customs and the world beyond Europe? 3. How does Mandeville’s Prester John differ from the one described by Joinville? What might explain the difference? 4. Many societies cherish the myth of a promised redeemer, or hero-to-come. How had the Christian West created in the mythic Prester John a person who represented the fulfillment of some of their deepest wishes? 5. Based on Mandeville, what might a late-medieval person expect to find in the “Indies”? 6. Does Sir John use these stories to point out his own society’s flaws and rifts? If so, how so?
Of the Foul Customs Followed in the Isle of Lamory 148 and How the Earth and Sea Are of Round Shape, Proved by Means of the Star Antarctic From India people go by the ocean sea by way of many islands and different countries, which it would be tedious for me to relate. Fifty-two days’ journey from that land there is another large country called Lamory. That land is extremely hot, so that the custom there is for men and women to walk about totally naked, and they scorn 148. Sumatra, which the Chinese called Lanli. Chinese placenames such as this might have made their way west in altered form through the agency of merchants who traded in the Indian Ocean, a region whose port cities were Afro-Eurasia’s chief emporia in the fourteenth century. Although Chinese, Arab, and East African merchant-sailors dominated the sea-lanes of the Indian Ocean, a handful of Western merchants, missionaries, and adventurers traveled through the region long before Vasco da Gama’s ships reached India in 1498.
foreigners who wear clothes. They say that God created Adam and Eve naked, and no person, therefore, should be ashamed to appear as God made him, because nothing that comes from nature’s bounty is foul. They also say that people who wear clothes are from another world, or else they are people who do not believe in God. They say that they believe in God who created the world and made Adam and Eve and everything else. Here they do not marry wives, since all the women are common to all men, and no woman forsakes any man. They say that it is sinful to refuse any man, for God so commanded it of Adam and Eve and all who followed when he said: “Increase and multiply and fill the Earth.”149 Therefore, no man in that country may say: “This is my wife.” No woman may say: “This is my husband.” When they bear children, the women present them to whatever man they wish of those with whom they have had sexual relations. So also all land is held in common. What one man holds one year, another 149. Genesis, 1:22.
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has another year, and everyone takes that portion which he desires. Also all the produce of the soil is held in common. This is true for grains and other goods as well. Nothing is held in private, nothing is locked up, and every person there takes what he wants without anyone saying “no.” Each is as rich as the other. There is, however, in that country an evil custom. They eat human flesh more happily than any other meat, this despite the fact that the land abounds in meats, fish, grains, gold, silver, and every other commodity. Merchants go there, bringing with them children to sell to the people of that country, and they purchase the children. If they are plump, they eat them immediately. If they are lean, they feed them until they fatten up, and then they eat them. They say this is the best and sweetest flesh in all the world. In that land, and in many others beyond it, no one can see the Transmontane Star, known as the Star of the Sea, which is immoveable and stands in the north and is called the Lode Star.150 They see, rather, another star, its opposite, which stands in the south and is called the Antarctic Star.151 Just as sailors here get their bearings and steer by the Lode Star, so sailors beyond those parts steer by the Southern Star, which we cannot see. So our Northern Star, which we call the Lode Star, cannot be seen there. This is proof that Earth and the sea are round in shape and form. For portions of the heavens that are seen in one country do not appear in another.… I can prove that point by what I have observed, for I have been in parts of Brabant152 and seen, by means of an astrolabe, that the Transmontane Star is 53 degrees in elevation. In Germany and Bohemia it is 58 degrees; and farther north it is 62 degrees and some minutes high. I personally have measured it with an astrolabe. Understand that opposite the Transmontane Star is the other known as the Antarctic Star, as I have said. These two stars never move, and around them all the heavens revolve, just like a wheel about an axle. So those two stars divide the heavens into two equal parts, with as much above [the equator] as below.… I say with certainty that people can encircle the entire world, below the equator as well as above, and return to their homelands, provided they have good company, a 150. Transmontane means “across the mountains.” The star is Polaris, or the North Star, which guides mariners. 151. The region south of the equator lacks a guiding star with the brilliance of Polaris. The closest is the rather dim Sigma Octantis. 152. A duchy that spanned portions of present-day Belgium and the Netherlands. Liège was its capital city.
ship, and health.153 And all along the way one would find people, lands, and islands.… For you know well that those people who live right under the Antarctic Star are directly underneath, feet against feet, of those who dwell directly under the Transmontane Star, just as we and those who dwell under us are feet to feet. For every part of the sea and the land has its opposite, which balances it, and it is both habitable and traversable.… So people who travel to India and the foreign isles girdle the roundness of Earth and the seas, passing under our countries in this hemisphere. Something I heard as a youth has occurred to me often. A worthy man from our country departed some time ago to see the world. And so he passed through India and the islands beyond India, which number more than 5,000. He traveled so far by sea and land and had so girdled the globe over the period of so many seasons that he found an island where he heard his own language being spoken.… He marveled at this, not knowing what to make of it. I conclude he had traveled so far by land and sea that he had encircled the entire globe, circumnavigating to the very frontier of his homeland. Had he traveled only a bit farther, he would have come to his own home. But he turned back, returning along the route by which he had come. And so he spent a great deal of painful labor, as he acknowledged, when he returned home much later. For afterwards he went to Norway, where a storm carried him to an island. While on that island he discovered it was the island where earlier he had heard his own language spoken.… That could well be true, even though it might seem to simple-minded persons of no learning that people cannot travel on the underside of the world without falling off toward the heavens. That, however, is not possible, unless it is true that we also are liable to fall toward Heaven from where we are on Earth. For whatever part of Earth people inhabit, above or below [the equator], it always seems to them that they are in a more proper position than any other folk. And so it is right that just as it seems to us that they are under us, so it seems to them that we are beneath them. For if a person could fall from Earth into the heavens, it is more reasonable to assume that Earth and the sea, which are vaster and of greater weight, should fall into the heavens. But that is impossible.… Although it is possible for a person to circumnavigate the world, nonetheless, out of one thousand persons, one might possibly return home. For, given the magnitude of 153. Mandeville refutes a notion, accepted by Greco-Roman geographers, that lands south of the equator (the antipodes) are uninhabitable due to extreme heat.
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Earth and the sea, a thousand people could venture forth and follow a thousand different routes. This being so, no person could plot a perfect route toward the place from where he left. He could only reach it by accident or the grace of God. For Earth is very large and is some 20,425 miles in circumference, according to the opinion of wise astronomers from the past, whose words I am not going to contradict, even though it seems to me, with my limited understanding and with all due respect, that it is larger.154…
Of the Royal Estate of Prester John This emperor, Prester John, commands a very large region and has many noble cities and fair towns in his realm, as well as many islands large and broad. For this land of the Indies155 is divided into islands due to the great rivers that flow out of Paradise, dividing the land into many parts.156 He also has many islands in the sea.… This Prester John has many kings and islands and many different peoples of various cultures subject to him. And this land is fertile and wealthy, but not as wealthy as the land of the Great Khan. For merchants do not as commonly travel there to purchase merchandise as they do to the land of the Great Khan, for it is too far to travel to. Moreover, people can find in that other region, the Island of Cathay, every manner of commodity that people need—gold cloth, silk, spices, and every sort of precious item. Consequently, even though commodities are less expensive in Prester John’s land, nonetheless people dread the long voyage and the great sea-perils in that region.… Although one must travel by sea and land eleven or twelve months from Genoa or Venice before arriving in Cathay, the land of Prester John lies many more days of dreadful journey away.… The Emperor Prester John always marries the daughter of the Great Khan, and the Great Khan likewise marries Prester John’s daughter. For they are the two greatest lords under Heaven. 154. Actually, it is 24,901 miles. Columbus argued for a circumference half that, which would have allowed him to reach East Asia, specifically Japan, before running out of fresh water and food. This might have been one of the earliest instances of manipulating data to secure a grant. 155. The “Indies” was not just India but all that land “out there,” including the east coast of Africa. 156. According to Mandeville, the Terrestrial Paradise, from which Adam and Eve had been expelled, lies far to the east of Prester John’s country. Four rivers—the Ganges, Nile, Tigris, and Euphrates—flow out of that paradise and divide the continental lands of Earth.
In Prester John’s land there are many different things and many precious gems of such magnitude that people make vessels, such as platters, dishes, and cups, out of them.157 There are many other marvels there, so many, in fact, that it would be tiresome and too lengthy to put them down in a book…but I shall tell you some part. This Emperor Prester John is Christian, as is a great part of his country as well. Yet they do not share all the articles of our faith. They believe fully in God, in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. They are quite devout and faithful to one another, and they do not quarrel or practice fraud and deceit. He has subject to him seventy-two provinces, and in every province there is a king. And these kings have kings under them, and all are tributaries to Prester John. And he has in his lordships many marvels. In his country is a sea that people call the Gravelly Sea. It is all gravel and sand, without a drop of water, and it ebbs and flows in great waves, as other seas do, and never rests at any time. No one can cross that sea by ship or any other craft and, therefore, no one knows what land lies beyond that sea. Although it has no water, people find in it and on its banks plenty of good fish of a shape and size such as are found nowhere else, but they are tasty and delicious to eat. Three days journey from that sea are great mountains, out of which flows a great river that originates in Paradise. And it is full of precious stones, without a drop of water.…158 Beyond that river, rising toward the deserts, is a great gravel plain set between the mountains.159 On that plain every day at sunrise small trees begin to grow, and they grow until midday, bearing fruit. No one dares, however, to eat the fruit, for it is like a deceptive phantom. After mid-day the trees decrease and reenter the ground, so that by sunset they are no longer to be seen. And they do this every day. And that is a great marvel. In that desert are many wild people who are hideous to look at, for they are horned and do not speak but only grunt like pigs.… 157. Jade vessels from China and elsewhere in East Asia had, for centuries, made their way west. 158. This probably refers to the White Jade River, which flows out of the Kunlun Mountains in the southern region of presentday Xinjiang Province, China. The river’s shallow areas are rich in nephrite jade, which has been a major export of the region for thousands of years. Moreover, the river dries up as it reaches the Taklamakan Desert. 159. Probably a reference to the Gobi, a rain-shadow desert and plain bordered by mountains to the north and south that lies east of the Taklamakan.
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When Emperor Prester John goes into battle against any other lord, he has no banners borne before him. Rather, he has three crosses of fine gold, which are massive and very tall and encrusted with precious stones. Each cross is set in a richly adorned chariot. To guard each cross, there is a detail of 10,000 mounted men at arms and 100,000 men on foot,…and this number is in addition to the main body of troops.… When he rides out in peace time with a private
entourage, he has borne before him only one wooden cross, unpainted and lacking gold, silver, or gems, as a remembrance that Jesus Christ suffered death on a wooden cross. He also has borne before him a golden platter filled with earth, in token of the fact that his nobility, might, and flesh will all turn to earth. He also has borne before him a silver vessel full of great nuggets of gold and precious gems, as a token of his lordship, nobility, and might.
Does the Earth Revolve on Its Axis? 102. Nicholas Oresme, ON THE BOOK OF THE HEAVENS AND THE WORLD OF ARISTOTLE160 Western Europe’s most advanced work in mathematics and physics in the fourteenth century took place within the Arts faculties of its two premier universities—Oxford and Paris. Oxford’s main locus of activity in these fields was Merton College, where four logicians and natural philosophers, now known as the Merton Calculators, applied the tools of mathematical analysis to explore mechanics, the branch of physics concerned with motion. One of its luminaries, Thomas Bradwardine, the shortlived archbishop of Canterbury whose death from the plague in 1349 merited mention in Henry Knighton’s chronicle, wrestled with several fundamental mechanical issues in his Treatise on the Ratio of the Speeds of Bodies in Motion (1328). This work profoundly influenced several successors at Merton College, as well as colleagues across the channel at Paris, most important of whom were Jean Buridan and his student Nicholas Oresme (ca. 1320–82). Buridan and Oresme raised significant questions about the validity of some of Latin Europe’s received Greco-Arabic natural philosophy. Working within the framework of scholastic disputation, Buridan and Oresme were bold enough to question the authority of Aristotle on certain points. Aristotle had presented logical arguments in support of the conclusion that Earth is stationary, and this was almost the unanimous opinion of scholars in late antiquity and among cosmologists in both the Islamic and Christian worlds. A handful of natural philosophers, however, thought it worthwhile to explore, at least as an academic exercise, the ramifications of a theory that postulated an Earth that rotates daily on its axis. Among them were Buridan and Oresme. The arguments that the two scholars posited (and Oresme’s were more fully developed) anticipated by several centuries some of the scientific breakthroughs of Nicholas Copernicus and Galileo Galilei. Unlike Copernicus and Galileo, however, Oresme backed away from the implications of his arguments. In the end, he apparently rejected the idea of Earth’s daily rotation. Our selection comes from Oresme’s commentary on Book 2, Chapter 25 of Aristotle’s On the Heavens and the World, which the Parisian master completed in 1377. In this work, and in several others (but not all), he deviated from academic protocol by composing it in Middle French rather than Latin. We can only guess at why he did so. In navigating our source, be aware that matter labeled “Text” is text taken from Aristotle; matter labeled “Gloss” is Oresme’s gloss, or commentary. Another point to keep in mind is that Oresme was a cleric, as was true of Buridan, Bradwardine, and the rest of the significant natural philosophers of the fourteenth century. He received a doctorate in theology at Paris in 1356 and served as chaplain to King Charles V while working on this treatise. In 1378, he was elevated to the bishopric of Lisieux. Is it possible that he composed his commentary for theological, as well as cosmological, reasons? Are his closing remarks truly indicative of his state of mind, or was he, perhaps, engaging in a bit of irony? 160. Nicole Oresme, Le Livre du Ciel et du Monde, ed. Albert D. Menut and Alexander J. Denomy (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968), 519–24, 536–38, passim.
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Questions for Consideration 1. How does Oresme regard sense experience as a tool for scientific investigation? 2. What is his method of scientific inquiry? 3. Following Oresme’s arguments to their logical conclusion, if it could be proved to his satisfaction that the daily rotation of Earth is a valid theory, what would he say about the astronomic/astrological charts of his day? Would they still be valid or would they need radical revision? 4. According to Oresme, could either theory—the rotation of the heavens or the rotation of Earth— be proved by human reason alone? 5. After taking us through this exercise, Oresme rejects the theory of Earth’s diurnal rotation. Why? Do his professed answers strike you as sincere?
25. In Chapter XXV he recounts the opinions of some persons regarding the movement of Earth. Text: There is also divided opinion regarding whether Earth is at rest or in motion. For all who say that it is not the center of the world say that it moves circularly around the middle or center of the world.… And others say that Earth is the center of the world and that it revolves and moves in a circular fashion around the pole established for this purpose, as is written in Plato’s book called Timaeus.
Gloss: This was the theory of a man called Heraclitus of Pontus161 who maintained that Earth moves circularly and that the heavens are at rest. And Aristotle does not refute these theories here; possibly they seemed to him to have little probability and they were also adequately disproved by philosophy and astrology. But, subject to any and all correction, it seems to me that it is possible to maintain and favorably consider the last theory, that is to say that Earth moves with a daily motion and not the heavens. At the outset, I wish to state that one cannot demonstrate [as true] the contrary from any experience; second [one cannot demonstrate the contrary] by rational argument; third, I will put forward rational arguments in support of it.162 As for the first point, [consider] one experience: we see with our sense of sight the sun and the moon and many stars rise and set day in and day out, and other stars turn around the arctic pole… 161. Actually Heraclides of Pontus, a fourth-century B.C.E. contemporary of Aristotle who taught that Earth revolves daily on its axis from west to east. 162. The daily rotation of Earth.
and it follows that the heavens move with a daily motion. Another experience is: if Earth so moved it would make a complete passage in a natural day so that we and trees and houses are moved extremely fast eastward, and so it would seem to us that air and wind are always coming very strongly from the east and also it would make a sound as is made against a bolt from a crossbow and even far more loudly, but the contrary is evident from experience…. He offers a third example: an arrow shot from a boat moving quickly eastward would land far behind it toward the west, as would a stone tossed into the air, but the contrary is what we experience. It appears to me that what I shall say about these experiences can apply to all the others that might be introduced regarding this topic…. It is stated in Book Four of The Perspective by Witelo163 that one does not perceive motion except if one perceives that one body is moving in a different direction from the other…. And likewise, if a person were in the heavens, which, for the sake of argument, were in motion with a daily movement, and that person were carried along with the heavens and could clearly see Earth and could see 163. Witelo was a German-Polish friar and natural philosopher who studied and worked in Italy. In the mid-1270s, he composed his book on perspective, which described the refraction and reflection of light. Based on the brilliant work of the Iraqi polymath Hasan ibn al-Haytham (d. ca. 1040), it served as the West’s standard text on optical physics until the seventeenth century and deeply influenced later scientists, including the astronomer Johannes Kepler (d. 1630), a major figure in the Scientific Revolution.
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distinctly mountains, valleys, rivers, cities, and castles, it would appear to him that Earth is in motion with a daily movement, just as it would appear to us on Earth that the heavens are in motion. And likewise, if Earth were in motion with a daily movement and not the heavens, it would appear to us that Earth is at rest and the heavens move. This can be easily imagined by anyone who has decent intelligence. In this manner one clearly responds to the first experience, for one could say that the sun and stars appear to set and rise as they do and that the heavens seem to revolve because of the movement of Earth and of the elements with which we live. For the second [experience], the response appears to be, according to this theory, not only Earth moves but with it water and air…although water and air here below are moved in addition by winds and other causes. And in similar fashion, if air is enclosed in a moving boat, it appears to someone who is in that air that the air does not move. About the third experience, which seems more difficult [to answer], that concerns an arrow or stone projected upward, etc., one could answer that the arrow shot upward is moved very rapidly eastward with the air through which it passes, and along with the lower part of the universe,
which has been already defined164 and that is in motion with a daily movement. For this reason the arrow returns to the place on Earth from which it left…. It is apparent, then, that one cannot demonstrate by any experience whatsoever that the heavens move with a daily motion…. Nevertheless, all people hold, and I believe, that it is they that move and not Earth: for God set firm the orb of Earth, which will not be moved,165 despite rational arguments to the contrary because they are arguments that are clearly not conclusive. But, upon considering all that has been said, one could by this believe that, therefore, Earth moves and not the heavens, for there is no evidence to the contrary. Nevertheless, this seems at first sight as much, or more, contrary to natural reason166 as are all, or many, of the articles of our faith. And so, what I have said by way of diversion in this manner can be a valuable means of refuting and checking those who would wish to impugn our faith by reason.
164. Earth and all of its terrestrial elements. 165. Psalms, 92:2. See also 1 Chronicles, 16:30. 166. Human reason unaided by Divine Revelation.
Chapter 13
The Fifteenth Century: An Age of Rebirth?
The advent of the fifteenth century did not signal the end of Europe’s troubles. The Hundred Years’ War continued for a half century more, and after it ended, France and England continued to experience internal dynastic struggles. The eventual end of the papal schism in 1417 was followed by a constitutional crisis known as the Conciliar Movement, and the institutional Church continued to exhibit a systemic inability to meet the rising demand for institutional and moral reform. The plague continued to reappear periodically, but with less virulence than in the mid-fourteenth century. Just as menacing, the Ottoman Turks pressed ever more vigorously against Christendom throughout the 1400s and beyond. Constantinople fell to Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, which caused ripples of fear and concern as far away as northwestern Europe. Closer to home, in a failed attempt to invade and conquer Italy, Ottoman forces besieged,
Illus. 13.1 The burning of Jan Hus and his books at the Council of Constance, July 6, 1415. The man in the foreground is probably Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of Hungary, Croatia, and Germany, and future emperor. From a manuscript of Emperor Sigismund’s Book (1445–50), an account of Sigismund’s life (1368–1437) by his councilor Eberhard Windeck, who was at Constance with Sigismund.
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captured, briefly held, and devastated Otranto, an Italian port city in 1480/81. To many fifteenth-century Europeans, the world seemed bleak and the future, unpromising. Despite real reasons for pessimism, however, Europe had weathered another age of adversity and was ready to expand along both traditional and new lines. The term “Renaissance” is misleading as a descriptive tag for fifteenth-century Europe, but certainly Europe underwent a general revival in this century. Great bankers, such as the Medici of Florence, the Fuggers of Augsburg, and Jacques Coeur of Bourges, as well as countless small merchants and artisans, combined to drive Europe’s economic turnaround. In the area of statecraft, the monarchs of England, France, Portugal, Aragόn, and Castile had, by 1500, created kingdoms that were more stable and centralized than they had been for ages. Military innovations—primarily cannon, new infantry tactics, and royal standing armies—combined to reduce even more the battlefield relevance of mounted, heavily-armored knights. Intensified interest in Greco-Roman antiquity, which had its roots in the High Middle Ages, provided many intellectuals and artists with a sense of renewal and rediscovery, which they expressed in multiple forms. New emphasis on Ciceronian political ideals and Roman Stoicism influenced trends in political and social philosophy. Intensified interest in Platonic and Neoplatonic Greek thought provided inspiration to philosophical studies and had a similarly fruitful influence on arts and letters, especially in Italy. Indeed, so far as the visual arts were concerned, Europe, both north and south, experienced a fifteenth-century transformation. Above all else, Europe’s fifteenth-century ventures into the waters of the Atlantic provided new horizons and new areas for expansion. Portuguese mariners sailed along the west and then east coast of Africa until, finally, with the help of an Arab geographer, Vasco da Gama, sailed into the port of Calicut, India, in 1498, thereby opening the rich lands of the Indian Ocean to direct European contact on a scale never before seen. In a similar attempt to reach the Indies directly by water, Christopher Columbus stumbled across the Americas, thereby setting into motion a series of explorations and conquests that would transform both Amerindian and European societies and prove to be the beginning of a major turning point in the history of the entire human family.
The Late-Medieval Church and Christian Society The Roman Church was a major force in the fifteenth century, but in some respects, the Church and Christian society seemed to be on two divergent paths. Popular religiosity burned intensely in latemedieval Europe, but the institutions of the Church seemed, to many people, less relevant in the 1400s than they had been in earlier centuries. To be sure, the Church continued to attract many pious idealists who became clerics and sought to reform society in traditional ways. At the same time, however, lay piety of every variety became an increasingly important phenomenon as the fifteenth century grew older—a sure sign of the clergy’s growing loss of prestige and power. The decrease in clerical authority in the midst of a wave of deep popular spirituality was due to many factors. Certainly, the Church’s inability or unwillingness to cleanse its own house was a key element. Rather than addressing the issue of ecclesiastical reform in any meaningful manner, popes and general councils spent the greater part of the century bickering over the question of who had ultimate authority over the Church—the pope or an ecumenical council. The hard-won victory of the papacy over what has been termed “conciliarism” marked the end of any effort at church-wide reform, at least for the fifteenth century. Another equally important factor was the rising importance of the common layperson’s voice. The Church, in concert with the emperor, could silence a single critic, the Bohemian priest Jan Hus, by burning him at the stake as a heretic in 1415. It could not, however, stamp out the legions of his outraged lay followers, the so-called Hussites, who successfully resisted five Catholic crusading armies
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and forced the emperor and the Church to acknowledge an essentially independent Hussite Church in Bohemia by 1436. The Hussites’ success was due, in part, to the Conciliar Controversy, which hamstrung the Church and also resulted in the Council of Basel’s recognizing the more moderate wing of the Hussites in 1433, as the council jockeyed with the papacy for power. The first set of documents that follows sheds light on the issues involved in the Conciliar Movement and suggests how the controversy could have so engaged the attention and energies of so many high-ranking clerics. The second source—actually two sources, a chronicle account and a woodcut—concerns the drummer of Niklashausen’s short-lived protest movement and demonstrates that not every lay attack on church authority ended as successfully as the Hussite rebellion. As the incident of the drummer of Niklashausen suggests, however, the Hussites were not alone in their expression of social and religious discontent and in the violence that emerged from their challenge to church authority.
Conciliarism: Attack and Counterattack 103. The Council of Constance, HAEC SANCTA and FREQUENS;1 Pope Pius II, EXECRABILIS 2 The Council of Constance (1414–17) was convened at the insistence of emperor-elect Sigismund and initially on the dubious authority of Pope John XXIII (r. 1410–15), whom the Roman Church considers an antipope because his election proceeded from the authority of the controversial Council of Pisa (1409), which attempted to solve the Great Schism by deposing the Avignonese and Roman popes but only muddied the waters further. Regardless of its origin, the Council of Constance finally solved the problem of the Great Schism by deposing Pope John XXIII and the Avignonese pope, Benedict XIII, and persuading the third, Gregory XII, to abdicate but only after he gave the council his blessing. It then elected Martin V (r. 1417–31) as the sole pope. The council was able to act so decisively because it was dominated by reformers who accepted the theory that the Church is a constitutional monarchy in which the pope’s powers are limited by a general council, which alone represents the universal Church. Therefore, only a general council possesses the full authority that Christ had bestowed upon the Church. In order to ensure the victory of their vision, the conciliarists at Constance pushed through a constitutional statute on April 6, 1415. Known as Haec Sancta (also known as Sacrosancta), it unambiguously mandated that the Church be governed according to the precepts of conciliar doctrine. In order to control the papacy and guide the Church, general councils had to meet on a regular basis; for this reason, the Council of Constance also promulgated the canon Frequens, on October 9, 1417. Popes found conciliar theory totally unacceptable, and by the end of the century, they managed to destroy the movement, largely through good luck, the ineptitude of subsequent fifteenth-century councils, and the support that a number of European princes and monarchs gave the papacy, in return for wide-sweeping powers over their national and regional churches. When Pope Pius II (r. 1458–64) composed Execrabilis, a ringing condemnation of conciliarism, in 1460, however, the movement was still a major threat to papal power. As a young humanist scholar, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the future Pius II, had been an avid advocate for conciliarism. He had even served as secretary to an antipope, Felix V, whom an ultra-conciliarist element at the Council of Basel had chosen to replace Pope Eugenius IV, when it attempted unsuccessfully 1. Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. Norman P. Tanner, 2 vols. (London: Sheed & Ward, 1990), 1:409, 438–39. 2. Execrabilis, http://www.geocities.ws/caleb1x/documents/execrabilis.html (accessed September 13, 2018).
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to depose him in 1439. Subsequent service to Pope Eugenius and ultimate elevation to the throne of Saint Peter gave Enea another perspective. Pius’s denunciation of this attempt to turn the papacy into a limited, constitutional monarchy was a failure issued by a timid pope whose actions did not support the militancy of his words. The bull was drawn up in secrecy, was never included in the official collection and record of important papal documents, and was held back for eleven months before being publicly promulgated in November 1460 and then only as part of another bull in which the pope excommunicated Archduke Sigismund of Austria. Moreover, Pius only used it once more—in 1461—as justification for his rejection of an appeal to the judgment of a general council, despite many such appeals during the final years of his pontificate. In both instances, the cautious pope waited until he had gained a decided advantage over his opponent before using the bull to support his actions. However, despite the fact that Execrabilis went largely unused and unnoticed and must be judged, therefore, as ineffective, it was indicative of a victory to come. The papacy’s eventual victory was not total, however. Popes were so frightened of the specter of rebellious councils that they put off calling a new general council to institute church reforms. There would be no fifteenth-century counterpart to the Fourth Lateran Council (source 52). Moreover, although the papacy had preserved its theoretical plenitudo potestatis (fullness of power) over the Church and many of its ecclesiastical perquisites and sources of wealth, the heyday of papal moral authority had passed. A fitting symbol of that fact was the death scene of Pius II, who passed away at Ancona in Italy while vainly waiting for a crusade against the Ottoman Turks that he called but which never materialized.
Questions for Consideration 1. According to Haec Sancta, on what does the council base its authority? 2. According to the decree, what are a council’s duties and powers? 3. What theories underlie Frequens? 4. What specific procedure does the canon establish? 5. Can you spot any possible weaknesses in this procedure that could potentially play into the hands of anticonciliarists? Explain your answer. 6. Precisely what does Pius II prohibit and what sanctions does he threaten? 7. How should one characterize Execrabilis: Radical or conservative? 8. Suppose another crisis arises in the Church. How, according to Pius’s decree, will it be settled? Are there any potential dangers in that procedure?
In the name of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. This holy synod of Constance, constituting a general council for the eradication of the current schism and for the union and reform of the Church of God in head and members, legitimately assembled in the Holy Spirit for the praise of Almighty God, in order that the union and reform of the Church of God might be obtained more easily, securely, effectively, and freely, defines, decrees, ordains, and declares the following:
First, that this council, legitimately assembled in the Holy Spirit, constituting a general council and representing the Catholic Church militant,3 has power immediately from Christ, and everyone, whatever the person’s status or rank, even if it is papal, is bound to obey it in those matters that pertain to the faith, to eradication of the said schism,
3. The Church of living faithful who are fighting in the cause of God on Earth.
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and to the general reform of the said Church of God in head and members. Next, it declares that anyone, whatever the person’s position, status, or rank, even if it is papal, who contumaciously refuses to obey the mandates, statutes, ordinances, or precepts that have been or shall be issued by this holy synod, or by any other general council legitimately convened, that concern or relate to the above-mentioned matters shall, unless he repents, be subject to a deserved punishment and be duly punished, with recourse even, if the situation demands it, to other legal resources.4…
*** Regarding General Councils
the supreme pontiff may, with the consent and written approval of his aforementioned brothers, or two thirds of them, substitute another location that is suitable and near the place that had been previously selected. It must, moreover, be within that same nation unless the same or a similar obstacle exists throughout that entire nation. Then he may summon the council to some other similarly suitable, nearby location of another nation. The prelates and the other persons who customarily convene at the council are required to go to it, as if this place were the one that had been originally designated. Moreover, the supreme pontiff is required to publish and announce legally and formally throughout the year preceding the assigned date of this change of venue or the time reduction, so that the aforementioned persons can meet at the appointed time in order to hold a council.
The frequent holding of general councils is a special means for cultivating the field of the Lord. It cuts out the briars, thorns, and thistles of heresies, errors, and schisms, corrects aberrations, reforms what has been deformed, and produces a harvest of great abundance for the Lord’s vineyard. Neglecting them, on the other hand, fosters and spreads the aforementioned [evils]. A recollection of past times and a consideration of current affairs place these [facts] before our eyes. For this reason, we establish, enact, decree, and ordain by perpetual edict that general councils shall be held in the following manner; the first one shall immediately follow five years from the close of this council; the second from the close of that [council] shall immediately follow in seven years; and thereafter they shall be held every ten years in perpetuity in such places that the supreme pontiff, with the consent and approbation of the council, is required to name and designate within a month before the end of each and every council or, if he fails to do so, the council itself [shall designate the place]. In this way, with a certain continuity, a council will always either be in session, or be expected within a definite time limit. In the case of emergencies, the time period may be shortened but never extended by the supreme pontiff, with the counsel of his brothers, the cardinals of the Roman Church. Moreover, he may not change the appointed location for the holding of a future council without an evident need [to do so]. But if, perhaps, some situation should arise whereby it appears necessary to change that location—imagine a siege, a war, an epidemic, or something similar—then
Pius, bishop, servant of the servants of God, as a lasting memorial of the matter. An execrable abuse that was unheard of in earlier ages has grown up in our day. Many persons who are imbued with the spirit of rebellion and not desirous of a sounder judgment but striving to evade [the consequences of their] sin, presume to appeal to a future council from [the judgment of ] the Roman pontiff, the vicar of Jesus Christ, to whom it was said in the person of blessed Peter: Feed my sheep and Whatsoever you shall bind on Earth shall be bound also in Heaven.5 Anyone who is not ignorant of the law is able to perceive how contrary this is to the sacred canons and how poisonous it is to the Christian community. For (let us pass over other matters that are most clearly opposed to this corruption) who would not judge it laughable when an appeal is made to something that does not exist and one does not know when it will exist in the future? The poor are oppressed in multiple ways by the stronger; rebellion against the Primatial See is nourished; crimes remain unpunished, freedom is conceded to delinquents, and all ecclesiastical discipline and hierarchical order is confounded. Wishing therefore to drive far away from the Church of Christ this pestilential virus, to look after the salvation of the sheep who have been committed to us, and to thwart every manner of scandal from the sheepfold of our
4. An appeal to a secular authority to punish the person.
5. See Innocent III’s Solitae (source 76).
***
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Savior, following the advice and consent of our brothers, the venerable cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and of all the prelates, and of jurists in both divine and human law, in accord with the [papal] Curia and with our own certain knowledge, we condemn appeals of this sort, and we reject them, so to speak, as erroneous and detestable, quashing and totally annulling them, should any appeals of this sort be discovered to this point in time, and we declare and determine that they are—like something void and pestilential—to be of no significance. Consequently, we order that nobody should dare, under the guise of whatever pretext, to introduce such an appeal from any of our ordinances, sentences, or commands and from those of our successors, or to embrace appeals of this sort made by others, or to use them in any way whatsoever. If anyone, whatever his status, rank, position, or condition he might be, even if he is adorned with imperial, royal or papal dignity, should disregard this two months from today’s publication of it by the Apostolic Chancery,6 he shall, by that very act, incur a sentence of anathema, from which he cannot be absolved except by the Roman 6. The papal secretariat.
pontiff and at the point of death.7 Moreover, a university or a corporation shall be subjected to ecclesiastical interdict;8 notwithstanding this [penalty], corporations and universities, like the aforesaid and any other persons, shall incur those penalties and censures that promoters of the crime of offending royal dignity or of heretical depravity are known to incur. Furthermore notaries and witnesses who shall witness acts of this kind and, in general, all who shall knowingly furnish counsel, help, or favor to such appellants, shall be punished with the same penalty. Therefore, no person may infringe upon or oppose through an audacious act this charter of our will, with which we have condemned, accused, quashed, annulled, decreed, declared, and ordered [the aforesaid]. If anyone, however, should presume to attempt this, he should know that he shall incur the displeasure of Almighty God and of Saints Peter and Paul, His apostles. Given at Mantua, in the year 1460 of the Lord’s Incarnation…in the second year of our pontificate. 7. A sentence of excommunication that could only be lifted by the pope or by any priest if the excommunicate were repentant and at the point of death. 8. Consult the Glossary.
Beating the Drum of Unrest 104. Georg Widman, CHRONICLE 9; A WOODCUT FROM THE NUREMBERG CHRONICLE Between 1544 and 1550, Georg Widman recorded in his German-language Chronicle the story of Hans Böhm (ca. 1450–76), known as Hansel (Little Hans) the drummer of Niklashausen, a village that lay within the diocese of Würzburg in Franconia. Böhm, who earned his sobriquet by entertaining peasants and villagers with a kettledrum (and possibly also a bagpipe), was at the center of a large movement that began in early May 1476 and more or less ended with Böhm’s execution on July 19. Widman’s account was written about seventy years after the event, and that fact must be kept in mind as you study this document. You should also know that the humanist Sebastian Brant devoted an entire chapter to the drummer (or “piper” as he termed him) in The Ship of Fools, an allegory that satirized his age’s absurdities and vices. Written in German and printed in 1494, the book was widely popular. One of its many admirers was Johann Trithemius, a humanist scholar and abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint James in Würzburg. In 1514, he included an account of the drummer of Niklashausen that depended on Brant, as well as on the memories of persons who had witnessed the movement. Moreover, given his close relationship with the then-current bishop of Würzburg, Trithemius probably 9. Georg Widman, Chronica, ed. Christian Kolb, in Württembergische Geschichtsquellen, vol. 6 (Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer, 1904), 216–20.
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had access to the diocese’s archives. Widman, in turn, was influenced by both authors and drew from their accounts, but not slavishly so. He depended on other sources as well. One of those sources might have been the widely circulated world history known as the Nuremberg Chronicle by Hartmann Schedel, which was first printed in July 1493. The original edition, written in Latin, was followed by a German translation by Georg Alt in December 1493. An illustration from that German edition appears below as a complement to Widman’s narrative.
Questions for Consideration 1. Consider Widman’s portrayal of Böhm and his followers. What was the author’s perspective and, if you will, bias? 2. In the light of its distance from the events, the author’s perspective, and certain other flaws that are pointed out in the notes, what value, if any, does Widman’s account have? 3. What purpose does the story of the hog butcher and his wife serve in this narrative? 4. The Virgin Mary, “Our Lady,” looms large in this story. Why was it that she served such a role for the drummer and his followers? 5. What about that friar, or whatever he was, who was said to have stood behind the drummer while he preached? What does that imply? 6. Whatever did Böhm mean by his preaching against pointed shoes, slashed sleeves, and long hair, and what possible connection did that have with the rest of his message? 7. Compare Böhm’s message and proposed program of reform with that of the leaders of the English Peasants’ Rebellion of 1381. What conclusions do you reach? 8. Study the illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle, paying particular attention to what is happening at the window and the activity of the crowd gathered below. How does it agree with Widman’s account? Does it deviate from it in any way? What is the illustrator telling us?
In the year of the Lord 1476, a shepherd arrived at the village of Niklashausen in the county of Wertheim on the Tauber River, a kettledrum player who preached violently against the secular authorities’ governance, the clergy, and also against pointed shoes, slashed sleeves, and long hair, [and] also [preached] that water, pasture, and wood ought to be held in common and that no tolls and escort payments should be paid.10 Germany [he said] was mired in great sinfulness and excessive wantonness; if they did not 10. Both were unpopular sources of income enjoyed by local lords within the empire. Tolls were laid upon persons passing through a lord’s territory. The right of escort authorized a lord to provide security—for a fee—to someone passing through his territory. That security initially was an armed escort but later became a letter of safe passage and insurance, by which the lord committed himself to pay for any losses incurred within his territory.
do penance and change their ways, God would shortly allow all of Germany to be destroyed. This the Mother of God, surrounded by a great shining light, had revealed to him one Saturday night as he guarded his cattle in a field and [what she] commanded him to preach. Consequently great numbers of people went to Niklashausen, to the Church of Our Virgin Lady,11 and all Germany was in commotion. Stable boys ran from their horses, carrying away in their hands bridles; reapers left their reaping, carrying their scythes; women hayers left the fields with their rakes; wives left their husbands, husbands their wives, etc. The wine from the previous year had been quite abundant, of good quality, and cheap. There were so many people that taverns were set up in the 11. Die Frauenkirche (the Church of Our Lady).
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fields and on the roads for two miles around Niklashausen, where wine was available so that there would be something for the travelers to eat and drink. Consequently, the travelers happily purchased Franken and Tauber wines.12 At night women and men slept alongside one another in fields and barns, and not everything was on the up-and-up. The assemblage of people was so great that the drummer, who was in a farmhouse, stuck his head out of the roof so that the people might see him and hear him preach. It is said that a bare-foot monk stood behind him in the roof telling him what to preach.13 When his preaching had ended, the people began to lament their sins, though drunkenness might have played a greater role. Thereupon they trimmed their hair and cut off the long points of their shoes—as wearing such shoes was at that time the fashion. It seemed as though many carts would not suffice to haul away the hair and shoe points, to say nothing of embroidered shawls, robes, mantles, and other female and male adornments. Many took off all their clothes down to their shifts, left them in the church, and went away. When they had traveled but a mile from Niklashausen, however, with the noise and the wine diminishing in their heads, they wished to have their clothes back. An incredible amount of money was donated along with wax and wax candles, stuck like a hedgehog—schillings from Würzburg, five-pfennig coins, kreuzer, and half-pfennigs from Nuremberg, and coins from Isenbruch.14
12. Two closely connected wine areas in central Germany. Würzburg is the capital of the Franken wine region. 13. “Bare-foot monk” was another way of saying a Franciscan friar. Some earlier sources refer to a “preacher monk,” namely a Dominican friar, who came to the notice of authorities as associated with Böhm. Another sixteenth-century chronicler claimed it was the local parish priest. Several modern scholars have suggested that Böhm’s spiritual advisor was an anonymous Beghard brother (a member of a lay religious confraternity) who was implicated as Böhm’s associate. See note 21 for further information. 14. The image is of beeswax candles donated to the church into which coins of varying value that were minted in neighboring cities were stuck as additional donations. Beeswax was a generous and not unusual gift to a church because candles made from 100 percent beeswax were necessary for all liturgical services. Kreuzer
This drummer wore on his head a cap with tufts. People tore these tufts from the cap, valuing them as a special holy relic. Women in labor had these tufts by their side, [believing that] they could not miscarry with them. Also, wherever this drummer went, people touched his hand or his staff, kissing his hand or staff as a holy relic. There were also many others who looked upon this feloniously and thought only of the money that they could gain from it. For example, there was a hog butcher who lived in Fischbachtal and who, along with his wife, enjoyed drinking wine. He took his wife, who was hearty and healthy, bound her behind him with a rope on his horse as if she were crippled and unable to walk and rode off to the churchyard at Niklashausen. There he implored the crowd that was standing about to be silent so that he might explain the reason for his journey. Now everyone came running, wishing to hear what he had to say that was so new. He said that his wife, who was bound behind him, had been crippled in her hands and feet for a year and a day, and no medicines could help her at all. One night she had heard a voice [tell her] that she should go to Niklashausen with a vow of donating wax that weighed as much as she, for as soon as she arrived there, she would be cured. His wife replied to the voice that this was not possible for her to make such a vow and to purchase so much wax. The voice then said that the wife should make such a vow, for as soon as the assembled people at Niklashausen saw such a miracle performed on her, they would give her the funds with which she could purchase this wax in its entirety. “And now, dear wife,” [he said] “this vision was from God, and the Mother of God has made you well; now leap from the horse and go into the church to offer thanks.” With these words, he pulled the loop of the rope. His wife jumped off the horse and went into the church. Then the hog butcher removed his hat, set it down in the church yard, and begged the crowd to help him with contributions, with which he might purchase the pledged wax, for he was a poor fellow. Without the aid of pious folks he could not fulfill his vow. And everyone tossed in money until the hat was full. With this the hog butcher and his wife returned home and had money for their drinking. were coins imprinted with a cross (Kreuz) that were minted in various states in southern Germany.
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This drummer preached at such length against the priesthood that his wave of followers often sang, along with their other pilgrim songs: We wish to God in Heaven complain, Kyrie eleison,15 That priests by our hands may not be slain,16 Kyrie eleison. Now, one Saturday, this drummer announced to the people that all who wished to honor and support Our Lady should come to him in Niklashausen on the next Saturday and bring their weapons. He would merely tell them what Our Lady wanted them to do. Bishop Rudolf of Würzburg, from the family of Scherenberg, learning of this and suspecting where it would go, given what unruly peasants would make of the Gospel, decided not to wait until that Saturday. He ordered a large number of mounted retainers to go at once to Niklashausen to take into custody this drummer and as many as possible of his chief co-plotters before that Saturday and to take them to Würzburg to be thrown into prison at the Frauenberg. 17 On the appointed Saturday, a great crowd arrived in Niklashausen and heard that the drummer, whom they called “Our Lady’s Emissary,” lay in jail in Würzburg. The entire assemblage at Niklashausen headed off for Würzburg with weapons—clubs, hiking sticks, and banners—whatever each was able to take up in his hand,18 in order to ask the bishop to release Our Lady’s Emissary. For they planned to say that if the bishop refused this request, his tower would, of its own accord, collapse and open up, and Our Lady’s Emissary would go forth unhurt from it to them.
15. “Lord, have mercy.” A Greek invocation that is recited in the Latin Mass. 16. This is an attempt to replicate the ditty’s rhyming pattern. A literal translation is “We wish to complain to God in Heaven / That we may not beat priests to death.” 17. The Frauenberg (Our Lady’s Mountain), also known as Marienberg (Mary’s Mountain), was the prince-bishop of Würzburg’s fortified residence. 18. By law, German peasants could not possess swords, pikes, and other weapons of war.
As they now approached the Frauenberg at Würzburg, the Würzburg armed patrol approached them, asking them to state their destination. Whereupon the crowd responded that they desired to free Our Lady’s Emissary. If this were not done, they would besiege the Frauenberg and take him out by force. While the mounted soldiers sought to calm the rabid crowd, some in the mob attacked the patrol with clubs and whatever weapons they had. These suspected “temple servants”19 and heretics attempted to do harm. This so angered the mounted soldiers that they gave many of them a bloody head. As the mob advanced to the Frauenberg, Bishop Rudolf wanted to fire at it with large cannons. His councilors, however, felt pity for these poor wretches and saw to it that, justifiably, the cannons were aimed above their heads and did no damage. At this the crowd became even more determined and said: “Our Lady protects us from harm. You cannot hurt us.” This caused the Würzburg mounted patrol to charge them, killing and wounding many.20 Thus they saw what could be done to them. Many were captured and Würzburg’s towers and dungeons were filled full. Later, in fact, they were pardoned. Only the drummer and two or three others were burned to powder21 and, in order to forestall any superstitious cult, their ashes were thrown into the Main River. All the same, one night, many of this drummer’s most ardent followers dug up the earth where he had been burned and carried it home as a holy relic.
*** 19. Pfaffenknecht: an unclear reference. Does it identify them as “Judaizers”? Except for this uncertain reference to Judaism, there is no evidence whatsoever that the movement that centered on Niklashausen had any anti-Judaic undercurrents. 20. Another source states that Bishop Rudolf ordered the cannons fired harmlessly above their heads as a warning. Following the first volley, the crowd became emboldened and surged forward. A second volley caused casualties and panic, whereupon the bishop’s mounted retainers charged. 21. According to more reliable sources, only two others, besides Böhm, were put to death: a mysterious Beghard brother and a local miller who, following the drummer’s arrest, had claimed to have had visions of the Virgin and who also threatened priests with a sword. Unlike Böhm, who was burned alive, the Beghard and the miller were beheaded on July 19.
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Illus. 13.2 Hans Böhm, the drummer of Niklashausen, preaches to a crowd from a farmhouse. Illustration by either Michael Wolgemut or Wilhelm Pleydenwurff.
Joan of Arc: Saint or Witch? The nineteenth-century American historian Henry Adams noted that “the study of history is useful to the historian by teaching him his ignorance of women; and the mass of this ignorance crushes one who is familiar enough with what are called historical sources to realize how few women have ever been known. The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong.”22 The following two sources underscore the essential truth of Adams’s insight in markedly different ways. Modern historical scholarship has made significant strides in reversing the historiographical gender bias that Adams bewailed a century ago and discovering the all-too-often overlooked historical voices of women (and other supposedly silent groups, such as slaves). One medieval woman whom we hear clearly and loudly today is Christine de Pisan, the author of the first selection. The second selection is the product of the pen of a German churchman, Johann Nider. Had Adams read Nider’s work, he undoubtedly would have placed the churchman within that teeming battalion of male writers whom he accused of gross ignorance when it came to the concerns and actions of women. In the following sources, both Pisan and Nider deal with one of the fifteenth century’s most extraordinary and controversial individuals—Joan of Arc (ca. 1412–31). This French heroine almost single-handedly rallied France around King Charles VII and destroyed the myth of English invincibility during the latter stages of the Hundred Years’ War, thereby setting the stage for France’s eventual recovery and victory. Joan, known as the “Maid of Orléans” because of her success in raising the siege of that city in May 1429, led the weak-willed Charles to Rheims in July, where he was finally crowned king, thereby preserving his family’s hold on a crown claimed by England’s kings. 22. Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, Chapter 23, at http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks/fr003248. html#2_0_23 (accessed October 8, 2018).
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After these initial successes, Joan’s fortunes took a turn for the worse. Taken prisoner in 1430, this pious teenage woman, who claimed divine guidance, was tried for witchcraft and heresy. Her condemnation was essential to the English; without it they would have to admit that they were fighting a saint sent by God. Found guilty by an ecclesiastical tribunal that was under the thumb of the English, Joan was executed by burning in 1431. Despite her death, the English were beginning to lose the war, in large part because of Joan’s installation of Charles VII as anointed king and the inspiration that she had given the king’s armies.
Joan of Arc: An Agent of God 105. Christine de Pisan, DITIÉ DE JEHANNE D’ARC 23 In 1429, Christine de Pisan, the most widely read and respected female writer of her century and almost universally recognized as France’s greatest late-medieval author, composed the Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc (The Song of Joan of Arc). This was the first poem, in any language, written about Joan and the last work from the pen of this great poet. Completed on July 31, 1429, it was crafted at a moment when Joan was at the height of her success. She had lifted the siege of Orléans and triumphantly escorted Charles VII to Rheims. It seemed as though her army would soon liberate Paris and defeat totally the Anglo-Burgundian forces, which had so recently seemed to be on the brink of total victory in a war that had devastated France and its people. To Pisan, this turn of events could only be a miracle and a sign of God’s love for France, her adopted homeland. Christine de Pisan (or Pizan) was born in Venice around 1364 but moved to France in 1368 to join her father, who had accepted a position as astrologer and physician at the court of King Charles V. In 1379, when fifteen years of age, Pisan married and subsequently bore three children. Upon her husband’s sudden death in 1389, she found herself in desperate financial straits and turned to writing in order to support herself, her children, her widowed mother, and a niece. Although a female professional writer was a novelty in fifteenth-century Europe, Christine de Pisan succeeded brilliantly. After producing a large body of commissioned poems, which established her reputation as a French writer of distinction, she turned to topics of her own choice and produced over fifteen longer works in prose and poetry that addressed such topics as religion, morality, history, royal biography, chivalry, warfare, statecraft, contemporary misogyny, and feminine education. These last two issues were the focus of her two most celebrated works: The Book of the City of Ladies of 1405, her age’s most eloquent defense of women against the slurs of their detractors; and its sequel, The Treasure of the City of Ladies (also known as The Book of Three Virtues), an educational manual for women “of all estates.” In 1418, when Burgundian forces occupied Paris, thereby forcing the Dauphin Charles, son and presumptive heir of Charles VI, to flee, Pisan sought refuge in a female monastic convent. A strong partisan of the Valois royal family since her childhood at the court of Charles V, Pisan chose life in a nunnery rather than life under the Burgundians. Eleven years after her forced retirement and silence, she broke out in poetic song for one last time to celebrate the miracle that was taking place in her old age. We hear no more of Christine de Pisan after this poem; apparently she died the following year, in 1430, before Joan’s execution.
23. Christine de Pisan, Ditié de Jehanne d’Arc, ed. and trans. Angus J. Kennedy and Kenneth Varty (Oxford: Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, 1977), 41–48, passim. Reprinted with the permission of Angus J. Kennedy and Kenneth Varty.
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Questions for Consideration 1. What was the nature and depth of Pisan’s feelings for France and its royal house? For example, why does she believe that God has a special solicitude for France? What did she believe France and its kings would accomplish? 2. What does this poem allow us to infer about the nature and level of French sentiment during the latter stages of the Hundred Years’ War? 3. According to Pisan, Joan had both national and universal missions. What were they? What do these presumed missions suggest about Pisan’s values and worldview? 4. At her trial, Joan was accused of having dishonored her sex. How does Pisan anticipate and answer such a charge? How does Pisan see Joan and interpret her deeds? In answering this question, consider the images and allusions that Pisan uses to describe Joan. 5. Some scholars have seen a feminist theme running through this poem. Is there one? 6. Are there any other major themes in this poem? If so, what are they? 7. Compare Froissart’s vision of the Hundred Years’ War (source 97) with Pisan’s. What are the differences, and how do you explain them? 8. Compare this poem with Urban II’s letters of 1095 and 1096 and Robert the Monk’s version of the pope’s speech at Clermont (source 84). What conclusions do you draw from your comparative analysis? 9. It has been said that the Ditié is a combination of old and new sentiments. Do you agree or disagree?
I I, Christine, who have wept for eleven years in a walled abbey where I have lived ever since Charles (how strange this is!) the king’s son—dare I say it?—fled in haste from Paris, I who have lived enclosed there on account of the treachery, now, for the first time, begin to laugh.… III In 1429 the sun began to shine again. It brings back the good, new season which had not really been seen for a long time—and because of that many people had lived out their lives in sorrow; I myself am one of them. But I no longer grieve over anything, now that I can see what I desire.… V The reason is that the rejected child of the rightful king of France, who has long suffered many a great misfortune and who now approaches, rose up as if towards prime,24 coming as a crowned king in might and majesty, wearing spurs of gold…. X Did anyone, then, see anything quite so extraordinary come to pass (something that is well worth noting and 24. Sunrise. Consult the Glossary at Canonical hours.
remembering in every region), namely, that France (about whom it was said she had been cast down) should see her fortunes change, by divine command, from evil to such great good, XI as the result, indeed, of such a miracle that, if the matter were not so well-known and crystal-clear in every aspect, nobody would ever believe it? It is a fact well worth remembering that God should nevertheless have wished (and this is the truth!) to bestow such great blessings on France, through a young virgin. XII And what honor for the French crown, this proof of divine intervention! For all the blessings which God bestows upon it demonstrate how much He favors it and that He finds more faith in the Royal House than anywhere else; as far as it is concerned, I read (and there is nothing new in this) that the Lilies of France25 never erred in matters of faith. 25. The fleur-de-lis, or lily, was the emblem of the French royal house.
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XIII And you Charles, king of France, seventh of that noble name,26 who have been involved in such a great war before things turned out at all well for you, now, thanks be to God, see your honor exalted by the Maid who has laid low your enemies beneath your standard (and this is new!)
XXIII And what more can be said of any other person or of the great deeds of the past? Moses, upon whom God in His bounty bestowed many a blessing and virtue, miraculously and indefatigably led God’s people out of Egypt. In the same way, blessed Maid, you have led us out of evil!
XIV in a short time; for it was believed quite impossible that you should ever recover your country which you were on the point of losing. Now it is manifestly yours for, no matter who may have done you harm, you have recovered it! And all this has been brought about by the intelligence of the Maid who, God be thanked, has played her part in this matter!
XXIV When we take your person into account, you who are a young maiden, to whom God gives the strength and power to be the champion who casts the rebels down and feeds France with the sweet, nourishing milk of peace, here indeed is something quite extraordinary!29
XV And I firmly believe that God would never have bestowed such grace upon you if it were not ordained by Him that you should, in the course of time, accomplish and bring to completion some great and solemn task; I believe too that He has destined you to be the author of very great deeds. XVI For there will be a king of France called Charles, son of Charles, who will be supreme ruler over all kings. Prophecies have given him the name of “The Flying Stag,” and many a deed will be accomplished by this conqueror (God has called him to this task) and in the end he will be emperor.27… XXI And you, blessed Maid, are you to be forgotten, given that God honored you so much that you untied the rope which held France so tightly bound? Could one ever praise you enough for having bestowed peace on this land humiliated by war? XXII Blessed be He who created you, Joan, who were born at a propitious hour! Maiden sent from God, into whom the Holy Spirit poured His great grace, in whom [i.e. the Holy Spirit] there was and is an abundance of noble gifts,28 never did Providence refuse you any request. Who can ever begin to repay you? 26. The French counted Charlemagne as Charles I. 27. There is a double reference here. Charles VII’s father, Charles VI, had a dream that he was visited by a winged stag, which he mounted. Taken aloft, he viewed the vastness of his domain. In the mid- to late fourteenth century, a prophecy regarding the coming of a Second Charlemagne became popular in Italy and France. According to this prophecy, a king of France would arise who would surpass all of Europe’s kings, become emperor, and recover Jerusalem. 28. Compare this with the opening lines of the popular prayer known as the Ave Maria (Hail, Mary): “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.”
XXV For if God performed such a great number of miracles through Joshua who conquered many a place and cast down many an enemy, he, Joshua, was a strong and powerful man. But, after all, a woman—a simple shepherdess— braver than any man ever was in Rome! As far as God is concerned, this was easily accomplished. XXVI But as for us, we never heard tell of such an extraordinary marvel, for the prowess of all the great men of the past cannot be compared to this woman’s whose concern it is to cast out our enemies. This is God’s doing: it is He who guides her and who has given her a heart greater than that of any man…. XXVIII I have heard of Esther, Judith and Deborah,30 who were women of great worth, through whom God delivered His people from oppression, and I have heard of many other worthy women as well, champions every one, through them He performed many miracles, but He has accomplished more through this Maid. XXIX She was miraculously sent by divine command and conducted by the angel of the Lord to the king, in order to help him. Her achievement is no illusion for she was carefully put to the test in council (in short, a thing is proved by its effect)31 29. This brings to mind one of the West’s popular artistic images—the Virgin Mary feeding Jesus milk from her breast. 30. Esther and Judith are, respectively, the heroines and central characters of the books of Esther and Judith, two of the several apocryphal books that the medieval Church accepted as authoritative, divinely inspired parts of the Old Testament, but were not incorporated into the canonical Hebrew Bible. Deborah was a prophetess: Judges, 4–5. 31. The story is that when Joan came to the king’s council chamber, in order to test Joan, he disguised himself as a simple courtier, and ordered someone else dressed to play his part. Joan was not deceived, but immediately identified the king.
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XXX and well examined, before people were prepared to believe her; before it became common knowledge that God had sent her to the king, she was brought before clerks and wise men so that they could find out if she was telling the truth. But it was found in history-records that she was destined to accomplish her mission.32… XXXIII Oh, how clear this was at the siege of Orléans where her power was first made manifest! It is my belief that no miracle was ever more evident, for God so came to the help of His people that our enemies were unable to help each other any more than would dead dogs. It was there that they were captured and put to death. XXXIV Oh! What honor for the female sex! It is perfectly obvious that God has special regard for it when all these wretched people who destroyed the whole kingdom— now recovered and made safe by a woman, something that 5,000 men could not have done—and the traitors [have been] exterminated. Before the event they would scarcely have believed this possible. XXXV A little girl of sixteen (isn’t this something quite supernatural?) who does not even notice the weight of the arms she bears—indeed her whole upbringing seems to have prepared her for this, so strong and resolute is she! And her enemies go fleeing before her, not one of them can stand up to her. She does all this in full view of everyone, XXXVI and drives her enemies out of France, recapturing castles and towns. Never did anyone see greater strength, even in hundreds or thousands of men! And she is the supreme captain of our brave and able men. Neither Hector nor Achilles had such strength!33 This is God’s doing: it is He who leads her. XXXVII And you trusty men-at-arms who carry out the task and prove yourselves to be good and loyal, one must certainly make mention of you (you will be praised in every nation!) and not fail to speak of you and your valor in preference to everything else, 32. A reference to three popular prophecies ascribed to Merlin, Bede, and the Greco-Roman prophetess known as the Sibyl, which are more specifically mentioned in section XXXI, which is not included here. 33. Respectively, the leading warriors of the Trojans and the Greeks in the Trojan War.
XXXVIII you who, in pain and suffering, expose life and limb in defence of what is right and dare to risk confronting every danger. Be constant, for this, I promise, will win you glory and praise in Heaven. For whoever fights for justice wins a place in Paradise—this I do venture to say. XXXIX And so, you English, draw in your horns for you will never capture any good game! Don’t attempt any foolish enterprise in France! You have been checkmated. A short time ago, when you looked so fierce, you had no inkling that this would be so; but you were not yet treading the path upon which God casts down the proud. XL You thought you had already conquered France and that she must remain yours. Things have turned out otherwise, you treacherous lot! Go and beat your drums elsewhere, unless you want to taste death, like your companions, whom wolves may well devour, for their bodies lie dead amidst the furrows! XLI And know that she will cast down the English for good, for this is God’s will: He hears the prayer of the good whom they wanted to harm! The blood of those who are dead and have no hope of being brought back to life again cries out against them. God will tolerate this no longer—He has decided, rather, to condemn them as evil. XLII She will restore harmony in Christendom and the Church. She will destroy the unbelievers people talk about, and the heretics and their vile ways, for this is the substance of a prophecy that has been made. Nor will she have mercy on any place which treats faith in God with disrespect. XLIII She will destroy the Saracens, by conquering the Holy Land. She will lead Charles there, whom God preserve! Before he dies he will make such a journey. He is the one who is to conquer it. It is there that she is to end her days and that both of them are to win glory. It is there that the whole enterprise will be brought to completion. XLIV Therefore, in preference to all the brave men of times past, this woman must wear the crown, for her deeds show clearly enough already that God bestows more courage upon her than upon all those men about whom people speak. And she has not yet accomplished her whole mission! I believe that God bestows her here below so that peace may be brought about through her deeds.
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XLV And yet destroying the English race is not her main concern for her aspirations lie more elsewhere: it is her concern to ensure the survival of the Faith.34 As for the English, whether it be a matter for joy or sorrow, they are done for. In days to come scorn will be heaped on them. They have been cast down!
34. On March 23, 1430, Joan dictated a letter in French to the priest Jean Pasquerel, who translated it into Latin. Addressed to the “heretics of Bohemia,” it threatened the Hussites with her waging war against them if they did not recant their “error.” The letter may be read at http://archive.joan-of-arc. org/joanofarc_letter_march_23_1430.html (accessed October 9, 2018).
XLVI And all you base rebels who have joined them,35 you can see now that it would have been better for you to have gone forwards rather than backwards as you did, thereby becoming the serfs of the English. Beware that more does not befall you (for you have been tolerated long enough!), and remember what the outcome will be! XLVII Oh, all you blind people, can’t you detect God’s hand in this? If you can’t, you are truly stupid for how else could the Maid who strikes you all down dead have been sent to us?—And you don’t have sufficient strength! Do you want to fight against God? 35. Here she addresses the Burgundians and Gascons who were allied with the English.
Joan of Arc and Other Female Agents of the Devil 106. Johann Nider, FORMICARIUS 36 Europe’s witch hunt, which resulted in the executions and extrajudicial murders of possibly tens of thousands of accused witches and sorcerers, was largely a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century phenomenon, reaching its peak intensity between 1560 and 1680 in both Catholic and Protestant lands. The image of the wicked, devil-enthralled witch, however, emerged earlier, as it began to be part of the European mindset in the early decades of the fifteenth century. A belief in sorcery was not new, as Saint Columban’s Penitential (source 24) makes plain. What was new is that during the fifteenth century black magic took on the character of being the Devil’s primary weapon in the cosmic struggle between the forces of evil and virtue. Witches were now viewed as willing agents in a diabolical plot aimed at overthrowing the City of God on Earth. In earlier times, the European imagination largely perceived sorcerers as learned men, such as the mythical Merlin, who had penetrated the mysteries of the universe, harnessed cosmological forces, and thereby gained extraordinary powers—powers that could be used selflessly for good or selfishly for malicious ends. Now, however, witches were imagined as primarily ignorant women who had gained black-magical powers through an evil pact with the Devil. By virtue of this union with Satan, the witch or warlock (the less common male witch) harnessed the forces of Hell, thereby making her or him a mortal danger to society. In the minds of many, the logical conclusion was that cutting out such dangerous tumors from the body of Christian Europe was a necessary act of self-survival. By the end of the 1400s, belief in and fear of malevolent witchcraft was well-nigh universal throughout the West. It is no exaggeration to say that witchcraft paranoia and fervent witch-hunting were born in the “crisis of the Late Middle Ages” but reached their maturity in an era that is usually labeled either “early modern,” or “Renaissance.” The most famous trial and execution of an accused witch in the fifteenth century was that of Joan of Arc, who was judicially murdered for what were essentially political and not religious ends. Significantly, because the witchcraft obsession was in its early days, the court treaded lightly. Joan, 36. Johann Nider, Formicarius (Douai: Baltazar Bellerus, 1602), 385.
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although accused of witchery, was found guilty of and condemned for heresy. In 1452, Pope Calixtus III ordered an investigation into Joan’s trial, and in 1456, the appellate court found her innocent of all charges and, furthermore, declared her a martyr. But for several decades before that formal nullification, many church leaders were convinced of her guilt and of her having been a minion of the Devil. One such person was Johann Nider, a member of the Dominican Order, a professor of theology at the University of Vienna, an active preacher against the Hussites in the region around Prague, and a major voice for religious reform. Our source comes from the pages of Nider’s Formicarius. The work’s curious title means “ant colony.” Using the biblical proverb “Idler, go to the ant; ponder her ways and grow wise,”37 Nider loosely organized his lengthy collection of anecdotes and dialogues relating to the religious life of early fifteenth-century Europe along the structural motif of contemporary notions of the actions and qualities of ants. Nider, a lifelong foe of heresy and every other form of what he perceived to be devilish error, introduced into his anthill long discourses on contemporary diabolical activities. Nider’s work was widely distributed, hand-copied, and later printed, and it is no exaggeration to state that he significantly influenced subsequent writers on witchcraft and hunters of witches. Because he wrote at the beginning of Europe’s preoccupation with diabolical witchery, his work has a special relevance for anyone who wishes to understand how this fear, which often reached the level of terror, emerged and manifested itself. In the following excerpt, Nider uses a stylized dialogue between himself and a fictional pupil, an inquisitive but typically ignorant “idler,” to relate stories of Joan of Arc and several other “witches.”
Questions for Consideration 1. There are a few clues in this text that point to its approximate time frame of composition. What are they? Based upon them, what can you conclude? 2. According to Nider, on what grounds was Joan of Arc judged to be a witch? 3. What about Joan particularly offended Nider? 4. What were the qualities that all four so-called witches supposedly shared? 5. Why were they perceived as threats to society? 6. Two of these four supposed witches escaped execution. How did they manage that, and what do you infer from the means they used to do so? 7. As belief in diabolical witchcraft grew, this imagined demon worship took on overt sexual overtones and undercurrents. Can you perceive any hints of this in Nider’s dialogue? 8. It has been often stated that Christian clerics tended to portray women as either saints or seductresses. On the basis of the evidence, what do you think of this judgment? 9. Compare the four women in Nider’s story with Chaucer’s women (source 100). Are they portrayed differently? If so, to what do you ascribe those differences? 10. Compose either Pisan’s commentary on Nider’s description of Joan of Arc or Nider’s commentary on Pisan’s poem.
37. Proverbs, 6:6.
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Pupil: In your opinion, have some good people been deceived by sorceresses and witches in our own day? Master: I suspend judgment regarding the truth of the story that follows, but I will tell you what is related by public rumor and report. We have in our days the distinguished professor of divinity, Brother Heinrich Kaltyseren, inquisitor of heretical activity.38 As he told me himself, last year, while performing his inquisitorial office in Cologne, he discovered in the region a certain young woman who always went around in male clothing, bore weapons, and wore the type of degenerate garments that are favored by courtiers.39 She danced with men and was so given to feasting and drinking that she seemed to overstep totally the boundaries of her sex, which she did not conceal. Because the bishopric of Trier was, at that time, gravely beset by two rivals contending for the office of bishop (as, unfortunately is also the case today),40 she boasted that she could and would set one of the claimants on the throne, just as Maid Joan, of whom I will presently speak, had done shortly before with King Charles of France, by confirming him in his royal office. In fact, this woman claimed to be that same Joan, raised from the dead, by God! One day, when she had arrived in Cologne with the youthful count of Württemberg,41 who protected and favored her, and there, in the presence of the nobility, had performed marvels that seemed magical, she was at last 38. In 1435, the minister general of the Dominican Order appointed Kaltyseren (or Kalteisen) as inquisitor in the archiepiscopal provinces of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne. 39. Tight-fitting doublets and hose. 40. In 1430, there was a contested election for the office of archbishop of Trier, one of the most powerful temporal and ecclesiastical positions in the empire. Pope Martin V nullified the election of the two contestants and named Raban von Helmstatt, the bishop of Speyer, as the new archbishop. One of the two contestants, Ulrich von Manderscheid, refused to accept the pope’s decision, and in 1432 and 1433, he launched armed assaults on Trier. In 1434, the Council of Basel found in favor of Bishop Raban. Ulrich, despite being both excommunicated and placed under an imperial ban, continued to besiege Trier. An apparent compromise was reached in 1436, but soon thereafter Ulrich ignored it. Only Ulrich’s death in October 1438 ended the struggle. The aged Archbishop Raban resigned in February 1439, and Jakob von Sierck, who had received a majority of votes for the office in 1430 but withdrew when Martin V invalidated the election, was then named archbishop of Trier by Pope Eugenius IV. 41. Ludwig I, who became count in 1419, but only came of age in 1426. In 1436, he married Princess Mechthild of the Palatinate.
diligently scrutinized and publicly cited by the aforesaid inquisitor, in order that she might be formally examined. She was said to have cut a napkin into pieces and suddenly to have restored it whole in the sight of the people; to have thrown a glass against the wall, thereby breaking it, and to have repaired it in a moment; and to have shown many similar idle devices. The wretched woman, however, would not obey the Church’s commands. The count protected her from arrest and snuck her out of Cologne. In this way, she escaped the inquisitor’s hands but did not elude the sentence of excommunication. Bound by this curse, she left Germany for France, where she married a knight, in order to protect herself from ecclesiastical penalty and the sword [of secular punishment]. Then a priest, or rather pimp, seduced this witch with talk of love. Finally, she ran away with him and went to Metz,42 where she lived as his concubine and openly showed everyone by what spirit she was led. Moreover, there was in France, within the past ten years, a maid named Joan, about whom I have already spoken, who was distinguished, so it was thought, for her prophetic spirit and the power of her miracles. She always wore men’s clothes, and none of the arguments of the learned doctors convinced her to put them aside and to content herself with feminine dress, even though she openly professed her womanhood and virginity. She said: “I have been sent by God in these masculine garments that serve as a token of future victory, to preach by both word and attire, to help Charles, the true king of France, and to set Charles firmly upon his throne, from which the king of England and the duke of Burgundy are striving to chase him.”43 At that time, those two men were allied and were oppressing France grievously with war and carnage. Joan, therefore, rode constantly around like a knight with her lord, predicted many successes to come, was present in the field at some victories, and performed many other wonders that elicited a sense of marvel not only in France but in every realm in Christendom. Finally, this Joan reached such a level of presumption that, before France had yet recovered, she was already sending threatening letters to the Bohemians, among whom there were a host of heretics.44 From that period onward, both laypeople and clerics began to have doubts about the spirit that ruled her, 42. A city in eastern France, not far from Joan of Arc’s home region. 43. King Henry VI and Duke Philip III (the Good). 44. See note 34 above.
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wondering whether it was diabolical or divine. Then certain learned men wrote treatises concerning her, in which they expressed not only diverse but even adverse opinions concerning the Maid. Then following that, after she had given Charles tremendous assistance and had confirmed his hold on the throne for some years, by God’s will, as it is believed, she was captured in battle by the English and cast into prison.45 Large numbers of masters of both canon and civil law were summoned, and she was examined for many days. As I have heard from Master Nicholas Midi, master of theology, who represented the University of Paris,46 she finally confessed that she had a personal angel from God. Based on many conjectures and proofs, and the opinion of the most learned men, this “angel” was judged to be an evil spirit. Consequently, this spirit made her a sorceress. For this reason, they permitted her to be burned at the stake by the common executioner.47… 45. Actually, the forces of Duke Philip III captured Joan in May 1430. Philip then handed her over to the English. 46. Paris and its university were in the control of John, duke of Bedford, the regent for the young Henry VI. 47. In Rouen on May 30, 1431.
At this same time, two women sprang up near Paris, publicly preaching that God had sent them to aid Maid Joan, and, as I heard from the lips of the aforesaid Master Nicholas, they were immediately arrested as witches or sorcerers by the inquisitor for France, examined by many doctors of theology, and found at last to have been deceived by the ravings of an evil spirit. When, therefore, one of these women perceived she had been misled by an angel of Satan, she followed the advice of her masters, abandoned that which she had begun, and, as was her duty, immediately renounced her error. The other one, however, remained obstinate and was burned. Pupil: I cannot marvel enough how the frail sex can dare to rush into such presumptuous matters. Master: These matters are wonders for simple folk like you, but they are not rare in the eyes of wise men. For there are three things in nature that, if they transgress the limits of their own condition, whether by diminution or excess, attain to the highest pinnacles of goodness and evil. They are the tongue, the cleric, and woman. All are commonly the best of all, as long as they are guided by a good spirit, but the worst of all, if guided by an evil spirit.
New Secular Rulers Contradictions were inherent in the culture of late-medieval Europe, and possibly nothing illustrates that society’s internal tensions more than its ability to juxtapose intense, widespread religiosity and deep spirituality with its growing secularization. In 1324, Marsilio of Padua proclaimed in his treatise Defender of the Peace that the secular state, not the Church, was the superior authority in Christian society. Moreover, although all power emanated from the community, it was the secular ruler, whom the community designated to lead it, who exercised supreme power over both church and state. Marsilio of Padua’s ideas were radical and not widely accepted in his age. Indeed, he lost his university post at Paris and was declared an excommunicated heretic by Pope John XXII. Nevertheless, Marsilio’s ideas described not just a theory but an emerging reality; states and their rulers were becoming laws unto themselves, answerable to no external authorities, the pope included. In other words, the laws of the state received their sanction solely from the will of the sovereign and not from any absolute system of moral precepts, as interpreted by an institutional priesthood. By the end of the fifteenth century, a number of strong states had emerged, ruled by vigorous sovereigns who willingly accepted no limitations upon their power. The monarchs of England, France, Aragόn, Castile, and Portugal managed to carve out fairly large realms, which they subjected to extensive royal authority. In Scandinavia, Sweden was on the cusp of creating a monarchy that controlled the realm rather effectively. In Italy and the so-called Holy Roman Empire, where central authority was a myth, a number of local princes managed to create smaller, equally independent secular states, which they ruled with a sovereign authority that rivaled that of the great monarchs of Europe. The following sources present character sketches of two of late fifteenth-century Europe’s most interesting New Rulers, King Louis XI of France and Lorenzo the Magnificent of Florence.
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Louis XI: A Character Sketch 107. Philippe de Commynes, MEMOIRS 48 Philippe de Commynes has earned the reputation as France’s last great medieval historian and its first modern political observer, a judgment that says as much about the futility of trying to distinguish sharply between “medieval” and “modern” as it does about the transitional nature of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Born into the nobility of Flanders, Commynes entered the service of Charles the Rash, duke of Burgundy, but in 1472, he shifted allegiance to King Louis XI (r. 1461–83), Charles the Rash’s mortal enemy. Commynes quickly became one of the king’s most valued counselors, possibly the most valued. His crowning achievement was advising the king how best to manipulate the events that led to the downfall and death of Charles the Rash in 1476. From 1477 on, Commynes seems to have played a less important role in the councils of Louis XI, but he continued to serve his monarch faithfully, including traveling as a diplomat to the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici in Florence. Following King Louis’s death in 1483, Commynes fell afoul of the regents of the young Charles VIII and found himself imprisoned for several years and then exiled to one of his estates in disgrace in 1489. In this period of enforced quiet, Commynes began his Memoirs and composed its first six books, all of which deal with the reign of Louis XI. By 1491, Commynes had regained partial royal favor, and although he served Charles VIII on several diplomatic missions to Italy, he never regained the level of influence he had enjoyed under Louis XI. Pensioned off by King Louis XII, Commynes died in 1511, largely out of touch with the royal court. Commynes’s career as a statesman ended badly, but long before his death, he revised his Memoirs and added two additional books, carrying his story down to the death of Charles VIII in 1498. He left the work behind to serve as his memorial and public justification. More than a narrative, Commynes’s story contains lengthy didactic passages addressed to anyone who wishes to learn the craft of effective government by studying the examples of recent history. By adding these passages, Commynes transformed his work into a mirror, or handbook, for princes—a popular late-medieval genre. In the first excerpt, which appears early in Book 1, the author digresses on the virtues and vices of his late sovereign, King Louis XI. In the second excerpt, which comes toward the end of Book 6, Commynes describes Louis’s death and sums up the man and his reign.
Questions for Consideration 1. Can you find any possible autobiographical allusions in the first excerpt? If they are autobiographical, what do they suggest about Commynes’s relationship with King Louis and his attitude toward that monarch? 2. Does Commynes excuse away or remain silent about any of King Louis’s less admirable qualities or actions? What do you conclude from your answer? 3. According to Commynes, which personal qualities contributed to Louis’s success as a ruler? 4. According to Commynes, what were Louis’s weaknesses, and how, if at all, did he attempt to mitigate them? 5. History has given Louis XI the epithet “the Cunning” and the sobriquet “the Universal Spider.” Does the sketch that Commynes gives of Louis justify them? 48. Philippe de Commynes, Mémoires, ed. Joseph Calmette, with G. Durville, 3 vols. (Paris: Société d’Édition “Les Belles Lettres,” 1964), 1:67–70; 2:313–24.
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6. Compare Commynes’s treatment of Louis XI with Joinville’s description of Louis IX (source 79). Which strike you as more significant, the differences or the similarities? What conclusions do you draw from your analysis? 7. How do you think Commynes would have judged kings Louis IX and John the Good? 8. Based on your answers to questions 3–7, construct a picture of Commynes’s ideal ruler. 9. It has often been stated that Commynes’s values and worldview were transitional—both medieval and early modern yet not fully either. Please evaluate the merits of that judgment.
Book I, Chapter X Portrait of Louis XI I have begun this discourse because I have seen many dishonesties in this world and many servants set against their masters, and that haughty princes and lords who seldom listen to their people are more often deceived than those who are humble and listen willingly. And of all those whom I have ever known, the wisest in extricating himself from a bad situation in a time of troubles was King Louis XI, our master, and he was most humble in speech and attire and one who ever worked to win over a person who might be able to serve him or to harm him. He was never annoyed at being refused once by a person whom he was attempting to win over but continued on, promising much and, indeed, giving money and a position of authority that he knew would please him, and those persons whom he had expelled and banished in time of peace and prosperity he would repurchase at a very high price when he needed them, making use of them and not holding any grudge for their past deeds. He was by nature a friend of people of the men of the middle class and an enemy of all the high born who could do without him. No man ever gave his ear so readily to people or inquired about so many things as he did or wanted to know so many persons. Moreover, and it is a fact, he knew all the powerful and important men in England, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the lordships of the duke of Burgundy49 and in Brittany,50 as well as he knew his 49. During Louis XI’s reign, the House of Valois-Burgundy produced two dukes, Philip the Good and Charles the Bold (le Téméraire, which can also be understood as “the Reckless), and a duchess, Mary, who held a wide variety of lordships in eastern France and the Low Countries. 50. The duchy of Brittany was an independent, sovereign entity until it was united with the French Crown in 1532.
own subjects. And these qualities and manners that he had, which I have just mentioned, saved his crown for him in view of the enemies whom he had acquired upon his accession to the kingdom.51 But above all else, his great generosity has served him well, because as wisely as he conducted himself in adversity, to the contrary, as soon as he thought he was safe or even if it was only a truce, he would begin to upset people in petty ways that served him badly, and he was barely able to endure peace. He spoke slightly of men both in their presence and in their absence, except of those whom he feared, who were numerous, for he was somewhat fearful by his given nature. When, indeed, by his manner of speaking, he had harmed himself or suspected that he had and he wished to repair the damage, he spoke these words to the person concerned: “I am well aware that my tongue has done me great harm, but sometimes it has given me much pleasure. Nevertheless it is right that I should make amends.” And he never used these confidential words without doing something good for the person to whom he was speaking, and he did it in no small way. Still again, God grants great favor to a prince when he experiences good and evil and especially when the good is greater, as occurred in the case of our master. For, in my opinion, the hardship that he experienced in his youth, when he was a fugitive from his father and fled to Duke Philip of Burgundy, with whom he lived for six years, stood him well, because he was obliged to humor those 51. A reference to the War of the Public Weal (Good) of 1465. A league of nobles, led by Charles the Bold, who was then the count of Charolais, rose against the centralized authority of the French crown. Louis was unable to defeat the rebels in battle, but by pretending to yield and signing several peace treaties, he eventually outmaneuvered the rebels, often by buying them off with offices and bribes. The young Philippe de Commynes served as a squire in the forces of Count Charles.
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whom he needed.52 Adversity taught him this well, which was no small thing. When he found himself powerful and a crowned king, at first he thought of revenge, but soon this caused him harm, and he repented in equal measure. He set this folly and error right by winning back those whom he had wronged, as you will hear later. If he had had exclusively the type of education of the other lords whom I have seen brought up in this kingdom, I do not believe that he could have recovered. For they were only raised to make fools of themselves in dress and speech. They have no knowledge of literature; one can find not a single wise man in their company; they have officials to whom one speaks about their business, never to them, and these men take care of all their affairs. And such lords, who have not thirteen livres in moneyrents,53 puff themselves up when they say, “Speak to my men,” thinking that by these words they are imitating the very high-born. I have often seen their servants making their own profit, while giving their masters the impression that they are fools. And so if, by chance, one of them regains control of his own affairs and wants to find out what belongs to him, it is so late that it hardly matters, because it is necessary to realize that all famous men, who have achieved great things, began quite young, and these achievements spring from their education or from the grace of God.
He continued to say things that made sense, and the length of his illness, as I said, was from Monday up to Saturday evening.
For this reason, I wish to draw a comparison between the ills and anguish that he made many others suffer and those that he suffered before dying, for I hope that they have borne him to Paradise and will make up part of his time in Purgatory.54 And if they were not as great or as long in duration as those that he inflicted on many others, so also, he had a different and greater office in this world than they did. And he had never been subject to anyone but had always been obeyed, so that it seemed that Europe had been created only in order to bear obedience to him. For this reason, the little that he did suffer, inasmuch as it was against his nature and habits, was heavier for him to bear.… In a previous section, I began to draw a comparison between the suffering that he inflicted on certain people, and many of those who lived under him and his authority, with those similar ones that he suffered before he died (and if they were not as great or as long in duration, as I said in the aforesaid section, they were quite considerable in view of his temperament, which demanded stricter obedience than any other prince of his time, and that he received in larger measure, so that the smallest word of opposition to his will was an exceedingly great punishment for him to endure). I have mentioned how his death was announced to him with so little discretion. But some five or six months before that, the said lord was suspicious of everybody, especially all those who were fit to exercise authority. He was afraid of his son and had him closely watched,55 and no one could see him or speak to him without his permission. In the end, he was even frightened of his daughter and son-in-law, the current duke of Bourbon,56 and he wanted to know who entered Plessis57 with them and, finally, he broke up a council that the duke of Bourbon was holding there on his orders. When his son-in-law and the count of Dunois returned from conducting business with the delegation that had
52. King Charles VII banished his son Louis from the royal court in 1446 because of his numerous attempts to destabilize Charles’s reign and to grab power for himself. In 1456, Louis fled to the court of Duke Philip the Good, his father’s bitter enemy. Louis remained in Burgundy until his father’s death in 1461 and his own accession to the crown. As his father lay dying and in great pain, Louis refused the king’s request that he visit him. 53. The French livre was a coin that was roughly equivalent to the English pound in purchasing power, making an annual income of thirteen livres quite small.
54. Consult the Glossary. 55. The future King Charles VIII, “the Affable,” was only thirteen when his father died in 1483. 56. Anne de Beaujeu, the king’s eldest surviving daughter, and her husband Peter (who became Duke Peter II of Bourbon in 1488) later served as co-regents for the young King Charles VIII in the period 1483–91. During that period Anne was one of the most powerful rulers in Europe, which led to an attempt by rebellious lords to unseat her and Duke Peter. See note 61 below. 57. The royal Château de Plessis-lès-Tours in the Loire Valley that Louis XI had built.
*** Book V, Chapter XI The Death of Louis XI
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come for the marriage of the king, his son, and the queen at Amboise,58 and they came back to Plessis and brought many people with them, the aforesaid lord, who had the gates heavily guarded, was in a gallery that overlooked the courtyard of Plessis. He called one of the captains of the guard and ordered him to go and touch the people with these aforesaid lords to see if they had brigandines under their robes,59 and they were to do this while talking with them and without being too obvious while doing so. Consider this. If he had made many people live in suspicion and fear under him, he was well repaid. And whom could he trust when he was suspicious of his own son, daughter, and son-in-law? I make this point not only about him but about all other lords who desire to be feared. They are never aware of revenge until old age, and then, as a penance, they fear all humanity. What torment it was for this king to have such fears and passions…. It is true that the aforesaid king, our master, had built cruel places of imprisonment, such as iron cages and others of wood fitted with iron bars outside and within, with terrible iron enclosures about eight feet wide and a foot higher than a man. The first man to devise such prisons was the bishop of Verdun, who was immediately put into the first one of them to be constructed, where he spent fourteen years.60 Many others have cursed him since, I included, who did eight months in one of them under the current king.61
58. A delegation from Archduke Maximilian of Austria arrived at the royal Château d’Amboise in July 1483 to arrange the marriage engagement of the thirteen-year-old dauphin, soon to be King Charles VIII, and Maximilian’s three-year-old daughter Margaret. Margaret was raised in the French royal court, and treated as a queen, even though she had not been crowned. In 1491, due to the machinations of his sister Anne, Charles broke the engagement and married Anne of Brittany, which allowed him to become administrator of this independent and strategically important duchy. Margaret left the French court in bitterness, and in 1501 married the duke of Savoy. 59. A brigandine was a shirt of heavy cloth or leather to which metal plates were attached. Its purpose was to deflect sharp weapons. 60. Guillaume de Haraucourt was imprisoned in the Bastille for intriguing against King Louis. 61. Commynes was implicated in the rebellion to unseat Anne de Beaujeu and her husband as co-regents for Charles VIII—a revolt that resulted in the Mad War (1485–88). He was imprisoned in January 1487 and released in March 1489.
On another occasion, the king had obtained horrible shackles from the Germans, which were quite heavy and exceedingly terrible. Made for shackling feet, they had one ring for each foot and were very difficult to open, just like a collar, and a thick, heavy chain with a huge iron ball on the end, much heavier than it needed to be or ought to have been. They were called the king’s daughters. I have, however, seen many well-born prisoners wearing them on their feet who since have been released and enjoyed great honor and happiness and even received great benefits from him.… Yet, this is not our chief concern, but to return to that it must be said that, just as these evil and various types of prison were invented in his time, so also before he died he found himself in a similar and even greater fear than the great fear of those whom he had imprisoned in them. This I hold to be a matter of great grace for him and for part of his time in Purgatory. And I mention it also to show that there is no one, of whatever rank, who does not suffer either privately or in public, and especially they who have made others suffer. Toward the end of his life, the aforementioned lord had his chateau at Plessis-lès-Tours entirely surrounded by iron bars in the form of a thick grille. At the four corners of the house were placed four iron sentry boxes that were solid, strong and compact. The aforementioned grille rested against the wall on one side and on the other side against the moat, for it had a flat bottom. He had many iron spikes fastened into the wall’s masonry, each with three or four points and placed quite close to one another. Furthermore, he ordered ten crossbowmen from each of the aforementioned sentry boxes to stay in the moat to shoot at those who approached before the gate was open. He wanted them to lie in the aforesaid moat and then to withdraw to the already-mentioned iron sentry boxes.62 He clearly understood that this fortification would not be sufficiently strong enough against a large number of men or an army, but that did not worry him. He simply feared that some lord or a group of lords, after having gained some intelligence [of the chateau’s personnel], might launch a raid to take the place by night, partly by collusion [with those inside] and partly by force, and that they would take away his authority and force him to live like an insane man unfit to govern. The gate of Plessis did not open before eight o’clock in the morning, nor was the drawbridge lowered. Then the officers entered, and the 62. Fortress moats were almost always dry.
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captains of the guards placed the normal gatekeepers at their post and ordered pickets of archers, either to the gate or around the courtyard, as if it were a closely guarded frontier post. No one entered except by a wicket-gate, nor without the king’s knowledge, except for a household steward and people of this type who were not going into his presence. Honestly speaking, is it possible to keep a king in closer imprisonment than he kept himself ? The cages where he had held other people were some eight feet square and he, who was such a grand king, had a small chateau courtyard in which to walk around. Even then he hardly went into it but stayed in the gallery, not leaving it except to go into rooms, and he went to Mass without going through that courtyard. Who would want to say that the king was not suffering when he shut himself up and had himself guarded, when he was in fear of his children and all his closest relatives, when, from day to day, he changed and removed his servants and those whom he patronized, and those who owed all their good fortune and honor to him, and when he dared not trust any of them but shut himself up with such strange chains and barricades? It is true that this place was
much larger than a common prison but he was far greater than common prisoners. One could say that others have been more suspicious than he. But this was not in my time nor were they, perhaps, such wise men, nor did they have such good subjects. They were probably cruel and tyrannical anyway. But this man never harmed anybody unless he had somehow offended him. I have not said these things merely to note the suspicions of our king but to speak of the patience that he displayed in his sufferings, which were similar to those he had inflicted on others. In regard to the things that I have mentioned, such as his illnesses, which were great and sorrowful burdens to him (and he feared them a great deal before they came upon him), I consider that it was Our Lord’s punishment of him in this world so that he would have less in the other. I mentioned them also so that those who come after him might have a little more pity on the people and be less eager to punish than he had been, although I do not wish to blame him or say that I have ever seen a better prince. It is true that he oppressed his subjects, but he would not allow anyone else, whether a friend or a stranger, to do so.
Lorenzo de’ Medici: Character Sketches in Words and Ceramic 108. Francesco Guicciardini, THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE 63; A BUST OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI Messer Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540) had a lucrative law practice in his native Florence, but unlike Sacchetti’s comic lawyers, he possessed wit and intelligence. Like many of his contemporary doctors of law, Guicciardini was politically ambitious and immersed himself in the rough world of Florentine civic life. In 1508–9, in the midst of his early career, Guicciardini composed a history of Florence that traces the fortunes of this Tuscan city from 1378 to 1509, where the story ends abruptly—in midsentence. Unlike his masterpiece, The History of Italy, which he continued to polish and rework until his death, Guicciardini never returned to update or complete his initial foray into Florentine history, although he later composed a second work entitled Florentine Affairs, which covers much of the same ground. The History of Florence, written in the Tuscan dialect and without rhetorical flourishes, has all of the flaws and strengths of a youthful work composed in the heat of the moment. Above all else, the notion that history is a human-driven process that conforms to certain discoverable laws pervades it. In the following excerpt, Guicciardini describes and evaluates the life of Lorenzo de’ Medici (1449–92), known as “the Magnificent.” Lorenzo was the grandson of Cosimo de’ Medici, the head of a prosperous banking family, who had achieved control over Florence in 1434 and maintained it 63. Francesco Guicciardini, Storie Fiorentine dal 1378 al 1509, ed. Roberto Palmarocchi (Bari: Giuseppe Laterza & Figli, 1931), 72–80, passim.
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down to his death in 1464. Under Cosimo’s subtle but effective one-man rule, Florence reached a level of political and social stability that it had not known for quite some time. Lorenzo inherited his family’s mantle in 1469 and controlled the city for the next twenty-three years—a period that is often regarded as the high-water mark of Florentine cultural creativity. Like his grandfather, Lorenzo controlled the republic of Florence indirectly through well-placed partisans. The Florentines were not deceived by the charade, but most acquiesced in an arrangement that brought prosperity and glory to their city. Guicciardini was only nine years old when Lorenzo died in 1492, so he did not write from intimate personal knowledge. What he presents is largely a portrait of Lorenzo as remembered a decade and a half after his death. In light of the evils that befell Florence with the collapse of Medici fortunes in 1492, there was a tendency only a few years later to look back with longing to the era of Lorenzo the Magnificent as a golden age. During that supposed golden age, Medici control over the city did not go uncontested. The most famous attempt to rid the city of the Medici took place in 1478. Known as the Pazzi Conspiracy, so named because the Pazzi family played a major role in the plot, it resorted to an assassination attack during High Mass in the city’s duomo, or cathedral. Lorenzo’s brother Giuliano was stabbed to death, and Lorenzo, although wounded, managed to escape. The people of the city rallied to Lorenzo. As an act of pious thanksgiving, Lorenzo’s friends and relatives commissioned Orsino Benintendi, a sculptor who worked in wax, to create three life-size, painted statues of Lorenzo, one of which wore his bloodstained clothes from the day of his narrow escape. With the aid and direction of the sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, Benintendi completed the commission. Two statues found homes in Florentine churches, and one was sent to the Franciscans in Assisi. The three wax statues are lost, but sometime thereafter an unknown artist created a painted terracotta bust of Lorenzo that experts agree was probably modeled on the statues.
Questions for Consideration 1. What does Guicciardini mean when he states that Lorenzo had “in him all those signs and evidence of a virtue that one sees connected with civic life.”? 2. The house of Medici initially rose to prominence in Florence because of its banking interests. How did Lorenzo compromise that base of Medici power? 3. Guicciardini states that Lorenzo “hungered after glory and excellence more than any other man.” How did Lorenzo manifest that desire, and how did his quest for glory differ from that of the heroes of Froissart’s account (source 97) or Chrétien de Troyes’s Erec (source 68)? What conclusions follow from your answers? 4. Guicciardini characterizes Lorenzo as a “a most universal man.” What does that mean? 5. Imagine that you have been commissioned to write a manual for late fifteenth-century princes and monarchs. Based on sources 107 and 108, what advice would you include? 6. Consider the bust of Lorenzo. Does it portray any of the qualities of the man that Guicciardini enumerates? Which ones and how so? Does it present any qualities or characteristics that Guicciardini does not mention? Which ones and how so? 7. Compare the bust with the Romanesque and Gothic art in sources 71 and 72. Do you perceive any similarities or differences between the bust and these earlier pieces of art? How so? Which strike you as more significant the differences or the similarities? Why so?
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Chapter IX. The Death of Lorenzo de’ Medici and His Portrait The city was in perfect peace, the citizens controlling the state were united and closely bonded, and their regime was so powerful that no one dared to oppose it. Every day, the people were entertained by spectacles, feasts, and novelties; nutritious food was abundant in the city, and all occupations flourished. Men of genius and ability were nurtured; men in all branches of literature, in all of the arts, of every sort of talent were welcomed and honored. And finally, the city rested in complete domestic tranquility and quiet, and abroad the highest glory and reputation because it had a government and a leader exercising the grandest authority,…and it had become almost the fulcrum of all Italy. Then a happenstance occurred that set everything into reverse, resulting in disorder not only in the city but in all Italy. In the year 1491, Lorenzo de’ Medici suffered a lingering illness that initially the doctors judged to be of inconsequential importance. Perhaps they did not treat it with all the diligence they should have, for it continued on, progressively becoming worse. Finally, on the [eighth] day of April 1492, he passed from this present life.… Lorenzo de’ Medici was forty-three years of age when he died and had governed the city for twenty-three years. When his father Piero died in ’69, he was twenty—quite young, and somewhat under the care of Messer Tommaso Soderini64 and other elder statesmen. But within a short time he found his footing, acquired a great reputation, and governed the city in his own manner.… Until death intervened, he ruled as he wished and totally controlled the city…. Because the greatness of this man was extraordinary to the point that no citizen of Florence had ever equaled him, and because his fame was exceedingly widespread both after his death and while he lived, I do not think it out of place, in fact it is even quite useful, if I describe in detail his manner of behavior and qualities. I do not know these things from experience, for when he died I was a little boy, but I do have them from people worthy of faith and reliable sources that are genuine; so that, unless I am deceived, what I am about to write is the pure truth. Lorenzo had many outstanding virtues. He also had several vices, some of them natural, some due to necessity. He had so much authority that one might say that 64. Tommaso Soderini (1403–85) was at the pinnacle of his influence and authority during Piero de’ Medici’s short reign.
the city was not free in his time, yet it abounded in all the glory and good fortune that there can possibly be in a city that is free in name, but in fact tyrannized by one of its citizens.65 Although some of the things that he did can be found blameworthy, nevertheless his deeds were so outstanding and so grand that they are far more admirable when they are studied than when they are heard, because some are not to be found. For through no fault of his, but rather because of the age and the custom of the time, they do not include those feats of arms and that military art and discipline that brought so much fame to the ancients. One will not read therein of a brilliant defense of a city, or of a notable capture of strongly defended fortification, or strategy in battle and a victory over enemies. His accomplishments do not shine with the splendor of arms, but one easily finds in him all those signs and evidence of a virtue that one sees connected with civic life. No one, not even his adversaries and those who disparaged him, can say that his genius was not exceedingly grand and unique. This is fully demonstrated by the fact that he governed the city for twenty-three years and continually increased its power and glory. To deny this would be an act of madness. It is especially so, given that this city is exceedingly free in speech and full of the most scheming and restless minds. Moreover, its area of dominion is quite small, and it is not able to support all its citizens with offices, so that in order to satisfy a very small part, the others must necessarily be excluded. The friendship and great credit he enjoyed among many princes in Italy and beyond also proves [his greatness].… All this was due to nothing other than his ability to deal most skillfully and perceptively with these princes. It is attested by those who heard him that his public and private speeches were totally filled with insight and great wit, through which he acquired a great reputation in many places and times.… It is attested by the letters he dictated, so full of genius that one could not desire more. These accomplishments appeared all the more attractive by being accompanied by great eloquence and a most elegant manner of speaking. His sound judgment was that of a wise man, but it was not of a quality equal to that of his intellect. One can find him committing actions that were exceedingly rash…. In the wake of the events of ’78, had he been more gentle with the pope and the king, perhaps war would not have 65. The author uses the term “tyrannized” in its classical Greek sense: rule by a single individual who is not restricted by law or a constitution. It does not necessarily mean a harsh or brutal rule.
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broken out.66 But the fact that he desired to act as the injured party and did not wish to gloss over the injury that he had received might well have been the cause of a war that brought with it such tremendous harm and danger to the city and him. The journey to Naples was considered to be far too impulsive and far too hurried, thereby placing him in the grasp of a king who was exceedingly unsettled, totally faithless, and his bitter enemy. His defense is that, at that moment, the city and he totally needed peace. Nevertheless, there is the opinion that this could have been accomplished by staying in Florence, where there was much greater security and no less advantage.67 He hungered after glory and excellence more than any other man, for which he can be criticized for having carried this hunger even into the most unimportant matters. He did not want to be equaled or imitated by any citizen when it came to making verse, games, or gymnastics and accordingly got quite angry with them. This desire was quite strong in important matters as well. He wanted to equal and compete with all the princes of Italy in everything, which displeased Signor Ludovico a great deal.68 On the whole, however, such an appetite was praiseworthy and caused his glory and name to be celebrated in every corner, even outside of Italy, for it drove him to strive to make the Florence of his time stand out above all other Italian cities in all the arts and civic virtues. He founded a school of philosophy and letters in Pisa, principally for the study of letters.69 When people offered multiple reasons to show that it could not have as many students as Padua or Pavia,70 66. After the Pazzi conspirators failed to kill Lorenzo, the people of Florence rioted in support of the Medici, and in the turmoil, the archbishop of Pisa, who was one of the conspirators, was hanged. Pope Sixtus IV, an avowed enemy of the Medici, excommunicated everyone who was involved in the archbishop’s murder and placed Florence under interdict. King Ferrante of Naples seized the opportunity to invade Florentine territory as a papal champion. 67. In December 1479, Lorenzo unexpectedly and secretly went to Naples, where he secured peace with King Ferrante, thus stripping Pope Sixtus of vital military support. Consequently, in December 1481, the pope and the Florentines made their peace. 68. Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan (r. 1494–99), who sought supremacy over northern Italy. 69. The University of Pisa closed its doors in 1403 when Florence conquered the city, but in 1486, Lorenzo founded the Pisan Academy. 70. Both universities were preeminent in legal studies and attracted thousands of students.
he said that it sufficed to have a better College of Letters than the others. And throughout his time, all the most excellent and famous men in Italy taught there, with very high salaries, for he spared neither expense nor labor to get them. In Florence, the study of the humanities flourished under Messer Agnolo Poliziano, Greek under Messer Demetrius and then under Lascaris, the study of philosophy and art under Marsilio Ficino, Giorgio Benigno, Count della Mirandola, and other excellent men.71 He showed the same favor to vernacular poetry, to music, to architecture, to painting, to sculpture, and to all the arts of mind and handicraft, so that the city overflowed with all these pleasantries. They blossomed forth all the more because a most universal man passed judgment and distinguished among men, so that they all competed with one another in order to please him greatly. Additionally, there was his boundless liberality, which provided all talented men with livelihoods and with all the instruments necessary for their art. To give an example: when he decided to establish a Greek library, he sent Lascaris, a most learned man and Florence’s Greek tutor, to seek out fine ancient books in Greece. The same liberality preserved fame and friendship with princes in Italy and outside of Italy, for he omitted no form of magnificence—with all of its attendant heavy expense—that might enable him to keep the favor of the powerful. The result was that at Lyons, Milan, Bruges, and other places where he had business interests, his magnificence and his gifts caused his expenses to multiply, whereas his profits diminished because his affairs were governed by men of little ability.… By nature, he was exceedingly proud, and in that manner, he did not want other men contradicting him. He also 71. The scholar and poet Agnolo Ambrogini, known as by the nickname Poliziano, was a major figure in the study of Greek and Latin texts and tutored Lorenzo’s children. The Athenian-born Demetrios Chalkokondyles migrated to Italy in 1447, taught Greek literature at several eminent Italian universities and was summoned to Florence and Pisa by Lorenzo. Constantine Lascaris fled Constantinople in 1453 and arrived in Italy, where he became a prominent promoter of the study of Greek language and literature. Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Academy, which Cosimo de’ Medici founded, was Florence’s premier center for the study of Platonic and Neoplatonic thought. The Franciscan friar Giorgio Benigno Salviati was a prominent theologian and philosopher. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, a nobleman and philosopher who involved himself in the study of religion and magic, is most noted for his treatise Oration on the Dignity of Man.
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endeavored to speak obliquely, employing in important matters words that were few and ambiguous. In ordinary conversation he was very clever and charming. In his home life he was quite bourgeois-modest rather than lavish, except for the entertainments at which he most magnificently honored the many extremely noble foreigners who came to Florence. He was quite libidinous, totally amatory, and unceasing in his love affairs, which lasted quite a few years. In the judgment of many, these affairs so weakened his body they caused him to die, so to speak, prematurely.… Some people considered him cruel by nature and vindictive on account of the severity shown in the case of the Pazzi, imprisoning the innocent youths and forbidding the girls to marry, after so many killings had taken place in those days. Yet, that bloody event was so bitter that it is not surprising that he was so extraordinarily aggrieved. Moreover, one can see that it was softened over time. He allowed the girls to marry and was satisfied to see the Pazzi set free from prison, to go and live outside the territory. One can also see too from his other dealings that he was neither habitually cruel nor a bloodstained man. His gravest and most troublesome fault among all others was distrust. It was caused, perhaps, not so much by nature as by the realization that he had to keep a free city subjugated, and that whatever had to be done needed to be done through the magistrates and according to the statutes of the city, under the appearance and façade of liberty. And certainly, when he began and as he started to gain his footing, he endeavored to keep down as much as he could all those citizens whose nobility, wealth, power, or reputation he realized would cause them to be esteemed above the ordinary. However, if some of these were from a family or bloodline in which the state had confidence, they were liberally granted magistracies in the city, embassies, commissions, and similar honors, yet because he did not trust them, he chose as officials of the candidacy lists72 and taxes, and shared with these men his most intimate secrets, men whose status he had raised and who would have had no importance whatsoever without his support….
72. As an oligarchy, Florence only allowed persons whose families were economically secure, had paid taxes for at least thirty years, and already had political standing to be candidates for senior civic offices. Minor officials compiled lists of candidates whose names would be entered into the lottery from which the names of officeholders would be drawn.
This same distrust led him to take care that extremely powerful men did not become joined to one another through marriage, and so, he devised ways to pair off [families] in such a way that they would not cause worries. Occasionally, to avoid such marriages he would, out of fear, force some young man of quality to marry some woman whom he would normally not have found acceptable and, to put it succinctly, the matter was reduced to the fact that no marriage, except exceedingly unimportant ones, was contracted without his participation and permission. This same distrust was the cause of his placing in Rome, Naples, and Milan a permanent chancellor, who was a salaried public official, to ensure that the ambassadors there would never depart from his wishes. They were at the service of the resident ambassador, but reported on matters that he cared about, and so he was alerted as to what was going on. I do not want to label as “distrust” the fact that he moved about with a large number of armed guards and that he showed them special favor, giving some of them hospitals and holy places.73 Perhaps the Pazzi conspiracy had caused that. Nevertheless, this did not smack of the flavor of a free city and of a private citizen, but rather of a tyrant and a servile city. In fact, we must conclude that under him the city was not free, even though it was impossible to have had a better tyrant and a more pleasant one. An infinite number of benefits resulted from his natural inclinations and goodness. The exigencies of tyranny produced several evils, but they were moderate and never exceeded the limits of necessity. Very few abuses were the result of willfulness or unfettered arbitrariness. Although the people who had been held down rejoiced at his death, yet, the men in power and even those who were sometimes offended by him were sad, for they did not know where this change would lead. He was also greatly mourned by the entire city and by the “little people,” who had constantly enjoyed an abundance of pleasant entertainments and feasts from him. His death was deeply mourned by all the men in Italy who excelled in literature, painting, sculpture, and similar arts, for they had either received generous fees from him, or else they were held in the greatest esteem by other princes, who feared that if they did not make a fuss over them, they would go to Lorenzo.
*** 73. From which they received incomes.
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Illus. 13.3 A terracotta bust of Lorenzo de’ Medici, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Arts and Letters Guicciardini did not exaggerate when he stated that all of the arts flourished in Florence under the generous patronage of Lorenzo the Magnificent. In addition to his interest in classical scholarship, Lorenzo was a talented poet and generously patronized poets at his court. In the fields of architecture, sculpture, and painting, the Medici family showered favor on such geniuses as Brunelleschi, Alberti, Donatello, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, and the young Michelangelo. Medicean Florence was the center of one of the West’s most significant periods of creativity in the visual, plastic, and literary arts. As our first source indicates, one of Quattrocento (1400s) Florence’s greatest glories was that it was the nursery for a literary-intellectual movement known as “Renaissance Humanism.” Fifteenth-century Humanism was rooted in the cult of Greco-Roman classical studies, and its devotees adopted a vigorous educational program predicated on the assumption that classical norms, forms, and models were the surest guides to proper human expression and behavior. Although developed first in Italy, Renaissance Humanism crossed the Alps and deeply influenced Northern Europe’s literary and artistic circles by the end of the fifteenth century. In the first selection, we will look at the thought of Leonardo Bruni, one of Florence’s early champions of the humane arts. In the second source, which juxtaposes two paintings, we shall see how the Gothic North reached brilliant heights in the realm of the visual arts. Such works combined deep piety with a humanistic fascination for natural expression, especially in regard to the human body.
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Which Studies Should a Lady Humanist Pursue? 109. Leonardo Bruni, A TREATISE ON THE STUDY OF LITERATURE 74 Leonardo Bruni (1370–1444) was the central figure of Florentine Humanism in the first half of the fifteenth century. As a young man, Bruni left his native Arezzo and moved to Florence, where he became an expert in Latin and Greek literature. After spending ten years as secretary to four popes in Rome, he returned to Florence in 1414, never to leave it again. In 1427, he attained the office of chancellor of Florence, a post he held until his death. As chancellor, he served as head of the republic’s bureaucracy. In addition to his civil service activities, Bruni was an avid collector of ancient manuscripts, an editor and translator of classical Greek and Latin texts, and a prolific writer on a wide variety of topics. His History of the Florentine People in Twelve Books, which traces the history of his adopted city from antiquity to 1404, was based on his reading of available archival sources and deeply influenced many subsequent Florentine historians, including Guicciardini. Our source consists of excerpts from a lengthy essay that Bruni composed around 1424 and dedicated to Battista Malatesta of Montefeltro, a famous female scholar in her own right and wife of the lord of Pesaro. Bruni presented his treatise in the form of a personal letter but intended it for general circulation.
Questions for Consideration 1. What was Bruni’s opinion regarding the state of contemporary learning, higher education, and literary accomplishment? 2. How did his educational system differ from that of the universities? 3. Bruni writes of “two subjects of study.” What are they, and what are their purposes or goals? 4. Bruni then notes that “other studies are related to them to the degree that they either contribute to them or add, as it were, some embellishment to them.” What are those other studies and how do they complement the “two subjects of study”? 5. Bruni also notes that “the intellect that aspires to all of the highest things, in my opinion, must be doubly educated.” What is that double education and how, if at all, does it differ from the “two subjects of study.” 6. The visual arts were reaching levels of brilliance in Italy at this time. What place does Bruni accord the visual arts (and music for that matter) in his humanistic program? What about science and mathematics? What do your answers suggest about his brand of Renaissance Humanism? 7. Fifteenth-century Florentine Humanism has been characterized as secular in form and spirit. On the basis of this essay, does that characterization appear to be appropriate? Why or why not? 8. Compose a commentary on this treatise by Christine de Pisan.
74. Leonardo Bruni, “Tractatus de studium litterarum,” in Leonardo Bruni Aretino humanistisch-philosophische Schriften, ed. Hans Baron (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1928), 5–19, passim.
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To Lady Battista de Malatesta. In light of reports of your admirable virtues, I have been compelled to write you, so that your intellect, of which I have a heard much that is wonderful, is either acclaimed as already perfect or brought to that state through my letter. For I do not fail to have before me examples of outstanding women who were famous for their literary abilities and eloquence and whom I could mention by way of urging you to excellence. Many centuries after the death of Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, her letters, which were composed in an outstandingly elegant style, live on.75 The poetical writings of Sappho have been accorded the highest honor by the Greeks because of their unique eloquence and compositional artistry.76 In the time of Socrates, there was also Aspasia, a highly educated woman who excelled in eloquence and literary studies. The great philosopher Socrates was not embarrassed to admit that he had learned certain things from her.77 And there were others whom I could mention, but let these three suffice as examples of the most renowned women. I entreat you, therefore, to be encouraged and elevated by their superior intellect. For it is not fitting that your great intelligence and exceedingly singular talents should have been given you in vain nor should you be content with mediocrity. Such gifts strive for and exert themselves toward the heights of excellence. And, indeed, your glory will be all the brighter than that of these women because they flourished in ages in which there was a super abundance of learned persons so that their plentiful numbers diminish one’s admiration of them. You, however, live in these times in which studies have so far decayed that now it is regarded as miraculous to see a learned man, much less a woman. For by learning I 75. Cornelia Africana (ca. 195–115 B.C.E.) is a shadowy figure. Her reputation is that she was educated in Greek and Latin rhetoric. Only fragments exist of letters ascribed to her, and many scholars question their authenticity. 76. A late seventh-, early sixth-century-B.C.E. lyric poet from the island of Lesbos. Except for her Ode to Aphrodite, only fragments of her poetry have come down to us. 77. Aspasia (ca. 470–400 B.C.E.), the partner of the Athenian statesman Pericles, was highly educated and an independent thinker. Her home served as the premier gathering place for Athens’ leading intellectuals, writers, artists, and politicians. Plato was one of several Athenian authors who wrote about her with admiration.
do not mean that vulgar and confused sort such as they possess who these days practice theology, but that genuine and innate kind that joins literary skill with practical knowledge, such as Firmianus Lactantius had, such as Aurelius Augustine had, such as Jerome had, all of whom were theologians of the highest sort as well as accomplished men of letters.78 Now, however, it is shameful how little they who profess that knowledge know about literature…. The person who strives for that excellence to which I now call you first needs to acquire, I think, not a narrow or vulgar familiarity with literature but rather one that is extensive and expert, exact and profound. Without this foundation one cannot build anything that is lofty or magnificent…. Bruni then offers a brief explanation of why one should study Latin grammar and literature. The chief rule of such study is this: to see to it first that we busy ourselves by studying those books that were written by the best and most approved authors of the Latin language, and being on guard against writings that are crude and tasteless…. For when sordid and tasteless writings are read, they attach their own vices to the reader and infest the mind with a similar disease…. This, therefore, will be our first concern: that we read nothing except the best and most approved. The second concern is this: that we approach these best and most approved writings with a sharp critical sense…. Bruni next lists some recommended theological and secular texts and suggests some methods for understanding the art of certain secular Roman authors. According to him, knowledge of this art is “literary skill.” Because we have said that true learning consists of literary skill and practical knowledge, we have shown you how we view literature. Now it is fitting that we additionally speak to the issue of practical knowledge. Here, again, I desire to address that intellect that appears to me to have the capacity to reach all of the 78. Lactantius was a fourth-century defender of the Christian faith whose elegant Latinity won for him the sobriquet “the Christian Cicero” (see source 2). The volume, scope, and centuries-long influence of the writings of Augustine of Hippo (d. 430) and Jerome (d. 420) earned them recognition as two of the four “Fathers of the Latin Church.”
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highest peaks inasmuch as it spurns no branch of learning, it believes that nothing is alien to it, and it burns with a wondrous ardor for knowledge and understanding. Consequently, I will, in some measure, encourage this person who is so ardent and eager, and I will, moreover, urge her on with enthusiasm, but in another way I must caution restraint, and I even sound retreat. For there are some disciplines that it is perfectly fine to know in a rudimentary way but to ascend to their peaks is in no way meritorious: for example, geometry and arithmetic. If one were to waste much time grubbing through all of their subtleties and obscure points, I would pull that person back by the hand and tear her away from them. I would do the same for astrology and the same, perhaps, for the art of rhetoric.79 I have quite reluctantly listed this last discipline because if any living persons have labored in this field, I confess that I am one of their number. But there are many things that I must consider, foremost of which is keeping in mind the person to whom I am writing. For why should subtleties such as status and the epicheirma of a concern, and those things called krinomena80 and a thousand other conundrums in that art vex a woman who never sees a public forum?… The contests and struggles of the public forum, like wars and battles, are for men…. He lists some of the less savory and more difficult aspects of public disputation. …In summary, she totally relinquishes to men the bitterness of the public forum. When, then, will I spur her on? When will I encourage her to hasten forward? When she devotes herself to those matters that pertain to divine religion and living morally. Then I will beg her to extend herself, then I will beg her to apply her soul, then I will beg her to press on by night and day. It is hardly wrong to speak about these concerns in turn. First, the Christian woman should endeavor to acquire a knowledge of sacred literature. For should I recommend anything else to her before that? She should intensely explore these texts, intensely discuss them, intensely examine them. But she should prefer the older authors of such texts. For she should respect, even hold in reverence, modern authors, if they are good men, but she should pay scant attention to 79. Consult the Glossary at Seven Liberal Arts. 80. All three are technical, quite abstruse issues argued over by rhetoricians that defy simple definition.
their writings. For what could a woman well versed in literature not find in Augustine that she might find in them? Moreover, whereas he offers a learned discourse that is pleasing to the ears, they offer nothing of the sort. Therefore, his works merit reading. I do not want her to be satisfied with sacred literature alone. She should engage in secular studies as well. She should look into what the most excellent minds among the philosophers taught regarding those matters that pertain to a moral life. What they taught about continence, about temperance, about modesty, about justice, about fortitude, about liberality. She should not ignore their opinions on the subject of a happy life: whether virtue by itself is sufficient for a happy life; whether torture, incarceration, exile, and poverty can adversely affect it. And if these befall a happy person, do they make that person miserable, or do they simply snatch away happiness without, in fact, inducing misery? Furthermore, does human happiness consist in pleasure and the absence of pain, as Epicurus has it, or in goodness, as Zeno has it, or in the exercise of virtue, as Aristotle has it?81 Believe me, such issues are exceedingly noble and worthy of our deliberation. They are not just useful for the guidance that they offer in life, they also, in fact, supply one with a marvelous stockpile that can be used when speaking as well as writing on every sort of topic. These two subjects of study, therefore, one that concerns religion and the other that concerns living morally, are her most important matters of interest. Other studies are related to them to the degree that they either contribute to them or add, as it were, some embellishment to them…. To the subjects of study about which I spoke above, one should first add a knowledge of history, a subject that no learned person should in any way neglect. For it is appropriate that one know the origin and evolution of one’s own people and the deeds in war and peace of free peoples and of the greatest kings. For a knowledge of the past guides one’s practical judgment and deliberation, and 81. Three fourth-century-B.C.E. philosophers. Epicurus emphasized a life of simplicity, self-sufficiency, tranquility, and the avoidance of pain. He also taught that the pursuit of amoral pleasure brought with it pain. Zeno emphasized living a life of virtue in accordance with nature. Aristotle taught that the good life consists of exercising the virtuous mean, a moral balance governed by the intellect.
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the consequences of similar enterprises might either spur us on or deter us, according to the nature of the matter at hand. Moreover, no subject other than history is used as much for its stockpile of copious instructive examples with which we appropriately clarify our points of discourse. And a certain portion of the community of writers of history consists of polished stylists, surely distinguished for and excelling in every sort of rhetorical device and stylish grace. It is rewarding to read them also for literary purposes. I speak of Livy and Sallust, Tacitus and Curtius,82 and above all Caesar, who described, with the greatest ease and charm, his own deeds in his Commentaries.83 These, therefore, the woman of highest promise will read and take steps to acquire for herself, especially since it is enjoyable to study them thoroughly. For there is no subtlety in them that must be rooted out or a quaestio that must be unknotted.84 For every history is steadfast and firmly rooted in its narration of simple facts. If that intellect that I am addressing should grasp such facts but once, they will live forever in her memory. I will also urge her not to neglect reading the orators. For who else extols virtues with such ardor and condemns vices with such ferocity? It is from them that we learn to praise good deeds and to detest evil deeds. From them we learn how to console, how to encourage, how to urge, how to dissuade…. In summary, every richness of expression, every power and, as it were, ornamentation of speech, all of the lifeblood of discourse, as I have said, we take from them. Beyond this, I want her to read and understand the poets…. In my opinion, the person who has not studied the poets is, in a certain manner, crippled when it comes to 82. Four Roman historians who were active from the late first century B.C.E. to the early second century C.E. 83. Julius Caesar wrote two self-serving autobiographical accounts: Commentaries on the Gallic War, which describes his nine years of campaigning in Gaul; and Commentaries on the Civil War, which describes his role in the civil war of 49–48 B.C.E. 84. A question (quaestio) for debate in an academic disputation (disputatio).
literature. They wisely say many appropriate things regarding life and the ways of living, and there are found in them the principles and cause of nature and birth and, as it were, the seeds of all teachings. They possess great authority by virtue of their reputation for wisdom and their antiquity, and they possess an uncommon splendor by virtue of their elegance and a nobility of mind that is worthy of free persons, so that he who has not paid attention to them appears to be a complete country bumpkin…. Without a doubt, the wisest of the ancients have borne witness to the fact that the divine mind dwells in poets, and by that fact they are called vates85 because they speak not so much from their own impulse as from the breath of the divine spirit.… Summing it all up, that excellence of which I speak is acquired only from extensive and diverse knowledge. It follows, therefore, that one must learn and read much and must studiously concentrate on the philosophers, the poets, the orators, the historians, and all other writers. For from this there comes that full and sufficient knowledge that allows us to appear eloquent, wellrounded, and refined and in no way crude and ignorant. Beyond this, a literary skill that is neither slight nor of little value must be added. For the two together reinforce one another and work in tandem. Literary skill without practical knowledge is sterile and useless, and if practical knowledge, however prodigious, lacks the shining light of literary skill it will be seen as something esoteric and obscure…. Finally, to conclude: the intellect that aspires to all of the highest things, in my opinion, must be doubly educated.… You now have my reasoned opinion regarding the study of literature. If, perhaps, you think otherwise, I will easily yield. For I have not written to you as a master (I should not be so presumptuous), but as one of the crowd that admires your excellence. I wish to join my views with yours and, as they say, cheer on the runner to glory. Farewell. 85. A Latin word that means both “oracle” and “poet.”
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Visions of Life and Death 110. Martin Schongauer, THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS; The Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion, THE CRUCIFIXION Northern European painters and sculptors brought Gothic naturalism to new heights of technical skill and creative artistry during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Simultaneously, they stressed the narrative qualities of visual art. The two works shown here, each an example of fifteenth-century northern religious art at its best, illustrate all three features. The first, The Adoration of the Shepherds, by the Alsatian German artist Martin Schongauer dates to the period 1475–80. Painted on oak, it originally served as the central panel in an altarpiece for a chapel in a private home. The second, by an anonymous artist known today simply as the Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion, is a scene of the crucifixion of Jesus, surrounded by his mother Mary and his disciple John. The work, likewise painted on wood and initially serving as a panel in an altarpiece, was commissioned around 1410 by the Augustinian clerics of Munich, who had a convent in the heart of the city (and who had been brewing beer since at least 1328). The convent is gone, but Augustinerbräu remains one of the city’s finest beers.
Questions for Consideration 1. Compare the portrayal of Mary in the two panels. What message is each painter conveying? 2. Likewise, compare the men in each painting. What messages do their attitudes and postures convey? 3. Consider the intended settings for each painting: a home chapel and an urban church. Did these settings (and the patrons who commissioned the altarpieces) have any noticeable impact on the way in which each artist framed his story? 4. Differences in medium aside, compare the style, tone, and overall message of The Adoration of the Shepherds with that of the Strasbourg Dormition (source 48). What conclusions follow? 5. Differences in medium aside, compare the style, tone, and overall message of the Augustinian Crucifixion with the crucifixion scenes of sources 41 and 64. What conclusions follow?
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Illus. 13.4 Adoration of the Shepherds by Martin Schongauer, ca. 1475–80. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.
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Illus. 13. 5 The Crucifixion by the Master of the Augustinian Crucifixion, ca. 1400. Bavarian National Museum, Munich, Germany.
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New Geographic Horizons The onslaught of the Eurasian-wide pandemic of the Black Death, massive economic depression that affected lands and peoples throughout Eurasia, the breakup of the Mongol Empire around the middle of the fourteenth century, the disruption of the ancient Silk Road routes of Inner Asia by the armies of the Turkish conqueror Timur the Lame (Tamerlane) between 1369 and 1405, and the successes of the Ottoman Turks, who swept through Anatolia and the Balkans, finally capturing Constantinople in 1453—all combined to block effectively by the late fourteenth century Western Europe’s direct access to East Asia by way of the overland routes that had opened up in the mid-thirteenth century. To be sure, there was still a trickle of Western contact with Central and South Asia in the early and mid-fifteenth century. Venetians held Tana at the mouth of Ukraine’s Sea of Azov until at least the mid-fifteenth century, and Caffa in the Black Sea’s Crimean Peninsula remained a Genoese base for farther inland trade until Turks conquered it in 1475. Nevertheless, the heady days of mercantile and missionary contact with the fabled land of Cathay, as exemplified by the well-known adventures of the Venetian Marco Polo, were now at an end—at least for the moment. Not realizing that the Mongols no longer ruled China, Europeans dreamed of re-establishing contact with the Great Khan, whom Marco Polo apparently served for seventeen years, and even possibly reuniting with the khan in a final crusade to push back Islam and to recover Jerusalem. With the land routes now largely closed, it fell to the kingdoms of Iberia that had ports on the Atlantic to attempt contact by way of the ocean. The results of their attempts proved extraordinary. During the last decade of the fifteenth century, Spain supported an enterprise that resulted in the European discovery of the Americas, and Portugal pushed into the Indian Ocean by way of Africa and also discovered Brazil in 1500. But well before the voyages of Columbus, da Gama, and other seaborne adventurers who reached the Americas and “the Indies,” Western Europeans, most notably the Portuguese and the Spaniards, were exploring and exploiting the west coast of Africa and the southern Atlantic archipelagos of the Canaries, Madeira, the Azores, and Cape Verde. When these fifteenth-century sailors ventured out into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, they expected to find fabulous lands and exotic peoples. Although they failed to find many of the wonders that their books and legends had prepared them for, the marvels they did discover were no less astounding.
The Marvels of Nature 111. Johann Bämler, WONDROUS FOUNTAINS AND PEOPLES In 1475, the Augsburg printer Johann Bämler published Conrad of Megenburg’s Buch der Natur (Book of Nature), a work that had first appeared more than a century earlier. Conrad, a Bavarian churchman and scholar, composed the book in German around 1350, freely adapting it from the mid-thirteenth-century Latin encyclopedia De natura rerum (On the Nature of Things), by the Dominican friar and theologian Thomas of Cantimpré. On his part, Friar Thomas had compiled a massive compendium of all that was known or believed to be true about natural phenomena and the properties of nature’s creatures, including humans. Intended to provide preachers with a solid grounding in natural philosophy (what we would term natural history, or natural science), the book was immensely popular and quite influential in the Arts faculties of Europe’s universities, especially at Paris, where Conrad taught in the years 1334–42. When Bämler turned to printing Megenburg’s book for a literate German clientele, the printing press allowed him to include easily reproduced woodblock images. In the book’s final chapter, Megenberg addresses the topics of wonderous streams of water and fantastic people. The former includes a fountain in Arcadia, an idyllic land of unspoiled beauty, from which pregnant women freely drink in order to prevent miscarriage, and springs that flow with hot water. To illustrate several of these natural wonders and the unusual, even bizarre, people who inhabited lands “way out there,” Bämler inserted
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a hand-colored, woodcut print. In accordance with the regulations of Augsburg’s guild of printers, Bämler drew the image, carved the woodblock, and hand-colored each illustration after he printed it. Bämler’s efforts did not go unrewarded. He sold hundreds of copies of the book. It was so popular that it went through six printings by 1499.
Questions for Consideration 1. Describe each scene, person, and item. A hint: in the text, Megenberg writes that in certain regions, especially Burgundy, women develop goiters. 2. Why are nine of these individuals naked? 3. What is the overall message of this illustration, and what does it suggest about late-medieval Europe’s vision of the world? 4. Compare this source with what Mandeville wrote about the faraway world of South and East Asia (source 101). Which strike you as more significant, the similarities or dissimilarities? What conclusions follow from your answer?
Illus. 13.6 “The Marvels of Nature,” handcolored woodcut from the Buch der Natur (The Book of Nature) by Konrad von Megenberg (Augsburg: Johann Bämler, 1481).
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A New Colonial Venture into the Atlantic 112. Jean de Béthencourt, V, THE CANARIAN 86 The two settlements that the Norse established on Greenland’s southwestern shore in the late tenth century probably fell victim to the Little Ice Age that began around 1300. The last record relating to the longer-surviving community, the so-called Eastern Settlement, dates to the first decade of the fifteenth century. After that, silence. Just as the Greenland colony was shutting down, Europeans were establishing new Atlantic island colonies much farther south. The earliest of these was a chain of islands off the northwestern coast of Africa known as the Canaries. During the early fourteenth century, European mariners and merchants, largely from Iberia, visited the islands, where they conducted occasional slave-raiding expeditions and even less frequently traded for natural resources, such as sealskins. In 1341, the king of Portugal launched an expeditionary force of conquest and conversion that failed to achieve anything, and in 1344, Pope Clement VI invested a Castilian nobleman with lordship over the islands, but that also went nowhere. The onslaught of the Black Death in mid-century forced attention away from any serious attempt to conquer and colonize the islands, although the Church of Majorca established a mission of conversion in the Canaries during the latter half of the century. It was only in 1402 that the first successful expedition of conquest and forcible conversion got underway led by two men from the minor nobility of France, Gadifer de La Salle and Jean de Béthencourt. Eventually King Henry III of Castile took over patronage of the venture and named Béthencourt “Lord of the Islands.” By the end of 1405, the expedition had subjugated the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and El Hierro, but many islands remained to be conquered. The native peoples, who lived in a Stone Age, or Neolithic, society, lacked the iron weapons and firearms of the invaders, but their stiff resistance and tactics that skillfully employed the islands’ topography enabled them to delay the complete, almost inevitable conquest of all of the islands by Castile until 1496. By the end of the campaign to conquer the Canaries, the invaders had killed off or enslaved and transported away a substantial percentage, probably a large majority, of the archipelago’s indigenous people. In the wake of this massive depopulation, the new masters of the Canaries repopulated the islands with colonists and, to a far lesser extent, African slaves. In August 1492, Columbus sailed into the Canaries to repair one of his ships, to re-rig another, and to replenish his provisions. Then, taking advantage of the Canarian northeast trade winds and favorable current, he reached the Americas. Arguably, without this base, Columbus would have sailed off into oblivion. It is more than just arguable that the conquest and conversion of the native Canarians was a foreshadowing of Spanish colonial experiences in the Americas. Many would say that it was a model for Spanish policies there. Two accounts of the early conquests by La Salle and Béthencourt survive, each now known as The Canarian. Shortly after 1405 and possibly working from notes taken during the campaign, Béthencourt’s two chaplains, Pierre Boutier (also identified in one source as Bontier) and Jean le Verrier, collaborated on a history of the campaign. Apparently between 1410 and his death in 1415, La Salle made additions to the text, in which he defended his role in the expedition from whose leadership Béthencourt had excluded him upon his becoming King Henry’s agent. Around 1490, a descendant of Jean de Béthencourt, who bore the same name, recast and expanded the Boutier-Verrier-La Salle account into a history in which his long-dead ancestor plays the leading role. Despite its being much later, derivative, and partisan, an excerpt from Béthencourt’s spin-off (and spun) history appears here because of its proximity to the exploits of Christopher Columbus. As such, it might help you place Columbus’s letter, the source that immediately follows, into a more complete context. 86. Le Canarien, Manuscritos, Transcripción y Traducción, ed. Berta Pico, Eduardo Aznar, and Dolores Corbella (Santa Cruz de Tenerife: Instituto de Estudios Canarios, 2003), 288–92.
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Questions for Consideration 1. According to the author, which states have an interest in these islands? Why these states and not others? 2. According to Béthencourt, what are the strategic benefits of occupying the various Atlantic islands? 3. Are there any other reasons to undertake such expeditions? One should not be astonished that Monsieur de Béthencourt had undertaken such a conquest as that of these islands, for many others in times past have undertaken equally strange enterprises in which they have prevailed. And let no one doubt that if Christians would desire to give a little support to the venture, all of the islands and others, both large and small, would be conquered. From these such a grand good might happen that all of Christendom would rejoice. And Béthencourt, who inspected and visited these Canary Islands, along with Monsieur Gadifer de la Salle, a good and wise knight, and also the entire coast of the Moors, from the Narrows of Morocco to the approach to the islands,87 said that if some noble prince of the kingdom of France or of any other place would wish to undertake any grand conquest here and there, which would be an exceedingly feasible and most reasonable matter, he might do so at little cost. For, in return for money, Portugal, and Spain, and Aragón88 would supply them with all of their provisions and more ships than any other country [could], and also pilots who know the ports and countries. And one cannot say that there is any other location that one might desire [more] for conquering the Saracens, nor from which one cannot do it more easily and with less difficulty or cost. For the reason is that the route is easy, brief, short, and fairly inexpensive as compared to other routes. And as for the islands themselves,89 one could not find a healthier country, and no venomous animal lives 87. The closest of the Canary Islands lies only about sixty-two miles (one hundred kilometers) from the coast of southwestern Morocco. The span of ocean between the islands and the mainland of Africa is, therefore, the Narrows, or Strait, of Morocco. 88. Béthencourt distinguishes between the kingdom of Castile-León (Spain) and the kingdom of Aragón. 89. By 1490, these Atlantic islands included the uninhabited Madeira and Azores archipelagos, which the Portuguese settled respectively around 1420 and in 1439, and the island of São Tomé, which Portugal settled in 1470. São Tomé’s climate made it ideal for sugarcane production (a product that Westerners learned to cultivate in the Latin East). Moreover, its proximity
there,90 and this is especially so for the Canary Islands. And as has been reported regarding Béthencourt and his company, who stayed there for a long time, no one came down with an illness, for which they were greatly surprised. And in favorable weather, one can reach them from La Rochelle91 in less than fifteen days, and from Seville in five or six days, and from all other ports proportionately.92 One major reason is that it is a flat, wide, and spacious land, and it is supplied with all good things, with excellent rivers, and large towns. Moreover, there is another reason. The infidels have no armor nor any knowledge of how to wage war. They know nothing of warfare and cannot receive aid from other people, because the Atlas Mountains, which are astonishingly lofty, stand between them and the people of Barbary, who are quite far away.93 And they are not to be feared as are other nations for they are a people without bows.94… It is the one weapon, as everyone knows, that is most to be feared in battle, especially in these frontier regions, for one cannot be as strongly armored as one can be in France due to the distance of travel, as well as country’s excessive heat. And also one can easily obtain news of Prester John.95 to the west coast of Africa made it a prime center for trade with the kingdom of Kongo, which the Portuguese also evangelized. 90. That was and is true for the Canary, Madeira, and Azores islands but not for São Tomé, which was and is home to the deadly forest cobra. 91. A seaport on France’s Bay of Biscay. 92. Columbus’s three ships left Palos de la Frontera on Spain’s southwestern coast on August 3 and arrived in the Canaries on August 9. 93. The Atlas Mountains, which run from the southwest to the northeast in western North Africa, separate Africa’s Mediterranean coastline from the Atlantic Coast. The people of Barbary are the Berbers of western North Africa. DNA analysis has indicated that the native Canarians were of Berber descent. 94. Their weapons, made of stone, bone, obsidian, and wood, consisted of spears, javelins, knives, maces, and rocks. 95. Elsewhere in The Canarian, Béthencourt places Prester John, whom he identifies as the “patriarch of Nubia,” in the kingdom of Dongala, which he locates south of Egypt.
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“The Great Victory That Our Lord Has Bestowed Upon My Voyage” 113. Christopher Columbus, LETTER ANNOUNCING THE DISCOVERY 96 In 1469, Isabella, the eighteen-year-old heiress and future queen of Castile-León (r. 1474–1504) wedded Ferdinand, the seventeen-year-old heir to the kingdom of Aragόn (r. 1479–1516). The marriage ultimately joined the Iberian Peninsula’s two largest and most prosperous kingdoms into a single bloc. Although the kingdoms retained their respective identities and the vast majority of their separate institutions, their monarchs shared common policies, which included a vigorous promotion of militant Catholicism. In recognition of their defense of Catholic Christianity, in 1494, Pope Alexander VI, himself a Spaniard, bestowed upon them the title Los Reyes Católicos (the Catholic Monarchs). From the perspective of Rome, it was an honor well earned, for on January 2, 1492, Isabella I and Ferdinand II had ridden triumphantly into Granada, the last Muslim enclave in Iberia. The Reconquista was now complete, but Spanish crusading was not at an end. The union of two Catholic monarchs and their crusading kingdoms laid the foundation of a new state that would dominate European affairs for the next century and would, additionally, become a world power across several continents. It is no exaggeration to say that sixteenth-century Spain was one of the richest, most powerful empires on Earth, by virtue of its far-flung overseas colonies, especially those in the Americas. Spain’s emergence as the dominant sixteenth-century power in the Americas is forever associated with the name of a single mariner—Christopher Columbus. Sponsored by the “king and queen of the Spains,” as he styled them, this Genoese sea captain sailed westward into the Atlantic, seeking a new route to the rich empires of South and East Asia described by John Mandeville, Marco Polo, and others, whose books of travels Columbus had avidly read and digested. On October 12, 1492, his fleet of three ships dropped anchor at a small Bahamian island, which Columbus claimed for Spain. The natives called it Guanahaní; Columbus chose to rename it San Salvador. The fleet then sailed to the larger islands of Cuba, which he named Juana, and Hispaniola (where the modern nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic are located), which he named Española. After exploring these two main islands and establishing the manned post of Navidad del Señor on Española, Columbus departed for Spain in January 1493. On his way home, the admiral prepared a preliminary account of his expedition to “the Indies.” The original Spanish version in Columbus’s hand is now lost, and all we have are early printed copies and translations. Because of the printing press, the letter became an almost-instant sensation. Before the end of 1493, eleven different editions and translations appeared across Western Europe, emanating from printing houses in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Scholars generally agree that the version that has come down to us in a variety of languages and editions is based on a revision of the original that royal officials crafted at the order of Ferdinand and Isabella. The reason for the changes was that the Catholic Monarchs had already gained sovereignty over the Canaries, and by skillfully altering navigational details in Columbus’s description of his outbound and inbound voyages, the Spanish court could lay claim to these newly discovered islands, which were presumably in the Indies, by presenting them as an extension of the Canary archipelago. This revision does not negate the fact that what we have in the body of the letter, where the master mariner describes his discovery, is unadulterated Columbus. The excerpts that follow come from the earliest extant Spanish copy of the letter, and here we hear Columbus’s voice loud and clear. 96. Cristóbal Colón, La carta de Colón anunciando el descubrimiento (Barcelona: Red Ediciones S.L., 2012), 9–14, passim.
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Questions for Consideration 1. How does Columbus indicate that these lands are worth the attention of the Spanish monarchs? 2. What does Columbus’s description of the physical attributes of the islands suggest about some of the motives for his voyage? 3. What do the admiral’s actions regarding the natives and the ways that he describes them allow us to conclude about his attitudes toward these “Indians” and his plans for them? 4. To what degree does Columbus appear to have been able to communicate effectively with the Taínos and to understand their culture? 5. Often the eyes see what the mind prepares them to see. How, if at all, had Columbus’s environment prepared him to see, report, and interpret what he encountered in the Caribbean? How, if at all, had it not prepared him? Consider evidence provided by sources 101 and 111. 6. It has been said that Columbus’s letter was a carefully crafted piece of self-promotion, and it has been further called “a tissue of lies.” Was it one or both of these? 7. On the other hand, is there any evidence that Columbus attempted to present an objective and fairly accurate account of what he had seen and experienced? 8. After you have addressed questions 4–7, what is your considered judgment regarding the extent to which we should trust his account? 9. Finally, compare Columbus’s report with the excerpt from The Canarian. What are their similarities and differences, and which strike you as more significant? Why so?
Sir,97 because I know that you will be pleased at the great victory that Our Lord has bestowed upon my voyage, I am writing this so that you will know how in thirty-three days, I passed from the Canary Isles to the Indies with the fleet that the most illustrious king and queen, our sovereigns, gave me. There I found very many islands populated with innumerable people,98 and I have taken possession of all of them for Their Highnesses by proclamation and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me.… Columbus sails to Española after a cursory exploration of Juana.
97. Columbus addressed the letter to his patron, Luis de Santángel, who had convinced the queen to support Columbus’s venture and who had arranged most of its financing, much of it from his own wealth. 98. Taínos. At the time of contact, the Taínos were a Neolithic culture.
Española is wondrous: the mountain ranges and mountains, the plains and meadows, and the land, so beautiful and rich for planting and sowing, for raising cattle of every kind, for constructing towns and homes. The sea harbors here cannot be believed without seeing them, and so also the many great rivers and good waters, most of which contain gold.99 The trees, fruits, and plants are quite different from those of Juana. In it there are many spices100 and great mines of gold and of other metals. The people of this island, and of all the others whom I have found and of which I have information, all go naked, men and women, as their mothers bore them, although some women cover a single place with the leaf of a plant or a cotton cap that they have made for that purpose. They have no iron, no steel, no weapons, nor are they suited for them, not because they are not a sturdy people and of 99. Columbus obtained a few items of gold and heard reports of gold mines, but gold proved to be a rare metal in the islands. 100. The only indigenous spice was the chili pepper, which would soon revolutionize a number of cuisines around the world.
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handsome stature, but because they are marvelously quite timorous. They have no arms other than weapons made of canes, which are cut when they are seeding, and to which they attach a small sharpened stick. And they do not dare to use them…for they are incurably timid…. I gave them a thousand handsome things of value that I had brought, in order that they might conceive affection, and more than that, might become Christians and be predisposed to love and serve Their Highnesses and the entire Castilian nation, and strive to aid us and to provide for us from the things that they have in abundance, which are for us necessities. And they do not practice any religion or idolatry,101 except that they all believe that power and goodness reside in Heaven, and they very firmly believe that I, along with these ships and men, came from Heaven, and given this belief, they received me fulsomely, after they had overcome their fear. And this does not happen because they are ignorant; on the contrary, they have an exceedingly acute intelligence and are men who navigate all those seas, so that it is marvelous how good an account they give of everything, but it is because they have never seen people clothed or ships of this sort. And as soon as I arrived in the Indies, in the first island that I found, I took some of them by force, in order that they might learn and give me information regarding what exists in these parts, and so it was that they then came to understand us, and we them, either by speech or signs, and they have been exceedingly helpful.102 Day by day, I take them with me, and they always believe that I come from Heaven.… In all these islands, I saw no great diversity in the appearance of the people or in their manners and language. On the contrary, they all understand one another,103 which is a quite extraordinary. For this reason, I hope that Their 101. The Taínos believed in numerous deities and spirits known as cemis, who inhabited stone statues and other handcrafted images, which they also called cemis. The Taínos, in turn, worshipped each of these artifacts as the living presence of a spirit. Had Columbus failed to see these cemis, or if he saw them, did he fail to understand their significance? Compounding the issue is his note in the penultimate paragraph of this document where he refers to idolaters who will be enslaved. 102. Following a common practice by missionaries on the Canaries, on October 14, while still on Guanahaní/San Salvador, Columbus captured seven Taínos, whom he intended to instruct in Castilian so that they could serve as interpreters. 103. Several different languages were spoken in the islands.
Highnesses take action in regard to their conversion to our holy faith, toward which they are exceedingly inclined.… …Española is greater than all Spain in circumference,104…it is to be desired, and seen, it is never to be left. And…I have taken possession for Their Highnesses…[of ] this Española, in [a] situation most convenient and in the best region for the gold mines and for all contact as well with the mainland there, as well as with that land belonging to the Grand Khan, where there will be great trade and gain.… In these islands I have so far found no monstrous men, as many expected, but on the contrary the whole population is exceedingly well-formed.… So, I have not found [any] monsters, nor has there been any report of any, except on one island, Quaris,105 the second at the entrance into the Indies, which is inhabited by a people who are regarded in all the islands as very fierce and who eat human flesh. They have many canoes with which they rove through all the islands of India, pillage, and take what they can.106 They are no more deformed than the others, except that they have the custom of wearing their hair long like women, and they use bow-and-arrow weapons fashioned from the same type of cane stems, with a small piece of wood at the end, because of an absence of iron, which they do not possess. They are ferocious in relation to these other people, who are cowardly to an excessive degree,107 but I am no more concerned about them than with the rest of the people. They are the ones who have relations with the women of “Matinino,” which is the first island when sailing from Spain to the Indies, in which there is no man. The women engage in no feminine work, but use bows and arrows of cane, like those already 104. It is not even close in size to Spain. 105. Apparently, the natives spoke of a caeri, which was their word for “island.” The island to which he refers was probably Dominica, which was the heart of Kalina territory in the Caribbean. See the next note. 106. The Island Caribs, or more correctly, the Kalina, had a reputation as fierce warriors and cannibals and had displaced the Taínos on several islands, including Dominica. 107. Actually, the Taínos fought the Kalina, and they were brave enough to wipe out the Spanish settlement of Navidad del Señor in 1493. After his flagship, the Santa Maria, ran aground off Hispaniola on Christmas Eve, Columbus ordered a fort constructed from the wreckage of the ship, and he left behind a sizeable portion of the ship’s crew to garrison it. When he returned in November 1493, he found the fort burned to the ground and all the men dead or missing.
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mentioned, and they arm and protect themselves with plates of copper, of which they have quite a lot.108 In another island, which they assure me is larger than Española, the people have no hair. In it, there is gold beyond measure, and from it and from the other islands, I bring with me Indians as evidence.109 In conclusion, to speak only of that which has been accomplished on this voyage, which was thus conducted, Their Highnesses can see that, with the very slight assistance that Their Highnesses will give me, I will give them as much gold as they will need; moreover, spice and cotton,110 as much as their highnesses shall command; and mastic, as much as they shall order to be shipped and which, up to now, has been found only in Greece, in the island of Chios, and the Seignory sells it for what it pleases;111 and aloe 108. On his second voyage to the islands in 1493–94, Columbus commissioned a missionary priest, Ramόn Pane, to compose a report on the beliefs and religious practices of the “Indians.” In that report, Father Pane related in detail the legend of the island of Matinino, where only women resided. Nowhere in his account did Pane offer any hint that they were warlike. Obviously, Columbus had heard that rumor during his initial stay in the islands, and apparently he combined it with the Greco-Roman legend of the warrior Amazon women. Mandeville had written of the island of Amazonia in the Indies that was populated solely by female warriors. Marco Polo, whose book Columbus had heavily annotated, described two Asian islands, one inhabited only by women and the other only by men. Other than the rumors reported by Pane and Columbus, there is no evidence that this female-only island ever existed in the Caribbean. As for copper plates, the Taínos imported from northern South America small amounts of an alloy of gold and copper, which they used for ornaments. Other than that, copper was rare in the islands. 109. Columbus took his seven captive Taínos back to Spain, where they were baptized. One remained at the Spanish court, where he died, and the others returned home with Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. 110. An excellent wild cotton grew on the islands, but it was rare. 111. Chios was one of Genoa’s most important colonies in the eastern Mediterranean until its capture by the Ottomans in 1566. It was the sole supplier of mastic, a rare aromatic resin. This precious trade item provided the city and its ruling body, the Seignory, with substantial tariffs. Columbus and his crew mistook a native gumbo-limbo tree for the mastic tree.
wood, as much as they shall order to be shipped,112 and slaves, as many as they shall order to be shipped and who will be from the idolaters. And I believe that I have found rhubarb and cinnamon,113 and I shall find a thousand other things of value.… This is enough. The eternal God, our Lord, Who gives to all those who walk in His way triumph over things that appear to be impossible, and this was notably one; for, although people have talked or have written of these lands, all was conjecture without seeing them. It amounted only to this: for the most part, those who heard listened and judged it to be little more than empty words. Therefore, since Our Redeemer has given this victory in so great a matter to our most illustrious king and queen, and to their renowned kingdoms, all Christendom ought to feel delight and prepare great feasts and, with many solemn prayers, give solemn thanks to the Holy Trinity, for the great exaltation that it shall have in turning so many peoples to our holy faith, and for the temporal benefits that will follow; not only Spain but all Christians will now have refreshment and gain. So briefly, in accordance with the facts. Given in the caravel, off the Canary Islands, on the fifteenth of February, in the year 1493.114 At your orders. El almirante.
112. Better known as agarwood, aloe wood grew only in the tropics of South and Southeast Asia. Its fragrant resin was used as incense and as a base for perfumes. Rhubarb, which had numerous medicinal uses, was an expensive item that merchants transported from Central Asia to Europe. None grew in Europe or the Americas at this time. 113. When crew members showed Columbus what they thought were aloe, mastic, and cinnamon, he accepted the aloe and mastic as genuine but rejected the supposed cinnamon. Cinnamon, a costly spice, was native only to South Asia. 114. The sixteenth-century partial reconstruction of Columbus’s log shows that on this date he was near the Azores, which lie a bit over nine hundred nautical miles (about 1,666 kilometers) northwest of the Canaries. On his return voyage, he sailed nowhere near the Canary Islands.
Glossary Abbey. See abbot.
Abbot ( female abbess). From the Hebrew abba (father); the head of a large monastery, known as an abbey. (See also monastery; monk; nun; prior.) Advocate. (1) Secular defenders of and agents for ecclesiastical establishments, such as monasteries and cathedral churches. The advocate was often the local lord or a powerful knight. (2) Especially in Italy, a legal professional who presented and pleaded cases in court.
Allegory. A visual or literary metaphor in which a character or image represents a greater reality.
Anatolia. The peninsula in which the Asian portion (90 percent) of present-day Turkey is located.
Anchorite. A monk or nun who lives in seclusion, apart from any monastic community. (See also cenobite.)
Apostasy. The abandonment or renunciation (by an apostate) of a religious or political belief.
Apostle(s). With the exceptions of Saint Paul and Saint Matthias, the apostles had been Jesus of Nazareth’s closest friends and followers. Following Jesus’s death and what Christians believe was His resurrection and ascension into Heaven, Matthias was chosen to replace the disgraced and dead Judas Iscariot, and Paul joined this coterie sometime in the 40s, believing he had been called personally to the apostolate by the Risen Christ. According to tradition, the apostles served as the Church’s first leaders and missionaries. It was (and is) further believed that all episcopal authority derives in an unbroken line of succession from the apostles. (See also Apostolic See; archbishop; bishop; episcopal; pope.) Apostolic See. The bishopric of Rome; the see, or diocese, of the Apostle Peter, the person whom the Roman Church believes was chosen to lead the Church and who established his authority in Rome prior to his martyrdom there. The Roman Church further maintains that this authority has passed in an unbroken line of succession to all subsequent bishops of Rome. (See also pope.) Archbishop. A bishop who governs a province, or archdiocese, and has jurisdiction over all other bishops within the province. Archbishops are also known as metropolitans 436
because their cathedrals, or resident churches, are located in metropolises that serve as provincial capitals. (See also suffragan.)
Archdeacon. The archdeacon administered either all or part of the land and holdings of an episcopal diocese. Larger dioceses were divided into several archdeaconries. The archdeacon was a member of the college, or chapter, of canons (see below). Archdiocese. See archbishop, diocese, and province.
Arianism. A doctrine attributed to the priest Arius (ca. 250–336) of Alexandria that maintained that Jesus is God by adoption, being neither coeternal with God the Father nor of the same divine substance. It was declared a heresy at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Baptism. The sacrament that initiates a person into the Christian community. The act of pouring water over the person (or fully immersing the person) and invoking the Holy Trinity is believed to remove the stain of Original Sin (the sin of Adam and Eve) from the person’s soul, thereby giving the baptized person his or her first gift of divine grace and the opportunity for salvation.
Basilica. (1) Originally, basilicas were large, rectangular public buildings used by the Roman state as law courts and places for other public business. An enclosed courtyard, known as an atrium, separated the main entrance door from the street. Within the basilica proper there was a central aisle, or nave, flanked by colonnades that set off two parallel aisles. The nave led to a raised semicircular area, known as an apse, where the presiding official sat. With the adoption of Christianity by the empire, some basilicas were converted into churches, and many new churches were constructed in the basilica style. During the High Middle Ages, architects constructing Romanesque and Gothic churches retained the triple-aisle and apse plan of the basilica, even as they went off into new directions. (2) Later the term was applied to especially important churches, whether or not they were basilica-like in structure. Such churches enjoyed special, papally endowed ceremonial rights. The original Saint Peter’s in Rome was a basilica in both senses of the term.
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Benefice. (1) A cleric’s source of income, often land and its attached rents. That income allowed a cleric to perform the duties of his office. (See also prebend.) (2) The term was also occasionally used as a synonym for a feudal fief. Bishop. The chief priest of an administrative district known as a diocese. He was responsible for the spiritual well-being of all the people within his diocese, supervision of its clergy, and care of all church properties. (See also archbishop; canon; canon regular; cathedral; suffragan.)
Bull, papal. An official letter, charter, or decree issued by the papal secretariat (the Roman Chancery) in the name of and with the authority of the pope. It receives its name from the bulla, a lead seal, attached at the bottom of the document to authenticate it. The term does not refer to the contents of the document. Byzant. The gold coin of the Byzantine Empire, officially known as a nomisma (pl. nomismata), it varied in weight from time to time. Along with the Arab dinar, it was accepted throughout the Mediterranean and beyond.
Canon. A Greek word that means “standard of measurement.” Four common ecclesiastical meanings are: (1) a church law, especially the decree of an ecumenical council (see also canon law); (2) a clerical member of a chapter of canons serving some administrative, teaching, or priestly function within a cathedral church (see also canon regular; canoness); (3) an authoritative list, such as the canon of officially recognized biblical books; and (4) the main part of the Mass, in which the Eucharist is offered, consecrated, and consumed in communion. (See also canonical hours.)
Canon law. The law of the Church derived from biblical passages, the teachings of the Church Fathers, the decrees of church councils and especially ecumenical councils, papal decrees, proclamations, and rulings, and the mainstream body of the judicial opinions of canon lawyers. (See also decretal.) Canon regular. A member of a religious community bound by a quasi-monastic rule and vows but serving secular clerical functions, such as in a cathedral’s chapter of canons, although most cathedral canons were not canons regular. (See also clerics, regular.) Canoness. There were two types of canonesses: secular and regular. Secular canonesses were women who lived in religious communities but were usually not bound by perpetual, or lifelong, vows; regular canonesses were women who lived under a particular rule, often the Rule of Saint
Augustine, and generally took perpetual vows. Houses for secular canonesses of noble birth were widespread in ninthand tenth-century Saxony. These women could have private servants, retained their property rights, could pass on property to heirs, and could leave the community if they so wished. The convents of Wendhausen (source 22) and Gandersheim (source 44) were houses of secular canonesses. Canonical hours. Also known as the Divine Office, or “the Office,” and also termed the Opus Dei (God’s Work), they are seven daily periods of prayer and reflection. Monastic and semi-monastic communities chant and recite the Divine Office; secular clerics often read the Divine Office privately. Matins (also known as lauds) begins the day before dawn, and prime is celebrated at daybreak. Terce, the prayer for the third hour, occurs midway between sunrise and mid-day. Sext, the sixth hour, is the noon office, and none, the ninth hour, is sung or read at a point equidistant between noon and sunset. Vespers is the sunset prayer, and compline completes the working day in the early evening darkness. (See also hours.) Cardinal. Originally, cardinals were Roman and other Italian clerics who performed special ceremonial services and administrative tasks in and around Rome. At the highest level stood the cardinal bishops, followed by the cardinal priests, then cardinal deacons, and last cardinal subdeacons. In the reign of Pope Leo IX (r. 1049–54), the cardinalate was turned into a college (see below) of close papal advisors and trusted high-ranking officials drawn from all over Latin Europe. Cathedral. From the Latin cathedra (seat), it is the church in which a bishop or archbishop resides and from which he rules. The cathedral of the bishop of Rome, the pope, is the Basilica of Saint John Lateran. Cenobite. A monk, nun, or other person living a religious life who resides in a communal religious house, under the rule of a superior. (See also abbot; anchorite; canoness; convent; monastery; prior.) Chamberlain. Originally the person in charge of a king’s or bishop’s chamber and household, including the treasure chest, the chamberlain in time evolved into a royal chief minister or bishop’s chief of staff. Chapter. (1) The daily meeting of a monastic community in which a portion of a chapter of the Rule of Saint Benedict is read aloud and the affairs of the monastery are discussed; (2) the plenary meeting of an order, such as the Cistercians or Franciscans, in which representatives from
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its various houses meet to conduct general business; (3) the community of canons who serve as administrators in a cathedral church. (See also chapter house.)
Chapter house. The building or room, often circular in construction, set aside for meetings of monasteries, convents, cathedrals, and collegiate churches.
Chronicle. An account of notable events, usually recorded in chronological sequence, year by year. Generally catalogs of facts presented in a straightforward manner, chronicles usually lack the depth and analysis found in more developed histories. Church Fathers. See Fathers of the Church.
Civil law. Based on the sixth-century Corpus iuris civilis (Body of Civil Law) of Emperor Justinian, it served as the West’s primary body of recovered Roman law. Largely rediscovered in the eleventh century, it was the inspiration for most civil law on the continent, but much less so for England and the rest of the British Isles. Clergy. The class of clerics.
Cleric. A person in “holy orders” who serves the Church in a ministerial office. The three major orders within the Roman Church, in descending order of rank, are priest, deacon, and subdeacon. The four minor orders, in descending order of rank, are acolyte, exorcist, lector (reader), and porter (doorkeeper). Each order carries its own duty, and bishops confer all seven orders. (See also archbishop; bishop; cardinal; deacon; prelate; priest.) Clerics, regular. Clerics who have received holy orders and who take solemn perpetual vows to live in a regulated religious community according to a specific rule (regula in Latin). These include monks, friars, and canons regular. Clerics, secular. Clerics who serve in the world (saeculum in Latin), as opposed to belonging to a cloistered or semi-cloistered community of regular clerics. Parish and diocesan clergy were normally secular clerics.
College. A term derived from the Latin collegia (a group gathered together), it was any recognized association, such as a guild, in the Roman Empire; it entered the medieval world with this same meaning. Thus, there was the Roman Church’s College of Cardinals and Balliol and Merton Colleges at Oxford University, which were established in the early 1260s.
Confession. The sacrament in which a person contritely tells his or her sins to a priest and receives absolution and a penance. The penance can be remitted by an indulgence.
Confessor. (1) A person who, by her or his life and actions, heroically gives witness to the faith; (2) a priest who listens to and absolves the sins of a penitent in confession. Convent. Technically, a convent (from the Latin conventum, “a place of assembly”) is any communal house for religious men and women. However, it came to be applied almost exclusively to houses for female religious, especially canonesses, and mendicant friars. Council, Church. A meeting, also known as a “synod,” of church leaders on both regional and Church-wide levels, in which the assembled “fathers” make decisions regarding doctrine, conduct, and ecclesiastical administration. Such decisions become law, especially when the council is “ecumenical,” encompassing the entire Church. Regional councils, usually held on an archdiocesan level, are not binding on the entire Church, although the decisions of early regional councils could be and were, on occasion, entered into canon law as precedents. The declarations of faith of ecumenical councils are considered infallible, but not so those of regional synods. County. An administrative-judicial region governed in the king’s name by a count in the Carolingian era and thereafter in France. Before the Norman Conquest of 1066, such units were known as shires in England and were administered by a shire reeve. After the conquest, they came increasingly to be called counties and were administered by sheriffs. Curia (pl. curiae). A court. (1) The official residence and/or bureaucratic establishment of a sovereign or similar dignitary, as in the papal curia; (2) a Roman administrative court. Deacon. A Greek word meaning “minister” or “administrator.” Ranked just below priests, deacons were a bishop’s special assistants and performed such tasks as preaching and dispensing alms. The early Church also had deaconesses, older women who performed a variety of important administrative and ceremonial roles. (See also cleric.) Decretal. (1) An official papal reply to a petition that has wide relevance; (2) a papal decision regarding a point of church law; (3) an official papal proclamation or edict. Such rulings and pronouncements became, in turn, part of an ever-evolving canon law. (See also bull, papal.) Demesne. Another term for domain (see below). Denarius. See solidus.
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Dhimmi. A subject and tolerated non-Muslim who is protected by a dhimma (contract of service and protection) with a Muslim polity. Dialectic. One of the Seven Liberal Arts, it is the skill of critical reasoning and argumentation based on analysis of the meanings of words and the veracity of arguments and conclusions. Dinar. The standard gold coin of the Muslim world. If not debased, a Syrian dinar contained approximately 4.72 grams of 22- or 24-karat gold; the Almoravid dinar of Spain and Morocco contained 3.86 grams of gold. Diocese. The region administered by a bishop. Archbishops administered archdioceses. Disputation. A disputatio (disputation) was (1) a formal academic debate at a university; (2) a public or semipublic debate on points of belief between learned Jews and Christians. Divine Liturgy. The Mass and accompanying liturgical ceremonies. Divine Office. See canonical hours. Doctors of the Church. Its authoritative teachers, such as Bernard of Clairvaux and Catherine of Siena. See also Fathers of the Church. Domain. Land held directly by a lord and not given out as a fief, such as the king’s domain, or demesne. Also known as a fisc. Ecclesiastical. Anything having to do with the Church (ecclesia in Latin). Ecumenical council. See Council, Church. Episcopal. Anything that relates to a bishop or his office (from the Greek word episkopos, which means “overseer”). Episcopate. (1) The office of bishop; (2) the entire body of bishops within a Church. Eucharist. Derived from the Greek “to bestow grace.” Roman and Eastern Christians believe the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of Christ that is received under the appearance of bread and wine at the Mass. (See also canon; sacrament.) Evangelical. Derived from a Greek term that means “good messenger,” it is preaching or teaching centered on the Christian New Testament and especially the Gospels. Evangelist. (1) One of the authors of the four Gospels. Tradition identifies them as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John; (2) any person who preaches the Gospel, or “Good News,” of Christianity. Excommunication. A sentence of exclusion from the community and protection of the Church. Fathers of the Church. (1) Early church writers in the East and West whose theological, devotional, and disciplinary works were considered to be especially authoritative. The four Fathers of the Latin Church are Saints Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory I. (2) The church leaders who assemble at an ecumenical council. Fealty. The sworn faithfulness of a vassal to a lord. Feudalism. A military-political “system” based on the service of a warrior, known as a vassal, to a lord. In return for such service, the vassal received a fief. Feudalism is a modern construct to explain a complex, ever-evolving phenomenon that was far from universal in Western Europe, was not uniform from region to region in which such relationships existed, and cannot be seen as a single system or structure. Fief. One of the major reasons a person became a vassal was to receive a fief ( feudum in Latin, hence the term “feudal”) as payment for services rendered. A fief could be any source of income, but as time went on, it more often than not consisted of lands and offices. (See also benefice.) Fresco. A painting, normally executed on a wall, that is created by applying water-based pigments onto fresh ( fresco) lime plaster. A strong chemical bond results when the plaster and paint dry. Friars. See mendicant friars. Gospel(s). Literally, “the Good News” (derived from the Old English godspel, which was a translation of the Greek euagglion). These are the four biblical accounts of Jesus’s ministry and teachings ascribed to the evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Hagiography. “A writing about a saint.” Hagiographies focus on the blessed person’s acts of heroic sanctity and miracles, which serve as signs of the divine power and approval that underscore the saint’s holiness. Hellenistic. An amalgamation of classical Greek (Hellenic) and Near Eastern cultural elements that took shape in the wake of Alexander the Great’s conquests of the late fourth century B.C.E., and carried on in altered form by the Roman Empire. Arguably, Byzantium was the last Hellenistic civilization.
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Heresy. A religious belief that is at variance with established dogma. Heresy is a cause for excommunication or worse. (See also heterodoxy; orthodoxy.) Heretic. A person whose religious beliefs deviate from the doctrine of the established Church.
Heterodoxy. From the Greek term for “different thought,” it is a synonym for “heresy.” (See also orthodoxy.) Holy Spirit. The third Divine Person of the Holy Trinity. Holy Trinity. See Trinity, Holy.
Hours. The hours of the day and night. Following Roman usage, each day and night was divided into twelve equal “hours.” The hours of the day began at dawn and ended at sunset, meaning that an hour varied in duration depending on the time of the year. (See also canonical hours.)
Illuminated manuscript. A hand-written book or page (manuscript) that is decorated with brilliant colors, designs (some of which might contain gold or silver metal), and often elaborate illustrations. (See also miniature). Indulgence. The remission of imposed penance for sins already forgiven at confession. According to the teachings of the Roman Church, this punishment must be paid either on Earth while alive or in Purgatory after death. The Church, however, grants partial and plenary (full) indulgences for such “good works” as going on pilgrimage, contributing money to such activities as crusades and the building of churches, and performing certain prescribed religious rituals, such as venerating a relic.
Interdict. An ecclesiastical ban prohibiting the celebration of most sacraments, the Mass, and a Christian burial. Some exceptions were allowed according to circumstances. The dying, for example, were allowed the sacraments. Its intention was to force compliance by the person or place under interdict. Jizya. The poll, or head, tax that subject non-Muslims paid to Muslim overlords as a token of subservience. (See also dhimmi.)
Joshua. Moses’s lieutenant and successor who led the Israelites in their successful invasion of Canaan. Legate. An envoy sent on a specific mission by a high-ranking person such as a king or pope. Liberal Arts. See Seven Liberal Arts.
Mark. On the continent, a half-pound of silver. The mark ranged between 237 and 260 grams, depending on local standards. (See also solidus.) In England, it was twothirds of a pound sterling. Mass. The central religious ceremony of the Roman Church at which the Eucharist is consecrated and consumed in commemoration of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross. Mendicant friars. “Begging brothers” (from the Latin mendicare, “to beg”). In the early thirteenth century, four orders of mendicant friars emerged: the Order of Friars Minor, or Franciscans; the Order of Preachers, or Dominicans; the Carmelite Friars; and the Augustinian, or Austin, Friars. Although they were regular clerics, unlike monks, friars did not cloister themselves away from the world. Originally and in the ideal, they embraced lives of “apostolic poverty,” renouncing corporate as well as personal possessions, and earned their daily needs through either manual labor or by begging. Their chief mission was to serve the spiritual needs of urban people, especially the poor and dispossessed. Mendicant sisters. Beginning with the Franciscaninspired Order of Poor Clares, the Franciscan, Dominican, and Carmelite mendicant orders established female branches known, perhaps all too characteristically, as Second Orders. Like their male counterparts, the women embraced corporate poverty as an ideal, if not always a reality, but they were not allowed to travel about preaching, evangelizing, and ministering to the laity. Rather, they lived cloistered lives dedicated to prayer. (See also canoness; nun.) Metropolitan. See archbishop. Military orders. Religious congregations of knights, clerics, and lowering-ranking soldiers (sergeants) who lived quasi-monastic lives while carrying on military and charitable missions. Initially established in the twelfth century as a response to the demand of maintaining a military presence in the Latin East and simultaneously serving the physical needs of Christian pilgrims there, the military orders subsequently proliferated in numbers and form as a means of furthering crusading goals in Iberia, the Baltic, and elsewhere. The three most significant military orders, among the many that emerged in the course of the Roman Church’s promotion of crusading, were the Poor FellowKnights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (the Knights Templar), the Order of the Brothers of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (the Knights Hospitaler),
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and the Order of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem (the Teutonic Knights). In Iberia, the two most important military orders were the Order of Calatrava and the Order of Santiago. Miniature. A hand-drawn, colored illustration in a manuscript. The term refers not necessarily to its size (although most were small) but to the fact that it is colored (from the Latin miniatus, “colored in red”). (See also Illuminated manuscript.) Monastery. The house, or community, in which monks or nuns reside. Large monasteries that are ruled by abbots or abbesses are known as abbeys. Smaller monasteries that are ruled by priors or prioresses are known as priories. Monasteries, especially those of women, are often termed convents. Monk. A man who has chosen to take lifelong, or perpetual, religious vows and to live in a community that separates itself from the world. (See also anchorite; cenobite; clerics, regular; monastery; nun.) Moor. A Muslim whose origins, either remote or recent, lay in western North Africa, a land known to the Romans as Mauritania. Mosaic. A picture or design composed of small, carefully fitted-together pieces known as tesserae. These component elements can be tile, stone, metal, semiprecious gems, or any combination thereof. Mysteries, Holy. (1) Christian beliefs that defy a rational explanation and require faith, such as the Holy Trinity; (2) Christian rites and sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist; (3) pagan rituals and secrets that are experienced and known only by the initiated. Nun. A woman who lives a cloistered life in a religious house; the female counterpart to a monk. (See also abbot; canoness; cenobite; convent; mendicant sisters; monastery; prior). Opus Dei. See canonical hours. Orthodoxy. Literally “right thinking,” the term usually refers to “correct” religious dogma, as opposed to heterodoxy or heresy. Outlawed. Denied the protection of the law. Anyone could attack, rob, maim, or kill with impunity a person who was declared outlawed. Pallium. A white woolen band, about two inches in width, with embroidered red crosses. Worn around the shoulders, it has lappets (strips) that hang down front and back. Originally a unique symbol of the papal office, it
eventually became the practice of popes to bestow it on primates and other archbishops as a symbol of their office and a token of their obedience to the papacy. (See the “Student’s Guide” and source 33 for images.) Papacy. See pope. Papal. See pope.
Papal States. Also known as the Patrimony of Saint Peter and consisting of Rome, its adjacent lands, and a number of cities and territories in central Italy, they were lands governed in the name of the pope. Paraclete. See Trinity, Holy.
Parish. The lowest level of the Church served by the secular clergy. A priest ministers to each parish by administering the sacraments, preaching, and counseling. He, in turn, is subject to the authority of the local bishop.
Patriarch. Literally, “a ruling father,” it is an honorific accorded certain archbishops who ruled over exceptionally important sees. The Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon of 451 acknowledged that the five major patriarchates of the Church were, in order of distinction, Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. It went on to state that the patriarchate of Constantinople enjoyed powers and privileges equal to Rome’s because Constantinople was the “New Rome.” Pope Leo I found this ruling so objectionable that he successfully campaigned against its inclusion in the official records of the council. The canon did not die a quiet death. It lived on in the East, and eventually the Church of Rome accepted it as a valid canon in the twelfth century, when it no longer thought it a threat to papal primacy. Three of the patriarchates claimed “Petrine” origins on the basis of tradition: Saint Peter had sent his disciple Saint Mark the evangelist to serve as Alexandria’s first bishop; Peter himself was Antioch’s first bishop for seven years; from Antioch he transferred his authority to Rome, where he was its first bishop and was martyred. Patrimony of Saint Peter. See Papal States.
Pilgrim. A person who undertakes a penitential journey, or pilgrimage, to a relic site or other sacred place. (See also indulgence.)
Pontiff. A high priest. As a title, “pontiff ” is normally reserved for popes, archbishops, and bishops. The pope claims the special titles “Roman Pontiff ” and “Supreme Pontiff.”
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Pope. From the Latin papa (father), it is a title normally reserved in the West for the bishop of Rome, but in the East, the patriarch of Alexandria also bears the title. The terms “papacy” and “papal office” refer to the bishopric of Rome. (See also Apostolic See; pontiff; prelate; primate). Prebend. A cleric’s source of income. (See also benefice.) Precarium (pl. precaria). A fief held in precarious tenure; it was not transferable by right of inheritance. Prelate. A Latin term that means “one set before.” A prelate is a high-ranking cleric, such as a bishop or abbot, whose office brings with it supervision over a substantial number of other clerics. The pope claims the title “Supreme Pontiff.” Priest. A cleric who has the power to celebrate Mass, to act as a confessor, and to minister most of the other sacraments. Bishops (and, therefore, archbishops) are chief priests, with the power to ordain priests and to consecrate other bishops. Monks and friars can be priests, but they can also be lay brothers with no priestly powers. Primate. The chief archbishop of a major region or country; for example, the archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of England. The pope claims the title “Primate of the Church.” Prior ( female prioress). Either the second in charge of an abbey or the head of a small monastery known as a priory. (See also abbot.) Province. In ecclesiastical usage it may mean: (1) the region ruled by an archbishop; (2) a large, often kingdomwide district that serves the administrative needs of regular clergy, especially the mendicant friars. Such provinces hold regular provincial chapters, or meetings, to which the many houses, or convents, send representatives, and the orders hold general chapters, to which the provinces send representatives. Psalter. A book of psalms, or prayers, for chanting. Purgatory. Beginning with several early patristic writers, the Roman Church developed the dogma of Purgatory, a place in the afterlife where the souls of good people who do not quite merit Heaven go to be purged of the remaining traces of sinful guilt before entry into Paradise. (See also indulgence.) Regular clerics. See clerics, regular.
Relic. Literally, “something left behind.” It is any object associated with Jesus or a saint. In the case of a saint, a relic is often a body part that is usually kept in a richly decorated reliquary and venerated by the faithful, because it is believed to transmit the holiness and sacred power of the saint. (See the “Student’s Guide.”) Relics also reside in altars. (See source 13.) In the medieval era, relics were believed to have healing powers, and many today continue to hold fast to that belief. Relief. (1) A sculptural technique in which the carved elements are raised from the material from which they have been formed and to which they remain attached; (2) money or goods paid to a lord by a vassal upon inheriting a fief. This inheritance tax often equaled the value of one year’s income from the fief. Rescript. (1) An official reply by an emperor to a legal question or petition; (2) a legally binding edict, order, or announcement issued by the emperor. (See also decretal.) Rhetoric. One of the Seven Liberal Arts, it is the study of the elements of language, literature, and oratory. Romanitas. Coined in the third century C.E., it was the body of cultural, social, and political values and practices that defined what it was to be a Roman citizen. Sacrament(s). The seven key rites, or ceremonies, administered by a priest, a bishop, and in some cases a deacon (but any baptized Christian may baptize an unbaptized person in the case of extraordinary circumstances): baptism, confession, Holy Eucharist, confirmation, holy orders, marriage, and extreme unction (today known as the “anointing of the sick,” it is the blessing given persons in danger of death from illness or wounds). The Roman and Eastern Churches consider each sacrament to be an essential vehicle of grace instituted by Jesus. Saracen. Originally a Greco-Roman term for a native of the Arabian Peninsula, medieval Western authors used it to designate any Muslim. Schism. Derived from the Greek schisma (a cleft, or rift), a schism is: (1) a visible division that arises within any body, such as competing factions within a state or a church; (2) a recognizable estrangement between two bodies that once had been unified, such as the Churches of Rome and Constantinople. In the eyes of the Roman Church, a schismatic was anyone who was separated from the lawful authority of the Church but not necessarily a
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heretic, although it further taught that separation from the teaching authority of the Church would, inevitably, lead to heresy. Scutage. Derived from scutum (shield), scutage, or shield-money, was a payment that was equivalent to the cost of employing a replacement for the period of a person’s required knight service. One flagrant abuse was to call up troops for a chevauchee (military assembly), demand that they turn over the funds that they brought to support them during the required term of service, and then send them home. See. From the Latin sedes (seat), in a literal sense, it is the throne on which a bishop sits in his cathedral church. In a broader sense, it is a bishop’s church and the city and region over which he rules. A synonym in this latter sense is “diocese.” Serf. A semi-free tenant farmer who was bound to the soil. There were many words for such persons and, especially in the Early Middle Ages, a number of grades of serfdom. Confusing the issue is the fact that the Latin term servus, which was interchangeably used to denote a slave and a servant, was often employed to signify a serf. Seven Liberal Arts. The seven areas of study were inherited from late-Roman antiquity and were the core disciplines taught by the Arts faculties of Europe’s universities. Grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic form the trivium (the confluence of three roads), or the literary and persuasive disciplines; arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy (essentially astrology) form the quadrivium (the crossroads where four roads intersect), or quantitative disciplines. Simony. The sin of buying or selling anything that is sacred, especially the sacraments and priestly offices, because God’s grace is freely given and cannot be purchased. It receives its name from the magician Simon Magus, who offered money to Saints Peter and John for the power to confer the Holy Spirit by laying on hands; Acts of the Apostles, 8:9–24. Soldo. Italian vernacular for solidus. Solidus. A coin or weight of varying worth depending on the time and place. Around the year 1000, a solidus (pl. solidi) was 1/20 of a pound of silver. Twelve denarii (sing. denarius) constituted one solidus, and 240 denarii made a pound of silver.
Subdeacon. A cleric who ranks just below and assists a deacon. Suffragan. A bishop who is subordinate to an archbishop. Squire. A young noble attendant of a knight who served as a knight-in-training; also known as a “knight bachelor.” Supreme Pontiff. The pope. (See also pontiff; prelate.) Syncretism. (1) The adoption from an alien culture of anything that is then adapted to the prevailing ways and worldview of a host culture; (2) The merging of anything from two separate cultures that results in the creation of a hybrid entity. Synod. Usually, a local church council convened by a bishop or archbishop. Synods can be called councils, and even ecumenical councils can be called synods. Theocracy. A state or any other entity that is ruled in the name of God or a god and has a strict code of belief and conduct dictated by that deity. Tithe. The tax paid for the maintenance of a church. Theoretically, it was one-tenth of all produce or income, but it tended to be less. Tonsure. The shaved crown of the head that indicates clerical status. Trinity, Holy. The Council of Nicaea of 325 defined as faith the belief that God is three coeternal, distinct, and separate divine persons in one indivisible divine essence: God the Father, the Creator; God the Son, the Redeemer (who became the fully human and fully divine Jesus of Nazareth); and God the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete (Helper), Sanctifier, and Illuminator, who dispenses grace and divine wisdom to God’s people. Trope. (1) A common, often overused and clichéd, theme; (2) a word or phrase used in a nonliteral, or figurative, manner, in other words a metaphor. (See also allegory.) Tympanum. The recessed, semicircular or triangular decorated area over a door (pl. tympana), especially a church door. Usury. Charging interest on loaned-out money. Vassal. A term of Celtic origin that means “one who serves.” Within the bond of a feudal contract, a vassal served his lord as a warrior and in such other capacities as defined by the lord and acceptable to the vassal. In return,
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the vassal enjoyed a variety of political, social, and economic benefits, often including a fief. Women who were vassals would have a man, usually a husband or other relative, provide such services, such as military service, that were deemed inappropriate for a woman. Likewise, church people who were vassals of a lord would retain an advocate. Viaticum. A Latin term meaning “something to take with you on a journey,” it is the Eucharist given to a person facing death.
Wergeld. Also spelled wergild. In early Germanic society, it was the payment by a perpetrator and/or the perpetrator’s family to recompense a victim and/or the victim’s family for an injury. Such fines covered even crimes of homicide and were intended to re-establish harmony within the society by averting blood feuds. As effective kingships evolved, kings became the guarantors of peace, oversaw the payment of wergeld, and received a portion of it.
Image Credits Except where noted below, all images are © Alfred J. Andrea or in the public domain. 2.2 James Steakley/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported. 2.3 Shakko/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported. 3.5 Roger Culos/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported. 6.4 Clio20/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported. 6.5 Clio20/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported. 7.2 Micheletb/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0 International. 7.4 Cancre/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0 International. 8.7 Cancre/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0 International. 9.2 Edbwilco/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0 International. 9.3 Walters Art Museum/Wikimedia/3.0 Unported. 9.4 Tangopaso/Wikimedia/3.0 Unported. 9.5 Welleschik/Wikimedia/3.0 Unported. 9.6 Rabe!/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 4.0 International. 9.7 Rama/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 2.0 France. 9.9 Rama/Wikimedia/CC BY-SA 2.0 France. 12.3 Classical Numismatic Group/Wikimedia/3.0 Unported. 13.6 Konrad, Von Megenberg, De Cantimpré Thomas, and Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection. Buch der Natur. Augsburg, Johann Bämler, 20 Aug. Montag vor S. Bartholomaeus, 1481. Image. https://www.loc.gov/item/48035378/.
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Fully updated and revised, this edition of a classic medieval source collection features: • Clear modern English translations, based on the best available critical editions, of more than 116 documentary sources—more than any other book of its kind • Thirty-four artifactual sources ranging from fine art to everyday items • A broad topical, geographical, and chronological approach, including textual and artifactual selections that shed light on such often-overlooked cohorts as women, Jews in Christian Europe, Byzantium, and Islam, and that range in time from the second century to 1493 • Introductions and notes setting each source in its historical context • A detailed Student’s Guide providing step-by-step instruction on how to analyze documentary and artifactual sources • Numerous illustrations in each chapter • Topical Contents and a Glossary to assist students in their research “I am delighted that The Medieval Record—a book I used successfully in my medieval history survey over many semesters—is getting a new lease on life. The color illustrations are wonderful, and the new documents are translated beautifully into modern English. “I like that this collection includes many sources not available in other readers, which tend to bundle the same old bunch of traditional sources (in varying translations from different translators). I like the very thoughtful introduction, which helps students think about historical documents and how to ‘do’ history when they read them. I especially appreciate the Topical Contents feature in the front matter—this is very helpful in guiding students to writing assignments.” —John Contreni, emeritus, Purdue University
Alfred J. Andrea is Emeritus Professor of History, The University of Vermont.
ISBN-13: 978-1-62466-838-8 90000
Cover image: Portrait of Eadwine the Scribe, from the twelfth-century Eadwine Psalter (f. 283v). Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge.
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