Where Heaven and Earth Meet

Studies in the History of Christian

Traditions

General Editor

Robert J. Bast (Knoxville, Tennessee)

In cooperation with

Paul C.H. Lim (Nashville, Tennessee)

Eric Saak (Liverpool)
Christine Shepardson (Knoxville, Tennessee)
Brian Tierney (Ithaca, New York)
Arjo Vanderjagt (Groningen)
John Van Engen (Notre Dame, Indiana)

Founding Editor

Heiko A. Oberman

VOLUME 174

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/shct

Where Heaven and Earth Meet
Essays on Medieval Europe in Honor
of Daniel F. Callahan

Edited by

Michael Frassetto
Matthew Gabriele
John D. Hosler

LEIDEN | BOSTON
On the cover: Doorway, West front of the twelfth-century abbey church of Saint-Gilles, France. Photo by
Rachel Gabriele.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Where heaven and earth meet (2014)

Where heaven and earth meet : essays on medieval Europe in honor of Daniel F. Callahan / edited by
Michael Frassetto, Matthew Gabriele, John D. Hosler.
pages cm. -- (Studies in the history of Christian traditions ; volume 174)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-27414-3 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-27416-7 (e-book)
1. Europe--Church history--600-1500. 2. Civilization, Medieval. I. Frassetto, Michael, editor of
compilation. II. Gabriele, Matthew, editor of compilation. III. Hosler, John D., editor of compilation.
IV. Callahan, Daniel F., 1939- honoree. V. Title.

BR252.W49 2014
274.03--dc23

2014008122

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Contents

Contributorsvii

Introduction1
Matthew Gabriele

Part 1
Temporal Concerns

1 Gregory the Greats Gout: Suffering, Penitence, and Diplomacy

in the Early Middle Ages11
John D. Hosler
2 The Missing Mancus and the Early Medieval Economy33
Richard Ring
3 Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian42
Bernard S. Bachrach
4 Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance Popes?63
Lawrence Duggan

Part 2
Spiritual Concerns

5 Insular Latin Sources, Arculf, and Early Islamic Jerusalem81

Lawrence Nees
6 Customs Confirmed by Reason and Authority: The Function
and Status of Houses of Canons in Tenth-Century Aquitaine101
Anna Trumbore Jones
7 Ademar of Chabannes and the Peace of God122
Michael Frassetto
8 The Liturgy, Its Music, and Their Power to Persuade138
James Grier
9 Female Religious as Collectors of Relics: Finding Sacrality
and Power in the Ordinary152
Jane Schulenburg
10 Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes178
Daniel F. Callahan
vi Contents

Index of Modern Authors227

Index of Sources229
Index of Names231
Index of Subjects235
Contributors

Bernard S. Bachrach
Department of History, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis,
MN, USA

Daniel F. Callahan
Department of History, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

Lawrence G. Duggan
Department of History, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

Michael Frassetto
Department of History, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

Matthew Gabriele
Department of Religion and Culture, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA

James Grier
University of Western Ontario, Windsor, Ontario, Canada

John D. Hosler
Department of History and Geography, Morgan State University, Baltimore,
MD, USA

Anna Trumbore Jones

Department of History, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL, USA

Lawrence Nees
Department of Art History, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA

Richard R. Ring
Watson Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA

Jane T. Schulenburg
Department of History/Liberal Studies and the Arts, University of Wisconsin-
Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Introduction
In Appreciation of Daniel F. Callahan

Matthew Gabriele

It is customary to begin Festschriften with an anecdote about the honoree, so

heres mine. Although I had been taking an undergraduate survey of Medieval
Europe with Daniel F. Callahan for a full semester, I can only really say that
I met him when I went to pick up my graded research paper during finals week.
When I knocked on his office door that day, he looked up at me, smirked, and
said, Ah, yes. Mr. Gabriele. You did quite well in the class for showing up a half-
hour late to the final exam. (I had indeed over slept.) The rest of the conversa-
tion that day was much less tense but he was no less honest. I had, until that
time, been a misguided Anthropology majornot that theres anything wrong
with thatcurrently disillusioned by how little the field actually resembled
the adventures of Indiana Jones. Yet somehow, in the course of that afternoon
conversation in my sophomore year at the University of Delaware, Dan con-
vinced me that there was something worth pursuing in my paper on the use of
the phrase soldiers of Christ in the chronicles of the First Crusade. More
importantly for my career though, and most likely without his knowledge, he
convinced me that Henry Jones, Jr. was really a historian and that I needed to
change my major as soon as possible. Looking back, I still dont quite under-
stand how that happened.
I also dont understand how he mentored me into and through graduate
school by persistently reminding me of the tribulations awaiting me there,
of the terrors of the academic job market. But if I had to guess (and I do, since Im
the one writing this brief introduction), my guess would be that his rare gifts as
a teacher and mentor have something to do with his unflinching intellectual
generosity to his students. His was the velvet glove on the iron fist, simultane-
ously encouraging and nurturing of intellectual enquiry, even while remaining
honest about the difficulties of this or that path. You always knew the difficul-
ties that lay ahead of you for any research paper you wanted to pursue, the
necessity of doing language work so that you could deal with your primary
sources, etc. Indeed, what I loved about the conversations we had both inside
and outside the classroom, was that those conversations created more ques-
tions. His survey courses were (and likely still are) structured around political
chronologies but his class time was spent in the crevices between the pages of
the textbooks, the cultural and intellectual lives of kings and bishops, the
social impact of the three-field system, and so on. Dans seminars were

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_002

2 Gabriele

student-centered before that style became the vogue of pedagogical theory,

with each class meeting teasing out more profound insights about a phenom-
enon from a snippet of a source or a chapter of a book. And like a good book,
Dans courses and his conversations left you wanting more.
His scholarship works in much the same way.1 A large part of his research,
beginning at least with his 1968 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of
Wisconsin, Madison supervised by David Herlihy, has ostensibly focused on
the early eleventh-century monastic author and forger Ademar of Chabannes.
Yet, his scholarship works inductively to tease out larger insights into the world
of medieval Europe around the turn of the first millennium. His work has left
few cultural and intellectual issues in that period untouched. Through the
lens of Ademar and Aquitaine, Dans research has illuminated aspects of
the utility of sermons as sources, the cult of the saints, how apocalyptic expec-
tation shaped lived experience in the eleventh century, the power of medieval
forgery, the pull of Jerusalem on the mind of the medieval West, the roots of
anti-Jewish violence, the legacy of Charlemagne in the centuries after his
death, and the rebirth of heresy in the West. We are exceedingly fortunate to
have one of his now-revised articles, rescued from publishing limbo and deal-
ing with many of the themes listed above finally printed in this volume.2
For example, his 1992 article on Ademar of Chabannes, a supposed letter
from monks on the Mount of Olives to Pope Leo III and Charlemagne, and the
Filioque controversy between East and West, began by paying attention to
the manuscript tradition of a text. He realized that the provenance of the manu-
script and the spurious nature of its other texts problematized the authenticity
of the letter in question. From there, Dans analysis expanded outwards, con-
vincingly arguing that the supposed letter from the monks in Jerusalem to the
West was ultimately indicative not of the ninth century as it existed but rather
of Ademars imagined ninth century. The forged letter showed Ademars anxi-
eties about heresy, specifically in its relation to papal power and the papacys
role as the defender of orthodoxy, his apocalyptic concerns about Jerusalem,
and his reverence for Charlemagne stemming from a legacy of Frankish iden-
tity that survived to Ademars own time. Finally, and perhaps most impor-
tantly, Callahans analysis revealed how this text displayed the nexus of this
particular medieval authors predilections and thereby engaged the world in
which he liveda land populated by monks and noblemen, who all thought
they shared a common past and who were all concerned about the fuzzy

1 A full list of his publications can be found at pp. 1011 below. For the remainder of the intro-
duction, I will simply reference these works by title.
2 See Chapter 10 below.
Introduction 3

distinction between religion and culture, how the divine interacted with their
world. In this case, Ademars forgery was an intervention in the timeline, an
attempt to reestablish the proper relationship among monks, bishops, popes,
and kings so as to set a foundering world aright.
This rhetoric should not, of course, sound terribly different to us from that
deployed in tenth- and eleventh-century Peace Councils, in contemporary
saintly miracle collections, or in writings detailing new heretical movements.
Ademars world, as provincial as it might have been in reality (he aspired to
much more than Saint-Cybard of Angoulme and Saint-Martial of Limoges),
becomes much more expansive, more representative of currents in contempo-
rary thought, once we begin to understand in what ways Ademar was reading
his world. The texts he read, the texts he copied, and the texts he wrote all
opened outwards for him. And Dans excavation of this monks outlook should
alert us all to other instances in which this has occurred, even if not directly
linked to early eleventh-century Aquitaine.
Indeed, Im sure this welcome character of Dans work will only continue.
Most recently, his research has been moving toward the completion of two
monographs; both substantively on the image of Jerusalem in the West around
the turn of the first millennium, but also about the nature of Latin Christianity
in that period, including the meaning of the Cross, and the ideological arse-
nal available at that time to incite some to religious violence. It is not too much
to say that we know more about the Crusades, about relations between Jews
and Christians in the later Middle Ages, about monasticism as cultural prac-
tice, about responses to heresy because of the work that has been done over
the course of Dans career at the University of Delaware.
It is in this expansive spirit that these essays are offered. All of them take
something small and build outward. As Dan has done, and continues to do,
throughout his career, all of these essays show how texts not only represent the
world in which they have been produced but also create the worlds they
inhabit. This is as true for the different types of sources the authors examine as
it is for the different times and places in which these sources were produced.
We allDans students, colleagues, and friendshave learned lessons from
his illumination of Ademar and his contemporaries so that we too may see
how our subjects read their worlds.

*****

Part One of the current volume is organized around a cluster of essays on

things of this world, be they economic, political, or military. One of Dans Ph.D.
students, John Hosler opens our survey by thinking about politics, diplomacy,
4 Gabriele

and pain during the papacy of Gregory I the Great (590604). Gregorys gout
seems to have deeply affected his theological understanding of suffering but,
to Hoslers point, how he interacted with others in this world. He likened the
suffering he felt to the incursions of the Arian Germans into Italy. Indeed, for
example, Gregory revealed in his letters that the former sometimes limited his
ability to deal with the latter. This small realization reveals much larger impli-
cations, for these physical limitations may have forced him into closer political
relationships with other powers, since Gregory thought he may need their help
in the event he became incapacitated at a critical moment.
Next, Richard Ringa classmate of Dans from Wisconsintextually recon-
siders the enigmatic mancus, made famous (as Ring notes) on the first page of
Michael McCormicks seminal book on the early medieval economy. It was not,
Ring concludes, an actual coin, let alone an Arab one. Instead, the mancus was
a standard monetary weight of measure that gained currency throughout
Europefrom Anglo-Saxon England into Italyin the early Middle Ages and
in situations far removed from the Mediterranean economy. What this all
means is that the Carolingian economy boomed not because of external fac-
tors related to trade between Christian and Arab in the Mediterranean but
because of the reforms the Carolingians themselves instituted.
Bernard Bachrach turns our attention to Ademar of Chabannesthe sub-
ject of so much of Daniel F. Callahans workbut from the perspective of
a military historian. Bachrach argues that we can take Ademars description of
military actions so seriously because he knew that his contemporary audience
would have taken it seriously too. Not only did Ademar himself come from a
military family but he knew that, to be taken seriously as a chronicler of the
past, he needed for his content to be believable to his intended lay audience
(specifically William of Aquitaine), who would have understood the warfare
described and perhaps even have had family present at the various engage-
ments. Ademar needed that lay patronage for himself as well as for the aposto-
licity campaign he waged on behalf of St. Martial.
The final section of Part One, an article by Dans colleague at the University
of Delaware Lawrence Duggan, moves us forward in time to the late Middle
Ages. Here, Duggan uses the case of Popes Nicholas V (144755) and Pius II
(145864) to question issues of periodization, of Renaissance and rena-
scences more generally, and finds that the historiography has occluded our
understanding of these men. Though often characterized as typical Renaissance
humanists, Duggan argues that an analysis of what these two popes actually did
makes them seem much more like their predecessors than their successors
they were much more medieval than modern. Nicholas V and Pius II were
popes in the mold of Gregory VII (107385) and Innocent III (11981215).
Introduction 5

Part Two of this volume moves us, in good Neo-Platonic fashion, from the
temporal to the spiritual, thereby mimicking the intellectual structure of Dans
seminars. Another of his colleagues, Lawrence Nees, begins this section in the
East, at Jersusalem. He interrogates Bedes and Adomnans and Arculfs rela-
tions of the first mosque in the city, poking holes in the historiography, by
going back (once again) to the original sources. These are all ultimately Insular
documents, not visual transcriptions of the Holy Land. As such, Adomnans
description of that supposed seventh-century mosque in Jerusalem must be
recognized as hagiography or exegesis, or something else, but not history.3 In
other words, Adomnans description of this Islamic site was invective against
the Muslims but little more.
We return to millennial Aquitaine in Anna Trumbore Jones essay, but her
focus is on canons rather than monks. The former were quite popular with
tenth-century donors and were just as much networks of power as any con-
temporary monastery. These canonries appear to have been conceptualized as
part of the lay resources, which could be drawn upon in times of need to dole
out rewards or even subsidize military expeditions. The canons particular
integration into lay networks in the period are borne out by surviving vitae of
their abbots, which may allow us some window into how canons actually
lived their lives. In the end, however, Jones calls for further research on these
houses, to emulate the work of our honoree so that we may better under-
standhow tightly such religious communities were woven into the fabric of
their society.
As befits one of Dans former Ph.D. students, Michael Frassetto dives directly
into Ademars work as it relates to the so-called Peace of God. Frassetto, in
perhaps an unlikely turn for work on Ademar, un-problematizes Ademars
writings on the 1031 Councils of Limoges and Bourges. Ademars as-yet uned-
ited sermons reveal the contours of these gatherings, even if at times the text
became hyperbolic with Ademars advocation of Martials apostolicity. These
meetings were centered around relics, involved wide gatherings of people,
were deeply eschatological in character, and most importantly represented
a wider eleventh-century reform movement (especially as it related to the
lives and behavior of the clergy). We may never be sure about the details of
Limoges and Bourges but Frassetto demonstrates that Ademar can still help
us understand the intellectual and cultural concerns behind them.
James Grier looks at the liturgy, another of Ademars sources and one
he deployed effectively in his promotion of Martial as apostle. Ademar
was thoughtful about both the composition of the liturgy as well as its

3 See below Nees, Insular Latin Sources, p. 97

6 Gabriele

performance, as he attempted to extract the saint from his already-established

place in Aquitanian memory and reinsert him elsewhere. No less than his pro-
gram as a whole, Ademars liturgical work in this regard was comprehensive
and rhetorically complex, with different aspects of the mass reinforcing the
others and all reinforcing Martials apostolic status. Indeed, Grier argues,
Ademar perhaps wrote himself directly into this drama by preparing parts for
he himself to singa particularly bitter irony if true, given how his project so
spectacularly failed and he faded into obscurity.
Next, Jane Schulenburg, another of Dans classmates from Wisconsin, takes
a step back to think about womens agency and relics during the early Middle
Ages. This could be manifested through strong roles in their acquisition, and/
or in their translation and the narratives of these events could serve to aug-
ment that status of individuals (living or dead) or entire female religious
houses. These latter were (perhaps disproportionately) reliant upon contact
relics, yet astute in the maintenance of their collections and dedicated to shap-
ing the devotion of both their nuns and their patrons with what these houses
collected. These relics, in turn, gave them access to both lay and spiritual power
in ways that subtly differed from male housesanother small observation,
like the others in this volume, that has such large implications for further
scholarship.
Finally, rescued from the dust-bin of history (a shuttered Studies in Medieval
and Renaissance History), we are pleased to offer Daniel F. Callahans extended
discussion of heresy and apocalyptic expectation around the turn of the
first millennium. Primarily using Ademars unpublished sermons, Callahan
explores the role of the Manicheans in Ademars thought. By sorting though
the historiography, Callahan reveals a real coherence to Ademars understand-
ing of the heresy, one that leads back to the East and to the Bogomils dualism.
The reemergence and proliferation of this heresy were factors that led Ademar
and some of his contemporaries to proclaim the nearness of the End. Marginal
annotations in Ademars autograph copy of Jeromes Commentary on Daniel
alert us to the role that Antichrist himself would play in Ademars vision of the
apocalyptic drama.
Again, these essays, though greatly divergent in subject matter, ranging
from the seventh to fifteenth century and from Rome to Ireland, cohere
arounda particular sensitivity. They all take the small and show how large it
really was. They all demonstrate the utility of going back to the sources and
of questioning historiographical commonplaces. In other words, they all
honorthe generosity and thoughtfulness evinced in Daniel F. Callahans work
in the classroom and on the page, work both already completed and eagerly
anticipated.
Introduction 7

Chronological List of Daniel F. Callahans Publications

Benedictine Monasticism in Aquitaine, 9351030, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of

Wisconsin, Madison, History, 1968.
The Sermons of Admar of Chabannes and the Cult of St. Martial of Limoges, Revue
Bndictine, 86 (1976), 251295.
Admar de Chabannes et la paix de Dieu, Annales du Midi, 89 (1977), 2143.
William the Great and the Monasteries of Aquitaine, Studia Monastica, 19 (1977),
321342.
The Peace of God and the Cult of the Saints in Aquitaine in the Tenth and Eleventh
Centuries, Historical Reflections/Rflexions Historiques, 14 (1987), 445466.
(Revised version appears in The Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious Response in
France around the Year 1000, ed. T. Head and R. Landes, Ithaca, NY, 1992, 165183.)
The Peace of God, Apocalypticism and the Council of Limoges of 1031, Revue
Bndictine, 101 (1991), 3249.
The Problem of the Filioque and the Letter from the Pilgrim Monks of the Mount of
Olives to Pope Leo III and Charlemagne, Revue Bndictine, 102 (1992), 75134.
Ademar of Chabannes and His Insertions into Bedes Expositio Actuum Apostolorum,
Analecta Bollandiana, 111 (1993), 385400.
Jerusalem in the Monastic Imaginations of the Early Eleventh Century, The Haskins
Society Journal, 6 (1994), 119127.
Ademar of Chabannes, Millennial Fears and the Development of Western Anti-
Judaism, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 46 (1995), 1935.
When Heaven Came Down to Earth: The Family of St. Martial of Limoges and the
Terrors of the Year 1000, in Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance Living: Essays
in Memory of David Herlihy, ed. S. Cohn and S. Epstein, Ann Arbor, MI, 1996,
24558.
Ecclesia Semper Reformanda: Clerical Celibacy and Reform in the Church, in Medieval
Piety and Purity: Essays on Religious Reform and Clerical Celibacy, ed. M. Frassetto,
New York, 1998, 37788.
The Tau Cross in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes, in The Year 1000: Religious
and Social Response to the Turning of the First Millennium, ed. M. Frassetto, New
York, 2002, 6371.
The Cult of St. Michael the Archangel and the Terrors of the Year 1000, in The
Apocalyptic Year 1000: Religious Expectation and Social Change, 9501050, ed.
R. Landes, A. Gow, and D.C. Van Meter, Oxford, 2003, 181204.
Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Coronation Rite of the Dukes of Aquitaine and the Cult of
Saint Martial of Limoges in The World of Eleanor of Aquitaine: Literature and Society
in Southern France between the Eleventh and Thirteenth Centuries, ed. M. Bull and
C. Lglu, Rochester, NY, 2005, 2936.
8 Gabriele

Ademar of Chabannes and the Bogomils in Heresy and the Persecuting Society in the
Middle Ages, ed. M. Frassetto, Leiden, 2006, 3141.
Ademar of Chabannes, Charlemagne and the Pilgrimage to Jerusalem of 1033 in
Medieval Monks and Their World: Ideas and Realities. Studies in Honor of Richard
Sullivan, ed. M. Frassetto, A. Livingstone, and D. Blanks, Leiden, 2006, 7180.
The Cross, the Jews, and the Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the
Writings of Ademar of Chabannes in Christian Attitudes toward the Jews in the
Middle Ages: A Casebook, ed. M. Frassetto, New York, 2007, 1523.
Al-Hakim, Charlemagne and the Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in
Jerusalem in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes, in The Legend of Charlemagne
in the Middle Ages: Power, Faith, and Crusade, ed. M. Gabriele and J. Stuckey, New
York, 2008, 4157.
The Manichaeans and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes: The
Origins of Popular Heresy in the Medieval West and The Terrors of the Year 1000,
in Reading the World: On the Intersections of Religion and Culture in Medieval Europe
in Honor of Daniel F. Callahan, ed. J. Hosler, M. Frassetto, and M. Gabriele
(Originally accepted to Studies in Medieval & Renaissance History in 1994 but the
journal ceased publication in 1995.)

Forthcoming

The Making of a Millennial Pilgrim: Jerusalem and the Cross in the Life and Writings of
Ademar of Chabannes.
When Heaven Came down to Earth: Jerusalem and the Rise of Western Civilization in the
Tenth and Eleventh Centuries.
 part 1
Temporal Concerns

 Chapter 1

Gregory the Greats Gout

Suffering, Penitence, and Diplomacy in the Early Middle Ages

John D. Hosler

Pope Gregory I the Great (590604) suffered from an extreme affliction of

gout. He was certainly not the only pontiff to have been afflicted with this par-
ticular disease. At least twelve other popes in the Middle Ages were victims.
These were Martin I (64953), Sisinnius (JanFeb 708), Sergius II (84447),
Boniface VI (AprilMay 896), Honorius IV (128587), Innocent VI (135262),
Nicholas V (144755), and Pius II (145864). Early-modern popes with gout
included Pius III (SeptOct 1503), Julius III (155055), Clement VIII (1592
1605), and Clement X (167076); that so many Renaissance Popes suffered
from gout lends some poetic credence to the traditional and customary notion
that it was a consequence of exquisite and lavish living. In the twentieth cen-
tury, Pius X (190314) was also stricken with gout and confined to his quarters
in 1911.1 Besides Gregory, only two of these popes were later canonized: Pius X
and Martin I, the latter of whom, in his day, was taunted, stripped, and dragged
through Constantinople in chains.
Gout was but one of the many difficulties Gregory the Great faced during
an extraordinary pontificate, one that is commonly associated with the
strengthening of the early medieval church. Gregorys interest in barbarian
conversion and his missionary impulses are well known, as is his bequest of
family property, the Patrimony of St. Peter, which was a formative feature in
the financial development of the church and one that strengthened its influ-
ence in central and northern Italy. He is the author of several important works:
Regula pastoralis; Moralia in Iob; numerous personal letters collected together
in the Registrum epistolarum; and the four books of the Dialogi, which are doz-
ens of hagiographical conversations that include an authoritative early life of
Benedict of Nursia.2

* Sincere thanks to Michael Wenisch, who suggested my initial study of Gregorys letters, and
to William Katerberg (Calvin College) and Alexander Pavuk (Morgan State University, and a
former student of Daniel Callahan), who both reviewed earlier drafts of this essay.
1 Papal reigns are taken from the list of popes in A Handbook of Dates for Students of British
History, eds. C.R. Cheney and M. Jones (Revised edition, Cambridge, UK, 2000), 4857.
2 Latin editions of these works are found in Patrologia Latina, ed. J-P. Migne, 217 vols. (Paris,
184164): Regula pastoralis liber, 77.00130128A; Moralium libri sive expositio in librum

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_003

12 Hosler

Throughout these writings, he occasionally broached the subject of his gout,

most strikingly in a series of personal letters that were eventually circulated in
Anglo-Saxon England and the Carolingian Empire. After surveying the ancient
and medieval conceptions of the causes and cures for gout, this essay will
argue that Gregorys private ruminations about his gout reveal two important
facets of his papacy. First, they advance a particular theological understanding
of the spiritual meaning of bodily pain and, more generally, human suffering.
Second, the physical imparities caused by his gout affected his diplomatic
effectiveness and his ability to safeguard Rome against Lombard incursions
and Byzantine interference. Gregory the Greats gout thus played a role in the
broader political and ecclesiastical history of the medieval West.
This essay is not the first to consider the issue of Gregorys gout and whether
or not it interfered with his papal duties. In the late nineteenth century,
J. Barmby argued that the gout revealed in Gregorys later letters indicate
noloss of mental sharpness on the part of the pope; indeed, his work on mat-
ters of business, discipline, charity, and other subjects, were as frequent and as
forcible as in any previous period.3 Following Barmby, F.H. Dudden suggested
that gout may have prevented Gregory from responding to a series of questions
posed to him by Augustine of Canterbury in a timely manner, yet he drew no
causal links between the disease and the efficacy of Gregorys diplomacy.4
This essay argues against the conclusions of Barmby and Dudden; however,
it agrees with the most extensive treatment of Gregorys illnesses, which is
John Martyns introduction in his recent translation of the popes letters into
English. Martyn postulates that gout may have prompted an increase in the
number of Gregorys correspondences, which he could dictate to secretaries
when his public voice and writing hand failed him. Martyn also dissents from
the older views of Barmby and Dudden by arguing that Gregorys mind could
not express its feelings properly.5

Beati Job, pars I, 75.05091162B and pars II, 76.00090782A; SS Gregorius I MagnusRegistri
epistolarum, 77.04411328C; SS Gregorius I MagnusDialogorum libri IV de vita et miraculis
Patrum Italicorum, 77.01490430A; and, for Benedicts life, see Vita operaque, ex libro
Dialogorum Sancti Gregorii Magni excerpta, 66.01250204C. Unless otherwise noted, English
translations in this article to Gregorys letters and other patristic writings are from Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series [hereafter NPNF1], ed. P. Schaff, 14 vols. (Reprint, Peabody,
MA, 1999); and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series [hereafter NPNF2], 14 vols., ed.
P. Schaff (Reprint, Peabody, MA, 1999). A review of secondary scholarship on Gregory can be
found in C. Straw, Gregory the Great: Perfection in Imperfection (Berkeley, 1988), 26166.
3 J. Barmby, Gregory the Great (London, 1892), 141.
4 F.H. Dudden, Gregory the Great: his Place in History and Thought, 2 vols. (New York, 1905),
1.3839 and 123.
5 The Letters of Gregory the Great, trans. J. Martyn, 3 vols. (Toronto, 2004), 1.6.
Gregory the Greats Gout 13

Otherwise, discussions of Gregory Is gout have been limited to briefer men-

tions in the various modern biographies and studies of his papal reign. Most of
these simply point out that by the 590s gout was starting to affect his overall
health and mobility. No single study has explored the ways in which his gout
may have influenced his diplomatic affairs or how it helped to shape his peni-
tential view of human suffering.

Early Theories on Gout

Gout was a frequent topic of medical discussion for centuries before Gregory
the Greats papacy. Taken from the Latin gutta (drop), gout is a non-fatal but
extremely painful and recurring ailment that teases its victims with temporary
relief only to flare up again when most inconvenient. Medically, it is a form
of arthritis in which crystals, formed by the excess buildup of uric acid,
cause swellings in connective tissue and the synovial fluid in joints. The pain
usually begins in the big toe and spreads upward, making it difficult to stand
or walk. The swellings are often accompanied by painful open wounds. In the
early fifth century, the ascetic John Cassian described gout as a violence of
moisture that spreads to the joints and extremities but offered no cures as
such.6 According to the seventh-century Byzantine physician Paulus Aegineta,
a preternatural humour and weakness of the parts meeting together were
the principal symptoms; the humor stretches the ligaments in painful ways.
If left untreated, the humor forms into solid masses which are called tophi
or chalk stones.7 The Anglo-Saxon Lacnunga, a tenth-century handbook of
diseases and cures written in Old English, offers a description of what Gregory
the Great may have suffered through: For the great discharging foot ailment,
which leeches high , or gout; the disease is accompanied by swelling,
and it dischargeth ratten and mucus, and the sinews are distorted and the toes
shrink up.8

6 Conference of Abbot Abraham, The Works of John Cassian, trans. E.C.S. Gibson, in NPNF2,
11.24.15. For a brief review of ancient commentaries on the disease, see R. Porter and
G.S.Rousseau, Gout: the Patrician Malady (New Haven, CN, 1998), 1320.
7 The Medical Works of Paulus gineta, the Greek Physician, trans. F. Adams, 3 vols. (London,
1834), 1.3.78.
8 Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, being a Collection of Documents
Illustrating the History of Science in this Country before the Norman Conquest, ed.
T.O. Cockayne, 3 vols., Rolls Series 35 (London, 18641866), 3.68: Wi ne miclan riensn
sot ale ne e lcear hat poagne reo al br arpollen y heo rih wunrme y gilftne y
reonuwa soptogene y a tan rcnince up.
14 Hosler

Once dubbed the affliction of kings, gout has commonly been associated
with the lavish lifestyles of the Western elite. King Henry VIII and Emperor
Charles V both suffered from it; the former more famously because his inca-
pacitating condition contributed to his being cuckolded by his fifth wife,
Catherine Howard. Other notable sufferers included the poet John Dryden and
reformer Martin Luther. Luther dramatically employed gout as an unpleasant
metaphor for the papal court in a letter to Pope Leo X in 1520.9 This connection
to famous individuals has attracted scholarly attention through the years, pre-
sented by both historians and medical researchers in the form of case studies
of the more famous sufferers.10
Sexual promiscuity and high intelligence were at times considered principal
culprits, as was rich food and drink.11 Late-antique ecclesiastical commentar-
ies on gout were lifestyle-centered. One theory has specifically tied the fre-
quent occurrence of gout among the Roman emperors (most notably Septimius
Severus) to the high lead content in their food. The bulk of attention was paid
to the reformation of lifestyles, which brought on the disease and should there-
fore be adjusted to prevent or forestall it. Most noticeable in this tradition are
the fourth-century homilies of John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople.
No one was more outspoken about the matter. In particular, his homilies
stressed the dangers of fine living and its physical consequences. The symp-
toms of paralysis, pains in the extremities, loss of sight, jaundice, fevers, and
apoplexy were reflective of extravagant living; Chrysostom wrote that gout was
the natural offspring, not of abstinence and moderate diet, but of gluttony
and repletion.12 He pinned gluttony itself on the idle upper echelon, and only
the rich man who deigned to labor could avoid the sick bed and earn a healthy
life.13 Sloth and gluttony were followed by clear symptoms: headaches, flatu-
lence, poor digestion, and loss of appetite; after these, gout itself would set in.14

9 Martin Luther, Concerning Christian Liberty, ed. C.W. Eliot, in The Harvard Classics, 36:6
(Cambridge, MA, 190914), 6.
10 For example, see R. Couper, P.L. Fernandez, and P.L. Alonso, The Severe Gout of Charles
V, New England Journal of Medicine 355 (2006): 193536; and E.G.L. Bywaters, Gout in
the Time and Person of George IV: a Case History, Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases 21
(1962): 32538.
11 S.A. Schwartz, Disease of Distinction, Explore (NY) 2 (Nov-Dec 2006): 51519.
12 Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John, trans. P. Schaff, in NPNF1, 14.22.3.
13 Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Acts of the Apostles, trans. J. Walker et al., in NPNF1,
11.16.
14 Treatise to prove that no one can harm the man who does not injure himself, trans.
R.W. Stephens, in NPNF1, 9.7.
Gregory the Greats Gout 15

Its debilitating effects could only be avoided through the adoption of a life
of purity.
Discussions on the causes and treatments of gout appeared in both the
western and eastern Mediterranean from as early as Hellenistic times.15
Hippocrates considered it in Aphorisms, stating confidently that eunuchs, pre-
menstrual women, and young male virgins could not contract gout.16 He sug-
gested that gouty swellings occurred most often in spring and autumn and
lasted forty days, but these could be treated by the application of cold water to
the sore.17 As to its cause, Hippocrates noted that the excessive horseback rid-
ing of the Scythians often resulted in gouty attacks.18
In late antiquity, gout was treated in neither an extensive nor concentrated
fashion, but periodic commentaries did appear in patristic texts by the fourth
century. For example, St. Jerome suggested remedies that included the eating
of culinary delicacies and sleep in a simple bed but also the more curious
idea of ingesting peacock dung.19
The Herbarium, an Old English translation of a fifth-century text written by
pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus, contains a multitude of cures for gout. Most
involve herbal worts: extracted from roots, they are to be either soaked in water
or oil or pounded into lard or saffron and then pressed onto the feet.
Alternatively, depending upon the severity and location of the disease, wort
could be mixed with honey or wine and then imbibed by the patient for a
speedy cure.20

15 For a brief review of ancient treatments, see E. Capodicasa, F. De Bellis, and M. Timio,
The Gout as a Paradigmatic Example of the Ancient Humoral Theory of Diseases,
Historical Archives of Italian Nephrology 22 (May-June 2005): 23540. See also
M.T. Salazar, Methodology of Scientific Transmission in the Middle Ages, Medicina nei
secoli 11 (1999): 4354; and J. Lascaratos, Historical Information Regarding Gout in
Byzantine Times, Byzantine Studies 4 (1992): 295332.
16 On the ancient view, see T.G. Benedek, Gout in Women: a Historical Perspective, Bulletin
of the History of Medicine 71 (1997): 47.
17 Aphorisms, in Hippocrates IV, trans. W.H.S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA,
1931), 5.25; 6.2830, 49, and 55.
18 Airs, Waters, and Places, in Hippocrates I, trans. W.H.S. Jones, Loeb Classical Library
(Cambridge, MA, 1931), 22.
19 Against Jovinianus, The Principal Works of St. Jerome, trans. W.H. Fremantle et al., in
NPNF2, 6.2.6.
20 Leechdoms, 1.1.29, 2.13, 3.5, 12.4, 25.4, 39.2, 73.3, 77.4, 83.2, 115.2, and 118.2. While
these cures appear rudimentary, significant evidence exists to suggest that Anglo-
Saxon medicine had, by the eighth century, incorporated both continental and
Arabic ingredients and techniques; see K.S. Beckett, Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the
Islamic World (Cambridge, 2003), 6165. For Anglo-Saxon writers access to classical and
16 Hosler

In the Early Middle Ages, the most detailed medical treatments for gout
appear in the various Old English handbooks for herb usage and the letting of
blood. The Lacnunga suggests that a specific combination of herbs, wood, pig
fat, and eggs be ground into a salve and applied to clean feet for seven days.21
The ninth-century Balds Leechbook does not specifically mention gout but
does address palsy, a numbness and paralysis of extremities that was often cor-
related with gout in the period.22 For this, the Leechbook prescribes an internal
remedy followed by a (what else?) bloodletting:

Against palsy, take a cup full of boiling water, another of oil, and of white
salt so much as one may pick up with four fingers; shake together till that
it be all one; drink all this by drops, rest awhile, poke thy finger into the
gullet, spew up again all and more if thou may; then in the morning let
blood from the arm or from the neck, as much as he may bear; and scarify
and let him put something on, then after all smear with hot oil and let
him taste a trifle of salt; employ gladden and everfern picked high up on
the tree, and cover with nesh wool all the scarifications when they have
been smeared.23

In modern times, medical understanding of the disease has advanced signifi-

cantly, although a few of the older suggested treatments remain useful and

post-classical medical texts, see M.L. Cameron, The Sources of Medical Knowledge in
Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon England 11 (1983): 14552.
21 Leechdoms, 3.68: Genim gnunherwyligean a e on nenu wexe y a neaan wuu sil-
lan bega esensela cnuca wi ealum rwiner nyrle wync to clame o on a set wni mi
clae on niht y weah est on mongen y wyg mi clae rmyne mi henne gef e hwitan
est nyowne clam o rwa .VII. niht onne bi a reonuwa nihte y set hale/Take ground-
sel, that which waxeth on horses, and the red wood chervil, of both equal quantities, pound
with old swines grease, work into a paste, put it upon the feet, wrap up with a cloth at night,
and wash again in the morning, dry with a cloth, smear with the white of a hens egg, make
again a new paste, do so for seven days; then will the sinews be right and the feet healthy.
22 One theme in the history of gout is its over-diagnosis. It was frequently diagnosed when
any number of ailments such as dropsy or sciatica might have been the actual culprits; see
Porter and Rousseau, Patrician Malady, 3.
23 Leechdoms, 2.1.59: Wi li pnce cnua li wynt wi humge oe ceow y lege n. Est
pulfer heaso ban bnn fwie y gecnua fmale aryst unh cla o on olg. Wi li pnce
cnua wenmo wi teonpe y sencenfan awning feaw f meng tofomne clm on li e
n fan rie gebin frte n. Wi li reawe gelo wynt bnune wynt y hane wynt lyteln
stoft peaxe n tune hs hpite bloftmau gecnua a neo wynta gemenge bi god
reals. Manegum men li reau ryh gewning pler feaw n y honner fceasoan fpie fmale
gerceas cnim on olh mnn o s y fimle niwe n.
Gregory the Greats Gout 17

continue to influence thinking on the subject.24 Current suggested treatments

include the avoidance of animal proteins and alcohol and the ingesting of
water, coffee, cherries, and Vitamin C.25
While gout was not independently lethal its debilitating effects could yet
be deadly. The fourth-century historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote of
two gout-sufferers in his narrative of later Roman conquests. Count Frigeridus
of Thrace and Illyricum, a general appointed by Emperor Gratian, was
unable to lead his men against Gothic armies in the Balkans due to a sup-
posed bout of the disease. In Africa, the citizen Mychon of the province of
Tripoli was captured by Austoriani warriors when gout impeded his ability to
run away.26
Other tales about gout-ridden men appear in patristic writings. Eusebius of
Caesareas fourth-century Historia ecclesiastica relates the tales of two such
sufferers. The first victim was one Abdus of Edessa, who, through imposition
of the hands, was miraculously cured by St. Jude. The second was Julian of
Alexandria, whose gout was so bad that it prevented him from moving. He was
put to the torch after confessing Jesus during the reign of Emperor Decius,
who, coincidentally, was the first Roman emperor to initiate formal, organized
persecutions of Christians in the third century.27
In De civitate Dei, Augustine of Hippo wrote of a doctor in Carthage who
suffered from gout but was relieved through sacramental grace. Strange,
demonic boys intruded his dreams and tried to prevent his baptism by tram-
pling his gouty feet, causing severe pain. In the end, the doctor persevered,
received baptism, and was never bothered by the disease again.28
Attitudes towards the disease shifted with the times. Early Christian com-
mentaries tended to focus on the social and especially spiritual aspects of gout,
and the cures were often centered on healing of the victims heart and soul
rather than the physical body. In the thirteenth century, however, Thomas
Aquinas postulated that, although a man might become gouty through his
own lifestyle, it was possible that the disease could be passed through family

24 See G.P. Rodnan and T.G. Benedek, Ancient Therapeutic Arts in the Gout, Arthritis &
Rheumatism 6 (2005): 31740.
25 Bones, Joints, and Muscles: Gout, MayoClinic.com (Dec. 6, 2011), <mayoclinic.com/
health/gout/DS00090>, accessed February 18, 2013.
26 Ammianus Marcellinus, Roman History, trans. J.C. Rolfe, Loeb Classical Library, 3 vols.
(Cambridge, MA, 19391950), 3.31.7.2 and 3.28.6.8.
27 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, trans. K. Lake and J.E.L. Oulton, Loeb Classical Library,
2 vols. (Cambridge, MA, 19261932), 1.1.13.17 and 2.6.41.15.
28 Augustine, The City of God, Against the Pagans, trans. G.E. McCracken, Loeb Classical
Library, 7 vols. (Reprint, Cambridge, MA, 1995), 7.22.8.
18 Hosler

bloodlines.29 In early-modern Europe, sufferers often maintained a sense of

pride, for the wounds of gout indicated good living. The humanists Desiderius
Erasmus and Willibald Pirckheimer took satisfaction in their having gout, for
if, as was sometimes believed, gout was a result of too much study, their afflic-
tions only demonstrated more fully their devotion to their work.30 Such elite
posturing was not on display before the fifteenth century: for sufferers in
ancient and medieval times, gout was a harsh and unending burden that
invited scorn and sometimes condemnation.
The perils of gout were not purely physical in nature. John Chrysostom
warned about the more dire spiritual consequence of gout, which was the
inability of the sufferers to dread the prospect of hell. Because gouts pain was
so greata fiery and everlasting tormentit might diminish ones fear of eter-
nal suffering: though you show them ten thousand suffering worse, they do
not so much as take it into their mind.31
Certainly, Chrysostom provided a litany of symptoms and consequences
ofthe disease, but his polemic against those who invited it through rich livingis
the thread that emerges most clearly in his texts. This theme appears in his
drawing of a connection between mankinds sinful nature and the appearance
and pains of gout. Using the Old Testament as a guide, he arguedthat gout was
the unnamed infirmity in the feet of King Asa of Judah, whose disease is dis-
cussed in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. Asa was greatly enriched and won victories,
but in time he displeased God by relying upon Him for neither a cure to his feet
nor victory over his enemy, King Baasha of Israel.32 Whether or not Chrysostom
interpreted sin as the direct cause of Asas gout isunclear; however, Gregory the
Greats letters illustrate that such a reading was not beyond the pale, for he
eventually attributed his gout to his own sinful ways.

Gregory I and Suffering

Gregory seems to have suffered from gout for the bulk of his pontificate. Most
remarkable about his experience was his frequent attestation to its symptoms

29 The Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican
Province, 5 vols. (New York, 1914), 2.81.1.
30 Porter and Rousseau, Patrician Malady, 324. Among Pirckheimers works was Apologia
seu Podagra Laus (In Praise of Gout).
31 Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. Matthew, trans. G. Prevost, in NPNF1,
10.43.6.
32 Homilies on the Gospel of St. John, 38.1; the relevant passages are 1 Kings 15.23 and
2 Chronicles 16.2.
Gregory the Greats Gout 19

in his personal letters.33 The fact that Gregory, one of the most distinguished
churchmen of his age, suffered from the disease is interesting but not particu-
larly incredible, given the commonality of the disease at the time. More curi-
ous is that he chose to describe his affliction to friends, confidants, and even
political rivals at times when the disease affected his relations with them.
Gregorys own descriptions center less on the physical symptoms of gout and
more on the effect the pain had upon his body and how it limited his mobility.
Claiming to have been bedridden for over two years, the pope told Eulogius,
patriarch of Alexandria, that he was only able to stand for two or three hours
on feast days to offer Mass. Immediately thereafter, he was forced prone by
pain he described as a burning fire that spread throughout his body. His letter
perfectly illustrates the periodic but non-lethal nature of the disease: This
pain of mine is sometimes moderate, and sometimes excessive: but neither so
moderate as to depart, nor so excessive as to kill me.34 Gregorys letter to
Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna, raised the possibility that this torment was
caused not only by gout but by some other condition in conjunction, perhaps
a persistent stomach ailment. Whatever the cause, the illnesses affected both
his mental and physical condition:

For at one time the pain of gout torments me, at another a fire, I know not
of what kind, spreads itself with pain through my whole body; and it is
generally the case that at one and the same time burning pain racks me,
and body and mind fail me.35

This passage is vague in its description of symptoms, but adding to it is Gregorys

letter to the patrician lady Rusticiana, in which he is more specific.
Gregory speaks of his body drying out, reducing in mass, and shrinking his size
to that of a buried corpse; this withering was accompanied by bouts of early
senility. In Rusticiana, Gregory appears to have found a kindred spirit of sorts,
for his letter suggests that she suffered from gout as well.36 Apart from his own

33 On the literary and rhetorical style of his letters, see G.R. Evans, The Thought of Gregory
the Great (Cambridge, 1986), 3233.
34 Registri epistolarum, 10.35: Qui dolor interdum mihi lentus est, interdum nimius. Sed
neque ita lentus ut recedat, neque ita nimius ut interficiat.
35 Registri epistolarum, 11.32: Nam modo me podagrae dolor cruciat, modo nescio quis in
toto corpore cum dolore se ignis expandit; et fit plerumque ut uno in me tempore ardor
cum dolore confligat, et corpus in me animusque deficiat.
36 See Gregorys reference to her condition in Registri epistolarum, 11.44: atque praeter hoc
podagrae molestia afficit, ut corpus meum tanquam in sepulture ita siccatum sit [] Si
ergo mei molem corporis in tantam podagrae dolor ariditatem redegit, quid de vestro
20 Hosler

condition, Gregory often employed medical imagery in his writings: he tried to

assist ill associates by sending gifts or providing for their care in Rome; and the
first mention of a Jewish hospital in the Early Middle Ages is from one of his
letters.37
As he pondered the realities of his illness, Gregory equated his suffering with
penance for his sins. He did not correlate, as Aquinas later would, disease
with ancestry, and in any case there is no indication that Gregorys forbearers
had gout (including his great-grandfather, Pope Felix III). Instead, a penitential
theme runs strongly throughout his writings: sinners ought to be humble and
be willing to suffer painful punishments for their transgressions, for in the end
such trials purify and help them to conquer evil.38
The magnitude of the popes own sinfulness was, to him, self-evident, and
he expressed as much in one of his many letters to Patriarch Eulogius:

Hence it comes to pass that, being daily in death, I am daily debarred

from death. Nor is it surprising that, grievous sinner as I am, I am long
kept confined in the prison of such corruption. Whence I am compelled
to exclaim, Bring my soul out of prison, that I may confess thy name
[Ps. 142.8].39

This passage also reveals the depth of Gregorys anguish. Anxious and desiring
of death, he hoped for the only real and permanent cure for his suffering. This
desire is repeated in other letters: to friends Venantius and Italica he sighed in
expectation of the relief of death, and to Rusticiana he spoke of death as his
only consolation and asked for her prayers, not to allay his pains, but to speed
an early demise40 Gregory saw death as the final release of his soul to heaven,

corporse sentiam, quod nimis siccum ante Dolores fuit?/and besides this the affliction
so affects me that my body is dried up even as if in burial [] If, then, the pain of gout has
reduced my body to such dryness, what must I think of your body, which was too dry
before the pains came on? Rusticiana was the granddaughter of scholar and rhetorician
Boethius; see J. Martyn, A New Family Tree for Boethius, Parergon 23 (2006): 4.
37 Letters of Gregory the Great, 67; P. Horden, The Earliest Hospitals in Byzantium, Western
Europe, and Islam, Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35 (2005): 374.
38 Straw, Gregory the Great, 21920.
39 Registri epistolarum, 10.35: Unde fit ut qui quotidie in morte sum, quotidie repellar a
morte. Nec mirum, quia peccator gravis talis corruptionis carcere diu teneor inclusus.
Unde compellor exclamare: Educ de carcere animam meam ad confitendum nomini tuo.
40 Registri epistolarum, 9.123: Quotidie enim in dolore deficio, et mortis remedium
exspectando suspiro./Every day I faint under my sufferings, and sigh in expectation of
death; Epist. 13.22: Unde pet out pro me debeatis orare, quantenus de hoc carnis
Gregory the Greats Gout 21

for, as he told Patriarch Eulogius, he wished to be delivered from sin and move
into that liberty, which you know well, of the glory of the children of God.41
Gregorys penchant for interpreting disease as penance was evident even in
the years before his affliction from gout. Suffering as penance is a theme
echoed in Gregorys Regula Pastoralis:

So, the blueness of a wound cleanses evils, and stripes in the more inward
part of the belly. That is, when we are outwardly smitten, we are recalled,
silent and afflicted, to the memory of our sins, and we bring before our
eyes all the evil we have done, and in proportion as we suffer outwardly,
the more do we grieve inwardly for our deeds. Wherefore, it happens that
together with the open wounds of the body, the secret blow in the belly
cleanses us the more completely, in that a hidden wound of sorrow heals
the wickedness of evil-doing.42

It is therefore incumbent upon a sufferer to look inward but also to realize that
his physical anguish is part of a spiritual salve. It appears that Gregorys theol-
ogy was not merely academic, at least if a pertinent story in the history of
Gregory of Tours is to be believed. Prior to his papal installation, Rome was
beset by a severe flooding of the Tiber as well as a deadly plague that had
claimed the life of his immediate predecessor Pope Pelagius II. Gregory of
Tours records Gregory the Greats homily to the Romans, in which the pope
remarked upon the cause of the pestilence and its cure. Calling the plague the
sword of the wrath of God, Gregory urged the people to recall their trespasses.
It was not too late for repentance: referencing both Jonah and the Gospels, he
reflected that Nineveh was saved after only three days of penance and the thief
on the cross in but an instant. Though eighty citizens fell dead at his feet while

carcere citius educar, ne tantis doloribus diutius torquear./Wherefore I beg you to pray
for me, to the end that I may be soon released from this prison of the flesh, so as to be no
longer tormented by such great pains.
41 Registri epistolarum, 10.35: adjutorium praebet, meque a peccati et corruptionis pon-
dere liberum reddat in illam quam bene nostris libertatem gloriae filiorum Dei.
42 Regula pastoralis liber, 77.69C: Livor ergo vulneris abstergit mala, et plagae in secretiori-
bus ventris; quia cum exterius percutimur, ad peccatorum nostrorum memoriam taciti
afflictique revocamur,alque ante oculos nostros cuncia quae a nobis sunt male gesta
reducimus, et per hoc quod foris patimur, magis intus quod fecimus dolemus. Unde fit ut
inter aperta vulnera corporis amplius nos abluat plaga secreta ventris, quia sanat nequi-
tias pravi operis occultum vulnus doloris. The English translation is from St. Gregory the
Great, Pastoral Care, trans. H. Davis, in Ancient Christian Writers, vol. 11 (Mahwah, NJ,
1978), 3.12 (p. 125).
22 Hosler

he spoke, Gregory never ceased preaching and the plague came to an end.
Michael the Archangel was widely credited for having intervened to save the
Romans.43
In this case, Gregory was helping to alleviate the punishment of a sinful
people; in his letters, he attributes the pains of gout to his own sins alone,
although he never specifies what exactly these might have been. But in both
cases he read the pain and possibility of death as a penitential process.
Moreover, he even recognized some positive and even restorative effects of
physical anguish. As Carole Straw has noted, Gregory believed that pain helped
to conquer the sufferers temptation and boost spiritual health.44
Remaining steadfast while suffering was not an easy thing to do. Gregory
believed that a person ought to remain calm and prayerful throughout, or
tranquil in the midst of earthly turmoils.45 He reminded his readers that it is
wise to remember that Christ endured much worse at the hands of his tortur-
ers and executioners.46 During his own ordeals, Gregory embraced this spiri-
tual struggle but admitted in his letters that the burden grew heavier with time.
Wondering whether his faith was strong enough to persevere, he actively
sought intercessory prayer from his correspondents as succor. These prayers
were desired to not only alleviate his suffering but also to maintain his spirit
and patience; in other words, endurance of torment was a Christians duty, but
one did not have to endure it in isolation. Three times he wrote to Patriarch
Eulogius begging for thoughts and prayers, and from Bishop Marinianus he
asked specifically for supplications seeking Gods compassion and the strength
of patience to endure punishment.47
Gregory never suggested that he or anyone else suffered bodily affliction
without cause. That suffering was the result of sinfulness was widely accepted

43 Gregorii episcopi Turonensis libri historiarum X, eds. B. Krusch and W. Levison, Monumenta
Germaniae Historica SS rer. Merov. 1 (Hannover, 1951), 10.1; in English, see Gregory of
Tours: the History of the Franks, trans. L. Thorpe (London, 1974). For a discussion of the
two Gregorys in relation to each other, see O. Chadwick, Gregory of Tours and Gregory
the Great, Journal of Theological Studies OS-L (1949): 3849; and on their respective
miracle stories, J.M. Peterson, The Dialogues of Gregory the Great in their Late Antique
Cultural Background (Toronto, 1984), 13041. On St. Michael, see the historical survey of
his cult in the West in D.F. Callahan, The Cult of St. Michael the Archangel and the
Terrors of the Year 1000, in The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Religious Expectation and Social
Change, 9501050, eds. R. Landes, A. Gow, and D.C. Van Meter (Oxford, 2003), 18182.
44 Straw, Gregory the Great, 1534.
45 Evans, Thought of Gregory the Great, 73.
46 Regula pastoralis liber, 77.69D; Pastoral Care, 3.12.
47 Registri epistolarum, 11.32: et patientiam tolerandi concedat.
Gregory the Greats Gout 23

in ecclesiastical circles and within Christian communities in the sixth century.

Gregory himself is regarded as a principal enumerator of the seven deadly
sins and was certainly aware of their deleterious effect upon righteous men.48
It was critical for him not to lose faith while in duress but to believe
and accept that his gout was a form of penance; that his letters stress
this notion suggests, to an extent, that they may have served a secondary,
pastoral purpose by passing the lesson to their recipients. A heart turned
against God in the midst of pain would obliterate the purpose of the disease
in the first place: what might be cured through stripes could rather be
increased by murmuring.49 In other words, instead of questioning divine
justice he hoped to remain cognizant of his sins and appreciative of the dose
of temporal cleansing. Again, Gregory of Tours story about the Roman plague
is relevant, for in its midst Gregorys principal concern centered on the
reaction of the citizens of Rome: there would be ruinous consequences should
the Romans turn against God in the midst of torment, blaming Him for an
unjust punishment.
Gregorys concerns as expressed in his letters seem analogous to the suffer-
ings of poor Job. Satan fully expected that Job would turn against God in the
midst of his torments: touch his bone and his face and surely he will blas-
pheme you to your face.50 Gregory was well-acquainted with the Book of Job
and expert enough to spot corruptions and textual mistakes, once alerting the
sub-deacon of Ravenna of four missing words in a particular copy.51
His knowledge came from a full acquaintance with the book: long before his
contraction of gout, Gregory had composed the allegorical exegesis Moralia in
Iob. He did so at the request of Leander, bishop of Seville, who asked him to
explicate the Old Testament text after Gregorys appointment as Roman dea-
con in 579. The introduction to Gregorys exegesis contains a personal com-
plaint of a weak stomach and bowels, persistent fevers, and difficult breathing.

48 Gregorys enumeration of the sins is found in Moralium libri sive expositio, pars II, 31.87.
49 Registri epistolarum, 11.32: et ea quae bene curare per plagam poterat culpa, crescat ex
murmure.
50 Job 2.5.
51 Registri epistolarum,12.24: In parte autem tertia beati Job in eo versu in quo scriptum est:
Scio quod Redemptor meus vivit, suspicor quia praedictus frater et coepiscopus meus
Marinianus mendosum codicem habeat [] Quatuor enim verba sunt, quae si eidem loco
defuerint, non modicum possunt lectori scrupulum generare./Further, in the third part
of the blessed Job, in the verse wherein it is written, I know that my Redeemer liveth, I sus-
pect that my aforesaid brother and fellow-bishop Marinianus has a corrupt copy [] For
there are four words, the absence of which from the passage may cause the reader no little
difficulty.
24 Hosler

Such conditions, he suspected, made him a fitting candidate indeed for the
task at hand.52
Likely with Job on his mind, Gregory noted in a later letter to Bishop Leander
that physical pain ought to remind Christians of their faults. Manifestations of
pain were not penalties but rather rewards:

And then we shall see that they are not scourges, but gifts, if by the
pain of the flesh we purge the sins which we did for the delight of
the flesh.53

This echoes earlier monastic writings in which affliction and contrition are
but necessary steps on the path to redemption.54 With help, this sort of
restoration was possible, and Gregorys conclusion in Moralia in Iob begs for
the pity and prayers of others to whom Gregory was prepared to open his heart,
reveal his wounds and lacerations, and confess his sins, which again go
unnamed.55
Perhaps inspired by his own ills, Gregory wrote of other worthy men who
suffered similarly. Two stories in the Dialogi are about miracles occurring in
the presence of men stricken with gout. The first is a posthumous miracle
worked upon the body of Theophanius, count of Centumcellae (Italy). A man
of great mercy, compassion, and hospitality, the proof of Theophanius reward
for his righteousness manifested when, upon his death, his gouty feet and
hands were instantly healed.56 The second tale involved Marcellinus, bishop of
Ancona, whose gout was so bad that his servants were forced to carry him
through the streets. On one occasion, Ancona was engulfed by flames and
Marcellinus ordered his men to set him amidst the firethe flames were
halted and quenched as though by water.57

52 Moralium libri sive expositio, pars I, 1.5: ut percussum Job percussus exponerem/In my
punishment I should relate the punishment of Job. The English translation is from Morals
on the Book of Job by S. Gregory the Great, 3 vols. (Oxford, 18441850).
53 Registri epistolarum, 9.121: atque haec non jam flagella, sed dona esse conspicimus, si
quae carnis delectatione peccavimus, carnis dolore purgemus. On Gregorys relationship
with Leander, see R.A. Markus, Gregory the Great and his World (Cambridge, 1997),
16467.
54 See the discussion of this in C.H. Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life
in Western Europe in the Middle Ages, 2nd ed. (London, 1989), 46.
55 Moralium libri sive expositio, pars II, 35.20.49: lacerationem vulnerum non abscondo.
56 Dialogorum libri, 4.27.
57 Dialogorum libri, 1.6.
Gregory the Greats Gout 25

Gout and the Barbarians

Gregory Is experience with gout during his pontificate was interwoven with
his other, more political, duties in Rome. Only a century removed from the
deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476, the pope was frequently embroiled
in diplomatic emergencies within Italy as well as with various barbarian peo-
ples in Italy and on the frontiers. These included the Lombards, the Franks, the
Anglo-Saxons, and the Gothic populations that dominated Spain and lingered
in Italy (indeed, Pelagius II was himself an Ostrogoth). The Frankish Chronicle
of Fredegar describes the popes missionary efforts in Gaul while also noting
the value of his letters and writings; Moralia in Iob is specifically quoted in the
chronicle.58 Gregorys illnesses were particularly noticeable factors in regard to
Lombard and English affairs, the former relating to diplomatic and military
issues and the latter to Gregorys missionary outreach efforts.
As early as 568, Lombard armies had been periodically advancing south of
Milan. Their forces were rumored to number in excess of 100,000 on occasion;
although army statistics as given in late-antique sources are untrustworthy
to what degree is a highly contentious issueit seems clear that rather sizable
contingents of Lombard warriors operated in central Italy in the sixth cen-
tury.59 Monte Cassino, the burial place of St. Benedict, was sacked in 577 and
remained in ruins for 140 years thereafter. In general, these Lombard incur-
sions had the indirect effect of stymieing the growth of other monastic com-
munities elsewhere in Italy as well.60
Under the rule of the Arian King Authari, the Lombards penetrated to the
toe of Italy by 590. On Easter of that year (26 March), Authari prohibited
Catholic baptisms, perhaps in an effort to increase participation in the Arian
rites. Authari committed suicide shortly after 590, and one highly doubtful

58 Fredegarii chronicorum liber quartus: the Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar, ed. and
trans. J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (London, 1960), 5.
59 For the basic parameters of the debate as it regards early medieval Europe, see Bernard
S. Bachrach, Early Medieval Military Demography: some Observations on the Methods of
Hans Delbrck, in The Circle of War in the Middle Ages: Essays on Medieval Military and
Naval History, eds. D.J. Kagay and L.J. Villalon (Woodbridge, UK, 1999), 320; John France,
The Composition and Raising of the Armies of Charlemagne, Journal of Medieval
Military History 1 (2002): 6182; and Guy Halsall, Warfare and Society in the Barbarian
West, 450900 (New York, 2003), 11933.
60 Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism, 38. For a survey of the Lombard wars in this period, see
Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean, 400800
(Oxford, 2005), 3435; for a military analysis of their campaigns, see Halsall, Warfare and
Society in the Barbarian West, 6465.
26 Hosler

legend has it that his widow Theudelinde was permitted to not only remain
queen but also choose her next husband, the Thuringian Agilulf. Agilulf was
more tolerant of Catholics and allowed children, including his own son, to
receive baptisms into the faith.61
We should note here that Gregory the Great did not himself write exten-
sively on Arianism or engage the filioque controversy with any vigor, for the
bulk of his pontificate was more concerned with eliminating paganism rather
than combating heresy.62
Gregory twice wrote that his gouty flare-ups were accompanied by similarly
unpleasant incursions from the Lombards, to whom he referred as an unspeak-
able nation.63 In a letter to Patriarch Eulogius, Gregory addressed both the
pain of his gout and the pervasive Lombard threat: But I beg for you to pray,
since amid the swords of the Lombards which I endure I am excessively
afflicted by pains of gout.64 In another letter to Eulogius, Gregory beseeched
him for prayers that might succor him; the tone of the letter suggests that
Gregory was not seeking relief from his disease but rather intercession while
he was diminished by it.65
Eulogius himself was an ardent supporter of Gregory, calling him at one point
the ecumenical patriarch, a controversial title during the fervent disputes
between the Eastern and Western churches in the sixth and seventh centuries.
Interestingly, Gregorys approach to the military threat of the Lombards appears
to have been itself penitential in nature. In his 590 sermon to the Romans,
Gregory postulated that fasting and suffering might not only end the plague but
also work to eliminate the barbarian threat. Repeated good works could there-
fore bring about not only spiritual renewal but even temporal gain.66
Another of the popes diplomatic allies was Queen Theudelinde. Beyond her
steady involvement in the propagation of the Nicene faith, she also played an
important role in the violent Italian politics of the later sixth century. A patron
of the Irish missionary St. Columban, she corresponded closely and frequently

61 On her second marriage, see J. Richards, Consul of God: the Life and Times of Gregory the
Great (London, 1980), 18182.
62 Markus, Gregory the Great and his World, 106.
63 Markus, Gregory the Great and his World, 99. For a general history of the Lombards, see
N. Christie, The Lombards: the Ancient Longobards (Oxford, 1999).
64 Registri epistolarum, 12.50: Pro me vero ut oretis peto, quia inter gladios Langobardorum
quos sustineo podagrae doloribus vehementer affligor.
65 Registri epistolarum, 9.78: Peto autem ut pro me enixius vestra sanctitas orare debeat,
quia et podagrae doloribus./Moreover, I beg of your Holiness to pray for me earnestly,
since I am incessantly pressed down by pains of gout.
66 D.S. Bachrach, Religion and the Conduct of War, c. 3001215 (Woodbridge, UK, 2003), 28.
Gregory the Greats Gout 27

with Gregory the Great. Gregory exhorted her to push her husband Agilulf
towards reconciliation with the Romans as well as the Franks, another barbar-
ian people with whom the Lombards had exchanged hostilities. The popes trust
in Theudelinde was great, and despite the possibility that his weakness could
potentially be exploited by her husband, the pope confided in her by revealing
his sufferings in his letters. He wrote, But so great an infirmity from gout has
held us fast as to render us hardly able to rise, not only for dictating, but even for
speaking.67 This is a fascinating passage in which Gregory essentially admits
that his gout has prevented him from competently confronting the Lombard
incursions. Moreover, his correspondence with Theudelinde was not limited to
his letters. The Chronicle of Fredegar records that Gregory sent the queen three
books of his Dialogi as a reward for her great faith in Jesus Christ. That chronicle,
incidentally, also records the Lombard sack of Monte Cassino in 577, which is
indicative of the great tremors that event caused across Western Europe.68
Unfortunately, Gregory and Theudelindes friendship did not yield immedi-
ate results. Her protestations and interventions notwithstanding, King Agilulf
maintained an aggressive political stance. In 593, his Lombard army invaded
south in a response to Roman reoccupation efforts. Agilulf took his army to
Perugia, besieged the city, and then marched on Rome. Diplomatic efforts
between the king and pope continued, but negotiations were periodically sty-
mied by Gregorys gout. According to one of his letters, Lombard emissaries
arrived in Rome only to find him on the brink of death:

As also your ambassadors, the bearers of these presents, are aware, who,
when they arrived, found us weak, and when they departed, left us in the
utmost peril and danger of our life.69

The popes biographer, Paul the Deacon, did note that Gregorys friendship
with Theudelinda eventually paid off when the queen successfully beseeched
her husband to make peace with Rome.70 The result was a two-year treaty, but

67 Registri epistolarum, 14.12: Sed tanta nos podagrae infirmitas tenuit, ut non solum non
dictare, sed etiam ad loquendum vix possemus assurgere.
68 Fredegarii chronicorum, 7. Gregory tended to treat influential women with great respect;
see W.J. Wilkins, Submitting the Neck of Your Mind: Gregory the Great and Women of
Power, Catholic Historical Review 77:4 (1991): 58394.
69 Registri epistolarum, 14.12: sicut et praesentium portitores legati vestry cognoverunt, qui
nos et venientes infirmos invenerunt, et discedentes in summon vitae periculo atque dis-
crimine reliquerunt.
70 Paul the Deacon: History of the Lombards, trans. W.D. Foulke (Reprint, Philadelphia, 1974),
4.5.8. In his introduction to the Lombard question, Martyn notes the role of Theudelinde
28 Hosler

one that came at a price of 500 pounds of papal gold. In still another letter,
Gregory thanked Agilulf for his role in ending the bloodshed:

We return thanks to your Excellency, that, hearkening to our petition, you

have concluded such a peace as may be of advantage to both parties, as
we had confidence in you that you would.71

Reading between the lines, it seems clear that Gregorys own diplomatic skills
had little to do with the ending of the Lombard threat. To the contrary, his
weakened condition had prevented his strong negotiation, which forced him
to seek the assistance of outside contacts like Theudelinde. Here, then, is a
concrete example of the popes gout obstructing his diplomatic efforts.
Whether or not this set a precedent is less clear. Gregorys difficulties with
the Lombards continued for the remainder of his pontificate. Since his gout
persisted until his death, there may have been other similar situations in which
disease thwarted effective diplomacy. His Byzantine problems seem the clear-
est instance of this possibility. Frequent Byzantine interference in Italian poli-
tics prevented the pope from successfully negotiating a lasting peace with the
barbarians until 598. Gregorys relationship with Emperor Maurice (also a suf-
ferer of gout) steadily soured, despite the fact that the pope was godfather to the
emperors son, Theodosius. Maurice wrote about Lombard military habits in his
treatise Strategikon but made no mention of their political affairs with Rome.72
The tense diplomatic maneuvering between Rome and Constantinople
did not end until the assassination of Maurice and his family at the hands of
the soldier Phocas in 602. On the other hand, while Gregorys interpersonal
skills were hampered he remained well enough to manage some papal affairs
directly. For example, his illness did not prevent him from organizing ship-
ments of timber to Patriarch Eulogius from 596599 for the latters lengthy
shipbuilding campaign.73

along with the popes exhortations that she work for peace and accept Catholic orthodoxy
but says nothing of Gregorys illness or use of gout as an empathetic appeal; see Letters of
Gregory the Great, 3132.
71 Registri epistolarum, 9.42: Gratias excellentiae vestrae referimus, quia petitionem nostrum
audientes, pacem quae utrisque esset partibus profutura, sicut de vobis confidentiam habui-
mus, ordinastis. For a brief history of the 593 Lombard wars, see Markus, Gregory the Great
and his World, 102104; for the treaty and payment, Richards, Consul of God, 18586.
72 Maurices Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy, trans. G.T. Dennis
(Philadelphia, 2001), 11920.
73 G.R. Monks, The Church of Alexandria and the Citys Economic Life in the Sixth Century,
Speculum 28:2 (1953): 35657.
Gregory the Greats Gout 29

Gregory the Greats suffering also seems to have made an impression in

Anglo-Saxon England, albeit in a much different sense. The story of his medi-
cal condition made its way there while he yet lived, and it later appeared in
texts composed well after his death. There are two principal loci for the interest
in Gregory in England. First, Gregorys book Regula pastoralis, a wildly popular
instructional manual on the training and obligations of bishops and his most
famous work, was particularly well-known in England. This is because in the
ninth century it was translated into the West Saxon Old English vernacular by
the literary-minded King Alfred the Great.74
Second, Gregorys own missionary program had led to his sending of
St. Augustine of Canterbury to England in 597 to convert pagans there.
Augustines mission became famous across Europe when the Venerable Bede,
writing at Wearmouth and Jarrow in Northumbria, published an account of
his evangelization efforts in the eighth century. Bedes interest in Augustines
deeds naturally led him to the study of Gregory himself. He possessed the
popes letters, which had been removed from the papal archives in Rome by
Archbishop Nothhelm of Canterbury (consecrated in 735). At an unknown
date, Nothhelm sent those documents to Bede.75
Portions of the lives of both Augustine and Gregory were then recorded in
Bedes Historia ecclesiastica, a book widely regarded as the most famous and,
besides the Vulgate, the most-copied text of the Early Middle Ages. In Historia
ecclesiastica, Bede also recorded the text of one of Gregorys letters, Epistle 11.64:
this was Gregorys response to nine questions about proper evangelization meth-
ods that had been posed to him by Augustine. After replying to Augustines ques-
tions (a response Dudden claimed was delayed by Gregorys gout), the pope sent
him a pallium and gave him the authority to consecrate twelve bishops in England.
Bede recorded this letter in full, thinking it expedient for his historical purpose.76
Bede likely had access to Gregorys Moralia in Iob as well: a surviving frag-
ment of that work has been traced to the abbacy of Ceolfrid, who was abbot at
Wearmouth-Jarrow during Bedes productive years; this suggests that the
Moralia was indeed copied there.77 The founder of St. Peters in Wearmouth,

74 See King Alfreds West-Saxon Version of Gregorys Pastoral Care I-II, ed. H. Sweet, in Early
English Text Society Original Series, vol. 45 (Reprint, Woodbridge, UK, 2006).
75 A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England, c. 550 to c. 1307 (London, 1974), 26. Since
Bede died in 735, the documents must have come to him in years prior.
76 Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People, eds. and trans. B. Colgrave and
R.A.B. Mynors (Oxford, 1969), 1.27.
77 S. Coates, Ceolfrid: History, Hagiography, and Memory in Seventh- and Eighth-Century
Wearmouth-Jarrow, Journal of Medieval History 25:2 (1999): 74.
30 Hosler

Benedict Biscop, also asked for the Book of Job to be read at his deathbed, a
fact one scholar has seen at not at all coincidental, given Pope Gregorys influ-
ence in the area and his exegetical work in the Moralia.78
From these documents Bede learned of Gregorys various illnesses. Although
he did not copy any portion of the Moralias text Bede must have read at least
the preface, which contains Gregorys own admission of youthful afflictions of
gastric pain, exhaustion, and a slow fever. A reference to these afflictions
appears in Bedes Historia ecclesiastica and reveals the inspiration for Gregorys
exegesis, which, as already noted, was the prompting of Gregorys fellows
in Rome:

They urged him to unfold by spiritual interpretation the book of Job, a

work that is shrouded in great obscurity. Nor could he refuse the task
imposed on him by his loving brethren, seeing that it was likely to be of
great use to many. So in thirty-five books of exposition he taught in a
marvelous manner the literal meaning of the book, its bearing on the
mysteries of Christ and the Church, and the sense in which it applies to
each of the faithful.79

As for the popes own suffering, Bede argued, the more severely he was
oppressed by present evils, the more surely he was refreshed by eternal hope.80
Bede never specifically mentions Gregorys gout, but given his possession of
the popes letters it seems unlikely that he was fully ignorant of the matter.
However, Bede did write about gout in another context, inserting into Historia
ecclesiastica a miracle story that is nearly-identical to Gregorys tale of
Marcellinus of Ancona in the Dialogi. Bedes story was about Mellitus, former
bishop of London and then archbishop of Canterbury (619624), who suffered
from gout. Mellitus was carried in his stricken state into a burning district of
Canterbury to pray, whereupon the flames died out.81 It is unknown whether

78 Coates, History, Hagiography, and Memory, 77.

79 Bedes Ecclesiastical History, 2.1: Nam hortati sunt eum, ut librum beati Iob magnis inu-
olutum obscuritatibus mystica interpretatione discuteret; neque negare potuit opus,
quod sibi fraternus amor multis utile futurum inponebat. Sed eundem librum, quomodo
iuxta litteram intellegendus, qualiter ad Christi et ecclesiae sacramenta referendus, quo
sensu unicuique fidelium sit aptandus, per XXX et V libros expositionis miranda ratione
perdocuit.
80 Bedes Ecclesiastical History, 2.1.
81 H. Mayr-Harting, The Coming of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (University
Park. PA, 1991), 77; Bedes Ecclesiastical History, 2.7.
Gregory the Greats Gout 31

both stories are true or if the latter borrowed from the former, but here Gregory,
gout, and ecclesiastical history intertwined, and this a century after his death.

Conclusion

It is clear that gout played a significant role in the pontificate of Gregory the
Great. At times, it adversely affected his ability to negotiate in dire military and
political situations with the Lombards. Likewise, gout affected his diplomatic
relations with Byzantium, and although he did not specifically mention gout in
letters to other locales, it is reasonable to suppose that his other diplomatic
activities were affected in some measure by the disease. Simultaneously,
Gregorys gout also nurtured a petitioning tone in his correspondences, which
promoted greater confidence and friendship with the recipients and therefore
the forging of closer interpersonal relationships with contacts both East and
West. In a spiritual and pastoral sense, his conception of Christian suffering
demonstrates a nuanced view that changed over time. The idyllic commentary
in Moralia in Iob suggests that a Christian ought to be glad in the midst of trials.
Such a solitary view of suffering, once advanced, proved to be lonely and of
little solace, so in later years Gregorys increasingly-painful disease led him
towards a more communal focus and the seeking of intercessory prayers.
Throughout, however, he maintained the spirit of Job: complaining of the
symptoms but not the cause, he saw suffering as a route to earthly holiness.
His perseverance in the midst of pain echoed in England and elsewhere
after his death. His posthumous reputation in this regard has continued:
following his death on 12 March 604, Gregory was immediately canonized by
way of acclamation and is today recognized by Roman Catholics as the patron
saint who, among other things, intercedes against gout.
And yet Gregory seems an unlikely candidate for gout, at least in the popu-
lar notion that the disease was the result of high-living and/or sexual promis-
cuity. His life alternated between monastic living and papal service between
574 and 590; perhaps he enjoyed a fine diet while in the service of Pelagius II
(from 579586) or took to feasting after his papal consecration in 590?82 It is
striking that his own speculations on his disease include no mention of lavish
fare or its corresponding cure as suggested by John Chrysostom, the purifying
of ones body. Instead, Gregory exclusively attributes his gout to a general sin-
fulness on his part.

82 M. Frassetto, Encyclopedia of Barbarian Europe: Society in Transformation (Santa Barbara,

2003), 183.
32 Hosler

Gregory was not the last pope to advance a theology centered on the remis-
sion of penance via physical suffering. Most striking about this particular pur-
gative tradition is its longevity: there is a rich history of theological musings on
the subject that extends into the present age. One of the most recent examples
is John Paul IIs influential 1984 apostolic letter Salvifici doloris: on the Christian
Meaning of Human Suffering. Like Gregory, John Paul addressed the penitential
aspect of suffering, noting its power to rebuild goodness in the subject who
suffers; penance is not only about overcoming sin but also strengthening
virtue between men and God.83
John Paul also culled great meaning from the Book of Job and dubbed it the
most vivid expression of suffering, which is sent by a just God as a punish-
ment for sin. Yet Salvifici doloris is otherwise more nuanced and eschatological.
Whereas medieval attitudes associated suffering primarily with sinfulness,
John Paul focused on the unwarranted aspect of Jobs travailsnot a penalty
for sin, for Job was Gods truest servant, but rather a test of righteousness.84
Moreover, he linked the pain of affliction with the love and sacrifice of the
Crucifixion; death, while relief from earthly pain, has the more important
effect of enjoining the believer with eternal life.85 The themes found within
Gregory the Greats books and letters, therefore, invite only a partial, though
perhaps formative, comparison with a line of thinking found in the modern
church.

83 Salvifici doloris, 3.12.

84 Salvifici doloris, 3.1011.
85 On the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering: Salvifici doloris, (Boston, 1984), 4.15; see
also the online version at the Vatican Library: Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris (Rome,
1984), <www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl
_11021984_salvifici-doloris_en.html>, accessed February 18, 2013.
 Chapter 2

The Missing Mancus and the Early Medieval

Economy

Richard Ring

On the first page of Michael McCormicks much discussed book on the Origins
of the European Economy he asserts that in the late eighth century a powerful
abbot in central Italy keeps his cash savings in Arab dinars1 Even allowing
for literary hyperbole every element of this assertion is wrong. McCormick is
referring to the abbey of Farfa, an important monastery about 40 km. north-
northeast of Rome in the Sabine hills, as he makes clear later in the book.2 He
is also referring to the mancus, or mancosus (often the term is solidus manco-
sus) that he believes is a) an actual coin and thus capable of being collected
and hoarded in cash savings, and b) is actually an Arab gold dinar.
In this paper I wish to explore the notion that the mancus or solidus manco-
sus was never an actual coin and that almost certainly was not an Arab dinar,
at least not in the eighth and ninth centuries. In order to do this I will talk
about the contexts in which solidi mancosi appear in the documents. This is
important and elementary. Medieval historians should always look carefully at
how the terms in their documents are actually used, not at how they might
wish them to have been used. Then I will explore the derivations and meaning
of the term mancus or solidus mancosus. And finally I will try to explain why
this is important both for our assessment of McCormicks arguments and also
to our understanding of the early medieval economy. For McCormick contends
that in the late eighth and early ninth centuries European slave traders sold
their human commodities to the southern peoples whose voracious appetite
for northern slaves provide[d] the first great impetus to the development of the
European commercial economy.3 He goes on to conclude the the slave trade
fueled the expansion of commerce between Europe and the Muslim world.4
How did this happen? It occurred (in part) because Arab merchants paid
for European slaves in gold dinars, that is (for McCormick) mancosi, whose

1 Michael McCormick, Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce, a.d.
300900 (Cambridge, 2001), 1.
2 McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 32630.
3 McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 768.
4 McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 776.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_004

34 Ring

sudden influx into Europe helped to jump start European economic

development.
What is the documentary evidence for the mancus or solidus mancosus?
McCormick has a list of mentions of mancosi to 850 in an appendix, a list that is
more or less complete for the Italian sources (if not entirely accurate) and largely
ignores the numerous mentions of mancosi in Anglo-Saxon sources. Italy and
England are the only places (with one or two possible exceptions) where there are
eighth and ninth century documents containing the term mancus or mancosus.
What is the character of these references? Let me give a few examples. In
785 Paul the Falconer bought some land and houses in Rieti from the abbey of
Farfa for 150 gold solidi of Lucca (in auro appreciato soldos lucanos cl) and
agreed that if he or his heirs went back on the terms of this transaction they
would pay a penalty of a hundred gold solidi mancosi.5 In June 791 the primic-
erius Soldus exchanged land with Farfa with the stated penalty for going against
and not defending this transaction to be ten gold solidi mancosi.6 In 799 a
priest named Ursus exchanged land with Farfa. In the charter the penalty
clause reads twenty gold solidi mancosi.7
You get the idea. For all of Italy there are more than fifty mentions of man-
cuses in the period roughly from 750 to 850. About 75% of these are in penalty
clauses. More that 60% of the mentions are from Farfa documents; and of
these, all but two are in penalty clauses.
What is the significance of this pattern? Penalty clauses are not indications
that the amounts of money or the statements of value mentioned actually
existed in the form of coins or in any other concrete form at the time of the
transactions recorded in a particular charter. They are promises to pay a pen-
alty of a certain specified value in the future should the agreement between
the two parties be broken by one of the parties. Penalty clauses are not evi-
dence that anyone, least of all the abbey of Farfa (in the examples given), had
an accumulated treasure in gold coins called mancosi, or any other coins for
that matter.8 If anyone had, on the evidence of the penalty clauses, a treasure
chest full of coins of any sort, it would have been someone like Paul the
Falconer or the primicerius Soldus. They, after all, were the ones promising to
pay a penalty should they violate their agreements.

5 auri solidos mancosos centum: Il Regesto di Farfa, eds. I. Giorgi and U. Balzano, 5 v. (Rome,
18791914). [Cited as RF followed by the document no.], RF, no. 141.
6 RF, no. 150.
7 RF, no. 164.
8 Cf. Discussion of McCormick by Alan Stahl, Coinage, Early Medieval Europe, 12.3 (2003):
29399, esp. at 294.
The Missing Mancus And The Early Medieval Economy 35

In one of the few instances we know about in which someone actually was
brought before a court for not living up to the terms of the agreement, the
stated penalty of 60 lbs. (of silver?) to Farfa and 190 mancosi to another party
was remitted for several pieces of land. In this case Romuald and his son
Herfuald each received a counter-gift of launechild of one manicia, a ring or
armband.9 Some have confused this with a mancusa [sic],10 while others have
even suggested that original meaning of mancus came from a Celtic word
meaning ring or armband.11
Thus there is no evidence that the Abbot of Farfa ever had a hoard of gold (his
cash savings) in the form of coins called mancosi. Morevover, the penalty clauses
in and of themselves provide no evidence that the mancus was ever a real coin.
What about the mancosi mentioned in the documents in contexts other
than in penalty clauses? Here is one example: in 799 Sarengo of Milan rented
land from Farfa for an annual payment of 10 mancosi in gold or silver or cloth.12
If anything this indicates that the mancosus was a standard of value, or a
weightcertainly not a coin. Or to be more precise, it was not a coin being
used to make rent payments to Farfa.
Sometime in the 790s the abbot of Farfa loaned the brothers Probatus and
Pico 4 lbs. of silver and 20 gold solidi mancosi.13 Later they got a second loan of
6 lbs. of silver and 2 cloths worth 60 mancosi. When in 804 the brothers could
not re-pay their loans they forfeited much of the property to Farfa. McCormick
asserts, on the basis of these transactions, that we learn the abbot had a per-
sonal hoard of dinars14McCormick always equates mancosi with dinars.
I do not think that we have learned any such thing. We do not know what form
the first loan of 20 solidi mancosi took, but the second loan of cloth worth 60
mancosi should give us pause. The first loan was just as likely to have been an
amount of gold by weightin the form of ingots, blanks, gold dust, rings, arm-
bands or even cloth, whatever! This charter certainly provides no evidence that
gold coins were involved. On the basis of this kind of evidence I think that it is
very unlikely that the Abbot of Farfa lent anyone gold coins of any kind, from a
personal hoard or otherwise, let alone dinars.

9 RF no, 207; I Placiti del Regnum Italiae, ed. Cesare Manaresi [Fonti per la storia dItalia,
92, 9697] (Rome, 19551960), no. 28.
10 Joseph Biancalana, Monetary Penalty Clauses in Thirteenth Century England, Legal
History Review 73.3 (2005): 239.
11 Urban Tigner Holmes, Old French Mangon, Anglo-Saxon Mancus, Lat Latin Mancussus,
Mancosus, Mancessus, etc., PMLA 53.1 (1938): 3437.
12 RF no. 175.
13 McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 329 leaves out the solidi.
14 McCormick, Origins of the European Economy.
36 Ring

There are two Italian documents that mention mancosi that need to be dis-
cussed. In the early ninth century Carolingian missi held an inquest in Istria to
find out about any abuses of power by the duke appointed by Charlemagne.
The resulting document, the so-called Riana Plea, listed fiscal payments that
had been made by a number of towns when the Byzantines had been in charge
of the region. For example:

Pollo 66 solidi mancosi

Rovigno 40 solidi mancosi
Parenzo 66 mancosi

These taxes used to go to the palace in Constantinople, but were now being
pocketed by Duke John. The document repeatedly refers to them as these
solidinot these mancosi or even these solidi mancosi.15 I think it is extremely
unlikely that these Istrian towns had ever paid their taxes to the Byzantine
emperor/empress or to his or her officials in Arab dinars and almost as unlikely
that Duke John was collecting taxes in dinars. The Riana Plea provides evi-
dence that the solidus or the solidus mancosus was the standard of value, a kind
of money of account, in northeastern Italy and Istria in the late eighth and
early ninth centuries. It does not provide evidence for the form in which taxes
were actually paid, whether in coins, bullion or commodities.
In 82425 the Patriarch of Grado, Fortunatus, made his will. This document
contains a number of references to various amounts of gold and silver, includ-
ing solidi mancosi.16 There are bequests of 12 horses worth 50 or 60 mancosi
(each?); 33 mancosi of refined gold (auro facto); a small chalice weighing no
more than 114 manchosi; a small censor of gold and silver to be enlarged with
32 solidi auri mancosos. None of these bequests necessarily involve coins of
any kind. All of them support the idea that the solidius mancosus was a stan-
dard of weight or value in gold. The bequests do not support McCormicks con-
clusions that Fortunatus was accustomed to value expensive items in terms of
dinars and that Arab dinars circulated inside the Duchy of Venice, as well as
on its edges.17
Even if the solidus mancosus (or at least the mancosus part) were a term
deriving from a relatively rare Arabic word describing a dinar as engraved, it

15 Andr Guillou, Rgionalisme et Indpendence dans lEmpire Byzantin au VIIe sicle [Studi
Storici, fasc 7576] (Rome, 1969), document no. 6, 304307.
16 Documenti relative all Storia di Venizia anteriori al Mille, ed. Roberto Cessi (ristampa
corretta Venice, 1991), no. 45.
17 McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 334.
The Missing Mancus And The Early Medieval Economy 37

seems clear that solidi mancosi were solely (in McCormicks own words) a
standard of reference for appraising goods and measuring gold. And the refer-
ence standard would not have been necessarily to dinars. For that to have been
the case, one would have to show that Fortunatus, or anyone else, knew that
solidi mancosi were actually dinars and not simply a standard weight in gold.
What about the Anglo-Saxon references? Numerous references to mancuses
appear in documents for the late eighth and ninth centuries (and beyond)
from Anglo-Saxon England. These references are much more varied than those
in Italian sources. But few, if any, suggest that mancuses were coins, let alone
dinars. In a charter of 815 there is mention of 23 mancusas in uno anulo, i.e. a
(gold?) ring weighing or worth 23 mancuses.18 Similarly in 822 there is a gold
ring containing 75 mancuses.19 In 836 there are 100 mancuses in two armbands
or bracelets.20 In 855 a charter mentions 2 gold bradiolae (armlets?) weighing
45 mancuses. There are a number of other instances like these. There are also
a number of references to payments measured in mancuses of pure gold in
auro puro or in auro mundissimo.21 I take these to mean that the gold to be paid
was not in the form of objects such coins, rings or armbands, but was in the
form of gold ingots or bars or (less likely) gold dust.
Gold valued or measured in mancuses appears frequently in Anglo-Saxon
wills. One of the most famous of these is the will of Alfred the Great. In his will
Alfred specifies the distribution of 100 mancuses to each ealdorman and each
archbishop in his realm. I do not think that anyone believes that Alfred was
bequeathing 100 Arab dinars to each of the leading men of the kingdom. He
also made a special bequest to his son-in-law Ealdorman Aethelred: a sword
worth 100 mancuses.
Then there are the special circumstances. In a letter dated 798 to Coenwulf,
king of the Mercians, Pope Leo III mentions that Coenwulfs predecessor Offa
had vowed to send to Rome every year as many mancuses as the year had days,
that is 365for support of the poor and the provision of lights; which he
did22 This vow by King Offa probably occurred in the context of a council
held in 786 by the papal legates, bishops George and Theophylact. But just
what did Offa promise and how was the payment made?

18 Peter H. Sawyer, Anglo Saxon Charters (London, 1968), no. 178; corrected edition now
online at <www.esawyer.org.uk/about/index.html>.
19 Sawyer, Anglo Saxon Charters, no. 186.
20 Sawyer, Anglo Saxon Charters, no. 279.
21 Sawyer, Anglo Saxon Charters, nos. 167, 193, 197.
22 English Historical Documents c. 5001042, ed. Dorothy Whitelock, 2nd ed. (New York,
1979), 852.
38 Ring

Here I think we should do a mind experiment, a bit of mental imaging.

Picture the following scene: George and Theophylact are negotiating with Offa
who would like to have had an archbishopric for his city of Lichfield. The bish-
ops suggest that it might be appropriate and even helpful were Offa to send a
certain amount of gold to Rome each year in honor of St. Peter. Offa is agree-
able and says how much did you have in mind. The bishops reply how about
a gold solidus mancusus for each day in the year. Offa looks puzzled. I dont
have any solidi mancusi. What are they anyway?
This is the critical part in our imagined scenario. What do the bishops
answer? Do they say Oh, a mancosus is an Arab dinar, everyone knows that.
Surely you can come up with 365 gold dinars. I think not. What I believe the
bishops say is something like this: the mancosus is a standard weight in
gold that weve been using for a few years in Rome because we dont have any gold
coins either. Well have our people give your people the exact specifications.
And so Offa sent a small number of gold ingots to Rome, and if I might hazard
a guess, this is how the mancus or mancosus became the standard for weighing
gold in Anglo-Saxon England, a standard by which the mancus weighed
4.25 grams and was the equivalent of 30 silver pennies.
I can also imagine an alternative story. After Offa and his moneyer learned
the exact weight in gold of a mancus, the moneyer whispered to his lord that
he had several gold coins with funny looking inscriptions that were the correct
weight and fineness in the royal treasury. He could easily make copies of them
and send 365 of them to Rome. Offa nodded his agreement. And when these
imitation dinars, with their slightly bungled inscription from the Quran as
well as Offas name on them, arrive in Rome, papal officials are both horrified
and amused. They send a message back to England to send pure gold bullion in
the future. But the story gets around that those stupid Saxons thought that
mancuseswhich every sophisticated Roman knew referred simply to 4.25 gr.
of goldwere dinars. And many had a good laugh at this joke.
It just may be, however, that the imitation dinar with Offas name on it that
was presumably found near Rome in the early ninth century (and is now in
the British Museum) is one of those mancuses that the Mercian king sent
to the pope.23 Though even the British Museum believes that it is unlikely that
any Christian king would have sent the pope a coin with an inscription stating
that There is no God but Allah alone
King Coenwulf himself sent 120 mancuses to Rome with the letter that
prompted the reply of Leo III. Just recently a gold coin with Coenwulfs name

23 Philip Grierson and Mark Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage, I: The Early Middle Ages
(Cambridge, 1986), 28081.
The Missing Mancus And The Early Medieval Economy 39

was found in England. It is the right weight and the curators at the British
Museum have called it a mancus. We do not know of course what Coenwulf
called it or for what purpose it was minted. But it is certainly not a dinar.24
There are some scholars that have believed for a long time that the mancus
was an Arab gold dinar. Adrien de Longperier in the mid-ninth century posited
that the term mancosus was the Latinized form of the Arabic past participle
manqsh, meaning (in connection with coins) engraved. This word was
admittedly a poetic term for the most part and rarely used. But this explana-
tion was accepted by many later historians and numismatists (such as Marc
Bloch25 and Maurice Lombard) as the correct derivation of the Latin term.
Jean Duplessy, Claude Cahen, and most recently Franoise Quinsat have
expanded on this argument, but none of them has provided a convincing
explanation of how this rare Arabic term was transmitted to and adopted by
the Latin West. Linder Welin suggests that the term ad-dinar al-manqsh,
meaning well-engraved dinars of refined gold, was brought to Europe by Arab
merchants. There the word dinar was too similar to the well-known denomi-
nation denar [i.e. the denarius] which always meant a silver coin. Thus the
Europeans picked up the attribute to indicate the Oriental coin in circula-
tion.26 This might be a plausible explanation if only the use of manqsh in
connection with dinars were commonbut it was not; or if the term manco-
sus appeared first and then generally was used in those European places where
Muslim merchants and Italians would have had contact in the late eighth cen-
turybut it did not. Moreover, the term manqsh means not only engraved
in connection with gold and silver coins as well as other objects, but also might
mean decorated with stucco work, or beautified with curtains or wall hang-
ings.27 Nonetheless McCormick asserts the the meaning of mancosus has now

24 The British Museum website has pictures of Offas dinar and Coenwulfs mancus; most
easily accessed by googling mancus. Naismith notes that neither Offas dinar nor
Coenwulfs mancus are representative currency, and later that solidi/scillingas, mancosi
and other term sometimes associated with coins could also be used freely as weights or as
abstract units of account. Rory Naismith, Money and Power in Anglo-Saxon England: the
Southern Kingdoms, 757865 (Cambridge, 2012), 113; 266; also with pictures of these
coins.
25 Marc Bloch, The Problem of Gold in the Middle Ages, in Land and Work in Medieval
Europe (Berkeley, California, 1967).
26 Ulla S. Linder Welin, Some Rare Samanid Dirhams and the Origin of the Word Mancus,
Congresso Internazionale di Numismatica, Roma 1116 Settembre 1961. Atti (Rome,
1965), II: 505.
27 S.D. Goitien, A Mediterranean Society: the Jewish Communities of the Arab World as
Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza (Berkeley, California, 1983), IV: 121.
40 Ring

been settled on independent evidence.28 But there is in fact no such evidence,

only theories about a relatively obscure Arabic word and how it might have
been Latinized. And even if this theory is the correct explanation of the ety-
mology of mancus, no evidence exists that anyone using the term from the late
eighth century on knew that the mancosus was a dinar and not simply a weight
in gold, 4.25 gr, the weight of the no longer available Byzantine gold solidus or
aureus.
In 1954 Philip Grierson published an article in which he argued that mancus
derived from Latin meaning weak or deficient, and that the solidus mancus was
a debased or light-weight Byzantine solidus. Griersons argument fails on three
hard grounds. First, the earliest instances of the term mancus or mancosus
do not occur in those regions of Italy (let alone Anglo-Saxon England) where
light-weight solidi might reasonably be believed to have been circulating.
Second, these early references are not arguably coins at all, most being in
penalty clauses or clearly referring to a standard weight or measure. Third, if
the original meaning of mancus referred to a light-weight solidus, this was
quickly forgotten by everyone who used the term. How else would one get a
reference to auri solidos mancusos bonas ebritian michique placabiles, that is
solidi mancosi of fine gold acceptable to me?29 Or from the second quarter of
the ninth century references to silver mancosi or to mancosi at the rate of 30
(presumably silver?) denarii each.30
I think that Grierson was on the right track. However, I think that the term
mancus derives originally from Latin, but that its meaning had already shifted
towards its romance language meaning. Thus the solidus mancosus was not a
light-weight or debased Byzantine solidus but was a solidus manqu a solidus
that was literally missing, that did not exist per se as an available and circulat-
ing coin. Hence the solidus mancosus was always from the beginning a stan-
dard of weight or a value, a money of account as it were. Fairly soon after its
first appearances in the documents, some Italian notaries dropped the soli-
dus and mancus or mancosus became a noun rather than a colorful adjective.
Did the first person to use the term solidus mancosus think of the adjective as

28 McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, 332; Heck appears to agree with McCormick
(217, but in his appendix I Reflections on the Derivation and Use of the Mancus he
notes that many Arabists doubt the derivation: Gene W. Heck, Charlemagne, Muhammad,
and the Arab Roots of Capitalism (Berlin/New York, 2006), 32021.
29 Il Regesto di Subiaco del secolo XI, eds. L. Allodi and G. Levi (Rome, 1885), no. 60.
30 Philip Grierson, Carolingian Europe and the Arabs: the Myth of the Mancus, Revue Belge
de Philologie ed dHistoire 32.4 (1954): 105974. Grierson has changed his mind and now
thinks that the mancus was an Arab dinar. See Grierson-Blackburn; also Philip Grierson
and Lucia Travaini, Medieval European Coinage, 14: Italy (III) (Cambridge, 1998), 466.
The Missing Mancus And The Early Medieval Economy 41

a kind of linguistic joke? I would like to think so. But perhaps the late eighth
century monks took their money, or their gold, more seriously.
Why does any of this matter in the larger scheme of things? As I indicated
earlier McCormick (as well as other historians) have argued that a large intake
of gold in the form of dinars=mancusesdinars that paid for slavesfueled a
surge in the European economy of the eighth and ninth centuries. These theo-
ries, Ulla Linder Welin points out, ultimately [depend on] the true derivation
of the word mancusus from the Arabic manqsh.31 If as I believe, the term
does not derive from Arabic then none of the references to mancusi can be
used in support of the theory that Arab gold dinars were entering Carolingian
Europe in large numbers, and that these dinars were the catalyst of economic
development.32
Even if I am wrong and the term does derive from Arabic, this fact was
quickly forgotten by those who used the term. Almost none (I would argue
absolutely none) of the references to solidi mancosi are to actually existing
coinsnot the mancosi in penalty clauses, not those measuring the value of
cloth, nor the silver mancosi of the later ninth century. The McCormick theory
fails here too, even if the word originally referred to the dinar. There was no
dinarization of the European economy in the ninth century as a recent World
Bank newsletter citing McCormicks book breezily contends. McCormick is too
good a scholar to go quite this far. But somewhere undergraduates are already
hearing about the dinarization of the Carolingian economy.
If the European economy took off in the Carolingian period it was due in
part to Charlemagne standardizing of denarius of silver, and not to the imagi-
nary flood of dinars. But the more significant reason was the slow increase in
the production of agricultural surpluses due to environmental factors, shifts
in settlement patterns, and the re-organization of labor on large estates.33

31 Linder Welin, Some Rare Samanid Dirhams, 506.

32 Paolo Delogu also has expressed doubts about the Arabic derivation of the term mancus
and about McCormicks interpretations: see Paolo Delogu, Il mito ancora un mito? in
774: ipotesi su transizione [Atti del Seminario di Poggibonsi, 1618 febbraio 2006], ed.
Stefano Gaspari (Turnhout, 2008), 14159.
33 See Adriaan E. Verhulst, The Carolingian Economy (New York, 2002), and Frederic L.
Cheyette, The Disappearance of the Ancient Landscape and the Climatic Anomaly of the
Early Middle Ages, Early Medieval Europe 16.2 (2008): 12765.
 Chapter 3

Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian

Bernard S. Bachrach

Ademar of Chabannes (d. 1034), the monk of Cybard, stands out as one of the
most prolific literary figures of the early eleventh century.1 Although he pro-
duced a considerable corpus of material on religious matters, Ademar is best
known by modern scholars for his secularly oriented Chronicon, which is
referred to on occasion as a Historia.2 This text is regarded by medievalists as
the basic narrative of events in Aquitaine covering the later tenth and the first
third of the eleventh century.3 It is of great importance that our honoree, Daniel
Callahan, has been in the forefront among medievalists who have worked to
illuminate Ademars career, his intellectual values, and the mentalit of the
society in which he flourished.4 Indeed, my own work owes much to Professor
Callahans scholarship as I have given special attention to Ademars interests in
politics and military matters.5 As will be seen below, Ademar, himself, devoted
considerable attention in his Chronicon to the details of armed conflict.

1 Richard Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History: Ademar of Chabannes, 989
1034 (Cambridge-MA, 1995), 1114, with the appendices342343, and 346368.
2 The broad context for Ademars work is provided by Robert-Henri Bautier, LHistoriographie
en France au Xe et XIe sicles, Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sullalto
Medieovo, 2 vols. (1970), I.1, 793850. For the best text, see, Ademari Cabannensis Chronicon,
eds. P. Bougain, Georges Pon, and Richard Landes, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio
Mediaevalis, (Turnout, 1999), 129.1.
3 John Gillingham, Ademar of Chabannes and the History of Aquitaine in the Reign of Charles
the Bald, in Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom. Papers based on a Colloquium held in London
in April 1979, eds. Margaret Gibson and Janet Nelson with David Ganz (Oxford, 1081), 3.
4 See the bibliography infra.
5 See Bernard S. Bachrach, Early Medieval Fortifications in the West of France: a technical
vocabulary, Technology and Culture, 16 (1975): 531569; reprinted in Bernard S. Bachrach,
Warfare and Military Organization in Pre-Crusade Europe (London, 2002), with the same
pagination; Idem., A Study in Feudal Politics: Relations Between Fulk Nerra and William the
Great, 9991030, Viator 7 (1976) 111122, and reprinted with the same pagination in
Bernard S. Bachrach, State Building in Medieval France: Studies in Early Angevin History
(London, 1995); Idem., Toward a Reappraisal of William the Great, Duke of Aquitaine (995
1030), Journal of Medieval History 5 (1979) 1120; and Idem., Potius Rex quam esse Dux
putabatur: Some Observations Concerning Ademar of Chabannes Panegyric on Duke
William the Great, The Haskins Society Journal 1 (1989): 1121.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_005

Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 43

Ademar was very much interested not only in secular history, as evidenced
by the Chronicon, but also in religious history. As a result, he copied large num-
bers of texts in both of these genres, and produced a substantial corpus of
original works on these subjects, as well.6 For Ademar, as for his contempo-
raries, e.g. Dudo of St. Quentin, a major problem, if not the major problem, was
to write history that would be believed by his audience. Authors were con-
cerned with the need to have their histories accepted as factually accurate
both by their patrons and their audiences in a broader context.7 In this con-
text, the teaching of Isidore of Seville that historiae were things that really
happened dominated both the mentality of the authors of the later tenth and
eleventh centuries as well as of the people for whom they wrote.8
For some authors, the matter of credibility, i.e. providing information con-
cerning what really was done, became an issue because the further back into
the past the historian ventured, the more difficult it was for him to document
what, in fact, had happened. In this context, it is noteworthy that Ademars
contemporary, Dudo of St. Quentin, writing for the Norman court, worked dili-
gently to maintain rhetorical credibility with regard to events that supposedly
had occurred in the distant past. His method was to provide, whenever possi-
ble, accurate information concerning matters about which his audience had
sound knowledge. Thus, having established the factual nature of his account in
this manner, he was somewhat insulated from criticism when he intro-
ducedfabricated or dubious information, concerning which the members of

6 Landes, Relics, 34668, for a detailed list of the relevant mss.

7 Gillingham, Ademar of Chabannes and the History of Aquitaine, 314, demonstrates bril-
liantly how Ademar deduced facts in order to fill lacunae in the information available to
him. In fact, as Gillingham makes clear, Ademar was so effective that he fooled many highly
qualified medievalists who accepted his work as accurate.
8 Isidore, Etymologiae, ed. W.M. Lindsey (Oxford, 1911), I, 44.5. For background, see Bautier,
LHistoriographie, 793850. For more specific studies, see Bernard S. Bachrach, Dudo of
Saint Quentin as a Military Historian, The Haskins Society Journal 12 (2002): 15585; Karl
Ferdinand Werner, Die literarischen Vorbilder des Aimoin von Fleury und die Enstehung
seiner Gesta Francorum, in Medium Aevum Vivum, Festschrift fr Walther Bulst (Heidelberg,
1960), 69103; Jason Glenn, Politics and History in the Tenth Century: The Work and World of
Richer of Reims (Cambrdige, 2004); Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach, Saxon
Military Revolution, 912973: Myth and Reality, Early Medieval Europe 15 (2007), 186222;
and also Lars Boje Mortensen, Stylistic choices in a reborn genre: the national histories of
Widukind of Corvey and Dudo of St. Quentin, in Dudone di san Quintino, eds. Paolo Gatti
and Antonella DeglInnocenti (Trent, 1995), 79102. Cf. Suzanne Fleishmann, On the
Representation of History and Fiction in the Middle Ages, History and Theory 22 (1983),
278310. Perhaps most useful is the recent study by Justin C. Lake, Truth, plausibility, and
the virtues of narrative at the millennium, Journal of Medieval History 35 (2009), 22138.
44 Bachrach

his audience obviously were not informed or not well informed. As a result, his
audience was led to accept this dubious information as true.9
Ademar encountered a problem similar to that dealt with by Dudo, who had
been faced with the task of writing the history of the Normans for a period
concerning which there was little surviving documentation. However, where
Dudo had to go back perhaps some two centuries, Ademar was separated from
his primary subject of interest, St. Martial of Limoges, by a millennium. It was
Ademars ultimate aim to write a history of the mission of St. Martial of
Limoges so that the holy man would be accepted as an apostle. What was
known of St. Martial in Aquitaine, either from oral traditions or surviving texts,
during this period when Ademar wrote, provided no reason to believe in the
apostolicity of the holy man. Thus, in the late 1020s, several years after writing
at least one draft of his Chronicon, Ademar set about fabricating an exception-
ally sophisticated and detailed religious history, which was intended to prove
that St. Martials place in the pantheon of Christendoms heroes was much
more elevated than traditionally believed.10

Ademars Literary Strategy

Ademar began his Chronicon in ca. 1025, i.e. several years before he began
fabricating the text of his history of St. Martial. The Chronicon was conceived
by Ademar to have two interrelated purposes. It was to be the vehicle by which
he established his credibility as a writer of history who was to be trusted to
report the facts accurately.11 In this context, it is argued here that he wanted
to dedicate the Chronicon to Duke William of Aquitaine (d. 1030), and have
him accept the work as its patron. Ademar undertook this strategy because, as
he saw the religio-political situation in the later 1020s, the duke would be the
single most important person in any process that might be held in Aquitaine
which could result in the acceptance of St. Martials apostolicity. Consequently,
it is argued here that, Ademar worked to establish his rhetorical credibility,
particularly to the duke and his courtiers, by providing detailed and accurate
information in his Chronicon regarding events that took place over the course
of the previous half-century.

9 Bachrach, Dudo of Saint Quentin, 15585. It is noteworthy, that Dudos fabricated facts
were so well integrated that for a very long time scholars accepted them as accurate, much
in the same way that some of Ademars work fooled some very prominent medievalists.
10 Landes, Relics, 20427, and passim.
11 Cf. Landes, Relics, 12229.
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 45

These matters treated in the Chronicon were facts about which the people,
whom Ademar needed to approve his history of St. Martial, i.e. Duke William
and his court, either were well informed or easily could be informed. As a result
of establishing his credibility concerning what was known to be true by
contemporaries, Ademar positioned himself to tell a story about St. Martial
concerning which his audience largely was ignorant, but which they would be
given no reason to reject. The confidence of the royal court in Ademar would
be established, in large part, because William and his entourage would have
come to trust their historian to tell the truth about events that really had
occurred.

Establishing Rhetorical Plausibility

Ademar treats a great many topics in the Chronicon that deal with events which
took place within the living memory of his audience. For example, Ademar
would appear to have been very much interested in what was happening in the
Middle East. He gave particular attention to the manner in which the Muslim
rulers of the Holy Land mistreated Christians and he gave special notice to the
destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by the Caliph al-Hakim II in
1009.12 Pilgrims, likely in considerable number, returning from Jerusalem are
known to have brought back to the West relevant information, which was
widely disseminated in Aquitaine. Ademar, in treating events such as the
destruction wrought by al-Hakim and the persecution of Christians, was
presenting information that already was known to Duke William and his
court.13 In telling this story, therefore, Ademars reputation would be enhanced
as a writer who set out the facts accurately.
In addition to subjects such as the anti-Christian activities pursued by
Muslims in the Middle East, Aquitanian politics, i.e. relations between the
duke and his various fideles as well as the interactions of the latter with each
other, obviously were of great importance. This was the case especially for the

12 See the examination of this by Daniel F. Callahan, The Cross, the Jews, and the
Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes,
in Christian Attitudes Toward the Jews in the Middle Ages, ed. Michael Frassetto (New York/
London, 2007), 1523.
13 Daniel F. Callahan, Al-Hakim, Charlemagne, and the Destruction of the Church of the
Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes, The Legend of
Charlemagne in the Middle Ages. Power, Faith, and Crusade, eds. Matthew Gabriele and
Jace Stucky (New York, 2008), 4157.
46 Bachrach

lay members of the ducal court. On the whole, Ademars accounts of these
various political interactions generally were accurate.14 Although it is to be
noted that, consistent with his desire that Duke William patronize his history,
Ademar tends, in general, to treat his would be benefactor in a flattering
manner.15
In the course of dealing with political matters, Ademar also found it useful,
both historically and rhetorically, to convey considerable quantities of genea-
logical information concerning the families of various Aquitanian magnates.
This was especially the case with regard to the men whom William established
in episcopal and abbatial offices as well as of various counts, viscounts, and
lesser officials who were dependent upon the duke. Since the families of the
great men of Aquitaine were at issue in these discussions, this type of informa-
tion likely was well known to those magnates who frequented the ducal court.
Ademar understood that genealogical relationships were of importance in
providing accurate information with regard, for example, to claims by various
magnates regarding preferment to office and lands. In rhetorical terms, the
accurate presentation of genealogical information regarding his contempo-
raries assured Ademars audience that he was in command of the relevant fac-
tual information, which he conveyed accurately.16
Military matters were a subject of no less importance to the ducal court or,
at least, to the lay members of Williams entourage, than was genealogy.
However, it might seem far more difficult for a monk to have been able to dem-
onstrate a sound understanding of the details of military strategy and tactics
than regarding the other subjects. In this context, it is important that Ademar
had two maternal uncles Abbo and Raymond, who were men of considerable
military experience. In fact, Ademar characterizes these men as vigorous mili-
tary commanders (strenuissimos duces) whom he describes as physically
strong (robustos) and warlike in spirit (in animo bellicosos).17 Ademars
close relation to these men, who served as loyal advisers, fidelissimi consiliarii,
to Abbot Peter of the monastery of Dorat likely was one of the ways in which
he came to understand strategy and tactics.18
In addition to learning about warfare from his uncles, viva voce, Ademar
undoubtedly acquired much information regarding the basics of strategy,

14 See Bachrach, A Study in Feudal Politics, 11122.

15 Bachrach, Toward a Reappraisal of William the Great, 1120.
16 Lon Levillain, Admar de Chabannes, gnalogiste, Bulletin de la Socit des Antiquaires
de lOuest, 3rd series, 10 (19341935): 23763.
17 Chronicon, 3:45.
18 Ademar, Chronicon, 3:45.
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 47

military operations, and battle tactics, from books such as Vegetius famous
handbook De re Militari.19 This text and its author were regarded as the aucto-
ritas in military matters from the later Roman era throughout the course of the
Middle Ages.20 Ademar not only knew the text of De re Militari very well but
made a copy of this handbook for his own use.21 In addition, as part of his
effort to obtain the support of William to be his patron, Ademar either pre-
sented or perhaps, as is more likely, planned to present a more elaborate exem-
plar of Vegetius text to the duke for his personal use.22 Ademar knew very well
that the duke, in the classical and medieval tradition of those who were
thought of as great military commanders, took books with him while on
campaign.23
In a previous study, I examined, in detail, a recondite aspect of Ademars
treatment of military matters, which focused on the terminology that he used
to label different types of strongholds. The purpose of that study was to ascer-
tain whether Ademar considered it to be important to be precise in providing
accurate labels of the various fortifications he described. However, no narra-
tive account can be treated as plain text, i.e. taken at face value, even when the
author, in general, is making truth claims regarding the accuracy of his report-
age. Therefore, I compared and contrasted the terminology used by Ademar to
label fortifications with the archaeological evidence. As a result, it became
clear that Ademar cared greatly about attaining precision insofar as he consis-
tently used specific terms that were relevant to the description of different
types of military strongholds. In fact, when he found that he had made a mis-
take in an earlier version of his work, he corrected the error so that his termi-
nology was consistent with the physical realities of the type of fortification
that was under discussion.24 Obviously, this type of detail, if mangled, might

19 The basic edition is Vegetius, Epitoma Rei Militaris, ed. M.D. Reeve (Oxford, 2004).
20 Philippe Contamine, La Guerre au Moyen Age, 4th ed. (Paris, 1994), 35356; and in
greater detail for the period under consideration here, Bernard S. Bachrach, The Practical
Use of Vegetius De Re Militari during the Early Middle Ages, The Historian 47 (1985):
23955; reprinted in Bernard S. Bachrach, Warfare and Military Organization in Pre-
Crusade Europe (London, 2002), with the same pagination.
21 Philippe Richardot, Vgce et la culture militaire au moyen ge (Ve-Xv sicle) (Paris, 1998),
20, 30, 127; and Landes, Relics, 112.
22 Cf. Landes, Relics, 112.
23 Chronicon, bk. III, ch. 54. Regarding the theme of educated military commanders, see
Bernard S. Bachrach, Lart de la guerre angevin, in Plantagents et Captiens: confronta-
tions et hritages, eds. Martin Aurell and Nol-Yves Tonnerre (Turnhout-Belgium, 2006),
267284.
24 Bachrach, Early Medieval Fortifications, 53169.
48 Bachrach

lead some of the military men at the court, including perhaps the duke, him-
self, to question Ademars ability to convey information, concerning which
they had specific knowledge, in an accurate manner.

Ademars Audience

It is argued here that it was Ademars intention, when he was satisfied with the
Chronicon, to dedicate this history to Duke William in the hope that the latter
would accept the work as patron and give it the secular counterpart of an
ecclesiastical imprimatur.25 Ademar had two purposes in mind. First, for
the apostolicity of St. Martial to be accepted in Aquitaine, Duke William had
to lead the way and have his courtiers follow his lead in embracing the
holy mans newly established status.26 Secondly, Ademar composed a lengthy
panegyric dedicated to William as a major theme in the Chronicon. In this pan-
egyric, Ademar says of William that Potius Rex quam esse Dux putabatur.
This implicitly elevated the dukes status and, thus, would make his support
even more important than were he a mere duke. Ademar also placed informa-
tion in other chapters of the Chronicon that praised the duke very highly.27
If William accepted the Chronicon, Ademar could expect, following tradi-
tion, that the duke would have the text, or, at least parts of it, read aloud to his
court. In the early Middle Ages, this tradition had been developed under
Charlemagne, if not earlier, and was followed at many courts in the post-
Carolingian era. In fact, even the contemporary court of the Norman duke at
Rouen, ca. 1016, adhered to this custom.28 Such a reading would establish

25 Of course, it is important to point out that Ademar never finished the Chronicon, although
he penned several drafts and corrected his work numerous times. It is my view that
William died before Ademar was satisfied that he had a completed a satisfactory draft of
the Chronicon that was ready for presentation.
26 It is clear that without ducal support and the wide circulation of an approved version of
the Chronicon, Ademars effort to have his treatment of St. Martial accepted not only
failed but led to serious consequences. Regarding Ademars failure, see Landes, Relics,
236, 253, 257, 264, who makes clear that Ademar became a laughing stock as a result of
his forgery of a history of St. Martial which claimed that he was an apostle.
27 Bachrach, Potius Rex quam esse Dux putabatur, 1121. Although on occasion, Ademar
manipulated certain facts so that William would be seen in a more favorable light.
Cf. Landes, Relics, 112, who mentions the panegyric but does not develop a sense of its
importance.
28 Bachrach, Writing Latin History for a Lay Audience c. 1000, 5877, where the tradition
is discussed in detail. In the present context of special importance is the observation by
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 49

Ademar before the ducal court as a historian who got his facts right, and, thus,
he probably believed, that as a result, he would find the duke and his fideles
more than likely at a later date also to accept as true what he was to write about
the apostolicity of St. Martial.
In order for Ademar to be successful when reading the Chronicon or parts of it
aloud at Williams court, it would be necessary for both the duke and his lay
courtiers to be able to understand Latin. The duke, himself, was highly educated,
and, as noted above, he even carried books in Latin with him when on military
campaign. Ademar emphasizes this point in the course of his panegyric dedi-
cated to the duke.29 However, any claim regarding Williams education and learn-
ing, in the context of a panegyric, rightly should be treated as suspect by modern
scholars. Thus, it should be pointed out that the duke exchanged letters in Latin,
some of considerable complexity, on numerous occasions with highly educated
men, e.g. Bishop Fulbert of Chartres, Bishop Leo of Vercelli, Aribertus the abbot
of Charroux, and Hildegar a scholasticus at Chartres.30 Even the most skeptical
modern scholar will have to recognize that William would have been able to
understand Ademars simple and straight forward Latin prose were the Chronicon
to have been read aloud either to him privately or in public at the ducal court.
It should not be controversial that well educated men, such as Duke William
and the high ranking clerics of his entourage, were able to understand a Latin
prose history when read aloud at court. It is even the case that more than a few
lay magnates, men such as Count Alduin of Angoulme, who, according to
Ademar, was well educated both in military and literary matters, also would be
able to understand the rather straight forward and uncomplicated Latin prose
of Ademars Chronicon when the history was read aloud in an Aquitanian
French accent.31 Indeed, it is likely that the various schools in Aquitaine, like
those in contemporary Normandy, accepted students from among the mag-
nate families who were slated to have a lay career.32 On an even broader level,

Ademar, Chronicon, 3:27, that the Normans gave up their pagan language and learned to
speak Latin.
29 Bachrach, Potius Rex quam esse Dux putabatur, 1121.
30 The Letters and Poems of Fulbert of Chartres, ed. and trans. by Frederick Behrends (Oxford,
1976), see nos. 107, 116, 119, 120, 122; for Bishop Fulbert, nos. 103, 112, 113; for Bishop
Leo, no. 196 for Aribertus; and nos. 69, 79 for Hildegar. It should be noted that each of
these letters, which have survived, often provide substantial information for additional
correspondence that is now lost.
31 Landes, Relics, 140, n. 44. regarding Alduins learning.
32 Regarding the Norman schools, see Bachrach, Writing Latin History for a Lay Audience
c. 1000, 5877; and, in more general terms, see Pierre Rich coles et enseignement dans
le Haut Moyen Age (Paris, 1979), 119186.
50 Bachrach

the ability of Aquitanian lay magnates to understand simple Latin when read
aloud is securely evidenced by the Conventum that Duke William, in his capac-
ity as count of Poitou, negotiated with Hugh of Lusignan.33
Ademar expected, as shown by his efforts with regard to his treatment
of fortress terminology, that military officers at the ducal court men who
might hear his Chronicon or parts of it read aloud would understand those
matters that concerned their professional life as soldiers. Moreover, it is of
nolittle importance that Ademar, like his contemporary the historian Dudo
of Saint Quentin, wrote his history in a style traditionally characterized as
sermo humilis. This unadorned style had been advocated by Cicero, whose
work on rhetoric, written more than a millennium earlier, was a basic text
studied in the schools of the erstwhile Carolingian empire during the later
tenth and early eleventh centuries.34 No less importantly, St. Augustine
also advocated the use of sermo humilis as the proper style to be used for edu-
cational purposes as he believed that it was well known to facilitate
understanding.35
The capacity of Aquitanian secular magnates to understand the Latin of
Ademars text, when read aloud in the local dialect, seems highly likely. In fact,
such performances were the norm at both royal and ducal courts throughout
the successor states that developed in the wake of the dissolution of the
Carolingian empire. For example, at the court of the Norman ruler at Rouen,
even more difficult texts have been shown to have been understood even by
men whose Norse background was very different from the Latin-Romance cul-
ture that was enjoyed by the people of Aquitaine.36 In fact, Ademar, himself,

33 The Conventum inter Guillelmum Aquitanorum comitem et Hugonem Chiliarchum is an

interesting example of what may be considered vernacular Latin conversation. For the
text, see Jane Martindale, Conventum inter Guillelmum Aquitanorum comitem et
Hugonem Chiliarchum, The English Historical Review 84 (1969): 52853. This text has
received great attention in recent years and much of the bibliography is covered by Jane
Martindale, Dispute, settlement and orality in the Conventum inter Guillelmum
Aquitanorum comitem et Hugonem Chiliarchum: a postscript to the edition of 1969, in
Jane Martindale, Status, Authority and Regional Power: Aquitaine and France, 9th to 12th
Centuries (Aldershot, 1997), 136.
34 Lake, Truth, plausibility, and the virtues of narrative at the millennium, 221238.
35 Augustine, De doctrina christiana, 4.21, ed. and trans. M. Thrse Sullivan (Washington-DC,
1930); and the discussion by Giles Constable, The Language of Preaching in the twelfth
century, Viator (1994) 137, who observes that medievalists have shown that the diver-
gence between Latin and the vernacular, were less sharp than scholars whose training
was in classical Latin once assumed.
36 See Bachrach, Writing Latin History for a Lay Audience c. 1000, 5877.
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 51

calls attention to the fact that the Normans, who settled on the frontier of
Francia, had given up their native language and learned Latin.37
In regard to the understanding of Latin by laymen, who frequented the royal
and ducal courts, it is to be noted that they often witnessed charters and other
acta. These documents were written in Latin, read aloud at court and the mag-
nates swore that they understood the acta and subsequently, acting as testes,
appended their signa indicating that they would support the actions of the
duke. This participation in the legal life of the court was made possible because,
as Giles Constable observed: The pronunciation of Latin in the Middle
Ages resembled that of the vernacularand the evidence of charters shows
that Latin was read aloud like the vernacular.38 Indeed, H.A. Kelly regards
legal Latin and the Romance vernacular as part of the same language.39
In addition to the practical understanding of legal Latin, it is important that
even the least educated of Williams courtiers had been integrated into the
Latin-Christian liturgical life of the church in Aquitaine, which, au fond, was
based upon an understanding of Latin. As Jan Ziolkowski observed:

What should be appreciated is not just the language or the literature of

Medieval Latin but the very culture of Medieval Latin permeated wher-
ever the Western Church exerted its influence.40

Christian liturgical practice, in fact, constituted a system that led to the wide-
spread exposure of its adherents to the Latin language.41 Over time such a fre-
quent and consistent process, for many on a daily basis, amounted to a form of
linguistic conditioning.42
Of particular interest in the present context, is the fact that it was normal
practice for soldiers to make battlefield confession, and to hear both battlefield
sermons and battlefield secular orations. This undoubtedly contributed to the
soldiers ability to attain an additional acquaintance with Latin in a context

37 Chronicon, 3:27: gentilium linguam obmittens, latino sermone assuefacta est.

38 The Language of Preaching, 137, for the quotation.
39 H.A. Kelly, Lawyers Latin: Loquenda ut vulgus, Journal of Legal Education 38 (1988), 201.
40 Towards a History of Medieval Latin Literature, in Medieval Latin: an Introduction and
Bibliographical Guide, eds. F.A.C. Mantello and A.G. Rigg (Washington-DC, 1996), 512.
41 With particular regard to the Latinity of sermons, see Beverly Mayne Kienzle and David
L. DAvray, Sermons, in Medieval Latin, 65969.
42 A valuable introduction to this topic is provided by Daniel Sheerin, The Liturgy, in
Medieval Latin: an Introduction and Bibliographical Guide, eds. F.A.C. Mantello and
A.G. Rigg (Washington-DC, 1996), 15782; also Constable, The Language of Preaching,
13152, which is not limited to the twelfth century.
52 Bachrach

where understanding the language was deemed to be of great importance.43

These speeches, both religious and secular, not only generally were presented
in simple and repetitive Latin, but also in a straightforward manner. Therefore,
they resembled the developing Romance syntax and lacked the periodic sen-
tence structure of classical Latin.44 The purpose of these speeches was to build
the soldiers morale prior to entering combat.45 Indeed, the ongoing tradition,
from the ancient world through the Middle Ages and beyond, of providing
various types of orationes prior to battle, would seem to suggest that these
efforts were regarded as enjoying at least a modicum of success.46
The quality of understanding attained by those men who had no formal Latin
education, i.e. the vast majority, varied greatly. In regard to an oral presenta-
tion, especially among laymen, understanding depended, at least in part, upon
the local accent with which the Latin was articulated.47 As Michael Herren

43 Regarding Latinity, see Kienzle and DAvray, Sermons, 660, who observe, A sermon
designed for catechetical public preaching employs a much simpler syntax and style than
a sermon aimed at a select monastic audience. Concerning battlefield religion, see
David S. Bachrach, Religion and the Conduct of War, c. 300c.1215 (Woodbridge, 2003).
The basic work in the field is by John Bliese, see, for example, The Courage of the
NormansA Comparative Study of Battle Rhetoric, Nottingham Medieval Studies, XXXV
(1991), 116; Deliberative Oratory in the Middle Ages: The Missing Millennium in the
Study of Public Address, Southern Communication Journal, 59 (1994), 273282; and
Rhetoric Goes to War: The Doctrine of Ancient and Medieval Military Manuals, Rhetoric
Society Quarterly, 24 (1994): 10530.
44 Bachrach, Early Carolingian Warfare, 14446 and 15359, regarding the style used for
battlefield orations and sermons, respectively. With regard to vernacular syntax for Latin
sermons, see Constable, The Language of Preaching, 138.
45 See, for example, Bleise, Rhetoric and morale: a study of battle orations from the central
middle ages, Journal of Medieval History 15 (1989): 20126; and When Knightly Courage
May Fail: Battle Orations in Medieval Europe, The Historian, 53 (1991): 489504. Also of
use here is Bachrach, Religion and the Conduct of War, 1113, 4243, 6264, 70, 74, 80,
83, 88, 107.
46 Bleise, Fighting Spirit and Literary Genre, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, XCVI (1995):
417436.
47 In this area of research, two works of particular importance are Michel Banniard, Viva
voce: communication crite et communication orale du IVe au IXe sicle en occident Latin
(Paris, 1992); and Roger Wright, Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian
France (Liverpool, 1982). See also the effective treatment of these matters in two studies
by Rosamond McKitterick, Latin and Romance: an historians perspective, 13045; and
The Written Word and Oral Communication: Romes Legacy to the Franks, 89112. The
efforts by Jzsef Herman, The End of the History of Latin, Romance Philology, XLIX
(1990), 364384, to undermine this widely held view have not been accepted.
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 53

observed: Latin continued as a spoken language throughout the Middle Ages.

There is evidence to show that it was pronounced according to the phonetic
systems of the various regions.48
This very brief account of the acquisition by laymen of the ability to under-
stand Latin, even those who were not formally trained in the language, lends
support to the view that many soldiers could understand the sermo humilis of
Ademars Chronicon. As a result, an important lay audience or at least a large
part of such a group, based at the ducal court and serving in Williams military
household, were able to understand simple Latin when read aloud with an
Aquitanian accent. Therefore, Ademar found it necessary to present informa-
tion concerning military matters in an accurate manner in order to maintain
his rhetorical plausibility and win a reputation for providing accurate
information.49

Ademar as Military Historian

In this study, I will continue my earlier work by examining Ademars treatment

of military history in broader terms, i.e. beyond the description and labeling of
fortifications. This is undertaken in order to ascertain whether Ademars con-
cern with accuracy went beyond matters of terminology. This approach to
Ademars work has two potential positive results. First, it shows that Ademar
worked diligently to present military matters accurately. It would appear that
this was one of the avenues, like his treatment, for example, of those Muslims
who persecuted Christians, discussed above, that he pursued in order to main-
tain his reputation for getting the facts right. In this context, William and the
men of his entourage who frequented the ducal court were to be an audience
of primary importance for the Chronicon.
Secondly, if, in fact, Ademar treated these military matters accurately, then
modern scholars may well have a modicum of confidence in using the
Chronicon, albeit very carefully, as a valuable source of information for the
treatment of warfare in Aquitaine during the later tenth and early eleventh
centuries.50 In this context, it is obvious to most scholars that narrative sources,

48 Latin and the Vernacular Languages, in Medieval Latin, 123, for the quotation. Constable,
The Language of Preaching, 13252, takes a similar position.
49 Concerning rhetorical plausibility, see Lake, Truth, plausibility, and the virtues of narra-
tive at the millennium, 22138.
50 For a discussion of the methods employed to ascertain whether a medieval narrative
source is providing accurate information, see two studies by Bernard S. Bachrach Gregory
54 Bachrach

regardless of the learning and talent of the medieval author or even in regard
to his truth claims, cannot be treated as an unbiased report of events. This is
true even concerning contemporary events when the author, himself, is known
to have been an eyewitness or, at least, claims to have been an eyewitness. If
historians are to use narrative texts to write history beyond ascertaining the
nature of the medieval authors own values, interests, and parti pris, these
works must be carefully vetted.51

Military Organization

The military institutions that had been well-established throughout the

Frankish kingdom for centuries in the various regions of Gaul and its environs
flourished during the two hundred or so years following the end of Carolingian
rule. This was true both in the western parts and the eastern parts of the erst-
while regnum Francorum.52 These institutions were even maintained in the
Norman duchy, founded early in the tenth century. This is of considerable
importance because the Norse, who took control of the region in 910, which
came to be called Normandy, had entered and settled in the French king-
domwith very different military customs and traditions from those that had

of Tours as a Military Historian, in The World of Gregory of Tours, eds. Kathleen Mitchell
and Ian Wood (Leiden, 2002), 35163; Dudo of Saint Quentin as a Military Historian,
15585; and David S. Bachrach, Memory, Epistemology, and the Writing of Early
Medieval Military History: The Example of Bishop of Merseburg (10091018), Viator 38
(2007): 6390.
51 The path breaking study by Walter Goffart, The Narrators of Barbarian History (550800).
Jordanes, Gregory of Tours, Bede, and Paul the Deacon, (Princeton, l988) is basic here. See
the review article by Bernard S. Bachrach dealing with The Narrators, in Francia l7.l
(l990), 25056.
52 See, for example, Simon Coupland, The Carolingian Army and the Struggle against the
Vikings, Viator 35 (2004): 4961; David S. Bachrach, The Military Organization of
Ottonian Germany, c. 9001018: The Views of Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg, Journal
of Military History 72 (2008): 10611088; David S. Bachrach and Bernard S. Bachrach,
Early Saxon Frontier Warfare: Henry I, Otto I, and Carolingian Military Institutions, The
Journal of Medieval Military History 9 (2011): 1760. More generally, see Bernard
S. Bachrach, Early Medieval Europe, in War and Society in the Ancient and Medieval
Worlds: Asia, The Mediterranean, Europe, and Mesoamerica, eds. Kurt Raaflaub and
Nathan Rosenstein (Cambridge, MA, 1999), 271307; and Bernard S. Bachrach, Medieval
Military Historiography, Companion to Historiography, ed. Michael Bentley (London,
1997), 20320.
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 55

flourished in the Carolingian world.53 It is to be noted, in addition, that the

soundness of these institutions led to their adoption in Anglo-Saxon
England, which developed into a Carolingian-type state.54 Perhaps even more
indicative of the rationality and more particularly the adaptability of these
institutions was their adoption in Slavic lands. These areas not only had never
been under direct Carolingian rule, but had never been a part of the Roman
Empire.55
Carolingian military organization was based upon a tri-partite division of
service. At the most fundamental level, all able-bodied men, whether free or
unfree, were required to participate in the local defense. Scholars tend to refer
to these men as general levies. In addition, those able bodied men, whose real
or movable wealth reached a legally stipulated minimum, were required, when
called upon by the government, not only to serve for the local defense but also
to serve as members of an expeditionary levy for military operations beyond
the locality in which they resided. Those who personally were unable to serve
were required to find substitutes. All those who possessed multiples of the
minimum wealth requirement were obliged, when called upon, to provide
numbers of troops consistent with the value of their holdings. These expedi-
tionary levies often are described by scholars as select levies. Finally, the king,
or, in the case of Aquitaine, the duke, and his magnates, both lay and ecclesias-
tical, maintained military households composed of professional soldiers.
These forces were an important element in the contingents which the great
landholders were required to mobilize, in accordance with their great wealth,
at ducal command for military action of an expeditionary nature.56

53 J. Yver, Les premires institutions du duch de Normandie, Settimane di Studio del Centro
Italiano di Studi sullalto Medieovo, XVI (1969), 299366; Bernard S. Bachrach, Dudo of
Saint Quentin as a Military Historian, 15585; and David Bates, Normandy Before 1066
(London, 1982).
54 See two important articles by James Campbell: Observations on English Government
from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, fifth
Series, 25 (1975), 3954; and The Significance of the Anglo-Norman State in the
Administrative History of Western Europe, in Histoire compare de ladministration
(IVeXXVIIe sicles), eds. Werner Paravicini and Karl Ferdinand Werner (Munich, 1980),
11734. Both of these studies have been reprinted with additional notes in James
Campbell, Essays in Anglo-Saxon History (London-Ronceverte, 1986).
55 See Alexander Ruttkay, The Organization of Troops, Warfare and Arms in the Period of
the Great Moravian State, Slovenska archeologia 30 (1982): 16598.
56 For the outline of the system with reference to relevant studies, see Bernard S. Bachrach
and Charles R. Bowlus, Heerwesen, in Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, ed.
Heinrich Beck et al (Berlin-New York, 2000), 14, cols. 12236.
56 Bachrach

Ademar of Chabannes, while discussing military matters, makes clear that

all three types of military organization, i.e. general levies, expeditionary levies,
and professional soldiers, all were a part of the system that was operative in
Aquitaine during the later tenth and early eleventh centuries. For example,
Ademar treats an effort to besiege the fortress city of Poitiers by the count of La
Marche and calls attention to the cives, i.e. the able bodied inhabitants of the
city and its suburbs, who were mobilized for the local defense.57 In this con-
text, the cives would have included general levies, who in economic terms were
men of the economically less well off type and who, therefore, were required to
participate only for the local defense within the borders of the Poitou. However,
also included among these cives were men who not only participated in the
local defense but were sufficiently well off economically to serve in the expedi-
tionary levies, which operated beyond the borders of the Poitou. Finally, as will
be discussed below, the duke, as well as those of his higher status fideles who
dwelled in Poitiers and its environs, like magnates, both lay and ecclesiastical,
throughout the post-Carolingian world, maintained military households, and
in the situation under consideration here also probably participated in the
defense of the city, although they are unlikely to have been considered cives.58
The fortress city of Poitiers was defended by a massive stone circuit wall dat-
ing back to the later Roman Empire. These defenses were more than 3,000
meters in circumference and rose to a height of some ten meters. The walls
were reinforced with numerous mural towers, that overtopped the enceinte,
and heavily defended gates, each of which were defended by a complex
arrangement of towers.59 In order to defend these walls, a minimum force of
approximately 2,500 able bodied men, drawn from general levies, expedition-
ary levies, and military households was required. For the count of La Marche to
have posed a serious threat to take the city by storm, it was necessary for him
to mobilize an army of some 10,000 and 12,000 able bodied men, composed
largely of expeditionary levies, and strengthened by the professional soldiers
who served in his own military household and those of his fideles.60

57 Ademar, Chronicon, 3.34.

58 For a detailed discussion of these matters, see Bernard S. Bachrach, Imperial Walled cit-
ies in the West: an examination of their early medieval Nachleben, in City Walls: The
Urban Enceinte in Global Perspective, ed. James T. Tracy (Cambridge, 2000), 192218.
59 Carl-Richard Brhl, Palatium und Civitas: Studien zur Profantopographie sptantiker
Civitates vom 3. bis zum 13 Jahrhundert, I Gallien (Cologne and Vienna, 1975), II; Belgica
I, beide Germanien und Raetia II (Cologne and Vienna, 1990), I, 16876
60 Bernard S. Bachrach and Rutherford Aris, Military Technology and Garrison Organization:
Some Observations on Anglo-Saxon Military Thinking in Light of the Burghal Hidage,
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 57

Scattered throughout the Chronicon are numerous examples of general lev-

ies, expeditionary levies, and household troops. For example, since the over-
whelming number of people, i.e. nine of ten, lived in the countryside and were
engaged in agriculture and agriculturally relative activities, most of the men
who were obligated to serve in the general and expeditionary levies can be
assumed to have lived in the countryside.61 Most of these men, even those,
who by virtue of their wealth, were eligible for expeditionary service, and obvi-
ously excluding magnates, generally were of much lower status than the pro-
fessional soldiers, often styled milites, based in the military households that
were maintained by the magnates.62 Thus, when Ademar takes note of a force
of rustici, which was mobilized to attack the stronghold of Melle, it is obvious
from the term he uses that these men were levies or at least the force was dom-
inated by levies and not by professional household troops.63
Ademar also makes clear reference to the household troops of the duke and of
other magnates. For example, Ademar calls attention to an element or unit in
Duke Williams military household and takes note of the fact that one of the offi-
cers of this group held the title of praepositus.64 This type of organization, i.e. the
use of officers, within the military household of the Aquitanian duke, finds a par-
allel in other forces such as in a contemporary description of the units of the mili-
tary household of the Norman duke.65 In the context of discussing Williams
military household, Ademar also calls attention to the household troops, homi-
nes, of the abbot of the monastery of Saint-Jean-dAngly, who on one occasion
came into conflict with a group of men from the dukes military household. The
latter were under the command of the praepositus, mentioned above; Ademar
reports that considerable blood was shed and the officer, in question, was killed.66

Technology and Culture, 31 (1990): 117; and reprinted in Bernard S. Bachrach, Warfare
and Military Organization in Pre-Crusade Europe (London, 2002), with the same
pagination.
61 See, for example, Fredric Cheyette, The disappearance of the ancient landscape and the
climatic anomaly of the early Middle Ages: a question to be pursued, Early Medieval Europe,
16 (2008): 12763, at 128; and Chris Wickham, Framing the Early Middle Ages:
Europe and the Mediterranean, 400800 (Oxford, 2005), 12.
62 For details regarding the social status of milites with additional literature, see Bernard
S. Bachrach, The Milites and the Millennium, The Haskins Society Journal: Studies in
Medieval History, 6 (1994), 8595; and reprinted with the same pagination in Bernard
S. Bachrach, Warfare and Military Organization in Pre-Crusade Europe (London, 2002).
63 Ademar, Chronicon, 3:48.
64 Ademar, Chronicon, 3:56.
65 Bachrach, Dudo of Saint Quentin as a Military Historian, 15585.
66 Ademar, Chronicon, 3:56; for examples of the kings military household, see 20.
58 Bachrach

Strategy

It has been well established that during the Middle Ages, wars and more par-
ticularly military operations that were intended to result in territorial conquest
were dominated by sieges.67 This was especially true in the world in which
Ademar lived, where, for example, the count of the Angevins, Fulk Nerra
(9871040), whom Ademar discusses with some frequency, has been given the
sobriquet le grand btisseur by posterity for his military strategy based upon
the construction and defense of fortresses.68 The Norman dukes also have
been shown to have based their military strategy on the defense and attack of
various types of strongholds, including fortress cities.69 Consequently, it should
hardly be surprising that Ademar, who was trying to assure that William and
his entourage at the ducal court appreciated his sound grasp of military mat-
ters, not only worked diligently to use the correct terminology for particular
fortifications, as mentioned above, but, as will be shown here, he made clear
that warfare, in general, was focused on fortifications.
In the course of discussing approximately a half-century or so of contempo-
rary military history, i.e. the period within his own memory and that of his
uncles, who, as noted above, were military commanders of note, Ademar calls
attention to dozens of fortifications. These span the range from great fortress
cities such a Poitiers, that were walled during the later Roman era, to castra
with stone donjons and curtain walls, and to simple towers some of which
were so primitive that they were constructed of wood and even lacked a
curtain wall.70 It is most often the case that when Ademar mentions these

67 The basic work here is Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Siege (Woodbridge-UK, 1992); and see
also the review article by Bernard S. Bachrach, Medieval Siege Warfare: A Reconnaissance,
The Journal of Military History 58 (1994), 119133 (reprinted in Bernard S. Bachrach,
Warfare and Military Organization in Pre-Crusade Europe (London, 2002), with the same
pagination). The recent study by Peter Purton, A History of the early medieval Siege c.
4501220 (Woodbridge-UK, 2009), maintains this view.
68 Bernard S. Bachrach, The Angevin Strategy of Castle-Building in the Reign of Fulk Nerra,
9871040, American Historical Review 88 (1983): 533560 (reprinted in Bernard
S. Bachrach, Warfare and Military Organization in Pre-Crusade Europe (London, 2002),
with the same pagination) and in a broader context, Bernard S. Bachrach, Fulk Nerra-the
Neo Roman Consul: A Political Biography of the Angevin count (9871040) (Berkeley-Los
Angeles, 1993).
69 Bernard S. Bachrach, Dudo of Saint Quentin and Norman Military Strategy, in Anglo-
Norman Studies 26 (2004): 2136.
70 Bachrach, Early Medieval Fortifications in the West of France, 531569. It is worth-
while here to call particular attention to efforts made to keep the walls of the fortress
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 59

fortifications, it is either because they were being constructed or because they

came under attack.71 These descriptions make clear that Duke William and the
magnates of the region were thoroughly conversant with the strategic criteria
that were required for the optimal siting of fortifications. This led, in part, to a
pattern of warfare which resulted in frequent attacks on strongholds and on the
defense of these fortifications. In two noteworthy cases, Ademar calls attention
to the fortifications at Genay and Bouteville, which were attacked and destroyed,
then rebuilt, then once again attacked and destroyed, and then rebuilt.72

Siege Tactics

Throughout pre-modern history prior to the development of effective gunpow-

der weapons capable of destroying stone fortifications, there were basically
two ways to capture a fortress city through military action.73 The least difficult,
but generally the most costly in dead and wounded, was to mobilize large
numbers of men to storm the walls with scaling ladders. Such an operation
required that the attacking force outnumber the defenders by a ratio of at least
4:1 or 5:1.74 Attacking forces in these efforts could be supported by siege towers,
battering rams, catapults, and hand-held missile weapons.75 The second option
was to starve the defenders into submission by cutting off their food supplies.
Obviously, in order to bring about such conditions, the besieging force had to
have available the means to establish a blockade in order to deprive the
besieged of relief and a logistic system which provided the men maintaining
the investment with sufficient food and other supplies for themselves.76

cities in repair, e.g. Ademar (Chronicon, 3:23) takes note of the efforts by the count of
Angoulme to keep the Roman walls of this fortress city in repair. Ademar (Chronicon.,
3:25) also calls attention to the construction of a rather primitive wall that was placed
around the convent of Saint-Maixent.
71 Chronicon, 3.29, 3435, 4143, 45, 48.
Chronicon, 3.5052, 60, 67; in many of these chapters, Ademar discusses several sieges.
72 Chronicon, 3.34 and 60.
73 For useful background concerning the complexity of capturing fortress cities, see, for
example, Paul Bentley Kern, Ancient Siege Warfare (Bloomington-Indiana/London, 1998),
12, 4950; and Constantin Nossov, Ancient and Medieval Siege Weapons (Guilford-
Connecticut, 2005), 7880, 24849.
74 Bachrach and Aris, Military Technology and Garrison Organization. 117, regarding the
ratio of defenders to attackers.
75 Bradbury, The Medieval Siege, 24180, and passim.
76 Bradbury, The Medieval Siege, 7888.
60 Bachrach

As Ademar describes the tactics of siege warfare, it becomes clear that he

understood that large numbers of men were required by the force on the offen-
sive. For example, when King Robert besieged the Aquitanian stronghold of
Bellac, the monarch is described as having mobilized forces from all parts
of Francia.77 In another example, Ademar tells his readers that the siege of the
stronghold of Rochemaux was carried out by a large force of brave men (mul-
titudine fortium).78 In yet another case, Ademar indicates that the stronghold
of Brosse was placed under siege by Duke William and four other counts with
a very strong force (cum valida manu). Although Ademar was uncertain
regarding how much detail to present in this case, he knew that the successful
relief force also had to be large, and he notes that Viscount Guy relieved the
siege with the Limousin levies (cum Lemovicinis), who drove off the besieg-
ing army.79
In addition to recognizing and conveying to his audience that he under-
stood that there was a need to mobilize large forces in order to undertake the
investment of a stronghold, Ademar also provides some information regarding
the establishment of a siege. He recounts, in some detail, an attack by Muslims
from the Caliphate of Cordova on the old Roman fortress city of Narbonne. The
Muslims are described as coming by sea (per mare) and making a surprise
landing (subitoappulerunt) at night (per noctum) with many ships (cum
multa classi). Upon landing, the Muslims deployed around the entire city (in
circuitu civitatis) and with the coming of the dawn (summa diluculo) it
could be seen that they had established a defensive encampment, i.e. they had
dug themselves in (effuderunt), with their siege weapons (cum armis).80
In response to the establishment of the Muslim siege, the men charged with
the defense of Narbonne, decided that the armed forces under their command,
whom Ademar characterizes as Christiani, decided that the best way to defend
the city was to execute a sortie against the enemy force. In describing this epi-
sode, Ademar accurately calls attention to the common Christian pre-battle
ritual, i.e. after deciding to attack the enemy the men heard mass and
took communion in order to be prepared for death (se preparentes se ad

77 Chronicon, 3.34.
78 Chronicon, 3.41.
79 Chronicon, 3.34, which it is clear that he added and excised various bits and pieces of
information regarding the details of the siege and its relief. Regarding how the editors
handled this material, see 156.
80 Chronicon, 3.52. It is of some interest, in this context that Ademar use the terms Mauri,
Sarasceni, and Hagares to describe the attacking force.
Ademar of Chabannes as a Military Historian 61

mortem)81 Following this ritual, the men of Narbonne then attacked the
Muslims and carried the day. According to Ademar, a great many of the enemy
were killed, while many others were taken prisoner and sold as slaves. As a
result of this victory, according to Ademar, the Christians captured the Muslims
ships (naves), and acquired large quantities of booty from these vessels.82
This episode highlights the long recognized fact that while battles in the
field were unusual, encounters such as that won by the men of Narbonne usu-
ally were fought in conjunction with a siege.83 Ademar provides his audience
with support for this observation. Thus, for example, the sieges of Poitiers,
Brosse, and Narbonne, discussed in some detail, above, resulted in such bat-
tles. Ademar also takes note of the siege of Rochemaux by Duke William and
the effort by Count Boso to raise the siege with a large and powerful relief force
(multitudine fortium). According to Ademar, Boso deployed his men in battle
formation (in eum aciem struxit) and then attacked (commisso bello) the
besieging forces. Duke Williams men, after being discomforted severely by
the onslaught of the attacking battle line recovered and scattered the forma-
tion of Bosos relief force, which fled. This having been accomplished, William
reestablished the siege and took the stronghold by storm (vi castrum cepit).84

Conclusion

Ademar never finished a presentation copy of his Chronicon for Duke William.
This may perhaps have been because the duke died in 1030, before Ademar
had completed what he would have considered a satisfactory final draft. In
addition, from Ademars surviving autograph mss., we cannot ascertain to
whom this history was to be dedicated. Nevertheless, on the basis of internal
evidence, especially the panegyric, it seems clear that Ademar intended ulti-
mately to dedicate the work to Duke William. In this context, it seems reason-
able that it was Ademars aim to have the contemporary part of the Chronicon

81 Chronicon, 3.52. See, Bachrach, Relgion and the Conduct of War, 64107, regarding pre-
battle religious rituals during this period.
82 Chronicon, 3.52.
83 See Jim Bradbury, Battles in England and Normandy, 10661154, Anglo-Norman Studies
6 (1983), 112, who notes (1): one of the most obvious features of Norman warfare is the
close, almost inseparable, relationship between sieges and battles. See also Bernard
S. Bachrach, Lart de la guerre angevin, in Plantagents et Captiens: confrontations et
hritages, eds. Martin Aurell and Nol-Yves Tonnerre (Turnhout-Belgium, 2006),
26784.
84 Chronicon, 3.42.
62 Bachrach

read aloud at the ducal court. He hoped that the great men of Aquitaine, both
lay and ecclesiastical, would conclude that he wrote accurate history and was
to be trusted to provide accurate information and to tell the truth when writing
other types of history. In light of his broader agenda, Ademar understood that
it was imperative for the duke and his fideles to place their trust in him as a
historian so that when he made his case for the apostolicity of St. Martial, these
men, and especially Duke William, would provide the necessary support for
having the holy man recognized as an apostle.
With this plan in mind, Ademar understood that he had to work very care-
fully in writing those parts of the Chronicon that provided information with
which various members of the ducal court and their entourages likely were
familiar. Ademar could not afford mistakes that could easily be recognized by
members of his audience. Such errors would have the potential to undermine
his reputation as an accurate historian or teller of truth. If this were to take
place, then the facts that later he would present in his presentation of the
case for St. Martials apostolicity might be called into question and his entire
long-term project could be undermined.
Among the many subjects with which Ademar dealt in his Chronicon, that
were intended to gain the confidence of his audience, military matters received
a considerable amount of attention. Ademar had several sound reasons for his
treatment of this subject. First, military operations were an important part of
political life in Aquitaine, and these matters were well known to an important
part of Ademars potential audience who attended the ducal court. These men
were, in fact, the leaders of the armed forces that undertook military opera-
tions throughout the region about which Ademar wrote. Secondly, Ademar
understood, at least, the basics of military matters as he garnered this informa-
tion from Vegetius De re Militari and likely from his uncles, as well. By provid-
ing an accurate treatment of items such as fortification terminology, military
organization, and siege warfare, Ademar could be confident that both Duke
William and his fideles would conclude that he was a truth teller. Modern schol-
ars engaged in the writing of military history can benefit from this verdict.
 Chapter 4

Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance

Popes?

Lawrence G. Duggan

Thanks in good part to Daniel Callahan as the chair of the search committee,
I was hired in 1970 to teach Renaissance and Reformation history at the
University of Delaware. I was not, however, and am not, a mainline historian of
the Renaissance or the Reformation in the usual sense of these terms. My dis-
sertation and first book were on the cathedral chapter and the governance of
the Rhenish bishopric of Speyer in the late Middle Ages, and the subsequent
topics of my research have been disparate and even eccentricthe clergy and
armsbearing in Western history and canon law, art as the book of the illiter-
ate, ecclesiastical moneylending in later medieval Germany, fear and confes-
sion on the eve of the Reformation, compulsion and conversion in early
Christianity, sense and nonsense about Machiavelli, and so on.
Having responsibility for teaching separate courses on Renaissance and
Reformation Europe, however, I have been forced from the outset to deal with the
party line or conventional wisdom about both fields as they have evolved over
time and come to be embedded in our common cultural programming. Thus, for
example, the most abiding legacy of the Renaissance with which we are still
encumbered is the tripartite division of (Western) history into ancient, medieval,
and modern. Although in the last two centuries medievalists have successfully
assaulted this simplistic scheme and shown the great dynamism of the so-called
Middle Ages and the many renaissances and renascences that occurred in
it,1 they have also inadvertently reinforced the model by subdividing medieval
history in tripartite (or Trinitarian) fashion into early, high (or central), and
lateand with considerable controversy over the dating of each subdivision. No
one has yet devised an alternate model which does away with the Middle Ages
entirely, although a few recent textbooks are largely skirting the issue.
There is certainly nothing natural or inevitable about the term Middle
Ages. Oddly enough, during the Middle Ages people did not know they were

1 E.g., Charles Homer Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Boston, 1927); Erwin
Panofsky, Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art (New York, 1960), and many other
titles since then.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_006

64 Duggan

living in the Middle Ages, but rather in the Roman Empire. The Romans
encouraged them to think so (as Walter Goffart has shown2), and with the cor-
onation of Charlemagne as Roman Emperor on Christmas Day in 800 the
Roman Empire was legally revived in the Westa specifically legal and politi-
cal Renaissance. Medievalists unwittingly obscure this fact by calling it the
Carolingian Empire, and most textbooks on Western Civilization compound
the error by speaking of Charlemagnes coronation as Holy Roman Emperor. The
Renaissance of the study, teaching, and application of Roman law as a living
body of law from the eleventh century onward only accentuated this way
of thinking, and we see it reflected in the Roman nomenclature used in the
spolitical institutions of the towns developing everywhere (senates, consuls,
the adaptation of the Roman acronym SPQR, etc.)particularly in the area
of the Empire proper running from the Baltic down to the Mediterranean.3 At
the same time, the whole movement of medieval civilization, despite various
other revivals of antiquity (Suetonius, Terence, Aristotle, the Greek natural
philosophers, etc.), was more and more away from the classical world. Thus, in
their struggles with the popes, the Roman Emperors from Frederick Barbarossa
onward (115290) were willing to tinker with the nomenclature of empire to
raise it to parity with (and implied independence of) the Holy Roman Church.
By 1254 the Roman Empire became officially the Holy Roman Empire, and
later the phrase of the German Nation was added.4
Small wonder, then, that as he looked about the ruins of Rome Petrarch
(130474) concluded that the Roman Empire was very dead indeed. In fact, he
came to think that the thousand years between Constantine and his own age
constituted a period of unrelenting darkness (tenebrae). Although later
humanists modulated this harsh view by speaking of a middle age (medium
aevum) and some thinkers (like Giorgio Vasari) recognized that the darkness
had in fact had a few bright spots, Petrarch had crucially introduced the notion
of a sharp break between periods. Although since the late Roman Empire
thinkers like Boethius, Gregory of Tours, and many others since then had been
intensely aware of cultural declinean awareness which again and again

2 Walter Goffart, Barbarians and Romans, a.d. 418584. The Techniques of Accommodation
(Princeton, 1980) and Barbarian Tides. The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire
(Philadelphia, 2006).
3 See P.J. Jones, The Italian City-State. From Commune to Signoria (Oxford, 1997); D.J.A.
Matthew, Reflections on the Medieval Empire, History 77 (1992): 36390. Thus one sees,
for instance, SPQB emblazoned in gold letters on the faade of the city hall of the Hanseatic
city of Bremen.
4 See L.G. Duggan, Empire, in Medieval Germany. An Encyclopedia, ed. John M. Jeep (New
York, 2001), pp. 20002.
Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance Popes? 65

inspired a desire for renewal, restoration, and rebirth across the centuries
Petrarchs influence was such that his seminal idea of a sharp break (between
antiquity and the Middle Ages and especially between the Middle Ages and
the Renaissance) grew steadily over time into the reflexive assumption of
that vs. made by every educated person in Western civilization all the way
down to the present. It runs parallel to two other reflexive antitheses that have
also developed in the last two centuries: politics vs. religion, and science vs.
religion. Again and again, one has to work very hard to recognize these insidi-
ous assumptions for what they are and then somehow get beyond them.
This wattle of assumptions developed slowly over time. Petrarch and later
humanists thought that they were witnessing very specific Renaissances in
their own age in the visual arts and in letters. When they wrote in Latin about
renaissance or revival, however, it is not clear whether they meant a or
the, since Latin has neither definite nor indefinite articles. Later generations
would come to understand it as the, which in turn only reinforced the dichot-
omous view of the Middle Age as uniformly dark. The Protestant Reformers of
the sixteenth century added a new layer of oversimplification in their relent-
less vilification of the superstitious medieval church, propaganda which con-
tinues to inform the writing of textbooks as well as popular attitudes. In the
eighteenth century Voltaire saw the origins of the Enlightenment of his own
age in The Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth, a conflation which one finds
again and again in the standard bromides thrown out by students in their
essays and papers. The Romantic reaction which set in against the Age of
Reason in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries ironically per-
petuated this dichotomous thinking by contrasting the glorious medieval Age
of Faith vs. the nefarious Age of Reason which began with The Renaissance.
Furthermore, by then The Renaissance had grown from the original limited
understanding of particular rebirths in the visual arts and letters into an omni-
vore embracing all aspects of life and culture. It arguably reached its acme
in 1860 with the publication in German of The Civilization of the Renaissance in
Italy by the Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt, who among other things assumed
that because The Italian Renaissance was A Good Thing women then enjoyed
equality with men (an astonishing thing on many levels for a Swiss male to
have imagined in the middle of the nineteenth century). The influence of
Burckhardts treatment has been such that no one thought to doubt his con-
tention about women until the (re)birth of the feminist movement in the
1960s. In fact, Burckhardt continues to be widely available in various transla-
tions and paperback editions, and I know of no other field of historical scholar-
ship (or of scholarship in general) in which a book published over 150 years
ago continues to command such authority. As a whole, scholars of The
66 Duggan

Renaissance do not wish to let go of the received party line or to hear much, if
anything at all, about the Middle Ages. Instead they continue to speak and
write about Renaissance society, economy, politics, technology, etc., as if they
were something wholly different from and of course superior to any compara-
ble medieval. And from a practical point of view, modern historians so out-
number medievalists that it is extremely difficult to change the content of
textbooks in ways which run counter to the received wisdom of the age. And so
the received old dichotomous bromides survive, sometimes explicitly, often in
some kind of covert form just beneath the surface (and hence all the more
insidious): medieval vs. Renaissance, faith vs. reason, clerical vs. lay, collective
vs. individual, noble vs. bourgeois, Italian vs. northern European, pagan vs.
Christian, immoral vs. moral, etc., etc., etc.5
The reality as revealed by careful historical study is quite otherwise. In terms
of fundamental structures and novel features, there was no such thing as
Renaissance society, which would be much better understood if we labeled it
late medieval, whether it happens to be Italian or, say, German or English. So,
too, with the economy or with politics or with technologylate medieval
invariably fits better than Renaissance. At every turn there is much more con-
tinuity than discontinuity between The Middle Ages and The Renaissance,
but the dichotomous tendency in our reflexive, culturally programed response
is so ineradicable that we are again and again forced or urged to choose one
label or the other, which in turn perpetuates and implicitly validates the anti-
thetical way of thinking about the Middle Ages and The Renaissance.
In fact, however, if there was any sharp break or caesura between The
Middle Ages and something else, it was instead in two broad developments
rooted in the sixteenth century: in Europe, the Protestant Reformations, the
permanent shattering of the ever more tenuous unity of medieval Christianity,
the near-destruction of the Roman Church (saved largely by the loyalty of the
Habsburg and Wittelsbach families), the end of the papal monarchy and
the full emergence of real sovereignty, and the sharp and permanent decline
of the clerical estate in authority, power, and numbers; and beyond Europe, the
discovery of the Americas, the creation of overseas European empires,
the first globalization, the bypassing of the Mediterranean and of the world of
Islam, and the emergence of Roman Catholic Christianity as the first global
religion.
All these developments make the two originally distinctive features of The
Renaissance pale by comparison, especially since they, too, are organically

5 On this large subject, Wallace K. Ferguson, The Renaissance in Historical Thought. Five
Centuries of Interpretation (Boston, 1948), is still highly useful.
Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance Popes? 67

deeply rooted in the Middle Ages rather than embodying a sharp break after a
thousand years of gloom. The first was in the visual arts and took place in
two interconnected stages: the resurgence of naturalism and of the Greco-
Roman dictum that art imitates nature (mimesis) from the thirteenth
century onward, and the more specific revival of neo-classicism in architecture
and in the subject matter of the other arts from the fifteenth century
onward (in which classical subjects came to supplement, not displace, tradi-
tional religious subjects). These two layered patterns then dominated the
artistic tradition of Europe and its colonial offshoots down into the nine-
teenth century. Yet thanks largely to the flood of Italian writing about
Italianachievements in the visual arts, the impression was created and persists
to this day that it was the Italians who did it all and then shared this benefi-
cence with the rest of Europe. In fact, however, if one but looks dispassionately
at the evidence in much the art of the High Middle Ages (manuscript illumi-
nations, capital decoration, tomb sculpture, stained glass windows, cathedral
portals, etc.), one sees here, there, and everywhere signs of growing concern
with accurate re-presentation of things and creatures as they actually appear
to the human eye. Where did this concern come from? Certainly it had some-
thing to do with the simultaneous revival of Aristotle and the Greek natural
philosophers, all of whom drilled into the heads of their learned medieval
admirers the truth that art imitates nature.6 The sculptors who wrought the
fine figures of Naumburg cathedral, the Church and the Synagogue at
Strasbourg, or facial details of the tomb of the first Habsburg emperor, Rudolf
I (127391), needed no illumination or instruction from Italians in their pas-
sion for verisimilitude.
So, too, with the movement in the world of letters and education popularly
known as humanism, and widely misunderstood as secular humanism and
as embodying the revival of Antiquity (as Burckhardt put it in one of the six
divisions of his nefarious work), notions which are largely distorted when not
downright nonsensical. Attempts to revive selected facets of Antiquity (includ-
ing Judaeo-Christian antiquity, not merely Greco-Roman) went back at least as
far as Boethius aspiration to translate all of Plato and Aristotle into Latin, a
project which would have altered greatly the cultural history of the West had it
not been abruptly ended by his execution around the age of forty-five. The
Carolingian Renaissance witnessed not only the legal rebirth of the Roman
Empire in the West, but also the recopying of a huge percentage (upwards of

6 For this pivotal but little studied topic, see Lynn White, Natural Science and Naturalistic Art
in the Middle Ages, (1947), repr. in his Medieval Religion and Technology. Collected Essays
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1978), 2341.
68 Duggan

90%) of the classical Latin heritage. The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century
saw the rebirth of Roman law, Aristotle, the Greek natural philosophers, and
various other Roman authors. It also saw the genesis of universities, of a
learned culture called Scholasticism dominated by logic and its rules, and an
obsession with theorizing and model-building with little concern about the
relation of learning to lifeall of them decidedly unclassical developments.
Another such departure was the growth of writing in the vernacular, which
had begun with the translation of the Bible into Gothic by Ulfilas (+c. 384),
Apostle to the Goths, and was followed by translation of various parts of
Scripture into all manner of vernacular tongues all through the Middle Ages
(e.g., King Alfreds translation of around fifty of the Psalms into Anglo-Saxon in
the ninth century). Written literature in the vernacular tongues began to blos-
som as well, with Italian and English as relative latecomers in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, respectively. Latin had in fact experienced what
Nicholas Ostler calls its first death already in the eighth century, by which
time it had ceased to be the primary language learnt by anyone at home (and
therefore since then has been an artificially sustained language).7 Beginning
with the writing down of the laws of the Anglo-Saxons in the vernacular after
c. 600 (the only Germanic people to do so initially, for on the Continent they
did so in Latin), the vernaculars in the High Middle Ages made spectacular
leaps forward in the High Middle Ages as languages of law and administration
as well as literature, so much so that one might speak of another crisis of Latin
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.8 While Latin remained the lan-
guage of the Church, the universities, and diplomacy, it was losing out to the
vernaculars in administration and law. Even churchmen were shifting away
from it. In doing dissertation research long ago on the bishops of Speyer, for
example, I had noticed that they had moved over from Latin to German in the
second quarter of the fourteenth century. In this connection, one should note
the widespread misconception that it was Martin Luther who created a com-
mon German language with his translation of the Bible, whereas Luther him-
self knew the truth of matter and remarked on the creation of a common
German language in the chanceries of Germany (and especially of his native
Saxony) in the fourteenth century: I have no special language of my own. I use
the common German language, so that both High and Low Germans may

7 Nicholas Ostler, Empires of the Word. A Language History of the World (New York, 2005),
31522.
8 See Armin Wolf. Gesetzgebung in Europa, 11001500. Zur Entstehung der Territorialstaaten
(2nd ed., Munich, 1996), although one has to exercise care in using this compilation, for
sometimes a law code in the vernacular might have a Latin title, or vice-versa.
Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance Popes? 69

understand me equally well. In speech I follow the Saxon chancellery which is

imitated by all the princes and kings of Germany.9
Seen from this perspective, the movement we call Renaissance humanism
was a profoundly reactionary oneagainst the decay of Latin into medieval
barbarism and a corresponding desire to restore Latin to its Classical purity;
against the triumph of logic in the university world at the complete expense of
rhetoric, the traditional core of ancient and early medieval education, and a
desire to restore rhetoric to its rightful place; and, finally, against not only the
incursions of the vernacular vis--vis Latin, but the elevation of the vernacular
over Latin by no less a figure than Dante. Bestriding both worlds as a vernacu-
lar poet who also wanted in the Scholastic manner to understand his enter-
prise rationally, Dante sought to create a common Italian literary language for
the composition of poetry by studying what he discerned to be approximately
twenty-two dialects of Italian in which poets were writing. He then wrote in
Latin a treatise (unfinished) On the Eloquence of the Vernacular (De vulgari elo-
quentia), in which he wrote these words about Latin and the vernacular: Of
these two kinds of language, the more noble is the vernacular; first, because it
was the language originally used by the human race; second, because the
whole world employs it, though with different pronunciations and using differ-
ent words; and third, because it is natural to us, while the other is, in contrast,
artificial.10 Whether he meant to be provocative or not, Dante precipitated
what one might call the late medieval (or, if one insists, Renaissance) debate
about language, especially by calling the vernacular natural in a cultural
world in which that word was highly charged and, by implication, calling Latin
artificial and even unnatural. Petrarch found these words infuriating and with
his influence made it unrespectable for decades for a man of true culture to
write in the vernacular. In Florence Coluccio Salutati and his followers sus-
tained this animus against the vernacular, supported from another direction
by Lorenzo Vallas De elegantiis linguae latinae, who pronounced Latin the
greatest surviving gift of the Romans and proceeded to sketch out the first his-
tory of the Latin language. The first person to follow Dante and take up the
cudgels on behalf of the vernacular was someone with the credentials to do so:
Leon Battista Alberti, architect, theoretician of painting and architecture,

9 This little-known passage, rarely cited, is quoted by Philippe Wolff, Western Languages,
a.d. 1001500, trans. Frances Parkridge (London, 1971), 218, and F.R.H. DuBoulay,
Germany in the Later Middle Ages (New York, 1983), 4.
10 Dante, De vulgari eloquentia, ed. and trans. S. Botterill, Cambridge Medieval Classics 6
(Cambridge-and New York, 1996), 3. This seminal work is rarely discussed in texts on
Renaissance history.
70 Duggan

author of Five Books on the Family (in Italian), and author of the first known
grammar of Italian. Thereafter it was again possible for learned men to write in
the vernacular as well, but with the significant proviso that as humanists they
would be judged only by the quality of their Latin. The animus against the ver-
nacular continued with Erasmus (who famously wrote about Latin and Greek
that almost everything worth learning has been set forth in these two lan-
guages11) and all the way down to the nineteenth century, when Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow fought in vain to introduce the academic study of
Dante at Harvard College; the reverend faculty would have none of it. Outside
the academy, Latin did not fare so well. Leonardo famously poked fun at the
pretentious humanists by writing backwards in Italian in his Notebooks that
I am a man without letters (Sono uomo senza lettere), and in the world of
religion the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century threw out Latin as
the language of the Bible and of public worship and replaced it with the ver-
nacular, while Rome stuck to its guns until the 1960s.
Our understanding of the medieval roots of the complex phenomenon we
call Renaissance humanism has been deepened in recent decades by various
scholars, including R.W. Southern, who argued that there had been medieval
humanism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.12 More recently, Ronald Witt
has explored in two prodigiously learned volumes the wondrously tangled
roots of humanism in medieval Italian culture.13 Yet even he errs in seeing
humanism as a distinctively lay movement in Italy, and in particular in under-
estimating the role of the Church and above all the papacy in promoting both
humanism and humanists. This brings us to the subject of this essay, Popes
Nicholas V (144755) and Pius II (145864) as Renaissance (as opposed to
medieval) popes. It is habitually asserted that these two men are the first
humanists to ascend the Throne of St. Peter and that with them we have the
beginnings of the Renaissance papacy, particularly the restoration of the city
of Rome and of the papacy itself to its former glory. But what does that mean?
And does it make any sense?
Few historians have sufficiently appreciated and underscored the long-
standing central role of the papal court in advancing the concerns and values

11 Erasmus, On the Method of Study, trans. Brian McGregor, in Collected Works of Erasmus
(Toronto, 1974), 24:667.
12 R.W. Southern, Medieval Humanism (New York, 1970), and Scholastic Humanism and the
Unification of Europe (Oxford-Cambridge, MA, 1995).
13 Ronald G. Witt, In the Footsteps of the Ancients: The Origins of Humanism from Lovato to
Bruni, Studies in Medieval and Reformation thought 74 (Leiden-and Boston 2000), and
The Two Latin Cultures and the Foundation of Renaissance Humanism in Medieval Italy
(New York, 2012).
Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance Popes? 71

of the humanist movement, especially the preeminence of rhetoric, Latin, and

the highest-quality Latin in both speech and writing. One of those scholars is
Peter Partner, who established himself early on as a foremost historian of both
the medieval and early modern papacy.

The relation of the papacy to the new humanist learning of the

Renaissance period was central to the papal mission. The hegemony of
the Roman church in Europe was essentially that of a cultural elite. It was
dependent on literary communication and on the effective transmission
of ideas as well as on the preservation of popular religious and cultural
patterns. Overlaid though it was by all sorts of accretions, late-antique
Latin culture was still in a sense the culture of the Roman Church. The
revival of late-antique culture was bound to affect the transmission of the
message of the church. In the papal court the secretaries were using
the humanist literary idiom in some papal letters almost as soon as such
an idiom can be said to have existed. From the beginning the papal court
was one of the great centres of humanist learning. Even in fourteenth-
century Avignon the role of the papal court had not been negligible for
the great humanist poet Petrarch. When Pope John XXIII moved from
Bologna to Constance in 1414 to preside at the Council that was to deprive
him of the papacy, he was accompanied by the best humanists and men
of letters of his time. It was inevitable, given the clerical control of medi-
eval education and culture, the financial and cultural resources of the
papal court, and the professional needs of the papal bureau, that human-
ists should find patronage and employment in Rome. The popes were the
patrons and employers of humanists from the moment that such a term
can be used, and for centuries they remained so. When the young John
Milton visited Rome in 1638 he came as a humanist to one of the great
European centres of humanism, which had never ceased to be so from
the beginnings of the revival of letters.14

One might add by way of fuller explanation that this was so because the papal
court was the most important court in all Europe from the eleventh century
down to the Reformation. Canon law touched everyone in some way or other
(especially the law of marriage), and the pope was also the supreme appel-
late judge in all Europe. All manner of impetrators came before the papal
court, which was therefore the most intensely political place in Europe. At the

14 Peter Partner, Renaissance Rome 15001559. A Portrait of a Society (Berkeley-and Los

Angeles, 1976), 13.
72 Duggan

same time, since the church was everywhere in many different forms, the
papacy early on realized the importance of delegation of authority and
the maintenance of connections and thus developed the most advanced diplo-
matic service in all Europe.15 And everywhere, behind the law, rhetoric was
central, as Partner recognized. The ability to express oneself in speech and
writing in fine Latin, with the ability, if necessary, to say absolutely nothing
beautifully or even to appear to be saying one thing while in fact meaning the
oppositethis is what made a humanist and made humanists indispensable
to the workings of politics in Europe. If this sounds overly cynical, one need
only remember from Erasmus Praise of Folly that Folly herself underscores the
necessity of folly and of a certain measure of charitable duplicity for human
existence.
And it was in this world of the Roman Curia and of the Latin Church that
the future popes Nicholas V and Pius II made their way, especially in the ser-
vice of cardinals (Niccolo Albergati and Domenico Capranica, respectively).
Given their interests and abilities, it is fair to call them the first two humanist
popes, but their differing significance reveals how equivocal that word is.
Tomasso Parentucelli, unlike Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, did not leave behind
a corpus of neo-Latin writings which might earn him the esteem of other
humanists, but he was enormously important in both defining and promoting
this movement. Vespasiano da Bisticci, the Florentine bookseller and chroni-
cler of famous men of the fifteenth century, tells us that the future pope was
pivotal in helping Cosimo deMedici and other patrons of humanism organize
their libraries, but he gives us no indication what Parentucellis organizing
principle was. Twenty years ago Benjamin Kohl pointed out that the phrase
studia humanitatis had been floating about in Italy since 1369, but no one had
specified precisely what those studies were. It was only around 1438 that when
Cosimo deMedici, the godfather of Florence, wanted to establish a library to
atone for his sins, he asked Parentucelli, secretary to Cardinal Albergati, both
of whom were very much involved in the ecumenical council then meeting in
Florence, what kinds of books he should obtain for his library.16 Father
Parentucelli then enumerated the basic five disciplines which quickly came to
define the humanist agenda: grammar, rhetoric, (ancient) history, poetry, and

15 Here again we see the pernicious influence of The Renaissance in Garrett Mattinglys
much-lauded Renaissance Diplomacy (Boston, 1955; repr., New York, 1988).
16 Vespasiano da Bisticci, Renaissance Princes, Popes, and Prelates. The Vespasiano Memoirs.
Lives of Illustrious Men of the XVth Century, trans. W. George and E. Waters (New York,
1963), 38, 21819.
Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance Popes? 73

moral philosophy.17 Almost overnight, humanism came to have definite

shape. When Parentucelli was then elected Pope Nicholas V in 1447, he deter-
mined to found the Vatican Libraryor so the story goes, one sometimes
attacked by some scholars. Part of the problem here is terminological. The
popes had always had a library, but until the Great Schism they had customar-
ily resided at the palace adjacent to their cathedral seat, St. John Lateran. With
their gradual removal to St. Peters and the Vatican in the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries, there was need of a new basilica, palace, and library. Nicholas
enthusiasm for scholars and manuscripts was probably unprecedented, doubt-
less animated in part by rivalry with Florence and Cosimo deMedici. Aside
from buying lots of texts, he also attracted Greek scholars, thereby entering
into competition with Venice as well. And to cap it all off, he granted a place at
the papal court to the greatest scholar of his ageLorenzo Valla. Even though
Valla had finally demonstrated that the so-called Donation of Constantine was
a forgery, that the so-called Apostles Creed was misnamed, and that the
received text of the Vulgate was shot through with errors, in recognition of
Vallas monumental contributions to scholarship Pope Nicholas granted him
not only a papal secretaryship, but also a canonry in the cathedral of St. John
Lateranwhere Valla is buried.
There is no doubt whatever that Nicholas dreamt on a grand scale about the
restoration of Rome to its rightful place as the center of the Christian world.
Whether he was the first to do so is unknown, but for all practical purposes he
was the first pope in nearly four-hundred years to be in a position to do so.
Consider the following facts about the papacy and Rome from Nicholas II
(105961) to Nicholas V. In 1059 Nicholas II issued a decree centering the elec-
tion of popes in the College of Cardinals. Unfortunately, the idea of any sort of
majority principle had now yet been born in the West, and as a result in the
period 10591179 there were two popes for no fewer than seventy-five out of
one-hundred-twenty years (62.5% of the time).18 In 1179 Alexander III sought
to resolve the conundrum by stipulating that that man is pope who is elected
by two-thirds of the College, a law that has (with ever so slight modifications
since 1965) obtained all the way down to the present and worked remarkably
well nearly all of the time. It is therefore legally incorrect to speak of antipopes
before 1179 (no matter what the Holy Roman Church or erring historians may
say). Furthermore, because of these schisms as well as recurrent troubles with

17 Benjamin G. Kohl, The Changing Concept of the studia humanitatis in the Early
Renaissance, Renaissance Studies 6 (1992):185202, at 186, 19899.
18 R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (Harmondsworth,
1970), 155.
74 Duggan

the Roman people as well as the emperors, in the period 11001304 the popes
spent only eighty-two years in Rome out of two-hundred-four (only 40% of the
time).19 This absence of bishops from their cathedral cities was not at all
uncommon in Europe at the time. The archbishops of Canterbury took up
residing principally at Lambeth Palace from the thirteenth century onward,
and most German prelates left their cathedral cities about the same time and
lived elsewhere until the end of the ancien regime.20 The removal of the popes
to Avignon from 1309 to 1376 was therefore scarcely unusual, no matter how
bad it was for business in Rome and infuriating to a few people like Petrarch
and Catherine of Siena. Ironically, the return to Rome in 1377 helped to pre-
cipitate the return of division the following year, for the pressure of the violent
Roman mob outside the Lateran gave cardinals a good reason to repudiate
their election of Urban V and elect Robert Cardinal of Geneva, kinsman of the
king of France, thereby launching the Great (Western) Schism, during which
there were two popes until 1410 and then three until 1415.21 Nor was that the
end of it. Although Martin V capitulated to the demands of the Council of
Constance in 1417, his successor, Eugenius IV (143147), came to blows with the
Council of Basel, which in 1439 deposed him and elected the retired count of
Savoy as Felix V. It was the skillful diplomat, Nicholas V, who in 1449 secured
the honorable abdication of Felixthe last antipope in historyand dissolu-
tion of the council of Basel, thereby effectively also ending the grave threat of
conciliarism to the papal monarchy. Nicholas, of course, could not possibly
have known of either fact or its long-term significance, but he had every reason
to breathe a sigh of satisfaction and dream of past glory.
Tradition has it that he was also greatly impressed by the turnout of the
faithful in Rome for the celebration of the Jubilee Year in 1450. In imagining a
magnificently revived and restored Rome, he consulted with Leon Battista
Alberti, whose collaboration and enthusiasm have probably been exaggerated
by historians.22 In any event, Nicholas did not have enough money, and what

19 Guillaume Mollat, The Popes at Avignon 13051378, trans. Janet Love (New York, 1965),
citing Louis Gayet, Le Grand Schisme dOccident (Florence-Berlin, 1889), 3
20 Franz Petri, ed., Bischofs und Kathedralstdte des Mittelalters und der frhen Neuzeit,
Stdteforschung A 1 (Cologne-Vienna, 1976); J. Jeffrey Tyler, Lord of the Sacred City. The
Episcopus Exclusus in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany, Studies in Medieval and
Reformation Thought 72 (Leiden-Boston, 1999).
21 On the tumultuous election and its aftermath, see Walter Ullmann, The Origins of the
Great Schism. A Study in Fourteenth-Century Ecclesiastical Politics (London, 1948; repr.,
New York, 1967), 189.
22 See Anthony Grafton, Leon Battista Alberti. Master Builder of the Renaissance (New York,
2000), 26566, 27879, 283, 29598, 30015.
Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance Popes? 75

he did have he had to devote to more basic mattersthe reestablishment of

order throughout the Patrimony of St. Peter, above all by the building and
rebuilding of fortresses. He was very much of a piece with the increasing mili-
tarization of the papacy and of the College of Cardinals in the high and later
Middle Ages right up to the time of Julius.23 Nicholas was, furthermore, very
proud of his achievements in this realm, as the various versions of his testa-
ment reveal.
Finally, for all his humanist inclinations, Nicholas stood very much with the
later medieval popes in his view of the prerogatives of the pope and of his
place in the world as the Vicar of Jesus Christ here on earth. In 1455, in response
to a request from the king of Portugal, Nicholas V issued a bull entitled Romanus
Pontifex, granting

Full and free faculty to the said King Alfonso [V] to invade, conquer,
crush, pacify, and subjugate any whomsoever Saracens, and pagans, and
other enemies of Christ wheresoever established and their kingdoms,
dukedoms,and all mobile and immobile property whatsoever held and
possessed by them, and to reduce their persons to perpetual servitude
[in perpetuam servitutem]24

Although this view of papal dominion over the entire world had been increas-
ingly articulated since at least the pontificate of Innocent IV (124354),25 these
are words that would have gladdened Gregory VII (107385), who had antici-
pated in what we might call bullet points (in the Dictatus papae of 1075) a simi-
lar vision of Roman primacy in all the world.26 Nicholas simply employed the

23 See D.S. Chambers, Popes, Cardinals and War. The Military Church in Renaissance and
Early Modern Europe (London-New York, 2006).
24 The long text in both Latin and English is widely available on the internet and in Francis
Gardiner Davenport, ed., European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and
its Dependencies (Washington, 1917), 926. This crucial section is quoted in John T.
Noonan, Jr., A Church That Can and Cannot Change. The Development of Catholic Moral
Teaching (Notre Dame, 2005), 63, who supplies full and mordant context for and com-
mentary on this bull on pp. 6267 (and, more generally, pp. 17123). I have rendered the
last word as servitude rather than slavery (the ubiquitous translation) because slav-
ery automatically conjures up modern feelings about slavery and obscures the central
fact that until the last two-hundred years or so the nearly universal practice in the con-
duct of war was to take everything and everyone that the conquerors wished.
25 See James Muldoon, Popes, Lawyers, and Infidels. The Church and the Non-Christian World,
12501550 (Philadelphia, 1979).
26 Cowdrey, Gregory VII, 10731085 (Oxford, 1998), 50207.
76 Duggan

full range of beautiful words, useful words in the humanist armory to graft
Christian missionary expansionism (commanded, after all, by Christ Himself)
onto ancient Roman military imperialism. He saw no irreconcilability between
the two, nor about putting humanism at the service of either. On the con-
trary, judged from the viewpoint of our assumptions about humanism and
about the intrinsic evil of slavery (as Pope John Paul II put it), humanism
conferred on Nicholas V no enlightenment whatsoever.
Nicholas was not succeeded immediately by another humanist, but rather
by Calixtus III, the first of the Borgia popes who laid the foundation for the
later ascent of that family into historical fame. In 1458 Aeneas Sylvius
Piccolomini was elected pope and took the name Pius, evoking immediately
for those in the know the Latin phrase pius Aeneas which characterized the
founder of Rome. Like Tommaso Parentucelli, Aeneas was impoverished and
so had to make his way in the service of prelates and princes, in the course he
wrote a great many works, literary, historical, and contemporary, all in fine neo-
classical Latin. He topped it all off with his Commentaries, taking his cue from
Julius Caesar, another Roman with whom he wished to be associated. He was
not the first to deploy this reference, however. The Aretine humanist and
Florentine chancellor Leonardo Bruni used the singular Commentarius for his
memoirs,27 and the Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti used Commentaries
for his wide-ranging work which incorporated an autobiography.28 As a form
of self-memorialization, autobiography was, however, neither an ancient
revival nor a creation of the Renaissance, but rather another point of conti-
nuity with the Middle Ages, when autobiographical works began to appear
in unprecedented numbers from the eleventh and twelfth centuries onward
(e.g., Rather of Verona, Walter of Speyer, Otloh of St. Emmeram, Peter Abelard,
Guibert of Nogent, Gerald of Wales, Emperors Charles IV and Maximilian I,
etc.). It happens that Pius IIs Commentaries is the only autobiography
produced or at least left behind by any pope, and so as such it is neither
characteristic nor representative of anything, but indeed unique.29

27 The Humanism of Leonardo Bruni: Selected Texts, eds. and trans. Gordon Griffiths, James
Hankins, and David Thompson (Binghamton, 1987), 2122.
28 Lorenzo Ghiberti, I Commentarii, ed. Ottavio Morisani (Naples, 1947). Only parts of
this work have been translated into English, and they do not include the autobiography in
Part Two.
29 The Commentaries of Pius II, trans. and ed. Florence Gragg and Leona Gabel, Smith
College Studies in History 22, 25, 30, 35, and 43 (continuously paginated) (Northampton,
MA, 193757). The same translators and editors undertook a far more readily available
abridgment under the title Memoirs of a Renaissance Pope. The Commentaries of Pius II.
Were Nicholas V and Pius II Really Renaissance Popes? 77

Unlike Nicholas V, Pius is not usually regarded as a great promoter of human-

ists and the humanist movement, partly because he was so busy writing him-
self, partly because (some might say) he was so busy promoting himself. His
account of the events of his own age is a very long work indeed (over 860 pages
in complete English translation).30 Perhaps the most startling revelation is of
Pius decision to lead personally a crusade against the Turks, a matter of the
greatest urgency to him since Constantinople had fallen in 1453. From the very
beginning of his pontificate he poured himself into trying to organize a concert
of European powers. Unfortunately, the council or congress of Mantua (June
1459January 1460) proved to be a great disappointment in its call for a three-
year crusade. In deep frustration, Pius then devised a clever scheme to rouse
the princes from their pastoral torpor. In April 1462 he spoke to six cardinals,
all wise and loyal. He recalled that after the fall of Constantinople, Philip the
Good, duke of Burgundy (r. 141967), had vowed to go on crusade, provided
that another great prince join him in this expedition, but none had been forth-
coming. Philip therefore regarded himself as excused. Not so, said Pius: He is
excused but not absolved. His obligation still stands. Pius now resolved to
force his hand:

We are resolved, old and ill as we are, to undertake war against the Turks
in defense of the Catholic Faith. We will set out on the crusade. We will
summon Burgundy to follow us who are both king and pontiff and we
will claim the fulfillment of his vow and oath. No excuse will be open to
him. A greater than king or emperor, the Vicar of Christ, will declare war.
It will not beseem a duke bound by a vow to stay at home. If Philip
accedes to our desires, he will not come without a great and mighty army.
Many will follow so noble a princeWe will command a five-year truce
between all Christians now at variance. On those who obey we will
bestow Heavens blessingthe disobedient we will excommunicate and
consign to the devil as slaves of everlasting fireOn land and sea we shall
easily equip the war when it once becomes known that the Pope of Rome
with the holy senate is marching straight on to win salvation for all and
desires no mans silver since he is resolved to risk not only his own gold
but his own person for Christs sake.31

An Abridgment (London, 1960). References to this work hereafter will be to both the
complete text and to the shorter Memoirs.
30 And over 2,700 pages long in an edition with the Latin text and facing Italian translation,
plus notes (I Commentarii, ed. Luigi Tataro [Milan, 1984].
31 Commentaries, pp. 51718; Memoirs, pp. 23738.
78 Duggan

The cardinals were appropriately astonished at the novelty of this proposal, for
no pope had ever done anything like this. In response to the crushing defeat of
the Byzantine army at Manzikert in 1071, Pope Gregory VII in 1074 had talked
and written about leading a great army of 50,000 to the East, but nothing had
come of it.32 Later popes declared and launched crusades, but not one accom-
panied, much less led, a crusadeat least not until Pius II, almost 400 years
after Gregory VII. For Pius, however, it was not merely talk, for even though the
expected hosts did not turn up, he still journeyed to the papal naval base at
Ancona. The six cardinals had assured him that his purpose was worthy of the
Vicar of Jesus Christ, who like a shepherd did not hesitate to lay down his life
for his sheep.33 Had he expected to die on this venture and receive the palm of
martyrdom, even though he presumably must have known that Rome did not
canonize fallen crusaders as martyrs, despite the clear wishes of crusaders like
King St. Louis IX (who was only accorded the title of confessor)?34 Or rather,
aware of his failing health, did he instead decide upon a last grand gesture to
seal the renown for which he had so assiduously worked?35 While he waited,
the expedition fell apart for want of transport, and two days after the arrival
of the Venetian flotilla of twelve galleys, led by the Doge himself, Pius died on
August 15, 1464.36
In short, although their humanist backgrounds equipped Nicholas V and
Pius II with better Latin and rhetoric, and hence diplomatic and political skills,
than many of their medieval predecessors, they still had far more in common
with them than the term Renaissance popes might suggest. Here, too, then,
the term late medieval is far more on the mark.

32 H.E.J. Cowdrey, Pope Gregory VIIs Crusading Plans of 1074, in his Popes, Monks and
Crusaders (London, 1984), X, 2740. Cowdreys later Pope Gregory VII, 484, adds nothing
to the earlier article.
33 Commentaries, p. 518 (Memoirs, p. 239). On crusading as a form of the imitation of
Christ, see William Purkis, Crusading Spirituality in the Holy Land and Iberia, c.1095c.1187
(Woodbridge-Rochester, 2008), passim.
34 William Chester Jordan, Honouring Saint Louis in a small town, Journal of Medieval
History 30 (2004): 26377, at 26668.
35 As he openly states in the very first paragraph of the Commentaries, p. 9 (Memoirs, p. 26).
36 On this crusade, see Norman Housley, The Later Crusades, 12741580. From Lyons to
Alcazar (Oxford, 1992), 10509, who calls Pius the greatest crusade pope since Gregory
X [127176] (p. 105).
 part 2
Spiritual Concerns

 Chapter 5

Insular Latin Sources, Arculf, and Early Islamic

Jerusalem

Lawrence Nees

At some point between 634 and 638 c.e., following the death of the Prophet
Muhammad by no more than six years, during the time of Caliph Umar ibn
al-Khattb, the city of Jerusalem surrendered to the forces of the new Islamic
community.1 The earliest monumental Islamic structure in the city that still
stands, well preserved in essential respects albeit extensively transformed in
its fabric, is generally thought to be the famous Dome of the Rock constructed
by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwn, and dated by a mosaic inscription to
A.H. 72/691692 c.e. (I shall henceforth use only c.e. dates).2 That building,
standing on the raised platform known variously in the Muslim traditions as
the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and in the Jewish and Christian tradi-
tions as the Temple Mount, is in myriad ways controversial and its original
function and meaning far from clear, but everyone agrees that it was not and
never has been a mosque, a masjid, a place of communal prayer. Communal
prayer was a fundamental feature of Islam from its beginning, but the earliest
mosque building in Jerusalem still standing, albeit renovated and restored on
many occasions, is the structure known as the Aqsa Mosque, built along the
southern edge of the Haram by Caliph alWald ibn Abd al-Malik after 705,
aligned with the (earlier) Dome of the Rock along a line indicating the qibla,
the direction of prayer, toward Mecca. In Jerusalem, the qibla is very nearly due

1 The date of the Islamic occupation of Jerusalem is uncertain and much debated, with various
sources and modern scholars ranging from 634638; for a recent discussion see Fred M.
Donner, Muhammad and the Believers. At the Origins of Islam (Cambridge, MA and London,
2010), 125, and James Howard-Johnston, Witnesses to a World Crisis. Historians and Histories
of the Middle East in the Seventh Century (Oxford, 2010), 37087. For Jerusalem and its early
Islamic buildings Oleg Grabar, The Shape of the Holy (Princeton, 1996).
2 On the date see Sheila Blair, What is the date of the Dome of the Rock? in Bayt al-Maqdis.
Abd al-Maliks Jerusalem, Part One, edited by Julian Raby and Jeremy Johns (Oxford, 1992),
5987. In a larger study tentatively entitled Perspectives on Early Islamic Art in Jerusalem,
recently submitted for publication, I will argue that the small Dome of the Chain standing
beside the Dome of the Rock very likely pre-dates it, and formed the centerpiece of the earli-
est Islamic prayer space in the city.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_007

82 Nees

south. There was a place of prayer, a masjid, in Jerusalem before 691, referred to
in many texts, but no part of it has been identified archaeologically,3 and its
location, design, scale and other features can only be addressed (pending new
archaeological investigations)4 through literary sources.
For decades scholars of Islamic art, history, and culture have referred to the
place of Islamic prayer in Jerusalem in a manner very much like the recent
statement by R. Stephen Humphreys: Jerusalem acquired a mosque, tradition-
ally built at the command of Umar, very soon after the Muslim occupation,
and on the Temple esplanade no less. But it was an unimpressive, even ram-
shackle affair until this area was transformed under Abd al-Malik and
al-Wald.5 Among the many literary sources bearing upon the earliest mosque
in Jerusalem,6 the critical supports for its crude, even primitive character
noted by Humphreys and many others are also the earliest in date, at least in
written form. That chronological priority enhances credibility as a source will
surprise no historian, but in this case chronological priority accompanies geo-
graphical and cultural distance, for the sources are transmitted not in Arabic,
or even Syriac or Armenian or Greek, but in Latin. They stem from very nearly
the farthest point within the world of late antiquity, from the Insular world
of the British Isles, from what are commonly termed Irish and Anglo-Saxon
contexts, in a text written by Adomnn, Abbot of Iona until his death in 704,
and Bede, monk at Jarrow until his death in 735. It is an odd situation, and the
distance between the two clusters of material is great not only in terms of
geography but also of modern scholarly disciplines, that is, early medieval
(Insular) Latin philology and early Islamic art history respectively. Concise
scholarly cross-references in both directions have tended to mask the com-
plexity of the sources on both sides. This paper hopes to promote greater
clarity by first muddying the waters.
The critical passage, often either cited or, more commonly, referred to, by
scholars of Islamic architecture, is at the end of the first chapter of Adomnns
De locis sanctis:

3 See below, note 33, on this issue.

4 On recent discoveries under the Haram suggesting some Christian building activity see
E. Lefkovitz, Was the Aksa Mosque built over the remains of a Byzantine church? Jerusalem
Post, 16 Nov. 2008, which I have not yet seen.
5 R. Stephen Humphreys, Christian Communities in Early Islamic Syria and Northern Jazira:
the Dynamics of Adaptation, in John Haldon, ed., Money, Power and Politics in early Islamic
Syria. A review of current debates (Farnham [Surrey] and Burlington VT, 2010), 4556
at 5152.
6 Amikam Elad, Medieval Jerusalem and Islamic Worship. Holy Places, Ceremonies, Pilgrimage,
Islamic History and Civilization, Studies and Texts 8 (Leiden, 1995), esp. 2345.
Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 83

However, in the celebrated place where once the temple (situated near
the east near the wall) arose in its magnificence, the Saracens now have a
quadrangular prayer house. They built it roughly by erecting upright
boards and great beams on some ruined remains. The building, it is said,
can accommodate three thousand people at once.7

Denis Meehans translation presented above, along with his edition of

the Latin text, signals through punctuation, the parentheses inserted in the
English version, its anxiety about the interpretation of the passage. The Latin
is ambiguous, the prepositional phrase in vicinia muri ab oriente locatum could
refer either to templum or domum, the work performed by the parentheses
being to declare the view of the editor and translator that the former is surely
meant. Here Meehan follows a scholarly tradition. Of the many translations
that have been offered of the passage,8 I will provide first the full version by

7 Ceterum in illo famoso loco ubi quondam templum magnifice constructum fuerat in uicinia
muri ab oriente locatum nunc Saracini quadrangulam orationis domum, quam subrectis
tabulis et magnis trabibus super quasdam ruinarum reliquias construentes uili fabricati sunt
opere, ipsi frequentant; quae utique domus tria hominum milia, ut fertur, capere potest.
Denis Meehan, ed., Adamnans De Locis Sanctis, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 3 (Dublin, 1983),
4243. Here as in most cases the text follows principally that transmitted in Vienna,
Nationalbibliothek, cod. 458 (olim Salisburgensis 174), a ninth-century book written for one
Baldo, a teacher in the cathedral school at Salzburg (see Meehan, Adamnans De Locis Sanctis,
p. 30). For the Latin text see not only the Meehan edition but also Ludwig Bieler, ed.,
Adamnanus De locis sanctis, in Itineraria et alia geographica, edited by Paul Geyer et al.
(Turnhout, 1965), 175234. See most recently on the manuscripts Michael Gorman,
Adomnns De locis sanctis: the diagrams and the sources, Revue bndictine 116 (2006):
541.
8 To cite just one more from a commonly consulted work of considerable influence, John
Wilkinson, Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades (rev. 2nd ed. Warminster 2002), 170:
Moreover near the wall on the east, in that famous place where once there stood the magnifi-
cent Temple, the Saracens have now built an oblong house of prayer, which they pieced
together with upright planks and large beams over some ruined remains. This they attend,
and it is said that this building can hold three thousand people. Wilkinson notes the similar-
ity of the italicized phrases to a passage in Eucheriuss Letter to the Island Presbyter (ca. 430),
which he translated in the same volume, 9498: The site of the Temple is in the lower
city near the eastern wall, and it was magnificently built (verse 7, p. 94 of Wilkinson). One
could well argue from this possible, even likely, source text, that the eastern wall portion of
Adomnns text is only derived from the text of Eucherius, not from Arculfs observation
reported by Adomnn at all, and has no independent value. It is tempting to see Adomnns
roughly built Islamic structure as a deliberate opposite of the magnificently built Temple, if
he does indeed know and draw upon Eucherius here.
84 Nees

K.A.C. Creswell, as it was early and the most influential for scholars concerned
with Islamic architecture:

But in that renowned place where once the Temple had been magnificently
constructed, placed in the neighborhood of the wall from the east, the
Saracens now frequent a quadrangular house of prayer, which they have
built rudely, constructing it by setting planks and great beams on some
remains of ruins: this house can, it is said, hold three thousand men at once.9

Creswell used commas to do the work of Meehans parentheses, resolving the

grammatical ambiguity in favor of it being the Temple that had been located
near the eastern wall of the city, rather than the house of prayers of the Saracens
having been built near the eastern wall of the place where the temple had
stood. Oleg Grabar makes the same point with different punctuation, in his
cases brackets: near the wall [of the city] on the east.10 Creswell confidently
understands the source in this way because he believed that the building here
termed the house of prayer, which he terms the first Aqsa mosque, which in
his view was built by Caliph Umar,11 lay directly beneath the Aqsa mosque
built on the southern side of the large platform of the Haram al-Sharif, the
Noble Sanctuary or Temple Mount, in the time of Caliph al-Walid I after 705.
Creswell goes on to say the First Aqsa Mosque in turn stood on ruins that
must have been those of the royal Stoa of Herod destroyed in 70. His reason-
ing and evidence is based on the report from Flavius Josephus XV, 11, 5, which
says that this stoa extended the whole length of the south side of the Temple
area. The problem here is, again, starting from the premise that the first
mosque was at the same location as the later and present mosque. Such an
hypothesis is sensible, some might even say likely, for re-buildings are often on
older foundations for both economic and ideological considerations, but there
are many exceptions. In any event, it is a hypothesis only, for Adomnn does
not say this, nor does any source whatsoever.

9 K.A.C. Creswell, Early Muslim Architecture (2nd ed., Oxford, 1969), vol. I, Part I, pp. 334.
10 Grabar, Shape of the Holy, 49.
11 Elad, Medieval Jerusalem, 2935, Elad criticizes Creswells conviction that the first
mosque was built by Umar largely on the basis of the Arculf text, which even if one
accepts it as a useful source (as Elad does), is probably, in his view, does not exclude the
possibility that the mosque was constructed in the time of Caliph Muawiya, a decade or
more likely several decades later. Elad thinks that the ascription of the first mosque on the
Haram to Umar may reflect the biases in several important early sources (the Armenian
Sebeos, and the Greek Theophanes) against the Jews, who were associated with Umar
more than with later caliphs in their minds.
Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 85

Creswell attributes the statement that he translates not to Adomnn, but

to Arculf, introducing the quotation with the statement that the early pilgrim,
Arculf, who visited Jerusalem c. a.d. 670, gives a description of it [the earliest
Jerusalem mosque], implying that Arculf wrote it on the basis of what he
had personally observed. For Creswell, the source is reliable as eyewitness
testimony, and he takes it absolutely at face value without giving any critical
evaluation whatsoever. Fortunately or unfortunately, Creswell wrote at a time
when, at least in forensic contexts, eyewitness testimony was commonly
regarded as reliable,12 and, more to the point, Crewsells understanding of the
text removes Adomnn from consideration, as if he were merely transmitting
Arculfs exact words.13 Following Creswell, the scholarly literature on early
Islamic art generally refers to Arculf as the textual source. Grabar does men-
tion Adomnanus. He says that the evidence for the rudely built first mosque
building on the Haram derives from the eyewitness testimony of the Gallic
Bishop Arculf as reported by the Irish abbot Adomnanus, but subsequently
Grabar consistently refers to Arculf alone.14 Many other scholars never men-
tion Adomnn at all, but cite Arculf alone, as the direct source, as if he were the
author of a text. Amikam Elads monograph on sources for early Jerusalem says
that the testimony of Arculfus, the Christian pilgrim who visited Palestine

12 For discussion see inter alia Laura Engelhardt, The Problem of Eyewitness Testimony.
Commentary on a Talk by George Fisher and Barbara Tversky, Stanford Journal of Legal
Studies 1:1(1999): 2529, with references, and most recently the collection on this vexing
issue in terms of psychology in law, Brian L. Cutler, ed., Expert Testimony on the Psycohology
of Eyewitness Identification (Oxford, 2009).
13 Indeed, Creswell gives as his own source for the passage not an edition of Adomnns text,
but instead Toblers Itinera Hierosolymitana I, p. 145. He does not list that work in his
bibliography; it is presumably Itinera Hierosolymitana et descriptiones Terrae Sanctae bel-
lis sacris anteriora et latina lingua exarata sumptibus Societatis illustrandis Orientis latini
monumentis, eds. Titus Tober and Augustus Molinier (Geneva, 1879), vol. 1, pp. 139210.
The Adomnn text is given there under the title Arculfi relatio de locis sanctis scripta ab
Adamnano, which no doubt promoted the view that Arculf was in some sense the author
of the text, and under the title and in the preface (p. xxx) the date of the text is given as
ca. 670. Thomas OLoughlin, Adomnn and the Holy Places. The Perceptions of an Insular
Monk on the locations of the Biblical Drama (London, 2007), 5355, shows in detail
that the early editions gave Arculf equal or greater claim to be the author of the work,
following some medieval manuscript sources.
14 Grabar, Shape of the Holy, 49 for the quotation; compare p. 37 according to Arculf,
p. 45 brief description by Arculf. Adomnns De locis sanctis and Arculf are discussed
in Robert Ousterhout, Sweetly Refreshed in Imagination: Remembering Jerusalem in
Words and Images Gesta 48 (2009): 15368 at 155.
86 Nees

right at the end of Muwiyas caliphate [680] states that a large, primitive
mosque already stood on the Haram.15
Even the relatively few studies that explicitly set out to discuss and evaluate
the sources for early Insular knowledge of and attitudes toward Islam have
taken the text of Adomnn in a manner that seems, at least to me, lacking in
critical judgment. Ekkehart Rotters 1983 volume on the West and the Saracens
states that Arculf observed early Islam in a completely objective (vllig objec-
tiv) manner, and that Adomnn served Arculf as an objective notary (Notar
objectiv). Rotter further claims that his Arkulf/Adamnan made no contemp-
tuous remarks (geringshtzigen Bemerkung) about the Saracens, apparently
taking what he acknowledges as the texts description of the contemptible
work (geringe Arbeit, his rendering of opus vile) of the Jerusalem mosque as
simply objective observation, rather than a deliberate and conscious criticism.
It is noteworthy that like all other scholars, Rotter treats the passage entirely in
isolation from its context within the text as a whole, and thus ignores the pejo-
rative context in which the passage appears, discussed later in this article.16
More recently Katharine Scarfe Beckett discussed Adomnns and Bedes
accounts of the journey by Arculf very briefly, and seems to accept the histo-
ricity of the entire episode, including the alleged shipwreck on the homeward
voyage (to which I shall return later), and identifies the source as eyewitness
testimony. The only thing she says about the Saracen house of prayer in
Adomnns De locis sanctis is that it was a crude but large rectangular building
constructed on some ruins, and in a footnote attributes to Rotter the opinion
that the passage is so close to Arabic phrasing that it might have been trans-
lated directly from Arabic by a Muslim guide!17 How one is expected to under-
stand that a statement can be both a translation of someone elses words and
at the same time an eyewitness account is to me an insoluble riddle.

15 Elad, Medieval Jerusalem, p. 23. Elad cites Creswell, Wilkinson, and other secondary
sources. Richard Yeomans, The Story of Islamic Architecture (New York, 2000), 33, not
only ignores Adomnn but explicitly attributes the authorship of his entire text to Arculf,
and presents a hypothetical dating and patronage for the earliest mosque as if it were
established fact: The first mosque on this site [the Haram] was a wooden construction
built by Omar, accommodating up to three thousand people according to Arculf, a French
pilgrimwho wroteDe locis sanctis.
16 Ekkehart Rotter, Abendland und Sarazenen: Das okzidentale Araberbild und seine
Entstehung im Frhmittelalter (Berlin and New York 1983), 3142, the quotations and
specific reference being from 31, 38 and 39 respectively.
17 Katharine Scarfe Beckett, Anglo-Saxon Perceptions of the Islamic World, Cambridge
Studies in Anglo-Saxon England 33 (Cambridge 2003), 4445. I am grateful to Andy
Orchard for bringing this work to my attention.
Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 87

Adomnn certainly gives Arculf a prominent place in his work. Immediately

after the dedication and title IN NOMINE PATRIS ET FILII ET SPIRITUS SANCTI
CRAXARE LIBRUE DE LOCIS INCIPIO SANCTIS [In the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, I begin to write a book concerning the Holy Places], fol-
lows this statement:

The holy bishop Arculf, a Gaul by race, versed in divers far-away regions,
and a truthful and quite reliable witness, sojourned for nine months in
the city of Jerusalem, traversing the holy places in daily visitations.
In response to my careful inquiries he dictated to me, Adamnan, this
faithful and accurate record of all his experiences.18

I freely confess that whenever told that something about to be said is indubi-
table, I become skeptical, since such bullying so often accompanies the dubi-
ous. However, there are more than such factors that should give the scholar
pause here. Oddly, given the prominence that Adomnn accords to Arculf, and
the unusual situation of a Frankish bishop on Iona after a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, Adomnn tells us nothing about Arculf beyond that he was episcopus
gente Gallus (a Gallic bishop). The source for the commonly repeated scholarly
understanding of how Arculf came to be in Iona to serve as Adomnns source
comes not from Adomnn, but from Bede. In his Ecclesiastical History com-
pleted in 731 (Book V ch. XV) Bede wrote as part of his praise of Adomnn:19

This man wrote a book on the holy places which has proved useful to
many readers; his work was based upon information dictated to him by
Arculf, a bishop of Gaul who had visited Jerusalem to see the holy places.

18 Arculfus sanctus episcopus gente Gallus diuersorum longe remotorum peritus locorum
uerax index et satis idoneus in Hierusolimitana ciuitate per menses nouem hospitatus et loca
sancta cotidianis uisitationibus peragrans mihi Adomnano haecfideli et indubitabili narra-
tion dictauit. Text and translation after Meehan, Adamnans De Locis Sanctis, 3637.
19 Scripsit idem uir de locis sanctis librum legentibus multis utillimum, cuius auctor erat
docendo ac dictando Galliarum episopus Arcuulfus, qui locorum gratia sanctorum venerat
Hierosolymam, et lustrata omni terra repromissionis Damascum quoque, Constan
tinopolim, Alexandrium, multas maris insulas adierat, patriamque nauigio reuertens ui
tempestatis in occidentalia Brittaniae litora dilatus est; ac post multa ad memoratum
Christi famulum Adamnanum perueniens, ubi doctus in Scripturis sanctorumque loco-
rum gnarus esse conpertus est, libentissime est ab illo susceptus, libentius auditus, adeo ut,
quaeque ille se in locis sanctis memoratu digna uidisse testabatur, cuncta mox iste litteris
mandare curauerit. Fecitque opus, ut dixi. Bertram Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, eds.,
Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Oxford, 1969), 506509.
88 Nees

He had wandered all over the promised land and had been to Damascus,
Constantinople, Alexandria, and many islands of the sea. But as he was
returning to his native land by sea, he was cast by the violence of the tem-
pest on to the west coasts of Britain. After many adventures he came to
the servant of Christ Adamnan who found him to be learned in the
Scriptures and well acquainted with the holy places. Adamnan received
him very gladly and eagerly listened to his words; he quickly committed to
writing everything which Arculf had seen in the holy places which seemed
to be worthy of remembrance. From this he made a book, as I said

The setting of Bedes discussion within his great history is itself noteworthy,
even odd.20 The previous chapters dealt with visions of hell, the immediately
preceding one presenting the vision of an unnamed monk (frater) in an
unnamed but noble monastery (in monasterio nobili) known to Bede himself
as an exceptionally skilled craftsman (erat enim fabrili arte singularis), but
addicted to drunkenness and other dissolute practices. Just before dying
unshriven (and buried in the farthest corner of the monastery), this monk
related to his brethren his vision that a place in hell was prepared for him. Bede
ends the chapter with the hope that the story made many do penance for their
sins, and that as here written it might bring many more to penitence. Then he
opens the next chapter with the greater part of the Irish in Ireland who
(finally! in Bedes view) accepted the canonical date for Easter. Adomnn is
given chief credit for having made the change, persuaded at a mission to
Aldfriths court in Northumbria to abandon the former usage, which was in
Bedes words distinct from the universal custom of the church. Bede relates
that Adomnn then converted all but those in his own monastery, Iona, to
accept the change, but died (happily, in Bedes view!) before he had to face the
controversy with them about the next Easter celebration. This seems to be
the link between the chapters; the unhappy sinner dying unshriven, and the
happy Adomnan, who died after finally having celebrated Easter on the catho-
lic date, and who presumably went to heaven rather than hell. This leads
directly to Adomnns book on the holy places, as quoted, and then Bede pro-
ceeds to quote in the next two chapters (XVI and XVII) long passages from his
own work based on Adomnn rather than from Adomnns, which was clearly
available to him. Bede himself reports that Adomnns book had been given to
King Aldfrith. Bedes passages are devoted to Bethlehem, to the Holy Sepulchre,
to the Ascension church on the Mount of Olives, and to the tombs of Abraham

20 OLoughlin, Adomnn, 512, does address the context of the passage.

Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 89

and the patriarchs at Hebron.21 He says nothing about the Temple or its former
site, linked by Adomnn with the newly established Islamic place of prayer,
although Adomnn had begun his text with that brief but critical discussion,
and although Bede had himself written very extensively about the Temple and
everything about it in De Tabernaculo, De Templo, and in his commentaries on
Ezra and Nehemiah.22
Bedes discussion of Arculf seems to reflect Adomnns text, which it evokes
in several places with specific wording, rather than Bedes own knowledge or
another source. The description of Arculfs voyage, not taken from Adomnn,
is odd on the face of it, it being more than a little difficult to understand how
anyone could have been blown to northwestern Britain or indeed anywhere in
Britain while returning from the Mediterranean to Francia. Presumably one is
supposed to imagine a direct sea voyage through the strait of Gibraltar to a
presumed destination in western or northern France, but this was clearly not
the preferred route for early medieval travel,23 indeed there seems no evidence
at all for anyone else having used such a route in the early medieval period.
I wonder whether it ought not to be considered, as is seems not to have
been, that Bedes story is not his own invention using some other written
source. Bede has no difficulty in supplementing his condensed version of
Adomnn on the holy places with Eucherius and Josephus, in his own work
De locis sanctis,24 which is, again oddly, not included among his own many

21 Bedes Ecclesiastical History, 508513.

22 For these texts see the recent English translations with commentaries and references:
Arthur G. Holder, Bede: On the Tabernacle (Liverpool, 1994), Sen Connolly and Jennifer
OReilly, Bede: On the Temple (Liverpool, 1995), and Scott DeGregorio, Bede On Ezra and
Nehemiah (Liverpool, 2006).
23 OLoughlin, Adomnn, 52 addresses the implausibility of the supposed route. The
immense compendium by Michael McCormick, Origins of the European Economy.
Communications and Commerce, A.D. 300900 (Cambridge, 2001), traces many trade
routes through literary and archaeological sources, and a direct sea route linking the
Mediterranean and Britain is not among them. McCormick seems loathe to dismiss the
possibility that Bedes version is accurate: It is just possible that Arculf sailed from
the Mediterranean to his home in Gaul through the straits of Gibraltar, since his ship was
blown off course and wound up on the west coast of England or Scotland (McCormick,
p. 539 n. 56, giving no independent reference in support of this possibility but relying on
Bede alone), but goes on to suggest that Arculf might have crossed overland from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic and then taken ship. This is of course possible, but some-
how one has to choose to accept ones only source or not; why accept the shipwreck?
24 Beda De locis sanctis, ed. J. Fraipont, in Itineraria et Alia Geographica, (as above, n. 4),
24580.
90 Nees

written works listed a few chapters later at the end of the Ecclesiastical History.
Some of the oddities in Bedes presentation have been analyzed by Michael
Wallace-Hadrills commentary, including the distortion at least by condensa-
tion of Adomnn and his role in the Easter controversy, and even the different
form in which Bede gives the name of the supposed Frankish bishop, not
Arculfus but Arcuulfus, behind which, Wallace-Hadrill suggests, could be lurk-
ing a name not necessarily Germanic at all but something like Lupus.25 In my
view it should be considered, as it seems not previously to have been, that
Bedes story is inspired by the opening of Vergils Aeneid, which also has a storm
driving a traveler from west to east and casting him on a foreign shore. Litora is
not exactly a rare word, but both Vergil and Bede use it, and Bedes nonnulla
pericula recalls Vergils multum iactatustot uolvere casus in sentiment if not
specific diction.26 If nothing else the coincidence of this constellation of motifs
in a very short passage is striking. Bede evidently knew Vergils poem,27 and
indeed seems to evoke it specifically in the context of calming a storm in the
opening chapter of Book V in his Ecclesiastical History, in which he relates a
story told by the priest Guthfrith about a storm encountered while returning to
the British mainland from the Farne Islands, not exactly a long sea-journey.
After Oethelwald, whom they had been visiting at the hermitage, completed a
prayer, he calmed the swelling main (tumida aequora placauit), which
Colgrave and Mynors list as an echo of Aeneid I.142, the famous scene of angry
Neptune calling the storm raised at the behest of Juno (tumida aequora pla-
cat).28 Thus there is evidence that Bede knew at least the opening of the first

25 J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. A Historical

Commentary (Oxford, 1988), 18789. Spelling of proper names is a difficult problem.
For an important and enlightening recent contribution see D. Howlett, Wilbrords
Autobiographical Note and the Versus Sybillae De Iudicio Dei, Peritia 20 (2008): 15464;
I am grateful to the author for having shared with me a pre-publication version of this
paper.
26 R.A.B. Mynors, ed., P. Vergili Maronis opera (Oxford, 1969), 103.
27 Although denied by some earlier scholars, a persuasive case for Bedes direct (rather than
exclusively through florilegia) knowledge at least of the Aeneid was argued by N. Wright,
Bede and Vergil, Romanobarbarica 6 (19811982): 36179, with earlier literature, as
has been accepted most recently by Jan Ziolkowski and Michael C.J. Putnam, The Virgilian
Tradition. The First Fifteen Hundred Years (New Haven and London, 2008), 92.
28 Colgrave and Mynors, Bedes Ecclesiastical History, pp. 45556, note 4. The scholarly
apparatus also indicates that Bede quoted the first line of Aeneid II in Ecclesiastical
History III. 2 (pp. 24849). I owe to Angela Gleason the intriguing information that the
Middle Irish word murchuirthe, meaning that which is thrown or cast up from the sea,
is commonly used in contexts where foreigner is meant.
Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 91

book of the Aeneid, even if he knew nothing else, and it is from this same pas-
sage that he may have drawn his inspiration for the storm-driven arrival of
Arculf in a distant land.
I by no means intend to imply that Bede has no independent sources for
contemporary events in Jerusalem and the eastern Mediterranean world more
broadly. Indeed, in my view his powerful interest in the Tabernacle and the
Temple, and his unique commentary on Ezra and Nehemiah,29 and for that
matter the Tabernacle and Ezra miniatures in the Codex Amiatinus,30 are plau-
sibly seen as in part at least a reaction to news of the Islamic building activities
on the site of the Jerusalem temple. If we are to believe the evidence of the
Epistola de obitu Bedae, Bede is said on his deathbed to have directed that
the pepper and incense that he kept in a little private box (capsella) should be
distributed to the brethren.31 Such items can only have come from the east, and
whether or not Bede actually had such things, it was clearly credible to the read-
ers of the text that he might have had them, although we have no knowledge of
how these exclusively eastern materials might have reached him. I only mean to
suggest here that we need not, and in my view should not, hang any hat con-
cerning knowledge of the contemporary east upon the very shaky peg of Arculf.
The Arculf source evoked by Bede and Adomnn is not only odd, its reli-
ability has long been challenged by scholars. Franois Chatillon, in an extended
review of Meehans edition of Adomnn, was chiefly troubled that Meehan
accepted without proper criticism the existence of a real Arculf. One of
Chatillons major objections was negative, that despite the repeated evoca-
tions of Arculf by name, one is never told anything at all about him in
Adomnns text. Most interesting perhaps is Chatillons emphasis on the pecu-
liarity that Adomnn so often refers to Arculf as sanctus, and more generally
Adomnns hyperbolic and insistent references to Arculfs unimpeachable

29 Bede, On Ezra and Nehemiah, translated with introduction and notes by Scott De Gregorio
(Liverpool, 2006).
30 See among the immense scholarly literature Celia Chazelle, Ceolfrids gift to St. Peter: the
first quire of the Codex Amiatinus and the evidence of its Roman destination, Early
Medieval Europe 12(2004), 12957, and for Bedes possible personal involvement Paul
Meyvaert, Dissension in Bedes Community shown by a quire of the Codex Amiatinus,
Revue bndictine 116 (2006), 295309.
31 Colgrave and Mynors, Bedes Ecclesiastical History, 58485, cited by Scarfe Bennett,
Anglo-Saxon Perceptions, 6061. Colgrave and Mynors translate the Latin piperum
oraria et incensa with pepper, and napkins, and some incense. For the modern reader
napkins strikes an odd note here, and something closer to the Greek orarion for a liturgi-
cal garment or stole is likely closer to the truth. I hope to explore the association of textiles
and scent in a future study.
92 Nees

reliability, which struck him as highly suspicious.32 The recent and exhaustive
study of Adomnns text, by Thomas OLoughlin, finds the existence of some
kind of Arculf possible but undemonstrable and largely unnecessary, consider-
ing that Arculf might very well be a literary device.33 Most recently, Maria
Guagnano, in an Italian translation of Adomnn that reprints Meehans Latin
text, attempts to defend the historical reality of Arculf against the objections
of Chatillon (she did not know OLoughlins work that appeared only the
previous year).34 For example, she accounts for the text being full of Insularisms,
not Gallicisms, which Chatillon had noted, by maintaining that Arculf is the
source for the substance, but not the language, of the text, which Adomnn
recast in his own words.35 This defense seems to me a bit like throwing out the
baby with the bathwater: if the words are Adomnns, the claim of eyewitness
testimony evaporates, and the lamentably widespread habit of referring to the
text as by Arculf rather than by Adomnn, as if we had Arculfs ipsissima verba,
is untenable. Although Ora Limor defends the historicity of Arculf as a pilgrim
and Adomnns primary, and generally reliable source, she rightly points out that
Adomnn is the author, that the words of De locis Sanctis are his, not Arculfs, and
that Adomnn presumably filtered what he had heard and chose what he believed
worthy of putting into writing.36 Through the filter of the abbot of Iona, and in the
words he chose, we may have a genuine report of the mosque in Jerusalem, and
some of its details may be accurate, but one cannot go much further.
That one ought not to eliminate Adomnns active role in the authorship of
his De locis sanctis has also been emphasized in the most recent and most
extended discussion of its presentation of the buildings in the Holy Land.
According to Toms Carragin, the architectural information must be under-
stood as an Insular document, not as a transcription of a Jerusalem reality,
which may be partly based on the eyewitness account of a Gaulish bishop
called Arculf.37 One passage from Carragins discussion deserves quotation

32 F. Chatillon, Arculfe a-t-il rellement exist? Revue du moyen age latin 23 (1967) 13438:
Enfin et surtout, il est impossible de ne pas remarquer cette insistence excessive
affirmer la sincrit dArculfe et de son rcit (verax index et satis idoneus, fideli et indubita-
bili narratione) (p. 137).
33 OLoughlin, Adomnn, 6163.
34 Maria Guagnano, Adomnano di Iona, I luoghi santi (Bari, 2008), at 3740.
35 Guagnano, Adomnano, 2728.
36 Ora Limor, Pilgrims and Authors: Adomnns De locis Sanctis and Hugeburcs
Hodoeporicon Sancti Willibaldi, Revue bndictine 114 (2004): 25375 at 258.
37 Toms Carragin, Churches in Early Medieval Ireland. Architecture, Ritual and Memory
(New Haven and London, 2010), p. 35 and fig.36
Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 93

here at length, as an indication that Adomnns De locis sanctis cannot be

taken as a reliable guide to the forms of the important sites that it describes.
The discrepancies between Adomnns plan of the Holy Sepulchre and the
complex itself are of particular interest. They remind us that the plan has been
filtered through an Insular mind. It therefore represents the visual convergence
of the Holy Sepulchre complex as it stood in the seventh century with an Irish
clerics concept of what a sacred site should look like For example, especially
in the copy in the sterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna [cod. 458,
fol. 4v], the various chapels are shown, not as integrated components of a
single building complex, but as free-standing, unicameral, east-west-oriented
structures, usually (i.e. the church of Calvary and that of the Chalice) with
approximate proportions of 1: 1.5 and just one doorway in the west walls.
Even the Constantinian basilica at the east end of the complex is depicted as a
simple structure: its actual apse and aisles have been eliminated.
In 2002, David Woods provided an extended review of Adomnns text and
his supposed Arculfian eyewitness source, arguing that much of Adomnns
information derived, not as Adomnn claimed from an eyewitness account,
but from previous written sources, some of which have apparently been lost.38
Woods discusses Adomnns passage describing the mosque on the Temple
Mount, suggesting that a building accommodating three thousand is simply
not credible, especially if built from wood.39 He further suggests that the Latin
word tabulae for the upright boards supporting the cross-beams is probably
a mistranslation of the Greek term [stele], which his [lost hypothetical

38 D. Woods, Arculfs luggage: the sources for Adomnns De locis sanctis, riu 52 (2002):
2552, a reference brought to my attention by Teresa Nevins. Woods follows T. OLoughlin,
The exegetical purpose of Adomnns De locis sanctis, Cambridge Medieval Celtic Studies
24 (1992): 3754, in recognizing that Adomnns text had a purpose that explains some
of its oddities such as description of Constantinople but not Rome, while recognizing
that some portions of the text, especially Book III are not based on any eyewitness
account but sometimes garbled versions of earlier texts known to be or plausibly argued
to have been available to Adomnn. Woods also makes an ingenious but at least to me
unpersuasive argument (pp. 4347) that Adomnn misread a Frankish source (the Gesta
abbatum Fontenellensium 10.23; see Fernand Lohier and R.P.J. Laporte, Gesta sanctorum
patrum Fontanellensis Coenobii [Rouen, 1931]) referring to an Arnulf, not an Arculf (an
otherwise unattested name), and that this Arnulf is presumably the person who had trav-
eled to the East perhaps in the 640s and brought back the lost anonymous life of
Constantine and perhaps other texts and described the newly constructed mosque on the
Temple mount.
39 Woods, Arculfs luggage, 4043, citing Meehans edition and translation, as given
above.
94 Nees

Greek textual] source would have used to describe columns.40 Thus in Woods
view, Adomnns text describes, poorly, a mosque that looked exactly like that
which certainly existed there by the end of the seventh century: a hypostyle
hall on columns. At this point the circularity becomes vicious, for the cer-
tainly in Woods text refers to Oleg Grabars discussion of the first mosque,41
for which the only evidence is Adomnns text, as interpreted by Creswell and
others. A central reason for Adomnns words having been accepted as reliable
in the scholarly literature about this Insular textual source has been its uni-
form acceptance in the scholarly literature about early Islamic Jerusalem and
its monument. If not based on a recent eyewitness account, how could
Adomnns description of the early mosque in Jerusalem be so accurate?
The location and form of that first mosque in Jerusalem, and of mosques of
the seventh century anywhere in the Islamic world, must be almost entirely
indirect and based on textual sources, for we have no surviving buildings and
only the most scanty archaeological remains of mosques until we reach the
eighth century.42 Grabar, who was Woods only source, is stating the common
view that the mosque was located where the Aqsa mosque is today, and that view
is to a considerable degree based on the reading of Adomnn by Creswell and
later followers. Robert Hoyland quotes the description of the Jerusalem
mosque by Arculf, which he accepts without question, and whose context in

40 Woods, Arculfs luggage, 4142.

41 Grabar, Shape of the Holy, 11722.
42 For a review of the larger issue of early mosques, with special attention to the first mosque
in Jerusalem, see my forthcoming monograph, Perspectives on early Islamic Art in
Jerusalem. For concise overviews see Robert Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture. Form, func-
tion and meaning (Edinburgh, 1994), esp. 3344 and 6673, and Richard Ettinghausen,
Oleg Grabar and Marilyn Jenkins-Madina, Islamic Art and Architecture 6501250 (New
Haven and London, 2001), esp. 2021, and Marcus Milwright, An Introduction to
Islamic Archaeology, The New Edinburgh Islamic Surveys (Edinburgh, 2010), 5157.
For the earliest Jerusalem mosque, Jeremy Johns reported in 1999 that Julian Raby would
shortly publish evidence that the earliest level of the current building, identified by
Robert Hamilton (The Structural History of the Aqsa mosque [Jerusalem 1949] as the early
eighth-century mosque of Abd al-Malik and his son al-Walid I, was instead the seventh-
century building datable before 684 (pre-Marwanid), and even published a plan of the
remains; see Jeremy Johns, The House of the Prophet and the concept of the mosque,
in Bayt al-Maqdis. Jerusalem and Early Islam (Oxford, 1999), 59112, esp. 6264 and
fig.9. Rabys study seems never to have been published. In this context it is worth noting
that Johns claims that the structure was built of stone, and dressed with marble. Most
recently, this reconstruction and dating has been accepted by Milwright, Introduction
to Islamic Archaeology, 12628 with a review of the earlier scholarship, and fig. 6.1
showing the sketch plan proposed by Raby.
Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 95

the text he does not discuss further.43 Yet at another place, in the context of the
credibility of sources, and clearly troubled by the obviously condemnatory
content of Arculfs description, Hoyland argues that the unimpeachable
character[of] the report of Arculf about the Arabs house of prayer in
Jerusalem of the 670sdoes not mean that we should accept Arculfs report at
face value, as have done a number of scholars who have consequently dis-
missed Umars mosque as, in Creswells words, a mean structure. That it was
constructed in a crude manner is a value judgment, but that it was rectangu-
lar and built with planks and large beams over ruins are descriptive facts. It is
of course a common ploy to claim to be an eyewitness, thus adding weight to
ones testimony, but in the case of Jacob [of Edessa, who reported the Muslim
praying east in the 660s] their claim is supported by the intimate detail and
unstereotypical nature of their reports.44
I find Hoylands analysis unsatisfactory on two counts. First, the convincing
detail argument is in my view specious in principle; forgers and writers know
this principle and provide plenty of detail, viz. the Shield of Achilles or of
Aeneas ekphraseis.45 The whole point of learning to write a fine description,
fundamental in late antique educational practices transmitted to the Christian
and also the Insular worlds, was that it should be filled with convincing detail
whether fictional or not. Secondly, that one can separate value judgments from
facts is a claim difficult to substantiate at this level. In any event, Hoyland has
not read the Arculf text as something written by and transmitted through
Adomnn (for example, his index lists all the citations under the name Arculf,
and Adomnn is listed only once, introducing Arculfs evidence), and he has
not put the description into its context within the text, and evidently fails to
recognize that the supposedly unstereotypical nature of the report in effect
assumes that the text should be seen within the genre of panegyric rather than
of diatribe. It is in my view indeed stereotypical, when seen in context, for it is
a diatribe, literally linking the first mosque in Jerusalem with dung.
It is true that no one has identified a textual source for all parts of Adomnns
description. The location on the Temple mount, and the statement about the
wall in the east, likely derive from Eucherius, as previously noted, which really

43 Robert G. Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others saw it. A survey and evaluation of Christian,
Jewish and Zoroastrian writings on early Islam, Studies in Late Antiquity and early Islam
13 (Princeton, 1997), 221. For the facts he refers to the unpublished work by Julian Raby
on the earliest structures on the Haram.
44 Hoyland, Seeing Islam, p. 593 and footnote 6.
45 For a very recent discussion see Claire Barbetti, Ekphrastic Medieval Visions: A new
Discussion in Interarts Theory, The New Middle Ages (New York, 2011).
96 Nees

only leaves as new information only that it was a poorly built (uili fabricati)
quadrangular wooden building that could accommodate three thousand wor-
shippers. The adjective uilis is highly pejorative; whatever Adomnn meant by
it, and elsewhere in De locis sanctis he uses it in a way consistent with Meehans
rendering as roughly, the Oxford Latin Dictionary gives among its definitions
meanings cheap, worthless, contemptible, of little importance, associated with
low life.46 It seems not to have been remarked upon by those who have wanted
to accept it as a fair description that Adomnns brief description of the
Saracen house of prayer follows immediately upon a much longer descrip-
tion of the annual wonder that, immediately after crowds of people gather on
12 September in Jerusalem for buying and selling, and the city is filled with the
filth and stench of the discharges from the merchants camels, horses, asses and
oxen, an immense downpour washes the city clean, pouring out through the
eastern gates and entering the valley to the east. OLoughlin called attention to
precisely this passage as a signum in the Johannine sense, included for exe-
getical purposes.47
According to this text, the filth is taken away from the major Christian sanc-
tuaries in the western part of the city to flow by the ancient site of the temple
now used by the Saracens. Is it unreasonable to suggest that the description
of the latter is primarily designed by Adomnn not to be accurate but to be
condemnatory? Should we not consider that the some manner of ruined
remains (quasdam ruinarum reliquias) over which the new prayer hall was
built might, at least in Adomnns mind, more plausibly be related to the ruins
of the Temple, whose destruction he would have known from Christs predic-
tion in the Gospels (Matthew 24, 2), than from Flavius Josephuss or some
other authors description of ruins along the southern edge of the temple plat-
form?48 Indeed, the dung theme associated with non-Christians with which
Adomnn, strangely, opens his text on the Holy Places recurs at the end of his
book as well! The very last, and very short, chapter at the end of Book III is
devoted to the terrible ground-shaking thundering and blazing of Uulganus
mons (Mt. Vulcan), Mt. Etna in Sicily, on Arculfs homeward voyage, but the
penultimate chapter transmits a strange story from Constantinople.49
Adomnn has Arculf tell us that a Jewish unbeliever (Iudeus incredulus) at

46 P.G.W. Glare, ed., Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford, 1996), 206263.

47 OLoughlin, Exegetical purpose, 4344.
48 For a discussion of the structures in this area during the Late Antique period, and what
might have been present at the time of the Muslim conquest, see C. Mango, The Temple
Mount AD 614638, in Bayt al Maqdis, Part One, 116.
49 Meehan, Adamnans De locis sanctis, 11819.
Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 97

the instigation of the devil (diabulo instigante) removed a picture of the

blessed Mary from the wall of a house, and ran to the public privy nearby,
where it is customary to dispose of the soil from human bodies (ubi hamana
stercoradegeri solent) and placed it therein, and himself evacuated upon it
(purgans proprii stercus). Subsequently the image was found by a fortunate
man, zealous for the things of the Lord (felix homo zelotipus Dominicarum
rerum), who cleaned it and gave it a place of honor in his house, and it thereaf-
ter gave an issue of genuine oil from the tablet with the picture (imaginis
tabula uerum ebulliens distillat simper oleum), which Arculf when in the city
saw with his own eyes (propriis conspexit oculis).
In the manner of Roman and a fortiori Late Antique art prose, Adomnn
book-ended his text on the Holy Places with two variants on the theme of
unbelievers and dung, miraculously washed away. This is hagiography or exe-
gesis, or something else, but not history. Although Limor says of the opening
description of the baptism of Jerusalem in the first chapter of De locis Sanctis
that it despite Adomnns mediationmanage[s] to convey the excited
impression of an eye-witness, she also, I think rightly, says that the famous
description of the Saracens prayer house in the same chapter is deliberately
pejorative: Here he [Adomnn, not Arculf!] is taking aim at both Jews and
Muslims: the former, with the statement that their once magnificent temple
has been supplanted by a prayer house for a different faith; and the latter, with
the intimation that their prayer house looked quite shabby.50
Should we take literally the assertion by Adomnn that the prayer hall of the
Saracens would accommodate three thousand people? No one, to the best of
my knowledge, has considered the specific number of Saracens accommo-
dated in the prayer hall reported by Adomnn, although, as noted above, Wood
apparently thought the number not credible in a crude wooden building.51
Tabulating the size of a crowd is notoriously difficult, and modern estimates
reliably betray their ideological biases. Why specifically three thousand men,
tria hominum milia? The number seems plausible for a large mosque, although
how many Muslims would ever be at prayer in Jerusalem is very much an open
question, that need not be addressed here. If one asks, however, where
Adomnn could have found this particular number, if not from an eyewitness
estimate by Arculf (and in any event if so, how did Arculf arrive at this num-
ber?), the possible answers are interesting. I have found the three words tria
hominum milia in that exact order in no earlier Latin text, that exact order
being to the best of my knowledge found only in Adomnn and, obviously

50 Limor, 27273.
51 Woods, Arculfs luggage, 4043.
98 Nees

following Adomnn, in Bedes De locis sanctis. For the more normal word
order tria milia hominum there are a very few citations in Caesar, and one in
Orosius,52 neither of which are particularly likely sources, especially as there is
no evidence that Adomnn knew, or would have had access, to either of them,
much less would have had any reason to draw upon them in this connection.
The text of the Bible is a more likely source, especially given OLoughlins
strong case that Adomnns text was primarily designed for exegetical use.
I have been able to find only one place where the exact wording tria milia hom-
inum occurs, and it is an interesting place.53 In Exodus 32:28, after Moses
comes down from the mountain with the tablets of the Law and finds that
Aaron and the Israelites have been worshipping the golden calf, he orders the
sons of Levi to attack their brothers and neighbors, and three thousand men,
tria milia hominum, among the sinful Israelites are killed.54 There are a few
other places in the Bible where three thousand people are specified, but they
are either three thousand souls, animae (Acts 2:41), or chosen soldiers of Saul,
electorum virorum (1 Samuel 24:2, also a variant in 1 Samuel 26:2), or of Joshua,
again virorum (Joshua 7:4) sent against the men of Ai and defeated by them.
Most interesting, however, because it specifies three thousand assorted people,
in this case both men and women rather than men only, tria milia utriusque
sexus, is the scene of Samson destroying the pillared house in Gaza, bringing
it down upon himself (Judges 16:27). The Vulgate text refers to the building
with unfortunate vagueness as a domus, often translated house, but immedi-
ately before this passage, in which the Gazans made sport with their enemy
Samson, they thank their god Dagon, and offer a great sacrifice to him. The
house then is at least closely associated with a presumed temple of Dagon, it
clearly has columns, columnas quibus innitebatur domus, and of course it is
near to Jerusalem and fated to be destroyed. The context closely fits Adomnns

52 Orosius, Historiae adversum paganos 5, 12, 10, where Consul Opimius caused three
thousand supporters of C. Gracchus to be put to death. (Pauli Orosii Historiae adversum
paganos, ed. C. Zangemeister (1889), Book 5, 2, 10).
53 Vulgate citations from Bonifatius Fischer, Jean Gribomont, H.F.D. Sparks and W. Thiele,
eds., Biblia Sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem (Stuttgart, 1983).
54 Note that Exodus 32, the only biblical place that has the precise formula tria milia homi-
num employed by Adomnn, is also apparently the text that Walafrid Strabo had in mind
when he wrote his diatribe against the golden statue of Theoderic in his De imagine
Tetrici, written in 829. (See Michael Herren, The De imagine Tetrici of Walafrid Strabo:
Edition and Translation, Journal of Medieval Latin 1(1991): 11839, and comments in
Michael Herren, Walafrid Strabos De imagine Tetrici: an interpretation, in Richard
North and Tette Hofstra, eds., Latin culture and Medieval Germanic Europe (Groeningen,
1992), 2541.
Insular Latin sources, Arculf, and early Islamic Jerusalem 99

manifestly negative picture of the mosque in Jerusalem, and is, it seems to me,
at least a very likely source for the specific number of worshippers reported
there, a number that would almost certainly carry negative connotations to an
author steeped in the biblical text.55
There is no getting around the paucity of our sources for early Islamic
Jerusalem, and failing to recognize their complexity is not helpful, and can eas-
ily lead to supporting our preconceptions or prejudices. Meehans remark, on
the basis of the Adomnn text that he edited, that the Saracen building,
though very large, was clearly undistinguished [and] probably run up hastily
supports, ironically, one view of early Islamic culture, namely that under the
first rightly guided [rashidn] caliphs the new community was radically
focused on spiritual rather than material things, and that corruption of the
values associated with the Prophet Muhammad came in with the Umayyad
dynasty and their magnificent buildings, and taste for wine and other aspects
of fine living.56 The Umayyads have long suffered from a negative press, nearly
all of which stems from the period after their overthrow by the Abbasids.
Working back from the likely date of Adomnns text, 704 at the latest and
some years earlier, to the date of Arculfs visit to Jerusalem, and thus estab-
lishing a date for the earliest mosque in the caliphate of Muawiya (661680),57

55 According to OLoughlin, Adomnn and the Holy Places, 246249, his appendix on books
available to Adomnn on Iona, no commentaries on Exodus or Judges were available to
Adomnn.
56 For the historiographical problem in general see R. Stephen Humphreys, Islamic History.
A Framework for Inquiry ( rev. ed. Princeton, 1991), passim, for example 115: Our
sources for the Abbasid Revolution [and the supplanting of the Umayyads] are plainly as
partisan and tendentious as any body of texts could be. For a vivid example of a literal
reading of Umayyad corruption derived substantially from such sources see Robert W.
Hamilton, Walid and his Friends: an Umayyad Tragedy (Oxford, 1988). On the possible
unreliability of sources about events in seventh century Jerusalem see most recently Yuri
Stoyanov, Defenders and Enemies of the True Cross. The Sasanian Conquest of Jerusalem in
614 and Byzantine Ideology of Anti-Persian Warfare, sterreichische Akademie der
Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse, Sitzungsberichte 819, Verffentli
chungen zur Iranistik 61 (Vienna, 2011), esp. 1523, with extended discussion and abun-
dant scholarly literature, concerning the gap between the dramatic destruction of
Christian churches and slaughter of Christians in most of the written sources, and the
archaeological evidence that show little if any cataclysmic change at this point either in
Jerusalem or more widely in Syrian-Palestine. This study of the immediate pre-Islamic
period should be a salutary reminder that the written sources ought not to be accepted
uncritically.
57 See the fine recent monograph by R. Stephen Humphreys, Muawiya ibn Abi Sufyan. From
Arabia to Empire (Oxford, 2006), 11, which follows the historiographical tradition of
100 Nees

or at an earlier date, is really dangerously building upon if not sand, then upon
ruins. That Adomnn is correct in stating that in Jerusalem Muslims prayed on
the former site of the Temple is abundantly attested by other sources, and
could have been known to Adomnn in a number of ways, not only by the
miraculous appearance of a remarkably wayward Frankish bishop. No other
information in Adomnns text about the Islamic structure is acceptable as his-
torical evidence; that the building was crudely built accords with the pejora-
tive context in which the passage is placed, and the number of worshippers
who used the building stems from a biblical context, again pejorative. Scholars
of early Islam should at the very least cease presenting Arculf as the source
for their statements, and cease to take the statements in Adomnns book as
unambiguous confirmation of an otherwise very uncertain situation on the
ground, while specialists on early Latin texts can rejoice in yet another exam-
ple that the authors they study are not best characterized as prisoners of their
limited sources but rather were creative, could be clever at imposing upon the
readers credulity, and are not lightly to be taken literally.

early Islamic studies by referring to Arculf as a source, and ignoring Adomnn: The
mosque elicited only a brief and condescending comment from the Frankish pilgrim
Arculfduring his visit to the Holy Land in 682.
 CHAPTER 6

Customs Confirmed by Reason and Authority

The Function and Status of Houses of Canons in Tenth-Century
Aquitaine

Anna Trumbore Jones

The early work of Daniel Callahan focused on Benedictine monasteries in

Aquitaine in the tenth and early eleventh centuries.1 Before turning his atten-
tion exclusively to that most famous (or infamous) Aquitanian Benedictine,
Ademar of Chabannes, Callahan surveyed the different monastic communities
of the region and explored the role they played in its political life. In so doing,
he became a key contributor to an extensive body of scholarship on monasti-
cism in southwestern France that has developed over the past fifty years.2
Another important type of religious institution in tenth and early eleventh-
century Aquitainehouses of canonshas been less fortunate in the amount
of scholarly attention it has garnered. At first glance, this seems strange, given
that communities of canons in Aquitaine were both numerous and respected
enough to receive plentiful donations. Why, then, have canons been the poor
relation of tenth-century church history in Aquitaine?3
There are several possible explanations. The first is that the term house of
canons covers a range of communities that seem to have little in common,
from clerics serving cathedrals to collegial churches large and small. Because

1 Daniel Callahan, Benedictine Monasticism in Aquitaine, 9351030, Ph.D. dissertation,

University of Wisconsin, 1968; Callahan, William the Great and the Monasteries of
Aquitaine, Studia Monastica 19 (1977): 3242.
2 A comprehensive bibliography of work like Callahans would be quite long; notable entries
include: Franoise Coutansais, Les monastres du Poitou avant lan mil, Revue Mabillon
53 (1963): 121; Thomas Head, The Development of the Peace of God in Aquitaine
(9701005), Speculum 74 (1999): 65686; Ccile Treffort, Le comte de Poitiers, duc
dAquitaine, et lglise aux alentours de lan mil (9701030), Cahiers de civilization mdivale
43 (2000): 395445; Jean Verdon, Le monachisme en Poitou au Xe sicle, Revue Mabillon 59
(1978): 23553.
3 Jean Becquet, La vie commune du clerg aux XIe et XIIe sicles: Problmes et recherches,
Cahiers de civilization mdivale 3 (1960): 12932 at p. 130. For a survey of French scholar-
ship on canons, see Anne Massoni, Un nouvel instrument de travail pour la communaut
scientifique: Le repertoire des collgiales sculires de France lpoque mdivale, Revue
dhistoire ecclsiastique 102 (2007): 91539 at pp. 91522, esp. n. 19.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_008

102 Jones

of this variety, it can be maddeningly difficult to answer the most basic general
questions about canons: what does it mean to be a canon? What are the origins
of this type of community? What, if any, rule did they follow? While there were
some important attempts to regulate the lifestyle of canons in the early Middle
Agesmost notably the rule written by Bishop Chrodegang of Metz in the
eighth centurythere were no rules for canons as widely influential as that of
Benedict for monasteries.4 The order of canons in this period thus lacked even
the minimal cohesion provided by a common rule.5 When the French scholar
Michel Aubrun defines canons succinctly as groups of clerics who live in com-
munity but are not monks, this definition may seem frustratingly vague, as it
provides little detail about what canonical observance entailed, or about how
it differed from monastic life in any given time or place.6 Aubruns formulation
has two key advantages, however: it is broad enough to encompass the variety
of canonical communities that existed in the early Middle Ages, while also
highlighting the fact that the canonical lifestyle had few defining qualities that
remained constant across those different types of communities. To add to the
complexity, canonical life and monastic life were often quite difficult to distin-
guish in the early Middle Ages, as a range of monastic lifestyles co-existed
alongside a range of canonical onessometimes even at the same house.7

4 A recent edition and translation of Chrodegangs Rule is found in Jerome Bertram, ed. and
trans., The Chrodegang Rules: The Rules for the Common Life of the Secular Clergy from the
Eighth and Ninth Centuries, Church, Faith and Culture in the Mediaeval West (Aldershot,
2005). An older edition is found in Wilhelm Schmitz, ed., S. Chrodegangi Metensis episcopi
(742766) Regula canonicorum (Hannover, 1889). See also the review article by Julia Barrow:
Chrodegang, his rule, and its successors, Early Medieval Europe 14 (2006): 20112. On the
commonalities between Chrodegangs monastic and canonical foundations, see Semmler,
Mnche und Kanoniker, 8183.
5 M.A. Claussen, The Reform of the Frankish Church: Chrodegang of Metz and the Regula canoni-
corum in the Eighth Century (Cambridge, 2004), 9; Giles Constable, The Reformation of the
Twelfth Century (Cambridge, 1996), 11.
6 Michel Aubrun, Lancien diocse de Limoges des origines au milieu du XI sicle, Institut dtudes
du massif central 21 (Clermont-Ferrand, 1981), 148.
7 Claussen, Reform of the Frankish Church, 915. The definitive survey of medieval canons
remains Charles Dereine, Chanoines (des origines au XIIIe sicle), Dictionnaire dhistoire et
de gographie ecclsiastiques, ed. Alfred Baudrillart et al., vol. 12 (Paris, 1953), cols. 353405
at cols. 35861. A more recent overview is found in Guy Marchal, Was war das weltliche
Kanonikerinstitut im Mittelalter? Eine Einfhrung und eine neue Perspektive, Revue
dhistoire ecclsiastique 94 (1999): 761807 and 95 (2000): 753. Josef Semmler makes clear
that in the early Carolingian period, lines between monks and canons were often blurred:
Mnche und Kanoniker im Frankenreich Pippins III. und Karls des Groen, in
Untersuchungen zu Kloster und Stift, Verffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts fr
Geschichte 68 (Gttingen, 1980), 78111 at 8182. There are famous examples of early
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 103

The Carolingian era saw an attempt to clarify these categories of religious

observance. It has been persuasively argued that this was due less to any per-
ceived decadence of religious houses and more to the developing vision
of imperial rule. After 800, Charlemagne, in his new role as emperor, sought
to impose universal norms on the church throughout his realm, leading to
reforms in liturgy, canon law, and religious life.8 Louis the Pious inherited this
ethos from his father, and during his reign two councils at Aachen in 816 and
817 laid out detailed rules for canonical and monastic institutions.9 The 816
session on canons reproduced patristic and conciliar texts on the life of clerics
and also produced a rule intended to regulate houses of canons throughout the
empire. While Aachen 816 urged canons, like monks, to emulate the perfection
of the apostolic community, it also distinguished them from monks by allow-
ing them to keep their own property and to be less strict with regard to food
and clothing.10
The desire on the part of the Carolingian rulers to bring more clarity to the
different religious orders is thus clear. What is not clear is the extent to which
their regulations actually affected observance in different areas of the realm at
the time they were issued, or whether and where these guidelines remained
influential into the tenth century.11 Indeed, some studies have noted that in the
tenth century there were houses in which individuals followed a variety
of observances, just as there had been in the pre-Carolingian era. Many con-
temporaries seem to have accepted this situation as part of the tradition of a
given community, even if it distressed certain reformers preferring a more

medieval communities that had both monks and canons on the premises: on Saint-
Martin de Tours, see Hlne Noizet, La fabrique de la ville: Espaces et socit Tours (IXe-
XIIIe sicle), Histoire ancienne et mdivale 92 (Paris, 2007), 2936; on Saint-Hilaire de
Poitiers, see Lon Levillain, Les origines du monastre de Nouaill, Bibliothque de
lcole des Chartes 71 (1910): 24198.
8 Noizet, La fabrique de la ville, pp. 3236.
9 For the decrees of Aachen 816 and 817, see Concilium Aquisgranense, ed. Albert
Werminghoff, MGH Concilia 2, Concilia Aevi Carolini 1 (Hannover, 1906), 307464.
A partial edition and translation of the decrees for canons from Aachen 816 is found in
Bertram, The Chrodegang Rules, 96174.
10 Notable canons of Aachen include nos. 114, 116, 120, 122, 12425: Bertram, The
Chrodegang Rules, pp. 1057, 108, 11012, 11415. See also Dereine, Chanoines, cols.
36466.
11 Maureen Miller, The Bishops Palace: Architecture and Authority in Medieval Italy (Ithaca,
NY, 2000), 81; Massoni, Un nouvel instrument, 93133. Other scholars seem more con-
fident of the influence of Aachen: Jean Becquet, Collgiales et sanctuaires de chanoines
sculiers en Limousin aux Xe-XIIe-sicles, Bulletin de la Socit archologique et histo-
rique du Limousin 103 (1976): 75106 at pp. 7577; Dereine, Chanoines, col. 366 on
Limoges.
104 Jones

homogenous adherence to one form of life.12 The very existence of repeated

attemptson both small and large scalesto achieve clear distinctions
between monastic and canonical practices suggests that there was widespread
lack of clarity on the issue, and that many residents of these communities
remained unperturbed by the blurring of such boundaries.
When we discuss tenth-century canons, therefore, it is difficult to determine
whatif anyorganizing principles or texts the houses followed. From this
period there is no equivalent of the Rule of Aachen or of the later treatises and
normative texts that would appear as part of the emergence of regular canons
in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries.13 In the absence of normative
sources, we are often reliant on charter evidence in reconstructing houses of
canons in the long tenth century, which presents its own challenges to that
effort. This relative paucity of evidence means that, with a few notable excep-
tions, scholars have not addressed the question of what the canonical lifestyle
entailed in France in the era between the Carolingian and Gregorian reforms.14

12 Guy-Marie Oury, Lidal monastique dans la vie canoniale: Le Bienhereux Herv de Tours
(d. 1022), Revue Mabillon 52 (1962): 131 at pp. 1114, 18; Dereine, Chanoines, col.
362 on Saint-Hilaire in Poitiers.
13 On the complicated issue of texts essential to the origins of the regular canons in the
twelfth century, see Yannick Veyrenche, Quia vos estis qui sanctorum patrum vitam proba-
bilem renovatis: Naissance des chanoines rguliers, jusqu Urbain II, in Michel Parisse,
ed., Les chanoines rguliers: mergence et expansion (XIe-XIIIe sicles) (Saint-tienne,
2009), 2969 at pp. 3042. Later such texts include treatises such as the Libellus de diversis
ordinibus et professionibus qui sunt in ecclesia, ed. and trans. G. Constable and B. Smith
(Oxford, 1972), which help illuminate the spirituality of regular canons. See also Constable,
Reformation, 1113, 5455; Caroline Walker Bynum, Docere verbo et exemplo: An Aspect of
Twelfth-Century Spirituality, Harvard Theological Studies 31 (Missoula, MT, 1979).
14 Those exceptions include: Jean Becquet, Vie canoniale en France aux Xe-XIIe sicles
(London, 1985); Jean Chtillon, Le mouvement canonial au Moyen ge: Rforme de lglise,
spiritualit, et culture, Bibliotheca Victorina 3 (Brepols and Paris, 1992); Anne Massoni,
ed. Collgiales et chanoines dans le centre de la France du Moyen ge la Rvolution:
Ancienne province ecclsiastique de Bourges (Limoges, 2010); Grard Robin, Le problem
de la vie commune au chapitre de la cathdrale Saint-Maurice dAngers du IXe au XIIe
sicle, Cahiers de civilization mdivale 13 (1970): 30522. In many cases, however (such
as the Becquet, Chtillon, and Massoni collections), the focus of the volume remains
post-1059 (for more such examples, see below, note 28). Tenth-century canons have
received more attention in certain other areas of Europe. See, for example, the work of
Brigitte Meijns on Flanders, which includes: Chanoines et moines Saint-Omer: Le
ddoublement de labbaye de Sithiu par Fridogise (820834) et linterprtation de Folcuin
(vers 962), Revue du Nord: Histoire 83 (2001), 691705; Deux fondations exception-
nelles de collgiales piscopales la frontire du comt de Flandre: Maroeuil et le Mont-
Saint-loi (milieu du Xe sicle), Revue du Nord: Histoire 88 (2006), 251273; Lordre
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 105

A second, and closely related, reason for scholarly difficulty in reconstruct-

ing the lives of tenth-century canons is the lack of specificity of the vocabulary
used in contemporary texts, particularly charters. The most common terms for
communities of canons in the documentary sources I have examined are mon-
asterium, capella, and cellula, none of which are unique to collegial houses, but
rather were also used to describe monasteries. Anne Massoni, who leads a team
of French scholars working on medieval canons, has recently highlighted the
hazards involved in choosing vocabulary with which to talk about houses of
canons; for example, scholars often refer to them as collegial churches, a term
not employed by contemporaries.15 Sharp distinctions between communities
of canons and monasteriesdespite the efforts of Carolingian reformers
thus often do not appear in the vocabulary of tenth-century documents.
To compensate, scholars have tried to come up with more descriptive labels,
such as secular canons, regular canons, or canon-monks, to designate the
members of particular communities. Each of these terms leaves something to
be desired. Secular canons is sometimes used to describe cathedral canons as
distinct from collegial communities, although the term secular risks implying

canonial dans le comt de Flandre depuis lpoque mrovingienne jusqu 1155:

Typologie, chronologie et constants de lhistoire de fondation et de rforme, Revue
dhistoire ecclsiastique 97 (2002): 558; Les premires collgiales des comtes de Flandre,
leurs reliques et les consquences des invasions normandes (IXe-Xe sicles), Revue belge
de Philologie et dHistoire 85(2007); 53975. On Switzerland, see Josef Siegwart, O.P., Die
Chorherren und Chorfrauengemeinchaften in der deutschsprachigen Schweiz vom 6.
Jahrhundert bis 1160, mit einem berblick ber die deutsche Kanonikerreform des 10. und
11. Jarhunderts, Studia Friburgensia, Neue Folge 30 (Freiburg, 1962). Significant atten-
tion has also been paid to cathedral canons, particularly in their relations with their bish-
ops: Joseph Avril, La participation du clerg diocsain aux dcisions piscopales, in
propos des actes dvques: Hommage Lucie Fossier, ed. Michel Parisse (Nancy, 1991),
25163; Johannes Josef Bauer, Die vita canonica der katalanischen Kathedralkapitel vom
9. bis zum 11. Jahrhundert, in Homaje a Johannes Vincke para el 11 de Mayo 1962, 2 vol-
umes (Madrid, 1962), 1:81112; Everett U. Crosby, Bishop and Chapter in Twelfth-Century
England: A Study of the Mensa Episcopalis (Cambridge, 1994); Odilo Engels, Episkopat
und Kanonie im mittelalterlichen Katalonien, in Reconquista und Landesherrschaft:
Studien zur Rechts und Verfassungsgeschichte Spaniens im Mittelalter (Paderborn, 1989),
pp. 149201; Anna Trumbore Jones, Noble Lord, Good Shepherd: Episcopal Power and Piety
in Aquitaine (Leiden, 2009), chapter 2; Arnold Pschl, Bischofsgut und mensa episcopalis:
Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des kirchlichen Vermgensrechtes, Vol. 2: Die Gterteilungen
zwischen Prlaten und Kapiteln in karolingischer Zeit (Bonn, 1909).
15 Massoni, Un nouvel instrument, 925; for further discussion of categories of houses of
canons employed by those working on her team, see her introduction in Massoni, ed.
Collgiales et chanoines, pp. 720 at pp. 1014.
106 Jones

the lack of a rule or an observance wanting in religiosity. Regular canons

might simply refer to canons who follow a rule, but the term later carried a
technical meaning (referring to Augustinian canons) that does not apply in
this period.16 Lon Levillain preferred canon-monks for collegial communi-
ties, in order to indicate their closeness in practice to monastic groups,
although the possible implication that canons were seeking to emulate a
monastic model is not necessarily accurate.17 Modern terms employed by
scholars in an attempt to compensate for seemingly imprecise contemporary
vocabulary are therefore liable to obscure more than they reveal.
A final reason for scholarly neglect of houses of canons in the long tenth
century may be that certain key narrative sources from and about the period
were written by Benedictine monks who were convinced that the life of can-
ons was inferior to their own. This is certainly true of the most important con-
temporary chronicle in Aquitaine, that of Ademar of Chabannes.18 While he
does not always speak ill of communities of canons, Ademar is reliably scath-
ing about cases in which a house chose canonical over monastic observance.
In his description of the transition from monastic to canonical life at Saint-
Martin de Tours, for example, Ademar claimed that many of the former monks
died after taking this decision; he comments that while the canons may have
been refreshed by meat as a result of their new regime, they were soon pun-
ished by a mortal plague.19 In another case, Ademar inaccurately blamed the
transition from monastic to canonical life at Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand in Poitiers
on the chaos resulting from Viking raids, implying that it was not a decision
that would have been made in less turbulent times.20 When the monastery
of Eymoutiers was transformed into a house of canons under the auspices of
Bishop Hilduin of Limoges, Ademar attributed this to the devils persuasion.21

16 Johannes Bauer argues that to label canons as secular or regular is not meaningful
before 1059: Die vita canonica, 96. See also Dereine, Chanoines, col. 375.
17 Lon Levillain, Les origines du monastre de Nouaill, 26773.
18 Ademar of Chabannes, Ademari Cabannensis Chronicon, ed. Pascale Bourgain, Richard
Landes, and Georges Pon, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 129 (Turnhout,
1999). The editors note on p. 263 that Ademar hated canons.
19 Ademar, Chronicon, 3.18 (pp. 13536).
20 Ademar, Chronicon, 3.25 (pp. 14647).
21 Ademar, Chronicon, 3.35 (p. 157). The story is told in more detail, but with equal venom,
in a later monastic chronicle, the Historia monasterii Usercensis, which is found in the
edition of the charters of that house: Jean-Baptiste Champeval, ed., Cartulaire de labbaye
dUzerche (Paris and Tulle, 1901), 1350 at pp. 2324. On Eymoutiers, see Anne Massonis
forthcoming article in the Bulletin de la Socit archologique et historique du Limousin:
Le chapitre collgial Saint-tienne dEymoutiers du Moyen ge la Rvolution. I thank
Dr. Massoni for sharing her manuscript with me before its publication.
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 107

This disapproval of canonical life on the part of contemporary monastics was

also echoed in sources from the era of papal reform.22 The picture drawn by
such sources might cause scholars unwittingly to underestimate the impor-
tance of houses of canons in the religious life of the tenth century.
Whatever certain Benedictines or later reformers thought of the state of
houses of canons in this period, however, donors and founders embraced
them. Donors gave in great numbers to such communities and asked for the
same prayers for their own souls and those of their loved ones that they
requested from monasteries.23 The years around 1000 saw a flurry of founda-
tions of collegiate churches in the Limousin and Poitou, indicating enthusiasm
for such communities among the wealthy men and women of the region.24
Individual houses of canons developed formidable reputations for sanctity
and learning: the venerable collegial community of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand, for
example, was one of the most prominent religious houses in the region and
was host to a famous school.25 This positive attitude is summed up in a passage
from the proceedings of the Council of Limoges from 1031. This account was
confectedironically enoughby Ademar of Chabannes, but I have argued
elsewhere that it reflects broader contemporary Aquitanian ideas about eccle-
siology.26 In the text, Ademar recounts a speech by Bishop Jordan of Limoges
(d. 1050/1), in which the bishop makes an argument for the equal legitimacy of
canonical and monastic lifestyles:

Are canons able to rebuke monks for twelve readings, or monks rebuke
canons for nine? Both are confirmed by reason and authority; three times

22 Oury, Lidal monastique, 12; Dereine, Chanoines, cols. 375 ff.

23 Anna Trumbore Jones, Fragments of Devotion: Charters and Canons in Aquitaine,
8761050, in History in the Comic Mode: Medieval Communities and the Matter of Person,
ed. Rachel Fulton and Bruce W. Holsinger (New York, 2007), 8190.
24 Jean Becquet makes the intriguing point that areas that saw intense castle-building activ-
ity saw the foundation of numerous collegial houses: Collgiales et sanctuaires, 7778;
elsewhere (La vie commune, 130), Becquet argues that houses of canons may have been
more attractive to founders because they were cheaper to establish, as the canons could
hold their own property and thus required less extensive economic support. See also
Oury, Lidal monastique, 3.
25 Michel Garaud, Les coles et lenseignement Poitiers du IVe la fin du XIIe sicle,
Bulletin de la Socit des antiquaires de lOuest, 3rd series, 14 (19461948): 8298. The
school was overseen by Hildegar, a disciple of Fulbert of Chartres, who appeared fre-
quently in Fulberts letters: Frederick Behrends, ed. and trans., The Letters and Poems of
Fulbert of Chartres (Oxford, 1976).
26 Anna Trumbore Jones, Discovering the Aquitanian Church in the Corpus of Ademar of
Chabannes, The Haskins Society Journal 19 (2007): 8298.
108 Jones

four for the four parts of the world subjected to the holy Trinity, three
times three for the nine orders of angels giving glory to the holy Trinity.
That holy Pope Gregory, filled with the spirit of all the just, previously a
monk, then an apostle, approved twelve. Nine were handed down by the
martyr Ignatius, disciple of blessed Peter, who heard readings and psalms
offered nine times in heaven by choirs of angels; then this number of
psalms and readings and responses was kept by the council of Nicaea and
by this same Saint Gregory.27

According to this passage, therefore, both the canonical and monastic sched-
ules of prayers have exalted authority behind them; this attitude seems to
reflect that of the wider population of donors.
In sum, Aquitanian houses of canons in the tenth and early eleventh cen-
tury present a puzzle for historians. The communities and their lifestyle were
condemned by certain Benedictine authors but embraced by donors. The limi-
tations of the evidence make reconstructing how the houses functioned chal-
lenging, but the prominent place these communities held in the religious lives
of contemporaries means that they should command more scholarly atten-
tion. Happily, more extensive scholarship on canons has begun to appear,
although both the tenth century and Aquitaine remain relatively underrepre-
sented in these studies.28 For the remainder of this essay, I shall focus on three

27 Joannes Domenicus Mansi, ed., Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, vol. xix
(Venice, 1774, repr. Graz, 1960), cols. 50748 at col. 534: Numquid canonici monachos
pro duodecim lectionibus, vel monachi canonicos pro novem numero reprehendere pos-
sunt? Utraque enim ratione et auctoritate firma sunt; ter quatuor pro quatuor mundi par-
tibus S. Trinitati subjectis, ter autem ternis pro novem angelorum ordinibus S. Trinitati
gloriam dantibus. Duodecim comprobavit ille vir spiritu omnium justorum plenus sanc-
tusque papa Gregorius, prius monachus, postea apostolicus. Novem traditae sunt a disci-
pulo beati Petri Ignatio martyre, qui per novenarium numerum lectiones et psalmos ab
angelorum choris prolata audivit in caelo: deinde a Necaeno concilio, deinde ab ipso
sancto Gregorio hic numerus in psalmis et lectionibus atque responsoriis observatus est.
28 Massoni, Nouvel instrument; Massoni, ed., Collgiales et chanoines; Roselyne Le
Bourgeois, Anne Massoni, and Pascal Montaubin, eds., Les collgiales et la ville dans la
province ecclsiastique de Reims (IXe-XVIe sicles), Publications de C.A.H.M.E.R. 23
(Amiens, 2010); Michel Parisse, ed. Les chanoines rguliers: mergence et expansion
(XIe-XIIIe sicles) (Saint-tienne, 2009); Jean-Charles Picard, ed., Les chanoines dans
la ville: Recherches sur la topographie des quartiers canoniaux en France (Paris, 1994);
M.-H. Vicaire, ed. Le monde des chanoines (XIe-XIVe sicles) (Toulouse, 1988); La vita
comune del clero nei secoli xi e xii, Atti della Settimana di studio: Mendola, settembre 1959,
Miscellanea del centro di studi medioevali 3, 2 volumes (Milan, 1962).
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 109

houses of canons in the Limousin region of Aquitaine: Le Dorat, Lesterps, and

Noblat. After reviewing the origin of the three communities and the surviving
evidence, I will explore two themes: first, the houses involvement in the net-
works of power in the region, and second, what can be reconstructed about
their observance and ideals of piety.29 While the evidence for each community
is both limited and challenging, I will argue that these cases point to the poten-
tial profit that might come from broader study of this neglected type of
institution.
Both Le Dorat and Lesterps were founded by members of the nobility of the
Limousin. Le Dorat was established in ca. 987 by Boso the Old, first count of
the March.30 Boso built his community on a spot where there had been for
many years a small chapel called Scotorum, a name that some scholars have
speculated indicates a Celtic, or even Columbanian, foundation.31 In the foun-
dation charter, Boso described his desire to give up land, that most durable of
assets, as a sign of his equally enduring desire to make amends for his sins.32
He built a church (capella) in honor of Saint Peter and, out of the many possi-
ble ways of living in the service of God, he established the order of canons at
the small community (cellula) there.33 Boso also named a certain Fulk as the

29 An excellent survey of houses of canons in the Limousinparticularly focusing on their

political significanceis to be found in Anne Massoni, Les collgiales limousines au
Moyen ge: Enjeux de pouvoir entre lglise et le sicle in Massoni, ed., Collgiales et
chanoines, 8193, esp. 8589 for the tenth century.
30 On the origins of the county of the March and the career of Boso the Old, see George
Thomas, Les comtes de la Marche de la Maison de Charroux (Xe sicle-1177), Mmoires
de la Socit des sciences naturelles et archologiques de la Creuse 23 (19251927): 561
699 at 56275. On Boso and his sons conflicts with the viscounts of Limoges and counts
of Poitou/dukes of Aquitaine, see Head, The Development of the Peace of God.
31 Massoni, Les collgiales limousines, 87; Jacques de Font-Raulx, Le chapitre Saint-
Pierre du Dorat: Notice historique, Bulletin de la Socit archologique et historique du
Limousin 73 (1930): 35183 at 37. There also exists a charter claiming that Le Dorat was
founded by Clovis, but this has been convincingly dismissed as a forgery. The legend of
Cloviss involvement at Le Dorat does not appear until the later Middle Ages: Font-Raulx,
Le chapitre Saint-Pierre du Dorat, 37.
32 Jacques de Font-Raulx, ed., Recueil des textes et danalyses concernant le chapitre Saint-
Pierre du Dorat, Bulletin de la Socit archologique et historique du Limousin 72 (1927):
250370 at no. 2, pp. 25557. While some scholars have argued that the foundation char-
ter of Boso was a forgery (Thomas, Les comtes de la Marche, 56970), Font-Raulx
makes a convincing case that the bulk of the charter (excluding the witness list and date
clause) is genuine: Le chapitre Saint-Pierre du Dorat, 3842.
33 Font-Raulx, ed., Recueil des textes, p. 256: diversis enim modis movemur mancipari
servitio Dei, e quibus unum et praecipuum eligimus ordinem canonicum Boso had
110 Jones

first leader of the community and instructed that when Fulk died a new prior
should be chosen canonically. Boso claimed that his actions were supported by
his familyhis wife and four sons were mentioned in the documentand
this assertion is reinforced by the gift made to Le Dorat soon thereafter by his
son, Robert, of a church and lands in the Prigord.34
Lesterps, meanwhile, was founded ca. 975 by a castellan, Jordan I, lord of the
Chabannais.35 The similarities between Jordans charter and that of Boso for Le
Dorat go far beyond their proximity in date and location. Jordan and his wife,
pondering the weight of their sins and considering their future return to the
dust from which they were made, decided to establish a community (monaste-
rium) at Lesterps dedicated to the Trinity and Saint Peter. Supported in this
decision by their four sons (one of whom was abbot of the powerful Poitevin
monastery of Charroux), Jordan and his family freed the community and its
properties from their own control and entrusted it to the papacy for protection
in exchange for an annual payment of five solidi. Jordan encouraged anyone
who held property or incomes through service to him to turn over those assets
to the community, privileging a salutary inheritance for their souls over
worldly wealth. While Jordan did not, in his charter, discuss his choice of
canonical life for his establishments, he did refer to canons living at the house
under the rule of abbots and rectors.
The origins of Noblat are less well documented. There are, to my knowledge,
no charters surviving from the house in the tenth century, or indeed earlier.
The legend of Noblats foundation reaches back to the time of Clovis, when
Saint Leonard receiving a grant of land to found a community.36 The cult of

previously shown himself amenable to houses of canons when he supported the estab-
lishment of the community of La-Tour-Saint-Austrille in 958: Jacques de Font-Raulx, ed.,
Cartulaire de Saint-tienne de Limoges, Bulletin de la Socit archologique et historique
du Limousin 69 (1922):C 5207 at no. 8 (pp. 2527); Gallia Christiana in provincias eccle-
siasticas distributa, volume 2 (Paris, 1720): Instrumenta, cols. 16869.
34 Font-Raulx, ed., Recueil des textes, no. 3, pp. 25758. Robert is also rendered as Jaubert
and Holbert.
35 Massoni, Les collgiales limousines, p. 87. G. Babinet de Rencogne, ed., Notice et dis-
sertation sur un fragment du cartulaire de labbaye de lEsterps, Bulletin de la Socit
archologique et historique de la Charente, 3rd series, 4 (1862): 4763 at 5052; for
Rencognes discussion of the date of the charter, see pp. 5256. The charter also appears
in Gallia Christiana 2: Instrumenta, cols. 19495, with the date of 1032, which Rencogne
convincingly shows to be incorrect.
36 De sancto Leonardo confessore Nobiliacensi, AASS Novembris 3:15055 (BHL 4862). On
Noblats legendary origins see Amy Remensnyder, Remembering Kings Past: Monastic
Foundation Legends in Medieval Southern France (Ithaca, NY and London, 1995),
11921.
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 111

Leonard only came to prominence in the early eleventh century, however; our
evidence for it begins with a mention in the chronicle of Ademar and contin-
ues with an eleventh-century hagiographical dossier. Because of this, some
scholars have argued that the foundation of Noblat actually occurred around
the year 1000, despite the legends claims for greater antiquity.37
In Le Dorat, Lesterps, and Noblat we have three communities of canons,
each located only twenty-five to forty miles from the other two, and all possibly
founded around the same time. The surviving documentation from the houses
is limited. At Le Dorat and Lesterps, a handful of charters survive from the
tenth and early eleventh centuries. Some information is found in the contem-
porary chronicle of Ademar of Chabannes and in the twelfth-century Chronicle
of Saint-Maixent.38 What makes these three houses stand out from others in
this period are the saints lives they produced or inspired. In an era in which
Aquitanian hagiography is notable primarily for the re-fashioning of local
saints from confessors into apostles, these houses were associated with a dif-
ferent tradition.39 Three canons who lived at Le Dorat in the late tenth and
eleventh centuries inspired hagiographical texts: Israel (d. 1014), Theobald
(d. 1070), and Gaulterius (d. 1070), who began his career at Le Dorat and ended
as abbot of Lesterps. The Life of Gaulterius was written in the 1090s by Bishop
Marbode of Rennes, who had been schoolmaster and archdeacon at Angers
before taking up his bishopric in 1096.40 The vitae of Israel and Theobald were
probably composed in the early twelfth century at Le Dorat, although there is
some disagreement on this point.41 Meanwhile, Bishop Jordan of Limoges,

37 Ademar, Chronicon, 3.56 (pp. 17677); see also Steven Sargent, Religious Responses to
Social Violence in Eleventh-Century Aquitaine, Historical Reflexions/Rflexions
Historiques 12 (1985), 21940; on the cult of Leonard in the crusade era, see Marcus Bull,
Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade: The Limousin and Gascony,
c. 970c. 1130 (Oxford, 1993), 23649.
38 Jean Verdon, ed. and trans., La chronique de Saint-Maixent, 7511140, Les classiques de
lhistoire de France au Moyen ge 33 (Paris, 1979).
39 For a recent painstaking reconstruction of the apostolic hagiography in Prigueux, as well
as an excellent summary of preceding scholarship, see Samantha Kahn Herrick, Studying
Apostolic Hagiography: The Case of Fronto of Prigueux, Disciple of Christ, Speculum 85
(2010), 23570. See also Richard Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History:
Ademar of Chabannes, 9891034 (Cambridge, MA, 1995), chapters 913.
40 Marbode of Rennes, De s. Gualterio seu Gauterio abbate et canonico Stirpensi (BHL 8802),
AASS Mai 2:7016. On Marbode, see the introduction to a recent edition of another of his
works: Marbodo di Rennes, Vita beati Roberti, ed. Antonella DeglInnocenti, Biblioteca del
medioevo Latino (Florence, 1995), viixxiii.
41 The vitae of Israel (BHL 4496) and Theobald (BHL 8027) are found in Philippe Labb,
Nova bibliotheca manuscriptorum librorum, 2 volumes (Paris, 1657), 2:56667 and
112 Jones

who had been prior of Noblat before his elevation to the episcopate, inquired
about the existence of a vita of Noblats patron saint, Leonard, in the early part
of the eleventh century. Jordan probably commissioned the surviving vita
shortly thereafter; a considerable collection of miracle stories was also made in
the mid-eleventh century.42 Using all these texts, I turn now to discussing what
can be gleaned about two topics: the role of collegial communities in local
power relations, as well as the lifestyle and religious attitudes that reigned at
these houses.
It has become commonplacein part thanks to the work of Daniel
Callahanto understand monasteries as key parts of networks of power in
this period, and some scholars have begun to recognize the same as true of
houses of canons.43 In Aquitaine, ducal, comital, and viscomital families both
patronized existing monasteries and houses of canons and founded new ones,
as ways to increase their prestige and solidify their hold on authority in a given
area. Founding or patronizing houses of canons, whose residents often kept
their own private property and thus may have required less economic support,
may have been a particularly attractive way for castellansor a family recently
raised to comital status, like that of the Marchto reap these benefits even if
they were not wealthy enough to found a monastery. Le Dorat and Lesterps
feature prominently in the political and military exploits of their founding
families and were used to build alliances and solidify their patrons position
against their rivals.

2:68384; Theobalds vita is also found in AASS Novembris 3:31419. The editors of the
Acta Sanctorum, as well as Jean Becquet and Michel Aubrun, assume the texts were com-
posed by the early twelfth century: AASS Novembris 3:314; Becquet, Collgiales et sanc-
tuaires, 8384; Becquet, Saint Isral, prvot de Saint-Junien vers lan mil, Bulletin de la
Socit archologique et historique du Limousin 120 (1992): 2732; Aubrun, Lancien
diocse, p. 150. While Becquet and the AASS editors acknowledge that the other material
in the hagiographic dossiers of Israel and Theobald date much later than our period,
Jacques de Font-Raulx suspects that the vitae were also produced after the medieval
period (although it must be pointed out that he still uses the Life of Theobald as evidence
for an argument about the house in the eleventh century): Font-Raulx, Le chapitre
Saint-Pierre du Dorat, pp. 4548.
42 BHL 4862; AASS Novembris 3:15055 for the vita and 3:15559 for the roughly contem-
porary first book of miracles. Bishop Jordan of Limoges asked Fulbert of Chartres to find
any extant vita of Leonard for him: Behrends, ed., The Letters and Poems of Fulbert of
Chartres, no. 114 (pp. 2047).
43 Jean-Francois Lemarignier, Aspects politiques des fondations de collgiales dans le roy-
aume de France au XIe sicle, in La vita commune del clero, 1:1949. Massoni follows his
example in Les collgiales limousines.
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 113

Soon after the foundation of Le Dorat by the newly-minted counts of the

March, the house came under the direction of a close ally. It is unknown exactly
when the first prior of Le Dorat, Fulk, died; by the year 1000, however, a new
leader, Peter Drut, appears in the documents.44 Ademar of Chabannes gives
more detail on Peter and his family: Peters father, Abo, was a powerful military
leader who resisted royal interference in the region and worked with Count
Aldebert of the March to build the castle of Mortemart. So influential was this
family that after Aldeberts death, Duke William V ordered Abos sons, the
above-mentioned Peter and his brother Unbertus, to safeguard the March until
the heir to the comital title, Bernard, came of age.45 It is surely significant
that the March family decided to entrust their new establishment to this
powerful friend.
Peter Druts influence at Le Dorat was multi-faceted. First, he held the titles
of abbot and cantor. His role as cantorthe person responsible for leading the
singing of prayerssuggests that Peter was not simply a titular head but rather
a full member of the community. Second, he wielded military power, which he
used at first to protect the March and Le Dorat. According to Ademar of
Chabannes, Peter was a wise leader of Le Dorat as long as he benefited from
the guidance of Ainard, provost of the house, and Ainards two brothers, Abo
and Raymond.46 However, Peter lost these advisors in quick succession to
death and illness. In the wake of these sorrows, Peter went off the rails: he
made decisions at randomand seemed terrible as a lion.47 He burned the
castle his father had built at Mortemart and generally behaved erratically
enough that his neighboring lords were prompted to curb his power, aided by
William of Aquitaine and Bernard of the March, whose inheritance Peter had
earlier worked to ensure. It is noteworthy that Peters behavior was objection-
able not due to his exercise of military power per se, but rather that he did so
without proper purpose and predictability.
Peters erratic and violent behavior had numerous repercussions, both
at Dorat and at Lesterps. Certain scholars have suggested that during Peters

44 Font-Raulx, ed., Recueil des textes et danalyses, nos. 4 (pp. 25859), 6 (p. 259), 9
(p. 260).
45 Ademar, Chronicon, 3.45 (pp. 16465). On the involvement of William V the Great in the
inheritance of the March and the county of Prigord, see Thomas, Les comtes de la
Marche, 57583 and 58688.
46 It may not be a coincidence that this much-praised Ainard was the grand-uncle of Ademar
himself (Richard Landes states that Ainard was Ademars maternal grandfather, but I read
the passage as great-uncle: Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, 7779).
47 Ademar, Chronicon, 3.45 (p. 165): inclitus Petrus, neminem fidelem consiliarum habens,
dum ad suum temere facit arbitrium omnia et inter suos terribilis ut leo videtur
114 Jones

tenure as abbot, steady and pious leadership at the house of Dorat came from
elsewhere, most notablyif we believe the tradition of hagiography
from Israel.48 Moreover, Peters behavior at Le Dorat may have driven another
canon of that house, Gaulterius, to find a home elsewhere. Gaulteriuss vita
states that from a young age he was exceptionally pious, and that this spotless
behavior annoyed the sinful abbot of Le Dorat, who may have been Peter
Drut.49 As a result of this conflict, Gaulterius ended up moving to live with his
relatives near Confolens, where he was solicited to join the community at
Lesterps. Although the behavior of Peter Drut brought certain negative reper-
cussions to the house, the case of Le Dorat nonetheless illustrates that a
recently established house of canons could be used to cement an alliance
between families in the often-turbulent world of the Aquitanian nobility. The
counts of the March entrusted their recently founded community to a close
ally, seeking to access the protective power Peter brought to the task and to
secure the good will of their friend.
The castellan family of the Chabannais, who founded Lesterps, also partici-
pated in small-scale wars in the region, the most notable of which involved a
dispute with the viscomital house of Limoges. The conflict centered on another
house of canons, Saint-Junien, which was patronized by Bishop Hilduin of
Limoges, brother of Viscount Guy.50 Lesterps, which was in the lands of the
Chabannais, and Saint-Junien, which lay in the episcopal estates, were a mere
dozen miles apart, and their proximity either created or exacerbated an exist-
ing rivalry between their respective patrons.51 Hilduin built a castle called
Beaujeu to defend Saint-Junien, with the help of Duke William the Great.

48 Becquet, Collgiales et sanctuaires, 83. Israel held the title of cantor, perhaps simultane-
ously to Peter, which may indicate that Peter did not actually lead the prayers, despite
his title.
49 Marbode of Rennes, De s. Gualterio, p. 703. On the identification of the bad abbot, see
Becquet, Collgiales et sanctuaires, 84.
50 Bishop Hilduin seems to have been a proponent of houses of canons more generally. He
transformed the monastery of Eymoutiers into a house of canons: see above, n. 21.
He made a generous gift to the canons of his own cathedral: Font-Raulx, Cartulaire
de Saint-tienne, no. 189 (pp. 18182). He signed a donation charter at Le Dorat (Font-
Raulx, ed., Recueil des textes, no. 4 [pp. 25859]) andmore significantlyserved as
a mentor to Israel, one of its most prominent members: Vita Beati Israelis Canonici
Doratensis in Marchia, in Labb, Nova bibliotheca, 2:56667. A later medieval text also
asserts that Hilduin appointed Israel as leader of Saint-Junien: P. Arbellot, ed., Chronique
de Maleu, chanoine de Saint-Junien, mort en 1322 (Saint-Junien and Paris, 1847), 3132;
Becquet, Saint Isral.
51 Massoni, Les collgiales limousines, 8789; Becquet, Collgiales et sanctuaires, 7980.
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 115

Jordan II of Chabannais attacked the castle and defeated Hilduin and Guy but
was murdered shortly thereafter. The feud continued as Jordans illegitimate
brother seized Hilduin and Guys brother and held him in chains until the
offending castle had been demolished.52 It is likely that this conflict, which
centered around two houses of canons and their patrons, was the result of
many interests at work. The duke was using the viscomital family to help con-
trol Jordan, an upstart castellan lord; Hilduin presumably wished to protect
Saint-Junien from Jordan by building his castle; Guy joined his brother in
attacking Jordan, apparently to defend family interests.53
Nor was Lesterps itself untouched by violence in the tenth and early elev-
enth centuries. In a charter dating from 1098, Adalmodis, countess of the
March, described the attack on Lesterps made decades earlier by her father,
Count Aldebert II.54 She stated that Aldebert burned the house and that 1700
people, including many canons, died. In response, the pope excommunicated
all those responsible and ordered them to make amends to Bishop Jordan of
Limoges and Abbot Gaulterius. The vita of Gaulterius offers a longer descrip-
tion of the fire and its aftermath:

Through the conflict of princes, not only was the church destroyed by a
wicked fire, but also by this same fire a great part of the people, with
almost all of the clergy, were consumed. The prince of the land, Gordianus,
by criminal daring, strengthened the fortification of this church, with
[Gualterius] resisting and protesting, and with an enclosure of arms hav-
ing been created, [Gordianus] devastated neighboring [areas] with fre-
quent incursions. This was the reasonthat blameless place was burned
by enemies. But since [Gordianus] did not set aside his wicked atten-
tions, with buildings having been restored, within the formerly sacred

52 Ademar, Chronicon, 3.42 (p. 163)

53 Reinhold Kaiser and Michel Aubrun interpreted the feud as action taken by the bishop
and duke to enforce peace for the house of canons (Aubrun, Lancien diocse, 151; Kaiser,
Bischofsherrschaft zwischen Knigtum und Frstenmacht: Studien zur bischflichen
Stadtherrschaft im westfrnkisch-franzsischen Reich im frhen und hohen Mittelalter,
Pariser Historische Studien 17 [Bonn, 1981], 219), while Dominique Barthlemy inter-
preted it in a darker light as a bishop and duke ignoring their own calls for peace (Lan mil
et la paix de Dieu: La France chrtienne et fodale 9801060 [Paris, 1999], 3012).
54 G. Babinet de Rencogne, ed., Charte dAlmodis, comtesse de la Marche, Bulletin de la
Socit archologique et historique de la Charente 3rd series, 4 (1862): 40914. On Aldebert
and Almodis of the March see Thomas, Les comtes de la Marche, 59396 and 6003. As
for the date of the attack: we know Aldebert was count by 1047, while the charter states
that he made amends to Jordan of Limoges, who died in 1050/51.
116 Jones

walls he carried on previous sacrileges, [but] nevertheless he was driven

away by divine terrors, through horrifying visions of the nights. The saint
was summoned and he [arrived] not long after that with a few of his
disciples who survived the fire. [The prince], hiding out, in hope of
divine clemency, swore that heshould restore the purified walls to the
blessed man.55

The account in this version is subtly different than that in the charter. Here,
Aldebert goes unnamed and the blame for the burning of the church falls pri-
marily on Gordianusmost likely Jordan IV of Chabannaisfor his provoc-
ative behavior in turning Lesterps into a fortified base for pillaging operations.56
If accurate, this is evidence that powerful families viewed their foundations as
resources to be drawn upon in conflict, sometimes through prayer, but some-
times in a more concrete manner. Later Gualterius worked to restore Lesterps,
despite the opposition of local bishops, who argued that a place polluted by
use as a war camp could not be re-consecrated. Gaulteriuss view, however, was
supported by an episcopal synod and by papal letters and the community
was repopulated and restored.57
Even very recently founded houses of canons, therefore, quickly became
players in maneuvers for power by their founders and patrons. Patrons used
these collegiate churches to reward their followers, whether with the opportu-
nity to give gifts for the sake of their souls, as Jordan of Chabannais offered to
his men, or with offices that carried prestige and wealth, as the March family
provided to Peter Drut. These communities served as foci of disputes and even,

55 Marbode of Rennes, De s. Gualterio, p. 705: per Principum dissensionem, non solum

ecclesia ipsa sacrilega combustione deleta est, verum etiam magna pars populi cum toto
poene Clero eodem igne consumpta. Siquidem Princeps terrae, nomine Gordianus, reni-
tente ac reclamante beato Viro, ausu nefario, ipsa ecclesiae septa communierat, imposi-
toque armatorum praesidio crebris incursionibus finitimos devastabat. Haec causa fuit,
ut iniquorum merito locus immeritus ab hostibus cremaretur. Sed cum nec sic memora-
tus Princeps pravam intentionem deponeret; refectisque munitionibus, inter sacros
quondam parietes priora sacrilegia exerceret, divinis tandem terroribus, per horrendes
noctium visions, expulsus est: accitoque Sancto, qui non longe inde cum paucis discipu-
lorum, qui incendio superfuerant, latitans divinam clementiam expectabat, jurat se nihil
tale deinceps praesumpturum, purgatosque parietes beato Viro restituit.
56 Babinet de Rencogne, Notice et Dissertation, 5256 on the generations of the
Chabannais.
57 Papal defense of Lesterps may have come because Jordans foundation charter placed the
house under the power of the Holy See (see above, n. 35). See also Thomas, Les comtes
de la Marche, 59394.
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 117

in the spectacular case of Lesterps, as a staging ground for military campaigns.

Powerful men such as Boso of the March and Bishop Hilduin of Limoges seem
to have made a habit of patronizing houses of canons. It seems clear, therefore,
that these communities were as central to the networks of power in tenth-
century Aquitaine as monasteries have been shown to be.
I want now to consider the evidence from surviving texts concerning the
religious attitudes embraced by these houses of canons. Information about
these matters is often more difficult to glean for collegial churches than for
monasteries. Although there is admittedly tremendous variety within monas-
ticism, it is often possible to identify a rule (usually that of Benedict) that
provided a starting point for the religious life at a given house. No such
luxury exists for the historian trying to reconstruct the observance at houses
of canons in this period. There is no explicit mention in these documents of
any of the most famous rules for canons: that developed at Aachen in
816, that promulgated by Chrodegang in the eighth century, or for that matter,
that attributed to Augustine that would shape communities of canons in the
twelfth century. In light of this challenge, I will use the hagiographic record
available from these three housesan unusual resource for Aquitanian
collegial churches in this periodto investigate whether there are recurring
qualities attributed to the saintly canons Israel, Theobald, and Gualterius
(and the saintly founder Leonard), that might hint at ideals common to the
order as a whole.
The vitae of the canon-saints reveal few specifics about the routine of life at
their houses. The Life of Theobald asserts that the brothers slept in a dormitory,
although Theobald himself slept on a shabby bed in a separate area.58 This
underlines the point that houses of canons might see a variety of observance
among their members. The vita of Gualterius, furthermore, discusses the style
of prayer performed at his house, which was influenced by the famed canon
Herveus of Tours, who had been educated at Fleury and became a respected
figure among both monks and canons in western France. During a visit made
by Herveus to Le Dorat before his death in 1022, the young Gualterius hid
under the pew where Herveus, thinking himself alone, prayed.59 Gualterius
observed that Herveus prayed without audible words but with high emotion,
weeping and groaning. This style of prayer was then adopted at Le Dorat.60
Although details about the daily life of canons in the houses of Le Dorat and
Lesterps are rare in these vitae, there are recurring themes that may indicate

58 De s. Theobaldo, p. 317.
59 Oury, Lidal monastique, 2425.
60 De s. Gualterio, p. 702.
118 Jones

common concerns or religious attitudes. For example, the biographies of

Gualterius, Theobald, and Israel all emphasize their subjects intellectual abili-
ties. Theobald left home to pursue his studies in Prigueux and devoted him-
self to the ars grammatica, in which he equaled the best minds of the time.61
The intellect of Israel was what first brought him to the attention of Bishop
Hilduin of Limoges, who gave him a teaching position and supported his later
promotion.62 Gualterius, meanwhile, comprehended even the most difficult
concept with ease, never once requiring correction by the lash.63 Also interest-
ing is the attitude of these texts toward clerical office. According to his vita,
Leonard of Noblat vehemently rejected such office when he was offered it by
the king of the Franks.64 The other three Lives, however, show their subjects
accepting promotion to church office: Theobald became a priest; Israel was
raised to the priesthood in one step by Hilduin; Gualterius became abbot and
was later given special authority by the pope to impose penance and reinstate
excommunicates.65 Each text emphasizes that its subject did not actively pur-
sue their church office or become haughty as a result of their elevation.
Perhaps most intriguing are the passages focusing on the style of leadership
exercised by these men in their communities. The vita of Gualterius presents
the most extensive account of this aspect of its subject. Before becoming abbot
of Lesterps, Gualterius made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Marbode of Rennes
recounts four miracles that Gualterius performed while on this pilgrimage, all
of which involved the well-being of his companions. Gualterius tamed a storm
that endangered their ship, found an enormous fish that fed them, brought
forth a spring to quench their thirst, and conjured an enormous leaf to provide
them shelter. In addition, Marbode describes a scene in which Gualterius
found his fellow pilgrims eating meat on a day they should not. After rebuk
ing them, he saw their distress and immediately reverted to a gentler tone,
telling them that God would forgive their unintentional sin.66 In his miracles,
Gualterius is thus cast as both a teacher and a provider for his flock.
These qualities continued to serve Gualterius as abbot of Lesterps. He did
not luxuriate in any perks of his office, nor did he revel in his power; rather, he
inspired those under him more by love and kindness than by terror or punish-
ments into doing well, judging voluntary devotion to be more pleasing to the

61 De s. Theobaldo, p. 317.
62 Vita beati Israelis, p. 566.
63 De s. Gualterio, p. 702.
64 De s. Leonardo, p. 151.
65 De s. Theobaldo, p. 317; Vita beati Israelis, p. 566; De s. Gualterio, p. 705.
66 De s. Gualterio, pp. 7034.
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 119

Lord than enforced servitude.67 Marbode hastens to add that when fire and
iron were required in dealing with corrupt elements in the flock, Gualterius
did not hesitate to use them. Rebels were few and far between, however, for
what perversity of man would serve the Lord unwillingly under such a leader,
whose doctrine expels ignorance, whose life offers an example, and whose
prayers offer aid?68
The text repeatedly emphasizes that Gualterius provided an example for
those he governed. He embraced asceticism, wearing a hairshirt and lashing his
body at night (although modesty prevented him from trumpeting the fact).69
He gave food and money to others while denying them to himself.70 Even while
dying, by remaining unafraid and determined in prayer, he showed the order
of dying to those to whom he had related the form of living.71 Gualterius was
careful to care for the needs of individual brothers, from the highest to the lowest,
offering care appropriate to the nature, age, and condition of each by the custom
of the best doctor, who knows that by the same remedy one [patient] might be
helped and another wounded, and while one might be healed another might
be endangered.72 Gualteriuss model of leadership was by preference gentle
though willing to be harsh when necessaryand began from the principle that
it was better to lead by example, rather than impose observance by force.
Many of these qualities recur in the vitae of Israel, Theobald, and Leonard.
Israel remained humble in office and existed just as one among those subject
to him. Israel also showed great devotion to charity, giving away food and visit-
ing the sick and poor, often without his brothers knowledge.73 Theobald, like

67 De s. Gualterio, p. 704: amore magis ac benignitate, quam terrore vel suppliciis ad bene
agendum, incitabat subditos; gratiorem Domino judicans voluntariam devotionem,
quam coactitiam servitutem.
68 De s. Gualterio, p. 704: Sed quaenam hominis perversitas sub tanto duce invita Domino
militaret, cuius et doctrina pelleret ignorantiam, et vita praeberet exemplum, et oratio
praestaret auxilium?
69 Leonard of Noblat also embraced asceticism through fasting and constant prayer. Indeed,
he was so devoted to the idea of continual prayer in his church that he added two monks
(monachi) to his community expressly so that prayer would not cease when he went on a
journey: De s. Leonardo, p. 153.
70 De s. Gualterio, p. 705.
71 De s. Gualterio, p. 706: ut et moriendi ordinem demonstraret, quibus vivendi formam
tradiderat.
72 De s. Gualterio, p. 705: ut pro cuiusque vel natura vel aetate vel conditione competentem
cuique curam adhiberet: more optimi cuiusdam medici, qui, unde alius adjuvetur, alium
noverit laedi; et unde iste sanetur, illum periclitari non nesciat.
73 Vita beati Israelis, pp. 56667.
120 Jones

Gualterius, served as an example to his brothers of how to die, consuming only

water and never ceasing to pray while awaiting his end.74 It is worth noting
that both Israel and Theobald were considered leaders, not because they held
the highest office at their house, but because of the manner in which they con-
ducted themselves. This was fundamentally true of Gualterius as well: his
authority was more related to his virtue than his office. Leonard of Noblat also
was attentive to the needs of those who came to live in his community, both
caring for their bodies and nourishing them spiritually through preaching and
teaching.75 Leonards miracles further demonstrated his care for others: he
caused a spring to arise at his community in order to spare his brothers the task
of collecting water from the river, and he frequently rescued those unjustly
imprisoned from their chains.76
Taken together, these texts present an ideal of sanctity that embraced edu-
cation and the holding of church office, as long as these did not cause the cleric
in question to become arrogant. Neither education nor office was enough,
however, to bring true authority within a community. That distinction was
based on the virtues of the individuals, who provided each brother they guided
with protection from want, with a model to imitate, and with gentle but firm
guidance. Elements that are not presentor at least not emphasizedin this
ideal are excessive asceticism or ministry to laypeople that went beyond the
giving of charity or miraculous aid to those imprisoned. These saints did not
preach or seek to serve as an example to the wider world, focusing instead on
those who joined their community. Nor are miracles particularly prominent
in these vitae; if we discount Leonard (who was, after all, not a canon) the
only miracles are those of Gualterius to succor his fellow pilgrims in the Holy
Land. Miracles are not often used, therefore, to establish these mens authority
in their community.
It is tantalizing to think that the similarities between these portraits of
canon-saints give us some insight into an ideal of canonical sanctity for this
period. But two crucial questions follow hard on the heels of this possibility,
both of which call for further research. First, does this hagiographical corpus
truly represent early eleventh-century canonical spirituality, or do the vitae of
Gualterius, Theobald, and Israelall composed after 1050reflect thinking
about canons that came to the fore in the papal reform era? Second, how far
does this model draw on the Carolingian model of canonical piety? Certainly
elements of the behavior of Gualterius and others are consistent with the

74 De s. Theobaldo, p. 317.
75 De s. Leonardo, p. 155.
76 De s. Leonardo, pp. 154, 15559.
customs Confirmed By Reason And Authority 121

ideals of Aachen 816: the commitment to teach by word and example and the
manner in which brothers are to be corrected, to cite only two examples.77
The rulings of Aachen are often taken from patristic sources, however, and this
makes it unclear what texts our canons and their biographers used as models
to guide their actions and their portraits.
In this essay I have sought to demonstrate that houses of canons such as
Lesterps, Le Dorat, and Noblat were important players in both the political and
religious life of Aquitaine in the tenth and early eleventh centuries. Donors
turned to these communities for spiritual aid and as sources of income, offices,
and prestige that could cement alliances. In the hagiography from these houses
there may be evidence that allows us to reconstruct the religious attitudes
of canons. Nonetheless, serious challenges remain, most notably the paucity of
evidence from these three communities. This only underlines the need for
broader studies of collegiate churches. Like the work of Daniel Callahan and
his colleagues on monasteries, such sustained attention would allow canons to
take their proper place in our understanding of the religious life of the period.78

77 Bertram, The Chrodegang Rules, nos. 123 and 134 (pp. 11213 and 11921).
78 I thank Mary Doyno, Anna Harrison, Anne Massoni, and Brigitte Meijns for their careful
reading of earlier drafts of this essay. Any errors or infelicities remaining are mine alone.
 CHAPTER 7

Ademar of Chabannes and the Peace of God

Michael Frassetto

In late 1031, according to the monk of Angoulme and Limoges Ademar of

Chabannes (9891034), a great meeting of the bishops and other clergy
of Aquitaine was held in Limoges to declare Gods peace.1 The council was
one of a number of similar councils of the Peace of God, a movement, or more
perhaps a series of movements that emerged in two waves during the late
tenth and early eleventh century to address the unsettled social conditions of
the day.2 The assemblies, often held in the presence of the relics of the saints,
drew together the secular and religious aristocracies and large crowds of the
populus of Aquitaine, Auvergne, and other regions of France.3 Although
the various constituencies participating in the councils surely arrived with
competing agendas, they most likely shared the goal of reforming society and
establishing order in Aquitaine and the other regions where the Peace took
hold.4 To accomplish this end, the councils used a variety of spiritual sanc-
tions, including the threat of excommunication, to guarantee the peace and
called on the nobility both to adhere to the legislation passed at the councils
and to enforce this legislation. Councils like the one at Limoges, drawing on
both secular and spiritual resources, were held to limit violence done to the
clergy, churches, and even the poor, to define the nature of and relationship

1 The account of the council has been published as Consilium Lemovicense, Mansi, 19, cols.
507548. The autograph copy of the council is now bound in B.N. ms 2469, fols. 97r112v.
2 A useful introduction to the Peace of God is Thomas Head and Richard Landes (eds.), The
Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious Response in France around the Year 1000 (Ithaca,
NY, 1992. A more critical view of the Peace and its influence can be found in Dominique
Barthlemy, Lan mil et la paix de Dieu: La France chrtienne et fodale 9801060 (Paris, 1999,
and Marcus Bull, Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade: the Limousin and
Gascony, c. 9701130 (Oxford, 1993), 1169.
3 On the role of the saints in the Peace, see below. The important role of the populus was dem-
onstrated in Loren MacKinney, The People and Public Opinion in the Eleventh-Century
Peace Movement, Speculum 5 (1930): 181206.
4 On the goals of the movement see, among others, Georges Duby, Laity and the Peace of
God, in The Chivalrous Society, trans. Cynthia Postan (Berkeley, CA, 1977), 12333; and
R.I. Moore, Postscript: The Peace of God and the Social Revolution, in Head and Landes,
The Peace of God, 30826.

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_009

Ademar Of Chabannes And The Peace Of God 123

between the orders of society, and, merging with the broad eleventh-century
reform movement, to restore the right order of the world.5
The Peace was in many ways a significant movement in the early eleventh
century, but the documentary record is not without its challenges. Along with
the few extant copies of conciliar acta, accounts of the Peace are found in brief
passages in hagiographic works and chronicles that provide only a partial pic-
ture of the movement and its councils.6 Ademars record of the council of
Limoges in 1031, which contains the canons of the Peace council of Bourges
of the same year, appears to be a notable exception to this more slender docu-
mentary base. Comprising some fifteen folios in manuscript (some twenty-four
pages in the modern edition), Ademars account of the council provides exten-
sive commentary on the goals and ideals of the Peace of God as well as a com-
plete description of the inner workings and organization of the councils
associated with the movement. Although the most detailed account of a Peace
council, Ademars is also the most problematic. His record of the council of
Limoges has been accepted almost at face value by some scholars or approached
with only minor caveats,7 but its utility as a source for the Peace has also been

5 The evolution of the Peace movement and its impact on the development of society in the
eleventh century has long been debated. See Thomas Bisson, The Organized Peace in
Southern France and Catalonia (c. 1140c. 1233), Speculum 53 (1978): 46078; Adriann
Bredero, The Bishops Peace of God: A Turning Point in Medieval Society?, in Christendom
and Christianity in the Middle Ages, trans. Reinder Bruinsma (Grand Rapids, MI, 1994), 105
29; H.E.J.Cowdrey, The Peace and Truce of God in the Eleventh Century, in Popes, Monks,
and Crusaders (London, 1984), 4267; and Carl Erdmann, The Origins of the Idea of Crusade,
trans. Marhsall Baldwin and Walter Goffart (Princeton, 1977), 5794, Jean Flori, La guerre
sainte: La formation de lide de croisade dans lOcccident chrtien (Paris, 2001), 5999, among
others. On the Peace and eleventh-century reform see Kathleen G. Cushing, Reform and the
Papacy in the Eleventh Century: Spirituality and Social Change (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2005), 3954; Michael Frassetto, Medieval Purity and Piety: Essays on
Medieval Clerical Celibacy and Religious Reform (New York, 1998), and Amy G. Remensnyder,
Pollution, Purity, and Peace: An Aspect of Social Reform between the Late Tenth Century
and 1076, in Head and Landes, The Peace of God, 280307.
6 The problematic nature with the documentation has been noted, for example, by Barthlemy,
Lan mil et la paix de Dieu, 43.
7 Barthlemy, Lan mil et la paix de Dieu and Flori, La guerre sainte, 8285, seem to accept
Ademars version relatively uncritically, as does Cowdrey, The Peace and the Truce of God in
the Eleventh Century, 4267; Duby, The Laity and the Peace of God, 123133, and Steven
D. Sargent, Religious Responses to Social Violence in Eleventh-Century Aquitaine, Historical
Rflections/Reflexions Historiques 12 (1985): 219240, especially 223224, fail to recognize
the document as a forgery. Michel Auburn, Lancien diocse de Limoges: ds origines au milieu
du XIe sicle (Clermont-Ferrand, 1981), p. 74, fn. 11 and pp. 204217, recognizes Ademars
124 Frassetto

strongly questioned because the account of the council of Limoges is part of a

larger corpus that constitutes one of the most remarkable forgeries of the
Middle Ages. Indeed, Ademars propensity for forgery, as well as his willingness
to revise his own works in order to promote his personal agenda, has led schol-
ars to dismiss Ademars writings as a reliable witness to the events of his day.8
His account of the councils of Bourges and Limoges, as a result, has been judged
so unreliable as to make analysis of the meetings almost impossible, and it has
even been suggested that the councils themselves may never have been held.9 A
close examination of Ademars writings, however, and comparison with records
of other Peace assemblies of the early eleventh century reveal how valuable and
informative Ademars accounts of the councils of Bourges and Limoges are.
The problematic nature of Ademars extensive corpus was first clearly dem-
onstrated in a series of articles in the early twentieth century by Canon Saltet,
who argued that Ademar was a mythomaniac and forger of great skill.10

tendency to forgery but accepts the monks account of the council uncritically, and Bull,
Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First Crusade, 4350, notes the need for caution
but accepts much of what is found in Ademars account.
8 Ademars practice of forgery and revising his own texts and altering the text to serve the
monks own ends has been the focus of a number of works including. Daniel Callahan,
Ademar of Chabannes and his Insertions into Bedes Expositio Actuum Apostolorum,
Analecta Bollandiana 111 (1993): 385400; Daniel Callahan, The Problem of the
Filioque and the Letter from the Pilgrim Monks of the Mount of Olives to Pope Leo III
and Charlemagne, Revue Bndictine 102 (1992): 75134; Michael Frassetto, The Art of
Forgery: Ademar of Chabannes and the Cult of St. Martial of Limoges, Comitatus 26
(1995): 1126; John Gillingham, Ademar of Chabannes and the history of Aquitaine in
the reign of Charles the Bald, in Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom, ed. Janet Nelson
and M. Gibson (Oxford, 1981), 314; Richard Landes, A Libellus from St. Martial of
Limoges Written in the Time of Ademar of Chabannes (9891034) Scriptorium 37
(1983): 178204; Richard Landes Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History: Ademar
of Chabannes, 9891034 (Cambridge, MA, 1995), and Herbert Schneider, Ademar von
Chabannes und Pseudoisidor der Mythomane und der Erzfalscher in Flschungen im
Mittelalter, vol. 2, M.G.H., Schriften, 33 (1988), 129150.
9 Arguments for the outright rejection of Ademars account have been made by Thomas
Head in The Year 1000: The Development of the Peace of God in Aquitaine (9701005)
Speculum 74 (1999): 65686, and Peace and Power in France Around the Year 1000,
Essays in Medieval Studies 23 (2006): 117.
10 The extent of Ademars forgery was first cleary demonstrated by Canon Saltet in the
Bulletin de littrature ecclsiastique Une discussion sur Saint Martial entre un Lombard et
un Limousin en 1029, 26 (1925): 16186, 279302; Une prtendue lettre de Jean XIX
sur Saint Martial fabrique par Admar de Chabannes, 27 (1926): 117139; Les faux
dAdmar de Chabannes. Prtendues decisions sur Saint Martial au concile de Bourges du
1er novembre 1031, 27 (1926): 145160 and Un cas de mythomanie historique bien
document: Admar de Chabannes (9881034), 32 (1931): 149165. The view of
Ademar Of Chabannes And The Peace Of God 125

Ademars primary concern was the promotion of the apostolicity of St. Martial
of Limoges, a third century missionary to Limoges according to Gregory of
Tours. The monk of Limoges also sought to establish his own version of the
events that took place in the late 1020s, when Ademar had taken the lead in
establishing the apostolic cult of Martial and, in 1028, when he had been deci-
sively defeated in public debate by the monk Benedict of Chiusa on the topic
of the apostolicity of St. Martial. His last years, before his departure to Jerusalem
in 1033 and death there in 1034, were spent in disgrace in his original commu-
nity of St. Cybard of Angoulme where he compiled a dossier defending
Martials true status.11 The most important of these documents was a collec-
tion of sermons, now bound in two separate manuscripts in Paris and Berlin,
which purport to have been given at various church councils of the Limousin,
including several Peace councils, and cover a wide range of topics concerning
contemporary matters of orthodoxy and heresy.12 The primary theme of the
sermons, however, is St. Martial, and throughout the sermons, Ademar
expounds on the saints life in order to prove Martials apostolicity but also to
connect the saint to the Peace movement, most notably in the sermons con-
cerning the Peace council of Limoges of 994 when Martial miraculously cured
the fire sickness that plagued Aquitaine.13
The centerpiece of these sermons, in many ways, is the account of the
Peace councils of Limoges and Bourges of 1031, which comes at the end of

Ademar as a mythomaniac or as psychologically unbalanced when he compiled his late

works has generally prevailed in recent scholarship on the monk. Studies of Bernard of
Angers in Kathleen Ashley and Pamela Sheingorn, Writing Faith: Text, Sign and History in
the Miracles of Sainte Foy (Chicago, 1999) and, especially, of Guibert of Nogent in Jay
Rubenstein, Guibert of Nogent: Portrait of a Medieval Mind (New York, 2002) challenge the
assumption that modern psychological categories can be applied to medieval figures and
suggest that a new approach to Ademars life should be developed.
11 The best treatment of Ademars life is that of Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of
History, but a good, brief introduction is that of Robert L. Wolff, How the News Was
Brought from Byzantium to Angoulme, of the Pursuit of a Hare in an Oxcart, in Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies 4 (1979): 162209. James Grier, The Musical World of a Medieval
Monk: Admar of Chabannes in Eleventh-Century Aquitaine (Cambridge, 2006) provides a
useful introduction to both Ademars life and his important contributions to the history
of music.
12 Paris, B.N.Ms. Lat. 2469, fols. 1112v, and Berlin, D.S.MS Lat. Phillips, 1664, fols. 58v116v.
The best general introduction to the sermons is Daniel Callahan, The Sermons of Admar
of Chabannes and the Cult of St. Martial of Limoges, Revue Bndictine 86 (1976):
25195.
13 For further discussion of Martial and the plague of ergotism in 994 see below, and Michael
Frassetto, The Writings of Ademar of Chabannes, the Peace of 994, and the Terrors of
the Year 1000, Journal of Medieval History 27 (2001): 24155.
126 Frassetto

the manuscript now bound in Paris and serves as a bridge to the material in the
collection in Berlin, which contains not only Ademars original sermons but
also a copy of the decretals of the Pseudo-Isidore that were arranged in the
form of sermons.14 Many of the ideas found throughout the sermons can be
found in the section devoted to these councils, and in this way the debate at
the councils was intended to confirm Ademars arguments in favor of Martials
apostolicity and the saints importance to the Peace movement in Aquitaine.
Indeed, the tone of the debate at the council was set in the opening statements
by Bishop Jordan of Limoges, who lamented the suffering of the church and
the violence of the day and proclaimed an anathema against those who vio-
lated the peace.15 The discussion turned very quickly after this, according
to Ademar, to the defense of the major patron of Aquitaine and the Peace,
St. Martial of Limoges. Various figures at the councilincluding the abbot
of St. Martial, several bishops, and other learned menrose to defend Martials
apostolicity. They noted that the Franks had included Martial in the lists of the
apostles as did the Greeks. It is noted further that Martial is identified as
an apostle in ancient books, thereby demonstrating that the claim of his apos-
tolic status was no mere novelty, as Benedict of Chiusa had asserted in his pub-
lic debate with Ademar. The saint is compared with other saints who have
been identified as apostles who lived after the time of Christ and can be under-
stood as apostles because they were the first to preach in a specific area.16
Moreover, as Ademar has several participants at the council argue, Martial can
claim apostolic status not only because he was the first to preach in Aquitaine,
but also because he was from Jerusalem and was a disciple of Jesus Christ, who
spread his peace. The attention on Martial was designed not only to prove that
he was an apostle but also to associate the saint with the council and the Peace
in Aquitaine.
Despite the attention to Martial in Ademars record, the character of the
meeting as a Peace council was not completely overwhelmed by attention to
the saint. As the first day of the council came to a close, Bishop Jordan issued a
call for peace and a denunciation of those who harm the church.17 Much of the

14 DS MS. Lat Phillips, 1664m fols. 116v170v. Head, Peace and Power in France, 79, notes
the importance of the Pseudo-Isidorian decretals for the early phase of the Peace of God.
15 Mansi, 19,:col. 509.
16 Mansi, 19, cols. 51415. Efforts to have saints declared apostles seems to have been a
much more general phenomenon in France in the early eleventh century than has been
recognized, and Ademars activities should be seen in this light. On the development see
Samantha Kahn Herrick, Studying Apostolic Hagiography: The Case of Fronto of
Prigueux, Disciple of Christ, Speculum 85 (2010): 23570.
17 Mansi, 19, col. 509.
Ademar Of Chabannes And The Peace Of God 127

discussion of the second day of the council addressed matters associated with
the Peace of God. There is a long discussion of the use of the ban of excommu-
nication, including the story of a knight who died while under such a ban and
who was repeatedly ejected from his tomb in sacred ground.18 The spiritual
sanction of excommunication, approved by those at Limoges to punish those
who violated the peace, had been used to secure the peace by the bishops at all
the Peace assemblies since the earliest meeting at Charroux in 989. The council
also approved a series of reform proposals that were commonly associated
with the Peace movement, especially during its later phase, concerning simony,
clerical marriage, and clerical morality.19 As the second day of the council came
to a close, the assembled clerics addressed matters concerning papal authority
before again discussing St. Martial and his apostolic attributes.20
Although the depiction of the debate at the assembly at Limoges is clearly
the product of Ademars fervent imagination, it is one that attempted to
reflect the reality of the situation as much as possible in order to convince a
later audience of its veracity. In his version of events at the Peace council,
Ademar most likely mixed fact and fiction in order to give his defense of
Martials apostolicity a veneer of authenticity. In this instance, though,
Ademars fiction hewed close to reality as the focus on the cult of the saints that
allegedly took place at Limoges differed only in degree from events at other
Peace councils and surely reflects the close connection between the Peace and
the cult of the saints. Indeed, accounts of other councils by Ademars contem-
poraries confirm the central role of the saints and saints relics in the Peace of
God. Well before the meeting at Limoges, the tradition of the display of relics at
the Peace councils was established at the council Charroux in 989.21 As Leutald
of Micys account of the translation of the relics of St. Junianius indicates, the
saints played a central role in establishing the Peace at Charroux and attracting
large crowds to the meeting.22 The relics of the saints were commonly found at

18 Mansi, 19, cols. 53943. On the use of excommunication by the Peace councils, see
Callahan, The Peace of God and the Cult of the Saints, 17679, and Flori, La Guerre
Sainte, 8485.
19 Mansi, 19, cols. 54446. See below for further discussion on religious reform and the
Peace movement.
20 Mansi, 19, cols. 54748. Ademars account of the council comes at the end of ms. 2469,
and the record of last day of the council is missing, either lost or never compiled by Ademar.
21 On the council, see Head, The Development of the Peace of God, 66673. The canons of
the council can be found in Concilium Karrofense, Mansi, 19: cols. 8990.
22 Delatio corporis s. Juniani ad synodem Karoffensen, PL 137: 82326. A translation of the
passage describing the translation to the council can be found in Head and Landes,
The Peace of God, 32829.
128 Frassetto

most if not all of the subsequent Peace councils in Aquitaine, attracting large
crowds of the populus and providing the spiritual sanction on the oaths sworn
by the secular elite participating in the councils.23 And the Peace league of
Bourges in 1038 was held together by oaths sworn over the relics of the saints.24
Moreover, describing events nearly contemporary with Ademars councils at
Limoges and Bourges, the Burgundian monk Rodulphus Glaber observed that
at the time of the millennium of the Passion the abbots, bishops, and other
devout men of Aquitaine held great councils of all the people to which were
borne the bodies of many saints and innumerable caskets of holy relics.25
Ademar, himself, provides further evidence of the connection between the
Peace councils and the cult of the saints, especially the cult of St. Martial, ear-
lier in the collection of sermons. Drawing from the Aurelian vita, the life of
Martial ostensibly written by his successor as bishop of Limoges that was com-
posed at various stages of the late tenth and early eleventh century, Ademar
praised Martial as the bearer of the peace of Christ and the patron of the Peace
movement.26 The monk of Angoulme and Limoges calls Martial pacifier doc-
tor and viator pacis in the sermons and emphasizes Martials importance for
the establishment of both the apostolic peace and the Peace of God. Ademar
says that Martial was the first to bring the word and peace of Christ to
Aquitaine.27 In fact, Martial and the apostles first preached the peace in Judaea
and then spread the message of peace to Aquitaine and the entire world.28 As

23 See Daniel Callahan, The Peace of God and the Cult of the Saints in Aquitaine in the
Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, and Bernard Tpfer, The Cult of Relics and Pilgrimage in
Burgundy and Aquitaine at the Time of the Monastic Reform, in Head and Landes, The
Peace of God, 16583 and 4157 respectively, on the importance of the cult of the saints
in the Peace of God.
24 On the league see Thomas Head, The Judgment of God: Andrew of Fleurys Account of
the Peace League of Bourges, in Head and Landes, The Peace of God, 21938.
25 Rodulfi Glabri: Historiarum Libri Quinque, ed. and trans. John France (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1989), 4:5.14, pp. 19495. Tunc ergo primitus cepere in Aquitanie partibus ab
episcopis et abbatibus ceterisque uiris sacre religionis deuotis ex uniuersa plebe
coadunari conciliorum conuentus, ad quos etiam multa delata sunt corpora sanctorum
atque innumerabiles sanctarum apoforete reliquiarum. The translation is Frances.
26 On the Aurelian life see Bull, Knightly Piety, 3943, and, especially, Landes, Relics,
Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History, 5074. Ademars use of the Aurelian vita to demon-
strate Martials association with the Peace in his sermons suggests that acceptance of this
idea was widespread and not limited to the quill of Ademar.
27 B.N. MS 2469, fol. 56v. non solum super hanc urbem Lemovicam sed et super omnem
Aquitaniae provintiam requievit pax Christi.
28 B.N. MS 2469, fols. 18r, 56v, and 73r.
Ademar Of Chabannes And The Peace Of God 129

the apostle to Aquitaine, Martial extended the peace of Christ across the entire
province.29 Ademar notes further in his sermons that Martial established the
peace in Limoges and all of Aquitaine, a peace that was made manifest at
the moment that the saint performed a mass baptism of 22,000.30 Moreover,
Martial not only secured the peace of Christ but also inspired his disciples to
spread the peace. Ademar compares Martials convert, Stephen, duke of
Aquitaine, to the great King Solomon, stating that Judaea was pacified in the
time of Solomon and Aquitaine received the peace of Christ at the time of
Stephen.31 Finally, Ademar declares that at the time of Martials death the
entire province of Aquitaine and all of Gaul benefited from the peace that had
been brought to the region by Christs apostle.32
For Ademar, Martials impact on Aquitaine was not limited to the apostolic
age but continued to be felt, through his presence in his relics, in Ademars day.
Perhaps the most dramatic demonstration of the saints miraculous power and
his important role in the success of the Peace movement occurred, according
to Ademar, at the council of Limoges in 994.33 Coming five years after the
council of Charroux and perhaps meeting to fulfill the earlier councils call for
a meeting at that time, the assembly at Limoges was more immediately
inspired by a plague of the firesickness, most likely ergotism, that swept across
the region.34 In his chronicle, Ademar records that a pestilential fire afflictedthe
Limousin and that the bodies of men and women were consumed by an
invisible fire, and the land was filled with lamentations.35 The leaders of

29 B.N. MS 2469, fols. 5v, 20v, 56v, 60v, and 80v.

30 B.N. MS 2469, fols. 56v57r. At vero pax apostolic super patriam istam requiescere iam
coeperat quando quidem sub una die viginti duo milia hominum a tam egregio doctore
baptizati sunt et haec sacra basilica consequenter praeparata Deo est.
31 B.N. MS 2469, fol. 18r. Erat Salomon in Iudaea pacificus erat Stephanum in Gallia
pacificusIn tempore Salomonis pacificata est Iudaea in diebus Stephani vera Christi
pacificata est Aquitania.
32 B.N. MS 2469, fols. 5v and 72v.
33 Ademar of Chabannes, Chronicon, ed. P. Bourgain, R. Landes, and G. Pons, Corpus
Christianiaorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, 129 (Turnhout, 1999), 3:35, p. 157. For a fuller con-
sideration of the events of 994, see Head, The Development of the Peace of God, 67477;
Richard Landes, Between Aristocracy and Heresy: Popular Participation in the Limousin
Peace of God, 9941033, in Head and Landes, The Peace of God, 18690, and my The Writings
of Ademar of Chabannes, the Peace of 994, and the Terrors of the Year 1000, 24155.
34 Landes, Between Aristocracy and Heresy, 187, notes the connection between the coun-
cils of Charroux and Limoges.
35 Chronicon 3:35, p. 157. His temporibus pestilentia ignis super Lemovicinos exarsit.
Corpora enim virorum et mulierum supra numerum invisibili igne depascebantur, et
ubique planctus terram replebat.
130 Frassetto

AquitaineGeoffrey, abbot of St. Martial, Alduin, bishops of Limoges, and

William, duke of Aquitaineproclaimed a three day fast in the hopes of end-
ing the devastating plague. Then all the bishops of Aquitaine assembled at
Limoges, and the bodies and relics of numerous saints were solemnly trans-
lated there. The remains of St. Martial himself were raised from his tomb,
which immediately filled everyone with joy and brought an end to the firesick-
ness. Following the cure by St. Martial, the duke and princes in turn swore an
oath of peace and justice.36
In a series of four sermons from the Paris manuscript, folios 86v89r,
Ademar provides a more elaborate record of the events surrounding the Peace
council of 994 and the central role of St. Martial in those events. In these ser-
mons, Ademar develops the penitential and purgative nature of the fire and
ensuing peace as well as the actions of the saints, especially Martial, in ending
the plague and guaranteeing the peace. The plague was sent to punish the sins
of the faithful in the Limousin in this world and not the next, Ademar pro-
claims in one sermon, noting that the fire was sent to chasten the promiscu-
ous masses of the entire province of the Limousin.37 In another sermon, he
explains that the fire was sent as punishment in this world and not the next for
sins,38 and intended to correct the people of the region of their sins but not
consume or destroy them.39 A general fire afflicting the just and the unjust
alike, the fire would purge the good of their sins and the evil were prepared for
the punishment to come, and all the people of the Limousin joined together in
seeking relief from the scourge of God. They turned to St. Martial to accom-
plish this, and Ademar depicts them in great numbers seeking the saints inter-
cession. The people and clergy of the Limousin celebrated the translation of
the saints relics from their resting place to Mount Joy.40 Like those in Isaiah
ascending Gods holy mountain in Jerusalem, the people of Aquitaine climbed
Mount Joy to pray and enjoy the peace God sent through St. Martial, his apos-
tle. And, as he noted in his work of history, an oath of peace was sworn on the
relics of Martial and other saints, confirming both their dedication to the Peace
of God and emphasizing the central role of Martial and the saints in establish-
ing and preserving the Peace.

36 Chronicon, 3:35, p. 157. pactumque pacis et justicia a duce et principibus vicissim foe-
derata est.
37 B.N. Ms. Lat. 2469, fol.87r. promiscuous vulgus tocius Lemovicensis provintiae.
38 B.N. Ms. Lat. 2469, fol.87r. Et propter populi peccata iratus Dominus non in aeternum
voluit reservare vindictam sed temporaliter decrevit punire.
39 B.N. Ms. Lat. 2469, fol. 87r. non ad consumptionem sed correctionem
40 B.N. Ms. Lat. 2469, fol. 88v.
Ademar Of Chabannes And The Peace Of God 131

As Richard Landes has noted, Ademars account of the events of 994, at

least in regard to the central role of the saints in ending the plague and secur-
ing the peace, are confirmed in a charter from Charroux and two saints lives.41
And the importance of Martial in those events is confirmed by the increasing
prominence of his cult, which grew dramatically over the next several decades.
Indeed, Martials cure in 994 attracted ever increasing numbers of pilgrims to
Limoges, and the saint himself was regarded as the guarantor of the Peace
oaths sworn in his presence in 994.42 Ademars account of the events may well
exaggerate the role of his patron, but it demonstrates the fundamental impor-
tance of the cult of the saints to the Peace of God in Aquitaine and reinforces
the emphasis on the cult of the saints found in other Peace councils and their
accounts. Although the overwhelming focus on Martial and his apostolicity at
the later council of Limoges and to a lesser extent of Bourges in 1031 is surely
Ademars invention, the belief in the saintly patronage of the Peace is not, and
his account of the meetings of 1031 also reveals other important aspects of the
Peace movement at that time.
Many of the accounts of the individual Peace councils, although not in the
canons themselves, place the movement in an apocalyptic or eschatological
context.43 The famines and other natural disasters of the age, the common
theme of human sinfulness, and the violence of the age were seen by some
contemporaries as signs of the coming of Antichrist. One of the most notable
expressions of the eschatological understanding of the movement can be
found in the writings of Rodulphus Glaber.44

41 Landes, Between Aristocracy and Heresy, 18687. As Landes notes, reference to the
council of Limoges in 994 can be found in a foundation charter from Charroux, a miracle
by St. Benedict reported by Andrew of Fleury, and the account of the translation and
miracles of St. Vivian of Figeac.
42 Landes, Popular Participation in the Peace of God, 19192; and H.E.J. Cowdrey, The
Peace and Truce of God in the Eleventh Century, Past and Present (1970), 59; reprinted
in Popes, Monks, and Crusaders (London, 1984).
43 The connection between the Peace, reform, and apocalyptic expectations was first raised by
Roger Bonnaud-Delamare, Le fondement des institutions de paix au XIe sicles, in Mlanges
Louis Halphen (Paris, 1951), 1926. It has been raised by others including Callahan, The
Peace of God, Apocalypticism, and the Council of Limoges of 1031, and Landes, Between
Aristocracy and Heresy: Popular Participation in the Limousin Peace of God, 199218.
A contrary view is expressed by Barthlemy in La mutation 297361. Claire Taylor, Heresy in
Medieval France Dualism in Aquitaine and the Agenais, 10001249, (Woodbridge Suffolk,
2005), 2532 identifies the existence of apocalyptic expectations among some clerics dur-
ing the era of the Peace movement without explicitly connecting the two.
44 The eschatological nature of Glabers writings is widely recognized, see, for example,
Richard Landes, Rodulfus Glaber and the Dawn of the New Millennium: Eschatology,
132 Frassetto

Like Rodulphus Glaber and other commentators, Ademar understood the

Peace councils in eschatological terms, as one of the events reparing the way
for the return of Christ. His account of the Peace of 994 contains numerous
eschatological references, including his description of the translation of
Martials relics as a symbolic return to Jerusalem and repeated citations from
Johns book of the Apocalypse.45 Moreover, the two main sermon collections
themselves are arranged eschatologically, with the Paris collection acting as
the alpha and the Berlin manuscript as the omega. The sermons that immedi-
ately precede the council of Limoges, as Daniel Callahan has noted, are filled
with apocalyptic imagery and references to John, and Ademars depiction of
the participation of seven bishops at the council was inspired by the seven
churches in the opening chapters of Johns Apocalypse.46 The accounts of the
councils of Bourges and Limoges come at the end of the Paris manuscript
and thus stand on the cusp of the apocalypse. Ademars apocalypticism and
that of those around him, however, did not inspire the widespread and para-
lytic fears of the coming judgment that advocates of the terrors of the year
1000 once maintained.47 Instead apocalyptic expectations at the turn of
the millennium should be understood as contributing to the desire to
reform and improve society in anticipation of the return of Christ, and, for
Ademar and most likely many of its participants, the Peace of God was an
important aspect of that reform. Indeed, the reform initiatives described by
Ademar at the councils of Bourges and Limoges are among the most important
aspects of Ademars account and most likely reveal the concerns of those
involved in the Peace.
The earliest of the Peace councils were clearly concerned with protecting
the persons and property of the clergy and the church, but by the time of the
councils of Limoges and Bourges in 1031 the goals of the Peace, as Ademar
records them, seem to have merged with the broader reform movement sweep-
ing through the church that would culminate in the Gregorian Reform of the

Historiography and the Year 1000 Revue Mabillon n.s 7 [=68] (1996): 121. For a rejec-
tion of Glabers apocalypticism, see Barthlemy, Lan mil et la paix de Dieu, 15770.
45 Frassetto, The Writings of Ademar of Chabannes, the Peace of 994, 25153.
46 Daniel Callahan, Admar of Chabannes, Apocalypticism and the Peace Council of
Limoges of 1031, 3949.
47 On the nature of eschatological fervor at around the year 1000 see Richard Landes, The
Fear of an Apocalyptic Year 1000: Augustinian Historiography, Medieval and Modern,
Speculum 75 (2000), 97145, and the essays in Michael Frassetto (ed.), The Year 1000:
Religious and Social Response to the Turning of the First Millennium (New York, 2002), and
Richard Landes, Andrew Gow, and David Van Meter, The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Religious
and Expectation and Social Change, 9501050 (Oxford, 2003).
Ademar Of Chabannes And The Peace Of God 133

second half of the eleventh century. Although still concerned with protecting
the powerless, Ademars councils reveal the growing concern with ordering
society and providing clear definition to the roles and functions of the clergy
and the milites. Indeed, the councils were very much concerned with imposing
boundaries around the clergy and provided clear guidelines concerning their
behavior and status.
Embedded in Ademars recitation of the discussions at the council of
Limoges are the canons of the council of Bourges, which provide a detailed
program of moral and ethical reform for the clergy and were formally approved
by those in attendance at the Limousin meeting. There are twenty-five canons
in the list approved at Bourges, and, as Ademar would have it, the first
canon proclaims the apostolicity of St. Martial, declaring that Martial should
not be called a confessor but an apostle, as is done at the Roman see as well as
by the ancient fathers and the truth of the Holy Spirit.48 Unlike the account of
the council of Limoges, however, Ademars version of the canons of Bourges
leaves Martial behind after the first canon and focuses on matters of simony
and, especially, clerical marriage and sexual purity. The most important of the
canons, they also suggest a connection between later reform efforts and those
outlined by Ademar in the early 1030s.
The canons of the council of Bourges reflect the growing desire of the
church to regulate the practice of marriage for both the laity and the clergy.
Anticipating the legislation of the Gregorian reformers, Ademar outlines a
number of stringent canons concerning the practice of clerical marriage.49
Canon five declares that priests, deacons, and subdeacons, as canon law rules,
may have neither wives nor concubines.50 The canon further decrees that if
any cleric is married or in any other way not celibate and does not give up his
wife or concubine then he may never ascend to higher orders but must remain

48 Mansi, 19: 503. non inter confessors, sicut inter nos negligenter a nonuliis fieri solitum
erat, sed inter apostolos proponatur, sicut a Romana sede, et a pluribus antiques patribus,
secundum veritatem Spiritus Sancti definitum est.
49 For the importance of the establishment of clerical celibacy in the eleventh century,
see the essays in Frassetto (ed.), Medieval Purity and Piety. My chapter in that collection
Heresy, Celibacy, and Reform in the Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes, 131
48addresses more fully Ademars concerns with matters of celibacy and reform.
Useful introductions to reform in the eleventh century include Uta-Renate Blumenthal,
The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century
(Philadelphia, 1991), and Cushing, Reform and the Papacy in the Eleventh Century.
50 Mansi, 19, col. 503. Ut presbyteri, et diacones, et subdiacones, sicut lex canonum prae-
cipit, neque uxores neque concubinas habeant.
134 Frassetto

among the lectors and cantors.51 The following canon decrees that no bishop
may ordain any subdeacon unless the candidate first swears that he has no
wife or concubine or agrees to renounce his spouse or mistress before assum-
ing higher orders.52
Further canons were passed, according to Ademar, at the council to provide
greater weight to the legislation against clerical marriage. Although not for-
mally prohibiting clerical marriage, the eighth canon imposed severe restric-
tions on the sons of the clergy which were surely intended to make marriage
less appealing to the clergy.53 Quoting scripture in the eighth canon, Ademar
declares the children of married clergy accursed seed (semen maledictum),
and the canon prohibits them from entering clerical orders or advancing in
rank if already in orders.54 The council, as Ademar claims, took an even more
dramatic step, declaring that, as in secular law, no children of clerical mar-
riages could inherit.55 Not only were the children of priests and their wives
disinherited and declared illegitimate, but they were assimilated with slaves
and could not be ordained to the priesthood.56 Canons eighteen through
twenty forbid marriage to priests or deacons and also forbid marriage to the
children of priests and deacons.57 Citing Gregory the Great, the council pro-
claimed marriage to a priest anathema.58
Ademar not only records the passage of these canons at the council of
Bourges but also asserts that the fathers at the Limousin meeting approved
of this legislation and incorporated them into their own decrees. In one of the
few sections not dedicated to St. Martial, Ademar describes the debate over
the matter of clerical marriage at Limoges in 1031. Responding to a question
concerning the judgment of a married priest, the presiding bishop observed
that the answer concerning his fate must be found in the canons and then cited
the prohibition of marriage approved at the councils of Toledo and Bourges.

51 Mansi, 19, col. 503. et qui eas modo habent, ita eas fine mora peracto hoc concilio
derelinquant, ut nunquam ulterius ad eas accedant: qui vero derelinquere eas noluerint,
a proprio gradu et officio cessent, et inter lectores et cantors permaneant.
52 Mansi, 19, col. 503. Ut episcopi nullum amplius ad subdiaconatus gradum ordinent, nisi
in praesentia episcopi ante altare sedis Deo promittat, nunquam se habiturum uxorem
neque concubinam: et si tunc eam habuerit, mox ei abrenunciet.
53 Mansi, 19, col. 504.
54 Mansi, 19, col. 504 and 505.
55 Mansi, 19, col. 504.
56 Mansi, 19, col. 504.
57 Mansi, 19, col. 505.
58 Mansi, 19, col. 505. Nam et S. Gregorius dixit: Qui presbyteram in conjugium duxerit,
anathema sit.
Ademar Of Chabannes And The Peace Of God 135

This was followed by further discussion on the matter of clerical morality and
various canons rejecting the practice of clerical marriage were cited. The
ancient canons of the church were cited to endorse the decisions of the coun-
cils of Bourges and Limoges of 1031, maintaining that no one who has known
his wife or taken a concubine may ascend to the rank of subdeacon or above.
The canons of Bourges also make clear that no bishop may have a wife or con-
cubine and that no one who serves at the altar may take a wife or concubine.59
It was this concern with purity before the altar when handling the bread and
wine of the Eucharist, as Ademar argued in earlier sections of the manuscript,
that was the source of inspiration for prohibitions against clerical marriage.
Although a less developed topic in Ademars list of conciliar canons from
Bourges, the matter of simony was also raised. The definition of what consti-
tuted simony was also much narrower than it would become later in the
century, but its appearance in two canons signals its growing importance to
churchmen in the eleventh century. Gifts are not to be exchanged between
members of the clergy, according to one of the canons in Ademars version,
nor are they to be expected in exchange for the administration of the sacra-
ments.60 For Ademar, thus, the Peace councils of Bourges and Limoges intro-
duced important legislation against clerical marriage and simony and
constituted an important step in the broader movement of reform of the church.
The accounts of the councils of Bourges and Limoges clearly reveal the con-
cerns of Ademar of Chabannes and it is likely too that they reflect the concerns
of the leaders of the Peace movement. Indeed, concerns with regulating the
lives and behavior of the clergy was a central focus of most of the Peace
councils, and that similar regulations were enacted, according to Ademar, at
Bourges and Limoges should come as little surprise. Moreover, as Hans Werner
Goetz and Amy Remensnyder have argued, the Peace movement should not be
considered apart from other movements of reform, most notably the move-
ment that merged with papal reform by mid-century.61 And legislation that
rejected the practices of clerical arms-bearing and that address the heresies of
simony and nicolaitism were expressed at several other Peace councils con-
temporary with Ademars councils as well as those held early in the history of
the Peace. The council of Le Puy in 994, for example, expressly forbade the

59 Mansi, 19, col. 54445.

60 Mansi, 19, col. 503, 5045.
61 Hans-Werner Goetz, Protection of the Church, Defense of the Law, and Reform: On the
Purposes of the Peace of God, 9891038, and Amy Remensnyder, Pollution, Purity, and
Peace: An Aspect of Social Reform between the Late Tenth Century and 1076, Head
and Landes in The Peace of God, 259279 and 280307.
136 Frassetto

practice of simony, which, as Ademar interpreted it, was understood as the sale
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The bishop of Le Puy, Guy, declared at the council
that No priest shall receive a price for baptism, for it is a gift of the Holy
Spirit.62 The council of Poitiers of the year 1000/1014 passed similar legislation
against simony.63 According to the second canon approved at Poitiers, A
bishop shall not demand gifts for penitence of confirmation. Let no priest
receive a gift for penance or any gift of the Holy Spirit, unless it is freely given.64
Similarly, legislation at several councils, other than Bourges and Limoges, for-
bade the practice of clerical incontinence. One early council, at Anse in 994,
forbade priests from having sexual relations with their wives, and if they did so
they were not allowed to celebrate the mass and were threatened with the loss
of their ecclesiastical benefices.65 The council of Poitiers, like the council of
Bourges, pronounced against both simony and clerical incontinence. The bish-
ops assembled at Poitiers decreed that any priest or deacon who has a woman
in his home or cellar or some secret place will be removed from the order of
the clergy and will be forbidden from celebrating the mysteries of the mass.66
Similar legislation was to be found in later councils at Gerona in 1068 and
Clermont in 1095 and, of course, in various councils associated with the
Gregorian Reform movement.67 Clearly, then, the central concerns with cleri-
cal purity and the separation of the clergy from the laity that were at the heart
of great reform movement that swept across the entire eleventh century mani-
fest themselves in the Peace councils of the opening decades of the century,
and Ademars account of attention to these matters at Bourges and Limoges,
thus, seems to reflect the basic concerns of the clerics of his day.
Although it will most likely never be known with any certainty that the
councils of Bourges and Limoges were actually held, it is most likely that
Ademars account of these two councils reflects the concerns of supporters of
the Peace of God and other ecclesiastics in the early eleventh century. His
devotion to the cult of the saints, while unique, was surely in tune with those
around him, and, it should be noted his was not the only effort to promote a
popular local saint to apostolic status. The role of St. Martial as a champion
of the movement is echoed in other contemporary accounts, which describe
the central place of the saints and their relics at various Peace assemblies.

62 Cartulaire de Sauxillanges, p. 53. Cited in Remensnyder, Pollution, Purity, and Peace, 287.
63 Remensnyder, Pollution, Purity, and Peace, 287.
64 Mansi, 19:26568. Translated by Phillippe Buc in The Peace of God, p. 331.
65 Remensnyder, Pollution, Purity, and Peace, 288.
66 Mansi, 19:26568. Translated by Buc in The Peace of God, p. 331.
67 Remensnyder, Pollution, Purity, and Peace, 28889.
Ademar Of Chabannes And The Peace Of God 137

The eschatological understanding of the Peace expressed by Ademar in his

sermons is also consistent with that of his contemporaries and reveals one of
the important motivations for the various participants, lay and ecclesiastical,
in the Peace. Most importantly, perhaps, Ademars account of legislation at the
councils against simony and clerical marriage fully reflects the growing con-
cerns of a church intent on reform. Admittedly, much of Ademars version of
the councils reflects his very troubled soul and is concerned mostly with his
own vindication and to proving the truth of Martials apostolicity. Ademars
sermons and account of events at the councils of Bourges and Limoges may
not reflect the actual workings of the Peace councils, but they do represent the
authentic concerns motivating participants at these assemblies and provide
valuable and reliable insights into the Peace movement and the broader reform
movement of the eleventh century.
 CHAPTER 8

The Liturgy, Its Music and Their Power to Persuade

James Grier

When Ademar of Chabannes decided to throw caution to the winds and sup-
port the flagrantly absurd but popular notion that Martial, third-century mis-
sionary to Gaul, first bishop of Limoges and patron saint of the abbey in that
city that housed his burial place, had achieved the rank of apostle, he initially
turned to the liturgy and specifically its constituent musical items to advocate
the cause.1 His copy of the liturgy, with text, music and rubrics written in his
autograph hand, survives in Paris, Bibliothque nationale de France, MS latin
(hereafter Pa) 909. A Benedictine at the abbey of Saint Cybard in Angoulme
since his tenderest youth (ab ipsa tenerrima pueritia), he witnessed and
participated in the liturgy virtually his whole life.2 Consequently, he knew well
the power of the liturgy and its music to shape public opinion, perhaps never
as forcefully, in his experience, as in 1016 when the monks of Saint Jean in
Angly were able to convince the nobility and clergy of Aquitaine about the

1 Louis Saltet, Une discussion sur Saint Martial entre un Lombard et un Limousin en 1029,
Bulletin de Littrature Ecclsiastique 26 (1925): 16186, 279302; Une prtendue lettre de
Jean XIX sur Saint Martial fabrique par Admar de Chabannes, ibid. 27 (1926): 11739;
Les faux dAdmar de Chabannes: Prtendues dcisions sur Saint Martial au concile de
Bourges du 1er novembre 1031, ibid. 27 (1926): 14560; and Un cas de mythomanie histo-
rique bien document: Admar de Chabannes (9881034), ibid. 32 (1931): 14965. Daniel
F. Callahan, The Sermons of Admar of Chabannes and the Cult of St. Martial of Limoges,
Revue Bndictine 86 (1976): 25195; Admar de Chabannes et la Paix de Dieu, Annales du
Midi 89 (1977): 2143; Admar of Chabannes, Apocalypticism and the Peace Council of
Limoges of 1031, Revue Bndictine 101 (1991): 3249; and The Peace of God and the Cult
of the Saints in Aquitaine in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries, in The Peace of God: Social
Violence and Religious Response in France around the Year 1000, ed. Thomas Head and
Richard Landes (Ithaca and London, 1992), 16583. Richard Landes, Relics, Apocalypse,
and the Deceits of History: Ademar of Chabannes, 9891034, Harvard Historical Studies, 117
(Cambridge, MA, 1995). James Grier, The Musical World of a Medieval Monk: Admar de
Chabannes in Eleventh-Century Aquitaine (Cambridge, 2006).
2 Quotation: Ademar de Chabannes, Epistola de apostolatu sancti Martialis, in Patrologiae cur-
sus completus: Series latina, 221 vols., ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris: Migne, 184464; hereafter PL),
141: col. 89C. On Ademars participation in the liturgy as a Benedictine, see Grier, The
Musical World, 27375.

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The Liturgy, Its Music And Their Power To Persuade 139

authenticity of the skull they were promoting as a relic of John the Baptist.3
Ademar conscripted this power to attempt to make true what nearly everyone
in Limoges knew to be false, that Martial was an apostle, intimate of Jesus and
Saint Peters personal delegate to Limoges.
By increasing the solemnity of the observances for Martials feasts,
Ademar sought to appeal equally to older members of the monastic commu-
nity, who had, after all, venerated the saint as a confessor-bishop their entire
lives, and the younger monks, who perhaps evinced more enthusiasm for
Martials new status. To achieve this goal, he pursued two complementary
strategies in the Mass and the Office. To begin the former, he constructed an
Introit of singular length to accompany the grand procession with which the
Mass opened. The clergy of Limoges inaugurated the Mass on 3 August 1029,
the last day of a diocesan synod over which Bishop Jordan of Limoges presided,
and it was he who served as chief celebrant at the Mass, held in the citys cathe-
dral of Saint Stephen.4 Ademars Introit features no fewer than ten complete
sets of tropes (interpolated music and text that precede and interrupt the anti-
phon, which functions as a refrain within the Introit) for the Introit antiphon.5
He clearly intended all ten complexes to be sung because he provides a
different verse after each of the first nine (four from the Psalms, four from
the Gospel of John and one newly composed). The Introit would then finish
with the Lesser Doxology following the tenth and final set of tropes, and then
a concluding repetition of the antiphon, presumably untroped. The whole

3 Ademar gives two versions of the account: Ademar de Chabannes, Chronicon .C and 3.56,
ed. P. Bourgain, R. Landes and G. Pon, Ademari Cabannensis Opera Omnia Pars I, Corpus
Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis, 129 (Turnhout, 1999), pp. 1314 and 17577,
respectively. See Richard Landes, Autour dAdmar de Chabannes (1034): Prcisions chro-
nologiques au sujet du Limousin vers lAn Mil, Bulletin de la Socit Archologique et
Historique du Limousin 122 (1994): 2354 at 3536; idem, Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits,
pp. 4749; and Grier, The Musical World, 56, 2829 and 27778.
4 Ademar, Epistola de apostolatu, col. 92D; [Ademar], Acta concilii lemovicensis II, in PL, 142:
cols. 1375A-76D. See Saltet, Un cas de mythomanie, 15257; and Callahan, Admar of
Chabannes, Apocalypticism and the Peace Council.
5 Ademar de Chabannes, Opera liturgica et poetica: Musica cum textibus, ed. James Grier,
2 vols., Ademari Cabanensis Opera Omnia Pars II, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio
Mediaevalis, 245, 245A (Turnhout, 2012), I.3.A-J, 1:430 (music), 2:712 (text), 18898
(commentary). See also James Grier, Ecce sanctum quem deus elegit Marcialem apostolum:
Admar de Chabannes and the Tropes for the Feast of Saint Martial, in Beyond the Moon:
Festschrift Luther Dittmer, ed. Bryan Gillingham and Paul Merkley, Wissenschaftliche
Abhandlungen, 53 (Ottawa, 1990), pp. 2874 at 3844; and idem, Editing Admar de
Chabannes Liturgy for the Feast of St Martial, Plainsong and Medieval Music 6 (1997):
97118 at 11415.
140 Grier

would require between thirty and forty-five minutes to perform, depending

on the speed with which the singers proceeded and how much time elapsed
between verse and the trope complex to follow. Ademar adapted eight existing
trope complexes (I comment below on the combination of old and new items)
and then ended the piece with two new compositions of his own. The text of
the penultimate uses exceptionally elaborate language while the final trope
complex exhibits a very florid musical texture.6 These two form a climax, with
the latter possibly timed to coincide with the arrival of the celebrant at the altar.
It is impossible to say precisely what effect Ademar achieved with this
extraordinary opening piece, but his intentions are clear. A procession of
this length must have involved a very large number of clergy, probably all
of those from the city churches and possibly a good deal of those assembled for
the synod that was just concluding, all headed by the bishop and supported by
a display of the relics of Saint Martial. Such a procession would serve to dem-
onstrate the unanimity of the clergy regarding the apostolicity of Martial, as
much for those who were participating as for those observing. Moreover, it
displayed the power of the clergy, through the medium of the liturgy and its
music, to lend credibility to a bold and patently false claim.
Ademars approach to the Office evinces somewhat more subtlety, as per-
haps befits a ceremony intended to take place in the less public precincts of
the abbey of Saint Martial.7 To increase the solemnity of the Office, he pro-
vided the responsories of Matins with multiple verses, a strategy practiced at
Saint Martial for this purpose since at least the previous generation.8 The
Office for Martials feast used at the abbey earlier in the eleventh century (con-
tained in Pa 1085 fols. 76v77r) employed a single verse for each responsory,
all of which treated some aspect of Martials biography. Ademar supplies
an additional verse for each responsory, twelve in all, of which two are newly

6 On the former, Sanctus Marcialis fulgorus apostolus, see James Grier, A New Voice in the
Monastery: Tropes and Versus from Eleventh and Twelfth-Century Aquitaine, Speculum
69 (1994): 102369 at 103233. On the latter, Christi discipulus, see James Grier, The Music
is the Message: Music in the Apostolic Liturgy of Saint Martial, Plainsong and Medieval
Music 12 (2003): 114 at 47.
7 On Admars division of the ecclesiastical space used for the days liturgical observations, see
James Grier, An Urbane Fraud: Limoges and Admar de Chabannes Liturgy for Saint-
Martial, 3 August 1029, in Saint-Martial de Limoges: Ambition politique et production cul-
turelle (Xe-XIIIe sicles), ed. Claude Andrault-Schmitt (Limoges, 2006), 45567.
8 James Grier, The Divine Office at Saint-Martial in the Early Eleventh Century: Paris, BNF lat.
1085, in The Divine Office in the Latin Middle Ages: Methodology and Source Studies, Regional
Developments, Hagiography, Written in Honor of Professor Ruth Steiner, ed. Margot E. Fassler
and Rebecca A. Baltzer (New York, 2000), 179204 at 18586.
The Liturgy, Its Music And Their Power To Persuade 141

composed, and the rest derived from the Bible, specifically the gospels of
Matthew and Luke, the Psalms and 1 Samuel.9
Furthermore, many of these appear as the texts of other chant genres in the
Common of Apostles or on the feasts of individual apostles and evangelists. By
re-using these familiar texts in a new context, Ademar invokes the authority
they bear by association with the liturgies of other saints who share the rank to
which he would promote Martial for the purpose of asserting Martials new
status. In contrast with the spectacular opening procession of the Mass and its
elaborate musical setting, where he exploits the power of the gesture first to
inspire awe in the assembled congregation and then to persuade them of
Martials apostolicity, here he appeals directly to the urban clergy through the
power of the word, amplified by its biblical authority and the liturgies of which
it forms part.
Appeasement of the clergy, particularly the older monks at Saint Martial
who had not only celebrated a liturgy for Martial that identified him as a con-
fessor-bishop, but had probably contributed to the creation of that liturgy and
the books that preserve it, plays a large role in the second strategy Ademar
employed, namely the combination of new and old items.10 The re-use of exist-
ing chants for new feasts had a long history at Saint Martial and elsewhere.11
The entire apostolic Office for Martial, with the exception of the responsorial
verses mentioned above and one full responsory, consists of chants borrowed
from the existing episcopal form of the Office, found in Pa 1085 as noted
above.12 This strategy stands in marked contrast with his approach to the

9 James Grier, Liturgy and Rhetoric in the Service of Fraud: Admar de Chabannes and
the Apostolicity of Saint Martial, in Latin Culture in the Eleventh Century: Proceedings
of the Third International Conference on Medieval Latin Studies, Cambridge, September
912 1998, 2 vols., ed. Michael W. Herren, C. J. McDonough and Ross G. Arthur,
Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin, 5 (Turnhout, 2002), 1:38497 at 39095.
10 For an overview of this question, see James Grier, Admar de Chabannes at the Nexus of
Tradition and Innovation, in Identity and Locality in Early European Music, 10281740,
ed. Jason Stoessel (Farnham, 2009), pp. 1326; also idem, The Musical World, 10535.
11 See Grier, The Musical World, 97105.
12 The responsory is Gloriosus est with text drawn from his sermons (on which, see John A.
Emerson, An Edition of Four Medieval Offices Dedicated to Saint Martial de Limoges:
Their Literary Origins and Liturgical Development, ed. James Grier, Studies in Music from
the University of Western Ontario, 18 [for 1999] [London, ON: Department of Music
History, University of Western Ontario, 2004], nos. 9697, p. 57); see James Grier, The
Music is the Message II: Admar de Chabannes Music for the Apostolic Office of Saint
Martial, Plainsong and Medieval Music 15 (2006): 4354 at 5053; and idem, Liturgy
and Rhetoric, 39697.
142 Grier

Offices for Austriclinian (Martials companion), Valrie (his first convert in

Limoges) and Cybard (the patron saint of Ademars home abbey in Angoulme),
in which nearly all the chants are new compositions of Ademars.13
By incorporating into his new apostolic liturgy for Martial chants that
the monks at the abbey had sung for a generation or more, Ademar drew on the
power of memory both individual and institutional. By interpolating some new
chants or sections of chants, as, for example, the responsorial verses mentioned
above, he drew on the authority the existing chants possessed to advocate
Martials apostolicity. For example, he introduces into Matins for Martial a
responsory from the Common of Apostles, Ciues apostolorum, to which he adds
a newly-composed verse that assigns to Martial the power of binding and releas-
ing (potestatem ligandi et soluendi) that Jesus granted first to Peter (Matthew
16.19) and then all twelve original disciples (Matthew 18.18).14 Ademars combi-
nation of old and new blurs the distinction between the novelty he was attempt-
ing to launch and established practice at Saint Martial, making it appear as
though the novelty was, in fact, established practice, while simultaneously
invoking that established practice to lend legitimacy to the novelty.
The tensions generated by this strategy emerge nowhere in higher relief
than in the troped Introit with which the Mass begins. Above, I mention the
eight existing trope complexes with which the Introit begins, to which Ademar
added two new ones. Tropes occupied a central place in the liturgy at Saint
Martial during the tenth and eleventh centuries.15 The earliest surviving music
manuscript from the abbey, Pa 1240, which I date to the first half of the tenth
century, contains mostly tropes and sequences.16 A failed attempt at creating a

13 On the fragmentary Office for Cybard in Pa 1978 fol. 102rv, see Lopold Delisle, Notice
sur les manuscrits originaux dAdmar de Chabannes, Notices et extraits des manuscrits
de la Bibliothque Nationale et autres bibliothques 35 (1896): 241358 at 35052. On
those for Valrie and Austriclinian in Pa 909 fols. 79r-85v, see John A. Emerson, Two
Newly Identified Offices for Saints Valeria and Austriclinianus by Admar de Chabannes
(MS Paris, Bibl. Nat., Latin 909, FOLS. 7985v), Speculum 40 (1965): 3146; and James
Grier, Hoax, History, and Hagiography in Admar de Chabanness Texts for the Divine
Office, in Representing History, 9001300: Art, Music, History, ed. Robert A. Maxwell
(University Park, PA, 2010), 6772. Also, Grier, The Musical World, 21925.
14 See Grier, Liturgy and Rhetoric, 396.
15 For an overview, see Paul Evans, The Early Trope Repertory of Saint Martial de Limoges,
Princeton Studies in Music, 2 (Princeton, 1970).
16 See John A. Emerson, Neglected Aspects of the Oldest Full Troper (Paris, Bibliothque
nationale, lat. 1240), in Recherches nouvelles sur les tropes liturgiques, ed. Wulf Arlt and
Gunilla Bjrkvall, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Studia Latina Stockholmiensia, 36
(Stockholm, 1993), 193217. On the contested date, see Grier, The Musical World, 4243.
The Liturgy, Its Music And Their Power To Persuade 143

second complete troper around the turn of the millennium, the remains
of which survive in the endpapers of Pa 1834, led to a renewed project to
codify the abbeys liturgy in two volumes, one for the Mass (Pa 1120), which
contains the trope repertory, and one for the Office (Pa 1085), in the second or
third decade of the eleventh century.17 Roger de Chabannes, Ademars uncle
and the abbeys cantor, participated in this codification, if he did not direct it
as cantor.
Ademar himself knew the trope repertory intimately. His career as a music
scribe at Saint Martial began with his contributing the musical notation to yet
another trope manuscript produced at the abbey between mid-1027 and early
1028, probably under the direction of the cantor who replaced Roger after his
death 26 April 1025.18 He therefore fully understood the role of the trope in
liturgical practices at Saint Martial. Consequently, he elected to retain a large
number of them for the Introit that would open the apostolic Mass.19 This
strategy caused him to take another decision, namely to compose a new Introit
antiphon. The existing tropes fit around the Introit Statuit, from the Common
of Confessor-Bishops. Because of its affiliation with saints of that rank, Ademar
could not use it in his apostolic Mass. Moreover, because he wished to use
the tropes that normally accompany it, he could not select the Introit from the
Common of Apostles, Mihi autem. The melodic orientation of that chant cre-
ates awkward connections at the points where the trope phrase ends and the
next phrase of the antiphon begins.
But even more awkward are the grammatical and syntactic transitions from
trope to antiphon and back, largely because the subject of the principal clause
in Mihi autem is plural (tui amici, the friends of God) whereas that of Statuit
is singular, God the Father, himself, and the tropes for each Introit, of course,
offer grammatical constructions that make the transition from trope to anti-
phon and back smooth. Ademars solution was to compose a new Introit,
Probauit, that belonged to the same mode as Statuit (mode 1, whereas Mihi
autem belongs to mode 2), uses similar melodic gestures, and retains God the

17 On Pa 1834, see John A. Emerson, Fragments of a Troper from Saint Martial de Limoges,
Scriptorium 16 (1962): 36972. On the project to record the liturgy at Saint Martial, see
James Grier, Roger de Chabannes (d. 1025), Cantor of St Martial, Limoges, Early Music
History 14 (1995): 53119; on the role of Pa 1834 in the project, see Grier, Roger de
Chabannes (d. 1025), 7072, 8182 and 10913.
18 James Grier, The Musical Autographs of Admar de Chabannes (9891034), Early Music
History 24 (2005): 12568 at 13456.
19 The first trope complex, Plebs deuota, is a hybrid, in that Ademar retains the introductory
trope and then replaces the remaining trope elements with three newly-composed items.
See Grier, Editing Admar de Chabannes Liturgy, 11617.
144 Grier

Father as the subject of its main clause.20 In other words, Ademar has inverted
the usual process of composing tropes, in which the composer accommo
datesthe trope to the host chant. Instead, he has designed his newly composed
Introit, Probauit, to fit smoothly around the tropes he retained from the episco-
pal liturgy. Again, the authority of the existing chants, the tropes in this case,
strengthens the case Ademar makes in the new pieces for the assertion of
Martials apostolicity.
The strategies discussed to this point concern the larger structural features
of the liturgy Ademar designed to advocate Martials new status. I devote the
rest of the paper to a study of two aspects of the liturgy that emerge from
the details of his treatment: the use of rhetorical gestures in the texts of the
chant in support of Martials rank as apostle, and the creation of elaborate
melismatic chants, some, as I think, to be sung by Ademar himself, to persuade
by purely aesthetic means. The texts, both newly composed and adaptations of
existing ones, advocate for Martials new status in three ways: they repeatedly
call him an apostle; they suggest, often in quite subtle ways, that he was the
equal of Saint Peter; and they indicate that his mission to preach extended
beyond Limoges, as Gregory of Tours states, to Aquitaine and indeed all of
Gaul.21 In this regard, they parallel the claims made in the revised, apostolic
uita prolixior of Martial, as Daniel Callahan discussed.22
The texts of the troped Introit with which the Mass begins refer to Martial as
an apostle seven times. As one might expect, three of these references occur in
new texts composed by Ademar and one in an older text modified by him.23

20 Grier, Editing Admar de Chabannes Liturgy, 10917.

21 Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum 1.30, 2nd ed., ed. Bruno Krusch and Wilhelm
Levison, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum, 1, part 1
(Hanover, 193751), pp. 2223; and Libri octo miraculorum, 8, Liber in gloria confesso-
rum, 27, ed. Bruno Krusch, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores Rerum
Merovingicarum, 1, part 2 (Hanover, 1885), pp. 76465.
22 Callahan, The Sermons, 25863. Unfortunately, there remains no critical edition of the
uita prolixior.
23 The three new texts are: Culmine apostolico, a newly-composed trope element for the
trope complex Plebs deuota (Ritva Maria Jacobsson, ed., Corpus troporum, 10: Tropes du
propre de la messe, 5: Ftes des Saints et de la Croix et de la Transfiguration, 2 vols., Acta
Universitatis Stockholmiensis, Corpus Troporum, 10 [Stockholm, 2011] [hereafter CT
10], B: #301 p. 95; also Analecta hymnica, 55 vols., ed. Guido Maria Dreves, Clemens
Blume and Henry M. Bannister [Leipzig, 18861922] [hereafter AH], 49: nos. 29091,
pp. 12829); the verse Ecce sanctum, which follows the trope complex Sortis apostolicae
(CT 10A:481); and the trope Sanctus Marcialis fulgorus apostolus (CT 10B: #1417 p. 427;
AH, 49: no. 295, p. 130). The altered text is the trope element Marcialem prae secla, in
which apostolum replaces praesulem (CT 10B: #887 p. 272; AH, 49: no. 293, p. 129).
The Liturgy, Its Music And Their Power To Persuade 145

The remaining three all appear in existing texts that establish Martial as one
who is deserving of apostolic rank, as opposed to one who has attained it.24
Equally important as the assertion of Martials apostolicity is the suppression
of references to his former rank as bishop, manifested in the Mass as the term
praesul, replaced by Ademar with the appropriate form of apostolus (the one
case already mentioned), pastor or doctor.25 Ademar extends this strategy to
the prosae that he incorporated into the Mass, Valde lumen and Alme deus,
where he replaces forms of praesul with patronus, doctor and pastor, and the
phrase uerendus pontifex with idem patriarcha.26 In all these instances, his
replacement comes as close as possible to the syllable count of the original
text, and in the prosae, matches it precisely, in all cases to avoid disruption of
the musical setting, especially in the prosae with their syllabic setting of the
text (i.e., one note per syllable).
Ademars apostolic Office, too, frequently names Martial in his new status.
Because the Office contains proportionately fewer new pieces than the Mass,
however, the word apostolus, replacing the nouns praesul, antistes and ponti-
fex, all meaning bishop, most often occurs as an alteration to an existing
piece: seven out of eleven times in Matins, plus two additional instances each
in Lauds and the little hours.27 Two new texts in Matins, one in the untroped

24 Two of these texts consist in the same line that forms a part of two trope elements: Sortis
apostolicae quia Marcialis fuit unus, in the trope complex that begins with that element
(CT 10B: #1453/2 p. 439; AH, 49: no. 288, pp. 12728), and Sedibus externis (CT 10B:
#1432/2 p. 431; AH, 49: no. 287, p. 127); the third is the element Est et apostolico that
forms part of the trope complex Sortis apostolicae (CT 10B: #457/2 p. 142). Ademar gives
much the same treatment to Martials companion Austriclinian, who knew apostles, like
Peter and Martial, and worked beside them but never became one himself. See Grier,
Hoax, History, and Hagiography, 69.
25 Grier, Ecce sanctum, 6263; and The Musical World, 111.
26 AH, 7: nos. 161 and 164, pp. 17779 and 18182, respectively. See Grier, The Musical
World, 111.
27 Praesul: the responsory Beatissimus apostolus in Matins (Emerson, An Edition, nos. 5457,
p. 53); and the antiphon Beatus apostolus in Lauds (Emerson, An Edition, no. 107, p. 58).
Antistes: the invitatory Regem omnipotentem, and the responsories Praecepit autem and O uere
sanctum, all in Matins (Emerson, An Edition, nos. 4, 4952 and 5963, pp. 47, 52 and 53,
respectively). Pontifex: the responsories Memorabilis and Peracto feliciter in Matins (Emerson,
An Edition, nos. 7477 and 7982, pp. 55 and 56, respectively); and the antiphons Sanctus
Marcialis apostolus in Prime, and Instante uero in Nones (Emerson, An Edition, nos. 116 and
119, respectively, p. 59). In the antiphon Quam cernens in Matins (Emerson, An Edition, nos.
89, pp. 4748), it replaces socius, used to describe the relationship between Martial and
Saint Peter; and in the Benedictus antiphon O magnum primatem in Lauds (ibid., nos. 11314,
p. 59), it replaces the adjective sanctissimum. See Grier, The Musical World, 12628.
146 Grier

Mass and three chants among the items collected at the end of the Office in Pa
909 incorporate a form of apostolus, and twice it appears in a single existing
unaltered text in Matins in a context implying that Martial is worthy of the
rank of apostle, as we found in the troped Mass.28 What effect might these
reiterations of the word apostolus have had on Ademars audience? He more
than anyone would have known that simple repetition of the noun would not
make Martial an apostle, and the replacement of words like praesul or antistes
with apostolus, especially in the texts of chants that the urban clergy and par-
ticularly the monks at Saint Martial had sung for decades, would fool no one
among them.
Ademar therefore supplemented these assertions of Martials new status
with two other rhetorical nuances. In the episcopal version of the Office, Saint
Peter issues commands to Martial regarding his mission to Limoges. In two
cases, Ademar changes the texts so that Christ orders Martial to undertake his
mission, while in two others, Saint Peters commands become advice or exhor-
tations.29 Simultaneously, in both Mass and Office, Ademar alters references to
Martials sphere of activity in Limoges to expand his mission to Aquitaine and
all Gaul, more in keeping with the responsibilities of an apostle.30 The simple
repetition of Martials apostolic rank, therefore, finds reinforcement in the
equal status he now shares with Saint Peter, and the reframing of his mission
from Limoges to include Aquitaine and Gaul. These rhetorical devices may
not have convinced everyone in the city or the abbey of Martials new rank,
but, taken together and spread out over the days liturgy, they strengthen a
weak case.

28 New texts in Matins: the responsory Gloriosus est (Emerson, An Edition, nos. 9697, p. 57),
and the newly-composed introduction O sancte dei apostole to the responsory O Marcialis
princeps (ibid., nos. 8795, pp. 5657). Untroped Mass: the tract Marcialem apostolum.
Other items: the antiphon Gloriosus apostolus (Emerson, An Edition, no. 139, p. 62), and
the processional items Aue pastor and O saluatoris minister (see Grier, The Musical World,
25664). Existing text: the responsory O quam gloriosus est (Emerson, An Edition, no. 32,
p. 50).
29 Christ replaces Saint Peter: the antiphons Sanctus Martialis ad praedicandum and Quam
cernens, both in Matins (Emerson, An Edition, nos. 5 and 89, pp. 4748). Saint Peter
advises or exhorts: the antiphons Tunc sanctus Marcialis and Hoc autem, both in Matins
(Emerson, An Edition, nos. 1213 and 40, pp. 48 and 51, respectively). See Grier, The
Musical World, 13032.
30 Aquitaine replaces Limoges: the invitatory Regem omnipotentem and the antiphons
Sanctus Marcialis ad praedicandum and Beatus Marcialis, all in Matins (Emerson, An
Edition, nos. 4 and 5, p. 47, and no. 41, p. 51, respectively). Gaul replaces Limoges: the
Introit trope Marcialem prae secla (AH, 49: no. 293 p. 129). See Grier, The Musical World,
112 and 128.
The Liturgy, Its Music And Their Power To Persuade 147

Perhaps the most compelling argument Ademar could offer was his own
singing. Only circumstantial evidence supports the idea that Ademar per-
formed in this capacity, either at his home abbey of Saint Cybard in Angoulme
or at Saint Martial, but that evidence makes a strong case that he habitually
sang in liturgical observations at these establishments.31 Three factors support
that interpretation. First, the Rule of Saint Benedict makes it clear that all
members of the community must participate in the celebration of the liturgy
by reading and singing according to their abilities. Second, Ademar in his prose
writings uses technical musical terms that only someone intimately familiar
with the liturgy and its music would know. And third, he displays a singular
preoccupation with the melismatic genres of plainchant (chants in which
many syllables of the text receive several notes in the musical setting, and
some receive many), to a degree that suggests his knowledge could only have
derived from his own singing of these elaborate and virtuosic chants. None of
these points on its own would definitively prove that Ademar sang the liturgi-
cal chant, but together they make it unlikely in the extreme that he did not.
I find his interest in melismatic chant the most provocative factor in the
argument. First, Ademar apparently introduced the genre of the sequentia,
the untexted sequence, to Saint Martial when he supplied the musical nota-
tion for Pa 1121 in the second half of 1027 through early 1028. By Ademars time,
the sequence had become an important liturgical genre in its own right, sung
after the Alleluia in the Mass.32 The monks at Saint Martial were definitely
singing the texted versions of the sequence, known as prosae in Aquitaine, in
the tenth century, as attested by the collection in Pa 1240.33 Codex Pa 1240 also
contains a handful of sequentiae, although the date at which they entered the
manuscript has occasioned debate, some scholars placing them in the tenth,
others in the eleventh century.34 In any case, this collection of five items does
not constitute anything like a full repertory of the genre for the liturgical year.

31 Grier, The Musical World, 27295.

32 The essential secondary works on the sequence remain Richard Lincoln Crocker, The
Repertoire of Proses at Saint Martial de Limoges (Tenth and Eleventh Centuries), 2 vols.
(Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1957), and The Early Medieval Sequence (Berkeley, Los
Angeles and London, 1977). See also James Grier, Admar de Chabannes and the
Sequence at Saint-Martial in the Early Eleventh Century, in Medieval Music in Practice:
Studies in Honor of Richard Crocker, ed. Judith A. Peraino, Miscellanea, 8 (Middleton, WI,
2013), 5984.
33 For an inventory of the prosae in Pa 1240, see Crocker, The Repertoire of Proses,
1:5155.
34 They occur in the supplement; for an inventory, see Emerson, Neglected Aspects, 214.
On the date, see Jacques Chailley, Les anciens tropaires et squentiaires de lcole de
148 Grier

In the early eleventh century, the scriptorium at Saint Martial returned to

the sequence when it produced Pa 1120, the Mass book that formed part of the
program to codify the abbeys repertory of liturgical music. It preserves a full
collection of prosae, but no sequentiae.35 Sometime after the completion of Pa
1120, presumably in the 1020s, the abbey obtained Pa 1118 and 1084, both pro-
duced somewhere in southern Aquitaine around the turn of the millennium,
possibly because both contain a large collection of sequentiae.36 Then, Ademar
created his own sequentiary as part of his responsibilities for providing the
music in Pa 1121, writing the rubrics, musical notation and the texts of the par-
tially texted sequentiae, while drawing on the sequence melodies preserved in
Pa 1120 and the sequentiaries in Pa 1118 and 1084.37
Later in 1028, when, on his return to Saint Martial, the monks of the scripto-
rium invited him to supply the notation for the musical manuscript commis-
sioned from them by the neighboring abbey of Saint Martin in Limoges (now
Pa 909), he wrote a second sequentiary for the full liturgical year.38 When one
considers the mind-numbing exertion required to copy the endless, undiffer-
entiated strings of neumes that constitute the repertory of sequentiae for the
entire liturgical year, one can only conclude that the production of a sequen-
tiary was a labor of love for the scribe, which Ademar then doubled by creating
a second one in Pa 909.39 It was this enthusiasm, or perhaps passion, for the
genre that led Ademar to introduce it into liturgical practice at Saint Martial.
His earliest original compositions seem to have been sequences, which survive
in both texted and untexted forms in Pa 1121, and he composed two additional
sequences for Martial; these too survive in texted and untexted form.40

Saint-Martial de Limoges (Xe-XIe s.), tudes Grgoriennes 2 (1957): 16388 at 166, who
favors the eleventh century, and Emerson, Neglected Aspects, 209, who places the addi-
tions in the tenth.
35 Inventory, Crocker, The Repertoire of Proses, 1:18289.
36 Grier, The Musical Autographs, 15253 and 16567; and The Musical World, 291.
Inventory of Pa 1084, Crocker, The Repertoire of Proses, 1:8494; of Pa 1118, ibid.,
1:11926.
37 Inventory of sequentiae in Pa 1121: Crocker, The Repertoire of Proses, 1:2009. On
Admars role in the production of the sequentiary, see Grier, The Musical Autographs,
pp. 13540 and 15154.
38 Inventory, Crocker, The Repertoire of Proses, 1:26169. See also James Grier, Scriptio
interrupta: Admar de Chabannes and the Production of Paris, Bibliothque Nationale de
France, MS latin 909, Scriptorium 51 (1997): 23450.
39 On the vicissitudes of copying a sequentiary, see Grier, The Musical World, 182200 and
28590.
40 Grier, The Musical World, 21517 and, on Arce polorum, one of the sequences he com-
posed for Martials feasts Grier, The Musical World, 25055.
The Liturgy, Its Music And Their Power To Persuade 149

Three other chants, however, stand out because of their extraordinarily

florid texture and the climactic points of the liturgy at which they would have
been sung; furthermore, I consider it a distinct possibility that Ademar
intended them as vehicles for his own vocal performance at these critical
moments of the ceremony. First, I mentioned above the melismatic texture of
the concluding trope complex, Christi discipulus, within the Introit at the
opening of the apostolic Mass.41 It surpasses by a wide margin the usual level
of decoration in chants of this genre and consequently, I believe Ademar may
have intended it to be sung as the celebrant, Bishop Jordan, reached the altar,
and that he may have saved it for himself to sing. In any case, it provides a dra-
matic conclusion to the procession that opens the Mass.
Second, Ademar creates even greater drama during the Offertory. The choir
and soloists perform this chant while the celebrant prepares the chalice and
the host for consecration. Most examples of the Offertory exhibit a great deal of
melismatic singing, particularly in the verses, sung by the soloists. Ademar has
created, for the apostolic Mass, a particularly florid chant with extraordinary
melismatic writing in the verses, even for this highly decorative genre.42 When
the melody becomes melismatic, as it does in this piece, the text tends to recede
into the background, and purely musical issues assume greater importance in
the ear, and perhaps the mind, of the listener. Towards the end of the second
verse of this Offertory, on the text usque ad oceani occidentalis litora, Ademar
composed an elaborate melody that repeats relatively short gestures (four to
six notes in length) in various combinations so that the melody constantly
changes while it revisits familiar figures. Consequently, the musical organiza-
tion of the passage supersedes the textual message, and the listener must con-
template the music alone and what it communicates about the liturgical event.
Third, during Ademars lifetime, vigils and processions at Montjovis, a knoll
on the northwestern outskirts of Limoges, assumed a place of importance in
liturgical observances at Saint Martial. For example, when the city was struck
by an outbreak of ignis sacer (probably ergot) in 994, the monks carried the
relics of Saint Martial there, at which point those afflicted began to be healed;
and, on the eve of the dedication of the new abbatial basilica on 18 November
1028, the monks held a vigil on the hilltop. Ademar, clearly moved by the holy
stature of the place and the ceremonies that had occurred there, composed
two processional items specially for those occasions, an antiphon O saluatoris
minister and a responsorial chant Aue pastor optime.43 The latter contains

41 Grier, The Music is the Message, 47.

42 Grier, The Music is the Message, 713.
43 Grier, The Musical World, 25664.
150 Grier

several passages of elaborate melismatic writing where, again, the text assumes
a position of secondary importance to the music.
The key instance of this musical strategy falls at the end of the respond,
which, of course, recurs at the end of the entire piece. Here, on the phrase in
regno caelorum, alleluia, Ademar devises lengthy melismata that feature rep-
etition, first on the penultimate syllable of caelorum and then on the ante-
penultimate of alleluia. These long-range repetitions move the music and its
constituent structures to the forefront of the listeners attention, and make a
purely musical case for the apostolicity of Martial. If it is true that Ademar
himself sang these remarkable musical gestures, and I freely admit that this
suggestion is pure supposition on my part, then he chose a dramatic means to
place himself, and his voice, both his compositional voice (of this there can be
no doubt) and his singing voice, at the centre of the apostolic argument.
Ademar thus employs five distinct modes of invoking power in his apostolic
liturgy for Saint Martial: the power of gesture, of the word (i.e., scripture), of
memory (both individual and institutional), of rhetoric, and of sheer aesthetic
beauty. Each contributes in its own way to the advocacy of a project that only
the spiritually neediest among the clergy or the populace of Limoges could
take seriously. But by calling upon the power of the liturgy and its constituent
music, Ademar succeeded in making credible what nearly everyone, Ademar
first among them, knew to be patently false. In the short term, the project
failed, of course. At its premire, 3 August 1029, Benedict of Chiusa, a Lombard
monk, apparently at the encouragement of the cathedral canons of Saint
Stephen in Limoges, denounced the liturgy as an affront to God and Ademar
departed Limoges the next day, back to Saint Cybard in Angoulme, where he
quietly worked to secure the acceptance of this absurd idea.44
And acceptance he did achieve, after his death in 1034 while on pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, and with a great deal more success, I suspect, than even he would
have hoped. Beginning soon after his death, the monks at Saint Martial gradu-
ally reintroduced the issue of Martials apostolicity, growing bolder first with
the death of Abbot Odolric (1040) and then Bishop Jordan (1051), who had
suffered such grave embarrassment by the debacle of 3 August 1029.45 By the

44 For Ademars account of the debate with Benedict, see Ademar, Epistola de apostolatu,
cols. 89112. See also Saltet, Une discussion; and Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, and the
Deceits, 22868. On the forgeries he produced at Angoulme, see Saltet, Une prtendue
lettre, Les faux dAdmar, and Un cas de mythomanie; Callahan, The Sermons, and
Admar of Chabannes, Apocalypticism and the Peace Council; Landes, Relics,
Apocalypse, and the Deceits, 26981.
45 Grier, The Musical World, 296326.
The Liturgy, Its Music And Their Power To Persuade 151

mid-1050s, they had rehabilitated Ademar, claiming him as a monk of Saint

Martial, and produced another copy of his Mass liturgy in Pa 1119. Ademars
reputation suffered a significant reverse, however, when Cluny acquired Saint
Martial in 106263. They quickly realized that the apostolic cult, if promoted
subtly, would occasion no scandal and possibly benefit the abbey of Saint
Martial in some way. So they quietly permitted its promulgation with the result
that it was recognized in Limoges and neighboring regions.
But Ademar and his liturgy disappear from the cult. He and the musical
items he created to promote the apostolicity clearly carried too many negative
connotations for them to remain useful. And so while the cult that Ademar
had created survived and even flourished, he himself slipped into obscurity.
 CHAPTER 9

Female Religious as Collectors of Relics

Finding Sacrality and Power in the Ordinary

Jane Schulenburg

The hoe she [St. Moninna] used for digging was kept for many years after
her death in her monastery in her honor. They also kept for a long time,
with great reverence, her badger-skin garmentmore precious than
gowns of silkand the wooden comb with which, once a year at Easter,
it was her custom to comb her hair, unless the supreme necessity of ill-
ness compelled her to use it more often.1
And any sick persons, no matter how seriously afflicted, who placed
the smallest scrap of linen or cloth from her [St. Rusticulas] garments on
their bodies and appealed to her sanctity with fullest faith deserved to
receive the bodys recovery and the souls salvation from the Lord.2

The topic of medieval relics has captured the interest and imagination of medi-
evalists for the past several decades.3 There has, however, been a recent surge
in the study of medieval relics and reliquaries.4 These works have underscored

1 Vita Sanctorum Hiberniae, Vita Sanctae Darercae 89 (28788), cited by A.T. Lucas, The
Social Role of Relics and Reliquaries in Ancient Ireland, The Journal of the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland 116 (1968): 9, and Diane Peters Auslander, Ethnicity in hagiography:
The case of Darerca/Moninna/Modwenna/Modwenne in the British Isles, seventh to thirteenth
centuries. PhD dissertation, CUNY, 2010, 120.
2 Jo Ann McNamara, and John E. Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages (Durham and
London, 1992), ch. 27, 136.
3 For a few of the classic studies on medieval relics see: Nicole Hermann-Mascard, Les reliques
des saints: formation coutumire dun droit (Paris, 1975); Patrick Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of
Relics in the Central Middle Ages, rev. ed. (Princeton, 1990); David Rollason, Saints and Relics
in Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1989); Peter Brown, Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity
(Berkeley, 1982); Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity
(Chicago, 1981); Pierre-Andr Sigal, LHomme et le miracle dans la France mdival (XIe-XIIe
sicle), (Paris, 1985); Edina Bozky and Anne-Marie Helvtius, eds. Les Reliques: Objets,
cultes, symbols: actes du colloque international de lUniversit du Littoral-Cte dOpale
(Turnhout, 1999); Pierre-Andr Sigal, Reliques, plerinage et miracles dans lglise mdival
(XI-XIIIe sicles), Revue dHistoire de lEglise de France, 76 (1990): 193211.
4 For a few of the recent works on medieval relics see: Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics, and
Devotion in Medieval Europe, eds. Martina Bagnoli, et al. (Baltimore, MD, 2010); Cynthia
Hahn, Strange Beauty: Issues in the Making and Meaning of Reliquaries, 400circa 1204

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_011

Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 153

the pervasiveness and the great importance of relics for medieval society
and the church. No longer viewed as merely within the purview of popular
religion, scholars have focused on the complex relationship of relics and relic
cults to politics, economics, health care, magic, liturgical matters, patronage,
and art and architecture. However, in general, the major involvement of
womenand particularly the role of female religious in the collection and use
of relics has not received the kind of attention that it merits. While a number
of excellent studies have focused on individual female collectors, or local stud-
ies of particular relics, or collections found in specific womens houses,5

(University Park, PA, 2012); Cynthia Hahn, Seeing and Believing: The Construction of Sanctity
in Early Medieval Saints Shrines. Speculum 72:4 (1997): 10791106; Cynthia Hahn, What
Do Reliquaries Do for Relics? Numen 57 (2010): 284316; Katherine French, Scripture,
Textile Brandea, and Early Medieval Relic Boxes, and Agency, Apotropaicism, and Amuletic
Reliquaries in Early Medieval Gaul, recent on-line publications; Jean-Luc Deuffic, Reliques et
saintet dans lespace medieval, Pecia: Resources en mdivistique, vol. 811. (Saint-Denis,
2006); Julia M.H. Smith, Old Saints, New Cults: Roman Relics in Carolingian Francia and
Appendix: Relic Translations from Rome to Francia, 750900, in Early Medieval Rome
and the Christian West: Essays in Honour of Donald A. Bullough, ed. Julia M.H. Smith (Leiden,
Boston, Koln, 2000), 31740; Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, Womens Monasteries and Sacred
Space: The Promotion of Saints Cults and Miracles, in Gender and Christianity in Medieval
Europe: New Perspectives, eds. Lisa M. Bitel and Felice Lifshitz (Philadelphia, 2008), 6886.
5 For St. Radegund and her cult see the followingMagdalena Elizabeth Carrasco, Spirituality
in Context: The Romanesque Illustrated Life of St. Radegund of Poitiers (Poitiers, Bibl. Mun.
Ms 250), The Art Bulletin 72:3 (September 1990): 41435; Jennifer C. Edwards, The
Sweetness of Suffering: Community, Conflict, and the Cult of Saint Radegund in Medieval
Poitiers, PhD dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008; Jennifer
Edwards, Their Cross to Bear Controversy and the Relics of the True Cross in Poitiers, Essays
in Medieval Studies, 24 (2007): 6577; Isabelle Moireia, Provisatrix Optima: St. Radegund of
Poitiers Relic Petitions to the East. Journal of Medieval History 19 (1993): 285305; Brian
Brennan, St. Radegund and the Early Development of Her Cult at Poitiers. Journal of
Religious History 13 (1985): 34054; Sabina Gbe, Radegundis: Sancta, Regina, Ancilla. Zum
Heiligkeitsideal der Radegundisviten von Fortunat und Baudonivia. Francia 16 (1989):
130; Cynthia Hahn, Collector and Saint: Queen Radegund and Devotion to the Relic of the
True Cross, Word and Image, 22:3 (July-Sept. 2006): 26874. For studies of various medieval
convents and their relics see: Katrinette Bodarw, Roman Martyrs and their veneration in
Ottonian Saxony: The Case of the Sanctimoniales of Essen, Early Medieval Europe 9:3 (2000):
34565; Andreas Bauch, Ein bayerisches Mirakelbuch aus de Karolingerzeit. Eichsttter
Studien, Neue Folge, Band XII (Regensburg, 1979); Hedwig Rckelein, Leben im Schutz der
Heiligen: Reliquientranslationem nach Essen vom 9 bis 11 Jahrhundert in Herrschaft,
Bildung und Gebet: Grndung und Anfhge des frauenstifts (Essen, 2000): 87100; Anne
L. Clark, Guardians of the Sacred: The Nuns of Soissons and the Slipper of the Virgin Mary,
Church History 76:4 (Dec. 2007): 72449; Joan A. Holladay, Relics, Reliquaries, and Religious
154 Schulenburg

it would be interesting and useful to have an overview of the collectionand

creation/production of some of the lesser-known, secondary relics for female
communities during the early Middle Ages. This study will explore a number of
aspects related to womens agency and power in the acquisition and use
of specifically associative relics from the sixth through eleventh centuries.
Beginning in the early Christian period, women seemed to have been espe-
cially drawn to the pious activity of acquiring relicsfrom reliquae (Latin)
literally things left behind.6 Sources describe womens enthusiastic acquisi-
tion of major corporeal relics, i.e. full bodies of saints, or portions of bodies; as
well as the more accessible, associative relics, i.e. personal belongings of saints,
contact, or second or third class relics, or brandea. Womens privileged bonds
with relics might in part be initially explained by their traditional roles in
the burial and care of the dead, as well as providing shrines for the relics
of early martyrs and saints during the early Christian period.7 The tradition of
St. Helena with her discovery of the True Cross, along with the holy nails, was
especially important as a role model for royal and aristocratic women in the
early Middle Ages.8 It is then throughout this period that our sources note
pious queens and noble women, abbesses and nuns freely using their wealth to
procure major relics for their private collections and/or those of their monastic
communities. Ownership of relics was seen as an honor and special privilege;
it provided these women and their communities with an identity, prestige, and
a special intimacy with the saint and his or her special powers/virtus. Relics
also served as spiritual capital for monasteriesthey attracted pilgrims and
donations. For many religious houses the acquisition of a major relic could

Women Visualizing the Holy Virgins of Cologne, Studies in Iconography 18 (1997): 67118;
Helen Hills, Nuns and Relics: Spiritual Authority in Post-Tridentine Naples, in Female
Monasticism in Early Modern Europe: An Interdisciplinary View, ed. Cordula Van Wyhe
(Ashgate, 2008), 1138.
6 Thomas Head, The Cult of Saints and their Relics. The ORB: On-line Reference Book for
Medieval Studies, <www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/hagiography/cult.htm>.
7 Nicola Denzey, The Bone Gatherers: The Lost Worlds of Early Christian Women (Boston, 2007);
Kate Cooper, The Martyr, the Matrona, and the Bishop: The Matron Lucina and the Politics
of the Martyr Cult in Fifth-and Sixth-Century Rome, Early Medieval Europe 8:3 (1999):
297317.
8 Jan Willem Drijvers, Helena Augusta: The Mother of Constantine the Great and the Legend of
Her Finding the True Cross (Leiden and New York, 1992); E. Gordon Whatley, ed. and trans.
Constantine the Great, the Empress Helena, and the Relics of the Holy Cross, in Medieval
Hagiography, ed. Thomas Head (New York and London, 2001), 7795; Jo Ann McNamara,
Imitatio Helenae: Sainthood as an Attribute of Queenship in the Early Middle Ages, in
Saints: Studies in Hagiography, ed. Sandro Sticca (Binghamton, 1996), 5180.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 155

mean the difference between the economic survival or well-being of a religious

community, and its neglect and ultimate oblivion.9
During this period women were involved in all stages of collecting relics:
they discovered and created relics; they begged and received them as gifts; they
paid exorbitant prices for them; they divided, sold and exchanged relics;
they participated, along with their male contemporaries, in the stealing of
relics (the furta sacra);10 and they also gave them as gifts to churches and
friends. Indeed, some of the most famous examples of prolific collectors
andstockpilers of this type of sacred commodity were women.11
Moreover, as noted by Peter Brown, saints relics were believed to discern
the personal status or merits of the individual who owned them and could
declare in no uncertain terms whether or not they approved of this relation-
ship. Thus success in acquiring relics was frequently viewed as a sign of the
special merit or holiness of the persons who obtained them.12
A few of the rather well known major players in the relic trade during this
early period should be briefly mentioned. One of the most insatiable, vora-
cious, and successful collectors was St. Radegund.13 The prestige and visibility
she achieved through her successful acquisition of relics played a major role in
the recognition of her sanctity. In her early years, while living at the Villa of
Saix, Radegund put together a collection of relics of all saints. She sent her
priest Magnus to procure for her the relics of St. Andrew along with many oth-
ers which she then placed above the altar.14 After she entered her new convent
in Poitiers, Baudonivia notes that Radegund assembled a great multitude of
the saints through her most faithful prayers For from all sides [East, North,
South and West] she managed to obtain those precious gems which Paradise
has and Heaven hoards and as many came freely to her as gifts as came in
response to her pleas.15 She sent one of her priests, Reoval, to Jerusalem where

9 The monastery of Jouarre, for example, was saved from decline and poverty by its abbess
Ermentrude and her acquisition of the relic of St. Potentianus from her relative the
Bishop of Sens. See J. Guerout, La Priode Carolingienne, in Yves Chaussy et al., eds.,
LAbbaye royale Notre-Dame de Jouarre, vol 1 (Paris, 1961), 7273.
10 Patrick Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages, rev. ed. (Princeton, 1990).
11 Patrick Geary, Sacred Commodities: The Circulation of Medieval Relics, in The Social Life
of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspectives, ed. Arjun Appadurai (New York, 1986),
169194.
12 Brown, Society and the Holy, 24041.
13 See note no. 5 for a number of recent studies on St. Radegund as relic collector.
14 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 13, 9495.
15 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 14, 95. Another of
Baudonivias observations on Radegunds great enthusiasm in collecting relics relates:
156 Schulenburg

he acquired the little finger of St. Mammas for the queen.16 However her major
coupin the tradition of St. Helenacame through her royal connections in
Gaul and the imperial court in Constantinople: she was able to acquire her
most treasured relic, a piece of the True Cross along with many other relics of
saints from the East. Radegund clearly recognized the importance of this relic
for her community and its future success. Thus, according to Baudonivia, She
bequeathed a heavenly gift, the ransom of the world from Christs relics, which
she had searched out from faraway places for the honor of the place and the
salvation of the people in her monastery.17 Gregory of Tours notes that the rel-
ics were placed in a silver reliquary with the piece of the Holy Cross itself,18 and
they were then displayed in an oratory in the convents inner church.
Abbess Ermentrude of Jouarre was especially successful as a collector of rel-
ics. In response to her requests for a relic to help alleviate the poverty of her
monastery, she received the body of St. Potentianus from her relative, the
bishop of Sens, in 847.19 During the translation of the body of St. Vitus,
Ermentrude was given the finger of the saint as well as linen from his winding
cloth.20 A catalogue of the abbesss relic collection notes that she commis-
sioned three reliquaries: a large decorated cross which held 140 relics; a small
cross with about 30 relics; and another reliquary that contained an additional
50 relics. Ermentrude also owned, among other things, two pieces of the True
Cross and relics of Queen/Saint Balthild, founder of Chelles.21
The monastery of Chelles provides another example of vigorous relic collect-
ing. Their extensive relic hoard was only discovered recently, in 1983, when the
historian Jean-Pierre Laporte had the reliquaries of the parish church of Chelles
opened.22 Inside they found a remarkable collection of early medieval relics
wrapped in precious textiles and labeled with authenticsthat is, parchment
inscriptions or relic tagsdating from the seventh to ninth centuries. The col-
lections 150 relic tags identify some 175 relics. They point to close ties between
Chelles and Jouarre. It has been suggested that some of the relics might in
fact have been gifts from Jouarre as well as from Charlemagne. (Charlemagnes
sister, Gisela, was an abbess of Chelles and two of his daughters were housed

After having collected many relics of the saints, had it been possible, she would have
petitioned the Lord Himself in the seat of His Majesty to dwell here in sight of all; ch. 16,
9697.
16 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 14, 9596.
17 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 16, 9699.
18 Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Martyrs, trans. Raymond Van Dam (Liverpool, 1988), ch. 5, 22.
19 J. Guerout, La Priode Carolingienne, 7273.
20 J. Guerout, La Priode Carolingienne, 71.
21 J. Guerout, La Priode Carolingienne, 7677.
22 See J.-P. Laport, Le Trsor des saints de Chelles (Chelles, 1988).
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 157

there.) The majority of relics came from local saints from Gaul; others origi-
nated in Rome and Italy, the Holy Land, Byzantium, and Egypt. The monastery
of Chelles also housed the major relics of its patron saint, St. Georges, and the
body of Queen/Saint Balthild and her chemise and other textiles. It is interest-
ing to note that the authentics identify among their holdingsa piece of the
stone on which Moses stood when seeing God, a piece of the Holy Land, dirt
from Bethlehem, a stone from Calvary, water from the River Jordan, a piece of
Jesus cradle, as well as relics of the Apostles, various early martyrs, popes, bish-
ops, missionaries, abbots, and others. Relics of female saints include a piece of
the garment of the Virgin Mary, along with relics of Mary Magdalene, Petronilla
(the reputed daughter of St. Peter), and St. Genevieve of Paris.23
The Life of the Anglo-Saxon St. Edith of Wilton (d. 984) also provides us with
some fascinating details about relic collecting at Wilton Abbey. According to
Goscelin, Saint Wulfthryth, mother of St. Edith and abbess of Wilton (d. ca.
1010?) was kindled with the same holy desire as Helena the mother of
Constantine.24 She employed a certain Benno, who was a Wilton priest and
former canon of Trier, to purchase part of one of the nails of the Passion from
the monastery of St. Paulinus of Trier. She was said to have paid the exorbitant
sum of 2000 solidi for this small particle of the sacred nail which they then
placed in a crystal reliquary in the shape of a trout.25 Wulfthryth also acquired
the precious relics of St. Ywi from a group of Pictish clergy who were carry
ingthe saints body and had stopped briefly at Wilton Abbey. They had tempo-
rarily left the saints tomb on the nuns altar while receiving the convents
hospitality. Unfortunately, when they came to leave, the saints tomb was said
to have become fixed to the nuns altar and the clerics were unable to extricate
the body. (This event follows a popular hagiographic topos in which the saints
tomb becomes stuck, or too heavy to movewhich in turn was interpreted
as the saints wish to remain in that place/not be relocated.) The abbess,
who was praised for her generosity, then paid the clergymen 2000 solidi in
exchange for their relics. In addition to underscoring the large amount of

23 Laport, Le Trsor des saints de Chelles. See also Michael McCormick, Origins of the
European Economy: Communications and Commerce, a.d. 300900 (Cambridge, 2001),
30818; Yitzhak Hen, Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul: a.d. 481751 (Leiden,
New York, Koln, 1995), 9396; Yitzhak Hen, Les authentiques des reliques de la Terre
Sainte en Gaul franque, Le moyen age: Revue dhistoire et de philologie 105:1 (1999):
7477, 82; D. Ganz and W. Goffart, Charters Earlier than 800 from French Collections,
Speculum 65 (1990): 90632.
24 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, in Writing the Wilton Women: Goscelins Legend of Edith and
Liber confortatorius, ed. Stephanie Hollis et al. (Turnhout, 2004), ch. 14, 44.
25 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 14, 4445. Susan Ridyard, The Royal Saints of Anglo-
Saxon England: A Study of West Saxon and East Anglian Cults (Cambridge, 1988), 14546.
158 Schulenburg

income available to the abbess, which could be used to purchase important

relics, this episode also seems to describe a coerced transferal of relics or
perhaps an example of a furta sacra.26
Thus while wealth and status clearly played a primary role in ones ability
to procure major relics, the collecting of associative, or secondary or tertiary
relicsespecially contact relics or brandeawas open or available to anyone.
We therefore find people of all classesfrom the very poor to queens and
abbessescollecting these secondary relics. And during this period lay
women and female religious seemed to have been particularly well placed,
motivated, and aware of the numerous opportunities/possibilities available to
them in discovering and collecting these types of relics for their own use or for
that of their families or monasteries.
Therefore, at the same time as patrons were busy outfitting convents with
major foundation relics, and abbesses and nuns were acquiring high-end, pri-
mary corporeal relics of famous martyrs and saints (many coming from
Rome),27 on a more informal, private or personal level, female religious actively
collected many small things, such as holy dust, oil, blood, hair, and other
ephemera. They also found the sacred in everyday, household objects, uten-
silia, that had originally belonged to or come in contact with the holy dead.
They did this on their ownoutside of the supervision and authority of the
male ecclesiastical hierarchy. They then appropriated these holy objects for
themselves or their communities and especially utilized them as personal
amulets and for apotropaic purposes of healing and protection. These saintly
possessions became an important part of the nuns daily lives and rituals.

Holy Dust, Oil, Blood and Other Ephemera

One of the primary means of maximizing, expanding and promoting the relics of
a community was through public translation ceremonies.28 Translations involved

26 Goscelin, The Translatio of Edith, ch. 6, 7475.

27 See Katrinette Bodarw, Roman Martyrs and their veneration in Ottonian Saxony and
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, The Establishment of the Monastery of Gandersheim, trans.
Mary Bernadine Bregman, in Medieval Hagiography: An Anthology, ed. Thomas Head
(New York, 2001), 23754; and Jane Schulenburg, Womens Monasteries and Sacred
Space: The Promotion of Saints Cults and Miracles, in Gender and Christianity in Medieval
Europe: New Perspectives, eds. Lisa M. Bitel and Felice Lifshitz (Philadelphia, 2008), 6886.
28 See Thomas Head, The Cult of Saints and Their Relics; Martin Heinzelmann,
Translationsberichte und andere quellen des Reliquien Kultes (Typologie des sources du
moyen ge occidental), 33 (Turnhout, 1979); Pierre Rich, Translations de reliques
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 159

the reburial of a saint: moving the saints tomb or reliquary to a site deemed more
worthy of the holy dead. These often dramatic, highly charged public rituals
allowed for physical contact with the saint and were often accompanied by the
expectant hope of miracles. The rituals included the opening of the saints cof-
fin/reliquary, washing of the bones, re-clothing of the body, and finally the
reburial of the saint.29 These events provided an opportunity to further authen-
ticate or verify the individuals sanctity as well as to formally recognize and pro-
mote these primary relics. This formal ceremony also created the ideal moment
for the production and introduction of a whole new set of potential contact rel-
ics for the monastery which could be used by the nuns in their healing rituals and
by the pilgrims who visited the convent church. Part of this new supply would
sometimes be given as gifts to visitors and patrons of the community.
In his History of the English Church and People Bede describes the mid-sev-
enth century translation of St. Oswalds bones to the male monastery of
Bardney accompanied by various miracles.30 At that time Queen Osthryd was
visiting the monastery of Bardney. Ethelhild, the abbess of a neighboring
house, came to pay her respects to the queen. During this visit the abbess told
the queen how she had seen on that night the light reaching heavenward from
Oswalds relics. According to Bede: the queen informed her how the dust
from the pavement, on which the water that had washed the bones had been
spilt, had already healed many sick people. The abbess then asked that she
might be given some of this healing dust; and when it had been given her,
shetied it up in a cloth, and put it into a little casket which she took away with
her.31 We learn that sometime later a man possessed by the devil visited her
abbey. During the night, while staying in the mens quarters, none of the men
or priests was able to control his wild convulsions. The priest attempted exor-
cism but his efforts were futile. The abbess then remembered the dust from the
saint and had the little casket brought to her. As soon as the maidservant
approached with the reliquary, the man was immediately cured. Afterwards
the abbess gave him a portion of the dust and he was said to have never again
been troubled by the old enemy.32 Here we see the abbess taking the initiative
in collecting the holy healing dust from the pavement for her own or her

lpoque carolingienne. Histoire des reliques de Saint-Malo. Le Moyen Age 82 (1976):

20118 ; Edina Bozky, Le Role des reines et princesses dans les translations de reliques,
in Reines et princesses au moyen ge, ed. Marcel Faure (Montpellier, 2001), 349360.
29 Ibid.; Rollason, Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon England, 3435.
30 Bede, A History of the English Church and People, trans. Leo Shirley Price, rev. R.E. Latham
(Harmondsworth, 1968), bk. III, ch. 11, 15860.
31 Bede, A History of the English Church and People, 159.
32 Bede, A History of the English Church and People, 15960.
160 Schulenburg

monasterys collection. She tied it up in a small cloth and placed it in a little

reliquary box. Later she was involved in a healing ritual in which the dust was
used to bring about the cure of the man who was possessed by demons.
Dust gathered from saints tombs proved to be a limitless source of relics for
these religious communities. The Life of St. Anstrude (d. before 709), for exam-
ple, records that dust scraped from the saints tomb was used to bring about
miraculous cures at Anstrudes convent in Laon. According to the vita, a nun
from the saints monastery had been possessed by demons for fifteen years. After
having been admonished several times by St. Anstrude from her grave that she
should bite the stone of her sepulcher three times and she would be healed, the
nun finally followed her directions and was immediately cured.33 Another nun
from the community, who was suffering from a flow of blood, was cured after
drinking a potion of warm wine mixed with dust scraped from the saints tomb.34
Other sources note the multiplication/creation of relics which occurred in
the miraculous flow of various liquids: they report oil spilling from a saints
tomb or from a lamp burning near the sepulcher of the holy dead, or blood
flowing from the saints body. In the Life of St. Glodesind (ca. 600), one of the
wonders that occurred at her tomb in her monastery church in Metz (located
outside the convent walls) was the appearance of oil that was reported to flow
from the feet and head of the saint. This holy liquid was said to run down the
side of her tomb in a stream to the pavement. The custodians most reverently
collected it with sponges and filled a glass vessel with the saints holy oil which
they then placed above the virgins tomb. People who came to the saints tomb
with injuries to the head, eyes, or other parts of the body, received a mere touch
of this liquid unction and were cured by the saint.35
Moreover, the vita describes in some detail an attempt by the nuns to sepa-
rate the contents of the vessel holding St. Glodesinds holy oil so that some of
it could be available for the nuns church within the walls. Leudewidis, a nun
of the monastery, begged Doda, the custodian of the altar to entrust her with
the vessel which held the liquor [oil], for she wished to bring it to the basilica
of the Holy Cross within the monastery walls which she had in her charge and
keep it there for religious purposes.36 At first Doda was unable to find the ves-
sel which had always been stored above the saints tomb, and only after a long
search was it located. Doda then divided the oil and sent part of it to her
brother Angelarius, a priest in the church of the Savior in Metz, to serve as

33 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 28, 301.
34 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages ch. 29, 301.
35 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 40, ch. 43, 153.
36 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 41, 153.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 161

a relic in the cause of religion. Doda then gave Leudewidis the better part of
the oil which she carried to the convent church of the Holy Cross where she
was the custodian. According to the vita, But when this was done, Doda was
struck mad for her audacity so that she lost control over her mind and body.
Finally, sending to those churches, she acquired all the apportioned liquor [oil]
and restored it, with the vessel in which it was first held, to its place above the
sepulcher where Christs handmaid, Glodesind reposed.37 And we are told
that within two hours after returning the oil to its rightful place, Doda was
cured. This cautionary tale is rather informative in regard to the ownership/
guardianship of the relics, the role of the custodian, and the location of con-
vent relics. The story discusses the initiative assumed by Doda in dividing and
distributing the relics. However, from the start this was seen as an inadvisable
act (beginning with the nuns inability to find the vessel). The story also
stressed St. Glodesinds displeasure with Dodas audacious behavior and her
lack of proper reverence for the saint and her relics. While perhaps reflecting
underlying tensions and issues of power and control between the two convent
churches and their custodians, the vita underscored the saints need to control
the location and owner/guardians of her primary and secondary relics.
A similar story was told about the miraculous tomb of St. Walburga. In 893
when Bishop Erchanbold opened the saints shrine in Eichstadt to give part of
the saints relics to Abbess Liubila for her new monastery at Monheim, they
witnessed a type of holy oil flowing from the saints bones. According to tradi-
tion, since that time oil has continued to flow from her sacred remains. The
curative powers of this oil were also recognizedfor with its application heal-
ing miracles were said to occur.38 In this same tradition, many years after the
death of St. Gertrude of Nivelles a miraculous oil was said to appear to flow
from St. Gertrudes tomb.39
The nuns of the monastery of St. Patricia in Naples also saw the expansion/
reproduction of the relics of their patron saint.40 Over the years oil from the lamp
that burned at the saints tomb had been used to bring about healing miracles in

37 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages., ch. 42, 153.
38 Andreas Bauch, Ein bayerisches Mirakelbuch aus der Karolingerzeit, bk. I, ch. 67, 162165.
39 Virtutum sanctae Gertrudis continuatio, MGH SSRM 2, chap. 2, 472. Ex ipso vero marmore
unde sacrum corpus regitur, per Christi gratiam ad declaranda merita virginis suae oleum
limpidissimum affluenter currit.
40 Helen Hills, Nuns and Relics: Spiritual Authority in Post-Tridentine Naples, 2124. The
convent had a rich collection of relics including the full body of the saint (who was said
to be the granddaughter of St. Helena); relics that she had brought with her from
Constantinople, i.e. fragments of the True Cross, a blood-stained nail, fragments of the
Virgins hair and milk, St. Bartholomews skin and blood; as well as relics that St. Patricia
162 Schulenburg

the convents church. However, especially important was a miraculous event that
occurred one night in 760 when a pilgrim visited the monasterys shrine. After
spending time in prayer before the saints tomb, this man was freed of the devils
that had possessed him. He then asked to be allowed to spend the night in their
church. Thus left alone to carry out his nefarious plan, he attempted to remove
the tooth from the saints mouth as a relic for his own use. Blood started to mirac-
ulously flow from St. Patricias gums; it covered the perpetrators hand and the
tomb. On the next day the nuns were able to gather two flasks of the patron
saints blood which immediately became treasured relics of their convent.41
The vita of St. Eligius/Eloi, Bishop of Noyon (d. ca. 660) also describes Queen
Balthilds involvement in collecting the saints blood in a linen cloth.42 Upon
learning of her spiritual advisors death, Queen Balthild hurried with her sons
to Noyon for Eligius funeral. She had plans to acquire the saints body as a
major relic for her convent at Chelles. However, she faced strong competition
from Paris and Noyon which also wanted the saints body for their churches.
Thus when the queen tried to have the saints coffin moved, it would not budge.
(Here we see another example of the hagiographic formula where the tomb
miraculously becomes heavy and refuses to move.) In response, Balthild
ordered fasts and vigils to be held. When they were completed, she wept
uncontrollably and began kissing and covering the saintly mans face, hands
and breast with her tears. Suddenly a miracle occurred. Despite the fact that it
was winter and the body was frozen, blood began to flow from the saints nose
and to moisten his cheeks. Seeing this, the bishops and the most Christian
queen quickly placed a linen napkin there. Diligently, they collected the blood
wherever it ran and the better to conserve the gift separated it into three
pieces.43 Meanwhile Balthild attempted several more times to have her repre-
sentatives move the bierbut to no avail. Apparently undeterred, finally the
queen, wishing to prove it for herself, stretched out and turned up her forearm
and began to push trying to move a single corner of the bier. And when she had
struck with all her strength [it was] like a giant mountain and she could
accomplish nothing.44 Balthild finally resigned herself to the fact that Eligius

had worn on her right arm (believed to have been inherited from St. Helena)a thorn, a
fragment of Christs clothing, the nail, and a fragment of the Cross.
41 Acta Sanctorum, Aug. V (Aug. 25) S. Patricia V. Constantinopolitana, Vita altera auctore
Leone presbytero, ch. 1316.
42 Dado of Rouen, Life of St. Eligius of Noyon, trans. Jo Ann McNamara in Medieval
Hagiography: An Anthology, ch. 37, 16365.
43 Dado of Rouen, Life of St. Eligius of Noyon, 163.
44 Dado of Rouen, Life of St. Eligius of Noyon, 16364.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 163

did not wish to be moved to her convent at Chelles but rather wanted to be
buried in his church at Noyon. Although no doubt greatly disappointed with
the outcome, one assumes that Balthild was able to take back to her monastery
at Chelles at least one of the precious contact relics that she had collected that
had been miraculously stained with the blood of St. Eligius.
The life of St. Eligius notes another interesting case of nuns recognizing the
potential in collecting small things that were associated with saintly persons.
According to the vita, St. Eligius had built a convent for nuns in Noyon. During
the saints lifetime an elderly nun of this monastery had saved the hair clip-
pings of St. Eligius for herself: she then stored them in a covered basket in a
sack under her bed. After the saints death, a splendid light began to emanate
from this spot at night. When the nuns traced it to the location of her bed,
they asked her what might be the cause of this bright light? She then remem-
bered the relics of the holy man, and that this must be the cause. And on hear-
ing this, the nuns went straight to the place and took up the relics soon
bringing them to a worthy place.45 No doubt they moved them to a more
public/visible place in their church or treasury.
Another early example describes nuns resourcefulness in collecting straw
that a saint had touched as relics for their own use. The Dialogues of Sulpicius
Severus (d. ca. 420) tells of a visit by St. Martin to a small town of Clion that had
a community of monks and consecrated virgins. According to the account:
after St. Martins stay in the sacristy of the church the nuns rushed into the
sacristy. They kissed every place that the blessed man had sat or stood in, and
shared out among themselves the straw on which he had lain. A few days later,
one of them took part of the straw that she had collected in order to bring a
blessing on herself and put it round the neck of a demoniac tormented by
adeceiving spirit. Without a moments delay, quicker than you could say the
words, the demon was expelled and the person was cured.46

Household Relics: Furnishings and Utensilia

Our sources provide other fascinating accounts of the resourcefulness and

ingenuity of nuns in regard to the collection and expansion/multiplication of

45 The Life of St. Eligius, trans. Jo Ann McNamara, Internet Medieval Sourcebook
<www.fordham.edu/Halsall/basis/eligius.asp>, ch. 69.
46 The Dialogues of Sulpicius Severus, Postumianus, in Sulpicius Severus et al. The Western
Fathers: Being the Lives of Martin of Tours, Ambrose, Augustine of Hippo, Honoratus of Arles
and Germanus of Auxerre, ed. and trans. F.R. Hoare. (New York, 1965), 2, VIII, 113.
164 Schulenburg

their relics. These relics were promoted mainly from within the domestic con-
fines of the cloister rather than from within the church or area of the saints
tomb. The nuns are frequently depicted as seeing the value in ordinary every-
day objects, in small things, in order to create relics for their own use and that
of their communities. Many of these associative, in-house relics had been
owned or used by their founders or abbess saints. It seems that in some cases
they served as a substitute for the actual saints body. These acts again bypassed
ecclesiastical control, and the female religious appropriated the authority of
the relics for themselves.
In his Glory of the Confessors, Gregory of Tours tells of his emotional return
to the convent of Holy Cross after Radegunds funeral. The abbess and nuns led
him to the special sacred spots in the cloister that Radegund had traditionally
occupied for reading or praying. The abbess was weeping and said: Behold,
we are entering her cell, but we do not find the mother who is lost! Behold the
mat on which she bent her knees, wept and prayedBehold the book in which
she readBehold the spindles on which she used to weave during her long
fasts and while weeping copiously.47 After the guided visit Gregory of Tours
confided, I would not have stopped weeping if I did not realize that the blessed
Radegund had departed from her convent in body but not in power, and that
she had been taken from the world and placed in heaven.48 Thus the holy cell
and all of these objects brought back vivid memories of the saint. After
Radegunds death her cellwhere she had practiced her extreme austerities,
experienced her visions, and worked several miracleswas seen as a locus of
sacred power, a place where a miracle-working force was concentrated. Imbued
with the saints spiritual power, it was maintained as a special holy site to be
venerated by both nuns and pilgrims. Many of the familiar objects that had
belonged to the saint were preserved in the convent as holy relics. It became
perhaps a type of museum of sacred artifacts. And as Magdalena Elizabeth
Carrasco has noted, the eleventh-century illustrated version of St. Radegunds
Life carefully depicted and commemorated the holy sites associated with
Radegund as well as the various objects that had belonged to the saint and now
functioned as relics.49 These tangible, intimate relics, including the saints

47 Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Confessors, trans. and ed. Raymond Van Dam (Liverpool,
1988), ch. 104, 107108.
48 Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Confessors, 108.
49 Carrasco, Spirituality in Context, 427, 430. Additional relics found at Holy Cross and
noted in later inventories include: the sole of one of Radegunds shoes, a laurel tree
located near Radegunds cell, and a stone from Radegunds cell with Christs footprint said
to be left when he appeared to the saint.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 165

utensilia, would have been especially meaningful for the nuns to visit/see and
meditate on. They would keep the saint physically close to the daily lives of the
community and help to provide historical memory. They would perhaps serve
as a type of substitute for the saint and make Radegund more accessible to the
nuns. The presence of these in-house objects would no doubt have been espe-
cially important for the strictly enclosed nuns at Holy Cross, as Radegunds
tomb was located outside of the convent walls in the external church of
St. Mary, and thus not accessible to the community.
According to her vita, one of Radegunds possessions that was treasured as a
relic by her monastery was a chain made of iron that had been worn as a belt
by the saint. It was said to still be on display as a relic in the ninth-century at
Holy Cross, Poitiers. It had been fashioned by St. Junien as a gift for his friend
and fellow ascetic, St. Radegund. During Lent she wore the chain as a belt
wound tightly around her torso to serve as an instrument to mortify her flesh.50
Another of Radegunds valued relics was her special chair or high seat.
Saints Lives and miracles invariably stressed that one needed to show these
holy objects special respect or reverentia: those who failed to show the proper
reverence and brazenly used these furnishings were swiftly punished by God
and the offended saint. The vita reports that after Radegunds death, the house-
maid Vinoburga rashly dared to presume to seat herself in her high seat. The
woman was immediately struck down by God; her body caught on fire (an
early hot seat!) and she confessed her sin for occupying Radegunds chair.51
Another example of a saints special chair recognized as a holy relic can be
found in the Life of St. Anstrude (d. before 709). The sick were brought into
the convent church of St. John the Baptist and placed by the chair where saint
Anstrude was want to sit praying. It is then in this close proximity to the holy
relic that they recovered their health.52
The Life of St. Gertrude of Nivelles (d. 658) discusses in some detail the
saints little bed (lectulum) which had come to be recognized as an important
holy relic of the saints monastery. In a vision, a number of the nuns were
warned that no other person should dare to rest in that little bed where Saint
Gertrude was want to lay her weary limbs after the labor of vigil and prayer.53

50 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 25, 81. See also Gurin Giry,
Les petits Bollandistes: vie des saints de lAncien et du Nouveau Testament, des martyrs, des
pres, des auteurs sacrs et ecclsiastiques (Paris, 1888), St. Junien (August 13), vol. 9, 507.
51 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 12, 94.
52 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 32, 302.
53 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 4, 230. See also Susan
W. Wades important study, Miraculous Seeing and Monastic Identity: Miracles of the
Visual from the Monasteries of Lobbes and Nivelles (PhD dissertation, NYU, 2007).
166 Schulenburg

With great honor and praise this bed was translated by the abbess and her
whole congregation into the nuns basilica of St. Paul the Apostle. This then
became the site of many miracles and cures. The nuns assisted the sick in seek-
ing miracle cures at the saints holy bed: they led them to the saints bed where
the sick would pray to God and show necessary respect by bowing to the bed. As
a thank offering, in response to Gertrudes miracles, we learn that the holy bed
was decorated with gold and precious gems and most beautiful hangings.54
Later a piece of this precious bed was given to Getrudes sister, Begga, for her
new convent church. In about 689, with the establishment of her new monas-
tery, Begga was provided by the community of Nivelles a contingent of nuns,
sacred books, as well as an indispensable collection of relics, including a frag-
ment of St. Gertrudes holy bed on which the saint had died. Begga then had
the relics and bed carried ceremoniously into her convents church where they
were placed on the altar of St. Genevieve.55 This relic was especially meaning-
ful for Begga and her nuns and would play a major role in the establishment of
patronage networks between the two communities.
Similarly the miracles of St. Austreberta (d. ca. 703) note that Austrebertas
bed was kept by the nuns of her convent of Pavilly as one of their treasured
relics. However, we learn that after the saints death some sisters became so
undisciplined that they dared to lie down at noon or any other hour of the day
on the bed where she died. Visiting them in frequent visions, the holy virgin
protested and said that if they did not obey her she threatened swift punish-
ment for their correction.56 One of the nuns who was more impudent than
the rest had started using it as her own bed. Soon she was struck down with a
serious illness as punishment for her irreverence. Feeling that she was close to
death, she asked that she be moved to another place for she feared that if
shedied therein the saints bedshe would be damned for the sin that she
committed against St. Austreberta, i.e. of using the marriage bed of Gods holy
woman for herself. The nuns took her to the infirmary where she immediately
recovered. According to the miracle: Through this she learned that the saints
relics can never be disdained in the least but must be greatly venerated and
never delegated to human uses.57 Here again the miracle story emphasizes the
reverentia required by the possessors/guardians of saints relics.
The miracles of St. Rusticula also mention the saints palletwhere the
holy mother had restedas a sacred object used by the nuns in healing.

54 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 11, 234.
55 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 10, 23233.
56 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 1, 318.
57 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 167

In this case a male servant of the monastery was ordered in his sleep to ask the
nuns to wash the four corners of the pallet and to then give him the water to
drink. When this was done, he immediately regained his health.58
The vita of St. Edith of Wilton notes that several of her relics were kept at the
monastery of Nunnaminster in Winchester. One of these relics was the saints
staff or rod which blossoms by a figural mystery: a dove perches on it, and it
brings forth a holy nut.59 The Irish St. Samthann was also said to have pos-
sessed a famous and miraculous staff. Apparently, after Samthanns death,
Niall, the king of Ireland, asked for this staff so that he could decorate it with
gold and silver. Although the holy staff was so crooked and ancient that the
craftsmen did not want to work on its ornamentation, it was said to have been
miraculously straightened and held in the greatest esteem.60
Another holy object displayed at Wilton Abbey was St. Ediths book of devo-
tions. According to her vita: There is kept in her monastery a manual of her
devotions as a token of her memory, in which the apostolic precepts shine out,
written in her virginal hand, with little prayers subjoined to them.61 Also at
the monastery of Wilton a special chest that had belonged to Saint Edith was
exhibited as a relic. This chest had been partially destroyed in a fire at the mon-
astery but had miraculously preserved from harm the saints clothing which
had been stored within.62
Another contact or secondary relic was a millstone associated with
St. Brigid. This was apparently displayed at the monastery gate at Kildare.
Those seeking the saints assistance would touch the millstone and be healed
of their illnesses.63
A discussion of the relics of the Irish St. Moninna (d. ca. 517), can also be
found amongst our sources. Moninna had followed the life of an ascetic hermit
and was the founder and abbess of the monastery of Killeevy. On her deathbed
the saint bequeathed to her nuns a number of garments and objects includ-
ingthe hoe and spade that she had used in cultivating the ground, as well as
other utensilia. She reassured them of the special efficacy of these objects:
through which do not doubt you will, by the grace of God, have victory if they

58 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 27, 13536.
59 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 16, 48
60 Life of the Holy Virgin Samthann, trans. Dorothy Africa, in Medieval Hagiography: An
Anthology, ch. 17, 107.
61 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 8, 34.
62 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 13, 4344.
63 Thomas Owen Clancy, Columba, Adamnan and the Cult of Saints in Scotland, The Innes
Review 48 (1997): 3; cited by Auslander, Ethnicity in hagiography, 121.
168 Schulenburg

are borne against any of your provincial enemies who come to devastate you.64
One can see in this entry the saints belief in the continuing usefulness and
power inherent in these holy objects.

Sacred Threads: The Popularity of Saints Garments and Textiles as

Relics

Saints garmentsincluding robes, haircloths, tunics, belts, and winding

cloths, as well as other textile brandeawere especially popular as relics dur-
ing this period. They were collected by both the laity and churchmen and
women for their own personal use as amulets and especially for purposes of
healing. They were perhaps seen as especially tactile, intimate relics, as bodily
substitutes for the saints since they had come into contact with the saints holy
flesh and still contained within them some of the saints special power. Women
were closely associated with the weaving and stitching of the garments worn
by the saints. Moreover, they gave these woven and embroidered pieces as gifts
to their saintly friends with the intent for them to use them as their burial
clothes or shrouds, burial pillows, altar cloths, etc., and later they came to be
recognized as relics.65 It has also been suggested that the small linen napkins
or cloths made by nuns, such as those of St. Caesarias convent in Arles, could
have been fabricated to be used in creating contact relics66 (such as we have
seen perhaps with Queen Balthild collecting the blood of St. Eligius or Abbess

64 Lucas, The Social Role of Relics and Reliquaries in Ancient Ireland, 20. According to her
Life, she followed in the footsteps of the earlier hermits to such an extent that she dug
the earth and sowed it with her own hands. She contained within her womans body a
manlike spirit. See Auslander, Ethnicity in hagiography, 118.
65 Jane Tibbetts Schulenburg, Holy Women and the Needle Arts: Piety, Devotion, and
Stitching the Sacred, ca. 5001150, in Negotiating Community and Difference in Medieval
Europe: Gender, Power, Patronage and the Authority of Religion in Latin Christendom,
eds.Katherine Allen Smith and Scott Wells (Leiden and Boston, 2009), 105108.; Kelley
Wickham-Crowley, Buried Truths: Shrouds, Cults and Female Production in Anglo-Saxon
England, in Aedificia Nova: Studies in Honor of Rosemary Cramp, eds. Catherine E. Karkov
and Helen Damico (Kalamazoo, 2008), 300324. See also the cushion/relic that had been
placed in the tomb of St. Remi. It was embroidered ca. 852 by Abbess Alpheid (Alpais) the
sister of Charles the Bald. Photography by Geneva Kornbluth, <www.kornbluthphoto
.com/cousin.html>.
66 See Katherine Frenchs important new studies in archaeology: Scripture, Textile Brandea,
and Early Medieval Relic Boxes, and Agency, Apotropaicism, and Amuletic Reliquaries
in Early Medieval Gaul, <oxford.academia.edu/KatherineFrench>.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 169

Ethelhild collecting the dust from the pavement near St. Oswalds tomb). Thus
like some of the other associative relics that we have looked at, the various
textile relics had the advantage of being highly portable and easily divided up
into small pieces of cloth or even a few sacred threads.
The role of textile relics and their special miraculous powers in healing can
be traced back to a popular story found in the Scriptures (Matthew 9: 2022
and Mark 5: 2143). In this miracle story Christ is shown healing a woman who
had been bleeding for twelve years. Standing in a crowd, the woman came up
behind Christ and reached out to touch the fringes or hem of his robe. Then
Christs power was said to have drained from his body and flowed into the hem
of his robe. Immediately the hemorrhage ceased and the woman was healed.
According to Matthew 9, for she said to herself, If I only touch his garment,
I shall be made well. Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, Take heart, daughter;
your faith has made you well. One can see in this story the miracle of healing
that came about through touching the hem of Christs robe accompanied by
the requirement of the womans faith.
Sources of the period were definitely aware of this miracle story.67 The faith-
ful expected similar powers to be present in their local saints garments or tex-
tile brandea which would bring about miracles of healing. An interesting
example can be found in Eddius Stephanus Life of Wilfrid. Here he reports
that an abbots cloak that had been used to lay out Wilfrids body and pre-
pare it for burial was brought to Wilfrids abbess, Cynithrith. Despite the fact
that it was soiled from being walked on during the washing of the body, the
abbess was instructed to keep it as it was, folded up, until the abbots visit.

67 In the Vita of Edith, Goscelin praises Wulfthryth for her important role in collecting relics
and notes the memory of the woman who was cured by touching Christs robe. He writes:
If the faith of the woman in the gospel who touched the Saviours garment is praised
(Mt 9:2022), if the sinful woman who poured oil on the feet of Christ (Lk 7:3750)
deserved not only pardon but even the glory of being remembered for ever, the service
done by this woman should also be spoken about who acquired for her native land relics
of the Lords passion; Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 14, 45. The Life of Caesarius of
Arles records the case of a certain Agretia, the wife of Liberius who was troubled by the
same affliction as the woman who touched the bottom fringes of the Lords clothing
[Matt. 9:20]. Because she was similar in faith and devotion, she also was freed [from her
affliction]. When I came to meet her, she graciously greeted my humble self and revealed
her infirmity to me with the modesty appropriate for a married woman. After calling on
the Lord as a witness, with many prayers she demanded that I bring her a piece of the
bishops clothing that had come into direct contact with his skin; Life of Caesarius, in
Caesarius of Arles: Life, Testament, Letters, trans. William E. Klingshirn (Liverpool, 1994),
bk. II, ch. 13, 4950. For additional examples see Frenchs Scripture, Textile Brandea, and
Early Medieval Relic Boxes.
170 Schulenburg

However, after some time, she decided to have it washed. A nun in the convent
with a withered arm and crooked hand learned what the abbess was doing
and begged that she be allowed to bath her limb in the holy washing water. She
plunged her hand and arm into the soapy water, rubbed them against the cloth,
and was cured: Like Moerisa, the woman in the gospel who was cured of an
issue of blood by touching the hem of Christs garment, her faith had made her
whole, and like her prototype she gave thanks to God, praising Him for His
wonderful works.68 This description is interesting in that it shows the abbess
disregard of the abbots instructions and her involvement in using this gar-
ment, which had come into contact with the holy body of St. Wilfrid, to bring
about the cure of one of her nuns. Eddius Stephanus also notes specifically the
comparison of the nuns cure with that of the woman in the Scriptures who by
touching the hem of Christs robe was also miraculously cured.
A number of monasteries at this time had in their churches and treasuries
textile pieces that were said to belong to well-known biblical figures and saints.
For example, we find among the relics listed at the convent in Essen (tenth-
early eleventh century) a piece of the robe of the Virgin Mary, a cloth that had
belonged to Christ, and a piece of the clothing of St. Andrew.69 In addition, the
eleventh century inventory of the relics of La Trinit of Caen records that they
possessed among their treasures some linen in which the Christ child had been
wrapped, part of the Virgin Marys robe, and part of the robe of St. Martin.70
However, the chronicles, saints Lives and miracles seemed to be especially
interested in and focus on the special efficacy of the in-house relics that had
belonged to their founding women saints, early abbesses, and other local saints.
One of the most famous relics of this type is St. Radegunds hair shirt which
was displayed in the convents external church of St. Mary at Holy Cross. This
hair shirt had been made for Radegund by her fellow ascetic, St. Junien, and
she wore it to mortify her skin mainly during the period of Lent. The relic was
accessible to pilgrims and could be handled by the faithful seeking a cure from
the saint. In one of Radegunds miracles the hair shirt was wrapped around a
lifeless infant and was said to bring the child back to life: As soon as the infants

68 Eddius Stephanus, Life of Wilfrid. in Lives of Saints: The Voyage of St. Brendan, Bedes Life
of Cuthbert, Eddius Stephanus: Life of Wilfrid, trans. J.F. Webb (Harmondsworth, 1965),
ch. 66, 204.
69 Katrinette Bodarw, Roman martyrs and their veneration in Ottonian Saxony: the case of
the sanctimoniales of Essen, 35965.
70 Act 29, Fin XIe-XIIe sicle, Liste des reliques possdes par labbaye de la Trinit de
Caen, in Les Actes de Guillaume le conqurant et de la reine Mathilde pour les abbayes
caennaise, ed. Lucien Musset (Caen, 1967), 141.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 171

body touched that most medicinal garment and those noble rags, he came
back from the dead to normal life. Blushing away his tomblike pallor, he rose
from the mantle.71 Another miracle notes that the illustrious Leo, whose
daughters were nuns at Holy Cross, had stopped at the monastery on the way
to a synodal council. Suffering from a serious eye problem, he came to the ora-
tory where he prayed, and for a long time he lay on Radegunds hair shirt,
invoking the saints assistance. According to the miracle: From the blessed
womans hair shirt he gained light. Moreover, in appreciation for the miracle
cure he gave the monastery 100 solidi to be used in constructing a new church
for St. Radegund. Here is an interesting direct reference to the very real profit-
ability found in these relics.72
St. Moninnas heroic asceticism was underscored in the objects that she left
for her nuns. In addition to the hoe and spade that she had used to cultivate the
ground, they also kept for a long time, with great reverence, her badger-skin
garmentmore precious than gowns of silkand the wooden comb with
which, once a year at Easter, it was her custom to comb her hair, unless the
supreme necessity of illness compelled her to use it more often.73
The Life of St. Rusticula (d. ca. 632) describes the accessibility of pieces of
Rusticulas clothing as holy relics in the saints convent: And any sick persons,
no matter how seriously afflicted, who placed the smallest scrap of linen or
cloth from her garments on their bodies and appealed to her sanctity with full-
est faith deserved to receive the bodys recovery and the souls salvation from
the Lord.74 The vita notes that a nun received a cure after she had washed in
clean water the cloth in which the body of St. Rusticula had been wrapped and
then drank the water.75

71 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 34, 84.
72 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 15, 96. Another reference to a
hair shirt relic can be found in the vita of St. Maura of Troyes. On her death the saints aunt
and two female cousins seized her (cilicium) haircloth vest and divided it into four parts.
The women kept three of these as relics and the local bishop preserved the fourth part.AASS,
Sept. VI (Sept. 21), ch. 17, 278. St. Gertrude of Nivelles was also buried in her hair shirt and
an old veil that had belonged to a certain holy pilgrim who had visited Nivelles. Later, with
translations, these objects no doubt also became relics of the monastery. See also Bonnie
Effros, Symbolic Expressions of Sanctity: Gertrude of Nivelles in the Context of Merovingian
Mortuary Custom, Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies 27 (1996): 110.
73 Vita Sanctae Darercae, Vita Sanctorum Hiberniae, 89 (28788). See Auslander, Ethnicity
in hagiography, 120, and Lucas, The Social Role of Relics and Reliquaries in Ancient
Ireland, 9.
74 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 27, 136.
75 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 26, 135.
172 Schulenburg

Another famous textile relic of this early period, which is still preserved in
Chelles today, is the chemise or tunic of St. Balthild (d. ca. 680). This remark-
ably well-preserved piece dates to the saints lifetime. Made of linen, it has a
motif embroidered in colored silk threads around the neckline which repro-
duces three necklaces and a pectoral cross.76 Also found among the relics at
Chelles are the Grande Robe de Balthild, a red-colored cloak with yellow
fringes in which the saint was buried; a tablet-woven band with animals that
was found in the reliquary of Balthild; and a silk fragment from the tunic of the
abbess-saint Bertille (d. ca. 704).77
In his History of the English Church and People Bede describes the transla-
tions of Sts. Ethelberga and Etheldreda and their incorrupt bodies and cloth-
ing. He reports that on opening the sepulcher after seven and one-half years,
the body and clothing of St. Ethelberga, abbess of Faremoutiers, were said to
have been incorrupt. They then washed the saints body, gave it new clothing
and translated it to the church of St. Stephen the Martyr.78 Bede also provides
a description of the translation of St. Etheldreda of Ely. Here again the body
and clothing were found to be incorrupt: all the linen cloths in which the
body had been enfolded appeared so fresh and new that they looked as if they
had been wrapped that very day around her pure body.79 The nuns washed the
holy body and clothed it in new robes. Again the old linens and the original
coffin became relics to be exhibited and used by the community and its pil-
grims with the nuns, no doubt, involved in the rituals of healing. According to
Bede: At the touch of these robes devils were expelled from the bodies of those
whom they possessed, and other complaints were sometimes cured. And the
coffin in which she was first buried is said to have cured diseases of the eye,
relieving pain and failing sight in those who placed their heads on the coffin as
they prayed.80
In his vita of St. Edith of Wilton, Goscelin of St. Bertin provides information
about one of Ediths relics, a liturgical vestment, which was preserved in

76 J.-P. Laporte, Le Trsor des saints de Chelles (Chelles, 1988); J.P. Laporte and J. Boyer, eds.,
Trsor de Chelles: sepultures et reliques de la reine Bathilde et de labbesse Bertille,
Catalogue de lexposition organise au Muse Alfred Bonno (Chelles, 1991). For colored
photos and adetailed description of Balthilds tunic chasuble see Krone und Schleier:
Kunst aus mittelalterlichen Frauenklstern (Ruhrlandmuseum, Essen, 2005), 245246
and 288290. Also see the wonderful photos of the tunic by Genevra Kornbluth,
<www.kornbluthphoto.com/TunicBathild.html>.
77 Ibid. See also Bertilles tunic, <www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/BertilleSilk.jpg>.
78 Bede, A History of the English Church and People, bk. III, ch. 8, 155.
79 Bede, A History of the English Church and People, bk. IV, ch. 19, 240.
80 Bede, A History of the English Church and People, bk. IV, ch. 19, 241.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 173

Winchester. This alb had been made out of the whitest linen or cotton by the
saint herself. It was decorated with gold, gems, pearls, and little English pearls,
woven around the yoke, around the feet, the golden images of the Apostles
surrounding the Lord, the Lord sitting in the midst, and Edith herself pros-
trated in the place of Mary the supplicant, kissing the Lords footprints.81
This is an especially fascinating piece in that in her embroidery Edith had
taken artistic license and had appropriated for herself the privileged position
of Mary Magdalene, the penitent, with Christ.82 This valuable piece was then
said to be embroidered by the saints virginal hands with such mystical
faith that it should give pleasure for its holiness as much as for its rich
embellishment.83
Other sources mention in passing nuns collecting saints garments as relics.
We learn, for example, that a group of Irish nuns begged St. Aedh Mac Bric for
his cloak which they then kept in their church as a holy relic.84
Saints belts were also popular relics held by convents and were recognized
for their special miraculous and curative powers. According to the Irish vita of
St. Samthann, when the monasterys church was being repaired the prioress,
Nathea, and the workmen went to the forest to cut down a tree. When the tree
started to lean in the wrong direction, the prioress had St. Samthanns belt
placed on that side of the tree so that when the tree was hit by a gust of wind,
it fell in the proper direction.85 Among the famous relics of St. Brigid of Ireland
was her belt. The saint gave this miraculous belt to a poor woman, explaining
to her that the water in which the belt was dipped would cure the sick and that
she would be able to make her living from this gift.86 Here we see the belt relic
as a valued possession that had been held by the convent where its expected
use for healing would bring in money or gifts.
Bedes Life of St. Cuthbert tells of the saint sending a linen belt to his friend
Abbess Elfled who had been very ill and was unable to stand or walk. She
wished for something belonging to her dear friend Cuthbert that would bring
about her cure. Shortly afterwards she received a linen belt sent by Cuthbert.

81 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 16, 48.

82 See Hollis, Writing the Wilton Women, pp. 11, 300301 and Schulenburg, Holy Women
and the Needle Arts, 94 and 102104
83 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 16, 48.
84 Lucas, The Social Role of Relics and Reliquaries in Ancient Ireland, 910.
85 Life of the Holy Virgin Samthann, trans. Dorothy Africa, ch.15, 106; Lucas, The Social Role
of Relics and Reliquaries in Ancient Ireland, 30. Another Irish Life notes that St. Monnena
used her belt to safeguard the chastity of one of her beautiful, young nuns. She put the belt
around the nun and it was said to immediately transform her into an old woman.
86 Lucas, The Social Role of Relics and Reliquaries in Ancient Ireland, 31.
174 Schulenburg

Delighted with the gift, she girded herself with it and was restored to perfect
health on the third day. A few days later one of her nuns had an excruciating
headache. The abbess brought Cuthberts belt to her, and bound up her head
with the cincture. The same day the nun was cured. The abbess then hid the
belt in her chest with an eye to its use in the future. However a few days later,
when she wanted to use the belt again, it could not be found anywhereit had
unfortunately disappeared. This was explained as Gods doing.87
Cloth coverings of saints tombs were also recognized as efficacious relics.
The Life of St. Monegund (d. 570) notes that a sick man came to her sepul-
cher and on touching the cloth tomb covering, he was cured.88 Similarly, in
Baudonivias Life of Radegund she describes an abbot from Burgundy who
was suffering from a severe toothache. He came before Radegunds sepulcher
where he took hold of the funerary pall over her holy tomb with his teeth and
was miraculously cured.89 Another sick pilgrim who came to Radegunds tomb
for assistance, drank a febrifuge, a cup of water into which the custodian of
her holy tomb had dipped the bottom of the pall. After sleeping before the
sepulcher his illness also soon disappeared.90 (Here again we can see a similar-
ity in Radegunds miracle cure with Christs cure of the hemorrhaging woman
who touched the hem of his robe.)
The popularity of textile relics can also be seen in various miracle stories
where the irreverent were punished by the saint for attempting to steal part of
their garments or other pieces of cloth associated with the saint for their own
use. These stories again underscore the respect and reverence that were
expected to be shown toward the saint and his or her possessions. The life and
translation of St. Edith provides several fascinating examples. In one case a girl
stole the radiantly white votive linen cloth from Ediths candle-lit tomb by
wrapping it around her shin. The saint punished the thief by not allowing her
to escape with the cloth from the church. After she revealed her crime and
removed her stolen property, the young miscreant was able to walk again.
When the nuns learned of this, the little pallium served as a memorable sign
of Saint Edith: it became a treasured piece in the monastery and was exhibited
as the saints first miracle after death.91 Another case tells of a nun at Wilton
who planned to cut off a small portion of the head-band from the sacred head
(of St. Edith) to obtain a relic for her own use. But the saints head lifted itself

87 Bede, Life of Cuthbert, in Lives of Saints, trans. J.F. Webb, ch. 23, 100101.
88 Bede, Life of Cuthbert, ch. 10, 59.
89 Bede, Life of Cuthbert, ch. 26, 104.
90 Bede, Life of Cuthbert, ch. 28, 105.
91 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 27, 62.
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 175

and terrified the woman with threatening anger so that she might indeed
know with what fear and reverence the holy remains of the saints who reign
with God should be treated.92 A final miracle from Wilton describes a
Glastonbury monk, named Eadwulf, who was well known at Wilton for his
priestly devotion; however, he went after relics from the clothing of the sacred
body with fool-hardy faith. He cut off with a knife a fold of the tunic from the
breast of the virgins body, as it lay on the above-mentioned altar, and as he did
it grazed the holy body with a slight touch of the blade. Blood immediately
gushed out, staining the saints white garments as well as the paved floor.
Terrified, the priest performed penance for this act and the blood was said to
miraculously disappear.93

Conclusion

Female religious in this early period were clearly very much involved in the
collection and creation of relics and formation of relic cults. A number of these
monasteries had extensive relic collections. Their inventories, for example,
point to sizeable collections containing hundreds of objects and parts of both
famous and little-known saints including: bones, hair, teeth, blood, oil, pieces
of the True Cross, nails, holy ground, stones, textiles, etc. The nuns were clearly
aware of the economic advantages, the profitability for their houses associated
with these priceless treasures. The relics that these convents owned also played
a major role in these early nuns devotional exercises and those of their outside
supporters. In their daily routines the monasteries recognized and celebrated
on some level the feasts of the saints whose relics they possessed. This involved
a public celebration on the saints day: a mass in honor of the saint, the reading
of at least part of the saints vita, and a feast. These celebrations were frequently
very popular and attended by large numbers of the faithful.94 The sanctoral
cycle at Chelles, for example (based on its relic labels), is thought to have had
a busy schedule with at least 48 saints feasts with many guests attending the
monasterys celebrations.95
Relics were also very important for the nuns private devotions. The relics
that they owned of the Virgin Mary, virgin martyrs, and local female and male

92 Goscelin, The Translatio of Edith, ch. 2, 72.

93 Goscelin, The Translatio of Edith.
94 Head, The Cult of Saints and their Relics, The ORB: On-line Reference Book for Medieval
Studies.
95 Hen, Culture and Religion in Merovingian Gaul, 9396.
176 Schulenburg

saints were perhaps especially meaningful for them. They adopted the names
of the women saints and familiar with their vitae, attempted to follow their
model lives. In their concern with death and salvation, owning the popular rel-
ics of the Holy Cross and the nails used in the crucifixion provided evidence of
their special relationship with the crucified Christ. Thus in their contempla-
tion of the sufferings of Christ the nuns at Wilton Abbey, for example, could
meditate on the paintings of the Passion that Edith had chosen for the decora-
tion of her church along with the relic of the holy nail that they possessed.96
(We also learn that St. Rusticula, abbess of Arles, always carried with her a
piece of the Holy Cross which she used in performing miracles.)97 Moreover,
their exotic relics originating in Rome, Jerusalem and other sites in the Holy
Land perhaps fueled their imaginationsand allowed them to imagine the
details of the holy sites in Bethlehem or Jerusalem, and other popular places of
pilgrimage. Lacking the same freedom and resources as their male contempo-
raries to take long pilgrimages to Rome and the Holy Land, their relic collec-
tions would permit them to take mental or virtual pilgrimages within the
monasteryas substitutes for real physical pilgrimage. This activity has been
noted, for example, by Kathryn Rudy in regard to late medieval female
monasteries.98
Thus while many of these womens monasteries had rich collections of rel-
ics, including major corporeal relicsentire bodies of outside saints as well
as the bodies of local saints, including their beloved founders, early abbesses,
and other family membersit seems that for some of these houses, their cre-
ation and promotion of associative relics played an especially important role
in the lives of the community and the faithful. These early female religious
were highly motivated and resourceful, and took the initiative in collecting
these relics; they also saw the potential in many ordinary things. By adding
associative relics to their monasterys cult center which focused on their in-
house saint, they were able to provide a renewed interest in their saint and his
or her cult. They could also offer a greater accessibility to the saint and expand
the power and reach of his/her relics. Many of these relics were personal, inti-
mate objects (and in some cases a substitute for the body of the saint) and
provided a special immediacy for the nuns. The monastery of Holy Cross in

96 Goscelin, The Vita of Edith, ch. 20, 53.

97 McNamara and Halborg, Sainted Women of the Dark Ages, ch. 13, 130. McNamara sug-
gests that Rusticula may have carried the relic around with her in some sort of standard.
Note 19, 130.
98 See Kathryn M. Rudys excellent study, Virtual Pilgrimages in the Convent: Imagining
Jerusalem in the Late Middle Ages, Disciplina Monastica 8 (Turnhout, 2011).
Female Religious As Collectors Of Relics 177

Poitiers, for example, had various sacred sites associated with their founder,
St Radegund: the saints cell, the inner and outer churches, and the many
objects dedicated to the memory of the sainther hairshirt, iron chain belt,
chair, spindles, writing desk, and other utensilia, in addition to the saints body
found in the outer church. Some of the sacred objects, rather than or in addi-
tion to the saints tomb, then became the locus for healing for many of these
monasteries, and the abbess and nuns took the initiative and presided over the
healing rituals. They are shown in the sources as handling these relics,
approaching and assisting the sick, and witnessing the miraculous cures. For a
number of these early monasteries it became very much a female sacred ritual.
Some of the miracle collections note that a majority of recipients of healing
miracles were femalemainly nuns; while others show a combination of men
and women seeking cures from the relics. This is perhaps related to policies of
enclosure found in these various houses as well as the fact that the monastic
communities had several different types of churchesinside and outside of
the convent walls.99 Moreover it also seems that some of the associative relics
were meant to be admired; their purpose was to keep the holy life, the memory
of the saint alive, and they were not intended to be used in the making of
miracles. This seems to be the case, for example, of some of the textile relics
at Chelles.
While the relic collections and cult centers found at female houses were
perhaps not as prestigious or as well known as those found at some of the
major male monasteries, relics nevertheless played a major role in the nuns
lives. Female religious were very much involved in all aspects of the culture of
relics. Possession of relics put these women in a privileged relationship with
the holy dead; it provided them with agency, authority and power which was
not available to them in other areas of the church. Any study of relics thus
needs to take into consideration the importance of relics and their extensive
collections for womens monasteries in this early period.

99 Schulenburg, Womens Monasteries and Sacred Space, 7286.

 chapter 10

Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of

Ademar of Chabannes*

Daniel F. Callahan

Introduction

In his chronicle the Aquitanian monk of the early eleventh century Ademar of
Chabannes wrote, Shortly thereafter [ca. 1018] Manichaeans arose throughout
Aquitaine, seducing the peopleThey were messengers of Antichrist, and
made many deviate from the faith.1 These words provide exceptionally early
information on the rise of heresy in the medieval West at the turn of the
millennium.2 Noting that he was the first to use the term Manichaeans to

* I wish to express my gratitude to the University of Delaware for research grants that allowed
me to work on this piece at the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek in Berlin in the summer of 1988
and at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey, where I wrote an early
draft in the summer of 1992. In addition, I thank Professors R.I. Moore and Thomas Head for
participating in a session at the 20th International Congress of Medieval Studies at Western
Michigan University in 1989 and for their comments on the paper there delivered, a prelimi-
nary version of the section of this article on the Antichrist. I also owe a large debt of gratitude
to the three readers for Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History; the piece was accepted
for publication in 1994 and was to have appeared before the journal, which ceased publica-
tion in 1995, and especially to Professors Elizabeth A.R. Brown and Michael Frassetto for
their careful reading and many helpful suggestions for revisions.
1 Ademar of Chabannes, Chronicon, P. Bourgain et al., eds., in Corpus Christianorum
Continuatio Mediaevalis, vol. 129, Pars I of Ademari Cabannensis Opera Omnia (Turnhout,
1999), iii, 49, p. 170. Pauco post tempore per Aquitaniam exorti sunt manichei, seducentes
plebemquippe ut nuncii Antichristi, multos a fide exorbitare fecerunt.
2 See especially W.L. Wakefield and A.P. Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages (New York and
London, 1969), 734; R.I. Moore, The Birth of Popular Heresy (New York, 1975), 810;
Heinrich Fichtenau, Heretics and Scholars in the High Middle Ages, 10001200, D. Kaiser, tr.
(University Park, PA, 1998, first pub. in German in 1992 by C.H. Beck), 3035; Malcolm
Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 2nd ed. (Oxford and Cambridge, Mass., 1992), 2022; Richard
Landes, Between Aristocracy and Heresy: Popular Participation in the Limousin Peace of
God, 9941033, in The Peace of God: Social Violence and Religious Response in France around
the Year 1000, Thomas Head and Richard Landes, eds. (Ithaca, NY, 1992), 184218; Richard
Landes, La vie apostolique en Aquitaine au tournant du millenium: Paix de Dieu, culte de

koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014|doi 10.1163/9789004274167_012

Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 179

designate these heretics, scholars have scrutinized the statement and several
other references in the same chronicle, without attending to other writings of
Ademar, most unpublished, in which he furnishes additional information
about heresy in general and these heretics in particular.3 Here I shall begin by
examining a number of these additional references, particularly in his unpub-
lished sermons, in order to determine who he thought these heretics were and
what they professed. Then I shall attempt to demonstrate that the connection
between the Manichaeans and Antichrist Ademar draws in the chronicle was
a central element in his writings and reflected his keen sense of the proximity
of the Apocalypse and the Last Judgment.4

reliques et communauts hrtiques, Annales E.S.C. 46 (1991): 57393 and idem, The Birth
of Heresy: A Millennial Phenomenon, The Journal of Religious History, 24, 1 (2000): 2643
and in the same issue of that journal, R.I. Moore, The Birth of Popular Heresy: A Millennial
Phenomenon?, 825. Works on the rise of medieval heresy that have appeared since this
article was originally accepted for publication include Peter Biller and Anne Hudson, eds.,
Heresy and Literacy, 10001350 (Cambridge, 1994); Michael Frassetto, ed., Heresy and the
Persecuting Society in the Middle Ages: Essays on the Work of R.I. Moore (Leiden, 2006); Malcolm
Lambert, Medieval Heresy: Popular Movements from the Gregorian Reform to the Reformation,
3rd ed. (Oxford, 2002); and R.I. Moore, The War on Heresy (Cambridge, Mass., 2012).
3 See e.g. J.B. Russell, Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages (Berkeley and Los Angeles,
1965), 35; R.I. Moore, The Origins of European Dissent (London, 1977), 9, 30, 1645 and 244;
Lambert, 2nd ed., 20, 22 and 31; and Brian Stock, The Implications of Literacy: Written
Language and Models of Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Princeton,
1983), 97 and 116. See also the thoughtful overview of Christopher Brooke in the essay
Heresy and Religious Sentiment: 10001250, in his book Medieval Church and Society (New
York, 1971), 139161. The best survey of Ademars principal manuscripts remains Leopold
Delisle, Notice sur les manuscrits originaux dAdmar de Chabannes in Notices et extraits
des manuscrits de la Bibliothque nationale 25 (1896), 241358.
4 This article is one of seven studies on Ademars millennial and apocalyptic expectations. The
first, Admar of Chabannes, Apocalypticism and the Peace Council of Limoges of 1031,
Revue Bndictine, 101 (1991), 3249, examines Ademars account of this council and sets
the piece into the eschatological orientation of B.N., Ms. Lat. 2469, the manuscript in which
it is found. The second article, The Problem of the Filioque and the Letter from the Pilgrim
Monks of the Mount of Olives to Pope Leo III and Charlemagne: Is the Letter Another Forgery
by Admar of Chabannes?, Revue Bndictine, 102 (1992), 75134, seeks to show the letter
was prepared by Ademar shortly before his departure for Jerusalem in 103233 and sets the
piece into the apocalyptic context of the manuscript in which it was found, D.S., Ms. Lat.
1664. A third, entitled Ademar of Chabannes, Millennial Fears and the Development of
Western Anti-Judaism, appears in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 46, 1 (1995), 1935.
Another, which examines the familia of St. Martial of Limoges and his apostolic throne at the
Last Judgment, is part of a memorial volume for David Herlihy and is entitled When Heaven
Came down to Earth: The Family of St. Martial of Limoges and the Terrors of the Year 1000,
180 Callahan

Ademar of ChabannesLife and Writings

Ademar of Chabannes was born ca. 988 into an influential noble family with
power in both Angoumois and the Limousin.5 Although he became a monk at
Saint-Cybard of Angoulme in his youth, he also studied at and was closely

in Portraits of Medieval and Renaissance Living, Samuel K. Cohn, Jr. and Steven Epstein, eds.
(Ann Arbor, MI, 1996), 24558. The final three pieces examine the pilgrimage to Jerusalem
of 1033: Jerusalem in the Monastic Imaginations of the Early Eleventh Century, The Haskins
Society Journal, 6 (1994), 119127; The Tau Cross in the Writings of Ademar of Chabannes,
in The Year 1000: Religious and Social Response to the Turning of the First Millennium, Michael
Frassetto, ed. (New York, 2002), 6371; and Jerusalem and the Cross in the Life and Writings of
Ademar of Chabannes: The Making of a Millennial Pilgrim, forthcoming.
5 The bibliography on Ademar and his writings is very long, with especially rapid growth in the
past twenty-five years. See in particular, in addition to the items in footnote. 4, Daniel
Callahan, The Sermons of Admar of Chabannes and the Cult of St. Martial of Limoges,
Revue Bndictine, 86 (1976), 25195; idem, Admar de Chabannes et la Paix de Dieu,
Annales du Midi, 89 (1977), 2143; R.L. Wolff, How the News Was Brought from Byzantium
to Angoulme; or, The Pursuit of a Hare in an Oxcart, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies,
vol. 4 (Essays Presented to Sir Steven Runciman) (1978), 13978; Richard Landes, A Libellus
from St. Martial of Limoges Written in the Time of Ademar of Chabannes (9891034),
Scriptorium, 37 (1983), 178204; F.G. Nuvolone, Il Sermo pastoralis Pseudo-ambrosiano e il
Sermo Girberti philosophi papae urbis Romae qui cognominatus est Silvester de informatione
Episcoporum. Riflessioni, in Gerberto: Scienza, storia e mito, Atti del Gerberti Symposium
(2527 luglio 1983, Bobbio, 1985), 379565; H. Schneider, Ademar von Chabannes und
Pseudoisidorder Mythomane und der Erzflscher, in Flschungen im Mittelalter, 5 vols.,
vol. 2, Geflschte Rechtstexte, Der Bestrafte Flscher, MGH Schriften 33, 2 (Hanover, 1988),
12950; James Grier, Ecce sanctum quem deus eligit Marcialem apostolum: Admar de
Chabannes and the Tropes for the Feast of Saint Martial, in Beyond the Moon: Festschrift
Luther Dittmer, B. Gillingham and P. Merkey, eds., (Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen, 53)
(Ottawa, 1990), 2874; Richard Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, and the Deceits of History: Ademar
of Chabannes, 9891034 (Cambridge, Mass., 1995); and Michael Frassetto, Reaction and
Reform: Reception of Heresy in Arras and Aquitaine in the Early Eleventh Century, The
Catholic Historical Review, 83 (1997), 385400. Numerous works on Ademar have appeared
since the acceptance of this article, including Daniel Callahan, Ademar of Chabannes,
Charlemagne and the Pilgrimage to Jerusalem of 1033, in M. Frassetto, A. Livingstone, and
D. Blanks, eds., Medieval Monks and Their World: Ideas and Realities. Studies in Honor of
Richard Sullivan, ed. (Leiden, 2006), 7180; Daniel Callahan, Al-Hakim, Charlemagne and
the Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in the Writings of Ademar
of Chabannes, in M. Gabriele and J. Stuckey, eds., The Legend of Charlemagne in the Middle
Ages: Power, Faith, and Crusade (New York, 2008), 4157; Michael Frassetto, Pagans,
Heretics, Saracens, and Jews in the Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes, The Origins of Heresy
and Persecution in the Middle Ages: Essays on the Work of R.I. Moore, Michael Frassetto, ed.
(Leiden:, 2006), 7391; and Anna Trumbore Jones, Discovering the Aquitanian Church in
the Corpus of Ademar of Chabannes, The Haskins Society Journal, 19 (2007): 8298.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 181

identified with the monastery of Saint-Martial of Limoges, one of the principal

cultural and pilgrimage centers of southern France. Historian, liturgist, artist,
poet, grammarian, copyista master of the monastic scriptoriumhe led the
campaign to establish the apostolicity of St. Martial in the early eleventh cen-
tury. After a visitor from the Piedmontine monastery of Chiusa challenged this
notion in 1029, Ademar responded with a series of writings designed to sup-
port his position.6 Deserted by his former associates at Saint-Martial and also
by the monks of Saint-Cybard, Ademar became increasingly involved with
apocalyptic fear. He joined the many pilgrims that Rodulfus Glaber reports
journeyed to Jerusalem ca. 1033 and never seems to have returned, probably
dying there the next year.7
Before leaving Aquitaine, he deposited his manuscripts at the library of
Saint-Martial.8 One of these works was the long letter which Ademar wrote
to defend himself against his Lombard opponent.9 This rambling work
(Bibliothque nationale de France, lat. 5288, fols. 51r58r) was written at Saint-
Cybard and reveals an emotionally disturbed man who was stung by the
charges. Like the chronicle it provides valuable information regarding his
notion of the Antichrist, a name he applies to his Lombard opponent.10

Ademars work as a composer of music has been examined in numerous works by James
Grier, including The Musical World of a Medieval Monk: Admar de Chabannes in Eleventh-
Century Aquitaine (Cambridge, 2006).
6 See Delisles survey of Ademars manuscripts for a description of these last works and
Callahan, The Sermons of Ademar, esp. 26365.
7 On Ademars death in 1034 see the note by the early thirteenth-century librarian of Saint-
Martial Bernard Itier in Chronicon Bernardi Iterii Armarii Sancti Martialis, H. Dupls-
Agier, ed., Chroniques de Saint-Martial (Paris, 1874), 47. Anno gracie mxxxiiii, obiit
Ademarus monacus, qui jussit fieri vitam sancti Marcialis cum litteris aureis, et multos
alios libros, et in Jherusalem migravit ad Christum. For Glabers reference to the pilgrims
to Jerusalem see Rodulfi Glabri, Historiarum Libri Quinque, John France, ed. and tr.
(Oxford, 1989), iv, 6 (18), 198201 and see below, fn. 203.
8 A note added, probably by a monk later in the eleventh century, to one of these manu-
scripts, a work now found in Leiden, number 15 of the Codices latini Vossiani, states on
fol. 141v, Hic est liber sanctissimi domni nostri Marcialis Lemovicensis, ex libris bonae
memoriae Ademari grammatici. Nam, postquam idem multos annos peregit in Domini
servicio ac simul in monachico ordine, in ejusdem patris coenobio, profecturus
Hierusalem ad sepulchrum Domini, nec inde reversurus, multos libros in quibus sudav-
erat eidem suo pastori ac nutritori reliquit, ex quibus hic est unus. See Delisle, Notice sur
les manuscrits originaux dAdmar de Chabannes. p. 302 for comments on the note in
the Leiden manuscript.
9 Ademar of Chabannes, Epistola de apostolatu Martialis, PL 141: 87112.
10 See below, fn. 201.
182 Callahan

Most important for understanding his ideas on the Antichrist and his fol-
lowers, especially the heretics, are the writings found in several of the manu-
scripts he deposited at Saint-Martial (B.N.F. Ms. Lat. 2469 and Berlin manuscript
D.S. Ms. Lat. 1664).11 In addition to an account of the council of Limoges of
1031, the first manuscript contains a cycle of forty-six sermons promoting the
apostolicity of St. Martial. It does so in the context of salvation history, with
the final piece especially saying much about Ademars apocalyptic expecta-
tions. The Berlin manuscript contains many of the writings he prepared just
before leaving on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem. In addition to its support of the
apostolicity of St. Martial, its two principal themes are, first, the need for ortho-
doxy and, second, the proximity of the Apocalypse.12
He probably also deposited at Saint-Martial a copy of the latest version of
his chronicle.13 This narrative in three books traces the history of the Franks
from their purported Trojan origins until the late 1020s. Although he added a
few items in the first two books and the initial part of the third, he begins his
own narrative in chapter sixteen of book three, which concentrates on
Aquitaine in the tenth and eleventh centuries.14

Ademars Chronicon on the Heretics

Four passages in the chronicle refer to Manichaeans. In the first (Chronicon, 3:

49, p. 170), associated with 1018 and cited at the beginning of this article, he
states that the Manichaeans appeared in Aquitaine and seduced the people.
He went on to say that they denied baptism, the cross, and all sane doctrine.
Abstaining from food, they seemed like monks and pretended to be chaste. He
also ascribes to them all forms of dissipation and views them as messengers of

11 See Delisle, Notice sur les manuscrits originaux dAdmar de Chabannes, 24496 for a
survey of the contents of these two manuscripts. For an examination of the sermon mate-
rial, Callahan, Sermons, 25195.
12 Editions of the sermons in these two manuscripts will soon appear in the Corpus
Christianorum as a part of the collected writings of Ademar under the general editorship
of Pascale Bourgain-Hemeryck.
13 The new critical edition of this work for the Corpus Christianorum (see footnote 1)
replaces that of Jules Chavanon, Admar de Chabannes, Chronique (Paris, 1897). Later
insertions, corrections or other marginalia to the basic text are in bold type, just as the
material appears in the new edition.
14 For Ademars sources for books one and two of the Chronicon and the first fifteen chapters
of book three, see the introduction to the Corpus Christianorum ed., pp. XCIIXCIX. For a
listing of his insertions into this material, see the Chavanon ed., pp. XIIXV.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 183

the Antichrist.15 In an early version of the chronicle although he called these

heretics Manichaeans, he did not refer to them as nuntii Antichristi.16 In the
earlier version of the chronicle, Ademar provides a slightly different list of
the heretics errors. He claimed that they were leading many people from
truth to error by denying baptism, the sign of the cross, the Church, the
Redeemer of the world, the honor of the saints, legitimate marriage, and
theeating of meat.17
A second reference to Manichaeans as messengers of the Antichrist is con-
nected with the year 1022. Those who were discovered at Toulouse were exe-
cuted. Then throughout various parts of the West more of these nuntii
Antichristi appeared and they took care to conceal themselves.18 In an earlier
version of the account, it does not refer to nuntii Antichristi but only to
Manichei.19
Ademar additionally describes the appearance of heretics at Orlans around
the same time. He also calls them Manichaeans, which suggests that he drew
some connection between the two groups. In this unique case other accounts
of the heretics survive. Those of Paul of Saint-Pre of Chartres and John of
Fleury are much more developed than Ademars.20

15 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 49, 170. Pauco post tempore per Aquitaniam exorti sunt manichei,
seducentes plebem, negantes baptismum sanctum et crucis virtutem, et quidquid sane doc-
trine est, abstinentes a cibis quasi monachi et castitatem simulantes, sed inter se ipsos
omnem luxuriam exercentes; quippe ut nuncii Antichristi, multos a fide exorbitare fece-
runt. This passage is central to this article.
16 Ademar, Chronicon, recension alpha, p. 13. On this recension, which is usually more suc-
cinct than the later versions, see the comments of Richard Landes in the introduction to
the Corpus Christianorum ed., pp. CXCXVI.
17 Ademar, Chronicon, recension alpha, p. 13, E vestigio exorti sunt per Aquitaniam
Manichei, seducentes promiscuum populum a veritate ad errorem. Suadebant negare bap-
tismum, signum sanctae crucis, ecclesiam, et ipsum redemptorem seculi, honorem sancto-
rum Dei, conjugia laegitima, aesum carnium, unde et multos simplices averterunt a fide.
18 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 59, 180. Nihilominus apud Tolosam inventi sunt manichei, et ipsi
destructi, et per diversas Occidentis partes nuntii Antichristi exorti, per latibula sese
occultare curabant et quoscumque poterant viros et mulieres subvertebant.
19 Ademars account of the heresy at Orlans differs in a number of ways from others which
exist. On this outbreak see R.H. Bautier, Lhrsie dOrlans et le mouvement intellectuel
au dbut du XIe sicle. Documents et hypothses, in Enseignement et vie intellectuelle
(IXe-XVIe sicle), Actes du 95e Congrs national des socits savantes, Rheims, 1970,
Section de philologie et dhistoire jusqua 1610, vol. 1 (Paris, 1975), 6388 and the valu-
able assessment of the sources on the heretics at Orlans in Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 1st
ed. (New York, 1977), appendix A.
20 Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 1st ed., 34347.
184 Callahan

Ademar identifies the heretics at Orlans as ten canons of the church of the
Holy Cross who seemed to be more pious than the others but had secretly
committed all manner of abominations and crimes.21 The source of their error
was a certain rustic of Prigord who claimed to possess special force, especially
powder derived from the remains of dead boys which when communicated
made the recipient a Manichaean.22 He led the canons to adore the devil, who
first appeared to them in the form of an Ethiopian and then of the angel of
light, and who bestowed much silver on them.23 When, three years earlier, a
cantor named Theodatus, died as a Manichaean, Bishop Odolricus had his
body removed from its grave and thrown into the road.24 His fellow canons
suffered an even more ignominious end. King Robert the Pious had had them
expelled from the priesthood and the Church, and then burned. Ademar
recorded that because of the flames intensity the bodies of the heretics were
reduced to ashes and left no residue.25
Ademars final reference to Manichaeans in the chronicle, which occurs
in connection with his description of a council held at Charroux ca. 1027, is

21 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 59, 180. Eo tempore decem ex canonicis Sanctae Crucis Aurelianis,
qui videbantur aliis religiosiores, probati sunt esse manicheiet abominationes et crim-
ina quae dici etiam flagitium est in occulto exercebant, et in aperto christianos veros se
fallebant.
22 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 59, 180. Nam ipsi decepti a quodam rustico Petragoricensi [For the
importance of this insertion see below, pp. 19091], qui se dicebat facere virtutes, et pul-
verem ex mortuis pueris secum deferebat, de quo si quem posset communicare, mox
manicheum faciebat
23 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 59, 180. adorabant diabolum, qui primo eis in Etyopis, deinde
angeli lucis figuratione apparebat, et eis multum cotidie argentum deferebat. The appear-
ance of the devil as black is a common depiction in the early Middle Ages. See J.B. Russell,
Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, NY, 1984), 6869. On demons as Ethiopians,
see G. Penco, Sopravvivenze della demonologia antica nel monachesimo medievale,
Studia monastica, 13 (1971), 3435. Ademar was particularly familiar with this depiction
of the devil in the vita of St. Martial called the Aurelian life (L. Surius, ed., De probatis
Sanctorum Vitis, 12 vols. (Cologne, 1618), 6: 36574), e.g. ch. 15, p. 369, Erant autem quasi
Aethiopes nigriores fuligine and ch. 21, p. 372, Erat enim quasi niger puerulus etc. In
the latter instance it is an idol of Jupiter that St. Martial destroys to dust, an interesting
image because, as will appear later in this article, there is a close connection between dust
and the remains of the heretics whom Ademar depicted as filled with the devil. He also
uses the image of the black demon in his sermons, e.g. D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 90v.
24 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 59, 180. Quidam etiam Sancte Crucis Aurelianis canonicus can-
toret projectum invium.
25 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 59, 180. Qui autem flammisut nec de ossibus residuum inveni-
retur eorum.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 185

frustratingly brief. In addition to summoning the lay powers of Aquitaine to

affirm the Peace of God, Duke William gathered the bishops and abbots of the
duchy in order to combat the heretical ideas the Manichaeans were
disseminating.26
Without question, then, Ademar believed that heretics, whom he called
Manichaeans, appeared in Aquitaine between 1018 and 1028. He recorded a
connection between Prigord and the outbreak at Orlans and inserted his
presentation of the heresy in Toulouse into the account on Orlans. It is the
depiction of the appearance of the heretics in Aquitaine ca. 1018, however, that
offers the essential elements of his perception of this heterodoxy. These here-
tics attacked the Church, the sacraments and the saints and lived ascetic lives.
Ademar regarded them as messengers of the Antichrist.

Heresy in the West in the Early Eleventh Century

Ademar says little about the nature of the heresy, and nothing about its origins
or its success. Even when one compares his accounts with others on these
specific episodes, especially the outbreak at Orlans, or examines other con-
temporary or nearly contemporary outbreaks of similar heresy, such as that
concerning Leutard ca. 1000, Arras ca. 1025, Monforte in northern Italy
ca. 1028 or Chlons-sur-Marne ca. 104348, little consensus has developed
about the nature of this heresy or heresies.27 Prior to the Second World War
many historians of medieval heresy took Ademar at his word and saw the
outbreak as a revival of the old dualistic heresy of Manichaeanism. See, for
example, the presentation in Steven Runcimans classic The Medieval Manichee,
a fine synopsis of this earlier view.28
The contemporary historiography on the problem traces its roots back to
Father Antoine Dondaines reaction to Raffaello Morghens book Medioevo
cristiano (Rome, 1951).29 Morghen had stressed that the rise of heresy in the

26 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 69, 189. His diebuscatholicam venerari.

27 See the English translations of the accounts of these episodes in Wakefield and Evans,
Heresies of the High Middle Ages, 7293 and R.I. Moore, The Birth, 924.
28 Steven Runciman, The Medieval Manichee (Cambridge, Eng., 1949). On the importance of
Runcimans work, see J.B. Russell, Interpretations of the Origins of Medieval Heresy,
Mediaeval Studies, 25 (1963): 36 and R.I. Moore, The Origins of Medieval Heresy, History,
55 (1970): 2122.
29 Antoine Dondaine, Lorigine de lhrsie mdivale, Revista di Storia della Chiesa in
Italia, 6 (1952): 4778.
186 Callahan

West in this period was not Manichaean, did not have external roots, had
occurred in a number of places independently as a reaction to local conditions
and was seeking a return to the purity of the gospels. Dondaine criticized these
ideas and emphasized on the contrary that the heresy came from without and
was the result of the efforts of Bogomil missionaries to prosyletize their dualist
version of the Christian observance which had originated in Bulgaria in the
early tenth century.30 To prove his case he used a letter written by an orthodox
Bulgarian clergyman named Cosmas ca. 972 against the Bogomil teachings to
show the many similarities to the Western developments.31 Dondaine noted
that the accounts of the activities of the Western heretics mentioned many of
the same beliefs as those of the Bogomils. Among the most prominent were a
denial of the Trinity (at Orlans and Monforte); rejection of the Old Testament
(by Leutard and at Arras); rejection of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and institu-
tions (Arras); aversion for the cross (Leutard, Aquitaine, Arras and Monforte);
denial of baptism (Aquitaine, Orlans and Arras); denial of a number of other
sacraments, including the Eucharist (Orlans and Arras), confession (Orlans
and Arras), and marriage (Leutard, Aquitaine, Orlans, Monforte and Chlons);
denial of the cult of the saints and relics (Arras) and abstinence from meat
(Aquitaine, Orlans, Monforte and Chlons).32 Jeffrey Russell nicely sums up
the importance of Dondaines piece, especially the comparative listing, thusly:

In the first place, the evidence of the chart [the comparative listing] is
overwhelming only if all the Catharists of the eleventh century are
lumped together as one group. If they were in fact one group, the almost
exact correspondence of the doctrines of this group to those of the
Bogomils would indeed leave little room for doubt. But the Catharists did
not have, especially as early as the eleventh century, any unified body of
doctrine, and each of the groups called Catharists must, it seems to me,
be treated separately.33

30 On the Bogomils and their origins see esp. Dmitri Obolensky, The Bogomils (Cambridge,
Eng., 1948). For more summary examinations see J. Hussey, The Orthodox Church in the
Byzantine Empire (Oxford, 1986), esp. 15766 and J.V.A. Fine, Jr., Bogomilism in
Dictionary of the Middle Ages, J. Strayer, ed.,vol. 2 (New York, 1983), 29497. Also of value
by Fine, The Bulgarian Bogomil Movement, East European Quarterly, 11 (1974):
385412.
31 On the letter of Cosmas, the standard edition and commentary is that of H.C. Puech and
A. Vaillant, Le Trait contre les Bogomiles de Cosmas le prtre (Paris, 1945).
32 Dondaine, Lorigine de lhrsie mdivale, 6061.
33 Russell, Interpretations of the Origins of Medieval Heresy, 37.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 187

What Dondaine did through his review essay was to establish the two poles of
contemporary thought on the origins of popular heresy in the central Middle
Ages. Between those two points have ranged later studies, most being closer to
Morghen than Dondaine, especially in the English-speaking world. The variety
of opinions produced by so small an amount of material has been extraordi-
nary. Reviewing the great variety of scholarship generated by Morghens book
and Dondaines response, Christopher Brooke in an elegant essay on the histo-
riographical responses to a Bogomil iceberg refers to the creation of a sort of
Enigma variations.34 Malcolm Lambert agreed when he suggested that the
only way out of the problem is the finding of new materials.35

New Evidence the Letter of Erbertus

Important new evidence has appeared and strongly suggests that Bogomils
were indeed active in the West in the eleventh century and were Ademars
Manichaeans. Before the presentation of the data from Ademars manuscripts,
it is necessary to consider some recently redated material. Guy Lobrichon has
discovered in a mid-eleventh century manuscript from Auxerre a copy of a
letter of a certain Erbertus recounting the appearance of heretics in Prigord.36

34 Brooke, Heresy and Religious Sentiment, 140.

35 Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 1st ed., 36. In the second edition of the work Lambert has
moved much closer to the position of those who do not see evidence for a Bogomil pres-
ence and seems to have been especially influenced by the writings of Moore and Stock on
the subject. He also makes use of the work of Richard Landes on heresy in Ademars early
writings, essays which make little reference to the material on the heretics in this monks
later manuscripts which are the basis for the present study. For a recent restating of
Moores position, see R.I. Moore, Literacy and the Making of Heresy, c. 1000c. 1150, in
Heresy and Literacy, 10001530, P. Biller and A. Hudson, eds., (Cambridge, Eng., 1994),
1937. In the same book, Bernard Hamilton in an essay Wisdom from the East: the
Reception by the Cathars of Eastern Dualist Texts, 3860, esp. 39, suggests that the ques-
tion of the Bogomil influence on the rise of heresy in the West in the early eleventh cen-
tury is by no means closed.
36 Guy Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy: Early Eleventh-Century Aquitaine as Seen
from Auxerre, in The Peace of God, Head and Landes, eds., 80103. The document is
found on pp. 34748. For more on this piece, see Michael Frassetto, The Sermons of
Ademar of Chabannes and the Letter of Heribert, Revue Bndictine, 109 (1999): 32440,
and, especially, Claire Taylor, The Letter of Hribert of Prigord as a Source for Dualist
Heresy in the Society of Early-Eleventh-Century Aquitaine, Journal of Medieval History,
26 (2000): 31349, and Heresy in Medieval France: Dualism in Aquitaine and the Agenais,
10001249 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2005), 92101.
188 Callahan

It is an earlier and more complete version of a piece which historians have usu-
ally indicated placed the heretics in Prigord in the middle of the twelfth cen-
tury.37 After an initial greeting to Christians everywhere, Erbertus declares that
a new heresy has arisen in the world begun at this time by pseudo-apostles and
that from their very origins they were ministers of all iniquity.38 Many heretics
had appeared in Prigord who were thoroughly perverting Christianity yet
were claiming to lead an apostolic life.39 They do not eat meat nor do they
consume wine, except possibly a little every third day.40 They genuflect one
hundred times and do not receive money.41 Their sect is particularly perverse,
secretive and deceptive.42 They do not enter a church except for the purpose of
seduction.43 They never say the Gloria patri et filio et spiritui sancto, but in its
place say quoniam tuum est regnum, et tu dominaris omni creaturae in secula
seculorum, amen.44 They say that alms are nothing because no one ought to
possess the property from whence it is given.45 For them the Mass is worthless
and the Eucharist ought to be seen as only fragments of blessed bread.46 They
assert that the ecclesiastical chant is useless and established for the applause
of men.47 If any of them should sing the Mass for the purpose of seduction, he
does not recite the Canon nor receive Communion, but turns either to the
back or side of the altar. He then throws the Host into the missal or behind

37 See e.g. Moore, Origins, 19798. His scraps of information include genuine novelties
which are suggestive of Bogomilism.
38 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 347. Nova heresis horta est in mundo, incipiens
hoc tempore a pseudo apostolis: ab ipso sui exordio sunt ministri totius iniquitatis.
39 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 347. Surrexerunt igitur sicut veritas rei se habet
nostri tempore in petragorensem regionem quamplurimi heretici, qui pro eo ut christi-
anitatem radicitus pervertant. Dicunt se apostolicam vitam ducere.
40 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy. Carnem non comedunt, vinum non bibunt nisi
per modicum tertio die.
41 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 347. Centies genua flectunt, pecuniam non
solum non recipiunt.
42 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 347. Sed est illorum secta valde perversa, occul-
taque ac decipiens.
43 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 347. Nam ecclesiam non intrant, nisi causa
seductionis.
44 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 34748.
45 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348. Elemosinam dicunt nihil esse, quia nec
unde fieri possit debere possideri.
46 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348. Missam pro nichilo ducunt, nec commu-
nionem debere percipi nisi solummodo fracmenta panis benedicti.
47 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348. Canticum ecclesiasticum vanum esse asse-
runt, ac pro favore hominum inventum.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 189

thealtar.48 The heretics not only do not adore the cross or the face of Christ, but
seek to restrain those who wish to do so by declaring before the image, O how
wretched are those who adore you, with the psalmist saying, The idols of the
people etc. (Ps. 113: 4 and 134: 15).49 The heretics by this seduction had already
led astray not only many laymen who had given up all their goods but also cler-
ics, priests, monks and female religious.50 (50) They made many signs. And no
one was such a rustic (rusticus) who once he joined them would not within
eight days be wise in letters, words and examples, so that he could not be over-
come by anyone in any way. They could not be injured since although they
might be taken, they could not be held by any binding.51 The monk Erbertus
then describes several of the miracles they performed. He concludes the account
by stating that the heretics have now secretly entered this and other regions.52
A number of features of this account deserve further attention. Erbertus
states that it was a new heresy in his region at this time. The adherents practiced
an apostolic life, but he viewed them as false apostles because of their denial of
the Church and the sacraments. He describes them as a perverse and secretive
sect whose teachings lead many astray, including those in religious life. Yet not
only the educated were endangered but even the simple rustics. What the her-
etics imparted seems to have been a spiritual gnosis that could enervate even
the simplest individual so that he could overcome with his new-found knowl-
edge those who would oppose him. This inner power enabled them to work
wonders. Finally, and very importantly, they were spreading to other regions.
If the teachings of these heretics in Prigord are compared to those of the
Bogomils, interesting similarities certainly do exist, as R.I. Moore has noted.53

48 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348. Missam si quis horum decantaverit causa
seductionis, nec canon dicit, nec communionem recipit, sed aut retro aut iuxta altare
vergit. Hostiam vero, in missalem aut post altare proicit.
49 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348. Crucem seu vultum domini non adorant,
sed et adorantes prout possunt prohibent, ita ut ante vultum stantes fando dicant,
O quam miseri sunt qui te adorant, dicente psalmista. Simulacra gentium etc.
50 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348. In hac itaque seductione quamplurimos
iam non solum laicos propria omnia relinquentes, sed etiam clericos, presbyteros, mona-
chos et monachas pertraxerunt.
51 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348. Faciunt enim multa signa. Nemo namque
tam rusticus se cum eis iungit, qui non infra octo dies sit sapiens, litteris, verbis et exem-
plis, ut nec superari a quoquam ulterius ullomodo possit. Ledi non possunt, quia etsi capi-
untur. Servari nulla vinctione possunt.
52 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348. Has namque ceterasve regiones occulte
modo aggrediuntur.
53 Moore, Origins, 198.
190 Callahan

Both groups had no use for the Mass or sacraments, especially the Eucha
rist.Both groups abstained from meat and wine. Each had a strong aversion to
the cross or depiction of the human Christ. Both were averse to entering
churches as places of worship. Both condemned worldly wealth. Both could
make simple rustics intellectually able to defend their new beliefs.54 Another
similarity is the use of the formula quoniam tuum est regnum in place of
the Gloria patri.55 An argument, therefore, can unquestionably be made for the
parallels. Moreover, if they indicate likely Bogomil derivation for the Western
heresy when the document was attributed to the mid-twelfth century, they still
do so when it is dated as early eleventh century. In some ways it is even more
the case when viewed in the context of the other episodes of heresy in the
same time period elsewhere in Western Europe and especially in the light of
the writings of Ademar of Chabannes.
In a comparison of the letter of Erbertus with the four incidents of heresy or
Manichaeanism that Ademar relates in the Chronicon, additional interesting
connections are apparent. In the account of the appearance of the Manichaeans
in Aquitaine, just as in the description by Erbertus of the activities of the her-
etics in Prigord, Ademar presents them as seducers of many people from the
faith. In both depictions they are ascetics abstaining from food or meat, but in
reality are ministers of wickedness. Both presentations emphasize their denial
of the teachings of the Church and the cross. The same image of the deception
and furtiveness of the heretics also appears in reference to their activity in
Toulouse in 1022. Just as Erbertus closes his account by mentioning the spread-
ing of the heresy to other parts of the West, so too the account by Ademar of
the heretics in Toulouse tells of their appearing in various parts of the West
secretly subverting the men and women who crossed their path. The presenta-
tion in the Chronicon of the activity of the heretics at Orlans also has some
important overlappings. Undoubtedly the most important is the fact that he
says it was a rusticus from Prigord who brought the heresy to Orlans. In so
stating he links those two important centers for the heretics and also connects
developments within and outside Aquitaine. Again, without question in
Ademars mind the heresy is one. In addition, as mentioned above, both the

54 Compare to the description of the simple peasants at Chlons, Wakefield and Evans,
Heresies of the High Middle Ages, 90, If it happened that any ignorant tongue-tied per-
sons were enrolled among the partisans of this error, it was stoutly asserted that at once
they became more eloquent than even the most learned Catholics, so that it almost
seemed as if the really true eloquence of the wise could be overcome by their garrulity.
55 On the importance of the use of this Eastern formula see Dondaine, Lorigine de lhrsie
mdivale, 7174 and Moore, Origins, 198.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 191

account from Prigord and Ademars on the heretics at Orlans indicate the
wide variety of individuals, including women, who espoused the heterodox
ideas. The rustic at Orlans, like the rusticus in the account by Erbertus, has
special spiritual powers. The Prigord material does not, however, mention the
dust from the remains of the heretics nor the adoration of a devil who brought
wealth. Yet again there is the emphasis on the secrecy of their abominable rites
and their pious Christian facade before the world. The last of the four refer-
ences by Ademars Chronicon to the Manichaean heresy, that of the council of
Charroux of ca. 1027, also indicates that the heresy was spreading everywhere
and that Duke William sought to protect the Church from their attack.56

Heresy in the Sermons of Ademar

As valuable as the letter of Erbertus is in throwing new light on the

Manichaeans of Aquitaine, it pales in importance when compared to
Ademars sermons which have been little studied for what they reveal about
his thoughts on heresy, the Manichaeans in particular, and on the activities of
the Church in opposing these individuals. This article will concentrate primar-
ily on those passages which throw the most light on the chronicle evidence
already examined and will seek to address five questions: {1} Who does Ademar
say the heretics were? {2} What did they look like? {3} What was their manner
of operating and their organization? {4} What were their beliefs? {5} Did they
have any peculiar practices?57 The answers will in substantial part be an elabo-
ration of what is found in the Chronicon.
{1} Who were the heretics? Ademar calls them Manichaeans in the chroni-
cle but uses this designation only once in the sermons, D.S. Ms. Lat. 1664, 72v.
Here in a section on the importance of the cross there appears,

Observe, however, from the heretics, the ministers of the devil, who blas-
pheme that the cross ought not to be adored, for it is the devil speaking in
their hearts. God does not wish, they say, to recall the cross of his passion,
as a thief taken from a raised gibbet, nor does he wish to see further the
nails of his suspension. Thus the devil speaks these things through his

56 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 69, p. 189.

57 See Michael Frassetto, The Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes and the Origins of
Medieval Heresy, (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of History, University
of Delaware, 1993). Frassetto and I, working independently, came up with similar conclu-
sions on Ademars perception of the heretics of the early eleventh century.
192 Callahan

ministers, the heretics who are called Manichaeans, since in every place
he holds the power except where he sees the sign of the cross.58

Although Ademar was the first in the West to refer to the heretics of this period
as Manichaeans, the designation would also later appear in the account of the
outbreak of heresy at Chlons-sur-Marne in the 1040s, the condemnation at
Goslar in 1052 and in a passage in the autobiography of Guibert of Nogent in
which he so refers to the heretics near Soissons ca. 1114.59 To be called such
should not be surprising because in the East the Bogomil dualists were often
referred to as Manichaeans.60
A number of historians have questioned Ademars use of the word
Manichaean. Did he really understand what Manichaeanism is or was he using
the word generically to mean any heretic? Jeffrey Russell has suggested that the
word was a topos to designate heretic.61 Nina Garsoan in her book on
thePaulicians devotes much attention to the imprecision in the usage of the
term in the East.62 Robert Bautier in his article on the heresy at Orlans thought

58 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 72v. Observate autem vos ab haereticis diaboli ministris, qui blas-
phemant non debere adorari crucem, loquente diabolo in cordibus eorum. Non vult
inquiunt Deus meminisse crucem passionis suae, sicut latro a patibulo suspendu ereptus,
non vult ultra videre trocleas suspensionis suae. Ideo ista loquitur diabolus per ministros
suos haereticos qui vocantur Manichei quia in omni loco virtutem habet nisi ubi viderit
signum crucis. This material on the cross is included in a very long piece on the faith
which Ademar attaches to a tract of Theodulf of Orlans on baptism. For the denial of the
cross by the heretics, see below pp.
59 For Chlons, see Gesta episcoporum Leodiensium in MGH Scriptores, vii, 226; for Goslar,
the chronicle of Heriman of Reichenau, MGH SS, v, 130; for Guibert of Nogent, De sua
vita, iii, ch. 17, PL 156: 951A-B.
60 See e.g. one of the earliest references to this heresy, the letter of Patriarch Theophylact
of Constantinople to the Bulgarian Tsar Peter toward the middle of the tenth century,
in which the heresy is described as Manichaeanism mixed with Paulicianism (cited
by Obolensky, The Bogomils, 112, fn. 7). See also the letter of another patriarch of
Constantinople, ca. 1080, who refers to the progress of the Manichaeans in all parts
of Bulgaria and the western Byzantine provinces (cited by Fine in his article on the
Bogomils in The Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ii, 294). Anna Comnena toward the middle
of the twelfth century looking back to religious developments of the first decade of that
century says that the doctrines of Bogomil heretics of that time was a continuation of
that of the Massalians and the Manichaeans (The Alexiad, E. Dawes, tr. (New York, 1978),
xv, ch. 8, p. 412).
61 Russell, Dissent, 198.
62 Nina G. Garsoan, The Paulician Heresy (The Hague, 1967), esp. 18697. See the criticism
by P. Lemerle of Garsoans examination of the term in his review of the book in Lhistoire
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 193

Ademar employed the term imprecisely.63 Ademars failure to note what

appear to be fundamental differences between the heretics of Orlans and
those the Chronicon reports on in Aquitaine and Toulouse is especially disturb-
ing to Bautier.64 Walter Wakefield has suggested that Ademar may have used
the name Manichaean because of his knowledge of Augustine.65 That this
knowledge did exist is clear in the list of heresies Ademar copied from
Augustines De haeresibus.66 What Malcolm Lambert has written on the con-
nection between Augustine and the designation of the new heretics is very
much on target for Ademar, Writers used the term [Manichaean] solely
because they smelt dualism in the outbreaks, and Manichaeanism was the
most famous form of dualism for Western writers, owing to the experience of
Augustine.67 Yet beyond his knowledge of Augustine, Ademar, as is readily
apparent in his sermons, is preoccupied, if not obsessed, with heresy, and
folio after folio demonstrate his understanding of the many heresies of the
Christian past.68
{2}If Ademar saw the heretics as fundamentally dualists, was there anything
in their appearance, dress or general demeanor which set them apart or linked
them to the other heretics in the West or to the Bogomils in the East? In the
chronicle he says that the Manichaeans in Aquitaine looked like monks,
abstaining from food and pretending to be chaste.69 A similar depiction
appears in the sermons:

And therefore that they might seduce simple Christians not understand-
ing the depths of the divine, they pretend to fast, to abstain from foods
which God created, to speak ill of no one, to abandon the wealth of the
world, to hold honors for nothing, to condemn marriage. Nevertheless
secretly they commit the most foul crimes70

des Pauliciens dAsie Mineure daprs les sources grecques, in Travaux et Memoires v
(Paris, 1973): esp. 1214, but also 12432 for additional thoughts.
63 Bautier, Lhrsie dOrlans, esp. 71 (fn. 28), 73 and 75 (fn. 65).
64 Bautier, Lhrsie dOrlans, 66.
65 Wakefield and Evans, Heresies in the High Middle Ages, 73.
66 B.N., Ms. Lat. 2400, 130r31r. Michael Frassetto has a forthcoming article on this copy.
67 Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 1st ed., 33. He uses similar wording in the 2nd ed., p. 31.
68 This point, as well as many others on the rise of heresy in the tenth and eleventh centu-
ries, will be considered in a forthcoming book which Michael Frassetto and I are writing.
69 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 49, 170. abstinentes a cibis quasi monachi et castitatem
simulantes
70 See the appendix, Et ideo ut possintocculte tamen scelera turpissima perpetrant
194 Callahan

These descriptions are very similar to ones found in other accounts of the
appearance of the heretics in the West. Because in Ademars mind they are one
group, he not surprisingly in the Chronicon describes those at Orlans as more
religious than their fellow canons.71 But John of Fleury in his account also under-
lines their ascetic qualities.72 Gerard of Cambrai states that the heretics of Arras
fabricated the appearance of religion because they were afraid of being pun-
ished73 At the synod they proclaimed their tenets and immediately listed the
giving up of the world and the restraining of the concupiscence of the flesh.74
If the heretics were ascetics in appearance, they often seemed, as they did to
Ademar, furtive and seductive. In a number of places the Chronicon presents
the heretics in this manner.75 One of sermons so describes them, since they
are filled by the devil and are messengers of the Antichrist and wish to seduce
the sheep of the Lord to eternal damnation as they themselves are damned.
And therefore that they might seduce simple Christians not understanding the
depth of the divine, they pretend to fast etc76

71 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 59, 180. Eo tempore decem ex canonicis Sanctae Crucis Aurelianis,
qui videbantur aliis religiosiores, probati sunt esse manichei.
72 John of Fleury in Rec. des hist. des Gaules, x, p. 498. a cibis etiam quos Deus creavit, et
adipe tanquam ab immunditiis abstinebant.
73 Letter of Gerard, PL 142: 1269B. Quos, quia terrore supplicii speciem religionis men-
tiebantur, indemnatos, velut innoxios, abire permisistis.
74 Acta Synodi Atrebatensis in Manichaeos, PL 142: 1272A. mundum relinquere, carnem a
concupiacentiis frenare. Similar descriptions of the appearance and practices of here-
tics in this period occur at Monforte in Italy (MGH SS viii, 65) and Chlons-sur-Marne
(MGH vii, 228, Audierat enim eos solo pallore notare hereticos, quasi quos pallere con-
staret, hereticos esse certum esset.). Like descriptions of the Bogomils in the eastern
Mediterranean appear in Cosmas, Puech and Vaillant, eds., Le Trait contre les Bogomiles,
p. 55 gentle and humble and silent pale from hypocritical fasting. The Scriptural
origin of the idea is Matthew 7: 15 which states, Beware of false prophets who come to
you in the clothes of sheep, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. See Puechs comments on
this passage on p. 151, fn. 3 in which he mentions similar descriptions of the later Cathars
in the West in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and fns. 4 and 5 for comparable
presentations of the heretics by Euthymius of Peribleptos and Euthymius Zigabenes. See
also The Alexiad, Dawes tr., 412.
75 Ademar, Chronicon: at Toulouse (3: 59, p. 180), concealed themselves in hiding places,
and whatever men or women they could, they subverted, in Aquitaine in general (3: 49,
p. 170), the Manichaeans arose subverting the people; and at Orleans (3: 59, p. 180), the
heretics secretly rejected Christ, and privately committed abominations and crimes,
which it would be shameful to mention, while publicly they pretended to be true Christians.
76 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 75r. See the appendix. quia repleti sunt diabolofingunt se ieunare
On the secrecy and seductiveness of the heretics in the West, see Erbertus (Lobrichon,
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 195

{3} Another aspect of their activity is that, although furtive, they vigorously
proselytized and seemed to be everywhere. In his Chronicon Ademar indicated
the widespread nature of the heresy.77 In the sermons in a number of places he
repeats and develops these ideas. For example, in an insertion into the Pseudo-
Isidore he mentions that many lay leaders consent to the heretics through whom
the devil is speaking.78 He further develops this theme of the persuasive power
of their demonic zeal by comparing the heretics to the martyrs. They gain their
strength from the devil with the permission of God. Just as the martyrs offered
their souls for the defense of truth, so the heretics die for their love of falsehood;
from the death of the body they attain to eternal death of the spirit.79
With regard to the operations of the heretics several essential features that
Ademars sermons do not illuminate appreciably are their place of origin and
the nature of their organization. A number of the Western sources indicate
that the heretics came from Italy, but Ademar does not comment on this
matter.80 As for their organization he throws little light on the division
between leaders and followers suggested by other sources, both Eastern and

ed., The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 347), the gathering at Chlons (MGH SS vii, 226) and
Guibert of Nogent (PL 156: iii, ch. 17, col. 951B). For the East, Cosmas (Puech and Vaillant,
eds., Le Trait contre les Bogomiles, 556), Euthymius of Peribleptos (quoted by Puech,
155, fn. 2), Euthymius Zigabenes (PG 130: 13156), and Anna Comnena (The Alexiad,
Dawes, tr., xv, ch. 8, p. 412)
77 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 49, p. 170, the Manichaeans arose throughout Aquitaine and
3: 59, 180, messengers of the Antichrist arose in various parts of the West.
78 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 160v. Et ipso suadente antiquo hoste multi principes saeculares, licet
nomine tenus Christiani, haereticis consentiunt
79 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 75r. See the last lines of the appendix. Elsewhere for the zeal of the
heretics in spreading their ideas, see Erbertus (Lobrichon, ed., The Chiaroscuro of
Heresy, 347, Nova heresis horta est in mundo, and 348, Has namque ceterasve regiones
occulte modo aggrediuntur.), Chlons (MGH SS vii, 226), Guibert of Nogent (PL 156:
951C), Cosmas on their ardent proselytism (Puech, Le Trait contre les Bogomiles, 164ff),
Euthymius of Peribleptos on the expansion of the Bogomils into all Christianity (Die
Phundagiagiten, G. Ficker, ed., Leipzig, 1908, 6364), Euthymius Zigabenes (PG 130:
12891332, esp. 129091 and 133132) and Anna Comnena (The Alexiad, Dawes, tr., xv,
8, p. 412).
80 Glaber says that the heresy at Orlans was brought by a certain woman who came from
Italy and was possessed by a devil (Historiarum, 3: 8.26, France ed., pp. 13839). The
heretics at Arras came from Italy and declared themselves followers of an Italian named
Gundulf (PL 142: 1271C) and Georges Duby in The Three Orders: Feudal Society Imagined,
A. Goldhammer, tr. (Chicago, 1980), p. 130 suggests with some justification that Monforte
located in an area through which one of the main roads into France passed may have
transmitted the heresy to the North.
196 Callahan

Western.81 The one organizational point that is suggestive in his sermons, and
much more so since Lobrichons discovery of the Prigord material, is the use
of the term pseudoapostle to apply to a heretic.82 In one of the sermons Ademar
states that priests should be zealous for the Catholic faith against all heretics,
antichrists and pseudoapostles.83 It is possible to argue, as Obolensky has for
the reference of Cosmas to the Bogomils as apostles of the Antichrist, that
pseudoapostle is a general derogatory term referring to all heretics.84 However,
just as Erbertus spoke of the heretics of Prigord as pseudoapostles and
referred to their claim to lead an apostolic life and as the Byzantine Bogomils
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the Bulgarian heretics of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries called their leaders apostles, so it is probable that
Ademar used pseudoapostle for the same very specific reason.85
{4} Yet the material presented to this point about the names, appearance
and activities of the heretics as a way of identifying them as Bogomils is of less
value than the information Ademar supplies about the beliefs of the heretics,
or rather what they deny of orthodox tenets. This is the data which indicates
most strongly that Ademars Manichaeans were Bogomil missionaries or
Western heretics influenced by the Eastern dualist ideas. He states that they
denied Christ and his cross, the Church and its saints, the sacraments, and sane
doctrine. Each of these items requires closer investigation.
In an early version of his chronicle Ademar stated that the heretics who
arrived in Aquitaine were persuading the people to deny the cross and the
Redeemer of the world himself.86 The same denial is underlined when he says

81 On this point see especially Obolensky, The Bogomils, 33 and 21516; Puech, Le Trait
contre les Bogomiles, 23760 and Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 1st ed., 15, 19 and 2933.
82 Lobrichon ed., The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 347. A new heresy has arisen in the world,
beginning in this time by pseudo apostolis who are ministers of all iniquityThey [the
heretics] say they lead an apostolic life.
83 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 90v. Videte, o sacerdotes veri Dei, quantum zelare debetis pro
Catholica fide contra omnes haereticos, antichristos et pseudoapostolos It appears in a
comparison of the zeal of Martial against the pagans with that of the priests of the elev-
enth century against the heretics.
84 Obolensky, The Bogomils, 133, fn. 6.
85 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 133. This is additionally confirmed in the account of the synod of
Arras which reports that the heretics claimed to follow apostolic precepts, to hold that
only apostles and martyrs should be venerated and to wash the feet of each other in the
fashion of the apostles. (PL 142: 1271C-D and 1278A).
86 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 13. Suadebant negaresignum sanctae crucis [found in the later
version as crucis virtutem, p. 170], ecclesiam, et ipsum redemptorem seculi, honorem sanc-
torum Dei.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 197

that the heretics at Orlans secretly rejected Christ.87 He repeats these ideas in
several places in the sermons. In the selection presented in the appendix Ademar
reiterates the Manichaean denial of the cross. In another sermon, this one on
the Lords Prayer in the Mass, he mentions again the heretics who now secretly
appear and deny the cross.88 The close identification in his mind between the
cross and the humanity of Christ is also seen in another sermon in which after
discussing the importance of Christ as a man he states, Therefore, since the Son
of God who according to his divinity is unknowable assumed the human figure
when he was made a man, and on account of the victory which the Lord made
through his cross etc.89 Ademar stresses the apocalyptic dimensions of Christs
triumph on the cross in another sermon, one on the cross at baptism and confir-
mation, in this fashion, Concerning the anointing John says to the signed,

I saw on Mt. Sion a lamb standing and with him 144,000 having his name
and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. (Rev. 14: 1) For
when the bishop with his finger on the forehead writes the cross with
chrism, he says not only the name of the Son but also of his Father and the
Holy Spirit in order that in the cross itself he seems to write on the fore-
head the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit saying, I sign you with
the sign of the cross and I confirm you with the chrism of salvation in the
name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that you may have eternal life.90

The cross here is the symbol of the triune God and his victory resulting in
eternal life for the Christian.

87 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 59, p. 180. penitus Christum latenter respuerant

88 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 114v. et de haereticis qui modo latenter inter nos surgunt, qui
negant baptismum, missam, crucem, Ecclesiam, qui precursores Antichristi sunt.
89 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 92r. Ideo quia filius Dei qui secundum divinitatem incogitabilis est,
assumpsit figuram humanam, quando homo factus est, et propter victoriam quam fecit
Dominus per crucem suam, signum crucis circa caput in omni majestate debet exprimere
pictor. This is only one example of the emphasis on the humanity of Christ in the ser-
mons. It appears in many places, in particular with analyses of the creed. On the creed see
Callahan, The Problem of the Filioque.
90 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 80r. De chrismate signatis dicit Johannes, Vidi supra montem Sion
agnum stantem et cum illo CXLIIII milia habentes nomen eius et nomen Patris eius scrip-
tum in frontibus suis.(Rev. 14: 1) Dum enim episcopus digito quasi in fronte scribit cru-
cem de chrismate, non solum nomen Filii sed etiam Patris eius et Spiritus Sancti dicit ut
in ipsa cruce quasi scribere videatur in fronte nomen Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti
dicens, Consigno te signo crucis et confirmo te chrismate salutis in nomine Patris et Filii
et Spiritus Sancti ut habeas vitam aeternam.
198 Callahan

Especially important is the item already cited in which Ademar emphasized

that the Manichaean ministers specifically urged that the cross not be adored.
They claimed that God would not wish to recall the cross of his passion, just as
a brigand who had been snatched from the gibbet would not wish to see fur-
ther the pulleys by which he was suspended. The sermon claimed that the her-
etics as the devils minions speak in this fashion because they have power
everywhere except where the sign of the cross is found.91 Once again the tri-
umph of God through the cross is emphasized.92
Just as the Bogomils opposed the idea of Christ as Redeemer and the power
of the cross, so they also rejected the organized Church as the instrument of
redemption and the communion of saints. Ademar in the Chronicon says that
the heretics who arrived in the West denied the Church and the honor of the
saints of God.93 He repeated this in his sermons in several places.94 An inser-
tion into the Pseudo-Isidore states that there are heretics now in Gaul who
preach that the memory of the martyrs ought to be execrated.95 Another

91 See above fn. 58.

92 The opposition of the heretics to Christ the redeemer and the Cross occurs in a number
of the sources, both West and East, in this period. See in particular the Docetist concep-
tion of Christ at Monforte (MGH SS viii, 66. animus est hominis a Deo dilectusIesum
Christumest animus sensualiter natus ex Maria virgine, videlicet natus est ex sancta
scripturaet vere Filium Dei, qui natus est ex Maria virgine secundum carnem crede-
ret) and in the account of Paul of Saint-Pre of Chartres of the heretics at Orlans
(Gesta synodi Aurelianensis, in Rec. des Hist. des Gaules, x, 537. Christum de Virgine
Maria non esse natum, neque pro hominibus passum, nec vere in sepulchro positum, nec
a mortuis resurrexisse. For the Docetic Christianity of the Bogomils in the East, see
Obolensky, The Bogomils, 113, 211 and 238. As for the denial of the Cross by the heretics,
see Erbertus (Lobrichon, ed., The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 348), the heretic Leutard in
northern France in the early eleventh century (Glaber, Historiarum, 2: 11.22, p. 90), the
synod of Arras (PL 142: 13046, 1312D), the heretics at Monforte (MGH SS viii, 66),
Cosmas (Puech and Vaillant, eds., Le Trait contre les Bogomiles, 5961, and esp. 55 where
the Bogomils are described as the enemies of the Cross of Christ), Euthymius of
Peribleptos (Ficker, ed., 74) and Euthymius of Zigabenes (PG 130: 130912).
93 Ademar, Chronicon, alpha recension, 13. Suadebant negareecclesiam, ethonorem
sanctorum Dei.
94 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 114v. Dicere habemus vobis de aliis rebus quae pertineat ad sinodum,
et de haereticis qui modo latenter inter nos surgunt, qui negant baptismum, missam, cru-
cem, Ecclesiam, qui precursores Antichristi sunt. Also see from fol. 75r the third sentence
in the appendix.
95 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 161v. Audivimus autem quia apud Gallias insurrexerunt nunc haere-
tici qui predicant fidelibus exsecrari debere memorias martirum. Quapropter apud apos-
tolicam Romanam adgregavimus sinodum episcoporum numero plusquam LXX.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 199

insertion in opposition to the heretics supports the Catholic faith which it says
Christ showed to mankind through his prophets and apostles.96 The reference
to the latter in particular is not surprising when one recalls the importance
that Ademar attributed to St. Martials bringing of the Church to Aquitaine and
Gaul and how much the monk of Saint-Cybard had staked in the promotion of
this saints apostolicity.97
Another area in which Ademars sermons throw light on the beliefs of the
heretics is on the topic of the sacraments. The Bogomils denied the efficacy of
the sacraments in general, and in particular were opposed to the sacraments
ofbaptism, the Eucharist and matrimony.98 The accounts on the Western here-
tics also often refer to their denial of the sacraments, e.g. at Arras and Monforte.99
Ademars writings fit into this framework and are especially valuable in what
they say about the refusal by the heretics to receive these three sacraments.
Most fundamental is baptism. In the Chronicon when he first mentions the
appearance of the heretics in Aquitaine ca. 1018, he immediately states that
they denied baptism.100 Reference to this denial also appears in several places
in the sermons.101 In an insertion into the Pseudo-Isidore collection he refers to

96 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664., 162v. Itaque pastores Ecclesiae hos haereticos moneant converti ad
Catholicam fidem aut si converti noluerint [The following word is difficult to read on the
ms. It likely is deiecti.] deiecti [?] Ecclesiae tamquam aspides eiciantur ne venenum
eorum sanos in fide interimaret, et omnes in fide Catholica firmiter permaneant quam
per prophetas et apostolos suos demonstravit humano generi Jesus Christus filius Dei
verus Deus et verus homo etc.
97 On this point see Callahan, Sermons. A good example of this importance is in B.N., Ms.
Lat. 2469, 24r which comments on Aquitaines position before the coming of Martial as a
spolium diaboli and the change that he brought. For other reports on the heretics attack-
ing the Church and the saints in the West in the early eleventh century, see Andrew of
Fleury (Vie de Gauzlin, abb de Fleury, ed. and tr. by R.-H. Bautier and G Labory, Paris, 1969,
98) and Paul of Saint-Pre of Chartres (Rec. des hist. de Gaules, x, 537) on the heretics at
Orlans. See also the reports on the heretics at Arras (PL 142: 1271C-D) and Monforte
(MGH SS viii, 66). For the Bogomils in the East attacking the Church and the saints, see
Cosmas (Puech and Vaillant ed., Le Trait contre les Bogomiles, 58, 6467, 84 and Puechs
comments on the Bogomil critique of the Church on 213ff), Euthymius of Peribleptos
(Obolensky, 179) and Euthymius of Zigabenes (PG 130: 1310A, 13078 and 13212C).
98 See especially Obolensky, The Bogomils, 12729 and Puech and Vaillant, Le Trait contre
les Bogomiles, 223ff.
99 Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 2nd ed., 18 and 2325.
100 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 49, p. 170. negantes baptismum sanctum He began his earlier
version in a similar way. On p. 13, Suadebant negare baptismum
101 For the reference in D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 75r, see the appendix. On 114v appears in the same
way, et de haereticis qui modo latenter inter nos surgunt, qui negant baptismum
200 Callahan

ten heretics, undoubtedly those at Orlans, and specifically mentions their

rejection of baptism.102 The fact that he copied Theodulf of Orlans tract on
baptism in the same manuscript additionally demonstrates his preoccupation
with the topic at this time.103
This same emphasis also appears in the defense of the Eucharist against
the new heretics. Although he does not specifically refer to the denial of the
Eucharist in the Chronicon, Ademar does indicate in several places in the ser-
mons their attack on this sacrament. In the long section on the heretics, that
appears in the appendix, in which he comments on the idea of the commu-
nion of saints, he quotes Christ on the necessity of eating his flesh and drink-
ing his blood, the bond of the Christian life. He then states, Therefore beware
the heretics who say that the communion of the altar is not beneficial.104
Ademar further emphasizes this in another sermon, one of his most apocalyp-
tic and most important, when he states, but no one can come to eternal life
unless he receives in food and drink the body and blood of the Lord. This idea
he then connects with the following passage, We have to speak to you con-
cerning other things which pertain to the synod and concerning the heretics
who now secretly arise among us, who deny baptism, the Mass etc.105 In still
another sermon he defends the Eucharist against the heretics and associates
them with the unbelieving Jews.

102 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 168r. Quod autem significaverunt consulendo nos episcopi Galliarum
quod decem versis haereticis fieri debuisset sciant nos eos qui in sanctae Trinitatis fide
baptizati sunt per impositione manus suscipere.
103 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 64v78v. On the origins and importance of Theodulfs tract see S.A.
Keefe, Carolingian Baptismal Expositions: A Handlist of Tracts and Manuscripts, in
Carolingian Essays: Andrew W. Mellon Lectures in Early Medieval Studies, U.-R. Blumenthal,
ed. (Washington, D.C., 1983), 17475 and more recently P. Cramer, Baptism and Change
in the Early Middle Ages, c. 200c. 1150 (Cambridge, England and New York, 1993), 1516.
See also H.B. Porter, The Rites for the Dying in the Early Middle Ages. I: St. Theodulf of
Orleans, Journal of Theological Studies, N.S. 10, pt. I (1959): 4362. As for the denial
of baptism by the heretics in this period both in the West and the East, see the accounts
on the heretics at Orlans (Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 1st ed., appendix A, 3445; Rec. des
Hist. des Gaules, x, 537 and 539; and John of Fleury, ibid., 498), at Arras (PL 142: 1270B,
1271C, 1272B, 12738, and 1311C-2A), Cosmas (Puech-Vaillant ed., Le Trait contre les
Bogomiles, 69, 81, 86 and Puechs comments on 2236), Euthymius of Peribleptos (Ficker
ed., 28 and 74) and Euthymius Zigabenes (PG 130: 13112B-D).
104 See the appendix.
105 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 114v. sed ad vitam aeternam nemo potest pervenire nisi acceperit
in aescam et potum corpus et sanguinem Domini. Dicere habemus vobis de aliis rebus
quae pertinent ad sinodum, et de haereticis qui modo latenter inter nos surgunt, qui
negant baptismum, missam .
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 201

I am the living bread, says the Lord, who came down from heaven. If any-
one eats from this bread he will live forever. And the bread which I will give
you is my flesh for the life of the world. (John 6: 512) Just as the Jews were
murmuring nor believed concerning this since the Lord was saying, I am
the bread which came down from heaven, and angered were saying, How
can he give to us his flesh for eating? (John 6: 53), so now the heretics and
those who do not believe in the Christian faith murmur and allege in their
hearts, not believing that the sacrifice of Christians is so great a mystery.

He continues, as he did in the last-mentioned sermon on fol. 114v, and empha-

sizes the connection between the Eucharist and eternal life, setting the linkage
into an apocalyptic context. Who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eter-
nal life and I will revive him on the last day. (John 6: 55)106 The last of the
three sacraments which the Bogomils so strongly rejected and which is also
recorded as being condemned in a number of the accounts of the outbreak of
heresy in the West is matrimony. The entrapment of spirit by the material
order went to the very heart of the dualist beliefs of this period. Ademar in an
early version of the Chronicon lists among the errors of the Manichaeans
appearing in Aquitaine the denial of legitimate marriage.107 He repeats this in
one of his sermons but also charges that these heretics secretly among them-
selves perform all sorts of lascivious actions in the fashion of swine.108

106 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 107v. Ego sum panis vivens, dicit Dominus, qui de caelo descendi. Si
quis manducaverit ex hoc pane vivet in aeternum. Et panis quem ego dabo caro mea est
pro mundi vita. Sicut Judei murmurabant nec credebant de hoc quia dicebat Dominus,
Ego sum panis qui de caelo descendi, et irati dicebant, quomodo potest hic nobis car-
nem suam dare ad manducandum, ita nunc haeretici et hi qui in fide Christiana non
credunt murmurant et causantur in cordibus suis non credentes tam magnum esse mis-
terium sacrificium Christianorum. Qui manducat meam carnem et bibet meum sangui-
nem habet vitam aeternam et ego resuscitabo eum in novissimo die. Other sources in
the West indicating that the heretics attacked the sacrament of the Eucharist include
Erbertus (Lobrichon, The Chiaroscoro of Heresy, 348), John of Fleury (Rec. des Hist. des
Gaules, x, 498), Paul of Saint-Pre of Chartres (Rec. des Hist. des Gaules, 537 and 539), the
account of the synod of Arras (PL 142: 1271D, 127884, and 1311D-2B), the account of
the episode at Monforte (MGH SS viii, 66) and Guibert of Nogent (PL 156: 951B). For the
Bogomil attacks on the Eucharist, see the letter of Theophylact to the Bulgar ruler Peter
(Obolensky, The Bogomils, 113, fn. 5), Cosmas (Puech and Vaillant ed., Le Trait contre les
Bogomiles, 6163), Euthymius of Peribleptos (Ficker ed., 745), Anna Comnena (The
Alexiad, Dawes, tr., xv, ch. 8, 413) and Euthymius Zigabenes (PG 130: 13134A).
107 Ademar, Chronicon, p. 13. Suadebant negareconiugia laegitima, aesum carnium.
108 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 75r. See the appendix. The amount of information on the attack on
matrimony by the heretics both in the West and in the East is lengthy and detailed.
202 Callahan

Condemnation of the three sacraments, therefore, and for the same reasons,
link the Western heretics with the Bogomils. Ademars depiction of their denial
in this matter is consistent with other accounts, both Western and Eastern. Yet
if he indicates their denial of the humanity of Christ, the Church, the saints
and the sacraments, he has little to say about the tenets of their faith. He may
state that they denied sane doctrine, but he gives little indication of much
familiarity with their beliefs.109
{5} If he does not offer an examination of the theoretical underpinnings of
the beliefs of these new heretics in the West and focuses primarily on what
they deny of Catholic beliefs and practices, he does in his writings present
some interesting, albeit questionable, material about their practices. It is read-
ily apparent that Ademar knows little, if anything, about their rites or ritual
activities. The dominant impression that his writings convey is that the here-
tics were very secretive and sought to hide their forms of worship from the
uninitiated.
The account in the Chronicon of the actions of the heretics at Orlans offers
his fullest presentation, although very sketchy, of their practices.110 According

The accounts of the activities of the heretics at Orlans, Arras and Chlons (John of
Fleury in Rec. des Hist. des Gaules, x, 498; Andrew of Fleury in Vie de Gauzlin, Bautier and
Labory ed., ch. 56, 9. 98; on Arras: PL 142: 1270B, 1271D, 12991301, 1311D and 1312C
and for Chlons: MGH SS, vii, 226). See also Guibert of Nogent (PL 156: 951C). On the
Bogomil rejection of marriage as a central feature of their beliefs, see the observations of
Patriarch Theophylact (Obolensky, The Bogomils, 114, fn. 3), Cosmas (Puech and Vaillant
ed., Le Trait contre les Bogomiles, 77) and Zigabenes (PG 130: 13256B-D).
109 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 49, p. 170. Of the heretics in Aquitaine he says, negantes baptis-
mum sanctum et crucis virtutem, et quidquid sane doctrine est. Their lack of right doc-
trine is underlined in the sermons in D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 104r where he states that the
faith of the heretics is not acceptable to God and that they will not be saved because they
do not possess true belief. quia eorum fides et devotio non est cognita, hoc est, accepta-
bilis Deo. Deus enim reprobos quos novit per cognitionem quia Deo omnia nota sunt, non
novit per gratiam, sicut in fine dicturus est, Non novi vos, discedite a me operarii iniqui-
tatis. (Luke 13: 27)
110 His account of the heretics at Orlans states, penitus Christum latenter respuerant, et
abominationes et crimina quae dici etiam flagitium est in occulto exercebant, et in aperto
christianos veros se fallebant, and at Toulouse the heretics per latibula (hiding places)
sese occultare curabant. Chronicon, 3: 59, p. 180. In D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 75r he states,
nuptias damnare, occulte tamen scelera turpissima perpetrant et cunctas voluptates cor-
poris more porcorum latenter inter semetipsos agunt. See this passage in its more
extended setting in the appendix. Also ibid., 114v. et de haereticis qui modo latenter
inter nos surgunt. Compare with the decription by Erbertus of the heretics in Prigord
as secta valde perversa occultaque ac decipiens (Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 203

to Ademar the Manichaeans at Orlans worshipped the devil who brought

them money each day. Obeying him, they rejected Christ, yet publicly pre-
tended to be his followers. In private the heretics committed sins too heinous
to be mentioned.111 They had been introduced to these practices by a peasant
from Prigord, a connection that is highly significant in the light of Lobrichons
discovery. This individual said he could make them very strong (facere virtutes)
and carried with him the ashes of dead boys (pulverem ex mortuis pueris)
which quickly made anyone who received them (si quem posset communicare)
a Manichaean. In this passage he continues further on the subject of the
remains of the dead by mentioning an earlier canon of Orlans, a certain
Theodatus, who had died three years before. The dead man was also now
charged with being a heretic and thus had his body exhumed and thrown into
waste ground. The account next records the burning of the ten heretics and
concludes by stating that their bodies were reduced to ashes (cinerem) so
quickly that no trace of the bones could be found (nec de ossibus residuum
inveniretur eorum). It should be noted that Ademars earlier chronicle depic-
tion of the execution at Orlans is very brief and does not refer to the practices
of the Manichaeans.112
If the Angoulme chroniclers final description of the episode at Orlans is
compared with the fullest account, that by Paul of Saint-Pre of Chartres, one
dated by Bautier to ca. 1080, some interesting parallels exist concerning the
practices of the heretics.113 As Lambert has pointed out, their versions are
the only ones which refer to the importance of the dust of the dead children.114
In fact for Lambert this would seem to be one of the few features of Pauls
account that is highly questionable.115 It is possible to surmise with Bautier
that the monk of Chartres owed the reference to the version by Ademar.116
The later version, however, greatly enlarges the little that the monk of
Angoulme says about the practices. It is Paul who spells out the immoralities
that Ademar states he was unwilling to set down.117 It is Paul who describes the

Heresy, 347) or the description of the heretics at Chlons (ca. 1045) as holding secret
meetings qui perversum Manicheorum dochma sectantes, furtiva sibi frequentarent
conventicula. (MGH SS vii, 226).
111 See fn. 110.
112 Ademar, Chronicon, p. 10.
113 On the dating, Bautier, Lhrsie dOrlans, 68.
114 Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 1st ed., appendix A, 34445.
115 Lambert, Medieval Heresy, 1st ed., 343.
116 Bautier, Lhrsie dOrlans, 689.
117 Pauls account is found in Gesta synodi Aurelianensis published in Rec. des Hist. des
Gaules, x, 53889.
204 Callahan

gathering, each member carrying a lamp and invoking the names of demons
until one appeared. That appearance signaled the extinguishing of the lamps
and initiated a sexual frenzy in which the closest woman was violated. Should
a child result from the union, it would be burned to death and its ashes pre-
served to be used as a viaticum for the mortally ill. Paul compares the rever-
ence given to these ashes to that Christians offer to the Eucharist. Developing
in considerable detail what Ademar had briefly mentioned about the devilish
powers of the ashes of certain corpses, the later writer stated that those who
tasted the remains of the dead child but once would from that time be firm in
the heresy and were scarcely ever able to rediscover the way of Truth. As with
Ademar the account concludes with the execution by fire of the heretics of
Orleans, but rather than saying that even their bones were reduced to ashes,
Paul writes that they were burned together with the devilish ashes.
The account by the churchman of Chartres seems to have been the basis for
the later description by Guibert of Nogent of similar practices during an out-
break of heresy near Soissons ca. 1114.118 Again the candles are burning at a
gathering of both sexes. Again when the lights are snuffed out, lascivious plea-
sures occur. Guibert informs us that at the extinguishing of the candles, all cry,
Chaos! Again the fruit of the union is reduced to ashes, although in this ver-
sion bread is made from the remains and becomes a sacramental food whose
consumption serves to retain the participants in the heresy.
Another account of this kind of activity also requires examination. The
renowned Byzantine classicist Michael Psellus toward the middle of the elev-
enth century purportedly wrote a tract on demons, a treatise which contains
material very similar to that just presented.119 Psellus describes heretics he
calls the Euchitae, but who call themselves apostles. In a manner similar to
Ademar, he says that modesty requires he not describe all the lurid details of
their practices. When the lamps are ignited, the heretics bring together young
women whom they wish to initiate. The lamps are then extinguished in order
that the violation of the maidens not be seen. Whichever woman is at hand, be
it even a sister or daughter, the heretic inseminates. By so doing, they please
the demons by violating divine precepts, namely the forbidding of consangui-
nous relations. The group then disperses and awaits nine months for the births
of the diabolical infants. When the births have taken place, they gather again
in the regional meeting place, take the babies from their mothers, cut them
with a blade around the genitals and gather the running blood into bowls.

118 Guibert of Nogent, De Vita Sua, iii, 17 in PL 156: 951.

119 For this tract see the critical edition, with French translation, by P. Gautier, Le De
Daemonibus du Pseudo-Psellus, Revue des Etudes Byzantines, 38 (1980): 10594.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 205

After burning the babies, the heretics take the ashes and mix them in the bowls
with the blood. The resulting mixture is consumed in order to allow them to
wipe out the traces of the divine in their souls and thus become more com-
pletely in tune with the demons. It was this concoction which they gave to
others in order that their group might expand and enable the infernal organi-
zation to become more manifest. The account proceeds to discuss the appear-
ance of so much wickedness and the proximity of the last days.120
Dimitri Obolensky has suggested in his comments on this material that
theorgiastic practices which Psellus attributes to the Euchitae are not Bogomil
but possibly Massalian heretics whom he presents elsewhere in his book as
having both extremely ascetical ways but also, at times, behaving in an
excessively immoral fashion.121 It is tempting in this light to conclude that
Ademar and the other similar Western accounts of these practices confirm the
reality presented by Psellus of the heretical ways ca. 1050, both in the East and
the West.
Historians have demonstrated, however, that this view of the practices is
fundamentally incorrect and that a closer scrutiny does not confirm the licen-
tious activity of the heretics in the eleventh century. One problem is that the
tract purportedly by Psellus was not his but likely from the thirteenth cen-
tury.122 Even more telling against the actuality of the practices are comparisons
of the accounts with similar material coming from the early Church. Especially
valuable is what Norman Cohn has to say in Europes Inner Demons.123 He offers
a lengthy passage from a tract of Minucius Felix, the second-century Latin
apologist, in which the two central elements of the later accounts are present:
the lascivious activity taking place in the darkness after the light has been
extinguished and the sacrifice of a baby whose blood is consumed. Minucius
sought to answer these charges brought against the early Christians for practic-
ing their Eucharistic rites. The passage closes with the idea that it is the secrecy
of the rites which confirms that these charges are true.124 Cohn goes on to
trace convincingly the development of these ideas and connects the early
material, especially as it appears in such sources as Tertullian and Augustine
in the West and Athenagoras and the eighth-century John of Ojun in the
East, either in defending orthodoxy or charging early heretics, to the later
amplifications by Ademar, Paul of Saint-Pre of Chartres, Guibert of Nogent

120 Gautier, Le De Daemonibus du Pseudo-Psellus, 14043.

121 Obolensky, The Bogomils, 18487 and 50.
122 Gautier, Le De Daemonibus du Pseudo-Psellus, esp. 12831.
123 Norman Cohn, Europes Inner Demons (New York, 1975), esp. 121.
124 Minucius Felix, Octavius, chs. 9 and 10, PL 3: 27174.
206 Callahan

and Pseudo-Psellus.125 In the material of Ademar on the council of Orlans in

his chronicle and on the practices of the heretics in the sermons, however, it is
not necessary to posit a knowledge of the early Christian writings, as it is with
these later writers. He does not refer to the infernal banquet at which the
infants remains were supposedly cremated and their ashes consumed, nor
does he indicate either here or in the sermons that the source of the ashes were
diabolical infants.
Since the monk of Angoulme supplies so little data on the practices of the
heretics, is there anything one can learn from his presentation? These charges
in the Chronicon by themselves supply little real information.126 When, how-
ever, the account is examined together with material from the sermons, the
matter must be viewed differently. In the Berlin manuscript in a long sermon
stretching between folios 70v and 78v, a commentary on the Creed, Ademar
refers to the importance to the heretics of the ashes or the powder of the bones
of the dead.127 The full passage is so important that it is presented as an appen-
dix to this article.
What he writes is in the form of a commentary on the ninth distinction or
point considered from the Creed, the communion of saints. In the passage the
central idea is that it is through the communion of saints that the Christian
remains in God and God in the Christian. Essential to this union is the
Eucharistic meal. Who does not believe that it is through the communion of
saints that he will arrive at everlasting life is a heretic. Therefore one must

125 Cohn, Europes Inner Demons, 121, 49 and 53. Additional valuable information on the
evolution of such charges can be found in J.B. Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages
(Ithaca, 1972) in ch. 4, Popular Witchcraft and Heresy, esp. 9093. Extremely helpful are
the comments of Edward Peters in The Magician, the Witch and the Law (Philadelphia,
1978), esp. 3442. For a thoughtful evaluation of the intellectual milieu of late antiquity
from which many of these ideas arose see Peter Brown, Sorcery, Demons and the Rise of
Christianity: From Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages, in his Religion and Society in the
Age of Saint Augustine (London, 1972), 11946.
126 Walter Wakefield in a lengthy note to his translation of Ademars account in the chronicle
of the heretics at Orlans writes on the similar early presentations of orgiastic rites and an
evil eucharistic meal. He concludes, whether or not Ademars story was more than a
folk tale of ancient lineage, conveniently recalled (as we think), the reader must judge for
himself. Wakefield and Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages, 66667, fn. 13.
127 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 75r. pulverem de ossibus mortuorum hominum. Delisle com-
mented on this material in his long article on the manuscripts of Ademar, pp. 28586,
and compared it to what is found in the chronicle. Although he presented several sen-
tences from the sermon, he did not offer enough to set the material into its full and proper
context. It is important to note that Ademar refers here to the bones of dead men, not to
those of infants.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 207

beware the heretics who say that Holy Communion is not beneficial. Ademar
then spells out their denial of baptism, the cross and the Church itself. They act
in this manner because they are filled with the devil and are messengers of the
Antichrist. They wish to lead all the sheep of the Lord to eternal damnation,
just as they themselves are damned. He goes on to describe their abstemious
ways as hypocrisy and urges the priests to preach to their people to urge them
to withstand the blandishments of these eloquent frauds. If the heretics deny
any point of the symbol, they should be treated as though they were dung and
no contact with them should occur. He quotes St. Paul on the fact that the
faithful should stay apart from the unfaithful. Ademar goes on to warn ortho-
dox Christians to receive nothing from the heretics. It is here that he mentions
the dust from the bones of dead men. Certain individuals, according to the
monk of Angoulme, were accustomed to carry with them the dust and to give
it to peasants in their food and drink as if it were a medicine. The dust once
consumed immediately caused one to forget the truth of God and become like
a madman. Once led onto such a way, the individual could not be brought back
to the Catholic Church in any way. Secular Christian judges assigned the pun-
ishment of death rather than the salutarious way of conversion because of the
intractableness of the heretics. Ademar assured his audience that such power
of the devil was permitted by God because just as the martyrs demonstrated
strength for the defense of truth, so the heretics died for their love of falsity
and arrived from the death of the body to an eternal death of the spirit.
There are several key points in order to make the insertion of the material
on the dust of the bones of dead men more understandable. The first point is
that the communion of saints dines on the Eucharistic meal, the Body and
Blood of Christ, the food of life, whereas the heretics consume the powder of
the dead bones, a food leading to eternal death, a repast responsible for not
sanity but madness. Also indicated is the contrast between the bones of the
saints, the relics, the living bones, as he calls them elsewhere, and the bones of
the heretics, the bones of death, the remains of individuals suffused not
with the Holy Spirit but with the force of Satan.128 These points illuminate the

128 B.N., Ms. Lat. 2469, 67r. Quatinus quos spiritus vivens docuerat, viventia miraculis ossa
roborarent. Viventia, inquam, non mortua, quia vivunt cotidianis miraculis. The bones of
the dead heretics, on the other hand, are suffused with the power of Satan. One who con-
sumes them assimilates their power and becomes a member of the body of Satan.
Ademars knowledge of the writings of St. Augustine, evident throughout his manu-
scripts, makes it very possible that he was drawing from the ideas of Tyconius on the devil
and his body, material that the bishop of Hippo presents in chapter 37 of book 3 of De
Doctrina Christiana.
208 Callahan

account in the Chronicon about the heretics of Orlans, especially the accusa-
tion that they worshipped the devil who rewarded them for their service by
granting them money. The old tales become a way of giving the heretics prac-
tices that are appropriate for the enemies of Christ, but are of little value in
providing information about what they were actually doing among themselves.
If his writings are not interested in the specifics of their practices, what he is
here doing is establishing a clear duality between the people of God and the
followers of Satan whose number seemed to him to be increasing so rapidly.

The Heretics and Satan

The connection between the heretics and Satan, their master, appears in many
places in the Berlin manuscript. As is manifest in the passage in the appendix,
he saw the heretics as filled with Satan and leading the Christian flock to dam-
nation.129 They are the ministers of the devil who is speaking in their hearts.130
The same theme appears in another piece in which Ademar refers to the her-
etics whom the Catholic leaders were burning as being punished by Christ
and his saints.131 He also cites the Fathers as foreseeing this day and urging
the priests of that time to encourage the Christians to resist the message of the

129 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 75r. quia repleti sunt diabolo et nuntii sunt Antichristi, et seducere
volunt oves Domini usque in damnationem aeternam sicut ipsi sunt damnati etc. The
image of the heretics as ravenous wolves, e.g. 1664, 123v, is common in Ademars writ-
ings. He often portrays the wolf in disguise, which was an image especially popular with a
number of writers of the period. See R.I. Moore, The Origins of European Dissent (London,
1977) in which Part One is entitled Wolves in Sheeps Clothing. Ademar was likely
reminded of the connection with the heretics by Bedes commentary on the Book of
Revelations, which was copied by the monk of Angoulme in the early portion of the
Berlin manuscript, in bk. 2, ch. 9 (PL 93: 158B-C). Here Bede comments on Rev. 9: 7 in
which the fifth angel has sounded his trumpet and loosed a plague of locusts. Interpreting
the locusts as heretics and commenting on the passage their faces were as the faces of
men, he writes, Qui habentes formam pietatis, virtutem autem ejus abnegantes (2 Tim.
3: 5), a Pauline warning about the presence of heretics in the last days, veniunt in vesti-
mentis ovium, intrinsecus autem sunt lupi rapaces. I thank Michael Frassetto for remind-
ing me of this passage in Bede.
130 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 72v. Observate autem vos ab haereticis diaboli ministris loquente
diabolo in cordibus eorum.
131 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 114v. Diabolus et in illis [the heretics] et in aliis superbis falsis
Catholicis qui principatum agere superbe volunt in monachis et clericis, nimis magnam
virtutem iam videtur habere, sed intercedentibus omnibus sanctis destruat et confringat
omnem superbiam, vulneravit draconem Jesus Christus etc.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 209

heretics.132 Yet Satan was triumphing because many secular leaders were heed-
ing his message of evil being preached by the heretics, as Ademar writes in an
insertion into his copy of the Pseudo-Isidore.133 In another insertion into that
work he makes clear in a vivid image that both the violators of the Peace of
God and heretics are members of Satans army that the bishops tongues must
defeat.134
That Ademar was not alone in the West in this period in associating the
appearance of the heretics with the rising prominence of Satan is obvious from
even a cursory reading of the sources.135 Recognition of the connection
between Satan and heresy was evident from at least the time of the apostolic
fathers.136 Paul of Saint-Pre of Chartres, following Ademars account of the
events at Orlans, states that the heretics chanted in a litany the names of
the demons until the devil appeared in the form of a small beast (bestiolae)
and that the ashes collected had a demonic power (vis diabolicae fraudis).137
Andrew of Fleury in his life of Gauzlinus refers to the head of the heretics at
Orlans as the seed (seminarum) of the devil.138 Erbertus portrays the heretics
of Prigord as the ministers of all wickedness, a highly nefarious sect.139
Rodulfus Glaber, who was so aware of the devils presence in his own lifetime,
declares that demons appeared to the Italian heretic Vilgardus in the late tenth

132 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 96v. vos, o sacerdotes Christi, sicut a patribus scripta est, debetis
fidem Catholicam discere, ut possitis veritati contradicentibus futuris haereticis et
Antichristi praenuntiis resistere, et Catholicam amantibus pacem prodesseEt si quem
forte videritis aliquid in his contradicentem, quicumque ille est quasi diabolum eum esti-
mate, et ab eo fugite a pessimo dracone, quia de nuntiis Antichristi est.
133 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 160v. Et ipso suadente antiquo hoste multi principes saeculares, licet
nomine tenus Christiani, haereticis consentiunt dum eos fovent et non solum persecu-
tores ecclesiae sed etiam sacerdotum eius fiunt.
134 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 168r. Pastores non gladio militis sed gladio oris vindictam exerant in
infestatores pacis. Non servent mentem morem naturam rapacium luporum quorum
oculi incestanter sanguine per manus alienasLingua enim episcoporum caelum
claudens et aperiens, gladius gladiorum est amputans iniqui diaboli exercitum et ipsum
Satanam confodiens, defendens castra Dei perimens haereses.
135 Cohn in Europes Inner Demons underlines the connection by entitling both his second
and third chapters The Demonization of Medieval Heretics.
136 See J.B. Russell, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition (Ithaca, 1981), esp. pp. 3537 and
also idem., The Prince of Darkness: Radical Evil and the Power of Good in History (Ithaca,
1988), ch. 5 entitled Satan and Heresy.
137 Gesta Synodi Aurelianensis, Rec. des Hist. des Gaules, x, 538.
138 Vie de Gauzlin, Bautier and Labory ed., 98.
139 Lobrichon, The Chiaroscuro of Heresy, 347. ministri totius iniquitatis.secta valde
perversa, occultaque ac decipiens.
210 Callahan

century and corrupted him with their deceptions. Glaber wrote that this here-
tic was only one of many in Italy and Spain in the period controlled by the
influence of Satan who, the chronicler reminds us, would be free when a thou-
sand years had passed (Rev. 20: 7).140 Another of Glabers heretics was the
peasant Leutard c. 1000 who he describes as an emissary of Satan (Satane lega-
tus).141 The heretics at the Synod of Arras of 1025 appeared as wicked minis-
ters, members of the city of Babylon, the evil city, as opposed to the good
Christians, who are members of the city of Jerusalem.142 As for the heretics of
Chlons-sur-Marne, Bishop Wazo of Liege inveighed against them in the mid
1040s by using another scriptural image, namely that of the harvest. (Mt. 13:
2443) He urged that they not be burned, but be left for the harvest at the end
of the world. In that way the heretics entrapped by the snares of the devil (dia-
bolica fraude) might turn to God before the Last Judgment.143

Heretics, Muslims and Jews

Ademar and his contemporaries attack not only the heretics, who give witness
to the growing activity of the devil, but also other ministers of Satan, espe-
cially the Muslims and the Jews. Under the guidance of Satan these individuals
are adamant in their erroneous ways, which, nevertheless, the preaching of the
Catholic faith can withstand because it results in, as Ademar says, the destruc-
tion and refutation of the Jews, Saracens, pagans, heretics, the Antichrist, the
devil and all the forces of the inferno.144 Like the heretics who have so recently
appeared in Western Europe, Ademar presents the Muslims as creatures of
error and confusion.145 The devil has hardened their hearts so that they, again
like the heretics, are deaf to the Christian message. Their confusion or

140 Historiarum, France ed., ii, 12 (25), 93. This is the concluding segment of book two and
points the way to book three which Rodulfus states will treat at much greater length this
manifestation of evil at the release of Satan.
141 Historiarum, 2: 11.22, pp. 8891.
142 PL 142: 1274B. 143.
143 MGH SS vii, 227.
144 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 97r. In capite concilii, primum debetis audire de fide Catholica, quod
est principalitas et maior virtus nostra, et tocius Christiani imperii salus, et Iudeorum
atque Sarracenorum et paganorum et haereticorum et Antichristi et diaboli et inferni
destructio et confusio.
145 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 97r. See especially the long sermon stretching between 83v and 96r.
For further discussion of Ademar and the Muslims, see Michael Frassetto, The Image
of the Saracen as Heretic in the Sermons of Ademar of Chabannes, in Western Views of
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 211

backwardness in his presentation is very reminiscent of the depiction of

the forces of Islam in The Song of Roland where they are a mirror image of the
Christian feudal society, but inverted, evil and servants of an infernal trinity.146
A telling picture of this inversion is found in a passage in which the monk of
Angoulme is discussing the kiss of peace in the Christian liturgy. He states
that in a Saracen religious service the comparable action would be the kissing
of the anus.147 Aron Gurevich nicely puts this action into its proper context in
this fashion: inversions of every sort in medieval literature (movement
against the suns course, reading prayers backwards, kissing the anus, etc.) were
invariably seen as the interference of evil. This was the way sorcerers, witches,
heretics and even Satan himself behaved!148
The Jews too were closely associated in Ademars mind with the appearance
of the heretics and with what he perceived to be the growing evil of his time.149

Islam in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, D. Blanks and M. Frassetto, eds. (New York,
1999), 8396.
146 On the Western perception of Islam see R.W. Southern, Western Views of Islam (Cambridge,
1962); Norman Daniel, Islam and the West: the Making of an Image (Edinburgh, 1960);
idem., The Arabs and Medieval Europe, 2nd ed. (New York, 1979); Dorothee Metlitzki, The
Matter of Araby in Medieval England (New Haven, 1977); John Tolan, Saracens (NewYork,
2002); and Benjamin Z. Kedar, Crusade and Mission: European Approaches toward the
Muslims (Princeton, 1984).
147 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 91r. Videte quia ipsi Sarraceni pro blasphemia sua in verum Deum
recipiunt in semetipsos dignam mercedem erroris sui. Sua quippe blasphemia tradit illos
in reprobum sensum, ut faciant ea quae non conveniunt. Et sicut ait apostolus,
Exardescunt in concupiscentiis suis in invicem, absque verecundia masculi in masculos,
(Rom 1: 27) mulieres in mulieres quod turpe est nominare operantes, et cum bestiis
abhominationes faciunt, quia cum inhonori essent, cum a Christianis verum Deum cogno-
vissent, non sicut Deum glorificaverunt sed cum parati et commixti sunt iumentis insipi-
entibus et similes facti sunt illis. Et velocius pseudoapostolo suo quem ipsi Bafumetum
vocant crediderunt, quam non crederent alicui ex apostolis Christi si ad eos accessisset.
Illorum pseudoapostolus quem porci devoraverunt pro digno mercede erroris sui, sicut
ipse inmundus fuit sicut omnis gens Sarracenorum inmunda semper est et in coeno flagi-
tiorum volutata, illis haec inmundam legem predicavit, quam ipsi observant. Unusquisque
eorum plures uxores simul habet. Et tam turpe sacrificium faciunt, ut numquam permit-
tant Christianis videre ne ipsos derideamus prenimia confusione. Et sicut in verum Deum
qui vera pax est non credunt, ita alter alteri numquam dat osculum pacis. Neque caelabo
vobis quod verum est sed turpissimum, quia in suo sacrificio omnes sacerdotem suum
osculantur non in alia parte membrorum sed retro in fundamento stercoris.
148 Aron Gurevich, Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception, Janos Bak and
Paul Hollingsworth, tr. (Cambridge, 1988), 48.
149 I have treated this topic at much greater length in my article Ademar of Chabannes,
Millennial Fears and the Development of Western Anti-Judaism, The Journal of
212 Callahan

He blamed them for Christs death, although he acknowledges that the actions
of the Jews with respect to the cross resulted in the binding of the devil.150 But
with the loosing of the devil in his own day Satans minions resume their
wicked actions. In the Chronicon Ademar relates tales of the wickedness of the
Jews as they mock the cross in their synagogues.151 In so acting they thus
resemble the heretics in their attitude toward the crucifix. Yet the Jews suffer
persecution, according to one of his sermons, because Gods anger is on them.
In their confusion for Christ they will receive the Antichrist.152

Heretics as Signs of the Proximity of the Antichrist

Just as Ademar sees the growing threat of the aberrant behavior of the heretics,
Muslims and Jews in this period as a manifestation of the increasing power of
the devil, so also is Satans presence more manifest because of the proximity
of the Antichrist. The monk of Angoulmes interest in the activities of the
heretics in substantial part stems from his apocalyptic concerns, especially
generated by the millennial fears which expected the appearance of the

Ecclesiastical History 46, 1 (1995): 1935. On Ademar and anti-Judaism, see also the com-
ments of Richard Landes, Relics, Apocalypse, 4046 and idem, The Massacres of 1010:
On the Origins of Popular Anti-Jewish Violence in Western Europe, in From Witness to
Witchcraft: Jews and Judaism in Medieval Christian Thought, Jeremy Cohen, ed.
(Wolfenbttel, 1997), 79112.
150 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 102v. et ipse creavit caelos et terram et ipse gubernat et cuncta quae
in caelis et terra sunt glorificant et honorant eius sanctum nomen et ipse diabolus qui Deo
contrarius est et ipsi impii homines Judei, Sarraceni, pagani, haeretici qui Deo contrarii
sunt nichil amplius possunt agere nisi quantum permittit eis voluntas DeiNam sicut
tunc de Monte Oliveti descendit quando Judei immolaverunt ipsum agnum Dei in cruce
per invidiam, ita cotidie de altitudine misericordiae suae dignatur descendere, quan-
documque sacerdotes Christianorum ipsum verum agnum Dei inmaculatum non per
invidiam sed per benignitatemet oeboedientiam voluntatis eius in altari in sancto immo-
lant etc. Also fol. 97v. Nam sicut est Dominus passus in cruce, ita cotidie passus est in
altare et patitur. Sed in cruce ab impiis Iudeis, in altari a sanctis et benignis sacerdotibus
passionem suscipit. Quia Iudei pro impietate Dominum crucifixerunt ut delerent nomen
eius de terra, sacerdotes pro pietate et oboedientia Dominum immolant, ut major gloria
Dei appareat in mundo et omnis Ecclesia salvetur, sicut ipse Dominus ait, Qui manducat
carnem meam et bibit sanguinem meam, in me manet et ego in eo. (John 6: 57)
151 Chronicon, 3: 52, p, 171.
152 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 91v. Iudei adhuc expectant incarnationem eius venturam, ideo quia
propter peccatum quo occiderunt Dominum nostrum excecati sunt, et ira Dei est super
illos, et pro Christo Antichristo recipient.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 213

Antichrist to occur at any moment.153 One of the sermons commenting on the

events preceding the Last Judgment states that Satan will be freed, will enter
the Antichrist and with his messengers will then wreak havoc in Christendom
throughout the whole planet.154 Another piece refers to the apostles at the first
council in Jerusalem foreseeing the day when Satans power would appear
through the Antichrist and his messengers the heretics. Their false dogmas
would shake true Christianity.155 The same sermon later urges shunning these
nuntii Antichristi, even if they seem to work miracles.156
The most extraordinary passage in Ademars writings revealing his views of
the proximity of the Antichrist occurs in a sermon in Ms. 2469 in which he is
comparing the ability of St. Martial and Elias the Prophet to revive the dead.157
Reflecting on the miseries of his own time, he finds that the present is far worse
than the period when Martial first came to Aquitaine because deceit waxes
and truth wanes. Then quoting Mt. 24: 12 on the signs of the end, he points to
the flourishing of wickedness and the cooling of charity. Adulation gains

153 Ademars comments on the Antichrist and the millennial fears of the period are furthered
considered in the article Jerusalem in the Monastic Imaginations of the Early Eleventh
Century, in The Haskins Society Journal and in my piece on Jerusalem and the Cross in his
writings (see above fn. 4).
154 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 100r. Ipsum fortissimum Satanan, Christus in cruce mortuus in
inferno ligavit, et in fine mundi solvetur a Domino ipse Satanas de carcere suo, et relin-
quetur in sua virtute. Et per Antichristum in quem intrabit, et per nuntios Antichristi,
pene totam destruet et confundet Christianitatem Domini per universum orbem.
155 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 71r. Praevidebunt enim per Spiritum Sanctum multas haereses ali-
quando per totum orbem pullulandas, quae veram Christianitatem falsis dogmatibus
conturbarent.
156 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 71r. Si vero ille hanc fidem in aliquo verbo contradixerit, sciant esse
illum de nuntiis Antichristi, et mox eiciant eum a se nullamque eis humanitatem impen-
dant etiam si viderint eum miracula facere.
157 B.N., Ms. Lat 2469, 67r. cum nunc tempus pessimum sit, cum fallacia condensa succr-
escat, veritas rarescat, immo ab iniquis terris caelum veritas repetat. Cum nunc abundare
iniquitatem, refrigescere caritatem [the last four words are a paraphrase of Mt. 24: 12, a
chapter presenting Christ describing the signs before the Last Judgment] pene ubique
sciamus. Cum adulatio amicos, veritas odium pariat. Cum filii perditionis imminet
adventus, qui adversabitur et extolletur super omnem quod dicitur Deus aut quod colitur.
(2 Thes. 2: 34) Cuius faciem precedet egestas, cuius membra usquam locorum sine
numero pullulant. Cum sit iam tempus quo sanam doctrinam vix pauci sustinent, cum
pene omnes a veritate auditum avertunt, ad fabulas autem convertuntur. Cum fides in
omnibus pene deficiat, infidelitas vero ut cancer serpat. Cum multi iam sint reprobi circa
fidem, cum ipsi qui in fide stare videntur sint seipsos amantes, cupidi, elati, superbi,
invidi, voluptatum amatores magis quam Dei. (2 Tim. 3: 24)
214 Callahan

friends, while truth turns them away. He cites the intensely apocalyptic second
chapter of the second epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians on the appearance
of the Antichrist, the son of perdition, who lifts himself above all. Poverty goes
before him, and his followers proliferate without number. Few support sane
doctrine for almost all turn from truth to fables. Faith is lacking in almost
everyone and infidelity spreads like a cancer. It is a miserable time when many
have rejected the true faith and when even those who seem to support it are,
and here he draws on the list of the characteristics of the heretics of the last
days as listed by Paul in 2 Timothy 3: 24, loving themselves, covetous, haughty,
proud, envious and lovers of pleasure more than of God. This passage helps to
explain his references in the Chronicon to the heretics appearing in the West as
the nuntii Antichristi.158 It also throws light on other remarks of the late tenth
and early eleventh century about the appearance of the heretics and the prox-
imity of the Antichrist and Last Judgment, as at Arras when Gerard of Cambrai
referring to the heretics used the words of St. Paul (1 Tim. 4: 13), In the last
time some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to the spirits of error and
doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy and having their conscience
seared; forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats which God hath created to
be received with thanksgiving by the faithful.159
That Ademar of Chabannes and many of his contemporaries saw the miser-
ies of their own day, among which not the least was the heretics and the result-
ing turbulence in the moral order, as signs of the proximity of the Antichrist is
also evident in their writings about contemporary upheavals in the physical
order. In Ademars sermon which most clearly exhibits this recognition on his
part, there appears in a commentary on the prayer of the Mass which begins
Deliver us, o Lord, from all past, present and future evils these words: Know,
brethren, that already have passed very bad tribulations and now are the worst,
as you see, since everywhere there is fear, everywhere there is wickedness and
pride, the sword, hunger, pestilence, terrors from heaven and great signs.160

158 Chronicon, 3: 49, p. 170 and 3: 59, p. 180. That they were not called nuntii Antichristi in
the earlier version of the episodes (pp. 10 and 13) may reflect the growing apprehension
of the period.
159 PL 142: 1311B.R.I. Moore noted the appropriateness of this passage in The Origins of
European Dissent, 89, but did not connect it with Ademars fears of the proximity
of the Antichrist. In the East the Pseudo Psellus tract on demons connects the appear-
ance of the Bogomil heretics to the proximity of the Antichrist (Gautier ed., Le
DeDaemonibus du Pseudo-Psellus, ch. 6, pp. 14245).
160 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 113v. Scitote fratres quia iam transierunt pessimae tribulationes, et
modo pessimae sunt sicut videtis, quia ubique est timor, ubique iniquitas et superbia,
gladius, fames, pestilentia, terrores de caelo et signa magna.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 215

These great signs include a severe, freak storm with many bolts of lightning
that killed a fellow churchman in Angoulme on the feast of St. Stephen in late
December, probably 1031. At the commemorative service for the cleric Ademar
preached a sermon on the terror venturi iuditii.161
The tradition of changes in the natural order reflecting the proximity or
presence of the Antichrist was well developed by the eleventh century,
although, as Emmerson has pointed out, it lacked a specific sequence of
signs.162 The Scriptural basis consists of Christs words to the disciples on
the signs in the heavens marking the end of the world and Revelations 20: 7
that speaks of the release of Satan from his prison when the thousand years are
completed.163 Numerous indications of an awareness that these disturbances
in the physical order presaged the appearance of the Antichrist and the Last
Judgment appear in the writings of many of Ademars contemporaries. This is
particularly true in Anglo-Saxon England, readily evident in the Blickling
Homilies and the writings of Aelfric and Wulfstan.164

161 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 114r. The theme of the terrors of the end also appears in the lengthy
addition Ademar made to De Divinis Officiis of Amalarius of Metz. (See the attribution of
authorship of this material to Ademar suggested by J.M. Hanssens in his edition Amalarii
Episcopi Opera Liturgica Omnia, 3 vols. (Rome, 194850), vol. 2, 21617. Ademars inter-
ests, style of writing and neglect of indicating his insertions makes his authorship of this
section almost a certainty.) The monk of Angoulme concludes a lengthy passage on
p. 279 on Gods use of physical terrors to convert sinners in this fashion, Nec te moveat
quod invitatorium estivis diebus ebdomadalibus sine modulatione antiphonae solet dici,
quia terroribus plagarum, terroribus futuri iudicii, quando ex incredulis creduli effecti
sunt.
162 This material is presented in much greater detail in R.K. Emmerson, Antichrist in the
Middle Ages (Seattle, 1981), 8389, esp. p. 84.
163 A few examples of the many signs reported in this period are Glabers reference to the
appearance of a glowing dragon flying in the heavens in 1003 which he says terrified
almost all the people of Gaul who saw it (Historiarum, France ed., 2: 8.15, p. 79), clearly
an indication of the devil loosed, and the references in the letters of Fulbert of Chartres
(F. Behrends, ed., Oxford, 1976, pp. 22427 and 27377) to a rain of blood falling in
France in 1027, another apocalyptic sign causing much trepidation. One of the best intro-
ductions to the apocalyptic fears of this period is Johannes Fried, Endzeiterwartung um
die Jahrtausendwende, Deutsches Archiv fr Erforschung des Mittelalters, 45 (1989): 385
473. For a general overview, see now Richard Landes, The Fear of an Apocalyptic Year
1000: Augustinian Historiography, Medieval and Modern, Speculum, 75, 1 (2000):
97145.
164 See Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, esp. 15254; J. Godfrey, The Church in Anglo-
Saxon England (Cambridge, 1962), 3468 and M. McC. Gatch, Preaching and Theology in
Anglo-Saxon England: Aelfric and Wulfstan (Toronto, 1977), esp. 7778 and 106.
216 Callahan

Glaber in a number of places in the Histories indicates how all the horrors
inthe physical order had convinced the people of this period of the proximity
of the end.165 They were certain that God was punishing them for their sins
and forcing them to do penance before the end. In order to punish the sins of
men this terrible pestilence raged throughout the world for three years [prior
to 1033]. He later continued, It was believed that the order of the seasons and
the elements which had ruled all past ages from the beginning, had fallen into
perpetual chaos, and with it had come the end of mankind.166
The turbulence in the earthly order as a sign of the presence, or near pres-
ence, of the Antichrist is found in several places in Ademars chronicle.167 An
excellent example appears immediately before the material on the destruction
of the church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem in 1009. Ademar relates how
at that time there occurred signs in the stars, harmful droughts, excessive rains,
serious pestilence, dire famine, many defects or deficiencies in the sun and
moon and the drying up of the Vienne River for three nights at Limoges for a
distance of two miles.168 There is a scriptural basis, especially in the Book of
Revelations, for each of the occurrences. The last item, for example, is based
upon Revelations 16: 12 which states, And the sixth angel poured out his
bowl upon the great river, Euphrates; and its water was dried up, a road was
prepared for the kings of the east. This example is particularly important
because the drying up of rivers or streams is one of the indications of the end
in a number of lists of the last things.169
Ademar follows this presentation in chapter 46 of the turbulence in the
natural order with a description of a vision he had had.170 A great crucifix

165 Historiarum, France ed., 4: 4.1012, pp. 18793.

166 Historiarum, France ed., 4: 4.1012, pp. 19093.
167 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 4647, pp. 16567. See also the note to 3: 58, p. 179 for a reference
to comets resembling swords, material preceding a description of the actions of the
Manichaean heretics in Orlans (3: 59, p. 180).
168 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 46, p. 165.
169 See G.D. Caie, The Judgment Day Theme in Old English Poetry (Copenhagen, 1976), 243ff.
and Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, 47.
170 Chronicon, 3: 46, pp. 16566. Et supradictus monachus Ademarus, qui tunc cum avun-
culo suo inclito Rotgerio Lemovicas degebat in monasterio Sancti Marcialis, experrectus
in tempesta noctis, dum foris astra suspiceret, vidit in austrum in altitudine celi magnum
crucifixum quasi confixum in celo et Domini pendentem figuram in cruce, multo flumine
lacrimarum plorantem. Qui autem haec vidit, attonitus, nichil aliud potuit agere quam
lacrimas ab oculis profundere. Vidit vero tam ipsam crucem quam figuram Crucifixi
colere igneo et nimis sanguineo totam per dimidiam noctis horam, quousque celo sese
clauderet.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 217

appeared in the southern sky and on it was the figure of Christ in tears, an
appropriate image bringing to mind Christ weeping over Jerusalem about to be
destroyed. Here he sheds tears over the destruction of the church built where
his earthly remains had rested. This vision also heightens the apocalyptic
imagery of the chapter because the appearance of a cross in the heavens indi-
cates the imminent return of Christ in judgment.171
The monk of Angoulme also writes about signs in the heavens and on earth
of the approaching end in a sermon in B.N. Ms. Lat. 2469. In this piece set in
Limoges in 1028 shortly after the dedication of the church of the Holy Saviour
where the remains of St. Martial resided, the apostle of Aquitaine tells St. Peter
that he was disturbed by some individuals who had caused trouble at the
translation of his remains during the dedication. Wishing to show his displea-
sure and desiring to punish the culprits, the saint decided to accompany
St. Peter to Rome. He would forsake his apostolate which would find itself with-
out its patron and protector Usque ad quinque annosnamely, to the year 1033.
Soon a plague occurred throughout Aquitaine. Although St. Martial eventually
relented, he did not do so before the physical order was much disturbed.172
The turbulence in the world at the approach of the Antichrist will contrast
sharply with the peace after his destruction. In a passage in D.S. Ms. Lat. 1664
Ademar comments on this peace which will appear in a tranquillity in the
physical order.

And after the Antichrist there will be some peace and security, not a per-
fect peace but in comparison to the tribulation which will be under the
Antichrist it will seem a mitigation of the tribulation, a peace and secu-
rity. And while they will plant and build and eat and drink and marry, as
it occurred in the days of Noah and in the time of Lot, in that security
as a snare, there will suddenly come that final day of judgment on all who
reside on the face of the whole earth.173

171 The eschatological tradition of the appearance of the cross before the Last Judgment is
very rich. See e.g. the references in the passage from the Pseudo-Methodius in Bernard
McGinn, Visions of the End (New York, 1979), 76 and in the Saltnair na Rann, in Caie, The
Judgment Day Theme in Old English Poetry, 243 in which Christ appears with a bloody
cross for the Judgment. Other references to the cross in Ademars writings are examined
in the forthcoming piece on Jerusalem.
172 B.N., Ms. Lat. 2469, 96v; Delisle, Notice sur les manuscrits originaux dAdmar de
Chabannes, 294. I wish to thank Richard Landes for reminding me of this episode.
173 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 114r. Et post Antichristum erit aliqua pax et securitas, non ut sit per-
fecta pax, sed ad comparationem tribulationis quae erit sub Antichristo, illa mitigatio
218 Callahan

Ademar does not comment on the duration of this period, but it would not
seem to be long.174
The turbulence in the moral and physical orders only confirmed the millen-
nial fears of Ademar and many of his contemporaries about the presence
of the heretics and the proximity of the Antichrist, but what was their image of
the Antichrist himself? Who was this figure whose proximity the appearance
of the heretics announced and how would one recognize him when he actually
appeared? The traditional twofold patristic image of the Antichrist as deceiver
and as tyrant was very much evident in the writings of this period.175 Because
of the concentration on the connection between the Antichrist and the here-
tics in this article, his role as the great deceiver has been much more important
to this point than that of tyrant.

Ademars Copy of Jerome on Daniel in Ms. 1664

Yet in many ways in the traditional picture of the Antichrist his tyranny is the
more obvious and significant feature which identifies him. The most impor-
tant patristic contribution to this image comes from St. Jeromes commentary
on the Book of Daniel, a work which Ademar copied in the early part of
Ms. 1664.176 Six marginal indicators, saying only antichristo in Ademars hand,
require further attention because they mark some of the principal passages on
the Antichrist in the text and because they supply important norms for deter-
mining who among his contemporaries might be the Antichrist.177

tribulationis quasi pax et securitas videbitur; et dum plantabunt et aedificabunt, come-

dent et bibent et uxores ducent, sicut factum est in diebus Noe et in diebus Loth, in illa
securitate tamquam laqueus repente veniet ille novissimus iuditii dies in omnes qui
sedent super faciem omnis terrae.
174 For an examination of the history of the concept of the period after the destruction of the
Antichrist, see R.E. Lerner, Refreshment of the Saints: The Time After Antichrist as a
Station for Earthly Progress in Medieval Thought, Traditio, 32 (1976): 97144.
175 See Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, esp. ch. 3, The Life and Deeds of Antichrist.
For a further consideration of the Antichrist in the early Middle Ages, see B. McGinn,
Antichrist: Two Thousand Years of Human Fascination with Evil (New York, 1994), 79113.
176 This tract, together with the preceding commentaries of Bede on the Acts of the Apostles and
the Book of Revelation, are found on the first sixty folios of the volume and constitute one
third of the entire work. The marginalia being considered are attached to Jeromes commen-
tary on Daniel, a work Richard Emmerson has called the major source for the medieval
portrayal of the Antichrist as a great tyrant. See Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, 44.
177 The hand and the ink appear to be the same as that found in the commentary itself.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 219

The first marker, on folio 47r, is next to Jeromes comments on Daniel 7

which treats the four beasts, symbols of the great world powers of Babylon,
Persia, Greece and Rome. The last beast is a terrifying creature with great iron
teeth and ten horns. Verse eight states, As I was gazing at the horns, another
horn, a small one, sprouted up among them; and three of the previous horns
were uprooted before it. In this horn there were eyes like the eyes of a man, and
a mouth speaking arrogantly.178 Jerome in his commentary states that at the
end of the world, when the kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed, there
will be ten kings who divide the Roman world up among themselves. An elev-
enth will appear and defeat three of the ten kings, namely those of Egypt,
Africa and Ethiopia. The seven remaining kings will then surrender. Jerome
states that the triumphant figure will not be the devil or a demon but unum de
hominibus in quo totus Satanas habiturus est corporaliter, one from men in
whom Satan will wholly bodily dwell.179 It is next to this last line that Ademar
places his indicator.
Earlier in this portion of the commentary Jerome had identified the last
horn as Antiochus Epiphanes, who often appeared in the medieval writings as
the principal type of the Antichrist.180 This king of Syria betwen 175 and 163
b.c.e. who plays so prominent a role in the First and Second Book of Maccabees
as a persecutor of the Jews and defiler of the Temple in Jerusalem is a cen-
tralfigure in Jeromes commentary on Daniel.181 It is the eleventh chapter of
the Book of Daniel which contains much of this material on Antiochus, and,
not surprisingly, it is Jeromes comments on this chapter which serve as the
locus classicus for the images of the Antichrist. Ademars remaining five indica-
tors are placed next to this material and are central for his concept of the
Antichrist.
The first (fol. 53v) is to the commentary for verse 21, There will then arise in
the latters [i.e. Seleucus, brother of Antiochus Epiphanes] place one
[Antiochus] who had been spurned and upon whom the royal insignia had not

178 The Book of Daniel, L. Hartman and A. Di Lella, eds. and trs., vol. 23 of the Anchor Bible
(New York, 1978), 2023. All citations are from this edition.
179 For this passage from Jerome on Daniel, see Commentariorum in Danielem, Libri iii (iv),
F. Glorie, ed., Corpus Christianorum 75A (Turnholt, 1964), 844. All future citations are
from this edition.
180 Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, 28.
181 Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, 28. He states, Jeromes commentary on Daniel,
however, is probably the main source of the popularity of Antiochus as a type of the
Antichrist. See also J.N.D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings and Controversies (London,
1975), 3002.
220 Callahan

been conferred. He will slip in suddenly and seize the kingdom. The marginal
indicator is placed next to Jeromes statement that it is Antiochus who is meant
and that he is a type of the Antichrist.182 He also appears as a type of the
Antichrist in his persecution of the Jews and the violation of the Temple.183
The lowly origin of Antiochus also makes him a type of the Antichrist who,
Jerome continues in his commentary on the verse, will at the end of the world
arise from the Jews.184
The second notation for chapter eleven is to verses 28b30a. His mind
[that of Antiochus] will be set against the holy covenant, as he passes through
and returns home. A year later he will again invade the south, but the second
invasion will not be like the first one. When ships of the Kittim [Romans] come
against him, he will lose heart and retreat. Ademar again places his margin
indicator next to Jeromes text on Antiochus as a type of the Antichrist as a
tyrant in his persecution of the people of God.185 Verses 3135 present the
defiling of the Temple by Antiochus and his persecution of the people of
Jerusalem. Jerome in his comments on these verses writes of the desecration
of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Antichrist who seeks to make himself a god
there and the suffering he causes to the people of God.186
Verses 34 and 35 contain the next noted material. They state, When, how-
ever, they are tested, they will receive a little help, although many will join

182 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 91415. ille interpretatur super persona

Antiochi qui cognominatus Epiphanesnostri autem haec omnia de Antichristo
prophetari arbitrantur qui ultimo tempore futurus estp. 915 cumque multa, quae
postea lecturi et exposituri sumus, super [the ms. has sub] Antiochi persona conveniant,
typum eum volunt fuisse Antichristi, et quae in illo ex parte praecesserint, in Antichristo
ex toto esse complenda.
183 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 91415. Sicut igitur Salvator habet et Salomonem
et ceteros sanctos in typum adventus sui, sic et Antichristus pessimum regem Antiochum,
qui sanctos persecutus est templumque violavit, recte typum sui habuisse credendus est.
184 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 917. quod in fine mundi haec sit facturus
Antichristus, qui consurgere habet de modica gente, id est de populo Judaeorum, et tam
humilis erit atque despectus, ut ei non detur honor regius. This is a theme to which
Jerome will later return in his comments on Daniel 11: 256 where he will also say that
the Antichrist will come from Babylon.
185 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 920. De Antichristo nullus ambigit quin pugna-
turus sit adversus testamentum sanctum et primum contra regem Aegypti dimicans,
Romanorum pro eis auxilio terreatur [the ms. after Aegypti has on fol. 54r dimicatur,
et Romanorum auxilio timore eius terreatur]; haec autem sub Antiocho Epiphane in
imaginem praecesserunt: ut rex sceleratissimus qui persecutus est populum Dei, praefig-
uret Antichristum qui Christi populum persecuturus est.
186 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 92223.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 221

them insincerely. Some of those who act wisely will be tested to refine, cleanse
and purify them, until the time of the final phase, for there is still the present
appointed period. Jerome takes these words and applies them to the suffering
which will occur under the Antichrist, an agony which will last until the victory
that will take place at the appearance of Christ.187 He indicates that this time
of suffering will be a period of testing and cites 1 Corinthians 11: 19, which
reads, For there must be also heresies: that they also who are approved may be
made manifest among you. Only after the testing, which will also include con-
fusion over the identity of the Antichrist, will the real Christ come.188
The picture of the Antichrist becomes more fully fleshed out with Ademars
fourth notation in chapter eleven (fol. 55r). Verses 40 and 41a read, In the time
of the final phase the king of the south will come to grips with him. But the
king of the north will sweep over him like a whirlwind with chariots and cav-
alry and many ships, invading lands and passing through them like a flood. As
he comes into the lovely land, myriads will be tested. Again the theme of test-
ing is accentuated. Jerome writes that the passage is said to refer to Antiochus,
but he sees it also indicating the Antichrist who will fight against Egypt and
defeat Libya and Ethiopia, the one horn overcoming the three. Then he will
come into Israel and many cities and provinces will fall to him.189
The last marginal indicator (fol. 55r) occurs at Jeromes commentary on the
final verses, 44 and 45, of this chapter. The Book of Daniel states, But as news
from the east and the north alarms him [Antiochus], he will set out with great
fury to exterminate many completely. Yet when he has pitched his palatial
tents between the Sea and the lovely mountain, he will come to his end, with
none to help him. Jerome explains the Antichrist reference by pointing to the

187 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 924. The note stands at this text, Sub Antichristo
parvum auxilium nostri intellegi volunt: quia congregati sancti resistent ei et utentur aux-
ilio parvulo, et postea de eruditis corruent plurimi; et hoc fiet ut, quasi in fornace, confl-
entur et eligantur et dealbentur donec veniat tempus praefinitum, quia vera victoria in
adventu Christi erit.
188 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 924. et applicabuntur illis gentilium plurimi
non in veritate sed in mendacio pro idolorum enim cultu eis simulabunt amicitias, et
haec facient: Ut qui probati sunt manifesti fiant (1 Cor. 11: 19), tempus enim verae
salutis eorum et auxilii sibi futurum esse Christum quem falso sperant esse venturum,
cum sint recepturi Antichristum.
189 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 929. Nostri autem, ad Antichristum et ista refer-
entes [the last three words are omitted in the ms.] dicunt: quod primum pugnaturus sit
contra regem austri, id est Aegyptum, et postea Libyas et Aethiopas superaturusquae
de decem cornibus tria contrita cornua supra legimuset, quia venturus sit in terram
Israel, et multae ei vel urbes vel provinciae daturae manus.
222 Callahan

defeat of the Egyptians, Libyans and Ethiopians and to the journey the
Antichrist will then make to Jerusalem where he will go to the top of the Mount
of Olives. It is here he will perish where Christ ascended into heaven.190 The
reference to Jerusalem, and especially to the Mount of Olives, undoubtedly
had a very special importance to Ademar who was about to set forth for the
Holy Land.191
Although there is much additional material on the Antichrist in chapter
twelve, especially on Michael the Archangel and the significance of the 1290
days in the Antichrist legend, Ademar does not place any more Antichristo
markers in the margins. The six that he does place, however, offer an important
indication of some of the features he thought were important in the depiction
of the Antichrist. To summarize the six points, he saw the Antichrist as a per-
son in whom Satan would take up residence, as having Antiochus Epiphanes as
a type, as a persecutor of the people of God, as presiding over a time of testing
during which heretics would be present, as ruling over Egypt, Libya and
Ethiopia and attacking Israel and as finally meeting his end on the Mount of
Olives. Many of these same aspects from Jeromes commentary are evident in
the depictions of the Antichrist in such other tenth or early eleventh-century
writers as Adso of Montierender, Odo of Cluny, Abbo of Fleury, Aelfric,
Wulfstan and Rodulfus Glaber.192

Al-Hkim as the Antichrist

Without a question the figure most like the Antichrist in any of Ademars writ-
ings is the Fatimid caliph al-Hkim (9961021) who in 1009 destroyed the

190 Jerome, Commentariorum in Danielem, 933. Nostri [ms. inserts autem] extremum visio-
nis [ms. inserts huius] capitulum super Antichristo sic exponunt: quod, pugnans contra
Aegyptios Libyasque et Aethiopas, et tria cornua de decem cornibus conterens, auditurus
sit de aquilonis et orientis [ms. has orientibus] partibus adversum se bella consurgere;
quod, veniens cum magna multitudine ut conterat et interficiat plurimos, figet tabernac-
ulum suum in Apedno iuxta Nicopolim, quae prius Emmaus vocabaturdenique, inde se
rigens [ms. has erigens] usque ad montem Oliveti, Hierosolymorum regio ascenditurEt
asserunt: ibi Antichristum esse periturum, unde Dominus ascendit ad caelos. The length
of this material makes complete citation impossible. See pp. 93135 for much additional
information on the Antichrists last victories and his destruction on the Mount of Olives.
191 The significance of the Mount of Olives to Ademar at that time in his life is clear in my
article, The Problem of the Filioque, in the Revue Bndictine.
192 On the importance of the contributions of these writers to the Antichrist tradition, see
Emmerson, Antichrist in the Middle Ages, esp. 5054 and 9095.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 223

church of the Holy Sepulcher, an action which caused extraordinary reverbera-

tions in Western Christendom, and during whose rule the heretics appeared in
the West.193 Most of chapter forty-seven of book three of the Chronicon is a
recounting of the wicked deeds of this figure whom Ademar calls
Nabuchodonosor Babiloniae. The parallels with Jeromes Antichrist in his com-
mentary on Daniel are many and obvious. In this chapter Ademar relates that
Hkim was supposedly persuaded to act against the Christians by letters from
the Jews in the West that indicated European armies were about to attack.194
He sought to convert forcibly Christians to Islamic beliefs and also attacked the
Christian rites. Eventually some Arabs defeated and captured this rex
Babilonius. Ademar continues that he who had risen up against God was evis-
cerated. They filled his stomach with rocks and threw his body, weighted
with lead about the neck, into the sea.195 The identification of al-Hkim with
Nebuchadnezzar is particularly interesting and important. In the Middle Ages,
as Penelope Doob has so clearly demonstrated, Nebuchadnezzar was the type
of the devil and sometimes identified with the Antichrist.196 (David Bernstein
in his provocative book on the Bayeux Tapestry shows the importance of the
Nebuchadnezzar image in the depiction of William the Conqueror. Bernstein
mentions that the image was already well known in England, as is evident in
Aelfrics identification of this ruler of Babylon with the devil, and the city itself
as a symbol of hell or confusion.197
Another point that connects Hkim with the Antichrist was that he ruled
from Cairo, the city called Babylon in the medieval West.198 Also he ruled an
area which from limited Western perspectives might seem to include Egypt,

193 The best brief survey of the rule of Hkim and its significance is Marius Canard, Al-Hkim
in The Encyclopedia of Islam, Bernard Lewis et al., eds. (London, 1971), iii, 7682. On the
destruction of the church of the Holy Sepulcher, Marius Canard, La destruction de
lglise de la Rsurrection, Byzantion, 35 (1965): 1643. For longer and more recent
works, J. van Ess, Chiliastische Erwartungen und die Versuchung der Gttlichkeit. Der Kalif
al-Hkim (Heidelberg, 1977); W. Felix, Byzanz und die islamische Welt im frheren 11.
Jahrhundert (Vienna, 1981) and R.B. Betts, The Druze (New Haven, 1988).
194 Ademar, Chronicon, 3: 47, pp. 16667. Compare with similar material in Glaber, France
ed., 3: 7.24, pp. 13237.
195 See the comments of R.L. Wolff, How the News Was Brought from Byzantium to
Angoulme, 14446 on these tales.
196 P. Doob, Nebuchadnezzars Children; Conventions of Madness in Middle English Literature
(New Haven, 1974), 63.
197 D. Bernstein, The Mystery of the Bayeux Tapestry (London, 1986), 184.
198 The idea that Hkim sprang from Babylon, as would the Antichrist, very much contrib-
uted to the use of the Nebuchadnezzar imagery.
224 Callahan

Libya and Ethiopia and was attacking Jerusalem, or at least a portion of the holy
city.199 Many in the West in the early eleventh century must have seen Hkim as
the Antichrist, as is clear in the Histories of Glaber and in Ademars Chronicon.

Ademars Continuing Search for the Antichrist

The last manuscripts of Ademar, however, do not refer to Hkim and indicate
that that the monk of Angoulme was still awaiting the Antichrist. From that
later perspective al-Hkim was only like the Antichrist, comparable to the her-
etics, one of those whom Ademar styled antichrists. His increasing preoccupa-
tion with the proximity of the end makes an awareness of the presence of
antichrists readily understandable. A good example is found in one of the
longest sermons in Ms. 1664 in which he states, See, oh priests of the true God,
how much you ought to be zealous for the Catholic faith against all heretics,
antichrists and pseudoapostles.200 The concept of multiple antichrists, so
closely identified in the early Church and later in the Middle Ages with the last
days and with the presence of heretics, stems in substantial part from 1 John 2:
18, which Ademar quotes in Ms. 2469, 75r, Little children, it is the last hour
and as you have heard, the Antichrist cometh. Even now there are many anti-
christs, whereby we know that it is the last hour.201

Conclusion

It is clear from much of Ademars writings, therefore, that he believed that his
own day was near the time of the Antichrist and that the Last Judgment

199 Compare with the material from Jerome on Daniel, above pp. 21822.
200 D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 90v.
201 The idea of multiple antichrists was one Ademar used to attack his principal opponent in
the controversy over the apostolicity of St. Martial. Benedict of Chiusa became a very
personal antichrist and is so named in a number of places in the manuscripts, especially
in the open letter in support of the new apostle. (E.g. PL 141: 93A and 94C and D and in
B.N., Ms. Lat. 2469, 12r.) He is also specifically connected with the devil both in appear-
ance (a scaly dragon-like neck, PL 141: 97B) and as his instrument (as Belitonium through
whose mouth the devil sounds, PL 141: 109C). His diabolical ties are also evident when
Ademar charges that whoever challenges the apostolicity of Martial is in league with the
devil. (B.N., Ms. Lat. 2469, 75r). Moreover, Benedict is called a heretic misrepresenting
the Christian order. (PL 141: 103C and 105B). On multiple antichrists, see Emmerson,
Antichrist in the Middle Ages, 6273.
Heresy and the Antichrist in the Writings of Ademar 225

would soon take place. The appearance of the Bogomil heretics in the West as
the messengers of the Antichrist and the actions of such antichrists as
al-Hkim confirmed his fears. Moreover, Scripture and tradition indicated
that heretics would appear in the last days. As Ademars contemporary
Rodulfus Glaber stated about the heretic Vilgard and the rise of heresy in the
late tenth century, All this accords with the prophecy of St. John, who said
that the devil would be freed after a thousand years (Rev. 20: 23)202
Ademars writings on the Antichrist and his minions confirm Glabers reports
on the terrors and their role in causing many pilgrims to leave the West to go
to Jerusalem, including Ademar himself.203 They also help to explain how the
appearance of a small number of missionaries from the East could produce
such a violent reaction, with even capital punishment being employed for the
first time in the West in a number of centuries for religious violations,
and could play so important a role in the development of what R.I. Moore
has accurately called a persecuting society.204 Through his life and his writ-
ings Ademar of Chabannes offers a rare and valuable window into Western
society in the early eleventh century when heretics appeared and millennial
fears were very real.

202 Glaber, France ed., 2: 12.23, pp. 9293.

203 Glaber, France ed., 4: 6.18, pp. 19899. At this time [ca. 1033] an innumerable multitude
of people from the whole world, greater than any man could have hoped to see, began to
travel to the Sepulcher of the Saviour at Jerusalem. He later continues in the same chap-
ter, pp. 2045, When some consulted the more watchful of the age as to what was meant
by so many people, in numbers unheard-of in earlier ages, going to Jerusalem, some
replied cautiously enough that it could portend nothing other than the advent of the
accursed Antichrist who, according to divine testimony, is expected to appear at the end
of the world. Then a way would be opened for all peoples to the east where he would
appear, and all nations would march against him without delay. In fact then will be ful-
filled that prophecy of the Lord, that even the elect will, if it is possible, fall into tempta-
tion (Mt. 24: 24). That Ademar, like many of his fellow pilgrims, was not certain of the
actual time of the appearance of the Antichrist is a point I consider in detail in my forth-
coming book on Jerusalem and the Cross in his thought and life. See in particular a
lengthy insertion he makes in Ms. 1664 in his copy of Bedes commentary on the Book of
Revelation. On the first three verses of ch. 20 which present the binding of Satan, Ademar
emphasizes that God alone knows when Christ will return. He concludes his insertion by
stating, Ergo desistant quiddam qui numerando dicunt se nosse Antichristi adventum
cum potius putent se scire quod nesciunt. For more on the context of this material, see
Daniel Callahan, Jerusalem in the Monastic Imaginations, The Haskins Society Journal, 6
(1994): 11927.
204 R.I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (New York, 1987).
226 Callahan

APPENDIX Found in D.S., Ms. Lat. 1664, 75r.

Credimus ergo qui per sanctorum communionem, in Deo manemus et Deus

manet in nobis. Sicut ipse Dominus ait, Qui manducat meam carnem et bibit
meum sanguinem, in me manet et ego in eum. (John 6: 57) Quicumque ergo
non credit per sanctorum communionem pervenire ad vitam aeternam, totus
per omnia haereticus est. Ideo cavete ab haereticis, qui dicunt nihil prodesse
communionem sancti altaris. Et sicut haec sancta abnegant, ita baptismum, et
crucem, et Ecclesiam abnegant, quia repleti sunt diabolo et nuntii sunt
Antichristi, et seducere volunt oves Domini usque in damnationem aeternam
sicut ipsi sunt damnati. Et ideo ut possint seducere Christianos simplices pro-
funditatem divinorum non intelligentes, fingunt se ieiunare a cibis quos Deus
creavit abstinere, nulli maledicere, pecuniam saeculi relinquere, honores pro
nihilo ducere, nuptias damnare, occulte tamen scelera turpissima perpetrant,
quae nefas est dicere, et cunctas voluptates corporis more porcorum latenter
inter semetipsos agunt. Vos autem praedicate assidue plebibus vestris, quia
quoscumque haereticos deprehenderint licet eloquentes, licet philosophos,
licet quasi sanctos et miracula facientes, cum hac credulitate sola possunt eos
superare et revincere, ita ut si aliquid ex hoc simbolo denegaverint, mox quasi
stercora repellant eos a se, nullamque societatem vel in cibo vel in potu, neque
in aliqua elemosina cum eis habeant, neque cum eis habitent neque hospiten-
tur. Sicut ait apostolus Paulus, Quae pars fideli cum infidele? Aut quae societas
luci ad tenebras? (2 Cor. 6: 14) Nolite iugum ducere, id est, nolite societatem
habere cum infidelibus. Et valde omnes caveant, ne aliquid ab eis emant atque
accipiant, si etiam ipsi eis gratuito dare voluerint. Solent enim quidam ex eis
portare secum pulverem de ossibus mortuorum hominum et quasi propter
medicinam aliquibus rusticis in cibo aut potu de ipso pulvere ministrant. De
quo pulvere si quis aliquid sumpserit, statim obliviscitur veritatem Dei et in
amentiam versus fit eorum similis. Et ita seductus in desperationem cadit, ut
nec predicatione neque terrore neque amore nullatenus ad sanctam catholi-
cam Ecclesiam redeat ultra. Et a iudicibus saecularibus Christianae dignitatis
non nulli aliquando questioni subditi, potius elegunt supplicium mortis, quam
salutem conversionis. Tanta vis diaboli est permissu divino, ut sicut martires
pro defensione veritatis animas posuerunt, sic haeretici pro amore falsitatis
intereant, ut de morte corporum perveniant ad aeternam mortem animarum.
Index of Modern Authors

Aubrun, Michel102 Harrison, Anna121n

Head, Thomas178
Bachrach, Bernard4 Herlihy, David2, 179n
Barmby, J.12 Hosler, John D.34
Bautier, Robert1923, 203 Hoyland, Robert945
Beckett, Katharine Scarfe86 Humphreys, R. Stephens82
Bernstein, David223
Bloch, Marc39 Jones, Anna Trumbore5
Bourgain-Hemeryck, Pascale182n
Brooke, Christopher187 Katerberg, William11
Brown, Elizabeth A.R.178 Kelly, H.A.51
Brown, Peter155 Kohl, Benjamin72

Cahen, Claude39 Lambert, Malcolm187, 193, 203

Callahan, Daniel F.12, 4, 67, 11, 42, Landes, Richard131, 187n, 217n
63, 101, 112, 121, 132, 144 Laporte, Jean-Pierre156
Carragin, Toms92 Levillain, Lon106
Carrasco, Magdalena Elizabeth164 Limor, Ora92, 97
Chatillon, Franois912 Lobrichon, Guy187, 196, 203
Cohn, Norman205 Lombard, Maurice39
Colgrave, Bertram90
Constable, Giles51 Martyn, John12
Creswell, K.A.C.84, 945 Massoni, Anne105, 121n
McCormick, Michael4, 335, 37,
Dondaine, Antoine1857 39, 41
Doob, Penelope223 Meehan, Denis834, 912, 96, 99
Doyno, Mary121n Meijns, Brigitte121n
Dudden, F.H.12, 29 Moore, R.I.178, 189, 225
Duggan, Lawrence4 Morghen, Raffaello185, 187
Duplessy, Jean39 Mynors, R.A.B.90

Emmerson, R.K.215 Nees, Lawrence5

Frassetto, Michael5, 178, 191n, 193n66 OLoughlin, Thomas92, 96, 98

193n68, 208n Obolensky, Dimitri196, 205
Orchard, Andy86n
Garsoan, Nina192 Ostler, Nicholas68
Gleason, Angela90n
Goetz, Hans Werner135 Partner, Peter712
Goffart, Walter64 Pavuk, Alexander11
Grabar, Oleg845, 94
Grier, James56 Quinsat, Franois39
Grierson, Philip40
Guagnano, Maria92 Raby, Julian94n, 95n
Gurevich, Aron211 Remensnyder, Amy135
228 Index of Modern Authors

Ring, Richard4 Wakefield, Walter193

Rotter, Ekkehart86 Wallace-Hadrill, Michael90
Rudy, Kathryn176 Welin, Ulla Linder39, 41
Runciman, Steven185 Wenisch, Michael11
Russell, Jeffrey186, 192 Witt, Ronald70
Woods, David93
Saltet, Canon124
Schulenburg, Jane6 Ziolkowski, Jan51
Southern, R.W.70
Straw, Carol22
Index of Sources

Ademar of Chabannes Chronicle of Fredegar25, 27

Chronicon425, 4850, 53, 57, 612,
182, 1901, 1935, 198202, 206, 208,
212, 214, 2234
Office for Austriclinian142
Office for Cybard142n
Office for Martial1401
Office for Valrie142
Adomnan, De locis sanctis82, 867, 89,
92, 968
Andrew of Fleury, Vie de Gauzlin209
Augustine of Hippo
De civitate Dei17
De haeresibus193
Chronicle of Saint-Maixent111
Codex Amiatinus91
Conventum inter Guillelmum
Aquitanorum comitem et Hugonem
Chiliarchum50
Dado of Rouen, Life of St. Eligius of
Noyon1623
Dante Alighieri, De vulgari
eloquentia69
Desiderius Erasmus, Praise of Folly72
Dialogues of Sulpicius Severus163
Donation of Constantine73

Balds Leechbook16 Eddius Stephanus, Life of St. Wilfrid169

Bayeux Tapestry223 Epistola de obitu Bedae91
Bede Eusebius, Historia ecclesiastica17
De Tabernaculo, De Templo89
Historia ecclesiastica2930 Flavius Vegetius Renatus, De re
In Ezram et Neemiam89, 91 militari47, 62
Life of St. Cuthbert173
Bible Gregory I
Exodus98, 99n Dialogi11, 24, 27, 30
Joshua98 Moralia in Iob11, 235, 2931
Judges98, 99n Registrum epistolarum11
1 Samuel98, 141 Regula pastoralis11, 21, 29
1 Kings18 Gregory VII, Dictatus papae75
2 Chronicles18 Gregory of Tours
1 Maccabees219 Glory of the Confessors164
2 Maccabees219 Historia Francorum21
Job23, 30, 32
Psalms68, 108, 139, 141 Hippocrates, Aphorisms15
Isaiah130
Daniel21819, 221 John Paul II, Salvifici doloris32
Matthew96, 1412, 169, 194n
Mark169 Lacnunga13
Luke141, 202n Leon Battista Alberti, Five Books on the
John139, 201, 212n, 224, 226 Family6970
Acts98, 218n Leonardo Bruni, Commentarius76
2 Thessalonians214 Leonardo da Vinci, Notebooks70
1 Timothy214 Lorenzo Ghiberti, Commentaries76
2 Timothy214 Lorenzo Valla, De elegantiis linguae
Revelation132, 208n, 21516, 218n, latinae69
225
Blickling Homilies215 Maurice, Strategikon28
230 Index of Sources

Nicholas V, Romanus Pontifex75 St. Monegund174

St. Rusticula171
Pius II, Commentaries76 Song of Roland211
Pseudo-Apuleius Platonicus, Baudonivia, Vita Radegundis1556,
Herbarium15 1645, 174

Quran38 Virgil, Aeneid901

Virtutum sanctae Gertrudis
Riana Plea36 continuatio165
Vulgate29, 73, 98
Saints Lives
St. Anstrude160, 165 Walafrid Strabo, De imagine Tetrici98n
St. Glodesind160
Index of Names

Abbo of Fleury222 Benedict of Chiusa, monk1256, 150,

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwn, caliph81 224n
Abdus of Edessa17 Benedict Biscop30
Adalmodis, countess of the March115 Benno, priest157
Ademar of Chabannes26, 40, 4350, Boethius20n, 64, 67
53, 5662, 101, 1067, 111, 113, 12251, Boniface VI, pope11
17887, 190225 Boso the Old, count of the March61,
Adomnn, abbot of Iona5, 8283n, 10910, 117
84100
Adrien de Longperier39 Calixtus III, pope76
Adso of Montierender222 Catherine of Siena74
Aelfric of Eynsham215, 2223 Ceolfrid, abbot of Wearmouth-Jarrow29
Aethelred, ealdorman37 Charlemagne2, 36, 41, 48, 64, 103, 156
Agiluf, king of the Lombards268 Charles IV, emperor76
Ainard, provost of Le Dorat113 Charles V, emperor14
Al-Hakim, caliph45, 22225 Chrodegang, bishop of Metz102, 117
Al-Wald ibn Abd al-Malik, caliph812, Cicero50
84, 94n Clement VIII, pope11
Aldebert I, count of the March113 Clement X, pope11
Aldebert II, count of the March11516 Clovis, king of the Franks109n10
Alduin, bishop of Limoges130 Coenwulf, king of Mercia379
Alduin, count of Angoulme49 Coluccio Salutati69
Alexander III, pope73 Cosimo deMedici723
Alfonso V, king of Portugal75 Cosmas, clergyman186, 196
Alfred the Great, king of Wessex29, Cynithrith, abbess169
37, 68
Ammianus Marcellinus17 Dagon, Gazan deity98
Andrew of Fleury131n, 209 Dante Alighieri6970
Angelarius, priest160 Decius, Roman emperor17
Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Desiderius Erasmus18, 70
Syria21922 Doda, custodian1601
Arculf, Gallic bishop5, 83n, 84n, 8597, Domenico Capranica, cardinal72
99100 Dudo of St. Quentin434, 50
Aribertus, abbot of Charroux49
Aristotle64, 678 Eadwulf, monk175
Asa, king of Judah18 Eddius Stephanus16970
Athenagoras205 Elias, prophet213
Authari, king of the Lombards25 Erbertus18791, 196, 209
Erchanbold, bishop of Eichsttt161
Baasha, king of Israel18 Ermentrude, abbess of Jouarre155n, 156
Baldo, teacher at Salzburg83n Ethelhild, abbess159, 169
Bede5, 2930, 82, 8691, 98, 159, 1723, Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria1922,
208n, 218n, 225n 26, 28
Begga, sister of St. Gertrude166 Eugenius IV, pope74
232 Index of Names

Eusebius of Caesarea17 Innocent VI, pope11

Euthymius of Peribleptos and Zigabenes, Isidore of Seville43
heretics194n, 195n76, 195n79, 198n, Israel, canon at Le Dorat111, 114, 11720
199n, 200n
Jacob Burckhardt65, 67
Felix III, pope20 Jacob of Edessa95
Felix V, pope74 Jesus Christ17, 27, 75, 78, 126, 139, 142,
Flavius Josephus84, 89, 96 157, 169
Flavius Vegetius Renatus47, 62 Job234, 3032
Fortunatus, patriarch of Grado367 John, duke of Istria36
Francesco Petrarch645, 69, 71, 74 John Cassian13
Frederick Barbarossa, emperor64 John Milton71
Frigeridus, count of Thrace and John of Fleury194
Illyricum17 John of Ojun205
Fulbert, bishop of Chartres49 John the Baptist138, 165
Fulk, prior of Le Dorat10910, 113 John XXIII, pope71
Fulk Nerra, count of Anjou58 John Paul II, pope32, 76
Jonah21
Gaius Gracchus98n Jones, Jr., Henry1
Gaulterius, canon at Le Dorat and abbot of Jordan, bishop of Limoges107, 11112,
Lesterps111, 11416 115, 126, 139, 14950
Geoffrey, abbot of St. Martial130 Jordan I of the Chabannais110
George, papal legate378 Jordan II of the Chabannais115
Gerald of Wales76 Jordan IV of the Chabannais116
Gerard of Cambrai194, 214 Julian of Alexandria17
Giorgio Vasari64 Julius III, pope11
Gisela, abbess of Chelles156 Julius Caesar76, 98
Goscelin of St. Bertin157, 172
Gratian, emperor17 Leander, bishop of Seville234
Gregory I, pope4, 1132, 134 Leo III, pope2, 378
Gregory VII, pope4, 75, 78 Leo X, pope14
Gregory of Tours21, 64, 144, 156, 164 Leo, bishop of Vercelli49
Guibert of Nogent192, 2045 Leon Battista Alberti69, 74
Guy, bishop of Le Puy136 Leonardo Bruni76
Guy, viscount of Limoges60, 11415 Leonardo da Vinci70
Leutald of Micy127
Henry VIII, king of England14 Leutard, heretic186, 198n, 210
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow70 Leudewidis, nun1601
Herveus of Tours, canon117 Liubila, abbess of Monheim161
Hildegar of Chartres49, 107n Lorenzo Ghiberti76
Hilduin, bishop of Limoges106, 11415, Lorenzo Valla69, 73
11718 Lot217
Hippocrates15 Louis the Pious, emperor103
Honorius IV, pope11
Hugh of Lusignan50 Magnus, priest155
Marbode, bishop of Rennes111, 11819
Indiana Jones1 Marcellinus, bishop of Ancona24, 30
Innocent III, pope4 Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna19
Innocent IV, pope75 Martin I, pope11
Index of Names 233

Martin V, pope74 Rather of Verona76

Martin Luther14, 68 Reoval, priest155
Mary Magdalene157, 173 Robert II, king of France60, 184
Maurice, emperor28 Rodulphus Glaber128, 1312, 181,
Maximilian I, emperor76 20910, 216, 222, 2245
Mellitus, bishop of London and Roger de Chabannes143
Canterbury30 Romuald and Herfuald35
Michael Psellus20405 Rouen48, 50
Michael the Archangel22 Rudolf I Habsburg, emperor67
Minucius Felix205 Rusticiana1920
Moses98, 157
Muawiya, caliph84n, 86, 99 Samson98
Muhammad81, 99 Sarengo of Milan35
Mychon (a citizen)17 Saul, king98
Sebeos84n
Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Seleucus, king of Mesopotamia219
Chaldeans223 Septimius Severus, emperor14, 164
Niccolo Albergati, cardinal72 Sergius II, pope11
Nicholas II, pope73 Sisinnius, pope11
Nicholas V, pope4, 11, 70, 728 Stephen, duke of Aquitaine129
Noah217 Suetonius64
Nothhelm, archbishop of Canterbury29 St. Aedh Mac Bric173
St. Andrew155, 170
Odo of Cluny222 St. Anstrude160, 165
Odolric, abbot of St. Martial150 St. Augustine of Canterbury12, 29
Odolricus, bishop of Orlans184 St. Augustine of Hippo17, 50, 117, 193,
Offa, king of Mercia378, 39n 205, 207n
Opimius, consul98n St. Austreberta166
Orosius98n St. Balthild of Chelles156, 1623, 168
Oethelwald, hermit90 chemise of157, 172
Otloh of St. Emmeram76 Grande Robe of172
St. Bartholomew161n
Paul of Saint-Pre of Chartres183, 203, St. Bertille172
205, 209 St. Benedict of Nursia11, 12, 131
Paul the Deacon27 St. Brigid of Ireland167, 173
Paul the Falconer34 St. Columban26
Paulus Aegineta13 St. Cybard of Angoulme142
Pelagius II, pope21, 25, 31 St. Edith of Wilton157, 167, 1724, 1767
Peter Drut, abbot of Dorat46, 11314 St. Ethelberga172
Peter, tsar of Bulgaria192n St. Etheldreda172
Peter Abelard76 St. Genevieve of Paris157, 166
Petronilla157 St. Georges157
Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy77 St. Gertrude of Nivelles161, 1656
Phocas, soldier28 St. Glodesind1601
Pius II, pope4, 11, 70, 72, 768 St. Helena154, 1567, 161n
Pius III, pope11 St. Jerome6, 15, 21823
Pius X, pope11 St. John Chrysostom14, 18, 31
Probatus and Pico (brothers)35 St. Jude17
Pseudo-Isidore126, 195, 1989, 209 St. Junianius127
234 Index of Names

St. Junien165, 170 Theodulf of Orlans192n, 200

St. Leonard of Noblat11012, 11720
St. Louis IX, king of France78
St. Mammas156
St. Martial of Limoges36, 445, 489,
62, 12434, 13642, 1446, 14851, 1812,
199, 213, 217, 224n
feast of13942
St. Michael the Archangel22, 222
St. Moninna150, 167, 171
St. Oswald159, 169
St. Patricia1612
St. Paul166, 207, 214
St. Peter38, 70, 10810, 139, 142, 1445n,
146, 157, 217
St. Potentianus156
St. Radegund153n, 1556, 1645, 1701,
174, 177
St. Rusticula152, 166, 171, 176
St. Stephen139, 172, 215
St. Samthann167, 173
St. Thomas Aquinas17, 20
St. Walburga161
St. Wulfthryth157, 169n
St. Ywi157
Terence64
Tertullian205
Theobald, canon at Le Dorat111, 11720
Theodatus, cantor184, 203
Theophanes, Greek writer84n
Theophanius, count of Centumcellae24
Theophylact, papal legate378
Theophylact, patriarch of
Constantinople192n, 201n106,
201n108
Theudelinde, queen of the
Lombards268
Ulfilas, biblical translator68
Umar ibn al-Khattb, caliph79, 82, 84,
95
Urban V, pope74
Ursus, priest34
Vespasiano da Bisticci, bookseller72
Vilgardus, heretic209
Virgin Mary97, 157, 170, 173, 175
Voltaire65
Walafrid Strabo98n
Walter of Speyer76
Wazo, bishop of Liege210
William I, king of England223
William V, duke of Aquitaine113
William IX, duke of Aquitaine4, 4451,
53, 5762, 114, 130, 185, 191
Willibald Pirckheimer18
Wulfstan, archbishop of York215, 222
Index of Subjects

Abrahams tomb889 Carolingian Empire56, 12, 41, 50, 64,

Africa17, 219 103
Ai98 Cathedrals
Alexandria88 Canterbury2930, 74
Aquitaine23, 5, 42, 446, 4851, 53, St. John Lateran734
5556, 62, 101, 106, 1089, 112, 117, 1212, Naumburg67
1256, 12831, 138, 144, 1468, 178, 1812, St. Peters73
1856, 1901, 193, 196, 199, 201, 213, 217 St. Stephen172
Americas66 Chlons-sur-Marne1856, 190, 192,
Ancona24 ,30, 78 194n74, 194n76, 195n, 201n2n, 210
Anti-Jewish violence2 Charroux49, 110, 127, 129, 131, 184, 191
Antichrist6, 131, 1789, 1813, 185, 194, Christmas64
196, 207, 210, 21225 Churches
Antipopes734 Calvary93
Apocalypticism132 of the Chalice93
Apocalypse132, 179, 182 Holy Sepulchre88, 93
Last Judgment179, 210, 21314, 217n, St. Mary165
223 St. Peter, Wearmouth29
Arabs95, 223 Strasbourg67
Arras194, 195n, 199, 214 Clerical marriage127, 1335, 137
Ars grammatica118 Clion163
Atlantic Ocean89n Creeds73, 197n, 206
Austorianies17 Coins
Auvergne122 dinar33, 358, 3941
Auxerre187 mancus4, 335, 3741
Avignon/Avignon Papacy71, 74 College of Cardinals73, 75
Commons
Babylon210, 21920n, 223 of Apostles1413
Balkans17 of Confessor-Bishops143
Baltic Sea64 Confolens114
Battle orations52 Constantinople11, 28, 36, 77, 88, 93n, 96,
Bethlehem88, 157, 176 156, 161n
Berlin1256, 132, 178, 182, 206, 208 Convents
Blockades59 Holy Cross1601, 1645, 1701, 176,
Bologna71 184
Borgias76 Nunnaminster167
British Museum38, 39n Pavilly166
Burgundy174 St. Caesaria168
Byzantium31, 157 St. Patricia161
Councils/Synods
Caen170 Aachen1034, 117, 121
Cairo223 Anse136
Caliphates Arras1856, 194, 195n, 196n, 198n,
Abbasid99 199200n, 201n106, 201n108, 210, 214
Cordova60 Basel74
Umayyad99 Bourges5, 1235, 128, 1317
236 Index of Subjects

Councils/Synods (Cont.) Habsburg Dynasty667

Clermont136 Hebron patriarchs889
Constance71, 74 Heresies
Gerona136 Arian4, 2526
Le Puy1356 Bogomil6, 1867, 18990, 1923, 196,
Limoges5, 107, 12237, 182 19899, 2012, 205, 214n, 225
Mantua77 Cathar186, 194n
Nicaea108 dualist6, 1856, 1923, 196, 201, 208
Poitiers136 Euchitae2045
Crusades1, 3, 778 Manichaean6, 1789, 1827, 1903,
1968, 201, 203, 216n
Damascus88 Massalian192n, 205
Deutsche Staatsbibliothek178 Paulician192
Divine Office13943, 1456 Holy Land5, 45, 92, 118, 120, 157, 176, 222
Dropsy16n Israel18, 98, 2212
Jerusalem23, 5, 45, 812, 857,
Egypt157, 219, 2213 912, 94100, 1256, 130, 132, 150, 155,
England/Britain4, 12, 29, 31, 34, 3740, 176, 179n, 1812, 210, 213, 21617,
55, 889, 215, 223 21920, 2225
Ethiopia184, 219, 2212, 224 Judaea1289
Eucharist135, 186, 188, 190, 199201, Holy Spirit133, 136, 197, 207
2047 Hospitals20
Eucherius83n, 89, 95 Household troops57
Humanism67, 6973, 76
Farne Islands90
Filioque2, 26 Institute for Advanced Studies178
Florence69, 723 International Congress on Medieval
Fortresses/strongholds Studies178
Beaujeu114 Introits139, 1424, 149
Bellac60 Ireland6, 88, 167, 173
Bouteville59 Islam66, 812, 86, 100, 211
Brosse601 Istria36
Genay59 Italy4, 11, 245, 3334, 36, 40, 70, 72, 157,
Melle57 185, 195, 210
Mortemart113
Rochemaux601 Jubilee Year74
France74, 89, 101, 104, 117, 122, 138, 181, Juno90
195n, 215n Jupiter184n
Franks25, 27, 118, 126, 182 Houses of canons
Dorat46, 10914, 117, 121
Gaul25, 54, 87, 92, 129, 138, 144, 146, Lesterps10918, 121
1567, 1989, 215n Noblat10912, 121
Gaza98 St. Hilaire-le-Grand102n, 104n, 1067
Gibraltar89 St. Junien11415, 165, 170
Goslar192
Gout4, 1130 La Marche56
Goths68 Lambeth Palace74
Great Papal Schism734 Laon160
Gregorian Reform104, 1323, 136 Lent165, 170
Index of Subjects 237

Levies, military557, 60 Narbonne601

Leutard1856, 198n, 210 Naturalism67
Libya2212, 224 Neptune90
Lichfield38 Nineveh21
Limousin60, 107, 109, 125, 12930, Normandy49, 54
1334, 180 Norse50, 54
Lombards12, 2528, 31, 150, 181 Northumbria29, 88
Lucca34 Noyon1623

Manzikert, battle of78 Offertory chant149

Mass6, 19, 60, 136, 139, 1419, 151, 175, Old Testament18, 23, 186
188, 190, 197, 200, 214 Orlans1836, 1904, 197, 200, 2024,
Mecca81 206, 2089
Mediterranean Sea4, 15, 64, 66,
89, 91 Patrimony of St. Peter11, 75
Metz102, 160 Peace of God5, 1223, 1278,
Milan25, 35 1312, 136, 185
Missi dominici36 Prigord110, 1845, 18791, 196,
Monasteries/abbeys 203, 209
Bardney159 Persia219
Charroux110 Perugia27
Chiusa181 Philosophy5, 73
Cluny151 Picts157
Eymoutiers106, 114n Plague2123, 26, 106, 125, 12931, 208n,
Farfa3335 217
Jouarre156 Poitiers56, 58, 61, 106, 136, 155, 165, 177
Killeevy167 Poitou50, 56, 107, 109n
La Trinit170 Portugal75
Monte Cassino25, 27 Protestantism655, 70
St. Cybard3, 42, 125, 138, 142, 147, 150,
1801, 199 Ravenna19, 23
St. Jean-dAngly57, 138 Reformation63, 66, 71
St. Paulinus157 Renaissance4, 11, 6371, 73, 7678
Wearmouth and Jarrow29, 82 Rieti34
Wilton157, 167, 1746 Rivers
Monforte1856, 196n, 198n199, 201n Euphrates216
Mosques Jordan157
al-Aqsa81, 84, 94 Tiber21
Dome of the Chain81n Vienne216
Dome of the Rock81 Roman Empire56, 64
Mountains Roman Catholicism256, 31, 66,
Etna96 77, 88, 196, 199, 202, 2078,
Calvary157 210, 224
Haram-al-Sharif/Temple Mount81, Rome6, 12, 201, 23, 25, 2730, 33,
82n, 846, 93n, 95n 378, 64, 701, 734, 768, 93n, 1578,
Joy130 176, 217, 219
of Olives2, 88, 222 Rules
Vulcan96 of Aachen1034, 117, 121
Zion197 of St. Benedict102, 117, 147
238 Index of Subjects

Sabine hills33 biblical68

Satan/Devil23, 77, 97, 106, 159, 162, 184, ceremonies6, 127, 130131n, 132, 156,
191, 1945, 198, 203, 20713, 215, 219, 1589, 171n172, 174, 217
2223, 224n5n Trinity108, 110, 186
Scholasticism68 Tripoli17
Sciatica16n22 Trojans182
Scythians15 True Cross154, 156, 161n, 175
Sens155n56 Turks77
Shield of Achilles95
Sicily96 Universities
Simony127, 133, 1357 Harvard [College]70
Slavery75n76 University of Delaware1 34, 63, 178
Slavic lands55 University of Wisconsin, Madison2,
Soissons192, 204 4, 6
Spain25, 210
Speyer63, 68 Vatican Library73
Strasbourg synagogue67 Venice36, 73
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Vernacular languages29, 50n33, 50n35,
History6, 178 5152n, 6870

Tabernacle91 Western Civilization645

Temple83, 84, 89, 967, 100, 21920 Winchester167, 173
Toulouse183, 185, 190, 193 Wittelsbach family66
Translation World Bank41