medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I dont know about acusations of heresy, but an interesting article
on the "background" of this form of "martyrdom" is:
Gougaud, L.
Miliarum consortia: Etude sur le syneisaktisme chez les ascetes celtiques
Eriu 9 (1921) 147-156.
>Werner Robl wrote:
>"As regards the (mostly female) members of his congregation, nakedness was a little bit ambiguous. Abbot Geoffey of Vendôme blamed Robert by harsh words. "Aliis (i.e. mulieribus) vero, si quando cum ipsis loqueris, semper locutione nimis durus appares,
>Sadism or voyeurism?"
>Surely not. In the context of 'fame et siti', surely 'nuditate' does not mean that he is arranging strip shows, but simply that he is failing to provide them with adequate clothing; the accusation is of cruelty towards non-favoured followers. The main ch
>A more specific accusation made, however is that he is seeking out a new and unheard-of martyrdom (novum et inauditum genus martyrii) by lying among the women at night, as a test of his ascetism. This seems to ring a bell, I remember something of the kin
>Anyway, Geoffrey's letter makes it clear that as far as Robert is concerned we are dealing with unsubstantiated rumours.
>Lena Wahlgren-Smith
Content-type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 5.50.4134.100" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Werner Robl wrote: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>"As regards the (mostly female) members of
his congregation, nakedness was a little bit ambiguous.
Abbot Geoffey of Vendôme blamed Robert by harsh words. "<SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Aliis
(i.e. mulieribus) vero, si quando cum ipsis loqueris, semper locutione nimis
durus appares, nimis districtus correctione, illas etiam fame et siti, ac
nuditate crucias, omni relicta pietate...“, Letter to Robert von Arbrissel, in
PL 157, col 183.</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Sadism
or voyeurism?"</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Surely
not. In the context of 'fame et siti', surely 'nuditate' does not mean that he
is arranging strip shows, but simply that he is failing to provide them with
adequate clothing; the accusation is of cruelty towards non-favoured followers.
The main charge of this letter is favouritism, that he is too indulgent towards
some of his female followers and too harsh on the
rest. </SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">A
more specific accusation made, however is that he is seeking out a new and
unheard-of martyrdom (novum et inauditum genus martyrii) by lying among the
women at night, as a test of his ascetism. This seems to ring a
bell, I remember something of the kind in The Name of the Rose,
where similar accusations against 14th century heretics are mentioned
(homo nudus cum nuda iacebat et non commiscebantur ad invicem). Does anyone
know when such accusations first started to be made? It must spring, I suppose,
from the sheer unexpectedness of a preacher travelling around with members of
the opposite sex. (Rather like when Scandinavian backpackers started invading
the Mediterranean in mixed, though often innocent, company). Is this a new
phenomenon in the 12th century?</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Anyway,
Geoffrey's letter makes it clear that as far as Robert is concerned we
are dealing with unsubstantiated rumours. </SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Lena
Wahlgren-Smith</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: DE; mso-fareast-language: DE; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA"></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV></DIV></BODY></HTM
Margaret Cormack [log in to unmask]
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion fax: 843-953-6388
College of Charleston tel: 843-953-8033
Charleston, SC 29424-0001
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|