medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
The story remarkably resembles an incident from the life of William Marshal (c. 1146-1219) recounted in the early thirteenth-century biographical poem _L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal_. Could this episode be the inspiration for the more lurid tale? David Crouch's biography (2nd ed., 2002) gives a summary (p. 164):
"Eustace de Bertrimont, [the Marshal's] longest-serving retainer, contributed to the _History_ his memories of an incident in 1183, on the Marshal's return to the Young King's household. While resting by the road the Marshal and his mens were passed by a couple riding hard, a man and a woman. The woman's complaints of her weariness attracted the Marshal's attention. He stopped the pair and interrogated the man. It transpired that he had eloped with the woman, the sister of a prominent Flemish castellan; what was more, he was a runaway monk. This shocked the Marshal, but he was willing to let the pair continue since the woman did not appear to be under any constraint. But an idle inquiry about how the two were to live changed his mind about intervening. It turned out that the man had a sum of money which he intended to put out at interest. The Marshal, under threat of violence, promptly confiscated the money and sent the couple packing into poverty and degradation, as we must!
imagine.
The audience of the _History_ was expected to approve of this. Knights must applaud the confounding of a lecherous clerk who corrupted a noblewoman; clerks must approve of the frustration of the scandalous scheme by a colleague, already compromised by sexual incontinence, of living on the profits of illegal usury."
Happy New Year!
John
-------------------------------------------------
John Shinners
Professor of Humanistic Studies
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Office: (574) 284-4494
Fax: (574) 284-4716
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ms Brenda M. Cook" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, December 31, 2005 1:52 pm
Subject: Re: [M-R] usury and the church
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
> culture
> I don't exactly know anything about mediaeval attitudes to usury,
> but I do
> recall the following tale.
> Since I have found it in my memory and not in my notebooks, I have
> no idea
> whether it is authentic or not, nor what its provenance:
>
> "Three knights were riding along the highway (singing Tirra-Lirra,
> for all I
> know) when they overtook a couple scurrying along on foot. They
> reigned in
> and greeted the couple and asked them who they were and where they
> weregoing.
> With some reluctance, the man replied that he was - or had been -
> the parish
> priest of a village, but that he had grown weary of his duties and
> in any
> case he had fallen in love with the woman who was the wife of one
> of his
> parishioners. They were running away together and hoped to settle
> in the
> next town in the guise of a married couple.
> The knights roared with laughter at this account, clapped the man
> on the
> shoulder and called him a fine fellow. And how, they asked next,
> did he plan
> to support himself and his "wife" when they reached the town.
> Emboldened,the renegade priest admitted they had run away just
> after the tithes had
> been collected and he had the money with him, in a great purse on
> his belt
> and they were going to live on that. The knights laughed the
> louder and
> called him an enterprising fellow and wished him well. Then the
> man added
> that he proposed to set up as a money-lender with the proceeds of
> the tithes
> and live on the interest. At once the atmosphere changed. The
> knights were
> outraged. This man was proposing to commit usury - a sin. In their
> fury they
> beat the man up, raped his woman and rode off with the purse,
> congatulatingthemselves that they had upheld high moral standards.
>
> Comment, anyone ?
> Provenance ? Source ?
>
> Is this genuine mediaeval ?
> Modern fiction ?
> Reformation propaganda ?
>
> Brenda M. C.
>
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