medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
perhaps someone morebetter equiped than i can answer me a small riddle.
the future Louis VII (Junioris) was born in 1121, second son of Louis VI
(Crassus).
the Recieved Wisdom is that the young Louis was destined for a career in the
(secular) clergy.
but in 1131 his older brother and co-king with his father, Philip (named after
his grandfather) died in a freak accident** and, shortly thereafter, Louis the
Kid was taken to a council at Reims where he was crowned co-king by Innocent
II (who happened to be conveniently in Northern France at the time).
the author of the best book on his reign, Marcel Pacaut (_Louis VII et son
royaume_. Paris, 1964) cites, as the only evidence that Louis was destined for
the clericature a passage in a charter which he issued in favor of St. Mary of
Paris : "Nos ecclesiam parisiensem, in cujus claustra, quasi in quodam
maternali gremio, incipientis vitae et pueritiae nostrae exegimus tempora"
(Rec. des hist. des Gaules, t. XII p. 90).
and concludes --rightly, i suppose (does anyone disagree?)-- that it was at
the cathedral school that Louis was being educated.
my question is: why not at St. Denis?
political considerations aside (e.g., the King's friend Suger, himself
educated at St. Denis, was abbot there from about 1122; Fat Louis had just
come through several years of rather heated "reforming" disputes with the
Bishop and chapter of St. Mary's, which nearly resulted in a near-civil war),
would not an ancient Benedictine house offer a better education to a young
prince, certainly on the Primary level??
could it have been that Fat Louis wanted his second son to get some educating,
but not *too* much --and certainly not so much that he would want to become a
monk (rather than a secular canon/archdeacon/abbot of the "royal monasteries"
like his younger brother, Henry, who suceeded him in that role)?
(that latter, off-the-top-of-my-head thought probably approaches
unanswerability, so can just be ignored.)
any thoughts would be appreciated.
best,
c
**he was riding through a street in (or near)Paris, when a pig suddenly
appeared, freightening the animal and causing it to throw the young prince and
crush him.
at least one source (Ordericus?) notes that the obviously diabolical pig was
"black" and immediately ran off and disappeared into the Seine.
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