medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
> From: Dr Jim Bugslag <[log in to unmask]>
>> Rouillard [Parthénie, ou Histoire de la...église de Chartres, 1609]
claims to base his account of the miracles of Notre-Dame de Chartres on Jean
le Marchant's verse translation of the late 12th-century Latin miracle
collection from Chartres, but for the miracle in question, which concerns an
English clerk, this detail is not included in either of the earlier
sources.....All three accounts mention a tour of unspecified Chartres relics
through England, during which Richard the Lionheart carried the reliquary. I
know of no other documentation for such a relic tour during the late 12th
century, but if Richard did carry the reliquary, the tunic he was wearing at
the time might have been judged a contact relic. But if the relic tour was in
relation to the rebuilding of the cathedral after the fire of 1194, that would
seem to be a bit late for him to wear it on crusade.
so, shaving this heavy beard using the technique perfected by Fr. Bill Occam
in his lex parsimoniae, it looks like the simplest path would be to assume
that it was the post-1194 tour on which Dick carried the reliquary (attested
to by 2 ancient and one early modren source), which would make his wearing of
a camesia on his 1190 crusade (only attested to by Rouillard, 1609) improbable
--or at least, not verifiable on any surviving ancient source.
we could, of course Pique a Knit and say that we don't really have "three
sources" here: Le Marchant is dependent upon the earlier Latin Miraculae and
Rouillard is (presumably) using Le Marchant as his source --though Le Marchant
doesn't mention the little factoid about Dick going on crusade wearing a
nightgown.
the only thing which can be offered to oppose this clipping is the fact that,
despite his early date, Sebastian Rouillard seems to have been a pretty decent
historian, with access to sources (in this case, at Chartres) which have since
been lost, not necessarily given to Flights of Fancy out of Whole Cloth,
despite the whole title of his book
Parthénie, ou Histoire de la très-auguste et très-dévote église de
Chartres, dédiée par les vieux druides en l’honneur de la Vierge qui
enfanteroit, avec ce qui s’est passé de plus mémorable au faict de la
seigneurie... de la dicte église, ville et païs chartrain
[downloadable here: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k5674684c.r=.langEN
]
and its engraved frontispiece
http://tinyurl.com/6qk65mn
besides, if Dick had been wearing one of those all the guys would have kidded
him unmercifully and he would have been forced to go home via the land route
through Austria, which would have caused the excommunication of some Important
People in that part of the world.
c
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