At 08:31 AM 7/20/99 -0500, you wrote:
>... not to mention Raoul Glaber's histories which directly discuss the
>Millennium and what it meant,
or ademar whose live illustrates the most millennial reading of glaber
>or Bernard of Angers who went off to debunk
>the new kind of millenially raised-saint "idol" reliquary
nice way to phrase it. glaber specifically speaks of the discovery of
relics after the millennium "as if (quasi) it were the resurrection of the
saints." (hmmm. my guess is he had to pass this one by William of Volpianno.)
>(specifically
>including Ste Foie) in 1007 and got converted instead ...
a little like us sending a major figure to investigate a new religion and
having him or her returned "converted". it gives you a sense of how
intense the ecclesiastical fear of heresy must have been at this time.
>Oh, I forgot - we don't trust them, do we??
well, he is a gyrovague. and we wouldn't want to listen to all that gossip
he picked up, now, would we. we're serious historians.
>Pippin Michelli, Ph.D
>Assistant Professor of Art History, St Olaf College
>http://www.stolaf.edu/people/michelli/index4.html
nicely put. notice the way when bernard "converts", he does so with a
prayer for protection at the Last Judgment. same with Ademar's
"conversion" to Martial the apostle. and much of this, i'd argue, comes
from the social miracle of the peace of God, which first introduced a
working civil society.
note that the evidence is good that Robert II made a pilgrimage to these
southern regions (Laurenson Rosaz). if so, such a journey would make the
revered king of a populace where relics and pilgrimage gave commoners an
uncommonly loud voice. in doing so, he gave his seal of approval to the
peace of god, esp the wave that peaked in 1033.. note that Bernard's
opening miracle in his collection is a peace assembly miracle -- healing
of a poor commoner, healing of society.
incidentally, your perspective (which i obviously share) makes an impt
point about Amy Remensnyder's piece in CCM about popular and elite culture
in medieval society: she presents Bernard as a case where the two were so
contiguous and intermingled as to be a single culture, presenting this as
an example of a norm. actually she focuses on a rare moment (for the HMA)
of millennial cooperation. the cultures mingle, on occasion quite
thoroughly, but they are most decidedly different.
richard
Richard Landes
Department of History Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University
Boston University Boston University
226 Bay State Road 704 Commonwealth Ave. Suite 205
Boston MA 02215 Boston MA 02215
617-353-2558 (of) 617-358-0226 (tel)
617-353-2781 (fax) 617-358-0225 (fax)
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http://www.mille.org
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