medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Herwig Weigl <[log in to unmask]>
>> the complete text of the charter, [see below]
>says that Adela had asked Ivo to protect the liberty of her foundation with
his (threat of) excommunication against offenders. He declares to do so, and
describes the perfectly typical consequences of excommunication, which such
offenders have to expect if they do not make amends in time
>>"just a rather straightforward, shameless and thus perfectly typical
exploitation of the pathetic Sheeples’ terrible Fear by a member of the
Hierarchy of Holy Mother Church"
>- by a pious woman, who probably considered people plundering her church
rather as wolves than sheep (unless she did so herself to others' churches, of
course) and sought the bishop's help.
many thanks, Herwig, for your typically close reading of this text.
i somehow get the feeling that you may have read some other charters during
the course of your career.
i cannot argue with what you say, only attempt to put a bit of a different
"spin" on the charter, partly by putting it into what might have been its
historical context, and partly by simply not taking what it literally says as
being quite so accurate an account of what might have transpired.
yes, Ivo does tell us that Countess Adela --wishing to quench the Divine
flame-- had asked petitioned him to safeguard the "liberty" of the church of
St. Mary of Bourgmoyen (founded by her predecessors), which he apparently did
by "reforming" it.
perhaps i am wanting too much to see this Reformation of the secular collegial
as part of a pattern, a broader desire by the Saintly Bishop to wrench control
of other collegial churches in his diocese from the clutches of secular lords
--as he had done at St. Johns of Chartres (c. 1090s) and envisioned doing at
SMM of Chateaudun.
in *this* context, Adela's "petition" just might not have been quite an act of
"piety" --or, at least, it was Piety tempered with very real practical
considerations.
after all, Bourgmoyen was surely a source of, if not actual income, at least
of valuable patronage for the Counts of Blois.
why would she agree to give that up and see the church "reformed" (i.e., the
secular canons replaced by those who would live under a Rule)?
part of the answer might lie in, yes, your supposition that the "liberty of
her foundation" (she was not its founder, btw --that was the work of her
predecessor, Odo, a century before) by "offenders" and the bishop's power of
excommunication was the best tool at his disposal for keeping those guys at
bay.
the documents from Bourgmoyen (or anywhere else) do not allow us to
reconstruct the Historical Reality in a sufficient degree of what my students
call "granularity" to see what the situation actually was, but my feeling is
that Blois --the seat of a county and lacking the presence of any real
ecclesiastical power, other than the abbot of St. Lomer's [O.S.B.] and the
far-away bishop of Chartres-- was rather firmly under the thumb of its count
(or, as the case might be, countess).
Adela could probably have dealt with any "offenders" of her church's liberty
without any particular help from the distant bishop.
when i think of and try to rank Adela's qualities, "piety" is not the first
that comes into my mind.
rather:
1) Pride
she opened all of her charters by letting everyone know that she was the
daughter of "the most glorious king of the English, William" [the Bastard,
though she rarely adds that] --and, oh yes, Countess of Blois/Chartres.
her first born son by Count Stephen-Henry of Blois/Chartres was named William
--something of an anomaly in the region, where first born sons were typically
named after their *paternal* grandfathers; the second son *might* get the name
of the maternal grandfather (though rarely, since the male namengut of the
families was rather closely held).
2) Tough-Minded Pragmatism
when Stephen Henry disgraced himself at the siege of Antioch and returned
home, she may have been instrumental in shaming him into returning to the Holy
Land, where he quickly died of bad water or something Noble.
her first born, that kid William, turned out to have some sort of "defect"
(i've never read what it was) which, she no doubt decided, made him unfit to
inherit the honores of the counties; he was married off to the heiress of
Sully-sur-Loire and her second son, Theobald, was put in his place.
she was regent for little Teddy until he reached his majority; in the
mid-1120s she was finally packed off to the Cluniac retirement home for
aristocratic widows at Marcigny.
during the period of her regency she was, apparently, "Tough as Nails" --busy
(successfully) keeping the Capetian at bay, asserting her comital rights in a
rather tough Man's Neighborhood.
i'm sure that if i ever had an opportunity to read Kimberly LoPrete's fine
biography of her i would be able to come up with other qualities as well.
[Kimberly A. LoPrete. Adela of Blois: Countess and Lord (c.1067-1137). Dublin:
Four Courts Press, 2007. Pp. xx + 663.
http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=mff ]
i doubt seriously if "piety" would be very high on the list.
no, i don't really think that she needed any of Ivo's help to keep the local
Blois boys in line.
rather, Adela was aligning herself with Ivo against their common "enemy" (and
overlord) Philip I, and did so by acquiescing to the reform of Bourgmoyen.
(in exchange for *what*? we might ask. no doubt something in the Bigger
Picture of her relationship with Ivo.)
clearly, in his charter, Ivo disposes of whatever disturbers of the church's
"liberty" there might have been by invoking the threat of his power of
excommunication in the sentence beginning "Nos itaque..."
it is the *next* sentence ("In infirmitate...") that i am curious about.
that one, it seems to me, is a gratuitous invocation of the threat, a
redundant one, really unconnected to the one about the church's liberty.
Jim suggestion that the coincidence of the timing of the charter and Ivo's
dispute with Philip I is no doubt part of the answer.
what Ivo was doing was *enforcing* his interdict and, thus, enlisting the
"help" of all of the dying people in Blois to aid with it him --or else suffer
the pains of eternal Gehinnafire.
pretty Crafty.
for a "pious" fellow.
i still maintain, however, that i don't believe i have ever seen such a
specific use of the threat of excommunication (for having the presumption to
die without a priest) in a charter of this period.
i'm just wondering whether anyone else has.
c
>> from the PL 162.289 (after Jean Bernier, Histoire de Blois [Paris: Muguet,
1632]), p. 8 Preuves, p. viii, “ex archivo monasterii Burgimedii”
>> http://books.google.com/books?id=pRhDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP7#v=onepage&q&f=false)
:
Ego Ivo, Dei gratia Carnotensis episcopus, notum esse volo cunctis Ecclesiae
fidelibus, tam praesentibus quam futuris, quia Adela comitissa, Stephani
comitis uxor, divini amoris igne succensa, augmentandae religionis desiderio
inflammata, humilitatem nostram humiliter adiit petens ut libertatem ecclesiae
Sanctae Mariae de Burgomedio, ejus canonicorum et aliorum clericorum eidem
ecclesiae famulantium, nec non eorum servientium, ab Odone comite et Bertha
uxore ejus olim factam per antiquitatem aliquantulum imminutam, sed per eam
diligentissime [Col.0289D] reformatam, auctoritate nostrae excommunicationis
confirmaremus.
Nos itaque justae petitioni, justisque desideriis assensum
praebentes cum grege nobis commisso, violatores ejus libertatis
excommunicamus, et a liminibus sanctae dictae ecclesiae sequestramus, tam eos,
quam eorum ad praedictam libertatem infringendam fautores.
In infirmitate a presbyteris non visitentur, in hora mortis, corpus et
sanguinem Christi non suscipiant, in coemeterio Christianorum non sepeliantur,
aeternas gehennae flammas incurrant, nisi resipientes ad emendationem et
satisfactionem [Col.0290C] confugerint, et, ut hoc per succedentis tempora
firmatum et stabile permaneat, hanc chartam manu propria firmavimus, et
manibus praelatorum Ecclesiae nostrae firmandam tradidimus.
Signum Ivonis episcopi. Signum Arnaldi decani. Signum Helduini cantoris.
Signum Wilelmi archidiaconi. Signum Serani subdecani. Signum Warini
subcantoris. Signum Anselmi Cantuariensis archiepiscopi. Signum Fulconis
archidiaconi. Signum Arlonis archidiaconi. Signum Odonis archidiaconi. Signum
Andreae archidiaconi. [Col.0290D] Signum Hugonis praepositi. Signum Gerosii
camerarii.
Data Carnotis, octavo Kalendas Julii, anno ab Incarnatione Domini 1105,
indictione XIII, regnante Philippo rege Francorum, anno regni ipsius XLVI.
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