Bernard of Clairvaux’s Preaching of the Third Crusade and Orality

Bernard of Clairvaux’s
Preaching of the Third Crusade and Orality
Sylvia Schein
Preaching was one of the most powerful forms of communication in the
Middle Ages. It was certainly the most important tool employed by the Church for
transmitting the Vox Dei. The main goal of preaching was the manifestation of Vox
Dei and its teaching. In the first chapter ofhis Summa de Arte Praedicatoria, Alain
of Lilie ( c. 1 1 99) defined preaching as „the teaching or religion and custom at the
service ofthe believers, based upon logic and rooted in an authoritative source.“1
The preaching of the crusades differed from preaching in general. Although
it also aimed at the Vox Dei, its main goal was an immediate one: to convince its
audiences to take the Cross. These audiences were mixed. The message, however,
was aimed exclusively at the European knighthood, whose culture in the eleventh
and twelfth centuries was basically oral and vemacular.2 lt is the subject of this
study to examine the preaching of the Second Crusade by Bemard of Clairvaux
and identifY those of its themes that were transmitted orally and rendered familiar
to illiterate audiences whose culture was oral and vemacular.
In December, 1 1 45, the crusader principality of Edessa was conquered by
the atabeg of Aleppo and Mosul, Imad-Ad-Din Zengi. Native Christians were
spared, but all the Fran.ks of the city of Edessa were rounded up and killed and
their women sold into slavery. Some historians of the crusade, such as Steven
Runciman, claimed that the West was „horrified“ at the news ofthe fall ofEdessa.3
So thought Pope Eugenius Ill. The response to his Quantum predecessores of
December 1 145, however, calling the West to recover Edessa, was feeble. Few in
1 Alan of Lilie [Aianus de lnsulis), De arte praedicatoria, in PL, 2 1 0, col. ! I I . Sophia Menache
and Jeannine Horowitz, „Rhetoric and lts Practice in Medieval Sermons,“ Historica/ Rejlections,
I I ( 1996), pp. 325-326. See also, Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei. Communication in
the Middle Ages (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 22-23.
2 For crusade preaching see P. J. Cole, The Preaching of the Cr��sades eo the Holy Land, /095-
1270 (Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy Books, 1991); Christoph T. Maier, Preaching
ehe Crusades. Mendicanr Friars and the Cross in ehe Thirteenth Century (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1 994 ); idem. Crusade Propaganda and Jdeology: Model Sermons
for Preaching rhe Cross. Edition of Latin Texts. Translation and Introduc/ion (Cambridge
and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
3 Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952;
rcissued in Pelican Books, 1971), 11, p. 248. On the Second Crusade, see Virginia G. Berry,
“The Second Crusadc,“ A History of the Crusades. ed. Kenncth Setton (Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1955), I, pp. 463-512; Giles Constable, „The Second
Crusade as seen by Contemporaries,“ Traditio. 9 ( 1953), pp. 2 1 3-279.
BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX’S PREACHJNG 1 89
the West knew or cared about Edessa.4 This situation bears similarities to the First
Crusade, when hardly anyone cared about the fate of Byzantiurn and the Eastem
Christians. lt was the genius of Pope Urban II who, by establishing the Holy
Sepulchre as the final aim of the expedition, tumed it into such a great success.5
And indeed, the man who knew better than Pope Eugenius IIl and who made the
Second Crusade a mass movement, was Bemard of Clairvaux. Eugenius III
granted Bemard a license „to preach and to move the hearts of everyone.“ The
success of his preaching was tremendous. In V ezelay in March, 1 146, as told by
the chronicler Odo ofDueil, „when the heavenly instrument had poured forth in his
accustomed manner the dew of the divine word, from everywhere men began to
shout and ask for crosses.“ Bemard was not prepared for such a massive response.
The eager crowd very quickly depleted the supply of crosses that he had brought
for distribution, and he was compelled to tear up his own clothing in order to
provide for more crosses.6
Bemard de Clairvaux himself wrote to the pope in May 1 146: „I opened my
mouth, I spoke, and soon the number of crusaders multiplied. Villages and towns
are empty. You would have difficulty in finding one man for seven women. One
sees only widows where husbands are yet living.“7 And indeed the success of
Bemard’s preaching tumed many women in Europe into real widows, since the
Second Crusade was a fiasco and involved a high rate of mortality amoog its ranks.
The Historia miraculorum S. Bernadi in itinere germanico patratorum
describes the crowds that turned out to see him as !arge, disorderly, threatening and
animated. Members of Bemard’s entourage claimed to have witnessed his
numerous miracles and to have recorded them as they occun·ed. As Bemard most
probably preached in Latin, a language unknown to the crowds, but sometimes
enforced his message by the use of what little Gem1an he knew, what mattered was
not so much what he said but his body language and his reputation that had
preceded him as a living saint who performed miracles. The success of his
4 Cole, The Preaching. ppp. 37-4 1 . John G. Rowe, ‚·The Origins of the Second Crusade: Pope
Eugenius Ill, Bernard of Clairvaux and Louis VII of France,“ in The Second Crusade and the
Cistercians, ed. Michael Gervers (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992), pp. 79-89. For
Quantum predecessores see P. Rassow, „Der Text der Kreuzzugsbulle Eugens Ill,“ Neues
Archiv. 45 ( 1 924), pp. 302-305; eng. Irans. Louise and Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades.
ldea and Reality 1095-1274 (London: Edward Amo1d, 1981), pp. 57-59.
5 J. Cowdrey, „Pope Urban Il“s Preaching ofthe First Crusade,“ History, 55 ( 1 970), pp. 177-188.
J. Riley-Smith, The First Crusade and the ldea ofCrusading (Philadelphia and London: The
Athlone Press, 1986), pp. 13-30 et passim. Cole, The Preaching, pp. 3-36. Sylvia Schein,
„Jcrusalem. Objectif originel de Ia premiere croisade?“ in Autour de Ia Premiere Croisade.
Actes du Colloque de Ia „Society for the Study of rhe Crusades and the Larine Easr “
(Clermont-Ferrand, 22-25 juin 1 995), ed. Michel Balard (Paris: Publications de Ia SorboiUle,
1996), pp. 1 1 9-126. ‚ 6 Odo of Jueil, De profectione Ludovici VII in orientem. ed. and trans. Virginia Gingerick Berry
(New-York: Co1umbia Unviersity Press, 1948), pp. 8-1 1 . Cole, The Preaching, p. 42.
1 Bernard ofCiairvaux, Opera, ed. J. Leclercq et al. (Rome: Editiones Cistercienses, 1957-1978),
Vlll, p. 1 4 1 . Cole, The Preaching, p. 43.
190 SYLVIA SCHEIN
preaching was summed up by another preacher of the crusades. According to
Gerard of Wales, who preached the Third Crusade in Wales ( 1 1 88), a crusade
serrnon that did not inspire men to take the Cross was a failure; what was said in a
serrnon was not as important as how it was said. The arousal of strong emotions,
manifested in universal weeping and the presence of miracles, was the precondition
for taking the cross. 8
Moreover, Geoffrey of Auxerre, his biographer, while discussing Bemard’s
preaching ability described him as someone who was able to adjust what he said to
his audience. He praised Bemard as a preacher who used language appropriately
and who used the Bible in his speech. The frrst ofthese skills had been emphasized
for a preacher since at least the time of Gregory the Great.9 Bemard’s second skill,
namely, the usage he made of the Bible, was particularly important while
addressing audiences of illiterates, whose spiritual world was deeply influenced by
the Scriptures transmitted to them through various audio-visual means, such as
prayers, liturgy, sermons, ecclesiastical art, etc. Robert of Basevom in his Forma
Praedicandi of 1322, included Bemard among the five greatest Christian preachers
(the others being Christ, Paul, Augustine, and Gregory the Great); he argued that
Bemard „more than all the rest, stresses the Scriptures in all his sayings, so that
scarcely [there is] one statement of his own which does not depend upon an
authority in the Bible, or on a multitude of authorities. His procedure is always
devout, always artful. He takes a certain theme or something in place of it and
begins it artfully, divides it into two, three or many members, confums it, and ends
it, using every rhetorical color so that the whole work shines with a double glow,
earthly and heavenly; and this it seems to me, invited to devotion those who
understand more feelingly . . .“10
Additional factors that explain the success of Bernard’s preaching were its
two main themes. Close to the hearts of European knighthood, the Themes were
presented in terrns familiar to the knights. The centrat theme in Bemard’s preaching
was personal salvation. To him crusade was, like pilgrimage, a personal and
liturgical gesture towards salvation, an exercise in personal penance; it was an
opportunity granted to believers by the grace of God for the redemption of their
souls. In his encyclical letter Ad peregrinantes Jherusalem ( 1 146), he wrote:
8 Historia miraculorum S. Bernadi in itinere germanico patratorum, in PL, 185, cols. 377, 388,
390, 391, 397, 406. Gerald of Wales [Giraldus Cambrensis], Itinerarium Kambriae, ed. F.
Dimock, Rolls Series. 21.6 (1 868), p. 14; idem, De rebus a se gestis, in Rolls Series, 2 1 (I),
(1861), p. 74. Gary Dickson, „Medieval Christian Crowds and the Origins of Crowd
Psychology,“ Revue d’Histoire Ecclesiastique. 95 (2000). pp. 54-75, esp. p. 6 1 . Watk.ins
Williams, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1935), p.
273. It is known that another preacher of this crusade, Rudolph of Clairvaux, had with him a
translator. See Constable, „The Secend Crusade,“ p. 254, n. 170; Geoffrey of Auxerre, Vita
prima, in PL. 185, cols. 307-308.
9 Geoffrey of Auxerre, Vita prima. col. 306-308.
10 James J. Murphy, Rhetoric in the Middle Ages. A History of Rhetorical Theory from Saint
Augustine to the Renaissance (Berkeley : University ofCalifornia Press, 1 974), pp. 346-347.
BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX’S PREACHING 1 9 1
Has the hand o f the Lord been shortened or has it been made powerless to
save, just because he has called poor little worms to guard his inheritance
and restore it to him? Can he not send „more than twelve Iegions of angels“
(Matthew 26:53) or simply say the word and the land will be set free? It is
completely within his power to do so when he wishes it. But I say that the
Lord is putting you to the test . . . For the Lord has pity on his people and is
providing a salving remedy for the gravely fallen. Consider how much skill
he uses to save you and be astonished . . . He does not desire your death, but
that you should turn from your way and live, because this is way of offering
you a favorable opportunity, not of destruction but of salvation . . . Now,
strong soldier and man of war, you have a battle you can fight without
danger in which to win will be glorious and to die will be gain . . . Take the
sign of the cross . . . If it is worn on a faithful shoulder it is certain to be worth
the Kingdom ofHeaven. 1 1
The second theme was the fate of Jerusalem. For Bernard Jerusalem was the
Lord’s territory,
His land . . . where he was seen and in which he lived among men for more
than thirty years. His land, which he honored by his birth, embellished by his
miracles, consecrated with his blood and enriched by his burial. His land, in
which the voice of the turtle-dove was heard when the Son of the Virgin
praised the life of chastity. His Land, where the first flowers of His resurrection
appeared . . . 12
The crusade was aimed to defend it. For Bemard, fighting for Jerusalem, unlike
other kinds of warfare, that were evil, was a path to the Kingdom of Heaven; an
opportunity for the knighthood to enter the Heavenly Jerusalem, not by abandoning
their profession, but by applying it to the right cause, Earthly Jerusalem. He thus
exhorted the European knighthood: „You should not desist from your earlier
militarism (militia), but you should resist from your malice (malitia), with which
you are accustomed to kill one another, destroying one another in such a way you
are bringing one another to ruin . . . “ 13
1 1 Leopold Grill, „Die Kreuzzugs Epistel St. Bemards Ad Peregrinantes Jerusalem,“ Studien und
Miueilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktiner Ordens. 67 (1 956), pp. 237-253. For Bemard’s
concept of the crusade, see J. Prawcr, Histoire du Royaume Latin de Jerusalem (Paris:
Edit,ions du Centre National de Ia Recherche Scientifique, 1969), I, pp. 347-363.
12 Bemard of Clairvaux to the duke and thc people of Bohemia, 1 147. Bemard of Clairvaux,
Opera. VIII, p. 435. For Bemard’s anitude to Jerusalem, see, e. g., Thomas Renna, „Bernard
of Clairvaux and the Temple of Solomon,“ in Law. Custom and the Social Fabric in Medieval
Europe. Essays in Honor of Bryce Lyon, eds. Bemard Bachrach and David Nicholas
(Kalamazoo, Michigan: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 1 990),
pp. 73-88. Peter Raedts, „St. Bernard of C1airvaux and Jerusa1em,“ in Prophecy and Eschatology,
ed. M. Wilks, Sturlies in Church History. Subsidia, I 0 (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1 994),
pp. 169-182.
ll Bemard to Eastern Franks and the Bavarians, 1 146. Bernard of Clairvaux, Opera, vnr, p. 3 1 5.
See also A. Grabois, „Militia and Malitia: The Bemardine Vision of Chivalry,“ in The Second
Crusade, pp. 49-56.
192 SYLVIA SCHEIN
The tactics used by Bernard while preaching the crusade, aimed mainly at
the redemption of souls, and are described in his Vita, i. e., when he attempted to
convince the hesitant King Conrad of Germany. During the mass of 24 December
1 146, in Speyer he was suddenly inspired to preach to him „not as a king but as a
man“; adducing the motif of the Final Judgment, he then envisaged Conrad
standing before Christ, who asks: „0 man, what ought I to have done for you and
did not?“ and enumerated his God-given benefits. At this point Conrad became
visibly agitated and cried out: „Truly, I do acknowledge the divine gifts of grace;
moreover, that I may not be found ungrateful before him, I am ready to serve him
in as much as I am enjoined to do so on his behalf .“14 He took the cross, and
following his example his nephew Frederick and other German princes who were
present took it as well.15
The main themes of Bemard’s preaching became extremely popular during
the twelfth century, being orally transmitted through vernacular crusader songs.
„Popularity“ in the Middle Ages does not mean quite what it means today. Restricted
literacy meant restricted diffusion. „Popular“ in the Middle Ages meant
being trendy in the aristocratic courts. Literature in the twelfth century mainly
meant whatever an educated man would write for his audience to Iisten to. Dealing
both with crusader songs and crusader preaching we are concerned with what
people listened to, additionally saw performed, and considered as entertainment,
although the possibility of other functions, such as instruction, exhortation, and
propaganda should not be excluded.
Vernacular crusade songs („songs of exhortation and polemic“) come to us
almost entirely from the repertoires of the troubadors and troveres, that is, from
secular, vernacular monophonic (single line) song. The songs reflect lay aristocratic
views; although the composers and singers were not necessarily all nobles,
they are to be associated with the landed noble and his entourage, with what
elsewhere has been called the courtly circle.16
14 Philip of Clairvaux, „S. Bemardi abbatis vita,“ ed. Jean Mabillon, in Sancti Bernardi opera
omnia (Paris: J. Grigard, 1839), cols. 2289-2290; Cole, Preaching, pp. 44-46.
11 See on the entire subject Cosack, „Konrad Ill. Entschluss zum Kreuzzug,“ Mirteilungen des
lnsriturs für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung, 35 ( 1 9 1 4), pp. 278-296. Berry, „The
Secend Crusade,“ pp. 472-474.
16 For the discussion regarding this gerne see William Chester Jordan, „The representation of the
crusades in the songs attributed to Thiband, Count Palatine of Champagne,“ Journal of
Medieval History, 25 ( 1 999), p. 29 n. 1 3 . See also Richard L. Crocker, „Early Crusade Songs,“
in The Holy War. ed. Thomas Patrick Murphy (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1976),
pp. 78-98. Margaret Switten, „Singing the Second Crusade.“ in The Second Crusade, pp. 67-
76; Michael Routledgc, „Songs,“ in The Oxford lllustrated History of the Crusades, ed.
Jonathan Riley-Smith (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 9 1 -1 1 1 .
Already the contemporaries o f the Second Crusade were aware of the importance of the song
in shaping public opinion. Gerhob of Reichcrsberg conunented that: „In the mouth of the laity
who fight for Christ the praise of God is growing, because there is nobody in the whole
Christian realm who dares to sing diny songs in public, but the whole land rejoices in the
praises of Christ, in songs in the vemacular as weil, especially in German – which is a
panicularly good language for singing songs in,“ in Kreuzzugsdichtung ed. U. Müller, (TübinBERNARD
OF CLAIRVAUX’S PREACHfNG 193
There are a few common topoi in the preaching of Bernard and in the
crusade songs of the twelfth century, thus pointing to the same oral tradition. Both
presented the crusade in feudal terms. Indeed, from the very beginnings of the
crusade movement, to the crusaders Christ was a king and Lord who had lost his
inheritance, his haereditas or patrimonium, to the Moslems. It was the duty of
Christ’s subjects to fight for the recovery of Christ’s heritage as they would for the
domains of their own Iords. Thus, popes, crusade preachers, and poets used those
terms familiar to the European knighthood.17 Similarly, Bernard presents the relations
between the crusaders and Christ in feudal terms. Writing in 1 147 to the
duke and people of Bohemia, he argued that
our k.ing is accused of treachery; it is said of him that he is not God, but he
falsely pretended to be something he is not. Any man among you who is his
vassal ought to rise up to defend his Iord from the infamaus accusation of
treachery; he should go to the sure fights, where to win will be to be glorious
and where to die will be gain. 18
The earliest French crusade song, „Knights, you are indeed fortunate“ (Chevalier,
mult estes guariz), an anonymaus composition from about 1 145- 1 1 46, composed
precisely at the time when Bernard preached the Second Crusade, echoes the
themes of Christ as a feudal Iord and of salvation: „Knights, you are indeed fortunate
that God has issued his call for help to you agairrst the Turks and the
Almoravides who have perpetrated such dishonourable deeds against him. They
have illegally seized his fiefs/We must indeed lament this/for it was there [in the
Holy Land]/that God was first served and acknowledged as lord.“19 The message is
hammered home in terms of feudal duty, in images of God as a seigneur and
knights as owing him the k.ind of protection that they owed to their suzerain. The
poem also translated another idea of Bemard into terms that could be easily
accessed by the knights: „Whoever goes with Louis now/Need never fear the
devils‘ horde!His soul will go to the Paradise/With the Angels ofthe Lord.“20 In an
gen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1 979), no. 7, pp. 8-9. Collin Morris, Medieval Media. Mass Communication
in rhe Making of Europe (Southamptom: Collin Morris, 1972), p. 7.
17 Jonathan Riley-Smith, „Crusading as an Act of Love,“ Hisrory, 65 ( 1 980), pp. 178-182. Jordan,
„The representation,“ pp. 29-3 1 . For papal crusade bulls as inspiration source for crusade
songs see G. Wolfram, „Kreuzpredigt und Kreuzlied,“ Zeitschrift/ur Deutsches Alterthum, 30
( 1 886), pp. 89-132.
1
8 Bemard of Clairvaux, Opera, VIII, p. 436.
19 Joseph Bedier et Pierre Aubry, Les Chansons de Croisade avec Leurs Melodies (Paris: Hirsch,
1 909; repr. Geneve: Slatkine Reprints, 1 974), p. 8. Feudal terminology is used also by other
poets. Fulk of Marseille wamed in 1 1 94 Richard I of England that if he delayed any further bis
departure to the East the emperor would receive all the credit: „What then are our barons
doing and the English king whom may God preserve? Does he think that he has accomplished
his task? There will be a very ugly deception if he has borne the expense and another takes the
price. For the emperor is making efforts that God may recover bis land [and] he will indeed be
the first to bring help to it.“ See in Elizabeth Siberry, Criticism of Crusading 1095-1274
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1 985), p. 63.
20 Bedier and Aubry, p. 9.
194 SYLVIA SCHEIN
undated poem, „For the perfectjoy in Paradise“ (Par joie avoiz perfite en Paradis/,
a crusader laments leaving his beloved in order „to attain perfect joy in Paradise.“ 1
Feudal vocabulary appears also in the „Ahi, amors“ of Canon of Bethunie who,
writing on the eve of the Third Crusade, claimed that „God is besieged in His
inheritance/A nd we shall see how people will respond . . .“ It is the duty of the
people, the poet – who became a participant in the Third Crusade – argued to
recover for Christ His inheritance?2
Both Bemard and the crusader songs use similar parables and quotations
from the Scriptures. The use of the Scriptures, their images and metaphors in the
propaganda of the crusades, was effective, as the Scriptures were the most
commonly used book in the Middle Ages. Their content was known even to
illiterates (idiotes) through various audio-visual means like prayers, liturgy,
sermons, eccesiastical art, etc. A parable used by Bemard de Clairvaux appears on
the eve ofthe Third Crusade. The poem copies almost verbatim some of Bemard’s
sentences in Ad peregrinantes Iherusalem (his encyclical Ietter of 1 1 46).
Composed ca. 1 1 89, the ,You who Iove with tme Iove‘ ( Vos qui ameis de vraie
amour), includes the following verses:
I have heard, it said proverbially/A sensible merchant spends money from
his pursei And he has a very fickle heart/Who sees what is good and chooses
what is evii/Do you know what got promised to those who wish to take the
cross?/God help me. a very fair wage!/Paradise, by firm promise!23
This is again a popular interpretation, as Bemard hirnself argued in his Ietter to the
Eastern Franks and the Bavarians ( 1 146): „If you are a prudent merchant, if you
are a man fond of acquiring this world’s goods, I am showing you certain great
markets; make sure not to Iet the chance pass you by. Take the sign of the
cross . . . „24
Chroniclers and poets also provide some information regarding oral reactions
to the main themes of Bernard’s preaching. One of Bemard’s chief arguments
while exhorting believers to take the cross was, as already said, that God
caused the fall of Edessa in order to give them an opportunity for salvation, for the
redemption of their souls. He claimed
the hand of God has not been shortened or made powerless just because he
has called upon littfe worms to guard his inheritance and restore it to him.
He could easily send more than twelve Iegions of angels or simply say the
word and the land will be set free.25
The Minnesinger Albrecht of Johansdorf recorded (on the eve of the Third
Crusade) in one of his crusade poems, the „Die hinnen vam,“‚ various opinions
voiced in regard to this subject. He wrote:
2 1 lbid., pp. 283-285.
22 Canon of Bethunie, „Ahi, amors,“ in Kreuzzugsdichtung no. 20, p. 33.
23 Bcdier and Aubry, p. 2 1 .
24 Bernard of Clairvaux. Opera. VIII, p . 3 1 5 .
25 lbid .. p. 3 1 3 .
ßERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX’S PREACHING 195
Those who leave this country tell us . . . that Jerusalem, the pure city and the
country have never been in greater need of help. This appeal is greeted with
derision by the simple ones. They all say ‚If our Lord was offended, he
could avenge hirnself without all the soldiers having to cross the sea?6
lt seems the poet is recording here oral reactions to crusade preaching overheard by
him. Following the failure of the Second Crusade, the chronicler of Würzburg
accused the crusade preachers of propagating a gross deception in the name of
religion. He calls them „pseudo-prophets, sons of Belial, witnesses o f Antichrist“.
According to him:
their preaching was so enormously persuasive that almost everyone,
everywhere, came on account of harmonious agreement to offer up themselves
voluntarily in, so to speak, to a common massacre; not only did the
ordinary men do this but, indeed, even kings, dukes, marquises, and other
potenates of this world, believed that they were offering themselves in the
service of God and rushed into this with enormous danger to body and
soul.27
* * *
To sum up, like most of the preachers of the crusades who were churchmen
and some of them theologians, Bernard of Clairvaux presented theological ideas in
terms that were drastically modified and even popularized. He rendered these
terms easily understood by the laity and particularly by the European knighthood.
Many of his ideas found their way into popular songs transmitted orally, which,
while reflecting the official teaching, translated it into the vernacular and into
topical terms appropriate to the audience’s mentality.
Bernard’s sermons inspired crusade preaching for the next few centuries,
including that of another abbot of Clairvaux, Henry of Albano. Equally influenced
were Gregory IX, Henry of Strasbourg, Innocent III, and Jacques de Vitry, to say
nothing of the various, often anonymous, sermons and crusade songs. It was
against such preachers like Bernard de Clairvaux that a thirteenth centw-y satirical
poem wamed the believers:
Ifyou go to hear the preachers,
Do beware of clever teachers,
Who can with their style and gloss,
Make you captive of the cross.28
26Albrecht von Johansdorf, „Dei hinnen varn,“ in Minnesangs Frühling, eds. K. Lachmann et al.
(Stuttgart: S. Hirzel Verlag, 1965), pp. 1 1 7-118. Siberry, Criricism, pp. 192-193 and n. 20.
27 Annales Herlipolenses, in M.G.H.SS., 16, p. 3; Constable, „The Second Crusade,“ p. 268.
28 Quated after Co1in Morris, „Propaganda for War: The Dissemination o f the Crusading Ideal in
the Twelfth Century,“ in The Church and War, ed. W. J. Sheils (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), p.
86. For Bernard’s reaction to the failure ofthe Second Crusade see Gi1es Constab1e, „A Report
ofa Lost Sermon by St. Bernard on the Failure ofthe Second Crusade,“ in Studies in Medieval
Cistercian History. ed. Jeremiah F. O’Sullivan (Shanon: lrish University Press, 1971), pp. 49-
54.
ORAL HISTORY OF THE MIDDLE AGES
THE SPOKEN WORD IN CONTEXT
Edited by Gerhard Jaritz and Michael Richter
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XII
=
CEU MEDIEV ALIA
VOLU1vfE 3
Oral History of the Middle Ages
The Spoken W ord in Context
Edited by Gerhard Jaritz and Michael Richter
Krems and Budapest 200 1
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG DER ABTEILUNG
KULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DES AMTES
DER NIEDERÖSTERREICIDSCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
niederästerreich kultur
copy editor: Judith Rasson
Cover illustration: The wife of Potiphar covets Joseph: “ … erat autem Joseph pulchra facie et
decorus apectu: post multos itaque dies iecit domina oculos suis in Ioseph et ait donni mecum.“
(“ … And Joseph was (a] goodly fperson], and weil favoured. And it came to pass after these
things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me. „), Gen. 39:
6-7 (KJV). Concordantiae Caritatis, c. 1350. Cistercian abbey of Lilienfeld (Lower Austria), ms
151, fol. 244v (detail). Photo: Institut fiir Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit
(Krems an der Donau).
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and
– ISBN 963 9241 64 4 (Budapest)
-ISSN 1587-6470 CEU MEDIEVALIA
Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung
der materiellen Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 13, A-
3500 Krems. Austria,
Department ofMedieval Studies, Centrat European University,
Nador utca 9, H-1051 Budapest, Hungary.
Printed by Printself, Budapest.
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ……………………….. 7
Michael RICHTER, Beyond Goody and Grundmann ………. . . . . . . ………. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I I
Tom PETTIIT, Textual to Oral: the Impact ofTransmission
on Narrative Word-Art …………………………………………………………………….. 1 9
Elöd NEMER!<.ENYI, Fictive Audience. The Second Person Singular in the Deliberatio ofBishop Gerard of Csanäd …………………………………………….. 3 9 Katalin SZENDE, Testaments and Testimonies. Orality and Literacy in Composing Last Wills in Late Medieval Hungary ……………………………. 49 Anna ADAMSKA, The Kingdom of Po land versus the Teutonic Knights: Oral Traditions and Literale Behaviour in the Later Middle Ages …………… 67 Giedre MICKÜNAITE, Ruler, Protector, and a Fairy Prince: the Everlasting Deeds of Grand Duke Vytautas as Related by the Lithuanian Tatars and Karaites ………………………………… 79 Yurij Zazuliak, Oral Tradition, Land Disputes, and the Noble Community in Galician Rus‘ from the 1440s to the 1 460s ……………………………………… 88 Nada ZECEVIC, Ai􀃭tc; yA.uKeia. The Importance ofthe Spoken Word in the Public Affairs ofCarlo Tocco (from the Anonymous Chronaca dei Tocco di Cefalonia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 108 lohn A. NICHOLS, A Heated Conversation: Who was Isabel de Aubigny, Countess of Arundel? …………………………… 1 1 7 Tracey L. BILADO, Rhetorical Strategies and Legal Arguments: ‚Evil Customs‘ and Saint-Florent de Saumur, 979- 1 0 1 1 …………………….. 1 28 Detlev KRAACK, Traces of Orality in Written Contexts. Legal Proceedings and Consultations at the Royal Court as Reflected in Documentary Sources from l21h-century Germany ……… 1 42 6 Maria DOBOZY, From Oral Custom to Written Law: The German Sachsenspiegel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Martha KEIL, Rituals of Repentance and Testimonies at Rabbinical Courts in the 151h Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 64 Michael GOODICH, The Use of Direct Quotation from Canonization Hearing to Hagiographical Vita et Miracula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 77 Sylvia ScHEIN, Bemard of Clairvaux ’s Preaching of the Third Crusade and Orality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ….. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 Michael BRAUER, Obstades to Oral Communication in tbe Mission offriar William ofRubruck among the Mongois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 Elena LEMENEVA, From Oral to Written and Back: A Sermon Case Study . . . . . . . . 203 Albrecht CLASSEN, Travel, Orality, and the Literary Discourse: Travels in the Past and Literary Travels at the Crossroad of the Oral and the Literary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 217 Ulrich MÜLLER and Margarete SPRJNGETH, “Do not Shut Your Eyes ifYou Will See Musical Notes:“ German Heroie Poetry („Nibelungenlied“), Music, and Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Jolanta SZPILEWSKA, Evoking Auditory Imagination: On the Poetics of Voice Production in The Story ofThe Glorious Resurrection ofOur Lord (c. 1580) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Jens T. WOLLESEN, SpokenWords and Images in Late Medieval Italian Painting . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 257 Gerhard JARTTZ, Images and the Power of the Spoken Word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 Preface Oral culture played an instrumental role in medieval society.1 Due to the Iack of any direct source evidence, however, research into the functions and importance of oral communication in the Middle Ages must confront a number of significant problems. Only indrect traces offer the opportunity to analyze phenomena that were based on or connected with the spoken word. The ‚oral history‘ of the Middle Ages requires the application of different approaches than dealing with the 201h or 2 151 century. For some decades Medieval Studies have been interested in questions of orality and literacy, their relationship and the substitution of the spoken by the written word2 Oral and literate culture were not exclusive and certainly not opposed to each other.3 The ‚art of writing‘ was part of the ‚ars rhetorica‘ and writing makes no sense without speech.4 Any existing written Statement should also be seen as a spoken one, although, clearly, not every oral Statement as a written one. Authors regularly wrote with oral delivery in mind. ‚Speaking‘ and ‚writing‘ are not antonyms. It is also obvious that „the use of oral conununication in medieval society should not be evaluated … as a function of culture populaire vis-a-vis culture savante but, rather, of thc communication habits and the tendency of medieval man 1 For the late Middle Ages and the early modern period, cf. Willern Frijhoff, „Communication et vie quotidienne i1 Ia fin du moyen äge et a l’epoque moderne: reflexions de theorie et de methode,“ in Kommunialion und Alltag in Spätmillefalter und fniher Neuzeit, ed. Helmut Hundsbichler (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1992), p. 24: „La plupart de gens vivait encore pour l’essentiel dans une culture orale et !es procedes d’appropriation des idCes passaient de prefcrence par Ia parolc dite et ecoutee, quand bien memc on ctait capable d’une Ieelure visuelle plus ou moins rudimentaire.“ 2 See Marco Mostert, „New Approaches to Medieval Communication?“ in New Approaches to Medieval Communication. ed. Marco Mostert (Tumhout: Brepols, 1999), pp. 15-37; Michael Richter, “Die Entdeckung der ‚Oralität‘ der mittelalterlichen Gesellschaft durch die neuere Mediävistik,“ in Die Aktualität des Miue/alters, ed. Hans-Werner Goetz (Bochum: D. Winkler, 2000), pp. 273-287. 3 Peter Burke calls the constrnct of „oral versus literate“ useful but at the same time dangerous: idem, „Mündliche Kultur und >Druckkultur< im spätmittelalterlichen Italien,“ in Volkskultur des europäischen Spätmittelalters, eds. Peter Dinzelbacher and Hans-Dieter Mück (Stuttgart: Alfred Kröner Verlag, 1987), p. 60. 4 Michael Clanchy, „lntroduction,“ in New Approaches to Medieval Communication. ed. Marco Mostert (Tumhout: Brepols, 1999), p. 6. 8 to share his intellectual experiences in the corporate framework.“5 Oral delivery was not „the sole prerogative of any socioeconomic class. „6 For all these reasons, it is important to analyze the extent of and context, in which ’speech acts,‘ auditive effects, and oral tradition occur in medieval sources .7 Research into the use of the spoken word or references to it in texts and images provides new insight into various, mainly social, rules and pattems of the communication system. 1t opens up additional approaches to the organization and complexity of different, but indispensably related, media in medieval society, and their comparative analysis.8 The spoken word is connected with the physical presence of its ’sender.‘ Speech may represent the authenticity of the given message in a more obvious way than written texts or images. Therefore, the use of ’speech acts‘ in written or visual evidence also has to be seen in context with the attempt to create, construct, or prove authenticity. Moreover, spoken messages contribute to and increase the lifelikeness of their contents, which may influence their perception by the receiver, their efficacy and success. Being aware of such a situation will have led to the explicit and intended use and application of the spoken word in written texts and images- to increase their authenticity and importance, too. lf one operates with a model of ‚closeness‘ and ‚distance‘ of communication with regard to the Ievel of relation of ’senders‘ and ‚receivers,‘ then the ’speech acts‘ or their representation have to be seen as contributors to a ‚closer‘ connection among the participants of the communication process.9 At the same time, however, Speech might be evaluated as less official. One regularly comes across ‚oral space‘ 5 Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei. Commwzication in the Middle Ages (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 19. 6 Ibidem, p. 21. Cf. also Jan-Dirk Müller, „Zwischen mündlicher Anweisung und schrifilicher Sicherung von Tradition. Zur Kommunikationsstruktur spätmittelalterlicher Fechtbücher,“ in Kommunikation und Alltag in Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit, ed. Helmut Hundsbichler (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1992), p. 400: „Offensichtlich sind schriftliche und nichtschriftliche Tradierung von Wissen weiterhin relativ unabhängig voneinander, nachdem die Schrift längst dazu angesetzt hat, lnseln der Mündlichkeil oder praktisch-enaktiver Wissensvermittlung zu erobem. Die Gedächtnisstütze kann die Erfahrung nicht ersetzen, sendem allenfalls reaktivieren. Sie ist sogar nur verständlich, wo sie auf anderweitig vermittelte Vorkenntnisse stößt.“ 7 􀆿f. W.F.H. Nicolaisen, ed., Oral Tradition in the Middle Ages (Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1995). 8 See, esp., Horst Wenzel, Hören und Sehen, Schrift und Bild. K ultur und Gedächtnis im Mittelalter (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1995), passim. 9 See also Siefan Sonderegger, „>Gesprochen oder nur geschrieben?< Mündlichkeil in mittelalterlichen
Texten als direkter Zugang zum Menschen,“ in Homo Medietas. Aufsätze zu Religiosität,
Literatur und Denkformen des Menschen vom Mittelalter bis in die Neuzeit. Festschrift
for Alois Maria Haas zum 65. Geburtstag, eds. Claudia Brinker-von der Heyde and
Niklaus Largier (Bem e\ al.: Peter Lang, 1999), p. 665: „Jedenfalls darf man sich bewußt bleiben,
daß auch in den Texten des deutschen Mittelalters die Reflexe gesprochener Sprache eine
bedeutende Schicht ausmachen, die besonders dann immer wieder hervortritt, wenn es um
einen direkten Zugang zum Menschen geht, um einVerstehen aus unmittelbarer Partnerschaft
heraus … “
9
that has become institutionalized or more official by the application of ‚written
space.‘ 10 Simultanous employment of such different Ievels and qualities of
messages must often have had considerable influence on their efficacy.11
The papers in this volume are the outcome of an international workshop that
was held in February, 2001, at the Department ofMedieval Studies, Central European
University, Budapest. Participants concentrated on problems of the occurrence,
usage, and pattems of the spoken word in written and visual sources of the
Middle Ages. They dealt with the roJe and contents of direct and indirect speech in
textual evidence or in relation to it, such as chronicles, travel descriptions, court
and canonization protocols, sermons, testaments, law-books, literary sources,
drama, etc. They also tried to analyze the function of oral expression in connection
with late medieval images.
The audiovisuality of medieval communication processes12 has proved to be
evident and, thus, important for any kind of further comparative analysis of the
various Ievels of the ‚oral-visual-literate,‘ i.e. multimedia culture of the Middle
Ages. Particular emphasis has to be put on methodological problems, such as the
necessity of interdisciplinary approaches,13 or the question of the extent to which
we are, generally, able to comprehend and to decode the communication systems
of the past.14 Moreover, the medievalist does not come across any types of sources
in which oral communication represents the main concem.15 lnstead, she or he is
confronted, at first glance, with a great variety of ‚casual‘ and ‚marginal‘ evidence.
We would like to thank all the contributors to the workshop and to this
volume. Their cooperation made it possible to publish the results of the meeting in
the same year in which it took place. This can be seen as a rare exception, at least
in the world of the historical disciplines. The head, faculty, staff, and students of
the Department of Medieval Studies of CentTal European University offered
various help and support. Special thanks go to Judith Rasson, the copy editor of
10 This, e.g., could be weil shown in a case study on thc pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela:
Friederike Hassauer, „Schriftlichkeit und Mündlichkeil im Alltag des Pilgers am Beispiel der
Wallfahrt nach Santiago de Compostela,“ in Wallfahrt und Alltag in Mittelalter und früher
Neuzeit, eds. Gerhard Jaritz and Barbara Schuh (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, 1992), pp. 277-316.
11 Cf. Bob Scribner, „Mündliche Kommunikation und Strategien der Macht in Deutschland im
16. Jahrhundert,“ in Kommunikation und Alltag in Spätmittelalter und früher Neuzeit, ed.
Helmut Hundsbichler (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
1992), pp. 183-197.
12 Wenzel, Hören rmd Sehen, p. 292.
13 Cf. Ursula Schaefer, „Zum Problem der Mündlichkeit,“ in Modernes Miuelalter. Neue Bilder
einer populären Epoche, ed. Joachim Heinzle (Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig: Insel Verlag,
1994), pp. 374 f.
14 Frijhoff, „Communication et vie quotidienne,“ p. 25: „Sommes-nous encore en mesure de
communiquer avec Ja communication de jadis?“
1􀅄 Michael Richter, Sprache und Gesellschaft im Mittelalter. Untersuchungen zur mündlichen
Kommunikation in England von der Mit te des elften bis zu Beginn des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts
(Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann, 1979), p. 22.
10
this volume, who took particluar care with the texts of the many non-native
speakers fighting with the pitfalls of the English language.
Budapest, Krems, and Constance
December 200 I
Gerhard Jaritz and Michael Richter