Criminal Behaviour by Pilgrims in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

Criminal Behaviour by Pilgrims
in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period
Zoran Ladic
The concept of ‚pilgrimage‘ and ‚pilgrim‘
in the works of medieval and early modern authors
In order to understand clearly the forrns of criminal behaviour by pilgrims
in the medieval and the early modern periods it is ftrst necessary to present the
Standpoints of the medieval authors, especially theologians, who associated the
terms ‚pilgrimage‘ and ‚pilgrim‘ entirely or at least partially with positive moral
and ethic connotations, or interpreted them purely within theological categories.
Thus, for example, the term peregrinatio was considered in great detail in the
works of some Christian theologians as early as the fowth and fifth centuries, at
a time when the praxis of pilgrimage to Christian holy places had not yet
attained the momentum that it had in the later medieval period. Gregory the
Great (540-604) thus emphasised that Christians are only passing pilgrims on
earth (viator ac peregrinus).1 Saint Augustirre in his The City of God (De
civitate Dei) wrote extensively about the prob lern, meaning, and context of the
tetm peregrinatio in evetyday Christian life. Speaking in general, Augustirre
argued that the term peregrina defines the city of God on eatth, whilc its
inhabitants are consequently peregrini. The main goal of Christian living in this
material world, in which the believer is only a temporarily settled stranger or
drifter, was, according to Augustine, peregrinari ad Dominum.2 Still, Augustirre
believed that, while on earth, every peregrinus Christianus must abide by the
worldly laws common to the civitas terrena in which he lived. Augustine’s view
was accepted by numerous later Christian theologians. Such standpoints affected
the dual understandings of pilgrimage in the late antique, medieval, Renaissance,
and even modern Christian world. From the early Christian period up to
today, Christian p ilgrimage has been considered to be a Iifestyle following
Christian morals and the principles that were, for instance, called vita evangelica
et apostolica or vita perfecta in the hagiographic literature. In this respect the
theological definition of pilgrimage was considered as travel with the goal of
1 Martin A. Claussen, „Pcregrinatio and Peregrini in Augustin’s City of God,“ Traditio.
Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought and Religion 46 (1991): 33.
2 Ibidem.
60
realising the ideal Christian life, and the pilgrim was, therefore, only a
temporary viator through earthly life.3 These terms basically defined believers‘
evetyday aspirations to approach, as closely as possible, the model Jives that
Clu·ist, the apostles, and tbe Christian martyrs had led. In the Jate Middle Ages,
hwnanism, an especially popular Iifestyle, was known as imitatio Christi,
basically the attempt of an individual to mirnie the example of Christ as much as
possible. Amongst many others, the farnaus humanist writer from Split, Marko
Marulic, wrote about imitatio Christi in his work De institutione bene vivendi.4
This desire of individuals to come close to the models through a life that was
supposed to be entirely embroidered with Christian moral and values and was
mcant to be practiced during one’s entire life was called ‚inner pilgrimage‘.S It
was expressed, for instance, through practicing the Acts of Mercy or solidarity
towards people found at the margins of society (for example, the poor,
prostitutes, widows, strangers, minorities), by cremitism and asceticism and,
from the beginning of the thirteenth century, by regular weekly confessions and
other practical expressions of Christian morals.6 It is interesting to point out that
contemporary sources indicated the fact tbat ‚inner pilgrimages‘ were performed
equally by members of all orders of society; thus, it is no wonder that communio
sanetarum was open to pcople coming from the nobility, from urban spaces, and
even marginal social groups.
In the early and high Middle Ages, an introspective religiosity was
predominant and supported by Benedictine and Cistercian monks; thus, pilgrimages
to holy places were neither as popular nor practiced as they were in the
period from the late Middle Ages onwards. Although the Benedictines always
hosted and affered lodgings to pilgrims travelling to holy places, it seems that
they themselves were not diligent promoters of pilgrimage practice. The reason
for this was their closure towards society and wish for solitude. That is why it is
no wonder that they preferred the idea of peregrinatio in stabilitate to the
stabilitas in peregrinatione, meaning they superimposed inner spiritual travel
towards God over physical travelling through time and space to pilgrimage
destinations.
Besides the spiritual pilgrimage that some Christian theologians tried to
impose based on prescribed moral and ethical criteria according to which every
Christian should behave, simultaneously there was also the ‚exterior pilgrimage‘
3 Bronislaw Geremek, „The Marginal Man,“ in Medieval Callings, ed. Jacques Le Goff (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1990), 348.
4 Marko Marulic, Institucija (Institution), vol. 1-3, ed. Branimir Glavicic (Split: Knji1evni
krug Split, 1986-1 987).
5 Edith and Victor Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christion Culrure: Anthropological
Perspectives (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), 7.
6 See Giles Constable, „Twelfth-Century Spirituality and the Late Middle Ages,“ in idem,
Religious Life and Thought (Jl’h-12’h centuries) (London: Variorum Reprints, 1979), 45;
Henry Daniel-Rops, Cathedral and Crusade. Studies of Medieval Church 1050-1350
(London: Dutton, 1957), 47-53.
6 1
or the pilgrimage that individuals or groups of believers made by going to a
Christian holy place. With regard to the more forceful expression of religiosity
through saints‘ cults and the growing number of pilgrims they attracted, in
certain vemacular languages, not only in Latin, a relatively weil elaborated terminology
developed for denoting Christian pilgrims. Thus, Dante Alighieri
divided pilgrims according to their destinations and called those who travelled to
Rome romei, those who travclled to Santiaga de Camposteta pelegrini, and
those who travelled to the most prominent of all the loca sacra, Jerusalem,
palmieri. Carolus du Fresne du Cange, in his renowned Glossarium mediae et
injimae latinitatis, called all those who were not from a diocese but only
travelled through it peregrini.? He called a pilgrim to Jerusalem palmarius or
palmatus,8 and one who went to Rome Romeius, Romerius or Romipeta.9 In
German, a pilgrimage to Rome was called RomfartiO and that to Aachen
Achfart, I I a pilgrimage to Mariazell was called Zellfart and that to Santiaga de
Compostela Jakobsfart. In Croatia, the Latin terminology was used, thus terms
such as peregrinatio, passagium or viagium appear in the sources. 12
While the ‚inner pilgrimage‘ was intended to Iead to an imitat1on of saints
as a means of achieving the perfect Christian life, pilgrimages ad sanctos, to
places that guarded relics of certain saints, were motivated by a different
reasoning. The vast majority of contemporary sources that mention pilgrimage
unequivocally state that personal devotion was a crucial factor in reaching the
decision to venture to one of the pilgrimage centres. Nevertheless, sometimes a
pilgrimage itself did not emerge and express itself in such idealised and moral
forms. Physical or mental illness, exhaustion due to long and dangeraus travel,
Iack of money for the trip, hunger and other misfortunes that accompanied
pilgrims sometimes alienated them from the initial intention of travelling with
devotion to some pilgrimage site and transformed them into people inclined
towards minor or more serious f01ms of criminal behaviour. Besides, the
intention of some pilgrims was not sincere from the very beginning; they did not
seek the spiritual and religious satisfaction of their needs at all, Iet alone visiting
7 Carolus du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, vol. 6 (Paris:
Leopold Favre, 1938), 269- 7 1 .
s lbidem, 1 2 1 .
9 Ibidem, vol. 7, 2 1 1 .
IO For example, in the testaments of the Hungarian town of Sopron one finds a great number
of references to pilgrimage to Rome; as, e.g., tbe last will of a certain Hans Neuhoffer, who
left his confessor 1 6 Hungarian florins zw ainer romjart; see: Jenö Hazi, Sopron szabad
kiraly varos törflinete [History of the free royal town ofSopron], vol. IIJI (Sopron: Szekely,
Szab6 es Tärsa Könyvnyomdaja, 1 930), 249-51.
1 1 lbidem, 225: Lienhard Sneyder, a citizen of Sopron, left 10 guildersfiir ain romfart vnd I
achjart.
12 On the terminology used for medieval pilgrimages, see more in Zoran Ladic, „Prilog proucavanju
hodocasca iz Zadra u drugoj polovici 14. stoljeca“ [A contribution to the research
into pilgrimages frorn Zadar in the second half of the fourteenth century], Croatica Christiana
Periodica 32 ( 1999): 17-3 1 .
62
centres which treasured saints‘ relics, but used their travel to abandon their
residences temporarily or permanently in order to gain material profit in any
way possible: by prostitution, trade in false relics, sometimes even by robbery
and murder. That is why it is no wonder that during the medieval and the early
modern period a series of erudite individuals, primarily theologians, thought that
pilgrimage was theologically unjustified and an unnecessary practice to express
religiosity; they were suspicious of pilg1ims and pilgrimage.
Writers contra peregrinationem
Early on, Saint Jerome pointed out that: „it is praiseworthy not to visit
Jemsalem but to live weil for Jemsalem.“l3 Even Saint Augustine, in his Against
Faustus (Contra Faustum), cmphasised that God is onmipresent and that He is
not defined or limited by a certain location or place.14 In the twelfth century,
Honorius of Autun was against making pilgrimages since he considered that it
was more pious to give money to the poor, meaning ad pias causas, than to
spend it on travelling to some pilgrimage centre. The only pilgrimage that
Honorius approved of was that done for penance in the case that a believer had
committed a serious sin; hc considered every other pilgrimage to be an unnecessary
desire of „vagabonds“ to traveJ. I S The bishop of Zagreb, Augustirr Kazoti6
( 1 26011265-1323) warned of various misdeeds committed by pilgri.ms at kermises
(church fairs), where individuals drank and fought. 1 6 In a Ietter, Amulo,
the bishop of Lyon, condemned the bchaviour of some pilgrims, such as, for
example, the fact that relics from pilgrimages were taken by members of the
lower classes, which made him doubt their authenticity. He reproached the acts
of superstitious pilgrims, especially married women and girls, but also older
women who occasionally fell to ground in a trance or shook erratically, thus
proving the presence of a supernatural force.17 Stephen of Bourbon expressed
similar views in bis 1262 work On Superstition (De supersticione). 1 8 The most
famous critique of the cult of saints and pilgrimage was that by Ab bot Gilbert of
Nogent in his On Saints and their Relics (De sanctis et eorum pigneribus). 19
13 Non Hierosolymus fuisse, sed Hierosolymis bene vixisse laudandum est. Cf. Giles Constable,
„Opposition to Pilgrimage,“ Studia Gra1iana 19 (1976): 126.
14 Jbidem.
1s Jacques Le Goff, Medieval Civilization, 400-1500 (Oxford and Ncw York: Blackwell Publishing,
1988), 1 35.
16 Franjo Sanjek, Crkva i krscanstvo u Hrvata: srednji vijek [Church and Christianity amongst
the Croats: the Middle Ages] (Zagreb: Krscanska sadasnjost, 1993), 358-59.
17 See http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/-thead/amulo.htm (last accessed: December 28, 2012),
sub voce „A Letter ofBishop Amulo ofLyon“.
18 See Stephen of Bourbon (d. 1262), De supersticione, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall
/source/guinefort.html (last accessed: December 28, 2012), sub voce „On St. Guinefort.“
19 See Guibert of Nogent, http:/lurban.hunter.cuny.edu/-thead/guibert.htm (last accessed:
December 28, 20 12), sub voce „On the Saints and their Relics.“
63
By mid-fifteenth century, Ivan Cesmicki (Janus Pannonius, 1434-1472), a
student in Ferrara and Padua, eminent Croatian humanist and member of the
intellectual elite at the court of Mathias Corvinus, wrote the following verses in
an epigram in which he ridiculed the pilgrimage to Rome in the jubilee year of
1450: „All rush to Rome, all of the world flow into Town, I with all of those
people not a free place remains. I Will this credulity be of use to them? l do not
know, I but I know that the Pope will benefit enough.“20
One of the most influential humanists from the end of the fifteenth and the
beginning of the sixteenth century, Erasmus of Rotterdam, in his Manualfor a
Christian Knight, also criticised making pilgrimages: „ls it truly such a big deal
if you physically visit Jerusalem while in yourself there is Sodom, Egypt and
Babylon?“ and „You believe that all your sins and offences will be washed away
… by going on one small pilgrimage?“21
Criminal behaviour of crusaders
From the very beginning of the emergence of the Crusades,22 meaning
from the end of the eleventh century, it was necessary to reconcile theologically
two basic terms related to the participants, mi/es and peregrinus, to justify the
use of gladius materialis in the context of peregrinatio.23 In Latin documents,
the crusaders were almost regularly called peregrini, with cruce signati sometimes
added. Their pilgrimage status as weil as some elements that were usually
connected to ordinary pilgrims, such as the pardoning of sins, were confinned
by scveral popes starting with Urban Il, who had called for an armed pilgtimage
contra infideles at the Council of Clem10nt at the end of the eleventh century.
The crusaders were declared to be milites Christi, but their patticipation in the
crusades was considered pilgrimage.
To view the crusaders as pilgrims and to offer them partial or complete
pardon of their sins was necessary, keeping in mind their violence towards the
infidels as weil as against Christians. An illustrative example of the violent, even
bloodthirsty, behaviour of the crusaders is that from Damietta, a Muslim town in
2o See Ivan Cesmicki (Janus Pannonius), Pjesmc i epigrami [Poems and epigrams], in Hrvatski
latinisti, ed. Nikola Sop, vol. 2 (Zagreb: JAZU, 1951), 3 19.
2I Erasmus of Rotterdam, The Manualfor a Christian Knight (Enchiridion militis Christiani),
ISO I . See http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle= 191
(last accessed : December 28, 2012), sub voce: „Enchiridion militis Christiani, chapter 13.“
22 On the Crusades as a special form of pilgrimage see Zoran Ladic, „Odjek pada tvrdave
Accon 1291. u Hrvatskoj“ [The ccho of the 1291 fall of the fortress of Accon in Croatia],
Zbornik Odsjeka za povijesne znanosti Zavoda za povijesne i drustvene znanosti HAZU u
Zagrebu 16 (1998): 433-56.
23 More on the definition and medieval arguments on the crusade as pilgrimage see ibidem,
444-48.
64
Egypt. Its cruel conquest in November 1 2 1 9 ended, according to contemporary
witnesses, with the massacre of 30,000 Muslim citizens.24
Sometimes the Crusades entirely lost their pious orientation, defined by
the religious enthusiasm to free Palestine and other countries in the
Mediterranean from the infidels. This is shown in the examples when they were
not used as a war against the infidels or the members of another Christian
confession, but against a Catholic country or city. Zadar is an example, where
the ct-usader anny committed a serious crime in the name of cettain political
interests in 1202: the Christian town, devoted to the pope, was attacked and
sacked.25 The authors of chronicles state that Pope ltmocent I1I hirnself condenmed
the conquest of Zadar. Tomas the Archdeacon reported that Zadar was
conquered because its citizens were „tainted“ with heresy (that of the Bosnian
krstjani). However, the reasons which led Tomas to write about this should be
seen in the broader framewerk of his views on the relations between Zadar and
Split and by viewing him as a member ofthe Church hierarchy.
Criminal behaviour of groups and individuals
Superstition – a source of pilgrims ‚ violence
Sometimes the violent and criminal behaviour of pilgrims was caused by
the Church hierarchy’s misunderstanding of peculiar forms of beliefs of the
common people. By seeing a cettain aspect of so-called common piety as an
expression of superstition, the Church often came into both verbal and physical
confrontation with lay believers. This was particularly emphasised in extreme
cases when people, having based their belief in miracles on identifying God’s
intervention, insisted on creating a cult around some animal. The dog was
especially popular, which derived from viewing this domestic animal as a
faithful companion to men as well as to several saints (Saint Dominic, Saint
Rock, Saint Eustace).
That is why, for example, the pilgrimage of believers to the tomb of a dog
in the bishopric in Lyon in the first half of the thirteenth centuty was a cause for
the conflict between illiterate common people and the leamed, literate, urban lay
and ecclesiastical intellectual elite. The legend related to this event states that,
during the absence of Master Villars and his wife from the fort of euville, a
!arge serpent attacked their young child, who slept in a cradle.26 Guinefort, the
24 See Penny J. Cole, The Preaching of the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1095-1270 (Carnbridge,
MA: Medieval Acaderny of America, 1991), 143-44.
2s On the political acti vities that led the crusaders and Venetians to conquer Zadar, see Na da
Klaic and Ivo Petricioli, Zadar u srednjem vijeku do 1409 (Zadar in thc Middle Ages up to
1409] (Zadar: Filozofski fakultet, 1 976), 175.
26 A detailed description of the events related to the development ofthe cult of the dog and the
confrontation of the ecclesiastical elite with the local peasantry is presented by Stephen of
Bourbon in his De superstitione; see http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/guinefort. html
65
master’s huge greyhound, attacked the snake and defended the child. The fight
between the two anirnals was fierce and the dog’s body was covered in blood.
When the master and his wife retumed, they were convinced that the greyhound
had attacked the child and thus they had him killed. Only when they found the
dead snake did they figure out their mistake. As a sign of gratitude the master
buried the dog and planted a tree over his grave. News about this event soon
spread among the local peasantry. Convinced of divine intervention which had
led the dog to save his master’s baby, peasants began to visit the greyhound’s
grave, attributing martyrdom to him and calling him Saint Guinefo11. Not long
afterwards different miraculous healings, especially of small children, stat1ed to
happen around the burial site. When the local bishop came to the place where
the dog was buried, he first had to Iisten to the numerous witness accounts of
peasants about Saint Guinefort’s post mortem miraculous healings. Then he
gave a sermon against the veneration of the cult and ordered the exhumation of
the dog. This caused great discontent and led to a confrontation of the peasantry
with the bishop’s armed escort, which resulted in many injured people. Although
in this case it was first the problern of misunderstandings between
‚peasant culture‘ and the ‚culture of the elite‘, this example shows the fact that
the sources ofpilgrims‘ criminality can be found in truly unusual reasons.
Robbers
While in the early and high Middle Ages the majority of pilgrirns were
members of the social elite who were accompanied by strong military escorts,
from the later Middle Ages onwards a growing number of pilgrims from the
lower strata travelled without anned entourages and were thus frequent targets
for robbers. It is interesting that intemational gangs of robbers were often
organised by f01mer pilgrims. There was a well-known gang of Poles,
Hungarians, and Italians which operated for several years in North Italy,
especially around Yenice and Florence, until they were caught and decapitated.
27
However, not even high secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries were spared
by gangs of robbers or false pilgrims. For example, in 86 1 , the Benedictine
monk Meinrad was murdered while on the famous pilgrimage to Einsiedeln in
today’s Switzerland. He was killed while attempting to prevent the theft of relics
and pilgrims‘ gifts by a false pilgrim gang that operated in the Zurich area.28
(last accessed: December 28, 2012), sub voce „On St. Guinefort.“ See also Jean-Claude
Schmitt, The Ho/y Greyhound. Guinefort, Hea/er of Chi/dren since the Thirteenth Century
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
27 Geremek, „The Marginal Man,“ 360-6 1 .
2 8 See http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/BiographienM/Meinrad _von_ Einsiedeln.htm (last accessed:
December 28, 2012), sub voce „Meinrad (Meginrad) von Einsiedeln (von der Reichenau)“.
66
Some of such robbers were especially trained for certain areas of work.
They usually mingled with pilgrims around centres that had churches holding
saints‘ relics and reliquaries, which brought high prices on the market and were
often the targets of criminal action. Bronislaw Geremek mentions such a robber
named Marcinko.29 One night, with the help of peasant accomplices from the
surroundings of Wroclaw, he broke into four village churches and stole money,
treasures, and some relics, but was discovered in the last church and
apprehended by the local villagers „with the miraculous help of saints.“30 He
was sentenced to death and bumed at the stake in 1454.
Soldiers under the guise of more or less legal war actions also stole relics.
In Croatian narrative and hagiographic sources, such cases are mentioned
several times. One of the best known is the theft of the relics of Trogir’s city
patron, Saint John Orsini. During the second desttuction of Trogir by the Venetians
in 1 1 7 1 , the bishop’s right hand with an expensive ring on it was ripped
from the saint’s body and taken to Venice. According to the thirteenth-century
legend, the hand was „miraculously returned“ to Trogir on the eve of his feast
day, November 1431 (see the saint’s hand reliquary in fig. 1).
Under the guise of pilgrimage many robbers travelled to distant countries
and organised themselves in gangs along with members of the local underworld.
Florentine criminal dossiers mention a Pole who came to ltaly as a pilgrim and
joined local robbers there, including other Poles and Hungarians.32 The gang
operated in the area of Florence, Venice, Siena, and Rome; they robbed clergymen,
innkeepers, and pilgrims, even peasants. The Pole was finally apprehended
in Florence, where he was charged and hanged.
Dealers in false relics
The trade in saints‘ relics (body parts, bones, blood, tears, personal
belongings such as, for example, clothes, footwear, capes, rings, etc.), which
were believed to possess supernatural powers of healing or serve as a medium
towards God, was a gainful and widespread activity, especially from the late
Middlc Ages onwards, when a growing nurober of customers appeared amongst
both magnates and pilgrims of more modest material status.33 An incentive to
the trade of relics was also the fact that the Church and urban centres, which
possessed !arge numbers of relics of extraordinary value, often became powerful
29 Geremek, „The Marginal Man,“ 360.
30 Ibidem: Miraculose sanctsi cooperatibus detentus et captus fuit non potens sacras res
deportare.
31 Milan lvani􀊻evic, „Zivot svetog Tvana Trogirskog“ [The Life of Saint John of Trogir], in
Legende i kronike, ed. Vedran Gligo et a/. (Split: Cakavski sabor, 1977), 82.
32 Geremek, „The Marginal Man,“ 3 6 1 .
33 See Ronald C. Finucane, Mirades and Pilgrims. Popular Believes in Medieval England
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1 995).
67
economic centres exactly because of possessing such relics.34 These reliquaries
held the body parts of saints and saintly patrons, that is, the main protectors and
spokesman of certain communes before God.
Fig. I : Gotbic band reliquaries of Saint John of Trogir. Tbe left band was made by the
goldsmith Master Emerik Cregnich of Zadar in 1 399, and tbe right hand by an unknown
Venetian goldsmith in tbe period between 1270 and 1280. Reliquaries of smaller dimensions
were often the targets of relic tbieves, organised by former pilgrims, not only because of the
contents ofthe reliquaries but also for the gold and precious stone omaments.
A widespread market for relics, especially in the large centres such as
Rome, Jerusalem, and Santiaga de Compostela, influenced the emergence of false,
unauthentic, relics, which were sold by local dupers or professional dealers.
Since this business was lucrative, it is no surprise that occasionally several heads
ofSaint John or lit:res of Christ’s blood appeared on the European market.35
34 See Esther Cohen, „Roads and Pilgrimage: A Study in Economic Jnteraction,“ Studi
Medievali 2 1 ( 1 980): 3 2 1 -4 1 .
35 On tbe traffic of false relics see Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefis of Re/ics in the
Centrat Middle Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978).
68
The sale of false relics was noted in the sources already in the early
Middle Ages, which soon led to developing ways to identify false relics. One
such example is mentioned by Bisbop Amulo of Lyon Amulo in the mid-nintb
century.36 In a Ietter addressed to Bisbop Teobold, he wams him to be cautious
in buying relics, since Teobald had evidently bought relics from two men
claiming to be monks wbo said that they had acquired some relics during their
pilgrimage to Rome: bones of saints wbom tbey could not name. Amulo wams
against purcbasing relics of which neitber tbe provenience nor the saint’s name
are known. Likewise, be empbasised that it was important to investigate tbe
evidence for the origin of the relics, especially when they were bought from
people of dubious status and lower social origins. Several centuries later, also
keeping in mind tbe dangers of selling false relics, Saint Dominic supp01ted the
decrees of the constitutions of the Paris bishop’s synod of 1 2 12 and tbe Rouen
synod of 1 2 1 3, according to which laymen and ptiests of suspicious background
and „questionable class“ were not allowed to display saints‘ relics to believers
since tbey were often not autbentic and caused confusion.37 From this, one can
conclude that simultaneously with tbe theologians‘ works in which they openly
criticised the practice of pilgrimages as an expression of superstition and
ignorance, certain members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy openly stated their
views against ungrounded beliefs in the autbenticity of some relics or the
justification for tbe veneration of certain saints.
Prostitution
One of the basic characteristics of prostitution in the Middle Ages was the
Iimitation of this profession mostly to !arger urban areas where the persans wbo
were engaged in the business could stay partially anonymaus or go unnoticed in
tbe crowds of residcnts or visitors.38 However, precisely these arcas were often
more impottant than the pilgrimage sites, since economic and population growtb
of many medicval cities depended on their transformation into relevant centres
on regional or international pilgrim routes. But the prostitutes were not only
found in seamy city quarters on busy roads. Occasionally they were encountered
in inns, by mills, and in almsbouses located on the widespread network of
pilgrim routes. Duc to the nature of their work it was especially important for
prostitutes to know the calendar of feasts of local as weil as regional and
international saints and also those of the patrons of parishes, cities, and states.
There is no doubt that they knew rather weil that in times of tbe celebration of
some patron at a certain place, especially during the jubilee years in Rome, a
36 The description which follows is based on http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/ -thead/amulo.htm
(last accessed: December 28, 2012) sub voce „A lener of Bisbop Amulo of Lyon“.
37 See http://www.domcentral.org/trad/domwork!domwork l6.htm (last access: December 28,
20 12) sub voce „The Plight of Preachiog in the Twelfth Century, by Reginald Ladner, 0.
P.“
38 On medieval prostitution see, for example: Geremek, „The Marginal Man,“ 364-66.
69
great number of pilgrims would gather, locals as well as foreigners.39 With the
fact that Jubilee years were especially supported by the Roman ecclesiastical
hierarchy,4o there is no doubt that even members of the secular social layers
profited from them, even those on the margins of society, for example, the prostitutes
whose work and financial profit increased in those years. Of course, the
owners of brothels in !arger cities such as Rome, Venice or Bologna also saw
financial gain. Regardless of the religious or pious motives for making a pilgrimage,
pilgrims often used the services of prostitutes.
Fights and confrontations amongst pilgrirns
In the pilgrim centres, especially those of primary significance such as
Rome, Santiago de Compostela, and Jerusalem, a crowd of people gathered,
many of whom were physically or mentally ill, exhausted from long travel,
hungry, or inclined towards aggression towards others. Besides the ‚true‘
pilgrims, there were conmen, thieves, and other criminals hiding in the crowds.
Thus, it is no wonder that during these large religious gatherings there were
confrontations between certain groups of pilgrims based on mutual misunderstanding
and cultural differences, even an affiliation to a particular nation (an
example is mentioned of a fight in which Hungari, Teutonici, ltalici, Angli and
others patticipated). Conflicts even arose between members of the same ethnic
group, often from personal animosity between individuals. One interesting case
of this type is described in the Book of Mirades of Saint Vitus (Liber
rniraculorurn sancti Viti) from Brdovec, whose parish priests carefully noted
every event that occurred at this locally important pilgrimage centre of Saint
Yitus and Saint Barbara in the period between 1 677 and 1 779.4 1 There, the case
of two young men from Cesarsko is mentioned „who were mortal enemies“ and
every time they saw each other in the same place a fight to the death
39 The first Jubilee year of 1300 was announced by Pope Boniface VIII and afterwards it was
annouoced every fifty, and then thirty-three, and finally twenty-five years. According to
some estimations from the South German provinces alone during the jubilee years 1 0,000
believers made pilgrimages to Rome. On the influence of announcing Jubilee years on the
increase of the nurober of pilgrims to Rome in general. see Ludwig Schmugge, „Deutsche
Pilger in Italien,“ in Kommunikation und Mobilität im Mittelalter. Begegnungen zwischen
dem Süden und der Mitte Europas (11.-14. Jahrhundert), ed. Siegfried de Rachewiltz and
Josef Riedmann (Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1 995), 104-09. See also idem, „Kollektive w1d
individuelle Motivstrukturen im mittelalterlichen Pilgerwesen,“ in Migration in der Feudalgesellschaft,
ed. Gerhard Jaritz and Albert Müller (Frankfurt and Ncw York: Campus,
1988), 266-67, 272-73, 275-76.
40 Although the Church considered prostitution morally wrong, even some theological authorities,
for example Saint Augustine, were against the prohibition of prostitution since such a
ban would have caused chaos in society and ever- increasing Iust and desire among believers.
See Schmugge, „Kollektive und individuelle Motivsrrukturen,“ 266-67, 272-73,
275-76.
4′ A microfilm of the source can be fouod in: Hrvatski drZllvni arhiv [Croatian State Archive],
roll M-23, I. 34/23.
70
commenced.42 The fight was usually started by only one of them. However, as
the parish priest described further, it had happened that on one occasion they
met in a dell. When the „righteous“ young man saw the „wrang“ one, he was
frightened that he would be killed and commended hirnself to Saint Barbara. A
miracle occurred and the bad man, as ifblind, passed by the good one. Not long
after, thc bad man was finally punished since someone shot him with a fire arm.
As a sign of gratitude, the good man brought a votive gift to Saint Barbara.
Vagabonds and adventurers
Especially in the early Middle Ages when mobility was rather a privilege
for a narrow circle of people, that is, the ecclesiastical and secular elite,4> and
travelling motivated on pilgrimage was only beginning, travellers from other
social groups were often considered to be vagabonds and adventurers. Both the
theological and lay authorities held the view that any mobility of the members of
the lower social classes represented a potential danger to the generat stability of
society. Ibis was especially emphasised in Charlemagne’s legislative regulations,
where a generat deep suspicion towards such groups or individuals can be
feit. Even pilgrims were placed in these categories, as the decrecs of a Frankish
Church assembly held in 789 testify.•• One of the postulates of this assembly
was that it would be better for a person who had committed some sort of crime
to be held in one place and to serve bis penance by working, serving, and doing
penance there then to travel araund from one pilgrimage centre to another. Due
to the appearance of numerous vagabonds and adventurers, considered to be a
negative result of making pilgrimages, the Church also insisted in later centuries
on a finn pilgrimage organisation, even using the term stabilitas in peregrinetione.
However, despite the constant tendency, especially of the ecclesiastical
hierarchy, to place pilgrims under the tight surveillance of the ecclesiastical
powcrs, a vast increase in the number of p ilgrims by the end of the M iddle Ages
resulted in precisely the opposite effect, that is, an increase of social instability
that was partly due to the contradictory policies of the Church itself, such as
declaring Jubilee years and handing out certificates of pilgrim status. One cause
of such instability were the vagabonds and adventurers, who stood out from the
groups ofpious believers and served as examples of criminal behaviour.
41 Jbidem, fol. 3′.
4′ See Zoran Ladic, „Ponukani poboznoscu i znatizeljom. 0 kasnosreclnjevjekovnim rapskim
hodocasnicima“ (Motivated by piety and curiosity. On the late medieval pilgrimages from
Rab), Koto 4 (2006): 262-71.
44 See http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03349c.htrn (last accessed: December 28, 2012), sub
voce „Carolingian Schools“.
71
Conclusion
During the Middle Ages and the Early Modem period, two separate views
of peregrinatio and peregrinus existed simultaneously. Certain theo!ogica!
writers defined the terrn ‚pilgrimage‘ as only a temporary residence of believers
on earth while on their way towards the ultimate goal – meeting God. Benedictine
monks held a high regard for such a type of pilgrimage practice, which
might also be called an ‚ inner‘ or ‚introspective‘ pilgrimage filled with moral,
pious, and ethical contemplation. The main characteristic of this peregrinatio in
stabilitate was to avoid the excessive veneration of saints and to avoid mobility
of believers from every class – with the goal of approaching God through meditation
and contemplation within the monastery walls and maintaining social
stability. These theological authorities also found the justification for their
Standpoint contra peregrinationem in superstition, the unjustified creation of
cults, the veneration of unascertained saints, the immoral behaviour of some
pilgrims, and different forms of criminal behaviour like robbery, prostitution,
fighting, and drunkenness. Still, most of the medieval and early modern sources,
especially those of lay provenance (testaments, travelogues, etc.), clearly show
the popularity of pilgrimages.
However, criminality was an omnipresent occurrence amongst pilgrims,
and in places of !arge gatherings of people there was always the possibility that
conflicts or fights might arise. 1n addition, hiding behind a mask of pilgrimage
there were often people who belonged to local or ‚ international‘ gangs. Any
form of adventurism or vagrancy was also considered criminal behaviour and a
potential threat to the stability of the social order. Certain profcssions, such as
the trafficking of false relics or prostitution were likewise seen as such. However,
while on the one hand the Church condemned such deviant behaviour by
pilgrims and at cettain synods tried to Iimit the number of pilgrimages, on the
other hand the same Church, especially after the proclamation of the first Jubilce
year in 1300, actually gave the strengest push: not only to pilgrimages towards
international centres (such as Santiaga de Compostela, Rome, Jerusalem, Assisi,
Saint Catherine’s on Mount Sinai), but also towards those with a more local or
regional importance (Aachen, Canterbury, Mariazell, Bari, etc.). As the reason
for the Church taking such a standpoint one must mainly see the financial gain.
Practica!ly, and especially from the beginning of the fourteenth century,
pilgrimages – travel of pious people as weil as of those with criminal intent –
speeded up the process of mobility among the European population, of men and
women equally.
(Translated by Kosana Jovanovic)
72
AT THEEDGE OFTHE LAW
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XXVIII
At the Edge of the Law:
Socially Unacceptable and Illegal Behaviour
in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
Edited by
Suzana Miljan
and
Gerhard Jaritz
Krems 2012
MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG
DER ABTEILUNG KULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DES AMTES DER
NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
KULTUR 1!\ NIEDERÖSTERREICH ‚W
Copy editor: Judith Rassan
Cover illustration:
Justitia: St Michael and the Virgin Mary
Pembroke College, Cambridge
(Photo: Mirko Sardelic)
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
-ISBN 978-3-901 094-30-X
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnennarkt 13, 3500 Krems, Österreich. Für den Inhalt verantwortlich
zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche Zustimmungjeglicher Nachdruck,
auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist.
Druck: KOPJTU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1050 Wien.
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Damir Km·bic, The Thin Border Between Justice and Revenge,
Order and Disorder: Vraida (Enmity) and Institutional Violence
in Medieval Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Marija Karbic, Women on the Wrong Side ofthe Law.
Some Examples from Medieval Urban Settlements
of the Sava and Drava Interomnium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1
Sabine Florence Fabijanec, Ludus zardorum:
Moral and Legal Frameworks of Gambling
along the Adriatics in the Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 I
Gerhard Jaritz, Outer Appearance,
Late Medieval Public Space, and the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Zoran Ladic, C1iminal Behaviour by Pilgrims
in the Middle Ag es and Early Modern Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Paul Freedman, Atrocities and Executions
of the Peasant Rebe! Leaders
in Late Medieval and Early Modem Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Lovorka Coralic, Unacceptable Social Behaviour or False Accusations:
Croats in the lnvestigations of the Venetian Inquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Slaven Bertosa, Robbers, Murderers, and Condemned Men in lstria
(from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Preface
This publication contains selected papers from a conference held in
Zagreb (Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb) in 2009, dealing with
the medieval and early modem period, and translated into English for this
purpose. • The main goal was to gather papers on a topic that has not been
researched enough amongst Croatian historians, that is, the socially unacceptable
and illegal behaviour of individuals who were „walking at the edge of the
law.“ The general idea was also to present various research questions at the
intersection of social and legal history, from the problern of feuding in medieval
society to the various types of delinquency by pilgrims. The emphasis was put
on the Croatian territory in the Middle Ages (from Slavonia to lstria and Dalmatia)
and set in a broader (East) Centrat European context. The articles follow
a chronological sequence, starting from the High Middle Ages, with a particular
focus on the late medieval and early modern period.
The first paper is by Damir Karbic, who dcals with the use of violencc as
a means of obtaining justice and re-establishing order, which was one of the
peculiarities of the medieval legal system when compared with Roman law.
After presenting different cases of feuds in Croatian sources, he discusses, how
medieval communal legislation treated feuds as a separate legal institute, using
the example of the city statutes of Split.
Marija Karbic concentrates on the ways in which women from the
medieval urban settlements of the Sava and Drava interamnium came into
conflict with the law by various criminal actions, from insults or brawls to
abo11ion and murder. She connects those problems with the economic situation
of these women, basing the analysis mainly on theft and prostitution cases. The
women were sometimes punished severely, but sometimes pardoned or punished
minimally.
The problern of gambling along the eastem Adriatic coast is the research
subject of Sabine Florence Fabijanec. She analyses the urban statutory regulations
Stretching from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centUJy. She deals with the
adoption of legal provisions against gambling and shows the diversity of approach
to gambling from city to city.
Gerhard Jaritz analyses the interdependence between Jate medieval
material culture, human behaviour, religious discourse, and legal culture using
the example of actions connected with superbio that played a role in public
• The Croation version of the conference proceedings is publisbed as Suzana Miljan (ed.), Na
rubu zakona: dru§tveno i pravno neprihvatljiva pona§anja kroz povijest, Biblioteka Dies
historiae, vol. 3 (Zagrcb: Hrvatski studiji, 2009).
7
urban arguments. The secular authorities emphasized moral, national, and religious
components, highlighting the necessity of averting God’s wrath.
The perception of the behaviour of pilgrims is the topic of Zoran LadiC’s
contribution. He shows, in cantrast to the idealized vision of pilgrimages and
pilgrims, that pilgrimages made by average medieval or early modem believers
were also considered superstition and that the pilgtims often engaged in fights,
robberies, prostitution, and other forrns of delinquent behaviour.
Paul Freedman offers an ariicle on late medieval and early modem public
acts of torture and execution, which were carefully choreographed events whose
solemnity and meticulous preparation made the infliction of mutilation and
death horrifyingly impressive. He also concentrates on the various topoi of peasant
rebellion as described by literate contemporaries, such as rape, murder,
cannibalism, the roasting of victims, and so on.
Lovorka Coralic deals with Croats accused in the records of the Venetian
Inquisition. Four types of accusation can be recognized: conversion to Islam,
Protestantism, the use ofmagic, and conduct considered improper for clergymen
(priests and other mcmbers of religious orders).
The last article is by Slaven Bertosa, dealing with poor social conditions
in Istria in the early modem period that led to hunger, poverty, depopulation,
and generat insecurity, which in rum provoked dangeraus behaviour, robbery,
and murder. Capital crimes were under the jurisdiction of the Potesta and
Captain of Koper or, respcctively, the Captain of Raspor with his seat in Buzet.
The village communities were also starting to organize themselves by introducing
patrols, although in a modest way.
The collection of articles tries to popularise the topics for one plain
purpose, that is, to erase the border between history and legal studies, since until
now one carmot actually speak of „interdisciplinarity,“ but only of looking at
many research problems from various reference points. Hopefully, this volume
will be useful not only for historians dealing with this poorly researched topic of
(Croatian) historiography, but also for a wider public generally interested in the
functioning of the legal and social system in the past.
Finally, my special gratitude goes to Judith Rassou for copy editing the
volume and to Gerhard Jaritz for offering the opportunity to publish it as a
special issue of Medium Aevum Quotidianum, thus promoting this research on
an intemational level.
Suzana Miljan
8