44
Varieties of Scandalum
Gerhard Jaritz
When dealing with scandals in the Middle Ages, one is confronted with variety
and multiplicity. It seems that scandala could arise anywhere where any kind of
communication took place and went wrong in some way. The spread of scandal’s
function and meaning during the Middle Ages can be seen in religious and
secular space as capital sin, as incitement to sin, public offence, slander and
defamation, and so on. 1
When scandala are mentioned in different items of source evidence, they
may occur in small or large numbers, with various criteria and hierarchies of
emphasis from strong and detailed argument to formulaic use, but always dependent
on or in the context of different specific levels of public space: the audience
affected was the populus Christianus or society generally, members of a
particular social status or group, the Church, a monastic order and its members,
or an individual religious house and its community, a family and its members,
neighbours, and so on. Again: There is variety and multiplicity in different
respects.
What seems important in such a complexity of possibilities and contexts is
finding and using some kind of comparative approach, as broad as possible, towards
the varieties of medieval scandala. This makes it necessary to analyze
many more and different sources and source corpora that either regularly or sporadically
use or deal with the phenomenon in their argumentation – always being
aware of the fact that scandalum may occur everywhere. I will, thus, concentrate
on some remarks based on the analysis of two further source corpora and
contexts which offer examples, patterns of and discourses about scandala, with
regard to their theological basis, theory and norm as practice.
The first context is that of an elite group, the Carthusians, an extremely
strict order with rules and regulations, for which one might expect from the beginning
that many aspects of not following their norms, mainly in theological
comprehension, would have caused scandalum. The two source corpora that are
1 See Lindsay Bryan’s contribution in this volume and her broader study “’Vae Mundo a
Scandalis’: The Sin of Scandal in Medieval England” (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University
of Toronto, 1998) (henceforth: Bryan, “Vae Mundo a Scandalis”). See also eadem, “Scandle
is heaued Sunne,” Florilegium 14 (1995-96): p. 71-86.
45
most important for the role of scandala in the Carthusian Order are, first, the
general normative evidence of rules and regulations meant for the whole Order,
in particular the Consuetudines Guigonis prioris Cartusiae of 1127, the three
parts of the Statuta Antiqua of 1259, followed by the three parts of the Novae
Constitutiones of 1368, and, at last, the Tertia Compilatio of 1509.2 Second, one
must use the Statutes of the yearly General Chapter of the Order which dealt
with matters and problems touching whole the Order as well as with matters that
concerned individual monastic communities of the Carthusians.3
If one looks for scandala in the Carthusian Order, one find a clear development.
The Consuetudines of Guigo, the first prior of the Grande Chartreuse,
from the 1120s, did not yet enumerate or, better to say, identify any scandala in
their rules, regulations, and argumentation. This had changed by the mid-thirteenth
century, clearly as one result of the practice and experiences of monastic
life. The Statuta Antiqua of 1259 already refer to the necessity pro vitando
scandalo in some matters and on certain occasions. The statutes concentrate on
rather general problems and cases that cause magnum damnum domus vel scandalum
ordinis:4 concerning monastic stability5 and necessary journeys of members
of the community,6 contacts with secular people7 and especially with
2 Statuta et privilegia ordinis Cartusiensis (Basel: Johannes Amorbach, 1510), henceforth
Statuta; James Hogg (ed.), The Evolution of the Carthusian Statutes from the Consuetudines
Guigonis to the Tertia Compilatio: Documents, Analecta Cartusiana 99, vol. 1-3 (Salzburg:
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1989). See also the index
to the Statuta: Gratianus Concioni, Consuetudinum Domni Guigonis Prioris Cartusiae
[1127], Statutorum Antiquorum Ordinis Cartusiensis in tribus partibus comprehensorum
[1259], Statutorum Novorum Ordinis Cartusiensis in tribus partibus correspondentibus
comprehensorum [1368] Tertiaeque Compilationis Statutorum Ordinis Cartusiensis [1509]
Index, Analecta Cartusiana 100:42 (Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik,
Universität Salzburg, 2007).
3 See the large number of volumes with editions of the Chartae in the Analecta Cartusiana
100:1 sq. (Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1983
sq.).
4 See note 9.
5 Statuta: Statuta Antiqua 2, IV/6: Utinam attenderemus omnes et adhuc maxime odibite veris
heremitis vagandi per mundum officium, proprium ipsorum euagantium periculum suorum
subiectorum iacturam et preiudicium, quibus priores inter cetera que eis debent quietis et
stabilitatis et aliorum nostre religionis exercitiorum prebere debent seipsos in exemplum.
Ultimo intuentium scandalum a quibus sanctuarii lapides non quilibet sed etiam angulares,
aliorum scilicet capita, id est priores, in capite platearum dispersi, opprobrio habentur et
contemptui, qui si in intimis in abscondito faciei domini starent, digni multa reuerentia
haberentur. …
6 Statuta: Statuta Antiqua 3, XXVI/9: Conuersi in itinere teneant vitam priorum suorum non
tantum cum eis comedant in domibus ordinis nostri. Soli teneant vitam congregationum in
quarum domibus fuerint pro vitando scandalo saluo tamen ordine nostro.
46
women,8 the divestiture of priors,9 and the punishment of members of the
community.10
This situation again changed considerably comparing it with the role of
scandala in the Novae Constitutiones of the fourteenth century and the Tertia
Compilatio from the beginning of the sixteenth century. On the one hand, the
number of references to scandala doubled: from six in the Statuta Antiqua to
twelve in the Novae Constitutiones. But it was not only the quantity that had
changed, it was also the quality. The Novae Constitutiones and the Tertia Compilatio,
in general, moved from only dealing with the most important aspects of
Carthusian life to a much more detailed regulation, which also touched the scope
of defining certain situations as scandalous. There are still such most basic
regulations that could be contexts for scandalum as, for instance:
• Propter scandala et infamias which have occurred in female houses of
the order and could still, daily, occur there, it is ordained that no new female
houses should be accepted or incorporated into the Carthusian Order.
11
• Prohibition for female Carthusians to visit male members of Charterhouses
and vice versa.12
• New male communities that have been founded with dotations that were
too small and lacked the most necessary buildings have led to multa
7 Statuta: Statuta Antiqua 2, IX/22: Hospitum personas tantum non etiam equitaturas maxime
secularium procuramus si tamen absque damno vel scandalo commode possit euitari. Qui
autem procurant quanto melius potuerunt inde se emendent.
8 Statuta: Statuta Antiqua 2, XXVI/4: Domus que non possunt cauere ne ponant mulieres in
operibus suis saltim propter vitandum scandalum prouideant ne conuerse vel redditi eas
custodiant, nec eis propriis manibus mercedem reddant, sed aliquis de mercenariis.
9 Statuta: Statuta Antiqua 2, XXX/29: Visitatores … nullum a prioratu absoluant sine speciali
licentia capituli generalis, nisi talem casum inuenirent quod immineret magnum damnum
domus vel scandalum ordinis si absolutio huiusmodi differetur usque ad capitulum generale.
10 Statuta: Statuta Antiqua 2, XXXI/14: Et quia non reputamus esse scandalum ibi punire
culpas ubi commisse sunt statuimus ut omnes expulsi qui reconciliandi sunt siue locus vacet
siue non in domibus propriis usque ad capitulum sustententur, nisi capitales habeant inimicos.
11 Statuta: Novae Constitutiones 3, IV/29: Propter scandala et infamias que quandocumque in
domibus monialium euenerunt et quotidie possent euenire, statuto perpetuo et irrefragabili
ordinamus ne amodo in ordine nostro domus noue monialium recipiantur aut incorporentur
sed tantum cura nobis sufficiat susceptarum.
12 Statuta: Tertia Compilatio XII/11: Priorisse vel moniales non visitent monachos aut
conuersos nec viros alios apud eas degentes, nec pariter monachi, conuersi, redditi aut donati
visitent priorissas aut moniales aliquas … . Quia si ex hoc excessus aliquis vel aliquod
scandalum secuta fuerint, sic excedentes aut scandalo causam dantes maiori nihilominus
pena punientur.
47
scandala et vituperia. Such foundations are prohibited from now
onwards.13
• Material donations to Charterhouses, out of which damna et scandala
quamplurima nostro ordini prouenerint …, should henceforth only be
accepted after the General Chapter had agreed to them.14
• Those who want to join a Charterhouse who are not familiar with the lifestyle
in the Order should not be accepted.15
But now even the wrong clothing is put into context with the occurrence of
scandala,16 food being too exquisite,17 decorations in the monastery like figurative
wall-hangings, cushions or other picture curiose.18 This move into a more
detailed discourse also refers particularly to matters of reputation: Danger was
seen in connection with lacticinia, that is, milk products, and serving them at
meals in the monasteries. There were days on which the members of the
community were not allowed to eat them, but some guests might have been present
whom those milk products could not be refused without scandal arising
13 Statuta: Novae Constitutiones 2, V/3: Et quia ex leui et indiscreta receptione domorum
nouarum minus sufficienter dotatarum et edificiis necessariis carentium multa scandala et
vituperia, quod dolentes referimus, nostro ordine nouimus prouenisse …, statuimus ut nulla
domus recipiatur de cetero nisi prius pro sustentatione prioris et duodecim monachorum ac
pro aliis oneribus necessariis supportandis sufficientibus redditibus vel possessionibus
assignatis ….
14 Statuta: Novae Constitutiones 3, III/1: Cum ex incauta et indiscreta receptione donatorum
et prebendariorum damna et scandala quamplurima nostro ordini prouenerint ordinamus
quod de cetero nullus recipiatur in donatum vel prebendarium absque licentia capituli generalis
vel prioris Cartusie, qui etiam defacili aut sine magna et euidenti necessitate vel
vtilitate talem licentiam non concedant.
15 Statuta: Novae Constitutiones 2, VI/5: Sacerdotes et ceteri qui de seculo vel altera religione
veniunt ad ordinem, si in missarum celebratione et obseruantiis regularibus forme
ordinis se noluerint conformare, vel si in sustinenda opinione sua fuerint obstinati vel in
modo viuendi singulares ad professionem nullatenus admittantur quam per tales personas
olim multa in ordine scandala prouenerunt.
16 E. g., Statuta: Novae Constitutiones 3, III/5: On the dress of the Donated Brothers: Et
quando diebus dominicis et festiuis pro diuino officio audiendo superius ascendent vel pro
negotiis ordinis extra terminos a priore vel procuratore dirigentur, vtantur caputio conuersorum
propter honestate ordinis et pro scandalis que contingere possent euitandis.
17 Statuta: Tertia Compilatio V/4: Hospitibus … non ministrentur nec preparentur diuersa et
exquisita cibaria ex quibus et religiosi et seculares immo etiam et ipsi hospites scandalizantur
et domus gravantur …
18 Statuta: Novae Constituciones 2, I/7: Tapetia uniuersa et cussini picturati vel alias curiosi
in usu apud nos non habeantur, sed et picture curiose vbi sine scandalo fieri poterit de nostris
ecclesiis et domibus eradantur, et noue de cetero fieri non permittantur …; Statuta:
Tertia Compilatio III/5: Picturas et imagines curiosas … tanque derogantes et contrarias
simplicitati, rusticitati et humilitati nostri arrepti propositi reprehendimus, et ne de cetero
fiant inhibemus. Iam factas vero si commode et sine scandalo fieri possit, tolli et amoveri
volumus.
48
among them.19 Another instance of this type deals with funerals: Members of the
community were normally prohibited from attending funerals except those of
close relatives; if a representative of the monastery was invited to attend the funeral
of an important person, this was to be done explicitly by the prior or a
member of the community asked to do so by the prior, with the same argumentation
as before: quibus sine scandalo non possent denegare..20
Such developments, modifications and changes show the growth of the
scope of discourse regarding scandala.21 In this connection they also offer a better
understanding of the different levels of meaning and use that the term scandalum
could take in strict monastic communities like those of Charterhouses,
where one would perhaps expect that the theological aspect of scandalum, seen
as a grave sin, might have remained predominant. In some context, scandalum
as it occurred in the regulations of the Carthusian Order may clearly be understood
as sin or even as a crime in the worldly sense, when the regulations, for
instance, talk about the prison of the monastery where members of the community
should do penance: those who had been criminals, had committed arson,
killed someone or others who caused serious scandal.22 But scandalum also
could become the bad reputation of the house or the order in the context of milk
products, painted cushions, and funerals of important secular figures.
The scandals in the statutes of the yearly General Chapter of the Carthusian
Order are noted mainly in the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century.
They concentrate on fewer details but again on fields that clearly represent
some of the most important main aspects of Carthusian life and their practice,
19 Statuta: Novae Constitutiones 2, IV/22: Ouis et lacticiniis vti non possumus feria secunda
vel quarta, in qua debet fieri abstinentia propter festum duodecim lectionum occurrens in
feria sexta. Hospitibus vero qui non sunt de ordine et quibus non poterunt absque scandalo
denegari pro vitando scandalo in dictis feriis permittimus ministrari.
20 Statuta: Novae Constituciones 1, IV/1: Nulla persona ordinis intersit sepulturis alienis nisi
forsan patris et matris, fratris et sororis quando intra terminos sepelientur. Poterunt tamen
priores et de ipsorum licentia clerici, redditi et conuersi prelatorum et potentum et aliarum
honestarum personarum quibus sine scandalo non possent denegare etiam extra terminos
sepulturis interesse, solum cum ad hoc fuerint inuitati.
21 Further references to (possible) scandala and their prevention in the Statuta: Novae Constituciones
2, VII/11: concerning summons; 2, VIII/7: members of Charterhouses who had
committed an offence should be punished in their own monastery and not be sent away; 3,
IV/24: about contacts of nuns to secular persons; Tertia Compilatio I/58: with regard to
saying mass in churches outside the Charterhouses; IX/26: about the divestiture of priors by
provincial visitators; XIII/5: concerning provinces in which quarrels of seculars are taking
place.
22 Statuta: Novae Constituciones 2, IX/1: Singule domus ordinis carcerem habeant
competentem in quo ad agendam penitentiam criminosi et qui minantur ignem vel mortem
vel de inferendo aliquo graui scandalo sunt suspecti et ceteri de quibus statutum est
recludantur. …
49
that is, stability,23 keeping monastic life secret from the outside world,24 avoiding
internal quarrels,25 obedience and other matters that caused dedecus et scandalum
nedum illius domus sed et totius ordinis et populi circumvicini, that is,
scandal for the religious house, the whole order and the neighbouring people.26
Trying to give a kind of short general summary of the representation of
scandalum in the Carthusian Order, one may stress that it illustrates the wellknown
variety but also rather clear patterns and developments during the late
Middle Ages. The latter show an increasing number and new types of cases that
23 1490: Et quia, experientia rerum magistra docente, comperimus translationes de loco ad
locum personis Ordinis hactenus fugae et apostasiae fomenta praestitisse et in dies discursus
personarum, in confusionem Ordinis et plurimorum scandalum generare … (John
Clark, ed., The Chartae of the Carthusian General Chapter 1475-1503, Analecta Cartusiana
100:31, Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1999,
59); 1448: Et seriose monemus [Priorem Domus Moguntiae] quatinus debitam adhibeat
diligentiam ad reducendum quemdam fugitiuum monachum domus suae Hertungum
nomine, qui in scandalum Ordinis iam pluribus annis prout Generali Capitulo nostro
scribitur stetit cum parentibus suis in domo paterna (Michael Sargent and James Hogg,
eds., The Chartae of the Carthusian General Chapter. Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale MS
Latin 10887, part II: 1447-56, Analecta Cartusiana 100:4, Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik
und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1984, p. 44); 1454: … committimus … Cristofori
Priori domus Sancti Bartholomei [de Trisulto]… auctoritatem nostri Capituli Generalis …
emittendi quascumque personas Ordinis illius domus Sancti Bartholomei incompositas inexemplares
et scandalosas & hoc pro reformatione ipsius domus …(ibidem, 189).
24 1469: Quia multi de Ordine obliti sui status et discipline regularis impudenter nimis et
inuerecunde reuelant facta Ordinis extraneis personis ecclesiasticis et secularibus, et de
personis Ordinis obloquendo dicunt que sciunt et quandoque etiam ea que non sciunt, diffamando
personas Ordinis, ex quibus oriuntur scandala et grauantur displicentie in mentibus
audientium, in tantum quod de Ordine et de personis eiusdem male edificantur. …
(Michael Sargent and James Hogg, eds., The Chartae of the Carthusian General Chapter.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale MS Latin 10888, part II: 1466-74, Analecta Cartusiana
100:6, Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1985, 89-
90).
25 1444: Monentes seriose priorem et conuentum dicte domus de Paulari ut litigiis inceptis
finem imponant quoniam litigia vltra intuentium scandala consumunt personas et bona.
…(Michael Sargent and James Hogg, eds., The Chartae of the Carthusian General Chapter.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale MS Latin 10887, part I: 1438-46, Analecta Cartusiana 100:3,
Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1984, 148).
26 1431: Domui Sellionis praeficimus in Priorem domnum Aegidium a domo diuionis nuper
absolutum, cui iniungimus quod contra suos ibidem dissolutos inuigilet et ordinem et
statuta teneri faciat, et si quos rebelles et inobedientes inueniat, domno Cartusie
quamcitius denunciet, et domnum Ioannem Boberii a dicto domo iuste et canonice per
visitatorem absolutum quia artem alchimiae attentavit et multa alia commisit in dedecus et
scandalum nedum illius domus sed et totius ordinis et populi circumuicini ultra poenam
dictae absolutionis praecipimus carceri mancipandum ad ordinis voluntatem, … (James
Hogg, ed., MS Grande Chartreuse 1. Cart. 15: Cartae Capituli Generalis 1411-1436, vol.
3: 1428, 1429, 1431, 1432, 1434-1436, Analecta Cartusiana 100:9, Salzburg: Institut für
Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Universität Salzburg, 1986, 50-51).
50
were labelled as scandalous, sometimes presenting much more detailed references
to specific aspects of Carthusian life and material culture than before.
* * *
The second context that I will deal with as an example of the representation of
scandalum, is broader. concerning the people who could have been touched by
it: theoretically, at least, every member of the late medieval populus Christianus.
The fifteenth-century registers of the penitentiary of the papal curia dealt with a
large number of problems that arose in the lives of Christians. Clerics and many
kinds of laypeople, men and women, applied to the penitentiary to get these
problems solved, to receive absolution and dispensation: concerning matrimonial
impediments, any sort of crimes, quarrels and fights, obtaining and keeping
ecclesiastical offices, and so on.27 At first, one might expect that most of these
cases and situations would have caused scandala which would have been indicated.
For my analysis I have used the registers from the German-speaking areas
of fifteenth-century Europe that have been published until now in six volumes in
the Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum from the period of Pope Eugene
IV to Pope Sixtus IV, meaning from 1431 to 1484.28 From this period, 21,934
supplications from Germanophone areas to the penitentiary office of the papal
curia have survived in the registers and been published. Analyzing this source
corpus, one discovers that the number of cases that were explicitly connected
with, that is, labelled scandala is very low. There is a reference to scandalum in
27 See, e. g., some overviews by Ludwig Schmugge, Patrick Hersperger, and Béatrice Wiggenhauser,
Die Supplikenregister der päpstlichen Pönitentiarie aus der Zeit Pius’ II. (1458-
1464), Bibliothek des Deutschen Historischen Instituts 84 (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag,
1996) (henceforth: Schmugge et al., Supplikenregister; Kirsi Salonen, The Penitentiary
as a Well of Grace in the Late Middle Ages. The Example of the Province of Uppsala,
Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae 313 (Saarijärvi: Academia Scientiarum Fennica,
2001); eadem, ”Introduction,” in Auctoritate Papae. The Church Province of Uppsala and
the Apostolic Penitentiary 1410-1526, ed. Sara Risberg (Stockholm: National Archives of
Sweden, 2008), 7-144; Torstein Jørgensen and Gastone Saletnich, Synder og Pavemakt:
Botsbrev fra den norske kirkeprovins og Suderøyene til Pavestolen 1438-1531 (Sinners and
papal power: Penitentiary supplications from the Norwegian Church province and the
Hebrides to the Holy See) (Stavanger: Misjonshøgskolens forlaget, 2004); Gerhard Jaritz,
Torstein Jørgensen, and Kirsi Salonen, eds., The Long Arm of Papal Authority. Late
Medieval Christian Peripheries and Their Communication with the Holy See (Budapest and
New York: Central European University Press, 2005).
28 Ludwig Schmugge et al. (ed.), Repertorium Poenitentiariae Germanicum. Verzeichnis der
in den Supplikenregistern der Pönitentiarie vorkommenden Personen, Kirchen und Orte
des Deutschen Reiches I (1431-1447; Eugene IV), II (1447-1455; Nicholas V), III (1455-
1458; Calixtus III), IV (1458-1464; Pius II), V (1464-1471; Paul II), VI (1471-1484; Sixtus
IV) (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1996-2005) (henceforth: RPG).
51
only 217 of these 21,934 cases, the latter representing many situations and contexts
that in other source evidence could have been and were explicitly called
scandalum. This clearly shows that, for the papal chancellery of the penitentiary
office and its scribes at least, the term scandalum and its use was not a real necessity.
Nevertheless, even dealing with this very small number of scandala one
can still recognize some patterns.
129 of the 217 supplications brought in connection with scandal, that is
60%, originate from the latest period, 1471 to 1484, the fourteen years of Sixtus’
IV papacy; the other 40% are distributed over the forty years from 1431 to 1471.
This shows a slight increase of the relevance of scandalum. The larger variety of
contexts for the occurrence of scandala in the later period, which one regularly
finds in other source evidence, cannot be traced in the supplications to the papal
penitentiary.
One particularly comes across two types of cases in the supplications that
are connected to scandalum , one of them concerning laypeople, the other one
clerics: More than 80% of the 217 cases pertain to supplications and decisions
with regard to matrimonial impediments and difficulties29 or to problems of bodily
defects of clerics.30 The latter could provoke scandal if they prevented the
29 RPG I, n. 196 (1438); RPG II, n. 888 (1452); RPG III, n. 106 (1455), 179 (1456), 192
(1456), 583 (1458), 1662 (1455), 1712 (1455), 1753 (1455), 1767 (1456), 1821 (1456),
1825 (1456), 1916 (1455); RPG IV, n. 821 (1464), 1815 (1461); RPG V, n. 180 (1466), 806
(1470), 1651 (1469), 2103 (1469); RPG VI, n. 256 (1472), 267 (1462), 283 (1473), 285
(1473), 294 (1473), 299 (1473), 315 (1473), 318 (1473), 319 (1473), 481 (1474), 553
(1475), 1103 (1478), 1160 (1478), 1169 (1478), 1170 (1478), 1178 (1478), 1181 (1478),
1186 (1478), 1190 (1478), 1192 (1478), 1193 (1478), 1200-1203 (1478), 1205 (1478),
1207-1210 (1478), 1212-1213 (1478), 1215-1218 (1478), 1222-1226 (1478, 1479), 1228-
1229 (1479), 1231 (1479), 1233 (1479), 1235-1237 (1479), 1247-1248 (1479), 1250
(1479), 1252-1253 (1479), 1255-1259 (1479), 1453 (1480), 1456 (1480), 1465 (1480),
1471 (1480), 1491-1492 (1480), 1513 (1480), 1536 (1480), 1657 (1481), 1689 (1481), 1709
(1481), 1848 (1483), 1921 (1483), 1983 (1484), 1991 (1484), 1993 (1484).
30 RPG II, n. 38 (1449), 887 (1452), 889 (1452); RPG III, n. 50 (1455), 298 (1456), 403
(1457), RPG IV, n. 930 (1459), 1019 (1459), 1074 (1459), 1093 (1459), 1095 (1459), 1152
(1460), 1213 (1460), 1254 (1460), 1376 (1461), 1395 (1461), 1479 (1462), 1489 (1462),
1558 (1463), 1575 (1463), 1587 (1463), 3147 (1459), 3204 (14360), 3232 (1461), 3248
(1462), 3309 (1463); RPG V, n. 959 (1465), 984 (1465), 1151 (1466), 1252 (1466), 1311
(1466), 1354 (1467), 1444 (1467), 1472 (1467), 1484 (1468), 1579 (1468), 1584 (1468),
1592 (1468), 1641 (1469), 1836 (1470), 1897 (1471), 1926 (1471); RPG VI, n. 2048
(1471), 2121 (1472), 2176 (1472), 2195 (1473), 2338 (1474), 2710 (1477), 2787 (1477),
2803 (1477), 2830 (1478), 2830 (1478), 2896 (1478), 3040 (1480), 3052 (1480), 3093
(1480), 3103 (1480), 3145 (1481), 3168 (1481), 3199 (1481), 3204 (1481), 3207 (1481),
3209 (1481), 3215 (1481), 3225 (1481), 3294 (1482), 3299 (1482), 3323 (1482), 3347
(1483), 3373 (1484), 6511 (1474), 6530 (1474), 6544 (1475), 6559 (1475), 6571 (1475),
6589 (1475), 6599 (1475), 6606 (1475), 6610 (1476), 6612 (1476), 6614 (1476), 6617
(1476), 6675 (1479), 6679 (1479). Altogether, there are 170 cases of such bodily disabilities
to be found in the analysed material of the penitentiary registers, mainly in the sections
52
cleric from performing his liturgical duties in an unhindered and correct way
(irregularitates ex defectu) or if he had inflicted these disabilities on himself (irregularitates
ex delictu).31 They were problems with the eyes and eyesight,32 deformations
of hands, fingers and legs,33 with being crippled,34 and so on. The
supplicants received their dispensation, because or if non est tanta in eo deformitas,
que generet populo scandalum.35 In these cases it was regularly the
scandalum in populo, that is, public scandal, which should not be generated.
The entries on matrimonial impediments, mainly third or fourth degree
consanguinity or affinity of already married couples who did not know about
these obstacles when they had been joined, do not represent the scandalum in
the impediment. Scandala, however, would arise if those couples broke off with
each other: propter scandala evitanda cupiunt remanere in matrimonio.36 Divorce
would be the scandal: … si divortium fieret inter eos, gravia scandala
on De diversis formis and De promotis et promovendis. Not all of them connect the situation
with scandalum. See Gerhard Jaritz, “Bodily Defect and Ecclesiastical Career” (in
Russian), in Memorial Volume for Aron Ya. Gurevitch (Moscow, 2009), in the press. For a
short analysis of them out of the time of Pope Pius II (1458-1464), see also Schmugge et
al., Supplikenregister, esp. 143-147.
31 See Emil Friedberg, ed., Corpus Iuris Canonici I: Decretum Magistri Gratiani (Leipzig,
1879; reprint Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1955) (henceforth: Friedberg,
Decretum Gratiani), col. 175 (pars I, dist. XLIX, c. I): Hinc etenim superna uoce ad Moysen
dicitur in Leuitico: “Loquere ad Aaron: homo de semine tuo per familias, qui habuerit
maculam, non offerat panem Deo suo, nec accedat ad ministerium eius.” Ubi et repente
subiuguntur: “Si cecus fuerit, si claudus, si uel paruo vel grandi vel torto naso, si fracto
pede, si mancus, si gibbus, si lippus, si albuginem habens in oculo, si iugem scabiem, si impetiginem
in corpore uel ponderus …”; idem, ed., Corpus Iuris Canonici II: Decretalium
Collectiones (Leipzig, 1879; repr. Graz, 1955; digital version by Angus Graham), esp. liber
I, tit. XX: De corpore uitiates ordinandis uel non (http://www.hs-augsburg.de /~harsch/
Chronologia/Lspost13/ GregoriusIX/gre_1t20.html; last access 24/06/2008) and liber III,
tit. VI: De clerico aegrotante vel debilitate (http://www.hs-augsburg.de /~harsch/ Chronologia/
Lspost13/ GregoriusIX/gre_3t06.html; last access 24/06/2008).
32 E. g., 1449: Martinus Noldener … exponit, quod ex quadam infirmitate quondam maculam
in oculo sinistro habet, que non sit talis, ut impedimentum prestet in div. nec populo scandalum
inducat …(RPG II, n.38).
33 E. g., 1468: Conradus Deckenbach …, … dum quendam lapidem portaret, lapis sibi cecidit
et sibi superiorem iuncturam digiti anularis manus sue dextre destruxit taliter, quod per
medium dimisit nec generat scandalum in populo vel prestat impedimentum in div. … (RPG
V, n. 1584); 1482: Jacobus Lubling …; …quidam pro parte adversa sibi insultum fecerunt
et pedem sibi amputarunt et mutilarunt; cum autem dicta mutilatio non sui culpa facta fuerit,
cupiat in suis ord. ministrare, et cum non tantus fuerit def., quod generare possit scandalum
in populo …(RPG VI, n. 3299).
34 E. g., 1461: Joannis Molitoris … non sua culpa quadam gibbositate patitur, que scandalum
non generat, quia aliter sanus sui corporis est …(RPG IV, n. 3232).
35 E. g., RPG VI, n. 2338 (1474).
36 E. g., ibidem, n. 256 (1472).
53
verisimiliter exoriri possent.37 While in the case of clerical physical disabilities
the danger of public scandal was general, it often touched in the case of scandals
that arose out of matrimonial impediments, if mentioned, the relatives.38 Sometimes
the group affected is not mentioned, but the gravity of the potential scandal:
as, for instance, in case of incest and fornication.39
Beside the matrimonial cases and the physical disabilities of clerics, the
penitentiary records do not mention much more about scandalum. Only a few
entries (28) use it in cases where supplicants had asked for absolution after
having killed or injured someone legitimately or unintentionally, or after having
been suspected of having done this, sometimes in the course of a situation in
which they had intervened in a dispute to prevent scandalum.40 Further variety is
represented by just ten cases dealing with different other aspects.41
This shows clearly that the familiar variety and multiplicity of scandalum
mentioned above did not appear in the chancellery of the curial penitentiary.
Thus, the evidence, construction or omission of scandala in connection with any
kind of offences was apparently dependent on the producers of the respective
texts and their environment. I am not able now to give a coherent answer as to
why the records of the papal penitentiary show an image different from other
evidence. Further research will have to deal with this question.
37 E. g., RPG III, n. 179 (1456).
38 E. g., 1455: Michael Schinadel laic. Brixin. exponit, quod ipse olim actu fornicario quondam
Ursulam de Bolsas pluries cognovit et eam impregnavit; cupiunt autem ad evitanda
scandala, que inter eos eorumque consanguineos, amicos et parentes evenire possent invicem
matrim. copulari …(ibidem, n. 1712).
39 See, e. g., 1458: Johannes Seemund … exponit, quod ipse olim sororem carnalem uxoris
sue post contractum et consumatum matrimonium incestuose et fornicarie cognovit; verum
huiusmodi res secreta est, que si ad apertum veniret, gravia scandala et homicidia verisimiliter
exinde consequi possent …(ibidem, n. 583).
40 E. g., 1465: Johannes Johannis de Cossowo orator … exponitur pro parte, quod cum nonnulli
laici in eius domo essent, ipsi inter se nonnulla verba iniurosa habuerunt et ne scandalum
fieret inter eos idem orator pacem et concordiam inter eos apponere voluit; tandem
prefati laici de predicta domo exierunt et unus laicus alium laicum extra dictam domum
interfecit; tamen a nonnullis asseritur ipsum reatum homicidii incurrisse et irreg. notam
contraxisse et in suis iam susceptis ord. non posse ministrare; …(RPG V, n. 1972). See
also RPG I, n. 90 (1439), n.628 (1441), n. 637 (1441); RPG II, n. 123 (1450), n. 819
(1451), n. 928 (1452); RPG IV, n. 1230 (1460), n. 1784 (1461), n. 1805 (1461), n. 1808
(1461), n. 1810 (1461); RPG V, n. 1972 (1465), n. 2008 (1466), n. 2055-56 (1467), n.
2083-84 (1468), n. 2108 (1469), n. 2181 (1471); RPG VI, n. 2291 (1473), n. 3479 (1472),
n. 3485 (1473), n. 3544 (1475), n. 3590 (1476), n. 3621 (1477), n. 3632 (1478), n. 3700
(1480), n. 3759 (1482).
41 RPG II, n. 736 (1450), 924 (1452); RPG III, n. 357 (1456); RPG IV, n. 976 (1459), 1205
(1460), 1787 (1461); RPG V, n. 998 (1465); RPG VI, n. 3716 (1480), 3746 (1482), 3816
(1484).
54
One is regularly confronted with an often formulaic use of scandala in the
sources.42 This is also well represented in the matrimonial impediment cases
from the curial penitentiary. The regularly applied argument was: … si divortium
inter eos fieret, gravia scandala exoriri possent.43 But it is not only this
formulaic sentence but also the way in which it was used. Often, particularly in
the late period, the sentence is not recorded as a whole but abbreviated, like: si
divortium fieret etc. scandala44 or, more regularly, not any more using the term
scandalum or scandala explicitly but just saying … si divortium fieret ….,45 or,
more often, .. et si divortium …46 or, in two cases, just recording …et si… .47 The
scandal and its context had completely vanished. One can now ask the question
to what extent, with the disappearance of the word, the offence also vanished or
at least decreased. A coherent answer may again be difficult.
What I would like to emphasize, however, and what perhaps may also become
one of the results of all four papers presented in this volume, is that it is
important to continue with further context-bound and comparative analyses of
scandala in different source evidence, not for the sake of scandal itself but as a
particularly worthwhile instance for the necessary application of manifold approaches
and interpretations in such a complex field of research.
42 See Bryan, “Vae Mundo a Scandalis,” 246 and 292-93.
43 E. g., RPG VI, n. 267 (1473).
44 E. g., ibidem, n. 1983 (1484).
45 E. g., ibidem, n. 553 (1475).
46 E. g., ibidem, n. 319 (1473).
47 Ibidem, n. 1456 (1480), n. 1465 (1480).
55
List of Contributors
Bryan, Lindsay, Department of History, Memorial University of Newfoundland,
Arts & Administration Building, Room A4019, St. John’s, NL A1C 5S7,
Canada
(lbryan@mun.ca)
Jaritz, Gerhard, Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit,
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Körnermarkt 13, 3500 Krems,
Austria
(gerhard.jaritz@oeaw.ac.at)
and
Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Nádor
utca 9, 1051 Budapest, Hungary
(jaritzg@ceu.hu)
Lemeneva, Elena M., Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 59 Queen’s Park
Crescent East, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C4, Canada
(elena.lemeneva@gmail.com)
Smirnova, Victoria, 9 Krivorozhskaya St., Apt. 1, 117638 Moscow, Russia
(smirnova.victoria@gmail.com)
SCANDALA
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XXII
SCANDALA
Edited by
Gerhard Jaritz
Krems 2008
GEDRUCKT MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG
DER ABTEILUNG KULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DES AMTES DER
NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
Copy editors: Judith Rasson und Parker Snyder
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
– ISBN 978-3-901094-25-5
ISSN 1029-0737
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnermarkt 13, A–3500 Krems, Österreich. Für den Inhalt verantwortlich
zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche Zustimmung jeglicher Nachdruck,
auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist.
Druck: KOPITU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, A–1050 Wien.
5
Table of Contents
Preface …….……..…………………………………….…………………….… 6
Lindsay Bryan, From Stumbling Block to Deadly Sin:
The Theology of Scandal …………..…………………..…………….… 7
Elena M. Lemeneva, “Do Not Scandalize Thy Brother:”
Scandal as Preached on by Jacobus de Voragine
and Other Thirteenth-Century Sermon-Writers …..……………………. 18
Victoria Smirnova, Saint Faith’s Scandalous Miracles:
A Quest for Novelty ………………………………………..…….…… 33
Gerhard Jaritz, Varieties of Scandalum ………………….……..…….……….. 44
List of Contributors ……………………………………………………………55
6
Preface
At the 43rd International Congress of Medieval Studies which met in May 2008
at Western Michigan University I organized a session on “The Meaning, Role
and Construction of Scandalum.” This volume contains the revised papers from
among those that were read there, those of Lindsay Bryan, Elena Lemeneva, and
myself. We also convinced Victoria Smirnova to contribute to this ‘Sonderband’
of Medium Aevum Quotidianum.
The use of the term scandalum in medieval written evidence can be
found regularly in different contexts following various patterns and representing
differing meanings: as capital sin, incitement to sin, slander and defamation,
public offence, and so on. Recent studies have not paid much attention to this
phenomenon. Only a comprehensive analysis by Lindsay Bryan has contributed
to this exciting field of research.1 For this reason we were particularly happy that
Lindsay was also willing to contribute to the session at Kalamazoo and to the
present volume.
The four papers here will not provide substantial new findings concerning
the occurrence, application and function of scandala in medieval society. What
they are intended for, however, is to animate scholars to devote themselves more
to researching phenomena which, as individual cases, represented exceptional
circumstances of life in the Middle Ages; taken as a group, though, they can be
seen as having been part of medieval quotidianity.
Gerhard Jaritz
1 “‘Vae Mundo a Scandalis’: The Sin of Scandal in Medieval England” (unpublished Ph.D.
thesis, University of Toronto, 1998).