Chapter XXXIII: Part I: The Mythological Poems (2)

[438] See Sackur, _Die Cluniacenser, etc._, _passim_, and Bd. II. 464 (Halle, 1892).

[439] On the differences between Cluny and Citeaux see Vacandard, _Vie de St Bernard_, chap. iv. (2nd ed., Paris, 1897), and Zöckler, _Askese und Mönchtum_, 2nd ed. pp. 406-415 (Frankfurt a. M., 1897).

[440] Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 166, col. 1377-1384.

[441] In fact, paragraph 15 provides that at the Chapter accusations against an abbot shall be brought only by an abbot.

[442] It is interesting to observe how much of Stephen of Bourbon’s description of the Poor of Lyons applies to Franciscan beginnings, and how much more of it would have applied had not St. Francis possessed the gift of obedience among his other virtues. Stephen was a Dominican of the first half of the thirteenth century, and himself an inquisitor. Thus he describes these misled people: “The Waldenses are called after the author of this heresy, whose name was Waldensis. They are also called the Poor of Lyons, because there they first professed poverty. Likewise they call themselves the Poor in Spirit, because the Lord says: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit....’ Waldensis, who lived in Lyons, was a man of wealth, but of little education. Hearing the Gospels, and curious to understand their meaning, he bargained with two priests that they should make a translation in the vulgar tongue. This they did, with other books of the Bible and many precepts from the writings of the saints. When this townsman had read the Gospel till he knew it by heart, he set out to follow apostolic perfection, just as the Apostles themselves. So, selling all his goods, in contempt of the world, he tossed his money like dirt to the poor. Then he presumed to usurp the office of the Apostles, and preached the Gospels in the open streets. He led many men and women to do the same, exercising them in the Gospels. He also sent them to preach in the neighbouring villages. These ignorant men and women running through villages, entering houses, and preaching in the open places as well as the churches, drew others to the same ways.”

Up to this point we are close to the Franciscans. But now the Archbishop of Lyons forbids these ignorant irregular evangelists to preach. Their leader answers for them, that they must obey God rather than man, and Scripture says to preach the Gospel to every creature. Thus they fell into disobedience, contumacy, and incurred excommunication, says Stephen (_Anecdotes, etc., d’Étienne de Bourbon_, edited by Lecoy de la Marche (Soc. de l’Histoire de France, Paris, 1877), cap. 342).

[443] The rôle of Franciscans and Dominicans in the spread of philosophic knowledge in the thirteenth century will be considered _post_, Chapter XXXVII. Chapter XVIII., _post_, is devoted to the personal qualities of Francis.

[444] Peter Damiani, _De contemptu saeculi_, cap. 32 (Migne 145, col. 287).

[445] On Damiani, see _ante_, Chapter XI. IV.

[446] Peter Damiani, _Opusc._ xi., _Dominus vobiscum_, cap. 19 (Migne 145, col. 246).

[447] Peter Damiani, _De contemptu saeculi_, cap. 25 (Migne 145, col. 278).

[448] Peter Damiani, _De perfectione monachi_, caps. 2, 3 (Migne 145, col. 294).

[449] _De perfectione monachi_, cap. 8 (Migne 145, col. 303).

[450] _De perf. mon._ cap. 13 (Migne 145, col. 307).

[451] _De ins. ord. eremitarum_, cap. 26 (Migne 145, col. 358). On the distraction from the _vita contemplativa_ involved in an abbot’s duties see Damiani’s verses, _De abbatum miseria_, _ante_, Chapter XI. IV.

For such as have feeling for these matters, I give the following extracts from Damiani’s _Opusc._ xiii., _De perfectione monachi_, caps. 12, 13: “Let the brother love fasting and cherish privation, let him flee the sight of men, withdraw from affairs, keep his mouth from vain conversation, seek the hiding-place of his mind wherein with his whole strength he burns to see the face of his Creator; and let him pant for tears, and beset God for them with daily prayer. For the dew of tears cleanses the soul from every stain and makes fruitful the meadows of our hearts so that they bring forth the sprouts of virtue. For often as under an icy frost the wretched soul sheds its foliage, and, grace departing, it is left to itself barren and stripped of its shortlived blossoms. But anon tears given by the Tester of hearts burst forth, and this same soul is loosed from the cold of its slothful torpor, and becomes green again with the renewed leafage of its virtues, as a tree in spring kindled by the south wind.

“Tears, moreover, which are from God, with fidelity approach the tribunal of divine hearing, and quickly obtaining what they ask, assure us of the remission of our sins. Tears are intermediaries in concluding peace between God and men; they are the truthful and the very wisest (_doctissimae_) teachers in the dubiousness of human ignorance. For when we are in doubt whether something may be pleasing to God, we can reach no better certitude than through prayer, weeping truthfully. We need never again hesitate as to what our mind has decided on under such conditions.

“Tears,” continues Damiani, “washed the noisomeness of her guilt from the Magdalen, saved the Apostle who denied his Lord, restored King David after deadly sin, added three years to Hezekiah’s life, preserved inviolate the chastity of Judith, and won for her the head of Holophernes. Why mention the centurion Cornelius, why mention Susanna? indeed were I to tell all the deeds of tears, the day would close before my task were ended. For it is they that purify the sinner’s soul, confirm his inconstant heart, prepare joy out of grief, and, breaking forth from our eyes of flesh, raise us to the hope of supernal beatitude. For their petition may not be set aside, so mighty are their voices in the Creator’s ears. Before the pious Judge they hesitate at nothing, but vindicate their claim to mercy as a right, and exult confident of having obtained what they implore.

“O ye tears, joys of the spirit, sweeter than honey, sweeter than nectar! which with a sweet and pleasant taste refresh minds lifted up to God, and water consumed and arid hearts with a flood of penetrating grace from heaven. Weeping eyes terrify the devil; he fears the onslaught of tears bursting forth, as one would flee a tempest of hail driven by the fury of all the winds. As the torrent’s rush cleanses the river-bed, the flowing tears purge the weeper’s mind from the devil’s tares and every pest of sin.”

[452] _De inst. ord. er._ cap. 1 (Migne 145, col. 337).

[453] The _Vita Romualdi_ is printed in Migne 144, col. 950-1008.

[454] Romuald died in 1027; _lustrum_ here may mean four years, which would bring the time of writing to 1039.

[455] _Vita Romualdi_, caps. 8, 9. Damiani does not say this here, but quite definitely suggests it in cap. 64. The lives of these eastern hermits were known to Romuald; hermits in Italy had imitated them; and the connection with the knowledge of the Orient was not severed. See Sackur, _Die Cluniacenser, etc._, i. 324 _sqq._ Thus for their models these Italian hermits go behind the _Regula Benedicti_ to the anchorite examples of Cassian and the East. Cf. Taylor, _Classical Heritage_, p. 160. A good example was St. Nilus, a Calabrian, perhaps of Greek stock. As Abbot of Crypta-Ferrata in Agro-Tusculano, he did not cease from his austerities, and still dwelt in a cave. He died in 1005 at the alleged age of ninety-five. His days are thus described: from dawn to the third hour he copied rapidly, filling a τετραδεῖον (quaternion) each day. From the third to the sixth hour he stood before the Cross of the Lord, reciting psalms and making genuflections; from the sixth to the ninth, he sat and read--no profane book we may be sure. When the ninth hour was come, he addressed his evening hymn to God and went out to walk and study Him in His works. See his _Vita_, from the Greek, in _Acta sanctorum_, sept. t. vii. pp. 279-343, especially page 293.

[456] _Vita Romualdi_, cap. 13.

[457] _Ibid._ cap. 20.

[458] _Vita Romualdi_, cap. 51.

[459] _Vita Romualdi_, cap. 35.

[460] _Ibid._ cap. 40.

[461] _Ibid._ cap. 45.

[462] _Vita_, caps. 49, 50.

[463] The Syrian region famous for its early anchorites.

[464] _Vita Romualdi_, cap. 64.

[465] Cf. Sackur, _Die Cluniacenser_, i. 328 note.

[466] _Vita Romualdi_, 69.

[467] Peter Damiani, _Vitae SS. Rodulphi et Dominici loricati_, cap. 8 (Migne 144, col. 1015.)

[468] _Ibid._ cap. 10 (Migne 144, col. 1017).

[469] This story is told in all the early lives of Bruno, the _Vita antiquior_, the _Vita altera_, and the _Vita tertia_ (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 152, col. 482, 493, and 525). These lives, especially the _Vita altera_, are interesting illustrations of the ascetic spirit, which, as might be expected, also moulds Bruno’s thoughts and his understanding of Scripture. All of which appears in his long _Expositio in Psalmos_ (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 152). To us, for example, the note of the twenty-third (in the Vulgate the twenty-second) psalm is love; to Bruno it is disciplinary guidance: the Lord guides me in the place of pasture, that is, He is my guide lest I go astray in the Scriptures, where the souls of the faithful are fed; I shall not want, that is an understanding of them shall not fail me. Thy rod, that is the lesser tribulation; thy staff, that is the greater tribulation, correct and chastise me.

[470] Guigo was born in 1083 at St. Romain near Valence, of noble family (like most monks of prominence). There was close sympathy between him and St. Bernard, as their letters show. Cf. _post_, Chapter XVII.

[471] Migne 153, col. 601-631.

[472] A bibliography of what has been written on Bernard would make a volume. His own writings and the _Vitae_ and _Acta_ (as edited by Mabillon) are printed in Migne, tomes 182-185. The _Vie de Saint Bernard_, by the abbé Vacandard, in two volumes, is to be recommended (2nd ed., Paris, 1897).

[473] _Vita prima_, iii. cap. 1 (Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 185). This _Vita_ was written by contemporaries of the saint who knew him intimately. But one must be on one’s guard as to these apparently close descriptions of the saints in their _vitae_; for they are commonly conventionalized. This description of Bernard, excepting perhaps the colour of his hair, would have fitted Francis of Assisi.

[474] _Vita prima_, iii. 3. Bernard himself said that his aim in preaching was not so much to expound the words (of Scripture) as to move his hearers’ hearts (_Sermo xvi. in Cantica canticorum_). That his preaching was resistless is universally attested.

[475] See, _e.g._, Vacandard, _o.c._ chap. i.

[476] _Post_, Chapter XLIII.

[477] _Vita prima_, i. cap. 11. This William became Abbot of St. Thierry and one of Bernard’s biographers.

[478] _E.g._ _Ep._ 107.

[479] _Ep._ 2.

[480] _Ep._ 110 (this is the whole letter).

[481] _Ep._ 112 (the entire letter). The Latin of this letter is given _post_, Chapter XXXI.

[482] _Ep._ 111.

[483] _Ep._ 152, _ad Innocentium papam_, A.D. 1135.

[484] _Ep._ 170, _ad Ludovicum_. Written in 1138.

[485] _Ep._ 191.

[486] Cf. _post_, Chapter XXXVI. I., regarding this instance of Bernard’s zeal. His position is critically set out in Wilhelm Meyer’s “Die Anklagesätze des h. Bernard gegen Abaelard,” _Göttingische gelehrte Nachrichten, philol. hist. Klasse_, 1898, pp. 397-468.

[487] _Ep._ 196, _ad Guidonen_; cf. _Ep._ 195 (A.D. 1140). See for the Latin of this letter _post_, Chapter XXXI.

[488] _Ep._ 147, to Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny (A.D. 1138).

[489] _Ep._ 101, _ad religiosos_; cf. also _Ep._ 136.

[490] _Ep._ 300.

[491] _Vita prima_, lib. vii. cap. 15.

[492] It was Bernard’s third absence in Italy.

[493] _Ep._ 144, _ad suos Clarae-Vallenses_.

[494] _Vita prima_, lib. iii. cap. 7.

[495] _Sermo xxvi. in Cantica._

[496] “Finem verborum indicunt lacrymae; tu illis, Domine, finem modumque indixeris.”

[497] _Ante_, Chapter XVI.

[498] As Augustine before him. Cf. Taylor, _The Classical Heritage, etc._, pp. 129-131.

[499] _Ep._ 11, _ad Guigonem_. Bernard adds that when Paul says that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, it is not to be understood that the substance of flesh will not be there, but that every carnal necessity will have ceased; the love of flesh will be absorbed in the love of the spirit, and our weak human affections transformed into divine energies.

[500] Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 182, col. 973-1000.

[501] Love, fear, joy, sorrow.

[502] Migne 183, col. 785-1198.

[503] _Sermo xx. in Cantica._

[504] _Sermo lxxix. in Cantica._

[505] _Sermo lxxxiii. in Cantica._ This is nearly the whole of this sermon. Bernard’s sermons were not long. See _post_, Chapter XXXVI. II., as to Bernard’s use of the symbolism of the kiss.

[506] _Post_, Chapter XIX.

[507] The present chapter is intended as an appreciation of the personality of Francis; incidents of his life are used for illustration. I have endeavoured to confine myself to such as are generally accepted as authentic, and to those parts of the sources which are confirmed by corroborative testimony. The reader doubtless is aware that the sources of Franciscan history are abundant, but that there is still much critical and even polemic controversy touching their trustworthiness. Of the _Speculum perfectionis_, edited by Sabatier, I would make this remark: many of its narratives contain such wisdom and human truth as seem to me to bring them very close to the acts and words of some great personality, _i.e._ Francis. This is no sure proof of their authenticity, and yet is a fair reason for following their form of statement of some of the incidents in Francis’s life, the human value of which perhaps appears narrowed and deflected in other accounts.

The chief sources for the life of St. Francis of Assisi are first his own compositions, edited conveniently under the title of _Opuscula sancti patris Francisci Assisiensis_, by the Franciscans of Quarrachi (1904). They have been translated by P. Robinson (Philadelphia, The Dolphin Press, 1906). Next in certainty of authenticity come the two Lives by Celano, _i.e._ _Vita prima S. Francisci Assisiensis_, auctore B. Thoma de Celano, ejus discipulo, Bollandi _Acta sanctorum_, tome 46 (Oct. tome 2), pp. 683-723; also edited by Canon Amoni (Rome, 1880); _Vita secunda seu appendix ad Vitam primam_, ed. by Amoni (Rome, 1880). Better editions than Amoni’s are those of Edouard d’Alençon (Rome, 1906), and H. G. Rosedale (Dent, London, 1904). Of great importance also is the _Legenda trium sociorum_ (_Leo, Rufinus, Angelus_), Bollandi _Acta sanctorum_, t. 46 (Oct. t. 2), pp. 723-742; also ed. by Amoni (Rome, 1880). (Amoni’s texts differ somewhat from those of the Bollandist.) It is also edited by Pulignani (Foligno, 1898), and edited and hypothetically completed from the problematical Italian version, by Marcellino da Civezza and Teofilo Domenichelli (Rome, 1899). Perhaps most vivid of all the early sources is the so-called _Speculum perfectionis seu S. Francisci Assisiensis legenda antiquissima auctore fratre Leone_, as edited by Paul Sabatier (Paris, 1898). It has been translated into English several times. Its date and authenticity are still under violent discussion. One may conveniently refer to the article “Franciscan Literature” in the _Edinburgh Review_ for January 1904, and to P. Robinson’s _Short Introduction to Franciscan Literature_ (New York, 1907) for further references, which the student must supplement for himself from the mass of recent literature in books and periodicals touching the life of Francis and its sources. See also Fierens, _La Question franciscaine, etc._ (Louvain, 1909). Among modern Lives, that of Sabatier is probably known to all readers of this note. The Lives by Bonghi and Le Monnier may be referred to. Gebhard’s _Italie mystique_ is interesting in connection with Francis.

[508] Consciousness of direct authority from God speaks in the saint’s unquestionably authentic Testament: “And after the Lord gave me some brothers, no one showed me what I ought to do, but the Most High himself revealed to me that I ought to live according to the model of the holy Gospel.” It is also rendered with picturesque vehemence in a scene (_Speculum perfectionis_, ed. Sabatier, ch. 68) which may or may not be authentic. At a general meeting of the Order, certain wise brethren had persuaded the Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia to advise Francis to follow their counsel, and had adduced certain examples from the monastic rule of Benedict and others. “When the Cardinal had related these matters to the blessed Francis, in the way of admonition, the blessed Francis answered nothing, but took him by the hand and led him before the assembled brothers, and spoke to the brothers in the fervour and power of the Holy Spirit, thus: ‘My brothers, my brothers, the Lord called me in the way of simplicity and humility, and showed me in truth this way for myself and for those who wish to believe and imitate me. And therefore I desire that you will not name any rule to me, neither the rule of St. Benedict, nor that of St. Augustine or St. Bernard, or any other rule or model of living except that which was mercifully shown and given me by the Lord. And the Lord said that He wished me to be a new covenant (_pactum_) in the world, and did not wish us to live by any other way save by that knowledge.’”

[509] These songs (none of which survive) were apparently in the _langue d’oïl_ and not in the _langue d’oc_. The phrases used by the biographers are _lingua francigena_ (1 Cel. i. 7) and _lingua gallica_ (_III. Soc._ iii.) or _gallice cantabat_ (_Spec. perf._ vii. 93).

[510] In fact this is vouched for in _III. Soc._ i.

[511] St. Martin of Tours had done the same.

[512] _III. Soc._ v. par. 13, 14.

[513] _III. Soc._ vi. par. 20.

[514] “Sancta paupertas,” “domina paupertas” are the phrases. The first is used by St. Bernard.

[515] _III. Soc._ viii.; 1 Cel. ix.

[516] _III. Soc._ viii.; see 1 Cel. x. and 2 Cel. x.

[517] _Spec. per._ 3, 9, 19, 122. How truly he also felt their spirit is seen in the story of his words, at a somewhat later period, to a certain Dominican: “While he was staying at Siena, a certain doctor of theology, of the order of the Preachers, himself an humble and spiritual man, came to him. When they had spoken for a while about the words of the Lord, this master interrogated him concerning this text of Ezekiel: ‘If thou dost not declare to the wicked man his wickedness, I will require his soul of thy hand’ (Ezek. iii. 18). And he added: ‘I know many indeed, good father, in mortal sin, to whom I do not declare their wickedness. Will their souls be required at my hand?’

“To whom the blessed Francis humbly said that it was fitting that an ignorant person like himself should be taught by him rather than give answer upon the meaning of Scripture. Then that humble master replied: ‘Brother, albeit I have heard the exposition of this text from a number of the wise, still would I willingly make note of your understanding of it.’

“So the blessed Francis said: ‘If the text is to be understood generally, I take it to mean that the servant of God ought by his life and holiness so to burn and shine in himself, that the light of his example and the tenor of his holy conversation would reprove all wicked men. Thus I say will his splendour and the odour of his reputation declare their iniquities to all,’” _Spec. perf._ 53; also 2 Cel. iii. 46.

[518] As to the acquisition of the Portiuncula see _Spec. perf._ 55, and on Francis’s love of it see _Spec. perf._ 82-84, 124.

[519] 1 Cel. xi.

[520] This seems to be true of Francis’s great Exemplar.

[521] _Spec. perf._ 69; 2 Cel. iii. 124; _III. Soc._ 25.

[522] _Francisci admonitiones_, xx.

[523] _Spec. perf._ 62; 2 Cel. iii. 71.

[524] _Spec. perf._ 61; see 1 Cel. 19.

[525] 2 Cel. iii. 81; _Spec. perf._ 39.

[526] _Spec. perf._ 50.

[527] _Spec. perf._ 54; 2 Cel. iii. 84.

[528] _Spec. perf._ 44.

[529] _Spec. perf._ 64; _III. Soc._ 39; 2 Cel. iii. 83; cf. _Admon._ iii.

[530] Cf. _Spec. perf._ 22 and 23; 2 Cel. iii. 23.

[531] _III. Soc._ xii. 50, 51.

[532] _Spec. perf._ 18; cf. 2 Cel. iii. 20.

[533] _Spec. perf._ 25; 2 Cel. iii. 22.

[534] _Spec. perf._ 95; 2 Cel. iii. 65. But Francis condemned all vain and foolish words which move to laughter (_Admon._ xxi.; _Spec. perf._ 96).

[535] _Spec. perf._ 93; 2 Cel. iii. 67.

[536] _Spec. perf._ 34.

[537] Cf. _Spec. perf._ 108; 2 Cel. 132.

[538] _Spec. perf._ 27, 28, 33; cf. 2 Cel. i. 15; _ibid._ iii. 30 and 36.

[539] _Spec. perf._ 101. This is one of the apparently unsupported stories of the _Speculum_, that none would like to doubt.

[540] 2 Cel. iii. cap. 101.

[541] One is tempted to amuse oneself with paradox, and say: Not he of Vaucluse, who ascended a mountain for the view and left a record of his sentiments, but he of Assisi, who loved the sheep, the birds, the flowers, the stones, and fire and water, was “the first modern man.” But such statements are foolish; there was no “first modern man.”

[542] _Spec. perf._ 113.

[543] 1 Cel. xxi. 58.

[544] 1 Cel. cap. xxviii.

[545] 1 Cel. cap. xxix.

[546] 2 Cel. iii. 101. These matters are set forth more picturesquely in the _Speculum perfectionis_; if authentic, they throw a vivid light on this wonderful person. Here are examples:

“Francis had come to the hermitage of Fonte Palumbo, near Riete, to cure the infirmity of his eyes, as he was ordered on his obedience by the lord-cardinal of Ostia and by Brother Elias, minister-general. There the doctor advised a cautery over the cheek as far as the eyebrow of the eye that was in worse state. Francis wished to wait till brother Elias came, but when he was kept from coming Francis prepared himself. And when the iron was set in the fire to heat it, Francis, wishing to comfort his spirit, lest he be afraid, spoke to the fire: ‘My Brother Fire, noble and useful among other creatures, be courteous to me in this hour, since I have loved and will love thee for the love of Him who made thee. I also beseech our Creator, who made us both, that He may temper thy heat so that I may bear it.’ And when his prayer was finished he made the sign of the cross over the fire.

“We indeed who were with him then fled for pity and compassion, and the doctor remained alone with him. When the cautery was finished, we returned, and he said to us: ‘Fearful and of little faith, why did you flee? I tell you truly I felt no pain, nor any heat of the fire. If it is not well seared he may sear it better.’

“The astonished doctor assured them all that the cautery was so severe that a strong man, let alone one so weak, could hardly have endured it, while Francis showed no sign of pain” (_Spec. perf._ 115). “Thus fire treated Francis courteously; for he had never failed to treat it reverently and respect its rights. Once his clothes caught fire, and he would not put it out, and forbade a brother, saying: ‘Nay, dearest brother, do no harm to the fire.’ He would never put out fire, and did not wish any brother to throw away a fire or push a smoking log away, but wished that it should be just set on the ground, out of reverence to Him whose creature it is” (_ibid._ 116).

“Next to fire he had a peculiar love for water, wherein is figured holy penitence and the tribulation with which the soul’s uncleanness is washed away, and because the first washing of the soul is through the water of baptism. So when he washed his hands he would choose a place where the water which fell would not be trodden on. Also when he walked over rocks, he walked with trembling and reverence for the love of Him who is called the ‘Rock’; and whenever he repeated that psalm, ‘Thou hast exalted me upon a rock,’ he would say with great reverence and devotion: ‘Under the foot of the rock thou hast exalted me.’”

“He directed the brother who cut and fetched the fire-wood never to cut a whole tree, so that some part of it might remain untouched for the love of Him who was willing to work out our salvation upon the wood of the cross.

“Likewise he told the brother who made the garden, not to devote all of it to vegetables, but to have some part for flowering plants, which in their seasons produce Brother Flowers for love of Him who is called the ‘Flower of the field and the Lily of the valley.’ He said indeed that Brother Gardener always ought to make a beautiful patch in some part of the garden, and plant it with all sorts of sweet-smelling herbs and herbs that produce beautiful flowers, so that in their season they may invite men seeing them to praise the Lord. For every creature cries aloud, ‘God made me for thy sake, O man.’ We that were with him saw that inwardly and outwardly he did so greatly rejoice in all created things, that touching or seeing them his spirit seemed not to be upon the earth, but in heaven” (_ibid._ 113).

“Above all things lacking reason he loved the sun and fire most affectionately, for he would say: ‘In the morning when the sun rises every man ought to praise God who created it for our use, because by day our eyes are illumined by it; in the evening, when night comes, every man ought to give praise on account of Brother Fire, because by it our eyes are illumined by night. For all of us are blind, and the Lord through those two brothers lightens our eyes; and therefore for these, and for other creatures which we daily use, we ought to praise the Creator.’ Which indeed he did himself up to the day of his death” (_ibid._ 119).

[547] Translated from the text as given in E. Monaci’s _Crestomazia italiana dei primi secoli_. Substantially the same text is given in _Spec. perf._ 120.

[548] The mediaeval term _apex mentis_ is not inapt.

[549] Assurance of the soul’s communion, and even union, with God is the chief element of what is termed mysticism, which will be discussed briefly in connection with scholastic philosophy, _post_, Chapter XXXVI. II. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries those who experienced the divine through visions, ecstasies, and rapt contemplation, were not as analytically and autobiographically self-conscious as later mystics. Yet St. Theresa’s (sixteenth century) mystical analysis of self and God (for which see H. Delacroix, _Études d’histoire et de psychologie du mysticisme_, Paris, 1908) might be applied to the experiences of St. Elizabeth of Schönau or St. Hildegard of Bingen.

[550] _Ante_, Chapter XIII. II.

[551] Neither Othloh’s visions, nor those to be recounted, were narratives of voyages to the other world. The name of these is legion. They begin in _Bede’s Ecclesiastical History_, and continue through the Middle Ages--until they reach their apotheosis in the _Divina Commedia_. See _post_, Chapter XLIII.

[552] Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 195.

[553] The works of St. Hildegard of Bingen are published in vol. 197 of Migne’s _Pat. Lat._ and in vol. viii. of Pitra’s _Analecta sacra_, under the title _Analecta Sanctae Hildegardis opera Spicilegio Solesmensi parata_ (1882). Certain supplementary passages to the latter volume are published in _Analecta Bollandiana_, i. (Paris, 1882). These publications are completed by F. W. E. Roth’s _Lieder und die unbekannte Sprache der h. Hildegardis_ (Wiesbaden, 1880). The same author has a valuable article on Hildegard in _Zeitschrift für kirchliche Wissenschaft, etc._, 1888, pp. 453-471. See also an article by Battandier, _Revue des questions historiques_, 33 (1883), pp. 395-425. Other literature on Hildegard in Chevalier’s _Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen âge_, under her name.

Her two most interesting works, for our purposes at least, are the _Scivias_ (meaning _Scito vias Domini_), completed in 1151 after ten years of labour, and the _Liber vitae meritorum per simplicem hominem a vivente luce revelatorum_ (Pitra, _o.c._ pp. 1-244), begun in 1159, and finished some five years later. Extracts from these are given in the text. Other works show her extraordinary intellectual range. Of these the _Liber divinorum operum simplicis hominis_ (Migne 197, col. 741-1038) is a vision of the mysteries of creation, followed by a voluminous commentary upon the world and all therein, including natural phenomena, human affairs, the nature of man, and the functions of his mind and body. It closes with a discussion of Antichrist and the Last Times. The work was begun about 1164, when Hildegard finished the _Liber vitae meritorum_, and was completed after seven years of labour. She also wrote a Commentary on the Gospels, and sundry lives of saints, and there is ascribed to her quite a prodigious work upon natural history and the virtues of plants, the whole entitled: _Subtilitatum diversarum naturarum creaturarum libri IX._ (Migne 197, col. 1118-1351); and probably she composed another work on medicine, _i.e._ the unpublished _Liber de causis et curis_ (see Pitra, _o.c._, prooemium, p. xi.). Preger’s contention (_Geschichte der deutschen Mystik_, i. pp. 13-27, 1874) that the works bearing Hildegard’s name are forgeries, never obtained credence, and is not worth discussing since the publication of Pitra’s volume.

[554] _Analecta Sanctae Hildegardis opera Spicilegio Solesmensi parata_, p. 523; cf. _ibid._ p. 561; also _Ep._ 27 of Hildegard in Migne 197, col. 186.

[555] These questions and Hildegard’s solutions are given in Migne 197, col. 1038-1054, and the letter in Pitra, _o.c._ 399-400.

[556] Pitra, _o.c._ 394, 395.

[557] By _visio_ as used here, Hildegard refers to the general undefined light--the _umbra viventis lucis_, in which she saw her special visions.

[558] Pitra, _o.c._ 332.

[559] This is from the prologue to the _Scivias_, Pitra, _o.c._ 503, 504 (Migne 197, 483, 484). Guibert in his _Vita_ speaks of Hildegard as _indocta_ and unable to penetrate the meaning of Scripture _nisi cum vis internae aspirationis illuminans eam juvaret_, Pitra, _o.c._ 413. Compare Hildegard’s prooemium to her _Life of St. Disibodus_ (Pitra, _o.c._ 357) and the preface to her _Liber divinorum operum_ (Migne 197, 741, 742).

[560] Guibertus to Radilfus, a monk of Villars (Pitra, _o.c._ 577) apparently written in 1180.

[561] Pitra, _o.c._ pp. 1-244.

[562] Pitra, _o.c._ pp. 8-10. The translation is condensed, but is kept close to the original.

[563] _Ibid._ p. 13.

[564] Pitra, _o.c._ p. 24.

[565] _Ibid._ p. 51 _sqq._

[566] Pitra, _o.c._ p. 92 _sqq._

[567] _Ibid._ p. 131 _sqq._ Of course, one at once thinks of the punishments in Dante’s _Inferno_, which in no instance are identical with those of Hildegard, and yet offer common elements. Dante is not known to have read the work of Hildegard.

[568] Pitra, _o.c._ pp. 230-240. I am not clear as to Hildegard’s ideas of Purgatory, for which she seems to have no separate region. In the case of sinners who have begun, but not completed, their penances on earth, the punishments described work _purgationem_, and the souls are loosed (_ibid._ p. 42). In Part III. of the work we are considering, the paragraphs describing the punishments are entitled _De superbiae_, _invidiae_, _inobedientiae_, _infidelitatis_, etc., _poenis purgatoriis_ (_ibid._ p. 130). But each paragraph is followed by one entitled _De poenitentia superbiae_, etc., and the _poenitentia_ referred to is worked out with penance in this life. Consequently it is not quite clear that the word _purgatoriis_ attached to _poenis_ signifies temporary punishment to be followed by release.

In a vision of the Last Times (_ibid._ p. 225) Hildegard sees “black burning darkness,” in which was _gehenna_, containing every kind of horrible punishment. She did not then see _gehenna_ itself, because of the darkness surrounding it; but heard the frightful cries. Cf. _Aeneid_, vi. 548 _sqq._

[569] This is the view expounded so grandly by Hugo of St. Victor in his _De sacramentis_, _post_, Chapter XXVIII.

[570] Migne 197, col. 433. All this is interesting in view of the many figures of the Church and Synagogue carved on the cathedrals, most of them later than Hildegard’s time. The “Synagogue” of sculpture has her eyes bound, the sculpturesque expression of eyelessness. The rest of Hildegard’s symbolism was not followed in sculpture.

[571] Migne 197, col. 437 _sqq._ Cf. St. Bernard, _Sermo xix. in Cantica_.

[572] Migne 197, col. 449.

[573] Notice the supra-terrestrial term, which can hardly be translated so as to fit an actual wall.

[574] Migne 197, col. 583. Compare this vision with the symbolic interpretation of the cathedral edifice, _post_, Chapter XXIX.

[575] Cf. St. Bernard’s treatment of this matter, _ante_, Chapter XVII.

[576] In a Middle High German Marienleben, by Bruder Phillips (13th century) the young virgin is made herself to say to God:

“Du bist min lieber priutegam (bridegroom),
Dir gib ich minen magetuom (maidenhood),
Du bist min vil schoener man.

“Du bist min vriedel (lover) und min vriunt (ami);
Ich bin von diner minne entzundt.”

Bobertag, _Erzählende Dichtungen des späteren Mittelalters_, p. 46 (Deutsche Nat. Litt.).

[577] _Vita B. Mariae Ogniacensis_, per Jacobum de Vitreaco, Bollandi, _Acta sanctorum_ t. 21 (June t. iv. pp. 636-666). Jacques had good reason to canonize her bones, since one of them, in his saddle-bags, had saved his mule from drowning while crossing a river in Tuscany.

[578] Cant. ii. 5. The translation in the English Revised Version is: “Stay me with cakes of raisins, comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love.” The phrases of Canticles, always in the words of the Latin Vulgate, come continually into the minds of these ecstatic women and their biographers. The sonorous language of the Vulgate is not always close to the meaning of the Hebrew. But it was the Vulgate and not the Hebrew that formed the mediaeval Bible, and its language should be observed in discussing mediaeval applications of Scripture.

[579] “Dum esset Rex in accubitu suo,” Cant. i. 11, in Vulgate; Cant. i. 12, in the English version, which renders it: “While the King sitteth at His table.”

[580] _Vita B. Mariae, etc._, par. 2-8. Since we are seeing these mediaeval religious phenomena as they impressed contemporaries, it would be irrelevant to subject them to the analyses which pathological psychology applies to not dissimilar phenomena.

[581] It is reported of St. Catharine of Siena that she would go for weeks with no other food than the Eucharist.

[582] I am drawing from her _Vita_ by her contemporary, Thomas of Cantimpré, _Acta SS._, Bollandi, t. 21 (t. 3 of June), p. 234 _sqq._

[583] Cf. Canticles iii. 2; _Vita_, lib. iii. par. 42.

[584] Cant. iii. 1, 7; i. 16.

[585] _Vita_, lib. iii. pars. 9, 11. It is well known how great a love of her Lord possessed St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and how she sent her children away from her, that she might not be distracted from loving Him alone. The vision which came to her upon her expulsion from the Wartburg, after the death of her husband, King Louis of Thuringia, is given as follows, in her own words, according to the sworn statement of her waiting-women: “I saw the heaven open, and that sweet Jesus, my Lord, bending toward me and consoling me in my tribulation; and when I saw Him I was glad, and laughed; but when He turned His face, as if to go away, I cried. Pitying me, He turned His serene countenance to me a second time, saying: ‘If thou wishest to be with me, I wish to be with thee.’ I responded: ‘Thou, Lord, thou dost wish to be with me, and I wish to be with thee, and I wish never to be separated from thee’” (_Libellus de dictis quatuor ancillarum_, Mencken, _Scriptores Rerum Germ._ ii. 2020 A-C, Leipzig, 1728). The German sermon of Hermann von Fritzlar (cir. 1340) tells this vision in nearly the same words, putting, however, this phrase in Elizabeth’s mouth: “Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to me, and when He turned from me, I cried, and then He turned to me, and I became red (blushed?), and before I was pale” (Hildebrand, _Didaktik aus der Zeit der Kreuzzüge_, p. 36, Deutsche Nat. Lit.).

[586] _Offenbarungen der Schwester Mechthild von Magdeburg oder das fliessende Licht der Gottheit_, ed. by P. G. Morel, Regensburg, 1869. See Preger, _Gesch. der deutschen Mystik_, i. 70, 91 _sqq._ Preger points out that the High-German version of this work, which we possess, was made from the Low-German original in the year 1344. Extracts from Mechthild’s book are given by Vetter, _Lehrhafte Literatur des 14. und 15. Jahrhunderts_, pp. 192-199; and by Hildebrand, _Didaktik aus der Zeit der Kreuzzüge_, pp. 6-10 (Deutsche Nat. Lit.).

[587] We pass over these portions of Mechthild’s book which exemplify the close connection between ecstatic contemplation and the denunciation of evil in the world.

[588] Mechthild constantly uses phrases from the courtly love poetry of her time.

[589] _Das fliessende Licht, etc._, i. cap. 3. Hildebrand, _o.c._ p. 6, cites this apposite verse from the thoughtful and knightly Minnesinger, Reimar von Zweter:

“Got herre unuberwundenlich,
Wie uberwant die Minne dich!
Getorste ich, so spraech ich:
Si wart an dir so sigerich.”

[590] _Das fliessende Licht, etc._, i. 38-44.

[591] “I would gladly die of love, might that be my lot; for Him whom I love I have seen with my bright eyes standing in my soul” (_ibid._ ii. cap. 2).

[592] Cf. ii. 22.

[593] See i. 10; ii. 23.

[594] i. 13.

[595] ii. 4.

[596] iii. 1, 10.

[597] It is quite true that in the earliest Christian times the marriage of priests was recognized, and continued to be at least connived at until, say, the time of Hildebrand. Yet the best thoughtfulness and piety from the Patristic period onward had disapproved of priestly marriages, which consequently tended to sink to the level of concubinage, until they were absolutely condemned by the Church.

[598] _Anecdotes, etc., d’Étienne de Bourbon_, ed. by Lecoy de la Marche, p. 249 (Soc. de l’Histoire de France, t. 185, Paris, 1877). This story refers to the years 1166-1171.

[599] Many bishops and abbots held definite secular rank; the Archbishop of Rheims was a duke, and so was the Bishop of Langres and Laon; while the bishops of Beauvais and Noyon were counts. In Germany, the archiepiscopal dukes of Cologne and Mainz were among the chief princes of the land.

[600] There were, however, some (naturally shocking) instances of inheritance, as where the Bishop of Nantes in 1049 admitted that he had been invested with the bishopric during the lifetime of his father, the preceding bishop. See Luchaire, in vol. ii. (2), pp. 107-117 of Lavisse’s _Hist. de France_, for this and other examples of episcopal feudalism.

[601] _Sermo in Cantica_, 33, par. 15 (Migne 183, col. 958-959). With this passage from St. Bernard, one may compare the far more detailed picture of the luxury and dissolute ways of the secular clergy in France given in the _Apologia of Guido of Bazoches_ (latter part of the twelfth century). W. Wattenbach. “Die Apologie des Guido von Bazoches,” _Sitzungsberichte Preussichen Akad._, 1893, (1), pp. 395-420.

[602] Ed. by T. Wright (Camden Society, London, 1841).

[603] The poem called _De ruina Romae_. It begins, “Propter Syon non tacebo.”

[604] _Post_, Chapter XXVI.

[605] The “Bible” of Guiot is published in Barbazan’s _Fabliaux_, t. ii. (Paris, 1808). It is conveniently given with other satirical or moralizing compositions in Ch. V. Langlois, _La Vie en France au moyen âge d’après quelques moralistes du temps_ (Paris, 1908).

[606] Salimbene gives an amusing picture of our worthy Rigaud hurrying to catch sight of the king at a Franciscan Chapter. _Post_, Chapter XXI.

[607] _Regestrum visilationum archiepiscopi Rothomagensis_, ed. Bonnin (Rouen, 1852). It is analyzed by L. V. Delisle, in an article entitled “Le Clergé normand” (_Bib. de l’École des Chartes_, 2nd ser. vol. iii.).

[608] _Reg. vis._ p. 9.

[609] _R. V._ p. 10.

[610] _R. V._ p. 18.

[611] _R. V._ pp. 19-20.

[612] _R. V._ p. 222.

[613] _R. V._ p. 379.

[614] _R. V._ p. 154.

[615] See _e.g._ _R. V._ pp. 159, 162, 395-396.

[616] _R. V._ p. 109.

[617] _R. V._ p. 73.

[618] _R. V._ pp. 43-45.

[619] _R. V._ p. 607.

[620] In Pfeiffer’s ed. No. 159. See also _ibid._ 162.

[621] The above is drawn from the “Vita Sancti Engelberti,” by Caesar of Heisterbach, in Boehmer, _Fontes rerum Germanicarum_, ii. 294-329 (Stuttgart, 1845). E. Michael, _Culturzustände des deutschen Volkes während des 13{n} Jahrhunderts_, ii. 30 _sqq._ (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1899), has an excellent account drawn mainly from the same source.

[622] The _Dialogi miraculorum_ of Caesar of Heisterbach, and the _Exempla_ of Étienne de Bourbon (d. 1262) and Jacques de Vitry (d. 1240) present a huge collection of such stories. For the early Middle Ages, the decades just before and after the year one thousand, the mechanically supernatural view of any occurrence is illustrated in the five books of _Histories_ of Radulphus Glaber, an incontinent and wandering, but observing monk, native of Burgundy. Best edition by M. Prou, in _Collection des textes, etc._ (Paris, Picard, 1886); also in Migne, _Pat. Lat._ 142. An interesting study of his work by Gebhart, entitled, “Un Moine de l’an 1000,” is to be found in the _Revue des deux mondes_, for October 1, 1891. Glaber’s fifth book opens with some excellent devil stories. As there was a progressive enlightenment through the mediaeval centuries, such tales gradually became less common and less crude.

[623] _Anecdotes historiques d’Étienne de Bourbon_, par. 422, ed. by Lecoy de la Marche (vol. 185 of Société de l’Histoire de France), Paris, 1877; cf. _ibid._ par. 383.

[624] _Dialogus miraculorum_, iii. 2. Similar stories are told in _ibid._ iii. 3, 15, 19.

[625] _Exempla_ of Jacques de Vitry, ed. by T. F. Crane, pp. 110-111, vol. 26 (Folk-lore Society, London, 1890).

[626] _Dialogus miraculorum_, vii. 34. Caesar’s seventh book has many similar tales.

[627] Ed. in eight volumes by Gaston Paris and U. Robert for the Société des Anciens Textes Français.

[628] Étienne de Bourbon tells this same story in his Latin; _Anecdotes historiques etc._, p. 114.

[629] See Étienne de Bourbon, _o.c._ pp. 109-110, 120.

[630] Étienne de Bourbon, _o.c._ p. 119.

[631] Étienne de Bourbon, _o.c._ p. 83.

[632] The chief part of the “Chronica Fr. Salembenis Parmensis” was printed in 1857 in the _Monumenta Historica ad provincias Parmensem, etc._ The manner of its truncated editing has ever since been a grief to scholars. The portions omitted from the Parma edition, covering years before Salimbene’s time, are printed by Clédat, as an appendix to his Thesis, _De Fr. Salimbene, etc._ (Paris, 1878). Novati’s article, “La Cronaca di Salimbene” in vol. i. (1883) of the _Giornale storico della letteratura italiana_, pp. 383-423, will be found enlightening as to the faults of the Parma editor. A good consideration of the man and his chronicle is Emil Michael’s _Salimbene und seine Chronik_ (Innsbruck, 1889), with which should be read Alfred Dove’s _Die Doppel Chronik von Reggio und die Quellen Salimbene’s_ (Leipzig, 1873). A short translation of some of the more or less autobiographical parts of Salimbene’s narrative, by T. L. K. Olyphant, may be found in vol. i. of the _Translations of the Historical Society_, pp. 449-478 (London, 1872); and much of Salimbene is translated in Coulton’s _From St. Francis to Dante_ (London, 1907).

[633] Parma edition, p. 3.

[634] P. 31.

[635] The Latin is a little strong: “Non credas istis pissintunicis, idest qui in tunicis mingunt.”

[636] These qualities led Salimbene to accept the teachings of Joachim and the _Evangelium eternum_ (_post_, pp. 510 _sqq._).

[637] Parma ed. pp. 37-41. This coarse story is given for illustration’s sake; there are many worse than it in Salimbene. Novati prints some in his article in the _Giornale Storico_ that are amusing, but altogether beyond the pale of modern decency.

[638] This in fact became the later legend of Eccelino.

[639] Pp. 90-93.

[640] He whose _Regesta_ we have read, _ante_ Chapter XX.

[641] Parma ed. pp. 93-97.

[642] _Post_, Chapter XXII.

[643] Cf. Tocco, _L’Eresia nel medio evo_, pp. 449-483 (Florence, 1884).

[644] From Novati, _o.c._ pp. 415, 416. Cf. pp. 97 _sqq._ of the Parma ed.

[645] For further interesting allusions to the prophecies of Merlin, see Salimbene, pp. 303, 309 _sqq._

[646] Pp. 104-109.

[647] Cf. Joinville’s account, _post_, Chapter XXII.

[648] P. 225.

[649] Pp. 179, 180.

[650] P. 324.

[651] See Bourgain, _La Chaire française au XII{e} siècle_; Lecoy de la Marche, _La Chaire française au XIII{e} siècle_.

[652] Certain kinds of literature, in nature satirical or merely gross, portray, doubtless with grotesque exaggeration, the ways and manners of clerks and merchants, craftsmen and vile serfs, as well as those of monks and bishops, lords and ladies. A notable example is offered by the old French _fabliaux_, which with coarse and heartless laughter, rather than with any definite satirical intent, display the harshness, brutality, the degradation and hardship of the ways of living coming within their range of interest. In them we see the brutal and deceived husband, the wily clerk, the merchant with his tricks of trade, the _vilain_, raised above the brute, not by a better way of life as much as by a certain native wit. The women were reviled as coarsely as in monkish writings; but a Rabelaisian quality takes the place of doctrinal prurience. In weighing the evidence of these fabliaux their satirical nature should be allowed for. Cf. Langlois, _La Vie en France au moyen âge d’après quelques moralistes du temps_ (Paris, 1908); also the _Sermons_ of Jacques de Vitry; Pitra, _Analecta novissima spicilegii Solesmensis_, t. ii., and Haurèau upon the same in _Journal des savants_, 1888, p. 410 _sqq._

[653] Such immunities were common before Charlemagne. Cf. Brunner, _Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, ii. 243-302.

[654] _Gesta regum Anglorum_, iii. (Migne 179, col. 1213).

[655] Taken from the note to p. 274 of Gautier’s _Chevalerie_.

[656] See Du Cange, _Glossarium_, under “Miles,” etc.; where much information may be found uncritically put together.

[657] Cf. Brunner, _Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte_, ii. 202-216.

[658] The way that _miles_ came to mean knight, has its analogy in the etymological history of the word “knight” itself. In German and French the words “Ritter” and “chevalier” indicate one who fought on horseback. Not so with the English word “knight,” which in its original Anglo-Saxon and Old-German forms (see Murray’s _Dictionary_) as _cniht_ and _kneht_ might mean any armed follower. It lost its servile sense slowly. “In 1086 we read that the Conqueror _dubbade his sunu Henric to ridere_; this ... is the next year Englished by _cniht_” (Kington-Oliphant, _Old and Middle English_, p. 130; Macmillan, 1878).

[659] We naturally use the term “free” with reference to modern conditions, where law and its sanctions emanate, in fact as well as theory, from a stable government. But in these early feudal periods where a man’s life and property were in fact and theory protected by the power of his immediate lord, to whom he was bound by the strongest ties then recognized, to be “free” might be very close to being an unprotected outlaw.

[660] In these respects it exhibits analogies to monkhood, which likewise was recruited commonly from the upper classes of society.

[661] See Gautier, _La Chevalerie_, p. 256 _sqq._; Du Cange, under the word “Miles.”

[662] Cf. Gautier, _o.c._ 296-308. It must be remembered that an abbot or a bishop might also be a knight and so could make knights. See Du Cange, _Glossarium_, “Abbas” (_abbates miletes_).

[663] On this blow, called in Latin _alapa_, in French _accolée_, in English _accolade_, see Du Cange under “Alapa,” and Gautier, _o.c._ pp. 246-247, and 270 _sqq._

[664] _Chanson de Roland_, 2344 sqq. Lines 2500-2510 speak of Charlemagne’s sword, named _Joiuse_ because of the honour it had in having in its hilt the iron of the lance which pierced the Saviour.

[665] Gautier, _Chevalerie_, pp. 290, 297. Examples of these ceremonies may be found as follows: the actual one of the knighting of Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou by Henry I. of England, at Rouen in 1129, in the Chronicle of Johannis Turonensis, _Historiens de France_, xii. p. 520; Gautier, _Chevalerie_, p. 275. Gautier gives many examples, and puts together a typical ceremony, as of the twelfth century, in _Chev._ p. 309 _sqq._ Perhaps the most famous account of all is that of the poem entitled _Ordene de Chevalerie_ (thirteenth century), published by Barbazan, _Fabliaux, etc._, i. 59-82 (Paris, 1808). It relates how a captive Christian knight bestowed the order of chivalry, _i.e._ knighthood, upon Saladin. See other accounts cited in Du Cange under “Miles.”

[666] Not war as we understand it, where with some large purpose one great cohesive state directs its total military power against another; but neighbourhood war, never permanently ended. When not actually attacking or defending, men were anticipating attack, or expecting to make a raid. Perhaps nothing better suggests the local and neighbourly character of these feudal hostilities than the most famous means devised by the Church to mitigate them. This was the “Truce of God,” promulgated in the eleventh century. It forbade hostilities from Thursday to Monday and in Lent. Whether this ordinance was effective or not, it indicates the nature of the wars that could stop from Thursday to Monday!

[667] Courtly, chivalric, or romantic, love as an element of knightly excellence is so inseverably connected with its romantic literature that I have kept it for the next chapter.

[668] The following remarks upon the _regula_ of the Templars, and the extracts which are given, are based on the introduction and text of _La Règle du Temple_, edited by Henri de Curzon for the Société de l’Histoire de France (Paris, 1886).

[669] The phraseology of the Latin _regula_ often follows that of the Benedictine rule.

[670] Chaps. 33, 35.

[671] Chaps. 40, 41.

[672] Chap. 42.

[673] Chaps. 46, 48.

[674] Chap. 62 Latin _regula_ and chap. 14 of French _regle_.

[675] Chap. 51.

[676] Chap. 58 of the Latin, chap. 11 of the French. The chapters of the French translation do not follow the order of the Latin.

[677] Page 167 of de Curzon’s edition.

[678] See in de Curzon’s edition, sections 431, 436, 448, 454, and 657 _sqq._

[679] It would seem as if military discipline, as moderns understand it, took its rise in these Templars and Hospitallers.

[680] See _e.g._ de Curzon’s edition, sections 419, 420, 574.

[681] Raimundus de Agiles, _Hist. Francorum qui ceperunt Jerusalem_, cap. 38-39. (Migne 155, col. 659).

[682] On these poems see Pigeonneau, _Le Cycle de la Croisade_ (St. Cloud, 1877); Paulin Paris, in _Histoire littéraire de la France_, vol. 22, pp. 350-402, and _ibid._ vol. 25, p. 507 _sqq._; Gaston Paris, “La Naissance du chevalier au Cygne,” _Romania_, 19, p. 314 _sqq._ (1890).

[683] “Vita Ludovici noni auctore Gaufrido de Belloloco” (_Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France_, t. xx. pp. 3-26).

[684] The Testament of St. Louis, written for his eldest son, is a complete rule of conduct for a Christian prince, and indicates St. Louis’ mind on the education of one. It has been printed and translated many times. Geoffrey of Beaulieu gives it in Latin (chap. xv.) and in French at the end of the _Vita_. It is also in Joinville.

[685] One sees here the same religious anxiety which is so well brought out by Salimbene’s account of St. Louis, _ante_, Chapter XXI.

[686] The founder of the College of the Sorbonne.

[687] _Chroniques de J. Froissart_, ed. S. Luce (Société de l’Histoire de France). The opening of the Prologue. It seemed desirable to render this sentence literally. The rest of my extracts are from Thomas Johnes’s translation, for which I plead a boyhood’s affection. For a brief account of Froissart’s chief source (Jean le Bel), with excellent criticism, see W. P. Ker, “Froissart” (_Essays on Medieval Literature_, Macmillan and Co., 1905).

[688] Froissart, i. 210.

[689] Froissart, i. 220.

[690] Froissart, i. 290.

[691] Yet the matter was fit for legend and romance; and a late impotent _chanson de geste_ was formed out of the career of du Guesclin.

[692] On the _chansons de geste_ see Gaston Paris, _Littérature française au moyen âge_; Leon Gautier in Petit de Julleville’s _Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française_, vol. i.; more at length Gautier, _Épopées nationales_, and Paulin Paris in vol. 22 of _L’Histoire littéraire de France_; also Nyrop, _Storia dell’ epopea francese nel medio evo_. Ample bibliographies will be found in these works.

[693] On the field of Roncesvalles, Roland folds the hands of the dead Archbishop Turpin, and grieves over him, beginning:

“E! gentilz hum chevaliers de bon aire, ...”
(_Roland_, line 2252).

[694] Leon Gautier, in his _Chevalerie_, makes the _chansons de geste_ his chief source.

[695] 1006-1016.

[696] 1051 _sqq._ and 1700 _sqq._

[697] 1851-1868.

[698] 1940-2023.

[699] 2164 _sqq._

[700] _Raoul de Cambrai_, cited by Gautier, _Chevalerie_, p. 75.

[701] Unless indeed Oberon, the fairy king, be a romantic form of the Alberich of the _Nibelungen_ (Gaston Paris).

[702] See Gaston Paris, _Lit. française, etc._, chaps. iii. and v.; and Émile Littré in vol. 22 of the _Histoire littéraire de la France_. For examples of these _romans_, see Langlois, _La Société française au XIII{e} siècle d’après dix romans d’aventure_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1904).

[703] Chrétien, _Cligés_, line 201 _sqq._