Reading
Guide 10:
Week X: An Anxious Age:
Rodolfus Glaber and the First Millennium
I. Rodolfus
Glaber, Five
Books of the Histories (ed. and trans. John France)
Rodolfus Glaber (Glaber = 'the Bald'), born 985, was a monk who lived for
a long time at the monastery of Saint-Bénigne of Dijon, later at Cluny
in Burgundy, the most famous monastery of its day, and finally at the venerable
abbey of Saint-Germain d'Auxerre (1039-1047) -- and these were just some of
the abbeys he called home. Rodolfus witnessed two millennial dates in his
lifetime, the Year 1000 and the millennium of Jesus's death (thought to have
been the year 1033). It is to the latter event that he refers in Book 4 of
his Histories, not the Year 1000.
Rodolfus, though a monk, was well-informed about the wider world. The abbeys
to which he belonged, notably Saint-Bénigne and Cluny, were part of
much larger and far-flung networks of religious houses, and monks traveled
between them and welcomed visitors into their precincts. Thus, Rodolfus'
Histories touch on affairs in Byzantium, Rome, and Germany, among
other places. Burgundy, where the above abbeys were located, bordered directly
on the German Empire and was frequently caught up in the political ambitions
of its rulers. Glaber himself also traveled, including a trip to Rome.
One of the important elements of Rodolfus' chronicle was the social and
religious movement known as The Peace and Truce of God. The Peace consisted
of a series of councils or assemblies, convened primarily by churchmen (bishops
and abbots) but also by secular leaders, which drew hundreds, perhaps thousands
of people. The first Peace Council, held at Charroux (near Poitiers, in central
southwestern France) in 989 condemned attacks on churches and their property,
on unarmed peasants and their property, and on the clergy. Its purpose,
in the words of the charter issued at the council's conclusion, was that "criminal
activity . . . be rooted out and more lawful activity implanted" in the regions
covered by the edict. Numerous peace councils followed thereafter, initially
in central and southern France but gradually moving northward. Monks came
to the councils bearing the relics of their patron saints, and the assemblies
were marked by an air of religious revival; the relics also worked miracles.
First and foremost, the councils hoped to limit the unlawful feuding and
pillaging of innocents and non-combatants by young noblemen who rode, unchecked,
over the French countryside. As it matured, the Peace (which came, in the
course of the 1020s, to be referred to as the Truce of God and changed in
its focus) attempted to outlaw all fighting during periods of religious significance.
Nobles were publicly coerced to swear oaths to uphold the Peace statutes,
and these concerns are reflected in the letter of Archbishop Raimbaud of
Arles.
Were the councils and urgings toward peace effective? Historians
still debate this, although most agree that, in connection with the slow
recovery of the French monarchy and the proclamation of the first crusade
in 1095, they had some effect in limiting the predations of the noblemen
on the clergy and peasantry. As you read Rodolfus and Raimbaud of Arles'
letter (linked to the syllabus), consider the following:
(1) What are the signs that Rodolfus take as heralding the
end of the world? Do they seem to be connected, or are they a random
assortment of anxieties? Who was Rodolfus' audience?
(2) What does the millennium of Christ's passion signal for Rodolfus?
Do we gain a sense of his hopes and expectations for the period?
(3) Can you compare Rodolfus' History to other works we've read this
term? (Say, Salvian? Gregory of Tours?)
(3) Was the Peace movement primarily concerned with stopping abuses?
Who was effectively governing the Peace movement? Was it popular, or
led from the top down?
[STOP: We are
not reading Helgaud in HST 354 in 2020 -- you may skip this material below,
as it is not in the HST 354 syllabus]
Helgaud of Fleury, A Brief
Life of King Rotbert the Pious (trans. Philippe Buc)
Helgaud composed this, the only biography
of King Robert [II] 'the Pious' around 1041, a decade after the king's death. Helgaud was leader of the monastic choir and treasurer
in his abbey of Fleury. Note that Fleury
was not under the administration of the bishop of Orléans, but
under the direct tutelage of the king himself. Robert was the son of Hugh Capet (r.
987-996), and was associated with Hugh on the Frankish throne in 988. The author makes Robert out to be a rather monkish
king: he is a protector and benefactor of monasteries, a figure of humility
and deep piety, a healer, and a reformer of the liturgy, among other qualities.
Robert was never formally canonized by the pope--such canonizations were rare
at this point, and in any case formal Roman inquests into claims of sanctity
did not really begin until after 1200. If Robert was a saint, he was
a decidedly particular one.
Robert's rule
was difficult at times, and not nearly as pristine as Helgaud would have us
believe. For example, Helgaud omits any mention of the fact that Robert
forcibly imposed the abbot Gauzlin of Fleury into the archbishopric of Bourges
in 1012. Moreover, the king married three women, not without controversy.
The first was Bertha of Blois-Burgundy, whom he later repudiated on the grounds
that they were too closely related. This earned him (for a time) excommunication
from Rome, and Helgaud alludes to the scandal in passing. Constance
of Arles was his third wife; they married around 1001/3, and she outlived
him by a year. Robert also continued the Capetian practice of associating
his son with him on the throne, doing so in 1017 with Hugh (who died at a
young age in 1025), and investing his younger son Henry, who eventually succeeded
him, as Duke of Burgundy. Toward the end of his life, Robert made pilgrimages
to Bourges, Souvigny, Brioude, Saint-Gilles,
Conques, and Toulouse.
Helgaud's portrayal of is almost uniformly
positive. We must therefore remember that his was not the only view
of the king. In particular, on the subject of Robert's marriage to
his first wife, Bertha, we have the deprecatory remarks of Peter Damian, an
Italian monk and reformer, who wrote in a letter to the monks of Montecassino
Abbey, in southern Italy, the following:
Robert, the French king . . . married
a close relative [Bertha] from whom he had a son whose neck and head had all
the appearance of a goose. For good measure, almost all the bishops of France
unanimously excommunicated them, namely, the man and his wife [Robert and
Bertha]. At this decision of the bishops, the people everywhere were
so filled with terror, that no one would have anything to do with them, except
two servant lads who stayed to provide their necessary food. But even
these young men considered all the tableware from which the king ate or drank
as loathesome, and threw it into the fire. (Peter Damian, Letters 91-120, trans. Owen Blum [Washington,
D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1998], no. 102, p. 136).
Robert and Bertha's excommunication was immortalized in a large format
painting done by Jean-Paul Laurens (1875), entitled The Excommunication of Robert the Pious.
Moreover, as we shall see
in a reading later next week, in 1022 Robert also confronted the challenge
of a heretical sect living in the very city where he spent much of his time,
Orléans. The suppression of this group and its members
followed not long after a similar movement against the Jewish community
of that city (ca. 1007-1012) by the king, suggesting that Robert--and his
enemies!--were keenly aware of the potential harm to the king's image caused
by the presence of unbelievers near the king's throne. We must speculate
about the deeper reasons for the suppression of the Jewish community, and
the heretics. It also bears mentioning that in 1024, Robert instigated
a Peace council at Héry in Burgundy, an event to which numerous relics
of saints from around the region were brought by their guardians and possessors.
(1) Keep of track of how Helgaud portrays Robert.
How does it compare with Einhard's biography of Charlemagne? The biographies
of Louis the Pious?
(2) What aspects of Robert's kingship does Helgaud emphasize?
What kinds of kingly activity does he not
mention, or mention only passing? How do you explain his choice of biographical
material?
(3) Would you guess that Robert was a powerful or weak king? Why?
Compare him with the Ottonian emperors we have just discussed: what virtues
does he embody for Helgaud?