HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor
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HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

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BIOGRAPHY 1000‒1350 361free ( franci) of sin and the devil; 4) Francis displayed the kind ofmagnanimity characteristic of the French; 5) this language assistedhis spoken eloquence; 6) it filled persons with the terror and the needto drive away the devil; and 7) he displayed composure, perfectdeeds, and honest talk. All of these virtues James ascribed to theFrench. He failed, however, to note that Francis’s mother was French,which surely would explain his early eloquence in that language. 22One of the most important first-hand accounts of a medieval saintare the recollections of the maidservants or ladies-in-waiting ofLandgravina Elizabeth of Thuringia (†1231), who had known hersince childhood and who testified at her canonization trial. Theirevidence was gathered together by an anonymous contemporaryauthor and served as the foundation of her abundant biographies,providing one of the most detailed accounts of the upbringing of amedieval saint. 23 The author provides the following justification forhis work:In order to glorify the dignity and honor of His clemency by makingknown to the faithful of the present generation the praiseworthy lifeof the blessed Elizabeth and to pass it on to posterity, we have decidedto commit this material to writing and afterward to conceal it awayin our hearts. [We have done this] lest her worthy memory and herbehavior, so worthy of imitation, be incorrectly obliterated from historyand disappear through the ravages of time; lest the road that shefollowed be blotted out, the example to be embraced perish and fallinto oblivion through negligence, and lest future generations cease topraise her because the evil disease of heresy has again suppressed andstrangled what the devotion of the church has nourished like a mother.Indeed, our Elizabeth has been a destroyer of vice, a planter [of theseeds] of virtue, a school of good morals, an example of penance anda mirror of innocence, which we will briefly explain one by one. 24The hagiographer’s immediate role as a warrior in the polemicalbattle against heresy, which is noted in this prologue, was especiallyevident in the later Middle Ages, when many of the saints activelypreached against disbelief. Elizabeth’s confessor and confidant, whostrongly supported her case, was the Inquisitor Conrad of Marburg,who was killed by heretics in 1233; although there is no real direct22Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea, ed. Th. Graesse (Leipzig, 1850), 662–63.23Goodich (1996), 91.24“Prologus et epilogus in Dicta ancillarum S. Elisabeth Thuringiae lantgraviae”,ed. D. Henniges, in Archivum franciscanum historicum 3 (1910), 480.

362 MICHAEL GOODICHevidence of Elizabeth’s own engagement against heresy. In the sameway, Louis of Toulouse’s biographer, citing 1 Timothy 2:4, John8:12 and 14:6, claims to direct his account of the saint’s life atheretics, Jews, and pagans (although the likelihood of such waywardsouls reading these works, it should be imagined, was remote). 25The hagiographical biography is intimately related to two stereotypicalmedieval literary genres, the exemplum and the miraculum, eachpossessing a fixed structure, which often robs the author of an opportunityto provide reliable, first-hand data concerning the saint. 26Students of hagiography continue to attempt the difficult task of disentanglingthe data concerning the saint’s life from the traditionaltopoi and literary forms in which it is embedded, which reflect certaincontinuing themes of Christian ideology. For example, the topoiof the child saved from drowning or the man saved from death byhanging conform to an outline which demanded that the ‘who, what,when, where, and why’ of the miracle reflect certain fixed standards.Often, the saint’s life may tell us more about collective mentalités thanprovide specific data about the saint herself. Among the conventionaltopoi which appear in hagiography may be noted: 1) the pious motherwho encourages her offspring’s religious yearnings and the martialfather who opposes them; 2) the prophetic dream and other portentspreceding the saint’s birth; 3) the puer-senex, or child saint whopossesses the virtues of maturity despite his tender age; 4) the adolescentcrisis of sexual temptation that is resolved through religiousconversion; and 5) visions of the otherworld and visitations by heavenlyguests who guide the saint throughout his career. Parallel stereotypicalthemes may be found in political royal biographies that attemptto sanctify the dynasty. 27 The effort to separate literary devices, folkelements, and historical events may often prove daunting, particularlyin those biographies which are not supported by other documentation.28 Hagiography, for example, has been exploited recentlyas a reflection of the conflict, cross-breeding, and mutual dependenceof learned and popular culture. 2925“De vita S. Ludovici episcopi Tolosani”, ed. Heysse, 130.26Berlioz (1992).27Carpentier (1991).28Fuhrmann (1963).29Manselli (1975).

362 MICHAEL GOODICHevidence of Elizabeth’s own engagement against heresy. In the sameway, Louis of Toulouse’s biographer, citing 1 Timothy 2:4, John8:12 and 14:6, claims to direct his account of the saint’s life atheretics, Jews, and pagans (although the likelihood of such waywardsouls reading these works, it should be imagined, was remote). 25The hagiographical biography is intimately related to two stereotypicalmedieval literary genres, the exemplum and the miraculum, eachpossessing a fixed structure, which often robs the author of an opportunityto provide reliable, first-hand data concerning the saint. 26Students of hagiography continue to attempt the difficult task of disentanglingthe data concerning the saint’s life from the traditionaltopoi and literary forms in which it is embedded, which reflect certaincontinuing themes of Christian ideology. For example, the topoiof the child saved from drowning or the man saved from death byhanging conform to an outline which demanded that the ‘who, what,when, where, and why’ of the miracle reflect certain fixed standards.Often, the saint’s life may tell us more about collective mentalités thanprovide specific data about the saint herself. Among the conventionaltopoi which appear in hagiography may be noted: 1) the pious motherwho encourages her offspring’s religious yearnings and the martialfather who opposes them; 2) the prophetic dream and other portentspreceding the saint’s birth; 3) the puer-senex, or child saint whopossesses the virtues of maturity despite his tender age; 4) the adolescentcrisis of sexual temptation that is resolved through religiousconversion; and 5) visions of the otherworld and visitations by heavenlyguests who guide the saint throughout his career. Parallel stereotypicalthemes may be found in political royal biographies that attemptto sanctify the dynasty. 27 The effort to separate literary devices, folkelements, and historical events may often prove daunting, particularlyin those biographies which are not supported by other documentation.28 Hagiography, for example, has been exploited recentlyas a reflection of the conflict, cross-breeding, and mutual dependenceof learned and popular culture. 2925“De vita S. Ludovici episcopi Tolosani”, ed. Heysse, 130.26Berlioz (1992).27Carpentier (1991).28Fuhrmann (1963).29Manselli (1975).

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