HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

366 MICHAEL GOODICHof Hildesheim, William of Bourges, and Gilbert of Sempringham,the extant biographies were based on the papal inquiry and includeda full life and miracles, a narrative account of the events leading upto the canonization, the canonization ceremony itself, and the public’sreaction. In another example, the oldest life of Margaret of Hungary,the Legenda vetus, has been attributed to her confessor Marcellus, theDominican provincial prior of Hungary, who testified at her canonizationtrial held in 1276. 35 A fourteenth-century life by Garin deGuy l’Evêque (ca. 1340), based on the trial, simply adds the christologicaland mystical concerns peculiar to the later period. In theabsence of an extant canonization trial, it even may be possible toreconstruct the trial on the basis of a subsequent life. For example,Bishop Richard of Chichester’s (†1262) narrative life and miraclesby his Dominican confessor Ralph Bocking, written at the requestof the Robert Kilwardby and Isabella de Fortibus, countess of Arundel(whose son had been cured due to Richard’s intervention), was basedon such an inquiry. It appears to follow closely the judicial testimonyof the 1267 trial, which is no longer extant. 36 Matthew Paris’French version of the life of Edmund of Canterbury likewise wasdedicated to the countess, who was patroness of Wymondham priory,which was connected to Matthew’s monastery at St. Albans. 37It too was the product of a formal canonization inquiry held underpapal auspices.It is possible to detect the influence of letters of postulation insome saint’s lives. Such letters were often part of an organized campaignaimed at convincing the pope to appoint a commission ofinquiry, since it was extremely rare for a pope to undertake canonizationwithout proof that an important constituency stood behindthe candidate. 38 The letters include many of the arguments regardingthe putative saint’s merits and miracles that were to become thebasis of the themes taken up at the canonization trial and were toappear in subsequent biographies. For example, a textual comparisonof the letters sent to the pope by the prelates of England andthe university of Oxford supporting the case of Archbishop Edmund35Klaniczay and Madas (1994), 124–27.36Jones (1993), 83–246.37Lawrence (1960), 107.38Schimmelpfennig (1994), 78. The only clear case of papal initiative is Gerhardof Toul (1050) Bernhard Schimmelpfennig, “Heilige Päpste-päpstliche Kanonisationspolitik,”in Jürgen Petersohn, ed., Politik und Heiligenverehrung im Hochmittelalter(Sigmaringen, 1994), 78.