HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

BIOGRAPHY 1000‒1350 381is characterized by a self-righteous attack on those who failed tounderstand the mission of a man whose intellectual capacity clearlyfar outdistanced his adversaries. 79The ‘autobiography’ attributed to Pope Celestine V (†1294) onlydeals with the first thirty years of his life. It chronicles his childhoodin a small village of the Abruzzi, admission to the Benedictine order,and establishment of a new religious order that combined featuresof the Franciscan and Benedictine rules. In all likelihood, this workwas not written by Celestine himself but was, rather, based on therecollections of his disciples, who sought to strengthen the case forhis canonization. While probably containing authentic details abouthis large family and the difficulties of rural life, the many miraclesand visions conform to standard precedents, placing the work closerto the hagiographical tradition. This work falls into a tradition ofconfessional literature particularly prevalent in Franciscan and penitentialcircles in the late thirteenth century, including the lives ofAngela of Foligno and Margaret of Cortona, which were written bytheir confessors and contain visions and revelations. The thousandsof such visions and revelations interspersed in medieval literaturemay be noted as a widespread autobiographical form, although thestereotypical descriptions of the otherworld, conflict with the devil,or encounters with heavenly persons often lack individuality. Nevertheless,such visions play an increasingly important part in later medievalhagiography as illustrations of the saint’s inner life, produced by bothlay and religious persons, and they helped to propagate the Christiangeography of the otherworld. In the lives of Hildegard of Bingen,Catherine of Siena, John of Roquetaillade, and Bridget of Swedenthe visions represent a medium for voicing political views. 80 WhileElizabeth of Schönau’s Liber visionum, written by her confessor Ekbert,represents a kind of spiritual biography, her Revelationes de sacro exercituvirginum coloniensium (1156/57) served to authenticate the relics of St.Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins buried at Cologne. Saintswere not the only persons whose visions have survived, however, andthe exempla literature in particular contains reports drawn from allsectors of the population, although those selected clearly aimedto provide a moral message or to validate Christian theology. For79Goodich (1998), 89–103.80Dinzelbacher (1991), 35.