The Portable Medieval Reader

by James Bruce Ross

  Schapiro, Meyer. Late Antique, Early Christian, and Medieval Art. (George Braziller, 1979).

  ————. Romanesque Art. (George Braziller, 1977).

  Simon, Eckehard, ed. The Theatre of Medieval Europe: New Research in Early Drama. (Cambridge University Press, 1991).

  Wieck, Roger S. Time Sanctified: The Book of Hours in Medieval Art and Life. (George Braziller, 1988).

  VI. LATIN CHRISTENDOM AND ITS NEIGHBORS.

  Angold, M. The Byzantine Empire, 1025—1204: A Political History. (Longman Publishing, 1984).

  Cohen, Mark R. Under Crescent and Cross: The Jews in the Middle Ages. (Princeton University Press, 1994).

  Holt, P. M. The Age of the Crusades: The Near East from the Eleventh Century to 1517. (Longman Publishing, 1986).

  Hussey Joan M. The Byzantine World. (Greenwood Publishing, 1982).

  —. The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire. (Oxford University Press, 1986).

  Lombard, M. The Golden Age of Islam. (Oxford University Press, 1975).

  Nicol, Donald M. The Byzantine Lady: Ten Portraits, 1250—1500. (Cambridge University Press, 1996, p).

  Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ed. The Atlas of the Crusades. (Facts on File, 1990).

  —. The Crusades: A Short History. (Athlone Press, 1987).

  —, ed. The OxfordIllustrated History of the Crusades. (Oxford University Press, 1995).

  Rodley, Lyn. Byzantine Art and Architecture: An Introduction. (Cambridge University Press, 1994).

  Setton, Kenneth, M., ed. A History of the Crusades. (6 vols., University of Wisconsin Press, 1955—1990).

  Whittow, Mark. The Making of Byzantium, 600—1025. (University of California Press, 1996, p).

  I.

  The Body Social

  The Body Social

  JOHN OF SALISBURY

  Twelfth century

  A COMMONWEALTH, according to Plutarch, is a certain body which is endowed with life by the benefit of divine favour, which acts at the prompting of the highest equity, and is ruled by what may be called the moderating power of reason. Those things which establish and implant in us the practice of religion, and transmit to us the worship of God... fill the place of the soul in the body of the commonwealth. And therefore those who preside over the practice of religion should be looked up to and venerated as the soul of the body. For who doubts that the ministers of God’s holiness are His representatives? Furthermore, since the soul is, as it were, the prince of the body, and has rulership over the whole thereof, so those whom our author calls the prefects of religion preside over the entire body.... The place of the head in the body of the commonwealth is filled by the prince, who is subject only to God and to those who exercise His office and represent Him on earth, even as in the human body the head is quickened and governed by the soul. The place of the heart is filled by the senate, from which proceeds the initiation of good works and ill. The duties of eyes, ears, and tongue are claimed by the judges and the governors of provinces. Officials and soldiers correspond to the hands. Those who always attend upon the prince are likened to the sides. Financial officers and keepers... may be compared with the stomach and intestines.... The husbandmen correspond to the feet, which always cleave to the soil, and need the more especially the care and foresight of the head, since while they walk upon the earth doing service with their bodies, they meet the more often with stones of stumbling, and therefore deserve aid and protection all the more justly since it is they who raise, sustain, and move forward the weight of the entire body....

  Then and then only will the health of the commonwealth be sound and flourishing, when the higher members shield the lower, and the lower respond faithfully and fully in like measure to the just demands of their superiors, so that each and all are as it were members one of another by a sort of reciprocity, and each regards his own interest as best served by that which he knows to be most advantageous for the others.

  From Policraticus, trans. J. Dickinson (New York: Appleton: 1927).

  The Orders of Men

  THE CLERGY: THE PRAYERS AND THINKERS

  The Monastic Ideal

  PETER DAMIANI

  Eleventh century

  ON CONTEMPT OF THE WORLD

  FOR when we have renounced the world, we have constituted God as our property and consequently we have become His property in such a way that He has become our portion and we are His peculiar heritage. ... If then the omnipotent God Himself deigns to be our portion, what kind of riches, I ask, will it avail anyone to acquire which could exceed in merit this matchless treasure? For that treasure is such that even if it be alone, all riches can truly be possessed in it. “In the heart of Jesus are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” ...

  How, O monk, do you mean to lay Christ up in your cell? First, cast out money, for Christ and money do not go well together in one place; if you shut them both up at the same time, you will find yourself the possessor of one without the other. The richer you may be in the poor lucre of this world, the more miserably lacking you are in true riches. Therefore if money is there, let it retire forthwith into other halls so that Christ may find vacant the cell of your heart. That great Guest seeks indeed to descend into the recesses of your lodging-place, and He wishes to dwell alone there, without any companions. For how can you try, in the poor comer of your cell, to put strange companions with that One whom the vastness of heaven and earth cannot contain? Let terrestrial wealth give way where celestial treasure is admitted! ...

  This treasure, then, namely Christ, our God and Lord, who was made for us as both redeemer and reward, He Himself both the promiser and the prize, who is both the life of man and the eternity of the angels—this, I say, store away with diligent care in the recesses of your heart. On Him cast the anxiety of any care whatsoever. In Him delight through the discourse of zealous prayer. In Him refresh yourself by the nightly feasts of holy meditation. Let Him be your food, and your clothing no less. If it should happen that you lack anything of external convenience, do not be uncertain, do not despair of His true promise in which He said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all things shall be added unto you.” ...

  Nor do I deem it possible, dearest brother, to exclude this from your memory, that we have often grieved among ourselves in familiar intercourse about that baneful habit of the monks; we have suffered in fraternal love over the brothers who are restless and sinking to their ruin through the vice of roaming about. For there are some who, when they bore the burden of service in the world, were weary under this yoke of human servitude with running hither and thither, and therefore they resolved to go over to monastic peace through love of liberty. Now, however, they burn with such a great flame of pernicious restlessness that when no occasion of going to a distance presents itself, they seem to be shut in by the dark horror of prison confinement, which without doubt the astuteness of the old enemy is not ignorant of. For those whom that most evil rider drives to this, he urges on to the dangerous incitements of wandering so that they, returning to the vanity of the world, may perish and turn others away from seizing the path of true salvation....

  From this poisoned root of restlessness so many shoots of vices spring that whatever plant it is perceived in is stripped of all the fruit of monastic perfection like a withered tree.... For, to name only a few out of many, a monk while travelling is not able to fast because the hospitable kindness shown him does not permit it. He does not recite the psalms as he should because the loquacity of the moving company prevents him. He does not persist in nightly vigils because the privacy of isolation is lacking; he does not sweat on bended knees in prayer because the toil of travel does not agree with the zeal of holy devotion. He is in no way constrained by the rule of silence because frequently when occasions arise, though unwillingly, he gives way to much speaking. ...

  Whoever, therefore, as a monk hastens to attain the height of perfection, let him confine himself within the walls of his cloister, let him love spiritual quiet, let him have a horror of runni
ng about in the world, as he would of immersing himself in a pool of blood. For the world is more and more every day polluted by the contamination of so many crimes that any holy mind is corrupted by the mere consideration of it....

  ON THE MORTIFICATION OF THE FLESH

  And so there is nothing but the love of God and the mortification of yourselves. For if the apostolic maxim lives in us, which says, “Always bearing the dying of Jesus in our body,” because carnal love does not have wherewith to diffuse itself within us, by necessity all our joy transfers itself, raised on high, to God; and our fire, leaping up, lives there because within us it does not have room to spread. The man who is wise and earnestly intent on guarding his salvation watches always with such great solicitude to repress his vices that with the belt of perfect mortification he girds his loins and his reins, his belly as well as his flanks, on all sides. This indeed is then done, when the itching palate is repressed, when the bold tongue is restrained in silence, when the ear is closed to evil speaking, when the eye is forbidden to look at illicit things, when the hand is restrained lest it strike cruelly, the foot lest it go off wandering idly; when the heart is resisted lest it envy the good fortune of another’s happiness, lest it desire through avarice that which is not its own, lest it cut itself off by wrath from fraternal love, lest it arrogantly praise itself above others, lest it yield to seductive luxury through pleasure, lest it sink immoderately into grief, or in joy open the way to the tempter.

  Therefore, dearest brothers, seize the arms of all the virtues—sobriety, humility, patience, obedience, chastity, charity—and fight not on behalf of fields or cities, not for children or wives, but for your souls which rise above every emotion of relationship. Especially should you fast, so that your youth may acquire strength, and pray, for the reason that fasting subdues the vigour of the flesh and prayer raises the soul to God. It should be known, however, that some, while they indiscriminately carry out the fast, do not receive the benefits of fasting; for whatever they deny themselves one day, the next they gorge on at will. And so it is that one day of fasting serves for the following day....

  That one fasts well who on the day of refreshment [after fasting] is content with the common fare, if, that is, while he does not reject any kind of food, he does not also exceed the daily portion of those eating. Nevertheless, do not, ascribing too much importance to fasting, lose sight of obedience which is the golden road to heaven....

  Be content with garments mean and few. Accustom yourself to wearing light and scant clothing. This indeed is done at first not without travail but as habit grows, when it becomes natural, the discomfort of cold is easily assuaged. Moreover, the poverty of clothing and the scarcity of food forthwith drive out all avarice from the heart of a monk. For what should I long for that does not add either to food or clothing? Therefore, as beginners we shudder not without a certain dread at the bareness of feet, and scarcity of clothes, the hardness of bed, the harshness of food, the drink of water, imagining sauces and other such things; persevering and persisting for a long time, however, we find these things easy henceforth and bearable. Frequency indeed mitigates severity, and custom makes rigour agreeable....

  Come now, brother, what is this body which you clothe with such diligent care and nourish gently as if it were royal offspring? Is it not a mass of putrefaction, is it not worms, dust, and ashes? It is fit that the wise man consider not this which now is, but rather what it will be afterwards in the future, pus, slime, decay, and the filth of obscene corruption. What thanks will the worms render to you, who are about to devour the flesh you nourished so gently and tenderly? Come, I say, why did Christ suffer? That He should wash away His own sins and blot out the faults of His own trangression? But hear Peter on this, saying, “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.” For whom then did He suffer? Peter himself answers, “Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow in His steps.” ... Why then do we read that Christ suffered, unless we follow His example from His footsteps? ... Let the holy mind not fear therefore to share the cross of Christ in scourging, let him not blush with shame at the nakedness of the body, since He says, “For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He shall come in His majesty.” ...

  ON THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SPIRIT

  Now let me speak with chagrin about those who follow after the rabble of the grammarians and who, abandoning spiritual studies, lust to learn the trifles of earthly art. Counting as little the Rule of Benedict they rejoice to apply themselves to the rules of Donatus. These, scorning the experience of ecclesiastical discipline, and panting after secular studies, what else do they seem to do but abandon the chaste spouse in the marriage bed of faith and descend to actresses and harlots? ...

  Moreover, the one who endeavoured to lead the troops of all the vices placed the desire for learning as head of the army, and so in her train brought all the crowds of iniquities into the unhappy world. What marvel, therefore, if in the daughter of Eve still vibrates that same spear which formerly the old enemy thrust into the same Eve? ...

  Moreover, tears which are from God approach the tribunal of divine grace confidently, and obtaining what they seek, are assured of certain remission of our sins. Tears are mediators in the peace to be negotiated between man and God, and truthful and learned masters in any uncertainty whatsoever of human ignorance. For when we doubt whether something is pleasing to God or not, never do we receive greater certainty than when we pray, truly weeping....

  O tears, spiritual delights, even above honey and the honeycomb, and sweeter than all nectar! how you refresh minds raised to God with the pleasant sweetness of secret savour, and water arid and wasting hearts in the inmost part with the draught of supernal grace....

  From Opuscula varia (Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 145), trans. J.B.R.

  The Cistercian Order

  WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY

  Early twelfth century

  IN HIS time [Pope Urban II] began the Cistercian order, which is now both believed and asserted to be the surest road to heaven. To speak of this does not seem irrelevant to the work I have undertaken, since it redounds to the glory of England to have produced the distinguished man who was the author and promoter of that rule. To us he belonged, and in our schools passed the earlier part of his life.... He was named Harding, and born in England of no very illustrious parents. From his early years, he was a monk at Sherborne; but when secular desires had captivated his youth, he grew disgusted with the monastic garb, and went first to Scotland, and afterwards to France. Here, after some years’ exercise in the liberal arts, he became awakened to the love of Cod. For, when manlier years had put away childish things, he went to Rome with a clerk who partook of his studies; neither the length and difficulty of the journey, nor the scantiness of their means of subsistence by the way, preventing them, both as they went and returned, from singing daily the whole psalter. Indeed the mind of this celebrated man was already meditating the design which soon after, by the grace of God, he attempted to put in execution. For returning into Burgundy, he was shorn at Molesmes, a new and magnificent monastery. Here he readily admitted the first elements of the order, as he had formerly seen them; but when additional matters were proposed for his observance, such as he had neither read in the rule nor seen elsewhere, he began, modestly and as became a monk, to ask the reason of them, saying, “By reason the supreme Creator has made all things; by reason He governs all things; by reason the fabric of the world revolves; by reason even the planets move; by reason the elements are directed; and by reason, and by due regulation, our nature ought to conduct itself.... See then that you bring reason, or at least authority, for what you devise; although no great credit should be given to what is merely supported by human reasons, because it may be combated with arguments equally forcible. Therefore from that rule [of St. Benedict], which, equally supported by reason and authority, appears as if dictated by the spirit of all just persons, produce pr
ecedents, which if you fail to do in vain shall you profess his rule, whose regulations you disdain to comply with.” ...

  Two of the fraternity, therefore, of equal faith and learning, were elected, who, by vicarious examination, were to discover the intention of the founder’s rule; and when they had discovered it, to propound it to the rest. The abbat diligently endeavoured to induce the whole convent to give their concurrence, but ... almost the whole of them refused to accept the new regulations, because they were attached to the old. Eighteen only, among whom was Harding, otherwise called Stephen, persevering in their holy determination, together with their abbat, left the monastery, declaring that the purity of the institution could not be preserved in a place where riches and gluttony warred against even the heart that was well inclined. They came therefore to Citeaux; a situation formerly covered with woods, but now so conspicuous from the abundant piety of its monks, that it is not undeservedly esteemed conscious of the Divinity Himself. Here, by the countenance of the archbishop of Vienne, who is now pope, they entered on a labour worthy to be remembered and venerated to the end of time.

  Certainly many of their regulations seem severe, and more particularly these: they wear nothing made with furs or linen, nor even that finely spun linen garment, which we call Staminium; neither breeches, unless when sent on a journey, which at their return they wash and restore. They have two tunics with cowls, but no additional garment in winter, though, if they think fit, in summer they may lighten their garb. They sleep clad and girded, and never after matins return to their beds: but they so order the time of matins that it shall be light ere the lauds begin; so intent are they on their rule, that they think no jot or tittle of it should be disregarded. Directly after these hymns they sing the prime, after which they go out to work for stated hours. They complete whatever labour or service they have to perform by day without any other light. No one is ever absent from the daily services, or from complines, except the sick. The cellarer and hospitaller, after complines, wait upon the guests, yet observing the strictest silence. The abbat allows himself no indulgence beyond the others—everywhere present, everywhere attending to his flock; except that he does not eat with the rest, because his table is with the strangers and the poor. Nevertheless, be he where he may, he is equally sparing of food and of speech; for never more than two dishes are served either to him or to his company; lard and meat never but to the sick. From the Ides of September till Easter, through regard for whatever festival, they do not take more than one meal a day, except on Sunday. They never leave the cloister but for the purpose of labour, nor do they ever speak, either there or elsewhere, save only to the abbat or prior. They pay unwearied attention to the canonical services, making no addition to them except the vigil for the defunct. They use in their divine service the Ambrosian chants and hymns, as far as they were able to learn them at Milan. While they bestow care on the stranger and the sick, they inflict intolerable mortifications on their own bodies, for the health of their souls....