The Portable Medieval Reader

by James Bruce Ross

  But to comprise briefly all things which are or can be said of them—the Cistercian monks at the present day are a model for all monks, a mirror for the diligent, a spur to the indolent.

  From Chronicle, trans. J. A. Giles (London: Bohn, 1847).

  How the Friars Came to Germany

  JORDAN OF GIANO

  Thirteenth century

  IN THE year of our Lord 1219, and the thirteenth year of his conversion, Brother Francis held a general chapter at Santa Maria della Porziuncola, and sent brethren to France, Germany, Hungary, Spain, and those provinces of Italy which the brethren had not yet reached.... The German mission was led by Brother John of Parma with some sixty or more brethren. When they were come into Germany, not knowing the language, and when men asked whether they desired lodging or meat or any such thing, they answered Ja, and thus received kindly welcome from some folk. Seeing therefore that this word procured them humane treatment, they resolved to answer Ja to all questions whatsoever. Wherefore, being once asked whether they were heretics, come now to infect Germany after the same fashion wherewith they had already perverted Lombardy, they answered Ja; so that some were cast into prison, and others were stripped of their raiment and led to the common dancing-place where they were held up for a laughing-stock to the inhabitants. The brethren therefore, seeing that they could make no fruit in Germany, came home again; and this deed gave the brethren so cruel a report of Germany, that none dared return thither but such as aspired to martyrdom....

  So in the year 1221 ... St. Francis celebrated a General Chapter at Santa Maria della Porziuncola ... and the brethren there assembled were reckoned at three thousand.... What tongue could tell the charity, patience, humility, obedience, and brotherly cheer-fulness which reigned at that time among the brethren? And, albeit the multitude of brethren was so great, yet the people ministered unto us so cheerfully that, after seven days, the brethren were constrained to close their gates against further gifts, and to tarry yet two days in order to consume these offerings. Now, at the end of this Chapter, St. Francis bethought him that the order had not yet been built up in Germany; and, because he was then infirm, Brother Elias spake for him whensoever he would have spoken to the people. So St. Francis, sitting at the feet of Brother Elias, twitched him by the frock; and he, bending down to learn the saint’s will, rose again and said: “Brethren, thus saith the Brother” (that is to say, St. Francis, whom the brethren called “the Brother” by excellence). “There is (he said) a certain land called Germany, wherein dwell Christian and devout folk who, as ye know, often traverse our land with long staves and wide boots, singing praises to God and His saints, visiting the holy places in the heat of the sun and the sweat of their brow. And, seeing that the brethren once sent thither were evil intreated and came home again, therefore the Brother would constrain no man to go thither; but if any man, inspired with zeal for God and men’s souls, will now go thither, the Brother will give him the same commission—nay, an ampler commission still—than to those who go beyond the sea. Wherefore, if there be any willing to go, let them now arise and stand apart.” Then some ninety brethren, inflamed with love, offered themselves for death; and, departing from the rest according to the saint’s bidding, they waited until it should be ordered who and how many and how and when they were to go.

  Now there was a certain brother present at that Chapter who was accustomed in his prayers to beseech the Lord that his faith might not be corrupted by the Lombard heretics or shaken by the ferocity of the Germans; but rather that God of His mercy would deign to deliver him from both. He, seeing many brethren arise and show their readiness for the German mission, and thinking that they would soon be martyred there, and grieving that he knew not the names of those brethren who had been martyred on the Spanish mission, was resolved to order things better in this case. Arising, therefore, from the throng, he went to these ninety, and asked of them one by one, “Who and whence art thou?” for he thought it would redound much to his glory if they chanced to be martyred, and he could say: “I knew that man, and I knew that other.”

  But among this company was a certain brother named Palmerio, a deacon, who was afterwards warden of the friary at Magdeburg; a jocund and sportive man, from Monte Gargano in Apulia. So when that curious brother had come to Palmerio asking, “Who art thou, and what is thy name?” then he answered “My name is Palmerio”; and, laying hands on him, he added, “Thou too art of us and shalt go in our company,” wishing to take this brother with him among those very Germans of whom he had oftentimes besought the Lord that He might send him whithersoever He would, so that it were not to Germany. Now therefore, shuddering at that name Germans,he made answer, “I am not of your company; but I came hither desiring to know your names, not to go with you.” But the other, overmastering him in his jocund way, clave fast unto him and drew him to the ground, for all his resistance in word and in deed, and constrained him to sit down among the rest; and meanwhile, while this curious brother was thus held captive there, he was assigned to another province and proclamation was made: “Let such a brother go to such and such a province.”

  But while these ninety were awaiting their answer, Brother Caesarius the German, of Speyer, was chosen minister provincial of Germany, with power to choose whom he would from that company. He, finding this curious brother among the rest, was counselled by them to take him. And, seeing that he desired not to go thither, and ceased not to protest, saying, “I am not of your company, for I arose not with the purpose of going with you,” he was led to Brother Elias. And the brethren of the province whereunto he had been assigned, seeing that he was a weakly man and that the land of Germany is cold, strove to retain him; whereas Brother Caesarius sought by all means to take him. At last Brother Elias cut short this strife, saying: “I command thee, brother, by holy obedience, to resolve once for all whether thou wilt go or leave it.”

  He therefore, thus constrained by obedience, and still doubting what to do, feared to choose for conscience’ sake, lest in so choosing he should seem self-willed; for he feared the journey on account of the cruelty of the Germans, lest his patience should fail him for suffering and his soul be in mortal peril. Halting thus between two opinions, and finding no counsel in his own heart, he went to that sorely tried brother who (as we have said) had suffered fifteen times in Hungary, and besought his advice, saying, “Dearest brother, thus and thus hath it been commanded to me, and I fear to choose and know not what to do.” To whom the other made answer: “Go then to Brother Elias and say: ‘Brother, I am unwilling either to go or to stay; but I will do whatsoever thou shalt bid me’: truly thus shalt thou be freed from thy perplexity.” Thus then he did, and Brother Elias commanded him by holy obedience to go with Brother Caesarius to Germany. And he is that Brother Jordan of Giano who writeth these present words; thus it was that he went to Germany; but he escaped from that fury of the Germans which he had feared, and was among the first to plant the order of Friars Minor in that land, with Brother Caesarius and other brethren....

  On their way, they entered into a certain village to find food, wherein they begged by two and two from house to house; but men answered them in the German tongue, “God berad!” which is, being interpreted, “May God provide for youl” One of the brethren, seeing that with these words nothing was given to them, thought within himself, “This God berad will slay us todayl” Wherefore he ran before the brother who was wont to beg daily, and began to beg in the Latin tongue. Then answered the Germans, “We understand no Latin; speak to us in German.” So that brother, speaking corruptly, said, “Nich tiudisch” (which is to say, “No German,” the words “I know” being understood). And he added in German, “Bread, for God!” Then said they, “Ha! thou sayest in German that thou knowest no German,” and they added, “God berad!” So that brother, exulting in spirit and smiling and making as though he knew not what they said, sate him down upon the bench; whereupon the man and his wife, looking at each other and smiling at his importunity, gave him bread, eggs, a
nd milk. He, therefore, seeing that by such profitable dissimulation he might relieve not only his own necessities but those of the brethren also, went to twelve houses and begged in like fashion; whereby he gained enough to feed his seven brethren.

  From Chronicle, trans. G. G. Coulton, Social Life in Britain (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1918).

  A Preacher and His Miracles

  SALIMBENE

  Thirteenth century

  WE COME now to Brother Berthold of Swabia [Berthold of Regensburg]. He belonged to the order of Friars Minor, and was a priest and a preacher, and a man of honourable and holy life, as becomes a monk. He composed an exposition of the Apocalypse, from which I copied only the parts on the seven bishops of Asia, who are brought forward as angels in the beginning of the Apocalypse. I did this to know who those angels were, and because I had Abbot Joachim’s commentary on the Apocalypse, which I esteemed above all others. Moreover, Berthold made a large volume of sermons for the whole course of the year, both for feast days and for the Sundays of the entire year. Of those sermons I copied only two, because they treated most excellently of Antichrist....

  And mark you, Brother Berthold was favored by God with a special gift of preaching, and all who have heard him say that from the apostles even to our own day there has not been his equal in the German tongue. He was followed by a great multitude of men and women, sometimes sixty or a hundred thousand. Many times an unnumbered crowd gathered together from many cities, that they might hear the honey-sweet words of salvation which poured from his mouth, by His grace who “gives His voice a voice of might,” and “gives word to them who preach with much virtue.”

  He was accustomed to ascend a belfry or a wooden tower built almost in the form of a campanile, which he used as a pulpit in the fields; on its summit was also placed a banner by those who set up the tower, so that the people might see which way the wind blew, and know where they ought to sit to hear best. And, wonderful to say! he was as clearly heard and understood by those far from him as by those close by; and no one stood up during his preaching and withdrew, until he had finished. When he preached on the Last Judgment, everyone trembled, as a rush trembles in water. And they begged him, for the love of God, not to preach any more on this theme, because they were fearfully and terribly troubled when they heard him.

  One day it happened that, when Brother Berthold was to preach in a certain place, a peasant begged his lord for God’s sake to let him go to hear Brother Berthold’s sermon. But his lord answered, “I shall go to the sermon; thou shalt go to the field to plough with the oxen, as it is written in Ecclesiasticus, ‘Send him to work, lest he be idle.”’ When the peasant had begun one day in the early morning to plough the field, he heard, wondrous to relate, the first word of Brother Berthold’s sermon, although he was on that day thirty miles away. Immediately he freed the oxen from the plough, so that they might eat, and he himself, sitting down, might listen to the sermon. There came to pass here three most memorable miracles. First, that he heard and understood him, though he was so far away, thirty miles. Second, that he learned the whole sermon and kept it in his memory. Third, that after the sermon was finished he ploughed as much as he was accustomed to plough on other days of uninterrupted work. So when later this peasant inquired of his lord concerning Brother Berthold’s sermon, and he could not repeat it, the peasant did so, from beginning to end, and explained how he had heard it in the field and had learned it. So the lord, knowing that this was a miracle, gave the peasant complete freedom to go and hear Brother Berthold’s preaching as often as he wanted, whatever work he might have to do.

  Now it was Brother Berthold’s custom to arrange the sermons which he intended to preach, now in one city and now in another, at different times and in different places, so that the people who flocked to hear him might not lack food. Once a certain noble lady, inflamed with a great and fervent desire to hear his preaching, had followed him for six whole years from city to city and town to town, with a few companions and her riches, yet she could never have private and intimate conversation with him. But at the end of the six years, and after the spending of all her wealth, on the Feast of the Assumption that lady and her faithful companions had no more food to eat, so she went to Brother Berthold and told him her story, which I have related. When Brother Berthold had heard all this, he sent her to a certain banker, who was considered the richest of all in that city, and commanded her to tell him in his name to give her as much money for her food and other expenses as the value of one single day of that indulgence which she had gained by following Brother Berthold for six years. When he heard this, the banker smiled, and said, “How shall I know the worth of the indulgence for one day on which you have followed Brother Berthold?” And she said, “He told me to tell you to place your money on one scale of the balance, and I will breathe on the other scale, and by this sign you will know the worth of my indulgence.” Then he poured in his money abundantly and filled the scale of the balance. But she breathed into the other scale, and immediately it was weighed down, and the money flew up as if it had suddenly become as light as a feather. When the banker saw this, he was greatly astonished, and heaped more and more gold pieces on his side of the scales, yet he could not outweigh the lady’s breath, for the Holy Ghost lent such weight to it, that no amount of money could counterbalance the scale on which she breathed. Then the banker, seeing this, went with the lady and her women to Brother Berthold, and told him all that had happened. And the banker said to him, “I am ready to restore all my ill-gotten gains and, for God’s sake, to distribute my own goods among the poor, and I want to become a good man, for truly I have seen marvellous things this day.” So Brother Berthold commanded him to supply abundantly with the necessities of life that lady with whom he had had this experience, and her companions also. This he fulfilled eagerly and generously to the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is glory and honour forever and ever. Amen.

  From Chronicle, F. Bernini, ed. (Ban, Italy: G. Laterza, 1942); trans. M.M.M.

  Monastic Reform in the Fifteenth Century

  JOHN BUSCH

  Fifteenth century

  THE monastery of St. Martin, in Ludinkerka, of our order, in Friesland, in the diocese of Utrecht, which was previously an abbey of our order, began to be reformed in the year 1428. Before its reformation there were but few priests there, and a great many converts— more than thirty or fifty—who had entered into an agreement with the converts of a neighbouring monastery of the Cistercian order, a mile off, that they would mutually help each other with a hundred armed men. The consequence was that they had subdued all that part of Friesland. A certain vassal, however, who lived in the town about the monastery, by advice of the lawyers, of whom there are plenty among the priests in Friesland, reported their ill life and conversation to the archbishop of Utrecht. None of them was chaste, all were proprietors [that is, possessed something which they called their own in money or goods], and they had nuns with them in the monastery who sometimes brought forth children. I knew the abbot there, a learned man, whose father had been called a convert, and his mother a nun. He afterwards resigned his abbacy and entered into a monastery of our chapter near Haar-lem, and having there become a monk, he ended his days well.

  The bishop, however, Frederic de Blankenheym, a wise and learned man, sent his ambassadors, men learned and skilful in the law, who, visiting the inmates of that monastery, found that almost all the converts had entered without rule or profession, and that they had remained up to that time, a period of many years, in that predicament. Being asked how they came to take upon them the habit of converts, they answered, “When first we came here, we saw many persons clothed with white tunics and scapulars, and at the same time wearing arms, so we bought ourselves white cloth, and had it made into white tunics, white hoods, and scapulars, and put them on ourselves.” It was asked whether they had heard anything about a rule. They answered, “Never; but each one took to himself a nun, a female convert, or other woman, w
ith whom he cohabited without being married.” The bishop of Utrecht, therefore, hearing this, by the advice of men learned in the law, in which he too was learned himself, adjudged and decreed that all the persons of this description were not monks, but might lawfully go out and marry wives, and be secular persons; and that they should put off that habit, and resume their secular dress; and this they immediately did, and also made protestation that they had no right or claim to the monastery, or any property belonging to it. A few, however, two or three, obtained leave to remain there, because they were old; and for a time retained also the women who had belonged to them, that they might wait on them in their infirmity, until all the women being expelled, they were collected together and formed into a monastery of our order hard by. After this the agents of the bishop sent to Windesheim to request that they would bring the monastery into a proper state of reformation; and upon that the prior of Windesheim sent thither some monks of Windesheim and of Mount St. Agnes—viz., Jacobus Oem, afterwards prior of Tabor and rector of the nuns in Bronopia, Gerard Wesep, John Lap, priest of Berg, and Engelbert Tentinel, with one convert who was very expert in temporal matters; and these first began the reformation in that place, with John Gerard of Zwoll, professed in Berg, whom they appointed rector there. But as they had not monks enough for its reformation and refoundation, the prior of Windesheim sent Godfrey de Tyela, and one John Busch, to the aforesaid monastery, in order to make up the number for its complete reformation; and he said to me, “Brother John, you did not do much out beyond Cologne, at Bodingen; you may see whether you can convert the Frisians.”