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Turning Judas into a Crusader: Local Reform and Crusade Propaganda in Thirteenth-Century Cambrai
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 June 2021
Abstract
Crusade preaching in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries has often been studied as a centralised programme devised and deployed by the papacy for reform purposes. This article examines the career of John of Cantimpré, a relatively low-profile priest operating at the local level, who none the less was deeply engaged in crusade campaigns as integral to the moral reform of European society. This study first analyses an unusually sophisticated ritual performance in which a usurer was transformed into a crusader as part of a preaching event orchestrated by John of Cantimpré on the eve of the Fourth Crusade, and then investigates the representation of him as a methodical preacher who associated local concerns, such as usury and predatory lordship, with the crusading enterprise.
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References
1 C. Maier, Preaching the crusades: mendicant friars and the cross in the thirteenth century, Cambridge 1994; J. Powell, Anatomy of a crusade, 1213–1221, Philadelphia, Pa 1986, 15–32; E. Peters, ‘Innocent iii and the beginning of the Fourth Crusade’, in J. Bird (ed.), Papacy, crusade, and Christian-Muslim relations, Amsterdam 2018, 117–30.
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4 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 296. For a general survey of the ritual of public penance in thirteenth-century France, without the mention of Alard's case in Cambrai, see M. Mansfield, The humiliation of sinners: public penance in thirteenth-century France, Ithaca, NY 1995. For the history of penance in early medieval society see, for example, S. Hamilton, The practice of penance, 900–1050, Woodbridge–Rochester, NY 2001; R. Meens, Penance in medieval Europe, 600–1200, Cambridge 2014; and A. Firey (ed.), A new history of penance, Leiden 2008.
5 Fulk of Neuilly's preaching has sometimes been criticised for its overwhelming emphasis on moral reform at the expense of recruiting for the crusade: Cole, The preaching of the crusades, 87–92. For a different interpretation that defends Fulk's goal as congruent with what Pope Innocent iii had in mind see Jones, A., ‘Fulk of Neuilly, Innocent iii, and the preaching of the Fourth Crusade’, Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies xxxxi (2010), 119–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also J. Bird, ‘Reform or crusade? Anti-usury and crusade preaching during the pontificate of Innocent iii’, in J. C. Moore (ed.), Pope Innocent III and his world, Aldershot 1999, 165–85.
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7 ‘beatum uirum deposceret quatinus, fossa sub inferiori limine domus sue parata et fune eius collo innexo, nudus extraheretur, ut qui nichil se proprium possidere conscius erat, domo sua nudus et pauper exiret. Et paruit uir beatus et discretus ad exemplum reliquorum, annuitque petenti. Collecto igitur et adunato clero et populo ciuitatis, idem fenerator Alardus, parata fossa sub limine domus, uestibus spoliatus incubuit, accedensque quidam ex fratribus iussu beati uiri, funem eius collo innexuit, et sicut de utero matris nudus exierat, nudum eduxit. Nec mora, uestibus exhibitis nudus induitur, dispositoque clero in turmas, ad ecclesiam beate Dei genitricis et Virginis Marie cum processione et maxima Christi laude deducitur. Nec preteribo id uehementer egregium, quod interim cum duceretur, calamistrum, quod huram uulgariter uocant, in suo capite sentiens, iniecta manu uiolenter detraxit, deiiciensque in terram dixit: <<Nec tantum proprii habeo quod iure possideam.>> Mira uulgi suspectatio nec <non> spectantium profusio lachrimarum. Quis enim, tante pietatis spectaculum uidens, lachrimas contineret? Nec hoc utique posset uiciosa humane alienationis ipsa crudelitas. His itaque gestis, ad ecclesiam perductus est, et in signum spiritalis absolutionis, a fune materiali collo eius innexo absoluitur, cruceque suscepta, Iherosolimis profecturus in eminentiori loco iuxta beatum uirum ad spectaculum sollemne statuitur’: Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 296. The English translation is from ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 99.
8 R. Schechner, Performance studies: an introduction, London–New York 2002, 57–8.
9 V. Turner, The ritual process: structure and anti-structure, Ithaca, NY 1977, and From ritual to theatre: the human seriousness of play, New York 1982. For a discussion of the utility of Turner's theory of liminality and social drama in medieval hagiography see C. W. Bynum, ‘Women's stories, women's symbols: a critique of Victor Turner's theory of liminality’, in her Fragmentation and redemption: essays on gender and the human body in medieval religion, New York 1991, 27–51.
10 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 296.
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12 Barbara Newman suggests that Alard ‘may have been an unbeneficed priest who took up moneylending for want of other employment’: ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 98, no. 141.
13 Schmitt, J.-C., ‘Le Suicide au moyen âge’, Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales xxxi (1976), 5Google Scholar.
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15 Platelle, ‘Conversions spectaculaires’, 34, no. 21.
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20 On the special disposal of the suicides’ bodies resulting from a fear of their return see N. M. Caciola, Afterlives: the return of the dead in the Middle Ages, Ithaca, NY 2016, 237–8.
21 For example, L. Little, Religious poverty and the profit economy in medieval Europe, Ithaca, NY 1978, 42–57, and R. Chazan, The Jews of medieval western Christendom, 1000–1500, Cambridge 2006, 129–53, 209–42.
22 Bernard of Clairvaux, Sancti Bernardi Opera, viii, ed. J. Leclercq and H. Rochais, Rome 1977, 316; Little, Religious poverty, 56. On Bernard of Clairvaux's attitudes towards the Jews see J. Cohen, Living letters of the law: ideas of the Jew in medieval Christianity, Berkeley, Ca 1999, 219–45; on Christian attitudes towards the Jews in the twelfth century see A. S. Abulafia, Christians and Jews in the twelfth-century Renaissance, London 1995; for a broad study on the medieval visual representation of the Jew see S. Lipton, Dark mirror: the medieval origins of anti-Jewish iconography, New York 2014; on the Christian construction of ‘Judaism’ as a figure see Nirenberg, D., ‘“Judaism” as political concept: toward a critique of political theology’, Representations cxxviii (2014), 1–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Anti-Judaism: the western tradition, New York 2014.
23 Robson, ‘Judas and the Franciscans’, 33.
24 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 296.
25 Bonaventure, The soul's journey into God, the tree of life, the life of St. Francis, trans. E. Cousins, New York 1978, 193–4; Thomas of Celano, The Francis trilogy of Thomas of Celano, ed. R. Armstrong, J. A. W. Hellmann and W. Short, New York 2004, 32–3.
26 Barbara Newman has noticed the ‘kindred spirit’ in Thomas of Celano's Vita prima and Thomas of Cantimpré's Life of John: ‘Introduction’ to Thomas of Cantimpré: the collected saints’ lives, 6.
27 See the ‘Chronology’ in Thomas of Cantimpré: the collected saints’ lives, 55–6. For the chronology of Francis of Assisi's life, I consult the table in A. Vauchez, Francis of Assisi: the life and afterlife of a medieval saint, trans. M. Cusato, New Haven 2012, 341–4.
28 ‘And the moment of conversion is a moment of womanly fertility: Bonaventure tells us that Francis took off his clothes and his shoes, renounced his father, threw away his money, prayed to Mary, and like her gave birth to his first child (his first disciple)’: Bynum, ‘Women's stories, women's symbols’, 35.
29 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 296.
30 Ibid. 296–7.
31 Ibid. 298.
32 A sweet, fragrant odour as an indicator of sanctity was a widely-held belief in the Christian cult of saints: S. A. Harvey, Scenting salvation: ancient Christianity and the olfactory imagination, Berkeley, Ca 2006; C. W. Bynum, The resurrection of the body in western Christianity, 200–1336, New York 1995; M. Roch, L'Intelligence d'un sens: odeurs miraculeuses et odorat dans l'Occident du haut moyen âge (Ve–VIIIe siècle), Turnhout 2009; B. Cazelles, Le Corps de sainteté d'après Jehan Bouche d'Or, Jehan Paulus, et quelques vies des XIIe et XIIIe siècles, Geneva 1982; M. Bouvier, ‘De l'Incorruptibilité des corps saints’, in J. Gelis and O. Redon (eds), Les Miracles: miroirs des corps, Paris 1983, 193–221.
33 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 296.
34 Ibid. 297.
35 Mansfield, The humiliation of sinners, 253.
36 On Peter the Chanter's circle of reformers see J. Baldwin's classic study Masters, princes, and merchants: the social views of Peter the Chanter and his circle, Princeton 1970.
37 See, for example, ibid; D. d'Avray, The preaching of the friars: sermons diffused from Paris before 1300, Oxford 1985; F. Morenzoni, Des Écoles aux paroisses: Thomas de Chobham et la promotion de la prédication au début du XIIIe siècle, Paris 1995; N. Bériou, L'Avènement des maîtres de la Parole: la prédication à Paris au XIIIe siècle, Paris 1998; and M. Colish, ‘The early scholastics and the reform of doctrine and practice’, in C. Bellitto and L. Hamilton (eds), Reforming the Church before modernity: patterns, problems and approaches, Aldershot 2005, 61–8.
38 Born around 1155, John of Cantimpré had spent his years in Paris before the establishment of his community in Cantimpré in 1177. Born around 1160, Lothar of Segni, the future Pope Innocent iii, was probably also in Paris in the 1170s: J. C. Moore, Pope Innocent III (1160/61–1216): to root up and to plant, Leiden 2003, 8. J. Sayers suggests that Lothar arrived in Paris ‘probably in the 1180s, perhaps earlier’: Innocent III: leader of Europe, 1198–1216, London 1994, 18. Thomas of Cantimpré recorded another John from the abbey of Cantimpré who had indeed attended Peter the Chanter's lectures in Paris. This fact reinforced the impression that the religious community at Cantimpré was under the intellectual influence of the Chanter's circle. See Thomas of Cantimpré, Bonum universale de apibus, Douai 1627, 121.
39 Apparently John of Cantimpré could not ‘dispute’ once he left the schools and pursued a clerical career in his native town: Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 275.
40 Ibid. 267–9.
41 See, for example, J. Longère (ed.), L'Abbaye parisienne de Saint-Victor au moyen âge, Turnhout 1991; D. Poirel (ed.), L’École de Saint-Victor de Paris: influence et rayonnement du moyen âge à l’époque moderne, Turnout 2010; and Bird, J., ‘The Victorines, Peter the Chanter's circle, and the crusade: two unpublished crusading appeals in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, ms latin 14470’, Medieval Sermon Studies xlviii (2004), 5–28Google Scholar.
42 C. W. Bynum, ‘The spirituality of regular canons in the twelfth century’, in her Jesus as mother: studies in the spirituality of the high Middle Ages, Berkeley, Ca 1982, 22–58.
43 Thomas of Cantimpré, Bonum universale de apibus, 560, 513.
44 For the studies on Thomas of Cantimpré's life and works see R. Sweetman, ‘Dominican preaching in the southern Low Countries, 1240–1260: Materiae praedicabiles in the Liber de natura rerum and Bonum universale de apibus of Thomas of Cantimpré’, unpubl. PhD diss. Toronto 1988, and Smith, Excessive saints.
45 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 257.
46 Ibid. 291; ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 94.
47 Ibid.
48 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 292; ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 95.
49 ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 94, no. 126. See also D. Power, ‘Who went on the Albigensian Crusade?’, EHR cxxviii (2013), 1063.
50 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 293; ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 96.
51 Ibid.
52 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 284–91. For biographical sketches of John (Jean) i of Montmirail see T. Evergates, The aristocracy in the county of Champagne, 1100–1300, Philadelphia, Pa 2007, 236–7, and J. Baldwin, Knights, lords, and ladies: in search of aristocrats in the Paris region, 1180–1220, Philadelphia, Pa 2019, 183–91.
53 Vita B. Joannis de Monte-Mirabili, in Acta Sanctorum, Septembris, pars 8, Paris 1867, 219.
54 Ibid.
55 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 284. Thomas of Cantimpré was in fact uncharacteristically vague on John of Cantimpré's role in shaping the lord of Montmirail's spiritual quest, only insisting that there was one. Whether this was due to the limited sources that Thomas had access to or the fact that John of Montmirail was more obviously associated with the Cistercians is hard to scrutinise. See Lester, A. E., ‘A shared imitation: Cistercian convents and crusader families in thirteenth-century Champagne’, Journal of Medieval History xxxv (2009), 353–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
56 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 285, 287, 288–9.
57 Wolff, R. L., ‘Baldwin of Flanders and Hainaut, first Latin emperor of Constantinople: his life, death, and resurrection, 1172–1225’, Speculum (1952), 281–322CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For biographical sketches of Marie of Champagne and her daughters Jeanne and Marguerite who successively ruled Flanders for most of the thirteenth century see K. Nicholas, ‘Countesses as rulers in Flanders’, in T. Evergates (ed.), Aristocratic women in medieval France, Philadelphia, Pa 1999, 111–37.
58 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 312–13.
59 Ibid. 314.
60 Geoffrey of Villehardouin, The conquest of Constantinople, in Joinville and Villehardouin: chronicles of the crusades, trans. C. Smith, London 2008, 85; Wolff, ‘Baldwin of Flanders and Hainaut’, 288–9.
61 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 314; ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 119.
62 Ibid.
63 Wolff, ‘Baldwin of Flanders and Hainaut’, 294–301.
64 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 313; ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 118.
65 In the Cistercian Vita, after his conversion John of Montmirail prepared to go on the Albigensian Crusade but his plan was thwarted when he failed to secure his wife's assent to selling lands in the city of Cambrai for 7,000 livres: Vita B. Joannis de Monte-Mirabili, 220.
66 Thomas of Cantimpré, ‘Une Oeuvre inédite’, 267; ‘The life of Abbot John of Cantimpré’, 68.