Vengeance in Medieval Europe: A Reader (Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures)

How did medieval society deal with private justice, with grudges, and with violent emotions? This ground-breaking reader collects for the first time a number of unpublished or difficult-to-find texts that address violence and emotion in the Middle Ages.The sources collected here illustrate the power and reach of the language of vengeance in medieval European society. They span the early, high, and later middle ages, and capture a range of perspectives including legal sources, learned commentaries, narratives, and documents of practice. Though social elites necessarily figure prominently in all medieval sources, sources concerning relatively low-status individuals and sources pertaining to women are included. The sources range from saints'lives that illustrate the idea of vengeance to later medieval court records concerning vengeful practices. A secondary goal of the collection is to illustrate the prominence of mechanisms for peacemaking in medieval European society. The introduction traces recent scholarly developments in the study of vengeance and discusses the significance of these concepts for medieval political and social history. MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 CONTENTS 6 INTRODUCTION 16 PART I. PROLOGUE: ANCIENT SOURCES FOR MEDIEVAL CONCEPTS OF VENGEANCE 22 CHAPTER ONE: THE OLD TESTAMENT 24 1. The Pollution of Kin-Slaying 24 2. The Law of the Talion 26 3. Vengeance and Emotion 27 4. The Principle of Sanctuary 28 5. The Levite's Concubine 30 6. Humiliation and the Lord's Vengeance 35 7. Restraining Vengeful Emotions 39 8. The Vengeance of the Maccabees 39 CHAPTER TWO: THE NEW TESTAMENT 48 9. Peacemaking and the Ties of Kinship 48 10. Humility as Vengeance? 49 CHAPTER THREE: ROMAN LAWS 50 11. Criminal Justice and Vengeance in the Theodosian Code and Sirmondian Constitutions 50 12. Criminal Justice and Vengeance in Justinian's Digest 62 PART II. THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES (400–1000) 72 CHAPTER FOUR: CODES, CAPITULARIES, AND PENITENTIALS 74 13. The Laws of the Salian Franks 75 14. The Lombard Laws 83 15. Carolingian Capitularies 89 16. Early Medieval English Law 93 17. Emotion and Sin 97 CHAPTER FIVE: SERMONS, EXEGESIS, AND LETTERS 100 18. Augustine on the Legitimacy of Fighting Back 100 19. Augustine on the Need to Await God's Vengeance 102 20. Jerome on Kindness and Cruelty 104 21. Law and the "Accursed Custom" of Vengeance in Theoderic's Italy 106 22. Isidore of Seville on the Law of the Talion 107 23. Pope Honorius Speaks of Justice as Vengeance 108 24. Smaragdus of St. Mihiel on Restraining Royal Anger 109 25. Hrabanus Maurus's Homily on Avoiding Anger and Homicide 111 26. Einhard on the Fear of Family Vengeance 114 27. Charles the Bald to Pope Nicholas on Vengeance without Violence 115 28. Vengeance for the "Hard Man" 119 CHAPTER SIX: SAINTS' LIVES, CHRONICLES, AND EPICS 122 29. Jordanes on Vengeance and the Vandal Wars of Conquest 123 30. Gregory of Tours on Feuding and Vengeance 125 31. Gregory of Tours on God's Vengeance 131 32. Vengeance as the Devil's Work in the Life of Saint Sadalberga 135 33. Saint Amandus Rescues a Man from Judicial Vengeance 136 34. Saint Willibrord Forgoes Vengeance and Anger 137 35. History of the Lombards by Paul the Deacon 139 36. Einhard on the Peace Inspired by the Relics of Saints Marcellinus and Peter 142 37. Saint Gerald of Aurillac Seeks Peace with His Enemies 143 38. Liutprand of Cremona's "Tit- For-Tat" 146 39. Heroic Vengeance 147 CHAPTER SEVEN: FORMULARIES, CHARTERS, AND JUDGMENTS 154 40. Promise for Peace after a Murder 154 41. An Orderly Merovingian Judgment 155 42. Lombard Record of Judgment at Pavia 156 PART III. THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES (1000–1250) 160 CHAPTER EIGHT: THE EFFORT TO REGULATE VIOLENCE AND EMOTION 162 43. The Peace of God in Charroux 162 44. Penance for Homicide in the Decretum of Burchard of Worms 163 45. The Laws of the Family of St. Peter 166 46. The Penitential of Burchard of Worms 169 47. Truce of God in Arles 169 48. A Comital Peace Assembly of Barcelona 171 49. The Truce of God in Cologne 174 50. Peace of the Land in Mainz 177 51. The Laws of Henry I of England 178 52. The Usatges of Barcelona 182 53. Rules for Trial by Combat in Brescia 186 54. The Penitential of Alain of Lille 187 55. The Penitential of Robert of Flamborough 189 56. General Constitution Concerning Judgments and Keeping the Peace 192 CHAPTER NINE: SERMONS AND LEARNED COMMENTARY ON ANGER AND VENGEANCE 194 57. Aelfric's Sermon on Anger and Peace 194 58. Wulfstan's " Sermon of the Wolf " on the Evils of His Day 196 59. Peter Damian on Restraining Anger 198 60. A Letter by Peter Damian on the Vengeance of Spiritual Leaders 201 61. William of Malmesbury on the Consequences of Resisting Peace 204 62. Pope Urban II Urges Vengeance on the Enemies of Christendom in Robert the Monk's History of Jerusalem 206 63. An Account of the Speech of Pope Urban II by Fulcher of Chartres 209 64. A Sermon by Saint Francis on Hatred and Peace 212 65. The Wolf of Gubbio 213 66. Albertanus of Brescia on the Cost of Pursuing Private War 215 67. Thomas Aquinas on Homicide, Vengeance, and Anger 217 CHAPTER TEN: SAINTS' LIVES, CHRONICLES, AND EPICS 232 68. Rodulphus Glaber on the Truce of God 232 69. How the Emperor Conrad Pacified His Realm, According to Wipo 233 70. Adam of Bremen on the Attacks of Bishop Adalbert's Enemies 239 71. The Cattle Raid of Cooley 242 72. Feud between Bishop Gaudry and Baron Gérard in the Autobiography of Guibert of Nogent 247 73. The Murder of Charles the Good by Galbert of Bruges 258 74. Peter Abelard's "Story of My Adversities" 265 75. The Deeds of Louis the Fat by Suger of St. Denis 267 76. The Vengeance of Kings in Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain 275 77. The Bloodfeud of Meingold and Albric 278 78. Hariulf on the Sweet Words of Arnulf of Soissons 281 79. Chronicle of the Slavs by Helmold of Bosau 282 80. Emotions Among the Military Aristocracy in Raoul of Cambrai 287 81. The Hatred of Kriemhild and Brunhild in The Nibelungenlied 292 82. Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach 296 83. Harald's Norway and the Flight to Iceland in the Laxdaela Saga 300 84. The Story of a Feud in Njal's Saga 301 CHAPTER ELEVEN: PEACE CHARTERS AND OATHS 322 85. Peace Oath Proposed by Bishop Warin of Beauvais to King Robert the Pious 322 86. Henry II Settles a Feud on Monastic Land 324 87. Attempted Settlement by Combat 326 88. Grant to the Norman Bishops of Fines Due from Breaches of the Truce of God 327 89. A Catalan Peace Settlement 329 90. A Twelfth-Century Forged Donation of King Dagobert III 330 91. A Peace Treaty from Avignon 331 PART IV. THE LATER MIDDLE AGES (1250–1500) 336 CHAPTER TWELVE: MUNICIPAL, TERRITORIAL, AND ROYAL LAWS CONCERNING VENGEANCE AND MURDER 338 92. Homicide in the Laws and Customs of England 338 93. From the Sachsenspiegel 343 94. Guarantees of Peace in the Customs of Touraine and Anjou 351 95. The Law of Homicide in the Fuero Real 353 96. Procedures for Private War in the Customs of Beauvaisis 355 97. The Statute of Homicide of Marseille, France 369 98. From the Statutes of Acqui, Italy 369 99. From the Statutes of Apricale, Italy 373 100. From the Statutes of Saone, Italy 374 101. From the Statutes of Cuneo, Italy 375 102. From the Statutes of Celle, Italy 378 103. The Perpetual Peace of the Land Proclaimed by Maximilian I 380 CHAPTER THIRTEEN: ECCLESIASTICAL AND SECULAR COMMENTARY ON PEACE AND THE RESTRAINT OF EMOTIONS 384 104. The Nature of Wrath According to a Preacher's Manual 384 105. A Sermon on Peace by Vincent Ferrer 393 106. Laudable Anger in Leonardo Bruni's Handbook of Moral Philosophy 395 107. Sermon on the Importance of Peace by Bernardino of Siena 397 CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SAINTS' LIVES, CHRONICLES, AND EPICS 402 108. Ambrose Sansedoni's Preaching of Peace Arouses Enmity 402 109. The Vengeful Miracles of Saint Bridget of Sweden 405 110. Saint Catherine of Siena as Peacemaker 406 111. Vengeance and Peace in the Life of Cola di Rienzo 409 112. Dino Compagni on the Florentine Factions 411 113. Trial by Combat in Froissart's Chronicles 414 114. The Vengeance of Our Lord 417 115. A Miracle of the Blessed Virgin Mary 428 116. A Vision of Peacemaking in the Miracles of Saint Rose of Viterbo 429 CHAPTER FIFTEEN: COURT CASES AND NOTARIAL PEACE ACTS 430 117. The Peace Registers of the City of Tournai 430 118. Tura Ranerii, of Florence, Creates a Procurator 433 119. Cases of Homicide in the Calendar of Coroner's Rolls, London 434 120. Notarized Peace Acts and Related Acts from Marseille 438 121. A Lawsuit by Nicolau Guilhem, a Cutler of Marseille 450 122. A Lawsuit against Lois Orlet of Marseille 454 123. A Lawsuit by Anhellon Faber, a Butcher of Marseille 462 124. An Inquest into the Murder of Bernart Berengier in Marseille 466 125. The Marseille City Council Makes a Ruling about Broken Sanctuary 476 126. Ignoring Due Process during a Feud in the Paston Letters 477 INDEX OF TOPICS 480 SOURCES 490