Proving Woman (24 page)
Authors: Dyan Elliott
44
Huyskens,
Quellenstudien
, p. 135.
45
This comment was made by an unidentified bishop present at the council, the activities of which are reported by
Chronicon Erfordiense
, ed. G. H. Pertz,
MGH SS
, 16:29; also in Mansi, vol. 23, col. 334.
46
Dietrich of Apolda,
Vita
6.1, p. 87; 6.3, p. 88; 7.1, p. 97. Dietrich notes in his prologue to this life that Conrad’s letter to Gregory IX was one
of his sources (p. 21).
47
Kaltner,
Konrad
, pp. 104–6. See Auvray, 12 June 1227 (bis), nos. 108, 109. For Gregory IX’s antiheretical policy in Germany, see Henri Maissoneuve,
Etudes sur les origines de l
’
Inquisition
, 2d ed. (Paris: Librairie Philosophique J. Vrin, 1960), pp. 257–64.
48
See, for example, Charles Homer Haskins, “Robert le Bougre and the Beginnings of the Inquisition in Northern France,” in
Studies in Mediaeval Culture
(Oxford: Clarendon, 1929), p. 208; cf. M.-H. Vicaire’s debunking of efforts to construct Dominic as the first inquisitor,
in “ ‘Persequutor Hereticorum’ ou les ‘Persécutions’ de Saint Dominique,”
Cahiers de Fanjeaux
6 (1971): 75–84.
49
See particularly Ludwig Foïrg,
Die Ketzerverfolgung in Deutschland unter Gregor IX
, vol. 218 of
Historische Studien
(Berlin: Emil Ebering, 1932), pp. 71–72, 74, 80. Also see Richard Kieckhefer,
The Repression of Heresy in Medieval Germany
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1979), pp. 14–15.
50
Gestorum Treverorum continuatio quarta
, ed. G. Waitz,
MGH SS
, 24:400. See Lea,
Inquisition
, 1:322, 336. The vernacular
Historia regum francorum
by Philip Mouket (fl. 1236) also notes that Conrad and his companion carried letters from Rome (ed. O. Holder-Egger,
MGH SS
, 26:804). See Caesarius of Heisterbach’s introduction of Conrad, cited above, and Dietrich of Apolda,
Vita
3.8, p. 59.
51
See Auvray, 10 June 1233, no. 1387; Kaltner,
Konrad
, pp. 134–36; Lea,
Inquisition
, 2:332.
52
Annales Wormatiensis
, ed. G. H. Pertz,
MGH SS
, 17:39.
53
Gestorum Treverorum continuatio quarta
,
MGH SS
, 24:400–440, trans.
WE
, pp. 267–68.
Annales Wormatiensis
,
MGH SS
, 17:39;
Chronicon Erfordiense
ann. 1234,
MGH SS
, 16:28. Cf. Albric’s
Chronicon
, discussed below. See Kaltner,
Konrad
, pp. 154–59; Foïrg,
Die Ketzerverfolgung
, pp. 75 ff.; and Lea,
Inquisition
, 2:338 ff.
54
Lea,
Inquisition
, 2:336. Lea also notes that the shaving of heads corresponds to the later imposition of crosses that were to be worn by alleged
heretics.
55
Cf. Robert le Bougre’s career, wherein parallel abuses of power led to his fall. See chap. 2, n. 94, above; and chap. 5,
p. 229, below.
56
See J. F. Boïhmer and C. Will, eds.,
Regesta Archiepiscoporum Maguntinensium
ann. 1233 (Innsbruck: Wagner, 1886), 2:227; Trithemius,
Annales Hirsaugienses
ann. 1233, 2:537–38; cf. the
Annales Wormatiensis
,
MGH SS
, 17:39;
Gestorum Treverorum continuatio quarta
,
MGH SS
, 24:402.
57
For accounts of Gregory’s reaction, ranging from cryptically resigned to unrestrainably out-raged, see
Annales Wormatiensis
,
MGH SS
, 17:40;
Chronicon Erfordiense
,
MGH SS
, 16:28–29.
58
23 October 1233, printed in
MGH Ep. Saec. XIII
, ed. C. Rodenberg, no. 560, 1:453; Auvray, no. 1571. Also see 31 October 1233, no. 1581; 26 July 1235, no. 2700; 31 July
1235, no. 2701. This evocation of Jeremiah was not exclusive to Conrad’s death. Gregory had already employed it in a series
of letters dating from June 1233, demarcating the sufferings of the church at the hands of heretics (see Auvray, nos. 1391–94).
When applied to Conrad, both the lamentation and the allusion to the death of innocent victims acquire heightened significance
and irony.
59
MGH Ep. Saec. XIII
, no. 560, 1:454–55.
60
Albrici monachi Triumfontium Chronicon
ann. 1233, ed. P. Scheffer-Boichorst,
MGH SS
, 23:931–32. Cf. the
Gestorum Treverorum continuatio quarta
, which also refers to converted heretics launching false accusations and the incumbent deaths of many innocent people (in
MGH SS
, 24:400–401).
61
Cf.
Annales Wormatiensis
(ann. 1231), which notes that many of the victims died invoking Jesus and the saints (
MGH SS
, 17:39). For other instances of “heretical” martyrs, see chap. 4, pp. 174–79, below.
62
Albrici monachi Triumfontium Chronicon
ann. 1233,
MGH SS
, 23:931–32.
63
Innocent III had already, in 1200, canonized Empress Cunegund, who was allegedly a virginal matron (see Elliott,
Spiritual Marriage
, pp. 196, 266; for her legend, see pp. 119–20, 129–30).
64
See Irmingard’s testimony, Huyskens,
Quellenstudien
, p. 129.
65
Ibid., p. 139. This was according to Irmingard’s testimony.
66
See Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Sermo de translacione
, in “Des Cäsarius von Heisterbach Schriften,” p. 52.
67
See Huyskens’s introduction to
Quellenstudien
, pp. 80–81.
68
MGH Ep. Saec. XIII
, no. 5603, 1:454; Auvray, 23 October 1233, no. 1571.
69
Huyskens,
Quellenstudien
, p. 135. This is according to Irmingard’s testimony.
70
Ibid., p. 159; Henniges, “Vita S. Elisabeth,” pp. 256, 265.
71
Huyskens,
Quellenstudien
, pp. 143–44.
72
Ibid., p. 126. This corresponds to what Guda reported about the child Elisabeth, who would intentionally deny herself pleasure,
“breaking her own will for God,” p. 113.
73
Ibid., pp. 135–36; Kaltner,
Konrad
, p. 119. Cf. an instance during Ludwig’s lifetime when Elisabeth was impeded from attending Conrad’s sermon by the presence
of a visiting noble. Because of her inobedience, Conrad resigned as her spiritual director. When Elisabeth and her maidens
hastened to submit themselves to Conrad, groveling at his feet, Conrad had them stripped to their undergarments and whipped
(Huyskens,
Quellenstudien
, pp. 118–19). Lea posits that secular individuals were not permitted to enter the cloister, and this occasioned Elisabeth’s
excommunication (Lea,
Inquisition
, 2:328). But there is nothing in the text to suggest that the excommunication was contingent on anything except her purported
disobedience to Conrad; cf. Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Vita
, in “Des Cäsarius von Heisterbach Schriften,” pp. 45–46. Such arbitrary excommunications contravene the recent stipulations
of Lateran IV (c. 47), which forbade excommunication without sufficient warning and “manifest and reasonable cause” (Tanner,
1:255–56). Caesarius of Heisterbach reports that Conrad’s assassins were prepared to spare Gerhard, but he preferred to die
with Conrad (
Vita
, in “Des Cäsarius von Heisterbach Schriften,” p. 24).
74
Thomas suspected his penitent’s complicity with the incubus who was violating her. In his own words: “I marveled especially
by what judgment omnipotent God would have permitted this in an unconsenting soul. I in no way wanted to believe this, so
I called the virgin to testify with dreadful oaths [
horri
fi
cis iuramentis
], and finally extorted from her violently [
ab ea violenter extorsi
] that she was first corrupted in the mind and then in the flesh. And see how hidden and marvelous is [God’s] judgment of
justice” (
De apibus
2.57.14, p. 546). The woman was freed from the incubus only through the intervention of Lutgard (2.57.15, p. 547). See Barbara
Newman’s discussion “Possessed by the Spirit: Devout Women, Demoniacs, and the Apostolic Life in the Thirteenth Century,”
Speculum
73 (1998): 743–44, and Dyan Elliott,
Fallen Bodies: Pollution, Sexuality, and Demonology in
the Middle Ages
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999), pp. 54–55. Cf. Thomas’s rather heavy-handed joke, again involving
an oath, this time extracted from a woman who had injured a cleric making advances toward her (
De apibus
2.30.51, p. 356).
75
On Conrad Dorso and John’s activities, see
Annales Wormatiensis
ann. 1231,
MGH SS
, 17:38–39. According to this account, these two men approached Conrad to further their activities because of his reputation
as “a judge without mercy.” The annals further claim that Dorso was killed in Strasbourg, even as John was hanged in Friedberg.
Also see the
Gestorum Treverorum
continuatio quarta
, in
MGH SS
, 24:400. Cf. Lea,
Inquisition
, 2:333–34; Kaltner,
Konrad
, pp. 138–40.
76
Huyskens,
Quellenstudien
, p. 126.
77
Ibid., p. 127. See Conrad’s admission to Gregory of beating Elisabeth when she secretly harbored an indigent leper (pp. 94–95,
above). Cf. an anonymous life, Henniges, “Vita S. Elisabeth,” p. 256.
78
Huyskens,
Quellenstudien
, p. 158. Conrad describes them in terms of Elisabeth’s spiritual profit but does not mention their espionage.
79
“. . . quod castra sua, que erant peroptima, ipsi cum veteris mulieribus vellent auferre et inquirere,”
Annales Wormatiensis
ann. 1231,
MGH SS
, 17:39.
80
Huyskens,
Quellenstudien
, p. 158.
81
See chap. 1, pp. 19–20, above.
82
See Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Vita
, in “Des Cäsarius von Heisterbach Schriften,” p. 17; also see Kaltner,
Konrad
, p. 122.
83
See, for example, Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Dialogus miraculorum
7.3, 11.28–29, 2:4, 294–95; trans. Scott and Bland, 1:457, 2:262–64. Also see Caesarius’s anecdote regarding the false shepherd
that was probably based upon an episode from
VMO
discussed in chap. 6, n. 82, below.
84
Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Vita
, in “Des Cäsarius von Heisterbach Schriften,” pp. 24–25. The reference to Conrad’s correction of morals refers to his efforts
at church reform that were, again, encouraged by Gregory IX. See, for example, Gregory’s letter regarding clerical concubinage
in Germany in Auvray, 20 June 1227, no. 113. Also see Lea,
Inquisition
, 2:329–30; Kaltner,
Konrad
, pp. 106–7.
85
Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Vita
, in “Des Cäsarius von Heisterbach Schriften,” p. 24.
86
Ibid., p. 24.
87
Ibid., p. 31.
88
For the good wife of Proverbs, see ibid., p. 39, pp. 41–42 (four times); also cf. the related references to prudent wives
from the Old Testament, on p. 25. Note that, when describing Elisabeth’s efforts at getting other women to give up fine clothing
and dancing, an endeavor that was present in the original handmaidens’ account, Caesarius adds a gratuitous reference to Paul’s
insistence that wives be subordinate to their husbands (p. 29). For comparisons to Martha and Mary, see pp. 37, 47.
89
Ibid., pp. 28–29.
90
Pliny,
Natural History
33.19, ed. and trans. H. Rackham, Loeb Classical Library (London: William Heineman, 1968), 9:46–49. These views were, of course,
carried forward into the Middle Ages. Cf. Isidore of Seville on
obryzum
, in
Etymologiae
16.18.2,
PL
82, col. 584. Gold’s reputed purity fostered the belief that it could cure any number of physical ailments. Its curative powers
are summarized by Vincent of Beauvais in his
Speculum naturale
7.4–5, in
Speculum quadruplex;
sive Speculum maius
(Douai: B. Belleri, 1624), 1:427–28.
91
Gregory the Great,
Moralia in Iob
16.32.39, ed. Mark Adriaen,
CCSL
143a (Turnhout: Brepols, 1979), p. 822. Cf. the
Glossa ordinaria
for Job 23.10, ad v.
probavit
, vol. 3, fol. 47v.
92
Gregory the Great,
Moralia
23.26.52,
CCSL
143b, p. 1186.
93
Thomas Aquinas,
Expositio in librum beati Job
, in
Opera omnia
(Parma: Petrus Fiaccadori, 1863), prologue, 14:1; c. 23, lect. 1, for verse 23, ad v.
Et probabit me quasi aurum, quod per
ignem transit
, 14:87.
94
Gregory the Great,
Moralia
2.10.16–17,
CCSL
143, p. 70.
95
See, for example, Gregory the Great,
Moralia
5.12.29 ff.,
CCSL
143, pp. 238 ff.; 16.16.21,
CCSL
143a, pp. 810–11.
96
See Nicholas of Lyre’s
Postilla
for Job 9.18, ad v.
et implet me amaritudinibus
, in
Glossa
ordinaria
, vol. 3, fol. 25r.
97
Caesarius’s subtle portraiture of Elisabeth as a female Job complements Ann Astell’s argument for the feminization of Job
by writers such as Gregory I and Chaucer (“Translating Job as Female,” in
Translation Theory and Practice in the Middle Ages
, ed. Jeanette Beer [Kalamazoo, Mich.: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997], pp. 59–69).
98
Caesarius of Heisterbach,
Vita
, in “Des Cäsarius von Heisterbach Schriften,” p. 34.
