The Birth of Europe:

Political, Religious, and Cultural Institutions

Feudal Oaths of Fidelity

I: An Anglo-Saxon Oath of Loyalty to a Lord [from Schmidt: Gesetze der Angelsachsen, p. 404]

Thus shall one take the oath of fidelity: By the Lord before whom this sanctuary is
holy, I will be true and faithful to [name of my lord], and love all which he loves and shun all
which he shuns, according to the laws of God and the order of the world. Nor will I ever with
will or action, through word or deed, do anything which is unpleasing to him, on condition that
he will hold to me as I shall deserve it, and that he will perform everything as it was in our
agreement when I submitted myself to him and chose his will.

II: Acceptance of a Vassal Knight as a Royal Bodyguard, 7th Century [from Roziere: Collection
de Formules, No. VIII, Vol I, p. 8]

It is right that those who offer to us unbroken fidelity should be protected by our aid.
And since [name of the vassal], a faithful one of ours, by the favor of God, coming here in our
palace with his arms, has seen fit to swear trust and fidelity to us in our hand, therefore we
decree and command by the present precept that for the future [name of the vassal] just
mentioned should be counted with the number of vassal bodyguards. And if anyone perchance
should presume to kill him, let him know that he will be judged guilty of his wergild (life-value)
of 600 shillings.

Adapted from E. P. Cheyney, trans, University of Pennsylvania. Dept. of History: Translations and
Reprints from the Original Sources of European history, published for the Dept. of History of the
University of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press [1898]. Vol IV, No: 3, 3-5

Gelasius I on Spiritual and Temporal Power, 494

This is a letter of Pope Gelasius to the Roman Emperor Anastasius I on the superiority of
the spiritual of the Church over the temporal power of kings. The popes views and his
boldness! find a clear expression in the following remarkable letter, dated 494 AD, sometimes
known as Duo Sunt.
 There are two powers, august Emperor, by which this world is chiefly ruled, namely, the
sacred authority [auctoritas] of the priests and the royal power [potestas]. Of these powers the
authority of the priests is the more weighty, since they have to render an account even for the
kings of men in the divine judgment. You are also aware, dear son, that while you are permitted
honorably to rule over humankind, yet in things divine you bow your head humbly before the
leaders of the clergy and await from their hands the means of your salvation. In the reception and
proper disposition of the heavenly mysteries, you recognize that you should be subordinate rather
than superior to the religious order, and that in these matters you depend on their judgment rather
than wish to force them to follow your will.

If the ministers of religion, recognizing the supremacy granted you from heaven in
matters affecting the public order, obey your laws, with what readiness should you not also yield
obedience to those assigned the dispensing of the sacred mysteries of religion? Accordingly, just
as there is no slight danger in the case of the priests if they refrain from speaking when the
service of the divinity requires it, so there is no little risk for those who refuse when God forbid
it they should obey. And if it is fitting that the hearts of the faithful should submit to all priests
in general who properly administer divine affairs, how much more is obedience due to the bishop
of that see which the Most High God ordained to be above all others [i.e., the holy see of Rome],
and which is consequently dutifully honored by the devotion of the whole Church?

Adapted from J. H. Robinson, Readings in European History, (Boston: Ginn, 1905), pp. 72-73

Tales of the Virgin

These tales not only illustrate the intense (and superstitious) devotion to the Virgin Mary
so common among the medieval massesthey also give us a very human look at what it was
like to live in the Middle Ages.

1. THE VIRGIN SAVES A WIFE AND A MONK WHO ELOPED

WITH TREASURES OF THE MONASTERY
Jacques de Vitry, CCLXXXII. (pp. 117, ff.)

A virtuous and pious wife came frequently to the church and served God most devoutly,
day and night. Also a certain monk, the guardian and treasurer of the monastery, had a great
reputation for piety, and truly he was devout. When, however, the two frequently conversed
together in the church concerning religious matters, the devil, envying their virtue and fame,
tempted them sorely so that the spiritual love was changed to carnal. Accordingly they made an
agreement and fixed upon a night in which the monk was to leave his monastery, taking the
treasures of the church, and the wife was to leave her home, with a sum of money which she
should secretly steal from her husband.
 After they had left and fled, the monks on rising in the morning saw that the receptacles
were broken and the treasures of the church stolen and not finding the monk, they quickly
pursued him. Likewise the woman's husband, seeing his chest open and the money gone, pursued
his wife. Seizing the monk and the woman with the treasure and money, they brought them back
and threw them into prison. Moreover so great was the scandal through all that part of the
country and so much were all religious persons reviled that the damage from the infamy and
scandal was far greater than from the sin itself.

Then the monk restored to his senses, began with many tears to pray to the blessed
Virgin, whom from infancy he had always served, and never before had any such misfortune
happened to him. Likewise the wife began urgently to implore the aid of the blessed Virgin
whom, frequently, day and night, she had been accustomed to salute and before whose image she
had been wont to kneel in prayer. At length the blessed Virgin appeared before them in great
anger and after she had upbraided them severely, she said, "I am able to obtain pardon for your
sins from my son, but what can I do about such an awful scandal? For you have so befouled the
name of religious persons before all the people, that in the future no one will trust them. This is
an almost irremediable injury."

At length the pious Virgin, overcome by their prayers, summoned the demons who had
caused the deed and enjoined upon them that, as they had caused the scandal to religion, they
must bring the infamy to an end. Since, indeed, they were not able to resist her commands, after
much anxiety and various conferences they found a way to remove infamy. In the night they
placed the monk in the church and repairing the broken receptacle as it had been before, they
placed the treasure in it. Also they closed and locked the chest which the wife had opened and
replaced the money in it. And they set the woman in her room and in the place where she was
accustomed to pray by night.

When, moreover, the monks found the treasure of their house and monk, who was
praying to God just as he had been accustomed to do; and the husband found his wife and the
treasure; and they found the money just as it had been before, they began to be amazed and to
wonder. Rushing to the prison they saw the monk and the woman in fetters just as they had left
them. For one of the demons was seen by them transformed into the figure of a monk and
another into the shape of a woman. When the whole city had come together to see the miracle,
the demons said in the hearing of all, "Let us go, for long enough have we deceived these people
and caused ill to be thought of religious persons." And having said this they vanished. Moreover
all fell down at the feet of the monk and of the woman and demanded pardon.

Behold how great infamy and scandal and how inestimable damage the devil would have
wrought against religious persons, if the blessed Virgin had not aided them!

2. THE VIRGIN TAKES THE PLACE OF A NUN WHO HAD FLED THE CONVENT
Caesar of Heisterbach, Distinctio VII, Cap. XXXIV. (Vol. II, pp. 42-43.)

Not many years ago, in a certain monastery of nuns, of which I do not know the name,
there lived a virgin named Beatrix. She was beautiful in form, devout in mind, and most fervent
in the service of the mother of God. As often as she could offer secretly to the Virgin special
prayers and supplications, she held them for her dearest delight Indeed, having been made
custodian, she did this more devoutly because more freely.

A certain clerk, seeing and lusting after her, began to tempt her. When she spurned the
words of lust, and on that account he insisted the more strenuously, the old serpent enkindled her
breast so vehemently that she could not bear the flames of love. Therefore coming to the altar of
the blessed Virgin, the patroness of the oratory, she spoke thus: "Mistress, I have served thee as
devoutly as I could; behold, I resign thy keys to thee, I cannot longer withstand the temptations
of the flesh." And, having placed the keys on the altar, she secretly followed the clerk.

When that wretched man had corrupted her, he abandoned her after a few days. Since she
had no means of living and was ashamed to return to the convent, she became a harlot. After she
had continued in that vice publicly for fifteen years, she came one day in a laypersons clothes to
the door of the monastery. She said to the doorkeeper, "Did you know Beatrix, formerly
custodian of this oratory?" The man replied, I knew her very well. For she is an honest and holy
woman, and from infancy even to the present day she has remained in this monastery without
fault. When she, hearing the man's words but not understanding them, wished to go away, the
Mother of Mercy appeared in her well-known image and said to her, During the fifteen years of
thy absence, I have performed thy task; now return to thy place and do penance; for no one
knows of thy departure. In fact, in the form and dress of that woman, the mother of God had
performed the duties of custodian. Beatrix entered at once and returned thanks as long as she
lived, revealing through confession what had been done for her.

3. A WOMAN PUNISHED FOR DESPISING A STATUE OF THE VIRGIN

Caesar of Heisterbach, Distinctio VII, Cap. XLV. (Vol. II, pp. 62-63.)

In the chapel of the castle of Veldenz there is a certain ancient image of the blessed
Virgin holding her son in her bosom. This image is, indeed, not very well made, but is endowed
with great virtue. A certain matron of this castle, which is situated in the diocese of Trier,
standing in the chapel one day looked at the image and despising the workmanship, said, "Why
does this old rubbish stand here?'"

The blessed Mary, the mother of mercy, not as I think, complaining to her son of the
woman who spoke so foolishly, but predicting the future penalty for the crime to a certain other
matron, said "Because that lady," designating her by name, "called me old rubbish, she shall be
wretched as long as she lives."

After a few days that lady was driven out by her own son from all her possessions and
property, and up to the present day she begs wretchedly enough, suffering the punishment for her
foolish speech. Behold how the blessed Virgin loves and honors those who love her, and
punishes and humbles those who despise her.
 4. THE HORRIBLE DEATH OF A BLASPHEMER OF THE VIRGIN
tienne de Bourbon, No. 133. (p. 113)

Also near Cluny, as I have heard from many, it happened recently, namely, in the year of
our Lord 1246, when I was there, that a certain tavern keeper on the Saturday before Advent, in
selling wine and taking his pay, blasphemed Christ during the whole day. But when about the
ninth hour, in the presence of a multitude of men, he had sworn by the tongue of the blessed
Virgin, by blaspheming her he lost the use of his tongue, and by speaking basely of her, suddenly
stricken in the presence of the multitude, he fell dead.

5. A ROBBER IS DELIVERED FROM HANGING BECAUSE OF

HIS PRAYERS TO THE VIRGIN
tienne de Bourbon, No. 119. (p. 103)

Also we read that a certain robber had this much of good in him, that he always fasted on
bread and water on the vigils of the blessed Mary, and, when he went forth to steal, he always
said, "Ave Maria", asking her not to permit him to die in that sin. When moreover he was
captured and hung, he remained there three days and could not die. When he called out to the
passers-by, that they should summon a priest to him, and when the priest had come and the
prefect and others, he was removed from the gallows, and said that a most beautiful virgin had
held him up by the feet during the three days. Promising reform, he was let go free.

University of Pennsylvania, Dept. of History: Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources of
European history, published for the Dept. of History of the University of Pennsylvania., Philadelphia,
University of Pennsylvania Press [1897?-1907?]. Vol II, No 4, pp. 2-7