Monastic experience in twelfth-century Germany

The Chronicle of Petershausen in translation

Alison I. Beach, Shannon M.T. Li, Samuel S. Sutherland, Alison I. Beach, Shannon M. T. Li, Samuel S. Sutherland

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781526166975
  9781526126788
• eBook ISBN:
  9781526143297
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

Monastic experience in twelfth-century Germany provides a rare window on to monastery life in the tumultuous world of twelfth-century Swabia. From its founding in 992 through the great fire that ravaged it in 1159 and beyond, Petershausen weathered countless external attacks and internal divisions. Supra-regional clashes between emperors and popes played out at the most local level. Monks struggled against overreaching bishops. Reformers introduced new and unfamiliar customs. Tensions erupted into violence within the community. Through it all the anonymous chronicler struggled to find meaning amid conflict and forge connections to a shared past, enlivening his narrative with colorful anecdotes – sometimes amusing, sometimes disturbing. Translated into English for the first time, this fascinating text is an essential source for the lived experience of medieval monasticism.

Appendix 1

THE LIFE OF ST. GEBHARD

Translated and annotated by Samuel S. Sutherland, with Alison I. Beach and Shannon M. T. Li

Introduction: The Life of St. Gebhard

In CP 1.6, the Petershausen chronicler notes that he had previously written about Gebhard II’s efforts to reclaim his portion of his paternal inheritance from his brothers in another work. Comparing the writing styles of the CP and the Life of Gebhard, there can be little doubt that this is the work to which he referred, which recounts this conflict in the Life of Gebhard 1.9. The chronicler’s autograph of the Life has not survived. The only surviving copies date to the late Middle Ages, one copied by an anonymous scribe in the fifteenth century, and the second by one Felix Manilius in 1511. This sixteenth-century copy is now bound within University of Heidelberg, Codex Salemitani IX 42a, just after the autograph of the Chronicle.¹ While the two works are clearly the work of a single author and evince many of the same stylistic quirks, the Latin of the CP seems noticeably more polished. This may reflect the author’s growth as a stylist between the two texts, or perhaps in writing the Life, the author simply had more frequent occasion to wax florid – which was never his strong suit – in keeping with demands of the genre of hagiography.

There are, however, some significant differences in content that cannot be reconciled by the order of writing alone. Perhaps much of this stemmed from a simple desire to avoid excessive repetition between the two texts, but it is nevertheless interesting to observe that, while many key details appear in both, a number of items more appropriate to the CP appear only in the Life and vice versa. Only the Life, for example, reports that Gebhard reassigned his servants as specialists of various kinds with a special provision for inheritance.² On the other hand, there is no discussion of Gebhard’s illustrious ancestry or of his miracle-working father in the Life, although these are elements central to the CP.³ In some cases, rhetorical considerations may have dictated the logic of inclusion; both Gebhard’s brother Liutfrid’s deception in the division of their paternal inheritance and his hostile encounter with the relics of St. Ulrich of Augsburg feature in a broader narrative of family conflict in the CP, but would fit awkwardly at best in the Life.⁴ For other discrepancies, there seems to be no plausible explanation beyond purely stylistic choice.⁵

Unsurprisingly, much of the Life of Gebhard recycles common hagiographic tropes and generally follows the conventions of the genre.⁶ Among the more noteworthy hagiographical elements that feature in the Life is Gebhard’s furta sacra of the head of St. Gregory, Petershausen’s most prized relic.⁷ Both the Life and the CP recount how Gebhard was given the head by Pope John XV when he traveled to Rome seeking a papal privilege for Petershausen (a story that is included in its entirety with identical text in both), but only the Life reports his dramatic escape from a crowd of Roman pursuers who were evidently unaware that this donation had been voluntary.⁸ The conflict between the church of Constance and Petershausen over Gebhard’s body appears only in the Life, although it could well have fit in the theme of such conflicts in the Chronicle.⁹

The second book of the Life catalogs Gebhard’s many post-mortem miracles, with no overlap with those that feature in the CP.¹⁰ Running through these is an interesting undercurrent of skepticism about Gebhard’s good character. As the author reports when recounting the first of these miracles, “even in those days some ignorant brothers disregarded his merit and disparaged his sanctity,” prompting Gebhard to appear to one such brother and confirm that he is “not so contemptible” as his reputation would suggest.¹¹ Similarly, in the longest and most colorful of the miracles, a demon possessing a woman disparages Gebhard as “a pretender and seducer,” in whom “there is said to be no sanctity,” asserting that Gebhard will therefore be powerless against it.¹² While all of this could fit comfortably within the hagiographical topos of the deceased saint proving his or her merit, it may also reflect the author’s attempt to rehabilitate the image of the founder of his monastery in the face of real doubt. After all, the phrase “even in those days” hints at the possibility that similar doubts lingered in the author’s own day.

Here begins the preface to the life of blessed Gebhard the Second, Bishop of Constance, confessor of Christ, and founder of the monastery of Petershausen

1.0. When the Creator formed the first man in paradise, he gave him authority over that place with the salvific commandment that he beget spiritual offspring up to the full number of predestined souls, so that these – without any intervention of death – might ascend in body and soul to that place from which the wicked one fell with his followers. But the devil, riled up in jealous spite because the flesh would possess the glory that he had lost, seduced the man with deceitful persuasion. By promising divinity that he did not have, the devil stripped man of his immortality and the glory he already possessed. God detested the malice of the enemy more than the fall of man, however, and so recalled man to repentance but sentenced the deceiver to eternal punishment. He gave men leaders and masters whom he inspired through his Spirit to know what should be done and what should be avoided, so that these might guide the rest and teach them to proceed on the paths of justice [Ps. 22:3] and avoid the crooked roads. To this end, he promised them his arrival in the world, so that his flesh might free our flesh, and his light might illuminate our blindness, we who were dwelling in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death [Isa. 9:2]. Moreover, he spoke prophecies first through the patriarchs, then through the Law, and finally through the various prophets, for these all were sent to foretell the arrival of the Savior in the flesh and to prepare the people to be perfected in the Lord.

But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons [Gal. 4:4–5]. But he did not come to call only those who were under the yoke of the Law, but also those who were without the yoke, saying to them, “Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls” [Matt. 11:29]. When he had fulfilled this dispensation for which he had taken on the flesh, he returned to the Father, from whom he had never truly departed through the unity of divine majesty. He did not leave his servants as orphans, but rather confirmed and fortified them with the consolation of his Spirit, and ordered them to preach and testify among all the nations so that they might accept repentance, remission of sins through the bath of regeneration, faith in Jesus Christ, entrance into the celestial kingdom, and everlasting glory. The first sowers of these words were the apostles, and next their successors, the priests of the Lord. Many of them fought for these words even to the point of blood, willingly enduring death for the Lord in order that they might deserve to partake of eternal life. They returned their entrusted talent with profit [cf. Matt. 25:14–30] – some by offering themselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice upon the altar of the heart with fasts, vigils, and prayers, and others by spreading the word of life.

Among these was the most holy Gebhard, who, ornamented with the radiance of all virtues, glowed red over the German lands like a most brilliant star. He was so firm in probity of habits and chastity of life that the omnipotent God frequently brought about extraordinary things through his merit. I have not learned of all his deeds, but some few have reached my ears by the report of my elders which I desire to pass on to posterity as well as I can. Therefore, let no one criticize the superficiality of the words, let the unrefined language of what follows instill no contempt, and let the hearer not focus on who speaks or how he speaks, but rather on that about which he speaks. And let it not disturb anyone that I presume to write about that which I have heard but not seen, since even Luke and Mark composed their Gospels, and many of the holy fathers their writings, from what they had learned not by sight, but truly only by report. Indeed, the men by whose report I learned these things were of such character and so numerous that I could believe their words better than my own eyes. But in this my predecessors who saw and were present for these deeds that God worked through that man are to be faulted not a little, since they did not care enough to record these things in writing for the praise of Christ. But setting that aside, with God’s help, let us come to the order of the narrative.¹³

HERE ENDS THE PREFACE

Here begins the life of holy Gebhard the Bishop of Constance

1.1. CONCERNING HIM WHO WAS CUT OUT FROM HIS MOTHER’S WOMB.¹⁴ Blessed Gebhard was born of a most noble lineage of the Alemanni, and indeed his father Otzo¹⁵ was count of the Rhaetians. While his mother still carried him in her womb, she was seized by weakness, with death demanding its due. As she neared the end, she revealed to her servants the life she carried in her womb and asked that they cut into her belly after her spirit was carried off, remove the little infant, wrap him in a mass of warm fat, and carefully watch over him for the providence of God. Everything was done as she had requested. When the hour approached that the babe would have been born if he had been allowed to stay warm in his mother’s womb, he cried out and thus they knew he should be unwrapped and rendered into the light. O miraculous works of the omnipotent God, who, as blessed John the precursor of the Lord said, is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham [Matt. 3:9], for he nearly begat this pillar of his Church without the warmth of a woman’s womb. Concerning this, that which the Lord said to the prophet Jeremiah can certainly apply: Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee [Jer. 1:5].

1.2. ON HIS BOYHOOD. Therefore, they removed the babe and entrusted him to a nurse, and later handed the youth over to be educated.¹⁶ Then the boy began to show his innately good character, and just as a very skillful bee collects honey from among many kinds of flower, so did he collect sweet teachings from the diverse pages of holy scripture in the beehive of his heart, from which he would later sweeten the throats of many people.

1.3. THAT HE CONVERSED WITH BLESSED CONRAD WHILE STILL A YOUTH. Moreover, when he grew out of boyhood and arrived at the cusp of youth, he began to seek the company of the servants of God, especially that of Bishop Conrad of Constance,¹⁷ a blessed priest worthy in the eyes of God. He served Conrad as a very close attendant so that, from this man’s probity, he might discover what still needed to be improved in his own habits. For he knew that it is written: with the holy, thou shall be holy, and with the innocent man shall thou be innocent, and with the perverse thou shall be perverted [Ps. 17:26–27]. He therefore also fled the company of depraved men, saying with the prophet: my eyes were upon the faithful of the earth, to sit with me: the man that walked in the perfect way, he served me [Ps. 100:6].

1.4. HOW IT WAS PREDICTED BY CONRAD THAT HE WOULD BE BISHOP. Moreover, the Holy Spirit deigned to foretell to the faithful that this man would ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Abbreviations
• Map
• Introduction
• The Chronicle of Petershausen
• Appendix 1: The Life of St. Gebhard
• Appendix 2: Concordance of book and chapter numbering
• Bibliography
• Index