On the Margins of Crusading

The Military Orders, the Papacy and the Christian World

Helen Nicholson, Helen Nicholson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317085744
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

Founded to support Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land and most famous for their support for crusading, the Military Religious Orders' activities and interests stretched far beyond the frontiers of Christendom. Representing some of the most recent advances in research, in this volume eleven scholars from Europe and North America explore important and hitherto under-researched aspects of the Orders' history, scrutinising their relations with the papacy, their organisational structure, their devotional practices, their fortresses and their presence in the localities of Western Europe. Particular attention is given to the Templars' trial of 1307-12 and the question of how the surviving Orders reorganised themselves after the loss of the kingdom of Jerusalem in 1291. The majority of the papers consider the leading Military Orders, the Hospitallers and Templars, but there are also studies of the Orders of Mountjoy and of St Lazarus, showing how they adapted their activities to local requirements. These studies reflect the vitality of current scholarship on the Military Religious Orders.

1
A Jerusalem Indulgence: 1100/3¹

Anthony Luttrell

At some point during the years from 1100 to 1103 which followed the crusaders’ conquest of Jerusalem in July 1099, two collectors from Jerusalem were in southwest France seeking bequests to support the Holy Sepulchre and the nearby xenodochium or hospice in return for spiritual benefits. They carried a brief and evidently ungrammatical text which read:²

[In no]mine domini nostri Ihesu Christi et beati sepulcri ego papa Pascalis et ego Daigbertus patriarcha ego Geraldus qui sum seruus ospitali sancte Iherusalem necnon ego [ … ] et Geraldus qui sumus missi ab ipsis supra dictis, damus in penitentiam et in remissionem animarum parentum illorum qui auxilium prebuerint fratri nostro Petro Ramundi in opere salvationi ut sint absoluti et liberati a cunctis peccatis suis a deo patri omnipotenti et ab Jhesu Cristo filio ejus et ab spiritu sancto et beatissime virginis Marie et omnium sanctorum dei et damus talem partem in benefactis sancte Jherusalem illis qui eum receperint qualem nos desideramus adipisci a domino Jhesu Cristo.

This text was inserted in a small hand into a space in a very unequally shaped parchment approximately 14.5 by 36 cms, in which some 35 or more donors jointly gave lands for the foundation of a salvatio or sauveté, an arrangement designed to stabilize the population of an area with some kind of ecclesiastical immunity guaranteed by the local bishop. This sauveté was at Puysubran, some 60 kilometres south-east of Toulouse. Most of the donations were explicitly made either to the Holy Sepulchre, or to the Jerusalem hospice or to both.

The parchment and the indulgence it contained were published by Joseph Delaville Le Roulx, but he inserted the indulgence at the end of the main text with no indication that in the parchment it stood by itself as a separate document. In the indulgence after the words necnon ego he placed five dots, unfortunately without indicating that there was a name which is not merely illegible but which has actively been scratched out; it is not now readable even with the use of a lamp. Delaville also placed five dots in the phrase elsewhere in the parchment where it read Ego … elemosinarius Sancti Sepulcri, again without indicating that there had been two words and that they had been scratched out.³

***

Bishops and others were granting primitive forms of indulgence during the eleventh century, and Pope Paschal II did announce indulgences of various kinds.⁴ The text of 1100/3 was apparently an early example of such declarations being written down as a document in order to assist collectors in raising funds. Who composed the brief indulgence of 1100/3 is unclear since it contained no formal titles or diplomatic apparatus, no dating formula and no validation; it could well have been confected in Jerusalem. Conceivably, given the lack of space on the parchment, the text was abbreviated in the copy. Paschal II was pope from August 1099 until 1118. Daibert was patriarch of Jerusalem from December 1099 until his deposition in October 1102, but a document in his name could have been used in the West during the months following his deposition. Geraldus had ruled the xenodochium before 1099 and did so until 1120.⁵ The whole parchment was confirmed by Isarn who was Bishop of Toulouse from 1072 until 1105, by Bertrand Count of Toulouse and by the Viscountess of Carcassonne. Bertrand was ruling the county for his father, the great crusading leader Raymond of Saint Gilles who was then in the East. The Viscountess of Carcassone was presumably Ermengarde who had longstanding and powerful interests in the area. She was alive on 22 June 1101 with her son Bernard Ato who was described as positus in itinere Sancti Sepulcri, which meant that he was setting out for Jerusalem,⁶ and she apparently died soon after,⁷ possibly on 1 May 1103.⁸ The parchment may therefore be datable from 1100 to 1103. The other Geraldus acting as missus was probably the Geraldus described as hospitalarius et diaconus in 1114/6 when he was at Toulouse;⁹ he was active as a Hospitaller brother in southern France from 1100/2 onwards.¹⁰ Frater Peire Raimon apparently represented the Holy Sepulchre, though arguably not the xenodochium, as its local administrator. The elemosinarius of the Holy Sepulchre whose name was obliterated was not otherwise identified.¹¹

The indulgence did mention penitence and it promised the donors the remission of their own sins and those of their family in the name of God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, Mary and all the saints, together with participation in the “benefits” of Jerusalem, which was perhaps an allusion to the benefits of prayer. Some donations in the 1100/3 parchment explicitly mentioned the remission of sins.¹² It was neither a crusading nor a pilgrim indulgence, but was intended for those making bequests to the Holy Sepulchre and the Jerusalem hospice; its canonical status must have been vague. That this was scarcely formal papal policy was suggested by the fact that when a decade later in 1113 Paschal II formally recognized the Jerusalem hospice and issued a separate letter appealing for donations to it, he then made much vaguer promises than those contained in the 1100/3 indulgence, merely stating that the Lord would make “all grace abound” towards the donors and that they would receive “eternal renewal”.¹³ While those who went to Jerusalem, whether as crusaders or not, certainly expected some kind of indulgence,¹⁴ the 1100/3 text granted spiritual benefits to people who were staying at home.

The Puysubran parchment did not copy a series of charters but summarized the individual donors’ gifts and motives in a few lines, each group of lines commencing Ego. The text opened with a reference to the sufferings of the “poor of Christ” in Jerusalem, followed by biblical quotations and the names of some 35 or more donors and associates who, for the good of their souls, jointly gave the sauveté and villa of Puysubran and other lands, tenths, first fruits and so forth into the hands of Bishop Isarn et in manu prioris jerosolimitani Johannis Bonioli. The sauveté was taken under the “safety” or protection of the bishop. Johannes Bonioli was quite possibly the Prior of the Holy Sepulchre.¹⁵ He could have been the missus of the Holy Sepulchre whose name was scratched out in the brief indulgence or the elemosinarius whose name was obliterated in the parchment, or he may have been both;¹⁶ his name was perhaps left in another part of the roll because there he was described only as prior jerosolimitanus, so that whoever suppressed the names of representatives of the Holy Sepulchre did not think to cross out his name in that place.

The donors explicitly mentioned the pope, the patriarch and the joint indulgence. Touching holy relics, including a piece of the lignum Domini or True Cross and certain “relics of the Holy Sepulchre” and of various saints which had presumably been brought from Jerusalem to encourage donations, the donors, acting for the remission of their sins, gave the honor of Puysubran to the Holy Sepulchre ad sepulcrum domini nostri Jhesu Christi vel ad dispendium peregrinorum fratrum qui odie sunt in Jherusalem vel in antea erunt; that is the gift was to support the Holy Sepulchre or the “pilgrim brethren who are today or will in future be in Jerusalem”. That was presumably a reference to those serving the pilgrims in the hospice there, and it implied that the donors in south-west France considered that the Jerusalem xenodochium was closely connected to the Holy Sepulchre and was situated next to it. There followed details of individual gifts and donors. One donation was made ad victum et ad vestitum clericis Sancti Sepulcri and another domino Deo et Sancti Sepulcri et clericis ejusdem loci; possibly these two gifts were made explicitly for the clergy of the Holy Sepulchre rather than for the laymen serving in the hospice. A donor named Garin made his gift because he was unable to fulfil his promise to go on a peregrinatio or pilgrimage, perhaps to Jerusalem as a crusader.

Some 20 persons added their signum to the parchment. On the back of it were recorded some nine other persons, further donations being made, presumably at a slightly later date, in two different hands. Other persons gave counsel or assent, or they put their signum. Three donations were designated to “God and the Holy Sepulchre”; one to the opus Sancti Sepulcri or “work of the Holy Sepulchre”; one to “the lord God and the hospital”; one to the church and clergy of Puysubran, and one to “God, to the Holy Sepulchre and to the church of Puysubran”, this last being followed by the signum of Peire Raimon and that of Raimon Pons capellanus of Laurac.¹⁷ These donations came to form the basis of the monasterium, the future commandery of the future Hospitaller order, at Puysubran where the parchment remained in its archive.

The indulgence survived only as a copy. It can scarcely have been issued by all three of the authorities in whose name it was issued and it was in that sense a forgery, but the donors evidently saw and accepted it, as did Isarn Bishop of Toulouse, who had earlier accompanied Pope Urban II and Daibert on their pre-crusade journey from Toulouse to Nîmes in 1096, Puysubran being on or just off their route.¹⁸ Having read the indulgence, which was described as being from the pope and patriarch but with no reference at that point to Geraldus servus ospitali, the bishop confirmed the gift and the new foundation, the salvatio or sauveté, and commanded his clergy to serve God and to “obey” the Jerusalem hospice and those who served in it: et precipio clericis presentibus et futuris ut Deo serviant, et ospicio Jherusalem et ibidem servientibus obediant. ¹⁹ The elemosinarius of the Holy Sepulchre, whose name was subsequently scratched out on both the indulgence and the main text of the parchment, committed the donations to Peire Raimon, who was mentioned in the indulgence, and to the capellanus Raimon Pons ad regendum et disponendum, ut faciant monasterium; that seemingly implied the creation of some sort of resident community. A note on the reverse of the parchment showed that Peire Raimon, Benet Vidal and Raimon Pons later pawned certain vineyards not for the profit of the hospice but for that of the Holy Sepulchre: ad opus Sancti Sepulcri.

The donors evidently considered that they were endowing the Holy Sepulchre or perhaps the Holy Sepulchre and the hospice it included. The hospice had existed under its ruler Geraldus before the capture of Jerusalem in 1099, and very soon after that donations were being made to it as an independent entity.²⁰ Yet the joint indulgence of 1100/3 and the donor’s reaction to it suggested that, while Geraldus was sufficiently important to be one of those who issued it, the xenodochium was in some ambiguous sense still a part of the Holy Sepulchre or at least of its group of secular canons who depended on the patriarch.²¹ They all needed European support and Western donors made bequests or foundations for the Holy Sepulchre, a term often synonymous with Jerusalem itself, and they dedicated churches to it. Later on the hospice sought to acquire some of these bequests and even changed the dedications of c...