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    A Note on Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger's Deeds of Louis the Fat by Florin Curta

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    A Note on Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger's Deeds of Louis the Fat by Florin Curta

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    Furor Teutonicus

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    A Note on Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger's Deeds of Louis the Fat by Florin Curta

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    5 Furor Teutonicus. A Note on Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat Florin Curta In 1124, ‘on the advice of the English king, Henry’, Emperor Henry V ‘was plot- ting a surprise attack against the city of Reims’.! Suger’s account of how Louis VI gathered a great army to rebut the enemy is viewed by many as a correct percep- tion of a climax in Louis’s reign. Some see in this episode ‘the real birth of the regnum Franciae in its wider sense’.? Others go as far as to claim that Louis’s stand against Henry V in 1124 is the ‘first expression of national patriotism in France’3 According to Suger, Louis’s army consisted of an impressive list of royal vassals and allies: the men of Reims (mentioned first, because the emperor intended to attack Reims), Chalons, Laon, Soissons, Orléans, Etampes, Paris, Ponthieu, Amiens, and Beauvais; Charles the Good, count of Flanders, and William, duke of Aquitaine; Conan, count of Brittany, and Fulk, count of Anjou; the palatine count, Theobald, and Hugh, count of Troyes; the duke of Burgundy and the counts of Nevers and Vermandois.‘ All were now united under the banner of St Denis, the liege lord of King Louis.’ It has also been noted that a French 1 Suger, The Deeds of Louis the Fat, trans. R. Cusimano and J. Moorhead (Washington, D.C., 1992), 127. 2 Jean Dunbebin, France in the Making, 843-1180 (Oxford and London, 1985), 378. From a rather different perspective, Spiegel interpreted chapter 28 as an example of Suger’s close imitation of his historiographical model, According to her, the Vita Ludovici Grossi should be understood in terms of, the pseudo- Dionysian notion of anagogical ascent. Thus the episode of 1124 becomes a characteristi- cally Dionysian resolution of conflict and restoration of order, in which enmity is reciprocally exchanged for friendship and war for peace. See Gabrielle M. Spiegel, ‘History as ‘Suger and the mos anagogicus’ in Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis. A Symposium, ed. P. Lieber Gerson (New York, 1986), 155. 3” Gabrielle M. Spiegel, The Chronicle Tradition of Saint-Denis. A Survey (Brookline and Leyden, 1978), 48. ; 4” HL Waguet, 04. Suger: Vita Ludovici Grossi regis (Paris, 1964), 222 and 224 (c. 28). 5 Louis VI viewed himself as St Denis’s vassal. This is shown not only by the episode of the oriflamme nacrated by Suger, but also by the king’s own charter of that same year (1124). See Achille Lachaire, Louis VI le Gros. Annales de sa vie et de son regne (1081-1137) avec une introduction historique (Paris, 1890), 160, n0. 348. Soe also Rolf Grosse, ‘Saint Denis und das Papstum zur Zeit des Abtes Suge’, in L Egtise de France et la papauté (Xe-XIlle sidcle). Actes du XXVIe collogue historique franco-allemand organisé en coopération avec |'Ecole nationales des chartes par Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat 63 sense of unity, as reflected in this famous episode, was created more obviously against Germans than against Catalans or Englishmen.® To be sure, internal group solidarity may be a product of external armed conflict and war ‘requires a centralistic identification of the group form’.” Major conflicts mobilize the members of the community and bring together persons who have otherwise nothing to do with each other. Ethnicism is essentially defensive, a response to outside threats and divisions within.* Ethnicity, however, is situa- tional, depending upon particular social and political circumstances.? Did the episode of 1124 create such special conditions for the emergence of French ethnicity? Did Louis VI’s vassals and allies view themselves as members of the same, newly defined community? Why did Suger emphasize the episode of 1124? What was the motivation for his treatment of the ‘enemy’? Where did originate his attitude toward Germans, the threat of 1124, which supposedly triggered the first expression of French patriotism? In this paper, I will attempt to answer some of these questions by examining Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat. Suger is the only ‘pro-French’ source for the episode of 1124, and he wrote twenty years after the event.!° There is, therefore, no way of knowing whether or not the French magnates truly proposed to their king to make a bold move against them (ic., the ‘Germans’), in case they retreat and get away UInstitut historique allemand de Paris (Paris, 17-19 octobre 1990), ed. R. Grosse (Bonn, 1993), 233. © Dunbabin, France, 377. Suger’s only negative remark about the English is that of chapter 1: “Verum, quia nec fas nec naturale est Francos Anglis, immo Anglos Francis subici, spem repulsivam rei delusit eventus’ (Vita, 10). Such views seem to have been stronger with some of Suger’s contem- poreries. In a treatise written in defense of St Bernard of Clairvaux’s views of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, Peter of Celle, John of Salisbury’s successor as bishop of Chartres, made exten- sive use of ethnic stereotypes against the English, who were ‘more given to dreams than the French’ (PL 202: 614). See Paul Meyveert,‘ “Rainaldus est malus scriptor Francigenus” — Voicing National Antipethy in the Middle Ages’, Speculum 66 (1991), 750; Deeds, 172 with n. 10. 7 Georg Simmel, Conflict, and the Web of Group Affiliations (London, 1964), 88; see Anthony D. ‘Smith, ‘War and Ethnicity: The Role of Warfare in the Formation, Self-images and Cohesion of Ethnic Communities’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 4 (1981), no. 4, 378. 8 Anthony D. Smith, The Ethnic Origins of the Nations (Oxford and Cambridge, 1986), 55. For medieval nations and nationalism, see Anthony D. Smith, ‘National Identities: Modem and Medi- eval?’, in Concepts of National Identity in the Middle Ages, ed. S. Forde, L. Johnson, and A.V. Murray (Leeds, 1995), 21-46. 9 Patrick Geary, ‘Ethnic identity as a situational construct in the early Middle Ages’, Mitteilungen der anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 113 (1983), 15-26. The concept of ‘situational ethnic ity’ was first introduced by Jonsthan Y. Okamura, ‘Situational ethnicity’, Ethnic and Racial Studies 4 (1981), no. 4, 452-65. 10 The Vita Ludovici Grossi was composed sometime between September 1143 and June 1144, seven years after King Louis VI's death. See Frangoise Gaspari, ‘L’abbé Suger de Saint-Denis. Mémoire et perpétuations des ocuvres humaines’, Cahiers de civilisation médiévale 44 (2001), 256. Fora ‘pro-German’ version of the episode of 1124, see Franz-Josef Schmale and Irene Schamle-Ott, eds,, Etkehard of Aura: Chronica (Darmstadt, 1972), s.a. 1124, 368. However, Ekicehard’s general attitude towards Teutones is rather critical. See Emst Milller-Mertens, Regmum Teutonicum. Auffommen und Verbreitung der deutschen Reichs- und Konigsauffassung im fraheren Mitielaker (Vienna, 1970), 339-40. 64 Florin Curta ‘unpunished for doing whatever they arrogantly dare against France, the mistress of these lands. Let them face what they deserve for their insolence, not in our land, but in theirs, which by royal right of the French, belongs to the French, who often subdued it.!" ‘We may speculate that they must have shared what was probably a common idea, namely that, since Charlemagne ruled over German territories, those territories tightly belonged to the French kings, not to the German emperors, who were only usurpers.' It is interesting to note that, according to Suger, Charlemagne’s name was cited by Paschal II as an example (for King Philip I) of a good ruler opposing tyrants and enemies of the Church, such as Emperor Henry V."? There is further evidence to suggest that the words Suger put into the mouths of the French magnates in 1124 expressed, first of all, his own ideas. There are fifteen occurrences of the word Francia in Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat, seven of which refer to the royal domain or one of its temporary exten- sions. Francia appears three times in chapter 28, more than in any other of the Deeds. In the proposal of the magnates, however, ‘France’ means much more than the royal domain. She is now a personification, the ‘mistress of the lands’. But she also takes on a collective identity. When taking the oriflamme from the altar of Saint Denis, the king sent forth a mighty call not for his individual vassals, but ‘for all France to follow him’ (ut eum tota Francia sequatur potenter invitat).5 Through metonymy, Suger introduces a collective Tepresentation of martiality, as it was the ‘customary fighting spirit of France’ that became angry at this ‘unaccustomed brazenness of its enemies’. The force overcoming all u Vita, 222: “Transeamus, inquiunt, audacter ad eos, ne redeuntes impune ferant quod in terrarum dominam Franciam superbe presumpserunt. Senciant contumacie sue meritum, non in nostra sed in Deeds, 1290.) It may well be true that Louis and his magnates saw the battle as a crucial, defining ‘moment. That they ‘entertained an idea of France as developed as anything in Suger’s writings?, remains however to be demonstrated. In any case, Suger’s account of the invasion is the only evidence for what the magnates thought and said. See Lindy Grant, Abbot Suger of St-Denis. Church 12 Benedykt Zientara, ‘La conscience nationale en Europe occidentale au Moyen Age. Naissance et mécanismes du phénoméne’, Acta Poloniae Historica 46 (1982), 19. 13 Vita, 55 (¢. 10). ™4 Bemd Schneidmaller, Nomen patriae. Die Entstehung Frankreichs in der politisch- ‘geographischen Terminologie (10-13. Jahrhundert) (Sigmaringen, 1987), 127-30; Jeremy duQuesnay Adams, ‘The Regnum Francie of Suger of St. Denis: An Expansive Ile-de-France’, Historical Reflections 19 (1993), no. 2, 176. This is also the meaning of Francia in Suger’s letter of 1150 to Geoffrey Plantagenet and Empress Matilda (ep. 16, p. 62). 1S Tota in this context should not be understood as referring to the entire territory of (present-day) France, as elsewhere Suger uses the same adjective in relation to Flanders (Vita, 248 and 250). See ‘Schneidmaller, Nomen patriae, 128. 16 Vita, 220 (Deeds, 128). There is a clear thetorical effect in the Latin sentence (also undertined by alliteration), which contrasts the inusitata audacia of the enemy to the usitata animositas of France. ‘Adams's translation of the Iatter phrase as ‘the accustomed patriotic spirit of France’ is an over-interpretation. See Jeremy daQuesnay Adams, “The patriotism of Abbot Suger’, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History 15 (1988), 20. Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat 65 external threats is thus France, not the king or his army.” A personified Francia is attributed not only animositas, but also the ability to win simultaneously over Henry I of England and Henry V of Germany: France has done nothing more renowned than this deed, either in modem times or in the distant past. And she has never displayed the splendor of her power more gloriously than when she united the strength of her members and triumphed at the very same time over the Roman emperor and, although King Louis was absent, the English king.|* Animositas, potencia, and vires are without any doubt attributes of an animated being. But it would be a mistake to read Suger’s rhetorical device as anything more than that. For he reminds the reader that Francia stands for the community of her united ‘members’, just as the crown stands for the entire kingdom. In fact, the phrase regnum Francie first appeared in official use in the early twelfth century, when the person of the king was replaced with the image of the crown as. warrant of political order.!9 As Eric Bournazel has shown, this metonymical substitution can be associated not only with the reign of King Louis VI, but also with the last phase of the investiture controversy, which greatly contributed to the shift from concrete persons to abstract institutions.” Suger’s use of the noun Francia may be explained in similar terms. When the party in favor of war suggested that the French invade Henry’s terri- tory in an attempt to punish him for his insolence, others, hardened by experience, persuaded the magnates to wait longer until the enemy "crossed the borders of the march. Then, when the Germans were cut off and unable to flee, the French would attack, overthrow, and slaughter them without mercy as if they 17 Ttis important to note that it is at this crucial moment that Suger inserted his interpretation of the relations between royal and ecclesiastical powers. According to him, Louis had taken the banner of ‘Saint Denis, which was recognized as pertaining to the county of the Vexin, because he was ‘in fief to 220; Robert Barroux, ‘L’abbé Suger et la vassalité du Vexin en 1124’, Le Moyen Age 64 (1958), 1-26; Michel Bur, Suger, abbé de Saint-Denis, régent de France (Paris, 1991), 118. 18 Deeds, 132. See Vita, p. 230: ‘Quo facto, nostrorum modemitate nec multorum temporum sige, sich clarion Penca fit ut prince sue loam, vias mestsorum coro adunatis, gloriosius propelavit, quam cum uno eodemque termino de imperatore romano et rege anglico, licet absens, triumphavit.” By such means, France is also attributed a history, reaching back to antiquity. See Adams, ‘Regnum Francie’, 176 and ‘Patriotism’, 20. 9 Louis VI's charter of 1124 for the abbey of Saint Denis refers to his predecessors as ts kings of Francia. See Jean Dufour, Recueil des actes de Louis V1, roi de France (1108-1137) (Paris, 1992), 465-6. 29 Eric Bournazel, Le gouvernment capétien au XIle siécle, 1108-1180. Structures sociales et muta- tons institutionelles (Paris, 1975), 171-3. See also Bed Schneidmflller, “Herrscher Ober Land oder Leute? Der kapetingische Herrschertitel in der Zeit Philipps I. August und seiner Nachfolger (1180-1270), in intitulatio, Lateinische Herrschertitel und Herrschertitulaturen vom 7. bis zum 13. Jahrhundert, ed. H. Wolfram and A. Scharer (Vienna, 1988), 152. To be sure, Francia is already attested in Ammianus Marcellinus, but only sporadically in the early Middle Ages. See Hans-Wemer Goetz, ‘Zur Wandlung des Frankennamens im Frihmittelalter’, in Integration und Herrschafi. Ethnische Identitdten und soziale Organisation im Frihmittelalter, ed. W. Pobl und M. Diesea- berger (Vienna, 2002), 139 and 141. 6 Florin Curta ‘were Saracens. The unburied bodies of the barbarians would be abandoned to wolves and ravens, to their everlasting shame.2! One can hardly miss the crusading ring of this passage, despite its description of a defensive strategy. More surprising, the use of the word ‘barbarians’ in reference to Henry V’s soldiers makes it clear that Suger perceived the ‘Germans’ as the most serious threat.” Francia, in his view, is both a personification and the sum of the troops summoned by Louis in 1124 and listed in detail in chapter 28, There is a sharp contrast in both size and quality between these troops and those gath- ered by Henry V: ‘The emperor assembled the greatest possible host of ingi: Germans, Bavarians, Sueves, and though he was being troubled by them, Saxons.’ To recruit his former enemies, the Saxons, Henry had to use deceit. By contrast, the palatine count, Theobald, who was otherwise Louis's adversary,” ‘replied to the earnest request of France’ (ex ajuracione Francie .. . adventasset), It is interesting to note that while the expedition prepared by the German emperor (imperator ergo theutonicus)’ is referred to as the ‘incursion of the Germans’ (Theutonicorum incursus)6 one corps of Henry’s army also consists of Germans, who are called Alemanni. Suger’s use of the phrase imper- ator Theutonicus is surprising, for the adjective normally modified rex, not imperator, a noun more often associated with Romani than with Theutones. It is possible that at this point Suger followed the usage of the Historia regum 21 Deeds, 129. See Vita, 222: ‘inhumata barberorum corpora lupis et corvis ad eorum perhemnem ignominiam exponere.’ 2 The ‘barbarian Germans’ rarely appear in eleventh- and twelfth-century sources. Arnulf of Milan mentions the gens Teutonum illa barbarica in relation to the events of 1076. He had in mind specific individuals, namely the dukes of Carinthia, Swabia, and Bavaria. See Irene Scavarelli ed., Arnulf of Milan: Liber gestorum recentium (Bologna, 1996), 165. Suger used barbari in reference to Muslims inhis leer of 3 April 1148, to Louis VIL See ep. 6, od. F. Gaspari Paris, 2001), 37. Deeds, 127; see Vita, 218: ‘exercitum quantumcumque potest Lotaringorum, Alemannorum, Baioariorum, Suevorum et Saxonum, licet eis infestaretur.’ The emphasis on size in this passage (quantumcumque) sanounces that the size of Louis's army would make Emperor Henry change his Plans of invasion: ‘Publiceta igitur tanti et tam tremendi facti deliberstione tantique delectus fortissimi apparitione, cum hoc ipsum suribus imperatoris intomuisset’ (Vita, 226). Suger prepares the reader for the long enumeration of French troops. 2 See Vita, 224: ‘guerram enim regi cum avunculo rege anglico inferebet.’ For Theobald’s conflict With Louis, see chapter 19 (Vita, 143-7). As for Fulk of Anjou, although ‘he had earlier allied himself to King Louis by personal hommage, many oaths, and even a large number of hostages’, he ‘put greed before fealty, and inflamed by treachery, gave his daughter in wedlock to William, son of the English king, without consulting King Louis. He falsely betrayed his sworn word to be an enemy of King Henry and joined himself to the English king by ties of friendship of this kind’ (Deeds, 116). Fulk, however, responded to the call of 1124, because he wanted, like William, duke of Aquitaine, sod Conan IT, count of Brittany, to ‘punish severely the insult to the Freach’ (Deeds, 130). Vita, 230. 26 Vita, 222. See also Deeds, 150-1: ‘Many saw in this (i., Louis VII's coronation) a portent thet hhis power would expand, for he received the abundant blessings of so many and such powerful arch- bishops snd bishops from such different regions ~- France, Germany (Theutonicorum), Aquitaine, England, and Spain.’ Louis VI's charter of 1124 for the abbey of Saint Denis refers to Henry V as rex Alemannorum; see Dufour, Recueil, 465. Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat 67 Francorum, which called Henry IV Romanorum et Theutonum imperator 2” The phrase imperator Theutonicorum appears in the Life of St Hugh of Cluny written around 1120 by Hildebert of Lavardin, in reference to Emperor Henry III, as well as in the Annals of St Peter of Ghent, in reference to Henry V.8 Both Teutones and Alamanni were used interchangeably in the twelfth century to refer to inhabitants of the empire. The empire itself was more often described as regnum T(h)eutonicorum, a phrase first introduced in the early eleventh century in Italian territories outside imperial control. Pope Gregory VII gave the phrase its political ring, as he used it to draw a sharp distinction between the kingdom of Italy and the kingdom of Germany.” Otto of Freising, a member of the imperial Hohenstaufen family, equated Alemanni and Teutones,® while Bernold of Constance and the author of the twelfth-century continuation of the Chronicle of Cologne opposed terra Teutonicorum to Francia.' There was a revived interest in rex and regnum Teutonicorum among supporters of popes Paschal II (1099-1118) and Calixtus II (1119-24) against Emperor Henry V.22 Moreover, a culturally perceived difference between ‘French’ and ‘Germans’, in the form of ethnic rivalry, became visible only in the twelfth century, as the Second Crusade provided opportunities for the construction of ethnic boundaries between French and Germans.?3 Suger’s use of Teutones and Alemanni is therefore no novelty. What is unusual is his construction of a negative portrait of the ‘Germans’, against which the ‘French’ appear in a better, much brighter light. To Suger, the French excelled in two major qualities. First, they were excellent warriors. Second, following the example of ‘their’ king, Charlemagne, they generously protected legitimate popes from enemies of the Church. Compared to the importance given to the topic in the account of the abbey church at Saint Denis, written shortly after Suger’s 27 G. Waitz, ed., Historia regum Francorum monasterii Sancti Dionysii (Hanover, 1851), MGH SS 9: 405. The Historia was written shortly after 1108, See Rolf Grosse, Saint-Denis zwischen Adel und Konig. Die Zeit vor Suger (1053-1122) (Stuttgart, 2002), 138-47. 28 Hildebert of Lavardin, Vita Hugonis, PL 171: 864b; Ph. Grierson, ed., Annales Blandiniensis (Brussels, 1937), .a. 1119, 37. 29 Maller-Mertens, Regnum Teutonicum, 4-7, 87, and 351-2 (with examples). See also Brigitte Metta, ‘Die Titel Heinrichs I und die Salier’, in Intitulatio. Lateinische Herrschertitel und Herrschertitulaturen, 188. 30 G, Waitz, ed, Otto of Freising: Gesta Friderici I. inperirs (anova, 1912; repr. 1978), 25: mn aber den Zusammenhang zwischen li rc Mee, politische Denken vom 6.-15. Jahrhundert (Bonn, 1960), 122; Zientara, ‘La conscience nationale’, 21. 31 Ian S, Robinson, ed., Bernold of Constance: Chronicon (Hannover, 2003), 445; G. Waitz, ed., Chronica regia Coloniensis continuata (Hannover, 1880; repr. 1978), 191. 32 Mifller-Mertens, Regnum Teutonicum, 354-6, 361-2, and 367; Merta, ‘Die Titel Heinrichs IL’, 188, 33 See Ganter Cerwinks, “Volkercherakteristiken in historiographischen Quellen der Salier- und ‘Stauferzeit’, in Festschrift Friedrich Hausmann, ed. H. Ebner (Graz, 1977), 61; Schneidmaller, Nomen patriae, 106-14. 68 Florin Curta royal biography, French cultural superiority is a minor theme in the Deeds of Louis the Fat>* Nevertheless, the Vita contains twenty-six negative remarks about five ethnic groups: Germans, Normans, the men of Brie, Romans, and Auvergnats. Suger’s perception of Romans and Auvergnats may have been influ- enced by Lucan and his critique of Roman decline from antique virtue.*> This may also be true, at least in part, for the Germans, who, of all the ethnic groups with negative labels, received the worst press. Emperor Lothar III is the only ‘German’ whom Suger seems to have liked, Particularly because he maintained good relations with Innocent I. As such, he deserved praise for being ‘a warlike man and a heroic defender of the state’ (vir bellicosus, reipublice defensor invictus).26 But the task to praise such emperors was ‘their [i.e., the ‘Germans’] writers’ (eorwm scriptores), not Suger’s.>” His ‘Was to recall the deeds of the French king. In sharp contrast with Lothar, Emperor Henry V was Suger’s favorite scoundrel. Suger’s attitude is clearly shown in his account of how in April 1111 Henry entered Rome for his coronation, a ceremony ‘more splendid by far than if someone were being graced by a triumphal arch after winning a victory in Africa’. The emperor was followed by Germans shouting out “frightening chants that pierced the heavens’.* After the coronation, the mad Germans invented a pretext for a quarrel, gnashed their teeth in fury, and began to rage out of control. Their treachery caught everyone by surprise (cum inopinata nequitia, ficta litis occasione, furor Theutonicus frendens debachatur). With drawn swords they rushed about like men who were out of their minds and attacked the Romans, who, properly in such a place, were not armed. The Germans shouted threats that all the Roman clergy, bishops as well as cardinals, would be seized or slaughtered; ‘and going even beyond the limits of insanity, they did not fear to lay their wicked hands ‘on the lord pope himself (clamant jurejurando ut clerus romanus, omnes tam episcopi quam cardinales capiantur aut trucidentur et, quod ultra mulla potest attingere insania, in dominum papam manus impias inicere non verentur).3° Portraying Germans as mad, out of control and gnashing their teeth is a subtle reference to a conventional representation of anger in political settings.” 34 Adams, ‘Patriotism’, 20 and 22. 3s = ‘Patriotism’, 23-4. Romans: Vita, $2, $4, 60, etc.; Auvergnats: Vita, 232; men of Brie: Vita, 16, Citations from Lucan cluster between chapters 15 and 22 and then, again, in chapters 28 and 29. Suger only cites Books I through VI of Pharsalia, and he does not seem to have known Books VII to X. In any case, he preferred Book I. See Jeremy duQueanay Adams, “The influence of Lucan on the political attitudes of Suger of Saint Denis’, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Society for French History 12 (1984), 4 and 6. 36 Suger also liked the duke of Saxony. See Vita, 68. 37 This remark suggests that Suger had some knowledge of pro-imperial historiographical works, such 23 Sigebert of Gembloux’s Chronographia, finished c. 1100, or parts of Ekkcehard of Aura’s chronicle. 38 Vita, 62: ‘ct Alemannorum cantancium terribili clamore celos penetrante.” The use of Alemanni ‘suggests that the noisy Germans were soldiers. See Vita, 218. 39 Deeds, 52 (Vita, 64). 40 Stephen D. White, “The politics of anger’, in Anger’s Past. The Social Uses of an Emotion in the Middle Ages, ed. BH. Rosenwein (Ithaca, 1998), 127-52. Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat 69 ‘Twelfth-century authors writing in Latin or the vernacular had a particular taste for describing characters displaying anger physically. In Suger’s case, the only other characters of the Deeds who gnash their teeth in anger are the murderers of Guy, lord of La Roche-Guyon.*! Furor, however, does not appear in that context. A term often employed in the twelfth century along with such synonyms as ira or malevolentia, furor was much more than anger. Suger’s intention in describing the episode of 1111 was to show raging madness and insanity. The Germans were ‘mad’, they were ‘in fury’, ‘out of their minds’, and went ‘beyond the limits of insanity’. This peculiar insistence on the straying of the mind that shades into dementia is more than just a bashing technique. Although insane, Suger’s Germans seem to have been quite capable of staging their insanity, for they ‘invented a pretext for a quarrel’. In other words, the Germans were not suddenly struck by an attack of dementia, but seem to have concocted their attack on the Romans before going berserk. Intentionality separates furor from ira or malevolentia, which is why the word was often used as a marker of heresy in both late antique and medieval Christian literature.42 Suger’s Germans may have looked like madmen carrying swords in their hands, but those hands were first and foremost ‘impious’ (manus impias) for having captured Paschal II. Suger was certainly not alone in expressing outrage in such terms. ‘The episode of 1111, particularly the capture of the pope, had a great impact on ecclesiastical circles in France and Burgundy. Bishop Guido of Vienne (the future pope Calixtus II) and Abbot Geoffrey of Vendéme led the outraged opposition to Emperor Henry V. In a letter to the pope, Guido accused the rex Teutonicus of impietas and violentia, while another letter, wrongly attributed to Hildebert of Lavardin, spoke of cruentae Saxonum direptiones and Germanorum cruda barbaries. However, nobody associated the behavior of Henry V’s men with furor. In doing so, Suger implied that this was a particular kind of furor, most typical for the Germans, a furor Theutonicus. The only other author to use furor in that sense is Ekkehard of Aura, whose portrait of the German crusaders of 1099 is 4 Deeds, 78. 42 JF. Nieemayer, Mediae latinitatis lexicon minus (Leiden, 1993), sv. furor. See also Catherine Peyroux, ‘Gertrude’s furor: Reading Anger in an Early Modieval Saint's Lif’, in Anger's Past, 45. Furor was used especially by Rodulfus Glaber and Fulbert of Chartres. Other authors preferred ira snd malevolentia, although still insisting on the physical symptoms of anger. In Orderic Vitalis’s History, for example, the angry Turks show ‘their ferocity with their buming eyes’, and Heary I trembles with anger. See M. Chibuall, ed., Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis 10.24 and 8.15 (Oxford, 1969-80), vol. 5, 368-9 and vol. 4, 226-7. See White, ‘The politics of anger’, 135. 43 Guido of Vienne, ep. 16, PL 157: 42; Libel, vol 2 668. For Guid's eters wo Pope Praca I after the events of 1111, see Uta-Renste Blumenthal, “The correspondence of Pope Paschal It and Guido of Vienne, 1111-1116', in Supplementum festivum. Studies in Honor of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. J, Hankins, J. Monfasani, and F. Pumell (New York, 1987), I-11. For French and Burgundian reactions to the events of 1111 in Rome, see Kari Ferdinand Wemer, ‘Das hochmittelaltertiche impe- rium im politischen Bewufitsein Frankreichs (10.-12. Jahrhundert)’, Historische Zeitschrift 200 (1965), 35; Schneidmdller, Nomen patriae, 125. For the iseue of authorship regarding two letters ‘wrongly attributed to the archbishop of Tours, see Peter von Moos, Hildebert von Lavardin, 1056-1133, Humanitas an der Schwelle des hafischen Zeitalters (Stuttgart, 1965), 337-9. 70 Florin Curta replete with such deprecatory nouns as furor, insolentia, protervia, and. | feritas. In Ekkehard’s eyes, furor was the particular trait that made Teutones different from all other regna nationum. Later on, in a letter of 1160 to the archbishops and bishops of England, Arnulf of Lisieux informed them about the developments in Italy following Emperor Frederick T’s appointment of Victor IV as antipope and the subsequent conflict with Alexander III. Pope Alexander relied on the sympathy of the French church, and, in his letter, Arnulf accordingly opposed furor Teutonicus to deuotio Gallicana.* Five years later, in. letter to Archbishop Thomas Becket, John of Salisbury, bishop of Chartres, referred to the events following the capture of Milan in 1162 and the subsequent devastation of Campagna by German knights under Chancellor and Archbishop Christian I: ‘And to give you the whole story, they say that some German sibyls have been prophe- sying; and the result is greater ardor to the fury of the Teutons and new life to the schis- matics. But assuredly God is able to bruise the pride of Moab, boasting loudly against the Lord, and their arrogance is greater than their courage.46 These examples show that the phrase furor T(h)eutonicus was well known to some of the most influential authors of the twelfth century, Ekkehard of Aura, Suger, Arnulf of Lisieux, and John of Salisbury have all drawn upon Lucan for their use of the phrase,’ either directly or from some florilegium. In all four 44 Ekkehard of Aura, Chronica, s.a. 1099 and 1117, 140 and 334. 45 Amulf of Lisieux, ep. 28, ed. F. Barlow (London, 1939), 42: ‘Sicut enim omnes, quos ad deiecit; sic omnibus, quos deuotio Gallicana suscepit, uictoriam semper contulit et triumphum.’ In 1149, Amulf was Suger’s envoy to Matilda and Geofiiey of Anjou, with special instructions to attempt the reconciliation of Louis VII with the Angevins. Arnulf's letter no. 6 of 1150 is addressed to Suger (ep. 6, ed. F. Barlow, 9). Its likely that Amulf became acquainted with Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat, but be did not take his furor Teutonicus from there. 46 John of Salisbury, ep. 152, ed. W.J. Millor and CN.L. Brooke (Oxford, 1979), vol. 2, 54: “Et ne aliquid subtraham, asserunt nescio quas prophetissas Teutonicas uaticinatas esse, unde furor Deus conterere superbiam Moab, ualde aduersus Dominum superbieatis, et arogantia eius maior est quam fortitudo.’ The two ‘sibyls’ are believed to be St Hildegard of Bingen (a supporter of Alex- ander) and St Elizabeth of Schinau (a supporter of Victor IV). In two other letters giving commen- taries on the imperial council of Pavia (February 1160) and the official rescript that announced its decision in favor of Victor IV, John of Salisbury spoke of inpetus Teutonicorum. See ep. 122 10 King Henry Il and 124 to Master Ralph of Sarre, ed. W J. Millor and H.E. Butler (London, 1955), vol. 1, 202 and 207. Furor Teutonicus also appears in Policraticus as the form of punishment God inflicted ‘upon the Italian cities, which ‘fell into fraudulence and were divided in themselves by the unstable paths of injustice’. John of Salisbury, Policraticus IV 11, trans. C.J. Nederman (Cambridge, 1990), 60. John of Salisbury also called the Teutones ‘a new race of Canaanites’ (tamquam Cananaeus alter) ep. 124, 207. Unlike Suger, however, he did not compere them to either the Freach or the English. 47 Pharsatia 1254-1, ed. J.D. Duff (Cambridge and London, 1988), 22: “Nos primi Senonum motas (Cimbrumque ruentem/Vidimus et martem Libyse cursamque furocis/Teutonici: quotiens Romam Sortuna lacessit/Hac iter est bells.” These are the words of the inhabitants of Ariminium, as they see the army of Caesar approaching their city after crossing the Rubicon. 48 The phrase can also be found in late antique texts, e.g., Claudian, The Gothic War, trans. M. Platnaner, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA, 1972), 147: ‘Past generations have known a like fate. Full often, Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat n cases, furor Theutonicus served not just to embellish the prose, but also to give political observations a rich coloration and to evoke Lucan’s distinctive political thought. In Suger’s case, this may have included criticism of monarchs or monarch-like figures similar to Caesar. A connoisseur of Lucan, of whom there were many in the twelfth century, could have hardly missed Suger’s point. Despite being crowned by the pope, Henry and his army were nothing but a rein- carnation of the barbarian hordes crossing the Alps to invade Rome. Lucan had compared the Teutones to the army of Caesar. Suger’s skillful manipulation of Lucan’s text resulted in a synkrisis, whereby Henry V replaced Caesar.5! As Stanley Chodorow has demonstrated, the crisis of 1111 originated in the political developments following the council at Guastalla (October 1106). Initially, Paschal II had supported Henry V against his father, Henry IV.53 However, at Guastalla the pope treated harshly Bruno, the archbishop of Trier who led Henry’s delegation. After the council, Pope Paschal II went to France, where he persuaded King Philip I to accept a compromise on the investiture controversy based on Ivo of Chartres’ distinction between spiritualia and temporalia. After challenging Henry at Guastalla, the pope badly needed Philip’s support. While in France, Paschal II met with a new delegation from Henry at Chalons-sur-Mame, near Reims (30 April to 3 May 1107). Also present at this meeting was Suger, accompanying Abbot Adam of Saint Denis, who had come to defend his abbey against the accusations of Bishop Galo of Paris. But Suger’s ‘we know, has Italy been attacked ~ but never without the enemy’s paying dear. With their own blood did our country extinguish the fires lit by the Senones and, once the victim of a German invasion (haec et Teutonico quondam patefacta furori), she saw the squalid necks of Teutons and Cimbri loaded with the chains of captivity.” ‘9 For Lucan’s concept of furor and its political implications, see Roland Glaesser, Verbrechen und Verblendung. Untersuchung zum Furor-Begriff bei Lucan mit Bericksichtigung der Tragodien Senecas (Frankfurt, 1984), % Charles Homer Haskins, The Renaissance of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge, 1927), 101, 103, and 113; Margaret Jennings, ‘Lucan’s Medieval Popularity: The exemplum Tradition’, Rivista di cultura classica e medioevale 16 (1974), nos. 2-3, 215-33; Paolo Esposito, ‘Un esempio della fortuna di Lucano nel Medioevo: il frammento 12 (Morel) di Gualtiero di Chatillon’, Vichiana 6 (1977), 132-5. The letters of Abelard show how the use of Lucan helped in describing personal expe- riences. In addition, some of the most important glosses to Pharsalia were written in the 1100s, ‘which suggests that Lucan was widely read in leamed circles. $1 Its important to note in this context that he calls quirites the Roman faction supporting Paschal IT against Henry V. % Stanley Chodorow, “Paschal I, Henry V, and the origins of the crisis of 1111’, in Popes, Teachers, and Canon Law in the Middle Ages, ed. J.R. Sweeney and S. Chodorow (Ithaca, 1989), 3.25, S Alfred Haverkamp, Medieval Germany 1056-1273, 2nd eda. (Oxford, 1992), 127. Henry IV's ceclesiastical enemies in Saxony and Thuringia raltied around Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz to ‘support the young king. Bruno was suspended for three days, because he had received his see from a layman. See G. Weitz, ed., Gesta Treverorum (Stuttgart, 1848), MGH SS 8: 192. See also Chodorow, ‘Paschal II’, B. 55 Chodorow, ‘Paschal II’, 14; Grant, Abbot Suger, 88. % Vita, 56: ‘archiepiscopos et episcopos et abbatem Sancti Dionisii Adam, cum quo et nos fiximus.” 2 Florin Curta account is far from being just the report of an eyewitness. Written more than thirty years after the event, it includes some blatant anachronisms pointing to events unfolding in the future, particularly to the episode of 1111.°? According to Suger, the German delegation at ChAlons insisted upon the traditional procedure and completely ignored Ivo of Chartres’ distinction between spiritualia and temporalia. The German bishops claimed that the emperor’s agreement must first be obtained before a cleric’s election was to be announced. The cleric would then go to the emperor, who would invest him with ring and staff and would receive from him homage and fealty for the regalia.* The concept of regalia that Suger attributes to Bruno of Trier (civitates enim et castella, marchias, thelonea et queque imperatorie dignitatis) is directly inspired from the De episcoporum investitura, a tract probably written by Sigebert of Gembloux three years after the meeting in ChAlons.°° However, the chronological looseness of Suger’s account is not the result of confusion, for Suger’s purpose was not to give an exact account of the meeting. His was a work of edification, whose purpose was to effect the spiritual reconstruction of the reader. Much like other chapters in the Deeds of Louis of Fat, the narrative scheme of chapter 10 containing the account of the Chalons meeting is based on an initial deformation of historical order (the conflict between Pope Paschal II and Emperor Henry V, the confrontation between the German delegates and the pope), followed by the corrective action taken by the king (the agreement on the investiture controversy between the pope and King Philip I), and the final resolution (Emperor Henry V’s death and the coronation of Lothar III). What is the role attributed to the ‘Germans’ in this account? The composition of the German delegation at Chélons is known from various other sources,‘! and shows the wide variety of viewpoints represented in the coalition supporting Emperor Henry V: Bruno of Trier, Reinhard of Halberstadt (a representative of Archbishop Ruthard of Mainz), Erlung of Worzburg, Burchard of Minster, Otto of Bamberg, Duke Berthold of Zahringen (a supporter of Pope Paschal), Count Hermann of Winzenburg (an early partisan of Henry V), See Grosse, ‘Saint Denis’, 221. For the date of the meeting, see Carlo Servatius, Paschalis II. (1099-1118). Studien zu seiner Person und seiner Politik (Stuttgart, 1979), 206. Pope Paschal had previously met the French delegation in Le-Charité-sur-Loire. Abbot Adam did not sttend that ‘meeting, but following the meeting in Chilons, the pope was received at Saint Denis, where he met ‘with King Philip and his son. For Pope Paschal’ itinerary, soe Beate Schilling, ‘Zur Reise Paschalis” IL nach Norditalien und Frankreich 1106/1107 (mit Itineraranhang und Karte)’, Francia 28 (2001), no. 1, 115-58. 57 As if foreseeing the crisis of 1111, the members of the German delegation, who were upset by the failure to impose their claims, threatened that ‘this quarrel would be ended not here but at Rome, with swords’ (Deeds, 50). In his speech, Archbishop Bruno of Trier called his lord imperator, although Henry was crowned only in 1111 (Vita, 56). See Servatius, Paschalis I, 207. 38 Vita, 58, See Haverkamp, Medieval Germany, 130. $9 Vita, 58, See Chodorow, ‘Paschal II’, 15-16. © See Spiegel, ‘History’, 153 and 155. 1 P, Scheffer-Boichorst, ed., Annales Patherbrunnenses (Innsbruck, 1870), 117; Chronica regia Coloniensis, 46. Ethnic Stereotypes in Suger’s Deeds of Louis the Fat B Wiprecht of Groitsch, and Count Welf V of Bavaria.*? However, the only source describing the appearance and behavior of the German delegates is Suger’s account of the meeting. When they arrived, ‘far from being humble’, they were “unyielding and stubborn’ (non humiles, sed rigidi et contumaces). They left Chancellor Adalbert at St Menge, put on their finest garments, and came to the papal court ‘in a pompous throng’ (ceteri ad curiam multo agmine, multo fastu, summe falerati devenerunt). Suger describes Archbishop Bruno of Trier as ‘a distinguished, wise, cheerful, and eloquent man who knew French well’ (vir elegans et iocundus, eloquentie et sapientiae copiosus gallicano coturno exercitatus, facete peroravit). By contrast, Duke Welf was ‘a corpulent man who was remarkably tall and round. Being a continual brawler, he had his sword carried before him everywhere he went (et cui gladius ubique preferebatur dux Welfo, vir corpulentus et tota superfitie longi et lati admirabilis et clamosus).’ All in all, the German delegation ‘created quite a disturbance and seemed to have been sent more to terrify than to conduct rational discourse’ (tumultuantes magis ad terrendum quam asd raciocinandum missi viderentur). The meeting had hardly started when the ‘stiff-necked legates’ (cervicosi . . . legati) expressed violently their opposition to the speech of the papal legate. ‘They gnashed their teeth violently as Germans do, and went on a rampage. If it had been. ‘safe for them to have risked it, they would have belched forth vile abuse and assaulted those present (teutonico impetu frendentes tumultuabant, et, si tuto auderent, convitia eructuarent, injurias inferrent). “This quarrel will be ended’, they said, ‘not here but at Rome, with swords.’ Much as in the account of the episode of 1111, the Germans appear here as gnashing their teeth and behaving violently, the kind of behavior that Suger was expecting from ‘Teutons’. In addition to being bent on hurting people, the diag- nostic of their pathologically insane behavior is now clear from the vomit of invectives that Suger believes they would have directed at the papal legate. They controlled themselves, though, only to promise that the quarrel would eventually end in violence in Rome. The quarrel in question is no doubt the one for which the Germans would ‘invent’ a pretext in 1111. . Furor, impetus, frendens: these are the key words in Suger’s description of the German delegates at the meeting in Chélons.® The general impression is thus one of barbaric violence and lack of self-control. The pope himself, who had ‘great © For 1 complete list, see Chodorow, ‘Paschal II, 16. Chronica regia Coloniensis wrongly lists ‘Berthold as duke of Swabia. © Deeds, 49 (Vita, 56). For « muuch more favorable description of Duke Welf V, see E. Konig, ed, Historia Welforum (Sigmacingea, 1978), 22: ‘vir moderatissimus, qui magis liberalitate t facilitate

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