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Ademar of Chabannes, Millennial Fears and the Development of Western Anti-Judaism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

Daniel F. Callahan
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Abstract

At Rouen on a certain day, the people who had undertaken to go on that expedition [that is, the First Crusade] under the badge of the cross began to complain to one another, ‘After traversing great distances, we desire to attack the enemies of God in the East, although the Jews, of all races the worst foes of God, are before our eyes. That's doing our work backward.’ Saying this and seizing their weapons, they herded the Jews into a certain place of worship, rounding them up by either force or guile, and without distinction of sex or age put them to the sword. Those who accepted Christianity, however, escaped the impending slaughter.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 19 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

An earlier version of this article was delivered at the annual meeting of the Western Society for French History, held in Reno, Nevada, on 7 November 1991. It was revised during a stay at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, as a summer visitor in 1992, with the assistance of a grant from the University of Delaware.

1 Guibert, of Nogent, , The memoirs of Guibert of Nogent ed. and trans. Benton, J., New York 1970, ii, ch. v, pp. 134–5Google Scholar. On the episode at Rouen see Golb, N., Les Juifs de Rouen au moyen age, Rouen 1985Google Scholar, ch. iv, and ‘New light on the persecution of the French Jews at the time of the First Crusade”, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research xxxiv (1966), 1–45Google Scholar.

2 See on this point Langmuir, G., Toward a definition of antisemitism, Berkeley 1990, esp. PP. 63–5Google Scholar.

3 See for example Blumenkranz, B., ‘The Roman Church and the Jews”, in Cohen, J. (ed.), Essential papers on Judaism and Christianity in conflict, New York 1991, 193–230, at p. 197Google Scholar.

4 Blumenkranz, B., Juifs el Chretiens dans le monde occidental, Paris 1960, 388Google Scholar; Parkes, J., The Jew in the medieval community, London 1938, 81ff.Google Scholar; Trachtenberg, J., The devil and the Jews, New York 1961, 167Google Scholar; Baron, S., A social and religious history of the Jews, iv, 2nd edn, New York 1957, 89ff.Google Scholar; Roth, C., History of the Jews, New York 1961, 180Google ScholarPubMed; Poliakov, L., The history of the Jews, i, trans Howard, R., New York 1965, ch. ivGoogle Scholar.

5 Chazan, R., European Jewry and the First Crusade, Berkeley, Ca. 1987, 197–8Google Scholar.

6 Langmuir, Toward a definition, esp. chs iii–v.

7 Moore, R. I., The formation of a persecuting society, New York 1987, 29–42Google Scholar.

8 Gilchrist, J., ‘The canonistic treatment of the Jews in the Latin West in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries”, Zeitschrifl der Savigny-Stiftung fur Rechtsgeschichte, Kanonistiche Abteilung lxxv (1989), 70–106Google Scholar. With regard to earlier collections one ought to recall that Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. in The Frankish Church, Oxford 1983, p. 393CrossRefGoogle Scholar, had noted, ‘it is significant that some of the most important canonical collections of the ninth century had little to say about the Jews. None of them has a special section devoted to the Jews such as might suggest that they were a pressing problem within the reach of legislation”.

9 Glaber, Rudolfus, Historiarum libri quinque, ed. and trans France, J., Oxford 1989Google Scholar. On the use of the two millennial years in shaping the material, see France's comments in the introduction, pp. lxiii–lxiv.

10 A good brief summary of his life is Wolff, R. L., ‘How the news was brought from Byzantium to Angoulême: or, The pursuit of a hare in an oxcart”, Byzantine and Modem Greek Studies iv (1978), 139–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; on his early career, see Landes, R., ‘The making of a medieval historian: Ademar of Chabannes and Aquitaine at the turn of the millennium”, unpubl. PhD diss. Princeton, NJ 1984Google Scholar; on his role in the promotion of the Peace of God, see Callahan, D., ‘Adémar de Chabannes et la paix de Dieu”, Annales du Midi lxxxix (1977). 21–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Still essential reading on the manuscripts of Ademar is Delisle, L., ‘Notice sur les manuscrits originaux d'Adémar de Chabannes”, Notices et extraits des manuscrits de la Bibliotheèque nationale xxv (1896), 241–358Google Scholar. A five-volume opera omnia of the writings of Ademar is now being prepared for the Corpus Christianorum.

12 On this point see France's comments in the preface to his edition of Glaber, , Historiarum, pp. xlvii–xlviiiGoogle Scholar.

13 For a recent work questioning how Cluniac Glaber was, see France, J., ‘Rodulfus Glaber and the Cluniacs”, this JOURNAL xxxix (1988), 497–508Google Scholar. For a recent article containing a voluminous bibliography on Ademar's life and cultural activities see Grier, J., ‘Ecce sanctum quern deus eligit Marcialem apostolum: Adeémar de Chabannes and the tropes for the feast of Saint Martial”, in Gillingham, B. and Merkey, P. (eds), Beyond the moon: Festschrift Luther Diltmer, Ottawa 1990, 28–74, esP. PP. 28–9Google Scholar.

14 Callahan, D., ‘The sermons of Ademar of Chabannes and the cult of St Martial of Limoges”, Revue Bénédictine (hereinafter cited as RB) lxxxvi (1976), 251–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also idem, ‘Adémar of Chabannes, apocalypticism and the peace council of Limoges of 1031”, ibid, ci (1991), 32–49, and ‘The problem of the Filioque and the letter from the pilgrim monks of the Mount of Olives to Pope Leo III and Charlemagne: still another forgery by Ade'mar of Chabannes?”, ibid, cii (1992), 75–134.

15 For a listing and an examination of the contents of BN, MSS lat. 3784 and 2400 see Landes, ‘Making of a medieval historian”.

16 Gospel of Nicodemus, ed. Kim, H. C., Toronto 1973, 49–50Google Scholar.

17 On Aelfric and the Jews see Dubois, M. M., Aelfric: sermonnaire, docteur et grammairien, Paris 1943, 191Google Scholar.

18 De divinis officiis inAmalarii episcopi opera liturgica omnia, ed. Hanssens, J. M., 3 vols, Rome 1948–1950, ii, bk iv. ch. 48, pp. 273–94Google Scholar. I wish to thank Richard Landes for calling this material to my attention. Another example of Ademar's insertions is discussed in my article ‘Ademar of Chabannes and his insertions into Bede's Expositio actuum aposlolorum”, Analecta Bollandiana iii (1993), 385–400Google Scholar.

19 De divinis officiis: on the terrors of the future judgement, p. 279, lines 26–7; on the throwing of stones, p. 281, line 34; on the insults, p. 289, line 29.

20 Ibid. esp. p. 284. Particularly helpful on the connection between the synagogue and the AntiChrist is Seiferth, W., Synagogue and church in the Middle Ages: two symbols in art and literature, trans Chadeayne, L. and Gottwald, P., New York 1970Google Scholar, esp. ch. viii.

21 The old edition by Chavanon, J., Adémar de Chabannes, Chronique, Paris 1897Google Scholar, leaves much to be desired and will soon be replaced by the new edition being prepared by R. Landes for the Corpus Christianorum. For a valuable earlier piece using the chronicle and pertinent Hebrew historical materials, and emphasising the importance of this flareup, albeit without the apocalyptic or millennial emphasis, see Chazan, R., ‘1007–1012: initial crisis for northern European Jewry”, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research xxxviii–xxxix (1970–1971), 101–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 Glaber, , Historiarum iii. 7 (24), pp. 134–5Google Scholar.

23 Ibid. 132–7. This bare account does not begin to do justice to the rich apocalyptic imagery employed by Glaber in this episode. The chapter was preceded by an account of the activities of Count Raymond n of Sens (1012–55) who because of his support of the Jews was given the title ‘King of the Jews”. Persecutor of the Church, deceitful, even insane, his AntiChrist-like activities are related at length. One episode in which the AntiChrist parallels are apparent was his execution of a thief on Good Friday (pp. 128–31), with obvious parallels with Christ's behaviour towards another thief on Good Friday.

24 Ademar, , Chronique iii. 47, pp. 169–70Google Scholar.

26 Ibid. Ademar erroneously dates the destruction of the church of the Holy Sepulchre to 1010.

29 Ibid. C version, p. 169, reference z.

27 Poliakov, , History i. 36Google Scholar; Parkes, , Jew, 35ffGoogle Scholar.

28 Ademar, , Chronique iii. 52, p. 175Google Scholar.

29 Ibid. 206.

30 See the account recorded for the Second Council of Nicaea in Mansi, J. D., Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova et Amplissima Collectio, Paris 1902, xiii, cols 23–32Google Scholar; on this miracle see Galtier, E., ‘Byzantina”, Romania xxix (1900), 501–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. pp. 513–23.

31 Deutsche Staatsbibliothek (hereinafter cited as DS), MS lat. 1664, 73r.

32 Ademar, , Chronique iii. 52Google Scholar, p. 175.

33 On the colaphus see the comments of Little, L., Religious poverty and the profit economy in medieval Europe, Ithaca 1978, 47Google Scholar.

34 Fulbert, of Chartres, Tractatus contra Judaeos, PL cxli. 318Google Scholar.

35 Glaber, , Historiarum iv. 6 (18), pp. 198–201Google Scholar; (21), pp. 204–5.

36 DS, MS lat. 1664, fo. 113V. More about this piece and the apocalyptic expectations of his sermons appears in my two recent articles in RB ci, cii. One of the best introductions to the mounting apocalyptic and millennial fears of the tenth and eleventh centuries is found in Fried, J., ‘Endzeiterwartung urn diejahrtausendwende”, Deutsches Archivfiir Erforschung des Mittelalters xlv (1989), 385–473Google Scholar. See also Landes, R., ‘La vie apostolique en Aquitaine et l'an mil: paix de Dieu, culte de reliques et communautés hérétiques”, Annales xlvi1 (1991). 573–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Dervensis, Adso, De ortu et tempore Antichristi, ed. Verhelst, D., Turnholt 1976Google Scholar. See also Emmerson, R. K., Antichrist in the Middle Ages, Seattle 1981Google Scholar.

38 Glaber, , Historiarum iii. 7 (24), p. 132Google Scholar; Ademar, , Chronique iii. 47, p. 169Google Scholar. It should also be noted that Cairo was called Babylon in the Middle Ages. On Nebuchadnezzar as a type of the AntiChrist see Emmerson, , Antichrist, 26Google Scholar, and Doob, P., Nebuchadnezzar's children, New Haven, Conn. 1974, 63Google Scholar.

39 Ademar, , Chronique iii. 47, p. 170Google Scholar.

40 The apocalyptic importance of a burning mountain is explored in a forthcoming article on the Last Judgment and the growth of the cult of St Michael the Archangel in the period 950–1050.

41 It is not known how widely it was discussed in the West that Hakim had proclaimed himself a god, that he had disappeared c. 1021 and that his body was never found. One of Ademar's principal sources on eastern developments, St Simeon of Trier, probably knew and Ademar undoubtedly had heard much from the pilgrims returning from Jerusalem. On al-Hakim see Felix, W., Byzanz und die Islamische Well im friiheren 11. Jahrhundert, Vienna 1981, 57–81Google Scholar, and Betts, R. B., TheDruze, New Haven, Conn. 1988Google Scholar, ch.i.

42 That many seemed AntiChrist-like in this period is evident in Glaber's portrait of the count of Sens, Raynard the Judaizer (cf. n. 23) or in Ademar's depiction of his Lombard opponent, Benedict of Chiusa, which I consider in a forthcoming article on the origins of popular heresy in the West and its connection with the expectation of the AntiChrist.

43 Trachtenberg's book The devil and the Jews, though dated in a numbe r of ways, still has many valuable observations.

44 DS, MS lat. 1664, esp. fos 100r, I51r, 168r–v. Michael Frassetto and I are preparing an edition of the sermons in two volumes to be published in the Corpus Christianorum.

45 BN, MS lat. 2469, fo. 8r.

46 DS, MS lat. 1664, fo. 91v. See also Emmerson, , Antichrist, 79Google Scholar, and Trachtenberg, , The devil, 32Google Scholar, 224 n. 2.

47 DS, MS lat. 1664, fo. 91v.

48 Ibid. fo. 72V. For several valuable studies of the cross and its importance in the early Middle Ages, see Raw, Barbara, Anglo-Saxon crucifixion iconography, Cambridge 1990Google Scholar, and Chazelle, Celia, ‘The cross, the image and the passion in Carolingian thought and art”, unpubl. PhD diss. Yale 1985Google Scholar.

49 DS, MS lat. 1664, fo. 73r.

50 Ibid. fo. 72V.

51 Ibid. fo. 97V.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid. fo. 102V.

54 Ibid. fo. 114V.

55 Ibid. fo. io6v.

56 Ibid. fo. 102V.

57 Ibid. fo. 74V.

58 Ibid. fos 97r, 106v. The connecting of the outsiders is also evident on fo. 112v: ‘For heretics, Jews, pagans and false Christians God's name is not sanctified… they perish.”

59 , A. and Cutler, H., The Jew as ally of the Muslim: medieval roots of Anti-Semitism, Notre Dame, Ind. 1986Google Scholar.

60 In particular see the reviews by Septimus, B. in the American Historical Review xcii (1987), 1188–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reilly, B. in the Catholic Historical Review lxxiv (1988), 334–5Google Scholar; Bowman, S. in Speculum lxiii (1988), 386–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Sansy, D. in Annales xliii (1988), 1394–6Google Scholar.

61 Riley-Smith, J., ‘The First Crusade and the persecution of the Jews”, in Sheils, W. J. (ed), Persecution and toleration (Studies in Church History xxi, 1984), 51–72Google Scholar at p. 67.

62 DS, MS lat. 1664, esp. fos 90v–1v.

63 Ibid. fo. 91r. One wonders if Ademar is referring to the unholy trinity of Mahound, Termagant and Apollyon found in The song of Roland, a possibility because he seems to view the Islamic world as an inversion of the Christian order.

64 Ibid. fo. 91V.

65 Ibid. fo. 91r. On the idea of inversions in popular culture see Gurevich, Aron, Medieval popular culture: problems of belief and perception, trans Bak, J. and Hollingsworth, P., Cambridge 1988, 48Google Scholar.

66 On the Saracens as heretics see especially DS, MS lat. 1664, fo. 86v.

67 Ibid. fo. 72V. In a forthcoming article I examine the importance of heresy in Ademar's writings and seek to show that the individuals he calls Manichaeans were Bogomil dualists.

68 Ibid. fo. 114V as precursors; fo. 71 v as subverters.

69 Ibid. fo. 72r.

70 Ibid. fo. 143r.

71 Glaber, , Historiarum iv. 2 (5), pp. 176–7Google Scholar.

72 DS, MS lat. 1664, fo. 168r.

73 BN, MS lat. 2469, fo. 67r: ‘nunc tempus pessimum sit, cum fallacia condensa succrescat, veritas rarescat, immo ab iniquis terns caelum veritas repetat; cum nunc abundare iniquitatem, refrigescere caritatem [the last four words are a paraphrase of Matt. xxiv. 12, found in a chapter in which Christ describes the signs before the Last Judgment] pene ubique sciamus; cum adulatio amicos, veritas odium pariat; cum filii perditionis imminet adventus, “qui adversabitur et extolletur super omnem quod dicitur Deus aut quod colitur”, cuius faciem precedet egestas, cuius membra usquam locorum sine numero pullulant; cum sit iam tempus quo sanam doctrinam vix pauci sustinent; cum pene omnes a veritate auditum avertunt, ad fabulas autem convertuntur; cum fides in omnibus pene deficiat, infidelitas vero ut cancer serpat; cum multi iam sint reprobi circa fidem; cum ipsi qui in fide stare videntur sint “…seipsos amantes, cupidi, elati, superbi,…” invidi, “voluptatum amatores magis quam Dei” [2 Tim. iii. 2–4]”.

74 On the pilgrimage of 1064–5 Einar Joranson stated ‘it [the size of this pilgrimage of over 7, 000 members] makes very clear that in the second half of the eleventh century a belief in the end of the world, so far from being “worn out”, was still with thousands of people an efficacious superstition”: Joranson, E., ‘The great German pilgrimage of 1064–1065”, in Paetow, L. J. (ed.), The Crusades and other historical essays, New York 1928, 3–43Google Scholar at p. 4.

75 Bernard McGinn has questioned the ideas of Paul Alphandery (Alphandery, P. and Dupront, A., La chrétienté et l'idée de croisade, 2 vols, Paris 1954)Google Scholaron the importance of eschatological roots for the crusades and has portrayed the late eleventh century as a time without widespread fears of the end of the world in ‘Her sancti sepulchri: the piety of the First Crusaders”, in Sullivan, R. E. and others (eds), Essays on medieval civilization, Austin, Texas 1978, 33–72Google Scholar at pp. 46–8, esp. n. 81. On the other hand, Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ‘The First Crusade”, 59Google Scholar, sees merit in Alphandery's argument, although the focus of his attention is primarily on the period after 1095.

76 Gilchrist, , ‘Canonistic treatment”. Walter Pakter in his recent Medieval canon law and the Jews, Gremler 1988, devotes only a few pages (pp. 100–2Google Scholar) to listing, without analysis, the anti-Judaistic canons in Burchard's collection and in general has little to say about the eleventh century.

77 Gatch, M. McC., Preaching and theology in Anglo-Saxon England: Aelfric and Wulfstan, Toronto 1977, esp. p. 121Google Scholar n. 9.

78 For Fulbert's Tractatus contra Judaeos see The Utters and poems of Fulbert of Chartres, ed. Behrends, F., Oxford 1976, pp. xxvi–xxviiGoogle Scholar. For Damian, Peter see the introduction to Die Briefs des Petrus Damiani, ed. Reindel, K., pt 1, Munich 1983Google Scholar.

79 Ibid. 39.

80 Ibid. 101.

81 Poliakov, , History, i. 33, 53Google Scholarff., and Ruether, R., Faith and fratricide: the theological roots of anti-semitism, New York 1974, 204Google Scholar.

82 A good introduction to the subjects of tropes an d sequences is found in Crocker, R., A history of musical style, New York 1966, esp. ch. iiGoogle Scholar.

83 On Saint-Martial as a liturgical centre Chailley, J., L'école musicale de Saint-Martial de Limoges, Paris 1960Google Scholar, and Evans, P., The early trope repertory of Saint Martial of Limoges, Princeton 1970Google Scholar, are still essential reading. On Ademar see Grier, ‘Ecce sanctum”.

84 Ibid. 33.

85 Prosarium Lemovicense. Die Prosen de Abbei St. Martial, ed. Dreves, G. (Analect a Hymnica Medii Aevi vii), Leipzig 1889, 58Google Scholar, item 44, verse 12a.

86 Ibid. 71, item 58, verse 8b.

87 Ibid. 83, item 71, verse 23.

88 Ibid. 36, item 15, verse 8a.

89 Ibid. 214, item 194, verse 4b.

90 Ibid. 215, item 195, verses 3a, b.

91 Ibid. 216, item 197, verses 3a, b; p. 217, verses 9b, 10a.

92 Ibid. 220, item 200, verse 3a.

93 Tropi Graduates. Tropen des Missale im Mittelalter. II Tropen zum Proprium Missarum, ed. Blume, C. (Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi xlix), Leipzig 1906, 150Google Scholar, item 349. It goes without saying that the tropes are building on the strongly anti-Judaistic passages of the Acts of the Apostles, chs vi, vii.

94 Ibid. 202, item 410, verses 5–10.

95 The literature on the subject of liturgical drama is immense. On the early development of the dramas see especially the fundamental works of Young, K., The drama of the medieval Church, Oxford 1933Google Scholar, and Hardison, O. B., Christian rite and Christian drama in the Middle Ages, Baltimore 1965Google Scholar. On what these early dramas eventually became see for example Spector, S., ‘Anti-Semitism and the English mystery plays”, in Davidson, C. and others (eds), Drama in the Middle Ages: comparative and critical essays, New York 1982, 328–41Google Scholar, esp. p. 328: ‘The mystery plays comprise, in fact, one of the most vehemently anti-Jewish genres in the history of English literature”.

96 It has been edited as ‘The procession of the prophets”, in Medieval church music-dramas, ed. Collins, F. Jr, Charlottesville 1976, 165–88Google Scholar.

97 PL xlii. 1117–30.

98 Young, , Drama ii. 124Google Scholar.

99 PL xlii. 1124–5: ‘Sufficiunt vobis ista, 0 Judaei, an adhuc ad vestram confusionem ex Lege et ex gente vestra alios introducemus testes, ut illi testimonium perhibeant, cui perdita mente insultantes dicebatis, “Tu de te ipso testimonium perhibes, testimonium tuum non est verum?””

100 ‘Procession”, 173.

101 Ibid. 176.

102 Ibid. 187.

103 Gesta Dei per Francos ii. 2, PL clvi. 700C–701A.

104 On the reliability of Guibert's account see Cole, P. J., The preaching of the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1095–1270, Cambridge, Mass. 1991, 19–33Google Scholar, esP. PP. 32–3. See also her comments in these pages on the importance of the apocalyptic element in this version and the likelihood of Pope Urban's using such material.