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Fulk of Toulouse: the escape that failed
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
- Elo dozes sera Folquetz de
- Marseilla, us mercadairetz
- que a fait un fol sagramen
- quan juret que chansos no fetz
- et anz dizon que fo per vetz
- qe·s perjuret son escien
- And the twelfth one will be Fulk of
- Marseille, a merchant of importance
- Who made an oath so mad
- And swore his songs no more to write
- This seemed to all to be in true sincerity
- When he so consciously forswore.
This short piece of a contemporary troubadour’s song makes a suitable introduction to Fulk of Toulouse who was first a jongleur and troubadour, a citizen and merchant and later in life a monk and bishop. Underlying most of this varied career was a desire on Fulk’s part to retreat from the world in order to achieve the vita apostolica.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1975
References
1 The song was written by the monk of Montaudon. Stronski, [S.], [Le troubadour] Folquet de Marseille (Cracow 1910) p 48*Google Scholar. This critical edition of Fulk’s poetry contains a short but valuable biographical study. Pages from this section are asterisked thus * while the page references to his poetry have no asterisk.
2 Ibid p 8*.
3 This court was presided over by Raymond Geoffrey Barral one of the most powerful lords of the midi. He was favourable to the troubadours and supported not only Fulk but Peire Vidal. Bertran de Born thought sufficiently highly of Barral to address one of his sirventés to him. Ibid pp 15*-18*.
4 From the very considerable volume of literature on the troubadours I have drawn upon Moller, H., ‘The social causation of the courtly love complex’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 1 (The Hague 1958-9) pp 137-63Google Scholar; Powell Jones, W., ‘The Jongleur Troubadours of Provence’ PMLA 46 (1931) pp 307-11Google Scholar; Davenson, H., Les Troubadours (Paris 1961)Google Scholar and [C] Morris, The Discovery of the Individual [1050-1200] (1972) especially pp 107-20.
5 Stronski, Folquet de Marseille p 7*, song 7 lines 5-10 p 36.
6 Ibid p 88*, song 19 pp 83-6. This poem, preaching crusade against the infidel, was written after the battle of Alarcos in 1195 and the defeat of the cistercian military order of Calatrava. The provençal biographer writes ‘en Folquetz de Marceilla qu’era molt amies del rei de castela si fes una prezicansa per conortar los baros e la bona gen que deguessan secorre al bon rei’. Ibid p 8.
7 Ibid p 89*.
8 Chenu, [M-D.], Nature, Man and Society [in the Twelfth Century] (Chicago 1968) p 213 Google Scholar. On the earlier attempt see Moore, R.I., ‘St Bernard’s Mission to the Languedoc in 1145’, BIHR 48 (1974) pp 1–10 Google Scholar.
9 PL 215 (1855) cols 355-60; Potthast 1 no 2229. The bull Et si nostri navicula of 1204 confirmed the legation of Renier da Ponza, Guy, Peter de Castelnau, Raoul de Fontefroide and Arnald Amaury abbot of Citeaux.
10 H. Grundmann, ‘Hérésies savantes et hérésies populaires au moyen âge’, in [J.] Le Goff, Hérésies et Sociétés [dans l’Europe pré-industrielle 11-18 siècles], École pratique des hautes études. Civilisations et Sociétés, 10 (Paris 1968) pp 209-14. Also Morris, C., Medieval Media (university of Southampton 1972)Google Scholar in which he discusses the use of the song as a way of expressing values and ideas, in particular the cultural media brought to bear upon Valdes who was himself converted after hearing a jongleur recount the story of saint Alexis.
11 Hélinand of Fontefroide a former trouvère became an eminent cistercian preacher while Bernard of Ventadour and Bertran de Born both became monks in the same order.
12 Morris, The Discovery of the Individual, pp 117.
13 Devic, [C.] and Vaissète, [J.], Histoire générale [de Languedoc], 6 (Toulouse 1879) p 244 Google Scholar. Fulk took as his sermon for that day the parable of the sower.
14 [William of] Puylaurens, Cronica ed Beyssier in ‘Guillaume de Puylaurens et sa chronique’ in Troisièmes mélanges d’histoire du moyen âge, ed A. Luchaire, Bibliothèque de la Faculté des Lettres de Paris, 18 (Paris 1904) pp 119-75. Cernay, Peter de Vaux, Pétri Vallium Sarnau monachi Hystoria albigensis, ed Guérin, P. and Lyon, E., 3 vols (Paris 1926-39)Google Scholar.
15 C. Violante, ‘Hérésies urbaines et hérésies rurales en Italie du 11e au 13e siècle’ in Le Goff, Hérésies et Sociétés, pp 171-97.
16 Mundy, [J.H.], Liberty and Political Power [in Toulouse 1050-1200] (New York 1954) p 68 Google Scholar.
17 For an interesting discussion of this question see the review article by Moore, R.I., ‘The Test of Religious Truth’, Times Higher Educational Supplement 141 (28 June 1974) p 13.Google Scholar
18 Thouzellier, [C.], Catharisme et valdéisme [en Languedoc à la fin du xiie et au début du xiiie siècle] (2 ed Paris 1969) pp 199, 205 Google Scholar.
19 Ibid pp 194-5; PL 215 (1855) cols 1024-5; Thouzellier, C., ‘La pauvreté, arme contre l’Albigéisme, en 1206’, Révue de l’histoire de religions 151 (Paris 1957) pp 79–92 Google Scholar.
20 Thouzellier, Catharisme et valdéisme p 203.
21 PL 215 (1855) cols 1510-14.
22 Thouzellier, Catharisme et valdéisme pp 204-12.
23 Useful reprints and new works on the albigensian crusade include Belperron, P., La Croisade contre les Albigeois 1209-1249 (Paris 1967)Google Scholar; Strayer, J.R., Tlie Albigensian Crusades (New York 1971)Google Scholar; [W. L.] Wakefield, Heresy, crusade and inquisition [in Southern France 1100-1250] (1974).
24 Lejeune, R., ‘L’évêque de Toulouse, Foulquet de Marseille et la principauté de Liège2019;, in Mélanges Felix Rousseau (Brussels 1958) pp 433-48Google Scholar. Fulk was in Liège in 1211 or 1212, again between January and September 1213 and finally in 1217.
25 Devic, and Vaissète, , Histoire générale 6 p 502 Google Scholar.
26 Mary of Oignies, the child of rich and respected parents, was married at the age of fourteen but later separated voluntarily from her husband to live in a cell at the augustinian priory of St Nicholas of Oignies in complete poverty. She became the focus of female piety in the diocese of Liège. See my article ‘Mulieres Sanctae’, SCH 10 (1973) pp 77-97.
27 Grundmann, pp 209-11. See also Vicaire, [M-H.], Saint Dominic [and his Times] (trans by Pond, K. London 1964)Google Scholar and Saint Dominic eti Languedoc, Cahiers de Fanjeaux 1 (Toulouse 1966).
28 ASB 5 (1867) pp 542-72.
29 Ibid p 556.
30 Puylaurens, Cronica ed Beyssier p 125.
31 Ibid p 125; Mundy, Liberty and Political Power p 81.
32 Ibid p 82.
33 Stronski, Folquet de Marseille p 112*.
34 Vicaire, Saint Dominic p 387.
35 Mundy, J.H., ‘Charity and Social Work in Toulouse 1150-1250’, Traditio 22 (1966) pp 203-87CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
36 Baldwin, [J.W.], Masters, Princes and Merchants: [the social views of Peter the Chanter and his circle], 2 vols (Princeton 1970)Google Scholar; Noonan, J.T., The Scholastic Analysis of Usury (Cambridge, Mass., 1957)Google Scholar and Nelson, B.M., The Idea of Usury: from tribal brotherhood to universal otherhood (2 ed Chicago 1969)Google Scholar. A recent article by Rosenwein, B.H. and Little, L.K., ‘Social Meaning in the Monastic and Mendicant Spiritualities’ Past and Present 63 (1974) pp 4–33 Google Scholar, especially pp 29-31 gives a useful indication of the ways in which justifications for usury were appearing at this time.
37 Mundy, Liberty and Political Power pp 74-9.
38 Ibid p 290 n 18.
39 M. Weber, The Sociology of Religion (4 ed 1971) pp 215-16.
40 Baldwin, , Masters, Princes and Merchants 1, pp 296-7Google Scholar. This preaching campaign was conducted in northern France but was widely supported in other areas.
41 Mundy, Liberty and Political Power p 83.
42 Puylaurens, Cronica ed Beyssier pp 131-2.
43 Mundy, Liberty and Political Power p 79.
44 J. H. Mundy, Europe in the High Middle Ages 1130-1309 (1973) p 180.
45 Ibid p 466.
46 Chronicle of William Pelhisson, printed in Wakefield, Heresy, crusade and inquisition p 210.