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Peter of Bruys, Henry of Lausanne, and the Façade of St.-Gilles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Marcia L. Colish
Marcia L. Colish*
Affiliation:
Oberlin College
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Extract

The romanesque façade of the abbey church of St.-Gilles in the diocese of Nlmes has been a subject of debate among art historians for many years. This controversy has been centered on the design of the church's façade [Fig. 1]. In addition to a series of colonnettes supporting archivolts that surround the tympana over its three western doorways, the St.-Gilles façade also possesses two free-standing columns flanking the central doorway that support nothing, a peculiarity which has led scholars to conclude that the plan of the façade was changed during the remodeling of the church in the twelfth century. The debate has focused on the dating of this change. A number of dates have been suggested, based on the façade's sculptural style, on dated inscriptions in the crypt, and on documents dealing with the church fabric. The art historians of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries dated the redesigning of the façade between 1116 and the middle of the thirteenth century, though the tendency of more recent scholarship has been to narrow the range of dates to between 1116 and the 1140s.

Type
Miscellany
Information
Traditio , Volume 28 , 1972 , pp. 451 - 460
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 A useful survey of the literature prior to 1937 giving the datings assigned by various scholars in handy graphic form is supplied by Walther Horn, Die Fassade von St. Gilles: eine Untersuchung zur Frage des Antikeneinflusses in der südfranzösischen Kunst des 12. Jahrhunderts (Hamburg 1937) 9–10. Horn gives his own views on the dating of the change, ibid. 58. Another summary of the literature prior to 1934 is given by Meyer Schapiro, ‘New Documents on St.-Gilles,’ Art Bulletin 17 (1935) 414–31. Schapiro restates his conclusions in ‘Further Documents on Saint-Gilles,’ Art Bulletin 19 (1937) 111–12. The most detailed investigation of the dating of the St.-Gilles façade has been done by Hamann, Richard, ‘The Façade of St.-Gilles: A Reconstruction,’ Burlington Magazine 64 (1934) 25–28; and more recently in his Die Abteikirche von St.-Gilles und ihre künstlerische Nachfolge (Berlin 1955) 3–20, 53, 71–78, 80.Google Scholar

2 Hamann, ‘Façade of St.-Gilles’ 25; id., Die Abteikirche von St.-Gilles 90–92, 372.Google Scholar

3 Horn, Die Fassade von St. Gilles 57. Adolf Katzenellenbogen, The Sculptural Programs of Chartres Cathedral: Christ, Mary, Ecclesia (New York 1964) 12–15, 22–23 has noted an increasing tendency to include eucharistic themes in conjunction with key scenes from the life of Christ in early-twelfth-century façade sculpture. It is noteworthy in this connection that the doctrine of Christ's real presence in the Eucharist, which, after the debate between Paschasius Radbertus and Ratramnus of Corbie in the ninth century, had not been discussed by theologians since the controversy generated by the eucharistic heresy of Berengarius of Tours in the third quarter of the eleventh century, was stressed once more in the early-twelfth century by such writers as Honorius of Autun, William of St. Thierry, and Hugh of St. Victor. The orientation of these writers, however, appears to be pastoral and systematic, rather than polemical.Google Scholar

4 Hamann, Die Abteikirche von St.-Gilles 372. See also Kingsley Porter, A., ‘Condrieu, Jerusalem, and St. Gilles,’ Art in America 13 (1925) 129.Google Scholar

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7 The most recent work on the subject is James Fearns, ‘Peter von Bruis und die religiöse Bewegung des 12. Jahrhunderts,’ Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 48 (1966) 311–35. The most extensive discussion of Peter and Henry is provided by Raoul Manselli, Studi sulle eresie del secolo XII (Istituto storico italiano per il medioevo, studi storici 5; Rome 1953), who treats the historiography of the subject (pp. 1–23) and includes substantial chapters on Peter (pp. 25–45) and Henry (pp. 45–67). See also Arno Borst, Die Katharer (Stuttgart 1953) 83–84; Augustin Fliche, Du premier concile du Latran à l'avènement d'Innocent III (1123–1198) (Histoire de l'Église depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours, ed. A. Fliche and V. Martin, IX; Paris 1944) I 96–99; Jean Guiraud, Histoire de l'Inquisition au moyen ǎge (Paris 1935) I 3–9; A. Luchaire, Les premiers Capétiens (987–1137) (Histoire de France, ed. E. Lavisse, II; Paris 1901) II 361–66; Jeffrey Burton Russell, Dissent and Reform in the Early Middle Ages (Publications of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies 1; Berkeley and Los Angeles 1965) 68–82; E. Vacandard, Vie de saint Bernard, Abbé de Clairvaux (Paris 1920) II 224–42; F. Vernet, ‘Bruys, Pierre de,’ DThC 2 (1910) 1151–56; C. de Vic and J. J. Vaissette, Histoire générale de Languedoc avec des notes et les pièces justificatives (Toulouse 1730–37) II 443–47; III 1–4.Google Scholar

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11 Mansi, J. D., ed., Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio (ed. Labbeus, P. and Cossartius, G.; Venice 1776) XXI 226–27.Google Scholar

12 Ibid. 531; Charles-Joseph Héfélé, Histoire des conciles d'après les documents originaux (trans. Abbé Delarc; Paris 1872) VII 241.Google Scholar

13 Luchaire, Les premiers Capétiens II 364; Manselli, Studi 28, 63–64.Google Scholar

14 Abelard, Peter, Introductio ad theologiam II 4 (PL 178, 1056).Google Scholar

15 Hildebert of Lavardin, Epistolae 23, 24 (PL 171, 237–42).Google Scholar

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17 Autissiodorensis, Gaufredus, Vita et rebus gestis Sancti Bernardi, abbatis Clarevallensis 3 (Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, ed. M.-J.-J. Brial; Paris 1806) XIV 373.Google Scholar

18 The text has been edited by Manselli, Raoul, ‘Il monaco Enrico e la sua eresia,’ Bolletino dell’ Istituto Storico Italiano per il medio evo e Archivo Muratoriano 65 (1953) 44–62. Manselli analyzes the document (pp. 1–35) and discusses the authorship, dating, and text (pp. 36–43). See also Manselli, Studi 45–67.Google Scholar

19 Peter the Venerable, Contra Petrobrusianos hereticos, Epistola 3–9 (ed. Fearns, James, CCL continuatio mediaevalis X) 4–5.Google Scholar

20 Id., Liber 14–15 (CCLcm X 15–16).Google Scholar

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23 Vernet, art. cit. (above note 7) 1152.Google Scholar

24 Luchaire, Les premiers Capétiens II 362. This view has also been reached independently by Horn, Die Fassade von St. Gilles 58.Google Scholar

25 Fliche, Augustin, Aigues-Mortes et Saint-Gilles (Paris [1950]) 56.Google Scholar

26 Peter the Venerable, Contra Petrobrusianos, Epistola 10 (CCLcm X 5–6).Google Scholar

27 Kramp, art. cit. (above note 22) 73–76; supported by Grundmann, Herbert, ‘Eresie e nuovi ordini religiosi nel secolo XII,’ Relazioni del X Congresso internazionale di scienze storiche (Firenze 1955) III 369; Manselli, Studi 28–29; Wakefield and Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages 118.Google Scholar

28 Peter the Venerable, Letters (ed. Giles Constable, Harvard Historical Studies, 78; Cambridge Mass. 1967) II 285–88.Google Scholar

29 Autissiodorensis, Gaufredus, Vita Bernardi, S. 3 (Recueil XIV 373).Google Scholar

30 Peter the Venerable, Contra Petrobrusianos, Epistola 3, (CCLcm X 4).Google Scholar

31 Kramp, art. cit. (above note 22) 73–76; Grundmann, art. cit. (above note 27) 369; Manselli, Studi 28–29. The dating of Peter the Venerable's Tractatus and Peter of Bruys' death put forth by Kramp and Manselli has also been accepted by Wakefield and Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages 118.Google Scholar

32 Peter the Venerable, Letters (ed. Constable, II 285–88).Google Scholar

33 Fliche, Du premier concile du Latran I 99.Google Scholar

34 De Vic and Vaissette, Hist. gén. de Languedoc II 447; Guiraud, Hist. de l'Inquisition I 9.Google Scholar

35 Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum XXI 712–13.Google Scholar

36 Ibid. 717–18.Google Scholar

37 Borst, Die Katharer 83–84; Fliche, Du premier concile du Latran I 95–99; de Vic and Vaissette, Hist. gén. de Languedoc II 443; III 1–4.Google Scholar

38 Fearns, art. cit. (above note 7) 317–24.Google Scholar

39 See Chambers, E. K., The Mediaeval Stage (Oxford 1903) II 9–40, especially 33–34; Hardison, O. B., Christian Rite and Christian Drama in the Middle Ages: Essays on the Origin and Early History of Modern Drama (Baltimore 1965) 178–252, especially 194–95, 236; Karl Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church (Oxford 1933) I 201–450, especially 405–07.Google Scholar