The Forge of Christendom (63 page)

1
Lampert of Hersfeld, p. 285. Lampert’s description of Henry’s journey across the Alps has often been criticised for its melodramatic tone, but the descent from the Mont Cenis pass is indeed a steep one, and all the sources are agreed that the winter of 1076–7 was exceptionally bitter.

2
Wipo. Quoted by Morris, p. 19.

3
Quoted by Cowdrey (1998), p. 608.

4
Gregory VII,
Register
, 3.10a.

5
Ibid.
, 4.12.

6
For the likelihood that the future Pope had attended Henry’s coronation in 1054, see Cowdrey (1998), pp. 34–5.

7
Tellenbach (1940), p. 1.

8
Otto of Freising,
The Two Cities
, 6.36.

9
Bonizo of Sutri, p. 238. The reference is to Henry’s original excommunication.

10
Southern,
Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages
, p. 34.

11
Quoted by Zimmerman, p. 3.

12
Moore (2000), p. 12.

13
Ironically, the phrase comes from the Bible: Psalm 113. The anecdote is quoted by Leyser (1965), p. 60.

14
Blumenthal, p. 64.

15
The thesis that the decades either side of the Millennium witnessed a unique crisis in the order of Christendom was most brilliantly elucidated by the great French historian Georges Duby. The twin poles of the debate today are represented by two other formidable French scholars: Pierre Bonnassie and Dominique Barthélemy. An excellent though cussedly sceptical survey of the historiography can be found in Crouch (2005).

16
Ferdinand Lot. Quoted by Edmond Pognon (1981), p. 11.

17
Les Fausses Terreurs de l’An Mil
, by Sylvain Gouguenheim.

18
Carozzi, p. 45.

19
An argument that derives principally from Richard Landes, Professor of History at Boston University, and doyen of all those scholars who, over the past couple of decades, have argued for the existence of what he himself has termed “The
Terribles espoirs
of 1000 and the Tacit Fears of 2000” (Landes, Gow and Van Meter, p. 3).

20
From the second vision of the Visionary of St. Vaast. The quotation provides the frontispiece for a seminal essay by the German scholar Johannes Fried, one of the first to argue in convincing detail for the influence of apocalyptic hopes and anxieties upon Christendom at the turn of the first Millennium. Taken from the English translation in Landes, Gow and Van Meter, p. 17.

21
Fulton, p. 72.

22
Glaber, 4.1.

23
Rees, p. 186.

24
Lovelock, p. 189.

25
Ibid.
, p. 7.

26
Odo of Cluny, col. 585.

1
Matthew 4.9.

2
Daniel 7.19.

3
Matthew 5.9.

4
Matthew 26.52.

5
1 Peter 5.13. The first independent allusion to Peter’s presence in Rome does not date until AD 96.

6
Revelation 17.4–6.

7
Ibid.
, 20.2.

8
Romans 13.1.

9
2 Thessalonians 2.6.

10
Mark 13.32.

11
Revelation 21.2.

12
Christians were expelled from the army some time around 300, just before the great persecution launched by the Emperor Diocletian in 303. This has raised considerable doubts about the veracity of the story of St. Maurice, since he and his legion are supposed to have been martyred for refusing to take part in this self-same persecution. For a convincing explanation of the legend’s origin, see Woods.

13
Eucherius of Lyon, 9.

14
Lactantius, 44.5.

15
Augustine,
City of God
, 5.25.

16
Eusebius,
Life of Constantine
, 3.31.

17
Ibid.
,
In Praise of the Emperor Constantine
, 1.

18
“Examples of prayers for the Empire and the Emperor” (c), Folz (1969), p. 176.

19
Revelation 18.19.

20
Ibid.
, 20.8.

21
Pseudo-Methodius, quoted in Alexander (1985), p. 40.

22
Ibid.
, p. 50.

23
Avitus of Vienne, p. 75.

24
Augustine,
City of God
, 4.15.

25
Ibid.
, 19.17.

26
Revelation 20.1–3.

27
Augustine,
City of God
, 20.7.

28
Gregory I,
Moralium Libri
, col. 1011.

29
Ibid.
,
Regulae Pastoralis Liber
, col. 14.

30
The bishop was Pope Gregory I, “the Great”:
Homiliarum in Evangelia
, col. 1213.

31
Augustine,
On Order
, 2.1.2.

32
The etymology was originally St. Jerome’s. Scholars nowadays hold it to be inaccurate.

33
Michael Psellus, p. 177.

34
Pre-eminently by Justinian.

35
This was a very ancient tradition, dating back at least to the early third century, and maybe earlier.

36
Not until the reign of Gregory VII, however, did this become an official prescription.

37
A letter of Pope Gregory II. Quoted by Ullman (1969), p. 47.

38
Lex Salica
, pp. 6–8.

39
1 Peter 2.9. Pope Paul I, in 757, quoted the verse in a letter to Pepin. See Barbero, p. 16.

40
Donation of Constantine
, p. 326.

41
Ibid.
, p. 328.

42
Aethicus Ister,
Cosmographia
. Quoted by Brown, p. 413.

43
2 Samuel 5.20.

44
Alcuin, Letter 9. Ironically, the comment was made in the context of the first Viking raid on Northumbria.

45
Charlemagne, 2.138.

46
Angilbertus, line 504.

47
Einhard, 28.

48
For the calculations that enabled this to be adduced, see Landes (1988) – a brilliant, though controversial, piece of scholarly detective work. See also Fried, p. 27.

49
Alcuin, Letter 43.

50
Futolf of Michelsberg. Quoted by Goetz, p. 154.

51
“Poeta Saxo,” p. 70.

52
Regino of Prüm, p. 129.

53
From the protocols of an imperial synod at Trosly, 909. Quoted by Bloch (1989), vol. 1, p. 3.

54
Otto of Freising, p. 66.

55
“A Letter on the Hungarians.” Cited by Huygens, p. 232.

56
Ibid.

57
Ibid.
The phrase is a quotation from Gregory the Great.

58
Cited by Fried, p. 31.

59
Abbo of Fleury, col. 471 A.

60
Ibid.

61
Heliand
, pp. 119–20.

62
Adso of Montier-en-Der, p. 90.

63
Ibid.

64
Ibid.

1
Thietmar, 6.23.

2
Or rather not strictly speaking a capital, but what in Latin was termed a “
civitas
”: an untranslatable word. It was so described by Otto I, in his diploma of 937.

3
Widukind, 1.36.

4
Thietmar, 6.23.

5
Alcuin, Letter 113.

6
Widukind, 1.15.

7
Liudprand,
History of Otto
, 2.20.

8
Widukind, 1.41.

9
Liudprand,
Antapodosis
, 4.25.

10
Widukind, 2.1.

11
Ibid.
, 2.36.

12
Ruodlieb
, fragment 3.

13
Heliand
, chapter 58, lines 4865–900. The poem almost certainly dates from the reign of Charlemagne’s son, Louis I. The lines quoted echo Matthew 26.53.

14
Widukind, 3.46.

15
Ibid.
, 3.49.

16
Otto I, p. 503.

17
Thietmar, 2.17.

18
Ibid.
, 7.16.

19
Ibid.
, 2.17.

20
Widukind, 3.75.

21
Leo the Deacon, 1.1. The apocalyptic tone of Byzantine writers of the late tenth century is all the more striking for the fact that Constantinople had not adopted the
anno Domini
dating system.

22
See Mango, p. 211.

23
Leo the Deacon, 2.8.

24
See Paul Magdalino, “The Year 1000 in Byzantium,” in Magdalino (2003), p. 244.

25
By the admittedly venomous and resentful Liudprand of Cremona.
The
Mission to Constantinople
, 3.

26
John Skylitzes, p. 271.

27
Thietmar, 4.10.

28
Albert of Metz, p. 698.

29
Liudprand,
Antapodosis
, 1.3.

30
Liudprand,
The Mission to Constantinople
, 10.

31
Matthew 24.11.

32
The originator of the phrase was St. John of Damascus, in his book
On the
Heretics
– although, as Sahas points out, he applied it to “the religion of the Ishmaelities,” rather than to Mohammed himself (footnote 7, p. 69).

33
The number of military expeditions in which Mohammed took part is set by an early Muslim historian, Ibn Ishaq, at twenty-seven; he is supposed to have fought personally in nine of these. For the execution of seven hundred prisoners of war in the market place of Medina, see Armstrong, p. 207. The most celebrated opponent of Mohammed to be assassinated on the Prophet’s orders was Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, a poet overly given to writing erotic verses about Muslim women.

34
From a Greek polemic, probably written around 640. Quoted by Crone and Cook, pp. 3–4.

35
An opinion expressed in the unlikely context of a military treatise, written in the sixth century by a Byzantine combat engineer. Quoted by Dennis (1985), p. 21.

36
Qur’an 9.29.

37
Leo VI,
Tactics
, 18.24.

38
Ibid.
, 2.45.

39
Thietmar, 3.20.

40
Ibid.
, 3.23.

41
Ibid.
, 3.21.

42
The phrases come from a verse epitaph inscribed on the tomb of Basil II (reigned 976–1025), aptly nicknamed the “Bulgar-slayer.”

43
Quoted in Bonner (2004), p. xxi.

44
Ibn Hawqal,
The Face of the Earth
. Quoted in Whittow, p. 328.

45
John VIII. Quoted in McCormick (2001), p. 736.

46
Bernard the Monk,
Itinera Hierosolymitana
, pp. 310–11.

47
Erchempert, 17.

48
Qur’an 7.4.

49
Ibid.
, 8.1.

50
Ibid
., 8.41.

51
Umar, who ruled as the second Caliph. Quoted by Brague, p. 35.

52
Qur’an 9.29.

53
John of St. Arnoul, 136.

54
Ibid.
, 132.

55
Ibid.
, 133.

56
Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, line 12. The phrase is all the more suggestive for coming, not from a Muslim source, but from a poem written by a Saxon nun. The phrase refers specifically to the city of Córdoba, and it is widely accepted that Hrotsvit may have obtained her information from a member of John’s embassy to the Caliph.

57
See Bulliet, pp. 38–51.

58
Ibn Hawqal,
The Face of the Earth
. Quoted in Fierro, p. 16.

59
The words date from the thirteenth century, but the sentiment was timeless. Ibn Idhari. Quoted by Kennedy, p. 22.

60
Liudprand,
Antapodosis
, 6.6.

61
Quoted in Karsh, p. 63.

62
A celebrated hadith, narrated by Al-Bayhaqi.

63
Gibbon, vol. 3, p. 348. All the figures relating to the caliphal library at Córdoba are exaggerations.

64
Widukind, 3.56.

65
Richer, 3.55.

66
Ibid.
, 3.52.

67
Thietmar, 3.18.

68
Gerbert, Letter 23.

69
Ibid.
, Letter 51.

70
Thietmar, 4.10.

71
Or perhaps the autumn. See Althoff, p. 52.

72
Gerbert,
Acta Concilii Remensis ad Sanctum Basolum
, p. 676
MGH SS
, 3.676.

73
“A Song for SS. Peter and Paul’s Day,”
Primer of Medieval Latin
, p. 340.

74
John Canaparius, 21.

75
Arnold of Regensburg, 2.34.

76
Paulinus of Aquileia, 5.7. In sober point of historical fact, there is no firm evidence that Christians were ever martyred in the Colosseum.

77
Arnold of Regensburg, 2.34.

78
Annales Quedlinburgenses
, p. 73.

79
Ex Miraculis Sancti
Alexii, p. 620.

80
Thietmar, 4.48.

81
John Canaparius, 23.

82
Bruno of Querfort,
Passio Sancti Adalberti
, 23.

83
“
Deus Teutonicus
.” See Jones and Pennick, p. 170.

84
The chronology of this is generally accepted, but not universally. See, e.g.,
The Letters of Gerbert
, p. 285.

85
Gerbert, Letter 221.

86
Ibid.
, Letter 230.

87
Ibid.
, Letter 232.

88
Ibid.
, Letter 231.