T H E JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL
AND RENAISSANCE S T U D I E S
EDITOR:
ADVISORY BOARD:
Marcel Tetel, Duke University
Wlliam J. Bouwsma, Univ. of Calif., Berkeley
Derek S. Brewer, Cambridge University
Arthur B. Ferguson, Duke University
Creighton E. Gilbert, Yale University
Anthony Grafton, Princeton University
V. A. Kolve, Univ. of Calif., Los Angeles
Irving Lavin, Inst. for Advanced Study, Princeton
Eugene F. Rice, Jr., Columbia University
Lionello Sozzi, Universiti di Torino
Volume 24
Copyright @ 1994 by
Duke University Press
Durham, North Carolina
The crisis of the ordeal:
literature, law, and religion around I zoo
J 0 H N W. B A L D W I N , T h e Johns Hopkins University
When the English chronicler Matthew Paris tallied up the notable
events that had taken place in his world between r 2 0 0 and I 250, among
those that caught his attention was the prohibition of ordeals through
water and fire.' Adost modern historians agree that the Fourth Lateran
Council of I 2 15, which forbade the cler& from participating in ordeals, coincided with a distinct turning point in the practice in European society. (In this paper I shall limit consideration to the unilateral
species of hot iron, hot water, and cold water and to the bilateral judicial duel.) Ordeals are often envisaged as occupying the center of
medieval mentality. Embodying immanent justice, they affirmed that
God could and, in fact, did intervene directly in human affairs to resolve perplexing judicial decision^.^ They constituted the legal pendant
to the saint, whose canonization required not only exemplary piety
but also the performance of clearly attested miracles. The practice of
ordeals has produced an abundant quantity of evidence from the early
A!Iiddle Ages onward, but the quality of the documentation is fragmentary and sketchy. What has survived has been compiled by modern historians beginning with the broad compendiums of Henry C. Lea
and Frederico Patteta, passing through the magisterial synthesis of
Hermann Nottarp and arriving at the recent interpretative essays of
Paul Hyams and Robert Bartlett.3 Historians have been particularly
Joztr~znlof Medieval and Renaissance Studies 24: 3, Fall 1994. Copyright @ 1994 by Duke
Uiversity Press. CCC oo47-2573/94/$1 .SO
I. Matthew Paris, Chronica majora, ed. Henry Luard, Rolls Series, no. 57, 7 vols.
(London: Longman, 1872-83), 5:rgz.
2. Paul Rousset, "La Croyance en la justice immanente B l'&poque fkodale," Le
M o y e n Age, 4th ser., 3 (1948) : 225-48, especially 235-41.
3. Henry C . Lea, Superstition and Force (Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1878);
Frederico Patetta, Le ordalie (Turin: Fratelli Becca, 1890); Herman Nottarp, Gotteszrrteilstudien, Bamberger Abhandlungen und Forschungen, 2 (Munich: Kijsel, 1956);
Paul R. Hyams, "Trial by Ordeal: The Key to Proof in the Early Common Law," in
Alorris S. Arnold et al., eds., O n the Laws and Custonzs of England: Essays in Honor
of S;mz:lel E. Thorne (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1981), 90-126;
Robert Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water: T h e Mediezjal Judicial Ordeal (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1986). Dominique Barthklemy, "Dil-ersit6 des ordalies mkdiCvales," Revue
historique 280 (1988): 3-25, emphasizes the complexity of the practices. Margaret H.
Kerr, Richard D. Forsyth, and Michel j.Plyley, "Cold Water and Hot Iron: Trial by
3 28 journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24
( I 994)
3
preoccupied with the decline or the crisis of the ordeal in the twelfth
century. Since few moderns would willingly entrust their fortunes to
the decision of the iron or water, the abolition of the ordeal has usually
been applauded as heralding the dawn of modern judicial procedure.
Yet within all of this attention to the crisis of the ordeal, legal historians have taken little notice of the image of the ordeal in contemporary vernacular literature, doubtless because literature is fictional
and presumably not pertinent to the domain of legal p r a ~ t i c e .As
~
literary historians have long known, however, in the four decades preceding I z I 5 the ordeal appeared prominently in three families of vernacular romance: ( I ) the Tristan legend, including a homologue from
ChrCtien de Troyes's Chevalier de la charrete, ( 2 ) the early branches
of the Roman de Renart, and ( 3 ) the Ronzafz de la rose of Jean Renart
(also known as the Guillauwze de Dole) and its sequel the Roman de la
violette of Gerbert de M o n t r e ~ i lThese
.~
literary texts not only depict
the ordeal's operations with greater detail than is usually found in the
historical sources, but, equally important, they also articulate an underlying rationale.
M y purpose in reading these romances is twofold. In a preliminary
Ordeal in England," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 2 2 ( 1 ~ ~ 2 573-97,
):
combine
evidence of judicial practice in England ( I 194-1208) with modem investigations into
the physiological differences between males and females.
4. This lacuna, however, has been addressed b y the literary historian Pierre Jonin,
Les Personnages fiminins duns les romans frangais de T r i s t m m XlIe sidcle: Etude des
influences contenzporaines (Gap: Ophrys, 1958), 59-105, who provides the legal context
for Iseut's trial, and by R. Howard Bloch, Medieval French Literature and the Law
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977)~13-26.
5. For the texts and translations of the vernacular romances employed here: BCroul,
Le Roman de Tristan, ed. Ernest Muret and L. M. Defourques, Classiques fran~aisdu
moyen 8ge (Paris: Champion, 1947)~trans. Alan S. Fedrick, T h e Romance of Tristan
(Hannondsworth: Penguin, 1970); Gottfried von Strassburg, Tristan und Isolde, ed.
Friedrich Ranlte (Berlin: Weidmann, 1967), trans. A. T. Hatto, T r i s t m (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1960); Brother Robert, Tristrirms saga ok Isondar, ed. Eugen Kolbing
(Heilbronn: Henninger, IS@), trans. Paul Schach, T h e Saga of T r i s t r m and lsond
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1976); Chrktien de Troyes, Le Chevalier de la
charrete, Classiques fransais du moyen bge (Paris: Champion, 1958), trans. William
Kibler, Artburinn Ronzances (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991); Le Roman de Renart,
ed. Ernest Martin (Strasbourg: Triibner, 18821, I, trans. Patricia Terry, Renard the
Fox (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992); Jean Renart, Le RomanAde
la rose ou de Guillaz~mede Dole, ed. FClix Lecoy, Classiques fran~aisdu mopen age
(Paris: Champion, 1979), trans. Jean Dufournet et al., Guillaume de Dole ou le Ro?rzmz
de la rose (Paris: Champion, 1979) ; Gerbert de Montreuil, Le Roman de Ea violette o u
de Gerart de Nevers, ed. Douglas L. Buffum, Sociktk des anciens textes fran~ais(Paris:
Champion, 1928), trans. Mireille Demaules, Le Roman de la violette (Paris: Stock,
rggz). I am grateful to Stephen G. Nichols for reviewing my translations of Le Ronzan
de Renart.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 3 2 9
way I wish to show that the ordeal functioned in the literary texts in
ways congruent to those found in other historical documents. In other
words, there is little significant disjunction benveen the portrayal of
ordeals in fictional accounts and what we know about them from other
historical documentation. Asly second and more important task is to
highlight the crisis of the ordeal as revealed in literary texts. W e shall
see that in this discourse the ordeal was both opposed and reaffirmed.
T o contextualize the controversy in romance I shall introduce and
juxtapose three well-known elemints: the theological theories of Peter
the Chanter, who was the most vociferous opponent of the ordeal at
the time, the legal remedies formulated by the canonists and subsequently adopted by Pope Innocent 111, who convoked the Lateran
Council, and finally the religious beliefs expressed in contemporary
saints' lives. Although as historians we already know the outcome of
the debate, we should nonetheless refrain from viewing the censure
of the ordeal as inevitable, but focus our attention on the process
of decline by listening attentively to the controversy that persisted
during the decades preceding 1 2 15 . After the decision had been taken,
u7e shall finally measure its influence on a succeeding generation of
romances exemplified by the Ronzan de la violette of Gerbert de
Alontreuil.
If ordeals were employed to resolve a wide range of disputes in the
historical record, a significant number nonetheless invoIved sexual
matters such as fornication, adultery, paternity, and the like.GIn Norway, for example, where kings named Olaf, Harold, and htagnus generously sowed their genes on the population, single mothers were
encouraged to claim royal paternity for their sons. An ambitious
mother, such as Inga Varteig, for example, proposed to carry the hot
iron to prove the kingly blood in her son Hakon, thereby wagering
temporary pain if she failed against enormous social gain if she won.7
Since romances characteristically featured lovers rather than thieves,
this literature narrated disputes 01a sexual nature. Our three families of
romance contain extended and vivid examples of ordeals used to decide
questions of adultery, rape, and seduction.
6. See the sampIes provided by Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water, 13, 16-20, 33, 9,
46, 80, and by Hyarns, "Trial b y Ordeal," 98.
7. Jenny M. Jochens, "The Politics of Reproduction: Medieval Norwegian Kingship," American Historical Review 92 (1987): 333-45. O n the use of the ordeal in
paternity cases in Iceland see William Ian Miller, "Ordeal in Iceland," Scandinavian
Studies 60 (1988): 18p-too.
3 30 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24 ( 1 9 9 ~ )3
T h e Tristan legend survives only in framents, of which the earliest
9
to contain the ordeal is Btroul's version In French (c. I 170?). T h e
adulterous triangle of King Marc, Queen Iseut, and Tristan produced
b y the love potion is well known and requires only the highlighting of
passages relevant to our theme. In a central episode a malignant dn-arf
attempts to entrap the lovers by spreading flour on the floor benveen
their beds during the king's absence. Tristan foils the trick by vaulting
from his bed to Iseut's, but this leap opens a wound which sprinkles
blood on the flour and stains the queen's sheets. Convinced b y this
evidence, the king orders summary execution of the guilty pair b y
fire.8 T h e lovers escape; after three years the effects of the magic potion wear off; they repent of their past and return to court, where
Tristan offers to defend the queen's honor in battle. JYhen three barons
persist in accusing the queen of adultery, Iseut offers to clear herself
by oath at the court of King Arthur. T o prepare for the jud,pent she
instructs Tristan to disguise himself as a leper and await her at a ford,
where he carries her across on his back. Before the assembled court the
queen solemnly swears that she has been close to no man except her
husband and now this leper.g T h e court accepts this justification, the
lovers return to their former habits, once again are discovered, and
Btroul's fragment breaks off.
T h e extant fragments of Thomas's French version ( I I 72-75?) omit
the ordeal, but it can be reconstructed from the hliddle High German
adaptation of Gottfried von Strassburg (1200-1 2 10) and the O l d
Norse version of Brother Robert ( I 2 2 6 ) . T h e episode of the bloody
sheets becomes the direct occasion for Iseut's oath. Tristan is instructed
t o dress as a pilgrim and to carry the queen from a ship. When he falls
o n her, Iseut is once again furnished the occasion to offer an ambiguous
oath. In Thomas's version, however, the queen confirms her solemn
oath by carrying the hot iron, which she accomplishes without harm.1°
ChrLtien de Troyes's story of Lancelot and Queen Guenikvre in t h e
Chevalier de la charette contains similarities sufficient to link it t o the
8. Bkroul, Tristan, 11.643-903.
9. Ibid., 11.3228-4231.
10. Gottfried, Tristan, trans. Hatto, 240-48; Brother Roben, Tristranzs saga, 7-74;
T h e Saga of Tristram and Isond, trans. Schach, 89-94. According to Norman custom,
women accused in criminal actions who cannot find a champion in battle may c l e w
themselves by the ordeal (jusio); "Summa de legibus," 76, in Coutumiers de Normandie, ed. Ernest Joseph Tardif (Rouen: Cagniard, 1896), 3: rgo-gr. Ernest C. York,
"Isolt's Trial in BCroul and La Folie Tristan d70xford," Medievalia et H u m n i s t i c a ,
n.s., 6 ( 1 9 7 j ) : 157-61, detects Anglo-Saxon precedents f o r Iseut's ordeal.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 3 3 I
Tristan tradition. When Lancelot consummates his adulterous love for
the queen at the end of his quest, he injures himself in dismantling the
bars over the window of her chamber. The resulting bloodstained
sheets implicate the wounded seneschal Kay, who is convalescing in
Guenii-rre's quarters. Icay is too severely injured to defend himself
against the accusations of the jealous Mtltagant in battle, but Lancelot,
11-hohas escaped unnoticed, is recruited to fight in the seneschal's place.
The queen's lover swears that Kay was not in GueniAvre's bed and
successfully defends the seneschal's innocence."
In all likelihood, the Roman de Renart originated from the same
period as the Tristan legend.12 Designating animals as principal characters, Pierre de Saint-Cloud, the first author, and his continuators in
branches 2, ga, I , and 6 (according to the edition of Ernest Martin),
all completed by I 190, ~roblematizeand parody the contemporary
judicial process. Through an interminable series of ruses Renart the
fox preys on his animal neighbors. One day he comes across an old
girlfriend, Hersent the she-wolf, who welcomes him with kisses and
more. Learning of this reception, Ysengrin, her wolf-husband, the
royal marshall, is provoked to jealous rage, and the couple sets off in
pursuit of the fox. Hersent arrives at Renard's castle first, attempts to
enter the fox's lair, and becomes firmly lodged in the doorway, head
in, nether parts out. Renart exits by another door and proceeds to
roger her at leisure. When Ysengrin arrives, the fox denies that it is
rape, asserting that Hersent has enjoyed the experience, and offers to
clear himself by oath.13A judgment is held at the court of King Noble
the Lion, where Renart is summoned to take an oath on the tooth of
Roenel the dog. The wily fox, however, will not venture to put his
hand into the gaping jaws, bolts the court, and reaches the safety of
his castle.14 At a second trial Renart is cited three times to Noble's
court and appears only on the third, when summoned by a sealed charter. H e repents of his sins, receives absolution from Grinbert the
badger, and confesses to adultery with Hersent, for which his sentence
is commuted from hanging to taking the crusading vow. When at a
safe distance from the court, he rips off his cross, renounces his vow,
Chrktien, Le Chevalier de la Charrete, H. 4533-5043.
Bkroul alludes to Renart's castle of Malpemis, and Pierre de Saint-Cloud, the
first author of the Roman, both names Tristan and is aware of the legend's salient features. BCroul, Tristaz, 1.4286; Roman de Rezart 2.5.
I 3. Ronwn de Renart, 2.
14. Ibid, ga.
I I.
12.
332
Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24 ( 1 9 ~ 3~ )
and returns home.15 In a third trial he is finally compelled to do battle
with the wolf over the charge of rape. They take their oaths and fight
until the fox is finally overcome on the field. For amends Renart agrees
to take monks' vows but abandons his vocation after sampling the
monastic diet.16
Writing in the first decade of the thirteenth century (c. I zog), Jean
Renart may well have chosen his 7zom de pluvze from the romance of
the crafty fox, to whom he pointedly alludes.17His romances demonstrate direct familiarity with the Tristan legend as well. His Ronza~zde
la rose, our concern here, is the story of the love of the German emperor Conrad for the fair Lienor, an orphaned daughter of a lowly
knight from Dole. T h e threat of ;r7.zksallianceincites the jealousy of a
wicked seneschal, who travels quickly to Dole and learns from L'ienor's
improvident mother that she has a birthmark in the shape of a rose on
her inner thigh. Armed with this compromising detail (although he
has never seen the girl), the seneschal convinces the emperor that he
has debauched the maiden, thus rendering her unfit for marriage to the
emperor.ls Not to be outmaneuvered, Lienor devises her own plan.
Journeying to the imperial court at Mainz, she sends the seneschal a
belt, purse, and jewels as a gage d'anzour from a fictitious chftelaine
de Dijon who requests the seneschal to wear them nest to his skin if
he cares to enjoy her favors. Appearing before the emperor's court,
Lienor then accuses the seneschal of raping her and stealing her jewels.
Having never seen Lienor before, the seneschal quickly denies the
charges, but his innocent plea collapses when he is required to reveal
the belt and purse under his tunic. Confronted with inculpating evidence, the seneschal's first legal recourse is to propose compurgation.
Supported by the oaths of a hundred knights, he swears that he is a
victim of magic. When that motion is rejected, he requests the cold
water ordeal.lS Taking an oath that he had never raped the girl, he
enters the ordeal basin, sinks, and is straightway cleared. But so is
Llenor. If the seneschal has not raped the girl, neither has he had her
15. Ibid., I.
16. Ibid., 6.
17, Renart, Roman de la rose, 11. 54to-z1.
18. Ibid., 11.3196-3603.
19.In all likelihood, Jean Renart selected the cold water ordeal for dramatic
purposes because it rendered an immediate verdict. See Bartlett, Trial by Fire and
Water, 23.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 3 3 3
maidenhood, because as Li'enor proudly proclaims, "je sui la pucele a
Ia rose!"20 The seneschal is condemned to serve on a crusade, and the
romance ends to the sound of wedding bells.
Despite the romantic allure of these fictional plots, the vernacular
authors exercised great care to place the ordeals in settings that accord
with contemporary chronicles and charters. Without exception the
judgments were held in the presence of the clergy or their accouterments." Every oath was sworn upon holy relics. In Biroul a11 of the
relics of Cornwall are displayed on a carpet for Iseut's solemn swearing.= Even on the field of battle, relics are produced for the oaths of
Lancelot, Mtltagant, Renart, and Y ~ e n g r i n With
.~
blasphemous parody Roenel the dog declares that his farm contains more than enough
bones to furnish suitable relics and designates his own tooth as the
In the Thomas version, bishops consecrate the glowing
sacred
iron while Iseut hears mass and distributes alms to the
At Mainz
the water ordeal takes place in the church of Saint Peter's, as it did in
cathedrals and large ciurches throughout western Christendom. The
archbishop of Cologne administers the ceremony and blesses the
waters; the clergy chant praises and ring bells after the decision.26
These touches of authenticating realism extended to the procedures
of battle as well. Picturing Lancelot and MCliagant as knights in combat on horseback, Chrttien de Troyes7s attention was limited to the
features of oaths and relics, but in the Ronran de Renart the operations
of a judicial duel are fully detailed. Renart offers the wager of battle,
which Ysengrin and Noble accept.27The king demands three pledges
Renart, R
m de la rose, 11. 4024-5101.
T w o useful studies of the practice of ordeals in medieval France are Yvonne
Bongert, Recherches sur les cours lalques du X e au XIlIe sidcle (Paris: Picard, 1949),
205-51, and Marguerite Boulet-Sautel, "Aperqus sur les syst6mes des preuves dans la
France coutumi&re," La Preuve 2, Recueil de la Socie'tk Jean Bodin pour l'histoire
comparative des institutions 17 (1965) : 278-303. On the religious context, see Bongert,
Recherches, ~ z j - t 5 ;Boulet-Sautel, "Apergus," 281.
22. BCroul, Tristan, 11.4130-36.
23. Chretien, Le Chevalier de, !a Charrete, l. 4961; Roman d e R m r t , 6.106670.
24. Roman de Renart, ga.~ooo-1013.
25. Gotdried, Trirtan, trans. Hatto, 247; Brother Robert, Tristrams saga, 73; T h e
Saga of Trirtram and Isond; trans. Schach, 93.
26. Renart, Roman de la rose, ll. 4995-5051. For ordeal basins in churches, see Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water, 51-52, 88-89, 93; and Bongert, Recherches sur les cours
laiques, 216, 225. In Normandy one basin was twelve feet deep and twenty feet in
diameter.
27. Roman de Renmt, 6.792-96.
20.
21.
334 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, t q ( I 5 1 ~ 3~ )
from either side to guarantee the appearance of the two champions,
and a date of two weeks later is set.28O n the appointed day, as occurred
frequently in practice, four barons request that the parties settle their
differences without battle, which pleases the king, but is refused b y
Ysengrin.'' After the combatants kneel before the reliquary held b y
the chaplain and swear their oaths, they fight on foot with staves.30
Twice during the combat the fox offers a peaceful settlement, b u t
unsuc~essfully.~~
Except for occasional poetic flourishes, this wager of
battle is conducted fully in accordance with French customary
practices.32
T h e central legal problem of these literary cases was that of uncertain proof, precisely the question that encouraged the practice of
ordeals. In law and practice ordeals were accepted in jud,gments where
other modes of proof were u n a ~ a i l a b l e .T~h~e factor of uncertainty
was particularly pertinent to sexual accusations of seduction, rape, and
especially adultery. In the last case the canonist Rufinus distinguished
between mild suspicion and violent presumption, the former represented by a handsome youth making improper gestures to one's wife,
the latter when one finds the two in the same bed at night, even though
they are not actually observed ~ o p u l a t i n gThis
. ~ ~ example recalled the
ancient Roman law of in fEagrante delicto. Peter the Chanter commented that in his day if a husband found an adulterer with his wife
and killed the man, he would not be punished for murder in accordance with Roman law. If the husband chose not to kill the adulterer,
however, he could cite him before the secular judge and have him
tried, although the Chanter confessed that he had never seen such a
case.35 Customary law did not explicitly pronounce on such matters
28. Ibid., 6.803-20.
29. Ibid., 6.977-82.
30. Ibid., 6.10661I 10.
31. Ibid.,6.1155, 1218-21.
32. For French practices in battle, see Bongert, Recherches sur les cours laiques,
239-5'.
33. Ibid., 219, 22 I ; Bartlett, Trial by Fire and W a t e r , 151.
34. Rufinus, S m m a decretorum, ed. H . Singer (Paderborn: Schoningh, ~ g o z ) 476.
,
See James A. Bmndage, Law, Sex, and Christian Society i n Medieval Europe (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1987), 321.
35. Pierre le Chantre, S m m a de sacramentis et animae consiliis, ed. Jean-Alben
Dugauquier, Analecta mediaevalia Namurcensia 16 (Louvain: Editions Nauwelaerts,
1963), 111 (za), 351. T h e Roman law procedure was defined in the Lex Julia de
adulteriis. Digesta 48.5.24; Codex 9.9.4. Philippe de Reaumanoir, Coutunzes de Beauvaisis,
ed. A. Salmon (Paris: Picard, 1899), 1:471-72, par. 932, recalled a case from the time
of Philip Augusrus ( 1 1 7 ~ 1 z z 3 of
) a husband who killed a man who boasted of being
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 3 3 5
in France until the end of the thirteenth century, when Philippe de
Beaumanoir (d. r 296) exposed the difficulties of proving in pagrante
delicto. The suspicious husband will make noises while entering the
house and may have to break down the door, allowing the couple time
to dress. If they are found alone in a private place, the presumption
must nonetheless be very clear before they can be killed and vengeance
must be taken immediately; otherwise, the normal procedure of accusation in court applies.36
The literary examples well illustrate the difficulty of executing the
remedy of in flapante delicto. Even the wolf Ysengrin, who sees
Renart drop his pants and mount his wife from behind (the accusation
oscillates between rape and adultery in the different versions), hesitates to assault the fox and prefers to accuse him in
In Btroul's
version, since King Marc de~ievesthat the bloodstained sheets present
clear evidence (veraie enseigne) that requires no further proof, he
immediately sentences the entrapped couple to the stake without
judgment, but Tristan persistently challenges the decision and offers
defense bv battle.38 Although the sheets continue to present strong
presumption in Thornas's version, they remain uncertain proof. A
venerable bishop advises the king: "You have not apprehended them
in such acts as would clearly enable you to prove their guilt."3g An
ordeal is therefore necessary to convict Queen Iseut, just as battle was
required for Queen Guenikvre under similar conditions. Although
hlkltagant has found clear proof (ansignes bien ueraies) in the bed,
he must prove his accusation on the field.40When Lienor accuses the
seneschal of rape and robbery, the belt and purse on his body furnish
clear evidence, making roof by battle unnecessary. The defendant's
sole recourse is to plead trickery by magic and to offer an oath suphis wife's lover. The husband surrendered to the king for judgment but was set free
\\-ithout penalty.
36. Philippe de Beaumanoir, Coutumes de Beauuaisis, 1:473, par. 934. See also R.
Howard Bloch, "Tristan, the Myth of the State and the Language of Self," Yale French
Stz~dies5 I ( 1974): 64-66.
37. Rovm de Renart, 2.1278; ga.z6&z, 422-23; 1.88-90; 6.563-73. When the accusation against Renart alternates benveen rape and adultery, the legal concept of rape is
subverted. See the interpetation of rape in the Roman de Renart by Kathryn Gravdal,
Ravishing Maidens: Writing Rape in Medieval French Literature and Law (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991), 72-103.
38. l%roul, Tristan, 11. 778-79, 799-803, 2568-74, 2623.
39. Gottfried, Tristan, vans. Hano, 242; Brother Robert, Tristrams saga, 71; T h e
Saga of Tristrmz and Isond, trans. Schach, 89.
40. Chrktien, Le Chevalier de la Charrete, 11. 4768-74.
336 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies,
24
(1994) 3
ported by an ordeal t o purge the strong suspicion.41Although presumption is strong in the above cases, it must be proven by the open
judgment of ordeal or battle. Tristan continues to contend that King
Marc has committed a gross injustice by condemning the lovers without this judgment.
In these cases, as in contemporary judicial practice, the ultimate
proof and decision were founded on the swearing of an oath.49
Throughout the Roman d e Renart, the fox is ever prepared to offer
oaths, which are routinely rejected-with one exception-because of
his deserved reputation as a perjurer.43 Because of their importance,
however, oaths were formulated with the utmost care. In BCroul,
Arthur proposes a declaration to Iseut, which she skillfully modifies
in one important
In the Thomas tradition, the wording of
Iseut's oath is debated by the nobles, who conclude that it must be
rigoro~s.~'
In the Ro7nan d e La rose, the seneschal pays no attention to
L'ienor's accusation at first. \\'hen the emperor advises him to take
counsel, he summarily refuses, but after being forced to reveal the evidence on his person, he does indeed turn t o his barons for advice on
framing an oath that precisely denies the charge of rape.46Only in the
Roman d e Renart does the fox merely affirm that he has done no wrong,
to which the wolf swears that his oath is false.47
Withour exception all principals are explicit in invoking God and
his saints in their behalf. "So help me God and Saint Hilaire," swears
Bkroul's Iseut. "This I affirm before God and the saints," is Thornas's
version. "God and the saints are my witness," proclaims Alkltagant.
41. Renart, Roman de la rose, U. 4864-67, 4908-24.
42, Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water, 30, 50; Bongen, Recherches m r les cozcrs
laiques, 205-10, 240; Boulet-Sautel, ''Aper~us," 284, 28687.
43. Roman de Renart, 5a.8642; 2.1321-24; 6.556.
++.Bkroul, Tristan, 11. 416146, 4197-4216.
45. Gottfried, Tristan, trans. Hatto, 247; Brother Roben, Tristrams saga, 73-74;
The Saga of Tristram and Isond, mans. Schach, 93.
46. Renart, Roman de la rose, 11. 4798-4813, 4904-24.
47. Ro7xan de Renart, 6.1094, I 101-2. In Chritien de Troyes's Chevalier au lion, ed.
Mario Roques (Paris: Champion, 1980), 11. 3598-3743, 4307-4569, and !835:6439,
nyo
judicial duels are presented. In the second, Gauvan and Yvain fight a judiclal duel In
King Arthur's court over a suit of disinheritance of a younger by an older sister
without any apparent swearing of an oath. When they are unable t o reach a decision
by battle, they swear ("ont . acreanti") to accept the judgment of the king, who, in
turn, tricks the older sister t o admit forcible and malicious disseizin and accordingly
awards the suit to the younger sister. Ross G. Arthur ("The Judicium Dei in the
Yvain of Chritien de Troyes," Romance Notes 28 119871: 3-12) argues that Chritien is
subtly discrediting the customary procedure.
..
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 3 37
"God help me," counters Lancelot. "By God, my upbringing [norreture],my merits, and my friendship," affirms the seneschal. "By
TO
Saint Germain and all the saints present," prevaricates the
swear an oath was to take the awesome step of calling upon God and
his saints to witness the truth of one's declaration. In Btroul's version
it was sufficient for the queen to swear in the presence of all the relics
of Cornwall in order to be cleared. (Renart tries the same strategy in
his first trial, but aborts the oath when confronted with the canine
jaws.) In all judgments except Btroul's the oaths were followed by a
unilateral or bilateral ordeal to provide God the occasion to confirm
or deny the veracity of the sworn statement that invoked his testimony. It is important to note that in the romances every oath confirmed by an ordeal was, in fact, true-true, that is, according to the
literal phrasing of the declaration as set in the story's narrative. Even
Renart's studiously casual oath was sufficient to convict him of his
crimes. In effect, then, God's immanent justice was unerringly at work
at the most literal level of the romance world.
T o contemporary audiences, however, the crux was whether the
literal truth was really true, which calls to our attention the wellstudied topos of the equivocal oath.4gAccording to Btroul, Arthur
proposed a formulation that addressed the obvious question: "She will
swear to the heavenly king with her right hand on the saints that she
never had physical love [avzor commz~ne]with her nephew." As the
audience would immediately have recognized, Iseut's counterformulation, although professing to exceed Arthur's, in fact introduced a
crucial equivocation: "Now hear what I swear of which the king is
assured . . . that no man has entered between my thighs except the
leper who made himself my ~ackhorseand King Alarc my husband.
. . . I exclude these two from my oath but no one else."50When we
first meet Iseut in BQoul's fragment, she is already adept in the art of
equivocation. As she engages Tristan in conversation to mislead Marc,
who is listening, she states: "May God be the pledge of my loyalty and
48. Bkroul, Tristan, 4210;Gottfried, Tristan, trans. Hatto, 248; Brother Robert,
Tristrawzs saga, 74; The Saga of Tristram and Isond, trans. Schach, 93; Chritien,
Le Cheealier de la Charrete, U. 4967,4982;Renart, Roman de la rose, 11.4914-15;
Roman
de Renart, 6.1192-93.
49. Helaine Newstead, "The Equivocal Oath in the Tristan Legend," Me'langer
offerts 2 Rita Lejeune (Gembloux: Duculot, 1969), z:ro77-85; Ralph J. Hexter,
Equii.oca1 Oaths and Ordeals in Medieval Literature (Cambridge: Han~ardUniversity
Press, 1975).
so. Bkroul, Tristan, 11.4161-63,4199-42 10.
338 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24 ( 1994)
j
punish my body that no one has had my love except he who had my
virginity." (Clearly either of the two men present could understand
that affirmation as applying to himself.)" "That no man in the world
had carnal knowledge of me or lay in my arms or beside me but you,
always excepting the poor pilgrim whom with your own eyes, you
saw lying in my arms," is Thomas's version.j2 Adapted to Chrttien7s
circumstances, Mtltagant's oath states "that Kay was the companion
of the queen that night in bed and had of her all his delight." "I hold
you as perjurer," objects Lancelot, the actual lover, "and I swear again
that he did not lie there or touch her."j3 Obfuscated by oaths such as
these, the judgment of God was ineffectual for convicting adulterers.
These equivocal oaths were pertinent to Peter the Chanter's tn70fold analysis of truth. Logicians and philosophers hold a proposition
to be true (verus) according to the statement (dictis), that is, by the
agreement and coherence of the predicate with the subject. Theologians, however, hold a proposition to be truthful (verax) by the
intention of the speaker (dicentis). A statement may be verus as a
statement but not verax as intention; it may, rather, be deceitful
(mendax) in intention to deceive.j4 Btroul's interpretation of the
lovers' mendacity is further undercut by multiple layers of ambiguity.
Were they guiltless because of the overwhelming effects of the potion?
Were they justified when Marc refused Tristan the right to clear himself by battle? Or was it at all blasphemous to assert that God himself
favors and protects true lovers?55Gottfried von Strassburg explicitly
51. Ibid., 22-26.
52. Gottfried, Tristan, trans. Hatto, 247-48; Brother Robert, Tristrams saga, 74;
T h e Saga of Tristram and Isond, trans. Schach, 93.
53. ChrCtien, Le Chevalier de la Charrete, 11. 4967-72.
54. "Est autem dupplex veritas. Veritas, scilicet, dicti que est in compositione
vel coherentia predicati ad subiectum, ut sic sit in r e sicut dicitur, et hec est
logicorum vel philosophorum. E t est veritas dicentis que est in proposito dicentis sive
falsunl dixerit sive verum. Sapiens enim pro utilioribus sepe mutat consilium ut apostolus, et hoc est theologi. Secundum hanc dicitur aut vera aut sacrilega, vera veracitate
que semper est virtus potius quam veritate que est predicati ad subiectum. Sepe autem
aliquis est verus et non est verax, et ideo mendax. Si utrumque esse potes, bene; si
utrumque non potes, semper esto verax." Peter the Chanter, Verbum abbreviatu7n
(long version), Ms. Vatican Reg. lat. 106, fol. 141rb. See also short version in PL
205: 31oD.
55. Stephen G. Nichols, Jr., "Ethical Criticism and Medieval Literature: Le Roman
de Tristan," Medieval Secular Literature: Four Essays, ed. William ihfatthems, UCLA
Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Contributions I (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1965), 75-77, stresses that by refusing judgment Mark has denied
due process to the couple. Jonin, Personnagex fknzinins, 339-72, investigates the religious context for Iseut's equivocal oath and, in particular, the laxist doctrines of Saint
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 339
posed the last question when he has Iseut confiding her troubles to
God while she simultaneously devises her subterfuge. Before she
swears her oath, she surrenders herself to God's mercy and "renders
up heart and hand to the grace of God for him to keep and preserve."
IYhen God honors her equivocal oath, Gottfried's cynical conclusion
is noteworthy: "Thus it was made manifest and confirmed to all the
world that dhrin in his great virtue is pliant as a windblown sleeve.
H e falls into place and clings, whichever way you try him. . . . He is
at the beck and call of every heart for honest deeds or fraud. . . . This
was amply revealed in the facile Queen. She was saved by guile and
by the doctored oath that went flying up to God."56
In an outrageous parody of justice the two lovers in the Roman de
Renart were also saved by guile. Problematizing the operations of the
court, Pierre de Saint-Cloud and his continuators focused on the offering of oaths and ordeals. In addition to Renart's repeated perjuries,
Hersent the she-wolf competes with Iseut for the consummate equivocal oath: "By all the saints which one honors, may the Lord God
help me. Renart has not done to me what he has not done to his
mother." When that oath goes unnoticed, she tries again: "By the
faith I owe to Saint hlary, never did I commit whoredom with my
body, misdeeds, or wicked affairs, which a nun has not done."57 It is
little wonder that she concludes: "If I were to take an ordeal of hot
water or hot iron, what would my clearing be worth . . when I shall
not be believed?" Her husband Ysengrin is more respectful of the
process: "If Hersent carries the iron, and she is burned and convicted,
some who were ignorant will learn about her. Those who hate me will
be happy."58 Like Iseut, Renart presumes to ask God's help in his
defense. A t the final summons, he confesses his sins to Grinbert the
badger, and receiving absolution, he offers a prayer: "0 God omnipotent king, preserve my knowledge and my sense that I do not
lose them out of fear before the king my lord, when Ysengrin accuses
me of any charge he requests. May I be able to offer a defense either
.
Hilaire, on whom Iseut expressly takes her oath. See also the discussion of JeanCharles Payen, Le Motif du repentir dans la litte'rnture frnngaise me'die'vale (des
origines 2 1230) (Geneva: Droz, r967), 331-54. Rita Lejeune, "Les Influences contemporaines dans Ies romans fransais de Tristan au XIIe siicle: A propos d'un Iivre
rCcent," Le Moyen iige, 4th ser., 15 (1960): 156-57, is less convinced that Saint Hilaire
was laxist.
56. Gottfried, T r i m , trans. Hatto, 24648.
57. Roman de R e m t t , 1.147-50, 175-78.
58. Ibid., 1.142-46,241-4q.
340 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24 (1994) 3
to deny or to answer it."59 Equivocal oaths that make a mockery of
solemn ordeals and prayers imploring God to protect sinners who
violate his laws surely suggest, as scholars have long recognized, a
crisis of faith over the ordeal in the romance world of the late nvelfth
century.
A t the same time the canon lawyers of the Latin church began t o
intensify their debate over the legitimacy of these so-called "judgments of God." 60 From the early Aliddle Ages churchmen were of n v o
minds. In general they resisted widespread use of those procedures
which they called izrdicia pwegina (foreign judgments) or purgationes
vulgares, to be distinguished from acceptable pzlrgationes canonice, o r
purgations by oath. Yet churchmen could also conceive of occasions
when such jud,ments became necessary in the absence of reliable
proof by documents and witnesses. At the mid-twelfth century, f o r
example, Gratian had included in his Decretunz the canon Statuit f r o m
the eleventh century that admitted a divine judgment in an accusation
of adultery.61 Throughout the second half of the century canonists
were engaged in lively discussion whether the exceptions nullified t h e
general ~rohibition,but by the turn of the century, Huguccio, t h e
foremost authority on canon law at Bologna, finally resolved all
ambivalence. Addressing each specific exception, he concluded that
they should be totally eradicated from both ecclesiastical and secular
Undoubtedly the most strident voice against the ordeals came f r o m
Peter the Chanter, who taught theology at Paris at the same time
Huguccio lectured on canon law at Bologna. His polemics may b e
reduced to three points.'j3 First, ordeals are fundamentally immoral.
By insisting that God intervene directly in the judicial process a t the
request of a human judge, the ordeal violates the Old and New Testament commandment "Thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God"
(Deuteronomy 6: I 6, Matthew 4: 7). Secondly, by condemning the
innocent and setting free the guilty, ordeals frequently do not svork.
T h e hot iron merely tests the calluses on the proband's hand; the cold
59. Ibid., r .r r zp-36.
60. For the canonists, see John W. Baldwin, "The Intellectual Preparation f o r the
Canon of 1215 against Ordeals," Speculum 36 (1961) : 613-26.
61. Gratian, Decretum C . 2 q. 5 c. 25 Statuit.
62. For Huguccio's texts see Baldwin, "Intellectual Preparation," 624-26.
63. Ibid., 62637. See also idem, Masters, Princes, and Illerchants: T h e Social V i m S
of Peter the Chanter and His Circle (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1 9 7 0 ) ~
I:323-32.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 341
water functions according to the proband's specific gravity. T o oppose
the hagiographic literature that recounted how God worked miracles
through saints in ordeals, Peter took malicious delight in collecting
stories about the failure of ordeals. His most noteworthy concerned
two English pilgrims to Santiago de Cornpostela. When one returned
home without the other, he was accused by the other's kinsmen of
murder and put to the water test; he failed and was hanged-much to
the sorrow of the companion, who showed up later.G4In the third
place, since ordeals depend upon the blessing of the iron and the water
by the clergy, ecclesiastics should be unconditionally excluded from
participation on the grounds that they are thereby implicated in judgments leading to the shedding of blood. Assuming a bold personal
stance, the Chanter declared: "Even if the universal church under the
penalty of anathema commanded me as a priest to bewitch the iron or
bless the water I would quicker undergo the perpetual penalty than
to perform such a thing." By removing the clergy, the Chanter hoped
to lay an ax to the root of the practice. Arguing passionately throughout his biblical commentaries, theological questions, and popular treatises, Peter carried his campaign personally to the cardinals at R ~ r n e . " ~
Among the students at Paris and at Bologna was a young Italian
careerist by the name of Lothario di SegniG6When he was raised to
the papal throne as Innocent I11 in r 198, he began to implement his
masters' program by issuing a series of decretals against ordeals. T o
the bishop of Strassburg, for example, he admonished that although
the vulgaria judicia of the cold and hot water and the duel were admitted by secular judges, they were never allowed in church courts
according to Scripture, "Thou shalI not tempt the Lord thy God." T o
the archbishop of Besanqon he specified that the hot water trial was
not t o be admitted to matrimonial cases.67,4s we know, this legislation
64. Peter the Chanter, Verbum abbreviatum, PL zog:z3oD, zjrA, 547A.
65. Peter the Chanter, Verbum abbreviatum, PL zog:543A; Baldwin, Masters,
Princes, and Merchants, z:z33, n. 238.
66. Lothario studied at Paris and Bologna while the Chanter and Huguccio were
teaching in the two cities. Whether he studied directly with the two masters is dificult to establish from direct testimony, but many of his Iater views as pope accorded
with those of the theologian and canonist. Kenneth Pennington, "The Legal Education
of Pope Innocent 111," Bzclletin of Medieval Canon Law, n.s., 4 (1974): 70-77, argues
against legal study with Huguccio for the lack of specific documentation and suggests
that Lothario's training was more likely theological. For the evidence of the Chanter's
influence, see Baldwin, Masters, Princes, a~zdMerchants, I : 342-43.
67. Augustus Potthast, Regerta pontificunz Romanorurn (Berlin: Decker, 1874), I,
no. 4358, PL z16:5ot, zr7:zrq; Potthast no. 3342, PL 21~:r372.
342 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, z q (1994) 3
culminated in canon I 8 of the Fourth Lateran Council of I 2 I 5 . Adopting the Chanter's suggestions, Innocent framed ordeals in the contest
of blood judgments and forbade the clergy to consecrate the cold or
hot water and the hot iron. In addition, as had been promulgated for
almost a century, judicial duels in which blood was shed were altogether ~ensured.~'
During the four decades preceding the Lateran Council, writers of
romance had therefore joined their voices to the canonists, theologians,
and popes in protest against the immorality and chicanery of the ordeal. Although their eventual success suggests widespread unanimity,
the reform program was not unopposed. Within each of the specific
discourses we have considered, we can hear sounds of dissent. Although
Jean Renart knew the Tristan legend and the Renart fable, he nonetheless averred that ordeals facilitated immanent justice on the very
eve of the council. The cold-water judgment effectively exposes a
double falsehood-Lienor's fabricated accusation of rape against the
seneschal and, consequently, the seneschal's calumny against L'ienor.
Despite Jean's penchant for irreligion, he nonetheless narrated a tale
of divine intervention. As readers of romance are well aware, vernacular dialogue is punctuated with innumerable oaths calling upon God
and the saints. "My God," "by Saint Paul," "God save you," "if God
pleases," "God help me" (to take examples from Jean Renart) appear
with such frequency that they become conventional interjections to
fill out rhyme and meter. In the Ronzan de la rose, however, these invocations are integrated into the narrative. As L'ienor devises her
strategy, she calls upon the Holy Spirit to counsel her.'j9She expresses
confidence that Christ, who fed his entourage with five loaves of bread
and two fishes in the Gospels, will now produce an open miracle for
her. God finds suitable lodgings for her at Mainz in the hostel of two
bourgeois women who have just returned from mass.70As she enters
the imperial court, she crosses herself and addresses her complaint to
the emperor, interspersed with banal oaths now freighted with providential meaning: "Noble and honorable emperor, for God's sake, hear
68. C. 18 in J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et a7?zplissima collectio (Flor,
ence: Zatta, ~ ~ ~ g - gz z; :) 10067.
69. Renart, Ronzan de la rose, 11. 4038-40. T h e name of the Holy Spirit is evoked
frequently throughout the romance: U. 677, 10x0, 24;F4.4365, and 5384. The date of Jean
Renart's Ronzan is disputed in modern scholarship. In opposition t o 1227, which has
been frequently maintained, I shall argue for c . 1209 in a forthcoming publication.
70. Renart, Roman de la rose, 11.405~$-57,4~68-70,4115-19.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 343
me now, and may God help me because I. am in need. One day, not
long ago, a man, your seneschal over there, came by chance to a place
where I was sewing. . . ."71 After the seneschal formulates an oath of
denial and proposes the ordeal, L~enorprays once again to God "to
perform an open miracle. All those present echo, Amen."7" Unlike
the imposture of the Ronzan de Renart and the scandalous blasphemy
of Gonfried's Iseut, Jean Renart's God does hear Llenor's plea and
restores justice.
If the canonists found it difficult to suppress their ambivalence
toward divine judgments, it was because Gratian had followed the
most forceful interdiction with a biblical example that shared the
This passage was excerpted from the
salient properties of an
book of Kumbers, where a jealous husband, who suspects his wife of
adultery but has no witness nor has caught her in fragrafzte delicto,
can oblige her to come before the altar of the tabernacle, talie an oath,
and drink bitter waters prepared by the priest with imprecations. If
the woman's stomach does not swell from the noxious concoction, she
is cleared of guilt. The procedure was designed to answer precisely
the question that troubled King Marc and the marshal1 Ysengrin. Included in the basic collection of canon law, it continued to lend scriptural authority to the medieval versions of the ordeal until they were
finally abrogated.
If Scripture pictured God intervening directIy in past human affairs,
the vast production of hagiography demonstrated that God had not
ceased to perform miracles through his saints. At the end of the twelfth
century, saints' lives remained the most powerful evidence of the ordeal's efficacy. One example circulating in this period was the legend
of Gengulfus, an eighth-century contemporary of Pepin the Short.
Having recently acquired property in Champagne that contained a
frigid spring, Gengulfus decided to use the fountain to test the fidelity
of his wife, whom rumor had accused of loving a cleric. The spouse
\+-asrequired to recover a pebble from the bottom of the spring. When
she extracted her arm, her flesh was scalded as if it had passed through
71. Ibid., U. 4602-3, 4775-82. I t is of interest to note that when Iseut and Tristan
contrive to deceive Marc, who, they know, is eavesdropping, their conversation is
punctuated with an unusual proportion of ecocations of God and the saints; Besoul,
Tristmz, 11.5-240.
72. Renart, Roman de la rose, U. 4988-91.
73. Numbers ~ : I I - - 3 1 . Gratian, Decrenmz C. 2 q. 5 c. 2 0 Consulzcisti; c. 21 In libro.
O n the proof by bitcer waters, see Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water, 84.
344 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24
(I
994) 3
fire. In France this saint's life was recopied into the thirteenth century,
and at the turn of the century an abbreviated version was inserted into
the chronicle of Hklinand de Froidmont, a Cistercian with connections
to the Capetian court.74Apparently the story sufficientlyimpressed at
least one of the Chanter's students or scribes to induce him to attach
an extended version t o the margin of the theologian's Verbz~nzabbreuiatunz. Other scribes appended a synopsis to dozens of manuscript~.~'
Peter the Chanter's V~bzlnzabbreviatzrm, which had heaped
ridicule on ordeals that did not work, now circulated widely with
subversive maroinalia containing Saint Gengulfus's hot-water ordeal.
b.
As a theolog~an,the Chanter could not deny that God retained
power to work miracles through his saints in modern times as he had
in biblical history, but Peter nonetheless repeated the canonistic aphorism that the privileges of the few do not make common law and their
consequences should not be extended to others.7GSeeking to understand the mysteries of divine operations in this world, he made distinctions between good miracles produced by saints in recent times,
wicked miracles produced by Pharaoh's magicians in biblical times,
the Eucharist, which is a perpetual miracle, and ordeals, which are
forbidden. H e would not deny that God could work in these cases,
but it was solely because of divine will, not the power of incantation
or the priest's office. In Scripture true miracles consist of three elements: the meritorious life of the minister, the utility of the operation,
and the transformation of the subject's nature. Through personal merit
and good purpose modern saints can perform miracles, but most people
are prevented b y s i n f ~ l n e s s . ~ ~
74. Vita Garzgulfi martyris Varennensis, ed. W . Levison, MGH, Scriptores rerum
Merovingicitrzrrn, vol. 7 (Hannover: Hahn, ~ g z o ) ,142-70; for the manuscripts, see
147-50. HClinand de Froidmont, Chronica, PL z1z:8jo-31. O n Hklinand's relations with
the Capetian court, see John W. Baldwin, T h e Government of Philip A u p t u s (Berkeley: Unirersity of California Press, 19861, 570-71.
75. The long marginal version is found in Paris, Bibliothkque Nationale, Ms. lat.
16383, fol. ,-3rb-va and in a manuscript from Saint-Vaast, Arras, now lost, edited b y
Georges Galopin in PL ZO,-:~~IA-D.
The short version is edited in PL zo,-:471D-~~2.4
from a manuscript from the abbey of Cambron (Belgium) now in the Huntingdon
Library, Ms. H M 41537, fol. 6zra. I have found it in at least thirteen other manuscripts
of the Verbum abbreviatum.
76. Peter the Chanter, Verbunz abbreviatm, PL 205:zzjD. See Gratian, Decretzm
C. 26 q. z c. 4 Non exemplo.
77. Peter the Chanter, Verbum abbreviat~m, P L zo~:zzjC, 543D-544B; idem,
"Summa," Paris, Bibliothkque nationale, Ms.lat. 3477, fol. 64Vb.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 345
A t the outset of his pontificate Pope Innocent I11 was liltewise confronted by the examples of two formidable saints. When the pope
came to the throne in I 198, an inquest into the canonization of Cunep n d a of Luxemburg was already under way. Cunegunda was the
wife of the last Ottonian emperor, Henry 11, who died in 1024.'~Since
the imperial couple produced no children, they were credited during
their lifetime with living a continent marriage according to the pattern
of Joseph and Mary. Their lavish donations to churches enhanced
their reputation for sanctity, especially at the cathedral of Bamberg,
xhich Henry founded and which Cunegunda endowed from her
dowry. Before Henry's canonization by Pope Eugenius I11 in r 147,
the legend of their virginal marriage was already reported by contemporary historians and included in a saint's life devoted to the ernper~r.~'
,Added t o the vita was a new story in which the devil, unable to corrupt the couple's chastity, initiated rumors that cast suspicion on the
empress's virtue. T o put a halt to the calumny, Cunegunda chose to
clear herself by the ordeal of glowing hot plowsbares. Calling upon
the Lord God as judge and witness, she declared before the emperor
and his court that neither Henry nor any other man had had carnal
knowledge of her. Then to the terror and astonishmenr of all she rrod
barefoot over the plowshares unharmed. Cunegunda's own canonization waited another half century, but investigations were initiated in
the I 190s under pressure from the Bamberg clergy. Of two versions
drafted of her hagiography, one referred to her ordeal briefly, but the
78. From an abundant bibliography, the principal studies on Saints Henry and
Cunegunda are: Robert Folz, Les Saints Rois du rizoyen 2ge elz occident (Yle-Xllle
sii'cles), Subsidia hagiographica 68 (Brussels: Socikt6 des Bollandistes, 1984), 84-91;
idem, Les Sai7ltes Rehes du m o y m &ge en occident (Vle-XIlle sidcles), Subsidia
hagiographica 76 (Brussels: Sociktk des Bollandjstes, rggz), 82-93; Renata Klauser, Der
Heinrichs- und Kunigundenkult irn mittelalterlichen Bistum Bamberg (Bamberg:
Hiscorischer Verein Bamberg, 1957); and Klaus Guth, Die heiligen Heinrich und
Kzl~zigunde:L e b a , Legende, Kult, und Kunst (Bamberg: St. Orto-Verlag, 1986).
O n the development of the saints' lives see Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, Subsjdia hagiographica 6 (Brussels: Sociht6 des Bollandistes, 189899), I :302-3, 568-69;
Klauser, Der Heinrichs- und Kunigundenkult, 70-100, 108-13; Guth, Die heiligen
Heinrich und Kunigunde, 68-79.
79. AdaJberti Vita Henrici I1 kperatoris, ed. G. Waitz, MGH, Scriptores (Hannover: Hahn, 1841), 4:805, 810. A second version, made around 1170, added passages
relating t o Henry's foundation of the church of Bamberg. One manuscript of the second version was copied by a deacon of Bamberg named Adalberc ( I 170-84), but it is
unlikely that he is the author of this version, although his name has been attached to
the vita. See Klauser, Der Heinrichs- und Kwigundenkult, 83-84.
346 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24 (199%) 3
other incorporated verbatim the account previously drafted in Henrv's
v i t ~ . In
~ ' the solemn bull of canonization on 3 April I zoo, Innocent 111
declared that full and careful investiuation had confirmed the nvo
='.
qualities necessary for sainthood: the vlrtue of morals, or merits, and
the virtue of signs, or nziracula. Among the former, Innocent listed
both the endowments to Bamberg and the virginal marriage, Among
the latter, he included not only the miracles occurring at her tomb, but
also that during her lifetime, as recorded in Henry's and her vitae, she
had proved her innocence of diabolically inspired suspicions with her
bare feet on glowing plo~vshares.~~
Once Cunegunda was officially inscribed into the Roman calendar
of saints, the account of her ordeal took on renewed life. Shortly after
canonization, an addition was composed for the life of Saint H e m y
that transformed the whole story into a romance. Unable to disturb
the love and continence of the imperial couple, the devil assumes the
likeness of a knight who exits the empress's chamber after Cunegunda
has arisen at dawn. When this happens for three days in full view of
the domestics, malicious rumors reach the emperor's ears. Cunegunda
notices a change in her husband's affection and requests him to summon his princes and bishops so that they can hear the charges against
her b y judicial procedure. T o the emperor's accusation that she had
seduced another man in contempt of legitimate marriage, the empress
replies: "Since the most prestigious of all women has been accused of
the most infamous crime, it is necessary that she be tried by the hardest
of judgments." Twelve glowing plowshares are brought to the basilica. T h e empress approaches them, guided by two bishops on either
side, like a sheep led to the slaughter. Unable to endure the horrible
sight any longer, Henry affirms his belief in her innocence and beseeches her to cease, but Cunegunda raises her eyes to heaven and calls
upon God to witness her oath. Although the emperor suffers as if he
had lost his firstborn son, she walks across the smoking irons as if they
were flowers. Having trodden upon eleven, she pauses on the last to
praise the supreme king through whom she has vanquished the deviLgz
80. Vira sanctae Cunegundis, ed. G. Waitz, AIGH, Scriptores, 4:8z1. "De S.
Cunigunde imperatorice. Vita." Acta Sanctorum, Martii I (Paris: Victor Palmk, 1865),
271-72.
81. PL 14o:z1g-22; Potthast no. 1000. TWOcopies were produced by the papal
chancery. For a full discussion and a critical edition see Jiirgen Petetsohn, "Die Litterae Papst Innocenz 111. zur Heiligsprechung der Kaiserin Kunigunde zoo)," Jahrbuch fur frankische Landesforschung 27 (1977) : 1-25.
82. Vitae sancti Henrici addimentm, ed. G. Waitz, MGH,Scriptores, 4:s 19-20.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 347
In unmistakable contrast to the Tristan legend, Queen Cunegunda had
finally become an anti-Queen I s e ~ t . 'The
~ event was explicitly memorialized in contemporary sermons and in liturgies sung at Bamberg on
the feast days of the two saints.e4Its high drama was depicted in manuscript illumination to the queen's life drawn for the church of Bamberg
at the beginning of the century, and it became a popular iconographic
motif throughout the empire by the late Middle Ages.e5
TVhen Innocent I11 pronounced the empress's canonization in I zoo,
he had two reasons for hesitation. Barnberg was an imperial church
tradirionally loyal to the Staufen dynasty, whose claims to the empire
the popes contested. In I 2 0 1 Philip, duke of Smabia, the Staufen candidate for the imperial throne, whom Innocent had personally excommunicated, called his supporters to a Reichstag at Bamberg. On 8
September, the third anniversary of his own coronation, he had Cunegunda's body translated to a new burial site near the altar of the choir,
thus associating the saint with his political fortunes." Equally irnportant, Innocent's bull of canonization, although Iinlited to information
supplied by Bamberg, had nonetheless attested an ordeal among Cunep n d a ' s miracles. As Huguccio's and the Chanter's student, the pope
had already demonstrated his determined opposition to the procedure.
This dilemma confirmed Innocent's resolve to accelerate the policy of
bringing canonization proceedings more closely under papal control.
Supervising the recognition of saints had been a papal goal since the
eleventh century. In the canonization of Emperor Henry in I 147, for
example, the pope and cardinals had played a leading role. Pope Alexander F11 had formulated the doctrine of "pontifical reserve" in I I 7 I 1 7 2
83. Cunegunda's legend may well have inspired a similar account (c. 1200) attached
to the personage of Queen Emma, the mother of Edward the Confessor, by the
"Annales de Wintonia," in Annales momstici, ed. Henry R. Luard, Rolls Series, no.
36, j vols. (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green, 1865), 2:zo-25.
8+. For closely contemporaneous sermons: De s m i n e scripturarunz (1201-4, attributed later to Joachirn of Fiore), ed. Franz Pelster, "Ein Elogiunl Joachims von Fiore
auf Kaiser Heinrich 11. und seine Gemahlin, die heilige Kunigunde," in Bernhard
Bischoff and Suso Brechter, eds., Liber floridus: nlittellateinische Studien: Pnzsl Lehnzalzn (St. Ottilien: Eos Verlag der Erzabtei, 1g5o), 351; Sermo de sancta Chunigunda
(1200-rzo4), ed. in Klauser, D m Heinrichs- 2nd Kundigrmdm~kult,195-96, and Sermo
./rzctgistri Conradi (before 1208), ed. in ibid., 189. For the liturgy see ibid., 143-48, and
Roberr Folz, "La Lkgende liturgique de Saint Henri 11, empereur et confesseur," in
Rita Lejeune and Joseph Deckers, eds., Clio et son regard: Me'langes . . . Jacques
S:i,wnon (Li6ge: Mardaga, 198z), 253-54.
85. See the title page of the Vita S. Cunegundis, Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, Ms.
RB.MSC. 1 2 0 , fol. 3zV, reproduced in Guth, Die beiligen Heinrich und Kunigunde, 70.
86. Klauser, Der Heinrichs- ~7Zd
Kunigundenkult, 6 7 6 8 ; Guth, Die heiligen Heinrich
und Kunigunde, 74.
348 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24 (1994) 3
and prohibited public veneration without explicit papal authorization.
In Innocent's first canonization (the year before Cunegunda's), he
emphasized the two requisite conditions for sanctity, merit and miracles. One element is never valid without the other. In Cunegunda's
bull he asserted that the final j u d ~ e n over
t
sainthood belongs to the
successor of Saint Peter and the vlcar of Christ. Innocent was particularly concerned with the authentication of miracles. Like ~ k t e rthe
Chanter, he recognized that just as Pharaoh's magicians produced
prodigies in the Old Testament, so Antichrist can simulate miracles
in the present. For that reason the papacy must be careful to conduct
rigorous examinations to ensure that holy merits precede and that the
miracles that follow are fully attested. T o the same end the Lateran
Council of 1 2 15 decreed thit all new saints' relics must be approved
by the Roman pontiff before they can be publicly ~enerated.'~
Attempting to regulate sainthood through the supervision of miracles, the Lateran Council also attempted to discourage extraneous miracles by unequivocally removing the clergy's presence from the unilateral ordeals and renewing the sanctions against bilateral duels. T h e
effect of the legislation was mixed. Deprived of clerical blessing, the
iron and water of the unilateral ordeal underwent a marked decline. It
was explicitly repudiated in English and Danish law and quickly disappeared from practice elsewhere.esTrial by battle, however, which
could operate independently of clerical presence, flourished in the
thirteenth century as it had in the past, notwithstanding ecclesiastical
sanctions. In France it encountered no serious opposition from laymen
until the anti-duelling ordinances of King Louis IX in I 254 and I 258.89
The effect of the Fourth Lateran Council on the world of romance
may be measured in the Roman de La violette, composed by Gerbert de
Montreuil at least a decade later ( I ~ ~ ~ - 2Consciously
9).
aligning him-
..
87. C. 6 2 , in Mansi, S a c r o m conciliorum
. collectio, 2 2 : 104p50. For a sketch of
the development of papal supervision of canonization until Innocent I11 see AndrC
Vauchez, La Saintete' m occident aux derniers siicles d u moyen ige (Rome: Ecole
fran~aisede Rome, 1981), 2647.
88. Foederiz, conventiones, litterme, ed. Thomas Rymer (London: Churchill, 1816),
I : 154; Diplonzatarium Danicum, zzzr-1223, ed. Niels Skyum-Nielsen (Copenhagen:
Munksgaard, 1958), I Raekke. V Bind, 141. In Norman customary law unilateral ordeals were frequently mentioned before 1200 in the Tr2s ancien coutumier 38, 51, and
71, Coutumiers de N o m a n d i e 1:33, 42, and 67. In the later S m m a de legibus 76,
Coutwniers de N o m a n d i e 3: 1-1
they were declared to be abrogated by the church.
Bartlett, Trial b y Fire and Water, I 27-28.
89. Boulet-Sautel, "Aper~us," 2.78-98, 315-16. Bongert, Recherches sur les cours
layques, 234-37, traces Capenan resistance to battle back to Louis V11 in 1174.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 349
self to the tradition of Jean Renart, Gerbert both imitated the styIe
and duplicated the contents of his predecessor, but he was aware of
the Tristan legend
as well. Like the Roman de la rose, the Ro7an de la
violette contains ordeals-in this case, two-but, written after the council, it has substituted bilateral duels for the unilateral ordeal. Echoing
the Tristan legend, the first example raises an accusation of in pagrante
delicto, not over adultery, but over murder. Aleli'atir, one of the villains of the romance, stabs Ysmaine, sister of the duke of Riietz, while
she is asleep; he places the dagger in the hand of Euri'aut, the heroine
of the romance, who is also asleep in Ysmaine's bed.90When the deed
is discovered, like King Marc Meli'atir argues for burning at the stake
as the appropriate punishment in a case of in flagrante delicto. Since
she has been found with the fact, she has been proven guilty. H e
further objects that since she does not offer the ordeal (juzse) to clear
herself, he is prepared to demonstrate that she is worthy of death by
fire if no one defends her.g1 While the stake is prepared, the hero
Gerart, Euri'aut's lover, arrives on the scene and in romance fashion
offers to do battle for her sake. The duke of Metz, after consulting
with his uncle, the count of Bar-le-Duc, declares that he will not proceed without a judgment according to the law. Twelve peers are summoned to give counsel; they in turn delegate the procedural decision
to two barons. The lord of Nancy, a kinsman of Rlleliatir, argues the
case for immediate execution, since sight and fact make battle unnecessary. On the other hand, the lord of Apremont exposes the improbability of the evidence. Either Euri'aut did the deed in her sleep, or she
would have fled if she were awake. According to law a formal accusation of murder should be put to her. If she denies it, hlel'iatir must
prove the charge in battle, skce she now has a defender. On the advice
of the peers the duke accepts the latter procedure. When interrogated,
however, Euri'aut proposes to clear herself by the ordeal (juzsse), but
Gerart rejects this alternative as long as he is ready to defend herng2
In
the end Gerart defeats Alleli'atir on horse and on foot and forces him to
confess his guilt, whereupon the duke has the villain dragged off by
horses to a gibbet, where he is hanged.
Throughout the abundance of romance clichCs Gerbert de Montreuil closely followed his predecessors in the scrupulous reporting of
go. Gerbert de Montreuil, Le Roman de la violette, 11. 4008-32.
91. Ibid., 11.4081-86,4102-10.
92. Ibid., 11.5361-5484.
350 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24 (1994) 3
twelfth-century judicial procedures, but after the Lateran Council he
has introduced significant changes. T h e unilateral ordeal proposed by
Mellatir and Euriaut is expressly rejected for the bilateral duel. Equally
significant, the clergy, their relics, and oaths are co~~spicuously
absent
from the scene. T h e decision that clears the unjust charges against the
heroine nonetheless expresses the operation of immanent justice explicitly guaranteed by God. JVhile the flames of the stake are being
fueled, Euri'aut offers a long recitation (over I jo lines) of the creed in
the form of a prayer to Christ, followed by her confession of innocence and the Lord's Prayer. At the end of his legal brief, the lord of
Apremont further affirms that God will acquit her if she is innocent,
and Euriaut once again calls upon Jesus as the battle begins.93Although
confidence in divine justice remains unshaken in the romance world,
the Lateran Council has imposed important adjustments. The unilateral
ordeals have been replaced by bilateral duels, which now operate without benefit of clergy.
This one example taken by itself, however, does not reveal the full
conlplexity of the judicial scene portrayed by Gerbert de Montreuil.
In the Roman de la violette a second injustice remains to be righted.
Another villain, Lisiart, count of Forez, has been able to calumniate
the virtue of Euri'aut (as in Jean Renart's Ronza~z)after spying upon
her in her bath. Armed with compromising information (the violet on
her breast), he wins a wager with Gerart, thereby winning possession
of the county of Nevers, Gerart's inheritance. A tournament called b y
the count of Ailontfort at Montargis matches the two opponents o n
the field but without decisive results. T h e next morning Gerart appears before the court of King Louis and reports conversations he had
heard at Nevers that revealed Lisiart's falsehoods and his unjust claims.
In the presence of Lisiart Gerart accuses him of treasonous betrayal
and injury. If the accused denies the charge, the hero is prepared t o
prove it in battle, body to body. Lisiart's first response is to ridicule
his accuser, saying that Gerart, having lost his anzie, is now willing t o
try anything, even t o risk his body, but he should rather conceal his
shame. Goaded b y diabolic anger, however, Lisiart proceeds further
and implores the king to burn or hang him if he does not avenge the
insolent a c c u s a t i ~ n .Gerart
~~
accepts the challenge, and both offer
wagers. As in the previous duel, Gerbert de Monu-euil was careful t o
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 3 5 I
outline the details of the judicial procedure. After the king receives
the wagers, he demands pledges from both sides to guarantee the
appearance of the nvo parties on the appointed day of hlonday after
Pentecost. The men of the court attempt to reconcile the two opponents before blows are exchanged. If an inquest can accommodate
their differences, a peaceful settlement is preferred to battle." Unlike
the previous duel, however, the clergy and their accouterments reappear during the proceedings. All attend mass before the tournament
and the session at the king's court. T h e testimony of Scripture is recited to confirm the claims of clerics and monks that treason is the
worst of sins. After reconciliation is refused, however, the king immediately orders the relics to be brought out and the oath is sworn. "You
will not go further," proclain~sLisiart; "By Saint Clement," replies
Gerart, "he who doesn't tell the truth, lies."% Successful in defeating
Lisiart in a titanic battle, despite one final and desperate recourse to
treachery, Gerart forces him to confess his treason. T h e king's punishment is the same as the duke's. T h e convicted is dragged behind horses
and hanged from a tree.
iVhen this second duel is juxtaposed against the first, the influence
of the Lateran Council on the romance world appears more equivocal.
A dispute over the possession of land required the return of the clergy,
or at least, of their instruments of mass and relics. I t is less cerrain,
however, whether the clergy are actually present at the site of the
ordeal; the Lateran Council evidently did not succeed in excluding
clerical mediation in all cases. Nor did it diminish the demand for bilateral ordeals, because battle remained an appropriate mode of proof
for trying cases of murder and disseizin in the minds of writers such
as Gerbert de itlontreuil. T h e immediate success of the council was to
have abolished the unilateral ordeals and to have initiated but not completed the removal of the clergy from battle. Faith in the operations of
divine justice, however, remailled as firm as it had been for centuries.
Often skeptical of the efficacy of medieval legislation, modern historians have searched for deeper and more pervasive explanations of
the Lateran Council's success. They haye pointed to the concomitant
development of rational legal procedures, such as written documents,
witnesses, and the
They have detected fundamental societal
gj. Ibid., 11.6173-90,6307-17.
96. Ibid., U. 5868-72, 6108-29, 6320-33, 6;+8-53, 6368-71.
97. For example, Baldwin, "Intellectual Preparadon,"614; Boulet-Sautel, "Aperqu~"
35 2 Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 24 ( 1994) 3
transformations, such as the shift from small communities formed by
consensus to larger polities ruled by a ~ t h o r i t y . They
~'
have postulated
a progression in cognitive mental structures, such as a child might undergo in attaining intellectual maturity.99T h e texts we have assembled
here from literature, law, theology, and saints' lives cannot fully address these deep-seated explanations, but they do help us to hear more
distinctly the debate that was waged across society on the eve of the
Council. First to be noted, it was not a debate between clerics who
were against and laymen in favor. The party in opposition included
not only the theologian Peter the Chanter, the canonist Huguccio,
and Pope Innocent 111, but also the vernacular writers of the Tristan
tradition and the Renart branches. Since modern historians have been
sympathetic to this cause, they have privileged these arguments. In
the years immediately preceding the Council, however-in fact, after
the Chanter's death and the composition of the Tristan and the Renart
romances-distinct voices can still be heard arguing for ordeals as instruments of divine justice. Not only was Saint Gengulfus's water
ordeal explicitly recalled in the Chanter's circle, but Saint Cunegunda's
hot iron trial was officially recognized by Innocent 111, and Jean Renart
publicized the efficacy of the water trial for aristocratic audiences.
Gerbert de Montreuil continued to believe in the justice of bilateral
duels after the Lateran Council. I have reserved this perspective for the
end to underscore the vigor of the controversy at the eleventh hour.
In the second place, the vociferous debate does not suggest a gradual
decline in belief in ordeals over the last century and half during which
clerical intellectuals finally caught up with men of action and merely
administered a coup de grdce to a moribund instituti~n.'~~
Credence
in God's continued working through saints' miracles and the ordeal
was still strong among both clerics and laymen on the eve of the Lat277-79, 292-93, 308; Raoul van Caenegem, The Birth of English Conmzon Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1 ~ 7 3 63;
) ~ idem, "La Preuve dans le droit du
moyen Pge occidental," La Preuve, pt. z, Recueils de la Sociktb Jean Bodin pour
l'histoire comparative des institutions (Brussels: Editions de la Librairie EncyclopCdique, 19651, 691-753.
98. Hyams, "Trial by Ordeal," 95-96, working from suggestions by anthropologists,
and Peter Brown, "Society and the Supernamsal: A Medieval Change," Daedalus 104
(1975): '35-5'
99. Charles M. Radding, "Superstition to Science: Nature, Fortune, and the Passing
of the Medieval Ordeal," American Historical Review 84 (1979): 945-69; idem, A
World Made by Men: Cognition and Society, 400--ZZOO
(Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1985), 5-16.
loo. Here I take exception to Hyams, "Trial b y Ordeal," 101-3.
Baldwin
Crisis of the ordeal 35 3
eran Council. The Chanter and Innocent, who opposed the ordeal,
had no doubt that God could work wonders, but merely believed that
these judicial proofs were inappropriate channels for divine intervention. Others, such as Jean Renart and the hagiographers, found these
customary procedures less objectionable. Situated in this contest, the
conciliar legislarion suggests, finally, an abrupt and decisive measure.
T h e water and iron did not fade away; they were suddenIy abandoned.I0' Like most historical transformations, however, the victory
was only partial. Battle persisted in western Europe for another century, but a significant step had nonetheless been taken to transform
the judicial process.
101.
Here I agree with Bardett, Trial by FiTe and Water, 70,
100.