Nahshon ben Zadok

One of the men who studied the world and the Torah to make sure the Jewish calendar was accurate was Nahshon ben Zadok. He flourished in the Gaonim Era, from 589 CE to 1038 CE (Hebrew years 4349 - 4798). The Gaonim ("pride" or "splendor" but more recently translated "genius") were the heads of the great Talmudic schools Sura and Pumbedita. We do not have many dates for Nahshon, but from 874 - 882 CE he was head of the Sura Academy in southern Iraq, what Jewish texts call Babylonia. 

Nahshon was a scholar, producing a dictionary of sorts with explanations of difficult words found in the Talmud. He did not, however, list them in alphabetical order as some others did. Instead, he wrote them down in the order in which they appear, making them more like footnotes.

Looking at the calendar, he realized that there was a cycle of 247 years, after which the order of weekdays on which any particular festival would fall repeats. He created 14 tables that show this cycle.

There are some writings that are ascribed to him, although we do not know for certain about some of them. One on ritual slaughtering, the Re'umah, is usually said to be his, but authorship cannot be proven. The writings that are believed to be his are often in Aramaic, but some are in Hebrew. His writings do not always agree with prior or subsequent scholars, but he was respected enough in his time to be made head of Sura.

The illustration is a carving of one of the Gaonim teaching at the Sura Academy. Sura and Pumbedita Academies were two chief sources of Talmudic scholarship for centuries, and we will talk about them more tomorrow.

The Hebrew Calendar

One of the oldest calendars in continuous use is the Hebrew Calendar. It was not just a way of counting days to get through a solar cycle, however. It was also a constant reminder of the relationship between God and his creations, since rituals and celebrations were not to be ignored or performed arbitrarily.

Jewish scholars attempted to determine the year based on the creation of the world after counting the genealogies in the Torah. By the 4th century CE it was decided that the world began in what the Christian world would call 3761/0 BC.

Because of Genesis 1:5 ("There was evening and there was morning, one day"), it was clear that the day begins with evening, and so sunset is the start of a new day, and the day ends at the following sunset. Festival days begin at sunset the night before the daytime. (The International Date Line observed by much of the world creates some debate for the Jewish calendar.)

Because the Jewish calendar follows lunar cycles, each month begins with the new moon—easy to observe. This does not account for the extra days it takes for the Earth to go around the Sun, however, so between the years 70 and 1178 CE, a series of mathematical formulae were devised to try to keep up.

The "New Year" has more than one meaning in the Jewish calendar. The 1st day of the month of Tishrei is Rosh Hashanah and the start of the civil year. The 1st of Nisan, however is the start of the ecclesiastical year, the date from which festivals are counted. This puts Passover (14 Nisan) in the "first month" and Rosh Hashanah in the 7th, despite the previous statement.

Leap months have to be added every 19 years. Sometimes the year's length has to be altered by adding or removing a day from a month. When this is done, the danger is that Rosh Hashanah's day has shifted. There are important rules for making sure Rosh Hashanah is honored properly.

The man who studied the calendar carefully and helped determine many of its features that help decide when events take place was Nahshon ben Zadok, head of the Academy of Sura in the 9th century. We'll talk about him next time.

If you want a more detailed version of the Gregorian/Jewish image above, see this one.

Other Histories

We've been looking at the origins of the terms Anno Domini and Before Christ to mark the passing of years. Those were Christian-centric choices that did not mean a thing to the other cultures that existed adjacent to Christianity.

The Coptic Calendar (we had recently talked about Coptic Christianity) used a different system. Based on the ancient Egyptian calendar, its start date was 29 August 284 CE. The Ethiopian and Eritrean churches used it, but started its epoch on 29 August, 8 CE. It is currently year 1742. The point of the year 284 was that it was the start of the "Era of Martyrs" that started because Emperor Diocletian started the worst era of persecution of Christians. Dionysius Exiguus specifically created Anno Domini in order to separate the calendar from memories of such a terrible enemy to Christianity.

With the rise of Islam, there was another date used for the "start" of reckoning: 622 CE became AH 1 (Anno Hegirae, "In the year of the Hijrah") when Muhammad and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina and established a community. It is currently year 1447.

Although today is 10 October 2025 in the Gregorian calendar, had we retained the Julian calendar with its flaws regarding Leap Years, the date would be 27 September 2025.

The Hebrew calendar was based on the number of days since the creation of the world, calculated by looking at the genealogy presented in the Torah/Old Testament. This date was (in modern reckoning) 3761 BCE. It is currently year 5786.

The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar and one of the oldest continuously used. Let's look at it a little more tomorrow.

Making History

After Dionysius Exiguus used the phrase anno Domini to describe the year (525) in which he was writing a table of dates for Easter, the convention took awhile to catch on.

There were many ways to identify the present year. Rome could use the years "since the founding of the city" (AUC, standing for ab urbe condita), or by whomever was proconsul that year. Lots of local kingdoms counted years by the reign of the king, so that each new king dated records and event starting with year "1"; even more confusing since a king could start his reign on any date of the year.

The Anglo-Saxon historian known as the Venerable Bede knew the work of Dionysius and used AD for dating in his history that went up to the year 731 (Bede died a few years later).

For years prior to AD, he use the elaborate phrase ante incarnationis dominicae tempus ("before the time of the Lord's incarnation") followed by a number. The Latin phrases used by scholars to refer to dates prior to Christ eventually came to be known in the English-speaking world simply as "BC": Before Christ.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, they did not explain if by incarnation they meant conception or birth. In the 9th century, theologians chose conception as the starting point of the era, the date of the Annunciation, 25 March, celebrated sometimes as Lady Day.

Alcuin started using Anno Domini during the Carolingian Renascence, which helped spread the convention throughout much of Western Europe and beyond. Popes, who also used regnal years the way kings would, started using the neutral AD starting in the 11th century. When Portugal switched officially to AD for dating documents as of 1422, all Christian countries were now on board.

Note that there in no Year Zero. The first year of the present era is AD1; the year preceding is 1BC. Yes, AD is traditionally printed before the number because you are saying "The year of Our Lord 2025." Otherwise you are saying it is "Year 1 Before Christ."

Because there are other cultures with their own calendars, a modern convention has arisen of using CE and BCE (Common Era, Before Common Era) in western culture to remove the religious facet. These other calendars, still adhered to, will be a topic for tomorrow.

Anno Domini

When Pope John I in 525 asked Dionysius Exiguus to write a chronology to tabulate future dates of Easter, Dionysius looked at how years were numbered and wanted something he considered more appropriate. Of course there was the Roman Empire numbering of AUC, which stood for abs urbe condita, "from the founding of the city." Dionysius wanted something a little more appropriate for a Christian world.

At the time, years in Rome were designated by the terms of the Roman consuls. Other methods of keeping track of years included Olympiads or the regnal years of Caesars. In various countries, years were called by the regnal years of the king. When a new king was crowned, his records began with Year 1 of his reign. 

Christians were using the "Diocletian era," which was calculated since the last big persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian. Dionysius did not want to use a calendar based on someone who was hostile to Christians. There had been a previously calculated set of dates by Victorius of Aquitaine c.457 that Dionysius ignored as being "off" and developed his own system, laying down dates for the years 532-626.

Dionysius wrote that the "present year" was the "consulship of Probus Junior," which he also claimed was 525 years since the birth of Christ. (We assume he looked at various historical records and counted them up to determine that year.) 

His solution to keep track of years was the phrase anno Domini, "year of [our] Lord." This divided time into two sections: everything that happened prior to the Incarnation, and then everything that happened starting at the Incarnation.

Problems arose, of course. One question was what defined the "Incarnation": was it birth, or conception? The Diocletian Year began on 1 September, but consulships began on 1 January, so were we adding up years correctly? Lists of consuls were not always complete, nor were the dates of emperors.

We are not sure how Dionysius determined the year of the Incarnation. It may have been based on the Gospel of Luke, where he says Jesus was about 30 shortly after the 15th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar.

The use of AD was not adopted universally. Tomorrow we'll look at other conventions and the slow rise of AD's popularity. We should also mention "Phantom Time."

Dionysius Exiguus

We learned a lot about St. Pachomius and his development of the Eastern Coptic Christian monasteries from a biography written over a hundred years after his death by an Eastern Roman monk named Dionysius Exiguus, which means "Dionysius the Humble."

Born c.470 in Scythia Minor—a Roman province north of Constantinople, between the Danube and the Black Sea—he was a "true Roman" by inclination (according to Cassiodorus).  He was a mathematician and astronomer, a theologian, and was well-versed in canon law. He was fluent in both Greek and Latin. This skill allowed him to translate hundreds of important Greek works into Latin, including the "Life of St. Pachomius." He also translated a history of the discovery of the head of John the Baptist. Some translations attributed to him seem to be the earlier work of Marius Mercator (mentioned previously in a post about forgeries).

He came to Rome when Pope Gelasius I summoned him to organize the papal archives. (Gelasius died 496CE, so Dionysius must have been in Rome by that year.) He translated into Latin 401 ecclesiastical canons, including the apostolic canons and the decrees of the councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Chalcedon, and Sardis, all of which were recorded in Greek, having taken place in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Pope John I in 525 asked him to create a chronology, which he did, using the Julian calendar and tabulating the dates of Easter, that "floating Holy Day" that caused much consternation in the early Church. In the process, Dionysius created a—let's call it a "convention"—that has lasted until today: the use of Anno Domini to describe years since the birth of Christ.

Tomorrow we take a deep dive into those two simple words, what came before, and how they were determined.

Theodorus of Tabannese

After the death of St. Pachomius, the popular Theodorus of Tabannese was passed over as a successor for Petronius, who died three months later, appointing Horsiesius. Horsiesius was perceived as a weak leader, drawing opposition from many of the more tenured monks.

Theodorus, who had always been known for the camaraderie he inspired—early in his time at the Pachomian monasteries he had been nicknamed the "brothers' comforter"—went to the monastery at Tabannese, where there were many monks in rebellion against Horsiesius' authority, and tried to calm them down.

Horsiesius resigned in 350, and Theodorus became the leader of the family of the nine Pachomian monasteries (although he called himself the "vicar" of Horsiesius). Although he had been demoted in his youth by Pachomius for a combination of ambition and insufficient discipline over the monks under him—or perhaps because he was aware of these qualities—he ran the monasteries effectively for 18 years by frequently re-organizing them and moving ambitious leaders around to new posts.

Some of Theodorus' sermons have survived, recorded by his followers, as well as some of his letters, written in Coptic. Three letters that we believe he wrote himself have survived, in which he quotes Scripture and gives advice to the monasteries on topics such as maintaining asceticism, vigilance against sin, and celebrating Passover.

We also know about him from other references. St. Athanasius (c.298 - 373), patriarch of Alexandria, writing a letter to Horsiesius, said of Theodorus:

I have seen your fellow-worker and father of the brethren, Theodore, and in him the master of our father Pachomios. And I rejoiced to see the sons of the Church, and they made me glad by their presence. But the Lord is their recompenser. And as Theodore was about to leave me for you, he said to me: "Remember me." And I said to him: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten, yea let my tongue cleave to my throat if I remember thee not" [Ps. 137:6, LXX.].

It might have comforted Horsiesius that Athanasius thought so highly of Theodorus. When Theodorus died in 568, Athanasius wrote another letter to Horsiesius, praising the deceased, and talking about how the two of them worked well together. In fact, Horsiesius was Theodorus' successor. Horsiesius ran the monasteries until his death in 387.

A lot of what we know about Pachomius and the monastery system he created comes from a later writer, Dionysius Exiguus, who took it upon himself to translate hundreds of religious works into Latin. He was also the man who created the "modern calendar"; I'll explain further tomorrow.

Pachomius' Successors

When St. Pachomius was dying, his followers at the monastery were concerned because he had not yet chosen a successor. Many of them wanted Theodorus of Tabennese (c.314 - 368).

Born into a wealthy Christian family, Theodorus joined a monastery at 14 in Egypt until he heard about the success of Pachomius from a friend and determined that he wanted to go there. He was told that his wealthy background made him unsuitable for the atmosphere that Pachomius was creating in his monasteries, but Theodorus went anyway to Tabannese, one of the Pachomian monasteries.

Admired by Pachomius and his fellow monks, Theodorus came to be called the "brothers' comforter" because of his kindness and support toward his peers. Pachomius eventually made him the steward of Tabennese when Pachomius retired to another of his monasteries, Pbow. While keeping tabs on Theodorus, Pachomius saw that monks who did not follow the strict rules set down by Pachomius were being allowed to do so without any discipline, so Pachomius demoted him from authority.

Theodorus became Pachomius' assistant, behaving himself and maintaining the popularity he had with his fellow monks.

When Pachomius became ill, several monks wanted Theodorus to agree to assume control of the monastery. Theodorus agreed that he would do so, but Pachomius recovered and found out that Theodorus had been ready to take control. He exiled Theodorus, but eventually forgave him and allowed him to return without any special rank.

When Pachomius died in 348CE, he had named as his successor Petronius, who had been overseeing some of the Pachomian family of monasteries. Petronius died three months after Pachomius, however, and appointed Horsiesius, who had been overseeing the monastery at Sheneset. Horsiesius, however, resigned in 350, and finally Theodorus was placed in charge.

Tomorrow I'll tell you a little more about Theodorus, and that the story of Horsiesius wasn't finished when he resigned.

St. Pachomius

St. Anthony the Great is credited with being the first monk in that he did not just live an ascetic life, but also he removed himself from civilization and went into the desert. The eremitical (hermit) life appealed to many in the years to follow, but not everyone had the self-discipline to lead that kind of life. This is where Pachomius was needed.

St. Pachomius (c.292 - 348) was born a pagan in Egypt. Drafted into military service by the Roman army at the age of 21, he was put on a ship with several other conscripts heading toward Thebes. There he noticed how Christians kindly brought food daily to the conscripts.

When he left the army a few years later, he investigated Christianity and converted in 314. After seven years as a hermit, he traveled to where St. Anthony was living, modeling his life after Anthony's solitary example. Then, however, a vision told him to create a community where others could join him.

Hermits had clustered together in the same area before, but Pachomius created an organized structure for monks who actually lived and worked together, holding their possessions in common and following a similar schedule. This style of monastic tradition is called cenobitic, a Latin word from the Greek words for "common" [κοινός] and "life" [βίος].

He created the first community shortly after this vision; the first person to join him was his brother John. Many more were to follow. Pachomius built eight monasteries, and the trend caught on: by the time of his death there were hundreds of monks in Egypt following his guidance. He was referred to as "Abba" ("father"), from which the terms "abbot" and "abbey" come. He also wrote the Rule of Pachomius, creating guidelines for communities. It is written in the Coptic (Egyptian) language. He is also given credit for inventing the Prayer Rope to aid in repetitively reciting prayers.

Pachomius never was ordained as a priest. St. Athanasius visited him and wanted to ordain him in 333—Pachomius, like Athanasius, had proven to be a vocal opponent of Arianism—but Pachomius did not want ordination. He died on 9 May 348, we assume from plague.

When he had fallen ill and the end seemed near, he had not named a successor. Many of his followers wanted one monk—a man who was looked up to by many—to assert himself, but Pachomius had different ideas. The succession got a little tricky over the next few years. I'll talk tomorrow about dissent that might have ended the monastery.

A Personal Note

Just jumping in for a post that is personal as well as related to this blog.

To the right of these words you can see the advertisements to the two medieval mystery novels I self-published on Amazon many years ago. Knowing that no one would necessarily trust an unknown author, I priced the first at $1.99 and the second at $2.99 (assuming that if you're buying the second you've read the first and liked it and would be willing to take a bigger gamble).

I was absolutely surprised and delighted to find that someone recently not only bought them, not only read them, but also liked them enough to write a glowing review in which she accurately describes what I was trying to accomplish when I wrote them.

If you've ever glanced at the covers to the right and wondered if they were worth the risk of $1.99, or even $2.99, the review on Daily Kos by Dr. Lori, who has a Ph.D. in medieval manuscripts, might entice you.

The link is here.

Thanks (as always) for reading.

The Prayer Rope

We've been talking about the origin of the Rosary lately and its promotion by Alan de la Roche, but it wasn't the only or earliest aide to memory when reciting prayers. The precursor to the Rosary or "proto-Rosary" was the prayer rope.

In the early years of the spread of Christianity, the Eastern Mediterranean developed some practices and philosophies that were different from Rome and Europe. By the 4th century CE we know that some ascetics and hermits who withdrew from the world to pray all day used prayer ropes to keep themselves on track.

The prayer rope is a knotted cord designed to be handled during prayer so that one could feel one's way from knot to knot and keep an accurate count of recitations. The typical prayer rope might have 100 knots, a nice round number of prayers. Ropes can be found with 150 knots (for the number of Psalms), 60, 50 (which became the standard number of Hail Marys for the Rosary), 41 (one better than the days of fasting in the desert), and 33 (for the years of Jesus' life on Earth).

Traditionally it is made of wool and dyed black, to remind the user of the blackness of their sin. It was in a loop, with a cross or tassel attached to the joining of the two ends. You work your way through it with the left hand, keeping the righthand free to make the sign of the Cross at appropriate times.

Although the Rosary was sometimes worn as a necklace to remind one to pray and as spiritual protection, the prayer rope was not used as decoration.

Its creation is attributed to St. Pachomius, about whom you will learn more tomorrow.

Alan de la Roche

Alan de la Roche (also known as Alanus de Rupe) was born in Brittany c.1428; he joined the Dominican Order in 1459 in Paris, studying there and becoming well-known for his education in theology and philosophy.

He became a teacher in many locations in France and Germany. At Rostock in Germany in 1473 he was declared Master of Sacred Theology (a post-graduate degree that can stand on its own or be considered an intermediate step between Masters and doctorate programs). As famed as he was for his teaching career, he is best known now for his championing of the Rosary.

Dominican tradition holds that St. Dominic despaired at the ineffectiveness of his preaching against the Albigensian heretics, and prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. In a vision she told him to use her psalter along with preaching. A psalter was usually a book of the Psalms, but in this case it was the recitation of 150 Hail Marys. Alan claimed that the Virgin Mary had shown him a vision of how this came about with Dominic.

This account was never mentioned in Dominic's lifetime, and in the 17th century it was concluded by religious scholars that the story was concocted by Alan de la Roche to add weight to his belief that the Rosary should be more widely used.

Rather than 150 Hail Marys, Alan promoted the idea of 50 prayers: five decades of Hail Marys, interspersed with some other prayers like the Our Father. He devised three sets of mysteries of the Rosary—the Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious—each reflecting significant events in the lives of Christ and Mary. Pope John Paul II added a fourth set, the Luminous Mysteries.

Alan also claimed that Mary offered him 15 promises that would come true for anyone who prayed the Rosary. These promises included special protection, not dying without the sacraments of the Church, deliverance from Purgatory, aid from Mary in your necessities, and more.

Long before the Rosary, however, there were other aids to memory during prayer, like the prayer rope used in the first few centuries by hermits and monastics. We'll talk about those tomorrow.

The Rosary

The Rosary is a series of linked beads designed to aid your memory while praying. Many faiths have used something similar, often simply calling them prayer beads. The Catholic Rosary begins with the Creed, the Our Father, three Hail Marys and the Doxology ("Glory Be"), and is followed by five "decades" of an Our Father and ten Hail Marys.

The term "Rosary" was not recorded until the year 1597, but the device itself had been around in various forms. How did this particular form of prayer beads start?

There are various stories to explain it. One, mentioned yesterday, is that Peter the Hermit invented it. Another says that it was St. Dominic who introduced it. The Dominic version claims he did not exactly invent it; rather, it was "given" to him in a vision by the Blessed Virgin Mary. This story came about long after his death, however, and during his lifetime was never mentioned.

The idea of a memory aid goes back a long way in Christianity. In the 3rd century CE Christian hermits and monks would use stones or knotted ropes to help them keep their place during the repetitive nature of prayers, such as reciting the 150 Psalms, or praying the Our Father 150 times.

In the early 1400s, Dominic of Prussia "organized" the decades of Hail Marys into the Mysteries: Joyful, Sorrowful, and Glorious. There are five of each Mystery, describing different events in the life of Mary and their importance. (An additional set was introduce by Pope John Paul II in October 2002: the Luminous Mysteries.)

Still, the Rosary was not widely used; that is, until a Dominican friar and mystic and theologian came along. Tomorrow I'll introduce you to Alan de la Roche.

Peter in Jerusalem

When the main body of the First Crusade reached the Holy Land, Peter the Hermit joined them as a member of the council that made decisions. Peter had drummed up so much support for the Crusade that he was welcome, even though his "People's Crusade" (see the last few posts) had gone spectacularly off the rails.

In fact, Guibert of Nogent, a contemporary of the Crusade who wrote a chronicle of it, refers to Peter's status in 1098 as a "fallen star." His preaching continued, however. During the Siege of Antioch, for instance, Guibert gives Peter credit for making a stirring speech to the starving Crusaders that inspired them to leave the city and attack the larger Muslim force and achieve victory. (Part of that inspiration may have been from the discovery of the Holy Lance.)

The march to Jerusalem included besieging the town of Arqa, during which it is recorded that Peter was given responsibility as treasurer of alms.

Peter was present at Jerusalem when the Crusade captured the city, and spent some time there. According to The Alexiad, the account written by Anna Comnena of that time from the viewpoint of the reign of her father, Alexios I:

He saw many forbidden and wicked things occurring there… so he sought out the patriarch of the holy church of Jerusalem and asked why gentiles and evil men were able to pollute holy places and steal away offerings from the faithful, using the church as if a stable, beating up Christians, despoiling pilgrims through unjust fees, and inflicting on them many sufferings." The frustrated patriarch threw up his hands in exasperation: "Why do you reprimand me and disturb me in the midst of my fatherly cares? I have but the strength and power of a tiny ant when compared to those proud men. We have to redeem our lives here by regular tribute payments or else face death-dealing punishment."

Perhaps he was discouraged by what he saw in Jerusalem. In 1099 he went to Latakia (Laodicea) in Syria, and from there sailed west and home. On his way home, with Count Conon of Montaigou, a storm threatened their ship, but subsided when they prayed and promised to found a church if they survived. The two later founded Neufmoustier Abbey in Huy.

It seems he founded an Augustinian monastery in France, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The contemporary Albert of Aachen claims Peter died there in 1131 as its prior, but this must be a fabrication. In the records of Neufmoustier Abbey we find an entry for 8 July 1115:

...the death of Dom Pierre, of pious memory, venerable priest and hermit, who deserved to be appointed by the Lord to announce the first to the holy Cross.

We assume this is more accurate than Albert, especially since Albert had a tendency to presume things that suited him. And because Neufmoustier contains Peter's tomb (see illustration).

One item attributed to Peter that cannot be proven is that he invented the rosary, presumably as a guide for the illiterate in their prayers. Tomorrow we'll look at what history we know about the rosary.

The People's Crusade Ends

After the terrible situation (for the People's Crusade) at Xerigordos, where several thousand German Crusaders were converted to Islam or killed, some Turkish spies infiltrated the main Crusader camp before news of the Xerigordos outcome was known and spread rumors that Nicaea had similarly been captured by the Germans.

Peter the Hermit, who had been leading the Crusade, had gone back to Constantinople for supplies. In his absence, the Crusade—under the leadership of a Frenchman, Geoffrey Burel—convinced the fighting men they should go right away to Nicaea, leaving the women and children and the old and sick behind. As a result, 20,000 headed toward Nicaea on 21 October 1096.

The Turks were waiting on the road to Nicaea and ambushed the Europeans in a narrow wooded valley in an event called the Battle of Civetot. Most of the men were slaughtered. Any women and children who tagged along were spared. A few thousand, including Burel, fled to a nearby abandoned fortress, besieged by Turks until a Byzantine army arrived to rescue them.

Of the 40,000 who set out after meeting Peter the Hermit in Cologne, the 3,000 who survived the Turks' ambush were all that remained of useful Crusaders. Peter, with a fraction of the original group, spent the winter of 1096/97 in Constantinople, waiting for the main army to arrive, after which they continued to the Holy Land.

The events referred to as the "People's Crusade" were now concluded. What happened after was all part of the official First Crusade. Since I started several days ago intending to discuss Peter the Hermit, however, let us follow him to Palestine where his story continues. (The illustration is from a 1270 French manuscript with Peter showing the way to Jerusalem.)

The People's Crusade Continues

After the Rhineland Massacres, the People's Crusade continued from Cologne toward the Holy Land. Some took boats down the Danube. Some marched over land into and through Hungary, meeting up again at the Danube on the borders of the Byzantine Empire, at a town called Zemun.

A dispute over prices turned into a riot between the Crusaders and the townspeople, in which 4000 Hungarians were killed. The Crusaders crossed into Belgrade, pillaging and burning the city. Days later, at the town of Niš, its commander promised Peter the Hermit that he would provide food and an escort to Constantinople if the Crusaders would depart immediately.

This was agreed to, and all would have been well if some Germans in the group had not started a fight with some locals and set fire to a mill. The garrison of Niš came out and attacked the Crusaders, supposedly killing about 25% of the 40,000-person contingent. (The illustration shows the fighting at Niš.)

They regrouped and arrived on 12 July at Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, where a Byzantine escort met them and led them without further incident to Constantinople on 1 August.

Emperor Alexios I, whose initial request for aid from the West motivated the Crusade, now had 30,000 extra people on his hands. He may have had news of their prior behavior. He ferried them immediately across the Bosphorus, but warning Peter not to engage the Turks until the main (and better armed) army showed up.

The group was eager to push on to the Holy Land, however, and harassed towns along the way, finally reaching the suburbs of Nicaea. A 6,000-strong contingent of Germans marched on the castle of Xerigordos and occupied it. (Xerigordos' exact location is not known. Guibert of Nogent said it was four days' journey from Nicaea.)

They were now firmly in Seljuk Turk territory, and one of the generals of Kilij Arslan laid siege to Xerigordos. The water supply was insufficient, and there are reports that the Crusaders drank their own urine and the blood of donkeys to survive. The Turks prevailed, and the occupiers of Xerigordos were forced to either convert to Islam or be killed.

I wish I could say that this was the worst of their problems, and the rest of the People's Crusade went smoothly. Unfortunately, there was more to come. See you next time.

The Enactments of SHU"M

The Roman Catholic Church and its followers tried many times to make up sets of rules for interaction with Jews. The Fourth Lateran comes to mind, as does Henry III's Statute of Jewry in 1253 (and his founding of the Domus Conversorum in 1232).

Likewise, Jewish communities sometimes had to establish their own set of policies and practices to govern themselves. After the Rhineland Massacres, three towns of the Rhineland banded together to devise a set of regulations for the future.

The towns were Speyer, Worms, and Mainz, who had suffered in spring of 1096 as the People's Crusade led by Peter the Hermit ravaged them. The leading Jews of the towns created the Enactments of SHU"M. SHU"M comes from the Hebrew names of the towns: Shpira, Vermayza, and Magentza.

The Enactmnets did not happen immediately, though they were a response to further strife that was started because of 1096. Itinerant merchants felt that travel was no longer safe, and so they settled in the towns and became local merchants or, in many cases, moneylenders. This situation created more contact between Jew and Gentile, leading to more problems between the two groups. The Crusades' need for funds also meant more and heavier taxes being levied against Jews.

The first example of such a system appeared in France. About 1160, a synod was held in Troyes, arranged by Jacob ben Meir (1100 - 1171, depicted above), a well-respected teacher (and grandson of Rashi). He, his brother, and over 250 rabbis from all over France gathered to create decrees that would affect the Jewish community as well as when they would rely on Gentile legal systems as opposed to their own. Some of the decisions they wanted people to accept were:

• A strengthening of a ban on polygamy.
• A dispute between Jews over money should not go to a secular court; the beth din, the rabbinical court, should settle it. It should only go to secular authorities if one of the people involved would not accept the decision of the beth din.
• In the case of the Jewish communities own tax system (called the kehillah), a person disputing the tax should pay it first and then bring his or her case to the beth din.
• If you offer a space you own to be used as a synagogue, you cannot restrict it to only certain members of the congregation. You just allow or deny all members.

SHU"M happened a couple generations later, at a synod in Mainz, agreeing to most of the decisions out of Troyes, but adding their own:

• Anyone who informed on another Jew was served with a cherem (essentially an excommunication) until restitution was made.
• No exceptions to kehillah-imposed taxes.
• Lending money to other Jews must follow strict adherence to the halakhot, the body of Jewish law.
• It was prohinbited to call anyone a mamzer (bastard, or any result of an improper relationship).
• If someone dies leaving young children, the estate may be used for their education, even if the deceased left other instructions in their will.

Many of these are still followed, and they have been added to over time.

This has been an important aside after the post on the Rhineland Massacres. Time tomorrow to go back to see what the People's Crusade was getting up to once they reached the Mediterranean.

The Rhineland Massacres

After Peter the Hermit gathered his followers in Cologne, Germany, on Holy Saturday in 1096 (12 April), they prepared to go south and eventually toward the Holy Land as part of the First Crusade. (Technically, at this stage they were not part of the army called by Pope Urban II, and have been referred to as the People's Crusade.)

This was tens of thousands of peasants in a poorly organized militia, moving through unfamiliar territory with the noble goal of doing something "Christian"; unfortunately, this mood of theirs made them see any non-Christian as a target.

This anti-non-Christian mindset motivated them to attack Jews. There were some specific factors we might consider. One was the need for money: they were peasants, and travel expenses (food, shelter) were beyond their meager personal means. Thousands of people crossing unfamiliar land was always stressful for the natives. Jews were a popular source of quick funds by simply stealing from them or even killing them.

Also, to the Christian citizens of France and Germany, Jews were responsible for the Crucifixion of Christ, and so clearly were the enemy of Christians. This was the beginning of "Crusade fever" that inspired anti-Jewish violence for the next couple centuries at least.

Another factor was the presence of Count Emicho of Leiningen. While Peter's people were likely to threaten Jews in the towns through which they passed, bribes of money smoothed this over and people were usually unharmed. He joined Peter the Hermit and brought along his own history of attacking Jews. Emicho shortly before all this was known to attack Jews and force conversions on them.

Peter supposedly carried with him a letter from the Jews of France requesting of the Jews of the Rhineland that they support the Crusade. A Jewish chronicler of the mid-12th century, in the Solomon bar Simson Chronicle, records that Peter's arrival caused such fear in a town that the Jews readily supplied him with his needs.

Jewish communities in Mainz, Speyer, and Worms were ransacked before the Crusaders moved on. These three prominent populations of Jews banded together to enact a series of rules and policies concerning interactions between Jews and Gentiles. We may continue Peter the Hermit's People's Crusade a little later, but first let's take a look at the Enactments of SHU"M.

Peter the Hermit

After the announcement of the First Crusade, a French Roman Catholic priest from Amiens named Pierre took it upon himself to preach the Crusade around the countryside. He chose to go about in a long coarse robe, forsaking shoes and hat. Riding a donkey, he preached all over Italy. Outside Italy, he preached around Huy in Lower Lotharingia. In fact, tradition in Huy says he was there when the word came (not at Clermont for the announcement, as some historians reported), and immediately started preaching to anyone who would listen of the need to join up.

His mother's name was Alide Montaigu, so he may have been related—albeit distantly—to the Counts of Montaigou. He certainly traveled with Count Conon on the Crusade itself, as seen in yesterday's post.

He tried to get to Jerusalem on his own, not waiting for the Crusading army called by Pope Urban II. He persuaded thousands of lower-class folk to follow him to the Holy Land. The result was thousands of  unskilled men and women with little means to pay their way across Europe (and some knights as well). This "pre-Crusade" is known as the People's Crusade, as I explained 13 years ago.

Why did many thousands of poorer people join? Millenarianism, the belief that the Year 1000 could bring the Apocalypse, may have been a concern for people who wanted to expiate their sins with a grand gesture. There had been a recent outbreak of ergot poisoning that seemed like an end-time sign. Sights in the sky recently—a meteor shower, a lunar eclipse, the Aurora Borealis, a comet—also created fear.

Peter claimed a divine mandate from Christ to preach the Crusade, and even claimed he had a letter to prove it. He had everyone to whom he preached agree to meet at Cologne in Germany, which they did on 12 April 1096, Holy Saturday.

Their religious fervor became indiscriminate in their choice of enemy, finding people to kill before they ever left Germany. Tomorrow we'll learn about the shameful Rhineland Massacres.

Count of Montaigou

When Huy became the first municipality north of the Alps to be granted city rights, its right to some self-governance meant Conon, Count of Montaigou, lost some of his rights over it.

Conon was connected to Huy from an early age. His parents were Gozelon of Montaigou and Ermengarde de Grandpré. Ermengarde's father was Count of Clermont, and after his death that title passed through Ermengarde to her son. Count Gozelon died in 1064, succeeded by his eldest, Conon, a couple years before Huy's city rights charter. Conon up to that time was a knight who had only appeared as witness to a few royal charters.

Records are scarce for that part of Lotharingia, but a 1 January 1071 document confirms that he was then known as Count Conon, whose liege lords were Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV and the Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Godfrey IV "The Hunchback." (Godfrey has appeared a few times in this blog, as godfather to Godfrey of Bouillon and as former husband of the widowed Matilda of Tuscany.)

Conon and his wife, Ida, had four sons: Gozelon, Lambert, Henry, and Theobald. Theobald died young. Henry became an archdeacon and provost. Lambert became count of Montaigou and Clermont after his father's death. Gozelon's fate? You'll see shortly.

Conon was one of the nobles who agreed to the Treuga Dei, the Truce of God. Conon loved justice. When Bishop Otbert of Liège tried to depose Abbot Theodoric II of the monastery of Saint Hubert, Conon supported Theodoric.

When the First Crusade came along, Conon went along with his two eldest sons under Godfrey of Bouillon's banner. Among the first to arrive at Constantinople, Conon was one of the men negotiating with the representative of Emperor Alexios I. Gozelon died before reaching Jerusalem, but Conon and Lambert fought in Jerusalem and lived.

While Conon was returning home (a legend says) with Peter the Hermit and some men of Huy, a storm endangered their ship. They prayed that they would build a church if they survived, at which the storm immediately subsided. Conon and Peter founded the Augustinian canonry of Neufmoustier in Huy, where (according to tradition), Peter lived until his death in 1115 and was buried there. It was said that if you could not make it to Jerusalem after vowing to go, a pilgrimage to the abbey was sufficient to fulfill the vow. (Some of the ruins are shown above.)

Conon himself died on 1 May 1106, succeeded by Lambert, who lived at least until 1140.

Peter the Hermit, although he has cropped up in a few blog posts over the years, has never been fully discussed. Let's resolve that next time.

The First City

If you saw yesterday's post on city rights, you might wonder: if they weren't already, when was the first "city" thought of as such? Wasn't Rome already a city?

Well yes, cities existed before the Middle Ages. In the growing feudalism north of the Alps, however, a powerful noble claimed control over all the lands he could conquer, or that he was given by a higher-ranking noble. Giving up that power wasn't common. When a municipality proved itself to be especially valuable, however, they might be allowed some self-governance. The first such place north of the Alps was Huy, from Latin Hoius vicus, "Hoyoux village." 

It had an ideal location, at the mouth of the River Hoyoux where it joined the larger River Meuse, making transportation of goods easy. From the original Roman camp, it was evangelized by St. Domitian, the "Apostle of the Meuse Valley," in the 6th century. Legend says he delivered the area from the ravages of a dragon.

Huy also became known for tanning, woodworking, and wine, making it one of the most prosperous cities along the river. When the local office of bishop became a prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 985, Huy and the area around it became its own county, with a count appointed by the bishop to administer it.

By this time it already had a market; we know this because records of King Childeric III in 743 gave an exemption to some monks from the toll paid on goods sold at the market. (That was kind of Childeric, since these tolls—essentially a sales tax—provided a healthy source of revenue for royal coffers.) Revenues from Huy were sufficient that King Lothair II in 862 diverted some to the double monastery of Stavelot-Malmedy. In 890 its status was upgraded with the construction of a fortress on a hill. (The illustration shows the castle as it appeared c.1600.)

We don't know what the tipping point was. It was overseen by a series of counts, but under Count Conon in 1066 it was granted the first known city rights charter north of the Alps.

Huy was one of the areas Peter the Hermit wandered through to drum up support for the First Crusade and the People's Crusade. The textile industry was an enormous source of its power and revenue in the 13th and 14th centuries.

One of its strengths—its strategic position on the rivers—made it a target during the wars of Louis XIV, and it suffered so much that the residents dismantled the castle themselves in 1715 to eliminate its military value. A modern citadel exists on the hill now.

When power transfers hands, someone suffers. What was Count Conon like, and was it difficult for him to have such a gem removed from his governance? Let's take a look at this obscure Count of Montaigu tomorrow.

City Rights

Yesterday's post mentioned the town of Saint-Omer being granted city rights after becoming commercially powerful, but what did that mean? City rights were a status used in the Low Countries and the German nations attached to the Holy Roman Empire.

A town gained city rights as a reward for proving itself valuable enough to its liege lord that it was worth it to the lord to reward them with privileges that were not otherwise available to other municipalities. It could also be offered to a municipality in exchange for money when the lord was financially needy. It created better good will when the lord needed money than a surprise tax would.

The illustration shows the charter granting rights to the city of Flensburg in the extreme north of Germany. City rights could be a financial advantage, because it allowed the city to create revenue streams of its own such as:

• The rights to hold a market, which brought several sellers together on certain days, prompting buyers to congregate in the city. The city could charge the sellers a fee for being a part of the market.
• They might also be able to charge tolls on roads that pass through the town; there might be few roads in the area suitable for wagons, for instance. 
• The city could also charges its citizens for taxes.
• One large potential benefit as if they were granted a staple right; that is, the right to be the exclusive source in the art to produce and trade particular goods.
• They could also gain the right to build defensive walls, mint their own coinage, and the citizens could have a certain amount of freedom of mobility (the ability to move from job to job, for instance).
• Governance was a big issue. City Rights could grant the ability to create local government officials who could legislate locally and prosecute within their boundaries.

The first town to receive city rights was Huy in the province of Liège, Belgium. It, and some of its famous medieval residents, will be a discussed tomorrow.

Saint-Omer

In researching the life of Lambert of Saint-Omer, I realized that the town after which he was named had some interesting history. The town sprang up around the Abbey of Saint Peter, founded in the 7th century by Omer (or Audomar), the bishop of Thérouanne. The abbey's name changed in honor of its second abbot, who became St. Bertin.

The abbey started as a simple small house on a hillock in a marshy area, from which Bertin would go out and preach to the pagan Morini, a coastal tribe in northern France. A converted nobleman gave to bishop Omer a tract of land called Sithiu, which Omer turned over to Bertin for the abbey. Their numbers grew, and eventually a new abbey was built on the site which became surrounded by a town named Saint-Omer. (There were a few abbeys built over the years as their numbers grew. The most recent one was ordered demolished in 1830; its ruins can be seen in the illustration.)

So near the northern coast made Saint-Omer vulnerable to Vikings, who ravaged the place in the 860s and 880s, but the town rebuilt with strong walls. Saint-Omer became part of Flanders when Arnulf of Flanders conquered the county in 932. In 1127, its importance as a commercial center (thanks to its growing textile industry) earned it the first charter in West Flanders with city rights.

Saint-Omer became part of France (again) when Philip II of France (1165 - 1223) forced Count Ferdinand of Flanders to sign the Treaty of Pont-à-Vendin. Despite this, battle over that part of France continued. Ferdinand's alliance with King John of England and Emperor Otto IV did not help, and Saint-Omer remained within French boundaries, though it continued to be a significant part of the Flanders economy. Saint-Omer did not become permanently a French town until 1678.

Besides Lambert, another famous son of Saint-Omer was Godfrey of Saint-Omer, one of the founding members of the Knights Templar. The symbol of the Templars—two men riding a single horse, representing their vow of poverty—is supposedly because the first Grand Master, Hugues de Payen, and Godfrey were so poor that the two men had to share a horse.

I mentioned above that Saint-Omer was the first in the county to gain "city rights." What did that entail? I'll tell you tomorrow.

Lambert de Saint-Omer

Among the many people in the Middle Ages who tried to write all-encompassing works about theology and history and known things, Lambert of Saint-Omer was well-known and praised in his day but an unknown to the Modern Era.

He was born c.1060 in France and entered the Benedictine monastery of St-Bertin in France as a youth, studying the "basics" of theology, grammar, and music, before visiting other schools in France. In 1095 the monks of St.-Bertin and the canons of nearby St.-Omer voted him abbot.

An admirer created a list of Lambert's many writings, most of which are lost. They included sermons, studies on free will, original sin, the origin of the soul, and science questions.

One of his works that does survive is the Liber Floridus, or "Book of Flowers," an encyclopedic work on Biblical, chronological, astronomical, geographical, theological, philosophical, and natural history subjects. He included a list of popes, family trees, descriptions of real and imaginary animals (some of his descriptions of animals are still not identified), maps, constellations, and more. Nine manuscripts survive, most of them with illustrations. (Shown above is Lambert writing the Liber.)

His epithet of Saint-Omer is because the town that sprang up around the twin monasteries of St.-Bertin and St.-Omer became known as Saint-Omer. It had a long history that we will look at next time.

The Antichrist

The Antichrist, a charismatic person who would appear prior to the end times and become ruler of the world despite his inherent evil, was "identified" more than once in the Middle Ages.

Joachim Fiore, the "Man Who Invented the Future," declared Rome as Babylon and the pope as the Antichrist. Emperor Constantius II was declared the Antichrist in 365 because he was a semi-Arian. Constantius' response ultimately "returned the favor" by creating the first antipope. When the year 1000 was upon them, the Carolingians exhumed the body of Charlemagne, thinking they would need him to fight against the imminent appearance of the Antichrist.

Arius was called a harbinger of the Antichrist. Martin of Tours believed the world would end by 400, and stated "There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power."

The term Antichrist came from the first and second epistles of John, where it is mentioned four times and described as someone "who denies the Father and Son." Matthew and Mark each refer to a "false Christ," when Jesus advises his followers not to be deceived by false prophets who will perform "signs and wonders" and claim to be Jesus. The "beast of the sea" in the Book of Revelation is assumed to refer to the same figure.

It is from John's description of the beast that the culture assumes the specifics of the Antichrist: buying and selling will require its mark on the forehead, it will blaspheme God, rule for 42 months, and will receive a wound in the head that will miraculously heal leaving no mark. It will be supported by the Dragon.

According to the Elucidarium of Honorius Augustodunensis, the end for the Antichrist will come:

Finally he will extend his forces to conquer the righteous at the Mount of Olives and there he will be found suddenly dead by the spirit of the mouth of the Lord, that is, slain by the command of God, as the saying goes, "The Lord will destroy at his holy mountain the man renowned through the whole earth.” [link; note that the source of this "saying" has not survived to the modern era]

The Reformation was clear on the identity of the Antichrist. Luther, Calvin, Knox all saw the pope as the position that matched the Antichrist, no matter which pope sat the seat at the time.

The illustration of the Antichrist riding Leviathan is from the Liber Floridus ("Book of Flowers") by Lambert de Saint-Omer. Let's take a closer look at him and it tomorrow.

The Elucidarium, Part 3

Book Three of the Elucidarium of Honorius Augustodunensis was called De futura vita, "Concerning future life." By "future life" he meant the afterlife.

There are seven chapters to Book Three: The Elect, The Damned, State of Souls Before the Judgement, The Antichrist, The Resurrection, The Judgement, Eternal Bliss.

It begins with an explanation of the moment of death of "The Elect"; that is, those who will go to Heaven:

Just as a bridegroom comes with a crowd of soldiers to fetch his bride and then, happily singing, leads her off, so when a righteous man comes to his end, his guardian angel comes with a crowd of angels and raises his soul, the bride of Christ, from the bodily prison and leads it into spiritual paradise and, with loud singing of the sweetest song and with bright light and the most pleasant odor, arrives at the heavenly palace.*

For those on the other end of the spectrum:

When the wicked reach their end, a great noisy throng of demons, awful to see and dreadful in their actions, comes to get them. They drive the soul from the body with terrible torment and lead it cruelly to the prisons of Hell.

Honorius describes nine tortures, and now I'm wondering if Dante got the idea of nine circles from the Elucidarium. A lot of time is spent on details of how much and how the damned will suffer. He also makes clear that no one in the afterlife who is no damned will care a bit for the suffering of those who deserve it.

The master explains how the Antichrist will come to power:

He will command the whole world and will subjugate the whole human race to himself in four ways: First, he will gain the noble by wealth, ... Second, he will subdue the common people by terror because he will rage with great savagery ... Third, he will win over the clergy by wisdom and unbelievable eloquence, ... Fourth, he will deceive those who have contempt for the world, ....

The Elucidarium became enormously popular, translated into several languages across Europe for centuries. (The illustration is the title page of a German edition.) What Honorius produced influenced the day-to-day understanding of Christianity for generations, and no doubt led to several of the common ideas people have even today about the afterlife.

The idea of the Antichrist started early in Christianity, and the Middle Ages was very wary of him, always on the lookout for whomever might be the one who subjugates the world in three and a half years and fools the faithful. Tomorrow we'll look at the evolution of this idea in the Middle Ages, and at some of the people who were accused of being the Antichrist. See you then.

*Nota bene: translated passages are from a 1979 translation made for a dissertation that can be found here.

The Elucidarium, Part 2

Book Two of the Elucidarium of Honorius Augustodunensis was called De regis ecclesiastics, which could be translated "On the matters of the Church." For Honorius, this was about explaining our current existence and our religious obligations. It begins by tackling the question of the source of evil and sin, since those things are in our hands:

Pupil: It is said that evil is nothing, yet if it is nothing, it seems to me a great marvel that God would damn angels or men, since they do nothing. If evil is something, then it seems to be from God, since all things come from him. It follows that God is the creator of evil and unfairly damns those who do it.

Master: Truly, all things come from God and he made all things to be very good. Therefore, evil is shown not to exist in substance. Everything which God made is substantial and all substance really is good. Evil, however, has no substance; therefore evil is nothing. What we call evil is nothing other than the absence of good, just as there is blindness when there is no sight or darkness when there is no light, even though blindness and darkness are not material.

...

Sin is nothing more than failure to do what has been commanded or doing other than that which has been commanded, just as evil is nothing more than the absence of good, that is joy. Evil has, at least, its name from God since it came about through that substance which God made. God properly damns or keeps joy from those who do not do or do otherwise than what he has commanded.

Fortunately, there are ways to be forgiven for your sin if you are truly penitent. Also, there are guardian angels:

Pupil : Do men have angels as guardians?

Master: Angels preside over each race and state, righteously dispensing and ordaining rights, laws and customs. Moreover, every spirit, when it is sent to a body, is entrusted to an angel who always urges it to do good and who reports all the spirit's works to God and the angels in heaven.

And sinners always have the opportunity for a deathbed confession and repentance, which the Master says does work.

Book Three enters the realm of Christian eschatology, what happens after death. We'll take a look at his views on the afterlife, the Antichrist, Final Judgment, and Eternity tomorrow.

*Nota bene: translated passages are from a 1979 translation made for a dissertation that can be found here.

The Elucidarium, Part 1

Written by Honorius Augustodunensis (c.1080 - c.1140) in the late 11th century, the Elucidarium was intended to make clear various things about Christianity and mundane understanding of the world. The author would have been quite young at the time of writing, and went on to write many more works, but the Elucidarium became a well-known way to explain the world around us in the context of Christianity. We have over 300 Latin manuscripts of it, showing how popular it was. It was also translated into Old English, Provençal (although that one alters the text to make it more compatible with Catharism), and Old Icelandic (which provided influence for Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, which I explained a couple days ago). It was later translated into Old French, Middle High German, Middle Welsh, Czech, and others.

The format is a Socratic dialogue between a Master and Disciple, spread over three books. The three are:

1. De divinis rebus (On divine things), covering Creation, the rebellion and fall of the angels, Eden and the Fall of Man and need for redemption, and the life of Jesus.

2. De regis ecclesiastics (On the matters of the church), explains the founding of the Church when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles during Pentecost; it explains the divine nature of Christ and the manifestation of Christ in the Eucharist.

3. De futura vita (On the future life), in which he discusses the Antichrist, the Second Coming, the Last Judgement, Purgatory, and the eternity that awaits you in either Heaven and Hell.

Honorius uses many analogies to help the reader (or listening audience) understand his concepts. For example, the Holy Trinity has three parts like the sun. The sun has fire (God), light (Son), and heat (Holy Spirit). He also describes Paul's reference to three heavens (from 2 Corinthians 12's "third heaven" comment) and explains that the first heaven is the physical one we see, the second is spiritual and where angels exist, and the third is for the Holy Trinity.

These were the kinds of explanations that comforted people, that gave them a better understanding of what was being said in the Bible, something to "hang their hat on" so to speak. Honorius goes into detail on the order of the six days of Creation, and offers a timeline for other events in Genesis. Satan (a name that never appears in the Bible) lasted not even a single hour in Heaven before thinking himself better than God and being cast down. Angels had the ability to sin because they had free will, but after the fall the good angels became even more good and lost the ability to sin. He then goes into detail about angels and devils.

For the rest of Book One, he discusses Jesus' time on Earth, his death and resurrection and ascension into Heaven, declaring that once Jesus passed the clouds his physical body transformed into a more godly form.

Tomorrow we'll look at Book Two.

Honorius Augustodunensis

Yesterday I briefly mentioned the Elucidarium. Its name signified that it was intended to elucidate the details of Christian theology and its relationship to mundane folklore. Today I'll tell you about its author, and tomorrow we will look at the work itself.

The author was Honorius Augustodunensis. The surname has been questioned. Some thought he was from Autun, whose Latin name was Augustodunum, but he was as likely to be from St. Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury (where he would have known Anselm). Additionally, since he refers to contemporary events in Germany, some suggest that he could be from Augst near Basle or even Augsburg in Swabia. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls him "Honorius of Autun," despite acknowledging the German connections.

He was influenced by the writings of John Scotus Eriugena and his Division of Nature, and by Anselm of Canterbury. In fact, we can partially date its origin in the late 11th century because it refers to Anselm's Cur Deus Homo, published in 1098.

He was a monk (or hermit: he describes himself as solitarius which could mean either) who certainly spent some time in England; later in life he went to  the Scots Monastery in Regensburg, Bavaria, lending credence to the idea that he was originally German.

Honorius also imitated the style of John Scotus Eriugena, used the same definition of philosophy as Eriugena ("Philosophy is the comprehension of things visible and invisible"), wrote a summary of the first four books of Eriugena's) Division of Nature (and copied the fifth into it), and praised him highly, suggesting that he may have spent time in Ireland with the man.

Besides the Elucidarium, he wrote many other works. We believe the Elucidarium was one of his first, which means he was a very young man when he wrote it. He lived until about 1140, and his birth is estimated to have been about 1080.

He wrote a set of lessons for celebrating the Assumption of Mary, a commentary on the Psalms, a collection of his sermons (you can read one here), a commentary on the Timæus of Plato, a bibliography of Christian authors (including himself of course), and Imago Mundi ("Image of the World") that combined cosmology, geography, and a history of the world.

Tomorrow we will look at the influential Elucidarium.

Elves

Early Anglo-Saxon texts show the Old English term ælf, which morphed into our Modern English elf. The word was cognate with the Old Icelandic alfar, and Old High German alp ("evil spirit").

Some of these earliest Anglo-Saxon references are contained in medical texts such as Bald's Leechbook, a collection of remedies. Elf influence was blamed for many otherwise unexplainable ailments, especially sudden stabbing pains that were often attributed to "elf-shot," an arrow or other projectile from an unseen elf attacker. The illustration shows the victim of "elf-shot" by demons, depicted as arrows, from the 12th-century Eadwine Psalter.

What did elves look like?  The consensus is that they looked like human beings, often depicted as very attractive physically. Interactions in folklore do not suggest that they were diminutive. They were also seen as their own race or people: the use of Old English ylfe in Beowulf is a grammatically plural ethnonym, the term for a people or tribe.

Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, written about 1200, even lists different elf races: he talks about svartálfar, dökkálfar and ljósálfar ("black elves," "dark elves," and "light elves"). Snorri, however, is the only source for these different species of elf, and it is thought that he was "elf-ing" (my term) the existence of dwarves, demons, and angels; trying to take some spreading Christian concepts and "paganizing" them (again, my term).

The spread of Christianity turned elves from invisible creatures living alongside humans and occasionally helping or hurting into evil forces that must be defied and destroyed. Scottish witchcraft trials frequently refer to the evil influences of elves. Eventually, the word "elf" began to be replaced by the French loan-word "fairy." Chaucer, writing in the 14th century, has Sir Thopas set out to find the elf-queen in the "countree of the Faerie." Iceland has retained some belief in alfar as we saw in yesterday's post.

I want to talk about the reference to Snorri Sturluson's "paganizing" Christian concepts that were spreading across Europe. The spread of Christianity was enhanced by a particular text created to explain it to ordinary people who had no education. It attempted to explain common folklore in the context of Christianity. This work was called the Elucidarium, and we'll open its pages tomorrow.