Storytime - The Drunken Mouse

Once upon a time a mouse fell into a barrel of wine. A cat, passing by, heard the mouse making a great noise but unable to get out of the wine. The cat asked "Why are you shouting so much?"

"Because I can't get out"

"What will you give me if I get you out?"

"I'll give you whatever you want"

So the cat said, "If I get you out, this is what I want: you must come to me whenver I call you."

"Right, I promise that I'll do it."

"I want you to swear to it."

And the mouse swore, so the cat took him out of the wine and let him scamper off to his hole.

One day the cat was very hungry, and went to the mousehole, telling the mouse to come to him.

"By God, I'll do nothing of the sort," replied the mouse.

"But didn't you swear that you'd come out when I called you?"

"My dear chap," said the mouse, "I was drunk when I swore that oath."


Taken from Medieval Comic Tales, ed. D. Brewer (Cambridge, Boydell & Brewer Press: 1973) and originally from the Spanish 14th century MS,  Libro de los gatos.

Mutiny in the Monastery

Last week I mentioned the attempt to poison Abelard by his monks as he was apparently too strict.

This response from the monks does seems a little extreme and from the monastic stereotype of gentle men, living asceticaly and refraining from sex, violence and other exciting things, it sounds like it should be an anomaly....Right?

Norbert (foundered of the 12th century Norbetines/Premonstratensians, a reforming order) survived several attempts to kill him including one man who brought a dagger to church in the hope of stabbing him.

Preaching reform and virtue to thoroughly sinful communities was not a popular pastime it appears but Norbert and Abelard needn't feel hard done by. St Benedict, often referred to as the founder of Western monasticism as it was his rule that became the basis for the majority of medieval monasteries, also survived several poisoning attempts.


The story goes that he was attempting to teach a monastery of monks, who had asked him to be their abbot, the 'proper' monastic life. However, it looks as though the monks quickly changed their minds upon learning what the monastic life entailed. First, they poisioned his cup of wine and when Benedict prayed a blessing over the cup, the cup shattered. Next they tried poisoned bread, but he blessed this too and a raven swept in and took the loaf away.



Benedict eventually took the hint and returned to his hermit life in a cave.


Sources:
- Constable, G., The Reformation of the Twelfth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) p. 115
- Catholic Encylopedia (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02467b.htm)

Abelard the Troll

Now, some of you may or may not be familiar with Peter Abelard (1079-1142)

Both his parents had entered monasticism, but he himself studied first and became a respected teacher and theologian in Paris. 

At this point, he falls in love with Heloise, niece of Canon Fulbert, and later when Peter writes and apologises for the events of his life he spares none of the details of the story and recounts all the circumstances of its tragic ending.

Canon Fulbert is rather unhappy to put it lightly with Abelard's interest and Heloise flees to Pallet, where their son, named Astrolabius, was born. I love the name for their son; it's the medieval equivalent of celebrity name as the astrolabe was the scientific insturment de jour as it allowed you to determine sunset/sunrise at any point in the year, tell the time, determine star signs....

It was the smart phone of the age and you can play around with a app version here:

http://java.com/en/download/windows_xpi.jsp

Anyway, Abelard and Heloise are secretly married and Aberlard is castrated by Fulbert (!). Heloise retires to the nunnery of Argenteuil, and he abandons his academic career and goes to St Denis Abbey. However, he seems to have been a difficult personality and various theological quarrels saw him sent to a priory instead, eventually becoming abbot of St Gildas Rhuys in Brittany (their abbot had died). 

Bad luck persued him however and the monks of St Gildas Rhuys tried to poison him (he was too strict appaerently) and he went back to paris. He later clashed with Bernard of Clairvaux and eventually came under the protective wing of Peter the Venerable and he spent the remainder of his days at Cluny. 

Now, what caught my attention was a passage from MS Paris Bibl. nat. Lat. 14443, fol. 438:

"It is said that Peter Abelard, wishing to see the order of the monks of Clairvaux, entered alone in cheap clothing and was very poorly received with the poor. The following day, however, having put on different clothing, he entered their chapter and at once exclaimed: 'For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?' [James 2.2]. 

And from then on they hated him."

Peter Aberlard was a difficult man it is clear, but this excerpt amused me as he was obviously so thick skinned that he had no qualms whatsoever in intentionally trying to find some way of criticising the Cistercians, and then pointing out their shortcomings to their faces using biblical scripture. 

Good trolling Abelard.

Women behaving badly

In the twelfth century, Queen Christina (d. 1170) of Denmark was disputing the ownership of the land upon which the monastery of Varnhem had been built. 

Legend accuses her of inciting the women of Øm to confront the monks during their Palm Sunday procession and strip down to their underwear, in order to humiliate and embarrass the monks. 

The monks retaliated and the priest’s house in which the women’s clothes had been stored was burnt to the ground.

(Image: 14^th century, Rothschild Canticles via http://www.gotmedieval.com/2012/01/needs-more-naked-mmm-marginalia-91.html)

- McGuire, B. Conflict and Continuity at Øm Abbey (Copenhagen, 1976) p. 12