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Guibert of Nogent the Development of Rhetoric from Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism Elyse Sulkey

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Guibert of Nogent the Development of Rhetoric from Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism Elyse Sulkey guibert of nogent The Development of Rhetoric from Anti-Judaism to Anti-Semitism Elyse Sulkey n a famous monastery, the offering the sacrifice.” 1 abbot sent a monk, raised in Despite what the reader the faith since his childhood, may be inclined to think, this Ito lodge in a cell attached to strange story is not a passage the church. While living in this from a poorly written erotica cell, the monk fell sick and was novel. Instead, it was taken from attended by a Jew who knew the memoirs of one of the most medicine. As the pair became studied clerics of the twelfth friends, the monk, curious about century, Guibert of Nogent. black magic, demanded initiation Guibert was born in 1060 on the into the practice by the Jew day before Easter at Clermont-en- whom he was convinced knew Beauvais.2 He was the youngest something about it. The Jew son of Evard, a warrior of King agreed to the monk’s demands Henry of France, and his wife, and arranged a meeting between a highly pious woman.3 They the monk and his master, the were a noble and influential Devil. When the day came, the family in their locality, but they monk stood before the Devil were not wealthy or highly and asked to be initiated into placed.4 Evard died shortly after his teaching. The Devil replied 1. This anecdote was taken from: Guibert, that the monk must renege Abbot of Nogent-sous-Coucy. A Monk’s his baptismal vows and offer a Confession: The Memoirs of Guibert of Nogent, sacrifice before he would consider trans. Paul J. Archambault (University Park, Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State him for initiation. When the University Press, 1996), 89-90. monk asked what the Devil 2. Jay Rubenstein, Guibert of Nogent: Portrait wanted as a sacrifice, the Devil of a Medieval Mind. (New York: Routledge, replied, “You will make me a 2002), 17. libation of your sperm. When you 3. Ibid. 4. John Benton, “The Personality of Guibert have poured it out to me, you will of Nogent.” Psychoanalytic Review, 57.4 (1970), taste it first, as it behooves the one 567. 35 Guibert’s birth,5 leaving Guibert of Christian-Jewish relations, a at the fringes of an already small fact that is reflected in Guibert’s patronage network.6 His mother attitudes toward Jews throughout never remarried; instead she his life’s work. focused her efforts on providing Guibert of Nogent wrote an education for Guibert and Gesta Dei per Francos, or The securing a private tutor for him.7 Deeds of God through the Franks, According to Guibert, his tutor between 1106 and 1109. It was a agreed to teach him because of a revision of an earlier anonymous dream in which an old man led chronicle titled Gesta Francorum. the young Guibert to his bedside.8 Though his chronicle of the First Eventually, Guibert entered the Crusade was not well known in Church of Saint-Germer for his own time, Guibert of Nogent monastic training despite his is today one of the best known mother’s insistence that he was chroniclers of the crusades, not yet ready. By 1104, Guibert perhaps due to his autobiography had obtained an appointment as Monodiae, or Memoirs, which is the abbot of Nogent.9 For a while, popularly referred to as A Monk’s Guibert struggled to be accepted Confession. Guibert wrote his as a monk and was determined to memoirs around 1115, which was prove that he was elected abbot quickly followed by his treatise on “merit alone.”10 During his against relic cults, On the Relics of time at Nogent, Guibert began Saints, in 1119. In these later works, to funnel his intellectual efforts Guibert accused Jews of using into his writing – writings that black magic; he was one of the occurred during a turbulent time first anti-Semitic writers to do so.11 In this paper, I argue that 5. In “Guibert of Nogent and the Subject of History” Heather Blurton argued that Guibert the previous anti-Judaic clerical developed a fascination and obsession with sentiments of Guibert in The sexual mutilation, money, and fear of death Deeds of God through the Franks due to his father’s early death and Guibert’s developed into anti-Semitic subsequent rearing by a strict and pious rhetoric in his later works. This mother and tutor. Blurton’s argument is similar to that of John Benton’s earlier article development will be traced “The Personality of Guibert of Nogent,” in chronologically through three which Benton discusses the possibility that prominent works of Guibert of Guibert suffered from an Oedipus complex Nogent: The Deeds of God through that influenced his views of the world. It is , worth noting that both Benton and Blurton the Franks A Monk’s Confession: The Memoirs of Guibert of Nogent, postulated that psychological damage from 12 Guibert of Nogent’s early years may account and On the Relics of Saints. for his hatred of the “other” and the fantastical 11. Benton, “The Personality of Guibert of charges he brought against them. 6. Rubenstein, Portrait of a Medieval Mind, Nogent,” 566. 17-18. 12. Another work of importance for this topic 7. Benton, “The Personality of Guibert of is Guibert’s 1111 On Jews and Judaizers. In Nogent,” 567. Guibert of Nogent: Portrait of a Medieval Mind, Jay Rubenstein describes the arguments of 8. Rubenstein, Portrait of a Medieval Mind, 18. other scholars that Guibert’s tract against the 9. Benton, “The Personality of Guibert of Jews was a turning point in Christian-Jewish Nogent,” 574. relations because it was the first tract to belittle 10. Blurton, “Guibert of Nogent and the and dehumanize Jews rather than treat them Subject of History,” 115. as respected theological colleagues. However, 36 This paper also discusses how In 1997, Steven Kruger the historical background of published an article in the increasingly poor Christian- journal New Literary History Jewish relations and the violence entitled “Medieval Christian of the First Crusade fueled the (Dis)Identifications: Muslims development of Guibert’s anti- and Jews in Guibert of Nogent.” Semitic rhetoric in the twelfth Though Kruger steered away century. from the psychoanalytic nature of Benton’s previous article, he Historiography noted that Guibert translated his fears about Jews into actions that Though Guibert of Nogent he could depict as “monstrous” was not well known to his and “animal.” However, Kruger contemporaries, modern spent the majority of his article scholarship is fascinated by discussing the rich history of the abbot who deemed himself biblical exegesis that came before important enough to write a the writings of Guibert and memoir before memoirs became how this tradition influenced a common literary convention. Guibert’s own depiction of Jews In fact, there have been several and Muslims.14 A large part of attempts to untangle the mind of Kruger’s article also focused on Guibert of Nogent and discover the idea that the proximity of the reasons behind not only Jewish communities to Christian his self-importance but also the writers like Guibert increased fantastical stories he depicts when their fears of corruption and discussing sinners, heretics, and conversion, leading Christian Jews. writers to treat the Jews more In 1970, John F. Benton wrote harshly in their works than the “The Personality of Guibert of Muslims who did not pose the Nogent.” This article, published same threat of proximity. Thus in The Psychoanalytic Review, Kruger’s article sought to explore focused on Guibert’s formative the religious issues that drove years and argued that the death Guibert’s works instead of the of Guibert’s father eight months personal issues that John Benton after his birth and Guibert’s had focused on nearly thirty years subsequent isolated childhood, prior.15 reared by an extremely pious Despite Steven Kruger’s mother and strict tutor, led to departure from psychoanalytical the development of an Oedipus explanations of Guibert’s complex. Benton postulated that attitudes, historians did not this complex fueled Guibert’s completely turn a blind eye to hatred of sin and warped the the role of the mind in Guibert’s way in which Guibert perceived 13 14. Exegesis refers to the critical sinners. interpretation and explanation of a text, On Jews and Judaizers was not included in this typically scripture. paper because an English translation could 15. Steven F. Kruger, “Medieval Christian not be located. (Dis)Identifications: Muslims and Jews in 13. Benton, “The Personality of Guibert of Guibert of Nogent.” New Literary History, 28.2 Nogent,” 563-586. (1997), 185-203. 37 works. In 2002, Jay Rubenstein and the “other.”17 released his book Guibert of Then in 2009, Elizabeth Nogent: Portrait of a Medieval Mind. Lapina published an article in The Instead of attributing Guibert’s Journal of Medieval History entitled attitudes to early psychological “Anti-Jewish Rhetoric in Guibert damage, Rubenstein traced of Nogent’s Dei gesta per Francos.” the development of Guibert’s In it, Lapina argued that Guibert theological ideas throughout of Nogent used the tradition of several of his early and later biblical exegesis to imbue his writings. Most notably, version of the Gesta Francorum Rubenstein traced the with anti-Judaic rhetoric through development of Guibert’s comparisons of the weaknesses of thoughts on morality and how the Maccabees and the strengths these thoughts impacted his of the Christian crusaders.18This impression of the “other” in paper will expand on Lapina’s comparison to Christianity. A work by arguing that the previous main point of his discussion anti-Judaic clerical sentiments focused on Guibert’s thoughts of Guibert in The Deeds of God about Jews and how those through the Franks developed into thoughts were reflected in anti-Semitic rhetoric in his later medieval Christian-Jewish works: A Monk’s Confession: The relations.
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