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Loyalty, Friendship and Love in the Letters of Fulbert of Chartres

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Loyalty, Friendship and Love in the Letters of Fulbert of Chartres LOYALTY, FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE IN THE LETTERS OF FULBERT OF CHARTRES Date of reception: 251h of April, 2007 Final date of acceptance: lFhoi Decemher, 2007 In letter 51 of his correspondence, Fulbert of Chartres oIfers a definition oIfdeli- tus which has long been nsed by historians to describe feudal-vassalic relations. 1n al1 of his correspondence, Fulhert expreses this social bond by using an elaborate vocabulary of friendship and emotions. He thus qualifies social relations descrihed as an elernent of vassalage and loyalty and gives them a moral content. He defines amicitia, particularly for the attention of William of Aquitaine, by emphasising its "usefnl" aspect and stressing its ohjective, honestum or the common good, terms that have already been found in his 51" letter to definefdelitas. Friendship is therefore a natural corollary of the relationships of loyalty within the clergy or in the secu- lar world. In the same way relationships of loyalty are coupled with the use of the vocahnlary of affecíus, which conveys the ideals of peace and the common good, heralded by the Bishop of Chartres in feudal society at the beginning of the 11th century. Fulhert de Chartres, Faithfulness, Friendship, Peace, Love. Fulbertus Carnutinus, Fideliias, Amicitia, Pax, Cantas. The letters of Fulbert, bishop of Charires between ahout 1006 and 1028, are a fundamental source of knowledge about the organisation of feudal society. Indeed, this bishop, appointed by l<ing Robert the Pious, following his position as scolaster of Chartres and reputed for bis erudition and piety, left 131 letters which are con- cerned with particular problems of a legal, ecclesiastical and religious nature. These letters show how the bishop forged a network of relationships among the great and the good of society at the stari of the 1 lth century: he corresponded, for example, with Robert the Pious, Fulk Nerra Count of Anjou, William, Diike of Aquitaine or Eudes 11 Count ol Blois and Chartres, but also with churcbnien such as Odilo of Cluny or Abbo of Pleury. This source is an invitation to examirie the society of power around the year 1000 and covers the notion of feudality.' Indeed, Fulbert ol Chartres, in his famous letter 512 of bis correspondence, of- fered a definition of fidelitas, in which many historians have seen ihe definition of feudal-vassalic relationships for the attention of William, Duke of Aquitaine3. In- deed, it seems that the Bishop of Chartres plays ori both meanings ol the wordfideli- tas, which represents the feudal-vassalic relationship in its entirety as well as sworn loyalty6. Thus he defines the relationship of loyalty, which forms part of the vassalic ritual but includes other types of relationship, tliroilgh the concepts of securitas, con- siiium and auxilium. In this way his letter can actas a basis for establishing the rules of vassalage like those for any lype of loyalty. Fulbert emphasises ihe moral aspect of this man-to-man relationship, which must follow the established rules and which 1. This airicle has beeii deveioped oilt of a commuiiicalion prrsentcd on 21" May 2005 in Aix-eii- ~ ~ Médiévalessur la Médiierranée Occidentale) of rhc University ol Montpelliei 111-Paul Valery. It nrakes up par1 of a rhesis ut the University of Provence under the supervision of Mrs. H. Taviani-Carozri. 1 ani grateful to those who parricipared in thc Doctoral Meetings for their advice and support. 1 am grateful ta Mis. 13. Taviani-Caioízi for rereading it. 2. Thc numbering aiid the test of thc letlen iised in this articie refer to The ierlen andpoems ofFulbert of Chnrtres, ed. Frcdeiik Behrrnds. Oxford: Oxford University Prcss, 1976. The translation of the lerrers is peisonal. 3. This letler is paiticiilarly usrd in tlle following reierince works: Bioch. Mari. 1.a sociéféféodaie. Paris: Albin-Michel, 1994 (first cdirion. Paris: Albin Michel, 1940): Canshof. Franqois-Louis. Qu'ni-ce que ia féodalité?Paris: Tallandier. 1982 (firsl cdirion, Briiselles: impr. dc I'Office de Publicité, 1944); Boutriiche, Roberr. Seigneurie et Féodaliré. i Le premier &e des iienr d'homme a homme. Paiis: Aubier, 1968: Boixrnazel, Eric: Poiy. Jeun-Pierie. La mufalionfiod01eX~-Xllesi$cles. Paris: Presses univeisituiies de France, 1991 4. The Latin text of tliis ierlei, following the edition The lellenandpoems ofFulber1ofChartiei ...: 90-92: Glorioso duci Aquilanorum W(ili?lmqi F(u1berlusJ episcopopus oracionis supqium. Deformafideiilalis aiiquid scribere monirus. haec vobis quae secunlur brevirer ex librorum aucloritale no- iavi. Qui domino ruofldeiirarem iuraf, isfa sen ir? menioria remper haber? deber: incolume, fulum, honesrum. utile. facile, possibiie. incolume videlicef. ve sñ in dampnum domino de corpore suo. Tulum. ne sil e¡ iiz dampnurn de rrcrelo suo ve1 de niunicionibus per quas rutus pise porest. Honeslum, ne sil ti in dampnum de sva iusliria ve1 de aliis causis quae ad honeslalem eiur peninerr videnlur Ulile, ne sil ei in dampnurn de suis possessionibus. Faale ve1 possibiie. ne id bonum quod dominus sut*r leviter facere poterat facial ei difficile. neve id quod possibiie eral. reddar ti inzpossibiic. Urfldeli.~haec nncunienla caveal iidrfum est. sed non ideo casamenlzlm merelur Non eninz sufficilabsrinere a malo, nisi fiel auod bonurn <:l. Resta1 erqo u1 in eisdem aims at achieving bonum, utile and honestum, in other words the common good and tIie sovereign good oí feudal societyi. For the Bishop of Chartres, this relationship is essential to society in his time: it enables the moralisation and hierarchisation of the secular world as well as the clerical, in arder to prornote peace and justice. In the 131 letters that make up his correspondence, this notion offidelitas and the lexical field associated with it frequently recur and are often connecied to two other lexical fields, those of friendship and of love. How then is this association between the two vocabularies, one nf social relatinnships and one oi emotinns, understood? And what are the words and the concepts that can prove the connection between the two? Does Fulbert of Chartres atternpt to apply another cultural and moral model to the relationship of loyalty and if so, with what aim? It is sensible to con- sider in which contexts, in which circumstances and according to what needs the specific vocabulary of fidelitas is enriched wiih oilier notions like those of "friend- ship" and "love". 1. Loyalty and friendship in the letters of Fulbert of Chartres In the letters of Fulbert that contain the lexical field of loyalty, another lexi- cal field is sometimes found, namely that of amicitia. This concept was inherited from Greek and Roman Antiquity6. Cicero, in his treatise De Amicitia, passed no the conceptions of Antiquity of this social relationship to the men of the Middle Ages. In Ronie, amicitia was embodied by two types of relationships: a noble relation- ship between highborn political men who shared the sarne education and values, in particular the quest for virtue, and another, more common relationship, which subordinates the client to his superior. The term amicitia was employed to represent ihis relationship, despiie the ineqiiality betwcen the two partriers. From the earliest centuries of this era, the Christian authors revisited this Greek and Roman herit- age and adapted it to their beliefs and their communal way of life. The theme of caritas, Christian love which is a gift frorn God and which rnusi nourish the clergy, subsequently appeared and was preferred to the Roman notion of amicitia within monastic communities from the end of Antiquity and the early Middle Ages7. The Grecn-Roman heritage however survived, revisited and adapted by the Church Fa- thers, such as Saint Augusiine or Ambrose of Milan, who passed it oii to the literate 5. For a thorough analysis of this letter and iii particrilar its rhetorical aspcct and nioral contcrii, see the following srudirs: Becker. Alfons. "Fornl und Materir. Bemerkungen zu Fuibens von Chartres Befonna fideiitaiis im Lehnrcchr des Mirtelalters und der frühen Neiireit". Hisiorisches Jahrbuch. 102 (1982): 325- 361: Adalbéron de Laoii. PoPmeau roiRohert, ed. and tians. Claude Carozzi. Parir: 1.cs Belles Lcttier, 1979. Se? rhe introdiiction for clarification o1 lcttcr 51 by Fulbcrt o! Chartres. 6. Thc following work offrrs a detailed panorama of the notion of friendship in Antlqulty and its evolri- tion: Iconstan, David. Friendrhip in fhe claaicai world. Cambiidgc: Cambridge University Piess, 1997. 7. Brian P. McGuire ofiers an analysis of this evolution: MrGuire, Brian P. Priendship and conimuniiy: the monasricexperirncr.350-1250. Kalamazoo: Cistercian Piiblications. 1988. men of the Middle Ages. Gerbert of Rheims and Fulbert of Charires in particular turned amicitia into a lofty ideal of virtue and affection shared between two men, as well as a social relationship that was useful to both parties. They thereby returned io the notion of utile, from utilitar developed by Cicero in many of his worksP8which Fulbert employs to define fidelitas in his letter 51. It seems therefore that these two social relations, amicitia and fidelitas, are adorned with the same moral connotations by the Bishop of Chartres. Taking as a starting point the study of vocabulary of amici- tia associated with words and expressions which convey loyalty, this discussion in- tends to analyse the particular relation that linked Fulbert to William of Aquitaine, because it gives rise to the use of two lexical fields. 2. Amicitia in the lexical field of loyalty This notion of amicitia is evident in Fulbert's letters through words of the same family and words which are dosely linked. If we take the lexical field of amicitia in the letters which already contain the lexical field of fidelitas: we notice first of al1 the rarity and poverty of this lexical field in comparison with that of loyalty. The words are panicularly significant in relation to appearing in the text.
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