By Uta Goerlitz München
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Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik 70 (2013), 173-177 Special Issue Section: Sovereigns and Saints INTRODUCTION CULTURAL INTEGRATIVE FIGURES AT THE INTERSECTION OF RULERSHIP AND SAINTHOOD IN MEDIEVAL CHRONICLES by Uta Goerlitz München Rulers or heroes and saints are guiding images of European medieval culture; hence their importance for literature and historiography in the orbit of the noble courts (see, for instance, Müller/ Wunderlich 2001; or Melville/ Staub 2008, vol. 1: 9ff., 340ff.; cf. note 1). Their inte- grative power refers to the vernacular oral culture of the aristocracy on one hand, and to the Latin writing culture of the clergy on the other. In practice, the two cultures cannot be separated. As a result of the conflictive interconnection of aristocratic culture and cleric culture, the specific guiding images of the ruler and the saint overlap: Heroic rulers have saintly characteristics and are depicted as essentially pacific, and saints turn into heroic rulers. The following four contri- butions on the overarching topic, Sovereigns and Saints. Narrative Modes of Constructing Rulership and Sainthood in Latin and German (Rhyme) Chronicles, focus on the interferences between antithetic features of rulers and saints in medieval aristocratic literature. All four contributions are situated within the context of the Priority Program (SPP) 1173 Integration and Disintegration of Civilizations in the European Middle Ages, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (see Borgolte et. al. 2008: particularly Hammer/ Seidl/ Zimmermann; Hammer/ Seidl 2008 and, et al., 2010; Goerlitz/ Haubrichs 2009).1 Approaching the topic from the perspectives prevalent in their respective fields, that is, German literature, culture and history, the contributors explore how the cultural guiding images of the ruler and the saint are narratively presented in German and Latin (rhymed) chronicles of the 12th to the 16th centuries. The actual focus is the 10th–13th centuries; in a comparative perspective, legends 1 See also the homepage of the SPP 1173, URL <http://www.spp1173.uni-hd.de> (31.3.2012). 174 Uta Goerlitz are occasionally taken into account. To what extent can we observe a superimposition of those guiding images and interferences among nar- rative strategies? Andreas Hammer (Department of German Philology, Georg- August-University, Göttingen) illustrates this interplay in his study of the hagiographic and historiographic narrative patterns in accounts on Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg and Emperor Henry II, two important rulers of the 10th and early 11th centuries who were both canonized after their death. Bishop Ulrich became famous for defending the city of Augsburg during the Battle of Lechfeld between Emperor Otto I and the Hungarians. The earliest testimony of texts focusing on Ulrich (who was canonized shortly after his death) is Gerhard of Augburg’s Ulrich vita, composed in the wake of the events. At the beginning of the 11th century, Bern of Reichenau wrote another Latin hagiographic version. The earliest Ulrich vita by Gerhard highlights the bishop’s military talents. In Bern of Reichenau’s more hagiographic account this aspect loses importance. In the early and high medieval histori- ographic texts and chronicles both in Latin and German it is further marginalized, presenting Ulrich increasingly as saint. In the Late Mid- dle Ages the mode of description of the canonized bishop changes again. Andreas Hammer traces this changing image of Saint Ulrich in various vitae and chronicles up to the beginnings of Humanism. In the sequel he compares it with medieval accounts of Emperor Henry II, who was, unlike Ulrich, not canonized within one hundred years of his death. Among the historiographic texts that initiate the textual corpus of accounts on Henry’s life, the chronicle of Thietmar of Merseburg is particularly important. Later, in relation with Henry’s canonization, hagiographic texts were written, first in Latin and later also in Ger- man. Establishing a dialogue with historiographic texts, they superim- pose the guiding image of the ruler and the saint. In a complex pro- cess, the hagiograpic texts in turn influence a series of late medieval vernacular chronicles. Finally, in the aftermath of the Reformation, hagiographic and historiographic accounts on Saint Henry are system- atically distinguished. The second contribution, by Uta Goerlitz (Department of German Philology, Ludwig Maximilians-University, Munich), focuses on the figure of Charlemagne in the Early Middle High German Kaiser- chronik. The Kaiserchronik is the first German rhymed chronicle of .