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First Crusader Conceptions of Meteorology and the Miraculous

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First Crusader Conceptions of Meteorology and the Miraculous UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE WEATHER OR NOT: FIRST CRUSADER CONCEPTIONS OF METEOROLOGY AND THE MIRACULOUS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE By KRISTIN RAFFA Norman, Oklahoma 2021 WEATHER OR NOT: FIRST CRUSADER CONCEPTIONS OF METEOROLOGY AND THE MIRACULOUS A THESIS APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE BY THE COMMITTEE CONSISTING OF Dr. Rienk Vermij, Chair Dr. Kerry Magruder Dr. Craig Martin ©Copyright by KRISTIN RAFFA 2021 All Rights Reserved. Acknowledgements I wish to thank my advisor, Rienk Vermij, for always welcoming my questions, avidly supporting my educational endeavors, and pushing me to be my best. I am grateful for Kerry Magruder's conversations with me that have shaped my perspective and approach to writing and researching. Craig Martin's scholarship greatly influenced my academic path, and I'm thankful for his kind advice and guidance that have helped me grow in my learning. It has been an incredible privilege to learn from these three. My cohort and fellow grad students made life in Norman fun and memorable, and the professors in the History of Science Department enriched my learning experience. A special thanks goes to Stella Stuart and Sam Fellows, who are both amazing people. I am also thankful for input from James Naus and his continued willingness to answer my questions. I'm grateful to my mom for having coffee with me in the mornings and being my biggest cheerleader, and to my dad for giving me the best music suggestions while I study. My sisters Beth, Catherine, and Sarah, sent me lots of pictures from home and kept me company long distance. I am grateful to Riley for indulging me in conversations that greatly improved my work and challenged my ideas, but most of all for his love and encouragement. He carried me through this project. iv Abstract Recent historians of the First Crusade have written that appearances in the sky were important to crusaders because they were signs of divine approval, served a narrative function, and indicated God's plan of an upcoming apocalypse, but a comprehensive explanation of what these phenomena reveal about crusader beliefs of the natural world beyond a narrative explanation remains up for debate. While twelfth-century narrative writers often used meteorological phenomena as a narrative support, it is possible to explain how crusaders understood the role and function of both ordinary and unusual phenomena within their view of the natural world by examining the descriptions and explanations of meteorological events in accounts of the First Crusade. Crusaders' perspectives on meteorological phenomena can be understood by examining whether writers perceived and catalogued events as rare or regular, and if writers interpreted and understood these events as meaningful or insignificant. Understanding how crusaders and chroniclers perceived and described meteorological phenomena and appearances in the sky through a comparison of the combinations of these four attributes reveals that crusaders did not have a universal understanding or interpretation of meteorological events. Rather, this incongruity demonstrates that some of these early twelfth-century writers viewed the acquisition of knowledge of the natural world as a worthwhile endeavor. v Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Attitudes and Perspectives on Natural Philosophy .............................................................. 12 Education as an Institution ........................................................................................................ 13 Attitude toward Education in the Narratives ............................................................................ 15 Authorities in Natural Philosophy ............................................................................................ 19 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 21 2. Attitudes and Perspectives on the Miraculous ..................................................................... 23 Authorities of the miraculous.................................................................................................... 24 The miraculous in First Crusade accounts ................................................................................ 25 Narrative miracles in First Crusade accounts ........................................................................... 30 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 31 3. The Story and Storytellers .................................................................................................... 33 Chronology of events as told through the Gesta Francorum ................................................... 34 Medieval narratives and accounts of the First Crusade ............................................................ 37 Authors and accounts of the First Crusade ............................................................................... 39 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 42 4. The Phenomena ...................................................................................................................... 44 Fire in the Sky ........................................................................................................................... 44 Comets ...................................................................................................................................... 50 Eclipses ..................................................................................................................................... 53 Falling Stars .............................................................................................................................. 56 Wind .......................................................................................................................................... 57 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 60 5. Meteorology as a Fair-weather Friend ................................................................................. 61 Historians' response to meteorology ......................................................................................... 62 Moral meteorology.................................................................................................................... 65 Goals when discussing meteorology ......................................................................................... 68 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 70 6. Philosophy of Science on Crusade ......................................................................................... 72 Skepticism and verification....................................................................................................... 73 Experimentation through the ordeal.......................................................................................... 77 Ways of knowing ...................................................................................................................... 80 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 83 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 89 References .................................................................................................................................... 94 Appendix ...................................................................................................................................... 98 Fire in the Sky ........................................................................................................................... 98 Comets ...................................................................................................................................... 98 Earthquakes ............................................................................................................................... 99 vi Introduction The series of holy wars that began as a penitential pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem stands out because of the wealth of surviving narrative accounts. More than ten authors wrote full narratives of the First Crusade (1095-1099) in the first decades of the twelfth century, making it one of the most documented events in the history of the Middle Ages.1 The narratives recount noble men and impoverished peasants humbling themselves and setting off in groups toward the holy land, dressed in garments with a sewn cross that signaled them as pilgrims. These accounts emphasized divine intervention and the appearances of prodigies, often in the form of astounding meteorological phenomena. The number of those signed with the cross (crucesignati) thinned as thirst, disease, and the outnumbering Saracen armies claimed lives and actualized God's punishment for wonton
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