Das Kloster Fulda und der Goslarer Rangstreit (review)
2000; University of California; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1557-0290
Autores Tópico(s)Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies
ResumoREVIEWS Tuomas Heikkila, Das Kloster Fulda und der Goslarer Rangstreit, Annales Academiae Scientiarum Fennicae, ser. Humaniora, vol. 298 (Helsinki: Acade- mia Scientiarum Fennica 1998) 222 pp. The subject of Tuomas Hekkila’s (TH) new book, the so-called Goslarer Rangstreit, is a topic familiar to many specialists of medieval German ecclesi- astical and political history, but up until now has not attracted much scholarly attention outside the confines of Hessian or Thuringian Landesgeschichte. It has long deserved a monographic treatment which analyzes it in the context of some larger historical problems in eleventh-century German history. The story of the Rangstreit, as shown below, also presents some difficult and fascinating questions about textuality and mentality in the Middle Ages. TH’s book is far more successful in dealing with the former set of issues than the latter. Below I summarize the book’s conclusions and discuss some problems raised by TH’s methods of textual criticism. The Goslarer Rangstreit was a violent dispute that erupted at the royal es- tate of Goslar in Christmas 1062 and over Pentecost 1063 between Widerad, the abbot of Fulda, Germany’s largest and wealthiest Benedictine monastery, and Hezilo (or Wezel), the bishop of Hildesheim, over which prelate ought to be seated next to the archbishop of Mainz at the assembly. The armed retainers of both men nearly came to blows over their respective lord’s place of honor next to the archbishop during Christmas 1062. The abbot of Fulda claimed the spot on the basis of a long-standing tradition of his monastery’s primacy, whereas Hezilo believed he should sit next to the archbishop because Goslar was in his diocese. At Pentecost the following year, the dispute flared up again, this time with devastating results. When the seating arrangements still could not be resolved, both sides went for their weapons—allegedly in the middle of the church service—with many deaths and injuries resulting. An ad hoc inquest into the cause of the riot found the abbot of Fulda guilty of provoking the fight and he was forced to absolve himself with massive payoffs to various parties, a situation which impoverished the monastery and caused a rebellion among the monks. The Rangstreit receives attention in several contemporary sources, the most detailed being the account in the Annales of Lampert of Hersfeld, a monk who may even have been an eyewitness to some of the events. 33 TH presents a well-articulated and clearly-written analysis of the dispute, moving carefully through issues of comparative source criticism, background history, and a detailed presentation of the events themselves and their after- math, particularly the rebellion of the Fulda monks following Widerad’s pun- ishing liquidation of the abbey’s property. In his main analysis, TH attempts to bring the political motivations of both the bishop’s and the abbot’s parties into Annales in Lamperti monachi Hersfeldensis opera, ed. Oswald Holder-Egger, MGH SS rer. Germ. (Leipzig and Hannover 1894) 1–304. The dispute is related on 81– 87. Another near-contemporary treatment is in the Liber de unitate ecclesiae conservanda, ed. W. Schwenkenbecker, MGH SS rer. Germ. (Hannover 1883) 109–110, a pro-imperial Streitschrift generated during the Investiture controversy, possibly by another monk of Hersfeld.
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