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Noble Society: Five Lives from Twelfth-Century Germany, by Jonathan R. Lyon

2019; Oxford University Press; Volume: 134; Issue: 567 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ehr/cez008

1477-4534

Mark Whelan,

Historical and Archaeological Studies

This tremendously useful source volume makes available in English five texts dealing with the diverse lives of five German aristocrats in the later eleventh and twelfth centuries, including a margrave, a count, a bishop, an abbess and a Magistra (the female leader of the women’s side of a double monastic community). Jonathan R. Lyon has succeeded admirably in making possible much deeper study of fascinating individuals who fought, prayed and died in Germany, Italy, Bohemia and pagan Pomerania, all against the rich backdrop of emperor fighting pope, new forms of religious life sweeping across Christendom and vast swathes of central and eastern Europe coming into the Catholic fold. The Deeds of Margrave Wiprecht of Groitzsch, whose translation was produced with the assistance of Lisa Wolverton, was probably written by a monk (or, as Lyon notes, written by several monks communally) in mid-twelfth-century Saxony in the monastery of Pegau—a religious community established by Wiprecht and which he himself joined in old age. Wiprecht (d. 1124) was probably born in the 1050s and his Deeds are remarkable for the detail with which they record a violent and sinful secular career that saw the margrave fight for the Emperor in Italy, battle with rivals across Germany, found religious houses and even marry the daughter of the Bohemian King. His five decades of serving (and fighting) Emperors Henry IV and V eventually saw him rise to Margrave of Lusatia, but his climbing the social ladder was not easy, and his Deeds chronicle his military defeats and falls from grace in tense court politics, his assassination of rivals in underhand plots and even a confrontation with a lion in Italy (which he managed to see off with a mere brandishing of his fist). The Deeds of Count Ludwig of Arnstein is an equally fascinating text, and explores the career of the Rhenish noble Ludwig (d. 1184) who took the remarkable decision in 1139 to convert his castle into a Premonstratensian religious house. Endowing the new foundation with all of his property, he also joined the order as some form of lay brother (conversus), along with his chaplain, scribe and steward, while his wife was enclosed (somewhat unwillingly, Lyon suggests) as some form of anchoress in a nearby cell, custom-fitted with a small window so she could listen to divine service. As his Deeds make clear, Ludwig continued to enjoy high standing in local society; he encouraged further donations to his new foundation from local lords, and he was given authority to reform local houses that were seen to be failing—including one house that had fallen on such hard times that hunting dogs were said to be roaming through the ruined church sanctuary. Ludwig’s Deeds were composed by monks at his foundation in Arnstein in stages throughout the twelfth century, and shed fascinating light on a count who fully supported the reforming movements that were sweeping through Christendom during his lifetime. Written perhaps in the 1140s by a monk in the Abbey of Prüfening in Bavaria, The Life of Bishop Otto of Bamberg is one of the lengthier texts translated by Lyon, and explores the political and missionary career of Otto (d. 1139), a prelate who held the important see of Bamberg and spent much of his life proselytising in modern-day Poland and Pomerania. Book II of the life is particularly gripping, and covers Otto’s attempts to bring Christianity to pagan populations in Pomerania in sometimes surprising detail, including the admission that he converted the very precise number of 22,165 pagans in his first visit.