Bourne Archive: Hereward: XVI
http:// boar.org.uk/ariwxo3FNQsupXVI.htm Latest edit 22 May 2011.
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The Bourne Archive
FNQ
This
thread begins with the title
page
De Gestis Herwardi Saxonis.
XVI.
Qua
de causa miles Anglico more1 fieri voluit et ubi factus
est.
Igitur Herwardus dum se talium virorum præceptorem conspiceret ac dominum et quotidie ex effugatis et præjudicatis et ab exhæreditatis manum suam non minime crescere cerneret, in memoriam habuit morem [more] suæ gentis gladio nec balteo militari præcinctum se non fuisse, unde cum duobus ex suis præclarissimis viris, unus Wynter nomine et alter Gaenoch ad abbatem de Burch vocabulo Brant valde nobilis genere perrexit, ut eum militari gladio et balteo Anglico more præcingeret, ne multorum princeps et ductor factus quasi non miles incolæ patriæ exprobrarent. Et in natali apostolorum Petri et Pauli ab abbate militare honore functus est, et ob illius honorem quidem Elyensis monachus, Wiltunus nomine, qui et præpositus erat et patrio Herwardi amicus et ex fide frater, suos sodales milites fecit. Idcirco enim a monachis se et suos milites fieri voluit, et quomodo a Francigenis constitutum audierat, quod si quis a monacho vel a clerico seu ab aliquo infra sacros ordines constituto militem fieret non humilitatema inter milites haberi debereb
, sed quasi adulteratus eques et abortivus. Huic igitur consuetudini repugnans Herwardus, pene omnes sibi servientes et obedientes a monachis milites fieri voluit, ut si non aliter saltem a monacho, si quis eum serviret, gladium sicut militaris mos exigit acciperet, sæpe adjungens, quod si quis a servo dei et a milite regis cœlestis gladium militarem acceperit, hunc servum suam virtutem excellenter in omni tirocinio agere scio ut sæpe expertus sum. Ex hoc enim consuetudo apud Elienses ortus est, quod si quis ibi miles fieret, semper nudum ensem super altare inter magnam missam eodem die offerre deberet, et a monacho qui missam cantaret postevangelium sic accipi imposito nudo collo gladio cum benedictione, isto modo tironi tradens ensem eques sit factus emeriter. Mos enim his [hic]c in temporibus abbatum fuit, ex quo Herwardus insulam ingressus est, ut eam contra regem Willelmum cum habitatoribus illius defensaret, qui tunc pene omnem terram sibi subjecerat, de quo seorsim gesta rerum recensebimus, et loco suo inseremus.XVI.
For what reason he wished to be
made a knight in the English manner1, and where he was made a knight.
Therefore Hereward,
when he perceived himself to be the leader and lord of such men, and how he saw
his band largely increasing every day by fugitives, and men condemned and
disinherited2, called to mind that he had never been according to the custom of his
nation, girt with a sword and belt of a knight : and so, with two of the most
eminent of his men, one named Wynter and the other Gaenoch, he went to the Abbot of Burgh, whose name was
Brant3, a man of very noble birth, that
he might gird him with the sword and belt of a knight, after the English
practice, lest, after becoming the chief and leader of many men, the
inhabitants of the country should find fault with him for being no knight. And
on the Feast of the Nativity of the Apostles Peter and Paul4 he obtained the honour of
knighthood at the hands of the Abbot : and for his honour a monk of Ely, Wilton
by name, who was also warden (?)
and a friend of Hereward’s father, and faithful as a brother, made his comrades
knights. For so he wanted
himself and his men to be made knights ; as he had
heard it had been ruled by the Frenchmen that if any one were made a knight by
a monk or a clerk or by any ordained minister,*
he ought not to be reckoned among true knights, but as a false knight and born
out of due time. Hereward, out of opposition to this rule, desired
nearly all the men that served him and were under his rule to be made knights
by the monks, so that if any one would serve him he should receive the sword as
knightly custom demands at least from a monk, if from no other. And he often
said, “If any man received the knightly sword from a servant of God and a
knight of the kingdom of heaven, I know that such a servant displays his valour
in every sort of military service, as I have often found by experience.” And
hence arose the custom among the monks of Ely, that if any man there would be
made a knight, he ought always on the same day to offer his naked sword upon
the altar at high mass, and receive it again from the monk that was singing the
mass, after the gospel, the sword being put on his bare neck with benediction,
and in that way, by delivering the sword to the recruit, he was made full
knight. And this was the practice of Abbots in those times. Afterwards he
entered the
Commentary.
? [Sweeting’s
query]. [Observations by RJP with the help of
FWP.
Præpositus is the past participle of præpono. It means
‘preferred’ or ‘placed in charge’ (Langenscheidt), overseer or commander (Collins). For example, the leader of the
Jesuits is their Præpositus generalis. In
the Latin of a medieval monastery, it can be taken as meaning the prior, a monk
to whom the abbot delegated some of his responsibility: which responsibility
and how much, would be for the abbot to decide. Read more: Wikipedia. Thus we would have: ‘and on the
feast of the birth of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the honour of knighthood was
performed [on Hereward] by the abbot and before this
honour indeed, the monk of Ely called Wilton, who was a high office-bearer
there [prior], a friend of Hereward’s father
and through faith, a brother [monk], made his [Hereward’s] companions knights.’ Later, the Abbot’s post became also,
that of Bishop but this did not arise until 1109 (Wikipedia). However Hugh does not restrict his
use of the term præpositus
to a monastic or even ecclesiastical context. The præpositus of Chapter XXIV was clearly
neither military nor monastic but a leader in civil administration.]
* [Sweeting’s
note] Latin
manifestly corrupt.
[Observations by RJP with the help of FWP. He seems to have had trouble with
the highlighted sentence. It would go better as the following: For he wished
that he and his men should be knighted by monks, and had heard how it was
established by the French that if anyone had been knighted by a monk
(presumably of any grade, ordained or otherwise) or by a priest (presumably of
the secular church) or by anyone holding an office lower than (full) holy
orders (i.e. e.g. a deacon in the
secular church), he ought not to be considered as a knight among (i.e. by) other knights, but as an
adulterine (i.e. false or not
properly authorized) and abortive (here = ‘incomplete, not fully developed’
rather than ‘born before full term’) knight. [FWP]
Without the clarifications in brackets, that becomes: For he wished that he and his
men should be knighted by monks, and had heard how it was established by the
French, that if anyone had been knighted by a monk, or by a priest, or by
anyone holding an office lower than holy orders, he ought not to be considered
as a knight among other knights, but as an adulterine and abortive knight.]
a. This
and debere appear
to be what Sweeting had in mind when he described the Latin as corrupt (see *). The problem could be solved by ignoring the first and
penultimate syllables, hu
and at, so reading humilitatem as militem.
b. Then
if debere
is read as deberet,
the meaning becomes that which Sweeting has given. (non deberet = he ought not)
c. ↑ An example of an error caused by attraction. See Chapter XIV
1. ↑ We have met more danico, ‘by Danish custom’: here we have more anglico,
‘by English custom’. Sweeting’s translation, using
‘in’ gives the meaning without pedantic attention to accuracy. The use of a capital
A for Anglico
is an example of something done by English custom (more anglico) and will have been Miller’s insertion.
2. ↑ This short list gives an indication of what was driving the
revolt alluded to at the end of the chapter.
3. ↑ Wikipedia
includes a list of Abbots of
Peterborough. This would date the present events to the period between 1066 and
1069 when Brand was abbot.
4. ↑ The feast day of SS Peter and Paul is 29 June. The calendar
in the Luttrell Psalter
makes no mention of a feast of their nativity. Baldwin V died on 1 September
1067 so this is probably the end of June in 1068, when Hereward was close to
thirty years old. His view that an Anglian or English form of knighthood would
be preferable is as near as the text comes to a direct expression of
Anglo-Saxon nationalism.
5. ↑ This is one of the clearer examples of a narrative link
between chapters. It seems to have been the paucity of such linking material
which has given people the impression that the text relates a series of
invented stories. Episodes of events from the revolt follow in later chapters
but the writer keeps to his plan of reporting examples of Hereward’s skill,
fortitude, magnanimity – illustrations of the several aspects of his character.
It is not planned as a social or political history.