Monniken, ridders en geweld in elfde-eeuws Vlaanderen

Samenvatting

A monk of Lobbes has left an account of a voyage to Flanders that he & a group of other monks from the same abbey undertook in 1060. They carried relics of Saint Ursmar & used them to compel Flemish knights to cease feuding & make peace with their enemies, exploiting the fear of the miraculous powers of saints. The medieval regular clergy appear from this & other accounts to have played a greater role in pacification than is ascribed to them by Norbert Elias (Uber den Prozess der Zivilisation. Soziogenetische und Psychogenetische Untersuchungen [On the Process of Civilization: Sociogenetic and Psychogenetic Research], 2 Vols, Bern & Munchen: Francke, 1969). Elias appears incorrect also in describing the conduct of eleventh-century warriors as dominated by passionate impulses to violence & unrestrained emotions. Self-restraint & foresight were as much needed in a world without a stable monopoly of violence as in the modern world. Modified HA.