2020/04/14 by James Titterton · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Medieval Literature and History #Historical Studies of British Isles #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity #Sermon #Honour #Piety #Welsh #Turkish #History #Victory #Classics #Barbarian #Ancient history #Literature #Art #Theology #Philosophy #Law #Political science #Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1163/9789004428560_014
openalex publication_date 2020/04/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
This essay analyses a hitherto unnoticed borrowing from Vegetius’s De re militari in William of Malmesbury’s account of Urban II’s sermon at the Council of Clermont. Scholars have long recognised that the various reports of Urban’s sermon are as much literary constructs, reflecting their authors’ personal views of the crusading movement, as they are reports of the pope’s actual words or sentiments. It demonstrates how Malmesbury wove material from Lucan and Vegetius into his text to create a uniquely ‘secular’ version of Urban’s sermon, one that appealed as much to his audience’s sense of honour as their Christian piety. Malmesbury drew on Vegetius as a Classical authority to demonstrate that the Turks were inherently poor fighters. In this, Malmesbury reflected not only Classical theories about race but also his own well-documented prejudices against the ‘barbarian’ and the other, whether they be Welsh, Scandinavian or Turkish.