The Deeds of God through the Franks

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Having praised the West at the expense of the East in the first book,
in the second he praises the French at the expense of the Teutons,
recounting a conversation he recently held with a German ecclesiastic,
to show himself an ardent defender of ethnicity:

Last year while I was speaking with a certain archdeacon of Mainz
about a rebellion of his people, I heard him vilify our king and our
people, merely because the king had given gracious welcome everywhere
in his kingdom to his Highness Pope Paschalis and his princes; he
called them not merely Franks, but, derisively, "Francones." I said
to him, "If you think them so weak and languid that you can denigrate
a name known and admired as far away as the Indian Ocean, then tell
me upon whom did Pope Urban call for aid against the Turks? Wasn't
it the French? Had they not been present, attacking the barbarians
everywhere, pouring their sturdy energy and fearless strength into
the battle, there would have been no help for your Germans, whose
reputation there amounted to nothing." That is what I said to him.

Guibert then turns to his reader, and provides a more extensive
panegyric for his people, recalling pre-Merovingian accomplishments:

I say truly, and everyone should believe it, that God reserved this
nation for such a task. For we know certainly that, from the time
that they received the sign of faith that blessed Remigius brought to
them, they succumbed to none of the diseases of false faith from
which other nations have remained uncontaminated either with great
difficulty or not at all. They are the ones who, while still
laboring under the pagan error, when they triumphed on the
battlefield over the Gauls, who were Christians, did not punish or
kill any of them, because they believed in Christ. Instead, those
whom Roman severity had punished with sword and fire, French native
generosity covered with gems and amber. They strove to welcome with
honor not only those who lived within their own borders, but they
also affectionately cared for people who came from Spain, Italy, or
anywhere else, so that love for the martyrs and confessors, whom they
constantly served and honored, made them famous, finally driving them
to the glorious victory at Jerusalem. Because it has carried the
yoke since the days of its youth, it will sit in isolation,[34] a
nation noble, wise, war-like, generous, brilliant above all kinds of
nations. Every nation borrows the name as an honorific title; do we
not see the Bretons, the English, the Ligurians call men "Frank" if
they behave well? But now let us return to the subject.

"Let us return to the subject," like the earlier injunction, "let us
continue in the direction in which we set out," indicates Guibert's
awareness of his tendency to perform "sorties."[35] At times he
turns from the narrative to deliver a sermon, or to offer a biography
of Mahomet, and, more than once, to lecture on ecclesiastical history.
The apparent looseness of structure which results, a quality Misch
attributed to the Memoirs as well, may be symptom of Guibert's
Shandy-like temperament, or may be evidence that the remarks he made
about his style in an early aside to the reader apply equally well to
his structure:

Please, my reader, knowing without a doubt that I certainly had no
more time for writing than those moments during which I dictated the
words themselves, forgive the stylistic infelicities; I did first
write on writing-tablets to be corrected diligently later, but I
wrote them directly on the parchment, exactly as it is, harshly
barked out.

Such a cavalier attitude towards the finished product was not
characteristic of Guibert,[36] and seems to be in keeping neither
with his declared penchant for difficulty, nor with his declared
intention to raise the level of his style to match the significance
of his subject:

No one should be surprised that I make use of style very much
different from that of the Commentaries on Genesis, or the other
little treatises; for it is proper and permissible to ornament a
history with the crafted elegance of words; however, the mysteries of
sacred eloquence should be treated not with poetic loquacity, but
with ecclesiastical plainness. Therefore I ask you to accept this
graciously, and to keep it as perpetual monument to your name.

The seriousness of purpose and the apparent looseness of structure
may perhaps be reconciled by considering that the literal level of
events was a less urgent concern for Guibert than the significance of
those events. In addition, he imagined himself not so much as a
recorder of events, but as a competitor in a rhetorical agon, as the
implied metaphor that he uses in describing his activity as writer,
in hujus stadio operis excurrisse debueram, "racing in a stadium,"
implies.

In fact, in the course of composing his explicitly corrective version
of the First Crusade, Guibert participates in several contests
simultaneously; he "mollifies" the style and corrects the substance
of previous writers on the Crusades; he argues for some miracles and
against others; he utilizes and attempts to transcend both the
Graeco-Roman and the Judaeo part of the Judaeo-Christian past. As a
rhetorical performance, in both prose and verse, the results are
impressive, since the Gesta Dei per Francos simultaneously reflects
historical reality, and provides some insight into the workings of
the mind of gifted, early twelfth-century French cleric and
aristocrat.

Summary of the Gesta Dei per Francos

Characteristically, Guibert opens the Gesta defensively, justifying
his choice of a modern topic by insisting upon the exceptional nature
of the Crusade, as well as the exceptional nature of the French. The
entire first book is devoted to a selective history of the Eastern
Church and a denunciation of heresies, concluding with an extensive
invective against Mahomet, compounding sex, excrement, and disease.
[37] Guibert then moves forward in time, to the generation before
the First Crusade, to describe a complaint about Muslim lust made by
the Greek Emperor to the elder Count Robert of Flanders. Guibert
also complains about the Greek Emperor's own excessive interest in
erotic motivation for warriors.

Book Two begins with an account that amounts to little more than a
panegyric of Pope Urban II, admired by Guibert at least partially
because he is French. Guibert then compliments the French for their
long-standing loyalty to the Popes, and for their generally Christian
behavior.[38] Guibert then proceeds to describe the rise of Peter
the Hermit as leader of the poor people who misguidedly set out on
the Crusade, a group whose lack of control outrages Guibert
throughout the Gesta.[39] However, he quickly returns to giving an
account of the aristocrats who took the cross, composing panegyrics
for Godfrey, Baldwin, and Eustace of Bouillon, complimenting Godfrey
in particular for his military victories in skirmishes with the Greek
emperor. The second book ends with a description of some of the
other leaders and their qualities.

In Book Three Guibert introduces Bohemund, describes the siege of
Nicea, the battle of Dorylea, and adds the story about Baldwin's
adoption by the ruler of Edessa (not to be found in the Gesta
Francorum).

In Book Four the Crusaders arrive at Antioch and take up the lengthy
siege. Guibert again adds material not to be found in the Gesta
Francorum: one story involves the false stigmata of an abbot, another
the martyrdom of a man know personally by Guibert.

In Book Five Guibert describes the taking of Antioch, the capture of
Cassian and his decapitation by Armenians and Syrians, the prediction
of eventual Christian victory by Kherboga's mother, the Crusaders'
themselves besieged in Antioch, the initial resistance to Peter's
vision about the location of the Lance,[40] and the desertion of the
Crusade by Stephen of Blois, whom Guibert defends with his
characteristic loyalty to aristocrats.

Book Six offers the discovery of the Lance, a futile meeting between
Peter the Hermit and Kherboga, the reported appearance of a celestial
army, the Crusaders' defeat of Kherboga, and the lifting of the siege
of Antioch. In addition, Ademar of Puy dies, the Crusaders attack
Marrah, and Bohemund and Raymond of St. Gilles disagree about to whom
Antioch belongs. The trial by fire of Peter Bartholomew (not to be
found in the Gesta Francorum) differs significantly and with clear
polemical intentions from the scene in Fulcher; Guibert attributes
the skepticism about the authenticity of the Lance to the death of
Ademar. The book ends with the martyrdom of Anselm of Ribemont, and
mention of his letters, which Guibert will use later.

Book Seven is more than twice the length of any of the earlier books;
in it the Crusaders reach Tripoli, negotiate successfully with its
king, continue on through Palestine, reach Jerusalem, and begin the
siege. As part of his extended panegyric of both brothers, Guibert
now inserts the story of Godfrey cutting a man in half and wrestling
with bear (not in the Gesta Francorum), which permits him, by
association, to modulate to the story of Baldwin refusing to be saved
by having a soldier killed and examined for similar wound, instead
agreeing to substitute a bear. As he approaches the end of his task,
Guibert loosens the structure of his narrative even more, providing a
discussion of Near Eastern ecclesiastical politics, a description of
some of the battles in which the Crusaders consolidated their control
over Palestine, and a cadenza, dense with Biblical quotations and
some allegorical exegesis, on the significance of the Crusade itself.
After providing an anecdote about the way in which children's combat
inspired the soldiers, Guibert provides a brief discussion of the
Tafurs, and describes the betrayal by the emperor that led to the
death of Hugh Magnus. Next Guibert describes Stephen's disastrous
expedition to Paphligonia, offers conflicting versions of Godfrey's
death, mentions his replacement by Baldwin, and provides a flashback
to Robert of Flanders' visit to Jerusalem twelve years before the
Crusade (at which time, according to Guibert, an astrological
prediction of a later Christian victory had been made). Guibert now
tells a story about a man who defeated the Devil, then attacks Fulker
of Chartres for his style, for his story about Pirrus betraying
Antioch, and for his rejection of the authenticity of the Lance.

Guibert's Other Works

None of the salacious verse Guibert confesses to have written in his
youth has survived.[41] Instead, in addition to the Gesta Dei and
the Monodiae, the following writings, entirely on religious topics,
have survived, and have been published in vol 156 of Migne's
Patrologia Latina:

Quo ordine sermo fieri debeat (Migne 21-32 and Huygens 1993 47-63).
Moralium Geneseos libri decem (Migne 32-338).

Tropologiae in prophetas Osee, Amos ac Lamentationes Jeremiae (Migne
337-488).

Tractatus de Incarnatione contra Judaeos (Migne 489-528).

Epistola de buccella Judae data et de veritate dominici Corporis
(Migne 527-538 and Huygens 1993 65-77).

De laude sanctae Mariae liber (Migne 537-578).

De virginitate opusculum (Migne 579-608).

De pignoribus sanctorum libri quatuor (Migne 607-680 and Huygens 1993
79-175).

The Translation

In diction, syntax, word order, and complexity of expression,
Guibert's Latin is more difficult than that of any other Latin
historian of the First Crusade. I have tried to preserve as much of
the complexity of the syntax as is tolerable in comprehensible
English sentences. Guibert's penchant for alliteration, rhyming
clausulae, and pithiness must usually be sacrificed. A
characteristic example of the sonic loss occurs in my attempt to
translate the sardonic description of Arnulf's elevation to patriarch:

...dum vox magis quam vita curatur, ad hoc ut Iherosolimitanus fieret
patriarcha vocatur. (RHC 4.233)

and since a man's voice is of more concern than the life he has led,
he was called to the patriarchy of Jerusalem.

I have followed the paragraphs of the latest edition, often longer
than those to which twentieth-century readers are accustomed, to
allow readers to check the original more easily. Passages which
Guibert composed in verse are translated into prose and indented.
Guizot's early nineteenth-century French translation, although at
times erroneous or misleading, was very helpful.

Notes

Annotating Guibert's text in a truly satisfying manner would have
produced a prologomenon to a synoptic history of the First Crusade.
[42] Instead, I have tried to limit myself to providing: (1)
information necessary to understand and to clarify the translation;
(2) sources for Guibert's Biblical and classical references; (3)
modern names of cities and towns mentioned in the text;[43] (4) the
names of the meters in which Guibert composes the portions of his
text in verse; (5) representative illustrations of the intertextual
nature of the Gesta Dei per Francos.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Jessica Weiss for reading through the entire
translation and making useful corrections and suggestions, to Mark
Stansbury for reading through parts of the translation and making
useful corrections and suggestions, and to the staff of The Boston
University Office of Information Technology for help in solving
problems involving word-processing.

Bibliography

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Croisades, Historiens Occidentaux IV, Paris, 1879, pp. 265-713.

Auerbach, Erich, Literary language and its public in late antiquity
and in the Middle Ages, translated by Ralph Mannheim, New York, 1965.

Baldric of Dole, Historia Hierosolymitana, RHC.HO IV. pp. 1-111.

Benton, John, Self and Society in Medieval France, New York, 1970.

Boehm, Laetitia, Studien zur Geschichtschreibung des ersten
Kreuzzuges Guibert von Nogent, Munich, 1954.

Brehier, Louis (ed. and tr.), Histoire anonyme de l premiere croisade,
Paris, 1924.

Bull, Marcus, Knightly Piety and the Lay Response to the First
Crusade, Oxford, 1993.

Burstein, Eitan, "Quelques remarques a propos du vocabulaire de
Guibert de Nogent," Cahiers de civilisation medievale, XXI (1978), pp.
247-263.

Cahen, C., La Syrie du nord, Paris, 1940, pp. 211-218.

Charaud, Jacques, "La conception de l'histoire de Guibert de Nogent,"
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1980 (original, Paris, 1978).

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1988.

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Hagenmayer, Heidelberg, 1913.

Garand, Monique-Cecile and Etcheverry, Francois, "Analyse d'ecriture
et macrophotographie; les manuscripts originaux de Guibert de Nogent,
Codices manuscripti I (1975), pp. 112-122.

__, "Le Scriptorium de Guibert de Nogent," Scriptorium XXXI (1977),
pp. 3-29.

Grundmann, Herbert, Geschichtsschreibung im Mittelalters, Goettingen,
1965.

Guenee, Bernard, Histoire et culture historique dans l'occident
medieval, Paris, 1980.

Guibert de Nogent, Autobiographie, edited and translated by
Edmond-Rene Labande, Paris, 1981.

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Guizot, F., Collection des memoires relatifs a l'histoire de France,
Paris, 1823-35, v. 9.

Hagenmeyer, Heinrich, Chronologie de la premiere croisade, Hildesheim,
1898-1901.

__, (ed.) Epistulae et chartae ad historiam primi belli sacri
spectantes, Innsbruck, 1901.

Huygens, R.B.C., Guibert de Nogent: Quo Ordine Sermo Fieri Debeat; De
Bucella Iudae Data et De Veritate Dominic Corporis; De Sanctis et
Eorum Pigneribus, Turnholt, 1993.

__, La tradition manuscrite de Guibert de Nogent, The Hague, 1991.

__, (ed.), Guillaume de Tyre Chronique, Turnholt, 1986, I and II.

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The letter of Guibert to Lysiard

Some of my friends have often asked me why I do not sign this little
work with my own name; until now I have refused, out of fear of
sullying a pious history with the name of hateful person. However,
thinking that the story, splendid in itself, might become even more
splendid if attached to the name of a famous man, I have finally
decided to attach it to you. Thus I have placed a most pleasing lamp
in front of the work of an obscure author. For, since your ancient
lineage is accompanied by a knowledge of literature, as well an
unusual serenity and moral probity, one may justly believe that God
in his foresight wanted the dignity of the bishop's office to honor
the gift of such reverence. By embracing your name, the little work
that follows may flourish: crude in itself, it may be made agreeable
by the love of the one to whom it is written, and made stronger by
the authority of the office by which you stand above others.
Certainly there were bishops, and others, who have heard something
about this book and about some of my other writings; leaving them
aside, my greatest wish was to reach you. In reading this you should
consider that, if I occasionally have deviated from common
grammatical practice, I have done it to correct the vices, the style
that slithers along the ground, of the earlier history. I see
villages, cities, towns, fervently studying grammar, for which reason
I tried, to the best of my abilities, not to deviate from the ancient
historians. Finally, consider that while taking care of my household
duties, listening to the many cases brought to my attention, I burned
with the desire to write, and, even more, to pass the story along;
and while I was compelled outwardly to listen to various problems,
presented with biting urgency, inwardly I was steadily compelled to
persist in what I had begun. No one should be surprised that I make
use of a style very much different from that of the Commentaries on
Genesis or the other little treatises; for it is proper and
permissible to ornament history with the crafted elegance of words;
however, the mysteries of sacred eloquence should be treated not with
poetic loquacity, but with ecclesiastical plainess. Therefore I ask
you to accept this graciously, and to keep it as a perpetual monument
to your name.

Preface to the book of the deeds of God by means of the Franks

In trying to compose the present small work, I have placed my faith
not in my literary knowledge, of which I have very little, but rather
in the spiritual authority of the history events themselves, for I
have always been certain that it was brought to completion only by
the power of God alone, and through those men whom he willed.
Likewise, the story undoubtedly was written down by whatever men,
even if uneducated, God willed. I am unable to doubt that He who
guided their steps through so many difficulties, who removed the many
military obstacles that lay before them, will implant within me, in
whatever manner he pleases, the truth about what happened, nor will
he deny to me the ability to choose the correct and fitting words. A
version of this same history, but woven out of excessively simple
words, often violating grammatical rules, exists, and it may often
bore the reader with the stale, flat quality of its language. It
works well enough for the less learned, who are not interested in the
quality of the diction, but only in the novelty of the story, nor is
it the case that the author should have spoken in a way that they do
not understand. Those, moreover, who think that honesty nourishes
eloquence, when they see that the words have been chosen less
carefully than the narrative demands, and that the story is told
briefly where the elaborate variety of mollifying[44] eloquence was
appropriate, when they see the narration proceed bare-footed, then,
as the poet says, they will either sleep or laugh.[45] They hate a
badly performed speech, which they judge should have been recited in
a much different way. The style of writers should fit the status of
the events: martial deeds should be told with harsh words; what
pertains to divine matters must be brought along at more controlled
pace. In the course of this work, if my ability is equal to the task,
I should perform in both modes, so that haughty Gradivus[46] may
find that his lofty crimes have been represented in matching words,
and, when piety is the subject, gravity is never violated by
excessive cleverness.[47] Even if I have been unable to follow these
standards, nevertheless I have learned to admire or praise for the
most part what is done well by someone else. Therefore I confess
that I, with shameless temerity, but out of love of faith, have run
the risk of being criticized by judges whom I do not know because,
when they find that I have taken up this project with a vow to
correct a previous work, they may value the second less than the
first. Since we see a passion for grammar everywhere, and we know
that the discipline, because of the number of scholars that now exist,
is now open to the worst students, it would be horrid thing not to
write, even if we write only as we are able, and not as we should,
about this glory of our time, or even to leave the story hidden in
the scabbiness of artless speech. I have seen what God has done in
these times--miracles greater than any he has ever performed--and now
I see a gem of this kind lying in the lowest dust. Impatient with
such contemptuous treatment, I have taken care, with whatever
eloquence I have, to clean what was given over to neglect more
preciously than any gold. I have not boldly done this entirely on my
own initiative, but I have faithfully promised others, who were eager
for this to be done. Some asked that I write in prose; but most
asked that it be done in meter, since they knew that I had, in my
youth, performed more elementary exercises in verse than I should
have. Older and more responsible, however, I thought that it should
not be done with words designed to be applauded, or with the clatter
of verse; but I thought, if I may dare to say this, that it deserved
being told with greater dignity than all the histories of Jewish
warfare, if God would grant someone the ability to do this. I do not
deny that I set my mind to writing after the capture of Jerusalem,
when those who had taken part in the expedition began to return; but
because I did not want to be importunate, I put the task off.
However, because, with the permission (I do not know if it is in
accordance with the will) of God, the chance to carry out my wishes
came about, I have gone forward with what I had desired piously,
perhaps only to be laughed at by everyone, yet I shall transcend the
laughter of some, as long as I may occupy myself with the daily
growth of my creation, no matter what objections others may bark. If
anyone does laugh, let him not blame man who has done what he was
able to do, whose intentions were sound; may he not instantly
cauterize the fault in my writings, but if he utterly despises them,
let him lay aside the war of words, rewrite what was badly done, and
offer his own examples of correct writing. Furthermore, if anyone
accuses me of writing obscurely, let him fear inflicting on himself
the stigma of weak intellect, since I know for certain that no one
trained in letters can raise a question about whatever I may have
said in the following book.

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