Mediaeval writers have a predilection
for wondrous and miraculous stories. For us this may seem naïve, especially
when such stories are used as exemplum.
But were people then really so childish? I have no illusions about the
uneducated masses, tiling their land and hardly leaving their village, but the
educated? In this story taken from Caesarius of Heisterbach’s Dialogus Miraculorum, two farmers fight
even after death, when buried in the same grave. This to the horror of their
families, who decided to end their mutual strive afterwards. Did Heisterbach’s
readers and listeners really belief this? Or maybe there was not such a strict line
between the acceptable and unacceptable. I remember a story of an anthropologist,
telling that in the area of Africa where he did his fieldwork, people told him
about miraculous events. No, they had not seen these themselves, but they
happened some villages away.
The lesson of this story
is however clear: people dwelling in small communities should live in peace.
Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus
Miraculorum, XI,26
De rusticis qui post mortem in
sepulchro contendebant.
In Episcopatu Coloniensi duae generationes rusticorum inimicitias mortales
exercebant. Habebant autem duo capita, duos videlicet rusticos magnanimes ac
superbos, qui semper nova bella suscitabant, suscitata fovebant, nullam fieri
pacem permittentes. Divino igitur nutu factum est, ut ambo uno die morerentur.
Et quia de una erant parochia nomine Nuenkirgen, quia sic Domino placuit, qui
per illos dissensionis malum ostendere voluit, in una fossa corpora eorum sunt
posita. Mira res et inaudita. Cunctis qui aderant videntibus, corpora eadem
dorsa verterunt ad invicem, capitibus, calcibus, ipsisque dorsis tam impetuose
collidentibus, ut caballos indomitos putares. Mox unum extrahentes, remotius in
alio sepulchro tumulaverunt. Et facta est rixa eorundem mortuorum causa pacis
et concordiae vivorum.
rusticus:
farmer
contendo contendi contentus (-ere): to
strife, fight
Coloniensis:
of Cologne
inimicitias mortales: deadly enmities
capita:
leaders
magnanimis:
proud, arrogant
superbus:
insolent
suscito (-are): to raise
foveo fovi fotum: to keep warm, nourish
nutus (u stem, only nom sing. and acc. and abl
sing. and plur, m.): command
Neunkirgen:
Neunkirchen
dissensionis malum: the evil of dissent
fossa: grave
inauditus:
unheard
Cunctis qui aderant videntibus: for all visible (`seeing’), who were present
dorsum: back
ad invicem:
to each other
capitis…collidentibus: abl abs
calx calcis
(f.): heel
impetuose:
violently
caballos indomitus: wild horses
extraho extraxi extractum: to draw out (extrahentes
i.e. those present)
remotius:
further away
tumulo
(-are): to burry
facta…rixa…causa: the quarrel became the cause
No comments:
Post a Comment