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ROBSON, III, Walter Wilson, 1943-
LE PROCES BELIAL A L’ENCONTRE DE JHESUS:
A CRITICAL EDITION.
University of Kansas, Ph.D., 1972
Language and Literature, modern
University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan
© 1973
WALTER WILSON ROBSON, III
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
LE PROCES BELIAL A L'ENCONTRE DE JHESUS:
//
A CRITICAL EDITION
by
\5°
Walter Wi Robson, III
/// *
A.B,, Lafayette College, 1965
M.A., University of Kansas, 1967
M.Ph., University of Kansas, 1970
Submitted to the Department of French
and Italian and to the Faculty of the
Graduate School of the University of
Kansas in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy,
Dissertation Committee
Chairman
OCT 1972
J. Lt
PLEASE NOTE:
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FRONTISPIECE
JHESUS ET BELIAL
OUR LADY OF CLEMENCY
iv
PREFACE
I have long been Interested In the themes of judgment, trial
and justice in mediaeval literature, and the manner in which these
themes are capable of giving form to a literary work. I was fortunate
that Professor Moshe Lazar was able to bring the Proces Belial a 1 'en-
contre de Jhesus to my attention. The Belial is an excellent vehicle
for the study of these problems. In addition, the Belial is intimate
ly related to other works of juridical literature, notably the Advo-
cacie Nostre Dame. It was Professor Lazar's opinion that a critical
edition .of the Belial was needed and in this I concurred. It is the
purpose of this edition to bring into the hands of the scholarly com
munity an accurate text of the Belial. As I am neither a legal histor
ian nor a theologian, the commentary on the text has been severely
limited. To other scholars, more competent than I in those fields,
I leave the task of this type of analysis. The duty of the textual
critic is to produce an accurate text. It is hoped that the present
edition will fill this need.
I am indebted to Professor Barbara M. Craig, without whose help,
encouragement and inspiration this edition could not have been completed.
Grateful acknowledgement is made to Professors Norris Lacy and David
Dinneen for their many helpful criticisms and suggestions, to Professor
Moshe Lazar of the University of Tel Aviv for bringing the Belial to
my attention, to Professor J. Neale Carman for his many helpful sugges
tions, to Mr. John Magerus for typing, and to Mr. and Mrs. Steven
Gordon for photocopying. I would also like to express my thanks to
V
the librarians of the Bibliotheque Nationale and the Kenneth Spencer
Research Library. And finally I would like to take this opportunity
to express my thanks to my parents whose patient encouragement has
made it possible for me to pursue my education.
W.W.R.
Lawrence, Kansas, June 1972
C O N T E N T S
Frontispiece.........................................................ii
PREFACE................................................ iv
INTRODUCTION.......................................................vii
Chapter One: Prolegomena.................................... vii
Chapter Two: The Juridical Debate and its Place
in Religious Literature........ xiii
Chapter Three: The Trial as Formative Structure.........xxxvii
Chapter Four: The Importance of the Belial...................lii
Chapter Five: The Language of the Belial........ .Ixvii
Preparation of the Present Edition......................... lxxix
Summary of the Text.......................................lxxxiv
Notes to the Introduction.................................... cii
LE PROCES BELIAL A L'ENCONTRE DE JHESUS.............................1
Notes to the Belial...........................................349
Glossary...................................................... 381
Appendix A.>.................................................. 388
Appendix B............................... 419
B ib 1 iogr aphy................................................. 4 20
CHAPTER ONE: PROLEGOMENA
Le Proces ;Belial a 11encontre de Jhesus, known more simply as
the Belial, is the fifteenth century French translation of Jacopo
Palladini's vast Latin treatise, Compendium breve consolatio pecca-
torum nuncupatum; et apud nonullos Belial vocitatum ad papam Urbanum
sext vim conscriptum, or more commonly, Consolatio pauperum peccato-
rum, which is itself related to an earlier Latin processus that has
2
been attributed to Bartolo. In spite of its prolixity, or, mediae
val taste considered, perhaps because of it, the Belial enjoyed an
immense popularity for more than two centuries both in its Latin
original and in translations into virtually all the major languages
of Europe.** In addition to the original Latin MS of 1382 (B.N. ms.
lat. 12433) there are some fourteen Latin prints in the Biblioth&que
Nationale dating from the first printed in Lyons in 1472 to that of
a not overscrupulous German printer who claimed to be presenting it
for the first time in 1611.^ Among editions of the French trans
lation of the Belial, six are to be found in the Biblioth&que Natio
nale; duplicates of these are found also in the British Museum and
one each in the Bibliothhque de I1Arsenal and the John Pierpont Morgan
Library.^ The French prints come from three publishers in Lyons and
one in Paris. Also in the Bibliothfeque Nationale are seven editions
in German from three publishers, three in Dutch from two publishers,
and one in Low Saxon. Additional proof of the Belial's popularity
may be demonstrated by the fact that it was among the first books
chosen to be printed by Mathieu Huss who was, in the tradition of
