Table Of ContentCharles W. Connell
Popular Opinion in the Middle Ages
Fundamentals of Medieval
and Early Modern Culture
Edited by
Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge
Volume 18
Charles W. Connell
Popular Opinion
in the Middle Ages
Channeling Public Ideas and Attitudes
.
ISBN 978-3-11-044060-7
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-043217-6
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-043239-8
ISSN 1864-3396
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To Lynn, my loving companion who provided constant support on this quest.
Acknowledgements
InitiallystimulatedbyresearchformydoctoraldissertationontheWesternreac-
tion to the Mongol invasions of Europe in the thirteenth century, this project
beganmanyyearsagoandwasinterruptedmanytimesbystintsinacademicad-
ministration.AlongthewayIhaveincurredmanydebtsofgratitude,whichhere
I can only repay with slight acknowledgements and words of thanks.
First, sinceessentially this is aworkof synthesis and a longhistoriograph-
ical essay, my admiration goes to those scholars of the past thirty years in par-
ticularwhoseworkisrepresentedinthisstudy.Thisbodyofrapidlyaccumulat-
inginterdisciplinaryresearchandanalysishasservedtoverifymyearliestnaive
intuitionsaboutthenatureofthemedievalpublicandpublicopinion.Thesyn-
thesis and conclusions drawn hereinaremeant toappreciatetheirefforts,but I
readilyacknowledgethatIcannotdofulljusticetothemanyavenuesofengag-
ingresearchandpublicationthathavebeenopenedinrecentyears.Thus,Imust
apologizetothosewhoseworkisrelevanttomyown,butwhoImayhaveslight-
edoroverlookedentirely.Ihopemyoverviewwillatleastencouragefurtherex-
amination of the manyquestions it may serve to generate.
Second,Ithankmanycolleaguesovertheyearswhohavetakensomedegree
of interest in this ongoing study. Jim Brundage, Tim Runyan, James Muldoon,
andGilesConstablewereamongtheearliest.EdPeters,throughpersonalconver-
sation, but even more by his own insightful studies of so many topics directly
related to my own, has been a constant stimulus. Most recently, it has been
JohnFrance,andespecially,AlbrechtClassen,withwhomIhaveworkedonsev-
eralrelatedprojects,whohavehelpedbringthisprojecttoitsconclusion.ToAl-
brechtandMarilynSandidge,whoservedaseditorsforthemanuscript,Ioffera
special thanks for their careful attention to detail and accuracy in helping me
avoid numerous potential errors. Thanks also to Maria Zucker, Project Editor
for the Medieval and Early Modern Studies Series with Walter De Gruyter,who
has provided valuable comments and feedback as the manuscript moved for-
ward to publication. However, any errors of commission and omission that re-
main are solely myown.
Third, this book could not have been completed without the unfailing and
patient assistance of the interlibrary-loan staff of Cline Library at Northern Ari-
zona University. A recent sabbatical leave supported generously by my collea-
gues in the Department of History and Dean Michael Vincent of the College of
Liberal Arts provided a much needed catalyst as well.
Preface
Historianshavelongstruggledwithissuesthatconstitutethefocusofthisstudy.
AsJosephStrayerwrylyobservedaboutpublicopinionin1957,“historianscould
seldom study itdirectly.Theyhad to deduce its existence […] much like astron-
omerstryingtoprovetheexistenceofanewheavenlybodywhichtheyhavenot
yet seen.”¹ For most periods of the past the surviving sources often reveal the
opinions of only a smallgroup of the most articulate and more elite of society.
Although this remains true for the Middle Ages, my study does not attempt to
find a new way to measure the opinion of the public ‘scientifically.’ Instead, I
present a synthesis and an analysis of the way modern scholars have shown
the way the public (populus or ‘people’) was being perceived; how medieval
sources reveal the evolution of a public sphere in which ideas were articulated
and debated; and,the degree to which public opinion could be shown to have
influence.
Recentresearchontheprimarytopicsfoundinthisstudycantraceitsroots
to two scholars who published significant works on the influence of communi-
cation within a year of each other. One focused on medieval culture and the
other on the Enlightenment, but in recent years the results of their work have
tended to converge within the research of medievalists. In 1990 The Vox Dei
by Sophia Menache laid out the way various medieval media communicated
and was used by ‘the Church’ to deal with issues in the struggle for power
with lay elements for control of Christian society.The 1989 English translation
of the study by Jürgen Habermas entitled The Structural Transformation of the
Public Sphere [Strukturwandel der Öffentlichkeit (1962)] articulated a theory of
how the bourgeoisie convened in public places in an attempt to develop a way
to influence public power. Although Menache was likely not yet aware of this
particular work, she did cite his earlier book on communication published in
anEnglishtranslationof1979.²Menachedrewattentiontothewayscommunica-
tion became ‘political’ in the central Middle Ages—to how it was used by the
clergy to achieve support and cooperation; to how monarchy became a ‘cult’
and began to employ national symbols to overcome crises in the Hundred
Years’ War; how both monarchs and clergy used the Crusades to justify war;
and how those who came to be defined as heretics demonstrated some of the
most creative and adaptive systems of communication to influence a widening
Strayer,“TheHistorian’sConceptofPublicOpinion”(),.
Menache,TheVoxDei();JürgenHabermas,TheStructuralTransformationofthePublic
Sphere();Habermas,CommunicationandtheEvolutionofSociety().
X Preface
public.Habermas,ontheotherhand,construedapublicspherewhereinprivate
individualsofthebourgeoisclasscometogethertoconsider,debate,anddevel-
opideaswhichinturntheyattemptedtorepresentasthe‘publicgood’inorder
topersuadethoseinpowertoincorporatethemintothepowercircles.Bydelim-
itingthe origins of the ‘public sphere’ tothe male bourgeois Enlightenment so-
ciety,Habermasstirredupahornet’snestthatcontinuestoarousescholarsofall
eras who find evidence of the existence of public spheres from the ancient to
moderntimes.InreachingtothesourcesfortheMiddleAges,forexample,schol-
arsofvariousdisciplineshavetendedtotakeupthesameissuesandfundamen-
talquestionsconcerningcommunication,influence,andtheroleofthe‘people’
thatMenachefoundchallenging,andhaveshednewlightonherworkaswellas
that of Habermas.
Inthisbook,myargumentfocusesintwodirections,thefirstbeingonhow
theelite(layandecclesiastical)becamemoreawareofthepowerofthecommon
opinion beingexpressedinavarietyofways,andhowthoseelitetriedtoinflu-
enceandshapethatcommonopiniontosupporttheirownviewofthecommon
good.Secondly,Iillustratehowtheresearchofmostrecentyearsrevealsnot‘the
public,’ but rather several publics from various levels of medieval society that
actually had some impact on the nature of the dialogue on political issues of
widespread importance. Underlying this dialogue was the desire to control
power,asubjectthathasbeenonemajorcenterofattentionamongmanyexcel-
lentmedievalscholarsinthepasttwentyyears.Theonewhostandsoutperhaps
mostisThomasBisson,whohasdrawnourattentiontomanyaspectsofitwhile
atthesametimeenlighteningusonhowmanyinsociety(the‘people’atvarious
levels) actually experienced it.³ I contend that as the nature of human power
evolvedsodidthemeansusedtoconstructandinfluenceit.AswesternEurope
settleddown,grewitspopulation,rebuiltitstownsandrenewedandrefocused
thestruggleforthe‘rightorder’insociety,itexperimentedwithnewkindsofand
uses of public space which attracted crowds of people.The sites where crowds
His most recent comprehensive work, The Crisis of the Twelfth Century (), focuses on
power as lordship, or the domination of people by one or few as it came to maturity in the
twelfthcentury.Thisbookisshapedinparticularbyhisearlierresearchon“MedievalLordship”
();and,TormentedVoices().Hisinfluenceishighlightedbythepublicationofanan-
thologywhichheedited,CulturesofPower();and,afestschriftinhishonor,TheExperience
ofPowerinMedievalEurope,–,ed.Berkhofer,Cooper,andKosto().Hisviewsof
bothpowerandcrisishavechallengedscholarstothinkoftheissuesinnewways.See,forex-
ample,thereviewsofTheCrisisoftheTwelfthCenturybyJudithGreeninTheEnglishHistorical
Review():–;WilliamChesterJordan,inLawandHistoryReview():–
;WarrenC.Brown,inCentralEuropeanHistory():–;and,AliceTaylor,inSpec-
ulum():–.
