Papers by Leland R . Grigoli
21st Century Medievalisms, 2022
This paper makes the argument that the First World War was the decisive, traumatic event that mov... more This paper makes the argument that the First World War was the decisive, traumatic event that moved the medieval from lived reality to history in the popular consciousness, forming a wall between popular medievalism and the academic study of the middle ages. Further, the popular desire to still access the medieval as part of lived reality was the impetus for the advent of neomedievalist media, a trend which originates in the fusion of history and fantasy in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. This legacy has a profound importance for academic engagement with popular culture, particularly as it abuts the construction of race.
A study of the monks of the Cistercian Order in their role as middlemen between local and transre... more A study of the monks of the Cistercian Order in their role as middlemen between local and transregional centers of power in the long thirteenth century.
Doctoral Dissertation, Brown University, Department of History
Oculus: Bulletin de l’abbaye de Fontfroide, Jun 2015
A brief examination of the Cistercian monasteries of the Midi and their role in the anti-heretica... more A brief examination of the Cistercian monasteries of the Midi and their role in the anti-heretical efforts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Co-Authored with Beverly M. Kienzle
St. Anselm Journal 10.2, Jun 2015
Upon his election to the see of Canterbury in 1162, one of Thomas Becket's first acts as archbish... more Upon his election to the see of Canterbury in 1162, one of Thomas Becket's first acts as archbishop was to seek a papal canonization for his predecessor Anselm from Alexander III. Responding to Becket's request, Alexander ordered Becket to convene a council of English prelates to decide the issue. Whatever this council determined, the pope would confirm. Shortly thereafter, however, Becket was forced to tend to more pressing concerns. The archbishop's relationship with King Henry II of England had quickly deteriorated, and he was forced to flee into exile. Contemporary accounts speak no more about Becket's council, and it has been presumed that it was never even called. Through an examination of the surviving twelfth-century copies of Anselm's hagiography, this paper will argue that Becket had indeed begun to take steps to call a council in accordance with the pope's command, behavior which not only sheds new light on Becket's relationship to Anselm, but also provides a case study for the political dimension of the developing process of papal canonization.
Reviews by Leland R . Grigoli
The Medieval Review, 2021
Invited Talks by Leland R . Grigoli
Conference Presentations by Leland R . Grigoli
Medieval Race and the Modern Scholar, Apr 13, 2018
The scholarly consensus on the date which marks the first stirrings of modern racial thought has ... more The scholarly consensus on the date which marks the first stirrings of modern racial thought has been slowly making its way back in time. An origin in the Atlantic and the Enlightenment gave way to fourteenth-century Judeo-Christian relations in Iberia, and more recent scholarship has even suggested detectable traces as early as the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The distinction between premodern and modern has begun to blur. Yet medievalists have only recently begun the long and difficult task of untangling the threads of modern racial thought from inquiries into premodern race. Scholars remain all too willing to assume not only that a person described by a medieval source as 'black' would be raced accordingly, but also that those lacking such a modifier would be raced as 'white'. This paper will examine these assumptions in an area little touched by recent scholarship on premodern race: Latin texts in the decades surrounding the First Crusade. Through the study of works by Peter Damian, Anselm of Laon, and Bernard of Clairvaux, I will argue that a reliance on color words as signifiers of racial difference for this period is, at best, misguided. There are, however, other semantic associations which prove much more fruitful to the discussion of race in the high middle ages, associations which suggest a medieval Europe far more diverse than previously imagined.
This paper presents a new statistical method for examining questions of authorship in Latin texts... more This paper presents a new statistical method for examining questions of authorship in Latin texts based on stylistic features.
The Cistercian house of Foigny in Picardy, France, was one of the first daughters of Clairvaux, a... more The Cistercian house of Foigny in Picardy, France, was one of the first daughters of Clairvaux, and was consecrated by St. Bernard himself. While the abbey did not survive the predations of the Revolution, and little now remains of the site which was once home to over 300 monks and lay brothers, one important item has managed to last: a collection of sermones sive collationes, preserved in a seventeenth century printed book. This collection, almost certainly written during the abbacy of one Simon of Anglia (d.1224), contains 49 long collationes attributed to 26 separate authors, as well as short daily sermons on the epistle and Gospel readings for the Lenten and Easter season.
The collection itself is the product of a noteworthy mix of time and place. Located in the Thiérache, Foigny was situated near the cathedral school and early scholastic center of Laon as well as within the sphere of influence of the powerful house of Coucy, a family with a strong and well-documented crusading tradition. Moreover, the collationes were preached at a time when Cistercians were engaged in the campaign against heresy in southern France, and monastic records show that Foigny had strongly supported crusading endeavors both there and in the Levant, at least financially. The statuta of the General Chapter for 1201 list the abbot of Foigny as one of several delegated to collect funds in France for the Fourth Crusade. One of the three surviving abbey cartularies marks no fewer than five instances between 1200 and 1230 where Foigny was given or allowed to cultivate the lands of several different lay lords as preparation for their eastern or southern crusades. In short, the abbey was significantly involved in the crusading milieu.
This study examines the collationes for evidence of the theme of crusading. As with many monastic sermons, the collationes are replete with martial imagery depicting the monk equipped to do battle for God. However, they also utilize certain tropes and phrases, most notably the two swords of Luke 22:38, which were found in crusade preaching. These tropes are not put to the service of promoting crusade. Rather, they are turned inwards, directed not towards popular exhortation to physical battle, but rather towards the daily spiritual struggles waged by the monks, and buttressed by a firm insistence on the necessity of the settled and secluded life. Thus, these collationes provide a window into a type of monastic spirituality which allowed the soul to go on a sort of spiritual crusade while the body remained in the cloister.
Thomas Beckett has long been studied as an archetype of episcopal resistance to secular authority... more Thomas Beckett has long been studied as an archetype of episcopal resistance to secular authority. However, comparatively little work has been done on Beckett’s own exemplars. One of these was surely his predecessor St. Anselm, who defended the See of Canterbury against royal interference in the middle of the Investiture Contest. Through paleographic analysis of one of the surviving copies of Anselm’s vita, Harvard’s Houghton MS Lat 27, and through a historical analysis of the Cistercian foundation at Holm Cultram, the monastery which produced it, this paper will attempt to address this scholarly lacuna. The examination of these sources will show that the vita was copied both as part of Beckett’s attempt to canonize Anselm in 1163 and as a political move by the Scottish crown to improve its relationship with the archiepiscopal seat. Moreover, this examination will show that Anselm’s example of ecclesiastic defiance was taken up as a model not only by Beckett, but also by the monks of Holm Cultram themselves.
Founded in 1121, the Cistercian house of Foigny, located some 50 km north-east of Laon, was the t... more Founded in 1121, the Cistercian house of Foigny, located some 50 km north-east of Laon, was the third filiation from Clairvaux. The abbey was an important regional economic and intellectual center in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with vast tracts of land and learned monks. The following centuries were not so kind. Foigny suffered predations from warfare, disease, and mismanagement, leaving the once-proud foundation in obscurity until its dissolution during the Revolution. Unfortunately for modern historians, these misfortunes have left relatively little in the way of usable material: thirteen manuscripts, a collection of sermons, three cartularies, ruins, and the abbey windmill are all that survive. It is a state of affairs which has left a noticeable gap in the scholarship of one of the best-studied regions in Western Europe. Studies of the abbey have been confined to manuscript and architectural surveys, with little work done on studying Foigny in its own right. In order to overcome this scholarly lacuna, this paper seeks to utilize recent developments in the digital humanities, specifically spatial and network analysis, on Foigny’s surviving cartularies. These tools allow the abbey to be placed in the well-established history of the region, illuminating its relationships and interactions with people and institutions. Combined with an examination of the abbey’s surviving literary documents, such analysis can also help to situate Foigny within one of the great social currents of the time, one which permeated both the lay culture of Northern France and the Cistercian Order itself – the Crusades.
Much of the focus on the intellectual milieu of the Cistercian order has traditionally been on th... more Much of the focus on the intellectual milieu of the Cistercian order has traditionally been on the ‘Golden Age’ of the twelfth century, allowing the historical narrative of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to turn to the mendicants and the blossoming universities. This in turn has often caused the rich culture of the Cistercians in these centuries, at once aware of and separate from scholasticism, to be overlooked. This paper seeks to shed light on this later Cistercian intellectualism through an analysis of a collection of sermons from the little known abbey of Foigny, located just south of the Belgian border, near Laon. Written around the middle of the thirteenth century, this collection is unique in several ways: the collection is large, containing over 30 sermons; each sermon is attributed to a specific monk who is said to have preached it; all show signs of the influence, one way or another, of scholasticism; and all are from a relatively short period of time. Thus, this collatio allows us a snapshot of how the monks of Foigny understood themselves and their purpose, and offers a glimpse of the debates between the monks over the shape of the intellectual life at the abbey. To this end, this paper offers an analysis of two of the sermons from the collection, both of which seek to instruct their listeners on the proper way to achieve the central goal of monastic life, that is, knowledge of God. Despite the many commonalities – of place, time, vocation, and outright contempt of the scholastics – the sermons’ authors do not agree on how this highest goal of their way of life might be achieved, revealing a debate on a question at the heart of monasticism itself: to know God, should one await him, or should one seek?
A study of the relationship between the theological conception of the human will as posited by An... more A study of the relationship between the theological conception of the human will as posited by Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109) and its relationship to the forms of piety and sanctity which manifested in the later Middle Ages, which were based on Augustinian notions. Through analysis of hagiographic tropes, it is clear that Anselm's understanding of the will, which portrayed it as a liberating force, caused significant difficulties in the forms of devotion which predominated in the early Middle Ages. This understanding was evident in the thought of and transmitted through many popular theologians of the 12th and early 13th centuries. The manifestations of piety and sanctity in after 1250, observed by André Vauchez and others, are shown to be, at least in part, responses to the problematization of the earlier form of sanctity.
This study is a short exploration of the history, relationships, and intellectual culture of the ... more This study is a short exploration of the history, relationships, and intellectual culture of the Cistercian abbey of Holm Cultram, England, as seen through one of its surviving manuscripts, Harvard University Houghton Library's MS Lat 27. The manuscript, containing the vitae of the four great Cluniac abbots and Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109) is shown to be created for the purpose of aiding in the canonization process of Anselm, possibly as a means of strengthening diplomatic ties between the Scottish crown and the see of Canterbury. Additionally, the heavy signs of use seen in Anselm's vita show that the text was an important one for the monks of the abbey, used for monastic preaching and teaching.
Websites by Leland R . Grigoli
Other Work by Leland R . Grigoli
A retranslation of three sections of the 1559 Latin text of Calvin's "Institutio", 1.5.1, 2.6.1, ... more A retranslation of three sections of the 1559 Latin text of Calvin's "Institutio", 1.5.1, 2.6.1, 4.14.6, with a running commentary and brief linguistic and theological discussion
A re-translation of the introductory paragraphs of Calvin's 'Institutio', illustrating many of th... more A re-translation of the introductory paragraphs of Calvin's 'Institutio', illustrating many of the issues with the current definitive English translation of the work.
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Papers by Leland R . Grigoli
Doctoral Dissertation, Brown University, Department of History
Co-Authored with Beverly M. Kienzle
Reviews by Leland R . Grigoli
Invited Talks by Leland R . Grigoli
Conference Presentations by Leland R . Grigoli
The collection itself is the product of a noteworthy mix of time and place. Located in the Thiérache, Foigny was situated near the cathedral school and early scholastic center of Laon as well as within the sphere of influence of the powerful house of Coucy, a family with a strong and well-documented crusading tradition. Moreover, the collationes were preached at a time when Cistercians were engaged in the campaign against heresy in southern France, and monastic records show that Foigny had strongly supported crusading endeavors both there and in the Levant, at least financially. The statuta of the General Chapter for 1201 list the abbot of Foigny as one of several delegated to collect funds in France for the Fourth Crusade. One of the three surviving abbey cartularies marks no fewer than five instances between 1200 and 1230 where Foigny was given or allowed to cultivate the lands of several different lay lords as preparation for their eastern or southern crusades. In short, the abbey was significantly involved in the crusading milieu.
This study examines the collationes for evidence of the theme of crusading. As with many monastic sermons, the collationes are replete with martial imagery depicting the monk equipped to do battle for God. However, they also utilize certain tropes and phrases, most notably the two swords of Luke 22:38, which were found in crusade preaching. These tropes are not put to the service of promoting crusade. Rather, they are turned inwards, directed not towards popular exhortation to physical battle, but rather towards the daily spiritual struggles waged by the monks, and buttressed by a firm insistence on the necessity of the settled and secluded life. Thus, these collationes provide a window into a type of monastic spirituality which allowed the soul to go on a sort of spiritual crusade while the body remained in the cloister.
Websites by Leland R . Grigoli
Other Work by Leland R . Grigoli
Doctoral Dissertation, Brown University, Department of History
Co-Authored with Beverly M. Kienzle
The collection itself is the product of a noteworthy mix of time and place. Located in the Thiérache, Foigny was situated near the cathedral school and early scholastic center of Laon as well as within the sphere of influence of the powerful house of Coucy, a family with a strong and well-documented crusading tradition. Moreover, the collationes were preached at a time when Cistercians were engaged in the campaign against heresy in southern France, and monastic records show that Foigny had strongly supported crusading endeavors both there and in the Levant, at least financially. The statuta of the General Chapter for 1201 list the abbot of Foigny as one of several delegated to collect funds in France for the Fourth Crusade. One of the three surviving abbey cartularies marks no fewer than five instances between 1200 and 1230 where Foigny was given or allowed to cultivate the lands of several different lay lords as preparation for their eastern or southern crusades. In short, the abbey was significantly involved in the crusading milieu.
This study examines the collationes for evidence of the theme of crusading. As with many monastic sermons, the collationes are replete with martial imagery depicting the monk equipped to do battle for God. However, they also utilize certain tropes and phrases, most notably the two swords of Luke 22:38, which were found in crusade preaching. These tropes are not put to the service of promoting crusade. Rather, they are turned inwards, directed not towards popular exhortation to physical battle, but rather towards the daily spiritual struggles waged by the monks, and buttressed by a firm insistence on the necessity of the settled and secluded life. Thus, these collationes provide a window into a type of monastic spirituality which allowed the soul to go on a sort of spiritual crusade while the body remained in the cloister.