L’écriture hagiographique en Gallia méridionale à l’époque grégorienne (XIe -XIIe siècle)

Abstract

Hagiographical writing in Southern France during the Gregorian Period (Xth-XIIth centuries). In order to understand what kinds of themes and vocabulary are characteristic of the Gregorian period, this paper examines 26 hagiographical texts written in southern France. The vocabulary which historians commonly associate with the ideas of reform is virtually absent from this area, as also are the concepts of simony or nicolaism, while no-one wrote a Life of either reformers or legates. Nevertheless, the texts reveal a uniformity characteristic of the period in the manner in which they treat certain themes such as, for example, childhood curtailed, a polemical vocabulary is used, and nearly all the texts emphasise the relationship between the saint and Rome, reflecting certain Gregorian developments. The environment of the writing explains moreover the different treatment or absence of several themes. For example, the episcopal circles concentrate on a redefinition of the function of the bishop, and of his place in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, through election processes, his activity as a builder, and his conservation of diocesan property, while the monastic circles are oriented towards confirming seigneurial power. This involves negating relations with certain lay people, and legitimising dubious acquisitions by the monastery and the management of its resources.