[Frederick Behrends, ed. & trans., The letters and poems of Fulbert of Chartres.

Oxford, 1976. pp. xiii-xxi.]

INTRODUCTION

 

I. Fulbert of Chartres and the Cathedral School

 

By 987, when Hugh Capet came to the throne of France, the Carolingian Empire was little more than a memory, and in its western half the decline of royal authority and the attacks of the Northmen had combined to bring about certain fundamental changes in the political and social structure.[1] Given the conditions of the times, a strong central government was hardly possible, and actual power tended to aggregate on the local level. In earlier days the king had been represented here by counts and bishops whom he himself had chosen, but the ties which bound them to him had grown progressively weaker during the ninth and tenth centuries. The counts had become virtually independent and regarded their offices and rights as hereditary fiefs or outright possessions. Within their territories they had increased their authority at his expense. Their control of the local courts now served to remove the remaining freemen from direct dependence on the king and to subject them instead to an intermediate lord, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the kings retained any of their rights over the church and appointment to church offices. The royal estates and revenues that had constituted the material resources of the monarchy were almost totally depleted by grant and usurpation, and little remained for the Capetians beyond their own dynastic rights and possessions.

The leaders of the great principalities which emerged during the later ninth and tenth centuries were technically the king's [p. xiv] fideles, but in practice this counted for little. The king was well-nigh excluded from their territories. Their conduct towards him was rather that of one equal towards another and was dictated by their own interests. Nor did they regard themselves as bound to the vassal services that were to be owed by their twelfth- and thirteenth-century descendants. The early Capetians had even less claim on their loyalty than the later Carolingians had had, weak though they may have been. The south of France went its own way. Even in the north the king's authority continued to decline, and all evidence indicates that the sphere of his activity and the occasions on which the great lords attended the royal court were steadily diminishing.

The fragmentation of public authority did not stop here, for the late tenth and early eleventh centuries saw the counts in turn threatened from below as, with the growth of multiple vassalage, vicomtes, castellans, and others of lesser standing began to build up their own power and to assert their independence. They acquired vassals of their own, and from the fortresses that they built they gradually extended their influence over the surrounding countryside and demanded new services and dues from those who lived around them. This in turn brought about a shift in the political geography as the territorial unity of the old Carolingian pagus gave way and public authority began to centre in new focal points.

The first Capetians, Hugh Capet (987-96) and his son and suc­cessor Robert II, the Pious (996-1031), were generally accepted as the lawful kings of France, and by virtue of their royal consecra­tion they were regarded as God's anointed and as the fountain-head of peace and justice. But from the standpoint of actual power and the problems which they faced, they differed little from the other great princes. Their own domains stretched from the borders of Normandy down to the Loire, roughly describing an ellipse with the towns of Paris and Orleans as the two focuses. They also had control over certain outlying districts, of somewhat less than twenty 'royal' bishoprics, and of several near-by counties which were held as fiefs of the king, though he could not always enforce obedience. The kings too were troubled by the rise of lesser feudal lords, and much of their energy until well into the twelfth century was spent in trying to bring and to keep them under control. Royal government during this period was a simple affair, largely [p. xv] run by the king and a few officials in his household who were recruited from the lesser lords within the domain. On the local level, royal administration was in the hands of officials who are best regarded as manorial agents.

The economic life of the times was essentially agricultural, and its organization was in large part manorial; while the social structure consisted at the one end of a nobility whose position rested on a varying combination of wealth, birth, and privilege, and at the other of an unfree peasantry whose distinguishing feature was the tie that bound the serf to his master. Yet new forces were at work. The development and spread of new agricultural techniques were causing a virtual revolution in food-production, the population was again rising, and the towns were taking on new life and expanding beyond their narrow walls. As the attacks of the Northmen subsided, life in France became more settled, and the late tenth and early eleventh centuries saw the beginnings of the peace movement under the leadership of the local prelates and greater nobles. This improvement in the means and conditions of existence is reflected in another realm in the quickening of educational institutions and intellectual activity, which had also declined during the later ninth and tenth centuries. Here too a change was apparent, and it was now that the cathedral schools such as those at Rheims and Chartres first came into their own.

Nothing is known concerning the origin of the school at Chartres. Religious instruction had probably been given there since the early days of its Christian community, and some provision at least must have been made for the education of the clergy in late Roman and Frankish times. Yet the evidence for these early centuries is very meagre; and it is not until the tenth century that there is a definite reference to a schoolmaster, though even then he seems characteristically to have combined his duties in this capacity with those of chancellor.[2] Although there was at least one teacher of note there in the later tenth century, the cathedral school first became prominent about the turn of the millennium under the guidance of its master and later bishop, Fulbert. The school at Chartres was only one among many in the cathedral towns of northern Europe; but in Fulbert's day it reached a height which it was not to surpass, or even to equal, for nearly a century, [p. xvi] if then.[3] Although Fulbert himself made no original contribution to knowledge, the breadth of his learning and his contact with the most recent developments in the learned world, his ability to present subjects in a meaningful way, and his own personal warmth and sympathy attracted students from far and near. In the following decades it was often said of a learned man that he had studied with Fulbert. Echoes of this continued until well into the twelfth century; and it was only then, as a result of new educa­tional developments and changes in literary taste, that his letters and other writings gradually ceased to be copied.

 

Fulbert's Life and Pontificate

 

Little is known of Fulbert's life and career apart from the events described in his letters, and the lack of autobiographical details in these, though not unexpected, is disappointing. The years before he became bishop are almost totally unknown, despite two quasi-autobiographical poems (nos. 132 f.) in which he speaks of his youth. There is no sound evidence on which to establish the date and place of his birth. In no. 133 Fulbert says that he was still a young man (iuuenis) at the time he was consecrated. Yet he can hardly have been younger than his mid thirties, especially if he had studied with Gerbert, for this would probably have been in the later 980s. This would place his birth about 970 and make him close to sixty at the time of his death. Several attempts have been made to determine Fulbert's birthplace, but none has been alto­gether successful, though a strong case has been made for Picardy.[4]

 

 

[p. xvii] In any event, all the known details of his life point toward northern France.

In the two poems Fulbert says that he was of lowly origin and owed his episcopate neither to family nor to wealth. There is no evidence that he was a monk. In fact the opposite is indicated by his reference to monasticism towards the close of no. 1, by his attitude towards monastic exemption (nos. 7 f. and apparently 14), and by the closing exhortation in Odilo's letter to him (no. 50). When and where Fulbert received his formal education is not definitely known. He and King Robert are said to have been fellow students apparently under Gerbert, who taught for a time at Rheims.[5] But such statements connecting well-known figures in the intellectual world are so commonplace as to be suspect, though in this instance further support may perhaps be adduced from the educational developments discussed below. Even if this statement is correct, it need not mean that Fulbert did all his studies there. When he came to Chartres is likewise unknown. If he did in fact study with Gerbert, then it may have been after Charles of Lorraine captured Rheims in 989 or perhaps during the mid-990s, when Gerbert left France.[6] In any event he was firmly established at Chartres by 1004, the date of his earliest extant letter, for he refers to himself as deacon and describes an occasion on which he acted as an official witness there, and he was suffici­ently well known for Abbo of Fleury to write, asking him to assist a student and to send him an account of a recent controversy. Fulbert was probably scholasticus or magister scholae, a position which at Chartres and elsewhere often included the duties and sometimes the title of chancellor.[7] It may also be presumed that he continued to hold this office during the pontificate of Bishop Ralph. When Ralph died in 1006, Fulbert was nominated to the

 

 

[p. xviii] vacant see by King Robert and consecrated by Archbishop

Leothericus of Sens (1000-32).[8]

As bishop of Chartres, Fulbert was one of the natural leaders in the French church and kingdom. In the ecclesiastical province of Sens he ranked next to the archbishop, thus taking precedence over his seemingly more important fellow suffragans of Orleans and Paris. At the same time, the bishopric of Chartres belonged to the royal domain. Its incumbent was virtually appointed by the king and was considered a royal vassal. The complications which might arise from such different loyalties were sometimes quite serious; and Fulbert's situation was further aggravated by Chartres's forming part of the principality of the powerful Count Odo II of Blois, Chartres, and Tours, whose efforts to secure control of first Burgundy and then Champagne—the latter success­fully—brought him into open, conflict with King Robert.[9]

The greater part of the letters which Fulbert wrote as bishop of Chartres are apparently lost: almost all of those which are extant come from the first years or the last decade of his pontificate. Yet the collection as a whole gives a broad picture of his various spiritual and secular activities and of the routine as well as the extraordinary problems which confronted churchmen during the feudal age. Most of all it tells of the difficulties which arose from the church's position in the feudal world, of the attempts of secular lords to control ecclesiastical offices and revenues, and of the continued, but often ineffective, efforts of the clergy to resist such secular domination and to enforce church law; of matters of [p. xix] church discipline and internal administration, of the age-old problems of simony and clerical immorality, of the new threat to episcopal authority posed by the increasing number of exempt monasteries; of the details of feudal law and government, of the rise of the castellans and lesser nobility and the constant growth of multiple vassalage and subinfeudation, and of the customary co-operation between the French clergy and monarch based on medieval notions of divine-right kingship and on their common interest in keeping the nobles from further encroachments.[10] Although a conscientious churchman, Fulbert hardly anticipates the Gregorian reformer. He was too much at home in the world of his day with all its confusion of things human and divine, ecclesiastical and secular; and we have the testimony of his clerks that he would silence their complaints by reminding them that the difficulties of this world were unavoidable and must be borne with patience (no. 65).

Yet Fulbert never seems to have become immersed in purely worldly matters or to have lost sight of his spiritual goals. In his own day he was highly respected for the holiness of his life, and he has retained his reputation for sanctity.[11] It is, moreover, as a shepherd of souls that Fulbert appears at his best. His exhortations to repentance and his concern for the souls of those who have erred are among the most moving passages in his letters, and per­haps the most touching of all is his plea for the fugitive monk who wishes to return to the paradise of his cloister (no. 11). In the history of spirituality Fulbert is usually accorded a distinguished place as regards the development of devotion to the Blessed Virgin and especially the feast of her nativity.[12] Such of his [p. xx] teachings on the spiritual life as have come down in his letters and poems and a few passages elsewhere suggest that while he was familiar with the writings of the great Latin fathers and apparently fond of Prosper's Sententiae (which to be sure in no. 80 he ascribes to Augustine), he held the teachings of the desert fathers and Cassian's Collations in especial esteem.[13]

Our knowledge, of Fulbert's pontificate before the 1020s is uneven, and there are virtually no connecting threads with which to weave a chronological narrative.[14] But it is possible to do so for the later years thanks to the fairly continuous series of his own letters and those of his closest disciple, Hildegar. On 7-8 Septem­ber 1020 the cathedral of Chartres was completely destroyed by fire and the town itself was badly damaged. A new church was begun in the following years; but despite Fulbert's efforts, the crypts were not completed before late 1025, and the cathedral was still unfinished at the time of his death.[15] In late 1022 Fulbert [p. xxi] made a pilgrimage to Rome, his only known journey of any great length. After he returned, he was appointed treasurer of Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand at Poitiers by Duke William V of Aquitaine (993-1030).[16] He delegated his duties there to Hildegar, who before this had been master of the school at Chartres; and though Fulbert often planned to go to Poitiers, he was never able to do so. The area of Chartres was disturbed by frequent warfare in the I020S. In the struggle between King Robert and Count Odo, Fulbert's position seems to have been somewhat ambiguous: although he tried to protect the king's rights in the surrounding area, he apparently favoured Odo's claims. During these years Fulbert suffered from recurrent ill health. But as late as 1026 he was still sufficiently vigorous to take an active part in the contro­versy over the election of a successor to the throne. Yet his burdens were apparently too much for him; and when Hildegar returned for a visit in the summer of 1026, it was decided that he should stay at Chartres. Although Fulbert asked Duke William to appoint another treasurer, this was not done until after Fulbert's death. His last known official act was to witness a royal charter granted at Paris in early 1028 (Appendix C, no. 12). He died on Wednesday of Holy Week (10 April) and was buried the next day in the monastery church of Saint-Pere, which was then outside the town walls.[17]

 

 

 


[1] In the following I am especially indebted to Lemarignier. Cf. the reviews by F. L. Ganshof, RHDFE, Fourth Series, xlvi (1968), 263 ff., and C. Bruhl, Gottingische Gelehrte Anzeigen, ccxxi (1969), 252 ff. M. Lemarignier's earlier (1957) sketch of his basic ideas is now translated in Lordship and Community in Medieval Europe, ed. F. L. Cheyette (New York, 1968), pp. 100 ff. For the history of the church during this period see his discussion in Histoire des institutions francaises au moyen age, ed. F. Lot and R. Fawtier, iii (Paris, 1962), 3 ff., and E. Amann and A. Dumas, L'église au pouvoir des laiques (Histoire de 1'eglise, ed. A. Fliche and V. Martin, vii (Paris, 1948)); and for the peace movement in its relation to church and state see Hoffmann. For Fulbert him­self, in addition to the works cited below, see Manitius, ii. 682 ff.

 

[2] Clerval, pp. 22 f. Cf. pp. xvii, xxxiv f.

 

[3] The connection of some of the major twelfth-century figures traditionally associated with the school of Chartres is now questioned. See R. W. Southern, Medieval Humanism and Other Studies (Oxford, 1970), pp. 61 ff.; but cf. P. Dronke, 'New Approaches to the School of Chartres', Anuario de estudios medievales, vi (1969), 117 ff.

 

[4] Namely by Pfister, Fulbert, p. 21. In his poem on Fulbert (see pp. xxxv f.), Adelman states that Fulbert and Hildegar were fellow townsmen; and Hildegar himself says that he had been under Fulbert's tutelage since childhood (no. 95). In no. 48 Hildegar addresses a certain E. as senior, apparently in the technical sense, and this would seem to be Ebalus of Roucy (Aisne, arr. Laon). Further support is perhaps offered by no. 15, for Fulbert refers to one of the addressee's clerks as his kinsman, and the only apparent candidate for addressee is in that area. This would also accord with Fulbert's having studied at Rheims. As for the other hypotheses which have been advanced, the only evidence that Fulbert was from Italy is an ambiguous statement in one of the Fulbertus exiguus letters (see pp. lxii f.); and his having two nephews at Chartres, one named Fulbert (Cartulaire blesois de Marmoutier, ed. C. Métais (Blois, 1889-91), p. 48) and the other named Ralph (Cart. S.-Pere, ii. 271), is not in itself sufficient evidence that he was from there.

 

[5] the other named Ralph (Cart. S.-Pere, ii. 271), is not in itself sufficient evidence that he was from there.

 

[6] Richer, who was also one of Gerbert's students, came to Chartres from Rheims in 991 to study medicine (see p. xxxiii). Although he does not mention Fulbert in his account of his studies at Chartres, this need not mean that Fulbert was not there.

 

[7]  See Clerval, pp. 17, 22 f., 30 f., 47 ff.; G. Kurth, Notger de Liege et la civilisation au Xe siecle (Paris, 1905), i. 259 f. Hildegar later held this same position (see pp. xxxiv f.). Cf. p. xliii.

 

[8] Fulbert refers to his nomination by Robert in nos. 100 f. and to his conse­cration by Leothericus in no. 2. The profession of obedience which he made on this occasion was entered in a pontifical at Sens and has been printed by A. Staerk, Les manuscrits latins du Ve au XIIIe siecle conservés a la Bibliotheque impériale de Saint-Petersbourg, i (St. Petersburg, 1910),  171 n., from MS. Q v. I, No. 35, f. 99, and earlier, though without any identification of the source, in G. Waitz's publication of some notes left by Arndt in Neues Archiv, iii (1878), 200. Fulbert became bishop about early October (Pfister, Fulbert, p. 48), the evidence for this being the date of his death, 10 April 1028 (see p. xxi), the statement in his epitaph that he ruled Bis denos annos atque unum dimidiumque (see Appendix A), and one of the legends in his obituary leaflet (see p. xliii):  Pavit oves domini pastor venerabilis annos / Quinque quater mensesque decem cum mensibus octo (i.e. twenty-one years and six months). His predecessor, Bishop Ralph, died on a 15 July (Merlet, p. 36). For Leothericus' dates see Clarius of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif in Duru, ii. 498, 503, and GC xii. 34 ff.

 

[9] See Lex and the older literature cited there, which it does not altogether supersede, especially H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, Histoire des ducs et des comtes de Champagne, i (Paris, 1859), 189 ff.

 

[10] 10 For Fulbert's ideas on kingship see Behrends. H. Mitteis, Lehnrecht und Staatsgewalt (Weimar, 1933), p. 274 n., has also called attention to Fulbert's use of ecclesiastical censure in support of the king. Cf. J. Leclercq, 'L'interdit et l'excommunication d'apres les lettres de Fulbert de Chartres', RHDFE, Fourth Series, xxii (1944), 67 ff. As for the 'Clamor' sometimes associated with Fulbert, see R. Bauerreiss, 'Der "Clamor", eine verschollene mittelalterliche Gebetsform und das Salve Regina', Studien und Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Benediktiner-Ordens und seiner Zweige, lxii (1950), 26 ff., and J. M. Canal, 'En torno a S. Fulberto de Chartres (+1028)', Ephemerides liturgicae, lxxx (1966), 211 ff.

 

[11] It was not until the mid-nineteenth century that Fulbert's cult was officially sanctioned, and then only for the dioceses of Chartres and Poitiers (see GC viii. 1117; AASS, April i, 847; Merlet, pp. 37 ff.).

 

[12] See P. Viard, 'Fulbert de Chartres', Dictionnaire de spiritualite, v (1964;, 1605 ff.; Y. Delaporte, Une priere de saint Fulbert d Notre-Dame (Chartres, 1928) and the addenda in La vie spirituelle, lxxxvi (1952), 467 ff.; H. Barre, Prieres anciennes de l'occident a la mere du Sauveur (Paris, 1963), pp. 150 ff. and passim; J. M. Canal, 'Los sermones marianos de San Fulberto de Chartres', Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale, xxix (1962), 33 ff., 'Texto critico de algunos sermones marianos de San Fulberto de Chartres o a él atribuibles', ibid. xxx (1963), 55 ff., 329 ff., and 'Los sermones marianos de san Fulberto de Chartres. Conclusion', ibid. xxxiii (1966), 139 ff., the last in reply to the criticisms of H. Barre, 'Pro Fulberto', ibid, xxxi (1964), 324 ff. The very fact that other writings in honour of the Blessed Virgin were later attributed to Fulbert is at least proof of his reputation in this regard, as is the miracle reported by William of Malmesbury (see p. xli). Moreover, in 1028-31 Hugh of Mondoubleau (Loir-et-Cher, arr. Vendome) erected a church in honour of the Blessed Virgin consilio uenerande memorie Fulberti, nostre Carnotene urbis episcopi (Cartulaire de I'abbaye de Saint-Vincent du Mans, ed. R. Charles and M. d'Elbenne (Le Mans, 1886-1913), p. no, no. 180).

 

 

[13] See nos. 71, 95, 131 (all three by Hildegar, but probably reflecting Fulbert's own taste, especially in view of what is said in no. 131 and of the following), 137-42, 153. Cassian's influence is also visible in the notes and charts in V. As for the short penitential ascribed to Fulbert, see F. W. H. Wasserschleben, Die Bussordnungen der abendldndischen Kirche (Halle, 1851), pp. 90, 623 f., and H. J. Schmitz, Die Bussbiicher und die Bussdisciplin der Kirche, i (Mainz, 1883), 766 f., 773 f.

 

[14] In lieu of this and for further details of the following see chapter III and Appendix C, though the latter is not as helpful as might be expected.

 

[15] See nos. 40f., 51, 59, 107f. The cathedral which burned in 1020 had been built after the fire of 962. Work on Fulbert's church continued under his successor, Bishop Thierry; but part of it was again destroyed by fire in Septem­ber 1030, and it was not consecrated until October 1037. This structure lasted until the fire of 1194, after which the present cathedral was built. The architect of Fulbert's cathedral is unknown; however, it may have been a certain Berengar, who is described in the necrology as hujus matris aecclesiae artifex bonus (Merlet, pp. 127, 180). See M.-J. Bulteau, 'Saint Fulbert et sa cathédrale', Mem. de la Soc. arch. d'Eure-et-Loir, vii (1882), 288 ff.; Merlet, pp. 45 f., 55 ff.; H. H. Hilberry, 'The Cathedral at Chartres in 1030', Speculum, xxxiv (1959), 561 ff.

 

[16] See de Longuemar, Essai historique sur l'église collégiale de Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand de Poitiers (Mem. de la Soc. des Antiquaires de 1'Ouest, xxiii (1856)) and R. Favreau, 'Les écoles et la culture a Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand de Poitiers des origines au début du xiie siecle', Cahiers de civilisation médiévale, iii (1960), 473 ff.; and for Duke William see Richard, i. 139 ff.

 

[17] Although Fulbert's death is still frequently placed in 1029, the year 1028 was established by Pfister, Fulbert, p. 47, on the evidence of Fulbert's obituary (see Appendix A) and a detailed entry in the chronicle of Dol (RHF x. 323 f.). The date 10 April is also supported by the last lines of Fulbert's epitaph (Appendix A). See Merlet, p. 30 n., and A. J. Macdonald, Berengar and the Reform of Sacramental Doctrine (London, 1930), pp. 18 f. Fulbert's tomb is probably near the principal entrance to the choir of the present parish church of Saint-Pere.  See A. Lecocq, 'Dissertation historique et archéologique sur la question: ou est l'emplacement du tombeau de Fulbert, éveque de Chartres, au xie siecle?' Mém. de la Soc. arch. d'Eure-et-Loir, v (1872), 303 ff, and Merlet, pp. 49 f.