Political Thought and Eleventh-Century Populism
The Meek, the Many, and the Meritorious during the Age of the Gregorian Reform
The first comprehensive study to analyse the eleventh century populist movements in the context of medieval political thought, revealing the earliest textual basis of political power – for those inherently disempowered by lack of noble birth, wealth, or education – in medieval political thought.
The populist movements of the eleventh century (the Peace of God, Gregorian Reform, and the First Crusade) did not simply mark an important pivot in the greater history of the West. Taken together, they also represent a fascinating phenomenon unto themselves. R. I. Moore characterized them as the products of a ‘bizarre but temporarily effective’ alliance of the clergy and people, while Richard Landes and Thomas Head claimed that they heralded the ‘emergence of the crowd on the stage of European affairs.’ This book is the first comprehensive study to consider the textual records of that alliance/emergence from an intellectual perspective. Through an in-depth analysis of ten eleventh-century writers, the author Jason Macleod argues that a distinctive strand of political thought entwines its way through the textual legacy of these movements. From relatively obscure monastic hagiographers such as Letaldus of Micy to Pope Gregory VII to ‘best-selling’ crusade chroniclers like Robert the Monk, eleventh-century clergymen framed the populist fervour of their age in discernible patterns for contemporary consumption, while leaving a textual legacy rich with political implications for the future. While optimistic reformers romanticized the empowerment of the Meek and the Many in shades of vox populi, vox Dei, more sceptical observers pragmatically recast such activity as dangerous exemplars of God’s wrath employed to correct elites’ behaviour. Ultimately, this book contends that the body of political thought considered herein represents the earliest textual legitimization of political power for those inherently disempowered by lack of noble birth, wealth, or education in the medieval West.
Other Titles in this Series
Public Declamations
Essays on Medieval Rhetoric, Education, and Letters in Honour of Martin Camargo
Volume 27
Medieval Art at the Intersection of Visuality and Material Culture
Studies in the 'Semantics of Vision'
Volume 32
Law and Theology in Twelfth-Century England
The Works of Master Vacarius (c. 1115/20 - c. 1200)
Volume 10
Sapientia et eloquentia
Meaning and Function in Liturgical Poetry, Music, Drama, and Biblical Commentary in the Middle Ages
Volume 11
The Classics in the Medieval and Renaissance Classroom
The Role of Ancient Texts in the Arts Curriculum as Revealed by Surviving Manuscripts and Early Printed Books
Volume 20
Medieval Thought Experiments
Poetry, Hypothesis, and Experience in the European Middle Ages
Volume 31
Fictions of the Inner Life
Religious Literature and Formation of the Self in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Volume 4
Political Thought and Eleventh-Century Populism
The Meek, the Many, and the Meritorious during the Age of the Gregorian Reform
Volume 38
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