The Ermenfrid Penitential is an ordinance composed by the Bishops of Normandy following the
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William the Conqueror, William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godw ...
(1066) calling for atonement to be completed by the perpetrators of violence in
William the Conqueror's invading army during the
Norman Conquest of England
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
. The date of issue is, probably, 1067, although some historians have dated it to 1070.
Papal authority was given to the document by Ermenfrid of Sion, papal legate to
Pope Alexander II
Pope Alexander II (1010/1015 – 21 April 1073), born Anselm of Baggio, was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1061 to his death in 1073. Born in Milan, Anselm was deeply involved in the Pataria refor ...
(1063-1073).
The ordinance is split into three distinct time periods, with corresponding penances described for homicides committed at the Battle of Hastings itself, those occurring in the intermediary period between it and William's coronation two months later on Christmas Day, and any acts of violence occurring after William was crowned. The decree issues penance on the victors alone.
Unusually, there are punishments served to the motive of the soldiers alongside the physical destruction caused by the wielded of their weapons. If a soldier ‘had willed’ to kill but ‘had not actually struck a man’ then they had in effect still sinned.
Additional clauses also proscribe penance for the further sins of the Conquest, chiefly adultery, rape, fornication and violation of church property. The code ends with an order that goods taken from English churches should be restored.
Self-defence is however recognised by the ordinance, which states a reduced penance.
Penance could by undertaken by the invading army through alms: the donation of food and money to the poor, or through the construction of new churches.
There is no mention of Duke William of Normandy's role in the public penance, and thus it has been inferred that he was exempt from these charges. It has been suggested, however, that the decision by Duke William to build an abbey at Battle was not made until after the ordinance was imposed. Therefore, the Abbey itself may have been William's penance for his role in the slaughter at Hastings.
Ermenfrid of Sion’s Life
As papal legate, Bishop Ermenfrid of Sion played a crucial role in conferring authority to the ordinance. Sion was the northernmost diocese in the province of Tarantaise, in the eleventh century
Kingdom of Burgundy
Kingdom of Burgundy was a name given to various states located in Western Europe during the Middle Ages. The historical Burgundy correlates with the border area of France, Italy and Switzerland and includes the major modern cities of Geneva and ...
, occupying what is now
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
.
Although "insignificant in itself," the Sion diocese "comprised a region which was of the greatest importance for communications over the western Alps",
on a route which was "a principal means of communication from Italy, by way of lake Geneva and the Rhone valley, to north Burgundy and also to the Paris basin and the valley of the Seine,"
and thus "exceptionally well-placed for its bishop to know what was happening in the wider world. Its situation tended to make him a figure of some importance for the purposes of popes and kings...
aking hima natural intermediary between the papacy and the regions of north-western France and England."
Little is known about Ermenfrid's life prior to the start of his bishopric in either 1054 or 1055 due to a lack of surviving sources from the time period. The death of his predecessor, Aimo, cannot be dated exactly and it is uncertain who promoted Ermenfrid to his office.
It is apparent however that he occupied his see in Sion for than 30 years, a period in which he presided over several Councils in his capacity as papal legate to Pope Alexander II (1061-1073).
The Ermenfrid Penitential
The text of the ordinance was preserved in a manuscript at
Worcester
Worcester may refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England
** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament
* Worcester Park, London, Englan ...
, which was later printed by the English antiquarian
Henry Spelman
Sir Henry Spelman (c. 1562 – October 1641) was an English antiquary, noted for his detailed collections of medieval records, in particular of church councils.
Life
Spelman was born in Congham, Norfolk, the eldest son of Henry Spelman (d. 1581 ...
(c. 1562-1641)
Regarding authenticity, analyses by medieval historian and Anglican priest
H. E. J. Cowdrey
Herbert Edward John Cowdrey (1926–2009), known as H. E. J. Cowdrey or John Cowdrey, was an English historian of the Middle Ages and an Anglican priest. He was elected priest of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, in 1956. He resign ...
concluded that "when it is compared with other evidence for the penitential system of the early middle ages and especially of its own century, the Norman penitential ordinance has the stamp of authenticity. There is no good reason for doubting either that the Norman bishops of the time would have enacted it, or that a papal legate such as Ermenfrid of Sion would have confirmed it on behalf of the papacy. It may be accepted with confidence as an authentic document."
At the Battle of Hastings
* Anyone who knew that he had killed a man was to do one year's penance for each man whom he had killed.
* Anyone who had wounded a man, but did not know whether or not he had killed him, was to do forty days' penance for each man whom he could remember.
* Anyone who did not know how many men he had killed or wounded was, at the discretion of his bishop, to do penance for one day a week during the rest of his life, or, if he could, he might redeem his sin by a perpetual alms.
* Anyone who had not actually struck a man, but, nonetheless, had willed to do so, was to do three days' penance.
* Archers who had killed or wounded others, but who, by the nature of their weapons, could not know the number, were to do penance for three Lents.
* Clerks and monks who had fought or carried arms were to be dealt with according to the canons of the Church or their rule, as though they had sinned in their own land (s).
* Those who were prompted merely by personal gain owed the full penance which was appropriate for common homicide.
* Those who fought as in a public war were assigned a penance of three years by the bishops, out of mercy.
Between the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066 and the King's Coronation on Christmas Day 1066
* Those who killed men in face of resistance while they were foraging for food were to do a year's penance for each man; that is, they were to be treated as though they had killed men in the battle of Hastings.
* If, however, they were out for plunder and not for food, they were to do three years' penance for each man.
After the King's Coronation
* Those who killed men must do the full penance for common homicide wilfully committed, but with the exception that, if the man who was killed or wounded was in arms against the king, the penance was to be the reduced one of those who had actually killed or wounded men in the battle of Hastings.
* Those who committed adulteries, rapes and fornications were to do penance as if they had sinned in their own country.
* The violation of churches was treated likewise, and those who stole from churches were to make such restitution as they could. Trafficking in the spoils of churches was prohibited.
Similar Sources
The authenticity of the source can be verified as it is in accordance with similar penitential orders. For example, by the ninth century, penitential books and decrees were fairly widespread across Northern Europe.
[Robert Cryer, Prosecuting International Crimes: Selectivity and the International Criminal Law Regime (Cambridge, 2005) p. 13] The Ermenfrid Penitential is interesting in its rarity however, as few sources survive relating to atrocities committed in a single and specific battle.
Following the
Battle of Soissons (923)
The Battle of Soissons was fought on 15 June 923 between an alliance of Frankish insurgent nobles led by Robert I, elected king in an assembly the year prior, and an army composed of Lotharingians, Normans, and Carolingian forces under King Char ...
a decree was issued a year later, proscribing penance for those on both sides of the conflict. It therefore stands out as a comparatively rare example of impartiality, and mere presence at the battle warranted penitential activity. It has been suggested by Draper that the Ermenfrid Penitential lacks such impartiality as it was felt that the miseries of the defeated Saxons were great enough without the added imposition of penance.
Those who fought at the Battle of Soissons were to conduct their penance during Lent for three successive years.
The first surviving piece of evidence for rethinking the nature of homicide can be found in a letter sent by
Pope Alexander II
Pope Alexander II (1010/1015 – 21 April 1073), born Anselm of Baggio, was the head of the Roman Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1061 to his death in 1073. Born in Milan, Anselm was deeply involved in the Pataria refor ...
to the clergy of Volturno in 1063.
[Richard. W. Kaeuper, Holy Warriors: The Religious Ideology of Chivalry, (Philadelphia, 2009).] The letter addresses volunteers taking up arms in Spain against the Muslims.
Epistolae pontificum Romanorum ineditae,
(1) Letter of Pope Alexander II to the clergy of Volturno (1063)
To the clergy of Volturno.
We urge with paternal charity that those who are determined to set out for Spain think with maximum care about what they, divinely inspired, have decided to carry out. Let a measure of penance be imposed on each and every one of them who shall confess, according to the quality of his sins, to his bishop or spiritual father, so that the devil may not accuse them of impenitence. We, accompanying
hem
A hem in sewing is a garment finishing method, where the edge of a piece of cloth is folded and sewn to prevent unravelling of the fabric and to adjust the length of the piece in garments, such as at the end of the sleeve or the bottom of the ga ...
with prayer, by the authority of the holy apostles Peter and Paul,
herebylift their penance and give them remission of sins.
The Letter appears to decree that the very act of arduous armed struggle would itself become the penitential sacrifice, and thus means of penitential behavior as described in the Ermenfrid Penitential would not be necessary.
This theory would be a powerful one in the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
whereby divine devotion would militarize large swathes of Europe into battle.
Crucially this source addresses the fighting between two different religions: Christianity and Islam, whilst slaughter of Christian peoples by others of the same faith was clearly more problematic, as attested by the penitential ordinance of 1070.
Context
At William's request, Pope Alexander sent his three legates: Ermenfrid, Peter and John to England with the task of reforming the English clergy. Despite this, the decree precedes the
Gregorian Reform
The Gregorian Reforms were a series of reforms initiated by Pope Gregory VII and the circle he formed in the papal curia, c. 1050–80, which dealt with the moral integrity and independence of the clergy. The reforms are considered to be nam ...
movement of
Pope Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII ( la, Gregorius VII; 1015 – 25 May 1085), born Hildebrand of Sovana ( it, Ildebrando di Soana), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 April 1073 to his death in 1085. He is venerated as a saint ...
and his
papal curia and the seismic debates that followed regarding plurality as well as other supposed ills and corruption of the Church. It sets the precedent of ecclesiastical intervention into State affairs, later to be disputed in the
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops (investiture) and abbots of monast ...
.
The Norman Conquest had been fought under the Papal Banner of Pope Alexander II, giving William legitimacy in his invasion. In addition to this, William claimed that he had a legitimate claim to the English throne, professing that
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor ; la, Eduardus Confessor , ; ( 1003 – 5 January 1066) was one of the last Anglo-Saxon English kings. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex, he ruled from 1042 to 1066.
Edward was the son of Æth ...
had appointed William as his heir, but had been betrayed by
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the C ...
.
[William of Jumièges, translated by Elisabeth M. C. van Houts, "The gesta Normannorum ducum of William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis, and Robert of Torigni" (Oxford University Press, 1995).] There was no system of
primogeniture
Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
in royal dynasties at this time and thus there were often several claimants to the throne.
Language and Style
The source is written in the imperative. It clearly lays out the requirements for every soldier who harmed or killed in battle and the penance owed to the sin committed. The three time periods into which the source is categorised creates the impression of, ‘circumstantial reliability.’
The ordinance reflects the stern discipline that William himself subjected to his forces and with the added, ‘zeal for disciplinary legislation,’ which was reflective of the Anglo-Saxon Church at this time.
The Church and the Nature of War
Theological debates in the Church regarding the nature of war and the act of sinning itself had been taking place for millennia.
Burchard of Worms
Burchard of Worms ( 950/965 – August 20, 1025) was the bishop of the Imperial City of Worms, in the Holy Roman Empire. He was the author of a canon law collection of twenty books known as the '' Decretum'', ''Decretum Burchardi'', or ''Decreto ...
was
influential in adding weight to the notion that any murder was sinful, regardless of the authority which directed it - a school of thought that would last up until the
First Crusade
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic ru ...
(1096-1099).
{{rp, 237
The
Peace and Truce of God
The Peace and Truce of God ( lat, Pax et treuga Dei) was a movement in the Middle Ages led by the Catholic Church and one of the most influential mass peace movements in history. The goal of both the ''Pax Dei'' and the ''Treuga Dei'' was to limit ...
movement also followed, and the source may be interpreted as an attempt to limit infighting within
Christendom
Christendom historically refers to the Christian states, Christian-majority countries and the countries in which Christianity dominates, prevails,SeMerriam-Webster.com : dictionary, "Christendom"/ref> or is culturally or historically intertwine ...
, or indeed an attempt by William to create a more unified kingdom.
References
1070s in England
Norman conquest of England
Penitentials