Adalbero of Laon's Poem to King Robert (1023–1025/7): a discourse against Cluniac reform or a commentary on monastic hypocrisy?
The purpose of this paper is to nuance the traditional interpretation of Bishop Adalbero of Laon's satirical Carmen ad Rotbertum regem as a rebuttal of Cluniac reform and its disruptive effect on early eleventh‐century society. Study of the text's literary antecedents reveals that its criticism was...
| Published in: | Early Medieval Europe Vol. 32; no. 2; pp. 159 - 184 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley-Blackwell
May2024
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| Summary: | The purpose of this paper is to nuance the traditional interpretation of Bishop Adalbero of Laon's satirical Carmen ad Rotbertum regem as a rebuttal of Cluniac reform and its disruptive effect on early eleventh‐century society. Study of the text's literary antecedents reveals that its criticism was rooted in a tradition of commentaries on the conduct and attitudes of a much larger monastic cohort. Furthermore, comparison of its argument with evidence about the context and with a number of polemical statements regarding the relations between bishops and monastic leaders since the 990s indicates that the author's focus was on cautioning against abbots' hypocrisy rather than against a programmatic reform. |
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