St. Hildegard Von Bingen (12th C.)
In the mid-twelfth century Europe was engaged in economic growth which has continued to this day. The barbarians were now a distant memory, Islamic and Greek texts were being discovered in the Reconquista and were subsequently being translated into Latin for common usage, and the advances made over the previous five centuries (advances in fulling, windmills, wain construction, horseshoes, and so on) were bearing fruits, seen across Western Europe.
It was into this world that came one of the most influential women of the entire Medieval period: Hildegard Von Bingen (1095-1179). Living in the Holy Roman Empire,
She was grew up in a Benedictine community, contributing “as a theologian, natural philosopher, founder of a monastic community, medical practitioner, playwright, hagiographer, lyricist, and composer of vocal and instrumental music” (Berger 1999, 1). Much of Hildegard’s writing has survived to the present, including writings in which she discusses health and illness at length, from a holistic perspective. (Boivin & Phillips, 2007; 360).
However, the blessed saint herself was not free from the ailments which she sought to waylay in others. As her biography states
She did not lack, almost from her infancy, the frequent and almost continued pains of weakness -so much so that she would have to force her feet to walk. At times the life in her body flickered very low… (Various, 1998; 140).
Thus this prolific and influential abbess is both an example of someone with a severe illness and an example of someone who invested much of her life in healing others (Boivin & Phillips, 2007). The aforementioned hagiography, likely written not long after her death, describes at length how Hildegard and her various reliques cured many people of physical diseases, those who were oppressed by demons, and those with non-demonic mental disabilities, including two women healed from their “disturbance of mind” (various, 1998; 188).
In one instance, the saint received a letter from a fellow abbot enquiring as to how he might cure a mentally ill noblewoman (Boivin & Phillips, 2007). Hildegard recommended an exorcism, which was performed to no avail. As a result, the abbot sent the woman, Sigewiza by name, to her, where Hildegard arranged for round-the-clock care, including a specialised diet, psychotherapy, the constant attendance of one of the sisters, involvement in all prayers, and in the quotidian life and labour of the convent. This was followed by an exorcism just before Easter, and the woman’s complete recovery. Shortly thereafter, Hildegard herself fell ill, but also recovered after forty days.
While much of the diagnosis appears superficially to be fanciful – balancing humours, performing exorcisms, and so on – Hildegard’s approach, that is, an holistic approach wherein all aspects of life are addressed, had a very positive effect. Boivin and Phillips (2007) argue that Hildegard’s holistic therapy has much to offer modern practitioners of medicine.
Paradigm Placement – Sympathy, charity, Agency.
Hildegard herself is an example of how a woman with debilitating health problems was able to rise to the pinnacle of Medieval society -sharing correspondences with Pope Eugene III as well as archbishops and other abbots and being canonised. Her amazing accomplishments challenge the spurious notion that medieval thinkers attributed illness to sin, and the saint herself does not appear to have allowed such an aetiology to influence her work with the disabled.
Hildegard’s success in life and her extensive work with those suffering from illnesses shows that important Church officials in the medieval period maintained a charitable attitude of care and sympathy towards those with mental and physical illnesses. Furthermore, both Hildegard’s high rank, and her desire to include her patient Sigewiza in the life of her convent demonstrates that those with mental disabilities were rehabilitated and given control over their own fates. Both Sigewiza and Hildegard, despite their impairments, were considered a part of the cenobitic community and could attain even elevated positions. Thus, it is clear that this popular saint, like the Blessed Margaret of Castello and St. Giles, shows that the Church at least, and likely popular lay traditions, accepted disabled persons, offered them the sympathy and support requisite for their success, and then allowed them to hold exalted positions of great influence and prestige, even celebrating their work with the disabled.
Boivin, Monique D., Phillips, Suzanne M. (2007) Medieval Holism: Hildegard Of Bingen On Mental Disorder. Philosophy, Psychiatry, And Psychology. 14(4). 359-368.
Various. (1998). Jutta And Hildegard: The Biographical Sources. (Anna Silvas, Ed. Trans.). European Union: Brepols.
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The Romance Of Tristan (12th C.)
The Romance OF Tristan was an exceedingly popular medieval story, the earliest extant form of which -that which is here discussed and was written by a bard named Beroul- dates to the late eleventh century. The story is set within the framework of the Arthurian legends and is mentioned many times by Chretien de Troyes. Yet King Arthur and Sir Gawain, his nephew, make only a brief appearance.
The story tells of a Tristan, the nephew of the king, who, while retrieving the king’s fiancee, Yseut, -also spelt Isolde- from Ireland, inadvertently drinks a love potion with her. Thereafter, the two can barely keep from one another, and are forced to keep their illicit love a secret. Throughout the book the king discovers them several times and escapes, both daring and comical, are made.
There are two characters in the narrative who are disfigured and who play significant roles. The first is the dwarf, Frocin, whose dwarfishness, necromancy, and malignance are inseparable. “Cursed be the hunchback!” rages Beroul, and “Cursed be all such magicians! Whoever would have thought of such wickedness as this dwarf? May God curse him!” (Beroul, 1970; 61). Along with three of the king’s barons, the dwarf reports of Ysuet’s infidelity and, even though Tristan and the queen are behaving immorally, all four are labelled as evil and are both scapegoated and hated. For example, when the burghers of Kent discover that the dwarf has revealed the lovers’ trysting to the king, they decry Frocin stating:
“Dwarf, your magic has done this! If anyone finds the dwarf anywhere and does not pass his sword through his body, may he never see the face of god” Beroul, 1970; 66).
But the dwarf’s evil is not sated by this act alone. Later in the tail, he betrays the king by informing the courtiers that the king has horse’s ears. Upon realising the treachery, king Mark declares
“I’m resolved to make an end of him!” He drew his sword and cut off the dwarf’s head. Many people were glad of this, for they hated the dwarf Frocin because of what he had done to Tristan and the queen. (Beroul, 1970; 78).
In the eleventh century such a treachery was considered abhorrent, far more so than today, so the betrayal of the king by Frocin is all the worse.
Elsewhere in the story, it is told how the king, wrathful after discovering Ysuet’s adultery seeks to have his wife burnt. Before this happens, however, lepers from a nearby colony come to see what all the clamour is about. Upon arrival, their leader, Ivain, proposes an even more horrific fate for Ysuet.
‘I can tell you quickly what I have in mind [spoke Ivain]. Look here, I have a hundred companion. Give Ysuet to us and we will possess her in common. No woman ever had a worse end. Sire, there is such lust in us that no woman on earth could tolerate such intercourse with us for a single dayintercourse with us for a single day. The very clothes stick to our bodies. With you she used to be honoured and happily clad in blue and grey furs. She learned of good wines in your marble halls. If you give her to us lepers, when she sees our low hovels and our dishes and has to sleep with us -in place of fine meal,s sire, she will have the pieces of food and the crumbs that are left for us at the gates- then, by the Lord who dwells above, when she sees our court and all its discomforts she would rather be dead than alive. The snake Ysuet will know then that she has been wicked. She would rather have been burnt.’ (Beroul, 1970; 73-74).
Paradigm Placement – Hatred, scapegoating, ostracism.
Beroul appears to have been something of an interesting character. He is in no way concerned with moralising and makes little to no attempt to justify Tristan and Yseut’s infidelity. He is decidedly non-religious, -invoking God’s name rarely, and His word even more exiguously- and seems more preoccupied with pleasing his audience than with imparting any form of ethic. Thus, using the dwarf to personify difference, danger, duplicitousness, and wizardry would have been very useful to him.
Unlike the stories of St. Francis, St. Giles, or the Blessed Margaret of Castello, the purpose of The Romance Of Tristan is purely to entertain and the motif of the evil misfit probably fits very well into this paradigm, as did the evil of Ivain the leper. Indeed, note the contrast between the moralising in the stories of St. Francis and his followers and the demonisation of the same group in Beroul’s romance. The lepers are not described as needing support or love, or having any ability to better their lives, but are rather decried as base and disgusting, dirty, and deserving of their low rank. They are to receive the chaff from society, and to be used as tools of punishment. Clearly, there was a multiplicity of viewpoint coexisting -likely not without tension- during the high middle ages.
This employment of disfigured and otherwise marginalised peoples to depict the worst of antagonists imaginable to the medieval mind tells the student of medieval studies several important things: (1), disabled people were often scapegoated, or at least depicted as being culpable for cases of witchcraft or sorcery, (2) that the use of ugliness or disfigurement to create feelings of revulsion was popular, (3), that those with debilitating illnesses such as leprosy were not pitied or succoured, but reviled, cast off, and hated, and (4) that leprosy could be used as a means of harming or castigating people who had committed wanton acts. Thus the depiction of disabled people in The Romance Of Tristan, as recorded by Beroul in the late eleventh century, is strictly negative and cruel.
Beroul. (1970). The Romance Of Tristan. (Alan S. Fedrick, Trans.). England, UK: Penguin Classics.
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Erec And Enide (12th C.)
The romance of Erec And Enide is unexceptional in many ways amongst medieval romances. Written by Chretien De Troyes, it tells the story of how a knight, Erec, wins a bride, Enide, and then tests her in rather cruel way. The tale includes a short segment in which a dwarf is included. The dwarf is described as evil and brutal, and assaults the queen’s maiden as well as Erec, who is unarmed at the time. Although this is done at the behest of the dwarf’s master, Yder, the dwarf is still depicted in a negative light.
Paradigm Placement – Evil, dangerousness.
While this reference is brief, the fact that a dwarf is used as the implement of such opprobrium as to attack an unarmed knight and a woman is exceedingly important to this discussion. The dwarf is described as low-born and ugly, and his actions are deplorable. The association of disfigurement, abnormality, and ugliness with such an offense means that this story depicts disabled persons as dangerous and evil.
Chretien De Troyes. (2004). Arthurian Romances. (William W. Kibler, Trans.). England, UK: Penguin Classics.
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Cliges (12th C.)
The romance entitled Cliges tells the tale of a man named Alexander who travels from Byzantium, where he is rightful heir, to Britain where he wins renown and returns with a wife, Soredamose, the niece of King Arthur. In the meantime, Alexander’s brother, Alis, has usurped the throne, but offered Alexander all of the power so long as he himself can retain the title. Alexander agrees on the condition that his son, Cliges, will be the heir to the throne and that Alis never marry. The two agree, but shortly after Alexander’s death, Alis decides to marry the Holy Roman Emperor’s daughter, Fenice. Cliges aids him in this, winning renown, but he and Fenice fall madly in love, so Cliges departs for Britain to win his own honour.
Upon her wedding night, Fenice tricks Alis into drinking a potion which will deceive him into believing that he has consummated the marriage, but in reality, he will simply dream it: as such, she is able to remain a maiden. When Cliges returns to Byzantium the two lovers elope through a complex plan, and eventually flee to Britain. However, after their escape, Alis’ “sorrow was so great that he lost his mind; he stopped eating and drinking and died insane” (Chretien, 2005; 205).
Paradigm Placement – Evil, dangerous.
This romance has only one very brief, but very indicative reference to disability or mental illness. Each character’s goodness or value is determined by his appearance and bravery, and Alis, who behaves most dishonourably is the only person who suffers from a mental issue and this is as a direct result of his own actions. He maligns his own family, breaks an oath by marrying, takes a bride who does not love him, and commits a host of other smaller infractions and acts of cowardice. Eventually, his malpractice catches up to him and he is driven mad by his inability to continue his sins.
In the case of Alis the emperor, there is a clear connexion between sin and madness. Unlike in most medieval literature (as observed in the introduction, Kroll & Bachrach, 1984), Chretien de Troyes, like Beroul, makes it clear that in secular literature the image of madness was used to express poetic justice. This portrayal of mental illness is, therefore, distinctly negative. It is associated with dangerous and criminal people and is considered to be a punishment for past sin.
Bachrach, Bernard, Carey, Kathleen, Kroll, Jeremy. (2002) A Reappraisal Of Medieval Mysticism And Hysteria. Mental Health, Religion, And Culture. 5(1). 83-98.
Chretien De Troyes. (2004). Arthurian Romances. (William W. Kibler, Trans.). England, UK: Penguin Classics.
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Hreidar The Fool (13th C.)
“There was a man called Thord, a small, good-looking man. he had a brother, Hreidar, who was ugly and so stupid he could scarcely take care of himself. Hreidar was an exceptionally fast runner, very strong and even tempered” (Anon., 1970: 94). The brothers lived in Iceland, and the story about them was written in the thirteenth century, as part of the Icelandic “Gold Age of saga writing” (Anon. 1970: 7). Likely entirely fictitious, Hreidar follows his brother to Norway where he embarks on a number of adventures and misadventures, serving the Norwegian king and eventually returning to Iceland and settling down with a family.
Throughout his peregrinations, Hreidar discovers his talents, but his innocence and slow-wittedness often causes him trouble. For example, when Hreidar presented some of his handiwork, a gilded pig, to a local king:
the king looked at the pig, and said, “You’re a really fine craftsman. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything of this kind so cleverly made.”…[after it had been passed around], [t]he pig was was handed back to the king, and he picked it up to take a closer look at the workmanship. Then he realised that it was a sow with teats on it. He thought that this must have been done in order to insult him.” (Anon., 1970: 106).
As it turns out, this is not Hreidar’s intention, but was, rather, an innocent mistake. After orting out the problem and with the support of his brother and king Magnus of Norway, Hreidar is able to return to Iceland, marry, and find his place in the world.
Paradigm Placement – Agency.
The story of Hreidar’s life is strikingly similar to that of Forrest Gump: a man with a mental impairment leaves home and finds his way to adventure and fame before returning home and having a family and normal life. In both cases, the disabled person is depicted as exercising his own agency and capacity. He is able to contribute to and be an important member of society, albeit, with the proper support, and he eventually finds his own corner of the world into which he fits perfectly.
Although Hreidar The Fool is unlikely to have been based on actual events, the story is nevertheless, indicative of Icelandic understandings and representations of disability in the early Christian period. Certainly there are marked Christian undertones to the story, such as the value of individual free choice -a hallmark of medieval Christendom- as opposed to the more fatal attitudes of more pagan stories (Anon. 1971 [intro]). However, much of the ethic remains non-Christian. Therefore, Hreidar’s story is an excellent window into how disabled persons were viewed by people who were beginning to have their lives truly renovated by their new Faith. Apparently, they felt that -at least in some cases- people with mental impairments were capable of becoming valuable members of society and of controlling their own futures.
Anonymous (1971). Hrafnkel’s Saga And Other Stories. (Herman Palsson, Trans.). Great Britain, UK: Penguin Classics.
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The Blessed [Little] Margaret Of Castello
Margaret of Castello was born in Italy in 1287. Her family was wealthy, but were horrified to discover that she was seriously deformed: she had a twisted spine, was a dwarf and was blind. At the age of six she was locked in a room, and when, after a pilgrimage to a Franciscan site failed to cure her, she was abandoned. She was adopted by some pitying locals and eventually entered the Dominican Order. While a nun, she engaged in daily prayer, in charity, and in the succouring of those in need around her. She died at the age of thirty-three, and was canonised in 1609. She is not yet officially a saint (Bonniwell, 1979).
Paradigm Placement – Agency, charity.
Margaret’s life is an excellent example of how people with disabilities were understood and represented in media during the medieval period. Despite the travails that she faced she returned munificence for hatred, and joy in spite of penury. The fact that she was canonised and became popular also indicates that people during this time period liked such an understanding of impairment, and believed that those with disabilities were capable of contribution, and even of attaining very high honour and renown. The story does not ignore the persecution and adversity faced by those with such obstacles, but it shows that, with the proper support, they could be overcome.
Thus, the popular moral story of Margaret of Castello, abovementioned, evidences the fact that people in the medieval era believed that those with disabilities possessed agency and could control their own fates, especially with regards to faith. It is also apparent from the story that the Church supported this perception.
For more information, see: http://littlemargaret.org/history.html
Bonniwell, William R.. (1979). The Life of Blessed Margaret of Castello. Charlotte NC.: Ideas Inc.
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The Little Flowers Of St. Francis Of Assisi (13th-14th C.)
The Little Flowers Of St. Francis Of Assisi, is a text written likely in the early fourteenth or late thirteenth century. It is a hagiographical piece, which, while fanciful at times, does elucidate much about the type of moral leader that the late medieval Italian Church sought to promote. It was likely composed, or at the least transcribed, either from older literary tracts no longer extant or from oral traditions, by several important bishops -men of exceeding power and influence in both ecclesiastical and temporal spheres. The text, which appears in a number of larger books both in Latin and Italian, is comprised of fifty-two short chapters which tell of the exploits of the blessed St. Francis and his immediate followers: the moral implications of the text are banal.
The twenty-fifth chapter of the book tells the story of a hospital, founded and run by the earliest of Francis’ followers. It demonstrates most clearly an essential way in which the brothers minor interacted with disability, in this case, debilitating leprosy coupled with mental illness. As St. Francis
not only himself willingly served lepers, but furthermore, had commanded that the friars of his Order, wherever they went or sojourned throughout the world, should serve lepers from the love of Christ, who for our sake willed to be accounted leprous, it once came to pass that in a certain Place, near which St. Francis then dwelt, the friars served the lepers and the sick in a hospital. (Ugolino, 1998; 54).
The story proceeds to tell of how a man, suffering from very severe leprosy and being oppressed by demons came to the hospital (it should be known that the term ‘demon’ in this text seems to denote any negative, impious, or unchaste thought: it most likely denotes both the personification of such thoughts and the belief in possession by an actual agent of the devil). The man would rale against the monks and curse the name of Christ, and, after a time, the brothers could no longer endure such contumeliousness. However, before they were prepared to discharge the man, they besought the council of St. Francis.
Upon hearing of their intentions, St. Francis came and spoke with the man, offering to serve him personally, having been inspired by prayer. As he cleaned the man, the wounds healed and the man was made well, both of body and mind. Now solitudinous, he repented his former frustration, and died soon after. As his soul departed for heaven it found St. Francis and thanked him for the salvation that his munificence had wrought.
Similarly, in the forty-second chapter, another brother, Friar Bentivoglio of San Severino is called by a bishop to depart his home wherein he is caring for a leper. Not wishing to abandon his patient, he miraculously carries the poor man fifteen miles in a single day.
Paradigm Placement – Charity/concern, Agency.
There are several key points to these two stories which help moderns to better understand the ideal treatment of cripples and mentally ill people during the high middle ages. The first is simple: hospitals were built and often catered to those with horrific ailments. Not only is St. Francis said to have commissioned his Order to care for the disabled, but Biblical reference is employed to further extend this command to all Christians. Those seeking God’s pleasure and a good and pious life were to live as Christ lived (thereby making them Christians) and were to follow the example of St. Francis in serving the disabled, even at the risk of being exposed to debilitating contagions -the contagiousness of leprosy was well understood in the medieval period. So zealous was their concern for others that, even when insulted or called away from their work, they (ideally) did not leave their supplicants, but would, rather, continue to serve them. This shows a clear notion of responsibility toward and a genuine concern for those in need.
Secondarily, the fact that the leper himself, having been healed, is able to renounce his formerly rancorous behaviour and even to intentionally convert to a more sober and pious life, demonstrates the agency which it was believed people suffering from mental and physical illnesses could exercise. The leper, having been succoured by the friars, takes it upon himself to mend his ways and thereby takes control of his own destiny. Thus, the hospitals were seen not only as a place of physical healing, but also of social and spiritual recuperation and rehabilitation. Such rehabilitation clearly demonstrates that, as a popular part of the moral media matrix of the middle ages, both concern for impaired persons and a respect for their personal and moral agency were respected.
Ugolino di Monte Santa Maria (1998) The Little Flowers Of St. Francis Of Assisi. (W. Heywood, Trans.). New York, NY.: Random House Inc..
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