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Gestures and Comportment at theCarolingian Court: Between Practice

and Perception

Philippe Depreux

It is well known that certain gestures had a particular juridical value in the

middle ages, such as, for example, tearing out the tongue to exclude an indi-

vidual,1 or placing the fingers in a particular position to make a renunciation,

as revealed by a notice copied into the cartulary of the abbey of St Michael of

Bamberg. This tells how, in October 1027, at Tribur, on the orders of the

emperor Conrad II,2 a count renounced for money all right in a property:

with his son, he renounced . . . first with bended fingers, according to the

custom of the Saxons. These are the Saxons who saw and heard this [there

follow the names of ten persons, including four counts]. Then he renounced

with hand and straw (festuca), in the manner of the Franks. These are the

eastern Franks who saw and heard this [there follow the names of twenty-five

persons, including five counts].3 This is not the only reference to the per-

formance of a judicial act by a gesture with the fingers,4 but the distinction it

1 Robert Jacob, Bannissement et rite de la langue tiree au Moyen Age. Du lien des loiset de

sa rupture,Annales HSS, 55 (2000), 103979.2 iubente et consiliante piissimo imperatore Cuonrado.3 Die Urkunden Konrads II., ed. Harry Bresslau et al. (Hanover, 1909) (MGH, Diplomata

regum et imperatorum Germaniae, 4), 154 (no. 111): fecit abnegationem . . . primo

incurvatis digitis secundum morem Saxonicum. Isti sunt Saxones qui hoc viderunt et audi-

erunt . . .Et deinde abnegationem fecit cum manu et festuca more Francorum. Isti sunt

orientales Franci qui hoc viderunt et audierunt. For this act, see Harry Bresslau,Jahrbucher

des deutschen Reichs unter Konrad II., vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1879), 237. This text is reproduced

in various anthologies of diplomatic documents: Marcel Thevenin, Textes Relatifs aux

Institutions Privees et Publiques aux Epoques Merovingienne et Carolingienne. Institutions

Privees(Paris, 1887), 216 (no. 148); Hugo Loersch and Richard Schroder,Urkunden zur

Geschichte des deutschenPrivatrechtes fur den Gebrauch bei Vorlesungen und Ubungen,3rd

edn revised and augmented by Richard Schroder and Leopold Perels (Bonn, 1912), 61

(no. 78[83]).4 See, e.g., Thevenin, Textes Relatifs aux Institutions Privees, 226 (no. 159, act of 1049):

investituram eiusdem traditionis statim illi cum digito suo, sicut mos est, promittens.

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draws between the various customs, and the repetition of the act according to

the witnesses, seem to be exceptional.5 The interpretation of such gestures is

today being reassessed, especially in the context of works that draw on themethods of legal anthropology.6 Similarly, the historiographical revival in the

5 The existence of customs specific to a particular people is not in itself particularly

remarkable; what is, however, is the on-the-spot perception and the detailed description

of these differences, which medieval authors were certainly aware served as criteria for

distinguishing between peoples: Isidore of Seville,Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX,

ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911), vol. 2, 329 (XIX, 23, 6): Dinoscuntur et gentes ita

habitu sicut et lingua discordes; Regino of Prum, Chronicon cum continuatione Treverensi,

ed. F. Kurze (Hanover, 1890) (MGH, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, 50), p. XX (letter

to archbishop Hatto): diversae nationes popularum inter se discrepant genere, moribus,

lingua, legibus. Pope Leo III is said to have observed with astonishment the variety of

the peoples assembled at Paderborn in 799 to welcome him: they differed in behaviour,

language, clothing, and weapons: De Karolo rege et Leone papa, ed. and trans. F. Brunholzl

(Paderborn, 1999), supplement to W. Hentze (ed.) De Karolo rege et Leone papa.

Der Bericht uber die Zusammenkunft Karls des Grosen mit Papst Leo III. in Paderborn

799 in einem Epos fur Karl den Kaiser (Paderborn, 1999) (Studien und Quellen zur

Westfalischen Geschichte, 36), vv. 4956, 44: Quam varias habitu, linguis, tam vestis et

armis/Miratur gentes diversis partibus orbis. The ethnic distinctionsto which people

seem to have been more sensitive in the Carolingian period than in preceding centuries

were nevertheless fairly limited in scope: Patrick Geary, Ethnic Identity as a Situational

Construct in the Early Middle Ages,Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in

Wien, 113 (1983), 1526; Walter Pohl, Telling the Difference: Signs of Ethnic Identity,

in Walter Pohl and Helmut Reimitz (eds),Strategies of Distinction. The Construction of

Ethnic Communities, 300800(Leiden, 1998), 769, at 45; Philippe Depreux, Princes,

princesses et nobles etrangers ala cour des rois Merovingiens et Carolingiens: allies,hotes

ou otages?, inLetranger au Moyen Age. XXXe Congres de la S.H.M.E.S. (Gottingen, Juin

1999) (Paris, 2000), 13354.6 Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand, Gebarden, inHandworterbuch zur deutschen Rechtsgeschichte,

vol. 1 (Berlin, 1971), cols 141119; Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand, Gebardensprache im mit-

telalterlichen Recht, Fruhmittelalterliche Studien, 16 (1982), 36379. For linguistic

expressions based on gestures, see Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand, Mit Hand und Mund.

Sprachgebarden aus dem mittelalterlichen Rechtsleben, Fruhmittelalterliche Studien,

25 (1991), 28399; Ruth Schmidt-Wiegand, Sprachgebarden aus dem mittelalterlichen

Rechtsleben. Versuch einer Begriffsbestimmung, in Martin Kintzinger, Wolfgang

Sturner and Johannes Zahlten (eds), Das Andere Wahrnehmen. Beitrage zur europaischen

Geschichte. August Nitschke zum 65. Geburstag gewidmet (Cologne, 1991), 23349.

For the literary approach to the phenomenon, see Martin J. Schubert, Zur Theorie

des Gebarens im Mittelalter: Analyse von nichtsprachlicher Ausserung in mittelhoch-

deutscher Epik: Rolandslied, Eneasroman, Tristan(Cologne, 1991) (Kolner germanis-

tische Studien, 31).

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study of feelings and their expression7 should lead to a more general re-

reading of the sources in order to discover descriptions of comportment

and analyse their meanings and significance.

8

My aim in this article is topropose a re-reading of some sources from the Carolingian world (ninth

and early tenth centuries). I will first discuss the role of gesture in social

relations at the Carolingian court, then examine the relative value of men-

tions of customary gestures of courtly etiquette in the sources; lastly, I will

look more closely at two versions of an anecdote which reveals the degrees of

respect that could be marked by gestures and words.

One of the major difficulties facing the medieval historian is establishing

a distinction between gesture, or presentation of the self, and ritual. Theboundary between the two is fairly porous, and the labelling of a gesture as

ritual depends both on the context (especially its repetitive and obligatory

character)9 and on the way it is read by the historian. Let us look at an example

from a source essential for such a study, the Elegiacum carmenin honour of

Louis the Pious by Ermold the Black. Ermold was a member of the entourage

of King Pepin I of Aquitaine who had been exiled to Strasbourg and who, in

the years 8268, composed this long poem in the emperors honour in the

hope of regaining his favour. According to Ermold, when Charlemagnewanted to reward Bego, the messenger sent by his son Louis the Pious to

announce the capture of Barcelona, the emperor handed him the cup from

which he was drinking: Caesar laetus ei pateram, qua forte biberat,/ Porrigit.10

This way of honouring Bego is attested elsewhere. At banquets, notably, the

cup was passed round according to a well-established order of precedence,11

7 Barbara H. Rosenwein,Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages(Ithaca, 2006);

Piroska Nagy, Les emotions et lhistorien: de nouveaux paradigmes, Critique. Revue

generale des publications francaises et etrangeres, 63, nos. 716717 (2007), 1022. It should

be noted that by reducing emotion to the stronger and more short-term emotion, there

is a tendency for francophone historians to be deceived by a false friend.8 Jean-Claude Schmitt,La raison des gestes dans lOccident medieval(Paris, 1990).9 Frank Rexroth, Rituale und Ritualismus in der historischen Mittelalterforschung. Eine

Skizze, in Hans-Werner Goetz and Jorg Jarnut (eds) Mediavistik im 21. Jahrhundert.

Stand und Perspektiven der internationalen und interdisziplinaren Mittelalterforschung

(Munich, 2003) (MittelalterStudien, 1), 391406, at 393; Olof Sundqvist, Rituale, in

Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 25 (Berlin, 2003), 3247, at 32.10 Ermold le Noir,Poeme sur Louis le Pieux et eptres au roi Pepin, ed. Edmond Faral (Paris,

1932) (Les Classiques de lhistoire de France au Moyen Age), 50 (I, vv. 6423).11 There is no shortage of anecdotes illustrating the extent to which meals were

and remainan occasion for demonstrating the social hierarchy, whether through

the order in which each person was supposed to dine at Charlemagnes court

(Notker der Stammler,Gesta Karoli magni imperatoris. Taten Kaiser Karls des Grossen,

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illustrated by the famous episode of the banquet given by King Hrothgar, in

Beowulf, when queen Wealhtheow has the cup passed from guest to guest. In

Beowulfthe scene can be seen as a rite of hospitality, even a ritual of socialcohesion,12 whereas in Ermold it is simply a gesture, although one that is

significant: it expressed favour.13 In the present article, I will discuss gesture

and comportment (that is, attitudes expressed by a gesture or series of ges-

tures), but not rituals as such. The semantic field of the word ritual is so

large14 that it seems impossible to come up with a generally accepted def-

inition.15 Here I will consider ritual as Aktionsform des Symbols,16 a means

of symbolic action serving to demonstrate or render tangible, in a codified

manner, a condition or, above all, a change of condition.17 Gestures and

ed. Hans F. Haefele [Berlin, 1959] [new revised and corrected edn Munich, 1980] [MGH,

Scriptores rerum Germanicarum. Nova series, 12], 16 [I, 11]) or through the service of

the king at table as part of court etiquette: Die Sachsengeschichte des Widukind von Korvei,

ed. P. Hirsch (Hanover, 1935) (MGH, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, 60), 67 (II, 2);

see also Hagen Keller, Widukinds Bericht uber die Aachener Wahl und Kronung Ottos

I., Fruhmittelalterliche Studien, 29 (1995), 390453, re-ed. in Hagen Keller, Ottonische

Konigsherrschaft. Organisation und Legitimation koniglicher Macht (Darmstadt, 2002), 91

130. For customs at table, see Martin Aurell, Olivier Dumoulin and Francoise Thelamon

(eds), La sociabiliteatable. Commensaliteet convivialiteatravers les ages(Rouen, 1992); Alban

Gautier,Le Festin dans lAngleterre anglo-saxonne (VeXIe siecle)(Rennes, 2006).12 Michael J. Enright, Lady With a Mead-Cup. Ritual, Group Cohesion and Hierarchy in

the Germanic Warband,Fruhmittelalterliche Studien, 22 (1988), 170203.13 For the forms of demonstrating royal favour, see Gerd Althoff, (Royal) Favor. A Central

Concept in Early Medieval Hierarchical Relations, in Bernhard Jussen (ed.), Ordering

Medieval Society. Perspectives on Intellectual and Practical Modes of Shaping Social

Relations(Philadelphia, 2001), 24369.14 See the list proposed by Michael B. Aune and Valerie DeMarinis (eds), Religious and

Social Ritual. Interdisciplinary Explorations(New York, 1996), 1: a certain kind of sym-

bolic action, a form of stylized behavior, a self-contained dramatic frame, or a distinctive

sort of cultural practice.15 See the epistemological panorama proposed by Christopher Wulf and Jorg Zirfas,

Performative Welten. Einfuhrungin die historischen, systematischen und methodischen

Dimensionen des Rituals, in Christopher Wulf and Jorg Zirfas (eds), Die Kultur des

Rituals. Inszenierungen, Praktiken, Symbole(Munich, 2004), 745, especially 9ff.16 Hans-Georg Soeffner, Protosoziologische Uberlegungen zur Soziologie des Symbols und

des Rituals, in Rudolf Schlogel, Bernhard Giesen and Jurgen Osterhammel (eds), Die

Wirklichkeit der Symbole. Grundlagen der Kommunikation in historischen und gegenwarti-

gen Gesellschaften(Constance, 2004), 4172, at 61, who speaks also of the ordnungs-

stiftende Krafte of the rituals (ibid.).17 Jean-Marie Moeglin, Performative turn, communication politique et rituels au

Moyen Age. A propos de deux ouvrages recents,Le Moyen Age, 113 (2007), 393406,

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comportment, on the other hand, whether codified or not, seem rather to

express physically, to convey or betray, an opinion or recognition of an

established fact. This is why I will include, for example, kissing the feet ofthe king as a sign of submission, but not homage, a ritual which makes the one

who offers his hands a vassal. It is made more difficult to argue from the

mention, or absence of mention, of gestures and rituals in the sources by the

fact that it may not be their performance in general, but the refusal to perform

them, or their performance in particular circumstances, that attracted atten-

tion and so led to them being referred to in the sources. We need in every case

to consider the intentions of the author.

Independently of any protocol or juridical value, it is in any case probable

that the people of the early middle ages, in certain situations, communicated

by signs. Yet evidence of this is rare. That of Thegan, chorbishop of Trier, who

wrote a powerful defence of the current regime in the years following the

deposition of Louis the Pious, and that of Ermold the Black are all the more

precious. Thegan describes in a particularly lively way the visit made by the

envoys of Louis the German to Louis the Pious during the latters captivity, in

January 834; he tells how they abandoned words and resorted to sign language

in order to outsmart those charged with supervising their meeting:

After the sacred day of Epiphany young Louis again sent his

legates . . . to his father. They came to Aachen and Lothar agreed

that they might see his father in the presence of his spies . . . . The

legates, coming into Louis view, prostrated themselves humbly at

his feet. Then they gave him the greeting of his namesake son. They

did not wish to speak secret words to him on account of the spies

who were present, but by a certain movement of signals they made

him understand that his namesake did not consent to this punish-ment of his father.18

And when Ermold describes that military exploit, the taking of Barcelona by

the son of Charlemagne, he says, in connection with the capture of the

Saracen chief Zado, that the latter was led by the Franks before the walls of

at 401: [Rituals] are gestures which one performs because one wishes to transform, to

create a realityto restore the wounded honour of an individual or a group, for

exampleand not to signify. (My trans.)18 Thegan,Die Taten Kaiser Ludwigs, ed. Ernst Tremp (Hanover, 1995) (MGH, Scriptores

rerum Germanicarum, 64), 240 (c. 47); trans. inCarolingian Civilization. A Reader, ed.

Paul Edward Dutton (2nd edn, Peterborough, 2004), 172. For the political context, see

Eric J. Goldberg,Struggle for Empire. Kingship and Conflict under Louis the German, 817

876(Ithaca, 2006), 71.


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the town so that he would exhort his men to surrender, although he had urged

them to fight to the end when he had still been among them:

Now, holding out his hand [towards the ramparts], he shouted tohis friends: Open these gates, that you have so long defended. At

the same time, by artifice, he curled his fingers and his nails into the

palm of his hand; it was a trick; the gesture signified that the defence

must be continued and that he had shouted Open! only under

duress. William observed this, was angered, and struck him with

his fist: he was not playing tricks!19

It would certainly be possible to draw on a handful of examples to studyvarious gestures of everyday life, in particular the marks of politeness and

respect (for example, not serving oneself first,20 or removing ones hat in

church),21 but, sadly, the aridity of the sources for the early middle ages

and the sporadic nature of the anecdotes recording these routine gestures

would make it impossible to get very far. The customs of the court, on the

other hand, lend themselves much better to such a study. This is why I pro-

pose here to offer a re-reading of a few classic texts from the Carolingian

period which count among the main sources for life at court and court life.His concern for detail makes Ermold the Black worthy of particular atten-

tion. Of course, not everything in hisElegiacum carmenis credible. The text

conformed to the rules of the genre. Certain formulas are stereotypical and he

sometimes refers to attributes whose presence, in the heat of the moment,

seems improbable (it was with sceptre in hand,22 for example, that Louis the

Pious allegedly put new heart for the fight into his troops during the siege of

Barcelona). Nevertheless, this poem is valuable because of the attention its

author paid to gestures, which is by no means common in the sources for theperiod. A few examples will suffice to illustrate the sort of detail Ermold

provides. King Louis the Pious, at the assembly at which the campaign against

Barcelona was decided, demonstrated his familiarity with Count William of

Toulouse by leaning on his shoulder.23 When he describes the meeting

between Louis the Pious and Pope Stephen IV at Rheims, in October 816,

19 Ermold,Poeme, 42 (vv. 51825): Tum manus adtendens vocitabat amicos:/Pandite jam,

socii, claustra vetata diu! / Ingeniosus item digitos curvebat et ungues/ Figebat palmis, haec

simulanter agens;/ Hoc autem inditio signabat castra tenenda,/ Sed tamen invitus

Pandite! voce vocat.20 Notker,Gesta Karoli, 16 (I, c. 12).21 Ibid., 23, lines 910 (I, c. 18).22 Ermold,Poeme, 36 (I, v. 421): sceptra manu gestans.23 Ibid., 20 (vv. 2067).

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Ermold meticulously records the details of what can be seen as a rite of

welcome: they exchanged kisses on the eyes, on the lips, on the forehead,

on the breast, on the neck

24

before proceeding into the town hand in hand,fingers interlaced.25 The various parts of the body mentioned by Ermold in

his description of the kisses exchanged by Louis and Stephen IV perhaps

correspond to a liturgical ceremony (an impression strengthened by the

triple proskynesis of Louismentioned by Thegan26which preceded

the kiss of peace).27 However the avalanche of kisses which the wife of

the Breton king Murman showers on her husband to distract him from the

fine words of the envoy of the emperor Louis the Pious belong more to the

sphere of wheedling and seductive trickery: she kissed his knees, kissed hisneck, kissed his beard, kissed his face and his hands.28 Though it is far from

clear how to interpret Murmans gesture when he is admonished by the

emperors envoy (anger? contempt?), we cannot but be impressed by the

vividness of the scene when the poet describes the king, his face lowered,

striking the ground with his crook.29

TheElegiacum carmenin honour of Louis the Pious is an important docu-

ment for the subject ofrituals(one thinks, in particular, of the scene where the

poet describes the Danish prince Harald Klak kneeling before Louis the Piousto commend himself by doing homage with hands joined,30 a key text for

the study of the genesis of vassal homage).31 However I will confine my

24 Ibid., 6870 (II, vv. 8767): Nunc oculos, nunc ora, caput nunc, pectora, colla/ Basiat

alterutri rexque sacerque pius.25 Ibid., 70 (II, vv. 8789): Tum manibus palmas, digitos digitisque tenentes,/Caesar cum

Stephano candida tecta petit. For the ceremonies ofadventus, see Peter Willmes, Der

Herrscher-Adventus im Kloster des Fruhmittelalters (Munich, 1976) (Munstersche

Mittelalter-Schriften, 22).26 Thegan, 196 (c. 16): . . . et princeps prosternens se cum omni corpore in terra tribus vicibus

ante pedes sancti pontificis.27 Ibid., 1968 (c. 16): Amplexantes enim se et osculantes pacifice, perrexerunt ad ecclesiam.28 Ermold,Poeme, 110 (III, vv. 14201): Oscula prima genu libabat et oscula collo,/Oscula

dat barbis, basiat ora, manus.29 Ibid., 108 (III, vv. 141415): Ille solo vultus jam dudum intentus et ora/Fixa tenet, terram

percutit atque pedo.30 Ibid., 18690 (III, vv. 24542503), especially vv. 24823: Mox manibus junctis regi se

tradidit ultro/Et secum regnum, quod sibi jure fuit.31 Jacques Le Goff, Les gestes symboliques dans la vie sociale. Les gestes de la vassalite, in

Simboli e simbologia nellalto medioevo, vol. 2 (Spoleto, 1976) (Settimane di studio del

Centro italiano di studi sullalto medioevo, 23), 679779, at 6867, repr. in Jacques Le

Goff,Time, Work and Culture in the Middle Ages, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago-

London, 1980), 23787, at 241. Susan Reynolds has expressed doubts as to the reality of


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discussion here togesturesand to the significance that some of them could

assume at the court. Issues of protocol and etiquette were of particular

importance in court circles, certainly, but I will not deal with them as such.It will be enough, in this connection, to recall two things, a generality and an

anecdote: the insistence with which Carolingian authors refer to ordo, to the

necessity of placing individuals and of making them act in order, in accord-

ance with order,32 leaves no doubt as to the importance they attached to

respect for precedence, or the touchiness that might be revealed when this

order was not respected. An anecdote related by the monk Richer of Rheims

illustrates this by suggesting that a levelling of the hierarchy might be taken as

an insult. His story concerns the denunciation of the friendship which the

king, Charles the Simple, felt for his favourite, Hagano, a noble Lotharingian,

the denigration of whose ancestry seems more a rejection of his influence in

Francia occidentalisthan a reflection of reality.33 The incident is supposed to

have occurred at Soissons, in 920:

Great men flocked from the whole of Gaul; an enthusiastic crowd of

people of lesser condition also arrived. Robert imagined he had

more credit than they with the king, who had given him command

of the Celtic province; now the king, when sitting in session in thepalace, made the duke sit on his right and Hagano on his left, on the

same level. Robert fumed silently that a person of inferior condition

should be treated on an equal footing with him and placed above the

great men. But he suppressed his anger, concealed his feelings and

addressed scarcely a word to the king. Then he rapidly rose and

consulted his men. After this meeting, he sent word to the king that

he could not tolerate seeing Hagano put on the same footing as him

and preferred to princes: The liaison of this man with the king, he

the gestures mentioned in the sources, and does not exclude the possibility that they

were sometimes metaphors: Susan Reynolds, Fiefs and Vassals. The Medieval Evidence

Reinterpreted (Oxford, 1994), 29. However the way Ermold describes the homage of

Harald Klak (see note 30 above: with hands joined) seems to invalidate this hypothesis.32 See for example Olivier Guillot, Uneordinatiomeconnue: le capitulaire de 823825, in

Peter Godman and Roger Collins (eds), Charlemagnes Heir. New Perspectives on the

Reign of Louis the Pious (814840) (Oxford, 1990), 45586, repr. in Olivier Guillot,

Arcana imperii [IVeXIe siecle]. Recueil darticles(Limoges, 2003) (Cahiers de lInstitut

dAnthropologie Juridique, 10), 371408.33 Philippe Depreux, Le comte Haganon, favori de Charles le Simple, et laristocratie

dentre Loire et Rhin, in Michele Gaillard and Michel Margue (eds), De la Mer du

Nord ala Mediterranee: Francia Media,une region au coeur de lEurope(Actes du collo-

ques de Metz-Luxembourg-Treves, fevrier 2006) (forthcoming).

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declared, and the distance at which the most noble men of France

are kept is a shameful thing. If Charles does not put him back in his

place, the duke will have him hanged without pity. The king, nottolerating this insult to his favourite, replied that he would more

readily forgo his relations with all the others than his friendship with

him. This reply exasperated Robert, who, without order, reached

Neustria with the majority of the aristocracy and withdrew to

Tours.34

In fact the members of Carolingian court society were not only members of

the aristocratic elite,35 but also, mutatis mutandis, courtiers obsessed with

their rank like the rest.36 It hardly matters whether this anecdote is true, orothers such as the forced proskynesis of the son of Count Herbert of

Vermandois before Charles the Simple (described by Raoul Glaber in the

second quarter of the eleventh century),37 or the tumble of this same king,

34 Richer, Histoire de France (888995), ed. and trans. R. Latouche (Paris, 1993) (Les

Classiques de lhistoire de France au Moyen Age), vol. 1, 3841 (c. 16). On this text,

see Jason Glenn,Politics and History in the Tenth Century. The Work and World of Richer

of Reims (Cambridge, 2004), (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought,

4th series, 60).35 For the historiographical debates, see the acts of the conference on Lhistoriographie des

elites dans le haut Moyen Age(universites de Marne-la-Vallee et Paris I, 2829 novembre

2003), published online: http://lamop.univ-Paris1.fr/lamopLAMOP/elites/index.html;

Joseph Morsel, Laristocratie medievale. La domination sociale en Occident, VeXVe

siecle(Paris, 2004).36 By way of comparison, see the classic work by Norbert Elias, The Court Society, trans.

Edmund Jephcott [1969] (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), repr. ed. Stephen Mennel (Dublin,

2006), (The Collected Works of Norbert Elias, 2).37 Rodulfus Glaber,Opera, ed. J. France, N. Bulst and P. Reynolds (Oxford, 1989), 12 (I, 5).

To mollify Charles, whom the chronicler calls Simple-minded (Hebes) (for the variant

pejoratives of the surnameSimplex, see Auguste Eckel, Charles le Simple[Paris, 1899],

1404) and attract to his home the king, whose counsellors had warned him to mistrust

him, Herbert of Vermandois simulated submission: One day Herbert and his son, with-

out much trouble, managed to get into the royal palace. As the king rose to embrace him,

Herbert prostrated himself before him and received the kiss [of peace]. When the son had

been kissed he remained standing; although privy to the trap he was as yet new to

treachery and did not think to kneel before the king. His father, who was standing

close by, saw this and gave him a cuff on the neck. You had better learn, he said,

that you must not remain standing when you receive the embrace of your lord and

king: Glaber,Opera, 13. It seems to me that the translation of the words put into the

mouth of Herbert (Seniorem,inquiens, et regem erecto corpore osculaturum non debere

suscipere quandoque scito), though classic (it is similar in Mathieu Arnoux, Raoul Glaber,


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when a Norman acting in the name of his leader, Rollo, original ancestor of

the ducal family of Normandy, was obliged to kiss his feet as a sign of homage

by delegation (as told by Dudo of Saint-Quentin a generation earlier);

38

whatmatters is the value attached to them in the system of representations of the

period in which they were written down.39

Having made these critical observations on the documents, I will now

present an analysis of court customs in the work of Ermold the Black and

his contemporaries, keeping always in mind the need to allow for the criteria

of style and literary genre.

The performative value of gestures made in public is today the subject ofmuch debate.40 For the early middle ages (especially the Ottonian period),

historians have concentrated on the narrative sources,41 which lessens the

value of the conclusions that can be formulated on this basis;42 the debate

needs to encompass the whole documentary production. We may, in par-

ticular, question the value of the testimony of the sources in the case of a

gesture which, according to the authors, seems recurrent (does this necessar-

ily make it banal?) or, on the contrary, relatively rare (is it theselective

mention which gives it value, a value that is wholly relative?), for example, the

act of bowing or prostrating oneself before the sovereign. For the purpose of

Histoires(Turnhout, 1996), 49) misses some of the piquancy of the anecdote, because the

man who was about to seize the personof the king said, in fact, thatthe man who is on the

point of being embraced should not receive his lord and king standing; this was no less

than a prediction of what was about to happen (in fact Herbert was to receive the king in

his gaols), which only points up the stupidity of Charles, who failed to detect any malice!38 Dudonis Sancti Quintini de moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum, ed. J. Lair

(Caen, 1865), 169 (II, 29); see below, p. 701.39 For the history of representations, see Hans-Werner Goetz, Vorstellungsgeschichte.

Gesammelte Schriften zu Wahrnehmungen, Deutungen und Vorstellungen im Mittelalter

(Bochum, 2007).40 See Jurgen Martschukat and Steffen Patzold (eds), Geschichtswissenschaft und

Performative Turn. Ritual, Inszenierung und Performanz vom Mittelalter bis zur

Neuzeit(Cologne, 2003).41 Gerd Althoff,Spielregeln der Politik im Mittelalter. Kommunikation in Frieden und Fehde

(Darmstadt, 1997); Gerd Althoff,Inszenierte Herrschaft. Geschichtsschreibung und poli-

tisches Handeln im Mittelalter(Darmstadt, 2003); Gerd Althoff, Die Macht der Rituale.

Symbolik und Herrschaft im Mittelalter(Darmstadt, 2003).42 Philippe Buc,The Dangers of Ritual: Between Early Medieval Texts and Social Scientific

Theory(Princeton, 2001); Hanna Vollrath, Haben Rituale Macht? Anmerkungen zu dem

Buch von Gerd Althoff: Die Macht der Rituale. Symbolik und Herrschaft im Mittelalter,

Historische Zeitschrift, 284 (2007), 385400.

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my argument, I will first concentrate here on a detail which is frequently

mentioned by Ermold the Black, that is, the kiss planted by the subject on

the feet or the knees of Louis the Pious.The diversity of the use of the kiss during the middle ages is well known. It

happened in the context of civilities, to welcome a visitor (for example, even

though he mistrusted Witchaire, the envoy of the emperor Louis the Pious,

the Breton king Murman welcomed his guest according to custom, by

kissing him).43 Also well known is the liturgical function of the kiss of

peace.44 The kiss had the value of a commitment in various types of contract

(in marriage and feudal law, but also in certain transactions).45 The kiss sealed

the agreement: thus when William of Toulouse advised him to launch anattack on Barcelona, smiling, the king clasped this good servant in his arms,

exchanged kisses with him, and thanked him in the name of his father,

Charlemagne.46

Kissing the feet, as a sign of deference or submission,47 is regularly men-

tioned by Ermold the Black, and in a letter to Pepin I of Aquitaine, the poet

describes the kings reception of his muse, at Angeac, in this way:

At this busy court there will certainly be a friend who will be ready to

present you to the king. When your good fortune has taken you intohis presence, you will say to him: Venerable king, three times I greet

you! Then, prostrating yourself, respectfully kiss his feet.48

43 Ermold,Poeme, 106 (III, v. 1363): Oscula more dedit. The kiss was also a part of the

ceremonial greetings between sovereigns: Ingrid Voss, Herrschertreffen im fruhen und

hohen Mittelalter. Untersuchungen zu den Begegnungen der ostfrankischen und westfran-

kischen Herrscher im 9. und 10. Jahrhundert sowie der deutschen und franzosischen Konige

vom 11. bis 13. Jahrhundert(Cologne, 1987), 13845.44 DACL 2/1 cols 117130 (s. v. Baiser); LMA 5 cols 15902 (s. v. Kuss); 3LThK 4 cols

1423 (s. v. Friedensritus,Friedenskuss).45 Emile Chenon, Le role juridique de losculumdans lancien droit francais,Memoires de

la Societenationale des antiquaires de France(8th series, vol. 6) (Paris, 1924), 12455;

Yannick Carre,Le baiser sur la bouche au Moyen Age. Rites, symboles, mentalites, atravers

les textes et les images, XIeXVe siecles(Paris, 1993).46 Ermold,Poeme, 20 (I, vv. 1923): Tunc rex adridens verbis ita fatur amicis,/Amplectens

famulum, oscula datque capit.47 For which, see Matthias Becher, Die subjiectio principum. Zum Charakter der Huldigung

im Franken- und Ostfrankenreich bis zum Beginn des 11. Jahrhunderts, in Stuart Airlie,

Walter Pohl and Helmut Reimitz (eds), Staat im fruhen Mittelalter (Wien, 2006)

(Forschungen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters, 11), 16378, at 171.48 Ermold,Poeme, 206 (Eptre I, v. 57): Mox prostrata solo celsis da basia plantis.


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At an assembly, William of Toulouse bowed and kissed the feet of Louis

the Pious before he spoke: Duxque Tolosana fatur Vilhelmus ab urbe,/

Poplite flexato lambitat ore pedes

49

(this verse has been compared with oneof Venantius Fortunatus, where the poet reports the lament of Queen Gois-

winth on the departure of her daughter Galswinth for Gaul, beyond the

Pyrenees).50 Similarly, the other great men kissed the feet of their venerated

king: Hoc dicto, proceres vario sermone fremebant,/ Almificis pedibus basia

stricta dabant51 (here Ermold seems to be drawing on the poet Angilbert,52

who lived at Charlemagnes court). Before speaking to Charlemagne, Bego,

the messenger of Louis the Pious, kissed the emperors feet.53 When Charle-

magne consulted his great men as to whether he should associate Louis thePious in the Empire, Einhard, who then enjoyed [his] favour, a man of

wisdom and courage, fell at the emperors feet, kissed them, and, wise coun-

sellor, gave his opinion first.54 When Lambert wished to make his report on

the Bretons to Louis the Pious, he answered loyally, after bowing down and

kissing the knees of the emperor.55 Similarly, at the banquet given in honour

of the Danish prince Harald Klak, the empress Judith kissed the knees of her

husband when he sat down at table and made him take a place at her side.56

Ermold the Black seems to be unusual in the frequency with which he

mentions the kissing of the knees or the feet of the sovereign. Yet this singu-

larity is only relative: other authors now and again mention the kiss among

demonstrations of respect for the ruler. When, for example, he tells how

Charlemagne congratulated a bishop on the quality of the welcome provided

as part of his duty of hospitality, the monk Notker the Stammerer says that the

bishop bowed low and kissed the hand (the undefeated right hand!) of

the emperor before speaking to him.57 Similarly, as a sign of gratitude, the

49 Ibid., 18 (I, vv. 1723).50 Ibid., 236; see also Venantius Fortunatus, 63 (VI, 5, v. 70): lambiat ore caput. For this

poem, see Judith W. George,Venantius Fortunatus. A Latin Poet in Merovingian Gaul

(Oxford, 1992), 96101.51 Ermold,Poeme, 20 (I, vv. 21213).52 Ibid., 2367; see also Angilbert,Eglogue, 77: pedum digitis dat basia.53 Ermold,Poeme, 46 (I, v. 582): Bigo vocatus adest, plantis dat basia celsis.54 Ibid., 18 (II, v. 684): Hic cadit ante pedes, vestigia basiat alma.55 Ibid., 100 (III, vv. 12945): Olli respondit fido de pectore Lantpreht,/Caesareum adclinis

basiat ore genu.56 Ibid., 180 (III, vv. 23545): Discubuit laetus, lateri Judith quoque pulcra/Jussa, sed et regis

basiat ore genu.57 Notker, Gesta Karoli, 18, lines 910 (I, c. 14): conquiniscens et invictam dexteram com-

plexus deosculans. Unlike Lewis Thorpe, whotranslates conquiniscensfaithfully as bowed

low (Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, Two Lives of Charlemagne, trans. with

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reforming abbot Benedict of Aniane threw himself at the feet of Louis the

Pious when the emperor involved him in his plans to found the monastery of

Inden (though in this case there was no kiss): Hic sacer auditis, pedibusrevolutus amicis,/ Laudat honore Deum Caesaris atque fidem.58 Prostration,

so frequently referred to by Ermold the Black, was not particularly special and

its performative power in obtaining a favour is debatable, as is suggested by

Gerd Althoff in the case of a (fictitious)59 example he is fond of citingthat of

a request presented by the monks of St Gall to Otto II, in 971, at Speyer,60

which is described by the monk Ekkehard IV in his Casus sancti Galli(chapter

128), written during the first half of the eleventh century: Die Bitte um Hilfe,

die der Fursprecher vorbrachte, wurde also durch den Fussfall der Moncheperformativ unterstutzt. Die geste der Selbsterniedrigung unterstrich die

Eindringlichkeit der Bitte und machte es dem so Gebeten schwer, sich zu verwei-

gern.61 Although access to the sovereign, which was screened, could some-

times seem a success in itself,62 aproskynesisdid not automatically mean that

the request was granted, and we need to abandon any magic systematism in

the performance of public gestures.63 In fact prostrating oneself at the feet of

the king can be seen as a normal element of protocol, on which only mention

of the success of a request seems to confer, in a text taken out of context and

treated as exemplary, a particular performative value.64

introduction by Lewis Thorpe [London, 1969], 107), Reinhold Rau translatesconquinis-

censas fiel auf die Knie:Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgeschichte, vol. 3, ed. Reinhold

Rau (Darmstadt, 1960), 341. Either way, it is the kiss that matters here.58 Ermold,Poeme, 96 (II, vv. 12345).59 If we go by purely documentary criticism based on the Regesten (see n. 60 below).

However, it may be objected, having regard to the lateness of the source, that it is its

plausibility for audiences contemporary with Conrad II or Henry III that matters here.60 According to Ekkehard IV, Notker, the new abbot, who had just been elected by the

monks of St Gall, was sent to Speyer, where Otto I and his son then were, to seek con-

firmation of his election; however this visit to the emperor, supposed to have taken place

in a Rhineland town, happened during Otto Is third military expedition into Italy, where

his son Otto II also was.61 Althoff,Die Macht der Rituale, 121.62 Philippe Depreux, Hierarchie et ordre au sein du palais: lacces au prince, in Francois

Bougard, Dominique Iogna-Prat, and Regine Le Jan (eds), Hierarchie et stratification sociale

dans lOccident medieval (4001100) (Turnhout, 2008) (Haut Moyen Age, 6), 30523.63 Vollrath, Haben Rituale Macht?.64 The status of the persons (the one who bowed and the one who was honoured) is here

crucial as regards the value of the gesture, as is emphasized by Hermann Kamp, Die

Macht der Zeichen und Gesten. Offentliches Verhalten bei Dudo von Saint-Quentin, in

Gerd Althoff (ed.), Formen und Funktionen offentlicher Kommunikation im Mittelalter


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It would be possible to quote more examples from the Carolingian period

of greetings similar to that described by Ermold: they occur both in Thegan65

and in the anonymous biographer of Louis the Pious known as the Astron-omer.66 These authors only report them, admittedly, in connection with

particularly fraught situations, to add further emphasis to the submission

to the emperor of a potential or avowed enemy. It is here that notions of style,

intention and literary genre come into play: some authors pay virtually no

attention to gestures (this is particularly true of Einhard, in his Vita Karoli),

others give them great prominence, all the more so since the narrative genre

lends itself to this. The author of a History is more likely to recount an

anecdote with many a detail than the author writing as an annalist; thus itis Richer of Rheims, not Flodoard, who makes great play with the fact that

Hagano, as the kings favourite, behaves in too familiar a manner towards

Charles the Simple. According to the monk of St Remi, the latters preference

for Hagano was so marked that he (Hagano) remained alone by the side of

the king while all the grandees were kept at a distance, and he even dared to

take off his hat and ostentatiously do his hair. These manners did great harm

to the king.67 Further, the passage of time was certainly favourable to the

development of colourful anecdotes that would entertain an audience while

at the same time suggesting an analysis of political significance.68 Dudo of

Saint-Quentin achieved this when he told how Rollo, at the time of the treaty

of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte (911), refused to kiss the feet of Charles the Simple

after receiving Normandy from him:69

urged on by the prayers of the Franks, he ordered one of the warriors

to kiss the kings foot. And the man immediately grasped the kings

(Stuttgart, 2001), 12555, at 1404 (although the discussion of the request presented by

Herluin de Montreuil is not wholly convincing).65 Thegan, 240 (c. 47): Venientes legati ad conspectum principis, humiliter se prosternentes

pedibus suis, post hec salutaverunt eum ab equivoco filio suo.66 Astronomer, 382 (c. 29): At Berhardus cum se cerneret viribus inparem et ad coepta

inefficacem, utpote a quo plurimi suorum cotidie deficerent, desperatis rebus ad imperatorem

venit armisque depositis pedibus se eius prostravit, confessus perperam se egisse.67 Richer,Histoire de France, vol. 1, 389 (c. 15).68 Geoffrey Koziol,Begging Pardon and Favor. Ritual and Political Order in Early Medieval

France(Ithaca, 1992), 153: The story about Rollo and Charles is . . . more than a good tale.

Because for Dudo prostration was the correct way to manifest subjection to a lord, it is

also Dudos way of describing the egalitarian virtues of the pagan Normans.69 According to Felice Lifshitz (Translating Feudal Vocabulary: Dudo of Saint-Quentin,

The Haskins Society Journal, 9 [1997], 3956, at 53), Rollo must have been expressing his

gratitude, not his submission, to the king. In fact the one does not exclude the other.

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foot and raised it to his mouth and planted a kiss on it while he

remained standing, and laid the king flat on his back.70

Similarly, and in contrast to austere writers like Thegan and the Astronomer,Notker the Stammerer, author of a Gesta of Charlemagne written for the

edification and pleasure of Charles the Fat,71 who had stayed in his abbey

of St Gall in December 883, liked to tell how those who had been introduced

into Charlemagnes presence threw themselves at his feet to give an account of

some affair,72 or to obtain a favour73 or pardon for an offence.74 The story

might take a comical turn:75 Notker obviously got great pleasure out of

describing (or more likely imagining) the reception of some Byzantine

ambassadors who had to endure the unpleasant welcome saved in the pastfor a Frankish embassy. Lacking the flair demonstrated by Joan of Arc at

Chinon, they prostrated themselves before each group of paladins in turn,

error piled on error, until they reached the emperor, who, with his back to the

light, welcomed them in all his splendour.76 No complicated mechanism

involving roaring lions, as described by Liutprand of Cremona at the court

of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus,77 but a clever piece of staging neverthe-

less, and perhaps also a denunciation of Byzantine customs. Notker had

ridiculed these a little earlier in his story, when he had described the difficul-ties of the Frankish ambassador at the court of Nikephoras I: during a ban-

quet, Charlemagnes envoy had dared, in all innocence, to return the fish he

70 Dudo of Saint-Quentin,History of the Normans, trans. Eric Christiansen (Woodbridge,

1998), 49 (II, 29). For the literary afterlife of this episode, see Hans Hattenhauer, Die

Aufnahme der Normannen in das westfrankische ReichSaint-Clair-sur-Epte AD 911

(Hamburg, 1990), 256. On this anecdote, see also Pierre Bauduin, Autour dun rituel

discute: le baisement du pied de Charles le Simple au moment du traite de Saint-Clair-

sur-Epte in Elisabeth Lalou, Bruno Lepeuple and Jean-Louis Roch (eds),Des chateaux et

des sources. Archeologie et histoire dans la Normandie medievale. Melanes en lhonneur

dAnne-Marie Flambard Hericher(Mont-Saint-Aignon, 2008), 2947.71 Simon Maclean,Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century. Charles the Fat and the

End of the Carolingian Empire(Cambridge, 2003), 199229.72 Gesta Karoli, 24, line 26 (I, c. 18): procidentes ad pedes eius dixerunt; ibid., 72, lines 212

(II, c. 12).73 Ibid., 5, line 20 (I, c. 4): cecidit ad pedes eius et dixit; ibid., 61, lines 1213 (II, c. 8).74 Ibid., 21, lines 67 (I, c. 16): ad pedes eius corruens veniam pro commisso precabatur.75 David Ganz, Humour as History in Notkers Gesta Karoli magni, in Edward B. King,

Jacqueline T. Schaefer and William B. Wadley (eds), Monks, Nuns, and Friars in Medieval

Society(Sewanee, 1989) (Sewanee Medieval Studies, 4), 17183.76 Notker,Gesta Karoli, 557 (II, c. 6).77 Liutprandi Cremonensis opera omnia, ed. Paolo Chiesa (Turnhout, 1998) (Corpus

Christianorum. Continuatio Mediaevalis, 156), 147 (Antapodosis, VI, c. 5).


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had been served; he had as a result been deemed to have so seriously wronged

the imperial majesty as to incur the death penalty, but he had been astute

enough to emerge victorious from this ordeal.

78

Recent works have brought out the importance attached to light in the

middle ages and, for the Carolingian period, the long tradition of evoking

light in the rhetoric of power and of associating the sovereign with the source

of light.79 As we have seen, according to Ermold the Black, when William of

Toulouse advised Louis the Pious to launch an attack on Barcelona, smiling

(adridens), the king clasped this good servant in his arms, exchanged kisses

with him, and thanked him in the name of his father, Charlemagne.80 We

should note that Ermold here refers to the smileof Louis the Pious. We know,thanks to his biographer Thegan, that this king, so deeply imbued with the

monastic ideal, never laughed enough to let his white teeth show.81 Although

the laugh was considered a specifically human characteristic, it was also, in

ascetic and monastic circles, equated with a loss of self-control, unlike the

smile, which was a reflection of heavenly beauty.82 Some authors of the

Carolingian period also took an interest in the language of the eyes. Chief

among these was Notker the Stammerer, both to express favour and anger.

When he tells the story of an ignorant clerk who intoned a verse, onCharlemagnes orders, in the absence of the one who had been appointed

to do it, but had failed to reach the church in time to take part in the service

after a drunken night spent celebrating his nomination to a bishopric, the

78 Gesta Karoli, 545 (II, c. 6). Notkers story started a literary tradition: Johannes

Schneider, Die Geschichte vom gewendeten Fisch. Beobachtungen zur mittellatei-

nischen Tradition eines literarischen Motivs, in Johanne Autenrieth and Franz

Brunholzl (eds),Festschrift Bernhard Bischoff zu seinem 65. Geburtstag dargebracht von

Freunden, Kollegen und Schulern(Stuttgart, 1971), 21825.79 Genevieve Buhrer-Thierry, Lumiere et pouvoir dans le Haut Moyen Age occidental.

Celebration du pouvoir et metaphores lumineuses, Melanges de lEcole francaise de

Rome. Moyen Age, 116 (2004), 52156.80 Ermold,Poeme, 20 (I, vv. 1923).81 Thegan, 204 (c. 19).82 Gerhard Schmitz, . . .quod rident homines, plorandum est. Der Unwert des Lachens in

monastisch gepragten Vorstellungen der Spatantike und des fruhen Mittelalters, in

Franz Quarthal and Wilfried Setzler (eds), Stadtverfassung, Verfassungsstaat, Pressepoli-

tik.Festschrift fur Eberhard Naujoks zum 65. Geburtstag(Sigmaringen, 1980), 315. It is

this very self-control, proof of an aptitude for government, that Thegan seems to have

wished to demonstrate: Matthew Innes, He never even allowed his white teeth to be

bared in laughter: the politics of humour in the Carolingian renaissance, in Guy Halsall

(ed.), Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

(Cambridge, 2002), 13156.

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monk of St Gall describes Charlemagne being won over to this clerk, to whom

he eventually awarded the bishopric; the emperor revealed that he was in the

process of changing his mind by gradually smiling at the wretched clerk whowas terrified by his liturgical boldness: sensim arridens illi.83 Charlemagne

finally spoke, but to make his decision known to the princes. In contrast,

when a bishop dared to criticize the style of chanting of one of his relatives, the

emperor looked daggers at him, and the culprit fell to the ground (to beg

pardon).84

I want now to discuss another anecdote at greater length, because it makes

it possible to pose the question of respect for customs, transgression of therules, and the limits within which disrespect was tolerated. Specifically, I will

look both at the use of gesture (bowing, rising, or remaining seated) and that

of words (a verbal greeting or remaining silent). According to both the

anonymous author of the Life of Alcuin(probably a monk from the abbey

of Ferrieres, who wrote between 821 and 829) and to the poet, Ermold the

Black, who was writing at the same period, the succession of Charlemagne

(who died in 814) was the subject of a prophesy. The two accounts do not

tally: in the former, it is Alcuin who tells the emperor that his younger son,Louis [the Pious], will succeed him; in Ermold, it is Paulinus, archbishop of

Aquileia, who predicts correctly. Neither the veracity of the facts or the prob-

ably legendary nature of this anecdote, supposed to have been recounted by

Charlemagne himself only to a few close friends, matter very much here.

What is relevant to us is what the two authors say about gesture and com-

portment. The author of theLife of Alcuinlocates the episode at St Martin of

Tours, to which the emperor had gone on pilgrimage, accompanied by his

three sons, Charles (the eldest), Pepin (king of Italy), and Louisit is knownthat Charlemagne, still king, went to Tours in the spring of 800. Near the

tomb of St Martin, we are told, Charlemagne asked Alcuin, in a low voice and

holding his hand, to indicate his successor. The abbot pointed to Louis, the

humblest of his sons. In fact when, a little later, he administered communion

to them, Alcuin received from Louis a mark of deference which, on the part of

a prince (indeed a kingof Aquitaine), proved a demonstration of humility:

Necnon cum post communionem corporis Christi et sanguinis manu

propria eis misceret, isdem Hludowicus humilitate clarissimus praeomnibus patri sancto se inclinans, eius osculatus est manum. Tunc vir

83 Gesta Karoli, 91 (I, c. 5).84 Ibid., 25 (I, c. 19): Ad quod improbissimum responsum fulmineas in eum acies imperator

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Domini adsistenti sibi ait Sigulfo: Omnis qui se exaltat humiliabitur,

et qui se humiliat exaltabitur. Certe istum post patrem Francia gau-

debit habere imperatorem.

85

Louis the Pious bowed before Alcuin and kissed his hand. In so doing, he

inverted the normal order of things, which Alcuin remarked on to his disciple,

Sigulf, who became abbot of Ferrieres on the death of his master in 804. The

quotation from the Gospels provides the key to interpreting this passage:

having forbidden his disciples to let themselves be called Rabbi in the fashion

of the Pharisees, Jesus told them that whosoever shall exalt himself shall be

humbled; and whosoever shall humble himself shall be exalted (Matthew, 23,

12). Alcuin was not a priest, but a deacon, so it was not as officiant that he gavecommunion to the sons of Charlemagne, but as abbot. It should be noted,

therefore, that Louis humbled himself particularly by kissing the hand of a

clerk who was in almost the lowest of the main orders. The king of Aquitaine

engaged in a double humiliation: first bybowing, before a person low down in

the hierarchy of power, then by kissing Alcuin on the hand(the kisson the

mouthwas a sign of alliance, of equality in friendship).86 This text clearly had

an exemplary value: like a mirror, it instructed the prince in the true hierarchy

of valuesspecifically, that respect for the men of God enhanced the statureof the king.

According to Ermold, it was when Paulinus of Aquileia was staying at the

palace that he expressed the wish that Louis would succeed his father. The

scene is quite different: the poet, whose aim was to celebrate thepietasof Louis

in the hope of obtaining his favour,87 describes not his humility but the

fervour with which he prayed as he wept.88 In this case the comportment

of the prelate is of as much interest to us as that of the king:

It is told that the patriarch Paulinus, invited by the king, came long

ago out of friendship to his palace. One day, when he was in the

85 MGH, Scriptores, 15/1, pp. 1923 (c.15). For this text, see Clavis des auteurs latins du

Moyen Age. Territoire Francais, 735987, vol.2: Alcuin, ed. Marie-Helene Jullien and

Francoise Perelman (Turnhout, 1999), 78.86 Carre,Le baiser sur la bouche.87 Philippe Depreux, Lapietascomme principe de gouvernement dapres le Poeme sur Louis

le PieuxdErmold le Noir, in Joyce Hill and Mary Swan (eds), The Community, the Family

and the Saint: Patterns of Power in Early Medieval Europe. Selected Proceedings of the

International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, 47 July 1994, 1013 July 1995

(Turnhout, 1998), 20124.88 Piroska Nagy,Le don des larmes au Moyen Age. Un instrument spirituel en quete dinstitu-

tion (VeXIIIe siecle) (Paris, 2000).

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church, reverently singing psalms in honour of Christ, it happened

that Charles, illustrious son of the emperor, went there, in order to

pray, followed by a splendid retinue; he walked boldly up to the altarwhere the priest was officiating: Paulinus asked who this personage

was; when a servant told him, he broke off his chanting, and Charles

passed by and left (Ille ut cognovit primam, sobolem hunc fore regis/

Conticuit; coeptum ille peragat iter). After a short space of time,

prince Pepin arrived, surrounded by mighty lords, and Paulinus

enquired of the same servant, who told him who it was: hearing who

he was, the prelate bowed his head before the king, and the latter

proceeded on his way without stopping (Praesul ut agnovit nomenregique recordans/Mox caput inclinans; pergit at ille celer). Last of all

came Louis, who kissed the altar as a supplicant, prostrated himself

and, with tears in his eyes, implored the aid of Christ who reigns in

heaven. Seeing this, the patriarch rose eagerly to greet such a devout

prince, whereas, when Pepin and Charles had passed by, he had

remained seated and said nothing (Hoc sacer aspiciens, sella se sus-

tulit ardens/ Conpellare sacrum cum pietate virum;/ Antea nam,

Pippin Caroloque abeunte, sedili/ Haeserat et nullus vocibus orsadabat). Louis reverently prostrated himself at the feet of the prelate;

but he raised him up (Denique rex vatem prostrato corpore adorat:/

Paulinus regem suscipit ecce pium) and addressed him with these

sweet words, which were full of meaning: Attain the rank of

Charles; your piety makes one wish for this. Adieu! As soon as

the holy personage saw the emperor, he related the episode to

him in detail: If God, he said, wishes to give the Franks a king

from your family, it is Louis who should take your place. This is

what Charles, the wise emperor, told to a few close friends, whom he

trusted and loved.89

Knowing Charlemagnes relative distrust for his heir, whom he had to resign

himself to associating formally with the throne in September 813, after the

sudden deaths of Pepin (in 810) and Charles (in 811), it is difficult to believe

the poet: it was probably to flatter the emperor and draw a veil over the

tension between father and son90 that Ermold makes Charlemagne himself

disclose what Paulinus had confided in him. (After this passage, the poet

89 Ermold,Poeme, 4850.90 For the last years of Charlemagnes reign and his relations with his sons, see Egon Boshof,

Ludwig der Fromme(Darmstadt, 1996), 8390.


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rapidly concludes the story with the announcement to Charlemagne of the

seizure of Barcelona by his son Louis, in 801; Book 2 then opens with a eulogy

of the king of Aquitaine, on the occasion of the imperial coronation of 813).In this extract, the humility of Louis is once again evoked, expressed even

more strongly in this case by the proskynesis: the kingadoratthe patriarch,

who raised him (by describing Louis asrex, the poet heightens the paradox).

Even more informative, however, is the description of the attitude of the

patriarch of Aquileia to the two other sons of Charlemagne. We observe a

gradation in the disdain or esteem which is expressed by the selective recourse

to speech and by gesture: when the eldest son, described as the most arrogant,

appears, Paulinus remains seated and says nothing (conticuit); in other words,he pretends not to know him. On the arrival of Pepin, his own king (he had

ruled Italy since 781), the patriarch merely bows his head (mox caput incli-

nans); in other words, Paulinus keeps his marks of esteem to the bare min-

imum this side of what might lay him open to the accusation of insub-

ordination. We have here a clue to the protocol: for the poet, Charles the

Younger and Pepin of Italy were undoubtedly much of a muchness; the dif-

ference in the way the prelate behaved towards them is probably to be

explained solely by the nature of their institutional relationsnon-existentin the case of the elder, hierarchical in the case of the younger. Thus Ermold

suggests that it was possible, at the Carolingian court, to convey disdain while

still respecting etiquette. When Louis the Pious appears and engages in

numerous gestures of humility and devotion, Paulinus shows his respect

for him by rising to his feet and addressing him, using words of exhortation

as befitted a bishop.

Notker the Stammerer and Richer of Rheims were certainly monks. Thismay also have been the case with Ermold the Black,91 who is angrily addressed

by King Pepin asfrater.92 Conversely, Thegan was a chorbishop and Einhard,

who is known to have married, had only receivedperhapsminor orders at

most;93 the Astronomer was a palace clerk whose identity, hence status, are

still a matter of debate.94 It may be that monastic authors were more inclined

than others to pay attention to gestures, as a result of the liturgical

91 Ermold,Poeme, VI: In condition, he was a clerk or a monk.92 Ibid., 154 (IV, v. 2019).93 Philippe Depreux, Prosopographie de lentourage de Louis le Pieux (781840)

(Sigmaringen, 1997) (Instrumenta1), 178.94 Ibid., 11314; Matthias M. Tischler suggests he might be Bishop Jonas of Orleans:

EinhartsVita Karoli. Studien zur Entstehung, Uberlieferung und Rezeption(Hanover,

2001) (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Schriften, 48), vol. 2, 110911.

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codification of their observances. However, caution is needed as, while there

is nothing to prevent us from believing that finger movements were already

used as a way of communicating, while observing silence, as early as theCarolingian period, sign language is only attested, sporadically, in monastic

circles in the tenth century (Cluny playing a decisive role in the spread of this

practice).95

In any case, the examples discussed above would seem to confirm the thesis

that medievalists should focus their research less on the gesture itself than

on the attention paid to it.96 In a period of relative documentary penury,

accounts concentrating on political life dominate the sources. It is possible,

therefore, to make a partial study of court customs, so as to consider the value

of the gestures and the representativeness of the authors who describe or refer

to them, without it being possible to settle the question of whether the sources

are the construction of a model or a reflection of practice. It has been claimed

that, during the course of the early middle ages, the actors in political life

gradually learned to express their actions through rituals, according to a

Lernprozess which can first be traced in the eighth century and spread in

the tenth and eleventh centuries.97 To be wholly convincing, Gerd Althoffs

thesis, which is essentially based on sources of only a single type and relatively

few in number, would need, among other things, to be based on a wider

statistical foundation; given the nature of the documentation and, above

all, the type of analysis that would be necessary, such a project seems unreal-

isable and we have to fall back on such carefully chosen formulas as if the

sources do not deceive.98 In any case, when analysing gestures and rituals, it is

always useful to distinguish carefully between what derives from visual tes-

timony and what depends on a repres

past and present 2009 depreux 57 79

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