Herman of Tournai, Herman of Laon or Hériman of Tournai, (French ''Hériman'', Latin ''Herimannus''; 1095–1147), the third abbot of Saint Martin of Tournai, was a chronicler of his abbey and, in many anecdotal accounts connected with the abbey, a social historian of the world seen from its perspective. Forced from his abbacy in 1136 by a contingent within the monastic community that asserted he had been lax in his enforcement of the

Benedictine rule The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...

, he had the leisure while at

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to write his book, ''Restauratio sancti Martini Tornacensis'', written in

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

about fifty years after a local plague of 1090. He was a pupil of Odoardus, later Bishop of Cambrai, whose example as a teacher he delineates at the start of his work, and who was the driving force behind the refounding of a neglected and undistinguished church dedicated to

St Martin of Tours Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...

near Tournai. Herman's ''Restauratio'' has been edited and translated for the first time into English by Lynn Harry Nelson, who provided extended explanatory notes. Following his expulsion from Tournai, Herman spent some time at

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. ...

, where he joined the circle of Bishop Bartholomew de Jur. Bartholomew sent Herman into Spain to recover the body of Saint

Vincent of Saragossa Vincent of Saragossa (also known as Vincent Martyr, Vincent of Huesca or Vincent the Deacon), the Protomartyr of Spain, was a deacon of the Church of Saragossa. He is the patron saint of Lisbon and Valencia. His feast day is 22 January in the C ...

, which had been promised for Laon by Alfonso, king of Aragon, Bartholomew's kinsman. Though the relics were not forthcoming, Herman had the opportunity to copy some Spanish Marian works by Ildefonsus of Toledo to which he added an account of Bartholomew's building programme at Laon, and his own miracle book, '' De miraculis beatae Mariae Laudunensis'', "of the miracles of Saint Mary of Laon". The work linked a revival in the spiritual life of

under its bishop Bartholomew to the particular local interventions of the Virgin Mary, whose relics were toured in central France and England to raise money for the rebuilding of

Laon Cathedral Laon Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Laon) is a Roman Catholic church located in Laon, Aisne, Hauts-de-France, France. Built in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it is one of the most important and stylistically unified exampl ...

, recently laid waste by fire. He wrote the account in the 1140s,

pseudepigraph Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseu ...

ically, as if by a canon of the cathedral: in his address to Bartholomew he asserts, "I was reluctant to put my small name beneath them, so I have washed these miracles by a pretext under the name of the canons of the

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * C ...

."Quoted in Yarrow 2006:76.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herman Of Tournai 1095 births 1147 deaths French chroniclers Writers from Tournai