Medieval ecclesiastic historiography encompasses the

historiographic Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term "historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific to ...

production by the Clergymen of the

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, who created their own style of developing history and passing it on to posterity. It originated with

Eusebius of Caesarea Eusebius of Caesarea (30 May AD 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphilius, was a historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist from the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima. ...

, who molded a new way of writing. He gathered several followers who began copying him and propagating his model, even if indirectly. It was generally characterized by the proposal of exposing the goals and methods of the Historians in their work. They sought to clarify their purpose and how they had managed to gather the necessary information for each of their texts. The dominant method was

narration Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

and their main goal was to pass on the information to future times. There were serious problems in making the works, the principal one being the search for

document A document is a writing, written, drawing, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of nonfiction, non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ', which denotes ...

s (rare) and the various inconsistencies among the works, resulting from forgeries in many cases. Despite its problems, the ecclesiastic historiography of the

had its importance in the development of History as an academic discipline, according to the French historian Bernard Guenée. It also left a legacy that includes the development of auxiliary sciences such as

bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliograph ...

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

archeology Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes. Archaeolo ...

, and

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kin ...

Origins

The origins of ecclesiastic historiography go back to

, who is considered its father, and to his immediate successors:

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

Sozomen Salamanes Hermias Sozomenos (; ; c. 400 – c. 450 AD), also known as Sozomen, was a Roman lawyer and historian of the Christian Church. Family and home Sozoman was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christia ...

us,

Theodoret Theodoret of Cyrus or Cyrrhus (; AD 393 – 458/466) was an influential theologian of the School of Antioch, biblical commentator, and Christian bishop of Cyrrhus (423–457). He played a pivotal role in several 5th-century Byzantine ...

, and Gelasius, the bishop of ''

Caesarea Maritima Caesarea () also Caesarea Maritima, Caesarea Palaestinae or Caesarea Stratonis, was an ancient and medieval port city on the coast of the eastern Mediterranean, and later a small fishing village. It was the capital of Judaea (Roman province), ...

''. At first, it was possible to compare the new branch of historiography that was forming to political history, and it was possible to draw an analogy between the battles and treatises of the latter with the themes of persecution and heresy in Eusebius' work. Eusebius was the main recognizer of the importance of documents for the development of history while adopting several aspects of Jewish influence in his works. The most relevant of these was "succession," which had been created through the thinking of the rabbis and developed with strong Greek influence. Another line for ecclesiastic historiographic production was that created by Philip of Side, around 430 A.D. His work ''Christian History'' began with the origin of the world (explained through the theory of

creationism Creationism is the faith, religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of Creation myth, divine creation, and is often Pseudoscience, pseudoscientific.#Gunn 2004, Gun ...

) and included many diverse subjects beyond history, such as

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

, the

natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

s, and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

.In The Classical Roots of Modern Historiography, Arnaldo Momigliano compares Philip of Side's work to a "Christian encyclopedia in history format", mainly because of the inclusion of such diverse topics in the same book, but always with a Christianized view of such topics. However, Philip failed to garner followers and was soon forgotten. However, while ascending, ecclesiastic historiography did not end the cycles of other types of historiography.Political history, in particular, continued to be developed continuously and was recognized by all the ecclesiastic historians of late antiquity, including Eusebius of Caesarea himself. Political history, in particular, continued to be developed continuously and was recognized by all the ecclesiastic historians of late antiquity, including Eusebius of Caesarea himself. Rufinus' translation of ''

Church History Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception. Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of t ...

'' from

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

into

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

is considered the starting point of ecclesiastic writing in the

Western Roman Empire In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...

, since before this it had been developed only in the Eastern Roman Empire. The impact of the translation made by Rufinus was so great that the work became extremely popular. It was known that medieval historians such as

Gregory of Tours Gregory of Tours (born ; 30 November – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours during the Merovingian period and is known as the "father of French history". He was a prelate in the Merovingian kingdom, encom ...

, Beda, and

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; ; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430) was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Africa. His writings deeply influenced the development of Western philosop ...

were familiar with it.

Goals and methods

One of the main characteristics of ecclesiastic historiography is the common presence of goals and methods in the prologue of the works. Through the analysis of the prologues of medieval history books, it is possible to understand how the work was produced, for what purpose it was developed, to whom it was intended, and what methods were applied in its making. The key objective of the Clergymen was to transmit historical knowledge to posterity, but only events worthy of remembrance were to appear in the works produced, and they usually dealt with subjects such as

biographies A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

s.An exception was the work of Gerard of Wales (''Topographia hibernica''), which was especially intended to study the customs of the peoples of present-day Ireland. As it happened with the

liturgy Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, history would become a tool of memory. The main method for conveying history was the narration of events, and it was very common to use works of history to convey examples of reputable men that should be followed by others. The work of

Valerius Maximus Valerius Maximus () was a 1st-century Latin writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes: ' ("Nine books of memorable deeds and sayings", also known as ''De factis dictisque memorabilibus'' or ''Facta et dicta memorabilia''). He worke ...

, the ''Book of Memorable Doings and Sayings,'' is an example of this compilation made several times. Therefore, it would be up to the historian to create someone's glory or infamy, and for this very reason, several works of history started to be "commissioned" by nobles in the same period (so that their names would not be forgotten).

Sources

Written

The written sources used by medieval historians came mainly from

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

and

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

s, and were used especially for studies on "ancient times".Gautier Map considered "modern times" to be the period that could be covered by orality (at most one hundred years), while "ancient times" would be those that comprised all phases before this. During the

, libraries were not yet as rich as they would become during the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

(to a great degree after the spread of the press throughout

in the 15th century). Only a few books were available and in small quantities, very few being history books. The main source for many works was the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, which had been recommended by

Cassiodorus Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Christian Roman statesman, a renowned scholar and writer who served in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senato ...

to all libraries in the sixth century, in addition to Eusebius of Caesarea's ''Church History''. Content not covered by the Holy Bible and Eusebius' work was hardly found in ordinary libraries, and its diffusion was extremely limited. The archives were as rustic as the libraries, and there were several problems with the conservation of manuscripts. Besides the problem of conservation, there was also a great obstacle imposed by the lack of classification, as well as the lack of access (many historians could only turn to the archive of the institution to which they belonged). One of the best-known archives is that of

Reims Reims ( ; ; also spelled Rheims in English) is the most populous city in the French Departments of France, department of Marne (department), Marne, and the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 12th most populous city in Fran ...

, which was organized as early as the 9th century by

Hincmar Hincmar (; ; ; 806 – 21 December 882), archbishop of Reims, was a Frankish jurist and theologian, as well as the friend, advisor and propagandist of Charles the Bald. He belonged to a noble family of northern Francia. Biography Early life Hincm ...

. Only from the 11th century onwards did the episcopal archives begin to be inventoried, and only with the advance of royal power in the 14th century did the need for classification become clear.

Oral

The oral sources were those coming from the

testimony Testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. Law In the law, testimon ...

of people who had witnessed the events narrated in the works.

Isidore of Seville Isidore of Seville (; 4 April 636) was a Spania, Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian and Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seville, archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of the 19th-century historian Charles Forbes René de Montal ...

is considered a precursor in encouraging the use of oral sources, because of the great influence he had on later historians. According to Isidore's teachings, the ''oral tradition'' was followed, and the most reliable oral sources were used, which were direct testimonies. In addition, the search for criticism of testimonies is notorious, since confirmation of these testimonies was sought in others (then considered "secondary"). When it was not possible to use direct testimonies, historians looked for support for their books in popular beliefs, ancient traditions, and songs that circulated in the medieval world.

Auxiliary

Auxiliary sources were those that came from monuments, ruins, sculptures, and buildings, for example. Although there were not yet adequate instruments for exploring the past through the legacies of other times that had already passed (

had not yet been developed, and only in the 14th century would

be considered an auxiliary science of history), the importance of this type of source was already considered. Among the buildings most sought after by medieval historians were the tombs of important men, for these could reveal information of the most diverse nature, from their

to their biography itself. A clear example of such importance is the monastery of Saint-Denis which gathered the tombs of the kings of the

Merovingian The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...

and Capetian dynasties respectively.

Forgery

The falsification of documents was a recurring attitude in medieval history and, for a long time, it hurt historians, especially those who did not have a very acute critical sense. However, at the same time that there were historians without this skill, others were already dealing with evaluating and analyzing the sources; After comparing them with other sources, they looked for differences and similarities. This often led to an overvaluing of the "authority of the source", which was the search for a "guarantor" for the evaluation of a text as a historical source. This happened several times during the Medieval Era and examples of this are the book on the history of Genoa between the years

1100 Year 1100 (Roman numerals, MC) was a leap year starting on Sunday in the Julian calendar. It last year of the 11th century and the first year of the 12th century. In the proleptic Gregorian calendar, it was a Common year starting on Monday, no ...

and

1152 Year 1152 ( MCLII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Levant * Spring – King Baldwin III and his mother, Queen Melisende, are called to intervene in a dispute between Baldwin's aunt H ...

, which was elevated to the level of a highly reputable source by the consuls of the city, and the chronicle of Rolandino of Padua, which vested itself with authority only when it was validated by the scholars of the University of

Padua Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of 20 ...

. Another major problem was the influence of copyists who, in numerous historical works, always ended up "adding" some information that was not available in the original text they used. In short, the criterion for the quality of historiographical production was not the truth, but rather the authenticity established by authorities who obeyed a kind of hierarchy.The scale started with the author himself (if he was better known, the text had more chance of being authentic, if not, then it had less chances), then it went through the approval of princes, which was lower than the approval of kings, who in turn had less authority in approving texts than the Catholic Church, and finally, among the texts approved by the church, the most reputable was the one that was the oldest.

Genres

The moment history manages to gain its autonomy from the other sciences, its genres (known as historical genres) emerge: annals and chronicles are known for providing brief descriptions of events and related facts by year, while history sees style and rhetoric being highly valued (there is still a tendency to look to historians of antiquity such as

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...

and Salustius). Later, from history, other genres would derive such as providential history (which was guided by

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

), scholarly history (used by clerics and chanceries), political history, and "romance" history (which gains readers from social groups other than the

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

, such as the

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. T ...

). There were also a large number of works made to order, which were requested by nobles who wanted to keep their memory alive for posterity. An example of this is the work that appears on the occasion of the death of William the Marshal in 1219, which was commissioned by his son (to keep his father's memory alive). This genre would later also make room for works of

Acceptance

During the Medieval Age, ecclesiastic production was well-received and diverse. One of the genres with the greatest popular appeal was the "romance" history of the

Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...

, whose books recounted the adventures of the knights of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

in the distant lands of the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. However, they were often written with little or even no historical accuracy, which may relativize their use as a source. Among the texts of this kind is the "Song of Antioch." The mendicant orders were also great recipients and repeaters of ecclesiastic historiography, adapting it according to their needs. The

Dominicans Dominicans () also known as Quisqueyans () are an ethnic group, ethno-nationality, national people, a people of shared ancestry and culture, who have ancestral roots in the Dominican Republic. The Dominican ethnic group was born out of a fusio ...

focused their production on scholarly manuals and were more concerned with preaching than historical research. The

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

order, on the other hand, followed a similar line to the Dominicans and sought only "beautiful stories" for preaching in front of people of "less culture". Nowadays, the historiographical production of the Medieval Era is often viewed with contempt, and those responsible for this view are the humanists of the Renaissance. This is thought to be because the view held is that, until then, history was a mere "servant of religion" and auxiliary to the Catholic liturgy. One of the main inaccuracies of medieval texts are the illustrations: illustrators and engravers drew biblical characters as clerics and knights of the Medieval Era and thus incurred serious

anachronism An anachronism (from the Greek , 'against' and , 'time') is a chronological inconsistency in some arrangement, especially a juxtaposition of people, events, objects, language terms and customs from different time periods. The most common type ...

Legacy

Ecclesiastic historiography has a very important legacy for the further development of history as an academic discipline. This importance can be gauged by the great presence of works created within this historiographic movement, such as the ''Histories of Gregory of Tours'' (which was a very important source for the understanding of the sixth century in the

Frankish Kingdom The Kingdom of the Franks (), also known as the Frankish Kingdom, or just Francia, was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Frankish Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties during the Early Middle A ...

), the ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' by Bede and, later, Vincent de Beauvais' ''Historial Mirror'' and the ''Great Chronicles of France''. The legacy of ecclesiastic historiography is summed up in the following quote by the French historian Bernard Guenée:

Notes

References

Bibliography

* BASCHET, Jérôme (2006). ''A Civilização Feudal''. ''Do Ano 1000 à Colonização da América''. São Paulo: Globo. * CAIRE-JABINET, Marie-Paule (2003). ''Introdução à Historiografia''. Bauru: EDUSC. * LeGOFF, Jacques; SCHMITT, Jean-Paul (2006). ''Dicionário Temático do Ocidente Medieval''. 2. Bauru: EDUSC. * MOMIGLIANO, Arnaldo (2004). ''As Raízes Clássicas da Historiografia Moderna''. Bauru: EDUSC. * SHAHÏD, Irfan (1984). ''Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century'' (em inglês). .l. Dumbarton Oaks.