Begging Pardon and Favor: Ritual and Political Order in Early Medieval France

by Geoffrey Koziol

Overview

In reconstructing and interpreting rituals of supplication, Geoffrey Koziol here uncovers the dense meanings of these most commonplace of all early medieval rituals. The author casts a wide net, comparing these rituals in several regions of northern and western France to illuminate the complex changes in social relations and political power in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

In medieval cultures, "supplication" was simply the act of prayer, an act that required a distinctive language of entreaty accompanied gestures of humility, such as kneeling and prostration. Koziol shows that in tenth- and eleventh-century France, prayer was an act of political honor as well as religious devotion, since the language and gestures of prayer were used to address not only God but also earthly lords who claimed to rule "by the grace of God."Making subtle use of ethnological studies and using a remarkable range of sources, Koziol demonstrates that supplication accurately reflected the complexities and paradoxes in contemporary attitudes toward friendship, enmity, and political authority. And in documenting their regional variations, he shows that the rituals of supplication, far from being routinized gestures insensitive to context, remained culturally meaningful by adapting to the realities of different political and social communities. Original and richly interdisciplinary, Begging Pardon and Favor is a major contribution to our understanding of medieval political and religious culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801477539
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	09/16/2011
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Geoffrey Koziol is Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Abbreviations
Author's NoteIntroductionPART I: BEGGING FAVOR
1. The Language of Petition
2. The Act of Supplication
3. The Court of the Heavenly KingPART II: CONSTRUCTING A POLITICAL COMMUNITY
4. The Rehabilitation of Royal Dignity
5. Toward an Iconic KingshipPART III: BEGGING PARDON
6. Supplication as Penance
7. The Ideal of Discretionary JusticePART IV: RITUAL AND REALITY
8. The Sublimity of Knighthood
9. How Does a Ritual Mean? Appendix 1: Disputes involving churches and laity in northern France, 1000–1100, by regionAppendix 2: Procedural patterns in disputes between churches and laity in northern France, 1000–1100Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Koziol's book is of a sort that would permit someone going to medieval Europe on assignment to figure out how things get done there.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Begging Pardon and Favor is immensely well informed, reasoned, insightful, and stimulating.

-- "Speculum"

I learned a lot from this learned, elegant, important book. It bristles with good ideas.

-- "Church History"

In this highly original book, Geoffrey Koziol studies the language and gestures of petition and supplication in tenth and eleventh-century northern France. His central argument is that political order, both in the secular and the ecclesiastical spheres, was closely dependent on ritual: kings governed, relations between antagonists were resolved, and monks had their property rights confirmed through grand gestures of humble supplication.

-- "American Historical Review"

Koziol's book is of a sort that would permit someone going to medieval Europe on assignment to figure out how things get done there.

-- "Journal of Interdisciplinary History"

From the Publisher

Begging Pardon and Favor is immensely well informed, reasoned, insightful, and stimulating.

Speculum

In this highly original book, Geoffrey Koziol studies the language and gestures of petition and supplication in tenth and eleventh-century northern France. His central argument is that political order, both in the secular and the ecclesiastical spheres, was closely dependent on ritual: kings governed, relations between antagonists were resolved, and monks had their property rights confirmed through grand gestures of humble supplication.

American Historical Review

I learned a lot from this learned, elegant, important book. It bristles with good ideas.

Church History