The ‘Dialogue on Miracles’ of Caesarius of Heisterbach

Summary

Caesarius of Heisterbach (c.1180–c.1240) was a Cistercian monk who, after his education at the cathedral school of Cologne, spent the rest of his life at the convent of Heisterbach. He wrote extensively, upholding the preaching tradition of the Cistercians with a collection of sermons, collating a series of saints’ lives, and drawing together a history of the archbishopric of Cologne. His best-known work, however, was the Dialogus Miraculorum, a carefully selected collection of stories which had the function of illustrating points of Christian doctrine and morality. In the eleventh and twelfth books of this work there are numerous accounts of apparitions of the dead, but almost every one of the accounts is carefully crafted as an exemplum, a short essay of edification, whose purpose is to illustrate the dangers of sin during the mortal life leading to inevitable punishment in the hereafter; each story is presented in the Dialogue as being told by a senior monk to a novice as a preface to a brief conversation which emphasises the theological point being illustrated. Thus, with the exception of the first two of the following stories (which draw upon a long-established belief that apparitions herald the imminent death of those who witness them), all the other stories about the punishment undergone by ghosts and spirits relate their torments specifically and didactically to the sin being cautioned against. Thus, for instance, the load of earth with which Frederic of Kelle is encumbered symbolises the land he stole; and the brimstone potion which the knight Rudinger carries around in his goblet is a punishment for his drunkenness. It could be argued therefore that, in the writings of Caesarius, the medieval ghost story reaches its maximum point of ‘control’ by the church. Any sense of wonder, mystery or fear which might have been evoked by earlier monastic accounts of apparitions of the dead is almost entirely dispelled by the neat construction of many of these stories as devices for moral edification.

The White Lady of Stamheim

Book XI, Chap. LXIII

In the manor of Stamheim in the diocese of Cologne, there were two knights, Gunther and Hugo. One night when Gunther was away from his home, a maid took his sons, whom she was about to put to bed, into the courtyard to satisfy the needs of nature.