9 - Exemplary Narratives: Contemporary Reforming Discourses in Jocelin's Vitae

Summary

As an explicitly didactic genre, hagiographical texts presented the reader with clear models of moral and religious behaviour. While much of this instruction was grounded in centuries-old traditions of Christian piety, as has been shown, vitae also reflected the particular religious interests and circumstances of those writing or commissioning the texts. It is, therefore, unsurprising that a number of contemporary religious concerns are articulated in Jocelin's works. Explanatory additions and first-person asides not only direct the reader to a particular understanding of the narrative but clearly situate the Vitae in the ecclesiastical environment of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The following discussion will analyse the presence and significance of these strands in Jocelin's texts and will provide a synoptic overview of all four Vitae as a close to this study.

Discourses of orthodoxy

Although the extent to which the issues mark each text varies significantly, all four of Jocelin's Vitae engage with the concerns relating to orthodox belief and practice that dominated late twelfth and early thirteenth century ecclesiastical thought. The root of these concerns lay in the growing religious awareness and enthusiasm in Western Christendom that had accompanied the increasing urbanization and economic prosperity of Europe from the 1050s onwards. This religious zeal found expression in the creation of new orders and popular religious movements, many of which were absorbed into the body of the wider Church. However, other groups, such as the Cathars and Waldensians, continued to challenge the structure and practices of traditional ecclesiastical authority. The desire to see uniformity in belief and ritual throughout Christian Europe, combined with anxieties over these heretical groups, resulted in the introduction of new doctrines and practices in the medieval Church. It was a response that sought to elevate the status both of the faith and of those who practised it. Yet although these doctrines had been widely accepted among the ecclesiastical hierarchy by the time that Jocelin was writing, the drawn-out process of implementation on the ground still had a long way to go.

Concerns over orthodoxy find particularly vocal expression in the Vita Waldevi, where they are combined with comments that explicitly acknowledge the threat posed by contemporary heretical movements. This reflects not only the near-contemporary setting of the Vita itself, but also the Cistercian context of the commission and the ongoing involvement of the Order in the campaign against heresy during this period.