University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository History ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 6-9-2016 "SED NEQUE SILENTIO PRETEREUNDUM": AN ANALYSIS OF THE MIRACLES OF SAINT WILLIAM OF NORWICH Sarah Rose Edwards Obenauf Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.edu/hist_etds Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Edwards Obenauf, Sarah Rose. ""SED NEQUE SILENTIO PRETEREUNDUM": AN ANALYSIS OF THE MIRACLES OF SAINT WILLIAM OF NORWICH.edu/hist_etds/26 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in History ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact disc@unm.
Sarah Rose Edwards Obenauf Candidate History Department This thesis is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Thesis Committee: Sarah Davis-Secord, Co-Chairperson Timothy Graham, Co-Chairperson Frederick Gibbs “SED NEQUE SILENTIO PRETEREUNDUM”: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MIRACLES OF SAINT WILLIAM OF NORWICH By Sarah Rose Edwards Obenauf B., History, University of New Mexico, 2013 THESIS Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts History The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico May, 2016 iii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my committee for their support and guidance throughout my career at UNM. Sarah Davis-Secord allowed me to take her graduate seminar on medieval travelers and travel my last semester as an undergraduate, and she agreed to be my advisor long before I even knew what my project would be. Her encouragement and enthusiasm have propelled me and this thesis from start to finish. Timothy Graham also allowed me to take a graduate seminar with him while I was still an undergraduate and then took me under his wing for three semesters of independent study in Medieval Latin after I was admitted to the MA program.
I am grateful that he has shared his intelligence, kindness, and patience with me. In his Digital Humanities seminars, Dr. Fred Gibbs has quietly shown me that it is not impossible or unseemly for medieval historians to use HTML and CSS coding in their research; he prepared me first to beef up my professional website, and, more recently, to create the maps which form the digital component of this thesis. I have also had the pleasure of working with Drs.
Davis-Secord and Graham in the classroom as their TAs, and through their examples they have influenced my own teaching, something that I did not expect I would enjoy or even be good at. Caleb Richardson has been a mentor to me throughout my entire career at UNM, and I had the pleasure of being his TA as well. I would also like to thank Dr. Charlie Steen, who has been generous with his advice and moral support even though he was not on my committee.
Yolanda Martinez, Dana Ellison, Barbara Wafer, and Hazel Mendoza-Jayme have helped me keep up with all the paperwork and deadlines; I have often planned my route across campus in order to walk through the History department office so that I would get a chance to catch up with them. I would also like thank Dr. Dan Wolne in Religious Studies for iv giving me the opportunity to TA for his class when my funding ran out in Fall 2015. This spring he has graciously allowed me the flexibility I needed to finish my thesis.
I would not have been able to complete this degree without the generous financial support from the History department. Grants from HGSA and GPSA also afforded me the opportunity to travel to and present at conferences. I would like to extend my thanks to Emma Darbyshire and Dr. Richard Kelleher at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, for arranging for me to reproduce the image of the coin struck by Eustace.
Susan Pinter saved the day by formatting this thesis, for which I will be eternally grateful. I have made many friends at UNM who have offered their unconditional support. Thanks are in order to Katherine Barton, April Eldredge-Donahue, Breanna Griego-Schmitt, Sarah Fairbanks, Trinity (and Calvin and Caroline!) Hall, Danielle Jones, Justin and Julie Larsen, Dirk McDougal, Abigail Richardson, Maria Szasz, Jessica Troy, Melissa Valenzuela, Maggie Waring, and Kiyomi Wilks. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Stephanie Violette, whose friendship and good cheer have made the last few months of writing and revision more bearable.
Other friends who have offered support are Elaine Almquist, Erin Barringer-Sterner and Lisa Foris-Hickie; even though we do not get to see each other as often as we would like, we always manage to pick up right where we left off. I would also like to thank Priscilla Tapins, my dear friend from my time at Paychex in Chicago, for always being willing to grab dinner at such short notice. I would also like to thank Molly Erickson for obvious reasons. Diane Polasky has helped me stay grounded and healthy, especially this past year.
I would also like to thank Drs. Tapan Godiwala and Peggy Spencer for getting me through Fall 2014 and bringing me to a full recovery. And I cannot forget you, Hamilton. v My interest in the Middle Ages began with my parents.
My mother, Susan, first got me hooked on books by Alison Weir and Margaret George on King Henry VIII and his wives. When I was in high school, she gave me a copy of the novel Mount Joy, which followed a girl by the name of Maris on her pilgrimage to Sanitago de Compostela in Spain all the way from Paris, walking the Way of Saint James. Thanks to that story, I did a presentation on the Way of Saint James in my French class my junior year; I had no idea at the time that I would ever make medieval pilgrimage the focus of my graduate studies. My father, Mark, was also an early influence on my interest in the Middle Ages.
Not only did he encourage me to read Barbara Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror, but he also introduced me to the satirical takes on medieval culture in the Monty Python movies. Thanks also to my siblings, Megan, David, and Rebecca, who offered their encouragement from Buffalo. I would also like to extend my heartfelt thanks to my fairy godmother, Kay Broyles. My husband’s parents, Tom and Gretchen, have always been enthusiastic about my research and have generously helped to support us these last few years in every way possible, including by supplying us with endless gallons of ice from their freezer.
My sister-in-law, Beth, and her husband, David, have also offered their encouragement from San Jose and during their frequent visits to Albuquerque. My husband’s Aunt Becky has also been incredibly supportive, especially since she joined Facebook a year ago. And, lastly, I would like to thank my husband, Richard, for all of his support. We will be celebrating ten years of marriage in June and the time has flown by.
I first fell in love with him for his writing. He is my best friend as well as an eagle-eyed editor. He has been with me at every stage of this project, from discussing ideas at the dinner table to helping me revise and proofread. I am glad I found you, Richard.
vi “SED NEQUE SILENTIO PRETEREUNDUM”: AN ANALYSIS OF THE MIRACLES OF SAINT WILLIAM OF NORWICH By SARAH ROSE EDWARDS OBENAUF B., History, University of New Mexico, 2013 M., History, University of New Mexico, 2016 ABSTRACT William of Norwich was born around 1132, and, according to his biographer Thomas of Monmouth, he was killed by Jews during Easter week of 1144. Consequently, whenever William is mentioned in modern scholarship, it is almost always in relation to Jewish ritual murder and the blood libel legend. To date, no scholarship has systematically categorized or analyzed the miracles and visions contained in The Life and Passion of William of Norwich nor discussed what these stories suggest about the pilgrims who visited his tomb. Using disability theory, this thesis analyzes eighty medical miracles performed by the boy saint.
I begin by categorizing and analyzing the miracles according to the impairments that the pilgrims suffered. Because the cures took place within the social context of a crowd gathered at William’s tomb, I argue that it was society that determined whether or not a cure was efficacious. I then look at the practical considerations of these journeys by examining the pilgrims’ familial support systems, technological aids such as crutches or handbarrows, and modes of transportation. In these ways, I propose that people with impairments and disabilities were far from the outskirts of society, but, rather, that their presence helped to construct and reaffirm the core beliefs upon which medieval society was built.
vii Table of Contents List of Figures. ix List of Miracles Analyzed in Thesis. xi Map of Medieval Norwich. xii A Note on Translations.
xiii Chapter 1 Introduction. 1 William of Norwich (ca. 5 Thomas of Monmouth (d. 26 The City of Norwich.
34 Combining Medieval Pilgrimage and Disability Studies. 43 Chapter 2 Analysis of the Miracles. 44 Overview of the Miracles. 50 Pilgrims Bent Double.
53 Madness and Demonic Possession. 62 Blind and Mute Pilgrims. 69 Other Common Ailments. 77 Less Common Ailments.
104 viii Chapter 3 Contexts of Traveling: Familial Support and Modes of Transportation. 106 Pilgrims Traveling Alone. 108 Pilgrims with Familial Support: Children. 115 Pilgrims with Familial Support: Adults.
131 Pilgrims Brought to the Tomb with Technological Aid. 145 Pilgrims and Spiritual Support. 173 Appendix A Pilgrim Origins. 174 Appendix B Original Translations from the Life and Miracles of St William of Norwich.
180 ix List of Figures Figure 1.1: A painting at Holy Trinity, Loddon, Norfolk, depicting the torture and murder of St.2: Obverse and reverse of coin minted by Eustace the moneyer of Norwich .1: Image of a pilgrim offering a wax leg to the shrine of Saint William Fitzherbert (1324-1472) at York Minster. 110 x List of Miracles Analyzed in Thesis (taken from Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Passion of William of Norwich, ed. Miri Rubin) Unless otherwise noted with a (2) or a (4), each miracle concerns only one pilgrim. Bracketed numbers are in Jessopp and James.
Book III: IV.iv Book IV total: 12 VI.vii Book V: VI.ix Book VI total: 16 III.xiii Book VII: III.x Book III total: 18 Book V total: 16 VII.xii Book IV: Book VI: VII.v Book VII total: 18 IV.vii (2) Grand Total: 80 IV.viii xi Timeline (adapted from E. Rose, The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe, xi–xii; and Thomas of Monmouth, The Life and Miracles of St William of Norwich, ed. Augustus Jessopp and M. James, lxxxix-xc) 1066 Norman Conquest of England 1096 Foundation of Norwich Cathedral c.
1132 Birth of William of Norwich 1135 Death of Henry I; nephew Stephen of Blois becomes king Civil War 1144 (March) Death of William of Norwich (April 24) William’s body moved from Thorpe Wood to Monks’ Cemetery (First Translation) 1146/1147 William Turbe elected bishop of Norwich; Sheriff John de Chesney dies 1147–1149 Second Crusade c. 1150 Thomas of Monmouth begins Life and Passion of William of Norwich; William’s body moved from Monks’ Cemetery to chapter house (Second Translation) 1151 William’s body moved from chapter house to high altar of cathedral (Third Translation) 1154 (April 5) William’s body moved from high altar to Martyrs’ Chapel (Fourth Translation) (Oct. 25) Death of King Stephen c. 1172 Completion of Life and Passion of William of Norwich c.
1173 Death of Bishop William Turbe xii Map of Medieval Norwich (from E. Rose, The Murder of William of Norwich: The Origins of the Blood Libel in Medieval Europe, x.