Religious Identity in Norman Sicily: Evidence from the Christian Chronicles

Religious identity in Norman Sicily: the myth of NormanArab-Byzantine culture Steven Teasdale April 16, 2012 Norman Sicily The variegated cultural landscape of Norman Sicily (c. 1060-1196). •Three spheres for examining cultural identity: religious, ethnic, linguistic. •Religious: Muslims, Christians (east/west), Jews •Ethnic: Arabs, Lombards, Byzantines, Berbers •Linguistic: Arabic, Greek, Latin, Franco-Norman Unique demographics provide challenge for standard models of identity formation. 1 2 Perception & presentation Understand Norman religious and cultural identity through the dual lens of perception and presentation. 1.Perceptions of religious identity in the south Italian Norman chronicles. 2.Presentations of religious identity by Norman elites in Palermo. Significant divergence between selfperception and self-presentation. Mosaic: Palermo 3 4 Mosaic: Palermo Norman chronicles Three Norman chronicles. •Historia Normannorum by Amatus of Montecassino (c. late 1170s) •Gesta Roberti Wiscardi of William of Apulia (c. 1090s). •De Rebus Gestis Rogerii et Roberti of Geoffrey Malaterra (c. 1100). They are contemporaneous, focus on leaders, and are relatively convergent. 5 6 Origin story: Amatus “They arrived armed, not as enemies but as angels, with the result that they were welcomed into Italy by everyone... they went to Capua where they found a man from Apulia named Melus, who had fled there because he had rebelled against the emperor of Constantinople... These brothers went to the aid of Melus and crossed the frontier of Apulia with him where they commenced to fight the Greeks and discovered they were [soft] like women. Throughout the sandy field of Apulia they strew the lifeless bodies of their enemies.” —Amatus of Montecassino on the meeting with the Lombard Melus, Historia Normanorrum I.21. Origin story: Amatus Origin story in Historia Normannorum. •Normans arrive unarmed in Palermo c. 1000 on return from religious pilgrimage, free the city from Saracen siege, then return home. •Normans return “as angels” upon request of Guaimar III, meet Melus, and vanquish the cowardly Byzantines in Apulia Rhetorical motifs of pilgrimage, crusade, providence, invitation. 7 8 Origin story: William “Some of these men had climbed to the summit of Monte Gargano, to you, Michael the Archangel, to fulfil a vow which they had made. There they saw a man clad in the Greek manner, called Melus... They... sympathized with his fate [and] he assured them that with their help the Greeks could rapidly and with no great effort be put to flight... so after they had returned to their native land, they immediately started to encourage their relatives to come with them to Italy. They talked of the fertility of Apulia and of the cowardice of those who lived there.. [and] that once there... they would gain an easy victory over the Greeks.” —William of Apulia and the meeting with the Lombard Melus, in Gesta Roberti Wiscardi I.2. Origin story: William 9 10 Origin story: William Origin story in Gesta Roberti Wiscardi. •Normans arrive in Apulia c. 1040 on religious pilgrimage to sanctuary of Sant’Angelo at Mt. Gargano. •Meet Melus at the summit of Gargano and moved by his tale of injustice agree to help him fight Byzantines. Rhetorical motifs of religious pilgrimage, providence, secular justice, invitation. Origin story: Geoffrey “The [Normans] decided that since the elders were at that time stronger than those younger to them, they should be the first to leave their homeland and go to other places seeking their fortune through arms, and finally God led them to the Italian province of Apulia.” —Geoffrey Malaterra on why the Normans came to Italy (it wasn’t for Melus) in De Rebus Gestis Rogerii et Roberti, I.5 11 12 Origin story: Geoffrey Origin story in De Rebus Gestis Rogerii et Roberti. •Tancred orders his sons to disperse across Europe due to scarcity of land in Normandy. •Under guidance of God, they are led into Apulia as divinely-sanctioned rulers. Rhetorical motifs of providence, conquest (vs. invitation), and noble rights to rule. Divine inspiration: Amatus “We have placed our hope more firmly in God than in any great number of soldiers. Do not be afraid. We have with us Jesus Christ... God is the source of the power of this small, faithful band, and he will give us victory over the multitude of the infidel.” —Battlefield oration of Robert Guiscard at the battle of Cerami (1063), in Amatus of Montecassino, Historia Normanorrum V.22. 13 14 Divine inspiration: William “None of his brothers, excellent though as they are, entered upon so noble a war, for wishing to exalt the Holy Faith in which we all live, he fought continuously against the [Muslim] Sicilians, enemies of the Divine Name.” —William of Apulia on the motivations of Robert Guiscard in the invasion of Sicily, Gesta Roberti Wiscardi, III.11. Divine inspiration: Geoffrey “...thinking it would be of benefit both to his soul and indeed to his body if he could restore that land, which had been surrendered to idols, to divine worship and dispose of it in service to God, and take temporal possession of the fruit and produce of the land which that people, disagreeable to God, had usurped for themselves.” —Geoffrey Malaterra the motivations of Roger Guiscard in the invasion of Sicily, Gesta Roberti Wiscardi, III.11. 15 16 Divine representatives “For it has been ordained in the presence of God that whosoever shall oppose the Normans will be put to flight by them; either they will all die or they will suffer great affliction. For this land has been given to the Normans by God.” —St. Matthew in a vision to John, Archbishop of Salerno, on the divine backing of the Normans against Leo IX, Amatus of Montecassino, Historia Normanorrum III.38. Perception redux A reading of the late 11th-century Norman chronicles reflected a self-perceived Norman religious identity. •Role as rulers of Sicily as providential. •Divine inspiration / divine intervention. •Defenders of the faith. The strongly anti-Muslim and antiByzantine private image differs from the public image (perception). 17 18