Orderic Vitalis

Orderic Vitalis (Latin: Ordericus Vitalis; 16 February 1075 – c. 1142) was an English chronicler and Benedictine monk who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th- and 12th-century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. Working out of the Abbey of Saint-Evroul, he is credited with writing the Historia Ecclesiastica, a work detailing the history of Europe and the Mediterranean from the birth of Jesus Christ into his own age. Quotes Historia Ecclesiastica My present object is to treat of what passes under our own observation, or we are called upon to endure. For it is fitting that as new events continually occur they should be carefully committed to writing, to the praise of God; and thus, as the history of the past has been handed down to us by preceding writers, so also a relation of what is going on around us should be transmitted to future generations by the pen of contemporaries. Preface (tr. Thomas Forester, 1853) The physicians and others who were present, who had watched the king all night while he slept, his repose neither broken by cries or groans, seeing him now expire so suddenly and unexpectedly, were much astonished, and became as men who had lost their wits. Notwithstanding, the wealthiest of them mounted their horses and departed in haste to secure their property. But the inferior attendants, observing that their masters had disappeared, laid hands on the arms, the plate, the robes, the linen, and all the royal furniture, and leaving the corpse almost naked on the floor of the house hastened away. Observe then, I pray you, my readers, how little trust can be placed in human fidelity. All these servants snatched up what they could of the royal effects, like so many kites, and took to their heels with their booty, roguery thus came forth from its hiding place the moment the great justiciary was dead, and first exercised its rapacity round the corpse of him who had so long repressed it. Intelligence of the king's death was quickly spread, and, far and near, the hearts of those who heard it were filled with joy or grief. In fact, King William's decease was known in Home and in Calabria to some of the exiles he had disinherited, the same day he died at Rouen, as they afterwards solemnly asserted in Normandy. For the evil spirit was frantic with joy on finding his servants, who were bent on rapine and plunder, set free by the death of their judge. O, worldly pomp, how despicable you are when one considers that you are empty and fleeting! You are justly compared to watery bubbles, one moment all swollen up, then suddenly reduced to nothing. Behold this mighty prince, who was lately obsequiously obeyed by more than a hundred thousand men in arms, and at whose nod nations trembled, was now stripped by his own attendants, in a house which was not his own; and left on the bare ground from the hour of primes to that of tierce. Bk. 7, ch. 16 (tr. Thomas Forester, 1853) Death of William the Conqueror, 9 September 1087 When the western nobles heard the good news about the famous champions who had set out on pilgrimage and triumphed gloriously over the infidels in the east, fighting in Christ's name, they and their relations and neighbours were inspired by the example of such achievement to a similar undertaking. Many were fired by enthusiasm to go on pilgrimage, to see the Saviour's sepulchre and the holy places. Fear of the pope's curse also forced some to go on pilgrim-age: for Pope Paschal II had publicly excommunicated and cut off from all Christendom all those who had freely taken the cross of the Lord and come back without completing their journey, unless they retraced their steps and devotedly accomplished their vows. Elizabeth Hallam (ed.) Chronicles of the Crusades (New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1989) p. 97 First Crusade · Crusade of 1101. See: Adela of Normandy External links Thomas Forester, The Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1853) Category:Chroniclers Category:Historians from England Category:Clergy from England Category:1140s deaths Category:People of the Crusades