FLORES Discussion Post #4: Malmesbury

[Jasmine]

William of Malmesbury earned his place as a classical historian when he set out to recover the accounts of the deeds of both kings and bishops between the time of Bede and Eadmer. He will consider this a worthy pursuit and a satisfying achievement. He states, "And as I formerly summarised the deeds of the kings of England, it seems to me sensible now to run through the names of the bishops of England, so that with God's help I may now finally complete my long-promised work. When I achieve this, I shall consider myself to have finished a task attempted by no one else, in which I did not rely on my own powers but was led on by my enthusiasm for worthwhile knowledge," (WM, The Deeds of the Bishops of England (Gesta Pontificum Anglorum) Prologue).

He feels his job as a historian is to help people "rehearse the gratitude owed to our ancestors by finding out about the deeds of those from whom we have received the rudiments of the faith and encouragement to live well. It would certainly be a clear sign of shameful sloth if we did not know at least the names of the leaders of our own province..." (WM GPA Prologue). In other words - to remember. It is so easy to forget. We see this time and time again in Scripture. It only takes one generation of Israelites to grow up without 'rehearsing the gratitude owed to' God and their ancestors before falling into idolatry. We can see this in our own lives. We have to make it a daily spiritual discipline to pray, worship and read Scripture, or we will forget to rely on God and default to using our own strength, intellect and experience to guide us. Malmesbury also admits that he has less material to work with in the writing of his GPA as opposed to his GRA, but his aim is still to convey the truth as well as he can reproduce it and he asks his readers for forgiveness if there are any errors, (WM GPA Prologue). 

He also acknowledges that reading a historical text can actually be boring. (This made me smile!) So, he mentions in several places that he includes certain documents but hopes it won't bore his readers. For example, on the inclusion of the letters written by several popes to bishops, he writes, "The reading of these holy charters from the apostolic saints in the council of all England then greatly strengthened the primacy of the church of Canterbury. I myself have inserted them here, not inappropriately, provided the reader has not been bored stiff," (WM GPA 42). 

In addition, Malmesbury is concerned with brevity - possibly for the same reason, i.e. not wanting to bore his readers, as well as not reproducing the same work someone else has written. This is most keenly noted in his account of Anselm. He consistently refers the reader to Eadmer's work, Historia Novorum in Anglia. "There was an exchange of letters, sent by the pope to the king and Anselm, by Anselm to the king, and by the king to Anselm. The correspondence grew to an immense size. I have decided not to include it here. People who want to read it can go to Eadmer's book. He included the letter, so that no one could accuse him of lying and so that the solid truth of his words should remain unassailed. Also, Eadmer had plenty of time, as his intention was to describe the career of Anselm only, whereas 'I have a greater work afoot' and am trying to cover the deeds of many. So I will just pick out the main points, in my concern to avoid boring my readers," (WM GPA 74). 

[Abby Thornton]

Jasmine,

 

I really enjoyed reading your post. It was very well written!!

 

~~ Abby

[Jasmine]

Thanks, Abby!

[Chris Schlect]

Jasmine,

You have picked up on some of the keys to William of Malmesbury here. You and Laura echo some of the same threads of thought.

I think there is a connection between two of the items you mention, the imperative to remember and antipathy for boring prose. If a text is boring, you are less likely to read it. And even if you do suffer through reading it, you probably will not remember it, let alone pass the story on to somebody else. William was obviously empathetic toward his readers, and his broader mission of passing history on to his community was bound up in that.

CRS

On Monday, July 23, 2012 3:44:37 PM UTC-7, Jasmine wrote: