Courtly Love as Religious Dissent Author(s): Jeffrey B. Russell Reviewed work(s): Source: The Catholic Historical Review, Vol.

51, No. 1 (Apr., 1965), pp. 31-44 Published by: Catholic University of America Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25017609 . Accessed: 20/12/2012 07:39
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Catholic University of America Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Catholic Historical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

COURTLY LOVE AS RELIGIOUSDISSENT By

Jeffrey B. Russell*

France

Towards the end of the eleventh century there appeared in southern a variety of literature that represented a new way of looking at soon adopted the world. This was the courtly love of the troubadours,

in Ger? in northern France and the Minnes?nger by the trouv?res an idea that has been most simply defined by Etienne Gilson as many, love as conceived in the courts of the nobility of southern France.1 It was a revolutionary world view in that it placed human love at the center of the universe and raised the woman (or, rather, the lady) to that of a high ideal. Both into our time, and both are of the views held in other societies and in other periods, wit? atypical ness the role of women in modern Islam or in ancient Greece. The is to what extent this new way of looking at the world rep? question resented a departure from religious orthodoxy in the eleventh and from the status of drudge and brood mare these revolutionary notions have persisted early twelfth centuries. Alexander called courtly love a heresy,2 and there is a Denomy certain strength in this position. That there was a body of doctrine proper to courtly love in the same way that a religion has a doctrine is evident from the consistency of the ideas in troubadour poetry, from the judgments of the courts of love, and from the theoretical treatise
*Mr. ifornia p. 171. Russell at Riverside. is an assistant professor of history in the University of Cal?

1Etienne Gilson, The Mystical 2Alexander

See De also Amore

Theology of Saint Bernard of Courtly Love

Studies, VII

(London, 1940), 1947).

J. Denomy, The Heresy

"Fin'Amours," Capellanus recent

(New York,
(1945) of 1277,"

Denomy's of Andreas 44-63.

Mediaeval and

; "Andreas ibid., VIII

Capellanus: Discovered (1946),

uary,

or Re-discovered,"

ibid., VIII

(1946),

139-207; "The (Jan?

the Condemnation of love

107-149; "Courtly Love and Courtliness," Speculum, XXVIII

Other treatments courtly are Hans

1953),

Furstner,

Studien sur Wesensbestimmung der h?fischen Mimme (Groningen, 1956) ; Ilse Nolting-Hauff, Die Stellung der Liebeskasuistik im h?fischen Roman (Heidelberg, 1959) ;Aldo D. Scaglione, Nature and Love in the Late Middle
Les Ages (Berkeley, 1963) ;R. Bezzola, en occident courtoise (500-1200) (Paris, origines et la formation de la litt?rature 1944-1963).

31

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

32 of Andrew

COURTLY

LOVE

AS

RELIGIOUS

DISSENT

the Chaplain, who was almost the theologian of courtly love.3 This doctrine included the following points that Father Denomy of human took to be heretical: the apotheosis love, the conception that passion of this kind is divine, and the idea that sexual attachments are desirable. to make of this a outside marriage It is too much formal

but

or of Abelard's intellectual heresy of the nature of Berengar's it does represent a point of view so incompatible with Christian as to merit classification as a variety of medieval dissent. orthodoxy If our concern than with is less with strict theological definitions is as medieval understanding society and thought, this disaffection as heresy itself. love has been carefully and extensively studied, and I do Courtly as not purport to offer here even a cursive view of the phenomenon a whole. I wish to discuss only two problems relevant to the question significant to what extent courtly love did represent religious dissidence. These of Christianity are, first, to what degree courtly love was a perversion and, second, what specific doctrines of courtly love may be considered unorthodox of the twelfth-century Church. a consideration of the origins of the The first problem requires a number of theories have been ad? doctrine of courtly love. Here vanced. It is generally agreed that literature fairly described as bear? ing the marks of courtly love begins at the end of the eleventh cen? by the criteria

IX, Count of Poitiers tury, William being generally (1071-1127), the first troubadour, considered though M?ller sensibly pointed out that there may have been earlier lyrics that never were set to paper.4 in the The literature of courtly love is distinguished by being written in Proven?al, French, German, or, later, Italian. Jeanroy,5 vernacular, the great upholder of the orthodox nineteenth-century interpretation, held that the literature of courtly love derived from the love literature of Ovid. More of classical Latin, particularly from the Ars Amatoria ideas influence in Cicero's Etienne Gilson found a profound recently, of friendship.6 For Jeanroy the fact that civilization was becoming more settled and refined in this period, that the noblesse, increasingly of constant warfare, had more leisure, and freed from the necessities
3 Andrew the Chaplain, M?ller, Jeanroy, "The La Poesie The Art of Courtly of des Courtly Love, ed. John Jay Parry (New

York, 1941).
4Herbert 5Alfred 6 Gilson, Meaning lyrique Love," Journal of American 1934).

Folklore, LXXlll

(I960), 39.
troubadours (Toulouse,

op. cit., p. 8.

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BY

JEFFREY

B. RUSSELL

33

sons of the nobility to the attached that the younger themselves courts of great barons where they found the baron's wife conveniently at hand to help them while away the hours, was enough to explain why the men of the South should have taken up Latin love literature and fashioned it to their purposes. is insufficient in many respects? Though Jeanroy's explanation one asks, for example, why the young nobleman should have chosen held it firmly until his the baron's wife rather than his daughters?he death. The theory that courtly love sprang from the Latin love poetry of the Middle Ages found little favor either with Jeanroy or with modern from the student songs has also critics,7 and its derivation been rejected.8 The interpretation that makes Arabic poetry the source has had considerable since the publication of the support, especially and of the Arab Ibn Hazm, who lived at Cordoba poems (994-1065) the evidence of Love.9 After weighing decided that Arabic love poetry had carefully, however, Belperron less in common with courtly love than it had with Ovid, and he pointed out a fundamental the Arab between lovers and their difference a kind of an Art

who wrote

in that Arabic love poetry was libertine in counterparts Proven?al nature while the attitude of the Proven?al was that of a loving wor? shipper.10 Father Denomy love as ennobling in Arabian "animal in that Denomy suitable Avicenna."11 of held that "the origin of the courtly conception is to be found not in Arabian literature but, rather,

and specifically in the mystical of philosophy philosophy that as long as the appetites of the Avicenna taught soul" are kept subject to the "rational soul" they are good its goal, which is beauty. they help the soul to approach argued that the troubadour notion that, while gross love was

true love was ennobling, derived to animals and peasants, in nature. To Christian from these concepts, themselves neoplatonic re-enforced then, Denomy neoplatonism, by Arabian neoplatonism attributed many of the concepts and much of the language of courtly
7 Pierre 8 Ibid., 9 For arabic Beiperron, p. 58. the Arab and La "Joie d'Amour" (Paris, 1948), others, Proven?al "Avicenna's XI (1952). p. 57. A. R. Nykl, Troubadours Ris?la

Poetry 1946)

interpretation, its Relations E. Von

see, among with the Old Grunebaum, Eastern Studies, Love,

Hispano (Balti? and

more,

Courtly 10 Belperron, 11 Denomy,

; Gustave Journal Love,"

Fi'L'Isq

of Near op. cit., pp. 98-99. The Heresy of Courtly

pp. 29-30.

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

34

COURTLY

LOVE

AS

RELIGIOUS

DISSENT

love. The semi-mystical origins of the concepts might for the use by the troubadours of language appropriate union. mystical

then account to Christian

While the influence of Arabian thought in one way or another is probably present, we may agree with Belperron's conclusion that love should in large measure be considered indigenous and courtly relatively spontaneous. The troubadours had a notion of a love differ? ent from sensual love, and where, in a Christian environment, were likely to find such ideas than in the Christian religion? and Gilson's of Ciceronian, of neoplatonic, in? suggestions Denomy's fluence are not incompatible with such a suggestion. In a book that no one has yet found unexciting, Denis de Rouge mont offered another explanation. He found a connection between the doctrine of courtly love and that, not of orthodox Christianity, but of Catharism. The prima facie evidence in favor of this theory is considerable. The south of France was the center of two great un? conventional movements, love and Catharism. love courtly Courtly at the be? appeared at the end of the eleventh century and Catharism runs. Both doctrines must ginning of the eleventh, so the argument have had enormous hold upon the people, for the evidence tells us so directly in the case of the heretics, while in that of the courtly lovers we can infer it from the persistence of the literature and from their in doctrine, a sign, M?ller remarkable uniformity noted, that they were saying something people wanted to hear. The Catharist heresy was influential among composed especially the prima facie case concludes from the external evidence, conceivable, that there should have been no common ground between the two. the nobility, while to be sung at noble the courtly love poems were courts and castles. It is in? they more

This argument has several weaknesses. First of all, that there was some common ground in the discontent of the population with normal is undeniable ;and the Proven?al nobles who were Cathar Christianity ists and who also welcomed to their tables could not troubadours have failed to perceive a connection. But this by no means shows that Since courtly love begins in the courtly love derived from Catharism. eleventh century while dualist Catharism, contrary to Rougemont's does not appear in the West until the 1140's, and since, assumptions, further, there is no change in the sentiments of troubadour poets about 1140 that would indicate an influence of the new doctrines, the

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BY

JEFFREY

B. RUSSELL

35

chronology impossible.12

clearly

indicates

that a cause

and

effect

relationship

is

from internal evidence, from a comparison argument trou? is also of interest. The and dualist attitudes, libertinism or the satisfaction of physical badours did not emphasize love. Though tumble with a peasant take an occasional they might or even, when circumstances cohabit with their wives, girl required it, in their dealings with their courtly mistresses they took more pleasure from the poignancy of unfulfilled desire than from the satisfaction of of Rougemont's troubadour that desire. This apparent shunning of the sexual act itself might be construed as consistent with dualism. But the peasant girls remain solid, fleshly evidence against Catharist asceticism. Further, Jeanroy's is still valid : the troubadours and objection to this kind of argument courts of love were never accused of asceticism, and even though the sexual act may not have been central in their mystique, is not the less sensual in its inspiration. It even extolled a modern psychoanalysis would describe as voyeurism sexual activity are hints of more Further, thorough Marcabru's tells a little bird that lady entirely lacking. tomorrow when her their poetry practices that and fetishism. by no means

all will be well lover returns, "Que sots pi/ Farem fi,/ Sots lui is correct in saying that the troubadours condemned mi!* Rougemont or sex but they did so not because they disliked generation marriage, sex outside marriage provided the tension they sought. but because It might be argued that the courtly experimentation with of procreation is consistent with Catharist theory, which was concerned with preventing It is true that the generation. credentes were allowed wide leeway and that they may well guilty accused. of some of the unnatural But activities love short primarily Catharist have been

the perfecti were puritanical of births, and it was they who formulated Catharist doctrines. Cathar? ist theory enjoined not only technical celibacy but the practice in all matters of an extreme asceticism designed to liberate the spirit from

of which they were often far beyond a simple fear

this diabolical world of the flesh. The troubadour apotheosis of sex is a far cry from this. To imagine that because they found tension and than satisfaction itself means that their longing more satisfactory
12 The historians. 89ff. late See date for for the introduction Arno Borst, of dualism Die is increasingly (Stuttgart, accepted 1953), by pp.

example

Katharer

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

36

COURTLY

LOVE

AS

RELIGIOUS

DISSENT

that the concept of love was spiritual would be to fail to understand refined sexuality of the courtly lovers was much more sensual than the ordinary thing done in the ordinary way. considers certain motifs of courtly love poetry as re? Rougemont Catharist influence, among them the themes of death and flecting But in the first case he takes far too seriously the lover's separation. threat to die of chagrin, and in any case it is because of a woman that the sufferer wishes spirit mont curse to die, not because of a desire to free the from the flesh. In the case of the poignancy of separation, Rouge? must cite the aurora poems, and these lyrics in which the lovers if not sensual. All the dawn that separates them are nothing if we agree with Rougemont that objections may be nullified

these the woman in the poems symbolizes the soul of the man, but such an interpretation smacks of the old-fashioned glosses on the song of is no need to go beyond Solomon and carries no conviction. There sensuality to explain these sensual troubadour songs. It is inconceiv? able that the recovery of the spirit from its fleshly bonds, for example, in terms like Bernart Marti's could be expressed "When I have de? curtains." flowered her beneath the embroidered Another compelling Church never accused a period when against dualist to Rougemont's objection theory is that the as a group, of Catharism. the troubadours, In the Church was engaging in a fierce and active struggle

it is inconceivable that orthodox writers and heresy should have neglected to condemn the troubadours if they polemicists were infected with this sort of error. It is likely of substantially that certain poets, once dualism had arrived in the West, fell under its influence. Raimbaut of Orange, for example, may have had an attitude toward the opposite sex that was suspiciously strict : he condemned women all sensual love and said that he wished to treat all as his sisters. But to derive courtly love from Catharist dual? ism or even to posit an essential connection between them is unjus? course

final bit of argument that the adherents of the Catharist throw upon the scales is that the Albigensian Crusade interpretation marked not only the suppression of Catharism but also the end of tified. The answered this with the observation that by courtly literature had become so stylized and formal that it would soon have perished in any case. Further, no one would deny that the crusade in its disruption of Proven?al society courtly love. Schl?sser the time of the crusade

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BY

JEFFREY

B.

RUSSELL

37

would
not.13

have done violence

to the arts whether dissenters it was

heretically not because

inspired

or

If the courtly lovers were as a whole, Catharists.

they were,

of the origins of courtly and meritorious, Another, interpretation in certain psychological and social love is that it could arise naturally such as circumstances. Setting aside overenthusiastic interpretations a gigantic manifestation of mother that which makes love courtly fixation,14 it is likely that many of the attitudes of courtly love could arise naturally. There are ancient Egyptian love songs whose flavor van den Haag is not unlike that of medieval love poetry.15 Ernest out that there is a built-in conflict between marriage recently pointed and passion, and both marriage and passion are natural things. The is something for the ideal, the pure, and the beautiful that longing can most have felt in one way or another, and sexual satisfaction remove the notion that these ideas are incarnate in one's partner. easily Van den Haag quotes Yeats to this effect : "Desire dies, because every and sex may at bottom touch consumes the myth." Thus marriage societies both be incompatible with romantic love, and though many that romantic love should die in order to indulge sexual desire prefer it is not altogether the better, strange that some societies might choose to exalt the pleasures of romantic love over those of sex.16 Another ployed against
13 Felix

is the crypto-Marxist explanation theory that women em? the doctrines of courtly love as well as of heresy as weapons its individual applications, their male oppressors.17 Whatever
Schl?sser, Andreas have Rahn, Capellanus: been Der Denis seine Minnelehre de Rougemont, gegen 1948), den offers und L1 Amour Gral a das christliche

Weltbild
Catharist

um 1200 (Bonn, 1960), pp. 248-249. The

Kreuzzug (Albi, of the

leading proponents of the

et VOccident 1933). of the (Freiburg, refutation

interpretation (Paris, 1956), and Otto P. Breillet, Recherches taboo

albigeoises forms part

Rahn thesis. 14 The incest Hunt, The

Natural

"The Social M?ller, and History: in Society An Studies 15 Ancient Near B. Pritchard, Eastern Texts to James Relating Testament pp. 468-469. (2d ed.; Princeton, 1955), !? Ernest van den Haag, or Marriage," "Love CCXXIV Harper's

History Causation

of Love of the

of the amusing Morton M. See also Herbert York, 1959). Love Courtly Complex," Comparative International I (1959). Quarterly, explanation (New the Old

(1962), (Berlin,

#1344.
17 See Gottfried Koch, Frauenfrage und Ketzer turn im Mittelalter

1962).

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

38 it is doubtful

COURTLY

LOVE

AS

RELIGIOUS

DISSENT

that this theory can go very far in illuminating the of any of these medieval movements. origins On the other hand, it is clear that the social institutions of feudalism entered into the formation of courtly love. C. S. Lewis observed that the feudal relationship between lord and vassal was, in its ideal form, very similar to the relationship between the lord and his lady. Lewis in addressing their points out that the phrase used by the troubadours lights of love, "mi dons'" originally meant, not my lady, but my lord.18 In Doon de Mayence the vassal speaks of his lord in the following devoted terms : If my lord is slain, I wish to die too. Hang me with him. Hanged ? Delivered to the flames ? I want to be burned. And, if he is drowned, throw me inwith him. Besides this personal relationship between lord and man, the insti? tution of feudalism created conditions in which an attitude of courtly love might arise. Feudalism of began as the very serious business enemies, and the men who par? protecting society from its military ticipated in the system as lords or vassals were noted less for a quick finger on the lute than for a quick hand on the sword. As society less rude, the old warrior class lost grew more stable and manners some of its brutality, but it also lost much of its raison d'?tre. By the of the twelfth century feudalism had generally become beginning this hereditary, and women and children could stand as vassals. With of avoiding actual military service, the military of the feudal caste was gradually and feudalism needed lost, another ideal to replace that of brute force. The Church attempted to impose its ideals upon knighthood and caused young candidates to fast and to keep vigil in chapel before their dubbing. The knight was to swear to protect widows and orphans and to see that justice was more than a mere miles, he was to be a miles Christi. It is done; rationale how much the ecclesiastical idea of chivalry penetrated problematical the thought, let alone the actions, of the warrior class, but if the to brute force were not accepted, what other Church's alternative possibility was there? The Troyes answer with is seen in a comparison of the attitudes of Chr?tien de those of the author of Roland: the epic yielded to ro
The Allegory of Love (Oxford, 1936), p. 2.

and

other means

is C. S. Lewis,

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BY

JEFFREY

B. RUSSELL

39

manee

to the lute. The mystique of the noble lady and the war-horn the center of the chivalric code. It may be futile to seek far leisure should afield the reasons why a class that enjoyed increasing choose ladies as the center of the cult, the attachment of gentlemen to ladies not requiring elaborate explanation. But the peculiar romantic nature of the attachment rather than simple libertinism may be ex? became influence. The Church had failed, except plained in terms of Christian to make knighthood in unusual cases like that of the Templars, into a religious in a Christian could but knighthood institution, society not help but share deeply in Christian attitudes. Chivalry and courtly love are unimaginable removed from the Christian background. The

no conflict, produced but Christianity, occasionally produce exhaustion, toward the world, its uncertainty whether with its ambivalence the flesh were good or evil, brought with it an inherent tension. That tension in turn made passion?passion in its root sense of suffering? in love possible, and it was this suffering for love that the troubadours that Christianity found so sweet. The moral obstacles put in the also helped to create tension. Romantic of sexual fulfillment path straightforward though it might pagan attitude toward love cannot flourish where sexual fulfillment is are placed in its way. but only where obstructions elevation of women, the physically weaker of the in the esteem of men, may it used to be thought) of the meek. from the Christian glorification obtainable, this, the Beyond sexes (at least so itself stem in part easily

sex

This returns to the first point : that courtly love is dissent in that them to fit its own purpose. it took Christian ideas and distorted doubtless adopted the attitudes of courtly love merely Though many as a game, others took them seriously enough. Nor does the fact that in open defiance of the Church the courtly lovers were not usually make Max their disaffection Weber as well from basic Christian noted the similarity as that between the feudal and the erotic relationship.19 that the language of religion applied to Though C. S. Lewis warned the love of ladies may often be a parody, it is clear that it is an ir? reverent parody at best, and Lewis admitted that it can become a of religion, an escape from religion, a rival re? serious "extension ecstasy ligion."20 Further,
19 From Mills (New Max Weber: London,

less real. principles between and sexual religious

while
Essays

much

of

the

literature
edd. H. H.

of courtly

love

is

York,

1946),

in Sociology, pp. 343-346.

Gerth and C. Wright 20 op. cit., p. 21. Lewis,

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

40

COURTLY

LOVE

AS

RELIGIOUS

DISSENT

much again is not, and even the conventional purely conventional, verse raises the questions of the conventions it uses. That Aucassin reveal attitudes deeply at and Andrew the Chaplain and Nicolete is not to be denied. We do not have to take variance with Christianity in which nuns debate whether clergymen the Council of Remiremont, or laymen are better lovers, or Andrew's debates, pseudo-theological at all seriously to realize that this kind of parody indicates a lack of piety bordering upon religious disaffection.21 The student songs that the from the latter half of the twelfth century represent flourished same sort of irreverence, however genial, for that wThich society con? sidered The sacred. atti? between courtly love and various Christian relationship tudes has been observed by a number of critics. The cult of the Blessed Virgin, inspired in part by the unusual religious enthusiasm of the day, grew rapidly in the twelfth century and was not without in the cult of the courtly lady. The apparent similarity the language of courtly love and that of Christian mysticism between refutation of the claims that has not gone unnoticed. Etienne Gilson's are related is convincing if the terms are courtly love and mysticism a shadowland where such a taken in their strict sense, but there is its reflection that the two are intellectually is likely. Granted dis? relationship does not always extend to their emotional similar, this dissimilarity attitudes, and emotions are often more important to people than the intellect. The tension of courtly love, the anguish of separation, the if not idolization of the beloved, all are too similar to mystical feeling, to mystical thought, to be dismissed. Gilson points out certain deep such as that which separates the mystic's desire for union differences, in regard to consummation. from the courtly lover's diffidence The is certainly different from Christian love of women charitas, courtly too, sometimes becomes more emotional says, but mysticism, is speaking of high mystical than pure charitas. Gilson theory; the was doubtless not always that elevated. Evelyn Underhill, practice that the mystic cannot be identified with the ecstatic, while observing points out many similarities between divine and profane love. "Like
his type, the 'devout lover' of romance," she observes, ". . . the mystic

as Gilson

serves without
21 Council deutsches

hope

of reward."
in G. Waitz, Literatur,

The

dictum
"Das

of Kempis

that

"to

of Remiremont und 138-141.

Altertum

deutsche

VII

(1948)

Liebesconcil," Zeitschrift f?r the Chaplain, ; Andrew

op. cit., pp.

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BY

JEFFREY

B.

RUSSELL

41

is no difficult thing for the lover" would apply rejoice in tribulation to either a courtly or a mystical lover. The language of exile and are common to mystical and secular love, and the poem of pilgrimage the Moslem mystic Jalalu'd Din makes use of more than one image that would become dear to human lovers : With Thy Sweet Soul, this soul of mine Hath mixed asWater doth with Wine.
Who can the Wine and Thee and Water when we part, combine ? ... Or me

Thy Love has pierced me through and through Its thrill with Bone and Nerve entwine. I rest a Flute laid on Thy lips ; A lute, I on Thy breast recline. Breathe deep inme that I may sigh ;
Yet strike my strings, and tears shall shine.22

I am not sure that Gilson is right in saying that it is pos? Finally, sible to experience the ecstasy of love without having heard a descrip? tion of Christian mystical ecstasy, if the "ecstasy of love" is under? to the troubadours. stood in a sense that would have been meaningful It would certainly be too much to derive courtly love from Christian the systematic mysticism of someone like Saint mysticism, particularly but it is also too much to rule out the penetration of attitudes Bernard, Graham Greene said : "The words deriving loosely from mysticism.23 of human love have been used by the saints to describe their vision of God ; and so, I suppose, we might use the terms of prayer, medita? tion, and contemplation
for a woman."24

to explain

the intensity

of the love we

feel

did most to show similarities between Christianity Wechssler25 and as to whether of Christianity the cult of love. The ambivalence it is reflected in the ambivalence of the rejects or affirms the world troubadours as to whether or not they desired consummation of their physical desires. The doctrine of love that held that a lover should

22 Evelyn Underbill, Mysticism

23 Gil courtois "Andreas Love and son, op. cit., Appendix had (Paris, 1931), Capellamis the Twelve and Steps

(New York, 1961), pp. 19, 92, 426.

IV. E. Anichkov, et les milieux loachim de Flore the affirmed also R. See theory. J. Schoeck, of Clairvaux: Saint Bernard The Rules of Twelve of Humility," Modern Language Notes, LXVI

(1951). 24 The End of theAffair

25 E. Wechssler, Das

(New York, 1951), p. 55.

des Minnesangs (Halle, 1909).

Kulturproblem

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

42

COURTLY LOVE AS RELIGIOUS DISSENT

be true to his one beloved the beloved, it is true, could (although not be his wife) may be a reflection of the Christian teaching of it may also derive from the feudal relationship. monogamy, though of the Christian for the unattainable Deity The longing, the Sehnsucht is reflected in the Sehnsucht of the troubadour for the unattainable to that of the Virgin and The cult of the lady is comparable lady. he begs her the saints: the lover approaches his lady as a penitent; forgiveness The clear ;he asks her grace ;he seeks salvation at her feet. origins of courtly love will continue to be debated, and it is is probably that its roots tap many soils. Wechssler's position overstated: love is not simply a distorted image of Chris? courtly is clear that the particular form it took was possible it tianity. Yet the context of Christian only within society. In this sense it was, as a perversion of Christian It can? ideas, a form of religious dissidence. as an idle pastime, not be dismissed for the commitment of the courtly lovers to their ideas was more than that. If ultimate concern is the mark of a religious then the attitude, as Tillich maintains, lovers were religious, and their religion was not Christianity, courtly even though many of them may have attended Mass. Tillich would call their concern quality of human an idolatrous faith in that it elevated love to the level of the infinite. the finite

If there is the flavor of religious dissent in the origins of the cult of love, there are certain portions of its doctrine that are clearly un? It is true and significant that the Church never condemned orthodox. love as a heresy, nor is mention made of its tenets in confes? courtly sional guides for priests, so that it would again be going too far to that the troubadours and their admirers were formal heretics. belief that the theorists of courtly love, Andrew the Chap? Denomy's lain in particular, were Averroists in holding a doctrine of the two claim truths is intellectualizing that which is not intellectual. But it would not be going far enough if it is not recognized that the doctrines of if taken at all seriously, do represent a confrontation the cult of love, with Christian The teaching. a living woman, exaltation of a finite creature, above the altar of one's devotion is the most evident example of such highest confrontation. Then there is the transference of Christian terms like For example, the term "adoration" had passion" and "devotion." as to occasion a grave crisis in the such a strict theological meaning Church at the time of the Iconoclastic controversy. Yet it

Western

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BY

JEFFREY

B. RUSSELL

43

was

her"

to the lady. The phrase "I adore "Lady, for your love, I clasp my is a blasphemy. if taken at all seriously, hands and adore you"), The doctrine that the object of love must be another man's wife and the the meaning of the sacrament of marriage, clearly vitiates a higher idea that devotion to another man's wife positively represents readily transferred from God (cf. Bernart de Ventadour's

morality

the ap? from orthodoxy. is an evident departure Further, of sensual love of any variety is a radical departure from Chris? proval tian tradition. Love for the lady went so far as to replace faith as the guide of life ; devotion to the lady was supposed to protect one from harm. Grace was replaced by the courtly "joy" in bestowing upon the lover a "liberating feeling of confidence and inner triumph."26 The rather than God, became the ultimate judge of conduct, and lady, one behaved according to what pleased her rather than according to

pleased the Almighty. Keep chaste, not for the sake of the Lord, but "for the sake of her whom thou lovest," urges Andrew the Chap? lain. The knight obeys his lady's every whim without in the question manner of the pious Christian who says, "Thy will be done." He is what in her utterly humble trembles in her presence and hardly dares touch presence like a worshipper before Yahweh. her; he

The lover's passion not only keeps him from harm but enables him to perform astounding in precisely the fashion that feats of derring-do, the faith of the saints enabled them to in the popular hagiographies The "joy" of the knight transforms him into a perform miracles. as baptism changes and renews. As the rich young "new man," just man was urged to abandon all for Christ's is urged to sacrifice material possessions, follow his lady love. The knight takes up takes up the cross of a different Christian in love's army, a miles amoris rather than sake, so the courtly lover home, family, and duty to his cross of passion as the

passion. The knight serves a miles Christi. The Chris? tian monk spurns the world in order to concentrate his attention upon to God, but the courtly lover rejects it ("All that I see is displeasing when his lady is absent or unkind. The young man preparing me")27 for love must possess the qualities of a religious novice : "Love, do you think I have any hope of being happy ?Yes, my friend, through and sub? Patience (Aimeric de P?gulhan)." patience and submission to another God than Jehovah. mission, yes, but himself
26

27Andr? Berry, Floril?ge des troubadours (Paris, 1930), #6.

Moller,

op. cit., p. 47.

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

44 Nor

COURTLY

LOVE

AS

RELIGIOUS

DISSENT

dawn poems that paint the poignancy of sep? of the things of this world reflect the aration and the impermanence orthodox theme of the vanity of vanities. More blatant was the overt attack of the courtly Andrew the Chaplain lovers upon the orthodox view of the clergy. and others readily permitted clerks to indulge of Poitou, in love affairs.28 William indeed, was accused of desiring to found an abbey of love on the model of a cloistered monastery.29 clergy is consistently portrayed with cynicism, disdain, or open

is that all. The

The
mockery.

is important to the study of medie? Courtly love, though peripheral, val dissent. Not a heresy in the formal sense, it did represent devia? tion from Christian of Christian ideals, and perversion principles, hostility to the Christian clergy and at least implicitly to the Christian of superstition Church. Like the widespread existence in this period of the the currency in France and Germany from Christianity courtly love indicates that disaffection could take various forms and was by no means Europe
28 Andrew 29 Berry, the Chaplain, op. cit., p. 33. op. cit., pp. 141-142.

and magic, attitudes of in medieval unusual.

This content downloaded on Thu, 20 Dec 2012 07:39:15 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions