Representing Wonder in Medieval Miracle Narratives

Axel Rth

In a certain sense, Christian miracle narratives can be considered as early precursors of the modern fantastic. Many of the motifs referred to in nineteenth-century fantastic tales and novels are already to be found in medieval miracula and mirabilia: strange natural phenomena, werewolves and revenants, the battle between good and evil. Obvious parallels can also be found on the level of structural configuration, such as the reproduction of certain narrative patterns in the French novella.1 While the fantastic has been more or less defined as a distinctive genre, its main medieval precursor, the merveilleux chrtien, is a more heterogeneous phenomenon. It seems appropriate to consider it as a flexible set of patterns and themes, appearing in different sorts of texts and in different pragmatic contexts, such as hagiographies, sermons and miracle collections. Miracles can be functionalized as an argument for Christian belief, as a proof of the sanctity and the virtue of a person or a relic, or as a didactic means in order to impress and to convince an audience of a theological message. Thus, miracle stories do not constitute a genre, but rather a set of textual elements,
1 See e.g. Ilse-Nolting-Hauff, Die fantastische Erzhlung als Transformation religiser Erzhlgattungen (am Beispiel von Thophile Gautiers La Morte amoureuse), Romantik. Aufbruch zur Moderne, ed. K. Maurer and W. Wehle (Mnchen: Fink, 1991) 73100, here 87: Soweit sie nicht auf die Volkssage rekurriert, ist die Fantastik des frhen 19. Jahrhunderts nmlich zum grten Teil ein transformiertes merveilleux chrtien. Als Lieferant dieses merveilleux kommen vor allem Heiligenvita und Mirakel in Frage (wir vermeiden hier die zu umfassende und daher irrefhrende Bezeichnung Legende), wobei das Mirakel im Vordergrund steht.

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susceptible of appearing in different textual and pragmatic contexts.2 They cannot be read without explicitly taking their function within a larger textual ensemble into account. Another important difference between modern and medieval tales of the supernatural concerns the opposition of (modern) fiction and (pre-modern) non-fiction: fantastic tales are based on the principle of narrative verisimilitude. Todorovs hsitation3 would not be conceivable without the category of the implicit reader following the mysteries and peripeties of the story, vacillating between a natural and a supernatural explanation of the related events. The hsitation indicates a textual effect and therefore first of all concerns not the character on the diegetic level, but the reader. That is completely different in medieval miracle narratives: as non-autonomous components of a non-literary discourse, miracles are not subject to the logic of verisimilitude but rather to the logic of the exemplum. There are no mysteries aside from the ones explained in terms of theology. Furthermore, these texts do not have an implicit reader:4 signification is made explicit. It is not necessary to search for it by interpreting a textual structure. Accordingly, unlike the hsitation and the thrills coming along with it, wondering is named explicitly, but can hardly be described as the effect of a textual structure.5
2 This definition is widely accepted since the 1970s. See e.g. Hand D. Oppel, Exempel und Mirakel, Archiv ft Kulturgeschichte 58 (1976): 96114; Karin Fuchs, Zeichen und Wunder bei Guibert de Nogent. Kommunikation, Deutungen und Funktionalisierungen von Wundererzhlungen im 12. Jahrhundert (Mnchen: Oldenburg Verlag, 2008). 3 Tzvetan Todorov, Introduction la littrature fantastique (Paris: Seuil, 1970). Vauchez argues convincingly that the notion of fantastic does not exist in the Middle Ages, and even for the marvellous (merveilleux) one cannot find any correspondent spiritual or intellectual category (Andr Vauchez, Conclusion, Miracles, prodiges et merveilles au Moyen Age (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1995) 31726. This position is in complete agreement with the one to be found in Jacques Le Goff, Le Merveilleux dans lOccident mdival, LImaginaire medieval (Paris: Gallimard, 1985) 1739, here: 28, and Paul Zumthor, Essai de potique mdivale (Paris: Le Seuil Points Essais, 1972). 4 Compare Paul Zumthor, Essai de potique mdivale 170(although with reference to the novel): Mais il ny a plus, dans le texte mdival tel que nous le connaissons, de lecteur implicite: il y a nous, par-del une distance de tant de sicles. 5 There is an abundance of research dealing with the transformation of medieval (and religious) storytelling into literary storytelling. The most representative case might be the transformation of the Christian exemplum into the genre of the novella, i.e. the change from Christian didactics to self-sufficient literariness. Among the more recent contributions see particularly Niklaus Largier, Diogenes von Sinopegeistlich und weltlich. Zugleich ein Diskussionsbeitrag zum Verhltnis von Exempel und Novelle, Geistliches in weltlicher und Weltliches in geistlicher Literatur des Mittelalters, ed. Christoph Huber, Burghart Wachinger and Hans-Joachim Ziegler (Tbingen: Niemeyer, 2000) 291304. A good though brief survey is to be found in Claude Cazal-Brard, LExemplum et la nouvelle, Les Exempla mdivaux: Nouvelles perspectives, ed. Jacques Berlioz and Marie Anne Polo de Beaulieu (Paris: Honor Champion, 1998) 2942.

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In what follows I would like to examine how miraculous events and the feelings they arouse (astonishment, wondering, terror, delight) are represented in two different hagiographic texts, Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis and the Libellus de miraculo sancti Martini, and also the De miraculis libri duo by Petrus Venerabilis. But before commencing with this, the central notions of this line of argument shall be commented on: what is a miracle in the Middle Ages, and which are the text types it appears in?6 For marvels and miracles are not reduced to merely textual existence, they are phenomena people believed in. While the modern merveilleux is an esthetic category, the medieval merveilleux is a mental category,7 and has been discussed and problematized as such. Miracle and Wonder Broaching the issue of saints, miracles and relics, but also of ghosts and revenants, we have to recognize that, in the Middle Ages, believing in these phenomena was absolutely normal and a part of everyday

6 Robert Bartlett, The Natural and the Supernatural in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: UP, 2008), 134; Gabriela Signori, Wunder. Eine historische Einfhrung (Frankfurt/New York: Campus, 2007); Michael E. Goodich, Miracles and Wonders: The Development of the Concept of Miracle, 11501350 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007); Mirakelberichte des frhen und hohen Mittelalters, ed. Klaus Herbers, Lenka Jirouskova and Bernhard Vogel (Darmstadt: WBG, 2005) 117; Maria Wittmer-Busch and Constanze Rendtel, Miracula. Wunderheilungen im Mittelalter. Eine historisch-psychologische Annherung (Kln a.o.: Bhlau, 2003); Martin Heinzelmann and Klaus Herbers, Zur Einfhrung, Mirakel im Mittelalter. Konzeptionen, Erscheinungsformen, Deutungen, ed. Martin Heinzelmann, Klaus Herbers and Dieter R. Bauer (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2002) 921; Dennis Quinn, Iris Exiled. A Synoptic History of Wonder (Lanham, MD: UP of America, 2002); Lorraine Daston/Katharine Park, Wonder and the Order of Nature. 11501750 (New York: Zone Books, 2001); Lorraine Daston, Wunder, Beweise und Tatsachen. Zur Geschichte der Rationalitt (Frankfurt/M.: Fischer, 2001); Carolyne W. Bynum, Miracles and Marvels: The Limits of Alterity, Vita Religiosa im Mittelalter. Festschrift fr Kaspar Elm zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Franz J- Felten and Nikolas Jaspert with the collaboration of Stephanie Haarlnder (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1999) 799817; Arnold Angenendt, Wunder. A. Allgemein. Christlicher Westen, Lexikon des Mittelalters (Stuttgart a.o.: Metzler, 1998) vol. 9: 35153; Carolyne W. Bynum, Wonder, American Historical Review 102. 1 (1997) 126; Alain Dierkens, Rflexions sur le miracle au haut Moyen Age, Miracles, prodiges et merveilles au Moyen Age (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 1995) 930; Fritz Wagner, Miracula, Mirakel, Lexikon des Mittelalters (Mnchen/Zrich: Artemis-Winkler, 1993) vol. 6: 65659; Benedicta Ward, Miracles and the Medieval Mind. Theory: Record and Event (Aldershot: Wildwood House, 1987). 7 Laurence Harf Lancner, Merveilleux et fantastique dans la littrature du Moyen Age: une catgorie mentale et un jeu littraire, Dimensions du merveilleux/Dimensions of the Marvellous, ed. Juliette Frlich (Oslo: Universit dOslo, 1987)1: 24356.

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life.8 Natural phenomena, madness, battles, catastrophes, healing processeseverything could be interpreted as the intervention of God, and all these cases can be found in miracle narratives. From a present-day point of view, miracle narratives resemble fabulous imaginary productions, but in their contemporary context they were considered as true stories. The fact that it was also possible to criticize a miracle as unbelievable9 is nothing but a proof of the truth-claim of these texts, written and told by churchly authorities (church fathers, theologians, bishops, abbots, simple priests). As in the Middle Ages there are no clear borderlines between notions such as world and beyond or between God and Nature,10 it is difficult to differentiate the terms that have been used in order to designate events evoking wondering, even more for the Middle Ages altogether.11 Especially before the twelfth century, different terms were used to designate phenomena evoking wonder.12 In the twelfth century, the vocabulary became more specialized: miracula became the term to designate phenomena that were considered as contrary to or beyond nature. Between Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, miracles, signs and

8 Ward, Miracles and the Medieval Mind 12: Events called miracula permeated life at every level; Jean-Pierre Torrell and Denise Bouthillier, Introduction, Pierre le Vnrable, Les Merveilles de Dieu. Present et traduit par Jean-Pierre Torrell et Denise Bouthillier (Fribourg/Paris: Editions Universitaires Fribourg/Editions du Cerf) 147, here 45: Ce monde, o le merveilleux est pour ainsi dire chose naturelle, est caractris en premier lieu par lirruption quasi continu de lau-del dans len-de. Le lieu concret dans lequel il devient perceptible est prcisment lunivers imaginal des songes et des visions. Diffrent de lunivers des ralits sensibles dont il na pas la consistance, mais assez proche de lui pour en pouser les lois et les conventions, ce monde imaginal est assez rel pour que lhomme y rencontre aussi bien ses terreurs que ses espoirs, des enseignements autant que des exemples; Jacques Le Goff, Le Merveilleux 26: Cest peut-tre ce quil y a de plus inquitant dans ce merveilleux mdival, le fait justement quon ne sinterroge pas sur sa prsence sans couture au sein du quotidien; Lutz E. von Padberg, Die Verwendung von Wundern in der frhmittelalterlichen Predigtsituation, Mirakel im Mittelalter, 7794, here: 81. 9 Bynum: Wonder 9; Signori: Wunder 2839. 10 Dierkens, Rflexions sur le miracle au haut Moyen Age 11. 11 Der Begriff miraculum war schon im M[ittelalter] derart komplex, da die Forsch[ung] bis heute noch nicht zu einer erschpfenden Theorie oder gar allgemeingltigen Eidologie desMirakels gelangte. Auch die im A[lten Testament] fr miraculum verwandten Bezeichnungen signa, virtus, prodigia, mirabilia, paradoxa sind fr eine Definition wenig hilfreich. (F. Wagner, Miracula, Mirakel, 656). 12 In the early Middle Ages expressions such as sign, portent, mystery, monster (monstrumliterally, something that shows or points), tended to be used interchangeably with mirabilia (wonders or marvels) and miracula (miracles). A wonder was something that was great or difficult of accomplishment, unusual or beyond the ordinary; it was something that startled, that engendered awe or terror; it was something that beckoned, pointed beyond itself. (Bynum, Miracles and Marvels 802).

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wonders are not discussed to a large extent. The reason for that may be found, as Benedicta Ward explains, in the fact that miracles were so closely woven into the texture of Christian experience that there was no incentive to examine or explain the presuppositions that lay behind them.13 This changed in the twelfth century when the interest in the concept of nature increased.14 The most important distinction developing since is the one between mirabilia (marvels) and miracula (miracles). What both have in common is the evocation of wonder and astonishment, the mirabilia towards things we do not understand, the miracula towards actions of God beyond or contrary to nature (praeter/contra naturam). The marvellous can have many different reasons whereas the miraculous can only have one. A marvel is generally something extraordinary, but not contrary to nature, whereas a miracle designates an intervention by God.15 Gervase of Tilbury draws a clear distinction between miracula and mirabilia:
Ex hiis, duo proueniunt: miracula et mirabilia, cum utrorumque finis sit admiratio. Porro miracula dicimus usitatius que preter naturam diuine uirtuti ascribimus, ut cum uirgo parit, cum Lazarus resurgit, cum lapsa membra reintegrantur. Mirabilia uero dicimus quae nostre cognicioni non subiacent, etiam cum sunt naturalia; sed et mirabilia constituit ignorantia reddende rationis quare sic sit.16

Ward, Miracles and the Medieval Mind 12. The texts that shall be read in this article are a case in point: the Virtutes Sanctae Geretrudis (around 800) and the Libellus de miraculo sancti Martini (early ninth century) do not yet scrutinize the notion of miracle itself, whereas later authors of miracle narratives like Gervase of Tilbury and Caesarius of Heisterbach have a more precise idea of it. For Albertus Magnus and, particularly, for Thomas Aquinas, the violation of the laws of nature becomes the central aspect of the notion of miracle. 15 Le surgissement inopin du divin dans le monde des hommes [. . .], une intrusion du numineux, du numen, sur terre (Dierkens, Rflexions sur le miracle au haut Moyen Age 11). 16 From these causes arise two things, miracles and marvels, though they both result in wonderment. Now we generally call those things miracles which, being preternatural, we ascribe to divine power, as when a virgin gives birth, when Lazarus is raised from the dead, or when diseased limbs are made whole again; while we call those things marvels which are beyond our comprehension, even though they are natural: in fact the inability to explain why a thing is so constitutes a marvel. The examples he then gives are taken exclusively from Augustines De civitate Dei: the salamander living in the fire, the volcanoes on Sicily, the peacock meat that does not decaythey all make clear that mirabilia tend to deal with phenomena rather than with stories. (Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia. Recreation for an Emperor, ed. and tr. S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns [Oxford: Clarendon, 2002] 55899).
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The distinction between mirabilia und miracula is not only one between phenomena, but also between textual genres. Although both terms have the same origin, they belong to different textual traditions, characterized by different conceptions of admiratio, due to two different attitudes towards nature:17 admiration in face of the non-understandable in the mirabilia produces astonishmentnot because the order of nature is disturbed but because the reasons for a phenomenon are unclear, whereas miracula exceptionally abolish the order of nature. As to the history of knowledge, the wondering of the mirabilia, however fabulous these stories and descriptions might be, belongs to the sphere of curiositas: it is a philosophical wondering.18 The wondering of the miracula is different: it shall create admiratio of the saints virtues. Jacques Le Goff19 points out that mirabilia and miracula have the same etymological root mir(ari), referring to a visual aspect of the relevant phenomena.20 He distinguishes three distinctive adjectives for the twelfth and thirteenth century: mirabilis, magicus and miraculosus. Here, mirabilis refers to the supernatural with origins in pre-Christian, pagan antiquity. Magicus designates the satanic supernatural, whereas the actual Christian supernatural, an action achieved by God, is referred to by the term of miraculosus. While mirabilis is nearly the exact analogon of todays merveilleux, miraculosus expresses the attempt of the church to control and to domesticate the field of the merveilleux. The miraculous had to be detached from phenomena of superstition, as the Christian supernatural was to have only one author: God. Systematizations like in Thomas Summa theologiae are a case in point. The first two texts to be analysed here belong to what Le Goff calls the first period: the early Middle Ages (fifth to eleventh century) are, so it seems, characterized by the denegation of the merveilleux as something pagan. The systematic problem of the Christian miracle consists in the need to eradicate the unpredictability of the event. If everything,

17 Jean-Claude Schmitt, Les Revenants. les vivants et les morts dans la socit mdivale (Paris: Gallimard, 1994) 7778, 99100; Bynum, Wonder; Bynum: Miracles and Marvels. 18 Curiositas. Welterfahrung und sthetische Neugierde in Mittelalter und frher Neuzeit, ed. Klaus Krger (Gttingen: Wallstein, 2003); Lorraine Daston, Wunder, Beweise und Tatsachen. 19 For the following: Le Goff, Le Merveilleux 1728. 20 The verb admirare has the same root, and has therefore often to be translated as visual astonishment, despite its semantic closeness to the modern admire. (See Franois Pouliot, La Doctrine du miracle chez Thomas dAquin. Deus in imnibus intime operator (Paris: Vrin, 2005) 73.

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argues Le Goff, even the irregular, depends on the will of the one and only God and therefore becomes regular, the supernatural loses one of its fundamental properties: the ability to evoke astonishment. As already mentioned above, miracles and marvels are closely linked to visual perception. Apparition is of constitutive importance for itbut is, according to Le Goff, nevertheless increasingly banished from miracle narratives.21 Miracle narratives indeed seem to be characterized by the paradox that wonder and astonishmentdespite being named over and over againvery often remain absent. We find most frequently an automatic conception of miracle: someone has a problem, prays, is helped by a saint, whose outstanding excellence is proved. This conception is due to the argumentative dimension of miracles, as a proof of the devoutness and sanctity of the hero, or as an argument, for instance, for the commeration of the dead in the case of the De miraculis libri duo by Peter the Venerable. Pragmatic Contexts If one agrees with Le Goff (and others), during the Middle Ages we can observe a development towards the domestication of the supernatural by means of interpreting it according to Christian moral messages, i.e. by turning the multifaceted marvellous into a specific miraculous. Such miracles appear in different text genres, such as legendaries, Passiones, Virtutes, Translationes, Vitae. These texts were very often written at the same places where saints and their relics were venerated. In the course of the ecclesiastical reforms of the eleventh century, the criteria of canonization became more severe: the written vita had to prove that a nominee for sainthood had lived a devout life and, eventually, worked wonders during his or her lifetime. People seem to have been immensely interested in miracula post mortem: if no miracles happened at the saints tomb, people even refused to accept a dead person as a saint. Until the twelfth century, canonization was
21 Dans la mesure o le miracle sopre par les intermdiaires que sont les saints, les saints sont placs dans une telle situation que lapparition du miracle par leur entremise est prvisible. Je crois percevoir, malgr les mutations et les ressources de lhagiographie, une sorte de lassitude croissante chez les hommes du Moyen ge vis--vis des saints dans la mesure o, partir du moment o un saint apparat, on sait ce quil va faire. Ds quil se trouve dans une situation on sait quil va procder une multiplication du pain, quil va ressusciter, quil va exorciser un dmon. La situation tant donne, on sait ce qui va se passer. Il y a tout un processus dvacuation du merveilleux (Le Goff, Le Merveilleux 23).

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ruled by the vox populi, but by the end of the century, it became an institutional right claimed by the pope. Miracles were an essential condition of canonization. One can easily understand that under these conditions wondering is not of great importance. As far as the representation of wondering is concerned, other hagiographic genres, most of all sermons and edification books, are more promising as these texts are more susceptible to producing an effect on their audiences. In hagiographic texts, saints do not appear as individuals but as representatives of Christian truths, norms and virtues. One text type is therefore of particular importance for a description of the textual functionality of miracles: the exemplum. Its main lieu are sermons, but moral edification, and thus the logic of the exemplum, is a central issue of all hagiographic text genres. This becomes evident when we take a closer look at the interrelation between hagiography and historiography:
Die Hagiographie zielt zwar oberflchlich gesehen wie die Historiographie auf die res gestae ab, verweist im Gegensatz zu dieser aber darber hinaus auf die Offenbarung, auf das Jenseits, indem sie den Helden, den Mrtyrer, zum Exemplum, zum Beispielhaften und Reprsentativen gerinnen lsst.22

In hagiography, the individual historical case of a holy person is always simultaneously exemplary, i.e. a message concerning salvation history. It is realbut it is also a moral lesson, it is a fact and a sign at once.
The Saints Life contains two major elements. On the one hand, the historian who writes about a saint writes, as did the New Testament writers, first of all convinced of the plain existence of his subject. In nearly all saints lives there are historical details of names and places and dates and they are important because Christianity is not a myth, a philosophy or a moral code; it is based on firm historical moments of living and dying in a time and place. [. . .] But secondly, on the other hand, Christianity is not simply about the historical Jesus and hagiography is not just about historical figures. [ . . . ] The writers of saints lives [. . .] are concerned to show the work of God within a human life as it relates to the person of Christ, and that will include both accounts of the breaking through of divinity in the form of prophetic signs at his birth, of miracles as well as virtues during his life, of the inner relationship he has through prayer with Christ. The miracles are

22 Hedwig Rckelein, Das Gewebe der Schriften. Historographische Aspekte der karolingerzeitlichen Hagiographie Sachsens, Hagiographie im Kontext. Wirkungsweisen und Mglichkeiten historischer Auswertung, ed. Dieter R. Bauer and Klaus Herbers (Stuttgart: Steiner 2000) 125, here: 3.

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not seen or presented as miracula, things to be wondered at, but under the biblical word signa, as signs of a new reality. Prayer for a saint, as for Christ, is the very centre of its being, not a pious extra.23

Just as miracles do not constitute a homogenous genre, the exemplum does not have the status of a genre.24 It should rather be called a functional element,25 a rcit bref donn comme vridique et destin tre insr dans un discours (en gnral un sermon) pour convaincre un auditoire par une leon salutaire.26 Of course, the pragmatic context in which an exemplum might be embedded does not need to be a sermon; it can also be a part of an edification text, like the De miraculis libri duo or the Dialogus miraculorum by Caesarius of Heisterbach. The Christian exemplum is, first, a narrative referring to a truth existing autonomously and outside of the text, and second, it tells exemplary events from which the audience shall learn a moral lesson. As its aim is undoubtedly to convince those who read or listen, it can be called a rcit efficace.27 It is a
narrative Minimalform, die einen abstrakten, theoretischen oder thesenhaften Textsinn konkret beleuchtet (illustrare), die in diesem enthaltene Aussage induktiv beweist (demonstrare) und damit sowohl eine dogmatische oder didaktische Interpretationshilfe schafft als auchje nach dem das Exemplum bestimmenden Kontextmit moralisierender Implikation zur Belehrung, Erbauung oder Unterhaltung des Rezipienten [ . . . ] beitrgt (delectare). Ziel des Exemplumgebrauchs ist die auf seiner berzeugungskraft (persuasio) beruhende Aufforderung, sich am beispielhaften Vorbild zu orientieren (imitatio). Es ist keine eigene, fr sich lebensfhige literarische Gattung, sondern seit der Antike Teil einer aus der Gerichtsrede hervorgegangenen Argumentationstechnik.28

Ward, Signs and Wonders xiixiii. E.g. Heinzelmann and Herbers, Zur Einfhrung 15. Rudolf Schenda, Stand und Aufgaben der Exemplaforschung, Fabula 10 (1969): 6985; Oppel, Exempel und Mirakel; the research about exempla is abundant. Good surveys are to be found in: Christoph Daxelmller, Art. Exemplum, Enzyklopdie des Mrchens. Handwrterbuch zur historischen und vergleichenden Erzhlforschung, ed. Kurt Ranke (Berlin a.o.: de Gruyter, 1984) 4: 62759; Gerd Dicke, Exemplum, Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007) 1: 53437; Markus Schrer, Das Exemplum oder die erzhlte Institution. Studien zum Beispielgebrauch bei den Dominikanern und Franziskanern des 13. Jahrhunderts (Berlin: LIT, 2005) 5166. 26 Jacques Le Goff, Claude Bremond and Jean-Claude Schmitt, LExemplum (Turnhout: Brepols, 1982), 3738. 27 Jacques Berlioz, Le Rcit efficace: Lexemplum au service de la predication (XIIIeXVe sicle), Mlanges de lcole Franaise de Rome 92 (1980): 11346. 28 Daxelmller, Art. Exemplum, 627.
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The pragmatic context is of great importance for what could be called the poetics of the miracle. Combining aspects of form and of content, I would suggest defining the miracle narrative as a simple narrative form (exemplum) embedded into a variable pragmatic context, relating an eventful intervention of the supernatural interpreted as coming from God or at least with Gods consent. Vita, Sermon, Miracle Book: Three Textual Examples In theological terms, miracles mean an intervention of God, whereas in miracle narratives, God rarely acts directly but uses a saint to act as intermediary between Him and humanity. On story level, there are only human persons and the saint while God is to be found on the discourse level, i.e. in commentaries and explanations given by the narrator. In the story, everything is centred on the situation and the saint. If there is wonder, it is first of all the wondering of witnesses facing the miracle in its very directness. For them, it is not so much God who is helping, but the saint. Miracle narratives can fulfil their function as arguments and exempla only when they afford credibility, authenticity, plausibility. The question is to know how miracle narratives aim at establishing these qualities, and how wondering and related emotions are integrated into these textual strategies. In what follows I would like to present three examples of miracles. The first text are the Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis from the early seventh century, the second text is the Libellus de miraculo Sancti Martini written in the early tenth century,29 whereas the third one, the De miraculis libri duo by Petrus Venerabilis, differs from hagiography in so far as it does not tell the deeds of saints. Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis Gertrude, (626659), daughter of Pippin the Elder, the FrankishAutrasian Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia and saint Itta or Idaberga,

29 De virtutibus, quae facta sunt post discessum beate Geretrudis abatisse, Mirakelberichte des Frhen und Hohen Mittelalters, ed. Klaus Herbers, Lenka Jiroukov and Bernhard Vogel (Darmstadt: WBG, 2005 = Ausgewhlte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters. Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gedchtnisausgabe) 5467; Libellus de miraculo sancti Martini auctore Radbodo episcopo Traiectensi, Mirakelberichte 128147. This edition is bilingual (Latin-German). All translations from Latin to English of the passages quoted from this book are mine, consulting the German translation as a check.

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is a typical noble saint of the early Middle Ages.30 Until her death she was abbess of the Benedictine monastery of Nivelles founded by her mother. The miracula post mortem of the Virtutes, written down anonymously around 700, follow the also anonymous Vita Geretrudis, written thirty years earlier.31 The Virtutes are a piece of Pippinid cult propaganda: the cult of Gertrude, one of the most popular saints in the Middle Ages, began in Nivelles (Brabant) and, from there, spread all over central Europe. The text primarily aims at commemorating and distributing the miracles worked by Gertrude. In conformity with Christian cult propaganda, the Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis aim to prove Gertrudess sanctity and the usefulness of praying to her.32 Thus, the miracles fulfil the function of arguments. The most striking aspect of the Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis is that an abundance of miracles goes together with an absence of wondering a correlation which is astonishing only at first glance and, indeed, a central characteristic of the genre: miracle collections tend to resemble catalogues of episodes proving the virtus (the quality of the saint allowing him or her to work miracles).33 Though different terms designating the miraculous are used interchangeably in medieval texts, it is interesting to see that the term miraculum is used only three times, and signa is used only once, whereas virtus appears all over the text. Typical terms designating emotions evoked by miracles are completely lacking. Perterritus is used once, but in explicit negation.34 The preponderance of virtus clearly shows that in this text, wondering is not

Andr Vauchez, Art. Heiligkeit, 2015. Bernhard Vogel, Gertrud von Nivelles und die Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis, Mirakelberichte 5153. 32 Idcirco apud omnipotentem dominum promeruisse manifestum est, ut post obitum eius non minimas fieri per ipsam virtutes, quatenus, ut omnibus innotisceret, qui vitam eius vel abstinentiam corporis agnoverunt, nossent nunc etiam, quantum apud deum obtinere precibus valead, cum virtutes, que dominus, si petentium fides exigit, dignatus est ostendere ad sepulcrum eius, si aliqua exinde commemoramus et ad medium deducamus ( Mirakelberichte 54). (She thus clearly deserves from the almighty God that important miracles are worked through her; so that all those who have heard about her life and her carnal abstinence also learn how much she can obtain from God through prayers; that is the reason why we tell and commemorate some of the miracles which God, weighing the faith of the praying, considered to be worth happening at her tomb.) 33 While a living holy person had numerous ways in which to exercise virtus, such as asceticism and teaching the monastic life, the posthumous exercise of that virtus was virtually synonymous with miracles. (Thomas Head, Hagiography and the Cult of Saints. The Diocese of Orlans 8001200 [Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge UP, 2005] 183). The term virtus here simultaneously designates the virtue of the saint and the miracle. 34 Mirakelberichte 56.
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a part of the textual strategy. Instead, emphasis lies on the aspect of proofwhich creates a specific aesthetics. As the miracles function as arguments, authenticity and credibility are more important issues than wondering. As in many miracle narratives, witnesses and their senses, most of all visual perception, are of great importance, in fact on different text levels. On the level of narration, the narrator finishes his text with these words:
Et ne cui hoc incredibile fortasse videator, testem deum invoco, quod oculis meis vidi et per idoneos testes didici hoc quod scripsi.35

The scale of witnesses ranges between the absolutely highest point, God, and the lowest point, ordinary men. It furthermore comprises the author himself, his informants (of which we do not know what makes them idoneos, but they are), but also Gertrude herself as she is perceived talking to the abbess in a vision. This hierarchy of testimonies corresponds to different text levels: on the level of the story, ordinary people benefit from miracles, but again and again, witness, observe and even check the miraculous events: the two simplest episodes tell the stories of enchained men, one as a victim of criminal abductors, the other, deservedly, as a detainee, because he committed great crimes. Both episodes are examples of automatic miracles: the men pray to Gertrude, and the saint breaks the chains, regardless of the mens actual innocence or guilt. Perception of or emotions towards the miracle are not of any importance.36 In the third chapter the text relates a fire that broke out in the monastery ten years after Gertrudes death. The nuns and the monks do not have any hope to stop it and flee, when suddenly a caretaker observes a miracle:
Tunc vir unus, cui cura monasterii commendata fuerit regere, repente elevans oculos suos, viditque sanctam Geretrudem stantem in summitate refectorii in ipsa specie vel habitu, qua ipsa fuit, et cum ipso velamine,

35 Mirakelberichte 66. (I invoke God as a witness, that what I have written is what I have seen with my own eyes and what I have been told by adequate witnesses, so that nobody shall consider this as unbelievable.) 36 The only phrase dealing with fear does not concern the miracle but the imprisonment (Mirakelberichte 62). Chapter 7 of the Virtutes resumes well the automatic principle of the miracle: [. . .] qui nomen eius cum fide invocantes, de quacumque tribulatione obpressi fuissent, statim eis angelus domini adfuit adiutor. (Mirakelberichte 60) (Those who invoked her name faithfully, afflicted by whatever disease, were helped immediately by the Angelus.)

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qua erat cooperta, semper iactabat flammam de domo. Ille autem vir tante visione non perterritus, sed gaudio magno repletus, suos sotios ortabatur, ut constanter agerent. Ipse autem cursu concito ascendens sursum, ut videret exitum rei. Tunc mirum in modum cumsubito viderunt liberatum monasterium in ipsa hora de incendio.37

The representation of Gertrudes sudden appearance is initially bound to the perspective of the man (repente elevans oculos suos), but then the vision apparently becomes a miraculous fact that can be observed by everybody (viderunt). What seems most striking is the mans reaction: the miracle does not seem to impress him because of its supernatural character, but rather delight him because help is so urgently needed (non perterritus, sed gaudio magno repletus). After having urged on the other helpers he runs up a hill in order to see the outcome of the catastrophe. Moreover, the coherence of the relation between the last two sentencesas condensed by way of narrativity as they areis far from being plausible (in fact, the man is the only observer, the others working to extinguish the fire), unless they are meant to fulfil only one function: to emphasize that the miracle has been accurately observed by many and therefore is a proven fact. The first miracle episode is of particular interest, as the spirit of verification completely eliminates the slightest glimpse of wondering in the face of the miracle. It is about a vision that is abundantly approved on several levels. Significantly, the miracle in itself does not have any effect other than its performativity as an enunciation: in a vision, Gertrude appears to Modesta, abbess of a monastery in Treves.38 After having prayed to the virgin, lying on the floor, she stands up, looks around and suddenly sees Saint Gertrude wearing the clothes she used to wear alive, telling her: Soror Modesta, certam tene hanc visionem et sine ulla ambiguitate scias me hodie in hac eadem ora absolutam de habitaculo carnis huius.39 The authority (abbess) and

37 Mirakelberichte 5658. (A man who was in charge of the monastery as a caretaker suddenly raised his eyes and saw Saint Gertrude standing on the refectory roof, in the same shape and the same appearance that she had when she was alive, and with the veil she used to wear she drove away the flames from the house. And yet the man was not at all frightened but full of great joy about such a powerful vision, and he encouraged his brethren to go on. He himself, running fast, climbed on a hill top in order to see how things would end. Then they saw how the monastery was saved from the fire in a miraculous way.) 38 Mirakelberichte 5456. 39 Mirakelberichte 56. (Sister Modesta, take this vision for authentic, and you shall know without ambiguity that today in this same hour I have been released from my fleshly dwelling.)

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name (Modesta) of the nun having the vision are already cases in point, but the strategy of authentication goes further and becomes a serious inquiry: instead of being impressed, Modesta is quite rational: Tunc illa intra se tacite cogitabat, quid tanta visio debuisset fieri40 and does not talk with anybody about what she has seen. The next day, Chlodulf, the bishop of Metz, visits the monastery. Modesta benefits from the visit to ask the bishop what Gertrude looked like. As the bishop describes Gertrude in detail (clothes, body height, beauty), Modesta is assured the truth of her vision and tells the bishop what she has seen the other day around the sixth hour. The bishop takes down the day and time and continues the inquiries started by Modesta, and finds out that it happened exactly the way the abbess has told him. The abbess and the bishop, both reliable authorities via their functions, act as detectives. The successions of the conversations and the introduction of external evidence by means of final investigations carried out by the bishop ultimately exclude all possibility of doubt. But more than that, in contrast to the other virtutes told in the text, in this episode Gertrude herself, in her discourse, broaches the issue of argument and thus anticipates the following process of authentication. One searches in vain for terms like admiratio or stupor in the Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis. The narration is characterized by the absence of rhetorical devices. The absence of wondering is a result of a bible-like stylistic baldness. The signification of this semantic zero might lie, besides stylistic traditions, in the textual strategy of authentication and credibility. Libellus de miraculo Sancti Martini The Virtutes serve as an example of the hagiographic use of miracles as arguments. The most important aspect of miracles is thus not wonder, but testimony and proof. In the next text to be considered here, eyewitnesses are equally importantnot only because they prove the miracle. They are part of a framework of wondering, thus making visual perception something more important than just a proof. Radbod of Utrecht (d. 917) is reckoned an author of great literary education.41 He wrote homilies as well as religious poetries. His work is characterized by a high literary self-awareness: his Libellus de miraculo
40 Mirakelberichte 56. (Now she meditated in silence what such a vision should have meant) 41 Mirakelberichte 12527.

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sancti Martini (beginning of the tenth century) is written in rhymed prose, and Radbod embedded the story of the miraculous defence of the town of Tours against the Normans in 903 into a sermon-like framework. Radbod also later transformed this narrative into poems and liturgical compositions, namely a Divine Office in honour of Martin, literally quoting the libellus. It is most probable that, in the course of this office, the libellus should fulfil, as an exemplum, the function of a non-liturgical address.42 The author obviously wrote his text with the intention of making an audience wonder. More than only the proof and the argument he wants to establish an effect. I shall stress four aspects of the text, which can be considered as important premises of the evocation of wonder: historical authenticity, the use of narrative speed, the enhanced importance of perception, and finally, a rich vocabulary serving the description of wondering. Radbod tells the story of how the relics of Saint Martin helped the inhabitants of Tours in the defence of their town against the Normans in 903. The miraculous events are embedded into a framework of historical facts, but beforehand, the author presents Tours as the town harbouring a famous gemstone of great importance for Christianity. The allegorical description of the stone requires a fifth of the whole text. The way in which Radbod switches from the description of the gemstone to the narration of the miracle is interesting in respect to the distinction made between allegorical and non-allegorical discourse:
Verum ne diutius auditores simplices, quos magis propria quam figurata delectant, a promissae relationis intelligentia suspendamus, nudam evidentemque hystoriam deinceps profitentes, ea quae hactenus tropica circumlocutione de gemma memoravimus, ad corpus beatissimi Martini, quo patrocinante inter cuncta pericula tuti sumus, absque ambiguitatis nebula referamus.43

Radbod in this passage explicitly distinguishes allegorical aspects (figurata) of his discourse from the specific (propria), from the naked and apparent story (nudam evidentemque hystoriam), adding that by doing so he is applying the allegorical speech about

Mirakelberichte 127. Mirakelberichte 13436. (But we shall no longer keep waiting those simple auditors who enjoy the specific more than the allegorical and tell them the promised relation; by offering the bare and apparent story we want to adopt, without any nebulous ambiguity, what we have recorded in elaborate speech about the gemstone with reference to the body of the most holy Martin, under whose patronage we are safe from any danger.)
42 43

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the virtues of the gemstone (tropica circumlocutione de gemma) to the body of Saint Martinwithout any nebulous ambiguities (absque ambiguitatis nebula), he saysbut ambiguity is exactly what his most eloquent discourse tries to establish: the events shall be both naked and meaningful, an absorbing real report and an edifying true exemplum. He then argues that Martins preciousness has been estimated as high as that of the gemstone by Gallus, Postumianus and Sulpicius, and goes on comparing Martins corpse to such famous men as Alexander the Great, Xerxes and Augustus, whose military success was worth nothing compared to the victories coming from the saints remains, which, though enclosed in a small altar, are stronger and praiseworthy.44 Owning such precious relics makes Tours a town more dignified than Alexandria, more famous than Carthage, more fertile than the soil of Palestine, and richer than Tyre and Sidon. As in the Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis, the miracle is functionalized as proof and argument, but with one difference: in the Virtutes, serial miracles are used exclusively as such. being an argument legitimizes them, whereas in the Libellus de miraculo sancti Martini, a single miracle narrative is in the very center of the text, which thereby becomes more appropriate for dramatic amplificatio. The historicity of the miraculous events is most of all a device in order to increase the credibility of the message illustrated by the exemplum. The same ambiguity characterizes Radbods justification of how he treats the events:
His ita gestis ego quoque vitandi causa fastidii sermonis finem paulo post facturus, omnes opusculi huius lectores fraterna voce praemoneo, ne me idcirco contra fidem hystoriae fecisse calumnientur, quia quod insertum est eo ordine digessi, quo fama id disseminante didiceram; qua in re dari michi veniam obsecro. Habens tamen in promptu excusationem, qua calumnia refellatur: Tanto enim spatio ecclesia Traiectensis, cui ego deo auctore deservio, ab urbe Turonica distat, ut vix quempiam reperire possim, qui, dum res ageretur, se ibidem fuisse totamque ut gesta est se vidisse testetur. Profiteor autem me contra veritatem pugnaciter non egisse, cum in his quae michi incerta erant aliorum potius opinionem quam meam posuerim assertionem, ut sunt illa de primo adventu piratarum ad Gallias itemque de insania Danorum et de numero occisorum, quae omnia nec affirmo nec abnego, sed scrutatoribus importunis inquirenda relinquo. Ceterum de victoria, quam dominus noster Iesus Christus per merita et

44

Mirakelberichte 137.

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praesentiam beati Martini Turonensibus concessit, nec ego quicquam dubito, nec quibuslibet aliis dubitandum esse assentior, quoniam quod de ea relatum est probatissimo illustruium personarum testimonio comprobatum inexpugnabilem facit fidem dictorum.45

[O]b praesentium consolationem et futurorum the following story is told: The Danish and the Swabian came to France (Gallia) and destroyed the once paradise-like, fertile country. The Christians lost a shameful number of battles against these Northman, and there is a reason for that, Radbod argues: God did not want the Christian Gauls (who are also called sinners) to become physically and morally degenerate. As for the historical moment, this happened when four sons born from the same father were fighting each other, an indication allowing to date these events between 841 and 843, when the sons of Louis the Pious (in fact, there, were only three of them: Lothar I, Louis II the German, and Charles the Bald) and Peppin II of Aquitaine fought against each other. After sixty years in Gaul, the Normans decide to move towards Tours. The country around the town, and with it the monastery of Saint Martin, is completely devastated. The inhabitants, trembling with fear, close the gates and prepare themselves to defend the city walls (starting with this moment, the speed of the narration slows down, and the presentation shifts towards scenic). But they are only few, and as they see that the Normans are many, they see their last chance in asking God and Saint Martin for help. While a few men remain on the walls, the clerks and the non-fighting inhabitants assemble in the church around the tomb of Saint Martin and start praying and lamenting (presented quite at
45 Mirakelberichte 14244 (After these events, and in order to avoid displeasure, I will finish my sermon soon; all the readers of this small opus I admonish in brotherly voice not to criticize me for having offended the authenticity of the story; I have inserted everything in the sequence I have heard the story and in which it was divulged; therein I ask for clemency. But, in order to refute calumniation I have a clear justification: The church of Utrecht, where I am serving at Gods behest, is so far away from the city of Tours that I could barely find anyone who had been there when the events happened, and who confirmed that he had seen everything the way it happened. But I promise not to have contravened the truth, because in those things in which I was uncertain I have relied more on others opinion than on my own assumptions; this is most of all the case in the passage about the first arrival of the pirates in Gaul and also in the passage about the madness of the Danish and the number of the killed; I do not confirm nor do I deny all this, but I leave it to the impertinent investigators to scrutinize it. By the way, I do not have any doubt about the victory which our Lord Jesus Christ and the presence of Saint Martin have granted to the inhabitants of Tours, and I agree that there is no reason for anybody to doubt, since everything that has been told is confirmed by the most convincing testimony of well-known persons; the authenticity of what has been said is thereby invulnerable.)

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length in direct speech). Still lamenting and crying, they take the box containing the relics in order to put them on the city gate, which is just then heavily attacked by the enemies. The defenders raise their hands to God and are animated by the presence of the divine aid. In doing so, they regain physical strength and audacity. On the Danish, however, the miracle exerts the opposite effect: they get lost in wondering, dread and madness, so that the inhabitants of Tours are able to kill nine hundred of them. The very central passage of the miracle shall be quoted at length here in order to highlight the scenic mode of presentation and the use of terms describing the experience of wondering at the miracle:
Tum vero oppidani palmas quidem ad sidera, mentes autem ad divinam clementiam subrigentes, qui paulo ante metu propinquae, ut putabant, mortis exterriti fuerant, mox praesentia tantae opitulationis animati, simul et corporis vires et animi audaciam resumpserunt. Danis e contrario stupor vehemens incussus est, post stuporem intolerabilis formido, post formidinem, ut plerique asserunt, alienatio mentis obressit. Videre videor miseros primum tremere, deinde fugam conari, statimque id temptantes ridiculo ambitu circumferri perplexosque invicem, cum alter impediretur ab altero, acsi per glaciem currerent, praecipites labi ludumque praebere spectantibus, palam dantes intellegi, quantas eisdem cuniculus ille, quem clerici illo ob pericula submovenda convexerant, importasset erumnas. Igitur oppidani Christum sibi per Martini preces propitium sentientes, eruptione facta, persecuti sunt inimicos, quorum passim per agros palantes et per lucos male latinantes fere ad nongentos interfecerunt, detractisque manubiis velociter in urbem regressi sunt, magna voce laudantes et glorificantes dei misericordiam, qui eis inopinatam victoriae dederat palmam. Porro corpus beati Martini confestim restituerunt in locum suum, summas etiam ipsi gratias agentes, quod eos sua praestantissima interventione satis sollemniter adiuverat.46

46 Mirakelberichte 142 (my emphasis). (But then the townsmen raised their palms towards the stars, while their minds they turned to the Divine clemency, and they who had been terrified by their imminent death before were soon impressed by the presence of such great help and regained their physical strength and their audaciousness. In contrast, the Danish were caught by heavy perplexity, then after perplexity by unbearable fear, and after fear, as most people tell, by insanity. It seems that one could observe how the miserable first started trembling, then tried to escape, and in these attempts then slithered around in ridiculous confusion, tumbling into each other, one constraining the other, as if they moved on ice; how they fell down headlong and offered a spectacle by which they manifestly revealed how much trouble the relic-box which the clergymen had put there in order to avert danger caused them. So the townsmen understood that Christ was willing to help them through Martins petition, and made a break-out, pursued the enemies, killing nearly nine hundred of them, very often those running around on the fields or on clearances, and hence not being well hidden; they captured away their booty and quickly went back to the city; there they praised God aloud for

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The degree of scenic presentation in chapters five and six is, of course, not as high as in e.g. nineteenth-century novels, but the authors tendency to slow down the speed of narration is obvious, particularly when compared to chapter 4, where the beginning of the Norman aggression is told. This mode of presentation makes it possible to model the emotions of the besieged as well as of the besiegers in a more detailed manner. Radbods narration offers a wide range of terms for wondering, all of them stressing the non-cognitive aspect of the emotions evoked in the enemies by the miracle: stupor, alienatio mentis, perplexos and the description of the Normans running around without any orientation or control, as if they were moving on a slippery frozen surface. As the power of the relics comes from their bare presence on top of the city walls, there seems to be nothing to understand, but only to wonder at. In the medieval cult of saints, admiratio is closely connected to the presence of the saint, a presence perceived as real.47 In this text, the term praesentia appears twice and, in both cases, with reference to the saint (Oppidani [. . .] mox praesentia tantae opitulationis animati [. ..] victoria, quam dominus noster Iesus Christus per merita et praesentiam beati Martini Turonensibus concessit). The representation of wondering is not limited to the level of the story. For what Saint Martin did to the Northman is nothing less than the repetition of what the Church does all over the world, as we are told in the narrators discourse: defeating the faithless, bending the necks of proud and haughty emperors. Confronted with the Church, the faithless are defeated by a power that makes them defeat themselves:
Ergo et usque hodie omnibus populis imperat, non carnali dominatione, sed spirituali potentia; nam et ipsos, a quibus plerumque contemnitur, ita

his mercifulness, him who had given them the palm of victory. Then they returned the body of Saint Martin immediately to its tomb, expressing their deepest gratitude also to him because he had helped them so much by his outstanding intervention.) 47 Die frhmittelalterliche Heiligenverehrung war vor allem von der als real erfahrbaren Prsenz des Heiligen bestimmt. (Christoph Daxelmller, Art. Heiligenverehrung in Liturgie und Volksfrmmigkeit, Lexikon des Mittelalters [Mnchen: Artemis-Winkler, 1984] 4: 2016). This belief explains the existence of pilgrimage and the importance of physical contact with relics and holy places. For example, pilgrims positioned their damaged extremities where the ground had been soaked by the blood of Engelbert, massacred bishop of Cologne, and they even applied the soil to their suffering body parts. (Uta Kleine, Mirakel zwischen Kult-Ereignis und Kult-Buch: Die Verehrung Erzbischofs Engelberts von Kln im Spiegel der Miracula Engelberti des Caesarius von Heisterbach, Mirakel im Mittelalter, 271310, here: 289).

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sui maiestate opprimit, ut, dum deliberant pugnare, vi maiore superati ultro succumbant et miro modo se ipsos vincant, qui aliis invicti esse certabant.48

Radbod then claims to be thunderstruck by the magnificence of this example. The individual story of the Danes defeated in Tours shall be told as an illustration of it, but also in order to create an effect of wonder:
Huius exempli magnificentia veluti quodam tonitruo excitati, miraculum istud, de quo in sequentibus dicetur, praedicandum esse censemus mutuisque relationibus divulgandum, quo per omnium ora volitans et per singular crescens, in aliis quidem timorem, in aliis autem confessionem, in omnibus vero divinae contemplationis operetur amorem.49

The vocabulary used in miracle narratives is of course topical rather than psychological: the use of terms of emotions does not mean that Radbod solely intends to evoke emotional reactions in the audience. Confession and contemplation are more cognitive acts than emotions. But in the context of the question of how miracle narratives recount the supernatural and the effects it evokes, it is interesting to see that, compared to miracle narratives which stress the aspect of proof (like the Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis), Radbods homiletic miracle narrative not only uses a rich vocabulary but also tries to establish wonder and astonishment on different text levels. According to the prologue in which Radbod glorifies the effects the Church performs on the unfaithful, only the pagan aggressors lose their mind, whereas the Christian defenders use their reason: observing the miracle they understand (Igitur oppidani [. . .] sentientes) that they have to make use of the Divine aid by hunting and killing the Danes. Moreover, the passage that relates how the Danes went mad recounts not only the miracle itself but also how that miracle was perceived. In narratological terms, the events are presented in a kind of collective internal focalisation, the inhabitants standing at the top of their city walls being the focalizer. As the miraculous is thus not only named, but shown in its effects, this can rightly be called an aesthetics of wondering.
48 Mirakelberichte 128. (Hence she [the Church] still rules over all peoples today, not by earthly authority but by spiritual power, for she also captures with her majesty those who despise her most to such an extent that they who compete for being invincible, once determined to fight, succumb to a higher force and wondrously defeat themselves.) 49 Mirakelberichte 128. (Excited and thunderstruck by the magnificence of this example, we think that the miracle that will be told in the following shall be preached about and divulged by being retold again and again, so that, running through all mouths, it will grow each time and evoke fear in some and a confession of faith in others, but in everybody Divine contemplation.)

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The description of the faltering Danes, presented through the perspective of the inhabitants of Tours, surely exceeds the strategy of proof, but on the other hand this does absolutely not mean that it is written solely for the pleasure of the effect. Although the passage is somehow literary, although it recounts not only the miracle, but also the perception of the miracle, it is still far from having its end in itself, for the madness and its perception are functionally subordinated to a symbolic signification, and refer to a systematic moral message: only the faithless falter, only the faithful are able to observe the spectacle of how the Church defeats her haughty enemies. Thus, the aim of the scenic, perspective description is not self-sufficient, but remains a functional correlate to an exemplary lesson. Finally, the rich vocabulary for the description of the effects and the perception of the miracle, and the obvious intent to create a textual effect of wondering, find their analogue in the preponderance of the terms miraculum and mirabilisterms referring to the visual dimension of the phenomenon, in contrast to virtus, stressing the moral aspect. Thus, although this vivid style entails an increased aesthetic illusion of the text, this observation does not mean that Radbods Libellus should be considered as a step towards the literarization of the Christian miracle, from simple to more complex forms. It can rather be explained by the pragmatic context in which a miracle is embedded: the more miracle narratives fulfil the function of proof, the more their style tends to be simple. This is the case with miracle collection and translation reports, the aim of which is to establish a cult with catalogues containing a maximum of miracles.50 The stylistic differences between the Virtutes sanctae Geretrudis and the Libellus de miraculo sancti Martini are not evidence of literary evolution, but describe two alternatives of the pre-literary representation of the supernatural.

50 See e.g. a collection of Italian miracle reports of exemplary serial simpleness translated into French in the late sixteenth century: Discours veritable des grands miracles de Nostre Dame de Luques: descouvers nouvellement, & depuis continuez, multipliez de jour en jour, la confusion des blasphemateurs du nomde Dieu, & de la tresglorieuse Vierge Marie, & des contempteurs des Images. Jouxte la copie imprimee Luques, a Florence, & Rome, quoted in Gabriel-Andr Perouse, Miraculeuses nouvelle, Potique et narration, Mlanges offerts Guy Demerson, ed. Franois Marotin (Paris: Honor Champion, 1993) 491504. An example: Barbe, fille de Pierre Samucconi, Luquois, aagee de 25 ans. Ayant est durant six ans griefvement malade de la petite verole, tellement que sa veu estoit fort debilitee, et ses yeux devenus troubles et lousches, sestant voue cette Tresglorieuse Vierge Marie, a recouvr la veu, ses yeux sont beaux, et ne regarde plus de travers, comme elle avoit de coustume. (501).

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The idea that something in this world, as God had created it, is without significance, seems to have been unacceptable for medieval thinkers.51 This might be the reason why wondering, beyond the mere use of the pertinent vocabulary, is such a rare phenomenon in miracles. If miracle narratives seem to offer amazement as well as symbolic signification, it is obvious that in most cases, they tend to a neutralization of wondering by stressing the hidden sense of the story. Le Goffs and others observation that the Christian miraculum tends to abolish the unforeseeable and thereby wonder is true as far as its quality as proof and argument is concerned. But as far as the representation of wonder is concerned, our readings nevertheless allow us to distinguish between different rhetoric strategies: one focusing on the predictable and stereotypical logic of the miracle, and another emphasizing the way in which the predictable happens and is perceived. Both remain of course inside the horizon of medieval symbolical thinking. Miracles Without Saints The previous observations concern miracles worked by saints. In his De miraculis libri duo, Petrus Venerabilis tells a number of miracles about encounters with normal revenants.52 What is interesting about these revenants is their obvious pre-Christian, pagan character, and Petrus strategy to integrate them into the Christian horizon. This goes along with a shift to literary strategies. Although Peters revenants are far from being saintsgenerally they are repentant sinnersthey are sent by God and thus miraculous, not marvelous. 53 They do not appear in order to help the living, but, on the contrary, in order to ask the living for help, for only prayers could reduce their suffering in the afterlife. In I,23, Petrus tells the story of a dead knight who appeared three times to Etienne, a priest of impeccable reputation. The reliability of this witness is increased by a vow and by the presence of another priest, listening, together with Petrus, to Etiennes intradiegetic story: Guy of Moras, a knight wounded in a battle, is going to die. Etienne
51 Armand Strubel, Littrature et pense symbolique au Moyen Age, Ecriture et modes de pense au Moyen Age (VIIIeXVe sicle), ed. Dominique Boutet and Laurence HarfLancner (Paris: Presses de lEcole Normale Suprieure) 2745. 52 Petrus Cluniacensis Abbatis, De miraculis libri duo (Turnhout: Brepols, 1988). For a French translation with an important introduction, see Pierre Le Vnrable, Les Merveilles de Dieu, ed. and transl. Jean-Pierre Torrell and Denise Bouthillier (Fribourg: Cerf, 1992). 53 For example: Adhuc tamen tercio me tibi Deus apparere uoluit (Petrus Cluniacensis Abbatis, De miraculis libri duo 72).

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attends to the knights last confession, made to the bishop. After his death, Guy appears to Etienne three times. As there are no witnesses, Petrus tries to establish the credibility of these encounters by using strong vocabulary and by rendering the events only from the emotional perspective of the first person narrator Etienne:
[. . .] timore perterritus, contiguam siluam occultandus ingredior. Quem ut uidi, primo exhorrui. Dixit hec, et statim ab oculis meis euanuit. At ego timore cumulatus, et quia cum mortuo uerba contuleram de uita diffidens, inde quam citius potui recessi. At ego nimio terrore fere in amentiam uersus, in hec uerba prorupi: Ex parte omnipotentis Dei, et omnium sanctorum eius adiuro te quicumque es spiritus ut discedas, meque tantis terroribus exagitare desistas [. . .].54

At the end of the story, Etienne helps the dead knight to find peace: he reimburses a peasant from whom the knight once took away a cow, he gives a pittance in the name of the dead, and he assembles a number of priests to say Mass for him. In this story, wonder appears as terror. The semantic strength increases in reciprocal proportion to the diminishing unpredictability of the three encounters between Etienne and the revenant. The miracle functions as an exemplum with a very precise intention: it is an argument for the Cluniac practice of the memory of the dead:
Hec ad edificationem fidei et morum scribens, quibusdam hereticis, uel erroneis nostri temporis hominibus benefica ecclesiastica mortuis fidelibus posse prodesse uel negantibus, uel dubitandibus ad uiam ueritatis et ecclesie doctrinam redditum persuadere uolui, neque tamen spe spiritualium, uel talium subsidiorum uitam mortalem sub negligentia transigendam, talibus tamque lucidis exemplis admonere decreui.55
54 Petrus Cluniacensis Abbatis, De miraculis libri duo 6971. (Terrified, I enter the nearby wood in order to hide myself. / When I saw him, I almost cringed. / After having spoken, he disappeared from my sight. As for me, in my biggest fear, I doubted to be alive, since I had spoken to a dead man, and left from there as fast as I could. / My excessive fear brought me close to frenzy, as I said these words: In the name of the almighty God and of all the saints, I implore you, whoever you might be, spirit: go away from here and stop haunting me with such great terror; translation mine.) 55 Petrus Cluniacensis Abbatis, De miraculis libri duo 86. (I wrote this for the edification of faith and morality, in order to convince certain people living in our times, who, heretic or mistaken, doubt or deny that the benefactions of the Church are salutary for the faithful dead, in order to lead them back to the path of truth and the doctrine of the Church; however, by giving you these lucid examples, neither did I want to invite forgetfulness about this mortal life in the hope for such spiritual help.)

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But although Petrus stories follow an exemplum strategy, and that once again, wondering finds itself in competition with the rationality of the exemplum, it is obvious that in the case of De miraculis, wondering is far from being abolished by the exposition of theological significance: the description of Etiennes fear in his encounters with the revenant, the emphasis on visuality, and the absence of the typical scheme of the helping saint seem to give a greater importance to wondering than is the case in hagiographic miracles. The textual effect of terror is all the stronger because wondering is not subject to allegorization, as e.g. in the Libellus de miraculo Sancti Martini. These readings allow for the formulation of some conjectures concerning the representation of wondering in miracle narratives: the more a text varies either from the hagiographic mainstream or from explicit edification, the more it tends to stress wondering, up to creating an atmosphere of terror and the uncanny. The absence of saints seems to be of special importance: the strongest tendency towards the uncanny variety of admiratio seems to be found in those miracula which are not performed by saints. Very often this is the case in stories presenting miracles experienced by normal people, reliable witnesses, but without the authority of sainthood, like in Petrus revenant encounters. Along with this goes a decrease of allegorization. It is difficult to decide whether the increase of wondering is due to the pre-Christian popular quality of the themes (above all encounters with demons, revenants or shape-shifters) or to the normal quality of the protagonists excluding the admiratio of saintly virtues. Although the three texts constitute a diachronic sequence, these rhetorical tendencies do not describe a historical evolution. They rather constitute concurrent choices depending on pragmatic contexts. Encounters with the supernatural can be completely free of terror and fear, or stress precisely such effects. The Dialogus miraculorum by Caesarius of Heiterbach, written a hundred years later than the De miraculis libri duo, contains many reports about encounters with ghosts and revenants, and in most of them wondering is abolished by signification. For example, the novice does not wonder at all about a particular miracle because he is able to establish a figural link between Elijahs ascension in 2 Kings 2:11 and one of the present day miracles recounted by Caesarius monk.56 But in some episodes, like in the

56 Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus miracolorum (Turnhout: Brepols 2009) vol. 4, dist. 10, ch. 2, 1901: Si Gerardus de Holenbach, sicut dictum est in distinctione octava capitolo quinquagesimo nono, translatus est in ictu temporis ab India in provinciam

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famous one about the appearance of the white lady at Stammheim,57 the monk does not comment on the story, so that the uncanny effect like the one created by the female ghost killing children with silent glances remains in force. This observation brings up another question: why do all of the three textsto a greater or lesser extentinsist so much on visuality? Gervase of Tilbury (who is an author of mirabilia rather than of miracula) declares that nobody could wonder at something which is not true. He therefore separates lies from facts by referring to ancient authorities, to the Bible or to eyewitnesses.58 If authenticity is not assured, wonder or amazement is rendered impossible. It seems that the problem of visuality and wonder is closely linked to the problem of credibility. This aspect concerns a central difference between the ancient and the Christian exemplum: in the first, it is the hero as a true historical person giving relevance to the exemplum. The ancient exemplum is inductive and possesses the auctoritas geschichtlicher Glaub- und Denkwrdigkeit.59 Its normativity comes from outside the text: the person it refers to is already exemplary. In contrast, medieval, didactic-paraenetic exempla tell stories about normal people without any moral authority and can therefore only illustrate norms, but are not able to establish a norm by referring to extra-textual authority. Its authority does not derive from history (the general truth illustrated by an exemplum could as well be exemplified by a non-historical story, even by a tale or a fable).60 It is therefore extremely important for the credibility of the exemplum to emphasize again and again the veracity, yet the realness of the story. The insistence on eyewitnesses and perception might be interpreted as an important strategy employed in miracle narratives in order to compensate for a lack of authority, all the more when the stories are not about saints, but about nobodies.

nostram ministerio diaboli, Dei tamen praecepto, non hoc miror de coelesti nuncio. Antiqua nostris temporibus renovantur miracula. Helias Tesbites per currum et equos raptus est in paradisum; hic vero non minus miraculose per equum et equitem in morula temporis transvectus est per multa spatia maris atque terrarum. 57 Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogus miracolorum, vol. 5, dist. 11, ch. 63, 2170. 58 Gervase of Tilbury, Otia Imperialia 558. 59 Peter von Moos, Geschichte als Topik. Das rhetorische Exemplum von der Antike bis zur Neuzeit und die historiae im Policraticus Johanns von Salisbury (Hildesheim: Olms, 1996) 122. See also Le Goff, Bremond and Schmitt 4446. 60 Von Moos, Geschichte als Topik, 11920.

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That might be the reason why wondering is, despite occasionally existing literary qualities, never aimed for as a self-sufficient effect, but always and exclusively as a functional correlate contributing, especially from the twelfth century on, to reinforcing the fragile authority and thereby the effectiveness of the miracle.
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