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‘Sancte fidei omnino deiciar’: Ugolino dei Conti di Segni's Doubts and Jacques de Vitry's Intervention
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 June 2016
Abstract
Thomas de Cantimpré, in his Supplementum to Jacques de Vitry's Vita of Marie d'Oignies, provides us with an account of how Cardinal Ugolino dei Conti di Segni, the future Pope Gregory IX, was struggling with his faith. At this decisive moment in Ugolino's career, the illustrious preacher and bishop of Acre, Jacques de Vitry, made an appearance at the curia. To combat Ugolino's doubt with a saintly intercession, Jacques presented him with the relic of Marie d'Oignies's finger, which he kept around his neck and which had protected him on several occasions. This well-known anecdote has not yet received any comprehensive attention and this essay seeks to analyse as well as contextualize the account of Jacques's intervention. By shedding light on the role of Marie d'Oignies and her finger relic and on the meaning of the ‘spirit of blasphemy’ plaguing Ugolino, I argue that the anecdote not only gives us a glimpse of the nature of the cardinal's spiritual concerns but also reflects Thomas's efforts to promote both Jacques de Vitry's influence on Gregory IX and the reputation of Marie d'Oignies.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 52: DOUBTING CHRISTIANITY: THE CHURCH AND DOUBT , June 2016 , pp. 87 - 101
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2016
Footnotes
I wish to thank Brenda Bolton, Barbara Bombi, Frances Andrews and Anne-Laure Méril-Bellini delle Stelle for their kind help and invaluable suggestions. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments.
References
1 Decretales Gregorii IX 5.7, ‘De Haereticis’, ch. 1 (CICan. 2: 749).
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4 I use the Latin text of the most recent edition of the Vita of Marie d'Oignies: Iacobus de Vitriaco, Vita Marie de Oegnies & Thomas Cantipratensis, Supplementum, ed. R. B. C. Huygens, CChr.CM 252; for the meeting between Jacques and Ugolino, see ibid. 186–9. Translations of the Vita and the Supplementum by Margot H. King and Hugh B. Feiss respectively were published in Mulder-Bakker, Anneke B., ed., Mary of Oignies: Mother of Salvation (Turnhout, 2006), 39–165CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In 2014 a German translation of the Vita and the Supplementum was published: Das Leben der Maria von Oignies, transl. Iris Geyer, CChr.T 18.
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21 Thomas de Cantimpré, Supplementum 15 (CChr.CM 252, 186–9).
22 ‘Spiritus blasphemie adeo animam meam vexat et variis temptationum fluctibus obruit, et usque in desperationem cotidie fere detrudor’: ibid. 187.
23 Ibid. 187–9.
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30 Ps. 90: 6 (Vulgate).
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35 Thomas de Cantimpré, Supplementum 10 (CChr.CM 252, 180).
36 Jacques de Vitry, Vita 2.3 (CChr.CM 252, 113–14).
37 Ibid. 1.9 (CChr.CM 252, 76–9).
38 Thomas de Cantimpré, Supplementum 16 (CChr.CM 252, 189–90).
39 See also Alberzoni, Maria Pia, ‘Dalla domus del cardinale d'Ostia alla curia di Gregorio IX’, in Gregorio IX e gli ordini mendicanti (Assisi, 7–9 ottobre 2010), Fondazione Centro italiano di studi sull'alto medioevo (Spoleto, 2011), 73–122Google Scholar; Capitani, Ovidio, ‘Gregorio IX’, in Enciclopedia dei Papi, 3 vols (Rome, 2000), 2: 363–80Google Scholar.
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49 Maria Pia Alberzoni also noted that the letters reveal that the cardinal was often plagued by a profound spiritual despair: ‘Servus vestrum et ancillarum Christi omnium. Gregorio IX e la vita religiosa femminile’, FS 64 (2006), 145–78, at 164–5.
50 Jacques de Vitry, Epistolae 1 (CChr.CM 171, 553).
51 Thomas de Cantimpré, Supplementum 23 (CChr.CM 252, 201).
52 See also Newman, Barbara, ‘Devout Women and Demoniacs in the World of Thomas of Cantimpré’, in Dor, Juliet, Johnson, Lesley P. and Wogan-Browne, Jocelyn, eds, New Trends in Feminine Spirituality: The Holy Women of Liège and their Impact, Medieval Women, Texts and Contexts 2 (Turnhout, 1999), 35–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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54 Thomas de Cantimpré, Supplementum 22 (CChr.CM 252, 197).
55 Jacques de Vitry, Epistolae 1 (CChr.CM 171, 553).
56 Thomas himself noted that he had selected some exempla among many cases of encounters with the spiritus blasphemiae: Thomas de Cantimpré, Supplementum 16 (CChr.CM 252, 190).
57 Ibid. Thomas paraphrases Heb. 4: 15. A few lines earlier, he compared Ugolino to St Peter, who also wrestled with doubts and temptation.
58 Jacques de Vitry, Epistolae 1 (CChr.CM 171, 550).
59 Jacques urged the reader to imitate the virtues of Marie, but did not commend her physical excesses. It is important to note that while Jacques used the subjunctive ‘eius virtutes imitemur’ (‘we should imitate’), his subsequent use of the infinitive ‘imitari non possumus’ (‘we cannot / are unable to imitate’) is in line with his emphasis on her special fervour: ‘Nec hoc dixerim ut excessum commendem, sed ut fervorem ostendam. . . . eius virtutes imitemur, opera vero virtutum eius sine privato privilegio imitari non possumus’: Jacques de Vitry, Vita 1.2 (CChr.CM 252, 58).
60 Some iconography depicts Marie as magistra, seemingly teaching the vita apostolica: e.g. Turin, Biblioteca Statale Universitaria, MS D.II.21, fol. 3r; Leuven, Maurits Sabbebibliotheek, Coll. Mechelen, Bibliotheek van het Grootseminarie, MS 20, fol. 72r.
61 On the relics of Marie, see also Bolton, Brenda M., ‘Spiegels van vroomheid: Relieken van Maria van Oignies’, in Monteiro, M. et al., eds, De Dynamiek van Religie en Cultuur. Geschiedenis van het Nederlands Katholicisme (Kampen, 1993), 124–37Google Scholar.
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63 ‘Nihil inquam, mihi ex tuo, Mater, corpore sufficere poterit, nisi manum aut caput habeam, quo tunc relevere toto orbatus’: Thomas de Cantimpré, Vita Lutgardis, 290.
64 Ibid. 291.
65 Albrici monachi Triumfontium, Chronicon (MGH S 23, 919).
66 The influence of Jacques on Gregory IX's decision-making certainly deserves further research. To date, the main research into Jacques's role as cardinal is a brief chapter in Funk, Philipp, Jakob von Vitry. Leben und Werke (Leipzig, 1909), 60–7Google Scholar.
67 Jacques de Vitry, Vita 2.2–8 (CChr.CM 252, 94–145).