Goswin of Anchin

Goswin von Anchin after a medieval manuscript

Goswin von Anchin (* around 1082, † October 9, 1166 ) was a French abbot of the 12th century and an avowed opponent of Peter Abelard .

Life

education

Goswin, who called himself Warinus shortly before his death, was born around 1082 in Douai Castle in Flanders as a scion of the local noble family. Like many other contemporaries, he began after reaching the legitimate age, i.e. H. at the age of 15, studying philosophy, and went to Paris to complete his knowledge of dialectics . His first teacher, a certain Master Hamerich in Douai, had advised him to study because of his talent.

According to the information in his vita, Goswin is said to have won a disputation over Peter Abelard around 1111 . At that time Abelard taught under the protectorate of Stephen von Garlande on the Genovefaberg , in direct competition with the dialectic chair of Wilhelm von Champeaux in the Cité.

Goswin's success against the famous logician from Le Pallet established his own career as a master of philosophy and theology; he developed into an accomplished Priscian copyist and commentator, who is also mentioned in Abelard's autobiography - albeit in an anonymous form as "aemulus", ie rival. The 18 books of the Institutiones grammaticae by the late Roman language teacher Priscian (around 500 AD), which were the reference work of Latin grammar par excellence until the end of the Middle Ages , had recently been rediscovered. For the linguistic logicians of the 12th century, Priscian's work was understandably an almost inexhaustible treasure trove. A manuscript belonged to the Parisian doctor Azo, who left it to Goswin in parts for copying and commenting.

Monastic career

After his temporary teaching as a Magister in Paris and later in Douai (1112–1114) - he held a well-paid canonate at the chapter of Saint-Amé in Douai - Goswin joined in 1113 (according to other sources on June 19, 1114 or 1115) entered the Anchin monastery near Lille as a monk in order to start an unprecedented church career from there.

The Benedictine abbey of Anchin was founded by the nobles Walter and Siger von Douai only one human life earlier, in 1079, on a large island at the confluence of the Scarpe and Bouchart rivers in the diocese of Arras . Remains of the once so important monastery have not survived today; it was completely destroyed during the French Revolution.

Goswin had already made friends with the incumbent head of the monastery, Alvisius , abbot of Anchin between 1111 and 1131 and later bishop of Arras . After the novitiate year, Goswin was ordained priest and within a short time advanced from prior quartus to prior tertius.

What distinguished the monasteries, in which Goswin continued his career as Klaustralprior , from other convents of his time, was the emphasis on disciplinary activity within the framework of the reform to which they had committed themselves. The prior claustralis had the power of keys in the truest sense of the word; he exercised the function of an institution director and had a staff of people who guarded the prisoners, the so-called Claustrales or Officiales.

Goswin's first assignment took him to Soissons : Abbot Odo of Saint-Crépin in Soissons made an urgent appeal to Alvisius of Anchin to send him an energetic helper and moral guardian. The choice fell on Goswin. When he returned to Anchin from his apparently limited assignment in Soissons, he carried a letter of recommendation from Odos in his pocket because of his success.

A little later, around 1120, Goswin received another call to Soissons. Gottfried Hirschhals, the new abbot of Saint-Médard , called him to his monastery in the hope that Goswin could reach there again, which was not ensured by himself. His predecessor in office, the reform canon Oger, had ruled with little luck during the four years of his Abbatiat between 1126 and 1130 and finally retired voluntarily to his mother monastery, Mont-Saint-Eloi near Arras.

Again Goswin's work must have been crowned with success, because a little later in Saint-Médard a particularly prominent prisoner, a heretic condemned by a council decision, was assigned to custody, namely Peter Abelard . In 1121 he was condemned to silence and imprisonment in a monastery by the Synod of Soissons under the direction of the papal legate Cono of Praeneste ; then his book on the Trinity had been given up to the flames and the author had been sent to Saint-Médard for safekeeping. This led to a surprising reunion between the former disputants, now in reversed roles.

Goswin's educational measures met with little approval from Peter Abelard: “What do you preach decency to me in so many ways, advise decency, praise decency? Many discuss the faces of decency and they don't know what decency is ... ”, he is said to have said to Goswin, whereupon he resorted to disciplinary measures. However, after a short time Abelard was pardoned and released by the papal legate, as Bishop Gottfried von Chartres had previously promised him.

Goswin's career, whose alleged sociability and gentleness contrasted so much with his field of work, was not over with his overseer service in Saint-Médard, quite the opposite. As a result, he could hardly save himself from inquiries from all over northern France:

Next he did his doctorate as claustral prior of the monastery of Saint-Remi in Reims. This order was also limited in time. Covered again with fame, Goswin finally returned to his mother monastery Anchin. Despite a solemn and canonical election, he refused the appointment as abbot of Saint-Pierre-aux-Monts in Châlons-sur-Marne . A little later he was appointed Bishop of Lobbes in Hainaut , Belgium , and is said to have been intensively supported by Master Werimbald from Cambrai .

His episcopate could not have lasted long: In contrast to many other greats of his time, for whom the appointment to a bishopric was the coronation and the last stage of their career, Goswin after a short time gave up his staff and miter and returned to monastic life.

Abbatiat

When his spiritual foster father Alvisius of Anchin became Bishop of Arras in 1131, Goswin took his place as abbot. In the same year he took part in a council in Reims , which was presided over by Pope Innocent II . He later became a close confidante of the famous Cistercian Bernhard von Clairvaux and Pope Eugene III. At the council meeting of Reims, which wanted to condemn the Bishop of Poitiers, Gilbert de la Porrée , in 1148 , he was also represented; as a special honor he received the papal brotherly kiss and he was included in the most intimate deliberations.

Goswin was often visited by the local greats of his time in Anchin; Philip of Vermandois , the Count of Flanders, is said to have been his personal friend. But according to his biography, Goswin treated all guests equally modestly; instead of receiving them in a state room, he merely received them in the refectory and served them exclusively meatless meals at work.

At the beginning of his abbate the Ankhin convent was not yet prospering; sometimes he received material support from the abbot of Cysoing . Nevertheless, the monastery seems to have undergone considerable further development under Goswin. Significant building measures were carried out under his aegis, including the construction of the Notre-Dame church on the monastery island of Anchin from scratch and inaugurated in 1155 by Bishop Gottschalk von Arras in his presence .

Otherwise, the abbot's vita reports countless miracles and other memorable events, such as B. of a pious duel: A German professional athlete had dueled on behalf of the abbot with an opponent from outside the monastery named Chiret. The fight, the outcome of which was seen as a divine judgment, was decided in favor of the Anchin Convention. These and a few other anecdotes and legends, also passed down orally, were reported by the last grand prior of the convent, M. de Bar, to the last historian of Anchin at the beginning of the 19th century.

Goswin traveled a lot on the papal mandate. Among other things, Pope Eugene III transferred him. a second time worrying about the now orphaned monastery of Saint-Médard in Soissons. At Goswin's suggestion, Ingrannus, the abbot of Marchiennes , was declared the new head. The reform of the stubborn secular canon monastery of Saint-Corneilles in Compiègne also fell during this period . This particularly difficult task took over Goswin's student Alexander, prior and later successor of Goswin as head of the convent of Anchin.

Goswin is attested as abbot of Anchin from 1135 to 1166 throughout. No fewer than 27 files identify Goswin as an important ecclesiastical representative; once he even acted as the bishop's deputy. The rigorous monastic reform to which Goswin, as a staunch Gregorian, had devoted himself throughout his life, prevailed across the board. A whole series of well-known abbots emerged from his school, which spread throughout northern France: Leonhard, Abbot of Saint-Bertin, Roger, Abbot of Saint-Quentin, Lietbert, Abbot of the Convent of Marchiennes, Algot, Abbot of Saint-Crépin in Reims, Gerhard, Abbot of Honnecourt, Fulbert, Abbot of the Convent of the Holy Sepulcher in Cambrai, Clarembald, Abbot of Hautmont and Albert, Abbot of Saint-Thierry in Reims.

Last days

Overall, Goswin had a long service life. It was not until the autumn of 1166, that is, in the 36th year of his abbacy and 24 years after Abelard's death, that he contracted his fatal disease. According to the Vita, he suddenly fell ill with four-day fever, ie malaria, in the last days of September. On his last journey he was accompanied by Hugo, the abbot of Saint-Amand. The biography gives a detailed account of his agony, including how the last unction received.

Shortly before, his counterpart Peter von Celle , also a renegade Abelard student and monastic reformer, had sent a moving letter of consolation to the seriously ill Abbot of Anchin on the occasion of his impending death - “de fine et obitu tibi instante”. The full text of this has been retained. Peter von Celle had been abbot of Montier-la-Celle near Troyes after his studies in Paris . Now, since 1162, he was abbot of Saint-Remi in Reims; a few years later, in 1182, he even became Bishop of Chartres.

Abbot Peter's letter of condolence probably did not reach Goswin as a living person. At least he was no longer able to give a personal answer, because the reply that was also received comes from the pen of his successor Alexander, to whom the writing of parts of the Vita Gosvini is ascribed. After several weeks in sick bed, Goswin von Anchin died on October 9, 1166 at the age of 84, in the night from Saturday to Sunday. It was the feast of St. Dionysius and the anniversary of the consecration of the altar of Anchin. Goswin was buried in the Notre-Dame Abbey near his previous place of worship, the presbytery.

literature

• MS BM Douai 825, 12th century Vita Gozuini abbatis Aquiscincti, fol. 1-79r, ed. R. Gibbon: Ex Vita B. Gosvini Aquicinctensis Abbatis, Douai 1620, pp. 1-192.
• MS BM Douai 827, end of 15th century, ed. R. Gibbon, pp. 193-274. Excerpts in: Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France (in future abbreviated to RdH), ed. L. Delisle, Vol. 14, Paris 1877, pp. 442–448.
• V. Cousin, Petri Abaelardi Opera, Vol. 1, Paris 1849, pp. 43f.
• Acta Sanctorum, March 2, col. 752 and October 4, col. 1085-1093.
• M. Paulin: Histoire littéraire de la France , Vol. 12, Paris 1869, pp. 605f. Ch. De Rémusat also mentioned in his Abelard biography by * EA Escallier: L'abbaye d'Anchin, Lille 1852.
• J.-P. Gerzaguet: L'abbaye d'Anchin de sa fondation (1079) au XIVième siècle, Villeneuve d'Ascq 1997.
• Abélard: Historia Calamitatum, ed. J. Monfrin, Paris 1959.
• La vie et les epistres Pierres Abaelart et Heloys sa fame ..., ed. E. Hicks, Paris 1991.
• Abelard: The correspondence with Heloisa, ed. H.-W. Krautz, Stuttgart 1989; Abelard: The Correspondence with Heloïsa, ed. E. Brost, Heidelberg 1979.
• W. Robl: Goswin von Anchin, an opponent of Abelard, in: U. Niggli: Abelard - Work, Life, Effect, Freiburg, 2003, pp. 267-292
• Bibliothèque de Sainte-Geneviève, MS H. fr. 21, Histoire de Saincte-Geneviève et de son église royale et apostolique, p. 583. Quoted from: P. Feret: La faculté de théologie de Paris et ses docteurs les plus célèbres, Vol. 1, Paris 1894.
• Otto von Freising: Gesta Friderici, ed. F.-J. Schmale, Darmstadt 2000, pp. 224f.
• The letters of Peter of Celle, ed. J. Haseldine, Oxford 2001.

Web links

• Goswin von Anchin - an adversary of Peter Abelard ( Memento from May 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive )