The Oc Before the Plague

-- from Jaufre Rudel de Blaye,
"Quan lo rius de la fontana," (mid-12th century a.d.)

-- from Peire Cardenal,
"Las amairitz, qui encolpar las vòl" (early thirteenth-century)

-- Jaquette de Carot,
a woman of Ax (a village in the Òc), talking to a fellow countrywoman at the mill, (late 13th or early 14th century); quoted by Emmanuel LeRoy Ladurie, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error: 319. (Originally quoted in the Register of the Inquisition of Bishop Fournier.)

The Òc Before the Plague: Courtly Love, Diversity, and Class Mobility in the Òc and Surrounding Areas in the Early Middle Ages, as Described in Trobador Verse, Razos, and Vidas.

(Originally written in 1990, in response to an article by James Mee, February, 1990, "How a Mysterious Disease Laid Low Europe's Masses", Smithsonian. In addition to being inspired to write by Mee's article, I was inspired by my own studies of computer science, for I felt that just as poetry had been a vehicle for class mobility in the Middle Ages, computers and computer programming might facilitate class mobity today [I had taken a few computer courses paid for by my parents at the time, alas had had my accounts sabotaged, but had managed to write the start of what I thought a great computer game that involved some basic language use -- for indicating direction (the game was inspired by a 'castle game' my Dad had) -- and was excited by the possibity that computers might at least be used to prompt students for basic foreign language input and respond appropriately if correct and/or correct]. Of course I've been intrigued by the blossoming of the internet though initially, having had my own accounts sabotaged, I was a bit wary about security and would not use the net. I've cut out my introductory comments regarding Mee's article and have also reorganized the article a bit since composing my initial response to Mee, plus have added several new footnotes. The snippets of translations of trobador poetry, razos, and biographies originally appeared in my unpublished Honor's thesis, Some Translations from Trobador Poetry, With Introduction and Notes, May, 1980 [South Hadley, Massachusetts: Mount Holyoke College]. The translations are not always perfectly literal, since my goal was to create translations that would read as poems in English. However, while I did not translate word by word or line by line I did try to render whole stanzas faithfully (although the order of lines may be switched and some words slightly altered but not in ways that dramatically alter meanings).

When I entered junior high, I read a book on the Crusades. I was hooked, and convinced also that women had served as both soldiers and trobadors. (They had; one, the Comtessa de Dia, had become well-known and was translated into English; several others -- Maria de Ventadorn and "Alamanda" -- who debated with male trobadors in verse, had also been translated -- although it was Meg Bogin's thesis, which had not yet come out, that was the first to try to really sort out the voices of the ladies.)

While an undergraduate at Mt. Holyoke College, I took a year's leave of absence to travel the roads of the trobadors, and to work. I cycled down the Rhone to Arles, and from there followed advice to Les Saintes Maries de la Mer, and from there to Coursin, France, where I picked grapes for two different patrons (M. Gilbert Girard and his wife, and another patron whose name I forget). While camped there I cycled to Narbonne (shopping). My neighbors at the campground where I stayed included Scottish working class youth (oil workers I believe) and a gypsy family who lodged themselves in a brightly painted bus while the husband and older children worked the harvests and the wife kept kettles on the fire. The younger children also somehow worked some way it seemed as they were not at home in the day and apparently not in school -- not sure school had started yet. From Coursin I cycled past Castelnaudry, to Carcassonne on the hilltop, to tour the old city, the wall, steps, and dungeon, and on to Toulouse, where I met an alumna of my college who invited me to join her on a trip to the Basquec ountry. She'd never hitched and wanted to try and since I had hitched some and spoke Spanish I handled the rides (one way faster than the speed limit, but I would not translate her requests to exit the vehicle hugging the narrow road flanked to one side by steep mountains where shepherds stood high above with their flocks, to the other by steeper cliffs overlooking the Atlantic; she refused to join our chaffeurs, about my age, 19, when they parked their sporty vehicle for tapas and a beer, so I did not either -- I did not drink but would have liked a potato tortilla). After San Sebastian she took the train to Portugal while I hitched solo to Pamplona, but horrified by a horrific truck wreck, switched to taking the train, and from Pamplona made my way by train to Barcelona, where, looking for the tourist-beaureau-recommended hotel I met a malnourished British working class kid who wanted me to join him hitchhiking. Together we hitched through Perpignan back to Toulouse to reclaim my bicycle that I'd stowed at the youth hostel, and then back across the Pyrennees through Foix and on to Andorras. In Andorras we met a Barcelona merchant with ski poles hanging out the window who needed some riders to claim some of the duty-free watches he'd purchased for his shop in Barcelona [most were in a false bottom in his trunk, which customs fortunately did not ask to see]. For that we were treated to a nice dinner (marinated asparagus, wild mushrooms -- I'm a vegetarian and only wanted an appetizer so as not to run up the tab) at a hill-top restaurant in the country outside of Barcelona. From there to Morocco and there I had to part ways with my friend as I don't buy marijuana [I hope he made it back to the U.K.; he refused to cook and only ate bananas, oranges, bread, etc; we had lots of good Moroccan whole wheat bread but no hope for him]. I had initially in Morocco stayed with friends of his, where I met a French lady likewise freeloading off the British teacher friends of his; she helped me buy and cook dinner for the whole lot. I left them however to report my friend to the embassy for pot [U.S., U.K.; they did squat, what should they do in Morocco they asked?) and stayed briefly with the assistant to the consul and his girlfriend and then took a train back to the ferry to Spain, stopping once to enjoy a Moroccan meal at a restaurant with some gals whom I met on the train [it was a restaurant they wanted to try]. Once back in Spain I took a Spanish train as far as I felt I should with my money, traveling with an elderly Moroccan Berber and his Spanish friend. The former tried to teach me the Arabic alphabet and sort of looked out for me on the train, so I did not get hassled [on the Spanish train I never did]. I got off just before Madrid to hitch, and got a hotel in Madrid to see the Prada and the street urchins, and from there to Valencia; one youth hostel I stayed at was an old Moorish site. Then to Barcelona where I got to hear mass in Catalan [I'd purchased a "teach yourself book" and had the missile to follow along], and back across the Pyrennees to visit Montpelier where the French girl I'd met in Rabat, Morocco, resided. I dog sat for her while she took a short vacation and then when she returned introduced her to an American we jointly met in the marketplace, someone I happened to recognize as someone I'd seen hitching illegally in California when I was doing the same, one summer looking for work. He wanted to learn French so they got on well enough together. I took the train from Montpelier to reclaim my bike in Toulouse and then back to Montpelier totally broke, so I borrowed 100 francs from my French friend to take me to Paris where I found work as a maid and breakfast cook and shortly returned her the 100 francs. It was while visiting my girl friend that I saw in the countryside outside of Montpelier one night a figure clad in a white tunic/mantle that faded raggedly below the waist and hips to just night air. The apparition, for it had appeared suddenly, had almost-neck-length dark brown hair, and maybe brown eyes, was probably the figure of a male, in any case about my age or a bit older, maybe carrying a broken off sword. I became frightened till it faded, which it did slowly. I took it to be the ghost of a trobador or a soldier or a heretic burned at the stake or put to the sword. Perhaps. Life may be for the living, but It's to them I owe my translations. So this is to introduce them to English speakers in the present age; and I think it's possible that the two groups will get on well enough. If there's any profit, about half will go to my student loan. (I'll try publishing with a small press, perhaps something in Europe as its small presses are more likely to take on new authors; these books are rarely distributed in the U.S. however.)

Thanks especially to Dr. John Peck, Dr. Marguerite Louise Switten, and Richard Pevear, who all read and commented on my work when I was in college. (I composed sixteen of the translations then; John and Richard one or the other commented sometimes extensively on thirteen of those; John offered a comment or two on Peire Vidal's "Ab l'alen"; Richard refrained from commenting on the ladies). Also to then-Mt. Holyoke president Elizabeth Kennan, and to then-Mt. Holyoke professor of English, Dr. William Quillian, both of whom read over my work as well. Thanks also of course to the two farmers near Narbonne, whom I harvested grapes for. And thanks to Pierre, the French youth whom I met in Canada when I was a teen who listened to my French and encouraged me to love some bitter verse that he loved; to Catherine C. from Montpelier and her dog Peguy, my hosts there; and to the Scottish youth I met while harvesting grapes.

The Early Middle Ages in Europe (seventh through twelfth centuries) can be viewed as a time of diversity and freedom, with many cultures undergoing a 'Renaissance,' and with literatures flourishing in the vernacular.

By the seventh century, the disintegrated western Roman empire had become increasingly diverse. According to Simone Weil, the European Renaissance began in the Middle Ages, reached its zenith in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, during a warm spell, in the prosperous South. It was thwarted, says Weil, by the destruction of the highly-cultured but loosely organized mountainous "Land of Òc" (Weil, quoted by Hayden Carruth, Summer, 1978, "The Spirit of Lo lenga d'Òc," The Hudson Review XXXI[2]: 385)[1].

'Òc' was the word for "yes" in the local language says Weil. Some trobadors such as Guilhem de Peitieus and Jaufre Rudel referred to the language itself as 'romans' or 'lenga romans'. Most trobadors probably used a dialect similar to "Limousin", the dialect spoken in what's today the Limousin (the Aquitaine), although the language used varied some regionally. The dialect of the Limousin was the dialect spoken by all of the early trobadors; in the twelfth century the culture took hold farther to the east as well, and so Langued'c had a role.

Roughly two-thousand of the poems produced in Southern France and the surrounding areas during the Occitan cultural renaissance survived to be written down by thirteenth- and fourteenth-century scribes according to musicologist Hendrik Van der Werf (1984, The Extant Troubadour Melodies, with text editor Gerald A. Bond [Rochester, NY: Hendrik Van der Werf]: 3)[2] -- before the development of printing, which seems to me remarkable. These poems were produced in the span of a few centuries, by members from all social classes. About half of the " . . . four-hundred poets whose names are known . . . " were commoners says Walter L. Wakefield (1974, Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100-1250 [Berkeley: University of California]: 57)[3]. About twenty-to-thirty of the trobadors (five to ten percent) were women according to Meg Bogin, who has published a collection of women trobador verse (Meg Bogin, 1976, The Women Troubadours [London, U.K.: Paddington Press, Ltd]: 96- 97)[4].

Mixed Cultural Influences

With travel on the "Old Silk Road" between the first century B.C. and the second century A.D., ideas reached Europe from the Orient, and ideas and cultural developments from the South and East mixed with European ideas and culture. European culture, particularly in the South, was influenced by the Arabs who by the eighth century A.D. had settled what is now Spain (Iberia), as well as by Jews of the diaspora who had preceded the Arabs, settling in the Iberian Peninsula beginning in the first century A.D. Thus, "when the Carolinians overran the Rhone valley" in the eighth century, the local patrician relied on support from Muslim mercenaries in the region, says John Beeler (Warfare in Feudal Europe, 730-1200: 151-155; books.google.com/books?id=pNdjoAT4lyoC&pg=PA151)[5]. Likewise, Gypsies or Romani people, perhaps even as early as the sixth century according to recent DNA evidence, had entered Europe. The gypsies most certainly had begun their emigration from the northwest of India by the seventh century -- they arrived in the Balkans perhaps not long after, then by the twelfth or thirteenth century began spreading to Greece and then Central Europe and Spain and elsewhere -- perhaps the Roma even traveled first though Asia Minor and/or the Levant and Egypt with other gypsy groups though that's not completely certain (they traveled under a leader, a "count" or "duke"; see www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/07/gypsies-arrived-europe-1500-genetic, romove.radio.cz/en/clanek/18158, and www.domresearchcenter.com/journal/13/ghagar13.html).

In the eighth through twelfth centuries the Basques just south of the Aquitaine had sometimes intermarried with the local Muslims. The Aquitaine was home to the eleventh-century trobador Guilhem de Peitieus. It was adjacent to the Alvernhe (home to the trobador Peire d'Alvernhe) at its Northeast border, and to the Òc (home to a number of twelfth- and thirteenth-century trobadors) at its Southeast border.

Both Arabs and Jews in Iberia and Southern Europe were knowledgeable in mathematics and medicine, and skilled as translators. Beginning just before 800 A.D., the Arabs and Jews in Iberia began producing a strophic form of poetry called muwashshahs, with intricate rhymes and, often, Romance refrains.[6] Oral vernacular poetry in Europe's Middle Ages developed thus with both classical and Semitic influences, and perhaps also to some degree from indigenous bardic traditions.

The Declining Roman Empire

Flooding, Depopulation in the Third, Fifth, and Sixth Centuries A.D.

In the early centuries A.D., Roman rule reached to the Sassanids (Mesopotamia) in the east, to Numibia in the south. It reached southwest ultimately, though not initially, into much of Arabia. In the west it included North Africa, and in the north Britain.

The revolt of Judea had been ongoing in the Roman Empire before 0 A.D., and these revolts continued in early antiquity. The late second century marked perhaps the first appearance of the "four canonical gospels", according to D. M. Murdock and S. Acharya (accessed 2015; "When were the Gospels Written?" Excerpted from Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints of the Christ [Stellar House Publishing]; www.stellarhousepublishing.com/gospel-dates.html). These were written in New Testament Greek, although the imagery of the Book of Revelation of John (or of whomever) may date to the late first century A.D., according to others, to the time when divisions between the Roman Empire and the Jews became openly apparent. So was Rome defeated by rebellions rising within its former holdings, or by invading hordes? Some have argued that it was not defeated; it simply converted.

But there was change, from classical architecture to Medieval building style -- from wide straight avenues in Judea/Palestine to winding streets (described by Llewellen), from the Mediterranean villa to castles governed by a count (Beeler); and also change in European cultivation techniques and patterns, the development of a plow suitable for clay soils, as well as a change from rectangular cultivation patterns to radiating ones (described by Frederic L. Cheyette, 2008; accessed 2014-2015). In the late second and early third centuries A.D., and again in the fifth, says Cheyette (2008; accessed 2014-15; "The Disappearance of the Ancient Landscape and the Climatic Anomaly of the Early Middle Ages: A Question to Be Pursued", in Early Medieval Europe; published online onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2008.00225.x/abstract ; preprint at: www3.amherst.edu/~flcheyette/Publications/Transformation%20for%20web.pdf), the villas of late antiquity Europe under Rome were "depopulated" when compared to earlier centuries. There was however, says Cheyette, some brief respite in the fourth century -- except that the building resembled more that of the iron age building beyond Rome's borders (Frederic L. Cheyette, 2008, "The Disappearance of the Ancient Landscape and the Climatic Anomaly of the Early Middle Ages: A Question to Be Pursued", in Early Medieval Europe; published online 2008/03/31).

Cheyette associates the depopulation in late antiquity with a colder climate: excavations and photos of Europe suggest that rye was often cultivated in Europe in late antiquity rather than the grapes of earlier centuries, he says. Cheyette cites an excavation of one site where in the third-century a wine press was transformed into an ironworks shop. Winemaking space was provided again at the site in the fourth century, says Cheyette, but with only about a third of the original capacity. He adds that wine production at the site declined again significantly in the fifth and sixth centuries. Again Cheyette blames a colder climate. Other indicators of climate change according to Cheyette, citing the research of F. Arnaud, include an excess of sediment deposited into Lake LeBourget in the second half of the fifth century -- apparently by a flooded Rhone. Also in the fifth century according to (? need to locate), a community leader (villa patriarch or general ? I have yet to relocate the source) ordered the cultivation of barley to replace that of grapes and wine in a [fifth-century] agricultural center (in North Africa?) -- the rationale was that only foodstuffs should be cultivated, that there were insufficent resources for wine.

Michael O'Rourke (2011 revised version; accessed 2015; 'The Rome That Almost Fell': The Long Seventh Century: An encyclopaedic chronology of the Christian Roman Empire of Constantinople, AD 578-718: The 'End of Antiquity' in the Mediterranean Basin; and Imperial Resistance to the First Jihad From Tiberius II to Leo III (With extensive notes on the Byzantine army in the era of the emperors Maurice and Heraclius, AD 582-641) [Canberra, Australia]: 52; fr.scribd.com/doc/61598275/The-Rome-that-did-not-Fall-a-chronology-of-Byzantium-578-to-718) cites Llewellen (1993) and Karen Carr (2002; Vandals to Visigoths): both O'Rourke and Carr describe malaria and mosquitoes where drainage ditches had fallen into disrepair along the Tiber's banks in the sixth century's second half, and also in the early seventh century, as the Tiber's banks overflowed -- due to erosion, says O'Rourke. O'Rourke attributes the erosion not primarily to flooding, but to abandonment of fields during invasions. Uncultivated fields and unrepaired irrigation systems caused the flooding, O'Rourke argues (** would evidence of exceptionally large late fifth-century lake sediment deposits, described by Cheyette, be possibly likewise due to lack of cultivation?; Cheyette as noted attributes the flooding to climate change). Whatever its cause, there is some evidence of a rising water table during this time period, according to Cheyette. Cheyette himself reports -- for the sixth and seventh centuries -- less cultivation in Germany and Denmark, which Cheyette attributes once more to a colder climate, that is Cheyette believes that a colder climate caused both a lapse in cultivation and a rising water table, with flooding as a result, and sediment deposits from the flooding. O'Rourke on the other hand believes that lack of cultivation with drainage ditches falling into disrepair, brought on by warfare, in turn brought on flooding and sediment deposits.

Cheyette, in order to prove his view that the climate was colder during this period, cites evidence of advancing glaciers, with the ice cap extending farthest south into Europe in the sixth and early seventh centuries. There is some evidence that this was during and in the wake perhaps of a "volcanic" (or asteroid-induced?) "winter": low tree-ring growth worldwide in the decades following 535 A.D. suggests that a "cataclysmic" event, perhaps a volcanic eruption, circa this date, affected most of the globe.

McCormick et. al. (2012, "Climate Change During and After the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence", Journal of Interdisciplinary History XLL[2, Autumn]: 169-220; Harvard research study; www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~phuybers/Doc/McCormick_RomanClimate2012.pdf), whose arguments draw to some large extent on data from sediments, tree rings, and the Greenland ice sheet, argue that there were relatively stable climate conditions for the Roman Empire through the first century A.D. Then say McCormick et. al., based on evidence from written records, including the Talmud (p. 188; the Talmud describes a third-century drought), as well as from Alpine tree rings and the Greenland ice sheet, an increasingly fluctuating climate, with the coldest episode perhaps in the third century (a bit earlier than Cheyette's evidence puts it). McCormick et. al. describe volcanic conditions in the third century followed by a "calmer fourth century", warming perhaps toward the end of it. Although McCormick's data is somewhat contradictory it does seem to indicate warming in the end of the fourth century (pp. 185-186). This says McCormick was followed by several centuries of instability. McCormick et. al. argue, again based on tree ring data, that the Huns may have been pressured in the fourth century by drought in Asia (p. 190).

Interestingly, written records cited by McCormick et. al. most often mention famine for the Western Roman Empire late in the sixth century; for the Eastern, at the beginning of the second century, and then again during the sixth. Thus famine peaked at about the same time as the apparently cataclysmic sixth-century event mentioned previously in my study -- this event was perhaps an extended volcanic eruption and winter.

Changes in Public, Private Building, Contraction of Trade

During the third century, according to W. D. Phillips, Jr., there was a decline of small rural establishments in the corridor of the Roman Empire that was the source of much of the empire's grain (1985; accessed 2014-15; "The Rise and Decline of the Roman Slave System"; Chapter Two; Part One, in Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transalantic Trade [University of Minnesota Press/Google Books]: 16-40; books.google.com/books?id=0B8NAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=slavery+Medieval+Europe&source=bl&ots=vlapIt-MRC&sig=P6onX0xQkyXxfVxGiTC58zIVdFQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=P-gGUsHSCePY2AXIrYCADA&ve=0CFsQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=slavery%20Medieval%20Europe&f=false). This corridor was North Africa. Anna Leone (2007; accessed 2014-2105; "Theoretical Issues and the Transformation of Urban Areas of North Africa: an Introduction", Part Two of the Introduction to Changing Townscapes in North Africa from Late Antiquity to the Arab Conquest [Edipuglia, Italy]: 32-44; books.google.com/books?id=qO7mlDvtuZ0C&pg=PA34), argues however that new building construction in large and wealthy North African estates apparently continued during this time period, as well as new building construction in public centers to some extent. But Leone (in Changing Townscapes in North Africa) also observes that some areas of Sousse (Hadrumetum) were abandoned in the mid-third century and that the "entire north and northwest quarters of the city" had by the end of the third-century been converted to cemetary. In Carthage in the fourth century there was a period of recovery but more of the construction was spent on private or semi-private munificence, says Leone. Did the tax base then no longer supported public construction? This seems a possible explanation for the fourth-century changes. An increase in church-building, which could of course be privately funded, coupled with a decline in public centers, similarly occurred in the mid-sixth century during and in the wake of the Justinian Plague according to Christine A. Smith (1996-97, "Plague in the Ancient World: A Study from Thucydides to Justinian", The Student Historical Journal XXVII [Loyola University, History Department]; www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1996-7/Smith.html).

North African cities nevertheless may have actually become more populated between the third and fifth century A. D. -- there was an influx of population into North Africa with the Vandal (Germanic) conquest in the fifth century, but at the same time there was an apparent decline in overall living standards, says Leone. In any case, trade between Arabia and the Roman empire had contracted by the third century A.D. This contraction began no earlier than the second century A.D. according to George Hourani ("Did Roman Commercial Competition Ruin South Arabia?", Journal of Near Eastern Studies 11(4): 291-295; rpt. online; penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Journals/JNES/11/4/Did_Roman_Commercial_Competition_Ruin_South_Arabia*.html). Hourani argues that there was no Roman competition behind the contraction, that the Roman economy was in fact itself contracting, that economies were contracting everywhere, and perhaps for the same reason.

K. R. Llewellen (accessed 2015; Muslim Invasion Into or Arabic Uprising Within Syria [Historia: Alpha Ro Papers]; epubs.utah.edu/index.php/historia/article/viewFile/535/431) has a slightly different view of declining trade. Llewellen argues that, with the Nabateans, who inhabited the nomadic areas on the north side of Arabia, annexed into the Roman empire at the outset of the second century A.D. there was no more trading thus with outside Arabs (p. 25) as the Nabateans were, with this annexation, a part of Rome. The spice trade, adds Llewellen, in any case "no longer went overland as the route [had] moved to the African side of the Red Sea" (pp. 23-24). Llewellen says also that, with the decline in paganism, there was also a decline in demand for "frankincense and myrrh" (p. 24). But it seems unlikely to me that demand for frankincense and myrrh would have bottomed out due to Christianity as early as the third century A.D. although it might have done so in the fourth. Glueck claims that, with the embracing of Christianity in the Negev and Palmyria in the fourth and subsequent centuries, "incense" was "still burnt", "but now in churches rather than in pagan temples" (Nelson Glueck, accessed 2015, "The Cross and the Candelabra", in Rivers in the Desert, by Glueck [archive.org/stream/riverinthedesert012851mbp/riverinthedesert012851mbp_djvu.txt]: 251). According to Glueck's information then, trade probably would not have decreased as a result of declining demand for incense. Thus the third-century contraction in trade must be explained some other way, though perhaps the annexation of the Nabatean territories by itself was a factor. Llewelen (above) credits the annexation of the territories for some of the contraction. Glueck states more strongly that it was the conquest of the Negev by Trajan that was actually behind the contraction. Glueck argues that trade resumed in the fourth century and peaked in the fifth and sixth, along with church building (Glueck: 248).

Following the annexation and decline in trade, during the period that the Vandals were moving into North Africa, Llewellen posits fourth- and fifth-century Bedouin migrations in the direction of the Levant, perhaps in search of trade there. Llewellen's argument for Bedouin migrations toward the Levant seems to be corroborated by Glueck's reports of denser population than previously in the fifth- and sixth-century Negev (see below), with the caravan trade reaching perhaps its maximum size.

Other changes occurred as well beginning in the fourth and fifth centuries. Llewellen points to architectural changes in Syria -- narrower streets, winding private shops, narrower public avenues (the Romans preferred wide ones says Llewellen), less rigid planning, that, according to Llewellen, show a changing population and management (Llewellen: 24-25). Or do these changes, at least in part, point to a declining tax base? One might wonder. In any case, Llewellen cites "40,000 graffiti inscriptions" in Arabic "found from Antiquity" in the "Negev, Transjordan, and Syria" (p. 23); and thus Syria by this time had an Arabic population base. (My own opinion is that its tax base was also like elsewhere in the Empire, declining, though yes it seems Arabs were moving in, perhaps to replace Christians and Jews who had been expelled.) The changes Llewellen describes did not occur before the fourth century A.D. Llewellen (p. 23) however describes an Arab population in Syria from the sixth or seventh century B.C. So why no earlier architectural changes? Either the earlier population was insufficient to leave such architectural changes or else the changes must be explained by a declining tax base or some other medium.

Glueck, as noted above, argues that population in the Negev along the River Jordan was actually denser under the fifth- and sixth-century Byzantines than it had been when the Nabateans ruled, although the Nabatean irrigation systems remained the source of water (Nelson Glueck; accessed 2015; "The Cross and the Candelabra", in Rivers in the Desert: 248). Beginning in the fourth century, as in Sousse in North Africa (discussed above), private munifence of one kind at least increased, says Glueck, who, based on his archaelogical excavations along the Jordan, argues that, "churches were planted like roses on both sides of the Jordan, to flourish in the Garden of Gethsemane" (Nelson Glueck, accessed 2015; "The Cross and the Candelabra", in Rivers in the Desert, by Glueck: 248-252). Likewise synagogues flourished says Glueck, although not so many as churches (p. 251). The floors of both were covered with colorful "Hellenistic" mosaics Glueck adds (p. 251; geometry was also important in Arab art -- so were the mosaic designs exclusively Hellenistic?).

By the sixth century, however, Yemen, the source of some caravan traffic and of some of the Bedouin migrations into the Levant, was, itself, in turmoil. In about 525 A.D., the rule of one of the Himyarite Kings of Yemen, that of Yusuf As'ar Yath'ar, ended, according to Wikipedia's account (fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhu_Nuwas), ended in a battle with Kaleb, King of Axum (in Ethiopia), and for a while Axumite client kings ruled the Himyarites (according to "Kings of the Jews"; 2015/03/29; accessed 2015; www.algemeiner.com/2015/03/29/kings-of-the-jews-himyar-khazaria-ethiopia/). That same year Kaleb himself was forced to abdicate the throne of the Axumites; there was a third deposition as well, in the two Kingdoms. The Christians and Jews in Ethiopia's Himyarite Kingdom and Yemen had been sparring for some years before that apparently.

Meanwhile, parallel to the influx of Germans into North Africa during late antiquity, parallel to the influx of Bedouins into Syria at the same time, there was, beginning in the third century A.D. and continuing until sometime in the fifth century A.D., pressured perhaps by the Huns, perhaps encouraged by Roman land grants, an influx of German settlements into other parts of the Western Roman empire, particularly Southern Gaul (Europe). Then, as noted, according to Cheyette's study (2008; described above, www3.amherst.edu/~flcheyette/Publications/Transformation%20for%20web.pdf), many Gaulish sites were abandoned in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries. The sixth century brought some repopulation of Europe following the fifth century decline says Cheyette. It also brought, beginning between 535 and 536 A.D. and continuing for the next almost twenty years, sulfuric smoke and ash all over the globe according to written sources from the period, with reduced tree-ring growth worldwide (see the "Timeline of European Environmental History", maintained by Dr Jan Oosthoek, 2008; accessed 2015; "The 535-536 Event"; www.eh-resources.org/timeline/timeline_me.html). This is the cataclysmic sixth-century event mentioned in my introduction, that occurred roughly at the same time as the start of a geomagnetic field peak, the highest peak of the last several millenia. The sulfuric smoke and ash was immediately followed by the mid-century "Justinian Plague" (perhaps caused by the same bacteria that caused the later Bubonic plague). Persia and Rome were perhaps equally affected by Plague, but apparently not Egypt, says Christine Smith (1996-97; accessed 2015, "Plague in the Ancient World: A Study from Thucydides to Justinian", cited above).

In the aftermath of the "Justinian plague's first mid-century outbreak and its recurrence fifteen years after" that, the Ostrogoths in Italy renewed their battles with the empire says Christine Smith (1996-97). Revolts also occurred in Africa says Smith. Visigoths reigned in parts of Spain, converting from Aryanism to Catholicism. In the Balkans the emperor Maurice was forced to pay the Avars 100,000 gold pieces in tribute, says Michael O'Rourke (2011; accessed 2015; 'The Rome that Almost Fell': the Long Seventh Century: an encyclopaedic chronology of the Christian Roman Empire of Constantinople, AD 578-718: the 'End of Antiquity' in the Mediterranean Basin; and Imperial Resistance to the First Jihad: from Tiberius II to Leo III, with extensive notes on the Byzantine army in the era of the emperors Maurice and Heraclius, AD 582-641 [Canberra, Australia]: 32; fr.scribd.com/doc/61598275/The-Rome-that-did-not-Fall-a-chronology-of-Byzantium-578-to-718). In Italy and the Balkans, farmers often abandoned the ancient terrace system of agriculture, according to O'Rourke, who believes that this was partly in response to the influx of Lombards (p. 22; he does not mention plague, cataclysm, or climate). O'Rourke adds that beginning in the second half of the sixth century, trade in the west part of the Mediterranean declined significantly (p. 23). In this period also, Mohammed was born in Arabia. In the sixth century Islam thus had its birth and rise next to flourishing Jewish synagogues and Christian churches, while the religion of Samaratinism, a cousin of Judaism, gradually declined. Also during this period, still another popular religion had its birth in the Persian empire: this was Manichaeism.

Slaves, Serfs, Transition

By the Middle Ages slaves in Europe would be replaced, at least in the fields, by serfs with their mansus (lands rented or granted to them under an overlord), and enslavement of Christians would be gradually outlawed, to some degree anyway. As early as the end of the sixth century, Rome's archbishop Gregory had ordered that Christian slaves at Narbonne's market be forbidden to Jews, according to Michael O'Rourke, although this was ignored by the Visigoths (O'Rourke, 2011; accessed 2015: 52). In the south, for whatever reason, whether or not it had to do with ideas propagated in discussions of courtly love, it would be possible to quit one overlord and take up with another. Slaves of course were still taken in war, and in southern France Saracens were commonly captives. The enslavement of Slavs in the Eastern Byzantine empire persisted until the Slavs converted to Christianity in the twelfth century -- it's worth noting here that, during the Roman-Persian conflict, it was the Slavs not the Persians who ultimately overran much of the Byzantine Empire.

Enslavement of non-Christians of course would continue, with both Christian and Jewish slave merchants selling these slaves, often to non-Christians, primarily Saracens. Timothy Power states that the need for slaves, particularly African slaves, may have actually increased in the Muslim world "with the expansion of local dynasties" in the eighth century ("The 'Long' Eighth Century"; Chapter Four in The Red Sea During the Long Late Antiquity: 217; www.academia.edu/2287581/The_Red_Sea_during_the_Long_Late_Antiquity_AD_500-1000). Powers cites Derek Welsby's account of Egypt's commerce with Nubia:

The Nubians however were not always shipped into slavery: during the time of the Pharoahs they had sometimes switched the balance of power, and they had enjoyed some status under Roman rule.

Meanwhile, in eighth-century Europe, many Saxons were enslaved after Charlemagne's conquest, says William Phillips (1985; "Slavery in Early Medieval Europe"; Chapter Three in "Slavery in Medieval Europe, the World of Islam, and Africa", Part Two in Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transalantic Trade [Manchester University Press]: 52; pp. 42-65 is the whole; http://books.google.com/books?id=0B8NAQAAIAAJ). Byzantine merchants were involved [not only] in the enslavement of the Slavs, [but also/as well as] in the enslavement of Lombards some of whom sold themselves during an eighth-century famine, according to Phillips (1985: 62). The Lombards sold others as slaves as well during the eighth-century famine Phillips adds (Phillips, 1985: 62).

But this slave trade had slowed by the tenth century with only the enslavement of the Slavs continuing as noted above, until the twelfth. Medieval Warfare's "Crusades and Crusaders" however observes that the slave trade did not end completely at all, but rather found new corridors beginning with the first crusade into the Muslim world in the eleventh century (accessed 2014-15; http://www.medievalwarfare.info/crusades.htm). Nevertheless although some slave ownership continued, Medieval Europe was not a slave society. The feudal system of the north did not develop in the Òc either -- almost all of the Òc's land was in fact held in allodial tenure, and the local kings or counts could not generally thus extract labor and fees from land owners. Servants and "slaves" in the Middle Ages were also treated a bit differently than slaves had been treated under Roman law.

Slave Revolts

Indeed, "[e]ven before the Germans reached Southern Gaul [in the third and fourth centuries], there had been a series of slave revolts against the Roman masters there, and Romans at times had been enslaved by their former Gallic slaves, says Phillips (1985; "Slavery in Early Medieval Europe", Chapter Three; in "Slavery in Medieval Europe, the World of Islam, and Africa", Part Two in Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transalantic Trade [Manchester University Press]: 45-46; http://books.google.com/books?id=0B8NAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA41&lpg=PA41&dq=slavery+Medieval+Europe&source=bl&ots=vlapIt-MRC&sig=P6onX0xQkyXxfVxGiTC58zIVdFQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=P-gGUsHSCePY2AXIrYCADA&ved=0CFsQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=slavery%20Medieval%20Europe&f=false).

Joachim Hermann (1996, "Economic Base and Social Structures of Early Medieval Societies", in "The Decline of the Roman Empire and the Beginnings of Medieval Society", Section 12, in J. Hermann, E. Zürcher, eds., History of Humanity: From the seventh century B.C. to the seventh century A.D. vol. 3 [Paris: UNESCO; & London: Routledge]: 264-266 http://books.google.com/books?id=WGUz01yBumEC&pg=PA266&lpg=PA266&dq=Roman+allod&source=bl&ots=fnzzFDyNx8&sig=8QBpbdEvGaHFVnIe7x1xb38x6cs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=H82FVPamN4e0yATvloLIBg&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Roman%20allod&f=false) quotes Tacitus, who wrote of the Frankish slaves in his report on "Germania", that [c]eteris servis non in nostrum morem . . . utuntur, the "other servants [or slaves] are not used in our fashion" (see also "Tacitus' Germania in English and Latin", 3:25; http://www.northvegr.org/histories%20and%20chronicles/tacitus%20germania%20in%20english%20and%20latin/008.html):

Early Middle Ages; Religious Movements, Knights

Bandits in the Red Sea Region

According to Timothy Power, the Red Sea became increasingly important to trade with Yemen and the East, trade in spices, minerals, and slaves, allowing Egypt to dominate trade in the first century A.D. (Power, accessed 2014-15; Chapter One, "The Context of Study", in The Red Sea During the Long Late Antiquity: 13-16; http://www.academia.edu/2287581/The_Red_Sea_during_the_Long_Late_Antiquity_AD_500-1000). Bandits or listim likewise became a common feature under Roman rule in the Roman province of Judaea and also in Nabatea beginning in the first century B.C. and continuing into the early centuries A.D.

The Roman authorities were not regarded by all Jews and Arabs in the region as particularly legitimate, and just as the Jewish and Arabs who opposed Roman authority were called listim by the Romans, "rabbinical sources" described the Roman authorities as listim, "bandits", particularly when the latter used force to collect taxes, says Benjamin Isaac ("Bandits in Judaea and Arabia"; Chapter 10 in "Judaea Under Roman Rule", in The Near East Under Roman Rule: Selected Papers: 128; 133-134; part of 122-151/158 chapter; books.google.com/books?id=jjcPG5UInzgC). Roman soldiers, sometimes successfully, defended shipments against the Arab and Jewish bandits: in the second century, Nabataean pirates in the Red Sea "were suppressed by the Ptolomean fleet," [Ptolomean=Egyptian, albeit by this time under Rome] according to Isaac ("Judaea Under Roman Rule", in The Near East Under Roman Rule: 126; http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Near_East_Under_Roman_Rule.html?id=jjcPG5UInzgC). Sometimes however the Roman authorities were less successful in suppressing the "banditry".

Jewish Listim, Arab Merchants, and the Changing Roman Guard

Some evidence suggests that at least some of the Jewish bandits were rebel groups. Isaac (p. 128) quotes R. Acha: "[w]here the empire takes over government, there appear bands and bands of listim. Jewish listim or bandits had, as early as the first century, fled to Arabia, again according to Isaac ("Judaea Under Roman Rule": 128). (Were Arab bandits Jewish? at what point did Arabs in Arabia convert to Judaism? by 5th century? was 'al-Khansaa Jewish or Pagan? many of the tribes in her region of what's now Saudi Arabic near Riyadh had by this time converted to Judaism; 'al-Khansaa later, after the composition cited below, converted to Islam and reportedly met its Prophet Mohammed; Is it in part because of the role of listim that the Q'uran says that a thief's hand should be cut off, except in the case that the thief is a highway man?)

The poet 'al-Khansaa concludes a lament for her brother (anthologized in A. J. Arberry, 1965, Arabic Poetry: a Primer for Students [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press]: 38-39), wa lan 'u-s.aalih.-a qawm-a-n kun-ta h.arba{! ?}-hum/h.ataa tu-''uwdu bayaad.-a-n ju'nat-u [']ul-qaarii -- "and willnot I-makepeace-futuretense people were-you atwarwith-them/until it-turns white gulf {of} the-goodhost" or, in more English style, "and I will not make peace with a people you were at war with,/not till the good host's gulf {or cooking pot?} whitens". 'al-Khansaa's tribe which lived in Saudi Arabia inland from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf but with easy access to both, was involved in the local trade, and warred with neighboring tribes over trade. The phrase, 'al-bah.ar 'al-'abayaad., translates as "the-sea the-white" or "the white sea". This is the Arabic name for the Mediterranean. One must wonder I think whether 'al-Khansaa's ju'nat-u which may become bayaad.-u, "white", is the same "White Sea": is this a metaphorical way of saying that she will continue her family's war all the way to the Mediterranean where good hosts like her tribe may trade and profit? According to Llewellen, "large scale migrations" of Bedouins "to the margins of the fertile crescent" were, in fact "under way" in the fourth and fifth centuries [accessed 2015; p. 23]. Ben Abrahamson and Joseph Katz (accessed 2015; The Persian Conquest of Jerusalem in 614CE compared with the Islamic Conquest of 638CE: Its Messianic Nature and the Role of the Jewish Exilarch: 12; published online at 'al-Sadiqin.org www.alsadiqin.org; http://www.alsadiqin.org/history/The%20Persian%20conquest%20of%20Jerusalem%20in%20614CE%20compared%20with%20Islamic%20conquest%20of%20638CE.pdf) however cite Dr. Gunter Luling, who argues that Jews may have migrated south during successive expulsions from Rome, and it is possible that migration went both ways.

Beginning in the second century, Rome recruited its soldiers locally says both Kevin Butcher (Chapter Ten, in "The Military", in Roman Syria and the Near East: 400-401; http://books.google.com/books?id=YJPn3-rRjC0C ; 399-401 is chapter) and Christine A. Smith (1996-1997; accessed 2015; "Plague in the Ancient World: A Study from Thucydides to Justinian"; cited above). The Romans however tended to ship recruits to provinces other than those the recruits hailed from; thus perhaps, until after the Justinian plague and the Roman-Persian wars, essentially until the end of Rome's power, the Roman soldiers remained somewhat aloof from local populations says Butcher, although Butcher also says that it was perhaps during the sixth-century reign of Constantine's sons that soldiers had to hail from the provinces they served in. Llewellen (accessed 2015) likewise argues that soldiers were mostly local by the sixth century, the plague epoch. He observes that the Limes or forts built by Rome along the Red Sea,

By the time of the "Islamic conquest", according to both Power (accessed 2014) and Lewellen (accessed 2015; http://epubs.utah.edu/index.php/historia/article/viewPDFInterstitial/535/431), there were few Roman soldiers in Syria or Palestine, and those there were locals, sympathetic to the local population.

The Rise of Christianity and the Islamic Conquest

There had been gradual acceptance of Christianity in the fourth and fifth centuries in the areas beyond Rome's borders, as far as Nubia, as well as acceptance of Christianity by the Roman leadership itself. In Europe, in the west, as the Roman empire in the west had disintegrated, the people thus fell under the rules of various local kings. These kings, once Christian, began making injunctions against the Jews who, together with Christians, had fled the Levant during the diaspora beginning in the first century A.D. Judaism and Christianity had diverged perhaps in the second or third century A.D. The Christians were banned from some Jewish synagogues near the end of the second century when the four gospels appeared, in New Testament Greek. By the fourth or fifth century Jews were barred from seeking converts -- but did Jews particularly welcome converts, outside of Yemen and Nabatea? Christians nevertheless continued to follow the same customs as Jews and even attended synagogues much like the Jewish ones through the third century, following Jewish customs, but as Christians, according to Anne Amos (accessed 2015; "The Parting of the Ways"; published online at Jewish-Christian Relations: Insights and Issues in the Ongoing Jewish-Christian Dialogue; www.jcrelations.net/The+Parting+of+the+Ways.2237.0.html?L=3; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_of_early_Christianity_and_Judaism.)

Early in the seventh century, in 611 A.D., just over a decade before the Roman-Persian war, the last of these Byzantine Churches, the church of Bishop Genesius, was constructed says Nelson Glueck (accessed 2015; "The Cross and the Candelabra", in Rivers the Desert: 248). More churches however, would soon be constructed in the wake of the "Islamic Conquest" (see below; "The 'Islamic Conquest' and the Rise of Church Building").

Islamic armies arrived in Palestine and Syria in the seventh century, shortly after Rome emerged victorious from the Persian-Roman conflict in 629 A.D. In that Persian-Roman conflict, Rome had been helped by Arabs and Khazars; the Persians by Slavs and Avars. Slavs, Avars, and Germanic Lombards had all previously harassed Rome. One Persian military leader had remained in Syria, alternately taking one or the other side; not sure what his fate was or whether he had a role in any of the Islamic conquest.

The "Islamic Conquest" and the Rise of Church Building

Armies aside, according to Timothy Power, who favors a "'long' late antiquity" for the Levant and Red Sea Regions (extending to 880 A.D.; Power, The Red Sea During the Long Late Antiquity), mass conversion to Islam really only took place after 800 A.D. (Chapter One, "Introduction: The Context of Study": 18). The Muslims, says Power, may have needed two expeditions to secure Egypt, at which point, near the end of the first half of the seventh century, the Byzantine patriarch Cyrus handed the Nile Valley over (Power, Chapter Three: 154). The Muslim armies took Syria however apparently with little evidence of a layer of destruction, in the view of both Llewellen and Power. The latter reports that,

Ayla is on the Red Sea in present-day Jordan; 'al-Qulzum is today part of Egypt. Llewellen notes that, after the war with Persia preceding the conquest, the Romans had stopped paying the local Arabs to guard Syria's borders (K. R. Lewellen, "The Rise of Christianity and the Islamic Conquest" in Muslim Invasion Into or Arab Uprising Within Syria [Historia: The Alpha Ro Papers]: 27-28; http://epubs.utah.edu/index.php/historia/article/viewPDFInterstitial/535/431).

Taxes were a possible reason the Syrians allowed the Muslims in: Roman taxes were odd and not predictable (see http://books.google.com/books?id=-xY1qsioqd8C&pg=PA2924 ). The Muslims apparently offered tax deals to the people in the areas they entered (according to the information at Wikipedia's "Muslim Conquest of Persia" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_conquest_of_Persia]). Although some Jews had fled Roman oppression, in the fifth century the Jewish community at Alexandria was thriving, according to Timothy Power ("The Late Roman Erythra Thalassa (c. 325-525)", Chapter Two, in The Red Sea During the Long Late Antiquity, by Power). Did the Jews rebel? Llewellen mentions a local-underclass of Christian Arabs who may have rebelled (K. R. Llewellen, Muslim Invasion Into or Arab Uprising Within Syria . . . .).

Whether or not there were, at the time of the conquest, many Jews in Palestine, or descendants of the original Christians, the Arabic dialect spoken today in Palestine has its vowel /a/ fronted and raised in some environments, pronounced as /e/ or /E/. Similar vowel fronting occurs in Hebrew, distinguishing it from other Semitic languages ("Why God Can Sometimes Sound Female", Philoges, 2014/06/01; in Forward; forward.com/culture/199064/why-god-can-sometimes-sound-female/). Arabic and Saracen languages had made their way to the region by the third century says Timothy Power (https://books.google.com/books?id=Md2OBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT32) and Arabic was prominent in inscriptions in Palestine by the fourth century according to Llewellen. To what extent was it influenced by Hebrew and is this influence the result of intermarriage or of trade and proximity? It's worth noting though that Ionic Greek and the writing of gospels in the alphabet derived from Ionic Greek perhaps influenced vowel fronting in the region (I know nothing about Ionic Greek vowel fronting however and cannot be sure this is the same thing; the fronting/raising of /a/ in Hebrew and Palestinian Arabic looks to me like the same thing).

In the late fifth century C.E., or perhaps in the early sixth century, according to Rabbi Ben Abrahamson ("Kings of Arabia" www.facebook.com/notes/ben-abrahamson/kings-of-arabia-495-525ce-shamir-dhu-al-janah-to-yosef-asher-dhu-nuwas/1206295779396460; Ben Abrahamson's article is, according to its author, "largely based on Tabari with addition information from Byzantine sources, epigraphs found in Arabia, and historical reconstructions."), "Shamir Dhu al-Janah" of the 'al-Janah line or line of 'the-dove", who ruled the Himyarites in Yemen from circa 495 CE to 517 CE, announced as he sought to shore up the lands of his predecessor and cousin, that, "I am Shamir Abu Karib al-Yamani; I urged on the horses from Yemen and Syria". Thus Yemen and Syria seem to have been, by the early sixth century, more than a century before the "Islamic conquest", something of a "unit" already, so perhaps it is not surprising that it was the Yemenis who suposedly took an interest in and remained in Syria during the conquest, which is what both Timothy Power and Llewellen say happened (see below), and is what 'al-Khansaa's lament for her brother suggests (see above, "Jewish Listim, Arab Merchants, and the Changing Roman Guard"), although 'al-Khansaa's tribe was from closer to present-day Saudi than to Yemen. As noted above, a century before the "Islamic conquest" Yemen had been in enough turmoil over religion that it's possible that a large number of Yemenis had made their way to Syria then, although 'al-Janah's comments it seems predate even that turmoil.

The Byzantines had had a hand apparently in bringing Yemen more under Christian rule, by force or not, according to Ben Abrahamson's information on a later King Lakh'athab Yanuf Dhu Shanatir, who ruled until 521 C.E. During the time of his rule there may have been quite a bit of unrest according to Ben Abrahamson, who quotes from "a poem quoted by Tabari" on the onslaught against the Sadducean views and the Sadducean leaning line of former kings. Did the Sadducean leaning former kings then have a reason to convert to Islam in Yemen? Or was it a revolt more of the Christians who opposed the next King?

According to Frances Robinson's Cambridge Illustrated History: Islamic World (1996), until 685 A.D., "the Arabs [in Syria -- my note] continued to strike coins of the Byzantine and Sasanian types". She describes a presumably 680 A.D.-minted coin that

This suggests perhaps that the coins were not minted by Muslims, but perhaps by proxies of other religions, according to Llewellen (p. 2). Robinson says that beginning in 685 A.D. coins were minted with Muslim inscriptions in the Arabic language and with no pictures.

Church-building increased at the time we associate with the Muslim conquest, and heretics who had been restricted during Byzantine rule were able to emerge says Lewellen. (K. R. Lewellen, Muslim Invasion Into or Arab Uprising Within Syria . . . http://epubs.utah.edu/index.php/historia/article/viewPDFInterstitial/535/431). Power reports that a large number of Yemenis (17,000) perhaps, Yemenis who Power says preferred the Levantine frontier to the Mesopotanian one, stayed on in the Levant after the Muslim armies were demobilised following the fall of Jerusalem (Timothy Power, citing 'al-Waaqidii; Chapter Three, "Contested Hegemony [c. 525-685]": 145). These are the Yemeni and Nabatean traders who Llewellen says were already in Syria by this time; Llewellen believes that Yemen by this time had become depopulated.

Muslims in Europe

Muslims arrived in Europe at the start of the eighth century, took Spain. The grand majority of these were Berbers says Joseph Perez, who believes that many were 'hardly even Islamised' (October, 1990, "Chrétiens, Juifs et Musulmans en Espagne : le mythe de la tolérance religieuse [VIIIe-XVe siècle]", www.lhistoire.fr/chr%C3%A9tiens-juifs-et-musulmans-en-espagne-le-mythe-de-la-tol%C3%A9rance-religieuse-viiie-xve-si%C3%A8cle). But some were Islamised and the Moors and Muslims thus for a time "took over the sea lanes" of the Mediterranean" (http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/westciv/darkages.html), occupying Narbonne, Spain, and later Sicily (Arabs in Spain and Narbonne, books.google.com/books?id=6xh4xzVy_jEC&pg=PA59). The taking of Narbonne in particular, according to some sources, cut Europe from trade routes. The Jews in Spain, where many diaspora Jews had settled, initially fled to the Muslims, but within a century some had begun to take refugee under the Christians once more, according to (http://books.google.com/books?id=6xh4xzVy_jEC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=Arabs+in+Spain+Narbonne&source=bl&ots=BNymhQ-pQh&sig=GBGSSrfecTQy5JvWOr4dj2Pqd8c&hl=en&sa=X&ei=VrDIUfSVJoWS9QSp6YHoCw&ved=0CF8Q6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=Arabs%20in%20Spain%20Narbonne&f=false). Arabs in Spain and Narbonne (Book id 6xh4xzVy) also says that some of the Jews helped in the reconquest begun by Charlemagne at the end of the eighth century, in part perhaps because opening sea lanes to the Christians allowed Jewish businesses with ties to Orient trade to flourish. However other Jews continued living among the Muslims, obtaining high posts in their government.

(It seems that some of the Visigoths opposed to their king may have, together with the local Jewish population, helped the Muslim takeover; see Eiger, "Introduction", The Islamic-Byzantine Frontier: Interaction [Google Books; books.google.com/books?id=WaocBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA8]: 8.)

Muslims and Mercenaries

In Southern France, in the eighth century, the European inhabitants were apparently unable to command sufficient armed protection. Thus, says John Beeler, "when the Carolinians overran the Rhone valley" in the eighth century, the local patrician relied on support from Muslim mercenaries in the region (Warfare in Feudal Europe, 730-1200: 151-155?; https://books.google.com/books?id=pNdjoAT4lyoC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq=allodial+tenure+in+Southern+and+Northern+France&source=bl&ots=D3kGCmgjiI&sig=or_xMuueDrJXCneQeprnEGa5jAw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5PyIVLjvLIf6yASTvIK4BQ&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=allodial%20tenure%20in%20Southern%20and%20Northern%20France&f=false). In the Aquitaine similarly Gascon mercenaries were used says Beeler (151-155?; https://books.google.com/books?id=pNdjoAT4lyoC&pg=PA151&lpg=PA151&dq=allodial+tenure+in+Southern+and+Northern+France&source=bl&ots=D3kGCmgjiI&sig=or_xMuueDrJXCneQeprnEGa5jAw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=5PyIVLjvLIf6yASTvIK4BQ&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=allodial%20tenure%20in%20Southern%20and%20Northern%20France&f=false).

From this same time period forward, the time of Charlemagne, the Muslims were gradually pushed South. Of the Muslims, Berbers and non-Berbers both had footholds in Spain. Due to internal schisms, some Arabs or Muslims fought side-by-side with Christians against other groups occupying Spain (a Muslim who fought side-by-side with the eleventh-century trobador Guilhem IX gave Guilhem a Persian vase, which Guilhem passed to his granddaughter Alienor of Aquitaine).

Castles and Professional Soldiers

Although Roman culture persisted later in the Òc than elsewhere, and although the Òc's people referred to their language as romans, most of the Òc's property was held not as fiefs, but as noted above, under the Frankish system of allodial tenure, which neither count nor king could touch for revenue. Again as noted above, in the Òc, the system of servitude was likewise apparently closer to the Frankish one: you might swear fealty to one overlord, then forsake him and swear fealty to another. It was the castella or "castles," which, according to John Beeler (Warfare in Feudal Europe, 730-1200: 151-155; books.google.com/books?id=pNdjoAT4lyoC&pg=PA151)[7], sometimes governed by the local counts, which fortified the towns in the beginning in the eighth century. Beeler states that some castles were mentioned as early as the seventh century. According to Abraham Rees (1810; accessed 2014-2015; "Religious Sects"; in The Cyclopaedia, Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, Volume 1 [London]: 738?; books.google.com/books?id=H39B5ua-P08C&pg=PT738)[8], this castle-culture peaked in the eleventh century, during the time of Guilhem IX of Aquitaine. In the Òc also a class of professional soldiers developed, many rising from the ranks of commoners or from low-ranking officials, says Beeler.[9]

Religious Sects in Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages & Religious Influences in the Medieval Òc

As to how much either Manichaeism or Islam influenced Christianity in the Òc (as well as Christianity elsewhere in the South of Europe), and the degree to which Manichaeism and Islam influenced one another, I am unsure. Manichaeism advocates for its "elect" a plain lifestyle and a vegetarian diet, while other followers of this religion follow a less strict set of rules. This division is similar to the Medieval 'Cathar' distinction between its elected or "perfecti" and its believers (note here that the 'Cathars' did not refer to themselves as such, but as 'Christians' or 'good men'). Vegetarianism was likewise required of the Cathar elect, as it was of the thirteenth-century Franciscans (who developed within the Roman Catholic Church). Ascetism was a common ideal in many religions, including Judaism, Islam, and various Christian sects like the Franciscans. Christian ascetism may stem in part from the Gospel of John (Chapter VII), where Jesus abhors "that the works of this world are evil" (books.google.com/books?id=OT9bAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PR96),[10] perhaps moreso than from outside influence.

According to Eduard Iricinschi and Holger M. Zellentin, who cite Richard Lim in their "Introduction" to Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity (2008; accessed online 2014-2015; eds. Iricinschi and Zellentin; Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 119 [Germany: Mohr Siebeck]: 24; books.google.com/books?id=P9lwXBXx6WgC): "'Manicheans' -- founded, according to the legend, by a Persian named "Mani" who held light to be a central principle -- "in their own records, tended to represent themselves as Christians in the 'Pauline' tradition".[11] (Note: Paul's gospel, which became important twenty years after Jesus' death, a bit earlier than that of John, emphasized salvation through faith not the law, but remained tolerant of Jewish ideas of the Messiah; see Benzion Netanyahu, 2001; The Origin of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain, 2nd ed. [New York Review of Books/Google Books]: 20, 22; books.google.com/books?id=6xh4xzVy_jEC) [12]. Lim himself observes in his article, "The Nomen Manichaeorum and Its Uses in Late Antiquity" [note: "Nomen" is a Latin word for "name"], that, "[w]andering ascetics, for example, especially those who followed a vegetarian diet, were routinely called Manichaeans \by others regardless . . ." (2008; accessed 2014-2015; Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity: 153-154)[13]. Lim adds that actual Manichaeans themselves, to escape persecution, may have been elusive, claiming membership in whatever sects that were not yet banned. Lim describes Augustine's inquisition into "a certain Viator who was suspected . . . of being a Manichaean" (p. 158). Viactor apparently named three groups, "Catharists, Mattarii, Manichaeans." The inquisitor extracted an admission from Viactor that these groups were "all propagated by the same founder." However there is no indication that these are the same as the people known to us as the 'Cathars', who apparently were Christian. Again, note that the members of this latter group, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, generally identified themselves simply as "Good men", and not as 'Cathars.'

Were the 'Good Men', and the trobadors themselves, 'Christians, in the Pauline tradition'? The Gospel of Paul, along with the other gospels, did figure in 'Cathar' sacraments (Dennis J. Stallings, October 10, 1998, "Surviving Cathar Texts in Modern Translation", in "Catharism, Levitov, and the Voynich Manuscript"; www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/esp_ciencia_manuscrito04.htm; Stallings discusses the Consolamentum's administration[14]). In particular, "The Epistle to the Laodicians" appears in the Occitan/Old Provencal translation of the New Testament, the translation used by the 'Cathars', according to Anne Bradford Townsend, who quotes Bernard Hamilton (2008; "Literature Review", Chapter Two of The Cathars of Languedoc as Heretics: From the Perspectives of Five Contemporary Scholars; [July, 2007, Dissertation Union Institute and University, Cincinatti, Ohio; available on ProQuest]: 70; the whole chapter is pp. 46-118; books.google.com/books?id=x8NxtDuZOhIC&pg=PA70).[15] But Paul's gospel did not apparently figure much in trobador verse.

What religious elements figured then in trobador verse? While topics addressed in trobador verse whether the verse was mystical (as was Jaufre Rudel's) or worldly (as was Bertran de Born's) were mostly secular, several trobador hymns to the Virgin were produced. These were perhaps inspired by the eleventh century religious "Prière à la vierge" or by the "Chanson Pieuse" of the same period (both in Karl Bartsch, 1868, Chrestomatie Provençale: accompagnée d'une grammaire et d'un glossaire, 2nd ed. [Elberfeld]: 16-20).[16] These include Peire Cardenal's thirteenth-century hymn. Trobador crusade songs invoke Jesus, and Jesus' suffering on the cross. However, to the east, both Manichaeans as well as Bogomils believed that God had not actually suffered on the cross but had come in the spirit, and thus was not of this world.

A poem of Arnaut Daniel's mentions the people of "Doma". Is this "Domas" -- Damascus? Presumably so, although there is an Òc town called "Dom" (Daniel, "L''aura amara": v.85). The trobadors also mention both Maria ("Mary"; see above; see also "The Cult of Mary, Jois, and Courtly Love", below) and Joseph, Both a lament (Bertran de Born's planh for the young king, sometimes attributed to another trobador) and a pastorella mention the apostle John, bbut I have not been able to locate (in either my several collections or online) a trobador composition that mentions Paul. The trobador "dawn poems" (the albas, including Giraut de Bornelh's) nevertheless, like Manichaean doctrine, praise the light. But the secular trobador dawn poems also call the light treacherous to lovers. And it's worth noting here that the dawn and "cock's crow" figured highly in early Christian hymns as well as in Manichaean doctrine ("Music in Early Christianity 2: The Later Third and the Fourth Centuries"; Chapter Eight in Music in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: 190-195; books.google.com/books?id=mUIogwcXGkcC; Chapter is pp. 189-222).[17]

Interest on Bank Notes and Religious Law

Islam forbade the charging of interest; the Medieval Catholic Church likewise. However the Cahorsins (originally the townspeople of Cahors in Quercy were called Cadurciens; the merchants of Cahors were later dubbed "Cahorsins") of Cahors, like the Lombard merchants of Italy, and the Knights Templars, the latter serving as defenders of Crusade routes and something of a medieval "secret society", did charge interest (see www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-46-ch.html; see also Charles R. Geisst, 2013; Beggar Thy Neighbor: A History of Usury and Debt, online excerpt; www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/15077.html).[18]

Mithraism: the Law of the Contract; Druze and Secrecy

Another possible influence on religion in the Òc as well as on courtly love is Mithraism, originally part of the state religion of Persia. Mithra presided over an exchange between non-equals, and "the law of the contract" with Mithra acting as a "just lord" (D. Jason Cooper, accessed 2014-2015; "Mitra, Mithra, Mithras Mystery"; iranian.com/History/Sept97/Mitra/; rpt. from "Mithras: Mysteries and initiation rediscovered", by Cooper; 1996 [York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc.]: 1-8).[19] A Roman variant of Mithraism was popular in Rome in late antiquity according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraic_mysteries),[20] flourishing during the early Christian period. Courtly love similarly involves a contract between generally non-equals, although it's a possibility, one that has been argued in trobador verse (by Guy d'Ussel), that the lovers are non-equals simply because of love. Whatever the case, many trobador poems mention a covens or covinens, an "agreement", "pact", or "pledge".

Secrecy is also important and the lover or drutz (or if a she, druda) is often sworn to secrecy. Interestingly, whether or not it's a coincidence, in eleventh-century Egypt, still another religion, the Druze religion, with an inner circle of "knowers", sworn to secrecy, and an outer circle of believers (perhaps similar to the outer circle of believers, the inner circle of perfecti, among the "Good Men" of the Òc), had its birth. The Druze faith's birth preceded slightly the first crusade.

East Versus West, Barons Versus Clergy: The Appointment of Bishops and Abbots

Anne Bradford Townsend (2008; "Literature Review", Chapter Two of The Cathars of Languedoc as Heretics: From the Perspectives of Five Contemporary Scholars; [July, 2007, Dissertation Union Institute and University, Cincinatti, Ohio; available on ProQuest]: 71; books.google.com/books?id=x8NxtDuZOhIC&pg=PA71),[21] again quoting Bernard Hamilton, says that, according to the writings of "Eberwin of Steinfeld", the first 'Cathar' bishop was appointed in 1143 in Cologne. In 1164, two decades later, Frederick Barbarossa, the German "Holy Roman Emperor" -- whom the Òc tended to favor over the Pope -- gave the supposed relics of the Magi to the Bishop of Cologne. Just a few years hence, in 1167, the Council of Saint Félix, presided over by the Bogomil Bishop Nicetas of Constantinople, established Cathar bishoprics in the Òc. Some have argued that it was at this Council that the Òc adopted dualistic ideas; of course it's likely that the ideas of the Bogomils had already circulated in the region. Appointment of Abbots in the Òc was secular in any case, controlled no more by the 'Cathar' clergy than by the Papacy. With the Òc marked by secular control, the conflict between the Òc and the Papacy was perhaps a continuation of the Investiture controversy that began early in the 12th century A.D.

Literary Forms, Rhyme, and Rhythm

The early trobador lyrics included cansos or "songs;" albas or "dawn songs;" planhs or "laments" (for the dead); tensos or "discussions" ("arguments," with two voices/speakers); sirventes or political "satires"; dansas or estampidas ("dances"); as well as pastorellas ("pastoral" tales of shepherdesses). Besides the lyric poetry of the Òc, other genres flourishing at the time included rhymed letters or epistles, romances, legends (our modern fairy tales, where the hero is often a heroine), epics or chansons de geste, perhaps influenced by the classical tales of Odysseus and Virgil, and perhaps related to the tales sung by Griots in early Ghana's gold trade (described by Cora Agatucci, 1997-2002; revised 2005; accessed online 2014-2015; "Tales of Griots" part of Humanities 211 Online "Mali Empire & Griot Traditions: Backgrounds for Keita: The Heritage of the Griot" [Central Oregon Community college]; web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/CoursePack/coursepackpast/maligriot.htm).[22] These latter forms however were not composed apparently in the language of trobadors, in the dialects of the Limousin or of Provence (Langued'oc). The twelfth-century trobador Bertran de Born, reflecting perhaps on the absence of the epic in his local language, composed a sirventes, in which he expresses hope that, c'est apres nos en chant hom de la gesta ("it's after us men will sing our epic [war song]"; "Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga": v. 8). The epic was perhaps replaced in the Òc by the sadder ballad form.

The ballad thus originated in trobador verse. Peire Cardenal's "Las amairitz qui encolpar las vòl" is ballad-like and much like "The Cowboy's Lament" in many ways. It is a rather sad tale apparently about the fall of Beziers (and perhaps about the threat to Cardenal's home Toulouse as well) to the Albigensian Crusade, framed in a bit of political and social satire, and composed in mostly decasyllabic rhymed quatrains (two quatrains per stanza) with alternating rhyme. The main difference between it and today's English ballads is that actual ballads today are composed in tetrameter (rather than decasyllabic). Two other verse and rhetorical forms besides the ballad, the sestina and maxim (maxims were witty "sayings", and were popular in the seventeenth century) had their origins in trobador verse. Sestinas developed from trobador six-line stanzas, which included a few sestinas composed by trobadors (particularly Arnaut Daniel). As for the maxims, some trobador verse appears to be a collection of such; these may or may not have their origins in texts like the Arabic h.adiyths and other Arabic prose texts from the eighth and ninth centuries (for more on Arabic texts see Louis Gardet, "Religion and Culture", Chapter Five in "Islamic Society and Civilization", Part Eight in The Cambridge History of Islam vol. 2 [Cambridge University Press]: 577; chapter pp. 569-603; see also "The Science of the Hadiyth" in this same chapter: 590-591; accessed online at Sari Nusseibeh's site www.sari.alquds.edu/cornell/islamic-society-civilization-v2.pdf; Christians were familiar with some Arabic texts through twelfth-century Latin translations according to John Victor Tolan, 1996, "Introduction" to Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam, ed. Tolan [Routledge/Taylor and Francis]: xv; intro pp. xi-xxi; books.google.com/books?id=RAtEAgAAQBAJ).[23] A poem by Giraut de Bornelh, "Leu Chansonet e vil", resembles a collection of maxims; as does somewhat later a sirventes by Pierre Vidal.

Frank Chambers (1985; Chapter two, in An Introduction to Old Provençal Versification [Independence Square, Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society]: 20-26; books.google.com/books?id=-ggNAAAAIAAJ)[24] describes how one Provençal song might borrow the metre and rhyme scheme of another, and how in his song "Pos vezem de novel florir" the trobador Guilhem IX, mentioned above, may have borrowed from the metre and rhyme scheme of a contemporary Latin song. At least one trobador, Bertran de Born, in his lament for King Henri's son Henri the younger ("Si tuit li dol e·lh plor e·lh marrimen"), borrowed from Arabic, imitating the rhyme and metre of a lament by 'al-Khansaa (for a brief discussion of this, see also "Little Heed for Latin Edicts", below).

While only the music to Giraut Riquier's late thirteenth-century verse (Riquier arranged his own work) has provided mensural notation and no trobador music provides information about tempo, it may be possible to match music for forms Riquier borrowed from earlier trobadors to the earlier verse and get clues about the performance of the earlier verse, although no doubt there may have been multiple tunes to a single song. More contemporary song forms derived from trobador verse may even provide a few clues.

Was trobador verse stress-timed of syllable-timed? According to Chambers,

Nevertheless, Chambers says, the trobador poems (like Syriac hymns of the first millenium) relied on syllable-timing. Chambers' views notwithstanding, it's my opinion that the trobadors made use of stress-timed as well as of syllable-timed rhythm. Some trobador verse indeed may have been primarily syllable-timed, while other verse was not. Throughout the eleventh century (although alas Guilhem IX de Peitieus is the only major eleventh-century trobador known to us), the twelfth century, and even into the early thirteenth century, there were instances of what I think of as stress-timed rhythm. I posit that some trobadors, at least the more skilled, were able to choose between stress-timed and syllabic (Italian-sounding perhaps) metrics. The field of music may shed some light on this. According to David Boyle, by the 1170s at the University at Paris,"[m]usic teaching had a particularly important place". He adds that the central argument at this major hub for students including some troubadours centered on the "pious plainsong tradition" with its syllabic rhythm, and without notes, and whether it should be developed, or more exciting music with notes, and solo vocalists [David Boyle, 2005,"Paris and Jerusalem", in The Troubadour's Song: The Capture and Ransom of Richard the Lionheart (New York: Walker Publishing Company; Google Books): 53 (whole article, pp. 49-76); books.google.com/books?id=_BLnwcU_pFsC&pg=PA53].[24b] It's possible that trobador verse -- where a tradition with musical notes and solo vocalists developed -- itself developed along two traditions.

In "Un nou sirventes ses tardar" ("A new sirventes, without delay"; Hill & Bergin, 1: 237), Boniface Calvo, a Genoese trobador who spent a good period of his life in the courts of Alfonso of Aragon and Castile, ignored the fact that less-important (less important in terms of both grammar and semantics) words ("a", "la") as well as words ending in "-ia" were unstressed, and rhymed these with the stressed syllable "fa". This suggests that, for rhythm, Calvo mostly counted syllables, which is what Chambers argues that the trobadors did. However as noted, rhymes in other trobador verse suggest in some instances a distinction between long- and short-stressed and long- and short-unstressed syllables, as well a distinction between stressed and unstressed syllables alone. Again in the second half of the thirteenth century, Boniface's contemporary Giraut Riquier, who like Boniface spent a good bit of time with Alfonso of Aragon and Castile, seems to treat stress- and unstressed-rhyme as different. In Riquier's song "Pus astres no m'es donat", seven-syllable lines with stressed masculine rhyme alaternate with eight-syllable lines with falling feminine rhyme. The final couplet in each stanza consists of two seven-syllable lines with stressed masculine rhyme.

In a single poem thus, rhymes on stressed words with short vowels (rather than on longer words with dipthongs) and with no or else a single final consonant, alternate systematically with rhymes on words with stressed words or syllables containing multiple final consonants or dipthongs; or else alternate systematically with feminine and falling rhyme. As stated, this alternation is systematic and controlled.

Extant trobador verse suggests that some Òc poets distinguished falling rhyme (rhyme on unstressed syllables) from rhyme on stressed syllables: where there is falling rhyme and rhythm at the end of a line, trobadors often relied on "feminine" rhymes, rhymes where the last two or even three syllables of the lines rhyme to some degree, with the preceding consonant often rhyming as well. Feminine rhyme rarely occurred where the final syllable was stressed. The consonant is more likely to carry stress than simple vowel suffixes such as "-ia", the final line stress in feminine rhyme is thus found a syllable or so back from the line's end, generally on the consonant. In trobador verse the rhyme frequently continues back to this final stress. This indicates that the composers distinguished stressed- and unstressed syllables, regardless of length. (I note here that in contemporary Finnish songs, consonants and stress can help to explain the rules for rhythm, for considering syllables long or short -- perhaps in Finnish it is the stress that a consonant carries that determines length and meter -- indeed Finnish song metrics that I looked at [albeit only briefly in a linguistics class] can be worked out perfectly using stress.)

Apparently then in the Òc rhyme occurred not on the end-of-line, but on the end-of-line stress point. Again, feminine multi-syllable rhymes indicate falling rhythms, with unstressed final syllables, while "masculine" rhymes, that is single-syllable rhymes, on the final syllables at line's end, are rarely falling in trobador verse. Words of less grammatical importance -- e, en, de, deu, etc. ("and/in", "in", "of", ) -- are unstressed of course, and used where a falling rhythm is needed to agree with other lines; whereas words of more grammatical importance -- be, ben, fi, fin ("good/well", "good/well", "fine/faithful/finished/end", "fine/finished/end") -- are generally stressed. And these words are not just marked grammatically; the concepts of "goods", "goodness", "end" or "finished", and "fineness" were important in trobador culture.

Roland Noske's research on metrics and rhythm (R. Noske, "Autonomous typological prosodic evolution versus the Germanic superstrate in diachronic French phonology"; accepted for publication in Aboh, Enoch, Elisabeth van der Linden, Josep Quer & Petra Sleeman, eds., Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2007 [Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins]; rnoske.home.xs4all.nl/CV/publicaties/autonomous_typological.pdf)[25] suggests that what we think of as syllable-timed rhythm is rhythm where there is a near-perfect marriage of syllable-length -- with long syllables often indicated by dipthongs or extra consonants -- and word stress; stress-timed rhythm is where the marriage is less perfect. Old French is considered stress-timed according to many including Noske. As noted above, according to Chambers, Goliard poetry was stress-timed, while he argues that trobador poems from the Òc were syllable-timed.

I argue that some trobador verse such as Boniface Calvo's (discussed above) seemed to count syllables, with regard neither for length nor stress. Other trobadors, however, Guilhem de Peitieus for example (discussed below), occasionally composed verse where stressed syllables were also long and unstressed were short -- that is where there was somewhat of a "marriage" between stress and length, but also composed verse that was simply stress-timed. And still others, perhaps Jaufre Rudel de Blaye, composed verse that meets Noske's criteria for syllable-timing.

Falling and Rising and Possible Stress-timed Rhyme in the Eleventh- and Twelfth-century Verse of Guilhem

Guilhem IX de Peitieus (from the Limousin, late eleventh, early twelfth centuries), in "Farai un vers de dreyt nien" ('I will make a song of sheer naught/nothing') seems to "marry" stress and syllable length in his rhyming of words ending with the dipthong au, a rhyme which runs across and links the composition's stanzas. This rhyme on au is however interwoven with rhymes peculiar to each stanza, that follow different patterns: in the first stanza, rhymes on rien, gen, joven, and durmen, except perhaps for gen, seem to be falling. The exceptional stress on gen is apparently not a mistake or careless; a look at the rhymes peculiar to each of the following stanzas turns up the same effect, a single rhyme of either all long or all short syllables, with either all but one rhyme stressed/rising or all but one unstressed/falling. In another song by Guilhem, "Farai Chansoneta Nueva" ('I will make/compose a new song'), the rhymes on am appear to me to all be rising until the final rhyme Adam, which like the Biblical Adam, falls (I believe it does).

Another instance in the trobadors of verse with mostly rising rhythm, but occasional falling rhythm in the final line of the stanza, apparently -- like the falling rhyme on Adam -- for effect, is Peire d'Alvernhe's (mid-to-late twelfth-century; as noted the Alvernhe is adjacent to the Limousin) "Chantarai d'aquestz trobadors" ('I'll sing of those trobadors'). In this verse, several rhymes ending in -en fall, for example: e fe o mal quar no·l talhet/aquo que om porta penden (-en in penden, "hanging", "dangling", is the falling syllable -- and perhaps like the falling stress on Guilhem's "Adam" an instance of omnopoetia), "and he did badly because he did not sever/that which he [one] carries dangling" -- apparently an extra dangling syllable is "what he carries dangling" (according to Dr. John Peck, formerly of Mount Holyoke College).[26] Similarly there is a falling rhyme in the final couplet, [l]o vers fo faitz als enflabotz/a Puoich-vert tot jogan rizen (-en in rizen, "laughing", is falling): "this verse was made up to the bag pipes/at Puog-Vert, with much play and laughter" (literally, "all playing, laughing"). But, despite Peire's verse's similarity to earlier trobador Guilhem's verse with its deliberate alternation of stress on rhymes with -en or -am, in Peire d'Alvernhe (excepting perhaps his tenso with Bernart de Ventadorn) there is a marriage of stress and length -- that is stressed syllables are closed by a consonant (some however have short vowels, others dipthongs and thus syllable length is not totally correlated to word stress).

The early trobador Guilhem makes as much use of masculine (single syllable) rhymes on short vowels, such as rhymes on fi and be, as he does of masculine rhymes on long stressed syllables, and of feminine falling rhymes. (Could be have been pronounced more like a dipthong, bei? And the rhyme be long as well as stressed? I note that be was sometimes spelled ben. But, in any case, fi was probably not pronounced as a dipthong although it was sometimes spelled fin.) In Guilhem's "Pos de chantar m'es pres talentz" ('Since I have an urge to sing'), it can be argued that there is stress on the final syllable in each stanza. These stressed final syllables rhyme across stanzas: Lemozi, vezi, cozi, Angevi (it's my hypothesis that generally in many three-syllable place names ending in a vowel other than -a the final syllable tends to be stressed and thus Angevi was probably stressed); also mesqui, lati, and fi. These are not, except in the case of the rhyming of Lemozi and cozi, multi-syllable (feminine) rhymes. The final syllable of the word cozi of course may have been unstressed, explaining Guilhem's choice of feminine rhyme here. Reading Guilhem's poetry aloud, I find stress important to the rhythm, even, I argue, separately from syllable length.

Feminine and Masculine Rhyme in Two Pastorellas by Marcabru

In Marcabru's (early twelfth-century) pastorella, "A la fontana del vergier", final syllables containing vowels followed by two consonants (-ors, -atz, -elh), final syllables ending in -ar or -on (but not in -er or -ier), and final syllables ending in dipthongs (-ey) have stressed masculine rhymes. In another Marcabru pastorella, "L'autrier jost' una sebissa", most rhymes are feminine (two syllables) and falling: two-syllable rhymes occur on -ana, -issa, -ia, -ada, and -ura. Rhymes also occur with aire (a long syllable consisting of a dipthong plus a consonant followed by a 'shwa vowel') and on the suffix -atge (a vowel followed by two consonants and then possibly an unstressed 'shwa-vowel'). For these to be stressed masculine rhymes these lines would have to be seven syllables not eight, unlike the remaining verses, so perhaps these are also falling feminine rhymes with the final schwa vowels pronounced. It seems likely, since the first composition has mostly stressed masculine rhymes and the second falling feminine rhymes, that Marcabru chose between stressed and unstressed rhymes -- although of course it is always long final syllables with no following schwa-vowel that have the stressed rhymes on them. Perhaps then in Marcabru's verse there was syllabic rhyme with a near-perfect marriage of stress and length.

Rhyme in the Twelfth-Century: Both Marriages of Length and Stress, Simple Syllable Counting

The rhymes of another trobador, Jaufre Rudel de Blaia (from near Bordeaux, mid twelfth-century), sound to my ears quite "Italian", with close marriages of long syllables and stress; of short syllables and unstressed falling rhythm. Still another mid-twelfth-century poet, Bernart de Ventadorn (from the Limousin), in his canso, "Can vei la lauzeta mover" ('When I see the lark move'), has stressed rhymes on long syllables ending in -ai, but otherwise employs an alternation of rising and falling rhythm. In Bernart de Ventadorn's song, some short single-syllable rhymes may also be rising, hence stressed, and thus syllable length is less important apparently than simple stress.

Syllable counting was important though throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, for many trobadors. While early trobador verse such as Guilhem's was composed often in eight-syllable stress-timed lines, later trobadors made use of a variety of line lengths. Sordello made use of twelve-syllable lines that are for the most part syllable-timed in "Planher vuelh en Blacatz en aquest leugier so" (in R. T. Hill and Thomas G. Bergin, 1973; Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours [New Haven: Yale University Press]: 222-223). Both Bertran de Born's twelfth-century planh ("lament") for the young king (Henry the younger), "Si tuit le dol e·lh plor e·lh marrimen" ('If all the grief, the tears, and the distress'), and Peire Cardenal's 'judgement-day' sirventes ("verse satire" or "political summons"), "Un sirventes novel vueill comensar" ('I wish to sing/begin a new sirventes') are decasyllabic (ten syllables) regardless of stress. The two have similar rhyme schemes (not identical except that de Born's repetition of marrimen, "distress", "bitterness", is echoed in Cardenal's rhymes on jujamen, "judgement"). De Born's planh, like the sestina form developed by the trobadors, relies on repetition of some words rather than on rhymes on these words: in his planh, marrimen, engles, and ira are repeated in every stanza. Both Bertran de Born and Peire Cardenal apparently paid enough attention to stress to have words that rhyme across stanzas matched rhythmically. Thus in Bertran de Born's verse, chaitivier in the first stanza is paired with soudadier in the second; all de Born's rhythm tends to be "falling" save for three exceptions -- it's had to find perfect rhymes of course -- the lines ending in fos, gen, and pros (note however that the word marrimen actually consists of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one and then ultimately a neither stressed nor unstressed final syllable; this is also the case with the -ier rhymes on chativier and on leugier; it's this stressed-unstressed-in between rhythm that's echoed in nula gen). Perhaps of course the line ending in pros (valens de·ls pros) ends in a single stressed syllable in order to make pros stand out, to give the line its strength. Peire Cardenal's final -ar rhymes -- on comensar/ arazonar, meravillar/ enfernar, dezeretar/ perdonar; and his -en rhymes -- on jujamen/ nien, plaideiamen, faillimen, soven/ tota gen -- are paired rhythmically as well.

The Influence of the Syriac Chants

With emphasis on the plainsong tradition at the University of Paris in the twelfth century (again, see Boyle 2005), verbal acrostics in the plainsong chants may be a possible source for the internal rhyme and layered meanings in the trobar rics and trobar clus traditions. Influence from the chants again may explain simple syllable-counting metrics in some trobador verse. Meanwhile both the Arabic odes and laments and Latin verse relied on marriages of stress-timing and length: this may have influenced some trobador verse to do likewise. Still other indigenous poetic traditions may be related to stress-timing in some trobador verse (the eighth-century poem "The Seafarer" for example alliterated stressed initial consonants and despite the introduction of iambic pentameter stress-timing has remained the norm in English verse) . The Arabic odes were rhymed and likewise the eighth-century Mozarabic (Romance dialect with Arabic borrowings) song refrains (kharjas) -- the latter often conclude Arabic strophic verse from Iberia. Such rhyme may well have influenced the ninth-century grafting of rhyme onto the chants and also the rhyming of trobador verse.

By the eighth century, Narbonne's sea port had been reclaimed from Arab rule, allowing Christians in the North renewed access to Mediterranean trade routes and presumably to the Mediterranean verse forms, such as the Syriac hymns. Some of trobador poems are pentacasyllabic, like some Syriac chants -- the chants perhaps influenced the trobador verse ("Syriac Sacral Music"; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_sacral_music).[27] Syriac chants like trobador verse might also make use of seven-syllable or twelve-syllable lines, and of possibly other meters. They could be chanted or sung. Varying line lengths used in trobador compositions include four-syllable, seven-syllable, eight-syllable, ten-syllable, and the occasional longer line, with shorter lines sometimes used to "force" an increased amount of rhyme, for the so-called trobar rics or "rich style" -- which Chambers sees as a variant of the trobar clus, or "closed style" with its puns and layered meanings (I tend to agree with Chambers' analysis here).

The metrical chants developed in the late third or in the fourth century A.D., at about the same time approximately that the metered Hebrew piyyutim evolved. The piyyutim were a form of psalm, with acrostics. By the fourth century A.D. the latter had added meter and could thus, like the Syriac chants, be chanted or sung (for more on these, see Kehillat Israel, "Ending of Late Antiquity", in Origins of Ashkenazic Jewish Culture from Judea to Poland; kehillatisrael.net/docs/learning/ashkenazim.html#part3).[28] The Syriac chants, which began to be sung as early as the third or fourth century, prior to the addition of rhyme, contained, like the Hebrew piyyutim, alphabetic or verbal "acrostics", according to Wikipedia's information.[29] Perhaps these acrostics later inspired the rhyme schemes with six or eight end-rhymes in some trobador poems (particularly those considered to be trobar clus -- but it should be noted that in trobador lyrics the rhymes occur at the ends and not the beginnings of lines, unlike the acrostics in the Syriac chants; however the short lines of the trobar rics style allow more frequent rhymes which in some ways mimic the internal rhymes of the acrostics). Trobador stanzas with six "end rhymes" in turn perhaps inspired the sestina composed by trobador Arnaut Daniel and a few of his twelfth- and thirteenth-century peers. According to the Wikipedia information, by the ninth century, the Syriac chants themselves had acquired rhyme.[30]

Was it Byzantine chants that first influenced Christians, and Syriac chants later? Or vice versa? The two chant forms have similarities. The Syriac chants have variations in length that match some of the various syllable lengths of the trobador verse. There were also hymns produced by the Manichaeans -- but I am not aware that trobadors were familiar with these -- although the Bogomils to the east may have been influenced some by Persia and may have been familiar with the hymns of the Manichaeans. Some trobador verse seems to have borrowed directly from Arabic poetry, particularly several sirventes by Bertran de Born, replete with images of war reminiscent of images that occur in Arabic odes. Bertran's lament for "the young king" ("Si tuit li dolh .&nsp;. .&nbp;," mentioned above -- but this was sometimes as noted attributed to Rigaut de Berbezilh -- written on the occasion of the death of Henri the younger) is very much like that of an Arabic-language lament by 'al-Khansaa -- with the same rhyme scheme throughout, similar meter, and similar themes.

The Cult of Mary, Jois, and Courtly Love

Narbonne of course is not far from Les Saintes Maries de la Mer (described by Val Wineyard in her blog on "[Les] Saintes Maries de la Mer"; in I Write About Mary Magdalene, by Wineyard; accessed 2014-2015; www.marymagdalenebooks.com/blog/lire-article-718360-9702576-saintes_maries_de_la_mer.html).[31] This is where Jesus' mother Mary, as well as Mary Magdalene, are supposed to have fled to in the mid-first century A.D., a decade and a half before Judea's Jews rose in revolt. This at least is what the Church of les Saintes Maries de la Mer has claimed. By the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene had also become the patron Saint of the Church of nearby Beziers. The cult of Mary Magdalene, the 'reformed adulteress' (in the Medieval view of Mary Magdalene she was, at least, the protector of adulteresses), , ultimately became something of a target of the Inquisition, when Beziers and its Church were attacked in the thirteenth century, on Saint Mary Magdalene's day, by Simon de Montfort -- who acted with the blessing of the Pope (although it was in fact perhaps Simon de Montfort's and not the Pope's idea to attack).

Women in Text, Women as Authors, Women's Education

Women had, even in classical times, authored a small number of texts according to Kim Haines-Eitzen ("Girls Trained for Beautiful Writing: Female Scribes in Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity"; Chapter Two in Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power, and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature [Oxford]: 41-52; books.google.com/books?id=NjgtmT0prkUC).[32] Haines-Eitzen notes that, in late antiquity, some women served as scribes. She quotes Eusebius' description of the beginning of Origen's "commentaries on the Divine Scriptures" ("Girls Trained for Beautiful Writing: Female Scribes in Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity": 42; "As [Origen] dictated there were ready at hand more than seven shorthand writers, who relieved each other at fixed times, and as many copyists, as well as girls trained for beautiful writing"; the latter were shorthand writers or literary copyists apparently).[33] But the majority of people in late antiquity, in any case, males and females alike, were not literate although Jews may have had slightly higher rates of literacy than some groups, such as Ancient Egyptians, says Meir Bar-Ilan (1992; accessed online 2014-2015; reprt from "Illiteracy in the Land of Israel in the First Century C.E." faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/illitera.html).[34] Craig Keener notes that, while "[e]ven in some of the generally conservative traditions, Jewish women had access to some learning"; one reason being that, "they could hear the law read at festival" (December, 2007; accessed 2014-2015; "Women's Education and Public Speech in Antiquity", Jets 50 (4): 754; whole article pp. 747-759; www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/50/50-4/JETS_50-4_747-759_Keener.pdf),[35] Jewish women, nevertheless, like other women of their time, were "less often educated to the same degree as men of the same social class" (p. 759).

Certain groups in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, including Christians, were open to allowing women to hear lectures, and, increasingly in late antiquity, the education of girls at least among the upper classes was attended to. Writing by women may have increased some in late antiquity, and perhaps Christianity afforded a means for women's writing to be valued in late antiquity (letters, journals of martyrs). However, what is most interesting perhaps about early Christianity is the "cult of Mary." In "Voices from Late Antique Egypt: Christian Women Speak" (Alanna M. Nobbs, 2010, 2009 Penny MageeLecture, Journal for the Academic Study of Religion 23(2): screens 8-9; www.equinoxpub.com/journals/index.php/ARSR/article/downloadSuppFile/8454/1522) describes the use words from the opening lines from "the song of Mary" in one anonymous letter by a Christian woman to a "spiritual father" -- "exult greatly," "rejoice" (I am unsure of the original Greek):[36]

The Cult of "Midons"

In trobador poems, the idea of jois is rather central: Bernart de Ventadorn says that he has joi in the flower, and in midons still greater joy. But midons of course is not Bernart de Ventadorn's wife. Courtly love is based on merces ("grace", "favor", "mercy") and cortesia ("courtesy", "courtliness", "noble behavior"). The word midons (literally "mylord," but referring to a female) is almost gender neutral, although perhaps a shortened form of ma dompna, "my lady". It suggests a vassal-like role for the poet/lover in his (or her) relationship with the beloved. The beloved is thus venerated somewhat like "Mary". Interestingly perhaps, Peter Dronke, (1984, Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (203) to Marguerite Porete (1310) [Cambridge University Press]: 3; books.google.com/books?id=_xr_GSXBbVwC&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16)[37] quotes from a text that predates the trobadors by several centuries, the early third-century Christian martyr Perpetua's diary. Dronke translates Perpetua's description of Perpetua's meeting with her grieving father in prison, as she prepares for martyrdom: "and amid his tears he called me not 'daughter' but 'domina'".

Courtly love it seems might sometimes have involved mystical love, and sometimes but not always have involved sensual love, and in trobador verse there are differing views of adultery and the women's role in courtly love. In any case, love was regarded as "enobling". The thirteenth-century trobador Guillem de Montanhagol's "Ar ab lo coinde pascor" (in Hill and Bergin, v. I: 231-232) argues that love for the lady enobled the lover so that he would do no more wrong.

Reciprocity?

The lady of course might compose her own verse replies and be in some sense a trobador too. But was her role exactly the same as that of her male peers? Guiraut de Bornelh, in a tenso (verse argument) with Alamanda, entreats her assistance, s'anc fotz druda, "if you have ever been a lover" (that is, druda, or female courtly lover; "Si·us quer conselh, bel' ami' Alamanda": line 53). Maria de Ventadorn, however, in her tenso with Guy d'Ussel ("Gui d'Uissel be·m pesa de vos", in Corpus des Troubadours [Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans; Brusselles: Union Academique Internationale]; trobadors.iec.cat/veure_d.asp?id_obra=363: lines 23-24), argues that the lady, unlike the trobador-lover, owes her knight only honor, but not obedience:

With this argument, Maria de Ventadorn counters her tenso partner (Guy d'Ussel)'s argument for absolute reciprocity, and thus Maria refuses a role as Guy's vassal.

Exactly what role did women have in courtly love? Women as noted were often addressed as midons, "my lord" -- though dons may be a shortened form of dona, "lady", the word dons by itself, without the prefix mi- most always meant "lord", that is a male lord. In at least one or two cases women were called mon seignor, "my lord/master". Normally though, seignor, unlike dons, was used to refer to men. There is ambiguity in a canso composed by the trobador Giraut de Bornelh ("Leu chansonet'e vil"), where mon sobre-Totz, "my [lord]-above-all" (Ruth Verity Sharman (1980), The Cansos and Sirventes of the Troubadour Giraut de Borneil: a Critical Edition [Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press]: line 82), might possibly refer to Giraut's lady, whom he has addressed earlier in the poem; although some interpret it as referring to a male overlord. It might even refer to God; the reference is not quite clear to us today.

Levels of Address for the Lady

In the verse argument with Alamanda mentioned previously (in "Reciprocity?"), this same Giraut's tenso partner, Alamanda, real or imagined (quite possibly real), is addressed as donzella, "little lady", the diminutive. She is the servant of another lady according to Giraut's description of her in the tenso; does this mean that she is of lower rank? or simply young? (See discussion of Alamanda below, in "Women in the Poems: Real or Imagined?" and also in "Sons of the Poor: Marcabrun, Bernart de Ventadorn, Giraut de Bornelh".) Meanwhile the women in the pastorellas, obviously all imagined (no one could have really been in all the varying places Giraut Riquier's shepherdess appears), are sometimes addressed as toza, "girl" or "maiden". Thus there seems to be various levels of address for the ladies in trobador verse -- were only women of high birth or status be addressed as midons then?

Sham for a Lady to 'Carry On' With a Rich Man?

Besides arguing about whether the lady's debt to her lover was on par with her lover's debt to her, as Maria de Ventadorn and Guy d'Uissel did, the trobadors argued about whether it was proper or not for a lady to love a man wealthier than herself (see James Friday, 2013; accessed 2014; "Alfonso II de Berenger", Roots Web World Connect World Tree; wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=jf-63&id=I33220&style=TABLE).[38]

Azalais de Porcairages' song about Raimbaut d'Aurenga (the tornada or "ending" of this song is discussed later, in "The Joyous Trobador-lover, with the Gay Joglar") takes a stance on this. People oppose such, Azalais says, but does Azalais? This and other language in the poem suggest that Azalais has taken a role closer to that of the drutz. (The role of the drutz -- at least a male view of it -- is set forth in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras' dance song, "Kalenda Maya" -- 'Calendar/first of May' -- discussed below.) Azalais describes her relation to her trobador lover, a kinsman of Raimbaut d'Aurenga, as ab vos . . . en gatge (v. 34; "with you, as your liege"):

Is Azalais' role in the poem then that of a druda? I am not sure. Nor am I sure of Azalais' rank. Her vida describes her as noble. Her verse suggests she valued reciprocity. In it, she takes a role similar to that of the knight-servant.

Fin'amors and the Drutz or Druda

(Note here that Raimbaut puns on cuda and creguda, "thought" -- noun; and "thought" -- verb participle.)

The words drutz, druda are related to the word drudaria, meaning "galantry" according to Levy and others (Emil Levy, 1909; accessed online; Full text of Petit dictionnaire Provencal-Francais [Heidelberg: Carl Winter's Universitatsbuchhandlunq/Internet Archive]; www.archive.org/stream/petitdictionnair00levyuoft/petitdictionnair00levyuoft_djvu.txt)[39] or "love" according to Hill and Bergin (Hill and Bergin v. 2),[40] and to the word drudiera, meaning lady "gallant" (Levy). Drutz is the masculine form; druda the feminine. The phrase, en drut, in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras's "Kalenda Maya" sounds (to me) like en dreyt, "in right" or "in truth"; did the origin of drutz and dretz follow a related or parallel path? The adverb drut, in any case, means "vigorous" (again according to Levy). There is perhaps a seasonal connection, as the conversion of the amant to the drutz is important in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras' spring-to-summer dance, "Kalenda Maya." The drutz, albeit a bit forlorn, similarly figures in Arnaut Daniel's poem about the fall, "L'aur amara" ('The bitter air').

According to Glynnis Cropp ((Glynnis M. Cropp, 1975, Le Vocabulaire courtois des troubadours de l'époque classique vol. 1 [Geneve: Librairie Droz/ Publications Romanes et Francaises]: 65; books.google.com/books?id=Tmt59yQIyO8C&pg=PA65),[41] the amant, the "friend" or "lover" in fin' amors may have received certain favors, be "gay" (gai), but has not had a kiss. As for the drutz, according to Cropp:

Also the drut, says Cropp, must show that he is the lady's favorite before becoming a drutz, so it seems that the drutz cannot be wholly unworthy or lower than the "gay" or perhaps rather "joyous" amant of fin amors. As noted above, like the followers of the Druze religion, although the similarity of the two names may be coincidental, the drutz or druda is pledged to strict secrecy (see "Troubadour Conventions and Favorite Themes", in "History", in Langued'oc; www.midi-france.info/1904_troubadours.htm#convention; see also my section, "Mithraism: the Law of the Contract; the Druze and Secrecy").[42]

Sensual Love, Platonic Love, Religious Love, and the Cult of Mary Magdalene, and Hypocrisy

However, in the pastorellas, as Frederic L. Cheyette and Marguerite/Margaret Switten note (1998; "Women in Troubadour Song: Of the Comtessa and the Vilana," Women and Music 2 www3.amherst.edu/~flcheyette/articles/histchey01WomenMus.pdf)[43], the peasant lady is generally not supposed to commit adultery. Rather it is she who chastises the knight or trobador who seeks such a liaison. However there are exceptions: in one case, a peasant girl (like other women characters in the pastorellas, probably fictitious) offers Giraut de Bornelh a chance to join her, saying to him, [s]ojomem en est'ombrieira ("let us repose in this shade"; quoted in Serge Caulet, 2002, La Pastourelle Occitane, in Annals del Centre d'Estudis Comarcals del Ripollès 2000-2001, Josep Ribot [RACO -- Revistes Catalanes amb Acces Obert]; www.raco.cat/index.php/AnnalsCER/article/download/211061/289171).[44] Giraut however rejects her proposal. Similarly, "Grazida", a peasant girl actually interviewed by the inquisition, said that she personally found nothing wrong with her own adulterous affair ("The Testimony of Grazida Lizier" [before the Inquisition], in Jackson J. Speilvogel, 2015, "A Liberated Woman in the Fourteenth Century", in "The Later Middle Ages: Crisis and Disintegration in the Fourteenth Century"; Chapter Eleven, in Western Civilization: Volume A: To 1500; by Spielvogel [Cengage Learning]: 326/299-331; books.google.com/books?id=LceiAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT361; also cited in Women Writers of the Middle Ages [Cambridge University Press]: 210; books.google.com/books?id=_xr_GSXBbVwC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false).[45]

Nevertheless, the perfecta or "elect" of the so-called 'Cathars' (or good men), whether male or female, like the Catholic clergy or even moreso, were constrained by ascetic ideals and supposedly shunned sexuality (although the lover of "Grazida", discussed above, may have been a 'Cathar' priest). In LaDurie's Montaillou, one lady is identified as Cathar by the local Inquisitor when she refuses sex (Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, 1978, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, transl. Barbara Bray [Scolar Press, Ltd.]).[46] Peire Cardenal, whose poetry ridicules the clergy ("Clergue si fan pastor;" he also talks of el mal segle which tormentiei totz mos ans, ":the evil century/age" which "tormented all his life") and likewise ridicules the rich, wrote a rather ascetic hymn to the "Vergena, Maria", describing the Virgen Mary as the one "true life", "true truth", "true way", "true virtue", "true friend", "true love".

The "ideal" of love separated from the flesh had taken hold in the Òc by the time the fourteenth-century poets in Toulouse attempted to revive their language and poetry, as Raymond Scheindlin notes (Raymond P. Scheindlin, 1997; "Secular Hebrew Poetry in Fifteenth-Century Spain": 35/pp. 25-37; Chapter Two in Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World 1391-1648; ed. Benjamin R. Gampel [New York: Columbia University Press]: 35/pp. 25-37; books.google.com/books?id=O1f6pBpOgLkC&pg=PA35).[47] The later ideal -- of love without sex -- also took hold during the fourteenth century in the North of France, which had remained loyal to the papacy. Cardenal's thirteenth-century hymn, where the Virgin Mary is seen as enobling, likewise apparently idealizes platonic -- and of course religious -- love. However, unlike verse in later centuries Cardenal's verse does not shy away from discussions of adultery, for example in the sirventes "Las Amairitz" discussed below this hymn to Mary:

In a sirventes ("Las Amairitz") written shortly after the outbreak of the Albigensian Crusade, Cardenal shows perhaps sympathy for the adulteress and certainly shows sympathy for Beziers. Beziers, whose patron Saint was Mary Magdalene (see the beginning of this section, "The Cult of Mary, . :. ." ), was attacked and burned to the ground on Mary Magdalene's day (July 22) in 1209 (Beziers is as noted above not far from "Les Saintes Maries de la Mer" -- town of the "three Maries").

Cardenal uses in this verse, perhaps with some irony, the language of the courts, language that criticizes adulterous love: carnz que non pot esser neta,/Carnz deslieials que la lei contradi ("carnality [or 'fleshiness'] which cannot be scrubbed,/unfaithful [or treacherous] fleshiness that [the] law forbids"). Cardenal qualifies this with a bit more irony, [m]ens a de sen non a l'enfans que teta/Qui cuia honrar calendas enaissi ("With less sense to it than to the baby who suckles --/candles are set honoring him"-- "with less sense to it than to the baby who suckles/for whom, to honor him, candles are set"). Is this baby supposed to represent the Christ child? Exactly what Cardenal is saying in his apparently layered meanings is a bit unclear today -- one possible interpretation is that the living child is a more sensible outcome than a dead one, that what is really illicit flesh in an adulterous union is the dead child. But the verse alludes of course to the divorce case of Peter II of Aragon and his wife Marie, which helped to bring on the Albigensian Crusade, as well as to other major events in the Albigensian Crusade, and so the meaning is layered. It is possible thus that Cardenal is alluding not just to the death of any child of any adulterous union, but to the death of the first-born child of Peter of Aragon and Marie of Montpellier, right around Christmas perhaps, and shortly after the infant was betrothed in a marriage unsatisfactory to Marie (note that the union was considered adulterous by Pedro not by Marie). While he is at it, Cardenal may be reminding Peter of Aragon of still another death, that of Marie, as soon as she left the Court of Constantine where she was proclaimed the victor in her arguments with Peter. Perhaps Marie's death is in some sense here liewise [c]arnz deslieials que la lei contradi. So perhaps Peire is reminding Pedro of both deaths.

The Albigensian Crusade forms a great part of Cardenal's verse's subject matter. In this same sirventes, Cardenal alludes to the flogging of lower-class members of the Crusade's regiments -- by the upper-class members of its regiments. The reason for the flogging? Looting Beziers -- ahead of course of upper-class comrades, thus appropriating its goods for themselves rather than passing these on. In his lines Cardenal compares the lot of a rich thief who has stolen mercury (costly, and used to treat skin diseases) to the lot of a poor thief who has stolen a scrap of cloth or thread: [s]'us paubres homs a emblat un lensol,/Laire es clamatz ez anara cap cli,/E s'us ricx homs a emblat mercuirol,/Ira cap dreg en la cort Costanti ("if a poor man steals a bit of thread,/he is proclaimed 'thief', goes out, bowed head;/while the well-to-do mercury-thief is most right-headed/by decree of Constantine's Court"). Cardenal's view of the poor adulteress and the illegal status of adultery was no doubt similar to his view of the hypocritical flogging of the poor thief.

Did Women Compose Hymns to the Virgin?

Did women compose hymns to the Virgin? There is one extant hymn attributed to a woman apparently, according to Wikipedia ("Bieris de Romans"; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bieiris_de_Romans),[48] composed either about the virgin Maria or about a lady Maria. It dates from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century. The poem is attributed to a Bieiris de Romans (Romans is near Valence, and Dia). Is Bieiris a variant of Beatritz -- Wikipedia mentions this argument -- or is it Bernice or a different name?

The Pastorella: the Rejection of Sensual Love, and of the World, Versus the Celebration of Life's Cycle

As for the pastorellas, including Giraut Riquier's series of conversations at different periods with the same peasant lady or shepherdess on the mountain roads outside of Narbonne and Toulouse (I am still looking at various pastorellas). Jean Audiau, in his description of the pastorella (1923; accessed 2014-2015; La Pastorelle le dans la poésie occitane du Moyen-Age, textes publiés et traduits, avec une introduction, des notes et un glossaire [Paris : E. de Boccard/Internet Archive]; archive.org/stream/lapastourelledan00audiuoft/lapastourelledan00audiuoft_djvu.txt)[49] says,

The shepherdess Riquier encounters around Narbonne and farther afield, at one point in the pastorella "cycle", on a road outside of Toulouse, in this series of pastorellas, is ultimately an old woman with white hair. Riquier's series then may be meant to show that beauty, flesh is ephemeral, although this pastorella is not the final one in the series -- the series seems cyclical when the final pastorella -- where Riquier encounters the woman with her grown daughter, the latter reflecting on courtship and marriage -- is considered. When Riquier and the shepherdess meet in this semi-final encounter, she greets him:

Whether Riquier's series expressed dualistic views, or whether its view of the world was simply cyclical, with age, loss, bitterness, but also possibilities for renewal, the view of the Roman Church was that courtly love was heretical. Whether the expression of it in trobador poems was a rebellion against the Church I can't decide. What then can be said of the pastorellas?

In any case, Giraut Riquier, who authored a pastorella sequence, himself journeyed across the Pyrenees to find favor in the Courts of Aragon during the time of the Albigensian Crusade. Was Riquier a 'Cathar', a "good man"? Does the pastorella of the Òc in any way express the ideas of the so-called 'Cathars'? Does Riquier's? While the semi-final poem in his sequence seems to eschew the flesh, his sequence, when the final poem is considered, seems cyclical. The sequence is also in line with the "cult of Mary".

Arabic's Many Words for Love

The variations on love in trobador poetry -- can these be related to the various words for love in Arabic? (Discussed also at "Facebook Arabic".) Hatfield, Rapson, and Martel (in press; www2.hawaii.edu/~socpsych/ch78.pdf; in Kitayama and Cohen, eds., Handbook of Cultural Psychology [New York: Guilford Press]),[51] in their article "Passionate Love", cite the Arabic words for love listed by the Arab novelist Ahdat Soueif (1999): "'Hubb' is love, 'ishq' is love that entwines two people together, 'shaghaf' is love that nests in the chambers of the heart, 'hayam' is love that wanders the earth, 'teeh' is love in which you lose yourself, 'walah' is love that carries sorrow within it, 'sababah' is love that exudes from your pores, 'hawa' is love that shares its name with 'air' and with 'falling', 'gharm' is love that is willing to pay the price" (pp. 386-387). I note here that in Mozarabic (a Romance dialect) refrains for muwashshahs, the word h.abib or habib -- related to hubb, the first of these various names for "love" cited by Hatfied, Rapson, and Martel, frequently identifies the lover.

Love for Improvement and Alliances in the Òc

Just as there are numerous words for love, with varying meanings, in Arabic, there seemed to be various types of "love" in the Òc. Even when looking exclusively at courtly love among the Òc nobility it appears that courtly love relationships varied: Azalais de Porcairages and the Comtessa de Dia seem to have held a slightly different view of each's relationship with her knight than that held by Maria de Ventadorn, who mainly seems to have sought the knight's improvement through his service to his lady. But the Comtessa de Dia's relationship does not appear to be quite that of Azalais, or is it the same except that the Comtessa is less than happy with her knight's response, while Azalais -- not unhappy with her knight -- is simply in mourning -- for her knight's kinsman? Is Azalais' relation then the more harmonious one? Also is the dallying with the opposite sex in verse done in order to forge alliances? Is this something allowed then to the nobility, but perhaps not so much to the peasantry, according to many views of Courtly ethics (were courtly ethics then perhaps not completely in line with the ethics of the peasantry -- at least not in line with the ethics of Grazida mentioned above?)? Is the forging of alliances then part of what makes the drutz or druda different than the lover in fin'amors? (See above, "Fin'amors and the Drutz or Druda", for a discussion of Azalais de Porcairages' "Ar em al freg temps vengut", Raimbaut d'Aurenga's "Kalenda Maya", and see also Cropp's definition of drutz in Cropp's discussion of courtly vocabulary[52]).

The early trobador Marcabru -- a bit perhaps but not exactly like the thirteenth-century trobadors Maria de Ventadorn and Guy d'Ussel (mentioned above), and also Guillem de Montanhagol -- describes the enobling role of courtly love (there are also ideas of love's enobling power in Peire Cardenal's hymn to the Virgin, mentioned above):

Marcarbru however argues against having two or three courtly lovers. This is apparently a reference to Alienor of Aquitaine, the grand-daughter of trobador Guilhem de Peitieus, who had by some accounts "shamed" her then-husband, the Frankish King Louis, while accompanying Louis on the Second Crusade. Or did she shame him? According to Anne Ruth Kelly (1950, 1978; Alienor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings [Harvard University Press/Google Books),[53] the sources that say Alienor misbehaved are Frankish, and are perhaps trying to explain away Louis' not wishing to fight battles that Alienor and/or her uncle Raymond wished to fight. However, correspondance between Louis and his regent the Abbé Suger suggest that Alienor, while visiting her uncle in Antioch, spent at least some effort on a gentleman named Saladin (some say this was the father of the Saladin her son Richard later fought), perhaps in an attempt to convert him to Christianity (see Nicholas Blackhurst, "Eleanor of Aquitaine" [Rootsweb]; freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nickblackhurst/pb958.html).[54]

Marcabru's verse seems nevertheless sympathetic toward Marcabru's contemporary Jaufre Rudel who champions a "love from far away", an amor de lonh; it is only Alienor who really perturbs Marcabrun. Later however the rift between proponents of Courtly love and supporters of its opponent the Catholic Church would widen.

Women such as Azalais de Porcairages, as noted, reversed these roles some, as Azalais apparently sought a good man to improve her. Also, on occasion, women -- counter to Marcabru's words -- even governed, but in these cases families sought to marry them to men who could defend their fiefdoms well (still even in some cases the defense was left to the women).

The thirteenth century trobador Peire Cardenal (outside of his hymn to the Virgin) had a more cynical view of love (expressed in "Las Amairitz", mentioned above). Meanwhile, the twelfth-century Arnaut whose view of the lady is reminiscent again of "The Cult of Mary", views the lady as enobling yes, but with an odd twist -- without her he is lost and yet such loss is delight for he can think of her still (there is also a sensual element in Arnaut's view of his love -- and he mentions the lady's "body" -- cors (in the oblique case, with an -s ending, thus cors cannot be 'heart' I do not think):

Treachery and Trickery in the Òc -- in Love and Alliances

In their talk of love, the trobadors relied on terms suggesting that love is "deceitful" or "trickster" or even "treacherous" -- or else it is "bewitching". Marcabru, for his part in his tenso (verse debate), "Amics Marcabrun", calls love enganairiz (teacherous' 'deceitful'). Bernart de Ventadorn likewise mentions love by enjan ('trick', 'deceive', 'trickery', 'deceit', 'mischief'; in Bernart's canso or song, "Can la frej' aura venta"). In his song ("Can la frej' aura venta"), Bernart de Ventadorn calls the lover (or at least the lady) a 'deceiver' or 'deceitful' -- trichaire. Azalais de Porcaraiges says however that her own friend does not have a cor trichador or 'deceitful heart' ("Ar em al freg temps vengut"). Alternately someone casts a spell on the lover -- thus the poet must enchantar, that is, 'bewitch' or 'enchant', his enemies (in Bernart de Ventadorn "Can l'erba fresch'"). Both Guilhem Comte de Peiteus and Jaufre Rudel de Blaye decribe how someone or something has left each 'bewitched' or 'enchanted': Guilhem is fadatz (in "Farai un vers"), Jaufre Rudel is fadet (in "Lanquan li jorn"). According to Marcabru (in his debate "Amics Marchabrun") love 'changes covertly/in secret the die/dice' -- [c]amja cubertament los daz. Alamanda accuses her debate partner Giraut de Bornelh of calling her own mistress chamjaritz or 'changing' (Giraut de Bornelh and Alamanda, "Si.us quer conselh") -- earlier, in the same composition, Giraut de Bornelh calls Alamanda's mistress truanda, that is, 'treacherous', 'faithless'.

In later verse (in the second half of the twelfth century) both politics and love involve trickery (and of course in some of the earlier verse -- Alamanda and Giraut's tenso -- politics, specifically a land deal, may have been at stake). Bertran de Born suggests lying in a trap ('trap') to greet the enemy ("Non puosc mudar"), and that war sometimes involves 'juggling' or 'hopscotch' of a kind: Richard one of the kings Bertran pokes fun at (whom Bertran calls mon Oc e Non -- 'my Yes and No'), puosc non sap de trastomba -- 'perhaps did not know enough [of] juggling [or hopscotch]) to 'lay off either Caortz or Cajarc' (there may as well be a mocking reference to Richard's rank and class here -- it was possible for some trobadors to fill both roles of trobador and joglar however). Arnaut Daniel on the other hand (who was also perhaps a joglar) says that his beloved pleases his heart more than a 'joust' (bortz -- note that bortz might alternately translate as 'falseness'; it's worth also noting that at least one of Arnaut's compositions echoes and may be partly a response to one of Bertran's). By the thirteenth century though, after the Domincans rose in power in parts of the Òc, there is less mention of juggling, bewitching, and such, though there can still be treachery.

Women in the Poems: Real or Imagined?

Women trobadors are known both through cansos they authored, and through their tensos or "verse debates" with other trobadors. In addition the court of Maria de Ventadorn was known to a number of trobadors, as was the trobador Tibors, who was the mother of Raimbaut d'Aurenga. For several of the women, including Maria de Ventadorn, the Comtessa de Dia, and Azalais de Porcairages, the latter two both composers of cansos or "songs" of their own, there are vidas ("biographies"). Certainly Maria de Ventadorn was a real personage and her voice in her tenso with her neighbor Guy d'Ussel was her own. The trobador Na Lombarda's tenso mentions several other lady trobadors and the exchange between Bernart and Lombarda seems to me authentic enough -- Lombarda thanks Bernart for his mention of her with other ladies. Thus I tend to believe she indeed existed.

Did Giraut de Bornelh then get away with making up the words of his tenso partner, Alamanda? Alamanda is herself mentioned in the tenso of Lombarda. Alamanda's song (el so de N'Alamanda) is also cited by Bertran de Born -- but that says Hill and Bergin (II) may have simply been a name given to the tenso Giraut alone composed, with Alamanda herself a fictitious "partner". But many people mentioned in trobador verse did exist, although heroes and heroines of romances mentioned were presumably not real people. Male debaters in the tensos are always believed to be real -- though I'm personally never certain about Marcabrun's opponent Uc Catola: was Uc Catola ("Catullus"?) the senhal or "code name" of a real partner in this first tenso or "debate" between two trobadors, that is was Uc Catola, the love-lorn opponent of Marcabru's cynicism, as real as Marcabru's lovelorn contemporary Jaufre Rudel de Blaye? Or was he fictitious (modeled perhaps after the Latin poet Catullus?)? Whatever the case, the tenso idea caught on; and for later tensos both debaters are generally known through other compositions, with vidas provided for each.

Despite Hill and Bergin's reservations, a number of medievalists, including Dr. M. L. Switten, believe that Alamanda herself probably did in fact exist. Some have identified her as Alamanda de Castelnau, who was associated with the Court of Toulouse. It's interesting to me that her tenso with Giraut de Bornelh mimics the form of a canso by the Comtessa de Dia, "A chantar m'er de so qu'ieu non volria" (the Comtessa herself sided with the Court of Toulouse in a land-gift deal dating to this period which may have been the subject of some of the verse). Besides mimicking its form, the tenso reiterates some of the themes and wording in that canso and in another of the Comtessa de Dia's cansos (which Claude Marks says in his book on the period is about the land deal -- see discussion below).

Both the Comtessa de Dia's "A chantar m'er de so qu'ieu non volria" and the tenso attributed to Giraut de Bornelh and Alamanda, "Si·us quer conselh, bel' ami' Alamanda", are composed in eleven-syllable lines, with falling rhythm. The Comtessa de Dia composed in seven-line stanzas; Giraut and Alamanda composed in eight-line stanzas except that the final line, and the third-to-the-last one, are half-lines, of six and five syllables respectively, that is, these two lines combined are of eleven syllables total. A single rhyme runs across each stanza, except for the third-to-the-last and final line, in both compositions. In each stanza of both compositions, these two lines have a rhyme distinct from the rhyme of the rest of the stanza. This rhyme in the last and third-to-the-last lines of the stanzas continues -- that is is invariant -- throughout all the stanzas of each composition. And, as noted, subject matter overlaps as well: the matter of too much pride on the part of the lover is addressed in both compositions, in the first line of the third stanza in each case.

The subject underlying this request for a "love pact" perhaps was the on-going dispute about Raimbaut d'Aurenga (IV)'s alliances -- in particular, about Raimbaut IV (of Orange)'s land-gift to the Knights Hospitallers under Alfonso X, according to Claude Marks (1976; Pilgrims, Heretics, and Lovers [MacMillan]).[55] Marks says that Raimbaut IV (the grand-nephew of Raimbaut d'Aurenga)'s gift to the Knights Hospitallers was opposed by the Comtessa de Dia who loved Raimbaut IV supposedly but supported Toulouse not the Knights. Another lady, most certainly real, Azalais de Porcairages may have been allied with Raimbaut's side (she wrote a lament on the death of Raimbaut IV's grand uncle, the trobador Raimbaut d'Aurenga). Giraut de Bornelh himself had engaged in a tenso with Raimbaut d'Aurenga (the grand uncle). Did Giraut de Bornelh then support Raimbaut IV's land gift plan?

So Alamanda may have been a real debater -- in my opinion perhaps a servant or lady associated with the Comtessa de Dia's side in the dispute. She responds to Giraut's rhyming on her name, "Alamanda", with rhymes of her own on "Alamanda". Some of these rhymes are Germanic, which suits her name, which means 'German'. Giraut continues with more rhymes ending in -nda and so does Alamanda -- until Giraut expresses his disgust: let's get done with this 'talking', he suggests; and then the pact is arranged -- the final rhymes are rhymes on parlerla ("talkative") which is Giraut's rhyme; he also rhymes on aiuda. Alamanda responds with rhymes on mera, "returning/repaying [a debt, a deserved compensation]") and perduda ("lost"). (For more on Alamanda, see the discussion in "Sons of the Poor: Marcabrun, Bernart de Ventadorn, Giraut de Bornelh", below.)

However the women shepherdesses and other women "country" figures in the pastorellas appear to be in many cases fictional, or at least the conversations may be even if there are real shepherdesses somewhere who have inspired the verse; it seems to me unlikely that Giraut Riquier's shepherdess friend was in all the places ranging from the countryside outside of Narbonne to an area west of Toulouse at all the various dates. (Why he invented her in these places? As occasions for these different voyages? Or just conveniently as a way to write about his travels?)

Class and Economics in Trobador Poems

(At the end of this section the issue of courtly love will return with a look at class and the words 'jois" and 'gai' and then there will be a return to the Oc and its relations to the Church)

During the early Middle Ages, Europe, as noted above, gradually moved away from a life centered around the villas/chateaus of Roman times to a life centered around the rural world, according to William D. Phillips (1985; accessed 2014-2015; "Slavery in Early Medieval Europe"; in "Slavery in Medieval Europe, the World of Islam, and Africa"; Part Two, Chapter Three, in Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade; by Phillips [Manchester University Press]: 43-65; books.google.com/books?id=0B8NAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA41).[56] Nevertheless, the chateau or castle or villa would remain an important gathering place. Although slavery continued, and indeed, "for every major seventh-century estate for which there are records," there was some slave labor, slavery was gradually says Phillips (1985; accessed 2014-2015)[57] replaced by laborers of another kind found in ancient Rome, the "coloni". The Roman villa system gradually revived thus, but without much slave labor, although there were still opportunities to obtain slaves, from various mostly but not always non-Christian groups, including the Slavs prior to their conversion to Christianity, and the Saracens of the Levant.

It can be inferred from the large body of surviving Trobador poetry that, in Southern France and the surrounding areas (the Limousin, the Aquitaine, and Langued'oc, as well as Switzerland and Northern Italy, Catalona, and Brittany, and perhaps also Germany, and areas reaching as far south as the Basque country) [3], besides divisions into nobility, clergy, and serfs or commoners, the population could be subdivided into trobadors or poet-composers; joglars or entertainers/singers; milites or soldiers, rising from, as John Beeler observes (1971, Warfare in Medieval Europe: 730-1200 [Cornell University Press/Google Books]: 155; books.google.com/books?id=pNdjoAT4lyoC&pg=PA151#v=onepage&q&f=false),[58] the ranks of commoners and minor officials; other "soldiers" such as Bertran de Born hailed from the land-holding classes, and of course also defended their own holdings and often worked their own lands. There were also bakers; carpenters; sheperdesses; and wandering preachers, some under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, some members of the 'heretical' Christian sects, and some who preached under no official sanction at all. Women also often defended their own castles. Many trobadors were of course soldiers as well as trobadors, and trobador compositions were the vehicles for much political debate and discussion of war. Non-land holding trobadors who attached to a castle -- for example, Raimbaut de Vaqueiras -- might act as a knight in service to the castle's lord.

The poets and entertainers, according to thirteenth-century trobador Giraut Riquier, who arranged his own work (cited at "A Historical Account of the Rise and Fall of the Troubadours in France 1100 - 1300"; www.astolat.net/troubadours/troubadours3.htm; Astolat.net is a site focused on the Middle Ages),[59] could be divided into joglars (popular secular entertainers), menestrels or musicians, and trobadors. However, some trobadors could fill several roles, so it does not seem that these distinctions were rigid ones. The roots of the joglars, says Astolat.net's "Historical Account", " . . . can be traced back to the sixth century, when Caesar of Arles wrote a decree banishing secular entertainers at the urging of church bishops." This provides an earlier instance of the Church's objection to the culture, but the Church did not outlaw trobadors -- or did it?, -- as it reportedly asked -- in the thirteenth century -- trobador Guy d'Ussel to desist from his compositions. (But it is worth noting here that farther to the West, at the close of the twelfth century, the Cistercian monastery that Bertran de Born entered upon his 'retirement' allowed Bertran to continue composing. So there were differences in the views of the Cistercians to the west and the Church to the East, differences among different orders within the Church, and differences across the three centuries.)

Regional Trade

The Òc's northwest included the county of Poitiers, with its town of the same name. The Limousin, with the town of Limotges; and Perigord, with the town of Perigord, formed the north central part of Òc. The county of Toulouse ruled by its count formed the central-south corridor. Adjacent to the county of Toulouse was that of Quercy, with its trading center, Cahors. To the east of the Rhone River lay Dia. In the southeast, Narbonne and Montpelier skirted the Mediterranean Sea. Up the Rhone River from Montpelier were the towns of Argence, Belcaire, Aurenga, and Valensa. The Òc's southwestern borders were thus the Garonne River, flanking the southern edge of the county of Toulouse, with Gascony below it. Vasconia still farther south in the Pyrenees was never really part of the Òc. The Mediterranean Sea was its southeastern border. The Durance River and the town of Vensa formed its easternmost border. The Òc's northern boundary along the Loire River marked the northernmost boundary of olive cultivation. According to Revision's Radio's "The Troubadours: Geography and Language" (Tower of Song, www.revradiotowerofsong.org/Troubadours_Geography_Language.htm):

The Southeastern region of Òc is also known as "Provence". Peire Vidal described it in the latter half of the twelfth century:

In the twelfth century, sometime "[b]etween 1180 and 1280, traders from Cahors and other neighboring towns", who became known as Cahorsins [to distinguish them from Jews and Lombards], "opened counters all over Europe [Marseilles, Genoa, Sicily, Flanders, England and Norway]" (according to CRW Flags; www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/fr-46-ch.html)[61]. Claire Taylor (2011; Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Medieval Quercy [York Medieval Press; books.google.com/books?id=ZDlfmsW5wC8C]),[62] says that, while in 1144 there was still no mill in Cahors, by 1170 its weekly market featured weapons, nuts, and fish including whale meat. By 1188 says Taylor, Cahors was a "preeminent and precocious monetary center" (p. 55), and by 1195 it was selling goods imported from England, Spain, and Italy.

Olives, wine, and the Mediterranean spice trade were perhaps the backbones of local economies. Both Cahors and Lombardy were important wine regions. Wine was also important in the Aquitaine, although Taylor notes in her study Heresy in Medieval France: Dualism in Aquitaine and the Agenais: 1000 to 1249 (2005 [Boydell and Brewer]: 157; books.google.com/books?id=WvtZb174ScsC),[63] the wine trade in the Aquitaine was not completely stable: it did better when there were soldiers to be supplied -- and thus perhaps the Aquitaine's mercantile class had a vested interest in every conflict in the region.

Borrowing and lending were a central part of the spice trade. The Cahorsins along with the Lombards were granted the right to charge interest on loans says Charles R. Geisst (2013; accessed 2014-15; Beggar Thy Neighbor: A History of Usury and Debt, online excerpt [University of Pennsylvania]; www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/15077.html.[64] At least until Jews became more central in lending, these two groups were the primary source of loans in Southern Europe. The Lombards also lent money as far north as England. Still another source of loans were the Knights Templars according to Geisst (2013; accessed 2014-2015).[65] Another type of loan in the region which allowed the charging of interest was the "sea loan" -- a loan made on trade that traveled over the seas. These loans were generally made in port cities like Venice or Genoa according to Meir Kohn (February, 1999; accessed 2015; "Risk Instruments in the Medieval and Early Modern Economy", Working Papers 99-07 [Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College Department of Economics]: 2-4; www.dartmouth.edu/~mkohn/Papers/99-07.pdf).[66] The markup on Alexandria's spices when they reached Venice was over fifty percent, says Kohn, and Venice merchants thus profited greatly from the spice trade with Alexandria, realizing profits of between thirteen and twenty-three percent after interest and other expenses.

Besides the trade in spices, a flourishing trade in gold linked Sicily with North Africa and Africa. Gold came from Ghana, via the town of Sijilmassa, in what is today Morocco. From Sijilmassa, the gold made its way to Sicily, says Ernest E. Jenkins ("Mediterranean Communities in Competition and Conflict", chapter 6 in The Mediterranean World of Alfonso II and Peter II of Aragon (1162-1213): 103-122; books.google.com/books?id=KSnHAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA118).[67] While merchants from Cahors, Lombardy, Venice, and Sicily profited, other parts of Europe remained poor. Even the Aquitaine, just to the west of Cahors, did not develop urban centers as great as those of those of Toulouse, Narbonne, and other cities situated in Langued'oc (or "Provence", whichever name, this is the more southeastern part of Òc), on the Mediterranean, says Claire Taylor (2005; Heresy in Medieval France [Boydell and Brewer]: 157; books.google.com/books?id=WvtZb174ScsC).[68]

Class Relationships, Social Organization

Together though Aquitaine, the Limousin, and Langued'oc formed a wealthy region, and perhaps the source of a large amount of the money donated to the Knights Templars, who defended Crusade routes. Merchants, traders, money-changers, and craftsmen came to play a major role in the Òc, and they became the powerful rivals of feudal overlords in the Òc's politics. The region was disorganized or rather, loosely organized, into many small rival fiefdoms, mostly held in allodial tenure.

Class seems to have been somewhat fluid in the Òc; and relationships of fidelity could also be entered into and dispensed with; again as Cheyette and Switten note, the language of fidelity, of vassals, is the language used in discussions of courtly love -- does this suggest a relationship, in which the woman acts instead of her husband to accept pledges?

According to Walter L. Wakefield (1974, Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Southern France: 1100-1250 [University of California Press]: 50), " . . . governmental and social patterns . . ." in twelfth-century Southern France in the Middle Ages " . . . were feudal, . . . " but " . . . with less-binding ties of homage and . . . " fewer military obligations than in Northern France, and urban growth in the Òc and surrounding areas, particularly in Langued'oc and in nearby Cahors, in comparison to growth in the North, was rapid.[69] The trobadors began composing in Southern France almost a hundred years earlier than the trouvères to the North composed.

Wakefield says that,

According to Wakefield,

Abraham Rees says that until the eleventh century, the property in Catalonia and the Òc seems to have been "entirely allodial" (1819; "Allodium", in The Cyclopaedia, Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, Volume 1 [London : Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown]: 738/pp. 737-738; books.google.com/books?id=H39B5ua-P08C&pg=PT738).[71] Rees adds that, "[w]hile some . . . were fond of relinquishing this kind of property, in order to hold it in feudal tenure, others were solicitous to convert their fiefs into allodial property . . . ." According to John Beeler (1971, "Warfare in Southern France and Christian Spain"; Chapter 6 [pp. 151-184] in Warfare in Feudal Europe, 730-1200 [Cornell University Press/Google Books]: 151; books.google.com/books?id=pNdjoAT4lyoC), ". . . as late as the 11th century most land in Southern France was still held in allodial tenure, and the holders were not necessarily the men of any lord."[72] Beeler adds that, "[o]nly a small fraction of the land was held as fiefs in return for military service." Says Claire Taylor (2005; Heresy in Medieval France: Dualism in the Aquitaine and Agenais: 1000-1249: 158), the allods in the Aquitaine managed to continue their "free status" longer than elsewhere, so that the only higher authority than many an Aquitaine landholder "was the Duke himself", and many law codes emphasized the authority of all inhabitants, for example the law codes of Bigorre allowed inhabitants to "bear arms in self defence even against knights".[73]

This was in part the result of influence from Basque law according to Taylor (Heresy in Medieval France: 158): land under Basque law was held even before the Middle Ages as a patrimony.[74] Thus it did not pass to a vassal bound in service to an overlord but from the landholder to his or her heirs (Basque law allowed women to inherit land in the absence of a male heir explains Taylor, p. 158).

According to Wakefield (1974: 52) again, the Òc's nobility had to depend more upon " . . . the resources of [their] . . . own allods than on feudal services."[75]

Beeler points out that, in the early Middle Ages, before 900 A.D., "no army from the south of France won a significant victory." Feudal control remained an impossibility later says Beeler,

Persons who were not from the nobility (merchants and craftspeople, for example) purchased land when they could amass the money to do so, and Wakefield (1974: 52) observes that the lesser nobility actually had scant holdings of their own; in fact, a large proportion of the population were not serfs, but impoverished nobility:[77]

Meanwhile, the vassal in nearby Germany, according to Malcolm Barber (2004; The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050 to 1320, 2nd ed. [Psychology Press]: 239; books.google.com/books?id=bdvBSnEQkz4C), by the twelfth century, had risen in social rank, and was being "consolidated" into the upper class (pp. 39, 41)[78]

Besides its own mercantile culture, the Òc as noted took some interest in Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside, particularly what is today Syria. This region was of commercial as well as religious importance: both Italy and the Òc sought Mediterranean trade, with connections to Red Sea trade and the spice routes. In Jerusalem apparently, says Barber (p. 239), where the Knights Templars and Knights Hospitallers had established themselves beginning with the first crusade, in twelfth-century commerce, money's value could sometimes at least substitute for a land holding.[79] Both fiefs of money and fiefs of land could be inherited as well as granted, and on occasion, like many fiefs in the Òc itself, they might become the property of someone who was not bound in service to an overlord. -- However, as the purpose of the fiefs in Jerusalem was generally protection, this was less common than in the Òc (see Kenneth Setton, Norman Zacour, Harry Hazard, 1985, "The Feudal Regime" [206-216/207], Section B, in "The Political and Ecclesiastical Organization of the Crusader States", Chapter V [pp. 195-250], in A History of the Crusades [University of Wisconsin Press]; books.google.com/books?id=tgfMNfBIgSwC&pg=PA206: 206-208; 208-209).[80].

Patronage and Populism

Male composers of trobador verse at least were able to rely on support from patrons. Only one female composer mentions anything that might be interpreted as patronage: Azalais de Porcairages says that en vostra merce·m metrai, that "I place myself in your mercy". Maria de Ventadorn, a trobador herself, may have patronized both trobadors and joglars. According to her vida:

Again, according to her vida, Maria de Ventadorn looked after her poor neighbor, the trobador Gui d'Ussel, when his lady abandoned him. She arranged to have him compose a tenso or "verse argument" with her:

Gui himself lived with his two brothers, also trobadors, at a castle in the Limousin, next door to Maria's castle; the three brothers apparently themselves hosted the trobador Gaucelm Faidit who, according to his vida, had frittered away his fortune gaming. According to the vida of Gui's brother Elias d'Ussel, Gaucelm composed the following verse for Elias d'Ussel, lauding his chateau, which Gaucelm called "Casluz":

The thirteenth-century satirist, Sordello, having been apparently denied access to several courts because of his penchant for satire, s'anet en Proensa, "went into Provence", where he was not only honored, but given both a nice castel or "chateau" and a nice wife:

"Patronage" may have been one way courtly love played a role in "improving" the trobador (discussed above in "Love for Improvement and Alliances in the Òc"); trobador culture's growth was aided thus by support from the nobility.[*] In addition, because the poems of the period were rarely written down, but were instead sung or chanted often by joglars or "performers",[**], a large body of people, including those who could not have afforded a book, came to know trobador verse, and had the opportunity to improvise on it themselves, to add a verse or two, or perhaps sing it to different music: one of Peire Cardenal's coblas making fun of the clergy was sung by church-goers, in church, under the mass-participants' breaths.

Trobador verse thus was able to spread among all classes of society. Likewise the poets themselves, at least the men, hailed from all classes -- as noted already the male composers could rely on support from patrons.

Sons of the Poor: Marcabrun, Bernart de Ventadorn, Giraut de Bornelh

Marcabrun was, according to his vida, abandoned at birth at the door of a rich man, and never knew his father (Lirica medievale romanza; accessed 2015; http://letteraturaeuropea.let.uniroma1.it/?q=tag/vida-marcabru):

Marcabrun had at least the fortune to be educated by the man at whose doorstep he was abandoned. The parents of both Bernart de Ventadorn and Giraut de Bornelh were known -- and poor. Bernart de Ventadorn, according to his vida or 'biography' (in Jean Boutière and A. -H. Schutz, eds., with the collaboration of I. -M. Cluzel, 1964, Textes Provençaux des XIIe et XIVe Siècles, with French translations [Paris: A. -G. Nizet]: 26-27[81]):

Bernart's contemporary Peire d'Alverne ("Chantarai d'aquestz trobadors," 12th century; rpt. 1973, in Thomas G. Bergin and Raymond T. Hill, eds., with the collaboration of Susan Olson, William D. Paden, Jr., and Nathaniel Smith, Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours vol. I, 2nd ed. [New Haven, CT: Yale University Press]: 81-82) said of Bernart,[83]

According to Dutch musicologist Hendrik Van der Werf (1984, The Extant Troubadour Melodies, with text editor Gerald A. Bond [Rochester, NY: Hendrik Van der Werf]: 7), Bernart de Ventadorn's canso or 'song', "Can vei la lauzeta mover" ('When I see the lark moving'), appears in quite a few manuscripts and must have been quite popular.[82]

The trobador Peire d'Alvernhe again, in his stanza on Bernart de Ventadorn (in his "Chantarai d'aquestz trobadors"; above), also lambasts Peire's fellow trobador, Giraut de Bornelh, who, since Bernart de Ventadorn was born a dorn or "hand's breadth" below him, according to Peire, must have been born a dorn or "hand's breadth" above Bernart de Ventadorn.[86] Giraut de Bornelh of course is Alamanda's tenso partner, mentioned above, and a scholar/teacher.

It's worth noting here that the word paubres (or paubre or paubra, "poor") figures only in the vidas ("biographies") of male trobadors, not in those of women. Does this mean that no woman trobador was poor? Some, Alamanda for example, lack a surviving vida. Was she poor?

Alamanda was, according to a tenso between herself and Giraut de Bornelh (who is described in his vida as the son of a poor couple), the "lady" or "miss" or "maidservant", the donzella, of Giraut de Bornelh's lady. The word donzella as noted earlier, is a diminutive form, unlike dons or domna. It was the latter two terms that were generally used to denote women trobadors. Does the diminutive indicate that Alamanda was in fact poor? Or was she a young lady of high birth serving one of perhaps as high or higher birth, but perhaps a bit older, or married? (Note that the diminutive pulcela, "maiden", was used in a tenso composed by three women; in this composition the diminutive indicated that a woman was simply unwed.) Was Alamanda a real person? The tenso between Alamanda, real or imagined, and Giraut, seems to me to refer to historical concerns voiced by the Comtessa de Dia during the same period that the tenso was composed. The Comtessa de Dia sought some sort of alliance apparently with Raimbaut d'Aurenga (IV). Does this mean that Alamanda too existed historically? One Alamanda of Castelnau did, as noted previously, exist, and was perhaps nineteen years of age at the time of the debate. According to the coat of arms on her tombstone, says M. L. Abbé Salvan (1859, Histoire Générale de l'église de Toulouse: Depuis les temps les plus recalés jusqu'à nos jours [Genome lumaraire de la Métropole de Toulouse], vol 3, part 2 -- "Temps Intermèdiaires" [Toulouse: Delbot?; digitized by Google; archive.org/stream/bub_gb_7scCAAAAQAAJ/bub_gb_7scCAAAAQAAJ_djvu.txt];[84] see also, Wikipedia, "Alamanda de Castelnau" [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamanda_de_Castelnau][85]), she either belonged to or had been brought up in the court of Raymond V of Toulouse (with which the Comtessa de Dia was also allied). She had then married Guilhem de Castelnau. Since the verse Alamanda composed with Giraut de Bornelh echoes a song composed by the Comtessa de Dia, it's even possible that the two women instigated the verse debate -- although it is Giraut who begins the tenso. Still another woman trobador, Lombarda, of whom a tenso fragment survives, if she actually existed, might have been, as her tenso partner suggests, a Lombard, from Lombardy -- a place famous for its merchants more than for its nobility, though it was hardly poor.

Poor women did exist however, whether or not any ever composed, and are described by trobadors. In his satire "Las amairitz, qui encolpar las vol" Peire Cardenal took the side of a poor adulteress chastised by a wealthier one:

The trobador Peire d'Alvernhe, in his stanza on Bernart de Ventadorn Giraut de Bornelh, lambasts fellow trobador Giraut de Bornelh, who, since Bernart de Ventadorn was dorn or "hand's breadth" below him, must have in turn been born just a "hand's breadth" above Bernart de Ventadorn.[86] Giraut de Bornelh was of course Alamanda's tenso partner, mentioned above, a scholar/teacher. Peire d'Alvernhe thus pokes fun at the humble origins of both of his contemporaries, Giraut de Bornelh and Bernart de Ventadorn. According to Giraut's vida, his parents were poor; the vida however does not say that they were serfs. Giraut was a 'man of letters' says the vida, an acceptable occupation. While he visited castles (perhaps like a "circuit rider") to perform poetry during the summer months, he either studied or taught (aprendia, in his vida, excerpted below, can mean either) during the winter ones:

According to the same vida, Giraut never married but gave all of his earnings to his poor parents, and to his village:

Although Peire d'Alvernhe portrays Giraut as a spindly scholar, Giraut de Bornelh, like Bernart de Ventadorn, was one of the more highly regarded trobadors of the period -- Peire d'Alvernhe's vida, which hails Peire d'Alvernhe as the greatest trobador, adds that Peire was the greatest, except for Giraut de Bornelh, who was considered greater.

The plain style or trobar leus ("light") songs composed by women were also popular during trobador times. Today, however, following Dantë (Dantë Alighieri, 1972, "Purgatorio," Canto XXVI, v. 117, in La Divina Comedia, ed. and annotated by C. H. Grandgent; revised by Charles S. Singleton [Cambridge, Massachusetts]),[87] many critics have come to prefer the more occlusive trobar clus. In several of Giraut de Bornelh's poems -- his "Leu Chansonet'e vil" and his tenso with the trobador Raimbaut d'Aurenga -- he champions the "simpler" trobar leus verse, and its purported clarity. But, as Frank Chambers observes (1985; An Introduction to Old Provençal Versification [Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society]; books.google.com/books?id=-ggNAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA110), Giraut himself composed in a mix of trobar leus and trobar clus.[88]Giraut observes in his "Leu chansonet'e vil" that verse composed in trobar leus is more accessible (and indeed trobar leus are more accessible than the trobar clus, even today):

(Giraut de Bornelh, "Leu chansonet'e vil," in Ruth Verity Sharman, Canso-Sirventes XLVII, The Cansos and Sirventes of the Troubadour Giraut de Bornelh; a Critical Edition [Cambridge, U.K. Cambridge University Press]): 283, 286, 287.[89])

Trobador, Joglar, Craftsman: Arnaut Daniel

Craftsmen were at least as important in the Òc during the time of the Trobadors as they have been elsewhere (according to Phillips? some craftsmen unlike farmers may have come from an upper class of slaves???). According to Beverly Mayne Kienzle (2001, Cistercians, Heresy, and Crusade in Occitania, 1145-1229: Preaching in the Lord's Vineyard [Rochester, New York: Boydell & Brewer/York Medieval Press/Google Books]: 37; books.google.com/books?id=bp3YNRBg_WIC&pg=PA37#v=onepage&q&f=false),[89b] in the countryside of the Òc, both the Cistercian Monks and the so-called 'Cathars' or 'Good men' organized religious worship around work; says Kienzle:

Images of 'Love,' 'poetry,' and 'carpentry' mix in the verse of Arnaut Daniel, where the poem is crafted (planed, and gilded) by the poet and by 'Love':

Daniel himself would be described by the thirteenth-century poet Dantë, who portrayed various trobadors in his Divina Comedia, as il migglior fabbro del parlar materno, "the master craftsman of the mother tongue" (Dantë Alighieri, 1972, "Purgatorio," Canto XXVI, v. 117, in La Divina Comedia, ed. and annotated by C. H. Grandgent; revised by Charles S. Singleton [Cambridge, Massachusetts]: 548).[90]

While it may be inferred that the joglars or 'performers' of the poetry had lower social status than did the poets themselves, there was as noted above no rigid distinction between these two classes apparently. The Trobador poet often travelled with his or her joglars, as was the case with Giraut de Bornelh {where did I read he had other joglars? but IMO he did}, who, according to his vida travelled to the various courts of Òc in the summers:

According to his vida, Daniel himself seems to have been both a poet and a joglar:

The Joyous Trobador-lover, with the Gay Joglar

The courtly lover, as well as Amors, 'Love' itself, has 'joi' or 'joy.' In the tornada of Azalais de Porcairages' canso or 'song,' the poem's joglar is light-hearted (has a 'cor gai', a 'light heart'), while the poem's audience/recipient is one who 'jois e jovens guida', who 'guides joy and youth'. (Note: alternately, 'there [the place] which joy and youth guide'; 'joy' and 'youth' appear in form to be in the nominative case; if they are so, if the Arabic use of the feminine singular verb for non-human plurals crept into the Òc, then this is a correct translation; otherwise it's as translated above, 'one who guides joy and youth'). The poem's recipient in Narbonne -- to whom the verse's tornada is addressed -- is not of course the love Azalais sings of, but a third party. In the poem Azalais sings of her sorrows for d'Aurenga, recently dead. Her own love was his relative apparently. (For more theorizing on whom this song was addressed to, see Wikipedia, retrieved online 2010, "Azalais de Porcairages"[91].)

There may be some distinction between gaiety in a performer's heart ("gaiety" is also an attribute of spring, and later, in the verse of the trobador Riquier, of Catalona), and the "joy" of courtly love, although, as we have seen, the poet could also be a joglar and of course a lover. Is there a distinction and if so, does it indicate that amor, "love", with its jois, is either more intimate or more serious than gaiety?

The Vassal-, Petty Lord-, or Lady-Soldier

Regardless of social class, almost everyone in the Òc was a 'fighter'. Feudal vassals owed military support to their overlords, and were entitled to protection and rewards for their military services. In the Òc however, if an overlord did not reward and protect his 'vassal' sufficiently, the vassal had, according to Karen Wilk Klein (1971; The Partisan Voice: a Study of the Political Lyric in France and Germany, 1180 - 1230 [Mouton: the Hague]: 130), the right to dissolve the contract which obligated him or her to the overlord. Once this contract was dissolved, a soldier could join another lord and fight his original overlord. Thus it was possible to attain one's fortune and freedom by going to war. The vassals shifted loyalty frequently, in order to fulfill their own desires for land or power or else in quest for independence for the region they governed and did business in. According to André Dupuy, women also might defend their villages militarily:

The Petty-Lord-Trobador-Soldier Ridiculing Great Kings: Bertran de Born

The trobador Bertran de Born's vidas ('biographies') and razos ('introductory notes'), which accompany his poetry, describe Bertran de Born's reputation for war-mongering:

There are several different theories about Bertran de Born's involvement in the warfare in the Òc. According to Peter Makin (1978, Provence and Pound [Berkeley: University of California Press]), Bertran liked a fight because warfare brought him, a poor feudal lord with a small castle on a mountain slope at Autafort, and with his neighbors encroaching on him, a little more land and income; indeed, according to Makin (and to some of Bertran de Born's verse satires; see below; but be careful, for these are, after all, satires), the great barons dispensed more freely of their favors in time of war. A second theory, held by R. de Boysson, is that de Born was a fierce nationalist, fighting for the Aquitaine's independence from both France and England (R. de Boysson, 1973, Etudes sur Bertran de Born: sa vie, ses oeuvres, et son siècle [Geneva: Slatkine Reprints]: 276). Hence Bertran sometimes supported the English sovereign -- perhaps when he was encroached by others including the King of France -- and sometimes opposed him -- when the French King was not in the way perhaps or the King's wife Alienor was seeking more independence for her patrimony in the Aquitaine. Bertran de Born could thus pursue an independent course for the Òc, from both France and England. According to de Boysson (1973: 276), Bertran de Born wished to make his region an independent province, under a liberal and generous government. Klein (Karen Wilk Klein, 1971, The Partisan Voice; a Study of the Political Lyric in France and Germany, 1180 - 1230 [Mouton: the Hague]: 129-130) argues however that de Born was not a revolutionary with a vision of a future nation, but merely a petty feudal lord engaging in petty squabbles with his neighbors over the surrounding land. Klein's argument omits any discussion however of the fact that the boundaries of France as we know them today did not exist. Thus there was no way Bertran de Born could have supported a vision of today's France in any case. No doubt of course that Bertran de Born frequently engaged in the sorts of petty squabbles that Klein claims he was engaged in. His squabble however with his brother Constantin involved a "squabble" about whether or not to join the Young King Henri in a revolt against Young Henri's father, Henri II. And of course fiefdoms were small, and were shared in the South by many overlords, and what nationalist, even today, does not engage, like everyone else, in a petty squabble or two?

Although Bertran de Born was ultimately consigned to Hell by Dantë (Dantë Alighieri, "Inferno," Canto XXVIII, vv. 117 - 126, 129 - 136; in Grandgent et. al., 1972: 250; see also Dantë Alighieri, "Inferno," Canto XXVIII; in Charles S. Singleton, transl., 1979, The Divine Comedy, I, Italian text and translation; Bollingen Series LXXX [Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press]: 300-301),[***], a look at Bertran de Born's sirventes (verse satire), "Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga", suggests that the trobador's glorification of war may have at least sometimes been tinged with sarcasm. Although war may sometimes have been inevitable, war in the Òc at least was not, for a poor knight like Bertran, that affordable. Bertran did however support the third crusade to Jerusalem, which is made clear in his sirventes, "Folheta, vos mi prejatz que eu chan", which was composed just a few years after "Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga" ('Folheta, you have asked me to sing'; see, James H. Donaldson, translator, "Folheta, vos mi prejatz que eu chan", www.brindinpress.com/povb4022.htm ; note that the verb in the last line of the first stanza is translated as a third person plural verb while the verb in the original is a second person singlar verb -- it's not clear whether this translation is intentional on Donaldson's part or is a printing error; I suspect the latter).

As noted above (in "Patronage and Populism"), trobadors were sometimes lodged by patrons from the nobility, and poems were directed to these patrons and other nobility. The trobador poems on more than one occasion however made sport of the nobility including lords and kings where the trobador-composers were lodged. Bertran's sirventes was such a poem. Bertran was frequently a guest of the Plantaganet household ("Bertran de Born," Chapter VIII, in "La Quarantaine d'Argentan", Bulletin de la société scientifique, historique, et archéologique de la Corrèze 23: 63-65; books.google.com/books?id=zvYTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA64). "Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga" pokes fun at the English Plantaganet King Richard Lionheart, with whom Bertran was sometimes allied. The King was dubbed by Bertran, "Sir 'Oc-e-No'" or 'Sir Yes-and- No'. At first it seems that Bertran is praising warfare in his verse, although the tone of the verse is a bit queer:

(Bertran de Born, "Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga", in William D. Paden, Jr., Tilde Sans Kovitch, and Patricia H. Stëblein, eds., 1986, The Poems of the Troubadour Bertran de Born [Berkeley: University of California Regents]: 372, 373.[****])

In the sirventes, Bertran suggests that King Phillipe Auguste of France take his war, not to the Òc -- only recently engulfed by the battles of the two kings (Phillipe Auguste and Richard Lionheart, Bertran's sometime ally), but instead to Richard Lionheart's holdings in Normandy. Bertran de Born then goes on to poke fun at and blame Richard Lionheart for the war's troublesomeness:

(Again in Bertran de Born, "Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga", in Paden Jr. et. al., 1989: 372, 373.)

Although Bertran offers to help the war effort with his "conoissensa" ("know-how"), dressed ready-to-fight, he does not offer to fight, and if anything the sirventes seems to be a cry for the two warlords to take their war elsewhere, out of the Òc.

The meaning of Bertran's later 'half'-sirventes or miei-sirventes is less clear. In it the trobador names Richard Lionheart as well as Alfonso of Castille, though Phillipe Auguste of France may also be one of the kings involved in the dispute. Bertran was a petty lord, one with, as he has noted in "Non puosc mudar mon chantar non esparga" (quoted above), scant resources for aiding Richard Lionheart in a long war. However, in his 'half'-sirventes, Bertran talks glowingly of towns where merchants and their goods will not be secure:

John France ("Capuchins as Crusaders: Southern Gaul in the late Twelfth Century"; www.reading.ac.uk/web/files/GCMS/RMS-2010-06_J._France,_Capuchins_as_Crusaders_Southern_Gaul_in_the_late_Twelfth_Century.pdf) describes several uprisings in the Aquitaine against Richard Lionheart, with the help of the Capuchins, a mendicant order that ostensibly would suppress heresy but for the most part aligned with the heretics, including two revolts just as Richard was attempting to return from the third Crusade, in 1192 and 1193. The uprisings tended to involve attacks on the mercantile class, and were aligned with the House of Toulouse which opposed Richard. (I note here that many Jewish merchants had fled Phillipe's territory with the outset of the third Crusade, thanks in part to Phillipe's having absolved debts to these merchants owed by all subjects who joined the Crusade; it had been hoped that Richard would do likewise but he did not do so.) Perhaps Bertran is temporarily rejoicing in the rebellion against the increasingly well-to-do merchant class. J. France does not suggest that Phillipe Auguste himself was heavily involved in the revolts although Phillipe tended to align with Toulouse against Richard.

But perhaps instead this verse sings of Richard's return to fight Phillipe Auguste after Richard's ransoming, largely by his mother's efforts, from the prison where the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI had held him for a time after the third Crusade, Thus Bertran is perhaps talking of Richard's avenging Phillipe's war on Richard -- Richard had reportedly been, when taken prisoner, in the guise of a merchant, so perhaps this is a call to avenge that act. In any case, the wares to be plundered come from "the direction of France" -- and not from the Aquitaine.

The Thirteenth-Century Satirist: Sordello

The thirteenth-century trobador Sordello likewise satirized his overlords. Sordello composed a verse-satire thinly veiled as a planh or 'lament' mourning the death of 'En Blacatz', 'Sir Blacatz', albeit mourning in 'light song.' In this song, Sordello even satirizes the Count of Provence -- by whom Sordello was being hosted at the time, having been, according to his vida(?/razo), evicted from most of the other Courts.

Sordello's poem concludes:

Satire, including works ridiculing the trobadors themselves and also the nobility and the great barons especially, for their foolishness or ineptness, was welcome in many Medieval courts perhaps. Members of the Òc's nobility thus perhaps gained what status any had not as a result of rank or money, but rather as a result of deeds -- military prowess; hospitality; good composing skills; in the case of a lady such as Maria de Ventadorn, she could earn some worth by being above reproach. While trobadors like Sordello, and apparently the trobadors' audiences, admired knightly prowess and skill in battle, when a particular battle did not suit a trobador or knight, Bertran de Born for example, in his goals, in the securing of his turf and interests, it was hardly shameful to sit at the sidelines and even poke some fun at the squabble -- even when the person requesting battle was Richard Lionheart, the son of Alienor of Aquitaine, the great grandson thus of the Duke of the Aquitaine, and hence a Duke himself.

Closing Notes on Trobador Class

The Òc was sweet and beautiful, rich in goods. It was also perhaps healthful, rich in sweet breezes, according to several trobadors who lived there -- in particular, to Peire Vidal, of Provence; and Bernart de Ventadorn, of the Limousin. In its affluent, pleasant environment, many male trobadors at least hailed from the lower classes -- Marcabrun, abandoned at birth, his mother being perhaps too poor to care for him; Bernart de Ventadorn, the son of a serf and baker; Giraut de Bornelh, a spindly scholar hardly of higher rank. But not all poor trobadors hailed from the lower classes; the three d'Ussel brothers were noble apparently having inherited a castle, but they had, according to their vidas, almost no income. Another trobador Gaucelm Faidit described one brother, Elias, as "poor". Gaucelm himself had squandered his own holdings. The d'Ussel brothers took to composing verse for a living. Other trobadors were petty lords, and knights also composed verse. Richard Lionheart himself composed at least one sirventes.

Courtly love -- and patronage too -- could apparently help a trobador's status. And there was some fluidity in "rank" -- as, while trobadors were, according to rankings of the day, of higher status than were joglars, there was no clear line and it was possible at least in the case of males to take on both positions -- Arnaut Daniel, well-educated and highly regarded in his day and after, was supposedly a joglar as well as trobador.

The ladies composed verse too; but it's not clear that they relied on patronage from the nobility or that it could improve them, though one lady composer, Azalais de Porcairages, may have relied on some patronage from her "lord"-friend. Others like Maria de Ventadorn, who was a lady above all according to her vida, who knew how to act, who was most deserving of praise, apparently patronized other trobadors. The ladies sought apparently to patronize, as we shall see in the next section, in religious life as well as in the courts. And women like the men, again as we shall see, entered in pacts and alliances. We shall also see that the life of the wandering joglar found its religious parallel in the life of the wandering Franciscan monk, begging alms; that it thus in some since may have imitated the life of Jesus. Women in the Òc, who may have found the restrictions on women in monastic life not to their taste (not to mention the cost of entering a nunnery, and of course monastic life prevented women from looking after family land with their husband), may have themselves chosen participation in secular courtly life as an alternative to religious life, an alternative that would, hopefully, make them better people.

Little Heed for Latin Edicts

Christians in the Midst of Jews and Saracens: Guilhem IX and Jaufre Rudel de Blaye

The close alliance between Church and State that existed in the North was lacking in the Òc, in part perhaps because, as noted above (see "East Versus West, Barons Versus Clergy: The Appointment of Bishops and Abbots"), the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the Òc tended to support the Holy Roman Emperor in his conflicts with the Papacy. Even earlier, the eleventh-century trobador, Guilhem the Count of Poitiers, replied to the bald papal legate who brought a message from the Pope enjoining Guilhem to give up an adulterous affair with a vicecountess, saying that "the comb" would "curl the hair" on the legate's head before Guilhem gave up the vicecountess (Frederick Goldin, 1973, Lyrics of the Troubadours [Garden City, New Jersey: Doubleday]: 5). Similarly, Jaufre Rudel de Blaye was quick to distance his poetry from the written edicts often associated with the Church, explaining that his own poem was sung [e]n plana lengua romana, [s]enes breu de parguamina, "in plain Romance", "without parchment paper" (de Blaye, mid-twelfth century, tornada, "Quan lo rius de la fontana," in Bergin et. al., 1973, I: 32).

Perhaps again because of the Òc's location along the crusade and trade routes, just as trade flourished, some tolerance of religious differences was the norm. In the eighth through twelfth centuries the Basques just south of the Aquitaine (the Aquitaine itself was the home of Guilhem of Poitiers; it was as noted, adjacent to the Alvernhe at its Northeast border, and to the Òc at its Southeast border) had intermarried with Muslims. Attempts to take this region by the northerners had occurred various times in the early Middle Ages. There was an attempt by Carles li rei, with his band of Franks and Normans on their way back from Narbonne, several centuries before Guilhem, described in La Chanson de Rolande. The Chanson states that the region was ruled by the infidels (Saracens what was the date that the Basques converted to Christianity which they had done for the most part although some IMO intermarried with Saracens). It is perhaps out of contempt for some of the Northern crossings in quest of land in the Òc that Guilhem, in his famous "riddle poem", boasts that, "never has a Norman nor a Frenchman/come in my house":

The Franks tended to control the Crusader Kingdom in Syria, though they were only one of the European ethnicities that peppered the region. The Francs were perhaps not always foes of the Òc: Guilhem's son, who was Alienor of Aquitaine's father, at his death left young Alienor with the Frankish King Louis as her guardian. Louis then hastened to marry her, but this might not have been what her father had intended. Guilhem himself, besides sometimes opposing the Normans and Franks, took part in a Crusade against some of the Moors in Spain. In Spain, he fought beside a Muslim, who, it seems, was his friend. He also took part in the so-called "Coward's Crusade". Those who had refused the First Crusade, some at least because they opposed the Papacy's right to call up a Crusade, believing that that right belonged to the secular Lords, had been compelled to join it. Guilhem's own unit did not make it to Jerusalem.

As noted above (see "Literary Forms, Rhyme, and Rhythm", above), Arab odes may have sometimes inspired trobador rhythms and themes. Bertran de Born's planh or "lament" for ·l jove rei engles is both rhythmically and thematically reminiscent of a lament by the Arab poet, 'al-Khansaa for her brother, killed in war. Similarly, romance refrains made their way into Andalusian poetry.

Jews, although they did not enjoy the full rights of other citizens, were allowed to practice their religion freely, own property, and advance to administrative positions in the courts of the nobility says Wakefield (Walter L. Wakefield, 1974: 61). Like the Muslims, they composed verse (muwashshahs), and at least one (Bonfilhs) engaged -- in trobador verse -- in a religious debate with a Christian trobador (Giraut Riquier). This was during the thirteenth-century Albigensian Crusade, sometimes directed against the Jews. The eleventh-century trobador Guilhem de Poitiers had at least one (several generations back) Jewish ancestor. 'Heretical' Christian sects, such as the Cathars and Waldensians, also thrived.

The Cathars argued for a simpler service, healed by the laying on of hands, insisted that all would be saved as all were God's creation and God was incapable of creating evil, while the world and sin were illusions or creations of an enemy or false god (thus perhaps abortion was tolerated in some cities, as death was to the more religious and the more likely normally to oppose abortion preferable to a life of sin and illusion; this is not to say that abortion was condoned). The Waldensians tried to redeem all, focusing on the poor, the downtrodden, and prostitutes, following what they saw as Jesus' example here.

The trobador poetry, and to some degree the society, expressed a tolerance of many faiths appropriate to a region situated at the crossroads of several faiths, and one where some inhabitants had only recently been converted. Jaufre Rudel de Blaye in any case extolled the nobility of the lady, comparing her with other women of all three faiths, "Christian, Jewish, or Saracen [Muslim]" -- without distinguishing or attempting to diminish any faith, or at least, not as far as the worth of the ladies was concerned (although for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian, which a few did, she had to convert first to Christianity):

(Jaufre Rudel de Blaye, "Quan lo rius de la fontanha," retrieved online 2010; at trobar.org ; www.trobar.org/troubadours/jaufre_rudel/jaufre_rudel_02.php; originally translated from Bergin et. al., 1973; thanks go to John Peck for assisting with the translation of mana , "manna".)

This is not to say that the Òc in the Middle Ages was without prejudice. While a large number of Moors and Africans traded with apparent ease in Spain even after the fall of Toledo (early thirteenth century), just to the north (and east) of the Òc, in what's today Germany, according to Tucker and Liefield (Ruth Tucker; Walter L. Liefield, 1987, Daughters of the Church: Women and Ministry from New Testament Times to the Present[Zondervan/google books]: 146; books.google.com/books?id=KzvBxKU8CpkC), a poet-nun, in a comedy she had composed about a Bishop overtaken by lust, cited the 'blackness of the Ethiopian' as the color of the devil at work. In the Òc itself beauty was associated perhaps with blondness, at least in Giraut's tenso with the trobador Alamanda, who is according to Giraut, both bel' e blonda, both "lovely and blonde". However Medieval representations of several trobadors are not particularly blonde-looking -- standards for beauty aside, dark hair and perhaps not quite white skin may not have been terribly handicapping.
(I'm thinking of representations of

Guilhem Duke of Aquitaine Count of Poitiers image from Wikipedia

Guihem de Peitieus/Guilhem of Poitiers:
and of Azalais de Porcairages [at left]. My guess is that the iconic representations would have shown blonde hair.)

Azalais de Porcairages image from Wikipedia

Guilhem, Count of Poitiers, Duke of Aquitaine, and the Lady from a Nearby Kingdom?

Guilhem, Count of Poitiers, Duke of the Aquitaine, in "Compaigno, no pus mudar" ('Friends, I cannot stay mute'), took up the cause of women too, in his ribald way: but he praised not Jaufre Rudel's lady de terra lonhdana, lady "from a far kingdom" (Palestine/Syria), but a lady nearer by perhaps (he himself also liberated one ViceCountess, for his own bed; most sources say she was complicit), who ought to, he said, be more free to prendre son plait o sa mercei, "take her pleasure, or bestow her grace" as she pleased. The lady, Guilhem sang, had . . . clamada/de sos gardadors a mei; " . . . had cried out to him/of her guardsmen:"

(Guilhem de Poitiers,"Compaigno, no pus mudar," in Peter Wigham, ed., 1979, "Guilhem IX -- Texts and Translation," Chapter 3 in The Music of the Troubadours; Provençal Series, 1 [Santa Barbara, California: Ross-Erikson]: 140-141; originally translated from the text in Frank Hamlin, John Hathaway, and Peter T. Rickets, 1967, Introduction à l'étude de l'ancien provençal [Geneva].)

Guilhem enjoins the guardsmen: if the lady is not freed, one had best be careful, explaining that a man who is denied good [strong] wine will drink anything rather than die of thirst.

Is this a plea then to let a lady take a courtly lover? Or is Guilhem's insistence that a lady must prendre sa plait a plea to let her endow a religious house, or in some other way participate in religious life? Did Guilhem de Peitieus in this way enjoin local religious orders, particularly perhaps that of Cluny, originally endowed by the Duchy, as Cistercian and Franciscan reform movements grew up within and around its ranks, to 'remember the ladies' too, thus perhaps helping to circumvent a flourishing in the Aquitaine of the sort of heresies that flourished to the East?

According to Tucker and Liefield (Ruth Tucker; Walter L. Liefield, 1987, Daughters of the Church: Women and Ministry from New Testament Times to the Present: 137), while in the early centuries women in the Church enjoyed considerable spiritual influence, beginning in the ninth century, a decline in monastic opportunities followed by church reform efforts left women fewer options. The changes also brought restrictions, at least in law, on the movements of women who resided in the monasteries.

Both the ninth century reform movement at Cluny (Tucker and Liefield: 137) -- the monastery endowed as noted above by the Duchy of Aquitaine, where Guilhem IX later presided -- and the late-eleventh century Gregorian Reform movement (Tucker and Liefield: 137-138) limited options for women in monastic life. But ultimately, either because of some reform efforts, or simply to meet the needs of a growing populace, by the late eleventh century about half of the Cistercian monasteries were nunneries for women, say Valerie Hansen and Kenneth Curtis (Valerie Hansen, Kenneth Curtis 2008, Voyages in World History [Cengage Learning]: 373; books.google.com/books?id=-MLXDr0GRHQC). The Cistercians had themselves begun as a reform movement at Cluny. This brought "double monasteries" where monks were of the order of Saint John the Evangelist, women were of the order of the Virgin, say Tucker and Liefield (p. 146; the double monasteries were however outlawed a century later).

The Cistercians were soon followed by the Franciscans, who advocated a return to the 'lifestyle of Jesus'. According to Claire Taylor (Heresy in Medieval Southern France: Dualism in the Aquitaine and the Agenais: 160; books.google.com/books?id=WvtZb174ScsC):

According to Medieval Prostitution in Secular Law, along with all the other debates of the period, theologians at least debated whether tithes should be accepted from women who earned money in the sex trade (p. 63 https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/11033/1/fulltext.pdf). Claire Taylor (2005, Heresy in Medieval Southern France) argues I think convincingly that the heretical sects were perhaps attractive to the ladies of the South's castles and courts, who sought to endow a religious house.[106] But some women of course wrote verse opposing both courtly love and the "heretics". The Bons Hommes or "Good Christians" included both men and women in their ranks. And, as with the Cathars or 'Good Christians', among the Waldensian reformers, both men and women had the right to preach at gatherings. Indeed, the Waldensian reformers allowed " . . . any worthy man or woman to preside" over their ceremonies, whether or not he or she was in holy orders (Wakefield, pp. 46-47).

'The Good Men' -- and a More Distant (at least as far as Syria) Kingdom

Male trobadors such as Giraut Riquier wrote verse that suggests an interest in the Bons Hommes and even sometimes dualistic beliefs: he argues that the only pleasure is that which pleases the "true ones" ("Pus astres non m'es donat"; vv. 43-44; "true believers" is perhaps another name for the Bons Hommes):

Other trobador verse of love (again by male composers), hints at the spiritual. Jaufre Rudel, for example ("Lanquan li jorn son lonc en may"; vv. 8-9), mixes a craving for a divine-like, distant, and perhaps mostly or entirely spiritual love, with courtly love's conventions. Again, the Occitan word veray ("true", "truth", "reality") gets emphasis (it does likewise in Peire Cardenal's thirteenth-century "Hymn to Mary":

A sirventes by Peire Cardenal, "Un sirventes novel vueill comensar", suggests that Peire at least was not opposed to the idea of universal salvation. Universal salvation of course was part of the creed of the Bons Hommes (as noted below). Meanwhile, other trobadors composed verse opposing both courtly love and the "heretics". The "Cathar" heretics argued for the doctrine of universal salvation which the Church during this time period rejected:

Pacts

Women in the Occitan like men engaged in various alliances. In a poem by the Comtessa de Dia (she was the wife according to her vida of Guilhem of Poitiers -- not though of the trobador the Duke of Aquitaine but of either his great grandson or of another Guillaume of Poitiers perhaps), the 'lover' -- with whom the Comtessa may be seeking a political alliance with support and concessions whether or not she is actually seeking an actual amorous liaison -- is addressed in the closing tornada instead of the traditional joglar -- who receives instructions about what should be done so that la Comtessa will have him "en luoc del marit," "in her husband's bed" (more literally, 'stead,' or 'place,' instead of 'bed')--much as the traditional joglar was given instructions about a poem's performance:

(La Comtessa de Dia, "Estat ai in greu cossirier," in Bergin et. al., 1973: 96.)

In another poem, la Comtessa de Dia enjoins the recipient to not forget the pact the two have made. Azalais de Porcairages, who like la Comtessa de Dia sought a relationship with Raimbaut of Orange ("d'Aurenga"), says she is her friend's vassal, in his service, en gatge. Alamanda in a tenso with Giraut de Bornelh, offers to arrange a pact between her lady and Giraut.

Fidelity was important according also to verses by the early trobador Marcabrun. He argues that, as noted earlier (in "Love for Improvement and Alliances in the Òc"), a courtly lover, whether a he (Jaufre Rudel) or (perhaps especially) a she (Alienor of Aquitaine) had best limit himself or herself to one courtly relationship (Mas cella qu'en pren dos ni tres/E per un non si vuol fiar).

In addition women debated whether or not to marry and have children or to wed instead the 'coronat de scienza,' 'crown of science':

(Meg Bogin, 1976; retrieved online 2010; The Women Troubadours [London, U.K.: Paddington Press, Ltd./Google Books]: 144-145; books.google.com/books?id=5Rqvz1H1OIUC&pg=PA145; English translation mine.)

The original verse consists of two sets of rhymed couplets; in the next stanza the rhymes are repeated; the rhyme pattern changes slightly when Na Carenza (Dame Carenza-- though I suppose Dame suggests that she was married and she may not have been) speaks; the tone is conversational throughout; the language may not be as fine as in some of the other poems [but on this note I do feel that while the women poets in the nineteenth century did not write in quite so polished verse as did the men, I really enjoyed more in general poems like Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point" and Mary Coleridge's "The Wild White Women-?" than I enjoyed Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess" -- it's o.k., more polished, but not quite as good; I'd need to study more the style and language of a large body of literature from the trobadors before deciding about the quality of this particular tenso; in any case, partly in an effort to reproduce the conversational style and partly for rhythm and rhyme, I repeated 'aye' a second time in the first stanza and 'then' from the first is repeated in the second. I don't know about the use of the contractions--I think these are o.k. in this poem, because of the less formal style.

Na ('Lady,' or 'Ms') Carenza, one of the three women who composed this tenso ("verse argument" or "discussion in verse") advises the other two to marry then [the] coronat de scienza:

(Alais, Iselda, and Carenza, "Na Carenza a bel cors avinen", in Meg Bogin, 1976: 144.)

Scienza, literally "knowledge", may refer to the gaya scienca of composing, described by Raymond P. Scheindlin (1997; "Secular Hebrew Poetry in Fifteenth-Century Spain"; Chapter Two in Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World 1391-1648, ed. Benjamin R. Gampel [New York: Columbia University Press]: 35/pp. 25-37; books.google.com/books?id=O1f6pBpOgLkC&pg=PA35). The twelfth-century trobador Giraut de Bornelh's vida mentions sen natural, perhaps "natural science" or "natural sciences", in which Giraut was reputedly well-learned. Other scienza studied include religion and philosophy (I believe is how we would label these disciplines today).

The Bons Hommes or "Good Men": Sympathizers, Believers, Receivers of Holy Orders

The "heretics", the "good men" attracted both "believers" and sympathizers in the Òc. "Believers" were not expected to observe the strict ascetism of those who had taken the consolatum, "holy orders". The actual number who took "holy orders" however remained small. Under Toulouse's count, Raymond of Toulouse VII, the region or "county" of Toulouse (including not just the city but the surrounding lands) harbored the heretics until subdued by the French crown in the thirteenth century. Toulouse's Count was kin of Count Raymond Roger of Foix, the county of Foix situated high in the Pyrenees on the road from Toulouse to what is today Andorras. The Count of Foix had many close relatives who were believers and even some who had received the "orders".

Under Toulouse's counts, Raymond of Toulouse VI and VII, the region or "county" of Toulouse (including not just the city but the surrounding lands) harbored the heretics until subdued by the French crown in the thirteenth century. Toulouse's Count Raymonds were kin to Count Raymond Roger of Foix -- of the county of Foix situated high in the Pyrenees on the road from Toulouse to what is today Andorras. The Count of Foix himself had many close relatives who were believers and even some who had received the "orders". (He seems to have been in a better position to defend them though.)

Electoral Revolution

Early in the twelfth century a group of Toulouse's townsmen bought its citizens freedom from many of the dues imposed on them by the nobility (Wakefield, p. 62). By the second half of the century, the townspeople had acquired full jurisdiction over their own affairs. Although the Count of Toulouse still ruled the town in theory, he now shared the rule of Toulouse with wealthy merchants, knightly families, and prominent commoners who made up Toulouse's first consulate (Wakefield, p. 62). All of Toulouse's citizens were convened "to ratify the selection of these consuls," apparently, although the onsuls themselves were not elected" (Wakefield, p. 62). Then, in the year 1202 A.D., Toulouse had " . . . a peaceful electoral revolution,", with its merchants, money- changers, and tradesmen acquiring a substantial amount of the political power in the new, two- party system (Wakefield, pp. 62- 63). One of these parties was made up of a group of wealthy and noble citizens who had formed the consulate in the twelfth century; the other party apparently consisted of merchants in general, the money-changers, and the tradesmen, but the line between these two parties actually remained indistinct, according to Wakefield (pp. 62-63). The two parties were probably not unlike the Whigs and the Republicans in the early days of U.S. independence.

Albigensian Crusade

In the thirteenth century, Toulouse was invaded by Pope Innocent along with Simon de Montfort in what became known as the 'Albigensian crusade' (the Albigensians were the name of a sub-section of the heretical Cathars). During this same period, trobador Peire Cardenal composed numerous verses satirizing the priests. Records of the thirteenth-century Inquisition into Langued'oc indicate that, at least in the village of Pamiers (not far from Toulouse), people whispered Cardenal's satirical coblas or 'rhymed couplets' under their breaths to each other " . . . in the choir of the [local] church" (Emmanuel LeRoy LaDurie, 1978, Montaillou: the Promised Land of Error; transl Barbara Bray [New York: Random House]: 240; here Ladurie quotes from Jacques Fournier, Le Registre de l'Inquisition, vol. 1, ed. Duvernoy). According to his medieval biographer Peire Cardenal had originally studied for the priesthood then traveled and soon was composing verse satires of worldly life (and priests). Himself a target of the inquisition, Cardenal escaped prosecution for heresy by agreeing -- at age fifty -- to a marriage.[+*] He also apparently escaped wearing the yellow cross that heretics were required normally to wear by fleeing to Montpellier -- there he was under the protection of Jaime of Aragon who was Pedro of Aragon's son and who became king of Aragon. (See also www.cardenal.org/ for more on Peire Cardenal.) Pedro of Aragon died in the inquisition in the battles for Toulouse. Peire Cardenal served as a 'scribe' in the Court of the two Raymonds of Toulouse until his prosecution for heresy.

The verse Peire Cardenal sang lamenting the fall of Beziers seems to include a promise to Pedro of Aragon -- the latter was apparently incited to fight for Toulouse in these verses -- that Pedro's son Jaime would be rescued. True apparently to Peire Cardenal's promise the knights got custody of Jaime after Pedro's death (Pedro of Aragon was the lone king to come to the aid of Toulouse). The verse was thus composed I believe circa 1212 (perhaps right after the death of Marie of Montpellier Pedro's sometimes estranged wife) and not before as some argue. In the verse also Peire Cardenal laments that money from looting the conquered towns will go to the marriage of Simon de Montfort's own son (for this de Montfort had no money prior to his scheme to invade) -- or perhaps to the feast where de Montfort's son was knighted (www.cathar.info/cathar_whoswho.htm#amaury)?:

A few years after this lament, in the 1220s, probably facing seige at Avignon, the knight-trobador duo Tomier and Palazzi composed a song about inquisitors' approach:

* Note: Literally, "they will see wicked Argence". The town of Argence, next to Beaucaire, had been ceded to the enemy, Louis, who was also laying seige to Avignon. So perhaps they will see Argence in the grave. But can argence also refer to "silver" here?

In one sirventes, or 'verse satire,' composed perhaps circa 1233, Cardenal pleaded perhaps half in jest but half in earnest for the salvation of his land, that all the 'trespassing souls' within it be saved. There is a pun however on the word armas meaning 'souls', and several other words and phrases seem to have layered meanings. Cardenal pleaded:

(Peire Cardenal, "Un sirventes novel vueill comensar", in Bergin et. al., 1973: 206.)

This is perhaps a reference to the heretics' and reformers' plea for the heretical doctrine of universal salvation (see above). [A]rmas trespassans here means 'trespassing souls', 'trespassers', or 'sinners'. But of course, with universal salvation, the crusaders, trespassers in the Òc at least, necessarily have to be taken too into the protection of this many-folded God: at least this should have been the case in the tolerant Òc: after all, "blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven". Perhaps then 'many-folded' means tolerant, that God has many aspects, that there is room here for many diverse beliefs. But if armas signals 'arms' as well, then Cardenal is perhaps asking that God help the defenders of Òc multiply in numbers (that is, be multiplicans, 'multiplying'), so as to hold off -- and hold onto even -- the trespassing arms of its neighbors. And finally of course, Cardenal's couplet sounds like a bit of a plea to the Inquisition's earthly justices to have a more forgiving God, with room for all the Heretics and supporters in the Òc. Alas, the earthly kingdom to come in the Òc, during the Inquistion, was not such a tolerant or heavenly place.

In 1271, Toulouse "came directly under the [French] crown" (Wakefield, p. 63), and remained under the monarchy until the French revolution.

Postscript: Washington Irving's Sketchbook

Four-hundred years after the trobador poems were written down, in 1783, just a few years after U.S. independence was won, Washington Irving was born to an American merchant in the state of New York. According to the editors of The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (Twayne Publishers, 1978, "History of the Text," in the "Introduction", Sketchbook, vol. 3 in The Complete Works of Washington Irving [Boston: Twayne Publishers, G. K. Hall & Co.]: xxii), a collection of stories by Irving, Irving, like many American men of letters of his day, finished his education with a tour of Europe that commenced in 1803, with the financial assistance of his family. He visited the Bordeaux wine region in Southern France, as well as Italy, Switzerland, Paris, and England. He returned to Europe a second time, visited Germany also, explored the folk legends that he would use in his stories, served as U.S. ambassador to Spain, and produced his Sketchbook, thus becoming the first American to earn his living as a writer. One of the most popular stories was "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the story of a country school teacher named Ichabod Crane, and Katrina Van Tassel, the young woman Crane admires and the only child and heir of " . . . a substantial Dutch farmer," and of Ichabod's rival for Katrina's hand and a share of her inheritance, Brom Von Brunt, and a legendary headless horseman who haunts the valley (just as Bertran de Born was cast a headless horseman in Dante's vision of him). In the legend as Irving tells it,

Ichabod Crane, the schoolteacher,

The schoolteacher, riding a horse loaned out by one of the locals, eventually encounters the headless horseman himself one night in Sleepy Hollow (or is it only the schoolteacher's rival for Katrina's hand, Brom Von Brunt, that the schoolteacher has encountered, up to his pranks?). In any case, the horseman must have looked something like the trobador and soldier Bertran de Born looked (according to Dante's vision of Bertran), with:

At that point poor Ichabod Crane vanishes mysteriously. However, eventually,

It seems that Irving may have, on collecting the European folk tales, suspected a relationship between some of the goals and values of the Europeans in the times described in the folklore and thoese of the Europeans who had come to settle the U.S.

Irving concluded "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" with a "postscript, found in the Handwriting of Mr. Knickerbocker" (who, according to the book, is supposed to have put Geoffrey Crane's "Sketchbook" together into a manuscript). The tale's purported narrator, who originally recounted the tale to Mr. Knickerbocker, when asked about the moral of the story by a member of his audience, replied:

Peire Cardenal, who lamented the State's less-than-friendly attention during the Albigensian Crusade, would have been pleased no doubt to hear of this turn of events.

[1]. Simone Weil, quoted by Hayden Carruth, Summer, 1978, "The Spirit of Lo lenga d'Òc," The Hudson Review XXXI[2]: 385. For another view of the European Renaissance, as the result of mapmaking, see Alfred W. Crosby (1997), The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe: 1250-1600 (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press).
(http://www.amazon.com/Measure-Reality-Quantification-Western-1250-1600/dp/0521639905).

[2]. Hendrik Van der Werf, 1984, The Extant Troubadour Melodies, with text editor Gerald A. Bond (Rochester, NY: Hendrik Van der Werf): 3.

[3]. Walter L. Wakefield, 1974, Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100-1250 (Berkeley: University of California): 57.

[4]. Meg Bogin, 1976, The Women Troubadours (London, U.K.: Paddington Press, Ltd): 96- 97.

[6]. The Muslim Arab and Jewish poets of medieval Spain preserved what appear to be the remnants of indigenous popular songs in refrains or kharjas of their poetry, the Iberian muwashshahs. Linda Fish Compton, Andalusian Lyrical Poetry and Old Spanish Love Songs: The Andalusian Muwashshah and Its Kharja (New York: New York University Press) is one of the most extensive studies of these refrains composed in the local dialect, which was often a mix of Romance and Arabic. In both the Mozarabic kharjas and the Galician cantigas the narrators might speak of dying while waiting to see the beloved ("por él murrayu," "madre, ora morrerei,"), or might ask the mother what to do when the lover is at the door ("Que faré, mamma?/ Meu al-h.abib est'ad yana," " . . . llama a la aldaya:/no se, mi madre, si me le abra"). (See kharja no. 17, cantiga fragment d, kharja no. 14, and cantiga fragment [no #], in Margit Frenk, 1979, "La lirica pretrovadoresca," in Les Genres Lyriques tome 1, fascicule 2, director Erich Kohler, vol. II of Grundiss der Romanische Literaturen des Mittelalters [Heidelberg: Karl Winter]: 52, 66, 49, 67). Many of the kharjas seem to be in a back-and-forth sort of play with stanzas of the Cantigas: ("Si me quereses/ya uomne bono,/si me quereses,/darás me uno;" "Si vos quisiédes/senoramía,/si vos quisiédes,/yo bien quería"). The rhyme scheme prevalent in Spanish poetry from the thirteenth century on corresponds to the rhyme scheme of the zajal, a Hispano-Arabic poetic form written in vulgar Arabic, according to Samuel Miklos Stern (1974; Hispano-Arabic Strophic Poetry, ed. L. P. Harvey [Oxford: the Clarendon Press]: 210). Also, a planh attributed by its razos to Bertran de Born, parallels in style and rhyme scheme a poem written by the Arabic poet 'al-Khansaa some centuries before in Arabia. Other evidence of Semitic influence includes 'anacrusis', or an extra syllable in the second line of a two-line couplet, which occurred in some trobador poems perhaps, according to Peire d'Alvernhe's "Chantarai d'aquestz trobadors' ('E mal o fes car no-il trenqet/Aqel pe que porta penden'; 'And he did badly when he did not cut/that extra foot that dangled', d'Alvernhe sang of a song Peire de Monzo had reportedly stolen from the Count of Toulouse; see www.trobar.org, www.trobar.org/troubadours/alvernha/pealv12.php). Anacrusis is a typically semitic poetic feature, but is present in a smattering of the Gallician cantigas, according to Dorothy Clotelle Clarke (1981, "Line Formation in the Galician-Portuguese Poetry of the Cancioneiro Colocci-Brancuti", Romance Philology, 35, No. 1: 202).

[8]. Abraham Rees, 1810; accessed 2014-2015; "Religious Sects"; in The Cyclopaedia, Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, Volume 1 (London): 738?; books.google.com/books?id=H39B5ua-P08C&pg=PT738.

[11]. Eduard Iricinschi and Holger M. Zellentin (citing Richard Lim), 2008, accessed online 2014-2015; "Introduction" to Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity; eds. Iricinschi and Zellentin; Texts and Studies in Ancient Judaism 119 (Germany: Mohr Siebeck): 24; (books.google.com/books?id=P9lwXBXx6WgC).

[12]. Benzion Netanyahu, 2001; The Origin of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain, 2nd ed. (New York Review of Books/Google Books): 20, 22 (books.google.com/books?id=6xh4xzVy_jEC).

[13]. Richard Lim, 2008; accessed 2014-2015 "The Nomen Manichaeorum and Its Uses in Late Antiquity", in Heresy and Identity in Late Antiquity: 153-154.

[15]. Anne Bradford Townsend, 2008; "Literature Review", Chapter Two in The Cathars of Languedoc as Heretics: From the Perspectives of Five Contemporary Scholars (July, 2007, Dissertation Union Institute and University, Cincinatti, Ohio; available on ProQuest): 70 ; chapter -- pp. 46-118 (books.google.com/books?id=x8NxtDuZOhIC&pg=PA70).

[16]. Karl Bartsch, 1868, Chrestomatie Provençale: accompagnée d'une grammaire et d'un glossaire,, 2nd ed. (Eberfeld): 16-20.

[17]. AUTHOR? "Music in Early Christianity 2: The Later Third and the Fourth Centuries"; YEAR? Chapter Eight, in Music in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity: 190-195; chapter -- pp. 189-222 (books.google.com/books?id=mUIogwcXGkcC&pg=PA214).

[19]. D. Jason Cooper, accessed 2014-2015; "Mitra, Mithra, Mithras Mystery" (iranian.com/History/Sept97/Mitra/) ; rpt. from "Mithras: Mysteries and initiation rediscovered", by Cooper; 1996 (York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc.): 1-8.

[21] Anne Bradford Townsend. 2008; "Literature Review", Chapter Two of The Cathars of Languedoc as Heretics: From the Perspectives of Five Contemporary Scholars (July, 2007, Dissertation Union Institute and University, Cincinatti, Ohio; available on ProQuest): 71 (books.google.com/books?id=x8NxtDuZOhIC&pg=PA71).

[22]. These texts are described by Cora Agatucci, 1997-2002; revised 2005; accessed online 2014-2015; "Tales of Griots", part of Humanities 211 Online "Mali Empire & Griot Traditions: Backgrounds for Keita: The Heritage of the Griot" (Central Oregon Community College) (web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/CoursePack/coursepackpast/maligriot.htm).

[23]. For more on Arabic texts see Louis Gardet, "Religion and Culture", Chapter Five in "Islamic Society and Civilization", Part Eight in The Cambridge History of Islam vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press): 577; chapter pp. 569-603; see also "The Science of the Hadiyth" in this same chapter: 590-591; accessed online at Sari Nusseibeh's site (www.sari.alquds.edu/cornell/islamic-society-civilization-v2.pdf). Christians were familiar with some Arabic texts through twelfth-century Latin translations according to John Victor Tolan, 1996, "Introduction" to Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam, ed. Tolan (Routledge/Taylor and Francis): xv/xi-xx (books.google.com/books?id=RAtEAgAAQBAJ).

[24]. Frank Chambers (1985), Chapter Two, in An Introduction to Old Provençal Versification (Independence Square, Philadelphia, PA: American Philosophical Society): 20-26 (books.google.com/books?id=-ggNAAAAIAAJ).

[24b]. David Boyle (2005),"Paris and Jerusalem", in The Troubadour's Song: The Capture and Ransom of Richard the Lionheart (New York: Walker Publishing Company; Google Books): 53 (whole article, pp. 49-76; books.google.com/books?id=_BLnwcU_pFsC&pg=PA53).

[25]. Roland Noske, 2007; accessed 2014-2015; "Autonomous typological prosodic evolution versus the Germanic superstrate in diachronic French phonology"; accepted for publication in Aboh, Enoch, Elisabeth van der Linden, Josep Quer & Petra Sleeman, eds., Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2007 (Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins; rnoske.home.xs4all.nl/CV/publicaties/autonomous_typological.pdf. Stuart Frankel [1991; accessed 2014-2015] claims that accentual or stressed rhyme was non-existent in Old French, but argues that in Italian both elision and a small percentage of vowels ending words that might be stressed or unstressed, although in the same position in either case, and that these might occasionally influence the metrics [otherwise says Frankel, Spanish and Italian compositions tried to vary accentual rhythm which could become monotonous, rather than arrange stanzas of lines with identical accent patterns], "Romance Prosodies, Metrics, Music", Chapter Three in Phonology, Verse Metrics, and Music [New York, NY: New York University Department of Music] 46-84 ; esp 46-53, 3.3 "Old French"; dustyfeet.com/dissertation/1sthalf.pdf).

[32]. Kim Haines-Eitzen, "Girls Trained for Beautiful Writing: Female Scribes in Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity"; Chapter Two in Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power, and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature [Oxford]: 41-52; books.google.com/books?id=NjgtmT0prkUC.

[33]. Kim Haines-Eitzen, "Girls Trained for Beautiful Writing: Female Scribes in Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity"; Chapter Two in Guardians of Letters: Literacy, Power, and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature [Oxford]}: 42; books.google.com/books?id=NjgtmT0prkUC.

[34]. Meir Bar-Ilan. 1992; accessed online 2014-2015; reportexcerpt from "Illiteracy in the Land of Israel in the First Centuries C.E.", in Essays in the Social Scientific Study of Judaism and Jewish Society, eds. S. Fishbane, S. Schoenfeld, and A. Goldschlaeger [New York]: 46-61; faculty.biu.ac.il/~barilm/illitera.html

[37]. Peter Dronke, 1984, accessed online 2014-2015, Women Writers of the Middle Ages: A Critical Study of Texts from Perpetua (203) to Marguerite Porete (1310) (Cambridge University Press): 3 (books.google.com/books?id=_xr_GSXBbVwC&pg=PA16&lpg=PA16).

[40]. Raymond T. Hill, and Thomas G. Bergin, 1973, Notes, Anthology of the Provencal Troubadours, vol. 2 (New Haven: Yale University Press).

[41]. Glynnis M. Cropp, 1975, Le Vocabulaire courtois des troubadours de l'époque classique, vol. 1 [Genève: Librairie Droz/Publications Romanes et Françaises/Google Books]: 65(books.google.com/books?id=Tmt59yQIyO8C).

[46] Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, 1978, Montaillou: The Promised Land of Error, Transl. Barbara Bray (Scolar Press, Ltd.).

[47] Raymond P. Scheindlin, 1997; accessed online 2015; "Secular Hebrew Poetry in Fifteenth-Century Spain", Chapter Two in Crisis and Creativity in the Sephardic World 1391-1648; ed. Benjamin R. Gampel (New York: Columbia University Press): 35/pp. 25-37; (books.google.com/books?id=O1f6pBpOgLkC&pg=PA35).

[50] Giraut Riquier, "D'astarac venia"; cited in Jean Audiau, 1923; accessed 2013-2014; La Pastorelle dans la poésie occitane du Moyen-Age, textes publiés et traduits, avec une introduction, des notes et un glossaire (Paris: E. de Boccard/Internet Archive; archive.org/stream/lapastourelledan00audiuoft/lapastourelledan00audiuoft_djvu.txt).

[51] Hatfield, Rapson, and Martel, in press; "Passionate Love", in Kitayama and Cohen, eds., Handbook of Cultural Psychology (New York: Guilford Press): 386-387 (www2.hawaii.edu/~socpsych/ch78.pdf).

[52] Glynnis M. Cropp, 1975, drutz (definition), in Le Vocabulaire courtois des troubadours de l'époque classique vol. 1 (Genève: Librairie Droz/Publications Romanes et Françaises): 65(books.google.com/books?id=Tmt59yQIyO8C).

[53] Anne Ruth Kelly, 1950, 1978; Alienor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings (Harvard University Press/Google Books; books.google.com/books?id=Qts7Heh3_sMC).

[56] William D. Phillips, 1985; accessed 2014-2015; "Slavery in Early Medieval Europe"; in "Slavery in Medieval Europe, the World of Islam, and Africa"; Part Two, Chapter Three in Slavery from Roman Times to the Early Transatlantic Trade; by Phillips (Manchester University Press): 43-65 (books.google.com/books?id=0B8NAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA41).

[58] John Beeler, 1971, accessed 2014-2015, Warfare in Medieval Europe: 730-1200books.google.com/books?id=pNdjoAT4lyoC&pg=PA151#v=onepage&q&f=false).

[59] Giraut Riquier, accessed 2014-2015, cited in "A Historical Account of the Rise and Fall of the Troubadours in France 1100 - 1300"; Astolat.net (www.astolat.net/troubadours/troubadours3.htm).

[62] Claire Taylor, 2011, accessed 2014-2015; Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Medieval Quercy (York Medieval Press; books.google.com/books?id=ZDlfmsW5wC8C).

[63] Claire Taylor, 2005; accessed 2014-2015, Heresy in Medieval France: Dualism in Aquitaine and the Agenais: 1000 to 1249 (Boydell and Brewer): 157 (books.google.com/books?id=WvtZb174ScsC).

[64] Charles R. Geisst, 2013; accessed 2014-15; Beggar Thy Neighbor: A History of Usury and Debt, online excerpt (University of Pennsylvania; < href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/15077.html">www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/toc/15077.html).

[66] Meir Kohn, February, 1999; accessed 2015; "Risk Instruments in the Medieval and Early Modern Economy", Working Papers 99-07 (Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College Department of Economics; www.dartmouth.edu/~mkohn/Papers/99-07.pdf; mkohn@dartmouth.edu): 2-4.

[67] See Ernest E. Jenkins, "Mediterranean Communities in Competition and Conflict", chapter Six in The Mediterranean World of Alfonso II and Peter II of Aragon (1162-1213): 103-122 (books.google.com/books?id=KSnHAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA118).

[68] Claire Taylor, 2005; Heresy in Medieval France: Dualism in the Aquitaine and Agenais: 1000-1249 (Boydell and Brewer/Google Books; books.google.com/books?id=WvtZb174ScsC): 157.

[69] Walter L. Wakefield, 1974, Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Southern France: 1100-1250 (University of California): 50.

[70] Walter L. Wakefield, 1974, Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Southern France: 1100-1250: 50, 51-52.

[71] Abraham Rees, 1819, "Allodium", in The Cyclopaedia, Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature, Volume 1 (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown; books.google.com/books?id=H39B5ua-P08C&pg=PT738): 738/pp. 737-738.

[72] John Beeler, 1971, "Warfare in Southern France and Christian Spain"; Chapter Six [pp. 151-184] in Warfare in Feudal Europe, 730-1200 (Cornell University Press; books.google.com/books?id=pNdjoAT4lyoC): 151.

[73] Claire Taylor, 2005; Heresy in Medieval France: Dualism in the Aquitaine and Agenais: 1000-1249 (Boydell and Brewer/Google Books; books.google.com/books?id=WvtZb174ScsC): 158.

[74] Claire Taylor, 2005; Heresy in Medieval France: Dualism in the Aquitaine and Agenais: 1000-1249: 158.

[75] Walter L. Wakefield, 1974, Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Southern France: 1100-1250): 52.

[77] Walter L. Wakefield, 1974, Heresy, Crusade, and Inquisition in Southern France: 1100-1250: 52.

[78] Malcolm Barber, 2004; "The Social and Economic Structure", Part One in The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050 to 1320 2nd ed. (Psychology Press; books.google.com/books?id=bdvBSnEQkz4C): 39, 41.

[79] Malcolm Barber, 2004; "The Social and Economic Structure", Part One in The Two Cities: Medieval Europe 1050 to 1320 2nd ed. (Psychology Press; books.google.com/books?id=bdvBSnEQkz4C): 39.

[80] Kenneth Setton, Norman Zacour, Harry Hazard, 1985, "The Feudal Regime" [206-216/7], Section B, in "The Political and Ecclesiastical Organization of the Crusader States", Chapter Five [pp. 195-250], in A History of the Crusades (University of Wisconsin Press; books.google.com/books?id=tgfMNfBIgSwC&pg=PA206): 208-209).

* The patronage of poetry on which the trobadors relied may date to the Celts for whom it was--at least as far back as the time of Julius Caesar's Guerre des Guales--the custom to send bards to school and to bestow on them all the rights and honors of nobility. According to Claire Robin (1982), by the seventh century, the Irish bards were guaranteed the musical instruments with which to ply their trade, along with their sustenance. Bards, according to Robin, ranked eighth after the King. Similarly Alfonso X of Portugal reigned as King because of his beautiful cantigas d'amor or 'love songs.' Possibly then it was typically Celtic/Gallic to bestow high honors on bards. Claire Robin observes that, as Irish peculiarities exist in part because the Romans never really conquered Ireland, the same situation may have prevailed in other parts of Europe prior to Caesar's conquest. (See Claire Robin, 1982, The ap-Huw Manuscript; Musicological Studies XXXIV [Henryville, Pennsylvania: the Institut of Mediaeval Music, Ltd.]; 7-8; see also Julius Caesar, 1981, "Liber Sextus," Vol 2 of Guerre des Guales by Caesar; ed. and with a French translation by L. A. Constans [Paris]: 187.)

** Another more contemporary performative oral literacy is described by Niko Besnier (1995), in Literacy, Emotion, and Authority: Reading and Writing on a Polynesian Atoll (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press). Besnier describes a tradition apparently in place at the time Westerners arrived in Polynesia where 'kin' from distant islands are adopted during visits; when ships come in notes are sent back and forth which are actually 'performed' by the message bearer; the goal of the notes is often an exchange of goods, without which islanders would be limited to the relatively small resources of their own island. As with trobador poetry, although there may be a written manuscript, the greetings in these are actually sung or performed. One difference is that in Nukulaelae there seems to be no class of 'performers;' anyone with the fortune to travel might bear and perform messages.

[81] Jean Boutiére and A. -H. Schutz, eds., with the collaboration of I. -M. Cluzel, 1964, Biographies des Troubadours: Textes Provençaux des XIIe et XIVe Siécles, with French translations (Paris: A. -G. Nizet): 26-27.

[82] Hendrik Van der Werf, 1984, The Extant Troubadour Melodies, with text editor Gerald A. Bond (Rochester, NY: Hendrik Van der Werf): 7.

[83] Peire d'Alverne, twelfth century; rpt. 1973, "Chantarai d'aquestz trobadors," in Thomas G. Bergin and Raymond T. Hill, eds., with the collaboration of Susan Olson, William D. Paden, Jr., and Nathaniel Smith, Anthology of the Provençal Troubadours vol. I, 2nd ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press): 81-82.

The word dorn actually mean's a "fingernail's breadth" (a very small breadth indeed); dorn is also part of Bernart de Ventadorn's name.

[84] M. L. Abbé Salvan, 1859, Histoire Générale de l'église de Toulouse: Depuis les temps les plus recalés jusqu'à nos jours (Genome lumaraire de la Métropole de Toulouse), vol 3, part 2 -- "Temps Intermédiaires" (Toulouse: Delbot; digitized by Google; archive.org/stream/bub_gb_7scCAAAAQAAJ/bub_gb_7scCAAAAQAAJ_djvu.txt).

[86] Peire d'Alverne, twelfth century; rpt 1973, "Chantarai d'aquestz trobadors", in Hill and Bergin eds.: 81-82.

[87] Dantë Alighieri, 1972, "Purgatorio," Canto XXVI, v. 117, in La Divina Comedia, ed. and annotated by C. H. Grandgent; revised by Charles S. Singleton (Cambridge, Massachusetts).

[89] Giraut de Bornelh, twelfth century; rpt 1989, "Leu chansonet'e vil", in Ruth Verity Sharman, Canso-Sirventes XLVII, The Cansos and Sirventes of the Troubadour Giraut de Bornelh; a Critical Edition (Cambridge, U.K. Cambridge University Press): 283, 286, 287.

This is the first stanza of Giraut's poem. Sharman finds this stanza complicated; I think it is as Giraut says, plain and clear.

[i] v. 4, en Alvergne'al Dalfi: Giraut de Bornelh may be sending this poem to Peire d'Alverne, possibly in response to d'Alverne's poetry, via the court of the Count Dalfin d'Alverne, who probably hosted trobador poetry; as Sharman notes, the Count was a trobador himself (Sharman, 1989: 287).
[ii] v. 6, n'Eblon: Sharman and others think that N'Eblon is Ebles de Sagna, who, like Giraut de Bornelh and Bernart de Ventadorn, is satirized in Peire d'Alverne's verse on his fellow poets. Ebles de Sagna was according to d'Alverne a man who always sang in ornate verse.
(This was the first stanza of trobador poetry I ever translated; my advisor at the time, the poet Richard Pevear, suggested I try something else instead and I did. This remains one of my favorite trobador compositions however.)

[89b] Beverly Mayne Kienzle (2001), Cistercians, Heresy, and Crusade in Occitania, 1145-1229: Preaching in the Lord's Vineyard (Rochester, New York: Boydell & Brewer/York Medieval Press/Google Books): 37 (books.google.com/books?id=bp3YNRBg_WIC&pg=PA37#v=onepage&q&f=false).

[90] Dantë Alighieri, 1972, "Purgatorio", Canto XXVI, v. 117, in La Divina Comedia, ed. and annotated by C. H. Grandgent; revised by Charles S. Singleton (Cambridge, Massachusetts): 548.

I am including in the region I refer to here as the Òc or the Occitan a rather large region: Southern France including the Côte d'Azur, Provence and the Aquitaine, Northern Italy and Switzerland, where Na Lombarda (Lady Lombarda) hailed from, parts of Germany; also Catalona and Northern Spain, Portugal, and Brittany. The language of Òc was not spoken equally well in all parts of the region although it served as a 'lengua franca,' particularly for poetry. The terms Òc and Occitan can also be used to denote a smaller region adjacent to Provence.

*** In Danté's original text (vv. 117 -126, 129 - 136), Bertran is in Hell. He says to the pilgrim Danté:

Pound translates Danté's text thus (condensing the final lines for poetry's sake; see Ezra Pound, 1968, "Near Perigord," in Lustra, in Collected Shorter Poems [London: Faber & Faber]: 176):

*** Although Bertran de Born is among my favorite poets, I actually did not attempt to translate this poem until 1990--because I was unfamiliar with it when in college.

+* Calvin Kilmon (2016) ("The Cathar Yellow Cross", and "The Albigensian Heresy and the Inquisition", The Esoteric Codex: Cathar Heresy [Lulu/Google Books; books.google.com/books?id=AGllCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA49]:49ff), to be acquitted of heresy a suspected Cathar needed to "provide proof of marriage"-- as Cathars supposedly did not believe in marriage (neither the Cathar perfected or priests nor the Cathlic clery of the period were allowed marriage Ã¢â‚¬â€œ my note). Many heretics -- unlike Catholics -- opposed using the cross as a symbol: Kilmon quotes from Pierre Authie a 'heretic' priest who says that, ". . . just as man should with an axe break the gallows on which his father was hanged, so you ought to try and break crucifixes, because Christ was suspended from it, albeit only in seeming." Cardenal himself, in another sirventes, says, counter to the teachings of dualism: --Qu'ieu ai en Dieu crezensa que fon de maire natz,/D'una santa pieusela, per que eÂ·l mons es salvats./E es paire e filhs e santa trinitatz,/E es en tres personas e una unitatz ('For I have faith in God who was born of a mother,/of saintly piety, through whom the world is saved./And there is a father and a son and a saintly trinity,/and there is in three persons one unity'). Cardenal goes on to say he also believes that God catulpulted out the angels when they had sinned. This suggests that Cardenal had mostly traditional Catholic beliefs. In "Ab votz d'angel" (above) he states that he is not a follower of the Waldensians (today's Jehova's witnesses).